From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Three Martins and Three Johns are living in different places and loving each other.Manga Recon » Blog Archive » Martin & John, Vol. 1Hee-Jung Park's Martin & John: Volume 1 The series is a collection of stories set in different times and places, all involving a man named Martin and a man named John, and the struggle for love between them. ===== Ten years after the end of World War I, Austrian soldier Franz leaves Russia and returns to his village, where he is reunited with Frieda, a woman who believes he is her long-lost son. ===== A man walks along with a Cello under his arm. He then sits down on a stool and proceeds to play it, very badly, while the neighbors proceed throw all manner of things at him to make him stop. At one point, a Couch is thrown at him, but neither this nor any other projectile is a successful deterrent. At the end of the film, a girl comes up to him and gives him some flowers. The man then stops playing and walks off, happy that his talents have been recognised. ===== The main story of the film is framed as the reminiscences of an aged Georgian woman recalling her love affair, many years earlier, with an English telegraph worker. Shortly before the Soviet take-over of Georgia in 1921, Christopher Hughes is sent to rural Georgia to work on a telegraph line between the UK and India, which runs through Georgian territory. (This plot element is based on the true story of the Indo-European Telegraph Line, built by Siemens in 1868-1870, and operational until 1931). After the Red Army invades Georgia, the British employees are recalled, but the message ordering him to leave Georgia never reaches Hughes, who has fallen in love with Ana, a young Georgian woman living in a nearby village. Ana’s brother Nestor, however, is a local Bolshevik leader. There ensues a tense situation in which Hughes is caught between his love for Ana and his hostility toward her brother. Eventually, Hughes and Nestor are reconciled, but in the end both fall victim to a vengeful nobleman who has been dispossessed of his wealth by the new regime. My English Grandfather is Nana Jorjadze's first major film, based on a screenplay by her husband Irakli Kvirikadze. The theme of the foreigner stranded in Soviet Georgia, who has a love affair with a local woman, resurfaces in Jorjadze's best-known film A Chef in Love. Other noteworthy features of the film include the music, composed by Enri Lolashvili, the brother of the actor Janri Lolashvili (who plays the role of Hughes in the film), and the use of foreigners (mostly students residing in Tbilisi at the time) to voice-over the bits of English dialogue that appear in the film. One of them supplied Hughes’ voice throughout the film, including those scenes where he speaks Georgian. ===== A discovery in the near future makes it possible to create genetically engineered and enhanced human clones. The consequence of this discovery results in bio-ethical chaos. In order to right this wrong, the World Health Organization imposes a global ban on all human cloning activity. A group of scientists at the Nova Corporation, a leader in cloning research, have made miraculous advances in the replication of human beings. When one of their colleagues, a mad scientist by the name of Dr. Oh (Morita), creates an "Obedience Strain" that will allow him mind control over the clones, Nova Corp casts him out and revokes his license. Dr. Oh vows revenge on his three partners, Drs. Markov, Forster and Hillier, and creates a clone that is the perfect killing machine, Takeru (Funaki), a killer ninja clone. Meanwhile, Nova Corp learns of Dr. Oh's plan and dispatches a bounty hunter, Madsen (Bottoms), to destroy Dr. Oh, Dr. Oh's laboratory and any clones he may have developed. Madsen has his work cut out for him because with Takeru on the loose, it's only a matter of time before the clone finds them all! ===== A Girl from Hunan tells the story of a willful young girl (initially played by Lin Qing and played as an adult by Naren Hua) who, at the start of the film, is about to enter into an arranged marriage with a two-year-old child, Chun Guan. Xiao Xiao, the girl in question, is only twelve. Left by her uncle in this remote village, Xiao Xiao is expected to be less of a wife than a mother to her new husband and lives under the domineering control of her mother-in-law. Now sixteen, Xiao Xiao catches the eye of a farmhand, Hua Gou (played by Deng Xiaoguang). She lets herself be seduced by him and soon finds herself pregnant. Knowing that the traditional village still executes women for adultery, Xiao Xiao is desperate to abort the baby but fails to accomplish her goal. With her pregnancy clear, Xiao Xiao faces the wrath of her mother-in-law, only to be saved by the appeal of her young husband, who has grown to love his wife, though perhaps more as a mother-figure than a spouse. When Xiao Xiao's child, a boy, is born, her mother-in-law begins the process of marrying off the child to yet another adolescent girl. ===== A scientist and neo-Nazi doctor named Serafin has developed a way to create a physically superior human being. He tests it out on his adopted daughter, Goldine. From childhood, Goldine's father has injected her with vitamins and hormones. Now that she is grown, it is time to give her a test run. Serafin declares that his "Goldengirl" will enter and win three races at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. To subsidize his work, Serafin sells shares in his daughter's future to a syndicate of businessmen, who send merchandising expert Dryden to look out for their interests. Goldine's personal and emotional development, meanwhile, is left in the hands of a psychologist, Dr. Sammy Lee. Goldine competes in Moscow, with unexpected results. ===== George Withers learns he is supposed to inherit some valuable jewels from his aunt, and enlists the aid of his dubious lawyer to ensure he gets them. It transpires the stones are hidden in the lining of one of six antique chairs, and his aunt has left instructions for her nephew to purchase the chairs at auction. But unfortunately they are sold separately, as he arrives too late to bid. ===== Dr. Bela Reinhardt (Ron Chaney) is a mad doctor who has invited five people to his castle to determine which of them shall inherit his estate. He has arranged for a competition of sorts. The winner will be chosen by process of...elimination. The visitors quickly realize they have made a terrible mistake in accepting Reinhardt's invitation, but are trapped like rats in a cage under the watchful eye of Reinhardt's ghoulish manservant, Barlow. They soon discover the castle is full of terrifying monsters such as the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's monster, and Dracula. ===== The movie revolves around the true events of a Lithuanian man named Simas Kudirka, who was at the time was a radio operator on a Soviet fish processing vessel. When his ship meets at sea with a U.S. Coast Guard cutter near Martha's Vineyard in 1970, Kudirka makes a dramatic leap from the deck, landing on the USCGC Vigilant. He announces that he wishes to defect, but confusion over U.S. policy on defections prevents the Americans from offering him asylum. As the crew of the Vigilant looks on helplessly, Soviet officers are allowed to board the cutter, beat and bind Kudirka, and drag him back to his own ship. This tinderbox political incident occurs during a Soviet/U.S. conference over fishing rights.Allmovie.com - The Defection of Simas KudirkaTurner Classic Movies - Overview for The Defection of Simas Kudirka ===== Forty-year-old divorcee Karen Matthews (Patty Duke) cautiously begins dating 28-year-old Steven Foreman (Lewis Smith). Her daughter Laura (Teri Hatcher) is also a bit apprehensive about her mother's new relationship; however, Karen's friend Claire (Lainie Kazan) encourages her to continue dating the younger man. ===== Spenser, while relaxing at a park with his love interest, Susan Silverman, reflects on some experiences in his life as a youth, before becoming a detective. Spenser conveys that he grew up in an all-male household, his mother dying immediately before he was delivered by caesarean section. His household consisted of himself, his father, and his two maternal uncles. They were all uneducated, but eager to learn, worked in construction, and boxed from time to time to earn extra money. His uncles taught him to box from a very young age, three years old. They also read volumes of classic novels to him at night. The main narrative conveys Spenser's adventures with a girl, Jeannie Haden. Jeannie was about Spenser's age, but was just a friend. Her father was an abusive drunk. One day Spenser saw her in her father's car, mouthing the words "Help" over and over again. Spenser, along with his dog, Pearl, follows the car and, eventually, Jeannie's father's boat down a river. He locates her and her father on a small island in the river, next to a lean-to. After a brief encounter with her father, Luke, Spenser is able to rescue Jeannie some time later. They escape downriver on Spenser's rowboat, eventually leading Luke Haden to his death. Spenser's father and uncles tell him he "did good" and needn't report the death, or his role in it. But he does, but the local law enforcement doesn't charge Spenser with any crime. Spenser relates that Jeannie had a crush on him, but he didn't return her amore. But he managed to let her down and remain friends. As a favor to Jeannie, he goes on to protect a student of Mexican descent, Aurelio Lopez. Lopez was targeted by white classmates and beaten up on occasion. After Spenser's protection, he doesn't get bullied any longer. However, his relationship with Lopez alienates him somewhat from his white classmates, many of whom he had known since the first grade. At the end, Spenser is confronted by the entire white gang of about fifteen boys. Before any fighting convenes, Spenser's father and uncles arrive and mediate a fair fight between just Spenser and the leader of the gang, Leo Roemer. Because of his boxing training, Spenser quickly wins the fight. He doesn't have any trouble from the gang following the showdown. The recollection ends with Spenser going off to college in Boston on a football scholarship. After an injury his second year, he loses his scholarship and is unable to afford any further schooling and joins the police force, choosing to stay in Boston rather than returning to his home town. ===== How come people who go there are never seen again? Does the villa "eat" people alive? The film tells the story of Anna (Shaina Magdayao)http://shainamagdayao.mycelebsite.info Shaina Magdayao Filmography, as Ana in Villa Estrella who's been having nightmares about certain people getting killed. Things become scarier when her ex-boyfriend Alex (Jake Cuenca) brings her to Villa Estrella where she meets a girl named Gisele (Maja Salvador)Telebisyon.net Maja Salvador earns praise from 'Villa Estrella' director who seems to be very familiar to her Then one day, Anna met a little girl named Jenifer (Celine Lim) who has lived there (in Villa Estrella). After meeting Jenifer, she then encountered Suzy (Rubi Rubi) who said that the little girl who lived there was a ghost. They also found out that that Alex mimicked on their love affair but Anna was very cruel. One night, Eddie (John Arcilla) talked to Dave to about the statement of a deadly ghost named Danica just to be moved away on its nightmares to other worst things, later Otap (Empoy Marquez) was riding on Dennis Car to find his way back home and also on the other hand He gone too far to realized that there was an emergency came but Anna survived then she moved on her bedroom but have no clothes she'd wearing while Andrea cane there, she gave her an apology. Then, the Villa Estrella had high earnings on its budget since its opening of the film. One Night, Jennifer was found missing because Danica found her on the window and never been found back and also Suzy metapharized that she had to participate at the Olympics. Then after that, Alex and Dennis had gone face to face and fought because they have revealed one's secret relationship. After the fight, Otap found death but Anna talk to Dennis about her lost necklace but in the other way, Suzy was about to leave the Villa then Anna recognized that Jennifer later changed her life to others soul due to this incident last night. Andrea was definitely not so satisfied with her emotions. She later transformed into a supernatural monster. Since at the intensive expulsion on Andrea's life back to the past that the motive Eddie was a serial killer including Dave. Looking after her life that Anna Do was immediately trying to kill Andrea and Eddie onto the dangerous situation but also Andrea killed to death. At the end of the film at about five years later, Gusting had celebrated his older birthday, eating pancit which is usually his favorite. Later while staring at the window, Andrea exact revenge by choking her to death. ===== Kang In-ho is a teacher from Seoul that teach deaf children how to do art. He settles in Mujin (a fictional city) where he finds employment as a teacher at a school for the hearing impaired.http://hanbooks.com/crucible.html On the first day of his new job, a young boy is struck and killed by a train, the latest of a series of accidents, he soon discovers. He hears of a young girl who had recently committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. Kang soon suspects things are not as they seem and discovers that the students, (both boys and girls) are being abused by the principal (a powerful and highly respected member of the community), an administrative head and a dormitory superintendent. Kang's efforts to bring the crimes to the attention of the public are met with resistance by corrupt police, doctors and other business leaders. When the case comes to trial, the defense lawyers further attempt to discredit Kang by bringing to light his past misdeeds, including the affair with his former student who committed suicide. Compounding all, the financially strapped parents of the abused students agree to remain silent about the incidents in exchange for money. In the end, the three accused are sentenced to probation and set free to return to the school. Kang, humiliated at having his personal failures publicized and frustrated by the lack of justice, decides to leave Mujin and return to his family in Seoul.https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/07/142_47898.html ===== A girl is traveling with her adopted family. They abuse her viciously and demand that she sell matches along the road. After a brutal assault, and promises of more, she escapes to another world through the light of the matches. The girl was poor and offered her matches for sale. The rich passers buys shunned her on a cold wintery night while they all went to a posh party. She stayed alone in the snow, lighting up matches to keep herself warm. Until she died of cold. All because no one would buy her matches or feel for her plight on such a difficult wintry night. The other world she finds through the light of her matches is in her dreams and imagination after the cruel world abandoned her. ===== A twelve-year-old boy named Thomas Miller is the school troublemaker. He gets into fights and causes distractions in class, and he tells lies. Thomas is seen at the beginning of the movie fighting another student until Principal Hampton intervenes. He is next seen in class with Ms. Bleckner, in which he is assigned detention for goofing off. While in detention, Ms. Bleckner decides to leave to get her nails polished and her hair done. Thomas sneaks out and goes to the library to read and talk with other students instead. On his way to the library, he overhears an unseen figure discussing a kidnapping plot on a cellphone. Petrified by this thought, Thomas leaves. Thomas then encounters an FBI agent named Randal. Randal claims to be involved with researching the case and trying to stop it. Thomas explains what happened and the two go and meet up with Albert, a fellow FBI Agent. Randal, Albert, and Thomas all perceive that the kidnapper is planning on striking during the school dance that weekend. Thomas invites his friend Jackie to go with him, but Principal Hampton and Ms. Bleckner kick them out. They sneak in anyway and continue to search in order to discover the villain. Albert joins Thomas and Jackie in their search. Meanwhile, Randal goes looking on his own and happens to come across the unseen villain. However, the unseen villain fears being exposed, so Randal is attacked and is hit with a broom, and the unseen villain drags him away. Albert, Thomas and Jackie continue to search the dance floor in search of clues but none arise. However, there is a suspicious feeling lurking about. Meanwhile, Ms. Bleckner is seen walking down the hall, patrolling as a hall monitor; where she hears banging on the door of the janitor's closet. Now suspicious, she opens the closet door and finds Randal inside, bound and gagged. She gets him free, and the two go to stop the janitor, who Randal reveals to be the villain. Ms. Bleckner and Randal run onto the dance floor and arrive. Ms. Bleckner exclaims that the Janitor is the villain and that she just saved Randal's life. The Janitor is outraged at this and grabs the president's daughter and flees. Albert, Randal, Thomas, and Jackie chase him down and follow him onto a helicopter. Thomas jumps onto it and sneaks up on the Janitor and knocks him out and puts the helicopter on autopilot. The SWAT Team and National Guard appear with military-style assault rifles and get Thomas and the President's Daughter to safety. Thomas is worshipped as a hero and everyone throws a huge celebration. ===== The book follows three 16-year-olds on an idle summer day in 1963. The narrator, Dwight, and his best friends Rusty and Slim (a tomboy), find flyers for an exotic vampire show. They make a journey to a local clearing called Jank's Field in an attempt to sneak a peek at Valeria, who is billed as the world's only living captive vampire, but they are attacked by a dog and separated, leading to a series of misadventures. Meanwhile, Dwight's attractive sister-in-law Lee purchases four tickets from the show's frontman, Julian Stryker. Later that night the group is reunited and attends the titular Vampire Show, where they discover a sinister plot involving the vampires. The book focuses on the interactions between the three teens and their sexual awakening. ===== The film started when an Australian journalist interviewed a woman named Juliana, who as a young girl witnessed Roger East's capture and execution by the Indonesian invasion force. The point of view goes first on Roger East's investigation upon the imminent Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Also, he investigates the fate of the Balibo Five, who was in Balibo covering the events in the area. Then the point of view changes to the Balibo Five's actions in the town, from their departure in Australia, to their arrival in East Timor and was inserted in a FRETILIN unit near the border. Then the story interchanges between Roger East's attempted investigation upon the fate of the Five, and the Five's events in the area, and some of Juliana's story on the journo. Roger was with Jose Ramos-Horta as his bodyguard along the way, evading Indonesian patrols and seeing villages with massacred inhabitants, and also settled their arguments between Roger's insistence of knowing the truth and Jose's hesitance to assist such a risky move. While the Five were with a FRETILIN unit, up to the point of the Indonesian attack on their position. They painted Australia upon the building to ensure their safety, but it was nothing to Indonesian invaders. The Five declined requests of their FRETILIN bodyguards to join them into the retreat from the area. The Five is then covering the invasion, when the Indonesian soldiers chased and cornered them. One of the cameramen tried to tell the soldiers to spare them, but was shot by the officer Yunus Yosfiah. Then, the soldiers breached the building, killing the 3 and the surviving journo was captured and repeatedly stabbed to death by a bayonet. Then Roger's point of view ended when the Indonesians invade Dili with paratroopers and ground troops. He was captured with East Timorese men and Juliana watches as the men were executed by the Indonesians, women were segregated and raped, and Roger was executed by the Indonesian soldiers. The interviewer ended Juliana's interview, and she leaves while hugging a child. The film ends with the inscription that the murderers of the Balibo Five and Roger East was not put to justice and pictures from the groups, and scenes from Horta's rallies and later on, East Timorese enjoying the beach. ===== Nyle T. Milner, a hard-working agricultural historian, is busy researching and working on a book about the early harrow. He is in the process of traveling to the Museum of the Tractor located in Harvey, New York for the fourth time. He asks Bill Fipton for recommendations of accommodations, and Bill offers up "The Taits" inn stating that they make an "interesting" soup. He explores the hotel room and comes across a Mr. Potato Head Kit. He opens the box quickly and is surprised to find a real potato with all the facial features still punctured into it. The mummified potato startles him. Following his encounter with the potato, Nyle makes his way down from his room for dinner. He learns that the menu was leek and potato soup; however, he is the only one eating it. After some time, he mentions the Mr. Potato Head Kit he had found earlier and states how it had startled him. After dinner, Mrs. Tait leads Nyle into the kitchen, revealing to him dozens of potatoes all shapes and sizes and making sure to mention that they only use "fresh" ones. Nyle leaves the Taits and proceeds to his room. While trying to fall asleep he wondered why Mrs. Tait used the word "fresh". He wakes up to venture back downstairs to the kitchen, though when he gets to the door he notices a sprout coming through the keyhole. He opens the door and notices a dozen or more potatoes coming toward him. Nyle goes back inside and tries to blockade the door. The potatoes are coming after him. Nyle tries to escape; however, the dead Mr. Potato Head's spuds spawn veer toward Nyle's face, causing him to fall. The potatoes begin to inhabit his body planting themselves within. After some time Nyle wakes up in a very dark place - the box he originally encountered upon his arrival at "The Taits". A child begins pushing the Mr. Potato Head features into Nyle and puts him back into the box. Many years later, a man opens the box and is frightened by the mummified potato which ultimately begins the new Krebs Cycle. ===== When Reverend John Keyes (Roy Thinnes) and his wife Lorna (Lynn Loring) arrive in a western town, they find that there is mysterious force causing bad luck to plague the settlers. Once the Reverend is able to get the recalcitrant residents to speak about the ongoing troubles, he finds his spiritual leadership is being challenged by a cult of devil worshippers who practice voodoo, and have to get to the heart of a strange relationship between a mute young girl and a gunslinger who seem possessed by Satanic spirits. ===== When Patsy Callaghan's father discovers that her mother, Maeve, neglects her, he stops going to sea. John Callagan buys a horse and cart and sets up as a carrier at Liverpool Docks. Patsy loves going out on the carrier with her father and Billy Grant, the boy that helps him. When one day John Callaghan is killed in an accident, and Maeave goes out again drinking binges, Billy, who is deeply in love with Patsy, helps her continue the business. Patsy falls in love with Bruno Alvarez a handsome fairground showman, and believes he is going to marry her and will travel to Spain together. When Patsy brings him to meet Maeve, he stays for the night and the next morning, Patsy finds Bruno and Maeve in bed together. Billy comforts her and tries to calm her down, until they end up making love. But when Maeve finds out that Patsy is pregnant, she throws her out of the house. Patsy hides in the stables and Billy takes care of the baby, Liam, when he is born. While she is hiding in the stables, Billy has an accident and is crippled. Unable to find Bruno, Patsy lives with Billy's family. As Liam gets older, Patsy starts working as a nurse. When Liam develops tuberculosis, Patsy decides to find Bruno and discovers that he and her mother went off together. Eventually, Liam dies and Patsy is once more depressed. Billy comforts her again, and she realises how much she loves him. They decide to open a new business on their own and get married. ===== While at the Dairy Queen with her pregnant sister Tessa, Sara is called to meet Jeffrey at the scene of an apparent suicide on campus property, a suicide they both later agree seems suspicious though they can't quite put their fingers on why. Tessa asks to go along and Sara, against her better judgment, allows it. As Sara is examining the body, Tessa walks into the woods to relieve herself. Also on hand are Lena, who's quit the force and now works for campus security, and her new boss, steroidal creep Chuck Gaines. Chuck identifies the victim as the son of two campus professors, a development sure the complicate the case exponentially for Jeffrey. When Tessa doesn't come out of the woods, a search finds her stabbed repeatedly and barely alive; she's airlifted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta. While Sara and her parents wait tensely by Tessa's bedside, Jeffrey and Lena work the case while at each other's throats over Lena's decision to quit the force. Another suicide occurs, more suspicious than the last, and as Lena spirals farther out of control with alcohol and drugs, she makes a fateful and perhaps fatal connection with student Ethan Green, who is not what he appears to be. ===== Widower Harry Mitchell (Thompson) lives with his gay son Jeff (Crowe), with both men struggling in their searches for true love. Harry is completely comfortable with his son's sexuality, and is almost over-eager in his support for his son's search for a boyfriend. Harry meets an attractive but judgmental divorcee through a dating service, and this leads to some conflict between the two main characters. However, when Harry suffers a stroke and loses the power of speech, the story takes a darker turn, becoming a meditation on the enduring strength of love, both familial and romantic, in the face of adversity. ===== Following its humiliation in the First and Second Opium Wars Qing China attempts to modernise its military, part of this modernisation being the belated creation of a modern military academy. Despite secretly being a revolutionary Chan Do Yeung (Damian Lau) is chosen to be principal of the academy and agrees, on the proviso that he be allowed to admit Han students. Among the first intake of students are a scion of a noble family Tam Chi Tung (Bosco Wong) and a commoner Wong Ng (Ron Ng), despite their differences the two become bosom friends. Also amongst the students is Cheuk Lan (Shirley Yeung), a princess belonging to a cadet branch of the ruling family. Cheuk Lan's father is Sok Yi Suen (Lau Kong) with ultimate responsibility for the academy, believing that the Empire is a Manchu one, he orders his followers in the academy to make things as hard as possible for the Han students with the aim of failing them. Chan Do Yeung however takes an interest in Wong, who is the son of a deceased friend, and accepts him as a formal disciple, he stumbles though with Wong's training, for although possessing great strength Wong finds it impossible to use his strength in combat. Initially at odds with one another Wong and Cheuk Lan fall in love, however he is unable to graduate from the academy, and instead becomes a caravan guard. Chan Do Yeung's secret is discovered, although willing to serve the sinicized Manchu to defend China against a common enemy, the Manchu have him ambushed and killed. Finally having found a weapon to suit his great strength, the dadao, Wong Ng arrives to late too save his master but is able to avenge him. ===== Jane Alexander was a sheltered, attractive widow living with her large, close- knit family in her small hometown of Truckee, California. For six years, she had been living with Tom O'Donnell, her charismatic and handsome boyfriend. He had used wit, charm, and tales of adventure to borrow money for extensive home business operations and investing. When Gertrude McCabe, her favorite 88-year- old aunt, was gruesomely murdered in San Jose in 1983, a case which baffled San Jose PD. A break came from newly assigned police detective Jack Morris, whose investigative genius would soon solve the case. It was a difficult case to crack, but the motive was clearly something personal. McCabe was bludgeoned, choked with a bicycle lock, stabbed over two dozen times in her neck and back with a knife. Morris soon convinced Alexander that the killer was her boyfriend, and after O'Donnell disappeared with over $10,000 of her money and left her near bankruptcy, Alexander embarked on an epic journey to track down and outsmart the wily con artist. After 13 years of collecting evidence, Alexander and Morris managed to convict O'Donnell of first degree murder. Police believe O'Donnell killed Gertrude McCabe because Jane Alexander would then inherit her Aunt Gertrude's estate. O'Donnell was sentenced to life imprisonment; he died in 2010.http://www.citizensagainsthomicide.org/index.php/about-cah/citizen-jane- the-book/ ===== Luke (C. Thomas Howell), a seedy grifter who owes money to the Mexican mob, cooks up one final scheme to pay off his debt – getting local loan shark, Chuck, to advance him cash to start a Hot All-Girl website. Now saddled with two debts, one idea and no skills, Luke ropes his only two friends, Courtney and Josh into his venture. Courtney gets the site running, Josh brings in four hot babes - Sultry Sophia, "Girl Next Door" Brooke, Submissive Naomi and Bitchy Alex. But as things heat up, Mexican mobster Guzman changes the rules - jamming Luke up as the chicks bolt with the cash. Fists start flying, people start dying and all hell breaks loose. Can Luke stop the killings, save his friends, find the money and get the hell out of town? Or will another one bite the dust? ===== The film focuses on a 62-year-old judge who rethinks his opposition to abortion when he finds out both his 19-year-old daughter and 38-year-old wife are pregnant.The New York Times When his daughter contemplates an abortion without informing her boyfriend, the judge immediately expresses his disapproval. He changes his mind when he finds out his wife is pregnant as well. The three are all forced to make important choices. ===== As the film opens a black Ferrari circles on a race track in the desert, its engine roaring in and out of the shot. When it eventually stops, Johnny Marco steps out. Marco is a young and recently divorced Hollywood actor who, despite his recent rise to fame, does not feel much meaning in his daily life. He resides at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles from where he completes various publicity obligations for his new film: he is photographed with his co-star, gives interviews to the press, and attends an award ceremony in Italy. Presently, he is nursing a broken wrist in a plaster arm cast. Despite drinking and socializing occasionally with Sammy, a fellow actor and childhood friend, Marco spends much time alone, driving his Ferrari motorcar, drinking beer, taking pills, and having casual sex with various women and aspiring starlets. Twice he has pole-dancing twins set up their equipment and perform in his room, the first time he falls asleep and the second routine is more calisthenic than erotic.Ebert, R. Review:Somewhere Chicago Sun-Times, December 21, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2010. He receives an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter Cleo. Cleo's stay changes his lifestyle little at first, including his indulging an overnight visitor, a blonde woman. Johnny and his daughter spend time together in his hotel suite and he brings her with him on his daily routine and on a publicity trip to Milan (where he is awarded with a "Telegatto", in a show with local celebrities playing themselves), and through preparations for her departure to summer camp. As their time together grows, Johnny's fatherly emotions emerge and force him to re-assess his otherwise "successful" life. After Cleo leaves for camp Johnny calls his ex-wife and tearfully breaks down admitting to his inadequacies and his unhappiness about being unsupportive of his family. His ex-wife seems indifferent and declines his request to come see him. Johnny checks out of the hotel promising not to return, and drives his Ferrari into the countryside looking for something new to turn a new leaf. Eventually, he stops by the roadside and gets out, leaving behind his Ferrari with the keys left inside, and walking in a new direction down the highway smiling. ===== The year is 1853 when inveterate gambler Jim Smiley (Edgar Buchanan) returns to his hometown of Dawson's Landing in Missouri after being away for a decade from his wife and son. He brings a jumping frog which he calls Daniel Webster with him, and immediately upon his arrival to the town hotel makes a bet with Sheriff Dingle (Stanley Andrews) and a few others, that the frog can jump when told to do so. He wins the bet and is able to pay for his stay at the hotel with the money. Next he visits his wife Nancy (Anna Lee), who turns out to be his ex-wife and is about to marry the town judge, Leonidas K. Carter (Robert Shayne). He still gets to meet his son, Bob (Gary Gray), who he has never met before. To make amends and win the boy's heart, he intends to buy him a racing Greyhound. Jim manages to gather a sum of $300 to buy a certain dog that Bob has set his eyes on, Andrew Jackson III, and Bob trains it to race it in an upcoming contest. But Bob is made fun of by one of the judge's own spoiled sons, Monty (Bill Sheffield), and Jim becomes determined to win back both his son and his wife from the snobby Leonidas. Jim begins by renouncing gambling altogether and getting a job at the local hotel. He relapses however, by placing a bet on the judge's prize runner to win the race. Instead Bob's dog wins the race, and Jim feels guilty over having lied to Nancy and let his son down by not believing in him. Since Nancy believes he is a reformed man she agrees to marry him again. When the wedding day comes, Jim still feels bad about his lies, when he discovers that Bob and Monty are betting. He tries to teach his son about the perils of gambling, but his guilty conscience makes him cancel the wedding. The judge also tries to stop the wedding by challenging Jim's ability to pay for the ceremony, which costs about $1,000. The challenge turns into a bet, where Jim stakes $1,000 that his frog will beat his friend Amos' (Hobart Cavanaugh) leaper, Martha Washington. Jim goes on to fix the race, but refuses to accept his prize money when he wins. In doing so, he restores his dignity in front of Nancy. Jim layer confesses to Nancy about the bet on the previous dog race, but she is still happy about his new honest behaviour and agrees to remarry him anyway.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/68495/Best-Man-Wins/ ===== One day in contemporary Mexicali, a poker game in the back room of a cantina includes horse breeder Jim Carey, cowboys Shep and Johnny, a prospector called Old Willy, a stranger in town named Frazee and a drifter, Chalk. Guitar player Josh and bartender Bibbs are kibbitzing. Conversation turns to a legendary wagon train carrying gold bars worth $5 million lost 100 years ago in the Walking Hills, a huge area of shifting dunes across the border in the United States. Johnny, not paying attention, casually mentions how his horse recently tripped over an old wagon wheel in the hills. To keep the discovery a secret, they agree that all of them including Jim's man Cleve must join the search for the wagon train. The nine reach the apparent site but all the dunes have shifted since Johnny was there. Bibbs discovers an ox skull and Old Willy an oxen yoke and they begin digging. The group is joined by Chris Jackson, a woman who followed them from Calexico, where she works in a diner. Shep is really former rodeo rider Dave Wilson with whom Chris, herself a rodeo performer, fell in love at a rodeo in Denver, breaking off her engagement to Jim. Dave abruptly disappeared and Chris saw him again in Calexico after he showed up there as Shep, heading for the border. It turns out that Dave Wilson had fled because he accidentally killed a gambler who accused him of cheating at cards. The man's father, King, hired a detective who turns out to be Frazee, and who has been sending signals to King and a posse with a heliograph. Johnny, Chalk and Cleve are also on the run and each believes Frazee is after him. Frazee shoots Johnny during a fight. Jim, told by Johnny that he would rather die than go to prison, has Cleve hide the horses to keep Johnny from being found out if someone goes for help. A wagon is uncovered and tempers flare when no gold is found. Johnny dies right after Frazee admits he watched Chris as "hangman's bait," waiting for Dave to show up. A terrible sand storm develops, and Chalk tries to stampede the horses, killing Frazee with his own gun. Jim kills Chalk as he tries to escape. The storm uncovers the entire wagon train. Old Willy finds it, but it's empty. Dave decides to turn himself in to the law and Chris, still in love with Dave, rides after him. Jim has a hunch, meanwhile, that the wagons weren't entirely empty when Old Willy found it. He is right. ===== A seemingly kind painter, Henry Elcott, tricks wealthy art collector Mary Herries into letting him, his wife Ada and their baby live in her London home. Ada has collapsed and a doctor claims it is best she not be moved. It turns out to be a diabolical scheme by Elcott to sell off the artwork of Mrs. Herries and everything else of value she owns while holding her and her housemaid Rose captive in their bedrooms. Elcott's accomplices, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, take over as the butler and maid. Elcott masquerades as the lady's nephew, come to take care of her affairs due to a sudden mental breakdown. The criminals taunt Mrs. Herries, placing her chair near a window, having informed the neighborhood that any screams they hear would be those of a woman who has gone mad. In no hurry to leave, Elcott goes so far as to paint a portrait of her. Mrs. Edwards gets anxious that they are staying too long in the house, which Elcott intends to sell. Mrs. Herries tries to bribe her, but the brutal Mr. Edwards snatches the money from his wife and refuses to leave. Tensions rise as Mrs. Herries learns the true identity of Elcott from a portrait of his wife that he signed with his real name. Ada has seen Elcott kill before and realizes he will again. She tries to free Rose, but the maid is murdered by Mr. Edwards. The time comes to pack up and leave. Mr. Edwards goes upstairs to push Mrs. Herries out the window, an apparent suicide. But the body in the chair has been switched by Mrs. Herries and Ada and is actually that of Rose. The police are on their way and Elcott realizes that he and Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have made a fatal mistake. ===== A professor traveling on a train is asked by a fellow passenger if he too loves "America". The professor then asks: "Which America?" This provides a lead-in for multiple tales of American life. There is the tale of Mrs. Riordan, an elderly lady from Boston. She is upset about not having been counted in the 1950 census. She asks a newspaper editor named Callaghan to intervene on her behalf, and he makes the mistake of not taking her seriously. Following on the census story there is a five-minute interlude featuring black Americans, highlighting military service in the Navy, WACs, and Paratroopers. There are clips featuring Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and Benjamin O. Davis Jr. It then moves on to sports figures such as Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Joe Lewis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Levi Jackson. Entertainers featured in this segment include Marian Anderson (performing in front of the Lincoln Memorial), Lena Horne, Ethel Watters, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Anderson and the Berry Brothers. Then civil servants are featured, including Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Ralph Bunche. There is the story of a Hungarian immigrant named Stefan Szabo who is in the business of selling paprika. He has several daughters and does not want them to marry men of other nationalities. Rosa falls in love with Icarus, who is Greek, and must overcome her father's objections. There is the tale of Maxie Klein, a young Jewish man, who was injured during the Korean War, and is on his way to his home in Chicago. He stops on his way home to look up the mother of a young man, an Army buddy, who died in the conflict. The mother is not sure what to make of Maxie because her son mentioned no Jewish friend, but ends up touched by his visit. So many tall tales about Texas exist that a tall Texas man takes it upon himself to separate the fact from the fiction. Adam Burch, a minister in Washington, D.C., whose parishioners include the President of the United States, sometimes tailors his sermons specifically for the President, only to learn later that the President was unable to attend services that day. Scolded to speak for all rather than to one, Rev. Burch gives the sermon of his life, and then learns to his surprise that the President was present on that day and heard every word. Miss Coleman, a school teacher in San Francisco, discovers that her pupil Joey needs glasses. Joey's father, Mr. Esposito, believes they are not necessary and will only bring Joey ridicule from his peers. In the end, it is the father who learns an important lesson. ===== Her pregnant mother is in labor and in dire need of a doctor, but young Emily Dunning is new to the neighborhood and knows no one. When someone finally suggests a Dr. Yeomans, she is shocked to discover the doctor is a woman. It is the turn of the century in New York and times are changing, but as yet women are not being made welcome in the field of medicine. Emily is so impressed by Marie Yeomans that she decides to enroll in med school at Cornell. Fellow student Ben Barringer is one of the few there who encourage Emily, and they also fall in love. Ben plans to continue his education at Harvard, but upsets Emily by asking her to abandon her studies and accompany him. Emily instead moves to New York, where she and Dr. Yeomans share an apartment. Hospitals deny her an internship until a reluctant Dr. Seth Pawling is persuaded to accept her, although he confines her mainly to ambulance duty. Ben, it turns out, has become an intern at the same hospital. A patient is pronounced dead prematurely by a Dr. Graham, but is resuscitated by Emily, who exhausts herself for hours in the process. A nurse informs the press of Emily's heroic act, irritating Graham but impressing Pawling, who recognizes her determination and skills. When a typhoid epidemic breaks out, the need for doctors is so great that Dr. Yeomans is asked to help. She, too, earns the respect of the hospital's men, just before her weak heart gives out. Ben is leaving for Paris to continue his work, but Emily heeds her friend's advice to have a personal life as well as a professional one, so she promises Ben that their careers will not keep them apart. ===== With the author's characteristic humor and creativity, the work describes one girl’s fantasy adventure. Yvienne Magnolia lives in a small village and her beauty turns the villagers' heads, yet she would never have imagined the grand future destined for her. Because a count tries to kidnap her, Yvienne flees to the Lowood Institution for wizardry and witchcraft, forced to leave her family. In the school, she meets interesting people, like January Lightsphere who comes from a noble but peculiar family, or Lariatte, an heir to an orthodox fighter family, who might yet become her closest friend. ===== In the late 1870s, Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Captain Woodrow F. Call, two famous former Texas Rangers, run a livery in the small, dusty Texas border town of Lonesome Dove along the Rio Grande. Gus is an upbeat womanizer, but he's twice a widower, and Call is a strict, stoic workaholic. Working with them are Joshua Deets, a black tracker and scout from their Ranger days, Pea Eye Parker, another former Ranger who works hard but isn't very bright, and Bolívar, a retired Mexican bandit who is their cook. Also living with them is Newt Dobbs, a 17-year-old whose mother was a prostitute named Maggie and whose father may be any man on the ranch, save for Gus who secretly knows who Newt's true father is. ===== Carol Maldon leaves New York to run her recently deceased father's stable. Rick Grayton is the trainer and jockey of her horse Gay Fleet. It is an exceptional horse, but no one yet knows Gay Fleet because it is still young. Rick has been intentionally losing races to make the horse seem inferior so that he can buy it from Carol cheaply. However, he is discovered by Mercedes, a rival stable owner, who tells Rick's plan to Carol. ===== A woman who has been married and divorced five times comes back to her small hometown, where she proceeds to complicate, and potentially destroy, the marriage of her childhood boyfriend. ===== When a jealous Donald Duck tries to sabotage Mickey's magic act, he ends up becoming the victim of many of his magic tricks. In the end, Donald shoots the fireworks from Mickey's flare gun but accidentally causes the entire stage collapse on top of them. ===== This cartoon is a two heads is better than one parable. The bootle beetle (from Donald Duck cartoons, such as Bootle Beetle, The Greener Yard and Sea Salts) tells two younger beetles, who are fighting to reach a piece of fruit that is out of their reach, the story of Morris, a four-year-old moose, who has not grown beyond the stages of a child and is the laughing stock among the other moose. Morris is a small moose with large antlers, and meets up one day with Balsam, a large moose with embarrassingly small antlers. Morris and Balsam became good friends. Thunderclap the strongest bull moose is constantly challenging and defending his title as head moose. The two defeat Thunderclap with Morris standing on Balsam's back. The combined strength of Morris and Balsam becomes too much for Thunderclap. In the end the sum of the two was greater than the parts & the beetles learn the lesson by standing on each other's shoulders to reach the far hanging fruit. ===== Fujio and Mitsuo are two full-time slackers who work in a fire extinguisher factory. The two spend their lunch hours training to fulfill their dreams of being jujitsu champions. One day, they murder their boss and dump his body on a Tokyo toxic waste dump known as "Black Fuji". Things suddenly become worse when an army of the undead rises from the waste dump and begin to attack the living. In order to survive, they will have to employ their limited jujitsu skills, to either help or escape Tokyo. ===== Boy (Paolo Contis) is struggling to save his girlfriend Sofia (Tanya Garcia), who is forced to work as a prostitute for the scheming Madam San (Rio Locsin). Boy and his best friend Sonny (Rico Blanco) visit their childhood friend Francis (Epi Quizon), who is now a violent drug dealer. Unexpectedly, Francis suffers from a heart attack and dies. Instead of reporting the incident to his family, Boy and Sonny hid Francis' body as they searched the entire house for the tablets of Ecstasy, which they were hoping to sell. Chaos ensues when Francis' family and girlfriend, as well as drug pusher Rocky (Christopher De Leon) find out about his death. ===== The book describes the career of Lucien, the son of a Parisian banker, in the years following the July Revolution of 1830 that brought Louis Philippe I to the throne. Lucien is expelled from the École Polytechnique after taking part in an anti-government demonstration following the funeral of General Lamarque. After two years of idleness he joins the army, and falls off a horse as his regiment enters the city of Nancy because he is gazing at ‘a young blonde with magnificent hair and a disdainful look’. He falls in love with this young widow, who is named Mme de Chasteller, although he is forced to renounce her. Lucien then returns to Paris and becomes principal private secretary to the Minister of the Interior. Stendhal planned a last section that would show Lucien in Italy and resolve the story with a happy reunion with Mme de Chasteller, but it was never written. ===== Takeru Matsuyuki, a junior school student, is forced to aim for Hinami Private High School for his senior school selection exam by his mother, who wants him to be bilingual like his father. On Hinami's open day, Takeru sees his own incentive to go to Hinami: Ichigo Suzunari, a girl with a melodic voice. Just before his exams, Takeru's mother is critically injured in a car accident. On her deathbed, she reveals to Takeru that he has an older half-sister, Hyoju, living alone in England. His mother feels guilt for refusing to take in Hyoju after her mother died and wishes for Hyoju to come to Japan and live with them. Takeru's mother then dies. After a period of unrest between Takeru and his father, Takeru allows Hyōju to live with them. Takeru does poorly in his senior school selection exam and ends up in Tennendo, a public high school. However, he sees Ichigo there as well. He confesses his love for her and she off-handedly accepts. He meets Zen Hokuoin, a kindergarten boy, who shows up at odd moments and innocently and strangely gives wise advice to Takeru. Takeru discovers that Ichigo's older brother, Kazuki, is a photographer. He, with the help of his classmates, Seika Nishizawa and Yoruko Tōsaka, enters a modeling agency competition in which Kazuki is one of the judges. Takeru's classmate, Kouki Noda, is inadvertently entered into the competition as well. Kazuki shows his over protectiveness of his sister to Takeru coupled with rumours that Kazuki kisses his sister daily, Takeru turns to the Hokuoin family for help. Zen finds out that Kazuki is infected by the Noize, a parasite that amplifies the person's strongest desires. He takes Takeru to his house so that his sisters can explain that he is part of the Nan'itsu family, tasked with opposing the Noize. The head of the Hokuoin family, Jin, and his family expels the Noize from Kazuki's body. Later, Kazuki asks Takeru to introduce him to Hyōju. In the school holidays, Takeru works part-time in a game arcade with Hotei, one of the Seven Stars, the group opposing the Nan'itsu family. Hotei's androgynous friend, Hijiri, informs Takeru that his true love is not Ichigo but Yoruko. He also teaches Takeru to climb the "tower", where the past and future of people's lives can be seen. Ichigo, Takeru and Noda were planning for a trip to the beach with their friend but Takeru subconsciously climbed the tower and warped them 14 years in the past to 1982. The trio have to survive in the past without using ¥1000 notes and ¥500 coins. ===== Sam Alexander, a fun-loving automobile workshop owner is more keen in scripting and directing theatrical plays than running his business. A theater addict, Sam, along with his friends, Pappu Mesthiri, Mammoonju, and Preman, is now working on Shakunthalam, the famous play by Kalidasa. Gracy Kutty, his mother, is worried with his easy-going and careless attitude towards life. The main actress Komalam who was supposed to play the role of Shakunthala elopes with Krishnan Kutty, a fellow artist. Sam is busy searching for a new face to enact Shakunthala. Accidentally, he meets up with Sreedevi Menon, whom he falls in love with. He attempts all methods to woo her and finally she falls in. Sam casts her as Sahkunthala and she unwillingly agrees without the knowledge of her family. Sreedevi, daughter of Meledath Vishwanatha Menon, the rich businessman in the city, thus acts in the drama. On the way home, Sam and Sreedevi are caught red-handed by Vishnu Menon, her brother. Ravindran Nair, the I.G. of police and friend of Menon, had plans of getting his son Rajkumar married to Sreedevi, so that he could own up a huge part of the business empire. With the help of Ravindran Nair, Sam is beaten up by police. Sam and Sreedevi elope and spend a few days away from the worries. In the meantime, the duo are again caught by Vishnu Menon. Sam is arrested for kidnapping Sreedevi and is jailed for 10 months. At jail, he learns that Sreedevi is pregnant with his child but has no way to save the kid. Upon knowing that Sreedevi is pregnant, she is transferred to a distant place. Once she gives birth to a baby boy, the attitude of Menon and Vishnu changes, and they started looking upon him as their heir. Sensing danger, Ravindran Nair sends Rajkumar to kidnap and kill the boy. Vishnu realizes the plan of Rajkumar and tries to save his sister and the baby. In the meantime, Sam escapes from jail and reaches the house where Sreedevi stays. She attempts to commit suicide to escape from Rajkumar but is saved miraculously by Sam, who makes a dramatic entry. He defeats Rajkumar and saves the child. Menon and Vishnu happily unite Sam and Sreedevi. Sam happily goes back to jail after seeing Sreedevi and his child one more time. ===== The series is set in early Republican China. Chan Zan travels to Shanghai with his younger sister in search of a new life after their hometown is destroyed by a group of bandits. Upon his arrival, he notices that Shanghai is divided into an international settlement under the control of various foreign powers such as Britain and Japan. He also observes that the martial artists' community in Shanghai is marred with disunity and the various schools are pursuing their individual goals. The fractured status of the martial arts community reflects the state of China: the Chinese are individualistic and are often engaging in internal conflict instead of uniting to drive out their common enemies (the overbearing foreigners) and regain sovereignty of their nation. Fok Yuen-gap, the founder of Ching-mou School, is trying hard to persuade and influence the other schools to unite under a common purpose of defending China from foreign intrusion. Chan becomes a rickshaw puller and coolie to earn a living in Shanghai. Once, he saves the famous singer Yi-kiu from some ruffians and is invited to join the notorious Green Gang through her introduction. Chan proves himself to be the best fighter in the gang and wins the favour of its boss, Choi Luk-kan. At the same time, he encounters the bandits who murdered his family, who are coincidentally allies of the Green Gang. Chan is unable to convince his fellow gang members to support him in taking revenge on the bandits. When his sister is killed by the bandits later, Chan learns a painful lesson that he should distance himself from the gang's illegal activities. He leaves the gang after killing his sister's murderers. He joins Ching-mou School after being enlightened by Fok Yuen-gap in the few earlier encounters they had. Chan becomes Fok's favourite student as he demonstrates an excellent understanding of Fok's martial arts philosophy. Fok grooms Chan to be his successor and Chan gradually matures under Fok's teachings to become a powerful martial artist who truly understands Ching-mou School's founding principles. Meanwhile, Chan Zan also falls in love with Yumi, the daughter of the Japanese consul Takeda Yukio. However, their relationship is strained because they stand on opposing grounds, as well as coming from strikingly different backgrounds. To complicate their relationship, Ching-mou School is a strong supporter of the anti-Japanese movement, and Fok Yuen-gap has foiled Takeda's plans to take over Shanghai on numerous occasions. At the same time, Yumi's fiance, Ishii Hideaki, arrives from Japan to start a dojo with his brother in Hongkou District. Ishii's presence causes Chan and Yumi's relationship to be further strained. Takeda founds the Black Dragon Society in Shanghai to spy on the Chinese military for the Japanese government in preparation for a future invasion of China. Takeda is aware that he must kill Fok Yuen-gap in order to crush the Chinese people's morale, because they look up to Fok as a national hero. Takeda sends a spy to infiltrate Ching-mou School and secretly poison Fok. Fok dies from poisoning after engaging Ishii Hideaki in a leitai match. Chan Zan remains calm in the face of taunts and insults from Ching-Mou's enemies after his master's death while channelling his efforts into disrupting the Japanese's plans to take over Shanghai. Many lives were lost in the struggle between Ching-mou School and the Japanese. Chan becomes the sole survivor of his school. After discovering that Takeda is planning to release a deadly virus in Shanghai and use that as an excuse for Japan to launch its invasion on China, Chan breaks into Takeda's base and takes down every opponent he meets and disrupts Takeda's plans once more. He defeats Takeda in a fight, but spares Takeda's life when Yumi pleads with him, but Takeda ultimately commits suicide in humiliation. Yumi is also gravely wounded by her father during the fight, and she succumbs to her wounds after Chan brings her back to Ching-mou School. In the final scene, Ching-Mou is surrounded by armed soldiers because the Japanese consulate has ordered Chan's arrest for the murder of Takeda. Chan is promised by the Chinese police inspector that Ching-mou School will prevail after his death, after which he charges out with a flying kick at the soldiers as they open fire at him, thus ending the series. ===== The story is set in southern Italy and recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio. When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio, another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio during a performance. Although Leoncavallo's opera was originally set in the late 1860s, Zeffirelli's production is updated to the period between World War I and World War II. ===== Donnelly is a disturbed cop on vacation leave. Despite being off-duty, he is still in his uniform. As he rides through the desert on his Harley, he stops a lady whom he accuses of being drunk; while exhausted from driving continuously for hours, she is obviously anything but drunk. Donnelly proceeds to lock her in the trunk of her car, leaving her on a quiet road where no one is likely to pass by for some time. Continuing on, he stops at a closed petrol station in the middle of the night. The pumps are padlocked, so he takes out his revolver and shoots the lock off so he can refill his bike with fuel. The next day, Donnelly goes to China Lake for some relaxation and then goes to a nearby diner for lunch and coffee, which he refers to as Black Mud. Two cement workers are sitting at the main counter and they arouse his ire to the point that he completely forgets the (somewhat pleasant) conversation he was having with the waitress. Later that same day, he notices a car on the side of the road belonging to one of the truckers, as it has the same trademark on it. After the other trucker leaves his friend to repair the car by himself, Donnelly, who has been watching and waiting nearby for the men to return, makes a reappearance and chases the confused man before knocking him down. He then locks the man in the trunk of his car and pushes the car over the stretch of desert next to the road. Donnelly is next shown returning to work. When the watch commander asks Donnelly how his vacation was, he responds that he enjoyed it. The film comes to an end as the credits roll. ===== Having fled from Queen Vampire Morella, sweet-natured vampire Sugar and her mortal boyfriend Dex take Marvin the homunculus to Little Rock, Arkansas in an attempt to resurrect Marvin's now deceased son, the vampire slayer Ivan Burroughs. Dex and Sugar get a job in a seedy club in order to steal some blood from the King Vampire, which will hopefully being Ivan back to life- but at the expense that he would return as a vampire. At first, Ivan is furious that Dex brought him back. However, Dex and Ivan must band together to save Sugar, who is being offered up as a sacrifice to the King Vampire. ===== Gena the Crocodile works as a zoo animal at an urban zoo. Every evening, he returns home to his lonely apartment. Gena gets very tired of playing chess against himself and decides to find some friends to play with. Animals and people respond to advertisements that he posts all around the city. First, a girl named Galya comes with a homeless puppy, who is then followed by Cheburashka. They decide to build a house for all the lonely citizens of the city, but a mischievous old lady, Shapoklyak, tries to stop them in different ways. ===== This book is about a series of exploits by the Corporation, headquartered in The Oregon, a ship that from the outside looks as if it is ready for the scrapyard. In reality this is a ruse, as the ship is as high tech as can be. The Corporation is hired to hunt for and recover the plutonium energy source from a NASA satellite that went down in the jungles in Argentina. What the members of the Corporation find leads them to Antarctica, where they try to foil a multinational plot around a converted scientific station that is actually a vast mining operation that has a large military base built to protect it. Along the way, just like in a Dirk Pitt Adventure, there is a search for mythical Chinese Admiral's Chinese treasure ship called the "Silent Sea". That ship had to be scuttled along with its crew due to a prion disease, caught by the crew when they traded for meat from the native cannibals. The Corporation is forced to move the ship to deeper waters, since the Chinese, in Cooperation with the Argentines, are using the presence of the ship to claim the Antarctic Peninsula as Chinese territory. The 15th Century admiral is one Tsai Song. Although he is said to be inspired by the travels of the real Chinese Fleet Admiral Zheng He. It is clear from the time line, that he's based on Zheng. However unlike Zheng's south Asia and Middle Eastern voyages, Song had traveled to the Pacific coasts of the American continents and to Antarctica. ===== Shy, closeted and nerdy young artist Danny (Tye Olson) is befriended by golden boy swimming champion Carter (Kyle Clare) when family circumstances bring them together for a night. Danny helps the troubled Carter in school, while the brash and sexy yet troubled Carter works hard to hide his drug problems, history of seizures and the painful relationship he has with his unsympathetic, recovering alcoholic father. Their blossoming relationship brings Danny out of his shell, awakening both his passion for art and burgeoning gay sexuality. Watercolors is framed by scenes of Danny as an adult. He's a successful artist, but his boyfriend is bothered that he can't seem to get over his high school first love. He argues that a live person can't compete with a glorified memory, showing that the lasting memory of a first love is potentially toxic. ===== It's a regular day at Gulmohar Complex. Spunky, independent, 72-year-old Naani is on her way back home from her daily morning walk. Suddenly her eye catches the face of a little girl peeping nervously from a 3rd floor window. The flat belongs to a newly arrived childless couple called Yadavs. The girl hides away quickly. Naani's intrigue about the little girl leads her to a possible murder. Naani finds herself in the middle of a mystery where some people will come to her aid, some will be indifferent and some will prove to be dangerous. When the CID dismisses Naani's story due to lack of hard evidence, she transforms into a detective. She uses her home-spun common-sense and logic and she carries out her investigation in classic "whodunit" style. Of course, Naani's rather eccentric methods of investigation lead to many quirky and humorous incidents. Her unusual team of deputies consists of her two inquisitive little grandchildren Anjali and Nakul, her divorced daughter Priya Sinha and a couple of teenagers Rohan and Neeti. The search for one lost little girl leads Naani & Co. to a racket where the stakes are high, the criminals are ruthless, and their leader is powerful. Once Naani gets too close to their trail, she endangers herself. She finds herself sharing the same plight as the little girl she had seen in the window. Naani's team of amateur detectives get together and finally win the day with a little help from the CID.At the heart of this story is the terrified, kidnapped little girl. Her plight acts as a reminder to the audience that Naani's mission was a race against time. And yet, this adventure has a positive effect on all the characters that get involved. Bridges are built, relationships blossom, lessons are learnt. The two squabbling teenagers fall in love, there is a whiff of a romance between Naani's divorced daughter and the dashing CID Inspector. Old Mr. Pal finds a renewed energy and interest in life. And of course, a lost 4-year-old little girl Neelima Daamle is finally re-united with her mother. The Yadavs are sent to jail for the crime of human trafficking. ===== Vober Hat is a story situated in the village of Vobhodia and the play follows the story of two brothers, Harem Kha and Marem Kha, who have cut off all ties for 25 years over a trivial incident. These two brothers have not talked or looked at each other for 25 years and so instead they both use their own workers to talk to each other. (Nata is the worker for Marem Kha and Adidludin is the worker for Harem Kha.) Harem Kha (the younger brother) and his wife Angoori have two daughters, Goina and Ayna. Goina and Ayna are both college students, but as the elder sister, Goina has failed her final exams one after the other for two years. To stop Goina from failing any more, Harem Kha hires his relative Fisa to tutor his two daughters, plus Khushboo who also attends their College. Fisa is widely known around the whole village for being a Champion Tutor, but, only for females. So Fisa soon enough falls in deep love with Goina, but the third student, Khushboo falls even deeper for Fisa, very secretly. Marem Kha (the older brother) has two sons, Bhashan Kha and Ashan Kha. Marem Kha was married, but his wife had passed when his two sons were young. Bhashan Kha is the older brother out of the two siblings, and is the only person in the whole village of Vobhodia to ever go to University. Roomali is the younger sister of Marem Kha and Harem Kha, but she lives at Marem Kha's house. Roomali's Husband had left Roomali and ran away and never returned, but Roomali is not forgetting her husband to easily and she often goes out aimlessly looking for him. However, the two brothers' offspring seek a family reunion and Bhashan Kha falls in love with the elder sister, Goina and Ashan Kha falls for the younger sister, Ayna. Harem Kha and Marem Kha find out that something is happening between their kids and are both determined to split them using threats, rules and even spying on each other's children. There are another two important houses in this story, which is coachar Mama's house and Carbala Kaka's house. The greatly respected coachar Mama is the local football coach and once coached the two brothers Marem Kha and Harem Kha. coachar Mama lives with his elder Son, Toofa, his younger daughter, Khushboo and his brother-in-law Shada Miya. coachar Mama was also married but his wife died after giving birth to Khushboo. Tofa's is important character of this drama. He is a Music Teacher and he also only teaches females. So following Fisa, Tofa falls in love with Goyna's younger sibling Ayna. But here too there is a love triangle. Carbala Kaka's daughter Nokshi is deeply in love with Tofa. Neighbouring coachar Mama's house is indeed Carbala Kaka's house. Carbala Kaka's house consists of his sister, Gole, his two young children, Dola and Kala and his older daughter, Nokshi, who also attends the same college as Goyna. And again, Carbala Kaka's wife died many years ago. The story goes on slowly like this but one man interrupts the story and turns it upside down. Into the story two important new characters enter, and they are Dhobola and "Jotish" Baba Huzur. Dhobola is a sweet young girl who lives in the nearby village with her close friend Mahela. She is also a student and is studying for her final exams therefore a tutor would help her. Fiza is the only tutor, so he accepts Dhobola's plea, which ends up being a demand. As like many of the women in the village, Dhobola falls for Fiza, causing even more tension for Fiza. The "Jotish" is known as the 'Fortune teller'. He is believed to have supernatural powers of controlling the Sun and the Moon which help him to gain the hearts of the people of Vobhodia. But the people of Vobhodia are unaware of what kind of evil Jotish Baba is planning. ===== The show revolved around librarian Henry Nunn (played by Bailey), who lived with his wife Sybil in Datchet, Berkshire. He is henpecked by his wife, who seems only interested in sitting in front of the TV, and whose face is never seen on screen, only being represented by a waving arm (belonging to Pamela Manson). The frustrated Henry then receives on the day of his 60th birthday an inheritance from his late Uncle Crispin of a neat sum of money, and, even better, ownership of the house where he was born and spent his glorious youth, situated in Stackley, a fictitious Black Country town. So Henry quits his job and makes the move northwards. Unfortunately for him, when he arrives at Stackley he will find himself immediately at odds with his neighbours: Tom (played by Hargreaves), a 'red under the bed' union shop steward and his wife Doreen (played by Rayworth); and Mumtaz (played by Sawalha), the Asian owner of the corner shop and who has a fondness for curry. Even worse, his house is squatted by Alex (played by Fulford), a green-haired punk. The essence of the show was the lack of communication between the Henry and the other characters, and it was serialised, each episode following off from the previous one. ===== Steve Daggett (Cameron Mitchell) fights to protect Fidel Castro from dangerous pro-Batista counterrevolutionaries. Steve comes to Cuba to find his friend Hank Miller (Logan Field) who has been missing for a while. It turns out that he has been captured by Fernando (Eduardo Noriega), the leader of the pro- Batista forces, who needs Hank to convert their airplanes into bombers. Steve's former girlfriend Monica (Allison Hayes) is now Mrs. Hank Miller. 'Pier 5, Havana' is not the only American drama filmed in Cuba after the revolution. Cuban Rebel Girls and Our Man in Havana were also shot on location in the island post-revolution. ===== Sudhi (Mohanlal) is a poor auto-rickshaw driver who meets Meenakshi (Rekha), granddaughter of a well-to-do family. Sudhi and Meenakshi fall in love but face strong opposition from her family, their only support being her grandfather, Krishna Pillai (Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair). ===== A group of radicalised young British Muslim men aspire to be suicide bombers. They are Omar (Riz Ahmed), who is deeply critical of Western society and interventionism; his dim-witted cousin Waj (Kayvan Novak); Barry (Nigel Lindsay), a bad-tempered and extremely rash white convert to Islam; and the naive Faisal (Adeel Akhtar), who tries to train crows to be used as bombers. While Omar and Waj travel to an al Qaeda-affiliated training camp in Pakistan, Barry recruits a reluctant fifth member, Hassan (Arsher Ali). The training trip ends in disaster when Omar attempts to shoot down an American drone and accidentally destroys part of the camp; the pair are forced to flee. However, Omar uses the experience to assert authority on his return to Britain. Omar and Waj don't trust Hassan when they first meet him at the airport, but Omar reluctantly chooses to allow him to join the group instead of murdering him to stop him exposing the plan. The group disagrees about what the target should be. Barry wants to bomb a local mosque as a false flag operation to "radicalise the moderates", but Omar considers this idiotic. Faisal suggests blowing up a branch of the pharmacy chain Boots because it sells contraceptives and tampons, but Omar states it is a not a worthwhile target. Omar's conservative but pacifist brother visits him and tries to talk him out of doing anything violent; however, Omar and his wife mock him for keeping his wife in a small room and squirt him with water pistols, making him flee. After the group begins production of the explosives TATP, Hassan is left alone to watch the safehouse as Barry takes Waj and Faisal out to a field for a test- detonation of a small amount of TATP contained in Omar's microwave, using a nearby fireworks show to cover the sound. Omar berates Barry for doing this in his absence, and because Barry was supposed to stay behind at the safehouse since he's likely being watched by the police. Omar and Barry are still arguing as the group returns to the safehouse, but are interrupted when they find Hassan dancing with an oblivious neighbour (Julia Davis). The group suspects they have been compromised and transport their volatile explosives to a new location in grocery bags. Faisal trips up while crossing a field and is killed in the explosion. This angers Omar, who berates the others and leaves. Faisal's head is found and Omar visits the others to tell them. They reconcile, and Omar decides to target the upcoming London Marathon due to having access to mascot costumes, which they use to conceal the explosives. Meanwhile, armed police raid Omar's brother's house. The group drive to London in their costumes and prepare to attack. Waj expresses doubts about the morality of their plot, but Omar convinces him to go through with it. A police officer approaches the group, but is satisfied and leaves after a brief conversation. Hassan loses his nerve and tries to alert the officer, but is killed when Barry detonates his bomb remotely. The remaining three panic and run away, and the police start searching for them. Omar has a change of heart, feeling guilt about manipulating the easily led Waj into dying for a cause he doesn't understand and attempts to prevent the attack. Police snipers receive Omar's description and shoot at him as he attempts to blend in with the runners, but mistakenly kill a bystander in a similar costume instead. Waj is cornered by police in a kebab shop and takes the staff hostage. Omar contacts Waj from his mobile phone and convinces him to let all but one of the hostages go. Barry finds Omar during the phonecall, snatches the phone and swallows the SIM card, however, as Barry begins to choke, a well-meaning passer-by attempts to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, forcing Omar to flee before Barry's explosives are inadvertently detonated. Omar hurries to a nearby mobile phone store to buy a new SIM card to contact Waj, but leaves empty handed due to the frustratingly slow employees and convoluted signup process. Omar spots a colleague (Craig Parkinson) and borrows his phone. He attempts to talk Waj down, but his call is interrupted when the police charge in and kill the remaining hostage whom they mistake for Waj. Confused, Waj detonates his bomb, killing everyone in the kebab shop. Distraught, Omar walks into a nearby Boots pharmacy and detonates his bomb. In an epilogue, it is revealed that the police later arrested Omar's innocent brother as a terrorist; that they deflect responsibility for shooting the hostage and bystander; and that Omar unknowingly killed Osama Bin Laden when misfiring his rocket in Pakistan. ===== Kumar(Rajkumar) is a range forest officer who goes to the Nagarhole National forest to protect the natural resources. His main rival is the poacher Anand (Vishnuvardhan) who unknown to him has been kidnapped and raised by Raja Venkatappa Nayaka (Balakrishna) to exact revenge on his father. In the final scenes, Anand gets hold of Kumar's mother and asks him to not interfere or that he will set fire to the forest. But Kumar shoots Anand, fatally injuring him in the chest. Venkatappa then comes in climax and reveals that Anand is Kumar's younger brother and he had done this to take revenge on his family. He tries to kill Kumar, but Anand kills venkatappa and dies on the lap of his mother. ===== The film opens with a 'Manthravadi' (Thilakan) an evil magician (Mahadevan) to obey to his commands and make spiriting away a friendly ghost money through crime. Meanwhile, a group of kids and their benefactors are held hostage in a circus camp by the baddies, who has taken over the show. Ancy (Kavya Madhavan) is coming back from London, to take charge of the circus company founded by her father Philipose (Janardhanan), who was found murdered. On reaching there, she is told that her father was stabbed to death by a bike-jumper named Jimmy (Mammootty). In fact Jimmy, his foster father Krishnan (Innocent), aide Sisupalan (Suraj Venjarammood) and a gang of street children were all invited by Philipose to join his circus group. Meanwhile, the ghost (Mammootty, in his other role) appears, becomes friendly with the kids and takes a more stylish shape of Jimmy. Thanks to the ghost, Ancy realizes that Jimmy was innocent in the whole issue. Now the battle between the good and evil. The climax is found with Kora and his sidekicks being caught by the police and the 'Manthravaadi' being turned into a hippopotamus. ===== Calle Luna, Calle Sol is a telenovela contrasting folk and urban culture. It shows two completely different realities: that of the rich and the poor, and what differentiates the two groups. In both neighborhoods, major developments speak for themselves and their realities are moved each of the characters. In the story, Maria Esperanza is a young, humble, studious, and hardworking young woman who has suffered from poverty due to the irresponsibility of her father, who comes and goes from her house. Even in the midst of these circumstances, she grew up with strong values, dedicated to making something of herself. However, her plans could be disrupted by her emotional struggles. Despite this turmoil, Maria Esperanza will fight to keep the love of his family and overcome her emotional trials and tribulations. The story began four years after the embarrassing incident that happened to Maria Esperanza, after which Manuel returned to England to study administration. Manuel then comes back in order to take over the family business, Furniture Mastronardi, while building a relationship with Gabriela, who would be his lifelong girlfriend. The tragic past of Maria Esperanza knows when to remove Manuel Augusto, who represents the renewal of their broken dreams, because they arise from a sincere love, full of hopes. ===== Teenager Barbara Vining (Glynis Johns) has an unrequited crush on her Latin-language teacher, Stephen Barlow (Leo Genn). When Barlow's wife Kay (Gene Tierney) finds out, she confronts Barbara, who is humiliated and runs off. Stephen chases after her near a river to try to calm her down. Barbara does not return home to her parents Henry (Walter Fitzgerald) and Vi (Megs Jenkins) for three days. During that time Stephen is accused by the community, without any evidence, of causing her death, causing him to lose his job and almost his marriage. Barbara's gossipy spinster Aunt Evelyn (Pamela Brown), who lives with the family, makes the situation worse with her innuendo. ===== Starting in 1951, Faye Price is a famous Hollywood actress who, while entertaining the troops during the Korean War, falls in love with Ward Thayer, a rich heir. Seven years later, they are married, with four children. Ward loses his job and considers suicide, but Faye offers to start acting again. Originally, this upsets Ward, because he was not fond of moving to Fairfax, California. On the set of her new movie, the director and producer fight each other and the director eventually leaves the set. Faye offers to direct the scene herself. At first, nobody thinks she will be able to, but she turns out to direct the scene with a lot of success. She is soon offered directing jobs at television series, including Zane Grey Theater. Meanwhile, her home life is less fortunate. Ward has been depressed since going bankrupt and he has started an affair. When Faye finds out, she immediately kicks him out of the house. However, she soon agrees to give him another chance and they decide to work together on films as director and producer. Their film debut becomes a blockbuster success with positive reviews and she is contracted by Universal. Years later, their children have grown up. Lionel is a student, hoping to be a photographer one day, Greg is still in school and wants to become a football player, Valerie is an actress waiting for her big break and Anne is the quiet youngest sister. Greg admits his grades aren't good enough and that he dropped out of school to join the army. Lionel shocks his parents by admitting he is gay. Faye is surprised, but accepts the news. Ward, however, is outraged and cuts him out of his life, with forbidding his other children to ever contact him again. Anne is furious and decides to run away. Faye is devastated, but can't afford to quit her job and look for her. Soon, Greg announces he will serve for the army in Vietnam. The entire family comes together to say goodbye, but Ward refuses to speak to Lionel. Later, Faye receives a phone call from the police, informing her that Anne has been arrested for drug possession. Faye picks her up and is shocked to find out she is pregnant. Ward convinces her to try to make her give up her child. Anne is in tears after giving birth, but reluctantly agrees to give up the baby for adoption. Tragedy reaches the Thayer family when it is announces that Greg died in Da Nang, only a few days before peace was declared. At the funeral, Ward finally acknowledges his now only son Lionel, but still has trouble accepting that he is gay. Meanwhile, Faye is nominated for an Oscar. Valerie is jealous of her mother's success and they get into a fight when she announces she dropped out of UCLA for the lead role in a cheap horror film, for which she is required to go nude. The Oscar nomination takes all of Faye's time. This makes Anne feel very neglected and she starts to hang out at her friend's place a lot. During this time, she bonds with the father of this family, Bill O'Hara. Faye finally decides to forgive Ward and they reunite. Soon, the Thayer family deal with a second tragedy, when Lionel and his boyfriend John get into a car accident. Lionel survives, but John dies. He has trouble dealing with his loss and spends all his time working as a photographer. Later, Anne upsets her parents by admitting she is dating the much older Bill. Ward is furious and confronts Bill with the fact he is seeing a 17-year-old girl. However, Anne and Bill are still determined to marry and it doesn't take long before she gets pregnant again. Meanwhile, Valerie finally gets her big break, when she is given the second lead role in her mother's newest film project. The lead player, George Waterson, at first treats her badly, because he thinks she is a horrible actress. However, she eventually wins his heart and they start a secret relationship. Lionel finds love as well, with Paul Steel, a drug addicted actor who was recently fired. In the end, the movie directed by Faye and starring Valerie becomes a great success and Val enjoys her overnight stardom. Later, Anne gives birth to a son. The labor and baby reminds her of her first pregnancy and she blames her mother for having given up her first baby. Ten years later, Val makes Anne realize that Faye was actually a great mother, but didn't have a lot of time. Anne tries to apologize, but she is too afraid. Suddenly, Faye dies. Anne feels guilty for not having apologized, but Ward assures her that Faye knew how much she loved her. ===== A punch-drunk boxer is set up as an easy win for an up-and-coming young boxer in this melodrama. The highlight of the film is the performance of Steve Buscemi as the oily, mob- connected fight promoter Nicky. Eddie (Brad Davis) is the addle-brained boxer Nicky hangs out to dry for quick money. ===== The film is a scathing indictment of California's controversial Three-strikes law. It follows a vagabond named Zeke, who is a low-level marijuana dealer in Isla Vista, the college town bordering the University of California at Santa Barbara. Zeke takes a bad felony plea deal at the opening of the film, in part due to a poor public defender's advice. This comes back to haunt him later in the film when he is wrongfully accused of assaulting some frat kids, when they jump him and he is forced to defend himself. When he is arrested soon after as part of an undercover ongoing narcotics sting, he comes face-to-face with a mandatory 25 to life sentence. ===== Micheline (Micheline Presle), a young woman from the provinces, arrives in Paris to prepare for her marriage to a silk manufacturer from Lyon, Daniel Rousseau (Jean Chevrier). But she falls in love with the best friend of her husband-to-be, the fashion designer Philippe Clarence (Raymond Rouleau). He is an impenitent Don Juan who seduces her when he feels the need for some creative inspiration and then drops her just as quickly when he comes to devote himself to a new collection. Micheline no longer feels she can go ahead and get married. A few weeks later Clarence tries to reconquer her but it is too late. She refuses. Clarence goes mad and throws himself from a window. ===== The film touches on race relations, incest, drugs, and growing up gay in the American South. A recent New York City transplant, Sequan Greene (Derrick L. Middleton) has been sent to live in Alabama after the recent death of his mother. He is brutally raped by his cousin Michael Wilis (Cameron Mitchell Mason). It becomes clear that Michael also is gay - a victim as well as a victimizer. He says, "I can’t be a faggot ...You’re the faggot. You’re my faggot." Sequan is also bullied and beaten up at school. Sequan soon finds a friend in Lori Anderson (Elizabeth Dennis), the girlfriend of drug dealer/basketball player Ahmed Robins (Duane McLaughlin). Lori is the town's "bad girl" who has a heart of gold. Although she freebases, snorts coke throughout the school day, steals guns and sleeps with the town basketball star, she is immediately taken by admiration of Sequan and his brazen nonconformity. Despite Sequan's unwillingness, Lori manages to befriend him, bringing him out of his shell and eventually introducing him to both moonshine and her gay brother, Jake (Aidan Schultz-Meyer). ===== During the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched a secret operation against the United States, detonating a nuclear bomb on the ocean floor and creating a volcano that would take decades to rise to the surface. Now, two hundred miles off Hawaii, an island is forming-an island that holds unimaginable wealthe and power for those who control it. As the fight to claim the island rages from the halls of power to the depths of the ocean, Philip Mercer must wage a battle against both man and nature to bring the world back from the edge of destruction. ===== ===== Ten years ago, the spy satellite Medusa burned upon re-entry- but not before its sensors revealed a secret buried deep in the Earth hidden for thousands of years from the eyes of humanity. A priceless discovery that some would die to find - and kill to possess... With uncanny talent as a geologist and a quick intelligence matched by savvy and courage, Phillip Mercer is fast becoming a legend in powerful circles around the world. And at least two groups in those circles need his help. When one of them snatches and holds his oldest friend, Mercer is forced to act by the kidnappers...whose allegiance is a mystery, but whose viciousness is not. In a harsh and hostile land ravaged by violence, Mercer races to find the one thing that will save his friend. But the location of this ancient treasure is elusive. He is thwarted by brutal competing forces and, suddenly, he learns that there is much more at stake then either his life or the life of an old friend: the fate of thousands of innocent souls depends on him and him alone... ===== ===== The Reception is a drama set in wintry upstate New York. Hoping to cash in on an inheritance, Sierra (Margaret Burkwit) and her husband Andrew (Darien Sills-Evans) arrive at her mother's Jeannette's home only to discover resentful Jeannette (played by Pamela Holden Stewart) and her companion, the African-American artist Martin (Wayne Lamont Sims). Because the gay Martin is unable to satisfy her sexually, Jeannette takes to embarrassing him whenever she's drunk, yet Martin takes the abuse in strides. Jeannette's daughter Sierra arrives as grandmother's fortune is hers to have once she is married. The newly-weds plan to stay just long enough to run away with the money. However, Jeannette throws a spanner in the works when she announces an impromptu wedding reception. ===== Following his audition, Jack (Sean Hayes) receives a callback and is informed that he has become a finalist for the Manhattan Gay Men's Chorus. At the final auditions for the chorus, Jack is informed by the choral director that he will have a solo, but before he can sing it, Owen (Matt Damon)--originally intended for the solo part--barges in and sings his part. Jack sees Owen as a competition and thinks of a way to get rid of him. He learns that Owen is posing as a gay man, after observing his gaze at a woman. Jack strikes a plan to get Owen to confess he is straight, in which he invites him to "rehearse" in Will and Grace's apartment. Jack's plan fails miserably, so he enlists the help of Grace (Debra Messing) to "in" Owen for him. Grace begins flirting with Owen, which ultimately leads to the two making out, prompting Jack to barge in and take a picture. Owen, however, tricks him into pulling the film out of the camera, destroying the proof. At the chorus rehearsal, Jack and Owen begin bickering, which results in Jack revealing to everyone that Owen is straight, to which Owen admits. Despite the revelation, the chorus director (Patrick Kerr) tells Owen he has made it into the chorus. Meanwhile, Will (Eric McCormack) accepts Karen's (Megan Mullally) invitation as her date, due to her husband being in prison, to her annual Valentine's Day party. It is there that Karen passes off Will as her "gigolo," after her rival Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan) teases her for being alone. Word gets around that Will is "working" for Karen for the weekend, which prompts many women asking for Will's "services". Much to his dismay, Will believes he, a lawyer, is accepting legal clients. Karen finally reveals to Will that she has been telling everyone he is her gigolo. Will becomes outraged at the revelation and leaves. At the party, Beverley makes fun of Karen because she has no partner for the annual spotlight dance. Will, however, returns and dances with Karen. ===== The novel focuses around Don Halifax and his wife of sixty years, Sarah, an astronomer who translated the first transmission sent from an extraterrestrial source to Earth 38 years prior to the opening of the story. Sarah, now 87, is tasked to decode the second message sent from the unknown alien race - if she can live long enough to do so. A wealthy industrial billionaire, Cody McGavin, offers to put up billions of dollars to perform a "rollback" on not only Sarah, but her husband of 60 years, Don. This process, which reverts a person's body to a much younger state, is successfully performed on Don, but fails to work with Sarah. This leaves Sarah gradually creeping toward death while Don's life begins anew. Much of the story focuses on Don as he discovers the advantages and disadvantages of being young again, with periodic flashbacks to when Sarah translated the first alien message. ===== During World War II, at a secret Nazi submarine base, containers crafted entirely from looted wartime gold were hidden away. The treasure was not the solid-gold chests, but the cargo they carried - an artifact so lethal that whoever possessed "Pandora's Boxes" held the power to unleash hell upon earth.... In the unforgiving wastes of Greenland, geologist Philip Mercer uncovers a long - abandoned U.S. Army base buried under the ice - and a long-dead body still hot with radiation. Before Mercer and his colleague, the seductive Dr. Anika Klein, can investigate further, a flash fire engulfs the base, and they are ordered to evacuate. But their plane is forced to land when a bomb is discovered on board, and they must seek shelter from the murderous weather in a hidden ice cavern. That's where they learn the startling truth. A powerful German corporation has launched an operation to destroy evidence of its Nazi past. But one of the corporate mercenaries knows what's inside the Pandora's boxes, and he plans to hold the entire world hostage - unless Mercer can find a way to stop him.... ===== The Office of Dependency Benefits, O.D.B., is a U.S. government agency in charge of payment and financial support to women who have husbands serving in World War II. Even after the war, the office still handles all these issues. The story picks up when Colonel Pete Martin from the Army Intelligence is assigned to investigate a series of incorrect claims for support that has been discovered at the O.D.B. Among other things, there is evidence that some women have married multiple times to get more money. Pete's job is to find these fraudulent women and bring them to justice. Pete goes undercover and pretends to be a newspaper reporter, which used to be his occupation before the war. He begins his investigations on the West Coast, keeping an eye on the suspected women. He observes a suspicious young woman named Helen Keefe (Elizabeth Wright) give cash to an equally suspicious- looking man, George Shields, and after that, she is introduced to another young man. Pete immediately orders their arrest. At the restaurant, a businesswoman named Sheila Seymour introduces herself to Pete. She claims to be the owner of an upscale beauty salon and running a canteen for servicemen. Pete is unaware that she also is the head of the racketeering business and in charge of all the allotment frauds. To her aid, she has three men: Whitey Colton, Louis Moranto, and Deacon Sam. Since Pete discovered a case of ongoing fraud in the restaurant, Sheila is furious with her associates, and fires Moranto for not doing his job properly. Whitey is sent to tail Pete and keep track of his investigation. Whitey follows Pete to the O.D.B. offices, and confirms that he is an investigator. Pete continues to pretend being a reporter, and goes to Sheila's canteen. He meets her, and they agree to meet the next day for an interview as background to one of the article he pretends to write. He is still unaware of Sheila's involvement in the racket. Sheila sees her daughter, Connie, in a bar with two soldiers, and becomes upset with her behavior. Sheila tells Connie that she has to stay in school for two more months, after which they will go to South America together with Whitey. Sheila's plan is to quit the racketeering business by then. But problem arises as Spike Malone, one of Moranto's former goons, and his girlfriend Gladys Smith try to get into the racketeering business. They follow Sheila to her home and see her daughter Connie. It turns out Gladys recognizes Sheila, because she used to go to reform school with her. Pete sees signs of the racketeering business when he visits the canteen, and the next time he meets Sheila, he warns her about the illegal business going on at her place of business. Gladys starts working Sheila by sending her blackmail letters. Sheila puts Whitey on catching the blackmailer and handing her over to the police. She succeeds, and Gladys ends up in jail, where she meets Helen and finds out that Sheila is, in fact, running the whole allotment racketeering business. After telling Gladys, Helen commits suicide in jail. Gladys is soon released from jail, and decides to get her revenge in Sheila through her daughter. Gladys and Spike arrange a string of wild parties, and get Connie to attend them. Then, they sneak into Sheila's home and threaten her with a gun, asking for a large sum of money in exchange for Connie. Sheila manages to alert Whitey about her situation, and he and his men arrive to the rescue. A gunfight ensues, and Spike is shot and runs off, injured. Sheila manages to kill Gladys. After all the wild partying, Connie is taken into custody by Pete, and since he isn't aware that Sheila is the girl's mother, he asks her to help him with Connie, as a role model the girl can look up to. Sheila again uses Whitey, and sends him off to break Connie out from captivity. He manages to do that, but is shot and wounded in doing so. In the meantime, Pete has tracked Spike, and finds out that he is involved with Sheila somehow. Sheila and Connie pack to go to Mexico together, but Sheila goes to take care of Pete before they leave. Connie is sent ahead for Mexico with her other reliable associate Deacon, but they are stopped. Sheila attempts to kill Pete, but she is herself killed by one of his men. Pete decides to let Connie run, and turns in his report to the O.B.D, suggesting they forget about the girl's background.Film synopsis, tcm.com; accessed March 11, 2014. ===== The story opens with an older narrator recounting a great adventure. He is left alone in a cabin in the wilderness by himself for a few days. He goes for a hike and ends up chasing a flying castle he sees in the sky until he is abducted by "a lot of people". He awakens to find himself at the mouth of a cave by the sea. He is greeted by a fortune teller who calls him Able of the High Heart and turns his walking stick into a bow. He soon after discovers his chivalrous destiny and embarks on a quest to travel this strange new land. Category:American fantasy novels Category:2004 American novels Category:2004 fantasy novels Category:Tor Books books ===== Hearing that her husband is dead, Sandra Marshall arrives at his prominent family's remote estate to claim her inheritance. She receives a cold reception, especially from the husband's uncle, research scientist Mark Caldwell, who had not known about her. He even accuses her of being a schemer. But he allows her to stay in the mansion while details are worked out. Caldwell's teenage niece, Julie, welcomes Sandra. But what the girl says is troubling. She claims her uncle is holding her prisoner on the property, that strange things are going on in a sealed-off area of the mansion, and that the older family members and their servants may not be telling the truth about the recent death. Though Caldwell insists that Julie simply has an overactive imagination, Sandra begins to wonder what to believe and whom to trust. She wants to find out for herself. ===== A local charity has raised sixteen hundred dollars and entrusted the boys with it. They are then robbed of the cash by two men dressed as sailors. Believing them to be real sailors, and in order to catch them, they enlist in the Navy under fake names. They spend a year at sea, but cannot locate the thieves. However, Sach is able to win two thousand dollars gambling and the boys return to the Bowery. It is there that they are robbed by the same two men, but with the Navy captain helping, they are able to capture the crooks. They return to the navy office to receive their commendations, but are mistakenly re-enlisted! ===== The film focuses on Mappila bullock cart driver Khader (Mammootty), a retired corporal and World War I veteran, and Unni Krishnan (Suresh Gopi), a hardline nationalist revolutionary from a family of upper-caste Hindu landlords. Both men join the brigade of Variyan Kunnathu Kunjahammad Haji (T. G. Ravi), one of the prominent leaders of the 1921 Uprising. The plot gradually introduces a variety of characters, representing the South Malabar society of the 1920s. The film also touches various social dilemmas which led to the 1921 Uprising, the atrocities committed by the British army and the rebels during the events and the eventual collapse of the rebel unity and organisation. ===== Khadilkar was a part of plot that envisioned the invasion of India by the only indedendent Hindu King of a part of India: The king of Nepal. This invasion was to spark an uprising within the country in his support, so that India would be one sovereign Hindu state under the King of Nepal. Tilak's trusted lieutenants Vasukaka Joshi and Khadilkar, entered Nepal, "where they set up a tile factory, as a respectale front for an arms and munitions plant designed to supply to the invading Nepalese army." A Maharashtrian school teacher Mataji, introduced the two to the King of Nepal. They received a contract to retile the palace roof. They were joined by Hanmantrao Kulkarni of Jabalpur and Ketkar from Gwalior. The King of Nepal was influenced to send Nepalese students to Japan for technical training. Joshi went to Japan and the United States. The German arms manufacturing machinery never arrived. The plot never "even approached fruition". ===== Bay of Souls begins in the vein of James Dickey's Deliverance (1970), with the novel's central character Michael Ahearn,and his cronies hunting in the wilds of Minnesota. But Michael's attempts at Hemingwayesque role-playing are limited by his daydreaming, he brings a gun only to justify his presence out in the woods. While Michael waits in a deer stand, a strange hunter despairingly stumbles by, trying to haul a large buck on a pitifully inadequate wheelbarrow. Michael takes pleasure in the other man's humiliation, but the experience proves prophetic of several burdens assumed during the novel and the difficulty characters will have sustaining them. For instance, soon after the hunting incident, Michael's son Paul almost dies from exposure after searching for his dog in the snow. Then Michael's wife, Kristin, breaks her leg trying to carry her son home. After this trauma, Michael finds his relations with his wife deteriorating, and so he turns to the attentions of Lara Purcell, a professor of political science.The Atlantic Monthly 291 (May, 2003): 123. A femme fatale with an interest in Caribbean voodoo, Lara leads Michael into high-stakes adultery, which includes erotic play with a gun and cocaine use. She has a murky background involving Soviet espionage and links to South American organized crime. Her devil-may-care attitude toward danger seduces Michael into trying to live out the literary vitalism that he has been studying in his literature class.Commonweal 130, no. 16 (September 26, 2003): 22-23. Bay of Souls combines elements of these novels when Michael sleeps with Lara without Kristin's knowledge and then welcomes an opportunity to visit Lara's native island, St. Trinity, which is embroiled in its own civil war. When Lara asks, "Are you mine in the ranks of death?" Michael quickly assents. She can supply the kick and the danger missing from his life as a professor and a family man.Booklist 99, no. 11 (February 17, 2003): 956. Ostensibly, Lara must return to St. Trinity to sell off her stake in the Bay of Saints Hotel but also, given the voodoo religion practiced on the island, she has to preside over the transference of her deceased brother's soul from Guinee, a kind of underwater purgatory, to a place of honor. Additionally, Lara claims she needs to get her soul back because her brother's spirit gave it to a voodoo figure named Marinette, an older female spirit who lives under the sea. This semi-serious religious subtext calls into question all of Lara's motivations. Even though Michael does not fully admit it to himself, he knows that if Lara does not have a soul, then all of her seductive powers come from hidden agents that may have a whole different agenda than the one that Lara professes to have. As he reflects, if she does not have a soul, "then everything between us would be illusion."The Economist 367, 8328 (June 14, 2003): 83. While Lara has no problem moving between midwestern academia and Third World intrigue, Michael has difficulty putting his theories into action. Once he arrives in St. Trinity separate from Lara (they have to take different flights), Michael encounters a chaotic world of voodoo drums, warring military camps, CIA intervention, and drug running. Carrying what seems to be drugs and emeralds in three canisters, a small airplane crashes into the ocean, and Lara is partially responsible to the Colombian militia for this loss. She arrives suddenly in Michael's hotel room, has sex with him, and then asks him to undertake a night dive to retrieve the containers. He agrees, thinking, "Without physical courage . . . there is no moral courage." He gets together some scuba diving gear, boats out past a moonlit reef, and then plunges down into one of the deepest parts of the Atlantic Ocean.Kirkus Reviews 71 (January 1, 2003): 24. Once Michael dives into the water, he finds it almost pleasant to become "a different animal in a different element." He thinks of how he has gotten tired of an academic's constant introspection, certainly a hazard of academic fiction as well. There is color and drama in his attempt to retrieve the packages from a plane overturned deep in the ocean. He has to beware of the plane shifting and locking him inside. He also has to watch his air supply, and the freakish sight of the pilot's bloated body being eaten by all manner of fishes testifies to the "ghastliness inherent in material existence." Here Stone uses horror effects reminiscent of Peter Benchley's Jaws (1974), but he ties it thematically to Lara's attempts to get her brother's soul back from the depths of the ocean. Michael almost suffocates on his ascent from the plane, and he drops one of the more valuable packages, but he makes it back up—just to face a Colombian militia mystified and angered by his involvement. In a temple nearby, Lara dances in a trance during voodoo rites for her brother. Michael confronts Hilda, the tough-talking militia leader upset over the loss of the drugs, and the novel abruptly shifts into a nighttime drum-filled dreamscape, wherein Michael encounters the voodoo spirit Marinette, who takes on aspects of a succubus embracing him, and a male figure named Baron Samedi who pushes a wheelbarrow loaded down with a goat. Both of the spirits mock Michael's desire to know what is going on. In his delirium, he hears someone whisper, "If I were you . . . I should save my life," and soon he finds himself running from everyone, including Lara, in the darkness, and flies back to Fort Salines and his suspicious wife.Library Journal 128, no. 5 (March 15, 2003): 117. In the end, Bay of Souls is an economical read with a strong conclusion, but it lacks the weight of detail of Stone's other novels, leaving a slimness in characterization in places and a sense of compilation-style recycling of the author's favorite themes and situations. While it lacks the gravitas of Damascus Gate, there is still a surprising and satisfactory sense of judgment at the end that ties together the thematic strands of the rest of the novel.Publishers Weekly 250, no. 7 (February 17, 2003): 55. While St. Trinity ultimately takes on a perverse aura as its rulers look to exploit the island paradise for tourism, Michael finds his hometown lifestyle transformed upon his return. Kristin discovers two boarding passes with Lara and Michael's names on them in his luggage. She divorces Michael and accepts the attentions of Norman, a fellow academic, in his stead. Michael is reduced to living on campus. He feels guilt not only for the deserved loss of his family but also for his abandonment of Lara, who, it turns out, not only survived her trance amid the Colombian militiamen but also became St. Trinity's ambassador to France.The New York Times Book Review 152 (April 6, 2003): 9. Michael's ultimate crime is that he loses his nerve. He attempts to go to "the ranks of death" with Lara, and he succeeds underwater, but he does not want to confront the voodoo underworld of the island. In a sense, he playacts at facing danger just as he playacted at hunting earlier in the novel. During his dreamlike encounter with Lara in the last scene of the novel, Michael accuses her of sending him to hell, but his problem is much more an internal failing that ends up coloring everything around him. He drops the burden of the possibility of a higher spiritual knowledge, and he is left with nothing as a result. He tries to have it both ways, both risking his soul and saving his life, and the compromise places him in a kind of limbo—"a life suspended on the quivering air." The Times Literary Supplement, August 1, 2003, p. 21. In the process, Stone hints at a metaphysical understanding that is both darker and deeper than Michael apprehends, but for all Michael's lack of knowledge, judgment is still swift and fierce. ===== In order to enjoy his retirement from the fire department, a father named Tom Cathkart (Danny DeVito) takes drastic measures to get his twenty-something, slacker sons to move out and fend for themselves. They continue to try to make their own film company, called Cathkart productions. Tom eventually gets sick of his sons slacking off and he leaves them alone while he takes his wife Mary Cathkart (Katey Sagal) and all the food with him, leaving his sons to no option but to take care of responsibilities in and around the house. They decide to open their own bed and breakfast and they let their friends to stay at the house for money. Eliot (Ryan Hansen) falls in love with Sarah (Caitlin Crosby) and his brother Quinn (Skyler Stone) gets jealous of his success with the film company. Eliot then leaves and his brother finds it hard to manage without him. ===== ===== A young woman, Maggie (Angela Sarafyan), is on the run from her abusive father. David (Jesse Garcia) is an illegal immigrant working as a dishwasher while searching for his mother in Los Angeles. The two meet and fall in love. ===== The doctor and alchemist Zenon Ligre returns to his country of origin Flanders using false documentation, after spending his life traveling around Europe. In his hometown of Bruges, he finds work as a doctor in the convent of the Cordeliers. After founding a clinic and spa, he sets out to work as a doctor and alchemist for the poor. Zeno's ideology and methods were very popular among the Flemish population, but they ran the risk of being condemned by the Inquisition because they deviated from official orthodoxy. Having engaged in bisexual relations for several years, Zeno is accused of having homosexual relations with a young friar. Long sought after by authorities for his subversive writings, Zeno is arrested. He is tried by a court of the Inquisition and accused of witchcraft, murder, and unnatural relations. Rather than be burned at the stake, he prefers to choose his own death. ===== This is the fictional story of Mary Rose, a girl who vanishes twice. As a child, Mary Rose was taken by her father to a remote Scottish island. While she is briefly out of her father's sight, Mary Rose vanishes. The entire island is searched exhaustively. Twenty-one days later, Mary Rose reappears as mysteriously as she disappeared…but she shows no effects of having been gone for three weeks, and she has no knowledge of any gap or missing time. Years later, as a young wife and mother, the adult Mary Rose persuades her husband to take her to the same island. Again she vanishes: this time for a period of decades. When she is found again, she is not a single day older and has no awareness of the passage of time. In the interim, her son has grown to adulthood and is now physically older than his mother. ===== Kevin Wolfe is a socially awkward photographer who takes headshots for aspiring models and actresses. He asks them out for dinner or a movie. Most say no to him or are no shows at the date. Beautiful Adrienne surprises him and asks him out. After the date they have sex and the next morning he takes a single picture of her sleeping. Kevin wants a second date but she has no interest. She ignores his many text messages but does meet him for lunch to pick up her photos. She makes sure he knows there will be no relationship. Kevin uses Adrienne's photo for promotion purposes. Jamie works for Kevin and does the make-up for his clients. She loves her boss but he never sees her interest. Jamie has a gay best friend Derek. The three go on a camping weekend and Derek tells Kevin that Jamie really loves him. In reality she is obsessed in love. Tanner rents a flat in the same loft as Kevin's studio. Tanner like porno photos of women and Kevin wants to capture the woman's smile and personality in his photos. Adrienne's sister comes to Kevin's studio looking for Adrienne who has disappeared. Kevin assures her he has no information to help. She dropped him after one date. Kevin does get a date with Beth. She wants to go slow and rejects his sexual advance even after he assures her of his love. After the rejection, Kevin takes Jamie out on a bowling date. Kevin gets drunk, Jamie expresses all her love for him, and the boss and employee have sex. The next day Jamie comes to work and finds Beth in the studio that Kevin had killed. He needed to forget another woman. Loyal Jamie says she will take care of the dead Beth for him. In fact out of jealousy, Jamie admits she had killed Adrienne and other women that Kevin dated. Kevin tells Jamie he needs to take her picture. Jamie assures him his secrets of forgotten women are safe with her. They agree that she will need to die and he helps her take sleeping pills and drowns her in a bathtub. Throughout the movie in flashback, Kevin is haunted by the drowning of his childhood sister, Nicole. After Jamie's death, Kevin admits that as a child he let his sister drown and in fact he enjoyed it. He reflects on film that his sister's drowning is probably why he now kills as an adult. ===== Highly skilled engineer Jan Rudinski (Janez Vrhovec) comes to a mining town to install new heavy equipment. While in a barber shop, he asks his pretty blonde hairdresser Rajka (Milena Dravic) if she knows where he can get a room for a few weeks. She does, in her parents' home, where she also lives. She soon starts flirting with her much older lodger, while also fending off the advances of a handsome young truck driver (Boris Dvornik). In an unrelated subplot, mine worker Barbulovic (Stole Aranđelović) gets into one mess after another. He is arrested for starting a bar brawl in which the singer, Fatima, is stabbed. He is released after a few days, and complains to his manager about his docked pay, to no avail. When his wife (Eva Ras) returns home from a visit, she discovers that three of her dresses are missing. She accuses him of giving them to his mistress. When she sees the other woman wearing one of them at the market, she attacks her rival. They are taken to the police station, but let go with some advice. With her parents away for several days, Rajka invites Jan to sleep with her. The middle-aged man hesitates, concerned about the age difference between them, but soon gives in. They are happy together. When she expresses concern that his work is nearly over and he will be leaving soon, he tells her he will take her with him. Rajka's parents return and learn what has been going on, whereupon they berate the couple. Jan is asked to complete his work several days ahead of schedule so the plant can be part of a big export deal. When he drives his crew to finish the job as requested, a government representative from Belgrade comes to present him with a medal for his long exemplary service. Jan is puzzled when Rajka does not show up at a concert and banquet in his honor. She, it turns out, has succumbed to the charms of the truck driver. Jan asks her afterward if she has another lover. When she is evasive, he asks how old his rival is; she answers 20 or 22, but claims it does not matter to their relationship. This does not appease his anger, and she flees. ===== Gena the Crocodile finds out that Cheburashka is unable to read. Luckily, the next day is September 1, the first day of school, and Gena decides to take Cheburashka to school so he can learn. After failing to buy a school uniform, they go to the school anyway, only to find it is closed for repair. Shapoklyak uses Lariska to stimulate the workers to repair the school quickly. As the school also doesn't have enough teachers, Gena and Shapoklyak volunteer to be teachers. ===== This story takes place in North High School, where Stacy Collins is a shy 16-year-old high school student who has secretly been in love with Bobby Tennison for two years. She is surprised when he starts to show a romantic interest in her, considering he is a senior wrestler, and the most popular guy in school. They soon start dating, and find out that both of their fathers had abandoned them. She is upset that her mother, Laura, is dating a man named Rod who treats her very badly, and Stacy often urges her to leave him and treat herself better. After a few weeks of dating, Bobby starts showing possessive behavior. He is jealous whenever another guy approaches or talks about Stacy, and doesn't want her to hang out with anyone when they are together. At first, she doesn't suspect that there is anything wrong, because he immediately apologizes after getting mad at her and tells her that he loves her and gives her gifts to show his remorse. Stacy soon promises to him that they will be together forever. She also agrees not to hang out with other people anymore even if he is not around. At school, boys start to notice her after her best friend, Nicki, convinces her to wear a mid-thigh length skirt for Bobby. In the boys' locker room, one of the boys gives her a compliment, which outrages him. After this, he furiously tells her she looks like a slut and demands that she wear proper clothes and forces her to change the skirt in the bathroom and into a pair of his track pants. She tries to explain that she was only dressing up for him, but he becomes more furious before throwing and slamming her into the wall. Back at home, Laura worries that Stacy is spending too much time with him, but she assures her that he loves her and vice versa. Meanwhile, Nicki and her friend, Val Cho, also grow concerned about Stacy’s relationship with him. Nicki soon learns from her cousin, Donna Fowler, that he has a history of being physically abusive and his last girlfriend moved away because of it. Her worry grows when she notices that Stacy has several unexplained bruises on her body. She talks to her about what she heard, but Stacy, frustrated, assures her that she can take care of herself. By accident, Stacy meets Bobby's mother; He catches them talking to each other and becomes furious and violent. Upset, she refuses to see him again, and later takes it out on Laura, calling her irresponsible. Bobby later wins Stacy’s trust back by telling her about the alcoholism that runs in his family. His father was an abusive alcoholic and she couldn't leave him. His father left on his own. They are happy for a while, but trouble begins again when he sees her talking to another boy at the school dance. He pulls her outside into the parking lot and slaps her, all of which is witnessed by Nicki and her boyfriend, Tony, who are nearby. Nicki quickly confronts Stacy about how badly Bobby is treating her, but she defends him, saying he's been through a lot. When Nicki flat out says that he doesn't love her, she angrily says, "Then you don't know what love is!" before taking off with him in his car. After Nicki helps her see the truth, she accepts that he isn't treating her right and ends their relationship. When he doesn't take the break-up well, she offers for them to just be friends, but they are soon estranged when he hears that she was talking to another boy at a birthday party and slaps her again despite them no longer dating. Later that night, Bobby, accompanied by an acquaintance, Vince Fortner, convinces Stacy to get into his car for a ride. He drives to the lake and walks off with her to be alone. The next day, it is reported that she is missing. Most people guess that she hitchhiked and was murdered, but Laura suspects that Bobby has something to do with it especially after she finds Stacy's purse in his room. Nicki is also convinced that he is responsible for her disappearance and asks Carla, a witness on the night that she disappeared, for information. Her reluctance to tell what happened frustrates Nicki. Accompanied by Laura, Nicki goes to the police, informing Laura and Detective Anderson about how abusive Stacy's relationship with Bobby was. Carla eventually talks to them as well, admitting that Bobby and Vince took Stacy to the lake. Bobby and Vince are arrested and Bobby blames Stacy's disappearance on Vince. When confronted by this lie, Vince admits that Bobby was the one last seen with her, and later reveals that when he came back alone, he said that "if he can't have her, no one's gonna." Vince is free to go, since he told Detective Anderson the truth, that he didn't know if Bobby killed Stacy. Detective Anderson is then convinced Bobby did so when she ended their relationship and refused to get back together. When he confronts him, he realizes he is cornered and shortly admits that he slit her throat when she refused to get back together with him and then disposed of her body in the lake. Stacy's body is soon found in the lake, wrapped in a trash bag with duct tape, and tied down with cinder blocks. Laura and Nicki grieve together. A court trial soon follows with the district attorney asking everyone if they ever saw Bobby hit Stacy. Carla says she did, but that it was because Stacy wouldn't listen to him. Donna and other classmates also admit that they witnessed the abuse, but figured she would leave him eventually. Val, Vince, Nicki, and Tony expose the abusive ways that Bobby treated Stacy, with Nicki saying how she desperately wanted to oust him, but was afraid of losing Stacy's friendship if she were to say what he was doing to her. He is eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge tells the witnesses to tell someone next time they see a friend being abused instead of standing by and doing nothing, implying how it could have saved Stacy from getting killed. Later, a distraught Nicki cleans out Stacy's locker and cries as she looks at the pictures of them, remembering their friendship and guiltily wishing that she had acted sooner to have saved her. The film ends with Nicki and Tony leaving a bouquet of roses on the sand at the lake in memory of Stacy. ===== The film is set in the year 1914. Having received a large military order, the administration of the St. Petersburg metallurgical plant "Krutilov and Son" is attracting new workers. However at the plant a strike is looming under the influence of a powerful strike movement of the Baku oil workers'. The engineer, son of the factory owner, tries to bribe the former farmer Pyotr and make him the leader of the newly arrived workers. In this case the engineer is actively helped by the master. Pyotr takes part in the assassination of activist-worker Vasili. As a result of the circumstances the hero is forced to bring home the wounded Bolshevik. Once in the environment of striking workers Pyotr enters into their ranks and engages in class struggle. ===== Bob Weston (Tony Curtis) works for STOP, a scandal magazine whose owner and staff are proud of being regarded as the filthiest rag in America. One of Bob's colleagues has just written an article about Dr. Helen Gurley Brown (Natalie Wood), a young psychologist and author of the best-selling book Sex and the Single Girl, a self-help guide with advice to single women on how to deal with men. The article raises doubts on her experience with sex and relationships. Helen is very offended, having lost six appointments with patients due to the article discrediting her as a "23-year-old virgin." Bob wants to follow up by interviewing her, but she refuses. Bob's friend and neighbor, stocking manufacturer Frank Broderick (Henry Fonda), is having marriage issues with his strong-willed wife Sylvia (Lauren Bacall), but can't find the time to go to a counselor. Therefore, Bob decides to impersonate Frank and go to Helen as a patient, with the goal of getting close to her in order to gather more information. Meanwhile, he'll report back to Frank on her advice. During their first couple of sessions, Bob acts shy and smitten, and tries to gently seduce Helen. She seems to respond to Bob's courteous advances, all while insisting that it's a transfer and that she'll play the role of Sylvia to the benefit of his therapy. After he fakes a suicide attempt, the two of them end up making out in her apartment, with Bob realizing he's actually falling for Helen, which is the reason he still has not written anything about her, prompting an ultimatum from his boss. Helen panics at the idea that she's in turn falling for a married man, and upon suggestion from her mother, she meets Sylvia and tells her to go back to work at Frank's office, where the two of them first met and could stand together against Frank's business rivals. Sylvia had initially rejected that suggestion coming from Frank (who had heard it from Bob), but she ultimately decides to follow the advice, thus reconciling with her husband. A terminally lovestruck Bob forces another meeting with Helen and tries to convince her his marriage isn't legal, but Helen insists on hearing it from his wife and secretly asks her to come to her office. In the meantime, Bob asks his girlfriend, night club singer Gretchen (Fran Jeffries), to pose as his wife (or rather, Frank Broderick's wife), and when she cancels at the last minute because of an audition, he asks his secretary Susan (Leslie Parrish) to go instead. Without telling him, Gretchen decides to forgo her audition, so she also shows up at Helen's office. Witnessing three different women claiming to be Mrs. Broderick, Helen gets extremely confused, while a furious Sylvia calls the police on Frank, who is then arrested for bigamy. Helen comes to visit Sylvia with fellow psychiatrist Rudy DeMeyer (Mel Ferrer), who has had a crush ever since the article intimated she might be a virgin. In trying to convince Sylvia to pardon Frank, she finally finds out the man who's been coming to her studio was not Frank Broderick at all, but rather STOP Magazine's managing editor Bob Weston. Shocked, she asks Rudy to take her to Fiji. In the meantime, Bob refuses to let the magazine publish anything about Helen, and is consequently fired. In a frantic final act, Helen and Rudy are driving to the airport, while Frank, after being released, has not understood that Sylvia has learned the truth, and so has decided to quit everything and run off to Hawaii with Gretchen; at the same time, Bob is chasing after Helen, and Sylvia is chasing after Frank. During the chase, while constantly changing places on the two cars and two cabs involved, and while eluding a zealous cop's attempts at stopping them, the three couples clarify their feelings for each other, and at the airport, Frank and Sylvia reconcile and depart for Fiji, Rudy and Gretchen console themselves with a trip together to Hawaii, and Helen forgives Bob, who has already found a new job with DIRT magazine, and the two of them fly to Vegas to marry. ===== Through his Atmospheric Research Institute, Robert Terrell (Treat Williams) has finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of completing "weather creation" technology, which has been a landmark event. However, during a test run, a team composed of Dr. Jonathan Kirk, Carly Meyers and Dr. Jack Hoffman send a blast of energy into the ionosphere, driving the planet into unexpected natural disasters. The experiment also causes a damage of the weather control laboratory which causes the police led by the detective Devon Williams to begin the investigation. Dr. Jonathan Kirk (James Van Der Beek) is the only one to intervene and demand that the system be destroyed, but Terrell denies his requests, pushing his team forward. As a result, Dr. Kirk contacts news reporter Danni Wilson (Teri Polo) to help him expose the secrecy and lies — which turns out to be Terrell working with Army General Braxton (David James Elliott) to use the technology as a key military weapon instead of for philanthropic reasons, as initially claimed — of Terrell and the events that are unfolding. General Braxton, however, has ordered hit men to murder Dr. Kirk as he works his way to shut down the technology and save humanity. The hit men murder Danni first and make it look like she was killed by Dr. Kirk so he is immediately considered a prime suspect and arrested. However, Det. Williams begins to doubt that he is the murderer. To show the importance of the discovery to General Braxton, Terrell orders the team to create a huge storm in Afghanistan which disables the Afghan rebels. But another blast of energy to the ionosphere only makes the situation worse and a strong hurricane appears over the Pacific, heading to Peru. The team then manages to redirect the hurricane away from the coast but then several hurricanes start to endanger the U.S. mainland, the largest being headed to Los Angeles. After escaping the hit men again Dr. Kirk is captured by Stillman from the military intelligence who knows many things about the weather experiment. He shows Dr. Kirk the hole in the ionosphere which is the cause of the extreme weather around the world and offers him a help to develop a method to reverse the damage of the ionosphere. After Dr. Kirk succeeds Stillman admits he was a bait set by Terrell to get Dr. Kirk back and tries to shoot him but he defeats Stillman and calls Det. Williams to join him during the visit of the lab. The hit men appear again and begin shooting at them but are killed by Det. Williams in the shootout. As the Pentagon cancels the funding of the research for causing uncontrollable weather changes General Braxton pushes Terrell to stop the violent weather by all means necessary but the research team has no idea how to settle the things without making it worse. Facing the imminent catastrophe, Terrell stops pushing the team, allowing them to do whatever they want. Dr. Kirk arrives in time to apply his method to fix the hole in the ionosphere. The action is successful but Terrell who sees the solution for the problem changes his mind and aims a gun at the team. He is then shot by Det. Williams and General Braxton is arrested for causing a global danger but commits a suicide. ===== In Paris in 1880, Georges Duroy, an ex-soldier working as a poorly paid clerk, encounters his former comrade-in-arms, sickly journalist Charles Forestier. Rachel, already rebuffed once by Georges, sits down at their cafe table. After Georges rudely dismisses her, Charles tells him the quickest way to better himself in Paris is by using his charms on women. Charles then suggests he seek a vacancy at his newspaper, La Vie Française, despite having no writing experience. Georges then takes Charles' advice and goes to Rachel. He meets widow Clotilde de Marelle at a dinner party hosted by Charles and his wife. Charles' publisher is also a guest; he asks Georges for a sample article by the next day. Georges has great difficulty organizing his work, so he asks Charles for assistance the next morning. Charles sends him to see his wife Madeleine, as he has trained her. She helps him land the job. She also suggests he call on her friend Clotilde. He takes Clotilde dancing at a raucous nightspot. The singer there sings "Bel Ami", which is about a scoundrel. Clotilde calls Georges Bel Ami; he promises to live up (or down) to that name. While they are out one night, Rachel spots them and makes a scene. Afterward, Clotilde writes Georges a letter in which she confesses she loves him so much that there is nothing she cannot forgive him. At work, Charles states he has trained Georges to be his successor; his health is deteriorating. Georges tells Madeleine that he has fallen a little in love with her. She wants only to remain his friend. Georges then tells her of his idea: to write a gossip column, filled with innuendo and rumors. Madeleine thinks this is a magnificent plan. Georges gains another admirer in Suzanne Walter, the 16-year-old daughter of his employer, and an enemy, the politician Laroche-Mathieu. Clotilde informs him that the wealthy, good Jacques Rival has proposed to her, but that she wants to marry him. He tells her that he must either conquer Paris or be conquered. He states his heart tells him that he could be happy with her, but he has not listened to it "in a long time." After Charles dies, Georges proposes to Madeleine. She accepts, but insists it be a marriage of equals. The column is a great success. Georges becomes powerful, and Madeleine presides over an influential salon. Georges juggles not only the affections of Madeleine and Clotilde, but also those of Madame Walter, a woman of impeccable, virtuous reputation. Georges soon distances himself from her, as she proves to be madly, indiscreetly smitten. She gives him some news. Her husband and Laroche- Mathieu have fed him false information; the government is about to seize Morocco, contrary to what he has written in his column. The schemers will benefit financially from their manipulation of him. The Walters invite the Duroys to their home to a viewing of a celebrated and costly painting. Suzanne, now a sought-after heiress, is delighted to see him. Seeing Madeleine and Laroche-Mathieu conversing at the gathering gives Georges an idea. Laroche-Mathieu is attracted to Madeleine, so he asks her to lead the foreign minister on to gain information and ensure that he does not deceive Georges again, at least that is what he tells her. He then uses this as grounds for divorce, so he can marry Suzanne. Her father is outraged, and her mother aghast. Upon further consideration, however, and for his daughter's happiness, he gives his consent. This is too much for Clotilde to stand. According to French law, a person can appropriate a noble name if there are no known survivors. Georges does just that. Madame Walter, however, locates Philippe de Cantel, the last descendant, though too late. He challenges Georges to a duel, two weeks before his marriage. Before the duel, Georges professes to Clotilde that there are only two people he loves: her and her young daughter. Clotilde goes to the Walters to try to stop the duel, but the two men fatally shoot each other. Just before he dies, Georges regrets not being happy with Clotilde. ===== The film revolves around the making of the Vogue September 2007 issue. (The September Vogue is traditionally the biggest, most important issue of the year.) It depicts the effort that goes into making the magazine, and the passion that Grace Coddington, a former model turned creative director and the only person who dares to stand up to Anna Wintour, has for the highly regarded fashion magazine. In the film, Coddington is often portrayed as the leading victim to Wintour's aggressive personality. The relationship between Wintour and Coddington reveals itself to be symbiotic, as Wintour recognizes Coddington's expertise and keen eye for design. In the end, Wintour approves most of Coddington's ideas and they appear in the final version of the September issue. ===== Max Gordon is participating in an X-Treme sports challenge, where he witnesses the final moments of a mysterious Basque monk, who screams a cryptic clue before plummeting to his death. The clue is a prophecy that predicts an ecological catastrophe that will kill millions around Europe. When he is blamed for the monk's death, Max and his best friend Sayid follow the clues and discover betrayal and murder around every turn before meeting the man behind it all: the insane billionaire Tishenko. ===== At the house of her friend, Effy Stonem (Kaya Scodelario), Pandora (Lisa Backwell) tells Effy's mother, Anthea (Morwenna Banks), that she misses Thomas, who recently returned to his country of origin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Later, Effy's father, Jim (Harry Enfield), discovers his wife's infidelity when his boss, Steve (David Baddiel), arrives at the house, declaring his love for Anthea. Effy grows miserable after Jim leaves the family, and Pandora, desperate for some fun, throws a pyjama party. Effy and Katie Fitch (Megan Prescott) arrive with Pandora at her house for the party and meet her neurotic mother, Angela (Sally Phillips). Disappointed by the lack of boys, drugs and alcohol because of Angela's strict supervision, Katie spikes the brownies that they make with MDMA. As Naomi Campbell (Lily Loveless) and Katie's twin sister, Emily (Kathryn Prescott), arrive together, Naomi urges Emily to admit that she is gay, but Emily denies it. All of the girls indulge in the brownies and Pandora is unhappy to see her mother's behaviour grow increasingly erratic. After Angela is carried into a bedroom to sleep, Pandora locks herself in the bathroom, upset about Thomas's departure and angry with Effy, who she believes spiked the brownies. Outside, Cook and JJ Jones (Ollie Barbieri) try to sneak into the girls' party. Cook enters the house through a window, but accidentally locks himself inside a wardrobe. After calling his friend, Freddie Mclair (Luke Pasqualino), for help, JJ goes into the house by himself and sees Emily and Naomi kissing. Katie, too, witnesses the pair kissing, but is interrupted when her footballer boyfriend, Danny Guillermo (Henry Garrett), and dozens of his friends arrive at the house to crash the party. Hiding from the rest of the party, Effy finds Cook, and they have sex in the wardrobe. They fall through the wall into the next room and find a DVD which shows Angela having sex with her older neighbour, Martin (James Fleet). Freddie comes to take JJ home and confronts Effy about leaving Pandora for Cook. As he leaves, so does Effy. By the time Pandora comes out of the bathroom, Cook is the only person left at the house. Together they play Twister, which was all Pandora had wanted to do, along with learning from her friends about human sexuality. Cook offers to have sex with her, and they spend the night together. Effy visits Pandora the next morning, and sees Cook share a kiss with her as he leaves. Feeling hurt, she confronts Pandora, but to no avail, as Pandora is slightly empowered after losing her virginity. Pandora defiantly tells Effy that Cook, due to his promiscuity and impulsive, carnal behavior, belongs to no one. Effy appears to understand, and makes no rebuttal. Suddenly, Thomas appears and runs up to Pandora, and she sobs in his arms as a thoughtful Effy looks on. ===== JJ Merrick (Ritchie) is narrating the story of Daisy Cockram who is about to be "devoured by the venus flytrap of fame" after winning tickets to attend a première when she meets a leading professional footballer who seduces her. Shortly afterwards they are discovered having sexual intercourse in the back of a car by a police patrol officer and taken in. This is particularly embarrassing for Daisy as she is herself a police officer - and she is fast suspended from duty for bringing the force into disrepute. The tabloid newspapers speedily track Daisy down using various underhand methods and she is soon splashed across the front pages of the media, with many lurid and exaggerated details about her life. It is at this point that she approached by JJ Merrick, who offers to represent her and help her out. She is hoping he will be able to hold the press off, so that she can appeal against her dismissal from the police, but he insists that is impossible once the media has scented blood. Instead he impresses on her the need to get her side of the story across. He sets up a major deal with a Sunday Newspaper, and arranges a photo-shoot where a number of glamour shots are taken with Daisy taking provocative poses. At first she is withdrawn and uncomfortable, but soon relaxes and proves to be a natural in front of the camera. As Merrick had predicted, the kiss-and-tell article proves a major success, launching Daisy into the spotlight. However it leads to an angry row with her father, a senior police officer, who considers her "a slut" and is hurt at how her behaviour has undermined people's respect for him. Her sister is not as angry as father, but she is also made unhappy by the new public persona of Daisy. Daisy is distressed by her family's reaction, but it does not change her interest in pursuing a new career as a celebrity. Her management by JJ Merrick helps her to scale new heights in the celebrity world, where her freshness help propel her upwards. JJ has become increasingly cynical about his profession, yet he manages to successfully bury his misgivings and has moved to the top of his game. He revels in his own invisibility, he is unknown to the public at large which gives him enormous power. He visits her a year later remarking "if a week is a long time in politics, a year is a lifetime in showbuisness". He is paying a visit to Daisy who has now changed completely beyond recognition. She has moved from her dingy tower-block flat to a large country mansion, has had numerous plastic surgery operations and is now dating a leading soap actor. Daisy now has a seemingly "perfect life", in which she has become a sexual icon - an idol for many teenage girls, lots of money and a large personal staff. She has ambitions to launch a singing career as well. She is able to pick up large fees just for turning up for public appearances. However the first cracks begin to appear in her life - pictures of her having sex are being sold to the newspapers, she has not had an invite to her sister’s wedding and she is finally pictured snorting cocaine. This provokes a howl of condemnation of her from the media, led by a hatchet-job article written by a leading left-wing journalist from the leading broadsheets. On the advice of Merrick, she stages an overdose and then goes to a private hospital to recover. As Merrick had intended this stokes public interest and gains her a deal of sympathy. However shortly afterwards a rival appears on the scene who steals the show from Daisy. Kaitlin now has a fresh face, and natural breasts, and she is fast elbowing Daisy aside. Merrick knowing that celebrity is merely a carousel promptly signs up Kaitlin and makes her his new protégé - effectively abandoning Daisy. He tells her she has had a good run, made several million pounds with no discernible talent - and should get out of showbuisness while she still could with some sort of humanity left inside. Instead of Daisy taking his advice, she instead stages an orgy with the soap actor and releases it to the press, in a last attempt to claw back some public interest, showing as Merrick had observed that she has become totally addicted to celebrity. ===== Poor New York shop girl Nadina (Anna Neagle) receives unexpected news of an inheritance, and learns she is next in line to be queen of an Eastern European country. On her arrival in Ruritania, a revolution is in progress, and only minutes before her coronation, Nadina is forced into exile. She flees to Paris with her nurse (Muriel Aked), and then travels on to Switzerland. There Nadina encounters the Ruritanian revolutionary leader Carl (Fernand Gravey), recuperating from the trials of revolution, and the couple unexpectedly fall in love. When the revolution collapses in Ruritania, they return and marry, thus forming a constitutional monarchy supported by all the people. ===== As Europe reels amidst the Second World War, Eva faces immense tragedy as she struggles for love and her own survival.Cannes Film Festival listings Screen International. Retrieved on 23 August 2010 ===== Vianne Rocher, now with two daughters, Anouk and Rosette, has forsaken magic and adventure for a monotonous life running a small chocolaterie in the Montmartre district of Paris. Vianne is now known as the widow Yanne Charbonneauer and Anouk is now Annie. Concealing her magical nature, she feels she is doing the right thing, but she is dissatisfied: there is friction with Anouk; money is short; there is pressure from her landlord, Thierry le Tresset, and she no longer has the inclination to make hand-made, quality chocolate. Anouk is an unhappy adolescent. She is bullied at school and made to feel an outcast. She dislikes living in Paris and her situation seems hopeless and set to get worse. Zozie de l'Alba comes into their lives, bringing her magic and enchantment. She seems to be exactly what Vianne herself used to be: a benevolent force and a free spirit, helping people wherever she goes. But Zozie is a thief of identities, maybe even a collector of souls. She has her eye on Vianne's life, and begins to insinuate herself into the family. She is soon working at the chocolaterie, helping and understanding everyone as Vianne used to do. She helps Anouk to deal with the bullies who torment her at school. The shop begins to prosper under her guidance, much to Thierry's displeasure. When Roux, ignorant that he is Rosette's father, arrives at their shop, Zozie helps Vianne to decide between a stable life with Thierry and a romance with the man she loves. But as Vianne's life begins to improve little by little under Zozie's influence, it becomes clear that all this must come at a terrible price. Finally, Vianne is forced to confront Zozie on her own ground, to reclaim her magic and her identity and to fight back - but is it too late? ===== After nine years of farming and away from the battlefield, Mukhtar returns to politics when Hasan ibn Ali is injured in his battle with Muawiyah's forces. Years later, Mukhtar arrives in Kufa to prepare for Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alīs arrival. On Yazid's orders, Ibn Ziyad arrives and unites the people of Kufa against Husayn by using lies. Mukhtar is imprisoned to prevent the riot. He is released after the battle of Karbala on Yazid's orders. Mukhtar vows to avenge Husayn's death. Needing allies, he travels to Mecca and meets Ibn Zubayr. Mukhtar helps Ibn Zubayr's brother, Mus'ab, defeat an Umayyad assault; but no alliance is made. Mukhtar returns to Kufa and unites the people now that Ibn Ziyad has returned to Damascus and Kufa is leaderless. Mukhtar expels Ibn Zubayr's appointed governor and takes control of the city. During the next years he kills almost all of Husayn's murderers, including Ibn Ziyad, Umar and Shimr, while battling both Umayyad caliph and Ibn Zubayr's armies. Eventually he is defeated by Mus'ab's army and retreats to his palace in Kufa. After one year, Mukhtar orders his forces to march and break the siege; but only few follow him outside. Mukhtar is killed and Mus'ab surprisingly orders all of Mukhtar's soldiers who have surrendered to be decapitated. mokhtar ===== Fourteen-year-old Kajika Burnsworth, daughter of powerful industrialist Harry Burnsworth, has spent the first part of her life living on an island in the Caribbean with a snow leopard named Mustafa. She is finally sent off to school in Japan, but is called away to her father's home in New York very soon after. While there, Kajika gets talked into the "marriage game" by her father. In this game, she has to meet and choose a possible future husband out of three males that her father has supposedly handpicked. He does not, however, tell her details regarding their identities and leaves it to Kajika to discover the bachelors on her own. According to the rules, if she picks one of the three men, Harry will tell Kajika her true destiny. Her childhood friend, Li Ren Huang, is charged with helping her on her mission while protecting her as her guardian. As leader of the powerful Huang family, Li Ren is most qualified for the task, though whether Li Ren is comfortable with helping Kajika find a husband remains to be seen. She first meets Eugene Alexandre De Volkan, a beautiful man whom she calls Mustafa because of his uncanny resemblance to the now dead snow leopard she once loved. Second is Prince Rumaty Ivan of Raginei, though Kajika takes a while to decide whether Rumaty is, in fact, one of the men her father selected for her. The third bachelor Kajika meets is Carl Rosenthal of the Rosenthal family and corporation, a Burnsworth competitor. Carl's father hates Harry Burnsworth, to the point where he becomes obsessed with discrediting him. Carl, on the other hand, finds room to be more forgiving, especially with the developing friendship between himself and the gentle, understanding Kajika Burnsworth. All three men are unique in their own ways and Kajika ends up liking each of them very much. As such, she does her best to make all of them a part of her life. Meanwhile, nearly a year after meeting Prince Rumaty, his country plummets into political turmoil and the King dies. Prince Rumaty is blamed for the King's death, despite his presence in another country during the event and he is banned from returning Raginei under the threat of death. Harry Burnsworth shelters Rumaty, leaving him in the care of Li Leng, who becomes somewhat of a tutor of diplomacy to him. The Prince grows up during his two years at the Burnsworth estate and eventually makes his move to re-enter the country and bring things back under control. Kajika, Li Ren, Eugene, and Carl Rosenthal get caught up in the country's troubles and all four of them are trapped within its borders when chaos breaks out. Li Ren is injured during a coup d'état battle at the airport and he and Kajika are both sheltered by a Rumaty-supporting faction led by Isaac Noei, once a high- ranking officer in the Royal guard. No one is safe from danger. Officials are murdered, elite families are arrested, priests are framed, and even Noei's hideout is raided. Two pivotal events occur in Raginei that bring the story to climax. It is during the events in Raginei that Kajika realizes which man she loves most. Also, by the time Prince Rumaty reaches Raginei, Kajika's destiny is revealed to her and the "marriage game" is thus over. ===== When strong-willed, high-class call girl Claudia Draper is indicted for manslaughter in the first degree after killing a client in self- defense, her mother Rose and stepfather Arthur attempt to have her declared mentally incompetent, which would prevent a trial and cause Claudia to be institutionalized. Public defender Aaron Levinsky is assigned to her case, but Claudia is angry and distrustful of everybody, and she resists his help, disrupting both her examinations by psychiatrist Herbert Rosenthal and her court hearings. As findings progress, new insights into Claudia's entire life experience, including sexual abuse by her stepfather, begin to surface. ===== Catalina Santana (Carmen Villalobos), a 17 years girl in Pereira, Colombia, is willing to risk everything in order to escape the poverty she lives in and fulfill her dreams - even if this means putting her life and her integrity in jeopardy. Her mother Hilda (Catherine Siachoque), a lovely hard-working woman with no resources to provide her children with luxuries, expends boundless energy in her efforts to push both her children, Catalina and her brother Bayron (Juan Diego Sánchez) to prosper. In spite of their mother's efforts, Bayron and Catalina's situation is filled with poverty and need. Catalina is beautiful, but is not as voluptuous as her friends who render sexual services as "pre- paid girls" to powerful men in the drug trafficking world. Jéssica "La Diabla" (María Fernanda Yépez), Catalina's best friend, entered this world with her own business as a "madame": recruiting, selecting, and leading groups of women for whom the drug traffickers pay in advance to receive sexual services, which she introduces to Catalina this culture, convincing her that this is the only way she has to get away from her poverty. Once inside, Catalina falls into the manipulative hands of Lorena (Aylín Mújica), Jéssica's Mexican equivalent, who together with Martinez, an important member of the Juarez Cartel, convinces inexperienced young women from Colombia to undergo breast surgery as a means of obtaining a better life in another country. What they don't know is that in reality he uses them as "mules", sending them to Mexico while smuggling heroin in their implants. Catalina, dazzled by a world of riches and a life full of luxuries, decides not to continue her relationship with her boyfriend Albeiro, a young man from her town who has very few ambitions, but loves her with all his heart. She decides to search for someone who can pay for or finance her surgery of silicon breast implants since, according to her belief, this will provide her the fame and wealth she longs for. In the end, Catalina begins to remember how hard her life has been since she became a pre-paid girl: having an illegal abortion after being raped by three men, facing struggles in order to get her breasts augmented and the loss of her breast implants due to medical complications, the death of her brother Bayron, finding out that her mother and Albeiro were having a romantic relationship behind her back which resulted in her mother becoming pregnant, and finally getting kicked out of her own house by her drug-dealer husband Marcial, after Jéssica betrayed her and told Marcial that Catalina had lied to him about trying to turn him into the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). After all she is left feeling lost, forgotten, betrayed and alone. All these events cause Catalina to lose the will to live, and she tries to commit suicide but does not find the courage to pull through, so she decides to seek revenge and kill Jéssica for betraying her by inviting her to a cafe and calling the hired killers, as she gives them the details to distinguish Jéssica among the other people. The killers do their job and kill Jéssica, by shooting her three times in the back, later to be shown that the girl killed is in fact, Catalina, who had a change of mind; instead of killing Yésica, she decided to plot her own assassination by disguising herself as Jéssica. Before being shot, Catalina wrote in the book she was holding, the line which gave the series its title, "It's a lie - without breasts there is no paradise." ===== The Country Cousin tells the story of a mouse from "Podunk" (an American English name denoting a place "in the middle of nowhere") coming to visit his relative in the city. The opening shot/title card is of the mouse in question, Abner, staring up at the city skyscrapers, with the sign directing him to Podunk facing the opposite way. He receives a telegram (titled a "Mouse-O-Gram") from his cousin, Monty, telling him to "Stop being a hick" and come live with him in the city. Without specifying the location of Abner or Monty, the film sets out to contrast the lifestyles of the archetypal country and city inhabitants. Abner is shown walking along a railroad towards the city, and when he arrives, the differences between the two become clear. Abner is wearing overalls and is portrayed as bumbling and oblivious to the dangers of the city, whilst Monty sports a top-hat and is acutely aware of the problems they face (as exemplified whenever he tells Abner to shush, which is also the only sign of dialogue here). Monty leads Abner to a meal that the human residents of the household have set out. The two mice begin by dining on cheese, but Abner lacks any sense of etiquette, and soon begins gorging himself on celery, cream, and mustard, the latter of which generates a reaction to the excessive heat. Cooling himself with Champagne, Abner finds himself partial to the taste, and becomes drunk, provoking the disdain of Monty. Abner begins seeing in double vision, and creates more noise by bringing down a pile of bread (causing the double visions of Monty to hide behind the real one). Abner then assesses his reflection (which, in his intoxicated state, he thinks is someone else) in a block of jelly . As he walks away, he slips on a piece of butter lying on a saucer. The saucer, spinning and flying across the table, catches Monty on the way, and breaks several pieces of dishware too. Monty is infuriated, and as the pair are now on the floor, he attempts to find a secluded spot, safe from the sleeping pet cat. The inebriated Abner, with a great sense of bravado, kicks the cat's behind, whilst his cousin rushes back to his home (and is never seen again from that point onwards). The cat bares its teeth at Abner, which only leads him to inspect the inside of its mouth, thus bringing Abner back to his senses. He is then chased by the cat, first receiving an electric shock by jumping inside a socket (the cat receives a shock as well), and then ending up on the city street when he jumps out of the window. Abner is faced with escaping from the footsteps of the people, a bike, an electric tram, and other vehicles. He finds himself at the city limits again, and flees back to his home town deciding that the city life just isn't for him. ===== Relatives and friends came to Lord Warbeck's family castle for Christmas. Suddenly, right during dinner, Robert Warbeck, the only son and heir of the old Lord, dies in front of the guests. Then Lord Warbeck himself. And then — one of the guests in the house ladies... Because of snow drifts to arrive at the police can not; the only police present — not an investigator, and the Minister's guard. Foreigner doctor Batfink — historian, invited by Lord Warbeck to work in his old library — is the only one who is able to understand what had happened. However, the investigation is very complicated by the fact that almost all those present are connected with each other by strange, not the most pleasant and sometimes very unexpected relationships… ===== Brad Sheridan (Milland) and Midge Sheridan (Tierney) cannot have children of their own. Midge and Brad decide to adopt and inquire at an adoption agency. Learning of an abandoned child left at the police station, Midge is determined to have the baby as her own, but Brad refuses to go along with Midge's plans until he can find out something about the child's parents, which then makes the boy an adoption risk. ===== Annie Garrett (Julie Benz) is a young woman who moves with her slacker husband Ross and their seven-year-old daughter Taylor (Gage Golightly) from Colorado to a ranch in northern California. After he fails to land a job as promised, Ross abandons Annie and Taylor. With nowhere to turn, and their horse to look after, Annie gets a job as a ranch hand and stable person at a stud farm owned by Mary Lou O'Brien (Marsha Mason), a stern woman who is dealing with her own past. Inspired by Mary Lou's encouragement, Annie decides to enter into a dressage competition with her horse she trained herself, Tolo. Unfortunately, Tolo becomes blind and Annie is injured. When she recovers she goes to compete on one of Mary Lou's horses, California Red, but due to an unexpected visit, the horse is unable to compete. In order to compete, she has to believe in herself and have faith in Tolo to win. ===== After soccer practice, eight-year-old aspiring filmmaker Brendon Small shows his mother Paula a self-made trailer for his upcoming film, The Dark Side of the Law, a crime film about a rogue police detective. Paula expresses indifference to the production. At breakfast the next morning, Paula informs Brendon she plans to go on a date that night with Brendon's soccer coach, John McGuirk, much to Brendon's chagrin. Brendon seeks advice from his friend Melissa and her father Erik, but they are unable to advise him as they are late for a violin recital. When McGuirk shows up at Brendon's house for the date that night, Brendon tries to scare him off by acting as if he is his son, but it proves unsuccessful. During the date, Paula becomes agitated at McGuirk's inappropriate, boring subject matter, and she becomes drunk in order to entertain herself. Meanwhile, Brendon, Melissa, and their friend Jason film a scene from The Dark Side of the Law in Brendon's basement, where Brendon's character is in a French prison, confronted by his mother, played by Melissa. They stop filming when Jason's nose starts running, and he demonstrates how he can move the mucus up and down to their disgust. At soccer practice the next day, Brendon—still upset with his mother's decision to date his coach—is uncooperative and chastises McGuirk for dating his mother, accusing him of desires to engage in a relationship with all the soccer players' mothers. While being driven home by Erik, Brendon asks Erik to fight McGuirk as revenge, but Erik denies his request and suggests he take his mind off the topic by playing a car game. Eventually, Brendon decides to apologize to McGuirk for his behavior, and the two reconcile. Later, McGuirk and Paula decide over the phone to end their relationship, a decision Brendon overhears using three-way calling. At the next soccer game, Brendon's team plays poorly, and an opposing player injures Brendon, which causes McGuirk to yell at the referee. While sitting out, Brendon spots Erik and Paula engaging in meaningless and casual flirtation in the bleachers, which Brendon interprets as another possible relationship. ===== Travis cares for his mentally disabled younger brother and works as a torturer for hire. He is also addicted to heroin; it is ketamine, however, that catapults him into the realm of a black-eyed demon called Morbius. Morbius informs Travis that his brother has been taken by another demonic troublemaker called Mister Skinny. Mister Skinny appears as a diaper-wearing fat caucasian butcher in a pig mask who first entices the boy to eviscerate his slumbering baby-sitter. If Travis helps Morbius exact vengeance then Morbius will allegedly help Travis find his dead brother. Morbius instructs Travis to find Hagen and extract an agreement to use him as a gateway to Hell. Travis does this by assuring the desperate Hagen that the process will allow Hagen to enter the next realm and possibly retrieve the soul of his decomposing lover. Travis proceeds to carve demonic symbols into Hagen's back and sends him straight into Hell, where he is gruesomely mutilated by a monstrous eyeless beast before ever setting out in search of his lover. Travis follows in search of his own brother and is disabled and dragged into the darkness by the hideous beast. Morbius is then shown as being the beast and being controlled by another entity who looks like a gray-skinned adult man in a gas mask. It is then discovered that Morbius was a mute who worked as a bartender and dabbled in the occult. Morbius' girlfriend Elizabeth ultimately grew bored with her relationship, working with her lover Hagen to poison Morbius. When Morbius fails to expire on schedule, however, Hagen inadvertently becomes a murderer by killing the mute with a folding chair after Morbius manages to choke the life out of his treacherous girlfriend. Morbius abruptly finds himself in Hell and facing the gas-masked entity, who reveals himself to be a visage of Elizabeth's unborn son. Morbius pleads for revenge and the entity agrees on the condition that Morbius will then belong to the entity, as the act of revenge will ensure that Morbius will be lost to the darkness forever. Morbius agrees, then collapses to the floor, where he slowly is shown becoming his demonic form, with paper white skin and hair, and solid black eyes. He then continues to transform further until eventual becoming the large mutilated demon, who was seen exacting its revenge against Hagen, and dragging Travis away. ===== Norman Felton who had previously co-produced The Man from U.N.C.L.E. came up with the idea of a World War II espionage series produced by his Arena Productions through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television for the CBS television network. The characters were perhaps inspired by the Jedburgh teams consisting of three agents, American Office of Strategic Services Army Captain Franklin Shepphard (Francks) expert in psychological warfare, Special Operations Executive Royal Navy Lieutenant Nicholas Gage (Leyton) expert in demolitions, and French Air Force Lt. Jean-Gaston Andre (Masé) skilled in small arms.p.180 Britton, Wesley Allen Spy Television 2004 Praegeer Each week the three performed a mission behind enemy lines using their skills in espionage and sabotage where they met a guest star. Eric Braeden, who would be one of the stars of the more successful World War II series The Rat Patrol (which began that same season), was one of the guest stars in the pilot. The Jericho theme was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, although Goldsmith did not score the pilot episode "Upbeat And Underground" (Lalo Schifrin composed the music for the pilot and a theme which was never used) - Goldsmith's theme came from his score for "A Jug Of Wine, A Loaf Of Bread And Pow!" The series was canceled after 16 episodes. It primarily failed as it was shown opposite ABC's popular Batman.http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/francks.html ===== In 1951, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea is assigned two new surgeons, "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Duke" Forrest, who arrive in a stolen Army Jeep. They are insubordinate, womanizing, mischievous rule-breakers, but they soon prove to be excellent combat surgeons. Other characters already stationed at the camp include bumbling commanding officer Henry Blake, his hyper-competent chief clerk Radar O'Reilly, dentist Walter "Painless Pole" Waldowski, the incompetent and pompous surgeon Frank Burns, and the contemplative Chaplain Father Mulcahy. The main characters in the camp divide into two factions. Irritated by Burns' religious fervor, Hawkeye and Duke get Blake to move him to another tent so newly arrived chest surgeon Trapper John McIntyre can move in. The three doctors (the "Swampmen", after the nickname for their tent) have little respect for military protocol, having been drafted into the Army, and are prone to pranks, womanizing, and heavy drinking. Burns is a straitlaced military officer who wants everything done efficiently and by the book, as is Margaret Houlihan, who has been assigned to the 4077th as head nurse. The two bond over their respect for regulations and start a secret romance. With help from Radar, the Swampmen sneak a microphone into a tent where the couple are making love and broadcast their passion over the camp's PA system, embarrassing them badly. The next morning, Hawkeye goads Burns into assaulting him, resulting in Burns' removal from the camp for psychiatric evaluation. Later, when Houlihan is showering, the Swampmen prank her by pulling the curtains off, exposing her naked body. Houlihan is furious, and complains to Blake about it, saying that the 4077th is an "insane asylum", and blames it on him. Painless, described variously as "the best-equipped dentist in the Army" and "the dental Don Juan of Detroit", becomes depressed over an incident of impotence and announces his intent to commit suicide, believing that he has turned homosexual. The Swampmen agree to help him carry out the deed, staging a feast reminiscent of the Last Supper, arranging for Father Mulcahy to give Painless the last rites, and providing him with a "black capsule" (actually a sleeping pill) to speed him on his way. Hawkeye persuades the gorgeous Lieutenant "Dish" Schneider, who is being transferred back to the United States for discharge, to spend the night with Painless to allay his concern over his sexual preference. The next morning, Painless is his usual cheerful self, and a smiling Dish leaves camp in a helicopter to start her journey home. Trapper and Hawkeye are sent to Japan on temporary duty to operate on a Congressman's son. When they later perform an unauthorized operation on a local infant, they face disciplinary action from the hospital commander for misusing Army resources. Using staged photographs of him in bed with a prostitute, they blackmail him into keeping his mouth shut. Following their return to camp, Blake and General Hammond organize a game of football between the 4077th and the 325th Evac Hospital and wager several thousand dollars on its outcome. At Hawkeye's suggestion, Blake applies to have a specific neurosurgeon – Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones, a former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers – transferred to the 4077th as a ringer. Blake bets half his money up front, keeping Jones out of the first half of the game. The 325th scores repeatedly and easily, even after the 4077th drugs one of their star players to incapacitate him, and Hammond confidently offers high odds against which Blake bets the rest of his money. Jones enters the second half, which quickly devolves into a free-for-all, and the 4077th gets the 325th's second ringer thrown out of the game and wins with a final trick play. Not long after the football game, Hawkeye and Duke get their discharge orders and begin their journey home – taking the same stolen Jeep in which they arrived. ===== Secret Agent 116 named Gopi has been assigned the case of the homicide of a fellow secret agent (303) by the head of CID. 303 had found evidence that can help identify the perpetrators. During this investigation, Gopi meets lovely Radha in a flight journey, and both end up falling in love with each other. The traitor responsible for the killing of agent 303 has gone to meet 303's sister Kamla and tells her that he is a CID inspector and investigating his brother's case, warning that her brother's killer may make an attempt on her pretending as his colleague and friend. He elsewhere unsuccessfully continued on the life of agent 116. 116 goes to meet Kamla and sees 303's portrait and notes down the studio photographer's name, but Kamla is convinced that 116 is the killer of her brother. Kamla is approached by another mafia don, Damodar, for her help in eliminating 116, to which she agrees. Damodar turns out to be Radha's father, when Radha introduces him, Gopi gets suspicious about him and commences a background check, which reveals that her father is a gangster. As he sets out his case against Damodar, he continues his romance with Radha. During Radha's birthday party, Damodar directs his henchman to kill 116, who escapes after some car chase. 116 hesitantly reveals to Radha that her father is a gangster. Heartbroken, Radha confronts her father, who tells her that he was forced into his life of crime and terrorism, and some other person controls them all, which was overheard by 116 and his assistant, who are hiding outside. 116 goes out for his search for the real culprit to a skyscraper apartment where Kamla was plotted. Kamla seductively dances and mixes some intoxicant pill in his drink, which overlooked by 116, eventually made him senseless. Goons take him to their secret den in the city outskirts, along with Radha, who mistakes them as Hospital Ward boys. In the den, 116 captures one of the goon leaders and forces him to reveal some information. 116 fights his way with Radha and escapes in a vehicle. In the meantime, CID agents trace a letter leading to clues regarding the Chinese conspiracy to destabilize the nation and accommodated by traitors inside, led by a person wearing a Mao uniform named Supremo, who only speaks a few broken English sentences. The rest of the movie follows 116's efforts to thwart a foreign conspiracy against India. ===== ===== After a brief flashback to 1920, with a glimpse of Indiana Jones as a college student in Chicago, the novel moves to its main setting. The year is 1922. Indy is a graduate student in Paris, studying linguistics and Greek archaeology. Although his greater talent currently seems to be for the former, he begins to wonder if he might be better suited for a different career after he receives a surprising invitation from his professor. Following an archaeology lecture to her class on the Greek city of Delphi, Professor Dorian Belecamus announces that she will be leaving the university for the rest of the semester in order to return to Delphi to oversee the recovery of an archaeological find, discovered recently in the wake of an earthquake in the region. After class, to Indy's surprise, she privately invites him to join her on the journey as her assistant, telling him that he is her best student and that she feels he could be very helpful on the expedition. After some consideration, Indy decides to accept the professor's offer in the hopes that assisting in such an exciting undertaking may very well lead him to a more intriguing and adventurous career than world of linguistics may have to offer. He, of course, has no idea exactly how true those ideas will prove to be as he embarks on a journey filled with mysterious figures, deceptive intentions and a lot more waiting for him Delphi than he ever expected. ===== Austin, Lawson, Michael, and Will are four college-aged Christians who have grown up in the bubble of Christianity. They realize that their faith is more religion and less relationship. Because they have been in the rut of mindless faith, they decide to expand their views on God, the world, and eternity by traveling by car around the United States and Canada for the summer. They depart from Texas and head west until they reach California, after stopping at The Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. They then head up to Portland and Seattle before turning east. On their journey through northern America, they pass through Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Chicago, and Toronto. The last leg of the journey includes Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and New Orleans. Along the way, they meet all kinds of people including beach bums, hippies, suburbanites, a clown, and a congresswoman, who each give them a unique perspective of eternal things. The trip is narrated with commentary by the four guys in a studio, and the footage cuts back and forth from studio to trip throughout the movie. As they come to the end of their journey, they conclude by stating that the most important thing they learned from the experience is to "never stop asking questions." ===== Two men arrive in Athens on the same boat. Kennedy an Englishman intends to make a living teaching English and devises a scam to make money fast. Mitsos is returning to Greece after many years away but finds it impossible to escape the memories of the brutal deaths of his parents at the hands of fellow Greeks during the war and an opportunity arises to take revenge. The two men meet briefly as they disembark the boat but their stories then diverge only to come together at the end of the book with fatal results.http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780393321487http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Greeks- Have-Word-for-it-Barry-Unsworth/9781857990027 ===== Described by the script publisher as follows: > A tense and claustrophobic thriller emerges when twelve people become > trapped in a London Underground train carriage. The fear of being trapped > underground with very little air and apparently no rescue service underway > becomes very real as we witness the initial panic and fear experienced by > the passengers. As the temperature rises and tempers fray, an electrical > shortage on the train shrouds a brutal murder and when the lights eventually > come up we are faced with a new and more chilling revelation - there is a > murderer aboard and nowhere to run.Underground ===== Scene from the movie. In contemporary Jerusalem, a small Jewish family leads an ordinary life until following a car accident, the father mysteriously disappears. They all deal with his absence and the difficulties of everyday life as best they can. While the adults take refuge in silence or traditions, the two children, Menachem and David, seek their own way to find their father. ===== While attending the reading of her father's will with her mother and stepfather, Bethany meets her cousin Poppy, a spoiled girl who is believed to have magic powers. Bethany is left a mysterious painting in the will; it does not look like a piece he would normally paint. Bethany is unwillingly sent to stay at Poppy's house for the summer. A strange boy called Rivalaun turns up, claiming to be Bethany and Poppy's cousin. Later on in the book, Poppy gets fed up with all the lies and secrets, so she steals Bethany's painting from her room and paints it on her wall. Poppy uses some kind of magic so that she can walk through into the world of the painting: a world of dreams. Rivalaun and Bethany follow to rescue her. They then cannot get back to the normal world unless they complete a quest. ===== The film is about a K-9 dog named Ace. The police are trying to catch a burglar whom they have nicknamed "Goliath". Out on a call, the police and their dogs are on the track of the thief, Torco (Dopud). After a pursuit in the woods, Ace takes down Torco, out of sight of his human partner, Dan (Cain), who soon arrives. When police see injuries to Torco's neck, they believe they are the results of Ace biting him. And Torco does not face charges as the evidence against him is sketchy. Officials demand Ace be euthanized because he's now classified as 'a biter'. Dan drives Ace to the vet hospital in Spokane, and leaves him to be put down. Dan goes to the capture scene and sees the area is under 24-hour video surveillance. He also finds a piece of barbed wire, which he believes Torco used to slash himself with. Dan tries to convince his captain that Ace is innocent and to stop the euthanasia, but to no avail. The surveillance video is being 'cleaned up' by technicians. Meanwhile Ace has trickily escaped the vet hospital, and heads home. The veterinary technician, not wanting to have his incompetence found out, puts some other ashes from the crematory into a container and marks them as Ace's. Dan tries to get over the grief of losing Ace by trying out other dogs, but to no success. Ace, while making his way back to Dan, captures a petty-thief and is lauded by the media. Dan's daughter, Julia (McKillip), sees Ace on a TV news show, but her parents do not believe it is Ace, since his supposed cremated remains are just then delivered to their home by mail. But Julia eventually convinces Dan to take her to Wenatchee to see if the dog is Ace. When they arrive Ace has just escaped again. During their drive back home, sleepy Julia sees Ace, who has hopped into the back of a towed car. Ace sees her and waves, which is a trick she taught him. But Dan 'convinces' Julia she was probably just dreaming, and they proceed home. Dan's police captain brings him in to show him the surveillance tape of the capture. It shows Torco first fending off Ace with barbed wire, but then slashing himself with it. Dan was right all along, and he is upset with the captain. Meanwhile, Julia stakes out Torco's house since she, too, believes he framed Ace. But while looking around, she 'accidentally' breaks in, and then finds incriminating evidence. Torco comes home from work early and sees Julia leaving. After entering his house he discovers evidence that Julia had been inside. Torco goes to Julia's house. After Julia returns home, as she tells her mother (Loder) about Torco, the two of them are pursued by Torco, but Ace comes to the rescue just-in- time, and brings down Torco. But Torco stabs Ace with a piece of broken glass. Dan arrives home and Torco is arrested. Ace is taken to a vet hospital and will recover. Dan then allows Julia to take Ace to the K-9 competition, where Ace wins first place. While Julia plays with Ace in the family's backyard, Dan agrees to take his wife to Tahiti, for their long-ago 'postponed' honeymoon, and the end credits roll. ===== According to The New York Times review of the 2009 production in New York, the play has five sections. It opens with a monologue by the Red Cross inspector. Next a series of tableaux are shown that had been directed by the Nazis, such as a small girl at play teaching her doll to swim. In the third scene, the camp commandant receives the Red Cross visitor (in the event, a commission of several members had visited.) "The world", the commandant tells the Red Cross representative, "is moving toward unity". The commandant forces a Jewish prisoner named Gershom Gottfried into producing an opera for the Red Cross visitors. In the final scene, Gottfried urges his players to "focus on their words and gestures," to perform this piece. He knows they have to ignore the daily trains taking prisoners from Theresienstadt to what the audience knows and the prisoners fear are death camps. "If we do it well", he tells a frightened young performer, "we'll see Mummy again, on one of those trains."Andy Webster, "Nazi Camp Persists in Charade of Decency", The New York Times, 20 May 2009 ===== Dr. Amrit Singh, A young Sikh surgeon, moves from Toronto to Detroit to take a position at a new transplant facility, leaving behind his family and Indian girlfriend. The film follows Amrit's struggles against the pressures to assimilate, including considering removing his turban and cutting his hair, racial discrimination, an unfair medical system in which uninsured patients cannot receive transplants, and romantic temptation in the shape of an attractive colleague. The film is semi- autobiographical, and reflects the experience of Sikhs in America post-9/11. ===== A memory of Skørping Station led to Ved Vejen The novel centres on the character of Katinka Bai, a quiet, sensitive young woman married to a boisterous and somewhat vulgar station master, Bai. The marriage is barren, and she remains isolated. Almost subconsciously, she passionately longs after something undefinable. Even after the arrival of Huus, a neighbour with whom she begins to establish a promising relationship, she is unable to fulfill her passion, although for the first time in her life she falls in love. In the small provincial community where they live, neither she nor Huus dares to break the conventions they know, sad as it all may be. When they realize they cannot take their attachment any further, they decide to separate and Huus leaves the country. At the end of the novel, as at the beginning, Katinka stands by the wayside, observing life glide by.Nanna Rørdam Knudsen, "Ved Vejen", LitteraturSiden.dk. Retrieved 20 January 2013."Herman Bang: Ved Vejen (1886)", Silkeborg Bibliotekere. Retrieved 25 February 2013. ===== During a walk in the garden of the People's House, sailor Ivan Shorin meets Valya and, having missed the scheduled time is late for the ship which is departing for a cruise. The next morning he has to go to a distant foreign trek and his slight delay has turned into a desertion. The young people are sheltered by artists who turn out to be ordinary punks. Not wanting to become a thief, Ivan runs away and surrenders himself to the authorities. After the trial of his friends and just punishment, he returns to his former life. ===== The film is a comedy about adventures of a boy named Mishka and a bear at the headquarters of General Nikolai Yudenich during the Russian Civil War, which had been fought between 1917–1922. ===== ===== In November 1145, Robert sends a copy of the list to Hugh Beringar, Sheriff of Shrewsbury, along with news that the two factions will meet for a peace conference at Coventry. Earl Robert asks Hugh to attend. Not seeing Olivier's name among the men being offered for ransom, Hugh tells Cadfael, who tells Abbot Radulfus that he feels it is his duty to rescue his son Olivier, at the risk of breaking his vows. Radulfus allows him to accompany Hugh to Coventry. Beyond that, Cadfael is on his own. In Lichfield's chapel, Cadfael recognises Yves Hugonin, Olivier's brother-in-law. Riding to Coventry, barely have they entered the town when Yves draws his sword and flies in rage at Brien de Soulis, the turncoat castellan of Faringdon. Order is restored by Bishop Roger de Clinton. Yves is called to a private audience with the Empress Maud. She officially rebukes him for disturbing the peace, yet hints that she would be delighted if de Soulis were killed. The peace talks come to nothing. Before the talks end, Yves asks about Olivier's whereabouts. De Soulis claims to know nothing. In the winter darkness, as the two sides exit the chapel after Compline, Yves trips over the dead body of de Soulis on the chapel steps. Philip FitzRobert accuses Yves of murder. Defying a promise of safe conduct to all who came with the Empress, twelve men seize Yves near Gloucester, which is duly reported to the Bishop. The Bishop, Cadfael and Hugh examine de Soulis's body and belongings, discovering that de Soulis was stabbed from the front with a dagger. His killer was someone he knew and trusted, and allowed to approach him. In de Soulis's bag, Cadfael finds a seal ring that does not belong to him, which no one in Coventry can identify. Cadfael must decide whether to continue searching for Olivier and Yves and break his monastic vows, or return with Hugh to Shrewsbury. He chooses his son. At Deerhurst Abbey, Cadfael meets a mason's assistant who identifies the seal as belonging to a captain of the garrison, Geoffrey FitzClare, loyal to the Empress. De Soulis showed the men a document with his seal along with that of the other five captains, agreeing to surrender to the King. This was a ruse, as DeSoulis murdered FitzClare, reporting it as an accidental death. Knowing this, Cadfael finds Philip FitzRobert at his castle of La Musarderie in Greenhamsted. He convinces him that Yves is innocent: de Soulis allowed his killer to approach close enough to stab him with a knife, but de Soulis and Yves were open enemies. Repulsed by de Soulis's treachery, Philip releases Yves. Philip holds Olivier in the castle. Cadfael pleads for his release, offering himself in exchange and revealing that he is Olivier's father. Philip refuses. He and Olivier were the closest of comrades, but Olivier refused to follow his friend in defecting to Stephen. Philip changed sides in the hope of breaking the stalemate between the two sides, which Olivier saw as simple treason. Philip visits Olivier in his cell, telling him of Cadfael's offer. Olivier is dumbfounded, not understanding why Cadfael would do this for him. Philip shares that Cadfael is Olivier's father. Olivier is stunned, then enraged, feeling that Cadfael has cheated him. In Gloucester, Yves begs the Empress to lay siege to La Musarderie to rescue Olivier. She agrees only after Yves tells her that Philip is there, her nephew but now her enemy. She alarms her advisers when she announces her intention to hang Philip. This brutality would drive a wedge between her and her brother Robert, absent from Gloucester for this discussion, and increase the fighting in this war-torn country. The Empress orders her entire army to Philip's castle. The night before, Yves enters the castle to warn Philip of her intention via Cadfael, and succeeds in this undercover quest. Philip's garrison puts up a tough defence. Philip suffers serious wounds from a crate of metal pieces thrown by a siege engine into the courtyard. Cadfael ministers to him, while Philip gives his final orders before falling unconscious. His deputy shall surrender the castle and trade Philip to the Empress for the best terms he can get; he gives Cadfael the keys to Olivier's cell. As Cadfael releases Olivier, they face each other as father and son. They arrange a plan to get Philip out of the castle to save him from the Empress. Olivier bears no grudge for his imprisonment, living in the moment as his father does. He uses his uniform to get through the besieging forces, seeking a local man who can claim the unconscious Philip as the corpse of his nephew. The plan works, and Philip recovers in the Augustinian Cirencester Abbey. Brought by Olivier, Robert of Gloucester arrives at the abbey to reconcile with his son. Before leaving La Musarderie, Cadfael learns the killer of de Soulis. Lady Jovetta, lady-in-waiting to the Empress, was Geoffrey FitzClare's mother; she wears as a ring the same design as Geoffrey's seal. Brien de Soulis made what he thought to be an assignation with her niece. He allowed Jovetta to approach him in the mistaken belief that she was the niece. Cadfael keeps her secret. Olivier and Cadfael ride to Gloucester, where they part. Cadfael asks for word when his grandson is born. Cadfael rides alone through rough winter weather to Shrewsbury, feeling fully the importance of his life in the monastery. Arriving at Shrewsbury Abbey after Matins and Lauds, Cadfael lies prostrate on the floor of the chapel as a penitent. Entering before the rest of the monks, Abbot Radulfus informs him that news came before him. The rift between Philip and his father Robert of Gloucester is mended. Philip in his sick bed has taken the Cross. He will join the next Crusade, having despaired of princes in England. Radulfus declares "it is enough!" and invites Cadfael to take his place among his brothers at Prime. ===== A hapless delivery man learns why sometimes too much of a bad thing can be detrimental to your personal well being after getting caught up with an older woman who sends his life spinning out of control. Trey (Jackie Long) may be working hard, though he just can't seem to catch a break. He's got no money for school, and his recent attempt to win over the girl of his dreams (Mýa) resulted in nothing less than complete and total embarrassment. But while a seductive woman (Melyssa Ford) may be more than happy to pay for Trey's "personal delivery services," his ideal situation is about to backfire in a way that the roving Romeo could have never seen coming. ===== Krishnakumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) is a resident of an agraharam in Kalpathy. Along with his studies, he pursues a career as a percussionist and teaches the mridangam to local students. He is in love with a girl who is the daughter of a family friend. Their relationship is not only approved, but also supported by both families. Kichu moves on to the city of Kochi (Ernakulam) to enroll at an engineering college. The villain Sudhi (Bala) is a senior student and the youngest of three brothers - the others being Mahi (Sai Kumar) and Giri (Shammi Thilakan). Sudhi pursues a real estate business and routine crimes associated with it. In all his villainous endeavors on the campus, he is supported by his brothers. The main support for the villain family from "the system" is a police officer named Shivaraman (Vijayaraghavan). The story takes its form when Anjana (Priyamani), Shivaraman's daughter, joins the engineering college. Sudhi is in love with her and to win her love plays the gentleman, concealing and temporarily stopping all his villainous activities. Kichu, as is expected, wins the heart of the girls in the college from almost day one. Sudhi suspects that Anjana is attracted to Kichu, so he moves fast and sends his brother with an official proposal to Anjana's family. Her parents accept the proposal and force the reluctant daughter to agree to it. However, she stipulates a condition: there will be no marriage immediately. Sudhi has to wait for four years (until the course ends) for the marriage; she will have her freedom for these four years. The "freedom" of Anjana and the way she exercises it make jealous and suspicious. Sudhi wants to scare Kichu out of the college. He arranges an attack on him at the college hostel; as a result, Kichu is severely wounded. At the end of the attack, when apparently he receives a blow on his head, Kichu appears to turn mad and attacks his own friend who tried to rescue him. He is admitted to a hospital and it is revealed that he has what the doctor in the movie says a "flashback phenomenon". He had to witness the death of his younger brother, while young, hit by a bus, and traumatic incidents like this will turn him violent. His prearranged marriage has been disapproved by his would-be's family following this. His own family does not want him to go to the college anymore, but his father (Nedumudi Venu) supports him, urges him to go back to the college, and asks him to win his life. What happens after this is an unbelievable change in Kichu's character. A hitherto simpleton now turns a superhero. The villain welcomes him back at the college with an attack. Kichu, the now fearless superhero, gives a difficult-to-believe show of stunts. Sudhi's brothers turn in for help. Kichu sends the eldest brother, Mahi, to the hospital, mortally wounded. He is put in the ICU for observation and is reportedly in a coma. The villain's ally, Shivaraman, arrests Kichu and takes him to the police station. Here, Kichu learns that he is going to be transported to the sub jail where his murder is planned. Kichu turns violent and storms the police station. He is hit by a policeman from behind and apparently falls unconscious, but it is only an act. He is rushed to the hospital, where he makes his escape. The villains kidnap Anjana. In the final stunt at a construction site of a multi- storied building, Kichu beats numerous stuntmen and tells Sudhi the truth about Kichu and how he wants to see Sudhi become a good person towards Kichu. However, Sudhi, who is still angry, denies and tells Kichu that he does not want a life, so Kichu lets go of his hand, and Sudhi dies. Kichu walks away with Anjana as the credits start to roll. ===== The series begins with Logan being captured and prepared for the adamantium bonding process. There are several mentions of his being tough, and the Professor, the director of the Weapon X program, along with his assistants Dr. Cornelius and Miss Hines, wipe his mind and bond him to adamantium, the hardest known substance on Earth, to prepare him to be a mindless, soulless killing machine. Prior to Wolverine volume 2, #75, the plot had too much adamantium bonded to his forearms, resulting in his claws, leading to the development of tubes in his flesh to keep the skin apart for claw extraction. Throughout the program, Logan is constantly referred to not as a person but as a subject, and his humanity is almost completely disregarded in the course of the experiments. Logan frequently comes to odds with his mental programming, and eventually escapes into the wilderness after killing all of the soldiers there (except for one, future Weapon X Director Malcom Colcord) while the Professor, Cornelius, and Hines lock themselves in a secured room that Logan cannot break into. ===== Jayaraj's Anandabhairavi depicts the life of Vasudeva Panicker, a Kathakali artist, and his son. Saikumar plays the role of Panikker and Master Devan is his son Appu. Saikumar won the Kerala State Film Award for the second best actor, for his performance in this movie. Storyline is prepared jointly by Mahesh and Sajeev. Madambu Kunjukkuttan scripted the movie. The music is by Parthasarathi. Harinath cranked the camera. ===== Wilhelmina Hunnewell Winthrop is a plain young woman, and a "poor relative" of the Winthrops, a wealthy Boston family. After she graduates from high school, she is given a sum of money by an aunt and goes to live in Paris with family friends. There, she undergoes a transformation of both body and soul, first losing weight, then gaining Parisian style under the guidance of Liliane, the elegant Frenchwoman who is her hostess. She is also introduced to Edouard, Liliane's nephew, who gives her the nickname "Billy." It is her first intimate love affair, but when the aristocratic but impecunious Edouard discovers that Billy is just a poor relative of the Winthrop family, he shows his true colors and ends the relationship. Billy returns to America and moves to New York where she is hired by Ikehorn Enterprises as a secretary. During a business meeting in California, she becomes romantically involved with the wealthy CEO, Ellis Ikehorn, who is far older than she. The couple then marry and the next several years are happy ones, as Billy and Ellis live a glamorous life. However, Ellis later suffers a stroke, and Billy moves them from Manhattan to the exclusive Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for the better climate. Billy hires a male nurse, Jake Cassidy, to look after Ellis. However, Billy lives as a recluse in their enormous house and looks aimlessly for some purpose in her life, eventually developing a compulsion to shop in Beverly Hills. Ellis advises her to find something to do that she is good at, perhaps in fashion. Some time later, Ellis dies and leaves Billy an enormous fortune. Jake, motivated by debt, then tries to blackmail Billy but fails. Heeding Ellis's advice, Billy decides to open a luxury boutique on Rodeo Drive called "Scruples." She hires a young French designer, Valentine O'Neil, to design couture clothing for the customers, and also hires Valentine's close friend, Spider Elliot, a former fashion photographer who becomes the Creative Director of the store. However, Valentine and Spider have a history of rocky relationships of their own, with Valentine first getting herself involved with her closeted gay boss and later with Billy's married attorney Josh Hillman, and Spider's involvement with troubled model-turned-actress, Melanie Adams. With Scruples a success, Billy then marries Vito Orsini, a film director. As she is also part-owner of a Hollywood studio (assets left to her by Ellis), she helps Vito to finance his new film, "Mirrors." However, studio boss Curt Arvey is not happy with Billy's interference in his studio and intends to sabotage any chance of the film's success. During this scenario, Billy also becomes friends with Dolly Moon, a flamboyant supporting actress in Vito's film. A power struggle later ensues when Curt Arvey attempts to confiscate Vito's film before it can be finished and keeps it locked in the studio's vaults. Billy and Spider manage to steal the film back so that Vito can finish editing the film at home. Meanwhile, Billy is once again menaced by Jake Cassidy, who breaks into her home and attempts to rape her, but he is apprehended by the police just in time. The story ends as Vito's film wins an Academy Award for Best Picture, and Billy announces that she is pregnant with their first child. At the same time, Spider and Valentine realize that their long friendship has turned into love. ===== David and Alice Leiber are a happily married couple living in Los Angeles, but when Alice gives birth to a healthy baby boy, she fears the baby is somehow abnormal and will kill her. She expresses her fears to her husband, who dismisses them and tries to comfort her. Their family doctor, Dr. Jeffers, explains that it is not unusual for some women to experience such feelings after the birth of a child—especially in Alice's case, as she almost died of complications of a Caesarean section during delivery. David leaves for a business trip in Chicago and is gone for a few days. On his sixth day away he receives an emergency phone call from Dr. Jeffers, telling him Alice is seriously ill with pneumonia; David rushes home, and a frightened Alice tells him, "It was the baby again." She claims she got pneumonia because the baby cried all night to keep her from sleeping; she believes he is deliberately trying to weaken and kill her. One night David hears the baby crying and gets up to fetch milk from the kitchen. At the top of the stairs he slips on a soft object, but he manages to catch the railing and does not fall downstairs. He finds a large patchwork doll at the top of the stairs, an object he had bought for the baby as a joke. Neither he nor Alice had placed it there. He begins to wonder whether Alice is right about their child. When David comes home from work the next day he finds Alice dead, sprawled and broken at the bottom of the stairs. The patchwork doll lies beside her. Horrified, David tells Dr. Jeffers about his suspicions, believing that the child was born with the awareness and intelligence of an adult but with the inherent selfishness of a baby; the child hates the mother for removing him from the womb (where all his needs were attended to) and hates his father as a co-conspirator. However, the doctor does not believe him; instead, Dr. Jeffers prescribes sleeping pills for David, thinking a good 24-hour rest will curb the man's grief-fueled hysteria. Early the next morning Dr. Jeffers drives up to the Leiber house. Knocking and getting no response, he goes inside. Immediately he smells the odor of gas in the house of Leiber. He rushes to David's room only to find David dead on the bed, and gas leaking from an open jet at the bottom of the wall near the door. The doctor considers whether David might have turned on the gas himself, but then reasons that he couldn't have done so; he would have been knocked out by the sleeping pills. It couldn't have been suicide. He goes to the nursery only to find the door closed and the crib empty. Somehow, he reasons, the child must have crawled out of his crib and opened the gas jet, but then the door closed, trapping him outside the nursery. For this reason, Dr. Jeffers realizes David's suspicions were correct - the baby, named Lucifer by David, truly is a murderer. Dr. Jeffers decides that since he was responsible for bringing the child into the world, it must be his responsibility to take the child out of it. Moving carefully through the house, he draws an item from his medical supplies and calls out to the baby, offering to show him "something shiny." The item is revealed to be a scalpel. ===== Through an odd stroke of luck, a poor family inherits a house, the wheat field surrounding it, and a strange scythe with the inscription "Who wields me-- wields the world!" Every day the man of the family goes out to use the scythe in the field, but he notices strange things about the wheat and the way it grows. Over time, he comes to realize that every blade of wheat represents a human life, and that by accepting the house, the field and the scythe, he has unwittingly accepted the job of Grim Reaper.Bradbury, Ray. "The Scythe". The Stories of Ray Bradbury. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000, pp. 55-66. ===== ===== Based on the true story of serial murderer Gary Ridgway, the film depicts how he would approach prostitutes in bars, take them to his homes, brutally kill them and throw the corpses into the Green River, a pattern of behavior which explains his sobriquet, "Green River Killer." Soon, however, the police are on his track.CD Universe – Green River Killer DVD Movie ===== Michael Mando provided voice and motion capture for the game's antagonist, Vaas Montenegro. Jason Brody (voiced by Gianpaolo Venuta) is on vacation with a group of friends in the fictional Rook Islands between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, celebrating his younger brother Riley (Alex Harrouch) receiving a pilot's license. On a skydiving trip, they land on an island that turns out to be a pirate base and are kidnapped by pirate lord Vaas Montenegro (Michael Mando), who plans to sell them into slavery. Jason escapes with help from his older brother Grant (Lane Edwards), who is killed by Vaas. Jason is rescued by Dennis (Charles Malik Whitfield), who is an adopted member of the islands' native Rakyat tribe. Dennis recognizes Jason's potential as a warrior and gives him the Tatau, the tattoos of a Rakyat warrior. Jason then helps the Rakyat in a number of missions which leads him to find one of his friends, Daisy (Natalie Brown), at the house of Dr. Earnhardt (Martin Kevan), a botanist studying the island's flora. Impressed with Jason's prowess, the Rakyat allow him to be the second (after Dennis, who is Liberian) outsider to enter their sacred temple. After he returns the Silver Dragon Knife, a Rakyat relic, Jason is initiated into the tribe by priestess Citra (Faye Kingslee). Jason undertakes a series of missions, during which he rescues his captive girlfriend Liza (Mylène Dinh-Robic) and his friends Keith (James A. Woods) and Oliver (Kristian Hodko), while simultaneously assisting the Rakyat in retaking their island with the help of Dr. Earnhardt and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Willis Huntley (Alain Goulem). After a few encounters with Vaas, Jason discovers that Vaas is Citra's brother, and his pirates are employed by Hoyt Volker (Steve Cumyn), a notorious South African slave trader and drug lord. Jason soon matures into a fearsome and skilled warrior and, revered by the Rakyat, begins to enjoy all the killing while growing more distant from his friends. After Citra asks him to stay on the island, Jason returns to Earnhardt's house and tells his friends that he is staying. Meanwhile, Jason has an affair with Citra after she drugs him and has sex with him in a hallucination. After bidding goodbye to Liza and his friends, Jason, with Willis's help, heads to Vaas's pirate base. Vaas seems to be celebrating Jason's death, believing him defeated in an earlier encounter. Jason takes advantage of this, but Vaas has actually set a trap. After Jason kills numerous pirates and reaches a warehouse, Jason fights Vaas but enters a delusional state, fighting multiple duplicates of Vaas in a dream. He reaches a final Vaas, and impales him through the chest with the Dragon Knife before collapsing. Jason awakens with Citra in the Rakyat temple and promises to kill Hoyt for her. After Huntley helps him reach Hoyt's island, Jason infiltrates Hoyt's personal army with the help of Sam Becker (Stephen Bogaert), Huntley's fellow operative. During this time, Jason discovers that Riley is alive and a prisoner of Hoyt. Riley is beaten by Jason to maintain the ruse, but when Becker loops the video Jason reveals himself. Jason works his way into Hoyt's confidence, and Jason and Becker plan to kill Hoyt at a poker game. However, as they sit down to play, Hoyt exposes them having seen through the looped video Becker made, stabbing Becker fatally in the throat. Jason kills Hoyt and his men in a knife fight, losing half a finger in the process, and rescues Riley, though not before receiving a call from Liza which is quickly cut off. Jason and Riley fly to Dr. Earnhardt's house to find it on fire: the dying doctor tells them that the house was attacked by the Rakyat, who have captured Jason's friends. Jason confronts Citra at the Rakyat temple but she drugs him and captures Riley. Citra tells Jason that she has fallen in love with him, believing him to be a powerful warrior of Rakyat legend, and that she will free him. He starts dreaming of walking a fiery path with the Dragon Knife, with Liza appearing as a monster in his dream. He awakens holding Liza at knifepoint with the Dragon Knife and is given the choice to either save his friends or ally with Citra, after killing them. Jason freeing his friends will result in him leaving the island, despite Citra begging him to stay. An outraged Dennis tries to stab Jason, inadvertently stabbing Citra as she jumps in front of Jason; she proclaims her love for Jason as she dies in his arms. Jason and his friends then leave the island by boat, with Jason narrating that despite becoming a monster from all the killing, he still believes that in some place in his heart he is better than this. The game ends with a still image of the boat and the Dragon Knife on the beach while the credits roll. If Jason instead allies with Citra, the two have sex in a ritual after Jason kills Liza. Afterwards, Citra stabs Jason in the chest, telling him as he dies that their child will lead the Rakyat to glory and that he "won". ===== Ofelia's wedding day is approaching and she is to be married to Eduardo. She has some pre-wedding jitters during a meeting with her lover Gustavo but decides to tie the knot anyway. On her wedding night, Gustavo shows up in their room, murders Eduardo, and proceeds to turn Ofelia into a vampire so that they can be together forever. In the present day 1960's, a group of young men and women take shelter in an abandoned lodge after their van breaks down. Soon, Ofelia appears and seduces one of the guys and meanwhile the girls go missing. It is up to the other guys to figure out what is happening and Ofelia must make a decision as to how much longer she can continue with her cursed life. ===== The solo actor in Shimmer tells the story by becoming each character in turn. The play takes place in 1956, in a harsh Midwestern juvenile detention center, where two boys befriend each other. To survive the brutal environment, the two create their own fantasy world, in which the movement of streams and breezes becomes a language that travels between dimensions, a language the boys call "shimmer." The two boys are eventually locked up, and they are ultimately forced to carefully plan and carry out an escape.Wisner, Heather. "San Francisco Calendar." SF Weekly. March 25, 1998. ===== The film follows the plot of the 1974 book. The story centres around Mildred Hubble, who is invariably the "Worst Witch" at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a school of magic. Mildred causes many mishaps, including being late for school, making all of her classmates fall down, Mildred and her friend unintentionally turning themselves invisible, and transforming Ethel into a pig. The climax surrounds Miss Cackle's notorious twin evil sister, Agatha, plotting to take over the Academy. Ultimately Agatha is foiled by Mildred, and Mildred establishes herself as the hero for the academy. ===== Mapantsula begins with cut-scenes between a heated protest and several police vehicles transporting apprehended black South Africans. There is a voice in the background saying that they have violated the Internal Security Act by gathering without permission and inciting a riot. Here we first see Panic who is herded with the rest of the prisoners, including women and children. He is put in a cell with eight other men. There is a cut-scene to a busy Johannesburg street where Panic and his partner in crime, Dingaan (Darlington Michaels), rob a white South African of his wallet, threatening him with a knife when he attempts to get his money back. After, Panic and Dingaan meet up at a local corner store and recount the event. Laughing, Dingaan says, "Eh man, we should stop this." Panic replies, "You're crazy." Panic then makes his way home to the Soweto township where he rents a small, one-room house from a landlady he refers to as Ma Mobise (Dolly Rathebe). As he dresses up for a night out, she warns him that she wants him to stay out of trouble, commenting he dresses like a tsotsi, or gangster. Back at the prison, Panic is standing separate of the other prisoners. He demands one of them move out of his way and confronts another when asked why he is there. Panic replies, "The same reason as you." The others do not believe him. We flashback to Panic at a disco club with his girlfriend Pat and Dingaan. After being hit on by the owner Lucky, she leaves, prompting Panic to go after her. They return to Panic's place. There is another cut to Stander's office where he and Panic are first introduced. Stander asks Panic if he speaks Afrikaans, Panic says he does not. Flashback to Panic's house the morning after they go partying, Panic and Pat part after bickering over him not having a job. Pat leaves and Panic is approached by Ma Mobise about paying his rent. She then lectures him about rising rent prices and how nothing is ever done in Soweto. Her son Sam (Eugene Majola) listens on. Pat in the meantime arrives for work. She is a housemaid to a white South African woman, Joyce (Margaret Michaels). Panic arrives, asking Pat for money. Joyce sends him away. Back in prison, all of the cells are full. Panic is being interrogated by Stander, who is outlining his extensive criminal history. On the last page, he leans back and notes, "I see you've been working for us." In another flashback, Panic is trailing an obviously rich woman on the street, eyeing her handbag. But before he has a chance, another man grabs it from her. Panic runs after him. He meets up with Dingaan and Pat in a bar, and recounts that he tripped up the thief and the woman rewarded him. The thief is in fact at the bar and confronts Panic. He is angry about Panic getting out of jail on an earlier occasion, accusing him of selling out to the authorities. Panic breaks a bottle and threatens to kill him. The other man runs. A white officers comes into Panic's cell and accuses all the men there of being terrorists. Panic is then taken to Stander's office, where Stander demands, "What do these communists want?" Back in Soweto, Panic steals a suit and dons it. He goes to Joyce's house to see Pat. Pat sends him away in anger. He refuses to leave. Joyce arrives and demands him to leave. He refuses. Joyce gets her dog and threatens Panic. He backs away from the house. Leaving, he picks up a brick and throws it through Joyce's window. In Stander's office, the police officer offers Panic coffee and food. He demands information from him about a man named Duma (Peter Sephima). Panic says he does not know him. Upon returning to his cell, he is accused by a fellow inmate of selling out to the authorities. Through another flashback, we find out that Pat has been fired. Sam takes Pat to a local gathering of the National African Congress, where the locals demand for the mayor (Steven Moloi) to keep from raising rents. Duma first appears, speaking out against the mayor and the current order. The next morning, Ma Mobise wakes up a hung over Panic and demands he pay rent. He begrudgingly obliges. Ma Mobise then runs into her son, Sam, on the street. After telling him to stay out of trouble, Sam runs from an approaching police van. Pat, meanwhile, meets with Duma, who urges her to return to Joyce and demand payment for benefits she was denied and the last week's wages. Pat goes to Joyce's, but is rebuffed by her former employer. Panic and Dingaan are in a mall. They spot a rich target and try to once again pull the trick they did earlier in the film. The man resists, grabbing the both of them. Panic stabs him and the two escape to a movie theater. Dingaan tells Panic he wants nothing more to do with him and leaves him. Panic in vain tries to get Pat back by going to her aunt's house. But he is sent away once again. Back in Stander's office, Panic is standing nearly naked in front of the inspector. Stander and another officer nearly throw him out the window as an intimidation tactic. In another cut scene, we see Panic at a local healer's, she tells him that, "…the past and future are for dreaming about. The present is for living in." We see Pat meet up with Duma. They go to his office, but the police are searching it. They escape. There is a funeral in Soweto which the police attempt to stop. We see them take away Sam before running from the riotous crowd. Panic comes home and discusses this with Ma Mobise, she says he isn't at the police station. He then goes out looking for Sam. He ends up finding out that Sam has been hanging out with Duma, who is in hiding. Knowing Lucky is his brother, Panic goes to Lucky's. He gets nowhere, even after threatening him. Panic leaves, and we see that two detectives are staking out Lucky's house. Back at the police station, Panic is being humiliated by Stander, crouching naked in a locker room after insisting he does not know Duma. In another flashback, Panic is at Lucky's at night. He finds out Duma is there. Duma runs but Panic catches up with him and demands he leave Pat alone. The detectives staking out Lucky's place chase them but do not catch them. In his office, Stander places something in front of Panic and demands he sign it. Panic refuses. Stander shows him a recording of a riot. Through a quick series of flashbacks we realize that this is a riot protesting Sam's death. Ma Mobise runs in front of the crowd and screams for justice. She is shot and the riot turns into a brawl. Panic and Duma flee but are caught by soldiers. Panic fights them and Duma escapes. In the final scene we see that the papers Stander demands Panic sign are actually a confession that Panic was aiding Duma in terrorist activities. Panic looks into the camera and refuses to sign the confession. ===== The novel is set in the period from the outbreak of World War II in 1939 with the Nazi invasion of Poland, to the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Its settings include Avignon, France; Geneva, Switzerland; Poland, and Egypt. The first chapter continues in Avignon, where the previous novel, Livia (1979), was set. It details Constance's blossoming relationship with her husband Sam. As the clouds of war loom, a group of Europeans is breaking up whose last summer together was explored in Livia. Blanford takes a post in Egypt, kindly offered to him by the Prince. During a visit there from Sam, now a soldier, a picnic trip ends in disaster as the party comes under friendly fire. Sam is killed and Blanford crippled in the attack. Constance has moved to Geneva in neutral Switzerland. She has met Robin Sutcliffe and Toby there (they have previously been described as fictional creations from one of Aubrey Blanford's novels). There she learns of Sam's death. Eventually Constance decides to return to France, where the Vichy regime rules over Provence and the south of France after the Nazi defeat of the country and occupation of Paris and the north. She lives in the big house of Tu Duc, where Livia returns. Disfigured by the loss of an eye (the reasons for which are not given until Quinx, the last novel of the quintet), Livia commits suicide. Constance returns to Geneva, where she embarks on a passionate affair with the Prince's aide Sebastian Affad. ===== The surviving characters include "two novelists, a psychoanalyst, a German double agent, a Cambridge-educated gypsy, a Jewish lord, a schizophrenic young woman and an Egyptian prince."BARBARA FISHER WILIAMSON, "Links and Winks", New York Times, 15 September 1985; accessed 23 October 2016 The ex-Nazi double agent Smirgel provides information about the location of the Templar treasure, which has long been sought by Lord Galen. Gypsies are congregating to take part in a Camargue festival. The climax of the book is set below the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman monument where the characters expect to find the treasure. Durrell develops further in this novel the process of deliberate breakdown of logical narrative, which he has used throughout the series. Time sequences are often contradictory, and there are numerous anachronistic references to events during and after World War II. More than in the previous four volumes, Durrell deliberately includes allusions and homages to the culture of the 1980s in a narrative which is supposedly occurring in 1946. ===== In California, John Netherwood (Keith Carradine) and his wife Leann Netherwood (Daryl Hannah) are fugitives who are wanted for murder. They have a 6-year-old daughter named Janie (Julia Devin). John and Leann are robbing a house when the elderly residents of the house show up. After killing the two residents, John and Leann go outside, where there are cops waiting. John and Leann escape after John gets shot by Officer David Carrey (Ned Vaughn). Janie is found in the car that John and Leann left behind, and Janie is placed up for adoption. Helped by adoption agency case worker Maggie Hass (Jenny Gago), Los Angeles architect Russell Clifton (Vincent Spano) and his photographer wife Dana (Moira Kelly) adopt Janie, welcoming a traumatized Janie into their home. Though intelligent and charming, Janie's behavior is very disturbing: She hides in closets, cuts herself, steals food, and draws monstrous pictures of the "Tooth Fairy," of whom she's terrified. Russell and Dana believe that with love, Janie will be alright. The Netherwoods begin planning to reclaim Janie. Leann picks up Officer Carrey, and John tortures the name of the adoption agency out of Carrey before John slits Carrey's throat, killing Carrey. The Netherwoods then force Maggie to tell them who adopted Janie, then they kill Maggie. At the same time, Russell and Dana have found out who Janie's biological parents are. Leann tries to kidnap Janie from school, forcing the Cliftons to go into hiding with Janie. The Netherwoods track down the Cliftons' friends, Lisa Marie Chandler (Cynda Williams) and her husband Gil Chandler (Bruce A. Young), and Leann threatens to hurt the Chandlers' newborn baby, forcing Lisa Marie to tell Leann where the Cliftons are hiding—a half- built house that Russell designed for himself, Dana, and Janie. The Netherwoods head to the half-built house and take Janie and the Cliftons hostage. John sets the house on fire. Russell and John struggle with each other, then John starts running through the burning house looking for Janie, who has now run off into the nearby woods. Along the way, John runs into Leann in the blinding smoke. Leann has found Dana and Janie, and has had a change of heart. Because of that, John kills Leann by snapping her neck. Dana runs into the woods to find Janie, and John is following Dana. John is the first to find Janie, and Janie pulls out a knife, stabs John in the stomach, and then says "I learned that from you, Daddy." Just as John is about to lunge at Janie for stabbing him, Russell shows up and grabs a log the size of a baseball bat, and he hits John with it, knocking John to the ground. When John gets back up and tries to lunge again, Russell hits John in the head with the log, killing John. Dana finds Russell and Janie, and Janie finally feels comfortable about being with the Cliftons. ===== The movie takes place against the backdrop of the political radicalization of Europe during the 1930s, more specifically the demise of the golden era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the installation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi Germany in 1939. Spiritually, the movie takes place in the aftermath of the death of Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, in 1933. Karel Kopfrkingl works at a crematorium (his beloved "Temple of Death") in Prague. While taking his wife and children to visit the zoo to visit the leopard's cage where he first met his wife 17 years previously, he mentions that he wishes to invite his new assistant Mr. Strauss to a gathering. The gathering has many elderly people and people interested in funeral preparations. An "abstinent", Kopfrkingl wants no alcohol on the premises, only tea and "weak coffee" are to be served. He also puts out the cigar of a smoker. He meets Strauss and discusses his work with the confectionery business. He tells him he wants to take him on as an agent. Karel's wife Lakme compliments Strauss as being a good businessman and a Jew. Karel retorts that Strauss is a German surname but Lakme says names are not always what they appear. She says that her real name is Maria and that he only calls her Lakmé because of the opera and that his name is Karel but he always prefers Roman. Kopfrkingl just laughs and says that he is a "romantic". Kopfrkingl delivers a speech to them about the importance of cremation and the reincarnation that awaits them and it is clear that he is obsessed with his duties and believes he is not just cremating the dead, but liberating the souls of the departed. Kopfrkingl gives a speech to the guests and reads excerpts from a book about Tibetan mysticism by David-Neel. This is his prized possession and he will frequently quote from it throughout the film (usually before committing murders). At this gathering, he meets Reinke, a former soldier who fought with him in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI and who now works as a chemical engineer. Reinke is a Hitler supporter who sees the annexation of Austria as liberation from unemployment and misery. He will introduce Kopfrkingl to the Nazi party. While browsing paintings at the store, he notices a portrait of Hitler and is smitten with his "noble face". He settles on a painting of Emiliano Chamorro Vargas that he brings home to his wife, claiming it is actually of Louis Marin. Reinke comes over to Kopfrkingl's house and describes in greater detail his support of Hitler and the good things the Nazis have done in Austria. He gives Kopfrkingl a flyer about joining the party but he remains uncertain. He tells Reinke that he has been raised Czech, reads Czech and lives as a Czech and only distantly has a "drop of German blood". Reinke tells him that sensitive people like him can feel even just that one "drop". Kopfrkingl shows the new assistant Mr. Dvorak the ropes at the crematorium. When discussing the crisis in Sudetenland he says he is not worried because he has "a drop of German blood". He asks the coworker he is smitten with to go on the tour of the facility with them but she refuses. Kopfrkingl shows Dvorak the catafalque and the coffin room. Dvorak bumps into a metal rod that was standing against the wall and Karel snaps at him not to throw it away because it could be very useful to them later. He also shows Dvorak a room filled with urns, all of which are filled with human ashes. Kopfrkingl is proud that he has "liberated" these people from the terrible sufferings of their life and sent them on to be reincarnated. Despite claiming to be moral and abstinent, Kopfrkingl sexually harasses a coworker at the morgue, visits a brothel run by "Mrs. Iris" (comically, the prostitute he chooses named "Dagmar" is played by Vlasta Chramostová, the same actress as his wife) and drinks (though he assures his compatriots that it is only a "ceremonial glass"). He also has some qualms with his assistant Mr. Dvorak's frequent smoking. Kopfrkingl now takes his wife and children on visits to the carnival (in particular a wax museum displaying gruesome murders and severed heads and body parts) and to a boxing match but it remains clear that he is aloof and cut off from them. At Christmas Eve dinner, Karel openly mentions his new-found respect for the Nazi party and the Third Reich which begins to worry his wife. On Reinke's orders, Kopfrkingl spies on a Jewish ceremony and reports at the Nazi owned casino. Reinke thanks him for his work but warns him that his wife is possibly Jewish due to her having prepared a Jewish style carp dinner for them both earlier on Christmas Eve and having hid an invitation from Reinke. He tells Karel that it will be impossible for him to get better positions within the party if he remains married to her. Kopfrkingl now under the sway of Reinke and his disturbed Buddhist beliefs hangs his wife from a noose. He sees visions of himself as an asian monk assuring himself that he is doing the right thing by "liberating" them and that he will be rewarded by becoming the next Dalai Lama. The vision says he must prepare to journey to the eternal Fatherland in the Himalayas. Kopfrkingl next delivers an eulogy for his wife but it quickly descends into a Hitler-influenced mania about the importance of death in the new world order the Fuhrer is creating. Most of his former friends leave but Reinke and his Nazi comrades are overjoyed and give him the Sieg Heil salute. Karel visits a brothel with his friend Reinke and they talk through the doors to each other about Karel's son Mili. Karel says he is worried by how effeminate and weak he has become and that his mother's coddling has done this. Reinke tells Karel that quarter Jews will not be allowed to go to school or pursue careers in the Third Reich so it is best to be rid of him. Karel then takes Mili on a trip to see his father's crematorium business, cutting through a "scenic" shortcut through the graveyard. Kopfrkingl takes his son to the crematorium's basement and kills him with a metal rod, under the belief that he is "liberating his soul". He puts his son in a coffin with a dead German soldier that won't be open for viewing to the public and goes straight into the oven on the next Monday. The vision reappears and tells him that he is the reincarnated Buddha. He tells the vision that he will ascend the Tibetan throne in Lhasa but only after he first liberates his Jewish daughter. Afterwards, a Nazi leader discloses to him about the idea of gas chambers, which he very much approves of. He sees it as a faster way to liberate more people than his crematorium that only burns one coffin at a time. Overjoyed, he enters a mania but the Nazi minister tells him to calm down and remember to keep it secret. He takes his daughter to the basement of his crematorium and attempts to murder her with an iron rod, but while in the process she gets away due to him having another schizo-like vision of himself as a Buddhist monk. The monk tells him the time has come for him to rule the throne as the next Dalai Lama and that the people of the world beckon for his wise guidance. The crematorium briefly appears as a Tibetan monastery and the monk throws open the gates to reveal the Nazi commanders parked outside. He tells them that his quarter Jewish daughter was about to be liberated but unfortunately she got away and they state that they will eliminate his daughter for him and he mustn't worry. The last scene is him driving away in a Nazi vehicle they put him in on his way to run the death camps with the female personification of death chasing after the car in the rain. He states "I shall save them all. The whole world" and the closing shot is of the Potala Palace in Tibet. ===== The dean of students at a university shuts down a wild fraternity called Omega House. The building is then turned into a co-ed residence for 5 freshmen supervised by graduate student Ophelia (Hannah Harper) and her significant other, James, the former president of Omega House. ===== Joe LaBrava gets involved with former movie star Jean Shaw, an actress whom he had admired when he was a twelve-year-old boy, before discovering that she is being harassed by thug Richard Nobles and his partner Cundo Rey. ===== The story is about two unemployed youths Sahadevan (Mohan) and Mahadevan (S. V. Shekhar) who become detectives to solve Kaveri (Madhuri)'s problem, who is the love interest of Sahadevan. Adiyapatham (S. S. Chandran) is a politician who is going to open a party for children. Adiyapatham is too affectionate and love with his wife Chinnamani (Kovai Sarala). Mahadevan is an unemployed youth in a village and he ran away from his three daughters of his uncle after he came to Madras (Chennai). He went Sahadevan's rental house and got a problem with house owner (S. N. Parvathy). She took his and Mahadevan's Degree certificate for not paying the rent. So both went to Adiyapatham's for asking about his car shed rent. He misunderstand that Mahadevan came for a marriage proposal to his daughter Geetha (Pallavi). Geetha falls in love with Mahadevan, but he runs away when he saw Geetha. Sahadevan falls in love with Kaveri, but Kaveri has a problem with his maternal uncle, who wants to marry Kaveri. So he kidnaps Chinnamani instead of Kaveri and Chinnamani gives the phone number of the place to Adiyapatham. Both Sahadevan and Mahadevan find the place through the telephone exchange, they go and fight with Kaveri's maternal uncle and his people and save Kaveri from them with a final police sequence and finally it finishes with their marriages. ===== Narmada (Saranya Ponvannan) joins a new college, as she feels so bored sitting alone in her house. Her father is a businessman. In college, she happens to see the paintings and books written by Surendran. She is very much fascinated by him, but unable to find him in college. She is shocked when she finds Surendran (Karthik) has already committed suicide. Narmada frequently visits his grave in the following days, and the ghost of Surendran appears, advising her to cease visiting his grave. Those around Narmada suspect that she is mentally ill, as nobody else can see Surendran. Surendran tells Narmada he was duped into love by his colleague Philomina (Sudha). He genuinely loved her, even converting to Christianity; Surendran's father dies, shocked at the conversion. Philomina proves unfaithful, and marries Dr. Vijay (Pratap K. Pothen), which results in Surendran committing suicide. Later it is revealed that Philomina dies during delivery. Anand (Kapil Dev), a rich businessman, becomes attracted to Narmada and asks for her hand in marriage. Narmada's father approves of this marriage proposal, but Narmada is against this alliance as she is in love with Surendran. Narmada's father forcefully announces the marriage, but she escapes from marriage hall and commits suicide to join with Surendran in the afterlife. ===== A gang of thieves rob an African diamond company of diamonds worth $500,000, with two of its members posing as Lord and Lady Stonehill (who are expected to pay a visit). They kidnap its manager, Hugh Rand, and head into the "Calahari" Desert. After a few days in the sweltering heat, three of the crooks decide to take their chances in Cape Town instead and demand their share of the loot. Steve ("Lord Stonehill") gives them worthless glass. He and Diana ("Lady Stonehill") keep going, taking Hugh with them. When their native porters desert, however, the thieves are forced to rely on Hugh to guide them. He gains the upper hand as they trek through the hostile desert with very little water. Later, one of the other crooks returns and tells them that the other two died from drinking from a poisoned waterhole, before succumbing himself. Steve reveals he poisoned the water to deter pursuit. Hugh keeps tensions high by romancing Diana, infuriating Steve. As they get thirstier and thirstier, a parched Diana offers Hugh first the diamonds, then herself, in exchange for some of the water. When he rejects both, she even offers to be his slave, but with the same result. Eventually, they reach a safe waterhole. However, Hugh has been leading them in a circle, and they finally end up back at the diamond company office. Steve is first introduced to the real Lord and Lady Stonehill, before being taken away. Diana's fate is left in Hugh's hands. He tells her she is free, except that she will have to report to him every day for the rest of her life. Then he embraces her. ===== In 2688, humanity exists as a utopian society due to the inspiration of the music and philosophy of the Two Great Ones, Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted "Theodore" Logan. One of the citizens, Rufus, is tasked by the leaders to travel back to San Dimas, California, in 1988 using a time machine shaped like a phone booth to ensure that the young Bill and Ted, then dim-witted high school students, successfully pass a history class. Should they fail, Ted's father, police captain Logan, plans to ship Ted to a military academy in Alaska, ending Bill & Ted's fledgling band, the "Wyld Stallyns", and altering history. Rufus finds the two teenagers struggling to finish their history paper, which tasks them to describe how three historical figures would view the present San Dimas, trying to obtain help from customers at a Circle K convenience store. Rufus initially has difficulty convincing the two of his help when a copy of the phone booth time machine arrives, and versions of Bill and Ted from some later time in the future step out. The future Bill and Ted briefly discuss their situation with Rufus before disappearing in the time machine. Rufus offers the remaining pair a demonstration of the time machine, taking them back to 1805 where they find Napoleon Bonaparte leading his forces against Austria. As Rufus, Bill and Ted depart back to the present, Napoleon is thrown by a cannonball explosion into their wake, and is dragged through the Circuits of Time to the present. Rufus takes a moment to explain that time will continue to progress normally for Bill and Ted and they cannot miss their class presentation the next day, and then departs, leaving the empty time machine for the two. As Bill and Ted discuss where to go next, they discover Napoleon stuck in a nearby tree. This gives them the idea of kidnapping historical figures and bringing them to the present to complete their report. They leave Napoleon with Ted's younger brother Deacon before traveling. The two befriend Billy the Kid and Socrates, before stopping in 15th century England, where they become infatuated with Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna. This leads to them getting in trouble with their father the king, but Billy and Socrates rescue the pair, and the four escape, though the booth is partially damaged on their departure. They end up in the far future, discovering the society based on their influence, and are inspired to complete their report with "extra credit" by kidnapping additional historical figures: Sigmund Freud, Ludwig van Beethoven, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, and Abraham Lincoln. After a brief stop in prehistoric times to repair the booth, Bill and Ted program the machine to return to the present, but end up outside the Circle K on the night before, where Rufus was introducing himself to them. Bill and Ted convince their earlier selves of Rufus' trustworthiness, and then are reminded by Rufus of how to get to the next day. When they arrive, they learn that Deacon has ditched Napoleon. They leave the other historical figures at the mall to learn about San Dimas while they seek out Napoleon at a local water park. The historical figures get into trouble and are arrested by Captain Logan. Bill and Ted execute an escape plan based on using the time machine in the future to set up what they need in the present. With the historical figures recollected, the two give their presentation to the school, which is a rousing success, allowing them to pass the course. Some time later, Rufus returns to Bill and Ted, presenting them with the two princesses before they were committed to pre-arranged marriages, noting that the two women will also be part of Wyld Stallyns. Rufus explains why Bill and Ted are the two great ones and how they changed the world with their music. Why they need to pass their history report if they were separated it would destroy the time line. Rufus asks to jam with the group, but upon hearing their cacophony, admits to the audience that "they do get better". ===== As in the previous novels, Don't Tell Alfred is narrated by Fanny, now middle-aged and dealing with her own problems. Her husband Alfred Wincham, an Oxford don, has long been settled at this university as the Professor of Pastoral Theology but has now been named as the apparently unlikely British Ambassador to France. The novel suggests that this is a reward for the now "Sir" Alfred Wincham's "war work", but Fanny is unclear about her husband's role during this period. Fanny finds herself uprooted from Oxford and moving to a grand Embassy in Paris. She is at first clumsy and naive about Embassy life, but she is aided by Philip Cliffe-Musgrave. A former student of Alfred's and friend of the family, the young career diplomat, Philip, is at ease in the complex world of French politics and society. He and Fanny work together to find a way to dislodge the former ambassadress who has retained residence in the Embassy, and try to smooth the way for Alfred to concentrate on the complexities of his new position. Various characters in the novel often mutter, "Don't tell Alfred," when anything difficult or dramatic occurs in the day-to-day life of the Embassy, hence the title. Fanny must also contend with her four free-thinking sons, her social secretary Northey (also her cousin Louisa's daughter) who spends more time leading a hectic social life in Paris, with a trail of suitors behind her, than actually working, and a grumpy gossip columnist who skews everything that happens at the Embassy into embarrassing and untrue news stories. Unlike the previous novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, Fanny's narration focuses on her own life, rather than that of other people. This novel does provide details about the lives of some other characters from these novels and The Blessing, though these are not germane to Don't Tell Alfred. ===== In 1943, at the height of the World War II Battle of the Atlantic, Captain Pat Bannon, skipper of the fishing trawler Daniel Webster, unloads his catch in his home port of Gloucester, Massachusetts. He reluctantly agrees to transport Margaret McLean to Trabo, a small community in Newfoundland. Shorthanded, he hires Danish sailor Konrad, and the Daniel Webster sails for the Grand Banks fishing grounds. Once at sea, another Dane, Holger, reports that the radio has been sabotaged. As Bannon knows all of the crew well except for Konrad and fellow Dane Holger, he suspects one of them or even Margaret of being a German agent. Sailing at night in heavy fog, they hear gunfire. They search for survivors and come upon the damaged Den Magre Kvinde (Danish for The Gaunt Woman), a Danish square-rigged sailing ship. She appears to have been damaged in a storm and then shelled. Aboard, they discover only the dazed Captain Skalder and a dead body. He claims that his crew abandoned ship in a storm, and that he was subsequently attacked by a U-boat. The Daniel Webster tows the stricken Kvinde to Trabo. Konrad is suspicious: he notes that the German gunfire hit above the waterline (rather than below it, where a gunner intending to sink a ship would aim), and that while the tarpaulin covering the ship's boat is riddled with bullet holes, the boat itself is undamaged. Bannon and Konrad separately sneak below decks to search the hold. When they meet, Konrad has a pistol, but he gives it to Bannon to prove where his loyalties lie. They accidentally discover a second, hidden hold containing rack upon rack of torpedoes — the ship is a tender, covertly resupplying the U-boat "wolfpacks". They watch undetected as Holger enters the hold and uses a radio to signal the Germans. However, before the pair can alert the military, Skalder's crew arrives in boats, so they pretend they know nothing. Skalder plans to resupply the U-boats at Trabo. A Canadian flying boat lands in the harbor, and an officer inspects Skalder's papers. Finding nothing wrong, he informs Skalder that a corvette will arrive the next day to inspect his cargo. Bannon offers to leave one of his two Danish crewmen as a witness, allowing him to rid himself of the spy Holger without arousing suspicion. Bannon leaves port, but once out of sight, one man remains aboard to sail to the nearest radio station, while Bannon and the rest take to the dories and return. Bannon sets up a night ambush; when the Germans come to take the villagers prisoner, the invaders are wiped out. Bannon and his men then set fire to the Kvinde under cover of darkness. In the resulting confusion, they board, overpower or kill the remainder of the crew, and free Margaret, who had been taken as a hostage. Skalder claims to have set the ship to blow up in twenty minutes. Bannon does not believe him, but takes the ship out to sea, intending to destroy her safely away from the village. He and his men rig some of the torpedoes to explode. The Kvinde is approached by two U-boats seeking supplies. Skalder manages to get a gun and wounds his guard, Konrad, before he is killed. As a third U-boat surfaces, Bannon and another man help Konrad into a boat and row away under German gunfire. When the ship explodes, the resulting wave swamps the submarines, sinking them. ===== Prior to the Indy 500 auto race, Bill Whipple quarrels with his foster father, Jim MacDonald, who is to be one of his rivals that day. MacDonald suddenly loses his chance to drive because of a heart condition. Whipple's car owner decides to go with another driver, so MacDonald offers his car to Whipple for the race. With victory in sight, Whipple pulls into the pits and lets MacDonald take the checkered flag of victory. ===== Ryan Bingham works for a human resources consultancy firm specializing in termination assistance. His work constantly takes him around the country, conducting company layoffs on behalf of employers. Ryan also gives motivational speeches, using the analogy, "What's in Your Backpack?" to extol living free of burdensome relationships and material possessions. A frequent flyer, Ryan aspires to earn ten million frequent flyer miles with American Airlines. While traveling, Ryan meets Alex, a professional woman who also flies frequently. They begin a casual relationship, meeting up in various cities as schedules allow. Ryan is recalled to his company's offices in Omaha, Nebraska. Natalie Keener, a young, ambitious new hire, promotes cutting costs by conducting layoffs via videoconferencing. Ryan, unwilling to give up traveling, raises concerns that the new system could be impersonal and apathetic, and argues that Natalie lacks understanding about the firing process and how to handle emotionally vulnerable people. Ryan's boss, Craig, has Natalie accompany Ryan on his next round of terminations to observe the process. Ryan tutors Natalie on traveling more efficiently using smaller luggage and moving quickly through airport security. As they travel together, Natalie challenges Ryan's philosophies on life, particularly regarding relationships and love, but Ryan defends his lifestyle. During the trip, Natalie's boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her by text message. Natalie, shattered, is comforted by Ryan and Alex. On a video termination test run, Ryan's earlier concerns prove valid; when one laid-off person breaks down on camera, Natalie is unable to properly console him. Another employee threatens suicide. Natalie later castigates Ryan for refusing to commit to Alex, despite their obvious compatibility. In turn, Ryan criticizes Natalie for lacking empathy and never appreciating her surroundings. Soon after, they are ordered back to Omaha to implement Natalie's program. Before returning home, Ryan, taking Alex along, heads to Wisconsin for his sister Julie's wedding. He has a strained reunion with his semi-estranged family who resent his absence. When Jim, the groom, gets cold feet just before the ceremony, Ryan's older sister, Kara, asks Ryan to talk to Jim. Although it runs counter to his personal philosophy, Ryan uses his motivational skills to persuade Jim to proceed with the wedding. Ryan begins questioning his lifestyle and philosophies, and doubts what he lectures others about. Ryan has strong feelings for Alex and impulsively flies to Chicago. Arriving at her home, he is stunned to discover she is married and has children. She later phones him, saying that her family is her real life; he is merely an escape. On Ryan's flight home, the crew announces that he has just crossed the ten million mile mark. American Airlines' chief pilot is aboard to personally congratulate Ryan and notes he is the youngest person to achieve the milestone. Back in Omaha, Ryan transfers flyer miles to Julie and Jim so they can have a honeymoon. Ryan's boss informs him that a woman he and Natalie laid off has killed herself, the woman having earlier threatened to do so while being laid off (which Ryan did not take seriously). Natalie, upset, has quit via text message. The remote-layoff program is put on hold and Ryan goes back on the road. Natalie applies to the same San Francisco company where she previously declined a position, having followed her boyfriend to Omaha. The interviewer hires her, impressed by her qualifications and Ryan's glowing recommendation. The film concludes with Ryan standing in front of a vast destination board, looking up, and letting go of his luggage. ===== In 1950s, Dr. Kevin Carlson and his girlfriend Faith are busy fixing their car in the desert outside the hamlet of Beaumont, when they spot a meteor crash behind a nearby hill. Investigating the scene, Kevin and Faith are amazed to find out that this isn't a meteor, but a flying saucer from outer space, crewed by ant-headed aliens with hostile intentions. Avoiding their laser beams, the couple flees to Beaumont, intending to notify the authorities. Once there, Dr. Carlson alerts the local sheriff, who calmly convinces him it's an army jet which crashed and lets Dr. Carlson accompany him to the crash scene, where a group of military personnel is overseeing the crash site. The sheriff introduces Dr. Carlson to the army officer in charge of this operation, an ordinarily looking fellow, except for the odd handshake method (done extending the pinky finger) which unsettles Dr. Carlson. At this point, a photo camera flash accidentally reveals that those aren't humans but aliens, making Dr. Carlson carefully withdraw to his car and drive back to Beaumont. Dr. Carlson tries to convince the local telegraphist H.G. Orson to alert the press, but Orson refuses, claiming the story is insane and that nobody would believe him. When Dr. Carlson realizes that both Orson and the owner of the local diner are aliens, due to the fact that they both have their pinky finger similarly extended, he bolts the diner and escapes the town with Faith, decided to warn the world himself. The aliens chase them with their flying saucer, and eventually tractor-beam their car to their ship. There, Kevin and Faith learn the truth: they are all aliens who are only simulating an invasion scenario. They are both reprogrammed. The story cuts to the diner from the beginning, where a young man frantically runs inside it to warn the sheriff of a meteor which crash landed nearby, only that the sheriff is now Dr. Carlson. ===== The film tells the story of a poor family living in China's slums. The daughter, played by Ruan Lingyu, is forced to work at the docks. When it is learned that the slum's landlord is preparing to demolish the entire tenement, the daughter is forced to give up her body to her landlord's son in exchange for a delay in construction. By the end of the film, the daughter, her family, and the landlord's son all leave the city for what they hope will be a better life in the country. ===== The 'Cadian Ball is a soirée for young Cajun people to find marriage suitors. Calixta is the belle of the ball and describes the young men as boring and plain looking. The only man she finds attractive is Alcée. They sneak off together and discuss their former relationship. Clarisse, whom Alcée was originally courting, had refused to accept him, but after seeing him leave for the ball, she follows and asks Alcée to come with her, claiming that "something terrible has happened." After leading him away, she admits that nothing has happened, but that she is in love with him. However, Calixta ends up with Bobinôt, a man she is not very attracted to, but someone she will settle for. ===== Gloria (Dominique Swain) is the spoiled daughter of a Brazilian businessman who is bankrupt. Her father asks her to take Marcos (Sebastian DeVicente), the son of her father's business partner, out for a swim in the ocean. She does so, using her father's yacht and accompanied by her boyfriend Danny (Scott Bairstow) and their buddy Jeffrey (Henry Thomas). Gloria is caught kissing Marcos. Danny is jealous and throws Marcos in the water with a life preserver. To scare Marcos, he then drives the boat to a distant island. When they return to where they left him, Marcos has disappeared. Afraid of the consequences of his possible drowning, they discuss alibis and try to figure a way out of their predicament, first destroying their relationships and then themselves. ===== Kate (Jane Birkin) is driving along a winding mountain road when her car stalls. Vittorio (Sergio Castellitto) happens along, stops, and fixes her car without ever speaking to her. After he drives away, he slows down and decides to turn back. Something about the woman has interested him. Later in town, Vittorio learns that Kate has returned to join her family's traveling circus after leaving under mysterious conditions fifteen years ago. Kate's lover was killed during a performance. Intrigued by Kate's story, Vittorio stays for the show, and then decides to stay in town for a while, booking the room above a local cafe. He begins to attend all the shows, fascinated by the circus and the lives of its performers—all the while trying to discover the secret that led to Kate's sudden departure. When the circus caravan leaves town, Vittorio follows. With nowhere to go and nothing else to do, both he and Kate seem to be running away with the circus. Gradually he learns about the buried past of the circus and the buried careers of its performers. ===== ===== The film follows a group of related characters and their struggles with love on Valentine's Day. Florist Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) wakes up and proposes to his girlfriend Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba), who accepts. However, Reed's closest friends, Alfonso Rodriguez (George Lopez) and Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner), aren't surprised when Morley suddenly changes her mind and leaves Reed a few hours later. On a flight to Los Angeles, Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts), a captain in the U.S. Army on a one-day leave, befriends Holden Wilson (Bradley Cooper). Kate is travelling a long distance to get back home only for a short time, and Holden states that she must really be in love to do so. When the plane lands and Kate has to wait hours for the taxi, Holden offers his limousine to allow her to be there on time. Julia, an elementary school teacher, has fallen in love with cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey), but does not know that he is married to Pamela (Katherine LaNasa). Harrison tells her that he needs to go to San Francisco for a business trip: on his way, he stops by at Reed's flowershop and orders two flower bouquets - asking for discretion. Wanting to surprise him and despite Reed's warnings, Julia flies to San Francisco, convinced that Reed was wrong. Julia finds out that he is married and finds him at a local restaurant. Dressed as a waitress, Julia makes a scene at the restaurant, making Pamela suspicious. One of Julia's students, Edison (Bryce Robinson), orders flowers from Reed, to be sent to his teacher. Julia suggests to Edison to give the flowers to a girl named Rani in his class who has a crush on him after telling Edison the meaning of love. Edison's babysitter Grace Smart (Emma Roberts) is planning to lose her virginity to her boyfriend Alex Franklin (Carter Jenkins). The planned encounter goes awry when Grace's mother discovers a naked Alex in Grace's room, rehearsing a song he wrote for Grace. Edison's grandparents, Edgar (Héctor Elizondo) and Estelle Paddington (Shirley MacLaine) are facing the troubles of a long marriage. Estelle admits to Edgar about an affair she had with one of his business partners long ago. Although she is deeply sorry, Edgar is very upset. Grace's high school friends, Willy Harrington (Taylor Lautner) and Felicia Miller (Taylor Swift), are experiencing the freshness of new love, and have agreed to wait to have sex. Sean Jackson (Eric Dane), a closeted gay professional football player, is contemplating the end of his career with his publicist Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel) and his agent Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah). Kara is organizing her annual "I Hate Valentine's Day" party, but soon becomes interested in sports reporter Kelvin Moore (Jamie Foxx), who was ordered to do a Valentine's Day report by his boss Susan Moralez (Kathy Bates), and who shares Kara's hatred of the holiday. Substituting for Paula's absent secretary is one of the firm's receptionists, Liz Curran (Anne Hathaway), who dates mail-room clerk Jason Morris (Topher Grace). Jason is shocked when Liz turns out to be moonlighting as a phone sex operator. Liz explains that she is only doing this because she has a $100,000 student loan to pay off. Jason is upset, but eventually reconciles with her after seeing Edgar forgive Estelle. Sean finally comes out on national television, and Holden, Sean's lover, goes back to him. Kate arrives home late at night to greet not her supposed boyfriend but her son Edison. Willy drops Felicia off at home after a date and they kiss. Kelvin and Kara hang out at Kelvin's news station where they later kiss. Alfonso dines with his wife, and Grace and Alex agree to wait to have sex. Edgar and Estelle reconcile and redo their marriage vows, Harrison's wife has left him because of his infidelity and Morley tries to call Reed, who is instead starting a new relationship with Julia. Paula receives a call from one of Liz's masochistic clients and takes delight in expressing her dominance and sadism. ===== The story is set in 18th century Japan, and features a conflict between four very different characters - Oboko (nb, Ōbaku is a form of Zen), a poet of the wind and Buddhist monk; Izzi, court poet and extrovert; Lord Arishi, samurai and lord of the realm; and finally Matari, beautiful, intelligent, and on the run for her life. The story might be described as a love story - all three of the men are, in their own way, in love with Matari. Yet they each have their own outlook on life, and their own sense of honour and morality. While individually we might applaud them as good men and true, the meeting of the three results in tragedy. Oboko survives the story and is later mentioned in The Book of the Die by the same author. The various ISBNs of the different editions are: * – January 1975 (Matari, hardcover) * – September 2, 1976 (Matari, paperback) * – November 27, 2002 (White Wind, Black Rider, hardcover) * – November 27, 2002 (White Wind, Black Rider, paperback) Category:1975 novels Category:Historical novels Category:Novels set in Japan Category:Novels set in the 18th century Category:Japan in non-Japanese culture ===== The death of Joseph Stalin in the 1950s leads to an ideological crisis on a kibbutz that identifies with communist principles. The blind faith of three elderly shoemakers, who previously abused a young boy daring to criticize Stalin, begins to disintegrate when they learn of the Soviet leader's crimes and the manifest antisemitism on display at the Prague Trials. ===== Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) is a single father and high school English teacher who dreams of becoming a famous writer, but his previous novels have all been rejected by publishers. His 15-year-old son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is a sex-obsessed, underachieving misanthrope who is a student at the school where Lance teaches an unpopular poetry class. Kyle's poor academic performance and vile behavior gain the attention of the school principal (Geoff Pierson), who advises Lance to transfer Kyle to a special-needs school. One night, Lance discovers that Kyle has died in an autoerotic asphyxiation accident in his bedroom. To salvage his son's dignity, Lance stages Kyle's death as a suicide. He hangs Kyle in a closet and posts a fake suicide note on his body. A classmate later obtains the suicide note from police records and publishes it in the school newspaper. The note strikes a chord with the students and faculty, and suddenly many students claim to have been friends with Kyle and are touched by how deep and intelligent he shows himself to be in his writings. Enjoying the attention his writing is finally receiving, Lance decides to write and publish a phony journal that was supposedly written by his son before his death. Kyle becomes something of a postmortem cult phenomenon at the school, and soon Lance begins to receive the adoration that he has always desired. Andrew, Kyle's sole friend, finds Kyle's suicide note and journals as highly uncharacteristic based on Kyle's personality when he was alive, but Lance brushes him off when Andrew confronts him. The journal soon attracts the attention of book publishers and Lance lands a television appearance on a nationally broadcast talk show. The school principal then decides to rename the school library in Kyle's honor. At the library dedication, Lance feels imperative guilt for exploiting his son's death for his own benefit as well as hatred towards feigning their fondness for Kyle. While giving a speech, Lance decides he can no longer continue the charade and confesses to everyone that Kyle's death was accidental, and that he wrote the suicide note and journal. Lance is ostracized by all except Andrew, who knew that Lance wrote the journal, but nevertheless enjoyed Lance's writing, and he encourages Lance to keep writing. The two happily watch a zombie movie at Lance's home with his neighbor Bonnie. ===== Divine Misdemeanors follows the character of Meredith NicEssus, princess of faerie, also known as Merry Gentry. Having succeeded in her goal to become pregnant before her cousin Cel, Merry has declined the Unseelie throne and is attempting to live peacefully with her men and court while dealing with continued court intrigue and the paparazzi. This is made more difficult when a series of brutal murders rips through the area, with the Grey Detective Agency being asked to take part in the investigations and to send Merry in particular. Meanwhile, Merry is having to deal with the stress of leading a large group of fey outside of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. ===== What remains of Earth and most of its inhabitants after a nuclear holocaust is dominated and enslaved by the insect-like humanoid Raksha, invaders from another planet. Many years later, only the Resistance remains free, in the sewers of a ruined city. The player takes control of Finn, a villager in a jungle that the Raksha use to hunt their slaves as prey. A Raksha hunting lord marks Finn as a troublemaker, and he must outwit the Raksha, and seek aid wherever he can find it, to survive. His nemesis vanquished, Finn searches for answers about the fate of his civilization in a wartorn city, despite the Scavengers hunting through the ruins for scraps of remaining technology...and intruders. ===== 17-year-old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller is a troubled teenager who wants to live her own life and is trying her very best to ignore her divorced parents: Kim, her mother with whom she lives in New York, and Steve, her father who lives in his hometown of Wrightsville Beach, NC. Her mother decides that it would be in everyone's best interest if Ronnie and her 10-year-old brother, Jonah, spent the summer in Wrightsville Beach with Steve. Jonah is excited, while Ronnie can only wonder why her parents hate her so much as to send her there for the summer. Once they arrive, Kim leaves and Ronnie runs off to the carnival down at the beach, where she watches a volleyball game in the crowd. As she turns to leave, one of the players, the privileged Will Blakelee, knocks into her while trying to reach the ball, spilling her soda all through the front of her shirt. In search of a stand selling apparel, Ronnie bumps into Blaze, an estranged teenager like herself, Blaze helps her find a T-shirt booth and they leave to watch a show by Marcus, Blaze's boyfriend, on the pier. The show includes "harmless" fireballs, and when it's over, the police runs Marcus off. They go to sit under the pier, where Blaze heads off to get Marcus another beer. In Blaze's absence, Marcus attempts to hit on Ronnie, causing her to leave. Later, when Ronnie finds a nest of Loggerhead turtle eggs in danger of racoons behind her house, she decides to camp out next to it to save it. She learns that Will volunteers at the aquarium, and after a few nights of talking with him on the beach, she realizes she has feelings for him. Ronnie then finds out that her dad has cancer. As his cancer progresses, she, Jonah, and Will finish the window while Ronnie also finishes her dad's song for him on the piano. Pastor Harris, Steve's friend, then installs the window in the new church. Kim arrives to say goodbye to Steve one last time and take Jonah home. Ronnie stays with Steve. Will had left in August to go to Vanderbilt; however, he shows up at the funeral once Steve has passed. He leaves again for school and Ronnie returns to New York. While at Juilliard, auditioning for a spot, Will shows up to surprise her; he reveals that he's decided to go to Columbia to be closer to her. ===== Ivan Kalin (Laurence Harvey) is a Eurasian photographer who is trapped in Japan, but who wants to emigrate to the United States. His visa is continually delayed, which causes him to use his charm with women to pull some strings and apply some pressure on the embassy. His romantic magnetism works on a thrill- seeking American (Martha Hyer) and an aristocratic Japanese woman (France Nuyen). ===== The film opens with the family of archeologist Arun Chatterjee, who lives with his wife, Riya, and baby son, Aladin. When out on a holiday, Arun is attacked by a gang searching for a magic lamp, which Chatterjee has found, but has hidden somewhere. Arun and Riya Chatterjee are murdered; Aladin is raised by his grandfather. After his granddad's death, a now grown-up Aladin Chatterjee (Ritesh Deshmukh) lives in the fictional city of Khwaish(wish). He is lonely, and Kasim (Sahil Khan) and his gang members have bullied Aladin since his childhood. His life changes when Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandez) enters the city, and Aladin immediately falls for her. Jasmine has a birthday party for Aladin, and as a present Kasim gives Aladin a magic lamp for his birthday to embarrass him in front of Jasmine. However, this lamp turns out to be the magic lamp that Aladin's father's murderers were trying to find. Aladin rubs the lamp and releases the genie, Genius (Amitabh Bachchan). Desperate to grant him three wishes so his contract with the magic lamp can end, the rock-star Genius suddenly makes Aladin's life very interesting but chaotic. Aladin does not want to make any wishes, but Genius enters Aladin's dreams and finds out what he wants, getting his sleeping mind to make a wish: to make Jasmine fall in love with him. When he wakes up, he does not like what Genius has done and uses his second wish to return Jasmine to normal. His third wish is for Genius to help him woo Jasmine without using magic to make it happen. Genius does his best, but magic is really his strong suit. Still, as a result of Genius's help/interference, Aladin stands up to Kasim and starts a relationship with Jasmine, and Genius teaches Kasim a lesson. Aladin's future looks perfect, until the real threat looms on the horizon - the ex-genie, Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt). Ringmaster is searching for the magic lamp and kidnaps Jasmine with the help of his circus gang. Shortly after Genius and Aladin realize she has been kidnapped, an informer (really Ringmaster in disguise) tells Aladin that it was Genius who murdered his parents. Aladin insults Genius and tells him to leave. Heartbroken, Genius goes to rescue Jasmine alone. As he arrives, it is revealed that Ringmaster is the one who actually killed Aladin's family, as he has been searching for the magic lamp for a long time; Aladin's parents found it first, and Ringmaster punished them for it. Ringmaster steals the magic lamp and wishes for Genius to kill Aladin, but Genius refuses to do it, and loses his magic because he did not grant the wish, just as Ringmaster had planned. Aladin learns that Genius is innocent and arrives to help him, and they succeed in rescuing Jasmine. Ringmaster's plan is then completely revealed: he plans to perform a ritual to steal the reflection of an approaching comet, getting back his genie powers as a result. Genius, Aladdin and Jasmine intervene, and Aladdin steals the comet's reflection, giving genie powers back to Genius instead of Ringmaster. Genius seals Ringmaster inside a mirror and then shatters it, defeating him. The Ringmaster's gang is also defeated. In the end, the trio happily gets back to the city, Aladin and Jasmine are a couple, and after earning special superpowers from the comet, Aladin gives Kasim yet another lesson. ===== Eddie Mazda (Dirk Benedict) is a hard-nosed private investigator originally from Jersey City, New Jersey. After working a job for a widow named Nan Thompson (Amy Yasbeck), he soon after is confronted by mob boss Dom Gellatti (Ralph Drischell), the man who killed Mrs. Thompson's husband. Having already ransacked Mazda's film studio for any incriminating pictures against him for fear of federal prosecutions, Gellatti gives Eddie the chance to back down by forcing him to leave Jersey City and never come back, or else. After gathering some of his possessions, leaving a phone message to his ex-wife Vicky, and leaving his pet goldfish with the next-door neighbor and her cat, Mazda is escorted by two of Gellatti's goons to the airport and given a plane ticket to Chicago and some money; instead, he decides to go to Hawaii, taking with him film negatives that he managed to hide from the mobsters. ===== George Moran is a former American paratrooper and veteran of the Dominican Republic intervention who now runs a small beachfront motel in Miami. While searching for a Dominican woman named Luci Palma who saved his life in 1965 (and gave him the nickname "Cat Chaser"), he begins a relationship with Mary DeBoya, the wealthy, unhappy wife of a sadistic former Dominican general. Moran gets involved in a plot by fellow military veteran Nolen Tyner and a former New York policeman, Jiggs Scully, to rip off the general. Moran must elude a number of double-crosses as he and Mary attempt to gain her freedom plus $2 million of the general's money. ===== Lexi Archer is a teenager who, after the divorce of her parents, moves with her mother Kathryn and younger sister Jill from Chicago to Seattle. At her new school, she befriends Jennifer Harnsberger, a popular straight A student whom she meets during volleyball tryouts. After her volleyball coach suggests that Lexi should lose a few pounds in order to enhance her athletic performance, she starts to look for ways to diet. When Jennifer admits to being bulimic, they decide to diet and work out together. Kathryn notices that her daughter is eating less and becoming thinner, but she is too occupied with her divorce to realize there is a problem. Lexi becomes adept at hiding the true nature of her eating habits. Meanwhile, Lexi and Jill visit their father in Chicago and try to convince him to reunite with Kathryn, but they soon discover that he is dating a new woman, Jolene. Kathryn begins to suspect an eating disorder when she finds out that Lexi has not had her period in over three months. She consults a gynaecologist, but she tells her that Lexi is at a normal weight. She attributes Lexi's weight loss to the trauma of the divorce. Lexi appeared to weigh more at the doctor's because she clandestinely placed eight bundles of coins on her body to make her appear to be heavier. Meanwhile, she and Jennifer consider being models. They are excited to be contacted by Nick McKay, a photographer, but he is interested only in Jennifer and explains that Lexi is not fit to be a model. Upset, she starts to diet even more and she eventually collapses during a volleyball match. She is hospitalized, diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and is forced to enter a recovery program. Her parents have different opinions about her treatment and start to argue. Nevertheless, she eventually recovers and is released. She admits to her mother that Jennifer has an eating disorder as well, and a worried Kathryn immediately informs Jennifer's mother. Although Pamela dismisses the possibility of her daughter having such a condition, Jennifer feels betrayed when she hears about it and refuses to speak to Lexi, for which she blames her mother. Lexi tries to confront her at a party, but a drunken Jennifer angrily leaves, only to be hit by a car. She is taken to a hospital and dies of a cardiac arrest. Lexi has trouble dealing with her friend's death and relapses with her eating disorder. Devastated, her mother tries to help her, assuring her that Jennifer's death can't be blamed on her. Her father wants her to be hospitalized again, but Kathryn insists she can help Lexi herself. He is successful in getting a court order to hospitalize her, but Lexi is in the end able to recover on her own, encouraged by her mother. The film ends as Lexi participates in a volleyball match, where she sees Jen's spirit who smiles at her, and she wins the match. ===== David Lurie (John Malkovich) is an ageing white professor teaching Romantic literature at an unnamed university in Cape Town shortly after the end of apartheid. David has an affair with one of his students, Melanie Isaacs (Antoinette Engel). University officials learn of the incident and bring David before a disciplinary board. David's colleagues offer him a quiet exit to save face, but he brashly affirms his guilt and refuses to admit wrongdoing, forcing the board to punish him more harshly. David takes refuge with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Haines), who owns a farm in the Eastern Cape. At first, the two experience harmony and Lurie finds peace with himself, though he grows suspicious of Lucy's farm manager, Petrus (Eriq Ebouaney). One day, David and Lucy are attacked by three men, who rape Lucy. David goes through a crisis, not knowing how to cope with his personal and family tragedies. He is also confused by the newfound guilt he suddenly feels about these rapes. In a movement toward penance, David goes back to his former student's home to beg for forgiveness from her and her family. ===== The story's protagonist is Poilar Crookleg, member of a humanoid race with a pastoral civilization at a level roughly corresponding to that of the Iron Age of human civilization. Only as the story develops it becomes apparent that these people are not humans; their hands have an additional opposing thumb, and they have limited shapeshifting abilities which allows them to loosen their joints, to adapt their skin and inner organs to environmental changes, and to extrude suction cups for climbing. Shapeshifting is also an intrinsic part of their sexuality, for in the absence of sexual arousal both sexes maintain a neuter form without overt gender characteristics. The planet is located in a binary star system where it seems to be in orbit around the major white and luminous component, Ekmelios (probably an F-type star) while reddish Marilemma (apparently an M-type red dwarf) is much more distant. ===== A femme fatale fashionista at a trendy design school embarks on a brutal and bloody killing spree, while gleefully evading the hapless cops assigned to the murder cases. ===== In 1976 San Francisco, Phoebe O'Connor is plagued by the mystery surrounding the death of her free-spirited older sister, Faith, who left the United States for Europe when Phoebe was 12 years old, and was subsequently found dead at the base of a precipice in Portugal. Faith's death was ruled a suicide, but Phoebe is skeptical of this claim. Against the wishes of her mother, Gail, Phoebe departs for Europe hoping to uncover more information about the last year of Faith's life. In Amsterdam, she tracks Faith's boyfriend, Wolf, an Englishman who left San Francisco with Faith. Wolf blames Faith's suicide on drug use, thrillseeking, and a hedonistic lifestyle; he recalls his last moments with Faith in July 1970, when she decided to travel to Berlin to join the Red Army Faction. After Phoebe has a disturbing vision of Faith in the street, she is invited by Wolf to stay with him and his wife, a French woman named Claire. Wolf recollects Faith's eagerness to be engage in radical political protests, including terrorism, which frightened him. Phoebe, wanting to see where her sister last lived, plans to travel to Portugal. Wolf, though initially reluctant, agrees to accompany her on the trip. Soon, their relationship turns romantic. Phoebe and Wolf make their way to the seaside village where Faith died. When they arrive at the cliffside where Faith died, Wolf further elaborates on Faith's terrorist involvement with the Red Army Faction, including a bomb detonation in Berlin which resulted in the death of an innocent man. Upon reuniting with Faith in Portugal, Wolf found her riddled with guilt, and she made him promise to never tell her family that she was responsible for a man's death. In the midst of a nap on the beach, Wolf awoke to Faith standing on the edge of a rock wall along the cliff. Though he attempted to coax her back, he was unable to stop her from leaping to her death. Phoebe and Wolf embrace, and light a candle for Faith in a nearby cathedral. ===== Yōji is a young lonely factory worker who falls for an equally lonely girl co-worker, Sachiko, but is unable to tell her of his interest. After he is assaulted in a theater by a crossdresser, Yōji finds what looks like an alien insect and hides it in his room. The next night, he comes across Sachiko being sexually attacked by another fellow worker. He attempts to come to her aid but is beaten. Sachiko feels sorry for him and returns with him to his apartment. During this encounter, Sachiko is attacked by the alien object which penetrates her and turns her into a bio-mechanical monster, a NecroBorg. These parasites take over human bodies and use their flesh to create weapons which they use to fight each other. Yōji is also infected and the plot eventually leads to a showdown fight to the death between the two would-be lovers. A side plot concerns a father who is out to kill the NecroBorgs who have also infected his daughter. ===== The player starts out trapped in a monster containment facility under the command of General W. R. Monger, with Insectosaurus, Susan (A.K.A. Ginormica,) B.O.B., The Missing Link, and Dr. Cockroach. . Susan breaks a wall and the monsters escape and disable a giant anti-monster robot known as the US Avenger, but are recaptured by Monger, who is accompanied by a force of soldiers, tanks, and helicopters. Meanwhile, a giant crater appears, around which the military puts blockades and the President of the US tries to negotiate with an alleged extraterrestrial being. The crater explodes, and a giant alien robot probably the size of Insectosaurus emerges and begins destroying everything. Monger makes a deal with the monsters, promising freedom in return for the monsters' help in stopping the robot. ===== Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.), a successful architect, is due to fly home from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan), who is about to give birth. On the way to the airport, he has a chance encounter with Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), who is going to LA to be an actor and is planning to scatter his recently deceased father's ashes at the Grand Canyon. When Ethan misuses the words "terrorist" and "bomb" while talking to Peter, they are both escorted off the plane. Peter, now on the No Fly List and missing his wallet, agrees to drive with Ethan to Los Angeles. Ethan stops to buy marijuana, and Peter discovers that they are nearly out of money. Since Peter has no I.D., he gets his wife to wire money to Ethan, but discovers Ethan had the money wired to his stage name instead of his legal name. When the Western Union employee (Danny McBride) refuses to accept Ethan's "Stage name I.D." it leads to a violent altercation. After a night at a rest stop, Peter decides to drive off and abandon Ethan, but realizes that he has forgotten to unload the ashes of Ethan's father when he left. This causes him to wrestle with his conscience, before deciding to return, and covering for his absence by saying he had gone to buy breakfast. Ethan takes over driver duty so Peter can get some rest after a sleepless night, but he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car. Peter calls his friend, Darryl (Jamie Foxx), for assistance and decides to part with Ethan, but Darryl persuades Peter otherwise. They arrive at Darryl's house for rest. During their conversation, Ethan discovers hints that Sarah may have been unfaithful, triggering Peter to question Sarah's timely pregnancy. Darryl throws both of them out after mistakenly drinking some of Ethan's father's ashes, which were stored in a coffee tin. Darryl lets them use his Range Rover to make the rest of the trip. Ethan and Peter get high and begin to bond, but Ethan then mistakenly drives to the Mexico–United States border. Despite assuring Peter that he'll handle the situation, Ethan flees, and Peter is arrested for possession of marijuana. The Mexican Federal Police lock Peter up, but Ethan steals a truck and breaks him out, causing several car crashes in the process. Peter decides to stop at the Grand Canyon for Ethan, who finally scatters his father's ashes. Peter then confesses that he tried to leave Ethan at the rest area. Ethan makes a confession of his own: he has had Peter's wallet and I.D the entire time. Peter seemingly forgives him but then attacks Ethan in a rage, but is interrupted by a call from Sarah, who has just gone into labor. Peter and Ethan leave for California. Ethan finds a gun in the truck and he accidentally shoots Peter. Arriving at the hospital where Sarah is in labor, Peter passes out from loss of blood. Sarah delivers the baby safely, and Peter expresses his discomfort at his new daughter being named Rosie Highman. Ethan leaves to meet with a Hollywood agent while telling Peter to call him. At the end, Ethan guest stars on an episode of his favorite television program, Two and a Half Men with Peter and Sarah watching it in bed with their daughter. Ethan texts Peter during the episode, indicating that the two have become friends. ===== Brady is a devout Christian who has moved with his mother from Kansas to Rock Haven, California. Soon after arriving, he sees a boy and is instantly attracted to him. He later discovers that the boy is Clifford, the son of his next door neighbor. Clifford and Brady quickly become friends and hang out together. Brady is obviously uncomfortable around girls, so Clifford teaches him some moves that may help him out. During one such session, Clifford feels Brady's crotch; Brady jumps away, and Clifford teases him that he is aroused. Brady avoids Clifford for a while, but then starts hanging out with him again. A little while later, Clifford kisses him and Brady flees. He later confronts Clifford about the fact that he is gay and the two of them avoid each other. In the meantime, Brady is being set up by his mother with Peggy, a Christian girl who realizes that Brady is gay. While Brady and Clifford are on the outs, Peggy asks Brady if he has boy troubles, which Brady angrily denies. Eventually, Brady goes back to see Clifford and the two of them start kissing. Brady flees, confused by what is happening to him and torn between his religious beliefs and his strong feelings. He decides to go with his feelings and eventually sleeps with Clifford. Brady's mom knows something is wrong, but can't figure out what it is. The night that Clifford and Brady sleep together, Brady had told her that he was being driven to a church sleepover by Peggy. When he gets back the next day, she tells him that Peggy was in a car accident and confronts him about what is happening. He tells her that he is gay and she reacts badly and pressures him into breaking up with Clifford. She also gets Brady to go to a camp to "fix" him. Clifford is heartbroken and goes to join his dad in Barcelona, but not before asking Brady to reconsider. Brady says he can't, but then goes home to his mother and refuses to go to the camp. She insists that he is making the biggest mistake of his life and he says that he already has. He tells her that he knows she won't agree with him, but asks for her love, to which she responds that he is always her son. He forgives her for what has happened, then hugs her as she weeps in his arms. The movie ends with him saying that the pain has not ended, but he has never been closer to God. ===== Cartas Chilenas is a satirical poem in the shape of an epistolary novel, indirectly written "in honor" of Luís da Cunha Meneses, then-governor of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais, and the Portuguese Crown. It begins with a fictional foreword, in which an anonymous Brazilian man explains how the book came into being: he obtained a copy of a series of letters from a man coming to Brazil from an unnamed Hispanic America country, and decided to translate these letters from Spanish to Portuguese in order to keep the Brazilian governors from making the same mistakes made by Fanfarrão Minésio, the tyrannic governor of Chile. The thirteen letters were written as blank verse poems by "Critilo" (the assumed nom de plume of Tomás António Gonzaga), who lives in Santiago, Chile (actually Vila Rica, Minas Gerais), and are addressed to his friend, "Doroteu" (possibly Cláudio Manuel da Costa), who lives in Madrid. In each letter, "Critilo" describes life in Santiago under the despotic and corruption-filled régime of the Chilean governor, "Fanfarrão Minésio" (who is actually Luís da Cunha Meneses). Category:Unfinished poems Category:1863 books Category:Books published posthumously Category:Satirical books ===== Rambling U. cheerleaders (Monica, Toni, Sissy, and Sheryl) work together to keep State U. from stealing Rambling’s star football players. State’s Mr. Langley — on behalf of Coach Wilson — takes the players on a trip to Bell Harbor, to convince them that State has much more to offer. (better scholarships, facilities, contacts, and a more prestigious degree) Rambling’s Coach Hensen does not see anything he can do to stop it, given Rambling’s limited resources, so the four girls take it on themselves to do whatever is required to convince the players to stay at Rambling. 1970s-era sex-comedy high jinks ensue as the girls compete with stuck-up State cheerleaders to get their players back. The Rambling U. cheerleaders succeed by infiltrating parties and meetings with sex, disguises and drugs. Not only do they keep their players, but they recruit State's star players, Mitch Stevens and Stanley Kraus, to boot. ===== Marcus Clay (modeled on Bob Hicks) organizes an all-black group dedicated to patrolling the black section of town and protecting residents from "white backlash" in 1965. Activists continue the struggle to gain social justice after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending legal racial segregation. ===== Reiji Saioin, the top violinist in Hakuto Junior High School, is to be kicked out of the school if he does not win the next Japan National Music Contest due to his history of trouble. His private teacher and alum of Hakuto, Mitsuko Hane, is willing to help Reiji overcome his flaws to win the music contest. She wants Reiji to play the violin because she cannot due to her left arm being rendered useless after being burnt. Reiji has his own wishes to keep his sister, Miruka, who is abused by their father, happy. Along the way to win the music contest, Reiji becomes friends with Nachi Meiya, the best female violinist in Hakuto, and Aoi Kenzaki, a pianist- turned-violinist. He also has to deal with Bartholomew Asakura, the man who ruined Hane's arm, as well as his growing feelings for his teacher. ===== Western movie star Tom Ford (Gene Autry) is scheduled to make a guest appearance at the Texas Centennial celebration in Dallas. When Ford leaves on vacation intending to miss the celebration, his publicity manager Lee Wilson (William Newell) convinces singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) to appear in Tom's place. While driving to Dallas from Hollywood, Gene meets Marion Hill (Kay Hughes) when his trailer collides with her wagon. Marion is also on her way to the centennial, intending to enter her show steer in the Texas Centennial Exposition. Watching Gene skillfully retrieve her cattle, Marion is impressed to see a movie star perform like a true cowboy. At the Texas Centennial in Dallas, Gene (pretending to be movie star Tom Ford) sings on the radio and becomes a national hit. Studio head Swartz (Charles Judels), hoping to capitalize on the publicity, decides to launch a series of Western musicals starring Tom Ford, even though the real Ford cannot sing a note. When the engagement of Gene (as Tom Ford) and Marion is announced in the newspapers, Ford's real fiancée is infuriated. Meanwhile, gambler Tony Rico (Harry Worth) and his henchmen arrive in Dallas to collect the $10,000 that Tom owes. Wilson is forced to pay the debt, plus $25,000 to keep Rico from revealing Gene's identity. Tom Ford finally shows up and reports to Swartz, but the studio head would rather appease the blackmailers than replace Gene with the talentless Ford. At the "Cavalcade of Texas" Gene and Marion perform as part of the centennial. When Tom Ford's fiancée shows up, Marion is forced to leave. In order to save his romance with Marion, Gene takes a risk and confesses his true identity over the radio. To his surprise, the audience prefers him to the real Tom Ford. Gene's confession ruins Rico's blackmail attempt, and he and his henchmen escape with the blackmail money by dressing as cowboys and joining the cavalcade act. Gene chases after the outlaws in true western style, eventually arresting them. During the chase, the money is lost in a lagoon by Gene's sidekick, Frog (Smiley Burnette). Sometime later back in Hollywood, Tom Ford is now working as Gene's double. Gene sings to Marion on the set of his new movie, and she and Gene kiss. ===== ===== In the year 200X, a supervillain who goes by the name Lord Gokibu wants to steal the fossil of the Insect King,"Comics: Spider-Man Family (Vol. 2) #7". Retrieved 2009-6-2. 15 year-old Sho Amano uses his new spider powers to become Spider-Man J, to prevent this from happening. During his time as a superhero, he meets Japanese versions of Elektra, Dr. Doom, Blade, and the Fantastic Four. ===== The Named and the hunter Tribe have entered into an uneasy alliance as neighbors. When Quiet Hunter, a young member of the Tribe, asks the Named if they can share their fire to warm the Tribe's cubs, a strange young male steals the Red Tongue in an attempt to harness its powers. However, he is young and foolish, and he accidentally starts a canyon fire which kills many of his tribe, mainly the Tribe's breeding-age females. When the mating season comes the leader of the Tribe, True-of-voice, ends up driving out the younger males from his tribe because they are competition for females. New- Singer (True-of-Voice's son) leads the outcast young males with his song, and wages an attack on the Named. New-Singer's Tribe kills the majority of the cubs and kidnaps the Named females, with the exception of Ratha. Ratha attempts to rescue her clan sisters by sneaking into the new Tribe's camp, but ends up in captivity herself. New-Singer waits until all the females are in heat, and then begins a courting circle. During this frenzy, it is revealed that the strange young male who stole the fire was Night-who-eats-Stars, Ratha's long lost son. Two young Named cubs, Mishanti and Bundi, end up helping the Named males in destroying the courting circle with their "Rumblers" (Paraceratherium), and the young Tribe members are driven away. ===== A child is born with brain damage and the mother decides to sue the doctor for malpractice.Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p103 ===== The film recounts the restless life of Dmitri Guryanov after he completes his military service. ===== Holly Nolan is a 14-year-old, dealing with the typical issues of someone her age, including peer pressure. Always wanting to hang out with the older crowd, she meets and falls in love with Chris, a 19-year-old guy who was rejected by his family. He is now hoping to attend college and go into forestry once he is out of the military reserve force. When her recently divorced and overly protective mother, Donna, finds out about their relationship, she is outraged, forbidding her from ever seeing him again. Holly, upset that her mother doesn't want to give him a chance because of his age, responds furiously when she kicks him out of her yard. She sneaks out and decides to run away with him to start a new life in California. They soon find out that traveling without money is difficult. This fact only is emphasized further when they encounter a lecherous trucker and a change of routes. They break the law by stealing to survive. Once in Southern California, they soon find out they have nowhere to go. They pass up an offer from the church, but discover they can't count on support from their families either. Chris is wanted because of his desertion, and Donna files a missing persons report with the police to find her daughter, threatening to sue Chris for statutory rape. Thinking she is in love with him, Holly decides to ignore her mother and stay with Chris. However, this proves to be exhausting. Holly is arrested for suspicion prostitution and Chris eventually turns to male prostitution on the streets of Los Angeles to earn money for food. ===== Tony (Bobby Deol), works as a hit- man for a gangster, Vikas Patil (Ashish Vidyarthi), who owes his allegiance to wealthy Raj Mallya (Kabir Bedi). Raj Mallya has involved in marketing spurious and out-dated drugs, and as a result is the subject of an investigation by the Food & Drugs Administration's inspector Dr. Hargobind Gosai (Mohan Joshi). Raj asks Vikas to take care of Hargobind through Tony, which Tony does, and in this manner, Raj is absolved of all wrongdoing. Then Tony meets with an attractive starlet named, Sapna (Priyanka Chopra), and falls head over heels in love with her. When Sapna tells him that she is engaged to be married to Dr. Ajay Saxena, he is heart-broken. Then a scandal breaks out, and Hargobind is implicated in the deaths of three children that were killed by Raj's spurious drugs. All the evidence points against Hargobind and not a single lawyer is willing to take his case; his wife kills herself, and the marriage of his daughter has been canceled. Then Tony finds out that Hargobind is none other than Sapna's dad – and he has ruined the only chance he had for marrying the girl of his dreams. ===== Youssef Soltane, a 45-year- old Tunisian intellectual, is the product of a generation that lived the era of euphoria and great ideologies in the sixties, and their subsequent failure. He was incarcerated and tortured for his political opinions. Furthermore, his relationship with Zineb, a young, beautiful bourgeois, only brings him more trouble. During one long winter night, Youssef wanders in search of an emotional haven, prey to all the questions that flood his memory. ===== Halli Sveinsson loves to hear stories from the days when the valley was a wild and dangerous place, besieged by the bloodthirsty Trow. Now farming has taken over from fighting Trows, and to Halli's disappointment, heroics seem a thing of the past. But when a practical joke rekindles an old blood feud, he sees a chance for a daring quest of his own. The tale begins with the Battle of the Rock being told to a child. This was when twelve heroes of the valley joined together to fight the ruthless Trows (man eating monsters) who were devastating the land. Taking up positions on a large rock, they were finally attacked at dusk by the Trows, who they fended off all night. In the morning, when the people returned to see what had happened, all were dead, Trows and Heroes, including Svein, their leader. The heroes were buried under cairns along the borders of the valley with their swords, so that, even in death, they could guard the boundaries from the Trows. As long as no one crosses the cairn border, the legends say, no Trows can enter the Valley. Many years later, Halli is born. He is a very short, stout, and headstrong boy who longs for the days of the Heroes, when a man could fight for what he wanted and take what he could win. He longs to leave the valley, which is now ruled by a Council of women who demand peace and equality in the land. They have outlawed swords and other weapons to discourage wars. Halli looks very much like his uncle Brodir, whom he adores. He is the third and last child in his family, who are Arnkel, his father and Arbiter of Svein's House, Astrid, his mother and Law-Giver of Svein's House, Leif, his older brother who is immediately in line for the Arbiter after Arnkel, Gudny, his sister and Brodir, who is the only relative who seems to get along with him. When his uncle is murdered by the rival house of Hakonssons, Halli sets off to avenge him. Finally, he thinks that he will have a hero's quest of his own. But during his journey, Halli realizes that he isn't the pitiless avenging killer that he thought he could be. His interference and thirst for revenge leads two men to their deaths, and he becomes sick with guilt. He returns home to his relieved yet angry family, and his distrusting and fearful fellow villagers. His actions eventually lead to an attack by the House of Hakon, and he alone can accept responsibility and take charge of his defenseless village. The enemy arrives and they have an obvious advantage--swords. Halli realizes that his peoples' only hope is if he lures the enemy in the dark past the cairn boundaries. He does so with the help of his friend, Aud Arnsdottir, and to his relief, it works. The Hakonssons are eaten by monsters in the moorlands. However, Halli and Aud also come under attack. Much like the heroes of old, they take their last stand on a large rock and await the unseen monsters. ===== In the magical land of Narnia, it is always winter but never Christmas due to the tyrannical rule of the White Witch. The Witch fears a prophecy which states that two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve will be crowned kings and queens of Narnia, which will not only mean the end of her reign but of her life. When she learns that the four Pevensie children have arrived in Narnia, she will stop at nothing to prevent them from fulfilling this prophecy. However, the Great Lion Aslan is on the move to help the four children to save Narnia. ===== At the beginning of the 20th century, Pédret, a Spanish immigrant, arrives in the southwest French country side. He becomes a blacksmith and marries Augustine, the daughter of the village baker. By 1936 Pédret’s forge has become a foundry where his three sons are the managers. Years later when Augustine, now a bourgeois matriarch, realizes that her son Hector is having an affair with Berthe, a lowly seamstress, she tries to ruin Berthe’s business and drive her out of town even if it means bribing her. But old Pédret, who knows that his sons have their spirits broken, can see that Berthe has the blunt good sense they lack, and he arranges for Bethe and Hector to be married. While the bourgeois wives of the two other sons mope and become peevish, Berthe makes herself useful. In the war, she is a heroine of the Resistance; when the business is imperiled by a strike, she settles it by acceding to the workers demands. She takes over the dominant role in management, and becomes the new matriarch as well. In contrast with the practical Berthe, Regina, her sister in law, is flighty. Dark and beautiful, Regina is married to Prosper, Pédret’s youngest son and the only one with a college education. But Regina and the handsome, refined Prosper are a mismatch. A rapacious dreamer, Regina, fed up with the dull austerity of provincial society, runs off with an American soldier. Eventually, Berthe comes to control the family's fortunes, but economic challenges in the 1950s force her to turn to an unlikely source for financial help: her obnoxious sister-in-law Regina who has come back, more stunning than ever, with an American industrialist lover. Regina may now be willing to aid Berthe in exchange for her freedom. ===== The story opens with a man named Vogel, starving and exhausted, running from a burnt-out, plague-ridden village. After several days, he stumbles into the Valley. At its centre, Vogel discovers a well-maintained, obviously inhabited village but with no people or domesticated animals. He falls asleep in an abandoned home but is awakened by the sound of horses and instinctively flies out of the home, only to be quickly tackled by two soldiers. The two prove to be of a company of mercenaries that arrived in The Valley while Vogel slept. Vogel is dragged to the leader of the group, a man identified as the Captain. It is the Captain's intention to pillage the Valley, burn the village to the ground, and return the plunder to the Protestant army of Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar for whom they are fighting. Vogel intuitively senses that the Captain is battle fatigued and hastily hatches a plan to save the Valley. Accompanied by a soldier named Korski, his main rival within the group, the Captain draws Vogel aside from the other mercenaries who have begun to break into the buildings. Vogel convinces the Captain to spare the Valley and guard its existence from other soldiers to survive the coming winter. "Live well," he tells him, "while other villages are trampled flat." The Captain quickly surmises the rationality of Vogel's suggestion and, with equal quickness, kills the unsuspecting Korski. He then proceeds to inform the company of the change in plans and arranges the elimination of several other troopers who might object (allies of Korski and those with women back at the army's encampment). Vogel insures his own survival in this arrangement by offering to be a type of buffer between the peasants and the soldiers as he is a member of neither group. Believing the mercenaries have departed, the villagers eventually return from their hiding place only to be surprised when the soldiers spring from their own places of concealment. Vogel discovers that the leader of the village is a man named Gruber who has yet to arrive. The Captain orders another peasant leader to take Vogel to Gruber to negotiate. Vogel accomplishes his mission: Gruber agrees—over the objection of the village priest, Fr. Wendt— that the soldiers are to be fed and quartered in return for their protecting the Valley. Sick and still suffering from his years of wandering the devastated countryside, Vogel promptly collapses. While recovering, Vogel and the Captain discuss the situation in the Valley—the internal rivalry between Gruber and Fr. Wendt, the status of the peasantry—and the outside world in general. Through a series of intellectual conversations and arguments the two slowly begin to form a bond of mutual respect and, by the end of the story, friendship. Vogel is quartered on Martin Hoffman, another leading peasant in the village whose young, strong- willed daughter, Inge, develops an attraction for him that he finds painful to resist. An immediate point of contention erupts when both Gruber and the Captain agree that the village's beloved shrine should be moved to prevent other roving patrols from finding the Valley. Fr. Wendt is diametrically opposed to this as a direct threat to the authority of the church. The peasantry are hostile to the idea believing that the shrine has protected the Valley exactly where it is. Even some of the Catholics among the mercenaries express misgivings—in particular, Pirelli, one of the Captain’s chief lieutenants, who tells Gruber at one point: "Other villages have mountains. Mountains didn't save them. You have the shrine, and this village has been spared." To which Gruber retorts: "Other villages have shrines." The following day the shrine is moved. Vogel and Graf, the Captain's right-hand man, intercept Fr. Wendt who is on his way to see what has happened with the shrine, accompanied by a few peasants including a young hothead, Andreas Hoffmeyr. The confrontation turns physical as Andreas unsuccessfully attacks Graf. Vogel prevents Graf from killing the youngster who flees along with the others. During this fight, the raging Wendt is revealed as a former Calvinist minister. Vogel then must act quickly to prevent a massacre between a large group of peasants en route to the shrine and the soldiers who have arrived to block their path. By relating a dream that he claimed he had but in actuality made-up on the spot, Vogel convinces them that the move had divine sanction. A disheartened and disillusioned Fr. Wendt storms off. With the peasantry mollified, the Captain, Vogel, and Graf go after Wendt but at that moment an attempted assassination of the Captain takes place by Svensen, a partisan of Korski. Svensen's shot goes awry and the priest is killed. As the Captain and Graf set off in pursuit, Vogel drags Wendt's body into a nearby barn. He is there confronted by a gleeful Gruber who believes Vogel has killed him—an action Gruber had himself earlier urged upon Vogel ostensibly to help maintain peace with the soldiers but in actuality to eliminate his own main rival in the Valley (Vogel, as an outsider, was the only person capable of committing the deed without arousing a general uprising against the soldiers or Gruber). Gruber tells Vogel that he must now flee to escape the wrath of the peasants, a suggestion that the Captain later regretfully backs although he knows the truth of the situation. During his flight from the Valley, Vogel comes across a wandering priest whose own village had been destroyed and immediately comes up with a new plan. He intends to take this priest back to the Valley to atone, in the eyes of the peasants, for the death of Fr. Wendt. "I owe the valley a priest for a priest," he reflects. However, back en route to the Valley, the pair encounter a patrol of Croats, the irregular cavalry of the Imperialist forces. Realizing that the Croats would destroy the village despite being Catholic, Vogel instructs the priest to take his own horse, ride to the Imperialists, and lure them away to a nearby abandoned village while he goes back to warn the Captain. He is then to slip away and rejoin Vogel in the Valley. The priest hesitantly agrees. In the meantime, Vogel comes across Andreas, still in exile after his confrontation with Graf, and likewise urges him to act on behalf of the Valley, spy out the Croats, and report back. Vogel is then picked up by one of the Captain's roving patrols and brought back to the Valley where he learns that the truth about Fr. Wendt's death is known to the peasants and that he is not a wanted man after all. He warns the Captain about the Imperialist patrol. The Croats still arrive at the Valley, but its inhabitants are waiting. Acting as the bait, Vogel lures the Imperialists into an ambush where they are entirely destroyed. Andreas, having been captured, bound, and tortured by the Croats, is recovered and forgiven his earlier transgression. Peace returns to the Valley and an admiring Captain makes Vogel a judge of all incidents between soldier and peasant—a position unwanted by Vogel. His first case, however, concerns the wandering priest who turns up in the Valley after the battle with the Croats. Vogel accepts the priest's story that he attempted to do as Vogel had suggested and had not betrayed the Valley. He becomes the new priest for the villagers after agreeing to remain apolitical. The Captain also agrees to Vogel's suggestion of training some of the villagers as a type of militia to assist with protecting the Valley after the defection of Hansen, another of Korski's partisans, along with two other mercenaries. Tension begins rising again in the Valley and Vogel narrowly prevents the rape of Inge. Andreas tells Vogel that some of the militiamen are conspiring with Hansen and leads him to a place where they transact business. Instead, Andreas attempts to kill Vogel, jealous of Inge's infatuation with him and the general situation of the mercenaries presence in the Valley. At the last minute, however, he changes his mind, realizing the futility of his action, and saves Vogel. Vogel proceeds to inform the Captain of the plot, only to discover that it is already known to him and that Graf has been feeding disinformation to the traitors. Based on what they perceive to be Hansen's plan, the Captain and Graf plan accordingly, assigning three mercenaries to Vogel to protect the villagers in a hidden hedge while the rest set an ambush. Hansen's attack is thwarted but several mercenaries are killed and many are wounded. Peace returns again to the Valley. The soldiers become more peasant-like, the peasants grow to accept the soldiers, and one mercenary marries a local girl. The reverie is interrupted by a travelling merchant who warns that the warring parties, Prince Bernard and Imperialist general Johann von Werth, are drawing closer to their location. Finally, a local man informs a patrol that the armies have arrived at the Rhine, two days away. Faced with impending doom, the Captain and Gruber agree that the company will leave the Valley and rejoin the Protestant army in order lure away other patrols and keep the Valley safe. Taking with him the remains of his original force as well as the bulk of the peasant militia, the Captain and company head off to the army encampment at Rheinfelden. He leaves behind Vogel and two wounded mercenaries to maintain order. Gruber immediately plots against the Captain's plans. He arranges the death of the two remaining soldiers, has Vogel confined, and, expecting the Captain’s imminent return after the Protestant victory at Rheinfelden, sets up an ambush for the him. Warned by Andreas via the new priest, Vogel escapes in the night in an attempt to warn the Captain but is shot and mortally wounded. As he lay dying, the Captain approaches alone, likewise mortally wounded, slips from his horse, and lies next to Vogel. The Captain reveals that in the confusion of the battle, his company had joined the wrong side in the conflict and had been wiped out, leaving him as the sole survivor. The two contemplate the final irony of the war in which Catholics and Protestants fought on both sides of the war, changing sides frequently, and the overall futility of warfare: "You might put it that in the confusion we joined the wrong army," the Captain says. "You might put it that one always does join the wrong army," Vogel replies. In the morning, the ambush party finds the two dead. ===== After the trial of Vedvedsica, General Balif is sent on a mission to ascertain the true danger of a new race of small humanoids infiltrating the eastern borders of Silvanesti. He travels east with an unlikely group. His two loyal servants, Lofotan and Artyrith, both formidable warriors, and Mathi, and Treskan unsure where their loyalties lie. ===== In a world where witches have declared war against humanity, causing two-thirds of the world to fall apart, the surviving human population has gathered specialists with the power to hunt and destroy witches. Tasha Godspell, also known as the "Magic Marksman," is one of the best Witch Hunters there is. Along with his sword-wielding Jack-o’-Lantern partner known as Halloween, Tasha puts his magical training and weaponry to good use, in his constant battles against witches. And yet, he cannot bring himself to fully hate the very witches he is tasked to destroy. ===== In the opening scene, a woman named Ruth is walking her dog on Los Angeles, California's Venice Beach, and is suddenly pulled under the sand of the deserted beach by an unseen force. The woman's screams for help are heard by Harry Caulder, a harbor patrol officer who is swimming nearby. Harry reports Ruth's disappearance to two LAPD detectives, Royko and Piantadosi, who claim that without a body, there is little they can do. The next day, Ruth's estranged daughter, Catherine, arrives from San Francisco after Harry calls her regarding her mother's disappearance. Meanwhile, the mysterious and crazed Mrs. Selden, who resides in an abandoned section of the Santa Monica Amusement Pier, witnesses the attack and disappearance (and others throughout the film), but does not come forward. That night, while staying in Ruth's house, Catherine hears Ruth's dog barking on the beach near the location where Ruth disappeared. Catherine investigates and finds the dog beheaded, near a small sinkhole. Royko and Piantadosi, as well as Harry, are called to the scene, but police pathologist Dr. Dimitrious cannot accurately determine a cause of death for the dog. Royko and Piantadosi believe it to be the work of a serial killer, due to reports of other disappearances over the past few months. The next morning, a teenage girl is buried in the sand at the beach and begins screaming. Her friends pull her out of the sand, only to see that her legs have been injured from an attack by an unseen creature. The police, led by Captain Pearson, begin an investigation by digging up various sections of the beach at night, but find nothing. The next morning, people visit the beach, which the local media have dubbed "Blood Beach". The following night, Harry's co-worker Hoagy is closing up the harbor patrol office for the night when his girlfriend ventures under the pier to investigate a noise and is assaulted by a man. After being knocked to the ground by the girl, the would-be-rapist is attacked by the unseen creature, which castrates him. An evening or two later, Marie, a French airline stewardess who is living with Harry, chases after her hat when it is blown by wind onto the beach. She, too, is grabbed by the unseen creature and pulled under the sand. The next morning, Harry sees Marie's hat on the beach, along with a small sinkhole which he recognizes as similar to the hole at the scene of Ruth's disappearance and the death of the dog. Harry calls the police, who dig up the area around the sinkhole and find Marie's disembodied eyeball. Searching for the unknown creature's home, Harry ventures to an abandoned section of the pier and finds an access tunnel leading to an underground storage facility. After finding nothing, he leaves the tunnel, not noticing a movement in a collapsed section of the wall. Harry and Catherine go out to a nightclub, where they try to rekindle their romance. Meanwhile, a man with a metal detector is walking under the pier looking for metal objects when he is attacked and pulled under the sand by the still-unseen creature. The man's wife, Mrs. Hench, reports him missing. The next day, Royko and Piantadosi find Mr. Hench emerging from a sewer manhole in a Venice street after escaping from the creature's lair, but he is in a state of shock after being horribly mangled and cannot explain what happened to him. Hoagy is the next victim, after he visits the pier to try to persuade Mrs. Selden to leave the area. He, too, is pulled under the sand by the underground creature while she watches stoically. Having been told by Harry about the access tunnel, Catherine visits the storage facility under the pier to look around just as Harry brings Piantadosi with him to investigate. They find all 16 of the creature's partially-eaten victims, including Ruth's severed head, parts of Marie's body and Hoagy's fresh corpse. Captain Pearson arrives with the police, who remove all of the bodies. Pearson orders the officers to use a backhoe and equipment to track the monster down. Increased attention from the local news media lead the police to attempt to kill the creature as quickly as possible and Pearson orders the installation of motion detectors, heat-sensing cameras and explosives. That evening, the huge creature emerges from the sand and is caught on camera; it resembles a worm-like Venus flytrap. Without hesitation, Royko activates the detonator and the creature is blown to pieces. Dr. Dimitrios points out that they still do not know anything about the monster's origins or abilities. Since it resembled a giant worm, and some worms have the capability to regenerate, Dimitrios wonders what will happen to "each piece". The next morning, Harry leaves with Catherine to drive her home to San Francisco while the beach reopens to the public, now that the subterranean creature is dead. In the final scene over the end credits, as the beach becomes crowded again, new small sinkholes begin to appear unnoticed all over the sand, implying that Dr. Dimitrios was correct in his theory that the creature has the ability to regenerate from its severed pieces. ===== After barely escaping with his life from an archaeological dig in Tikal, Guatemala, Dr. Henry Jones Jr. makes his way back to New York. There he learns of the recent discovery of the mysterious writings of a missing British explorer, Colonel Percy Fawcett. Though Colonel Fawcett himself still remains missing, his rediscovered work tells a story that could drastically change history and challenge several firmly held scientific beliefs. Within those pages, an incredible picture begins to take shape of a long lost city in the jungles of Brazil and the apparently true legend of a red-headed race, possibly descended from ancient Celtic Druids. Fascinated by such a prospect, and with the lovely Deidre Campbell at his side, Indiana Jones sets out for the Amazon. However, as usual, getting there will prove to be the true adventure. And if he does manage to survive the journey, who can tell what dangers await within the mythical city itself. ===== This film is about the life and times of a lazy and jobless middle aged man named Manjunatha ("Manja") who considers his life as an eventual existence rather than a practical, deserving and a capable one. His laziness is portrayed in the film as not a quality but as an ethic imbibed within his general thoughts and notions of the everyday world that surrounds him. Through his formative years his thinking becomes pragmatic in considering that livelihood can always be sought through alternate sources rather than being a puppet to how the world goes about through linear methods of gaining success and money. The other essentially important character in the film is a visually impaired person named Naani (played by Tabla Naani). Although being born blind, he wishes to be a film director. Naani's most positive aspect of the role is that he does not believe that his physical disability could stop him from achieving what he dreams, that is to be a film maker. The film is structured around the lengthy conversation, which happen in a captive lodge room, between Manja and Naani where each depict their ideologies and experiences and co-relate their thoughts. Being a Jaggesh film, the film is no where short in containing blatant satirical humour and constant metaphors. The characters of Manja and Naani form contrasting personalities - Manja being an unmotivated, lazy and irresponsible guy and Naani being optimistic and ambitious. Naani happens to meet Manja in a very interesting scenario. Even with their contrasting personalities, Manja and Naani get along together pretty well. The other important, yet minimally portrayed, role is of Manja's wife Gowri (played by Yagna Shetty). Manja admittedly marries Gowri in the fact that he was getting a small house as a dowry. Gowri struggles to save her relationship while Manja is doused into the casual habits of alcohol, his influential "circle" of friends, betting, occasional petty thieving at random jobs, inability to sustain decent jobs, wife-bitching and other habits including schemes that eventually thicken the gap between living a moral and a meaningful life and being an incapable disloyal husband. However Gowri's character is portrayed to be of a devout woman who honours the capacity of developing a more healthy family hood through her husband changing his ways some day or the other. But days and years go on and Manja's lifestyle remains unchanged much to the chagrin of Gowri. The conversation now continues shifting from the lodge to Manja's home itself. After celebrating their freedom from the lodge with alcoholism that night they find themselves again captive within the house due to the help of the local inspector who assists Gowri to tackle Manja's unyielding ways. Naani then talks about the plot of his film, which was seemingly ignored by the producer with whom he had placed his trust upon (and for the reason with which he ended up being captive in the lodge). Manja, hearing of the simple story of Dr. Rajkumar's pledged eyes and how they were now seeing a world through another person, is taken aback and applauds Naani for such a heartwarming plot and how the -Annavru-'s fans would welcome such a movie. He motivates Naani with all success if Naani ever made the film by taking out his mother's prized 50 rupee note from the cupboard and giving it to Naani. He tells Naani that it was considered as a luck charm to any person that received it. He also happens to find a note in the cupboard that Gowri leaves behind (after her inability to tell him personally that night due to his inebriated state) to Manja conveying that she was now carrying and that he would soon become a father. Manja's personality suddenly defines a change after reading the news. He is unable to express his joy, apart from sharing it with Naani, at that moment being locked in his home. He tries calling Gowri but he doesn't get her on-line. In the midst of all this there concocts a life turning situation for Manja at that moment. His wife returns home struck in pain. Gowri had killed the developing child in her womb due to the burdensome worry which she concluded that she wasn't in a state to be able to maintain and grow a child while having such a lackluster and incapable husband. She perceived that it was best for the child to not come to life and face a deteriorated lifestyle. Naani leaves the house expressing his ill-timed presence in the development of such an event. Manja is clipped between a moment of where he faced fresh joy like he had not known for a long long time where he believed that the child, who would be his Lakshmi (the Goddess of wealth), would change his life for the better and to another moment that his 'Lakshmi' would not be happening. In his state of hopelessness he threatens Gowri as to what rights she held to kill his child. Gowri is throbbing in pain to be able to reply to his questions. In this delusion of Manja, Lakshmi -the unborn child, appears to him and speaks to him as to how ill-fated she would have been to have been born as a daughter to such a father. Lakshmi says that Gowri, her mother, did not kill her and that Manja, her father, killed her and suggests to him that he could celebrate this occasion with his friends by drinking along with them. Manja's remorse knows no bounds. He reflects back Lakshmi's words to Gowri and says to his wife that neither his own parents or his own wife or any of his gurus could ever be a guru to him, but the unborn dead child which will never happen in his existence was his ultimate guru to his final immediate realization of the value of life. ===== Just after World War II, socialite Jessie Bourne is home alone one night in her Gramercy Park apartment on New York's East Side when she receives a mysterious phone call that hangs up. Her wealthy playboy husband Brandon is out, enjoying himself at the Del Rio night club. At the night club, young model Rosa Senta admonishes Brandon for going out alone, as Rosa admires Jessie, who has been a customer at the dress salon where Rosa works. Brandon tries to mollify Rosa, but he is cut short when Brandon's former mistress, gold-digging Isabel Lorrison, arrives. She has returned from Paris intent on rekindling her romance with Brandon, but he rebuffs her, professing faithfulness to his wife. An argument ensues in which Isabel's date, wealthy Alec Dawning, knowing Brandon's reputation, knocks him unconscious. Brandon is rescued by Rosa, who takes him to her home to recover. Brandon eventually returns home in the wee hours to find Jessie waiting up. He tells her that he was working late, stopped for a drink, was knocked out by a drunk, and then rescued by Rosa. He also explains how Rosa knows her. The next morning, Jessie's friend, Helen Lee, calls on her, presumably to remind her of the Lees' party that night for an intelligence officer and ex-NYPD cop, Mark Dwyer, returning to the U.S. from post-war service in Italy. Both women have seen the morning newspaper in which the nightclub brawl is front-page news. After much prodding, Jessie confesses to Helen that she is afraid of what will happen to her marriage with Isabel back in town. Jessie says she intends to live her life normally, including going shopping. She decides to go to the dress salon where Rosa works to hear for herself what transpired at the club. Once there, Jessie takes Rosa aside to thank her for rescuing Brandon. Rosa confirms Brandon's story, which is a relief to Jessie. As thanks, Jessie offers to take Rosa to LaGuardia Airport to pick up Mark Dwyer, on whom Rosa has had a long-standing crush. As he is leaving his office for Helen's party, Brandon is visited by Isabel, who manages to entice him to her apartment. Jessie goes to the Lees’ party alone when Brandon is a no-show and becomes better acquainted with Mark. Mark explains the crush Rosa has on him and that she would have gotten over it long ago except that he was overseas. Jessie finds out that Brandon is with Isabel and begins to leave the party; Mark, tired of being celebrated throughout the day for his return to the States, and falling hard for Jessie, offers to escort her home. They talk, and he remains with her until Brandon returns. After Mark leaves, and although they argue viciously, Brandon convinces Jessie of his love. They make up, and he proposes a trip to Virginia. The next day, while explaining to Rosa that they can't be in a relationship, and that he's interested in Jessie, Mark spots Alec with an imposing, frosty blonde on his arm. So, although Isabel is being kept by Alec, he is not faithful to her. As she prepares to go out with Mark for a drive, Jessie is telephoned by Isabel, who asks her for a meeting at her apartment in Greenwich Village on the West Side. Mark unwittingly drives Jessie there, and while doing so, admits his attraction to her, but he is resigned to her trying to save her marriage. During the showdown at the apartment, Jessie refuses to back down even after Isabel gloats that, if she calls, Brandon “will come running.” Mark takes Jessie home where she is given a message to call Brandon—at Isabel's apartment. Suspecting she has been duped by her husband, Jessie calls. Brandon answers, telling her that he found Isabel murdered and that he has summoned the police. Before Jessie and Mark go to the apartment, Mark discovers he had just delivered Jessie there earlier. A friend of Mark's, Lt. Jake Jacobi, is in charge of the crime scene. There, Mark introduces Jessie to Jake, and they are admitted to the apartment. While Jake questions Brandon and Jessie, Mark finds a woman's broken fingernail next to the body. After confirming the nail is not Jessie's or Isabel's, and mindful of all he has seen since his return, Mark asks Jake to let him do a little detecting. While Jake takes Brandon 'downtown' for further questioning, Jessie is allowed to go home. Mark heads to Alec's private party at the Del Rio club. Using a ruse, he determines that Alec's jealous girlfriend, Felice Backett, the frosty blonde, committed the murder. Mark takes her to the police station, and Brandon is released. Brandon returns to Jessie in their high-rise apartment, but she finally realizes that she no longer loves him and leaves. Brandon ponders what will happen next as he looks out over New York City. ===== In San Francisco, a group of young men drive to an abandoned factory, and drug one of their members with LSD, leaving him to be torn apart by what he perceives to be a monster. Later, a large quantity of suspicious ash found in a nearby park is proven to be from human remains. A private investigative organisation, the Millennium Group, dispatches offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and colleague Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) to investigate the multiple homicide that led to this. Black believes that the victims were burnt alive; while chemical analysis of the ash leads the Group to the same factory. In Black's home in Seattle, his wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) confides in policeman Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich) her worry about Black's overprotective nature, fearing he may quit his job if he believes his family to be in danger. Catherine does not yet know that a stalker from their past has resurfaced and has been posting polaroids of the family to Black. Black has meanwhile been persuaded by his fellow Group member Mike Atkins (Robin Gammell) that his family is in no immediate risk. Back in San Francisco, dental records matched to teeth found in the ashes lead to a young immigrant who vanished six months prior, having joined a doomsday cult. Elsewhere, this cult is seen operating as telemarketers, working in a large assembly hall as propaganda slogans are projected onto the walls around them. One of the members is apprehended by Black, and during his interrogation it becomes clear that the cult, fronting as Gehenna Industries, is brainwashing its terrified members, incinerating those who disobey. Black returns to Seattle, researching Gehenna Industries from his home. He uncovers a warehouse address belonging to the cult, which Atkins investigates. The warehouse is full of cached weaponry, stockpiled for the cult's doomsday predictions. The cult's leader lures Atkins into the industrial microwave which has been used to immolate the victims, but the police arrive in time to save him, having been tipped off by Black that Atkins may be in danger. The weapons stockpile allows the police to bring down the cult, but Black is certain that their influence is still a threat. ===== Jordan Black (Brittany Tiplady) is awakened by a nightmare, and is comforted by her father Frank Black (Lance Henriksen). However, Black is soon called to investigate the body of a woman at a dog pound in Portland, Oregon. Black works for the Millennium Group, an organisation which offers private investigation services and consults with law enforcement on certain types of cases. He is asked by Group member Jim Penseyres (Chris Ellis) to help a local detective on the murder case, as he is being considered as prospective member of the Millennium Group. Black believes the murder to be the work of a serial killer, and is convinced there will be a message from him on the bodies. Black meets up with the detective, Jim Horn (James Morrison), and sees that he is a competent and experienced investigator, although his recent separation from his wife has left him distracted and on edge. The killer murders another woman, disposing of the body in a post office's dead letter office. Investigating, Black finds a human hair with a message etched into it—"hair today, gone tomorrow"—which he takes as an indication that the murderer is lashing out at a world that he feels has treated him as insignificant. Horn's mental condition seems to deteriorate, and he begins to take the case personally, leading Black to doubt his ability. A third victim turns up, with another message—"nothing ventured, nothing gained". A lens from the killer's glasses is also recovered. Black organises a press release in an attempt to draw out the killer, taunting his intelligence by including a falsified profile describing him as uneducated. Black and Horn feel this will tempt the killer to show up at the latest victim's memorial service. Horn attacks an innocent man at the service, believing him to be the killer; although a cross found at the memorial with "ventured" etched upon it proves the killer did attend. Surveillance footage of the service yields two leads—a local optician recognizes the suspect as a customer having a glasses lens replaced, and the killer's vehicle is identified. Black and Horn realize that the killer will have chosen the optician as his next victim, and agree to set another trap with her as the bait. Horn, more and more unhinged throughout the case, begins imagining the killer and his van at every turn. As he and Black wait for the killer to make an attempt on the optician's life, Horn admits that he cannot trust himself to be there, and is told to go home. However, he parks his car on the route towards the trap, feigning a flat tyre. When the killer's van attempts to pass, Horn attacks him, but the police arrive in time to stop him beating the killer to death. The attack renders any evidence found in the van inadmissible in court, although Black tells him enough evidence was found at the killer's home to secure a conviction. Later, Horn asks Black how he can deal with cases like this on a regular basis. Black does not answer, but later comforts his daughter after another bad dream. ===== In a bowling alley, ex-convict Carl Nearman (J. R. Bourne) watches another man eat his meal before following him outside, where he approaches and kills him. Elsewhere, Annie Tisman (Donna White) receives a human tongue in a package. The Millennium Group sends offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and pathologist Cheryl Andrews (C. C. H. Pounder) to investigate, as several people have received body parts in the post over the past few years. No connection between the recipients has been found, nor have the bodies the parts have been culled from. Mike Bardale (John Hawkes) is a violent recidivist who has recently been released from prison again. He is approached by a man calling himself The Judge (Marshall Bell), who offers Bardale a position in his "court". The Judge is a vigilante, hiring convicts to mete out his version of justice against those he perceives as criminals. Bardale's first "execution" is that of his forebear, Nearman. The body of the man killed outside the bowling alley is discovered, missing a tongue. It is identified as a retired police officer, Detective Mellen, who had given false testimony that had sent Annie Tisman's late husband to prison. Black realizes that the killer is motivated by the need to right wrongs such as this, killing those who have gotten away with crimes. Meanwhile, The Judge passes sentence on another victim—a slumlord whose negligence caused a tenant's death. Bardale is ordered to cut the landlord's leg off while he is still alive; the leg is later found in a postal depot in a package. Forensic evidence on the package eventually leads to Bardale, and then to The Judge. The Judge is arrested for questioning, and knowing that there is not enough evidence to warrant sentencing him, he offers Black a job with him. Black refuses, but The Judge is released. Bardale is incensed that The Judge has manipulated the law to his own ends, and passes sentence on him for hypocrisy. Finding Bardale alone in a farmhouse, Black discovers that the convict had fed The Judge to his pigs. ===== Outside a bar in Washington DC, Raymond Dees (Joe Chrest) calls 911 on a payphone. He says nothing, simply typing the numbers 522666 on the phone's keypad. Later, he watches the bar from a parking garage nearby, masturbating as the bomb he has left inside detonates. Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) watches the aftermath of the explosion on the news, knowing that the group will ask for his assistance with the case. Dees is among the rescuers seen on the broadcast. Black travels to DC and meets up with fellow group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn). The two join the FBI task force investigating the bombing, led by special agents Pierson (Sam Anderson) and Takahashi (Hiro Kanagawa). Watts and Black quickly dismiss several false claims of responsibility by terrorist groups. Black listens to the 911 call left by Dees, deducing that the numbers dialled spell the word kaboom on a telephone keypad. Black and the FBI investigate the crime scene; Black not only realises the bomber's proficiency with explosives, but is able to work out that he viewed the bombing from the parking garage. In a bin in the garage, they find a tissue covered in Dees' semen. Black informs the FBI that the bomber is smart enough to be able to tap into their phonecalls, and volunteers to bait him into eavesdropping on his mobile phone. Black's deduction is correct, and as he attempts to stall Dees on the phone while the FBI trace the call, he realises from Dees' language that the bomber is seeking to become famous through his actions. Dees informs the FBI that he has planned another bombing for the next morning. The FBI task force rush to locate the bomb, tracing the phonecall to a small section of the city that might house it. Scanning the area, Black notices another parking garage opposite an office block, and attempts to have the building evacuated. However, Dees has planted a second bomb which detonates fifteen minutes early, while Black is inside the building. However, he is pulled to safety by a stranger, who is interviewed on the news following the explosion—Raymond Dees. Black comes to in a hospital bed, tended to by his wife Catherine Black (Megan Gallagher). She explains to him what has happened, and turns on the evening news to show him the interview with his rescuer. However, watching Dees speak, Black quickly realises he is the bomber. The FBI locate Dees' home, but his electronic surveillance had alerted him long before, and he has escaped before they even arrive. However, as Black sits in his car, he receives a call from Dees, who has booby-trapped the car. The FBI are able to monitor this call with Dees' equipment. Dees tells Black that they will both soon be famous, letting Black know that he has a remote detonator for the car's explosives. Before he can use it, he is killed by a police marksman. When Black's car is searched, it is clear it was never rigged with anything—Dees had planned the whole thing, knowing that he would be killed. As news reports spread concerning the bomber's identity and his death at the hands of the police, Black sees that Dees has achieved the fame he longed for. ===== When a Catholic priest is burnt at the stake in Tacoma, Washington, private investigative organisation the Millennium Group despatch offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and Ardis Cohen (Lindsay Crouse) who had previously worked together on a case involving the murders of three clerics several years earlier. Black sees similarities between the murders and the methods of torture employed by the medieval Inquisition. This is confirmed when a Protestant minister is drowned in imitation of another ritual torture. At the scene of the drowning, two wedding rings are found—a man's in the stomach of the victim and woman's nearby. At a church, the killer is searching through files when he is interrupted, and flees, leaving bloodied fingerprints at the scene. Black constructs a profile of the man, and deduces that his actions are attacks on faith, believing that the killer has suffered a devastating loss which has caused him to lose his own faith. As the manhunt for the killer tightens, another cleric is tortured and killed; however, Black senses that the killer has returned to where his life fell apart. He and the police are able to identify the killer as Galen Calloway (Michael Zelniker), whose wife and daughter had been killed in a house fire several years earlier. Black knows the killer's next target will be the church that held the family's funeral. Calloway enters the church wielding explosives, taking the congregation hostage. The building is quickly surrounded by police and reporters as Calloway gives a sermon to his hostages about the loss of faith. Black believes he can connect with Calloway, and is allowed to enter the church. Calloway is initially hostile, but Black is able to talk him down, convincing Calloway that his faith has not been lost, but simply tested—despite all that has happened, Calloway has never lost his belief in God. Realizing the truth of this, Calloway surrenders. ===== At a funeral in Seattle, James Dickerson (Sean Six), approaches the mourning family. He introduces himself as "Ray Bell" and pretends to have known the deceased at university. He embraces the dead man's mother lingeringly, and leaves. Later that night, the mother is visiting her son's grave, and is pulled into an open grave as she passes it. Her body is found the next day, although the rest of her family have been told they cannot see it. Speaking to clinical social worker Catherine Black (Megan Gallagher), Seattle police officer Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich) reveals that the victim had been graphically mutilated during the murder. Catherine Black's husband, offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), is asked to consult on the case as a member of the Millennium Group, a private investigative organisation. Black senses that the killer feels rage towards someone—not the victim—and is taking it out on strangers. Speaking to the family, Black finds that the victim's dead son has had a sports team badge taken from his body; he also realizes that the strange "Ray Bell" must be the killer. Back at his halfway house Dickerson is wearing the missing badge, as the house's trustee Connor scolds him for breaking curfew—and threatens not to cover up for him any more. After Connor leaves, James finds an obituary in the newspaper and circles it. Elsewhere, Black finds the name "Ray Bell" in the same newspaper as the victim's son's obituary, and deduces that the killer may have been frequenting funerals before, probably taking souvenirs like the badge. He believes that the victim is his first, but that killing will become easier for him. Dickerson visits another funeral, and befriends a mourner, Tina, by pretending to have been a childhood friend of the deceased. They visit a nearby lake to reminisce, but she feels something is wrong. Dickerson apologises and leaves; however, Tina is soon attacked from behind. Her body is found with the words "stop looking" carved into her stomach, and Black believes there may be a message somewhere on the first victim's body. He asks fellow Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) to look for it; Watts is also able to find fingerprints on Tina's hair clip that identify Dickerson—a paroled convict. They track him down to the halfway home, although Connor secretly helps him to escape to a nearby scrapyard. In Dickerson's room, a hidden cache of souvenirs is found, along with a journal and a stack of letters marked "return to sender". Catherine Black identifies Dickerson as an archetypal "lost child", raised in poor foster care and neglected. He visits funerals to connect with society, leaving her to wonder what has pushed him to murder. Meanwhile, Dickerson remains in hiding at the scrapyard, while Connor brings him food. Frank Black has noticed that the "S" carved in Tina's stomach matches that seen in the logo for Skorpion Salvage, the scrapyard Dickerson is hiding in. When he and the police arrive to find Dickerson, Connor is able to escape while the yard's dogs attack Dickerson. Catherine Black has found Dickerson's biological mother, a Mrs. Dechant (Lynda Boyd). Having given Dickerson up for adoption as a teenager, she is now a suburban housewife. Dickerson had tried several years previously to reconnect with her, though she wanted nothing to do with him. Catherine asks her for help, and she begrudgingly agrees to see her son. She recoils when he hugs her, blaming the government for making him what he is. Rejected, Dickerson confesses to the murders. Connor is able to see all of this, his connection to it not yet uncovered. Frank Black is unconvinced that everything has been wrapped up, and realizes that Connor is involved—he wants Dickerson to himself. "Stop looking" was his message to Dickerson, to stop looking for affection anywhere else. Mrs. Dechant returns home, and is about to take a bath when she is attacked by Connor. Black has followed her, and interrupts the attack; he and Connor struggle, with Black almost being strangled until he is able to hold Connor under the bathwater until he stops fighting. Connor is arrested and charged, while the now-cleared Dickerson resumes circling obituaries in the newspaper. ===== In Madison Park, Seattle, a family are gathered around the television. The mother leaves to go to bed, and the atmosphere in the room grows tense. The older of two sisters, Connie Bangs (Michelle Joyner) takes her sister Sara—who is clearly much younger than she is—to her bedroom and locks her in, warning her not to let her father inside. Connie runs out of the house, fighting off her father, and is later found wandering the streets confused. She is taken to clinical social worker Catherine Black (Megan Gallagher), and admits that her father has been sexually abusing her for years. However, given the length of time the abuse has been going on, Connie is afraid no one will believe her. The assistant district attorney assigned to the case, Rhonda Preshutski (Christine Dunford) agrees, believing the case to be weak. Child Protective Services cannot remove Sara from the household until Connie undergoes a psychiatric evaluation, although Black and police lieutenant Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich) investigate the Bangs home to check up on the girl. The father, Joe Bangs (Paul Dooley), chases them off as his wife watches detachedly. Bangs wields a degree of political clout in the community, and pressures the district attorney's office to drop the case. Preshutski is furious with Black over the matter, until it is discovered from Connie's medical exams that Sara is not her sister, but her daughter. Black is later woken in her office by her husband Frank (Lance Henriksen). She had fallen asleep there while trying to find a legal precedent to remove Sara from the Bangs home. Catherine visits Connie, who is staying with another sister, Ruthie (Lenore Zann). Ruthie also reveals that their father had abused her, until she was sectioned following mental breakdown. Black is worried that Connie might be persuaded by her mother to drop the case. Joe Bangs finds himself unable to have the case dropped, but Bletcher still feels that Black's pursuit of it may end up costing her her job. However, Black knows she is doing the right thing and is determined to continue. Her fears for Sara are confirmed when it is discovered she and the elder Bangs have gone missing. Frank, an offender profiler, deduces that Bangs' controlling personality would cause him to take his daughter somewhere he knows, and realizes that they will be in the family's holiday cabin in the woods. A police manhunt begins, and Bangs is arrested without Sara coming to harm. The case against Bangs is presented before a grand jury, and Black is afraid that Connie will be too afraid to testify. However, she manages to reveal the truth of her abuse to the court. Later, she is seen with the lock from her bedroom door—which had previously been used by her father to lock them both inside—which she throws into a river. ===== In the gated community of Vista Verde, teenager Josh Comstock is riding his motorcycle, unaware that he is being followed by an unseen man driving a van. He is later stopped by the driver and pacified with a cattle prod. The following morning, Comstock's mother finds a corpse in his bed—but it is not that of her son. Sheriff Paul Gerlach (Ryan Cutrona) seeks the aid of private investigative firm the Millennium Group, who dispatch offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and pathologist Cheryl Andrews (C. C. H. Pounder) to help the investigation. Gerlach reveals that the dead boy, Kirk Orlando, had gone missing previously, and feels that Comstock's kidnapping is his fault, as he did not alert the wider community about Orlando's disappearance. Orlando's father comes forward with a piece of evidence—his mailbox had been stuffed with shredded banknotes. That evening, Black and Gerlach visit a town meeting organised by Edward Petey (Josh Clark), where another of the residents, Bob Birckenbuehl (Terry David Mulligan), accuses Gerlach of knowing more than he is letting on. Gerlach tells the assembly that the killer is from the community. Comstock's parents return home after the meeting to find the number 331 daubed on their son's bed in blood. The father, Tom Comstock (Michael Tomlinson) confides in Black that the number is that of the hotel room he had been using to carry on an extramarital affair, which Black persuades him to come clean about with his wife. Birckenbuehl's son Charlie is kidnapped from his bedroom, again subdued with a cattle prod. Andrews and Black discover that the boy's goldfish had been poisoned with whiskey, which they believe to be another message like Comstock's number. The town's swimming instructor, Adam Burke (Brian Taylor) is interviewed, as he had contact with both missing boys through his coaching. Black discovers that Burke's son had been killed in a hit-and-run accident; Black also receives post containing a paint swatch with the number 528 on it, but he is unsure of its meaning. Tom Comstock comes home the next day to find his son returned, alive but shaken. Black deduces that the paint swatch matches paint used on the vehicle that killed Burke's son; he also realizes that the boys are being kidnapped to force their fathers to confess hidden sins—Comstock's son was returned after he revealed his affair, while Orlando's son was killed because he kept secret a crime involving money. From there, Black sees that Charlie's kidnapping means that Birckenbeuhl is the hit-and- run driver. Black convinces Birckenbeuhl to confess publicly to the hit-and- run, in order to have his son returned. Birckenbeuhl does so, but continues to maintain his innocence in private. Charlie is not returned, however; instead, a cassette is sent to Birckenbuehl by the killer, who explains that since Birckenbeuhl took a life, one must be taken from him in return. Black is able to deduce from the background noise on the tape that Charlie is being held near the local high school's swimming pool. The boy is rescued, and killer—Edward Petey—is found and arrested. However, the elder Birckenbeuhl is found hanged in his bedroom, driven to suicide by his guilt. ===== A man, Cutter (Pablo Coffey), visits an open house viewing, where he is given a tour by the estate agent, and seems to take an interest in the bedroom of a young girl. That night, the owners have returned home, and are settling down for the evening when their daughter, Patricia, begins screaming. Later, a security guard for the family's alarm company finds the bodies of the parents hacked to death on the first floor, but Patricia is nowhere to be seen. The Millennium Group, a private investigative group, dispatches profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) to the scene, where he meets Seattle detective Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich). Black finds the house's alarm system, noticing that it did not go off until the killer left the house. He deduces that the killer stayed hidden in the house during the viewing, emerging that evening to kill the family. However, Black also notices something near an air vent; pulling it from the wall, he finds Patricia, alive but greatly disturbed. Black's wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher), a clinical social worker, warns against questioning Patricia — although she is an important witness, she is only a child and is in a fragile mental state. Black and Bletcher visit James Glen (Glynn Turman) a graphology expert, having found the killer's signature in the viewing's guestbook. Analysis of the killer's handwriting links him to almost forty open house viewings over the previous six months. An estate agent receives a video recording of the murders in the post, leaving Black puzzled. That same day, the killer hides in another open house, later murdering a woman with a shotgun before calling the police to the scene. Black finds an X drawn in blood under the house's welcome mat; Patricia has begun drawing red Xs in her crayon pictures, which Catherine takes notice of. Black reviews the videotape, finding a reflection of the killer in a glass pane. Extracting a picture from this, he requests to show it to Patricia, but stops himself, realizing that the killer let Patricia live so that she could relive the events when questioned. Cutter, a crossing guard, hides the shotgun in a dumpster, calling the police to report finding it. The police officer who takes his statement later recognizes him on seeing the video. Black has deduced the killer's motives—he is trying to undermine society's notion of safety. Black and Bletcher organize a stakeout at another open house, identifying Cutter when he arrives; however, Cutter escapes into the neighborhood. Black realizes that he has hidden in a nearby house, where he and Bletcher find the occupants tied up. Cutter ambushes Black, knocking him down, but before Cutter can escape, the family's dog lunges at him, sending him falling over a mezzanine to his death. Bletcher later tells Black that Cutter's aunt and uncle were tortured to death in front of him when he was a child, which led him to recreate the torment for other families. ===== In Boulder, Colorado, a rave is underway in a nightclub. Pharmacist Art Nesbitt (Hrothgar Mathews) approaches a young couple, offering them drugs. Later, all three of them are in a room elsewhere, with Nesbitt recording the couple having sex. When they finish, he poisons them by injection. Their naked bodies are found the following day in a botanic garden, posed to resemble the story of Adam and Eve. The Millennium Group, a private investigative firm, despatches offender profilers Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and Maureen Murphy (Harriet Sansom Harris) to aid the police investigation. Detective Thomas (William Lucking) feels uncomfortable working with Murphy, believing that women do not understand male sex offenders. Elsewhere, Nesbitt is spying on a swingers' party, and follows two women as they leave to buy more alcohol for the party. He impersonates a police officer and pulls their car over. The next day the women are reported missing by their husbands, and their bodies are found posed in a park. Nesbitt is next seen working in his pharmacy, when another young couple come in to purchase medication in preparation for an exotic honeymoon. Nesbitt instead surreptitiously gives them an MDMA-like drug, suggesting they take it immediately. Meanwhile, the investigation has found traces of this drug in the other victims, with Black believing that the killer not only has access to it through his occupation but is likely consuming it himself while committing his crimes in order to readily act on his sexual fantasies. Black follows up on this, and investigates Nesbitt's pharmacy. Nesbitt is not working at the time, but Black realizes he must be the killer. He interviews Nesbitt's wife (Barbara Howard), finding that they have not had sex in eighteen years of marriage—however, Nesbitt has recently become interested in trying again. Later, Detective Thomas tells Black that he really has no problem with Murphy—his true issue with the case is his own past. Having investigated sexual offences in the past, Thomas had found the cases affecting him personally, leaving him unable to have sex with his wife and leading to their divorce. Black realizes that the killer is trying to experience the sexual encounters he missed out on before his marriage, and that he believes his victims are living the happiest moments of their lives because of his actions. He returns to the Nesbitt home, finding the honeymooning couple locked in a bomb shelter below the house. Black runs upstairs, thinking that Nesbitt will murder his wife, but arrives in time to see him commit suicide by injection instead. ===== During a hailstorm in Washington state, university students run to find shelter. One girl, Lauren (Kristi Angus), stands in the rain, lights a cigarette, and goes up in flames. Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) travels to the university to interview witnesses to the death. A teaching assistant tells Black that the dead girl was highly intelligent, pointing out an armillary sphere Lauren had constructed. She also tells Black that the previous Millennium Group contact had taken great interest in this sphere. Black did not realize the Group had sent another member, but on leaving, he meets the man in question—Dennis Hoffman (Brad Dourif). Hoffman describes his theories to Black, detailing how when several planets achieve syzygy on May 5, 2000, a series of natural disasters will bring about the end of the world. Hoffman believes that this cataclysm will be preceded by strange events and weather patterns. Black later contacts another Group member, Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn), who tells him that Hoffman had attempted to join the Group years earlier, and although he was refused admission, has continued to track the Group's activities harmlessly. Watts also finds that Lauren is not her parents' biological child, but cannot find any record of her adoption. Group coroner Cheryl Andrews (C. C. H. Pounder) finds traces of accelerant on the body, and rules the death a suicide. She also finds an astrological symbol representing conjunction carved in the girl's thigh. At a waterfall, another girl commits suicide by drowning. The girl, Carlin, looks identical to Lauren. Andrews performs an autopsy on Carlin as well, finding the same astrological symbol. It also becomes clear that the two girls are related—identical twins, born seven years apart. The girls are clones, produced using a technique similar to that used to create identical cattle. Black believes that this is connected to Hoffman's Earth Changes theory, that someone is breeding offspring destined to survive May 5, 2000. Hoffman provides the Group with information leading them to Pocatello, Idaho, where a group of even more cloned girls is found living in a commune. The police fear that a cult- involved suicide may be being planned, and they take the girls into protective custody. The girls are taken onto a bus as Black speaks to their biological father, a preacher confined to a negative pressure ventilator (Morgan Woodward). The man reveals to Black that he attempted to create a caste of pure and innocent people who could repopulate society benevolently after the cataclysm. He contacted some of the girls to let them know he would die before the apocalyptic date, and they committed suicide shortly afterwards. That night, a power cut stops the man's ventilator, killing him. When Black leaves to meet with the girls in custody, he finds that the bus driver was another of the man in the ventilator's offspring, and has escaped with the clones; Hoffman has also disappeared. Black realizes that the building they found the girls in is located in an area of extreme geological stability, and is built on shock absorbing foundations—Black does not know where the cult has escaped to, but he does know where they will be on May 5, 2000. ===== Anne Rothenburg answers a knock on her front door. When she speaks to the man waiting there, he hears something else entirely; believing that she is giving her consent to be murdered, he attacks her. Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) visits a Seattle hospital to pick up his wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher), who works there as a counsellor. Rothenburg is brought in on a stretcher by paramedics. Black notices a peculiar slash across her palm, and glances down at his own, which bears a scar matching the woman's cut exactly. Rothenburg then dies of her injuries. Black contacts Seattle Police Department detective Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich) for information on Rothenburg. Her husband found her when he came home, assuming that she had surprised a burglar. Elsewhere, her attacker shoots the clerk in a liquor store, again hearing the victim give permission to be killed. Black and Bletcher review security camera footage of the crime, which leads to them discovering half a playing card—the Jack of Spades—at the scene. Rothenburg's home is searched and the other half is found there. Black tells Bletcher about Richard Alan Hance (Jeremy Roberts), a serial killer Black had helped to apprehend twenty years before. Hance was a disturbed Vietnam War veteran who marked his kills with half a playing card, a custom he picked up during his tours of duty. Black was one of a number of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who responded to an anonymous tip, leading them to Hance's location—however, the tip was called in by Hance himself and the raid became an ambush. Three agents were killed, and Black was cornered by Hance, who cut open his palm and nearly took Black's life before the young Black was able to overpower and arrest him. In the present, Black realizes that the current murderer must be Hance's former cellmate Jacob Tyler (Scott Heindl). Black visits Hance in prison, and upon speaking to Hance, realizes that Tyler believes himself Hance's reincarnation, aspiring to follow his methods exactly. Meanwhile, Tyler calls the police and leaves an anonymous tip, telling them that the liquor store murderer is hiding in an abandoned building. Black accompanies a SWAT team encircling the building, but the officers come under sniper fire from a construction site across the street. Black and Bletcher separate as they search for Tyler, who gets the drop on Black. Black disarms Tyler, attempting to talk him into surrendering. Tyler empties a handgun at Black, but misses; when Bletcher confronts him, Tyler points the gun and Bletcher instinctively shoots and kills him. ===== Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) joins his brother Tom (Philip Anglim) and sister-in-law Helen (Liz Bryson) for their newborn son's christening. After the child is baptized, Black joins his daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady), finding her in hysterics. She claims to have seen a man hurting Helen; when Black and his brother rush outside, they find the baby in the back of Tom's car, but Helen is gone. Black's contact in the Seattle Police Department, Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich), insists that Black should not get involved in the case as he is too close to the victims. However, Black insists he can be of assistance, and reviews security footage of a stranger investigating Tom's luggage after their flight. Bletcher reports that a stolen car has been found abandoned, with Helen's blood inside. Fellow Millennium Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) helps Black identify the kidnapper from a set pictures of sex offenders in the Seattle area—Black recognizes Richard Green (Dylan Haggerty) as the man from the airport footage. Tom later searches Black's office, stealing his gun and finding Green's name and address. Tom confronts Green at his home, demanding to know where his wife is. The police, who have been watching Green's house, intervene and take Tom home before anyone is harmed. Black apologizes for keeping information from Tom, but warns him that his outburst is exactly why he did so. Watts has meanwhile tracked forensic evidence from the abandoned car to a cabin in the woods; blood found there matches both Green and Helen, and a ring is discovered which is identified as Helen's wedding ring. Meanwhile, a mysteriously ill Jordan continues to ask about Helen's whereabouts, and her remarks about Helen's conditions lead Black to believe she is starting to experience the seemingly-psychic visions he is capable of seeing, which allow him to see the evil people are capable of. Elsewhere, Green is arrested. His property is searched but Helen is nowhere to be found—although another corpse is dug up in the garden, evidently killed nine years before. Black deduces that Green could not have killed Helen at the cabin as his house was already being watched by the police. He sees a set of tools in Green's home which he realizes were not used for murder or torture, but to immure Helen in the basement. Black and the police dismantle a newly finished plaster wall, finding Helen injured but alive; it is at this point that Black realizes Green was simply a pawn, used by his father to lure victims to the house. ===== Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) travels to Provo, Utah to meet Calvin Smith (Michael O'Neill), the prosecutor in a local murder case; and Didi Higgens (Sarah Koskoff), a pathologist for the County Medical Examiner's office. Smith and Higgens have been involved in the trial of former sheriff William Garry (John Finn), who has been convicted of killing his three children and wife. Garry pleaded guilty to murders, and forensic evidence has linked him to a wood-carving chisel used to commit the murders. Black has been asked to construct an offender profile for Garry, to determine whether the man is sufficiently dangerous to society for a judge to issue a death penalty. Garry himself is asking to be executed. Black travels to Garry's home with a deputy, Kevin Reilly (Steve Bacic). Daubed in blood on the kitchen window are the numbers "1 28 15", which Reilly notes no one has been able to understand. Black also listens to a recording of Garry's confession, which details the murders meticulously. Black convinces Garry's attorney to allow him an interview, insisting he will be entirely impartial. Garry tells Black he had planned the murders for some time, motivated by hatred for his wife and monetary concerns. Black refutes this, pointing out that Garry had carved a wooden angel as a gift for his wife that same day, using the chisel that was the murder weapon. Smith, realizing that Black does not believe Garry to be guilty, dismisses him from the case. Black discovers that Garry had been having an affair, having previously believed that Mrs. Garry was the unfaithful one; he also realizes that Garry was unaware that his wife was pregnant. Black has Higgens help him in getting the bodies exhumed, allowing the two to see that Mrs. Garry's wounds were not defensive, but self- inflicted. Black also determines that the message written in blood was in fact "I 28 15"—Book of Isaiah, chapter 28, verse 15; which is concerned with lies and falsehoods. Black pieces together the actual events of the night of the murders, realizing that Mrs. Garry killed her children before committing suicide; before she died she blamed Garry for her actions, causing him to seek atonement by admitting to the crimes. Reilly admits to having helped Garry rearrange the crime scene to incriminate himself; Black urges him to come forward with the real events to save his friend's life. ===== In a medical clinic, a nurse escapes to the shops from a room, locking it just before someone inside can rape her. Inside the room, a group of people are screaming, panicking and self-mutilating; one man—Frank Black (Lance Henriksen)—begins pounding on a reinforced glass window until his fists bleed. Millennium Group investigator Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) visits Catherine Black (Megan Gallagher) to tell her that Frank, her husband and a fellow Group member, disappeared on his way to Yakima, Washington. Watts combs Black's computer history for information, finding emails back and forth between Black—using the pseudonym "David Marx"—and a doctor called Daniel Miller. Catherine reveals that the pseudonym Black has been using is one he had also used to check into hotels during a previous mental breakdown. Black is discovered at a bus depot by a police, his hands injured and bandaged. His pseudonym is found on a hospital bracelet; and he has no recollection of events save for the suspicion that someone died during the gap in his memory. Watts helps Black trace Dr. Miller (Željko Ivanek) to a hotel, where he informs them that Black was seeking a cure for his "gift"; a seemingly-psychic ability to understand others' psyches. Miller had been helping Black join a clinical trial for a drug called Proloft which would treat temporal lobe abnormalities; however, Black refutes that he would be interested in such a thing. Visiting a clinic, Black's ability reveals to him that he has been there before, during the nightmarish drug trial he cannot remember. From there, he is able to use the Millennium Group to persuade the drug company to release records which allow him to trace other participants. He finds that one participant died after gouging his own eyes out; the body of the supervising nurse is later found in a dumpster. Research on the drug given to the trial participants reveals it to be a chiral chemical, with two enantiomer forms; one is the harmless and beneficial Proloft, the other is the dangerous hallucinogen which Black and the others ingested. Dr Miller tells Black that he had been working on drugs to cure his own visions, which he believes are similar to Black's. One night, years earlier, Miller's left him after he ran into the road amidst oncoming traffic, almost killing himself in a hallucinatory state. After Black leaves, Hans Ingram (Gregory Itzin), the doctor responsible for the trial, breaks into Miller's room. Later, Miller is killed in a traffic accident after once again running onto a busy highway; Black finds a photograph of Ingram on his body. Watts and the police investigate Ingram's home, finding the eyeless body of the dead trial participant and sachets of something called "Smooth Time", which they ascertain to be the nightmarish enantiomer of Proloft. Watts and the Millennium Group receive news that workers at a city office building are rioting and panicking. Black realizes that Ingram had been distributing "Smooth Time" under the guise of a sweetener in order to drug a large number of people. Tracking Ingram to the office building's surveillance room, Black learns that the doctor believes that the country's dependence on antidepressants has created a nation of "zombies", and he is attempting to "wake them up" with violent hallucinogens. The doctor is arrested and taken into custody. At home with his family, Black's motives for visiting the drug trials return to him—he is concerned about his young daughter Jordan, believing that she has inherited his abilities. He is now dissuaded from using pharmaceuticals to suppress this, opting instead to guide her to understand her gift. ===== Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) runs out to a supermarket parking lot where he witnesses a lawyer, Alistair Pepper (Richard Cox), being confronted by a man named Sammael (Rodney Eastman). Sammael raises his hand, and a bolt of lightning arcs from his fingers to strike Pepper dead; however, when Black reaches Sammael, he finds a pistol at the killer's feet. A few days before fellow Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) investigates a murder in a suburban home, in which occult paraphernalia has been laid out in a disorganized manner. Watts contacts Black for help with the case. However, Black is still recovering from the murder of his friend Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich), who was murdered in Black's home. Watts hangs up when he sees Sammael looking through the house's window, but by the time he can investigate, Sammael is gone. Watts later shows Black a picture taken at the murder scene, with Sammael recognizable among a crowd of people. Elsewhere, a man named Martin (Guy Fauchon) is arrested after slitting a babysitter's throat at a public park; despite the seemingly random nature of the crime, Black believes that the man may be connected to Bletcher's murder. However, he soon starts to suspect that Martin may be innocent of the crime he has been arrested for. Black also has a dream in which a mutilated Bletcher tries and fails to speak to him, which leads Black to believe he has lost his ability to see into the minds of others. The case against Martin falters as evidence disappears and witnesses fail to identify him in a line-up. Black is approached by Pepper, Martin's self-appointed lawyer, who extends Black an invitation to join his legal practice. Martin later claims in court to have killed Bletcher. Elsewhere, another Millennium Group member, Mike Atkins (Robin Gammell), receives a telephone call from someone pretending to be Black. Meanwhile, Black suspects that the occult-oriented murder may have been committed to draw the Group, and Black, into the open again. In his jail cell, Martin cuts his own throat with a concealed razor blade; however, a coroner later finds that his death was caused by an aneurysm. Black believes that Pepper is somehow involved. Watts and Black find Atkins murdered in a hotel room, and chase a suspect down a fire escape and into a supermarket. Inside, Black finds Pepper, but as Pepper moves in and out of view, his appearance seems to change to that of Martin, and then of Lucy Butler (Sarah-Jane Redmond), the woman Black suspects to have killed Bletcher. Pepper leaves the supermarket and approaches his car, where he is confronted and killed by Sammael. As Black apprehends Sammael, he is told that Pepper was killed as a "consequence of his own error"; Black takes it to mean that there is a larger mystery to which his own involvement is only tangential. ===== In Bowman, North Dakota, a stable-hand named Sally Dumont (Ingrid Kavelaars) is attacked and left unconscious after she finds a horse has been murdered in its stall. Private investigation organization the Millennium Group send offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) to investigate, as twenty-one horses have been killed in the same manner over the past two years in the area. Black believes the culprit is in the early stages of developing into a sexually motivated serial killer. Investigating the stables, the word "help" is found written in human blood, while semen is found near where the horse was killed. Black concludes the killer is struggling with the new feelings of having attacked a person and not an animal. The killer—Willi Borgsen (Van Quattro)—is next seen attacking pigs in a trailer using a cattle prod. Borgsen is accosted by the pigs' owner, and responds by turning the cattle prod on him. The victim's body is later found in a nearby thicket. Black examines the scene, determining from the bootprints and evidence of the cattle prod being used that the killer works in a slaughterhouse. Another human victim is later found on a farm, alongside another dead horse. The phrase "thank you" is daubed on a nearby wall. The North Dakota police set up an anonymous phone number to appeal for information, which Borgsen uses to taunt Black by describing the pleasure he derives from killing. Black consults with a veterinarian, Claudia Vaughan (Jo Anderson), about the case, and learns that the area is home to a Premarin farm—estrogen for pharmaceutical use is derived from the urine of mares which are kept pregnant, their foals killed for meat to be exported. Black feels the killer may have been raised on one of these farms. Borgsen contacts Black again, confessing that his latest killing has not satisfied him. Black warns that his urges will only grow, and will never be satisfied again. When Borgsen hangs up, Black deduces that Vaughan is to be the next victim. Black, fellow Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) and Sheriff Falkner (John Dennis Johnston) track the kidnapped Vaughan to an equine slaughterhouse. Falkner is attacked and incapacitated by Borgsen as Black locates a still-living Vaughan, who has been hung by her jacket from a meat hook. Black is then confronted by Borgsen, who knocks him down with the cattle prod. Borgsen is about to kill Black with a captive bolt pistol, but is trampled to death by several escaped horses. ===== In New York City, a man named Yaponchik (Levani Outchaneichvili) shoots a man in the face, preventing the victim's identification; this is the third such murder committed this way. Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is asked to aid the New York Police Department investigate the case. Black is joined by a Muscovite investigator, Yuri Surov (Boris Krutonog), and an undercover agent, Andrei Melnikov (Dmitri Boudrine). Examining the victim's body, a symbol is found on the corpse resembling an inverted V, but its meaning is unknown. Black, Melnikov and Surov visit a Russian nightclub where the latter two are working undercover. As Surov and Black talk at one table, Melnikov is approached by Yaponchik. Someone in the club recognizes Yaponchik, and the crowd stampede out of the building when they hear his name. After the crowd has dispersed, Black and Surova find Melnikov's body at a table, his face shot off. Surova explains to Black that Yaponchik has come to be regarded by Russians as a sort of evil folkloric figure. Meanwhile, Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) determines that the "V"-like symbol found earlier is actually a fragment of the Chi Rho, a Christian symbol. Watts also informs Black that many Russians believe Yaponchik to have directly responsible for the Chernobyl disaster, a Soviet nuclear meltdown tied by some to Biblical prophecies of the apocalypse. Black researches the disaster, finding a picture of both Medikov and Surova at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, and realizes that both men have been tracking Yaponchik for revenge. One of Yaponchik's victims is identified as a restorer of Russian icons. Her home is searched, and it is found that she had uncovered Yaponchik's identity and attempted to appease him by sending him several icons. Black feels Yaponchik is killing in order to perpetuate the legends surrounding him by instilling fear in those who believe them. Watts and Black visit the Russian Embassy to find the man the icons were being mailed to—Sergei Stepanovich, identifiable as Yaponchik. Stepanovich is protected by diplomatic immunity; however, it becomes clear that Surova, Medikov and an Orthodox priest who aided the investigation have all been stalking Stepanovich, who they believe to be the Antichrist. Yaponchik murders another two men at a bathhouse, but is confronted by Surova. Yaponchik tells Surova he cannot be killed. Surova ignores this, and shoots him in the head. Yaponchik is then found and rushed to hospital. Black sees the crime scene at the bathhouse, and draws a connection between Yaponchik and the beast from the sea in the Biblical Book of Revelation, who is said to survive a fatal head wound; fearing that Yaponchik will likewise survive, Black heads to the hospital. Surova beats him there, however, and confronts the recovered Yaponchik. As Surova is about to shoot his quarry again, he is convinced instead that Yaponchik is "not the one" he is thought to be. Surova helps Yaponchik make his way to the helipad on the hospital's roof. Black and Watts arrive on the roof in time to see Yaponchik escorted onto a helicopter by several men, who take off before they can be apprehended. ===== Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) travels with his wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) and daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady) to visit Catherine's parents in Arlington County, Virginia. Also present are Catherine's sister Dawn (Barbara Williams) and her husband Gil. In Maryland, Henry Dion (Mike Starr) follows a woman home and murders her; he is later visited by a strange man hiding his face behind dark glasses—it becomes apparent that this is the man who has been sending Black threatening polaroid pictures. Dion thanks the man (Paul Raskin) for finding the victim for him, but is chided for not committing the murder while Black was in the area. Dion takes the corpse into the woods to bury it, all the while speaking to it as though in conversation. Catherine's father, Tom Miller (Ken Pogue), tells Black about two friends of his whose son was convicted of killing his wife. The father, C. R. Hunziger, is dying of pancreatic cancer, but maintains his distance from his son over the crime; his wife Adele, however, still believes her son to be innocent. Black visits the terminal Hunziger, hoping to change his mind, but the elderly man holds his position. Adele gives Black a folder full of documents relating to the case, which Black reviews. His knowledge of offender profiling leads him to believe that the convicted man, Malcom, is innocent; however the conviction was secured with a substantial level of physical evidence. Black also learns of the murder in Maryland, and connects it to the killings of four other women in the locale. Ignoring the protestations of his wife, Black leaves to investigate the parkland where one of the earlier bodies was uncovered. A park ranger discusses that case with him, telling Black that the body was found by an unidentified rambler. Black believes this man was the murderer. Elsewhere, Dion returns home, where he is belittled and emasculated by his overbearing mother, Marie (Linda Sorensen). Black and several former colleagues of his from the Federal Bureau of Investigation decide to taunt the killer into coming forward, giving a press release describing him as cowardly. A furious Dion calls the police to rebut this, betraying his identity. Police arrive at his home to arrest him, finding him sitting, covered in blood, on the kitchen floor beside his mother's body. He is apprehended, clearing Malcom Hunziger of wrongdoing. Black and his family return home to Seattle. Black carries his daughter from the airport to their car, while Catherine waits to collect their luggage. The man who had helped Dion stands to one side, watching the family. As Black returns to help Catherine with the suitcases, she has disappeared, leaving behind only an origami dove given to her by her mother. ===== The episode begins in media res from the ending of the preceding episode, "Paper Dove", showing Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) returning by plane to Seattle with his wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) and daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady). As Black takes Jordan to their car, Catherine is drugged and kidnapped by a strange man (Doug Hutchison). The abductor—the Polaroid Man—hides Catherine in his car and escapes with her to the mountains overlooking the city. Black's fellow Group members arrive to help, though he had not yet contacted any of them. They set up roadblocks throughout the city but are unsuccessful in finding Catherine. Black returns home, where his colleague Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) tells him about trying to conceive a son with his wife. Watts had once been assigned to a child-murder case in which the dismembered infant's body had been found in a cooler. He believed that God would reward him with his longed-for son if he could find the killer—years later, he still only has his three daughters, which has caused him to realize you must sacrifice one thing to gain another. Watts then has a Group member install software on Black's computer, allowing him access to sensitive documents—Black comments that he thought he already had full access before. Watts also explains that the Group's interest in Black is the reason for the Polaroid Man's actions. Elsewhere, the Polaroid Man ties up Catherine in a dark room. Black struggles to find anything useful while investigating the abduction. However, he begins to experience seemingly- psychic visions which lead him to believe she is being held in their former home. The police raid the address but find it empty; Black finds a polaroid of another house inside. He is able to track down the address of this house, but goes alone this time. Reaching it, he finds Catherine in the basement, bound to a rafter. He goes to untie her but is blinded by a camera flash. He struggles with the Polaroid Man, which we see through a series of photographs taken by the man's camera. Black is able to wrest the Polaroid Man's knife away from him and stab him to death. Returning home, Catherine packs a suitcase for Black, telling him that she cannot have him in their home for the time being, believing that he sacrificed a part of himself in killing her attacker. She hopes that time apart might help him recover what he is missing inside; he takes the case and drives off. ===== A couple in a camper van get lost along a country road. They stop near a small town to read their map, but a pack of dogs break into their van, mauling them to death. Meanwhile, Millennium Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) tries to convince fellow Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) to investigate the case. Black is experiencing a separation from his wife and daughter after killing his wife's kidnapper; he initially refuses the case but Watts' insistence sways him. Black arrives in the isolated town of Bucksnort, and visits a local diner. Standing out amongst the residents is Michael Beebe (Randy Stone), who has moved there from Los Angeles. Beebe believes his elderly neighbour may be responsible for the attack and asks Black to investigate. Black instead examines the crime scene. At sunset, he sees a group of five dogs beginning to follow him. He returns to his hotel, but when he discovers he is locked out the dogs attack him. He fights them off, killing one, and flees to a hospital where he is refused entrance. An elderly man (R. G. Armstrong) drives past, stopping to pick up the dead dog, and drives off again. The remaining dogs follow his pickup truck. Black passes out and is helped into the hospital. The locals believe he is unconscious and discuss the "situation"; however Black is awake and overhears everything, realising there is a greater threat than savage dogs at hand. The next day, Black finds a group of obelisks in the woods. He is about to examine one when Beebe appears, chased by dogs. The Old Man also arrives, and Black asks him to call off his dogs. The Old Man denies the dogs are his, but they retreat regardless. Black then sees that the obelisks all bear an ouroboros, the symbol of the Millennium Group. He visits the Old Man's home, where the two speak about the Group and its symbolism, and the coming millennium. The Old Man then brings Black to a clearing full of the wild dogs, where the latter realizes they are embodiments of the evil in the world. He approaches them, and stands his ground, being struck by several visions as he does so. The Old Man then explains that the world's balance between good and evil is being lost as the millennium approaches, and that Beebe's home, built on sacred ground, is one of the many small things upsetting this balance. Black rushes to Beebe's home, knowing the dogs will attack it. Beebe refuses to leave, but the house has been surrounded by five dogs; as they are killed they are seemingly endlessly replaced by others. The Old Man arrives, and insists the only way to rid the town of the dogs is burn down Beebe's house, which the trio do before fleeing. Back home in Seattle, Black refuses to sell his own home, telling his wife that they will move back into it together when their problems are resolved. ===== Patient Zero (Clarence Williams III) tries to hail a taxi on a busy street, but is continually ignored. He is eventually picked up by Gerome Knox (Ricky Harris), but suffers a seizure in the back of the taxi, raving about a threat against his life. Knox takes him to hospital, where he is diagnosed as a drug addict. Zero is sedated, but becomes agitated when two men enter the hospital lobby; Knox helps him escape, believing his life is in danger. The two men, Wright and Patterson, quarantine the area, as Zero is carrying a highly contagious disease. Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is contacted for help in finding Zero, and travels to a briefing on the situation. It is explained that Zero is carrying a disease ordinarily confined to the Congo. Meanwhile, Zero and Knox are attempting to have a local newspaper run Zero's story, believing he has been infected in a racially motivated conspiracy akin to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Police locate and apprehend Zero, who manages to smear blood on Black's shirt. Black has the blood tested, and finds it free of any pathogen; meanwhile, the government center running the earlier briefing has vanished. Black realizes he was tricked into finding Zero for an ulterior motive, eventually learning that the organisation responsible is carrying out medical experiments on the homeless, and may be tied to the Millennium Group. Elsewhere a homeless man, acting similarly to Zero, attacks two policemen, and is killed in response. Black and fellow Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) investigate, but are clearly not welcome. Black manages to obtain a blood sample from the dead man, and finds a stretcher tag which he believes is connected to the United States Department of Energy. Further examination of the blood of both Zero and the dead man reveal that their condition has been induced through gene therapy. Watts and Black theorize that the DOE is developing a biological weapon which would incite violence and rioting in a targeted population; they learn that the research is being conducted by scientists involved in the Human Genome Project. Later, the body of Knox is found at a nearby morgue. Later, Black and Watts, assisted by local police, raid an office building connected to the project, which they believe is using homeless shelters to test their pathogen. They hope to recover Zero in the raid, but find him cogent and working for the project—his real name is Dr. William Kramer, and he denies any knowledge of the incident. Black believes Kramer was accidentally infected during his work, and finds a photograph in the man's office, showing him in military uniform, taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. ===== Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) travels to Springdale, Arkansas to investigate allegations of child abuse brought against a daycare owner, Penny Plott (Mary Gillis). Before he leaves Seattle, he takes his daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady) shopping for shoes, but chastises her when she begins acting out for attention. In Arkansas, sheriff's deputy Bill Sherman (Chris Owens) discovers bite-marks on his son's skin after he returns home from the daycare. When his son refuses to discuss what happened, Sherman is convinced of the rumours about Plott. Black arrives in town, and pretends to be a local parent interested in using the daycare. His visit is interrupted by Lara Means (Kristen Cloke), who is investigating for Plott's defence. However, the two are forced to work together when one boy, Jason Wells, stops breathing. Despite attempts to revive him, the boy dies. Meanwhile, in Seattle, Black's wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) takes Jordan to the dentist after she spits blood while brushing her teeth. The dentist tells her such an injury is most commonly caused by blunt force trauma. Catherine dismisses the idea outright, but Jordan mentions Black losing his temper during the shopping trip. An autopsy reveals Wells' death was the result of an asthma attack. However the ambitious district attorney, Gordon Roberts (Robert Wisden) believes Plott is somehow responsible. The investigation stalls until another child, Danielle Barbakow (Lauren Diewold), mentions overhearing Wells being physically abused by Plott. Plott is arrested by Sherman, who she reprimands sternly, reminding him that she looked after him as a child too, and has never been accused of anything in three decades of childcare work. Sherman sees she is incapable of what she has been accused of and continues to send his son to the daycare, but other parents protest, to the point of picketing and vandalizing the fence around the daycare. Black and Means discover that they have both been sent to investigate by the Group, realizing that this is some kind of test for them. They both come to believe that Barkabow, from whom Black senses a demonic presence, is responsible for Wells' death, and visit her home. Means speaks to Barkabow's mother while Black interviews the child. As they speak, Barkabow begins screaming and accuses Black of harming her; after he leaves the room she hits herself in the face and breaks her jaw. This leads Roberts, who learns that Black is under suspicion of harming Jordan, to arrest him for assault. Means has ultraviolet photographs taken of Barkabow's injuries, deduces that the girl was injured with an angel statue from her room. Means realizes that Black could not have wielded this statue, and Barkabow's mother admits to having heard her daughter hit herself. Black is released, and the Seattle investigation against him is dropped when Catherine defends him. The Black family and Lara return to Seattle, while Barbakow is adopted by a family of the Millennium Group. ===== In New York City, a young Native American man is forced by several others to ingest snake venom. The venom causes him to hallucinate, and one of the men, Joe Reynard (Michael Greyeyes) asks him to describe his visions. However, the poisoned man screams in agony and dies. His body is later found when a construction site is being excavated by archaeologists. A mummified body from centuries earlier is also found; when Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) arrives to investigate, he notices similarities between both corpses. The archaeologist in charge of the dig, Liz Michaels (Amy Steel) is adamant that the site should stay intact for further excavation, but foreman Richard Powell (Garry Chalk) and his mostly Native American crew insist building must continue. Black believes the killing took place in a hotel basement; finding the crime scene, he consults Michaels, who notes that symbols painted on the walls come from several different native cultures but all concern communication with the spirit world. Black visits a bar frequented by the native construction workers and their elderly mentor (Floyd Red Crow Westerman). Reynard is among their number; Black asks him about one of the symbols, and is told by the old man that the symbol is an ominous warning. After Black leaves, Reynard tells the others that he "is the one". The dead man is autopsied; his corpse had been dismembered and reconstructed. Michaels notes that this is a Seneca ritual aimed at reviving the dead to learn of spiritual matters. Later, Black and Michaels are called the construction site, where Powell is attempting to package and remove the ancient remains. Reynard and Powell begin fighting; the latter soon dies of a heart attack. When Black returns to his car, he finds a native face mask placed inside; Michaels explains that it represents the ability to cross from the material world into the spirit world. Black believes a secret native tribe is awaiting the downfall and apocalypse of the society of the white settlers; he theorizes that they believe his abilities are key to their prophecies of the end of the world. That night, Black is kidnapped by the group of natives. He is taken to the sewers and forced to consume snake venom; he sees visions, but insists they are from his psychic gift rather than from the venom. He predicts that the native tribes will reunite and that the buffalo will return to New York. However, he is soon rescued by Michaels and a group of police, who place Reynard and his tribe under arrest. As the tribe—now reunited in police custody—are led away, a travelling rodeo loses track of four buffalo, which run free through the city streets. ===== On Halloween, Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is carving a jack-o'-lantern while preparing to take his daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady) trick-or-treating. As he leaves to collect her, he notices a demonic figure watching him from across the street. That night, Jordan deliberately passes by one house, telling Black that it is haunted. Black tells her there are no such thing as ghosts, but is reminded of a moment from his past. In a flashback, we see a five-year-old Black being dared by his friends to knock the door of the same house; a man named Crocell (Dean Winters) answers and invites Black inside. Crocell is a Second World War veteran, and he explains the meaning of Halloween to Black, telling the boy that it is the one night of the year that ghosts walk among the living. Crocell hopes that it is his chance to commune with the friends he lost in the war, and is dismayed when the young Black dismisses the possibility of ghosts. After bringing Jordan back to her mother, Catherine (Megan Gallagher), Black is driving home when he notices several youths egging a house—the house he once shared with Catherine and Jordan, and in which his friend Bob Bletcher was killed. He goes inside, and overhears several teenagers gathered in the basement trying to scare each other with the story of Bletcher's murder. Black interrupts, scaring off the youths—and is again reminded of his past, recalling his reaction when Crocell was found to have committed suicide. As Black leaves the house, he picks up an egg carton discarded by the fleeing teenagers and throws the remaining eggs at the walls. When Black arrives home, he leafs through the day's mail, finally noticing that the numbers "268" and the letters "ACT" have been appearing to him throughout the day, including Crocell's door number being 268. Black takes these coincidences to be pointing him towards a Bible verse, Acts of the Apostles 26:8—"why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?". Black then hears something moving in his attic, and investigates. He discovers Crocell's ghost, who claims to have been sent back to warn Black that he should abandon his work with the Millennium Group, and return to live with his wife and child instead. Crocell warns that Black will end up as lonely as he did, but when Black dismisses this, the spirit vanishes. The following day, Black returns to his old house to clean up where it was egged. As he cleans, he momentarily glimpses the same demonic figure as the day before, but he ignores it and continues his work. ===== In 998, a monk is betrayed by his compatriot, and shot to death by archers. As they search his robe to find their objective—the mummified hand of Saint Sebastian—they notice a tattoo on the man's body; an ouroboros, symbol of the Millennium Group. In 1998, modern Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) asks his colleague Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) for help with a case the Group have not authorized; he remains cryptic as to what it is. They travel to Germany to investigate the murder of a Dr. Schlossburg, whose lab is found to house a mummified body. The two are arrested by German police, but when the police realize they have apprehended fellow investigators they promise cooperation. However, the pair learn that Schlossburg has already been cremated; later they narrowly escape death when their rental car has been rigged with a car bomb. Black connects the attempt on their lives to Schlossburg's murder. He demands details of the case from Watts, who explains that the mummy found earlier dates to early Christianity, the time when the Millennium Group first convened. However, they realize they are being tailed by two men, and return to their hotel. There, they are met by Cheryl Andrews (C. C. H. Pounder), a fellow Group member who has worked with them in the past. She offers her help but Watts declines it. Watts is later able to access Schlossburg's computer files; meanwhile, the doctor is found to be alive, regaining consciousness in a hospital bed and telling police his assailant was Watts. Andrews tells Black she has been sent to prevent Watts acting outside the Group's remit; she gives Black a contact number and leaves. Later, Black returns to Schlossburg's lab and finds Watts, who explains that a knightly order, the Knights Chroniclers, had possessed the relic of Saint Sebastian at the turn of the second millennium; the hand imparts knowledge to its possessor that will help to overcome the evils associated with the turn of the millennium. Watts reveals that Schlossburg had uncovered the order's burial ground. Black and Watts learn that Schlossburg is alive and visit him; the doctor does not recognize Watts, but insists that his attacker identified himself as "Peter Watts". He reveals the locations of the burial ground, in a peat bog. Black and Watts leave to reach it; Schlossburg is murdered shortly afterwards by two assassins. At the bog, the pair find a mummified corpse clutching the relic; however, they have been followed by the police, and Watts is arrested for Schlossburg's murder. Black tracks down Andrews at the storage building where the relic has been taken. They are ambushed by the two assassins, and during their escape, Black mentions where the relic is hidden. Andrews immediately turns on Black; the ambush was a trick to draw the information out of Black, while she had engineered events to use Watts as a fall man to discredit the Group. However, the police are able to intervene, hearing everything and rescuing Black. Later, Watts and Black study the relic, but Black is convinced that their own convictions will be more important to them than mystical artefacts. ===== A group of friends browse the internet for pornography, finding a live stream of a woman bound to a chair. Behind her a number is painted on the wall; when the feed's web counter reaches the painted number, a masked man appears and cuts the girl's throat. The boys quickly print an image of the feed as proof of what they have seen, just before the website disappears. Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) finds that police across the United States have received calls from witnesses to the killing. The police believe it to be a hoax but Black is convinced of its authenticity. He and fellow Group members Brian Roedecker (Allan Zinyk) and Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) identify the victim as Rebecca Damsen. Damsen's email correspondence leads them to a San Jose address; Watts finds the bodies of both the owner and Damsen in a nearby graveyard. By the bodies is another number, which they determine to be an IP address. The IP address leads to another live feed similar in nature to the first one. However, the chair is empty this time. There is another number painted on the wall, which Black recognizes as a case file number from his time in the FBI—the case concerned Avatar, a serial killer who was able to evade all attempts at capture. Avatar sends Black a coded message twice, and places a woman in the chair on the feed, keeping her face hidden. Roedecker realizes that, through image differencing, the two messages contain additional information—a sound clip from The Mikado, known to be Avatar's favourite operetta. Black determines that another set of numbers visible on the feed are latitude and longitude co-ordinates for San Francisco. The San Francisco Police Department are uncooperative, however. After Black, Roedecker and Watts attempt to keep the feed counter from rising by recreating the live feed and substituting it, the second girl is murdered before the feed's counter reaches the allotted number. Avatar leaves another clue after the killing, which leads to two further video feeds—one shows a third set like the others, again with an empty chair, while the other shows the exterior of a mobile home. Police are able to locate the mobile home, but an officer is killed by a shotgun rigged to the front door, before the trailer is obliterated by a series of explosions. Black travels to San Francisco, finding an abandoned theater whose marquee is displaying The Mikado. He is shot at by a masked gunman and gives chase; however, he soon sees that the attacker is another kidnap victim, a gun tied to her arm in an attempt to trick Black into shooting her. Watts tells Black that they found a charred body in the remains of the trailer, but Black tells him it is just another victim, and Avatar will most likely fall silent again - for a while. ===== A young couple sit in a car, sharing a story of a serial killer from the area. They hear sounds outside, and the boyfriend steps out to see what they are. His girlfriend is terrified when she hears sounds of a struggle, and investigates to find him dangling above the car, dead. Millennium Group members Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) examine the crime scene. Black is skeptical when Watts notes that similar killings have occurred in the past, believing it is simply an urban legend. However, an inmate at the psychiatric hospital nearby was committed for similar murders. Unconvinced that he could have escaped, the pair nevertheless visit the facility. They meet Dr. Ellen Stoller (Melinda McGraw), who reluctantly assists them in interviewing their suspect, E. Jacob Woodcock. Woodcock admits the killing fits his methods, but denies involvement. The interview is terminated when two inmates begin fighting. That night, another couple is brutally killed on the highway. Black and Watts investigate, but they deem the deaths unconnected. However, Black notices that the newest murders are identical to the prior crimes of "Bear", one of the inmates involved in the previous day's fight. Stoller is adamant Bear cannot be responsible—until she finds the victim's hand in the cafeteria's stew. Bear insists someone took something "from inside" him, but has a seizure before he can explain. Between this incident and Woodcock insisting that Edward (Justin Louis) has stolen his dreams, Black realizes someone in the hospital is causing the deaths. After seeing a vision of Stoller being stabbed in her car, Black warns her that she may be in danger, which she rebukes. However, she is approached by another patient, Purdue (Michael Massee), who insists that Edward is stealing dreams, but will not steal his. Watts researches the facility's inmates to find who has committed stabbings in the victims' cars, concluding that Purdue is the one this profile fits. Black attempts to warn Stoller, but she has already driven away from the hospital. Black gives chase, scaring her, and she out- paces him before pulling into a filling station. However, the attendant alerts Stoller that someone is hiding in the back seat of her car, and manages to bring her to the safety of his office. Black arrives and finds the car empty. He drives Stoller back to the hospital while the attendant attempts to call the police. However, he is killed before making the call. Black searches for Purdue in the hospital, but encounters Edward, who tells him a nurse was murdered years before by Woodcock. Edward believes the patients can be cured by having the evil drained from their bodies. The electricity is cut and the lights go off. Black and Stoller roam in the dark, finding the body of the night nurse. Purdue's voice is heard over the intercom, and the pair move to the office with the tannoy equipment to find him. Edward attacks with a knife—Stoller sees him shape-shift into Purdue, then Bear, and then Woodcock. However, Purdue fights and kills him, proclaiming it "the sanest thing I ever did." Black theorizes that Edward somehow absorbed the killers' violent impulses into himself, but was unable to refrain from acting upon them. ===== In Damascus, Syria, a team of men excavate a piece of petrified wood—the True Cross. They are interrupted by the arrival of two armed assailants; one of the excavators, Le Fur, clutches the wood as a shield, and the attackers' guns jam when they attempt to fire on him. However, when Le Fur attempts to smuggle the wood out of the country, he is killed by a bomb at the airport and the cross is taken by a man named Helmut Gunsche. Gunsche later calls his employer, Rudolf Axmann, to inform him of the theft; Axmann's cufflinks bear a Germanic rune. In Seattle, Washington, Catherine Black (Megan Gallagher) meets Clear Knight (Kimberly Patton), an executive at Aerotech International. Knight offers Black a position as a counselor for the fledgling company, which she accepts. Millennium Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) meets several other Group members to discuss the competing factions within the Group—the Roosters believe that the coming millennium will trigger a theological apocalypse, while the Owls believe the end of the world will be a secular, material disaster. The discovery and theft of the True Cross threatens to tip the internecine conflict in the favor of the Owls, leaving them in control of the Group; the assembled members are Roosters and wish to stop this. Meanwhile, Lara Means (Kristen Cloke), another Group member, sees a vision of an angel. She begins researching her visions, and is scouted by a Mr. Johnston, who asks her to work with the Owl faction. Meanwhile, Catherine's husband Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) returns home to find Watts in the house. Watts explains that Black's modem has been bugged; the two argue heatedly and Black declares he is done with the Group. Watts and Means discuss the theft of the Cross; Watts explains that it is fabled to grant its possessor invulnerability, and that the Nazis had attempted to find it to turn the tide of the Second World War. Means believes that the Owls would not have stolen it, as they would not wish to risk sparking a civil war within the Group. Elsewhere, Catherine leaves work at Aerotech one evening, and finds that her car will not start. She is met by Knight, who invites the Black family to her home; it is seen that she wears the same Germanic rune cufflinks as Axmann. Johnston is driving along a quiet road, when his car is overtaken by Gunsche. Gunsche forces Johnston off the road, strangles him to death, and places a piece of wood—meant to resemble the Cross—inside Johnston's car, before setting him and the car ablaze. The remains are later examined by Watts and Means; they cannot determine if the wood is the Cross or not. However, Watts finds Johnston's partially burnt diary, and reads an entry about his contacting Means. Suspecting betrayal, he expels Means from the Group immediately. Meanwhile, Black realizes that a painting he has seen in Knight's office was a watercolor by Adolf Hitler. He then notices two men watching his house from a car. He approaches and holds them at gunpoint, and they identify themselves as Group members; however, one of them discreetly draws his own pistol. ===== Continuing from "Owls", Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) approaches the car that has been surveilling his home. The occupants claim to be fellow members of the Millennium Group, but soon begin shooting; Black takes cover and returns fire, shooting one of the men before the car escapes. The car is later found abandoned. Meanwhile, Lara Means (Kristen Cloke) is examining evidence relating to Johnston's murder; she discovers that Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) had suppressed infrared post-mortem photographs. Learning of this, the Elder (Philip Baker Hall)—a high-ranking Group official—demands an explanation; Watts divulges that the murdered man had been conspiring to pit conflicting factions within the Group against each other. Watts had found evidence in one of the photographs which may have influenced such a schism and wished to keep it hidden until its significance could be known. The Elder agrees, and similarly decides to hold off on testing which would reveal if an artefact in Johnston's possession was an authentic piece of the True Cross. Black's wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) is approached at her new job by a colleague, who reveals that the company is part of the Odessa network. Meanwhile, Black visits Catherine's boss Clear Knight (Kimberly Patton), experiencing visions of Nazi Germany after seeing a watercolour painting in her office. Later that night Black is visited by Means and the Old Man (R. G. Armstrong), another high-ranking Group member. They explain to Black that the Group has, throughout history, been privy to scientific discoveries of which the public has no knowledge. Johnstone had theorised the existence of a tear in the universe which would reach Earth in several decades; his death may be connected to this theory. The Old Man also explains that the Group has been infiltrated in the hopes of splintering it, by members of the Odessa network—a faction founded by fugitive Nazis which had previously been known for its anti-communist work and has now turned its focus to the Millennium Group. When Catherine finds her colleague dead, she flees from the company premises and finds her husband, who has deduced that her job offer was simply a way for Odessa to reach him. Elsewhere, an Odessa agent murders the Old Man in Frank's home; the loss serves to reunite Watts, Means and Black, who contrive a plan to strike back at Odessa. As the Elder conducts a funeral for the Old Man, a carbomb kills his assassin, while Odessa's Paraguayan headquarters is destroyed and Knight's company is raided and closed. The Elder finishes his rites and returns home, opening a package delivered from the Middle East; inside is the fragment of the True Cross. ===== Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is an offender profiler working for a private investigative firm called the Millennium Group, who consult with local or federal law enforcement on criminal cases. The Millennium Group, and Black, specialise in examining violent crimes or those of a millenarian nature. As a cargo ship pulls into harbour, it is surrounded by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents. On board, the captain, Law (Tzi Ma), sends two of his crew to kill a "monster" in the cargo hold. Before they can do so, the ship is boarded and the men arrested. Inside the hold, INS agents find a glamorous woman (Vivian Wu) bound in chains. Black's wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) has brought their daughter Jordan to the hospital where she works; there, Jordan sees the captive woman and is convinced she will be significant to her father. Catherine brings the woman's file to Black, who becomes interested in the case. However, attempts to communicate with her fail, as a translator insists the woman is speaking a wholly unknown language. Stymied, Black and fellow Group member Lara Means (Kristen Cloke) investigate the ship, finding several bodies hidden in a crate, all having died of exposure. Black then interviews Law and his crew individually, each time being given a contradicting story of how the woman came to be on board the ship. However, they all agree that after she boarded, crew were discovered daily, dead of exposure on the ship's bow; Law had the woman chained up in the belief she was responsible. Black traces the woman's fingerprints through a Millennium Group database, finding they belong to a Tamara Shui Fa Lee, who disappeared at sea near Hong Kong ten years prior—and who Black believes is now dead. Black visits "Lee" at the hospital, where she speaks to him in perfect English, discussing personal events from his life of which she would have no knowledge. As he drives home, he sees her on the side of the highway and stops to investigate; however, he finds no sign of her and returns home, where he shares an intimate dinner with Catherine and Jordan, later retiring to bed with Catherine—despite their estrangement. Black gradually notices more differences from how his life had been, realizing he has never been a member of the Millennium Group and founded a private investigation firm after leaving the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Returning home again one day, he sees a demon holding Jordan's lifeless body. Back on the highway, an ambulance crew try to resuscitate Black, who has been outside his car through the night after his vision of Lee. After he comes to, he realizes this alternate reality was Lee showing him a life without the Millennium Group. However, he is left unsure whether his role within the Group is protecting his family from evil, or exposing them to it. Black seeks out Lee in a refugee camp; meanwhile, Law and his crewmen are also tracking her, conspiring to kill her to avenge their fellow crew. Lee turns the men against each other with her visions, before Black arrives to rescue her. As Black questions her as to the Group's influence, she resumes speaking in her unknown tongue, leaving Black without the answer he seeks. ===== In a women's prison, inmates and lovers "Sonny" Palmer (Mary-Pat Green) and Janette Viti (Missy Crider) begin an escape attempt by overpowering a guard; when attacking a second guard, Viti is shot. Sonny beats the guard in response, before realizing Viti has survived as the bullet was stopped by a badge on her stolen uniform; the two believe they see a face in the flattened round. Later, offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is called to investigate the breakout by prison warden Kellard (Ed Lauter). Kellard enumerates Sonny's history of violence, having killed both her stepfather and husband, and now a guard. Black is puzzled by her need to escape, however, as her parole date is only a few months away. Sonny and Viti carjack a motorist, bringing him to a house where they seem disappointed to find no one home. They abandon the car with its owner tied in the back seat, before fleeing to a motel where it is revealed that Viti is heavily pregnant. Meanwhile, Black researches Sonny's history, finding that she seems to lash out defensively rather than aggressively—she killed the stepfather that was abusing her sister, and killed her husband after a history of domestic abuse. He believes her escape was an attempt to protect someone else; a report by the hijacked motorist reveals Viti's pregnancy to the investigators. Black believes one of the prison guards is the father; a guard named Shiffer admits to raping her under sedation in the infirmary. Sonny and Viti visit a clinic for a sonogram, but leave abruptly when they realize the guard they attacked died of his injuries. Black and fellow investigator Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) learn that the sonogram revealed a placenta praevia, which could prove fatal during labor. They also conjecture that the couple may try fleeing by rail, as Sonny had previously worked on a railroad. Black tracks them to a boxcar, but is taken hostage by Sonny; Viti has now gone into labor. Black explains that Viti's rapist has confessed, which angers Sonny—she believes the pregnancy is a virgin birth. The police begin to surround the boxcar as Viti's contractions intensify; Sonny demands medical staff be brought in and two police officers instead pose as paramedics. Black warns Sonny to search their medical supplies and to avoid exposing herself to police snipers. Black aids with Viti's delivery, but she dies of blood loss. The child is born white, apparently ruling out the black Shiffer as its father. Reacting to Viti's death, Sonny runs outside and mimes drawing a gun, committing suicide by cop. Black later travels to the house the couple had abandoned the car at, meeting a religious couple who had been praying for Sonny and Viti during their sentences, who agree to adopt the child. ===== Social worker Catherine Black (Megan Gallagher) arrives moments too late to prevent a shooting in a school prayer group. Several days earlier, Black meets Emma Shetterly (Gwynyth Walsh), the school's vice-principal. Shetterly explains that five students have claimed to be experiencing visions of Saint Mary; she believes the girls involved are unlikely candidates for divine visions, particularly the trouble-making Clare McKenna (Genele Templeton). Black speaks to the girls, who claim to have had visions during a sermon by Reverend Hanes; Hanes' son Alex refutes this. Black returns to Shetterly's office, and is met by Lara Means (Kristen Cloke), who works with her husband in the Millennium Group. Means explains that the Group has explored many such reported visions. Later, Means and Black listen to McKenna reading a passage from the Bible. Afterwards, McKenna reveals that she knows a great deal about the Polaroid Man who kidnapped Black months earlier. Means receives a vision herself during the conversation, and becomes convinced that McKenna is a prophet of some sort. Black thinks the girl is acting out, but Means reveals that she is reciting passages from the non-canonical Gnostic Gospels, which supposed that Mary Magdalene was the only disciple to fully understand the teachings of Jesus Christ. Means believes the girls are not seeing visions of Saint Mary, but of Mary Magdalene. Later, Black is informed that the girls are missing. She and Means search the woods, finding the girls in a grotto. They are with a teacher from the school, Ben Fisher (John Pyper-Ferguson) who attacks Means; she subdues him and he is arrested. She later confronts him, and it is revealed he is a former Group member charged with protecting the girls due to their powers. When Black later learns that Fisher has been released, she fears for McKenna's life. She rushes to the school, knowing the girls will be at a prayer meeting. She arrives just too late to prevent Alex from firing upon the meeting; Fisher is killed while shielding McKenna. Later, Means shows Black two sets of DNA test results—one from McKenna, the other from the Shroud of Turin. The profiles seem to prove that McKenna is related to Jesus Christ; Means entrusts them, and the decision as to whether to proliferate them, to Black. ===== A young man tunnels out of a farmhouse in Oregon City, Oregon, escaping into the night. He finds an abandoned car and attempts to hot-wire it; someone inside starts the engine and runs him off the road, injuring his ankle. A woman, face obscured, and her male accomplice exit the car and throw the man into its trunk. In Seattle, two friends argue about applying for college. Landon Bryce (Christopher Kennedy Masterson) tells his friend Howard Gordon (Michael R. Coleman) to apply, but Gordon has been convinced by school counselor Teresa Roe (Mariangela Pino) that his progress is too mediocre to make it worthwhile. Bryce accosts Roe, calling her a failure. That night, Gordon is killed, and Bryce is kidnapped. Millennium Group criminal profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) learns that Gordon died of a heart attack, which the coroner believes was caused by fear. Black visits the crime scene, and sees visions of Lucy Butler (Sarah-Jane Redmond), a woman who killed his friend and colleague Bob Bletcher (in season one's Lamentation). Meanwhile, Bryce is bound and gagged in a remote farmhouse, then left in a room with the would-be escapee. The woman from earlier tells Bryce she loves him. Black speaks to fellow Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) about his Butler vision. Watts informs Black that a Group member, Olson, has been tasked with monitoring Butler since her release. Watts and Black travel to Butler's last known address and find Olson's long-dead body. They realize Butler had been filing her own surveillance reports in Olson's name. Meanwhile, Bryce attempts to escape, but is subdued and later comforted by Lucy Butler. Black interviews Roe, suspecting her involvement when she continually refers to Bryce in the past tense. He later discovers that in every school she has worked for, students have been kidnapped; all the victims resembled Bryce in being average students who showed signs of promise. Bryce learns about the tunnel from his cellmate, and the two escape again. Emerging from the tunnel, they are met by Butler and a dog that attacks Bryce. After being brought back to the farmhouse, Bryce is told to accept that he is mediocre and ordinary. Elsewhere, Black and Watts interview Roe again, who seems to espouse the same mindset. Black reveals that he knows Roe was once a promising student, and accuses her of being cowed by a fear of failure. Frightened, she reveals the location of Butler's farm. Police raid the farm, freeing several captive youths, including Bryce, but Butler is nowhere to be found. ===== Four elderly men meet for coffee late at night. The fourth to arrive is hostile to the waiter, who secretly urinates in the man's coffee. The man, Abum (Dick Bakalyan), realizes this, and the group share a laugh over it, during which they are revealed to actually be demons. One of them, Blurk (Bill Macy), complains that there are no strong personalities in this century. He tells a story of Perry, a man he met hitch- hiking, who he molded into a serial killer over encouraging conversations. Perry sought to emulate Johnny Mack Potter, the country's most prolific killer, and to break his record number of murders. As Perry drew level with Potter's figure, Blurk grew bored accompanying him on the "mundane" murders of prostitutes and vagrants. Blurk gave an anonymous tip to the police that leads to Perry's arrest; one of the men present at the arrest—offender profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen)—seems to see through Blurk's human disguise. In prison, Perry is murdered by his cellmate Johnny Mack Potter, reclaiming his record. Abum tells another story, which he believes shows that mankind no longer needs demonic temptation to be damned. Abum followed an everyman figure called Brock, watching his grindingly repetitive life. Brock visited a strip club often but without joy, which led Abum to believe he no longer took pleasure from sinning. One day, Abum added an additional irritation to Brock's life, posing as a traffic warden and giving him a ticket. This was enough to drive Brock to suicide. However, during this time, Abum also encountered Black, who again saw his demonic nature. Greb (Alex Diakun) shares his tale, of a television censor called Waylon Figgleif. Figgleif's overzealous approach to censorship leads Greb to try pushing his limits. Greb assumed the form of a small demonic baby and reveals himself to Figgleif, who breaks down and starts attempting to censor everyday life. Greb repeats this trick, and encourages Figgleif to go on a killing spree—Figgleif takes a gun, bursts onto the taping of a science-fiction show about alien abduction, and kills several actors. Greb's methods and effectiveness are dismissed until he reveals the story's epigram. Figgleif's spree was caught on camera, and broadcast by another network as a found footage special. However, Greb also notes that he too was spotted by Black during this. The fourth devil, Toby (Wally Dalton), is convinced that Black really does know that they are demons. Toby also recounts his story, in which he begins to feel ennui at his failure to damn humans for some time. He meets and courts an aging stripper, Sally, who falls in love with him. Their relationship blossomed, despite her having seen his true demonic form. One day Toby leads her to believe he is about to propose to her, before instead curtly insulting and breaking up with her. He later visited her home to find police investigating her suicide—a successful damnation. However, he also encounters Black, who sees his true nature. Instead of recoiling or reacting, Black simply tells Toby that he sees how lonely he must be. Toby's story affects all the gathered demons, who realize how lonely they really are. As they get up to leave, Abum praises the shop's coffee and briefly reveals his true form to the waiter. ===== 1924\. Louise Noblet keeps a small hotel, the Pension Mimosas, on the Côte d'Azur in the south of France, with her husband Gaston who is also a supervisor in local casino. Many of their clientele are luckless gamblers hoping for success in the local casino. Childless themselves, Louise and Gaston have been bringing up the young Pierre while his father serves a prison sentence, but they are dismayed when the father is released early and comes to take back his son. 1934\. Pierre, now a young man, is living in Paris among gamblers and gangsters, and he still plays upon the feelings of his former adoptive parents to extract money from them. Louise makes him return to the Pension Mimosas and find a job, but she now develops an ambiguous affection for him. To please him, she even invites his mistress Nelly to join him in the hotel. The two women soon become rivals, while Pierre accumulates debts. Louise reveals Nelly's whereabouts to her old protector who comes to take her back. In despair Pierre kills himself, while Louise has gone to the casino under an assumed identity to win the money to pay his debts. ===== Kapitan Sino is a fictional story by Bob Ong about Rogelio Manglicmot, an average Electronics Technician in a town called Pelaez who became a Super Hero after learning his Special abilities. With the help of his best friend Bok-bok and his childhood friend Tessa (whom he also bears romantic feelings), he treads the path of saving lives and offering help to those in need. After some confusion of what to call the mysterious crime fighter, the people decided to call him "Kapitan Sino" (translated as Captain Who?). Kapitan Sino then start his adventures as he goes one on one with a giant gorilla, saves people trapped inside a burning building, prevents structures from collapsing during an earthquake, stops a Train from going off rail and caught small fry criminals faster than the local authorities. As the story progresses, a series of abduction occurs in Pelaez by a mysterious Hairy Monster. It was later revealed that the same Monster is Mayor Solomon Suico who abducts victims for their blood to sustain his Son Michael who inherited his form however with more severity. Kapitan Sino engages in a fierce battle with Mayor Suico after he followed him to an abandoned hospital where he keeps his victims. Kapitan Sino defeats Mayor Suico and kills him; Suico's Son Michael soon follows after being injured in the rubbles made by the battle. Kapitan Sino searches the abandoned hospital for Suico's latest victim. He finds Tessa instead, unconscious and bleeding. He rushes her to the nearest hospital, Tessa however dies. After the death of Tessa, Rogelio loses enthusiasm towards life and goes full time super hero. His father Mang Ernesto confronts him telling him that it was not his fault he could not save Tessa and to stop being a super hero if he is not happy. He also confesses himself as Mayor Suico's half brother. Mang Ernesto tried to make Rogelio Realize that being a Hero does not need recognition but acts as one to make things right. Following the death of Mayor Suico, the Vice Mayor Samonte took the vacant position as Mayor of Pelaez. Mayor Samonte then organizes a program to thank Kapitan Sino giving a token of appreciation, a check worth 30 thousand Philippine Peso (in which most of the sources he already took for himself from Public fund). At the sound of such huge amount, one by one, false Kapitan Sinos began to appear wearing phony Kapitan Sino costumes from old motorcycle helmets. The people went amok and one of them threatened to throw grenade. The grenade fell as everyone fled for their lives, Rogelio (wearing Kapitan Sino costume) rushed and covered the explosion, tearing his costume and burning his helmet, revealing himself as the true Kapitan Sino. The Police arrives to control the situation, Aling Chummy seemingly lost her sanity approaches Rogelio( who barely can't stand and is assisted by Bok-bok) and slaps him. He blames Rogelio for the death of his husband who died of Lung Cancer, and asserts that Rogelio is at fault for not warning him. The Police arrests Rogelio and Bok-bok, but leaves the man who threw the grenade free. Meanwhile, a Mysterious Disease threatens the whole world. The epidemic finally reaches Philippines making the citizen anxious for their lives. To find a cure, Doctors from all over the world decided to get samples of blood from everywhere to match the cure they are developing. Rogelio and Bok-bok (imprisoned) were also forced to give samples of their blood. Rogelio's blood matches the cure and is taken by the Medical Expert for his blood, leaving Bok-bok behind already infected with the disease. After taking much of his blood, Rogelio (now all weak and dizzy) tried to find his parents. An unknown man carrying a child slips from the panicking crowd and rushes to Rogelio asking him if his blood cures, Rogelio nods as the man stabs him to get his blood. Rogelio dies as well as his parents who were infected by the disease. Following the death of Rogelio, Bok-bok attends another program held in his honor. During Mayor Samonte's speech of his false service instead of honoring Kapitan Sino, Bok-bok approaches him and strikes him on the face. The story ends with Bok-bok, saved from the mysterious disease, relives Kapitan Sino's legacy in himself. ===== Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport), a maid in a hotel in Turin, is cleaning a guest's bathroom when the guest apparently jumps out the bedroom window to her death. Later, Sonia attends a speed dating event where she meets Guido (Filippo Timi), a former policeman who now works as a security guard. They strike up a friendship, and spend some time together after the event. As they part, Guido notices that the time is 23:23 - a double hour, when the hour and minute are the same. He believes that at such times, one may make a wish and it will be granted - although he admits to Sonia that it doesn't always work. Some days later, Guido takes Sonia to the country villa where he works. The villa has an elaborate security system, but Guido disables part of the system so that the two of them can go for a walk in the grounds. In the woods, they are ambushed by an armed man and Guido is knocked unconscious. Waking up in the villa, he is forced by armed men in balaclavas to disable the security system. The robbers systematically loot the villa of its art treasures and other valuables. As they leave, the leader of the gang menaces Sonia, suggesting he is about to rape her. Enraged, Guido launches himself at him. They struggle, and a shot is fired, but it is not clear what happened next. Sonia is shown back at work, then visiting Guido's grave-site. She is distracted at work, frequently seeing glimpses of Guido's face, sometimes at a double hour. She is questioned by Dante, a policeman and former colleague of Guido, who suspects the robbery at the villa may have been an inside job. Dante gives her a photograph which appears to show her with Guido in Buenos Aires, although she has never been there. Sonia feels her sanity slipping away as her visions of Guido become more frequent and elaborate. Finally she is devastated when she hears that her friend and workmate, Margherita, has committed suicide by jumping out a window. At Margherita's funeral, Sonia is distraught when the officiating priest names the deceased as Sonia instead of Margherita. Bruno, a regular guest at the hotel, takes Sonia away in his car. He gives her a flask which he says contains coffee and a hint of liqueur. Sonia drinks, and is drugged. Bruno drives to a wooded area and drags Sonia out of the car, wrapping her in a plastic sheet and burying her in a shallow grave. Sonia blacks out, and is at the point of death when Guido digs her up and rescues her. Actually, Sonia is recovering from unconsciousness in a hospital. She learns that only three days have elapsed since the robbery, and everything she experienced since was only her imagination, as she lay in coma. She was wounded in the head by that gunshot. And Guido and Margherita are both alive and well. Guido is made aware when Dante tells him that Sonia has a criminal past, when 12 years earlier she helped her boyfriend rob her father's home, but Guido asks they be left in peace. Guido goes to see the speed-dating organizer to tell her he no longer needs her events, but when she tells him that Sonia specifically asked to meet him, Dante's suppositions are confirmed to Guido. He goes to her apartment and has sex with her, but the next morning she tells him she has to go see Margherita. He, knowing she is leaving him as Dante had suggested she would, follows her surreptitiously, and, in the airport garage, sees her meet the robbery gang leader, whom she embraces and kisses, and who bears a resemblance to Guido. He eavesdrops on their conversation with a shotgun microphone, and learns that he was not supposed to have survived the robbery. As the couple get into an elevator, Sonia sees Guido, sitting in his car, who is in the process of calling Dante. Guido looks at Sonia, and she looks at him, unsure. The elevator door closes, and Guido hangs up, not reporting anything to Dante. Nervously, Sonia boards a flight to Buenos Aires using a false identity. She notices that the boarding time is 20:20 - a double hour, and dwells to think for a moment. In the final scenes, Guido is forlorn, and back speed-dating, while Sonia and the gang leader are shown being photographed together in Buenos Aires. =====