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The story begins with the Jedi group of Jaina and Jacen Solo, Lowbacca, Zekk, Tahiri Veila, and Tesar Sebatyne on the Killik world of Snevu, watching as the Chiss try to destroy the planet. While there, they discover a bomb that was made by the Chiss, which was meant to exterminate the Killik life on the planet, but the bomb failed to detonate. The Chiss send in infantry to try and vaporize the bomb, in which they succeed. Back on the planet Ossus, Luke Skywalker has called back all the Jedi (except Jaina and Zekk) and delivers an ultimatum. He wants anyone who cannot make being a Jedi their top priority to quit while he becomes Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, dictating that the Jedi will be servants of the Galactic Alliance for now on. The likes of Danni Quee and Tenel Ka Djo agree to this; Danni never considered herself a Jedi, and more of a scientist intrigued to explore the further mysteries of the living world of Zonama Sekot. Tenel Ka, on her part, has too much responsibility as Hapan Queen Mother and as a mother to her own daughter, Allana. Aside from Jacen and Tenel Ka, no one else knows who Allana's father is. Following Luke's conclave on Ossus, he and his family watch another holovid from R2-D2's memory banks where Anakin Skywalker, now Darth Vader, speaks to his wife, Padme Amidala, after carrying out Order 66 in the Old Jedi Temple. Luke and the rest of the Jedi consider how to end the Dark Nest Crisis and the Swarm War. Killing Lomi Plo won't be enough, Cilghal explains, because a new Gorog would emerge to manipulate the Killiks from behind the scenes; so neutralizing UnuThul as leader of the Killiks, thus disassembling the entire Colony hive mind overall, is the only way to end this conflict. But in order to defeat Lomi Plo, Luke must purge all doubt from his heart and mind so that he can fight and kill Plo to the best of his abilities. Jacen helps him along with that. Han Solo, Leia Organa, C-3PO, Saba Sebatyne, Cakhmaim, and Meewalh all go traveling throughout the major sectors of the galaxy now involved in the Swarm War. Their mission is to find Jaina and Zekk and bring them back within the Jedi Order's fold. They once again come into contact with Jae Juun and Tarfang, who tell them that Jaina and Zekk are fighting with the Killiks against the Chiss on Tenupe. After Luke purges all doubt from his mind by watching the last of R2-D2's family recordings that revealed Darth Vader and Padme's last time together on the planet Mustafar, where he witnesses the revelation that Darth Vader had force-chocked her, leaving Luke shocked that his father would do this. He also witnesses Obi-Wan Kenobi and Vader's duel on Mustafar, and Padme giving birth to Luke and Leia. The Grand Master of the Jedi Order travels to Tenupe, where Lomi Plo and UnuThul are. Han and Leia foil the Chiss's attempt to eradicate the Killiks on Tenupe with a biological bomb, similar to the one deployed on Snevu, just as Leia engages Alema Rar in their final lightsaber duel of the trilogy. Leia once again emerges victorious as Alema is caught in the jaws of one of Tenupe's beasts and disappears into the planet's jungle. As this happens, Luke confronts UnuThul and Lomi Plo aboard the captured Admiral Ackbar. There, he briefly fights UnuThul before convincing him to renounce his leadership of the Killiks. He does so and becomes Raynar Thul again, while Luke manages to kill Lomi Plo in their final duel. With that, the Killik hive mind, including that of the Gorog, dissipates into nothingness. The Dark Nest Crisis and the Swarm War conclude, with the Killiks now a harmless race; the Chiss go back to their own business in the Unknown Regions, and the Galactic Alliance returns to its normal duties in peacetime. For all she did as a Jedi apprentice under Master Saba Sebatyne, Leia is promoted from apprentice to Jedi Knight. Then, when asked about what will happen to the Jedi Order should he ever be absent again, Luke replies, "I don't know. I wish I had the answers." 

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Santiago Muñez, a Mexican illegal immigrant living in a barrio section of Los Angeles, is a skilled footballer who plays for his local team on weekends and dreams of playing professionally. The son of a gardener, Santiago lives with his father, Hernan, his grandmother, Mercedes, and his younger brother, Cesar. He works as a busboy in a Chinese restaurant while also helping with his father's gardening business for a living. Due to his poverty and the fact that he plays solely for a club made up of Hispanics from a local car wash, he feels his chances of making it as a pro are slim, until one day, Santiago is noticed by Glen Foy, a former Newcastle United player. Glen now works as a mechanic in England, but still maintains ties to his old team. Foy arranges to get Santiago a trial with Newcastle United, who have recently signed talented new player Gavin Harris. Needing to get to England, Santiago begins to save his money in an old shoe, but his plans are brought to a stop after his father finds the money and uses it to buy a truck which would allow Santiago and him to start their own business, believing that Santiago's dreams of playing in England are hopeless. With his dream seemingly over, Santiago returns to work for his father, until his grandmother gives him an envelope containing money and a plane ticket to London, telling him she sold her jewellery to pay for the ticket. Santiago reluctantly accepts and soon departs for England before his father is able to find out, arriving in London the next day. After arriving in London, Santiago tells Glen that he is in England, who warmly welcomes Santiago to his home in Newcastle and takes him to the tryout. Santiago is not welcomed by the other players, particularly reserve player Hughie McGowan, who spends the whole trial roughly tackling him, leading to an unimpressive performance by Santiago, but Glen convinces the team's manager that Santiago needs a month's trial to show his full potential. The manager agrees, and Santiago is signed to a one-month contract. During a medical, Santiago lies about his asthma to club nurse, Roz Harmison, fearing it will damage his chances of being signed. Despite being bullied by teammate McGowan, Santiago becomes good friends with Jamie Drew, another player signed on a trial basis from Tranmere Rovers. Santiago begins to adapt to the English game, and a reserve match at the end of the month will determine his signing on a full-time basis. Before the game, as Santiago secretly tries to use his inhaler, McGowan knocks it out of his hands and destroys it, leading to an asthma flare-up during the game which prevents Santiago from playing at 100%. After another disappointing performance, the team lets him go. On his way to the airport, Santiago meets Gavin Harris, who himself is late for training with the reserves, a punishment for being late for training with the first team. Harris finds out what has happened and makes Santiago explain it to the manager. The manager allows Santiago to stay, provided he gets treatment for his asthma. Santiago gets a contract for the reserve team and moves in with Gavin, and despite their differences (Santiago a focused and determined player, Harris a playboy more focused on women than football), the two begin to form a friendship. After a series of impressive performances in the reserves, he is brought into the first team as a substitute in a match against Fulham. During the game, he wins a penalty, taken and scored by Gavin to win them the match. Meanwhile, unknown to anyone else in his family, Santiago's father watches the match on TV in the US and leaves the bar a proud father. Despite the victory, the manager informs Santiago that his weakness is that he does not pass the ball off enough. That night, he and Gavin go out partying to celebrate. A controversial picture of the two, both drunk, winds up in national tabloid The Sun, causing great anger from the manager. His friendship with Harris begins to crumble, and at the same time, Jamie suffers a career-ending injury that only causes Santiago additional grief. Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Santiago's father dies of a heart attack. Devastated, Santiago plans to return home, but while in the airport waiting for his flight back to Los Angeles, he decides not to go and reports back to training. Believing he may not make it to the starting eleven, he goes to St James' Park and practices till late in the evening, and is informed by the manager that he has been selected to play against Liverpool F.C.. On match day, Gavin puts Newcastle into the lead. Before half-time, Liverpool makes a comeback with two goals, from Igor Bišćan and Milan Baroš. In the final minutes of injury time, Santiago assists Gavin in scoring the equaliser by passing the ball to him, to make it 2–2. However, a draw will not be enough to earn Newcastle a place in the next season's UEFA Champions League. Minutes before the end of the game, Gavin is tripped and Newcastle gain a free kick, which, despite the friction between the two, Gavin gives to Santiago, who scores and Newcastle win 3–2. Glen reveals to Santiago that his grandmother is trying to call. She mentions that his father did watch his first match against Fulham, after learning this from a fellow supporter. Santiago shouts to Glen that his father saw him play and was proud of him before he died. Glen replies: "He's probably watching you right now." The film ends with Santiago shedding tears of joy. 

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The play begins with a soliloquy that outlines the basic plot and events that have led up to this point from Electra, who stands next to a sleeping Orestes. Shortly after, Helen comes out of the palace under the pretext that she wishes to make an offering at her sister Clytemnestra’s grave. After Helen leaves, a chorus of Argive women enters to help advance the plot. Then Orestes, still maddened by the Furies, awakes. Menelaus arrives at the palace, and he and Orestes discuss the murder and the resulting madness. Tyndareus, Orestes’ grandfather and Menelaus’ father-in-law comes onto the scene and roundly chastises Orestes, leading to a conversation with the three men on the role of humans in dispensing divine justice and natural law. As Tyndareus leaves, he warns Menelaus that he will need the old man as an ally. Orestes, in supplication before Menelaus, hopes to gain the compassion that Tyndareus would not grant in an attempt to get him to speak before the assembly of Argive men. However, Menelaus ultimately shuns his nephew, choosing not to compromise his tenuous power among the Greeks, who blame him and his wife for the Trojan War. Pylades, Orestes’ life-long friend and his accomplice in Clytemnestra’s murder, arrives after Menelaus has exited. He and Orestes begin to formulate a plan, in the process indicting partisan politics and leaders who manipulate the masses for results contrary to the best interest of the state. Orestes and Pylades then exit so that they may state their case before the town assembly in an effort to save Orestes and Electra from execution, which proves unsuccessful. The off-stage assembly- scene (reported by a messenger) is immensely detailed, containing speeches from four different speakers as well as Orestes himself. Their execution certain, Orestes, Electra, and Pylades formulate a plan of revenge against Menelaus for turning his back on them. To inflict the greatest suffering, they plan to kill Helen and hold her daughter, Hermione, hostage in order to escape harm. However, when they go to kill Helen, she vanishes. In attempting to execute their plan, a Phrygian slave of Helen’s escapes the palace. Orestes asks the slave why he should spare his life, and the slave supplicates himself before Orestes. Orestes is won over by the Phrygian’s argument that, like free men, slaves prefer the light of day to death. Menelaus then enters leading to a standoff between him and Orestes, Electra, and Pylades, who have successfully captured Hermione. Just as more bloodshed is to occur, Apollo arrives on stage deus ex machina. He sets everything back in order, explaining that he has rescued Helen to place her among the stars, and that Menelaus must go back to Sparta. He tells Orestes to go to Athens to the Areopagus, the Athenian court, in order to stand judgment, where he will later be acquitted. Also, Orestes is to marry Hermione, while Pylades will marry Electra. Finally, Apollo tells the mortals to go and rejoice in Peace, most honored and favored of the gods. 

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Cliff Spab and his friend Joe Dice go out one evening to buy beer from a convenience store, where a group of masked and heavily armed terrorists take them and three other people hostage. The terrorists, who call themselves S.P.L.I.T. Image (a play on "Split Image"), have a video camera with which they tape their hostages' every word and action. During a month-long standoff with the police, S.P.L.I.T. Image's only demand is that their broadcasts be televised live worldwide TV, or else the hostages will be killed. S.P.L.I.T. Image makes good on said threat by killing two of the hostages. Cliff, Joe, and a beautiful teenage girl named Wendy Pfister are the only surviving captives. After 36 days, Cliff becomes indifferent to being killed. He says repeatedly, "So Fucking What?", in reply to his captors' death-threats. The coverage of this makes Cliff a media icon. The movie skips forward to a hospital. Cliff has shot his way to freedom, taking a bullet in the shoulder while Joe has been killed. Despite his friend's demise, Cliff is branded a hero for saving Wendy and killing the terrorists. He's picked up from the hospital by his brother Scott. He is welcomed awkwardly by his domineering father and weak-willed mother. Cliff soon becomes disenchanted with the reporters camped on his front lawn and moves out. Back on the street, Cliff finds his life changed forever by the convenience store incident. His line - abbreviated as S.F.W. - is on banners, newspapers, CDs, and billboard advertisements. At Burger Boy, the fast food restaurant where he works, Cliff finds his name and image posted alongside a "Special $.36 Spaburger" (named after him), being marketed in commemoration of his 36 days in captivity. Cliff visits Joe's older sister Monica. She resents the media idolization directed at Cliff, while her deceased brother has gotten neither sympathy nor attention. Cliff spends a night of empty passion with Monica. He visits another friend, Morrow Streeter, who lets Cliff hide out at the elegant home of his lawyer-sister Janet. She advises Cliff to exploit his notoriety for personal gain. Completely lacking in any sense of purpose, Cliff hitchhikes out of Los Angeles. He gets a ride with a disaffected couple, who confide with him about their marital troubles. Realizing that running from his problems is pointless because they will follow him everywhere, Cliff discovers the inspiration he has been seeking. Using his celebrity status to his advantage, Cliff checks into a fancy hotel; when he offers to promote the establishment, he is given a free suite. Cliff holds press conferences, makes public appearances, holds autograph signings, and generally portrays himself as a rebel. More than anything, Cliff aspires to reunite with Wendy. She has been featured on the news, but refuses to make any statement regarding her ordeal in the convenience store. Cliff reaches out to her and soon a romantic attraction develops, but their relationship is hampered by the reporters and paparazzi who shamelessly tail them. They evade the media and revisit the convenience store, which has been closed down and boarded up as a crime scene. After reminiscing how he and Joe overpowered and killed their captors in a huge gunfight, Cliff tells Wendy he'd like to leave his notoriety behind him, just so the two of them can live out their lives together in a quiet romance. A few days later, Cliff and Wendy make a public appearance at a local high school. They receive a standing ovation from a crowd of adoring students, who chant Cliff's line: "So Fucking What!" One distraught-looking student, Barbara "Babs" Wyler, does not join in the cheering. After a minute of sitting in angry silence, Babs produces a gun from her book-bag and stands up. With a yell of "EVERYTHING matters!" she fires on Cliff and Wendy, seriously wounding them both. Media attention switches to Babs as she is arrested, booked, and indicted for attempted murder. Her line of "Everything matters" becomes the new public catchphrase, replacing Cliff's "S.F.W.". Reporters and other media people cannot stop talking about Babs' actions. Sharing their own hospital ward, the recovering Cliff and Wendy are elated that their media ordeal is over. They slip away to get married, and to celebrate their newfound privacy. 

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As Gerald tries to describe the things around him in painstaking detail, he recounts simultaneous conversations and events as they happen by using a format similar to data packet handling. After describing a small part of a situation or a conversation, he moves on to a small part of a different conversation, then returns to the first conversation, or maybe moves on to a third or a fourth, returning each time to try to be as accurate as possible while recording the events. 

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It all started some years ago when a culinary-confused king asked a question to his chefs. Which would be stronger: tofu surprise or stuffed duck? The king's chefs thought the king had "gone a little too heavy on the nutmeg." One mysterious chef knew what the king was talking about and presented him with magical cards called Meal Tickets which turns the food into monsters called Fighting Foodons. Since that day, regular food recipes have been turned into Foodons when the art of culinary combat is concocted. One day, King Gorgeous Gorge and his Gluttons cook up a devious plan to rule the world and they sprinkled an extra dash of destruction. They plan to rule the world by kidnapping the best chefs & forcing them to make powerful, evil Foodons. A boy named Chase, a young apprentice chef with an appetite for action, thinks he has what it takes to become an Elite Master Chef like his dad Chef Jack. Chase believes that he, his friends, family, and Foodons can change the world, one at a time, even if it involves going into battle against the Glutton Gormandizers, King Gorge's Big 4, and King Gorge's female cat-like servant Clawdia. Then, he'd have a final showdown with King Gorge. 

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In the early 1950s, a four-man squad of unorthodox Los Angeles Police Department detectives begins throwing its weight around by tossing Jack Flynn, an organized crime figure from Chicago, off a cliff on Mulholland Drive, nicknamed 'Mulholland Falls' for all the men they have thrown off it. Detective Lieutenant Maxwell Hoover and his partners Coolidge, Hall, and Relyea are called to investigate the suspicious death of a young woman found at a construction site. The evidence shows that every bone in her body is broken. A coroner deduces that she looks as though she 'jumped off a cliff', even though there are no cliffs nearby. The woman turns out to be someone Hoover knew very well: Allison Pond. The detectives receive a film of Allison having sex in a motel room, taken by a secretly hidden camera behind a two-way mirror. Allison's friend Jimmy Fields admits to making this film and more, including one with Hoover in it. Fields is murdered while being guarded by Hall and Relyea. Radioactive glass is found in Allison's foot, which leads the detectives to the Nevada Test Site, where they illegally break in and investigate. Colonel Fitzgerald threatens to lock up the police officers, warning them they have no authority there. The man in the film with Allison, proves to be the civilian commander of the secret base, retired General Thomas Timms, now head of the Atomic Energy Commission; he admits the affair to Hoover, but has an alibi for the day of her death. Max's marriage to wife Kate is jeopardized by someone desperate to retrieve the film. An FBI agent fails to persuade the LAPD's Chief to drop the case, so Lt. Hoover's house is ransacked by FBI men with a search warrant, but no film is found. Hoover brutally assaults the FBI agent, after which a film is delivered to Kate, showing her husband and Allison having sex in the motel. The blackmailer turns out to be Colonel Fitzgerald, who demands the film of Timms with Allison be brought to him. Hoover realizes that Fields' film footage of Allison also includes images of 'atomic soldiers', used as guinea pigs for A-bomb tests, and now dying in a secret hospital ward on Timms' military base. Max and Coolidge fly to the base, and bring the film to Timms, who is terminally ill with cancer himself. For their return trip to Los Angeles, Max and Coolidge board a C-47 cargo plane, where they are joined by Colonel Fitzgerald and his aide. During the flight, Max realizes how Allison died and tells Coolidge that Fitzgerald is going to kill them the same way - by throwing them out of the plane in mid-flight. In a vicious struggle, the detectives fight for their lives. Coolidge charges the aide as gunshots go off. Coolidge and Max are able to throw the aide and Fitzgerald out of the plane, both falling to their death. The pilot is also accidentally shot, but manages to crash land before he dies. Coolidge celebrates the landing until realizing that he, too, has been shot, also dying at the scene. Max cannot reconcile with his wife at Coolidge's funeral because she feels betrayed and heartbroken. At the cemetery, where he explains that his unit has been disbanded, she walks out on Max for good. 

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When songwriter Alex Burke (Gig Young) enters the lives of the musical Tuttle family, each of the three daughters falls for him. The family lives in the fictional town of Strafford, Connecticut. Alex's personality is a match for Laurie Tuttle (Doris Day), as both she and Alex are seemingly made for each other. When a friend of Alex's, Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra), comes to the Tuttle home to help with some musical arrangements, complications arise. Barney's bleak outlook on life couldn't be any more contradictory to Alex's, and Laurie tries to change his negative attitude. Meanwhile, Laurie's two other sisters, Fran (Dorothy Malone), who is engaged to Bob, and Amy (Elisabeth Fraser), have feelings for Alex. The family welcomes Barney into their lives, but a feeling of genuine self-worth escapes him, though he is falling in love with Laurie. Alex proposes to Laurie, and she accepts, which causes Fran to finally marry Bob, and devastates Amy. Aunt Jessie is the only one who knows Amy loves Alex. When Laurie goes to see Barney about attending the wedding, he tells her he loves her, and that Amy loves Alex, but Laurie doesn't believe him until she goes home and sees Amy crying. She then leaves Alex at the altar, and elopes with Barney. At Christmas, Laurie and Barney go home for the holiday. Laurie tells Amy how much she loves Barney, and that she is pregnant, though she hasn't told Barney yet. Amy has since fallen in love with Ernie. Alex is also there for the holiday, and has found success. With a black cloud perpetually hanging over his head, Barney decides to go with Bob to take Alex to the train. He drops Bob off at the store, and after dropping Alex at the train, he decides to kill himself, feeling that Laurie would be better off with Alex, as he would be a better provider. Barney drives into oncoming traffic during a snowstorm, with his windshield wipers off. Barney lives, and, with a newfound affirmation of life, finally writes the song he had been working on, finding his self-esteem in the arms of Laurie and their new baby. 

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The blonde bombshell Joyce Bonniwell hires her ex-fiancé and Los Angeles attorney, Simon Lash. Her amnesiatic and wealthy husband Sam Bonniwell has gone missing. Sam is the vice president of the Sheridan National Bank in Los Angeles. Simon searches out what is going on at the bank. The bank’s president, Vincent Springer, assures all is well with the bank and that Sam is on vacation. Simon’s legal assistant, Eddie Slocum, is sent to checkout Sam’s gentlemen’s club. He uncovers a letter to Sam from a Mrs. James Baker. A, beautiful redhead Evelyn Price, answers the door. She admits to having an affair with Sam but that she has not seen him for several days although he may be taking refuge at the Castleman’s Mink Ranch, a place he owns near Palmdale. Simon starts to suspect that Joyce might be seeking out hard evidence of Sam’s infidelity, possibly for divorce proceedings. Simon wants to drop the assignment as he does not investigate divorce cases. Simon enters Joyce's house and a phone call comes through from local sheriff Rucker. He tells Joyce that Sam's body is at Castleman’s Mink Ranch with a gunshot to the head. Simon accompanies Joyce to the ranch to identify the body. When they arrive together to the crime scene, the sheriff starts to suspect that Simon and Joyce have murdered Sam to get his money from the inheritance. Castleman, however, believes that Bonniwell committed suicide. Simon determines that there is clear evidence of two shots, and understands that Bonniwell could not have killed himself. Joyce tells the sheriff that Sam had lost all his money. She denies any knowledge of the ranch and of Sam’s relationship with Evelyn. Simon contacts Eddie by phone, and receives information that both Evelyn and bank president Springer have disappeared without a trace. Simon looks into a hotel that Sam frequented during his visits, and finds out that he used to come visit town in the company of a pretty brunette, whom he claimed to be his wife. Rucker later reports that a brunette that fits the description has been seen driving Sam’s car into the desert. Simon learns from Joyce that the bank president’s fiancé is a brunette, and decides to find the woman. Before Simon has time to leave, he gets information that both Evelyn and Castleman have been murdered. Simon tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and decides to travel to Mesa in New Mexico. When he arrives there he talks to the town marshal, Jeff Bailey, who tells him that a man named Stringer drove through town some time ago, in the direction of Pete Connors’ large estate, known as the Castle. When Simon comes to the Castle, the owner Pete Connors reveals that Bailey is his nephew. Simon is taken by surprise. He is locked into an old harness room. He sees how Joyce arrives to the house by car and manages to break out of the room. Joyce explains that she headed for the Castle after she found out Springer had telephoned Connors' number. Joyce then tries to kill Simon, and he understands that she is the one who murdered all three victims. He tells her that he knows what she has done, and that he guessed she wore a brunette wig to masquerade herself as Springer's fiancée, and murdered Springer at the mink ranch because he discovered that Sam was embezzling from the bank. Simon then continues to explain that Evelyn, who was really Springer's mistress, not Sam’s, and Castleman both were murdered to prevent them from revealing the truth. Sam, who is alive and hiding at the Castle, then appears. There is a gunfight, where Sam accidentally kills both Connors and Joyce, and then is himself killed by Simon.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/66733/Accomplice/ 

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In Betrayal, Jacen starts training his young cousin Ben in the ways of the Force. After a successful mission to Adumar that ends in a life- threatening attack, they return for a dinner party at his parents' new home. There, Han voices his concern over Corellia trying to gain independence. Luke orders Jacen and Ben to disable the Centerpoint Station, an ancient artifact that Corellian leader (and Han's cousin) Thrackan Sal-Solo is trying to use to his advantage. Ben disables the station while Jacen keeps Thrackan busy, ensuring the Galactic Alliance's partial victory as another fleet built in secret spoils the main attack. While travelling to a subterranean base, Ben and Nelani, a Jedi Knight, are forced out of a mining car. Their guide, Brisha Syo creates a dark side phantom of Luke Skywalker, who attacks and very nearly kills Jacen. Eventually, Brisha stops the projections and takes Jacen to an office, where Darth Vectivus, the supposed Sith Lord they are hunting, lives. After fighting Force projections with Ben, Nelani catches up with them. Brisha is revealed to be Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith. She reveals that Vergere is a Sith apprentice, and that Jacen has already received Sith training. Lumiya says that Jacen is going to become the next Sith Lord. Unsure of his next move, Jacen uses the Force to create visions of the future. In each vision in which Lumiya is arrested, the galaxy is consumed in an endless war that eventually places Jacen against Luke. In the vision, Jacen kills his uncle. Horrified, Jacen spares Lumiya. Nelani then tries to arrest the Sith, but Jacen intervenes. Jacen realizes that Nelani will, if allowed to survive, possibly fulfill the dark vision he had seen. He then fights and kills her, asking her forgiveness before striking the fatal blow. He agrees to consider what Lumiya had said and leaves the asteroid with an unconscious Ben. Jacen then erases Ben's memories of Lumiya and tells him that both she and Nelani had been killed by dark side phantoms. They return to Coruscant; however, after Jacen departs, Lumiya says that she had won. Fully pledged to Lumiya, Jacen becomes head of the GFFA's newly formed secret police, the Galactic Alliance Guard. With Ben at his side, he begins rounding up Corellians for internment and deportation. During an interrogation of a suspected assassin (who turns out to be Ailyn Vel, Boba Fett's daughter), Jacen tries to use the Force to extract information from her and kills her accidentally in the process. Jacen also takes command of Rogue Squadron while it participates in the blockade of Corellia. He shoots down a civilian freighter that was attempting to run the blockade, and had fired on him, then relieves his sister from duty because she had refused to do it. He also uses the Anakin Solo to fire upon the Millennium Falcon, while both his sister and his parents are on board. He believes his parents to have been involved in a failed attempt to assassinate Tenel Ka; the Solos had in fact been set up by Dur Gejjen, Prime Minister of Corellia. In Sacrifice, Lumiya says she is pleased by his progress, but instructs him that to truly become a Sith he would have to undergo the Trial of Sacrifice: to kill that which he loves most. Doing this, he believes, would allow him to use the powers of the Sith without becoming evil and would "immortalize his love" for his sacrifice. Jacen decides there is only one way to fulfill this last obstacle: he would have to kill Tenel Ka and their daughter Allana. Nevertheless, after Ben tells Mara that he overheard Jacen communicating with Lumiya, Mara tracks Jacen down in the Hapes Consortium. After a long and heated battle, Jacen kills Mara Jade; the sacrifice necessary to becoming a Sith Lord is not Jacen's love, but Ben's. Ben suspects Jacen almost immediately, upon meeting Jacen at his mother's body. Eventually, Jacen chooses the Sith name Darth Caedus. By Fury, Darth Caedus is the principal antagonist of the series, and the declared enemy of nearly every other major character: His parents and sister have disowned him, Luke is sworn to redeem him, and Ben is driven to seek justice for his mother. In the novel, Caedus kidnaps Allana so Tenel Ka and the Hapans won't decide to leave the government, but Han, Leia, Luke, Jaina, Ben, and their allies save Allana. After saving Allana, Leia tells Caedus to become a Jedi again, but he refuses. Han and Leia later find out Allana is Caedus and Tenel Ka's child. At the end, Jaina plans to have training from Boba Fett to help her face off againast Caedus, despite her parents once being foes with Fett. In Revelation, Caedus takes on a new apprentice, Tahiri Veila to replace Ben and turns to the task of ending the war. He entices the Imperial Remnant to join him in an attack on the planet Fondor. Although Admiral Niathal wants to offer the planet the chance to surrender, Caedus is determined to make an example of Fondor by crippling the shipyards and its planetary government. After previously sharing military secrets, which leads to hundreds of deaths and compromises the battle plan at Fondor, Niathal arranges a cease-fire without consulting Caedus. Enraged at this treason, Caedus orders the fleet to ignore Niathal's orders and bombard the major cities. Niathal orders all ships loyal to her to attack the Anakin Solo. Two-thirds of the fleet side with Caedus, while the rest ally themselves with Niathal. When the Imperial Remnant refuses to assist Caedus, his new apprentice assassinates Imperial Head of State Gilad Pellaeon and turns control over to the Moffs who then come to aid Jacen. A mysterious fleet led by Admiral Daala, loyal to Pellaeon, appears, accompanied by one hundred Mandalorian mercenaries. and together, owing to Daala's experimental weapons, they send the Galactic Alliance Fleet into retreat. Caedus then takes control of Coruscant and claims sole control of the Galactic Alliance. In Invincible, Jaina takes it upon herself to defeat her brother. Caedus's meditations are disrupted by Luke Skywalker, in an attempt to hide Jaina's attack. Jaina, accompanied by several Mandalorian commandos, confronts Caedus, who quickly dispatches the Mandalorians, while Jaina acts as a sniper. When she finally runs out of ammunition, she seizes a Mandalorian saber and severs Caedus' arm. Jaina withdraws, however, due to her own injuries. After escaping an attack led by Luke Skywalker on the bridge of the Anakin Solo, Caedus sees a vision of his daughter Allana on a white throne in a time of peace. This vision convinces Caedus that he has won -- he would bring peace to the galaxy, and prevent his visions of war and suffering from coming true. At the book's climax, Caedus and Jaina face off in a final lightsaber duel aboard Caedus' flagship, the Anakin Solo. In the midst of the duel, Caedus comes back to the light and attempts to persuade Jaina of his intentions to protect Tenel Ka and Allana. Jaina refuses to listen, however, and attacks him after he deactivates and holsters his lightsaber. She later slams the door shut in his face when he tries to leave the fight. After a grueling battle in which both are seriously injured, Jacen is defeated when Jaina severs his Achilles tendon and stabs him in the heart. As he dies, Jacen reaches out to both his former lover and his child through the Force, warning them to flee from an approaching bio-warfare attack designed by the Imperial Remnant to kill them. In this act of selflessness, Jaina sees the remnants of the good man her brother had once been. Following Caedus's death and the war's end, the Galactic Alliance emerges victorious over the Confederation and peace is restored to the galaxy, just as Jacen had foreseen through a vision in the Force. 

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Civil war continues amidst the Galactic Alliance, as terrorism by Corellians on Coruscant forces the Alliance to create even more repressive laws. Many families find themselves divided, including the Solos and Skywalkers: Han Solo's Corellian roots put him at odds with his brother-in-law Luke Skywalker, who is dedicated to the Jedi. Han and Leia Solo's son, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo, continues on the path to becoming a Sith, believing that this is only way for him to save the galaxy. Following the example of his grandfather Anakin Skywalker, he hopes to acquire full Sith knowledge and still avoid becoming another Darth Vader. However, per Sith tenets, to achieve his full Sith ranking he must "immortalize his love", or kill those he loves the most: in his case, his former lover Tenel Ka and their daughter Allana. While wracked with doubt and sorrow, Jacen decides that the sacrifice is necessary. Bounty hunter Boba Fett's daughter, Ailyn Vel, is caught smuggling military-grade weapons onto Coruscant, and Jacen interrogates her to determine her target. She resists, and Jacen kills her. Fett resists killing Jacen in revenge, realizing that Jacen is going over to the dark side of the Force, which will turn his family and friends against him and ultimately inflict more pain than death. Meanwhile, Luke and his wife Mara fear for their son, Ben, who seems to be following his mentor Jacen on his destructive path. Shaken by the deaths of two people in a raid, Ben begins to distrust Jacen's teachings. 

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The show revolved around the spy activities of Benjamin "Beans" Baxter, Jr., a Kansas teenager who had just moved with his parents and younger brother to Washington, DC, as part of his father's (assumed) reassignment as an employee of the U.S. Postal Service. After Beans witnessed his father's apparent assassination in the explosion of a bomb planted in Benjamin Sr.'s postal freighter, he was recruited by the mysterious "Number Two" (Jerry Wasserman). Number Two was an officer (and, presumably, the Deputy Director) of "the Network", a CIA-styled spy agency; Beans thus learned that his father was actually an agent of the Network, and that the older Baxter's Postal Service employment was his cover assignment. (The Network's main delivery of assignments for its agents was a system similar to what was seen on the spy comedy Get Smart! in the 1960s.) The main nemesis of the Network was a terror organization that called itself UGLI, for the Underground Government Liberation Intergroup, which was headed by the professional terrorist called Mr. Sue (Kurtwood Smith) and his second-in- command (Taylor Negron). The Network, however, considered Beans himself strictly a "place-holder" agent, and it would only allow him to work in its dangerous service till his father could be found and freed. Viewers were warned, as a result, to expect to see little of Benjamin Sr., since his prime purpose was to stay lost and trapped so the series might continue. Additional episodes were intended to show Beans's mother Susan, wrongly believing herself to be a widow, re-entering the dating scene. This activity on her part was to have led to complications for Beans, who knew, as she did not, that hers was still a valid, legal marriage to a husband who was still alive, and would thus have had to turn away possible suitors to prevent his mother from accidentally committing bigamy. Moreover, for all Beans or Susan knew, any of those suitors might have been UGLI terrorists planning all manner of nefarious activities, such as possibly assassinating not only Susan, but also Beans. The series was cancelled before any of these developments could be explored. Beans started a friendship with a classmate nicknamed Woodshop (Stuart Fratkin), and he later became attracted to a beautiful student nicknamed "Cake Lace" (Karen Mistal). In one episode, former Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly appeared as herself. (The opening scene had Beans catching her in the shower naked and trying to escape from UGLI's chief henchman, who wanted to kidnap her as part of an unknown experiment.) 

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A coming-of-age story about four working-class friends growing up on Long Island, New York, as clam diggers. Their fathers were clam diggers as well as their grandfathers before them. 

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Vijayan (Sreenivasan), the village school teacher, believes that his degree in economics will make him to succeed in the business ventures he undertakes. Taking long leaves of absence from work, he goes around with his schemes, all of which turn out to be downright failures. The movie opens with a light portrayal of the misery of his benevolent wife Shyamala (Sangita) and their two daughters, with Vijayan away on his latest venture -- an attempt to shoot a short ad film under influence of his friend. It ends, predictably, with Vijayan taking to his heels when it is apparent that he has never seen a film being shot in his life before and thought he could just wing it without experience. Karunan "Mash," (Thilakan) Vijayan's father, is worried for his son and daughter-in-law and their children by seeing Vijayan not taking seriously his regular job in hand and going after dreams beyond his capability. His wife is under-educated and believes what her husband is doing is right for their family and what they face is a momentary crisis. He knows this and misuses this for slacking off on his responsibilities. As a last resort to reform his son Karunan and father-in-law Achuthan Nair suggests that Vijayan undertake the annual pilgrimage to the Hindu hilltop temple Sabarimala and reorder life with responsibility. Despite his initial protests, Vijayan undertakes his pilgrimage because he starts to loose ground for his acts, by observing the customary 41-day fasting and abstinence. Sabarimala changes him. On his return from his pilgrimage, his family discovers to their dismay that matters have swung to the other extreme. Vijayan takes faith to his heart, embraces vegetarianism and adopts a life of prayer, frugality and abstinence, eventually forsaking his debt-ridden family for a life at an ashram. His version of ashram life is one of round-the-clock prayer and an escape from daily responsibilities and work -- which doesn't go well the other residents. Soon the residents find out Vijayan has a family and abandoned them thinking they would be taken care by God since they are innocent and his primary aim for becoming a Sanyasi is to craft gold and money from ether as some fake Sanyasi's do rather than service. The head of the ashram guides him to loose his inferiority complexes and betraying himself because knowing oneself and taking up responsibilities is the foundation of true wisdom and freedom. He soon finds himself unwelcome there and returns to his home, to discover his family have moved on without him and sustains without hunger or by borrowing money as they did in the past from a tailoring business contract his wife took after he left. During her sisters marriage day she guides her sister to complete her studies and should take-up a job that could make her role in their family as an equally responsible person. Vijayan tries to get back into his family which he abandoned. He tries to win his family's heart through acts and mediation's, his wife censures him for his new low. He continues with his acts to convince his wife but she finally says she sees through all these and to leave them alone. Vijayan finally breakdown but his wife rejects it which makes him declare that he is leaving them for sure if it is what they need. His wife asks him why was the emotional whimpering a moment ago and did he even think how they felt for months when Vijayan rejected and left them alone. She says there were many who suggested her to remarry but she lived through each nights with the hope that Vijayan would return and if this is the resolution he has come up with finally, he should go wherever he wishes. Next day with true change of heart he returns to his teaching and the film ends with Vijayan returning to his home with his wife and children through a road where Communist leaders and Sabarimala pilgrims are marching in opposite directions. 

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Lazy stoner teenager Anton Tobias' parents wind up dead on Halloween, with all the clues pointing to him. After killing his best friends Pnub and Mick, Anton realizes that his right hand has become possessed. Unable to control his hand, Anton throws his cat across the street and while searching for it, he encounters his neighbor Molly and the two start a relationship. Anton holds a funeral for his parents and friends. However, Pnub and Mick decide not to go to heaven, returning to their former bodies and rising from the grave. Meanwhile, a druidic high priestess named Debi LeCure is hunting the spirit responsible for killings across the country. After his hand kills two cops in his living room, Anton cuts it off with a cleaver. Pnub and Mick seek out a First-Aid Kit while Anton traps the hand in a microwave, burning it. Meanwhile, Debi (now along with Randy, Anton's neighbor) hunts Anton down to put a stop to the possessed hand. After sending Molly to the school dance, Anton returns home to finish off the hand. Unfortunately Pnub and Mick inadvertently release the hand. The three then steal Randy's truck and head to the school. Mick and Pnub go to the Halloween dance to watch over Molly, while Anton looks for the hand. Randy and Debi meet up with Anton. Debi explains that the hand will drag Molly's soul into the netherworld. Anton crashes the dance and tries to warn everyone about his hand, but is ignored. The hand then scalps the band's lead singer and causes a panic. Molly and her friend Tanya escape through the vents. They attempt to go through a fan, which they have stopped with Tanya's shoe, but Tanya gets hung on the rope, Molly tries to pulls Tanya off the fan and Anton's hand ends up removing Tanya's shoe, allowing her to be pulled to her death in the fan. Molly then runs into the art room, causing her to get knocked out. Anton enters and fights with the hand while it is inside a puppet but it escapes to the auto shop, where Molly is strapped to a car in her bra and panties, being raised toward the ceiling. Anton, Mick, and Pnub fight with the hand over the controls. Mick finds a mechanic's bong and he and Pnub smoke "for strength". Anton blows some smoke into the hand (still inside a hand- puppet) until it drops the controls and they save Molly. Debi throws a ritual knife into the hand, stopping it in a puff of smoke and fire. She and Randy take off for "ritualistic sex." Anton releases Molly from the top of the car, they go under the car and start making out. In the process of lighting the bong for Mick, Pnub accidentally hits the controls for the car, and Anton is crushed by the car. In the film's conclusion, Anton is in a body-cast in the hospital, having given up heaven to stay with Molly, and Mick and Pnub are now his Guardian Angels. When he is left alone in his room, Anton looks up and sees the message "I am under the bed" written on the ceiling. Mick and Pnub walk down the hall, pondering if they should tell Anton they were the ones that wrote the message, but decide against it, laughing. 

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When Jimmy's comedy act is snubbed by the townspeople in favor of an inspirational talk by Christopher Reeve, Timmy and Jimmy form a club for those crippled at birth. Timmy and Jimmy start their own club, dubbed "the Crips" unaware of the notorious, real life street gang that shares the same name. Eventually Timmy and Jimmy find out about the Crips, and under the belief that it is a group of disabled people like themselves, the boys want to join the gang. When they tell the four main characters - Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny of their intentions, Stan suggests that "maybe [they] should just stay out of this one". Kyle and Kenny agree and leave immediately, but Cartman is sore for being left out of Jimmy and Timmy's newly founded club. The Crips leader in Denver tells the boys they have to "pop some punk ass Bloods" if they want to join the gang. The boys do not know that the term actually means kill some Bloods, so they wander the town to find the Bloods while believing that they are supposed to buy treats for them. They find a group of Bloods at a gas station called "Ribs 'n' Gas". While walking across the street, they cause a trucker to swerve violently and smash into the gas station, killing all thirteen Bloods inside. The Crips leader then welcomes Jimmy ("Four Legs") and Timmy ("Roller") as the "baddest ass mo' fo' Crips in town" in their gang, because they killed thirteen Bloods in one night (a new Crips gang record) and brought back marshmallows and ginger ale. Jimmy's parents ask Jimmy if he is in a gang, which he admits to. It is revealed at this point that the Vulmers had made fun of handicapped kids in High School and believed that God had made Jimmy handicapped to punish them, so they naturally believe that this is part of a punishment. One night the Bloods gang members commit a drive-by shooting (which is based on a scene in the 1988 film Colors) on Jimmy's house as retaliation for the killing of the thirteen Bloods. In order to prevent further reprisals, Jimmy decides to call a meeting at the local recreation center between the two gangs, and lock themselves in for the evening until they can sort out their differences. Expectedly, both gangs initially act hostile to one another, but Jimmy manages to convince them to sort out their differences by saying "I mean, come on!" repeatedly and manages to bring the two gangs together, as they all then participate in various games and activities inside the recreation center as friends. Meanwhile, Christopher Reeve campaigns for stem cell research for the handicapped. By cracking open fetuses and sucking out their juices, he soon regains mobility, and even superpowers like the character he portrayed, Superman. He eventually takes on the role of a supervillain, and is opposed by his nemesis, Gene Hackman (whom Reeve refers to as "Hack-Man"). This causes one reporter to comment that "if irony were made of strawberries, we'd all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now." Reeve continues to use stem cells even after he is healed and becomes addicted to power, and eventually puts together a Legion of Doom made up of villains from the DC, Marvel and South Park universes. (Professor Chaos tells General Disarray that they should "stay out of this one", much like the boys and the T-shirt shopkeeper, Mr. McGillicuddy, did in the A-plot.) At the end, Hackman manages to get a law passed to end Reeve's "fetus-sucking days," and traps Reeve in the Phantom Zone. The episode ends with the four boys — having watched all the events, remarking that they were "so glad we stayed out of that one." 

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Hotshot street- racer Phil Sandifer (Contino) is working as a truck driver when he is harassed by a sports car driving on the highway. He later meets up with the driver, Jana (Giles), in a local club. Jana challenges Phil to a race; Jana runs Phil off the road, and he loses. At the same time, his best friend Sonny is run off the road and killed by an unidentified assailant (VeSota). Later at the club, Phil is arrested for destruction of city property and trespassing in the area they raced through, reckless driving, and hit-and-run and manslaughter for Sonny's death. The hit-and-run and manslaughter charges are dropped but Phil is found guilty of the other three charges - as a result, Phil is placed on probation and is stripped of his driver's license. Phil quickly launches into an investigation into Sonny's murder, his first suspect being Jana. She denies any involvement, and joins Phil in his investigation. He follows the trail of clues to nightclub owner Sidney Chillas (Sonny's assailant), and Chillas's lackey Bruce, who runs the gym Sonny used to frequent. Chillas hires Phil as a singer under the alias of "Daddy-O". Not long after being hired, Phil is beaten up by a couple of drug dealers who have mistaken him for Pete Plum, a pseudonym used by Sonny. Phil draws the conclusion that Sonny had been moving money around for Chillas, and that he had stolen some of the money and was killed as a result. Phil confronts Chillas with the information, and they confront one another in a liquor cellar. Phil manages to knock Chillas out, and soon the police arrive and arrest him and Bruce. The movie ends just as Phil is asked to sing. 

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A husband and wife, Jan and Eva, are former violinists who are living on a farm on a rural island during a civil war. Their radio and telephone do not work, and Eva expresses frustration with Jan's apparent preference of escapism from the conflict, while they debate whether they can have children and if Jan is selfish. The couple visit the town, and hear a rumor that troops will soon come, and meet with an older man who has been called to duty. When they return, their home area is bombed, and they see a parachutist descend on it. Jan and Eva are captured by the invading force and interviewed by a military journalist on camera, for a segment on the viewpoints of the "liberated" population. Eva initially seems indifferent to the conflict, but denies neutrality, and Jan declines to speak, and they are released. They are later captured again, and as soldiers interrogate them, the troops play a film of the interview, in which Eva's words have been dubbed over with incriminating speech. This is primarily a scare tactic. Eventually, they are released by Col. Jacobi, who had formerly served as the mayor. After the couple returns home, their relationship is strained. Jacobi becomes a regular, if not uncomfortably constant, visitor who treats them with gifts but also has the power to send the couple to a work camp. This relationship is manipulative. Jacobi convinces Eva to provide him with sexual favors in exchange for his bank account savings. They go into the green house to have sex while Jan is resting. He wakes, calling Eva's name. Eventually, he goes upstairs and finds Jacobi's savings on the bed and begins to cry. Eva enters, while Jacobi stays outside and turns to leave. She then comments to a weeping Jan that he can continue sobbing if he feels it will help. Soldiers arrive, and Jacobi explains his freedom can be bought, as the side of the war who is here is in desperate need of money. Jacobi, the soldiers, and Eva ask Jan for the money. Jan states he does not know what money they are talking about. The soldiers raid the house to look for it, in vain. They hand Jan a gun to execute Jacobi, and he does. After the soldiers leave, Jan reveals he had the money in his pocket, to Eva's disgust. This has split their relationship irreparably and causes repeated breakdowns. The relationship grows silent and cold. When Jan and Eva meet a young soldier, Eva wants to feed him and allow him to sleep. Jan violently takes him away to shoot and rob him. Eva follows Jan towards the sea, and he uses the money from Jacobi in order to buy them seats on a fishing boat. While at sea, the boat's motor fails. The man steering the boat kills himself by lowering himself overboard. The boat later finds itself stuck in the middle of floating dead bodies, unable to move forward and continue. As the boat takes away the refugees, Eva tells Jan of her dream: she walks down a beautiful city street with a shaded park, until planes come and set fire to the city and its rose vines. She and Jan have had a daughter, whom she is holding in her arms. They watch the roses burn, which she states "wasn't awful because it was so beautiful". She feels she had to remember something, but couldn't. 

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In a little West African village, a boy named Kirikou is born in an unusual way. Since he can speak and walk immediately after being born, it's also pretty obvious that he's not a normal baby. After Kirikou's mother tells him that an evil sorceress has dried up their spring and devoured all the males of the village except for one, he decides to accompany the last warrior, his uncle, to visit her. Kirikou manages to trick the sorceress and save his uncle by waiting inside his uncle's hat and pretending that it's magic. Additionally, he saves the village's children from being kidnapped both by the sorceress' boat and tree, and bursts the monster who was drinking all the village's water. He then travels to ask his wise old grandfather about the sorceress, who tells him that she is evil because she suffers from a poisoned thorn in her back. After learning this, Kirikou manages to trick the sorceress and remove the thorn, as well as taking all of her stolen gold and returning it to the rightful owners. The sorceress is cured as a result, and she kisses Kirikou; who then becomes an adult. When they arrive back at the village, no one believes that the sorceress is cured until a procession of drummers arrive. Afterwards, the sorceress's watchmen (as well as her other obedient objects) are turned back into the missing men; revealing that she didn't eat them after all. 

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Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear living in the Hundred Acre Wood, is disappointed to find that he is out of honey. He hears a bee fly by and decides to climb a nearby honey tree, but as he reaches the beehive, a branch he is sitting on breaks, causing him to fall into a gorse bush below. Pooh's best friend, Christopher Robin, gives Pooh a balloon and he tries to trick the bees by disguising himself as a Little Black Rain Cloud by rolling in a mud puddle and floating up to the beehive. He pulls out some honey and eats it without noticing that it is covered in bees. The bees fly around inside his mouth causing him to spit them out. One of which is the queen whom he kicks into the muddy patch below. Soon, Pooh's disguise starts to drip, to which the bees attack him. The queen sees this and angrily flies up and stings him on the bottom. The sudden hit causes Pooh to swing up and down and get stuck at the beehive, much to the queen bee's laughingstock at his expense, thinking that it's so funny (voiced by Dallas McKennon). He is then shoved out of the hole by the bees, who proceed to chase him away. Pooh (hungry for honey), he decides to visit Rabbit's house. Rabbit reluctantly invites Pooh over for lunch. Pooh greedily helps himself to jars and jars of honey until there is none left. He tries to leave, but gets stuck in Rabbit's front door. When Rabbit finds Pooh stuck, he tries to push Pooh through and eventually discovers that not even with Christopher Robin pulling can they get him out. Christopher Robin suggests that they can try pushing him back if they can't pull him out. Christopher Robin tells Pooh that they can no doubt push him back in. But Rabbit disagrees. Thus, Christopher Robin has only one more solution. They must wait for Pooh to get thin again to the point where he can always be able to slip through Rabbit's front door. In the meantime, Rabbit decides to decorate Pooh's bottom so he will not have to face looking at him being stuck for so long, but when Rabbit tries to create a moose head on Pooh's bottom, it tickled Pooh which messed up the look. Then Rabbit mutters to himself that he never should've invited Pooh over to lunch (as he says, "Why did I ever invite that bear to lunch?"). While he is doing this, Kanga and Roo visit Pooh and give him some honeysuckle flowers which make Pooh sneeze, completely destroying the decoration, much to Rabbit's dismay. Rabbit is also forced to put up a "Don't feed the bear!" sign (forbidding anyone to feed Pooh at all) after Pooh tries to get honey from his friend Gopher late one night. Finally, when a depressed Rabbit leans against Pooh one morning and feels him move a bit, he realizes that Pooh has gone thin. Ecstatic, Rabbit and Christopher Robin gather their friends to get Pooh out. Everyone except Rabbit pulls from outside while Rabbit pushes from inside. After many pulls and pushes from both sides, Rabbit finally shoves Pooh with a running start, and Pooh is launched free from Rabbit's door and into the air, and lands headfirst into the hole of another honey tree, scaring the bees away. Although his friends offer to free him, Pooh does not mind being stuck again, as his being stuck headfirst in the tree means he can now gorge himself on the vast amount of honey stored inside. 

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On a very windy day, Winnie the Pooh visits his "thoughtful spot". As Pooh sits thinking, Gopher pops out of the ground and advises him to leave as it is a "Winds-day". Misunderstanding the warning, Pooh goes across the Hundred Acre Wood to wish everyone a happy Winds-day. He arrives at the beech tree home of his friend Piglet, who is nearly blown away while trying to rake leaves, but Pooh grabs him by his scarf, like the string of a kite. They pass by Kanga and Roo; Eeyore, whose stick house Pooh breaks as he passes; and Rabbit, whose carrots Pooh inadvertently helps harvest as he slides by. The wind blows Pooh and Piglet to Owl's treehouse, where he invites them in. Pooh wishes Owl a happy Winds-day, as he has everyone else, but Owl informs them that the wind is due to "a mild spring zephyr". As Owl recounts the adventures of various relatives, the strong wind causes his house to sway and eventually collapse, for which he initially blames Pooh. Christopher Robin and the others arrive; as the wrecked house cannot be repaired, Eeyore volunteers to seek out a new house for Owl, who proceeds to tell more stories for quite some time; talking from page 41 to page 62. On page 63, the wind is still blowing as night falls, and Pooh is kept awake by noises outside and opens his door for a visitor: Tigger, who introduces himself with his signature song ("The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers") and informs Pooh that he has come looking for something to eat. Disgusted by the taste of Pooh's honey, Tigger tells him that there are Heffalumps and Woozles in the forest that steal honey, and departs. Frightened, Pooh stays up to guard his honey but falls asleep as a thunderstorm brews up. After a nightmare about Heffalumps and Woozles stealing his honey and chasing him around, he wakes up in a flood caused by the storm. In the flood, Piglet is washed away from his home, writing a message in a bottle for help just before the waters carry him off in a floating chair. Pooh manages to reach higher ground with only ten honey pots, but the rising waters carry him away. Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, and Tigger gather at Christopher Robin's house on the highest ground, while Eeyore continues house hunting for Owl. Roo finds Piglet's bottle, and Owl flies off to tell Piglet that help is on the way. Owl reaches Piglet and Pooh, but before he can inform them of the impending rescue – and tell another boring story – a waterfall threatens to carry them all over the side. Pooh switches places with Piglet as they take the plunge, and the waterfall washes them right into Christopher Robin's yard. Thinking that Pooh has rescued Piglet, Christopher Robin throws a party to celebrate Pooh's heroic deed, where Eeyore announces he has found a new home for Owl. He leads everyone to his discovery which, known to everyone except Owl and Eeyore, is Piglet's beech tree. Piglet generously lets Owl have the house, despite having nowhere else to live himself. Pooh then invites Piglet to move into his home, which Piglet happily accepts, and Christopher Robin declares the occasion a "two-hero party". 

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During the fall, Tigger has been bouncing on anyone he comes across for fun, especially Rabbit, when he is gardening, which makes Rabbit angry, so he decides to arrange a meeting with Pooh and Piglet and formulate a plan to prevent Tigger from bouncing: abandon Tigger in the woods, and find him the next day so hopefully Tigger will stop bouncing on his friends unexpectedly. Initially the plan seems to work, but when Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet are unable to find their way home, Pooh makes a suggestion about following a sandpit in order to find their way out of the forest. In an attempt to prove Pooh wrong, Rabbit wanders away. Pooh and Piglet then fall asleep, but are awakened by Pooh's empty stomach. He explains to Piglet that his twelve honeypots in his cupboard have been calling to his tummy from home and that he couldn't hear them over Rabbit's voice. Pooh and Piglet find their way out of the forest, but are immediately bounced by Tigger. Piglet, realizing that the plan failed, mentions Rabbit's plan, and Tigger goes into the forest to find him. Rabbit walks through the darkest part of the forest by himself, and is scared by numerous noises such as a caterpillar eating a leaf and frogs croaking. Rabbit tries to run away in a panic, only to be tackled by Tigger. Rabbit is humiliated that his plan to lose Tigger had failed. Tigger explains to him that "Tiggers never get lost", and takes Rabbit home. In the next chapter, wintertime comes and Roo wants to go play. Kanga is unable to be with him so she calls on Tigger to look after Roo as long as he comes back in time for Roo's nap. Tigger gladly accepts. Along the way through the woods, Tigger and Roo see Rabbit skating on the ice. Tigger tries to teach Roo how to ice skate by doing it himself, but unfortunately, he loses his balance and collides with Rabbit while trying to regain it. In moments Tigger slides into a snowbank and Rabbit crashes into his house. Tigger then decides that he does not like ice skating. Later on, while bouncing around the woods with Roo on his back, Tigger accidentally jumps to the top of a very tall tree and is afraid to climb back down. He gets even more scared when Roo grabs his tail and uses it as a swing, making Tigger think he's "rocking the forest". Meanwhile, Pooh and Piglet are investigating strange animal tracks that are actually Tigger and Roo's. Suddenly, they hear Tigger howling for help and quickly hide. At first, Pooh mistakes Tigger's howl for the sound of a "Jagular"; but after seeing that it is actually Tigger and Roo in the tree, he and Piglet come to their rescue. Shortly afterward, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, and Kanga arrive and the gang uses Christopher's coat as a net for Tigger and Roo to land in once they jump from the tree. Roo successfully jumps down, but Tigger, who is still too frightened to jump, makes up several excuses to not come down. Rabbit then decides that the group will just have to leave Tigger in the tree forever, on which Tigger promises never to bounce again if he ever is released from his predicament. At that moment, the narrator chimes in for help. Tigger begs him to "narrate" him down from the tree, and he tilts the book sideways, allowing Tigger to step onto the text of the page. Tigger starts to feel better that he made it this far but before he can do otherwise, the narrator tilts the book back the other way, causing Tigger to fall into the snow. Happy, Tigger attempts to bounce but Rabbit stops him reminding Tigger of the promise he made. Devastated, Tigger realizes he could not bounce anymore and slowly walks away and Rabbit feels better that there will be peace, but everyone else does not and felt sad to see Tigger depressed and remind Rabbit of the joy Tigger brought when he was bouncing. Then Rabbit, realizing how selfish he was, shows sympathy for Tigger and takes back the promise they had agreed on; he is then given a friendly tackle by an overly-excited Tigger. Tigger invites everyone to bounce with him and even teaches Rabbit how to do it. For the first time, Rabbit is happy to be bouncing, as is everyone else as Tigger sings his signature song once more before the short closes. 

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The film tells the story of two roommates, Mike Carr and Johnny Dixon. Johnny, who suffered a head injury during the war, meets a girl named Estelle Mitchell, and begins to date her. When he finds out she's dating other men around town he dumps her and starts dating her sweet twin sister, Linda. The story picks up when Mike Carr goes into Tim McGinnis’ bar in New York, to wait for Estelle, a woman he hasn't met since her twin sister Linda was murdered six months earlier. He sits down and start having flashbacks of the events around Linda's death: Johnny Dixon, who once served together with Mike in the Army, and was his roommate at this point in time, had frequent nervous breakdowns. Johnny and Linda were a couple, and they were very much in love, but the twin sister, Estelle, wanted Johnny for herself. Estelle was quite determined to break the happy couple up, but in the meantime she was seeing Mike, who had a hard time resisting the vampy Estelle. Mike only met Linda once, but in doing so, he realized that she was the sister he should have been putting his energy into catching, as she was the more innocently virtuous of the two twins. But the twin sisters both wanted Johnny, and one night they got into a fight over him, after which Linda went to see Johnny on her own. Estelle tries to intercept and get to Johnny's first. Mike saw Estelle arrive at Johnny's before Linda had arrived. He stops Estelle from coming in between the two lovers, but when Mike returns home a couple of hours later, Estelle telephones Mike at her mother's request to say that Linda never came home and has been reported missing. Mike sees Johnny, and he turns out to be drunk and distraught. He begs Mike to verify his alibi, and that he heard Linda whistle for a taxi and saw her leave. When the police arrive to the scene they find a buckle from Linda's trenchcoat on Johnny's apartment floor, and after finding Linda's body in the apartment building, they take Johnny in for questioning. Mike passes by McGinniss's and finds another buckle outside the bathroom window. He goes to Johnny and mentions the possibility that Johnny's memory might have failed him the night of the murder. While they are talking, the police arrive to arrest Johnny, and he panics. Mike helps out his friend, letting him escape out the back. In order to persuade Mike to give Johnny up, police detective Heller takes Mike to the morgue to show him Linda's trashed body. Heller then recounts the horrible details of Linda's death: After being choked, Linda was pushed, still alive, into the chute of the trash incinerator, and when he was unable to fit her in the tight space, the murderer shoved her in and broke her neck. The murderer then pulled her out and put her in a barrel on the roof. Mike is disgusted by this, but still doesn't believe his friend murdered Linda. He convinces Johnny to come out of hiding and clear his name. As they arrive home, Estelle is waiting for them with a man called Alex Tremholt, who has been renting a room at the Mitchells' since the twins were young. While they are there, Mike hears a woman whistle for a taxi, and realizes that must be the same woman they heard the night of the murder. When Tremholt sees Johnny, he insists on calling the police to arrest him, but Johnny escapes once more. Detective Heller arrives and suggests Tremholt of having a long- standing, unrequited love for Estelle and of killing the innocent Linda, whom he mistook for Estelle, the object of his desire. With the truth being revealed, Mike hurries off to tell Johnny he is in the clear and just manages to stop him from hanging himself. Back in the present, Mike drags Estelle to his old apartment and insinuates that she committed the murder. When he enters the flat, however, Heller is waiting to arrest him. He reveals that Jake, the apartment janitor, recently found Linda's neck scarf in the incinerator chute with Mike's fingerprints all over it. It turns out that Mike killed Linda, believing she was Estelle. After telling Mike that Tremholt's arrest was only a trick, Heller accompanies Mike down the stairs and past Estelle into the night. 

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Two dishonest partners in a grocery store, Sam and Steve, both run for mayor in Jimtown, USA. If either one wins, he agrees to appoint the other his chief of police. Sam wins with the help of a crooked campaign manager. Sam keeps his promise to appoint Steve as chief of police, but they begin to disagree on petty matters. They resolve their differences in a long, comic fight. As they fight, their opponent for the mayoral position, virtuous Harry Walton, vows to end their corrupt regime ("I'm Just Wild about Harry"). Harry gets the people behind him and wins the next election, as well as the lovely Jessie, and runs Sam and Steve out of town. One character remarks that the lighter the skin, the more desirable an African-American woman is. 

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The film tells the story of the U.S. Treasury Department which, with the aid of a counterfeiter, tries to track and stop the counterfeiting ring. The counterfeiter, Tris Stewart (Bridges), serving time in prison, is released under the agreement that he will assist in the capture of the phony money printers. Once out of jail, Stewart quickly meets cigarette girl Meg Dixon (Barbara Payton). 

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A visionary astronomer, Dr. Janos Rukh (Boris Karloff), has invented a telescope that can look far out into deep space, into the Andromeda Galaxy, and photograph light rays that will show the Earth's past. He has theorized about this being possible for some years, much to his discredit among his fellow scientist-colleagues. Looking at the remote past on a planetarium-like dome in his lab, two of those ardently skeptical scientists, Dr. Benet (Bela Lugosi) and Sir Francis Stevens (Walter Kingsford), watch a large meteorite smash into the Earth a billion years ago, in what is now the continent of Africa. Amazed by Rukh's demonstration, the pair invite him to go on an expedition to locate the impact site. Rukh finds the meteorite, but is exposed to its unknown radiation, now dubbed "Radium X". This causes him to glow in the dark and to make his mere touch instantaneous deadly to any living thing. The exposure also begins to warp his mind. Returning to the base camp, he entreats Dr. Benet to devise a means of neutralizing Radium X's poisoning effect. Benet develops a serum that holds the lethal element's toxicity at bay, but Rukh must take regular doses of the antidote or he will revert to being a luminous killing machine. Rukh returns to his jungle base and learns from Benet that this situation has been complicated by the romantic relationship between Rukh's wife, Diana (Frances Drake), and Ronald Drake (Frank Lawton), the nephew of Lady Arabella Stevens (Beulah Bondi), Dr. Stevens' wife. Benet takes a piece of the meteorite back to Europe, where he modifies its effects to help people, including curing the blind. Working along similar lines, Rukh cures his mother's blindness, but in spite of her warning, he goes to Paris to confront Benet and the others. There, he pretends to acknowledge his wife's new relationship with Drake, but in reality, it is the first step in his plan for revenge. Rukh murders a Frenchman he closely resembles, making it appear that he has died and been rendered unrecognizable due to an accident with Radium X. Believing the deception, Diana marries Ronald. Rukh now begins to use his radiation poisoning to kill off the expedition members. He marks each death by disintegrating a single statue on the exterior of a church across from where he is hiding. Each time, he focuses the radiation through a window using a raygun-like device. He manages to kill both Stevenses before the police realize what is happening. Dr. Benet helps them set a trap by convening a scientific conference at his home to discuss Radium X, but Rukh secretly gains access and kills Benet. He has saved his revenge on Ronald and Diana for last but finds himself unable to kill his former wife. This hesitation brings him to a confrontation with his mother, the most important woman in his life. She has foreseen her son's growing madness and smashes the last of his antidote bottles in order to stop him. As the Radium X begins to consume him from within, Rukh jumps from a window. He disappears in an explosive flame, having been vaporized before reaching the ground. 

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Raja (Sanjay Dutt) is in love with a night club dancer, Rani (Manisha Koirala). Rani gets Raja a job as a security guard in a Hotel run by Vikram (Aditya Pancholi). Raja's life turns haywire when Manubhai (Gulshan Grover) falls for Rani and tries to get her at any cost. Rani instead of falling prey to his lusty charms prefers to kill herself. Raja then turns into a professional killer in Vikram's gang. Raja comes across Soorya (master Rohan) who idolizes him as his hero and even adopts his lifestyle. Soorya (Inder Kumar) grows up and falls in love with Vikram's sister Kiran (Tina Sen). Initially Raja encourages Soorya, but when he comes to know that the girl is Kiran, he advises Soorya to relent, but in vain. Raja also tries to pacify Vikram, but in vain. Raja becomes a rebel with a cause, mainly to protect love. Raja tries to get Soorya and Kiran marriage but just after becoming husband wife, Raja and Vikram kill each other. Movie finishes with everybody crying for Raja and Vikram. 

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Suraj is the son of Inspector Vijay Verma (Vinod Mehra) and his wife, Meera (Reema Lagoo). One day, Suraj meets a girl named Kiran. Unknown to everybody, Kiran is the daughter of Balraj Khanna, the king of an underworld gang. Balraj has kept his truth a secret from the world and his own daughter. Vijay, in the meanwhile, gets assigned to the case of Balraj's gang. Joining the same college, Suraj and Kiran fall in love. As Vijay probes deeper and deeper into the gang, the gang members, especially Goga (Goga Kapoor), become unnerved. Balraj is disturbed by the fact that his daughter has fallen for Vijay's son. Vijay too gets an inkling that Balraj is the leader of the gang. So, when Vijay learns about the affair between his son and Kiran, he forbids their love. Suraj has a spat with his father over the matter. As Suraj vents out his feelings to his mother, Meera also reveals a secret to him: Suraj is not Vijay's biological son. Meera tells him that his real father, her husband (Pradeep Rawat), was also an Inspector and a friend of Vijay. Meera was pregnant with Suraj, when Suraj's father was killed while on a case by a goon named Ramsingh Gupti (Deep Dhillon). After the death, Vijay took Meera into his home and later married her when people started talking about Meera's character. Upon learning the truth, Suraj decides to track down Vijay and apologize to him. However, Goga decides to have Vijay killed and contacts Balraj for the matter. Balraj tells him to leave Vijay alone, as doing something to him would be unwise and also as he has decided to surrender to the cops. Goga, however, ignores the orders as he wants to take over the gang and orders a hit on Vijay. Just as Suraj apologizes to Vijay, the latter is gunned down by Goga's men. Shocked by the events, Suraj decides to bring the criminals to book. Suraj goes on to become an Inspector just like Vijay. Suraj demands to be assigned to the last case Vijay was working on, as the criminals in that case must have killed him. Suraj is surprised to find Balraj's name in the file and doesn't take much to put two and two together. However, Kiran breaks off with Suraj, not ready to believe the allegation against her father. Here, Goga is planning to eliminate Suraj, before he too becomes a nuisance. Balraj has a spat with him and threatens to turn over, until Goga plays the recording of the day Vijay was killed. After realizing that Goga plans to frame him as Vijay's killer, Balraj calms down. However, Kiran overhears the recording and disillusioned, leaves her father's home. Kiran moves to a ladies hostel after she has severed contacts with both Suraj and Balraj. Here, Goga ropes in another criminal to eliminate Suraj, who turns to be none other than Ramsingh. Balraj tries to reconcile with Kiran, but in vain. Balraj decides to surrender, but Goga takes Kiran hostage. Both Balraj and Suraj come to save Kiran, only to be attacked by Goga's goons. As Suraj eliminates all the goons one by one, he is angered to learn the identity of his real father's killer. Suraj kills Ramsingh and then Goga, who was holding Kiran and Balraj at gunpoint. Balraj surrenders unconditionally, but not before giving his blessings to Suraj and Kiran. 

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Jailed as a juvenile for killing his abusive father (Sudhir Kumar), who is responsible for his mother's suicide, Prithvi (Salman Khan) is unable to stand any atrocity. He meets Maggie Pinto (Revathi Menon) and after a few chance meetings, they both fall in love. Maggie takes Prithvi to meet her parents, but they reject him after learning about his criminal past. When Maggie and Prithvi persist, Maggie's mother, Stella Pinto (Rita Bhaduri), calls the police and has Prithvi jailed. Guruji (Amjad Khan) comes to Prithvi's aid and bails him out. Prithvi and Maggie continue their courtship, but Stella finds out and intervenes, sending goons to attack Prithvi, during which Maggie is injured. How this affects everyone close to her is the crux of the story. 

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The play is set in an English boarding house. One of the lodgers locks himself in his room, leaving a note stating that he has decided to retire from the world until the world has changed. Other lodgers and his sister try to coax him out and establish what the problem is. The action is punctuated by songs performed by Bob Dylan. 

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Based on the lives of Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun. Tutankhamun and the Daughter of Ra is part of Moyra Caldecott’s Egyptian sequence, which also includes Hatshepsut: Daughter of Amun and Akhenaten: Son of the Sun. Chronologically, Tutankhamun and the Daughter of Ra takes place after the other two books. 

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In Victorian London, the plain Essie Whimple works in the Simpson Sisters Wax Museum, run by her two aunts, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Maude. They show the murder of Ruth LaRue, an American chorus girl, at the museum. They are visited by the murdered women's co-workers and by Inspector White of Scotland Yard. Notable among them is Tom Baxter, a "Strong Man." Essie, attracted to Tom, makes up a story about knowing who the killer is, and fakes an attempt on her life. She hides in Tom's show, and is turned into a "Redhead." 

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Raj Malhotra is a product engineer for Voice Mobiles, a mobile manufacturing company. Junior lawyer Priya goes to Raj's house for an interview, mistaking him for barrister Ram Chotrani, a neighbour and Raj's friend. They fall in love, marry and are soon expecting a child as well as Raj's promotion to CEO. Company chairman Roy arrives with a new and much younger wife, Sonia; after some discussion between the couple, Sonia is named as the new chairperson, Raj's friend Rakesh Sharma as the new CEO, and Raj is placed on the board of directors. At a party, Raj and Priya learn about Sonia and gossip about her attractiveness and her age difference with Roy. Raj jokes that his magnetic personality was responsible for his prestigious promotion. It is implied that Raj may have encountered Sonia previously. A flashback explores Raj's previous relationship with Sonia, five years earlier. Raj and Sonia (then a model) meet at a beach in Cape Town. They fall in love and move in together. Sonia becomes pregnant with Raj's child, which makes him happy, but Sonia refuses Raj's marriage proposal. She says that she is going to terminate the pregnancy as a child would stand in the way of wealth, fame, power and status; as a consequence, their relationship ends. After their promotions, Rakesh tells Raj about a defect in the company's new mobile handset, which causes calls to be simultaneously placed to two people—the intended recipient and another random person from the phone's contact list. Raj needs Sonia's permission to stop production, and she invites him to her house to discuss the matter. Sonia makes provocative and sexually explicit statements to Raj, who ignores her. She then aggressively tries to pursue Raj, who resists. Although he repeatedly rejects her advances, Sonia continues trying to seduce him. As he leaves, Sonia threatens to punish him for spurning her. The next day, he learns that Sonia has told her husband that he sexually harassed her. Since he has admitted finding Sonia attractive, his claim of innocence is not believed, and the company pressurises him to resign. Raj asks Chotrani to take his case; Chotrani tells him not to resign, and to continue going to work. The case goes to court, gaining widespread media attention with the bulk of the evidence against Raj. Raj's bank manager returns from overseas with a tape that recorded Raj's encounter at Sonia's house. The tape is proven genuine, but is stolen and destroyed by Sonia with the help of Chotrani's assistant, whom she bribes. When Priya asks Raj why he called their bank manager from Sonia's house, he replies that he had called Rakesh, and the call also went through to the bank manager due to the defect in the company handset. Due to Chotrani's injury, Priya continues the case and exposes Sonia's earlier relationship with Raj in Cape Town. She then plays Rakesh's voice mail to the court, showing what occurred between Raj and Sonia. It is revealed that Sonia married Ranjeet Roy for money, power, and status, but when he could not satisfy her sexually, she tried to resume her relationship with Raj. Priya wins the case and Roy leaves Sonia. Guilt-stricken and humiliated, Sonia commits suicide by jumping from a building. The end credit scene shows Raj and Priya walking their child. 

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Lucy (Arquette) is a young woman who works at a restaurant in Manhattan. She is constantly annoyed by her gambling, egotistical bosses. She has an ambition to be an escape artist, specifically a modern female version of Harry Houdini, with her best friend, Vivian (Balint) as her assistant. Lucy also collects anything that once belonged to Mrs. Houdini. The movie starts with Lucy questioning who the new bartender (Bowie) is. She finds out his name is Monte, he's from Britain and will tell any lie in order to get a woman to marry him. He makes it clear he only wants to marry because he is in dire need of a green card, because if he doesn't and has to go back to Britain, he will surely die. The two chat, with Monte desperately asking Lucy out for breakfast, even though Lucy doesn't want to. Later on, Lucy is practising an escape trick when she loses her balance and becomes trapped by the noose she was planning to escape from. Her wrists and ankles are both cuffed, meaning Lucy can't free herself. She cries herself to sleep after having not been able to reach the key that unlocks the cuffs. She is awoken in the morning by a phone call. She struggles to answer it but manages to by kicking the phone onto the ground so she can hear it. It's Monte wanting to take her out for breakfast, having found her number in the Yellow Pages. Lucy begs him to come to her apartment to untie her. He frees her legs and unties the noose but will only free her hands on the condition that she marries him. Lucy, unsettled, declines, so Monte handcuffs Lucy to himself and the bed before falling asleep, with an upset Lucy following suit. Vivian enters the apartment the following morning to find Monte and Lucy asleep on the bed, handcuffed. Vivian unlocks Lucy but leaves the handcuffs on Monte. He later arises and eats a marshmallow for breakfast whilst the girls whisper in the bathroom about who gets to sleep with him. Later on, Viv and Lucy ride to an antique shop where Lucy has her eye on Mrs. Houdini's wedding ring. Lucy will do anything to have it, but is unable to purchase it, as she doesn't have the $5,000 to pay for it. Lucy wonders how she can get the money. She decides to rob the restaurant after her bosses, Dante (Gregory) and Cecil (Henry) once again decide to fine the waitresses if they don't sell enough desserts. Monte is also present at the meeting, with one of his hands still cuffed. Vivian goes to the restaurant to tell Lucy some big news: a designer is interested in meeting Viv to discuss her line of lingerie. The only problem is, Viv can only meet with the designer the following day at 3:00. This is a problem because Lucy has an audition for her escape trick, and Viv is her assistant. After an argument, Vivian storms off to go and talk to Monte, who's serving at the bar. Jealous, Lucy unlocks Monte from the handcuff and agrees to go out with him if he'll be her assistant at the audition; he accepts. Monte has his doubts about Lucy, so he strikes a deal with Jeanette (Matlin), a deaf colleague: Jeanette will marry him if he pays her $10,000. This leads to a conversation Monte has on the phone with his friend. Lucy overhears the conversation and decides to eavesdrop. He explains to his friend his intention to rob the restaurant, and asks his friend to help, who declines. Lucy confronts Monte while they are waiting for her turn at the audition. Both become frustrated because they both want to rob the restaurant at the same time. Lucy is called up and begins her escape routine. Unfortunately, the audition goes disastrously as she cannot find the key to free herself. Lucy is obviously upset so Monte takes her to a bar where they discuss who's going to rob the restaurant. They can't work together, as that would mean splitting the money, and Monte needs it all to pay Jeanette. Monte comes up with another plan: he will help Lucy rob the restaurant if she marries him. This way, Monte won't need the $10,000 to pay Jeanette. Lucy begins to cry again so Monte tries to cheer her up by talking about Mrs. Houdini. Lucy, still upset, explains that Mrs. Houdini was vital to Harry Houdini's escape routines: before Mr. Houdini commenced with his trick, Mrs. Houdini would kiss him and transfer the key he needed to escape from her mouth to his. Lucy's mood has improved somewhat after this so the two walk down the street and discuss the possibility of sleeping together. Monte wants to, but Lucy declines and explains Viv was hoping to sleep with him first. With Viv in mind, he suggests that a third person that doesn't work at the restaurant and wouldn't be recognised would be ideal for the robbery. Lucy agrees and the two head to Vivian's apartment, where she's working on her 'self-defence bra'. It's later on when the trio discuss the plan: at 12:00 AM, Viv will enter the restaurant and demand money, which she will take from the register. To appear more threatening, she will carry a gun which fires blanks. It's vitally important that it happens before the 12:30 AM drop. Monte and Lucy will create some clever diversions so that the guests will be on edge. At 11:59, they will drop a loud set of glasses to really unsettle the guests; seconds later, Viv will enter. Viv reluctantly agrees and takes the gun from Monte. At 11:59, Monte and Lucy drop the champagne bottles and glasses... But Viv doesn't show up. Thinking she has dropped out, Monte storms off, and Lucy follows. She finds him in the freezer causing havoc and messing the room up. With adrenaline rushing through him, he makes out with Lucy. As it turns out, Viv had a flat tyre on her bike, so by the time she turns up in a disguise to commence the robbery the guests are calm and don't take her seriously. She makes threats but the guests laugh at her, so she pretends she's a performing artist and the stunt was part of her act. In the freezer, Lucy flees the room, leaving Monte confused. She tracks down Vivian, who explains what happened. The situation is desperate and 12:30 looms, so Viv fires the gun, exclaiming, 'Sorry, I guess I wasn't kidding... Money. Now. All of it.' Jeanette, who works at the register, can't understand Vivian because the disguise is covering her face. Annoyed, Viv presses a button on her bra, which causes two knife-like spikes to stick out of it. Jeanette is fascinated and happily hands over a bag of money. Lucy and Monte leave the restaurant and later all three of them can be seen throwing money into the air, celebrating. Expecting Lucy to uphold her side of the deal, Monte heads to the Register Office and waits for her. Meanwhile, Lucy heads back to the antique shop to buy the ring, only to find it has been sold. She heads over to Viv's apartment to mope. Viv's in a cheerful mood, however: since the robbery, companies have been calling her about her 'self-defence bra'. Lucy doesn't share the enthusiasm. Viv asks if she and Monte tied the knot. Lucy realises she completely forgot, so she and Vivian rush to the Register Office. The girls arrive and Monte whisks Lucy away, but they are not able to marry because she left her I.D. at Viv's apartment. There is simply no time to get married any other day, so Monte leaves in anger. The two girls leave, too, and Lucy, full of guilt, confesses to Vivian that she made out with Monte. The two talk about him before deciding to head to a bar and get drunk. Monte, meanwhile, is at the restaurant when Cecil and Dante approach him. It is revealed that Monte didn't need to marry to get his green card, but because he made a $2,000,000 bet with Cecil and Dante. We also learn that Monte has a terrible gambling problem. He manages to convince them to give him another chance, and they make another bet: Lucy will have one minute to escape from a straitjacket, hanging upside down, with her feet cuffed, inside a locked canvas bag, underwater (In Cecil and Dante's giant aquarium at the restaurant). If she is unable to, Monte will owe them $4,000,000, or, he will undergo plastic surgery to make himself look like Dante. Of course, Monte can't win without Lucy's help. He arrives at Lucy's apartment, where the two girls are asleep. He wakes them up and discovers they have serious hangovers. Worried that they won't help him, Monte makes up a story, 'Cecil and Dante know about the robbery... I don't know how they found out... There's still hope. I made a deal- a bet-a bet with Cecil and Dante: if we win, they drop all charges, like nothing ever happened... [If we lose,] 20 years hard labour'. Vivian and Monte believe that they can train Lucy, but quickly, for the stunt is to be performed the following night. Lucy trains for hours, and before long, the three fall asleep, exhausted. Vivian wakes up in the early hours of the morning and leaves, which, in turn, causes Monte and Lucy to wake up. Lucy wants to get up and train, but Monte convinces her to stay, and the two make love in Lucy's apartment. Later in the morning, Lucy is out shopping and sees Cecil and Dante driving past in a taxi. She tries to avoid them, but they drag her into the vehicle so they can rant about their excitement for the bet. After a bit of chatting, Lucy finds out that Cecil and Dante don't know who committed the robbery, even though Monte told her they knew. She discovers that Monte will have to pay Cecil and Dante $4,000,000 (or get plastic surgery) if he doesn't win the bet, even though Monte told her they'd go to jail if the bet was lost. Lucy is visibly shocked and asks the driver to stop before climbing out of the taxi. It's the night of the bet and Monte is nervous, particularly because Lucy hasn't showed up. Monte learns that Cecil and Dante told her the truth about the bet. He now doubts that she will show, but begs the two men to stall the audience until she comes, so they do. Lucy finally shows up, surprising Cecil, Dante, and Monte. After an awkward arrival, she puts on the straitjacket, has her legs cuffed, and is almost in the canvas bag when Monte interrupts, wanting a 'goodbye kiss'. Lucy, still angry at him, refuses, until she sees he has Mrs. Houdini's wedding ring between his teeth. Lucy is locked in the bag, suspended upside down, and dropped into the water. She appears to be struggling to escape when several gun shots fire. It's Vivian, dressed in a red disguise but with the same black veil covering her face. She presses her 'self-defence bra' and the spikes once again stick out. She demands money and the audience give it to her whilst Monte stares in shock. Jeanette also gives her two bags of money from the register. When Viv leaves, the attention turns back to Lucy. The canvas bag is still in the water. Monte- aware that if he tries to save her, he will lose the bet- jumps into the water, before finding out that the bag is devoid of Lucy. The audience is confused until they find her on the second level of the restaurant, dripping from the water but otherwise fine. Later on, Monte is still somewhat damp but approaches Lucy nonetheless. She's less angry with him since he risked $4,000,000 to save her, but she shakes his hand and prepares to leave him for the last time. Monte calls her back and asks if she will go out with him the following day, but this time, it's for real. The two kiss before Lucy leaves. Outside, Viv is waiting by two new bikes from Cecil and Dante and the movie ends with the two girls riding down the dark street. 

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The book is an account of the memories and legacy of John Ames as he remembers his experiences of his father and grandfather to share with his son. All three men share a vocational lifestyle and profession as Congregationalist ministers in Gilead, Iowa. John Ames describes his vocation as "giving you a good basic sense of what is being asked of you and also what you might as well ignore", explaining that your vocation is something both hard to fulfill and hard to obtain. He writes that this is one of the most important pieces of wisdom he can bestow upon his son. Ames's father was a Christian pacifist, but his grandfather was a radical abolitionist who carried out guerrilla actions with John Brown before the American Civil War, served as a chaplain with the Union forces in that war, and incited his congregation to join up and serve in it; as Ames remarks, his grandfather "preached his people into the war." The grandfather returned from the war maimed with the loss of his right eye. Thereafter he was given the distinction that his right side was holy or sacred in some way, that it was his link to commune with God, and he was notorious for a piercing stare with the one eye he had left. The grandfather's other eccentricities are recalled in his youth: the practice of giving all and any of the family's possessions to others and preaching with a gun in a bloodied shirt. The true character and intimate details of the father are revealed in context with anecdotes regarding the grandfather, and mainly in the search for the grave of the grandfather. One event that is prevalent in the narrator's orations is the memory of receiving 'communion' from his father at the remains of a Baptist church, burned by lightning (Ames recalls this as an invented memory adapted from his father breaking and sharing an ashy biscuit for lunch). In the course of the novel, it quickly emerges that Ames's first wife, Louisa, died while giving birth to their daughter, Rebecca (a.k.a. Angeline) who also died soon after. Ames reflects on the death of his family as the source of great sorrow for many years, in contrast and with special reference to the growing family of the Rev. Boughton, local Presbyterian minister and Ames's dear and lifelong friend. Many years later Ames meets his second wife, Lila, a less-educated woman who appears in church one Pentecost Sunday. Eventually Ames baptizes Lila and their relationship develops, culminating in her proposal to him. As Ames writes his memoirs, Boughton's son, John Ames Boughton (Jack), reappears in the town after leaving it in disgrace twenty years earlier, following his seduction and abandonment of a girl from a poverty-stricken family near his university. The daughter of this relationship died poor and uncared-for at the age of three, despite the Boughton family's well-intended but unwelcome efforts to look after the child. Young Boughton, the apple of his parents' eye but deeply disliked by Ames, seeks Ames out; much of the tension in the novel results from Ames's mistrust of Jack Boughton and particularly of his relationship with Lila and their son. In the dénouement, however, it turns out that Jack Boughton is himself suffering from his forced separation from his own common-law wife, an African American from Tennessee, and their son; the family are not allowed to live together because of segregationist laws, and her family utterly rejects Jack Boughton. It is implied that Jack's understanding with Lila lies in their common sense of tragedy as she prepares for the death of Ames, who has given her a security and stability she has never known before. Although there is action in the story, its mainspring lies in Ames's theological struggles on a whole series of fronts: with his grandfather's engagement in the Civil War, with his own loneliness through much of his life, with his brother's clear and his father's apparent loss of belief, with his father's desertion of the town, with the hardships of people's lives, and above all with his feelings of hostility and jealousy towards young Boughton, whom he knows at some level he has to forgive. Ames's struggles are illustrated by numerous quotations from the Bible, from theologians (especially Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion), and from philosophers, especially the atheist Feuerbach, whom Ames greatly respects. The abstract and theological content of the book is seen through the eyes of Ames, who is presented in a deeply sympathetic manner and who writes his memoir from a position of serenity, despite his suffering and a knowledge of his own limitations and failings. Throughout the novel, Ames details a reverential awe for the transcendental pathos in the small personal moments of happiness and peace with his wife and son and the town of Gilead, despite the loneliness and sorrow he feels for leaving the world with things undone and unsolved. He is able to revel in the beauty of the world around him and takes the time to appreciate and engage with these small wonders at the end of his life. In this way the novel teaches the importance of stepping back and enjoying present realities. Ames marvels in the every day and commonplace and wishes this attitude for his son, also. He proclaims his desire for his son "to live long and ... love this poor perishable world". Ames takes the time to be fully present and intentional in everything that he does, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. An example of this from the novel is towards the beginning on page 5 when he passes two young men joking around and laughing with one other on the street and Ames is filled with a sense of awe at the beauty of such a simple expression of friendship and joy. In this way Ames sees the allure in both the ordinary and mundane as well as the tragic. He begins to express a viewpoint that the purpose of life is to look for things to appreciate and be thankful for. In the closing pages of the book, Ames learns of Jack Boughton's true situation and is able to offer him the genuine affection and forgiveness he has never before been able to feel for him. 

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This quasi-detective tale follows an unnamed, chain-smoking narrator and his adventures in Tokyo and Hokkaido in 1978. The story begins when the recently divorced protagonist, an advertisement executive, publishes a photo of a pastoral scene sent to him in a confessional letter by his long-lost friend, 'Rat.' He is contacted by a mysterious man representing 'The Boss,' a central force behind Japan's political and economic elite, who is now slowly dying. The Boss' secretary tells him that a strange sheep with a star-shaped birthmark, pictured in the advertisement, was in some way the secret source of the Boss' power and that he has two months to find that sheep or his career and life will be ruined. The narrator and his girlfriend, who possesses magically seductive and supernaturally perceptive ears, travel to the north of Japan to find the sheep and his vagabond friend. As he discovers that he is chasing an unknowable power that has been exerting its influence for decades, he encounters figures from his own past, unusual characters, and individuals who have encountered the sheep before. 

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Colonel McNamara talks with a superior about plans for the Initiative, about getting Riley back under his command and about dealing with Buffy. Spike tells Adam that Buffy is going to be a difficult challenge to defeat and he shouldn't underestimate her. Spike talks about having already killed two Slayers (Xin Rong and Nikki Wood), yet having been unable to kill Buffy, especially because of the Initiative chip now in his head. The two plan to separate Buffy from her Slayerette friends. Still upset about what happened between her and Angel during her visit to Los Angeles (in the Angel crossover episode "Sanctuary"), Buffy returns from L.A. to her empty dorm room. Xander brings Riley some clothes, and they talk about their mutual distaste for Angel, Riley having been told by Buffy about her previous relationship with him. However, it emerges that she has not told him the whole truth; while Riley was aware that Angel lost his soul and became Angelus, Xander tells Riley that having sex with Buffy was the trigger that set Angelus free. Giles is at home singing and playing guitar when Spike surprises him by walking right in. Spike talks with Giles about files inside the Initiative that he might be able to get for a very large price. Spike tells Giles that Buffy doesn't respect her former Watcher anymore, which upsets Giles. Willow and Tara play with their new kitten, Miss Kitty Fantastico, while planning their class schedule for next year. They also talk about future housing plans, but Willow hasn't talked with Buffy yet and isn't sure what she wants to do now that things have changed so much. Riley visits Buffy; using a radio, he's tapped into the Initiative and is aware of their actions. She mentions that Angel upset her, but she is focusing on seeking Adam, and Riley leaves. Xander and Anya bring Spike fatigues to wear and a gun. Spike can't believe his luck that he would be given a weapon and points it at Xander intending to shoot, only for the chip to go off in his head. Turns out the chip doesn't allow Spike to point weapons at people... and the gun was fake anyway. Spike makes Xander feel unwanted by convincing him that the rest of the gang doesn't feel he's useful. Buffy goes patrolling and runs into Forrest, who is also looking for Adam. They argue as they go into a cave and find Adam, who launches a surprise attack. Buffy and Adam exchange a few punches and kicks: Forrest tries to step in and help, but he is pushed away by Buffy. Adam hurls the Slayer against the cave wall, and Forrest uses the opening to shoot Adam with his stun rifle. Instead of harming him, however, the voltage merely seems to refresh Adam, who then disarms and fatally stabs Forrest with his bone skewer. Her will to fight gone, Buffy flees from the cave, with Adam taking pot shots at her. Running for her life, Buffy trips and tumbles down the side of a hill; she strikes her head on a rock, knocking her unconscious. Meanwhile, pretending to have sneaked into the Initiative and retrieved some disks with information, Spike charges into Giles's place. Giles continues to get drunk while Willow tries to decrypt the disks. Spike talks to Willow and Tara about their Wicca interest and how her friends don't seem to support it. Willow thinks he means that their friends aren't accepting their romantic relationship. Riley hears of trouble on the streets through his radio. He finds Angel fighting the commandos, and Riley refuses to let Angel go see Buffy. The two have a brutal fight, of which Angel is clearly the victor. Both run off when a military truck arrives. Buffy returns to her dorm room and Angel shows up. As Angel speaks with Buffy, Riley barges in and raises a gun to Angel. Angel taunts Riley and the two come to blows again. Buffy separates them and wants to talk to Angel alone. Buffy scolds Angel, yet they laugh when Angel confesses he came to make up. Buffy also apologizes for being bossy. The two part on friendly terms, although Angel stops to state that he doesn't like Riley. Spike reports back to Adam, happy to have split up the Scooby Gang. Riley is worried that Buffy has reunited with Angel and confesses he has learned how Angel can become Angelus. They profess their love to each other, but Buffy must give him the bad news that Forrest is dead. Riley is distraught and leaves. The damage that Spike has done to the gang becomes clear when their meeting at Giles's home turns into a fight. While Tara and Anya hide in the bathroom, Buffy scolds Xander for telling Riley details about her and Angel's relationship and argues that she is going to take on Adam alone. Giles is drunk and makes funny comments in the background. Xander complains that his friends don't need him and Willow complains that Buffy doesn't accept Tara, revealing their relationship, for the first time, to Xander and Giles. While Giles goes to sleep the alcohol off, Buffy leaves, telling her friends that she doesn't need them as she has someone else she can depend on... little realizing that Riley has gone to Adam's lair. 

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Three women who went to the same elementary school, Mary (Joan Blondell), Ruth (Bette Davis), and Vivian (Ann Dvorak), meet again as young adults after some time apart. They each light a cigarette from the same match and discuss the superstition that such an act is unlucky and that Vivian, the last to light her cigarette, will be the first to die. Mary is a show girl who has established stability in her life after spending some time in a reform school, while Ruth works as a stenographer. Vivian is the best off of the three, married to successful lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and with a young son Robert Jr. (Buster Phelps), but she has grown dissatisfied with her life. Just before she is about to leave on an ocean cruiser with her son, Mary comes along with two men going to a party on the ship, before it leaves. Gambler Michael Loftus (Lyle Talbot) one of the two men flirts around with Vivian and persuades her to run away with him. Vivian and Michael Loftus run a very shabby life, so that Mary concerned about Vivian's neglect of her son, tells Robert (nearly mad about the disappearance of his son) where to find his boy. Mary and Ruth are very fond of Junior so that Robert proposes to Mary and hires Ruth to look after the child. Mary and Robert marry the same day his divorce from Vivian becomes final. Meanwhile, Vivian's money runs out and Michael owes $2,000 to gangster Ace (Edward Arnold), who tells him to pay up or else. Desperate, Michael tries to blackmail Robert by threatening to inform the press about Mary's criminal background. When that does not work (as Robert is already aware of Mary's checkered past), he kidnaps Robert's boy. Henchman Harve (Humphrey Bogart) has no fear of Vivian, who is now a hopeless drug addict, desperate for a fix. However, shaking with fear, she scrawls a message in lipstick on her nightgown and throws herself through the window of the fourth- floor apartment where she and her son are being held, leading to the child's rescue. 

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The plot starts off on a beach where the team goes over their overall objectives and then go to save a small town, only to find all of the citizens have been either killed or evacuated except a French priest. He points out that he is "still a man of God", and therefore would only provide help with his knowledge of the enemy. He also tells them that most the population was massacred in the village church by a Nazi like monster General Hans von Beck who answers only to Hitler. After defending a small village from a German counterattack, the priest is found missing and is discovered to be a German collaborator, after the resistance member gives a German soldier some "persuading". Meanwhile, two high-ranking officers within the German army quarrel over their duties, one being an SS commander and the other a Wehrmacht general. During a mission, the team raid a U-boat base to find where von Beck is, when successfully stealing an enigma machine they find von Beck was not responsible for the massacre but an SS commander Victor Morder. In a mission to a factory, Deuce is fatally wounded by the priest, but manages to take out all of the forces in the area including himself by throwing a lit cigar into an explosives cache. The remaining American heroes eventually corner the collaborating priest in a church in a town ironically similar to the village they first met the priest. Mac decides to spare his life to the mercy of Morder, but as he is leaving the church, the priest takes aim with a M1911 but is then shot and killed by Mac, who is holding Deuce's favorite revolver. The Americans form an alliance with the Wehrmacht general Hans von Beck during one of their later missions. With his help, the allied forces eventually arrive at the SS tower stronghold that the SS General Victor Morder is making his last stand. They capture one of the SS rail cannons and take down the tower with Morder inside. The ending shows the Wehrmacht general surrendering to the American forces and formally saluting. Deuce's grave is shown with his favorite pistol at his headstone. Mac is seen after the credits, reunited with the French resistance woman who helped them along the way. 

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The Hindmost, recently deposed leader of the Puppeteers, abducts the human Louis Wu (who has become a wirehead) and kzin Chmeee (previously known as "Speaker-to-Animals"). Both had been part of the Ringworld expedition in the first novel. The Hindmost hopes to acquire Ringworld technology, specifically matter transmutation, to help him regain his position. Once they reach the Ringworld, Louis and Chmeee set forth to explore, while the Hindmost remains safely behind on their starship. Louis and Chmeee also secretly plot to try to overthrow the Hindmost so they can go home. In their travels, they meet a number of the hominid species that have evolved on the Ringworld. They also learn more about the full-scale "maps" of various known space worlds, including Earth, Mars and Kzin. They discover that the Ringworld has become unstable and will collide with its star soon. The Ringworld's builders, revealed to be Pak Protectors, have long since died out, and the attitude jets they installed all around the rim to maintain the Ringworld's position were later dismounted to use as starship engines. Chmeee goes to the Kzin map for his own goals, while Louis tries to find some way to save the trillions of inhabitants. It is on the Map of Mars that the reunited party (and two natives) finds the Ringworld control room Louis is seeking, located in a vast maze of rooms in the hollow space under the map. To create the rarefied atmosphere on Mars, the Map of Mars was built above the main surface, creating a cavity. The control room contains living space and, among other things, the meteor defense system. The defense system uses the superconductor grid embedded in the Ringworld's scrith floor to manipulate the magnetic field of the Ringworld's sun to trigger stellar flares that power a titanic gas laser. (The first expedition to the Ringworld crashed after being hit by this laser.) They encounter Teela Brown, a human member of the first expedition who had chosen to remain behind twenty years earlier. She and her lover Seeker had, in the course of their travels, stumbled upon "Tree-of-Life" plants. The smell of the plant drove them to eat its roots; Teela was turned into a Pak Protector, with superhuman intelligence and strength, but Seeker died, being too old to undergo the transformation. As a Pak Protector, Teela has little control of her actions; her protective instincts force her to try to save all of the Ringworld inhabitants. This causes a dilemma. She knows of a way to save the Ringworld, but it would entail killing 5% of the people. This she cannot do. However, she manages to lure Louis and the others to where they can save the other 95%. Her instincts make her fight them, but she does so half-heartedly so that they can kill her. Afterward, Louis figures out what to do. Teela had restored starship engines to their original purpose as attitude jets, but only had enough for 5% of the ring. Louis gets the meteor defense system to generate a massive stellar flare (normally used to power the laser weapon) to provide twenty times more fuel to the attitude jets to move the Ringworld back into position. However, the radiation from the flare is fatal to everything and everyone living on that section of the Ringworld. Having earlier destroyed the hyperdrive to force the Hindmost to cooperate, Louis is stranded. He and the rest of his party look for someplace to settle down, while the Hindmost remains aboard the disabled (but very safe) starship to think things over. 

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This book consists of two main plot threads, which only come together towards the end of the book. A variety of Ringworld hominid species, led by the Machine woman Valavirgillin (from The Ringworld Engineers), join together to kill a large nest of vampires (the shadow nest) which has been feeding on all of them. With the help of two Ghouls, who know that the nest is located under an abandoned floating factory, they manage to cast out the vampires. The Ghouls find one of the Hindmost's spying devices in the factory and transport it all the way to the rim, to ask for help against the protectors who rule the rim. Meanwhile, Louis Wu decides to die of old age instead of asking the Hindmost for rejuvenation, as self- punishment for his helping the Hindmost to restabilize the Ringworld at the end of The Ringworld Engineers, killing (as he thinks) a trillion hominids to save the rest. After ten years of wandering around the Ringworld and aging, the Hindmost convinces him that he killed far fewer people than expected. Since there are signs of several Protectors on the Ringworld, Louis returns to the Hindmost to be restored to health in exchange for service, only for the pair of them (along with a Kzin named Acolyte, son of Chmeee) to be enslaved by a vampire Protector ("Bram"). Bram shoots down ARM and Patriarchy ships attacking the Ringworld, and then tries to overthrow the other vampire Protectors who control the rim wall. He manages to kill them all, but returns wounded to the control center, where he fights and is killed by a Ghoul protector Louis has created. Category:1996 American novels Category:1996 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Known Space stories Category:Novels by Larry Niven Category:Sequel novels Category:Del Rey books Category:Fiction set in the 29th century 

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Harry Bogen is an ambitious, unscrupulous young businessman in the 1930s New York City garment industry. He will stop at nothing to get to the top: he lies to his mother and his girlfriend, Ruthie Rivkin, who try to help him become a better person, but he embezzles company funds from Apex Modes and betrays his friends and partners. Harry leaves Ruthie to take up with Martha Mills, a dancer in Club Rio Rhumba, but when he loses his friends and goes bankrupt, his mother and Ruthie stand by him. 

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Andri is a young man who has been raised by the Teacher (der Lehrer) and the Mother (die Mutter) as their Jewish adopted son alongside their daughter Barblin; the Teacher claims to have rescued Andri from the anti-Semitic Blacks (die Schwarzen) in the neighbouring country. Apart from Andri and Barblin, the other characters are referred to by their occupations or roles (though most do have names). After some of twelve scenes (which are called Bilder, meaning "pictures"), characters come forth to a witness box and talk about Andri's death in the past tense (each additional scene is denoted Vordergrund, which means "foreground"). In this way, information about Andri's parentage and fate is gradually revealed. Each townsperson attempts to rationalise their involvement in Andri's death; only the Priest (der Pater) is willing to accept any guilt. Every character alive at the end of the play makes such a statement, except for Barblin, the Mother, and the non-speaking characters. At the beginning of the play, Andri is engaged to Barblin. The Soldier (der Soldat) is interested in her sexually, but she strongly dislikes him. The townspeople hold anti-Semitic views, and there are rumours of a coming invasion by the Blacks. The Teacher sells land to the Landlord (der Wirt) so that he can pay the Carpenter (der Tischler) to take on Andri as an apprentice. However, Andri is later dismissed from his apprenticeship when the Carpenter thinks that Andri has made a poor-quality chair, which was in fact made by the Journeyman (der Geselle), who does not admit to it. The Carpenter instead employs Andri as a salesman. The Doctor (der Doktor) makes anti- Semitic remarks in front of Andri, unaware that Andri believes that he is Jewish. Andri tells the Teacher and the Mother that he and Barblin want to marry, and that they have been in love since childhood. The Teacher forbids the marriage without giving a reason; Andri thinks that it is because he is Jewish. The Teacher says (in an aside) that Andri is in fact his biological son. He tries to tell Andri this, but Andri has embraced his Jewishness and refuses to listen. At the same time, the Soldier rapes Barblin; Andri discovers that they had sex. The Mother, believing Andri to be a Jew, asks the Priest to speak to Andri to help him accept his Jewishness. The Señora (die Senora) then arrives in town; the townspeople are prejudiced against her because she is a foreigner. She helps Andri after he is assaulted by the Soldier. It is revealed that the Señora is Andri's real mother, but she leaves the town without telling Andri this (she gives Andri a ring). The Mother learns the truth about Andri's parentage, and the Teacher asks the Priest to explain the truth to Andri. Andri is not at all receptive and believes his fate to be sealed. The Señora is killed after a stone is thrown at her, and the Landlord claims that Andri is responsible (it is heavily implied that the Landlord killed her). The Blacks invade, and the Soldier defects and joins them. The townspeople search for Andri, believing him to be a murderer; Andri hides outside, where the Teacher tries to persuade him of the truth, and then inside the Teacher's house with Barblin. Andri confronts Barblin about her relationship with the Soldier, and tells her to kiss him; he is not acting rationally at this point. The Soldier enters the house and arrests Andri. The Blacks conduct a "Jew-Show" (die Judenschau) in the town square, led by the "Jew-Inspector" (der Judenschauer), to find the Señora's killer. This is shown to be a show trial; despite Barblin and the Mother's attempts to disrupt the process, the other townspeople co-operate. Andri does not defend himself, and is killed by soldiers, who are implied to cut off his finger to take the Señora's ring. Afterwards, the Teacher hangs himself. Barblin has her head shaved (earlier in the play, the Blacks are rumoured to do to this the wives of Jews) and goes mad. She does not fully accept that Andri has died, and leaves his shoes on the stage, stopping people from touching them. 

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Dr. Maxwell Kirshner (Ray Milland) arrives at a mansion as a passenger in a wheelchair; once inside Kirshner asks if his experiment has been a success, and is told by an orderly that it has been. He is taken to the basement, where the experiment is in fact a two-headed gorilla (Rick Baker) that Dr. Kirshner has created. The experiment is to determine whether two heads can survive on a single body. Dr. Kirshner has done this because he has not much longer to live and wants to transplant his still living head from his lifeless body onto a donor so that he may continue living and continue working as the world's most successful surgeon. Dr. Kirshner returns to his hospital institute to oversee an operation performed by his close friend and associate doctor, Phillip Desmond (Roger Perry). Dr. Kirshner returns to the basement and his two headed gorilla to remove one of the heads from its body. Kirshner orders his assistants to sedate his creature, but plans go awry when the creature is upset about the needle and knocks Dr. Kirshner out of his wheelchair, hurting him badly. It then proceeds to smash up the lab and escapes. The creature runs away and into a supermarket, chased by the assistants, where he is caught. Kirshner hires a new doctor, Fred Williams (Don Marshall), to help Desmond but when he discovers that Dr. Williams is African-American he tells Wiliams that he is no longer needed, to which Williams takes great offense. Dr. Kirshner successfully removes the second head of the creature, and tells Desmond he is ready for his own transplant to a healthy donor. Desmond is not sure, until Kirshner tells him that the head that is now on the gorilla is in fact the second head he put on. He had successfully removed the original gorilla's head and replaced it with the second transplanted one. Meanwhile, on death row, convicts are told that donating their bodies to science will save them from the electric chair. One convict is led to the chair - an African-American himself, named Jack Moss (Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier) - and he decides to volunteer for the science experiment because he is innocent of the crime he was supposed to have committed. The police, including Sergeant Hacker (Roger Gentry), escort Jack to the transplant center for this experiment they have been told about. The doctors are surprised to see a large African American being brought before them for this experiment, knowing full well that when Kirshner wakes up, he is not going to like what he sees. However, the doctors work around the clock to transplant Dr Kirshner's head onto Jack's body. After the operation, Kirshner wakes up, and Desmond tells him that the operation was a success. Desmond tells him that they had no other choice but to transplant his head onto the African-American's body, and that he would not have lived another day if they had not operated when they did. At that moment, Jack awakens and is angry and disturbed that Kirshner's head is on his body and tries to get up from the table, but Kirshner cries out for someone to sedate Jack, which Desmond does. Desmond tells him that he will keep the 'Jack' side heavily sedated all the time while Kirshner regains the power to move the body. Leaving Kirshner to rest, Desmond meets up with Dr. Williams again and tells him he needs his help. Williams is reluctant at first, but Desmond reassures him that his beliefs are not the same as Dr. Kirshner's and that his help is very much needed. Meanwhile, a nurse (Britt Nilsson) comes to administer a sedative to Jack's side of the body. Jack tricks the nurse into thinking he is asleep, and then injects her with the sedative instead and escapes, taking Williams with him/them. Williams drives the car under gunpoint by Jack and Desmond chases after them. Jack asks Williams if he can remove Kirshner's head from his body. Jack takes over driving and accidentally crashes the car, resulting in a flat tire. Kirshner then tries to appeal to Williams by offering him the accolades he has received by performing a successful transplant. Williams refuses the offer, as it would mean that he would have to remove Jack's head. Jack goes to his wife's house; Lila (Chelsea Brown) is not that pleased to see him because of Kirshner's head on his body. While Jack is sleeping, Kirshner finds out that he can now control the body almost fully. Jack, Kirshner, Williams and Lila sit down for dinner. Lila asks what it will take to take Kirshner's head from Jack's body. Kirshner tells her that without a specially crafted surgical team, it is impossible to do the operation and both of them will die. Williams tells Kirshner that he is dead wrong about that, as the removal procedure is easily done without the aid of the surgical team. Williams drives to a medical warehouse to get what he needs for the operation. Frightened by what Williams has told him, Kirshner manages to take over Jack's body and starts playing around with his face. Jack asks him to stop it and Kirshner knocks out Jack by punching him in the face. Cornered by William, Kirshner calls Desmond for help in removing Jack's head so that he may live. Kirshner manages to get away and drives back to the basement of his house. Before Kirshner can sedate Jack, Williams comes in and stops him. Williams then calls Desmond to get over to Kirshner's house as soon as possible. Desmond arrives with a nurse and an associate, who find Kirshner's detached head lying on the utensil table, hooked up to a heart and lung machine which has his blood constantly pumping through the plastic tubes to keep him alive for a while. Kirshner calls to Desmond and begs for him to bring him another body. The film ends with Lila, Jack and Dr. Williams driving down the highway singing "Oh Happy Day." 

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Like the albums of Coheed and Cambria, this album is a concept album that tells a story. It contains many of the same recurring themes as the Coheed and Cambria story, such as love, the importance of children, and death. The album is being told from the point of view of a character known as "The Prise Fighter Inferno" a.k.a. Jesse from the Coheed and Cambria concept. He is also featured in The Amory Wars, Sanchez's comic books about the Coheed and Cambria story. The name of the album, My Brother's Blood Machine, is a phrase that appears in Coheed and Cambria's In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. This story is set in the past of the universe from the Amory Wars. In an interview with rock-sound.net in 2005, Claudio Sanchez has said that the two stories "do connect, but not in the most obvious way." Long-arm and Butchie Bleam brothers brought together by physical distortion and social seclusion are about to find themselves in the running for the most unusual job in the world.....DEATH! Listen to the story unfold as we follow these two misunderstood yet maniacal minstrels of macabre in a neverending race for ultimate power. Listen to the disturbing details as the songs takes you through the hell that is the Blood Machine. This is a story being told in song......this is hell being unleashed through love and sound...... I am the hitchhiker doomed to tell the tale of Margretville, I am your Guide, I am the Prise Fighter Inferno. In an interview posted by MTV News on September 29, 2006, Claudio went into much greater detail about the plot: "Well, this story actually acts as a prequel to the Amory Wars," the center of the Coheed and Cambria mythology, Sanchez explains. The Inferno character, who appears in the Coheed concept as a man named Jesse, "dies in the Good Apollo: Volume One, and is resurrected on present-day Earth. So he leaves the solar system that the story takes place in, and gets resurrected in the present day. But before he can tell the story of the Amory Wars, he needs to tell the story of the Blood Machine. "The Blood Machine revolves around three families, one being the Bleam family, who are our horrific sort of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' family," he continued. "There's the McCloud family — where we have our main character, Cecilia — and the Early family. And [Cecilia's] love interest is the son of that family, Johnny. And there are so many subplots. One, for example, talks about how Cecilia's father happens to molest her, and eventually she can't take it anymore and tries to convince Johnny to leave with her. She steals her two brothers, who happen to be twins, and Johnny decides not to go. So she ends up running away with the twins into the woods, where she meets the Bleam family." Sanchez said that there are two Bleam brothers — Long-Arm and Butchie — who are horrific monsters. "Their mother happens to be crazy, and she ends up telling these two kids that 'God has come to me with a higher calling for you — you need to be the new Death,' and she tells them that they have to go out and collect souls for God," he explained. "And so, out of their mind, they're like, 'OK, so when a body dies, how do we get the soul out of it?' They construct this Blood Machine, which basically tears a body to shreds, and they think that releases the soul." Sanchez said there are numerous subplots that will unfold as well, including the elaborate background of the Bleam kith: The family's patriarch, a meth addict, dismembers his wife when he catches her pinching from his stash, and her death sends the Bleam boys on a downward spiral toward complete madness. 

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Ryan, a good-natured slacker in his twenties, is dumped by his girlfriend and kicked out of their apartment, and, on arriving late to work, is suspended (pending psychological tests) from his job at an anonymous IT corporation. On receiving a phone call from his family saying they have won the jackpot of 4.3 million dollars on the BC lottery, he trashes his office space, and resigns. Unfortunately, when he calls the lottery "Win Line" he discovers they haven't actually won anything. By happy accident, Ryan is offered a job with the lottery bureau interviewing and photographing lottery winners. En route to the job interview he stops to see a beached whale and meets Ming, a set designer in a relationship with golf-course designer and scam artist Bryce. Ryan is enticed by Bryce into participating in a lucrative money-laundering scheme involving new lottery winners, and after the euphoria of new-found wealth wears off is forced to choose between working with Bryce and winning over an increasingly sceptical Ming. Additional complications arise when Ryan discovers that his parents are operating a marijuana grow-op in the family basement, and when he re-visits lottery winners to discover that they are often worse off than they were before winning. 

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In 1946, at the city of Kure, Shozo Hirono is sent to prison after shooting a sword-wielding yakuza who assaulted his friend. He befriends and becomes sworn brothers with another prisoner, Doi Family member Hiroshi Wakasugi, who arranges for Yoshio Yamamori, Patriarch of the Yamamori Family, to bribe the prison warden and get and get him released. Hirono and his friends Tetsuya Sakai, Seiichi Kanbara, Uichi Shinkai, Masakichi Makihara, and Shuji Yano then join the Yamamori family by swearing loyalty to the boss and to each other. Wakasugi's boss, Patriarch Doi serves as an official witness to the ceremony, along with Kenichi Okubo, Patriarch of the Okubo Family, also presiding. Three years later, in 1949, Hirono gets into a fight with a man named Toru Ueda at a gambling den. Since Ueda is a blood relative of Okubo's, Hirono commits yubitsume in apology to Okubo. Okubo accepts, but asks Yamamori to take Ueda into his family and perform a favor for corrupt assemblyman Shigeto Nakahara by eliminating a vote for his rival Shoichi Kanamaru, who is supported by the Doi family in a political dispute over allotment of public resources. Sakai kidnaps one of Kanamaru's allies, allowing Nakahara's side to win, and goes into hiding afterwards. Doi finds out due to Kanbara bragging about it while drinking and beats him severely, then goes after Yamamori. However, out of loyalty to Hirono, Wakasugi stops Doi from killing Yamamori and in gratitude, becomes a guest member of the Yamamori family. Meanwhile Kanbara, having betrayed his boss, has no choice but to join the Doi family in Wakasugi's place. Six months later, Doi starts encroaching on Yamamori turf and plans to unite with the Kaito family from Hiroshima City. Most of the Yamamori members refuse to take action against Doi, fearing retribution, except Wakasugi, whom Hirono will not let break yakuza code by killing his own boss. Hirono instead volunteers to handle the matter and is promised the reward of becoming Yamamori's chosen successor. Hirono successfully assassinates Doi while he's coming out of a meeting with the Kaito family and escapes. While hiding out, Hirono is visited by Kanbara, who claims Yamamori has a plan to sneak him out of the city. However, it turns out to be a set-up and Hirono, finding himself abandoned by Yamamori and hunted by the Doi family, turns himself in for murdering Doi. Wakasugi murders Kanbara in revenge, but an anonymous tip to the police leads them to his girlfriend's house and he is killed trying to escape. With the Korean War raging in the 1950s, the Yamamori family thrives thanks to war contracts and expands in the immediate years, but internal strife begins when members start dealing philopon due to the high kickbacks the boss takes off their earnings. Sakai, who follows Yamamori's orders not to sell, feuds with Shinkai when he discovers Shinkai's right-hand man, Toshio Arita, is involved in dealing; however, he agrees that Yamamori's take is too high. The family adopts Sakai's plan to have each member become self-sustaining in order to reduce the kickbacks, with only Shinkai and Yano objecting. Shinkai is contacted by Kanamaru, who asks him to rebuild the Doi family and get rid of Sakai. When it's revealed that Yamamori is selling the drugs he confiscates from the other members for himself, Sakai and Ueda threaten him, saying that without them he would be nothing and that he will do what they say from now on. Yamamori has Arita kill Ueda in a barbershop and war breaks out between the two sides. The conflict ends quickly, with Shinkai's men and the remaining Doi family members being killed off, Arita getting arrested for shooting a police officer, and Shinkai stabbed to death before he can board a train to escape the city. Hirono is then paroled due to a commutation of sentence, with Yamamori reneging on his previous offer to make Hirono his successor and lying about Sakai's intentions to get Hirono to kill him. Hirono decides to hear Sakai out first, asking his old friend to make peace with Yamamori and help him rebuild the family. Instead, Sakai forces Yamamori to retire, crowns himself the family's new patriarch, forms an investment company to pool the family's assets, and prepares to form an alliance with the Kaito family. When Makihara informs Sakai that Yano is making a secret trip to persuade the Kaito family to reject his offer, Sakai has him gunned down when he arrives. Makihara then contacts Hirono to join him on the supposedly retired Yamamori's side; however, Hirono refuses and instead announces he is breaking off his pledge to Yamamori before realizing that it was his own boss who tipped the police off to Wakasugi's hideout. He goes to see Sakai and announces they are no longer brothers, and they each vow to kill the other. Sakai lets Hirono go for the day, only to then be murdered in public by assassins sent by Makihara. At Sakai's funeral, which has Makihara and Yamamori in attendance, a disgusted Hirono shoots up the funeral display before threatening Yamamori and storming off. 

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The novel opens in the present day, with successful orthodontist Alexander MacDonald visiting his elderly older brother Calum in Toronto, Ontario. The novel explores the emotional bonds of family through flashbacks to their childhood in Cape Breton Island and young adulthood spent in the mines of Northern Ontario, clan history dating back to 1779, and present-day interactions between the two brothers and a sister. Though written primarily in English, Scottish Gaelic and French are used in dialogue and songs. The novel also mirrors Canadian history as a whole, taking its title from James Wolfe's assertion in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham that Scottish soldiers should be sent into battle because "they are hardy, intrepid, accustomed to a rough country, and no great mischief if they fall." [237] The enduring linguistic and cultural tensions that have defined Canadian society are also reflected in the novel; during their time working in the uranium mines of Elliot Lake, the brothers are frequently in conflict with their francophone co-workers. The novel explores the themes of brotherhood and the conflict between the rise of individualism and family in the post-modern world. Alex loves his alcoholic brother, Calum, despite his problems because Alex sees the potential in Calum. Alex lets his brother die in peace and with dignity even though he is a convicted murderer and alcoholic. The author uses Alex as an example for all human beings. MacLeod wants the reader to realize that "all of us are better when we're loved" and that forgiveness and love for humanity are the only weapons humans have against the destructive forces of evil. Calum is posited as a contemporary clan chief of the MacDonalds defending the lost cause of Gaelic culture. His defence of Highland values parallels the devastating consequences of the Highland support for Charles Stuart in 1745. Throughout the book, Calum defends clan values in spite of the personal consequences. His distant Californian nephew, who has no idea of these values, steals from the Quebec miners. Calum's defence leads to murder and hard time, while the nephew blithely returns to California. Calum becomes the beaten alcoholic shell of a formerly strong man due to his reflexive support of the old clan values that have long since vanished as guiding principles, even among his own direct family. The title, "No great mischief if they fall", is found most easily in Findlay, J.T., "Wolfe in Scotland in the '45 and from 1749 to 1753." London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1928, p. 226\. An earlier use of the citation that MacLeod used for his title appears in Gibson, John G. "Traditional Gaelic Bagpiping 1745-1945." Montreal and Kingston: MQUP, and Nat. Mus. Scot., 1998, p. 59\. 

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The film opens with Jaideep meeting Vikramjit on a rainy night and inviting him to his house for drinks. During their conversation, Jaideep recounts how his wife, Neha, is having an affair with Sagar - the story is entirely a ruse to convince Vikramjit to help Jaideep in exacting revenge on his wife. On receiving refusal, Jaideep blackmails Vikramjit with a photo of him disposing off a dead body and his knowledge of various aliases maintained to peddle drugs. Vikramjit agrees for a sum of INR 1,00,000. The murder plot is hatched - on a weekend night when Jaideep and Sagar will be away at a party, Vikramjit has to enter the house stealthily and wait in the drawing room until Jaideep telephones Neha; Neha has to come to the drawing room to pick up the telephone and Vikramjit has to strangle her, and leave. However, the plan falls apart when Neha kills Vikramjit in self-defense. Jaideep reaches home and doctors the crime scene to frame Neha, who is shocked and vulnerable. The public prosecutor proves her guilt and she is sentenced to prison. However, inspector Baruah senses foul play and investigates for the truth to be revealed. The truth being that Neha never had an affair with Sagar. Both of them were in a relationship before her marriage and reconnected after years, and became friends. Jaideep had married Neha for her wealth, and concocted the murder plan to frame Neha and gain unfettered access to her wealth. When exposed, Jaideep kills himself and Neha is proven innocent. 

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The film begins with Shalini (Priyanka Chopra) narrating how much she loved John (John Abraham) despite of knowing he was a contract killer and how things might have been different had he not picked up a gun. The film goes into flashback mode and John is shown to be an assassin working for a mobster named Captain (Bharat Dabholkar). Accompanied by two friends Kaif (Murali Sharma) and Bull (Rajesh Khera), he is assigned a hit, which he carries out, but also ends up killing an entire family, who arrives untimely to the house from where the hit was planned. Apart from the adults, one of their daughters gets shot unintentionally by John. He gets traumatized and despite his friends telling him to move on, he becomes guilt- ridden and explains everything to Shalini, with whom he plans to escape away. The city's toughest cop, Wagh (Shiney Ahuja), starts investigating the murder and in the process, comes close to the surviving daughter of the deceased family. Meanwhile, Captain is attacked by the rival don, Yunus (Vishwajeet Pradhan), and as a result decides to teach the city a lesson by killing the city's top industrialist, top film producer, the cop backing Yunus and Yunus himself; so that everyone else falls in line and no one dreams of becoming another Yunus. He decides that John must carry out this plan of his. To achieve this, he takes Shalini hostage. John is given 36 hours to kill the five targets on the hitlist. John re-unites with his friends but struggles to carry out the hits initially due to still being traumatized. He, however, manages to kill the targets one by one, while his wife tries to escape in order to stop him from killing. Kaif, however, gets killed by Wagh after John manages to kill a few more targets. Shalini slashes her wrist and is admitted to a hospital, where she realizes she's pregnant and manages to escape. She manages to contact John, who arrives to pick her up, only to find himself trapped when she gets taken hostage once again. Realizing that he has been double-crossed, John shoots Bull in front of Captain, who reminds him of the remaining time he has. John meets Wagh and asks for his help in exchange for providing all evidence against Captain, to which Wagh agrees. Along with sub- inspector Naik, he arrives on spot and after a gunfight, manages to free Shalini. John, on the other hand, meets Yunus and his friend, DCP Patil (Aanjjan Srivastav). He blackmails Patil into bringing him Shalini, which he does. However, John kills both Yunus and Patil, escaping with Shalini. A chase ensues, resulting in a rough fight between John and Captain. John manages to kill Captain and his team, but when one of his surviving members tries to shoot, John shoots him and himself gets shot unintentionally by Naik, the same way John mistakenly shot the young girl. He breathes his last near Shalini, who gets shattered by his death. The film ends with the story returning to the present time, where Shalini is happily playing with two kids: her son and the daughter of the family John killed, whom she adopted. 

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The film starts off when two photographers Makarand "Mac" Godbole (Akshay Kumar) and Shyam "Sam" Salganokar (John Abraham) are doing a photo shoot. While Mac is shooting the models in exposing poses, his fiancée Anjali (Rimi Sen) leaves in disgust due to Mac's closeness to the models. Their boss calls them into his office and tells them that they are good-for-nothing photographers. He threatens to reduce their pay if they don't get some good pictures for the world photography competition to make his magazine Garam Masala famous. Both Mac and Sam ask Maggie (Neha Dhupia), the boss's secretary, on a date on the same day, at the same restaurant at the same time. As all three meet up at the restaurant a pickpocket takes Mac's and Sam's wallets. After the meal, the competition to impress Maggie heightens thus evoking humorous events after which Sam and Mac leave Maggie to pay the bill. Sam visits a famous photographer, praising him and asking for a few outstanding shots. These stolen shots help Sam to win the world photography competition. He gets promoted, is given ten percent of the prize money and has his pay doubled, whilst Mac receives a demotion to assistant. Sam flies off to the US to enjoy his holiday, leaving Mac fuming in Mauritius. The chief editor persuades Mac to show up Sam by getting three women to be his fiancées, getting a very expensive flat and driving very expensive, imported cars. Following his promise, Mac gets a high-quality flat and gets access to three beautiful air hostesses. His driver, Babban (Rajpal Yadav), is his key to the high life. Not only does Babban get Mac access to the flat, he delivers very high-end cars to impress his fiancées. He drives Mac's cars and does all his services for a small amount of liquor every day. Lastly, Babban gets Mac a housekeeper, Mambo (Paresh Rawal), who has an attitude problem and doesn't care what goes on in his flat so long as his demands are met. He has affairs with each of the three women—Deepti (Daisy Bopanna), Puja (Nargis Bagheri) and Sweety (Neetu Chandra)—and creates chaos. Sam returns from America, only to find his friend turned rival, playing around with three women at once. He tries to help his friend and tries out his own luck with the girls. The story turns into mayhem when it's hard for the two boys to maintain the three girls simultaneously. Mac's original fiancée Anjali learns about Mac's acts, and it creates a bigger mess. When their cook Mambo leaves, they begin to realise their mistakes and Mac attempts reuniting with Anjali; in the end Mac tries to climb on the car which Anjali and Sam are in while being chased by the three women he was dating now that they realised the truth. 

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After the end of World War II, Peter Kuban (Vittorio Gassman), a Hungarian displaced person and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, stows away in Trieste (at the time of the film's release a city divided between Italy and Yugoslavia) on a ship bound for New York City. However, he is spotted by ship officials and held for the authorities. When the ship arrives in New York City, he claims that he qualifies for entry under an exception for those who helped Allied soldiers during the war, but all he knows about the paratrooper he hid from the enemy is that his name is Tom and he plays clarinet in a jazz band in New York City's Times Square. The immigration authorities, led by Inspector Bailey, say that without better documentation he must be sent back to communist Hungary on the ship, which departs the next morning. He jumps off the ship, breaking some ribs, and starts searching for Tom. He encounters an unemployed ex-factory worker named Maggie Summers (Gloria Grahame). When she steals a coat in a restaurant, Peter helps her elude the police. They go to her apartment, where she tends his injury as best she can and learns his story. When her landlady, Mrs. Hinckley, threatens to evict her for being behind on her rent, Peter gives her all the money he has. Eddie Hinckley, the landlady's son, barges in and tries to get amorous with Maggie. Peter bursts out of hiding and starts fighting him, but gets the worst of it. Maggie knocks Eddie out with a chair and flees with Peter. The Hinckleys notify the police. Meanwhile, Tom sees Peter's picture on the front page of a newspaper. He wants to go to the immigration department, but his girlfriend Nancy persuades him to attend an important audition instead. Tom impresses band leader Jack Teagarden, but leaves abruptly to try to help Peter. The fugitives are recognized in the subway. The police grab Maggie, but Peter gets away. She meets up with Tom. After hearing Tom's story, Inspector Bailey believes that Peter can stay, but only if they can reach him before 7 am when the ship he arrived on will depart and, by law, Peter must be jailed and deported. The trio drive around searching. Peter slips into an unoccupied taxi and falls asleep. When burlesque dancer Tanya (Robin Raymond) gets into the taxi after work, she recognizes Peter from the newspaper photo. She takes him to her apartment for rest and a meal. When he asks why, she explains that her real name is Bella Zakoyla, and that she is a fellow "Hunky". Her immigrant mother approves, but her brother Freddie does not want to risk getting into trouble, saying that it is the responsibility of the United Nations. The loud argument rouses Peter, sleeping in the other room, and he slips away. Acting on Freddie's remark, Peter heads toward the United Nations building in the early morning hours. He is recognized on the way and the police are alerted. Peter delivers a soliloquy to an empty meeting room with places marked for representatives of the U.N.'s member states. He calls for recognition that peace and freedom for the world require peace and freedom for every individual. The police, Maggie, Tom, and Bailey pursue Peter through the halls of the U.N. Peter panics and flees to the roof, where he contemplates jumping. Maggie and Tom reach him and at the sound of Tom's voice Peter collapses onto the roof. All reassure Peter that he is now safe. 

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It tells the story of Peta, who has escaped from Liverpool to London after discovering that she is pregnant. The play all takes place in Peta's London flat and is a series of duologues between Peta and five other characters (Joe, Steven, Chantelle, Marion and Colin) who all help Peta to reveal something about herself. 

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Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott) is an unsuccessful painter who is out walking his dog one night when a car stops nearby and he overhears an argument. The passenger of the car is trying to blackmail the driver. Frank overhears the driver say that people call him "Danny Boy". Then he sees the driver shoot the man trying to blackmail him and then push his body out of the car. The killer then sees Frank hiding in the shadows and takes some shots at him before driving away. The victim was going to testify before a grand jury against a gangster. Since Frank saw the shooter, Police Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) wants to place him in protective custody so he can testify. Frank has second thoughts and slips away while the police are milling around. Ferris goes to Frank's wife, Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) to see if she can help him find Frank. She is not especially cooperative or concerned about her husband. She tells Ferris about her unhappy marriage and says that it's "just like him, always running away." Ferris asks her, "Running away from what?" She replies, "From everything." The police keep watch on her building in case Frank decides to come home. Eleanor later tries to sneak out of her building without being spotted by the police and encounters reporter Danny Legget (Dennis O'Keefe). He offers his help and $1000 for an exclusive story. They both go to a club that Frank often visits in order to sketch the dancers. Sam (Victor Sen Yung), a waiter friend of Frank's, secretly passes along a message to Eleanor that Frank will send her a letter addressed to his co-worker Maibus (John Qualen). But Legget reads the message too without Eleanor noticing. When Eleanor returns to her apartment, Ferris informs her that he has spoken with Dr Hohler (Steven Geray) who is Frank's doctor. Frank is taking medicine for a bad heart, a condition that she was unaware of. Ferris has instructed all druggists to notify him if someone asks for it. Eleanor goes to see Frank's doctor who tells her how serious her husband's condition can be and that it could even be fatal. The doctor gives Eleanor some of Frank's medicine. Eleanor then goes to the Hart & Winston department store, the store where Frank works as a window designer to see if she can get the letter Frank sent to Maibus. But Maibus doesn't have the letter and the mail clerk tells him there was no letter. Legget has managed to get the letter by bribing the mail clerk before Eleanor had arrived. Legget reads it but the letter doesn't tell him where to find Frank. He has to show the letter to Eleanor, who is the only person who can decipher the message. The letter gives some details that only Eleanor could know on where Frank is staying but Eleanor can't figure out what Frank is trying to tell her. They speak to Sam again at the club. One of the dancers, Suzie (Reiko Sato), mentions to Legget that Frank made a sketch that looks like him, but Eleanor doesn't hear her conversation with Legget. Suzie tells Legget that she expects that she will give the sketch to the police when they return. Legget and Eleanor cross the street to ask some questions in a bar that Frank liked. Legget leaves Eleanor to make a phone call and returns to the club unnoticed. Suzie dies from a mysterious fall from the building. Legget tears up the drawing before joining Eleanor again just as police cars and an ambulance arrive at the club. During the course of her investigation, Eleanor learns things that she never knew about Frank. She learns that everyone who knows Frank likes and admires him. They all believe that she must be a wonderful person if Frank married her. She begins to question herself and her feelings for him as she realizes how much Frank really loves her. Eleanor finally figures out the puzzle in Frank's letter to her and she and Legget go to a beachside amusement park at night. Ferris gets information that leads him to find the taxi that Legget and Eleanor took to the amusement park and when the taxi is located he goes there after them. Ferris also receives a phone call from Sam, who tells him that the only thing missing from Suzie's possessions is Frank's drawing and he understands that Legget is the killer. When Eleanor finds Frank at last, they embrace. She then goes to find Legget. They spot Ferris and get on the roller coaster to avoid being spotted. Legget has Eleanor stay on the roller coaster, while he goes to meet Frank. She suddenly realizes that Legget is the killer, as he remarked that Frank was shot at, a detail known only to her, the police, and the gunman, but she is trapped on the ride. Instead of shooting Frank, Leggett tries to stress Frank and provoke a heart attack to kill him. The two fight, and shots ring out. Eleanor runs to the scene to discover that Ferris has shot the corrupt reporter. She finds her husband, and the two embrace. 

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When Colin Briggs, a convicted murderer, is placed in an experimental programme to finish off his prison sentence, all he wants is peace and quiet. After his wise, elderly roommate Fergus, imprisoned for killing three wives, introduces him to gardening, Colin uncovers a talent and passion for plants. When he accidentally raises a patch of double-violets, the warden assigns him to cultivate a garden, with other prisoners as his assistants. Teaming up with his fellow inmates, Colin gets the attention of celebrated gardener Georgina Woodhouse. Soon, the unexpected gardeners are preparing to compete for the Hampton Court Flower Show. When Colin meets Georgina's beautiful daughter Primrose, he discovers another reason to fight for his freedom: true love. 

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The plot closely follows the original Israeli film Eskimo Limon (Lemon Popsicle), and revolves around protagonist Gary, a typical high school student in early 1980s Los Angeles, and his friends Rick, the slick ladies' man, and David. Most of the plot involves their numerous attempts to have sex, which are usually successful for Rick and David, but rarely for Gary. Early in the film, the three boys pick up three girls with the promise of cocaine (instead they use Sweet'n Low). They go over to Gary's house where he gets stuck with the homely and overweight Millie, a friend of the other two more attractive girls. But their party is interrupted when Gary's parents return home and pandemonium ensues. A love triangle develops between Gary, Rick and Karen, a beautiful transfer student to their school who is a virgin that Rick is determined to have sex with. One day Gary delivers pizza to Carmela, a woman whose sailor boyfriend is never home, and she tells him she wants more than just pizza. Being too afraid to follow up on it, he goes away and convinces his friends to go along with him. They drop by her home using the pretext they were nearby on a pizza delivery and decided to bring her over some extra pizzas. She lets them in, puts on music and performs a sexy dance routine, to the delight of the boys. She promptly fornicates with Rick and David, but her boyfriend Paco returns home just as Gary is about to have his turn, prompting them to flee. Eventually, Rick gets Karen pregnant after they have sex only once, and he leaves her. Gary decides to help Karen pay for her abortion by selling most of his possessions and borrowing money from his boss. After the abortion, Gary and Karen spend the remainder of the weekend alone together in Gary's grandmother's house. While nursing her back to health, Gary tells Karen that he sincerely loves her. Karen appears to reciprocate and they both share a tender kiss. Karen invites Gary to her 18th birthday party the following week. Gary scrapes up a few more dollars and buys Karen a gold locket for her birthday. When Gary arrives at the party, his dreams of a lasting romance with Karen are shattered when he sees Karen making out with Rick. Despite what Rick had put Karen through, she apparently decided to take him back. Gary angrily leaves the party without saying a word to either of them, taking Karen's gift with him. Tears streaming down his face, Gary drives home alone, emotionally broken and defeated. 

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The childhood romance between neighbours blossoms into passionate love during adolescence. Majeed's father was rich once, so could send him to a school in the distant town, although he was not very good at studies. Suhra's father on the other hand had trouble making both ends meet. Even then he wanted to send his daughter, who was good at studies to the school. But after her father's death, all her hopes of further studies was ruined. Majeed begs his father to sponsor Suhra's education, but he refuses. Majeed leaves home after a skirmish with his father, and wanders over distant lands for a long time before returning home. On his return, he finds that his family's former affluence is all gone, and that his beloved Suhra has married someone else. He is grief struck at the loss of love, and this is when Suhra turns up at his home. She is a shadow of her former self. The beautiful, sunshiny, vibrant Suhra of old is now a woman worn out by life, battered hard by a loveless marriage to an abusive husband. Majeed commands her, "Suhra, don't go back!" and she stays. Majeed leaves home once again, but this time with plans on his mind. He needs to find a job, to ward off poverty, and thus he reaches a North Indian city. He finds work as a salesman but one day he meets with a bicycle accident in which he loses a leg. The day after he is discharged from hospital, he is informed that he's fired from his job. He again sets off on a job quest knocking at every door, wearing off his soles. He finds work as a dish-washer in a hotel. As he scrubs dirty dishes each day, he dreams of Suhra back home waiting for him to return. He must make enough money to return home and repay debts, before he can finally marry the woman of his life. His mother writes to him that Suhra is sick and subsequently of Suhra's death. 

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Abigail Trent Budell (Ethel Barrymore), a wealthy resident of Philadelphia and patron of the arts, supports her soprano granddaughter Prudence Budell (Kathryn Grayson), just returning from Europe after five years of vocal training. Prudence's grandmother sponsors an opera company run by the famous maestro Jose Iturbi (himself) to give her chance to lead an opera. They hire the also famous tenor Guido Russino Betelli (Thomas Gomez), but Prudence does not feel comfortable with him on the stage. Prudence happens to see an American-Italian truck driver, Johnny Donnetti (Mario Lanza), singing opera. She soon becomes instrumental in bringing Johnny to public attention by insisting that he replace the opera troupe's defecting star tenor.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/447/That-Midnight-Kiss/full- synopsis.htmlhttp://www.allmovie.com/movie/that-midnight-kiss-v49267 From here, Johnny becomes attracted to Prudence. Things get complicated when she encounters Mary (Marjorie Reynolds), one of Johnny's colleagues, whom she assumes is in love with him. 

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The show is about the Bird children (Robin, Snoo and Jay), their mother and Fleur, a rival from Snoo and Jay's school. They are about to go camping, when Mrs. Bird accidentally activates a force field and they are shot off into outer space. They attempt to get back to earth, when a family of four aliens arrives in the kitchen. Then everything goes wrong, when Mrs. Bird accidentally climbs into the aliens' spaceship, and Mr. and Mrs. Krryptyx accidentally activate the engines, thus separating Mrs. Bird's children and Mr. and Mrs. Krryptyx's children. This leads both the children and the adults on a series of mad adventures. 

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The story of the birth of Christianity and its interaction with the Roman Empire is told largely chronologically by a narrator slowly succumbing to disease during the reign of Domitian. The story starts where Man of Nazareth ended, immediately after the crucifixion of Jesus, and covers the work of the apostles, in particular Paul (who himself was not one of the original twelve apostles), the development of Christianity as an Abrahamic religion separate from Judaism, the Great Fire of Rome, the persecution of Christians, the destruction of the Second Temple, and the destruction of Pompeii. 

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Michael Waits has always dreamed of being a farmer, and arranges a home exchange vacation in which he and his family will move into a house in the rural farming community of Nilbog ("goblin" spelled backwards) for a month. The night before the family is scheduled to leave, Michael's son Joshua is contacted by the ghost of his dead grandfather, Seth, warning him that vegetarian goblins want to mutate him and his family into plants so that they can eat them. Seth tells Joshua that goblins can mutate people into plants by feeding them poisoned food or drink. Meanwhile, Joshua's sister, Holly, receives a visit from her boyfriend Elliot Cooper. Holly accuses Elliot of being a homosexual since he seems to prefer spending time with his friends. Elliot promises to show his devotion by accompanying the family on vacation. The next morning, Elliot fails to arrive and the family leaves without him; they encounter him en route to Nilbog, riding in an RV with his friends Arnold, Drew, and Brent. Outside of Nilbog, Seth appears as a hitchhiker, who warns Joshua that Nilbog is the kingdom of the goblins, and that if his family eats anything while they are there, they will be mutated into plants. The family disbelieves Joshua's warnings and continue on to Nilbog, where they meet their strange and aloof exchange family, the Presents. There, Joshua sets about destroying all of the food the family finds or acquires, such as by urinating over a feast prepared for them, with the help of Seth's ghost. Arnold goes for a walk outside of Nilbog and encounters a girl being chased by goblins. When Arnold approaches them and insults them, they respond by throwing a spear into his chest. They flee to a chapel in the woods, where they encounter the goblins' queen, Druid Witch Creedence Leonore Gielgud, who uses the "Stonehenge Magic Stone" to give the goblins power. Creedence tricks them into drinking a magic potion that dissolves the girl into vegetable matter, a horrifying scene witnessed by Arnold which prompt him to scream helplessly only to be mutated into a tree. The following morning, Michael and Joshua venture into town to buy some food, as there is none in their holiday home. When in town, they find the general store closed, and Michael falls asleep on a bench. Joshua enters the local Church and eavesdrops on a goblin church sermon, which bewails the "evils" of eating meat. The parishioners capture him after seeing his skateboard roll into the church and attempt to force feed him poisonous ice cream; Michael walks in on the scene and becomes suspicious, taking Joshua home. Later, Drew goes to the town because there are no food or drinks in the RV. The sheriff Gene Freak takes him in his car and gives him a green hamburger. When he arrives in the town, Drew goes to the store and the owner offers him poisonous Nilbog milk. Feeling dizzy, he goes to a chapel and finds Arnold, who has mutated into a tree. Drew drags him out, but Creedence appears. She knocks him out and chainsaws Arnold into pieces. Drew is then killed off-screen. At the house, the family discover that the townspeople have prepared them a surprise party to apologize for the events at the church. Joshua attempts to make contact with Seth, only for Creedence to appear in goblin form through the mirror, and attacks Joshua. Seth's ghost appears and chops her hand off with an axe. Creedence returns to her chapel, where she mutates herself into a beautiful woman in revealing clothes; she then travels to Elliot's RV, where she seduces Brent and drowns him in popcorn. During the party, Seth and Joshua try to cause a distraction using a Molotov cocktail, however the Priest captures them, takes the cocktail, and recites a spell which banishes Seth's soul to Hell. However, before he vanishes, Seth summons a bolt of lightning from the sky, which ignites the cocktail and kills the Priest in a fiery explosion. When Michael extinguishes his burning corpse, his true Goblin form is revealed, and the villagers turn on the Waits, revealing themselves all as Goblins. The Waits and Elliot then retreat to the house, where the villagers surround them and hold them hostage. Joshua, Elliot, Holly, Michael and Diana hold a séance to communicate with Seth, who returns from the dead and tells them that he can retain a physical form for exactly ten minutes before he has to return to the afterlife. Seth gives Joshua a paper bag containing a "secret weapon" to use against the goblins. The goblins break into the house and transport Joshua to Creedence's chapel, where Joshua opens the bag, revealing a "double-decker Bologna sandwich". He eats the sandwich, making his body poisonous to the goblins; he then touches the Stonehenge Stone, along with his family and Elliot, which destroys Creedence and all of the Goblins present. The family returns home, where Joshua's mother is seen eating food from the refrigerator. The food, unknown to the family, has been poisoned by the family of goblins who took over their home during their exchange in the country. The film ends with Joshua walking in on a group of goblins eating his mother's green, bloated torso off of the kitchen counter and offering him a bite. Joshua screams in horror. 

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Following Spike's interference in the previous episode, Buffy and the Scoobies are not talking to each other, consistent with Adam's plans. However, since he wants Buffy in the Initiative, Adam is displeased to discover that Willow still has possession of the encrypted disks from the previous episode which would have led her back. He refuses to remove Spike's behaviour modification chip unless he rectifies this situation. Meanwhile, Riley is unsure why he is in Adam's lair, and Adam reveals that the government implanted a chip near Riley's heart, giving Adam complete control over Riley's motor functions. In the aftermath of the Scoobies' fights, Xander dejectedly ponders his life direction, and is consoled by Anya, who tells him that she loves him. Tara and Willow work at decrypting the information disks, only to find that they suddenly decrypt themselves. Giles suffers through a hangover. Buffy returns to Adam's cave seeking more information, annoyed when she finds Spike there, and suspicious when he lets slip that he's aware of the Scoobies' falling out. Buffy realises that Spike has deceived them and reunites with the original gang. Willow reveals the information on the disks: that Adam is hiding at one of the Initiative's secret labs, and plans to build more cyborg demonoids like himself. Buffy realises that the overcrowded holding cells at the Initiative are a form of Trojan horse warfare; Adam will release the demons and the resulting battle will leave many demon and human body parts. Furthermore, he is particularly keen for Buffy to be present to even the demon-human kill ratio. The gang brainstorms how to kill Adam, and a difficult paralysis spell (which only Willow can cast) which must be incanted in Sumerian (which only Giles can speak) within striking distance of the victim (which only Buffy can survive) is suggested. Xander jokingly suggests merging the whole gang into one body to allow the spell to be cast -- an idea to which Giles is surprisingly receptive. Buffy, Xander, Giles, and Willow break into the Initiative through the elevator shaft, but are captured by the Colonel. The gang attempt to explain the situation to the Colonel, but the presence of a "magic gourd" in their bag convinces the Colonel that they are crazy. Adam, watching this on surveillance, sees that Spike has succeeded in getting Buffy to the Initiative, but failed in keeping the gang apart; he orders Spike to be killed, but Spike escapes into the Initiative. Suddenly, Adam cuts the power in the main part of the Initiative, locking the perimeter while releasing all the demons in the holding cells. The Colonel and soldiers go to engage with the demons, leaving two to guard the Scoobies. Buffy knocks both of them out. Willow finds air ducts leading to an area behind 314 that doesn't exist on the map; this is where Adam plans to build and release an army of hybrid cyborg monsters. Buffy leaves through a secret door while the rest prepare a spell. Buffy finds Riley sitting unbound in a chair and unable to speak, still under Adam's control. Adam enters and, upon discovering that Buffy will not be balancing the demon-human kill ratio as he envisioned, orders Forrest, now turned into a killer cyborg demonoid, to kill her. As they battle, Riley uses a shard of glass to take out the chip embedded in his chest, freeing himself to attack his former best friend; they fight as Buffy escapes to take on Adam, and Riley uses a bottle of flammable gas to blow Forrest to pieces. Buffy then engages with Adam. She rushes clumsily at him, but is knocked away with a punch to the gut. Rebounding quickly, Buffy and Adam exchange a high volume of blows: Buffy breaks the Polgara demon spike on Adam's left arm, but he reveals his right arm has been "upgraded" to a giant machine gun. Bombarded with gunfire, the Slayer runs behind a computer console for cover. Much like their previous encounters, Adam is clearly the superior, until the enjoining spell kicks in: Giles, Willow and Xander, by invoking the powers of the Slayer lineage ("from Last to ancient First"), merge their psyches in Buffy's body to form a fighter with Buffy's physical strength (Manus), Willow's magic power (Spiritus), Xander's bravery (Animus) and Giles's knowledge (Sophus). This composite being rises from the ashes, repelling Adam's missiles with a shield, and shutting his weapons arm down with a wave of the hand. Closing in, she easily evades every punch thrown by Adam, before countering with a devastating chain of strikes herself, and ripping out his uranium-powered "heart." Riley arrives in time to catch Buffy as she collapses. Giving all of their strength and power to Buffy leaves the rest of the gang totally exhausted and vulnerable as a demon breaks into their room, but Spike kills it. Though unhappy that he tried to help Adam, Willow, Giles, and Xander decide to spare Spike out of fatigue and the fact that he just saved them. In a largely unseen battle, Buffy, Riley, Xander, Giles, Willow and Spike then join with the Initiative's soldiers to stop the demon attacks, saving most of them with only 40% casualties amongst the Initiative. Graham survives, and the Colonel is killed. In an internal debriefing, the government decides to shut down the Initiative for good, and remove any paper trail of its existence. They praise Maggie Walsh's vision of harnessing demons as a powerful military weapon, but conclude that demonkind cannot be controlled. 

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Just before entering Seishū High School, track star Katsuya Niimi and judo champion Susumu Karasawa see a girl crying as the school loses a baseball game. The boys decide to join the team and improve it in order to make her smile. The girl turns out to be Yuri Nakao, daughter of the baseball coach, and they learn the baseball team will be shut down if it doesn't start winning. The series follows the three, as well as pitcher Eiji Kurahashi, as Niimi and Karasawa learn about baseball and what it means to be one of nine players on a team, as they work together through high school make it to Kōshien. 

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At the start of Part One, Ko Kitamura, son of the owner of Kitamura Sports, lives in the same neighborhood as the batting center run by the Tsukishima family. Due to their proximity and the relationship between their businesses, the Kitamura and Tsukishima families have been close for many years, and their children go back and forth between the two homes. Because Ko and Wakaba are the same age and always together, Aoba is jealous of all the time Ko spends with her older sister. Aoba is a natural pitcher with excellent form, and Ko secretly trains to become as good as she is, even while publicly showing little interest in baseball. Then Wakaba dies in a swimming accident at a summer camp during fifth grade. Part Two starts with Ko in his third year of junior high, as he continues training in secret. When he enters Seishu High School, he joins the baseball club along with his childhood friends, Akaishi and Nakanishi. However, the interim principal (the regular principal is on medical leave) has brought in a new head coach, and he in turn brings in transfer students from other schools as ringers just to play baseball. This team, led by their star, Yūhei Azuma, is the clear favorite of the school. Because the three friends refuse to take evaluation tests to join the first-string team, they are placed on the second-string "portable" team under the former head coach, Maeno, who has to use the Seishu Junior High School field for practice. This causes a rivalry between the two parts of the team. In the first summer practice scrimmage between them, the portable team loses by only a narrow margin. During the summer vacation, while the first-string team plays in the prefectural qualifying tournament for Koshien, Maeno has the portable team practice at a recently closed elementary school with the support from a mysterious old man. The portable team also has six practice matches with other local high schools, all of which reached semifinals or higher in the regional preliminaries. Near the end of summer vacation, the interim principal decides to dissolve the portable team. However, Coach Maeno asks for a rematch scrimmage with the first-string team, after which the losing team would be dissolved and that coach would leave. The portable team, playing with Aoba, wins a narrow victory. The first-string team is dissolved, and the head coach and the interim principal leave to work at other schools. In the spring, Ko becomes a second-year student and Aoba enters Seishu High School. Yūhei, who stays at Seishu despite having been on the former first-string team, moves in with Ko's family after the first-stringers' dormitory is closed. The reformed Seishu team goes on to prove themselves by defeating Sannō High School in the first round of the summer prefectural qualifying tournament. However, they lose to their second-round opponents, Ryuō, in overtime, ending Seishu's hopes of Koshien for the year. Ryuō subsequently reaches Koshien, advances up to the semifinals where they are narrowly beaten. However, Ryuō then goes on to win the spring invitational Koshien tournament later that same year. As Ko and Aoba enter their summer break, a girl named Akane Takigawa with a striking resemblance to Wakaba moves in next door to Ko. This causes mixed feelings among the various characters, particularly Ko, Aoba, and Akaishi (who had also liked Wakaba). Akane soon becomes friends with Ko and Tsukishimas, and begins working in the Tsukishima cafe. As another year begins, the romantic subplots further solidify when Yūhei expresses an interest in Aoba. Meanwhile, Seishu gains a new assistant coach in the form of Yūhei's older brother Junpei, after Ichiyo agrees to marry him if Seishu makes it to Koshien. When the prefectural summer baseball tournament starts, Seishu starts with a dominating shutout against its first-round opponent, Matsunami Municipal High School. In the second round, they face Sena Municipal High School led by Tatsumasa Miki, a former Seishu first-string player, which in the first round defeated the team headed by Seishu's former head coach. Seishu wins with a nearly perfect game, ending Part Two of the story. Part Three starts with the prefectural tournament still in progress. After another win by Seishu, Akane is hospitalized due to an unspecified illness. Initially, Akaishi's play is affected by worrying about Akane's condition. Ko continues to perform well and promises Akane to go on a date with her if Seishu reaches Koshien. However, Akane's illness is more severe than expected, and she is scheduled for surgery on the morning of the prefectural final against Ryuō. Before the game begins, Ko tells Aoba he loves her more than anyone, but in such a way she thinks he is lying until after Seishu wins in extra innings, clinching a Koshien berth. In the final chapter, the morning before traveling to Koshien, Akaishi visits Akane recovering in the hospital and Ko and Aoba head for the train station holding hands. 

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The story focuses on the relationships of Kasumi Kishimoto, a high school student. When she enters Myōjō High School, she moves into her aunt's boarding house, where four boys attending the high school are tenants. Despite her steadfast determination to stay loyal to her boyfriend, who is studying abroad, Kasumi finds herself slowly falling in love with one of the boarders, Yūsaku. 

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Jinbē is the story of the relationship between Jinpei and his stepdaughter, Miku. Miku's mother died after being married to Jinpei for a little over a year, when Miku was 13 years old, and Jinpei has been raising Miku alone since then. The series has a very delicate touch with the romantic issues. Adachi dealt with a similar situation, a brother and sister who are not related by blood, in his earlier series Miyuki. 

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Rough tells the story of Keisuke Yamato, a 100 m freestyle swimmer, and Ami Ninomiya, a competitive diver as they overcome their family rivalry and fall in love with each other over the course of their high school years. Their families own competing confectionery stores and Ami has grown up hating Keisuke's family because her family believes her grandfather was driven to an early death after Keisuke's grandfather copied their signature "horned owl" manju and outsold them simply by adding "ears," making it that much larger. 

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Loor flumes to her home in Zadaa while Press and Bobby flume to Cloral. Most of the book takes place on the territory known as Cloral, a planet that is entirely covered by water. The inhabitants of Cloral live on giant floating barges, called habitats. The main habitat in the book is called Grallion. Grallion is responsible for growing food for Cloral. A territory called Zadaa is also visited. Pendragon goes searching for a mythical city called Faar. 

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Set in the 1920s, Ayre "Mac" MacGillvary is a virginal 23-year-old young American who graduates from an exclusive British college. An orphan heiress to a vast fortune, Ayre is determined to find the right man for her first sexual encounter wherever he might be in the world. Rich enough not to venture forth alone, she brings along her best friend Catalina and the family chauffeur Cotton. Ayre first travels to Morocco where she meets an ideal lover, an Arab sheik who offers to deflower her. He takes her away in his private airplane to an oasis in the desert, but during foreplay while rubbing her nude body with honey, he falls asleep almost immediately. Giving up on the sheik, Ayre goes on to Spain, where she meets the toreador Angel, and sets out to seduce him. Into this group comes Paloma, a 14-year-old local Gypsy girl whom Ayre and Catalina take under their wing. A minor subplot involves Catalina meeting and pursuing Ayre's lawyer, Robert Stewart, a kilt-wearing Scotsman whom Catalina chooses to deflower her. After several days of courtship and flirting, Angel makes love to Ayre one morning and he manages to stay awake. Unfortunately, after Ayre has succeeded in her quest to lose her virginity, Angel is gored while bullfighting the next day. The injury leaves Angel unable to perform in the bedroom, and so Ayre makes it her mission in life to see to his recovery. Along the way, she takes up bullfighting herself as a way of getting her despondent lover motivated to stop moping. During this, the Arab sheik flies to Spain to abduct Ayre, but she manages to convince him that she has already lost her virginity and he lets her go. Eventually, Ayre is successful in aiding Angel to full recovery which leads to a climactic lovemaking session between them. The film ends with Ayre and Angel getting married at a local church. 

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The story takes place on the planet Maris in the year 2387. Around this time, the civilization, led by Empress Admis, started a genocide program to kill all humans in order to lay eggs and reproduce on the planet. Three mysterious guns dubbed the "Zillion Weapon System" appear and three teens soldiers (JJ, Champ, and Apple) are chosen to wield them as a task force called (W.N.) (known as the White Knights in the English version), whose purpose is to fight back against the Nohzas. 

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In the peaceful aftermath of the Nozsa wars, the charismatic heroes known as "White Nuts" have changed career paths to becoming music making rock stars. Their music career would soon be interrupted by a new threat of colonial settlers. Apple is kidnapped by the sadistic ODAMA Clan - a family of ruthless killers. Located in a heavily fortified mountain retreat, J.J. and company attempt a rescue mission with their laser weapon Zillion. But the former Knights only have a limited supply of Zillium for the Zillion guns. A mysterious stranger named Rick turns out to be an old lover of Apple. 

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The story centres around Dr. Noah Noyes, an authoritarian doctor and father whose obsession with God's law leads him to neglect his family; his wife, Mrs. Noyes, an alcoholic who talks to animals; and Mottyl, Mrs. Noyes's blind cat. Noah and Mrs. Noyes have three sons, Shem, Japeth, and Ham. Shem is married to Hannah, who spends a great deal of time with Dr. Noyes. Japeth is married to Emma, a young girl of about 11, who refuses to consummate their marriage. One day, an exhausted Yaweh visits Dr. Noyes. Yaweh is depressed to the point of willfully allowing himself to die due to the treatment he's received from humanity. He tells Noyes that the people of the City threw offal, rotten fruit, and feces at his carriage and have assassinated him 7 times. Yaweh remains depressed until he's inspired by a magic show Noah puts on to raise his spirits. Noah puts a penny under a glass bottle then fills the bottle with water. Due to refraction of the penny's image, the coin appears to vanish, but Yaweh becomes obsessed by the idea that the application of water can make things disappear. Soon Yaweh tells Noah to build an ark in preparation for the flood. Noah is resolutely obedient, but some in his family react negatively. Ham quickly marries Lucy, a mysterious seven-foot-tall woman with webbed fingers (a trait found only in angels, according to the novel) who is eventually revealed to be Lucifer in female form. As Yaweh leaves, Mottyl hears flies buzzing from within Yaweh's carriage and knows that Yaweh has resigned himself to death. Noah is adamant that Yaweh's edict must be followed to the letter and insists that there must be only two of every animal. Mrs. Noyes tries to bring Mottyl, who Noah has decreed must stay behind since he's chosen Yaweh's own two pet cats to represent felines on the ark. Noah sets fire to the house and barn, with Mottyl inside, offering all their additional animals as a giant sacrifice to Yaweh. Mrs. Noyes in enraged at the attempt to kill her cat and by the carnage in what is left of her home, and refuses to board the ark. Noah is concerned that if Mrs. Noyes does not come, the ark and its passengers will be doomed, as Yaweh's edict clearly states that Noah's wife must be aboard. Mrs. Noyes hides in Noah's orchard as the rain starts, but leaves when she notices Emma's sister Lotte, a "monkey child," trying to cross the river. Mrs. Noyes rescues Lotte and agrees to board only if Lotte can also come. Noah agrees to let Lotte on board, but has Japeth kill her shortly after. Mrs. Noyes again rebels, but ultimately agrees to board the ark and smuggles Mottyl aboard, hidden in her apron. As the voyage begins Noah quickly imposes his will on his family by drawing a line between the "rebellious" elements (Mrs. Noyes, Emma, Ham, and Lucy) and the rest (himself, Hannah, Japeth, and Shem). One day, dolphins swim by the ark, attempting to befriend the inhabitants. Noah decides that the dolphins must be pirates and has Japeth slaughter them. Mrs. Noyes attempts to stop him, and once the "pirates" have been defeated, Noah locks Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, Ham, and Emma in the lower levels of the ark, forcing them to care for the animals alone. Meanwhile, Noah, Hannah, Shem, and Japeth enjoy quarters on the deck of the ark and freedom from heavy chores. Noah notices that Japeth is becoming more preoccupied with sex and often eyes Hannah in a way that makes Noah wary. He decides that the solution is to force Emma to consummate their marriage. Noah has Emma brought to the deck and "inspects" her to see what the problem is. He decides that Emma's "tightness" is the reason why Japeth could not "gain entry" and requests that the Unicorn is brought to aid the problem. Noah uses the Unicorn to "open" Emma for Japeth, a process which traumatizes Emma and severely injures the Unicorn. When Japeth finds out what his father has done, he cuts off the Unicorn's horn. Emma is then forced to live on the top deck to be near her husband. Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, and Ham decide to rebel against Noah and the others. They formulate a plan to burn through the locked door using the two demons on board. They get the door open and plan to close the armoury, where Japeth sleeps, from the outside so as to neutralize Japeth. Unfortunately, Japeth is patrolling the deck and captures the escapees. He ties up Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, and Ham and throws the demons overboard, which enrages Lucy. She breaks free of her bonds and curses Japeth so that his wounds will never heal properly and he will always smell of the violence he has inflicted on others. Mrs. Noyes, Ham, and Lucy are locked below again, this time with boards and chains locking the door from the outside. Lucy plans another escape and has Crowe take a message to Emma to release them. Emma removes all the chains and bars while Noah and Hannah are preoccupied with praying, Shem is preoccupied with eating, and Japeth is preoccupied dressing his wounds. Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, and Ham bar the armoury and the chapel, locking in Noah, Hannah, and Japeth, but they are unable to find Shem. While locked in the chapel, Hannah's labour begins. She asks Noah to call for help, but he refuses to call for anyone until the baby is born. Noah knows that the baby is likely his and is worried that it will be a "monkey child" like Lotte, as Japeth's dead twin brother was also monkey-like. When the baby is born dead it is indeed revealed to be a "monkey child". Ham, hearing Hannah's cries of pain, opens the chapel door to help Hannah. He is quickly brained by Shem, but not before he sees Hannah's child. Hannah wraps it in blankets to hide its hairy arms and throws the baby overboard. A truce between the factions is tacitly called. The weather is sunny for the first time since the start of the rain, and Noah asks Emma to send a dove to look for land. When the dove does not return, they continue to send birds until Noah decides to send his own trained dove. Noah's dove returns with an olive branch, which Noah uses to prove Yaweh's edict. The other members of the ark remain unconvinced, as they know it is the same branch from the dove's cage. The novel ends with Mrs. Noyes sitting on deck with Mottyl, praying to the clouds for rain. 

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A Greek fisherman named Demetrios and his father rescue Princess Antillia from a shipwreck without knowing that she is from the technologically advanced civilization of Atlantis. After rescuing the princess, Demetrios must travel beyond the Pillars of Hercules to take her home. After they are picked up at sea near Atlantis by a giant fish- like submarine boat, Demetrios, expecting to receive a reward for returning Antillia, is instead enslaved and forced to work in the crater of the volcano that dominates the center of the continent. King Cronus is being manipulated by an ambitious usurper, Zaren, collaborating with the court sorcerer, Sonoy the Astrologer, who wishes to use the resources of Atlantis in order to conquer the known world. From the continent's volcano, the slaves of Atlantis have been mining unique power crystals which absorb the sun's rays and can then be used to fire heat ray beams. The crystals were originally used to produce light and heat, but due to its arrogance, corruption, and moral laxity, Atlantis has made the crystals into a deadly heat ray weapon, and has now become "an abomination before Heaven". Taken to the House of Fear, where a mad scientist turns slaves into beasts, Demetrios is saved by being given the chance to undergo the 'ordeal of fire and water'. He fights with a giant ogre in a pit of burning coals. Demetrios outmaneuvers his clumsy opponent, setting fire to the ogre's hair, the fight contrasting with the uproarious laughter coming from the massive crowd in the coliseum, cheering on the spectacle. Later, after killing the ogre in a rising pool of water, Demetrios is declared a free citizen of Atlantis. Impending doom hangs heavy in the air of Atlantis. The birds, animals, and even the insects are fleeing what appears to be the coming destruction of the continent. With the help of a kindly high priest named Azar, who explains these signs of the apocalypse to him, Demetrios is later able to rescue Princess Antillia after he has helped the slaves of Atlantis to escape the coming destruction. Azar explains and demonstrates the two versions of the power crystal device. He also informs Demetrios that a huge crystal ray projector, a thousand times more powerful than the models with which Azar demonstrated the two versions of the crystal device, is now nearing completion. On the next full moon, Zaren plans to begin his campaign of conquest. Demetrios thereupon pretends to ally himself with Zaren, supposedly working with the slaves to insure that the crystal is completed on schedule. In fact, however, he works with the slaves to sabotage the process by which the crystal is formed within the volcano, hastening the impending destruction of Atlantis in so doing. On the full moon, the now-completed giant crystal ray device is displayed to the people of Atlantis. Just at that moment, however, the skies darken, the ground begins to shake, and the destruction of Atlantis begins. The volcano undergoes a cataclysmic eruption. As the continent proceeds to tear itself apart, the people of Atlantis panic, striving to escape their doom. Demetrios and Princess Antillia attempt to escape through the fleeing multitude. Zaren attempts to kill them using the crystal ray weapon, but instead kills many citizens. Azar attacks Zaren, using Zaren's own knife, leaving the large crystal to swing back and forth, out of control, firing bursts of energy at random. As Zaren finally overcomes Azar, he is himself destroyed by the weapon's energy beam. As lightning flashes and thunder roars, the entire continent is sinking, just before it suddenly and quickly begins to rise. Then, just as quickly, the sea bottom collapses, and Atlantis plunges beneath the waves once and for all. The large crystal device atop the capital's large pyramid, the main power source for the entire continent, is inundated with sea water, short-circuits, and a massive explosion follows. The skies suddenly clear. Various groups of survivors, including Demetrios and Antillia, flee to Greece and other parts of the world, where they are absorbed into other cultures, and the Legend of Atlantis is spread through the many peoples and nations that follow down through the centuries. 

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Dr. Frank Peralta is stabbed to death in his apartment one night. The detective on the case, Lt. Stevenson, quickly finds multiple witnesses putting Peralta's girlfriend, Terry Collins, at the scene. However, when Stevenson finds and questions Terry, she has an iron-clad alibi with multiple witnesses. It is revealed that Terry has an identical twin sister, Ruth, and the pair share a job and routinely switch places for their own benefit. Stevenson and the district attorney are unable to prosecute since the twins refuse to confirm which of them has the alibi. Unable to accept the "perfect crime", Lt. Stevenson asks Dr. Scott Elliot for help. Scott is an expert on twin study, and has been routinely encountering the Collinses at their shared workplace but does not know which is which. As a front, Scott asks Terry and Ruth if he can study them individually as part of his research. The twins accept, though Ruth is worried that Scott might find out that Terry was at Peralta's apartment the night of the murder. However, Terry is attracted to Scott and insists that they can keep the secret for the sake of seeing him. She also comforts Ruth, reminding her that she was only at Peralta's apartment but didn't kill him. From Scott's psychological tests and by spending time with them, he discovers that Ruth is kind and loving, while Terry is highly intelligent and insane, and has been manipulating Ruth almost their entire lives. Terry is jealous that people keep preferring Ruth over her, and is enraged yet again when Scott falls in love with Ruth instead of her. Terry starts methodically gaslighting Ruth, making her believe that she's hallucinating and going insane, in the hopes of pushing her to suicide. Scott reports his findings to Stevenson, who advises him to warn Ruth immediately. That night, Scott arranges to meet with Ruth at his apartment, but Terry intercepts the message. Terry leaves Ruth alone in their apartment and sets a music box in a hidden place to further drive Ruth to madness. Terry goes to meet Scott, but he's aware of who she really is. Scott explains everything he's learned about the twins' relationship and Terry's intense rivalry with her innocent sister. Scott also believes that Peralta, who didn't know they were twins, wooed Terry but was really in love with Ruth, and Terry killed him for it. Just as Terry is considering stabbing Scott, he receives a phone call from Stevenson, who is at the twins' apartment: Having gone there on a hunch, he found Ruth dead. Scott and Terry go to the sisters' apartment, where Terry "confesses" to Stevenson that her "sister" killed Peralta and committed suicide out of guilt. Terry confirms all of Scott's psychological test results, but she herself claims to be Ruth, and says that she's relieved that "Terry" is dead. Just then Ruth enters the room, alive and well, which causes Terry to angrily throw her glass at a mirror. Stevenson did visit Ruth on a hunch but only found her in distress, not dead; he then faked the phone call to trap Terry, who is arrested. 

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Detective Jack Williams, who lost his left arm in the Tet Offensive, is shot dead in his apartment. His estranged friend, detective Mike Hammer (whose life Jack saved while losing his arm) is warned by police detective Pat Chambers to stay out of it but he nevertheless investigates the matter on his own. He speaks with Jack's widow Myrna, who says that they were attending a sex therapy clinic operated by the glamorous Dr. Charlotte Bennett. Hammer visits the clinic and finds a Government Issue bugging device in the doctor's office. Hammer's secretary Velda identifies Jack's receipts for gasoline near Bear Mountain close to a summer camp run by Hammer's old friend Joe Butler. Mike and Velda visit Joe, who tells them of a military project in Saigon involving the use of drugs to turn prisoners of war into friendly spies and how Captain Romero developed a technique for mind control. Two cars of CIA agents pursue the three on a car chase that ends when Hammer throws a Molotov cocktail at one car, causing it to drive off a cliff into the water, and blocks the road with his vehicle then shoots the second car, causing it to explode. The FBI trace the gun that killed Jack to special effects artist Harry Lundee, who had reported the gun stolen. Hammer visits him on set, where Lundee is shot in the back by a projectile knife fired by an unknown assassin and, in his dying breath, confesses that he laundered the gun to mobster Charlie Kalecki, but Kalecki is reluctant to speak with Hammer about any ties to Romero. The CIA, wishing to distance itself from Romero's experiments, plants a series of clues in an attempt to lead Mike Hammer to Romero in order to have Hammer eliminate Romero for them. Chambers is instructed by the CIA to plant a photo of Romero in Jack's apartment as bait for Hammer and Romero gives Dr. Bennett a fake file about Jack's activities, which Hammer is upset to read during a visit to the Northridge Clinic. Hammer questions the sexual surrogate twins who worked with Jack, before observing Dr Bennett and her sex therapy team at work. While watching this session, Hammer hears the twins being attacked but is too late to prevent their deaths at the hands of a psychotic killer. In the wake of these extreme events, Hammer checks in on Dr Bennett at her practice and the two become lovers. The twins' killer, Charles Kendricks, has been brainwashed by Romero, who sends him to abduct Velda. Romero's black ops squad capture Hammer, torture him and cover the badly-beaten Hammer with cheap liquor, intending to push him to his death in traffic. Hammer turns the tables on his captors, fights his way free and escapes. He races to Kendricks' apartment and stops him from killing Velda, then pursues Kendricks through the Manhattan streets and shoots him dead. Convinced that Kendricks was a puppet, Hammer confronts Detective Chambers. Chambers, again being secretly instructed by the CIA, tells Hammer that Kalecki supplied the gun that killed Jack and owned the apartment building where Kendricks lived. Hammer captures Kalecki and forces him to drive back to the Northridge Clinic, where Romero has now set up a sequence of fortifications and death-traps. Hammer jumps out of the car before Romero sets off a mine, instantly killing Kalecki. Hammer kills all of Romero's goons commando-style then climbs over a wall and into the main building to confront Romero. After a brutal fight, Romero wrestles Hammer's gun from him but Hammer has plugged the barrel, so when Romero fires the gun it explodes in his face. Romero dies before Hammer can get the answers he wants about Jack's death. Searching Romero's office, Hammer finds Romero's black ops computer files. Later, Hammer visits Dr Bennett at her home, bearing an expensively wrapped gift that turns out to be Jack's prosthetic arm. Hammer confronts her with the information he's uncovered: she was the intruder who murdered Jack Williams. Charlotte attempts to seduce Hammer and kill him with a hidden gun but he beats her to it while they embrace, shooting her in cold blood. With her dying breath, Dr. Bennett asks Hammer "How could you?" Using the famous closing line from Spillane's original novel, Hammer responds "It was easy." 

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After Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends arrive in Soul Society, Zaraki begins to hunt for the strongest fighter in their group before finding Ichigo. After a short skirmish, Zaraki stabs Ichigo thru the chest, seemingly killing him. Zaraki begins to walk away, when Ichigo stands up again, healed by the power of Zangetsu. During the fight, Ichigo becomes enough of a challenge that Zaraki removes his eye patch, thus releasing the extra power it has been devouring. As they rush at each other, the exchange itself ends in a draw, with Ichigo falling first and Zaraki shortly after, both admitting defeat (though Zaraki's sword breaks in the end, after it is deflected by the sudden manifestation of Ichigo's hollow mask, which spared the latter from death). Zaraki later admits that he lost, but he needs to get stronger and pay Ichigo back. He finds himself happy he found someone strong to fight, before falling unconscious. He then decides to help Ichigo and frees his friends from imprisonment. Much later on, while searching for Ichigo with his friends in tow, they are headed off by 7th and 9th Division members. Zaraki battles their captains Sajin Komamura and Kaname Tōsen respectively, defeating Tōsen and fighting off Komamura before Komamura runs away to find Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai. He does not see Ichigo and his friends off when they leave the Soul Society. He tells Yachiru that he and Ichigo will certainly meet again because they are the only ones who are what they seem to be. Zaraki also helps fight off the Bount invasion, and successfully defeats Maki Ichinose, a former member of his squad who left after Zaraki killed his captain. During the Arrancar arc, Zaraki appears to Ichigo as his instinct and desire to win, explaining to him that they were both the type of people who live to fight (or fight to live) battle after battle. After Orihime is taken to Hueco Mundo, Zaraki arrives with Byakuya Kuchiki to retrieve Tōshirō Hitsugaya's group and bring them back to Soul Society. Later, in Hueco Mundo, Zaraki comes to Ichigo's aid during his battle with the arrancar Tesla, dealing the arrancar a mortal blow with a single strike and then engaging the Espada Nnoitra in battle. Despite having "more fun than he has had in a long time," he suffers enough injuries to realize that he may die if the fight continues. He flashes back to his Kendo training, and grips his sword with two hands to deal Nnoitra a vicious, incapacitating blow. Unfortunately for Nnoitra during the ensuing fight Zaraki's eye-patch, which is a special seal that strongly 'consumes' his Spirit Pressure (this way battles will last longer allowing him to have more fun,) is cut off allowing Zaraki to fight at full power. When Nnoitra refuses to accept defeat and charges Zaraki, the latter kills him with another strike. Zaraki then stands over Nnoitra's corpse, telling him their battle "was a blast". He later appears to save Ichigo from the Cero Espada Yammy by cutting off one of his legs, and further engaging him in combat with Byakuya Kuchiki. When it seems that Zaraki and Byakuya are about to defeat him, Yammy undergoes a monstrous new transformation. Byakuya and Zaraki ultimately defeat their opponent, though Zaraki thought the fight was "boring". He is last seen being reprimanded by the Captain-Commander for losing his captain's haori in battle. Seventeen months after the fight with Aizen, Zaraki, along with all the other high-ranking members of the Gotei 13, are ordered to restore Ichigo's reiatsu. He arrives with Byakuya, Hitsugaya, Ikkaku, Rukia, and Renji to aide in combating the organization Xcution. Zaraki is engaged by Giriko Kutsuzawa and quickly kills the Fullbringer, finding him "boring". After these events, a group of Quincy called the Wandenreich appear and send their invading force of Sternritter to take over Soul Society. Zaraki manages to single-handedly kill Berenice Gabrielli, Jerome Quizbatt, and Loyd Lloyd without much difficulty. Zaraki then confronts Yhwach, revealed to be Loyd's twin brother Royd Lloyd in disguise, and is defeated. After the Wandenreich leave, Zaraki recovers and engages Unohana in what both expect to be a fight to the death, in order to train him in dealing with the Wandenreich. Despite being brought to the brink of death several times, and captain Unohana finally releasing her bankai, Zaraki ultimately cuts down Unohana, subsequently hearing his Zanpakutō and learning its name: . During the Wandenreich's second invasion, Zaraki uses Nozarashi's axe-like shikai form against the Sternritter Gremmy Thoumeaux in an exhausting fight that leaves at the mercy of a quartet of female Sternritters before Ichigo saves him. After being healed twice, the second time being a consequence of being incapacitated while fighting Pernida, Zaraki joins Hitsugaya and Byakuya against Gerard. During the fight, as Yachiru reveals her true identity and sacrifices herself to awaken his full power, Zaraki manifests his Zanpakutō's bankai form to overwhelm the Sternritter before his body begins to suffer from strain caused by using the Bankai. He later helps in holding down Gerard for Hitsugaya and Byakuya to land the death blow. Ten years after the war, having become more composed with Ikkaku as his new vice captain, Zaraki is last seen getting himself lost while attempting to attend Rukia's captain ceremony. 

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In a few weeks, Scottish teenager Liam will turn 16. The film opens with him using his tripod-mounted telescope outdoors on a clear night to show other children the stars and planets. He and his friends exemplify the violent "ned" subculture; they no longer attend school, but instead, hang around isolated areas or wander about all day long. They get money by illicitly selling untaxed cigarettes in a pub, and defy the police. Liam's mother is currently in prison, for a crime she did not commit. She will be released in a few weeks, in time for her son's 16th birthday. She has a boyfriend named Stan, who works as a drug dealer with Liam's grandfather, Rab. Stan and Rab take Liam in Rab's car on a visit to his mother in Cornton Vale Prison, and try to force him to smuggle drugs to his mother while they create a distraction. In the event, Liam refuses to cooperate by passing the drugs over. When driving home his companions beat him up; he fights back and gets away. Liam arrives back to find that he has been expelled from his grandfather's flat, and his belongings thrown down into the front garden (including his telescope, which has been broken). Liam then moves to his sister Chantelle's nearby home in Port Glasgow. Chantelle agrees to let Liam live in her house if he's good to Chantelle's little son, Calum. She has been taking free evening classes to get work in a call centre, and implores Liam to do the same because she wants Liam to do something more 'constructive' with his own life. When Liam takes Calum for a walk along Greenock Esplanade, his friend Pinball arrives in a stolen car and insists on taking them joyriding along the coast. They drive up through the Cloch caravan (trailer) park where Liam sees a caravan for sale in a spot overlooking the scenic Firth of Clyde. Liam, who loves his mother very much, fantasizes that he, his sister, and his mother can escape to the seaside and live in the caravan, away from Stan and Rab's wrath. To purchase it he and Pinball steal a delivery of drugs from Stan's house and sell them, doing the very things Liam once hated – claiming that they will never get anywhere by selling cheap cigarettes. They soon develop 'entrepreneur skills' and raise several thousand pounds, which they pay as a deposit towards the caravan in Liam's mother's name. Liam's efforts attract the attention of the local drug 'godfather', Tony Douglas. Liam, who only wanted a peaceful life with his mother, agrees to work with them after the local godfather tells him to 'stay away from our shops'. Pinball, meanwhile, is thrown into the health club showers due to his disrespectful manner towards the dealer, and vows revenge. Liam and Pinball carry on selling drugs to the local area, with the help of Liam's other friends who deliver pizzas. Liam and Pinball meet again with members of the drug godfather's gang, and Liam joins them in their car. Pinball is kicked out, angering him further; the gang members advise Liam to 'dump' Pinball for good. They take Liam to a Glasgow nightclub and instruct him that he has to kill someone to join the gang. Liam attempts to do so, but is stopped by the gang, who inform him it was a test (which he has passed). Liam, Chantelle, Calum and Suzanne (Chantelle's friend) drive to the caravan to have a picnic, only to discover that it has been burned down. Liam believes it was Stan who did it, and throws a rock through his window. That evening, Pinball turns up in Douglas's (stolen) car, telling Liam that he wants revenge. He proceeds to crash the car into the health club. Liam speaks to the godfather in the morning and, to his chagrin, is ordered to "take care of" the Pinball problem (i.e. to kill his friend). The next morning, Pinball—aware of Liam's intentions—first tries to stab Liam, then proudly tells him that he's the one who burnt down the caravan, not Stan. He then cuts his own face in rage. Liam is seen reassuring his injured friend after phoning for an ambulance, but in the next scene he notifies the godfather that the deed has "been done", leaving a viewer to infer that he has indeed murdered his friend. Douglas promises to buy Liam an upscale apartment, and on the day before his birthday Liam's mother is released from the prison and taken to this new house on the coast of Gourock where she is welcomed with a party. She appears uneasy, and the next morning is found to have escaped to Stan's house. Liam blames this on Chantelle. Chantelle, now fully aware that Liam is dealing drugs, attempts to warn her little brother about their mother probably not being so thankful for Liam's efforts because she is too devoted to Stan, but this only provokes Liam even further. An enraged Liam goes to Stan's house, trying to convince his mother to go back to their new home, only to receive insults from Stan. In a struggle, Liam stabs Stan. Liam is then seen walking alone on the stony beach. He is phoned by Chantelle, who reminds him that the day is his 16th birthday. She also tells him that the police have been looking for him, but that after everything that he has done, Chantelle still loves him. He walks towards the sea. 

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Anna (Miriam Yeung) is an aspiring actress, and her father was a monk of the Shaolin temple who defected to Japan after representing the temple during a martial arts tournament. There he met a Japanese woman and later bore Anna. He starts a martial school in Japan, although he dreams of being reconciled with his former mates. Anna enters a martial arts tournament, which she hopes will lead to her getting her acting career started. She falls in love with the marketing executive (Ekin Cheng) who organized the tournament. 

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Agent Lam teams up with JJ to track a pair of plates used to make fake American dollars. When the plates are captured and make their way to Korea, Lam gets on a plane and searches for the plates in Seoul, tracking a man who he believes to have stolen them. During the hunt, he comes across JJ, who happens be a thief with a hidden agenda. When JJ thinks she has successfully walked away with the plates, she does not realize Lam has preempted her by swapping it with an empty case. Lam goes to the US Embassy with the plates to claim the $30 million reward offered but is outwitted by a staffer named Owen, who manages to drug him and flee to Korea with the plates. Lam immediately follows Owen to Korea and meets up with a bevy of pretty Korean assistants. When Owen is about to trade the plates with "Black Bear", a top dog of the Korean underworld, Lam and his girls break in to thwart the deal, but Owen escapes with the plates in the nick of time. Meanwhile, Lam bumps into JJ in Korea, and the pair decide to work together to take back the plates and split the reward. While Owen is immersing himself in a hot spring, Lam sneaks in and snatches the plates. He then uses the plates to lure Owen into his trap, arresting him in the end. Only then does he realize that Owen is in fact a CIA undercover agent. While Lam and Owen reconcile and decide to cooperate to bring down "Black Bear," JJ secretly retrieves the plates from Owen's hiding place but only ends up leading "Black Bear" to the plates and is kidnapped. Lam and Owen has no alternative but to meet "Black Bear" in a deserted sports stadium to settle the deal once and for all. 

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Opera singer superstar Renato Rossano (Mario Lanza) is drafted into the U.S. Army. His sergeant, "Bat" Batterson (James Whitmore), is an opera fan who admires Rossano and wishes Rossano to appraise his sister's (Doretta Morrow) singing voice. The rest of his platoon as well as the company commander disapproves of Batterson's showing favoritism to Rossano by excusing him from normal training. Rossano schemes to have Batterson allow him to go to New York, supposedly to have his manager appraise Batterson's sister Brigit's singing voice but in reality allowing him to do a performance. After realizing he's been tricked, the sergeant sets out to make Rossano's military life considerably more difficult. 

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Following the infamous tragedy in Waco, Texas, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (A.T.F.) found themselves in a battle with an armed militia, the organization, led by director Maggie Hale (Kathy Baker), finds itself in a new fight. Agent Robyn O'Brien (Amy Brenneman) goes undercover to infiltrate a militia selling illegal street- sweeper guns, dismissing Hale's orders to stay away. When O'Brien gets held prisoner inside the militia's compound, the A.T.F. is left with the decision to start another Waco and attack the militia, or come up with another way to save her. 

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Iris Simpkins, a society columnist for The Daily Telegraph in London, still loves her ex-boyfriend, Jasper Bloom, despite the fact that he cheated on her and is emotionally needy. She is devastated to discover he is engaged and decides to get away for the holidays. Amanda Woods, a movie trailer producer in Los Angeles, breaks up with her film composer boyfriend, Ethan, after he admits to cheating on her. She comes across Iris' listing of her cottage on a home swap website and messages her. They agree to switch houses for two weeks starting the next day. Iris has no trouble settling into Amanda's large house, but Amanda decides she has made a mistake and plans to return home the next day. That night, Iris' handsome book editor brother, Graham, drops by after drinking too much at the local pub and asks to spend the night. Amanda agrees and after they talk and Graham unexpectedly kisses her on the lips, Amanda suggests they have sex since she does not expect to see him ever again. The next morning, despite having enjoyed spending the night together, they go their separate ways. That evening Graham meets friends at the pub for dinner and sees Amanda there, having decided to stay. Iris meets Arthur Abbott, Amanda's elderly neighbor and an Oscar-winning screenwriter from the Golden Age of Film. Over dinner, Iris tells him about her troubles with Jasper, and Arthur gives her a long list of movies with strong female characters to watch so she can become "the leading lady of her own life." Iris convinces Arthur to be the keynote speaker at a Writers Guild of America West gala and exercises with him so he can walk on stage without his walker. She also befriends Miles, a colleague of Ethan's who is dating aspiring actress Maggie. While at the video store looking for one of the movies on Arthur's list, Miles catches Maggie with another man. Iris explains her troubles with Jasper and they have dinner together to bring each other's spirits up for Christmas Eve. Amanda opens up to Graham, telling him she has not cried since her parents divorced when she was 15. She surprises him at his house and discovers he is a widower with two young daughters. He explains that he kept his daughters a secret because compartmentalizing his life helps him deal with the overwhelming responsibility of being a single working father and because he does not want to bring a woman into the girls' lives unless he is sure the relationship has a future. They begin to think their relationship is more complicated than they can handle. On the day of the screenwriter's gala, Maggie asks Miles to take her back, but he refuses. Jasper surprises Iris by showing up at Amanda's house, but Iris, drawing on the example of the women from Arthur's films, kicks him out. At the gala, Arthur succeeds in walking onstage unassisted and Miles asks Iris out on a date for New Year's Eve. She agrees and kisses him. Meanwhile, Graham tells Amanda he has fallen in love with her and while she does not return the sentiment, they agree to try to make a long-distance relationship work. While heading to the airport, Amanda breaks down crying. She runs back to the cottage and she and Graham make plans to spend New Year's Eve together with his daughters. On New Years' Eve, Iris, Amanda, Graham, Miles and Graham's daughters all happily celebrate at Graham's house. 

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Bill Lowery is a salesman whose company has switched to a medical supply product line, which has caused him to stay up late at night attempting to memorize medical terms in order to be familiar with the products in a week's time. One day, his wife tells him that she's worried about their son who's ill. As Lowery leaves for work, his neighbor refers to his dog as an "encyclopedia," but Lowery shrugs it off, thinking his neighbor was pulling a prank. Lowery puts in a full morning of work trying to cope with new terms, which include jibes from younger salesmen such as "teaching old dogs new 'trumpets'." As Lowery leaves for lunch, a subordinate asks him about a good place to go for "dinosaur." Lowery tries to find out why the co-worker is not using the correct word, but the co-worker walks away annoyed. Lowery arrives home where his wife says their son is feeling worse. When she complains that he didn't eat his "dinosaur," Lowery thinks his wife and co-workers have been pulling a practical joke on him. He soon realizes, however, that it is his own vocabulary which is out-of-sync. This is confirmed when he turns on his car and the seatbelt dash light bears the message "Fasten Stepdad". Returning to the office, Lowery becomes frustrated by the increasing level of gibberish. It increases to the point where he can no longer understand anything that is said to him, and he goes back home to find his son suffering from a very high fever. Bill picks up the boy and takes him to the emergency room, where his wife has to handle everything because Lowery cannot make himself understood. A doctor comes out of his son's room after some time to tell Lowery and his wife that their son is okay. That night, following a quiet but content meal with his wife, Bill sits down in his son's bedroom and picks up one of his ABC books. He studies the basics of the language that he now needs to re-learn, as under the picture of a dog—the word reads "Wednesday." 

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The play starts with the prologue, which is a warning to the audience that the play is long and now is the time to stretch their legs because they are about to be sitting for a long time. Once the play starts Calidorus and Pseudolus enter the stage, Calidorus is visibly upset. After Pseudolus pushes his master's son to tell him what is wrong, Calidorus shows him a letter he received. Pseudolus first mocks the poor handwriting it is written in then reads the letter, which says that Calidorus' lover Phoenicium, a prostitute, has been sold and the man who is supposed to come with the last of the money to pay for her and pick her up for her new master is coming very soon. Calidorus obviously wants to save her but he has no money of his own and his father won't lend him any to help save her. He turns to Pseudolus, who is his father's chief slave, for help. Pseudolus doesn't have the money they require to buy her, but thinks he can improvise a plan to get it and to save Phoenicium. At this time, Calidorus tells Pseudolus to be quiet, saying he hears the pimp Ballio, Phoenicium's master, leaving his house. Ballio enters the stage addressing his slaves, telling them that they aren't worth their keep and that they don't know how to behave. He claims beating them hurts him more than it hurts them and that they will steal anything if given the chance. Ballio begins organizing his slaves and making preparations for his own birthday celebration, and says he will be off to the market to strike a deal with the fishmonger. After he organizes his slaves and assigns them all specific tasks for the day, he calls his prostitutes out of the house. He orders them to make themselves the most desirable companions for the day, and to earn him supplies based on their status with men in different markets—specifically, grain, meat, oil, and lard. Ballio promises swift and decisive punishment if his demands are not met. Calidorus and Pseudolus have been watching Ballio throughout this entire speech from a hidden corner, making comments about his corruption and tyranny, and generally loathing his entire existence. Calidorus is deeply concerned about the future of Phoenicium and asks Pseudolus what he should do in order to keep Ballio from putting her on the streets. Pseudolus tells Calidorus not to worry about it, and that he will take care of it by delivering Ballio "a nice fat packet of trouble." This uncertain prospect is torturous to Calidorus, who claims that it's only natural that a lover must behave like a fool. Ballio departs from his house to go to the market, with one of his slaves leading. Pseudolus calls out to him from their hiding place, and asks him to come and talk. Ballio is dismissive of Pseudolus, and tries to avoid him several times. Pseudolus finally successfully intercepts him, but Ballio still refuses to truly listen. He hints that there must be a promise of money in order for him to open his ears to Pseudolus and Calidorus' pleas. Having appealed to his business side to pull him into conversation, Pseudolus and Calidorus try to play nice, apologizing for the fact that Calidorus does not have the money to buy his love's freedom. Ballio insists that Calidorus could have found a way to get the money and says that he must care more for duty than for love. Pseudolus begs him to give them more time to find the money when Ballio informs them that Phoenicium has already been sold for 2000 drachmae to the Macedonian officer, Polymachaeroplagides. Pseudolus and Calidorus then call Ballio all the dirty names and curses they can think of. Untouched by their words, Ballio says that if Calidorus can bring him the money before the officer pays the final amount owed, 500 drachmae, the deal with the officer will be off and Calidorus can take his love. Ballio then goes to town for his birthday preparations and Pseudolus beseeches Calidorus to find a sharp-witted friend to assist in taking Phoenicium from Ballio. Uncertain as to how to get the girl, Pseudolus hatches a plan to obtain the 2000 drachmae by stealing it from Simo, the father of Calidorus. Pseudolus sees Simo coming with his neighbor Callipho, and hides and listens to their conversation. The two are discussing Simo's son, Calidorus, and the rumor that he wants to buy his true love's freedom. Simo doesn't think that it is proper for his son to be in love with a prostitute and doesn't want to believe the rumor. Callipho is trying to convince Simo to at least listen to his son to see if what they are hearing is true and to take pity on him because he is a man in love just like he was when he was young. Pseudolus decides to appear and greets them. Simo asks Pseudolus about getting the money out of him by performing a "crafty and underhand trick." Pseudolus admits to wanting to get the money from him. Simo refuses to give Pseudolus the 2000 drachmae. Pseudolus retorts, "You'll give it to me. I'm only telling you, so that you can be on your guard." Pseudolus also promises that he will wage war on Ballio and get the girl from him on that very day. He asks Simo to give him money so that he can give it to Ballio should he succeed in winning the girl from the pimp. At long last Simo agrees to the bet: the treadmill for Pseudolous if he fails to get the girl by day's end and 2,000 drachmae from Simo if he succeeds. Callipho promises Pseudolus that if he gets the girl and if Simo does not give him the money, he will himself because he does not want to see his plan fail. Pseudolus sees a Macedonian soldier approaching and figures that this is his chance. The two talk about how Harpax, the Macedonian soldier, has been ordered to meet with Ballio himself to give him the money. Pseudolus tricks Harpax into thinking he is Syrus, a slave of Ballio, and tries to get the 500 drachmae from Harpax by telling him that his master Ballio is working on a court case and can't meet with him at this time. Pseudolus says he can receive the money on his behalf. Harpax refuses to give the money up to anyone but Ballio. Harpax says he will leave with the money and come back at a different time. He leaves Pseudolus with a sealed letter from his master, the Macedonian general. Harpax tells Pseudolus he is staying in town in an old tavern and asks Pseudolus to send for him when Ballio is ready to meet. Harpax leaves and Calidorus arrives with his friend Charinus. Right away Pseudolus and Charinus begin talking. Pseudolus is describing how he has pulled the wool over the Macedonian soldier's eyes, and boasts that the girl Calidorus loves will be in his arms today. The only problem is that Pseudolus requires a few things: a clever young man, a soldier's cloak, sword, and hat, and 500 drachmae. Charinus offers him the 500. Charinus and Calidorus say they know of just the clever slave who can help them. They then depart to go and collect the things that Pseudolus requires. As they depart a slave boy creeps out of Ballio's house and speaks to the audience. He says that he needs to find money to give Ballio, his boss, a present before the day is over or he will be tortured. Since he is poor and has no money, he does not know what to do. Meanwhile, Ballio returns to his house with a cook. The two are arguing about how much the cook charges people for his services. Ballio is quite angry that he has to pay two drachmae instead of one to be able to have a cook for his birthday celebration. The cook is insulted and asks why he hired him. Ballio replies that he had to, because he was the only cook left. The cook immediately starts to make his own case, explaining in great detail why he is the best cook and that he doesn't even stand up for less than two drachmae. Ballio remains unconvinced and waits to see for himself what the cook can really do when the time for dinner comes. Charinus and Calidorus have gotten the clever boy Pseudolus is in need of: Simia, another clever slave. Pseudolus and Simia discuss plans for getting Phoenicium from Ballio. Pseudolus is a bit anxious about Simia succeeding in duping Ballio. Simia is confident to the point of arrogance and is annoyed by Pseudolus' anxieties. Pseudolus takes Simia to meet Ballio and the scene switches between their interaction and Pseudolus' commentary as he watches the events unfold. The plan threatens to come unraveled when Ballio asks Simia the name of his master (which Simia does not know). Simia turns the question around by demanding that Ballio inspect the letter's seal and tell him the name of the sender so that he knows that Ballio is who he claims to be. Ballio consents and gives the name, Polymachaeroplagides. Ballio breaks the seal and reads the letter. Simia hands over the money gotten by Pseudolus from Charinus. Ballio and Simia go inside to retrieve Phoenicium. Pseudolus frets as he waits for them to come out. Eventually they do. As they exit the house, Simia consoles Phoenicium, who thinks she is being led to the Macedonian general, Polymachaeroplagides, by telling her that he is in fact taking her to her boyfriend Calidorus. Pseudolus is triumphant. Ballio is also triumphant, boasting to Simo that they have won the bet because he has finally and successfully sold Phoenicium to the Macedonian general and placed her safely in the hands of his soldier Harpax. As the two discuss the matter the real Harpax arrives. The two think that he is an impersonator hired by Pseudolus. Ballio and Simo ridicule and poke fun at Harpax in the hopes that he will admit that he is an imposter sent by Pseudolus to steal Phoenicium from Ballio. Ballio begins to mock him and asks how much this Harpax has spent on clothing to impersonate a soldier, claiming that his hat and shoes are rented. Ballio asks him how much Pseudolus has paid him. Harpax, of course, denies even knowing a Pseudolus and tells Ballio he delivered the letter with the seal to Ballio's servant earlier that day. Simo begins to realize that Pseudolus has been there first and has already tricked Harpax. He asks Harpax what the servant he gave the letter to looked like. As Harpax describes the slave, Ballio and Simo realize that Pseudolus has tricked them. Harpax and Simo then demand the money that is owed to them from Ballio. Ballio heads to the Forum to pay Harpax back and tells Simo he will pay him tomorrow. Simo admits that he has lost the bet he made with Pseudolus and goes to get the money from his house. Pseudolus celebrates his victory, returning to the home of his master drunk. He is so drunk that he constantly belches in Simo's face. Eventually Simo hands him the money, asking if Pseudolus will cut the debt down any. Pseudolus refuses. Pseudolus then tells Simo to follow him. Simo believes that Pseudolus is attempting to embarrass him and tries to refuse; but Pseudolus insists. Pseudolus then reveals that he plans to go drinking with Simo and has no intent of embarrassing him. The play ends when Simo asks if Pseudolus would like to invite the audience. Pseudolus declines because he believes they wouldn't invite him, but does invite them to applaud. 

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In the near future, robots are commonplacea part of everyday life like any other electrical applianceand are just as prone to malfunctions. When a robot malfunctions, it could pose a threat to people or property. Such robots are known as "runaways." Since they are more dangerous than the average machine, they are handled by a division of the police trained in robotics. The "runaway" squad, however, is treated as an easy and unexciting assignment, and often ridiculed. Sgt. Jack R. Ramsay (Tom Selleck) is a veteran police officer who joined the runaway squad after an incident in which his fear of heights allowed a criminal to escape, which subsequently resulted in a family's death at the hands of that escaped criminal. After years on the job, Ramsay has found himself one of the division's few real experts. His new partner Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) is enthusiastic about the job, but he assures her there is little excitement involved, saying that mostly it involves flipping a switch. This changes when they find themselves handling a new threatthe first robotic homicide. Investigating a household robot that murdered a family with a kitchen knife and handgun, Jack discovers strange integrated circuits, which not only override a robot's safety features but also direct it to attack humans. These circuits are not hacked chips, but created from a series of master templates, enabling them to be mass-produced. Despite being unable to learn anything from uncooperative informants who end up dead, Ramsay refuses to give up and soon discovers the perpetrator is sociopathic genius Dr. Charles Luther (Gene Simmons). Luther, while working for a defense contractor, developed a program that allows a robot to thermographically identify a human from amidst cover and to even differentiate between humans. Seeing the profit potential, he killed his fellow researchers and tried to sell the technology on the black market. A failed attempt to arrest Luthercomplicated by Ramsay having to remove an explosive shell from Thompson's armresults in the recovery of another of Luther's weapons, a smart bullet: a miniature heat seeking missile capable of locking onto a human target's unique heat signature, pursuing them wherever they run, even around corners. While investigating another of Luther's partners, Ramsay and Thompson find Jackie Rogers (Kirstie Alley), who was once Luther's lover. She double-crossed him and stole the circuit templates, intending to sell them herself. She is scared because she believes Luther will stop at nothing to kill her. When they create a ruse to transfer Jackie to safety, Luther attacks the police convoy with robotic smart bombs. They discover that the bombs are zeroing in on a bug in Jackie's purse; they throw the bag out the window before a bomb reaches the car. Ramsay decides to make a public appearance with Jackie at a restaurant to draw Luther out, but instead Luther captures Thompson and wants Ramsay to exchange her for Jackie and the templates. Before making the exchange, Jackie gives some of the templates to Ramsay, for insurance that Luther won't kill her. But Luther kills her anyway, after discovering the templates missing. He then fires his smart bullets into the crowded restaurant and flees. To retrieve the missing templates, Luther plans to attack Ramsay. He uses the police computers to discover everything about Ramsay's personal life, including his son. Once Ramsay discovers his information has been hacked, he races home to find his household robot damaged and his son Bobby (Joey Cramer) missing. Luther calls to confirm he kidnapped Bobby and wants to exchange him for the missing templates. Ramsay agrees to meet Luther at an unfinished skyscraper. Luther gets the templates while in exchange Ramsay sends his son down in an elevator whereupon Luther informs him that a legion of "assassin" robotssmall, spider- like robots which kill by injecting their victims with acidare waiting to kill the first person exiting the elevator. Thompson arrives and helps Bobby stay out of reach of the robots. Furious, Luther begins firing smart bullets, but Ramsay turns on the robotic construction equipment, creating multiple heat sources which cause the bullets to miss. Ramsay uses this distraction to escape and jump on to an elevator to go down. However, the elevator malfunctions, speeding up to the very top with Ramsay on-board and stops. Ramsay is forced to overcome his fear of heights by reaching a reset button underneath the elevator to restart it, while encountering three robot spiders. Ramsay is able to defeat the spiders and restart the elevator downward. The elevator makes a stop on the floor Luther is on, with Luther approaching an exhausted Ramsay in the elevator and insulting him, causing Ramsay to start the elevator back down again. During the descent, a struggle between Ramsay and Luther ensues, but Ramsay manages to gain the upper hand by stopping the elevator. The abrupt stop catapults Luther over the side, and on the ground on his back, in the midst of his robot spiders. Programmed to kill whoever came down from above, the robots rush Luther, injecting him in multiple places. Ramsay helps his son down and then cautiously approaches the motionless villain. Screaming, Luther reaches up to grab Ramsay, but falls back, dead, while the spiders self-destruct around him. 

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The novel is an eclectic historical journey across multiple periods of history, all connected by a single painting: Rembrandt van Rijn's Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer. The work jumps from the golden age of Athens, to 17th Century Holland, to the rise of the American Empire; hopscotching from Aristotle, to Rembrandt, to Socrates, and back to Heller and even Jimmy Carter. It examines fundamental dichotomies in human existence under the guise of satire. 

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The hero of the novel is the mysterious and distinguished Rodolphe, who is really the Grand Duke of Gerolstein (a fictional grand duchy of Germany) but is disguised as a Parisian worker. Rodolphe can speak in argot, is extremely strong and a good fighter. Yet he also shows great compassion for the lower classes, good judgment, and a brilliant mind. He can navigate all layers of society in order to understand their problems, and to understand how the different social classes are linked. Rodolphe is accompanied by his friends Sir Walter Murph, an Englishman, and David, a gifted black doctor, formerly a slave. The first figures they meet are Le Chourineur and La Goualeuse. Rodolphe saves La Goualeuse from Le Chourineur's brutality, and saves Le Chourineur from himself, knowing that the man still has some good in him. La Goualeuse is a prostitute, and Le Chourineur is a former butcher who has served 15 years in prison for murder. Both characters are grateful for Rodolphe's assistance, as are many other characters in the novel. Though Rodolphe is described as a flawless man, Sue otherwise depicts the Parisian nobility as deaf to the misfortunes of the common people and focused on meaningless intrigues. For this reason, some, such as Alexandre Dumas, have considered the novel's ending a failure. Rodolphe goes back to Gerolstein to take on the role to which he was destined by birth, rather than staying in Paris to help the lower classes. 

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In a small Cornish seaside town in early December, wounded war veteran Nat Hocken is working part-time for a farm owner when he notices a large number of birds behaving strangely along the peninsula where his family lives. He attributes this to a recent cold snap and the sudden arrival of winter. That night, Nat hears a tapping on his bedroom window and encounters a bird that pecks his hand, causing him to bleed. As the night progresses he encounters more birds, especially those flocking into his children's room, but the birds leave at dawn. Nat reassures his wife that they were restless because of a sudden change in the weather. The next day, Nat tells his fellow workers about the night's events, but they give his story no importance. As Nat later walks to the beach to dispose of dead birds, he notices what appear to be whitecaps on the sea, but it is actually a great line of seagulls waiting for the tide to rise. When Nat arrives home, his concerns about the aggressive behaviour of the birds are confirmed by a radio report saying that birds are massing all over Britain and some people have been attacked, presumably because of the unnatural weather. When Nat notices more birds, including the gulls, above the sea waiting for the tide he decides to board up the windows and chimneys of his house as a precaution. Nat rushes to pick up his daughter, Jill, from the school bus stop to keep her safe. On his way back he spots his boss, Mr Trigg, who has a car, and persuades him to give Jill a lift home. Mr Trigg cheerfully professes to be unfazed by the announcements and plans on shooting at the birds for fun. He invites Nat to come along, but Nat rejects the offer and continues home, believing that hunting them would be futile. Just before he reaches home, the gulls descend and attack. Luckily, Nat manages to reach the cottage door with only minor injuries. Soon, massive flocks of birds attack. A national emergency is declared on BBC Radio, and people are told not to leave their homes. Then, due to the "unprecedented nature of the emergency," the BBC announces that it is going silent for the night and will resume broadcasting the next morning. For safety, Nat brings the family into the kitchen for the night. During their dinner they hear what sounds like aeroplanes overhead, followed by the sound of the planes crashing. The attacks from the birds die down, and Nat theorises that the birds will only attack at high tide. The next morning, wireless broadcasts do not resume and the radio is silent. The tide recedes, and Nat sets out to obtain supplies from his neighbours. He finds piles of dead birds around the houses; those still alive peer at him from afar. Nat walks to the farm where he is employed, only to find Mr Trigg, his wife and their workman dead. Later he finds the postman's body by the road; soon he comes to the realisation that his neighbours have all been killed by the birds. Nat returns home with the supplies but soon the birds attack once again. As if facing a firing squad, Nat smokes his last cigarette, then throws the empty pack into the fire and watches it burn. 

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David, a showbiz artist, performing in nightclubs in Los Angeles, learns that his father who is pastor of an evangelical church in Atlanta is sick, and decides to go home. Laura Kern, The Gospel (2005): A Church Welcomes Home a Wayward Son, nytimes.com, USA, October 7, 2005He learns that Frank has become the second of his father, and that he is married to Charlene. Walter Addiego, 'The Gospel's' spirit, sfgate.com, USA, October 10, 2005 Fred announces to his son that he has a prostate cancer. David gradually abandons his old life and begins to occupy an important position in the church, which will attract Frank's jealousy. Ty Burr, Music redeems confused 'Gospel', boston.com, USA, October 7, 2005 

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In latter-day Hong Kong, a policeman goes missing. The department is dumbfounded by the disappearance until they receive a ransom call from an unnamed source. The kidnappers request that a single officer appear at Kowloon market. Lee, the chief of police, believes this is a trap and plans to send in a squad. One officer, Jerry Ying, disqualifies himself from this role, claiming that an appearance as an officer will blow the cover he's used to infiltrate a triad group called Dragon Claw. Instead, Inspector Tequila Yuen decides to go to Kowloon alone, despite Lee's order for him to bring a team. Once in the market, Tequila is attacked by a number of triads, proving Lee's hunch correct. After dispatching the attackers, he discovers the missing officer's badge, only to find a bullethole through the center and a photograph of the dead officer. While engaging in a standoff with the triads, Tequila receives a tip that the officer was assassinated by a group called the Imperial 9s, located in Tai O. While in Kowloon, Tequila stops in at a teahouse owned by the triad group Golden Kane, where he orders his usual tequila. At one of the teahouse's tables, the Imperial 9s are making a deal with Golden Kane regarding forged passports. Upon the Golden Kane representative's revelation that the man sitting at the bar is a cop, the I9 representative panics and shoots the Golden Kane representative. Shortly afterwards, the I9 is dispatched by Tequila. Enraged that the cop had broken up the deal, the Golden Kane bouncer Kwong Fang attacks Tequila, only to be gunned down. After emerging from the teahouse, Tequila informs his superior that he's going to go to Tai O to investigate further. He also mentions that during the deal he overheard that the Imperial 9s are working under Dragon Claw. Upon arrival in Tai O, Tequila asks a local fisherman if he knows anything of the triads' activity. The fisherman responds that Tai O is under I9 control, but that Golden Kane is trying to capture it. He also says that the Dragon Claw leader, Jimmy Wong, is currently residing on a boat in Tai O. Tequila tracks down Wong and is introduced to his two top men, Dapang and Jerry, the undercover officer who Tequila had personally trained and worked with in the past. Wong reveals that the Golden Kane assassinated the officer and pinned it on his I9s. Tequila, knowing Dragon Claw to be one of the oldest and largest triad groups, asks why Wong hasn't struck back. Wong's reasoning is that Golden Kane has allied with a Russian mob group based in Chicago, the Zakarovs, who have kidnapped his daughter Billie and granddaughter Teko. The Zakarovs plan to hold them for ransom for a slice of Dragon Claw's territory in Hong Kong. Since Wong can't directly move against the Zakarovs, he asks Tequila to go retrieve his family. He needs a man who isn't affiliated with Dragon Claw but cares enough about Billie and Teko to risk his life for them, and who else but Tequila, the husband of Billie and father of Teko. His hands tied, Tequila agrees to go find them. Immediately after the deal is settled, Golden Kane strikes against Dragon Claw's base in Tai O, and Wong charges Tequila with blowing the place to pieces so he can escape. Since this is in police interest anyway, Tequila agrees, planting C-4 charges on his way out of Tai O. Tequila makes a stop at the Golden Kane-owned restaurant Mega, where their leader Yung Gi is holding an internet conference with Damon and Vladimir Zakarov. Seeing that the Zakarovs are recognized as philanthropists while still maintaining high standing in the criminal underworld, the relatively young and inexperienced Yung plans to head to Chicago himself in order to see how Zakarov's organization is run. He also mentions retrieving Billie and Teko, as Golden Kane is to be the middleman between the Zakarovs and Dragon Claw in their exchange. During the conference, Yung's right-hand man Ty Lok receives a call that they've got unexpected company, and offers to stay and deal with him while Yung escapes. Exasperated that Tequila is still alive after all of Golden Kane's attempts to eliminate him, Yung agrees and exits. Shortly afterward, Tequila arrives in the conference room and is attacked by the muscular Lok, who wields an oversized gun and a belt full of grenades. Despite Lok's superior constitution, Tequila emerges victorious. In the Zakarovs' penthouse in Chicago, Yung receives word of Lok's death and the destruction of the Mega restaurant. Enraged, he tells the messenger to do him a favor and kill himself. Following the phone call, Yung is approached by Damon Zakarov, who offers to show him his history museum. Uninterested, Yung agrees to go along with it since it is a part of the Zakarovs' operation. As Damon and Yung leave, Vladimir Zakarov glances at a nearby surveillance screen and notes that two men have arrived in the penthouse's parking garage. As Tequila and Jerry pull into the parking garage, Jerry pulls out his phone and texts Wong with the current information, telling Tequila he needs to keep Wong thinking he's working for him. The two split up, with Tequila covering the lower floor of the penthouse and Jerry covering the upper floor. This plan goes awry, however, when the voice of Vladimir Zakarov booms through the penthouse's PA claiming to have dealt with Tequila's friend. Tequila fights his way to the top floor, eventually coming face to face with Vlad and a gauntlet of trip mines. Vlad makes his way to a helipad, where a chopper picks him up. As Tequila makes his way to the Zakarov's glass-windowed office, Vlad opens fire with a rocket launcher from the chopper, hovering just outside. Tequila shoots Vlad, causing him to fire a rocket into his own chopper and blow himself out of the sky. On his way out of the penthouse Tequila discovers a wounded Jerry and helps him out. Tequila buys a ticket to the Zakarovs' museum, and enters to find Damon and Yung negotiating the exchange of Billie and Teko. Damon changes the plans at the last minute, letting Yung take Teko back to Hong Kong but saying he'll bring Billie himself. After a standoff between the Zakarov organization and Golden Kane, Yung agrees and leaves with Teko. Damon retreats into the museum, holding Billie hostage, and Tequila gives pursuit. He eventually catches up and shoots Damon dead in the fossil section of the museum. He tearfully reunites with his wife once more, and tells her he was sent by her father to retrieve her. The reunion is cut short, however, when Jerry bursts into the fossil room and opens fire with two pistols. Tequila pushes Billie behind him to shield her and fires back, but moves to dodge a bullet which catches Billie in the chest. Firing wildly, Tequila manages to nick his former friend and partner in the shoulder, causing him to retreat. Turning to his mortally wounded wife, he holds her as she tells him that the Golden Kane have taken Teko to Hong Kong and asks him to forgive her. With that, Billie expires and an enraged Tequila dashes through the halls of the museum in pursuit of Jerry. When he catches up, Jerry is standing on a catwalk above an exhibit and firing at him with dual submachine guns. A breathless Tequila demands to know who paid him off to kill Billie, and Jerry responds that it was Wong, the same man who sent Tequila to find her. With that, Jerry takes off running again, and Tequila follows him to a dead end. The two duel each other with very similar moves, with Jerry diving around the room in much the same manner as Tequila. This doesn't prevent the inspector from gunning down his old friend. As he picks up his fallen partner's phone, Tequila finds Damon's ransom message, which reveals a part of the message that Wong didn't show in the first place: Damon has the names of people tied to Dragon Claw. If Wong doesn't agree to his demands, Billie will expose them in court to prevent the Zakarovs from executing Teko, resulting in Wong getting convicted. Now knowing Wong's motives for killing his own daughter, Tequila texts Wong with a message claiming to have shot Tequila in the head. With that, Tequila tosses the assassinated officer's badge onto his former partner's body. Tequila finds Yung in his office and immediately sits down to strike a bargain with him. He wants his daughter back, but Yung refuses. With the Russians out of the way, he can now trade Teko to Wong for territory in Hong Kong. Tequila tells him he's a fool and shows him a text exchange between Wong and Jerry, where the two mock how stupid the Golden Kanes are and talk about holding a "GK funeral". Tequila further confirms the Dragon Claws' plan by asking Yung if Wong set the time and place for the exchange, to which Yung replies affirmatively. Tequila tells him to change it, and offers to interfere on Golden Kane's behalf. This way, he gets his daughter and his revenge, and Golden Kane can pick up the pieces of what Dragon Claw leaves behind. Everybody wins. Yung agrees to this and calls Wong to change the location of the meeting to his old neighborhood in Kowloon. In the slums of Kowloon, the exchange goes down seemingly as planned. The only difference; Tequila isn't on time. Yung is forced to improvise, and is unable to stall Dragon Claw until Tequila arrives. As his men bring Teko out of a nearby temple, Tequila bursts from an alleyway and shouts at him for being unable to hold them off. Wong is startled to see him alive after the text he received from Jerry, but nonetheless maintains his composure. He escapes with Teko while Yung, Tequila, and Dapang are locked in a standoff, and as Tequila breaks the standoff by chasing him Dapang guns Yung down and escapes. Tequila hijacks a nearby car and chases Wong to his estate, but is forced to deal with Wong's impressive security. Wong's men wield a variety of weapons ranging from rocket launchers to throwing knives to helicopter gunships. After Tequila shoots down a helicopter, it crashes through the locked front door of Wong's main stronghold. Tequila enters Wong's inner sanctum to find the old man and Dapang have taken Teko hostage. After a very tense standoff, Tequila relents and tells Wong to let his daughter go. But when Dapang takes the tape off Teko's mouth, she warns her father that it's a trap, and as she runs to safety, she takes a bullet in the arm. With newfound fury, Tequila guns down Wong's men and then goes after Wong and Dapang. Tequila takes down Dapang, but Wong pins him down with a high-powered sniper rifle. As Wong lines up what is sure to be a fatal shot on Tequila, Teko moves behind him and shoves him over the balcony. As the father and daughter reunite, Chief Lee arrives on the scene and returns Tequila's badge, which he had earlier confiscated for insubordination. Tequila and Teko leave the scene, leaving Chief Lee to gripe about how long the paperwork will take. 

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Clive Bissel (nicknamed "Bex", or "Bexy") is a married man with a baby son. He is the leader of a hooligan firm known as the ICC (Inter City Crew). His wife no longer approves of his activities as a football hooligan, which contrast to his respectable job as an estate agent. Even when his baby son injures himself with a craft knife Bexy has carelessly left lying around, he is unwilling to give up violence as he admits it gives him a "buzz". Conversely, Bexy's father shows acceptance of his son's lifestyle, happily taking a group photograph of the 'tooled up' gang and boasting of similar activities in his own era. However, he feels that Bex and his friends have gone soft because they now use weapons and worry too much about strategy, instead of just getting on with fighting rival mobs. The film begins with a rival gang called "The Buccaneers" vandalising Bexy's Ford Sierra XR4x4 and spraying graffiti in a football dressing room while Bexy and his mates are playing football. Bexy's arch nemesis and leader of the Bucaneers, Yeti, then drives a white Volkswagen Golf GTi cabriolet across the football pitch. With an imminent international football tournament in Holland, Bexy wants to form a 'National Firm' - comprising several rival gangs - big enough to take on the well organised and large international hooligan groups. Bexy meets leaders from other firms in the Tower Hotel in London, including the Buccaneers. The other gangs like the idea but do not like the idea of Bexy being top boy. The rival firms then agree to fight each other in order to determine who will lead the new, amalgamated firm into Europe. Bex and his fellow hooligans only possess any kind of social status amongst their own groups, and Bex relishes being looked up to and admired by the younger men in his own firm. Bexy used his natural leadership qualities to cajole and encourage his peers, and uses intimidation to cement his position as leader of the ICC. These young men think of themselves as important, respected figures in their local community, but Bexy's wife tells him that the truth is somewhat different. Everyone thinks of him as a joke, she says, but because they fear his violent nature, few are willing to point out to him that he is not the working class hero he thinks he is. The ICC survive violent clashes with the other gangs but must still defeat the Buccaneers. Bexy is relishing the chance to defeat Yeti. Bexy beats up Yeti during the ICC's clash with the Buccaneers in a pub but is then shot dead by an injured Yeti. Just before being shot, Bexy expresses astonishment and disbelief that Yeti has a gun, and says 'Oh, come on!' before Yeti pulls the trigger. The closing scene depicts the surviving ICC members in a pub, honouring Bexy as a hero. They claim when they are fighting European firms at the forthcoming tournament, they will be doing so in memory of their dead leader. The hooligans from three different firms, who were fighting each other not long ago, agree that Bex was a visionary who brought them together, giving him legendary status, and that his death will not make them change their behaviour, as they vow to continue. 

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While reading the Galaxy Bible, the space hermit Ejin learns of a shocking prophecy: When the dark god Satan Gorth awakens, the universe will be ravaged by giant monsters filled with rage. After Satan Gorth appears and the prophecy is set in motion, Ejin orders Juspion, who Ejin has been tutoring, to stop him and combat the corrupted Megabeasts. Juspion travels with his friends across the galaxy in the Daileon to battle Satan Gorth and his army. 

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Madison (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Alex (Ashley Olsen) Stewart are twin sisters from Illinois who are whisked away to Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas by their parents for winter break. Initially, the sisters are disappointed that they didn't get to go to Hawaii with their friends, but overcome it by enjoying their newly earned freedom in the form of their own suite, as well as the pristine beaches of the Caribbean. Alex falls for "hottie" Jordan (Ben Easter), a worker at the resort. She's not the only one with her eye on Jordan - the spoiled heiress, Brianna Wallace (Megan Fox) is also after him, and plays dirty to get her way. Madison, meanwhile, is being wooed by cute, but brainless, Scott (Billy Aaron Brown), who in turn is being coached behind the scenes by Griffen (Austin Nichols), a childhood friend of Madison's with a not-so-subtle crush, to talk to Madison and eventually get her under his thumb. The sisters' holiday of fun in the sun is interrupted when they cross paths with a man smuggling stolen artifacts. Though their parents are keeping a close eye on them, the sisters and Griffen must find a way to clear Jordan's name when their friend is wrongfully arrested for the crime. But only together, they overcome everything and understand the true meaning of sisterhood, along with having a great vacation. 

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Fifteen years ago, a powerful Overlord by the name of Zenon appeared in Veldime and cursed its human population. Since then, all its inhabitants have become demons and are to remain that way if the curse was not broken. However, a young man named Adell was the only human unaffected by the curse. Wanting to save his family and return them back to their true form, Adell decides to seek out Overlord Zenon and defeat him. Adell's mother tries to summon Zenon and fails, but instead summons Rozalin, Zenon's daughter. They later go on a quest to find Zenon and return Rozalin to him, and then defeat him so that the curse would be lifted, making his family and the rest of the world human again. 

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The story takes place in London, 1888. On the third night of the Jack the Ripper killings, Mr Slade, a research pathologist, arrives quite late at the home of Mr and Mrs Harley, looking to rent a room. Slade rents out a room and an attic, which he says he needs for his research work. Mrs Harley notices that Slade acts in a strange manner, for example turning several pictures of actresses to the wall, saying that he can feel their eyes on him. He also mentions that he is usually out late at night working, but he never explains what his research involves. Mrs Harley's niece, Lily Bonner, arrives to stay at the house shortly afterwards; she is a beautiful stage actress and singer, recently returned from a successful stage production in Paris. Slade leaves the house for the evening, wearing an Ulster coat and carrying a small black bag, and meets Lily before her opening night in London. At the theatre an old colleague of Lily's, Annie Rowley (who has fallen on hard times), goes to see her backstage, but she is later murdered by the Ripper, and Inspector Warwick, who is investigating the murders, informs Lily and tells her that the suspect was seen wearing an Ulster coat and a small black bag. The next morning Warwick goes to see Lily again to ask a few questions, and Slade appears and gives some unorthodox opinions regarding the Ripper and says that he feels the police will never catch him. Mrs Harley's suspicions are further aroused when she smells burning coming from Slade's attic room, and she is convinced that he is the killer when she discovers that Slade had been burning his black bag; however Mr Harley remains unconvinced. Lily is attracted to Slade, and he tells her that his mother was also an actress but also that, although she was beautiful, she was also evil and that he both loved and hated her. She behaved in an adulterous manner and his father became an alcoholic after she left him, and she ended her life as a 'woman of the streets' (ie a prostitute) and died on the streets in Whitechapel. Slade shows Lily a picture of his mother. Inspector Warwick then arrives to take Lily to the Black Museum, and Slade decides to join them, much to Warwick's displeasure. At the Museum, Slade makes numerous derisive comments about the gruesome nature of the exhibits, although he seems to take a particular interest in the five pictures on the wall of the five Ripper victims, before again telling Warwick that the police will never catch the Ripper. That same evening, yet another woman is murdered and later Slade is seen washing his hands in the river. During the night, Lily is woken and goes downstairs to find Slade burning some items of clothing, including his Ulster coat, which appears to have blood stains on it, although Slade claims that he spilled some solution on the coat and it might be contaminated. Meanwhile Warwick checks out Slade's credentials at the University hospital, and is told that Slade is involved in research and works very late hours. Lily asks Slade to meet her backstage at the theatre that evening, but before that Warwick decides to see if Slade's right thumbprint matches one left by the Ripper at the scene of one of his crimes, and enlists Mr Hollis' help to search Slade's room. Warwick discovers the picture of Slade's mother in a draw, but Lily catches them and complains to Warwick that he is harassing an innocent man. Warwick later tries to match the fingerprint, but his assistant notices the picture of Slade's mother and realises that it is Anne Lawrence, the Ripper's first victim, whose picture is on the wall of the Museum. By this time Slade has gone to the theatre to see the show, but he observes all the lustful looks on the faces of many of the men in the audience as they watch Lily dancing, and becomes agitated, and when he goes to see her backstage he tells her that he hates other men looking at her in such a manner and begs her to go away with him somewhere, but when she resists he pulls a knife out of his pocket and prepares to cut her throat, but he cannot carry out the act, dropping the knife and escaping out of a window. The police, including Warwick, pursue Slade through Whitechapel, but Slade evades them and appears to drown himself in the river; however, despite Warwick and other officers searching for him in the river his body is not found and the possibility is left open that he may have escaped alive. 

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Stan, Kyle and Kenny decide to check on Cartman when he does not show up for school. They discover that he is having a tea party with his stuffed animals in his backyard. Their school counselor Mr. Mackey advises them to videotape Cartman, so he can study him psychologically. Meanwhile, Cartman does not have a father to celebrate father-and-son day and asks his mother who he is. His mother explains that she met his father, a Native American named Chief Running Water, at the 12th annual "Drunken Barn Dance". However, Chief Running Water informs him that his mother is a slut and that he saw her with Chef later that night at the dance. Chef tells Cartman that his mother preferred Mr. Garrison over him. At a bar, Mr. Garrison admits to Cartman that he had sex with Mrs. Cartman, but then argues "But who here didn't!?", to which Mayor McDaniels, Principal Victoria, Jesus and Father Maxi share guilty glances with each other. Dr. Mephisto is willing to perform DNA testing to resolve the issue, but requires $3,000 for the test. Cartman gets depressed, as he does not have the money. In the meantime, Kyle, Stan and Kenny watch America's Stupidest Home Videos; they hear there's a $10,000 grand prize for the stupidest home video. They decide to enter the competition with the video they made of Cartman. Cartman approaches Kyle and Stan (Kenny was dragged to a train track by Stan's go-cart and killed by an oncoming train) with the depressing news about his lack of funds to find out his real father. Stan and Kyle agree that if they win the video contest they will give Cartman the $3,000 needed for the DNA testing. Cartman is overjoyed, but quickly becomes extremely angry after seeing the aired video. Though they do not win the competition, as Stan's grandfather wins with a videotape he made of Kenny's death, they receive a $3,000 runner- up prize instead, which is still enough for the DNA test. Dr. Mephesto calls together Cartman, his mother and all potential fathers (including the 1989 Denver Broncos), when he gets the test results which is where Kenny comes back to life. When he is about to reveal the identity of Cartman's father, a narrator states that the answer will be revealed in the new South Park episode four weeks later, much to Cartman's annoyance and anger. 

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A middle-aged man places a two-dollar bet on a horse at the track and wins. The widower with two teenaged daughters becomes hooked on gambling and within a week he begins cashing in his life savings to pay off his bookie. To make matters worse, he's being grifted for thousands of dollars by a beautiful con woman and her husband. To try to get even, the man begins betting on long shots. 

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Pinky Rose, a timid and awkward young woman, begins working at a health spa for the elderly in a small California desert town. She becomes enamored of Millie Lammoreaux, a relentlessly outgoing and self-absorbed co-worker who talks incessantly. Despite their stark personality differences, Pinky and Millie become roommates at the Purple Sage Apartments, owned by a drinking, womanizing, has-been Hollywood stunt double, Edgar Hart, and his wife Willie, a mysterious pregnant woman who rarely speaks and paints striking and unsettling murals. Millie takes Pinky along on her visits to Dodge City, a local tavern and shooting range also owned by Willie and Edgar, where Millie continues espousing her petty opinions and interests to her new roommate. Millie's babble alienates most of her co-workers, neighbors, acquaintances, and would-be suitors; Pinky is the only person in Millie's orbit who enjoys her advice about dating, fashion, cuisine and interior decorating gleaned from women's magazines. Tensions begin to rise between Pinky and Millie over their living situation. One night, after Millie prepares a dinner party for friends who fail to show up, she gets into a fight with Pinky and leaves the apartment, only to return with a drunk Edgar. Pinky begs Millie to consider Edgar's pregnant wife, Willie, and not have sex with him. Millie, angry at what she perceives as Pinky's meddling and sabotaging her social life, yells at her and suggests she move out of the apartment. A distraught Pinky jumps off the apartment balcony into the swimming pool. Pinky survives the suicide attempt but falls into a coma. Millie, feeling responsible, visits her in the hospital daily. When Pinky still fails to wake up, Millie contacts Pinky's parents in Texas, hoping their presence at the hospital will help her regain consciousness. She wakes up, but does not recognize her parents and furiously demands that they leave. Once sent home to live with Millie again, Pinky begins to copy Millie's mannerisms and behavior--drinking and smoking, sleeping with Edgar, shooting guns at Dodge City--and demanding to be called "Mildred", both women's birth name. Millie becomes increasingly frustrated by Pinky's imitative shift in personality, and begins to exhibit Pinky's timid and submissive personality herself. One night after Pinky has a bad dream, she shares a bed with Millie platonically. A drunken Edgar enters their apartment and awakens them, initially making sexual overtures to Pinky before casually telling both women that Willie is about to give birth. Pinky and Millie drive to Edgar and Willie's house, where Willie is alone and in agonizing labor. Her baby is stillborn, as Pinky fails to summon medical help during the delivery as Millie tells her to. Millie slaps Pinky in anger. Later, Pinky and Millie are working at Dodge City, having again changed roles: Pinky has reverted to her child- like timidity and refers to Millie as her mother, while Millie has assumed Willie's role in running the tavern--even imitating Willie's make-up and attire. A delivery vendor at the tavern refers to Edgar's death from a "gun accident" when talking to Millie, who offers a pat, hollow reply that suggests the three women are complicit in Edgar's murder. Pinky and Millie walk to Willie's rustic house behind the tavern, where the three prepare dinner together under Millie's supervision. 

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The story takes place partly in London and partly in Australia. It is set in 1950. Jennifer Morton, a young girl from Leicester but living in London, witnesses the death of her grandmother, the widow of a retired Indian civil servant. Her pension has ceased and she has literally starved to death, despite apparent prosperity. Before she dies, she leaves Jennifer a small sum of money sent by a niece in Australia, and asks that Jennifer use the money to visit Jane and Jack Dorman who own a prosperous sheep station in Merrijig Victoria. She does so. Jennifer finds herself falling in love with the new, relatively unspoiled country, though she continues to worry about her parents. She also meets Carl Zlinter, a 'New Australian'; a Czech refugee who is working at the nearby lumber camp of a timber company as a condition of his free passage to Australia. A medical doctor qualified to practise in Czechoslovakia, he is not qualified to practise in Australia and only looks after First Aid at the lumber camp. But when an accident badly injures two of the workers and no doctor, nurse or medical facilities are available, he is faced with the choice of either watching the workers die or operating on them; he chooses to operate, and Jennifer assists him. The two operations are successful, but one man later gets drunk and dies. Zlinter is initially in potentially serious trouble over the unlicensed operations and death, but he is cleared of responsibility. Jennifer helps Zlinter to trace the history of a man of the same name who lived and died in the district many years before, during a gold rush, and they find the site of his house. Back in England, Jennifer's mother dies and she is forced to return, but she is now restless and dissatisfied. Zlinter turns up in Leicester; he has found gold dust that the earlier Zlinter earned as a bullock driver and hid beneath a stone. He has used the money from illegally selling the gold to travel to England to ask Jennifer to marry him, and to re-qualify as a medical practitioner. 

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The Keeper of the Crystal – leader of the Maris people – is dying and a messenger brings this news to Rin Rowan of Rin learns that his mother, Jiller, is to choose the new leader from one of the three warring Maris clans. Doss of Pandellis, Asha of Umbray and Seaborn of Fisk are their names. When she falls victim to a strong poison, however, Rowan finds himself in the Chooser's position as well as trying to create the antidote to wake his mother from Death Sleep. Rowan then receives a riddle of how to make an antidote by bonding with the crystal and finding the recipe against the Keeper's will. They then exit the cavern of the keeper to go to the island where Orin the first keeper went to make the antidote. They think that the water will be the answer to the second line, however Doss says that it is too obvious and that it would not be the sea water. Rowan then sights a slight glint in the trees and runs toward it. They discover that it is a pool of clear water. Seaborn is then asked to retrieve the water but once his hand touches the water, clear tubular leeches then get attached to his hand. He screams in pain and gives Rowan the water. Then a bird swoops down towards them, but is actually diving toward to the pool to grab some leeches. The pool then turns silver as the leeches bury themselves under the silver sand. In the centre of the pool is a moon flower and they decide that they will have to grab the flower with their hands since the "tears" that they need is the sap. Rowan then remembers that in Rin they use scarecrows to scare away crows and they construct a bird like kite using Seaborn's cape and sticks. They fly the kite near the pool and Rowan puts his and in the pool and grabs for the moonflower because all the other refuse to do it. The 5th line means a quill from the bird that has not been plucked and exposed to air for a long time. They use Asha's cape which is silver as a mirror to attract the bird. The venom of your greatest fear is the venom from the Great Serpent. They got the venom from the serpent while it was laying its eggs into the pool where Rowan got the moonflower from. Links to Deltora Quest: Maris is the name given by the people of Deltora to an island that lies in the Silver Sea. The island lies to the west of Deltora, and is home to the village of Rin. To the east of Maris lies the dangerous Land of the Zebak. Deltorans call the island "Maris" because for centuries they have traded with the fish-like Maris people who live on the island's east coast in the village of Maris. 

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When a young pregnant woman named Rosie Jones (Emilia Fox) boards a train, her enormous suitcase starts leaking blood. When later questioned by the police about the two dead bodies found inside, Rosie calmly reveals that they are her unfaithful husband and his mistress, resulting in her being sentenced by the judge (Roger Hammond) to be imprisoned in a secure unit for the criminally insane for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Forty three years later, Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson), the vicar of the village of Little Wallop, is very busy writing the perfect sermon for a convention while completely oblivious to the problems in his house which include the unfulfilled emotional/sexual needs of his wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas), who subsequently starts an affair with her golf instructor Lance (Patrick Swayze); the sexual desires and growing maturity of his teenage daughter Holly (Tamsin Egerton), who constantly finds new boyfriends; and his son Petey (Toby Parkes), who is frequently bullied at school. Eventually, everything changes with the arrival of a new housekeeper named Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith). Grace becomes entrenched in the life of the family and begins to learn about the problems in the house: the neighbour, Mr. Brown's Jack Russell terrier Clarence, who consistently keeps Gloria awake at night by his constant annoying barking; the bullying of Petey and Gloria and Lance's affair. Grace commits to solving the problems in her own way by killing Clarence as well as Mr. Brown, sabotaging the brakes on the bullies' bicycles which injures one of them and killing Lance with a flat iron outside the house for videotaping Holly undressing one night. While Walter is preparing his sermon for the conference, Grace introduces him to humour and suggests adding it to his preaching method. Further, she discovers that he has let his relationship with his wife slide on account of his devotion to God and she teaches him that he can love his wife as well as God by drawing his attention to the erotic references in the Song of Solomon. As the problems in the household seem to gradually clear, Walter leaves for his convention. Grace’s actions are discovered when Gloria and Holly see her photograph on television in a news report showing her release and previous offences. It is then revealed that Grace is Gloria's long-lost mother Rosie Jones, explaining why she came to Little Wallop in the first place. After briefly processing the influx of information, Gloria argues and attempts to explain that when having a problem with someone, one cannot just kill them. Grace remarks that this is the one thing she and her doctors could never agree on. Despite their disagreements, Gloria tries to help Grace with Lance's body, but cannot handle it. Over a cup of tea, the three women decide not to tell Walter or Petey any of what has happened. When nagging congregant, Mrs. Parker (Liz Smith) comes over to discuss the problem of the "church flower arranging committee", Grace, under the false (and likely paranoia-induced) impression that Mrs. Parker is about to turn them in for their crimes, attempts to hit her over the head with a frying pan but is prevented by Gloria. Mrs. Parker, shocked by the attempt to murder her, has a heart attack and dies. Walter returns from the convention just then and sees Mrs. Parker's body, but doesn't realise that she is dead. Soon after this, Grace leaves the family when order is seemingly restored among the family. Walter then talks to Bob and Ted, the waterworks employees about the pond at the Vicar's house. They say that there is too much algae and the pond needs to be drained. Remembering that Grace has disposed of her victims in the pond, Gloria, with a disturbingly cheerful expression, offers the two men some tea. The film ends with an underwater shot depicting the bodies that had been placed in the pond, including the recently added bodies of Bob and Ted. 

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Kabir (John Abraham), an unhappy, rather poor, alcoholic lawyer lives a playboy lifestyle in Pondicherry. Kabir's best friends, Siddharth (Vinay Pathak), a policeman and Vishal (Ranvir Shorey), his colleague, try to keep him away from trouble. He meets Sonia Khanna (Bipasha Basu Singh Grover), the beautiful wife of a travelling millionaire, Rohit Khanna (Gulshan Grover). They have a stormy affair and Kabir finds himself falling madly in love with Sonia. He suggests that she get a divorce, but she says that her husband is capable of killing them both. Sonia finally convinces Kabir to murder her husband and make it look like an accident. She also suggests that they should alter Rohit's will so that she inherits all his property. Kabir tries to reason with her, but she goes ahead and alters the will naming him as executor. Rohit's sister, Priyanka, tries to warn him that Sonia is only interested in money and has already killed Rohit's first wife. Siddharth, who is in charge of the case, suspects Kabir and is caught between friendship and duty. Kabir tries to get Sonia to leave the city with him. It is only when she sends someone to kill him that he realises that all she wants is the money. Kabir confronts Sonia and she denies that she ever loved him. When he threatens to turn himself in and confess his crime to the police, she shoots him. He's wounded in the abdomen but manages to stand up. Sonia rushes to him as he stands and tells him that she has always loved him. They share a passionate kiss, and then the gun goes off in Sonia's hands. It is revealed that Kabir had shot Sonia in the stomach as he lays her down on the sofa. He then flees and calls Siddharth and tells him and Vishal to meet him at the beach. They meet Kabir who apologizes to them and says that he just wants to see the sunrise one last time. As they watch the sunrise, Kabir has a vision of Sonia walking towards him. Kabir smiles to himself and then dies of his injury. 

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In Space Rangers, a relatively peaceful interstellar coalition is invaded by a powerful enemy; the organic warships of the Klissans. The player is a Ranger, one of a group of non-military volunteers who are given small ships, free rein and the task of helping to battle, understand and ultimately defeat the menace. 

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SpongeBob (right) performs a beatbox while he and Squidward (left) deliver the pizza on foot in the middle of a desert after losing their boatmobile. During closing time at the Krusty Krab, Squidward answers a last-minute phone call. While he is about to reject the order due to the restaurant being closed, Mr. Krabs accepts it so he can earn more money. Mr. Krabs reveals that the order is for a pizza to be delivered to the customer's house, and Squidward argues that the restaurant does not serve pizza; Mr. Krabs makes a pizza out of Krabby Patties and sends SpongeBob and Squidward to deliver it. Squidward makes SpongeBob drive the delivery boat, despite him still being in boating school. Attempting to drive, SpongeBob sends the boat in reverse and drives them out to the desert, where it runs out of gas. The two continue their delivery on foot when SpongeBob hears a truck approaching. He attempts to get the driver's attention using a "pioneer trick," but is almost run over and rescued by Squidward. Later, they are caught in a tornado, getting sucked in due to SpongeBob's refusal to let go of the customer's pizza. After landing, Squidward is unable to find the road, and SpongeBob uses another one of his pioneer tips to find civilization by observing moss on a rock. Squidward refuses and continues walking, unaware that SpongeBob's tip was correct. As they continue walking, SpongeBob sings a song about the Krusty Krab pizza, annoying Squidward. When the two get hungry, SpongeBob advises Squidward to eat coral like a pioneer. He is disgusted and wants to eat the pizza instead, while SpongeBob insists that the pizza must be delivered to the customer. SpongeBob notices a giant rock while being chased by Squidward for the pizza, glad that they can ride it like the pioneers to the customer's house. Squidward is confused and insists that SpongeBob's pioneer tips are nonsense, while accidentally SpongeBob runs him over with the rock. When they arrive at the house, SpongeBob approaches the customer with the pizza. The customer is happy at first, but is upset that SpongeBob did not bring him a drink that he ordered, shouting at him and slamming the door. SpongeBob sadly approaches Squidward and begins crying. Angry at the customer, Squidward knocks on the door and slams the pizza in his face. He returns to SpongeBob saying that the delivery is completed, as they drive the rock back to the Krusty Krab, which is right across from the customer's house. 

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Where the Heart Is focuses on the personal lives of two district nurses in the small Yorkshire town of Skelthwaite. The official ITV website described the series as "an engaging story of life, love, family and people’s ever-changing fortunes in rural England. Set against the rugged landscape of Yorkshire, it follows the busy professional and family lives of District Nurses, as they bring nursing and emotional care to young and old alike." Initially, it mainly concentrated on the lives of two of the district health nurses, Peggy Snow (Pam Ferris) and Ruth Goddard (Sarah Lancashire). The story expands to focus on the lives of more Skelthwhaite residents, particularly those are related to nurses and working in a local toilet paper factory. 

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Claudine, a fifteen-year-old girl, lives in Montigny, with her father, who is more interested in mollusks than in his daughter. Claudine attends the small village school, which is the primary location of her many adventures, presented as an intimate journal. The journal begins with the new school year, marked by the arrival of the new headmistress, Miss Sergent, and her assistant, Miss Aimée Lanthenay, as well as the boys' instructors, Mr. Duplessis and Mr. Rabastens. Although Claudine begins an affair early on with Miss Lanthenay, Miss Sergent soon discovers the liaison and discourages Miss Lanthenay, ultimately taking her on as her own lover. Claudine feels betrayed and causes trouble for the two women with the help of her friends, cynical Anaïs and childlike Marie Belhomme. Miss Lanthenay's sister Luce arrives at school, and Claudine mistreats her, but Luce idolizes Claudine nonetheless. Some major events of the school year documented in the novel are the final exams, the opening of the new school, and a ball to mark the visit of an important political minister to the town. At the end of the book, everyone is at the ball when Miss Sergent's mother suddenly throws a man's shoe downstairs into the parlor from the living quarters upstairs. Everyone is silent downstairs as the elder Sergent yells at her daughter for disgracing the family by sleeping with the superintendent of the school district. Miss Sergent's attraction to the man had been mentioned earlier by Claudine, who dismissed it when Sergent steals Aimée away from her. Publicly humiliated, Miss Sergent runs off crying while Luce and Claudine laugh. 

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On the air for just thirteen episodes, A Man Called Hawk starred Avery Brooks as the title character, who has relocated from Boston to his hometown, Washington, D.C. The series co-starred actor Moses Gunn, who portrayed a father figure to Hawk known only as "Old Man". 

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Sideshow Bob calls local right-wing talk show host Birch Barlow and complains about being unfairly imprisoned for the attempted murders of Bart Simpson ("Cape Feare") and Selma Bouvier ("Black Widower"). Barlow incites Springfield's residents to pressure Mayor Quimby into releasing Sideshow Bob. After his release, Bob becomes the Republican candidate for the Springfield mayoral election. Despite Bart and Lisa's attempts to prevent Bob's election, he wins in a landslide. Abusing his office, Bob proceeds to make the Simpsons' lives miserable, demoting Bart to kindergarten and trying to demolish their house to build a new Matlock Expressway. Bart and Lisa suspect the election was rigged but are unable to find any proof until Smithers -- who worked for Sideshow Bob's campaign -- tells them to find a voter named Edgar Neubauer. Bart finds the name Edgar Neubauer on a tombstone at the cemetery. When he and Lisa check other names on voting rolls, they notice that most voters for Bob are long dead. Sideshow Bob is put on trial for election fraud. He is tricked into confessing when Bart and Lisa insinuate that he is too stupid to plan and execute such a crime. Bob is found guilty, stripped of his position and sent back to prison. All of his mayoral decisions are nullified and reversed. The Simpsons' house is saved as the Matlock Expressway is put on hold. Bart returns to the 4th grade and Joe Quimby reclaims his job as the Mayor of Springfield. 

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Unlike other Bubble Bobble games, players may create large bubbles that can capture several enemies at once. One day, the twins Bubby and Bobby, intermarried with Bub and Bob, playing together to the tower where they live, are transformed into bubble-blowing dragons by the evil Dark Super Great Dragon that takes possession of the tower. The twins must climb the 80 floors of the tower to take seven colorful potions, free it from his clutches and regain their human forms. 

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In the year 2199, Earth reached its maximum population point, causing humans to venture throughout the Milky Way in search of potential new planets to inhabit. 35,000 light years away from the galaxy, humans had discovered a planet with large floating continents, inhabited by a civilization far more advanced than those on Earth. A large war ensued that lead to the downfall of the natives, as humans began constructing large fortresses and buildings to strengthen their positions. Feeling the humans did not deserve to rule by force, a lone native pilots a caterpillar- treaded tank in an effort to vanquish the humans and bring peace to the planet. 

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Frontispiece illustration Caption: "I was progressing in great leaps and bounds" The narrator is a London businessman named Bedford who withdraws to the countryside to write a novel, by which he hopes to alleviate his financial problems. Bedford rents a small countryside house in Lympne, in Kent, where he wants to work in peace. He is bothered every afternoon, however, at precisely the same time, by a passer-by making odd noises. After two weeks Bedford accosts the man, who proves to be a reclusive physicist named Mr. Cavor. Bedford befriends Cavor when he learns he is developing a new material, cavorite, which can negate the force of gravity. When a sheet of cavorite is prematurely processed, it makes the air above it weightless and shoots off into space. Bedford sees in the commercial production of cavorite a possible source of "wealth enough to work any sort of social revolution we fancied; we might own and order the whole world".The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 1. Cavor hits upon the idea of a spherical spaceship made of "steel, lined with glass", and with sliding "windows or blinds" made of cavorite by which it can be steered, and persuades a reluctant Bedford to undertake a voyage to the Moon; Cavor is certain there is no life there.The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 3. On the way to the Moon, they experience weightlessness, which Bedford finds "exceedingly restful".The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 4. On the surface of the Moon the two men discover a desolate landscape, but as the Sun rises, the thin, frozen atmosphere vaporises and strange plants begin to grow with extraordinary rapidity. Bedford and Cavor leave the capsule, but in romping about get lost in the rapidly growing jungle. They hear for the first time a mysterious booming coming from beneath their feet. They encounter "great beasts", "monsters of mere fatness", that they dub "mooncalves", and five-foot-high "Selenites" tending them. At first they hide and crawl about, but growing hungry partake of some "monstrous coralline growths" of fungus that inebriate them. They wander drunkenly until they encounter a party of six extraterrestrials, who capture them.The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 10. The insectoid lunar natives (referred to as "Selenites", after Selene, the moon goddess) are part of a complex and technologically sophisticated society that lives underground, but this is revealed only in radio communications received from Cavor after Bedford's return to Earth. Bedford and Cavor break out of captivity beneath the surface of the Moon and flee, killing several Selenites. In their flight they discover that gold is common on the Moon. In their attempt to find their way back to the surface and to their sphere, they come upon some Selenites carving up mooncalves but fight their way past. Back on the surface, they split up to search for their spaceship. Bedford finds it but returns to Earth without Cavor, who injured himself in a fall and was recaptured by the Selenites, as Bedford learns from a hastily scribbled note he left behind. Chapter 20, "Mr. Bedford in Infinite Space", plays no role in the plot but is a remarkable set piece in which the narrator describes experiencing a quasi- mystical "pervading doubt of my own identity. . . the doubts within me could still argue: 'It is not you that is reading, it is Bedford—but you are not Bedford, you know. That's just where the mistake comes in.' 'Counfound it!' I cried, 'and if I am not Bedford, what am I? But in that direction no light was forthcoming, though the strangest fancies came drifting into my brain, queer remote suspicions like shadow seem from far away... Do you know I had an idea that really I was something quite outside not only the world, but all worlds, and out of space and time, and that this poor Bedford was just a peephole through which I looked at life..."The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 19. The unnamed narrator of The War of the Worlds experiences a similar sense of self- alienation. By good fortune, the narrator lands in the sea off the coast of Britain, near the seaside town of Littlestone, not far from his point of departure. His fortune is made by some gold he brings back, but he loses the sphere when a curious boy named Tommy Simmons climbs into the unattended sphere and shoots off into space. Bedford writes and publishes his story in The Strand Magazine, then learns that "Mr. Julius Wendigee, a Dutch electrician, who has been experimenting with certain apparatus akin to the apparatus used by Mr. Tesla in America", has picked up fragments of radio communications from Cavor sent from inside the Moon. During a period of relative freedom Cavor has taught two Selenites English and learned much about lunar society. Cavor's account explains that Selenites exist in thousands of forms and find fulfilment in carrying out the specific social function for which they have been brought up: specialisation is the essence of Selenite society. "With knowledge the Selenites grew and changed; mankind stored their knowledge about them and remained brutes—equipped," remarks the Grand Lunar, when he finally meets Cavor and hears about life on Earth.The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 24. Unfortunately, Cavor reveals humanity's propensity for war; the lunar leader and those listening to the interview are "stricken with amazement". Bedford infers that it is for this reason that Cavor has been prevented from further broadcasting to Earth. Cavor's transmissions are cut off as he is trying to describe how to make cavorite. His final fate is unknown, but Bedford is sure that "we shall never… receive another message from the moon".The First Men in the Moon, Ch. 25. 

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When night falls at the supermarket Marketropolis, the store products' mascots ("Ikes") come to life and interact with each other. Heroic cereal mascot Dex Dogtective is about to propose to his girlfriend Sunshine Goodness, a raisin mascot, but she goes missing just before he is able to do so. Six months later, a Brand X representative called "Mr. Clipboard" arrives at Marketropolis and aggressively pushes Brand X's range of generic products to Leonard, the store's manager. In the world of the Ikes, the arrival of Lady X, the seductive Brand X detergent Ike, causes a commotion at Dex's club, the Copabanana. Brand X products begin to replace previous products, which is mirrored in the Ikes' world with the deaths of several Ikes. After Dex's friend Daredevil Dan, a chocolate squirrel, disappears, Dex begins to investigate. After rebuffing Lady X's attempts to bring him to Brand X's side, Dex is locked in a dryer with Dan to be melted, but the two manage to escape. Dan and Dex find out that Brand X contains an addictive and toxic secret ingredient. Dex and Dan attempt to initiate a product recall with Leonard's computer. A Brand X Ike cuts power just as they send the message. Dex then rallies the citizens of Marketropolis to fight the armies of Brand X in a massive food fight. The citizens win the battle by using the supermarket's electricity. Dex rescues Sunshine, who had been held hostage in the Brand X tower, and escapes with the help of Dan. Mr. Clipboard then enters the Ikes' world, but he is taken down by Dex, discovering that he is a robot controlled by Lady X. Lady X reveals that she had previously been the hideous Ike of an unsuccessful brand of prunes, and had been stealing Sunshine's essence to create a new brand. Dex and Sunshine defeat her, reverting her to her original form. With Brand X defeated and a cure found that revives the killed Ikes, Dex and Sunshine finally get married. 

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The story involves a money- obsessed dragon hunter named Seur Chong, who, with the aid of shamans, tries to follow in the footsteps of Andrew Yi, the greatest dragon hunter of all time. Seur Chong, however, is afflicted with the Dragon's Curse, and he must slay a blue dragon in order to survive. 

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Alex Hammond is an 11-year- old boy living in Los Angeles, California. His father Clem Hammond is a carpenter who has been struggling to find a job ever since the Great Depression hit the US. Alex's parents are separated and he is very close with his father. However, Clem does not have the resources to support Alex. As a result, he attempts to have outside intervention in supporting Alex such as enrolling him into military school and placing him into foster homes. Alex has run away from all of these places and exhibits temper tantrums because he does not want to be away from his father. His bursts of rage cause authorities and fellow inmates in various institutions to believe that he is crazy, specifically displaying the early traits of psychopathy, such as what is deemed to be "criminal versatility". The story starts out in 1943, with Alex, Clem, and a social worker going from LA to the Valley Home For Boys in San Fernando Valley where Alex will live. However, he meets up with trouble there because one of his roommates Sammy decides to shoplift from a store. Even though Alex does not steal anything, the housemother Thelma Cavendish decides to punish him. This unfair act in the eyes of Alex causes him to attack her and he rips her dress. He decides to run away with Sammy. They decide to burglarize a shop during the night, but the owners investigate as the boys are inside. Alex shoots one of the owners with a pistol that he had found when they broke in. Alex runs away, but he gets caught very soon. The police beat him and humiliate him. He finds out that his father died in a tragic accident while attempting to find him. Alex goes to Juvenile Hall. There, he first sees the brutal violence that is so typical of a prison and other institutions. He quickly learns about the usefulness of such violence and how it can protect him from various injustices. It is also here that he learns about racial identity and racism. His love for reading and his high intelligence sets him apart from the other juvenile delinquents. He is sent to Camarillo, a state mental institution to determine whether or not he is insane. There, he meets First Choice Floyd and Red Barzo who are two black heroin addicts. They teach him how to play poker and how to box. He also starts to masturbate. Eventually, Alex meets an older teen called Scabs. They regularly sneak out of the institution. One day, Scabs teaches Alex how to hot-wire a car, and they leave. Alex is not able to go back to the institution so he decides to stay in the city. It is not long before the authorities find him and they send him to Pacific Colony. Alex regards the new institution as a lot worse than Camarillo. One night, one of the members of the staff nicknamed “The Jabber” beats Alex for a minor infraction that he did not commit. He fights back in self-defense, and hurts the Jabber. He gets into trouble again and gets sent back to Juvenile Hall before going to another juvenile institution at Whittier. He gets into one more fight. At Whittier, Alex gets into more conflicts and he fights so that no one would regard him as a “punk.” (In other words, an inmate who gets sodomized) He finally decides to escape with a friend named Joe Altabella (also credited as "JoJo"). They escape successfully, to where they hide out with the rest of JoJo's family (primarily Italian-Americans), and Alex meets JoJo’s sister Teresa as well as their younger sister Lisa, the latter of whom seems to hold most affection for Alex over time. At this point in the novel, Alex is 13 and he starts to have sexual feelings for her as well as other girls. Soon, Alex meets Teresa’s 17-year-old boyfriend Wedo and the two boys begin to like each other. However, JoJo and Alex eventually get caught, both at separate instances. This time, Alex gets sent to Preston, an even stricter institution. At Preston, an older boy, Kennedy, cons Alex out of his shoes. Out of great anger, Alex unscrews a fire hose nozzle and attacks him with it, almost killing him. Alex is unrepentant in the face of authorities. One of them wants to send Alex to San Quentin State Prison, but he is too young at the age of 13 so he is put into solitary confinement. He actually prefers this because he can be away from the violence and he can read in peace. Eventually, he serves his time and gets released into the custody of his aunt and her husband. Alex finds them to be quite hospitable and he helps them by working at their cafe. However, after having walked out one day, this superficially placid exterior is shattered by the unjustly great indignance towards his lengthy absence from both relatives, his uncle threatening to attack him. Recalling prior attacks upon him ala "The Jabber", Alex threatens to kill them if they dare to attack him. He runs away and finds Wedo again. The older teen has become a heroin addict and must commit robbery in order to support his drug habit. The two youths begin to rob drugstores, taking the money and selling the drugs. One night, they attempt to rob a store, but the owners shoot Wedo with a shotgun. Alex gets hit, in a literary reprise of the event that brought him into the prison system to begin with, and he gives up. The novel ends with him drifting into unconsciousness, surrounded by the police as he is about to be taken to a hospital. 

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The story takes place in Mumbai city, which is evident from the title. Rahul, who is eager to move up the ranks in his call center job, lends his apartment to people connected to his boss, Ranjit, for bringing their girlfriends and affair interests in turn for recommendation. He silently loves Neha, his colleague, who has risen up in the ranks easily due to her relationship with Ranjit. Ranjit is very unhappy with his marriage with his wife Shikha (he has an eight-year old daughter), so he started an illegitimate relationship with Neha. The only problem is that he doesn't have any place to take her to. When he hears about what Rahul does, he calls him to his office and says that he will expose what Rahul does in his apartment unless he lends it to him. Rahul agrees and Ranjit promotes him. Unfortunately, he does not know that Ranjit's affair interest is Neha. Shikha, who often meets her aunt in her Bharatnatyam classes, reads out a letter from The United States for her aunt. She learns through the letter that her aunt, Shivani, had loved a man named Amol forty years ago, but he left her to pursue his dreams in the US. Now Amol and Shivani, who are both in their seventies, are counting their last days. Amol conveys through the letter that he is probably coming to India for the last time and wishes to meet Shivani and spend his last days with her. Shivani agrees. Shikha's sister, Shruti, is twenty-seven and very eager to get married and meets many prospective grooms. Among one of them is Monty, who Shruti finds very weird and old. Shruti is also Neha's roommate and Neha often indirectly conveys her guilty feelings of starting an affair with Ranjit, which Shruti does not understand. Shikha accompanies her aunt to the railway station where Shivani is asked by Amol to meet her. While Shikha is away to buy magazines, Shivani sees Amol in the opposite platform. Instead of coming through the walk path, he gets down onto the tracks and crosses them to the other platform to meet her. This is watched by Shikha, who feels happy seeing the scene. One day, Shikha meets Akash, an unsuccessful theatre artist and a divorcee at a bus stop. He practices drama with his friends in the floor above Shivani's Bharatnatyam classes. They start off as friends, but slowly start getting close and visit places non-romantically. Shruti has a crush on her boss, who often tries to set her up with men for her to go out with, but the idea fails. One day, Shruti visits her boss's home to convey her feelings, but is shocked when she discovers her boss in bed with another man, showing that he is gay. Shruti immediately quits her job and enrolls in a new company. There, she discovers that Monty also works there. Monty helps her get the job with his relations with his boss and they become friends. Monty also conveys that his mother has found an ideal bride for him, and asks Shruti's help with the wedding shopping. After the wedding shopping, they sit on a seashore and drink and smoke. When Shruti confronts him, he says that he will quit if his wife wants him to after marriage and respect whatever his wife says. Shruti, moved by this statement, slowly starts falling for Monty. During one of Ranjit and Neha's trips in Rahul's house, Neha forgets her phone. Rahul finds it in his house and gives it to Ranjit, who in turn asks someone to give it to Neha. Rahul, who witnesses this, realizes that Ranjit's girlfriend is Neha and gets heartbroken. Amol and Shivani, who have rekindled their love, attempt to get Shivani out of the old-age home. But the youngster who manages the old-age home insults Amol and Shivani, giving them a heartbreak. During another trip in Rahul's house, Neha asks Ranjit about their future, at which point Ranjit says that they are doing it only for pleasure, and says that Neha has used him for promotions. When Neha retaliates by saying that she was the one being used, Ranjit insults her and says that she hasn't only asked him for money, which he throws on Neha. Neha, upset, attempts suicide by drinking phenyl. Rahul, who is upset, brings home a prostitute. When he enters the bathroom to fetch a condom, he finds Neha who has attempted suicide. He immediately drives out the prostitute and calls his neighbour who is a doctor; they are able to save Neha by making her vomit and admit her in a hospital. Rahul calls up Ranjit, who has left for Bangalore due to an urgent business, who tells him to take care of Neha for a few days. Shruti realizes that Neha hasn't come home. One night, Amol visits Shivani, who asks him to spend the night with him, which he does. In the morning, Shivani wakes up and experiences some pains, at which point Amol calls for an ambulance. Realizing that she is going to die, Shivani says that her last wish is to die in Amol's arms, which she does. Amol is gravely disturbed and depressed. He pressures the topic of love to Shikha and Shruti and regrets leaving Shivani forty years ago. Rahul, meanwhile, starts taking care of the recovering Neha and they form a special bond. One day, Rahul takes her to the outskirts of the city to an unfinished house. Rahul explains to Neha that his father's dream was to build a good house or a restaurant, and he had invested everything into this house. But he didn't have enough money to complete the ceiling and a few parts of the house. Now, Rahul is determined to fulfill his father's dream. This moves Neha. Shruti manages to track down Neha in Rahul's house. Realizing that she has attempted suicide, Shruti misunderstands the situation and scolds Rahul and slaps him, which Neha watches with confusion. While calling for a cab outside the apartment, she sees Ranjit (who has returned) approaching Neha and inquiring her, which makes Shruti realize that Ranjit was having an affair with Neha and not Rahul and that Ranjit was the reason. Meanwhile, Shikha visits Akash in his home, where they get physically close. Just before they get even more intimate, Shikha realizes her boundaries and leaves Akash's home. She comes home crying. Ranjit, who has arrived at home, sees Shikha crying and misunderstands that Shruti has told about Ranjit's affair. Ranjit then confesses himself. After confessing, Shikha says that Shruti never told her anything and confesses her friendship and closeness with Akash. Ranjit, enraged, decides to move in with Neha. Monty announces his wedding date to Shruti, who has fallen for him. Rahul, upset with the way the city has treated him, decides to leave Mumbai by train. On the day of Monty's wedding, Rahul decides to leave, Ranjit decides to move in with Neha, and Akash sends Shikha her handbag which she left in Akash's house. He also sends her a letter that says that he is ready to accept her the way she is: a housewife, or as a modern girl. He also writes that he has been offered a job in Dubai and he is ready to leave for the airport by train and she must come with him. While traveling with Ranjit, Neha realizes that she loves Rahul and starts chasing his taxi to the railway station. Shruti decides to convey her feelings to Monty and does right before he ties the knot. Monty gives a jibe, saying: 'What? You're too late. The size of the clothes won't match you!' Angry she leaves. Monty also realizes that he loves Shruti and chases her taxi to the same railway station in the wedding horse. Shikha dresses up and goes to the railway station. In the railway station, Monty chases Shruti, Neha chases Rahul, and Shikha searches for Akash. While searching for Shruti, Monty bumps into Rahul, which causes Rahul's suitcase to break open. While putting back the clothes into his suitcase, Neha also arrives and romantically helps Rahul with his clothes, hinting that Rahul is not going to leave Mumbai. Monty finally finds Shruti in a ladies compartment and enters it. They realize their love for each other and hug, causing all the ladies around to break into a huge applause. Shikha finds Akash, but tells him that she is not going to come with him and wishes him the best for his job in Dubai And leaves. The movie ends with Rahul and Neha eating dinner with his parents, Shikha and Ranjit in a happier marriage, Shruti and Monty, who have married, waiting in a traffic signal with their three-year old child and Akash still roaming the streets of Mumbai. Amol remembers Shivani and is seen sitting on the same bench in the railway station Shivani sat when he met her. In the station, he sees a young man crossing the tracks like Amol did and uniting with his girlfriend. This makes Amol smile and he moves on. The movie ends Pritam Chakraborty performing a song. 

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Homer Wells, an orphan, grows up in a Maine orphanage directed by kindly, avuncular Dr. Wilbur Larch. Homer is returned twice by foster parents; his first foster parents thought he was too quiet and the second parents beat him. Dr. Larch is addicted to ether and also secretly performs abortions for women. Conditions at the orphanage are spartan, but the children are treated with love and respect, and they are like an extended family. Each night before they go to sleep, Dr. Larch says to the boys, "Goodnight you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England", as both encouragement and a kind of blessing. Homer, the oldest among the orphans, is very bright, helpful and even-tempered, so Larch trains him in obstetrics and abortions as an apprentice, despite Homer's never having attended high school. Homer disapproves of abortions, and, although he has been trained by Larch in the field, he refuses to perform them. After several years, Homer is very skillful and confident in performing obstetrical duties. Larch wants him to take over his position after he retires, but Homer finds this idea impossible, because he lacks formal medical education and wants to see more of the world than just the orphanage. Homer leaves the orphanage with Candy Kendall and her boyfriend, Wally Worthington, a young couple who came to the clinic to have an abortion. Wally is a pilot on leave from the service. Wally's mother, Olive, owns the Worthington family apple orchard where Homer settles in as a worker. Homer lives on the Worthington estate in a bunkhouse called the Cider House. Wally leaves to fight in World War II. Homer is exempt from military service because Dr. Larch has diagnosed that he has a heart condition. While Wally is away, Homer and Candy have an affair. He goes to work picking apples with Arthur Rose's team. Arthur and his team are migrant workers who are employed seasonally at the orchard by the Worthingtons, but are illiterate. When Homer reads them the rules of the Cider House that have been posted, the workers observe that the rules have been made without the occupants' consent by people who do not live there and so do not face their problems. Consequently, they feel that they can ignore these rules. Homer and Candy become much closer during this period of harvest and spend more time together while Wally is in Burma fighting. After Arthur and his team come back to work at the orchard the following season, it comes to light that he has raped and impregnated his own daughter, Rose. Rose confides in Homer after he finds out himself that she is pregnant and experiencing morning sickness. Homer decides that he must help Rose, and agrees to perform an abortion, with Arthur's assistance. A few days later, when Rose tries to run away, her father notices and goes to say goodbye; Rose stabs him and flees. Arthur then makes his own injury worse, and as a last request, asks Homer and another worker to tell the police that his death was a suicide. Wally returns from Burma a paraplegic, and although she loves Homer, Candy decides to go where she is most needed. Immediately following this decision, Homer learns that Dr. Larch has succumbed to (what he is told was) an accidental ether overdose. Eventually, Homer decides he too should go where he is most needed and returns to the orphanage, where he is greeted joyously by both the children and staff. Homer learns that Larch faked his diagnosis and medical record to keep him out of the war. Larch fabricated college credentials for Homer and used reverse psychology to convince the orphanage board to appoint Homer as the next director. Homer fills the paternal role that Larch previously held for the children of the orphanage, saying, "Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England". 

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Scarlett and Rhett at the charity dance In 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, Scarlett O'Hara lives at Tara, her family's cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents and two sisters and their many slaves. Scarlett learns that Ashley Wilkes, whom she secretly loves, is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and the engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks. At the Twelve Oaks party, Scarlett makes an advance on Ashley but is rebuffed; instead she catches the attention of another guest, Rhett Butler. The barbecue is disrupted by news of the declaration of war, and the men rush to enlist. In a bid to arouse jealousy in Ashley, Scarlett marries Melanie's younger brother Charles before he leaves to fight. Following Charles's death while serving in the Confederate States Army, Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta, where she creates a scene by attending a charity bazaar in her mourning attire and waltzing with Rhett, now a blockade runner for the Confederacy. The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. Eight months later, as the city is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie gives birth with Scarlett's aid, and Rhett helps them flee the city. Once out of the city, Rhett chooses to go off to fight, leaving Scarlett to make her own way back to Tara. Upon her return home, Scarlett finds Tara deserted, except for her father, her sisters, and two former slaves: Mammy and Pork. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever and her father has become senile. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself. As the O'Haras work in the cotton fields, Scarlett's father attempts to chase away a carpetbagger from his land, but is thrown from his horse and killed. With the defeat of the Confederacy, Ashley also returns, but finds he is of little help at Tara. When Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. Unable to pay the Reconstructionist taxes imposed on Tara, Scarlett dupes her younger sister Suellen's fiancé, the middle-aged and wealthy general store owner Frank Kennedy, into marrying her, by saying Suellen got tired of waiting and married another suitor. Frank, Ashley, Rhett and several other accomplices make a night raid on a shanty town after Scarlett is attacked while driving through it alone, resulting in Frank's death. With Frank's funeral barely over, Rhett proposes to Scarlett and she accepts. Rhett and Scarlett have a daughter whom Rhett names Bonnie Blue, but Scarlett, still pining for Ashley and chagrined at the perceived ruin of her figure, lets Rhett know that she wants no more children and that they will no longer share a bed. One day at Frank's mill, Scarlett and Ashley are seen embracing by Ashley's sister, India, and harboring an intense dislike of Scarlett she eagerly spreads rumors. Later that evening, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett to attend a birthday party for Ashley. Incapable of believing anything bad of her, Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false. After returning home from the party, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk, and they argue about Ashley. Rhett kisses Scarlett against her will, stating his intent to have sex with her that night, and carries the struggling Scarlett to the bedroom. The next day, Rhett apologizes for his behavior and offers Scarlett a divorce, which she rejects, saying that it would be a disgrace. When Rhett returns from an extended trip to London, Scarlett informs him that she is pregnant, but an argument ensues which results in her falling down a flight of stairs and suffering a miscarriage. As she is recovering, tragedy strikes when Bonnie dies while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Scarlett and Rhett visit Melanie, who has suffered complications arising from a new pregnancy, on her deathbed. As Scarlett consoles Ashley, Rhett prepares to leave Atlanta. Having realized that it was him she truly loved all along, and not Ashley, Scarlett pleads with Rhett to stay, but Rhett rebuffs her and walks away into the morning fog, leaving her in tears on the staircase. A distraught Scarlett resolves to return home to Tara, believing that one day she will get Rhett back. 

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Arav (Bobby Deol) is an ambitious young Indian whose dream is to design cars. He travels to the United States seeking greener pastures, where he meets the beautiful Anna (Bipasha Basu), a firm believer in destiny. Anna instantly goes head over heels for Arav, but Arav remains focused on his career. Over time, he mellows and the two fall in love. Moreover, Arav's ambitions go on the upswing as the chairman of a major auto company in the U.S. (Shakti Kapoor) gives him a job as a designer. Coincidentally, the chairman happens to be Anna's grandfather, and after he finds out about Arav and Anna's relationship he happily announces the impending nuptials of Arav and Anna. Arav, who wants to marry Anna, realizes that he has some matters to tend to back in India. He tells Anna he has to go back to India to tend to his sickly father, but actually returns there intent on securing a divorce from his childhood sweetheart-turned-wife, Kajal (Priyanka Chopra), whom he hadn't seen for three years. Arav had been forced by his parents to marry Kajal but had left for the United States on their wedding night. They never consummated their marriage. After finding out about Arav's plans, Kajal tries her level best to somehow win him back. She yields however when Arav tells her he is in love with another woman and doesn't love her. After having Kajal sign the divorce papers Arav submits them to his lawyer. Kajal, who had been living with Arav's parents, moves out of their house. Feeling guilty, Arav, who had previously been avoiding Kajal, spends some time with her. He tries to help her out financially, but finds out that Kajal has started a thriving export company for locally made sari's. She’s also learnt to fluently speak English. Arav realises that there is more to Kajal than he thought. The two spend the day reliving various childhood memories and Arav starts feeling attraction towards her again. Meanwhile, Anna arrives in India. Her grandfather had decided that, since Arav was already in India, their marriage should also take place there. Arav tells Anna about Kajal. She quickly forgives him and he introduces her to Kajal. Anna privately asks Kajal if she feels that Anna stole Arav away from her. Kajal tells Anna not to worry and that Arav never really loved her, their marriage was just an agreement between two families. Anna is impressed by Kajal’s independence and the two become friends. Kajal decides that she will attend Arav's wedding in order to give her love a proper "funeral". Kajal asks Anna to wear her old wedding jewellery and helps her get dressed but Kajal flees the wedding premises shorty after the wedding rituals begin, unable to bear the sight of Arav marrying someone else. However, Arav's lawyer interrupts the wedding and informs Arav that he is not divorced yet because he forgot to sign the divorce papers himself. If Arav signs the papers right there, his divorce will be final and he'll finally be able to marry Anna. However, Arav finds himself unable to sign the papers, realising that he does love Kajal. It suddenly starts raining. Anna senses that Arav loves Kajal and after meeting Kajal earlier knows that Kajal also still loves Arav. She tells Arav that the rain is a sign that he should not get a divorce and reasons that, had he not met Anna, Arav never would have realised that he loved Kajal. Anna tells him to go back to Kajal. Anna's grandfather treatens to ruin Arav's career, but Anna tells him that he shouldn't do that and that she knows Arav loves her, but that "he just loves Kajal a little more". According to her, Arav's destiny is to be with Kajal. Arav finds Kajal in the place where they used to play when they were kids and tells her that he loved her the whole time. He just didn't realise it. They kiss and get back together. Anna happily watches them and leaves to return to the United States. 

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The movie begins with Willy at home sick and is pretending to be a hunter. Using his imagination to see his cat, Sissy, as the tiger, he torments the cat with his water gun. He then decides to shoot a BB Gun at a flock of sparrows outside at the local park, stunning them away, but angers an elderly lady who in reality is the Sparrow Guardian, who magically enters Willy's apartment unnoticed. She then transforms Willy into a sparrow in hopes of teaching him a lesson of respecting all living things. However, she didn't have enough spray to make Willy have the ability to fly, rendering him defenseless. The Sparrow Guardian quickly leaves to refill her magic hair spray. While Willy was making himself comfortable in his sparrow form, Sissy appears and sees Willy as lunch instead of her master. Not used to walking like a sparrow, Willy was nearly eaten by his own cat, but was saved and placed outside by his little sister, Tonya. He soon meets two sparrows, Red and TJ, who discovers Willy's inability to fly and then calls help on an elder sparrow named Cipur to help Willy learn to fly. The three sparrows then carries the flightless Willy to safety, escaping an incoming attack from a persistent, hungry Sissy. Meanwhile, the Sparrow Guardian is looking for Willy. Sissy is also looking for him. In an attic where Cipur's nest was in, Cipur tells Willy that he wanted to read and write like a human because he was fascinated by their knowledge and technology, but he keeps this as a secret in fear of being shunned by the other sparrows. He makes a deal with Willy that if he teaches the young sparrow how to fly, Willy will teach Cipur how to read. As the flying lesson was underway, Sissy finds Willy and Cipur and attacks. Before she could eat Willy, Cipur intervenes and lures an angry Sissy atop the roof where he trapped her head under the weight of a ceiling hatch. Under Cipur's care, Willy is taught how to fly, and in return, Willy teaches Cipur how to read and write. One day, when Cipur went to find some food, Willy decides to venture out in the open to explore the outside world after learning how to fly properly. He flies back to the park and joins a flock of young sparrow, led by Red. They decided to show Willy the barn they used to hang out, until it was taken over by a big, black cat named Blackie. The flock of sparrows, including Willy, flew across the city to the barn where they used to live, unaware that they were being trailed by a dog and Sissy who was following them to the barn. Once in the barn, Willy catches sight of a mouse waking up Blackie, and alerts him about the sparrows in the barn. Blackie attacks the sparrows, and nearly eats one of the sparrows named Amy. Not abandoning his new friend, Willy drops a light bulb on Blackie's head, distracting him long enough for Amy to escape unharmed. Willy then escapes the barn, and Sissy appears and becomes acquainted with Blackie since they both share a taste for sparrows, and want to eat Willy. Meanwhile, Willy flies his way back to his apartment and writes a note to his worried family that he is okay and that he'll return soon, before flying back to Cipur's nest. After Willy was writing his note to his worried family, he flies back to Cipur's nest only to see the elder sparrow angry at him for not telling about an item called 'The Elixir of Knowledge'. Willy was confused and didn't know about this 'elixir', but was driven away by Cipur who angrily tells him to go away, he decides to fly away from his nest. Willy follows the elder sparrow, and finds out that he has been drinking liquor along with two rats who had convinced the old bird that the liquor will give him knowledge. However, it only made Cipur intoxicated and made him feel worse. Willy quickly carries Cipur back to safety, but the old sparrow was still angry with him for leaving him. Willy sadly leaves and he sees Amy flying to him. So, Willy flies to Amy and discovers through her that Red is angry at Willy because he believes Willy is the one who woke up Blackie. So Willy follows Amy into an indoor roof nest where they will be safe from a storm. The next day, Willy and Amy were flying back to the park to find their friends, who were all waiting for them, only to see Red feeling angry at Willy. Willy supposed to lose two feathers as punishment. When Willy refuses to take punishment, Red angrily fights Willy to make him submit, but Willy, still used to fighting as a human boy, easily beats Red and is promoted leader of the flock. The Sparrow Guardian and Sissy finds Willy, but Willy doesn't want to turn back into a boy yet until he helps his new friends. Willy then leads the flock back to the barn, with the Sparrow Guardian and Sissy trailing after them. Under Willy's leadership, the sparrows silenced the mouse who was working with Blackie by tying him up, and finally tied up a sleeping Blackie in a sneak attack. They began eating the grain, but Sissy arrives at the barn way ahead of the Sparrow Guardian and releases Blackie. The two cats then team up, with Blackie fighting and knocking the sparrows unconscious, and Sissy catching and placing them on a sheet to prepare to eat the sparrows, eventually leaving only Willy to fight Blackie. When all seemed lost for Willy, Cipur arrives and assists the young sparrow into fighting against Blackie, but the black cat overpowers the two and prepares to finish them off. The Sparrow Guardian saves Willy and Cipur by repeatedly hitting Blackie with a broom, driving the black cat away from the barn for good. The Sparrow Guardian is prepared to turn Willy back into a boy, so he can return to his home where his family is worried about him. However, Willy refuses to be turned back into a human boy, and would rather stay a sparrow if Cipur isn't turned into a human too. Willy is then granted to be the Sparrow Guardian. With little hesitation, Willy accepts. The Sparrow Guardian then uses her magic spray to turn both Willy and Cipur into humans. Cipur, who now wants to learn more about the human world, is joined by the retired Sparrow Guardian for something to eat and leaves the barn together. The film ends with Willy, along with the reconciled Sissy, making their way back home, followed by the flock of young sparrows. 

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Kyle Dunamis, the adventurous son of Stahn and Rutee, lives at an orphanage run by Rutee. With the orphanage on the brink of bankruptcy, Kyle defies his mother to go on a quest to search for funds, together with his best friend Loni. Finding a giant Lens, a mysterious girl named Reala emerges from it, claiming to be in search of a hero. Believing that he should become a hero like his parents, he follows Reala so he can prove himself as such. Finding the Lens missing, officials from the Order of Atamoni arrest Kyle and Lori for its theft. They escape with the help of the masked swordsman Judas. After this, Kyle becomes embroiled in the attempts by a man named Barbatos Goetia to kill those who accompanied his parents, eventually learning that Barbatos also killed Stahn when Kyle was five. During his quest, a series of Lens thefts is orchestrated by Elrane, the Holy Woman of the Order of Atamoni who is capable of performing miracles using Lens and seeks to bring happiness to the world through uniting it under a single religion. During a great theft of Lens, Elrane attacks the group directly, sending them ten years into the future. In this period, the world is beset by conflict between the Order of Atamoni and factions wanting independence from its control. During their travels there, they are joined by Nanaly Fletch. While in this time period, Reala becomes conflicted about who she is, and the group encounters a figure known as the Goddess Fortuna. During this encounter, it is revealed that Elrane and Reala are avatars of Fortuna, designed to save the world and bring happiness to humanity in different ways. Due to her unstable emotions, Reala accidentally transports Nanaly into their time. Feeling guilty because of this, Reala confronts Elrane alone and is captured. Traveling to the ship where the stolen Lens is stored, the group confront Barbatos and Elrane, successfully defeating them and saving Reala. During this confrontation, they learn that "Judas" is in fact the resurrected Leon, who was brought back to life by Elrane just as Barbatos was, but rebelled against her when he knew her full plan. However, their efforts result in the destruction of the ship, and Reala uses the energy of the Lens to send them through time again. They appear in an alternate timeline where the War of Heaven and Earth was won by the underground dwellers, and Barbatos and Elrane are hailed as saviors. Traveling back to the time of the War, when the initial interference was caused, they ally with Harold Belselius to return history to its proper state. While they are successful and Barbatos is felled, Elrane continues to distort history in her favor. Confronting her one last time, she is defeated, then they are confronted by Fortuna. Defeating her, the group realize that the only way to correct the distorted timeline is to destroy the Lens that forms Fortuna's life source, which will mean Reala will be erased from history. When Reala comes to terms with this and gives her blessing, Kyle destroys Fortuna's Lens, which erases all the changes wrought by her agents and returns the timeline to its original state, sending everyone back to their original times and conditions. In the corrected timeline, Kyle, now raised and trained by both Stahn and Rutee, goes on a journey to the temple where he first met Reala. While her Lens is missing, Kyle's strong will succeeds in bringing Reala back into existence and restoring his memories of her. 

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Set in the Stone Age, Ishbo is the younger son of Mookoo, the leader of a tribe of cavemen. Ishbo is smarter than most of his tribesmen, but awkward and nerdy, living in the shadow of his much more physically impressive brother Thudnik. He hopes to use his superior intellect to become an inventor and raise his tribe above simple sticks and stones, but due to a combination of the flimsy materials available to him and the lack of support from his tribe they always fail. Ishbo also has had a lifelong crush on his childhood friend, Fardart. Much to his dismay, immediately after he finally expresses his love to her she is "clubbed" by Thudnik (and all that follows in the tradition of caveman stereotypes), and eventually married to him. Ishbo himself has never clubbed a woman, having his heart set on Fardart his whole life. After Fardart is betrothed to Thudnik, Ishbo begins to believe that he will never club a woman. He at first is too attached to her to consider clubbing another woman, and is further discouraged after a particularly ill-fated attempt at clubbing. Ishbo becomes quite depressed, a feeling which is escalated by his failure to prove useful on a mammoth hunt. He falls into a large pile of mammoth dung, then is eaten by the mammoth, and eventually excreted (or extracted – the scene itself appears as a series of animated cave drawings) from the mammoth when it is finally killed by the rest of the tribesmen. During an attempt on Mookoo's life, it is revealed that their rival tribe, the Binadraks, are planning on attacking them shortly. They train for battle but are bested by their enemies, who kill Mookoo and carry off Fardart, who disguised herself as a man to take part in the fight. Thudnik orders a retreat and they return to their home cave, which they decide to abandon in favour of finding a new home. Unable to convince the rest of the tribe to stay and fight, Ishbo decides to set out to avenge his father and rescue Fardart on his own. Thudnik declares him an enemy and swears to kill him if he sees him again. On the way he gets lost, sees a vision of his father, and stumbles upon a tribe of Amazon cavewomen, who first plan to kill him but are then impressed by his stance against clubbing of women. His reward is freedom, but only if he agrees to impregnate all the Amazons, starting with their Queen. He is at first eager to do so, however he is unable to perform the task as his heart still belongs to Fardart. Offended that he has turned down a "gift" which many men have died trying to achieve, they chase him from their lands with spears. Eventually he reaches the cave of the Binadrak tribe and spots Fardart. Surprisingly, she does not wish to be rescued, as her captors have supplied her with fine furs, plentiful food, and an attractive bone necklace. The tribe then rises up and chases after him, whereupon they meet the Amazon tribe and eventually his own tribe, who both join in the chase. The three groups together eventually chase him off the edge of a cliff, where he delivers a thoughtful monologue to the audience before reaching the ground, and his death. The final scene is in a modern museum, where a group of school children are being given a guided tour. The guide reaches their caveman exhibit, featuring a life-sized "model" of Ishbo, where she explains how with fossils, they have been able to reconstruct the prehistoric cave man and discover how he looked in his life: in her words, "short and fat". However after she leaves Ishbo addresses the audience again, for the last time. 

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Rafi is a recently divorced, 37-year-old career woman from Manhattan who becomes romantically involved with David, a talented 23-year-old painter from the Upper West Side. Rafi shares all her secrets with her therapist Lisa who, unbeknownst to Rafi, is David's mother. Lisa is supportive of Rafi's relationship with a younger man before she learns who he is, discovers the connection and finds herself not only faced with the ethical and moral dilemma of counselling David's girlfriend, but also the reality that she feels differently about the relationship now that she knows her son is involved. Lisa consults her own therapist, and they decide that it is in the best interest of her patient Rafi for Lisa to continue treatment, as long as the relationship remains the "fling" it appears to be. However, Lisa soon realizes that the relationship is serious, and tells Rafi that she is David's mother. Feeling embarrassed and betrayed, Rafi ends her treatment with Lisa. Their differences causing problems between them, Rafi and David break up. A couple of weeks later, David is enjoying a night on the town with his best friend Morris; David gets drunk and ends up sleeping with Sue, Rafi's friend from work. The same day, after bumping into each other at the supermarket and going back to David's place, David and Rafi start seeing each other again. They also try to make the relationship stronger by going to a Friday night dinner with David's family. The rift between Rafi and Lisa is patched up, although Rafi brings up the possibility of her and David having children, to which Lisa reacts strongly. A few days later, Rafi discovers that David had slept with Sue, and David and Rafi fight. After sulking for some time, David goes to seek Lisa's help as both his mother and as a therapist. She advises him to do what he can to keep the relationship, because it was through Rafi that Lisa was able to understand David's career as an artist. David goes back to Rafi to apologize and offer to give her a child because that is what she wants the most. At first, Rafi accepts his apology. They fall into bed together, and Rafi realizes how deep David's love must be for him to make such a sacrifice--he is so much younger than she is, and having a child at his age will more than likely negatively impact his art career. Somehow, she convinces him that love is not enough to keep a relationship going, and they break up. A year later, David and Morris are seen leaving the first restaurant where he and Rafi had their first proper date. Going back to retrieve his forgotten hat, David spots Rafi but she does not see him; he gets his hat, rushes out the door, and hides. He defrosts the glass a bit to watch her, and she turns around and sees him. They share a smile before parting. 

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Suh Jung plays the mute Hee-jin, who operates a fishing resort, where she rents out small floating cottages and ferries her customers back and forth between land and the floats, controlling the only means of transport around. She also dispassionately takes care of her customers' needs by selling supplies, providing prostitutes from a local dabang or occasionally acting as one herself. However, when a man running from the law, Hyun-shik (Kim Yu- seok), comes to the resort, a bond starts to form between them. At the start of the film, Hyun-shik arrives at the resort and is ferried to his float by Hee-jin. There is nothing unusual about their business relationship from the onset, but eventually Hee-jin is intrigued by Hyun-shik's obviously troubled past. When visiting his float one time, Hee-jin still resists Hyun-shik's forceful advances but does call in a prostitute to service him. Hyun-shik, however, only wants companionship from the prostitute and a relationship starts to form between them. The two developing relationships between Hyun- shik and the prostitute and Hyun-shik and Hee-jin move the plot. Hee-jin looks after Hyun-shik, even saving him from two suicide attempts, the second one accomplished gruesomely by swallowing a string of fish hooks. The prostitute continues to take more and more time off her schedule to visit Hyun-shik, oblivious to his troubles and eventually Hee-jin becomes jealous. During one visit, Hee-jin ferries the prostitute to an empty float instead of Hyun- shik's, ties her up and duct tapes her mouth shut, which eventually leads to her death as she falls into the water. The next morning Hee-jin finds her drowned and submerges her body tied to her motorbike. The prostitute's pimp, who comes to find out what's happening, falls in the water after a fight with Hyun-shik. Hee-jin appears in the water and kills the pimp. He is then submerged near the prostitute. After the murders, Hyun-shik's and Hee-jin's relationship stalls. Hyun-shik wants to leave the resort, but Hee-jin, who controls the only boat won't let him. When he attempts to swim out, Hee-jin has to save him and take him back to his float. Hyun-shik takes the boat and is set to leave. Hee-jin apparently attempts suicide in an effort to stop him by stuffing fish hooks into her vagina and falling into the water. This time it's Hyun-shik's turn to save her, by reeling her in with the still attached hooks. Hyun-shik and Hee-jin continue their troubled relationship. A prostitute accidentally kicks a man's Rolex into the water, infuriating him. He calls divers to have them retrieve the watch. The divers discover the bodies of the prostitute and the pimp while Hee-jin and Hyun-shik wordlessly take off on his float. The film concludes in enigmatic fashion. 

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In 1906, Saxton (Lee), a renowned British anthropologist, is returning to Europe by the Trans-Siberian Express from China to Moscow. With him is a crate containing the frozen remains of a primitive humanoid creature that he discovered in a cave in Manchuria. He hopes it is a missing link in human evolution. Doctor Wells (Peter Cushing), Saxton's friendly rival and Royal Geological Society colleague, is also on board but travelling separately. Before the train departs Shanghai, a thief is found dead on the platform. His eyes are completely white, without irises or pupils, and a bystander initially mistakes him for a blind man. The Polish Count Marion Petrovski (George Rigaud) and Countess Irina Petrovski (Silvia Tortosa) are also waiting to board the train with their spiritual advisor, an Eastern Orthodox monk named Father Pujardov (Alberto de Mendoza), who proclaims the contents of the crate to be evil. Saxton furiously dismisses this as superstition. Saxton's eagerness to keep his scientific find secret arouses the suspicion of Wells, who bribes a porter to investigate the crate. The porter is killed by the defrosted humanoid (Juan Olaguivel) within. It then escapes the crate by picking the lock. The humanoid finds more victims as it roams the moving train. Each is found with the same opaque, white eyes. Autopsies suggest that the brains of the victims are being drained of memories and knowledge. One of the victims is a spy sent to find out the secrets behind by Count Petrovski, who has invented a type of rocket capable of reaching outer space. When the humanoid is gunned down by police Inspector Mirov (Julio Peña), the threat seems to have been eliminated. Saxton and Wells discover that external images are retained by a liquid found inside the corpses' eyeballs, which reveal a prehistoric Earth and a planetary view as seen from space. They deduce that the real threat is somehow a formless extraterrestrial that inhabited the body of the humanoid and now resides inside the inspector. Pujardov, sensing the greater presence within the inspector and believing it to be that of Satan, renounces his faith, pledging allegiance to the entity. News of the murders is wired to the Russian authorities. An intimidating, xenophobic and power-crazed Cossack officer, Captain Kazan (Telly Savalas), boards with a handful of his men. Kazan believes the train is transporting rebels; he is only convinced of the alien's existence when Saxton switches off the lights and Mirov's eyes glow, revealing him to be the alien's host. It has absorbed the memories of Wells' assistant, the train driver, and others aboard, and now seeks the Polish count's metallurgical knowledge in order to build a vessel to escape Earth. Kazan stabs Mirov with his shashka (the distinctive sword of the Cossacks) and then shoots him. With Mirov dying, the alien transfers itself to the deranged Pujardov. When Wells is concerned that Pujardov may not be controlled by the alien, Kazan dismisses his concerns, saying: "Ah, we got a lot of innocent monks!" The passengers flee to the caboose while Pujardov murders Kazan, his men, and the count, draining all of their memories. Saxton rescues the countess and holds Pujardov at gunpoint. Saxton, having discovered that bright light prevents the alien from draining minds or transferring to another body, forces Pujardov into a brightly lit area. The alien Pujardov explains that it is a collective form of energy from another galaxy. Trapped on Earth in the distant past after being left behind in an accident, it survived for millions of years in the bodies of protozoa, fish, and other animals. It cannot live outside a living being longer than a few moments. The alien begs to be spared, tempting Saxton with its advanced knowledge of technology and cures for diseases. While Saxton is distracted by the offer, the alien resurrects the count's corpse and attacks him with it. Saxton and the countess flee, but the alien resurrects all of its victims as zombies. Battling their way through the train, Saxton and the countess eventually reach the guard's van where the other survivors have taken refuge. Saxton and Wells work desperately to uncouple the caboose from the rest of the train. Kazan's superiors sends a telegram to a dispatch station ahead, instructing them to destroy the train by sending it down a dead-end spur. Speculating that war has broken out, the station staff switch the track points. The alien takes control of the train as it enters the spur. Saxton and Wells finally manage to separate the caboose. The alien tries to find the brakes but fails to slow down the train. It rams through the end of spur barrier and plunges down the deep cliff and is destroyed after it hits bottom. The caboose rolls precariously to the end of the track before stopping, inches away from the cliff. The survivors quickly leave, while Saxton, Wells, and the countess gaze over the ravine and witness an inferno engulfing the train and its unearthly inhabitant. 

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In 1989, U.S. Army Supply Specialist Ray Elwood is a disillusioned soldier stationed in Stuttgart, West Germany. With much spare time, he participates in black marketeering and cooking heroin for some Military Police (MPs) led by the menacing Sergeant Saad. His friendly commanding officer, Colonel Berman, thinks of Elwood as a close friend and has no idea he's stealing company supplies and having an affair with his wife. However, Elwood's uneventful existence changes when a new First Sergeant (“Top”), Robert E. Lee, joins the supply company. Lee is both strict and intimidating, quickly determining that Elwood and his squad are engaged in graft. A tank crew, under the influence of the heroin that Elwood cooked for the MPs, unintentionally kill two soldiers in charge of a weapons convoy by crashing through a gas station. Elwood stumbles across the weapons and steals them, hiding them in an abandoned missile base. When confronted by Lee, Elwood's attempt at bribery backfires; Lee subsequently revokes Elwood's privileges, destroys his property, and orders a new, inexperienced and by the book soldier, PFC Knoll, to bunk in his room. To get back at Lee, Elwood begins a sexual relationship with his daughter, Robyn. The Top retaliates by making Elwood destroy his beloved Mercedes-Benz during a weapons exercise. Lee also boobytraps a locker that is used to hide heroin with a grenade that kills Stoney, one of Elwood's friends. Elwood sells the stolen weapons to a Turkish gangster, accepting a large amount of raw opium as payment. However, to save Knoll from being killed by Saad in a fight, Elwood is forced to make the MP sergeant a business partner in cooking the opium. In order to get the weapons out of the missile base and collect the drugs, Elwood sells out Berman so another regiment can easily capture their positions during a mobilization exercise. Later the colonel reluctantly tells Elwood he has been dismissed from command but this has given him time to reflect — he'll leave the Army and buy a vineyard in California. On 9 November, the night the Berlin Wall comes down, Elwood sneaks to the base swimming pool to meet Robyn while the opium is being cooked by his squad and the MPs. Knoll and Lee arrive. It's then Elwood discovers Knoll is actually an undercover 2nd Lieutenant from the Inspector General's Office. While Knoll escorts Robyn away, she tells him her father intends to kill Elwood, something Knollas a professional officercannot allow. Meanwhile Saad, intoxicated by opium fumes, provokes a shootout with commandos sent to arrest everyone in the basement drugs lab. Upstairs, just as Knoll prevents Lee at gunpoint from pushing Elwood out of a top-floor window, the building explodes from a gas leak caused by gunfire. Elwood and Lee are blown out of the building by impact. Elwood strangles Lee with his handcuffs and lands on him, surviving the fall. In the aftermath, the Army posthumously awards Lee a Silver Star, and also decorate Elwood, who is transferred to Hawaii. He tells his new superior officer, who is just as dull-witted as Berman, that Robyn remains his girlfriend and she will be visiting soon. The film ends with Elwood submitting a requisition order for more excessive supplies. 

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The first few episodes deal with establishing the characters and setting. The two rivaling tribes of the forest; the warrior Barbs, led by the headstrong Zora, and the farmer Ants, led by the religious and peaceful Faygar, both live in fear of two things: the machines, and the Privileged, a power-hungry tribe led by the equally power-hungry Flame, who is assisted by his advisor Harmony, and warrior leader Shadow. An outsider named Sky finds his way into the Barb tribe; he doesn't know where he came from, and his memory is messed up. He quickly makes friends there. An Ant whose name is Dan meets the Barb tribe, and decides he wants to be Barb, and not an Ant. Later, the Privs attack the Barb tribe, but Flame is defeated by Sky, and runs away. During this time, Flame has also let one of the Discarded (the Privileged's slaves) become a Priv. Her name is Gwyn. Following the attack, the Barbs and the Ants decide they must work together; they join forces, and decide, to avoid argument, that Sky must lead the tribes that are now working together. They make their base in the Ant tribe, and despite a few arguments, are willing to try to get along. Flame sends Gwyn out as a spy to the tribes. She pretends to be an escaped Discard; she meets Dan, who is actually her brother. Despite her brother being there, she stays loyal to Flame and gives him crucial information. When she is going back to Privs (the Ants and Barbs don't know she's a spy yet) she asks Dan to come with her. He says no, and she goes back on her own. With the new information, Flame kidnaps Faygar and Sky when they are out on a patrol. The Ants and Barbs are devastated about this, and Zora takes lead of the tribes. Shadow and Harmony both are starting to get sick of Flame's selfishness, and they begin to scheme against him. Eventually, Flame and the Ant/Barbs decide a way to settle their differences: a game of passball (which is similar to the game Rugby). The Privs narrowly lose, and Harmony overthrows Flame, and Flame is taken by the Ant/Barbs and is kept prisoner. Although Harmony promised they would work together, she betrays Shadow and Discards him. Faygar and Sky escape from the Discards: so does Shadow, and we don't see him again for the rest of the series (fans think he met with the 'Bird' tribe, see below). The tribes are overjoyed with the return of Faygar and Sky. Faygar and Zora have a few arguments, but then decide to share leadership of the tribe. Flame is set free, although he must work like the rest of the Ants and Barbs. Sky and Dan, out on a patrol, find a strange young boy, but it seems he can't speak. They take him back to the tribe and let him do what he wants. Harmony needs a personal assistant. She chooses Gwyn. Although it seems like Gwyn is Harmony's slave at first, they soon become good friends. Very close, in fact. A mysterious Bird tribe comes and meets the Privs. It seems they want to trade. Harmony tells them they will meet with Zora and Faygar to discuss trading. Eventually, they do meet at a meeting. Harmony realises the tribes have more in common than they thought, and it's as if they suddenly become friends. Except for the rude Bird tribe, who soon leave. Harmony also realises that friends are more important than power, and hands the throne back to Flame, who has also changed, and decides to free the Discards. The Privs say they hope they get to have more nights like this. Gwyn thinks about staying with her brother, but decides to stay with Privs, knowing that they'll get to see each other again soon. After the meeting, the Birds come back to the Ant camp. It turns out the stranger who came to their tribe was their leader's brother. The Bird tribe came to take the boy back. Sky asks why he doesn't talk, and the leader says, "He only talks about things he likes." (The boy only had two lines in the show "Only the Prototype" and "BROTHER!". This means he likes his brother, and the machines). The 4 tribes now seem unified. The Birds leave, and the cast members of the Ant and Barb tribes stand around in a circle and Faygar says, "I'm sure we'll have many more adventures to come." They put their hands together and say "Yay!" and the credits end. 

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In a framing story, Leonard Nimoy is hosting a programme about alien encounters, and begins the episode by talking about an "encounter" that occurred in Springfield. Homer tells Lenny and Carl that they should sneak out of work early and start drinking beer. Homer puts in an old tape of them working into the security camera. That night at Moe's, after drinking over 10 beers, a drunken Homer is forced to walk home after taking a breathalyzer test, but takes a wrong path and ends up in the woods. In a clearing, he encounters a glowing, thin-boned alien. Although the alien tells him "Don't be afraid," Homer panics and runs home screaming. The rest of the family do not believe Homer's story and his attempts to report the alien sighting to the police are dismissed by Chief Wiggum. Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the FBI hear of the sighting and go to investigate. After receiving no results from their psychological tests of him, Homer fails to provide any proof that he actually saw an alien. Homer is ridiculed by most of the neighborhood; even Marge refuses to believe in his claims, but Bart admits that he believes Homer. The next Friday night, the pair camp out in the forest. The alien arrives and promises peace, but Homer scares it away when he accidentally steps on their campfire and screams in pain. Bart captures the entire incident on tape. Nimoy bids the audience goodnight. He is then reminded that the show still has ten minutes left by an off-screen Squeaky-Voiced Teen, at which point he runs to his car and leaves. The Squeaky-Voiced Teen takes over narrating duties. Following the successful capture of the alien's existence, Homer and Bart present it to the media. Everyone in town finally believes Homer, even knocking on his door and asking Homer questions. During a church lecture, Reverend Lovejoy gets emotional talking about the character E.T. . Meanwhile, Lisa maintains that there must be a logical explanation for the alien. Friday comes again and everyone goes to the forest. The alien appears, promising love, but the townspeople begin to riot, and charge at the alien. Lisa and Waylon Smithers stop them just in time, showing that the "alien" is actually Mr. Burns. Smithers explains that Burns receives longevity treatment once a week in order to cheat death; this leaves him disoriented, as well as giving him a soft, high pitched voice as a result of a vocal cord scraping. Back to his normal self, Burns reveals that his green glow is due to many years of working in his nuclear plant. After threatening to bring "fear, famine [and] pestilence" instead of peace and love to the people of Springfield, he is given another booster injection from Dr. Nick. Reverting to his "alien" self, he begins to sing "Good Morning Starshine", with the entire crowd, even a returned Nimoy, joining in. The Squeaky-Voiced Teen closes the episode with a botched attempt at telling the viewers to "keep watching the skis! I mean skies." 

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The Joker and the Penguin break out of Arkham, racing to find a stash of stolen money hidden in a crypt at Gotham Cemetery. Joker is quickly intercepted by the Batman and is electrocuted when he falls into a river by his super-charged joy buzzers. Penguin enters the cemetery. While searching through a crypt, Penguin accidentally cuts his hand while using his umbrella- sword to open a coffin he hopes contains the money, finding a body instead. Blood from his hand drips on the corpse's heart, which brings it to life; it is none other than the vampire king Dracula, his body having been moved from Transylvania to Gotham City after his "death". Penguin is spared from being bitten thanks to a watchman, whom Dracula bites instead; once the watchman revives as a vampire, Dracula hypnotizes Penguin into serving him as his daytime sentinel. One night, the Batman witnesses a vampire attack, but decides to put the incident at the back of his mind and, as Bruce Wayne, proceeds to host a corporate party at his manor. Dracula arrives, disguised as cultural anthropologist Dr. "Alucard", claiming to be visiting to study the Batman (believing his legacy had an influence on Batman's existence), and takes an interest in Vicki Vale, a reporter who is interviewing and dating Bruce. After failing to bite Bruce to quench his thirst, Dracula bites a waiter instead; the new vampire scares Bruce's butler Alfred. Bruce immediately deduces "Alucard" is Dracula, and the disappearances of Gotham citizens, who have been dubbed "Lost Ones" by the media, is because they are being turned into vampires. Due to eyewitnesses claiming to see a bat-like figure during the attacks, it's mistakenly reported Batman is the culprit. When Batman goes to Gotham Cemetery to look for Dracula, he is chased down by a SWAT unit, all of whose members are taken by Dracula as they chase him back into the city. During a fight with the Batman, Dracula offers to let him join his conquest of Gotham; Batman refuses. Just as Dracula has the Batman at his mercy, the sun rises and Dracula is forced to retreat, vowing to kill Batman for rejecting his offer. At the cemetery, Joker reappears alive and well and confronts Penguin. He asks where the treasure is, thinking Penguin has already found it, chasing him into Dracula's tomb. However, despite Penguin's warning to not open Dracula's coffin, Joker ends up "breakfast in bed, freshly- squeezed" for Dracula, much to Penguin's horror. Joker attacks a blood bank, leading to his capture by Batman. While the Batman attempts to concoct an antidote from the Joker's infected cellular structure, Alfred discovers that Dracula once had a vampire bride, Carmilla Karnstein, who was killed by sunlight. During his research, however, Bruce stands up an understanding Vicki, who is soon kidnapped by Dracula. Finally, the Batman is able to cure the Joker of his vampirism and ascertain the location of Dracula's lair in Gotham Cemetery before returning him to Arkham. He then proceeds to mass- produce the vaccine. Dracula attempts to sacrifice Vicki's soul to reanimate Carmilla. Upon learning Vicki has been kidnapped, Batman rushes to Dracula's lair with his anti-vampirism vaccine and arsenal of weapons, defeating and curing all the "Lost Ones" that attack him in the catacombs beneath Gotham Cemetery. The Batman then frees Vicki, disrupting the reanimation ritual. Dracula sends the Penguin to recapture Vicki while he fights the Batman, who lures Dracula into the Batcave where Batman would have the advantages over the vampire. In an attempt to aid his master, Alfred injects Dracula with the anti-vampirisim vaccine, but it cannot cure a natural vampire. When Dracula resumes his pursuit, Batman incinerates him with his prototype solar energy storing machine by striking him with the sunlight that was stored within, reducing Dracula to a pile of ashes and bones with his remains secured by Alfred. This also frees the Penguin from his control, who, while chasing Vicki, finally finds the hidden treasure that caused all the trouble in the first place. Sadly, for the Penguin, he is arrested and blamed for Dracula's kidnappings, causing the media to think he was forcing people to find the treasure. The Batman is cleared of all charges and he resumes protecting Gotham. 

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Several years after the events of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin, Gin's son is born in the Japanese Alps. After the puppy's mother Sakura dies from an illness, an English Setter named GB pledges to bring him to the Ōu Mountains and reunite him with his father. GB decides to name the pup Weed, after the English word for wild plant, because he is "small but powerful". Upon arriving at Ōu, the pair learn that a monstrous creature is wreaking havoc and Ōu has fallen into turmoil. Gin is away, on a desperate search for his mate. Weed, GB, and other Ōu soldiers meet a team of dogs led by the German shepherd Jerome. Jerome explains that the monster is a mutated dog that escaped from a laboratory after killing several scientists. Weed's group joins them and they succeed in killing the monster, though lose several soldiers in the process, among them Gin's old ally, Smith. Weed and principal cast members. From top to bottom: GB, Mel, Jerome, Kyōshirō, Kagetora, Ken, Tesshin, and Rocket The series then introduces Hōgen and Genba, Great Dane brothers who plan to create an army and overthrow Gin. When Gin and his close friends John and Akame are found by Hōgen and his troops, Akame escapes to alert Ōu, while Gin, John, and Hiro (a dog loyal to Gin) are taken as hostages. John escapes, but is killed while acting as a diversion for Hiro. Akame locates Weed and explains the situation, prompting him to search for dogs to join Ōu's army. Gin escapes and starts recruiting soldiers. Hōgen, alone after having to mercy kill Genba, launches his attack on Ōu. Weed clashes with Hōgen and is injured, but spirits of dead Ōu soldiers appear to give him strength. Weed defeats Hōgen but chooses not to kill him. Hōgen stumbles away and is found by Shōji Sudou, a policeman whose partner was killed by Genba and Hōgen. Shōji shoots and kills Hōgen. Later, Weed encounters a dog named Yukimura, and learns that a group of monkeys have been terrorizing the area. Leading them is Shōgun, a vicious baboon that feeds on young monkeys and puppies. Shōgun had previously attacked Yukimura and his family, permanently damaging his adopted father Saheiji. Weed, his comrades, Yukimura, and several rebellious monkeys attack Shōgun and his followers. Yukimura is able to injure Shōgun enough to ensure his death, but dies in the process. Saheiji reveals that Yukimura was Weed's brother: Sakura, too sick to care for all of her children, had given two of her puppies to Saheiji to raise as foster sons. While Jerome is in Hokkaidō, he is captured by a Russian German shepherd named Victor, who aims to conquer the island. Jerome escapes and alerts Hakurō, a former Ōu soldier who resides in Hokkaidō. Hakurō and several of his sons are attacked and killed by Victor's forces. Gin and Weed go to Hokkaidō, but are unable to defeat Victor's troops. Jerome rejoins the Ōu soldiers with Lydia and Maxim, two subordinates of Victor. Angry at Maxim's betrayal, Victor orders a friend of Maxim, Alam, to kill him. Alam feels an intense regret for following orders, but later learns that Maxim survived. Alam decides to drown Victor by dragging him underwater and entangling him in seaweed. With Victor gone, Lydia chooses to stay with Jerome while Maxim and his remaining subordinates swim back to Russia. While traveling, Weed meets his other brother, Joe. First Joe dislikes Gin for leaving Sakura unattended in the Alps. He is unaware that Sakura had left Ōu under the false impression that Gin was dead, and that Gin had been unaware of Sakura's leaving. Joe explains that a large hybrid bear has attacked and killed his mate, Hitomi. Weed's group joins Joe to defeat the animal. During the battle, GB dies saving Weed, and Weed vows to avenge him. Weed knocks himself and the bear into a river. The bear dies after hitting a floodgate and Weed manages to survive. He returns to Ōu and learns that his mate, Koyuki, is pregnant. Weeks later, she gives birth to four pups. 

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Partenopeus is represented as having lived in the days of Clovis, king of France. He is seized while hunting in the Ardennes, and carried off to a mysterious castle with invisible inhabitants. Melior, empress of Constantinople, comes to him at night, stipulating that he must not attempt to see her for two and a half years. After successfully fighting against the Saracens, led by Sornegur, king of Denmark, he returns to the castle, armed with an enchanted lantern that breaks the spell. The consequent misfortunes have a happy ending. The tale had a continuation giving the adventures of Fursin or Anselet, the nephew of Sornegur. 

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Skizz, an alien interpreter, crash lands on Earth and his ship self- destructs to stop it falling into the wrong hands. He is saved from the military by a young girl called Roxy. 

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Note: The following summary is not a definite description of how the adventure may play out, but rather the path most supported in the Tempest Feud book. 

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The series centers around three protagonists: Grubitsch "Grubbs" Grady, Cornelius "Kernel" Fleck and Bec MacConn. Although they meet each other at various points, they are from separate times; Grubbs lives in the present day, Kernel in the 1970s and Bec in around 450AD. The books detail their fight against the demon master Lord Loss, his many demon familiars and the mysterious Shadow, who promises to destroy the human universe and to even stop death. Together with The Disciples, the main characters thwart the Demonata's attempts at world destruction multiple times. 

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Dr. Guy Carson is a young scientist and cowboy- at-heart, raised on a southwestern ranch and bored with city life. That is, until the prestigious genetic engineering corporation GeneDyne offers Carson a six-month position as a lab researcher at its Mount Dragon Remote Desert Testing Facility in Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico. Carson accepts and soon finds that the Mount Dragon laboratory is testing far more promising and dangerous things than Carson ever expected. Scientists at the facility spend months isolated from the outside world, essentially locked in the guarded facility within a Level 5 containment lab, as they research a vaccine for the influenza virus. With the help of his feisty lab assistant, Susanna Cabeza de Vaca, Carson begins to unlock the mysteries of the spontaneously mutating influenza virus, dubbed “X-FLU”. Over time, Carson and DeVaca discover that their predecessor Dr. Franklin Burt, was literally driven mad by his time at Mount Dragon and was institutionalized. Burt’s death is not the only one caused by the facility; an emergency quarantine prompted by the contamination of the Level 5 lab by a chimp infected with the deadly X-FLU results in the death of researcher Rosalind Brandon-Smith. Soon, more human harm follows as Carson’s friend and messmate Dr. Andrew Vanderwagon spontaneously punctures his own eye with a fork and attempts to commit suicide and kill others. Through researching Burt’s descent to madness, Carson and DeVaca realize that what occurred with Vanderwagon closely resembled the behavior of Burt toward the end. In fact, everyone at the facility except for Carson and DeVaca begin to display abnormal and erratic behavior that Carson at first presumes is the result of tight quarters or contamination by X-FLU. However, Carson has an epiphany after conducting further tests on influenza and discovers that what caused the virus to mutate is Burt’s filtering system — a system that was used to filter the artificial blood product PurBlood that GeneDyne is releasing in hospitals across the nation in mere days. Burt’s journal confirms that PurBlood is in fact contaminated; Burt’s filtering system caused the contamination by mutating the cells in the artificial blood. Carson and DeVaca are the only workers at the Mount Dragon facility who did not undergo a PurBlood transfusion for beta testing, and thus are the only ones not driven to insanity by the contamination. They set off an explosion to destroy the facility and flee from its homicidal and suicidal inhabitants. Attempting to alert officials before PurBlood can be introduced across the nation, resulting in an epidemic, Carson and DeVaca set off on horseback across the arid New Mexico desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization. They are chased by the security director, an eccentric Englishman named Nye whose PurBlood-induced madness has led him to believe that there is a treasure buried in the desert and that Carson and DeVaca are trying to steal it from him. After days of thirst and starvation, Carson and DeVaca find water—and the remains of the worthless “treasure” of Spanish explorer Mondragón—before engaging in a fight-to-the-death battle with Nye. Carson and DeVaca are injured, but survive, and make it to a nearby cattle ranch in time to spread the word about the dangers of PurBlood. Aside from the action-ridden plot of Carson and DeVaca, the novel highlights political and scientific battle between the CEO of GeneDyne, Brent Scopes, and his former best friend, Charles Levine, over the ethics of genetic modification. Scopes argues that genetic modification, such as that involved in the creation of PurBlood, will one day lead to a healthier human race. Levine counters that the extent of the dangers of genetically modified products is unknown, and that humans should proceed with caution in genetically altering or engineering products that could change the biological make-up of humanity. In the end, Scopes and Levine are exposed to the mutated influenza virus X-FLU and resolve their differences before dying. 

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In 1890s London, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden work as shills for a magician, under the mentorship of John Cutter, an engineer who designs stage magic (a job termed ingenieur in the film). At Cutter's urging the two aspiring magicians watch a Chinese conjuror (a character inspired by the real-life magician Ching Ling Foo) whose famous trick is to produce a large water-filled fishbowl with fish in it. After the performance, as they watch the old man hobble in his frail state into a carriage Borden explains to Angier that no one can detect the method because the Chinese magician's real trick was to appear weak and feeble at all times off-stage to conceal that he had the immense physical strength needed to perform the illusion. During a water tank trick, Angier's wife Julia fails to escape and drowns. The devastated Angier holds Borden responsible for using a riskier rope knot than they normally used in the performance, thereby causing her death. At Julia's funeral, Borden denies knowing which knot he had tied and the two men become bitter enemies. Angier and Borden launch their own separate magic careers, with Cutter working for Angier. Borden unveils a trick he developed called the Transported Man, in which he appears to travel instantly between two wardrobes on opposite ends of the stage. As he is unable to discern Borden's method, Angier hires a double in the form of unemployed actor Gerald Root, in order to perform his own version of the trick. The imitation of Borden's illusion is a greater success thanks to Angier's superior showmanship, but Angier is dissatisfied as he ends the trick hidden under the stage while Root basks in the applause of the crowd. Angier pressures his assistant Olivia to spy on Borden to learn how he performs the Transported Man. However, Olivia falls in love with Borden and becomes his assistant and mistress. With her help, Borden sabotages Angier's act. Confronted by Angier, Olivia gives him a copy of Borden's encoded diary. Angier acquires the keyword to decode it by abducting and threatening to kill Borden's ingenieur Bernard Fallon; the keyword is "TESLA". The diary takes Angier back to his native America to meet scientist Nikola Tesla. Angier believes Tesla built a transporting machine for Borden, although he later learns the diary is a fiction, planted by Borden through Olivia as a distraction. Tesla does however successfully build a working machine for Angier. Unexpectedly for all concerned, instead of teleporting objects Tesla's machine duplicates anything placed inside it a short distance away. Tesla is driven out of Colorado Springs by agents of his rival Thomas Edison, but has the machine delivered to Angier. Despite having now adjusted the machine to achieve some version of teleportation, Tesla advises Angier to destroy it, saying it will bring him nothing but misery. Borden's wife Sarah is driven to suicide by his contradictory personality and continual secrecy in their marriage. Afterwards, Borden tells Olivia that he never loved Sarah and that he loves her more. Unsettled by Borden's apparent callousness and tired of his and Angier’s feud, Olivia leaves Borden. In London, Angier debuts his new illusion, The Real Transported Man, to great success, seemingly using Tesla's machine to teleport across the theater each night. Perplexed by the new trick and obsessed with discovering how Angier does it, Borden sneaks backstage one night, only to witness Angier fall through a trapdoor and drown in a water tank, just as Julia did. Borden is discovered by Cutter and turned over to the police. Unable to prove his innocence in court, Borden is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Borden is visited in prison by a Lord Caldlow, accompanied by Borden's daughter Jess. Lord Caldlow (a member of the landed gentry who, off-screen during the trial, has been buying the late Angier's magical apparatus as well as pursuing Borden's trick methods via his lawyer) is now revealed to be Angier himself, who had been posing as an American under an alias for his entire performing career. In exchange for his secrets (including how he performed the Transported Man), Borden pleads with Angier to let his daughter go, but Angier is no longer interested and leaves with Jess as his ward. When Cutter contrives to meet Lord Caldlow and discovers that Angier is still alive, he is disgusted at Angier's plan to frame and kill Borden and steal his daughter, but still agrees to help dispose of Tesla's machine. That night, Borden is executed for Angier's murder. Angier returns to the theater with Cutter, who ponders the agony of drowning while looking at several water tanks that Angier has stored there. Cutter leaves, acknowledging a stranger in the street who then enters and shoots Angier; it is Alfred Borden returned back from the dead. Angier discovers that "Alfred Borden" was an identity shared by identical twins. The brothers performed the original Transported Man together; in life, when one was "Alfred Borden", the other was disguised as "Bernard Fallon" and the brothers used the performances of the trick itself to swap between both of these identities. The surviving twin loved Sarah while his brother had loved Olivia; but now understood that the life the twins had chosen was never going to be enough for either of the two women. Borden laments that everything Angier did was for nothing, but Angier denies this, saying that witnessing the audience's amazement had been the goal all along. Angier dies, smashing his lantern and setting the theater ablaze. Borden leaves to pick up Jess at Cutter's workshop, but as he leaves he discovers Angier's sacrifice and the lengths he had gone to; while waiting each night for Borden to enter his trap in the performance, a duplicate Angier would be teleported into the wings by Tesla's machine, while its predecessor would fall through the trapdoor and drown in a tank beneath the stage - the multiple water tanks all hold corpses of dead Angiers. 

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Ever since Basheer first left home to participate in the salt satyagraha at Kozhikode, he had led a wanderer's life; Ottaanthadi, muchaanvayaru. Only occasionally did he return to his home at Thalayolapparambu, with the intention of penning down his thoughts in interludes of tranquility. Next to the house where he grew up, in the same compound, he had a walled-in plot with a small house. He built this retreat himself, and around the house he planted a garden. This gate was always closed, and he required silence and peace of mind. He would sit and write or walk around his garden tending to his beloved plants. On returning from one of his travels, he was forced to live in the house where his large family lived, instead of in his private home. This household was always filled with noise and chaos; no place for a writer. The inhabitants were Basheer's mother, his younger siblings and their families. Add to this, there were myriads of domestic animals who treated the house as their own. Basheer's sister Pathumma, who lived in a dilapidated shack a little distance away, would visit the house every day with her daughter Khadeeja and with them would come Pathumma's goat. This goat had absolute freedom in the house. It would eat up anything it could, from fallen leaves before someone came to sweep them, Chaambaykka fruits (Water Apple) from the lower branches of the tree basheer planted, trousers worn by Basheer's nephew Abi, grass specially gathered for it, food set away for it, even food meant for human inhabitants of the house, to the author's copy of newest editions of Basheer's Baalyakaalasakhi, Shabdangal and Vishwavikhyaadamaaya Mookku, fresh out of press. When Basheer arrived home, each of the family members approach him with requests for financial assistance. When Basheer gives money to his mother, the next day his younger brother Adbul Khadar would take it all from her. When he gives anything to any of his nephews or nieces, other people of the family ask why he doesn't give stuff to their children. His money runs out within a few days of his arrival. He gets down to disciplining the noisy children of the house. His youngest brother, Abu terrorises the household, the children, women and animals. Basheer's immediate younger brother, Abdul Khadar was the head of the family, since Basheer was away most of the time and did not have a permanent source of income. At times the author would return home with a small fortune after publishing one of his books, then people of the family and the village would approach him with supplications. Abdul Khadar was handicapped in one leg. When Basheer and he were young, he used to beat up Basheer and make him carry his books to school. His handicap got him special privileges from everyone. Once when Basheer's tolerance was pushed to the limits, he beat up his younger brother, and since then Abdul Khadar began giving him due respect. In their childhood, Basheer often had to bear the punishment when actually Abdul Khadar was the real culprit. While Basheer wandered from place to place, Abdul Khadar got himself a job and looked after the family. First he worked as a school master, then quit the job and took various other employments. At the time when he became a schoolmaster, Basheer was serving three months prison term in Kannur prison after getting arrested at Kozhikode on his way to participate in Salt Satyagraham (1930). In 1936-37, he was residing at Ernakulam, writing for various magazines essentially for free. That was the time when he lived in near poverty, struggling to get to eat one square meal a day, having to borrow from everyone even to manage a cup of tea. He wrote prolifically, for newspapers and periodicals, but he got paid next to nothing for his efforts. This was the period which forms the backdrop in which works like Janmadinam were set. Once during this period, Abdul Khadar visited Basheer. The older brother proudly gave him his literary works to read. Abdul Khadar, instead of admiring his brother's literary genius found fault with the grammar and language usage. Avante oru lodukkoos akhya... Ithu njaan varthamaanam parayunnathupole ezhuthivachirikkayaanu. Avante chattukaalan akhyaadam. Palunkoosan vyakaranam, Basheer retorts. Years later, with the publication of major works like Baalyakaalasakhi (1944), Basheer's name became recognised throughout Kerala. Then Abdul Khadar no longer complained of grammatical errors in his brother's sentences, instead asked him for copies of the book so that he could make money selling them. He even asked Basheer to write about members of the family and gave him ideas for plots of stories. 

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The lives of Atmaram (Nazir Hussain) and his wife (Dulari) are turned upside down when they see their daughter, Mala's (Aruna Irani) pictures in a magazine. They arrange for Mala's marriage with the son of Ramlal (Agha). Mala is opposed to marrying anyone who she has not met, and is at the same time thrilled that the two persons she trusted, one Verma (Shatrughan Sinha), and the other Sharma (Manmohan) had actually submitted her pictures to a magazine, and were now willing to sign her up for a Bollywood movie. Mala is not able to understand her parents' opposition on her way to fame, and runs away from home with a lot of money and hands this money to Sharma and Verma. Greed overtakes Sharma and Verma, leading to the death of Verma. Mala, who witnessed Sharma kill Verma, now is on the run for her life. She boards a bus from Bombay which is bound for Goa. Sharma soon overtakes her, and has one of his armed men on the bus to kill her. And then arrives Mala's admirer Ravikumar (Amitabh Bachchan), who not only protects Mala, but also accompanies her throughout the journey. Mala starts to trust and subsequently fall in love with Ravikumar. The bus journey is adventurous with the passengers, a totally mixed bunch, from all over India, different religions, cultures, and faiths, all thrown together for this journey. The bus is in the "control" of driver Rajesh (Anwar Ali), and conductor, Khanna (Mehmood).hence she gets her love and the reality of her trusted people. 

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Otis (Kevin James) is a carefree young cow who prefers playing with his friends rather than accepting responsibility; much to the chagrin of his strict adoptive father and barnyard leader, Ben (Sam Elliott). After Otis interrupts a barnyard meeting with his wild antics, Ben warns his son that he will never be happy if he spends his life partying without acting more maturely. Otis ignores his advice and leaves to have fun with his friends Pip the Mouse (Jeffrey Garcia), Freddy the Ferret (Cam Clarke), Peck the Rooster (Rob Paulsen) and Pig the Pig (Tino Insana). That same day, Otis meets a pregnant cow named Daisy (Courteney Cox), who is accompanied by her friend, Bessy (Wanda Sykes). That night after the farmer (Fred Tatasciore) went to bed, the animals throw a party in the barn. All the animals at the barnyard are there except Ben, who guards the fence line. Otis is assigned a shift along with Ben, but Otis talks himself out of work. Before he leaves, Ben tells him that the night he found him as a baby calf stumbling alone in the meadow, he swore he saw the stars dance, which reminded him that his place was at the farm. Soon after, Ben takes on a pack of coyotes led by Dag (David Koechner), who raid the chicken coop during a rainstorm. He manages to fight off the pack until he is bitten on the leg by Dag, making him fall. The Coyotes pile on Ben, but he manages to grab Dag's leg and escape the pile; using Dag to overpower the coyotes. He threatens to punch Dag but lets him go, scaring him and the coyotes away in defeat. Ben falls to the ground, exhausted. Otis is alerted and he runs outside to his father, who dies from his injuries. The next morning, Ben is buried on a hill by the farmer, and the other animals mourn Ben once the farmer leaves except for Otis. Following Ben's death, all the animals elect Otis as the new leader of the barnyard. Otis shirks his duties by leaving Freddy and Peck in charge of the coop, then helps the trouble-making "Jersey Cows"; Eddy, Igg, and Bud (S. Scott Bullock, John DiMaggio, and Maurice LaMarche respectively) teach a lesson to a mean, fat youngster called Eugene “Snotty Boy” Beady (Steve Oedekerk) for cow- tipping, eluding the police along the way. Later that night, while Otis is holding Daisy's hoof under the starlight, he overhears the coyotes chasing a rabbit and leaves her to pursue the coyotes and avenge his father's death. Otis tries to fight the coyotes, but is outnumbered. Since Otis is weaker, Dag proposes a deal: he and his pack will take various barnyard animals at random times and that, if Otis tries to do anything about it, they will slaughter everyone at the barnyard. Otis decides to leave the barnyard, realizing his chances of victory are slim. The next morning, before leaving, Otis is informed that the coyotes took the hens including Maddy (Madeline Lovejoy), a little chick who looks up to him. Otis realizes that Dag doubled-crossed him, as he was not expecting him and the coyotes until tonight, and sets off to rescue the chickens. Otis arrives in the junkyard to fight off the pack and gains the upper hand in the fight, until Dag bites him in the leg. However, Pip, Pig, Freddy, Peck, Miles (Danny Glover), a mule and Ben's old friend, and the Jersey Cows arrive to help Otis. Dag tries to attack Otis from behind, but he is alerted when Peck successfully manages to crow a warning. Otis thwarts Dag's attack and threatens to punch him like Ben did, but warns him to never return to the barnyard before sending him flying out of the junkyard; finally avenging his father's death. On their way back, Pip reveals to Otis that Daisy went into labor after he left, so Otis and the rest of the animals steal a biker gang’s motorcycles from a diner and make it back to the barn in time to witness Daisy giving birth to a calf that she names Li'l Ben. Otis then takes full responsibility and becomes the new leader of the barnyard as he watches the stars of himself, Daisy and Lil' Ben dancing just like Ben said. 

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A woman yearning for a child asks a witch for advice, and is presented with a barleycorn which she is told to go home and plant (in the first English translation of 1847 by Mary Howitt, the tale opens with a beggar woman giving a peasant's wife a barleycorn in exchange for food). After the barleycorn is planted and sprouts, a tiny girl, Thumbelina (Tommelise), emerges from its flower. One night, Thumbelina, asleep in her walnut-shell cradle, is carried off by a toad who wants her as a bride for her son. With the help of friendly fish and a butterfly, Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, and drifts on a lily pad until captured by a stag beetle who later discards her when his friends reject her company. Thumbelina tries to protect herself from the elements, but when winter comes, she is in desperate straits. She is finally given shelter by an old field mouse and tends her dwelling in gratitude. The mouse suggests Thumbelina marry her neighbour, a mole, but Thumbelina finds the prospect of being married to such a creature repulsive because he spends all his days underground and never sees the sun or sky. The field mouse keeps pushing Thumbelina into the marriage, saying the mole is a good match for her, and does not listen to her protests. At the last minute, Thumbelina escapes the situation by fleeing to a far land with a swallow she nursed back to health during the winter. In a sunny field of flowers, Thumbelina meets a tiny flower-fairy prince just her size and to her liking, and they wed. She receives a pair of wings to accompany her husband on his travels from flower to flower, and a new name, Maia. In the end, the swallow is heartbroken once Thumbelina marries the flower-fairy prince, and flies off eventually arriving at a small house. There, he tells Thumbelina's story to a man who is implied to be Andersen himself, who chronicles the story in a book. 

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The main character is a dwarf, tall, at the court of an Italian City-state in the Renaissance. The exact time and location are unclear, but the presence of the character named Bernardo, who is unmistakably modeled on Leonardo da Vinci, suggests that the story takes place in a fictional version of Milan around the time of Leonardo's stay at the court of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, from 1482 to 1499. There is a reference to Santa Croce being in the immediate surroundings, but this is possibly mixed up with the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze, so the story could actually be set in Florence. At the same time, Lagerkvist includes Bernardo/Leonardo's creation of The Last Supper and Mona Lisa in the plot, which were done in Milan and Florence, respectively. Further, the prince that inspired Niccolò Machiavelli to write The Prince has been assumed to be Cesare Borgia, who also employed Leonardo da Vinci as a military architect, a role he (as Bernardo) plays alongside his painting work in The Dwarf. In this way aspects of all these historical places and people are mixed into the background of the novel. The dwarf is the narrator, obviously obsessed with writing down his experiences in a form of diary. Everything in the novel is described from his viewpoint, mostly in retrospect, ranging from a few hours or minutes to several weeks or months after the actual events. The dwarf is a profound misanthrope and generally embodies all things evil. He hates almost every person at the court except for the prince (who is the ruler of the city-state, rather king than prince), or rather aspects of him. He loves war, brutality and fixed positions. While almost all other characters of the novel develop during the chain of events, the dwarf does not change. He is still exactly the same character from the first to the last page. He is deeply religious, but his take on Christianity includes the belief in a non-forgiving God. He is impressed with Bernardo's science but soon repelled by its relentless search for truth. When the dwarf is ordered to assassinate a number of enemies of the prince using poisoned wine, he takes this opportunity to assassinate one of the prince's rivals, simply because the dwarf dislikes the rival and the rival is having an affair with the prince's wife. The novel ends with the dwarf being strapped in chains at the bottom of the royal castle, never to be released again. He is seemingly convicted for flogging the prince's wife to death in anger over her sins. However he takes this sentence lightly, since, as he says, "soon the prince will need his dwarf again". 

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The game opens with Commander Zod shooting the Bitmap Brothers Logo off the screen. Meanwhile, a Supply Ship is adrift in space. Its occupants, two robots named Brad and Allan, wake up to the radio buzzer. The two find two new messages from Commander Zod. The first shows Zod telling about his delivery, one hour overdue; the second shows him threatening to "kick their red butts" if he finds out about them slacking off. Allan and Brad just resume their mission. The two constantly steer the ship in a bunch of twists and turns (one sends them knocking the game's title into the opening credits, which are just visible in space), and finally arriving at their first destination. Their mission sends them across twenty levels on five planets, fighting enemy soldiers. Only when the five planets are conquered will the party begin. After the final level, Zod gets a promotion to Supreme Space Colonel. Zod and the other soldiers celebrate by drinking many cans of rocket fuel, and by the next morning, so many discarded cans litter the ground that Brad and Allan are sick. Zod gets into the Supply Ship with Brad and Allan and decides to show them how to fly the spacecraft. Zod uses the ship to pull acrobatic stunts in space, leaving Brad thrilled. When Allan pulls another can of rocket fuel from the box, he notices a "do not shake" warning on its side. He shakes it up and tosses it to Zod. When Zod opens the can, an explosion blows the ship apart. Brad and Allan are hurled off, and Zod's hat can be seen floating in deep space. 

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Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell The "gold diggers" are four aspiring actresses: Polly (Ruby Keeler), an ingenue; Carol (Joan Blondell), a torch singer; Trixie (Aline MacMahon), a comedian; and Fay (Ginger Rogers), a glamour puss. The film was made in 1933, during the Great Depression and contains numerous direct references to it. It begins with a rehearsal for a stage show, which is interrupted by the producer's creditors who close down the show because of unpaid bills. At the unglamorous apartment shared by three of the four actresses (Polly, Carol, and Trixie), the producer, Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks), is in despair because he has everything he needs to put on a show, except money. He hears Brad Roberts (Dick Powell), the girls' neighbor and Polly's boyfriend, playing the piano. Brad is a brilliant songwriter and singer who not only has written the music for a show, but also offers Hopkins $15,000 in cash to back the production. Of course, they all think he is kidding, but he insists that he is serious - he offers to back the show, but refuses to perform in it, despite his talent and voice. Brad comes through with the money and the show goes into production, but the girls are suspicious that he must be a criminal since he is cagey about his past and will not appear in the show, even though he is clearly more talented than the aging juvenile lead (Clarence Nordstrom) they have hired. It turns out, however, that Brad is in fact a millionaire's son whose family does not want him associating with the theatre. On opening night, in order to save the show when the juvenile cannot perform (due to his lumbago acting up), Brad is forced to play the lead role. With the resulting publicity, Brad's brother J. Lawrence Bradford (Warren William) and family lawyer Faneuil H. Peabody (Guy Kibbee) discover what he is doing and go to New York to save him from being seduced by a "gold digger". Lawrence mistakenly identifies Carol as Polly, and his heavy-handed effort to dissuade the "cheap and vulgar" showgirl from marrying Brad by buying her off annoys her so much that Carol plays along, but the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Trixie targets "Fanny" the lawyer as the perfect rich sap ripe for exploitation. When Lawrence finds out that Brad and the real Polly have wed, he threatens to have the marriage annulled, but relents when Carol refuses to marry him if he does. Trixie marries Faneuil. All the "gold diggers" (except Fay) end up with wealthy men.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 23 

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The strip has followed the adventures of its hero Nick Jarvis from his debut as a 20-year-old footballer to his present-day role as the billionaire owner of fictitious football club Warbury Warriors. When the strip started Nick was an apprentice engineer and an amateur footballer playing for his home team, the non-league side Oakvale, who had just been drawn against Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup. Oakville were subsequently well beaten in this match, however, Jarvis played well and was spotted by Jim Cassidy and Alex McCabe, who were the manager and chairman of the fictional Thamesford Football Club. Cassidy and McCabe subsequently approached Jarvis to play on a trial basis for Thamesford, however, he initially rejected this offer, but later changed his mind and played against Ashton. After impressing in his trial match, he signed for Thamesford on a permanent basis, however, he soon found himself facing a charge of making love to an under aged girl. At his subsequent trial, Jarvis was found not guilty after the prosecution's witness was star struck and found not to be able to distinguish between the fact and fantasy. Thamesford subsequently celebrated their 50th anniversary by touring Mexico during the 1986 World Cup, where Nick was kidnapped after his teammate Gary Lewis claimed that he was Thamesford's most valuable player. The kidnappers subsequently asked McCabe for half of Jarvis reported value of £900 thousand. McCabe initially refused to negotiate with the kidnappers, but was told that he would need to look for a whole new team and manager if he didn't pay the ransom. As a result, McCabe paid the ransom to one of the kidnappers, who told McCabe that Jarvis would be freed if he got back to his fellow kidnappers within two hours. However, he was subsequently killed in a landslide, before he got back to his fellow kidnappers. As a result, his fellow kidnapper was about to harm Jarvis, before he managed to escape with the kidnapper's sister to the nearest town. Jarvis was subsequently approached to play in the village's annual football game, where he scored a couple of goals before they gave him a lift back to the team's hotel. He then had a holiday in Acapulco with his girlfriend, before flying back to England for the player of the year awards and pre-season training. Lewis subsequently turned up with an ex-girlfriend of Jarvis's to the player of the year awards, where he got drunk and attempted to drive them both home. On the way home, a cat ran out in the middle of the road and caused Lewis to crash the car, however, thinking that she was dead and fearing being done for manslaughter, he swapped places with her. His girlfriend subsequently regained consciousness but had amnesia and could not remember what had happened. As a result, she was charged with careless driving as well as being drunk in charge of a car. Jarvis quickly realised that Lewis had framed his ex, however, Lewis denied this and fell out with Jarvis on the pitch and were both fined £400. Jarvis was subsequently placed on the transfer list by Cassidy at his own request, before he realised how he could prove that Lewis had framed her. After proving it, Jarvis spoke to McCabe and Cassidy and told them what had happened, McCabe subsequently tried to take a business approach by selling Lewis while bribing Jarvis and his ex-girlfriend. However, the local sports reporter had a tip-off from Hazel's flatmate and ran a story about it, before Lewis was arrested and found guilty of Perverting the course of justice. Jarvis subsequently came off the transfer list and scored against Liverpool, while McCabe had a heart attack during the game, before he died of lung cancer and advanced heart disease. McCabe's widower subsequently sold the club to a gangster called Eddie Carlton for £11 million, who becomes the chairman of Thamesford. Jarvis meets Carlton in a nightclub after he had been chatted up by the chairman's lover: Angel, before he is carpeted by him after the next game. Thamesford is subsequently drawn against Oakvale away in the FA Cup before the players are invited to a Christmas party at Carlton's home. Angel subsequently blackmails Jarvis into having sex at the party and later into being her stud, after he discovers Carlton's secret plans to turn Thameford's stadium into a leisure centre and housing. Jarvis subsequently tips the press off about the development, which forces Carlton to hold a press conference, where he confirms the plans but denies reports that he doesn't care about the club. Carlton also ordered his minder to start a witch hunt in order to find out who tipped off the press, before he reads about Oakville having odds of 100–1 against beating Thamesford in the FA Cup and bets £5000 on his team to lose. Carlton then walks into the changing room on the day of the game and offers the players, a spiked glass of champagne and a chance to bury the hatchet with a pre-match toast "to an easy win today and more victories in 1987". After the game, Thamesford's fans were furious with the players and accused them of being bribed to throw the match as they lost 2–1 to Oakville. Carlton's minder subsequently discovered that Angel had been seeing Jarvis behind the chairman's back and reported back to his boss, who assumed that she had told Jarvis everything. Carlton subsequently confronted her and is about to throw her out on the streets, before he realises that she knows enough about him to be a threat to him. As a result, his minder locks Angel in a bedroom, while his boss decided what to do with her and Jarvis, however, she flees to Jarvis flat. After knocking them both unconscious and carrying them into the bedroom, Carlton's minder subsequently burnt the flat down, by placing a light match into a wastepaper basket in an attempt to kill them both. However, Jarvis wakes up in time and manages to save them both by throwing Angel, out of the bedroom window, before jumping out after her. Carlton's minder subsequently informs his boss about the fire, who implements a contingency plan and does a runner to Brazil, before his minder is arrested. After the truth came out about the Oakville match, the fans got behind the team again, while Angel wanted to settle down with Jarvis who refused to get involved with her. 

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The Russian author Kartsev, living in Munich in 1982 (just like Voinovich himself), time travels to the Moscow of 2042. After the "Great August Revolution", the new leader referred to as "Genialissimus" has changed the Soviet Union... up to a certain point. After Vladimir Lenin's dream of the world revolution narrowed down to Joseph Stalin's theory of "Socialism in one country", Genialissimus has decided to start from building "Communism in one city", namely in Moscow. Emblem of the USSR – KGB) The ideology has changed somewhat, into a hodgepodge of Marxism-Leninism and Russian Orthodoxy (Genialissimo himself is also Patriarch). The country is ruled by CPGB – The Communist Party of State Security, a merger of the Communist Party and KGB. The decay from which the Soviet Union suffered has worsened. The rest of the Soviet Union, where people barely survive, has been separated by a Berlin type of wall from the "paradise" of Moscow, where communism has been realised. Within the wall everyone gets everything by the communist principle, "according to his needs", though their needs are not decided by themselves, but by the Genialissimus. Most people have "ordinary needs", but a chosen few have "extraordinary needs". For the first-mentioned group, life is dismal even within the privileged "Moscorep" (Moscow Communist Republic). The situation finally gets so desperate that people throw themselves in the arms of the "liberator", a dissident writer and acquaintance of Kartsev, the Slavophile Sim Karnavalov (an apparent mockery of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), who enters Moscow on a white horse and proclaims himself Tsar Serafim the First. Thus, communism is abandoned and society digresses back into feudal autocracy. 

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The story is narrated by Alfred Jones, a translator for a large chocolate company in Switzerland. Jones, in his 50s, lost his left hand while working as a fireman during The Blitz. Jones is a widower when he meets the young Anna-Luise Fischer in a local restaurant. Jones is surprised to learn that Anna-Luise is the daughter of Dr. Fischer, who has become rich after inventing a perfumed toothpaste and whose dinner parties are famous (or infamous) around Geneva. After a brief courtship, the two are married. Anna-Luise is estranged from her father, the Dr. Fischer of the book's title. Jones goes to see Dr. Fischer to inform him that he and Anna-Luise are married, but Dr. Fischer is indifferent to the information. Later, however, he invites Jones to one of his dinner parties; Anna-Luise warns Jones not to go, saying that these parties are nothing more than an opportunity for her father to humiliate the rich sycophants (whom she calls “the Toads,” her malapropism for “toadies”) in his coterie. Jones goes anyway when Anna-Luise relents, saying that one dinner party can’t corrupt him. At the party, Dr. Fischer and his guests explain some of the rules: If a guest follows all the rules, he or she receives a present (or prize) at the end of the meal. The presents are usually tailored to each guest and are worth a substantial amount of money. However, the rules include complete submission to the humiliations of Dr. Fischer, which always include barbed verbal taunts that focus on each guest’s failings or insecurities. At this particular party, the dinner consists solely of porridge. One guest asks for sugar, but Dr. Fischer only provides salt. Dr. Fischer explains to Jones that the guests must eat the porridge to receive their presents, and that this is all part of his experiment to see how far the rich will go to debase themselves for more riches. The guests all eat the porridge except for Jones, who earns himself the enmity of the Toads by abstaining. Jones doesn’t receive another invitation for some time. Anna-Luise fills Jones in on the dissolution of her parents’ marriage. Her mother had developed a friendship with an employee of Mr. Kips, one of the Toads, based on their mutual love of Mozart. When Dr. Fischer found out, he paid Kips’ firm fifty thousand francs to fire the man, and then hounded his wife until she "willed herself" to die. Jones and Anna- Luise encounter the man, Steiner, in a local record shop, and Anna-Luise's resemblance to her mother (Anna) gives Steiner a heart attack. Meanwhile, he and Anna-Luise discuss having children, but she says she would prefer to wait until after the skiing season is over because she wouldn’t want to ski while pregnant. The two go on a skiing trip, and while Jones (who doesn’t ski) waits in the lodge, Anna-Luise collides with a tree after swerving to avoid a young boy who had sprained his ankle while skiing a course that was too tough for him. She suffers a severe head injury and bleeds enough to stain the front of her white sweater red. She later dies at the hospital, leaving Jones broken and lonesome. He attempts suicide by drinking whiskey laced with aspirin, but it only leaves him drowsy. The next day he responds to an invitation to visit Dr. Fischer in his office. Dr. Fischer offers to give Jones the money held in trust for Anna-Luise, but Jones refuses it. Fischer is surprised, and asks Jones to attend his next dinner party with the Toads, which he promises will be the last. This party – the "Bomb Party" of the novel's alternative title – fills the longest chapter of the book. The party is held outside sometime around New Year's Day, where enormous bonfires keep the guests warm around Dr. Fischer's lawn. The meal is exquisite. Following dinner, Dr. Fischer explains the rules for that night's experiment. He has hidden six crackers in a bran tub. Inside five of them are cheques for two million francs apiece, with the name left blank. Inside the sixth is a small bomb. The guests are expected to draw crackers and open them one by one. One of the Toads, a stooped man named Kips, says that gambling is immoral and refuses to take part, leaving the party instead, and leaving Mr. Jones to consider that it is only Mr. Kips and himself who take the Doctor's threat of a bomb in the last cracker seriously; the other Toads seem to be disbelieving, especially Mrs. Montgomery, who passes off Fischer's bomb threat as playful, untrue banter. The other Toads begin to take the crackers; a hack actor named Deane, immediately goes into a role from one of his movies as a soldier volunteering for a dangerous mission, rambling dialogue to himself while he stands near the bucket. Two other Toads, the widow Mrs. Montgomery and the accountant Belmont, rush up and draw their crackers, realising that the odds favour the earlier selectors. Both draw crackers with cheques inside. Deane finally snaps out of his delusion long enough to draw a cracker, and when he finds a cheque inside, he passes out from either shock or inebriation. This leaves just Jones and the retired military officer, the Divisionnaire. The Divisionnaire takes a cracker but won’t open it. Jones, still considering suicide as a way to avoid his lonely future, takes a cracker, opens it, and finds a cheque. The Divisionnaire remains paralysed by fear, so Jones roots around for the last cracker (which would have gone to Kips) and opens it as well, finding the last cheque, meaning that the Divisionnaire must hold the bomb. While Dr. Fischer torments the Divisionnaire for his cowardice, Jones offers to buy the Divisionnaire's cracker for two million francs. Over Dr. Fischer's objections, Jones takes the fatal cracker and runs off into the snow, where he opens the cracker to find nothing. Steiner suddenly wanders up to Jones, saying he came to confront Dr. Fischer and to spit in his face. Dr. Fischer arrives and after a brief conversation about whether he has achieved his goals with his experiment, says that it is "time to sleep" but heads away from the house. A few moments later, Jones and Steiner hear a crack, and rush off to find Dr. Fischer, who has shot himself with a revolver. The novel ends with Jones saying that he is no longer considering suicide and has even struck up a small friendship with Steiner where the two meet for coffee and mourn their lost loves. Jones says he rarely sees any of the Toads and avoids Geneva for the most part; he did once see Mrs. Montgomery, who called him “Mr. Smith,” allowing Jones to pretend he didn’t hear her and walk away. 

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The play begins with Brown's (David Mann) brother, L.B., and his wife, Sarah, in their house very early in the morning. Their daughter, Milay (whose real name is Millie Jean), soon comes in after being awakened at her own house by her parents. She soon learns that her grandfather (Brown and L.B.'s father) had died, and they need help preparing for the funeral. After a little convincing, Milay decides to help with funeral arrangements. The next morning, Sarah and Milay are talking together while L.B. is upstairs crying. We soon learn that Milay was divorced and had a son who died. But before more can be learned, Mr. Brown and Cora come in and get acquainted with everyone. Everyone is surprised to learn that Brown is Cora's father and that Madea is her mother. Soon after, Will and his wife, Kim, come in. Will's overly drunk mother, Vera (singer Nicci Gilbert) comes in after them crying hysterically. She jumps upon seeing Brown, believing it was he that had died. When she is told it is her father that has died, she nearly collapses, and begins to cry again. Vera begins to insult Cora about her weight, and Cora starts yelling and pulls out a gun, and begins to act like her mother Madea, very crazy. Meanwhile, the ladies are at the church when Tracey Stevens walks in. She tells them that she is pregnant and the father is a married man. Sarah gives Tracey her number and address and tells her to stop by any time. Soon only Cora is left in the church when Rev. Henry Oliver walks in. Cora soon takes a liking to the reverend as the two develop a romance. Later, Tracey comes to the house and goes off with Sarah. Milay's ex-husband, Gerald shows up, giving his sympathy and planning to come to the funeral. Milay is outraged, mainly because Gerald didn't have the decency to come to their own son's funeral. Once Gerald leaves, Tracey then comes back and sees Will, stating that he is her baby's father. The revelation startles everyone, especially Kim, who storms out in tears. Sarah, in a musical number, prays to God and hopes her family will be healed. After continuing to angrily reject Will's apologies, Sarah speaks to Kim, who tells her to make a list with every good thing Will had ever done for her along with every bad one. She continues, saying that if the bad outweighed the good, then she was free to let Will go. But if the good were to outweigh the bad, then she should fight completely for her marriage. Later, Tracy reveals that she is not pregnant and reveals her intentions, and Will and Kim finally reconcile. Gerald and Milay also reconcile. In a special feature on the DVD while Brown is teaching the guys how to play golf Madea calls "The Brown's House" looking for Cora and Brown telling them that she is in jail and she will tell them what she did in the next play called Madea Goes to Jail. 

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Truman Capote, known in New York City society for his wit and fashion flair as much as he is recognized in literary circles as the celebrated writer of Other Voices, Other Rooms and Breakfast at Tiffany's, reads a brief article about the murder of a farming family in Holcomb, Kansas, in the back pages of the New York Times of November 16, 1959. Curious as to how the residents would react to a brutal massacre in their midst, the author and his friend, Nelle Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock), who has just published her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, travel from New York to the rural Midwestern town, ostensibly so Capote can interview people for a magazine article. Once there, he realizes there might be enough material for what he eventually describes as a "nonfiction novel". Capote's dress and demeanor both amuse and dismay law enforcement officials. He allows the less ostentatious Lee to act as a buffer between himself and those whose trust he needs to gain in order to obtain as much background information as possible. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead detective on the case, Alvin Dewey (Jeff Daniels), has refused to cooperate with the writer. But when his starstruck wife Marie meets Capote in a grocery store, she invites him and Lee to Christmas dinner. He eventually wins over his host with personal anecdotes about Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, Frank Sinatra, and the like. As a result, when ex-convicts Richard Hickock (Lee Pace) and Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) are apprehended in Las Vegas and extradited to Holcomb, permission is given to Capote to interview them in their cells. The two defendants are tried and found guilty, but a lengthy period of appeals begins. Capote's society and literary friends in New York, like Slim Keith and Babe Paley, press him for juicy gossip about the case and inquire when they can expect to read the book. Capote forms an attachment to Smith. He empathizes with the convicted killer's unhappy childhood, and Smith's remorseful manner, genuine sincerity, and obvious intelligence impress him. The criminal's reciprocal feelings become evident, although Smith has difficulty dealing with his emotions. As soon as Smith learns that Truman plans to title his book In Cold Blood, which suggests the author thinks of him only as a merciless killer, he violently subdues Capote and nearly rapes him. Smith steadfastly refuses to describe the night of the murders. This greatly angers Capote, who wants to hear details not only as a writer in search of the truth but as someone who finds it difficult to believe a loved one could be guilty of such a crime. Smith eventually acquiesces and discusses what transpired. Capote then finds himself entangled in a personal and professional dilemma. As much as he wants Smith to be sentenced to life in prison, a death by hanging would provide a far more sensational ending for readers of his book. He begins to unravel psychologically as the legal appeals drag on, unable to complete his book without an ending. Years go by. Hickock and Smith finally exhaust all their options and now ask that Capote be present at their April 14, 1965 execution. He complies reluctantly with their request. Afterward, he learns Smith bequeathed his meager belongings to him, and among them he finds a charcoal sketch of him the killer had drawn. 

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During a fire drill at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, the employees panic and fail to evacuate the plant within 15 minutes. Outraged, Mr. Burns announces his workers must compete in a team-building exercise at a snow-covered mountain retreat. Due to a misunderstanding, Homer brings his family along by mistake. The employees must work in pairs: Homer is partnered with Burns, while Smithers competes alone due to an odd number of participants. The goal is to reach a cabin at the mountaintop which contains food and alcohol; the last team to arrive will be fired. Burns persuades Homer to cheat by using a snowmobile to reach the cabin. Arriving early, they enjoy the comfortable surroundings and each other's company. They clink their champagne glasses and inadvertently cause an avalanche that buries the entire cabin. They make several attempts to escape but only cause more avalanches. Lenny and Carl arrive at the right spot but find the cabin gone; unaware it is buried beneath them, they leave. The other employees reach a ranger station, thinking it is their destination. Smithers berates Bart and Lisa for making him the last to arrive. When the workers realize that Homer and Burns have yet to arrive, they suspect something bad has happened to them. Back in the cabin, Homer and Burns start blaming each other for causing the avalanches. They realize it may take days to be rescued and pass the time by playing games and building snowmen dressed in their clothes. After a few hours they are beset by cabin fever and attempt to kill each other. After a vicious struggle, Burns accidentally ignites the propane tank, launching the building from the snow and propelling it toward the horrified workers, who are preparing a rescue operation. When the fuel is spent, the cabin comes to a halt and Burns and Homer emerge cold and disheveled. Burns reminds everyone of the contest, so the workers rush inside. Lenny is fired after being the last person in the cabin. After being told the competition is over in record time, Burns realizes his workers have learned the value of teamwork and announces no one will be fired after all. Lenny prepares to harangue Burns for firing him but falls in a pit of snow. The fall prevents him from losing his job by insulting his boss. The workers celebrate their shared victory while Homer and Burns eye each other suspiciously. 

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Upon leaving the Enolian homeworld, Captain Archer and Commander Tucker are mistakenly identified as smugglers and arrested. They are placed on a prison transport headed for the penal colony known as Canamar. Among their fellow prisoners is a man named Kuroda, and a hulking Nausicaan. Back on Enterprise, Sub-Commander T'Pol, having found the abandoned shuttlepod, manages to convince an Enolian official that Archer and Tucker are innocent. Just as they are about to be released, however, Kuroda breaks free and takes down the guard and pilot. When the vessel comes under attack from Enolian patrol ships, Archer convinces Kuroda to allow Tucker to assist them. Tucker manages to create a plasma cloud diversion, allowing the transport to jump to warp. Kuroda is impressed with Archer's ploy. In fact, Kuroda has come to respect Archer and asks him to join him on his next endeavor. As the two men talk, Kuroda reveals that he was 14 when he first spent time in a penal colony. He was innocent, but he still spent five years in prison, and started making a living as a criminal after he was released. Kuroda also finally reveals that they will rendezvous with another ship at Tamaal and destroy the transport. Archer, determined to save the other prisoners, enlists Tucker's aid. Tucker is freed under the pretence of fixing a docking hatch, and manages to render the Nausicaan unconscious, but draws the attention of Kuroda, who realizes that Archer has been plotting against him all along. The transport soon docks, but when the doors open, Lieutenant Reed and Ensign Mayweather appear. The crew evacuate the transport, which is now in a decaying orbit, but Kuroda refuses to leave. Back on Enterprise, the Enolian official demands a report for his superiors. Archer, however, tersely informs the official that he and Tucker were falsely arrested, and wonders how many others on their way to Canamar don't belong there. 

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Cody Maverick is a young northern rockhopper penguin who lives in Shiverpool, Antarctica, with his mother Edna and his older brother Glen. Cody has yearned to be a professional surfer ever since meeting the famous surfer Big Z many years ago, so when a talent scout shorebird named Mikey arrives to find entrants for the Big Z Memorial surfing contest on Pen-Gu Island, Cody jumps at the chance. En route to the contest, Cody befriends another entrant, Chicken Joe, a surfer from Michigan. The entrants arrive at Pen-Gu Island, where Cody meets and immediately falls in love with Lani, a female gentoo penguin who is a lifeguard. He also meets the contest's arrogant champion, Tank "The Shredder" Evans, who has won the Big Z Memorial nine times since it was first held after Z's presumed death during a previous match ten years ago. Cody sees Tank vandalizing Big Z's memorial and immediately challenges him to a surfing duel. Tank wins the duel while Cody nearly drowns and is stung by a sea urchin named Ivan. Lani rescues him and takes him to her uncle, "Geek", to help Cody recover from his injuries. Cody wakes up, but cannot find the souvenir necklace given to him as a child by Big Z. Geek then finds it in his hut. While returning the necklace, Geek finds Cody sitting on a koa log and offers to help him make a surfboard. They attempt to take the log back to Geek's house, only to lose control of it and end up on a beach far away from the house. When Cody gets to the beach, he discovers a shack full of old trophies and surfboards, which used to belong to Big Z. After observing Geek walking sadly into the shack, he realizes that Geek is actually Big Z and asks him to teach him how to surf. Z reluctantly agrees, but tells Cody he has to make his own board first. The attempt does not go well, however, as an impatient Cody refuses to listen to Z's advice and crafts a weak and unstable board that shatters upon hitting the water. Angry, Cody storms off and runs into Lani, who eventually persuades him to return. Cody spends the night working patiently on a new board. Z compliments Cody on his new board, and Cody is eager to start training. Z instead has him do menial tasks seemingly unrelated to surfing. Finally, when Cody starts having fun, Z and Lani teach him how to surf the waves. Afterwards, Cody asks Z if he will come watch the contest, but Z refuses, revealing that he faked his death because he realized he couldn't compete with his then-new rival Tank, and that he had become too focused on winning. Not impressed that Z gave up, Cody throws the necklace Z gave him into the sea, meets up with Joe, and gets back to the contest just as it begins. Tank makes it to the finals, as do Cody and Joe. In the semifinals, Tank battles with Cody, with Tank trying to throw him off his board, but Tank falls off his own board and loses. During the finals, however, Tank appears and tries to knock Joe off his board. Cody intervenes at the last minute, sending himself and Tank into an area of the beach known as the Boneyards, which consists of dangerously sharp rock outcroppings and has killed many surfers who have ventured there. Tank punches Cody off his board before crashing, and is rescued by Lani. Z, who had secretly been watching Cody's performance, rescues Cody from a gigantic wave and helps him get back to the beach safely. Z and Cody find out that Joe won by default since Tank and Cody were disqualified. However, Cody accepts the loss, having decided he would rather just have fun instead. Z reveals himself to the spectators and invites all of them to surf at his beach, where Geek joins Cody in tube-riding. Cody finishes his interview with a reflection of the past events and then joins the rest of his friends in the water. 

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Count Voivoide Arminius Chousescu Dracula dies with a stake in his heart, and his daughter Nadja (Elina Löwensohn) shows up to claim the body, hoping that his death will free her from the life her father has forced on her. She has the body cremated and prepares to take the ashes to Brooklyn and pay a visit to her twin brother Edgar whom she hasn't seen for a long time. Before she leaves, however, she stops for a drink and meets Lucy. Lucy is also feeling a sense of emptiness, so she takes Nadja home. They appear to cheer each other up, and they wind up having sex together. So, who killed Dracula? Van Helsing (Peter Fonda), of course. And Helsing's nephew Jim, who also happens to be Lucy's husband, has to bail him out of jail. Helsing knows that, if Dracula's body is not destroyed properly, he'll be back. When Helsing learns that Dracula's body has been removed from the morgue, he enlists Jim's help. Meanwhile, Nadja goes to visit Edgar and meets his nurse and live-in lover Cassandra. Edgar is sick. Nadja persuades Cassandra to move Edgar to her apartment where she can help him by transfusing him with plasma from the blood of shark embryoes, which is what Nadja uses to stay healthy. Edgar revives enough to drink some of Nadja's blood. However, Lucy has fallen under Nadja's mesmerism. She leads both Jim and Van Helsing to Edgar's house where Nadja is staying with her Renfield. Edgar awakens long enough to warn Cassandra to leave the house, as she is in danger. Cassandra, who just happens to be Van Helsing's daughter, attempts to escape, with Nadja pursuing her, Lucy pursuing Nadja, and Jim pursuing Lucy. Cassandra runs into a gas station where it looks like two burly mechanics are going to protect her, but Nadja mesmerizes them and kills one of them. The other one shoots Nadja in the abdomen. Edgar is improving. He unites with the Helsings to stop Nadja. He receives a "psychic fax" from Nadja, telling him that she is injured and must return to Transylvania. She also mentions that she's taking Cassandra with her, so Edgar and the Helsings high-tail it to Transylvania, too. As they approach the castle, Nadja begins a transfusion of Cassandra's blood while Cassandra sleeps. While Jim fights with Nadja's Renfield, Edgar and Helsing drive a stake through Nadja's heart. Lucy is released, Nadja is destroyed, and Cassandra wakes up. However, not all is as it seems. Nadja narrates the epilogue: "They cut off my head...burned my body...no one knew...no one suspected that I was now alive in Cassandra's body. Edgar and I were married at City Hall...there *is* a better way to live." 

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Dr. Wilhelmina "Wil" Pang is a successful young Chinese American surgeon living in New York City. Wil is lesbian, but is closeted to her mother Gao and her mother's friends. Wil is forced by her mother to come to a gathering at the restaurant Planet China with family friends where her mother has plans to set her up with a son of a friend, but Wil is drawn to Vivian, the daughter of one of the Chinese mothers who recently got a divorce. They run into each other at the hospital where Wil works, only to discover that Vivian's father is Wil's boss, Dr. Shing. Vivian and her father have a tense relationship since Vivian is currently pursuing her love of modern dance instead of the more respectable ballet. Wil comes home to discover her mother has been kicked out by her grandfather for being pregnant out of wedlock, bringing shame to the family. Wil asks for the identity of the father, but Gao refuses to answer. From then on, Gao lives with Wil. Vivian invites Wil to one of her dance shows and after the show, the two hang out. Vivian reveals the fact that they had met once before when they were children; Vivian kissed Wil on the nose after Wil rescued her from bullies; Wil ran away afterwards. Vivian and Wil go to Vivian's apartment and the two kiss. The couple goes on several dates, but Wil is afraid of kissing Vivian in public. On Vivian's request, Wil presents Vivian to her mother as a friend so that they can meet and the three share an awkward dinner. It is revealed later that her mother knows of her homosexuality, but is in denial. Set up by Wil, Gao goes on several dates to find a man to be a father to her unborn child, but remains unattached. She debates on whether to accept the affections of Cho, a man who has loved her for 15 years and is willing to parent her child. Vivian reveals to Wil that she was accepted into a prestigious ballet program in Paris and is considering the offer. Wil congratulates Vivian and gives her encouragement to accept the offer. While Vivian still debates on the offer, Vivian's father speaks to Wil and presses her to convince Vivian to accept the offer. Wil withdraws from Vivian, and Vivian accepts the job in Paris. Gao accepts Cho's marriage proposal. At the wedding, Wil interrupts with a love note from the father of the child saying how much he loves her and wants to marry her despite their age gap. Wil points out the elderly pharmacist, Old Yu, as the man she loves. Old Yu protests, and Little Yu, his son, stands up and announces that he is the one. Wil and her mother run out of the wedding and onto a bus, laughing. After an emotional talk with her mother, Wil rushes to the airport to catch Vivian. Wil apologizes, but Vivian challenges Wil to kiss her to prove her sincerity. Unable to publicly display her love out of fear, Wil is left at the terminal as Vivian leaves for Paris. Three months later, Wil goes to another party at Planet China, where Gao and Little Yu are now a couple. Wil sees Vivian, who has come to see her mother. Wil approaches Vivian and asks her to dance. They dance, and kiss. Gao and Vivian's mother smile at each other while giving a thumbs up. Some people leave in disgust, but Wil and Vivian ignore them, while everyone else joins in to dance. 

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Chan Chi- kwong (Howard Sit) is a young boy who lives with his father (Felix Wong) and stepmother (Karen Mok). He blames his stepmother for the suicide of his mother 3 years earlier and continually runs away from home. One day, while walking to school, he meets an eccentric old man (Feng Xiaogang) in the park who accidentally pours a magic potion he has created down a drain. The next day, a huge tree has grown from a seedling in the drain. Kwong goes to the man's house and steals the potion, falling and breaking it as he tries to run away. Some of the potion enters a cut in his hand, and the next day he wakes up to find he has grown to the age of 20 overnight. Kwong (Andy Lau) is thrilled that he has become an adult and is able to finally run away from home without being recognized. As he gets older each day, he learns more about being an adult and about the situations of those around him. 

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Academia Island is an elite school that various genius students from across the globe attend. Among them are Yusuke Amamiya, Joh Ohara and Megumi Misaki who with Takuji Yano and Mari Aikawa sought to create a suit strong enough for space exploration. However, three of their classmates and friends Kenji Tsukigata, Rui Senda, and Goh Omura felt their talents were being wasted and leave to join an evil organization called Volt who offers to raise their full scientific potential. As a result, when Yusuke and company saw them leaving, Kenji draws a gun on the three with Takuji and Mari taking the fatal blow. Soon after, one of the professors at the school Professor Hoshi pitches in to help Yusuke and his friends complete the suits so they can serve to prepare against Volt. And then in 1988, the present day, with Kenji, Rui, and Goh now known as Doctors Kemp, Mazenda and Obular, Volt begins its attack by devastating Academia Island. As a result Yusuke, Joh, and Megumi take up the suits they created and become the Livemen to battle against their former classmates and Volt. Though they managed to get Goh to leave Volt, the organization recruits new members in Doctor Ashura and the aliens Guildos and Butchy. Soon after, the Livemen are joined by Tetsuya and Jun- ichi, the respective younger brothers of Takuji and Mari, while learning that there is a darker agenda behind Volt that only its leader Bias knows. 

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Sun-jae (Kim Hye-soo) leaves her unfaithful husband, Sung-joon, and moves into an old apartment with her daughter, Tae-su. She takes a pair of bright pink high heels she found in a subway car, only to discover that they are cursed. Her obsession grows, arousing envy and greed with nightmarish visions. Tae-su and Sun-jae's best friend, Kim Mi-hee (Go Soo-hee), also fall victim to the shoes, resulting in hysteria and theft. Mi-hee dies after she takes the shoes, and Sun-jae tries to get rid of them. However, the pink shoes always return to Tae-su and further horrifying Sun-jae. With the help of her new boyfriend, In-cheol (Kim Sung-soo), Sun-jae tries to uncover the mystery behind the pink shoes before it kills her and Tae-su. She discovers that the person who takes them will die with their feet chopped off. The mystery leads to an old woman who lives in a basement below Sun-jae. The old woman identifies Sun-jae as Oki, which confuses her. It is revealed that in the old woman's youth, during the last years of the Japanese occupation of Korea, the old woman was a servant for a vain and sadistic dancer named Oki. She was often abused by Oki, which left her hunchbacked and scared of her. Oki was jealous of a prominent dancer named Keiko, who was the daughter of a high-ranking officer, and very talented. This is made worse when she is gifted pink shoes from a male dancer who had been her lover. Oki wanted the shoes for herself and paid the old woman to steal them. One night, a pregnant Keiko witnessed her lover and Oki having sex. When she fled out of betrayal and grief, the man tried to stop Keiko. Fed up with being second and realizing the man loves Keiko, Oki murdered Keiko and dumped her body. She wasn't aware that the old woman had witnessed Keiko's murder. Keiko's ghost then gets her revenge on both the man and Oki, leading to their deaths. The old woman warns her that the same fate will befall on Sun-jae if she doesn't return to shoes to Keiko at once. At Keiko's gravesite, Sun-jae returns the pink shoes, hoping this will end the haunting. She visits In-cheol only to discover he has found out that she killed her husband. When she learns that Tae-su told him the truth, she hurries home to try to kill her. She chases Tae-su to the subway station tracks. While trying to find her, she is confronted by the ghost of Keiko, who tells her the truth. It is revealed that Sun-jae is the reincarnation of Oki, revealing why the old woman feared her upon their first meeting. Keiko shows how Sun-jae murdered her husband, Mi- hee, In-cheol, and attempted to kill her own daughter. As Sun-jae tries to escape, she is faced with a deformed Keiko, who finally claims her. In a brief moment the scene switches back to 1944. Keiko is seen dancing passionately during rehearsals and wearing the pink shoes given to her. The last scene reveals Tae-su practicing her ballet in her mother's bedroom. In a post- credits scene, a grown up Tae-su picks up the pink shoes in the park (suggesting that Keiko meant for Tae-su to inherit the shoes). 

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Set in turn-of-the-century New York, wealthy playboy Charles Hill (Fred Astaire) is causing difficulties for his guardian, Aunt Lettie (Marjorie Main) and lawyer, Max (Keenan Wynn). Prone to fall in love then ditching his showgirl brides-to-be at the altar, the compensation bills are mounting. After the most recent episode, he hears Angela (Vera-Ellen) leading a Salvation Army band in song. He falls in love at first sight and when she scoffs at him, telling him that if he were in love his feet would leave the ground, he promptly floats high into the air. He pursues her, even vowing to do an honest day's work for the first time in his life. After various attempts to convince her, Angela's feeling finally cause her feet to leave the ground. After a couple of misunderstandings are resolved, they float into the air together, to a chorus of well-wishers below. 

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The Bow is set entirely on a rotting 40-foot boat anchored off the coast of Korea. An old man (Jeon Seong-hwang) maintains it as a fishing platform for tourists with the help of a beautiful 16-year-old girl (Han Yeo-reum) who appears to be mute. Visitors to the boat chat about the rumors. He brought her out when she was just six years old. Her parents are looking for her. He plans to marry her on her 17th birthday. The stories sound farfetched, as does the idea that the old man is also a fortune teller, but they all turn out to be basically true. She is everything to him: a kidnap victim/daughter/girlfriend/fiancée. The old man fends off the fishermen, who make advances at the girl, by shooting arrows at them while the girl just smiles. He predicts fortune by shooting three arrows at a Bodhisattva image on the side of the boat as the girl swings dangerously in front of it. The girl whispers in his ear and he whispers in the person's ear his fortune. She's not a bad archer either and is more than capable of protecting herself. When he's not wielding the bow as a weapon, the old man converts it into a musical instrument and plays it like a violin. The old man's arrangements start to come apart when the boat is visited by a fishing party that includes a sweet-natured student (Seo Ji-seok) who falls in love with the girl at first sight and is profoundly concerned about her situation. She, too, falls for him, and the old man starts to fear that his marriage day, carefully marked on his calendar, may never come to pass. The student comes to take her away as her parents are searching for her still, but the old man tries to prevent them from leaving by shooting arrows at him but she stands in front. The old man tries to commit suicide out of shame. She returns and marries him. They each liberate a chicken as part of the ceremony. They leave on the boat to consummate the marriage. The student releases the hen but hits the cock but later releases it too. The old man starts to play his bow and the girl falls asleep. He shoots an arrow in the sky and jumps into the ocean. The boat returns to the student. However, the girl acts as though someone is having sex with her and suddenly the arrow shot earlier strikes between her legs in the plank. She has an orgasm and bleeds. As they leave the old boat starts following them and after she waves sink. Then this message comes onscreen as an end note: "Strength and a beautiful sound like in the tautness of a bow. I want to live like this until the day I die." 

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In Alaska (referred to as "a faraway place at the edge of the world") the old elf Iki- Iäkäs is dying, because the musicbox which plays his life's melody is about to stop. Iki-Iäkäs sends three elves, Toivo, Kauko and Hande, to Finland (whence the elves were driven away by the evil and greedy Näsä) to find the key to the music box so that it can be rewound. After forgetting to fill the tank of their aeroplane, the elves crash into the woods. They manage to steal fuel from a nearby farm, the occupants of which are completely unaware of the elves' presence and the true intentions of their bizarre guest Pentti. Pentti is, in actuality, a Näsä sent to steal the elves' Book of Knowledge which holds the answer to every question. Despite getting the gas, they can't leave, because the propeller was twisted in the crash and so Kauko, an elf of an established carpenter family, begins to make a new one out of wood. As a comedic touch, the three elves speak in a mixture of Finnish and English. This is mostly Finnish but (almost) every line contains a few words or phrases replaced by English in random places. 

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Barbara Liversidge is a no-nonsense, outspoken, nosey, middle-aged doctor's receptionist with a sharp tongue. She has been married to her husband Ted, a mild-mannered taxi driver, for 40 years. Barbara is by far the dominant figure in the relationship, but Ted does occasionally stand up to her. The pair live in Pudsey, Leeds, West Yorkshire with their twenty-something son Neil, who drifts between jobs and a succession of short-term relationships. Their daughter, the long-suffering Linda, is married to Martin Pond, a TV presenter who has his own slot on the local news, Pond Life, which generally involves him making a fool of himself. Jean is Barbara's appearance-obsessed sister (Barbara once claims she's had so much plastic surgery that "she literally doesn't know her arse from her elbow") who marries the simpering Phil. Barbara's colleague at the doctor's surgery, Doreen, often regales Barbara with tales of the bizarre situations she and her never-seen husband Clive find themselves in. Much of the humour revolves around Barbara's tactlessness and her family's fear of getting on the wrong side of her. While the family often complain about her, they usually find they struggle to manage when Barbara doesn't take charge. Although the show initially appears to have a very traditional sitcom setting, surreal humour is frequently used, such as Barbara baking a cake that looks like Judi Dench and a taxidermist friend of Ted's stuffing and mounting his dead wife. There were also some more drama-based plots, such as Linda's discovery she can't have any more children after the birth of her son George. In a particularly dark development, the final episode ("Who Shot Barbara?") ends with an unseen assailant shooting Barbara from behind - a cliffhanger which is never resolved. 

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On Christmas Eve, 1944, somewhere in Europe, presumably during the Battle of the Bulge, two World War II U.S. Army soldiers, one a Broadway entertainer, Captain Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby), the other an aspiring entertainer, Private First Class Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), perform for the 151st Division ("White Christmas"). But, word has come down that their beloved commanding officer, Major General Thomas F. Waverly (Dean Jagger), is being relieved of his command. He arrives for the end of the show and delivers an emotional farewell. The men give him a rousing send-off ("The Old Man"). At the end of the performance, everyone is forced to take cover from an aerial bombing run. One bomb knocks over a partially-destroyed building, but Bob is too busy shouting orders to notice. Phil throws him out of the way and his arm is injured by debris. Bob later visits Phil at a field hospital and thanks the private for saving his life. When Bob offers a favor to repay the debt, Phil shows him a duet he wrote and asks to perform with Bob back in New York City. Feeling obligated by Phil's heroism, Bob agrees. After the war, Bob and Phil make it big in nightclubs, radio, and then on Broadway, eventually becoming successful producers ("Hi Hup", "Heat Wave", "Blue Skies"). They mount their newest hit musical titled Playing Around. The same day they receive a letter from "Freckle-Faced Haynes, the dog-faced boy," their mess sergeant from the war, asking them to look at an act that his two sisters are doing. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye When they go to the club to watch the act ("Sisters"), Phil notices that Bob is smitten with Betty (Rosemary Clooney). Phil has eyes for her sister, Judy (Vera-Ellen). Betty and Judy join Bob and Phil at their table, and Phil dances with Judy, so that Bob and Betty can get to know each other. Phil and Judy hit it off ("The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing"). Bob and Betty do not, getting into a minor argument about how Bob thinks that everyone has an angle in show business. Judy and Betty are headed for the Columbia Inn in Pine Tree, Vermont, where they are booked to perform over the holidays. Due to a disagreement with their landlord (he claimed that they had burned an expensive rug at his hotel and had even summoned the sheriff to arrest them), the girls have to leave immediately, so Phil gives the sisters his and Bob's sleeping- room accommodations aboard the train and delays the sheriff by imitating the girls' signature number ("Sisters" redux). Bob and Phil board later and Bob is extremely upset that they have to stay up all night in the club car on their way to NYC. They are joined by Betty and Judy, who thank them profusely for the tickets and convince them to come with them to Pine Tree ("Snow"). When the train arrives in Pine Tree, there's not a snowflake in sight, and chances of it falling appear dim. Bob and Phil discover that the inn is run by their former commanding officer, General Waverly. Waverly has invested all of his savings into the lodge, which is in danger of failing because there's no snow and thus no guests. To bring business to the inn, Bob and Phil bring the entire cast and crew of their musical Playing Around, and add in Betty and Judy to the rehearsals ("Minstrel Number"). Bob and Betty's relationship blooms ("Count Your Blessings") and they spend a good deal of time together. Meanwhile, Bob discovers the General's request to rejoin the army has been rejected. He decides to prove to the General that he isn't forgotten. While rehearsals continue ("Choreography") Bob calls Ed Harrison (Johnny Grant), an old army buddy, now a successful variety show host, to arrange a televised invitation to all the men formerly under the command of the General to come to the inn on Christmas Eve as a surprise. In response, Harrison suggests they go all out and put the show on national television to generate free advertising for Wallace and Davis, but Bob insists that it will have nothing to do with their business. Unbeknownst to Bob, nosy housekeeper Emma Allen (Mary Wickes) has been eavesdropping, but she has only heard the part about free advertising, not Bob's rejection of the idea. Mistakenly believing that her beloved boss will be portrayed as a pitiable figure in a nationwide broadcast, Emma reveals what she has heard to a shocked Betty. The misunderstanding causes Betty to grow suddenly cold towards a baffled Bob. While this is happening, Judy becomes convinced that Betty will never take on a serious relationship until Judy is engaged or married. She pressures a reluctant Phil to announce a phony engagement, but the plan backfires when Betty abruptly departs for New York City to take a job offer since Judy is taken care of. After rehearsals are complete ("Abraham Number"), Phil and Judy reveal to Bob that the engagement was phony. Bob, still unaware of the real reason behind Betty's coldness, goes to New York for The Ed Harrison Show, but decides to stop and try to convince Betty to come back. Bob sees Betty's new act ("Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me") and reveals the truth about the engagement, and Betty starts to warm up to him, but he is called away by Ed Harrison before learning what is really bothering her. Back at the Inn, Phil fakes an injury to distract the General so he won't see the broadcast of Bob's announcement. On the broadcast, Bob invites veterans of the 151st Division to come to Pine Tree, Vermont, on Christmas Eve ("What Can You Do with a General"). Betty catches Bob's televised pitch and realizes she was mistaken. She returns to Pine Tree in time for the Christmas Eve show, but only tells Judy. The whole division comes into Pine Tree secretly. When the General enters the lodge, he is greeted by his former division, who sing a rousing chorus of "The Old Man". Just as the following number ("Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army") ends, he learns that snow is finally falling. In the finale, Bob and Betty declare their love for one another, as do Phil and Judy. The background of the set is removed to show the snow falling, and Bob, Betty, Phil and Judy perform "White Christmas" while everyone raises a glass, and toasts, "May your days be merry and bright; and may all your Christmases be white." Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye 

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