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Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell), a guest lecturer from England, talks Dr. Karlton (Robert Burton) into becoming an unwilling accomplice in his secret plan to actually assemble a human being from the parts of different cadavers. After recovering a body from a catastrophic automobile wreck, Professor Frankenstein takes the body to his laboratory/morgue, where in various drawers he keeps spare parts of human beings. The professor also enlists the aid of Margaret (Phyllis Coates), as his secretary, to keep all callers away from the laboratory. Margaret, becoming suspicious of what is going on, decides to investigate and goes down to the morgue. She is panic-stricken by the monster (Gary Conway), who has been activated following the grafting of a new leg and arm. She dares not tell the professor about her feelings and keeps silent for the present. On a couple of occasions, the professor takes discarded human body parts ... and feeds them to an alligator concealed in a hidden chamber. One night, the monster leaves the laboratory. He peers into a girl's apartment. The girl becomes hysterical and starts screaming; in his attempt to silence her, he kills her in panic and flees. The next morning, the hunt for the murderer is on. Margaret, angry at the professor, tells him that she knows that the monster is responsible for the murder. The professor, taking no chances, has the monster kill her and feeds her remains to the alligator. Dr. Karlton, sent out of town, knows nothing about this. The professor accompanies the monster to a lover's lane, where he kills a teenage boy in order to obtain his face. The boy's face is successfully grafted onto the monster. Professor Frankenstein tells Dr. Karlton of his plans to dismember his creation and ship him in various boxes to England and then return there to put him together again. When they strap the monster down again, he becomes suspicious and tears loose—to throw Professor Frankenstein into the alligator pit—while Dr. Karlton runs for help. When Dr. Karlton arrives with the police, the monster, maddened with fright, backs into the electrical dial board. Contact with the iron wrist bands electrocutes him and he falls to the ground, dead. Karlton tells the police that he will never forget the way the monster's face looked after the accident. 

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Leiningen, the owner of a plantation in the Brazilian rainforest, is warned by the district commissioner that a swarm of ferocious and organised soldier ants is approaching and that he must flee. Unlike his neighbours, Leiningen is not about to give up years of hard work and planning to "an act of God", as he believes in the superiority of the human brain and has already made preparations. He convinces his workers to stay and fight with him. When the ants reach his estate, Leiningen seals it by filling a moat that surrounds it on three sides, the fourth being a river. The ants attempt to cross over by covering the waters with tree leaves, but he thwarts them repeatedly by emptying then flooding the moat. Eventually, the ants breach that line of defence and the men retreat behind a second moat, this time filled with petrol. Leiningen is able to incinerate several waves of attack, but runs out of petrol when the pumps malfunction. After days of hard fighting, the ants breach the last defenses, and all seems lost. However, Leiningen realizes that his original principle of canals and damming can be put to use: if he dams the main river itself, the whole plantation will flood, drowning all the ants. He and his men can take refuge in the heights of the manor house on a hill. However, this plan requires reaching the dam, long overrun by the ants. Leiningen puts on a makeshift protective suit, douses himself with petrol, picks up two spray cans of petrol and runs for the dam — through the ants. He reaches the dam controls and floods the plantation; this means the destruction of his year's crop, but it will save his men, preserve the contents of his granaries and destroy the menace of the ants. The climax of the story occurs on the return journey when he is knocked down by the ants and almost devoured. Thinking about a stag he had seen the ants devour to the bones, he forces himself to get up. Despite suffering horrible injuries, including ant bites to the inside of his nose and directly below his eyes, Leiningen continues running, reaches the concrete ditch with the blazing petrol and survives. At the story's end, Leiningen awakes while recovering from his injuries; his final words before going to sleep are: "I told you I would come back, even if I am a bit streamlined." 

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Karla (Claire in the play) Zachanassian (Ingrid Bergman), a fabulously wealthy woman, returns to a decaying village she had been forced to leave years earlier in disgrace. She had a child by Serge Miller (Anthony Quinn), who denied paternity. Her purpose in this "visit" is to make a deal with the inhabitants -- in exchange for a vast sum of money, she wants Miller killed. At first reluctant, they eventually accept the arrangement and Miller is condemned to death. At the last moment, Karla stops the execution and tells the citizens that they will have to live with the guilt of their murderous choice for the rest of their lives. 

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The series tells the story of a bear family that lives in a tree. The bears are just like humans. The family consists of Mama Bear, Papa Q. Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear. The series teaches lessons, continues from the TV specials, and expands Bear Country as well as character development. Each episode follows the struggles of the family, mainly the cubs. Other episodes involve "The Bear Detectives and their sniffer hound Snuff", Papa Q. Bear's attempts of honey gathering, interaction with forest creatures, and attempts by villains to take over Bear Country. It states that Brother Bear is in 2nd Grade then in 3rd Grade while Sister Bear is in kindergarten then in 1st Grade. The characters and setting are from various books written by Stan & Jan Berenstain as well as from several television specials by Joe Cates. Other characters are Actual Factual, Big Paw, Mayor Horace J. Honeypot, Farmer Ben, and Grizzly Gramps & Gran. Characters also introduced are Officer Marguerete, Queen Nectar, and Jake. Queen Nectar and Jake are not bears but they do talk and interact with the humanoid bears. Sister Bear plays with many of the forest animals such as Frog & Butterfly. There are many other background characters that live in the nearby forest land; The bears live among the forest and nature just as they did in the television specials. The main antagonists of the series are the swindler Raffish Ralph and occasionally Weasel McGreed, seen in six episodes. To a lesser extent, Too Tall Grizzly is another antagonist, again serving as the school bully. 

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Kyle LeBlanc is an American working overseas in Magnitogorsk, Russia. When he hears his wife being attacked over the phone, Kyle rushes home, but is too late to save her. Sergio Ković, the man who raped and murdered his wife, buys the judge and is found not guilty due to lack of evidence. Enraged, Kyle steals a gun from a security guard and shoots Sergio multiple times in front of the entire court house, killing him. For this, he is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He soon befriends fellow American, Billy Cooper, a 21-year-old inmate who is subjected to constant rape and beatings by prison fighter, Andrei, a member of the Russian Mafia with the assistance of the guards, and Malakai, another American prisoner who uses a wheelchair and claims to know the ins and outs of prison life. After getting into a brawl with Andrei, who provoked him in a way similar to his wife's murderer, Kyle is put in solitary confinement. Then he is transferred to a cell with inmate 451, an African-American prisoner, who has the reputation of killing inmates, and the sadistic head of the guards believes he will do the same to Kyle. However, over time they begin to trust one another. The general who runs the prison amuses himself by betting on fights between his prisoners to fill his pockets. After savagely killing Andrei in his first fight, Kyle immediately suffers a mental breakdown as everyone watches in horror. Soon he is continuously forced into more fights because the general and guards know he is a sure thing, as he slowly loses his sanity. At one point 451 asks him, "Do you even know who you are? Probably not." Meanwhile, Billy attempts multiple times to escape the prison, first by running during outside work detail, and again by sneaking off during the Russian Independence Day celebration; the latter fails as he is betrayed by Malakai, who informs the guards because his need of special medicine. 451 discovers his betrayal, and later, in retaliation, pours lighter fluid on him and sets him on fire. As he watches Malakai burn to death, he recalls a memory. He set a teacher on fire whom abused and molested him as a child. After being locked in a cell with prison fighter Valya overnight one night, Billy is raped and beaten to within an inch of his life after he spits in Valya's face. Billy later succumbs to his injuries, but before he dies, he whispers to Kyle, "Don't let them turn you into something you're not." With this advice, Kyle now knows he must fight another battle: the fight for inner peace, as it is the only way he can become the man he once was. Kyle refuses to fight Valya in his next match, and as a result, is hung by his arms outside for all to see. However, seeing Kyle's courage and his ability to stay strong during his punishment, the prison gangs decide to put aside their rivalries and unite, following suit by refusing to fight. Kyle is released soon from his restraints and sent to the infirmary. During his recovery, he dreams of his wife who tells him "Nobody's ever gone as long as there is someone to remember them". Sometime after he is recovered, he is forced into a fight in his own cell block with Miloc, a gargantuan prisoner kept separate from the general population who Kyle kept hearing through the walls from his time in solitary confinement. During the fight, Kyle knocks on a door repeatedly, making Miloc recognize him, as this was his only form of communication, and he embraces him as a friend. A guard orders them to continue at gunpoint. Kyle demands the guards kill him instead, stating he will not fight anymore. Witnessing this, the prisoners begin to protest. Kyle and Miloc turn on the guards and free the prisoners from their cells, igniting a full-scale riot. Miloc is fatally shot protecting Kyle, who comforts him as he succumbs to his wounds. Soon, 451 gives Kyle the evidence of all the murders and corruption that have happened in this prison for the past 20 something years that he has planned to expose to the US government. While the guards are getting the prisoners under control, 451 shows Kyle a secret passage to the prison garage for their next move. It will require Kyle to fight one more time to gain access as he is aware the general will have him executed if he wins. Kyle participates in final fight, which he wins, but the guards have indicated they will kill him afterwards. When two guards take Kyle to the garage, 451 launches an attack and kills one of them while Kyle holds the other at gunpoint and pins him down to the ground. After taking the key to free himself, Kyle takes one of the guards' uniforms to disguise himself and drives off in one of their cars while 451 stays behind to assassinate the general for his misdeeds. His final fate is unknown, but after the movie's final scene cuts to black, the audience is bizarrely told that three months later, the fictional prison was shut down. 

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The main character Gus experiences vivid dreams during his narcoleptic episodes, which inspire him to create comic book style art of extremely high quality. When Samuel Pupkin, the psychiatrist who runs a group attended by Gus, learns of this, he recalls his own desire to be a comic book artist, instead of following the family tradition of psychiatry, a dream prevented by his lack of artistic talent. Motivated by greed, jealousy, and desire for fame he hatches a plot, involving figure skating assassins, to steal Gus's work and pass it off as his own. The attempt on Gus's life fails but he ends up in a coma. Pupkin pays Gus's wife and best friend (who have begun an affair) for the art and sells it to a failed- comedian turned successful publisher, who in turn plans to erase the text and replace it with his own, and in this way have his genius for comedy finally recognized. When Gus awakens from his coma, he reports to the police that someone is trying to kill him, but as he can think of no reason why, the police dismiss his claims. He then discovers that he is no longer narcoleptic, but finds it convenient to pretend he still is. In this way he discovers the affair of his wife and best friend, and through further investigation the theft of his work. The publisher angry that because of the Pupkin's deception, Gus could cause problems for them, demands that Pupkin solve it. Pupkin once more sends the assassins after Gus, but Gus's best friend, after wrestling with his conscience, talks them out of killing him. The police now believe his story and investigate the publisher who goes to jail, where he finally finds success as a comedian, performing for the other inmates. Pupkin goes insane and is confined to a hospital. Gus reconciles with his wife and finally gets a job. In a minor role, Jean-Claude Van Damme appears as an imagined version of himself, when one character who idolises him as the ultimate 'Karate man', imagines a conversation where he acts as that character's conscience. 

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Milo Powell is an ordinary young Japanese Canadian boy, living in Halverston-in-Area (a fictional district in Toronto, Ontario), until a kid is in trouble. Any time a kid yells "Uh-oh! Flamingo!", Milo transforms into Captain Flamingo, whose mission is to help little kids who need assistance. Captain Flamingo is aided in his missions by his best friend Lizbeth Amanda Zaragoza, who apparently has a not so secret crush on him. CF also has a little brother named Thor. Quite often, when called upon to carry out a mission, Captain Flamingo is busily engaged with something else, a personal goal or problem (such as waiting in line to buy an ice cream before the truck leaves or runs out of ice cream, but someone calls to him, needing his help); like a true hero, he must, and usually does, put aside his own needs to help others (although, quite often, his actions in successfully aiding the person in distress lead to a successful outcome for his personal goals). Captain Flamingo seldom successfully solves a problem on his first try; in fact, it is not uncommon for his initial attempts to make things worse. In trying to solve the simple problems of various little kids he encounters (such as, say, a lost pencil or a missing sock), Captain Flamingo often gets into tight spots. He has, in various episodes, gotten trapped in a bubble with a full bladder, gone underwater to battle an eel, and has gotten trapped in a deadly matrix of bouncing superballs. Despite this, he never gives up and meets every failure or setback with a new attempt. He eventually gets out of these situations by using his "Bird Brain"; this can be his own instincts, but it usually is Lizbeth. A random thought he speaks aloud might be picked up on by Lizbeth and elaborated into an actual, detailed plan (which Lizbeth will assume was what Captain Flamingo planned to do all along), or he can assume that a suggestion spoken aloud by Lizbeth is his "Bird Brain" speaking to him (although he usually misinterprets her suggestion; however, his misinterpretation usually works). In the end, Captain Flamingo always seems to stumble upon a solution either through Lizbeth's cleverness, persistent refusal to give up and constantly trying new novelty items and plans until he succeeds, or sheer luck (or, quite often, some combination of the three). 

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James Arness as Zeb Macahan Zebulon Macahan is a well known mountain man, trapper/trader, and scout working for the U.S. Army in the Indian Territories. In the early 1860s, as the Civil War is beginning, he is reminded that he has family back in Manassas, Virginia that he has not seen in far too long. He journeys back there. When the war comes too close to home, Zeb's sister in law, Kate convinces her husband Tim, Zeb's brother, to pack up their family, including two sons (Luke and Josh (named Seth and Jed in the pilot episode)) and two daughters (Jessie and Laura) and make the move out west. Eva Marie Saint and James Arness as Kate and Zeb Macahan Once out west the family learns from an Army unit heading east that the first battle of the war is likely to occur at Bull Run, right near Zeb and Tim's parents' home. Tim argues that he, not Zeb, should go east to fetch their parents because Zeb knows the west and can care for his family while he is gone. Tim leaves to return to Virginia, while the family winters in the Indian Territories. After that Zeb builds a sod house for the family. Then Zeb is told by a fellow frontiersman that an Army Scout named Billy Joe, who was a close friend of Zeb's has been murdered by a renegade mountainman, named Dutton, who has escaped from an Army Guardhouse that Zeb originally helped put him in for murdering innocent Indians. Zeb knows that Dutton swore vengeance on Zeb. Fearing for the safety of his family Zeb leaves the family in order to intercept Dutton before he can reach the Macahan homestead. He intends to be gone for only a short time. When he and Tim are gone too long, Luke goes back east as well to look for his father and grandparents. Luke returns home to find his grandparents were killed by artillery fire that struck their home during the First Battle of Bull Run. Luke learns from a family friend that his father was involuntarily conscripted into the Union Army. He also learns that the Union Army unit that took his father was headed towards Tennessee. Luke arrives in Tennessee just as the Battle of Shiloh starts. During the battle, Luke is unwillingly conscripted into the Union Army by a desperate officer whose unit has taken heavy losses during the Battle. Luke is wounded during the battle and is taken to a field aid station on the battle field. He finds his father, who has been mortally wounded, at the aid station. After the brutal battle where all of Luke's platoon is killed Luke decides to head west to find his family. While traveling west through Missouri he finds an abandoned horse. He rides the horse until nightfall and then takes shelter in a barn. A local sheriff with two men find Luke sleeping in the barn. They accuse him of being a horse thief. These men are southern sympathizers and because Luke is wearing Union army trousers they decide to try to lynch him. While escaping from the attempted lynching Luke grabs a pistol and he wounds the sheriff in the arm. Meanwhile, Zeb tracks down Dutton in the wilderness and kills him in a gun battle. Luke and Zeb return to their family which has been temporarily homesteading near the Platte River in Western Nebraska. Things are quiet for a time. But then a bounty hunter named Captain Grey arrives. Grey holds a commission as an Army Provost Marshal which empowers him to pursue, arrest and often kill Union soldiers accused of desertion. He arrives at the Macahan homestead to arrest Luke. Zeb threatens to kill Grey unless he leaves immediately. Kate objects to violence on principle and ask Zeb to lower his rifle. Grey draws his pistol to try to arrest Luke. Zeb slashes Grey's arm with his Bowie knife. Luke restrains Zeb and begs him to stop. Kate orders Grey to leave. Grey mounts his horse but swears to return. Luke leaves to avoid Grey. Grey pursues Luke for months. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government grants a general amnesty to all alleged deserters from the Army who left during the Civil War. But Grey resigns his Army commission and continues to track Luke because of a reward issued against Luke in Missouri over the incident where Luke wounded that southern sheriff. Grey breaks into the Macahan house to ambush Luke. Kate shoots him dead to protect her son. The first season ends with the family leaving the homestead to travel west to Oregon as they had originally intended. The second season starts with the matriarch of the family, Kate, dying in a barn fire. After that Kate's sister Molly Culhane, who is a wealthy widow, arrives from Chicago. She has journeyed west to reunite with her only remaining family. Then the former southern sheriff, named Martin Stillman, is seeking vengeance and pursues Luke. This former sheriff is now a wealthy businessman. The arm where Luke wounded him is partially crippled. He is obsessed with avenging himself upon Luke. He hires gunmen who torture and nearly kill Luke's brother Josh while pursuing Luke. Eventually Stillman is killed by Zeb in a gunfight. During his travels Luke gains a reputation as skilled gunfighter. Luke is forced to spend most of the rest of the series fleeing pursuit (not being cleared of the charges even at the series finale). The remainder of the series involves the rest of the family and their lives as they settle in and build up their farm and horse ranch, which is located in the Tetons region of Wyoming, with Zeb as their patriarch. 

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The two girl twins, Patricia and Isabel O'Sullivan, having just finished school at the elite school called Redroofs, are expected to move on to senior school. While most of their friends at their old school, two of them Mary and Frances Waters, are moving to the equally elite Ringmere, the twins' parents are reluctant to send them to an expensive school as they are afraid the twins might become spoilt and snobbish. Furious at their parents' refusal to send them to the school of their choice, the twins are determined to be as difficult as possible at St. Clare's. The twins miss their favourite sports of field hockey and tennis because only lacrosse is played at St Clare's. However, Pat turns out to be quite good at lacrosse. She is selected by sports captain Belinda Towers despite having defied her earlier. The twins soon make good friends with the other girls and play pranks on others in the school. Most pranks are directed at Miss Kennedy, their new history teacher for the term, who is a very timid and insecure teacher, though highly qualified. One of the pranks for Miss Kennedy is discovered by Miss Roberts and she punishes the whole form because of it. The class stops playing tricks on Miss Kennedy when the twins accidentally overhear her talking to a friend about giving up her job, despite needing the money to help her sick mother, because she cannot control the class. 

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Two bookies are separately ambushed and murdered by their unseen killers; elsewhere, a young man is killed by a sniper. In a bus terminal, a young man is approached by Goodkat, who tells the story of Max and the Kansas City Shuffle: two decades earlier, Max borrowed money from the mob to bet on a fixed horse race, only for the horse to die mid-race. To set an example to make sure nobody else would try to bet on a fixed race, the mob killed Max, his wife and young son Henry. Goodkat describes the "Kansas City Shuffle", a misleading double bluff, then tricks and kills the young man, taking the body in a truck. In New York City, Slevin Kelevra is staying in his friend Nick Fisher's apartment and, upon being visited by Nick's neighbor Lindsey, discusses Nick's disappearance and why his apartment was unlocked. Lindsey suggests that Nick may be missing and, after she leaves, Slevin is kidnapped by two henchmen, who take him to "The Boss". Mistaking Slevin for Nick, The Boss orders him to repay a large gambling debt or kill the son of his rival, "The Rabbi"; The Boss believes The Rabbi is responsible for assassinating his son (seen in the intro), and wants The Rabbi's homosexual son, Yitzchok "The Fairy", to be killed in revenge. Slevin returns to the apartment, but is kidnapped again, this time by two of The Rabbi's Jewish henchmen. Like the Boss, The Rabbi also mistakes Slevin for Nick, and also demands he repay a large gambling debt. Slevin tells The Boss he will kill The Fairy. Concurrently with Slevin visiting the mob bosses, it becomes apparent Goodkat is somehow involved in both sides and is responsible for Nick's debts being called in, and that he plans to kill Slevin after The Fairy dies and make it look like they both committed suicide. Slevin and Lindsey go out to dinner, where Slevin arranges a date with The Fairy. Slevin is approached by Detective Brikowski, who is investigating The Boss and The Rabbi. Brikowski, who used to bet big with one of the murdered bookies, has also been informed that Goodkat is back in town for the first time in twenty years and think there's a connection between The Boss, The Rabbi, Goodkat, and Slevin. The detective hassles him again later and Slevin reveals his full name. Slevin arrives for his date at The Fairy's apartment and fatally shoots him, only for Goodkat to appear. Rather than shoot Slevin, however, Goodkat finishes The Fairy, revealing Slevin and Goodkat are working together. Slevin then brings the bus terminal victim's body, revealed to be Nick Fisher, into the apartment while Goodkat kills The Fairy's bodyguards. Together, they blow up the apartment and the bodies, faking Slevin's death in the process. Goodkat and Slevin kidnap The Boss and The Rabbi, with both awakening restrained in The Boss's penthouse. Slevin appears and explains the overarching twist: Slevin is Henry, the son of the ill-fated Max, and the mobsters who killed Max were The Boss and The Rabbi. Goodkat is revealed as the assassin hired to kill young Henry, who after an attack of conscience took him in and raised him instead. Slevin reveals after twenty years later, he and Goodkat killed the mobsters' bookies and stole the ledgers in the process. After identifying Nick as owing a great deal of money to both sides, they killed him and stole his identity. Then Slevin murdered The Boss's son in order to get The Boss to contract Goodkat to murder The Rabbi's son in revenge. Goodkat took the contract to kill The Fairy from The Boss and convinced The Rabbi he'd protect The Fairy on the condition they both call in Nick's debts, granting Slevin and Goodkat unhindered access to the heavily guarded mobsters as their ally, under his Nick Fisher alias. After revealing his identity, Slevin suffocates The Rabbi and The Boss by taping plastic bags over their heads, killing them the same way they killed his father. Since Lindsey earlier photographed Goodkat while investigating Nick's disappearance, Goodkat shoots her to protect his identity. While Brikowski is hunting for Slevin he gets a phone call from his boss and learns the meaning of the pseudonym Slevin Kelevra: "Lucky Number Slevin" was the horse his father had bet on, and "Kelevra" is Hebrew for bad dog, mirroring Goodkat's name. It is revealed that Brikowski murdered Slevin's mother to pay his own gambling debts twenty years ago. As he hears this story Brikowski resigns himself to his fate as Slevin, showing real anger for the first time, appears in Brikowski's backseat and shoots him finishing his masterpiece of revenge. Sometime later at the bus terminal Slevin is met by Lindsey, and it is revealed that Goodkat's informed Slevin he had to murder Lindsey because she had a picture of him. It's also revealed around the same time that Slevin explained his true identity to Lindsey and helped fake her death. When Goodkat appears, aware of the trickery, Slevin explains he had to save Lindsey and didn't think Goodkat would understand. Since Goodkat had saved Slevin as a boy he states he understood and agrees to leave Lindsey alone. Goodkat gives Slevin back his father's old watch and then disappears into the crowd. Flash back twenty years to when Goodkat first spared young Henry, they drive away and Goodkat turns on the radio to a song titled "Kansas City Shuffle". 

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The film opens with a brief summary of 1961's then-current conditions in East Germany and nature of the border zone, featuring stock footage such as Conrad Schumann's jump over barbed wire in Berlin as the Berlin Wall is being built. In April 1978, in the small town of Pößneck, Thuringia, a teenager, Lukas Keller, attempts to escape East Germany by riding a bulldozer through the Inner German Border Zone. However, he is shot by automatic machine guns and left for dead by the guards; his family is informed while having a picnic with their friends, the Strelzyks and the Wetzels, and the entire Keller family are taken away by the police. Finally fed up with his life under the GDR regime, Peter Strelzyk proposes a daring plan to his friend Günter Wetzel: they will build a balloon to carry themselves and their families (eight people total) over the border to West Germany. They purchase 1,255 square yards of taffeta (claiming it is for a camping club); Günter sews the fabric together with a sewing machine in his attic and Peter experiments for months to construct a hot air balloon burner. Of course, they face setbacks: fires while trying to inflate the balloon, struggles to build a burner with sufficient power, extremely suspicious neighbors, and doubts about the plan's workability from Günter's wife, Petra. Eventually, Peter and Günter then stop seeing each other, to avoid suspicion for when the Strelzyks escape. Peter and his eldest son, Frank, complete the burner and, after extensive testing, manage to inflate the balloon. On July 3, 1979, the four members of the Strelzyk family attempt to fly out. They successfully take off, though they are spotted by the border guard (who do not know what to make of it); however, a cloud dampens the balloon and the burner, and they crash within the border zone, only a few hundred feet from the fences, and the balloon floats away. Miraculously, they escape the zone, return to their car and drive home. Meanwhile, the border guard finds the balloon and the Stasi, led by Major Koerner (played by Günter Meisner), begins an investigation to find whoever built it, so they can prevent them from trying again. Initially distraught over his failure, Peter is convinced by his sons to try again, as they did fly and no one was hurt, and now the Stasi will stop at nothing to find them. Peter convinces Günter to help him and both families begin work on a larger balloon to carry them all out. Petra agrees to go with the plan, especially since her mother in West Berlin is very sick. Having identified the initial launch area, the Stasi begins closing in on Pößneck. The Strelzyks and Wetzels purchase smaller quantities of taffeta from various stores to avoid suspicion, but they are running out of time. In one scene, Peter tries to buy taffeta, claiming it is for his group of Young Pioneers; the manager leaves him to notify the Stasi, prompting Peter to leave the store. They eventually finish the balloon, but have no time to test it. On September 15, 1979, the families prepare to move out while the Stasi finds blood pressure medicine belonging to Peter's wife, Doris, at the place where the first balloon initially landed. They contact the pharmacy and run through all the people whom the medicine is prescribed to, eventually coming to Doris. Their neighbor (a member of the Stasi) identifies them as acting suspiciously; the families leave only minutes before the Stasi arrives at their homes. They reach their launch point while the border is placed on emergency alert. The balloon is inflated and the burner is lit. Both families climb into the balloon's basket and cut their ropes. A fire is started in the cloth, but it is quickly put out by Günter and they later see a hole in the balloon and hope it will hold. As they fly over, the balloon is spotted and Koerner pursues them in a helicopter. Eventually, the burner runs out of propane and they descend; the border guard is mobilized to find them. The balloon lands in a clearing, with all eight people unharmed. Peter and Günter scout to find out where they are. They are found by a police car. Peter asks if they are in the West; puzzled, the police officer says "Of course you are". Overjoyed, Peter and Günter light their signal flare. The families all then happily embrace each other over the amazing success of their journey. 

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Set in Vienna in the 1920s, Married Life is an urban novel, in which that city had witnessed defeat in the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, and plays a central role as the setting it is based in. The social decay and presentiments of an ominous future mirror the pathological relationship between Rudolf Gurdweill, a poor Jewish intellectual and Dorothea "Thea" von Takow, an Austrian baroness who takes pleasure in humiliating him at every turn. The relationship is portrayed in telling detail as the couple descends till nightmarish depths of cruelty and masochism, eventually ending in Thea's sexual betrayal of Gurdweill and her murder at his own hands. 

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Set in Japan during the Taishō period (in the anime, the manga is set during the late Meiji period), Tactics is the story of Kantarou Ichinomiya, a young man with the ability to see youkai and other mythical beasts. When he was a child, this ability resulted in him being ostracized by humans. His youkai friends told him that in order to be stronger, he must find the oni-eating tengu. The young Kantarou then vows to find it and name it. By naming one, a human becomes master and the name contract is only broken if the master chooses. As Kantarou grows up, he finds a career as a folklorist and a part-time exorcist, alongside his youkai friend Youko. An assignment leads Kantarou to a mountain where a shrine marks the place where the tengu had been sealed away. Calling upon the tengu by the name Haruka, Kantarou breaks the seal and becomes Haruka's master. As time goes on, Kantarou, Youko, and Haruka develop a close friendship. However, this relationship is threatened by Haruka's returning memories and his yearning to know more about his past. 

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The newly sensible Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan depart for their second term at St Clare's, with their Cousin Alison joining them. Alison's character is airheaded and ditzy, but also a decent and kind-hearted person. Other new characters include Lucy Oriell and Margery Fenworthy. Lucy is the archetypal school story girl — bright, kind and popular — although she is portrayed well, without the one-dimensional flatness this type of character can often have. Her father is a painter and Lucy herself is a talented artist. Margery is sulky, sullen, rude, antisocial and the other girls suspect she is older than them, nearer to sixteen years old. Events include a midnight tea party for second former Tessie, which is discovered by Mamzelle through the machinations of another second former, Erica. Erica causes trouble for the first and second formers throughout the year, and is finally trapped in a fire which results in a thrilling rescue by Margery, who becomes a heroine. Lucy's father is involved in an accident rendering him unable to paint, and therefore unable to pay St Clare's school fees, but she is helped by the twins and her new friend, Margery. There is also excitement when Janet puts beetles into Mamzelle's spectacle case and then the girls pretend they can't see them, leaving Mamzelle to believe she is going mad. Characters in this book; * Pat O'Sullivan * Isabel O'Sullivan * Alison O'Sullivan * Margery * Lucy Oriell * Tessie * Nora * Erica (antagonist) * Winifred James * Belinda Towers * Hilary Wentworth * Mam'zelle * Doris Elward * Miss Roberts * Matron * Janet Robins * Miss. Theobald * Kathleen Gregory * Shelia Naylor * Rita George * Miss Lewis * Winnie * Miss Jenks 

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When teenage friends Libby Mannering (Andi Garrett) and Kit Austin (Sara Lane) are home alone with Libby's younger sister Tess (Sharyl Locke), they amuse themselves by randomly dialing telephone numbers asking prank questions, telling whomever answers: "I saw what you did, and I know who you are." Libby places a call to Steve Marak (John Ireland), a man who had just murdered his wife Judith (Joyce Meadows) and disposed of her body in the woods. Believing he has been found out, Marak wants to track down the caller in order to silence her. Marak's neighbor Amy (Joan Crawford), who is in love with him and had been trying to woo him away from his wife, listens in on the line while Marak is speaking with Libby. Intrigued by Marak's voice, Libby takes Tess and a frightened Kit along on a drive to Marak's address. Amy discovers Libby and chases her off, thinking that Libby is Marak's younger, inadvertently saving Libby from being murdered by Marak, who has seen her and grabbed a knife. Amy snatches the registration card from the car before Libby drives away and gives it to Marak, telling him to keep it as a souvenir of his last fling. Amy tries to blackmail him into marrying her, telling him she knows about the murder, but he stabs her to death after they have a drink. With Libby's address and phone number from the car registration, Marak calls to ask if her parents are home and then sets out to the Mannering home. Libby's mother, 90 miles away in Santa Barbara with her husband, is frantic with worry when no one answers the home phone and has her husband call the police to check the house. A patrolman visits and finds that the three girls are safe. Libby, afraid of losing her driving privileges, swears Kit to secrecy over their misadventure. While Kit's father is driving her home, a news report over the car's radio announces that a woman's body has been found in the woods and provides a description of a man who was seen leaving the burial site. Marak arrives at enters the Mannering home and questions Libby and Tess about the call. Libby convinces him that it was just a prank. He returns her mother's identification and leaves, but waits outside. When Kit calls, she tells Libby that Marak matches the description of the killer about whom she had heard on the radio. Marak overhears and enters to silence Libby and Tess, but they evade him. Libby tries to escape but cannot start her parents' car. Marak emerges from the back seat and starts to strangle Libby, but he is shot by a police officer who had come back to the Mannering house after Kit revealed the secret to her father, who phoned the police. 

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Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford) and Dorando (Michael Gough) co-own a travelling English circus. Monica acts as ringmistress and Dorando her business manager. When tightrope walker Gaspar the Great is strangled when his tightrope breaks, it appears that his rope might have been purposely weakened and police initiate an investigation, discovering no perpetrator. Monica's unemotional reaction to the tragedy alarms Dorando. When she suggests Gaspar's death will be good publicity, he asks her to buy him out, which she is unable to do. Monica hires a new tightrope walker, Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin). Not only is he handsome, he is daring, performing his act over a carpet of sharp bayonets. Monica is impressed, especially by his physique. Meanwhile, Monica's business partner, Dorando, is found gruesomely murdered. Suspicion of Monica's guilt grows among members of the circus troupe. Hawkins in particular suspects her, having seen her leaving Dorando's trailer shortly before the body was discovered. He confronts Monica, demanding a share in the circus for his silence. After a series of successful performances by the circus throughout the UK, Monica's daughter, Angela (Judy Geeson), having been expelled from school, shows up at the circus. Not knowing what to do with her unruly daughter, Monica pairs her with Gustavo the knife thrower (Peter Burton). Another member of the circus company, Matilda (Diana Dors), unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Hawkins, which Monica discovers. During Matilda's act, a magician's trick involving the illusion of being sawn in half, there is a malfunction in the equipment and she is killed. A few evenings later, during his high-wire performance, Frank is hit in the back with a knife, falls from his tightrope onto the bayonets and is killed. Angela is spotted throwing a knife into him before his fatal fall. She confesses, and she also reveals her motive. She has inwardly resented her mother's ignoring her, being absent from her life. Thus, the murders were acts of "removing" those who took up her mother's time and attention. She then tries to kill her mother but is stopped. Then, while trying to escape capture, she is electrocuted by an exposed wire outside the circus tent during a rainstorm. The film ends as Monica sobs inconsolably over her daughter's body. 

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The episode begins with two epigraphs: Huey Freeman narrates an alternate version of history in which Martin Luther King, Jr. survived his assassination attempt on April 4, 1968, but fell into a 32-year coma. Awakening in October 2000, he experiences a resurgence of popularity and signs a deal to write his autobiography, but is unable to vote in the year's presidential election. A biopic based on King's life is released shortly after the September 11 attacks, and it fails at the box office as a result. During an appearance on Politically Incorrect, King states that the teachings of his Christian faith require him to "turn the other cheek," even with respect to enemies such as Al-Qaeda. His commentary draws severe scorn from major news outlets and the White House, and his popularity plummets. During a book signing in Woodcrest attended by no one, Huey and Robert Freeman meet King. Robert had participated in the Montgomery bus boycott, but has harbored a long-standing grudge against Rosa Parks because she received all the attention for refusing to give up her seat. Huey and Robert offer to let King stay with them while he is in town. Following an uneasy family dinner with King, Tom DuBois, and Uncle Ruckus as guests, Huey and King watch television together and King bemoans the state of black popular culture. Huey tells him that the deterioration occurred because the culture was waiting for King or another strong leader to emerge. The next day, Huey persuades King to try and reach out to the public again, this time by starting a political party. King tries to explain its principles on a talk show, only to be repeatedly cut off by the host until Huey throws a chair at him. Huey and King next decide to spread the word by going door to door, but King hires an event promotions firm to publicize a planning meeting for the party without telling Huey. The meeting becomes a raucous event, filled with dozens of young black attendees and performers behaving as though they are at a nightclub. Shocked and disgusted by the crowd's poor behavior, King launches into a furious tirade that stuns them into silence. He sharply castigates them for falling victim to the worst stereotypes about their race after the Civil Rights Movement did so much to give them the opportunity to better themselves, and ends by announcing his plans to relocate to Canada. King thanks Huey for trying to help, tells him to do all he can, and leaves. It is the last time that Huey sees him alive. Word of King's speech begins to spread, sparking a national uprising among black citizens that profoundly affects their culture. The front page of a November 2020 newspaper shows that King has died in Vancouver, British Columbia at the age of 91, and that Oprah Winfrey has just been elected President of the United States. Huey's final comment is "It's fun to dream," indicating that the entire episode has been his imagining of how history might have unfolded if King had not died in 1968. 

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Keita Itō, an average high school boy, is surprised to find out that he's been accepted into the elite and prestigious boarding school, Bell Liberty Academy Unnerved by the mystery, he's further distracted by the school's social dynamics. In a sea of amazing young men, Keita struggles to find out what makes him unique, and how he can possibly deserve to be treated as an equal by the students of Bell Liberty. 

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King Hedley II is the ninth play in August Wilson’s ten-play cycle that, decade by decade, examines African American life in the United States during the twentieth century. Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1985, it tells the story of an ex-con in Pittsburgh trying to rebuild his life. The play has been described as one of Wilson's darkest, telling the tale of a man trying to save $10,000 by selling stolen refrigerators so that he can buy a video store, as well as revisiting stories of other characters initially presented in Seven Guitars. Hedley’s wish, now that he has returned to Pittsburgh from prison, is to support himself by selling refrigerators and to start a family. Set during the Reagan Administration, the play comments critically on the supply-side economics theories of the day, examining whether their stated aim of providing trickle- down benefits to all Americans truly improved the lot of urban African Americans. ;Characters * King Hedley II * Tonya, King Hedley II's wife * Ruby, King Hedley II's mother * Elmore, a southern hustler (and former boyfriend of Ruby) * Mister, friend * Stool Pigeon, a wise man and a prophet 

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The setting is a mid-19th-century American repertory theater. The play begins subtly as the audience arrives with the cast milling around an empty stage. The cast members generally fool around and complain about their boss and their forthcoming production of King Lear. Then, making a big dramatic entrance and smoking a cigar, the actor manager of the time comes on stage and tells them they are going to rehearse a version of Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick that he has been adapting for the stage. The cast grudgingly performs the play, improvising scenery from items lying around, and gradually get more into character as the play develops. 

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Its main character, Simone ("Monie"), works at a public relations agency in Chicago. She lives in an apartment building with her best friend Yvette. The show chronicles her life living as a single career woman in the big city. 

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Kelly Ernswiler, a young war reenactment enthusiast, works at his local store with love interest Sarah and Bart Bowland. Kelly's father, Abe, works with drug addicts, being clean himself for over five years. His mother, Eve, is a commercial artist. Kelly attempts to woo Bart's older sister, Tabby, even though she's set to marry Miner Weber, a handsome businessman. Kelly becomes a regular at Bart's house, being over for dinner often, and he impresses Bart's father, Harrison, with their common fondness for war memorabilia, and Bart's mother by complimenting her on her flowers, and he often talks to Tabby in her workshop. During this time, Sarah asks him to go to an Aerosmith concert, which she has a spare ticket for, telling him it would be good for him to get out more. When he bluntly makes it clear that he knows it would be a date, he tells her he is seeing someone else, obviously meaning Tabby. Before Kelly and Bart perform their plan for Lance's humiliation, Bart makes it clear to Kelly that he knows he has "his own agenda", at which Kelly is insulted and angry, and Bart displaces it as "pre-mission nervous energy". They recreate an invasion on the street where Lance lives and drag him out of the house pointing guns at him and shouting at him with German accents. They videotape the whole thing and he urinates out of fear. Afterwards, the boys are drinking whiskey at Bart's house and Bart passes out in a chair by the fire. Kelly makes to go home and goes to the workshop to say goodbye to Tabby. He walks in on her crying, as she now thinks the marriage will be off and goes to comfort her, and they kiss. As Kelly is leaving, Bart sees him and is furious as he knew he was in the workshop. The next day, as Kelly is on a set for a war program that Bart got them in, Bart hasn't turned up. Kelly is cast in a role to be a jeep driver and when his cue is called, Bart turns up out of the bushes and confronts him about Tabby. Kelly denies it at first and then becomes speechless. As he is about to drive for his cue, Bart attacks him in the jeep and they make a mess of the set. The next day, Abe is taken into care again for relapsing and Kelly is emotionless. He goes to the wedding the same day, only to have an annoyed Bart tell him that he can't let him in. He sneaks into Tabby's limo before it pulls in and he talks to her, and it is a moment in which he finally realizes he must grow up. He gets out of the car and everyone at the wedding sees him and are all confused. He goes round the back of the church to get his bike and leave and meets Minor again, who has no idea of what happened with Kelly and Tabby, and is civil towards him. Kelly cycles to the clinic where his father is staying and is surprised. They begin to watch television and his mother walks in and is surprised and happy to see Kelly. In the end, it shows the voicemail message where Kelly apologizes to the Bowlands for his behavior and asks Bart if he will meet him where he will be selling all his old memorabilia, and gives a hat Bart acquired for him back. He is shown walking down the street with Sarah and they hold hands. Kelly sees Lance again on his lawn where they faked the invasion, and goes over to him and confesses, only to be punched in the jaw. The film ends with Kelly lying on the lawn, holding his bruised jaw saying, "I deserved it". 

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The story follows the decadent heir Henri de Marsay, who becomes enamored of the eponymous beauty, Paquita Valdes, and plots to seduce her. He succeeds but becomes disillusioned when he discovers she is also involved with another lover and so plots to murder her. When he arrives to kill her, he discovers that she is already dead by the hand of her lover, his half-sister. She declares that Paquita came from a land where women are no more than chattels, able to be bought and used in any way. In the last lines of the story, de Marsay tells a friend that the girl has died of "something to do with the chest,” by which he means tuberculosis. 

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Each story was presented by the Men in Black, as being a true file from their cases touching on a whole range of Forteana from Mothman to the Chupacabras and broader conspiracy theories such as those surrounding Project MKULTRA. In the middle of the series run (and as the interest in such subjects peaked) the MiB even broke out of their own strip and fictionally took over the running of the magazine from #1014 (appearing as part of the logo from #1015), as Tharg was allegedly away dealing with a crisis. This first issue coinciding with a promotion of the X-Files series 2 trading cards. 

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Set 35,000 years ago in Scandinavia, during a thaw in the great Ice Age, the novel follows a Cro- Magnon named Tiger as he tries to defeat Shelk, a tyrant and a hybrid (Neanderthal/Cro-Magnon), the man who killed his father. With his family and much of his tribe dead, Tiger meets, interacts, and allies himself with groups of Neanderthals. He eventually marries a Neanderthal woman. 

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The film is about the youth perpetrator Victor, who spends his time lifting weights, dancing and torturing people. When he hits his friend Scum Baby, he calls the police. Victor gets the choice to go to jail or undergo a behavioral change. Victor decides on the treatment and is bound to a chair by a doctor. He has to watch violent videos and describe what is happening on the screen while warm wax from a candle runs over his hand. After a while Victor swears off the violence and is unbound. He rejects the doctor's request to beat him and take drugs. Victor is cured. 

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Committed but seen- it-all police inspector Martineau rightly guesses that after a violent jailbreak a local criminal will head home to Manchester to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain. Concentrating on the case and using his local contacts to try to track the gang down, he is aware he is not keeping his own personal life together as well as he might. 

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During the Mexican Revolution, a Durango-bound government munitions train is forced to stop due to the presence of a crucified federal army officer on the tracks. El Chuncho Muños, a gun runner loyal to the revolutionary leader General Elías, leads his gang in an assault on the train. Lieutenant Alvaro Ferreira commanding the rurales of the escort attempts to save the officer, but upon being fatally wounded by Chuncho, he is forced to order the train to run the captain over and escape the bandits. Bill Tate, an American passenger on the train, kills the engineer and stops the train again, allowing Chuncho and his gang to kill the remaining rurales and take their weapons. Posing as a former prisoner of the army, Tate joins the gang, and is quickly befriended by Chuncho, who nicknames him "Niño". After several heists, the gang travels to the town of San Miguel, where Chuncho meets with his old friend Raimundo to overthrow the weakhearted town boss, Don Felipe. Rosaria, Felipe's spirited wife, attempts to defend him; when Chuncho's men assault her, Tate angrily berates them for their behaviour. Chuncho shoots Guapo, a gang member, for attempting to kill Tate. Don Felipe is made to drive Chuncho and his gang back to San Miguel, and he is eventually executed. Chuncho prepares to stay in San Miguel, drilling the villagers in the hopes of becoming a General himself; Tate convinces much of the gang to leave San Miguel so they can sell their weapons to Elías. Eventually missing his bandit lifestyle, Chuncho leaves San Miguel under the care of El Santo, his priestly half-brother, on the pretext of recovering a gold-plated Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun from his former gang. After killing one of them, Picaro, Chuncho resumes leadership of the others, hoping to sell the weapons to Elías before returning to San Miguel. Elías' emissary arrives, but is pursued by army troops. Tate and Chuncho use the machine gun to decimate the troops, but nearly all of Chuncho's remaining gang is killed in the firefight. Unseen by the others, Tate also kills the emissary. Adelita, Chuncho's last surviving loyal gang member, abandons the pair after her lover, Pepito, is killed in the battle. During the ride to Elías' camp, Tate falls victim to a malaria attack. While getting quinine pills for Tate, Chuncho finds a golden bullet among his possessions. Chuncho and Tate arrive at Elías' camp the next morning, where they encounter several starving revolutionaries. Chuncho sells the guns and is paid five thousand pesos, before learning from Elías that the people of San Miguel were massacred by the army. Realising his irresponsibility, Chuncho allows himself to be taken away to be executed by Santo, one of the sole survivors of the attack. Meanwhile, Tate, from a high vantage point, shoots Elías and kills Santo before Chuncho's sentence can be carried out. Tate escapes as Elías' doctors pronounce his death: shot in the head with a golden bullet. Weeks later, Chuncho, now an impoverished beggar, tracks Tate to a hotel in Ciudad Juarez and tries to shoot him. Tate, insisting that he has been waiting for him, gives him a half-share of the reward he received from the Mexican Government for assassinating Elías: 100,000 pesos in gold. Chuncho, astonished by Tate's apparent loyalty and friendship, visits a barber, a tailor and a brothel. The next morning the pair prepare to leave for a new life in the United States. However, when Chuncho watches as Tate cuts through a line to buy their train tickets, he begins to reconsider their relationship and his responsibilities. Learning that he had been further manipulated by Tate through his pretending to be an army prisoner, Chuncho suddenly declares that, although they are friends, he must kill him. Tate asks why, to which Chuncho replies "¿Quién sabe?" before shooting him."¿Quién sabe?" means "Who knows?" in Spanish. In the American version, this line is translated as "I don't know." Tate's body begins its return to the United States, while Chuncho, laughing manically, tosses his bag of money to a group of peasants and flees from the authorities down an external corridor of carriages, exhorting the poor to buy dynamite instead of bread. 

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The series tells the story of two families - Terra and Cambará -, and how they evolve through 200 years of history, from 1745 to 1945. Living in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, both families experience the transformations of the country. 

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The book tells the story of the young mouse who becomes Tucker, and the kitten who becomes Harry, the two friends of Chester Cricket in The Cricket in Times Square. Tucker, we learn, was born in a box of Kleenexes and other odds and ends on Tenth Avenue, and fled his nest at a young age to avoid sanitation workers. He takes his name from "Merry Tucker's Home-Baked Goods", a bakery on Tenth Avenue. He meets Harry Kitten, who took his name from two children he heard talking. One said "Harry-you're a character!" and the kitten decided he too wanted to be a character. The two become friends and search New York City for a home of their own. Their wanderings take them to the basement of the Empire State Building and to Gramercy Park, among other places. Eventually, they settle down in a disused drain pipe in the Times Square subway station. 

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Furuhata opens each episode with a humorous monologue that, at first, appears to be a non- sequitur, but really contains a hint or clue relevant to the following mystery. Then the opening credits appear. The viewers witness the ingenious murder and watch as the killer covers up the crime (usually by staging the murder as an accident). The murder is then discovered, and Furuhata is usually called in by the police to investigate; but sometimes he just coincidentally happens to be nearby when the crime is discovered. The murderer hangs around the scene of the crime to misdirect the investigation by throwing in several red herrings. Despite the killer's interference, Furuhata spends the episode trying to spot the real evidence and determining exactly how the crime was committed. Furuhata does this by obnoxiously hanging around his chief suspect (much to the exasperation of the criminal, of course). Just before the final act, Furuhata "breaks the fourth wall" and challenges the audience to guess: (A) what tiny slip-up the killer made which let Furuhata know who the killer was. (B) what clue(s) Furuhata spotted which led him to figure out how the crime was committed. (C) what ingenious trap Furuhata will use to get the killer to confess his / her crime. In the final act, Furuhata cleverly ensnares the killer using a trap (C); then explains A, B The charm of the story is that while the audience already knows the killer's identity from the episode's outset - it's still up to the viewer to follow along with Furuhata's investigation and spot the clues which will lead to the solving of the crime. 

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While the rest of the Moomin family are in the deep slumber of their winter hibernation, Moomintroll finds himself awake and unable to get back to sleep. He discovers a world hitherto unknown to him, where the sun does not rise and the ground is covered with cold, white, wet powder. Moomintroll is lonely at first but soon meets Too-ticky, a wise spirit who sings mysterious songs, and his old friend Little My (who takes delight in sledging down the snowy hills on Moominmamma's silver tea tray). The friends build a snow horse for the Lady Of The Cold and mourn the passing of an absent-minded squirrel who gazed into the Lady's eyes and froze to death. However, a squirrel is spotted alive by Moomintroll at the end of the book, and it seems that it may have come back to life. As the haunting winter progresses, many characters (notably the Groke, Sorry-oo the small dog, and a boisterous skiing Hemulen) come to Moominvalley in search of warmth, shelter and Moominmamma's stores of jam. 

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Harvey and Zoey, two tourists travelling through Israel, discover an ancient scroll describing the life of Herschel, the man who was almost Moses. Herschel receives the command from God to free his people from Egyptian slavery, but Moses keeps blundering by and taking all the credit. Several other biblical stories, such as Lot and his wife, David and Goliath, and the miracles of Jesus, are also parodied in this story of the life of a man trying to follow the path to God, but somehow always seeming to lose his way. 

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A man and a woman sit opposite each other in the detached intimacy of a train compartment on a journey from Paris to Frankfurt. He is a world-famous author, she carries his latest novel in her bag and ponders the dilemma of reading it in front of him. As both the woman and man ponder their situation in the compartment, they bring past events and philosophies up in separate monologues. Finally in the ending of the play, they speak conversationally, and in the last line of the show the woman calls the author by his name, revealing to him that she did indeed know who he was. 

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The story revolves around Tazusa Sakurano, a Japanese Olympic figure skating candidate, and Pete Pumps, a Canadian stunt pilot. During a qualifying round in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Tazusa falls in the middle of a Triple Lutz and loses consciousness. At the same time, Pete dies mid-performance when his stunt plane crashes due to mechanical trouble. Unfortunately for Tazusa, Pete ends up involuntarily inhabiting her body for 100 days. During this time, Tazusa begins to develop romantic feelings for Pete, and falls in love with him. ; : :A Japanese figure skater known for her sharp tongue. She is on bad terms with the media and the public because of her cold attitude and string of bad luck in competitions. Her goal is to compete in the Winter Olympics in Torino (Turin, Italy). At the beginning of the series, she is possessed by the ghost of Pete Pumps and while she initially hated him, she gradually grew to accept his constant presence in her life and grew even more to love him. :While possessed, she picked up the habit of eating tomatoes, because her possessor Pete hates tomatoes, and using masochism, since Pete can share Tazusa's pain, to keep him in line. She has an unlucky tendency to fall asleep when she gets bored, but can never sleep the night before a competition. In the anime, she describes herself as "The 10 Billion Dollar Beauty." :Initially Tazusa is portrayed as a bratty, cold girl. She doesn't have many friends and lives with her coach and sister. However after spending time with Pete, she slowly changes and opens her heart. Especially in school where Pete helps her through her exams. She also starts to express herself more during the skating routines which enable her to represent Japan in the Olympics. At the same time, Tazusa also falls in love with Pete and she finally realizes what is truly important to her. ; : :A Canadian stunt pilot who died when his stunt plane developed mechanical trouble and crashed in a fireball. As a ghost he needs to wait 100 days before he can go to Heaven (his date of ascension is February 23) and inadvertently ends up possessing Tazusa. :Pete likes Tazusa and tries to help her improve her public image and succeed in being selected for the Olympics. He even gets jealous of the reporter Kazuya Nitta, as Tazusa seems to have a crush on him. Though Tazusa at first doesn't agree with him and ignores him, he eventually wins her over and she starts to get to know him better, and he designs her "waitress on ice" performance. :Sometimes, as a way to punish him for annoying her or for any other reason, she will eat tomatoes which he has a strong hatred for. It is the only way she can torture him without having any physical or mental pain inflicted upon her as well (aside from the digestive problems that come when she eats too many, and the embarrassment resulting from this). :At the first stage of performing at the Olympics Pete kisses Tazusa then during their last performance, Pete kisses her in his ghost form and seems to love her in return. He bids her an emotional farewell as he finally departs. ; : :She is one of Tazusa's skating rivals. She is the preferred choice for the Japanese Olympic representative for Women's Figure Skating because she is closer to the Skating Federation's "ideal" and as such, she and Tazusa are quite competitive. She has a calm personality, and never likes to take risks. ; : :He is Tazusa's coach. He is an all-around nice guy, always seeing the good aspects in everyone. Tazusa and her younger sister live with him because of their parents' divorce. In the beginning of the series, he had believed that the reason why Tazusa was hitting and torturing herself (although it was to hit and torture Pete) was due to stress of having Japan's representative figure skater in the Olympics being chosen soon. He also believes that whenever she is insulting Pete, it is he who is the target of her nasty remarks and also considers this as part of her stress. He reveals Hitomi as his fiancée on Episode 9. ; : :He is a freelance reporter who has a secret crush on Kyōko and tries to help Tazusa in her battles with the mass media. He is a calm and collected figure who believes in and supports Tazusa. ; : :She is Tazusa's level-headed younger sister. She is often seen waking Tazusa up for breakfast and in her competition to cheer her as well. In the novel series, she also figure skates. ; : :She is Tazusa's quiet best friend and the designer of all of her skating outfits. A running gag in the anime consists of Tazusa yelling at Pete who is invisible to other people only to have Mika mistake the target of Tazusa's tirade as herself. Mika's voice actor also sings the ending theme of the anime series. ; : :She is an official from the Japan Skating Federation who claims that Tazusa has a "stone face." In return Tazusa calls her Queen Nasty or Sarcastic the Third. However, she does believe that Tazusa has special potential, which is why she pushes her so hard. In the final episode she recognizes the changes in Tazusa's personality as she breaks her "stone face" in her final routine. She hints that there's more to come from Tazusa, she has only begun. ; : :She is an American figure skater and one of Tazusa's rivals. She is very antagonistic towards Tazusa. She is notable in the anime mainly because all of her lines were in (badly accented) English. ; : :She is a world-class Russian figure skater and the favorite to win gold in at the Winter Olympics. As such, she is Tazusa's strongest rival. She also used the same song as Tazusa in episode 6, prompting her to revise her short program and shift to free jazz. She is a very quiet but dedicated figure skater worthy of her title. 

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Ira has one last summer of freedom before having to work in the beet fields with her sisters. Her father hires some migrant workers, and Ira makes friend with Oscar, a Mexican. Despite prejudice of locals, the two build a lasting friendship. 

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Haakon Haakonsen (Stian Smestad), a young Norwegian boy in the 1850s, becomes the sole support of his family as a cabin boy on a ship after his father is injured. Jens (Trond Peter Stamsø Munch), a family friend and a fellow shipmate of Haakon's father, becomes an older brother to Haakon on their voyage. At first, Haakon has a difficult time adjusting to life at sea, but eventually earns the respect of his shipmates. After shore-leave in London, a British naval officer, supposedly known as Howell, joins the crew ostensibly to provide protection from pirates. Haakon learns that Howell has secretly brought guns onto the ship, and Howell attempts to persuade Haakon not to say anything about the guns to the captain. After the mysterious death of the admired captain (who had been poisoned by Howell's first mate), Howell assumes command. Upon arriving in Sydney, shore-leave is abruptly cancelled and a suspicious new batch of sailors come on board. After departing Australia, Haakon discovers a stowaway (Louisa Milwood-Haigh) named Mary who turns into a love interest. Work on board ship soon becomes terrible for Haakon, Jens, and the original sailors, which intensifies when the new captain finds Mary and demands whomever has been fraternizing with her to show his face. Haakon admits responsibility, and the captain sentences him to be lashed with the cat o'nine tails. Jens protests, saying that whipping Haakon would be an effective death penalty, to which Howell orders that Jens will administer the punishment to Haakon instead of Howell. However, the court martial is interrupted by a terrible storm that damages the mainmast, then sinks the ship. Haakon manages to rescue Mary from the brig but in the confusion is separated from the crew and wakes alone up on a deserted tropical island. After searching the island, Haakon discovers treasure as well as wanted posters for an English pirate named Merrick, who looks identical to Howell. (In the first scene of the film, the real Howell was murdered by Merrick, who then stole the identity as a doppelganger). Haakon discovers that the suspicious shipmates (i.e. the new batch of abusive shipmates who were brought on after Merrick's captaincy) are really pirates, who stored the treasure during a hot pursuit from naval forces, and will soon return to the island to extract their loot. Following a self-training with a sword and gun, Haakon manages to use a horn when a gorilla attacks. This makes the gorilla docile, who then starts to befriend Haakon, behaving like a pet. Haakon devises a set of booby traps anticipating that the pirates will soon return for their treasure. Although Haakon adjusts to the island, he misses Jens, and more so his family back in Norway. One day, Haakon sees smoke from a distant island and tries various attempts to get there on a raft of his own. Upon successfully arriving there, he finds a village of natives doing a night dance. Haakon encounters Mary in the middle of an altercation with several of the natives. Misinterpreting the situation, Haakon reveals himself and frightens the natives with a gunshot until he backs into Jens, who explains that the natives are peaceful and saved his and Mary's lives. The reunited trio happily depart for Haakon's island the next day. Shortly thereafter, the three friends witness the arrival of the pirates along with Berg and Steine (Knut Walle and Harald Brenna), two of Jens' friends who survived the sinking ship and are being held prisoner. After Haakon's traps fail to work, he quickly devises a plan to save their friends. At night, Mary sneaks aboard the ship and frees the remaining crew who manage to overpower their pirate guards and retake the ship. Meanwhile, on land, Haakon and Jens manage to distract the pirates long enough to free Berg and Steine and narrowly make it back to the ship, stranding the pirates on the island. Haakon, Jens, Mary and the liberated crew return to their native Norway. Each man keeps a small share of the treasure, with Haakon deciding to use his share to help his impoverished family. Back home in Norway, Haakon reunites with his family and introduces them to Mary. His parents agree to take her in until she can reestablish contact with her own relatives. 

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*June–December 1916. Sixteen-year-old Charley Bourne from London's East-End enlists in the British army. Arrives on the Western Front in France shortly before the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. His platoon is commanded by Lt Thomas and Sgt 'Ole Bill' Tozer and private Ginger Jones becomes Charley's best mate. Participates in the opening day of the Somme on 1 July. The platoon suffers heavy losses. Charley witnesses the last British Cavalry charge and takes part in the combat debut of the new Tanks. Guilt-strickened veteran Lonely sacrifices himself to expose the location of a German ambush. Lt Thomas saves the platoon by withdrawing without orders and he is arrested and executed for cowardice. Charley and Weeper Watkins endure harsh field punishment for refusing to join Thomas' firing squad. Ginger is killed by a random shell. Oiley Oliver arrives but does not last long, escaping via a self-inflicted injury. The German 'Judgement Troopers' led by the ruthless Colonel Ziess stage a counter-attack, penetrating deep into the British lines and nearly wiping out Charley's platoon but their success is halted by the German high command's refusal to give Ziess reinforcements. Charley is wounded by a stray shell. *January–March 1917. Charley recuperates in hospital and has a spell of leave in London. Discovers Oiley's criminal activities. Charley rescues his mother from a munitions factory during a Zeppelin raid. Encounters deserter Blue and aids his escape after the latter tells him of his experiences with the French Foreign Legion at the Battle of Verdun. *April–May 1917. Charley returns to the Western Front where Cpt Snell (who he encountered as a lieutenant during the Somme) is now his commander. Snell is a ruthless leader who does not care about the welfare of his men. Charley becomes Snell's batman for a short period. A burly veteran Grogan bullies a bookwormish newcomer Scholar and other conscripts. Charley intervenes and he and Grogan eventually fight but the latter is accidentally killed when a discarded shell he picked up to throw at Charley turns out to be live and explodes in his hand. Weeper is wounded and later deserts. During a march to the rear in fierce heat, Sgt Tozer passes out with exhaustion and Snell demotes him to private. *June–July 1917. Snell volunteers the platoon to become miners to plant underground explosives under the German trenches. One of the men, Budgie, is a conscientious objector and Charley defends him from abuse by others. Charley and several of his comrades narrowly survive a cave-in and they break into and destroy a German tunnel. An increasingly pompous Scholar wrangles a transfer away to officer training and Charley begins to regret having helped him. The huge mine that the platoon has set beneath the German lines fails to detonate and an enraged Snell accuses Budgie of sabotage and shoots him dead. Charley follows Snell into the tunnels, intending to kill the latter but another soldier with the same plan gets there before him. In the shootout that follows, Snell is struck in the head by a ricochet and sent away in a coma. * August–September 1917. Charley's unit takes part in the Battle of Third Ypres. Charley finds and rescues his wounded brother Wilf who has joined up under-age by assuming the identity of a deserter (in a scheme arranged by Oiley). The unit is sent to the training camp at Etaples to prepare for the next great offensive. The harsh and cruelly strict conditions enrage the veteran, war- weary soldiers, eventually igniting the Etaples Mutiny. Charley encounters Blue who is posing as a British officer whilst smuggling food to his gang of deserters hiding in nearby woods. Tozer is remade a Sergeant. Weeper who had been arrested for desertion is freed during the mutiny but is killed whilst saving Charley from a knife attack by another deserter. The mutiny is a success, improving conditions at the camp but Charley is then returned to the trenches. *October–December 1917. The muddy hell of Passchendaele. Sickened by the slaughter, Charley volunteers to be a stretcher-bearer, a duty he performs bravely but he is falsely accused of looting the dead and sacked. A massive British tank attack breaks the German line at Cambrai but the offensive is halted due to in-decision by the British commanders. Scholar returns from officer training. Charley is detailed to become a sniper and the platoon occupies a sector opposite the unit of Corporal Adolf Hitler. Charley and Hitler fight hand-to-hand during a trench raid, nearly killing each other. The two sides enjoy a Christmas truce but Hitler stays in his dugout, refusing to take part. * January–February 1918. Wilf has transferred to the RFC and is now an observer/gunner in a Bristol F2B squadron. He shoots down several German planes but narrowly avoids death when he is shot down and his pilot Captain Morgan is killed. Back in the trenches, Charley accidentally shoots himself in the foot and is accused of cowardice by the Scholar. Whilst in hospital he meets a nurse Kate and after a frosty start, the former realises Charley is no coward and the two begin a romantic relationship. A written statement from a dying officer saves Charley from a conviction and he and Kate go on leave in London. Snell, rendered psychotic by his head wound, attempts to murder Charley and Kate. *March–June 1918. Charley marries Kate. Whilst on their honeymoon, they receive the news that Wilf is dead, having been shot down after bringing down a German Zeppelin heavy bomber over London. Charley's cousin Jack, a sailor in the Royal Navy, tells of his experiences at the Battle of the Falklands in 1914. Charley, now a Lance-Corporal, returns to the Front, just in time for the massive and sudden German Spring Offensive. The German Stormtroopers attack Charley's sector and Scholar is set ablaze by a flame-thrower. Charley cannot bring himself to put the dying Scholar out of his agony but the deed is performed by newcomer Skin. Charley rallies a rag- tag group of stragglers and looters to mount a last-ditch defence of the town of Albert. Skin is seen talking to a German soldier who is revealed to be his brother but not before the latter is fatally shot by another Briton. During a battle against the new German tanks, Charley meets Snell, who has managed to secure a transfer back to the fighting, despite being virtually insane. Charley is promoted to full Corporal. Snell murders an African-American Doughboy named 'Pig-Iron' that Charley has befriended and then later kills a British officer who witnessed the earlier crime. *July–November 1918. After a battle against German commandoes, Charley is captured and sent to a POW camp where he meets his cousin Jack. After three attempts, the pair escape and Charley rejoins his unit. The platoon advances towards Germany during the final weeks of the war, taking part in the crossing of the St. Quentin Canal. Skin is shot dead by Snell after the former protests at the latter's execution of German prisoners. On 11 November, the final day of the war, Snell is determined to have the symbolic honour of reaching Mons, pointlessly expending his men's lives. After the platoon is wiped out only minutes before the 11am ceasefire, Snell and Charley have a final showdown. Snell is about to kill Charley but the former is drenched by an acid-sprayer wielded by a surviving German. Ignoring Snell's pleas to be put of his misery, Charley walks away leaving his nemesis to die slowly. Snell's final action had been to 'volunteer' Charley to join the British Expeditionary Force to the Russian Civil War. *January–October 1919. Charley and Bill Tozer head to Russia where they fight alongside the 'Whites'- pro-Monarchist Russians-against the Bolshevik Reds who are defending their Revolution, with Tozer serving as company sergeant major. Charley soon becomes disillusioned at the incompetence and cowardice amongst the Whites, some of whom change sides and join the Reds. Charley prevents rogue Bolshevik Colonel Spirodonov from capturing a White armoured train loaded with refugees and royal gold. *1933. The Great Depression and Charley is on the dole. News arrives that Hitler has seized power in Germany. At this point, writer Pat Mills ceased work on the comic and was replaced by Scott Goodall. *September 1939 – June 1940. Charley reluctantly enlists in the British Army again after learning his son Len has joined up. Joins the BEF in France and participates in the heavy fighting against the German Blitzkrieg and in the long and confused retreat to Dunkirk. Back in England, Ole Bill has joined the Home Guard. Charley's wife Kate is falsely arrested for black-marketeering as, unbeknown to her, Oiley has been stashing stolen goods in her home. Oiley tries to have Bill murdered but the attempt fails and Bill beats Oiley into confessing, freeing Kate from prison. Back in France, Charley finds his shell-shocked son Len at Dunkirk and they escape back to Britain together. Charley decides he has had enough of war. 

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Zeinal, an Iranian soldier who has been a prisoner of war for more than 20 years, returns only to see that he has been deemed a traitor. The story revolves around Zeinal and Eskanadar who both are looking for a chest containing several important documents. 

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General Kurama assembles four young agents who had been dispatched around the world for training. They are joined by FBI investigator Diane Martin, whose father was murdered by Egos. The five don powered suits to become the Battle Fever team. The Battle Fever team's trump card is the Battle Fever Robo. Egos tries to stop the construction of the Robot, but the monsters they send to perform this task are defeated one by one by the Fever team. Egos then unleashes the "younger brother" of the Buffalo Monster, a giant robot replica of its "older brother". The Robot, fortunately, is finished in time. Aboard it, the Fever team defeats the Buffalo Monster and its successors. The Fever team never stops, even when it lost two of its members (the original Miss America and Battle Cossack). With new members, the team defeats Hedder, now the Hedder Monster, and breaks into Egos' headquarters, where they are fed into the Egos Monster Making Machine so that they may be used as material for a Battle Fever Monster. The team destroys the machine and slays the mysterious deity Satan Egos himself with the Lightning Sword Rocketter sword-throwing move. 

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The player is a young hero who has arrived to be trained and eventually become the leader of the land. The TaskMaker, leader of the game's world, serves as the player's mentor. The TaskMaker assigns the player ten tasks, which are quests to obtain an item from a different dungeon or town. In doing so, the player encounters game elements such as illusionary walls, teleports, traps, and switches, as well as monsters, and other non-playable characters with whom the player can interact. In the game's next-to-last task, the TaskMaker asks the player to kill a prisoner on his island. Returning to the TaskMaker after killing the prisoner reveals the TaskMaker to be evil, and the game ends; not killing the prisoner results in a battle with the TaskMaker as the final task, and leads to the game's true ending. Once the TaskMaker is killed, the player is declared "master" of the land, and a special menu is unlocked in the game, allowing for the player to edit all the dungeons and villages. 

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The children's story starts with the twins Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan looking forward to enjoying their first summer term at St. Clare's. Their mother is happy to see them looking forward to school. One day, they go to play tennis with a friend, and meet a girl who has mumps. The twins, to their dismay, are put in quarantine, and are not allowed to go back to school at the beginning of the term. When they arrive back the following week, they are heartily welcomed by their friends. Five new girls have joined their form. There is an American girl called Sadie, who is obviously quite rich and elegant. The twins discover that their cousin Alison has already made friends with her. There is a wild-looking girl called Carlotta, who is half Spanish. There is a naughty but very likeable girl Bobby (Roberta), who quickly becomes friends with Janet. There is another girl called Prudence, who is quite pretty but has no sense of humour. The last new girl is Pam, who is very hard working but also very shy. The girls soon discover that Miss Roberts is on the war path. She is the first form head and is determined that her girls should do well and be promoted in next form. The twins also get to know the new girls. Prudence turns out to be nasty, spiteful, and dishonest. She takes a strong dislike to Carlotta, and discovers that Carlotta once belonged to a circus. She reveals Carlotta's secret to the other girls, hoping it will make them despise her, but it only serves to make Carlotta even more popular. Prudence also manipulates the shy Pam under the false disguise of a friendship. As a result, Pam is initially disliked by all of the girls except Carlotta and Isabel, who take pity on her when they realise that she is afraid to tackle Prudence as she does not want to be on her own. Encouraged by the two older girls, Pam eventually stands up to Prudence and ends their forced friendship, becoming friends with Carlotta instead. Bobby initially doesn't seem to care for anything or anyone until Miss Theobald tells her that she is cheating her parents badly. After learning this, Bobby starts working hard, too, though she occasionally plays tricks. The American girl, Sadie, is like Alison, always caring about her looks. She also hates sports and all outdoor activities (although, unlike Alison, she actually enjoys swimming). However, she is good tempered and laughs at being teased. The girls soon find out that Sadie is an heiress. Sadie's father died and left a will giving away all his money to his sisters, but Sadie's mother won it back through lawsuits. During the term, while Prudence is spying on Carlotta, Sadie is kidnapped, and Carlotta - who finds her tied up, gagged and blindfolded in the back seat of a motor car - goes after her, and stages a fake road accident, during which she manages to rescue her with the help of her circus' friends. The term ends happily for most, with Prudence leaving because everyone hates her for her part in Sadie's kidnap (she could have alerted Sadie to the fact that she was in danger when she and Pam met a strange man lurking around the school entrance but was too busy trying to get Carlotta into trouble to realise this, and ignored Pam's warning to report the man to Miss Theobald), Sadie herself bouncing back strongly from her kidnapping ordeal and preparing to go back to America, and the other girls looking forward to going into second year except Prudence, who is leaving and Pam, who is too young to move into the second form. 

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Lynette is forced to give a deposition in regards to Andrew's pending lawsuit involving Bree, because Bree lost track of her children while under the influence of alcohol. Bree continues to deny this but must reconcile with Lynette in order to make things run smoothly. They both eventually come to terms but Lynette tells Bree that she is going to be honest with the lawyer. This disappoints Bree who had expected Lynette to lie. Bree decides that she does not want this to ruin their friendship and makes Lynette a muffin basket. When Lynette sees proof that Bree has been abusive, she cannot help but deny that this actually happened since Andrew is very vindictive. While talking with Andrew and luring him with a car, Lynette learns the truth and has made her decision. At the court interrogation, Lynette lies stating that Bree is a very good mother and friend and never would endanger her children. The lawyer warns her that she is under oath and can be charged with perjury. Lynette understands this but sticks to her new story. She then says she hates liars and looks at Andrew. Gabrielle and Carlos buy Libby yet another gift in order to ensure that Libby will allow them to adopt her baby. At the strip club, they meet Libby's boyfriend Frank who believes that Libby will be raising the baby. Gabrielle and Carlos are shocked at this since now they will not be able to get the baby. At the lawyer's office the Solises tell this to him who warned them not to give Libby gifts since it is not in the contract. They are then forced to get consent forms from Frank since he still has custody of the child. The Solises then attempt to bribe Frank but soon learn that he is not the baby's father. At the hospital a day later, Libby gives birth to a healthy baby girl who Gabrielle immediately falls in love with. As they hold the baby, Libby confesses to Frank who is on the verge of suicide who the actual father is. When Libby tells Frank that the father is his brother, Gabrielle and Carlos storm out of the hospital with the baby and take it home in order to ensure that they keep her. After Edie tells Susan that she is planning a surprise wedding at their "engagement party", Susan and Karl are forced to confess their marriage to Edie who still does not know. As they are about to tell Edie, she already has company: Dr. Ron, who has told Edie everything about their relationship. Edie throws a vase and is very angry at the both of them. In order to keep Edie quiet and happy, Karl agrees to throw Edie a lavish wedding and Susan is forced to make all of the arrangements and to be her bartender at the engagement party. At the engagement party, Felicia presents Edie and Karl with a gift: her sister Martha Huber's teeth in the hope of reminding everyone that Paul killed her sister. Paul is then humiliated and forced to leave the party. Also, at the engagement party, Karl reveals his feelings for Susan and kisses her. Bree warms up to her AA sponsor Peter who in addition to being an alcoholic is a sex addict. When Bree tries to kiss him, he proceeds to take off his clothes and have sex with Bree on the table. His instincts then force him to stop when he becomes very energetic and rough. The following day, Peter introduces Bree to her new AA sponsor, Donna who is a tough and unfriendly woman who claims not to be a lesbian. Immediately, Bree wants Peter back and tries to win him over by calling him but is rebuffed. In order to get Peter back, Bree becomes extremely drunk at a bar and calls Peter to drive her home. Peter helps her and makes her coffee. 

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Rajiv (Shahid Kapoor) wants to be one of the popular kids of his college. However, due to the lack of a girlfriend, Danny (Shabhi) and Javed (Kapil Jhaveri) mock him and his best friend Mambo. Javed and Danny plan a trip to Alibagh and invite Rajiv and Mambo only on condition that they come along with girls. Rajiv decides to ask Payal (Amrita Rao), his reserved childhood friend to become his girlfriend and tells her that he's in love with her. He does that only for the trip as he doesn't believe in love and serious relationships. Payal returns her "feelings" and agrees, as she has been in love with him since their school days. Both of them start spending time with each other and Rajiv gets to know that Payal really loves him. Then comes the time for the trip and by some persuasion, Payal is allowed by her father to go. Both of them accompany Danny, Javed and their girlfriends and stay at Danny's beach house; however, Rajiv's drink is laced by Danny and, being intoxicated, he behaves badly with Payal. Payal realizes that Rajiv doesn't love her and slaps him. After the midnight picnic incident, Danny and Javed's girlfriends try to clear misunderstanding by making Payal understand that Danny was the reason for Rajiv's misbehavior at drunken state, so Rajiv wasn't at fault. Rajiv doesn't accept her apology and asks her to kiss him in front of everyone. Payal refuses saying that she doesn't need to prove her love by doing such a cheap act. Their relationship falls apart and Rajiv challenges that he'll have the most beautiful girlfriend of the college. Rajiv's best friend Mambo (Vishal Malhotra), who was in support of Rajiv and Payal's friendly relation, does not like this and insists that he gets back with Payal. But Rajiv rebukes him. Soon after, Alisha Sahay (Shenaz Treasurywala), a stylish and beautiful girl, starts at Spencer College. Rajiv is smitten by her and manages to woo her with the help of his friend Love Guru (Yash Tonk). Meanwhile, Mambo and Payal become close, Mambo tries to cheer her up and be with her always. Payal still cares a lot for Rajiv and is silently hurt at seeing Alisha and Rajiv together. Nevertheless, she continues to talk to Rajiv and wish him a happy birthday. Rajiv is taken aback by the fact that it was Payal and not Alisha who bothered to wish him first, as Alisha is busy with her modelling shoot. Rajiv starts noticing that Payal and Mambo are coming close, which irks him. Rajiv is surprised to find Payal at his birthday party in a pub. Payal gets emotional and tells him she now thinks that her views about love were wrong and that is why Rajiv is so happy with Alisha, something which was not with Payal. Mambo and Rajiv come to blows because of Payal, and Alisha slowly starts disliking Payal. The final straw is when Alisha sees Rajiv and Payal talking, and she learns from a mutual friend that they were together before she entered the college. She confronts Payal, behaves rudely with her, and accuses her of stealing her boyfriend. Mambo tries to defend Payal, and Alisha puts him off, which infuriates him. Rajiv and Mambo get into a fist fight. Alisha and Rajiv leave with everyone accusing him of fighting with his friends. At Alisha's flat, Rajiv is unable to think of anything else but how Payal loved him and he let her go, and how after their break up, she still cared for him, and the recent fight. Alisha gets insecure and keeps asking him to profess his love. He, imagining Alisha to be Payal, hugs her and says "I love you, Payal". At the Farewell party of the college, Rajiv apologizes to Mambo with a thought that Mambo was planning to propose to Payal. He then realizes his mistake as Payal still loves him and Mambo was just being her friend. Rajiv tries to apologize to Payal, but she doesn't listen to him. Rajiv then takes the mic and publicly apologizes to Payal. He tells her he loves her a lot, even though she might not believe him. Payal is still angry with him and tells him that doing a drama in front of everyone and proclaiming his love is not going to make her relent. Rajiv stands before her and gazes pleadingly into her eyes. Payal is convinced that Rajiv does love her and embraces him. Alisha comes there and finds Rajiv and Payal dancing on a slow tune. She apologizes to Payal for her behavior and wishes them good luck. The movie ends with Rajiv and Payal's dance. 

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Dixiana Caldwell and her friends, Peewee and Ginger, are circus performers in the antebellum Southern United States. When Dixiana falls in love with a young Southern aristocrat, Carl Van Horn, she leaves the circus where she is employed and, with Peewee and Ginger, accompanies Carl to his family's plantation in order to meet Van Horn's family. At first thrilled with the news of their impending nuptials, Carl's father and stepmother, Cornelius and Birdie Van Horn, throw a lavish party for the couple. However, Peewee and Ginger inadvertently disclose Dixiana's background as a circus performer, creating a scandal for the elder Van Horns. Asked by the stepmother to leave in disgrace, Dixiana and her friends return to New Orleans, seeking to gain re-employment from her former employer at the Cayetano Circus Theatre, but they are regretfully refused by him, due to the way she had departed. Desperate, she takes employment at a local gambling hall, run by Royal Montague, who also has personal designs on Dixiana. As part of his plan, he intends to financially ruin Carl and his family and use Dixiana to accomplish that purpose. Things come to a head when Dixiana is crowned queen of the Mardi Gras. When Montague absconds with her, Carl challenges him to a duel, but, when a disguised Dixiana shows up in his stead, she tricks Montague into revealing his nefarious plans. Carl and Dixiana are reunited. 

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Joe Palooka (Stuart Erwin) is a naive young man whose father Pete (Robert Armstrong) was a champion boxer, but his lifestyle caused Joe's mother Mayme (Marjorie Rambeau) to leave him and to take young Joe to the country to raise him. But when a shady boxing manager (Jimmy Durante) discovers Joe's natural boxing talent, Joe decides to follow him to the big city, where he becomes a champion and begins to follow his father's path of debauchery, much of it including the glamorous cabaret singer and fortune hunter Nina Madero (Lupe Vélez). The film also stars William Cagney, the younger brother of actor James Cagney in the role of the adversary prize fighter to Knobby. Finally his mother comes to the city to look after things ... 

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On New Year's Eve morning, 1999, in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., a killer referred to as 'the Digger' guns down tens of innocent people at the metro station. A man, Gilbert Havel, sends a letter to the Mayor Gerald Kennedy demanding twenty million dollars cash to be dropped off at a park near Interstate 66 in bags. The letter goes on to explain that if his demands are not met the Digger will continue to strike at secret locations – at 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and at Midnight. Kennedy decides to deliver the money to the extortionist to ensure no more innocents are harmed and to make sure the town doesn't lose faith in the Mayor as election time is nearing. Agent Margret Lukas, the agent responsible for the case, wants to either put tracking on the bags, or take the extortionist down when he comes for the money. However, Havel is killed in a hit-and-run incident before he can make it to the drop-off point. All that Agent Margret has now is a letter, a dead body, and the knowledge that since the Digger had not been called off he will continue to carry on the remaining attacks. Assisting her in the investigation are officer Len Hardy and Detective Cage. At his home, retired FBI Document Examiner Parker Kincaid is spending time with his daughter and son and studying a letter that was supposedly written by late President Thomas Jefferson. It is when he is debating the authenticity of the letter that his ex-wife, Joan, comes and tells him that she wants the custody of their children. To Parker's dismay Joan's social worker will be at his house the next day. Parker receives an unwanted call from Cage, an old friend, and Cage tells Parker that he needs Parker's help with a letter based on the subway shootings. Sensing this as a bad idea because of his children, Parker declines. After some time pondering about the shooting and all the innocent children like his own that had died and ensuring his son Robby that 'the Boatman' (a suspect from Parker's past case that tried to break in Robby's window) won't show up, Parker shows up under Lukas' investigation site. Parker studies the letter and concludes that although the writer seems dumb or foreign by the mistakes he makes, that it is on purpose and the extortionist is actually intellectual. He also makes note of a strange stroke done over the letter 'i' which he dubs the 'Devil's Teardrop'. In scans conducted by Hardy and Parker there is an imprint on letter caused by being under another piece of paper. The imprint has '-tel' which the team concludes that the second attack site must be a hotel. 

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The plot involves a young woman (Mary Eaton) who wants to be in the Follies, but in the meantime is making ends meet by working at a department store's sheet music department, where she sings the latest hits. She is accompanied on piano by her childhood boyfriend (Edward Crandall), who is in love with her, despite her single-minded interest in her career. When a vaudeville performer (Dan Healy) asks her to join him as his new partner, she sees it as an opportunity to make her dream come true. Upon arriving in New York City, our heroine finds out that her new partner is only interested in sleeping with her and makes this a condition of making her a star. Soon, however, she is discovered by a representative of Ziegfeld. 

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The novel is narrated by Nathanial Delaney, a teenage boy with a self-confessed Hamlet complex and social ineptitude, which can be credited to his lack of a stable environment; he and his mother have been moving frequently since the divorce of his parents. Their most recent home is the seaside town of Cheshunt, an apparently quiet community that Nathanial immediately dislikes, citing the town's bitter wind and abattoir stench as the primary reasons. His resentment causes tension between him and his mother, and their relationship becomes more strained as the story goes on. Many themes are portrayed in this novel including good vs evil, inner struggle, human nature, conformity vs individuality, friendship and cooperation. Nathanial soon discovers that there is more to dislike about the town than the smell. The school, Three North High, is victimised by its brutish student patrol, which is under the orders of the vice principal. Mr Karle "invites" Nathanial to join the school's youth group, The Gathering. He believes strongly in cooperation, and hence does not encourage individualism. Nathanial declines to join The Gathering, which becomes an issue with the school patrol. While walking his dog one night, Nathanial accidentally stumbles on a meeting of a group of three students from Three North: Danny Odin, Indian Mahoney and Nissa Jerome. A fourth member is not present, a school prefect, Seth Paul. The group are known as The Chain, and they tell Nathanial they have been brought together by the "forces of light" to fight a deep evil in Cheshunt, an evil headed by Mr Karle (whom they refer to as "The Kraken"). When Nathanial is caught and questioned by The Chain, they are all informed by the group's prophetic guide, Lallie, that Nathanial is the final of the chosen members of their clan and his arrival heralds the beginning of their battle. Throughout the novel Nathanial overcomes his cynicism and begins seeing signs of The Dark everywhere, most centrally in the past; in studying the history of Cheshunt he uncovers many parallels between his situation and past events. Throughout the story he also gradually learns that each of his fellow members have deep personal demons, and his role in The Chain and the Binding of the Dark becomes clear in the final chapters, where the grand showdown between The Dark and The Light takes place. 

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Along the four seasons the Mexican audience knew about Tito Sánchez and his family, a very traditional Mexican family that suddenly becomes rich, when Mercedes Lozada, one of the richest women of Mexico, meets Tito Sánchez when she's trying to commit suicide and he saves her life, she is sick (cancer) and she's gonna die soon, so she thanks him and names him as the President of her company Lozada Corporation. Sánchez lives with his sister in law, Yoli (Martha Mariana Castro) who is deeply in love with him but she's kept that as secret for so many years. Yoli's sister, so Tito's wife, died 6 years ago so Yoli helps Tito with his children: Leo, Hilda, María and Maxi and treats them as if they were her own kids. Tito also lives with his brother Raúl (better known as Laisa Libertad) who is homosexual and is always dressed as a woman, he also acts that way. 

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The original Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt regular cast. Left to right from top row: Maurice (Robert Keegan), Selwyn (Bill Maynard), Mrs Froggitt (Megs Jenkins), Ray (Ray Mort), Clive (Richard Davies), Jack (Bill Dean) and Harry (Harold Goodwin). Set in the fictional Yorkshire town Scarsdale, the first three series centred on the bungling exploits of Selwyn Froggitt, a burly, balding, good-natured council labourer usually clad in a donkey jacket. Bill Maynard described Froggitt as "this naïve boy who never grew up". He has pretensions to intellectual competence (he carries The Times though is hardly ever seen reading it, preferring to tell people that "There was an article about it in The Times") and an urge to improve his life and that of everyone around him. Maynard took inspiration for his performance from Bottom, a comic character from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Froggitt lives with his mother (Megs Jenkins) and his brother Maurice (Robert Keegan). Maurice's girlfriend, Vera Parkinson, was played by Rosemary Martin in the first series. In the second and third series (during which Maurice and Vera marry), Vera was played by Lynda Baron. A running gag is Froggitt's mother saying "Don't open that cupboard our Selwyn, things fall out!" whenever he opens the cupboard in the Froggitt front room upon which objects would fall onto the floor. Froggitt is on the committee of his local working men's club, serving as concert secretary in charge of booking "turns". Froggitt's colleagues on the committee are the dour Scouser Jack (Bill Dean), Harry (Harold Goodwin) and excitable, stereotypical Welshman Clive (Richard Davies). All decisions taken by the club committee are taken on a "Show of hands..." and "Carried unanimously". In keeping with the A Midsummer Night's Dream characterisations, Maynard saw the committee as the mechanicals. Froggitt is incompetent at everything he turns his hand to, being equally inept at his day job (digging holes and filling them in), do-it-yourself at home, and booking acts for the club. Nevertheless, he is honest and hard-working, unlike the other committee members, who usually sit back in comfort while Froggitt does the manual labour. They generally tolerate him because he is prepared to volunteer for unwanted tasks. Barman at the club is Raymond (Ray Mort), often seen answering the telephone with a number of highly fictitious and fanciful addresses. The show's humour included a fair measure of slapstick alongside Plater's typical northern humour. It was mainly shot at Yorkshire Television Studios on Kirkstall Road, Leeds, whilst outdoor location filming for the series took place in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire and Elvington, North Yorkshire. The series was a ratings success, reaching peak viewing figures of 29 million. Between the second and third series, Bill Maynard suffered a slipped disc and used a wheelchair. He recovered sufficiently in time for the commencement of filming of the third series on 5 September 1977. Alan Plater would later say that Maynard had "a constitutional resistance to learning the script". In the fourth (and final) series, the format of the show changed radically. This version of the series was entitled Selwyn; all of the regular cast from the first three series (bar Maynard) left the show, to focus on and pursue other TV work. The Froggitt character became entertainments manager at a seedy holiday camp on the east coast. Plater was no longer involved with the series, but with disappointing audience reactions a planned fifth series was cancelled. 

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Following the end of the situation comedy (Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!), Maynard's next character couldn't have been more different from the bumbling Selwyn Froggitt. Fred Moffatt is a survivor – just. Bearded, wearing a battered hat and a crumpled suit, his Rover P6 a rusting wreck, he runs a struggling engineering firm and is constantly trying to avoid his creditors, the tax man, the bank manager, and indeed anyone who might want him to pay for something. The series' background accurately reflected the precarious condition of many small businesses of the era and added a dark undercurrent to the situation comedy. Unlike the physical comedy of Selwyn Froggitt, the scripts for The Gaffer were wordy and sardonic and the plots relatively complex, with Fred Moffatt usually managing to outwit at least some of the people who were chasing him for money. The cast included Russell Hunter as the radical union shop steward whose interest was in parting Moffatt from as much money as possible to better pay his members, and Pat Ashton as his ineffectual secretary Betty. 

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School Days focuses on the life of Makoto Itou, a first-year high school student living with his divorced and unseen mother in the fictional city of Haramihama. During his second term, he becomes infatuated with Kotonoha Katsura, a soft-spoken schoolmate who shares train rides with him to and from campus. When the classroom seating plan of his class is rearranged, he becomes acquaintances with Sekai Saionji, an upbeat girl who takes a special interest in his newfound crush, befriending the two and providing them the grounds to meet. Despite her triumphant efforts, however, Sekai becomes jealous of the new couple, having developed feelings for Makoto herself. 

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Rook Barkwater lives in the network of sewer- chambers beneath Undertown, in which a society of librarians has established itself, secretly opposing the cruel Guardians of Night. Rook, a lowly under- librarian, dreams of becoming a librarian knight—one of the select few to travel into the Deepwoods and gather information which may lead to the discovery of the cure to stone-sickness (an affliction which has destroyed the buoyant rocks, making skysailing impossible). Rook does not expect his dreams ever to come true—his best friend, Felix Lodd, seems a much more likely candidate—but, to everyone's surprise, Rook is chosen to be a knight, along with Stob Lummus and Magda Burlix. Rook, Magda and Stob make their way along the Great Mire Road, a shryke-controlled bridge that has been built to traverse the marshy Mire in place of sky ships. While on the way, Rook helps an imprisoned sky pirate, Deadbolt Vulpoon, to escape. Finally, the librarian knights arrive in the Eastern Roost, a large shryke-city. Employing the help of a male shryke, Hekkle, who is friendly to the librarians, the three make their way across the Deepwoods, eventually arriving at the Free Glades. After arriving there, Rook, Stob and Magda are joined by Xanth Filatine, a disguised Guardian of Night who is secretly channelling information to the Guardians so that they may ambush the librarian knights as they travel. During Rook's studies, he learns to create a skycraft, which is a small, flying one-person vehicle. Xanth breaks his leg in a skycraft accident, and cannot embark upon his treatise-voyage, the journey for which the knights have been studying. Rook also makes a raid on the Foundry Glade, along with Felix Lodd's sister Varis Lodd (who saved Rook from slavers when he was very young) and the slaughterer Knuckle. The purpose of this raid is to free the banderbear slaves that are kept there. During this raid, Rook takes a poisoned arrow to the chest to save a banderbear's life. Rook embarks on his treatise-voyage. His goal is to find the Great Convocation of Banderbears. Rook befriends a young banderbear named Wumeru, and he follows her, against her will, to the Convocation. The banderbears discover his presence and are about to kill him when the banderbear who Rook saved in the Foundry Glade stands up for him. Rook is then introduced to Twig, the main character and sky pirate from the second Edge Chronicles trilogy, now an old man. Twig reveals that his sky ship, the Skyraider, has not yet succumbed to stone-sickness. Along with a crew of banderbears, the two set out to attack the fortress of the Guardians of Night: the Tower of the same name. Their purpose is to free Cowlquape Pentephraxis, an old friend of Twig's. While Twig and the Skyraider keep the Guardians busy, Rook sneaks into the tower on his skycraft and frees Cowlquape. As he is about to fly free, a rope becomes snagged and the skycraft is stuck. Xanth, the traitor, confronts Rook. The two had become good friends during their time together in the Free Glades, a fact that Xanth apparently had not forgotten. Xanth cuts the rope quickly, allowing Rook to fly away safely with Cowlquape. The Skyraider, meanwhile, had succumbed to stone- sickness, and was slowly dropping over the Edge. Rook and Cowlquape mourn the end of Twig, who had been struck by the crossbow-bolt of the chief guardian of night, Orbix Xaxis and had decided to go down with his ship. However, at the last minute, Twig's caterbird, who had sworn to watch over him for always, catches him and flies towards the rejuvenating waters of Riverrise. Whether they make it in time is left as a cliffhanger. 

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Number Six is persuaded to run for election to the post of Number Two when it is suggested to him by the new incumbent that, should he win, he will finally meet Number One. Number Fifty-Eight, a newly arrived young woman who speaks only an unidentified Slavic-sounding foreign language (really "a meaningless linguistic pastiche specially invented by the scriptwriters") is assigned to Number Six as his assistant. Both men campaign for the office, with Number Six subversively offering freedom if he is elected. Number Six participates ambivalently, but abruptly makes a break for freedom himself in the midst of the campaign by escaping in a motorboat. He is retrieved on the water by Rover while he robotically mouths campaign platitudes. Number Six and Number Two drink and commiserate in a cave where illegal liquor is distilled and Number Two confesses that he detests The Village. Number Six is again repeatedly drugged and coerced into accepting the campaign, and wins the election when virtually all the robotic "citizens" vote for him. As he and Number Fifty- Eight go to the Green Dome to take command of the Village, she agitates him by playing with the buttons on the control panel before brutally slapping him and stunning him with bright lighting. As Number Six becomes somewhat more lucid and attempts to broadcast to the Villagers that they are free to go, he is beaten by a group of mechanics in coveralls, and Number Fifty-Eight, now speaking perfect English, reveals herself as the real incoming Number Two, while the previous Number Two prepares to head out. She asks her departing predecessor to give her regards to "the homeland". 

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Shaggy discovers that his uncle Colonel Beauregard has died and left him his country estate, which is on a plantation. After being chased away by a ghost witch, Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy head for the estate in order to claim Shaggy's inheritance. Before they can get there, they meet Sheriff Rufus Buzby, who warns them about the whole estate being haunted and that they should leave. Before he can fully convince them, he receives a call from the mayor, notifying him that a circus train has derailed and a circus ape has escaped. Leaving Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy, they continue driving, but upon their arrival they are pursued by a headless horseman, a ghost wolf, and by the alleged ghost of the Colonel who taunts them, telling them to leave or else they will face the consequences. They also meet the creepy manservant Farquard who tells them that a vast fortune in jewels is hidden somewhere on the estate, which he believes is rightfully his and that Shaggy has no business there. Initially, Shaggy wants to leave, but before they can do that, his truck sinks into quicksand, forcing him, Scooby and Scrappy to spend the night there. With ghosts haunting the place, Scrappy has the idea to call a group of ghost exterminators called The Boo Brothers. To the guys' surprise, the exterminators themselves are ghosts, who proceed to hunt down the ghosts that are haunting the estate, with little success. On top of all, Shaggy meets Sadie Mae Scroggins and her shotgun totting older brother Billy Bob Scroggins whose family has an old feud with the colonel. After knowing that Shaggy is related to the colonel, Sadie falls in love with him and Billy Bob wants to shoot him. After things calm down a little, Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy decide to go to the kitchen to eat something, only to find proof that the famous fortune in jewels is real, when they find a diamond with a clue to a treasure hunt. Intrigued by that very first clue, the gang decides to hunt down the rest of the jewels much to Farquard's chagrin and Sheriff Buzby, who is on the trail of an escaped circus ape, and is skeptical about the jewels' existence. They follow the trail through a number of clues that the Colonel has hidden for them, which takes them to several different points in the mansion and also in the rest of the plantation. As they progress in their treasure hunt, things become harder, with numerous ghosts appearing, including the Ghost of Colonel Beauregard, the Headless Horseman, and the Skull Ghost. To make matters worse, they also have to deal with Billy Bob Scroggins and his sister Sadie Mae, and the escaped Ape, who keep showing up. On top of that, the Boo Brothers reveal themselves incapable of getting rid of any ghost, only causing more mayhem whenever they try to help. After much treasure hunting, they finally find the last clue, revealing that the treasure is hidden in the mansion's fireplace, much to the happiness of the Skull Ghost, who holds the gang at gun point, and tries to claim it for himself. After catching him, they find out that the person behind the Skull Ghost is the Sheriff. As they unmask the ghost, the real Sheriff comes in, revealing that the Skull Ghost is actually his greedy twin brother, T.J. Buzby impersonating him, as well as the remaining ghosts that were haunting the place. With the treasure found, Shaggy is taken by the Boo Brothers' story that they need a home to haunt, so he turns the mansion over to them and the treasure is put into the Beauregard Trust Fund for Orphans. Saying their goodbyes, Shaggy and the dogs drive back home. Along the way, they encounter once more the ghost of Colonel Beauregard, which Shaggy thinks is another prank of Scooby's, until he realizes it's real, and speeds away as fast as possible. 

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15-year-old Neil Miller is orphaned following a car accident and goes to live with his grandparents in Winchelsea, England. Neil suffers post traumatic stress from the car accident and stays detached from his peers despite their occasional attempts to involve him. News travels of a new disease, called the Calcutta Plague due to its origin, which accelerates the aging process in human beings. The plague appears to be uniformly fatal, and although initially only affects those of already advanced years (claiming an old teacher at his school and both his grandparents), it quickly progresses until it takes the life of a 2-year-old girl (Susie) who Neil finds and attempts to look after. During this time Neil notes that he has contracted the plague, but after a brief fever it leaves him unaffected. The death of the girl (and earlier her 6-year-old brother, Tommy) leaves Neil the sole survivor of Winchelsea, and after deciding that Winchelsea is becoming dangerous - due in part to packs of wild dogs - he leaves for London, taking first a manual Mini which he has difficulty driving, followed by an automatic Jaguar. Arriving in London he meets his first fellow survivor - the mentally unbalanced Clive, who although friendly towards Neil, during the night vandalizes his car to the point of destroying it, steals his mother's ring that Neil had kept which was the only memory of his mother he had visibly, and then abandons him in central London. After finding the body of another survivor, Peter, who had committed suicide only hours before Neil found him, he is again despondent, but finds evidence of other survivors which brings him into contact with Billie and Lucy. Billie is openly hostile towards Neil, and it is implied that she has suffered in some way either during the plague or directly after it, but Neil becomes friends with Lucy and starts a romantic relationship with her - much to Billie's disgust. During this time Neil notes that the dogs have been supplanted by even more dangerous rats, and at least one big cat has escaped from a local zoo and although unseen is heard outside their flat. To this end Neil arms himself with a pistol and ammunition taken from a sporting goods shop. Billie and Neil continue to argue over an unspecified period of time, with Lucy gradually taking Neil's side in arguments, until eventually during a foraging expedition Billie attempts to kill Neil by stabbing him in the back with a kitchen knife. The attack is shown to be premeditated as when Neil tries to defend himself with the gun he finds that it has been unloaded. Neil is injured, but overpowers Billie and returns to Lucy, where they lock Billie out and decide to move on to a previously discussed farmhouse. Billie arrives back at the house and pleads with both Lucy and Neil to let her back in, but they decide that they could never trust her again, and leave her outside. In the last paragraph of the book Neil abruptly changes his mind, feeling that he would never get over the guilt of leaving Billie to die, and with Lucy goes downstairs to open the door and let her back inside. 

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The novel describes the changes in the relations of the four characters: Bunzo, Omasa, Osei and Noboru. Bunzo, a 23-year-old man is fired from his job as a government official. Omasa, with whom Bunzo has been living since his fifteenth, blames him for this. She is disappointed that her plans to let her daughter, Osei, to marry him won't go through. She states the venturous and dynamic Noboru, friend and colleague of Bunzo, as an example. Noboru's ambition attracts both Omasa and Osei, and Bunzo starts to regard him as an enemy. Noboru then offers to use his influence on Bunzo's boss to persuade him to reemploy Bunzo. He, however, regards this as an insult to his honour, and has to contain himself to keep from hitting Noboru in the face. Reflecting upon this incident, Bunzo realises he has to undertake action, a deed that would prove his decisiveness and courage to restore Osei's faith in him. Fruitlessly contemplating this for a while, he realises that he lacks decisiveness and returns home, angry with Noboru, and commands him to leave the house. Bunzo's inconsiderate actions only lead to a further distancing between him and Osei, who now has feelings for Noboru. Bunzo retreats humiliated and realises he is responsible for all this. Fallen out of favor with both Noboru and Osei, Bunzo considers leaving the house. However, he changes his mind and decides to stay, in an attempt to 'save' Osei from Noboru. Eventually, Osei starts getting alienated from Noboru, and smiling again at Bunzo. The novel ends abruptly with Bunzo waiting in his room for Osei to return from her bath, determined to take his last chance with her.Vande Walle, W. Japanese Literature since the Meiji Period (Dutch). 2012. 

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In the opening cinematic of Iridion 3D Earth is attacked without warning by the Iridion, who take over much of the surface and lay mines in orbit and bombs in the Pacific Ocean. The player is the pilot of an experimental SHN fighter, the last hope for defending Earth from the Iridion. The player pilots his ship alone against hordes of Iridion fighters and natural obstacles. The early stages begin on Earth, with the player fighting through an Iridion garbage tunnel. The player proceeds to the Pacific Ocean and destroys much of the Iridion invasion fleet on Earth before heading into the stratosphere to destroy the orbital blockade around Earth and subsequently annihilating the Iridion boss at the Moon. With the invasion fleet in ruins, the player heads into the far reaches of space. After destroying an Iridion mining colony within an asteroid belt, the player proceeds into the Iridion home system. Eventually the player fights the Iridion on their home world, destroying the Iridion "mainframe" and ending the alien threat forever. 

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The story takes place towards the end of the 19th century in Bengal. Bhubaneswar Chowdhury (Jackie Shroff) is a rich and oppressive Zamindar (Landlord). He is planning to please the British so that they bestow on him the Raibahadur title. There are quite a few contenders and so something unique has to be done, so he decides to put Queen Victoria's face on the body of the Goddess Durga whose clay idol is made every year for Durga Pooja. On the other hand, he also wants an heir and since he blames the failure on his elder wife Mahamaya (Roopa Ganguly) he marries again, the much younger Jashomati (Soha Ali Khan). Both these wives compete against each other in an ego struggle. In his pursuit for a son, Bhubaneswar tries everything from trying to force himself on Jashomati while a priest reads hymns for conception near the bed, ordering Mahamaya, in a drugged state, to fulfill the carnal desires of five sexually deprived Brahmin priests. Although she luckily escapes the fate due to the untimely ending, Jashomati, while in her traumatised and lonely state, gets physically drawn towards a young sculptor (Abhishek Bachchan). It's in this centre of all this that the sculptor makes his masterpiece, his tribute, and seals Jashomati's ultimate fate. the script is based on protima a masterpiece of Tarashankar bandopadhyay. 

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Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez) has gone to Mexico to scatter the ashes of her dead sister. There, she is picked up by bank-robbing drug dealer Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem). Dolorosa had robbed the bank to pay off his debt to loan shark "Catalina" (Demián Bichir). He also engages in scams in which pretends to be a Santeria priest and hacks up corpses while snorting cocaine. Romeo's latest scam is working for gangster Mr. Santos (Don Stroud) transporting refrigerated human fetuses to Las Vegas where they will be used to make cosmetic moisturizer. Perdita devises a plan that they should capture a gringo and eat him as part of Romeo's ceremonies. They kidnap randomly chosen geeky college student Dwayne (Harley Cross) and his girlfriend Estelle (Aimee Graham). First, Perdita rapes Dwayne while Romeo rapes Estelle. They hold a ceremony to sacrifice Estelle while they force Dwayne to watch. Before the girl can be killed the sacrifice is interrupted by a gang of men led by Shorty Dee (Santiago Segura), a betrayed former partner of Romeo. Romeo and Perdita escape with Dwayne and Estelle still their captives. The four go to the meeting with Santos' people to pick up the truckload of fetuses. Unfortunately, the hand-off is interrupted by drug enforcement agent Woody Dumas (James Gandolfini). Santos' men are all killed. Romeo escapes and drives to Vegas with Dwayne, while Perdita follows with Estelle. On the trip, Romeo finds out his grandmother's house was raided by some of Catalina's men as punishment for Romeo's unpaid debt. Romeo visits Catalina in a club, pretending to offer Estelle as payment. When he gets Catalina alone, Romeo kills him. Romeo, Perdita, Dwayne and Estelle finally get to Vegas. However, Dumas has been following them all the way. Moreover, the drop has become a trap for Romeo; Santos is upset about all the deaths at the pick-up so he has hired Romeo's cousin Reggie (Carlos Bardem) to kill Romeo. Romeo and his one- armed ex-marine buddy Doug go to the drop, tipped off about the double-cross. Romeo leaves Perdita to watch the hostages, but Perdita's nervousness overcomes her. She lets Estelle and Dwayne go so she can check on her lover. Reggie kills Doug and Perdita arrives just in time to see Reggie shoot Romeo in the back, killing him. Perdita shoots and kills Reggie and then flees as the cops bust in, led by Dumas, intending to arrest the men but instead finding them all dead. Alone now, Perdita walks the Las Vegas strip mourning Romeo. 

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Jeffrey/Ganesh (Ryan Reynolds) has been raised with the ideals of social activism as part of his everyday life. His father spends the better part of their lives fighting for social justice in India. After his father dies, being only fifteen years old, Jeffrey is sent to a small town in Ontario to live with his aunt Charlotte (Glenne Headly). Through several comedic situations and with considerable effort, he manages to make friends and fit into his new, much smaller world of his. However, when his aunt receives an unfair eviction notice from her sleazy landlord (Paul Anka), every bit of his background and training comes into play, as he works with her to put on a well-publicized hunger strike, or Satyagraha, which wins the admiration of the local citizens. 

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The novel is set in northeastern Indiana. Most of the action takes place either in or around the Limberlost, or in the nearby, fictional town of Onabasha. The novel's main character, Elnora Comstock, is an impoverished young woman who lives with her widowed mother, Katharine Comstock, on the edge of the Limberlost. Elnora faces cold neglect by her mother, a woman who feels ruined by the death of her husband, Robert Comstock, who drowned in quicksand in the swamp. Katharine blames Elnora for his death, because her husband died while she gave birth to their daughter and could not come to his rescue. The Comstocks make money by selling eggs and other farm products, but Mrs. Comstock refuses to cut down a single tree in the forest, or to delve for oil, as the neighbors around them are doing, even though the added income would make their lives easier. 

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A cricket match ends in a player (Colonel Hawke-Englishe) being assassinated with a bomb disguised as a cricket ball. Number Six is on an operational assignment, but it is unclear whether this is "real time", pre-The Village, or possibly another induced hallucination. Secret messages are passed to him at a shoeshine box. In a record shop, he receives an assignment to find a Professor Schnipps who has been working on a rocket that will destroy all of London. It turns out that Colonel Hawke-Englishe was investigating the matter, which is why he was assassinated. He picks up where Colonel Hawke-Englishe left off in another match, but manages to avoid the same fate. He finds a note to meet a mysterious person at the local pub; while there, he drinks from a glass that says You have just been poisoned. He then starts to drink numerous spirits to try and vomit out the poison. When he goes to the restroom, he gets another message to meet at the Turkish bath. While he is relaxing, a mysterious figure places a plastic dome over his head and locks his stall. Avoiding death, he now gets another message to go to the carnival, to the local fight. Number Six dresses up in a Sherlock Holmes costume with deerstalker hat and cape, with moustache and mutton chop sideburns. At the fight, he is picked for the next match and told by his opponent to go to the tunnel of love. He then hears the voice of a woman, which is a recording in his boat that is rigged with explosives. He tracks down, and is tracked by, a seductive woman called Sonia, alias "Death". She leaves the amusement park with Number Six in pursuit. They come to an abandoned village, where Sonia has set traps. He successfully evades all of them, goes into a shed to avoid being shot, and rides a bulldozer. Sonia destroys it with a rocket launcher and departs. Eventually, after faking his death, Number Six tracks Sonia to a lighthouse where Schnipps (dressed as Napoleon) and his associates are based. His lieutenants are dressed in Grande Armée uniforms and represent an apparently anti-London alliance composed of Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and Northern (particularly Yorkshire) marshals. Number Six sabotages their firearms and hand grenades, rigging them to backfire or malfunction. Captured, Number Six is tied up and left inside the lighthouse, which is revealed to be the rocket. As it is about to launch, he escapes and the rocket blows up without launching, killing his adversaries. In the end, it turns out that the adventure was nothing but a bedtime story which Number Six was telling to some children in the Village nursery. Number Two (who looks like Schnipps) and his assistant (who looks like Sonia) were hoping that he would drop his guard and allow some clue as to why he resigned. But Number Six, after putting the children to bed, turns to the hidden camera and cheekily wishes: "Good night, children... everywhere." 

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On an otherwise ordinary day in Los Angeles, air traffic controllers in contact with American Airlines Flight 117 have the flight appear on a radar screen. The air traffic controllers instruct the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airliner to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. The flight crew responds by saying that it is unable to maintain altitude, and begin an emergency descent. Meanwhile, during a traffic report, a man is driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee down a mysteriously empty stretch of I-405 as a two-mile stretch was shut down to be used as the airliner's emergency landing strip. Soon, AA Flight 117 appears on its final landing approach while the driver of the Jeep attempts to outrun the incoming DC-10. During touchdown, the airliner's nose gear collides with the back of the Jeep with the nose gear collapsing, and the fuselage slamming onto the Jeep's roof. The two vehicles are locked together, pushing the Jeep to a much higher speed. The driver tries to slow the careening aircraft but in the process of slowing down, the DC-10 and the man's car narrowly miss an elderly woman driving slowly in her Lincoln Continental. While sliding to a stop, the massive airliner's wheels miss the Lincoln Continental, with the wing of the aircraft passing overhead. The incident ends with police cars arriving; at that point, the elderly woman drives slowly past, extending her middle finger at the Jeep's driver. 

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Ayaka Kisaragi is a beautiful woman descended from a long line of Japanese exorcists. However, bored with their traditions, she started her own business, Phantom Quest Corp. The headquarters of the company is Ayaka's quaint little family home, nestled between the skyscrapers of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Along with the traditional knowledge she possesses, Ayaka also uses very unconventional weapons while attacking ghosts and demons, including a lipstick case that turns into a laser sword and earrings that explode into spiritual energy. Although she is very competent with her skills, Ayaka's own bad habits (overindulgence in sake, karaoke, and shopping binges) often cut into the company's meager earnings and interfere with paying the various experts whose help she usually depends upon. Also, because of her drinking, she often sleeps in bed late, which her partner and business associate Mamoru Shimesu has to find creative ways of waking her up. Along the way, and with a little help from various spiritual specialists, Ayaka can usually be found battling vampires, poltergeists, and cutthroat competitors bent on driving her out of business. 

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Two best friends, Johanna and Jeanne, live in the small town of Decazeville, a mining town in France. One year at the Miners' Ball, the music group The Sirens perform, of which Johanna and Jeanne are members. In a spontaneous moment, a new friend of Johanna's (named Luc) discovers Johanna and Jeanne's incredible musical talent and singing ability when they sing a duet together without musical accompaniment. The two girls begin practicing and recording in a studio together with the help of Luc and an arranger, Jasper, and finally manage to record a tape with a few songs. A co-worker of Jeanne's joins their team as Jasper's assistant. Just after Luc leaves for Paris to take the tape around to various record companies, the others spot posters for a music contest, but only single artists may enter, and Johanna is chosen by the group to enter. She appears on live TV and is an instant hit, but with only one problem: as she begins to perform before the cameras, Jasper cuts out her mike and inserts a recording of Jeanne's voice instead. Everyone except for this small group of insiders believes it's really Johanna singing, and their lives snowball from there. 

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In the game, a global culinary conglomerate, Omnifood, controls over 60% of the world's restaurants and is rapidly growing. The player must compete against Omnifood. The player takes the role of Armand LeBeouf, a recent graduate from a French culinary school given the opportunity by his uncle to run his own restaurant. Later, the player is given the opportunity to attract investment capital and open more restaurants. 

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Waters focuses on seven young, attractive men in need of money, who audition for host positions at a bar called Dog Days. However, "hosts" at the bar have the job of entertaining female customers by flirting with them in hopes that they spend more money on alcohol. Each host came from a different background, including a street performer and a banker. The drama in the film begins when they discover the bar's manager has stolen several of their deposits. Not wanting to see the men fail, the bar's owner gives up the bar to the men, so they are able to open their own "host club." The bar owner's granddaughter, played by Riko Narumi, help the men get started and teaches them how to properly run a business. 

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The novel begins by showing the state of play in Undertown. The usurper Vox Verlix is now trapped in the Palace of Statues having lost control over all his grand projects. The Guardians of Night took over the Tower of Night when they drove him out, the Shrykes seized the Great Mire Road, and the goblins Vox hired to enslave Undertowners and build the Sanctaphrax Forest cut the Most High Academe out of the loop. Vox was left as nothing more than a puppet used by General Tytugg of Undertown to keep the Shrykes at bay. The situation also appears to be coming to a head. The Shrykes are massing for war. The goblins in Undertown seem much more aggressive, with numerous assassins sent to kill Vox, who is now too obese to leave his Palace of Statues. To cap all this, strange sightings are being reported by Librarian Knights on patrol; demonic creatures are seen emerging from a former Undertown district named Screetown, a rubble wasteland. This is revealed to be down to the work of the Most High Guardian of Night, Orbix Xaxis, who is having his executioner Mollus Leddix feed captured librarians to rock demons. Rook Barkwater is on patrol duty, noting the sweltering weather, when he is struck by a fireball and sent hurtling to earth. He awakens, battered and bruised, to find his skycraft the Stormhornet broken beyond repair. Rook hopelessly traverses Screetown, pursued by predators, one of which, a Rubble-ghoul, almost kills him, until he is rescued by his old friend Felix Lodd, Varis' brother, whom Rook and all the other librarians believed to be dead in Screetown, as rumour had it nobody could survive there. Felix takes Rook back to his hideout for the night, having formed a gang called "the Ghosts of Screetown", who trap and hunt whilst attempting to free as many as Sanctaphrax Forest slaves as they can. Rook journeys through Undertown after bidding farewell to Felix, seeking a way back to the sewers, only to be caught by goblins. Rook is put up for auction in the slavesale, but escapes being sold into the Sanctaphrax Forest and is taken to the Palace of Statues instead. There, he meets Hesteria Spikesap, an old potioneer, along with Speegspeel, an ancient goblin butler, paranoid that the statues in the palace are trying to kill him. Rook is almost brainwashed by Vox's advisor, an amoral ghost-waif named Amberfuce, but he resists and keeps his identity. Rook the bizarre task of"feeding the baby," a gigantic cog-wheel system filled with volatile phraxdust. After Rook foils a goblin assassination on Vox, Cowlquape, former Most High Academe of New Sanctaphrax before Vox's coup, arrives at the Palace as an envoy for the Librarians. After trading blows over how Cowlquape's vision for unity amongst all never came to pass, Vox explains his reason for summoning the librarians: a dark maelstrom is mere days away, and its strike will wipe out Undertown and any who remain. Vox advises that all evacuate the sewers and flee down the Great Mire Road for the Free Glades, and asks for help in escaping the Palace. Vox also offers a plan to dispose of their enemies: by luring the shyrkes and goblins into the sewers with the promise of helpless librarians, the Great Mire Road will be left unguarded. Rook and a brainwashed goblin assassins are sent to the shyrke and goblin armies, offering the means to infiltrate the sewers, so both armies are set to meet there in two days time at the eleventh hour. The Librarians work fervently to build ships and rafts and evacuate just in time. Alquix Venvax, an ancient professor, unwilling to leave the library that has been his home for most of his life, remains behind. The librarians also send Rook's four banderbear friends to the Palace of Statues, to help Vox escape the Palace. Meanwhile, Magda Burlix, looking for Rook in Screetown since he crashed, is captured by Guardians of Night. Xanth Filatine, who acted as a spy in the Free Glades at the time Magda learnt her craft, finds himself as her interrogator. He soon repents all his evil and saves her from his masters, also stealing an essential component for Midnight's Spike – an electrical conductor atop the Tower of Night for the curing of stone sickness (It is the Guardians of Nights belief unfounded by science that lightning will end stone sickness). Their first escape ends with their capture. As they are lowered to their supposed execution, Xaxis reveals his plan: he has had a tunnel dug into the sewers, where Magda and Xanth will be pursued by the Rock Demons, who will devour the Librarians. Xanth and Magda manage to stay ahead of the beasts and meet Venvax in the library, bidding him farewell when they realise he will not leave. As the goblin and shryke armies enter the sewers to kill the librarians, Venvax sacrifices his life to let Xanth and Magda escape the goblins. The shyrkes soon engage Tytugg's forces in battle, causing huge carnage. However, the Rock Demons then arrive and proceed to slaughter both sides – any who survive are wiped out in the flood. On board the barges, Rook and Cowlquape realise the purpose of Vox's baby; Vox did not predict the maelstrom, for the sphere of phraxdust will be volatile enough to trigger such an event if it is fired into the sky (a previous attempt caused Rook to crash the Stormhornet). They also realise that, with his escape now assured, there is nothing to stop Vox triggering the storm at any hour he pleases. Rook desperately swims back to shore and climbs up the Palace of Statues to stop the maelstrom. He arrives in time to see the butler Speegspeel move to set off the storm an hour before Vox's 'prediction'. Rook fights and kills Speegspeel, but then releases the storm himself by unintentionally mixing his sweat with the phraxdust. The storm destroys Undertown and the Ghosts of Screetown evacuate all the inhabitants. As the storm reaches its peak, the Guardians of Night attempt to harness the lightning to cure the Sanctaphrax rock of Stone Sickness. However, Mollus Leddix discovers Xanth's theft of the deadbolt too late, and is unable to keep Midnight's Spike aloft. Orbix Xaxis throws Leddix to his death, and insanely attempts to act as a human conductor in the place of the spike. The lightning does indeed strike, but only obliterates the Tower of Night. Rook rejoins with the Librarians, and admits he set off the Storm, which could have been prevented. However, the Librarians forgive him, eager as they are to leave the sewers, and knowing that if Rook had not intervened, the storm would certainly have been triggered anyway. Finally Vox's bower appears. Sensing his thoughts being probed, Rook attacks it to find that the waif Amberfuce has betrayed Vox as well, leaving him to die in the Palace of Statues. The book ends with Vox trapped in the Palace of Statues with Hesteria Spikesap, realising the extent of Amberfuce's betrayal just as Spikesap kills him by force-feeding him Oblivion. Hesteria reveals she has an unhealthy love for her master, and cradles his dead body as the Palace begins to collapse. 

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Lynette is called to Parker's school, and she is horrified to learn the reason. According to his teacher, Parker offered a girl a cookie if she would let him look underneath her dress. Lynette then tries to explain the concept of "the birds and the bees" to Parker, complete with a "seed". After a day of babysitting Lynette's kids, Mrs. McCluskey tells Lynette that Parker asked her to show him her vagina, so that he could put a sunflower seed in there and see if a baby would grow. McCluskey advises Lynette to tell him that sex is dirty and shame him. Lynette refuses to do it initially. But then, when Lynette involuntarily shames him, she instantly finds a new obsession for Parker to fret over: a puppy. Bree's father and stepmother, Henry and Eleanor Mason, show up after Danielle calls them. Henry convinces the judge to postpone the hearing and then insists to Karl that they can solve this problem "in house". After a failed attempt or two at reconciliation between mother and son, Eleanor tells Bree that acting on Andrew's suggestion, she and Henry are taking Andrew with them to Rhode Island, because if he stays with Bree they would just keep on fighting. The next day, Bree watches as Andrew breaks the news to Justin and drives off. Justin is saddened to learn that Andrew is moving without telling him. So Bree talks to him and the two agree to devise a plan for making Andrew stay. When his grandparents are loading up Andrew's belongings, Bree brings an open box and puts it in Henry's view. Henry and Eleanor then go through the contents of the box and are shocked to find gay pornography. Changing their minds, they decide to leave Andrew with Bree as wells as revoking his trust fund. Andrew is angry when he learns this, but Bree softens the blow by telling him that she has invited Justin over for dinner. A judge grants temporary custody of Baby Lily to Gabrielle and Carlos, since the baby's birth father is currently on spring break and could not attend the court proceedings. Having to wake up night after night to tend to Lily, Gabrielle pleads with Xiao-Mei to take care of Lily, while she sleeps herself. Then she gives Xiao-Mei a gift certificate to her spa so that she can relax. One day, while Gabrielle is late for lunch with Bree, she hurries out and tells Xiao-Mei to watch over Lily. At the restaurant, Bree tells Gabrielle that she was at the spa and she saw Xiao-Mei there. Apparently, she was using the gift certificate that Gaby had given her. Terrified, Gabrielle speeds back home and vows never to leave Lily alone again. The drama between Susan, Karl and Mike continues. Karl is constantly showing affection towards Susan. Angry at this, Julie refuses to go to the movies with her. Just as Susan has taken her seat, she spots Mike come in with a date. She then rushes to sit next to the closest stranger and tells him to act like he knows her. The stranger immediately introduces himself as Dr. Orson to Mike, but it turns out Dr. Orson is there with his girlfriend too. Then later, he drops by Susan's house to return her purse that she left behind, and Susan ends up discussing her complicated love life with him. Dr. Orson tells Susan to get rid of her feelings for Karl because he just is not a good guy. After a few more incidents where Karl tells Susan he still has feelings for her and would do anything if she told him to, Susan tells him off and returns home. Later, Karl visits Susan and tells her that he and Edie have broken up and the wedding's off. Feeling sympathetic in spite of herself, Susan invites Karl in for a bottle of wine. The two ultimately end up in bed. Susan tells Karl that she feels good about this too and she is not having any second thoughts. Just then, the phone rings. It's Edie. Edie wants Karl to get some juice. Suspicious, Susan immediately asks him why is she asking for juice from him when they've broken up. Karl tells Susan that the break-up is still a work in progress. Furious that he cheated on Edie with her, Susan throws Karl out for good. Paul Young's troubles with Felicia Tilman continue. Leaving his house to go to a drug store, Paul trips on his front steps. It turns out his front steps have been greased with shortening. A cheerful Felicia, who is baking cookies, pops out to check on him. Next, Paul and Zach are having a cookout when Paul lights the grill to find the lighter fluid has been replaced with gasoline, resulting in a fire that shoots up in Paul's face. Later, Paul wakes up to find his house has been covered in an exterminator's tent. Angrily, he goes out, only to find Felicia merrily apologizing for giving the wrong address to the exterminator. Then she asks Paul if he was going to shoot himself like Mary Alice did. Paul grabs her by the throat, but Felicia tells everyone to look at how unstable Paul Young is. 

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The game tells the story of the Blackwood estate on the outskirts of Rothbury, a small rural town in Northumberland, England in 1976. Originally owned by James T. Blackwood in 1963, the house is passed to Christopher Milton after Mr. Blackwood is accused of murdering his wife. A couple of days later, Mr. Blackwood dies of a sudden heart attack though some in the town start rumors that he might have committed suicide. The police decide to close the case seeing there is no further evidence left. Shortly after acquiring the house, Milton inexplicably disappears in 1970 leaving no visible trace. The player assumes the role of the house's next inhabitant, Michael Arthate, an author seeking seclusion to work on his next book. He moves in only to find that the house still echoes its horrible past quite literally as scratches are heard all around, particularly in the basement and fireplaces, and soon becomes more interested in researching the house's history than his writing. In the end, it is revealed the scratches were being caused by Robin, the deformed son of James and Catherine, who was locked in the basement. Michael flees the house after this discovery, finishes his novel, and becomes a prolific novelist as a result from his encounter. 

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The War of the Roses tells the story of Jonathan and Barbara Rose, and their descent from a picturesque family life into a world of macabre self- destruction. 

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Robert Leaf (James Stewart) is an American college professor, who won a Pulitzer for poetry and prizes the arts. Both Robert and Vina (Glynis Johns) are dedicated to the arts and prompt their children, Pandora, "Penny," and Erasmus, to develop artistic skills. The Leaf family lives on a houseboat in San Francisco. The Captain (Ed Wynn) sold the Leafs the boat and lives with them; he provides narration. Professor Leaf, in particular, is dismayed to discover that eight-year-old Erasmus (Bill Mumy) is tone-deaf and colorblind, as he can't share the family's artistic pursuits. Moreover, Erasmus is a mathematical prodigy. The Professor is wary, wanting him to understand that this is only one part of his life. Erasmus agrees, but unwittingly calls media attention to himself by correcting figures at a bank. After, his parents become very determined that he have a normal child's life. They decide to have him talk to a psychiatrist, too. Erasmus tells the psychiatrist that math is okay, but he really loves model and actress Brigitte Bardot and writes her love letters. 18-year-old Penny Cindy Carol and her friends pay Erasmus to do their math homework (he uses the money for airmail stamps to send his letters to Brigitte). The Leafs take Erasmus for testing at the university; he agrees to be tested if they'll pay him. He answers questions correctly before the computer can calculate, and the officials push for more tests. The Leafs refuse, wanting him to have a normal childhood; besides, Erasmus wants to leave. Called to the Dean's office, a sheriff informs the Professor that Erasmus has been using his skills to calculate bets for an undercover campus betting ring run by Ken Taylor (Fabian), Penny's boyfriend, who was paying him to pick winners. Accused of complicity, the Professor quits his job and storms home. He and Vina question Ken and Penny. When paid, Erasmus shows his parents that he calculates winners by reading daily racetrack newspaper entries; Penny reveals that he spends his earnings on stamps. Troubled, his parents discuss if Erasmus deciding odds for people is immoral/ethical or not, concluding it's wrong. The Professor applies for unemployment and is told that he must wait two weeks for a check. Erasmus gives him the money that he's saved up from doing math problems, so that Penny can have a new Prom dress. While buying it for her, they meet Dr. Peregrine Upjohn (John Williams), who admires the Professor. That evening, the Professor's delighted to learn from Erasmus' psychiatrist that his son loves Brigitte Bardot, as Erasmus has been unhappy with the attention paid to his math skills and this is such a regular interest. Upjohn proposes they found the Leaf Foundation to fund liberal arts scholarships. The Professor and Vina love this idea. During their talk, students march to the houseboat, demanding that the Professor return to work; he accepts and announces the Foundation. Conferring, the Leafs decide that it isn't unethical to ask Erasmus if they can use his talent to fundraise for such a good cause. Brigitte invites Erasmus to visit her in France. Upjohn suggests that Erasmus go, as it'll promote the Foundation. The Professor accompanies him, Upjohn assisting the Leafs with their flight costs. At Brigitte's house, Erasmus stares at her adoringly, barely speaking, and asks for her autograph. The Professor takes a picture of them together, despite Erasmus looking at Brigitte, not at the camera. She gives him a puppy from her pet poodle and thinks he's adorable. Upon returning, Erasmus calculates different bets to fundraise. While falling asleep one night, he says, "Fromage," leading the adults to think he's picking longest of long-shots, "French Cheese" in the sixth race. At the track the next day, he denies picking her, to everyone's horror. French Cheese wins her race, and the family's ecstatic. The Professor then realizes that Upjohn, who held the tickets, has left the stands. Upjohn, who's actually a con artist and plans to abscond with the funds, is collecting the winnings. The Professor finds him and grabs the bag of money, declaring that it's for the Foundation. The Dean affirms this statement. The press overhears and asks for a photo-op of the Professor, the Dean, and the Foundation's new endowment. 

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The story concerns a young man living at home, André (Selton Mello), whose ideas are radically different from those of his farmer father (Raul Cortez). The father advocates order and restraint, which enhance his own power under the guise of family love. The son seeks freedom and pleasure, exemplified in his passion for his sister Ana (Simone Spoladore). When André moves to a seedy boarding house, his older brother Pedro (Leonardo Medeiros), is asked by their mother (Juliana Carneiro da Cunha) to bring him back. His return, however, will shatter the family's insular life. 

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After 1982, the world experienced a devastating nuclear war. Fallout and radiation has caused widespread mutations to human and animal populations alike. There is a new messianic religion, akin to gnosticism. The members of this religion, known as the Servants of Wrath or SOWs, worship the creator and detonator of the war's ultimate weapon, Carleton Lufteufel (from the German words "Luft," meaning "air," and "Teufel," meaning "Devil"), ex-chairman of the Energy Research and Development Agency of the United States of America - ERDA/USA. In Charlottesville, Utah, there are ample debates between the Servants of Wrath and the diminishing congregations of Christians left in existence. The Servants of Wrath's faith is based on an "anger-driven" traditional perception of godhood, compared to that of the Christian survivors, and it is from this that the book derives its name- deus irae, Latin for "God of Wrath". Tibor McMasters is an armless, legless cyborg phocomelus artist who has been commissioned to paint a mural of Lufteufel, though nobody knows where Lufteufel lives, or what he looks like. The Servants of Wrath leadership ask McMasters to find Lufteufel and paint his mural. En route, we learn about the absence of national communications systems after the widespread destruction caused by nuclear warfare. McMasters and other seekers encounter mutant lizards, birds and insects who have evolved sentience, as well as the "Big C", a decaying artificial intelligence that also survived the war; it survives by consuming humans for their trace elements. While trying to remove shrapnel from his forehead, Lufteufel loses consciousness from loss of blood, at which point his intellectually challenged "daughter", Alice, tries to remove some of the blood using a shirt. This leaves a bloody imprint on the fabric. Alice keeps the shirt because it is the only remaining likeness of his face, leaving her with the only true relic of the God of Wrath, evoking the Christian legend of the veil of Veronica and the artifact known as the Shroud of Turin. Going under the name “Jack Schuld” (German for "guilt"), Lufteufel kills a dog belonging to McMasters, and McMasters murders Lufteufel without realising his identity. After his death, Alice is visited by Lufteufel's "spirit" . He does not speak, but he helps Alice by "lifting the fog in her brain", removing her disability. She sees that his spirit is finally at peace. Alice is not the only human to experience a theophany related to Lufteufel's passing. Another survivor has a vision of a "Palm Tree Garden" equivalent to the Garden of Eden. This implies that Lufteufel may have been a gnostic demiurge, an evil earthbound deity who believes itself omnipotent, but whose abilities are constricted compared to "higher levels" of divinity. However, McMasters has no knowledge of Lufteufel's death or of the alleged visions related to his death. He is tricked by his (Christian) companion Pete into using an elderly dying alcoholic vagrant for the likeness of Lufteufel for the commissioned church mural, which is prominently featured in leading Servants of Wrath institutions. The mural's survival is a tacit argument that religious belief is often based on mythological accretions, which may not be valid interpretations of decisive events in the history of that faith. 

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The Maloney family live in a Victorian town, Yankalillee, in the Wangaratta-Wodonga area. The family is in many ways dysfunctional, but they are also fiercely loyal to each other and their friends and supporters. They start the novel far down the social ladder, but strive to rise up it, in spite of those who seek to keep them down. 

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High school senior Dorian Lagatos realizes he is gay and meets another gay youth locally, but remains confused, and finally comes out to his brother, Nicky. Nicky is a scholarship-winning quarterback and favorite son to their hetero-normative and argumentative father. Dorian starts therapy, then resorts to confession in the Church. When his therapist and the church politely avoid offering any real help, Dorian has his first intimate encounter with a local gay youth. Dorian goes back to Nick, who was at first reluctant to accept his brother's sexuality. Nick attempts to teach Dorian how to fight and arranges to have him spend a night with a prostitute in order to make him become straight; from these efforts Dorian gains only a concussion and lesson in dancing, respectively. After much soul-searching, Dorian comes out to his father (while wearing a fuchsia shirt) for which he is kicked out of the house after a very surreal argument over whether or not Dorian is gay. His father is very preoccupied with who else may know of Dorian's defective nature although Nick confesses that he knows and an anti- climatic scene resolves with Dorian packing his bags. Dorian moves to New York City, a city he adores. Dorian expresses all kinds of angst over his life style, defending his true nature to his father over the Christmas holidays. Returning to New York, Dorian experiences a series of encounters with the darker side of life. Dorian finds a boyfriend, but he gets dumped after two months with no given reason. Dorian develops a deep depression and finally, in despair gives in to it, coincidental to Nicky visiting Dorian in the city. Nicky reluctantly joins Dorian with friends at Dorian's favorite local gay bar. Just as Dorian pleads with a friend to flaunt his newly found popularity, Nicky reunites with obsequious football friends—stealing Dorian's thunder. Dorian then learns his ex-boyfriend dumped him for another. The after- discussion of the evening revolves around Nick defending his sexuality to Dorian in the face of Nick's football friends being gay and Dorian defending his own sexuality to his brother. Later that night, Dorian awakes to Nicky crying and learn that Nick was cut from the football team and was stripped of his scholarship. In the middle of the discussion, they both learn their father has died of a heart attack. At the funeral, Dorian's mother, finally freed of the overbearing influence of Dorian's father, tells Dorian she regrets not stopping his father from being angry with him. 

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Set in the 29th century, an evil god known as Bios has destroyed most of the Earth, turning it into a desolate wasteland known as the Dust World. Two nameless supersoldiers are created by the people to defeat Bios and the eight evil gods who serve him. 

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Set against the backdrop of rural Bengal during feudal times, Devdas is a young man from a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family in India in the early 1900s. Paro, alias Parvati is a young woman from a middle-class Bengali Brahmin family, but belonging to a slightly lower status in terms of caste, affluence, and status. The two families lived in a village, and Devdas and Paro were childhood friends. Devdas goes away for some years to live and study in a boarding school in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata). When, after finishing school, Devdas (Dilip Kumar) returns to his village, Paro (Suchitra Sen) looks forward to their childhood love blossoming into their lifelong journey together in marriage. Of course, according to the prevailing social custom, Paro's parents would have to approach Devdas' parents and propose a marriage of Paro to Devdas as Paro has longed for. When Paro's grandmother (Sarita Devi) makes the proposal to Devdas' mother (Pratima Devi), the latter rejects her. To demonstrate his own social status, Paro's father, Nilkant (Shivraj) then finds an even richer husband for Paro. When Paro learns of her planned marriage, she risks her honor to meet Devdas at night, desperately believing that Devdas will quickly accept her hand in marriage. Devdas meekly seeks his parents' permission to marry Paro, but Devdas' family was against him. In a weak-minded state, Devdas then flees to Calcutta, and from there, he writes a letter to Paro, saying that they were only friends and there was no love between them. But soon realizing his mistake, he goes back to the village and tells Paro that he is ready to do anything needed to save their love. By now, Paro's marriage plans are in an advanced stage, and she declines to go back to Devdas and chides him for his cowardice and vacillation. Parvati's marriage is finalized with a wealthy zamindar and widower (Moni Chatterjee) with children older than his young second wife-to-be. In Calcutta, Devdas' carousing friend, Chunni Babu (Motilal), introduces him to a courtesan named Chandramukhi (Vyjayanthimala). Devdas takes to heavy drinking at Chandramukhi's place, but the courtesan falls in love with him and looks after him. His health deteriorates because of a combination of excessive drinking and despair of life — a drawn-out form of suicide. Within him, he frequently compares Paro and Chandramukhi, remaining ambivalent as to whom he really loves. Sensing his fast-approaching death, Devdas returns to meet Paro to fulfill a vow that he would see her before he dies. He dies at her doorstep on a dark, cold night. On hearing of the death of Devdas, Paro runs towards the door, disregarding "purdah", but her family members prevent her from stepping out of the door. The movie powerfully depicts the prevailing social customs in Bengal in the early 1900s, which are largely responsible for preventing the happy ending of a genuine love story. 

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Amar Mullick, Chandrabati Devi and Pramathesh Barua in a sequence of the film The son of Zamindar Narayan Mukherjee, Devdas was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He grew up in the lush village of Taj Sonapur, where he spent his childhood, indulged by his lovely playmate Paro. They grew up sharing a special relationship, in which they existed only to each other. Oblivious of all the differences of status and background, a bond that would never break grew between them. Slowly, it changed to love but it was still unsaid. But the reverie was broken when his family sent Devdas to Calcutta for education. Paro's world crashed knowing that her Devdas would be gone and she lit a diya, for it signified the fast coming back of her loved one. Years passed and Devdas returned. Devdas was besotted by her stunning beauty and longed to have her back. But Zamindar Narayan Mukherjee, Devdas' father, met Paro's mother Sumitra's marriage proposal with condescending arrogance. It caused a rift between the families and even though Devdas tried to convince his father, only antagonism came his way. Finally, he moved away from Paro and wrote a letter to her, asking her to forget him. Only, he didn't realize that he would never be able to forget her ever. And much later, when he reached out to her, it was too late as she was far too humiliated. She scorned him for not standing by her and they parted forever with a heart-broken Paro entering into a chaste marriage with a wealthy, much older man, Zamindar Bhuvan, while a shattered Devdas walked towards anguish, alcoholism & Chandramukhi. Chandramukhi, a stunning courtesan instantly lost her heart to Devdas. A unique bond was formed between both as he could share with her the intense pain of his unfulfilled love for Paro. Meanwhile, Paro, on the other hand, performed her worldly duties sincerely, but inside her heart, she could never forget Devdas for a moment. Strange was the fate of Devdas. Intensely loved by two women, who were never meant to be his. One whom he could never love and one whom he could never stop loving. 

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Lieutenant John "Junior" Witkowski (Bob Dornan) and his buddy, Lieutenant York (Steve Early), arrive at George Air Force Base, Tactical Air Command, in Southern California to train to fly the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, with special emphasis on the complicated mid-air refueling maneuver. Witkowski's congressman father (Carl Rogers), a famed World War II bomber pilot, frequently calls him, concerned about the safety of fighter aircraft. The congressman wants his son to be transferred to a Convair B-58 Hustler or Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber squadron in the Strategic Air Command. Witkowski also finds romance with Mary Davidson (Shirley Olmstead), an Iowa girl. During training, Major Stevens (Richard Jordahl) sends Witkowski, York and Lieutenant Lyons (Robert Winston) on a cross-country mission. The three trainees are forced to separate as they encounter a storm. Lyons' aircraft goes down in the mountains, while Witkowski is feared lost. Later, they learn that Lyons parachuted safely, and Witkowski has landed safely at an alternate base. Witkowski, who has impressed senior officers and won his father's admiration, is among those selected to be transferred to a unit in Europe and bids a temporary good-bye to Mary. 

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The film starts with NCAR climatologist Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) examining a poppy field and remarking that it "shouldn't be here". It is revealed that the poppy field is in the middle of the Arctic. Zane Zaminsky (Charlie Sheen), a radio astronomer working for SETI, discovers an extraterrestrial radio signal from Wolf 336, a star 14 light years from Earth. Zane reports this to his supervisor, Phil Gordian (Ron Silver), at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but Phil dismisses the findings. Zane soon finds that he has been fired because of supposed budget cuts, and blacklisted, preventing him from working at other telescopes. Taking a job as a television satellite installer, he creates his own telescope array using his customers' dishes in the neighborhood, operating it secretly from his attic with help of his young next door neighbor, Kiki (Tony T. Johnson). Zane again locates the radio signal, but it is drowned out by a terrestrial signal from a Mexican radio station. Zane attempts to consult his former coworker, Calvin (Richard Schiff), but finds he has just died suspiciously, purportedly from carbon monoxide poisoning. Zane travels to the fictional town of San Marsol in Mexico and finds that the local radio station, from which the signal apparently originated, was just burnt to the ground. Searching the area around town, he comes across a recently constructed power plant. There, he meets Ilana Green, and tries to help protect her atmospheric analysis equipment from the plant's overzealous security forces. While in custody at the plant, Ilana explains that the Earth's temperature has recently and abruptly risen a few degrees, melting parts the polar ice and shifting the ecosystem. She is investigating the power plant, one of several recently built across the developing world, that appears to be the cause of this intensified increase. The two are released, but without Ilana's equipment. Surprisingly, Zane notices that one of the guards appears to be an identical twin of his former boss, Phil. As Zane and Ilana regroup, Phil instructs some agents, posing as gardeners, to release an alien device in Zane's attic that creates an apparent miniature black hole, consuming all of Zane's equipment. Zane leaves Ilana to again investigate the power plant and she is soon killed by scorpions planted in her room. Zane discovers the plant doubles as a front for an underground alien base. The aliens are able to disguise themselves with an external skin to infiltrate human society. Zane finds that all of the bases expel large amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Zane is discovered but escapes back into the nearby town and attempts to convince the local inspector of the situation. However, alien agents bring Ilana's body to the police station, making Zane a suspect in her death; Zane escapes and sneaks back into the United States. He accosts Phil on the JPL grounds, forcing him to admit that the aliens are trying to raise the Earth's temperature to not only kill off humans (by greatly exacerbating anthropogenic climate change) but to make the planet hospitable for themselves. Zane surreptitiously records the conversation and once Phil discovers the recording he sends agents to stop Zane. Zane returns home to find his attic devoid of equipment. He figures out the most feasible way to widely broadcast the tape is to go to a nearby large satellite uplink and beam a signal directly to a hacked news satellite, overriding it and broadcasting his tape worldwide. With the help of his girlfriend Char (Teri Polo) and Kiki, he travels to a large radio astronomy array, hoping to use one of the dishes as a satellite ground station, but Phil and his agents soon disable the telescope/satellite controls from the main building. Wondering how they were found so quickly, Zane briefly suspects Char of being an alien, until they are both attacked by one of Phil's agents. Zane leaves the tape with Kiki and instructs him to transmit it when he gives the order. He and Char then sneak over to the telescope's base and barricade themselves in the control room. Zane makes the necessary adjustments and tells Kiki to activate the tape, but Kiki reveals himself to be an alien agent and he opens the door to allow Phil inside, who confiscates the tape. Phil and his agents ram down the door to the satellite control room with a van, but Zane freezes them with liquid nitrogen vapors. As he works to free the tape stuck in Phil's frozen jacket, one of the agents drops a sphere which starts to form another, larger, singularity in the room. Phil begins to defrost, and tries to grab Zane's arm, but Zane smashes off Phil's arm with a fire axe. Zane and Char escape through the radio telescope station's access shaft, exiting safely onto the collapsed dish before the device implodes most of the telescope dish's base. Below them they see Kiki; before he flees, Zane tells him to tell the aliens that he will soon broadcast this tape. In the film's epilogue, Zane's conversation with Phil is broadcast across the globe. 

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Arrival II takes place two years after the first film. Zane Zaminski (the protagonist from The Arrival) is found dead in a remote Eskimo community. It is purported that he died of a heart attack. His broadcast to the world about the aliens is widely believed to have been a UFO hoax due to his dismissal from NASA (this despite Earth continuing to have record temperatures). As his death is announced on TV, five people receive envelopes with details of an alien invasion. This group of five consists of three scientists, Zane's step brother Jack Addison (a computer expert whom he has not seen in seven years), and a reporter named Bridget Riordan. They receive papers talking of global warming and of aliens terraforming Earth into a planet that is hot, like their own dying world. The group gets together in a large freezer (as the aliens can't stand cold) to see what Zane has left them. They find some alien artifacts in an envelope left to the group. One of the five, Trevor Anguilar, suffers from the cold and is revealed as an alien. He sets off a metal sphere (a "black hole bomb" or BHB as it rises into the air, revolves then sucks everything in a large area into it, causing it to vanish permanently). The alien and one of the men, Tom Billings, are sucked into the BHB's area of influence as well as the contents of the room but Addison, Riordan, and Zarcoff manage to escape. Zarcoff in his hotel room is killed by an alien metal spider machine which injects him, making it look like his death was from a heart attack. Addison goes back to his rooms to find a BHB has cleared them of everything. Sandra Wolfe, a girl he picked up and slept with last night turns out to be an alien. She and another alien, Wotan, inject Addison and he later wakes up to find himself being "taken for a ride". Addison rolls out of the car and despite terrible disorientation manages to elude them and team up with Riordan again. The aliens have set the FBI on the two as well as cancelling their credit cards and emptying Addison's bank account of $15,000. The pair have only one artifact left and that produces a perfect 3D hologram when a laser beam is shone through it. They use it to find out that an atomic power plant due to be opened near where they are in Quebec is in the hands of the aliens. Later it is revealed that it is to go critical and will spread deadly radiation over many hundreds of miles (the aliens are immune to radiation). Addison and Riordan attempt to show the hologram at a climate seminar, and Addison's boss, Burke, agrees to help them. But before they can activate the device, they are caught by Dave Cyrus, another of Addison's co-workers who has sold them out to the FBI. Burke kills Cyrus and frames Addison for it, revealing himself to be an alien, as well. Barely escaping, Addison and Riordan break into a university and use an industrial laser to properly activate the artifact. Addison uses his computer skills to walk around and interact with an alien ship in space and to program a giant BHB deep below the power plant to go off in one hour. The aliens arrive and both are captured from the hologram. In the atomic power station, their time seems to be up until the giant BHB goes off in the alien area below it and starts ripping apart and swallowing the atomic power station. Wotan and Wolfe are dragged through the gaping hole in the floor. Nearly dragged into its sphere of influence himself, Addison uses a small BHB to stop the giant one long enough for him and Riordan to escape. They just make it as all that is left of the power station is a huge hole in the ground. Burke also survives, but injured, his alien features partly visible. He warns Addison that the aliens haven't been stopped, just delayed. Some time later, Riordan's book Alien Agenda (which details their recent adventures as well as the alien's plans for the world) is still top of The New York Times best seller lists after 2 months. The world still seems to consider it all fiction. The film ends with the married couple driving to Alaska and it is just beginning to snow as they cross the border, which suits them fine. 

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In Guilty Pleasures, Anita Blake is blackmailed by Nikolaos, the vampire master of the city, into investigating a series of vampire murders. During the course of this investigation, Anita begins her relationship with Jean-Claude, another master vampire, and receives two of the four marks necessary to make her Jean- Claude's "human servant." Ultimately, Anita identifies the murderer, but by that point has sufficiently antagonized Nikolaos and her underlings that she is forced to confront them. Ultimately, with help from Jean-Claude and Edward, a human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, Anita kills Nikolaos and many of her followers, making Jean-Claude master of the city. 

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Jazmin Biltmore is a smart-mouthed, frustrated, plus-sized, aspiring fashion designer and department store employee who is obsessed with her weight. Jazmin has always been overweight, (unlike her skinny cousin Mia), constantly battling with diets, weight loss aids, and even her own clothes. Because of her battle with finding trendy clothes that fit her full figure, despite working in a clothing department store, Jazmin creates and designs her own outfits. Even going as far as attempting to get a business loan to get her clothing line up and running. During a bout of depression, Jazmin is contacted from one of her diet plan agencies and told she won a trip for 3 to Palm Springs for the weekend at a five-star resort. She and best friend Stacey find the first day at the spa embarrassing, as hotel robes don't fit, the massage tables too small for their thick figures, and uninviting attitudes from other hotel guests. They leave in frustration to join Mia, who has been ogling a Nigerian man swimming in the pool. Despite Mia's obvious flirting, he expresses interest in Jazmin. He introduces himself as Dr. Tunde, but Jazmin is tongue tied, too distracted by his good looks to remember her own name. He and his friends find Jazmin and Stacey beautiful. However, they think Mia is too skinny and wonder if she is sick. They invite the women to a Nigerian party, Tunde, speaking Nigerian with his friends Dr. Akibo and Dr. Godwin, tells them he has never seen such beautiful full figured women in America. Upon their night out, Tunde expresses even more interest with her outspoken behaviour and strong opinions. Akibo shows his desire for Stacey and she reciprocates, fighting her shy nature. Meanwhile Godwin attempts to flirt with other full figured guests, ignoring Mia. Even going as far as to tell a woman she was a patient, explaining why she is so thin. Akibo and Stacey go on to have days packed with vigorous sex and Mia leaves the party early to go back to the hotel and wallow in self pity over not finding an attractive Dr. Like Stacey and Jazmin. Tunde and Jazmin begin dating with Jazmin constantly questioning his attraction to her, to herself and to Tunde. Going as far as to ask him if he is truly interested in her, why hasn't he tried to sleep with her? Tunde tells Jazmin he was trying to be respectful but will gladly sleep with her the next day, due to work obligations but before they consummate their relationship she grows jealous and makes a scene when she sees him having dinner with a beautiful, thin, white woman instead of having dinner with a colleague like he told her. Tunde reveals the woman was his colleague, but Jazmin, realizing she is too insecure to be comfortable in a relationship with Tunde, breaks up with him and leaves Palm Springs, along with Stacey and Mia. At home, she is depressed, ignoring phone calls, comforting herself with food and television before having a breakthrough and realizing she is beautiful and worthy of being loved. Bursting with new confidence, Jazmin approaches the head buyer of the Bloomfields where she works and shows him her designs. Impressed he helps develop Jazmin's fashion line "Thick Madame" becomes popular and is launched worldwide. One year later, she travels to Nigeria to apologize to the man she realizes she loves. A woman opens the door holding a baby. Jazmin asks if she is Tunde's wife, and the woman agrees. Jazmin has the girls go to the taxi because she did not wish to be rejected with an audience. She tells Tunde that he has changed her life, and she is sorry she could not accept his love when she had the chance. Explaining she could not accept love from someone when she did not love herself and though she still cares for him she is not a "homewrecker" and will not pursue him. Tunde clarifies that the woman is a maid, he delivered the baby, and the maid doesn't understand English. He says his prayers have been answered, as he has loved Jazmin all along and they share a passionate kiss. Stacey also reunites with their partner, and they join Tunde's family for dinner. Mia piles food on her plate, stating that she wants to bulk up so she can find a rich Nigerian doctor as well. The film ends with Jazmin and Tunde in bed, while Jazmin insists on having the lights on to see every sexy thing on Tunde's body, with the credits ending. 

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Michael Aloysius Rafferty, who is a Stipendiary Magistrate, drives to work in an old blue VW Kombi van. He owns a cat named Rhubarb. Rafferty is separated from his wife, with whom he had two children (a son and a daughter). Rafferty also has an older daughter, Rebecca Browning, who is in her early twenties -- and of whose existence he was unaware until she contacted him after she had grown up (Rebecca's mother is a woman who Michael Rafferty had known before he met his wife, and who he had not seen since his marriage). Rafferty also has a brother, Patrick Rafferty, who is a State Member of Parliament. 

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Sonea, formerly a slum girl--or "dwell"--begins her studies as a novice at the Magicians' Guild as part of the summer intake. Sonea does not have life easy, particularly with her rival and fellow pupil, Regin, who does his best to make Sonea's life at the Guild a living hell. She tries to ignore him at first but it only gets worse as Regin begins to circulate rumours about Rothen (her mentor) and her having a relationship. Though they truthfully deny this, Lorlen is forced to move Sonea to the Novice's Quarters to quell the rumours. Sonea, unable to take the bullying, studies hard and is promoted to the winter intake. The studies are harder and the students more mature, so the bullying does not continue in her new class. However, nor do the children befriend her, except for a slow-learner named Porril. Later, Regin is also promoted to Sonea's class, and with his old classmates from the summer intake continues to bully her. He frames her by putting one of her classmate's gold pens in her box, and she is accused of stealing. However, she can not prove her innocence since if she were 'truth-read' (her mind read by another magician), then the truth would come out about Akkarin's (the High Lord's)use of black magic, putting herself and those she cares about in danger. Meanwhile, Administrator Lorlen hopes to discover some way to counter Akkarin's powers in black magic (considered evil and forbidden in the guild), by studying the High Lord's past travels across the Allied Lands. Lorlen sends Lord Dannyl (now Second Ambassador to Elyne) to seek out information about the ancient magic which he may have studied. Dannyl is assisted by Tayend, a librarian from Elyne, who was also Akkarin's past helper. Tayend at first is terrified of magic, but it later turns out this is because he is afraid his homosexuality will be revealed. This is frowned upon in Elyne. Dannyl finds out Tayend's secret late in the story when healing him, and though surprised at first, eventually admits he too is homosexual, and the two begin a relationship. Lord Rothen's son, Dorrien, is a healer working in the countryside near Sachaka. He visits his father and befriends Sonea. He learns of the bullying and later sets a trap to catch Regin trying to frame Sonea by putting something from the library into her box. Dorrien teaches Sonea levitation, and the two gradually begin to become attracted to each other. On the day he leaves, Dorrien kisses Sonea for the first time. The High Lord, becoming suspicious about what he knows, eventually force-reads Administrator Lorlen's mind and discovers that Sonea, Rothen, and Lorlen are all aware of his use of black magic. He gives Lorlen a ring that enables the High Lord to hear and see everything Lorlen does as well as privately mind-speak to him. Akkarin decides to claim guardianship over Sonea to ensure that as long as she remains "hostage", Rothen and Lorlen cannot reveal anything that will jeopardize Sonea's safety whilst she will also stay quiet in order to protect them. In the city, a number of murders have plagued the slums: deaths that have the hallmarks of black magic. Administrator Lorlen is kept abreast of the murders by a family friend in the city's guard and suspects the High Lord's involvement, as does Sonea. Akkarin learns that Sonea's weakest subject is Warrior Skill and Lord Yikmo is made to be her teacher. Later, Yikmo discovers that Sonea is cautious with her powers since she is both against violence and aware that her powers are stronger, by how much she does not know, than the other students, and does not want to hurt them, even if they continue to harass her. Despite Sonea's position as the High Lord's favourite, Regin's harassment of her only intensifies. He and other novices begin ambushing her in the halls and torturing her with magic. Sonea shields herself from these attacks but always ends up unable to hold them off indefinitely. However, her power continues to grow as she fends off stronger and stronger attacks from larger numbers of pupils. Eventually, Yikmo and Lorlen find her being attacked, and, though she begs them not to tell Akkarin, they feel they must. However, it becomes clear that The High Lord is already aware of this and has done nothing to stop Regin's bullying, since he has noticed how much it is increasing her power. Dorrien comes back for another visit and Lorlen tells Rothen to discourage him from having a relationship with Sonea. Sonea, fearing for Dorrien's safety, decides to put an end to any relationship there may have been. At Lord Dorrien's suggestion, Sonea challenges Regin to a formal duel in the Arena. She works hard to train for the battle, which through skill (rather than brute strength) she wins 3 to 2, and her healing of the unconscious Regin after the battle only reinforces her newly-won respect from her peers and teachers. The Higher Magicians are shocked however at the extent of power Sonea has displayed. At the end of the story, Sonea witnesses the High Lord kill a man from Sachaka. The High Lord Akkarin explains the man was an assassin sent to kill him, but Sonea is not sure what to believe. 

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Each winter in Imardin, the capital city of Kyralia, the streets are purged of the "dwells", the city's poor under-class, by magicians who drive away the inhabitants of the city's slums. Although young gang members gather to throw rocks at them, the magicians are protected by a magical shield—until Sonea, a young dwell, hurls a rock through their barrier and injures the magician Lord Fergun. Fearing a rogue magician, the Guild begins searching for Sonea. Lords Dannyl and Rothen lead the search into the slums, worried that Sonea's increasingly uncontrolled magic will harm her and those around her. But Sonea both distrusts the Guild for their apparent lack of compassion for the poor dwells and fears their reprisal for her accidental injury of Lord Fergun. She flees with her friend Cery, eventually seeking the aid of the shady Thieves, who see the value of having their own magician and take her under their care. With Cery, she sneaks into the Magician's Guild in an attempt to gain knowledge of how to control her magic, and observes a black-robed magician covered in blood performing a strange rite on a servant. However, her attempt to learn more is unsuccessful, and Sonea continues to lose control of her powers, setting fire to her surroundings repeatedly, before Lord Rothen at last locates her. At the magician's Guild, Lord Rothen and the sinister Fergun fight for Sonea's mentorship, though she is uninterested in training and only wants to return home to her friends and family. Lord Fergun attempts to sway Sonea to betray the Guild and thus prove that dwells are not fit to enter the Guild and goes so far as to kidnap and threaten Cery, but Fergun's plans are discovered and he is made to stand trial. In order to prove Fergun's guilt, Sonea submits to a mental examination, or 'truthreading', by Administrator Lorlen, who, finding the memory of the black-robed magician, reveals the man to be Lord Akkarin, head of the guild, explaining that she saw him practising black magic which is forbidden in Kyralia. Sonea decides then to join the Guild and train her magical potential. 

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A year has passed since Sonea had challenged Regin to a public duel and had beaten Regin by one bout. Since that victory, she has finally won the respect she deserves, not only as a novice with exceptional power, but also as the High Lord's favorite. But even with this new respect, she still has one challenge left to face: Akkarin. Still unable to shake off the memory she has after the duel, she continues to avoid Akkarin. Ceryni, Sonea's old friend, now has a powerful position with the Thieves. He has a task which he must perform which could cost him his life. But that task is not a secret. A strange woman, named Savara, with great skill knows of this task and wishes to help Cery, however he will not accept her aid as he does not trust her. Akkarin surprises Sonea by showing her a book, which is an autobiography of Coren, a famous architect. This book reveals that Coren himself had discovered and no doubt used black magic. Sonea is amazed at this knowledge but is suspicious why he has shown this information to her. Akkarin is pleased that Sonea has read the book and gives her another one which is nearly 500 years old. From reading it, Sonea discovers that many centuries ago black magic was referred to as 'higher magic.' The book tells of a novice who desired power and used the higher magic to obtain more power by killing many magicians and absorbing their power. The Guild, in the end, suffered greatly from confronting the novice. They decided to store the knowledge of higher magic and rename it black magic. They sealed the knowledge, hoping that no one would take advantage of that power, but only use it in the greatest need and the knowledge was hidden in a secret passage of the University. The author also tells of a threat from Sachaka, that the Sachakans will have vengeance for losing an ancient war. Only the Head of Warriors knew of this secret weapon, however the knowledge was later lost. As Sonea starts to absorb this new information, Akkarin takes her into the city in disguise. Sonea realises that the Thieves are in on a secret with Akkarin as they use their 'private road.' Sonea and Akkarin come to a room face to face with a captured Sachakan slave who was sent to see how weak the Guild was. Akkarin starts to search the man, and finds a gold tooth with a red gem inside it; the gem is a blood gem, used by their masters to see and hear what the holder sees, hears and does. Akkarin then tells Sonea that he will teach her to read a mind of an unwilling person. Struggling at first, Sonea discovers the name of the Sachakan. She also discovers that Akkarin was a slave. Amazed and shocked, Sonea starts seeing memories of a group called the Ichani, powerful magicians that have been labeled as outcasts by the Sachakan King. Sonea is then taken outside while Akkarin stays inside and kills the man using black magic. Back at the Guild, Sonea starts to question everything she knows and has been told. She misses a class, instead finding solitude at a stream in the forest, a secret place that Dorrien had shown her. To her surprise, she is met by Akkarin as it was also where Akkarin and Lorlen used to go when they were young. Akkarin begins telling Sonea about his past, about how he entered Sachaka and was captured by an Ichani named Dakova who easily overpowered Akkarin. Whilst in servitude, Akkarin and his fellow slaves, all latent magicians, constantly had their power absorbed by Dakova. For five years, Akkarin was a magical source of energy for Dakova, but everything changed when Dakova was attacked by a fellow Ichani. Though Dakova won, he was left weak. He borrowed slaves from his brother Kariko. After some time Dakova found a previous enemy of his and decides to kill him. Upon arriving at an abandoned mine, the floor gives way and Akkarin falls down, only to be saved by another Ichani. The Ichani made a deal with Akkarin to spare his life if he killed Dakova, Akkarin agrees and is taught black magic by the Ichani. Akkarin headed back with wine laced with a sleeping drug. While Dakova drank the wine, Akkarin then killed the slaves, but when he came to Takan he could not take his dormant power because they had helped each other at times of need. When he came to Dakova, he took his power as quickly as possible, killing him in the process. With the deed done and now free, Akkarin then started his long journey home without food thinking he would die on the journey back to the guild but Takan followed him with a supply of food and drink and became Akkarin's servant. Sonea wondered why he had told her and asks him, his only answer is that someone else needs to know. As the gong strikes Akkarin ends the tale and tells Sonea to get back to her classes. Meanwhile Lord Dannyl has been instructed by Akkarin to infiltrate a group of Elyne nobles, led by a powerful Dem, attempting to illicitly learn magic. Having managed to enter the Dem's circle of trust by having them learn the "false secret" of his relation with Tayend, he begins teaching Farand, a young man whose powers have been unleashed but who has not learnt Control. Slowly, Dannyl gains more trust from the Dem. When Dannyl enters Farand's mind, he realises the Elyne King used Farand for eavesdropping. Farand had overheard the King order a political assassination, because of this Farand was prevented from joining the Guild by the King. Back at the Guild, Sonea is unable to sleep. She is continuously replaying what Akkarin had told her, and wondering why he told her. She even starts to believe that black magic isn't necessarily evil, only the wielder of the magic can determine that. She starts to wonder what would happen if Akkarin was to die and no one would be able to carry on the secret struggle with the Sachakan spies. She decides to tell Akkarin that she wants to learn black magic. The next day when Sonea tells Akkarin that she wants to learn, he refuses, he starts to change her mind saying that if she is caught, she will be executed. However her mind is made up, Akkarin refuses but says that he has another use for Sonea. He informs her that, if she was willing, she can be a source of power for him. He says he will only teach her black magic if the Ichani invade Kyralia. Even though she isn't helping in the way she thought she would, she is still pleased to assist Akkarin. Lord Dannyl visits Farand once more to assure everyone that he has learnt Control. When in Farand's mind, Dannyl starts questioning him. Before Dannyl can get any answers, Farand is aware of what Dannyl is doing and breaks the connection. Revealing him as a traitor, Farand tells everyone that more magicians are on their way, but don't know Dannyl's location. However Dannyl informs the group of rebels that that won't be the case. Farand perceives Dannyl's and the other magician's conversation and agrees with him. The other nobles are apprehended, Farand and the Dem surrender. At night, Sonea is worried about Akkarin, since he is not back for hunting the latest spy. (This is the first indication that, where she shortly before hated Akkarin and wanted him dead, now she starts to be positively concerned for him.) Once he returns, Sonea realises that the fight must have been terrible, and that Akkarin lost. She and Takan follow him to his bedroom and Akkarin starts filling in the details about the new spy. Akkarin believes that this new spy is another slave, but Takan tells Akkarin that she must be an Ichani, as she is cunning and strong. Takan once again tells Akkarin to teach Sonea black magic for help in case he dies, Akkarin finally agrees that he will teach Sonea tomorrow night. Cery is surprised that Akkarin lost to the latest spy, and vows to find her again. Savara enters Cery's room saying that if Cery had trusted her, she could have dealt with the new spy, unlike Akkarin. Savara then continues, saying that she knows the spy and wishes revenge for a past act. However she realises that now that Akkarin knows about the new spy, she cannot intervene without revealing herself, something she does not wish to do. Cery promises that she can hunt the next spy. The next day, while Lorlen and Lord Sarrin discuss building plans, Lord Osen informs them that there has been a massacre last night, a magician and his family have been murdered. All the victims had shallow cuts, which weren't fatal wounds. Osen also reports that there was a major battle between some unknown magicians. Lorlen decides that someone should go to the location of the fight and see if it had been magical. At night, Sonea makes her way to the underground passage to start her training in black magic. Akkarin informs Sonea that all living things have a natural barrier. With black magic, the idea is to break the barrier and draw their magical power from them. Sonea, under Akkarin's instructions, starts to learn how to take power, with Takan as her source. Once she is done, she heals him and is given some more books on black magic to read. While heading back to Imardin, Dannyl and Farand start talking about the future, and what consequences he and the other rebels would have to face. Realising that he is tired, Dannyl tells Farand to get some sleep, as he starts to leave Dannyl notices that Farand's lips are blue and comes to the conclusion that he has been poisoned. Dannyl then calls on Lady Vinara using telepathy, she informs him of how to purge the poison. Dannyl barricades the door to prevent anyone stopping him from healing Farand. Akkarin takes Sonea to show her how to defeat the spies, the Thieves inform them of where she is but when they reach her rooms she is not there. They look around, hearing footsteps Sonea hides in an alcove. The spy enters and talks to Akkarin before they start attacking one another. The spy moves closer to the alcove and Sonea tries to stay hidden, the combat is causing damage to be building and Sonea is forced to use her shield. She finds a ring in the alcove, one worn by an elder of a noble house. A heavy blow is struck and the alcove collapses, however Sonea creates a hollow with her shield, she then realises the spy is not a slave but a powerful Ichani. A hole is formed as the hollow begins to collapse, Sonea then sees that the Ichani is moving backwards and will soon detect her. Sonea drops her shield and the Ichani's passes over her undetected, she then slashes the Ichani's neck with a piece of wood and drains her power, killing the woman. Akkarin and Sonea then return to the Guild. The Magicians Guild have learned that Akkarin and Sonea are using black magic and believe they may be responsible for the murders. They are tried and convicted of using forbidden magic, but not of the murders. Akkarin is sentenced to exile in Sachaka, Sonea is allowed to remain but refuses saying that, if alone, Akkarin will be killed. Unsure about Akkarin's explanation of an imminent Ichani invasion they are both exiled. Akkarin and Sonea are forced to hide in the wastes of Sachaka where they are pursued by a pair of Ichani but manage to elude them. Meanwhile the Ichani invade Kyralia, easily overcoming the (reinforced) border defenses and slaughtering over twenty Guild magicians. They then advance on the capital Imardin, but are slowed by an ambush. It seems that only Akkarin and Sonea will be able to hold back the Ichani invasion as the Guild magicians are no match for them. Whilst in Sachaka, Sonea develops feelings for Akkarin, but tries to hide them. However Sonea awakes Akkarin from a nightmare and accidentally senses his feelings for her - seeing herself through his eyes, she sees a far more beautiful and alluring woman than she ever saw when looking in the mirror. Akkarin is hesitant because he argues he is 13 years older than Sonea, but Sonea doesn't seem to care. They kiss, and later sleep together. As eventually comes out, Akkarin's recurring nightmare was about a woman fellow slave, with whom he had been in love during his captivity in Sachaka, and whose death he witnessed and was unable to prevent. Finding a new love with Sonea lays this ghost, and Akkarin ceases to have such nightmares. The two then return to the borders of Kyralia where they encounter Dorrien, who isn't too happy to see them there, he escorts them back to the border but they are ambushed by one of the Ichani (called Parika), who is eventually killed by Sonea using Healing Magic, and Akkarin drains his energy. The Ichani have no knowledge of Healing Magic, and are surprised when Sonea heals a cut in front of them. The three return to Dorrien's small home and discuss possible plans, they seem to decide one. Whereby Sonea and Akkarin will secretly return to Imardin, their city. Akkarin and Sonea return to Imardin and enlist the aid of the Thieves, including Cery, Sonea's old friend and slum dwellers in fighting the Ichani who now roam the city searching for victims to strengthen them. Sonea and Akkarin search the slum dwells for any magical potential and take it to strengthen their power, however, unlike the Ichani, they do not kill their helpers. The night before, Cery gives Akkarin and Sonea some changes of clothes, including full length, black, magician robes. Sonea and Akkarin are able to pick off many of the Ichani one by one, while another is killed with the help of Regin, Sonea's old Novice enemy. One Ichani is then killed by the Thieves and another by the Guild. Eventually only three Ichani remain. But Lorlen is badly wounded, and tells Akkarin that he understands why he did what he did, he asks if Sonea is ok, and then he dies and Akkarin takes his ring. Unfortunately, the three Ichani left have been absorbing the magic from various magically constructed buildings, and increasing in strength. Before the remaining Ichani can absorb the magic held in the Guild buildings (including the Arena, which has masses of power around it), Akkarin and Sonea force the three into a final battle at the Guild. A climactic battle ensues and the Ichani begin to tire. However, the lead Ichani, Kariko, lays a trap and a knife springs out of the ground and stabs Akkarin through the chest. As Akkarin is unable to fight, he persuades Sonea to make use of and channel his energy to supplement her dwindling reserves and with that combination of force, Sonea manages to destroy the last three Ichani. However, in doing so, all of Akkarin's life force is absorbed by Sonea, and he dies. 'He had given her too much power. He had given her everything.' Sonea deeply grieves for him and becomes extremely depressed, locking herself in her old room at Rothen's lodgings and losing the will to live - totally exhausted, physically and emotionally, and though never having been formally married to him, feels herself very much as Akkarin's widow. Whilst Dannyl and Tayend, his assistant and lover, return to Elyne, the Higher Magicians debate about whom to appoint to various positions in the Guild and appoint Rothen as the Head of Alchemic Studies. Lord Osen will probably replace the late Lord Lorlen. Lord Balkan is expected to replace Akkarin. The Higher Magicians are reconciled to the need to have a recognised Black Magician, since otherwise the Guild and the country would be completely helpless before further invasions - and Sonea is the only possible candidate, since it seems the books left behind by Akkarin do not provide enough information on how to do it. At first they intend to impose on her the condition of not being allowed to leave the Guild premises. However, arguing against that restriction, Rothen explains to them that she joined the guild in order to help the poor, and they reconsider. They rule that if she is to venture out beyond the guild premises, she must be accompanied by an escort, and she must not venture beyond the city slums in which she seeks to aid the poor. In a matter of months the Guild builds a hospital for the slums, a reversal of the long-standing discriminatory policy whereby the Healing magic was only available to the Aristocratic Houses. Though Sonea has done only three years of training out of the five required of a novice, it is obviously out of the question to treat her as anything but a full-fledged magician; instead, Dorrien (who is still in love with her) and Lady Vinara volunteer, and are formally assigned, to complete Sonea's training as a Healer. She is also to wear black robes from then on, and the High Lord is to wear white. In the final scene, Sonea spots her Aunt in the queue at the slum hospital with a baby in her arms and tells Rothen to call her over in the office. Her Aunt tells her what the problem is and Sonea gives her the prescriptions for the baby's fever. Sonea then hesitantly tries to explain to her Aunt that she would like her to come live in the guild with Sonea because she is in need of her help. At first, Sonea's aunt is confused, as is Rothen, but when Sonea taps her belly, Sonea's Aunt understands and they make explanations to Rothen. Sonea is fearful; she is carrying Akkarin's baby and didn't plan for it to happen. Sonea's Aunt smiles and soothingly assures her that she will indeed look after her, at least for a while, to help guide and prepare her for what is to come. As already disclosed by the writer, Sonea would give birth to a son named Lorkin, who is a major character in the sequel "The Ambassador's Mission". 

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Gus, Harry, and Archie are three nominally happy husbands with families in suburban New York. All are professional men, driven and successful. The three of them have known each other since their school years. They have grown up together and have now had enough time to discover that their youth is disappearing and that there is nothing they can do to preserve it. They are shaken into confronting this reality when their best friend Stuart dies suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack. After the funeral, they spend two days hanging out, playing basketball, sleeping in the subways, and drinking, including an impromptu singing contest at a bar. Harry goes home, has a vicious argument with his wife, and decides to fly to London. The other two decide to go with him. They check into an expensive hotel, dress in formal clothing, and meet three young women at a gambling casino. They go back to their rooms with the women. Gus pairs off with Mary, Archie with Julie, a young Asian woman who appears not to speak English, and Harry with Pearl. However, their efforts to hook up with these women are awkward and unsuccessful. Gus and Archie return to New York, but Harry stays behind. Gus and Archie express concern about Harry and what he will do without them. 

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The show was about brothers and sisters who were forced to live with their uncle in a house full of various animals and creepy crawlies. The children stick together while dealing with their clueless uncle who wants to get rid of them. In a house that's part jungle, part zoo (and all mad), Uncle Roy and the kids battle it out to decide whose rules prevail. 

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The Last Days of Louisiana Red, which has been described as a "HooDoo detective story and a comprehensive satire on the explosive politics of the '60s","The Last Days of Louisiana Red" at FantasticFiction. set amidst the racial violence of Berkeley, California."Ishmael Reed", Encyclopædia Britannica. The story follows investigator Papa LaBas as he tries to figure out who murdered Ed Yellings, the proprietor of the Solid Gumbo Works. In the story, Labas finds himself fighting the rising tide of violence propagated by Louisiana Red and the militant opportunists, the Moochers. Eventually, Labas learns that the murder has been a conspiracy to dethrone the Gumbo business because Ed was trying to create medicine that would stop heroin addiction. 

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Jack Cutter (Don "Dragon" Wilson) is the last in long line of vampire hunters. After killing a few vampires in one L.A. restaurant, he is chased both by police and by other vampires. 

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In the near future, war rages across the Republic of Gilead —formerly the United States of America— and pollution has rendered 99% of the population sterile. Kate is a woman who attempts to emigrate to Canada with her husband and daughter. As they take a dirt road, the Gilead Border Guard orders them to turn back or they will open fire. Kate's husband uses an automatic rifle to draw the fire, telling Kate to run, but he is shot. Kate is captured, while their daughter wanders off into the back country, confused and unaccompanied. The authorities take Kate to a training facility with several other women, where she and her companions receive training to become Handmaids —concubines for one of the privileged but barren couples who run the country's religious fundamentalist regime. Although she resists being indoctrinated into the cult of the Handmaids, which mixes Old Testament orthodoxy with scripted group chanting and ritualized violence, Kate is soon assigned to the home of "the Commander" (Fred) and of his cold, inflexible wife, Serena Joy. There she is named "Offred" —"of Fred". Her role as the Commander's latest concubine is emotionless. She lies between Serena Joy's legs while being raped by the Commander in the collective hope that she will bear them a child. Kate continually longs for her earlier life, but she is haunted by nightmares of her husband's death and of her daughter's disappearance. A doctor tells her that many of Gilead's male leaders are as sterile as their wives. Serena Joy desperately wants a baby, so she persuades Kate to risk the punishment for fornication —death by hanging— in order to be fertilized by another man who may make her pregnant, and consequently, spare her life. In exchange for Kate agreeing to this, Serena Joy provides information to Kate that her daughter is alive, and shows as proof a recent photograph of her living in the household of another Commander. However, Kate is told she can never see her daughter. The Commander also tries to get closer to Kate, in the sense that he feels if she enjoyed herself more she would become a better handmaid. The Commander knows Kate's background as a librarian. He gets her hard-to-obtain items and allows her access to his private library. However, during a night out, the Commander has sex with Kate in an unauthorized manner. The other man selected by Serena Joy turns out to be Nick, the Commander's sympathetic chauffeur. Kate grows attached to Nick and eventually becomes pregnant with his child. Kate ultimately kills the Commander, and a police unit then arrives to take her away. She thinks that the policemen are members of the Eyes, the government's secret police. However, it turns out that they are soldiers from the resistance movement (Mayday), of which Nick is also a part. Kate then flees with them, parting from Nick in an emotional scene. Kate is now free once again and wearing non-uniform clothes, but facing an uncertain future. She is living by herself, pregnant in a trailer while receiving intelligence reports from the rebels. She wonders if she will be reunited with Nick, but expresses hope that will happen, and resolves with the rebels' help she will find her daughter. 

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In 1962, Tracy Turnblad is a 16-year-old heavyset high school student living in Baltimore. Along with her best friend Penny Pingleton, Tracy regularly watches The Corny Collins Show, a local teen dance television show. The teenagers who dance on the show attend Tracy and Penny's high school, including Amber von Tussle and her boyfriend Link Larkin, the lead dancers. Amber's mother, Velma, manages the station WYZT, ensuring that Amber is prominently featured. Corny Collins and the dancers on the show are white, and Velma only allows African-American dancers on the show once a month on "Negro Day", hosted by R&B; disc jockey Motormouth Maybelle. One of the dancers on the show takes a leave of absence, and auditions for a replacement are held. Tracy attends, but Velma rejects her based on her weight and for supporting integration. Tracy is given detention for missing class to attend the audition, and finds the "Negro Day" kids practicing in the detention room. She befriends Seaweed, Motormouth Maybelle's son, who teaches her dance moves. Link sees Tracy dancing and encourages her to attend a record hop with the dancers from the show; she is enchanted, and dreams of a life with him. At the record hop, Tracy's moves attract Corny's attention, and he chooses her to be on the show. Tracy quickly becomes a popular performer, affecting Amber's chances of winning the show's annual Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant and her relationship with Link, as he grows fonder of Tracy. A local boutique owner named Mr. Pinky suggests that Tracy should be the spokesgirl for his store, and Tracy persuades her agoraphobic mother, Edna, to accompany her there as her agent; the outing boosts Edna’s confidence, but it is shattered when they encounter Velma and Amber, who insult both of them for their size. Tracy introduces Seaweed to Penny, and the two become smitten. Later, Seaweed and his younger sister Little Inez, a talented dancer, take Tracy, Penny and Link to a party at Maybelle's store. Edna finds Tracy there and tries taking her home, but Maybelle convinces her to stay, and tells her to take pride in herself. At the party, Maybelle informs everyone that Velma has cancelled "Negro Day", and Tracy suggests that they march for integration. Link is unwilling to jeopardize his career by marching, straining his relationship with Tracy. Edna returns to her husband Wilbur's practical joke device shop, but Velma gets there first, and tries to seduce him. After accusing Wilbur of infidelity, Edna forbids Tracy to be on the show; however, she soon reconciles with Wilbur. The next morning, Tracy sneaks out of the house to join the protest, which is halted by a police roadblock. Tracy argues with a police officer and hits him with her sign; this sparks a brawl, and Tracy runs to the Pingletons' home, where Penny helps her hide in a fallout shelter. However, Penny's mother Prudy reports Tracy to the police before tying her daughter to her bed for "harboring a fugitive". Having been bailed out by Wilbur, Seaweed and his friends help Tracy and Penny escape. Link visits Tracy's house to find her, and realizes he loves her. Seaweed and Penny also acknowledge their love during the escape. With the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant underway, Velma assigns police officers to prevent Tracy from entering the studio. She also rigs the pageant tallies so that Amber will win. Penny arrives at the pageant with Edna, while Wilbur, Seaweed, and the Negro Day kids help Tracy infiltrate the studio. As Amber is about to be declared the winner, Tracy crashes the pageant and dances for the title; Link breaks away from Amber to dance with Tracy, and soon brings Little Inez onstage and dances with her as well. Little Inez wins the pageant after a late surge of voting, successfully integrating The Corny Collins Show. Velma tells Amber about her rigging scheme in front of a camera manned by Edna, and is instantly fired. The dancers celebrate while Tracy and Link share a kiss. 

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It is about the horror of the Highland Clearances, and the heir of a despotic landlord, Cailean Og, who is disinherited. The most interesting character is the kirk minister who makes a sermon about social rights. For a novel of its period, it is fairly cosmopolitan, and the action ranges to locations as exotic as gold mines in New Zealand. 

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Pulitzer Prize nominated photographer Nora Wilde (Téa Leoni) divorces her rich, philandering husband Leland Banks, asking for nothing in the settlement except the use of her maiden name. Broke and without prospects for employment, after Leland blackballs her from respectable mainstream work, Nora seeks work at The Comet, a sleazy celebrity tabloid owned by Sir Rudolph Halley (Tim Curry) and run by ruthless Camilla Dane (Holland Taylor). Initially, Nora is repulsed by the depths to which she has to sink for her new job – she finds herself in demeaning situations such as stealing Anna Nicole Smith's urine to run a pregnancy test, and staking out the sewer for mutant alligators – but before long, she begins to feel at home. Nora's coworkers include egotistical Nicky Columbus (Jonathan Penner), a potential love interest; T.J. (Darryl Sivad), a humorless African-American man always clad in dark sunglasses; and Stupid Dave (Mark Roberts) who is mentally handicapped. At home, Nora deals with deranged building manager Mr. Donner (Jack Blessing) and Chloe Banks (Amy Ryan), her best friend and former step-daughter. In the second season, the show switched networks and was retooled. Meat-mogul Les Polanski (George Wendt) buys The Comet, intending to make it a respectable publication. Gone were the outlandishly zany antics from the first season, and Stupid Dave was now merely referred to as Dave. Chloe disappears without explanation, as does Mr. Donner (since Nora has a new apartment). Mary Tyler Moore (replacing Dyan Cannon from season one) and George Segal both make frequent guest appearances as Nora's parents in season two, eventually moving into the apartment across the hall. Most episodes centered on Nora's romantic life and how her job could intrude on that. Season three saw enormous changes. Camilla quits The Comet and moves on to rival tabloid The National Inquisitor, leaving most of the staff behind. By this point, she and Nora had become close, so she asks Nora to join her at the Inquisitor. Also moving to The Inquisitor was Dave, who was no longer mentally handicapped. Their new coworkers include smug reporter Jake Sullivan (Tom Verica), photographer Suji (Amy Hill), studious fact checker Harris (Jim Rash), and Bradley Crosby (Chris Elliott), the self-proclaimed illegitimate son of Bing Crosby. 

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Major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster) has been given command of a poorly-manned outpost overlooking three villages named Boo Jum, Mung Tau & Hat Song. Barker is ordered to re-occupy a nearby, deserted hamlet named Muc Wa in South Vietnam near the rural Da Nang to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, highway that a decade earlier had been the scene of a massacre of French soldiers during the First Indochina War. Barker is a weary infantry veteran in his third war (having served in the Pacific during World War II as well as in the Korean War), who provides veteran supervision to a cadre of advisors attached to a group of South Vietnamese ordered to garrison Muc Wa."Moc Hoa" was a real Special Forces base in the Plain of Reeds, southern Vietnam. The name is pronounced "muc-hwa", but spelled "Moc Hoa". Major Barker and his executive officer, the career-orientated Captain Olivetti, receive four replacement troops. Second Lieutenant Hamilton has been passed over for promotion and sees volunteering for Vietnam as a way to obtain a promotion to remain in the Army. First Sergeant Oleozewski served in the Korean War under Major Barker and is burnt out from three tours in Vietnam; his last assignment saw his previous unit massacred. Cpl Abraham Lincoln is a combat medic and a drug addict. The mystery to Major Barker is the fourth man, the draftee Cpl. Courcey, a demolitions expert who extended his enlistment by six months to serve in Vietnam. Major Barker sends his four new men plus Cpl. Ackley, a communications expert to garrison Muc Wa with a half French half Vietnamese interpreter/interrogation specialist called Cowboy, a hardcore squad of Hmong mercenaries and a motley mob of about 20 South Vietnamese Popular Force civilian "troops", armed with shotguns and old rifles with a sprinkling of machine guns, to attempt to create a defensible outpost at Muc Wa. On their way to Muc Wa, along a dirt road, the column encounters a booby-trapped roadblock. They capture the lone Viet Cong soldier manning the roadblock, who is beheaded by the over-enthusiastic Cowboy. On reaching the hamlet, Hamilton follows Oleozewski's advice to set up his defenses in a triangular formation and the unit receives supplies brought in by helicopter. At the rear of the hamlet is a graveyard of 302 French soldiers, massacred in a Viet Minh attack ten years earlier immortalized with a placard above the entrance that reads, in French, "Étrangers, dites aux Spartiates que nous demeurons ici par obéissance à leurs lois". Which Corporal Courcey translates "roughly" as meaning 'Stranger, when you find us lying here, go tell the Spartans we obeyed their orders', suggesting that 'it refers to the Battle of Thermopylae where over 300 Spartans died trying to hold the pass'. While he is investigating the graveyard, Courcey spots a one-eyed VC soldier, who is presumably a scout. During a patrol, Courcey spots a group of nine Vietnamese women and children fishing along the small river that runs through the deserted village, despite intelligence that there are no civilians said to live in the area. Courcey befriends one of the teenage Vietnamese girls despite that she speaks no English and Courcey cannot speak or understand Vietnamese. That evening, the VC attack Muc Wa with a harassing attack in which the doped-up Lincoln is wounded. Courcey leads an ambush patrol that kills the Viet Cong mortar crew of four, which included one of the women found by the river. The next morning, Barker travels to Saigon to meet with Colonel Minh, the military chief of the region, and tries to persuade Minh to send reinforcements of at least 300 ARVN troops to Muc Wa. But the corrupt Minh refuses, claiming that he needs the troops in Saigon to prevent a potential coup. After some reassurance and finagling of Colonel Minh, the Vietnamese Colonel informs Baker that the requested troops will be released in exchange for 1,500 155mm howitzer shells. That evening the outpost is attacked. A patrol from the outpost led by Sgt Oleonozski returns to safety but leaves a badly wounded man behind. Ignoring Oleonozski's warnings, Lt. Hamilton tries to rescue the man but is killed. The next day, Sgt Oleonozski commits suicide rather than face the pressure of command. When Barker is informed of the deaths, he wants to pull his troops out now that they lack an experienced leader, but this request is refused by Gen. Harnitz, forcing Barker to send his own deputy to Muc Wa. That night, the outpost is attacked again by massive numbers of Viet Cong who number in the many hundreds, not the few dozen predicted by high command, and all well armed with various automatic weapons, as opposed to outdated rifles. Barker is forced to threaten Harnitz over the radio to send air support for Muc Wa in which several helicopters and flare ships arrive just in time to stop the Viet Cong attack. The following morning, Barker receives orders from Harnitz to withdraw all of the American troops from Muc Wa, which is believed to be besieged by the 1,000-strong 507th Viet Cong battalion. Barker personally flies out to Muc Wa to evacuate the surviving Americans as well as the wounded by helicopter, but leaving behind the South Vietnamese troops, and due to mechanical issues with the helicopter, the walking wounded. The idealistic Courcey refuses to leave the wounded, so Barker decides to stay behind to help evacuate the remaining South Vietnamese troops and militiamen overland to safety. This leaves Barker, Courcey, Cowboy, the Nung troops, the Old Man and his fellow South Vietnamese militiamen alone at Muc Wa. The Vietnamese civilians that Courcey found and brought into the base camp steal several weapons and try to escape, forcing Cowboy to kill all of them. But the Vietnamese teenage girl that Courcey befriended gets away and informs the Viet Cong scouts of the Americans plans to withdraw, thus revealing that she and all of the other civilians were in fact Viet Cong supporters, as Cowboy predicted. That evening, Barker and Courcey are forced to destroy all of the arms and equipment left behind and then lead the group on the road departing the village, as friendly artillery fire begins raining down on the area. But no sooner has the group filed out than they are ambushed and surrounded by the Viet Cong, led by the civilian girl. Courcey is wounded but taken to shelter and hidden under some bushes by an elderly militiaman. At the same time, Barker is wounded by enemy fire and dies after suffering an apparent heart attack as the battle continues. After the final battle, the only survivor is the willing volunteer, Courcey, whose idealism and enthusiasm for the Vietnam War has now died along with his comrades. He wakes up in the morning to find that everyone else is dead and the soldiers, including Barker, are stripped of their fatigues. The VC have withdrawn. As Courcey wanders to the French grave site, he finds an enemy survivor: the wounded, one-eyed VC scout that he saw earlier. The VC points his rifle at Courcey before dropping it out of exhaustion. Courcey says to the one-eyed VC, "I'm going home, Charlie, if they'll let me" as he wanders off the grave site and onto the dirt road leading away from the ruins of the village. The film closes with the title card which reads '1964'. 

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The plot centers around an inter-racial romance between a Chinese princess (Talmadge) and an American (Meighan). When palace officials discover she has become pregnant she is sentenced to death. In the latter part of the film Talmadge plays the now adult daughter of the affair, seeking her father in the Philippines. 

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Holly Krauss, a successful married woman who runs her own business with best friend Meg, finds her perfect life deteriorating as a result of foolish actions made almost subconsciously, including an alcohol fuelled one night stand and arguments with potentially dangerous men. After a mysterious stranger from one such incident begins imposing himself on her life, first through stalking and then physical intimidation, she wonders if she really is going insane, before inadvertently causing even more trouble by losing £11,000 in a poker game. While good- natured and thoroughly empathetic, her artist husband Charlie is a procrastinator and therefore incapable of providing her with the support she needs. Only when Holly finally attempts suicide does she realise that all of her problems may not be simply a result of her own foolhardiness, but the work of a devious and determined psychopath intent on tearing her life apart... 

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The setting of the film takes place in an area of West London, in 2002. At a local school, student Katie is seen to suffer intense physical and emotional bullying by a group of girls, as well as by Sam Peel (Noel Clarke). When her father picks her up from school that day, Sam quietly threatens to kill her if she ever tells anyone. That evening, Katie's older brother breaks into her room to discover that she has hanged herself. The following morning, the students are informed of Katie's death and are given the day off to mourn. Anti-hero Trevor “Trife” Hector (Aml Ameen) and his best friends Jay (Adam Deacon) and Moony (Femi Oyeniran) decide to spend it smoking weed and drinking alcohol. Alisa (Red Madrell), Trife's ex- girlfriend and also pregnant - supposedly with Sam's baby - decides to spend the day with her best friend Becky (Jaime Winstone). Becky performs oral sex on an older man in return for drugs, and aggressively coaxes Alisa into joining in. The boys make their way to Sam's house on an estate to retrieve a Game Boy Sam had stolen from them earlier. Realising Sam is out, the boys also steal Sam's cannabis and Jay has sex with Sam's girlfriend Claire (Madeleine Fairley). Sam returns unexpectedly, but is beaten unconscious by the boys and they knock down Sam's mother as they flee. Alisa and Becky unexpectedly run into some of Katie's bullies aboard a train. Alisa, feeling bad that she was not there for Katie, berates the girls for the suffering they caused. Becky accidentally reveals that Alisa is pregnant, information that the bullies promise to spread around school in an effort to humiliate Alisa. At the next station, Alisa hurries off the train to vomit, whilst Becky scorns her for putting her life at risk. Having successfully sold the drugs they acquired earlier, they head to a shopping centre to buy dresses for a party later that evening. Becky makes demands of Alisa to buy a cheaper dress, before the pair meet up with the boys. Jay, convinced that Alisa's baby is Sam's, informs her that Trife wants nothing to do with her (although he does still care about her). Heartbroken, Alisa asks Becky if they can leave, however Becky refuses as she wants to go to the party. At the same time, Trife has gone to see his Uncle Curtis (Cornell John). Curtis presents Trifewith a revolver, the same one Trevor had drilled the barrel for in the beginning of the film at school. Trevor is shown downstairs, where Andreas (a customer seen earlier to have missed a drugs payment) is tied and beaten by Curtis and Trife. Curtis then orders Trife to carve a "C" into Andreas' face with a Stanley knife in order to test him. Though visibly terrified, Trife carries out his uncle's order, and flees the house traumatised. Trife desperately tries to call Alisa, but is unsuccessful in doing so. On her way home, Alisa runs into a classmate and persuades her to go to the party with her. At the party, Becky is stood up by Moony and fails in an attempt to convince Jay to have sex with her. Trevor interrupts Alisa and the other classmate who are kissing outside, and confesses his love for her. Alisa informs Trevor that the baby is definitely his - she had never slept with Sam. The two rekindle their love, but a vengeful Sam arrives at the party and attacks Trife. Alisa hurriedly tells Jay and Moony, who intervene to help Trife. Outside, Sam beats down both Trevor and Jay, whilst intimidating Moony into not interfering. Sam challenges all the other party goers who come out to watch, however Alisa, the only one unafraid of Sam, slaps him. When Sam grabs her by her hair, Trife gets to his feet and fights him to the ground. Alisa pleads with him to stop, and he ambles over to her. Sam takes this opportunity to grab his baseball bat, and deliver a critical blow to Trife's stomach. As this occurs, a car pulls up to the party. Brandishing a gun, the assailant demands to know who Sam is - a friend of Katie's points out Sam to him when he pretends he isn't. Removing his scarf, the assailant is shown to be Lenny, Katie's older brother. Lenny forces Sam to the ground at gunpoint, and produces the note Katie wrote before she hanged herself. Lenny prepares to kill Sam but With his dying breath, Trife saves Sam's life, telling Lenny "he's not worth it". Sam is almost killed when he insults Lenny after the latter begins to walk away, however the gun fails to fire. Sirens are heard in the distance, so Lenny, his accomplice, and Sam all flee the scene. Trife dies before the ambulance and police arrive. 

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Balso, the protagonist, comes across the Trojan Horse in the tall grass around Troy and promptly seeks a way to get in: “the mouth was beyond his reach, the navel provided a cul-de-sac, and so, forgetting his dignity, he approached the last. O Anus Mirabilis!” The literary critic Leslie Fiedler reads much into this and sees the whole novel as “a fractured and dissolving parable of the very process by which the emancipated Jew enters into the world of Western Culture.” Fiedler, Leslie. “Master of Dreams, the Jew in a Gentile World.” The Collected Essays of Leslie Fiedler. New York: Stein and Day, 1970. 183. Inside the Trojan Horse Balso encounters an array of odd characters who, he realizes, are all “writers in search of an audience”. These characters also represent various religious and artistic ideals. Balso hears their stories systematically, only to discard them one by one, in a strictly nihilist fashion. 

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A Cool Million, as its subtitle suggests, presents “the dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin,” piece by piece. As a satire of the Horatio Alger myth of success, the novel is evocative of Voltaire’s Candide, which satirized the philosophical optimism of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Alexander Pope. Pitkin is a typical ‘Schlemiel’, stumbling from one situation to the next; he gets robbed, cheated, unjustly arrested, frequently beaten and exploited. In a parallel plot Betty Prail, Pitkin's love interest, is raped, abused, and sold into prostitution. Over the course of the novel Pitkin manages to lose an eye, his teeth, his thumb, his scalp and his leg, but nevertheless retains his optimism and gullibility to the inevitably bitter end. Pitkin’s troubles, however, don't end with his death. Even after his death he is exploited as a martyr by the ‘National Revolutionary Party’, a political organization led by Shagpoke Whipple, a manipulative former American president. Pitkin's birthday becomes a national holiday and American youths march down the streets singing songs in his honor. Whipple speaks out against aliens and calling for a rejection of “sophistication, Marxism and International Capitalism.” West, Nathanael. Novels & Other Writings. Ed. Sacvan Bercovitch. New York: The Library of America, 1997. 238. The novel ends with a series of roaring "hails" from the crowd. 

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Seven years after World War II, a 12-year-old boy named David (Ben Tibber) escapes a Gulag in Bulgaria where he has spent his entire life where his mother has been taken away from him. He sets out on a risky journey to Denmark, initially believing he is on an important mission to deliver a letter, but eventually discovering that the "mission" was to reunite him with his mother, of whom he has distinct memories. Along his journey, he faces danger, fear, loneliness, hunger, missions and encounters various people. Johannes (Jim Caviezel), his friend and mentor in the camp, who prepares him for escape, is killed by a guard, leaving David to face escape on his own. David is helped by a guard to escape, who gives him a compass and tells him he must go southwest to Greece, take a boat to Italy and finally go north to Denmark, a peaceful and neutral country. The guard also tells him to trust no one. Since David was locked in a camp all his life, he has repressed feelings and trusts no one anyway, and so feels lost and disoriented in the world. Along his journey, though he is mistreated by some people, he is well-treated by others. Gradually he learns that some people can be trusted, and to open up and experience his own feelings. Finally, with the help of decent people whom he has learned to trust, David is reunited with his mother in Denmark. 

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Baxter, a bull terrier, is taken from the pens and given to an old woman. Baxter hates the old woman's bland lifestyle and reacts to her habits with disgust. In contrast, he becomes obsessed with the young couple across the street as he observes their nightly lovemaking sessions. Baxter attempts to communicate his dominance over the old woman by causing her to stumble, but his plan backfires. The old woman's condition deteriorates, and ultimately Baxter kills her in order to be adopted by the young couple. Baxter enjoys his life with the young couple, splitting his time between the sensual woman and the earthy man. He brings them dead animals in an attempt to show them who he is. His idyll is broken when the couple has a baby and begins to neglect him. Baxter hates the weak and helpless child. He attempts to kill it, but his plans again backfire. Ignorant of Baxter's murderous intentions, the couple gives Baxter to a neighborhood boy. Baxter thrills under the firm hand of his new master, a budding sociopath and Hitler fanatic. The boy begins to see a girl from his school who reminds him of Eva Braun. Baxter impregnates the girl's spaniel, though his own sexuality disgusts him. Later Baxter kills a stray dog to show the boy who he is, and Baxter believes that they come to a mutual understanding. When the boy commands Baxter to kill a classmate, Baxter refuses and realizes that the boy does not understand him after all. The girl's spaniel gives birth to puppies, and Baxter reacts to them with mixed emotions. In an attempt to emulate the final days of Hitler, the boy kills the puppies. In reaction, Baxter decides that the boy must die. The boy attacks first, but Baxter manages to gain the upper hand. When the boy commands him to heel, Baxter finds that he cannot disobey, allowing the boy to kill him. Later, the boy breaks into the old lady's abandoned house and observes the young couple across the street. In a monologue echoing Baxter's, the boy plans to kill his parents and be adopted by the couple. 

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The purpose of the game is to mow the lawn (using the neighbour's mower) whilst avoiding static obstacles--the flowerbeds --and mobile enemies, including the neighbour himself.http://www.zzap64.co.uk/c64/hover.html The player's pet dog will antagonise the neighbour and keep him away, but as the dog itself is vulnerable to the mower, care must be taken not to run it over. 

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Wonderbug's alter ego "Schlepcar" (so named due to its personalized California license plate "SCHLEP") was an old, beat up, conglomeration of several junked cars that looked like a rusty dune buggy. Like Herbie of Disney film fame, Schlepcar was alive and could drive itself, and could also talk in a mumbling voice. It was found in a junk yard by teenagers Barry Buntrock (David Levy), C.C. McNamara (John Anthony Bailey) and Susan Talbot (Carol Anne Seflinger). Schlepcar transformed into the shiny metal-flake orange Wonderbug whenever a magic horn (which played the bugle call for "cavalry charge") was sounded. In his Wonderbug identity, Schlepcar had the power of flight and was able to help the three teens capture crooks and prevent wrongdoing. In Wonderbug mode, the car was a Volkswagen-based Meyers Manx-clone body. Specifically the body was a Dune Runner manufactured by Dune Buggy Enterprises of Westminster, California. Dune Buggy Enterprises offered the Dune Runner with three different hood choices. Wonderbug has the T- Bird hood choice. The car had articulated eyeball headlights, and a custom bumper that resembled a mouth; different bumpers were sometimes used to give the car different facial expressions. When the car spoke in its mumbling voice, a rubber puppet stand-in with a moving mouth was sometimes used. The space that would normally contain the right rear passenger seat instead contained a box, described in dialog as "the costume/wardrobe trunk"; this box actually served to conceal a hidden driver in scenes in which the car drives itself. The car also had a long fender-mounted radio antenna that terminated with a robot-like claw or gripper. Its license plate would change to "1DERBUG". Barry often thought he was the brains of the outfit. However, it was usually Susan who came up with the ideas that saved them. A running gag was that Barry would suggest an outrageously implausible plan, its absurdity recognized by both C.C. and Susan. Susan would then suggest a far more sensible plan (usually involving disguises), which Barry would then suggest as if it were his own, prompting C.C. to praise Barry's supposed genius. Susan accepted the situation uncomplainingly, even telling a female character who observed one such exchange, "You get used to it." 

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Four people rob the vault of a bank at gunpoint. The only trouble is that a large armed police presence turns up as they try to drive away. They take shelter in a diner, where two psychos with guns, Max and Karl decide to take over, and have the (about) $500,000 for themselves. The robbers become victims with the owners of the diner and the people who were eating there. At first Max and Karl let Sam, one of the robbers do all the talking to Det. Devlin, not letting on that they are there also. But then they decide to make demands as telephone negotiations are going nowhere and shoot one of the hostages in front of the police. Lind, another negotiator has turned up and takes over, with a gung-ho attitude. Devlin has been looking at the bank tapes and see that some of the money the robbers took was not supposed to be there. The bank manager confesses it was payment for an (illegal) arms deal. A phone call shows Lind to be fake and he is shot while shooting his accomplice. A TV reporter is allowed in with a camera to film what they allow, but Max sees her hidden camera which is showing the police what is really going on there and for that she is brutally raped and dumped in a store room. A hidden phone reveals to the hostages that one of the robbers was an undercover cop (who has been shot dead) who would have a second gun, which a young woman manages to get and hand to Sam. There is a shoot out and dozens of bullets from each gun, with few hits. The cops rush in and the siege is over, but there is still a surprise ending. 

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Gino, a humble shoe-shiner in Chicago, is approached by a Mafia don who offers him a large sum of money to take the blame for a murder committed by another gangster. When he refuses, the don starts to order what may be a hit on him. Gino then agrees, planning to buy a fishing boat with the money he will earn after a three-year sentence. He signs a confession and allows his fingerprints to be put on the murder weapon. While preparing for his court confession, Gino is watched over by Jerry, a bottom-rung gangster who has recently gotten into trouble for failing to follow orders. Facing a boring stay at a local hotel and faced with Gino's inability to suggest recreations he would like for his last few days of freedom, Jerry decides to give Gino a weekend to remember in Lake Tahoe before he goes to prison. Arriving at the resort and casino, Jerry's tall tales and Gino's quiet dignity immediately get Gino mistaken for a powerful mafioso, resulting in them being treated as VIPs. However, they are then summoned to the Nevada home of crime boss Vincenzo, where a frantic Jerry is certain that their lowly status will be found out. However, Vincenzo takes a liking to Gino and the two elderly Sicilians bond. Narrowly escaping after the Chicago don turns up at Vincenzo's home as part of a mafia meeting, a relieved Jerry manages to get Gino back to Chicago safely. Jerry, who has become sympathetic to Gino, now urges Gino to flee but he refuses to break his word. However, on the day Gino is to confess in court, Jerry discovers that his superiors were merely stalling for time. Gino is to be killed, and Jerry is to be the one who does the killing. 

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The story centers on a young boy, Nino (Ryan Cooley), and his family dog, Rex, who takes on a significant role in Nino's life after the boy loses his father to cancer. During a stroll in the park with Nino and his mother, Rex manages to save the life of the eccentric inventor and dotcom wiz, Alex (Judd Nelson). Rex is badly injured during his act of heroism and Alex, as a gesture of gratitude, takes the dog back to his bionics lab to rebuild him. Through cutting edge gadgetry, Rex is imbued with super powers and becomes the target of villains determined to possess the new technology at any cost. After the procedure, Rex is capable of feats of great strength, can see in infrared vision and run at 70 mph. 

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Kindred scholars have noted that the novel's chapter headings suggest something "elemental, apocalyptic, archetypal about the events in the narrative," thus giving the impression that the main characters are participating in matters greater than their personal experiences.Kubitschek, Missy D. "'What Would a Writer Be Doing Working out of a Slave Market?': Kindred as Paradigm, Kindred in Its Own Write." Claiming the Heritage: African-American Women Novelists and History. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 24-51. Prologue Dana wakes up in the hospital with her arm amputated. Police deputies question her about the circumstances surrounding the loss of her arm and ask her whether her husband Kevin, a white man, beats her. Dana tells them that it was an accident and that Kevin is not to blame. When Kevin visits her, they are both afraid of telling the truth because they know nobody would believe them. The River Their predicament began on June 9, 1976, the day of her twenty-sixth birthday. The day before, she and Kevin had moved into a house a few miles away from their old apartment in Los Angeles. While unpacking, Dana suddenly becomes dizzy, and her surroundings begin to fade away. When she comes to her senses, she finds herself at the edge of a wood, near a river where a small, red- haired boy is drowning. Dana wades in after him, drags him to the shore, and tries to resuscitate him. The boy's mother, who had been unable to save him, begins screaming and hitting Dana, accusing her of killing her son, whom she identifies as Rufus. A man arrives and points a gun at Dana, terrifying her. She becomes dizzy again and arrives back at her new house with Kevin beside her. Kevin, shocked at her disappearance and reappearance, tries to understand if the whole episode was real or a hallucination. The Fire Dana managed to wash off the filth from the river before the dizziness sets in once again. This time, she is whisked back to a bedroom where a red-haired boy has set his bedroom drapes aflame. The boy turns out to be Rufus, now a few years older. Dana quickly puts out the fire and speaks to Rufus, who, unafraid, confesses he set fire to the drapes to get back at his father for beating him after he stole a dollar. During their ensuing conversation, Rufus's casual use of the word "nigger" to refer to Dana, who is black, initially upsets Dana, but then leads her to figure out that she has been transported back in time as well as space, specifically to Maryland, circa 1815. Following Rufus's advice, Dana seeks refuge at the home of Alice Greenwood and her mother, free blacks who live on the edge of the plantation. Dana realizes that both Rufus and Alice are her ancestors, and will one day have children. At the Greenwoods', she witnesses a group of young white men smash down the door, drag out Alice's father, who is a slave, and whip him brutally for being there without papers. One of the men punches Alice's mother when she refuses his advances. The men leave, Dana comes out of hiding, and helps Alice's mother, only to be confronted by one of the white men, who hits her and attempts to rape her. Fearing for her life, Dana becomes dizzy and returns to 1976. Though hours have passed for her, Kevin assures her that she has been gone only for a few minutes. The next day, Kevin and Dana prepare for the possibility that she may travel back in time again by packing a survival bag for her and by doing some research on black history from the books in their home library. The Fall In a flashback, Dana recounts how she met Kevin while doing minimum-wage temporary jobs at an auto-parts warehouse. Kevin becomes interested in Dana when he learns she is a writer like him, and she befriends him even though he is white and their coworkers judge their relationship. They find they have much in common; both are orphans, both love to write, and both their families disapproved of their aspiration to become writers. They become lovers. As Kevin is leaving for the library to find out how to forge "free papers" for Dana, she feels the dizziness coming back. This time, Kevin holds on to her and also travels to the past. They find Rufus writhing in pain from a broken leg. Next to him is a black boy named Nigel, whom they send to the main house for help. Rufus reacts with violent disbelief when he finds out that Kevin and Dana are married: whites and blacks are not allowed to marry in his time. Dana and Kevin explain to Rufus that they are from the future and prove it by showing the dates stamped on the coins Kevin carries in his pockets. Rufus promises to keep their identities a secret, and Dana tells Kevin to pretend that he is her owner. When Tom Weylin arrives with his slave Luke to retrieve Rufus, Kevin introduces himself. Weylin grudgingly invites him to dinner. Once back in the Weylin plantation, Margaret, Rufus's mother, fusses about her son's well-being and, jealous of the attention Rufus shows Dana, sends Dana to the cookhouse. There, Dana meets two house slaves: Sarah, the cook; and Carrie, her mute daughter. Unsure as to what their next act should be, Kevin accepts Weylin's offer to become Rufus's tutor. Kevin and Dana stay on the plantation for several weeks. They observe the relentless cruelty and torture that Weylin, Margaret, and the spoiled Rufus use against the slaves. While none is actually sadistic or evil, they feel entitled to treat the slaves as property. Weylin catches Dana reading and whips her mercilessly. The dizziness overcomes her before Kevin can reach her and she travels back to 1976 alone. The Fight In a flashback, Dana remembers how she and Kevin were married. Both of their families opposed the marriage due to ethnic bias. While Kevin's reactionary sister is prejudiced against African Americans, Dana's uncle abhors the idea of a white man eventually inheriting his property. Only Dana's aunt favors the union, as it would mean that her niece's children would have lighter skin. Kevin and Dana marry without any family present. After eight days of being home recuperating without Kevin, Dana time travels to find Rufus getting beaten up by Alice Greenwood's husband, the slave Isaac Jackson. Dana learns that Rufus had attempted to rape Alice, once his childhood friend. Dana convinces Isaac not to kill Rufus, and Alice and Isaac run away while Dana gets Rufus home. She learns that it has been five years since her last visit and that Kevin has left Maryland. Dana nurses Rufus back to health in return for his help delivering letters to Kevin. Five days later, Alice and Isaac are caught. Isaac is mutilated and sold to traders heading to Mississippi. Alice is beaten, savaged by dogs, and enslaved as punishment for helping Isaac escape. Rufus, who claims to love Alice, buys her, and orders Dana to nurse her back to health. Dana does so with much care. When Alice finally recovers, she curses Dana for not letting her die, and is wracked with grief for her lost husband. Rufus orders Dana to convince Alice to sleep with him now that she has recovered. Dana speaks with Alice, outlining her three choices: she can refuse and be whipped and raped; she can acquiesce and be raped without being beaten; or she can try again to run away. Injured and terrified from her previous punishment, Alice gives in to Rufus's desire and becomes his concubine. While in his bedroom, Alice finds out that Rufus did not send Dana's letters to Kevin, and tells Dana. Furious that Rufus lied to her, Dana runs away to find Kevin, but is betrayed by a jealous slave, Liza. Rufus and Weylin capture her and Weylin whips her brutally. When Weylin learns that Rufus failed to keep his promise to Dana to send her letters, he writes to Kevin and tells him that Dana is on the plantation. Kevin comes to retrieve Dana, but Rufus stops them on the road and threatens to shoot them. He tells Dana that she can't leave him again. The dizziness overcomes Dana and she travels back to 1976, this time with Kevin. The Storm Dana's and Kevin's happy reunion is short-lived, as Kevin has a hard time adjusting to the present after living in the past for five years. He shares a few details of his life in the past with Dana: he witnessed terrible atrocities against slaves, traveled farther up north, worked as a teacher, helped slaves escape, and grew a beard to disguise himself from a lynch mob. Disconcerted about his trouble in re-entering his former world, he grows angry and cold. Deciding to let him work his feelings out for himself, Dana packs a bag in case she time travels again. Soon enough she finds herself outside the Weylin plantation house in a rainstorm, with a very drunk Rufus lying face down in a puddle. She tries to drag him back to the house, then gets Nigel to help her carry him. Back at the house, an aged Weylin appoints Dana to nurse Rufus back to health under threat of her life. Suspecting Rufus has malaria and knowing she cannot help much, Dana feeds Rufus the aspirin she has packed to lower his fever. Rufus survives, but remains weak for weeks. Dana learns that Rufus and Alice have had three mixed-race children of the plantation and that only one, a boy named Joe, has survived. Alice is pregnant again. Rufus had forced Alice to let the doctor bleed the other two when they had fallen ill, a customary treatment of the time, but it killed them. Weylin has a heart attack and, when Dana is unable to save his life, Rufus sends her to work in the corn fields as punishment. By the time he repents his decision, she has collapsed from exhaustion and is being whipped by the overseer. Rufus appoints Dana as the caretaker of his ailing mother, Margaret. Now the master of the plantation, Rufus sells off some slaves, including Tess, Weylin's former concubine. Dana expresses her anger about that sale, and Rufus explains that his father left debts he must pay. He convinces Dana to use her writing talent to stave off his other creditors. Dana abhors secretarial work, and had argued with Kevin about his asking her to type his manuscripts. Time passes and Alice gives birth to a girl, Hagar, a direct ancestor of Dana. Alice confides that she plans to run away with her children as soon as possible, as she fears that she is forgetting to hate Rufus. Dana convinces Rufus to let her teach his son Joe and some of the slave children how to read. However, when a slave named Sam asks Dana if his younger siblings can join in on the lessons, Rufus sells him away as punishment for flirting with her. When Dana tries to interfere, Rufus hits her. Faced with her own powerlessness over Rufus, she retrieves the knife she has brought from home and slits her wrists in an effort to time travel. The Rope Dana awakens back at home with her wrists bandaged and Kevin by her side. She tells him of her eight months in the plantation, of Hagar's birth, and of the need to keep Rufus alive, as the slaves would be separated and sold if he died. When Kevin asks if Rufus has raped Dana, she responds that he has not, that a rape attempt would be the act that would cause her to kill him, despite the possible consequences. Fifteen days later, on the 4th of July, Dana returns to the plantation where she finds that Alice has hanged herself. Alice attempted to run away after Dana disappeared, and as punishment Rufus whipped her and told her that he had sold her children. In reality, he had sent to them to stay with his aunt in Baltimore. Racked with guilt about Alice's death, Rufus nearly commits suicide. After Alice's funeral, Dana uses that guilt to convince Rufus to free his children by Alice. From that moment on, Rufus keeps Dana at his side almost constantly, having her share meals and teach his children. One day, he finally admits that he wants Dana to replace Alice in his life. He says that unlike Alice, who, despite growing used to Rufus, never stopped plotting to escape him, Dana will see that he is a fair master and eventually stop hating him. Dana, horrified at the thought of forgiving Rufus in this way, flees to the attic to find her knife. Rufus follows her there, and when he attempts to rape her, Dana stabs him twice with her knife. Nigel arrives to see Rufus's death throes, at which point Dana becomes terribly sick and time travels home for the last time, only to find herself in excruciating pain, as her arm has been joined to a wall in the spot where Rufus was holding it. Epilogue Dana and Kevin travel to Baltimore to investigate the fate of the Weylin plantation after the death of Rufus, but they find very little; a newspaper notice reporting Rufus's death as a result of his house catching fire, and a Slave Sale announcement listing all the Weylin slaves except Nigel, Carrie, Joe, and Hagar. Dana speculates that Nigel covered up the murder by starting the fire, and feels responsible for the sale of the slaves. To that, Kevin responds that she cannot do anything about the past, and now that Rufus is finally dead, they can return to their peaceful life together. 

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Michael is three days behind on his plan to free his brother, particularly with his new insomniac cell mate, Haywire (Silas Weir Mitchell), whom he witnesses take some tablets to stay lucid, but escape when the doctors leave, describing them as "invisible handcuffs". He then notices Michael's tattoo and sees the hidden "maze" in it. Meanwhile, Veronica Donovan (Robin Tunney) meets with Nick Savrinn (Frank Grillo) from "Project Justice", who wants to assist. They question Lincoln regarding the evidence, which he insists was planted. Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) is visited by his cousin, Hector Avila (Kurt Caceres), who tells him that Maricruz (Camille Guaty) is with him now. He eventually gets hold of Maricruz, and learns that Hector told her lies to get her not to come. With this new development, Sucre urges Michael to get him back into the cell. Michael manages to get hold of two chemicals and uses them to corrode a pipe underneath the infirmary as part of the escape plan. He returns to his cell and notices Haywire has drawn his entire tattoo and ponders the pathway. Michael purposely injures himself to get the officers to take Haywire away before the plan is exposed. Sucre gets transferred back to Michael's cell and continues the plan. Agent Kellerman (Paul Adelstein) suspects that Scofield may try to break Lincoln out and orders to transfer Scofield out the very next day. 

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Michael Scofield receives a mysterious body tattoo, and then strips his apartment of articles of various people from Fox River, along with a hard disk which he throws into a river. The next day, he robs a bank, but surrenders without incident when the police arrive. Michael is sent to court, refusing to put up a fight, even after his lawyer, Veronica Donovan (Robin Tunney) attempts to defend him, so he is sentenced to 5 years at Fox River, the prison he requested to be sent to. Upon entering Fox River, Michael meets Capt. Brad Bellick (Wade Williams), whom he quickly discovers to be somewhat arrogant. He then meets his cell mate, Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco), who tells him the only thing he can do is serve time. Sucre shows Michael around the outside, noting the territories throughout. He then shows Michael to the isolated Lincoln Burrows (or "Link the Sink" as they call him) who killed Terrence Steadman, the Vice President's brother. Michael realizes the only way to get to his brother is to join PI (Prison Industries) of which John Abruzzi (Peter Stormare) is in charge. Michael approaches Abruzzi, but is rejected, where he calmly tells Abruzzi that he has something he needs - and leaves an origami crane, giving him a sign that he knows of Fibonacci, the informant who put Abruzzi in prison. Abruzzi allows him to join PI. In the infirmary, Michael introduces himself to Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies), whom he tries to charm. She gives him his insulin shot, since Michael claims to have Type 1 diabetes. On Michael's second visit, Sara notices his abnormally low glucose level and tells him that he is reacting to the insulin as if he is not diabetic. She then says that on his next visit, she would like to run a test. To keep up his bluff, Michael approaches C-Note (Rockmond Dunbar), the prison "pharmacist" and pays him in advance for PUGNAc, an insulin blocker. Elsewhere, Sucre proposes to his girlfriend, Maricruz Delgado (Camille Guaty), who visits him in conjugal, and accepts. Burrows' son, L.J. (Marshall Allman) starts dealing cannabis, but is arrested by the police. Veronica sees Michael, who tells her to find out who is setting Lincoln up. A bishop McMarrow (Chelcie Ross) attempts to delay Lincoln's death sentence, where he is visited by Secret Service agents Paul Kellerman (Paul Adelstein) and Daniel Hale (Danny McCarthy). After he ignores their warning, McMarrow is shot and killed in his sleep, at which point, Veronica starts to suspect Burrows may be framed. Fox River's warden, Henry Pope (Stacy Keach) asks Michael if he can finish making a model of the Taj Mahal for his anniversary with his wife, where he eventually starts working. Later, Michael meets Lincoln, and tells him he is going to get him out. After PI, a skeptical Lincoln asks Michael if he's seen the blueprints to the prison. Michael says, "Better than that -- I've got them on me." He reveals his mysterious body tattoo, which is a series of geometric patterns that disguise the blueprints to Fox River, upon which Michael will base his escape plans throughout the series. 

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The novella is set in the summer of 1970. It is narrated by a 35-year-old man (like all the characters he is not named) who is lying in hospital waiting to die of liver cancer, although the doctors do not believe that the cancer is real. Early on in the novel, the narrator associates his cancer with the imperial symbols, calling it, "a flourishing bed of yellow hyacinth or possibly chrysanthemums bathed in a faint purple light".The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away translated by John Nathan, p. 9. He wears a pair of goggles with green cellophane lenses. The story opens with a late-night encounter between the narrator and a "lunatic", resembling both the narrator's father and a Dharma, who appears at the end of his bed. The lunatic asks the narrator what he is, to which he replies "I'm cancer" and throws his nostril clippers at the lunatic. The remainder of the novel comprises the narrator's recollections of his childhood. The main narrative is periodically interrupted by discussions between the narrator and "the acting executor of the will", who is transcribing the narrator's story. Looking forward to his death, the narrator sings the song, "Happy Days Are Here Again". He fantasises about obtaining revenge on his hated mother by summoning her to attend his death, and in his narrative tries to recreate his earlier "Happy Days" of the latter years of the Second World War. His first reminiscences, however, are of the immediate postwar years, in which he was ostracised by the other children for his poverty and "animal violence".The Day p. 29. He was caught and humiliated by his mother while attempting to commit suicide. He also remembers that by the end of the war he had picked up that his mother's real father had been executed for participating in a revolt against the emperor in 1912. She had then been adopted by a nationalist family working in China. There she met her future husband, who brought her to the village. The narrator's father was 'associated with the military', and was part of an anti-Tojo movement in the Kanto Army to promote General Ishiwara; after the plan failed, he returned to the village on New Year's Day 1943 and shut himself up in the storehouse. There he wore the goggles later used by the narrator and used headphones to listen to a radio. The narrator's parents broke off contact with one another after the father's son by his first marriage deserted from the Japanese army in Manchuria. Both parents sent telegrams to contacts in the army: the mother to help her stepson escape, and the father to preserve the family honour by having him shot. The son was shot. The mother claimed the ashes, and thereafter referred to her husband only as ano hito (あの人) — "that man", or "a certain party". The narrator describes the time spent with his father in the storehouse after this breach as the first "Happy Days" of his life. They culminated in an attempted revolt led by his father on 16 August 1945, the day after the end of the war. The plan was to kill the emperor (to "accomplish what your father tried and failed to do", as the narrator's father said to his wifeThe Day p. 96.), and to blame the act on the Americans, thereby preventing the country's surrender. The father takes his son with him and his co-conspirators as he leaves the valley. The group sing the closing chorale from the Bach cantata (Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56): Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder, Komm und führe mich nur fort; Da wischt mir die Tränen mein Heiland selbst ab (Come, O death, brother of sleep, come and lead me forth; my saviour himself shall wipe my tears away). The father tells his son that the words mean that the emperor will wipe their tears away. The plot is a failure, and the conspirators are all killed (in the narrator's opinion, "very likely" by American agents in disguise). At the moment of his father's death, he recalls that he saw, "high in the sky... a shining gold chrysanthemum against a vast background of purple light... the light from that flower irradiated his Happy Days".The Day p. 100. By the time he reaches this part of the story, however, his mother has arrived at the hospital, and it is she who wipes away the tears he sheds. She recalls that her son only survived the massacre of the conspirators because he had already run away. The "acting executor of the will" agrees with the mother, and from her words it appears that she is the narrator's wife.The Day p. 105. Confronted with his mother's version of events, the narrator retreates further into his own world. He wears a set of earphones as well as the goggles, and listens to a recording of the cantata while singing "Happy Days". He imagines himself back at the moment of his father's death, crawling towards a father figure so that, "his blood and his tears will be wiped away".The Day p. 110. 

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The story begins in 1913 with the narrator's visit to a friend on the island of Capri in Italy. The friend introduces the narrator to Thomas Wilson, who had come to the island for a holiday sixteen years earlier. A year after that holiday, Wilson had given up his job in London as a bank manager to live a life of simplicity and enjoyment in a small cottage on Capri. Enchanted by the island during his visit, he had made the decision during the intervening year to forgo working another twelve or thirteen years for his pension and instead to take his accumulated savings and purchase at once an annuity that would allow him to live simply on Capri for twenty-five years. And what will happen at the end of that twenty-five years, fifteen of which have already passed, asks the narrator; many men die by sixty, but many do not. Wilson does not directly answer the question, but he implies that if nature does not carry him off by the age of sixty, he will be content to dispatch himself, having lived a life of his own choosing in the meantime. The narrator of the story is stunned by such a bold plan, all the more because Wilson has the appearance and manner of an unremarkable, ordinary man – very much that of the bank manager he once was. The narrator soon leaves Capri, and, what with the intervening world war and other events, nearly forgets his acquaintance with Wilson until thirteen years later, when he revisits his friend on Capri. By then, of course, the ten years that remained of Wilson's bargain with fate have expired. His friend describes for the narrator what has happened in his absence. Wilson, his annuity exhausted, had first sold all that he owned; then he had relied on his excellent credit to borrow sums of the islanders to sustain himself; but at the end of a year after the expiration of his annuity, he could no longer even borrow. Wilson then had shut himself in his cottage and lit a charcoal fire to fill the room with carbon monoxide in an attempt to kill himself. But he lacked the will, the narrator says, to make a good-enough job of the attempt, and survived, though with brain damage that left him mentally abnormal but not unbalanced enough for the asylum. He lives out the remainder of his years in the woodshed of his peasant former landlord, carrying water and feeding the animals. As the narrator and his friend walk along, the friend nearing the end of the tale, the friend warns him to betray no sign of his knowledge of Wilson's presence; the confused and degraded man is crouching nearby behind a tree, like a hunted animal. After six years of this existence, he is found dead on the ground overlooking the beautiful Faraglioni (coastal stacks) that had enticed him to the island so many years before – slain perhaps, the narrator suggests, by their beauty. The narrator had told Wilson shortly after meeting him that his own choice would have been the safe one: to work the additional dozen or more years that would have secured his pension and, thus, a guarantee of enough money to live on, however long that might be, before setting out for his idyll on Capri, even though, as Wilson said, the pleasures of a man in his thirties are different from those of a man in his fifties. But it is not to Wilson's original choice that the narrator attributes the tragedy of Wilson's final years; he applauds Wilson for having had the nerve to make of his life what he wanted instead of following society's approved path. The narrator speculates that Wilson might indeed have had the kind of resolve needed to carry out his decision to end his own life, if necessary, at the time he first enacted his bold plan to leave his workaday life in London for the full-time leisure that, Wilson had argued, is all anyone is working for anyway. But the very ease and indolence of his life on Capri had deprived him of the will he needed to carry out his decision when the time came. Without challenge, the narrator argues, human will grows flabby, just as muscles used to support one only on level ground will lose the capacity to climb a mountain. The story's name is a reference to the Lotus eaters of Greek Mythology, who similarly had a life of indolence. 

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Set between early autumn of 1953 and late spring of 1954, fashion designer Coco Chanel, after fifteen years of retirement, decides to return to the world of haute couture and reopen her Paris salon. With her new collection derided by the critics, she faces bankruptcy until buyers from four major American department stores - Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, Best & Company, and Ohrbach's - place orders with her. She becomes involved with the love life of one of her models, and flashbacks utilizing filmed sequences recall her own past romantic flings. Adding humor to the proceedings is a highly stereotypical rude gay designer who tries to impede Chanel's success.In a post-performance discussion with André Previn at performance of this show by the York Theatre on September 12, 2010, it was noted that character is the first gay character who plays a significant role in a Broadway show. The finale is a fashion show featuring actual Chanel designs from 1918 to 1959. 

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A 15-year-old basketball player Kyle Johnson (Ryan Merriman) is depending on a gold charm for luck. He needs to get it back to break a spell controlled by an evil leprechaun named Seamus McTiernen (Timothy Omundson), who stole the coin. 

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A gang of criminals robs a Gotham City mob bank, murdering each other for a higher share until only the Joker remains; he escapes with the money. Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Jim Gordon form an alliance to rid Gotham of organized crime. Bruce Wayne is impressed with Dent's idealism and offers to support his career; he believes that, with Dent as Gotham's protector, he can give up being Batman and lead a normal life with Rachel Dawes—even though she and Dent are dating. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and the Chechen hold a videoconference with their corrupt accountant, Lau, who has taken their funds for safekeeping and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts, warns them that Batman is unhindered by the law, and offers to kill him in exchange for half of their money. The Joker kills Gambol and takes over his gang, and the mob ultimately decides to accept the offer. Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and brings him back to Gotham to testify, allowing Dent to apprehend the entire mob. The Joker threatens to keep killing people unless Batman reveals his identity, and starts by murdering Police Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trial. The Joker also tries to kill Mayor Anthony Garcia, but Gordon sacrifices himself to stop the assassination. Dent learns that Rachel is the next target. Bruce decides to reveal his secret identity. Before he can, however, Dent announces that he is Batman. Dent is taken into protective custody, but the Joker appears and attacks the convoy. Batman comes to Dent's rescue and Gordon, who faked his death, apprehends the Joker, securing a promotion to Commissioner. Rachel and Dent are escorted away by detectives on Maroni's payroll; Gordon later learns that they never arrived home. Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that they have been trapped in separate locations rigged with explosives. Batman races to save Rachel, while Gordon attempts to rescue Dent. Batman arrives at the building, but realizes that the Joker sent him to Dent's location instead. Both buildings explode, killing Rachel and disfiguring half of Dent's face. The Joker escapes with Lau, whom he later kills along with the Chechen. Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces that Bruce is Batman and tries to go public with the information. Not wanting Reese's revelation to interfere with his plans, the Joker threatens to destroy a hospital unless someone kills Reese within the hour. Gordon orders the evacuation of all the hospitals in Gotham and goes to secure Reese. The Joker gives Dent a gun and convinces him to seek revenge for Rachel's death, then destroys the hospital and escapes with a busload of hostages. Dent goes on a killing spree, deciding the fates of people he holds responsible for Rachel's death by flipping his lucky coin—one side having become scorched in the explosion. After announcing Gotham will be subject to his rule come nightfall, the Joker rigs two evacuating ferries with explosives, one containing civilians and the other containing prisoners. He says that he will blow them both up by midnight, but will let one live if its passengers (who have been supplied the detonator to the other boat's explosives) blow up the other. Batman finds the Joker by using a sonar device that spies on the entire city, with the reluctant help of Lucius Fox. Both the civilians and the prisoners refuse to kill each other, while Batman apprehends the Joker after a brief fight. Before the police arrive to take the Joker into custody, he gloats that Gotham's citizens will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge. Gordon and Batman arrive at the building where Rachel perished. Dent shoots Batman, spares himself, and threatens to kill Gordon's son, claiming that Gordon's negligence is responsible for Rachel's death. Before he can flip for the boy, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building to his death. Batman persuades Gordon to hold him responsible for the killing spree and preserve Dent's heroic image. As the police launch a manhunt for Batman, Gordon destroys the Bat-signal, Fox watches as the sonar device self-destructs, and Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter from Rachel saying she planned to marry Dent. 

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Genoshan magistrates, backed by the cyborg Cameron Hodge, and including an amnesiac Havok (a member of the X-Men), attack the X-Mansion and kidnap Storm and the New Mutants Warlock, Boom Boom, Rictor, and Wolfsbane. After expending his energy on freeing the others from their cell, Warlock is taken to have his power transferred to Hodge. Wolfsbane returns to rescue him, but instead unintentionally causes the transfer to go awry, killing Warlock. Wolfsbane is brainwashed, turned into one of Genosha's mindless mutate slaves, which form the backbone of the Genoshan economy and lifestyle. The remaining New Mutants and the X-Men recruit X-Factor and head to Genosha to save their teammates, only to be ambushed by Havok and the Genoshan magistrates. As Cyclops unsuccessfully attempts to jog Havok's memory, the Genoshans meet a humiliating defeat. Wolverine, Psylocke, and Jubilee rescue Rictor and Boom-Boom from Genoshan magistrates. After entrusting Rictor and Boom Boom to the care of Jubilee, Psylocke and Wolverine put on the magistrates' uniforms to enter Hammer Bay. Havok, seeing someone else is wearing his lover's uniform, attacks his former teammates. Psylocke incapacitates Havok, but Hodge takes her and Wolverine prisoner. Meanwhile, Storm attempts to kill Genoshan engineer David Moreau, but is captured by Hodge and turned into a mutate slave. Jean, Cable, Gambit, Sunspot, and Forge place bombs throughout the outer levels of the capitol building, the Citadel, but are captured after the magistrate Wipeout blocks their powers. The remaining heroes set a trap at their hideout and attack the Citadel, but are defeated. Wanting payback for his earlier humiliation, Havok confronts Cyclops personally. This time Cyclops succeeds in making Havok remember who he is. However, deciding his only chance of helping is as an inside man, Havok tranquilizes Cyclops and turns him over to Hodge. The X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants are put on trial, but when Wolverine attempts to kill the judge, he turns them over to Hodge to do with as he will. Pretending to be traumatized by Hodge's brutalities, Psylocke submits herself to the mutate process. She then escapes while being taken to Moreau. Once the others are left alone, Gambit uses a dart Hodge fired into his leg to pick their locks. Thinking the mutants are all safely captured, Hodge initiates his plan to betray Genosha, killing a number of magistrates, including Wipeout. The Chief Magistrate turns to the mutant teams for help against Hodge, using Storm's electrical power to restore their powers. The process inexplicably also undoes Storm's brainwashing and restores her to adulthood. Jubilee, Rictor, and Boom-Boom stumble upon Moreau, who is taking his own steps to counter Hodge's treachery. He takes them to the Citadel. There, they are reunited with their teammates. Moreau directs Wolfsbane to change into wolf form; only by remaining in this form can she be free of her brainwashing. Moreau shoots Hodge point blank with a prototype weapon, but Hodge kills him before he can finish him off. The mutant teams hunt Hodge throughout the Citadel, with Cyclops and Havok finally destroying his body. Hodge's severed head still lives on due to the immortality bestowed on him by N'Astirh, so Rictor brings down the Citadel, burying him alive. Days later, Havok and Wolfsbane decide to stay in Genosha to help settle tensions between humans and mutants in the country. The mutant heroes return home and hold a funeral for Warlock. Per Wolfsbane's wishes, they spread his ashes over the grave of their teammate Cypher. 

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Leso Varen has moved to wreak havoc on the world of Kelewan and Pug and the Conclave of the Shadows are determined to find him, only to find out he has stolen a body of a Tsurani magician. Meanwhile, Pug, Magnus, Nakor and Ralan Bek lead a desperate expedition into the Dasati realm hoping to find the key to defeating the enemy who threatens their homeworld. 

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Sunder Srivastava (Shah Rukh Khan) is a young graduate. His main ambition in life is to fulfill his father's dream of starting a school on his half-acre property in his village, though he has no funds to execute his plans. Sunder's childhood friend Prem, a seasoned conman in Mumbai, convinces the gullible Sunder to a mortgage. When Sunder comes to Mumbai, he is first tricked and loses his luggage, then pick-pocketed and loses his money. He then finds that Prem tricked him and fled to Dubai with his money. Sunder is forced to take shelter in a cemetery. Sunder starts cursing his stars and venting his anger. A voice responds to him and a surprised Sunder asks the person to identify himself. The source of the voice, who cannot be seen, is surprised and asks Sunder whether the latter can really hear him. Sunder realizes that he has been talking with a ghost and panics. The ghost suddenly becomes visible to Sunder and introduces himself as Amar Kumar alias Marco (Naseeruddin Shah). Marco tells Sunder that only he can help Sunder and vice versa. Marco tells his story. Marco was an underworld gangster who fell in love with one Savitri Kaul (Malvika Tiwari), daughter of one Mr. Kaul (Shammi Kapoor). Savitri declined to marry him if he did not change his ways. To show that he was serious, Marco resolved to give up the crime. This did not bode well for his protégé Kunta (Tinu Anand), who wanted to become as big as Marco himself. On his wedding night, Marco was kidnapped and killed by Kunta, after which he was buried in the cemetery. Marco tells Sunder that many crimes taking place in the city under his name are actually done by Kunta and his minions. Marco tells Sunder that due to his sins, he cannot attain redemption. Marco was foretold that only his savior would be able to see and hear him, so Sunder has to help him. Sunder declines, but Marco surprises him by reminding him of his dream, about which Sunder had not told a thing to Marco. Marco tells him that he wants to see Savitri and Mr. Kaul. He also tells that he cannot touch or harm anybody until a time comes. Marco manages to get Sunder a position as a cricket coach in a school run by Mr. Kaul. Marco is angered when he finds out that after his murder, Kunta and his goons came to the Kaul household and told Savitri that Marco was alive and had fled India never to come back, suggesting that Marco only married her in order to sleep with her. Kunta had told them that Marco wanted Savitri and her father to hand over the ownership documents for his hotel to Kunta, but Savitri refused to hand them over unless Marco himself came to ask for them. Kunta then tried to rape Savitri, but was stopped when her father broke down, promising to give them the documents. Hearing all of this, Marco is furious and vows revenge. He is grieved to learn that Savitri died soon after that, but he is overjoyed when he learns that he has a daughter with Savitri called Mala (Urmila Matondkar). Sunder and Marco also find out that the school lacks funding and that Kunta is trying to usurp its land. Mala and Sunder start falling in love. Marco helps and keeps Kunta's goons away. Later, Marco shows a secret room to Sunder where he had kept all his loot. The room was not known to Kunta or anybody else, so Marco proposes that an anonymous donation is made, which will be more than enough to save the school and help Sunder. However, due to their oversight, Kunta finds out the location of the room, and Marco loses all his money. Marco refers to Kunta as "Woh Kunta saala" ("that rogue Kunta"). In a desperate bid, Marco steals some money and bets to double the money. Sunder is held responsible for the theft, although no proof is present. Marco tells the truth to Sunder, and they have a fall-out. Sunder agrees to a cricket match between his team and a team headed by Kunta's nephew: if they win the game, they will win funds to keep the school. Initially, Sunder's team is losing, but Marco then steps into the game (still invisible to everyone), sabotages the opponent team and helps Sunder's team, leading Sunder's team to succeed massively. After a brief meeting between Sunder and Kunta prior to the start of the match where Sunder mentions Marco's ghost, Kunta becomes suspicious. During the match, he abducts Sunder along with Mala and buries them alive in the very place he had buried Marco. Marco manages to lead the police to the cemetery where a fight erupts between Kunta and his goons on the one hand, Marco, Mala, Sunder and the policemen on the other. After succeeding in beating up the goons, Marco starts to strangle Kunta with a rope while Sunder forces Kunta to confess his role in Marco's murder. Marco then pushes Kunta into the empty grave and as he is about to kill him with a large rock, Mala calls out for him to stop, calling him "father" and entreating not to kill and sully his hands with blood because of Kunta. On hearing this, Marco immediately relents and lets Kunta live. Finally, Sunder succeeds in his mission. Sunder and Mala marry, with Marco attending the wedding. At the wedding, a ray of light falls upon Marco who then ascends to heaven, although not before asking for "a minute" to entreat the viewer to do the right thing while they are alive, because they may not have the chance to set things right after death. 

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The story opens on a note of pure fantasy, showing school children from the future taking a field trip through time to see the dyspeptic poet Francis Xavier Enderby while he is asleep. Enderby, a lapsed Catholic in his mid-40s, lives alone in Brighton as a 'professional' poet - his income being interest from investments left to him by his stepmother. Enderby composes his poetry whilst seated on the toilet. His bathtub, which serves as a filing cabinet, is almost full of the mingled paper and food scraps that represent his efforts. Although he is recognised as a minor poet with several published works (and is even awarded a small prize, the 'Goodby Gold Medal', which he refuses), he has yet to be anthologised. He is persuaded to leave his lonely but poetically fruitful bachelor life by the editor of a woman's magazine, Vesta Bainbridge, after he accidentally sends her a love poem instead of a complaint about a recipe in her magazine. The marriage, which soon ends, costs Enderby dearly, alienating him from his muse and depriving him of his financial independence. Months pass, and Enderby is able to write only one more poem. After spending what remains of his capital, he attempts suicide with an overdose of aspirin, experiencing disgusting (and rather funny) visions of his stepmother as he nears death. His cries of horror bring help, and he regains consciousness in a mental institution, where the doctors persuade him to renounce his old, "immature" poetry-writing self. Rechristened "Piggy Hogg", he looks forward contentedly to a new career as a bartender. 

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After a suicide attempt at the very end of Inside Mr. Enderby, the second novel opens with the protagonist under psychiatric care and working as a bartender at a large London hotel. Under the name of 'Hogg' (his stepmother's maiden name, we learn), he is persuaded to renounce the creation of poetry as an adolescent preoccupation and to pursue useful work. Hogg-Enderby, bereft of his stock of capital and now divorced, is forced to earn his keep and finds that the poetic muse has left him. He also finds that his work has been plagiarised, again, by a certain rock singer named Yod Crewsey - whose band, the Crewsey Fixers, are managed and groomed by his former wife. After being implicated in the public murder of Crewsey during a banquet at the hotel, Enderby-Hogg goes on the run to Morocco - to the bar of a rival poet named Rawcliffe. Assuming control and ownership of Rawcliffe's property upon his death, and the death of his 'Hogg' persona, Enderby realises that his muse is returning. Category:Novels by Anthony Burgess Category:1968 British novels Category:British comedy novels Category:Novels set in hotels Category:Novels set in Morocco Category:Heinemann (publisher) books 

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When the evil "Black Section of Esoteric Buddhism" had tried to invade Tibet years ago, the Tibetan monks used a powerful magical item, the "Babu Gold Bottle" to expel them. The Tibetan master (Wu Ma) has the bottle's cap and wishes to reunite it with the bottle as the Black Section are stirring once more. He sends a young monk, Wong La (Yuen Biao) to Hong Kong to recover the sacred bottle, which is in the possession of a crippled lawyer. Wong meets and protects a woman, Chiu Seng-Neng (Michelle Reis) who is acting as the agent for the lawyer, and the Black Section fight to gain the magical bottle for themselves. The leader of the Black Section (Yuen Wah) learns of the intended hand-over, and seeks to get the Babu Gold Bottle for himself. 

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Enderby is a dyspeptic British poet, 56 years old, and The Clockwork Testament is an account of his last day alive. The day in question is a cold one in February. He spends it in New York City, where for the past several months he's been working as a visiting professor of English literature and composing a long poem about St. Augustine and Pelagius. Enderby's present situation arose from a chance encounter with an American film producer in Tangiers, where he owns a bar. Publican Enderby served the man a Scotch and pitched him an idea for a new film—an adaptation of Gerard Manley Hopkins's famously obscure poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland". The producer, intrigued, asked for a script, which Enderby duly composed. The eventual film bears little resemblance to this script or to Hopkins's poem; however, his name is prominently credited, and the film, and Enderby, are now famous. This unwanted public recognition has led to an invitation to teach English at the University of Manhattan for a year. Also, since the film has controversial elements—including, for some reason, a lurid rape scene with Nazis and nuns—the reclusive, little-read poet has been receiving a barrage of ranting phone calls from angry citizens who are eager to denounce "his" film. Invariably, these callers (and other critics) have never read the original poem; indeed, they don't even know it exists. Enderby suffers three heart attacks over the course of the day, and succumbs to a fourth some time after midnight. Between attacks, he goes about his business: he happily works on his Pelagian poem; eats dyspeptic American food and smokes White Owl cigars; refuses an offer of sex from a female poetry student who wants him to give her an A; struggles through two lectures; appears on a smarmy talk show; and draws a sword he carries hidden in his cane to defend a middle-aged housewife from a gang of thugs on the subway. Everywhere—even on the subway—he encounters incomprehension and, usually, disapproval. When he finally gets home, however, a woman he's never seen before drops by and pulls a gun on him; she has come to tell him she's read and re-read all his poetry, and is now going to murder him for writing it. First, however, she orders him to strip naked and urinate all over his collected works. Enderby strips, but since he has an erection he cannot obey the rest of her command. The scene ends, apparently, in a sexual encounter. Enderby dies later that night. 

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A teenage boy from the Bronx is sent to Queens to live with his Aunt and new Uncle one summer in the 1950s. His summer goal is to witness an act of love. Lenny is a typical 14-year-old from the Bronx. Like every teenage boy, he is totally fascinated with the concept of sex. But the year is 1955, and Lenny is too young and too scared to actually "do it." So he dedicates his summer vacation to the next best thing. Seeing two other people do it. Easier said than done. Caught in the act of spying, his mother and stepfather ship him off to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in "the country" Queens. His plan looks like a bust, and his summer seems destined for boredom, until he meets a whole new group of friends. Young teens who have a "sex club." They don't do it; they just talk about it, but these kids have a lot more interesting information than was available in the Bronx. And then he meets Hedy; a nurse, twice his age, and gorgeous - in a former life she modeled for bra ads. Lenny is both smitten and inspired, and his goal for the summer kicks into high gear. Lenny's plan to "witness an act of love" becomes an obsession, which turns a summer vacation into an adventure that will change his life forever. 

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Like everyone in Riverton, Indiana, seventeen-year-old Robert "Gar" Gartland (Haley Joel Osment) loves his school's basketball team, the Riverton Giants. His best friend, Matt Morrison (Ryan Merriman), is the star of the Riverton Giants. When Matt makes Robert take part in the robbery of a small-time drug dealer, things do not go as planned and Robert faces the challenge of saving the team from a desperate predicament with the state championship and Matt’s future on the line. In Indiana, high school basketball is a way of life. This fanaticism serves as a backdrop for a story that explores peer pressure, perspective and the difference between a friend and a hero. Gar believes Matt can do no wrong. While he supports and encourages his best friend’s antics, Gar finds himself falling in love with Bridgette, an outsider who does not embrace the celebrity status given basketball players in her new hometown. From high school parties, pep rallies and Hoosier hysteria, to robbing a drug dealer, being stalked and blackmailed, defying a hero and confronting his adversaries, Gar comes to terms with his false belief, and gains a new level of awareness about himself and his hometown. 

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Alvin marries Peggy, and they conceive a daughter (not born by the end of the book). Alvin, Verily Cooper, Arthur Stuart, and Mike Fink are joined by John James Audubon, a French-speaking painter of birds. This group go to a Puritan-dominated place near Boston and end up confronting the witch laws. Meanwhile, Peggy has gone to the Crown Colonies - slave states that ruled by the Stuart dynasty in exile - in an attempt to free the slaves. We learn the story of Purity, a Puritan girl whose parents were hanged for their knacks, which are considered witchcraft by the Puritans. Purity meets Alvin's band and Arthur Stuart tells her the whole story of their travels. Purity goes away convinced they are witches and tells a local witcher, Quill, who is evil and twists her words against her and the boys. Quill intends to hang them as well as Purity. Alvin whisks away Arthur Stuart, Mike Fink, and Audubon by leading them into the greensong that lets them run hundreds of miles without tiring, but turning back without the others en route. Alvin gives himself up to the men sent to bring in the "witches" while Verily hides for the moment. Quill has both Purity and Alvin running in tight circles to wear them down - a semi-legal form of torture, intended to make them confess to witchery. Verily comes by and loudly scolds Quill in front of the crowd, saying it's inhumane. At the trial, Verily Cooper makes a case for overturning the witchery laws: in all previous witch trials, it was the witcher who brought up any connection with Satan, while the defendant had been too beaten down to resist. The judge, John Adams, is sympathetic, but realizes that a sudden overthrow of long-kept laws will cause social instability. However, based on Verily's evidence, he suspends the licenses of all witchers in New England for alleged misconduct; since, to reinstate their licenses, a witcher would have to prove his claims in a normal court, and since this is impossible, it effectively ends the practice of witch trials while leaving the laws on the books. Calvin has come back to America from France with Honoré de Balzac, the French boy-writer. The two meet up with Peggy and Calvin gets himself in serious trouble. 

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Claustrophobic thriller about a team of vampire hunters who infiltrate a nest of undead to rescue one of their own. Carrie Rieger tugs at her bonds. The young vampire huntress has to free herself. Guarded by vampires, chained in a dark cellar by the mighty vampire King Pashek, her time is running out. She knows an even greater threat than the vampires is coming relentlessly closer. Everything will be decided tonight. Carrie has crossed a dangerous trail: Back from a faraway journey, a man slowly transforms into a vampire. And he transforms further - into something that even the vampires fear; the mighty vampire demon Vlad Kossei. The vampire sovereigns killed Kossei many hundreds of years ago, but now he has seemingly returned. In his new body, he will take revenge and destroy everything in his way. There is only one hunter who can stop him... 

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The Marquis takes place in Venisalle, a fictional land resembling France during the mid-18th century, complete with stratified society and Church dominance of everyday affairs. The story revolves around Vol de Galle, a former Inquisitor of The Faith who has the ability to see demons, many of which have infiltrated society disguised in human form. De Galle combats these entities with his sabre and a pair of specially built, anachronistic machine guns. 

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Meg is employed as an intern for Mayor West after doing an interview with him. The family is impressed by this news, and Brian feels pressured that he is becoming the "new Meg" due to him not having a job. Brian decides to become a taxicab driver, but soon becomes intent on exposing the corruption of Mayor West after receiving a $400 parking ticket for parking his taxi in a handicapped zone. When discussing his corruption beliefs with Meg, she argues that Mayor West is a nice person and that Brian should drop it. Stewie, after learning of Brian's intentions, decides to help. After meeting in a parking lot with a whistleblower, Kermit the Frog, Brian discovers where Mayor West will be that night, and follows him to a motel with Stewie. Spying on West through the motel wall, they discover he's in a romantic relationship with Meg. Seeing this as an ideal opportunity to take West down, Brian photographs the two together in romantic scenes and threatens to reveal them to the press. After Meg finds out, she confronts West, who says he and Meg should separate due to the negative press which will follow - because even though he's used to it, he does not want Meg's life to be ruined, stating how much he really cares about her. They separate, with Mayor West telling Meg that even though he's leaving her, he'll always love her. Brian, having secretly heard this, realizes he has made a mistake, destroys the images, and apologizes to Meg that he lost sight of what was really important. His taxicab, however, is destroyed by Cleveland, believing Brian refused to give him a ride. Meanwhile, Peter and Lois decide to participate in a community talent show with a folk-singing act they did in the 1980s. They have a hard time, however, writing new songs and start to smoke marijuana for inspiration, annoying the family. At one point, Peter eats a piece of his guitar, and him and Lois lie on the sofa naked in front of Brian and Stewie. At the show, they initially appear to wow the entire crowd with their performance, but, later, they realize that they lost. Chris explains that they were completely high and they just shouted "Aah!" to the crowd while plodding chords on the guitar and he then preaches the dangers of marijuana to Lois and Peter. 

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A lone man walks through the sweltering streets of a deserted London. The film then goes back several months. Peter Stenning (Judd) had been an up-and-coming journalist with the Daily Express, but since a divorce threw his life into disarray, he has been drinking too much (one of his lines is "Alcoholics of the press, unite!") and his work has suffered. His editor (Christiansen) has begun giving him lousy assignments. Stenning's only friend, Bill Maguire (McKern), is a veteran Fleet Street reporter who offers him encouragement and occasionally covers for him by writing his copy. Meanwhile, after the Soviet Union and the United States accidentally detonate simultaneous nuclear bomb tests, strange meteorological events begin to affect the globe. Stenning is sent to the British Met Office to obtain temperature data, and while there he meets Jeanie (Munro), a young typist who is temporarily acting as telephonist. They "meet cute", trading insults; later, they fall in love. Stenning then discovers that the weapons tests have had a massive effect on Earth. He asks Jeannie to help him get any relevant information. It becomes apparent that Earth's nutation has been altered by 11 degrees, affecting the climatic zones and changing the pole and the equator. The increasing heat has caused water to evaporate and mists to cover Britain, and a solar eclipse occurs days ahead of schedule. Later, characters realise that the orbit of the Earth has been disrupted and the planet is spiralling in towards the Sun. The government imposes a state of emergency and starts rationing water and supplies. People start evacuating the cities. Scientists conclude that the only way to bring Earth back into a safe orbit is to detonate a series of nuclear bombs in western Siberia. Stenning, Maguire, and Jeanie gather at a bar to listen to the radio broadcast of the event. The bombs are detonated, and the shock wave causes dust to fall from the bar's ceiling. At the newspaper print room, two versions of the front page have been prepared: one reads "World Saved", the other "World Doomed". The film ends without revealing which one will be published. 

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Suraj (Shatrughan Sinha) and Lala (Jeetendra) were good friends before falling prey to the vicious tricks of Sundar (Tinnu Anand), so much so that Lala believes his wife is dead and Suraj is to blame for that. They become the greatest of enemies and create chaos in the city by way of gang wars. Asst. Commissioner of Police (Prem Chopra) has 2 criminal psychologists, KD (Anupam Kher) and Shalini (Kiran Juneja) weave a plot to bring Rahul (Shahrukh Khan), the lively and spirited son of Suraj, close to Priya (Raveena Tandon), the ever-so- graceful and elegant daughter of Lala, hoping to bring the two sides together. 

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Yang Lin, a hero from the Chinese epic novel Water Margin or Suikoden in Japanese, from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's series of woodblock prints, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden. Set in the tumultuous Sengoku period (350 years before Bakin lived), Hakkenden is the story of eight samurai half-brothers — all of them descended from a dog and bearing the word "dog" in their surnames — and their adventures, with themes of loyalty and family honor, as well as Confucianism, bushido and Buddhist philosophy. One of the direct inspiration sources of the novel is the fourteenth to seventeenth-century Chinese epic novel Water Margin by Shi Nai'an. Japanese translations date back to at least 1757, when the first volume of an early Suikoden (Water Margin in Japanese) was printed.Shirane and Brandon, Early Modern Japanese Literature, p564. Bakin dramatically increased his popularity and fame with the novel Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki (Strange Tales of the Crescent Moon , 椿説弓張月) which he began publishing in 1807, helped by Hokusai's imaginative and powerful illustrations. However, due to the difference of opinion on the illustration, the collaboration ended with seven works. For Hakkenden, Hokusai's son-in-law, Yanagawa Shigenobu was employed as illustrator instead. A complete reprinting in ten volumes is available in the original Japanese, as well as various modern Japanese translations, most of them abridged. Previously, only a few chapters had been translated into English, Chapter 25 by Donald Keene and Chapters 12, 13, and 19 by Chris Drake. A full translation is currently in progress and is available on the Internet. 

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This story starts years after the Great Disaster (the global disasters from Arc the Lad II), on the island of Eteru. Alec, a young man from a small farm town, Sasha Village, aspires to become a Hunter, just like the man who saved him during the Great Disaster. When his village is attacked by bandits, he and his quirky friend Lutz must run to the nearest town, Itio, and hire a Hunter to save the village. On the way to the town, they encounter monsters and realize they get a rush when fighting and also feeling a power within themselves. After the village is saved, Alec decides to leave and become a Hunter; Lutz naturally tags along. To become a Hunter, Alec must collect the Ghost Dream Crystal in a nearby cave. With Lutz's help, Alec finds the crystal and officially becomes a Hunter. After taking enough jobs, Alec and Lutz eventually take on a job that lets them leave Eteru Island. A boat takes them to the next continent, Forestamore. There they meet Theo, a young Cardist who can turn monsters into cards like his mother. He joins them and together they meet Lieza (from Arc the Lad II), who is now running a monster ranch with Paundit. They also encounter Sharon, a woman from the Academy, who can control monsters with a machine. With Lieza's help, the trio rides a Flying Fire to their next destination, North Sularto. Upon landing in North Sularto, they meet a spunky gunslinger named Cheryl. They also take note of how destroyed North Sularto became from the Great Disaster, having landed in a giant junk heap. Making their way to Society Village, a town dedicated to restoring the world, Alec completes his job by delivering a strange orb found back in Forestamore. The trio then heads to Gislem, a notoriously poor and equally dangerous city. It seems the Academy has been kidnapping people and it appears Shu (from Arc the Lad II) is helping. After a failed attempt of the kidnapping of Cheryl, Cheryl joins the party. A path to South Sularto opens up. After taking some jobs in Testa, the group meets Tosh, the protector of the city and its precious Water Orb (Tosh being from Arc the Lad). The Academy steals the Orb from the village and Tosh, shocked from seeing his friend Shu with the enemies, decides to join Alec and crew and get back the Orb. Because of the lack of water in the desert town of Testa, the villagers travel to Gislem, where they temporarily live. Learning that a secret Academy base is hidden in an old airship, the group makes their way inside, only to find it crawling with enemy robots. Halfway through, the group finds Shu, who reveals that he was really trying to infiltrate the Academy's plans. Having taken the Orb, Tosh returns to Testa and Shu joins Alec to get to the bottom of this. After defeating an Academy employee in a giant robot, Shu leaves the group. Afterwards, a new job opens up: Society Village needs to deliver information to the giant library in Jiharta. Taking the job, Alec and his friends take a boat to Jiharta. They quickly learn of an uproar in the Hunter's Guild and investigate: someone has stolen a water controlling scroll from the nearby Amaidar Temple. After speaking to Iga (Arc the Lad character), the party and Marsia, a young spellcaster from the Spell Institute who knows the thief personally, discover the thief, Tikva, is working for the Academy. Alec and his party find the Academy and Tikva at the Romastor, conducting a water controlling experiment with the scroll and some machinery. After the experiment, the Academy members dismiss Tikva, who becomes angry at not being recognized as helpful. Galdo, a spear wielding Academy member previously seen in the secret base, was watching the experiment and now intervenes. Alec and crew attack, surprising Galdo that they can even scratch him. He teleports away and Tikva is taken bake to Amaidar Temple. As punishment, Iga forcesg him to join the temple and become a monk, much to the surprise of everyone. Marsia then decides to join Alec on his adventure. After settling a few jobs in Jiharta, Iga then wish to deliver a letter to his friend named Leshalt in Parute, which makes Alec and crew had to cross the ocean again. In Parute, they came across the main city, Paltos, and learned that an annual tournament's opening ceremony was commencing. The first prize of the tournament being a goddess statue attached with an Aura stone. It appears that the Academy had set a base there too, with Sharon in charge. After the opening ceremony, Alec found Leshalt and consult him about the Academy. After making a promise that he'll help in any way he can, Leshalt send the team back, only to bump into his grumpy brother, Velhart, who was arguably the best swordsman in Parute and second the best warrior only to Gruga of Brakia (the same from Arc the Lad II). After some time pass, a job order came from the committee of the tournament. It is to safeguard the prize kept inside a nobleman's house in Parute city. As predicted, the Academy did come and wish to snatch the prize. A battle ensues and Alec emerges victorious. The chairman of the committee is none other than Gruga himself, after taking advice from Leshalkt to keep the statue in the Rochefort's manor and had Alec's party to guard it. Not long after the incident, a job came from Leshalt in order to ask Alec to safeguard the Aura stone on the statue and keep it in the safe beneath the item society building. Then Leshalt told Alec that he might know who's the mastermind behind the academy. It appears that it was his old colleague from the time of the disaster. After Alec and his party leave the house, the Professor (leader of the academy), whose name later revealed to be Ludwig, and Sharon enter Leshalt's retreat. The professor's trying to ask Leshalt to join his cause, which he decline. He then go as far as to detain Leshalt as he would be an obstacle for his goal. Back in the city, Alec is trying to convince Gruga to handing him the prize. But Gruga told Alec that he should win the tournament to get the prize and enlist him in the battle. Much to their surprise, Velhart suddenly ask for admittance of the tournament as a participant. Seeing how Velhart used to say that he won't participate without Gruga in the line makes Alec and his friend curious about the sudden change of heart. In the tournament, Alec battles a lot of worthy opponent, starting from Leegle, a hunter he asked to protect his village from bandits at the beginning of the story, to Velhart, as the best swordsman in Parute, and eventually won all the matches. When the prize was about to be given to Alec, Velhart suddenly snatches the statue and run away. Alec and crew pursue him only to see that Velhart has aligned himself with the academy. They followed Velhart to the academy's headquarter in Parute desert. Upon reaching there, they learn that Velhart is actually trying to steal the goddess statue to save his brother Leshalt from the academy's captive. They set to double the aura stone Velhart brought, and the process was halted by Leshalt, which causes him to be killed by Seville of the Academy. Enraged by his brother's murder, Velhart join forces with Alec to chase off the Professor only to find out he had escaped. After much depression and sorrow, Velhart buries his brother in the lot by his retreat and set off for the rest of the journey with Alec. The aura stone is then secured and brought to the item society's safe as Leshalt wished. Moments after, the Guildmaster send a word through his manager that he wishes to meet Alec. He order Alec and his crews to find the Academy's headquarters in a place called Ragnark, which is known as Romalia till the disaster. Using the hovercraft found in the Cariote cave sealed by the guild itself, they travel to Ragnark. As was told, Ragnark used to be the source of the Great Disaster when it was still called Romalia. Alec and his crews arrive at Ragnark and infiltrate the city of Felator in order to find clues about the headquarters. After stealing a lab coat from a resting scientist, Alec sneak into the branch building of Academy and found out that the chief was Sharon. He overheard Sharon and Seville talking about a mysterious energy reading from what they had been researching and she require an escort to headquarter. Alec and his crews followed her through the White Bone Forest and Midoro Swamp to the main building of the Academy located north of Felator. There, they saw a melting alloy gate and Marsia presumes that someone is using an unbelievably powerful ignition technology, since she herself is unable to melt an alloy that thick. They are then confronted by the guards and accidentally learned that they are not the only intruders in the facility. As they battle their way to the top of the building where the Professor, Sharon and Seville is, they are halted by the Fear Crimson, a fusion of a dragon and machine. Seville refers that it was their crown creation and was perfected due to the help by a cardist they captured in Forestamore, which is none other than Theo's mother herself. When asked where is she, Seville implied that on the day Fear Crimson was perfected, she just died. He then lock the team in for a battle with the abominable machine. Though Alec's team emerges victorious, the Fear Crimson then set itself to self-destruct and is about to catch the team in the explosion, when Elc's timely arrival and his Flame Shield prevented that. The Professor, Lugwig and Sharon argued over whatever or not to continue with harassing the power source locked away within the lake. Elc takes Alec up to the roof where they confront the Professor and Sharon. Ludwig used Sharon as a shield against Elc so he couldn't unleash his Fire Power at him. From the roof, they witness the revival of the Sky Castle as the lake's was being vaporized. Upon seeing the desecrated town beneath the vaporizing lake, Alec's memory recall the past where the moment he was saved by a hunter in the fire. It was in Romalia. When thinking a way to get to the Sky Castle, he spots saw the Hien by the bottom of the lake. Elc decided to stay by the Hien to start repairing the airship so it can be used to fly to the Sky Castle. Meanwhile, Elc ask Alec to report to the Guildmaster and suggest that Alec go find Gogen the magic master to find a way to re-seal the Dark One as he predicted that the Academy will at least managed to release the Dark One. At the guild, The Guildmaster promotes Alec to a hunter of a status like Elc and Shu, which act directly under the essentials of the guild. After being promoted, Alec directs the guild to find Gogen. He is then is discovered to be residing in an ancient ruin in a cape in Jiharta. After passing several riddles and tricks made by Gogen, they meet the old man himself and by their surprise, hearing him said that the Dark One can't be re-sealed, as the ark was destroyed by Andel and the lineage of Bravery and Goddess (respectively Arc and Kukuru) has expire. An idea cross by Lutz mind to create a new ark, and is heavily rejected by Gogen since it is an impossible task for men. But the team made their commitment to save the world therefore made Gogen tell them how to craft a new ark. It was told to be made of Eternal Steel, Eternal Tree, Eternal Ice and Eternal Flame. After that, one must be blessed by the guardians before the ark could be created. So the team set off to the guild master to learn the whereabouts of those four sacred relic. The first to be found was Eternal Steel, since it is somewhere in Parute. They search the Cariote cave but found nothing. The next place to go will be the Museum in Paltos, since there is a lot of ancient weapons and armors displayed there. The clerk in the Museum told them that none of the weapons or armors of display was made by a material that ancient, but he points them to a clue of someone who might wield a weapon that ancient. It is Matheus, a master swordsman of the old time. The clerk told the team a story in which the undefeated Matheus was cheated by a fellow fighter to take the Great Mystic Sword for himself. He then point them to the old battle arena, which reside in the Digarta Wilds, to meet the Ghost of the cheating warrior, since he was insatisfied for winning by cheating and haunts the arena with guilt and lust for power. Since Velhart is the best swordsman known in Parute, he challenged him over the Great Mystic Sword. But the Ghost Warrior is more than a match to Velhart and beat him almost single-handedly. After considering what lacks of Velhart, they pay Gruga a visit to consult the matter. Gruga tell Velhart that all he need to do is to change his point of view, which Velhart take as an insult. He then point Velhart to some "strong- willed" people that might help him. Starting from the arena host, that has been practicing for his ability, to Raia, the receptionist girl of the arena, which has a large passion to be a world-class singer. Alec's team then confronted by Shante, which came all the way from Eteru isle to fetch Raia for her bar. She then ask Velhart if he has corrected his point of view. Velhart then realized that the Ghost Warrior was the same as he was being, hungry for more power and glory. After correcting his point of view and his judgment, he once again challenged the Ghost Warrior and emerged victorious. Velhart then receive fragments of Eternal Steel after laying the Warrior's spirit to rest. The second to be found is the Eternal Tree, which is in the temple ruin where Theo receive his power as a cardist. After arriving at the temple, they are once again confronted by the spirit of Nol and confirmed that the temple did house the Eternal Tree, though only the roots remain. After they succeeded in calming the guardian of the temple with the help of Lieza, her monsters and Poco, they head into the depth of the earth to search for the relic. On their way, Theo heard a cry for help from a seedling monster and decided to help him. The monster then said that he's a part of the "Mother's Tree". With the guidance of the seedling, they reach the Eternal Tree's root only to find it was badly decomposed and was eaten by Rootybus, a centipede-like monster that has an extremely strong regenerative technique. Proving impossible to beat it in the current state, the team withdraw for the moment. While thinking of a way to stop its regenerative ability, the seedling monster asked Theo to cardish him as he say that he has the power to stop Rootybus' regenerative ability. When Theo replied that once he used his card he will die, the seedling said that he can't die, for he is eternal. Having faith to that, Theo cardished the little monster and used him at Rootybus, which caused him to change shape into a scorpion-like monster. That made his regenerative ability rendered useless and the team make a short work of it. As they wonder if the roots will be enough to use, Theo searched for the little monster and found a seed on the floor. Recalling the little monster's word, Theo hurried to the surface and planted the seed. The seed grows into a giant tree in a matter of seconds and bear fruits similar to the shape of the seedling monster. The tree shed a branch for Theo and they receive the Eternal Tree's branch at last. The third item was the Eternal Ice, which is said to be located in Jiharta. Alec's team reach Jiharta by hovercraft and head straight to the Amaidar Temple to consult Iga concerning the matter. Iga told the youngster that the Eternal Ice might be located in a place called the Ice Gallery, where the cavern is always frozen while the rest of Jiharta is warm. The team head into the Gallery and find a solid ice-made wall at the end of gallery. Each of them try their weapons on the wall and not even a scratch was found on it. When Marsia tried her Heat Shell spell, it won't even melt. So they decided to go to the magic institute in Rushart to ask Salubari of any magic strong enough to break it. As they turn their back, a pair of glowing red eyes was seen to watch them from behind the ice wall. At the institute, Salubari told them that their only chance was the Giga Plasma spell, the strongest spell known to the magic masters. In order to master the spell, one must have the essence of all the elements and beat the elemental wizards. Feeling unconfident of herself, Marsia decided to ask Sania (from Arc the Lad II) in Paysus city to replace her in learning Giga Plasma. When they set to find Master Harzan of Amaidar who knows about the location of Light and Dark wizard, they was told by Tikva that he is training on top of Mount Amaidar. But in fact, The Light and Dark wizard was actually one wizard with mastery of both elements and has died for sometimes without a successor. Tikva set to be the wizard with the help of Harzan and Iga, as he has the potential to be one. This makes Marsia realize how many people are willing to sacrifice for her and decided to face the wizards herself. At the institute, the elemental wizards have been assembled by Salubari takes Marsia's challenge by full force and eventually beaten by Marsia. As they leave the room, Tikva stormed in and ask Marsia for an immediate battle, which Marsia won over. After beating all the elemental wizards, Marsia receive the Giga Plasma as her new collection of spells, and use it to destroy the Ice Wall. But by destroying the Ice wall, they released an ancient creature guarding the Gallery known as the Cliff Giant. Capable of creating ice golems and summon massive tornadoes makes this beast a hard-to- beat opponent. After settling the business, they took a shard of Eternal Ice and depart to find the final piece of relic. The final piece of material, the Eternal Flame was located somewhere on North Sularto, but the guild doesn't know its exact location. The guild suggest that an amnesia merchant named Chongara (the same as Arc the Lad) knows its location. They set to find a cure of his amnesia and find it costs about 1 million gold. So they decided to find another way to cure his amnesia. Marsia thinks of a way and uses her Land Ax spell to cause a shock to his head, which restores his memory. According to Chongara, the smoking volcano cave on North Sularto is the house of the flame that never sleeps. When they reach the heart of the mountain, they found the Eternal flame on top of a mini volcano with unstable reaction that could cause it to erupt and spew hot magma any time. Cheryl had an idea of making a lava- hardening gun from the weapon society and something to house the flame to transport. When they arrive at the item society, it appears that the mysterious object they found on Forestamore has been fixed and given a propeller and a handle so it could carry at least one person. That solves the problem of how they would cross the lake of fire surrounding the flame. Meanwhile, as Elnan of the item society works on something to carry the flame, Alec's teams go on a search of a missing material needed to build the gun for hardening lava. They found out that Gudan of Gislem know the location of it and set to find him in danger dome. Alec agreed to give all his money and items as long as Gudan is willing to tell him where the material is. This makes Gudan wonders about the action and he presume that the second of the Great Disaster might happen if they didn't get the calm nut, so he give the information for free. They head to Kutao temple in search of the calm nut and found some monsters was holding it. After making short work of them, they return to the society village to collect their items of need and head to the lake of fire. Upon reaching the shore of the lake, as Lutz uncover the flying object he receive from Elnan, it turns out that the object was actually Diekbeck (what remained of him after the disaster). He agrees to help the young ones to save the world. After crossing the lake, Lutz climb the volcano as Cheryl use the Stone gun to temporary freeze the lava to protect Lutz. After getting the flame, a sudden eruption throw Lutz off the ledge and landed hard in front of his friends. Cheryl cry over him and pleaded him not to die, only to find that he was joking on them. When they were leaving, Lutz try to find Diekbeck and find him on the lava, unable to move. He told him that he was happy to help their cause and ask them to protect the world, but not before he gave them a monster card of himself and christen them "The Brave Ones". Back at the guildmaster's office, the team was thinking to go and find Gogen and ask him the whereabouts of the guardians when suddenly Gogen himself appears before them. He told them that the guardians now resides upon a massive structure called the Ghost Dream Crystal in Eteru Isle. So, the team move to Eteru and once again head into the Trial Cave. At the crystal, a voice was heard that the one was going to talk to the guardians must leave their earthly body behind, with no guarantee to be able to return safely. Alec's boldness and kindness makes him step forward and stun his friends to the ground so they won't be able to stop him from going. After leaving his body and enter the Crystal Chamber, he was greeted by Arc and Kukuru, telling him that they had been watching his journey since he got his hunter's crest. The guardians then shows themselves before Alec and give him their blessing to create the ark. After several calls from his friends, Alec then returned to the material world and told his friends to lay the material in a line. Together, they watch anxiously as the new ark was magically created before their eyes. Taking the new ark, they all return to the Guildmaster's office and prepare themselves for the final battle. The guild itself has received word from Elc that he has finished reassembling the Hien back and it is now ready to fly. Alec and Elc reach the sky castle. After fighting through the castle, they eventually defeat Seville and Galdo. As they reach the professor, he arrogantly shrugged off everyone's warnings and eventually releases the Dark One. The group used the new Ark against it but nothing happened. A joint effort by Sharon, a redeeming Lugwig and Elc pushes back the Dark One from escaping, leaving the remaining group to fight. After a fierce fight, the Dark One tries to tempt the group by offering its power to restore the world. None of them took its offer; they had resolved that they can rebuild their world by their own means and with that, the new Ark began to activate. Realizing what caused this and focusing on the good, the heroes managed to seal it in the new Ark once and for all. In the aftermath, Lugwig acknowledges his flawed direction with the Academy; Sharon offered to help Lugwig make amends for the harm he caused. Each member of the group goes off to resume their lives: Anriette (if you take on a series of jobs related to her) returns home and now enjoys being more independent. Velhart visits his brother's grave, stating that the threat is over. Marisa returns to the Spell Institute and become a teacher. Theo goes to Lieza's ranch to work with the monsters there. Cheryl visits the new Eternal Tree, thinking about the hope of a new life in a new world. Alec and Lutz return home to Sasha Village as heroes. 

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The novel portrays actor Hendrik Höfgen's rise from the Hamburger Künstlertheater (Hamburg Artists' Theater) in 1926 to nationwide fame in 1936. Initially, Höfgen flees to Paris on receiving news of the Nazis' rise to power because of his communist past (learning from a friend that he is on a blacklist). A former co-actress from Hamburg, Angelika Siebert, travels to Berlin to convince Lotte von Lindenthal, the girlfriend (and later wife) of a Luftwaffe general to have him pardoned. On returning to Berlin he quickly manages to win over Lotte and her general and with his support has a wonderful career. On obtaining the role of Mephisto in Faust Part One he realizes that he actually made a pact with evil (i.e. Nazism) and lost his humane values (even denouncing his mistress as "Black Venus"). There are situations where Höfgen tries to help his friends or tell the prime minister about concentration camp hardships, but he is always concerned not to lose his Nazi patrons. 

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Douglas 'Dougie' Whooly is a nine-year-old boy obsessed with a video game, in which he plays Satan's little helper. His sister Jenna comes home from college for Halloween, but things turn sour when Dougie finds out she brought her boyfriend, Alex, with her. After a fall out with Jenna, Dougie wanders off and finds a man dressed in a cheap costume arranging a dead body on his lawn as if it were a decoration. Dougie naively believes the man is Satan, and asks him for help in sending Alex to Hell, which "Satan" nods assent to. In the meantime, Alex comes up with the idea of bonding with Dougie by dressing as Satan for Halloween. When Dougie comes back home, he tries to lure Alex into the basement where Satan is waiting for him, but fails. Dougie ends up changing plans to instead have Alex ambushed by Satan while he and Alex go out shopping for a Satan costume, where Alex ends up being left for dead. Dougie brings Satan home, whom everyone believes to be Alex. Despite Satan becoming forcefully, physically intimate with Jenna and his unwillingness to speak, Jenna interprets these as Alex's devotion to his Satan costume. When Satan and Dougie leave to get Halloween candy, they end up shoplifting a market for candy and tools, where Satan subsequently kills a bagger who tries to stop them and the two engage in a brief physical assault spree with their shopping cart. On the way home, Satan engages in a combination of assaulting and killing several more people, including Alex's estranged dad, before he and Dougie are accosted by the police. Satan indicates to Dougie to run home while he confronts the police, who are later found to be dead. In the meantime, it is revealed that Alex has survived, who finds out from a babbling man that all the police on the island are dead and the police station is on fire. When Dougie comes back home, he tells Jenna about what he and Satan done. Still thinking that it is Alex in the Satan costume, Jenna begins to think that Alex is pushing the game too far. After he comes home, his new personality starts to frighten her, she realizes he is not Alex. Dougie's father comes home, and Satan murders him. He kidnaps their mother, which makes Jenna and Alex go after him, only to think it's Alex's dad who is responsible, but are tricked by the killer repeatedly changing costumes and putting his old one on a victim. including a Jesus costume to trick Dougie into letting him into the house multiple times by saying that it is God coming to save him. In the end, Jenna and Mrs. Whooly accidentally kill Alex and are left at home with Dougie and a police man who spray paints a 6 on their home beneath their address, 66. It's the Satan Man. The movie ends in a cliffhanger. 

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The opening sequence explains that two siblings, Todd and Riley, lived in what seemed to be an orphanage with no explanation of what happened to their birth parents. While cleaning the floors, they stumbled across a Fleemco comic book That contained an ad for the Fleemco phone. They mail-ordered the ad and $1.98 for the phone—which allows them to replace any person or animal they desire—and in the process they got new parents: a female British secret agent named Agent K and a professional daredevil named Dick Daring. Whenever Todd and Riley want to replace someone undesirable, they call Conrad Fleem on the Fleemco phone via a large button. Fleemco immediately replaces the person with someone to the liking of Todd and Riley. The series follows their misadventures as they attempt to better their lives by replacing people they do not like, with said attempt usually backfiring and both learning a lesson about appreciating what they already have. 

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Having been told that the house is sinking and that an inspector is on the way, Michael tells George Sr. that he needs to move out of the attic. Having made a music CD with his puppet Franklin, Gob asks Michael if he heard it. Michael assures Gob that he did. Realizing that George Sr. doesn't want to leave the attic, Gob knocks him out with ether, and drives him in the stair car to the police station to turn him in. Seeing that the Franklin CD he made for Michael hasn't been opened, Gob makes it seem as if Michael drove George Sr. to the station. After signing an affidavit stating that he doesn't know where his father is, Michael is arrested after a security camera photo shows Gob holding a picture a Michael on his face, making it seem as if Michael had met with his father earlier in the day. Meanwhile, George Michael and Ann protest the American remake of the film Les Cousins Dangereux, in which two cousins fall in love. Maeby, who created the remake, is told by producers to cut down the movie into a mere 52 minutes. At home, George Michael and Maeby share a kiss on the living room couch, and after jokily saying that they "didn't get swallowed up into hell," the house fully sinks. Gob arrives, wanting to retrieve his father who he put underground the house, only to realize George Sr. had escaped earlier in the day. Earlier, George Sr., having escaped, knocked out his brother Oscar, shaved his head, and placed him in the police station's bathroom. He then witnessed Gob arriving outside the police station and starting a fight with Michael. George Sr., stopping the fight, stated that he was turning himself in, only to lead the cops into the bathroom where Oscar was located, which resulted in Oscar being arrested. 

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"Somewhere in the galaxy, millions suddenly perish—a disruption of the Force so shocking it is felt by Luke at his Jedi academy and by Leia on Coruscant. While Leia must deal with an assassination attempt, a rumored plot against the New Republic, and allegations that Han Solo is involved, Luke seeks out a former Jedi student who may hold the key to the mass destruction. But Brakiss is only the bait in a deadly trap set by a master of the dark side who is determined to rule as emperor. He's targeted Luke, Leia, and Leia's children to die. Then billions will follow, in a holocaust unequaled in galactic history." 

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right Scrooge McDuck is on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to the dry climate causing the banknotes in his Money Bin to shrink, resulting in the overall money level inside the bin decreasing. This makes him feel poorer and begins to act more and more like a miser. At this point, Donald Duck and his nephews arrive and ask him for a donation to help fund a club for children. Scrooge throws them away to the streets (through a concealed scaffold), and rebuts further attempts from Donald to get the donation by exposing Scrooge as a tightwad. However, when his three nephews learn from Scrooge's staff the real reason of his bad mood, they try to solve his problem by suggesting to him to blow hot air into the money pile. Scrooge gladly accepts the suggestion and states that he will give them the donation if their plan works out. Unfortunately, too much air is blown, causing the Money Bin to crack open. Scrooge collapses after hearing about the repair expenses (and an untimely comment about the promised donation) and is forced by his doctor to go on vacations. Next, the ducks find themselves in a remote cabin in a valley, close to a small waterfall, where Scrooge is supposed to relax under the watch of his nephews. One of the ducklings starts reading to him The King of the Golden River, which Scrooge scorns as an alienating fairy tale, stating that only hard work brings fortune (one of his main beliefs), not fantastic beings. As an example, he tells them that when he was young, he used to collect firewood so he could sell it to rich people at exorbitant prices. Suddenly, the nearby waterfall seems to have turned into a gold flow (like in the fairy tale). However, when the ducks reach it, they realize it's just plain water. Scrooge again turns grumpy and returns to the cabin, whilst the ducks decide to investigate further. Donald and his nephews climb to the top of the waterfall where they find a hot spring by the shore, which issues not only hot water but also gold powder into the stream, which caused the "golden waterfall" effect. As they cannot claim the gold for themselves (as the whole area is owned by Scrooge), they instead learn how to control it and decide to use this artifice to obtain a donation from Scrooge. Using a hollow log as a megaphone to amplify their voices, they convince Scrooge that a magic gnome controls the golden flow, and that Scrooge must be generous to the needy in order to deserve the gold. Scrooge, completely convinced, starts looking for strangers to be generous with, only finding a disguised Donald asking for the sum equivalent to the promised donation. Several funny situations follow, including a flow of frogs down the waterfall into a hopeful Scrooge holding a pan, when the ducks are unable to open the gold flow into the stream. While the ducks realize they might have rendered the hot spring useless by their attempts to control it and lose their hope to swindle Scrooge, he quietly reflects that his attempts on generosity were not sincere but a "bribe" to the gnome in order to obtain profit from the golden river. He then sees one of the ducklings catching firewood (just like he used to do as a child), and touched by this scene he runs to him and states to the stunned duck family that he will build the club himself, instead of just donating a small sum. At this moment, to the surprise of all (but Scrooge) the waterfall starts to pour gold again. As the nephews race into it with pans, trying to explain Scrooge about the physics of the phenomenon, he calmly states that he believes (opposite to his former cynic and logic behavior) the gold stream to be controlled by the Gnome King, who will keep it flowing as long as he is generous to children. 

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The Thief Lord follows the story of two brothers, Prosper and Boniface (Bo), who run away to Venice, Italy. They are taken in by a group of street children who live in an abandoned movie theater, the Stella, and are led by a proud orphan named Scipio. He appears to steal valuables and the orphan group sells them to a sly shopkeeper, Ernesto Barbarossa. A customer of Barbarossa, calling himself the Conte, asks the "Thief Lord" to steal a wooden lion's wing for him. The runaway boys' aunt and uncle figure out where they are and set a detective, Victor Getz, on their trail. Victor recognizes the boys on the street and manages to initiate a conversation with innocent little Bo. Bo accidentally lets slip that he lives in an old movie theater. When the rest of the children see Victor, they cause a distraction and run away, taking his wallet with them. In his search for the theater, Victor visits the home of Dottor Massimo, the owner of the Stella, where he sees Scipio, who is actually the son of the rich Dottore. When Victor arrives at the Stella, the optic clan ambushes him. When Prosper confronts Scipio, he learns that Scipio is indeed Dottor Massimo's son. While they are gone, Victor escapes, leaving a note that he will not reveal their location if they do not steal the precious lion's wing. The children leave that night to steal it from a woman called Ida Spavento. Arrived in her house, the children meet Scipio, who wants to steal the wing as well. In the following argument, Ida is awakened by the racket that the children make and confronts them with an old rifle. When they explain, Ida tells them the story of the wing, which came from a magical merry-go-round. It has the ability to change a person's age. She agrees to let them have the wing if they let her accompany them to the exchange. The next night, all of the children go for the deal except Hornet and Bo. They join Ida and Scipio, meet with the Conte and his sister, Morosina, and make the exchange. They follow the Conte through a maze of islands to one in particular called Isola Segretta. They watch the pair unload the wing and go inside. Suddenly Ida drops the binoculars she was using into the lagoon. The sound travels to the island. Morosina rushes out with a shotgun and two huge dogs firing away randomly into the night. The group speeds off and regroups at the pier. When they return to the theater, Hornet and Bo are gone, leaving a note that there were police at the door. They angrily confront Victor, who informs them that he did not direct the police's attention there. To add to the misery he tells them that the lire they received are fake. While searching for Hornet and Bo, they find Hornet at an orphanage and manage to get her out. However, they did not find Bo at the orphanage. They spend a restless night at Ida's house, but Prosper cannot sleep and wanders outside, where he meets Scipio. He says that they are going to get the money that is rightfully theirs. They travel back to the island and get caught in the act of climbing a wall by the Conte's sister. The two end up locked up in a stinking stable on the island. Meanwhile, Victor receives a phone call from Esther, informing him that she had Bo, but that he had misbehaved and run away from them. Victor finds Bo at the Stella and takes him back to Ida's, where they find Prosper missing. On the island the next morning, Scipio and Prosper meet the Conte and Morosina, who are both young children. They tell him that the magical merry go-round worked. Scipio demands a ride and comes off an adult. Just as he gets off the merry-go-round, Barbarossa, the man who found the Conte and hired the Thief Lord for the job of stealing the wing, arrives. However, while Barbarossa becomes a seven-year- old boy, he accidentally breaks the merry-go-round. Scipio and Prosper leave after promising the Conte that they will not talk about the merry-go-round, and Barbarossa will be forced to give the Conte all the money in his shop safe. The next day, when everyone at Ida's home finds Prosper, Scipio, and Barbarossa. They do not recognize Scipio or Barbarossa and Prosper cannot explain. Scipio sets up a meeting between Barbarossa and Esther. Esther adores Barbarossa and his manners and decides to adopt him. Prosper, Bo, and Hornet decide to live with Ida and go to school, while Mosca and Riccio live in an abandoned warehouse. Scipio decides to work for Victor. Eventually, he and Prosper take another trip to the Isola Segreta only to find that the Conte and Morosina have disappeared. Esther eventually catches Barbarossa stealing her jewelry and other possessions and sends him off to boarding school, where he becomes a menacing bully; he forces other children to do things for him like his homework, encourages them to steal, and intimidates them to call him "The Thief Lord". Scipio, when he becomes an adult, he works as Victor's assistant in his detective agency and he was freed from his father's envy and cruelty. 

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New York City detective and sex-crimes specialist Adam Rourke (Winston) has gone to Manila to help his friend, Inspector Miguel Ramos (Victor Diaz), investigate the murders of several young women. All have had their blood drained through identical 10 cm incisions on the inside of each forearm. Miguel suspects a homicidal maniac but has heard rumours that a "strange blood cult" is to blame. Adam goes undercover as a writer seeking the story of the latest victim, Maria Cortez, a hostess at the Barrio Club, owned by Mr. Calderone (Vic Silayan). Adam goes to the club. He brushes off a pretty hostess, Theresa (Judy Dennis), and instead watches beautiful blonde Serena (Nielson) dance. He and Calderone discuss the article about Maria. That night, Adam kills a man who attacked him in his hotel room. Afterwards, he is stopped by a seemingly homeless man who in reality is Herrera (Eddie Infante), an undercover officer with a prosthetic leg who is Adam's police liaison. Sylvia (Henryk), Miguel's adopted sister, drives Adam into the countryside and dumps him there, accusing him of not taking the case seriously. As he walks to his hotel, he sees a drunken Theresa arrive home. Out of sight of Adam, she is jumped by a humanoid monster. At the club, Serena suddenly clutches her face and runs off the dance floor. She looks older than she had earlier. Miguel contacts the police in Lima and learns that Calderone and Serena fled Peru two years earlier, after Calderone was implicated in the murders of several young women. Elena, another club hostess, is then kidnapped by the monster. Adam is unaware of the monster but suspects that Calderone is the murderer. Serena disingenuously tells Adam that Calderone "is a maniac and he'll kill to protect his secret." She introduces Adam to Louisa, a new hostess. Louisa is actually Sylvia. She has fallen in love with Adam and wants to help him. She points out that Serena's wrist-to-elbow armbands are of Aztec or Inca origin. The monster kills Elena in a secret chamber beneath the Barrio Club. He moves a bowl of her blood in front of Sylvia, who is seated in a chair with a brightly lit box behind her head. She throws powder into the blood. Smoke rises and when it clears Serena is young again. Serena asks Adam to her home and tells him lies. She says that Calderone killed his wife and made it look like suicide, and that he forces her to dance at the club. Adam passes out from the drugged drink that Serena gave him. As this happens, Sylvia discovers the secret chamber and is grabbed by the monster. Adam awakens tied to a tree. Serena explains that she was chosen "by her people" to become one of the "golden goddesses" but she must have the blood of other women to maintain her eternal beauty. The blood is mixed with the powdered roots of ancient trees and the "electrical energy of the sun harnessed in a small container." Serena removes an armband to show Adam her scar, identical to those of the murder victims. But just as she is about to stab Adam, she begins ageing rapidly and runs for the chamber. Adam is freed by one of Calderone's men and calls the police. Adam takes Miguel to the chamber, where the monster is about to kill Sylvia. Instead, he attacks the men, inadvertently moving the bowl of Elena's blood in front of Serena. Miguel shoots the monster four times to little effect. The monster begins strangling both men, but Herrera hits him with his artificial leg. The monster falls and strikes his head. Adam and Miguel save Sylvia. Serena throws powder into Elena's blood. When the smoke clears, she is a very old woman. She throws another handful and after the smoke dissipates only her clothing and armbands remain. The monster dies, revealing himself to be Calderone. The case solved, Adam kisses Sylvia good-bye and heads home to New York. 

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A fictional version of Martin Fry is asked to join the band ABC as they embark on a tour heading east through Europe. But at the height of their popularity the band tries to secretly replace Fry with a Russian spy in order to sneak him back behind the Iron Curtain. It is then up to Fry to battle his doppelgänger and make the world safe for New Romantic synth-pop. 

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The story surrounds a school that is well liked by its students notably because of its many eccentric teachers. However, the students must make a good grade on a standardized test (which turns out in the end to be a revising test on multiple subjects they regularly learn) lest they be sent to an adjacent school, which requires uniforms to be worn and is incredibly dull. Category:1998 children's books Category:Books by Dr. Seuss Category:American picture books Category:Books published posthumously Category:Random House books Category:Schools in fiction 

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The Waller Empire destroys the planet Clin in search of water for its deity. Two Clinian children, Spielban and Diana, escape to Earth aboard the Grand Nasca. The two grow up during the long journey and don High Tech Crystal Suits to defeat the Waller who have come to Earth in search of more water. Spielban must avenge his dead mother Anna and his homeworld, and find his missing father Ben and older sister Helen. Unknown to Spielban at the start of the series his father and sister have been made members of the Waller against their will. 

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Monica invites an old school friend of hers and Ross' for Thanksgiving, Will Colbert (Brad Pitt). She also tells a crestfallen Joey that she won't be cooking a turkey because of Will's, Chandler's, Rachel's and Phoebe's aversion to the poultry. Joey admonishes Monica and demands the tradition, and so Monica obliges with a monstrous bird. Throughout the episode, Joey battles the enormous turkey, eventually changing into Phoebe's maternity clothing to ease the strain on his stomach. Will arrives and is revealed to have lost an enormous amount of weight. However, he reacts very badly when learning that Rachel, who he hated in high school because of her bullying him, will be joining them for dinner. Rachel is immediately attracted to Will, unable to recognise him, but Will is openly hostile and this culminates in his proud announcement that he – and Ross – founded the "I Hate Rachel" club in high school and initiated a rumour that she was a hermaphrodite, which was spread throughout their entire high school. Rachel feels betrayed by Ross, until Monica reminds her that she started a rumor of her own that Ross made out with the school's 50-year-old librarian, though a horrified Ross confirms it as true. Rachel demands that Ross recant the rumour by calling everyone from school, but Monica puts them both in their place by reminding them that Rachel's rumour put Ross on the social radar, that Ross and Will's rumour had no effect whatsoever on Rachel's queen bee status, and that they're having a baby together. Will is completely dumbfounded by this revelation, but takes pleasure in the fact that Ross got Rachel pregnant but isn't going to marry her. The episode culminates in Joey finishing off the turkey and getting the meat sweats. Despite being extremely full, Joey still had room for pie. 

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Baron Victor Frankenstein (Cushing), having survived the fire at the end of the end of the previous film, is housed at an insane asylum where he has been made a surgeon, and has a number of privileges, as he holds secret information on Adolf Klauss, the asylum's corrupt and perverted director (John Stratton). The Baron, under the alias of Dr. Carl Victor, uses his position to continue his experiments in the creation of man. When Simon Helder (Briant), a young doctor and an admirer of the Baron's work, arrives as an inmate for the crime of ‘Sorcery’ bodysnatching, the Baron is impressed by Helder's talents and takes him under his wing as an apprentice. Together they work on the design for a new creature. Unknown to Simon, however, Frankenstein is acquiring body parts by murdering his patients. The Baron's new experiment is the hulking, ape-like Herr Schneider (Prowse), a homicidal inmate whom he has kept alive after a violent suicide attempt and on whom he has grafted the hands of a recently deceased sculptor (Bernard Lee). Since Frankenstein's hands were badly burned in the fire, the shabby stitch-work was done by Sarah (Madeline Smith), a beautiful mute girl who assists the surgeon, and who is nicknamed "Angel". Simon tells the Baron that he is a surgeon and the problem is solved. The Baron reveals that Sarah is the daughter of the director and has been mute ever since he tried to rape her. Soon new eyes and a new brain are given to the creature. When the creature – lumbering, hirsute and dumb – is complete, it becomes bitter and intent on revenge. It ultimately runs mad on a killing spree in the asylum, killing several individuals, including Klauss. Eventually, it is fully overpowered and destroyed by a mob of inmates. Simon is devastated by the loss of life and reports to Frankenstein; however, the Baron feels that it was the best that could happen to such a creature, and is already considering a new experiment with other involuntary donors. Simon and Sarah watch silently as Frankenstein starts tidying up the laboratory while pondering who should be first to "donate"… 

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After having lived in the United States for several years, Teddy brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family in North London, where he grew up, and which she finds more familiar than their arid academic life in America. The two married in London before moving to the United States. Much sexual tension occurs as Ruth teases Teddy's brothers and father and the men taunt one another in a game of one-upmanship, resulting in Ruth's staying behind with Teddy's relatives as "one of the family" and Teddy returning home to their three sons in America without her.See John Russell Taylor, "Pinter's Game of Happy Families", 57–65 in Lahr, Casebook; cf. Franzblau; Esslin, Pinter the Playwright 141–61; Gordon, "Family Voices: The Homecoming", 69–88 (chap. 4) in Harold Pinter: The Theatre of Power. 

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Two astronauts explore the moon and come across a space dumpster - when they open it, the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa and her minions Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, and Finster are set free from a 10,000-year captivity. Rita decides to conquer the nearest planet: Earth, and rebuilds her palace on the moon. In the city of Angel Grove, California, five teenagers - Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart - are hanging out at the Angel Grove Youth Center. The guys are working on karate, while the girls are practicing gymnastics. Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch (a.k.a. "Bulk" and "Skull") come to harass them, but end up making fools of themselves. The teens are later sitting down to some fruit shakes from Ernie's Juice Bar when Rita causes an earthquake. In the Command Center, which is located in a desert area, Zordon, the wise wizard who once battled Rita many years ago, tells his robotic assistant, Alpha 5, to find and teleport to him five teenagers to safeguard Earth from Rita's schemes. The teens are then teleported to the Command Center, where Zordon explains the situation and declares them as the first Power Rangers, giving them belt-stored Power Morphers that serve as the key to accessing their power. They refuse to believe or trust him, until Rita sends a team of her Putty Patrollers to attack them. They are soon overpowered by the Putties' numbers, but Jason suggests using their recently acquired Power Morphers. They instantly morph into the Power Rangers for the first time, with Alpha 5 soon informing Zordon that the teens have morphed. Zordon, satisfied after hearing this news, has Alpha 5 then teleport the Rangers to Angel Grove City - Rita has sent down Goldar. A clash between Goldar (who is assisted by a newly sent team of Putty Patrollers) and the Rangers begins as soon as the teleportation is complete. It's not long before Rita has her magic staff enlarge Goldar for a giant-sized attack on the city, but the Rangers, in response, quickly summon the Dinozords and form the Megazord. After a few minutes of an evenly matched battle, the Rangers successfully force Goldar to retreat when the Megazord's Power Sword is summoned. Back at the Command Center, the teens are finally convinced that they can save the world from Rita's evil and so decide to accept Zordon's request under his three conditions: * Not to use their power for personal gain... * Not to escalate a battle unless Rita forces them to do so... * And to keep their identities a secret - no one is to know that they are now Power Rangers. Zordon promises that he will be there to advise them whenever they need his wisdom and guidance. 

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In the year 2019, after a nuclear war, humanity is reduced to a few starving groups. A ruthless gang called "The Templars" constantly raid settlers in an attempt to exterminate everyone in order to purge the Earth. A former Templar, Scorpion, along with his allies, prevents a small band of religious colonists from being massacred by the Templars. 

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The NDR series robot "Andrew" is introduced in 2005 into the Martin family home to perform housekeeping and maintenance duties, and introduces himself by showing a presentation of the Three Laws of Robotics. The younger Amanda is sympathetic to him, and Andrew discovers he feels emotions, and is drawn to spend more time with his "Little Miss". He accidentally breaks one of her glass figurines and is able to carve a new one out of wood, which surprises Richard, her father. Richard takes Andrew to NorthAm Robotics to inquire if Andrew's creativity was part of his programming. NorthAm's CEO Dennis Mansky claims this is a problem and offers to scrap Andrew, but instead Richard takes Andrew back home and encourages him to continue his creativity and explore other humanities. Andrew becomes a clockmaker and earns a sizable fortune managed by Richard after they find that robots have no rights under current laws. Time passes, and Richard encourages Dennis to give Andrew the ability to present facial expressions to match his emotions. About two decades from being awoken, Andrew presents Richard with all the money he has made to ask for his freedom. Richard refuses to accept it but does grant Andrew his independence, on the condition he may no longer reside at the Martin home. Andrew builds his own home by the beach. In 2048, Richard is on his death bed, and apologizes to Andrew for banishing him before he dies. Following Richard's death, Andrew goes on a quest to find other NDR robots that are like him, frequently communicating back to Amanda, who has since married and divorced, and has a son Lloyd and granddaughter Portia. Twenty years into Andrew's quest, he discovers Galatea, an NDR robot that has been modified with female personality and traits. Andrew becomes interested in how Galatea was modified by Rupert Burns, the son of the original NDR designer, and finds he has a number of potential ideas to help make robots appear more human-like. Andrew agrees to fund Rupert's work and to be a test subject, and is soon given a human-like appearance. Twenty years later, Andrew finally returns to the Martin home and finds that Amanda has grown old while Portia looks much like her grandmother at her age. Portia is initially cautious of Andrew, but soon accepts him as part of the Martin family. Amanda eventually dies, and Andrew realizes that all those he cares for will also pass on. He presents ideas to Rupert to create artificial organs that not only can be used in humans to prolong their lives but also to replace Andrew's mechanical workings. Andrew gains the ability to eat, feel emotions and sensations, and even have sexual relationships, resulting in him and Portia falling in love. Andrew petitions the World Congress to recognize him as a human as to allow him to marry Portia, but the body expresses concern that an immortal human will cause jealousy from others. Andrew returns to Rupert for one last operation: to change the artificial fluids driving his body into a blood equivalent. Rupert cautions him that the blood will not last forever, causing his body to age, and Andrew will die in several more decades, a fate Andrew accepts. Decades later, Andrew again approaches the World Congress to appeal their past decision, wanting to be able to die with dignity. Later, with Andrew's body deteriorating, he and Portia are both under life support monitored by Galatea, now with a human appearance. They hold hands and watch the World Congress as they recognize Andrew as a human being, the world's oldest at 200 years, and giving all rights confirmed by that, including validating his marriage to Portia. During the broadcast, Andrew passes away, confirmed by Galatea. Portia asserts that Andrew already knew the answer to whether he was human and then, after ordering Galatea to turn off her life support, she soon dies, hand-in- hand with Andrew. 

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Lisbon Story is partially a sequel to Wenders' 1982 film, The State of Things. The fictitious movie director in the previous film, Friedrich Munro, reappears, again played by Patrick Bauchau. In Lisbon Story Friedrich has moved to Lisbon, Portugal (the country where The State of Things was set). The principal character, Philip Winter (Rüdiger Vogler), a sound engineer, receives a postcard invitation from Friedrich to come to Lisbon to record sounds of the capital city for his forthcoming film. On arriving, the director is nowhere to be found, though he leaves cryptic messages. This sets in motion a mysterious quest. The sound engineer doesn't meet up with the director until the end of the movie, when it materialises that, disturbed by the commercialization of images, he had set out to capture what he terms the "unseen image" of the city, one devoid of the subjective view, while also pretending that the whole history of cinema had never happened. A semi-non-fictional aspect of the plot is the appearance of the internationally famous Portuguese folk music group Madredeus and Manoel de Oliveira, who at that time was the oldest living active film director in the world. 

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