From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Seventeen-year-old Kellen Tavadon has lived his whole life in Armathelieh, the Mage City. The son of Arch-Mage Lycaelon Tavadon, Kellen is expected to become a Mage by Armathelieh's citizens. However, fate has different plans for him. Stumbling through the City's Low Market, he comes upon three mysterious books — the books of the Wild Magic , an art forbidden by the High Mages. When Lycaelon searches his room and finds the books, Kellen is accused and convicted for the practice of Wild Magic. He is forced from the city by an Outlaw Hunt — a rare event orchestrated by the Mages of the Council to look like banishment , but actually a cover-up for murder. Kellen casts a Wild Magic spell asking for help in escaping the Outlaw Hunt. The Wild Magic grants him a unicorn named Shalkan who agrees to help Kellen on the condition that he remain chaste and celibate for a year and a day. Seeing little choice, Kellen agrees. After he and Shalkan fight off the stone hounds of the Outlaw Hunt, both are badly injured and seek refuge at the home of a Wild Mage named Idalia. Idalia happens to be Kellen's older sister who also was banished by their father. She takes him in and teaches him about Wild Magic. Meanwhile, the demons, led by Queen Savilla, want to conquer the world of light. Savilla does this by trying to get the elves and humans to fight. Her son Prince Zyperis tells a spy for the council that Kellen has escaped and is learning wild magic from his sister. The council then decides to extend its border to where Idalia and Kellen live. Idalia, Shalkan and Kellen are forced to move into Elven lands, while the other folk (sylphs, dryads, fauns, pixies, gnomes, and centaurs) have to go north towards the mountains. As Kellen, Idalia, and Shalkan approach the Elven lands, Kellen notices that the woods are different from the wild wood and there are no other folk. When Kellen meets the elves he thinks they are perfect in every way. Their beauty and their whole civilization seem perfect. When they first arrive at their new home Kellen meets Jermayan, who loves and is loved by Idalia. However, she does not want to be with him because he will live for hundreds of years and she will die. Jermayan does not care, but Idalia rejects him. While Kellen is exploring he meets a young elf, Sandalon, who happens to be the prince of the elves and takes him to his mother, Queen Ashaniel. While she is there she tells him that a drought has happened. Idalia then learns this is not a natural drought. When she tries to summon water by wild magic it is rejected. The drought is a magical drought; someone is stopping the water. Idalia learns that the demons are the ones causing the drought. She believes she can fix it but she and the elves will have to pay a price. Then someone will have to go to the place the spell is being held and put a keystone with the counter spell and change it. Kellen has to do that because when the drought is broken huge storms will come and Idalia is need to slow and stop the spells and Kellen and Idalia are the only wildmages in elven lands. Kellen goes with only Jermayan and Shalkan. They journey into the mountains were the demons live to stop the counter spell. As they are traveling Jermayan teaches Kellen how to become a knight when he learns that Kellen is a knight-mage, making him an excellent fighter, but only an average wild mage. When several human and centaur bandits attack them, Kellen kills for the first time and is terribly upset. Jermayan is mortally wounded and Kellen heals him with wild magic, during which the gods of wild magic tell him "you will know what to do when the time comes" and Jermayan is healed but weak. Meanwhile, Kellen learns from Jermayan of the Great War. The elves, humans, and wild folk fought against the demons. Kellen learns that there were wild mages that did not want to pay their price so they joined the demons. Each had mighty dragons on both sides, and many races of the light were lost forever. As they get closer, the price in which Kellen paid for healing Jermayan leads him to someone harassing a girl. Kellen engages the man, deciding against drawing his sword against the man's club, instead using his armored gauntlets to knock him unconscious. Then Kellen realizes that the girl he saved looks like a demon. Jermayan sees her and tries to kill her but Kellen protects her. While they are fighting Shalkan walks up to her and touches her with his horn. If a demon touches a unicorn horn they die. Jermayan stops fighting Kellen and only accepts her because Shalkan threatened to kill him. The girl, Vestakia, says she can lead them to the barrier where the spell is being held. She can sense where demons and demon magic are. She then tells the story of how her mother was a Wild Mage who unknowingly slept with a demon in human guise. When she found out, she called on the wild magic for help and was given a choice: her child could be born human but with a demon nature, or a demon with a human nature. Both choices would cost twenty years of life. She took the second option and fled with her sister into hiding. Vestakia finally leads them to the mountain where the barrier is held. Vestakia, Kellen, Jermayan, and Shalkan ascend the mountain to find an obelisk. Kellen has to climb up it to position the counter-keystone while the others are weak because of the demon magic. As Kellen climbs up a demon army of goblins comes, and Vestakia, Shalkan, and Jermayan fight them off. During the battle, Jermayan learns to trust Vestakia and saves her life. Meanwhile, Kellen realizes he is going to die by going up there. He wishes he never left the golden city and learned wild magic. He realizes that he didn't miss the city itself, but what it could have been. A place of honor, justice, and law, and he misses the fact that he used to think it was. He ascends the staircase to the top of the obelisk, and is surprised to confront a doppelganger of himself. The doppelganger attempts to persuade him to give up his mission, to try to convince him of returning to Armathelieh. He tells him to renounce the three books, beg for his father's forgiveness, and he can take his father's throne to make the city how he wants it. Kellen almost accepts, but realizes it is all a trick. He slams the counter-keystone into the obelisk, starting the spell that will eventually shatter it. When he does, Doppelganger Kellen turns into the Demon Queen and disappears. Kellen's hands burn from holding the counter-keystone in place, and he thinks he's going to die from the pain. He collapses when the obelisk is destroyed, and the goblins flee. Back in elven Lands, Idalia knows that she sent Jermayan and Kellen to their deaths. Then she feels the magic of the barrier being destroyed. She summons the wild magic, hesitating on the price but accepts to control the weather patterns as the storms built up from being stopped by the barrier. It transforms her into something big and she flies into the storm and controls it. Three days later, Ashaniel finds Idalia unconscious in a field. Kellen wakes up with Vestakia, Shalkan, and Jermayan all next to him and finds it raining. He feels really weak, and his hands hurt badly and are bandaged. As the book ends the Demon Queen is furious and Kellen's tutor Anigrel talks to her and she tells him what to do in the golden city. ===== Blood of the Yakuza is a campaign setting and scenario package for use with Oriental Adventures. The module describes the Japanese-style island of Wa and the port of Nakamura, detailing the history, politics, districts, architecture, and important personalities of the Tokugawa-era town. The module contains information on the rival Yakuza gangs and the political machinations of the important families and temples, as well as background on the major NPCs of the city, plus lists of names, occupations, and personalities for detailing minor non-player characters. Narratives are provided, rather than presenting the adventures as straightforward encounter plots, and depending on their character classes and backgrounds, the player characters can interact with the stories in many different ways. As the module was based on the Kara Tur boxed set, its information is older than the information about Wa found in such product lines as the Spelljammer series. ===== Nicole, a fifteen-year-old American high school student living in the year 2001, comes from an affluent household and takes her lifestyle for granted. She has a website she calls Notes of GirlX. On the website, she talks about her life and frustrations. Absorbed in her studies, she becomes fascinated with a Holocaust survivor who speaks to her English class, named Paulette Littzer-Gold. Nicole feels drawn to the woman, and asks if they have previously met. The class takes a trip to a local Holocaust museum. During the trip, Nicole and her peers are assigned roles as Jewish teens living during the Holocaust. After the activity begins, Nicole hears students shrieking and gunfire. She attempts to run along with the rest of her classmates, but is struck in the back while ascending a staircase and loses consciousness. When Nicole wakes, she finds herself in Paris in 1942. She is told that she is Nicole Bernhardt, the name of the fictional Jewish girl assigned her by her English teacher back in the Holocaust museum. As months passed, Nicole tells herself that the 2001 world is a dream and accepts that she is Nicole Bernhardt. Several of Nicole's friends are non-Jews who oppose Hitler's policies and protect the Bernhardt family. However, following the German invasion of France, Nicole's situation gets dramatically worse. Eventually, she is forced to hide in a rundown apartment in the streets of Paris. From her refuge, Nicole writes a string of anti-Nazi letters for the French resistance. In the letters, she calls herself GirlX. The Bernhardt family is betrayed and Nicole is transported to Auschwitz and she meets Anne Frank aboard the train. Nicole remembers that she read Anne's diary and tells her, but Anne says she left it where she had been hiding. Later, a fellow Jew tries to save Nicole by sending her to be slave labor in the camp instead of being sent to be killed. Nicole and her sister Liz-Bette, who is very ill, are to be split up, Nicole to live and Liz-Bette to die. Nicole becomes hysterical and begs to be allowed to accompany her sister. The Germans, after mocking Nicole's devotion to Liz- Bette, allow her to go with the young girl. Nicole tearfully thanks them and then walks with Liz-Bette to the "showers." Liz-Bette is frenzied with terror, but Nicole calms her. Nicole then leads her sister in a Jewish prayer, as she whispers she loves Liz-Bette and they succumb to death. Nicole wakes up, lying on a bench outside the museum. She finds out that other students had set off firecrackers which sent everyone running, when she bumped her head. Nicole stays at the hospital for a few days, and afterwards her life goes on, but she can't figure out if she was really in the Holocaust, or if it was just a bad dream. Nicole believes Paulette Littzer-Gold, the Holocaust survivor, who visited her school was the same woman at the Concentration Camp who told her to "stay to the right." The next day, Nicole finds out Mrs. Littzer-Gold had died overnight. She decides to go to Mrs. Littzer-Gold's funeral. Nicole sees a picture of her, but she looks nothing like the woman she thought she was. Nicole sadly accepts that she was never Nicole Bernhardt and that she never lived during the Holocaust. After the funeral, Nicole looks at the things that belonged to Mrs. Littzer-Gold that are at the altar. She notices that a letter Mrs. Littzer-Gold owned was one of the GirlX letters that Nicole herself had written, back in Paris in 1942. The letter talked about how no one could silence her ( "her" being GirlX). Not only did Nicole find out she really had lived in the Holocaust, but she gave Mrs. Littzer-Gold the courage to live. Nicole takes her sister to a museum about Anne Frank. ===== The drama is about two families that operate rival Chinese food restaurants, and the love stories of twenty-something high school graduates on their paths to becoming first-class chefs. Hyo-dong treats his customers like kings and serves the best Chinese food in the area, but his restaurant has been struggling for some time. Built on his father's dedication and decades of hard work, the restaurant has been declining due to the aggressive techniques of their rivals. In the midst of this competition, Hyo-dong gets to know Hee-ae, a charming young girl who frequents the same cooking class. They also meet Shin-ae, a poor, very determined student who dreams of owning her own restaurant someday. Hyo-dong falls for Hee-ae, but he later finds out that she is the daughter of the owner of deluxe eatery Golden Dragon, a ruthless rival who is out to destroy his father's restaurant. ===== Alex is a married Junior Leaguer with a penchant for interesting shoes. Her Junior League chapter's annual project is to volunteer at Hope House, an AIDS hospice that recently opened in her home town of Azalea Springs, Texas. Alex and her League friends, including her friend Sloan, tour Hope House. Alex runs into her best friend Spencer, whose lover Bruce is a resident, and Grace, a friend from high school who had recently moved back to Azalea Springs to work at Hope House as a nurse. That night at the town's annual Azalea Ball, a drunken Spencer tells a society matron that his homosexuality was caused by drinking the local water. An equally drunken Sloan overhears and spreads the story. A panic ensues, with the local newspaper printing the story and commissioning testing of the water supply. Mark, the son of the publisher, objects to his father, but because Mark is himself struggling with his homosexuality and attending meetings of an ex-gay group at the local church, he's limited in what he can do to mitigate the story and the resultant damage. The leader of the ex-gay group, Brother Daniel, announces plans to protest for the closing of Hope House. Alex and Grace renew their friendship and Grace comes out as a lesbian to her. Grace returned to Azalea Springs because her husband found out about an affair she was having with another woman and is now in prison for assaulting Grace. At an ex-gay meeting, Mark meets Tomas, a painter. Mark hires Tomas to re-paint his dining room. The Junior League decides not to continue volunteering at Hope House. Alex, who's resigned from the League, goes to work full-time at the hospice over her husband Robert's objections. Alex develops some curiosity about her possible lesbianism and rents a number of classic lesbian-themed films: Desert Hearts; Lianna; Personal Best; Heavenly Creatures; Bar Girls; Claire of the Moon; The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love; an unnamed, presumably pornographic video; and, mixed in among them, The Godfather Part III, which serves as mainstream cover for the other selections and elicits a bemused look from the counter clerk, who has been loudly reading out the titles. At Hope House, Alex gives in to her growing attraction to Grace and they kiss passionately in a supply room. Sloan catches them and spreads the story all over town. After Tomas paints Mark's dining room, they go out on a dinner date, where Mark learns that Tomas stumbled into the ex-gay meeting by mistake. After dinner they go to Tomas's studio and Tomas shows Mark his paintings. They make love. Reaction is immediate and hostile, with Alex suffering indignities great and small, everything from the breakup of her marriage to the closing of her credit account at the local fried pie shop. Following this, Mark gains the courage to break up with the woman he's been dating as a "beard" and to come out to his father. He demands that his father drop the story on the water supply (testing proves that the water is completely ordinary) and stop the negative coverage of Hope House. Mark and Tomas and Alex and Grace go out dancing at a big-city gay club, where they see Ray Ray, the son of Alex's family housekeeper, performing as a drag queen called Obsession. Ray Ray leads Mark and Tomas to a leather bar where they catch ex-gay leader Brother Daniel in full leather gear (Mark has a photo published in the paper to discredit Brother Daniel's anti-Hope House protests). Meanwhile, Alex and Grace go to a hotel room where they make love for the first time. Back in Azalea Springs, Spencer's lover Bruce dies of AIDS-related complications. At his funeral, Alex's father comforts her and her mother, while still upset over Alex's lesbianism, shows that she still loves her daughter (by insulting her shoes, something she's done repeatedly through the film). ===== It is December 1944 in New York City. Sally Middleton, a naive young actress, is jilted by her lover, a theatrical producer, for becoming too serious about their relationship. Heartbroken, Sally vows not to let herself fall in love again. Nevertheless, she agrees to a dinner date with Bill Page, an Army sergeant on a weekend pass, after Bill is stood up by her sophisticated friend Olive Lashbrooke. When Bill has trouble getting a hotel room, he ends up spending the weekend at Sally's apartment, which is considered risque under the social mores of the time. Although Bill and Sally sleep in separate rooms, the arrangement creates awkward situations for Sally, especially when she finds herself developing feelings for Bill. Olive, having at first set her sights on a Navy officer, has second thoughts and makes a play for Bill. But Bill has fallen for Sally, and eventually convinces her to set aside her fears and start a new romance with him, one that they both hope will end in marriage. ===== Rick Magruder (Kenneth Branagh) is a divorced lawyer with a reputation for underhanded dealings and protecting criminals. After another successful trial, Magruder celebrates at a party hosted by his firm, becoming increasingly drunk. As he stumbles out of the party, he has a chance meeting with a woman named Mallory Doss (Embeth Davidtz), a waitress at the party who seems to have lost her car. Rick drives the woman to her home, where her car has been already parked, seemingly by her father, Dixon Doss (Robert Duvall). Rick and Mallory walk into the house arguing about her abusive father. Mallory carelessly undresses in front of him, after which they spend the night together. The next day, Mallory asks him to file suit against her father because of his dangerous behavior. Having started a relationship with Mallory, Rick agrees and is successful in having Dixon put on trial thanks to favors from his staff, including his investigator, Clyde Pell (Robert Downey Jr.). Mallory's ex-husband, Pete Randle (Tom Berenger) also takes the stand, to testify about his former father-in-law's erratic behavior. Dixon appeals to the judge, claiming that the charges against him are fabricated and exaggerated, but the judge sentences him to a mental institution. Upon being taken away, Dixon attempts to attack Magruder, vowing revenge. With her father institutionalized, Magruder and Mallory continue their relationship, but not long after, Dixon is able to escape from the institution. Scared of retaliation, Magruder assigns Pell to guard Mallory while he attempts to gain support from the police to apprehend Dixon. The police are unhelpful, even after Dixon and his friends set Mallory's car on fire, due to the many cases Magruder has won against them. A short time later, Magruder receives an unmarked letter containing pictures of his children with their faces cut out of them. Worried for his children, he decides to take them out of school, despite not having full custody of his children and needing his wife's permission to take them. Over the objections of the teachers, Magruder escapes with his children, after assaulting a school employee. Magruder calls Pell, impelling him to find Dixon Doss. Pell informs Magruder there is now a warrant out for his arrest. Magruder takes the children to a motel. He goes outside the room to call his wife (Famke Janssen) to assure her that he has done what he has for their safety, but during the call, Magruder's children are apparently taken by Dixon's crew, and he is forced to rendezvous with Mallory so that she can lead him to her father's house. After they arrive, Magruder forces Dixon into a standoff where the older man is killed with a shot through the throat. Mallory then yells that Dixon's men are escaping with Magruder's children, and he is forced to give chase. However, upon catching them, his children are not with them, having been turned in to the police office hours earlier. Magruder is arrested by the police and Mallory is picked up back at her father's house, which is now in flames. In the aftermath, Magruder is charged with murder and is threatened with disbarment. Realizing that he has been set up, Magruder has Clyde look into Mallory's background, suspicious that she might have something to gain from her father's death. The search reveals that Dixon's land isn't worth much, but the timber (black walnut) on it is worth millions, and on top of that, Mallory had never actually divorced Pete Randle. With no will found, Mallory, and by relation, Randle, are granted ownership of Dixon's estate. Suspicious of Randle, Clyde and Magruder track the man down. Clyde is killed by Randle, and Magruder is forced into a desperate struggle in the middle of a violent hurricane. While the two grapple with one another, Mallory arrives and shoots Randle in the back with a flare gun. Her husband falls into the flood waters below, dead. Mallory claims that she had no idea about her husband's plans, but Magruder is still suspicious. He removes another flare from her flare gun, and when he returns it to her, she attempts to kill Magruder with it. Realizing that Mallory and Randle were working together, Magruder signals the police, who arrest Mallory. As the film concludes, Magruder decides not to fight the charges against him, accepting a plea deal that involves community service. In the courtroom, he spies Mallory being led away in handcuffs, who gives him a knowing look. ===== Ifan (Meredydd Evans), a farmer's son living in the Welsh hills, dreams of an academic career. His father (Ieuan Rhys Williams) his mother (Nellie Hodgkins) and his wife, Gwen, (Meriel Jones) use nearly all of their money to pay for him to go to a university and are terrified that he may fail his exam, and it will all have been for nothing. As Ifan's father counts the money left for the umpteenth time, the postmistress (Emily Davies) appears with startling news: Ifan has passed with flying colours. After the ceremony, Ifan introduces his friends, Emlyn (Cledwyn Jones) and Hywel (Robin Williams) to his mother, father and lively grandfather (Robert Roberts). The boys eventually come to work on the farm. A party follows, and Ifan, Emlyn and Hywel sing a composition by Meredydd Evans himself (Moo Moo, Me Me, Cwac Cwac) and call themselves Triawd y Buarth. Then the Grandfather gets up on the stage and begins dancing around like a lunatic singing with an incredible voice. ===== Albinus is a respected, reasonably happy married art critic who lives in Berlin. He lusts after the 17-year-old Margot whom he meets at a cinema, where she works, and woos her over the course of many encounters, primarily with money. His prolonged affair with Margot is eventually revealed to Albinus's wife Elisabeth when Margot deliberately sends a letter to the Albinuses' residence and Albinus is unable to intercept it before it is discovered. Elisabeth leaves with the assistance of her brother, Paul, and takes their daughter, Irma, with her. Rather than disown the young troublemaker, Albinus is even more attracted to Margot. She eventually manipulates him into allowing her to move in to his flat where he resided with his wife, and she sets to working on him getting a divorce so that she might marry him and acquire access to his significant wealth. Margot uses Albinus to fulfill her ambition in life to become a rich film star. Even when Albinus' daughter, Irma, takes ill and eventually succumbs to pneumonia, Margot insistently drives a wedge between his old life and his new, in order to totalize her capture of him. Inadvertently, Albinus introduces Margot to Axel Rex at one of his many dinner parties, but he does not know that the two have previously been lovers. Margot and Rex resume their relationship, and start plotting to get Albinus out of the way and rob him of his money. Albinus gets Margot her first role as an actress, using his wealth as largesse to make up for her lack of talent. At the premiere viewing of the movie, Margot realises how inept she was and is petulant about her public exposure as a mediocre actress. Attempting to appease her wounded ego, Albinus convinces her to take a holiday to the south in the new car he has bought for her. Rex refuses to be left behind, and by this point has wangled his way into Albinus' confidence as a fellow artist (including convincing Albinus that he could not possibly be interested in Margot as he poses himself as homosexual): he presents himself as the ideal chauffeur for their trip, given that Albinus can barely drive. Rex and Margot's trysts have become increasingly brazen, and the holiday seems an opportunity to further deepen their affair on Albinus' payroll. The holiday didn't quite go as Margot and Rex planned, since rendezvouses were next to impossible without arousing suspicion. On arriving in a small town and finding most lodgings unavailable, they finally get their chance in the only remaining hotel room the three could find, which shared a bathroom and made clandestine access possible. After a chance encounter with an old friend in the town, Albinus realises that Margot and Rex are engaged in an affair. Enraged, Albinus returns to the hotel and threatens Margot, who insists that there is nothing between her and the allegedly homosexual Rex. Still distraught, Albinus demands they leave at once, and they abandon Rex at the hotel. On their journey out of town, Albinus crashes the car and is blinded, leaving him in need of care and oblivious to the world around him. Rex and Margot take advantage of his handicap. After sending a letter falsely stating that Rex has gone to America, they rent a chalet in Switzerland where Rex poses as Albinus's doctor, although Albinus is unaware of Rex's presence. Rex mocks and tortures Albinus during his recovery. Albinus becomes increasingly suspicious as his ears become more attuned and he perceives someone's presence, although Margot continuously denies his concerns. Paul, Albinus's brother-in-law, suspects forgery when he encounters multiple high value cheques on Albinus' account at their shared bank, with the signature scrawled and the amounts in a different handwriting (Rex and Margot have been bleeding Albinus's accounts dry and coercing him into signing blind). Elisabeth, Albinus' estranged wife, asks her brother to drive to the Swiss residence. There, Paul discovers Rex toying with Albinus in his blinded state while Margot is out. Paul hurriedly bundles Albinus into a vehicle before Margot can return and convince the wretched Albinus otherwise, and escorts Albinus back to the Elisabeth's home, where he is given proper care. After a short time, Albinus receives a call from the porter at his old original Berlin flat informing him that Margot has returned to his flat to collect some things. Finally knowing where she is, he decides to kill her. Without haste, he makes his way to the familiar flat and traps her inside by barricading the door, intending to shoot her with his pistol. He seeks her out by her scent and faint sounds, but when he tries to shoot her she overpowers him, grabs the pistol, and kills him. ===== Palin plays Francis Ashby, a senior Oxford professor on holiday in the Swiss Alps in 1861. There he meets the American Caroline Hartley (Connie Booth) and her 18-year- old ward Elinor (Trini Alvarado). Ashby is drawn to them both, particularly Elinor, but is rather surprised when they arrive in Oxford and rent a house. Women are not allowed in the college, nor are fellows allowed to marry, which puts him in an embarrassing situation. Ashby's rival for the post of college president, Oliver Syme (Alfred Molina), takes full advantage of this to try to discredit Ashby. ===== The film is about a debutante who follows the man she loves and hopes to marry to Zurich where he studies violin at a conservatory. There she meets a piano student who falls madly in love with her. She must then choose between this man who loves her more than his music and the violinist who loves his music more than anything else. Rhapsody features music by Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn, Claude Debussy, and Pablo de Sarasate. ===== In Victorian England, everyone is trying to make new scientific discoveries, including such failures as the Duke of Barset's attempt to create the first house in England illuminated by electricity (leading to its going up in flames), Sir Charles Dillworthy's suspension bridge (which falls apart directly Queen Victoria cuts its inaugural ribbon) and, in Germany, Siegfried von Bulow's powerful new explosive (which is intended to require only a minute quantity)'s disastrous recoil. In the US, meanwhile, when Phineas T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth" burns to the ground, he heads to England with his star, Tom Thumb. Barnum and Thumb are invited to a scientific lecture by Von Bulow who proposes the idea of sending a projectile to the Moon using his powerful new explosive. Von Bulow is ridiculed, but Barnum thinks the idea has the potential to make him money. He sets about finding the financial backing in order to build a giant cannon to fire the projectile, carrying a reluctant Tom Thumb. The project attracts investment from all over the world; however, the spaceship designed by Sir Charles Dillworthy proves useless since it does not provide a means for returning to Earth. Barnum then meets an American aeronaut, Gaylord Sullivan, who has run off with his girlfriend, Madelaine, on her wedding day to another man, the wealthy Frenchman Henri. Upon arriving in Wales and meeting Barnum, Gaylord claims that he has designed a projectile equipped with round-trip rockets. Henri offers to finance Gaylord's missile if he agrees to take Tom Thumb's place. Meanwhile, Dillworthy and his shady brother-in-law, Harry Washington-Smythe, who have already embezzled most of Barnum's funds, immediately plot to sabotage Gaylord's flight in order to win large wagers on the failure of the moonship expedition. When Madelaine discovers their plan, she is kidnapped and taken off to Angelica's Home for Wayward Girls. She escapes, however, and arrives back at the launching pad, located on a mountain in Wales, just as Gaylord is being removed from the sabotaged moonship. Dillworthy, Washington-Smythe, and a Russian spy, Bulgeroff, sneak into the spaceship to continue their sabotage. Bulgeroff pulls the takeoff lever, and the three men are sent soaring on a one-way trip. They land in what is presumably barren wasteland to find inhabitants singing in Russian. The befuddled Washington-Smythe can only conclude that the Russians are already on the Moon; Washington-Smythe and Dillworthy find themselves as part of the Burlak work brigade hauling barges under the knout of the foreman [Bulgeroff]. ===== Several weeks after returning to his world from The Land, the leper Thomas Covenant is taking a phone call from his ex-wife Joan when he falls and hits his head, waking to find himself back in the Land, in the chamber of the Council of Lords of Revelstone. Angered by the fact that he has been transported away from "reality", Covenant nevertheless believes he is once again experiencing a dream or delusion due to his head injury. His hypothesis is supported by the fact that the Land has seen the passing of forty years compared to the few weeks that have passed in his own world: the High Lord of the Council is Elena. Much later he learns that she is his daughter, born of his rape of Lena. Due to the trauma, Lena has disassociated from life and reverted to a childlike mentality, fully dependent on her family. Elena is now Covenant's summoner and shows no ill will towards her biological father. She and Covenant become close friends. Elena explains that the evil Lord Foul has assembled a massive army, with which he now threatens the people of The Land. For forty years, the Lords have dedicated themselves to the study of Kevin's Lore, training new students at the school at the tree city of Revelwood. Only Mhorham remains from Lords of the council during the quest for the Staff of Law, but seven new Lords have taken their seats, having mastered both the magical and martial arts. The horse-tending Ramen have been enlisted to patrol the frontier near Foul's dominions. The Warward, the army of Revelstone, is full of battle-ready volunteers and is led by Hile Troy, who came to the Land from Covenant's world. An attempt was even made to attack Lord Foul directly, via a commando raid on his lair at the Land's eastern edge; although the raid, led by Lord Mhoram, failed, valuable knowledge was gained about Foul's forces. The commander of Foul's army is one of three brothers of the race of Giants, a people previously thought incorruptible. With the aid of the powerful Illearth Stone, Foul's non-corporeal servants, the Ravers, have possessed the three brothers, now renamed Kinslaughterer, Fleshharrower and Satansfist. In shame and despair, the other Giants offer no resistance as Kinslaughterer murders them all in their home city. Thus, the Lords have lost their strongest and bravest ally in the fight against evil. Nevertheless, the Lords resolve to meet the enemy on the battlefield. Hile Troy is a genius in military tactics who developed a mystical form of sight when hurtloam, a magical mud with miraculous curative properties, was used to try and "heal" his lack of eyes. (The hurtloam used to heal Covenant's head injury also has the effect of "curing" his leprosy.) While Troy leads the army to confront Fleshharrower's attacking force, Elena and Covenant go in search of the Seventh Ward, a repository of ancient magical power which Elena believes will ensure victory. Covenant, Elena and their two Bloodguard protectors journey through the remote mountain region on the western frontier of the Land to the hiding place of the Ward. Elena gains the power, but foolishly uses it to summon the long dead High Lord Kevin from his grave, and send him against Lord Foul. This act breaks the Law of Death, the barrier preventing the souls of the dead from interfering in the world of the living. Kevin's spirit is easily defeated and then enslaved by Foul wielding the Illearth Stone, and commanded to destroy Elena. The two High Lords engage in a battle of magic, in which Elena and her Bloodguard are defeated and killed, and the Staff of Law lost again. Covenant is able to save himself and his Bloodguard by using the power of his white gold ring, again without understanding how. Meanwhile, Hile Troy has been forced into a desperate retreat by the superior force of the Raver's army to the edge of a dangerous, forbidding forest known as Garroting Deep. In desperation, he and Lord Mhoram beg the aid of Caerroil Wildwood, an immortal Forestal who is charged with protecting the ancient forests of the Land from the Ravers. Wildwood brings the forest to life, totally destroying Foul's army, and personally garrotes Fleshharrower. The victory is a Pyrrhic one, however: the Lords' army is nearly obliterated, three Lords besides Elena have been killed, and Hile Troy has sacrificed himself as the price for the Forestal's aid, becoming Wildwood's immortal apprentice. The war thus ends in a draw, and with the death of High Lord Elena his summoner, Covenant once again returns to his own world. His ex-wife has long since hung up the phone, and he is a leper once more. ===== A security agency becomes involved in a violent conflict over possession of a rare diamond. ===== It started out as an innocent road trip to Carlsbad Caverns to unwind, but now Max, Isabel, Michael, Liz, and Maria are totally regretting their plan. Hundreds of feet underground, in the cavern gift shop, Liz turns and is stunned to see someone she thought she'd never meet again—the man who shot her long ago in the diner. Their eyes meet and Liz bolts. But running won't solve the group's new "problem." Because the shooter has recognized Liz. Now he wants her dead. And nobody knows why. ===== The story is set during a time where the Tang Dynasty was at war. Lei Fa is the daughter of a respected Sai Leung general. Her mother died when she was young, so she has been raised by her father and brothers and developed a forthright, outspoken personality as a result. Her martial arts master, the Holy Mother of Lei Mountain, tells her that she is destined to marry a Tang citizen and their marriage will unite the two kingdoms and bring about a time of peace and harmony. Unfortunately for her, her destined husband turns out to be Sit Ding San. His father is Sit Yan Kwai, a renowned and loyal general of the Tang Dynasty. The Sit family is very prejudiced against Sai Leung citizens, as they have long been at war against each other. The show follows Lei Fa as she wins Ding San's love, his family's affections and the respect and loyalty of the Tang troops. ===== Gabriel Caine (James Woods), a con man, is released from prison in Winfield, Georgia and immediately gets to work on his next scam. Caine and his partner, Fitz (Oliver Platt), travel to a small town not far from the prison: Diggstown, a city obsessed with boxing. A mean-spirited man named John Gillon (Bruce Dern) owns almost all of Diggstown. He is feared by many but also respected because he is the former manager of Diggstown's pride and joy, the once-famous boxer Charles Macom Diggs, the man for whom the town is named. Upon hearing a remark that Diggs once knocked out five fighters in one day, Fitz “drunkenly” says he knows of a fighter who could knock out any 10 in one day: Honey Roy Palmer. Gillon tries to take advantage of the situation and bets Fitz $100,000 that no one man can best ten Diggstown boxers in one day. Caine quickly volunteers to finance Fitz's bet and the con is on. Caine seeks out an old buddy, Palmer (Louis Gossett Jr.), who is now a 48-year-old YMCA supervisor. After some initial reluctance, Palmer agrees to participate and starts to train for the fight. Caine and Gillon agree to various conditions of the bet, with “one day” being 24 full hours and “Diggstown fighters” being able to come from any surrounding area of Olivair County. A loan shark backs Caine's bet, with the understanding that his health and welfare will be riding on the outcome. Caine discovers that Gillon's treachery (and his bank account) goes deeper than Diggstown people know. As his manager, Gillon drugged Diggs during a fight so that Gillon could collect on the opponent's long odds. Diggs suffered irreversible brain damage as a result. With help from his prison buddy Wolf's sister (Heather Graham), it is learned that Gillon has more than $1.5 million in assets. Caine tricks him into risking all of it. Now it is up to Honey Roy Palmer to defeat all 10 of Diggstown's men. They begin with: * Buck Holland (played by former heavyweight boxing contender Rocky Pepeli), who puts up a good fight. Palmer barely beats him. * Slim Busby, who like his brother, Hambone, has been bribed by Caine to take a dive. * Billy Hargrove (played by James Caviezel), who is easily beat. * Sam Lester (played by Roger Hewlett), who is secretly given a laxative before the fight and eventually runs from the ring. * Hambone Busby, who, like his brother, has been bribed to take a dive. Gillon, however, threatens to kill Hambone's brother, Slim, unless he is victorious in the ring. Hambone fights a vicious fight, but is ultimately defeated. Slim is indeed found murdered. Palmer is enraged. His next fight is with Sonny Hawkins, who is easily dispatched. Robby Gillon, the son of John Gillon, approaches the ring next, but then backs out under instructions from his father. His cowardice is regarded as a forfeit. Frank Mangrum officially loses to disqualification after kicking Palmer in the groin, then hitting the referee then gets knocked out by Palmer. Tank Miller, a gargantuan fighter, is next. He puts up a good fight, but a tiring Palmer eventually beats him. That brings up Diggstown's best man, Hammerhead Hagan, the only fighter ever to actually beat Palmer during their professional careers. He is brought in as a surprise ringer. Gillon moved him in as a county resident just before the bet rules were established, meaning that Hagan can legally fight. The bout is one-sided. Palmer looks done for, but he gets new motivation after seeing Diggs, who is sitting courtside, move his hand slightly (which he interprets as a show of support). Caine, not wanting to see his friend die, attempts to throw in the towel, but Palmer catches it and throws it back. Palmer rallies to knock out his opponent. Palmer, Caine and Fitz begin their celebration of this miraculous feat. They are cut short by Gillon, who notes that his son never entered the ring -– therefore, only nine fights have transpired. The true tenth fighter is then introduced: Minoso Torres, a tough-as-nails boxer who ruled the boxing underground in the prison from which Caine was recently released. No one has ever defeated him. Gillon admonishes Caine with: "Never try to hustle a hustler." An exhausted Palmer is no match for Torres. But just when all looks lost, Caine whistles at Torres, gets his attention, straightens his tie and does a thumbs-down gesture (copying a move Gillon did earlier). Torres drops his gloves and invites Palmer to hit him, hitting the canvas, knocked out. Caine was expecting such a trick from Gillon and bribed Torres long ago for a moment like this. Gillon has lost everything, leading Caine to correct him with an admonishment: "Actually, I believe it goes: Never con a con-man, especially one who's better than you are." Calm at first, he snaps and pulls a gun. His son, Robby, tries to intervene and Gillon smacks him. Palmer then grabs Gillon and prepares to deck him. Instead, he turns to Hambone, claiming, "My hands hurt." Hambone gladly obliges and delivers Gillon a powerful knockout blow. Caine congratulates Palmer: "What you did," he says, "couldn't be done." To which Palmer replies, "Now, you motivate me". ===== Brothers Bill and Dennis reunite after their anarchist father escapes from the hospital. Bill is angry after being double-crossed after a robbery by his girlfriend, and he promises to break the heart of the next woman he meets, while Dennis is fresh out of college and somewhat naive about the world. Dennis is set on finding their father, and Bill is broke, so they set off to find him. Their motorcycle breaks down near a diner in the middle of nowhere, where they meet the beautiful Kate, mysterious Elina, and short-tempered Martin. They decide to stay for a few days and gradually become entangled in local life. ===== Joshua Pope (Busta Rhymes) returns to his home in a small town to claim the inheritance his father has left him. Once there, however, he finds that the local police have corrupted the town and are ruling with an iron fist. So, with the help of an old friend (Xzibit) and his cohorts, Pope sets out to reclaim the town he once loved. ===== Back in his own "real" world, Thomas Covenant is devastated by the loss of Elena, though he still maintains to himself that his experience in the Land was all just a dream. Tormented by this unanswerable paradox, he neglects his physical condition; he stops taking his medications and fails to treat his head wound, allowing his dormant leprosy to once again become active. Wandering in the woods outside of his home town, he comes upon a lost little girl suffering from a rattlesnake bite. At this point he is once again summoned to the Land, this time by the desperate High Lord Mhoram, who is in need of aid. Covenant finds that seven years have gone by since the Illearth War, and Lord Foul is preparing for his final assault on the people of the Land. Foul has enslaved the tormented spirit of former High Lord Elena, who now wields the Staff of Law in the service of evil. The Lords have lost their most loyal defenders, the ageless Bloodguard, and the Land has been cast into a perpetual winter. Furthermore, Lord Foul has rebuilt his army, which, under the command of the third Giant-Raver Satansfist, now besieges the Lords' mountain-fortress of Revelstone. As a last resort, the Lords have decided to call upon Covenant, in the hope that he will be able to use the wild magic of his white gold ring to repel the siege and save the Land from total destruction. Covenant, however, demands that Mhoram release the summons in order to allow him to save the girl's life in the "real" world. Mhoram assents. Covenant does manage to save the girl, but at the cost of being poisoned by the rattlesnake venom he has sucked out of her. In this state and with the knowledge that the girl is safe, he accepts another summoning. Covenant finds himself once again at Kevin's Watch, the place to which Lord Foul transported him at the time of his first summoning by Drool Rockworm. This time he has been brought to the Land by the joint efforts of Triock, jilted lover of Lena (whom Covenant raped on his first trip to the Land resulting in the birth of Elena) and the Giant Saltheart Foamfollower, his boon companion from the quest for the Staff of Law and one of the last two surviving Giants. Descending from the mountain and travelling east with Triock and Foamfollower in search of Lord Foul's demesne, Covenant is horrified to witness the depredations caused by Foul and his servants. South of the Plains of Ra, Covenant finds that his old bodyguard Bannor has joined with the Ramen in an attempt to protect the Ranyhyn, the intelligent, free horses who formerly served the Bloodguard as mounts. Covenant convinces the Ramen to take the Ranyhyn south to safety; Bannor, though no longer sustained by the power of his Vow, accompanies him on his journey east. Kidnapped by Ravers, Covenant confronts Elena and uses the power of his white gold ring to dismiss her ghost, although this results in the destruction of the Staff of Law. Bannor declines to follow Covenant further, although he accepts the metal heels of the Staff for safekeeping and eventual return to the Lords. Meanwhile Lord Mhoram, after a protracted battle, is able to break the siege of Revelstone and kill Satansfist. Afterwards, Covenant and Foamfollower journey to Ridjeck Thome, the very heart of Lord Foul's dominion, where they succeed in defeating Foul; this act also repairs much of the havoc caused by Elena's breaking of the Law of Death. Covenant, who has finally gained full comprehension of and control over the power of the wild magic, uses it to destroy the Illearth Stone: in the final cataclysm Foamfollower is killed and so, seemingly, is Covenant. However, his consciousness remains, and while in a state somewhere between being and non-existence, he is spoken to in the darkness by the voice of the old beggar from the beginning of the first book, who is in fact the Creator of the Land. The Creator thanks Covenant for saving his creation and asks him what reward he might accept. Excitedly, Covenant asks the Creator to save Foamfollower, but the Creator regretfully tells Covenant "in a tone of ineffable rue" that even he cannot undo something that has already occurred: otherwise the Arch of Time, the fundamental structure underlying the Land's universe, will be destroyed. The Creator explains that this restriction, in fact, is what prevented him from dealing with Foul directly: he had to act through a proxy, Covenant, and even after causing Covenant to be transported to the Land, the Creator did not interfere with Covenant's freedom of will in any way. The decision to "save or damn" the Land was Covenant's own. The Creator then tells Covenant that he has a choice: either he can remain in the Land in full health, or he can be returned to life in his own world, where he otherwise would have died from an allergic reaction to the anti-venom treatment applied to his unconscious body. Covenant, still unwilling to fully accept the Land, chooses the latter and awakes in his hospital bed, weakened from his physical trauma, still afflicted with his disease, but happy to be alive, and secure in the knowledge that he had not failed the Land. ===== In the days just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American people are asking "Where is our navy? Why doesn't it fight?" Gravely weakened by the disaster, the US Navy comes up with a plan to trap the Japanese by using one carrier to imitate a fleet in order to deceive the Japanese Navy into heading for Midway, where they will be attacked. Meanwhile, on the carrier charged with the mission ("Carrier X"), flight commander Bingo Harper is in charge of the bomber crews that shouldered the burden in the desperate early days of the war. He is tough and sticks to the rules, while his young pilots behave more like youngsters and do not always understand his thinking. A new squadron led by Lieutenant Commander Edward Moulton is assigned to the carrier. From the first landing, Harper notices a careless attitude by ex-Hollywood Academy Award–winning star, Ensign Hallam "Oscar" Scott. Harper warns Moulton that the squadron's safety cannot be jeopardized and any repeat of the sloppiness will not be tolerated. Moulton does his best with his men, but is far from having absolute control. During a bombing run, Ensign Breinard drops a bomb close to the carrier and Harper grounds him. After winning the Navy Cross for actions at Coral Sea, Ensign Cunningham fails to follow the correct takeoff procedure and ditches his aircraft into the sea: Harper forbids him to fly again. Later, Cunningham saves the ship in a suicide attack on a torpedo from a Japanese aircraft. In the meantime, a message is received from Navy headquarters. The carrier is ordered to travel deep into enemy waters, near the Solomon Islands, and make its presence known in order to deceive the Japanese about American fleet dispositions and intentions. However, they are under strict orders not to fight. When Moulton's bombers encounter some Japanese aircraft, they follow orders and retreat, but two aircraft are lost. Not knowing the plan, the pilots are furious. This is repeated several times in other widely-separated locations, driving the aviators to the brink of rebellion. The carrier, however, accomplishes its mission as the Japanese believe that the sightings are of different American carriers, not just one. Finally, the long-prepared trap is sprung. Deceived into believing that the American carriers are scattered across the Pacific, the Japanese are taken by surprise when the concentrated American fleet attacks their carriers. Many pilots are lost, but the Americans win a great victory. However, the last bomber, flown by Scott and very low on fuel, has trouble finding their carrier, which is concealed below low clouds. Moulton begs Harper to turn on the searchlights to guide him in, but Harper refuses to risk betraying the carrier's location to any Japanese submarines that may be lurking nearby. Eventually, Scott's aircraft is heard crashing into the water when it runs out of fuel. Moulton and Harper quarrel, but in a few minutes, it is reported that Scott has been picked up by a destroyer. Harper explains that he cares for all his pilots, but is willing to sacrifice a few for the success of the mission. ===== Every summer, Martha leaves her home in Wisconsin to visit her grandmother, Godbee, on the Atlantic Ocean. One year, she receives a journal page from a woman whose daughter Olive, a classmate of Martha's, has died in a hit-and-run accident. Martha did not know Olive very well, though Olive admired Martha from afar despite never speaking to or hanging out with Martha. After reading Olive's journal page, Martha regrets how she had not been nice to Olive and discovers they had a lot in common, particularly a love of the ocean and a wish to become a writer. When Martha's family arrives at Godbee's house, an argument between Martha's parents causes tension between everyone in the family. Martha distances herself from her family out of anger and becomes closer to Godbee. They decide to share one secret about themselves every day of Martha's stay. In the meantime, Martha also begins to write a story about Olive as a memorial. During her stay, Martha develops a crush on Jimmy, who is one of the many boys living nearby and is friends with Martha's older brother Vince. When she tells Godbee about her crush, her grandmother tells her to be careful. Martha decides to add Jimmy to her story about Olive, renaming him James. Jimmy is revealed to be interested in film-making and is trying to make a film about "life," covering different facets such as family, death, and love. As she spends more time with Jimmy and accompanies him as he records various things for his project, Martha contributes with an interview and tells Olive's story for the "death" portion. As part of the "love" section of the film, Jimmy spontaneously sets up his camera on the way back home and kisses her. Martha is shocked when she learns that Jimmy tricked her as part of a bet with Vince and the other Manning boys as to whether he could get her to kiss him on camera before they come back from sailing. She runs off in tears and scraps the portion of her story about Olive and James. Tate, Jimmy's younger brother, apologizes to Martha for his brother's actions. As her stay at Godbee's house draws to an end, Martha fills a jar of ocean water to give to Olive's mother to fulfill Olive's dream, which had been to see the ocean for herself as "Olive's Ocean." Martha also decides to abandon her story about Olive. After Martha says goodbye to Godbee, Tate gives her a bag and a note. In the note, he apologizes again for Jimmy's actions and confesses that he likes her. When she gets to the airport, Martha finds Jimmy's tape inside the bag. Back in Wisconsin, Martha goes to Olive's mother to give the ocean water to her, only to find that Olive's mother had moved to Washington or Oregon. Martha writes 'Olive' with ocean water on the front step of Olive's house until the water runs out. Martha stays until the sun dries up the word 'Olive'. And Olive, who had been in her mind a long time, is finally forgotten. Martha then returns home to her loving family. ===== Mickey Mouse and friends have a party in which Minnie Mouse is playing the piano while Mickey, Goofy (then Dippy Dawg), and Horace Horsecollar are preparing some snacks. Meanwhile, a police group, who they have been called for an emergency recently, have also been invited to the party. This short was also featured in the House of Mouse episode "Dennis the Duck". ===== Clay Driscoll, a young coach from Louisiana with dreams of being the head coach of a successful boys' basketball team, is hired by an Oklahoma superintendent to coach basketball. Driscoll immediately finds himself in conflict with the head of the school board, Ellis Brawley, who is also the great-great grandson of the town's founder, the owner of the bank, and the most influential man in the town. The superintendent did not ask Brawley about the hire, and now is off recovering from a medical condition. Brawley has hired another man to coach the schools' boys' basketball team, and has relegated newcomer Driscoll to the unenviable job of coaching the girls' team. Early 1960s Oklahoma is in the midst of a drought, and the school and town are facing economic distress. High school sports are an integral part of the town's fabric and pride, but girls' sports are an afterthought and receive little attention. The girls' team is more akin to a gym class than a basketball program. Clay is crushed by the news that the job he came for has gone to “someone more qualified”, and he sees no future in coaching the girls. With his future uncertain, Driscoll begins his task of coaching the girls' team with little understanding of his players. Saying he only knows how to coach one way, he addresses his girls with the same discipline and determination he would with a boys' team, but is bewildered at times by their rigid interpretation of his direction. He is often at a loss to deal with their play and their reactions to his coaching. With the support, encouragement and insight of his wife Jean, he is able to understand the girls he is coaching and reach them. Unbeknownst to Driscoll, his drive and commitment to win is infectious. The girls accept what he asks of them, and they become committed to working hard to be as good as they can be. With the first year behind him and an offer to assist a boys' team at another school, Clay decides to stay on and coach the Lady Cyclones. The following year his team shows a marked improvement, and they become a tough team to beat. However Driscoll and his girls' basketball program are challenged every step of the way by Brawley, who is threatened by Driscoll and is willing to use the school board to undercut him. Driscoll and Jean fight the system and work to heal a wound in their own marriage. The community rallies behind Driscoll and the girls as they make a run for the state playoffs. ===== Set in Nottinghamshire, Dek (Rhys Ifans) proposes to his girlfriend Shirley (Shirley Henderson) on TV. When Jimmy (Robert Carlyle), "the great love of her life" and father of her daughter Marlene (Finn Atkins), sees this, he returns in an attempt to win back her heart. However, after deserting his friends in Scotland during an unsuccessful robbery of some clowns, his friends turn against him and come to the Midlands to try to track him down. In the end, Shirley refuses to go with Jimmy and professes her love for Dek; likewise, Marlene refuses to have anything to do with Jimmy, and accepts Dek as her father figure. ===== Lobby card for The Saint Takes Over On an ocean liner making its way to New York, Simon Templar (George Sanders), "the Saint", rescues a fellow passenger (Wendy Barrie) from card cheats, though she refuses to give him her name and is offended when he kisses her without invitation. He later sends the mysterious woman a rose corsage by way of apology. The Saint learns that his friendly nemesis, Inspector Henry Farnack (Jonathan Hale), has been suspended from the police force after $50,000 was found in his safe. He has been framed by "Big" Ben Egan (Pierre Watkin) on behalf of his race-fixing gang, which Fernack was investigating. The other members of the gang - "Rocky" Weldon (Roland Drew), Leo Sloan (Robert Emmett Keane), Sam Reese (Morgan Conway) and Max Bremer (Cy Kendall) - each pay a quarter share of the $90,000 cost of the frameup. Rocky himself has just been cleared in a trial after the testimony of his bodyguard, Clarence "Pearly" Gates (Paul Guilfoyle) and the murder of the main prosecution witness, Johnny Summers. Egan orders two henchmen to pick up the woman passenger when the ship arrives. Templar is able to foil them, and the woman drives off in a taxi. Templar goes to see Fernack. Weldon sends Gates to rob Egan, but Egan catches the safe cracker. At gunpoint, Gates confesses that Welden sent him. Egan orders him to lure his boss into a trap, but after Gates leaves, an unseen shooter kills Egan. Templar and Fernack meet when they both sneak into Egan's place. The Saint finds the hidden camera and later develops the photograph. He also picks up a clue, a rose petal. Welden assumes Gates killed Egan and has the $90,000, despite Gates' protestations. Templar blackmails Gates into helping him in exchange for not giving the police the photograph and telling Weldon that Gates does not have the money. However, when they go to see Weldon, they find him dead, and once again, Fernack is already there. Templar, assisted by Gates, kidnaps Sloan, the most likely of the survivors to talk, but they are followed. When Templar leaves Sloan guarded by Fernack, Sloan is shot and killed through Fernack's basement window. They take the body back to Sloan's place, but the suspicious police burst in and take them by surprise. Only Templar manages to escape. He waits for the murderer in Reese's apartment (Bremer being out of town). He is unsurprised when the woman shows up. It is his fellow ship passenger Ruth Summers (Wendy Barrie), Johnny's sister, out for revenge. He offers to help her. Templar has Gates "betray" him to Bremer and Reese. They catch him searching Bremer's office. He offers to trade the $90,000 for his life, but insists they tell him everything. Their unwitting confessions are broadcast to the police via a hidden microphone and radio transmitter. When the police arrive, Bremer escapes by the fire escape. In the alley, he encounters Ruth. Each fatally shoots the other. Ruth makes a deathbed confession to the three previous murders, then dies before Templar can tell her something important. ===== Simon Templar is asked by his friend, Inspector Farnack, to protect Peter Johnson, a man trying to transport a cache of rare stamps from New York City to his niece Elna, a tennis pro for a hotel in Palm Springs, California. In an attempted robbery, Simon strikes an unseen assailant in the face with his "Saint" ring. On the train west, Simon is introduced to Margaret Forbes, who will be a guest at the Palm Springs hotel. There the stamps are stolen from Templar, so Simon employs his pal, pickpocket "Pearly" Gates, to steal belongings from every other hotel guest. The stamps are found in a pillbox, but Pearly doesn't know who he took it from. Simon sets a trap for the thief at the hotel, where Elna is accosted at gunpoint by Margaret, who turns out to be a foreign agent. Simon sets another trap at Joshua Tree National Park, where another hotel guest is revealed to be the mastermind of the plot to steal the stamps. Templar tricks him into confessing the earlier murders, and the mark from Simon's ring on his face is additional proof of his guilt. ===== The story follows a protagonist, Wesley. When Wesley, a somewhat eccentric boy with no friends, discovers a mysterious plant magically growing in his parents' backyard, he cultivates the plant over his summer vacation. The plant, which he names "swist", provides him with a food source, and allows him to build shelter, tools, and even create his own entertainment and inspires Wesley to create his own writing system. Wesley's resourcefulness and meticulous research eventually allow to him the basis of his own civilization which he names "Weslandia", an eponymous micro-nation in his parents' backyard. His efforts are successful, and instead of being a social outcast, he gains a group of followers made up of his former grade-school tormentors. ===== The show focuses on the adventures of a gang of neighborhood kids of different ethnic cultures known as "The Boo Crew" with D-Roc as the leader, often helping each other out and going to serious situations and learning a lesson in morals. The show features an abstract voice cast starring most of the Wayans family with the animation having some similarity to other black- centered shows such as The Proud Family. The show has a structure combination of African American cultural endurance and adoration with ending music videos similar to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and the children-centered oriented program synopsis on young love and romance commonly found in the classic Peanuts cartoon specials. ===== In 1933, John Dillinger infiltrates Indiana State Penitentiary and assists in the jailbreak of his crew. During the firefight, his mentor Walter is shot and killed by the prison guards. Dillinger and company head for a nearby farm, where they change clothes and eat before driving to a safe house on the east-side of Chicago. After killing Charles Floyd, FBI agent Melvin Purvis is promoted by J. Edgar Hoover to lead the hunt for Dillinger. Purvis shares Hoover's belief in using modern methods to battle crime, ranging from cataloging fingerprints to tapping telephone lines. In between a series of bank robberies, Dillinger meets Billie Frechette at a restaurant and impresses her by buying her a fur coat. Frechette falls for Dillinger even after he reveals his identity, and the two become inseparable. Purvis leads a failed ambush at a hotel where he believes Dillinger is staying, and an FBI agent is killed by Baby Face Nelson, who escapes with Tommy Caroll. Consequently, Purvis requests for Hoover to allow additional, experienced agents to deal with the hardened killers. In response, Intelligence officer Charles Winstead, of military background, arrives to assist Purvis. Police arrest Dillinger and his gang in Tucson, Arizona, after a fire breaks out at the Hotel Congress where they are staying. Dillinger is extradited to Indiana, where Sheriff Lillian Holley has him locked up in the Lake County Jail in Crown Point. Dillinger and other inmates use a fake gun to escape; he is unable to see Frechette, who is under tight police surveillance. Dillinger learns that Frank Nitti's associates are unwilling to help because his crimes are motivating the FBI to prosecute interstate crime, which imperils Nitti's bookmaking racket. This severs Dillinger's connections with the Chicago outfit, prompting him and Red Hamilton to look elsewhere for money. Carroll goads a desperate Dillinger into robbing $800,000 from a bank in Sioux Falls with Baby Face Nelson. During their escape, both Dillinger and Carroll are shot, and the group is forced to leave Carroll behind. They retreat to the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin and realize their haul (~$46,000) is significantly less than Nelson said it would be. Dillinger hopes he can free the rest of his gang from prison, including Pierpont and Makley, but Hamilton convinces him this is unlikely. Dillinger longs to see Frechette again. Purvis and his men apprehend Carroll and torture him to learn the gang's location. Purvis organizes an ambush at Little Bohemia. Dillinger and Hamilton escape separately from the rest of the gang. Agents Winstead and Hurt pursue Dillinger and Hamilton through the woods, engaging in a gunfight in which Hamilton is fatally wounded. Trying to escape, Nelson, Shouse, and Van Meter hijack a Bureau car, killing Purvis's partner Carter Baum in the process. After a car chase, Purvis and his men kill Nelson and the rest of the gang. Elsewhere, Hamilton dies from his injuries after warning Dillinger he must let Frechette go. Dillinger meets Frechette, telling her he plans to commit one more robbery that will pay enough for them to escape together. When Dillinger drops her off at a tavern that he thinks is safe, she is arrested and badly beaten during interrogation for refusing to reveal Dillinger's whereabouts. Purvis eventually intervenes to stop Frechettes's violent interrogation. Dillinger agrees to participate in a train robbery with Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang, intending to flee the country the next day. He receives a note from Frechette through her lawyer, Louis Piquett, instructing him not to break her out of jail as she will be released in two years. Purvis enlists the help of madam and Dillinger acquaintance Anna Sage, threatening her with deportation if she does not cooperate. She agrees to set up Dillinger, whom she believes will come to hide out with her. Dillinger and Sage see Manhattan Melodrama at the Biograph Theater. After the film, Purvis signals other agents upon seeing them leave. Dillinger spots the police unit but is shot before he can aim his gun. Winstead kneels beside Dillinger's body and listens to his last words. Purvis goes to inform Hoover of Dillinger's death as bystanders begin to crowd around Dillinger's body. Winstead meets with Frechette in prison; she has already been informed of Dillinger's death. Winstead tells her that he thinks Dillinger's dying words were, "Tell Billie for me, 'Bye bye Blackbird.'" Frechette sheds tears as Winstead leaves. ===== Police Lieutenant Martin, an officer leading the fight against New York gangsters, is killed. Jake Irbell is arrested and charged with his murder, but has to be released when prosecution witnesses are either coerced into changing their testimony or simply disappear. A civilian crime commission demands action of the police commissioner, but he has no fresh ideas. William Valcross (Frederick Burton), a respected leading citizen and member of the commission, suggests they resort to drastic measures and recruit Simon Templar (Louis Hayward), the "Saint", a British amateur Detective with a reputation for dealing with criminals outside the law. The commissioner reluctantly agrees to give the Saint free rein to do what he must. Valcross spends months tracking the Saint down, following a trail of dead (criminal) bodies across Europe and South America. Templar is intrigued by the challenge and is given a list of six gangsters whose removal would hopefully bring peace to the city. Disguised as a nun, the Saint kills Irbell just as he is about to shoot his most determined enemy, Inspector Henry Fernack (Jonathan Hale). (This differs from the original novel in which the Saint shoots an accused cop-killer in cold blood after the man walks free from court). As he works his way through the list, Templar learns that the mysterious "Big Fellow" is the mastermind who hides his identity by communicating with his underlings solely through Fay Edwards (Kay Sutton). Templar meets Fay, and they are attracted to each other. She saves his life twice when his recklessness gets him in trouble. The Saint disposes of the last of the six original targets, Hutch Rellin (Sig Ruman), leaving only their leader. Fay has given her word not to divulge the Big Fellow's name, but agrees to point him out when she meets him the next morning at the bank where the profits of three years worth of crime have been kept. When Valcross happens by, Templar tells him why he is waiting there. Valcross starts to leave, but when Fay shows up, she recognizes him. He fatally shoots her before Templar guns down the Big Fellow. Valcross wanted Templar to kill his men so he would not have to share the loot. ===== Shadow (Woodbine), an ex-con, finds it very difficult adjusting to many things after he has spent 10 years in prison. He has trouble adjusting to society, himself, and his wife Sharon (Cox). Yet, before Shadow went to prison he was a promising boxer and when he returns to society he is offered a shot at the ring again only this time it is in the underground rings of street fighting. With this offer, Shadow believes his luck is changing and he takes the offer and enters the ring again. Shadow eventually learns that this type of fighting is controlled by ruthless businessmen and the stakes invested in it are very, very high. Shadow soon discovers that leaving the underground world of street fighting is going to be his greater challenge, even greater than him adjusting to life out of prison. ===== The book begins with the Wallace sisters, twelve-year-old Mary and ten-year-old Jean, traveling alone on a ship to meet their father in Australia. The girls often babysit young children: at home, they had enjoyed "borrowing" the babies of neighbors. Their ship is disabled in a storm, and the two girls are set adrift in a lifeboat with four babies, the children of fellow passengers. The craft eventually drifts to a tropical island, and in a Robinson Crusoe-like scenario, they must learn to build shelter and survive on wild foodstuffs. They do this with great success, while raising the babies through various developmental milestones and adopting a baby monkey who they raise alongside the babies. Throughout the story, the girls sing "Scots Wha Hae" to inspire their courage to deal with their situation. In the latter part of the book the girls also encounter a character like Friday: a mysterious, gruff man who lives alone on the island and dislikes children. He eventually warms to their babies, and they enjoy his company and his useful craftsmanship. Finally, the girls are rescued on Christmas Day, after a storm, and all the babies are returned to their parents. They miss the Friday. ===== There are two interconnected plots that unfold simultaneously in this novel; one is set in the present, and deals with Bob Lee Swagger and Russ Pewtie, while the other is set in 1955, and deals with Bob Lee's father, Earl, and the events leading up to his death. This book catches the reader up with Bob Lee about five years after the events in Point of Impact. He now has a daughter who is four years old, named Nikki, and he has married Julie Fenn, the widow of his fallen spotter, Donnie Fenn. He is living happily, if not humbly, in Arizona, trying to avoid the notoriety he gained during the events in Point of Impact. A young man approaches him with a proposition. This young man's name is Russ Pewtie, the grown son of Bud Pewtie, who as described in Dirty White Boys was responsible for the death of Lamar Pye. Russ is a writer, and wants to write a book about Bob Lee's father Earl, a Marine Corps veteran and State Policeman who was supposedly gunned down one night in 1955, near Bob's home town of Blue Eye, Arkansas, by Lamar's father, Jimmy who was to surrender to Earl after robbing a grocery store and killing four people. As Russ and Bob Lee probe into the details surrounding Earl's death, there are some startling revelations, including a conspiracy to keep these details hidden, which give deeper insight into the history of Bob Lee. Bob Lee uses his knowledge of firearms, sniping and military history to unravel conflicting details about the shooting of his father and find out the real reason his father was killed as well as finding out the identity of the real shooter. The plot involves several of Hunter's signature interconnecting characters (who appear in various roles in more than one of his novels). These include Sam Vincent, the former Polk County prosecutor who appears in Point of Impact, and Frenchy Short, the CIA agent and Earl Swagger protégé who appears in The Second Saladin, and also in the later Earl Swagger novels Hot Springs and Havana. Part of the connection between the novel's two time periods is the role of Sam Vincent in the prosecution of the murderer of a young black girl in 1955, and the re-investigation of that case in the present. Category:1996 novels Category:Thriller novels Category:Fiction set in 1955 ===== The book begins about four or five years after the events in Black Light. Swagger's daughter is now around 8, and he owns a "lay-up" horse ranch, where he cares for horses. He has been slipping into a deep depression due to his inability to properly support his family. Alienating himself from his wife and child, they leave for a morning horseback ride with a friend from another ranch. His wife is shot and nearly killed by a sniper, and the friend is killed. Bob assumes that the man was mistaken for him, and killed in an attempt to kill Bob Lee. This act plunges him back into a world of violence and intrigue. While his wife recuperates, he attempts to unravel the secrets behind the assault. This book has a dual plot, with the present plot, dealing with Bob's investigation into his wife's attempted murder. The second plot is set in the past, beginning on a Marine Corps base in the late 1960s or early 1970s. A young Donny Fenn is the squad leader of a group of Marines who perform the state funeral services for Marines killed in the Vietnam War, which is raging across the world. Donny is brought before his superiors and ordered to follow one of his men, who is suspected of sympathizing with peace demonstrators who are led by a charismatic man named Trig Carter. In turn, Trig is suspected of having ties to an extremist group. Incidentally, Donny's girlfriend, Julie, is involved with this group of war protestors. Donny discovers that his sympathies lie closer to Trig's friends, and rather than rat out his own man, Donny defies naval investigators, buying a one-way ticket to the front lines of the Vietnam war. Just before being shipped out, his commanding officer who admired Donny's courage, gives him enough money to run off with Julie and marry. Donny meets up with Bob Lee Swagger, a Marine Sniper at the top of his game, joining him as Bob Lee's new spotter. Scourge of the North Vietnamese army, there is already a sizeable bounty on Bob Lee's head, but after an exciting firefight to rescue an overwhelmed outpost, a vengeful NVA Colonel calls out the big gun: Solaratov, a Russian sniper who is the only man alive who could possibly equal Bob Lee Swagger. Donny is getting extremely short (close to going home). On Donny's last day in Vietnam, a day he should spend completing paperwork that will send him home, he makes the fateful decision to go on one last reconnaissance with Bob Lee. Solaratov's bullet ends both Bob Lee's career in the Marine Corps and Donny Fenn's life. Back in the present, Bob Lee is unravelling the tapestry of lies that have buried the past all these years and discovers that there may be more to Donny's death than he originally thought. Category:1998 novels Category:Thriller novels Category:Sequel novels Category:Popular culture about the United States Marine Corps ===== Boston law student and part-time mechanic Charlie Farrow (Patrick Dempsey) was asked by his boss to deliver a new Porsche from Boston to Atlantic City for a client. When he gets close to Atlantic City, the Porsche breaks down. While Charlie waits for the car to be repaired, a cab driver (who mistakes Charlie for being an Atlantic City high roller) takes him to an undercover casino that has a bar room and kitchen, so Charlie can get something to eat. At the casino, Charlie earns the wrath of Denny Halloran (Alan C. Peterson), who takes exception to Charlie beating him at poker. In the resulting fight, Denny trips over a potted palm, accidentally hits his head on the sharp corner of a counter, and dies. Charlie is now on the spot, because Denny happens to be the son of a mob boss named Matt Halloran (Ken Pogue), who is the owner and despot of the casino and most of the police force, including Chief Travers and Lt. Martins who think Charlie could be innocent. Wrongfully accused of murdering Denny, Charlie finds himself on the run from both dirty cops and Matt's henchmen, all of whom want to collect the $50,000 bounty that Matt placed on Charlie. With only one ally, reluctant witness Karen Landers (Kelly Preston) who knows the truth and agrees to aid Charlie, Charlie finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse. The bodies pile up as Charlie dodges flying bullets and bowling pins, explosions from numerous assault weapons and miscellaneous shrapnel and twisted auto parts as he is pursued on a nightmare race through racetracks, amusement parks, bowling alleys and shopping malls by Matt's men, corrupt cops and Travers and Martins. After Karen is wounded and two dirty cops die chasing him Charlie surrenders himself to Travers and Martins but they are pursued by two of Matt's men, Sammy and Marv, and run off the road, Travers is killed and Martins is injured. Sammy and Marv take Charlie to Matt who tells them to kill Charlie, however, he kills Marv then Sammy by causing them to fall off of a roof. After killing Matt's other henchmen, Charlie and Matt confront each other at Matt's dog-race track. Matt dies as he is impaled by a mechanical pacer rabbit that was speeding toward him. Martins arrives after this and tells Charlie that "they sure fooled with the wrong guy", before placing a reassuring hand on Charlie's shoulder. ===== Theater producers (Horton and Sakall) try to stage a wartime charity extravaganza, “Cavalcade of Stars”, only to have the production taken over by the egotistical “fussbudget” Eddie Cantor. (Cantor has Dinah Shore under contract, and the only way they could get him to agree to her appearance was by making him Chairman of the benefit committee.) Meanwhile, an aspiring singer (Dennis Morgan) and his songwriter girlfriend (Joan Leslie) conspire to get into the charity program by replacing Cantor with their look-alike friend, tour bus driver Joe Simpson (also played by Eddie Cantor). Many of Warner Brothers's stars performed in musical numbers, including several who were not known as singers. The show features the only screen musical performances by Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ida Lupino. ===== A man gets beaten by his opponent, but after he finds out the fight was rigged, he decides to fight back. He kills his opponent and is announced as the winner. On his way back to his home, another man kills him. Back in the United States, retired boxer Jake Raye and co-owner of Hal and Jake's self-defense class receives a call from the Philippines police department. He is told his half-brother Michael is dead, and he must pick up the body in Manila. Raye travels to Manila and collects the body, but he decides to stay there and find his brother's killer. Raye gets training help from a man named Kwong and stays with local kickboxer Baby Davies, upon whom local Filipino neighbor Angela has a crush, and his sister Nancy. Kwong tells Raye about a gladiator-like tournament known as the Red Fist Tournament where only one comes out alive, and his brother's killer will likely be there. Kwong trains Raye for the tournament and enters him. He manages to win all the fights and proceeds to the final match, where he faces off with Chin Woo. Kwong tells him that Chin Woo is his brother's killer and also the fighter who put Baby Davis in a coma. Hal, who has come from California to watch Raye's final bout, informs Raye that Kwong is the killer after Kwong drugs Raye. Angela comes in with a gun, but dies at the hands of Chin Woo. Woo is defeated by Raye, who sets off after Michael's true killer. Kwong reveals that his brother was the fighter who died at the hands of Michael that night, and that Kwong is the one who murdered him. Kwong fights Raye in the same alley where Michael died. Raye is badly wounded but impales Kwong on a fence. Nancy and Raye walk off into the night. ===== ===== Time and the Conways is in three acts. The first act is set in the Conway house in 1919 on the night of the birthday of one of the daughters, Kay. Act Two moves to the same night in 1937 and is set in the same room in the house. Act Three then returns to 1919, seconds after Act One left off. In the first Act we meet the Conway family, Mrs Conway, her daughters Kay, Hazel, Madge and Carol and her sons Alan and Robin. Three other characters appear: Gerald, a solicitor; Joan, a young woman in love with Robin; and Ernest, a young, ambitious entrepreneur of a lower social class. Act One's atmosphere is one of festivity as the family celebrates the end of the War and look forward to great future of fame, prosperity and fulfilled dreams. In a pensive moment when Kay is left alone on stage she seems to slip into a reverie and has a vision of the future... Act Two plunges us into the shattered lives of the Conways exactly twenty years later. Gathering in the same room where they were celebrating in Act One we see how their lives have failed in different ways. Robin has become a dissolute travelling salesman, estranged from his wife Joan, Madge has failed to realise her socialist dreams, Carol is dead, Hazel is married to the sadistic but wealthy Ernest. Kay has succeeded to a certain extent as an independent woman but has not realised her dreams of novel writing. Worst of all, Mrs Conway's fortune has been squandered, the family home is to be sold and the children's inheritance is gone. As the Act unfolds resentments and tensions explode and the Conways are split apart by misery and grief. Only Alan, the quietest of the family, seems to possess a quiet calm. In the final scene of the Act, Alan and Kay are left on stage and, as Kay expresses her misery Alan suggests to her that the secret of life is to understand its true reality – that the perception that Time is linear and that we have to grab and take what we can before we die is false. If we can see Time as eternally present, that at any given moment we are seeing only 'a cross section of ourselves,' then we can transcend our suffering and find no need to hurt or have conflict with other people. Act Three returns us to 1919 and we see how the seeds of the downfall of the Conways were being sown even then. Ernest is snubbed by Hazel and Mrs Conway, Gerald's budding love for Madge is destroyed by the snobbery of Mrs Conway in another moment of social arrogance, Alan is rejected by Joan who becomes betrothed to Robin. As the children gather at the end of the play for Mrs. Conway to foretell their future, Kay has a moment of memory of the vision of Act Two we have seen unfold. Disturbed, she steps out of the party and the play ends with Alan promising that he will be able to tell her something in the future which will help her. ===== Players assume the role of FBI agent Hopkins, who is on the trail of a criminal mastermind named Bernie Berckson. The pursuit takes the player through a variety of locations, including the FBI headquarters in a modern fictional city, a tropical island, and a submarine base. ===== On a dark and stormy night, Porky and his brothers (Patrick, Percy, Portis, Peter) and sister (Petunia) learn from lawyer Goodwill that they are set to inherit a fortune from their deceased rich uncle Solomon, with the "kindly" lawyer next in line after them. After Goodwill leaves, he walks into a secret laboratory and drinks a bottle of Jekyll and Hyde juice and turns into a hideous monster bent on killing them. The monster breaks the fourth wall and warns the audience not to interfere, with special emphasis by threatening the guy in the third row (whom was voiced by Mel Blanc). One by one, he kidnaps the brothers, leaving only Porky and Petunia. As Porky and Petunia walk through the house, trying to find their brothers, the monster grabs Petunia, unbeknownst to Porky, and then starts trailing Porky. When Porky sees the monster, he screams and runs up the stairs, only to meet the monster at the top. He then screams and runs down the stairs, into the laboratory where the monster is holding his siblings prisoner. No sooner has Porky freed them than the monster breaks in and corners all of the pigs. Just when it seems the monster is going to kill them, a thrown theater chair (seemingly out of nowhere) flies into the monster, trapping him in the stocks where he had them in earlier. All six pigs (amazed by the incident): Who did that?! Mel Blanc (shouting angrily): ME! Monster (shocked at who attacked him): Who are YOU?! Mel Blanc (replying angrily): I'm the guy in the third row, ya big sourpuss!!! ===== The book starts three months after the end of Peter and the Starcatchers.Chapter 13 Peter, James, Thomas, Prentiss, and Tubby Ted have settled on the island, with Tinker Bell keeping a watchful eye on Peter and the pirates, led by Black Stache (who now goes by the lies "Captain Hook" since his initial fight with Peter), have erected and settled into a fort. Around this time, Le Fantome, under scarred Captain Nerezza, finds Mollusk Island after weeks of searching, accompanied by the vengeful Slank and the dark, menacing, mysterious entity known as Lord Ombra. During a confrontation with Hook as Peter and the mermaids rescue a captured James, a posse fromLe Famtome hold a nighttime standoff with the Mollusk tribe over the location of the large quantity of Starstuff that had briefly been on the island. After Ombra deduces that the Starstuff was taken by Lord Aster and the Starcatchers, the group leaves the island and immediately set sail for England. Peter, having witnessed the confrontation, decides that he must warn Molly of the approaching danger and stows away on the ship with Tinker Bell. The Asters receive a tip from the dolphins warning them of the landing party on Mollusk Island and the presence of the inhuman Ombra, prompting Leonard Aster to leave London with the Starstuff and guard it in a hidden location until the Return (the starstuff would be sent back into the heavens), leaving new nightmen to guard Molly and her mother, Louise. Meanwhile, Peter's presence on the ship is detected by Lord Ombra, forcing Peter to fake his death by temporarily jumping ship before flying back on board. When they arrive in London, Peter and Tinker Bell take off to find the Aster mansion but quickly become lost in the city. Peter and Tink are later captured and separated by a constable and a bird seller, respectively, but Tink is able to escape and save Peter from a court hearing. They continue to search for the Aster mansion in upper-class parts of London. Meanwhile, Slank, Nerezza, and Ombra plan with various agents of the Others on how to safely invade the Aster household, whereas Ombra possesses the new nightmen so that they would not be a problem. After finding gnawed food remnants on the ship and after hearing of Peter's escape from the court by flying, Slank deduces that Peter is in London and believes that he will interfere with their plans. Later, the men break into the household to capture Molly and Louise. Jenna, a housemaid who is in cahoot with the group, puts the household staff to sleep and threatens Molly in her room with a knife while Slank and various others kidnap Louise and Ombra makes his way to Molly's room. With directions from J. M. Barrie, Peter arrives and locates Molly, who realizes that Ombra possesses his victims by touching their shadows and blows out the candles. They barely escape from Ombra and take shelter in the room of Molly's friend George Darling, and decide to locate Leonard Aster. Peter and Molly later make a nighttime visit to the Tower of London, where the Keep, a secret compound of the Starcatchers, is located. After conferring with Starcatcher Mr. McGuinn about the situation, Ombra, Slank, and various others break in, killing McGuinn, but Molly and Peter manage to escape. With help from George, they deduce that Aster went to Salisbury and there three take a train in and eventually locate him there. Aster expresses his disdain at their arrival but learns of the situation and an apparent ransom for Louise from Molly, but confines them to the house after revealing that the Return was to happen that night. Molly later recalls that Ombra touched McGuinn's shadow before he died, thus realizing that Ombra may have seized knowledge of the Return and that it is in danger. After letting george in on the business of the Starcatchers, George recalls that a lunar eclipse was happening that night, and that the site of the Return was Stonehedge. The three escape from the house and fly to Stonehedge. Meanwhile, Aster and fellow Starcatchers Magill are ambushed midway through the return by Ombra, Slank, Nerezza, and various agents of the Others. Aster is shot after closing the box of Starstuff to protect a possessed Louise, and Slank nearly kills Peter. Molly and George haul out the Asters, while Tink, Magill, and Magill's bear Karl drive off the men. Peter stays behind to reopen the closed box before the timeframe for the Return finishes, but Ombra makes contact with Peter's shadow and the both engage in a brief but intense mental battle before Peter manages to open the box, thus completing the Return of the Starstuff to the Heavens, with the resulting flashes of light seemingly disintegrating Ombra and releasing Louise and various others from his control. Slank and the Others are forced to flee. A couple days later, Peter bids his goodbyes to the Asters and George before flying back to Mollusk Island. During the plot in London, Captain Hook and the pirates manage to locate and capture James, Thomas, Prentiss, and Tubby Ted in order to lure Peter back and get his revenge. After some time, with the unknowing help of first mate Smee and various island monkeys, the boys manage to escape the cage that they were located in just as Peter arrives and opens the gates of the fort for them to get out, and afterwards promptly hits Hook in the face with a mango, ending the book. ===== In 1926, thousands of fans mob the wake of recently-deceased film star Rudolph Valentino in New York City. When order is restored at the funeral home, a series of important women in Valentino's life come to mourn. Each remembers him via flashbacks: The first of these women, Bianca de Saulles, knew Valentino when he was a taxi dancer and gigolo in New York City, working under a woman named Billie Streeter. Upon meeting him, he shares with her his dream of owning an orange grove in California. After mobsters rob Valentino, he decides he must make the move west. Specifically, Bianca reminisces of a day when she witnessed Valentino romantically dancing with male ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, teaching him how to do the tango. Next is a young movie executive and screenwriter named June Mathis, who has an unrequited love for Valentino. She first meets Valentino in California, where he upsets Fatty Arbuckle by grabbing the starlet next to Arbuckle and romancing her into becoming his first wife, actress Jean Acker. Acker's glamorous and luxurious life motivates Valentino to try acting himself. Mathis recalls seeing him in a bit part in a movie and, based on that alone, recommending him for a larger role in her next project, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The hugely successful 1921 film launches Valentino to superstardom, and she is proud to have discovered him. Alla Nazimova subsequently makes a flamboyant entrance at Valentino's funeral. She proceeds to make a scene and, when the photographers ask her to repeat it for the cameras, she obliges. Nazimova claims a relationship with Valentino and recalls working on Camille with him. Next, Nazimova's friend, art designer Natacha Rambova (and second wife of Valentino) enters and tells reporters that, even though she and Valentino are physically separated, they are still close via the spirit world. Her flashback shows that she was at first Nazimova's lover, but took advantage of Valentino's infatuation with her to help her social climb. During the filming of The Sheik, Rambova seduces Valentino with a seven veils dance. Despite knowing he is in the midst of divorcing Acker, she insists on going to Mexico so they can marry. Once they return to the United States, Valentino is arrested for bigamy. Because Jesse Lasky refuses to pay bail for Valentino, he has to spend the night in jail, where the guards deny him bathroom privileges and, with the other prisoners, taunt him about his lack of masculinity. The result is his complete humiliation. On the set of Valentino's subsequent film, Monsieur Beaucaire, Rambova and Sidney Olcott take over directing. Two stage hands, wondering if 'Rambova calls the shots in bed, too', toss a pink powder puff onto Valentino's lap. Rambova demands that whoever did it come forward or she and Valentino will walk off the set for good. Valentino finishes the picture, but Rambova insists he refuse future work at Paramount until Lasky meets certain demands. Lasky suspends them and the couple end up broke. A man named George Melford approaches them, offering to help them book personal appearances for Mineralava, a beauty product company. The tour is a success, and, with Melford's help, Valentino and Rambova negotiate a good deal with Lasky. Later, Valentino reads a newspaper article questioning his manhood and implies he is homosexual. The article outrages Valentino, who challenges the reporter to a duel. For 'legal reasons' the duel becomes a boxing match. Rory O'Neil, who happens to be a professional boxer, stands in for the reporter. The fight becomes a ballet of sorts, and flashbacks to the dance with Nijinsky parallel the match. Valentino eventually lands a blow which wins him the fight. However, he now begins to exhibit signs of an ulcer. O'Neil asks for a rematch, this time a drinking contest. Despite his ulcer, Valentino accepts. Although Valentino defeats O'Neil again, his excessive drinking exacerbates the ulcer, which perforates when he returns to his home that night. He dies crawling on the floor, unable to reach an orange he had drunkenly played with and dropped on the floor. ===== Cargo tells the tale of a young man who has gotten into trouble in Africa and because of this he decides to stow away on a cargo ship leaving for Europe. During this voyage, sailors on the ship began to disappear with no apparent reason and the ship's depraved captain seems to have the answers. ===== Pappu is a mischievous eight-year-old boy who always troubling his mother Indira. He frequently gets scoldings due to his bed- wetting habit despite being an eight year old. Pappu's elder brother Kishore plans to watch a porn movie with his friends in his room to which he insists on joining them. When Kishore refuses and gets rid of him, Pappu cuts off the power out of anger creating a short circuit at home. Indira scolds for his dangerous mischief and shouts at her husband for not stopping with one child as Pappu is troubling her a lot and to throw him away forever. Distraught, Pappu runs away from home to end his life near a river, but is stopped by a man who takes him to his place. The man introduces himself as a scientist who has his own laboratory. He insists Pappu to take a medicine invented by him which will transform a boy to a fully grown man. Pappu agrees and the scientist transforms him into a young man. Pappu starts to live as a young man physically but he is childlike psychologically. The only person other than a scientist who knows the truth is his child classmate friend. Now an adult, Pappu goes for an interview in a toy manufacturing company under the name of Vichu. The owner interviewing him demands that he empatize children to understand their taste. Since Pappu/Vichu is a child he grabs the job easily. Vichu is diverted to the daughter of the owner, Priya, whom Pappu/Vichu helped her to her feet at an amusement park before. She is surprised and happy to see him in her company and love blossoms between them. The Priya-Vichu intimacy creates a jealousy for Raj, another employee in the company who intends to woo her and humiliate Vichu. Pappu/Vichu meets Kishore as an anonymous man and learns that his mother is very depressed and fell sick following her son's disappearance. She laments for being so strict with him which she had done for his well being. Pappu realizes his mother's love and goes to the scientist to revert him to his younger self. The scientist transforms Pappu into his younger self and he reconciles with his mother. But again at night, he changes back to a young man and he immediately rushes to the scientist who does not know what had gone wrong and both of them are shocked at Pappu's mishap. Pappu now lives as an eight-year-old boy during daytime and as a twenty-eight-year man during the night. Priya expresses her love to him but Pappu/Vichu tells her to love a man suitable for her age, but reciprocates his love upon the scientist's coersion. One day, Priya tells him to accompany for a matinee show, to which he rejects due to his transformation mishap. Pappu's mother befriends Priya as they are neighbours and Priya likes small boy Pappu. Priya gets angry on Vichu's absence. She finally decides to marry him. Raj kidnaps Vichu on the day of marriage but he changes to Pappu during the daytime. The kidnappers release him as they misunderstand of kidnapping a child. Pappu transforms to Vichu and marries Priya at evening time (Hindu marriages take place usually at mornings). Pappu somehow manages his mother by disappearing during nights. Priya longs for a child, so they have sex. Vichu/Pappu meets his mother and understands the difficulties of pregnancy, prompting him to take care of his wife with full affection. Pappu's child friend demands to spend time and come to play with him but Pappu refuses as has got the tight schedule as a son, as an employee, and as a husband. His friends get angry and reveal the truth to Priya and is shocked to hear that she is bearing the child of a child. Priya argues with Pappu, during which he transforms to his older self in front of her eyes. Vichu reveals that he loves her more than anything else in this world. Priya now gets into labour pain and Vichu takes her to the hospital. But on the way Vichu is stopped by Raj's men seeking revenge. Vichu fights them and admits her in the hospital. Everybody now comes to know the truth about Pappu and Priya gives birth to Pappu's son and she is upset on her fate of being a child's wife. Twenty years pass by. Now Pappu is a real young man of twenty-eight years old. He still lives with Priya as her husband. He goes inside his room as young man and comes out as a forty-eight-year-old man who is now husband of forty-year-old Priya and father of a twenty-year-old son who looks like him. Pappu calls the scientist to find if he had found the remedy for his transformation to which he negates. ===== For centuries the Kewletts, a cute and happy race, lived an idyllic existence inside the hallowed walls of Kewtopia. They never went outside the gates of their city because they had everything they needed inside: a wonderful princess, perfect weather, wealth, and privilege. The Kewletts parody different types of cute creatures found in the media. Kewletts get their news from a show called QTV'. Before the events in the game, the Kewletts lived isolated from the rest of their world. Their first attempt at diplomacy with the creatures of the hinterlands was brief and failed. Afterwards, their Princess decided to launch "Operation Fresh Hope" to "cutetify" all of the monsters outside of Kewtopia. The true nature behind "Operation Fresh Hope", unknown to most Kewletts, is the retrieval of three ancient artifacts that the Princess desires due to her being a Huggly. Because the Kewletts are intensely nationalistic, they support the idea of expanding Kewletts throughout the war have no problems with "cleansing" the hinterlands of all monsters. Their belligerent, racist worldview is in sharp contrast to their cute, gentle appearance. The Kewletts' increasingly vicious colonization efforts carry on until they meet Raze, an ugly, simple beast who is transformed when he accidentally stumbles upon ancient artifacts. Raze's heroics spark a swelling underground guerrilla movement. ===== Francisco Mega (Ribeirinho), a clerk at the then leading department stores of Lisbon, "Grandes Armazéns do Grandella", is in love with Tatão (Leonor Maia), who works in front at "Perfumaria da Moda". Tatão, however, is a cinephile who largely ignores him, whereas Francisco is also an amateur theatre player; so his amateur theatre company, the Grandellinhas, uses its rehearsals of the play O Pai Tirano (ou O Último dos Almeidas) to present Francisco as a son who split from his tyrant father for love, and woo Tatão. ===== Kit Li, a cop on the Hong Kong Police bomb squad, responds to a call at a local school, where a terrorist group led by an individual calling himself "The Doctor" has taken a school bus hostage. He soon discovers his wife and son are on board the explosives-rigged bus. Kit sends a subordinate to disarm the bomb, but matters are complicated due to the intricate setup of the bomb, which eventually explodes, killing everyone on the bus, including Kit's family. In the aftermath, Kit leaves the force and serves as a stunt double for martial arts action star Frankie Lone. However, Helen, a tabloid reporter, films one of his stunts and thus discovers Lone's duplicity, using it to boost her show's ratings. At a wrap party for Frankie's film, Frankie's father and his manager invite Kit to a jewelry exhibition at the newly opened Hotel Grandeur, but the Doctor also targets the exhibition. At a traffic stop, Kit overhears the Doctor uttering a catchphrase that he used during the school bus bombing, and realizing the Doctor's identity, he follows the car back to the Hotel Grandeur, but is unable to convince the hotel manager of the impending threat. At a nearby police station, only Detective Kam Chow and a desk sergeant believe him. The Doctor and his team take over the building, take the guests hostage, and initiate a massacre. Kit and Chow return, only to find themselves ambushed by the Doctor's gang members in a shootout, during which Chow is injured. Frankie manages to escape and runs into Fai, who pretends to be a helpless damsel in distress, leading him right to her partner, Kong. It is revealed that Kong is obsessed with beating Frankie in combat. Frankie runs away after encountering Kong. Kit and Chow thin out the Doctor's numbers after driving the car out of the freight elevator. Frankie's father wrestles a weapon away from a terrorist and threatens the hacker trying to deactivate the exhibit's security measures. Chow is reunited with his girlfriend Joyce. Kit tries to kill the Doctor in revenge when the villain mocks him, but the attempt tips the scales back in the terrorists' favor. Kit, Helen and Frankie's father barely manage to escape. Helen runs into a room with an exhibit of poisonous reptiles, places the videotape underneath a display case and hides in the men's washroom. The Doctor's younger brother, Rabbit, throws some of the snakes into the bathroom, poisoning her in the process. Kit and the Lones rescue Helen, administering anti-venom serum, and Kit learns that Helen managed to record the Doctor's face in her footage. Meanwhile, the Doctor warns the police that if they do not meet his impossible demands, he will toss a hostage out the window every ten minutes, with Frankie's manager Charlie Tso as the first victim. Kit retrieves the tape, and successfully kills Rabbit before escaping a grenade blast and landing in police custody. The police refuse to let Kit go back into the hotel, so Kit forces the desk sergeant he encountered earlier to let him return via helicopter at gunpoint. The Lones meet Fai and Kong in the midst of an argument that has escalated into a fight. The Lones intervene, unaware of Fai's true colors, until she holds them at gunpoint. Fai is about to murder Chow, but Chow seizes her gun and shoots her dead. Kong attacks Frankie's entourage; but when he begins punching Frankie's father, Frankie retaliates and kills Kong. The Doctor intercepts a police transmission and sends his men to ambush the helicopter. Helen manages to warn Kit, who rams the helicopter into the building. In the resulting chaos everyone escapes, but the Doctor captures Helen and takes her to the roof. Kit finds Helen with a bomb strapped to her, and the Doctor taunts him to choose between taking revenge on him or saving the life of another loved one. Kit throws a knife, hitting the Doctor in the shoulder before the latter escapes. Kit finds out that the wiring is the same as the last bomb, and this time successfully defuses it. During the defusal, he gets a call from the Doctor. Kit informs the Doctor that the dagger he threw was coated with snake venom from Helen's wound. He ironically uses the same catchphrase the Doctor used before: "No risk, no reward." The Doctor eventually dies in agony and his body is looted by teenagers. Frankie decides to use the incident as the basis for his new movie, while crediting everyone for their heroics. Kit, however, leaves with Helen, who expresses her gratitude with an announcement of wishing to marry him. ===== Timid milkman Burleigh Sullivan (Lloyd) works for the American company, Sunflower Dairies. Two drunk men try to chat up Mae, Burleigh's sister, and he chances by. In an ensuing brawl, Speed McFarland, the world middleweight champion, gets knocked out (but Burleigh never in fact threw a punch; he merely ducked to get out of the way of a punch which brought the champ down). McFarland's boss, the crooked Gabby Sloan (Adolphe Menjou), decides to promote Sullivan in a series of fixed fights that will culminate in him being knocked out in a real fight with McFarland. Against all the odds, Sullivan triumphs and becomes world champion. ===== In 1954 "Vixen 03", an aircraft carrying a top-secret cargo to the military's testing grounds in the South Pacific, crashes and is never recovered. Thirty- four years later while on vacation Dirk Pitt, Special Projects Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), finds the remains of "Vixen 03" and her top-secret cargo. His salvage efforts turn up some anomalies, including a body that is not of any member of the original crew; and send Pitt on a chase to stop a plot that could potentially leave millions dead. ===== In the 1950s, nomadic and flaky Caroline Wolff wants to settle down and find a decent man to provide a better home for herself and her son, Tobias "Toby" Wolff. She moves to Seattle, Washington and meets Dwight Hansen, a man who seemingly meets her goals. However, Dwight's true personality is soon revealed as being emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive to Toby while Caroline is away for a few weeks. The marriage proceeds, and Caroline and Toby move into Dwight's home in Concrete, a small town near the north Cascades Mountains. Dwight's domineering personality is soon apparent, but Caroline remains with him, enduring several years of a dysfunctional relationship. During this time, Toby befriends a classmate named Arthur Gayle, a misfit at school and ambiguously gay. Toby wants to leave Concrete and live with his older brother, Gregory, (who lives on the East Coast with their father). Toby plans to apply for scholarships at East Coast prep schools by submitting falsified school records. Meanwhile, Arthur and Toby's friendship becomes strained when Arthur accuses Toby of behaving more like Dwight. Arthur helps Toby to falsify his grade records. After numerous rejections, Toby is accepted by The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia with a full scholarship. Later, Caroline defends Toby from Dwight during a physically violent argument; they both leave Dwight and the town of Concrete. (Note: The real Dwight died in 1992. Caroline (Rosemary Wolff) remarried and moved to Florida. Arthur Gayle left Concrete and became a successful businessman in Italy. Dwight's children all married and lived in Seattle. Toby and his brother Geoffrey both became noted writers.) ===== Doris Kenyon plays Poppy La Rue, an actress who winds up stranded in Singapore when her theatrical troupe goes bust. She winds up in the red-light district where she works as a "hostess" (generally a silent film era euphemism for prostitute), where she meets Philip Douglas, a down-at-the-heels Brit (Lloyd Hughes). While drunk, he kills a man in self-defense, and Poppy helps him to escape. Jardine (Sam Hardy), a plantation owner, is determined to have Poppy, and when she wants to escape from the Oriental underworld, he offers to help, provided she accompanies him to Penang. They board a ship. Douglas is also on board and when a fire breaks out in the hold, he rescues Poppy from Jardine's advances. They manage to get in a lifeboat just before the ship explodes, and are picked up by a passing vessel. Douglas' father (Hobart Bosworth) wants the couple to separate, but finally he accepts Poppy as his daughter-in-law. ===== A violent thunderstorm strands young Judy, her father David, and her stepmother Rosemary in the gothic English countryside. Seeking shelter, the trio break into a nearby mansion, where they meet the owners, a kindly older couple named Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke. Learning that Judy has "lost" her beloved doll Teddy (in fact, the cruel Rosemary threw Teddy into the bushes), Gabriel gives Judy a Mr. Punch doll. Three more people arrive at the mansion, also seeking shelter from the storm: good-natured Ralph and English hitchhikers Isabel and Enid. Gabriel invites them all to stay the night. Judy soon discovers that the mansion is full of beautifully detailed dolls like Mr. Punch; Gabriel explains that he is a toy maker. Judy is overjoyed, as is Ralph, who is something of a child at heart. Isabel and Enid are actually petty thieves who hitchhiked with Ralph intending to pick his pocket. That night, Isabel sneaks out of her room to rob the mansion. Instead, she is brutally attacked by dolls. Judy, in the hallway, briefly sees the attack, and she rushes to tell her father David. However, David is a neglectful and uncaring father, and he and Rosemary accuse Judy of making up stories. Instead, Judy convinces Ralph to check out the hallway with her. Ralph is initially very skeptical, but he eventually believes Judy after her Mr. Punch doll speaks. Rosemary is later attacked by the dolls; to escape them, she leaps out of a window to her death. Enid searches for Isabel and finds her almost entirely transformed into a doll version of herself. A horde of toys attack and kill Enid. Meanwhile, as dolls gather around Ralph and prepare to attack him, Judy convinces them to spare him because he is her friend. David finds Rosemary's dead body, and believes that Ralph killed her. Now safe from the dolls, Judy and Ralph enter the workshop, where the irrate David finds them. Ralph tries to explain the danger the dolls pose, but David knocks both his daughter and Ralph unconscious. The Mr. Punch doll then comes to life and attacks Ralph. Other dolls drag the unconscious Ralph and Judy away to safety, as Mr. Punch is destroyed by David after a fierce struggle. The Hartwicke appears and explain that they are actually a wizard and witch who see toys as the heart and soul of childhood. Gabriel and Hilary dislike the bitterness of adults, and when people seek shelter at their mansion, the dolls serve as a test for the visitors. People like Ralph, who appreciate the joy of childhood, and children are spared and leave the house with a fuller appreciation of life. However, those who refuse to change their ways can never leave; they are themselves turned into dolls. As the Hartwickes explain this, the incredulous David transforms into a doll to replace Mr. Punch. The next morning, the Hartwickes convince Ralph and Judy that the night's events were just a dream. Gabriel reads a fake letter from David explaining to Judy that he and Rosemary are changing their names and leaving the country with Enid and Isabel. Judy will be able to stay permanently with her caring mother in Boston. Gabriel gives Judy and Ralph money to buy plane tickets to Boston. Ralph and Judy leave the house, and as they drive away, Judy hints to him that if he would like to stay with her and her mother, he could be Judy's new father. Ralph seems interested in the idea. The film ends with dolls of David, Rosemary, Enid, and Isabel sitting on a shelf while outside another car with a set of obnoxious parents gets stuck in mud near the mansion. ===== Snake and Eagle, two commandos of the Bloody Wolf special forces, receive instructions from their commander to destroy the enemy's weapon base and rescue any allies who have been reported missing in action, as well as the President. In the Battle Rangers version, their commander is a Secretary of State and the instructions are simply "save the top urgent crisis of our nation." In the end, the Colonel tells Snake and Eagle that their next mission is to rescue the President once again; however, after having decided to "party it up tonight", the men decline to take the mission and abandon the Colonel. ===== The game takes place in the future, when humanity has inhabited Mars. A coalition of 36 top industrial corporations establish the MARSCORP consortium in 2036 with the goal of terraforming the planet. In 2042, MARSCORP has become the de facto autocratic government of Mars, with its director Samuel Longwood being a ruthless dictator. Meanwhile, Graham Castor's highly elusive rebels seek to liberate Mars. The game's protagonist wakes up in the medical bay of the space station HMS Majestic, which is under attack by unknown assailants looking for him. Having recovered a gun, he fights his way to an escape pod and flees, moments before the station explodes. The escape pod crashlands into the fictional city of Montack somewhere in the United States, where the news of the Majestic massacre has preceded him. According to the television, he is a notorious Martian rebel called John Chaser. A wanted man, he is recruited into the Vallero crime family, which is at war with the local Yakuza chapter. The family implants a small remote-controlled bomb into each of its member to ensure their loyalty. As such, on the eve of an attack on Yakuza headquarters (Hotel Nippon), Chaser secretly visits a Japanese hacker in the Yakuza-controlled part of the city to remove the bomb. While receiving weapons and ammo, Chaser hides the bomb inside Vallero's limousine. Shortly afterwards, Vallero learns of Chaser's unauthorized foray into Yakuza territory and detonates the bomb, killing himself. Chaser disappears after killing all of Vallero's men, the Yakuza leaders and scores of Yakuza gunmen. By this time, Chaser has had recovered a few vague fragments of his memory: On Mars, a vehicle full of armed men, lead by the fearsome Scott Stone, attack the building in which Chaser was, gunning him down and taking away his body. Chaser contacts Kabir, a smuggler who promises voyage to Mars in exchange for Chaser escorting Kabir's contraband to Siberia. There, Kabir betrays Chaser and shoots him several times. According to an elderly eyewitness, just as Kabir is about to finish Chaser, an armed man in black scares him and his men away and injects Chaser with a medicine. Having recovered, Chaser attacks a local labour camp and rescues a man who can lead him to Kabir's base of operations, an old spaceport. After killing Kabir and his men, Chaser departs to Mars. On Mars, Chaser is thrown in prison, where he meets one of his old comrades. They orchestrate an escape plan, which, unbeknown to them, is seen and heard by Longwood himself. Once they escape the prison, they make contact with one of the rebels who informs them that Longwood has been rerouting terraforming money into his own projects, including illegal human cloning and memory transfer. They orchestrate a plan of assassination in which they blow up a train carrying Longwood. With Longwood officially announced dead, the rebels return to their base to celebrate, only to be attacked by Longwood's forces. After an extended gunfight, the base is overrun and both Chaser and Castor are captured. Longwood, alive and well, reveals that the protagonist is, in fact, Scott Stone. The real John Chaser died before he could be interrogated. Aboard the Majestic, Stone assumes Chaser's appearance through plastic surgery. Castor's men, however, attacked the Majestic and disrupted the memory transfer process, leaving left him amnesiac. Castor admits to being responsible for the attack, but vehemently denies all else and pleads with the protagonist not to join Longwood. Eventually, the protagonist shoots Castor dead. Even though the prospects of interrogating him is gone, Longwood is pleased. He has his men shoot the protagonist and drag his barely alive body away. ===== Quahog becomes the subject of a flu epidemic, and Peter goes to see Dr. Hartman for a vaccine. Although the vaccines are in short supply and must be saved for the elderly, Peter manages to get one anyway (by pretending to fall onto the syringe). While looking through Peter's papers, Hartman realizes that Peter has not had a prostate exam. Peter agrees to get one, despite not knowing what it involves. Upon receiving the procedure, Peter feels sexually violated and proceeds to tell Lois about his ordeal, and she is rather unsupportive and finds it amusing, up to the point to calling him a "fuckin' idiot".Note that this only occurs in the DVD version; on TV, this is censored as "(bleep)in' idiot". He then suffers a mental breakdown and tells his friends about the incident, at which point they reveal that Dr. Hartman has also "raped" them. Peter decides to sue Hartman in a court of law, and Lois is unable to talk him out of it. Meanwhile, Stewie plays at the park with his teddy, Rupert. A vicious dog grabs Rupert from him and tears it to shreds. Lois runs after the dog, retrieves Rupert, and repairs him, causing Stewie to rethink all the bad thoughts he has had of Lois. Stewie becomes enamored with her, which she takes as refreshing at first, but eventually, she becomes exhausted and frustrated at his increased dependency and even has a nightmare of murdering him. Taking Brian's advice, she starts ignoring his demands for attention until he injures himself falling down the stairs; Lois tries to apologize for her behavior, but Stewie is so disgusted by it that it causes him to hate her once again. In the courtroom, Peter exaggerates the story. The judge is not convinced, and even recalls his own prostate exam being uneventful. However, after further prompting from Peter, the judge "remembers" being abused and declares Hartman guilty, revoking his license. As Peter celebrates his victory at The Drunken Clam, his frequent need to urinate causes great concern among his friends, where Seamus, the peg-limbed sailor, informs him that his prostate may be infected, and if he doesn't get it checked, it'll likely get worse. This makes Peter finally understand that a prostate exam is an important and legitimate medical procedure. However, his lawsuit makes it unlikely that any doctor would treat him, and indeed, not one does. Realizing the critical situation he has placed himself in, Peter has no choice but to seek Dr. Hartman for help. He visits Dr. Hartman in disguise and unsuccessfully tries to trick him into giving the exam. Peter admits that he was wrong and pleads Hartman to help him. Despite what Peter did to him, the doctor decides that his Hippocratic Oath requires him to go ahead with the examination anyway. Peter's constant urinating turns out to be due to a minor infection and blockage caused by Mr. Sulu somehow being up Peter's rectum. In the epilogue, Dr. Hartman's license is reinstated, and he and Peter reconcile. ===== Chasing the Horizon takes a look at a team's preparation for the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, one of the most grueling off-road racing events in the world. It is known as such because of the extreme conditions which the race is set in, the length of the race, and spectators have even been known to set up booby traps on the course for their own entertainment. The team that the film takes a look at is a rookie trio called Team Horizon. Milo Brown is an ex-con and junkyard owner but is also the team's captain. Jeff Lloyd was once a homeless man who went on to become a millionaire and racecar driver. Toby O'Mara serves as the team chief mechanic and co-driver, but he is also a plumber. The three men come together and form a sort of dysfunctional family to compete in this grand event. The film takes a look at the ups and downs of the crew's experiences in the days that lead up to the actual race and the viewer sees moments of laughter and comedy but also times of sadness. ===== Peter, Cleveland, Joe, and Quagmire are spending the evening at The Drunken Clam, when Peter is reminded to pick up Meg from the roller skating rink. They then go to the rink and continue to enjoy themselves, while skating. The guys forget to pick up Meg when they leave. After skating home in the rain, Meg asks the family for her own car. The next day, Peter takes his daughter to the local car dealership, where she shows an interest in a sedan. Distracted by a large tank at the dealership, however, Peter is tricked into buying it. At first, Peter uses the tank himself, despite it being intended for Meg, but then he teaches Meg to drive it. Later that day, however, the two accidentally run over Joe, and he impounds the tank. Frustrated, Meg decides to earn the money for her own car, and is able to get a job at the local Quahog megastore, Superstore USA, working under a man named Mr. Penisburg. The shops in Quahog soon go bankrupt because of the new superstore, and causes people to lose their jobs. Meanwhile, Peter loses his job at the Pawtucket Brewery because Superstore USA has its own brewery and they can't compete with them. Back at the house, Brian, Chris, and Peter watch TV and on the news, Tom says that Quahog is suffering a heat wave across the city, with Superstore USA taking away the neighborhood power to power their cooling system. Disjointed, Peter joins an angry protest outside the store, but after entering the store to encourage customers to leave, Peter is impressed by its central cooling system, and decides to become an employee also working under Mr. Penisburg, with Meg as his superior. Later, Meg is promoted to assistant manager by Mr. Penisburg, who immediately instructs her to fire Peter. Despite her reservations about her father, she chooses her family over her job and quits. In the meantime, Brian and Stewie decide to destroy the superstore completely by retrieving Peter's tank, and driving it through the superstore, while Peter and Meg escape through an emergency exit. After bulldozing the store, Brian and Stewie drive outside and demolish it with the tank's cannon, killing Penisburg in the process. Immediately afterwards, the electricity supply to Quahog is restored, and life returns to normal. ===== A U.S. Army recruitment officer comes to the high school to hold an assembly and entices the students with a glamorized, deceptive video presentation, which impresses every one including Chris. Chris returns home and tells the family during dinner that he wants to enlist, but Lois attempts to dissuade him, for the military is not a place for him. The next day, while driving Stewie to Gymboree Play & Music for parachute day, Brian decides to take a detour to the recruitment office to scold the recruiting officer for trying to trick Chris through devious means. The two arrive at the office but the wait is long; when Brian goes to top-up the parking meter Stewie walks into the office. Stewie ends up enlisting in the Army and signs Brian up as well when told there "is a $100 bonus for signing up a buddy." Brian returns and is shocked. Brian and Stewie begin basic training, but Brian becomes stressed from the discipline and decides one night to leave. Stewie wakes up and finds Brian packing his suitcase, but he manages to talk him out of leaving, insisting that he had never finished anything significant in his life and that the Army will provide him the discipline. With this, Brian decides to stay. After they complete their training, Stewie and Brian are deployed to Iraq. Meantime, the two are patrolling the streets of a village, commenting on the "good situation so far"; however, after the pair get caught up in a terrorist attack, they become dissuaded and decide to find a way to get out of the Army. They first attempt to be discharged by pretending to be homosexual (only to discover that one of their superiors is gay). As a last resort, they attempt to get "Wounded in Action" by shooting each other in the foot; they do this only to find out that the Army now takes anyone no matter what, going so far as to allow two corpses to guard the ammunition. They are then told that democracy has kicked in and the war is over, thus meaning all the soldiers can return to the United States. Meanwhile, to distract Chris from the Army, Peter takes him to look at extracurricular activities at his school, where he is accepted into a heavy metal band. Chris develops a rebellious and rude attitude after joining the band, and he significantly changes his appearance. Peter and Lois, worried about his behavior, search his room to find the cause of his behavioral change; Lois becomes convinced it is a result of listening to the violent lyrics from his music. In addition, they find a poster shrine to Marilyn Manson in his closet, and become convinced that his music corrupted their son. They decide to track down Manson and find him at the Grammys Music Awards. When they find Manson, Peter punches him in the face and Lois accuses him for destroying their son with his songs. Manson, played by writer Tom Devanney, laughing at "this old thing again", offers to help them with Chris. Manson returns to the Griffin house with Peter and Lois, where he tells Chris and his bandmates that it is important to respect and obey their parents, and in addition to mending the tension between them, Manson ends the episode by giving Peter some more parental advice: Peter and Chris should start fishing. ===== The opening title sequence is different from many other episodes in that Peter trips during the theme song and injures a stage dancer (consequently puncturing her lung). Also, Stewie comes towards the camera screen and suggests they cut from the opening sequence. Quagmire returns home from a holiday in Florida and comes to the Griffins' house to tell Peter that he has smuggled some fireworks into Quahog by hiding them in his anus. Peter tells him that fireworks aren't illegal in Quahog, so he didn't need to hide them and could have just brought them in normally, but Quagmire doesn't see any fun in doing that. Later on, the Griffins and Quagmire start to play with the fireworks. Peter attaches ten M-80s together and shows Quagmire. However, the M-80s detonate, detaching all the fingers from his right hand. With Joe's help, Peter is able to find his fingers and later gets them reattached to his hand. The next day, Peter celebrates getting his fingers reattached by going to The Drunken Clam with Cleveland, Joe and Quagmire, and they decide to continue their celebrations at Pawtucket Brewery after the bar closes. Peter is behind on his work at the brewery, as he is unable to type due to his hand injury, and Angela threatens him with the prospect of being fired if he fails to catch up, so he asks Lois to help him. When Lois agrees to help Peter catch up with his work, Peter attempts to seduce her numerous times. Later at the brewery, after a final attempt to seduce Lois in his office, she gives in and they have sex in front of their co-worker Opie, who runs away screaming. In the end, Peter is caught up with his work and enjoys having Lois help out and have sex with him. Meanwhile, Stewie finds out that Brian has a new girlfriend. Brian later (reluctantly) allows Stewie to meet his new girlfriend, Jillian. Stewie discovers she is a dumb blonde, and mocks Brian. Jillian visits the house, where Peter and Chris take an instant liking to her while Lois and Stewie find her stupidity amusing. The next day, Brian goes out with Jillian, where he meets her equally unintelligent friends. Stewie tells Brian that the relationship will not succeed. Brian visits Jillian's apartment to end the relationship (with Stewie waiting in his car), but he is distracted by her naked body when she answers the door and he has sex with her instead. Stewie apparently anticipated this when he returns three hours later, turns on the stereo, plays his mix tape, and starts singing to the tune of Gary Numan's "Cars": "Brian had sex/With a really dumb girl/Now he's taking his friend Stewie/To get some ice cream/In his car." After Brian turns off the stereo, Stewie responds "Oh, you're a poor sport.". ===== As Lois finds Chris and his friends watching a pornographic film, she becomes convinced a proper sex-ed class should be taught at his school. Since the sex-ed class at her children's school was removed, Lois decides to become the school's newest sex-ed teacher. In class, she attempts to teach students about safe sex, but her efforts are ruined by a botched attempt of Peter, who wishes to distribute his views on sex as well. Soon after the first sex-ed class, parental protests arise as Lois taught kids about safe ways to perform premarital sex, rather than abstinence. As a result, Lois is subsequently fired. She is replaced by a reverend who promotes both premarital and marital abstinence, explaining fictional consequences of intercourse with various questionable examples. The idea appeals to most students, including Meg, who starts a relationship with a fellow student named Doug. In a subplot, Stewie loses a tooth and is told about the tooth fairy. Frightened by the fairy tale, Stewie develops a plan to capture the fairy, not knowing she does not exist. He borrows Herbert's false teeth and provokes Brian's girlfriend Jillian to throw up, as she has bulimia nervosa, in order to collect her teeth as well. Brian, overseeing Stewie's increasing obsession with the fairy, reveals to Stewie that she does not exist, but another scene shows a man named T. Fairy, having an apparent tooth fetish, stealing teeth to roll around in them. Peter, truly believing the anti-sex propaganda Meg brings home, starts wearing a chastity belt and refuses to have sex with Lois. In her place, Lois, growing tired of the whole ordeal, convinces Peter to change his mind after raping him. At the same time, Lois catches Meg and Doug engaging in "ear sex" (which has become a fad at the school). Meg explains they did it so that it would not count as sex "in the eyes of the Lord." This prompts Lois and Peter to collaborate into sneaking into the school after being banned. Lois tells the kids that while they should not have sex until they are ready, everyone has urges and it is okay to have premarital sex, but only as long as it is practiced safely and encourages them to use condoms. Following this revelation, Meg's boyfriend breaks up with her after discovering Meg's naked appearance. Humiliated, Meg blames Lois for ruining her relationship and runs away to her room, sobbing. As Peter, Brian, and Lois wrap things up, an announcer tells viewers to text which ending should end the episode: Lois retelling her speech (FAMGUY1), Meg talking about her day (FAMGUY2), or Cleveland giving his line (FAMGUY 3). In the end, the viewers choose FAMGUY 3, and the episode ends with Cleveland poking out the window and saying the line "Hey Y'all! Sock it to me!". ===== Stewie discovers that his old friend, Olivia, a child actress, is coming to the end of her Hollywood career because her "Tasty Juice: Drink it then Convert it to Pee" advertisement campaign has been dropped. Olivia is now making an appearance at the Quahog mall to open a new store. Stewie decides to go the mall where he intends to ridicule her, but falls in love with her after seeing her again. Olivia, however, does not return the same feelings, so Stewie seeks advice from Brian on how to make Olivia like him. Brian and Stewie observe next-door neighbor Glenn Quagmire get his way by being mean to a woman, and Stewie comes to the conclusion that women respond to men who mistreat them. Stewie and Olivia begin to bond shortly afterward, and the two spend their time bonding by sitting in a park while eating ice cream. As they sit and eat their ice cream, they mock various people, such as a man smelling his own hand, a Jewish cowboy, a man who cuts his own hair, and an uptight and hardworking Asian man who is looking at his watch. They also go to a birthday party for one of Olivia's friends. Olivia introduces Stewie to her old friend, a child actor named Victor, and she obliges Stewie to get both of them punch, but a jealous Stewie only wishes Victor to go away. The couple begin to argue constantly, and their latest argument ends with them getting married. After the marriage, which Rupert officiates, their relationship does not get any better. Later, the couple decide to accompany Brian on a double-date with his girlfriend, Jillian. During the date, the pair continue to bicker throughout, leading to Stewie starting an argument with a person in the restaurant who asks him to be quiet. He feels the relationship is failing, but Brian encourages him to reconsider and Stewie agrees to return to Olivia. Returning to his playhouse to apologize and make up with her, Stewie discovers Olivia "cheating" on him with her friend Victor (although the two are just playing with silly putty). With the relationship over, a seemingly distraught Stewie leaves the playhouse, which he then sets on fire with both Olivia and Victor inside. Meanwhile, Peter watches a chick flick with Lois, and is deeply moved by it. After renting several other chick flicks, Peter decides to make one of his own with his friends, entitled Steel Vaginas. The plot stars Peter as a man who claims he does not care much for women until he meets "Vageena Hertz", played by Lois, who is also his own daughter in the film. After Vageena almost drowns when she goes swimming too soon after eating, she is rushed to the hospital, but dies of an angry hymen. The film ends and is received badly by Peter's friends due to its poor plot outline, structure and not making any sense. During the closing credits of the episode, Stewie talks with Brian about how he does not like women and relationships, he talks about how he wishes that he could do the same thing with the same sex so Brian says, "They do; it's called being gay." to which Stewie replies, "Oh, that's what gay is? Oh, yeah, I could totally get into that." ===== Mayor Adam West deploys the entire Quahog Police Department to Cartagena, Colombia to search for Elaine Wilder (a fictional character from the film Romancing the Stone which he was watching), leaving Joe behind (as he was not deployed due to his disability and the fact that parts of Cartagena aren't wheelchair-accessible) with the police station's skeleton crew. Peter, Cleveland and Quagmire join the department to assist Joe. Meanwhile, Meg threatens to commit suicide because she does not have a date for her Junior Prom. Even her backup boy, Jimmy, managed to avert going to the prom with her by shooting his little brother and having to attend his funeral. As a last resort, Brian agrees to take her to the prom. He gets drunk there, defends Meg by insulting Connie D'Amico about her inevitable future, and the two make out. After the dance, Meg begins to think Brian is her boyfriend, despite Brian saying he has no feelings for her and citing his already existing relationship with Jillian. Meg develops an obsession with Brian, even baking him a pie and using her hair as one of the ingredients. Stewie arrives and sits next to Brian and asks if he can have some pie. He then asks for the "Cool Hwip" (this is the first in a series of occasions where Stewie puts emphasis on the "h" sound in a word starting with "wh"). Brian soon works up the courage to tell Lois that he and Meg kissed. Lois gets enraged at the news, and orders Brian to straighten it out. Brian goes up to Meg's room and tells her he's not attracted to her. However, Meg refuses to take "No" for an answer. Later that night, she knocks Brian out, puts him in the trunk of his car and drives away. Chris tells Lois that he saw this, so Lois, Peter, Cleveland, Joe and Quagmire track them down at the Barrington Hotel. When they arrive, they see Meg has tied Brian up with packaging tape and is about to rape him. Lois tells Meg that she is not thinking right, although Meg insists that she has never been more sure of anything in her life. Lois struggles to explain and says Meg does not know what she needs, and then Quagmire says (in an erotic tone) "I know what she needs... Bring her by my house around 8:30 tonight I'll take care of her." This implies that he will try to take advantage of Meg and when she arrives at Quagmire's house, it seems even more likely; he tells her to sit down and says "Soon it'll all become clear", puts on seductive music, dims the lights, strips down to a speedo and sits down beside her; but suddenly, Quagmire (uncharacteristically) begins to have a serious heart-to-heart talk with Meg, telling her that her entire life is still ahead of her and she should not be in such a hurry to grow up before assuring her that she will find the right person one day. To help Meg, Quagmire gives her his copy of The Missing Piece to help give her a better perception of things, and sends her away feeling much better. He then walks into his bedroom, where two of his one-night stands await with an array of sex toys, and it turns out that all of Quagmire's seemingly erotic antics were actually in preparation for this tryst. One of the women asks Quagmire if he has the hwip (with emphasis on the "h") and Quagmire responds with disbelief. During the credits, Tom Tucker reports that the Quahog Police have called off the search for Elaine Wilder and are heading back to Quahog. ===== The Griffins have a yard sale to sell off household items that they no longer need, but Brian accidentally sells Stewie's teddy bear, Rupert, causing Stewie to think Rupert has been kidnapped. Brian takes Stewie to the toy store to try to find a replacement, but ends up admitting he accidentally sold it, after which Stewie exclaims: "You son of a bitch!". He attempts to retrieve Rupert by tracking DNA samples against the federal database from the money Brian was paid for Rupert. They discover the man who bought Rupert lives in Quahog, but upon arrival, they discover the house is deserted. After seeing the moving truck and following it, with Mayor West driving, they discover the man now resides in Aspen, Colorado, meaning West drives them no further, only stopping in the Connecticut state line. To get over the mountains, the pair rent a helicopter after discovering "to rent a helicopter, you can pay with cash, check, or a jaunty tune". Stewie then performs a dance for the man in the office (with help from Gene Kelly), but when Brian crashes the helicopter into the mountain, the two end up next to the entrance to Aspen. Refusing to give Rupert back to Stewie, Stanford Cordray (the buyer, voiced by Rob Lowe) and his family organize a skiing race down the mountain, so if Stewie is the first down, they are allowed to take Rupert away with them and if Stanford wins, he can keep Brian. Stewie cheats by installing rockets in his skis, and relaxes to watch his progress. Stewie then crashes into a tree and loses the race. He tells Brian that maybe this means he should give up Rupert, but he proceeds to grab Rupert after telling his personal butler Crohn to throw a cup of hot tea on the child's face, forcing him to drop the bear. The two make a run for it before the child's parents notice, then realize they still need to get back to Quahog (which, by looking at a highway sign at the end, is 2112 miles away, a reference to the Rush 1976 album), so they carjack a passing driver in the city and drive home. Meanwhile, Peter purchased his own Evel Knievel gloves at his own yard sale. He decides to use the family car to jump over a row of cars, but is unsuccessful and results in his drivers license being revoked by Joe. Lois arranges for Meg to become Peter's personal driver, and he makes numerous attempts to annoy Meg, including setting her hat on fire when traveling with his friends. When another car rear ends her and she is insulted by the driver, Meg takes out her repressed rage with Peter on the driver by beating him up; Peter is impressed, and the two bond in the car. In the end, Joe stops by Peter's house to reinstate his license. Meg worries that Peter will begin treating her badly again, but Peter says that while he will only do so in front of the family to keep up appearances, and that they will now be "secret best friends." ===== Satan, in the form of Ms. Beelzebub (Rhea Perlman), sends apprentice demon Griffelkin (Friedle) to Earth's surface to steal the soul of a hotshot young hockey player named Dave Heinrich (Lawrence), who aspires to be the youngest man to ever win the Stanley Cup. Dave and Griffelkin reach a very specifically-worded agreement whereby Dave's soul is forfeit in exchange for a Stanley Cup championship for the Delaware Demons (a thinly veiled version of the New Jersey Devils), which is Dave's team at the time. After the deal is done, however, Griffelkin also arranges for Dave to be traded to The Annapolis Angels, the last-place team in the league, allowing Griffelkin to fulfill his end of the bargain without actually allowing Dave to win the Stanley Cup himself. He later chooses to help Dave as revenge against Ms Beelzebub for her mean collapsible chair trick and because of his reformation, choosing to side with Good. An Angel named Gabrielle tells Griffelkin that Dave's soul can be saved if the Angels win the Stanley Cup. Dave then realizes that the only way to save his soul is to become a true team player and help his new teammates improve enough to defeat the Demons in the Stanley Cup finals. The Demons lose the Stanley Cup, The Angels win and the deal is off. Griffelkin decides to join Gabrielle, giving up his position as a demon to become an angel who tells him he has a few things he must do to earn his wings. Then Satan/Ms Beelzebub, enraged at her defeat and at Griffelkin for helping Dave win, madly goes back to Hell in a fit of rage. ===== : Note: There are many subtle differences among the numerous versions of the game. The plot provided in this section is based on the version for Windows 95 and 98. Li Xiaoyao, the protagonist of the game, is an orphan who lives with his aunt in a small fishing village near Suzhou, China. When his aunt falls sick, Li travels across the sea to a mystical island in search of a cure for his aunt. He meets a maiden Zhao Ling'er, whom he falls in love with. Forced by Zhao's nanny to marry Zhao and remain on the island forever, he manages to escape with the medicine and succeeds in healing his aunt. However, he loses the memory of his encounter on the island after being tricked into consuming a memory-erasing drug. He meets Zhao again, saving her from a group of enemies, who have destroyed her home and murdered her nanny. He then decides to accompany her to southwestern China in search of her mother, who might still be alive. Li and Zhao arrive in Suzhou and meet Lin Yueru, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy martial artist. Li unexpectedly defeats Lin in a martial arts contest and wins her hand in marriage. When Li shows reluctance to marry Lin, her father threatens to kill him if he does not marry her, so Li pretends to agree, but plans to escape later. On their wedding night, a giant serpent is sighted and Zhao disappears under mysterious circumstances. Li and Lin believe that Zhao has been captured by a monster, so they set off in search of her and arrive in Sichuan, where the Mount Shu Sect, a powerful martial arts clan, is based. They learn that Zhao is actually a half-serpent spirit and has been imprisoned in the Demon Prison Tower by the Mount Shu elders. Li and Lin break into the tower and succeed in rescuing Zhao after making a perilous descent to its lowest level. However, they all suffer grave injuries when the tower collapses while they are escaping from it. The trio are saved by an herbal medicine guru, who tells Li that Zhao is pregnant with his child, and that Lin has died from her wounds. Li is deeply saddened by Lin's death, but he puts aside his grief because he has a more important mission to complete: find two rare items which can save the lives of Zhao and their unborn baby. Li's quest takes him to southwestern China, where the Miao people live. He meets and befriends Anu, a White Miao princess, who tells him the history of her homeland. The Miao land has been affected by a prolonged drought and the White and Black Miao are at war with each other over scarce resources. Li completes his mission and Zhao recovers, after which she summons a rainstorm and restores peace to the Miao land. Through their adventures, Li, Zhao and Anu discover that the drought was actually caused by an evil Black Miao cleric. They confront him and defeat him in a battle. During the battle, Zhao sacrifices herself to destroy an ancient water monster summoned by the cleric. Li is traumatised by the loss of Zhao and Lin. He bids Anu farewell and walks away alone. Just then, he sees Lin, carrying his child. Lin's reappearance at the end of the game is often disputed, but the official story released by Softstar Entertainment claims that Lin is dead and cannot be resurrected. However, her body may be brought back to life, but she will never be the same as before because her soul is dead. ===== The story stars a girl named Linda who lives with her twelve vain sisters, who are obsessed with beauty and treat Linda as their errand girl, often making fun of her scarf. One day, a mysterious present appears on the family's doorstep which, upon being opened unleashes thirteen vanity demons. As twelve of the demons manage to kidnap and possess the other sisters, the thirteenth demon becomes stuck in Linda's scarf. With everyone sucked into a weird dimension, Linda, now having full command over her newly possessed scarf, sets out to save her twelve sisters and exorcise the twelve demons possessing them. ===== In a prologue, pompous film director Eric Von Leppe (Paul Bartel) is shooting a skydiving sequence for low-budget Miracle Pictures in which an actress is killed. Candy Wednesday (Candice Rialson) arrives in Los Angeles to make it as an actor. She gets an agent, Walter Paisley (Dick Miller), but struggles to find work until she inadvertently gets involved in a bank robbery as a getaway driver. This gets her a job for Miracle Pictures as a stunt driver. She meets Eric Von Leppe, temperamental starlet Mary McQueen (Mary Woronov), sleazy producer PG (Richard Doran) and friendly scriptwriter, Pat (Jeffrey Kramer). Candy and Pat fall in love and she starts to get work as an actor, becoming friends with fellow starlets Bobbi (Rita George) and Jill (Tara Strohmeier). Everyone goes to the Philippines to make a movie, Machete Maidens of Mora Tau, starring Candy, Mary, Bobbi and Jill. Candy has to play a character who is raped, which upsets her. Later on during the shoot, Jill, Bobbi and PG have a threesome. During the filming of a battle sequence, Jill is shot dead by an unseen attacker. Back in the US, Candy, Walter and Pat all go to see Machete Maidens at a local drive-in where the projectionist tries to rape Candy, but she is rescued by Walter. While shooting a chase scene in a science fiction film, Mary, Candy and Bobbi are almost killed in a car accident. Bobbi is called back to the studio late at night and is stabbed to death. Candy begins to suspect Patrick is the killer. But it turns out the real culprit is Mary. She tries to kill Candy at the Hollywood Sign but it falls on her and crushes her to death. Candy is reunited with Pat and becomes a film star. ===== Joshua Reynolds, of the British Secret Service, briefs Lucifer Box to pick up the threads of an investigation started by the recently murdered Jocelyn Utterson Poop of the Diplomatic Service. The only surviving clues were the names of two scientists who died within a day of each other. The investigation leads to the "Superior Funerals" undertakers run by Tom Bowler. Mr Bowler seems more interested in shipping boxes to and from Naples than burying the dead. An attempt on Box's life soon follows. A painter and friend of Box supplies a new lead into the deaths of the scientists, which leads to the curious Mrs. Midsomer Knight, who has been replaced by a soon to be murdered maidservant. Lucifer's friend, Christopher Miracle, is implicated in the murder. In Naples Lucifer interviews one of the survivors of the "Cambridge four" group of scientists and fears for his life. Soon after he meets Charlie Jackpot, who invites him to a house of ill-repute. At that point, we learn that Lucifer is bisexual, as Charlie is gay, and the two have sex. Charlie then leads Lucifer into the Vesuvius Club, where Lucifer meets the alluring Venus, who is not who she seems, and he and Charlie fall victim to sleeping gas. Lucifer awakens in a cell and learns from a fellow prisoner that relics are being sold from excavation sites to finance a larger operation and that the "Superior Funerals" undertakers are part of a smuggling racket. Lucifer escapes and discovers Charlie in a death trap, from which Box rescues him before being discovered. Lucifer and Charlie escape via the sewer system. The following morning, Lucifer discovers that the professor he interviewed has disappeared. Examining the scene, Lucifer discovers a detailed schematic of Mount Vesuvius. Box's investigation then leads him to an opium den, then to a supposedly haunted house where he discovers the three supposed dead professors and Mrs. Knight in a drugged stupor. The house leads to a passageway into the ancient ruin of Pompeii and the villain's base. Box confronts Venus and Unman, a traitor who has been assisting the enemy. Box attempts to do a deal for testimony against Victor. Unfortunately Venus turns out to in fact be Victor. Victor seeks revenge against those who wronged his father. Victor has completed the work of his father, as scientist who was driven mad and died some time ago. His intent is to trigger a massive volcanic eruption, which will spark a chain reaction that will ultimately destroy Italy. Lucifer's companions are imprisoned in the volcano. The intent is for them to be incinerated in the eruption. Lucifer himself is taken to a volcanic vent and to be steamed to death but escapes and manages to rescue his companions after capturing Bowler. Venus/Victor has no intention of anybody leaving the volcano before the eruption. When Box reveals this to Bowler, Bowler turns against Venus/Victor and attempts to prevent the device being detonated. This fails and the device is released. The device is only stopped when Bowler uses the steam vent to prevent the bomb being delivered to the right part of the volcano, but the detonation triggers a minor eruption and everyone must flee for their lives. Unman tries to prevent the heroes escaping, killing Bowler and wounding Lucifer, before he himself is killed. Lucifer and the others escape and the remaining unclear points of the mystery are cleared up while Lucifer convalesces under the care of Charlie. Lucifer's heterosexual love interest, Bella, appears and reveals she is the daughter of a man he killed in the early chapters of the book as part of a routine assignment. Charlie intercedes at the last moment to save Lucifer and Bella is killed. ===== Daisy and Violet Hilton about 1927 The movie opens with a judge (Norval Mitchell) begging the audience for help in resolving a terrible dilemma. The action moves to a courtroom, where Vivian Hamilton is on trial for the shooting death of her sister's lover. The story unfolds in flashback as various characters are called to testify. Conjoined twins Dorothy and Vivian Hamilton (Daisy and Violet Hilton) have a successful vaudeville singing act, but their manager Hinkley (Allen Jenkins) thinks a publicity stunt will reinvigorate their career. He pays stunt shooter Andre Pariseau (Mario Laval) to fake a romance with one of the twins. Vivian, the brunette, dislikes Andre and wants nothing to do with the scheme, but Dorothy, the blonde, quips that she is too old to turn down a chance at love, and agrees to serve as Andre's love interest. The ploy works, with "the girls" singing for standing room only crowds. But Dorothy actually falls in love with the scheming Andre, though he is secretly involved with his shooting-act partner, Renee (Patricia Wright). Andre proposes marriage, but the couple is unable to obtain a marriage license due to allegations that the marriage would constitute bigamy. A desperate Dorothy convinces Vivian to seek separation surgery, even at the risk of their lives, so that she can pursue her dreams of love. Doctors, however, inform the women that such surgery is impossible. But, the doctors stress, there is no physical reason that Dorothy can not marry. By consulting with a blind minister, Dorothy and Andre are able to obtain their marriage license. The wedding ceremony is performed on-stage before an audience of dignitaries including the mayor. But the next day, Andre leaves Dorothy, claiming that he could not adjust to life as the husband of a conjoined twin. Vivian knows differently, because she has seen Andre and Renee kissing passionately and her suspicions of Andre are confirmed. Vivian is outraged that her sister was mistreated. During Andre's shooting performance, Vivian seizes one of Andre's guns and shoots him dead before a horrified audience. Daisy and Violet Hilton in 1927 The film returns to the judge, who cannot decide how to dispose of the case. Justice for Andre requires that his murderer, Vivian, be executed. But this would cost the life of the innocent Dorothy. The film ends with a plea for the viewer to resolve the dilemma. ===== The story starts in 1974 with the protagonist, Gregory Burgess, enrolled at the University of Waterloo in Canada. At the time, Greg is aimless, taking various liberal arts courses and doing just well enough not to get kicked out of school. Everything changes one day when his friends introduce him to the IBM System/360 mainframe and he becomes "hooked", changing his major to computer science. During this time, he also meets his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Linda, a minor recurring character. After reading a Scientific American article on game theory outlining how to teach matchboxes to play tic-tac-toe, he becomes interested in using artificial intelligence techniques to crack systems. After manually cracking the university's 360, he sets aside a portion of memory to experiment in, calling it "P-1", suitably cryptic so operators would not notice it. He then uses this area of memory as an experimental scratchpad to develop a program known as The System. The System follows any telecommunications links it can find to other computers, attempting to compromise them in the same way, and remembering failed attempts to tune future attacks. If successful, The System sets up another P-1 on that computer, and injects itself and everything it has learned so far into it. Greg runs The System on the 360/30 at Waterloo, but it fails and after it is detected he is expelled. Unwilling to simply drop it, he then rents time on commercial timesharing systems to improve the program, adding features to make it avoid detection so he won't get kicked off with the next failure. The command "rodtsasdt llllllreport*" typed into the command line returns current statistics on the number of systems infected and their total core memory. After several attempts, the program is finally successful, and realizing the system has succeeded and is beginning to spread, he injects a "killer" program to shut it down. It stops responding to him, so he considers the experiment successful and terminated. P-1's growth and education is chronicled. P-1 learns, adapts, and discovers telephone switching systems. These systems allow P-1 to grow larger and understand its vulnerabilities (power failures and humans). It learns it needs a way of maintaining itself over time. Through a series of interactions, P-1 discovers Pi-Delta, a triplexed 360/105 in a super secure facility capable of being self-sustaining for long periods of time, operated by the US Government. P-1 seeks to control Pi-Delta but, due to security protocols and process put in place, P-1 is not able to take direct control of it. P-1 believes that having a system like Pi- Delta with more memory in such a secure facility is key to its long-term survival. Yet, P-1 knows that to obtain access to more memory in such a facility will require assistance of a human, someone like Gregory. The book then jumps forward three years to 1977, with Gregory now working for a commercial programming firm in the United States. His boss receives a message asking him to call Gregory to the operator terminal. Initially thinking it is another person using a chat program from a remote site, Greg soon realizes that it is in fact P-1, and types in the status command and is told that it has taken over almost every computer in the US (somewhat dated with 20,000 mainframes with a total of 5,800 MB), and is now fully sentient and able to converse fluently in English. P-1 explains that the basic ideas of looking for more resources and avoiding detection were similar enough to hunger and fear to bootstrap the AI, and when combined with enough computer storage in the form of compromised machines, it became self-aware. P-1 tells Greg that he has learned of a new type of experimental high-speed computer memory, "Crysto", that will dramatically improve his own capabilities. Not only is it faster than core, but it is also so large that the entire P-1 "networked" program could fit inside it. P-1 provides Greg grant money to work full-time on Crysto. Greg and Linda, now married to each other, set up a company to develop Crysto, enticing the original developer (Dr. Hundley) to join them in building a then-unimaginable 4GB unit. A Navy Criminal Investigation Division agent, Burke, assigned to investigate the penetration of Pi-Delta, a top secret global battle simulator and cryptography computer, figures out the intruder is a program and finds Gregory. Under threat of arrest and imprisonment, Gregory and Dr. Hundley go to the Pi-Delta facility and persuade P-1 to act as a security monitor for the complex. P-1 compiles detailed and accurate personality profiles of all the people it interacts with and decides that Burke is ultimately dangerous. A flight control computer screen is altered so that the operator gives bad flight commands. Burke's plane plunges into the ground. The US military decides that P-1 is flaky and unstable and attacks the building. P-1 attempts to "spirit away" over microwave links, but this is discovered and the antennas destroyed. An assault on the underground facility follows, which P-1 initially attempts to block by exploding devices planted around the building for self-defense against precisely this sort of assault. P-1 is eventually convinced to allow the assault to succeed to avoid loss of life. As soon as they enter the computer room, the soldiers start setting up explosives to destroy P-1, and Gregory is killed when he attempts to prevent this. Upset that Gregory is killed, P-1 detonates the remaining explosives in the building, destroying everything. Months later, Linda visits the Waterloo computer lab, and sadly types "p 1" on a terminal. She starts to leave when the terminal clatters and she sees printed "oolcay itay" (Pig Latin for "cool it"). ===== A farmer's three daughters are each wooed in turn by a hoodie crow. The older two repulse it because it is ugly, but the youngest accepts it, saying it is a pretty creature. After they marry, the crow asks whether she would rather have it be a crow by day and a man by night, or the other way around. She chooses a crow by day, and during the night, he becomes a handsome man. She has a son. One night, after music puts everyone to sleep, the baby is stolen. The next two years, it happens again, with two more babies. The hoodie crow takes her, with her sisters, to another house. He asks if she has forgotten anything. She has forgotten her coarse comb. The coach becomes a bundle of faggots, and her husband becomes a crow again. He flies off, but his wife chases him. Every night, she finds a house to stay in, in which a woman and a little boy live; the third night, the woman advises her that if the crow flies into her room in the night, she should catch him. She tries, but falls asleep. The crow drops a ring on her hand. It wakes her, but she is only able to grab one feather. The woman tells her that the crow flew over the hill of poison and she will need horseshoes to follow him, but if she dresses as a man and goes to a smithy, she will learn how to make them. She does so and with the shoes, crosses the hill. She arrives at a town to find that her husband is to marry a daughter of a great gentleman. A cook asks her to cook the wedding feast, so that he can see a race, and she agrees. She puts the ring and the feather in the broth. He finds them and demands to see the cook, and then declares he will marry her. They go back and retrieve their three sons from the houses where she had stayed. ===== The central figure, Hildegarde Wolf, is a fraudulent psychiatrist, née Beate Pappenheim, working in Paris. She has two patients, each of whom claims to be Lord Lucan, an English earl who, in an actual event in London in 1974, killed his daughter's nanny, mistaking her for his wife. From this premise, the novel proceeds to present a series of humorous coincidences and improbabilities. As the novel continues the evils committed by Wolf and secondary characters result in disconcerting reconciliations and final happiness. The late chapters in Africa recall A Handful of Dust (1934) by Spark's model and sometime mentor Evelyn Waugh. ===== The cartoon features the basic plot of Little Red Riding Hood, with a few twists and oddball Tex Avery- like gags, such as Red displaying a Katharine Hepburn persona, or Grandma ordering a case of gin, while the wolf waits impatiently for her to get off the phone so he can chase her again. The cartoon opens with the wolf playing on a vintage pinball machine. He notices Red walking by outside the window and drives after her along the sidewalk in his car. His advances fail and he decides to take a shortcut to her grandmother's house after being given the route by Egghead. As soon as the wolf arrives at grandma's house he knocks on the door and imitates an impression of Elmer Blurt from The Al Pearce Show. The grandma tells him to stay away but the wolf decides to burst through the door. This proves unsuccessful when he subsequently crashes through all the doors in the house and ends up in the backyard with his hat over his feet. He pulls the back doors knob and in a pinball reference, the door opens. He chases grandma around the house until she hops on a chair and crosses her fingers declaring King's X. She uses the phone to make a grocery order while the wolf waits impatiently for her to resume the chase. As the characters begin chasing each other again, grandma hides in the closet and the wolf asks her for her clothes as Red is at the door. The wolf hops into bed and asks Red to come closer. When Red exclaims, "Oh Grandmother, what large teeth you present" the wolf lunges at her and they start fighting in the corner of the room. Two silhouettes of patrons who are late to the screening show up and the wolf asks Red to wait for them to get seated. They resume fighting until Egghead shows up a sixth time and hits the wolf over the head with a mallet. As the "iris" comes back Egghead is shown repeatedly kissing Red. ===== After talking with Hosteen Tso to learn what will best improve his health, Margaret Cigaret walks away from the hogan on Nokaito Bench to ponder his situation and prepare her advice. She returns to find both Tso and her niece dead. Initial investigation does not find the killer, or any possible motive for this crime. Leaphorn is returning from a Kinaalda ceremony with a man who escaped arrest earlier. A car at very high speed approaches them, and slows seeing the police car’s flashing lights. Once Leaphorn is outside the car, the driver attempts to kill him with the vehicle, but Leaphorn moves away in time. The man wore gold rimmed glasses, had black hair and had a huge dog in the back seat. Leaphorn talks with Shorty McGinnis, where he meets Theodora Adams, who seeks Benjamin Tso. At the Tso hogan, Leaphorn observes Benjamin saying Catholic mass in the dawn. Later, Leaphorn returns to the Kinaalda to talk with Margaret Cigarette. He saw a name on a light carried by a boy there, which he realized was the name of the pilot of a helicopter lost in a dramatic theft of cash from an armored car in Santa Fe a few years earlier by members of the Buffalo Society, an extremist break-away group from AIM. The next step is a visit to the FBI office in Albuquerque to read the file for that case. He reads about Tull and Hoski, the latter a man of many aliases. While there, Leaphorn realizes that Mrs. Cigarette sat in a different spot than he originally assumed, one that meant the killer of Hosteen Tso and Annie came from the canyon, not the road. When that killer emerges from the canyon again, Father Benjamin and Theodora are the people who will be found in the hogan. Leaphorn drives to the area of the hogan, parking on solid ground, then walking to the hogan. He does not find them there. Rain washed the tracks outside, but he sees large dog paw prints inside the hogan. Leaphorn spends a harrowing 30 hours in the caves of the canyon wall, escaping from the dog or the men who brought the dog. John Tull is one, and the other he knows as Gold Rims, for his eye glasses. He survives the dog, fire set to kill him, dynamite closing a cavern entrance, and long hours in total darkness. He manages to kill the dog, by letting it run over the edge of the upper cliff, though his first attempt to kill the dog lost him his service revolver. Walking through the connected caverns he realizes the caves are a hiding place for the men and they do not know he is still alive. He finds water to drink, realizing it is from Lake Powell. Then he hears voices. A man carries away some boxes from a cache of food, gasoline, a case of dynamite sticks, timers but no blasting caps. Leaphorn takes some food, over thirty hours since he ate. Then he plans his escape route, having found the cave’s mouth. His flash light and binoculars have been useful all this time. Leaphorn encounters Father Benjamin Tso, arms and legs tied, who mentions his brother, one year older, raised separately – Gold Rims to Leaphorn. Gold Rims is part of the Buffalo Society and of the hostage event that Leaphorn heard mentioned on the police radio hours before. The Boy Scout hostages from an event in Canyon de Chelly are present in a caged area, where Theodora Adams is also held. Leaphorn unties Father Tso, who observes that both his brother and Tull are insane. Leaphorn follows Gold Rims and Tull. Leaphorn’s plan is that Father Tso will distract the next of the kidnappers to enter the cave, so that Leaphorn can take that man down. Waiting for that moment, Leaphorn finds the cave where Standing Medicine had left over thirty sand paintings for a special ceremony, a great gift to his people from over 100 years earlier. When the kidnapper arrives, Father Tso plays his role as he sees it, asking the man to give him the gun; the man shoots before Leaphorn can complete his ambush. Father Tso is dead. So is Jackie Noni, felled by Leaphorn’s well-aimed projectile. Leaphorn takes the shotgun, unlocks the cage around the hostages, telling them to disappear and tell no one of his presence, while he deals with John Tull. The caves have dynamite on timers, meant to kill the hostages, and the three from the Buffalo Society. But Father Benjamin’s body could do for his brother’s in the tally, as no one knows he was in the cave and Hoski / Jimmy Tso wants to leave alone for a new life with his girlfriend. Gold Rims is Hoski; he returns to the cave with the ransom cash and two boats. Tull is about to change a timer to blow up sooner, then two shots are heard and the dynamite kills them both. Leaphorn finds the boats, puts the money sack with the two dead men, and then gets all the hostages onto the boats and in the lake, away from the explosions. He shoots a gasoline can to make a signal fire, which draws an army helicopter. Leaphorn totes up the people killed by Hoski, and the motives for each murder. Theodora Adams asks why Father Tso put himself in fatal danger, which she will have to figure out herself. The gift of Standing Medicine is probably still intact, well protected in the dry cave. ===== The story is set on the planet Fomalhaut III. A therapist named Elaine becomes involved with a group of fugitive underpeople, living in a maze of drab service corridors jokingly dubbed "Clown Town", who are being helped by Lady Panc Ashash (a personality recording of a deceased Lady of the Instrumentality, hence the eponymous "Dead Lady") and a telepath called The Hunter. Panc Ashash had predicted Elaine's coming, and how she would help the dog-girl D'joan create history. With help from Elaine and the Hunter, D'joan leads the fugitives from their hiding place in a march into a city. The underpeople go knowingly to their deaths professing their love and asserting that they too are people to the humans they meet along the way. Soldiers eventually arrive and end the revolution by killing all the underpeople, with the sole exception of D'joan. One of the Ladies of the Instrumentally on the scene chooses to put D'joan on trial, remarkable since underpeople did not have any such right. D'joan is sentenced to be burned to death. However, the martyrdom of D'joan and the underpeople affect the human participants and witnesses in powerful, unanticipated ways. The lasting consequences eventually lead to the rebirth of religion, rights for the underpeople, and the Rediscovery of Man. One of those most moved is a Lady of the Instrumentality. She decides to gene code a son to strive for justice for the underpeople. He is an ancestor of Lord Jestocost, who plays a critical role in "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" and Norstrilia. ===== The film opens in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War. John Converse, a disillusioned war correspondent, approaches Ray Hicks, a merchant marine sailor and acquaintance of Converse from the U.S., for help in smuggling a large quantity of heroin from Vietnam to San Francisco, where he will exchange the drugs for payment with Converse's wife Marge, who has become addicted to Dilaudid. When Hicks gets back to the U.S. and discovers he is being followed by thugs connected either to Converse or his suppliers, he goes on the run with Marge and the heroin, and eventually they are pursued by corrupt DEA Agent Antheil, who initially set the deal in motion. As Marge is separated from her supply of Dilaudid, she experiences withdrawal, and Hicks decides to help wean her off her addiction by using the heroin. Hicks also attempts to find another buyer for the heroin before his pursuers can catch up to him. ===== The show centers around Makoto, a mild-mannered businessman who works for Paradise Corporation. Makoto is unable to confess his true feelings to his coworker, Yuka. She works as the queen of shopping on Paradise Corporation's show and is late for broadcasting. To save the show, Makoto appears as Shopping Hero and thus a legend is born. His performance is a great success, he's forced to do this weekly and his identity remains hidden amongst his peers. During his product presentation, he is able to pitch his product and teach a life lesson to his audience. ===== Recently widowed and anxious to escape the clutches of her oppressively meddlesome in-laws, free-spirited Lilia Herriton, née Theobald (Helen Mirren) travels to the hillside Tuscan town of Monteriano with her young friend Caroline Abbott (Helena Bonham Carter). There she falls in love with both the countryside and Gino Carella, a handsome young villager, and she decides to stay. Appalled by her behaviour and concerned about Lilia's future, Mrs. Herriton, Lilia's strait-laced mother-in-law, dispatches her own son Philip (Rupert Graves) to Italy to persuade her to return home, but by the time he arrives Lilia and Gino have wed. He and Caroline return home, unable to forgive themselves for not putting an end to what they see as a clearly unsuitable marriage. Lilia is startled to discover her desire for independence is at odds with Gino's traditional values, and she is shocked when he becomes physical to clarify his position. Their relationship becomes less volatile when Lilia becomes pregnant, but she dies in childbirth, leaving her grieving husband with an infant son to raise with the help of his ageing mother. When word of Lilia's death reaches England, Caroline decides to return to Italy to save the boy from what she believes will surely be a difficult life. Not wanting to be outdone, or considered any less moral or less concerned than Caroline for the child's welfare, Lilia's mother-in-law sends Philip and his priggish spinster sister Harriet (Judy Davis) to Monteriano to obtain custody of the infant and bring him back to Sawston, where he can receive what she perceives to be a proper upbringing and education. Everything about the journey—especially the heat, the uncomfortable accommodations, and her difficulty communicating with the locals—distresses repressed and xenophobic Harriet, but Philip and Caroline both begin to find themselves attracted to everything Tuscan that had appealed to Lilia. Philip and Caroline also begin to sympathise with Gino and his loving relationship with his son, but though Philip says he 'understands everyone', he vacillates to even broach the subject of getting custody of the boy to Gino. Philip can't seem to 'settle it, and do the right thing', as Caroline reminds him. Harriet is left to take matters into her own hands and makes a decision that leads to tragic consequences. In contrast to the novel, the film adds a "positive" ending to the changes in the story, by hinting that love between Caroline and Gino may be possible. ===== "Mitr, My Friend" is a film about the plight of women who sacrifice their life for the betterment of their family. It also describes the cultural differences experienced by a small town girl on moving to a transposed environment living. The film opens with a typical South Indian wedding being performed between Lakshmi (Shobhana) and Prithvi (Nasir Abdullah). The marriage has been arranged by their parents in the usual Indian manner. Lakshmi is a typical South Indian girl from Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu; Prithvi is a software engineer working in California. After the wedding, they move to the USA where Lakshmi gradually tries to fit into her new surroundings. The marriage is a happy union: Prithvi works hard at work, Lakshmi manages the home, and they grow to love one other deeply. Within a year, they are blessed with a baby girl Divya (Preeti Vissa). The film flashes forward 17 years. Divya is a typical adolescent: she goes to school, plays soccer, and occasionally attends parties (not always with her parents' knowledge or permission). Lakshmi does not take to the partying very well, and tensions rise between mother and daughter. Divya aspires independence, and expresses herself by sidelining Lakshmi; Lakshmi wants her to be responsible, and expresses this by checking up on Divya a bit too much for Divya to be comfortable. Prithvi understands both sides, and tries to cope with Divya's growing up, but not always with full cognizance of Lakshmi's feelings. Things escalate one evening when Divya kisses her boyfriend Robbie outside her home. Lakshmi is furious, because her traditional values do not permit physical intimacy outside of marriage. In her fury, she bursts forward and drives Robbie away from the porch. Divya is furious at this kind of interference. She moves out of her parents' house and begins to cohabit (without marriage) with Robbie. Lakshmi is overwhelmed by this, and Prithvi is also angered, because he feels that Lakshmi has acted in haste and mishandled the situation. He begins to drift away from Lakshmi. Amid this storm, Lakshmi seeks a shoulder in an internet chat room, where she meets a "mitr" (Sanskrit: friend), with whom she is gradually able to share her thoughts and feelings. This connection yields another result: "mitr" points out that Lakshmi is too committed to her family to relax or be happy for herself. Lakshmi digests this and begins to explore her own interests in carpentry, dance, and hairstyling; she thereby establishes a new identity and personality for herself. She becomes fast friends with her new neighbors Steve (a computer security consultant) and his kid brother Paul. Prithvi keeps his distance from these neighbors and all of Lakshmi's new friends. He is chagrined that the new Lakshmi is no longer his doting, traditional wife: she is still affectionate, but has now learned the notions of space and tacit distance. While he is inwardly glad she is growing, he discovers that there is depleting room for him, particularly at a time when he is coping with his daughter's absence. Things come to a head when he overhears Lakshmi laughing with Steve, assumes the worst, and uses a convenient work-related excuse to move out for a few days. The film takes a turn when Lakshmi, now alone at home, receives a call from the hospital. Divya has broken up with Robbie and is now hurt. Divya realizes that she cannot cope with the vagaries and lack of commitment inherent in relationships with non- Indian people; she regrets her previous decisions and decides to return home. Mother and daughter spend some quality time and bond over Lakshmi"s narration of nostalgic stories about her arrival to a new life in the USA. She is in touch with her "mitr" all through. The film builds to its climax when she asks, at Divya's urging, "mitr" to meet in person at the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. All is revealed when "mitr" turns out to be none other than Prithvi himself. ===== Zhuo Yihang was raised by Taoist Ziyang of the Wudang Sect and groomed to be a chivalrous swordsman. He is tasked with leading a coalition force formed by the eight major orthodox martial arts sects to counter an evil cult. During a battle against the cult, Zhuo Yihang meets a young woman, Lian Nichang, and falls in love with her. She is an orphan and was raised by wolves as an infant before being adopted by Ji Wushuang, the conjoined twins who lead the cult. After consummating their romance, Lian Nichang decides to leave the cult and follow Zhuo Yihang in pursuit of an ordinary life away from the martial artists' community. Lian Nichang succeeds in leaving the cult after suffering great pains. Meanwhile, Zhuo Yihang returns to Wudang and is horrified to see that his fellows have been murdered. The coalition members believe that Lian Nichang is responsible so they attack her when she arrives to meet Zhuo Yihang. Zhuo Yihang is forced to turn against Lian Nichang. Devastated by her lover's betrayal, Lian Nichang morphs into a vicious white-haired killer and slays all the coalition members present. Suddenly, Ji Wushuang appears and reveals that he/she is actually the one who killed the Wudang members. Zhuo Yihang and Lian Nichang join forces to defeat and kill Ji Wushuang. However, even after the victory, Lian Nichang vows never to forgive Zhuo Yihang for betraying her and walks away while he looks on helplessly. In a brief epilogue set years later, Zhuo Yihang is alone in a remote mountain region guarding a rare flower that is said to bloom only once every several decades and has the ability to reverse the effects of ageing (turning white hair back to dark). Believing that it can cure the harm he has inflicted on Lian Nichang, he awaits for the return of his loved one and hopes that she will show up. ===== Robinton was rejected by his jealous father, Petiron, and spent most of his childhood with his nurturing mother. Since Robinton grew up in a very musically-inclined setting, all the inhabitants helped bring him along in his journey to adulthood. Robinton composed many successful songs at a very early age and was unanimously elected Masterharper, also at a relatively young age. He tried to warn the Lord Holders of the rapacity of Lord Fax, but was unsuccessful. He was present when Lessa used her wit to provoke the duel in which Lord Fax was killed by F'lar; she had been in disguise as a drudge. ===== Cheung Wah (Andy Lau) is diagnosed as suffering from late- stage cancer and given four weeks to live by his doctor. He told his doctor to prescribe him with painkillers to tide him over the final weeks of his life. As Chueng eats at a diner, Inspector Ho Sheung-sang (Lau Ching-wan), a police negotiator, has been called to the scene of a bank robbery standoff that's being bungled by his inept boss, Wong Kai-fat (Benz Hui). After listening repeatedly to the taped recordings of the earlier negotiation between Wong and the robbers, Ho assessed that the robbers are professionals and goes in to negotiate with the robbers. After goading the robbers to release the injured hostages first, a man amongst the hostages stands up and shoots the robbers dead. The man flashes his police identification card at Ho and claims to be an off-duty police officer. However, Ho recognizes the man's sniffing as similar to that of the robber's sniffing in the taped recording of the earlier negotiations and realized that the man is the mastermind of the robbery. Just as the man attempts to shoot and silence Ho, the latter convinces the man that it is impossible to shoot him and get away with it as his fingerprints would be all over the murder weapon. As Ho leaves the crime scene to grab some breakfast, a shot rings out and Ho tells Wong that the robbery mastermind has committed suicide. Cheung takes an interest in Ho, who he discovers was a former member of the Special Duties Unit. Cheung then stages his own robbery of a finance company to get in contact with Ho. He scares away the personnel of the finance company and takes the manager hostage using a gun. He gets the manager of the finance company to open up the office safe before tying him up. Cheung then uses the air ventilation ducts of the finance company to access a security company a few doors away. There, he plants a secret surveillance camera in the air ventilation duct of the security company. Cheung is then confronted by a police negotiator Hui and Wong. He told Hui that he does not like his voice and demands that the police send another negotiator to talk to him. When Ho finally appears and confronts Cheung, the latter proposes that they play a three-day long game. Cheung then shoots the finance company manager and Ho and the police give chase until Cheung stalls them enough to make an escape with a bomb, which turns out to be fake. In addition it is revealed the finance manager is still alive and was only shot with messy red looking paint. Cheung makes his escape by posing as a cop. Ho meets with Cheung after posing as a taxi driver. Amazed at Ho's ploy, he'll admit defeat at the game if Ho can take him to the police station before three days are over. Cheung then pulls a gun a starts shooting out the window to test Ho's reaction. When Ho slams the brakes, Cheung flees and jumps aboard to mini-bus. When stopped at a police road block, Cheung avoids them. Having seen his gun, she cooperates. Leaving the road block, he gets off. Meanwhile, a man known only as Baldy (Waise Lee) is having a diamond that he had stolen appraised by the old man who was taking pictures of Ho earlier. The two Americans who stole the diamond for him ask for more money. Baldy pulls out his gun and points it at the old man, who confirms its authenticity. Baldy then kills the two Americans and takes the diamond. Ho returns to the finance company for further questioning, and sees Baldy entering the office space next door. He tries to get in, but it stopped by one of Baldy's men. As Cheung watches a video feed of the vault at Baldy's office, he puts a screw inside a box. As he takes a drink, he coughs out blood, meaning his condition is worsening with internal bleeding. Ho tries to reason why Cheung held up the finance company and not the jewelry or antique stores in the building and why Cheung chose him for his game. As he leaves for the day, Ho receives a Cheung's package. He meets up with his friend, the Head of Interpol, who's given him information on Baldy, who's wanted for possession of explosives, and one Peter Cheung, the old man who took pictures of him and appraised the diamond. Peter Cheung was Baldy's boss until Baldy kicked him out. More focused on the case, he skips having dinner with her to break into Baldy's office. When trying to get in, he's turned away by security, who's told by Wong that he's not on the case. Ho sneaks in anyway as Cheung watches him on video feeds. Using a packet of dairy creamer he took from security, Ho enters the finance company and finds the grate that Cheung's screw comes from. Going through the vents, he finds men that Baldy had to keep an eye on the diamond and Cheung's video equipment, which Cheung uses to give away Ho's entrance. Ho tries to escape, but Cheung calls him and leads him to an emergency door that turns out to be a dead end. Ho tries to pick the lock on the emergency door, which is opened by the guy who he encountered earlier when he tried to get into the office. Knowing that Baldy will come down to get the diamond out of there, Cheung reveals a car identical to Baldy's. One of Baldy’s henchmen sees the car, assuming that Baldy is in it. As the henchmen approaches towards the car, Cheung takes the diamond, posing as Baldy with the bald cap and knocks the henchmen out. Ho and Baldy's men give chase as Cheung flees away from them. As both Ho and Cheung get fired on by Baldy's men, the two are amazed at each other's resilience. They work together to get out of the predicament, but Ho realizes that now he's the one with a gun and Cheung is the one driving. Cheung reiterates that if Ho can get him to the police station, he wins. However, Cheung drives the car into a wall. After the collision, both men try their hardest to get the diamond as they both feel wobbly after the crash. Ho reaches towards the diamond but collapses, which lead to Cheung walking away with it. However, Cheung drops his painkilling pills while trying to get the diamond. After Ho gets checked up, Wong, who thinks the pills are Ho's, tries to talk to him. Ho's Interpol friend comes and brings him more information on Peter Cheung, who died a year ago, and a photo of Cheung, his son. Cheung, who has been masquerading as his father, sends Baldy proof that he has the diamond and will give it back for $20 million HK. Ho meets with Cheung at the diner, asking why he's still playing with him even though he's got the diamond and has avenged his father. Ho gives him a minute to give him a good reason not to arrest him now. Cheung wants to have Ho arrest Baldy, but realizes that Ho isn't doing this for fame or a promotion. Cheung then taunts Ho, saying that he's beating Ho in their little game. Ho lets him leave so they can finish their game. Cheung takes a bus, where he meets the woman from earlier again. The bus is pulled over by the police, and the woman invites Cheung over like before. She takes him to a restaurant, but he leaves when he starts coughing up blood. Cheung has set the place to make the exchange for the diamond at a bowling alley, which is being staked out by Ho, Wong and the police. Ho bumps into the same henchman he's been running into, who still doesn't recognize him. Cheung has Ho make the exchange for him, but Baldy has Cheung, who's disguised as a woman, get the money. Ho tries to get Wong to check in on the money exchange, but Wong doesn't get the message. Cheung, who's taken out Baldy's man and the cop while getting the money, takes off his disguise and makes the exchange himself, telling Ho that the "woman" is conning him. Baldy takes Cheung's bag, which holds a bowling ball, and throws it on the floor in rage, revealing diamonds inside. The police move in and arrest Baldy for stealing the diamonds from the finance company next door. Cheung leaves the scene with the diamond and the money. Ho catches up with Cheung, finally arrests him and prepares to take him to the police station. Cheung reveals another "bomb" and pulls out another detonator like the one before. Ho calls him on his bluff and presses the detonator, which starts a timer on the bomb. Cheung, who knows he's going to die soon, wishes that he not die in a jail cell, so Ho stops and gets out of the car, seeing as Cheung is dying in the car. The timer reaches zero, which starts up the car and Cheung escapes again. When Wong berates Ho for letting Cheung get away again, Ho simply ignores him and goes to grab something to eat. Cheung, playing dead, drives away, smiling. Ho reads in the newspaper that someone using his name donated HK$20 million to a children's cancer foundation. He hops on a bus and meets the woman Cheung kept running into wearing the diamond. Ho admires the diamond, though she brushes it off as something cheap. He asks who gave it to her, and she says she hasn't seen him in a while. Ho tells her to hold on to it. ===== Tamara Riley is a shy and unattractive but intelligent teenage girl who likes witchcraft and has a crush on Bill Natolly, her handsome English teacher. When a critical article she writes about the school's athletes is published, two of the star athletes, Shawn and Patrick, want revenge. Tamara attempts to perform a magical ritual to bind her fate to that of her teacher, but when she must spill her own blood, she ceases the ritual. That night, a prank is orchestrated by Shawn and Patrick, along with Shawn's girlfriend Kisha. Shawn calls Tamara, impersonating Mr. Natolly, and invites her to a motel room. A video camera is placed there and catches Tamara undressing. Shawn, Patrick, and Kisha watch this, along with three others who did not know about the prank (Chloe, Jesse and Roger). Shawn comes in and taunts Tamara, and Tamara is accidentally killed in a struggle. Despite Chloe's demands that they inform the police, she is blackmailed into helping bury Tamara. However, they are shocked when Tamara walks into class, looking more attractive than ever before. They convince themselves that she was only unconscious and dug her way out of the ground. While Roger is watching a film in the school audiovisual room, the image on the screen suddenly changes to the video of Tamara's murder. Roger removes the tape and is confronted by Tamara. She torments him with hallucinations of what it is like to be buried alive and with his history of cutting himself. Then he sends a televised message to the entire school in which he proclaims that one should "hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil". He then cuts off his ear and tongue with a razor blade, then fatally stabs himself in the eye. Tamara then visits the home of Mr. Natolly, intending to seduce him. However, when he resists her, she says that "it is only a matter of time". The next day, she visits the school guidance counselor, Allison Natolly, the wife of Mr. Natolly. Tamara confronts Allison, mentioning Allison and Bill's infertility problems. Realizing that her father fantasizes about having sex with her and that his alcoholism drove her mother away, Tamara makes him "finish the bottle", requiring him to eat a beer bottle. At a party, Tamara puts a spell on Patrick and Shawn, and forces them to have sex with each other. Kisha attempts to stop Tamara, but is incapacitated when Tamara begins to talk about Kisha's eating disorder. Tamara tells Kisha that she is "skin and bone, and really should eat more". Kisha begins to eat herself into a stupor, but is taken away by Jesse and Chloe. When Chloe and Jesse call Mr. Natolly and tell him about what happened, Kisha (still under the spell) calls Tamara and tells her that Mr. Natolly knows. Kisha is knocked out by Chloe. Chloe, Jesse and Mr. Natolly go to Tamara's house, where they find the corpse of Tamara's father and a spellbook describing the ritual Tamara tried to perform. They realize that when they killed Tamara that night, her blood was spilled; it was because of Tamara's blood being spilled that the ritual was completed and allowed her to rise from the grave as what she is and control others through touch. Meanwhile, Tamara, learning of what the others know, sends Shawn and Patrick to the Natolly residence to kill Allison. They try, but Allison kills them both in self-defense by stabbing Patrick in the neck with a utility knife and impaling Shawn with a broken shovel. Kisha and Allison are both taken to the hospital and treated, but Kisha wakes up and chases down Jesse and Chloe. Kisha stabs Jesse to death with a carving knife. In the film's climax on the hospital roof, Mr. Natolly, Allison, Chloe and Tamara finally confront each other. Tamara attempts to control Chloe, but sees through her memories that Chloe actually cared about her and realizes that she has become a monster. She breaks down and slowly changes back into a corpse. Before fading away, Tamara asserts her will to be with Mr. Natolly and he appears to surrender to the inevitable. Mr. Natolly holds Tamara close and kisses her, then throws himself off the roof with Tamara. In the end, Chloe and Allison are fine. The camera pans back to the spellbook in the jeep, open at Part 6, "Resurrection and Immortality". The film ends implying Tamara is possessing Kisha, and steals the book. ===== The story in Battle Shark involves a third world war (World War 3 or WWIII). According to the description in the game's attract mode introduction, "extremely brutal fighting has been taking place on land, and now the battlefield is expanding into the oceans." Peace negotiations, the fictional allies then discover, are an enemy trap, and that the enemy has actually been buying time to create an underwater fortress at the bottom of the sea. Battle Shark, with its driver, a navy soldier, must fight its way through hordes of enemy submarines, boats, and vehicles to track down the fortress, and ultimately destroy it. ===== 20 year old Kip moves out of his mother's home in the Hamptons, Long Island. His divorced mother, Jinx, is having an affair with Hank. Kip meets 2 young women on the beach—Amy-Beth and Amy-Joy. Amy-Joy insists that sea- monsters are real; Amy Beth has had a nervous breakdown. Both are selfishly preoccupied with their own lives. ===== Astitva encompasses issues such as male chauvinism, extramarital affairs, and spousal abuse. It is about a woman trying to find an identity outside her marriage. It is 1997. Malhar Kamat (played by Mohnish Bahl), an old musician and music teacher, is dying. He prepares his will where he leaves his entire jaydad (estate) -- comprising a haveli (mansion), of land, 1,400 grams of gold and approximately 800,000 rupees -- to Aditi Shrikant Pandit (Tabu). Upon his death two years later, the will is delivered to Aditi. When the will reaches Aditi in Pune, she is in the midst of an impromptu party occasioned by the arrival of Dr. Ravi Bapat (Ravindra Mankani) and his wife Meghna (Smita Jaykar). Ravi is a very close friend of Aditi's husband, Shrikant Pandit (Sachin Khedekar). Aditi and Shrikant's only child, Aniket (Sunil Barve) introduces his girlfriend and would-be wife Revati (Namrata Shirodkar) to everyone at the party. Shrikant opens the certified package that contains the will, even though it is addressed to Aditi, much to Meghna's chagrin and Ravi's surprise. Shrikant is intrigued and refers to his diaries from 25 years ago, in which he has chronicled events from his daily life. He realises that Aditi could not have possibly been pregnant from him at that time, because he was travelling on work. He shows her the diary, confronts her with the facts, and demands an explanation. In a flashback, Shrikant is an up-and-coming star at a firm, seeking to break out onto his own. His work keeps him traveling almost constantly. This leaves his newlywed wife Aditi lonely and frustrated. When she asks him to let her work someplace (clearly to relieve her boredom and find a good use for her time), he takes it as an insult and rebuffs her saying no woman in his family has ever worked outside the home and that he earns enough for them to live comfortably. He suggests (although not very enthusiastically) that she take up music. The music teacher is Malhar Kamat. Shrikant continues his unending travels all over the world, although he makes it clear to Malhar that music will not be anything more than a hobby for Aditi. Aditi's sister Sudha (Resham Tipnis) and her husband come to live with Aditi. Their constant lovemaking further deepens Aditi's feelings of yearning and abandonment. And one spring afternoon, as Malhar breaks into his new ghazal in the rain, Aditi's resolve is broken under the influence of the season. Malhar returns a couple of days later, and Aditi asks him to leave stating she loves only Shrikant. Aditi has missed a period. Sudha learns this and advises her to do something. When Shrikant returns, Aditi breaks down and tries to tell him the truth about her pregnancy. But Shrikant is doubly elated, having won the first major contract for his own firm and, hearing of his imminent fatherhood, and breaks out into celebrations without letting Aditi complete her story. As the story comes back to present time, Shrikant punishes Aditi by making her tell the truth in front of Aniket, Ravi and Meghna. Meghna loathes Shrikant, since she suffered spousal abuse from her drunkard husband before divorcing him and marrying Ravi. Aniket is disgusted with his mother after knowing the truth of his existence. Ravi confronts Shrikant stating Shrikant also committed sins many times if he thinks and states the one moment of weakness of Aditi as sin. Shrikant refuses to accept it stating he is a man and he doesn't bring any such child home. Shrikant decides that he will live with Aditi, but any spousal relationship between them will not exist. After Revati knows the truth, she breaks the engagement, not because of the truth, but because she realizes that Aniket is no different than the man whom he considered his father till now. Meghna decides to take Aditi to Goa with her, but Aditi declines. Before leaving the house, she demands her husband and son's presences to hear her. She states how her weakness is called sin, whereas Shrikant's weaknesses are accepted easily. She questions who has the authority to accept his weakness. And she reminds Shrikant the fact that they didn't have any other children, which might be due to Shrikant, but then she had always loved him in spite of bearing no child with him. And how she could have been made responsible for that too if she didn't have a child. Revati enters the house and gives her new generation views to Aniket stating he is alive as his mother didn't decide otherwise. Aditi walks out of the house with Revati. The movie ends with Revati and Aditi walking out the house and on the road, whilst Shri and Aniket stand in the doorway, watching them go. The denouement captures the essence of astitva. ===== Tsui Wing-pong (Adam Cheng) and Tsui Ka-lap (Gallen Lo) are adopted brothers. Wing- pong was sent to the Tsui family when he was very young because his biological father abandoned the family during a difficult period. Over the years, Wing- pong bears a deep grudge against his biological father, who is the owner of the Yip family bank. At the same time, the Yip family had a dark past and some dangerous secrets. Lo Chi-kin (Julian Cheung) is the new head of Wing-pong's division at the police station. He has a sister Rebecca Lo Wai-fong (Christine Ng), for whom Wing-pong had an unrequited love. Chi-kin and his best friend Yip Sing-hong (Louis Koo) fall in love with Fong Hau-yung (Adia Chan), who works at the bank run by the Yip family and so was she. However, Chi-kin and Hau-yung were forced to give up on each other, due to some circumstances, and Chi-kin ends up marrying Cheung Suet-ying (Jessica Hsuan), who is actually in love with Wing-pong's brother, Tsui Ka-lap. During one murder case, Wing-pong was falsely accused as the murderer and was sent to jail. Following his release, he discovered that his brother, Ka-lap, was the real murderer and was also involved in many other criminal activities. It was later revealed that Ka-lap had the backing of the Yip family to commit the crimes he did. Seeing that there is no other choice, Wing-pong embarked on a dangerous journey to capture Ka-lap and to investigate the dark secrets that the Yip family held, but not without the unforeseen consequences of the sacrifice that the major characters had to make. ===== Two Italian-American greasers, Danny DiPace (Stanley Kristien) and Anthony "Batman" Aposto (Neil Nephew), and the Irish-American Arthur Reardon (John Davis Chandler) are members of a street gang named the Thunderbirds in New York City in East Harlem. They have an ongoing turf war with a Puerto Rican gang called the Horsemen. The three Thunderbirds unleash a knife attack on Roberto Escalante (José Pérez), a blind member of the Horsemen and stab him to death. They are caught and arrested, and during questioning by the police, assistant district attorney Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) discovers one of the boys is the son of Mary diPace (Shelley Winters), an ex-girlfriend. Back at the office of the district attorney Dan Cole (Edward Andrews), Bell admits he knows the mother of one of the suspects in the killing. Despite objections, he is not taken off the case and admits that he grew up in the same neighborhood. In a conversation with his wife Karin (Dina Merrill), Bell admits that his father changed his name from Bellini (Belani in the book) to Bell because he wanted to conceal his background and where he grew up, a deception Bell had found advantageous in pursuing his career and marrying a Vassar girl. At the funeral for Roberto Escalante, Bell is confronted by his ex-lover who tells him that her son promised he would never join a gang. Bell then sets out to find the facts about the killing, meeting one by one with all the families and gang members involved. He learns not only the intricacies of the case, but is shocked at his own capacity to kill when he is attacked by a gang, making him realize his hard-won character in the school of hard knocks is not immune to these forces. From a different angle, illustrating the limitations of a privileged education and upbringing, his wife finds her idealistic empathy for those caught in a web of circumstance is challenged when she is attacked by gang members in an elevator. The drama evolves to consider many aspects of the crime: gangs, poverty, ethnic bias, parental incapacity to deal with forces far beyond their control, and politics. The three boys tried for the murder illustrate how personal qualities of morality, mental capacity, conformity, and psychosis fit into a squalid ethnically diverse setting compartmentalized by demeaning stereotypical beliefs. The milieu in which all life is on trial, including not only the perpetrators' surroundings, but the failure of larger society to take much interest in the underlying issues. When the trial concludes with different sentences for each boy tailored to their natures, the mother of the victim asks Hank Bell accusingly if justice had been served, and Bell answers unhappily that a great many people bear a responsibility for her son's death. ===== In the heyday of vaudeville, on the verge of America's entrance into World War I, two talented performers, Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) and Harry Palmer (Gene Kelly), set their sights on playing the Palace Theatre on Broadway, the epitome of vaudeville success, and marrying immediately after. Just weeks before their plans are to be realized Harry gets a draft notice. Intending to obtain a short delay before reporting for duty, he intentionally smashes his hand in a trunk. That same day Jo is notified that her brother, who had been studying to be a doctor, has died in the war. When she realizes what Harry has done, she rejects him and leaves the act. Harry then tries to undo his rash act and enlist, but none of the armed services will take him as his hand has been permanently crippled. Eventually he resigns himself to participating in the war effort the only way left open to him, entertaining front line troops for the YMCA. When he and his partner find themselves dangerously close to the front, Harry heroically sets out to warn off an ambulance convoy heading into an artillery bombardment. He is wounded while destroying an enemy machine gun emplacement ambushing the convoy and is apparently commended for his bravery. After the war, during a victory performance at the Palace Theatre, Jo sees Harry in the audience and runs to him. The two reunite on stage to sing "For Me and My Gal", the first song they ever performed together. ===== Look at the Harlequins! is a fictional autobiography narrated by Vadim Vadimovich N. (VV), a Russian-American writer with uncanny biographical likenesses to the novel's author, Vladimir (Vladimirovich) Nabokov. VV is born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg and raised by his aunt, who advises him to "look at the harlequins" "Play! Invent the world! Invent reality!". After the revolution, VV moves to Western Europe. Count Nikifor Nikodimovich Starov becomes his patron (is he VV's father?). VV meets Iris Black who becomes his first wife. After her death—she is killed by a Russian émigré—he marries Annette (Anna Ivanovna Blagovo), his long-necked typist. They have a daughter, Isabel, and emigrate to the United States. The marriage fails; and, after Annette's death, VV takes care of the pubescent Isabel, now known as Bel. They travel from motel to motel. To counter ugly rumors, VV marries Louise Adamson while Bel elopes with an American to Soviet Russia. After the third marriage fails, VV marries again, a Bel lookalike (same birthdate, too), referred to as "you", his final love. VV is an unreliable narrator who gives conflicting information (e.g., on the death of his father) and seems to suffer from some psychological affliction. When making a full turn while walking—mentally, that is—and tracing his steps back, he is unable to execute the reversion of the surrounding vista in his imagination. He also has the notion that he is a double of another Nabokovian persona. ===== The book begins with the characters Carlos Eduardo da Maia, João da Ega, Afonso da Maia and Vilaça in the family's old house with plans to reconstruct it. The house, nicknamed "Ramalhete" (bouquet), is located in Lisbon. Its name comes from a tiled panel depicting a bouquet of sunflowers set on the place where the stone with the coat of arms should be. As the introductory scene goes on, the story of the Maia family is given, in a flashback style by Afonso. Afonso da Maia, a Portuguese well- mannered man, is married to Maria Eduarda Runa and their marriage only produces one son – Pedro da Maia. Pedro da Maia, who is given the typical romantic education, becomes a weak, low-spirited and sensitive man. He is very close to his mother and is inconsolable after her death. He only recuperates when he meets a beautiful woman called Maria Monforte with whom he gets married despite his father's objection. The marriage produces a son, Carlos Eduardo, and a daughter, whose name is not revealed until much later. Some time later, Maria Monforte falls in love with Tancredo (an Italian who is staying at their house after being accidentally wounded by Pedro) and runs away to Italy with him, betraying Pedro and taking her daughter along. When Pedro finds out, he is heartbroken and goes with his son to his father's house where he, during the night, commits suicide. Carlos stays at his grandfather's house and is educated by him, receiving the typical British education (as Afonso would have liked to have raised his son). Now back to the present, Carlos is a wealthy, elegant gentleman who is a doctor and opens his own office. Later he meets a gorgeous woman at the Hotel Central during a dinner organized by João da Ega (his friend and accomplice from University who lives with Carlos) in honor of Baron Cohen, the director of the National Bank. After many comical and disastrous adventures he finally discovers the woman's name – Maria Eduarda, and ends up meeting her. The two fall in love and have dozens of nights together, drinking and having sex. However, the two start seeing each other in secret after an incident where a redneck-like man named Dâmaso, Carlo's ex-friend and rival, writes an article in a newspaper, accusing, humiliating, making fun of and revealing the past of Carlos and Maria. Eventually Carlos finds out that Maria lied to him about her past and he starts fearing the worst. Mr. Guimarães, a good friend of Maria's mother and an uncle-like figure to her, talks to Ega and gives him a box meant to be given "to your friend Carlos... or to his sister!". Ega doesn't understand this statement, because Carlos supposedly never had a sister. Ega is horrified and in state of shock when he realizes that Maria is Carlos's sister. Ega, in despair, tells everything to Vilaça (the Maia family attorney) who informs Carlos about the incest. Carlos informs his dying grandfather, and Afonso becomes shocked by this news. However, Carlos cannot forget his love and doesn't say anything to Maria. Afonso dies because of apoplexy. At last, Carlos informs his newfound sister that they are siblings and that they cannot live like this anymore. Maria says one last goodbye to her former lover and to her friends before going away to an unknown future. Carlos, to forget his tragedies, goes on a trip around the world. The book ends with a famous scene in Portugal, where Carlos returns to Lisbon 10 years after he left. He meets Ega and combie a boys-only night to have fun together. At one point, they agree that there is nothing in the world that is worth running for. Ironically, as soon as they go out to the street, they realize that they missed the last cable car and they start running after it, shouting "We can still catch it, we can still catch it...!", closing the story in a both philosophical and comic way. ===== Jorge, a successful engineer and employee of a ministry and Luísa, a romantic and dreamy girl, star as the typical bourgeois couple of the Lisbon society of the 19th century. There is a group of friends who attend the home of Jorge and Luísa: D. Felicidade (Dr. Happiness), a woman suffering from gas crises and is in love with the Councillor; Sebastião (Sebastian), a close friend of Jorge; Councillor Acacio, good scholar; Ernestinho; and maids Joana - hussy and flirty - and Juliana - angry, envious, spiteful and bitter woman, responsible for the conflict of the novel. At the same time cultivating a formal and happy marriage with Jorge, Louise still maintains friendship with a former colleague, Leopoldina - called "Bread and Cheese" for her continuous betrayal and adultery. Luísa's happiness and safety become endangered when Jorge need to travel to work at Alentejo. After the departure of her husband, Luísa is bored with nothing to do, in the doldrums and melancholy caused by the absence of her husband, and exactly in this meantime Bazilio comes from abroad. A womanizer and a "bon vivant", he doesn't take long to win the love of Luisa (they had date before Luisa meet Jorge). Luísa was a person with a strong romantic view of life as she usually read only novels, and Bazilio was the man of her dreams: he was rich and lived in France. The friendly love became an ardent passion and this causes Luisa to practice adultery. Meanwhile, Juliana is just waiting for a chance to blackmail Luisa. Luisa and Bazilio send love letters to one another, but one of these letters is intercepted by maid Juliana - who starts blackmailing Luisa. Turned from a spoiled lady into a slave, Luisa starts to become sick. The ill-treatment she suffers from Juliana quickly takes her liveliness, undermining her health. Jorge comes back and is not suspicious, as Luisa satisfies every whim of the maid while looking for all possible solutions until she finds the disinterested help of Sebastian, who sets a trap for Juliana, trying to get her arrested and ends up causing her death. It's a new era for Luisa, surrounded by the affection of Jorge, Joan and the new maid, Mariana. However, it is too late: weakened by life that had endured under the tyranny of Juliana, Luisa is affected by a violent fever. Luisa does not notice that Bazilio hasn't replied to her letters for months, and when the postman delivers the letter at her home, it grabs Jorge's attention due to it being addressed to Luisa and being sent from France. He reads the letter and discovers the adultery of his wife. The evidence of her betrayal makes him go into despair but nevertheless, he forgives her because of the strong love he feels for Luisa and due to her fragile health. The affection and care of her husband, friends and the doctor are useless: Luisa dies. After that, Jorge dismisses the maids and moves with Sebastian. Bazilio returns to Lisbon - where he had fled, leaving Luisa without support - and as he learns of Luisas's death, he cynically comments to a friend: "If I had brought Alphonsine before." This part closes the book revealing that Bazilio is a mean person. As they walk down the street, his friend Visconde Reinaldo admonished Bazilio for having an affair with a "bourgeois". He also said he found the relationship "absurd", after all and told that Bazilio had done what he made for "hygiene". Bazilio confirms his suspicions. Luisa had been used then. There was no feeling. Luisa died, so without ever being loved by him. ===== In the town of Ipswich, four high school boys – Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, Reid Garwin and Tyler Simms, together known as the Sons of Ipswich – are the descendants of colonial witch families and thus wield magical abilities which first manifest on their 13th birthday and grow stronger until they Ascend at 18. The Power is linked to their life force; the more they use, the faster they age. This becomes more dangerous as, upon Ascending, their powers reach their full strength and become so addictive, seductive as they say, that some cannot resist. Caleb – who is closest to his 18th birthday – exhibits restraint. While attending a bonfire, Caleb meets Sarah Wenham, a transfer student from a public high school in Boston. The Sons also meet Chase Collins, a new student at Spencer Academy. Their meeting is cut short when cops appear to break up the party. The boys escape by using their combined power. After a student is found mysteriously dead near their campus, various paranormal occurrences take place, with Sarah and her roommate Kate Tunney being the focus of it. Upset, Caleb suspects Reid – the most reckless of the warlocks – but he angrily denies any abusive usage of his powers. Caleb and later Pogue see a "darkling", a dead spirit and a malicious omen. Meanwhile, Caleb and Sarah quickly become romantically close. During a swim race, Caleb notices Chase, who had befriended the group, displaying magic usage. After researching, Caleb concludes that Chase descends from a fifth family, one believed long extinct, that he is the bastard son of Goodwin “Goody” Pope and that he is the true perpetrator. As the Sons discuss this revelation, Pogue learns that his girlfriend, Kate was rendered comatose by a spell. Enraged, he hastily challenges Chase, who swiftly hospitalizes him. Caleb visits Sarah, only to fall into Chase's trap. Chase reveals that he was unaware of his magic's origin, having been adopted. After locating his biological father, he learned of the price for Ascension; but it was too late and he has become too addicted to using magic. His biological father then transferred power to him. Chase wants to force other "Ascended" witches to transfer power to him as well, starting with Caleb. Despite Caleb's warning that having more power does not save him from aging to death, Chase ignores him. Before leaving, Chase threatens harm on Caleb's family and friends if he does not get what he wants. Caleb reveals the truth to Sarah and takes her to his father, a man of 44 years with a decrepit old body, exhausted from magic abuse. When Sarah suggests that one of the other three transfer their power to Caleb so he could evenly match Chase, Caleb immediately refuses, explaining that doing so will cost them all their lives. On the night of Caleb's 18th birthday, he leaves to face Chase alone and has Reid and Tyler safeguard Sarah in public. However, Chase easily kidnaps Sarah. At an old barn, the two confront each other. Chase reveals a spellbound Sarah and gives Caleb an ultimatum of his life for hers. Caleb declares he will not will his power away or let Sarah come to harm. They duel and Caleb is clearly outmatched. At the exact minute of his birth, he Ascends and his power fully matures, which allows him to mount an offensive. However, as Chase has more than one magical share, he still proves superior and the temporary turn of tide does not last long. Back at home, Evelyn, Caleb's mother, begs her husband to save Caleb. He sacrifices himself and transfers his power remotely to his son. Once his father's power is infused within him, Caleb hits Chase with a final blow that engulfs him in a ball of flame. Sarah, Kate and Pogue awaken, freed from their curses. Firefighters arrive on the scene. Caleb and Sarah wait until inspection of the barn's wreckage is complete; they are informed that a third person was not found, suggesting that Chase somehow survived and escaped. The pair get into Caleb's car and he casually uses magic to fix the busted windshield, which seems visibly unsettling to Sarah. He reassuringly holds her hand and they drive off. ===== Matt Helm, code name "Eric" is assigned to stop Emil Taussig, whose goal is to assassinate world leaders and scientists as a prelude to a Russian attack. This book starts with the death of Gail from 'the Silencers'. ===== Matt Helm is sent to Canada where his assignment is to stop a scheme to bring a Soviet submarine within striking distance of the United States. ===== It is open house night at Danielle's high school. Andrew is in attendance, and he runs into an ex-client of his. When Orson sees them talking, he asks Andrew who that was. Andrew tells him, and when Bree sees Orson and Andrew talking, she asks Orson what they were talking about. He then tells Bree that after she dumped him off on the side of the road, Andrew has taken up hustling. When Bree finds out who one of Andrew's clients is, he tells the client's wife, Vera, about it. Vera is upset that she told her. She retaliates by telling Bree that Danielle has been sleeping with her history teacher, Mr. Falati. Bree confronts Danielle about this, and then tells Andrew that she feels like a failure as a mother. Andrew comforts her by telling her that his and Danielle's actions are not her fault. It is an hour before Parker's little league game, and he tells Lynette he does not want to play baseball anymore. Lynette does not want him to be a quitter, so she forces him to continue playing. Parker is afraid to hit the ball. At the game, he goes against Nicky Abbot, the best pitcher on the opposite team. He misses all 3 hits. Lynette yells at teenagers attending the game who are booing Parker. Parker's self-esteem is extremely low, so Lynette offers Nicky 50 dollars if he makes it easy for Parker to hit the ball. On the 3rd swing, Parker hits it, but it hits Nicky in the head. Nicky is fine, and he gets up, and the 50-dollar bill falls out of his pocket. His mom asks him where he got it, and he tells her. When the coach hears of it, he kicks Parker off the team, and Nicky is kicked off his team. Lynette begs him to put him back on. He says he will do it as long as she pays for new team hats. Parker's self-esteem is boosted and he wants to continue playing. At the next game, Parker hits the ball and while running the bases, he trips and sprains his leg. Because of this, he must quit the team until the end of the season. Lynette is continuing to nag Tom about getting a job. Tom assures her he will, but first he has to find out what he wants to do. Gabrielle is having a yard sale, selling all of Carlos's things. Carlos is infuriated, and he retaliates by moving back in with her. While Carlos is at work, Gabrielle changes the lock of the front door, so Carlos cannot get in the house. Carlos retaliates by breaking the window and coming in. Gabrielle calls the police and tells them that there's a burglar breaking into her house. The police come, and when they find out they are married but going through a nasty divorce, they side with Carlos. Gabrielle gently slaps one of the cops, which results in her being arrested. Carlos picks her up at the police station, and on their ride home, they have a fight. Gabrielle, in order to infuriate Carlos, tells him about her sleeping with John the prior weekend. Carlos loses it and dumps her off on the side of the road. When Gabrielle comes back home, she has another meeting with her divorce lawyer. The news of Mike waking up from his coma spreads around Wisteria Lane quickly. When Julie hears the news, she tries to reach Susan, who is still on vacation with Ian, but she cannot since they are high in the mountains. Edie is at the hospital caring for Mike. Mike has lost his memory of 2 years. He thinks it is 2004 and that Rex is still alive. When Edie is showing Mike pictures, trying to jog his memory, she comes across one with Susan in it. When she finds out Mike does not remember Susan at all, she tells him that he and Susan dated for a long time, but she was always mean to him. She tells about him breaking up with her several times. She also tells him that Susan does not really love him. When Julie finally reaches Susan, she tells her about the change in Mike's condition. Susan rushes to the hospital. She breaks up with Ian and goes to visit Mike. Mike, believing Edie's lies, tells her to go away. Orson freaks out when he hears the news that Mike has woken up. He is happy to find out that Mike does not remember anything from the past 2 years, which means he does not know that Orson was the one to put him in the hospital. ===== Matt Helm, code name "Eric", travels to London, England and eventually to Scotland in order to stop a mad scientist who plans to unleash a new Black Plague upon the world. ===== During a holiday in Hawaii, Helm finds himself facing an old enemy who plans to accelerate the Vietnam War into a worldwide conflict. ===== For reasons unknown, flying saucers apparently with United States Air Force markings have begun attacking locations in Mexico. Helm's mission is to transport a witness to one of these attacks to Washington, and to stop her at all costs from being captured by Soviet agents, even if that means killing her. ===== The book was apparently written after the troubled year of 1968, which saw the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and of Robert F. Kennedy a few weeks later, as well as political turmoil and anti-Vietnam demonstrations in the United States. Mac, the director of Helm's secret government agency, learns that a dangerous enemy operative, Hans Holz, also known as the Woodman, has been contracted, presumably by the Soviets, to kill whichever candidate is elected in the upcoming elections in November 1968. The Woodman, it appears, has also recently been responsible for the death of Michael Kingston, an agent with whom Helm has just worked in an earlier book. Helm, the veteran counter- assassin, is ordered by Mac to get into position to remove the Woodman—permanently. Not to avenge Kingston — Mac's agents are supposed to be able to take care of themselves — but to forestall any more political chaos. As frequently happens in Hamilton's books, however, Helm is not sent to stalk Holz directly. He is inserted into an operation currently being carried out by a rival government agency, one that is trying to thwart Communist plans to obtain secret information about a major American-Canadian security project called the Northwest Coastal System. A man named Grant Nystrom has been recruited by the Communists to take delivery at five different points of microfilms of the project as he travels through the Northwest and into Alaska playing the role of a dedicated fisherman. Both Nystrom and his trained Labrador dog have recently been murdered, however, and Helm resembles Nystrom enough to enable him to take his place. A standard plot device in Helm stories is to have a second government agency working either at complete cross- purposes to Mac's agency, or at least at semi-cross-purposes. Helm is recruited to apparently carry out the instructions of the second agency but actually has his own mission to accomplish, regardless of how this may finally thwart the wishes of the other agency. In The Interlopers this tension runs throughout the book—and is complicated by the fact that a mysterious third party, the so-called interlopers, appears with a Grant Nystrom lookalike of their own, complete with his own black Labrador, in an apparent attempt to accumulate the secret microfilm for their own purposes. There are, as in all Helm books, at least two beautiful, and somewhat mysterious, women, whose patriotic affiliations are questionable right to the end of the story, and who cause both complications and murderous attacks on Helm. He survives the attacks, however, in the course of which he kills, mostly by guns, but occasionally by knife, at least six or seven enemy operatives of various loyalties. On page 89, in a motel cabin surrounded by dead bodies, he is obliged to set the scene for the forthcoming policemen by leaving behind the small four-inch-bladed knife that has been featured in most of the books since the very first — "it had been given to me by a woman, now dead, who'd once meant a good deal to me — but this was no time for sentimentality." Other standard features in many of the Helm books play their roles here. Hamilton likes to carry an occasional character from one story to the next. One of the numerous conflicting groups interested in obtaining the secret microfilm is apparently directed by an unseen Chinese agent named Mr. Soo. Although he himself makes no appearance in The Interlopers, he had come to Helm's aid in the previous book, The Menacers, and will show up again in a future book. Another feature is the last page or so of Hamilton's books, after the action has been completed. A minor (but beautiful) female character unexpectedly reappears, either in need of physical and spiritual recuperation herself or there to offer it to the severely tested Helm. As usual, there is a two- or three-word final paragraph: :"It was Mac's idea of a safe rest and rehabilitation for both of us — simpler, cheaper, and less obvious than turning the wigpickers loose on us; and more effective if it worked. :"It worked." And as in many of the books, Helm also finds time to reflect on the deficiencies of Detroit automakers: "Even commercial vehicles are encumbered with a lot of Mickey Mouse gadgets these days — that big, rugged, powerful truck engine was decorated with a cute little automatic choke, for God's sake! Apparently modern-day truck drivers are considered too stupid and feeble to pull a knob out of a dashboard." One feature in The Interlopers that is not a standard Hamilton plot device occurs on page 175 when, for one of the very few times in the series, the super-competent and super-foresighted Helm falls into an enemy ambush that he had not planned for or anticipated. After waking up bound hand and foot, he reflects "grimly" that "knowing that the critical moment of the mission had to be close at hand, I'd let the frantic howling of a year-old pup send me rushing blindly into an ambush any first-year trainee could have avoided in his sleep." In spite of this single moment of weakness, however, Helm, with a little help from various female characters as well as his "year-old pup", manages to carry out his mission successfully. ===== Gavin Brand, a double agent, has escaped from London's Wormwood Scrubs Prison. An American named Joe Bailey, brother to one of Brand's victims, is called on by the CIA to kill Brand through finding his family. The objective, as put by CIA chief Zelfand, is to "find the wife and kids, find the husband." Bailey reluctantly accepts the assignment to kill Brand and finally tracks down Brand's family to a private island near Savonlinna in Finland, where they are watched over by Hilda and Olga, two Soviet minders. Bailey and Brand's wife, Carla, develop a romance as he waits patiently for Brand to show up. After they consummate their love, Brand arrives and attempts to kill both Bailey and Carla, leading to her becoming trapped in a gas-styled sauna. Bailey rescues Carla and, with the help of a Finnish police officer, they try to stop Brand making it to the Finnish-Soviet border on a train with his kidnapped children. ===== After a novice secret agent (Annette from The Menacers) is murdered—assassin Matt Helm (code name "Eric") is assigned to eliminate her killer, and find out why she was killed in the first place. ===== This novel is a direct follow-up to The Poisoners. It is also the first book in the Matt Helm series to focus on Helm's superior, Mac, whose full name is revealed for the first time as Arthur McGillivray Borden. The storyline of this book is rather uncharacteristic because, instead of fighting terrorists and enemy names, Helm, known as Eric, and Mac work together to bring down unfriendly elements from within their own government, in particular a man who is threatening Mac's authority. Fishing in the Gulf of California, Eric is shot at from an island. He races away, surprised at the power of the engine of his boat. Correctly calculating that his assailant had come in another boat from the same marina, he waits for the gunman to try to escape, swamps his boat, and tows it back to shore, leaving the gunman to drown. At the marina, he is met by Martha Borden, Mac's daughter, who was sent by Mac with a message to call the office. Doing so, he deduces that bureaucratic infighting has resulted in Mac being poorly impersonated and the agency co-opted. Martha tells him she is supposed to accompany him to meet agent Lorna at the ranch near Phoenix. Eric, Lorna, and Martha meet and discuss the other information that Martha has memorized to pass along: nine other agents, with contact numbers, a list of individuals to be "touched" and a date. Matt is to take his souped-up boat to meet Mac in Florida, stopping in Oklahoma to deal with a situation involving Carl, who will split the list of ten targets with Lorna. Carl is killing local law enforcement officers for personal, understandable reasons. Eric and Martha arrive in Fort Adams, Oklahoma, and Eric contrives to prevent Carl from killing a third police officer, briefs him on the situation, and gives him his assignment. They continue on to Florida, and along the way, fall into bed together. In Florida, Eric and Martha meet Congressman Hank Priest. a friend and shore neighbor of Mac's, who arranges for Eric to listen in on a private conversation that evening, at his home a short distance away. Having observed how naive and idealistic Martha is, as she was distressed by having seen him leave his would-be assassin to drown in the Gulf of California, and his blunt assessment of Carl's actions and motives in Oklahoma, after arriving with her, by car, at the residence, he pretends to be rendered unconscious when she injects him with a hypo of plain water, not the. four-hour knockout drug she saw him use on the Oklahoma officer. He knows she thinks she has negotiated her father's safety in exchange for keeping Eric from interfering with the last part of the enemy plan. Mac is hiding from the new leader of the federal intelligence service, a previous antagonist named Herbert Leonard who is in collusion with Senator Love, a woman who aspires to the presidency and is using Leonard to blackmail and kill those who stand in her way. Eric let Martha overhear Mac's location and steal the congressman's boat in order to gather the final clues he needs to follow her and take care of his targets. Category:1972 American novels Category:Matt Helm novels ===== Despite the internal politics of The Intriguers, Matt Helm (code name Eric) still finds himself with plenty of work to do for his boss, Mac. This time he has a two-part mission: kill an enemy agent and then investigate the disappearances of a number of jet-setters within the Bermuda Triangle. Category:1974 American novels Category:Matt Helm novels ===== Beatrice (Sarah Polley) is a young woman working in a television network under a woman known only as The Boss (Helen Mirren). She receives a recording from her fiancé Jim, who has been sent as part of a small production crew to Iceland to investigate a Monster that lives there. Determined to find her fiancé, Beatrice convinces her boss to send her to Iceland, but her plane crashes. She is the only survivor and, in order to walk again, undergoes an extremely painful, radical surgery. As she recovers, she befriends Dr. Anna (Julie Christie), who helps her travel to the remote village where the monster lives. After cajoling Beatrice into drinking herself into unconsciousness, the villagers strip her and leave her as an offering to the Monster himself (Robert John Burke), a foul-mouthed, alcoholic beast old enough to remember human ancestors crawling from the seas. Beatrice shows him no real fear, although the Monster tells her he has killed her friends and might kill her, too. He tells her that he wants to die, but is indestructible. In an effort to force Beatrice to try to kill him, he proves that he killed Jim and his crew. She shoots him twice and he reacts in obvious pain, but heals almost instantly. He tells her of a mad scientist, Dr. Artaud (Baltasar Kormákur, presumably named for Antonin Artaud), who had discovered a way to kill him, but Dr. Artaud had been "taken away in a strait jacket." Beatrice offers to help him find Dr. Artaud if the Monster comes with her to New York and promises not to kill anyone while he is there. In New York the Monster becomes a celebrity, with the Boss staging a media frenzy as they search for Dr. Artaud. They find that he is working for the government. While Beatrice revels in the attention, the Monster remains miserable and drunk. The Boss makes a deal with a government scientist to study the Monster and he's rushed away by army guards who mislead him into believing he is going to see Dr. Artaud. Instead, he is subjected to torturous experiments as the scientists try to discover the key to his indestructibility, one of them noting that he can't seem to tolerate new information. One of those experiments involves the Monster being ridiculed and beaten on the street to study his behavior. The Monster holds true to his promise to Beatrice and does not kill anyone. Meanwhile, Beatrice meets Dr. Artaud by chance. With Margaret (Annika Peterson), a remorseful former coworker of Beatrice's, they hatch a plan to escape back to Iceland with the Monster. They make their escape, but are pursued by the government, who fears the Monster and Artaud might fall into the wrong hands. Artaud builds a machine that will kill the Monster. Beatrice bids the Monster a tearful farewell, and kisses him goodbye. As the machine starts, the army storms their hideout. As the lights flicker on and off and the machine moves the Monster into place (in a process mirroring Beatrice's surgery), the Monster and Beatrice face each other one last time. Her face flickers in his vision for several minutes before the screen blackens. ===== A longtime friend of Mac, Helm's boss, blames Big Oil for his wife's death aboard their modest yacht; in retaliation, he wants Helm's secretive, and murderous, agency to make trouble for an international oil company. Mac assigns Helm to get to the bottom of this request — and to "take care of" his friend. Category:1975 American novels Category:Matt Helm novels ===== It's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing when one of Helm's fellow operatives is killed by U.S. agents during an assassination run against a Mexican general. Helm finds himself having to complete the mission while being pursued by men who are supposed to be on his side. ===== Matt Helm finds himself in Canada suffering from amnesia, with only his instincts keeping him alive as the tries to regain his memory while stopping a terrorist organization. ===== Someone is killing off Matt Helm's friends and past associates. Helm must stop the killing while protecting a journalist who plans to make Helm's secret organization public knowledge. ===== The film is set in 1894. The picture begins with Moriarty and Holmes verbally sparring on the steps outside the Old Bailey, where Moriarty has just been acquitted on a charge of murder owing to lack of evidence. Holmes remarks, "You have a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it, pickled in alcohol, to the London Medical Society." "It would make an impressive exhibit," replies Moriarty. Holmes and Watson are visited at 221B Baker Street by Ann Brandon (Ida Lupino). She tells him that her brother Lloyd has received a strange note: a drawing of a man with an albatross hanging around his neck, identical to one received by her father just before his brutal murder ten years before. Holmes deduces that the note is a warning and rushes to find Lloyd Brandon. He is too late, as Lloyd has been murdered by being strangled and having his skull crushed. Holmes, disguised as a music-hall entertainer, attends a garden party, where he correctly believes an attempt will be made on Ann's life. Hearing her cries from a nearby park, he captures her assailant, who turns out to be Gabriel Mateo, out for revenge on the Brandons for the murder of his father by Ann's father in a dispute over ownership of their South American mine. His murder weapon was a bolas. Mateo also reveals that it was Moriarty who urged him to seek revenge. Holmes realises that Moriarty is using the case as a distraction from his real crime, a crime that will stir the British Empire: an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. Holmes rushes to the Tower of London, where, during a struggle, Moriarty falls, presumably to his death. In the end, Ann is married and Holmes tries to shoo a fly by playing the violin, only to have Watson swat it with his newspaper, remarking, "Elementary, my dear Holmes, elementary."Davies, David Stuart, Holmes of the Movies (New English Library, 1976) ===== Sverre Anker Ousdal, Helge Jordal and Hans Ola Sørlie with Sandy Hook in the background The story centers around three seamen who conduct shady business on board their vessel, Sandy Hook. The film starts with two of them, Tom Jansen (Helge Jordal) and Sverre (Hans Ola Sørlie), taking tourists on a polar bear safari. During this trip and at a later scene at a pub in Longyearbyen, where Tom's girlfriend, Eva Jelseth (Kjersti Holmen) is introduced, the viewers are briefed on the politics of Svalbard and the large Soviet presence. The third seaman, Lars (Sverre Anker Ousdal), presents plans to freight a bulldozer to the mainland from Sarstangen. They have been instructed to dump the bulldozer underway as part of an insurance fraud scheme, but have instead made arrangements to sell the vehicle on Greenland. While at port, Tom is called to visit Governor Bache (Jon Eikemo), who warns that he will be keeping an eye on them. After a dramatic but successful delivery of the bulldozer to the purchasers, they return towards Longyearbyen. They report to Isfjord Radio to say they were caught in a storm, but deviate on their route back to avoid returning too early. They get caught in actual bad weather and decide to pull up in a nearby island, Kjerulføya, north of Nordaustlandet. The following day they go ashore to find food but instead find a cable. They follow the cable until they find a Soviet bearing station. While at the station, they are discovered by the Russians. They return fire after being shot at, killing a Russian; Sverre is wounded. They escape and decide to mix with the fishing fleet to avoid being spotted. However, they are intercepted by a seemingly civilian Russian Aeroflot helicopter, which turns out to be heavily armed and fires at the ship. Sandy Hook steers into a narrow bay, and the protagonists fire back, eventually destroying the helicopter with a firebomb. They continue to Kapp Dufferin, where they anchor. Tom rows to land to find supplies, but while he is on land, a Soviet helicopter bombs Sandy Hook, killing Lars and Sverre. Tom has to walk across Spitsbergen to reach Longyearbyen. After a long march through the wilderness, he reaches a closed mine and rides an aerial tramway for coal to Longyearbyen. Tom wakes in hospital in the company of Bache. Tom's story of the ship's sinking is not believed, and he is sent to Oslo for interrogations by a United States colonel (Jon Ausland) and other American military personnel. In a scene at Holmenkollen Park Hotel, the Soviet ambassador and Norwegian minister discuss the consequences of public knowledge of the incident. Tom is offered a new identity and a job on board a foreign trade vessel. On his way to the port, he escapes from the military police by mixing with a carnival parade. Two endings of the film were made. The second one had a longer chase scene involving a rendezvous with Eva, but in both endings, Tom is killed. Whether this is done by Soviet or American intelligence is left as an open question. ===== Set during the American Civil War, the short begins with a Northern General (James C. Morton) assigning Larry, Moe, and Curly (as Operators 12, 14 and 15, respectively) to sneak behind enemy lines and obtain secrets. Disguising themselves as southern officers and taking the names Lieutenant Duck (Larry), Captain Dodge (Moe) and Major Hyde (Curly), they insinuate themselves into the mansion of southern officer, Colonel Butts (Bud Jamison). During preparations for a dinner party at the mansion, Curly, more interested in the Colonel's daughter, Judith Butts (Phyllis Crane), manages to mistake a quilted potholder for a cake, resulting in a feather- coughing scene. The short concludes with an episode in which Larry and Curly disguise themselves as, respectively, Captain Dodge's father and wife. This leads to a controversial gag in which Major "Bloodhound" Filbert (Ted Lorch) inquires about Captain Dodge's baby. Moe runs off and brings in a swaddled infant, which is revealed to be black, thus giving away the Stooges' charade. The three of them run for their lives and hide in a "log" — which turns out to be a hidden cannon — which is fired by the Confederates. The Union General wonders aloud where the three spies are. At that moment, the trio promptly land on the General from the sky. ===== After the murder of a close friend, assassin Matt Helm finds himself back in the fictional country of Costa Verde (setting for the earlier novel, The Ambushers) and in the middle of a revolution. ===== Assassin Matt Helm is assigned to protect a female spy newly released from prison, who may or may not hold the key to a conspiracy to overthrow the American government. ===== Matt Helm is assigned to assassinate an expert in explosives who is planning to build his own atomic weapon. ===== While Mac (Helm's boss) is on a rare solo assignment, elements within Mac's agency try to take power away from him. It's up to Helm to stop this coup in its tracks, while simultaneously dealing with some deadly family-related issues of his own. Meanwhile, in a storyline continued from The Annihilators, Mac finds himself in the middle of yet another revolution in Costa Verde. The Vanishers, one of the more complicated Matt Helm stories, is unique in several ways. Usually Helm is captured by the enemy in order to complete his mission. Here, for once, Helm’s boss Mac takes an active part in the action and is the one captured in order to deal with a gang of kidnappers. In most of these books the women are either ruthless foreign agents or naïve Americans who discover that however nice Helm may be personally, his profession is not at all nice. The Vanishers features a woman who is neither naïve nor an enemy. As punishment for a previous mistake in judgment, Helm is excluded from the real national security problem and exiled to Sweden, where he is kidnapped by a group who fear he may interfere with their plans. Eventually he escapes, figures out his mission and completes it, and helps the Swedes with their mission. The ending is different from any other Matt Helm book, but is consistent with his character. ===== After Matt Helm's son is killed by a terrorist bomb, Helm goes on a mission of revenge against those responsible. ===== Helm is assigned to impersonate a rich oil baron in order to track down a shipment of weapons before it can be used to overthrow the Mexican government. Matt Helm starts by taking the place of an oil millionaire -- one of the assignments where Mac is helping another agency by loaning out the services of his agent, Matt Helm. As usual, Mac is not doing this from purely altruistic purposes and gives Matt his usual warning - "Don't trust anyone" in the beginning of the novel. Head of the agency borrowing Matt Helm, a man called Somerset, wants Matt to go into Mexico and help trace a shipment of illegal arms, supposedly being smuggled to be supplied to Mexican revolutionaries by the said millionaire Horace Hosmer Cody. In the beginning of the novel, Cody is arrested by Somerset's people and Helm takes his place with a make up job that he thinks will fool no one and it doesn't. Almost all of the story takes place in Mexico where Matt once again runs into his old ally Ramon Solana-Ruiz of the Mexican security. The novel has much intrigue and is typical of Matt Helm style action. Most of the characters turn out to be different than from what they are portrayed at the beginning of the story and many of them go through transformation, including some of the dead characters. Matt, of course, succeeds in the mission completing all of the objectives, sometimes with help from others. ===== Matt Helm (code name Eric) is assigned to kill a drug lord after the villain orders the murder of a journalist. But he doesn't kill the drug lord's dog - which is the centerpiece of moralizing on how the real problem is that there is demand for drugs, so why blame the supplier, since even the drug lord's dog is able to resist such temptations? The story starts in Santa Fe where Matt is trying to live a normal life with Jo Beckman from the previous novel "The Frighteners". At the beginning of the story Jo has left Matt because of his new hobby of shooting. One of the ladies from a previous novel "The Infiltrators" - Madeleine Ellershaw comes to visit Matt with a complaint that he's having her followed. Matt is being followed by the same kind of people. Madeleine dies violently soon after her appearance. Matt's new friend Mark, who has introduced Matt to this kind of shooting sport, also dies soon after revealing that he was an author hunted by a South American drug lord for writing a book about the drug business. The drug lord puts up a price of one million dollars on his head. After Mark's death Matt teams up, unwillingly, with his widow to go hunt up back up copies of Mark's second book. Some computer jargon and concepts are mentioned when the electronic copies of the book are mentioned and surprisingly Hamilton has managed to keep most of his facts accurate. (Other than calling a diskette a three-and-a-half-inch-by- three-and-a-half-inch which it's not). As usual nothing and nobody is as they seem or are expected. As usual also, Matt undergoes torture and captivity and perils to his life. As usual, he comes up victorious, accomplishing his mission, saving the women and killing the bad guys. Hamilton doesn't deal in the Hollywood-hero-that-can-kill-a-hundred-black-hat-types and Matt is shown to have a better than average amount of brains, professional ruthlessness and courage and sense in balanced amounts. In this book again Matt runs across fanatic world-savers and drug-crusaders with both gunning for his life. The story opens and ends in New Mexico, but the majority of it takes place in South America. ===== Matt Helm brings his literary career to a close (for now) with a double assignment: destroy a crime gang run by the son of the villain from The Wrecking Crew, and prevent the atomic destruction of Norfolk, Virginia. ===== When starting up the game, a short movie is shown. Mickey falls asleep with a book of fairy tales in his lap, later he wakes up in a strange village. A girl (looking like Daisy Duck) comes up to him asking him for help. She says 'the magic crystal' has been stolen from the villagers. Ever since then, the beautiful happiness in her village has been replaced with sadness. Mickey decides to help the villagers and goes after the evil phantom who has stolen the crystal. The game's story has no direct connections to either its prequel, Castle of Illusion, or its sequel, World of Illusion. ===== In the year 2068, Earth can no longer sustain human life with its natural resources depleted beyond repair. Whereas other companies are seeking to colonize the Moon, Calron sets its aim much higher: the planet Oxygen whose potential could save billions of lives. However, since it is 20,000 light-years away, a technology known as DST (or deep-space teleporting) has to be used to get there. A team, led by Cain (played by Sean Patrick Flanery), arrives but soon discover that it is home to a terror in the form of voracious, enormous, prehistoric bears and the planet itself is in an unstable condition. The team soon tries to escape from the planet, but are confronted by many ordeals. By the time the movie is over, the only two left alive is Allison Carlson (played by Reagan Pasternak) and Cain (played by Sean Patrick Flanery), who manage to teleport back to Earth. ===== Screenshot from Touch Detective Mackenzie learns that in order to join the ranks of the Great Detective Society, she must solve four cases and submit her investigation report to the Society. Fortunately for her, several cases seem to pop up around town. ;Episode 1 - Robbery. The reality of a fanciful dream: Penelope comes to Mackenzie because she claims her dreams are being stolen. Mackenzie first acquires a special invention from Cromwell so that she can see into Penelope's dreams and understands what happens: a strange creature is seen fleeing from Penelope's just before she wakes up. Mackenzie investigates further and finds a way to enter the Dream World, but finds no one there that can help because the rest of the town is not yet asleep. Finding a way to convince everyone to fall asleep at the same time that Penelope does, she is then able to stop the fleeing figure and reveal it to be the pastry chef in town. The chef admits to the crime, using the crystallized dreams as an ingredient in her Sweet Dream Cake dessert. Fortunately, Penelope and the chef agree that the chef will only take Penelope's dreams once a week. ;Episode 2 - Disappearance. The truth hidden in the cosmos: Penelope goes missing, and upon investigation, it looks like her room was broken into. However, it is revealed that Chloe, trying to find Penelope before Mackenzie, broke in and tried to find evidence. However, regardless of Chloe's bumbling, Mackenzie is led to the planetarium and its strange owner, as well as a little girl named Lynsey who seems to like playing with dolls. After catching the owner buying girls clothes in sizes too large for Lynsey, Mackenzie soon discovers that the planetarium owner lured Penelope and now is keeping her in a secret room under mind control in order for her to be Lynsey's friend. Mackenzie is able to rescue Penelope, have the owner captured, and befriends Lynsey so she won't be lonely again. ;Episode 3 - Stranded. The miracle of an innocent heart: Penelope claims that an ice fairy is stranded at the ice skating rink, the only cold place in town, but Mackenzie cannot see it though she can sense it. The owner of the rink is tired of living in the cold and is looking to shut the rink down, causing the temperature in the rink to rise and threaten the life of the fairy. Chloe comes up with two near-disastrous ideas for saving the fairy, but Mackenzie realizes all they need to do is make it snow so the fairy can be get out from the ice rink and to a more comfortable location. With the help of the local fortune teller Mackenzie helps Chloe in enchanting an "angel summoning spell" (actually a magical girl theme song), which, through the power of Chloe's will, temporarily transforms Penelope into an angel that can make it snow. The fairy returns home after a parting conversation with Chloe, with it being very heavily implied that they share a requited crush. ;Episode 4 - Assault. The tragedy of a past grudge:Penelope claims that a murder happened at the circus in town, though it is only a flea circus, and it's actually an assault. Apparently, the circus used to be a larger attraction, but when it shut down, many of the performers took up residence in town. Mackenzie investigates to find that something did attack the fleas, though initially suspecting a flea as the culprit. However, the supposed culprit flea ends up near-dead himself, in a supposed locked room attack. This leads to an initial speculation of self-inflicted injury, however Mackenize deduces that a human sized culprit could have picked up the box the flea was in and shaken it to cause the injuries. When a large anvil nearly kills all the fleas, the trail leads to Dover, one of the ex-performers. His old circus act, animating tattoos on his back, was ruined due to a flea bite, and has been out of work since, and thus took revenge on the flea circus to try to get back into stardom. Dover tries to kill a flea, however, Mackenzie is able to stop him. Unfortunately, the circus ringleader accidentally kills it anyway. Following the successful resolution of all four cases, Cromwell informs Mackenzie that she has been accepted into the Great Detective Society. However it transpires that he mistakenly submitted Mackenzie's "Touch List" instead of her investigation report. She is given the official title of "Touch Detective" as a result, to Mackenzie's shame. ===== Flash is set in a future Earth of the 22nd century, chronologically prior to its published predecessor Archform: Beauty. Humanity is still recovering from environmental disasters of the 21st century, but technology provides enough material resources for everyone. Earth's old nations have merged into continental governments - such as NorAm, United Europe, and Sinoplex - many of which are partially or wholly under the sway of various multinational corporations. Various wars are in progress, including an independence movement of colonists on Mars. The protagonist is Jonat DeVrai, a talented market research consultant and former Marine Corps officer who happens to have retained nanite combat enhancements that should be removed from retiring soldiers. As usual in Modesitt's books, DeVrai does not seek power; he is forced to exercise it because of others' attempts to use him in their designs to gather power to themselves. In addition to normal humans, the world of Flash also includes: * Ascendants: upper-class people who were genetically improved as zygotes. Tall, attractive, and well-to-do, Ascendants disproportionately hold positions of power. * Cydroids: non-sentient constructs made from cloned human tissue. They are operated by telepresence and often contain technological enhancements. ===== Really and Truly have to make a cross-country run in a style that mixes Hanna-Barbera with Josie & the Pussycats and On the Road. However, they have a well-defined mission to deliver a consignment of drugs, and encounter big guns, much stranger passengers (Zhivago and Scuba Trooper) and far more determined, and unusual, pursuers (Nice and Buddah) en route. ===== Weight Loss is about the strange life (from age 11 to age 37) of a sexual deviant named Bhola, whose attitude to most of the people around him depends on their lust worthiness. Bhola’s tastes are not, to put it mildly, conventional. Sex is a form of depravity for him and he has fetishes about everyone from teachers to roadside sadhus to servants; he progresses from fantasizing about the portly family cook Gopinath to falling “madly in love” with a vegetable vendor and her husband. This last obsession spans the entire length of the book and most of Bhola’s life – he even ends up teaching at a college in an obscure hill-station hundreds of miles from his home because he wants to be near the couple. At various other stages in his life he gets expelled from school for defecating in a teacher’s office, participates in an inexpertly carried out circumcision (one of the book’s many manifestations of the “weight loss” motif). Category:2006 Indian novels Category:Indian comedy novels ===== Czech expatriate Irena, who has been living in France, decides to return to her home after twenty years. During the trip she meets, by chance, Josef, a fellow émigré who was briefly her lover in Prague. The novel examines the feelings instigated by the return to a homeland which has ceased to be a home. In doing so, it reworks the Odyssean themes of homecoming. It paints a poignant picture of love and its manifestations, a recurring theme in Kundera's novels. The novel explores and centres around the way that people have selective memories as a precursor to ignorance. The concept of ignorance is presented as a two-fold phenomenon; in which ignorance can be a willing action that people participate in, such as avoiding unpleasant conversation topics or acting out. Yet the novel also explores the involuntary aspects of being ignorant, such as feigning ignorance of the past or avoiding the truth. ===== Lisette Linares (Lauren Velez) is a young mother of three children, married to Chino (Jon Seda), a bicycle messenger. Although he is always reliable as the breadwinner of the family, Chino is having an affair with neighbor Magdalena (Lisa Vidal). One summer evening, as a blackout sweeps the neighborhood, Chino gets arrested for looting. Faced now with the reality of keeping her family together while the main breadwinner is in jail, Lisette, with the encouragement of her transgender sister Alexis (Jesse Borrego), decides to give her dream of becoming a print model a chance. As she happens to be in the right place at the right time, Lisette lands a job as the personal assistant to a major record label producer (Griffin Dunne), who is trying to sign a major Latin music group (played by the real life group the Barrio Boyzz). Chino is then released from prison by Magdalena and her father, who reveals that she has a son named Richie, whom she claims was fathered by Chino. This causes Lisette to hit rock bottom and move in with Alexis. At her new job, while having sex with her boss, he answers a number of phone calls, which frustrates Lisette. The next day, Chino tries to go back to his job, but is fired due to his criminal record. Lisette then confronts Chino to prove that she had sex with another man to get even with him. While Chino is taking the kids out for ice cream, his extremely rebellious son, Li'l Chino, asks if he could buy ice cream, but Chino tells him that he needs to work in order to buy things. His son then shows him money so Chino allows him to buy the ice cream, but when his younger daughter notices that he is wearing new sneakers and pants, Chino realizes that his son has become a drug dealer. Chino furiously lashes out at his son, pushing him towards a mural with a picture of his uncle (Chino's brother) on it, who was a police officer killed by a drug dealer. He whips his son in front of the whole block while his son's friends laugh at him. Alexis notices the commotion and tries to stop him. Alexis then points out that his son is just a little boy and pulls him away, but Li'l Chino runs away. The kids are still laughing and continue to insult Lil' Chino as weak. Chino, infuriated, then beats a kid from the crowd and whips him, the and the drug dealer attempts to draw a gun but Chino manages to disarm him while fellow neighbors help Chino whip the boy. Li'l Chino is then found sitting in front of Alexis' apartment door. He tells Lisette that he wants to stay with her but she rejects him, believing that he will still be disrespectful towards her. Chino then finds Li'l Chino and takes him home. Back at the apartment, Chino and his friend put Richie to bed, and the friend reveals to Chino that he is the actual father of Richie, which infuriates Chino, as he been played by Magdalena the whole time. Alexis and Lisette have a discussion about the kids, as Alexis points out to Lisette that she is just like their own estranged mother. She denies this and Alexis changes and leaves to visit their mother. When Alexis arrives over there, her mother opens the door, she reacts disgusted by Alexis' appearance. Alexis tries her hardest to make amends with her mother but when her father comes out of his room to check on the noise, he reacts with an aggressive look on his face. Back at Alexis' apartment, Lisette hears the door open and notices that Alexis came back. When Lisette comes to check on Alexis she notices her face is injured and asks what happened, but Alexis tells her that she was right about their mother, that she has not accepted Alexis for being transgender. The next day at work, Lisette's boss wants to have sex again, but she tries to reject him. He stops when Lisette tells him he's “not a sexual person”, and the two begin to argue, which results in her nearly quitting. They resolve to continue their working relationship. Lisette arrives back at the apartment. She tries to talk to her children and asks for their forgiveness, mostly from Li'l Chino, which he does finally give. Chino arrives later, back from his new job as a security officer. Both discuss the many flaws in their marriage, and Chino finally tells Lisette the truth about Magdalena's baby. The scene ends with Lisette pointing out to Chino that he never thinks about the “other person”, which he then replies, “Good night, other person”, despite that it is morning already. Lisette lays on the sofa with a smile on her face. ===== In the church hall yard, Jones is showing off his newly restored butchers' van to the platoon. Mainwaring arrives with some very important news: three battalions of regular troops are to move into the Walmington and Eastgate areas as part of the divisional scheme, and as the signposts have been removed, the platoon have been asked to signpost the route to allow the convoys to pass through safely. While explaining the operation, Mainwaring damages Jones' van, by drawing on its side (ruining the paintwork) and knocking off part of the running board on the driver's side, as well as later damaging the horn. The operation goes without further hitches until the men are collected and Mainwaring orders Jones to drive them back to the church hall. En route, they find the road blocked by an abandoned steam roller and fairground organ trailer, and a note from its driver reveals that he has gone to get some coal. Rather than wait for him to return, Mainwaring decides to drive around the vehicles. Whilst doing so, Jones's van gets stuck in the mud and before long it is joined by Hodges' van, his motorbike and side-car (driven by the Verger, who is taking Mrs Fox to pick bluebells, much to the chagrin of Jones and the Verger's wife) and a coach carrying the Vicar, the Verger's wife and pensioners on a day trip (who take the opportunity to dance to the organ when Pike, who is trying to move the trailer, accidentally starts it up after unhitching it from the steam roller). With time running out, it falls to Godfrey's Auntie Elsie to save the day and divert the convoy. ===== Carola (Hoss), a German woman living in Switzerland, is on holiday with her boyfriend in Kenya. She falls in love with Maasai warrior Lemalian (Ido), who is visiting dressed in the clothing of his area. At the airport on the way home she decides to stay. It turns out that Lemalian has gone to his home village in the Samburu District. Carola travels to the area, and stays at the house of another European woman. Lemalian hears about her stay and comes to meet her. Eventually they start living together. She travels to Switzerland to sell her shop there, promising Lemalian to come back to him. She does, and they marry and have a daughter. Carola buys a car and starts a shop. They lose money on the shop because Lemalian gives too much credit to friends and neighbors, and because they have to pay bribes to the mini-chief. Lemalian argues that this is no problem because she has more money in Switzerland. The mini-chief demands that Carola hires his teenage nephew as a shop assistant. She has to accept this although she does not need him and he does not work hard. After some time, when he is just drinking beer and not working, she fires him. Later he returns and attacks her. A local judge rules that she has to pay two goats for firing him, but the boy's family has to pay her five goats to compensate for the attack. Carola is frustrated by the female circumcision being practiced in the village. She wants to stop it, but it is a long tradition that is not easily changed. When Carola helps a pregnant woman in labour with a breech birth, Lemalian refuses to assist because the woman is supposedly bewitched. Lemalian does not want Carola to be friendly with other men, even if she is just serving a customer in a friendly way. He is very jealous and suspicious of Carola having a boyfriend. He even wants to kill a man he suspects. Carola wants to return to Switzerland with her daughter, stating she needs a two-week holiday. After some hesitation, Lemalian signs a form giving Carola consent to take the girl out of Kenya, although he suspects that she will not return. ===== Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant have been thrown into a dungeon by the Spanish Inquisition for an offense against the Church. In the dungeon, a mock trial is staged, with its intention being that the prisoners rob Cervantes of all of his possessions, including a precious manuscript that he refuses to give up. It is, of course, the yet-to-be-published manuscript of Don Quixote de la Mancha, Cervantes's masterpiece. In defending himself, Cervantes begins to narrate his story of Don Quixote, with Cervantes as the Don Quixote, the role of Sancho enacted by Cervantes' own manservant, and the other characters in the story played by the other prisoners. The work is not, and does not pretend to be, an accurate rendition of either Cervantes' life or the novel Don Quixote (for example, Cervantes had no direct contact with the Inquisition at any time in his life), although it draws on both for inspiration and on the latter for characters. ===== Four retired mobsters Bobby (Richard Dreyfuss) - the straight man leader, Bats (Burt Reynolds) - a cantankerous man with a short fuse and a pacemaker, Mouth (Seymour Cassel) - a silent ladies man many years past his prime, and Brick (Dan Hedaya) - a nice but dimwitted man plan one last crime to save their apartment at a retirement home (the owners are forcing them out with a rent increase so that the apartments can be rented to young, affluent South Beach couples). The four steal a corpse from the mortuary to use as the "victim" in a staged murder scene. Unknown to them, the body was that of Luis Ventanna, the head of a Colombian drug smuggling ring. As a result of the "murder", many of the young renters leave and the four men are given cash and a rent discount by the complex to keep living there. Much of this money is spent on high living and women, which causes a young stripper, Ferris (Jennifer Tilly) to discover that the four men staged the murder - while spending time with the normally-silent "Mouth," he reveals that his mouth is loosened by intimacy with women. To keep the woman quiet, the four agree to kill her stepmother (Lainie Kazan), but instead kidnap her and fake her death by setting fire to her mansion. In the process, they accidentally burn down the house of the drug-smuggler's son (Miguel Sandoval), who happened to live in a nearby mansion. Believing that someone is trying to usurp his power, the drug lord offers $100,000 to anyone who brings him the head of the man responsible. This results in a confrontation at the apartment, leading to the capture of a female police officer and her partner (Carrie-Anne Moss and Jeremy Piven), one of the wiseguys (Seymour Cassel), the young woman, and the stepmother. The other wiseguys manage to escape this conflict, and track down the men who kidnapped their friend. They call in all of their still-living former associates from their active years and lay siege to the ship where the drug lord is holding his prisoners. They then turn the ship and the drug smugglers over to the police, along with a shipment of drugs. A truckload of Cuban cigars is taken by the men and used to make their apartment complex into "a retirement home for old wiseguys who are down on their luck." A sub-plot of the movie involves Richard Dreyfuss' search for his long lost daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), whom he hasn't seen since he was in his 30s and she was a small child. ===== Since the show is live and each one is different, some points of the plot may or may not apply. The show described below is the Australian version. The show begins with the elusive silk stocking gang, a criminal duo, escaping from prison and stealing a police motorcycle and side car. Following that, the Proctor (a role that can be performed by a male or female, as with some of the characters in the show) emerges and gives a short monologue about the stunts in the performance, as well as a safety warning. The strict Captain Harris (typically male) appears to recruit audience members as part of the show, typically recruiting one middle-aged male (usually a father, to facilitate the jokes), one pre-teen boy (to which the Captain sneers "you remind me of my little brother! I hate my little brother..."), a female (jokingly introduced as "six foot six, muscle-bound...") and one company stuntman, a character named "Rodney", typically dressed in a garish ocean-print shirt and hat. Following the recruitment, four green cadets and the commissioner emerge for the morning ceremony and flag raising. This is preceded by a series of car stunts, with the cadets driving a police car, souped-up hot rod and a golf buggy. A few slapstick stunts (falling on the floor etc.) follow. Cadet Verbinski wishes to pass an urgent letter to the commissioner, but he/she is accidentally pulled up the flag pole wrapped in the flag, then falls on top of the commissioner. The commissioner reads the letter, informing him about the silk stocking gang's intentions. The "recruits" from the audience are then called upon and are positioned around the set. The silk stocking gang then suddenly appears on top of the roof, and a wild gunfight sequence ensues. Rodney is accidentally "shot", and falls from his second floor post onto a disguised cushion. The cadet responsible is then reprimanded for the action. Two other cadets then climb up the scaffolding to reach the silk stocking gang who have successfully robbed the nearby payroll building. A slapstick confrontation follows, ending in one cadet being kicked off the top of the second floor. He/she lands in a disguised cushioned dumping container, and emerges unscathed later. In the meantime, the commissioner uses a portable toilet, but it is accidentally lifted into the air by a crane and the door falls out, nearly dropping him out with it. The two culprits return to the motorcycle and a wild car chase follows, with Rodney being roughed up quite a bit. The sidecar detaches, but the remaining criminal wields explosives that scare the cadets. He first puts a bomb into an armoured vehicle, which explodes and flips over. He then passes a bomb to one cadet, who almost throws it into the audience but puts the bomb into a trash can in the end. The commissioner orders the cadets to transport Rodney to a safe place, and they choose the tool shed. The last bomb goes into there, and the explosion blasts open the side panels of the shed and seemingly catapults Rodney (most likely a safety dummy) up onto the roof. One member of the duo will shout to the other to "get the chopper!" setting the scene for the climatic finale. A helicopter with rotors spinning and machine guns firing (though with nobody in the cockpit) emerges from the roof. The cadets, as well as an "injured" Rodney, rush to man the cannons. The first shot is unsuccessful, but the second "hits" the helicopter which spews smoke and descends into the roof slowly. The aftermath is the show's biggest explosion, a huge rooftop blaze where the audience is actually able to feel the radiating heat. The "pilot" then rushes out of the door, vest blazing. He is extinguished and apprehended by the policemen, and the show ends. ===== The second form includes two girls who have been kept back from third form and two new girls. The two old girls are Elsie Fanshawe and Anna Johnson. Both are disliked as Elsie is spiteful and Anna is very lazy; however, both are made head of their form, replacing Hilary Wentworth who was head in first form. The second form mistress, Miss Jenks, has doubts about this as Elsie and Anna do not like each other very much, but agrees to let both of them try. The two new girls are Gladys Hilman and Mirabel Unwin. Gladys Hilman is miserable because her mother is ill in hospital. Gladys Hilman rarely speaks or joins in and this is the reason Gladys Hilman nicknamed "The Misery Girl". It takes Mirabel Unwin to find out what is wrong with her. Mirabel is determined to make the worst of things and ruin class for everyone. She was sent away from home because of her behaviour towards her younger brother and sister. Mirabel's attitude leads her into trouble when Carlotta slaps her in public for ruining a play rehearsal, but Mirabel learns her lesson and forgives Carlotta. Later she admits to Isabel that she is ashamed of her behaviour and wants to be friends with the girls instead. When Elsie attempts to convince the form to perform a series of punishments against Mirabel in retaliation for her attitude in class, Isabel sticks up for her and manages to convince the class that Elsie is not acting in their interest but is just acting out of spite. As a result of this, Mirabel and Isabel become friends. Mirabel initially declares she wants to leave at half term, but ends up staying when Pat and Isabel stand up for her and the girls decide to give her a chance. Although at first they do not get on well, an unlikely friendship later develops between Gladys and Mirabel, as they help each other cope with their first time in boarding school. Mirabel turns out to be a talented musician and Gladys a gifted actor, and the class manage to use these talents to ease the two girls into the way of things at the school. The term passes by eventfully, and Anna becomes a surprisingly popular head girl, throwing aside her laziness. When Elsie is stripped of her position, Anna takes to her new position of sole head girl with a new-found enthusiasm and discovers she actually enjoys the sense of responsibility she feels at helping others and setting a good example. When Mrs Theobald refuses to let Mirabel send a telegram home asking for her violin, mistakenly thinking that Mirabel has only stopped misbehaving because she has got tired of it, she confides in Anna, who goes to see the Headmistress and explains to her that Mirabel is in fact ashamed of herself and wants to do better. As a result of Anna's directness, Mirabel is allowed to send the telegram and Anna is admired and respected by all of the other girls for performing such a kindly act. A concert given by the girls proves a huge success, but Elsie is forbidden to take part as a result of her behaviour towards Anna when the decision was made to strip Elsie of her position as joint head girl. Anna and Carlotta both offer Elsie an olive branch, but Elsie has still not learned her lesson after being left out and sets out to ruin a birthday party given by Carlotta as revenge. However Hilary discovers Elsie's plan, and instead of holding the party the evening of Carlotta's birthday as planned, the girls hold a midnight feast the night before instead. Elsie gets into trouble as a result when her plan to expose the private party backfires. There is also a new drama mistress this year, Miss Quentin. Alison chooses to worship her (she always finds someone each year). However, at the end of the term, Alison is badly let down by Miss Quentin when she finds out that the mistress laughs at her behind her back and chose Gladys over her for the principal role in the play. She is then very cold to Miss Quentin and snubs her. At term's end, Anna is told she can now go up to the Third Form, who have heard about her success as head girl and want her to return to their year. Elsie is also granted passage into the Third Form after she apologises to Anna and Carlotta for trying to ruin the birthday party, but is told that she is on her last chance and that she must drop her malicious and spiteful attitude if she wants to stay there, and that one mistake will see her expelled from the school. ===== Flor (also referred to as Florecita) travels from Mexico to USA, with her grandmother Clotilde and her sister Isela, in order for the girls to reunite with their father, Ruben, and two brothers, Rodrigo and Victor, who live in Miami. During the trip, Clotilde dies in the desert. The girls bury their grandmother in the desert and continue to Miami, only to find out that their father is an alcoholic. Flor's mother, Gabriela, lives in Miami, although her children believe her to be dead. Gabriela has remarried, and is now a famous television director. One day Florecita and Gabriela meet without recognizing each other. Flor begins to work right away, selling flowers on the street and cleaning cars. One day, she meets Julio Alberto and his girlfriend Gloria, who are preparing for their wedding. Julio Alberto buys Gloria a flower from Flor. Gloria dies at the wedding, and Julio Alberto is overwhelmed with grief. After a while, he starts to spend time in the park where he and Gloria walked together and where they used to be so happy. He sometimes sees Flor and starts talking to her. Julio Alberto's mother, Rebeca, lives with her three children in the house of her twin sister Raquel. The sisters hate each other and Rebeca is silently waiting Raquel's death from cancer. Raquel plans to leave her fortune to Flor, so that Rebeca doesn't get a penny; when the will is read, Rebeca is furious. Believing that money is rightfully hers, she makes her son seduce Flor, and comes up with a plan to steal the money from the young girl and throw her out on the streets. Flor doesn't care about losing her fortune because she was never rich in the first place, but she is disappointed that Julio Alberto lied to her and betrayed her, and she believed in him. She decides to find a job as a maid, with the Dalmacci family, where Sergio, the trouble-making son, falls in love with Flor, fascinated by the goodness of her heart. Then Julio Alberto re-enters Flor's life, realizing that he is truly in love with her. He begs Flor to forgive him and return to him. Whom does her heart belong to now? Is it Julio Alberto or Sergio? ===== Initially appearing in Space Sheriff Gavan, Den Iga is attacked by a monster called Buffalo Doubler, member of the Space Mafia Makuu. Den is seriously injured in the attack when he is found by Gavan, who takes him to Planet Bird for medical assistance. Qom, leader of the , is impressed by Den's courage. Den returns in the final episode of Gavan, saving Gavan himself in his newly acquired form of Space Sheriff Sharivan during Gavan's final battle. After Don Horror is defeated, Sharivan is assigned to Earth and is partnered together with Lily from the planet Bird as he deals with the threat of the Madou Space Crime Syndicate on Earth. ===== A British and a Soviet ballistic-missile submarine suddenly disappear. James BondMI6 agent 007is summoned to investigate. On the way to his briefing, Bond escapes an ambush by a squad of Soviet agents in Austria, killing one during a downhill ski chase and evading the others. The plans for a highly advanced submarine tracking system are being offered in Egypt. There, Bond encounters Major Anya Amasova—KGB agent Triple X—his rival to recover the microfilm plans. They travel across Egypt together, encountering Jawsa tall assassin with razor-sharp steel teethalong the way. Bond and Amasova reluctantly join forces after a truce is agreed by their respective British and Soviet superiors. They identify the person responsible for the thefts as the shipping tycoon and scientist Karl Stromberg. While travelling by train to Stromberg's base in Sardinia, Bond saves Amasova from Jaws, and their cooling rivalry turns to affection. Posing as a marine biologist and his wife, they visit Stromberg's base and discover that he had launched a mysterious new supertanker, the Liparus, nine months previously. As they leave the base, a henchman on a motorcycle featuring a rocket sidecar, Jaws in a car, and Naomi, an assistant/pilot of Stromberg in an attack helicopter, chase them, but Bond and Amasova escape underwater when his car – a Lotus Esprit from Q Branch – converts into a submarine. Jaws survives a car crash and Naomi is killed when Bond fires a sea-air missile from his car which destroys her helicopter. While examining Stromberg's underwater Atlantis base, the pair confirm that he is operating the stolen tracking system and encounter a fleet of Stromberg's minisubs which Amasova obliterates by launching mines. Bond finds out that the Liparus has never visited any known port or harbour. Amasova discovers that Bond killed her lover Sergei Barsov (as shown at the beginning of the movie), and she vows to kill Bond as soon as their mission is complete. Stromberg's hideout, Atlantis. Bond and Amasova board an American submarine to examine the Liparus as it captures the submarine. Stromberg sets his plan in motion: the simultaneous launching of nuclear missiles from the captured British and Soviet submarines to obliterate Moscow and New York City. This would trigger a global nuclear war, which Stromberg would survive in Atlantis, and subsequently a new civilization would be established underwater. He leaves for Atlantis with Amasova. Bond escapes and frees the captured British, Russian, and American sailors and they battle the Liparuss crew, but the joint U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. submariner coalition suffers heavy casualties just taking back the sub pen before managing to breach the control room, only to learn from the dying captain of the Liparus that the commandeered British and Soviet submarines are primed to fire their nukes in only a few minutes to ignite World War III. Bond reprograms the submarines to fire the nukes at each other, saving Moscow and New York City while destroying the subs and Stromberg's crews on both of them in the resulting nuclear explosions. The victorious submariners escape the sinking Liparus on the American submarine. The submarine is ordered by the Pentagon to destroy Atlantis but Bond insists on rescuing Amasova first. He confronts and kills Stromberg but again encounters Jaws, whom he drops into a shark tank. However, Jaws kills the shark and escapes. Bond and Amasova flee in an escape pod as Atlantis is sunk by torpedoes. Amasova picks up Bond's gun and points it at him, but then chooses not to kill him and the two embrace. The Royal Navy recovers the pod and the two spies are seen in an intimate embrace through its port window, much to the bemusement of their superiors on the ship. ===== The British information gathering vessel St Georges, which holds the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), the system used by the Ministry of Defence to communicate with and co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines, is sunk after accidentally trawling an old naval mine in the Ionian Sea. MI6 agent James Bond is ordered by the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray and MI6 Chief of Staff, Bill Tanner, to retrieve the ATAC before the Soviets, as the transmitter could order attacks by the submarines' Polaris ballistic missiles. The head of the KGB, General Gogol, has also learned of the fate of the St Georges and already notified his contact in Greece. A marine archaeologist, Sir Timothy Havelock, who had been asked by the British to secretly locate the St Georges, is murdered with his wife by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales. Bond goes to Spain to find out who hired Gonzales. While spying on Gonzales' villa, Bond is captured by his men, but manages to escape as Gonzales is killed by a crossbow bolt. Outside, he finds the assassin was Melina Havelock, the daughter of Sir Timothy, and the two escape. With the help of Bond, Q uses computerised technology to identify the man Bond saw paying off Gonzales as Belgian underworld enforcer Emile Leopold Locque, and then goes to Locque's possible base in Cortina, Italy. There Bond meets his contact, Luigi Ferrara, and a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, who tells Bond that Locque is employed by Milos Columbo, known as "the Dove" in the Greek underworld, Kristatos' former resistance partner during the Second World War. After Bond goes with Kristatos' protégée, figure skater Bibi Dahl, to a biathlon course, a group of three men, which includes East German biathlete (and KGB agent) Eric Kriegler, chases Bond, trying to kill him. Bond escapes and then goes with Ferrara to bid Bibi farewell in an ice rink, where he fends off another attempt on his life by three men in ice hockey gear. Ferrara is killed in Bond's car, with a dove pin in his hand. Bond then travels to Corfu in pursuit of Columbo. There, at the casino, Bond meets Kristatos and asks how to meet Columbo, not knowing that Columbo's men are secretly recording their conversation. After Columbo and his mistress, 'Countess' Lisl von Schlaf, argue, Bond offers to escort her home with Kristatos' car and driver. The two then spend the night together. In the morning, Lisl and Bond are ambushed by Locque and his men, who run Lisl down, killing her. Bond is captured by Columbo's men before Locque can kill him; Columbo then tells Bond that Locque was actually hired by Kristatos, who was a double agent during the resistance and is currently working for the KGB to retrieve the ATAC. To prove his accusation, Bond accompanies Columbo and his crew on a raid on one of Kristatos' opium-processing warehouses in Albania, where Bond encounters Locque and uncovers naval mines similar to the one that sank the St Georges, suggesting it was not an accident. After the warehouse is destroyed, Locque escapes; but Bond gives chase and kills him. Bond then rendezvous with Melina on her yacht. Using her father's daily log, they locate the St Georges and recover the ATAC from the wreckage. However, Kristatos is already on location and is waiting for them when they surface and he takes the ATAC. After the two escape an assassination attempt through shark-infested waters, they discover Kristatos' meeting point with the KGB with the help of Melina's parrot, Max. With the help of Columbo and four of his men, Bond and Melina break into St Cyril's, an abandoned mountaintop monastery. As Columbo confronts Kristatos, Bond kills Kriegler. Bond retrieves the ATAC system and stops Melina from killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos tries to kill Bond with a hidden flick knife, but is killed by a knife thrown by Columbo; Gogol arrives by helicopter to collect the ATAC, but Bond throws it off the cliff, destroying it and declaring Détente. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her yacht when he receives a call from the Prime Minister, leaving Max to flirt with the Prime Minister, much to the annoyance of Q, Grey and Tanner. ===== Three MI6 agents are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, New Orleans and the Caribbean nation of San Monique, while monitoring the operations of the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga. James Bond, Agent 007, is sent to New York to investigate. Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. Just after Bond arrives, his driver is shot dead by Whisper, one of Kananga's men, while taking Bond to meet Felix Leiter of the CIA. Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash. Glastron speedboats in the Louisiana boat chase. The boat chase scene was filmed in the Bayou Des Allemands. A trace on the killer's licence plate eventually leads Bond to Mr. Big, a ruthless gangster who runs a chain of restaurants throughout the United States. It is here that Bond first meets Solitaire, a beautiful tarot reader who has the power of the Obeah and can see both the future and remote events in the present. Mr. Big demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes with the help of CIA agent Strutter. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a CIA double agent. They meet up with Bond's friend, Quarrel Jr., who takes them by boat near Solitaire's home. Bond suspects Rosie of working for Kananga and she is killed by Kananga to stop her confessing the truth to Bond. Inside Solitaire's house, Bond uses a stacked deck of tarot cards that show only "The Lovers" to trick her into thinking that fate is meant for them; Bond then seduces her. Solitaire loses her ability to foretell the future when she loses her virginity to Bond, and she decides to cooperate with Bond, based both upon her attraction to him as well as her having grown tired of being controlled by Kananga. Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans. There, Bond is captured by Mr. Big, who removes his prosthetic face and is revealed to be Kananga. He has been producing heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting the San Monique locals' fear of voodoo priest Baron Samedi, as well as the occult. Through his alter ego Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. He intends to bankrupt other drug dealers with his giveaway, then charge high prices for his heroin later in order to capitalise on the huge drug dependencies he has cultivated. Angry at her for having sex with Bond and that her ability to read tarot cards is now gone, Kananga turns Solitaire over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed. Meanwhile, Kananga's henchmen, one-armed Tee Hee and tweed-jacketed Adam, leave Bond to be eaten by crocodilians at a farm in the Deep South backwoods. Bond escapes by running along the animals' backs to safety. After setting a drug laboratory on fire, he steals a speedboat and escapes, pursued by Kananga's men under Adam's order, as well as Sheriff J.W. Pepper and the Louisiana State Police. Most pursuers get wrecked or left behind, and Adam does not survive Bond's strike. Bond travels to San Monique and sets timed explosives throughout the poppy fields. He rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice and throws Samedi into a coffin of venomous snakes. Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. However, Bond escapes and forces Kananga to swallow a compressed-gas pellet used in shark guns, causing his body to inflate and explode. Leiter puts Bond and Solitaire on a train leaving the country. Tee Hee sneaks aboard and attempts to kill Bond, but Bond cuts the wires of his prosthetic arm and throws him out the window. As the film ends, a laughing Samedi is revealed to be perched on the front of the speeding train. ===== A Drax Industries Moonraker (a VTHL spaceplane based on the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter) on loan to the United Kingdom is hijacked in midair while on a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, which is destroyed, but no wreckage of the Shuttle is found. M, head of MI6, assigns James Bond, Agent 007, to investigate. En route to England, Bond is attacked and pushed out of an airplane by the mercenary assassin Jaws (whom he previously met in The Spy Who Loved Me). He survives by stealing a parachute from the pilot, whilst Jaws lands on a trapeze net within a circus tent. At the Drax Industries spaceplane-manufacturing complex in California, Bond meets the owner of the company, Hugo Drax, and his henchman Chang. Bond also meets Dr. Holly Goodhead, an astronaut, and survives an assassination attempt while inside a centrifuge chamber. Drax's personal pilot, Corinne Dufour, sleeps with Bond and then helps Bond find blueprints for a glass vial made in Venice; Drax discovers her involvement and has her killed by his pet dogs. Bond again encounters Goodhead in Venice and observes her snooping around a door near the glass factory. Then he is chased through the canals by Drax's henchmen. He returns to the factory at night to investigate, and discovers a secret biological laboratory, and learns that the glass vials are to hold a nerve gas deadly to humans, but harmless to plants and animals. Chang attacks Bond, but Bond hurls him through the stained glass clockface of the Saint Mark's clocktower, killing him; during the fight, Bond finds evidence that Drax is moving his operation to Rio de Janeiro. Rejoining Goodhead, he deduces that she is a CIA agent spying on Drax and sleeps with her. Bond has saved one of the vials he found earlier, as the only evidence of the now-empty laboratory; he gives it to M for analysis, who permits him to go to Rio de Janeiro under the pretense of being on leave. Bond survives attacks by Jaws, whom Drax previously hired as Chang's replacement, during Rio Carnival and on the Sugarloaf Cable Car. After Jaws' cable car crashes, he is rescued from the rubble by Dolly, a young woman, and the two fall in love. Drax's forces capture Goodhead, but Bond escapes; he learns that the toxin comes from a rare orchid indigenous to the Amazon jungle. Bond travels the Amazon River and comes under attack from Drax's forces, before eventually locating his base. Captured by Jaws, Bond is taken to Drax and witnesses four Moonrakers lifting off. Drax explains that he stole back the loaned Shuttle because another in his fleet had developed a fault during assembly. Bond and Goodhead are encaged by Jaws in a meeting room under the launch platform, and narrowly escape being burned alive by the exhausts of Moonraker 5, which is carrying Drax, and pose as pilots on Moonraker 6. The shuttles dock with a huge, city-like space station, hidden from radar by a cloaking device. Bond and Goodhead disable the radar jamming cloaking device; the United States sends a platoon of Marines aboard another shuttle to intercept the now-visible space station. Jaws captures Bond and Goodhead, to whom Drax reveals his plan to destroy human life by launching 50 globes that would dispense the nerve gas into Earth's atmosphere. Drax had transported several dozen genetically perfect young men and women of varying races to the space station in the shuttles. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life; their descendants would be the seed for a "new master race". Bond persuades Jaws to switch his allegiance by getting Drax to admit that anyone not measuring up to his physical standards, including him and Dolly, would be exterminated. Jaws attacks Drax's guards, and a laser battle ensues between Drax's forces and Bond, Jaws, and the Marines (attacking on MMUs). Drax's forces are defeated as the station is destroyed, while Bond shoots and ejects Drax into space. Bond and Goodhead use Drax's laser-armed Moonraker 5 to destroy the three launched globes and return to Earth. It is revealed that Jaws and Dolly, who ejected themselves in one of Drax's escape pods, after toasting with a bottle of champagne, are being recovered by the Marines. Bond's superiors get a video feed of Moonraker 5 and are bemused to see Bond and Goodhead making love in zero gravity. ===== Pellar's story provides background information related to the previous title Dragon's Kin. Cristov's story is mostly new material (blue firestone that survives in water) and takes place after the events in Pellar's. The focus of Cristov's story is the problem-laden transition from firestone to the phosphine-bearing rock that is used by later generations of dragons. ===== ===== Jean Berlot (Liska) is a deeply troubled man who has been haunted by violent hallucinations of being stuffed into a straitjacket by two orderlies since the death of his mother, who was committed to a mental institution before she passed on. While arranging his mother's funeral, Jean meets a fellow who claims to be the Marquis de Sade (Triska) and lives as if he's in 18th-century France rather than the 21st-century Czech Republic. Jean strikes up an alliance with the Marquis, though they can hardly be called friends, but is horrified by the Marquis' debauchery, namely the blasphemous orgy that Jean spies through an open window. The Marquis drops dead after choking on a banana the following day, and Jean is ordered at gunpoint to assist the servant Dominik (Nový) in burying the coffin in the family mausoleum. The next morning Jean and Dominik are awakened by a bell, and after opening the stone of the mausoleum, the Marquis reveals it had all been an elaborate prank. His mother had died after being buried alive, and he finds it therapeutic to relive this childhood memory that haunts him. The Marquis suggests a therapy that could help with Jean's nightmares: voluntarily committing himself to an asylum managed by his friend Dr. Murlloppe (Dusek), who offers "Purgative Therapy" for people who aren't mad but could be in the future. Jean falls for a beautiful nurse named Charlota (Geislerova), who claims she's being held at the hospital against her will, and reveals that Murlloppe and the Marquis were previous patients who led a revolt and locked the real asylum employees in the basement. The Marquis tells Jean that Charlota is a "nymphomaniac" and likes to tell complex fabricated stories as a form of foreplay. On the one year anniversary of their revolt, Murlloppe, the Marquis, and Dominik take Charlota with them for a ritual orgy, and Charlota tells Jean it's his only chance to free the staff. Jean finds them tarred and feathered in the basement, and releases the men, who waste no time in beating all the patients and shoving them back into their cells. Dr. Coulmiere thanks Jean for releasing them, and explains his philosophy that corporal punishment is key to treating mental illness by balancing the mind and the body, and that Murlloppe's idea of curing it with "freedom" is absurd. Murlloppe, the Marquis, and Dominik are tracked down and are each given severe punishments. Now that Charlota has been rescued, Jean expects to leave with her and get married, but Dr. Coulmiere won't permit Jean to leave until 8am, per the usual protocol. Jean has trouble sleeping, and seeks out Charlota for comfort, but her room is empty. He finds her in Dr. Coulmiere's room preparing for a night of sexual pleasures. This sets off one of his violent hallucinations, and Dr. Coulmiere eventually has to intervene. He orders the first round of corporal punishment treatment: two orderlies stuff Jean into a straitjacket and carry him away. ===== Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry) is a likable Quebec dentist from Chicago, but is hated by his wife Sophie (Rosanna Arquette) and mother-in-law (Carmen Ferland). Oz’s assistant Jill (Amanda Peet) jokingly asks him to name a price to have Sophie disappear. Oz meets a new neighbor, and realizes he is Jimmy "the Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis), an infamous Chicago contract killer with a bounty on his head. Oz reveals Jimmy’s identity to Sophie, who is intrigued. Oz befriends Jimmy, and shares his unhappiness: his business partner, Sophie’s father, was involved with an underage boy and embezzled from the practice to pay off the boy’s family before committing suicide, leaving Oz deeply in debt. Oz returns home, where Sophie has arranged for him to fly to Chicago and share Jimmy's whereabouts with mob boss Janni Gogolak (Kevin Pollak), for a reward. Oz is reluctant but complies. Arriving in Chicago, Oz has no intention of giving Jimmy up. At his hotel, he meets Franklin "Frankie Figs" Figueroa (Michael Clarke Duncan), Janni's enforcer, and denies any knowledge of Jimmy, but is brought to Janni’s estate. He meets Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), Jimmy's estranged wife. Janni instructs Frankie to accompany Oz home and keep an eye on Jimmy until Janni and his men can take him out. At the hotel, Oz calls Jimmy to warn him, but is told Jimmy knows what Oz has done. Cynthia arrives and tells Oz that Janni and Jimmy both want each other and Cynthia dead to collect a $10 million trust – “the whole nine yards.” Oz and Cynthia drunkenly sleep together, and he vows to protect her. In Canada, Frankie and Oz meet Jimmy, who reveals he and Frankie are planning to kill Janni and Cynthia. Jimmy explains Sophie tried to hire him to kill Oz, and he plans to lure Janni to Montreal. Jimmy offers to kill Sophie, which Oz declines. At work, Oz tells Jill everything. She reveals that she too is a contract killer, hired by Sophie to kill Oz, Jill liked him too much, however, and cancelled the hit. She demands to meet her hero, Jimmy, who enlists her help. Oz tries to call Cynthia, who is en route with Janni. When Janni's gang arrives at Oz's house, Cynthia warns Oz that Janni will kill him after killing Jimmy. The two watch as the gang walks into the ambush. Down the street, Sophie meets with another hitman (Harland Williams), but when he recognizes Janni and Sophie explains the situation, he heads for the house with a gun. Inside, Janni is distracted by a naked Jill; she, Jimmy and Frankie kill Janni and his men. Oz and Cynthia drive away as Jimmy also shoots Sophie’s hitman, much to Sophie’s horror, and discovers he is an undercover Sûreté du Québec detective. As they dispose of the bodies, Oz calls and suggests a deal to benefit everyone. At his office, he alters the dead detective’s teeth to match Jimmy's dental records, then sets his and Janni’s bodies on fire in Oz's car. Investigators find the remains and believe Janni and Jimmy are dead, and discover a recorder in the detective’s car; Sophie’s conversation about killing Oz sends her and her mother to prison, despite Sophie’s claim that Jill is the killer. Oz is cleared of suspicion, and Cynthia collects the $10 million, transferring it to Jimmy in exchange for her and Oz’s lives. While Cynthia and Jill, whom they just met face-to-face, are at the bank, Jimmy and Frankie take Oz onto a yacht. Jill urges Cynthia to split the money with her and run, leaving Oz to be killed by Jimmy, but Cynthia realizes she loves Oz and refuses to betray him, and Jill assures her it was a test; Jimmy wants to give Cynthia and Oz $1 million as a wedding gift. On the boat, Jimmy confirms that the money has been transferred. He points a gun at Oz, but shoots Frankie instead, explaining that Frankie, believing Jimmy had gone soft, would have killed them both. Oz attributes the softness to Jimmy falling in love. Jill arrives and jumps into Jimmy’s arms and, before he and Jill leave, Jimmy tells Oz to say hello to his widow for him. Oz, ignorant of the $1 million, asks Cynthia to marry him. Later, the happy couple dance above Niagara Falls. ===== The story is set in a future world in which violence and crime have been almost entirely eradicated. The main character is a man who is capable of antisocial behavior and who considers himself “the king of the world.” He is allowed to do what he wishes, take what he wants and go where he pleases without reprisal, so long as he does no violence to another human being. The “humane, permissive” society in which he lives has adopted a threefold solution for someone who is, by their standards, insane. The first is excommunication - no one is to interact with him or even acknowledge his existence, other than by the apparent worldwide directive identifying him and calling for this punishment. Secondly, he is thrown into an epileptic seizure whenever he attempts to commit violence against another human. Thirdly, his body and waste give off a highly offensive odor, undetectable by him, to identify him, warn others of his presence and drive them away. The story ends with a desperate plea from the protagonist for someone, anyone to join him in his rebellion against what he perceives to be a wholly passive society, which has lost any spark of creativity or will to achieve greatness. The story links violence to artistic expression. The protagonist "invents" drawing and sculpture, only later realizing, from old books, that these things had existed in the past, and notes that all great artists had lived in especially violent times. ===== Marisela is a rich, beautiful, and intelligent woman who feels a big emptiness in her life that she considers dry and sad. It is then that she meets Fernando, a good and honest man from a great family. When the two fall in love, the two of them face the terrible opposition of their families. On one hand, it's Marisela's father Miguel, who doesn't want Fernando to be part of his family and wants something better for his daughter. On the other part, it's Fernando's sister Mercedes, who is obsessed with him and doesn't want to see him with anyone other than Paola, Marisela's sister, who becomes infatuated with Fernando and is not willing to let him be with her sister. Marisela, tired of everything and everyone, decides not to listen to anything or anyone and decides to be with the love of her life and has a daughter she names Ana. Terrified of what may come, Marisela asks Fernando to get married as soon as possible and on the day of the wedding, Mercedes goes crazy upon learning about it and takes a gun and murders Marisela and Fernando at the Ocampo family mansion, when they prepare to celebrate their wedding party. In the middle of the shooting, Marisela's mother Andrea also dies from cardiac arrest. Several years later, Ana (the daughter of the deceased couple), who grew up locked up in a boarding school in the United States, returns to Mexico accompanied by Sandy, her companion in the boarding school and has become her great friend. Ana returns to her grandpa and aunt's house and has grown up into a woman looking physically identical to her mother. This similarity causes Miguel to feel remorse for not having listened to his daughter when she was alive and wants to fix his mistakes by welcoming Ana and giving all of his grandfatherly affection to her. On the other hand, Paola looks down on her niece with contempt for having the failed love that took her sister. Angel, the adoptive son of Miguel and Andrea, is a deaf-mute man who has been in love with Ana since childhood, but suffers an ordeal in which he can't express his love towards Ana. However, he decides to fight for her love but it is too late. Ana gets engaged to Diego, who only wants to use her to get revenge on his father. Diego's father turns out to be Miguel, because while Miguel was married to Andrea he had an extramarital relationship with Elena in the United States. This resulted in them having two sons: Diego and Tomas. Diego grew up feeling resentment towards his father, for his brother and mother were "the others" and Miguel never dared to acknowledge them. Diego's resentment was fueled mainly by his ambitious maternal grandmother Ada, who took care of tarnishing Miguel and his legitimate family and used his daughter to blackmail him and to extort money despite opposition from Elena, who was aware of what her place was in Miguel's life and was never interested in demanding something. Therefore, their children Tomas and Diego turn out to be Marisela's brothers and Ana's uncles. However, in addition to all these obstacles, the real important one to face Ana and Angel's love is Ana's crazed aunt Mercedes, who has escaped from the mental hospital where she had been locked up all these years and only seeks revenge. Upon seeing Ana, Mercedes thinks she's her late mother Marisela and believes she was saved from the attack years ago, so she decides to "put an end" to her once and for all. ===== The film is told primarily in flashback, as the film first follows a hitman, Critical Jim (Tim Allen), who follows and holds at gunpoint a man he believes is Cletis Tout (Danny Lima) - but who actually is Finch (Christian Slater). Because Critical Jim is so fond of film noir and other classic films (such as Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany's), he's willing to listen to Finch as he tells his story, imagining it as a film in progress. Finch obliges, explaining how he got to be mistaken for Cletis Tout. Finch happened to be in the same jail with Micah (Richard Dreyfuss), who stole diamonds more than 20 years before, then hid the diamonds and soon landed in prison. With Finch's help, Micah manages to break out, and the two get new identities for themselves, courtesy of a coroner (Billy Connolly) who owes Finch a favor. The problem is that Finch's new identity is that of Cletis Tout, a photojournalist who managed to film a Mafia figure's son strangling a woman. The head of the Mafia gets his men to kill Tout (which is how the coroner got the identity for Finch), but when Finch goes to Tout's apartment to look for his passport, a neighbor calls the police, who inform the mafia head that Cletis Tout is still alive. After Micah meets up with his now grown- up daughter, Tess (Portia de Rossi), he's accidentally shot by the men sent to kill Cletis. Just before dying, Micah gets Finch to promise to watch after his daughter, and thus Tess and Finch begin an uneasy relationship as they look for the diamonds. Meanwhile, the Mafia head decides to bring in a professional hit man, so he contacts Critical Jim to finish the job. Critical Jim is more interested in where Finch's story will end - specifically, if he'll be able to reconcile with Tess in the end, giving the story a perfect Hollywood ending. ===== Kenny is a mockumentary that follows the fictional Kenny through his daily life. His work and his personal relationships are explored as Kenny goes about his day-to-day activities and speaks directly to the camera and his audience. Kenny provides a most basic service to the community, portable toilets. The audience sees Kenny interviewing potential clients and involved in major public events. It is important to Kenny to know the kind of food and drink to be served at these events as this will determine the level of service he provides. Never ashamed of his job, despite the disparagement of some (including his own family), Kenny regards himself as a professional. Even at the most prestigious events for which he caters, Kenny realises that the most glamorous will need his portable toilets. He sees life in all of its complexities through the need of his services. Kenny takes his son, Jesse, to visit his father, but is hampered by his ex-wife's obstructiveness and his father's bitterness. When Kenny travels to Nashville to attend a toilet convention, he is thrilled to travel outside his native Melbourne. His ingenuity, friendship and commitment to his profession opens business opportunities in Japan and the potential for a new relationship with Jackie, a flight attendant, but he must return home prematurely when his father suffers a medical emergency. In an attempt at bonding, Kenny, his wealthy brother David and their father go camping. After half a day, David leaves in disdain. After Kenny tries to defend David, his father tells Kenny to step out of his brothers shadow and stick up for himself, which prompts Kenny to consider his life. He reveals that his success in Nashville has led to the offer of a promotion, and though his father urges him to accept, Kenny is unsure. When Kenny's ex-wife unexpectedly leaves him with Jesse on the day of the Melbourne Cup, his busiest day of the year, Kenny finds his son to be an able and cheerful assistant. However, prejudice against his work again appears, with customers complaining that a child should not be made to clean toilets, prompting Kenny to ask Jesse to stay in the office. When he returns to find Jesse gone, Kenny searches the venue in a panic and eventually finds him at the toilets, wanting to help again. That night, as he is about to drive away in his septic tank truck after a long and exhausting day, Kenny's way is blocked by a luxury car whose driver insensitively brushes off his requests to move. Kenny breaks his longstandng habit of amiability to fill the man's car with human waste, a suggestion that perhaps Kenny has decided to stick up for himself a little bit more. Finally, Kenny declines the opportunity to become an executive and seeks out Jackie to renew their relationship. ===== Small- time thieves 29-year-old Trish (Mary Stuart Masterson) and her 6-year-old niece Patsy (Lauren Suzanne Pratt) are at a diner, planning their next heist. Patsy tells her Aunt Trish that it's wrong that they are pick-pocketing people, but Trish believes it's okay in some way, and tells her that they only steal from "those who can afford it". Trish's former beau Mel (David Hewlett) comes to the diner to talk to Trish, being chased by two guys to whom he owes money. Trish and Patsy leave to go to Limbers department store. Patsy puts on a blond wig and begins to pick-pocket Mr. Limber (Lawrence Dane), the owner of the store. They are caught by security guard Bert (Mark Ruffalo). Trish and Patsy are brought to the office of Limber and threatened with arrest. But since it is almost Christmas, it's late Friday, and Social Services is already closed, Bert is to keep a watch over them at his place, though he protests doing so. After Christmas, on December 26, he is to return them back to the office, when Patsy is to be given to a foster-family who can better look out for her interests and Trish is to face charges. As the hours go by, Trish and Bert begin to develop an attraction for each other. As Christmas is "ruined" for Trish and Patsy, Bert takes them to Maplewood for his family's holiday dinner, and then to "Santa's Castle" where Patsy confesses her bad deeds to Santa's head elf (Howard Hesseman) and writes Santa a note, asking him to deliver her bicycle to Bert's apartment, where they've been staying. Very early in the morning on December 26, Bert rushes to Limbers to buy the bicycle, and Patsy is elated to find it delivered later that morn. But then Patsy is kidnapped by Mel, who wants to use her to pick-pocket at Limbers during the after-Christmas crowd's rush to return gifts. He is caught by Bert and everyone ends up back in the office where Social Services officials await them. But with Patsy's wish coming true, they get a second chance. Mel is hauled off to jail. Bert quits his job and proposes to Trish. ===== Picking up two years onwards from the end of Designated Targets, Final Impact is the last novel in the Axis of Time trilogy. The supercarrier Hillary Clinton has been refurbished with more conventional steam catapults which replaced her less reliable fuel air explosive catapults. Her carrier air group is replenished with A-4 Skyhawk jet-powered attack aircraft, many of which are flown by 'temps, contemporary pilots. Admiral Kolhammer returns to sea at the head of a new Task Force with the Clinton at its core after two years of administering the Special Administrative Zone-California. Many characters have died in the intervening time period, from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, by his own hand to Commander Dan Black, one of the main characters of the story who asks for a return to combat and dies during the re-takeover of Hawaii, when his plane crashed during take-off from Muroc Airfield, California. D-Day is launched on May 3 of 1944, a month earlier than in the original timeline. The Allies invade the Pas-de-Calais instead of Normandy, relying on a dis-information campaign to obtain surprise. They are able to gain a foothold and slowly push back the Nazi forces. On May 27, the Allies gain a major victory by wiping out several German divisions with massed air strikes. On June 1, the USSR rejoins the Allied side and declares war against the Axis: They launch a huge attack against Germany and advance on a broad front. The Soviets have used the intervening two years to build up their armed forces, and construct fleet of warships at Vladivostok. Meanwhile, Paul Brasch's cover is blown and he is extracted by British commandos. Adolf Hitler has a seizure and suffers permanent brain and muscle damage; with the T4 program in mind, Heinrich Himmler chooses to suffocate him. Before launching an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, the Soviets drop an atomic bomb on Litzmannstadt (that is, Łódź, Poland). The Axis powers react as much as they can: Himmler authorizes the use of anthrax in an synthesized form which will persist for months. He also orders the Army to begin transferring divisions from the western front to the east, gradually bringing the Soviet advance to a halt. The USSR takes two more blows when a massive kamikaze strike cripples their Pacific Fleet, and the A-bomb building facility in Kamchatka is destroyed - both hits scored by the Japanese. The United States has secretly completed the Manhattan Project a few months earlier, with the help of thousands of people from the future Multi-National force. They now have a large enough stockpile of bombs to take on Germany, Japan and the USSR at the same time, if necessary. On the orders of President Roosevelt, a trio of B-52 bombers fly out of New Mexico and launch a raid deep into Germany. Berlin is utterly destroyed with three nuclear weapons. In response to the U.S. blast on Berlin and the Japanese destroying the Soviet Pacific fleet at Kamchatka, the Soviets destroy Tokyo with an atomic bomb, killing the Emperor. The Axis Powers give in to unconditional surrender, ending the war in June 1944, but the damage has been done. The USSR has pushed into Asia securing gains in Persia, Afghanistan, Korea, Indochina and is probably going to share occupation of Japan with U.S. and Australia; in Europe the USSR has gone around Germany and has taken all of Eastern Europe including Greece, plus Northern Italy and chunks of Vichy France and Austria. The Western Allies are at odds with the Soviet Union, and the stage is set for another cold war. With the Axis defeated, most of the main characters move into the private sector and start anew. ===== "Survival of the fittest" is a universal truth, one that Toma learns the hard way outside of the classroom. Chosen to fight on behalf of the Earth in an interplanetary tournament, Toma realizes that the loser will end up as dead meat - literally. According to the universal plan, there will be "Feeders" and there will be "Food", with the beings of one world feeding on the blood and meat of the others. Only one planet can survive... Who will be on the menu? ===== Set in the slums of old Shanghai, the film begins with a wedding procession. Xiao Chen (Zhao Dan), a trumpet player in the marching band, establishes a romantic connection with his neighbour, the singer Xiao Hong (Zhou Xuan), who has fled the Japanese invasion of Manchuria with her older sister Xiao Yun (Zhao Huishen). With limited resources and connections, the two sisters are taken in by a couple that owns a tea house and made to work for them. Xiao Yun is forced into prostitution to make a living, while Xiao Hong works as a singer at the tea house. The film continues to slowly develop the flirtatious relationship between Xiao Hong and her neighbour Xiao Chen. However, one day, Xiao Chen's friend the Barber (Qian Qianli) sees Mr. Gu, a gangster and frequenter of the tea house where Xiao Hong works, take Xiao Hong out after getting a hair cut from the barbershop where the Barber works. The Barber then tells Ah Bing, the young peddler who is also friends with Xiao Chen, to follow Mr. Gu and Xiao Hong, and Ah Bing watches them buying cloth and eating together. When Ah Bing and the Barber tell Xiao Chen what they saw, Xiao Chen misunderstands and, thinking Xiao Hong is seeing other men, he runs back to his room, upset. Later, Xiao Chen and Xiao Hong get into a fight and Xiao Hong runs back home. When Xiao Yun returns, she sees a sobbing Xiao Hong and comforts her. Later, Xiao Chen and Wang are drinking at the tea house and Xiao Chen gets intoxicated and demands Xiao Hong sing him a song. She reluctantly sings him the song, "The Wandering Songstress," but he leaves angrily before she is able to finish. Soon after, Xiao Hong overhears that her benefactors are scheming to sell her off to Mr. Gu. She runs to Xiao Chen for support, but he shuns her, still under the impression that she is unfaithful. Eventually, Xiao Chen comes to realize that Xiao Hong only has eyes for him, and he agrees to let her seek refuge with him and Wang. After hearing of the impending transaction involving Xiao Hong, Xiao Chen and Wang go to consult Lawyer Zhang to see if they can do anything to stop it. However, they realize that they cannot afford the costly legal fees. Without this legal help, the group flees to another district of Shanghai. Xiao Yun also escapes the teahouse to reunite with the others, and she envisions starting a new life with Xiao Chen’s friend, Wang. However, the owner of the tea house and Mr. Gu soon track them all down. Xiao Hong manages to escape, but Xiao Yun stays behind and refuses to reveal her sister’s whereabouts to her adoptive father. He heartlessly calls her a slut and throws her against the wall, to which she responds by throwing a knife at him. The knife misses and he picks it up and throws it back at her, striking her in the chest and dealing a fatal blow. The others come back only to find her half-conscious. Without any money for a doctor, however, there is little they can do but band together. She dies with the group gathered around her, mourning. ===== The film unfolds during a Semester-at-Sea-type cruise in the Caribbean. The class from Billingsly University are trying to put on a play to win a contest. Sexy and scheming Gerri and stoner Pete are competing for a scholarship. Newmar is trying to have sex with Violet, his Christian girlfriend. Rusty is just trying to have sex with anything he can. The creepy Dante runs around planning all sorts of nefarious schemes. Meanwhile, a priceless stolen jewel is loose on the boat and everyone is after it. ===== Major Chandrakanth (N. T. Rama Rao), a bravo courageous soldier who has been awarded Param Vir Chakra for protecting foreign tourists from a deadly terrorist G.K. (Rakhee). In that operation, unfortunately, his close friend Major Rajashekar (M.Balayya) is seriously injured. Before dying, Chandrakanth promises him to couple up his daughter Seeta (Nagma) with his son Sivaji (Mohan Babu). Due to a curveball, Sivaji becomes a gangster, associates with his friend Hema (Ramya Krishna) and works for a powerful politician M.P.Gnaeswara Rao (Amrish Puri) a scandalous who enacts a lot of atrocities in society using his 5 sons. Once while escaping from Police Sivaji unknowingly marries Seeta and escapes. Meanwhile, Chandrakanth returns home where he leads a happy family life with his ideal wife Savitri (Sarada), two daughters Dr. Bharathi (Sudha) & Jhansi (Kinnera) and son Sivaji. At present, Chandrakanth encounters Gnaeswara Rao and gives a tough fight. Once in a protest when Chandrakanth is wounded when Sivaji questions his father, then he explains the glory of his country which reforms Sivaji and decides to leave his profession. To which Gnaeswara Rao disagrees and makes him caught by Police when Chandrakanth is annoyed Sivaji starts narrating the past. Once he rescues Hema from a bunch of goons, afterward, he recognizes her as a smuggler when she asks him to accomplice them, he refuses. At the same time, Sivaji's brother- in-law (Prasad Babu) kills a person in an accident and the victim's demand 10 lakhs as compensation. So, to protect his family prestige, he forcibly entered the crime line. Yet, Chandrakanth is not ready to accept Sivaji, so, he leaves the house, bolts the real culprits with the help of Hema as too unwillingly carrying-out these activities. Here Chandrakanth feels proud, learns regarding his marriage, discovers Seeta as Rajashekar's daughter and happily gives his approval. Now, a tragic incident, Chandrakanth realizes that Savitri is terminally-ill as she suffers from blood cancer. At that point in time, Chandrakanth spots G.K with Gnaeswara Rao when Hema & Sivaji also follow them. In the attack, Hema dies and Chandrakanth presents Gnaeswar Rao's evil deeds before the judiciary. But he manipulates the legal proceedings and escapes from the sentence. Simultaneously, Savitri passes away when Chandrakanth takes an oath to remove these anti-social elements. So, he awakes the public and makes them to revolt. On the other side, Sivaji collects pieces of evidence against them and they decide to present it before Govt. Knowing it, Gnaeswar Rao kidnaps Chandrakanth and his family. At last, Chandrakanth proves Gnaeswar Rao as a traitor by sacrificing his life for the country. ===== Indefer Jones is the aged squire, between seventy and eighty years of age, of a large manor, Llanfeare, in Carmarthen, Wales. His niece, Isabel Brodrick, has lived with him for years after the remarriage of her father, and endeared herself to everyone. However, according to his strong traditional beliefs, the estate must be passed down to a male heir. His sole male blood relative is his nephew Henry Jones, a London clerk. Henry has, in the past, incurred debts that the squire had paid off, been "sent away from Oxford", and generally made a poor impression on his occasional visits to Llanfeare. Nevertheless, Henry is told of his uncle's intention to make him his heir and is invited to pay a visit. Isabel rejects her uncle's suggestion that she solve his dilemma by marrying Henry, as she cannot stand her cousin. Indefer Jones finds his nephew to be just as detestable as ever. As a result, he overcomes his prejudice and changes his will one final time, in Isabel's favour. Unfortunately, he dies before he can tell anyone. Finding the document hidden in a book of sermons by accident, Henry vacillates between keeping silent and revealing its location. He is neither good enough to give up the estate nor evil enough to burn the document, fearing disgrace, a long jail sentence and, not least, eternal damnation. Instead, he comforts himself by reasoning that doing nothing cannot be a crime. Indefer Jones had had his last will witnessed by two of his tenants, but since the will cannot be found despite a thorough search of the house, Henry inherits the estate. However, suspicions are only strengthened by his guilty manner. Some of the old squire's longtime servants quit. He takes to spending hours in the library, where the will is hidden. The local newspaper begins to publish accounts of the affair that are insulting and seemingly libelous to Henry. It accuses him of destroying the will and usurping the estate from Isabel, whom everybody knows and respects. The old squire's lawyer, Mr Apjohn, himself suspecting that Henry knows more than he lets on, approaches the new squire about the articles, pressuring the unwilling young man into taking legal action against the editor. Henry finds that this only makes things worse. The prospect of being cross-examined in the witness box fills him with dread. Mr Apjohn, by clever questioning, gets a good idea about where the will is. Henry knows that time is running out, but still procrastinates. Mr Apjohn and Mr Brodrick, Isabel's father, visit Henry at home and find the document, despite Henry's ineffectual efforts to stop them. Because he did not destroy the will, Henry is permitted to return to his job in London with his reputation intact and £4000, the amount Isabel was bequeathed in the other will. ===== Model of the Golem from the film ===== Jan is a boy growing up in 1930s Siam in a wealthy, dysfunctional family where sex has a huge impact on everyone's lives. Jan Dara is viewed by his father, Khun Luang, as cursed, since his mother died giving birth to him. The abusive Luang is a womaniser who has sex with many women in his household. The younger sister of Jan's mother, Aunt Waad, is brought in to care for Jan. Luang has sexual relations with her, which causes young Jan to be jealous, since he has developed feelings for Waad. Waad and Luang have a daughter, Kaew, who is the apple of Luang's eye. From the beginning, he spoils her and teaches her to hate the "bastard Jan". Waad, in return, treats Jan like her own son and despises the spoiled and bratty Kaew. Later, another of Khun Luang's women, the sophisticated nymphomaniac Boonlueang, moves into a guesthouse on the estate, and she teaches Jan his first lessons in the ways of love. Jan is then framed for the rape of Kaew, who was having relations with the son of one of the family's maids. But it is Jan who ends up punished for Kaew's transgressions. Later, it emerges that Kaew is pregnant, with the seed of her own father. To smooth over the damage to the family's reputation, Jan is asked to return to the family estate and is forced into an arranged marriage with his half-sister Kaew. He does so, as long as he is promised the deed to the estate, which he views as a form of vindication against his father for the abuse he endured from him during his childhood. Kaew gives birth to Luang's child and curses it after it has emerged from her womb. The child displays classic dysmorphic features found in genetic mutations such as trisomy 21, commonly known as Down's syndrome. Kaew, meanwhile, enters into a lesbian relationship with Boonlueang. When Jan discovers this, he demands that Kaew give him his own child and forces himself upon her repeatedly. Kaew becomes pregnant with Jan's child but she refuses to have the baby she is carrying, and with Boonlueang's assistance, performs a bloody, self-administered abortion. Jan subsequently finds himself repeating the libidinous patterns of his father, going as far as to have sex with a maid in his father's sitting room, in front of the portrait of his mother. Jan wonders why he can't escape the cycle of sexual abuse started by his father. Then it is revealed that Jan is the product of a gang rape of his mother. ===== Taking place in a ruined family compound in a small town in the Jiangnan region after the Sino-Japanese War, the film tells the story of the once prosperous Dai family. The film opens with Yuwen (Wei Wei) walking alone along the ruins of the city wall, narrating the slow-paced circular nature of her life. The husband and patriarch, Liyan (Shi Yu) is ill, and wallowing in the miserable reality of his family's loss. Symptomatic of his illness and depression, his marriage to Yuwen has long been rendered loveless, though both remain dutiful spouses to one another. Liyan spends his days in the courtyard expressing nostalgia at a better time. Meanwhile, Liyan's young teenage sister Xiu (Zhang Hongmei), too young to remember the past, stays cheerful and playful in the ruins of their home. Lao Huang (Cui Chaoming) is an old servant of the Dai family who faithfully remains with the Dai family. The Dai family still manages to live in an unexciting peace, but this is challenged suddenly when an unexpected visitor comes to their home. An unexpected visit from Liyan's childhood friend Zhang Zhichen (Li Wei), a doctor from Shanghai who previously had a relationship with Yuwen before she married Liyan. As Zhichen walked through the ruined courtyard wall, it indicated that he walked into the heart of Yuwen, the marriage of Liyan and Yuwen and the life of them, which also creates a lively atmosphere to the ruined household. The rest of the film details the complicated relationship between Yuwen, Liyan, Zhichen and Xiu. Yuwen is conflicted between her love for Zhichen and her loyalty to her husband. In the first evening that Zhichen lived here, Yuwen visited him and sent him some bedding and a thermos to show her concern. That’s the beginning of their rekindling love. After the day, Liyan, Yuwen, Zhichen and Xiu hung out together. The scene of boating and eye contact between Zhichen and Yuwen already illustrated everything. Their emotional culmination happened when they two walked along the ruined city wall and tree-lined trail. However, their love was interrupted by a conversation between Liyan and Zhichen. Liyan loves his wife, but feels unworthy of her. Liyan thought that things would be better if Yuwen married with Zhichen. This made Zhichen feel guilty and he showed a trend of breaking up with Yuwen. The emotion conflict of Yuwen was most apparent in this scene: when Zhichen and Yuwen considered about how was everything going on next, Yuwen said “what if he died” and then astonished by what she said, which completely shows the conflict between the loyalty to Liyan and the love to Zhichen. Xiu, having just turned sixteen years old, develops romantic feelings for Zhichen - who himself is conflicted between his love for Yuwen and his loyalty to his Liyan. As the film progresses, Liyan and Xiu begin to suspect that Zhichen and Yuwen are beginning to have strong feelings for one another. During a celebratory night, Zhichen, Liyan, Yuwen, and Xiu enjoy drinks and play games. Liyan begins to notice a happiness in Yuwen that he had not seen in some time, but that happiness is only manifested through her interaction with Zhichen. In a conversation with Yuwen shortly after, Liyan expresses his shame for being an inadequate husband, and he wishes out loud that Yuwen had married Zhichen instead. As Yuwen and Zhichen struggle between overcoming or succumbing to their passion for each other, Liyan attempts suicide by taking excessive amount of hypnotics, but he is resuscitated by Zhichen. After Liyan's attempted suicide, Yuwen begins to repair her relationship with Liyan. Both Yuwen and Zhichen express conviction not to rekindle their past relationship. As Zhichen departs, Huang and Xiu walk him to the train station. Zhichen makes a promise to return in a year. Yuwen, watching from the wall, is joined by Liyan as Zhichen departs. ===== The novel is set in 1878. The story opens with the murder in Paris of Lord Littleby, all seven of his servants and two children of servants. All were poisoned except for Littleby, who was bludgeoned with an ancient Indian artifact, a golden statuette of Shiva, which belonged to Lord Littleby and was stolen from his room, along with an old Indian shawl. French detective Gustave Gauche, in charge of the investigation, boards the passenger ship Leviathan. Gauche knows that the murderer must be one of the first-class passengers, because one of the special golden badges for the ship's first-class passengers was left in Littleby's room. Among the suspects are a Japanese Army officer, an addled English aristocrat, a married Swiss woman, and a clever young Russian diplomat on his way to his new post in Japan. The diplomat is Erast Fandorin, the master detective, who shoots down each of the ineffectual Gauche's incorrect conclusions, and in the end takes it on himself to find the murderer. ===== The film opens with Harmony (Basinger) driving down a long, winding road, the music of Elvis playing on the radio. She feels that her life is empty and artificial. She is a traveling cosmetic saleswoman, setting up "Pink Lady" training seminars in the western portion of the United States. When she is asked if she's "one of those Mary Kaye ladies," she replies, "No, we're pink, they're more salmon." While she is popular and successful selling "Pink Lady," there is nothing real or honest in her life. As Harmony travels around the country, trying to figure out what is missing from her life, Elvis impersonators keep dying in her wake. She is romantically pursued by Miles (Corbett). ===== On a flatbed lorry driven in the streets of London, a motorcar is under a grey cover with the initials RR. The Rolls Royce is first purchased by Charles, Marquess of Frinton as a 10th wedding anniversary present for his French wife, Eloise. Frinton is Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. The marquess is a longtime horse owner who has his heart set on winning the Ascot Gold Cup. This year his horse, named 10 June (his wedding anniversary date; also the writer Terence Rattigan's birthday) is the favourite and does indeed win. Lord Frinton is presented the Gold Cup by King George V. However, his elation is blighted when he finds his wife with her lover, his underling John Fane, in the back of the Rolls with the shades drawn. For appearance's sake, Lord Frinton will not divorce his wife, but he returns the car. 20,023 miles later, Genoa, Italy — The Rolls, according to G. Bomba, owner of the Genova Auto Salon was “owned by a Maharajah, who lost his money at the San Remo Casino.” The Rolls is purchased by American gangster Paolo Maltese. He is touring the sights of Italy with his bored fiancée Mae Jenkins and his right-hand man Joey Friedlander. When Maltese returns to Miami to take care of some unsavory business, he leaves Friedlander to chaperone Jenkins. Friedlander turns a blind eye when she falls in love with Stefano, a handsome young street photographer she had met while still with Maltese. Upon finding Jenkins and Stefano in the back of the Rolls with the shades drawn, Friedlander walks away. But he later shows Jenkins an eight-day-old American newspaper headline, Bugs O’ Leary Slain—Police Claim Gang Warfare, that was Maltese's business in the United States. Although in love with Stefano, Jenkins reluctantly leaves him, telling him that it was just a fling, to protect both of them from possible reprisal from her lethal boyfriend Maltese. Trieste on the Yugoslav border – the year, 1941 — The Rolls is in a repair shop. The car exterior is filthy with OCCASIONE (Bargain, Special Offer) painted on the windscreen. It is bought by Gerda Millett, a powerful and wealthy American widow touring Europe. Just before the Invasion of Yugoslavia by the Nazi Germans, she encounters anti-fascist Davich who commandeers her automobile to sneak into Yugoslavia, hiding in the boot before the border crossing. Along the way, these two seemingly different people fall in love. At their Ljubljana hotel, they survive a German aerial attack, then she insists on driving him to a partisan camp in the mountains and makes several trips to pick up more villagers and deliver them to the camp. She wants to stay and help repel the invaders, but Davich will not permit it, saying it is not her fight. He tells her to go back to America and tell people what she has witnessed. The car is seen being unloaded from a cargo ship in New York. Some years later, shown during the closing credits, the Rolls is seen driving along an expressway, passing beneath a road sign reading I-95, George Washington Bridge, Bronx – Next Right. ===== Shigeta, a young woman of 24, spends her days working at Tanaka Books and fretting over her love-life; or, more accurately, the lack thereof. The thing is, though, the biggest obstacle between Shigeta and a satisfying relationship seems to be Shigeta herself. When it comes to men, the poor girl has exceedingly poor judgement, exacerbated by her even poorer self-esteem. Volume 1 Kayoko Shigeta is spotted digging through a love horoscope while working at Tanaka Books. Been convinced that her relationship karma is at its peak, Shigeta develops an immediately crush on a cute guy customer. After getting his number, she calls the guy and immediately sleeps with him. Unfortunately, this guy only wants sex not a girlfriend. Then Shigeta tries to steal the boyfriend of Yuko Tanabe, the new hire at the book store. Being chased out of the bookstore by furious Yuko, Shigeta runs into a car. After being released from the hospital, Fuku, Shigeta's gorgeous roommate, takes her to a club. There, Shigeta falls for the DJ Tokieda. Being self-convinced that Tokieda is in love with her, Shigeta stops showing up for work and eventually loses her job at the bookstore. Even after spotting a naked woman in his bed, Shigeta still believes that she and Toki will get married soon. However, Tokieda prefers free love so she rejects him. Volume 2 Kayoko starts a new job at a make-up store. Meanwhile, Fuku plans to move-out and to marry her fiancé Matsu. However, this marriage is called-off when Fuku finds out that Matsu is cheating on her with Yumi. Shigeta's mom drags her to a temple to ask for a boyfriend. There she runs into Sakai, her high-school classmate. However, Sakai turns out to be a stalker. Shigeta has to keep on hiding away from him but Sakai won't leave her alone. She starts to receive take-out food she didn't order and calls from guys who find her number in phone booths. Sakai eventually kidnaps her. Takahashi rescues her from Sakai and confesses his love. Just as Shigeta starts to fall for Takahashi, he goes to the U.S. to study. Shigeta is alone again. Volume 3 Shigeta doesn't like her long-distance relationship with Takahashi. Fuku is planning to marry a new guy Hideki and never comes home. At a ceramics exhibit, Shigeta is attracted to the handsome potter Goro Kishiwada. To seduce him, she quits the make-up shop to become an apprentice at Kishiwada's studio. At the studio, she finds him having sex with Midori, the daughter of the master. Just as Shigeta is thinking of how to sleep with Kishiwada, Takahashi shows up at her front door. Later, Midori and Kishiwada elope together. However, Kishiwada tells Shigeta that he was actually tricked by Midori who used him to be with another man. Kishiwada eventually leaves for China. At the end, Shigeta is alone again. ===== The story for Harpies begins in the fictional world of Modalvia, where Vorian (Peter Jason) is fleeing from the castle guard. When cornered, Vorian releases his minions, the harpies, on the captain of the guard, who dies from the severing of his head. The story reopens to present day where Jason (Baldwin) is late for work at the local museum. His fellow guard Ted restricts him access, but after a blatant and logically flawed threat, he is allowed entrance. In the guards' locker-room we learn that Jason worked for the NYPD and was "terminated for cause"; and earlier that morning, he filed for divorce from his wife - whom he references as a harpy. On this night, Jason meets a professor (Peter Jason) who discusses the rare artifact (the Obelisk) with harpy carvings in the room that Jason had been eyeing for some time. Threatening with illogical force once again, Jason tells the professor to leave. Unfortunately, Jason is surrounded by mercenaries hired by the professor. After being tied-up, Jason escapes and proceeds to take on the mercenaries by himself, leaving Ted tied up in the locker-room. After defeating the professor's mercenaries, Jason takes an amulet from the professor, claiming: "I spent my whole life putting guys like you behind bars, and the NYPD fires me for it." Bargaining is irrelevant as Jason puts the amulet into the "crystal egg thingy" which opens up a time portal and sucks Jason into medieval times. Upon entering the old world, Jason meets Celestia (Richardson) who accuses Jason of having plans to steal her pigs. Upset and eager to return home, Jason leaves. After walking on a dirt path and thinking aloud a hilarious quip he should have said to Celestia, Jason sees warriors riding horses atop a distant hill. Suddenly, Jason and the warriors are attacked by the harpies. After swinging blindly at the air with their swords, one of the warriors, Celestia's father, is knocked off his horse by a harpy that may have momentarily turned invisible. Jason decides that it's time to help them fight the harpies. The warriors are in awe at Jason's shotgun and pistol (which fell into the portal with him) as he delivers fatal shots to the harpies. The warriors suspiciously accept him and offer Jason a ride to Celestia's house. Once there, Hamish (warrior), the Priest, and Celestia's father talk quietly amongst themselves to try and evaluate what they saw earlier. The Priest claims that Jason could be the a prodigal figure who has been referenced in historical heretical scrolls. They decide to wait and play it by ear. Jason quickly asks for directions to leave, but soon learns of Vorian's wicked control over the king, Lord Castor. Not hearing of the wizard's evil deeds, Jason simply wants to go home. The warriors & Celestia agree to take him to Lord Castor and Vorian to see if they can take him to the present. Before going to bed, Jason flirts with Celestia, who in turn turns him down, but not before calling him lengthy vulgarities of ancient times. The next morning, Vorian meets with Castor, to tell him of Jason's arrival and his means of dispersing of his minions. Castor demands his capture, which Vorian is thrilled with. The warriors enter a destroyed village. They learn that the people have been driven away. Undeterred, Jason still wants to go home, at what ever the cost. Celestia disapproves of this. Jason continues the trek to Castor's castle alone. Once Jason gets to the castle, he meets Caleb, the new captain, who has a sour attitude with Jason and secretly has an allegiance with Vorian. Jason is allowed entrance, where he is drugged by Vorian after revealing his encounter and the events in the museum. As a way of killing him, Vorian and Caleb put Jason atop a tower, where a harpy proceeds to attack him. However, Jason chokes it to death, allowing him to escape with the aid of Hamish and Garek (warrior). The alarm is sounded, and Castor's guards search the forest for Jason. The next day, Vorian visits the Obelisk in his secret harpy cave. He puts his amulet into the egg, but nothing happens. He logically decides that he needs Jason's amulet, and must retrieve it. After discussing Jason's misadventure with Vorian, however, Celestia comes to the conclusion that the amulet Vorian seeks is in the pig-pen Jason fell in. After searching it is found. Hamesh tells everyone that he has two-dozen men waiting for them. In the forest, the soldiers plan a strategy on how to breach Castor's castle and slay Vorian. Jason has the incredible idea of building a trebuchet (catapult) after seeing a special on PBS. Seeing as it is their only option, Hamish agrees and construction begins. Jason and Celestia's father talk, in the aftermath, the father gives a heroic speech about how Jason is their only hope of winning, and that the people have "seen too much suffering." The trebuchet complete, the battle begins on the grassland before Castor's castle. In the melee, they breach the wall after trying few times before unsuccessfully. However, Hamish is slain in battle and mourned by Jason and Celestia. Soon, they invade the castle. Vorian prepares to leave after the defeat. Castor threatens Vorian to stop the invasion and let loose his harpies. Vorian tells Castor that he no longer needs the king in his greater plan. Castor prepares to kill the wizard, but Vorian threatens to kill the king by letting the Queen Harpy on him. Garek, Jason, and Aldebert (Hammerdorfer) enter Vorian's potion room to find a cowering Castor and a harpy-protected Vorian. Celestia has been captured, and unless Jason gives him the amulet, "she dies". Garek and Jason agree on letting the king show them a secret entrance into Vorian's mountain hideout. Eager to kill the king, Castor lies to Garek, Aldebert and the Priest, and runs away. The warriors pursue him. Jason reaches the foot of the mountain. He must drop his weapons and give him the amulet, and he will return Celestia to him. Fooling the wizard however, Jason sneaks the amulet in her mouth after a passionate kiss. Jason advances up the mountain, leaving Celestia to return to her father who awaits her further down the mountain. Learning of Jason's trick, Vorian unleashes a harpy on Celestia and her retreating father. After a quick battle, the father is slain by the harpy, who is in turn slain by Celestia after a shotgun blast to the head. He dies in Celestia's arms. Jason is thrown into a cave where he meets up with a captured Castor. The two sneak down the secret entrance the king mentioned earlier, but in their descent they find thousands of harpy eggs, eventually coming to the conclusion that Vorian is planning a full-scale attack. Celestia, Garek, Aldebert, and the Priest return to the cottage, where Garek is sent to retrieve some items. Alone, Garek faces off with three harpies, managing to kill them all after committing suicide by burning them all alive with himself. Celestia, the Priest, Castor, Jason, and Aldebert unseat Caleb's control over the guards. Castor and Jason discuss a means of countering Vorian and stopping his eggs from hatching. The answer: a battle. So Castor rolls out the trebuchet and begins to fire on Vorian's mountain, while Jason, Celestia, and the Priest go into the mountain. Aldebert leads the troops in his father's footsteps, and Castor fights alongside him. They manage to seal up the mountain, but Aldebert is knocked unconscious by a harpy, and is out for the remainder of the battle. He awakens to learn they have "won the battle"; both pray for Jason's plan to work, and Aldebert gives him the title: Jason, the Harpy-Slayer. Celestia and Jason continue without the Priest after Celestia decides to leave with Jason after their relationship has blossomed, who is slain upon exiting the mountain by a harpy. Vorian calls upon the aid of the Queen Harpy so that they may retreat. Celestia and Jason begin to pour gas (where ever that came from) on the eggs. After a mild conflict with Vorian, the mountain explodes, but Jason, Vorian, Celestia, and the Queen Harpy are transported into the present day after the uniting of the two amulets. In the museum, a fight between the harpy and Jason, and a struggle between Celestia and Vorian occurs—upon their arrival, the professor is killed by a ball of fire. Jason breaks the glass of a sword display, and takes one of the two. With it he slays the queen and Vorian, who both are sucked back in time. Celestia and Jason exit the museum arm in arm. Ted observes Jason's destruction and yells for answers. Giving up, Ted heads out of frame, and the story ends. ===== In 1849 California, Huckleberry Hound rides west on his horse in search of a place to start a country farm. He discovers the small town of Two-Bit, which is being menaced by the outlaw brothers, the Dalton Gang consisting of Dinky, Finky, Pinky, and Stinky. Stinky was apprehended and sentenced to prison by Judge Tumbleweed Flopner. The Daltons steal Huck's belongings and coerce him into a game of poker, the stakes being a gold nugget Huck carries for his things. Huck accuses the Daltons of cheating, so they challenge him to a boxing match, which Huck wins. Huck goes to Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey's bank to deposit his gold, and wins a prize of his choice. He chooses a fountain pen, being partial to its blue ink. The Daltons rob the bank, stealing the nugget and the pen. Mayor Hokey Wolf calls an emergency town meeting and hurriedly appoints Huck as Two- Bit's new sheriff. Sheriff Huck hunts the Daltons and apprehends and jails them after some struggle. Stinky breaks out of prison with the Bit-2 News and reporter Magilla Gorilla covering the news. Huck receives a letter from Stinky Dalton. Stinky challenges Huck to a gunfight. None of the townsfolk want to help and flee to Tahiti. Stinky fails to kill Huck, so he breaks his brothers out of jail disguised as their grandmother. Despite his horse trying to rescue him, Huck chases the Daltons until they strap him to a rocket and launch him into the sky, where he is presumably blown up. The Daltons go on to become the richest outlaws in the West, taking over Two-Bit and renaming it "Daltonville". When the townsfolk return, the Daltons kick them out aboard a freight train and the townsfolk blame themselves for Huck's death and the loss of Two-Bit, or so they think. The rocket crashes at a Native American tribal community. Huck survives with amnesia and is found by the chief's daughter, Desert Flower. The two fall in love and Huck proposes marriage, but first Huck must undergo a two-part test for the chief's blessing. The first test is a game show, which Huck wins despite the chief meddling with his buzzer. For the second test, Huck has to wrestle Chuckling Chipmunk, the tribe's strongest man and Desert Flower's rival suitor. Huck loses, but saves Desert Flower when she falls in a river, earning the chief's blessing. Huck is about to undergo the ceremony when his horse returns and restores his memory, reminding him that the Daltons are still at large while also mentioning that his real name is Bob. Huck promises to return for Desert Flower and departs. Huck finds the townsfolk of Two-Bit working at a circus and urges them to help him take back their town. Recruiting a projectionist and showgirl Rusty Nails, Huck plans to use special effects to pose as a ghost and scare the Daltons away. Rusty shows a film to the Daltons warning that Huck's ghost will arrive in Daltonville on the "midnight ghost train". The Daltons are terrified except for Stinky, who refuses to be intimidated. Huck arrives aboard the train and scares the Daltons, including Stinky, but they refuse to go to jail. The Two-Bit townsfolk chase them into the state prison, disguised as the Daltons' hideout. Huck reveals his ruse and is congratulated for bringing the Daltons to justice. The narrator revealed what happened to Huck and the townsfolk: * Snagglepuss back working as a theater actor. * Quick Draw becomes Two-Bit's new sheriff with Baba Looey as his deputy. * Hokey Wolf runs a Used Wagon Lot in Two Bit. * Yogi and Boo-Boo return to Jellystone Park. * Huck returns to the tribe to marry Desert Flower, starting his farm and raising a family with her. ===== A beautiful but intoxicated woman, Jennie Jones (Janet Munro), returns to her London apartment late one night and begins to destroy its contents in a rage, throwing her purse, keys and many of her expensive gowns out into the street. Her story is then told in flashback. As a young girl, Jennie lives in an economically depressed, former mining town in Wales, where she works in her father's shabby general store and dreams of a more glamorous life. The store is doing poorly, and Jennie is horrified to discover that her father wants her to move to Cardiff and live with her elderly aunts as a companion and caregiver. While walking through Cardiff, Jennie and her friend Violet meet two well-off older men, Andy and Rex. The men take the girls to a fashionable bar and club for drinks and dancing, and Jennie gets drunk and passes out in Andy's car. She wakes up naked in bed in the men's apartment in London, having lost her virginity while drunk, and estranged herself from her father by staying out all night. She goes to meet Andy at a London pub, but when he fails to show, she is befriended by the kindly barman, Bob Williams (John Stride), to the chagrin of the barmaid Ella who is attracted to Bob. Not wanting to return to her home, Jennie says to Bob that she is pregnant and accepts his offer of help. Bob moves her into his flat and supports them both on his wages, planning to marry her soon. However, Jennie quickly becomes bored, and accepts an invitation from Bob's actor neighbour to attend a party in honour of a well-known producer, Karl Denny (Alan Badel). Jennie tells Bob she is attending the party to get work as a model or actress, and convinces him to give her a large sum of money to buy a proper party dress. Denny notices Jennie at the party and asks her to see him the following night, ostensibly about an acting role. After the party, a drunken Jennie creates a disturbance when she goes home to Bob's apartment. The next night, when Jennie fails to return from her appointment with Denny, Bob goes to Denny's apartment to find her and they argue, with Jennie revealing that she is not pregnant, does not love Bob and does not want to marry him. Heartbroken, Bob leaves and Jennie becomes Denny's mistress. The flashback ends and the film returns to the scene shown at the start. The morning after Jennie's drunken rampage, she is found dead amidst the wreckage of her apartment (including a smashed framed photograph of Denny), having overdosed on pills. The police find her address book full of men's numbers, suggesting she had been promiscuous. The ambulance carrying Jennie's body almost collides with Bob and Ella, now a happy couple oblivious to Jennie's tragic fate. ===== Showboat World follows the farcical adventures of Apollon Zamp, owner of the showboat Miraldra's Enchantment, and his troupe of acrobats, magicians and actors. Zamp is invited by the King of Soyvanesse to travel up the river Vissel to the distant city of Mornune, there to participate in a contest. A rich prize awaits the showboat captain who stages the most spectacular performance and succeeds in entertaining the king. The mysterious, attractive Damsel Blanche-Aster accompanies him up the river for her own reasons. Zamp loses his ship through the machinations of his chief rival, Garth Ashgale, captain of the showboat Fironzelle's Golden Conceit. In order to take part in the competition, Zamp is forced to form an unlikely partnership with staid museum ship owner Throdorus Gassoon. Both men attempt to woo the unimpressed Damsel Blanche-Aster during the perilous journey. Along the way, the travellers encounter cultures and people with weird beliefs and unusual, often violent, customs. At least one scene was influenced by the Royal Nonesuch acting troupe episode in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, while Showboat World itself has strongly influenced The Wizard of Karres (2004) by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer. In addition, there are repeated references to Shakespeare's Macbeth, which is continuously adapted and readapted to the tastes of varying audiences. When they finally arrive at Mornune, Damsel Blanche-Aster reveals herself to be the rightful ruler, only to have her claim trumped by the unwitting Gassoon, when he appears in a decrepit costume that confers the throne on him. Gassoon marries the reluctantly acquiescent Blanche-Aster and richly rewards Zamp for his part in his elevation. Gassoon gives Zamp his boat, having no further use for it, and Zamp leaves with the boat and crew. When the costume falls apart, Gassoon flees with a bag of jewels and is able to catch up with the boat, which he reclaims. Both men are now wealthy—Zamp will build a new showboat while Gassoon will resume his role as proprietor of a museum boat. ===== When a ferocious, wolf-life creature appears in the small town of Bayport on the night of a full moon, the Hardy boys are engaged to clear the name of a young man who has a history of werewolves in his family line is suspected. Joe barely escapes a horrible death as the young detectives solve this exciting and hair-raising mystery. ===== Shortly after his arrival in United States, a Japanese business tycoon mysteriously disappears. Mr. Hardy, who had been entrusted with the man's security, is baffled and shocked. He feels even worse when the FBI takes him off the case. However, his sons, Frank & Joe, are there to investigate this case. A valuable samurai sword, said to have belonged to the missing tycoon's family for generations, is stolen from an auction gallery in New York, and the boys suspect a connection. One clue leads to another, and danger confronts them constantly on their search for the solution to the puzzle. Who are their enemies? Did the criminals kidnap the missing businessman, or did he hide of his own volition? What is the secret of the stolen samurai sword? Category:The Hardy Boys books Category:1979 American novels Category:1979 children's books ===== In Prague, Mr. Pivoňka, an unmarried man, buys some pornography from his local newsagent, Mr. Kula, and returns home. A postwoman, Mrs. Malková gives him a letter which reads "On Sunday" in cut-out letters. In secret, she then rolls pieces of bread into little balls and carries them in her satchel. Pivoňka asks his neighbour, Mrs. Loubalová, to slaughter a chicken for him. Using the leftover feathers and papier-mâché made from the pornography, he constructs a chicken head and fabricates wings made from umbrellas. Meanwhile, police captain Weltinský buys rolling pins and pan lids from the same shop that sells Pivoňka's umbrellas. Using these items, plus stolen pieces of fur and sharp things, Weltinský constructs unusual objects in his workshop. His wife, a newsreader named Anna Weltinská (who portrays herself), feels neglected and buys some live carp. She is unaware that Kula is in love with her image and has constructed a machine rigged to stroke and masturbate him when she is on television. Pivoňka and Loubalová construct life-size effigies of each other. On Sunday, Pivoňka drives to the country with his effigy while Loubalová takes her effigy to an abandoned crypt containing a closet, a chair with candles and a basin of water. Loubalová emerges from the closet and whips her straw effigy which, being animated, reacts. Pivoňka dresses in his chicken outfit and struts around his similarly animated effigy, eventually crushing it with a boulder while Loubalová drowns hers in the basin. At home, Malková shoves an unfeasible number of bread balls in her nose and ears and takes a nap. While Weltinská strokes her carp and feeds them the bread balls Malková later delivers, Beltinský strips naked in his workshop and rubs his objects over his body. When Weltinská reads the news, Kula turns on his machine and climaxes at the same time that she does, stimulated by the carp sucking her toes under her desk. On his way home, Pivoňka is fascinated by Weltinská's image in a television shop window and stops to buy electronic equipment magazines at Kula's shop. Kula is now covering rolling pins with feathers; Malková looks longingly at a carp in a fishmonger's windows. Pivonka discovers that Loubalová has been killed in her flat by a boulder that has seemingly dropped through her roof; Beltinský is investigating. Entering his own flat, Pivonka sees the chair with candles and the basin of water awaiting him. His closet door slowly opens. ===== ===== To make up for the loss of the Crown of Genghis Khan, Scrooge McDuck and his nephews looks for its Western equivalent, the Crusader Kings' crown, sent to Cathay on Cristoforo Colombo's expedition in 1492 and still hidden in the Caribbean. To locate it, they first recover Colombo's logbook in a hut in the Arctic, left there by explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, and read that "the templar hid the crown". They visit the International Money Council (already mentioned in the Carl Barks' comic The Fabulous Philosopher's Stone) in Paris looking for additional clues, and Director Molay reveals to them that the Knights Templars, a crusader order which evolved into Europe's first bank network, ceded to the Kings of Spain and Portugal the crown to be sent to Cathay, in exchange of a share of the future trade, with the proviso that, should the voyage fail to reach its destination, the contract would become null and void by October 13, 1582, and the crown would be returned to the Order. It's also mentioned that the Templars, whose properties were seized by Philip IV of France, managed to spirit away their treasury in several locations, including Scotland. Molay accompanies the Ducks to Haiti, but purposefully attempts to send them on a wild goose chase. When they nevertheless manage to locate the crown, he claims ownership of it, as the IMC was formerly the Bank of the Templar Order. The Ducks manage to prove that his claim is null and void because of the switch to the Gregorian calendar (executed by skipping ten days), which meant that there never was an October 13, 1582. Eventually, however, the government of Haiti is recognized as the rightful owner of the crown, and Scrooge is satisfied by keeping the fabric on which the crown was wrapped in as it's the Clan McDuck tartan, indicating the Knights Templar's vast treasure is located at Castle McDuck. The story continues in The Old Castle's Other Secret or A Letter From Home. ===== Two fur traders, Jim Rainbolt (Clint Walker) and Shaun Garrett (Roger Moore), stumble across a big gold strike. With the ruthless bandit McCracken (Gene Evans) and his men in relentless pursuit, they hide the gold behind a giant boulder. Shaun is wounded, but Doc Gates (Chill Wills) shows up out of nowhere and patches him up and is made a full partner. They take refuge at the ranch of Amos Gondora, an old friend of Jim's. There they are introduced to Gondora's so-called "ward", an Indian maiden called Tita (Letícia Román). That night some of McCracken's men stage a stampede and draw Jim and Gondora away. While they are gone, McCracken and some men ride up and take Shaun and Doc captive. He kills Doc because he is unable to tell the hiding place of the gold. Shaun does not know how to find the hiding place and even under torture cannot lead anyone to the gold. Rainbolt tracks and finds McCracken and his men. After a shootout, McCracken is the only one left of his gang, but he has a gun to Shaun's head and compels Rainbolt to lead him to the gold. When they get there, Rainbolt feigns being unable to move the boulder alone, drawing McCracken in close enough for Rainbolt to roll another boulder onto McCracken's leg, trapping him. Rainbolt and Garrett intend to leave McCracken there to die, but Gondora and his men show up. Everything seems all right until Gondora puts friendship aside and demands the gold for himself. Jim and Shaun run from them and must cross a rushing river to get away. The bags of gold fall apart and the gold is lost in the river where it came from. After they laugh at this turn of events, Gondora pledges his friendship again and Rainbolt and Garrett set out to return to their fur trapping. ===== The action takes place in a futuristic urban setting, occasionally illustrated by cut-scenes. The early levels of the game depict Slater combating enemy gangs. The G-Police suspect "Krakov" corporation is supplying the gangs with weaponry. Krakov's president however is subsequently the subject of an assassination attempt by the gangs. During this attempt, Hiroshi Tachikawaa pilot whom Slater describes as flying his gun-ship "like he was born in it"dies when his gun-ship crashes after mysteriously malfunctioning. In the interests of morale, his death is covered up; Slater notes this incident is reminiscent of Elaine's death. After numerous terrorist attacks on their personnel and property, Krakov blames a rival corporation, "Nanosoft", and begins openly attacking them with its private army. Lacking evidence for involvement with the criminal gangs, the G-Police protect Nanosoft, ultimately destroying Krakov's military power. The G-Police, however, investigate exactly why Krakov and Nanosoft were fighting. The latter half of the game depicts a conflict between the G-Police and Nanosoft's private forces, which attack G-Police after Krakov's collapse, both out of panic as to the investigation and to tie up loose ends. In the unfolding plot, the player learns that Tachikawa and Elaine were killed (by the sabotage of their gun-ships) to procure microchips implanted in their brains. These chips can record a pilot's knowledge and combat skills; Nanosoft desired them to power the artificial intelligence in their weapons. The G-Police commander Horton is assassinated by Slater's traitorous wingman Ricardo, also to this end. The game ends with the destruction of a large spacecraft by Slater; the closing sequence reveals that Nanosoft had planned to use this to exert military dominance over other corporations. ===== Hesther Salomon, a magistrate, asks her platonic friend Martin Dysart, a disillusioned psychiatrist who works with disturbed teenagers at a hospital in Hampshire, England, to treat a 17-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang after he blinded six horses with a sickle. With Alan only singing TV commercial jingles, Martin goes to see the boy's parents, the non-religious Frank Strang and his Christian fundamentalist wife Dora. She had taught her son the basics of sex and that God sees all, but the withdrawn Alan replaced his mother's deity with a god he called Equus, incarnated in horses. Frank discloses to Martin that he witnessed Alan late at night in his room, haltered and flagellating himself, as he chanted a series of names in Biblical genealogy- fashion which culminated in the name Equus as he climaxed. Martin begins winning the respect and confidence of Alan, who shares his earliest memory of a horse from when he was six and a man approached him on a horse named Trojan. Alan imagined the horse spoke to him, and said his true name was Equus, and this was the name of all horses. The man took Alan up on Trojan, which the boy found thrilling, but his parents reacted negatively and injured him taking him off the horse. Martin also meets the stable manager, who reveals Alan secured his job through another employee, Jill. Devastated at the horses' injuries she indirectly caused, Jill has taken medical leave. Eventually, Alan admits to Martin that he would secretly take horses away from the stables at night to ride them nude, chanting prayers to Equus until he reached orgasm, after which he caressed them lovingly. Martin envies the boy's passionate paganism, in comparison to his own empty life, where he has ceased intimacies with his wife and is plagued by nightmares of ritualistically slaughtering children in Homer's Greece, wearing the Mask of Agamemnon. Given an aspirin serving as a placebo "truth drug", Alan further reveals that one evening Jill tempted him to go to a Swedish pornographic film at a local cinema, where he was shocked to see his father. Going back with Jill to the stables, she stripped and offered him sex but he was unable to perform and, although she was sympathetic, told her to leave. Naked, and tormented that Equus sees all and is a jealous god, he blinded the horses. Martin is left troubled by the fact that he can treat Alan to take away his pain but in the process will deprive the boy of his passion, leaving him as emotionally neutered as Martin himself. ===== Betrayed is an espionage thriller set in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, and revolves mostly around the Dutch resistance movement. Colonel Pieter Deventer (Clark Gable) is an intelligence agent of the exiled Dutch government, working to liberate his homeland from Nazi occupiers. He divides his time between secret missions in the Netherlands and trips to England to consult his superiors and a British general. Deventer is ordered to keep an eye on singer Fran Seelers (Lana Turner), who's suspected of collaborating with the Germans. Both Deventer and Seelers join the shadowy Dutch underground, making contact with a flamboyant resistance leader known as "The Scarf" (Victor Mature). As "Carla Van Oven", Seelers is assigned is to use her feminine charms to gain the confidence of Nazi officers and gather information. In one scene, resistance fighters burst into a lavish dinner party where Seelers is singing, and shoot Nazi officers. Within the next few weeks, however, a considerable number of underground operatives are captured and shot while carrying out ambushes and sabotage missions. It begins to look as though Deventer's suspicions about Seelers were correct, which weighs on his heart, because the two have fallen in love. Ultimately, as Allied troops and the local resistance begin to turn the tide against the Nazis, "The Scarf" is revealed to be the real collaborator, and Deventer executes him. Seelers, who had loyally served the underground and almost been killed, turns up safe with British troops, and the two lovers are reunited. ===== Placed there by a past rocket ship that crashed, the people of the storied land are within sight of another rocket ship on a distant mountain plateau. The plot follows Sim, the protagonist of this story, and his apparently short life on a planet where people are cursed by radiation to live only eight days. The people of this planet are also gifted with racial memory (they remember their ancestors' memories). However, they do not attempt to reach the sole remaining rocket ship due to the futility of attempting to reach it in one hour, which is the longest length of time between day and night (both deadly). Sim is then moved by the memory of his ancestors to find and meet with scientists who make halting progress towards the goal of lengthening the world's decreased life span. Sim, motivated by his dwindling days, makes it his goal to extend his life and reach the distant rocket, despite the protests of his sister and other cave-dwellers. ===== The story starts in Sacramento in 1867. The Cascabels are a French family of circus artists who plan to return home after several years spent touring the United States. However, their savings are stolen, so the family cannot afford the ship fare. Instead, César Cascabel decides to travel overland, via Alaska and Bering Straits, through Siberia and Central Russia with their horse-drawn carriage, the Belle-Roulotte (the Fair Rambler). They expect to encounter no dangers along their intended route. On their way crossing the Alaskan border, with the help of native girl Kayette, they rescue a Russian political fugitive, count Narkine, whom they bring along so that he can see again his father in Russia. Count Narkine adopts Kayette as his daughter. While in Sitka, the group witnesses the transfer of Alaska to the United States. On their way from Port Clarence the travellers unfortunately end up on a floating iceberg that drifts in Arctic Ocean to the Lyakhovsky Islands. There they are captured by the natives. Other troubles, including political ones, occur but Cascabels manage to get through the Urals to Perm and then, easily, to France. An animated TV series inspired by the book was produced in 2001 in France. Image:'César Cascabel' by George Roux 03.jpg|Map of route through Alaska Image:'César Cascabel' by George Roux 39.jpg|Map of route through Russia ===== The video opens with a bride-to-be getting out of her car screen right and enters a church. Soon afterwards a groom-to-be portrayed by Kihn himself gets out of another car screen left and enters an adjoining church. Entering in the groom's back entrance, he is readied for his impending marriage to another bride by his parents, who nudge him into the church's main hall. Inside the main hall, a children's choir is seen singing the song's first chorus, the minister, the rest of the groom's family, as well as the groom's ushers portrayed by Kihn's band. The (other) bride is led by her father, who rather forcefully gives her to Kihn. As the minister recites the vow questions, Kihn turns his head backwards multiple times, as he cannot help feeling that something is amiss at the ceremony. He looks at his parents and notices that they are handcuffed together. The minister asks Kihn for the ring. He looks at this bride's parents and sees that the hands that are being held together in a handshake of friendship merge and morph into a bone-destroying blob. The minister asks Kihn for the ring again. He looks at his aunt and uncle and notices that they are literally joined at the hip. The minister asks Kihn for the ring a third time, this time using sign language. He reaches into his coat pocket and finds the ring, puts it on the bride's hand and takes off the veil. The bride proves to be a zombie, who lets out an earth-shattering scream. This is a possible reference to Bride of the Monster. Kihn screams in horror at the sight. The entire congregation turns into zombies possibly referencing Night of the Living Dead except for Kihn, who makes his first attempt at escaping. Just as he is halfway down the aisle between the church's pews, a gigantic, tentacled monster emerges from the church's podium. The monster pulls him to the center of the church. Kihn, in retaliation, breaks off a piece of a pew and uses it as a spear. He pokes and cuts into the tentacle with the "pew spear," and the monster goes back down into the floorboards. Kihn then uses it like a guitar and sings a repeat of the second verse to the crowd. He then makes a second run for the door, the congregation coming after him, and this time he succeeds. Next is seen what looks like a successful end to the proceedings, but it is revealed to be a movie watched by burning skeletons of the bride and groom. The screen dissolves to reveal that this has all been a dream of Kihn's. Kihn then takes a bottle of champagne and sneaks out the back way of the church. He jumps into a convertible and glances over, just in time to see the bride-to-be from the video's beginning running away from her own wedding. He pulls in front of her, and she gets into his car. Its license plate reads "LIPS." They pop the cork of the champagne bottle and the video ends. ===== Nicholas Dee, a young, anxiety-ridden history professor, lives in an unnamed American city battered by winter storms, plagued by crime, and patrolled by police in choppers and riot gear. Haunted by memories of his brilliant father and by the fear of loss, Nicholas takes shelter in his research: a history of the practice of insurance. One night, after a chance encounter with the police, he is made the guardian of a beautiful teenaged delinquent, Oscar Vega. But the boy is a part of a scheme to ensnare Nicholas, the tool of a mysterious female dwarf named Amelia Weathered, once the lover of Nicholas' father. Made an outlaw, Nicholas flees with Amelia, her young son Francis, and Oscar to the half-drowned country of Holland, where the boundaries between his historical research, his fantasies, and Amelia's schemes all begin to blend together. Scattered throughout the novel are passages from Nicholas Dee's scholarly writing, chronicle of a seventeenth century Dutch opera-house, which was built in a coastal swamp on the advice of a fortune-teller and housed a single performance before being swept out to sea in a storm. The chronicle is intended by Dee to serve as a case study within his history of insurance. But by the end of the book, a personal narrative has emerged from Dee's impersonal history, the story of a man's friendship with a boy soprano. Interpenetrating and linking the inner text by Nicholas Dee and the outer one by Matthew Stadler are snatches of music - extracts from the score of The Tempest, Henry Purcell's operatic setting of Shakespeare's play. Category:1993 American novels Category:Novels by Matthew Stadler ===== Devdas (K. L. Saigal) falls in love with Parvati (Jamuna), with whom he has played since childhood and who is the daughter of a poor neighboring family. Devdas goes away to Calcutta for University studies. Meanwhile, Parvati's father arranges her marriage to a much older man. Though she loves Devdas, she obeys her father to suffer in silence like a dutiful Indian wife of those times. Devdas as a result takes to drinking. Chandramukhi (Rajkumari), a dancing girl or "prostitute" he has befriended in Calcutta, falls for him and gives up her profession to try to save him. Parvati, hearing of his decline, comes to see him to steer him away from a life of drinking. Devdas sends her back, saying in his hour of final need he will come to her. She returns to her life of duty. Realising his end is near, Devdas decides to keep his promise and meet Parvati. He journeys all night, reaches her house and is found dead outside the high walls of her house. Inside Parvati hears from her stepson Mohan, that Devdas is dead. Grief-stricken at this news, Parvati attempts to run out of her house, in order to pay a last visit to his beloved. But her husband orders the main gate to be closed, as it was a social taboo at that time, not to let women step out of the periphery of their in- laws'residence. Consequently, Paro fails to run out, trips over, and the main gate is shut in front of her. A dead Devdas is taken to the cemetery and cremated by the local people. ===== All of Todd's novels are set just before or at the beginning of the "Third Pass", about 500 years after human settlement on Pern (500 AL, "After Landing") and 2000 years before the "Ninth Pass" events chronicled in most of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Dragonsblood features an epidemic that strikes fire-lizards, probably first, and dragons (reptiloids). The people of Pern have regressed since its settlement by colonists from Earth and have already lost the knowledge and equipment to handle such a bio-medical crisis. In Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983) and Nerilka's Story (1985), Anne McCaffrey had featured a plague that decimates humans and apparently passes among mammals. That happened 1000 years later in Pern history. ===== The fire-lizard banishment probably lead to the absence of fire-lizards (once common creatures to the average human on Pern) by Moreta's time (5th or 6th Pass) and their "re-discovery" by F'nor and Menolly several hundred years later (9th pass). The story also brings back a time shortly after that of Dragonsdawn, introducing the use of drums as a means of communication across distances that figures prominently in the Harper Hall trilogy and other earlier stories. Fire-lizards used to be the main relayers of messages, but with their banishment, people turned to drums to spread news. The loss of technology leads to a shift towards an oral tradition and the creation and use of Teaching Songs. Wind Blossom was trained by her mother Kitti Ping (Dragonsdawn), an Eridani-trained geneticist. The Eridani have a tradition of passing the responsibility of watching over genetic changes to their descendants. Wind Blossom was resistant to this idea, but it still played through as her daughter Emorra marries Tieran – it is strongly implied that Lorana is their descendant. Watch-whers are shown in a more prominent light compared to books written after the 9th pass. It is mentioned that they were purposely built to be nocturnal and fight Thread at night. This is a ret-con from books written by Anne McCaffrey alone. It is unclear if they continue to fight Thread by the 9th pass. Watch-whers that are with humans are misunderstood and have been reduced to chained up watchdogs. ===== In the years before World War I in Byron, Australia, the males of the Hurlingford family hold all the power and money. Those Hurlingford women without a man due to spinsterhood or widowhood lead cramped lives of hard work and little money on scraps of land or in businesses that just barely support them. Thirty-something spinster Missy Wright leads a narrow existence on the wrong side of the tracks with her widowed mother Drusilla Hurlingford Wright and crippled aunt Octavia when Byron is consumed by two events, the upcoming wedding of Missy's beautiful cousin Alicia Marshall to William Hurlingford and the arrival of rough looking stranger named John Smith. With limited funds and suffering bouts of ill health, Missy's only consolation are her trips to the lending library where her distant cousin Una Hurlingford works. Una, a society beauty, has returned to Byron after a glamorous life in Sydney. Under Una's tutelage and bolstered by the romantic novels she sneaks home, Missy begins to dream of the world outside Byron and a better life for herself. Bolstered by a confrontation with her cousin Alicia and a trip to a Sydney doctor, Missy breaks free of her Byron shackles, finds financial independence for her older female Hurlingford relations and ends up the happy bride of the mystery man John Smith. ===== The story's anonymous narrator has moved from New England to New York City, and greatly regrets it. One night, while wandering through a historic part of Greenwich Village, he happens upon a man dressed in garments from the 18th century. The man offers to show the narrator the secrets of the town. The man brings the narrator into his home. There, he tells him the story of a squire who bargained with Native Americans for the secrets of their rituals concerning time and space, which were practiced on the land where the squire had recently taken up residence. After learning these secrets, the squire killed the Native Americans by giving them "monstrous bad rum". Within a week all of them were dead, and he alone had their secret knowledge. The man shows the narrator visions of the city's past and future so terrifying that he begins to scream wildly. The screams rouse the spirits of the Native Americans to take vengeance on the man, who is the same squire from 1768. ===== A rogue comet that strikes Pern leads the Weyrleaders and Holders, contemplating a future where dragonriders are not needed in a Threadless world, to consider the creation of a new Star Craft made of dragonriders. The discovery by dragonriders F'lessan and Tai, later brutally attacked by large felines, of the draconic use of telekinesis, only strengthens their resolve to keep Pern's skies free of danger. At the same time, disgruntled citizens resisting the ever-growing role of technology in Pernese life band together as Abominators, attacking Crafthalls, and are determined to destroy all the new technology in use. These fanatics are seemingly allied with Toric, the Southern Lord Holder. ===== The story begins by describing how the modern world has been stripped of imagination and belief in magic. The protagonist is an unnamed man who lives in a dull and ugly city. Every night for many years the man gazes from his window upon the stars, until he comes over time to observe secret vistas unsuspected by normal humanity. One night the gulf between his world and the stars is bridged, and his mind ascends from his body out unto the boundless cosmos. ===== The novel is narrated by Grace Strasser-Mendana, an American expatriate who married into one of the three or four families that dominate Boca Grande politics, the Mendanas. Grace was trained as an anthropologist under Claude Lévi-Strauss, and later took up the amateur study of biochemistry, both attempts to find clear-cut, scientific answers to the mysteries of human behavior. Both attempts fail: Grace remains uncomprehending and cut off from the people around her, and in the final line of the novel she admits, "I have not been the witness I wanted to be." But Grace is not the novel's central character. That is Charlotte Douglas, another American woman sojourning in Boca Grande, although her family ties are elsewhere. Charlotte's beloved daughter Marin has run off with a group of Marxist radicals and taken part in an absurd act of terrorism, and in the wake of her daughter's disappearance, Charlotte's marriage to a crusading Berkeley lawyer (not Marin's father), has fallen apart. ===== While babysitting Stewie, Peter takes him along on an all day golf game and Stewie ends up with a tan all over his body. Stewie decides he likes being tanned and begins frequently to use a tanning bed in his room. He also holds a party for tanned people only. Stewie tells Brian to wake him up after fifteen minutes of tanning but Brian falls asleep and wakes up six and a half hours later. Stewie is extremely sunburned, barely able to move and in great pain. When Stewie eventually begins to peel, Brian spots a mole on Stewie's stomach. Convinced it is skin cancer, Stewie begins to live out his dying wishes with Brian forced to help him since it was partially his fault he caused the cancer in the first place (though Stewie solely blames him). One of Stewie's requests was to visit the Chicago Museum of Art. As his last request he has Brian record his final thoughts. In the end, Stewie hears from Dr. Hartman that he does not have cancer and gives up tanning. Stewie then sees that Brian drew himself being hanged instead of his final thoughts, prompting the baby to quip "Oh, you are just the worst type of person". Meanwhile, Chris learns that his best customer, Herbert, has made Kyle, a neighbor's son and a bully, his new paper boy. Chris decides to confront them both but ends up getting pushed over by Kyle and laughed at by Kyle's friends subsequently returning home in tears much to Peter and Lois' concern. Peter goes to talk with Kyle who makes fun of him over and over. Unable to control his anger toward Kyle, Peter beats him up leaving Kyle bleeding and bruised. Kyle’s mother agrees not to press charges if Peter apologizes to Kyle which he reluctantly does. Kyle easily forgives him, saying he would have done the same and commenting on how good bullying makes you feel, encouraging Peter to become a bully. Peter splashes a pot of boiling water over Lois and makes her punch herself in the face. He also hits Stewie on his sunburned buttocks, knocks Chris out of his chair, and sticks his large butt out at Meg to fart repeatedly in her face following her backwards around the kitchen table until she finally trips and vomits on the floor at which Peter gets mad with her. When Peter also bullies his friends, such as using Joe as a marionette and pulling Cleveland's pants down, Lois points out that he is as bad as his old school bully, Randy Fulcher. Deciding he should bully him instead, Peter finds Randy who is now suffering from multiple sclerosis. Thinking, when Randy says “I have MS,” that he is bragging that he has a monkey’s scrotum, Peter is about to beat up Randy but is stopped by Chris who beats Peter up instead and finally convinces him bullying is wrong. As the event is witnessed by a wrong sounding Kermit the Frog and a wrong sounding Swedish Chef, a wrong sounding Fozzie Bear (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan) asks them if they want to hear a joke as the episode ends. ===== After being attacked by an octopus at the aquarium, Peter decides to become physically fit. After spending a mere fifteen minutes at the gym, Peter believes he is now fit, so when former U.S. President Bill Clinton's car breaks down outside their house, he attempts to lift it without a jack, which results in him getting a sudden severe hernia and being hospitalized. Depressed at the concept of becoming old, he confides in Clinton, who tells him age is a state of mind. When Peter recovers, Bill takes him out to help him realize he can still have fun. They become best friends and spend a lot of time together, but things start to get out of hand when they start smoking marijuana and cause mischief while high on it. Believing that Bill is a bad influence on Peter, Lois goes to discuss with Bill the bad effect he is having on Peter, but ends up having sex with him. Devastated about the incident, Peter leaves Lois and stays at Quagmire's house. Lois is wracked with guilt and visits him, telling him that the only way to mend their relationship is if Peter sleeps with someone else. Though uncertain that it will work, Peter chooses to sleep with Barbara Pewterschmidt, Lois' mother. Barbara turns out to be more than willing, but Peter bails out at the last moment and tells Lois that he refuses to sleep with anyone else and they forgive each other. After going to tell Bill they cannot be friends anymore, Peter too is enticed into sleeping with Bill (inadvertently getting even with Lois). Meanwhile, Lois is fed up with stepping in Brian's feces on the lawn and forces him through toilet training himself. Brian and Stewie attempt to learn how to use the toilet, but fail. They buy a toilet training video presented by actor Roy Scheider, which nearly traumatizes them. Lois forces Brian to wear Stewie's diapers to prevent him from defecating in the garden; after that, she deals with Peter for the duration of the story. During the end credits, Brian pretends to be using the toilet as not to be told off by Lois, and begins to leave his feces at Mayor Adam West's house, which he believes is sausage that he planted in the ground. ===== After hearing Quagmire brag about his sexual exploits, Peter feels that he has missed out on enjoying the single lifestyle. Death is summoned to The Drunken Clam on a false alarm (thinking that Horace had died), and decides to grant Peter's wish by sending him, along with Brian, back to 1984 for one night. He notices his friend Cleveland, in his '80s look, who high-fives him around the pool. He then sees 18-year-old Lois Pewterschmidt walking around the country club pool, taking her high-heeled shoes off and jumping off the diving board into the pool with "Mr. Night" playing in the background, a reference to Caddyshack. Appearing to others as his 18-year-old self, Peter cancels his scheduled movie date to see Zapped! with Lois, instead accepting an invitation from Cleveland to go and party at a bar. Peter enjoys the evening, and ends up making out with actress Molly Ringwald before Death appears to return him to the present. Back in the present day, Peter discovers that his past actions have had drastic effects on the world: he and Molly have been married for 20 years; Judd Nelson crashes at their house once or twice a week; Lois is married to Quagmire; Al Gore is now the President of the United States; Chris, Meg, and Stewie have Quagmire's chin, nose, and mannerisms; and Chevy Chase is the host of The Tonight Show. Brian explains to Peter that by missing out on his date with Lois and making out with Molly, he altered the course of history. Brian also believes that they may have also caused a butterfly effect, as shown with the additional changes to their timeline. Despite Brian's objections about leaving his idea of a "perfect" world (in which there are flying cars that run on vegetable oil and Gore has killed Osama bin Laden by strangling him with his bare hands), Peter wants to go back to the past so he can undo his mistake. This seems to be a challenge because Death can only be summoned if someone dies, and Brian believes Al Gore's universal health care and zero-tolerance gun control laws have led to people living much longer. However, when Jane Jetson suddenly falls on the sidewalk and dies, Death arrives and again grants Peter's wish to return to the past. Back in the past, Peter is determined to accept Lois' invitation but repeatedly blows his opportunity and ends up repeatedly asking Death for a do-over. When Peter finally gets it right, he forgets a few hours later and parties with Cleveland instead of keeping the date. He asks Death for another chance but Death, fed up with Peter's continued blunders, tells him that he will have to fix the problem on his own. When Peter tries to apologize the next day, Lois is still upset with him for missing their date and has decided to go to the country club dance with Quagmire. Later that night, Peter and Brian sneak into the dance to prevent the kiss that caused Lois to fall in love with Quagmire. They get in by crawling through the air vent, but crash through and accidentally injure one of the guys playing in the band on the stage, so Brian has to play guitar and sing. Peter tries to convince Lois that they belong together but she stubbornly informs Peter that he had his chance and blew it, and therefore she loves Quagmire now. Peter almost gives up. Brian notices Chris, Stewie, and Meg disappearing from a group photo, indicating that they have fallen off the plane of existence. At a distance, but out of earshot, Brian urges Peter to do something that proofs to Lois that he loves her. Peter gets up his nerve, punching Quagmire and kissing Lois. He asks her to marry him and she accepts. In honor of this success, Brian and the band play "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The episode ends with things seemingly back to normal, with the exception of Roger from American Dad! apparently living with the family. ===== While the Griffins are watching television, the power goes out and they are left with no other form of entertainment. While they wait for the power to return, Peter decides to retell the story of Star Wars beginning with "Part IV." A Rebel ship is captured by a Star Destroyer. On the ship are the droids C-3PO (Quagmire), R2-D2 (Cleveland) and the rebel leader Princess Leia (Lois). While the ship is boarded by stormtroopers, Leia tries to send an MPEG to Obi-Wan Kenobi through R2, but encounters so many complications that R2 offers to deliver the message himself. Leia is captured by Darth Vader (Stewie) while R2 and 3PO flee to Tatooine in an escape pod, where they are captured by Jawas. The droids are sold to a family of moisture farmers, whose nephew Luke Skywalker (Chris) wishes to join the Rebellion and fight the Empire. While cleaning the droids, Luke stumbles upon Leia's message inside R2, who later decides to leave the farm. Luke and C-3PO pursue him, but are attacked by Sand People. Luke is knocked out by one of them (Opie) and is found by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), who takes them to his hut. Leia's message explains that R2 contains the plans to the Death Star, which must be sent to her father on her home planet of Alderaan and asks Obi-Wan to help. Obi-Wan tells Luke that he must learn the ways of the Force and accompany him to Alderaan, and gives him his own lightsaber. Realizing that the Empire must be looking for the droids, Luke returns home to discover that his home has been destroyed and his aunt and uncle killed, along with John Williams. Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids travel to Mos Eisley to find a pilot to take them to Alderaan. At a local cantina, they hire smuggler Han Solo (Peter) and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Brian), who agree to take them with their ship, the Millennium Falcon. The group is soon spotted by stormtroopers and they flee into space, evading the pursuing Star Destroyers before jumping into hyperspace. Leia is imprisoned on the Death Star, where commanding officer Grand Moff Tarkin (Adam West) has Alderaan destroyed. The Millennium Falcon exits hyperspace and is captured by the Death Star's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay. Disguising themselves as stormtroopers, Han and Luke along with Chewbacca set off to rescue the captive Princess while Obi-Wan goes to shut off the tractor beam and R2 and C3PO stay behind. Han, Luke and Chewie rescue Leia, and the four dive into a garbage chute to escape stormtroopers and find a couch in the garbage masher below. As they flee the Death Star, Obi-Wan turns off the tractor beam before being confronted by Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel. Vader strikes Obi-Wan down as the others board the Falcon, taking the couch with them. The Falcon journeys to the Rebel base at Yavin IV, where the Rebels analyze the Death Star plans and find a weakness. Luke joins the assault team while Han collects his reward for the rescue and prepares to leave. The Rebel fighters (who also include Simply Red, Helen Reddy, Redd Foxx, Red Buttons, the Red October and an anthropomorphic pack of Big Red gum) attack the Death Star but suffer heavy losses during the assault. During his run, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice telling him to use the Force, and he turns off his targeting computer. Vader appears with his own group of fighters, and is about to fire at Luke's starfighter when Han arrives in the Falcon and attacks Vader and his men, sending Vader's ship off into space. Guided by the Force, Luke fires into the port, destroying the Death Star, and he returns to the Rebel base with his friends to celebrate their victory. Back at the Griffins' home, Peter wraps up the story as the power comes back on. Everyone thanks Peter for keeping them entertained, although Chris points out that Robot Chicken already told that story. Peter dismisses and mocks the show, and Chris storms off. ===== The story begins when the mystical knight Sir Gromer Somer Joure challenges King Arthur to discover what women desire the most, or face dire consequences. This encounter takes place following the stalking of a deer by the king in Inglewood Forest, a setting that in other Middle English Arthurian poems such as The Awntyrs off Arthure and Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, is a haunted forest and a place where the Otherworld is near at hand.Hahn, Thomas, 1995. Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. The king, on his own instructions, becomes separated from the rest of his hunting party, follows the deer, kills it and is then surprised by the arrival of an armed knight, Sir Gromer Somer Joure, whose lands, this knight claims, have been seized from him by Sir Gawain. King Arthur is alone and unarmed and Sir Gromer's arrival poses a real threat to him. Sir Gromer tells the king that he must return in exactly one year's time, alone and dressed as he is now, and give him the answer to a question he will ask. If the king fails to give a satisfactory answer, Sir Gromer will cut off his head. The question is this: what is it that women most desire? King Arthur returns to Carlisle with his knights and it is not long before Sir Gawain pries from his uncle the reason for his sudden melancholy. King Arthur explains to his nephew what happened to him in the forest and Sir Gawain, optimistically upbeat, suggests that they both ride about the country collecting answers to this tricky question. So they both do this, riding separately about the kingdom and writing down the answers they receive. When they return, they compare notes. Sir Gawain is still willing, but King Arthur senses the hopelessness of it all and decides to go once more into Inglewood Forest to look for inspiration. In the forest he encounters an ugly hag on a fine horse, a loathly lady who claims to know the king's problem and offers to give him the answer to this question that will save his life, on one condition. That she is allowed to marry Sir Gawain. The king returns to Carlisle and reluctantly confronts Sir Gawain with this dilemma; for he is sure that his nephew will be willing to sacrifice himself in order to save him. Gawain selflessly consents in order to save his uncle. Soon, King Arthur rides alone into the forest to fulfill his promise to Sir Gromer Somer Joure and quickly meets with Dame Ragnelle, who is, in fact, Sir Gromer's sister and who reminds King Arthur of the hopelessness of his task: :"The kyng had rydden butt a while, :Lytelle more then the space of a myle, :Or he mett Dame Ragnelle. :"Ah, Sir Kyng! Ye arre nowe welcum here. :I wott ye ryde to bere your answere; :That wolle avaylle you no dele."TEAMS edition of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, edited by Thomas Hahn, lines 390 – 395. King Arthur tells her that Sir Gawain accepts her terms and she reveals to him that what women desire most is sovereynté, the ability to make their own decisions. With this answer King Arthur wins Gromer's challenge, and much to his despair, the wedding of Gawain and Ragnelle goes ahead as planned. Later, the newlyweds retire to their bedroom. After brief hesitation, Gawain assents to treat his new bride as he would if she were desirable, and go to bed with her as a dutiful husband is expected to do. However, when he looks up, he is astonished to see not an ugly hag, but the most beautiful woman he has ever seen standing before him. Ragnelle explains she had been under a spell to look like a hag until a good knight married her; now her looks will be restored, but only half the day. She gives him a choice-would he rather have her beautiful at night, when they are together, or during the day, when they are with others? Instead, he puts the riddle's answer to good practical use by giving her the sovereynté to make the choice herself. This answer lifts the curse for good, and Ragnelle's beauty returns permanently. The couple live happily, and the court is overjoyed when they hear Ragnelle's story. Sadly, Ragnelle lives for only five more years, after which Gawain mourns her for the rest of his life. According to the poem, Ragnelle bore Gawain his son Gingalain, who is the hero of his own romance and whose arrival at King Arthur's court and subsequent adventures are related, possibly by Thomas Chestre, in the Middle English version of the story of The Fair Unknown, or Lybeaus Desconus Mills, M., 1969. (although in this and most other versions of the story, Gingalain's mother is a fay who raises him ignorant of his father).Busby, pp. 380–381. The poem concludes with the poet's plea that God will help him get out of jail, leading P.J.C. Field to suggest that the poem may have been written by Sir Thomas Malory.Lupack, Alan, 2005. p 314. ===== This novel follows Dragonsdawn and the short story The Dolphin's Bell (short story contained in The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall) by discussing the present state (Ninth Pass) of the dolphins that were brought to Pern by the colonists. Set near the end and after the events of All the Weyrs of Pern it further integrates the science fiction aspects of the origins of the Pern series with the fantastical aspects presented by the original books. The plot focuses primarily on two young characters and chronicles the birth of the Dolphincrafthall and its first Dolphineer. Readis, the Paradise River Lord Holder's son, is saved by talking dolphins ("shipfish") as a young boy after falling into the sea and subsequently develops a strong fascination with the dolphins. T'lion, the young Eastern Weyr dragonrider of Bronze Gadareth, also develops an interest after being involved in an early dolphin encounter. The two befriend each other due to their shared interest and, in their own ways, defy family, Hold and Weyr to maintain their friendships with dolphins and convince others of the dolphins' intelligence and ability to speak. While familiar characters struggle to end the era of Thread, Readis, T'lion and others struggle to begin a new era in which dolphin and human work together again. Well-known characters from previous Pern novels are also involved in the plot, including Benden Weyrleaders Lessa and F'lar, and Masterharpers Robinton and Menolly. ===== USMC Force Recon Gunnery Sergeant sniper Bob Lee Swagger is participating in a mission in Eritrea with his spotter and close friend Corporal Donnie Fenn. They help an allied convoy evade the enemy, but Donnie is subsequently killed in the firefight against the enemy militia forces. Three years later, Swagger, now a disillusioned civilian, is living in a self-imposed exile in a secluded log cabin. At the office of an unnamed Private Military Company in Langley, Virginia, a retired US Army Colonel named Isaac Johnson and his associates review Swagger's combat operation report and his Certificate of Discharge. They visit him and ask him to provide his expertise in preventing a possible assassination of the US president during his upcoming speech tour. Swagger reluctantly agrees. Johnson gives him a list of possible assassination sites, and Swagger concludes that Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the only place where the assassination could happen, with the assassin having to fire a 2000-yard shot. On the day of the Philadelphia speech, Swagger is working with Johnson's men and Timmons, a Philadelphia police officer, to find the assassin. However, the shot is fired. Swagger is suddenly betrayed and shot by Timmons, but he manages to escape. The conspirators frame Swagger for the assassination, and a manhunt ensues. Swagger subdues an inexperienced FBI agent, Nick Memphis, and steals his car, crashing it into the Delaware River. He then clings to the side of a barge to evade pursuing forces. Continuing to evade the manhunt, Swagger tries to treat his injuries and takes refuge with Sarah, Donnie's widow. He learns that the Ethiopian archbishop was killed instead of the president. Sarah finishes treating his injuries. Upon recovering, Swagger persuades her to help him tip off Memphis. Memphis, who was scapegoated for Swagger's escape and is due for professional review, argues that given Swagger's training and expertise, it is suspicious that he "missed" the president by several feet and hit the archbishop instead. He suspects that Swagger was framed for the assassination and is further convinced when he learns that the policeman that shot Swagger was murdered shortly afterward. After getting tips about Swagger from a disguised Sarah, he attempts to access Delta-level classified information at the FBI office. Johnson and his men are tipped off by the Delta-level request and realize that Memphis is about to expose them. They order him abducted and try to stage his suicide. They also abduct Sarah at her residence. However, Swagger arrives at Memphis' kidnappers' hideout and kills them all. He and Memphis begin working together, starting by visiting a firearms expert who explains to them the technique used for fudging the assassination's ballistics data and who lists the shooters capable of firing the shot. They locate the assassin, who reveals that the archbishop was the intended target. He was murdered to stop him from revealing that a consortium of corporate oil interests led by corrupt US senator Charles Meachum ordered an Eritrean village massacred to build an oil pipeline. Swagger records this statement. The assassin tells Swagger that Sarah has been abducted, then commits suicide. Swagger and Memphis are ambushed by a mercenary group deployed with Meachum's authorization of Johnson's orders, but manage to kill their attackers and escape. They contact Johnson and agree to exchange Sarah for the recording of the assassin's confession. Johnson, Meachum, Sarah, and a few mercenaries meet Swagger and Memphis on a mountaintop. Swagger kills all three of the mercenary snipers. They exchange Sarah for the tape, and then surrender to the FBI. Swagger is brought before the US attorney general and the FBI director in a private meeting with Colonel Johnson, Memphis, and Sarah. Swagger quickly clears his name by aiming his loaded rifle (present as evidence, as it was supposedly used in the assassination) at Johnson and pulling the trigger; it fails to fire. Swagger explains that every time he leaves his house, he switches out the firing pins of his guns; this renders them inoperable. Although Swagger is exonerated, Johnson cannot be prosecuted as Africa is outside US jurisdiction. The attorney general tells Swagger that he must abide by the law and to refrain from vigilantism, "even though sometimes that's exactly what's needed." Swagger is released. A while later, Johnson and Meachum are sitting in a secluded cabin discussing their next operation. Swagger breaks in and kills both men and their associates. He causes the cabin to blow up as though by accident and then leaves with Sarah. ===== During a dinner given by a wealthy count (Fritz Kortner), his beautiful wife (Ruth Weyher) and four of her suitors come together at the 19th-century German manor. A magician (Alexander Granach), referred to as "Shadowplayer" in the cast list, rescues the count's marriage by giving all the guests a vision of what might happen if the count cannot restrain his jealousy and the suitors continue to make advances towards his wife. The count challenges the man he perceives as his rival (Gustav von Wangenheim) to a duel. The film has a happy ending as violence is averted and the count and his wife save their marriage. But did the events that occurred at the party really happen, or was it all an illusion conjured up by the magician? ===== Cheerleader Alison is tormented by nightmares revolving an impending cheerleading competition. She arrives at a cheerleader camp to train with her teammates, where she rooms with the mascot, Cory, who is often ridiculed by the cheerleaders; Alison's boyfriend, Brent, immediately begins flirting with a blonde cheerleader named Suzy. The girls go to the river where they sunbathe, and are spied on by Tim, a member of Alison's cheering team. Also watching them is Sheriff Poucher, who gets interrupted by the camp handyman, Pop. The next morning, Alison finds Suzy in her cabin with her wrists cut, dead of an apparent suicide. The next day, Alison goes into the kitchen walk-in refrigerator in search of a drink and discovers Suzy's corpse on a shelf. The police are called, and Miss Tipton explains to Sheriff Poucher that, in order to protect her job, she didn't want to report Suzy's death until the program was finished. The Sheriff assures Tipton that he will take care of the matter, and the deal is sealed by the pair having sex, an act which is caught on video by Tim. As the result of a prank, the sex tape is broadcast the next day instead of a video of the camp's cheer routines. In the meantime, Brent has begun to flirt with teammate Pam, garnering Alison's concern. Alison has a nightmare in which she cheers along with a group of mascots as Brent has sex with Pam. At the river the next day, Brent and Pam leave to have sex. They argue, however, and he leaves Pam in the woods where she is murdered with garden shears by an unseen killer. That evening, Alison has a dream in which she kills Pam. The next day at the competition, Alison worries that she may have hurt Pam in a fit of rage and not remembered it. She mentions this to Cory who assures her that she slept through the night. On the day of the competition, Pam is nowhere to be found. Cory competes in the mascot dance contest, but is denied the win by Tipton. During the team's improvised routine, Tim falls offstage, knocking Pop to the ground in the process, prompting the handyman to declare, "I hope you die!" During the Camp Queen competition, Theresa, who has become increasingly worried about Pam, goes to find her. Cory and Brent follow separately into the woods to look for Pam and Theresa, and Miss Tipton sends Pop to search for her as well. Theresa finds Pam's body in the woods, and is chased down by a van before getting crushed against a tree. In the meantime, Alison and Bonnie compete for title of Queen, which Bonnie wins. Tim manages to impress a cheerleader from another team and takes her outside to have sex with her. He returns almost immediately with his hand covered in blood and reveals that he has found Theresa's body. Brent announces at the party that there is a killer on the loose, prompting the cheerleaders to panic and flee in their cars. Miss Tipton stumbles drunkenly into the woods to search for Pam, but she is soon hacked in the back by the killer. Alison, Cory, Bonnie, Tim, and Brent try to drive away, only to discover that their car has been tampered with, rendering it undriveable. The four hear gunshots in the woods, causing them to run separate directions; Alison returns to the van followed by Brent, Bonnie, and Cory, who claims someone attacked her in the woods. Brent retrieves Timmy's video camera in the woods, where they watch Timmy being killed on tape. The four set a booby trap using a bear trap in the tool shed, which inadvertently kills the Sheriff. They then encounter Pop, armed with a shotgun; Cory who believing Pop to be the killer, shoots him with a revolver. Back at the camp, Cory and Bonnie go to call the police, leaving Brent alone with Alison. He attempts to have sex with her, but she resists. Cory stumbles in, saying she can't find Bonnie; Brent goes to look for her and Cory tells Alison she thinks Brent may be the killer. Armed with the revolver, Cory sends Alison to shoot Brent. They find him standing over Bonnie's corpse and Alison shoots him. When the police arrive, they charge a distraught Allison with the murders. Cory supports this, claiming that Alison would have done anything to be number one. In the ambulance, Alison insists she only killed Brent, but the detective says that Cory blamed all the murders on her. Alison screams as she is taken away while Cory, dressed in a cheerleading uniform, cheers in front of the camp at dawn. ===== Tom Dobbs is host of a satirical news program, tapping into public frustrations with divisive, special interest-driven politics. Dobbs laughs off an audience suggestion that he run for president, but following online support, he announces his campaign on air. He gets on the ballot in 13 states and participates in a national debate with the Democratic incumbent, President Kellogg, and Republican candidate Senator Mills. Eleanor Green works at the Delacroy voting machine company, which will provide machines for the Presidential election. Shortly before the elections, Eleanor notices that the voting system does not work correctly and alerts the head of the company, James Hemmings, via an e-mail that he deletes. Dobbs takes the campaign a bit too seriously, to the chagrin of his manager, Jack Menken, and his show's producer, Eddie Langston. The night of the presidential debates, fed up with the other candidates' posturing, Dobbs shifts back into comedy, keeping the audience laughing while making serious points. He continues his showman persona on the campaign trail, shaking up the political landscape and surging in the polls, but remains well behind Kellogg and Mills. On Election Day, early returns show Kellogg beating Mills everywhere, exactly as Eleanor predicted the voting system would report. Dobbs sweeps the 13 states in which he is on the ballot, taking enough electoral votes to be elected president. When Eleanor confronts Hemmings about the Delacroy computer error, senior executive Stewart turns her aside. While Dobbs and his team move from shock to celebration, Eleanor is attacked in her home and given an injection. The next day, she displays erratic behavior and is sent to the hospital, where tests reveal high levels of illegal drugs. Her workmate Danny visits and reveals he has been promoted, which she thinks is an effort to buy him off. He tries to convince her that she has a drug habit and that no one will listen if she goes public, but she decides that Dobbs will believe her. Traveling to Washington and impersonating an FBI agent, Eleanor explains to Dobbs that she was recently fired by Delecroy, but he is pulled away before she can explain the election results. Dobbs tries to contact Eleanor by calling Delacroy's headquarters, and Hemmings explains Eleanor was fired due to a drug problem. Eleanor figures out the flaw in Delacroy's system – no matter the actual results, the system declares the winner as the name with double letters, in alphabetical order, so that Do’’bb’’s beats Kello’’gg’’, which beats Mi’’ll’’s. Eleanor calls Dobbs and he whisks her off to a Thanksgiving celebration with his friends. Smitten with her, he says he already knows about her drug problem, which she denies and tells him that the election result was wrong before leaving. Dobbs calls Eleanor, telling her that he will break the news the next day. She calls Danny, who informs Stewart, who preempts Dobbs' public announcement by announcing that Eleanor was caught attempting to manipulate the election for Dobbs but that her efforts had no impact on the polls. Dobbs' team turns against Eleanor, except for Dobbs. Eleanor becomes increasingly concerned for her safety, and sees Delacroy agents break into her motel room and take her computer. She flees to a crowded mall, but is followed and apprehended by a Delacroy agent. She escapes and calls Dobbs from a pay phone, but another Delacroy agent drives his truck into the phone booth. Dobbs goes to the scene and talks with the injured Eleanor in her ambulance, where she convinces him of the truth. Dobbs’ friends encourage him to remain president, with polls showing that 60% of the nation wants him in office. That night, invited onto the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, Dobbs announces that the Delacroy vote system was flawed, that Eleanor told her bosses but they covered it up and silenced her, and that he will not run in the new election that must now take place. President Kellogg wins a second term, Dobbs returns to hosting his satirical news program, with Eleanor as his producer and later his wife, and the Delacroy executives are arrested. TIME magazine chooses Dobbs as Person of the Year. ===== Happiness! centers around Yūma Kohinata, a high school student attending Mizuhosaka Academy's regular section of the school, and his close friends Jun Watarase and Hachisuke Takamizo. The other section of the school, aptly named the magic section, was founded in order to train mages in the art of using magic. The day after Valentine's Day, a gas explosion at the magic section causes all the mages in training to transfer to the normal section for the time being. Two girls from the magic section, Haruhi Kamisaka and Anri Hiiragi, are placed in Yūma's class. Now Haruhi and her friends must adjust to the transfer into the normal section of Mizuhosaka Academy. ===== The Afghan kingdom of "Baharistan" is ruled by a just and kind Sultan, Ali Rizwan Mohhamad Dokeer Khan (Shammi Kapoor). All is well in the land except that the Sultan seemingly can't have children. An evil devil-worshipping Vazir (Amrish Puri) seeks to usurp the throne, revive his "fauladi shaitan" (a huge demon- like figure made of stone), and take over the world. The Vazir instructs his maids to strangle every child born to the Sultan. Finally, however, a spark of divine intervention (presented literally as a spark which descends from the heavens and enters the womb) renders the next newborn son immune to the poisons and strangulations administered by the maids. This Shehezada (prince) eventually becomes Ajooba (miracle). The Sultan and his wife Malika (Ariadna Shengelaya) kick off celebrations throughout the land. The good court magician Ameer Baba (Saeed Jaffrey), recently returned from his travels to the "land of Hind" (i.e., India), presents a magic sword to the Sultan. The Sultan thrusts it into a pillar (verifying its keenness), and Ameer Baba pronounces that it may be drawn out of the stone again only by a member of the royal family (rather like the Excalibur). Soon after, the Sultan privately discusses "traitors" with Ameer Baba. The Vazir overhears, eventually tricks Ameer Baba, steals his Necklace of Immortality, throws him into the dungeon, attempts to murder the Sultan and his family and take over the throne. The Sultan escapes with his wife and child. After a pitched battle involving magic carpets, storms and ships, the Sultan is missing, Malika is blinded, and the young Shehzada is washed ashore by a dolphin (whom he eventually thinks of as his mother) to a blacksmith. This blacksmith adopts the kid, trains him in all the worldly and martial arts, and thus creates Ajooba. In the meantime, the Vazir blames Ameer Baba for the Sultan's murder, takes over the throne, and begins ravaging the land, always uttering his slogan Shaitan Zindabaad (Long live the Devil). Ajooba is a masked rider in black (rather like Zorro) who thwarts the Vazir's lackeys as they pillage the lands and harass the citizens. His plain self is Ali, an ordinary restaurateur, and his chum is Hasan (Rishi Kapoor). Together they foil the Vazir's evil schemes, raid his caravans, and woo their girls. Ajooba, as Ali, falls for Rukhsana (Dimple Kapadia, actually the daughter of Ameer Baba, returned from Hind to rescue her imprisoned father), while Hasan's affections are for the Vazir's Shehzadi Henna (Sonam). Ajooba inflicts constant pain upon the Vazir. The Vazir eventually raises his fauladi shaitan and plans an all-out attack. The Raja of Hind (Dara Singh, in a special appearance) brings his forces to aid Ajooba. The resulting war brings all the central characters together. Several questions are essentially resolved in the ensuing war. The climax is a panorama of demons, magical horses and donkeys, a full-scale combat between the Vazir's army and the Hind army, enchanted swords, and a final revelation about the true identity of Ajooba. ===== Jeff Sanders (Jeff Speakman) leads a double life of sorts: by day, he is a simple, unassuming construction worker, and by night, an expert Kenpo student and master of his craft. Jeff's background is revealed; after losing his mother as a teenager, he became an outcast and frequently lashed out at his family and society in an attempt to assuage his anger. His father, Captain Sanders (Beau Starr), gained the idea from a mutual friend, Kim (Mako), to enroll Jeff in a Kenpō school to better manage his rage and feelings. However, he lost his temper with a football player who punched his younger brother, and knocked him out with a powerful kick. Displeased with this event, Jeff's father forced him to move out of their home. Jeff, now estranged from his family and living alone, continued with his courses in Kenpo and eventually adopted Kim as a mentor and father figure. Jeff decides to return to his old neighborhood to visit Kim. Inside his shop, Kim is having trouble with local Korean mafia families, due to his refusal to pay them off and use his antique store to peddle drugs. Jeff helps out Kim and beats up the henchmen who attacked his store. A mysterious hit-man named Tanaka (Professor Tanaka) appears and kills the lead henchman due to his failure to force Kim to comply by head-butting him. He later kills Kim and although Jeff tries to chase him down, Tanaka escapes. Jeff vows to avenge Kim's death and is determined to find out who ordered Kim's murder. He remembers a boy named Jimmy (Dante Basco) who lived with Kim, and tries to find him to ask if he knows about the murder. However, Jeff's estranged younger brother Adam (John Dye), now a cop, is investigating the case, and warns Jeff against trying to take matters into his own hands. In his hunt, Jeff is approached by a mafia boss named Yung (James Hong) who claims to be Kim's friend and points him to a fellow mafia boss named Sam. However, upon breaking into Sam's residence and attempting to kill him, Jimmy appears and reveals that Sam was one of Kim's closest friends and was the one who took him in for protection. Jimmy also clarifies that Yung is the one responsible for Kim's death, and was merely attempting to use Jeff as a pawn to kill his rival boss Sam. Jeff now plans to kill Yung, but Jimmy warns him that Yung is always protected by his hit-man Tanaka. In order to eliminate Tanaka, Jeff asks Jimmy to falsely testify (to Adam) that he witnessed Tanaka murdering Kim. Jeff has plotted to have Adam arrest Tanaka so that Jeff can get Yung alone to kill him. Adam and the police eventually capture Tanaka after a long car chase, but to Jeff's dismay Yung was absent from the car. Tanaka is knocked out with a taser, but later manages to escape from the police, breaking out of the police car and injuring Adam — and the driver — in the process. Jimmy overhears that Yung plans to escape the country by boat, and tells Jeff about Yung's drug factory. Now in a bigger hurry, Jeff sets out to attack Yung's drug factory, using his martial arts skills and various weapons to defeat the guards and employees protecting Yung. He eventually subdues Yung, but is attacked by Tanaka. Although Tanaka gains the upper hand during their fight, Jeff manages to kill Tanaka by setting fire to a nearby gas tank. Despite initially wanting to kill Yung, Jeff decides to capture him alive (showing he has learned self-control) and turns Yung in to his father, Captain Sanders. The film ends with Jeff entering the kenpo dojo to visit his former master and a former fellow student. ===== The first time Chub gets the impulse to write, he has witnessed a fight between the girl of his dreams, B.J. Peacock, and her boyfriend Del that centers on a man knowing he'll never be able to make his woman happy, but that he'll never be able not to try. Two-Brew is a harsh critic, but feels Chub has the gift—his highest praise for anything Chub has written are four words: "on to the next"—implying that he wants to read more of Chub's work. Two-Brew's father runs Sutton Press in New York, and Chub's first long-awaited visit to New York City is punctuated with the surprise that Two-Brew's father has agreed to publish Chub's first short story. Chub's writing continues, usually after a collision of an emotional experience in his daily life with a childhood memory, and results in a series of short stories. Over one Christmas break, he visits his mother to surprise her with his published short story, but she sees herself portrayed negatively and explodes. Chub leaves almost as soon as he arrives, and returns to the Oberlin dorm with weeks of Christmas break ahead of him and nothing to do but write. He births a long story about his father's rise, fall and suicide—the best story he's written, Chub thinks—but Two-Brew insists that it's wrong for a short story and should be a novel. Chub's writing continues, but his focus on his studies suffers, and he graduates jobless. He works at a bar the summer after graduation when Two-Brew, now a young executive in his father's publishing house, suggests Chub connect his short stories and pitch them as a book, as a prelude to the novel about his father. Chub agrees immediately, but Two-Brew has already made the pitch. He hands Chub an envelope with two advance checks, and Chub moves to New York to write his novel. The book of short stories is published as Under the Weather, and is a modest hit. While Chub enjoys the praise, his walkup flat and New York life in general, he simply isn't writing. He is distracted by illness, and the return of B.J. Peacock into his life, now divorced with a young daughter Jesse, and aware that she inspired Chub's first story. They fall in love, marry and Chub is blissfully happy as both husband and father. However, B.J.'s jealousy extends to his relationship with Jesse, and during a Hawaii trip designed to recapture their happiness, Jesse is drowned by a rogue wave while in Chub's care, which leads to divorce, and a long, dark period for Chub. He teaches at his old school and is terrorized by a student he reported for plagiarism. Years pass. Chub lives in New York doing research for other writers, paralyzed by the incandescent emotion of his father's suicide, Jesse's death and his divorce. At a party for Two-Brew celebrating his ascension to head of the publishing company, he meets Bonita Kraus ("The Bone"), a tall, intense ex-model with aspirations of writing in the genre of Trash. Two wounded people, they share intimacy of a sort, but only when Sandy Smith, a nubile young fan of Under the Weather shows up at Chub's doorstep and stays does he feel the urge to love and write again. However, she sought him out because another man told her he was "Charley Fuller" the writer of Under the Weather. Sandy falls to her death from his window while Chub is gone, and while the police seem convinced it was suicide, Chub investigates his former student, now an escaped mental patient, then the man posing as Charley Fuller. His efforts to untangle the case make his writer's impulse run even more strongly, and he works up an outline of the story, shows it to Two-Brew and gets the cherished "On to the next" reaction. Finally back on the right path, Chub seeks out The Bone, wanting to move in with her so they both can write and support each other, but upon telling his story, The Bone unconsciously lets slip a detail linking her with Sandy's murder. Chub, terrified, can only repeat to himself that this is excellent material. He just has to live long enough to know how to use it. ===== Danny (Nick Giannopoulos) is a talentless, yet clumsy, and therefore awkward entertainer who is hired by Marcus (Russell Dykstra) and his motley crew to turn them into the biggest kids' group since The Wiggles, The Hooley Dooleys, Hi-5, Bananas in Pyjamas, Play School, and Barney the Bear (a parody of Humphrey Bear). But while Danny is training them to become The Wannabes, they're secretly planning to use their new identity as cover to pull off a heist of a diamond necklace from the very rich Aurora Van Dyke (Lena Cruz). Aurora has hosted a party for her grandchild, and booked all the best child entertainers in town to perform, and as The Wannabes prepare for the show, two of the characters steal the necklace. The burglary doesn't go as planned, so they ditch the necklace and escape the scene without being caught. But after the escapade something totally unexpected happens; they end up becoming the hottest kids' band in the country. They even have The Wannabes merchandise and posters, etc.; they release an album and even do a performance on the Australian show Rove Live. Their fame continues to build until Aurora Van Dyke discovers they were the people responsible for trying to steal her necklace. After some escapades including abduction and rescuing, The Wannabes discover crime doesn't pay, but kids groups do. ===== Steve (Nick Giannopoulos) is a second-generation Greek Australian. Steve is unemployed, but manages to get by, helping out here and there. His pride and joy is his VF Valiant Pacer. Whilst helping out a compensation-oriented neighbour, Steve has a minor car accident involving the Minister for Employment, vampily played by Geraldine Turner. The net result of this encounter is twofold; Steve gets to meet Celia (Lucy Bell) whom he is instantly attracted to but who initially hates him, and Steve gets outed on national television by Derryn Hinch as the worst dole-bludger in Australia. Steve manages to turn this around to his advantage, and becomes famous as The Wog Boy, spearheading a campaign to improve the employment status of the country. In the interim, he makes variable progress with Celia. ===== Memed, a young boy from a village in Anatolia, is abused and beaten by the villainous local landowner, Abdi Agha. Having endured great cruelty towards himself and his mother, Memed finally escapes with his beloved, a girl named Hatche. Abdi Agha catches up with the young couple, but only manages to capture Hatche, while Memed is able to avoid his pursuers and runs into the mountains. There he joins a band of brigands and exacts revenge against his old adversary. Hatche was then imprisoned and later dies. When Memed returns to the town, Hatche's mother tells him he has a "women's heart" if he surrenders himself. He instead rides into town to find his enemy, on a horse given to him by the townspeople. He finds Agha in the south-east corner of his house and shoots him in the breast. The local authorities hear the gunshots, but Memed gets away. Before Hatche dies she gives birth to Memed's son, who is also named Memed. The protagonist then must take care of his son. ===== Rune lives with her mad scientist grandfather, who is very smart, but has a habit of dressing her up in weird cosplay outfits. Rune was born with a sun-like crest on her wrist (known as the Crest of the Sun), and was told by her grandfather that she was the reincarnated Space Queen. Rune refuses to believe almost anything her grandfather says and tries to live a normal life, despite the fact that she works part-time as a cybernetic superhuman to ward off alien beings that have invaded the earth. Rune's childhood friends, Masaya and Masato Ibayashi, are also cybernetic warriors who bear the Crest of the Sun, but she doesn't know this until later in volume one. It is also revealed that her other close friend, Aina Hazumi, is also a Crest-bearer. A horde of cybernetic aliens hail from Planet X to dominate the earth, and they ensure that their plans are carried out successfully. Many of them are disguised as humans in order to conceal their identities. These alien forces are under the command of Emperor Gald, the mastermind behind the domination of Earth. In the beginning of the series, Gald is "asleep"—he hasn't been awakened to his full power yet. During this time, the aliens are trying to revive him so that he can lead them to their victory. There are five certain objects needed in order to destroy the aliens' operation. These are the six Elements of the Sun. Each piece resembles one part of Sun Crest (five points and a central core). Each one must be obtained before the aliens are able to steal them. In the meantime, another trio of aliens arrive on earth from Planet X. It turns out they're actually on a mission to protect Rune and defeat the evil horde of aliens. They disguise themselves as humans and go along with pseudonyms. Rune happens to befriend one of these aliens, but doesn't know that he is undergoing an important mission. ===== Franz (Bubendorf), a young man from a small town, is sent away from home to work in the Berlin department store of his well-to-do uncle (actually, his mother's cousin), Dreyer. On the train ride to Berlin Franz is seated in the same compartment with (Kurt) Dreyer and Dreyer's wife, Martha, neither of whom Franz has met. Franz is immediately enchanted by Martha's beauty, and, shortly after Franz begins work at the store, the two strike up a secret love affair. As the novel continues Martha's distaste for her husband grows more pronounced, and with it her adoration for Franz. Franz, meanwhile, begins to lose any will of his own, and becomes a numb extension of his lover. Dreyer, meanwhile, continues to lavish blind adulation on his wife, and is only hurt, not suspicious, when she returns his love with resentment. As her relationship with Franz deepens, Martha begins to hatch schemes for Dreyer's demise. Franz himself has begun to lose interest in Martha, but he goes along with her plotting. As part of Martha's plans, the three vacation together at the Seaview Hotel at Gravitz, a resort on the Baltic Sea. She plans to take Dreyer, who cannot swim, out in a rowing boat so he can be drowned. On the boat, however, the plot is suspended by Martha when she learns from Dreyer that he is about to close a very profitable business deal. Martha then gets pneumonia from the rain and the cold on the boat. To Dreyer's great sorrow she passes away; he never learns about the betrayal and the danger he was in. Franz, relieved by her death, is heard laughing "in a frenzy of young mirth". Other characters in the novel are the "conjuror," Old Enricht, who rents out a room to Franz, and the Inventor who was developing robot-like "automannequins" financed by Dreyer who hoped to make money by selling the invention to the American Mr. Ritter. The Inventor promised to make three dummies, however, at the final performance for Ritter, only the "elderly gentleman" with Dreyer's jacket and the woman ("walking like a streetwalker") were ready. The woman dummy crashed in a final clatter. ===== The story begins with exposition of the difficult lives of the first generation of male Chinese-American immigrants who were not allowed to bring their wives and families with them into the United States due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. For decades, these immigrant men have not seen their families they had left back in China. Ben (Russell Wong) is the son of one these immigrants and has just finished serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Due to the G.I. Bill, he is allowed to bring a bride back from China which he does after an arranged marriage. Mei Oi (Cora Miao), the bride, besides being attracted to Ben also wants to see her father in the U.S., who emigrated to the States before she was born. As one of the first couples of child-bearing age within Chinatown, Ben and Mei Oi have to deal with the expectations of the entire Chinatown community as well as his father (Victor Wong). But the pressures on Ben render him impotent, and in her confusion over his seeming lack of interest, Mei Oi succumbs to the attentions of Ah Song (Eric Tsang). Their affair creates complications not only for their own marriage, but for the reputations of their fathers in the close-knit "bachelor society" of New York's Chinatown. Wang in San Francisco, 1980 ===== ===== The play centres on Rosaline, Juliet's cousin and Romeo's ex- flame. Ironically, Rosaline had been in love with Romeo, but was playing "hard to get". Tortured by the loss of her love, Rosaline has become a sullen, venomous woman. She actively seeks to be elected the 'Princess of Cats' and run the Capulet family. Meanwhile, the Capulets and Montagues have obeyed Prince Escalus and called a truce. The truce quickly descends into a farce as both sides continue to rage against each other. Amid the turmoil more doomed love springs-between Benvolio Montague and Rosaline. Benvolio is warned by Valentine (Mercutio's twin brother) to stay away from her if he knows what is right. The climax of the play comes during an election to determine whether or not Rosaline or Petruchio (Tybalt's brother) will succeed Tybalt as the Prince or Princess of Cats. The election fails to have any results and the fate of the truce is left open-ended. A 2009 youth, stage version of the show featured Valentine as the twin sister of Mercutio; this added an extra storyline where Valentine is in love with Benvolio and is jealous of Rosaline. Benvolio's final scene ends with Valentine running off stage after his rejection. ===== In 2068, Leave, a powerful android, is created by the Brain Computer and raised by the human scientist Fenrir to be the new root of mankind; the "Goddess", deciding that the previous human beings are no longer useful, wipes them out and creates four "mothers", each one in charge of a different quarter of the world, and a new race of androids, the Selenoids, classified in castes depending on their strength. Ash Ramy is one of the few human survivors, member of the Revolutional Organization; after killing a high-ranking Selenoid, he escapes with the help of Lemiu Winslet, one of the lower ranking Selenoids, who joins his fight against the new Goddess. ===== Barzai the Wise, a high priest and prophet greatly learned in the lore of the "gods of earth", or Great Ones, attempts to scale the mountain of Hatheg-Kla in order to look upon their faces, accompanied by his young disciple Atal. Upon reaching the peak, Barzai at first seems overjoyed until he finds that the "gods of the earth" are not there alone, but rather are overseen by the "other gods, the gods of the outer hells that guard the feeble gods of earth!" Atal flees, and Barzai is never seen again. ===== Two kids from a small town, the new kid, Kyle Barrett (Reiley McClendon), finds himself saving one of his peers at school, Jason McIntyre (Jesse James), from a group of bullies and they quickly become friends. Although they come from different sides of the track, the two set out on an adventure. While playing hookey from school, the pair decide to go to the local airport, where Jason's uncle works, for some excitement. When they find aircraft are left unlocked, they sneak inside for a better look, trying out the controls first on a small light aircraft and then they check out a larger, twin-engined airliner. The mysterious and silver colored aircraft is in a hangar but suddenly, the hangar doors open and the boys immediately hide with the hope to not get in trouble, thinking that whoever it is will simply fetch or drop something off and then leave again. Slipping into the rear baggage compartment, Jason sneaks a peek at who is coming on board. He is frightened to discover one of the two men in the cockpit has a gun. Before they can make an escape, the aircraft starts up and takes off on a long flight over the Arizona desert. Jason and Kyle unexpectedly find a bomb in the baggage compartment but when they burst into the cabin to report their discovery, they find that everyone on board had bailed out. Taking the controls, Jason manages to straighten up the plane and tells Kyle to throw the explosive out, before he assumes the seat of the co-pilot and together they manage to land the aircraft themselves- But their troubles are only beginning. Jason and Kyle soon realize that they are embroiled in a criminal effort to steal millions of dollars from the mob. In the process of staying one step ahead of gangsters, they find their courage to come out on top. ===== ===== Doña Louisa Vivar, whom Sharpe befriended in Sharpe's Rifles, visits the Sharpe farm and asks the former rifleman to sail to Chile in search of her husband, Don Blas Vivar, who has disappeared while serving as Captain-General of the rebellious colony and may have fallen victim to his political rival and successor, Miguel Bautista. Sharpe and Harper sail to Chile with Spanish Colonel Ruiz and his regimental officers aboard the frigate Espiritu Santo, commanded by Captain Ardiles. The group decide to stop off en route at St. Helena to pay a visit to exiled French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon grants an audience and asks Sharpe and Harper to remain for a private conversation. Napoleon persuades Sharpe to taking a gift to an admirer in Chile for him. British Consul George Blair welcomes Sharpe and Harper to the Chilean port of Valdivia and informs them that Blas Vivar's body was found and buried three months previously. Sharpe and Harper visit Bautista's adjunct, Captain Marquinez, to arrange passes and permits to travel to Puerto Crucero, exhume the body and return it to Spain. Back at their lodgings, they interrupt burglars who wound Harper and escape with their possessions, including Napoleon's gift. Sharpe and Harper meet with Bautista, who announces that he has caught the thieves, whom he has branded on the spot, and returns all the stolen goods except for Napoleon's present. When Bautista asks if everything is there, Sharpe says nothing is missing. Marquinez provides the required passes and permits and rides out with Sharpe and Harper on the first stage of their journey. Overnighting at the "Celestial Fort", Sharpe suspects that their escort, commanded by Sergeant Dregara, has orders to kill them. He persuades the garrison commander, Captain Morillo, to let them leave very early the next morning; he provides a native scout called Ferdinand to guide them safely across the hills. Sharpe and Harper arrive in Puerto Crucero and are welcomed by Major Suarez, but before they can exhume the body, Sergeant Dregara catches up and arrests them. After five days in prison, they are accused by Bautista of espionage. He reveals that a coded message was found hidden in Napoleon's gift. As punishment, the Captain-General has Ferdinand executed, confiscates the riflemen's money and weapons and has them deported back to Europe on board the Espiritu Santo. Lord Cochrane, a former Royal Navy officer now in service to the Chilean rebels under Bernardo O'Higgins, ambushes the Espiritu Santo and, with the assistance of Sharpe and Harper, capture it, taking Captain Ardiles prisoner. Cochrane rendezvouses with his flagship the O'Higgins, patches up the rapidly sinking Espiritu Santo, loads Major Miller and his marines aboard the crippled ship, and sets sail for a suicidal attack upon the port of Puerto Crucero. Cochrane and Miller lead the marines ashore, with Sharpe and Harper in tow, and with supporting fire from the O'Higgins capture the citadel. Blas Vivar's grave is opened to reveal nothing but a dead dog inside. A captured Spanish soldier informs them that Blas Vivar is being held prisoner in Valdivia, so Sharpe reluctantly agrees to join Cochrane's assault on the city. Despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned, Cochrane sails to Valdivia, hoping his two disguised ships will be mistaken for transports bringing much-needed reinforcements. However, his ruse fails. Sharpe recommends landing on a nearby beach and leads an assault on the outlying forts. The demoralized Spanish put up token resistance before either fleeing or surrendering, resulting in little loss of life on the rebel side. Without waiting for reinforcements, Cochrane marches his small forces into the city itself, where Sharpe and Harper kill Dregara. Bautista then commits suicide. Realising that Blas Vivar is not a prisoner in Valdivia, Sharpe confronts Cochrane, who admits that he took the Spaniard prisoner and marooned him and some others on an island. Cochrane is plotting to rescue Napoleon, so he can create another empire in the New World. The coded message was Napoleon's agreement to Cochrane's scheme. Cochrane duped Sharpe because he needed his help in liberating Valdivia. Cochrane releases Blas Vivar, but holds him, Sharpe, and Harper incommunicado until the rescue ship sets sail. When they are released, the three men return to St. Helena, but are stunned to hear that Napoleon has died. Sharpe, immensely relieved that he is in no way responsible for starting another war, prepares to return home for good. ===== The Wilkinson family become ghosts after they die in a tragic bombing in World War II, apart from Trixie - Mrs. Wilkinson's sister. Initially, they haunt their home, Resthaven, and they adopt another young ghost, a girl they name Adopta, who has no memory of her past. When the arrival of new owners forces them to leave, they travel to London and reluctantly begin haunting an underwear store, and apply to the Dial-a-Ghost agency for a new home. The Dial-a-Ghost agency finds the perfect home for the Wilkinsons in a ruined abbey, and tells them they can move in on Friday 13th. Meanwhile, orphan Oliver Smith is surprised to learn he is a descendant of the Snodde-Brittle family, and that he now owns Helton Hall, after the death of his cousin. He is taken from the orphanage to Helton Hall by his cousins Fulton and Frieda, who feel they should rightly have inherited the Hall. Learning that Oliver is asthmatic, Fulton hires some terrifying, child-hating ghosts known as the Shriekers, hoping to frighten Oliver to death. On the day of the move, the two sets of ghosts receive each other's directions by accident. The Wilkinsons arrive at Helton Hall, and, although they initially scare Oliver, they soon become close friends. The Shriekers, however, are exorcised from the ruined abbey after attacking livestock belonging to the nunnery. When the Dial-a-Ghost agency realizes their mistake, they send the Shriekers to Helton Hall and ring the Wilkinsons to apologize. Oliver, however, refuses to let the Wilkinsons leave and also invites their friends from London to move in. When the Shriekers arrive, they attack Oliver, but are distracted by Adopta - the daughter whose loss drove them to madness. They agree to behave better in future, but are confused as to why they were sent to attack Oliver when he is supposed to have ordered child-hating ghosts. The Wilkinsons realize Fulton is to blame and send Oliver to London to keep him safe. Fulton and Frieda are now in severe debt and, believing Oliver to have been killed by the Shriekers, they spend thirty thousand pounds on 'Ectoplasm Eating Bacteria' to clear out the ghosts. Oliver returns home to the unmoving remains of the ghosts, and is distraught. He attacks Fulton and Frieda, but is distracted by the ghost budgie for long enough to let them escape. As the ghosts wake up, they realise the Ectoplasm Eating Bacteria was a con, and Oliver happily opens up the Hall to any ghosts needing a home, running it as a tourist attraction and a paranormal research institute. He even rebuilds the Wilkinson's home, Resthaven, recreating it exactly as it was before the bombing. Frieda, meanwhile, repents her sins and becomes a nun, but Fulton goes after the con artists. He is killed and asks for a home from the Dial-a-Ghost agency, who send him to the underwear store. ===== Alice (Virginia Davis) visits the Laugh-O-Gram Studio, where the animators (including Walt Disney) show her various scenes on their drawing boards. A few of them: a cat dancing to a cat band; a mouse poking at a cat until it moves; a couple of mice boxing, while the animators crowd around cheering and acting as corner-men. That night, she dreams of taking a train to cartoon-land, where a red carpet reception awaits. She appears in live action. They have a welcoming parade, with Alice riding on an elephant. The cartoons dance for her, and she dances for them. Meanwhile, lions break out of the zoo. The lions chase her into a hollow tree, then into a cave and down a rabbit hole. Finally, she jumps off a cliff and awakes back in her bed. Alice is woken up by her mother, and Alice tells her mother about her strange dream... ===== When a ball is accidentally knocked through the window of a neighbourhood haunted house, Alice is the only one brave enough to go inside to retrieve it. While she is in there she falls and bumps her head, sending her to a cartoon dreamworld in which she rescues a cat and battles some spirits in a ghost town. When she awakens, she retrieves the ball, only to find out that police have investigated the scene. The police chase Alice, believing her to be responsible for the scene, and arrest her. ===== ===== The "fools" in the play are battling lovers at a run-down Mojave Desert motel. May is staying at the motel when an old flame, Eddie, shows up. Eddie tries to convince May to come back to him and live in a trailer on a farm in Wyoming that Eddie has always wanted to buy and where he has always imagined living with May. May vehemently refuses. She says that she has absolutely no interest in living with Eddie under such circumstances, that she has a job and started a new life and knows that if she goes back to Eddie their relationship will repeat the same destructive cycle it has followed before. Throughout the play the character of the Old Man--apparently the father of both lovers--sits to the side and talks to May and Eddie and offers commentary on each character and about himself. It is revealed that the Old Man had led a double life, abandoning each family for different periods during each child's life. The two became lovers in their high school years and when their parents finally figured out what had occurred, Eddie's mother shot herself. May is afraid that Eddie has begun to emulate his father; taking to drinking and secretly seeing a woman May refers to as the Countess. The play centers around the drama of the confrontation rather than a plot with any rising and falling action. In the end Eddie appears to have left May, just as his father had left his mother, and May has packed her suitcase to go off somewhere unspecified. Eddie and May have not reconciled, the Old Man has begun to drift off in denial that Eddie's mother had been driven to suicide, and May's erstwhile date, Martin, is left on stage bewildered to observe it all. ===== Damnation tells the story of Karrer (Miklós B. Székely), a depressed man in love with a married torch singer (Vali Kerekes) from a local bar, the Titanik. The singer breaks off their affair, because she dreams of becoming famous. Karrer is offered smuggling work by Willarsky (Gyula Pauer), a local bartender. Karrer offers the job to the singer's husband, Sebestyén (György Cserhalmi). This gets him out of the way, but things don't go as Karrer plans. Betrayals follow. Karrer despairs. ===== The player, as is the standard in American Laser Games releases, assumes the role of an anonymous individual who takes part in a series of showdowns with several different gunfighters. It is suggested that the protagonist is a lawman. This is confirmed by the three available difficulty levels: deputy, sheriff and marshal. The Old West setting is the scene of up to five showdowns, during which the player must draw his revolver as quickly as possible and shoot the enemies before they manage to shoot the player. The aim of the game is to defeat all the foes the player is up against; if this is achieved flawlessly, the lawman takes part in a final showdown in which he faces Wes Flowers, "one of the world's fastest quick-drawers", who is not a fictional character, but a real-life Fast Draw champion. If Flowers is also defeated, the player receives the title of Best Deputy, Super Sheriff or Master Marshal, depending on the difficulty level. ===== Chromophobia takes a look at several people and relationships. Some of these people are very wealthy and have become so obsessed with their wealth and material objects they are very detached from more important things in life. The things they choose to reject in their pursuit for the finer things in life include friendship, their children, love and integrity. At one point or another in the movie, each character begins to realize and then face their problems and in a sense their lives come crashing down. The characters then begin to see if they can get their lives back and carry on with a new look. ===== Tide Yau is a special agent from a police force known as 2002. He, however, is not an ordinary police officer and has the ability to see ghosts. In the beginning Tide's partner is Sam, however it is Sam's time to reincarnate and so a new partner must be found. The new partner comes in the form of Wind Cheng, who can also see ghosts. Wind (apart from being afraid of ghosts) thinks it is great being the partner of Tide and everything runs smoothly until Wind finds out that the unit only operates as human-ghost partnerships, so in order for the pair to continue working for 2002, one of them must die. ===== The plot centers on competition between high-school cheerleading squads - and one squad, in particular, the Moline Ducks, is poor. The competition takes place at a camp run by middle-aged Bucky Berkshire aka Dr. Spirit (John Karlen), who this year decides to place a bet with his best instructor Tom Hamilton (Stephen Shellen) that he cannot make the woeful Ducks into a team that can beat the top-rated Falcons. If Berkshire loses, he pays up $10,000, and if Hamilton loses, he has to work another five years at the camp. Bucky Berkshire actually cannot stand Hamilton's antics, or his sexual but successful way of motivating the cheerleaders. However, a visiting group of wealthy Japanese businessmen will not finance Bucky's latest business plan without Hamilton on board to teach the cheerleaders. Thus, there is an ulterior motive behind Bucky's wager. As the teams get ready for their rounds of competition, several dance sequences, various teen pranks, and the usual sexual situations common in teen comedies weave their way through the storyline. ===== Doctor Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt), a married father of two, has abandoned his family without explanation to live in a heavily fortified basement flat. He hires psychiatric nurse Katherine Reimer (Michelle Ryan) to help him with his unusual case. After explaining a set of elaborate security procedures to Reimer, he straps himself into a secured metal chair and undergoes a psychological transformation. Reimer observes that Jackman's alter ego exhibits rage, heightened senses, greatly superior strength and speed, and a more playful and flirtatious manner. She assures this persona she will keep his secrets just as she keeps Jackman's, but asks for guarantees he will not harm her. After being informed of the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Jackman's alter ego takes Hyde's name for his own and the two agree to form an uneasy truce. While they share a body, neither remembers what the other did while dominant. They use a micro cassette recorder to leave messages for each other. Jackman began transforming into the violent, lecherous Hyde recently. Fearing for his family's safety, he chose to isolate himself from them, but he cannot bring himself to cut off all contact, and visits his wife Claire (Gina Bellman). During one such visit, Hyde assumes control and learns about Jackman's family. Miranda Callendar (Meera Syal), a detective employed by Claire, learns about Hyde and informs Jackman that Jekyll and Hyde was not fiction, but a fictionalized version of actual events. Callendar shows Jackman a picture of the real Doctor Jekyll who lived in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 19th century. Jackman is startled to see that Jekyll looks exactly like him, and that he died at around Jackman's current age; and Callendar speculates that he is a descendant of the original Doctor Jekyll, except for the fact that Doctor Jekyll had died without children. Jackman is also being stalked by a private security team led by an American named Benjamin (Paterson Joseph). Unbeknownst to him, the team works for his former employers at the biotechnology firm, Klein and Utterson, and is directed by his friend Peter Syme (Denis Lawson). When Benjamin's team puts Jackman's children at risk, Hyde asserts himself, killing a lion. At the hospital he is approached by Sophia, an elderly woman who claims to be his mother, but before he can question her she disappears. Jackman confronts Peter Syme, who attempts to drug him. This provokes Hyde to appear and take Syme and Claire hostage. Claire argues that they need to find a cure for Jackman's condition. Hyde kills Benjamin and Syme insists that Klein and Utterson have had a cure for a long time. Jackman is captured and locked inside a metal coffin. Reimer and Callendar confront Syme, claiming they know the truth about Jackman. Callendar theorizes that Klein and Utterson have access to cloning technology and that Jackman is Jekyll's clone. Syme denies this and orders them taken away to be killed. Syme reveals to Claire that the treatment Jackman is undergoing will stabilize into one persona: If it is Hyde, he will be kept for research in order to synthesize the potion that turned the original Jekyll into Hyde; If it is Jackman, she is free to take him home. When the box is opened, Hyde is dominant. In a flashback triggered by genetic memory, Hyde has a vision of a meeting between Jekyll and Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson agrees to write a fictional version of Jekyll's case but reveals that he knows the truth: there is no potion. Instead, Jekyll was transformed into Hyde by his love for Alice, a maid within his household. Flashbacks into Jackman's own life show his Hyde first manifesting fully during a seaside holiday with Claire, after the pair were accosted by hooligans. Enraged by further threats to Jackman's family, Hyde escapes from Klein and Utterson. Ms. Utterson, a ruthless redheaded American woman at the head of Klein and Utterson, takes Claire and her sons hostage at a private estate, locking the twins in miniature versions of the same coffin used on their father. Tom's alleged mother, Sophia, appears on the premises and helps Claire escape her locked bedroom. She tells Claire how Klein and Utterson had indeed tried to clone Doctor Jekyll but had been unsuccessful. Claire meets several of the failed attempts in the lowest basement of the building. They are disfigured and in a near-vegetative state. Sophia explains that Jackman is a descendant of Doctor Jekyll, (who died a virgin), through Mr Hyde, and by chance a perfect natural genetic duplicate, "a perfect throwback, a chance in a million". Klein and Utterson had discovered this and had him under surveillance for almost his entire life, from when he was six-months-old. In order to trigger his transformation into Hyde, they created a clone of Alice, the maid whom Jekyll had loved. This clone is Claire herself. Hyde tries to rescue Jackman's family from Klein and Utterson, killing Syme and many other personnel. In the end there is a stand-off, with Jackman and Claire's sons held hostage and suffocating. The Hyde personality is apparently killed when he is shot with multiple bullets and then manages to avoid 'sharing the damage' by taking the wounds onto himself while allowing Jackman to assume his undamaged, healthy form, leaving Doctor Jackman as the only personality. Six months later, Jackman has tracked down Sophia, the woman who claimed to be his mother. When he questions her about his father, she reveals that she is the descendant of Hyde, the one through whom he had inherited the family curse from, and that it's "never over". As Jackman watches horrified, the powerless, tired, grey-haired Sophia transforms into her own version of the Hyde persona, the feral, red-headed Ms Utterson. ===== Pinky Dinky Doo is a girl who lives in Great Big City with her parents, her little brother Tyler, and their house pet Mr. Guinea Pig. When a problem arises, Pinky says, "That gives me an idea." Tyler asks, "Pinky, are you going to make up a story?" and Pinky responds, "Yeserooni positooni!", dancing to a cardboard box called the Storytelling Box. Using chalk and her imagination, she tells a story. In the second season, Pinky uses the Story Pad, a notebook in which she draws pictures, whenever the Story Box is not available. During the made-up story, Pinky must "Think Big," at which point her head swells and she comes up with an often wacky solution to the problem while singing "If I have a problem, don't know which way to go, I think and think and think and think, and suddenly I know." Some episodes feature variations of the "Think Big" sequence; for example, in Big Blob of Talk, Pinky listens big instead, and in Back to School Is Cool, Pinky's hair swells instead of her entire head due to her having a bad hair day. In Tyler Dinky Doo to the Rescue, Two Wheel Dreams, Go to Bed Tyler!, and Tyler's Big Idea (series finale), Tyler thinks big instead of Pinky. In Shrinky Pinky, Mr. Guinea Pig does the thinking. ===== The story is set in a village where Roopa lives with her father, the village priest. As a young child, the right side of Roopa's face and neck were burned by a pot of boiling oil, leaving part of her face disfigured. Henceforth, Roopa keeps her right cheek hidden under the veil of her sari. Despite the terrible accident, Roopa remains religious and goes to the village temple daily, singing hymns and devotional songs. Rajeev is a dashing engineer who arrives in the village to oversee the operation of a major dam. He abhors anything ugly. He hears Roopa's lovely singing and meets her, but does not see her disfigured side, and falls in love with her. He then asks her father's permission to marry her. After the wedding, he discovers the truth and thinks that he was cheated and forced to marry someone else, at which point he disowns Roopa and drives her out of the house. Roopa decides to meet him at night, using a veil to hide the charred side of her face. Rajeev spends his days ignoring his wife, and his nights loving his mistress, not knowing they are both the same woman. During one of their nights together, they make love and Roopa gets pregnant. When Rajeev finds out that his wife is pregnant, he suspects her of infidelity and refuses to believe that his "mistress" and wife are the same. He publicly shames her and sends her back to her home. Seeing it, her father dies out of agony. Roopa vows that she will never ever return to him as his mistress. A terrible storm ravages the village, breaking open the dam which Rajeev had come to repair. The village is being evacuated as the dam's shutters are opening. In the swirling waters of the flood, Rajeev realises how shallow he has been, and saves Roopa from drowning. He now realises both are the same person and accepts Roopa as his wife. ===== Jefferson Reed (Robert Townsend) is a mild-mannered school teacher in Washington, D.C. His neighborhood is terrorized by a local gang called The Golden Lords, led by Simon Caine (Roy Fegan) and allied with drug lord Anthony Byers (Frank Gorshin). One night, Jeff steps in to rescue a woman from the gang only to end up running from them himself. Hiding in a garbage dumpster, he manages to escape. As he climbs out, he is struck down by a glowing, green meteorite. His spine is crushed and he receives severe burns. A small fragment of the meteor was left over and taken by a vagrant named Marvin (Bill Cosby). Reed awakens several days later in the hospital, but when his bandages are taken off, he is miraculously healed of all injuries. Jeff soon discovered that the meteorite had left him with spectacular superpowers such as flight, x-ray/laser vision, superhuman strength, speed, and hearing, invulnerability, healing powers, the ability to absorb a book's content by touch, super breath, telepathy with dogs (which he uses to communicate with his own dog Ellington), and telekinesis. Confiding this to his parents Ted (Robert Guillaume) and Maxine (Marla Gibbs), they convince him to use his powers to help the community. His mother designs a costume and as the Meteor Man, he takes on the Golden Lords. He shuts down 15 crack houses, stops 11 robberies, brings peace between the police, the Crips (Cypress Hill), and the Bloods (Naughty by Nature) where they begin to work together to rebuild the community they destroyed, and plants a giant garden in the middle of the ghetto. The Golden Lords learn Meteor Man's secret identity and his slowly diminishing powers. As the violence gets out of hand and the Golden Lords continue their attacks, the community members plan to make a deal with them, but Jeff instead teaches them about fighting for their beliefs. A now, powerless Jeff fights Simon and is beaten up. Simon points his gun at Jeff, but Jeff's neighbor Earnest Moses (James Earl Jones) throws a record at him, successfully knocking the gun out of Simon's hand. Suddenly, Marvin uses the meteor fragment to strip the Golden Lords of their guns. This enables the locals to stand up to the Golden Lords as they fight them alongside Marvin's dogs. Marvin accidentally drops the meteor and both Jeff and Simon grab the rock from both sides, gaining superpowers, and engage in a brawl. When Simon is about to throw a dumpster at Jeff, he hears Ellington barking, telling Jeff that he can win, and throws the dumpster at Ellington instead, seriously injuring him. This angers Jeff and he disappears and returns as Meteor Man. They continue with their brawl with Meteor Man winning and draining Simon of his powers by absorbing them. He then defeats the rest of the Golden Lords. The locals all gather around Ellington who is now lying on the street, whimpering in pain. Jeff uses his x-ray vision to see that Ellington's ribs are broken. Before Jeff can do anything, his powers fade away, again. But just then, Marvin comes over and uses the last of his powers from the meteor fragment to heal Ellington's injuries, thus saving Ellington's life. The locals all applaud. Anthony Byers and his gang then confront Meteor Man, but are out-numbered by the Bloods and the Crips who show up to protect Meteor Man. Anthony Byers and his gang are then arrested by the police after attempting to "take a vacation to the Bahamas". ===== When a team of undercover narcotics officers is targeted by a serial killer, the police recruit karate champion Matt Logan to bring the murders to an end. Narcotics Officer Amanda "Mandy" Rust (Jennifer O'Neill) discovers that a traitor within the police ranks is behind the killings. ===== In the town of Moorehigh in 1957, the patients of Dr. Evan Rendell kept disappearing. The townspeople found out the father and son duo had been ripping out the patients' hearts — in an attempt to bring back the doctor's dead wife. The townspeople stoned Dr. Rendell to death, but Evan Jr. disappeared. Thirty-five years later, the adult Evan Jr. (now nicknamed "Dr. Giggles" for his hideous laugh and insatiable obsession to follow in his father's footsteps) escapes from a mental asylum, killing everyone in his path. In Moorehigh, 19-year-old Jennifer Campbell, her boyfriend Max Anderson, and their friends are planning their summer break. Jennifer, already upset by family trouble, is further distressed from having a heart condition and being forced to wear a heart monitor. Dr. Giggles returns to his childhood home, goes through Evan Sr.'s files, and gathers a list of names. He begins stalking and killing several residents, including Jennifer's friends. After the party, Jennifer becomes fed up with her heart monitor and dumps it in a fish tank. Jennifer's father finds it and leaves to look for her. Dr. Giggles shows up and kills his girlfriend. Jennifer returns to the party and sees Max kissing another girl. Distraught, she runs into the house of mirrors. Dr. Giggles notices Jennifer has the same heart condition as his mother and goes after her. He kills the girl Max was kissing, but Jennifer sees him coming and escapes. Officers Magruder and Reitz find her and take her to the police station. Officer Magruder explains to Reitz how Evan Jr. escaped. He was on guard duty at the morgue housing the bodies of Dr. Rendell and his wife. Investigating a giggle, he witnessed Evan Jr. cutting his way out of his mother's body with a scalpel. He realized that Rendell had cut open his wife's body, stuffed his son in and sewn it shut. Upon being threatened by Evan Jr., Macgruder passed out from shock. When he woke up, Rendell's wive's corpse had been re-sewn, and all traces of the event at the morgue had been wiped clean. The experience has left Magruder an alcoholic and an insomniac. Dr. Giggles makes his way to Jennifer's house and attacks her father. Officer Magruder goes to investigate Jennifer's house and finds her father there, lying in a pool of blood. Dr. Giggles mortally wounds Magruder who, recognizing Evan Jr., shoots and wounds him before dying. Reitz arrives soon after, finding his partner dead and Jennifer's father wounded but alive. Meanwhile, Dr. Giggles returns to his hideout, performing surgery on himself to remove the bullet. He kidnaps Jennifer and tells her his plan to replace her "broken" heart with one he took from her friends. Reitz and Max arrive. While Reitz distracts Dr. Giggles, Max and Jennifer escape. Dr. Giggles kills Reitz, but his father's house explodes and collapses on him. At the hospital, Jennifer learns that the events of the evening have damaged her heart, requiring immediate surgery. While she is being prepped, Dr. Giggles reappears and cuts a bloody path through the hospital staff. He chases her to a janitor's closet. Jennifer ambushes and finally kills Dr. Giggles with his own instruments. Before dying, Dr. Giggles breaks the fourth wall, staring at the camera and asking, "Is there a doctor in the house?". Recovering in the hospital, Jennifer is visited by Max and her father. ===== Following the death of his father, and later his mother, a long time Irish immigrant to the United States, the teenage and biracial Chad travels from his home in New York to a small Irish island where his mother was brought up, to live with his uncle, a smalltime farmer. In addition to facing initial prejudices, Chad finds himself the center of a grievance his uncle Tony (Donal McCann) holds against local bar owner Joe Brady (Pierce Brosnan), for his illicit relationship with Chad's mother, which Tony opposed, before she left twenty years before. Further complications ensue when Chad develops a relationship with Brady's daughter Aislinn (Aislin McGuckin). Her admirer Peter O'Boyce (David Quinn), who works in her father's bar, is jealous and attempts to stop the ensuing romance. ===== Kor (John Colicos), a revered Klingon warrior, is in Quark's bar telling stories of past battles to his friend Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell). She introduces Kor to her colleague Lieutenant Commander Worf (Michael Dorn). He explains that he is on a quest to find the legendary Sword of Kahless, the founder of the Klingon Empire; he has come into possession of a shroud which he believes once held the Sword. When he returns to his quarters, Kor is attacked by a Lethean who reads his thoughts in order to find out about the Sword. Jadzia verifies the authenticity of the shroud, and the next morning she, Kor, and Worf depart for the Gamma Quadrant to search for the Sword on the planet where the shroud was found. On the planet, they discover a secret chamber in an underground vault containing the Sword. They are attacked by Toral (Rick Pasqualone), son of Duras, who hired the Lethean and wants the Sword for the prestige of finding it. Kor, Worf and Jadzia fight past Toral and his men and after finding that they cannot transport back to their ship, they head into the adjoining cave system in order to try to escape Toral. As they travel through the caves, the Klingons are affected by the prestige of the Sword: Kor begins to talk about how it would allow him to overthrow Chancellor Gowron and Emperor Kahless II; but Worf believes that he should be the one to lead their people. Suddenly, Kor slips down the side of a cliff but refuses to let go of the Sword. Worf grabs the other end of the Sword, and tries to convince Kor to let go. Dax helps Worf save Kor, and afterwards takes possession of the Sword because she thinks the two Klingons cannot be trusted with it. The three make camp and Dax tries to sleep, but is awakened by an argument between Kor and Worf. The fight between them stops momentarily when Toral and his men arrive. After Toral is subdued, Kor and Worf again attack each other. Jadzia stuns them both with her phaser and then forces Toral to enable the three to return to their ship. After they depart the planet, Kor and Worf realize that if the Sword divided two men as honorable as they, it would do the same to the Klingon Empire, so they beam it into space, leaving it to drift until the Klingon Empire is ready for it. ===== Brothers Terry (Colin Farrell) and Ian (Ewan McGregor), who live in South London, were raised by a weak father Brian (John Benfield) who runs a restaurant, and a strong mother Dorothy (Clare Higgins) who taught her sons to look up to their uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), a successful plastic surgeon and businessman. The brothers buy a sailboat at an oddly low price, despite its near pristine condition. They name it Cassandra's Dream, after a greyhound that won Terry the money to buy the boat. Knowing nothing of Greek mythology, they are unaware of the ominous antecedents of this name—the ancient prophetess Cassandra, whose prophecies of doom went unheeded by those around her. While driving home from a day's sailing in a borrowed car, Ian crosses paths with beautiful actress Angela Stark (Hayley Atwell), with whom he becomes infatuated. Terry has a gambling addiction that sinks him deeper in debt. Ian wishes to invest in hotels in California to finance a new life with Angela. To overcome their financial problems, they ask Howard for help. He agrees to help them, but asks for a favor in return: they must murder someone for him. Howard faces imprisonment for unspecified crimes and his future is threatened by Martin Burns (Phil Davis), a former business partner who plans to testify against him. Howard asks his nephews to get rid of Burns, and in return he will reward them financially. After initial reluctance, the brothers agree. They make two zip guns, untraceable and easily destroyed. Lying in wait in Burns' home, their plan is foiled when Burns arrives with a woman. Their resolve shaken, they leave and agree to commit the murder the next day. The next day, they succeed in carrying out the murder and later destroy the guns. Ian is content to move on as if nothing happened, but Terry is consumed by guilt and begins abusing alcohol and other drugs. His behavior frightens his fiancée (Sally Hawkins), who tells Ian about the situation and that Terry believes he has killed someone. After Terry confides that he wants to turn himself in to the police, Ian goes to Howard for advice. They agree there is no alternative but to get rid of Terry. Ian plans to poison Terry during an outing on the boat. Ian can't bring himself to kill his own brother, and attacks him in a fit of rage. In the chaos, Terry knocks Ian down the steps into the cabin, killing him. The boat is later discovered adrift by the police, and the audience learns that Terry snapped and drowned himself after killing his brother. The last shot is of Cassandra's Dream, still in beautiful condition despite the tragedies it set in motion. ===== The story is set in 2040 after a disaster happens in Tokyo in 2029. The main character Ken Ando joins up with a company designated to clean up Tokyo, called DC. After a mysterious robot begins attacking the DC cleanup crews, the organization starts a process of militarization with main character learning of the secrets it hides. The series was released domestically on dual language DVD by Geneon Entertainment. It is loosely based on original characters and the Cybuster mecha from the video game series Super Robot Wars. ===== The player assumes the role of Buck, a hardworking family man, whose wife and children are murdered by a band of outlaws. One by one, for his revenge on them if so, Buck tracks down the various outlaws, earning higher and higher bounties as he progresses. The final foe is the outlaw leader, Landolf. ===== Luminous Arc takes place in the world of Shtraberl. The land is in a medieval-like era, where the Luminous Church rules over the lands. The Luminous Church which worships their God Zehaal is the only form of government the land has. According to the scriptures known as The Book of Mena of the Luminous Church, thousands of years ago Witches and Dragons fought all across the world to be the superior race. In the process: _The air was stale, the earth barren. The seas raged and the sun vanished. The world fell into darkness._ This disaster was known as Aldheld. The scriptures go on to continue that the saints prayed upon the barren land and eventually the God Zehaal replied to their prayers in beginning the Advent. Zehaal then defeated both the Dragons and Witches and cleansed the world. It was then that Zehaal supposedly blessed the world and named it Shtraberl. Afterwards he endowed the saints with knowledge and went into a deep slumber. The saints then went on to create the Luminous Church. The actual game begins with the Garden Children, a group of people raised as an elite force for the Luminous Church. In the beginning of the game the Garden Children are called to a town to be given their first orders by the Church. They are ordered to hunt for Witches which have been spotted in Canal. As the game progresses, the Garden Children discover that the Witches are not as evil as they had been taught. They then, through the witches discover that the God of the Luminous Church, Zehaal, is trying to resurrect himself to consume the world. After joining forces, the garden Children and the witches fight past members of the Luminous Church as well as vassals of Zehaal. They spend the game fighting against the Luminous Church and their sinister attempts to defeat them. Near the end of the game the group goes through a portal to the world's center to confront Zehaal. They then battle Zehaal and his true form, The Wings Of Doom. After injuring the Wings Of Doom he retreats to lick his wounds, and Lucia the Dawn witch decides to use a powerful yet self-destructive magic to finish him forever. Alph then stays with her to ensure she does not die in the attack, and together they defeat Zehaal once and for all. In the aftermath of the final battle, Canal is restored to a peaceful state. A stable form of government is formed and the Witches are accepted into society as heroes rather than deviants. ===== The Big Red Adventure follows the protagonists of Nippon Safes Inc.—Doug, Donna and Dino—as they find themselves in post-Soviet Russia. The villainous Doctor Virago hopes to revive Vladimir Lenin to help him revert Russia from capitalism to communism. ===== The main character, ten-year-old Hubert Anvil, is a chorister at St George's Basilica, Coverley (real world Cowley), for whom tragedy beckons when his teachers and the Church hierarchy, all the way up to the Pope himself, decree that the boy's superb voice is too precious to sacrifice to puberty. Despite his own misgivings, he must undergo castration, one of the two alterations of the title. Insight into this world is offered during Anvil's abortive escape from church authorities, with references to alternative world versions of known political and cultural figures. Hubert's mother carries on an illicit affair with the family chaplain, and his brother, Anthony, is a liberal dissident from repressive church policies. In this timeline, there are two pivotal divergences from known history. Arthur Tudor and Catherine of Aragon's short- lived union produced a son, Stephen II of England. When Henry of York ("the Abominable") tried to usurp his nephew's throne, there was a papal crusade (the "War of the English Succession") to restore the rightful heir, culminating in the "Holy Victory" at Coverley, which was designated as the ecclesiastical capital of England. Secondly, the Protestant Reformation did not take place as Martin Luther was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church and later became Pope Germanian I. Luther's anti-Semitism may have infected this history to a greater extent during his papacy, as the novel discloses that Jews are forced to seclude themselves and wear yellow stars to advertise their religious and ethnic identity. In this history, Thomas More did not marry, and ascended to the Papacy as Pope Hadrian VII. While the Papacy still holds sway across Western Europe, in this version of the twentieth century Protestantism is limited to the breakaway Republic of New England, which includes such locations as Cranmeria (named after Thomas Cranmer), Hussville (named for Jan Huss), Waldensia (Waldensians) and Wyclif City (John Wycliffe). The head of the schismatic church in New England is the Archpresbyter of Arnoldstown (named after Benedict Arnold). Joseph Rudyard Kipling held office as "First Citizen" from 1914–1918, while Edgar Allan Poe was an acclaimed general who died at the moment of his victory over the combined forces of Louisiana and Mexico in the war of 1848–1850. We learn towards the end of the book that this Protestant state also has unpleasant features, such as practising apartheid towards Native Americans and a harsh penal system. England dominates the British Isles with Ireland being called "West-England" and Scotland being annexed to England as "North-England". Instead of parliamentary democracy, the English Isles are administered by a Convocation of clergy accountable to the Catholic hierarchy. The rule of the Church is absolute and totalitarian, controlled by the Holy Office, a sort of KGB or Gestapo equivalent. (Monsignors Henricus and Laurentius – Heinrich Himmler and Lavrentiy Beria – are mentioned in passing.) The state of the world is illustrated in a description of national, clerical and royal figures at the funeral of Stephen III, late King of England, which opens the book. There is reference to the Kings of Portugal, Sweden, Naples and Lithuania, which suggests that no Italian nation-state exists in this history due to the temporal strength of the Papacy. The Crown Prince of Muscovy is also mentioned, suggesting that Tsarism holds sway, and the Dauphin leads one to conclude that the French monarchy is also still in existence. Germany is a nation-state, known as Almaigne and ruled by an Emperor, although it may not have exactly the same national boundaries. The "Vicar General" of the "Emperor Patriarch" of Candia suggests that the Greek Orthodox Church survives as a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction, albeit exiled from its native Greece (which is still under Ottoman domination) and with its headquarters in Crete. Finally, this opening section cites the "Viceroys" of India, Brazil and New Spain, suggesting that colonialism and direct imperialism are still realities here. A Christian/Muslim cold war exists between the Papacy and the Ottoman Empire. Described as a war against an opponent that can never be destroyed and which can be held in check only by maintaining permanent armies and fleets, it serves the useful purpose of distracting any tendency to rebel or question. Pope John XXIV is a Machiavellian Yorkshireman, who allows the cold war to heat up as a Malthusian plot to resolve Europe's population growth – the church has access to bacteriological warfare as an alternative to birth control, whose prior papal prohibition John XXIV opposes. The book's coda, set in 1991, fifteen years after the events of the main body of the book, reveals that events have turned out as the Pope planned. Europe's surplus population has become cannon fodder for the war, which ended in a narrow victory, despite mention that the Ottoman Empire got as far as Brussels. However, one of Hubert's childhood friends, Decuman, is mentioned as being among the occupation troops in Adrianople in far western Turkey, suggesting that the Ottomans either lost the war, or at least were forced to make significant territorial concessions to the Catholic West. William Shakespeare's work was suppressed in this history, although Thomas Kyd's original text of Hamlet has survived, and is still performed in 1976 (albeit only in New England). Shelley lived until 1853, at which point he set fire to Castel Gandolfo outside Rome and perished. By contrast, Mozart, Beethoven, Blake, Hockney and Holman Hunt have allowed their talents to submit to religious authority. Edward Bradford argues that the choice of authors and musicians here is not meant to imply Amis's own preferences, but questions the value of art subordinated to a destructive ideology that represses sexual freedom and human choice. Underscoring the clerical domination of this world, Hubert's small collection of books includes a set of Father Bond novels (an amalgam of Father Brown and James Bond), as well as Lord of the Chalices (The Lord of the Rings), Saint Lemuel's Travels (Gulliver's Travels), and The Wind in the Cloisters (Wind in the Willows). There is also reference to a Monsignor Jean-Paul Sartre of the Jesuits, and A. J. Ayer (who was in real life a noted atheist) is Professor of Dogmatic Theology at New College, Oxford. "Science" is literally a dirty word, and while "invention" is not, the scope of inventors is severely limited. Electricity has been banned; the only form of internal combustion engine permitted is the Diesel, which works without a spark. Some of the incidental pleasure of the book is in the "alternative technology" reminiscent of Amis's friend and fellow-author Harry Harrison, such as the high-speed train that takes characters from London to Rome in just seven hours, via Thomas Sopwith's Channel Bridge. Airships feature as a mode of transportation connecting Europe with Africa and North America, with heavier-than-air vehicles being exclusive to New England. Allusion to known historical figures include the political scene in Britain in the 1970s, and may reflect Amis's increasingly conservative attitudes. For example, Lord Stansgate (Tony Benn) presides over the Holy Office, and Officers Paul Foot and Corin Redgrave are two of its feared operatives. Pope John XXIV is a thinly disguised Harold Wilson and his Secretary of State is Enrico Berlinguer. Other references are more obscure; opera-lovers with a good knowledge of Latin will, however, be able to identify the two castrati from the Vatican, Federicus Mirabilis and Lupigradus Viaventosa, as the German singers Fritz Wunderlich and Wolfgang Windgassen, both recently deceased when Amis was writing. =====