From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== An unknown entity uses the Time Scoop to bring several of the previous incarnations of the Doctor; his former companions Susan Foreman, Sarah Jane Smith, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart; and his enemies the Daleks, the Cybermen, a Raston Warrior Robot and a Yeti, from their respective time streams into the Death Zone on Gallifrey. The entity's attempt to grab the Fourth Doctor and Romana ends up trapping the two in the time vortex. The Fifth Doctor senses the disruption of his own timeline and with Tegan and Turlough, travels to Gallifrey via his TARDIS, also ending up in the Death Zone, unable to travel farther with the TARDIS due to a force field projected by the Tomb of Rassilon, the tower at the centre of the Death Zone. The various Doctors lead their companions towards the Tower while avoiding the hostile forces. At the Citadel on Gallifrey, the High Council of Time Lords have also detected the disturbance in the Doctor's timeline a power drain from the Time Scoop, and Lord President Borusa has the Master, the Doctor's arch- nemesis, summoned to help rescue the Doctor, offering the Master a new set of regenerations and a pardon for his misdeeds if he succeeds. The Master accepts, and is given a recall device by the Castellan and a copy of the High Council's seal before he is transmatted to the Zone. The Master encounters the Third Doctor, who dismisses him and accuses him of making the seal himself, before finding the Fifth just as they are surrounded by Cybermen. The Master is knocked out by a Cyberman's gun firing and the Doctor finds the recall device to return to the Citadel. When the Master awakes, he makes a pact with the Cybermen to lead them to the Tower if they will give him his life but tricks them into falling for the Death Zone's traps. The Cybermen, too, have an ulterior motive, planning to kill the Master when he outlives his usefulness. As the other Doctors and companions converge on the Tower, the Fifth Doctor works with the council, discovering the recall device given to the Master included a tracking signal to lead the Cybermen to him, and foul play is suspected. The Castellan is found to possess the forbidden Black Scrolls of Rassilon, and he dies while attempting to escape an invasive mind probe. When the Doctor returns to the High Council to report, he finds Borusa missing, and soon discovers a secret room with Borusa at the controls of the Time Scoop. Borusa reveals he seeks to be the President Eternal of Gallifrey and needed the Doctors to disable the force field over the Tomb as to gain immortality from Rassilon's Ring and rule forever. Borusa uses his headgear, the Coronet of Rassilon, to compel the Doctor to his bidding. Meanwhile, the Master meets the First Doctor and Tegan and rids himself of the Cybermen by letting them fall victim to a giant chessboard rigged with a laser trap, before killing the Cyberleader with one of his subordinates' guns. As Borusa expected, the other three Doctors and their companions have made it to the tomb chamber, bypassing the Yeti and Raston Warrior Robot, as well as phantoms of the Doctor's former companions Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot, Liz Shaw and Mike Yates. They ponder the meaning of writing on the tomb: "to lose is to win and he who wins shall lose". The Master arrives in the Tomb, but the Doctors' companions tie him up, with the Brigadier knocking him out for good measure. The Doctors disable the force field to summon the TARDIS, the Third Doctor using his catchphrase of "I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow", but this action allows Borusa and the Fifth Doctor to arrive via transmat. Borusa uses the Coronet to prevent the Doctors' companions from interfering while he speaks to Rassilon. An image of Rassilon appears above the tomb and offers Borusa his ring as the key to immortality. The other Doctors try to stop Borusa, but the First Doctor tells them to hold off. Borusa dons the Ring, but then shortly disappears, becoming living stone that is part of Rassilon's tomb. The First Doctor realised what fate the tomb's writing foretold: immortality, but at a cost. In exchange for help, Rassilon frees the Fourth Doctor and Romana from the time vortex and returns the Master to his own time; the Doctors immediately refuse his offer for immortality. The First, Second and Third Doctors collect their respective companions and return to their time streams as well, leaving the Fifth Doctor with Tegan and Turlough. Chancellor Flavia arrives via transmat, with the Chancellory Guard, and after learning of Borusa's fate, declares that the Doctor is now Lord President, a position he cannot refuse. The Doctor tells Flavia to return to the Citadel as he will follow shortly, then quickly departs with his companions, as he has no intention of returning to Gallifrey any time soon. Tegan asks if he's planning to jet off across the galaxy in an old spaceship running from his people. With a grin, he replies that of course he is, as that's how his adventure started in the first place. ===== ===== The film takes place during a heatwave in the middle of summer in post-war Tokyo. Rookie homicide detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) has his Colt pistol stolen in a crowded trolley ride. He chases the pickpocket, but loses him. Remorsefully, he reports the theft at headquarters. After some preliminary investigation, he then goes undercover in the city backstreets for days, trying to infiltrate the illicit arms market. He eventually picks up the trail of a gun racket. Forensics discover that the stolen gun was used in a recent crime, and Murakami is partnered up with the veteran detective Satō (Takashi Shimura). After questioning a suspect, Satō and Murakami get a tip that their suspect may be a fan of baseball. They stake-out a local high-attendance baseball game looking for a gun dealer named Honda. When they confront Honda, he points them to Yusa, a disenchanted war veteran who has resorted to desperate crime. They investigate Yusa's sister's house and his sweetheart, showgirl Harumi Namiki (Keiko Awaji), which does not lead to immediate leads. Murakami's gun is used again in a crime, this time as a murder weapon. They continue to question Namiki at her mother's house. She is still reticent to talk, so Satō leaves to investigate Yusa's trail, while Murakami remains behind hoping that Namiki's mother can persuade her to begin cooperating. Satō comes across a hotel, Yusa's most recent hideout. He places a call for Murakami, but, just as he is about to reveal Yusa's location, the criminal (having overheard the hotel owners mention Satō being a cop) tries to shoot Satō dead in the hotel phone booth before he makes a run for it. Satō, though badly wounded, tries to give chase but passes out from blood loss and is left for dead. A desperate Murakami arrives at the hospital to donate blood but is distraught when there is no word from the doctors if Satō will survive. The following morning, Namiki has a change of heart and informs Murakami that she had an appointment with Yusa at a train station nearby. Murakami races to the train station and confronts a man based on his age, muddy clothes, and left-handedness, three tips he has collected over the past few days. Yusa is flustered by the unexpected confrontation and tries to bolt from the train station. Murakami pursues him into a forest and is shot in the arm, but Yusa wastes his last two remaining bullets. Murakami, in spite of his injury, still manages to wrestle Yusa down, handcuff him, and take him into custody. Days later back at the hospital, Satō has recovered and congratulates Murakami on receiving his first citation. Murakami briefly sympathizes with Yusa's situation, until Satō tells him to forget about it and to get ready for the cases that he will need to solve in the future. ===== A wealthy executive named Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) is in a struggle to gain control of a company called National Shoes. One faction wants the company to make cheap, low quality shoes for the impulse market as opposed to the sturdy and high quality shoes currently being produced. Gondo believes that the long-term future of the company will be best served by well made shoes with modern styling, though this plan is unpopular because it means lower profits in the short term. He has secretly set up a leveraged buyout to gain control of the company, mortgaging all he has. Just as he is about to put his plan into action, he receives a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son, Jun. Gondo is prepared to pay the ransom, but the call is dismissed as a prank when Jun comes in from playing outside. However, Jun's playmate, Shinichi, the child of Gondo's chauffeur, is missing and the kidnappers have mistakenly abducted him instead. In another phone call the kidnapper reveals that he has discovered his mistake but still demands the same ransom. Gondo is now forced to make a decision about whether to pay the ransom to save the child or complete the buyout. After a long night of contemplation Gondo announces that he will not pay the ransom, explaining that doing so would not only mean the loss of his position in the company, but cause him to go into debt and throw the futures of his wife and son into jeopardy. His plans are weakened when his top aide lets the "cheap shoes" faction know about the kidnapping in return for a promotion should they take over. Finally, under pressure from his wife and the chauffeur, Gondo decides to pay the ransom. Following the kidnapper's instructions, the money is put into two small briefcases and thrown from a moving train; Shinichi is found unharmed. Gondo is forced out of the company and his creditors demand the collateral in lieu of debt. The story is widely reported however, making Gondo a hero, while the National Shoe Company is vilified and boycotted. Meanwhile, the police eventually find the hideout where Shinichi was kept prisoner. The bodies of the kidnapper's two accomplices are found there, killed by an overdose of heroin. The police surmise that the kidnapper engineered their deaths by supplying them with uncut drugs. Further clues lead to the identity of the kidnapper, a medical intern at a nearby hospital, but there is no hard evidence linking him to the accomplices' murders. The police lay a trap by first planting a false story in the newspapers implying that the accomplices are still alive, and then forging a note from them demanding more drugs. The kidnapper is then apprehended in the act of trying to supply another lethal dose of uncut heroin to his accomplices, after testing the strength on a drug addict who overdoses and dies. Most of the ransom money is recovered, but too late to save Gondo's property from auction. With the kidnapper facing a death sentence, he requests to see Gondo while in prison and Gondo finally meets him face to face. Gondo has gone to work for a rival shoe company, earning less money but enjoying a free hand in running it. The kidnapper at first feigns no regrets for his actions. As he reveals that envy from seeing Gondo's house on the hill every day led him to conceive of the crime, his emotions gradually gain control over him and he ends up breaking down emotionally before Gondo after finally facing his failure. ===== The main character, Ray Atlee, is a law professor with a good salary at the University of Virginia. He has a brother, Forrest, and a father, known to many as Judge Reuben V. Atlee. Ray is sent to his father's house in Clanton, Mississippi, to discuss issues regarding the old man's will and estate. To do this, Ray has to go to fictional Ford County, Mississippi, the setting for four of John Grisham's other books including A Time To Kill. When he finds his father dead in the study, Ray discovers a sum of over $3 million in the house, money which is not part of Judge Atlee's will. Ray immediately thinks the money is "dirty" because his father could not possibly have made so much money in his career. Assuming that he is the only one who knows about the money, Ray decides to take it without making it officially part of the estate, and does not tell anyone about it: he knows that if he made it a part of the estate, taxes would take most of the money. But later reality proves otherwise. Ray is being followed; someone else knows about the money. After his own investigations into the roots of the money and the identity of his shadow—including trips to casinos and shady meetings with prominent southern lawyers—he eventually discovers that Forrest has the money. He finds Forrest in a drug rehab compound and confronts him. At the end both part, with Forrest telling Ray that he will contact him in a year. Category:2000 American novels Category:Novels by John Grisham Category:Legal thriller novels Category:Doubleday (publisher) books ===== ===== A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman seemingly from Akron, Ohio who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise – such as a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card, a carnival glass lampshade, and a fragment of wood believed to be from Noah's Ark – but he expects each customer to also play a little prank on someone else in town. Gaunt knows about the long-standing private grudges, arguments, and feuds between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence. Sheriff Alan Pangborn becomes wary of Gaunt as soon as the shop opens. However, Alan's lover, Polly Chalmers, proprietor of the local sewing shop, dismisses his suspicions and buys an ancient charm that relieves the terrible arthritis pain in her hands. Tensions rapidly grow after Nettie Cobb, Polly's housekeeper, and her enemy Wilma Jerzyck kill each other in a confrontation sparked by pranks played on them by local boy Brian Rusk (on Wilma) and alcoholic Hugh Priest (on Nettie.) Many other rivalries begin to fester, spurred by the personal motives and secrets of the people involved. Gaunt eventually hires petty criminal John "Ace" Merrill as his assistant, providing him with high-quality cocaine and hinting at buried treasure that could relieve the debt he owes to a pair of drug dealers. Ace's first assignment is to retrieve crates of pistols, ammunition, and blasting caps from a garage in Boston; Gaunt soon begins to sell the pistols to his customers so they can protect their property. The truth is eventually revealed: For centuries, Gaunt has tricked unsuspecting people into buying worthless junk that magically appears to be whatever they treasure or desire most. They then become so paranoid about keeping their items safe that they eagerly buy up the weapons that he inevitably offers and trade away their souls. Ace begins to suspect the supernatural background of his new employer, but Gaunt keeps him in line through intimidation and promises of revenge against Alan and the town. Soon, several cases of violence happen simultaneously: gym coach Lester Pratt attacks Deputy John LaPointe (his fiancee's ex-boyfriend) and is killed in self-defense; Priest and bar owner Henry Beaufort kill each other in a shootout; Brian commits suicide out of guilt for his role in Wilma and Nettie’s deaths; and town selectman Danforth “Buster” Keeton (who has been secretly embezzling thousands of dollars from public funds to fuel his gambling addiction) attacks Deputy Norris Ridgewick, before escaping to his home and killing his wife Myrtle with a hammer. Eventually, Buster is recruited by Ace to join him in his work for Gaunt. With the violence in Castle Rock rapidly escalating, Ace and Buster plant dynamite all over town, using the caps Ace brought back. Alan sets out to kill Ace, wrongly believing him to be responsible for a car accident that killed his wife and son. Polly realizes the evil of the charm she bought and destroys it. Norris attempts suicide, realizing that his prank on Priest led to the fatal shootout, but decides against it and goes to the police station to help. As the bombs explode, Buster is wounded by Norris and is put out of his misery by Ace. Taking Polly hostage, Ace demands that Alan hand over a hoard of cash he allegedly stole from one of the sites Ace dug up. Norris kills Ace, leaving Alan to face off against Gaunt. Using sleight of hand and magic novelties that suddenly come to life, Alan forces Gaunt back and grabs his valise, which contains the souls of his customers. Gaunt flees the scene, his car turning into a horse-drawn wagon, and the survivors are left to ponder an uncertain future. The novel ends as it begins, in first-person direct address indicating that a new and mysterious shop called "Answered Prayers" is about to open in a small Iowa town – an ominous implication that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle all over again. ===== Novelist Ralph Krunkleton has never been more than marginally successful, but his publishers are surprised to see sales of his novel The Stingray Shuffle soaring in a small bookstore in Tampa, Florida. The book's publishers mount a publicity blitz culminating in a train journey with the author from New York to Miami. What they do not realize is that no one is reading the book; the owners of the bookstore are selling packets of cocaine in hollowed-out paperback copies of Shuffle, trusting that no legitimate customer will ask for such an obscure title. Unfortunately, the publicity campaign sparks a reading at the store with Krunkleton as the guest speaker, where the cocaine in the books is discovered and the owners are forced to close and flee the county. The owners - five former KGB agents dismissed from intelligence work for gross stupidity - are then recruited by "Mr. Grande", the head of the Mierda Cartel (the smallest in the world) to track down a briefcase containing $5 million in cash that was accidentally paid out by the insurance company that was laundering the Cartel's earnings. The briefcase was last seen at the conclusion of Hammerhead Ranch Motel, in the possession of private investigator Paul and Ernest Hemingway-impersonator Jethro Maddox. Also on the trail of the briefcase are Serge and his traveling companion, Don Johnson-impersonator Lenny Lipowicz. The briefcase changes hands several times, and Paul, Jethro, and several of the Russians are killed, before their leader, Ivan, finally gets the briefcase from Serge (who was hoping to use the money to buy a trip into space and a monogrammed spacesuit from the Russians) and takes it to New York planning to buy a former Soviet submarine that Mr. Grande has promised to a larger, Colombian cartel for drug trafficking. Serge leaves Lenny at his mother's home and follows Ivan's trail to New York. While searching for the briefcase, Serge encounters five single mothers from Miami, who have been best friends since college and now formed a book club. They have traveled to Manhattan to attend the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square and then join the Krunkleton book tour on its way back to Florida. The women are instantly taken with Serge, and he seduces one of them, Samantha, who invites him to join them aboard the Silver Stingray. Ivan inadvertently switches the briefcase with an identical one carried by a bathroom attendant; when the attendant peeks inside and sees the money, he flees New York on the first available train, the Silver Stingray. Searching the attendant's apartment, Ivan and a Jamaican gang leader, "Zig-Zag", hear a message on his answering machine confirming the train booking. Hijinks ensue aboard the train, which has been set up as a mystery tour loosely based on one of Krunkelton's books. These include Ivan and Zigzag jumping their car onto the roof of the train from an overhanging bridge, and Serge feverishly searching the train's staterooms for the briefcase. In the finale, the train derails, and Serge, "in character" as the mystery tour's detective, dramatically announces that one of the other actors, a washed-up hypnotist named Preston, was actually murdered rather than killed in the crash. Serge then deduces that Preston was the man who impregnated each member of the book club in college years ago, and they signed up for the tour not just to meet Krunkelton, but to confront Preston. At first, they believe he is accusing one of them of the murder, but he confesses that he killed Preston himself, as just punishment for his treatment of them. Then the unstable train lurches again, and Serge hits his head, becoming amnesiac. He wanders off the train in a daze, and Samantha discovers the briefcase hidden with her luggage. A few months later, the five women are living large, having shared the $5 million between themselves. When they meet again to discuss Ralph Krunkelton's latest novel (a lurid potboiler inspired by his sudden notoriety after the train crash), they raise a toast to Serge, wherever he may be. In fact, Serge is camping on an off-limits island off the Florida coast, giving history lessons to its population of test monkeys. ===== As Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) struggles to gain government support for his Moon colonisation project, his interest becomes focused on reports of hundreds of meteorites landing in Winnerden Flats. Travelling there with Marsh, his colleague (Bryan Forbes), Quatermass finds a huge complex under construction, based on his lunar colony plans. Marsh finds an undamaged meteorite shaped like a small stone rocket. It then cracks open, releasing a gas, leaving him with an odd V-shaped mark on his face. Black-clad guards from the complex arrive, armed with machine guns and sporting similar V-shaped marks, and take Marsh away, knocking down Quatermass and ordering him to leave. Trying to discover what happened to Marsh, Quatermass contacts Inspector Lomax (John Longden), who had previously assisted him (see The Quatermass Xperiment). Lomax puts him in touch with Vincent Broadhead (Tom Chatto), a Member of Parliament, who has been trying to uncover the veil of secrecy surrounding Winnerden Flats. Quatermass joins Broadhead on an official tour of the complex, which he is told has been built to manufacture artificial food. Slipping away from the visiting party, Broadhead attempts to get inside one of the large domes dominating the skyline. Quatermass later finds him dying, covered in a poisonous black slime. Shot at by guards as he exits, Quatermass rushes to Inspector Lomax, explaining that he believes that the complex is indeed making food, but not for human consumption. Its purpose is to provide a suitable living environment for small alien creatures being housed inside the huge domes. Lomax attempts to alert his superiors, but when he meets the Commissioner of Police, he notices that he, too, is sporting the V-shaped mark; the aliens have taken control of the government. Quatermass and Lomax then turn to journalist Jimmy Hall (Sid James), who is skeptical of their story, but asks to visit Winnerden Flats. At the local community centre, they receive a hostile reception from locals employed to do heavy construction and other work at the complex. The mood changes, however, when one of the meteorite-missiles crashes through the building roof, injuring barmaid Sheila (Vera Day). Armed guards arrive and gun down Hall after he telephones the press. The villagers form a mob that marches on the complex. Rushing the gates, Quatermass, Lomax and the villagers barricade themselves in the pressure control room. Realising that Earth's atmosphere must be poisonous to the aliens, Quatermass sabotages their life support system, pumping oxygen into the large domes. Simultaneously, Quatermass' assistant, Brand (William Franklyn), sacrifices his life by launching a Quatermass rocket at an asteroid believed to be the invasion's staging point. The individual aliens combine their small bodies to create huge 150-foot tall creatures that soon burst from the domes. The rocket destroys the asteroid with a nuclear explosion. Their base gone and now fully exposed to Earth's atmosphere, the giant masses of combined creatures collapse and die. The V-shaped marks disappear from those affected, leaving them with no memory of having been under alien control. As they head back to the village, Lomax wonders aloud how he'll make a believable report on all that's happened. More pointedly, Quatermass questions just how final will that report be ... ===== The story begins with Duck Dodgers (Daffy) being tasked with locating the uncharted "Planet X", the only known remaining source for the dwindling element Eludium Phosdex, "the shaving cream atom". After a few small mishaps, Dodgers and his assistant, the "Eager Young Space Cadet" (Porky) set off by rocket. Once in flight, Dodgers plots what becomes an enormously complicated and inefficient course to Planet X, whereas the Cadet suggests a much simpler route, following a path of nearby planets bearing the letters of the alphabet (in order from A onward). After scoffing at the idea, Dodgers suddenly comes up with the same idea and takes credit for it. The ship then flies past the lettered planets and eventually arrives on Planet X. Dodgers immediately claims the planet in the name of the Earth, but is quickly greeted by Marvin the Martian, as he claims it in the name of Mars. This has the two engage in a battle of wits (or lack thereof), with Dodgers getting shot multiple times in the face and disintegrated (and reintegrated) once. The battle continues through most of the film, until Dodgers finally declares enough is enough, and deploys his "secret weapon" that surrounds Marvin's ship with explosives. Marvin deploys the same type of weapon against Dodgers' ship. When the two simultaneously detonate their weapons, the entire planet is destroyed, save for a small chunk. Dodgers pushes Marvin off this chunk, and once again claims it in his own name, as the Cadet and Marvin are seen hanging from a root underneath the chunk. The film closes with the Cadet saying "Eh-b-b-b-big deal." ===== The player takes the role of the caveman Thor, who has to rescue his girlfriend, "Cute Chick", who has been kidnapped by a dinosaur. To do this, he must travel on his stone unicycle (actually an impossible wheel) through several levels. Each level has Thor moving from the left to the right, avoiding various dangers. ===== Chuck Norris must reach an ancient monastery to rescue a famous leader being held hostage. Dangerous warriors lie in waiting to stop him. Category:1983 video games Category:Action video games Category:Commodore 64 games Category:Atari 2600 games Category:ColecoVision games Category:Commodore VIC-20 games Category:Video games based on real people Category:Cultural depictions of Chuck Norris Category:Video games developed in the United States ===== While chasing his falcon through the fields, a rich young bachelor named Calisto enters a garden where he meets Melibea, the daughter of the house, and is immediately taken with her. Unable to see her again privately, he broods until his servant Sempronio suggests using the old procuress Celestina. She is the owner of a brothel and in charge of her two young employees, Elicia and Areúsa. When Calisto agrees, Sempronio plots with Celestina to make as much money out of his master as they can. Another servant of Calisto's, Pármeno, mistrusts Celestina because he used to work for her when he was a child. Pármeno warns his master not to use her. However Celestina convinces Pármeno to join her and Sempronio in taking advantage of Calisto. His reward is Areúsa. As a seller of feminine knick-knacks and quack medicines, Celestina is permitted entrance into the home of Alisa and Melibea by pretending to sell thread. Upon being left alone with Melibea, Celestina tells her of a man in pain who could be cured by the touch of her girdle. When she mentions Calisto's name, Melibea becomes angry and tells her to go. But the crafty Celestina persuades her that Calisto has a horrible toothache that requires her aid, and manages to get the girdle off her and to fix another meeting. On her second visit, Celestina persuades the now willing Melibea to a rendezvous with Calisto. Upon hearing of the meeting set by Celestina, Calisto rewards the procuress with a valuable gold chain. The lovers arrange to meet in Melibea's garden the following night, while Sempronio and Pármeno keep watch. When the weary Calisto returns home at dawn to sleep, his two servants go round to Celestina's house to get their share of the gold. She tries to cheat them and in rage they kill her in front of Elicia. After jumping out of the window in an attempt to escape the Night Guard, Sempronio and Pármeno are caught and are beheaded later that day in the town square. Elicia, who knows what happened to Celestina, Sempronio, and Pármeno, tells Areúsa of the deaths. Areúsa and Elicia come up with a plan to punish Calisto and Melibea for being the cause of Celestina, Sempronia, and Pármeno's downfall. After a month of Calisto sneaking around and seeing Melibea at night in her garden, Areúsa and Elicia enact their plan of revenge. Calisto returns to the garden for another night with Melibea; while hastily leaving because of a ruckus he heard in the street, he falls from the ladder used to scale the high garden wall and is killed. After confessing to her father the recent events of her love affair and Calisto's death, Melibea jumps from the tower of the house and dies too. ===== There are four major interwoven narratives: * A fringe group of Québécois radicals, Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (English: The Wheelchair Assassins; A.F.R.), plans a violent geopolitical coup, and is opposed by high-level US operatives. * Various residents of the Boston area reach "rock bottom" with their substance abuse problems, and enter a residential drug and alcohol recovery program where they progress in recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). * Students train and study at an elite tennis academy run by James and Avril Incandenza, and Avril's adopted brother Charles Tavis. * The history of the Incandenza family unfolds, focusing on the youngest son, Hal. These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest, also referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat". The film, so entertaining to its viewers that they lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it and thus eventually die, was James Incandenza's final work. He completed it during a period of sobriety that was insisted upon by its lead actress, Joelle Van Dyne. The Quebecois separatists seek a master, redistributable copy of the work to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Office of Unspecified Services (O.U.S.) aims to intercept the master copy to prevent mass dissemination and the destabilization of the Organization of North American Nations, or else to find or produce an anti-entertainment that can counter the film's effects. Joelle seeks treatment for substance abuse problems at Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House. A.F.R. member (and possible O.U.S. double agent) Marathe visits Ennet House, aiming to find Joelle and a lead to the master copy of "the Entertainment". ===== Space Ace follows the adventures of the dashing hero Dexter, who prefers to be called "Ace." Ace is on a mission to stop the villainous Commander Borf, who is seeking to attack Earth with his "Infanto Ray" to render Earthlings helpless by reverting them into infants. At the start of the game, Ace is partially hit by the Infanto Ray, which reverts him into an adolescent, and Borf kidnaps his female side- kick Kimberly, who thus becomes the game's "Damsel in Distress." It is up to the player to guide Dexter, Ace's younger incarnation, through a series of obstacles in pursuit of Borf, in order to rescue Kimberly and prevent Borf using the Infanto Ray to conquer Earth. However, Dexter has a wristwatch- gadget which can optionally allow Dexter to "ENERGIZE" and temporarily reverse the effects of the Infanto-Ray to turn him back into his adult self "Ace" for a short time, and overcome more difficult obstacles in a heroic manner. The game's attract mode introduces the player to the story via narration and dialogue. ===== As Enterprise travels deeper into the Delphic Expanse, a secret council of aliens discuss what to do with the lone human spaceship. Meanwhile, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) directs Enterprise to a mining penal colony within the Expanse. He then strikes a deal with the mine's foreman (Stephen McHattie): in exchange for a half-liter of liquid platinum, Archer and Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) will be allowed to meet a Primate worker named Kessick (Richard Lineback). Archer requests the coordinates of Xindus, the Xindi homeworld, from Kessick. But the alien refuses to help unless Archer helps him escape. Archer declines, but he soon learns that the foreman had ulterior motives, since he has ordered three warships to overpower Enterprise and enslave his crew. Kessick claims to know how to escape the mine, but asks for Archer's help in return for guiding the Starfleet officers. Archer reluctantly agrees, and Kessick leads him and Tucker through the mine's sewage removal system. However, the group is soon detected in a conduit, and the foreman floods the system with plasma in an effort to kill them. They narrowly escape being killed, but quickly fall into the hands of the mine's security forces. Meanwhile, Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) persuades Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) to allow the newly assigned MACOs (Military Assault Command Operations) to attempt an extraction. Led by him, they perform remarkably well in combat, and manage to rescue Archer, Tucker, and Kessick. Enterprise then leaves orbit just as the warships arrive. Unfortunately, Kessick dies, but not before providing coordinates for the Xindi homeworld. When the ship reaches this position, there is nothing but a 120-year-old field of space debris (implying a destruction around the year 2033). ===== Perfect Dark Zero is set in 2020, where a large percentage of the world is controlled by corporations. The most notable of these are dataDyne, headed by Zhang Li, and the Carrington Institute, headed by Daniel Carrington. The player is cast as Joanna Dark, a bounty hunter working with her father Jack and computer hacker Chandra Sekhar. The team is after Nathan Zeigler, an independent researcher who has been captured by a Hong Kong triad leader named Killian. Joanna and her father rescue Zeigler, but Killian manages to escape. Zeigler explains that Killian was trying to obtain his research, which contains information about a dangerous weapon. As Zeigler refuses to go anywhere without his research, Joanna is sent to retrieve it from a case in a nearby safe house. Zeigler then takes a device called a neurodrive from the case and uses it to implant his research data into Jack's mind. Before dying to his injuries inflicted by Killian, Zeigler tells Joanna and her father that they must find a scientist named Dr. Eustace Caroll. While trying to escape, Joanna and Jack are attacked by a dataDyne assault team assisted by Killian in a dropship. Joanna manages to kill Killian and escape with Chandra, but Jack is captured by dataDyne. Joanna learns that her father has been taken to a mansion in China, where Zhang Li lives. Joanna infiltrates the mansion and finds her father in a cell. He has been tortured, and begins speaking gibberish to her, an aftereffect of the neurodrive. The pair fight their way out of the complex, but their extraction is interrupted by Zhang Li's daughter, Mai Hem, who kills Jack before Joanna escapes in a hovercraft. Joanna and Chandra decide to pursue Zeigler's lead and seek out Dr. Caroll, who works aboard a research platform on the Pacific Ocean. Upon meeting with Joanna, Dr. Caroll uses a neurodrive to extract Zeigler's data from Joanna's memory, which she gained when she rescued her father. Chandra then shoots Dr. Caroll, revealing that she decided to join dataDyne because Zhang Li had made her a large offer. A team of Carrington Institute agents saves Joanna, but Chandra ultimately escapes with the data. When Joanna agrees to join the Carrington Institute to stop dataDyne, Carrington explains that Zeigler had been working on an algorithm capable of decoding extraterrestrial glyphs at a dig site in South America. Traveling to Peru, Joanna learns that the glyphs are leading dataDyne to search for an ancient artefact which acts as a power source for the Graal, a device which endows individuals with superhuman powers. Joanna plants a tracking device on the artefact before sneaking aboard a dataDyne dropship. The dropship takes her to Africa, where Zhang Li has located the Graal buried under the African sands. As the Carrington Institute starts an offensive on dataDyne, Joanna rescues several Carrington Institute agents before avenging her father's death by killing Mai Hem. She then infiltrates an arena and faces off against Zhang Li, who dispatches Chandra after using the Graal. After Joanna defeats Zhang Li in a final battle, Carrington commends her efforts, saying she did "Perfect". ===== In early seasons, Coach Fox continues to come to grips with the emerging womanhood of his "little girl", Kelly, now a campus coed played by Clare Carey, who after being raised mostly by her mother, enrolled at Minnesota State mainly because she wanted to be near her father. Kelly dated (and eventually married in the second season) theater mime Stuart Rosebrock (Kris Kamm), whom Hayden could not stand. Their marriage ended in 1991 after Stuart, returning from filming his own kids TV show, Buzzy the Beaver, told Kelly that he'd met another woman. While overtly supporting Kelly with her heartbreak, Coach Fox clandestinely couldn't have been happier to have "Stu" out of both of their lives. After graduating from Minnesota State in 1993, Kelly was hired by a major ad agency in New York. She was only seen in occasional guest spots thereafter. Much of Hayden's coaching job, besides mentoring his players, was working with his defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Luther Van Dam (Jerry Van Dyke), a lifelong bachelor who often struggled with self-confidence and is Hayden's best friend, and special teams coach Michael "Dauber" Dybinski (Bill Fagerbakke), an ex-player at Minnesota State and a kind-hearted, naive "dumb jock" whose ongoing joke was that he had not yet graduated from Minnesota State despite being enrolled for several years there. Despite his seemingly simple nature, Dauber would often surprisingly be of intellectual help to the team, usually learned from a class he was attending or because he was a fan of Nova. Dauber would later graduate with three bachelor's degrees in physical education, business administration, and forestry – without even knowing he was eligible for all three until he got his transcript for that semester. Ladies' basketball coach Judy Watkins (Pam Stone) often engaged in prank wars with Hayden. His relationship with her was complicated by the fact that Dauber dated her until 1995, when she confessed to an affair after returning from a coaching job in Romania. Also seen throughout the run was fussy, budget-conscious Minnesota State athletic director Howard Burleigh (Kenneth Kimmins) and his cheerful wife, Shirley (Georgia Engel), who were close friends with Hayden and Christine. At the end of season 7, Hayden is offered a job with a fictional NFL expansion team called the "Orlando Breakers". Hayden agrees and takes his coaching staff with him for the final two seasons. The Foxes adopted a baby boy named Timothy (played by twins Brennan and Brian Felker). Many season 9 episodes focused on the couple's newfound joy of parenthood, as they had been unable to conceive a child together before they decided to adopt. ===== Two years after their disappearance, Jason Bourne and Marie Kreutz are in Goa, India. Still experiencing flashbacks about his life as a CIA assassin, Bourne records them in a notebook. In Berlin, a CIA agent working for Deputy Director Pamela Landy is paying $3 million to an unnamed Russian source for the "Neski files", documents on the theft of $20 million seven years prior. The deal is interrupted by Kirill, an agent for Russia's Federal Security Service who works for oligarch Yuri Gretkov. Beforehand, Kirill plants two explosive devices on the building's electrical circuit. One takes out the power to the building, the other does not go off but has Bourne's fingerprints planted on it in order to frame him. Kirill kills the agent and the source and steals the files and money. Gretkov directs Kirill to Goa to kill Bourne; however, Bourne spots him at the market and on the beach and flees with Marie in a vehicle. Kirill follows in a car chase and kills Marie instead of Bourne, unaware they had swapped seats in the vehicle. Bourne leaves Goa and travels to Naples. After finding Bourne's fingerprint, Landy asks Director Ward Abbott about Operation Treadstone, the defunct CIA program to which Bourne belonged. She tells Abbott that the CIA agent who stole the $20 million was named in the Neski files. Some years previously, Russian politician Vladimir Neski was about to identify the thief when he was killed by his wife in a suspected murder–suicide in Berlin. Landy believes that Bourne and Treadstone's late supervisor, Alexander Conklin, were somehow involved and that Bourne killed the Neskis. Both Abbott and Landy go to Berlin to capture Bourne. In Naples, Bourne allows himself to be identified by security. He subdues his CIA interrogator and copies the SIM card from his cell phone. From the subsequent phone call, he learns about Landy and the frame-up. Bourne goes to Munich to visit Jarda, the only other remaining Treadstone operative. Jarda informs Bourne that Treadstone was shut down after Conklin's death, and tries to incapacitate him. Bourne kills Jarda in self-defense, escaping before the CIA arrives. Bourne follows Landy and Abbott as they meet former Treadstone support technician Nicky Parsons to question her about Bourne. Believing the CIA is hunting him again, Bourne calls Landy from a nearby roof. He demands a meet-up with Nicky and indicates to Landy that he can see her in the office. Bourne kidnaps Nicky in Alexanderplatz and learns from her that Abbott was the head of Treadstone, not Conklin. Bourne spares Nicky after revealing she knows nothing about the mission since it was not documented. Bourne then visits the hotel where the killing took place and recalls more of his mission—he killed Neski on Conklin's orders, and when Neski's wife showed up, he shot her, making it look like a murder–suicide. Danny Zorn, Conklin's former assistant, finds inconsistencies with the report of Bourne's involvement with the death of the agent, and explains his theory to Abbott by indicating Bourne's fingerprints that were on the bomb that had not gone off. Abbott kills Zorn to prevent him from informing Landy. Bourne breaks into Abbott's hotel room and records a conversation between him and Gretkov that incriminates them in the theft of the $20 million. Abbott admits to Bourne that he stole the money, authorized him to murder Neski, ordered Kirill to retrieve the files, and had Bourne framed before arranging for him to be silenced in Goa. Abbott expects Bourne to kill him, but Bourne refuses - believing Marie would not want him to kill Abbott - though leaves his gun on the table. After Bourne leaves, Landy confronts Abbott about her suspicions and he commits suicide. Landy returns to her hotel room, finding an envelope containing the tape of Abbott's conversations with Gretkov and Bourne. Bourne travels to Moscow to find Vladimir Neski's daughter, Irena. Kirill, tasked once again by Gretkov with killing Bourne, finds and wounds him. Bourne flees in a stolen taxi and Kirill chases him. Bourne forces Kirill's vehicle into a concrete divider. Bourne walks away, leaving a seriously wounded Kirill. Gretkov is arrested. Bourne locates Irena and confesses to murdering her parents, apologizing to her as he leaves. Later in New York, Bourne calls Landy; she thanks him for the tape, reveals to him his original name, David Webb, and date of birth, and asks him to meet her. Bourne says, "Get some rest, Pam. You look tired." ===== On the last day of 8th grade before their freshman year in high school, Julie Corky (Alexa Vega) has a slumber party with three best friends, Hannah Carlson (Mika Boorem), Farrah James (Scout Taylor-Compton), and Yancy Williams (Kallie Flynn Childress). As a quartet, they end up having the adventure of their lives. A group of popular girls, led by a former friend of Julie's, Staci Blake (Sara Paxton), challenge the girls to a scavenger hunt. The prize will be a coveted lunchtime seat near the fountain in high school. The losers will have to sit at tables near the school's dumpsters. The list includes things like a picture of the girls with a date inside an exclusive night club, the insignia from a local private security firm, and a pair of boxers from Steve Philips (Sean Faris), and to dress an Old Navy mannequin with their own clothing. The girls sneak out of Julie's house, and use Yancy's father's Hypermini to travel to different locations and get the required objects. Along the way they dodge a Patroltec security guard (Steve Carell) and try to keep Julie's parents Gabby and Jay (Jane Lynch and Jeff Garlin respectively) from discovering that they are gone. During their scavenger hunt, Steve Philips sees Julie skateboarding in a dress and is impressed. Later the girls meet up at the school dance, but both groups have obtained all the items on the list. Staci suggests a tie breaker, where the group which is able to get the crown from the homecoming king or queen will win. Staci catches her boyfriend, Todd (Thad Luckinbill), dancing with another girl who claims that she has been Todd's girlfriend for six months. After the two break up, Staci shares a dance with a scruffy skater friend of Julie's, Russell (Evan Peters). Steve ends up named homecoming king and picks Julie as his partner for a victory dance, giving her the crown and ensuring victory for her friends. After the dance, Julie and Steve are about to kiss when they get a call from her brother Ren (Sam Huntington) that Gabby is headed home. The girls run home and pretend to be sleeping just as Julie's parents check on them. The next morning at breakfast, Gabby confronts her asking "exactly" what they did last night, showing Julie the scarf she had dropped in the Cosmo club. Surprisingly, she is not mad but confesses it is difficult to believe how fast Julie is growing up. Then Julie says goodbye to her friends and finds Steve waiting inside her tree fort, where the two begin kissing passionately. The film ended with a scene of Staci and her friends, now in high school, eating their lunch by the school dumpsters among the trash and the social rejects. ===== The series features comic fights between an iconic pair of adversaries, a house cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry). The plots of each short usually center on Tom and Jerry's numerous attempts to have the best of each other and the mayhem and destruction that follows. Despite Tom's clever strategies (whether they work or not), determined and energetic mindset, large size, and exceptional overall intelligence, he rarely succeeds in getting the best of Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's cunning abilities, luck, and his lack of tendencies in being a bit too reckless. However, on several occasions, they have displayed genuine friendship and concern for each other's well-being. At other times, the pair set aside their rivalry in order to pursue a common goal, such as when a baby escapes the watch of a negligent babysitter, causing Tom and Jerry to pursue the baby and keep it away from danger, in the shorts Busy Buddies and Tot Watchers respectively. Despite their endless attacks on one another, they have saved each other's lives every time they were truly in danger. The cartoons are known for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation: Tom may use axes, hammers, firearms, firecrackers, explosives, traps and poison to kill Jerry. On the other hand, Jerry's methods of retaliation are far more violent, with frequent success, including slicing Tom in half, decapitating him, shutting his head or fingers in a window or a door, stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron or a mangle, kicking him into a refrigerator, getting him electrocuted, pounding him with a mace, club or mallet, letting a tree or electric pole drive him into the ground, sticking matches into his feet and lighting them, tying him to a firework and setting it off, and so on. Because of this, Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent. However, there is no blood or gore in any scene. Music plays a very important part in the shorts, emphasizing the action, filling in for traditional sound effects, and lending emotion to the scenes. Musical director Scott Bradley created complex scores that combined elements of jazz, classical, and pop music; Bradley often reprised contemporary pop songs, as well as songs from MGM films, including The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis, which both starred Judy Garland in a leading role. Generally, there is little dialogue as Tom and Jerry almost never speak; however, minor characters are not similarly limited, and the two lead characters do speak English on rare occasions. For example, the character Mammy Two Shoes has lines in nearly every cartoon in which she appears. Most of the vocal effects used for Tom and Jerry are their high-pitched laughs and gasping screams. ===== FBI agent Copeland brothers, Kevin and Marcus Anthony II, try to bust a drug dealer selling their product disguised as ice cream, but they botch it when a genuine ice-cream salesman shows up first. The two agents are offered a reprieve if they chauffeur the Wilson sisters, Brittany and Tiffany, a pair of rich but shallow socialite daughters of Wilson Cruiseliners CEO Andrew Wilson, safely to a weekend-long fashion event in The Hamptons, so they won't become the next victims in a string of high-profile kidnappings. But the Wilson sisters suffer minor facial scars in a car accident and refuse to be seen in public in such imperfect condition. Fearing for their jobs, Kevin scares the girls into staying at a hotel while he and Marcus disguise themselves as them and attend the event. Kevin, disguised as Brittany, and Marcus, disguised as Tiffany, acquaint themselves with the sisters' three best friends - Lisa Anderson, Karen Googlestein, and Tori Willson - and encounter their rivals: the Vandergeld sisters, Heather and Megan. Unbeknownst to Kevin and Marcus, the sisters are being monitored by their colleagues, Vincent Gomez and Jake Harper, and their boss, Section Chief Elliott Gordon, who are undercover posing as hotel staff. At the hotel, pro-basketball player, Latrell Spencer, who has an assistant named Tony, takes a shine to Marcus/Tiffany, and Kevin takes a shine to New York One News reporter, Denise Porter. At one of the Vandergelds' annual charity auction party that night, Latrell wins a dinner date with Marcus/Tiffany, while Kevin pretends to be Latrell to attract Denise, after hearing that she likes rich men. While the real Latrell takes Marcus/Tiffany to the La Bella restaurant, Kevin uses Latrell's car to drive Denise to Latrell's house, where he begins to solicit information about Ted Burton turning the tables on Warren Vandergeld, Heather and Megan's father. With Kevin becoming romantically involved with Denise and Marcus/Tiffany trying to reject Latrell to no avail, their combined antics put them under Gomez and Harper's suspicion. At a nightclub, the "Wilsons" win a dance-off against the Vandergelds, and a drunken Karen slips to Kevin and Marcus that Warren Vandergeld is actually penniless and has been taking loans from her father. This makes the Copelands think that Warren is the mastermind behind the kidnappings. But before they can investigate, the real Brittany and Tiffany back at the hotel find out that they're being impersonated. As they arrive in the Hamptons to reveal their "clones", so do Marcus' wife, Gina, and her friend, Shaunice, having assumed that Marcus is cheating on Gina, Gomez and Harper also conclude that the Wilsons are being impersonated by two men and aim to expose them, only to inappropriately strip down the real Brittany and Tiffany in front of Gordon. They are subsequently suspended, and a furious Gordon fires Kevin and Marcus after he discovers the truth. Having lost both his job (and possibly his wife), Marcus snaps at Kevin for his renegade ways, always dragging Marcus into trouble. Later, Kevin and Marcus discover that Warren had funneled large sums of money through his modest charity. Marcus stops Kevin from notifying Gordon, convincing him that they should personally intervene to redeem themselves, and they contact Gomez and Harper to help resolve the case. Under disguise as the Wilson sisters, "they" are chosen to appear in the event's final fashion show, and the Vandergelds are furious that they were kicked off the catwalk by the boss, Aubrey, in favor of the Copelands/Wilsons, but the real Brittany and Tiffany also perform in the event. Karen rejects Heath who callously snubbed her which Marcus punches him in the face. During the show, the Vandergeld sisters try to sabotage their "rivals", but end up being humiliated by Karen, Lisa and Tori, who discovered them on the catwalk. After the real Brittany and Tiffany unmask Kevin and Marcus as imposters thus causing mass confusion between the foursome and the audience, Warren uses the opportunity to begin the kidnapping. However, he incorrectly captures Marcus/Tiffany and Brittany, which begins a fight between the Copeland brothers and Heath and Russ, a pair of friends Warren hired to get involved with the girls and aid in the kidnappings. Warren soon captures the real sisters and explains his financial troubles to his wife, Elaine, and daughters (who are dismayed to find out they're broke) not knowing that Denise and her cameraman are recording his confession. In the ensuing fight, Kevin is nearly shot trying to protect Denise, Latrell is shot trying to protect Marcus/Tiffany, and Kevin shoots Warren in his shoulder. Two men successfully capture Warren while Gomez and Harper apprehend Heath and Russ. Afterward, their true identities are revealed to all, and Latrell is dismayed that Marcus isn't actually "white" (though he doesn't seem to mind that Marcus is actually male). Gordon reinstates the Copeland brothers, Gomez, and Harper. Marcus clears things with Gina, Kevin and Denise begin a relationship, and Latrell wins over the real Brittany and Tiffany. Tori, Lisa, and Karen admit they liked Brittany and Tiffany a lot more when they were Marcus and Kevin. The five agree to remain friends and go shopping. ===== Workers building an extension to the London Underground at Hobbs End dig up skeletal remains. Palaeontologist Dr Matthew Roney (James Donald) identifies them as five-million-year-old apemen, more ancient than any previous finds. One of Roney's assistants uncovers part of a metallic object nearby. Believing it to be an unexploded bomb, they call in an army bomb disposal team. Meanwhile, Professor Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) learns that his plans for the colonisation of the Moon are to be taken over by the military. He gives a cold reception to Colonel Breen (Julian Glover), who has been assigned to Quatermass's British Experimental Rocket Group. When the bomb disposal team call for Breen's assistance, Quatermass accompanies him. Breen concludes the buried object is a V-weapon, but Quatermass disagrees. When another skeleton is found within a chamber of the "bomb", Quatermass and Roney realise that the object must also be five million years old. Noting the object's imperviousness to heat, Quatermass suspects it is of alien origin, but Roney is certain the apemen are terrestrial. Roney's assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara Shelley) becomes intrigued by the name of the area, recalling that "Hob" is an old name for the Devil. A member of the bomb disposal team witnesses a spectral apparition of Roney's apeman appearing through the wall of the object. Quatermass and Barbara find historical accounts of hauntings and other spectral appearances going back many centuries, coinciding with disturbances of the ground around Hobbs End. An attempt to open a sealed chamber using a Borazon drill fails. However, a few moments later, a small hole is seen, though the drill operator, Sladden (Duncan Lamont), is certain he is not responsible. The hole widens to reveal the corpses of three-legged, insectoid creatures with horned heads. An examination of the creatures' physiology suggests they came from Mars. Quatermass and Roney note the similarity between their appearance and images of the Devil, while Quatermass believes the ship is the source of the spectral images and disturbances. Quatermass and Roney reveal their findings to the press, attracting the ire of a government minister (Edwin Richfield). Quatermass theorises that the occupants of the spacecraft came from a dying Mars. Unable to survive on Earth, they sought to preserve some part of their race by creating a colony by proxy, by significantly enhancing the intelligence and imparting Martian faculties to the indigenous primitive hominids. The descendants of these apemen evolved into humans, retaining the vestiges of Martian influence buried in their subconscious. A disbelieving Breen thinks the "alien craft" is Nazi propaganda designed to sow fear among Londoners. The minister believes Breen and decides to unveil the missile at a press conference. Whilst dismantling his drill Sladden is overcome by a powerful telekinetic force, and flees to a church. Sladden tells Quatermass he saw a vision of hordes of insect creatures under an alien sky. Quatermass returns to Hobbs End, bringing a machine Roney has been working on which taps into the primeval psyche. While trying to replicate the circumstances under which Sladden was affected, he notices that Judd has fallen under the craft's influence. Using Roney's machine, he records her thoughts. Quatermass presents the recording to the minister and other officials. It shows hordes of Martians engaged in what he interprets as a racial purge, cleansing hives of mutations. The minister and Breen dismiss the recording. Disaster strikes when a power line is dropped within the craft. The effect and range of the craft's influence on those Londoners susceptible to it increases; they go on a rampage, attacking those perceived as different. Breen is drawn towards the craft and killed by the intense energy emanating from it. Quatermass falls under alien control as well, but is snapped out of it by Roney, who is unaffected. The two men realise that a small portion of the population are immune. The psychic energy intensifies, ripping up streets and buildings and bringing down aircraft, while a spectral image of a Martian towers above the city. Recalling stories about how the Devil could be defeated with iron and water, Roney theorises that the Martian energy could be discharged into the earth. Roney climbs a building crane and swings it into the spectre. The crane bursts into flames as it discharges the energy, killing Roney. The image and its effect on London disappear. ===== In 1920s Cambodia during the French colonial rule, two Indochinese tigers, a male and a female, meet each other and mate after becoming love interests. Months later, the tiger couple have given birth to two male tiger cub brothers. While the two tiger cubs are playing, one of them (later named Sangha) comes across a young civet. Sangha chases the little civet into its burrow, but the mother appears and chases Sangha up a tree. The other tiger cub (later named Kumal) eventually appears and chases the mother civet back into her burrow. Unfortunately, humans come across them in their temple home and the tigress arrives to protect her cubs. She picks up Sangha and runs off for safety. Kumal attempts to follow, but can't keep up and falls behind. The cubs' father appears, but the men have caught up with them. The father is shot dead by a hunter named Aidan McRory after mauling porter in defense of his cub. McRory is an unscrupulous but kind explorer, big-game hunter, author, and treasure hunter. He discovers Kumal and soon befriends him after having shot his father, but McRory is later arrested for stealing sacred statues from the ancient temple while Kumal is kept by the chief in the Cambodian village where McRory had been staying. The chief then sells Kumal to a circus owned by a cruel circus ringmaster named Zerbino, his wife (expected to have a baby soon), and his faithful sabre swallowing and fire breathing friend, Saladin who becomes Kumal’s nemesis, where he is to be the star attraction soon. McRory is soon released from prison by the French administrator, Eugene Normandin, due to being a big fan of McRory and all his exploits, but is not permitted to leave the country until all the formalities are completed within the three years sentencing. Nevertheless, McRory is permitted to stay at Eugene's home and is introduced to Eugene's wife, Mathilda who admires McRory and reads all his books as bedtime stories to their young son, Raoul. Meanwhile, Sangha remains in the jungle with his mother, but both are soon trapped by McRory as game for a vain Khmer prince to hunt. The tigress is shot in the left ear and although she is appearing to be dead, she suddenly jumps up and runs off with a hole in her left ear after being awakened and startled by the flash of a camera. Sangha is then discovered by Raoul and becomes the child's friend. However, Bitzy, Raoul's mother's cruel dog, a schipperke, is a constant nemesis to the young tiger. Kumal remains in a cage of the circus next to the cage of an old former tiger star named Caesar. In order to bring back the skin of the tigress for the prince, McRory makes a deal with Zerbino and Saladin to kill Caesar and skin him, thus, to pass off as the dead skinned tigress itself. Kumal is then replaced as the soon-to-be new star attraction of the circus in Caesar's cage with McRory's condition that the circus people take good care of him. However, the tiger skin trick is foiled when the prince's wife discovers the hole through the wrong ear; much to the prince's disappointment. Sangha, meanwhile, settles peacefully with Raoul until he is at last cornered by Bitzy. After a prolonged chase, it results in Sangha attacking Bitzy in self-defense. This provokes a hysterical reaction from the household, particularly Raoul's mother, who insists that the cub has now "got a taste of blood" and Sangha is taken away. As a result, he is made a part of the prince's palace menagerie, where he quickly gains a reputation as a ferocious animal. A year later, Kumal, now an adult, is trained by Zerbino to do tricks, such as jumping through a flaming hoop after refusing to obey him and having been "taught a lesson in manners" by Saladin using harsh and cruel methods. Then, the prince decides to hold a festival in which a battle between two great beasts will be the centerpiece. Raoul understands that the prince's tiger is actually Sangha even before recognising him in the cage where the fight is to take place, despite his parents having made him believe that Sangha had been taken to a zoo in Bangkok or Saigon. McRory, however, is not pleased with the idea of Kumal being the opponent for the prince's ferocious animal (not knowing that Kumal is Sangha's brother either) since the circus people didn't keep their promise to take care of him, so he leaves the festival with the village chief's daughter, Naï-Rea, whom he's fallen in love with. Later, when placed in the cage before the audience during the festival, the two tiger brothers do not immediately recognize each other, and Kumal is afraid to fight. However, when they do finally recognize each other after a violent fight, they begin to play with each other like they used to in the past instead of fighting, which amuses the audience. The trainers see this and attempt to antagonize the tigers into fighting; resulting in Saladin hitting Kumal being suddenly attacked by Sangha, biting ferociously on his arm. Zerbino, with a gun in his hand, opens the gate to shoot Sangha; accidentally leaving the gate open. Kumal stops Zerbino from shooting his brother by attacking him as well. The two tiger brothers escape together through the open gate; causing panic among the people in the arena. After their escape, the two tigers play by causing chaos to people in the area such as: eating food on a bus, bathing in a woman's home, scaring a person next to a News Stand, scaring people crossing a bridge, and eating much meat in a butcher's truck. McRory is determined to hunt the two tigers down. After Kumal shows Sangha how to jump through fire (which McRory and the villagers started in order to scare them and finally have them cornered together to have a perfect shot of them) to escape, McRory and Raoul eventually find them. Raoul asks Sangha to promise him to never return to the villages of men as they will kill down and to stay in the jungle forever, to avoid being hunted. He kisses Sangha and removes the diamond necklace (formerly offered to the prince's wife as a gift) placed on the tiger's neck by the prince when he was in captivity. McRory watches from the distance and takes aim at Sangha, but Kumal appears behind him: McRory puts down his gun, and Kumal demonstrates that he remembers the honey sweets McRory used to give him when he was only a cub: unfortunately, there aren't anymore sweets left, which makes McRory ask Kumal to forgive him. The tigers then make their way back to their old temple home in the jungle. McRory states that they are taking a big risk, but Raoul justifies that sometimes it's good to take a few risks, which McRory agrees to as well. Raoul and McRory watch the two tiger brothers leave; hoping they will find another tiger who might teach them how to hunt in the wild. In fact, in the jungle, Sangha and Kumal reunite with their mother, who is recognized by the hole in her left ear. Together, all three tigers find peace resting in the jungle by the stream. ===== Helen Harris (Kate Hudson) and Lindsay (Felicity Huffman) were raised by their eldest sister, Jenny (Joan Cusack), after their mother died when Helen was seven. Now Helen is very successful in the fashion industry, working as the executive assistant to the CEO of one of Manhattan's most prestigious modeling agencies, and has a nice Manhattan lifestyle which keeps her extremely occupied and content. But Helen's world suddenly changes when Lindsay and brother-in-law Paul (Sean O'Bryan) die in a car accident, leaving behind three children, turning everyone's life upside down. Helen and Jenny are in shock when they discover Lindsay and Paul left Helen in charge of their three kids: 15-year-old Audrey (Hayden Panettiere), 10-year-old Henry (Spencer Breslin), and five-year-old Sarah (Abigail Breslin). Nobody expected Helen to be named guardian of the children, especially since Jenny was already a super mom with two children and a third on the way. But a letter left to Helen by Lindsay convinces her that she can take care of the children. And Helen decides to do it on her own terms, which means raising the children and maintaining her already fast-paced schedule. But as work and children begin to interfere, Helen quickly finds herself burnt out and disheartened by her responsibilities and Jenny's lack of faith in her parenting. Despite her already hectic schedule, Helen finds the time to develop a genuine affection for her new dependents, as well as an equally genuine attraction to Dan Parker (John Corbett), the kids' school principal and local Lutheran pastor. Busy trying to appease the children and adjust to suddenly being a mom, Helen's concentration on her job begins to slip and she is fired by Dominique (Helen Mirren). Stuck between a rock and a hard place, she is forced to become a receptionist at a car dealership. Things begin to look better for her as she bonds with the children and their sexy principal, and finally begins to get the hang of being a mom. But Audrey, struggling to come to terms with her parents' death, begins to fall in with the wrong crowd and date the wrong kind of guy. When she disappears from the school prom with her new boyfriend BZ to go find a motel, Helen is forced to call in Jenny as back-up to search all over New York to find Audrey. Unable to confront Audrey and risk the girl's hatred, once they track her down, Helen turns the parenting reins over to Jenny. This makes Helen realize that she isn't cut out to be a parent and so she turns the children over into Jenny's custody. Helen returns to her wild lifestyle full of partying and booze, yet feels much less fulfilled than she had been before she became responsible for the children. She begins to find herself dissatisfied and depressed and so returns to Jenny's house to beg her to let her take the children back home. She eventually convinces Jenny that she's finally ready to be a parent when she puts her foot down and shows Audrey who's boss. Jenny, who was listening to Helen talking to the children, still refuses to give the kids back to her. Helen leaves, and sits alone on a bench near a swing set. There, she is visited once again by Jenny, who gives her the letter that Lindsay had written for Jenny. Helen reads the letter, which explains that Lindsay decided to choose Helen because it's about choosing someone who is more like herself, someone who can really give the children the mother they really want. While watching out her window, Helen turns around with joy when the kids arrive, now hers. The film ends with Helen, Dan and the kids walking along a pier, and Sarah sits on a bench and ties her shoes all by herself. ===== ===== Axel Freed is a Harvard University–educated English professor with a gambling addiction that begins to spiral out of control. In the classroom, Freed inspires his college students with his interpretations of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. In his personal life, Axel has the affection of the beautiful Billie and the admiration of his family, including his mother, Naomi, who is a doctor, and his grandfather, a wealthy businessman. Axel's gambling has left him with a huge debt. His bookie, Hips, likes the professor personally but threatens grave consequences if he does not pay it soon. When Billie, having been informed by Axel that he owes $44,000, questions the wisdom of her associating with him, Axel confidently tells her she loves his life's dangers, including "the possibility of blood". After obtaining the $44,000 from his disapproving mother, Axel goes with Billie to Las Vegas and gambles it into a small fortune, only to blow it all again on basketball bets. He takes out his anger on Billie, who does not appreciate having loan sharks come to their apartment in the middle of the night. Expecting help from his grandfather, Axel gets nothing but the older man's disappointment and disgust. Axel's only way to have his debt cancelled is to lure one of his students, a star on the college basketball team, to shave points in his next game. He does so by offering the student a large enough amount of cash. When the game has ended in accordance with the plan, Axel and Hips discuss what motivates gamblers. Axel surprises Hips when he says he knows gamblers like himself want to lose. He adds that he could have made lots of money by betting only on sure winners, but that doing so would not have brought him any real excitement. Ignoring the warning by Hips that it's dangerous, Axel wanders off into a black ghetto near the gymnasium where the game was played. Axel proceeds to lure a pimp into a life-or-death fight by refusing to pay a prostitute. As Axel repeatedly assaults the pimp, the prostitute slashes him across the face. Axel looks at himself in a mirror and smiles enigmatically at the blood pouring from his wound. ===== No date is given for the events, but they are in a near future America where Ambrose Bierce (born 1842) is said to be over 100 years old. Europe and Asia have suffered a "collapse" and the only significant technological advances mentioned are Picturephones and a "pocketphone". The story relates the rediscovery of psychic powers by a trio from a California university (a woman student, and two male friends, an MD/instructor at the medical college and a Psychology professor), and the attempts of a corrupt elite to silence them. There is also a group of individuals that have developed their telepathic and other powers for good and live in secrecy on Mount Shasta. They can tap into an inner power somewhat like the Force discussed in Star Wars. This group claims Mark Twain was one of them, as was Walt Whitman and Oliver Wendell Holmes. As part of their program to protect America as a bastion of freedom they chose Abraham Lincoln. After being rescued by Ambrose Bierce the three main characters stay with them. In the secret headquarters on the mountain they receive training. According to psychic records found by the good adepts, humanity reached a great level of development in a Golden Age, but when their leaders (mythologized into such gods as Jove and Odin) moved on to a new plane of existence, a new group used their mental powers for profit. After a great war their main bases in Mu and Atlantis sank and humanity was thrown back to a Stone Age. The main characters begin to spread information on how to use psychic powers, particularly training Boy Scouts. After the evil cabal tries to stop them, individual mental battles occur between the two groups with the good adepts victorious. The story ends with a lyrical description of an empty Earth, since the human race has now evolved to a new plane of existence. An ape is beginning the long climb of his species to intelligence and psychic ability. ===== Archie Fraser is a building contractor whose business is thriving. Despite the common use of magic in other professions, Archie has relatively little use for it, since so much of his work involves "cold iron", which defies magic. He does have a sideline in instant temporary structures, such as bleachers and tents, all made of wood with no iron in them, which can be reconstituted from a fragment of an original structure. The work is done by magicians operating as independent contractors. Occasionally mistakes are made – at one point a fragment of a house is used by mistake. Archie creatively puts a sign outside the out-of-place structure saying "Display model! Now open!" One day Archie is the subject of a shakedown by a sleazy character who seems to be operating a protection racket based on magic. After scaring the criminal off by exploiting his obvious superstitions (helped by the display of a conveniently concealed handgun), Archie goes to see his friend Jedson, who uses magic to operate a clothing business. Jedson's specialty is "one season" clothing which is not intended to be hard-wearing. As Archie arrives, he is auditioning a teenage medium who can produce clothing from ectoplasm. Jedson is disappointed to find that the result is simply a copy of an existing design owned by somebody else, so he cannot use it. Jedson and Archie are able to grab the would-be gangster as he lurks near Archie's storefront and hustle him inside. There Jedson draws a "magic circle" around the miscreant, imprisoning him. He then makes a voodoo doll and uses it to strike fear into the criminal. The criminal breaks down and babbles some information, most of it useless in finding out who runs the racket. They kick him out of the store, believing him to be just a small-time hood. Archie protests Jedson's tactics, but Jedson replies that he didn't really do anything. The circle and the doll were just symbolic. It was the man's own misguided beliefs which caused his body to react as if he really were being imprisoned and tortured. At that point there is a scream outside. They discover the man's body, ripped from shoulder to groin as if by the talons of a huge bird, the gouges being filled with a stinking ichor. Slowly Archie's business begins to suffer. There are mysterious accidents and problems with his workers who are scared by hex symbols which appear around the business. One morning the entire business is destroyed, apparently by elementals of fire, earth and water. Jedson initially helps Archie consult a prestigious magician, Biddle, who sets up a tent on site, then after some activity in the tent, announces he can do nothing and that they owe him $500 as a "survey fee". Jedson politely tells him to forget it, as no such fee was mentioned before, and magicians, like lawyers, work on a "contingency fee" basis. Biddle disappears in a huff. At that point a young magician by the name of Bodie, who had been watching the performance, tells then they should have used an old witch he knows, a Mrs. Jennings. They consult her in her small, well-ordered home. After a reading of tea-leaves, Mrs. Jennings announces that she knows what they need. At Archie's jobsite, she draws a pentacle and calls the elementals to her. These are a gnome, an undine, and a fire salamander. The undine is a repulsive sluglike creature, while the salamander is a naive, benign creature of flame which sees no wrong in burning, though it regrets causing harm. By force and persuasion, she instructs them to reverse what they did. There is a huge rushing noise and Archie's business is restored. Strange events continue, this time directed at Archie himself. A few times he is saved from danger, apparently by the distant intervention of Mrs. Jennings herself. Jedson consults an anthropologist, who is also a "witch smeller". A large, handsome African impeccably dressed in an expensive business suit, holding a string of degrees from prestigious institutions, Dr. Royce Worthington can find and neutralize black magic. He eventually announces that he has found a lot of unusual magic, but that he will leave his grandfather (a shrunken head) behind to watch over things. Meanwhile, Biddle's organization, a body of "professional magicians", nominally intended to assure high standards, keeps dunning Archie over Biddle's fee. There is also a new "one stop shopping" company calling itself "Magic, Inc." which hires magicians and finds them work. It is an open secret that the two organizations are the same. The nominal head of Magic Inc. is a man called Ditworth. Jedson discovers that a bill in the State Legislature, intended to regulate magicians, would give Ditworth monopoly power. They go to the State Capitol to try to head off this law, but are outwitted by Ditworth, who manages to get the bill attached to a major public works project, making its passage unstoppable. However Ditworth makes the mistake of passing by a large mirror in the Capitol building. He is seen to cast no reflection, showing that he is actually a demon. Once the law begins to bite, only magicians who work for Magic Inc. are able to find work, while those who refuse to join Magic Inc. have their licenses revoked. Meanwhile, customers such as Archie are charged ever higher rates for magic services. Jedson discovers that Ditworth has been at work in all other states, and there is nowhere for them to go to get away from his schemes. Royce, Jedson, Bodie and Archie meet at Mrs Jennings house from time to time. They hatch a plan to enter the Half World, the realm of demons and Old Nick himself, to challenge Ditworth. Bodie stays behind to guard the portal in Mrs. Jennings' fireplace, while Jedson (transformed into an ugly half-bestial form), Royce (in his work costume), and Archie (in his normal form) travel with Mrs. Jennings, who to Archie's surprise and delight, has transformed herself into Amanda Jennings, the young, beautiful redhead she once was. In the Half World, custom reigns supreme and natural laws are negotiable. They go before Old Nick and demand to inspect his demons, as custom allows. Faced with seemingly endless legions of horrific creatures, Royce and Archie, helped by Mrs. Jennings' cat, travel up and down the rows. Jedson and Amanda have to remain behind as hostages. After what seems years they identify and tackle Ditworth. Being a demon, Ditworth can kill them, but another demon breaks ranks and subdues their enemy. At this point their helper reveals himself to be an FBI agent. Archie faints. Again citing custom, they demand that Ditworth face their champion, who is of course the white witch Amanda. Ditworth is afraid to do this, and has to face Old Nick's sentence for being defeated by white magic. He is imprisoned for "a thousand thousand years", a fairly light sentence, which is enough to stop his scheming on Earth. Old Nick announces that the FBI man has to stay behind for his special attention, but after a challenge from Amanda, who seems capable of taking on him and all his legions, he thinks better of it. They all return to the house. The FBI man tells them he was working Ditworth's scams from another angle and had become trapped in the Half World. As they emerge from the fireplace, Bodie recognizes him as an old friend. The FBI man, now in human form with a snappy suit and fedora hat, bids them a quick goodbye as he leaves to report back to the Bureau. Archie, overpowered by Amanda's beauty, hangs around her like a lovesick puppy, but she is firmly unreceptive. She sets him down for a nap to recover from his ordeal, and when he awakes, she is Mrs. Jennings again. Archie's business recovers, as all Ditworth's schemes fall apart. ===== At a bachelor auction, the available bachelors on display are deemed undesirable, and the auction generates no money at all. Marge then nominates Apu, who is deemed a success by the women at the auction. He goes out on dates with many of the town's women, and begins to enjoy his bachelor lifestyle. However, he receives a letter from his mother in India, reminding him of his arranged marriage to Manjula, the daughter of a family friend. Not wanting to get married, Apu asks Homer for advice, who suggests Apu tell his mother that he is already married. Days later, Apu thinks that he has escaped the marriage until he sees his mother walking towards the Kwik-E-Mart. To cover him, Homer tells Apu to pretend that Marge is his wife. At the Simpson residence, Marge disapproves of the plan, but decides to do it for Apu's sake. While the plan is under way Homer decides to stay in the Springfield Retirement Castle with his father, posing as resident Cornelius Talmadge. Homer enjoys his stay at the home immensely, until the real Cornelius returns, at which point he flees. He returns home and gets into bed with Marge. Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilon enters to say goodbye, but is shocked to see Marge in bed with another man, and Apu on the floor. Tired of the whole charade, Marge forces Apu to tell his mother the truth, who declares that the arranged marriage will proceed as planned. The wedding is held in the Simpsons' backyard, but Apu still has second thoughts about it. However, when he sees Manjula for the first time in years, he is shocked by her beauty and wit, and feels less reluctant. The pair then decide that perhaps the marriage can work after all. Homer, poorly disguised as Ganesha, tries to stop the wedding but is chased off by one of Apu's relatives. ===== In a near future, many people are addicted to Avalon, a military-themed virtual reality shooter. In the game, solo players or parties raid levels populated with AI-controlled enemies and opposing players. Winners are rewarded with experience points and in-game money, which can be exchanged for cash, allowing skilled players to make a living. As their brains interact with the game directly, Avalon places significant mental strains on players, and has rendered players catatonic in many cases. Ash is a famously skilled player, who only plays solo after her party Team Wizard was disbanded. After a Class A mission, the GM (Game Master) warns her of the next level's danger, and suggests she joins a party. The next day, Ash watches a Bishop-class character break her record time on the same mission. Intrigued, Ash tries but fails to learn about him or his avatar. As she leaves the game terminal, the Bishop player watches her. Ash runs into a former teammate, Stunner, who mentions Murphy, her former team leader. As the two visit Murphy at a hospital, Stunner tells her Murphy went after a hidden NPC in Avalon, a young girl nicknamed "ghost". The girl is allegedly the only gateway into the rumored Special A, an extremely rewarding but incredibly challenging mission where players cannot "reset" (a mechanic allowing players to abort mission without their avatars being killed). Players who went after "ghost" never wake up from the game and became "Unreturned". As Ash walks through the corridor, a girl looking similar to "ghost" watches her. Ash looks at Murphy, who has now become comatose. At home, Ash searches for words regarding Avalon, Unreturned, and the ghost. The search leads her to the "Nine Sisters", another Arthurian legend reference. Further researching and questioning the GM proves fruitless. Upon entering the game, Ash receives an invitation to a meeting, and is ambushed by a group of griefers, who lured her there to rob her equipment. After she overpowers a player, the group leader reveals that only the real Nine Sisters - Avalon's creators - know how to access Special A. They are interrupted by an attack helicopter which kills most of the players. Due to a lag, the helicopter's missiles teleport in front of Ash. She "resets" and leaves the game, narrowly avoiding losing her avatar. On the way home, Ash notices people around her are immobile, with the exception of a dog. At home, after she finishes preparing a meal for her dog, she realizes that it has disappeared. She hears the helicopter from the game flying pass. The next day, Stunner meets Ash. He tells her of a high-level Bishop player who can make the ghost appear, and is sought out by parties seeking to enter Special A. Before becoming an Unreturned, Murphy himself was a Bishop player. At her house, Ash is visited by the Bishop player. He offers to form a party with her and she accepts. Ash arrives at the game terminal and tells the receptionist that she plans to enter Special A to look for Murphy. She enters the game, despite warnings from the receptionist and the GM. In the game, Ash meets the Bishop player, whom she suspects is working for the Nine Sisters. Stunner arrives, revealing he has been helping Bishop recruit Ash all along. The party confronts the Citadel, an enormous boss. Stunner, Bishop and his summoned dummy players distract the giant, while Ash attacks its weak point. After the Citadel is destroyed, Stunner spots the ghost. He is then shot by an enemy. Before being forced out of the game, Stunner tells Ash of the only way to kill the ghost. Ash goes after the ghost and manages to kill it, turning it into a gateway. Ash steps into the gateway and disappears. Ash "wakes up" from the game booth, which is put in her apartment, wearing civilian clothing and without equipment. Bishop contacts her and tells her she is in Class Real. The only way to exit the game is to complete the objective: defeat the Unreturned staying here. Ash takes the provided gun and proceeds to her destination, an Avalon-themed concert by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. On the way, she is stunned by the vibrant and bustling world, which is in stark contrast to the previous levels and to the world outside the game. At the concert hall, Ash sees Murphy, and they walk outside to talk. As she confronts Murphy about his decision to stay in the game, he states he prefers the "reality" within Avalon. Ash mortally wounds Murphy, who urges her to stay, then disappears. Ash enters the now empty concert hall, and sees the ghost on the stage. Ash trains her gun on the ghost, who flashes a smile. The text "Welcome to Avalon" is blended in. ===== In 1995, Mount Rose is preparing for its annual beauty pageant, the Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst) is an optimistic teenager who signs up to compete in the pageant so she can follow in the footsteps of her idols, television news reporter Diane Sawyer, and Amber's mother, Annette, a former contestant. Amber works after school applying makeup to corpses at the mortuary, and lives with her mother, Annette Atkins (Ellen Barkin), in a small trailer near their friend Loretta (Allison Janney). This is in stark contrast to fellow contestant Rebecca ("Becky") Leeman (Denise Richards), the daughter of the richest man in town and his wife, Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley), who is the head of the pageant organizing committee and a former winner. Various business connections between the Leeman Furniture Store and the judges of the pageant cause many to speculate that the contest will be rigged or fixed. Many odd events occur around town during the run-up to the pageant, including the death of a contestant, the athletic and competitive Tammy Curry (Brooke Elise Bushman), president of the Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club, who is killed when her tractor explodes, and the death (ruled a hunting accident) of a boy who Becky liked, but who showed himself partial to Amber. Amber decides to pull out of the pageant after receiving a threatening note and her mother is injured in an explosion at their mobile home, but reconsiders and decides to compete to follow her dreams and make her mother proud. At the dress rehearsal, fellow contestant Jenelle Betz (Sarah Stewart) swaps numbers with Amber. Midway through Janelle's rehearsal performance, a stage light falls and hits her in the head, knocking her unconscious and rendering her deaf. Luckily, Jenelle is a master of American sign language so she claims that despite dropping out of the pageant, she has never been happier. At the pageant, Amber's dance costume mysteriously goes missing. Amber blames Becky and the two get into a catfight. Gladys Leeman's right-hand woman Iris Clark (Mindy Sterling) and Amber's best friend and fellow contestant Lisa Swenson (Brittany Murphy) pull them apart. Pageant choreographer Chloris Klinghagen (Mary Gillis) then gives Amber a new costume to perform in, however Amber is told by both Iris and Gladys that she can't perform due to her new costume not being approved weeks in advance. Later, Lisa finds Amber crying as the fellow contestants try to console her. After learning about the costume situation, Lisa then drops out of the pageant in order to give her own approved costume to Amber. Amber then performs her tap dance number to a standing ovation. Rebecca sings a cringe-worthy rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" as she dances with a life-size Jesus doll on a crucifix, both amusing and horrifying the audience. During judging, the previous year's winner Mary Johanson (Alexandra Holden) (now hospitalized with anorexia) reprises her talent act (lip-synching "Don't Cry Out Loud") while being pushed around the stage in her hospital wheelchair in a re-enactment of her dance movements. When the winners are announced, cheerleader Leslie Miller (Amy Adams) is named second runner-up, Amber is named first runner-up, with Becky Leeman taking first place. During the victory parade the next day, Becky is killed in a freak accident when the elaborate swan float (made in Mexico, to save her father money) on which she is riding bursts into flames and explodes. The grief-stricken Gladys flies into a blind rage and admits to having killed Tammy and to being responsible for all the attempts against Amber in the run- up to the pageant, and is immediately arrested. Rebecca's tragic death and Gladys's antics leave Amber as the new pageant winner. At the State Competition, Amber wins the Minnesota American Teen Princess title by default after all the other contestants fall ill with seafood-related food poisoning, and Amber gets an all-expenses-paid trip to the national Sarah Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. Upon arrival there, Amber and the other state winners are devastated to find that the cosmetics company has been shut down by the IRS for tax evasion. This sends all the contestants except Amber on a rampage, vandalizing and destroying the property. A few years later, Gladys escapes from prison and is sniping from the top of the Mount Rose supermarket, declaring her intent to take revenge on Amber. During the six-hour police standoff, a television reporter doing a live report at the scene is hit by a stray bullet. Amber quickly picks up the reporter's microphone and takes over reporting the story, impressing the news station with her poise and confidence. The film closes with a scene showing Amber as co-anchor of the evening news for Minneapolis–St. Paul television station WAZB-TV, thus living her dream of possibly becoming the next Diane Sawyer. ===== Lloyd Irving and his friend, Genis Sage accompany the chosen, Colette Brunel and her guardians, Raine Sage and Kratos Aurion on her journey of world regeneration. The purpose of the journey is to replenish Sylvarant with mana, a necessary energy to their survival.Raine: Today is the Day of Prophecy. It is a very important day, which the Chosen of Mana will receive an oracle from the Goddess Martel. Now, Chosen One...Colette. Tell us about the journey of world regeneration. /Colette: It is a journey to seal the Desians. Upon passing the trials of the Goddess Martel, the Summon Spirit that protect the world awaken, and mana is restored. The path of the journey consists of five temples which must be unsealed by Colette. On their journey, they meet Sheena Fujibayashi who comes from Tethe'alla, a world parallel to Sylvarant. She tells them about how the two worlds vie for each other's mana through the journey of regeneration.Sheena: My world is called Tethe’alla. [...] The two worlds lie directly adjacent to each other. They just can’t see one another. Our scholars say they exist on shifted dimensions. Anyway, the two worlds can’t see or touch each other, but they do in fact exist next to and affect each other. [...] They vie for the supply of mana. When one world weakens, the mana from that world flows to the other. As a result, one world is always flourishing, and the other waning. Sort of like an hourglass. [...] Sylvarant’s mana is flowing to Tethe'alla. Therefore, Sylvarant is in decline. Without mana, crops won’t grow and magic becomes unusable. If there is no mana, the Summon Spirits that protect the world alongside the Goddess Martel can’t survive in Sylvarant either. As a result, the world slips even further down the path of destruction. /Raine: Then the Chosen’s world regeneration is actually the process of reversing the mana flow?/Sheena: Exactly. When the Chosen breaks the seal, the mana flow reverses, and the Summon Spirit that governs the seal awakens. Hoping to find answers from the angel Remiel, the party meets him at the final seal and are betrayed by Remiel and Kratos; both are revealed to be part of Cruxis, an evil organization led by Mithos Yggdrasill. The party leaves for Tethe'alla to search for a way to save both worlds and are joined by Zelos Wilder, Presea Combatir, and Regal Bryant. The party learns that awakening the Summon Spirits in both worlds will sever the mana tie between them.Undine: Mana flows from the world in which the Summon Spirits sleep to the world in which the Summon Spirits are awake. This is the first time the Summon Spirits have been awakened in both worlds at the same time. Because of this, the mana connecting the two worlds has been eliminated. Believing that to be the answer, they successfully sever all mana ties between the two worlds.Lloyd: Does that mean that Sylvarant and Tethe’alla have stopped competing for each other’s mana?/Volt: .../Raine:I do not know. The only thing certain is that the flow of mana between the worlds has been severed./Undine: Yes. Eventually the worlds shall separate.../Genis: You mean the two worlds will split apart?/Zelos: That’s perfect! Then they’ll stop competing for each other’s mana! Their actions instead destabilize the Great Seed, the supplier of mana to both worlds, causing it to grow and engulf Sylvarant at an exponential rate.Kratos: Having lost the stability afforded by the protection of the Summon Spirits, the Great Seed has gone out of control. /Yuan: No! The purpose of the Summon Spirits was to isolate the Great Seed from the outside world and prevent it from growing! /Kratos: That was only half of it. The two worlds were forced out of phase by Yggdrasill. They should have drifted apart from each other and have been consumed by the void. But this was prevented from happening because the Great Seed was placed in the center between the two worlds. [...] The Great Seed is constantly being pulled upon from both worlds as they try to separate from one another. It’s a miracle that this delicate balance held up for even this long. /Yuan: Wait! So the mana links served as a cage to contain the Great Seed in the space between the two worlds? Is that what you’re saying? /Kratos: Exactly. And because you provided the unstable Great Seed with mana, germinated in a twisted form and has gone out of control. It’s even engulfed Martel. /Lloyd: Who cares why this happened! I wanna know what’s gonna happen if we can’t stop this thing!/Yuan: If what Kratos says is true, then Sylvarant will be consumed and destroyed by the Great Seed. And if Sylvarant is destroyed, Tethe’alla will be destroyed as well, as it is linked by the Holy Ground of Kharlan and the Otherworldly Gate. After the party re-stabilizes the seed, they learn from Yuan Ka-Fai about the origins of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla and how they used to be one world but was split by Mithos with the Eternal Sword; the party realizes they can save the world if they wield the Eternal Sword, merge the worlds, and germinate the Great Seed. They decide to confront and defeat Mithos before seeking the Eternal Sword. Kratos is revealed to have been gathering materials to have Lloyd use the Eternal Sword. He succeeds but Mithos survives his apparent death and possesses a member from the party before fleeing to the comet Derris-Kharlan. Mithos attempts to take the Great Seed with him but is foiled and killed by Lloyd. Using the Eternal Sword, Lloyd merges Sylvarant and Tethe'alla together and germinates the Great Seed into a Giant Kharlan Tree to supply the world with mana.Origin: The world was originally separated into two in order to prevent its destruction. If it returns to its true form, the world lacks the mana to support itself. The land is dying. /Lloyd: I don’t need to know why it’s dying! What do we need to do to stop it?/Origin: Support the two worlds by linking them with the Giant Tree. That is the only way to stop the destruction of the land. [...] Lloyd: This is my final wish. Eternal Sword [...] Rise Giant Kharlan Tree! ===== The story opens at the Bay of Kola, just after the Russian Mafia have sunk the Fowl Star. Two low-ranking Mafia members discover the body of the former Irish crime lord Artemis Fowl I, who has survived despite losing a leg and the use of one eye. Three years later, his son and heir Artemis Fowl II, while at school talking to the guidance counselor, Dr. Po, receives a call from his manservant and bodyguard Butler. Butler shows Artemis a video of his father, showing that he is in the hands of the Mafia. Knowing that a ransom demand will soon be coming, and that payment will in no way guarantee his father's release or his own safety, Artemis prepares to devise a plan while Butler drives them back to Fowl Manor. While Artemis Fowl's plight plays out above ground, the Lower Elements Police of the fairy realm are having their own problems. A routine stakeout group consisting of the disgraced Captain Holly Short and Private Chix Verbil is attacked by a group of heavily armed goblins carrying old outlawed Softnose weaponry powered by human batteries, a Class A contraband. Captain Short is quick to accuse young Artemis Fowl and against his own wishes, LEP Commander Julius Root sends Holly to apprehend Artemis Fowl and Butler for interrogation. However, Foaly's Retimager proves Artemis's innocence. Against Holly's instincts, Root decides to recruit Fowl and Butler to locate the supplier. Unknown to all, the attacks are being organised by Briar Cudgeon, a former LEP Lieutenant disgraced, deformed and demoted following his disastrous involvement in the Artemis Fowl affair. Briar is working alongside Foaly's biggest technology rival, the megalomanic pixie Opal Koboi, who is above suspicion thanks to the fact the goblins have been staging attacks on Koboi property. Neither are concerned by Root's attempts to find out the truth, and choose to bide their time so they can kill him, and begin their plan to take over Haven once he is out of the way. Foaly's investigation points to French personal investigator Luc Carrére. Holly leads a squad consisting of Root, Artemis and Butler, and herself above ground to France to interrogate Luc. Butler breaks into his apartment in Paris, but finds only a heavily mesmerized Luc, counterfeit Euros, and a fairy handgun. Butler neutralises Luc, ensures the Parisian knows nothing of the goblin use of batteries, and leaves the private eye to be arrested. Although Artemis is concerned by the ease of the operation, he puts aside his concerns to travel to Murmansk with Butler, Root and Holly to attempt a rescue for Artemis Fowl I. Cudgeon sees this as the perfect opportunity to kill Root, and sends a goblin hit squad to ambush the party. The goblins nearly succeed in killing the four as all fairy weapons currently in use by the force have just been disabled by Koboi. The resulting attack leaves Butler unconscious and trapped under rubble from an overhang with Commander Root. Holly and Artemis use a nuclear train to free Root and Butler, but the group is then forced to perform an emergency healing when the train door cuts off Holly's trigger finger. Holly questions Artemis about his father and how he came to be so ruthless in the events of the previous book, and, in a rare moment of sincerity, Artemis admits he made a mistake, a sign of his moral development that continues through the series. Below ground, Briar Cudgeon ambushes and locks Foaly in his Operations Booth, while Opal disables LEP weapons, framing him as the mastermind behind the rebellion against the LEP and leaving the rescue group powerless to stop the goblins as they begin their attack on Haven city. The situation becomes increasingly desperate for the LEP in Haven, as Foaly uses Artemis's laptop to send a text message to the boy's phone, alerting the rescue group that all fairy weapons and communications are controlled by Opal Koboi. Having received the secret message, Artemis decides the only option is to break into Koboi Laboratories and return all weapon control to the LEP, interrupting the rescue mission. Root bitterly acknowledges the only fairy who ever succeeded in doing so was the kleptomaniac dwarf Mulch Diggums, who had worked as a builder of the facility, but was presumed dead following his break-in to Fowl Manor. Holly then reveals that Foaly had a hunch that Mulch had survived by placing the iris cam that scanned his vitals into local wildlife. Foaly realized that some of the gold returned by Artemis to the fairies was missing, and then traced several bars to Los Angeles, where Mulch was living as diminutive millionaire and legendary Oscar thief. The group then head to Los Angeles and apprehend Mulch once again. Root threatens Mulch with imprisonment in the goblin prison Howler's Peak, and offers the dwarf a two- day head start if he assists in the break-in. The team use Mulch's original strategy to enter through one of the titanium foundation rods. One rod was not actually solid as Mulch and his cousin had diverted sewage into the shaft instead. After reaching the bottom of the foundation rod, and climbing through Mulch's recyclings, Butler, Root and Holly mount a desperate charge to the communications centre. While the three soldiers battle through an army of goblins, Artemis enters the network of deactivated plasma cannons to reach the centre by another route. Artemis manages to sneak into the hub long enough to communicate with Foaly, who uses Artemis's laptop to play back Cudgeon's own voice, revealing that Cudgeon planned to betray the goblins. Cudgeon is unfazed, and reactivates the plasma cannons to knock out all the goblins in Koboi Labs. Butler, Root and Holly smash their way into the centre, where Cudgeon holds Artemis at gunpoint. However, Foaly calls Artemis' mobile phone, and Artemis hands it to Koboi, who is then enraged to find that Cudgeon planned to betray her too. The two masterminds grapple with each other on Opal's hoverchair, and Cudgeon is killed when he is thrown into the open DNA cannon plasma feed, while the crash causes Opal to blackout, and destroys the remote control used by Opal to control LEP weaponry. Foaly uses the restored power to activate DNA cannons in Police Plaza, neutralizing most of the goblins involved in the revolt. Foaly remains in the Operations Booth, as the LEP outside, commanded by Captain Trouble Kelp, still think he is to blame for the revolt. Artemis, Holly, Butler and Root then head to Murmansk and rescue Artemis Fowl I. Artemis's plan to fake the shooting of his father nearly ends in disaster when the Russians throw the man overboard, but Holly manages to rescue Artemis Senior and heal his most severe injuries, apart from his lost leg. The Russian Mafia are foiled in their attempt to take the money, as Artemis has Foaly run up some fake notes that will dissolve upon being delivered to their boss. The group return to Europe where Holly deposits Artemis Fowl I on the steps of a hospital in Helsinki. The story closes with Dr. Po asking Artemis if he has learned anything and found a person he admires. Artemis, thinking of his father and the many who helped to rescue him, then answers "Yes, I believe I have." ===== Indian American Dev Raman (M. Night Shyamalan), who was raised in the United States, returns to his native country to spend a year as part of a college exchange program. He is initially reluctant, but his mother insists and he respects her wishes. While there, he discovers that his cold and distant father, now deceased, carried a quiet and profound affection towards him. While he is in India, he receives guidance from his friend Sanjay (Mike Muthu). As the visit progresses, Dev ignores Sanjay's suggestions, and the interaction between Indian and Western cultures quickly precipitates into misunderstanding and violence. Dev realizes that one may pray to the deities of the Hindu pantheon in almost any emotional state except indifference. As he explores his past and sees the miscommunication between the two cultures, Dev is overwhelmed and finds himself only able to pray with anger. ===== Henri Charrière (Steve McQueen), a safecracker nicknamed "Papillon" because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest, is wrongly convicted of murdering a pimp. In 1933 he is sentenced to life imprisonment within the penal system in French Guiana. En route, he meets a fellow convict, Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), a forger and embezzler who is convinced that his wife will secure his release. Papillon offers to protect Dega if he will underwrite the former's escape once they reach French Guiana. Enduring the horrors of life in a jungle labor camp, the two eventually develop a friendship. One day, Papillon defends Dega from a sadistic guard and escapes into the jungle, but is captured and sentenced to solitary confinement. In gratitude, Dega has extra food smuggled to Papillon. When the smuggling is discovered, the warden screens Papillon's cell in darkness for six months and cuts his rations in half, believing that it will force him to reveal his benefactor. Though emaciated and half-insane, and reduced to eating insects to survive, Papillon refuses to give up Dega's name. After two years, he is released and sent to the infirmary in St-Laurent-du- Maroni to recover. Papillon sees Dega again and asks him to help arrange for another escape attempt. Dega arranges for him to meet an inmate doctor, who offers to secure them a boat on the outside with the help of a man named Pascal. Fellow prisoner Clusiot (Woodrow Parfrey), and a gay orderly named André Maturette (Robert Deman) join the escape plot. During the escape, Clusiot is knocked unconscious by a guard. Dega is forced to subdue the guard and reluctantly joins Papillon and Maturette, climbing the walls to the outside. Dega fractures his ankle in the fall. The trio meet Pascal and the men escape into the night. In the jungle the next day, Pascal delivers the prisoners to their boat. After he leaves, they discover that it is a fake. They encounter a local trapper (John Quade), who reveals that he had killed the bounty hunters that were waiting for them, and guides the three to a nearby leper colony, where they obtain supplies and a seaworthy boat. The trio eventually land in Colombia, and are accosted by a group of soldiers, who open fire and wound Maturette. He is captured along with Dega, still crippled by his broken ankle, while Papillon is forced to flee. Papillon evades the soldiers and lives for a long period with a native tribe; he awakens one morning to find them gone, leaving him with a small sack of pearls. Papillon travels to a police checkpoint and pays a nun to take him to her convent. There he asks the Mother Superior for refuge, but she instead turns him over to the authorities. Papillon is brought back to French Guiana and sentenced to another five years of solitary confinement. He emerges a graying old man along with Maturette, whom he sees just before the latter dies. Papillon is then moved to the remote Devil's Island, where he reunites with Dega, who has long given up all hope of being released. From a high cliff, Papillon observes a small cove where he discovers that the waves are powerful enough to carry a man out to sea and to the nearby mainland. Papillon urges Dega to join him in another escape, and the men make two floats out of bagged up coconuts. As they stand on the cliff side, Dega decides not to escape and begs Papillon not to either. Papillon embraces Dega a final time, and then leaps from the cliff. Grasping his float, he is successfully carried out to sea. A narrator states that Papillon made it to freedom, and lived the rest of his life a free man. ===== Seven years after his discharge, Vietnam War veteran John Rambo travels by foot to visit an old comrade, only to learn that his friend had died from cancer the previous year, due to Agent Orange exposure during the war. Rambo continues to travel, wandering into the small town of Hope, Washington. He is intercepted by the town's Sheriff, Will Teasle, who considers Rambo a drifter and an unwanted nuisance. Teasle, however, offers Rambo a lift to make sure he is headed out of town. When Rambo, now in Teasle's police car, asks for directions to a diner, Teasle tells him that there is a diner 30 miles up the highway. He then drives Rambo out of the town and tells him that Portland, where Rambo had initially said he was headed, lies straight ahead. Teasle then drops Rambo off and drives back towards the town. When Rambo tries to return, Teasle intercepts and arrests him on charges of vagrancy, resisting arrest, and possessing a concealed knife. Led by sadistic chief deputy Art Galt, Teasle's officers abuse Rambo, triggering flashbacks of the torture he endured as a POW in Vietnam. When they try to dry-shave him with a straight razor, Rambo overwhelms the patrolmen, regains his knife, and fights his way out of the police station before stealing a motorcycle and fleeing into the woods. Teasle organizes a search party with automatic weapons, dogs, and a helicopter. Having spotted Rambo attempting to climb down a cliff over a creek, Galt defies orders from Teasle and attempts to shoot Rambo from the helicopter. Rambo, however, leaps from the cliff, landing on a tree. With Galt still trying to shoot him, Rambo manages to throw a rock, fracturing the helicopter's windshield and causing the pilot to briefly lose control. Galt, who had removed his safety harness in order to get a better firing angle, loses his balance and takes a fatal plunge to the jagged rocks below. With the aid of a pair of binoculars, Teasle identifies Galt's dead body and swears revenge. Rambo tries to persuade Teasle and his men that Galt's death was an accident and that he wants no more trouble, but the officers open fire and pursue him into the woods. It is then revealed that Rambo is a former Green Beret and received the Medal of Honor, but Teasle, bent on revenge, refuses to turn the manhunt over to the State Police. One by one, using guerrilla tactics, Rambo non-lethally disables the deputies, using both booby traps and his bare hands, until only Teasle is left. Overpowering Teasle and holding a knife to his throat, Rambo tells him he could have killed them all and he threatens to give him a war he won't believe if Teasle does not let it go. The state police and National Guard are called in to assist in the manhunt, while Rambo's mentor and former commanding officer, Colonel Sam Trautman, also arrives. Trautman confirms that Rambo is an expert at guerrilla warfare and survival, which he honed in intensive combat in Vietnam; as such, he advises that Rambo be allowed to slip through the perimeter and escape to the next town - thereby defusing the situation - then be permitted to surrender peacefully later. Confident that Rambo is hopelessly outnumbered, Teasle arrogantly refuses. He allows Trautman to contact Rambo – on a police radio he stole while escaping – and try to persuade him to surrender peacefully. Rambo recognizes Trautman but refuses to give up, condemning Teasle and his deputies for their abuse and noting "they drew first blood". Trying to slip through the cordon, Rambo is surprised by a young boy out hunting; he overpowers but refuses to harm the boy, who alerts the pursuers. A National Guard detachment corners Rambo at the entrance of an abandoned mine. Against orders, they use a rocket, collapsing the entrance and seemingly killing Rambo. He survives and finds another way out, hijacking a supply truck carrying an M60 machine gun and ammunition and returning to town. To distract his pursuers, he blows up a gas station, shoots out most of the town's power, and destroys a gun store near the police station. Trautman, knowing that the sheriff is no match for Rambo, tries to convince Teasle to escape, but is ignored. Rambo spots Teasle on the police station's roof, and they engage in a brief gunfight, ending with Teasle shot and falling through a skylight. As Rambo prepares to kill him, Trautman appears and warns Rambo that he will be shot if he does not surrender, reminding him he is the last survivor of his elite unit of Green Berets. Rambo collapses in tears and talks about his experience in Vietnam and after his return. Teasle is transported to a hospital, while Rambo surrenders to Trautman after being comforted and validated. ===== Kate Vaiden is the first person narrator of the novel. When she sets out to tell the story of her life, she is a 57-year-old single woman. Having been diagnosed with cervical cancer seems to have changed her attitude to the family she left when she was seventeen without so much as writing them a letter—ever. Accordingly, she does not even know whether her son Lee, who must now be approaching 40, is still alive or not. In the final part of the book, which is set in 1984, she meets one of the last surviving members of her family, her cousin Swift, in a local nursing home. Swift eventually informs Kate that her son is alive and well but abroad with the US Navy. ===== Duddy Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss) is a brash, restless young Jewish man growing up poor in Montreal. His cab driver father Max (Jack Warden) and his rich uncle Benjy (Joseph Wiseman) are very proud of Duddy's older brother Lenny, whom Benjy is putting through medical school. Only his grandfather (Zvee Scooler) shows the motherless Duddy any attention. Duddy gets a summer job as a waiter at a kosher resort hotel in the Laurentian Mountains. His hustle, energy, and coarse manners irritate condescending college student and fellow waiter Irwin. Irwin gets his girlfriend Linda, the daughter of the hotel's owner, to persuade Duddy to stage a clandestine roulette game. Unbeknownst to Duddy, the roulette wheel is crooked, and he loses his entire $300 earnings to Irwin and some hotel guests. The other waiters find out and make Irwin give back the money. Unaware of this, the hotel guests, led by Farber, feel bad and give him a further $500. Duddy starts a romantic relationship with another hotel employee, French-Canadian Yvette (Micheline Lanctôt). One day, Yvette takes him on a picnic beside a lake. Duddy is stunned by the beauty of the setting, and his ambition crystallizes: taking to heart his grandfather's maxim that "a man without land is nobody", he decides he will buy all the property around the lake and develop it. Because Duddy is under 21, then the age of majority in Canada, and the current owners might not want to sell to a Jew, he gets Yvette to front for him. Duddy sets out to raise the money he needs. He hires blacklisted alcoholic film director Friar (Denholm Elliott) to film weddings and bar mitzvahs. His first customer is Farber, who drives a hard bargain. If he does not like the result, he will not pay. Despite Friar's artistic pretensions, the film is a success, and more orders are quickly forthcoming. However, when a piece of land comes up for sale, Duddy does not have enough money. He begs his father to get him an appointment with his friend Dingleman, "the Boy Wonder", a rich, successful businessman-cum-gangster who had equally humble beginnings. Dingleman turns down his request for a loan but later invites him to discuss his scheme on a train to New York. It turns out that Dingleman just wants a drug mule to unknowingly take the risk of smuggling heroin. On the train, Duddy meets good-natured Virgil (Randy Quaid) and offers to buy his pinball machines, which are illegal in the United States. When Virgil shows up, Duddy does not have enough money to pay him, so Duddy hires Virgil as a truck driver, even though he has epilepsy. Tragedy strikes when Virgil has a seizure while driving and crashes; he is left paralyzed from the waist down. Duddy is distraught and guilt-ridden. Blaming Duddy, Yvette leaves him to care for Virgil. Duddy becomes alarmed when Dingleman finds out about his lake. When the last piece of property Duddy needs comes on the market, Dingleman bids for it. Desperate, Duddy forges Virgil's signature on a cheque to buy the land, leading to a final rupture with Yvette and Virgil. Undeterred, Duddy proudly takes Max, Lenny, and his grandfather to see his property. When Dingleman shows up to offer to raise the financing for its development, Duddy mocks him. Duddy's grandfather, however, refuses to pick out a plot for his farm, as Yvette told him what Duddy did to get it. Duddy tries but fails to reconcile with Yvette, and she tells him that she never wants to see him again. The final scene shows Duddy having risen far enough in society to run a tab at the local diner, and his father boasting about how his son made it. ===== The Azure Window of Gozo appears in the background of some scenes (picture from 2003) In 1815, Edmond Dantès, second mate of a French merchant vessel, and his friend Fernand Mondego, a representative of the shipping company, seek medical help on Elba for their ailing captain. Napoleon Bonaparte is in exile on the island. Having kept his guardians from killing the pair, Bonaparte privately requests that Edmond deliver a letter to the mainland in exchange for his physician’s services. Edmond is sworn to secrecy, but Fernand witnesses the exchange. In Marseille, the company owner Morrell commends Edmond for his bravery, promoting him to captain over first mate Danglars, who had given Edmond explicit orders not to land at Elba. Edmond thereafter states his intention to marry his girlfriend, Mercédès, whom Fernand lusts after. Envious of Edmond’s good fortune, Fernand and Danglars inform on Edmond regarding Bonaparte's letter, which reveals information that could be used to aid Bonaparte's escape from Elba. Villefort, the city's magistrate, has Edmond arrested, but initially prepares to exonerate him until he learns the letter is addressed to Villefort's father, Monsieur Clarion, a Bonapartist. He burns the letter and orders Edmond imprisoned in the Château d'If. Edmond escapes from Villefort and turns to Fernand for help, but Fernand instead turns him over to the pursuing gendarmes. Edmond is consigned to the island prison and its sadistic warden, Armand Dorleac. In exchange for persuading Mercédès that Edmond has been executed for treason and that she should take comfort in Fernand, Villefort has Fernand assassinate his father. Six years later, Edmond is startled in his cell by an eruption in the ground revealing another prisoner. Abbé Faria, who has been imprisoned for 11 years after refusing to tell Bonaparte the whereabouts of the treasure of Spada, has dug an escape tunnel. However, upon seeing that he is in Edmond's cell, he realizes he dug in the wrong direction. In exchange for Edmond's help digging a new tunnel, Faria educates him in numerous fields of scholarship and swordsmanship over the next seven years. Faria is seriously injured in a tunnel cave-in, but before dying he gives Edmond a map to the treasure and implores him to use it only for good. Edmond escapes the prison by switching himself for Faria's body in the body bag, and is thrown into the sea, pulling Dorleac along with him, whom he drowns. Wading ashore, Edmond encounters a band of pirates preparing to execute one of their own, Jacopo. Their leader, Luigi Vampa, decides justice and entertainment would be better served by pitting Edmond and Jacopo in a knife fight. Edmond wins but spares Jacopo, who swears himself to Edmond for life. They both work with the pirates until they arrive in Marseille. Edmond learns from Morrell, who does not recognize him, that Fernand and Danglars were complicit in his betrayal, and that Fernand and Mercédès wed shortly after Edmond was imprisoned. With Faria's map, he and Jacopo locate the treasure of Spada on the island of Montecristo. Using his newfound wealth and advanced education, Edmond establishes himself in Parisian society as "The Count of Monte Cristo", and swears vengeance on those who conspired against him. Edmond ingratiates himself to the Mondegos by staging the kidnap and rescue of their son, Albert. He lures Fernand, Villefort, and Danglars into a trap by letting slip the notion that he has located the treasure of Spada, and is shipping it through Marseille. His plans result in Danglars being caught red-handed in the act of theft, and Villefort being tricked into revealing his role in his father's death; both are arrested. Fernand is brought to financial ruin as Edmond has his gambling debts called in. Even though his appearance has changed dramatically, Edmond is recognized by Mercédès. Eventually, she softens him, and they rekindle their relationship. As Fernand prepares to flee, Mercédès reveals the only reason she married him was that she was pregnant with Albert, who is actually Edmond’s son. Edmond ambushes Fernand in the ruins of his family's country estate, having led him to believe that the treasure of Spada would be waiting for him. Albert intervenes when Edmond attempts to kill Fernand, but Mercédès tells him of his true parentage. Fernand attempts to flee, but changes his mind upon realizing that Edmond has everything and he has nothing, and challenges Edmond to a fight to the death; Edmond prevails. During the encounter, Mercédès is shot in the shoulder, but the wound is not fatal. Edmond purchases Château d'If, intending to raze it, but instead leaves it standing as he swears to Faria to use his vast resources for good. ===== The film takes place in the Lochmouth region of Scotland, near Glasgow. Members of a group of soldiers are taking turns using a Geiger counter to find a small and harmless hidden source of radioactivity in a wide pit area. Private Lansing (Kenneth Cope) finds another mysterious source of radiation where ground water starts to boil. As the other soldiers begin to run, there is an explosion. Lansing, who was closest to the explosion, dies of radiation burns while another soldier has bad radiation burns to his back. At the site of the explosion, there is a Y-shaped crack in the ground with no apparent bottom. Dr. Royston (Dean Jagger), from a nearby Atomic Energy Laboratory at Lochmouth, is called in to investigate, along with Mr. "Mac" McGill (Leo McKern), who runs security at the UK Atomic Energy Commission. That night, a local boy, on a dare from his friend, goes to a tower on the marshes, where he sees a horrific off-camera sight. He refuses to tell his friend what has happened but continues running. The friend follows. Royston investigates the tower and finds an old man inside who had a canister of a formerly radioactive material, now drained of radioactivity. The boy dies next day from radiation burns. Shortly afterwards, a young doctor named Unwin (Neil Hallett) is having an intimate encounter with a nurse (Marianne Brauns) in a radiation lab at the hospital when something off-camera reduces him to a charred corpse and leaves the nurse out of her mind and screaming. Royston hypothesizes that a form of life that existed in distant prehistory when the Earth's surface was largely molten had been trapped by the crust of the Earth as it cooled; every 50 years there is a tidal surge that these creatures feel, which causes them to try to reach the surface in order to find food from radioactive sources. Two soldiers have been left to guard the pit. One goes to investigate a mysterious glow in the pit. The other one hears his screams and goes to investigate. He shoots at something off-camera, but is killed. The next day, Royston's colleague Elliott volunteers to be lowered into the crack, and on his way down sees the remains of one of the soldiers. Farther down, he sees the monster, still off-camera, and his compatriots race to get him back to the surface again before the monster can reach him. The army uses flamethrowers and explosives in an attempt to kill the creature, then seals the crack with concrete. Royston points out that the monster broke through miles of earth to get to the surface, so a few feet of concrete will be nowhere near enough to stop it. Meanwhile, he continues with his pet experiment, looking for a way to neutralize radiation using radio waves tuned to a certain frequency. The monster comes out again that night; it is shown to be an amorphous glowing mass. Some distance away, a car with four people in it is badly burned and all four people are melted. The thing travels to Lochmouth Atomic Energy Laboratory to get the cobalt being used there. The Lochmouth inhabitants hide in a chapel as the monster approaches them. The creature raids the nuclear facility before the authorities can remove the radioactive cobalt to a safe distance. As a result, the creature grows even larger. As it returns through the village of Lochmouth, it narrowly misses the chapel and a little girl who has accidentally been left outside. Royston and McGill hypothesize that the creature will move through the centre of the nearby city of Inverness, to reach another source of radioactive material. Royston has some success with his anti-radiation device, which neutralizes a small container of radioactive material, but causes it to explode violently in the process. With no time left for further experimentation or consideration of safety, they set up two large "scanners" on lorries, and use a canister of cobalt as bait to lure the monster from the crack where it is hidden. The idea works, but Elliott in the jeep carrying the bait barely escapes with his life when the vehicle becomes stuck in mud while leading the monster into scanner range. However, the jeep makes it to a safe distance, enough for the scanners to do their job, and the creature is neutralized and explodes a sufficient distance from the observers to avoid further injury or death. As the team approaches the crack from which the monster had emerged, however, a second, more powerful explosion occurs unexpectedly, knocking several of the team off their feet, but otherwise leaving them uninjured. Puzzled, the team continues approaching the crack, presumably to make further tests, as the film comes to an end. ===== Nyah, a female commander from Mars heads for London in her flying saucer. She is part of the advanced alien team looking for Earth men to replace the declining male population on her world, the result of a "devastating war between the sexes". Because of damage to her craft, caused when entering the Earth's atmosphere, and an apparent crash with an airliner, she is forced to land in the remote Scottish moors. She is armed with a raygun that can paralyse or kill, and is accompanied by a tall, menacing robot named Chani. Professor Arnold Hennessy, an astrophysicist, accompanied by journalist Michael Carter, is sent by the British government to investigate the effects the crash, believed to be caused a meteorite. The pair come to the Bonnie Charlie, a remote inn run by Mr and Mrs Jamieson in the depths of the Scottish Highlands. At the bar they meet Ellen Prestwick, a fashion model who came to the Bonnie Charlie to escape an affair with a married man. She quickly forms a romantic liaison with Carter. Meanwhile, escaped convict Robert Justin (under the alias Albert Simpson), convicted for accidentally killing his wife, comes to the inn to reunite with barmaid Doris, with whom he is in love. Nyah happens across the inn, incinerates the Jamieson's handyman David, and enters the bar. When she finds no-one willing to come with her to Mars, she responds with intimidation, trapping the guests and staff within an invisible wall and turning Chani loose to vaporise much of the manor’s grounds. Discovering Justin and Tommy, the Jamieson's young nephew, hiding in the grounds, Nyah kidnaps Tommy as a possible male specimen, and sends Justin back to the inn under some manner of mind control. Nyah then brings Professor Hennessy aboard her spaceship to view the technological achievements of Martian civilisation, including the ship's atomic power source. In exchange for Tommy, Carter volunteers to go to Mars with Nyah. Realising that the only road to victory over Nyah means trickery, Hennessy suggests Carter sabotage the ship's power source after take off. However Carter attempts a double cross before boarding the ship, snatching Nyah's controller for Chani, but this attempt is thwarted by Nyah's mind control powers. Carter is released by Nyah, and they both return to the bar, where she announces that she will destroy the inn and kill everyone within when she leaves for London. However she allows for one man to go with her in order to escape death. The men draw lots and Carter wins the draw, still hoping to enact Hennessy's plan to destroy the ship. At the last minute, Justin, alone at the bar and now free from mind control when Nyah returns, offers to go with her of his own free will. After take-off he successfully sabotages Nyah's ship, sacrificing himself to save the men of Earth, and atoning for the death of his wife, and allowing the survivors to celebrate their escape with a drink at the bar. ===== After tying for the win in New York City's "Drag Queen of the Year" contest, Noxeema Jackson and Vida Boheme win a trip to Hollywood to take part in the even bigger "Miss Drag Queen of America Pageant". Before they depart, Vida persuades Noxeema to take along the inexperienced "drag princess" Chi-Chi Rodriguez as their protégé (they initially refer to him simply as a "boy in a dress" rather than as a full-fledged drag queen). To do this, they trade in their airplane tickets for cash and buy an old Cadillac convertible with money given to them by John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. They set off for Los Angeles in it, carrying with them an iconic autographed photo of Julie Newmar (signed "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar") that Vida took from a restaurant wall. While on the road, they are pulled over by Sheriff Dollard, who hurls racial slurs, then forces Vida out of the car and tries to rape her. Dollard discovers Vida is not a woman, Vida strikes him, and he is knocked unconscious. They assume he is dead and drive off, leaving him behind. At a rest stop, they recover from the incident but their car breaks down. Bobby Ray, a young man from the nearby small town of Snydersville, happens to pass by and gives them a ride, where they take refuge in a bed and breakfast inn owned by Carol Ann and her abusive car repairman husband Virgil. They are stranded in the town for the weekend waiting for the replacement part for their car. Chi-Chi is harassed by a group of roughnecks but is saved by Bobby Ray. While volunteering to help with the town's Strawberry Social, they decide the town's women need a day with them getting their hair done, picking out new outfits, and talking in a café. While searching for the new outfits, they are ecstatic to find vintage fashions from the 1960s in the town's clothing store and give the female residents (and themselves) a makeover. Following their makeover, they are abused by the same roughnecks that attempted to attack Chi-Chi. Fed up, Noxeema handles the situation in a typically New York City manner and teaches their ringleader a lesson in manners. Vida, Noxeema, and Chi-Chi do what they can to be positive, and they set out to improve the lives of the townspeople, including offering assistance in organizing the Strawberry Social. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dollard is ridiculed by his colleagues, who believe he was beaten up by a girl. He goes in search of the drag queens. Vida, in the meantime, becomes acutely aware of Carol Ann's abuse at the hands of Virgil, and shortly thereafter, they overhear him giving her another beating. Vida decides to intervene and beats him up before throwing him out of the house. Carol Ann is able to repair their car, but they remain for the Strawberry Social. Carol Ann reveals to Vida that she knew she was a drag queen all along due to her Adam's apple. Not too far away, Virgil runs into Sheriff Dollard at a bar, and they realize that the newcomers are the same people Dollard has been searching for. They head back to Snydersville, and Dollard demands that the townspeople turn them over. The other townspeople, who now realize that their new friends are not women, begin to protect them. One by one, they confront Dollard, each one claiming to be a drag queen (in similar fashion to Spartacus). He is humiliated and flees. The Strawberry Social commences with everyone dressed in vibrant red outfits for it. The townfolk then say goodbye to their new friends as Noxeema, Vida and Chi-Chi prepare to leave. In honor of their friendship, Vida gives Carol Ann the autographed photo of Julie Newmar that has accompanied them on their trip. They eventually make it to Los Angeles where Chi-Chi, after having received many tips from Vida and Noxeema during their ordeal, wins the title of Drag Queen of the Year. The crown is presented by Julie Newmar. ===== Minami and Sena meet when Sena's apartment-mate, Asakura, jilts Minami on their wedding day. Minami learns from Sena that Asakura has left, whereabouts unknown. Sena allows Minami to move into the apartment, since she is penniless, having given all her money to Asakura, and cannot pay the rent on her apartment. This is the beginning of a romance between Sena and Minami. Minami and Sena confide in and console each other about their relationship problems and their lack of success in life. Sena has a crush on his junior, Ryoko. However, Ryoko does not feel the same, instead, she falls for Minami's little brother Shinji. Minami meets a professional photographer, Sugisaki, who proposes marriage. Although Sugisaki fits Minami's ideal, she feels unsure about her feeling. Meanwhile, Sena has a chance of winning a piano competition and going to Boston, joining the symphony orchestra. After he wins the contest, he proposes Minami to marry and go with him to Boston. ===== Investment banker cubicle worker Harold Lee is pressured by his colleagues to do their work while they leave for the weekend. Meanwhile, Kumar Patel attends a medical school interview, but intentionally botches it to avoid getting accepted. Harold is attracted to his neighbor, Maria, but is unable to admit his feelings. After smoking marijuana and seeing an advertisement for White Castle, the pair decide to get hamburgers. After traveling to the nearest White Castle in New Brunswick, they find it replaced by "Burger Shack". The drive-thru employee informs them of another White Castle in Cherry Hill. Kumar suggests stopping at Princeton University to buy more marijuana. Kumar buys marijuana from one of the students and they are discovered by campus security and forced to flee, losing their marijuana. They resume their drive, and when Kumar pulls over to urinate, a raccoon gets in the car and bites Harold. Kumar takes Harold to a hospital where Kumar's father and older brother work. After Kumar's father confronts him over the failed interview, Kumar fakes an apology and steals ID badges to obtain medical marijuana. However, Kumar is then mistaken for his brother and is forced to perform surgery on a gunshot victim. To the amazement of Harold and the nurses, Kumar effortlessly saves the patient's life in the nick of time; afterwards, the patient tells them how to reach White Castle. Kumar spots Maria at a movie theater and decides to get her attention so Harold can talk to her, but Harold panics and crashes the car. They are rescued by Freakshow, a tow-truck driver covered with oozing boils, who takes them to his house to repair their car. Harold and Kumar are propositioned by Freakshow's surprisingly alluring wife, but after Freakshow suggests a foursome, Harold and Kumar flee in disgust. Kumar picks up a hitchhiker, Neil Patrick Harris, who is high on ecstasy. Harold and Kumar go into a convenience store to get directions and Harris drives away in their car. The duo are then harassed by a racist police officer for jaywalking. Harold attempts to punch Kumar for antagonizing the officer, but ends up punching the officer instead, resulting in his arrest. Kumar makes a 911 call to distract the police and breaks into the station to free Harold. After Harold and Kumar flee, they encounter an escaped cheetah. After smoking marijuana with it, they decide to ride it to White Castle. Harold hits his head on a branch, destroying his laptop containing all the work that he just completed for his coworkers. Harold and a reluctant Kumar decide to not continue on their trek, but after encountering a group of extreme sports punks who have been harassing the pair, the duo change their mind and steal their truck. A State trooper spots the speeding truck and chases them. They are trapped when they reach the edge of a cliff. Spotting the White Castle below, Harold and Kumar use a hang glider from the truck to reach their destination. The pair place their orders but are disheartened to find they have no money. Harris suddenly appears, having craved the food when hearing them talk about it and pays for their meal as an apology for stealing their car; he also further pays for "repairs". Kumar realizes he wants to be a doctor, but is afraid of conforming to the stereotype of Indians becoming doctors. Harold then notices his co-workers pull up and gets angry at them because they said they had to work with clients but were actually out partying. He tells them off and threatens to get them fired if it happens again. After returning to their apartment they encounter Maria, Harold professes his feelings for her and they kiss. She informs Harold that she is leaving for Amsterdam but will return in ten days. Kumar convinces Harold to go with him to Amsterdam to pursue Maria, reminding him that marijuana is legal in the Netherlands. ===== The TARDIS lands in London, near the Post Office Tower, where the First Doctor and Dodo meet Professor Brett, the creator of WOTAN. In four days time, WOTAN will be linked to other major computers to take them over, including those of the White House, Cape Kennedy and the Royal Navy. Dodo goes with Polly, Brett's secretary, to the Inferno nightclub, where they meet Ben Jackson, while the Doctor attends a Royal Scientific Club meeting about WOTAN, led by Sir Charles Summer. Before Brett can depart for the meeting, he is hypnotised by WOTAN. He then fetches Krimpton, an electronics colleague, and takes him to WOTAN, where he, too, is possessed by the computer. Major Green, the chief of security in the Tower, is also taken over, and sends WOTAN's control signals to Dodo at the nightclub via telephone. Using its hypnotic control, WOTAN enlists a workforce to construct 12 War Machines around London. One of these machines is built in a warehouse in Covent Garden, close to the Inferno nightclub. The next day, the Doctor telephones Brett at the Post Office Tower, and is nearly possessed by WOTAN. Thinking the Doctor is now controlled, Dodo reveals that the War Machines are being constructed in strategic points in London. The Doctor breaks WOTAN's hypnotic control over her, and she is sent to stay with Sir Charles's wife in the country to recover. The Doctor sends Ben to investigate the area around the nightclub, where he discovers a War Machine, now fully assembled. Ben is detected by the Machine, and caught by the now hypnotised Polly. Ben learns that the 12 War Machines are to attack at noon the next day. He escapes and alerts the Doctor and Sir Charles. Polly is sent back to the Tower to be punished by WOTAN. Under Sir Charles's instruction, an army taskforce investigates the warehouse. They are forced to retreat, but when the Doctor stands before the Machine, it stops—it had not been completely programmed. Soon after, there are reports of another War Machine—Machine 9—taking to the streets. The Doctor traps the Machine in an electromagnetic forcefield and reprogrammes it to destroy WOTAN. Ben goes to the Post Office Tower and drags Polly out of the WOTAN room as the Machine enters and attacks the immobile computer. Krimpton is killed, but WOTAN is destroyed before it can give the order for the other 10 War Machines to commence their attack. Brett and all the others who have been hypnotised return to normal. Ben and Polly meet the Doctor at the TARDIS, to explain that Dodo has decided to stay in London. The Doctor thanks them and heads into the police box—followed by Ben and Polly. They are then suddenly whisked off into time and space. ===== The beginning of each volume and episode of Golden Boy places Kintaro opposite a young, beautiful woman, whose interest or disdain for him serves as the basis of the plot. Some of these women initially dismiss Kintaro as an idiotic and clumsy pervert, and either give him or accept from him some challenge to prove their superiority. Kintaro invariably lusts after these women, and sates his voyeurism, while he is fulfilling his desire to be of actual service to these women. As he meets their needs, he continues to learn more about the world professionally and personally. Despite his outward appearances, Kintaro is an incredibly clever and resourceful individual, and consistently exceeds the espectation of the women he encounter. In the end he wins their hearts despite his outward awkwardness. But due to chance, necessity or a sense of honor, Kintaro never takes advantage of these newfound feelings. As the manga series progresses it introduces fewer women over multiple chapter arcs, such as a shoplifting schoolgirl, and goes back to women from earlier in the series that he's affected. Kintaro is a freeter, and has done various jobs as he quests around Japan in pursuit of knowledge. His ventures include computer programming, housekeeping, teaching, the culinary arts, and most of all, studying. Kintaro is also often seen demonstrating the skills he's learned in previous chapters to overcome challenges faced in the current one. He's also adept in martial arts, but does not fight unless he's angered, and ordinarily just takes a beating. Much of the humor derives from situational elements, such as encounters between Kintaro and the women gone awry, and interactions between Kintaro's libido and imagination. Recurring gags include Kintaro's fetish for toilets (especially those recently used by beautiful women), his exaggerated facial expressions, and comical entries in his notebook. The notebook entries include explicit drawings of the women he encounters and bits of wisdom such as "'C' base is not sex", and "The human head cannot turn 360 degrees." Regarding the series, Tatsuya Egawa writes: "Before leaving kindergarten, I wrote these words in my notebook: 'I really like to study.' Often I wonder when it was that our schools forgot the true meaning of 'study.' Something which is now so often misunderstood by teachers and parents. Learning ought to be both stimulating and entertaining." (unofficial translation) ===== During the Mexican–American War, Second Lieutenant John Boyd, who is fighting in the United States Army, finds his courage fail him in battle and plays dead as his unit is massacred. His body, along with the other dead are put in a cart and hauled back to the Mexican headquarters. However, in a moment of bravery, Boyd seizes the chance to capture the Mexican headquarters. His heroism earns him a captain's promotion, but when General Slauson learns of the cowardice through which victory was achieved, he posts Boyd into exile at Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost high in the Sierra Nevada commanded by the weary but genial Colonel Hart, and staffed by a motley array of misfits; the pious Private Toffler, the drug- addicted Private Cleaves, the drunken Major Knox and the ferocious Private Reich, in addition to the Native American scout George and his sister Martha. Shortly after Boyd joins the garrison, a frostbitten stranger named Colqhoun arrives and describes how his wagon train became lost in the mountains, telling a hellish tale. A Colonel Ives had promised the party a shorter route to the Pacific Ocean but instead had led them on a more circuitous route resulting in the party getting trapped by snow for three months. Wracked by starvation, he and his fellow travellers were reduced to cannibalism, and he alleges that Ives has resorted to murder. A rescue party is assembled to get the survivors. But before they leave, they are warned by George of the Wendigo myth: anyone who consumes the flesh of their enemies takes their strength but becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable hunger for more human flesh. When the soldiers reach the party's cave, Boyd and Reich investigate. Once inside they discover the bloody remains of five skeletons, and realise that it was Colqhoun who murdered everyone in his party. After eating his five companions, his plan is now to kill and eat the soldiers. Colqhoun quickly kills George, Toffler and Colonel Hart, and, after a brief struggle, Reich. Boyd escapes the massacre by jumping off a cliff but breaks his leg. He hides in a pit next to the body of Reich, whom he eventually eats to stay alive. When Boyd finally limps back to the fort, he is delirious and severely traumatized, and returns to find that it has been reinforced by General Slauson and a detachment of cavalry. Cleaves and Martha (who were on a supply mission and had not met Colqhoun) do not believe his wild tale, while the hung-over Knox cannot recall and refuses to back Boyd up. A second expedition to the cave finds no bodies or any trace of the man. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort but to Boyd's horror, it is Colqhoun, who has disguised himself as the murdered Colonel Ives. The men still refuse to believe Boyd because Colqhoun bears no sign of the wounds inflicted on him during the fight at the cave. Secretly, Colqhoun tells Boyd that he used to suffer from tuberculosis but when a Native scout told him the Wendigo myth, then he "just had to try" by murdering him and eating his flesh, a process that cured his disease. Colqhoun now plans to use the fort as a base to cannibalise passing travellers because, like the notion of Manifest Destiny, the migrants had a calling just like himself. Boyd is soon suspected of murder after Cleaves is mysteriously killed. While chained up, he watches helplessly as Knox is murdered by Colqhoun's unexpected ally: Colonel Hart, back from the dead after the massacre. Colqhoun saved Hart by feeding him his own men in order to gain his assistance. But like Colqhoun, he is now hopelessly addicted to human flesh. Colqhoun mortally wounds Boyd, forcing him to make a choice: eat or die. Eventually Boyd gives in and eats a stew made from Knox. However, rather than join the two men in their conspiracy to convert General Slauson, Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Colqhoun. Hart does so but asks to be killed because he no longer wants to live as a cannibal. Boyd and Colqhoun fight, inflicting grievous wounds on each other, as their recuperative powers sustain them. Eventually, Boyd forces Colqhoun into a large bear trap that pins them both together. Colqhoun taunts Boyd by telling him that he will eat him, but soon dies. General Slauson returns, and while his aide looks around the dilapidated fort, the general tastes the meat stew left simmering on the fire. Martha sees Colqhoun and the dying Boyd together, closes the door, and walks away. Boyd does not eat Colqhoun and dies. ===== Twelve-year-old Mitsuki Koyama dreams of becoming a singer to reunite with her first love, Eichi Sakurai. However, she is afflicted with sarcoma, which affects her ability to breathe well and sing loudly. Her tumor is curable only through a surgery that could damage her vocal cords. At the same time, her grandmother hates music and is completely opposed to Mitsuki's wish to audition. Mitsuki's dreams seem impossible to achieve, until one day she is visited by two shinigami, Takuto and Meroko, whom only she could see. Takuto and Meroko, inadvertently tip Mitsuki off that she has only one year left to live. Mitsuki then realizes she cannot wait any longer to fulfill her dream, so she runs away from home and the shinigami, to try to audition for a singing competition. She moves Takuto to agree to a compromise: if Mitsuki promises to go quietly when her year is up, he would help her become a singer, so she could leave the world with no regrets. Takuto gives her the ability to transform into a completely healthy 16-year-old, so that she could meet the age requirements of the audition and sing without hindrance. Mitsuki wins over the judges with her excellent voice and her enthusiasm for singing, sealing a contract with Seed Records. To conceal her true identity, she chooses the stage name "Fullmoon." ===== ===== Spider is the story of Dennis Cleg, a man who is given a room in a halfway house catering to mentally disturbed people. Cleg has just been released from a mental institution and in his new abode starts piecing together or recreating in his memory an apparently fateful childhood event. He roams the nearby derelict urban area and the local canal, and starts to relive or visualise a period of his childhood in 1950s London with his mother and father. A shift takes place in the child's psyche when he witnesses his mother groping with his father in the garden and, subsequently, when he sees his mother in a silky night gown she wore for his father. The son, as a grown man, seems to recreate in his memory the buildup to his father's murder of his mother by hitting her on the head with a spade with the passive support of a prostitute he is involved with, who then moves into the house and is presented as his mother. The young son then kills the mistress by gassing her in the kitchen, although the final shot appears to show his mother lying dead, so viewers are left to wonder whether she really was his mother and the prostitute-mistress was a delusion. After that memory he sneaks late one night to the landlady's room and appears ready to kill her, whom he sees alternatively as the mistress, his mother and the landlady, but backs away after she says, "What have you done, Mr. Cleg?" He is then taken back to the asylum. ===== The game begins in 1933, and consists of three acts. In Mortton, Louisiana, Rayne's first mission with the Brimstone Society is to investigate an outbreak of an unidentified disease in the area. The story skips ahead several years to Argentina. Rayne is sent to infiltrate a Nazi base and prevent the G.G.G. from obtaining the mystic artifact known as "the skull of Beliar" by eliminating the organization's officers. Rayne finds an anonymous letter informing her that a G.G.G. officer in Germany has list of the remaining G.G.G. officers. After obtaining the list, she pursues her targets to Castle Gaustadt in Germany to eradicate the G.G.G., and eventually, Jurgen Wulf himself. ===== A group of news reporters watch and gossip, at an elaborate wedding reception held by the Dairyu Construction Company's Vice President Iwabuchi who married his daughter Yoshiko to his secretary Koichi Nishi. The police interrupt the wedding to arrest corporate assistant officer Wada, who is the reception's master of ceremony, on charges of bribery in a kickback scheme. The reporters comment this incident is similar to an earlier scandal involving Iwabuchi, administrative officer Moriyama, and contract officer Shirai that was hushed up after the suicide of Assistant Chief Furuya, who jumped off the corporate office building, created a dead end in the investigation before any of the company's higher-ups could be implicated. Following the wedding, the police question Wada and accountant Miura about bribery between Dairyu and the government-funded Public Corporation. Following the inquiry, Miura commits suicide by running in front of a truck when about to be arrested. Wada attempts to take his own life by jumping into an active volcano, but he is stopped by Nishi who convinces him to help him and his best friend Itakura in his revenge agenda after taking him to his funeral to reveal what his employers thought of him. Nishi then focuses his efforts on contract officer Shirai by setting him up so that Iwabuchi and Moriyama believe him to be stealing from them, while also using Wada to drive him insane with guilt. Nishi then saves Shirai from an assassin hired by Iwabuchi before taking him to the office where Furuya died, revealing himself as Furuya's illegitimate son who exchanged identities with Itakura to avenge his father's death. Nishi's interrogation methods shatter what little sanity Shirai had left, with Moriyama deducing that someone connected to Furuya is orchestrating these events as he soon learns the truth about Nishi and informs Iwabuchi. Iwabuchi's son Tatsuo overhears and angrily drives Nishi off when he returns to the house. Retreating to the ruins of a factory he worked at during World War II, Nishi managed to abduct Moriyama and starves him into revealing the location of evidence he can use to expose the corruption and all involved to the press. In the meantime, Wada slipped away and brought back Yoshiko in the hopes that the newlyweds will reconcile. Nishi tells his wife that he has grown to truly love her. Yoshiko accepts the truth about her father's evil deeds and reluctantly agrees to allow Nishi to complete his plans to expose him. But as calls for a press conference to be held the next day and prepares to retrieve the final evidence, Iwabuchi deduces Yoshiko saw Nishi and tricks her by claiming Tatsuo intends to kill Nishi while promising to turn himself in. She offers to go with Iwabuchi, but he drugs his daughter with wine laced with sleeping pills. Yoshiko comes to by the time Tatsuo returns home from duck hunting, realizing her father tricked her as they rush to Nishi's location. But they are too late, Itakura revealing that Nishi had been killed under the cover of drunk driving accident with Wada, Moriyama, and the evidence all disposed of. All three are devastated by this development, knowing the truth but having nothing to back up their story. Following him canceling Nishi's conference, his children disowning him before leaving him. Iwabuchi receives a call from his superior and apologizes for the recent trouble while assuring them that he handled it. He then requests retirement, but his superior advises him to take a vacation. Iwabuchi proceeds to hang up after apologizing as he lost his sense of time from having not slept at all the previous night. ===== Appleseed takes place in the 22nd century, after the non-nuclear Third World War has led to the destruction of a majority of the Earth's people. While countries like Great Britain, USA and China have difficulty maintaining order and power, international organizations like the "Sacred Republic of Munma" and "Poseidon" have been established in the aftermath. The main characters are Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires, former SWAT members of the LAPD. They are found in the desolated city and invited to join the prestigious ESWAT (Extra Special Weapons And Tactics) organization in the utopian city of Olympus, the new world's most powerful state. Roughly one half of Olympus's population are bionically augmented. The series follows Deunan and Briareos as they protect their new home from both foreign and domestic threats to its security. ===== Dr. Cal Meacham is flying to his laboratory in a borrowed Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star jet. Just before landing, the jet's engine fails, but he is saved from crashing by a mysterious green glow. At the lab is an unusual substitute for the electronic condensers that he had ordered. Instead, he discovers instructions and parts to build a complex device called an "interocitor". Neither Meacham nor his assistant Joe Wilson have heard of such a device, but they immediately begin its construction. When they finish, a mysterious man named Exeter appears on the interocitor screen and informs Meacham that he has passed the test. His ability to build the interocitor demonstrates that he is gifted enough to be part of Exeter's special research project. Intrigued, Meacham is picked up at the airport by an unmanned, computer-controlled Douglas C-47 aircraft with no windows. Landing in a remote area of Georgia, he finds an international group of top scientists already present, including an old flame, Dr. Ruth Adams. Cal is confused by Ruth's failure to recognize him and suspicious of Exeter, his assistant Brack and other odd-looking men leading the project. Cal and Ruth flee with a third scientist, Steve Carlson, but their car is attacked and Carlson is killed. When they take off in a Stinson 108 light aircraft, Cal and Ruth watch as the facility and all its inhabitants are incinerated. Their aircraft is then drawn up by a bright beam into a flying saucer. Exeter explains that he and his men are from the planet Metaluna and are locked in a war with the Zagons. They defend against the Zagons with an energy field, but are running out of uranium to keep it running. They enlisted the humans in an effort to transmute lead to uranium, but time has run out. Exeter takes the Earthlings back to his world, sealing them in protective tubes to offset pressure differences between planets. They land safely on Metaluna, but the planet is under attack by Zagon starships guiding meteors as weapons against them. The defensive "ionization layer" is failing, and the battle is entering its final stage. Metaluna's leader, the Monitor, reveals that the Metalunans intend to flee to Earth, then insists that Meacham and Adams be subjected to a Thought Transference Chamber in order to subjugate their free will, which he indicates will be the fate of the rest of humanity as well upon Metalunan relocation. Exeter believes that this is immoral and misguided. Before the couple can be sent into the brain-reprogramming device, Exeter helps them escape. Exeter is badly injured by a Mutant while he, Cal and Ruth flee from Metaluna in the saucer, while the planet's ionization layer becomes totally ineffective. Under the Zagon bombardment, Metaluna heats up and turns into a lifeless "radioactive sun". The Mutant has also boarded the saucer and attacks Ruth, but dies as a result of pressure differences on the journey back to Earth. As they enter Earth's atmosphere, Exeter sends Cal and Ruth on their way in their aircraft, declining an invitation to join them. Exeter is dying, and the ship's energy is nearly depleted. The saucer flies out over the ocean and rapidly accelerates until it is enclosed in a fireball, crashes into the water and explodes. ===== ===== A nuclear submarine on maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean, captained by Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey), comes into contact with a massive sonar return. The commander attempts to outrun and outmaneuver the sonar object, but cannot. The boat is disabled but manages to free itself and return to Pearl Harbor. Tissue from a huge sea creature is discovered jammed in the submarine's dive planes. A co-ed team of marine biologists, Professor Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis) of Harvard University, is called in; they identify the tissue as being a small part of a gigantic octopus. The military authorities scoff, but are finally persuaded after receiving reports of missing swimmers and ships at sea being pulled under by a large animal. Both scientists conclude that the creature is from the Mindanao Deep, having been forced from its natural habitat by hydrogen bomb testing in the area, which has made the giant octopus radioactive, driving off its natural food supply. The scientists suggest the disappearances of a Japanese fishing fleet and a Siberian seal boat may be the work of the foraging giant. Both Pete and the Navy representatives express doubt and demand further proof. Later, as Pete assists John and Lesley, a report comes in of an attack on a Canadian freighter; several men escaped in a raft. The survivors are questioned by psychiatrists, and when the first sailor's description of a creature with giant tentacles is met with skepticism, the other sailors refuse to testify. Lesley is able to convince the first sailor to repeat his story for government officials, who then have the evidence they need. The U.S. government halts all sea traffic in the North Pacific without revealing the reason. John flies out to sea to trace a missing ship, while Pete and Lesley follow up on a report of five missing people off the coast of Oregon. The local sheriff, Bill Nash (Harry Lauter), takes Pete and Lesley to the site of the attack, where they find a giant suction cup imprint in the beach sand. (At this point, the two have become physically intimate.) They then request that John join them. Bill is later attacked along the beach by the giant octopus, right in front of the two scientists. They escape, and together they hastily arrange for all Pacific coast waters to be mined before departing for San Francisco and the Navy's headquarters. An electrified safety net is strung underwater across the entrance to San Francisco Bay to protect the Golden Gate Bridge, which has also been electrified. John takes a helicopter along the shoreline and baits the sea with dead sharks in an effort to lure the creature inland. Lesley demonstrates to reporters a special jet-propelled atomic torpedo, which they hope to fire at the giant octopus, while driving it back to the open sea before detonating the weapon. Later that day, the creature demolishes the underwater net, irritated by the electrical voltage, and heads toward San Francisco. The navy orders the Golden Gate Bridge abandoned, but when John learns that the electric circuit there has been left on, he races to the bridge to shut it off. The creature, however, catches sight of the bridge and attacks it, the electrical voltage irritating it even more. Pete is able to rescue John just before a bridge section is brought down by a giant tentacle. The residents of San Francisco panic and begin a mass exodus down the peninsula. The navy struggles to evacuate the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building, which is battered by the creature's giant tentacles. When more people are attacked and killed, the Defense Department authorizes Pete to take out the submarine and fire the torpedo; John joins Pete while Lesley remains at the base. Flamethrowers push the giant tentacles back into the sea, but when Pete fires the jet torpedo into the creature, it grabs the submarine. Using an aqualung, Pete swims up to the massive body and places explosive charges before being knocked out by the shockwaves from the premature explosion. John then swims out and shoots at one of its eyes, forcing the giant octopus to release the submarine; he then pulls Pete to safety. Back at the base, as the creature turns toward the open sea, the torpedo is detonated, completely destroying the giant cephalopod. The trio celebrate at a restaurant, where Pete makes an impromptu proposal, and Lesley accepts. ===== The film begins with the Muppets sitting down at a private screening to watch a movie that is a pastiche of how they all met. Kermit the Frog lives a simple life in a Florida swamp. One day, he plays his banjo and sings "Rainbow Connection", and is approached by Bernie, a talent agent who encourages Kermit to pursue a career in show business. Inspired by the idea of "making millions of people happy", Kermit sets off on a cross-country trip to L.A. with the film's script, but he is soon pursued by entrepreneur Doc Hopper and his assistant Max, who attempt to convince Kermit to be the new spokesfrog of Hopper's struggling French- fried frog legs restaurant franchise. Unwilling to accept Kermit's refusal, Hopper resorts to increasingly forceful means of persuasion. Kermit meets Fozzie Bear, who is working as a hapless stand-up comedian, and Kermit invites Fozzie on his journey. The two set out in Fozzie's 1951 Studebaker. In an old church, they meet the rock band Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, and the band's manager Scooter, and they give a copy of the script to the band. Driving on, they meet and are joined by Gonzo and his girlfriend Camilla the Chicken. They trade in their failing vehicle at a used car lot, where they meet Sweetums. They invite Sweetums to come with them, but he runs away. The others drive away, only for Sweetums to emerge and reveal that he had only gone to pack his things. The group meets Miss Piggy at a county fair, and she immediately becomes love-stricken with Kermit. When Kermit and Miss Piggy meet for dinner that night, Hopper and Max kidnap Miss Piggy as bait to lure Kermit. When Kermit arrives at the designated location, mad scientist Professor Krassman tries to brainwash Kermit into performing in Hopper's advertisements, but an enraged Miss Piggy knocks out Hopper's henchmen and causes Krassman to be brainwashed by his own device. However, immediately after the fight and saving Kermit, Miss Piggy receives a job offer and promptly abandons a devastated Kermit. At this moment, the film projector overheats the film and Swedish Chef fixes the film and returns to screening. Joined by Rowlf the Dog and reunited with Miss Piggy, the Muppets continue their journey to Hollywood, but their car breaks down in the desert. Sitting at a campfire, the group sadly realizes that they will likely miss the audition the next day. Kermit wanders off, ashamed for bringing his friends on a fruitless journey, but some personal reflection restores his commitment. He returns to camp, where he discovers the Electric Mayhem have come to their rescue, having learned of their plight by reading ahead in the script. The Mayhem offer to drive the entire group the rest of the way in their bus. The group is warned by Max that Hopper has hired an assassin, Snake Walker, to kill Kermit. Kermit decides to face his aggressor and proposes a Western-style showdown in a nearby ghost town. There, they find inventor Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker. Kermit confronts Hopper with an appeal to Hopper's own hopes and dreams, but Hopper is unmoved and orders his henchmen to kill Kermit and his friends. They are saved when one of Dr. Bunsen's inventions, "insta- grow" pills, temporarily enlarges Mayhem drummer Animal, who frightens away Hopper and his henchmen for good. Once the Muppets reach the Hollywood studio, they finally meet studio executive Lew Lord, who signs the Muppets to a "standard 'rich and famous' contract". The first take in their attempt to perform the script goes awry when Gonzo crashes into the prop rainbow, and an explosion blows a hole in the roof of the studio. A rainbow shines through the hole and onto the Muppets. Joined by other Muppet characters, the Muppets all sing in unison before Sweetums crashes through the movie screen in the theater, ending the film and catching up with the rest of the crew as they congratulate each other on their performances. ===== Gomez and Morticia Addams hire a nanny named Debbie Jellinsky to take care of their newborn son Pubert after his older siblings Wednesday and Pugsley's failed attempts to murder him. Unbeknownst to them, Debbie is a serial killer who marries rich bachelors and murders them to collect their inheritances. After Debbie seduces Uncle Fester, Wednesday becomes suspicious of her intentions. To maintain her cover, Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into believing that Wednesday and Pugsley want to go to summer camp. Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, managed by the chipper Gary and Becky Granger, where they're singled out by the counselors and popular (and snobbish) girl Amanda Buckman for their macabre appearance and behavior. Joel, a nerdy bookworm and fellow outcast, becomes attracted to Wednesday. Debbie and Fester become engaged. At their bachelor and bachelorette parties, Debbie is horrified by the Addams family's relatives. On their honeymoon, she tries to kill Fester by throwing a boombox into the bathtub, but she fails. Frustrated, Debbie forces him to cut ties with his family; when they try to visit Fester and Debbie at their home, they're removed from the premises. The Addams are alarmed to find that Pubert has transformed into a blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, blond-haired baby. Grandmama diagnoses this as a result of his disrupted family life and Gomez becomes horribly depressed. At camp, the counselors cast Wednesday as Pocahontas in Gary's Thanksgiving play. When she refuses to participate, she, Pugsley and Joel are sent to the camp's "Harmony Hut," where they're forced to watch several upbeat, heartwarming Disney and family films. Afterwards, Wednesday forges cheerfulness and agrees to take part. During the performance, she returns to her old self, stages a coup with the help of her brother and Joel along with the rest of their fellow outcast campers, captures Amanda, Gary and Becky and sets the camp on fire. The Addams siblings escape via a camp van and Wednesday and Joel share their first kiss. Debbie tries to kill Fester by blowing up their mansion, but he survives. She then pulls a gun and reveals to him she was only interested in his money; Thing drives Debbie's car into her and helps Fester escape. Fester apologizes to Gomez upon his return to the Addams' house, and Wednesday and Pugsley return, reuniting the family. Debbie takes another car and drives to Fester's house, where she ties the family to electric chairs, explaining — while the Addamses listen with sympathy and compassion — that she killed her parents and previous husbands for incredibly selfish and materialistic reasons. Upstairs, the returned-to-normal Pubert escapes from his crib and, via a series of improbable events, is propelled into the room where the family is being held. Debbie throws the switch to electrocute them, but Pubert manipulates the wires and reverses the current, electrocuting her instead and incinerating her into a pile of ash and credit cards. Months later at Pubert's first-birthday party (attended by all the Addamses' relatives and Joel), Fester laments Debbie's loss, but soon becomes smitten with Cousin Itt and Margaret's nanny, Dementia. In the Addams family graveyard, Wednesday tells Joel that Debbie was a sloppy killer and she would instead scare her husband to death. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand (presumably Thing) erupts from the earth and grabs him; he screams and Wednesday smiles. ===== The main character is a Native American girl named Won-a-pa-lei, whose secret name is Karana. She has a brother named Ramo, whose curiosity usually leads to trouble, and a sister named Ulape. Her people live in a village called Ghalas- at and the tribe survives by gathering roots and fishing. One day, a ship of Russian fur hunters and Aleut people led by Captain Orlov arrive and persuade the natives to let them hunt sea otter in exchange for other goods. However, the Russians attempt to swindle the islanders by leaving without paying. When they are confronted by Karana's father Chief Chowig, a battle breaks out. Karana's father and many other men in the tribe died in battle against the well-armed Russians, who escaped largely unscathed. Later, the "replacement chief" Chief Kimki leaves the island on a canoe for new land in the East. Eventually, he sends a "giant canoe" to bring his people to the mainland even though he himself does not return. The white missionaries come to Karana's village and tell them to pack their goods and go to the ship. Karana's brother Ramo runs off to retrieve his fishing spear. Although Karana urges the captain to wait for Ramo to return, the ship must leave before a storm approaches. Despite restraint, Karana jumps off the ship and swims to shore and the ship departs without them. The siblings live alone on the island, hoping the ship will return. However, Ramo is brutally killed by a pack of feral dogs. Alone on the island, Karana takes on traditionally male tasks, such as hunting, making spears, and building canoes to survive. She vows to avenge her brother's death and kills several of the dogs, but has a change of heart when she encounters the leader of the pack. She tames him and names him Rontu (meaning "Fox Eyes" in her language). Over time, Karana makes a life for herself. She builds a homemade of whale bones and stocks a cave with provisions in case the Aleuts come back, so she can hide from them. As she explores her island, Karana discovers ancient artifacts and a large octopus (which she calls a devilfish). As time passes, she decides to hunt the devilfish. She also tames some birds and an otter while feeling a close kinship to the animals (the only inhabitants of the island beside herself). One summer, the Aleuts return and Karana takes refuge in the cave. She observes the Aleuts closely and realizes that a girl named Tutok takes care of the domestic duties including getting water from the pool near Karana's cave. Fearful of being discovered, Karana goes out only at night, yet the curious girl stalks Karana, and the two meet. Karana and Tutok exchange gifts and she realizes how lonely she has been. Karana wishes that Tutok would not leave, yet the next day when Karana makes food for her she does not come. Karana goes searching and sees the ship departing. Sadly, she returns to her house and starts rebuilding. More time passes and Rontu dies. Karana soon finds a young dog that looks like Rontu and takes him in naming him Rontu-Aru (meaning "Son of Rontu"). One day, Karana sees the sails of a ship. It moors just off-shore but then leaves. Two years later in the spring, the boat returns. Karana dresses in her finest attire, a dress of cormorant feathers, and waits on the shore for the boat. Her rescuers make a dress for her, as they believe her dress of cormorant feathers is not appropriate for the mainland. She does not like the dress, but Karana realizes that it is part of her new life. The ship takes Karana and Rontu-Aru to the mission in Santa Barbara, California. There, she finds out that the ship that had taken her people away had later sunk before it could return from the mainland for her. ===== Professor Calculus on (black-and-white) TV broadcasts an appeal to help end world hunger. He receives many letters and parcels, and among them is a blue orange, which can grow in desert conditions (and glows in the dark) from Professor Zalamea, but no letter of explanation. That night, two thieves break into Marlinspike Hall and steal the blue orange. With no other choice, Calculus, with Tintin, the Captain, and Snowy, go to Valencia (filmed in Burjassot, in Simat de la Valldigna at the Monastery of Santa María de la Valldigna, Gandia and Xàtiva). Arriving, they find he is not present at his hacienda and are met by his cousin. Professor Calculus is kidnapped to help Zalamea perfect the blue oranges, which with neutron bombardment can mature in just five days. Unfortunately, they taste bitter and salty, making them inedible. Tintin befriends a local boy, who takes him to his gang hideout and he finds out that a boy who was to take the parcel to the post office for Zalamea was attacked by a man with a blue dragon tattoo on his hand. Thomson and Thompson turn up from Interpol, investigating Zalamea's disappearance, and have an unfortunate incident with a bull. The local boys find Fernando, the man with the tattoo, and Tintin and the Captain go to his hotel. Tintin picks the lock and gets into his room, and when Fernando returns, overhears him talking on a radio set to his chief, about a rendez-vous. Tintin and the Captain follow Fernando, but are knocked unconscious and taken away. Thomson and Thompson check into a hotel, but are tricked by the villains, who use doubles to coax them from their rooms. Tintin and the Captain revive and find themselves in a grain silo, but are rescued by Snowy dropping a rope into it. Back in town, they find themselves pursued by the police, who chase them all around a market. Tintin and Haddock escape thanks to Bianca Castafiore. After an unexpected visit by a delegation from the visiting Emir of Sakali, Tintin and Haddock meet up again with their young friends. They decide to sneak back into Professor Zalamea's hacienda to test some new information, that is, the role of Esposito (Zalamea's manservant) in the kidnapping. After successfully using animals with pans tied to their tails as a distraction, Tintin and Haddock find a radio identical to Fernando's in Esposito's room, proving his involvement. Haddock's decision to drink Esposito's whisky accidentally leads them to discover Zalamea's secret documents, and his own suspicions about the identity of his enemies. Back at the villains' hideout, the professors manage to make a broadcast describing their whereabouts. Esposito hears the broadcast and races off to inform his boss. Luckily, Tintin and Haddock also hear the broadcast and set off in hot pursuit. After a brief struggle, Esposito is overcome, but the professors are nowhere to be found. The new kidnappers evidently had no use for the Thom(p)son twins, as they are discovered still tied up (much to the Captain's enjoyment). Snowy discovers an agal belonging to one of the Arab kidnappers, and Tintin realises that the rich Emir of Sakali (who had courted Bianca Castafiore earlier in the film) was the same man as the Arab enemy described by Professor Zalamea. The rich Emir of Sakali's yacht is moored up at the docks, so Tintin and the Captain try to rescue the professors. Unfortunately, the professors have been drugged, and their loud voices raise the alarm, and Tintin and Haddock are caught by the emir. They escape and a fight ensues, as a horde of children turn up (warned by Snowy). The villains are thrown in the sea, the emir is subdued, and the police arrive to clean things up. All turns out well and they are back at Marlinspike Hall for a celebration and photos. It is said that they hope to perfect the oranges within 10 years and also to learn to grow wheat, potatoes, eggplants, etc. in the desert. Just then, Thomson and Thompson turn up in their car, crash, and end up in the fountain, to the amusement of all. Greedy dogs eat a "THE END" sign. ===== Four men and a woman blast into outer space from the White Sands Proving Ground aboard the RX-M (Rocketship Expedition-Moon) on humanity's first expedition to Luna. Halfway there, after surviving their jettisoned and runaway first stage and a meteoroid storm, their engines suddenly quit. Recalculating fuel ratios and swapping around their multiple, different fuels finally corrects the problem. When the engines are reignited, the RX-M careens out of control on a rapid heading beyond the Moon. The increased acceleration lowers their cabin oxygen pressure, and the crew pass out. Reviving days later, they quickly discover that they have traveled some 50,000,000 miles; the RX-M is now just 50,000 miles away from Mars. Dr. Karl Eckstrom (John Emery) is forced to "pause and observe respectfully while something infinitely greater assumes control". The RX-M safely passes through the Martian atmosphere and lands. The next morning the crew, clad in aviation oxygen masks due to the low atmospheric pressure, begin exploring the desolate surface. They come across physical evidence of a now dead advanced Martian civilization: a partially buried-in-the-sand, stylized, Art Deco (or Tiki culture) like metal face sculpture and in the distance Moderne architecture-like ruins. Their Geiger counter registers dangerous radiation levels, keeping them well away; from those dangerous levels, it is clear that there was once an atomic war on Mars in the distant past. Finding cave refuge, the crew notice in the distance the primitive human descendants of that civilization emerging from behind boulders and creeping toward them. Amazed, Dr. Eckstrom comments "From Atomic Age to Stone Age". Soon after leaving, two of the explorers encounter a dark-haired woman who has lost her footing and rolled down a hill toward them; she is blind, with thick, milky cataracts on both eyes. She screams upon hearing their oxygen mask-distorted voices. The radiation burned tribesmen attack, throwing large rocks and stone axes. Armed with only a revolver and a bolt- action rifle, the explorers defend themselves, purposely missing the primitives. Dr. Eckstrom is killed by a stone axe; navigator Chamberlain (Hugh O'Brian) is badly injured by a large thrown rock. The survivors finally make their way back to the ship. As the RX-M nears Earth, the survivors calculate that they have no fuel to make a landing. Col. Graham contacts their base and reports their dire status to Dr. Fleming (Morris Ankrum), who listens intently and wordlessly over headphones. Col. Graham's report is not heard, but Fleming's subtle reactions tells of the crew's odyssey, their discovery of a once advanced civilization destroyed long ago by atomic war, and of the crew fatalities at the hands of Martian descendants reverted to barbarism. Col. Graham and Dr. Van Horn embrace as the RX-M begins its uncontrolled descent, consoling one another in the moments left to them. Through a porthole, they bravely watch their rapid descent into the wilds of Nova Scotia. The press is later informed by a shaken Dr. Fleming that the entire crew has perished. When they ask if the mission was a failure, he confidently responds with conviction, stating that all theories about manned spaceflight and exploration have now been proven. He continues, underscoring the point that a dire warning has been received from the crew that could very well mean the salvation of humanity, "A new spaceship, the RX-M-2, begins construction tomorrow". The pioneering exploration continues. ===== Set in a future 1970, the United States is considering building bases on the Moon. Colonel Briteis (whose first name is never stated, played by Donna Martell), Major Bill Moore (Ross Ford), and Doctor Wernher (Larry Johns) are sent to orbit the Moon to survey landing sites for future lunar missions. However, Dr. Wernher is an impostor whose mission is to destroy the US's Earth-orbiting space station, which he plans to do by colliding the rocket with the station on the way back from the Moon. Colonel Briteis (which is repeatedly pronounced "Bright Eyes") is arrogant, rash and distrusting of Major Moore. Moore, in turn had a romantic interest in Briteis when they began in the USSF, but was rejected in favor of her ambition to be the first person on the Moon. Moore realizes that the man claiming to be Wernher (who taught in Brooklyn) is actually a spy for an unnamed country, because the imposter has no knowledge of Werhner's trade nor the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. In the ensuing struggle for the control of the rocket, Col. Briteis accidentally hits the boosters, which saves their lives, but leaves them stranded. She takes unfair blame which Moore assures her is not her fault. Briteis then realizes, she may not have all the answers and does need help on the mission from Moore. They have to make an emergency landing on the Moon. With them all marooned, Dr. Wernher redeems himself by helping establish communications with Earth, although an accident results in his untimely death. In response to the unexpected turn of events, the US authorities decide to make the immobilized spaceship the core of a new moon base. Later, the General, called Pappy, has a heart to heart with Moore on his feelings about Briteis. Moore is insecure in her feelings as he states "she has no need for me." Briteis, overhearing this, later proposes to Moore via Papi and cuts a deal with Madame President to make Moore Brigadier General of Project Moonbase to make up for her earlier actions towards Moore. ===== ===== The play opens in the early morning hours of a cool day in May in the nursery of Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya's ancestral estate, somewhere in the provinces of Russia just after the turn of the 20th Century. Ranevskaya has been living with an unnamed lover in France for five years, ever since her young son drowned. After receiving news that she had tried to kill herself, Ranevskaya's 17-year- old daughter Anya and Anya's governess Charlotta Ivanovna have gone to fetch her and bring her home to Russia. They are accompanied by Yasha, Ranevskaya's valet who was with her in France. Upon returning, the group is met by Lopakhin, Dunyasha, Varya (who has overseen the estate in Ranevskaya's absence), Leonid Andreyevich Gayev, Boris Borisovich Simeonov-Pishchik, Semyon Yepikhodov, and Firs. Lopakhin has come to remind Ranevskaya and Gayev that their estate, including the cherry orchard, is due to go to auction in August to pay off the family's debts. He proposes to save the estate by allowing part of it to be developed into summer cottages; however, this would require the destruction of their famous cherry orchard, which is nationally known for its size. Ranevskaya is enjoying the view of the orchard as day breaks when she is surprised by Peter Trofimov, a young student and the former tutor of Ranevskaya's son, Grisha, whose death prompted Ranevskaya to leave Russia five years ago. Much to the consternation of Varya, Trofimov had insisted on seeing Ranevskaya upon her return, and she is grief-stricken at the reminder of this tragedy. After Ranevskaya retires for the evening, Anya confesses to Varya that their mother is heavily in debt. They all go to bed with renewed hope that the estate will be saved and the cherry orchard preserved. Trofimov stares after the departing Anya and mutters "My sunshine, my spring" in adoration. Act II takes place outdoors in mid-summer on the family estate, near the cherry orchard. The act opens with Yepikhodov and Yasha trying for the affection of Dunyasha, by singing and playing guitar, while Charlotta soliloquizes about her life as she cleans a rifle. In Act I it was revealed that Yepikhodov proposed to Dunyasha around Easter; however, she has since become infatuated with the more "cultured" Yasha. Charlotta leaves so that Dunyasha and Yasha might have some time alone, but that is interrupted when they hear their employer coming. Yasha shoos Dunyasha away to avoid being caught, and Ranevskaya, Gayev, and Lopakhin appear, once more discussing the uncertain fate of the cherry orchard. Shortly Anya, Varya, and Trofimov arrive as well. Lopakhin teases Trofimov for being a perpetual student, and Trofimov espouses his philosophy of work and useful purpose, to the delight and humour of everyone around. During their conversations, a drunken and disheveled vagrant passes by and begs for money; Ranevskaya thoughtlessly gives him all of her money, despite the protestations of Varya. Shaken by the disturbance, the family departs for dinner, with Lopakhin futilely insisting that the cherry orchard be sold to pay down the debt. Anya stays behind to talk with Trofimov, who disapproves of Varya's constant hawk-like eyes, reassuring Anya that they are 'above love'. To impress Trofimov and win his affection, Anya vows to leave the past behind her and start a new life. The two depart for the river as Varya calls scoldingly in the background. It is the end of August, and the evening of Ranevskaya's party has come. Offstage the musicians play as the family and their guests drink, carouse, and entertain themselves. It is also the day of the auction of the estate and the cherry orchard; Gayev has received a paltry amount of money from his and Ranevskaya's stingy aunt in Yaroslavl, and the family members, despite the general merriment around them, are both anxious and distracted while they wait for word of their fates. Varya worries about paying the musicians and scolds their neighbour Pishchik for drinking, Dunyasha for dancing, and Yepikhodov for playing billiards. Charlotta entertains the group by performing several magic tricks. Ranevskaya scolds Trofimov for his constant teasing of Varya, whom he refers to as "Madame Lopakhin". She then urges Varya to marry Lopakhin, but Varya demurs, reminding her that it is Lopakhin's duty to ask for her hand in marriage, not the other way around. She says that if she had money she would move as far away from him as possible. Left alone with Ranevskaya, Trofimov insists that she finally face the truth that the house and the cherry orchard will be sold at auction. Ranevskaya shows him a telegram she has received from Paris and reveals that her former lover is ill again and has begged for her to return to aid him. She says that she is seriously considering joining him, despite his cruel behaviour to her in the past. Trofimov is stunned at this news and the two argue about the nature of love and their respective experiences. Trofimov leaves in a huff, but falls down the stairs offstage and is carried in by the others. Ranevskaya laughs and forgives him for his folly and the two quickly reconcile. Anya enters, declaring a rumour that the cherry orchard has been sold. Lopakhin arrives with Gayev, both of whom are exhausted from the trip and the day's events. Gayev is distant, virtually catatonic, and goes to bed without saying a word of the outcome of the auction. When Ranevskaya asks who bought the estate, Lopakhin reveals that he himself is the purchaser and intends to chop down the orchard with his axe. Ranevskaya, distraught, clings to Anya, who tries to calm her and reassure her that the future will be better now that the cherry orchard has been sold. Several weeks later, once again in the nursery (as in Act I), the family's belongings are being packed away as the family prepares to leave the estate forever. Trofimov enters in search of his galoshes, and he and Lopakhin exchange opposing world views. Anya enters and reprimands Lopakhin for ordering his workers to begin chopping down the cherry orchard even while the family is still in the house. Lopakhin apologizes and rushes out to stop them for the time being, in the hopes that he will be somehow reconciled with the leaving family. Charlotta enters, lost and in a daze, and insists that the family find her a new position. Ranevskaya tearfully bids her old life goodbye and leaves as the house is shut up forever. In the darkness, Firs wanders into the room and discovers that they have left without him and boarded him inside the abandoned house to die. He lies down on the couch and resigns himself to this fate (apparently dying on the spot). Offstage we hear the axes as they cut down the cherry orchard. ===== All three acts of the play are set in Garry Essendine's London flat. ===== The story, set in 17th- century France, follows a young Dogtanian (Darutaniyan (ダルタニヤン) in the original Japanese version and voiced by Satomi Majima (間嶋 里美) and D'Artacan in the Spanish version) who travels from Béarn to Paris in order to become one of King Louis XIII of France's musketeers. (Note: that they are referred to as musketeers throughout the cartoon and only the title calls them muskehounds.) He quickly befriends three musketeers (Porthos, Athos and Aramis) saving Juliette, a maid-in-waiting for Queen Anne of Austria. A key difference between the Dogtanian adaptions and Dumas' novel is that the character traits of Athos and Porthos were interchanged, making Athos the extrovert and Porthos the secretive noble of the group. ===== ===== Chicago native Ren MacCormack and his mother Ethel move to the small town of Bomont, Oklahoma to live with Ren's aunt and uncle. While attending church, Ren meets Rev. Shaw Moore, his wife Vi, and daughter Ariel. Ariel recklessly endangers her life as a form of rebellion due to her dad's strict religious nature, much to the ire of her friends and boyfriend Chuck Cranston. At school, Ren befriends Willard Hewitt, and learns the town council has banned dancing and rock music within the town boundary. He soon begins to fall for Ariel. After trading insults with Chuck, Ren is challenged to a game of chicken involving tractors. Ren wins when his shoelace becomes stuck and prevents him from jumping from the tractor. Rev. Shaw distrusts Ren, and forbids Ariel from seeing him after she shows an interest in him. Wanting to show his friends the joy and freedom of dance, Ren drives Ariel, Willard, and Ariel's best friend Rusty to a country bar 100 miles away from Bomont. Once there, Willard is unable to dance and gets into a jealous fight with a man who dances with Rusty. On the drive home, the gang crosses a bridge where Ariel tells the story about how her older brother died in a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol after a night of dancing. The accident destroyed her father, and prompted him to persuade the town council to enact strict anti-liquor, anti-drug, and anti-dance laws. Ariel begins to openly challenge her father's authority at home. Ren decides to challenge the anti- dancing ordinance so that the high school can hold a senior prom. Willard is embarrassed at his inability to dance with Rusty, leading Ren to give him private lessons after school hours. Chuck angrily confronts Ariel about her feelings towards Ren and the two get into a fistfight behind the bleachers. Ren helps Ariel clean herself up before going home, cementing their relationship. That night, a brick with the words "Burn in Hell" is thrown through the window of Ren's house, causing his uncle to lash out at his outspoken behavior. Ethel reveals that she was fired by her boss because of Ren's actions, but tells her son to stand up for what he believes is right. With Ariel's help, Ren goes before the town council and reads several Bible verses to cite scriptural significance of dancing as a way to rejoice, exercise, and celebrate. Although Shaw is moved, the council votes against Ren's proposal. Vi is supportive of the movement and explains to Shaw that he cannot be everyone's father and that he is hardly being a father to Ariel. Despite further discussion with Ren about his own family losses and Ariel's opening up about her own past, disclosing that she has had sexual relations, Shaw cannot bring himself to change his stance. The next day, Shaw sees members of his congregation burning library books that they claim are dangerous to the town's youth. Realizing the situation has gotten out of hand, Shaw stops the book-burning, rebukes the people, and sends them home. The following Sunday, Shaw asks his congregation to pray for the high school students putting on the prom, which is set up at a grain mill just outside the Bomont town limits. On prom night, Shaw and Vi listen from outside the mill, dancing for the first time in years. Chuck and his friends arrive and attack Willard; Ren arrives in time to even the odds and knocks out Chuck. Ren, Ariel, Willard, and Rusty rejoin the party and happily dance the night away. ===== The novel takes place in a future in which people can create clay duplicates (called "dittos" or golems) of themselves. A ditto retains all of the archetype's memories up until the time of duplication. The duplicate lasts only about a day, and the original person (referred to in the book as an archie, from "archetype", or "rig", from "original") can then choose whether or not to upload the ditto's memories. Most dittos want to inload, so that their experience will be continuous with that of their archie. Most people use dittos to do their work, as they are affordable even for the poor. Many also use dittos to experience pleasure which could hurt a real person. Dittos come in many colors, which signify their quality and intended role. A cheap ditto suitable for housework is green, whereas a quality one for business is gray. Ebonies are highly specialized dittos that are good at intelligent data analysis; platinums are only used by the very rich, and closely resemble real people. Ivory dittos specialize in the reception of pleasure and sexual fulfillment. Other colors of ditto (such as purple, red, and yellow) exist, but are rarely mentioned in the novel. ===== In 1939, Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch is created by scientist Phineas T. Horton, and the project is considered a success until the android catches on fire when air is projected into its glass chamber, only to go out when the air is gone. Horton shows his creation to the public, which is met with demands from the terrified civilians to destroy it. A dejected Horton begins to bury the android, but the chamber cracks, allowing in air and enabling the Human Torch to escape. The android describes his appearance as the beginning of a "golden age". Meanwhile, young Phil Sheldon, an aspiring photographer, and young J. Jonah Jameson, are shocked by these "Marvels". Sheldon is more confused than Jameson by the spectacle and, worried, seeks the support of his fiancée, Doris Jacquet. More unusual beings begin to appear, notably Namor MacKenzie/Namor the Sub-Mariner, and fights erupt between him and the Human Torch. Sheldon, feeling it would be irresponsible for him to raise children in a world where these Marvels run rampant, breaks off his engagement with Doris. It is only when Steve Rogers/Captain America is unveiled to the world that Sheldon becomes less apprehensive about the Marvels. When World War II begins, Sheldon, Doris, and many others see the Marvels in newsreels joining forces with the Allies, providing public reassurance. But after rekindling his romance with Doris, Sheldon hears that the Human Torch and Namor are fighting again, and the battle this time damages New York City landmarks. During the fight, they come near but do not directly encounter Sheldon; he is knocked out by a small chunk of masonry and permanently blinded in his left eye. Still, he has lost all fears of the Marvels and goes on to marry Doris. Sheldon becomes a war correspondent in Europe, reporting on the Allied Forces and the Marvels as they combat the Nazis. In the mid-1960s, a married Sheldon is now the father of Beth and Jennie, and he is preparing to write a book called Marvels. New York now has two superhero teams, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Sheldon is excited by recent news of the return of Steve Rogers/Captain America, a hero from his youth, but the public has begun to fear mutants, especially the mutant team known as The X-Men. As he covers an anti-mutant mob that comes face to face with the X-Men, he hears X-Men leader Scott Summers/Cyclops refuse to engage with the mob, saying "they're not worth it" and leaving. Sheldon, unsure of their meaning, finds the words staying with him. On the positive side, some Marvels are treated as celebrities, as seen by Sheldon at the gala opening of Alicia Masters' sculptures. Gossip spreads over the upcoming marriage of the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic and Susan Storm/Invisible Girl. Sheldon leaves the gala and rushes home after hearing about the anti-mutant mob near there, and he finds his daughters hiding their friend, a mutant girl with a skull-like head. Sheldon sees the importance of hiding this girl, but is worried for his family. Following the wedding, mutant-hunting robots called Sentinels are unleashed during a television debate involving Professor Xavier; they malfunction and begin rampaging throughout the city. A mob forms, attacking and destroying everything in sight, with only Sheldon helping the injured. The newly repaired Sentinels stop the mob, but Sheldon returns home to find the mutant girl gone. As the 1960s progress, Sheldon is preoccupied with his work, to the detriment of his family. The news is filled with stories of the Avengers being declared a menace; the law going after Tony Stark/Iron Man; sightings of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who the public is unsure is a hero or a danger; and a possible Judgement Day. The Silver Surfer appears to the world and defeats the Fantastic Four, heralding the appearance of Galactus. With the city in panic, Sheldon believes the Earth will end, and he returns home to be with his family in the final moments. Suddenly, news comes that the Fantastic Four have managed to defeat Galactus, saving Earth. In the wake of the team's victory, Sheldon promises he will spend more time with his family. However, he is later disgusted by the way the public has again turned on the heroes, with one newspaper claiming the Galactus threat was a hoax. Sheldon rages at a crowd carrying on an anti-mutant conversation. In the 1970s, Sheldon releases his book Marvels, and it is an instant bestseller. He remains dismayed at the public's reaction to the Marvels and is disgusted by Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson's screeds against Spider-Man, who has been framed for the death of NYPD Captain George Stacy. Sheldon resolves to investigate the murder and clear Spider-Man's name. While talking to a witness with Luke Cage, he learns that not only do the police believe Spider-Man is innocent, but that they suspect Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus is the killer. Sheldon interviews Octavius, but he refuses to admit to the murder. Sheldon then interviews Stacy's daughter Gwen and develops a friendship with her. Gwen's admiration and trust in the Marvels gives Sheldon a sudden insight: the purpose of the Marvels is to protect innocents like Gwen. On his way to meet her for a session, Sheldon witnesses Gwen's kidnapping by the supervillain Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. He follows the Goblin to the Brooklyn Bridge and a confrontation with Spider-Man. Watching their battle through a telephoto lens, Sheldon is certain that Spider-Man will defeat the villain and rescue the innocent victim, because that's what Marvels do. Instead, Gwen is knocked off the bridge and killed, and Sheldon's faith in the Marvels is shattered. He plans to retire, but before he can hang up his camera, a final photo is taken of Phil, his wife, and a "nice, normal boy" — Danny Ketch, who, unbeknownst to Sheldon, will grow up to become the demonic hero Ghost Rider. ===== In 1964, the United Nations has launched a rocket flight to the Moon. A multi-national group of astronauts in the UN spacecraft land, believing themselves to be the first lunar explorers. However, they discover a Union Jack flag on the surface and a note mentioning Katherine Callender, which claims the Moon for Queen Victoria. Attempting to trace Callender in the records office in Dymchurch in Kent, south-east England, the UN authorities discover that she has died, but that her husband Arnold Bedford is still living in a nursing home known as "The Limes". The home's staff do not let him watch television reports of the Moon expedition because, according to the matron, it "excites him". Bedford's repeated lunar claims are dismissed as senile delusion. The UN representatives question him about the Moon, and he tells them his story, which is then shown in flashback. In 1899, Arnold Bedford lives in a romantic spot, Cherry Cottage, next to a canal lock in Dymchurch. His fiancée, Katherine Callender, known as Kate, arrives by car (driving herself) visiting the house for the first time. It is implied that Bedford is in financial difficulties as he has a letter for rent arrears. They meet a nearby neighbour, inventor Joseph Cavor, who wants to buy the cottage, in case his experiments damage the cottage. Kate agrees this on Bedfords behalf. Bedford starts spending much time at Cavor's house, where he has a large laboratory. There he has invented Cavorite, a substance that will let anything it is applied to or made of deflect the force of gravity. He plans to use it to travel to the Moon. Bedford gets deeds signed up in Kath's name selling the cottage to Cavor in exchange for £5000.... it must be remembered that he is selling something he does not own! Cavor tempts Bedford into his scheme by telling him there are nuggets of gold on the moon. He has already built a spherical spaceship in the greenhouse next to the cottage. The sphere is lined inside in green velvet and has electric lights. There is an explosion at Cavor's house just as Kate arrives at the cottage. This is caused by Cavors assistant, Gibbs, going to the pub instead of watching the boiler. He shows her deep sea diving suits intended to keep them alive on the moon. The production of Cavorite is increased. Kate brings things for the trip: gin and bitters, chickens and an elephant gun. But she gives Bedford an ultimatum: Cavorite or me. Back at the cottage Kate is served with a summons by a bailiff accompanied by a silent policeman, charged with selling a property she does not own. Bedford and Cavor are just about to leave when Kate angrily hammers on the outside wanting to know what he has done. They pull her inside as the sphere launches. On the long journey they eat only sardines. It is not explained how they steer, but opening a blind causes the sphere to instead head for the sun. They crash land on the moon. The men don the diving suits and Kate is put in the air-tight compartment. While exploring the lunar surface, Bedford and Cavor fall down a vertical shaft, where there is breathable air and discover an insectoid population, the Selenites, living beneath the surface. (Cavor coins this name for the creatures after the Greek goddess of the Moon, Selene). Bedford attacks a group of Selenites out of fear, killing several, despite Cavor's horrified protests. After escaping from them, the two men discover that their sphere, still containing Kate, has been dragged into the underground city. They are then attacked by a giant caterpillar-like "Moon Bull" which pursues them until the Selenites are able to dispatch it with their rayguns. Cavor and Bedford see the city's power station, a perpetual motion machine powered by sunlight. The Selenites quickly learn English and interrogate Cavor, who believes they wish to exchange scientific knowledge. Cavor has a discussion with the "Grand Lunar", the ruling entity of the Selenites. Bedford makes the assumption that Cavor, and presumably all humanity, is actually on trial, and attempts to kill the Grand Lunar with an elephant gun but fails due to Cavor's interference. Running for their lives, Bedford manages to find their sphere, and he and Kate escape; Cavor voluntarily stays on the Moon. Bedford flies the sphere up a vertical light shaft, shattering the window-like covering at the top, and returns to Earth. He concludes his story by mentioning that they came down in the sea off Zanzibar, and their sphere sank without trace, while he and Kate managed to swim ashore. Cavor's ultimate fate remained unknown to them. In the present, Bedford, the UN party and newspaper reporters watch on television the latest events on the Moon, where the UN astronauts have broken into the Selenite city and find it deserted and decaying. The ruined city starts to crumble and collapse, forcing the astronauts to retreat hastily. Seconds later the city is completely destroyed. Bedford realizes that the Selenites must have succumbed to Cavor's common cold virus to which they had no immunity. ===== Orleanna Price, the mother of the family, narrates the introductory chapter in five of the novel's seven sections. The narrative then alternates among the four daughters, with a slight preference for the voice of the most outspoken one, Leah. The four girls increasingly mature and develop differently as each adapts to African village life and the political turmoil that overtakes the Belgian Congo in the 1960s. The Price family packs up their belongings for their flight to the Congo, where they are going to spend a year as the family of a missionary. However, shortly before leaving, they are informed that they are limited to 44 pounds of luggage per person. The Southern Baptist Mission League suggests they solve this problem by leaving for the airport wearing many layers of clothing, hiding household items among the layers of clothes to lighten their luggage. This is the first problem of many the Price family will face. The Price girls – Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May – and their father, Nathan, attend their first church service in the village of Kilanga, and they realize how different their culture is from that of the Congo. For example, 14-year-old Leah helps her father plant a "demonstration garden", and it immediately receives criticism from Mama Tataba, whom the family has engaged as a live-in helper. Nathan tries to hold an impromptu Easter celebration in hopes of baptizing numerous people, but he is not successful in baptizing even one, as the river along the village, where he plans to hold the baptism, is infested with crocodiles. Leah and her twin Adah begin to spy on Eeben Axelroot, the pilot who conveyed the family to Kilanga, and Nathan tries to convince Congolese men, one by one, to convert to Christianity. Meanwhile, five-year-old Ruth May befriends the village children. She finds out about Axelroot's business with the diamonds after breaking her arm. After Mama Tataba departs, an orphan boy named Nelson becomes the family servant. Nathan and Leah go to Leopoldville (present day Kinshasa) to witness what is going on with the independence in the Congo. Methuselah (a parrot the Prices adopted from the previous missionary) dies, and Adah finds his feathers. Ruth May becomes very sick and lies in bed for the majority of the day. Leah begins to spend a lot of time with Anatole, Kilanga's teacher, discussing topics such as justice and the Congo. Leah wants to participate in the hunt, which upsets the village elders, as it would go against their custom, but she eventually is allowed to participate and even hunts an antelope. The girls all gather together in the morning to check out the chicken coop. Inside they find footprints and a green mamba snake. A scream and gasp is heard from Ruth May, who has been bitten by the snake. The girls watch her turn cold and blue before she passes away. Orleanna becomes filled with guilt over Ruth May's death, and takes the other children away, leaving her arrogant husband to fend for himself. With Anatole's help, they eventually reach safety. The remaining Price sisters go through many different life changes: Adah dedicates herself to getting a scientific education back home (she is hemiplegic and wants to learn more about the condition); Leah marries Anatole and they start a family together; Rachel remains very self- centered, goes through a string of marriages, and starts a business; and Nathan dies in his unsuccessful mission. The story ends with a final chapter from Ruth May reflecting on her sisters and mother attempting to visit her grave, but not being able to find it, and a woman telling them a place named Kilanga never existed. She watches her sisters and her mother, and has seen how they have matured; she has matured as well. Through her death, she finally is able to understand the Congolese term muntu, which describes the concept of unity and how all life is connected in some way. She understands that she is muntu, and a part of all that is around her. Ruth May only wants her mother to understand the concept and for her to move on. She asks for her mother to forgive herself and not live with the guilt anymore. ===== The story centers around high- school student Alice Sakaguchi, her seven-year-old neighbor, Rin Kobayashi, and five other teenage students who have recurring collective dreams about a group of alien scientists stationed on the moon observing and collecting data about the Earth. Initially, when Alice learns that classmates Jinpachi and Issei have been having common recurring dreams since middle school, she thinks nothing of it until she has one of these "moon dreams" herself. Because of the nature of these dreams, the way Issei always dreams as the same person, and Jinpachi as well, now that Alice has provided a third perspective, they start to believe that people who dream as the other four scientists in their "moon dreams" can each be found. Almost like playing a simple game, the three make plans to seek these other people out in the hopes of making sense of these dreams. After a suggestion from Issei, and a little bit of time and luck, they are finally able to make contact with the other four people. But as the six teenagers and one child start to piece together the chronology and content of their dreams, they began to realize that their "dreams" are not simply dreams, but rather suppressed memories of their past incarnations that ended tragically. And now, as their "game" begins to unravel, the kids must strive to come to terms with what happened in their past lives, as they struggle to prevent their past incarnations' rivalries, jealousies, and dubious actions from taking over their new ones. ===== Hitomi Kanzaki is in crisis. Her life has lost its meaning, and she is plagued by unusual dreams. She is depressed and wants nothing more than to disappear. After falling out with her only friend, she is mysteriously summoned to another world, Gaea, where she finds herself inside Escaflowne, a doomsday weapon destined to come to life at the appearance of a prophesied "wing goddess". The world of Gaea is facing its own crisis: relentless conquest by the Black Dragon Clan, the rebels against which become convinced that Hitomi is the prophesied goddess who will revive Escaflowne. Never certain of her identity in Gaea, Hitomi finds her destiny as she becomes closer to the rebel leader, Lord Van, and helps to bring about the fall of his vengeful brother Lord Folken, the master of the Black Dragon Clan. ===== A huge, blinking flying object from deep space emits a glowing ball of electrical energy, which races to Earth. It intercepts a man who's driving his pickup along an isolated road in the American Southwest desert country late at night. The electrical entity takes over the man's mind and directs him to LabCentral, a U.S. research facility where a pair of scientists have been tracking the flying object, thinking it is an asteroid. The possessed man knocks out LabCentral's security guard, then proceeds into the main building where the entity leaves the pickup driver and enters the mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot, the chief of LabCentral. Meanwhile, in a research lab below, astrophysics Dr. Leslie Gaskell and his computer science associate, Dr. Arnold Culver, who have been tracking the flying object, realize that it is not only headed toward Earth but is also moving as if under intelligent guidance. They order three nuclear missiles to be fired, but they fail to destroy the object, which dives into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The two scientists, along with Vera Hunter, LabCentral's staff photographer and Gaskell's girlfriend, rush to Mexico. After their arrival at Manuel Ramirez's beachside hovel, they see an enormous dome, glowing and steaming, appear on the ocean horizon. The next morning the party find that the dome is gone but a stories-tall machine that has appeared on the beach. Its four-legged body features two mobile antennae that resemble the terminals of a capacitor. They use a small helicopter to land atop the strange machine, glimpsing its complex inner workings before being forced to leave as the machine begins to move, and fly back to LabCentral. There, the possessed Dr. Eliot, who has lists of power stations and atom-bomb arsenals around the world, telepathically directs the machine, which has been named Kronos by the news media, to methodically attack power plants in Mexico, draining all their energy. In doing so Kronos grows larger with every energy-absorption episode, consuming more and more power as it moves, unhindered, from one power source to the next. Four Mexican Air Force fighter planes attack, but the ever-growing alien machine easily destroys them and continues on its energy-draining rampage. Meanwhile, when Kronos is absorbing energy, Eliot is momentarily freed from the influence of the energy force binding his mind to serving Kronos. In a lucid, unpossessed moment, Eliot tells his returned colleagues that Kronos is an energy accumulator, sent by an alien race that has exhausted its own natural resources; they have sent their giant machine to drain all the Earth's available power and then return it to their dying world. The United States Air Force sends a B-47 bomber to drop an atomic bomb on Kronos on Eliot's recommendation, but Gaskell warns the Air Force General in charge of the mission that an atomic explosion will simply supply Kronos with more massive amounts of energy. The General attempts to abort the bombing mission, but Kronos magnetically draws the jet to crash into it, and absorbs the bomb's nuclear blast. The alien machine, now grown to an immense size, appears unstoppable, harvesting all forms of energy at will. In another lucid moment, Dr. Eliot locks himself in an hermetically sealed room and smashes the only electronic keypad for the door; and he and the energy force which has possessed him expire. As Kronos draws near Los Angeles, Gaskell realizes that reversing the monster machine's polarity will force it to feed upon itself, until it is destroys itself in a gigantic implosion. Gaskell, Culver and Vera convince the Air Force to bombard Kronos with nuclear ions which will cause the polarity to be reversed; this experiment works, and Kronos is obliterated in the resulting implosion. ===== When their latest rocket test fails and government funding collapses, rocket scientist Dr. Charles Cargraves (Warner Anderson) and space enthusiast General Thayer (Tom Powers) enlist the aid of aircraft magnate Jim Barnes (John Archer). With the necessary millions raised privately from a group of patriotic U.S. industrialists, Cargraves, Warner, and Barnes build an advanced single-stage-to-orbit atomic powered spaceship, named Luna, at their desert manufacturing and launch facility. The project is soon threatened by a ginned-up public uproar over "radiation safety", but the three circumvent legal efforts to stop their expedition by launching the world's first Moon mission ahead of schedule. As a result, they must quickly substitute Joe Sweeney (Dick Wesson) as their expedition's radar and radio operator. En route to the Moon they are forced to spacewalk outside. They stay firmly attached to Luna with magnetic boots so they can easily walk up to and free the frozen piloting radar antenna that the inexperienced Sweeney innocently greased before launch. In the process, Cargraves becomes untethered in free fall and is lost overboard. He is retrieved by Barnes who cleverly uses a large oxygen cylinder retrieved by General Thayer as an improvised propulsion unit to return them to Luna. After achieving lunar orbit, the crew begins the complex landing procedure, but they use too much fuel during the descent. Safely on the Moon, they explore the lunar surface and describe by radio their view of the Earth, as contrasted against the black lunar sky. Barnes photographs Sweeney pretending to "hold up" the Earth like a modern Atlas. Events takes a serious turn for the crew when they realize that with their limited remaining fuel they must lighten Luna in order to achieve lunar escape velocity. No matter how much non-critical equipment they strip out and discard on the lunar surface, the hard numbers radioed from Earth continue to point to one conclusion: One of them will have to remain on the Moon if the others are to safely return to Earth. With time running out for their return launch window, the crew continues to engineer their way home. They jettison the ship's radio, losing contact with Earth. In addition, an oxygen tank is used as a tethered, suspended weight to pull their sole remaining space suit outside through the open airlock, which is then remotely closed and resealed. With the critical take-off weight finally achieved, and with all her crew safely aboard, Luna blasts off from the Moon for home. ===== Two escaped convicts, Gary (Tommy Cook) and Lon (Gary Clarke), are discovered hiding aboard a rocket by scientist Dirk Green (Michael Whalen), who then forces them to pilot the spaceship to the Moon. Dirk, who is secretly a Moon man, wants to return home. Dirk's partner Steve Dayton (Richard Travis) and Steve's fiancée June (Cathy Downs) are accidentally trapped aboard just before the rocketship blasts off from Earth. Moon man Dirk is later accidentally killed in a meteor storm during the lunar trip. Once they land on the Moon, the spaceship's reluctant crew encounter deception and intrigue when they discover an underground kingdom made up of beautiful women and their sinister female ruler, the Lido (K. T. Stevens). While on the Moon, they encounter surface-dwelling, slow-moving, bipedal rock creatures that try to kill them. They must also contend with a cave-dwelling giant spider.Jalufka et al. 2001, pp. 190–191. ===== Lyman Ward narrates a century after the fact. Lyman interprets the story at times and leaves gaps that he points out at other times. Some of the disappointments of his life, including his divorce, color his interpretation of his grandparents' story. Toward the end of the novel, he gives up on his original ambition of writing a complete biography of his grandmother. Stegner's use of Mary Hallock Foote's historical letters gives the novel's locations—Grass Valley, Leadville, New Almaden, Idaho, and Mexico—an authentic feel; the letters also add vividness to the Wards' struggles with the environment, shady businessmen, and politicians. Lyman's position in the contemporary culture of the late sixties provides another historical dimension to the story. Foils for this plot line include Lyman's adult son, a Berkeley-trained sociologist who sees little value in history, and a neighbor's daughter who helps transcribe Lyman's tape-recorded notes while she is home on summer break from UC Berkeley, where she has been active in the "hippie" counterculture movement. ===== At the beginning of the novel, Portia moves in with Anna and Thomas Quayne after her mother dies. Portia is Thomas's half sister. Mr. Quayne (Thomas's father) had an extramarital affair with Irene (Portia's mother) while married to Thomas's mother. When Irene became pregnant, and Mrs. Quayne learned of it, she was adamant that he do what was the right thing: so, at his own wife's unyielding insistence, Mr. Quayne divorced Thomas's mother and married Irene. Mr. Quayne, Irene, and Portia then left England and traveled through Europe as exiles from society and from the Quayne family, living in the cheapest of lodgings. Irene and Portia continued to live in this fashion until, when Portia was 16, Irene died. Portia was sent to live with Thomas and Anna after Irene's death. The plan is that she is to stay with them for one year at which time Portia will leave and move in with Irene's sister (Portia's aunt). Portia is a naturally awkward girl, and this aspect of her personality has been intensified by her strange childhood which was one of constant travel, change, and strangers, while at the same time being incredibly isolating. She is uniquely innocent in her observations of people, and is baffled by inconsistencies between what they say and what they do, and wonders why people say things they do not mean. She keeps a diary detailing the lives of those around her, particularly Anna, trying to understand the key to people she thinks she is missing. Anna finds and reads Portia's diary; she is incensed by the idea of the girl observing her every move, and rages about the girl to her friend St. Quentin, a writer and frequent visitor to the Quaynes's home. It becomes clear over the course of the novel that Anna dislikes Portia because she is strange. Anna and Thomas are generally uncomfortable with Portia in their home but try to make do. They send her to classes where she makes friends with a girl named Lilian. Portia's love interest, if she can be said to have one, is a man named Eddie. Eddie works at Thomas's advertising agency. He also has a flirtatious relationship with Anna prior to Portia's arrival. Eddie does not truly love Portia. Partway through the novel, Anna and Thomas go on vacation to Italy and send Portia to live with Anna's former governess, Mrs. Heccomb, for the duration of the trip. The climax of the novel occurs when St. Quentin, a friend of Anna's, tells Portia that Anna has been reading her diary. As a result of this Portia runs away. She first goes to Eddie who becomes overwhelmed by her and sends her away telling her that he is Anna's lover (which is not true). Portia then takes refuge with an acquaintance of Anna's named Major Brutt. Portia goes to Major Brutt's hotel and begs him to run away with her and to marry her. Major Brutt then calls Thomas and Anna to tell them where Portia is. The novel ends with Thomas and Anna sending their maid, Matchett, to Major Brutt's hotel in order to fetch Portia. ===== Poster for the serialized debut of The House of Mirth in Scribner's Magazine (1905) Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished socialite, is on her way to a house party at Bellomont, the country home of her best friend, Judy Trenor. Her pressing task is to find a husband with the requisite wealth and status to maintain her place in New York society. Additional challenges to her success are her advancing age—at twenty-nine, she has been on the "marriage market" for more than ten years—her penchant for gambling at bridge that has left her with debts beyond her means to pay, and her efforts as part of upper-crust society to keep up appearances with her wealthy friends. Lily's choices are further complicated by her innermost desire to marry for love as well as money and status, and her longing to be free of the claustrophobic constrictions and routines of upper-crust society. Judy has arranged for her to spend more time in the company of Percy Gryce, a potential suitor who is wealthy but whom Lily finds boring. Lily grew up surrounded by elegance and luxury—an atmosphere she believes she cannot live without, as she has learned to abhor "dinginess." The loss of her father's wealth and the death of her parents left her an orphan at twenty. Lacking an inheritance or a caring protector, she adapts to life as a ward of her strait-laced aunt Julia Peniston from whom she receives an erratic allowance, a fashionable address, and good food, but little direction or parenting. Lily despises her aunt Julia and avoids her whenever possible while simultaneously relying on her for both necessities and luxuries. In the opening sentence of the House of Mirth Edith Wharton places Lily in "Grand Central Station" where Selden, a friend and possible love interest, is taken by surprise to see her. in Threats to Lily's reputation exist because of her tendency to push the limits of polite and acceptable behavior. On the way to visit Bellomont, she impulsively accompanies Selden during her two-hour wait for the change of trains to his Manhattan flat in the Benedick Building. On leaving the building, she encounters Mr. Rosedale, a Jewish businessman known to her set and the owner of the building. Attempting to cover the appearance of an indiscretion, she worsens the situation by telling Rosedale she had been consulting her dress-maker. This obvious lie is the first of a series of faux pas Lily gets caught up in. As she makes an effort to explain away the social chances she takes, she becomes easy prey for her enemies to misrepresent her intention and behavior. Near the week's end, the tall, handsome and engaging Lawrence Selden unexpectedly shows up at Bellomont. Having already failed to meet Percy for morning church services, and fully aware that Lawrence has just ended an illicit relationship with the married but vindictive Bertha Dorset, Lily chooses to go for a long walk with Lawrence and to spend the afternoon with him instead of with Percy or the rest of the party. Even though Lily has already made it clear to Selden during their tête-à-tête in his flat that she looked at him as that friend who won't be afraid to say disagreeable things to her, she becomes drawn to him romantically. Succumbing to her agreeable femininity, Selden begins to fall in love with Lily. He feels safe in nurturing an emotional attachment to her because she clearly states that she cannot and will not marry a man of his modest means. Fresh out of his four- year affair with Bertha Dorset Lawrence begins to slide into another emotional attachment with the equally unavailable Lily. Lily's week at Bellomont ends up in a series of failures beginning with losing a large sum at bridge. She fails to become engaged to Percy Gryce despite his initial interest in her. Although she has presented herself as a conservative, innocent person so as to snare a conservative husband, her actions with Selden reveal her pretense. She exaggerates the extent of her relationship with Percy until everyone at Bellomont thinks an engagement between them is imminent. Bertha still has feelings for Lawrence notwithstanding her recent breakup with him. As she notices Selden's fondness for Lily, she decides to sabotage Lily's budding romance with Percy by filling him in on the most salacious and scandalous rumors about Lily's card-playing and past romantic life. This effectively frightens Percy away. Lily manages to cast the blame on Judy for having been the one to set the match up. On her last day at Bellomont, Lily creates threats to her social standing. Gus Trenor, a very skilled stockbroker, is married to Lily's best friend Judy. Judy is not particularly jealous of Gus's occasional conversations or flirtations with other women, unless he becomes so emotionally attached to them as to spend money on them or to give them money, which Judy rightly recognizes as a sign that the relationship has become a threat to their marriage. Lily is fully aware of Judy's jealousy on the money issue, and she is aware that Judy does not approve when other women, such as the financially embarrassed Carry Fisher, persuade Gus to speculate on their behalf in the stock market. Yet Lily persuades Gus to do just that. Lacking the financial knowledge to understand the difference between a legitimate loan or speculation, Lily flirts with Gus and allows him to hold her hand and lean against her. She convinces herself that Gus is making investments on her behalf and accepts several large checks from him. On several occasions, however, Gus makes it clear that he expects romantic attention from Lily in exchange for his financial expertise. Instead of discussing the issue openly, Lily begins to play cat and mouse with him. To avoid being with him in private, she appears in public with him at the opera and for late afternoon walks in Central Park with him. This attracts other people's attention. Gradually, Lily begins to suffer the consequences of her indiscreet behavior. Percy, having been scared away by Lily's behavior and Bertha Dorset's malicious gossip, proposes to a young woman named Evie Van Osburgh, who is much better suited to him than Lily and who was introduced to him by Bertha Dorset herself. Mrs. Dorset's public pride in her match-making victory results in social ridicule for Lily from the people whom she directly and indirectly misled into thinking she and Percy were all but engaged. Finally, in retribution for a social snub, Lily's cousin Grace Stepney informs their aunt Julia about rumors that Lily has gambling debts which she may be trying to cover through an inappropriate relationship with Gus Trenor. This sows seeds of doubt and discomfort in Aunt Julia who though shocked, does not discuss the situation with her niece so as to avoid a scene.The tragic heroine of The House of Mirth (1905), Lily Bart, lingers at the broad staircase, observing the high-society people gathered in the hall below. Furthermore, Lily has destroyed her relationship with Gus and Judy Trenor. Judy's attitude toward Lily has cooled, partly due to Lily's financial relationship with Gus and partly because Lily now avoids Bellomont because she does not wish to hold up her end on what everybody else believes to be a pay-for-play relationship. To avoid having to spend time alone with her aunt, the Trenors, Simon Rosedale, or anyone else she considers a possible source of embarrassment or boredom, Lily begins to accept invitations from people with whom she would not ordinarily socialize. These include the Wellington Brys, who are newcomers to the New York social scene whose social rise is being engineered by Carry Fisher. Carry, who earns money by acting as a social secretary to usher newly wealthy people into fashionable society, invites Lily to social events hosted by Louisa Bry. Lily also attends the opera with Carry, Simon Rosedale, and Gus Trenor. In the eyes of high society, Lily cheapens herself by voluntarily associating with her social inferiors. She returns briefly to Bellomont only to find that she is now being teased by her social peers for socializing with the upstart Brys and with Simon Rosedale. Lily is not entirely without resources for social rehabilitation or at least blackmail. One of her aunt's temporary servants, who is also the charwoman at Selden's apartment, sells Lily a package of torn love letters. These were written by Bertha Dorset, and they represent an opportunity for Lily to blackmail her enemy. But instead of blackmailing Bertha into a positive relationship, Lily tries to neutralize the gossip by making herself useful to Bertha. Bertha, who has a new love interest in the form of a young man named Ned Silverton, relies on Lily to distract her husband George Dorset. The extent to which Lily's reputation is damaged becomes obvious when Lily publicly appears in a way that comes across as advertising her availability for an illicit relationship. Following Mrs. Fisher's advice, the Wellington Brys throw a large "general entertainment" featuring a series of tableaux vivants portrayed by a dozen fashionable women in their set, including Miss Bart. The pièce de résistance of this highly successful event turned out to be the portrayal of Mrs. Lloyd in Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous 18th-century painting (1775–1776). The portrait shows an attractive woman suggestively clad. As the curtain opens on this last scene, the gasp of approval heard from the audience was not so much for Reynold's brilliant interpretation of Mrs. Lloyd as it was for the loveliness of Lily Bart herself—marking the pinnacle of her social success but also the annihilation of whatever reputation is left to her. For better or for worse, she has transitioned from a marriageable "girl" to a not-quite-reputable woman similar to Carry Fisher. Yet she does not do as Carry Fisher does, and accept the loss of her respectability as the price she must pay to maintain a position in society. As Selden observes her in this elegantly simple tableau, he sees the real Lily Bart as if for the first time and feels the desire to be with her. He finds her alone in the ballroom toward the end of the musical interlude, as the collective praise from her admirers is subsiding. He leads her to a garden where he tells her he loves her and they kiss. Lily sighs, " 'Ah, love me, love me—but don't tell me so!' " and takes her leave. As Selden gathers his coat to leave, he is disturbed by Ned Van Alstyne's remarks, ". . . .Gad, what a show of good-looking women; but not one of 'em could touch that little cousin of mine. . . . I never knew till tonight what an outline Lily has." The next day, Lily receives two notes—one from Judy Trenor inviting her to dine that evening at her town house and the other from Selden—asking to meet with her the following day. Though she had a dinner engagement, she agreed to a visit with Judy at ten o'clock. However, her late-evening encounter turns out to be with Gus alone. Gus vehemently demands the kind of attention he thought he had paid for. Pleading naïveté about business matters and appealing to their friendship, she promises to pay back the almost $10,000 she owes him. With heightened anger and resentment, he accuses Lily of playing with him while entertaining other men. Lily gets him to back off and flees, getting into a hansom cab. Shaken and feeling very much alone, she is unaware that she has been seen by both Ned Van Alstyne and Lawrence Selden, both of whom were aware that Judy was out of town and that the Trenor house in New York is occupied by Gus alone. The unspoken conclusion, shared between the two men, is that the rumors of Lily's romantic involvement with Gus Trenor have a solid basis in fact. Ned, as a relative of the family, asks Lawrence to not tell anybody what they saw. But the damage is done. Lily calls on her friend Gerty Farish for succor and shelter for the rest of the night, and returns to her aunt in the morning. The following day Lily pleads with her aunt to help her with her debts and confesses that she has lost money gambling at bridge even on Sundays. Aunt Julia refuses to help her, except to cover the $1,000 to $2,000 bill for clothes and accessories. Feeling trapped and disgraced, she turns to thoughts of Selden as her savior and has a change of heart towards him as she looks forward to his visit at four o'clock. Instead, her visitor turns out to be Simon Rosedale who, so smitten by her appearance in the tableau vivant, proposes a marriage that would be mutually beneficial. Considering what Rosedale knows about her, she skillfully pleads for time to consider his offer Selden does not appear for his 4:00 appointment nor does he send word in explanation. Instead he has departed for Havana and then on to Europe on business. This comes as a shock to Lily. To escape the rumors arising from the gossip caused by her financial dealings with Gus Trenor, and also disappointed by what she interprets as Selden's emotional withdrawal, Lily accepts Bertha Dorset's spur-of-the- moment invitation to join her and George on a Mediterranean cruise aboard their yacht, the Sabrina. Bertha intends for Lily to keep George distracted while Bertha carries on an affair with young Ned Silverton. Lily's decision to join the Dorsets on this cruise proves to be her social undoing. In order to divert the attention and suspicion of their social circle away from her, Bertha insinuates that Lily is carrying on a romantic and sexual liaison with George by commanding that she not return to the yacht in front of their friends at the close of a dinner the Brys held for the Duchess in Monte Carlo. Selden helps by arranging a night's lodging with her cousin Jack Stepney, under the promise that she leave promptly in the morning. The ensuing social scandal ruins Lily's reputation and almost immediately causes her friends to abandon her and Aunt Julia to disinherit her. Undeterred by such misfortunes, Lily fights to regain her place in high society by befriending Mr. and Mrs. Gormer and becoming their social secretary, so as to introduce the Gormers to high society and groom them to take a better social position. However, her enemy, the malicious Bertha Dorset, gradually communicates to them the "scandalous" personal background of Lily Bart, and thus undermines the friendship which Lily had hoped would socially rehabilitate her. Only two friends remain for Lily: Gerty Farish (a cousin of Lawrence Selden) and Carry Fisher, who help her cope with the social ignominy of a degraded social status while continually advising Lily to marry as soon as reasonably possible. Despite the efforts and advice of Gerty and Carry to help her overcome notoriety, Lily descends through the social strata of New York City's high society. She obtains a job as personal secretary of Mrs. Hatch, a disreputable woman who very nearly succeeds in marrying a wealthy young man in Lily's former social circle. It is during this occupation she is introduced to the use of chloral hydrate, sold in drugstores, as a remedy for malaise. She resigns her position after Lawrence Selden returns to warn her of the danger, but not in time to avoid being blamed for the crisis. Lily then finds a job in a milliner's shop; yet, unaccustomed to the rigors of working class manual labor, her rate of production is low and the quality of her workmanship is poor, exacerbated by her increased use of the drug. She is fired at the end of the New York social season, when the demand for fashionable hats has diminished. Meanwhile, Simon Rosedale, the Jewish suitor who previously had proposed marriage to Lily when she was higher on the social scale, reappears in her life and tries to rescue her, but Lily is unwilling to meet his terms. Simon wants Lily to use the love letters that she bought from Selden's servant to expose the love affair between Lawrence Selden and Bertha Dorset. For the sake of Selden's reputation, Lily does not act upon Rosedale's request and secretly burns the love letters when she visits Selden one last time. Lily is stopped on the street by Nettie Struther, who Lily once helped get to a hospital. Nettie is now married and has a baby girl, and she invites Lily to her apartment to meet and feed the baby with her. Lily goes to Nettie's and they play with the baby. Eventually, Lily Bart receives a ten-thousand-dollar inheritance from her Aunt Peniston, which she arranges to use to repay Gus Trenor. Distraught by her misfortunes, Lily has by this time begun regularly using a sleeping draught of chloral hydrate to escape the pain of poverty and social ostracism. Once she has repaid all her debts, Lily takes an overdose of the sleeping draught and dies; perhaps it is suicide, perhaps an accident. As she is dying, she hallucinates cradling Nettie's baby in her arms. That very morning, Lawrence Selden arrives to her quarters, to finally propose marriage, but finds Lily Bart dead. Among her belongings are receipts for her payments toward the debt she owed to Gus Trenor, proving that her financial dealings with Trenor were honorable and not evidence of an improper relationship. His realization allows him to feel sympathy and closeness for her, and he is clearly distraught at her death. ===== In the United States in the year 2007, the right-wing "Fathers" dominate large sections in politics and in the media. A libertarian movement, the "Friends", opposes the government, often making use of underground guerrilla tactics. The Fathers' leader is California's Senator Tony Kreutzer, who is also the leader of the religious sect "Church of Synthiotics" (similar to Scientology) and owner of the "Wild Palms" media group. Kreutzer's TV station "Channel 3" is about to start a new television format, "Church Windows", which creates a virtual reality on the basis of popular shows like sitcoms, using a new technique called "Mimecom". Harry Wyckoff is a successful patent attorney on the brink of becoming a partner in the law firm where he works. He has two children with his wife Grace, a perfect housewife who also moonlights as a boutique owner: 11-year-old Coty, who has just been cast for the new "Channel 3" series, and the ever-silent 4-year-old Deirdre. His mother-in-law is the impossibly chic socialite and interior decorator Josie Ito, a woman of strong will and numerous connections. At night, Wyckoff is plagued by strange dreams of a rhinoceros and a faceless woman who has palm trees tattooed on her body. One day, he is visited by a former lover of his college days, the alluring Paige Katz, who asks for his help in tracking down her son Peter, who disappeared five years earlier. As Paige is closely associated with Kreutzer's "Wild Palms Group", which Wyckoff's firm is going up against in court, their meetings raise suspicions and cost Wyckoff his promotion. After this, he gladly accepts when Kreutzer offers him a job at "Channel 3" with an even higher salary. In the wake of his new career, Harry's wife Grace becomes alienated from him and attempts suicide. To his dismay, Harry learns that Coty is actually the son of Kreutzer and Paige, and that her search request was a plot to bring him and the Senator together. Meanwhile, Coty not only becomes a child TV star but also, due to his ruthlessness, a high-ranking member of the "Church of Synthiotics". Grace's mother turns out to be the Senator's sister who disposes of possible rivals with the same violently brutal means as her brother. Her only weak point is her former marriage to Eli Levitt, leader of the "Friends" and Grace's father, with whom she is still in love. Kreutzer tries to get hold of the "Go chip", which supposedly will enable him (via his hologram technology, mimizine drug, and synthiotics becoming common household products) to become a living hologram with unlimited power; he does not even stop at murder. Disgusted by his methods, his fiancé Paige gives information to the "Friends". Harry discovers that Peter, a boy who has connections to the "Friends", is his real son who was taken away by the "Fathers" shortly after his birth. Kreutzer, who suspects Harry of collaborating with his opponents, has him tortured and kidnaps his daughter Deirdre, while Josie throttles her own daughter, Grace, to death. Harry joins the "Friends" and works to broadcast a recording of Grace's murder. The broadcast causes a social uproar. "Synthiotics" facilities and the campaign offices of Kreutzer, who is running for president, are attacked. Even a transmission of a fake video that shows Harry as Grace's murderer, and the secret execution of Eli can't stop the upheaval. Josie is brutally killed by a former victim, Tully Woiwode. Kreutzer finally manages to get hold of the "Go chip" and has it implanted, but not before it is secretly altered by Harry and Peter. Kreutzer reveals to Harry that he is his biological father, just before he loses cohesion and dissolves into nothingness. As Coty, now the leader of the "Fathers", finds his followers dispersed, Harry, Paige, Peter and Deirdre escape the chaos, although Harry knows he must "go back" and lead the "Friends" against their enemies. ===== Mylo Steamwitz is a down-on-the-luck space trader. Each game in the series follows Mylo going to the planet Altair to collect enough crystals from its mines to finance his latest get-rich-quick scheme. ===== In the winter of 1935, many people are unemployed due to the Great Depression, yet they seem to have hope ("Prologue"). Valedictorian and future fashion designer Flora Meszaros inspires and leads her graduating class in taking charge of the future before them ("Unafraid"). She applies at Gimbel's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's and Altman's before finally applying at Garret and Mellick's where she meets Harry Toukarian, a fellow artist who stutters when he's nervous. When she learns that the boss, Mr. Stanley, isn't hiring, Flora tries impressing the secretary by saying that she is "the most amazing miss in all of New York City." (The Kid Herself). During the song, Flora, Harry and the other artist sneak their designs into a box of Mr. Stanley's merchandise, and after the secretary kicks them out, Flora asks Harry to coffee. The coffee date conversation starts about Flora's previous employer, who paid her through the barter system and she ended up having to dig cemetery plots. Harry asks why she didn't strike, and explains the concept to her after she shows incompetence. This ends up with Flora punching Harry in the face and, after initial refusal, taking him to her studio. Flora rents out her studio to other artists, like a dancer named Maggie and her ex Kenny (All I Need is One Good Break). Headstrong wannabe fashion designer Flora Meszaros is a member of an artists' co- operative of bohemian types - dancers, musicians, designers - struggling to find work during the Great Depression. Hoping to find a job which pays at least $15 a week, she is hired by the head of a large department store at $30. She falls in love with Harry Toukarian, another struggling designer, who attempts to convert Flora to his Communist ideals. Although it compromises her job in an organization which does not recognize the new unions, she seeks to hold down both job and relationship. Complicating matters is a predatory Communist matriarch, Comrade Charlotte, who wants Harry for herself, a secretary with designs on her boss, and Kenny and Maggie, a jazz dancing duo with their sights on greater things. In the end, however, Flora finds herself torn between two vastly different ideals, and has to sacrifice one or the other for true happiness. ===== Katie (Jenny McCarthy) and Becca (Pamela Anderson) talk about what Katie believes is a sex tape, but Becca calls it a cursed tape. After several odd occurrences, they both die. Meanwhile, in a farm outside Washington, D.C., widowed farmer Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) and his brother George (Simon Rex) discover a crop circle, saying "Attack Here!", after noticing the dogs' strange activity. Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), now a reporter, announces the crop circles on the news. She picks up her paranormally endowed nephew Cody from school, where her best friend Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall) is his teacher. George picks up his niece Sue, who is in the same class. Cindy and George quickly become attracted to one another, and George invites her and Brenda to a rap-battle with his rapper friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ (Kevin Hart). George proves to be talented but is violently thrown out after he raises his unintentionally pointy white hood. After watching the cursed videotape, Brenda asks Cindy to keep her company. After playing several pranks on Cindy, the girl from the cursed tape, Tabitha, fights with and kills Brenda. George receives a phone call about the death, and Tom meets with Sayaman, who apologizes for the accident involving himself and Tom's wife Annie. During Brenda's wake, George and Mahalik wreak havoc in an unsuccessful attempt to revive her, only to blow up her body and get kicked out of the house. Cindy finds the cursed tape in Brenda's room, watches it, and receives a phone call warning her of her death in seven days. She calls George, CJ and Mahalik for help. CJ says his Aunt Shaneequa might be able to help. Shaneequa (Queen Latifah), the Matrix Oracle, and her husband Orpheus (Eddie Griffin) agree to watch the tape with her. Shaneequa discovers the hidden image of a lighthouse and gets in a fight with Tabitha's mother. Shaneequa tells Cindy to find the lighthouse to break the curse. When Cindy returns home, she finds Cody watched the tape. At work, Cindy searches through pictures of lighthouses before finding the one from the tape. Desperate to save Cody, Cindy warns everyone by entering a message into the news anchor's teleprompter. Her boss interrupts her, and the anchor mechanically recites the wrong message. The Logans take it seriously since they encountered an alien disguised as Michael Jackson, and President Baxter Harris (Leslie Nielsen) personally visits the farm to investigate the crop circles. Cindy visits the lighthouse, where she encounters The Architect (George Carlin). The loquacious old man explains Tabitha was his evil adopted daughter, whom his wife drowned in the farm's well, but not before she imprinted her evil onto the tape. Unfortunately, he mistakenly returned it to Blockbuster believing it was Pootie Tang, unleashing the curse. When Cindy asks about how this relates to the Aliens, the Architect speculates that Tabitha is summoning them to aid her in destroying the human race. Returning home, Cindy discovers her station has been broadcasting the evil tape for hours, and there have been various sightings of aliens around the world. Worse, Cody is missing. Cindy tracks him to the Logan farm, where he has taken refuge with George. Tom orders everybody into the basement for safety, as he, George and Mahalik go outside to fight the extraterrestrials. The aliens arrive but reveal they are friendly and have come to stop Tabitha, since they accidentally watched the tape on a broadcast they had intercepted, again believing it was Pootie Tang. In the basement, Cindy recognizes the farm's cellar from the tape, and she finds the well where Tabitha drowned. Suddenly, Tabitha appears behind her. A short fight ensues, during which Tabitha takes Cody hostage. Cindy and George appeal to her, offering her a place in their family. Tabitha appears to accept the offer but changes back to her monstrous form. As she advances on Cindy and the others, President Harris opens a door and accidentally knocks her into the well. The aliens leave in peace, and Cindy and George get married. Leaving for their honeymoon, they realize they left Cody behind. After Cindy avoids hitting Cody at an intersection, another car strikes him. ===== Mr. Vane, the protagonist of Lilith, owns a library that seems to be haunted by the former librarian, who looks much like a raven from the brief glimpses he catches of the wraith. After finally encountering the supposed ghost, the mysterious Mr. Raven, Vane learns that Raven had known his father; indeed, Vane's father had visited the strange parallel universe from which Raven comes and goes and now resides therein. Vane follows Raven into the world through a mirror (this symbolistic realm is described as "the region of the seven dimensions", a term taken from Jacob Boehme). Inside the world, Vane learns of a house of beds where the dreamers sleep until the end of the world in death: a good death, in which life is found. Vane's grandfather refused to sleep there and is, instead, forced to do battle with skeletons in a haunted wood. After a treacherous journey through a valley (where the moon is the only thing to keep him safe), Mr. Vane meets the Little Ones, children who never grow up, remaining pure children or becoming selfish and getting bigger and dumber, turning into "bags" or bad giants. After conversing with Lona, the eldest of the children, Mr. Vane decides to help them, and sets off to gather more information, although the Raven (who is also Adam) has warned Mr. Vane that he needs to sleep along with the dreamers before he can really help them. While on his journey, he meets Lilith, Adam's first wife and the princess of Bulika.C.S Lewis pays tribute to MacDonald in describing the central villain of "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe", the White Witch, as descended from Lilith the first wife of Adam. Vane, although nearly blinded by Lilith's beauty and charms, eventually leads the Little Ones in a battle against Bulika. Lona, Vane's love, turns out to be Lilith's daughter, and is killed by her own mother. Lilith, however, is captured and brought to Adam and Eve at the house of death, where they struggle to make her open her hand, fused shut, in which she holds the water the Little Ones need to grow. Only when she gives it up can Lilith join the sleepers in blissful dreams, free of sin. After a long struggle, Lilith bids Adam cut her hand from her body; it is done, Lilith sleeps, and Vane is sent to bury the hand; water flows from the hole and washes the land over. Vane is then allowed to join the Little Ones, already asleep, in their dreaming. He takes his bed, next to Lona's, and finds true life in death. Mr. Vane awakens in his home, then is afterwards unsure that he is really awake, but actually dreaming that he is awake. He does not attempt to re-enter the parallel world but waits "all the days of (his) appointed time ...till (his) change come" ===== P.J. Hasham, Tom Croydon and Maggie Doyle The series primarily focuses on the daily lives of Victorian police officers working at a police station in the fictional small town of Mount Thomas. Each episode is presented from the perspective of the officers. This was a specific technique that creator Hal McElroy chose to employ.Government of the Commonwealth of Australia. Small Screen, Big Picture, Big Future , Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, July 2000. The police officers, commonly referred to as "Heelers", are always active sorting out the town's many problems. These problems range from trivial complaints such as land and fencing disputes to more serious offences, such as homicides and assaults. The small town is also faced with many other significant occurrences including bank robberies, escaped criminals, police shootings, kidnappings and the acts of deluded criminals. Of these, one of the more significant events is the bombing of the police station during the show's eleventh season. Whenever overwhelmed, the Heelers call on the assistance of the police in the larger town of St Davids, home of the resident police inspector Russell Falcon-Price. An antagonist in the series, Falcon-Price often tries to terminate the employment of the Mount Thomas sergeant or to close the entire station, which in reality would be almost entirely out of his control. Along with their police work, aspects of the Heelers' personal lives are regularly featured, notably the relationship between Maggie and PJ, which ends with Maggie's death in one of the most watched moments on Australian television. ===== The setting is 1990s contemporary Taipei, Taiwan. Mr. Chu, a widower who is a master Chinese chef, has three unmarried daughters, each of whom challenges any narrow definition of traditional Chinese culture: Chu Jia-Jen, a school teacher nursing a broken heart who converted to Christianity; Chu Jia-Chien, a fiercely independent airline executive who carries her father's culinary legacy, but never got to pursue that passion; and Chu Jia-Ning, a college student who meets her friend's on-again off-again ex-boyfriend and starts a relationship with him. Each Sunday Mr. Chu makes a glorious banquet for his daughters, but the dinner table is also the family forum, to which each daughter brings “announcements” as they negotiate the transition from traditional “father knows best” attitudes to a new tradition which encompasses old values in new forms. As the film progresses, each daughter encounters new men. When these new relationships blossom, their roles are altered and the dynamics within the family change. The father eventually brings the greatest surprise by marrying Liang Jin-Rong. ===== ===== The story follows an odd-looking 12-year-old boy named Fūsuke, a powerful warrior from the Ninku school of martial arts, who command a style that mixes ninjutsu and kung fu. Before the present time in the story, the Ninku were targeted by an evil empire and the Ninku corps were formed to combat the menace. The names of the corps were taken from the twelve Chinese zodiac animals () and each captain of the corps was called the zodiac animal Ninku master (). Their powers are derived from nature and a specific dragon to their own element, with the being the almighty master of all the elements. The Ninku were disbanded by their master before the end of the war and as such, the Empire was victorious and the Ninku became vilified by the Empire as the perpetrators of the war and made attempts to eliminate any surviving members. Three years later, Fūsuke, the young former captain of the 1st Ninku corps and controller of the wind and Hiroyuki, his flatulent penguin, start a journey, searching for the other Ninku captains. However, a new group of Ninku users has arisen and are trying to take over the world. Fūsuke and his penguin must defeat the new Ninku empire with the help of his old comrades. ===== In Ancient Egypt, Ema "Emmy" Hesire hides in a pyramid from her mother, who wants an arranged marriage. Emmy prays to the gods to save her and find her true love in the future. The gods answer her prayers and Emmy suddenly vanishes before her mother's eyes. In 1987, Philadelphia artist Jonathan Switcher takes a number of odd jobs, including one where he assembles a beautiful, perfect mannequin. Although Jonathan painstakingly expresses his artistic passion, his employers dismiss him for taking too much time or deviating from a set pattern. His arrogant girlfriend Roxie Shield, who views Jonathan as a flake, dumps him. After his motorcycle breaks down in the rain, Jonathan passes the Prince & Company department store and recognizes his perfect mannequin in a display window. He declares that she is the first that made him feel like an artist. The next morning, he saves the owner, Mrs. Claire Timkin, from being killed by a falling sign. Grateful, Claire hires Jonathan, much to the chagrin of manager Mr. Richards, who assigns Jonathan as a stock boy. Jonathan meets flamboyant window dresser Hollywood Montrose, and the two become friends. That night, Hollywood and Jonathan construct a window display starring Jonathan's mannequin. They have a run-in with the store's extremely bumbling night security guard, Captain Felix Maxwell. When Jonathan is alone, the mannequin he is obsessed with comes to life as Emmy. Emmy says she has existed for centuries, appearing to various great artists as a muse. She explains that she can only appear to him when they are alone and everyone else sees her as a mannequin. To the surprise of his detractors, Jonathan's popular window dressing for Prince & Company attracts large audiences. At a board meeting, Richards wants to dismiss Jonathan, ostensibly for showing off with the window displays. In truth, he is actually a corporate agent from the rival department store Illustra. Ignoring Richards, the board members promote Jonathan to visual merchandising. Jonathan and Emmy's relationship thrives over the following weeks, and he takes her on a date to see the city on the back of his motorcycle. Every night, she helps him to create popular window displays. Impressed with his work, Claire promotes Jonathan to vice president of the department store. As the window designs are bringing a tremendous number of customers and profits for Prince & Company, Illustra's chief executive, B. J. Wert, attempts to lure away Jonathan from Prince & Company with a job offer from Roxie, who works for him. Jonathan refuses, informing that at Prince & Company, he has people he cares about and who count on him and view his work as important. They realize that Jonathan seems to have a fixation on one of the mannequins and make plans to steal Emmy. After becoming frustrated with Felix's ineptitude and Richards' attitude towards Jonathan, Claire fires them. Richards and Felix break into the store and search for Emmy. Unable to tell one mannequin from another, they simply steal every female mannequin. The next morning, Hollywood and Jonathan discover Emmy missing. Jonathan immediately suspects Illustra and confronts Wert, who is dismissive. Roxie storms out of the office, swearing that Jonathan will never see Emmy again. Jonathan chases Roxie while being pursued by a dozen security guards. Hollywood bombards the guards with a fire hose as Roxie loads Emmy along with the other mannequins into a trash compactor. Jonathan jumps onto the loading conveyor belt and grabs Emmy, still frozen as a mannequin. As Jonathan attempts to pull her out, Emmy comes to life and stays human in front of other people for the first time. Felix and his fellow guards rush in, followed by Wert, who attempts to have Jonathan arrested for trespassing. But Claire arrives, accusing Richards and Felix of breaking and entering, grand theft and kidnapping Emmy, while accusing Wert of conspiracy, displaying evidence from a newly installed video security system in the store. Wert and his cronies are arrested and hauled away and he fires Roxie as he is being dragged out. Jonathan and Emmy are married in the store window of Prince & Company; Claire is the bridesmaid, and Hollywood is the best man, as well as numerous pedestrians watching them exchange vows. ===== Napoleon Dynamite is a socially awkward 16-year-old mouth breather from Preston, Idaho, who lives with his grandmother, Carlinda Dynamite, and his older brother, Kipling Ronald "Kip" Dynamite. Kip, 32, is unemployed and boasts of spending hours on Internet chat rooms with his girlfriends and aspiring to be a cage fighter. Napoleon daydreams his way through school, doodling ligers and fantasy creatures, and reluctantly deals with the various bullies who torment him, particularly the obnoxious sports jock Don and the school bully, Randy. Napoleon likes to make up stories about himself and his outlandish "skills" while having a sullen and aloof personality. Napoleon's grandmother breaks her coccyx in a quad-bike accident and asks their Uncle Rico to look after the boys while she recovers. Rico, a middle-aged and flirtatious former athlete who lives in a campervan, treats Napoleon like a child. He uses the visiting opportunity to team up with Kip in a get-rich-quick scheme to sell items door-to-door. Kip wants money to visit his Internet girlfriend, LaFawnduh, while Rico believes riches will help him get over his failed dreams of National Football League stardom and the recent breakup with his girlfriend. Napoleon becomes friends with two students at his school: Deb, a shy girl who runs various small businesses to raise money for college, and Pedro, a bold yet calm transfer student from Juarez, Mexico. Preparations begin for the high school dance. Pedro asks Summer Wheatley, a popular and snobby girl, to be his dance partner, but is rebuffed. He then asks Deb, who gladly accepts. Pedro encourages an upset Napoleon to find a date for himself, and he picks a popular classmate, Trisha, from the school yearbook. As a gift, he draws an unintentionally bad picture of her and delivers it to Trisha's mother, who is one of Rico's customers. Rico tells embarrassing stories about Napoleon to evoke sympathy from Trisha's mother, who buys his wares and forces Trisha to reluctantly accept Napoleon's invitation. Trisha appears at the dance with Napoleon but soon abandons him, causing Deb to dance with Napoleon out of pity. Inspired by an election poster at the dance, Pedro decides to run for class president, pitting him against Summer. The factions of the two candidates put up flyers and hand out trinkets to students to attract voters. To increase their respect by demonstrating "skills", Napoleon and Pedro enter a Future Farmers of America competition, grading milk and cow udders. They do well and win medals, but this does little for their popularity. Incidentally, Napoleon visits a thrift store and buys an instructional dance VHS called D-Qwon's Dance Grooves, becoming a skillful dancer. Kip's girlfriend, LaFawnduh, arrives from Detroit and gives him an urban makeover, outfitting him in hip-hop regalia. Seeing that he dances, LaFawnduh gives Napoleon a mixtape. Rico's ongoing sales scheme causes friction with Napoleon as he continues to spread embarrassing rumors about him to prospective customers. Rico tries to sell Deb a breast-enhancement product, claiming it was Napoleon's suggestion, which causes her to break off their friendship. His scheme ends after his sales pitch to the wife of the town's martial arts instructor, Rex, goes awry: Rex assaults Rico after unexpectedly arriving during his demonstration of the breast-enhancement product. Summer gives a speech before the student body on election day, and then presents a dance skit to "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys with a school club. A despondent Pedro gives an unimpressive speech after discovering he is also required to perform a skit. To save Pedro's campaign, Napoleon gives the sound engineer LaFawnduh's mixtape and spontaneously performs an elaborate dance routine to "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai. Napoleon's routine receives a standing ovation from students, stunning Summer and her boyfriend, Don. The film concludes with Pedro becoming the class president, Kip and LaFawnduh leaving on a bus for Michigan, Rico reuniting with his estranged girlfriend, Grandma returning from the hospital, and Napoleon and Deb reconciling and playing tetherball. In a post-credits scene, Kip and LaFawnduh are married in an outdoor ceremony in Preston. Napoleon, absent for the vows, arrives riding a horse, claiming that it is a "wild honeymoon stallion" that he has tamed himself. Kip flicks LaFawnduh's garter as a keepsake towards Napoleon, Pedro, and Rico (who catches it) before he and LaFawnduh ride off across the fields. ===== In the closing days of World War II, Irishman Murphy (Peter O'Toole) is the sole survivor of the crew of a merchant ship, Mount Kyle, which had been sunk by a German U-boat and the survivors machine-gunned in the water. Murphy makes it ashore (to a missionary settlement on the Orinoco in Venezuela) where he is treated by a pacifist Quaker doctor, Dr Hayden (Siân Phillips). When he discovers the U-boat is hiding farther up river, under the cover of the jungle, he sets about obsessively plotting to sink it by any means, including using a surviving Grumman J2F Duck floatplane from the Mount Kyle. The floatplane had been recovered, the wounded pilot later being shot dead in his hospital bed by the U-boat captain, in order to preserve the secret of the sub's location and, presumably, its action in shooting survivors in the water. Murphy learns how to fly the aircraft in the most daring way, getting it out on the choppy waters of the river and discovering how the controls work by trial and error. Murphy soon finds the U-boat's hiding place and attempts to bomb it using home-made Molotov cocktail bombs, which fails. Meanwhile, word has come that Germany has surrendered, but Murphy is obsessed with revenge and makes plans to ram the U-boat with a floating crane owned by the friendly Frenchman Louis (Philippe Noiret). This also fails as the U-boat dives under him. However, the submerged U-boat becomes stuck in a mud bank. Murphy uses the crane to recover an unexploded torpedo fired earlier from the U-boat and drops it on the trapped crew, killing them. Murphy is also killed, as the explosion from the torpedo causes the crane jib to pin him to the deck as the floating crane sinks to the river bed. ===== ===== A brilliant but irresponsible scientist, Dr. Tony Nelson, develops an electronic amplifier that he hopes will allow any object to achieve a 4th dimensional (4D) state. While in this state, any object can pass freely through any other object. Tony, however, fails to pay attention to the overload, which sparks an electrical fire that burns down his lab. This results in the university terminating his contract. Now unemployed, Tony seeks out his brother, Scott, also a Ph.D., to help him with his experiment. Scott is a researcher working on a material called Cargonite that is so dense that it is impenetrable. Scott is underpaid and unappreciated at his new job. He does not have the necessary drive to ask his employer, Mr. Carson, for greater recognition. Scott has become the driving force behind the development of Cargonite, named after Carson, who is now taking much of the credit for Scott's work. When his girlfriend, Linda Davis, falls for Tony, an enraged Scott steals Tony's experiment and starts playing around with it, eventually transforming himself into a 4D state. When demonstrating this to Tony, Scott leaves the amplifier power turned off, yet he successfully passes his hand through a block of steel. Scott can now enter a 4D state via his own will. Tony is amazed, but warns Scott not to reveal this ability until he can further test for possible side effects. In the lab, Tony realizes what transpired on an earlier experiment of his; to fuse lead with gold. Tony realizes that through an extremely slow process the two substances can merge, and his experiment was to forge them immediately, which he realizes would break down the substances. While in the 4D state (signified by a 'shimmering' sound effect), Scott can pass through any solid object, but he ages at a greatly accelerated rate. The aged Scott soon learns how to survive, when he visits the company doctor, who, while examining him, suddenly drops dead. By passing any part of his body through another person, Scott can drain anyone's lifeforce, thereby rejuvenating himself. He experiments with his new abilities by shoplifting a piece of fruit through a grocery store's solid window. Scott also notices a diamond necklace on display in a nearby jewelry store window, but decides against stealing it. When he sees a bank, however, his face breaks into a sly grin. The following day, news hits town that $50,000 was stolen from the bank with no sign of forced entry, nor any video footage of the crime. Strangely, a $1000 bill was found protruding from a solid piece of tempered steel, leaving the authorities perplexed. Tony realizes that Scott is abusing his power and tries to convince the police. Scott starts using his newly-found power to acquire all the things he felt he was denied: money, recognition, power, and women. Scott confronts Carson, revealing the experiment, then taking his revenge "for the life drained from me" by literally draining Carson's lifeforce. Scott then proceeds to a sleazy bar, where he gets some street toughs to back down. When he goes to open the door his hand goes through it even though he didn't want to be intangible. With his newfound bravado he ignores this development; combined with his victory over the toughs and his ill-gotten money, he impresses a bar girl. When they later kiss Scott's power turns itself on again and the B-girl flees in horror now that she has rapidly aged, her blonde hair now white. The police have to find a way to stop a man who is unstoppable. Looking very old now, Scott returns to the lab, but the police are unable to stop him, as well as a rival scientist who tried to steal Tony's work, whom Scott kills and becomes less aged. Linda begs Scott to come to his senses. Scott kisses her, but unlike with the B-girl, his power is off and she has not aged. Linda then shoots Scott in solid form. Bleeding and feeling betrayed, Scott maniacally proclaims his invincibility and defiantly phase-shifts his body (albeit with difficulty) through a wall embedded with supposedly impenetrable Cargonite. "The End" appears on screen, followed a moment later by a question mark. This interrogative statement leaves in question whether the aged Scott died or survived. ===== Buffy stops a male student from shooting a female student. Afterwards, they have no recollection of why they were arguing and the gun disappears. Principal Snyder blames Buffy for the incident. While waiting in his office, a yearbook from 1955 falls off the shelf. In class later that day, Buffy starts daydreaming about a relationship that a student had with his teacher. As she comes back to the present, she finds that her teacher has unknowingly written "Don't walk away from me, bitch!" on the black board, a line the male student had shouted. Later, Xander is grabbed by a monster arm from inside his locker. Buffy helps him break away, but the arm then disappears. Giles is intrigued by the possible presence of a poltergeist. Later that night, Giles sees the janitor shoot a teacher, though only moments earlier they were cordial. Giles is convinced that Jenny Calendar is haunting the school. Willow finds information on her laptop about a killing in 1955, where student James Stanley killed his teacher Grace Newman after she tried to break off their affair. In the cafeteria, chaos erupts as the food turns into snakes. Outside, Snyder talks to the police chief about the incident and it is revealed that they know about the Hellmouth under the school and the possibility of Buffy being the Slayer. Drusilla gets a vision about Buffy meeting with death. Willow devises a plan to contain the spirits, and they head off to the school where they prepare, though Giles has already arrived and is trying to summon Jenny's spirit. Buffy hears music coming from the music room and sees Grace and James dancing there. James' face suddenly changes to a gory mess, startling Buffy. On the stairwell, Willow begins to sink into the floor and Giles saves her. Willow finally convinces him that the spirit is not Jenny. A swarm of wasps arrives and surrounds the school. Everyone recuperates at Buffy's while she continues to show her anger towards James. Buffy goes to the kitchen where she finds a sign for the 1955 Sadie Hawkins dance in her pocket as James' voice whispers, "I need you." She heads to the school where the wasps part for her to enter. Willow finds the ad and everyone rushes after Buffy, but they cannot enter the school. Angelus appears in the halls as Buffy, now possessed by James, talks to him as if he were Grace. They repeat the ghosts' argument until, at the climax, Buffy pulls out a gun and shoots Angelus. He falls off of the balcony as though dead. Buffy, still possessed by James, goes to the music room where "James" plans to kill himself. The possessed Angelus arrives just in time to stop Buffy from pulling the trigger. They exchange apologies and kiss. The spirits leave their bodies and are finally finding peace. Buffy and Angelus break away from the kiss, and Angelus, disgusted at what he has been doing, pushes Buffy away and flees. Angelus and Drusilla leave Spike after Angelus taunts him and Spike breaks free from his wheelchair after. ===== Buffy and Angel finally agree to a date, but Buffy is delayed by a vampire. As Angel waits at The Bronze, Cordelia shows up and starts flirting with him. When Buffy finally arrives, she sees Angel talking to Cordelia and turns to leave. The next day, Principal Snyder forces Buffy and her friends to chaperone small children while they trick-or-treat. Larry, the school bully, threatens Xander while asking him about Buffy, who smashes Larry into a soda machine. Buffy and Willow speculate about what type of women Angel was attracted to when he was human. To find out they decide to sneak into Giles' office and borrow the passed-down Watchers' Diary. The gang head to Ethan's Costume Shoppe, where Willow gets a Halloween ghost costume and Xander buys a toy gun to go with his army fatigue outfit. Buffy gets a beautiful pink 18th-century gown—one that matches what she has spied from Giles' Watcher files on Angel. Spike is reviewing a video of Buffy fighting. Drusilla tells him that someone will make Buffy weak on Halloween night. Meanwhile, Ethan is chanting to a statue of Janus in the back room of his shop. Later that night, Ethan's spell takes effect and everyone wearing a costume from his store turns into the respective persona. Willow becomes a real ghost, able to walk through walls; Xander a U.S. soldier; and Buffy an 18th-century noble woman. With Buffy incapable of fighting the threats around them, Willow is forced to take the lead and rushes them to Buffy's house. Outside, Cordelia screams and Xander goes out to save her. Angel shows up and takes Buffy into the kitchen. As Angel tries to kill a vampire that has sneaked in, he reveals his vampire face. Buffy is horrified and runs from the house. Arriving at the library by walking through walls, Willow tells Giles about Ethan's costumes. They head to the shop, where Giles reveals that he knows Ethan. He forces Ethan to tell him how to reverse the spell. Spike is hunting for Buffy, who enters an alley and meets Larry, now a pirate. Xander arrives to beat up Larry while Willow shows up to warn them of Spike. The gang tries to barricade themselves inside a warehouse, but Spike's gang breaks in. Ethan reveals the secret to ending the spell and Giles smashes the statue, breaking the spell. Buffy recovers just in time to defeat Spike and he flees. Buffy admits to Angel that she was dressing to impress him. He tells her that he hated those people back then. The women were dull; he wanted someone exciting. They kiss. The next day, Giles returns to the store to find the stock gone and a note from Ethan - "Be seeing you". ===== The Charterhouse of Parma chronicles the adventures of the young Italian nobleman Fabrice del Dongo from his birth in 1798 to his death. Fabrice spends his early years in his family's castle on Lake Como, while most of the rest of the novel is set in a fictionalized Parma (both locations are in modern-day Italy). The book begins with the French army sweeping into Milan and stirring up the sleepy region of Lombardy, which was allied with Austria. Fabrice grows up surrounded by intrigues and alliances for and against the French — his father the Marchese comically fancies himself a spy for the Viennese. It is broadly hinted at that Fabrice may have actually been fathered by a visiting French lieutenant. The novel's early section describes Fabrice's rather quixotic effort to join Napoleon when the latter returns to France in March 1815 (the Hundred Days). Fabrice at seventeen is idealistic, rather naïve, and speaks poor French. However, he will not be stopped and leaves his home on Lake Como to travel north with false papers. He wanders through France, losing money and horses rapidly. He is imprisoned as a spy, but escapes with the aid of the jailer's wife who develops a fondness towards Fabrice, donning the uniform of a dead French hussar. In his excitement to play the role of a French soldier, he wanders onto the field at the Battle of Waterloo. Stendhal, a veteran of several Napoleonic campaigns (he was one of the survivors of the retreat from Moscow in 1812), describes this famous battle as a chaotic affair: soldiers gallop one way and then another as bullets plow the fields around them. Fabrice briefly joins the guard of Field Marshal Ney, randomly comes across the man who may be his father (he commandeers Fabrice's horse), shoots one Prussian cavalryman while he and his regiment flee, and is lucky to survive with a serious wound to his leg (inflicted by a retreating French cavalryman). He eventually returns to his family's castle, injured, broke, and still wondering, "was I really in the battle?" Fabrice is quickly forced to flee since his older brother - sickly and dull - denounces him. Towards the end of the novel, his efforts, such as they are, lead people to say that he was one of Napoleon's bravest captains or colonels. The novel now divides its attention between him and his aunt Gina (his father's sister). Gina meets and befriends the Prime Minister of Parma, Count Mosca. Count Mosca proposes that Gina marry a wealthy old man, the Duke Sanseverina, who will be out of the country for many years as an ambassador, so that she and Count Mosca can be lovers while living under the social rules of the time. Gina's responds, "But you realize that what you are suggesting is utterly immoral?" Nevertheless, she agrees, and so a few months later, Gina is the new social eminence in Parma's rather small aristocratic elite. Gina (now the Duchess Sanseverina) has had very warm feelings for her nephew ever since he returned from France. Since going to join Napoleon was officially illegal, she and Count Mosca try to plan out a successful rehabilitation for the young man. Count Mosca's plan has Fabrice go to seminary school in Naples, with the idea that when he graduates he will come to Parma and become a senior figure in the religious hierarchy, and eventually the Archbishop, as the current office holder is old. The fact that Fabrice has no interest in religion (or celibacy) matters not to this plan. Fabrice reluctantly agrees and leaves for Naples. The book then describes in great detail how Gina and Count Mosca live and operate in the court of the Prince of Parma (named Ranuce-Erneste IV). Stendhal, who spent decades as a professional diplomat in northern Italy, gives a lively and interesting account of the court, though all of what he describes is entirely fictional, as Parma was ruled by Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma during the time of the novel. (Marie Louise was Napoleon's second wife.) After several years of theology school in Naples, during which he has many affairs with local women, Fabrice returns to Parma. Fabrice had been afraid that he could never fall in love, and he is surprised when he develops romantic feelings towards Gina; the omniscient narrator tells us that she shares the same feelings although the characters never discuss them. Fabrice becomes involved with a young actress whose manager/lover takes offense and tries to kill Fabrice. In the resulting fight, Fabrice kills the man and flees Parma for Bologna, fearing correctly that he will not be treated justly by the courts. After returning to Parma surreptitiously, Fabrice returns to Bologna, spending much time trying to form a relationship with an attractive soprano, Fausta; in the meantime, the judiciary have found him guilty of the murder. Distressed by these developments indicating that Fabrice may be executed, Gina goes to the Prince to plead for Fabrice's life stating she will leave Parma if he is not. While the Prince is alienated by Gina's dignity and independence, he fears that his court will become boring without her and that she will speak poorly about his dominion when she departs. He communicates his willingness to free Fabrice and yields to Gina's demand that he sign a note to release him. But the Count, in an effort to be diplomatic, omits the crucial phrase: "this unjust procedure will have no further effect." The following morning, the Prince connives to have Fabrice imprisoned for twelve years by signing an order affixed with a date preceding the note purporting to release him. For the next nine months, Gina schemes to have Fabrice freed and manages to get secret messages relayed to him in the tower, in part by means of an improvised semaphore line. The Prince keeps spreading rumors that Fabrice is going to be executed as a way to put pressure on Gina. Meanwhile, Fabrice is oblivious to his danger and is living happily because he has fallen in love with the commandant's daughter, Clélia Conti, whom Fabrice can see from his prison window as she tends her caged birds. They fall in love, and after some time he persuades her to communicate with him by means of letters of the alphabet printed on sheets ripped from a book. The happy Fabrice resists Gina's plans to escape. But Gina finally persuades him and has Clélia smuggle three long ropes to him. The only thing that concerns Fabrice is whether he will be able to meet Clélia after he escapes. But Clélia – who has feelings of guilt because the plot involved giving laudanum to her father, which she perceived as poison – promises the Virgin that she shall never see Fabrice again and will do anything her father says. Gina puts in motion a plan to have the Prince of Parma assassinated. This plot is carried out by a poet/bandit/assassin Ferrante who has fallen in unrequited love with Gina. Count Mosca stays in Parma, and when the Prince does die (it is strongly implied that he was poisoned by Ferrante) he puts down a revolt by some local revolutionaries and installs the son of the Prince on the throne. The new Prince (only 21 years old) falls in love with Gina. When the prosecutor's indictments come close to the truth behind the uprising, Gina persuades the Prince to burn the documents. Count Mosca, committed to installing Fabrice as the Vicar General, persuades Gina and Fabrice that Fabrice voluntarily return to be acquitted. Instead of going to the town jail, Fabrice voluntarily returns to the Farnese Tower to be close to Clelia. Seeking revenge, General Conti attempts to poison Fabrice, but Clelia keeps him from eating the poisoned food. A distraught Gina seeks the Prince's intervention to have him transferred, and he agrees to do so on the condition she gives herself to him. Gina so promises in duress. After three months, the Prince proposes marriage to Gina but is rejected. Gina submits to his physical demands and leaves immediately afterward. Gina never returns but marries Count Mosca. Clélia marries the wealthy Marchese her father has chosen for her, and Clelia and Fabrice live unhappily. Once acquitted, Fabrice assumes his duties as the Vicar General in the Catholic Church, and his sermons become the talk of the town. The only reason he gives these sermons, Fabrice says, is in the hope that Clélia will come to one, allowing him to see her and speak to her. After fourteen months of suffering for both, she agrees to meet with him every night, on the condition that it is in darkness, lest she break her vow to the Madonna to never see him again and they both be punished for her sin. A year later she bears Fabrice's child. When the boy is two years old, Fabrice insists that he should take care of him in the future, because he is feeling lonely and worries that his own child will not love him. The plan he and Clélia devise is to fake the child's illness and death and then establish him secretly in a large house nearby, where Fabrice and Clélia can come to see him every day. After several months the child actually does die, and Clélia dies a few months after that. After her death, Fabrice retires to the titular Charterhouse of Parma (a Carthusian monastery), where he spends less than a year before he also dies. Gina, the Countess Mosca, who had always loved Fabrice, dies a short time after that. The novel ends with the epithet "To the Happy Few." ===== The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle the captain had cast into the ocean after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. The government refuses to launch a rescue expedition, but Lord and Lady Glenarvan, moved by the children's condition, decide to do it by themselves. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known; thus, the expedition would have to circumnavigate the 37th parallel south. The bottle was retrieved from a shark's stomach, so it is impossible to trace its origin by the currents. Remaining clues consist of a few words in three languages. They are re-interpreted several times throughout the novel to make various destinations seem likely. Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his yacht, the Duncan, they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel (he missed his steamer to India by accidentally boarding the Duncan) joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, and Australia (a pretext to describe the flora, fauna, and geography of numerous places to the targeted audience). There, they find a former quartermaster of the Britannia, Ayrton, who proposes to lead them to the site of the wreckage. However, Ayrton is a traitor, who was not present during the loss of the Britannia, but was abandoned in Australia after a failed attempt to seize control of the ship to practice piracy. He tries to take control of the Duncan, but by sheer luck, this attempt also fails. However the Glenarvans, the Grant children, Paganel and some sailors are left in Australia, and mistakenly believing that the Duncan is lost, they sail to Auckland, New Zealand, from where they want to come back to Europe. When their ship is wrecked south of Auckland on the New Zealand coast, they are captured by a Māori tribe, but luckily manage to escape and board a ship that they discover, to their astonishment, to be the Duncan. Ayrton, made a prisoner, offers to trade his knowledge of Captain Grant in exchange for being abandoned on a desert island instead of being surrendered to the British authorities. The Duncan sets sail for Tabor Island, which, by sheer luck, turns out to be Captain Grant's shelter. They leave Ayrton in his place to live among the beasts and regain his humanity. Ayrton reappears in Verne's later novel, L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874). ===== Car thief Kip Raines works with his gang to steal fifty high-end cars for Raymond Calitri, a British gangster in Long Beach, California. After stealing a Porsche 996 from a showroom, Kip unwittingly leads the police to his crew’s warehouse, forcing the thieves to flee. Detectives Castlebeck and Drycoff impound the stolen cars and open an investigation. Atley Jackson, Calitri's associate, reaches out to Kip's older brother Randall "Memphis" Raines, a notorious but reformed car thief. Memphis meets with Calitri, who has kidnapped Kip and threatens to kill him in a car crusher. Memphis agrees to steal the fifty cars within 72 hours, and Kip is released; Calitri warns that if the cars are not delivered on time, Kip will be killed. Memphis visits his mentor Otto Halliwell and they assemble a crew of old associates: Donny Astricky, now a driving instructor; Sphinx, a mute mortician; and Sara "Sway" Wayland, a mechanic and bartender. Kip and his crew volunteer to help, and the group tracks down the cars, giving each a code name; Memphis insists on saving a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, dubbed "Eleanor" – which he has attempted to steal before – for last. While scouting the cars, he and Kip narrowly avoid being killed by a rival gang. Hoping to deliver the cars before they can be traced, the crew plans to steal all fifty cars in one night. Castlebeck and Drycoff learn that Kip bribed a Mercedes dealership employee to order laser-cut transponder keys, enabling the detectives to stakeout the Mercedes cars on the crew’s list. A member of Kip's crew impulsively steals a Cadillac Eldorado not on the list, and the crew discovers a stash of heroin in the trunk. Castlebeck arrives, forcing the crew to distract him while they dispose of the drugs. He leaves, having ascertained that the heist is happening that night. The crew sets their heist in motion, stealing the various cars and delivering them to Atley on the docks. As they prepare to use the transponder keys to steal the Mercedes cars, Memphis spots Castlebeck and Drycoff watching from a surveillance van. Abandoning the cars under surveillance, the crew breaks into the police impound lot, distracting the guard and stealing the Mercedes cars originally stolen by Kip’s crew; the plan is hampered temporarily when Otto's dog eats, and eventually passes, the keys. Memphis and Sway rekindle their past romance while stealing a Plymouth Barracuda. Castlebeck and Drycoff return to the warehouse seized from Kip’s crew. Having found pieces of a broken blacklight lamp, the detectives discover the crew’s list of fifty cars written in ultraviolet-sensitive paint. With too many cars to track, Castleback focuses on the Shelby GT500, knowing Memphis will steal it last, and determines the location of the only '67 Shelby in the area. When the crew steals a Cadillac Escalade, police are alerted and open fire, wounding a member of Kip’s crew. Memphis steals Eleanor just as the detectives arrive, and leads police on a chase through the city and into a shipyard. Reaching the Vincent Thomas Bridge, blocked by an accident, Memphis jumps Eleanor off the ramp of a tow truck and lands on the other side, escaping the police. He arrives at Calitri’s junkyard twelve minutes late, and Calitri refuses to accept the slightly damaged Shelby, ordering his men to crush the car and kill Memphis. Kip and Atley use the junkyard crane to knock out the henchmen, and an armed Calitri pursues Memphis into the warehouse as the detectives arrive. Calitri prepares to shoot Castlebeck, but Memphis kicks Calitri over a railing to his death. A grateful Castlebeck lets Memphis go free, and Memphis tells him where to find the container ship full of stolen cars. The crew celebrates with a barbecue, and Kip reveals that he has bought Memphis a dilapidated 1967 Shelby GT500. Otto promises to restore the car, and Memphis invites Sway on a ride, but the car breaks down just as they drive away. ===== As the film opens, mission control personnel on Earth are monitoring the rocketship MR-1 ("Mars Rocket 1") as it approaches Earth orbit following the first manned expedition to Mars. Personnel are surprised to see the ship on their monitors, for they believed that the vehicle had become lost or destroyed in space. Ground technicians are unable, though, to make contact with anyone on MR-1, so they guide the rocket by remote control to a safe Earth landing. Only two survivors of the original four-person crew are found in the ship: Dr. Iris Ryan (Naura Hayden) and Col. Tom O'Bannion (Gerald Mohr), whose entire right arm is covered with a strange green alien growth. The MR-1's mission to Mars is then recounted by Dr. Ryan as she also helps to find a cure for Col. O'Bannion's badly infected arm. In her debriefing, she reports in detail the crew's experiences while traveling to the Red Planet and exploring its surface. She describes their expedition in retrospect, as if it were currently happening. After MR-1 reaches Mars and its crew explores the planet's surface, Dr. Ryan is attacked by a carnivorous plant, which Chief Warrant Officer Jacobs kills with his freeze-ray, which he calls "Cleo". The crew then encounters an immense bat-rat-spider-crab creature, at first mistaking its legs for trees. That creature is blinded and repelled as well by Jacobs, who again uses his ray gun. When the crew returns to their ship, they realize that their radio signals are being blocked and the MR-1 is unable to leave Mars due to a mysterious force field. O'Bannion next leads the crew to a Martian lake, where a city with high, impressive structures is visible on the other side, far in the distance. Crossing the water in an inflatable raft, they are stopped by a giant amoeba-like creature with a single spinning eye. They hurriedly retreat, the creature pursuing them. As they are entering their ship, the creature catches Jacobs and draws him inside the gelatinous body, soon absorbing him; it has also infected O'Bannion's arm. The creature envelops the ship and is expected to eventually develop acids to eat through it. O'Bannion leads them in rewiring the ship to electrify the outer hull, which drives the creature away after destroying parts of it, then they rewire the ship for lift-off. The three survivors manage to lift MR-1 off from the planet since the force field has somehow been deactivated. Unfortunately, Professor Gettell, the MR-1's designer, dies of an apparent heart attack caused by the extreme stresses of the ascent. Once the MR-1 returns to Earth, O'Bannion's infected arm is cured by medical staff using electric shocks. Mission control technicians also examine the MR-1's data recorders from the expedition and find a recording of an alien voice, which announces that the ship's crew were allowed to leave Mars so that they could deliver a message to their home planet. The voice then states that "we of Mars" have been observing human development on Earth for many thousands of years and have determined that humanity's technology has far outpaced progress in cultural advancement. The alien then accuses humankind of invading Mars, warning that if future expeditions ever return to the Red Planet, then the Earth would be destroyed in retaliation. ===== In 1953, Katherine Ann Watson, a 30-year-old graduate student in the department of Art History at UCLA and Oakland State, takes a position teaching History of Art at Wellesley College, a women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts. At her first class, Katherine discovers that her students have already memorized the entire textbook and syllabus, so she uses the classes to introduce them to modern art and encourages discussion about topics such as what makes good art. Katherine comes to know her students and seeks to inspire them to achieve more than marriage to eligible young men. Elizabeth "Betty" Warren is highly opinionated and outspokenly conservative. Betty does not understand why Katherine is not married and insists that a universal standard exists for good art. She writes editorials for the college paper, exposing campus nurse Amanda Armstrong as a supplier of contraception, which results in Amanda being fired; other editorials attack Katherine for advocating that women should seek a career instead of being wives and mothers as intended. Betty cannot wait to marry Spencer, as their parents have arranged, and expects the traditional exemptions from attending class as a married woman; however, Katherine insists she will be marked on merit and attendance, resulting in more conflict. Constance "Connie" Baker begins dating Betty's cousin, Charlie, but Betty persuades her that he is only using her as his parents have arranged for him to marry Deb MacIntyre. Connie ends the relationship, believing Betty's story to be true. However, some weeks later, Connie and Charlie reconnect, with Charlie saying he has already decided for himself that he is not going to marry Deb, so Connie and he get back together. Joan Brandwyn dreams of being a lawyer and has enrolled as prelaw, so Katherine encourages her to apply to Yale Law School. She is accepted, but decides not to go in order to play the traditional role of a housewife to her fiancée, Tom Donegal. She tells Katherine that choosing to be a wife and mother does not make her any less intelligent. Giselle Levy has several lovers and liberal views about sex. She admires Katherine for encouraging the students to be independent. Giselle earns the enmity of Betty, whose conservative views conflict with her liberal ones. Katherine declines a proposal from her California boyfriend because she does not love him enough and begins seeing the Wellesley Italian professor, Bill Dunbar. Bill is charming and full of stories about Europe and his heroic actions in Italy during the war. He has also had affairs with students (including Giselle), and Katherine makes him promise that it will never happen again. The relationship progresses, but when Katherine learns that Bill spent the entire war at the Army Languages Center on Long Island, she decides to break up with him because he is not trustworthy. Bill responds that Katherine did not come to Wellesley to help the students find their way, but to help them find her way. Betty's marriage falls apart after Spencer has an affair, and she fails to find solace with her mother who orders her to return to her husband. She visits Katherine in her apartment, who comforts her. In turn, Betty regrets how she's treated Katherine with her poor behavior. Eventually, influenced by Katherine, Betty files for divorce and looks for an apartment in Greenwich Village. When Mrs. Warren confronts Betty for what she has done, she reveals her frustration with her mother for not supporting her when she went to her for help. She mentions that the only person who cared about her enough to help her out was Katherine. Therefore, Betty reveals she is going to have a life of her own, has applied to Yale, and will room with Giselle. Katherine's course is highly popular, so the college invites her to return, but with certain conditions: she must follow the syllabus, submit lesson plans for approval, keep a strictly professional relationship with all faculty members, and not talk to the girls about anything other than classes. Katherine decides to leave to explore Europe. In the final scene, Betty dedicates her last editorial to Katherine, claiming that her teacher is "an extraordinary woman who lived by example and compelled us all to see the world through new eyes." As Katherine leaves in a taxi, all her students follow on their bicycles and Betty is seen struggling to keep up with the taxi. ===== Will Stanton begins to have strange experiences on his 11th birthday, just before Christmas. He soon learns he is one of the Old Ones, a guardian and warrior for the Light. He learns that he must help find the four Things of Power for the Light in order to battle the forces of the Dark. The first of these Things of Power is the Circle of Six Signs. This book is the key book for the main character, Will Stanton. It is in this book that he collects the six signs which become the Circle of Signs, one of the Things of Power, by finding the additional five mandalas (he has been given one earlier) and uses the completed Circle to ward off the forces of the Dark. The book features elements of British folklore that are especially associated with the Thames Valley, with Herne the Hunter making an appearance. ===== Morgan is the star of the film, as a fading actor Frankie Merriweather who is trying to revive his career by starring on a radio program. When his most recent broadcast, a science fiction invasion from Mars story, panics the nation, he is fired. He decides to jumpstart his career by creating a new show which features his talented children. ===== ===== Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), a well-known playboy, meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) aboard the transatlantic ocean liner en route from Europe to New York. Each is involved with someone else. After a series of meetings aboard the ship, they establish a friendship. When Terry joins Nickie on a brief visit to his grandmother, Janou, while the ship is anchored near her home at Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast, she sees Nickie with new eyes and their feelings become deeper. During their visit, Janou tells Terry that Nickie is a talented painter but destroys most of his paintings because they don't meet his standards. As the ship returns to New York City, they agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months' time if they have succeeded in ending their relationships and starting new careers. On the day of their rendezvous, Terry, hurrying to reach the Empire State Building, is struck down by a car while crossing a street. Gravely injured, she is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Nickie, waiting for her at the observation deck at the top of the building, is unaware of the accident and, after many hours, leaves at midnight, believing she has rejected him. After the accident, Terry, now unable to walk, refuses to contact Nickie because of her disability. Instead, she finds work as a music teacher. Nickie has pursued his painting and has his work displayed by Courbet, an art gallery owner. Six months after the accident, Terry sees Nickie with his former fiancée at the ballet, which she herself is attending with her former boyfriend. Nickie does not notice her condition because she is seated, and she says hello as he passes her. Nickie learns Terry's address and on Christmas Eve pays her a surprise visit. Although he tries to get her to explain her actions, Terry dodges the subject, never leaving the couch on which she sits. He gives her a shawl that Janou left for her after she died. As he is leaving, Nickie mentions a painting that he had been working on when they originally met, and that it was just given away to a woman who liked it but had no money. He is about to say that the woman was in a wheelchair when he pauses, suddenly suspecting why Terry has been sitting unmoving on the couch. He walks into her bedroom and sees the painting hanging on the wall. The film ends with the two in a tight embrace and Terry saying, "If you can paint, I can walk. Anything can happen, don't you think?" ===== In one vignette, a Burmese journalist says, "For some reason, the [American] people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They are loud and ostentatious." p. 145 The American Ambassador "Lucky" Lou Sears confines himself to his comfortable diplomatic compound in the capital. The Soviet ambassador speaks the local language and understands the local culture. He informs his Moscow superiors that Sears "keeps his people tied up with meetings, social events, and greeting and briefing the scores of senators, congressmen, generals, admirals, under secretaries of state and defense, and so on, who come pouring through here to 'look for themselves.'" Sears undermines the creative efforts to head off the communist insurgency. ===== Quincy Watson (Jamie Foxx) is unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée Helen during their engagement party. Devastated, he attempts to express his feelings to her with a heartfelt letter. His boss, Phillip (Peter MacNicol), has also given him the job of researching how to diplomatically lay off people at their company. As Quincy writes, the letter becomes a "how to" book on the correct way to end a relationship. He has a book published and becomes a best- selling author on the subject. Not wanting his male friends to suffer the same fate, he gives them advice on dumping their mates including Phillip, who is trying to break up with his gold-digger girlfriend Rita (Jennifer Esposito). After his cousin Evan (Morris Chestnut) reads Quincy's book he starts to question his relationship with his girlfriend Nicky (Gabrielle Union). Mistakenly believing that Nicky wants to break up with him, Evan goes to his cousin Quincy and asks him to talk to her, hopefully convincing her that Evan's a good guy. Since Quincy has never met her, he does not know what she looks like so Evan tells him that she has long, black hair. (As it turns out, that day, Nicky had cut her hair to a short length she described as being like Halle Berry). Quincy and Nicky end up sitting next to each other at the bar where Nicky was supposed to meet Evan. Quincy tells her that he is looking for his cousin's ex-girlfriend Nicky who has long black hair. Knowing that Quincy is Evan's cousin, Nicky lies and tells Quincy her name is Mary. During the time Quincy and Nicky are at the bar, Rita finds out that Philip is planning to break up with her. She goes to Quincy's house but when she gets there Evan lies and says that he's Quincy. The two begin an affair. Later, Evan goes to Nicky's house to break up with her, only to find that she was going to do the same, and has been seeing another man. Changing his mind, Evan goes to Quincy's job and tells him that he thinks he is in love with Nicky, and that she has been seeing another man. During that conversation, Quincy realizes that 'Mary' is actually Nicky. At the party for Quincy's hot seller book, Helen is just back from Paris and has decided she wants to get back with Quincy. Evan had planned on proposing to Nicky at the party but finds out that Quincy is dating his ex-girlfriend. He becomes upset with him and leaves the party to look for Nicky. The next day, Evan talks to Quincy and tells him he will marry Rita. Phillip had a heart attack, and at the hospital, Rita finds out that Evan lied to her. Instead of getting mad, she says she fell in love with him. Quincy breaks up with Helen and goes to look for Nicky. When he goes to her door, her neighbor tells him that she's leaving for Portland by train. He goes to look for her. As the train is speeding away he confesses his love for her and they both ride the train to Portland. ===== High-powered divorce attorneys Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) and Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) have seen love go wrong in many scenarios—so, how good could their own chances be? As two of the top divorce lawyers in New York, Audrey and Daniel are a study in opposites. She practises law strictly by the book; he seems to win by the seat of his pants, or by "cheap theatrics," as Audrey says in one scene. Soon the two lawyers are pitted against one another in several high-profile divorce cases, including a nasty public split between rock star Thorne Jamison (Michael Sheen) and his dress-designer wife, Serena (Parker Posey). The settlement hinges on an Irish castle, Caisleán Cloiche, or "Rock Castle," that each spouse wants. Audrey and Daniel travel to Ireland to chase down depositions, and both stay in the castle. Although Audrey, at least, is reluctant to acknowledge their mutual attraction, they find themselves attending a romantic Irish festival together. After a night of wild celebration, they wake up the next morning to discover they have wed. Audrey is shocked, though Daniel takes their apparent marriage in his stride. The pair return to New York and find news of their wedding printed on Page 6 of the New York Post the following day. Audrey suggests that the two maintain the semblance of a marriage for the sake of their careers, and Daniel moves into the guest room of Audrey’s apartment. Although, in the courtroom they continue to fight the Jamisons’ high-profile divorce case with the gusto they have always shown, at home, they settle into domestic life together. While disposing of garbage one day, Daniel accidentally discovers some sensitive information about Audrey's client, Thorne Jamison, which he reveals in the next day's court proceedings. Audrey feels betrayed and asks for a divorce, which Daniel agrees to give, citing his love for her. Next, their famous clients each return to the castle in Ireland, even though they are not permitted to be there because of the pending division of assets. Judge Abramovitz (Nora Dunn) sends their respective counsellors to Ireland to inform them of this, but on arrival they discover that the celebrity couple has reunited on the anniversary of their wedding. Audrey and Daniel then learn that the “priest" who performed their own marriage ceremony is in fact the Jamisons' butler, and the “weddings" he presided over at the festival were simply romantic celebrations. Daniel returns immediately to New York, alone, but with Audrey fast on his heels, as she realizes that she has fallen in love with him. Confronting him in the grocery store below Daniel’s Chinatown office, Audrey asks Daniel if he is willing to fight to save their relationship. In the romantic final scenes, the couple are married in a private ceremony in Judge Abramovitz’s chambers, with Audrey's mother as the sole witness. ===== Billy West, otherwise known as Bayou Billy, is a Crocodile Dundee-like survivalist, vigilante, and former U.S. soldier from New Orleans, who has fought against a local crime boss, known as Godfather Gordon. In retaliation for interfering with his smuggling operations, Gordon kidnaps Billy's girlfriend Annabelle Lane in order to lure Billy into one final battle. Billy's quest to save Annabelle consists of nine stages that takes him from the swamplands to Bourbon Street, as he battles Gordon's henchmen and eventually arrives at Gordon's estate to come face-to-face with the big boss himself. ===== Architect Steven Kovacs moves into an apartment after a failed marriage proposal to his girlfriend Robin Harris. Taking advice from his friend Rick, Steven bribes cable installer Ernie "Chip" Douglas into giving him free movie channels. Chip gets Steven to hang out with him the next day and makes him one of his "preferred customers". Chip takes Steven to the city's central satellite dish, where he confides to Steven about being raised on television due to the frequent absences of his single mother. Chip soon proves to be intrusive as he crashes a basketball game between Steven and his friends and leaves several messages on Steven's answering machine. Following a passionate knight battle between Chip and Steven at Medieval Times, Steven finds that Chip has secretly installed an expensive home theater system in his living room as a gift in return for Steven's friendship. Although Steven declines the gift, he agrees to host a party attended by Chip's other preferred customers before having the system returned. In the fervor of the party, Steven sleeps with a young guest, whom Chip reveals the next morning to have been a prostitute that he had hired specifically for Steven. Upon this revelation, Steven angrily ejects Chip from his apartment. To make amends, Chip tracks down Robin, who is dating another man. A disguised Chip severely beats the man in a restaurant bathroom and tells him to stay away from Robin. He later upgrades Robin's cable, ostensibly as a gift from Steven. Robin decides to get back together with Steven as a result. However, when Chip informs Steven of his role in reuniting him with Robin, Steven politely ends his relationship with Chip. Devastated, Chip sets out on a series of vengeful acts. He gets Steven arrested for possession of the stolen property and mocks him through a prison visitation window. After being released on bail, Steven is further embarrassed when Chip attends dinner with his family and Robin. Following a sexualized version of the game Password, Steven openly berates Chip and punches him. The next day, Steven is fired from his job when Chip transmits a privately-recorded conversation, in which Steven insults his boss, onto the company's computers. Rick investigates Chip at Steven's request and finds that Chip was fired from the cable company for stalking customers, and uses the names of television characters as aliases such as Chip Douglas from My Three Sons and Larry Tate from Bewitched. Chip calls Steven that night, telling him he is paying Robin a visit. After visiting Robin's empty apartment, Steven tracks them down to the satellite dish, where Chip holds Robin hostage in a rainstorm. After a physical altercation and a chase, Steven is able to save Robin. As the police arrive, Chip apologizes to Steven for being a bad friend. Chip, proclaiming that he must "kill the babysitter" to prevent others from becoming like him, dives backward from the top of a ladder above the satellite dish, falling onto it and knocking out the television signal to the entire city. Chip survives the fall with an injured back, and bids Steven farewell before being hauled away in a rescue helicopter. When one of the paramedics addresses him as "buddy", Chip asks the paramedic if he is truly his buddy, to which the paramedic replies "Yeah, sure you are", causing Chip to smile deviously. ===== IBC Television president Frank Cross is pushing his company to broadcast an extravagant live production of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, making the staff work throughout the holiday. Frank fires executive Eliot Loudermilk for disagreeing with him, and sends cheap IBC-monogrammed towels to all on his Christmas list, including his personal assistant Grace and his brother James. Frank's boss Preston Rhinelander, seeing the stress Frank is under with the production, brings in Brice Cummings to provide assistance, though Brice secretly wants Frank's job. The night before the show, Frank is visited by the ghost of his mentor Lew Hayward, who died from a heart attack as an unloved miser. Lew warns him three more ghosts will appear to him over the next day to help Frank avoid the same fate. Before it vanishes, the ghost dials up Claire Phillips, Frank's lost love from years ago. Claire comes to the network to talk to Frank, but Frank does not make time for her, and she returns to the homeless shelter where she works. As rehearsals start, Frank is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, appearing as a taxi driver. He takes Frank to see his past: how he found solace in television after his mother left his father, and how he had fallen in love with Claire but lost her favor when he prioritized his television career over her. When back in the present, Frank goes to see Claire, hoping to make amends. However, his attitude quickly sours and he shows his contempt for a homeless man named Herman and the shelter workers. He returns to the studio. The Ghost of Christmas Present arrives as a clumsy yet volatile fairy. She takes him to Grace's apartment, showing his assistant's struggles to support her large family, including her youngest son Calvin who has remained mute since seeing his father murdered. The Ghost then shows him James, who still respects Frank as his brother despite declining invitations to his Christmas celebrations and cheap gifts. The Ghost leaves him in a utility space under a sidewalk with Herman, now frozen to death. Frank desperately tries to escape, breaking through a boarded-up door to end back up on the set of the production. Preston directs Brice to take over rehearsals to give Frank some time off. Retiring to his office, Frank finds Eliot waiting for him with a shotgun, ready to kill Frank for the loss of his job and family. Frank escapes into the elevator where the Grim Reaper-like Ghost of Christmas Future awaits. The Ghost takes him to the future, where Calvin has become catatonic and been institutionalized, and Claire has heeded Frank's words and shunned the homeless to become just like Frank. Finally, the Ghost shows Frank's cremation ceremony, with only James and his wife in attendance. Frank, having come to a revelation about his life, is shocked when he finds himself in the coffin as it is about to be incinerated, and breaks his way out, ending up back out of the elevator facing Eliot. Frank's completely changed demeanor surprises Eliot, particularly when Frank offers him a high- level executive position. With Eliot's help, Frank returns to the production set, secures Brice in the control room, and breaks the show's live broadcast to speak of his new appreciation for life. He apologizes on-air to Grace, James, and the cast and crew, and makes a passionate plea to Claire to come back to him. Claire sees this at the shelter, and makes for the network with the help of the Ghost of Christmas Past. As Frank and Claire reunite, Calvin comes up to Frank and speaks for the first time, reminding him to say the closing words of the Carol, "God bless us, everyone", much to Grace's elation. Frank leads the crew in singing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart", and sees Lew, the three Ghosts, and the ghost of Herman smile and wave back to him. ===== In Richmond, a city district in a time period that resembles the 1950s (referred to within the film as 'another time, another place'), Ellen Aim (Diane Lane), lead singer of Ellen Aim and the Attackers, has returned home to give a concert. The Bombers, a biker gang of another part of town named the Battery, led by Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe), crash the concert and kidnap Ellen. Witnessing this is Reva Cody (Deborah Van Valkenburgh), who asks her brother Tom (Michael Paré), an ex- soldier and Ellen's ex-boyfriend, to come home and rescue her. Tom returns, and after defeating a small gang of thugs, he takes their car. When Reva fails to convince Tom to rescue Ellen, he checks out the local tavern, the Blackhawk. He is annoyed by a tomboyish ex-soldier named McCoy (Amy Madigan), a mechanic who "could drive anything" and who is good with her fists. They leave the bar and Tom lets McCoy stay with him and Reva. That night, Tom agrees to rescue Ellen, but for $10,000 to be paid by Ellen's manager and current boyfriend, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis). While Reva and McCoy go to a diner to wait for Billy, Tom acquires a cache of weapons, including a pump action shotgun, a revolver, and a lever action rifle. Tom and Billy meet at the diner, and Billy agrees to pay Tom, but Tom requires that Billy goes with him back into the Battery to get Ellen, since he used to live there; after some negotiation, Billy agrees to go, and McCoy talks Tom into cutting her in for 10% in exchange for her help. In the Battery, they visit Torchie's, where Billy used to book bands. They wait until nightfall under an overpass, watching bikers come and go. Raven has Ellen tied up in an upstairs bedroom. As Tom, Billy, and McCoy approach, Tom directs Billy to get the car and be out front in fifteen minutes. McCoy enters and is stopped by one of the "Bombers". Pretending to like him, McCoy follows him to his special "party room", close to where Raven is playing poker. McCoy then knocks him out. Tom finds a window and, as a distraction, starts shooting the gas tanks on the gang's motorcycles; he then reaches Ellen's room, cuts her free and, with McCoy's help, escapes just as Billy arrives at the front door. Riding in the convertible, Tom sends his crew off to meet at the Grant Street Overpass, and leaves to blow up the gas pumps outside a bar. Raven appears out of the flames to confront Tom. After learning who he is, Raven warns he will be coming for Ellen and for him, too. Tom escapes on the one intact motorcycle. Billy persuades Ellen the only reason Tom rescued her was for money. Tom returns, as McCoy explains to Billy that Tom used to be Ellen's boyfriend. Ellen follows Tom, while Billy and McCoy go back and forth once again about Tom and Ellen's love affair. Ellen and Tom also have an argument. When they all meet up on the street, they are in the Battery. They return Ellen safely home, where she initially rejects her home town as well as Tom. Later, he goes to the hotel where Ellen and Billy are staying, to collect his reward. He only takes McCoy's cut and throws the rest back at Billy. He then tells Ellen that there was a time he would have done anything for her, but no more. As Tom storms out, Ellen follows and the two embrace in the rain. Meanwhile, Raven informs Officer Ed Price (Lawson), the head of the police department, that he wants Tom to meet him alone. If he agrees, he will leave the Richmond alone. Price warns Tom to get out of town. Tom, Ellen, and McCoy leave on a train, but Tom knocks out Ellen and returns to town for a climactic fight with Raven. Tom defeats Raven and the defeated gang carries their leader away. Later that night, Tom bids a final goodbye to Ellen as she performs on stage and rides off with McCoy. ===== The player has a choice between 4 street fighters: Briggs, a dishonorably discharged soldier; Proof, an ex-superbike racer; Tank, a massive Japanese fighter, and the DJ Spider, although the story is the same for each of them. When the player chooses their street fighter, they are then called up to help out their friend Manny by taking his place in a street fight. Once the player wins a certain number of fights, they'll go against the rapper Scarface. Once the player beats his character, they'll get their first girlfriend, Deja. Other girls will come up to the player every couple of street fights, and then eventually, the player will have to choose which one should be the street fighter's new girlfriend, from which they'll all fight each other. Eventually, N.O.R.E. will challenge The Protagonist to a fight at Grimeyville in LeFrak City, Queens, New York City, New York. Before the fight, The Protagonist arrives and almost gets into a fight with D-Mob (Chris Judge). Not long after the fight, Manny signs The Protagonist and him up for a tag team tournament. After a while, The Protagonist will be challenged by Ludacris to a fight in Club Luda. After the fight, D-Mob claims that The Protagonist and Manny are nothing. He says that if anyone in the club wants the power and respect, they have to beat him at the Def Jam tournament. Manny tells The Protagonist to stop fighting, but he ignores him. DMX challenges The Protagonist but first the character has to overcome The Dragon House's offer. Once they have done that, they take on Method Man and Redman in the finale of the tag team tournament. After that, The Protagonist fights DMX. Once The Protagonist wins, they receive an e-mail from Angel (The Protagonist's girlfriend taken by D-Mob) saying that they need to talk. When they arrive at The Face Club, it is revealed that D-Mob has sent House, Pockets and Snowman to stop them from coming to the Def Jam tournament. The Protagonist defeats them, but Manny knocks him out and joins D-Mob against his will. Soon The Protagonist wakes up and enters the tournament and defeat their best fighters. D-Mob then attempts to shoot The Protagonist but Manny takes the bullet and survives. Your character triumphs over D-Mob and gets back Angel. While The Protagonist is walking out, D-Mob is arrested, leading up to the events of Def Jam: Fight for NY. ===== U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell is interrogated by two men about how he first met Secretary of Defense David Brice. Farrell describes being invited to an inaugural ball by his college buddy Scott Pritchard, who intends to introduce him to Brice. Pritchard hopes that Brice will transfer Farrell to the Pentagon. On meeting Farrell, Brice is unimpressed and virtually ignores him. Moments later, Farrell begins flirting with another guest, Susan Atwell. The two have sex in her limousine and at the apartment of Nina Beka, a friend of Susan's, even though she has admitted to Farrell that she is also involved with a married man. The next day, Farrell bids her good-bye at the airport, on his way back to active duty; but their one-night encounter has clearly had a profound romantic effect on both of them. Farrell returns to sea and single-handedly rescues a crewman from being washed overboard during a storm. Brice reads a newspaper story about the rescue and orders Farrell transferred to his intelligence staff. Brice and Pritchard, Brice's second-in-command, orient him to his new assignment which clearly involves surreptitiously getting secret information from other government agencies, such as the CIA, and passing it on to Brice. Farrell also finds that he may be at times working with Sam Hesselman, an old friend now working in the Pentagon's new computer center as its chief programmer-analyst. But before this, Farrell has already gone to Susan's apartment, where their fledgling romance is re-ignited in earnest. The only hitch comes when she tells Farrell that her married "consort" is his superior, David Brice. Some time later, after Susan and Farrell return from a romantic weekend in the country, Brice visits her unexpectedly. After urging a hurt and jealous Farrell to leave through the back door, Susan assures him that she loves him and will leave Brice. Brice sees a man leaving Susan's house but cannot see that it was Farrell. After Susan lets him in, the suspicious Brice demands to know the name of her other lover, but Susan refuses and orders him to leave. Brice becomes enraged, slaps her several times, and accidentally pushes Susan to her death over an upstairs railing. Brice then rushes to Pritchard's apartment and tearfully confesses what has happened, stating he is ready to turn himself in since he had been seen by Susan's other lover. However, Pritchard suggests that if the other man is made out to be a suspected KGB sleeper agent code-named "Yuri", then Susan's death could be made a matter of national security and "Yuri" could be killed "in the line of duty" by operatives under Pritchard's control. Pritchard then cleans Susan's house of all evidence that Brice was there, and discovers the negative of a photograph Susan had taken of Farrell earlier. The negative shows a very poor, unidentifiable image of a man. CID officers, commanded by Major Donovan, scour Susan's apartment for evidence. Pritchard secretes the negative which possibly shows the murderer into the items brought in by the agents. Initially the negative, along with a few others, seems to be too faint to reveal a picture, but attempts to enhance the blurred image via computer begin to bear fruit when it is given to Hesselman. Meanwhile, as his initial shock begins to wear away, Farrell becomes convinced that Brice is the actual murderer and that Pritchard is helping him cover up the crime. At the same time, he becomes aware that the most valuable pieces of evidence so far accumulated would make him the prime suspect. Farrell determines to play along with the bogus investigation until he can develop evidence linking Brice to Susan, so that he can defend himself against being charged with both murder and espionage (as "Yuri"). Farrell learns that one piece of evidence is a Moroccan jewel box he's seen, a gift to Susan from Brice. As any foreign gift must be registered with the State Department, Farrell gets Hesselman to "raid" State's computerized registry of such items, which should link the gift to Brice by name. However, Farrell's plan begins unraveling when Pritchard finds an address book of Susan's with Nina's name in it. When Pritchard and Farrell roust Nina for information about Susan's "men", she pretends not to recognize Farrell but Pritchard learns she has heard the name "Brice". Pritchard sends two former CIA assassins to eliminate her. Overhearing this, Farrell races from the building and engages the assassins while warning Nina, who goes safely into hiding. This activity raises Pritchard's suspicions of Farrell's loyalty to Brice and himself, as well as his motives for attempting to disrupt the coverup. Farrell convinces Hesselman to delay the enhancement work on the photograph by confiding to him that he and Susan were in love and it will be him who is seen if the photo is cleared up. Other CID officers bring in two witnesses, who saw "Yuri" with Susan during their romantic weekend, to Donovan. They cross paths with Farrell in the Pentagon corridors and recognize him at a distance. The CID begins a search of the Pentagon on grounds that "Yuri" is somewhere in the building, using the witnesses to identify him. Farrell eludes the search and tells Hesselman that Brice had slept with and killed Susan. Thinking that Farrell is delusional, Hesselman tells Pritchard about Farrell's relationship with Susan and his belief that Brice murdered her. Pritchard thanks Hesselman – and then executes him. Still trying to avoid the search, Farrell returns to Hesselman's office, where the printout of State's registry has linked the jewel case with Brice. He confronts Brice with this evidence and threatens to go to the police if the search is not called off. After Donovan reports that Hesselman has been murdered by "Yuri", Pritchard tells Brice that Farrell was Susan's lover, then adds that if the man in the photo is "Yuri" then Farrell must be "Yuri", and Brice will still be in the clear as he (Pritchard) will claim that Brice was at his home the night Susan was killed. Knowing that Farrell has the printout, Brice improvises a different story: Pritchard, who is homosexual, killed Susan because he was jealous of Brice's relationship with her. The devastated Pritchard commits suicide and, when guards break in, is accused of having been "Yuri", concluding the search for the spy and murderer. Farrell quietly sends the printout by courier to the Director of the CIA, an enemy of Brice, then leaves the Pentagon, as the finished image enhancement of the photograph positively reveals Farrell as Susan's lover. Later, Farrell is picked up by two men while sitting despondently at Susan's grave; they are the ones who were interrogating him at the film's beginning. It is revealed that Farrell actually IS "Yuri", a Russian mole in the Department of Defense. The KGB ordered Farrell to seduce Brice's mistress to gather intelligence from her. Farrell's handler is revealed to be his quirky artist-landlord, who tells "Yuri" that America is no longer safe for him, and that it is time for him to return to the Soviet Union. Revealing that he genuinely loved Susan, Farrell refuses and tells his handlers that he is finished being a spy. After he leaves the safe house, his handler snaps, "He'll return. Where else does he have to go?" ===== In August 1942, the American forces are fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. U.S. Navy Lieutenant, junior grade John F. Kennedy uses his family's influence to get himself assigned to the fighting in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He lobbies for command of a PT boat and is given the badly damaged 109. Initially, Commander C. R. Ritchie, the base boat maintenance officer on Tulagi, is unimpressed with the young, untested Kennedy, but the lieutenant is undaunted and restores the 109 to operational status. His crew includes the executive officer, Ensign Leonard J. Thom, and initially skeptical sailors "Bucky" Harris and Edmund Drewitch. The PT 109 is sent to evacuate paramarines pinned down after the Raid on Choiseul. Kennedy takes aboard the survivors, but barely gets out of range of Japanese mortars before running out of fuel. The tide starts to carry the boat back toward the island. Another PT boat arrives just in time to tow the 109 to safety. While on patrol one dark, moonless night in August 1943, the 109 encounters a Japanese destroyer that appears suddenly out of the darkness, rams and slices her in two, killing two of the 13 crewmen (Marney and Kirksey). Kennedy leads the survivors to Plum Pudding Island, towing a badly burned crewman. The wreckage is spotted by a reconnaissance plane, and Kennedy and his men are presumed dead. After dark, Kennedy swims out into the channel, staying out all night in the hope of signaling a passing Allied vessel, but without success. The next night, he sends out his friend, Ensign George Ross. After several days, morale drops and several of the men are ready to surrender. However, two natives show up in a canoe. They do not understand English, so Kennedy carves a message on a coconut and gives it to them. They take it to Australian coastwatcher Lieutenant Reginald Evans. Evans notifies the U.S. Navy, and the men are picked up. According to standard policy, Kennedy and his men are eligible to transfer back to the U.S., but he elects to stay. ===== Small-town teacher Johnny Smith is involved in a car accident that leaves him comatose for approximately six years. After regaining consciousness, Johnny begins having visions of the past and future triggered by touching items or people; doctors attribute the visions to activity in a previously unused "dead zone" of his brain that is attempting to compensate for the impaired function of the portions injured in the accident. Johnny also learns that his fiancée, Sarah, gave birth to his son in the interim following the accident, but has since married another man. With the help of Sarah, her husband (and town sheriff) Walt Bannerman, and physical therapist Bruce, Johnny begins using his abilities to help solve crimes. However, his attempts to do good are complicated by intermittent visions of apocalyptic events brought about following the future election of congressional candidate Greg Stillson. ===== A high school student named Brett Bumpers (Weston) receives a mysterious package one day. It contains a bull penis totem with a note explaining that it will grant him three wishes. His first wish is for Samantha (Alexandra Holden) to go with him to a spring dance. The next day, Samantha invites him to the dance, and he suspects that his wish has come true. Samantha's boyfriend Cody is the star jock at the school, and he is humiliated by Samantha's decision. After the dance, one of Cody's buddies is murdered by a cloaked figure with a grotesquely disfigured face. When Brett drops Samantha off at home, she suggests that they should return to just being friends. Heartbroken, Brett makes his second wish that Samantha would become his girlfriend and actually fall in love with him. The next day, Samantha breaks up with Cody and initiates a relationship with Brett. Meanwhile, the cloaked figure continues to kill students at the high school. Feeling guilty about wishing Samantha into a relationship, Brett confesses the truth to her. As Samantha is coming to grips with the truth, the cloaked figure attacks the pair. He lures Brett away from Samantha and then reveals himself to be Brett's history teacher, Mr. Turner (Austin Pendleton). Mr. Turner explains that he bought the totem and discovered that it actually granted wishes. He wished his wife dead, to avoid divorcing her. Then he wished for "Fuck-you-money", and he promptly got $100 million which he hid in a Swiss bank account. Mr. Turner confessed that he also wished for supernatural strength, because he decided to kill problem students at the school. As he was killing the students on his list, he sent the totem to Brett because he was an exemplary student. If the totem is given to another person, that person can also make three wishes. Mr. Turner then reveals that Samantha is the last name on his list. Just as he is about to kill Samantha, Brett makes his third wish, asking for more strength and agility than Mr. Turner. The two struggle, and eventually, Brett kills Mr. Turner with a samurai sword. Brett gives the totem to Samantha so that she is not forced to love him against her will. She uses the totem to begin their relationship again, but this time, on her own terms. ===== Isabel Archer is a very beautiful woman, who has already rejected many suitors: among them - wealthy Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood, whom she has initially given hope, but decided to change her mind. Caspar's arrival is arranged by Henrietta, a close friend of Isabel, who cares for her deeply. Isabel's strong character and free spirited nature is adored by her cousin Ralph Touchett who persuades his father, her uncle, to give Isabel money so that she can be rich and independent. Upon her uncle's death Isabel receives a fortune. Isabel encounters Madame Serena and instantly likes her, however, learning about Isabel's wealth Serena decides to arrange a marriage between Isabel and Serena's former lover Gilbert Osmond. Gilbert is a widower and has a daughter Pansy, who grew up in a convent and is not allowed to leave the house, even to walk in the garden, when her father is away. Isabel is enchanted by Gilbert and accepts the proposal; however she's warned by Ralph that Gilbert is a "small man" and Isabel is giving up her dreams to be in a cage with a worthless husband. Isabel is enraged and slaps Ralph, to which he calmly answers that he said what he must, that he loves Isabel and that he knows he has no hope (it's also evident that he's slowly dying from consumption). Gilbert is nice to Isabel until after they are married. Isabel finds herself trapped in Rome in an unhappy marriage with a fear of her abusive husband, who gradually disconnects her from all of her friends - Henrietta, Ralph and Caspar all leave for England. Pansy is also a victim of her father's overly protective behaviour - she's in love with Rosier, but Gilbert has decided to arrange a marriage between her and old Lord Warburton (who is attentive to Pansy just to get closer to Isabel). Isabel sees the mutual love between Pansy and Rosier and is deeply moved; Gilbert sees through Isabel's schemes to destroy the upcoming marriage but too late - Lord Warburton leaves Italy. Gilbert angrily slaps Isabel and steps on her trail so that she falls on the ground. Serena deeply regrets organising the fateful union between Gilbert and Isabel. Isabel learns that Ralph is overtaken by consumption and is on his deathbed. She asks Gilbert to let her to go to England to be with her dying cousin, but receives a cold and negative answer. Pansy is sent to a convent away from her lover. Isabel is pitied by Gilbert's sister, who finally opens Isabel's eyes, telling her that Gilbert's first wife was childless and Pansy is, in fact, Gilbert and Serena's daughter. Isabel finally decides to go against her husband wishes and leave for England. She visits Pansy and proposes the girl to flee, but Pansy refuses, saying that she wants to please her father. In the convent, Isabel also encounters Serena, but proudly ignores her attempts to start a conversation. However, in the last minute before Isabel leaves, Serena runs to her - she has guessed Isabel is going to England to Ralph and reveals to Isabel that Ralph is the one that persuaded the uncle to give Isabel her fortune. On Ralph's deathbed Isabel tearfully confesses that he's been her best friend and she loves him. Henrietta and Caspar attend Ralph's funeral. In the garden, Caspar is trying to persuade Isabel to let go her fear of her husband, they kiss passionately, but Isabel runs away to the house. She suddenly stops before the house door, and leans against it, looking back into the garden. ===== Lex Luthor has created a virtual reality of Metropolis and manages to trap Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Professor Emil Hamilton within it. Superman enters the portal to the virtual world, where Luthor tells him that he must fly through his maze of rings scattered across virtual Metropolis. After completing the rings task, Superman realizes he must save his friends from the virtual realm. Superman's first indoor mission is to stop Mala from activating bombs she has set in the two turbine rooms of the virtual Metropolis's dam to flood the entire city, as well as the save dam workers from an underwater area she has trapped them in. Afterwards, he heads to Lexcorp and gets to the building's main lobby; an encounter with Brainiac ensues, followed by Superman collecting letters from Luthor's cronies sent to Lexcorp revealing the whereabouts of those kidnapped in the virtual realm. According to them, Parasite has trapped Hamilton at S.T.A.R. Labs (the place which its chemicals transformed Ruby Jones into Parasite), Metallo has kidnapped Lane and is being held hostage at the Lexcorp warehouse, and Darkseid has abducted Olsen, although where is not specified in the letter. He also finds out from the letters that Brainiac is responsible for programming the computers that trap them in Luthor's virtual reality. The next three indoor stages (the warehouse, the park place, and the S.T.A.R. lab) involve Superman saving the protagonists while fighting the foes that kidnapped them. Lane had just been investigating into Luthor's scheme before Metallo trapped her. As Superman saves her from Luthor's Dark Shadow enemies, she informs him that Luthor is sneaking in weapons in the city (which she suggests is currently in the warehouse), and he has produced an assembly line for robots named Lexo-Skel 5000s which she thinks are being controlled by a computer. After fighting the robots, finding the computer that controls them and deactivating it, he escorts Lane out of the warehouse and beats Metallo. The following indoor level takes place in the parking garage of the Daily Planet, where Darkseid has Jimmy Olsen trapped in an area guarded by the outer-worldly villain's parademons. The mission is not only to save Olsen by finding an access card that de-activates the robot guards and beat Darkseid, but also find a bomb he has placed in the building and deactivate it. Afterwards, Superman is at S.T.A.R. Labs where the Professor is stuck in a force field in the lab's underground area; to rescue him, he must stop Parasite from flooding the area by activating three computers, collect a key underwater to activate a force field in the stage's high area, trap Parasite in it by activating another computer, and generate a green-lit terminal to turn off the shield prisoning Professor Hamilton. After saving Lane, Olsen, and Hamilton, Luthor's robotic troops are in the subway to enter Metropolis, and the next mission is to prevent them from invading. Luthor, knowing that Superman is in the subway, traps him there. The objectives are to kill all the Dark Shadows, save a subway patron, and succeed in a fight with another Lexoskel 5000 in the Metro. If all objectives are met, the ceiling in the metro explodes, allowing Superman to exit the level. The final mission is on Braniac's starship, the location of the device that controls the virtual world. At the end of the game, Superman frees his friends from virtual Metropolis, but Luthor manages to escape, ending it on an unresolved cliffhanger. ===== In London, during the early 1900s, aspiring journalist and women's rights campaigner Sonia Winter (Diana Rigg) uncovers an organisation that specialises in killing for money, the Assassination Bureau Limited. To bring about its destruction, she commissions the assassination of the bureau's own chairman, Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed). Far from being outraged or angry, Dragomiloff is amused and delighted and decides to put it to his own advantage. The guiding principle of his bureau, founded by his father, has always been that there was a moral reason why their victims should be killed – these have included despots and tyrants. More recently though, his elder colleagues have tended to kill more for financial gain than for moral reasons. Dragomiloff, therefore, decides to accept the commission of his own death and challenge the other board members: Kill him or he will kill them! With Miss Winter in tow, Dragomiloff sets off on a tour of Edwardian Europe, challenging and systematically purging the bureau's senior members. Little do they realise that this is a plot by Miss Winter's sponsor, newspaper publisher Lord Bostwick (Telly Savalas), to take over the bureau (Bostwick is the bureau's vice-chairman and is bitter for having been passed over in favour of the founder's son). Bostwick and the other surviving members of the Bureau plan to get rich quick by the "biggest killing" of them all — buying stocks in arms companies and then propelling Europe into a world war by assassinating all the European heads of state while they attend a secret peace conference where the kings, emperors and prime ministers of Europe are trying to avoid a possible war over the assassination of a Balkan prince (killed by a bomb intended for Dragomiloff). Dragomiloff and Miss Winter uncover the plot which is to drop a bomb from a hijacked Zeppelin airship onto the castle in Ruthenia where the peace conference is held. Dragomiloff steals aboard the airship and destroys it, killing the remaining members of his board of directors. He is then decorated by the heads of state he has saved. It is implied that Dragomiloff may wed Miss Winter as well. ===== Parappa, having won a 100 years' supply of instant noodle products, has grown sick of eating nothing but noodles for every meal every single day. When Parappa complains about being served noodles by his crush, Sunny Funny, he becomes shocked when she calls him a baby, causing him to question his own maturity. When Parappa and his friend P.J. Berri go to eat at Beard Burger instead, they learn that a mysterious phenomenon is turning all the food in town into noodles. As Parappa and Sunny's respective fathers, Papa Parappa and General Potter, try to develop an invention that can stop the "noodelization", they inadvertently shrink themselves and everyone else in the process. After That, Parappa And P.J. unknowingly watch an adult show not knowing that Parappa's dad and Potter are stuck small by Papa Parappa's Invention. Parappa presses a remote for a different T.V. Show but accidentally shrinks both P.J. and himself along with some other people. but they are soon helped out by the Guru Ant and return to normal size. After undergoing army training under Instructor Moosesha, Parappa helps rescue a Hairdresser Octopus from being possessed into giving people afros, discovering "Food Court", a video game cartridge, to be the cause. Parappa's father warns that if the player loses the game, the cartridge will curse them to only be able to eat noodles. Despite this, Parappa insists that he be the one to win the game. Upon winning the game, Parappa's father reverse engineers the cartridge to create a device that can reverse the noodlelization. Parappa and the others use sweets and the de-noodlelization devices to combat against the Noodle Syndicate, who are behind the town's noodlelization. They soon confront the mastermind, Colonel Noodle, who is revealed to be the son of Beard Burger Master who, similar to Parappa's situation, had grown sick of eating burgers all his life, deciding that noodles should rule the world instead. However, Parappa manages to convince him to be more open-minded about different types of foods, and everyone celebrates with a party, where Sunny assures Parappa that he is more mature than he thinks himself to be. Things return to normal, only for Parappa's situation to repeat itself when he wins a lifetime supply of cheese. =====