From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Ben Cronin is a star swimmer of his high school's swim team. His coach informs him that Stanford University scouts will appear at next week's swim meet. Ben and his girlfriend Amy discuss their future plans. Amy wants to attend school in Rhode Island but explains she will go to school in California to stay close to Ben. The next day, Ben nearly runs his car into Madison Bell and gives her a ride home as an apology. Later, he realizes that Madison left her notebook in his car. The notebook is filled with music notes, and Ben spots his initials written inside a staff. When he returns the notebook, he meets Madison's cousin, Christopher. Madison appears stressed and explains she has not eaten, so Ben offers to take her to dinner. At dinner, Ben tells Madison about his girlfriend, but Madison does not appear too bothered and explains that she has a boy waiting for her in New York City. Ben shares some of his past with Madison; he began doing drugs five years ago, which led to crime and six months in juvenile hall, which "saved him" because he ultimately realized his passion and talent for swimming. Although Ben tries to end the date, Madison convinces him to go to the pool. Her aggressive flirtation lures Ben in, and despite his initial hesitancy, the two have sex. Both agree to remain friends and not to discuss their encounter. The next night, Ben goes to a party at Amy's house. Amy introduces Ben to her new friend, who turns out to be Madison. The two pretend to have not met one another. Shortly after, Madison obsesses over Ben—she stops by his house to meet his mom and bombards Ben with e-mails and instant messages. Ben realizes her unhealthy behavior and demands her to leave him alone. Ben's lying eats at him, but, before he confesses, Madison tells Amy first. Madison dates Ben's rival teammate, Josh. Right before their biggest swim competition, Ben is disqualified for having steroids in his urine. Ben is outraged and suspects Madison had Josh set him up. Ben confronts Josh about the drug test, revealing his suspicion. Days later, Madison accidentally calls Josh by Ben's name while they are kissing in a car. Josh realizes that Madison's obsession with Ben is real and tells her off. Ben tries to tell Amy everything, but she doesn’t believe him. The next day, Ben goes to the pool, where he finds Josh dead. The police suspect that Ben is to blame for Josh's murder. To prove his innocence, Ben breaks into Madison's room to find evidence. He discovers a bottle of steroids and a creepy shrine of his personal belongings she has been secretly stashing. Christopher warns Ben of a similar case regarding a man named Jake Donnelly. When Ben visits Jake in the hospital, a nurse tells him that Jake's girlfriend Madison survived the crash. Madison disguises herself as Ben and steals his car. She follows Amy home from school and runs Amy off the road, and again Ben is framed for the crime. That night at the hospital, Ben and a few friends record as Madison confesses her crime and intentions, resulting in Madison's arrest. She escapes custody by stealing an officer's gun and shooting the two policemen escorting her. She enters Ben's house and forcibly takes Amy to the school's swimming pool. As Ben watches, Madison throws a handcuffed and chairbound Amy into the pool. Madison attacks them with the handle of a pool cleaner, and Ben grabs one end, pulling her into the pool. As Madison does not know how to swim, she drowns while Ben frees the drowned Amy from her handcuffs and carries her out of the pool. Ben resuscitates Amy via artificial respiration by mouth. Later, at a swim meet, Ben is a spectator. He goes outside to his car, where he and Amy kiss and drive away. ===== ===== Cassie Harrison, a 13-year-old girl, is searching the universe for her father after he was kidnapped by space pirates. To help her, she enlists the aid of the only bounty hunter she can afford, a talking blue hamster named Marion. They have an odd-couple style relationship and search the universe together for Cassie's father. The blue space ship the pair use is divided into two parts, a driving cockpit which can be detached in order to fly down to a planet in a similar manner to a jolly boat from a vessel, and a larger booster component which is attached on top of the small driving compartment. Scenes involving driving often show large objects and rooms that appear within the ship. The name of the ship is Keith. Running gags include Marion pulling many, or odd, objects from his cheeks as if they are large pockets. In one instance he pulls out a large assortment of objects to help him and Cassie when they are falling off a cliff and this includes a cruise ship. Also, one of the science fiction references is the gag in which C-3PO from Star Wars appears in the ship and Cassie asks who he is. Every episode starts with a brief explanation of the basic running plot and features a sequence showing Cassie's father being taken away. This is followed by a short sequence showing Marion being uncovered from a 'tough' armoured outfit and standing on stilts. The next sequence features the screen divided into four quarters, each showing several different scenes from episodes. The credits culminate in Marion uttering a fierce growl. The closing credits show an image of stars in space. The tune to the theme sounds like the words 'bounty hamster' but with notes to a 3-4 beat. Despite airing in a children's timeslot, the show has quite a broad appeal, containing frequent science fiction references, in-jokes and puns, as well as nods to other movies and TV series. Marion's name and eyepatch is a parody of John Wayne and the character he played in True Grit. The show's premise is also based on True Grit - a young girl loses her father and then hires a bounty hunter. ===== On his 30th birthday, unemployed rogue Tommy Deacon (Bobby Howes) inherits his aunt's fortune, but is informed it has been hidden in a bust of Napoleon in a country house he has also inherited. On discovering the house is now an Academy for Young Ladies, Tommy pretends to be the brother of Anne (René Ray), one of the girls, in order to gain admittance. ===== Chrono Crusade is set in the height of the Roaring Twenties, where jazz is king, bootleg liquor flows freely, and the mob rules the streets. It is a time of prosperity, luxury and decadence, and the division between rich and poor grows even wider in the wake of the First World War. It is at such times of great change and upheaval that the dark things that lurk below the world of man can come to the surface. In the world of Chrono Crusade, a fictional organization known as the Order of Magdalene (or more specifically, the characters of Sister Rosette Christopher and her soul-bound demon partner, Chrono) exists to fight the demonic threats that appear with increasing regularity across America. Both Rosette and Chrono are revealed during the course of the story to be driven by a shadowy past, centered on a search for Rosette's lost brother Joshua who is shown to have been taken from her by the sinner, Aion, a demon who shares a dark and bloody history with Chrono. He seeks nothing less than to overthrow the delicate balance between Heaven, Earth, and Hell (in the manga it is the demons' hierarchy he wished to destroy). The anime follows the manga through the events of Volume IV, but it diverges during a crucial plot event, creating different courses of events and endings. The characterization of some of the characters, including Rosette and Aion, and their roles in the story were changed drastically in the adaptation of the manga. Much of the story is driven by the individual pasts of the main characters and the complex relationships between them. ===== Jim Davenport is transferred to his company's branch in Tampa, Florida. He and his wife Martha are initially excited by the move and the beauty of their new neighborhood on Triggerfish Lane, but the reality proves to be disturbing: the Davenports' neighbors are a strange bunch of eccentrics, and crime is much worse than they had thought. These neighbors eventually include brutal-but-charismatic criminal Serge Storms, spiteful cocaine-addicted stripper Sharon Rhodes, and drug addict Seymour "Coleman" Bunsen, who move into the rental home across from the Davenports after Sharon and Coleman's brainless antics accidentally burn down Serge's home. Jim's troubles begin while he is waiting in a bank drive-through, when an armed robber mistakes Jim's Suburban for his getaway vehicle and jumps in, threatening Jim and his infant daughter with a gun. Jim manages to overpower the robber, breaking his neck when a faulty airbag inflates in his face. Jim does not know that the robber was the youngest of five brothers, and the remaining four are released from prison on a technicality and begin looking for revenge. FDLE Agent Mahoney, obsessed with capturing Serge, convinces his boss to let him travel to Tampa, ostensibly to warn Jim. When Jim returns to work, his consulting employer is acquired by a different company, which alters its corporate policy to make Jim the primary scapegoat for corporate layoffs. Jim is unable to adjust to his new role and is eventually fired. Serge, despite his criminal lifestyle, develops a great liking and admiration for Jim, even considering proposing marriage to Sharon to emulate Jim's success as a family man. Jim likes Serge as well, but Martha senses something strange about Serge and orders him to stay away. At least three subplots intertwine with and lead up to the novel's climax: *While browsing the library at the University of Tampa, Serge is mistaken for a professor, and his impromptu lectures on Florida history and culture become so popular among the student body that the Dean asks Serge to deliver the commencement address. *John Milton, a substitute teacher turned bank teller turned car salesman, is fired from his last job and decides to take revenge on Jim, the person assigned official blame for his firing from the bank. *Ambrose Tarrington III, a bankrupt former millionaire, lives in a small house on Triggerfish Lane, but mimics the attitude of wealth so well that he is constantly treated to test drives of luxury cars, free lunches from eager bank executives, and the use of mansions being offered for sale. Mistaking Ambrose's act for reality, Serge kidnaps him for ransom. Events come to a head at the Davenports' Fourth of July costume party, which includes the four criminal McGraw brothers taking the party hostage and Serge and Mahoney reluctantly teaming up to save the guests. Jim, normally passive to a fault, is driven to defend his family by snatching a gun and shooting two of the brothers. The novel ends with the principal characters being featured on an episode of the Bill Maher show, which Serge (on the run from the police and still pursuing the $5 million briefcase featured in Florida Roadkill) calls into to express his sincere admiration for men with wives and children, declaring it a tougher job than anything Serge has had to cope with. ===== In deep space, ex-captain Gantu is in his new spaceship after his original one got destroyed in the first film and is hired by an alien named Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel to retrieve the other 625 experiments. On Earth, Stitch is still not fitting in and causes another disaster. Lilo tries to encourage him by saying he's one-of-a-kind, comparing him to Frankenstein's monster, which just makes him feel worse. Suddenly, a crash is heard, and the pair encounter Gantu breaking into their home. Stitch confronts Gantu, who blasts Stitch into a net. Gantu then finds and takes a blue pod with the number 625 on it, abducting Jumba for interrogation. Stitch and Lilo take Jumba's spaceship and chase Gantu into outer space, engaging him in battle, only to be defeated and fall back towards Earth. Back at their house, Lilo, Stitch and Pleakley find the container Jumba was hiding. Pleakley realizes that these are the other 625 experiments, in dehydrated form, and warns them not to tell anyone or put the experiments in water. Deliberately disobeying Pleakley's orders, Stitch and Lilo retrieve the container and hydrate one of the experiments, Experiment 221, who promptly escapes into the night. Jumba is being held captive on the ship of Dr. Hämsterviel, who is surprisingly revealed to be a small creature with the combination of a hamster, poodle and rabbit. Unable to intimidate Jumba, Hämsterviel activates another experiment, Experiment 625, to attack him. Although 625 has some of Stitch's powers, he is incredibly lazy and a terrible coward, prioritizing and making sandwiches above all else. Meanwhile, Pleakley is able to call Hämsterviel's ship via telephone. Hämsterviel tells Pleakley that he wants a ransom of the other 624 experiments in return for Jumba. When Pleakley informs the other family members what the ransom is, Nani proceeds to call Cobra Bubbles about the problem while Lilo and Stitch go out to find 221. When Cobra arrives the next morning, he seems to already know about what happened. Meanwhile, Stitch and Lilo finally manage to catch a troublesome Experiment 221 at a nearby hotel with a glass vase and soon befriend him. The rendezvous time arrives and Pleakley and Cobra show up with the container, not knowing that it contains only 623 experiments. Pleakley hands the container over to Hämsterviel, who is shocked to find that one is missing. Lilo then shows up with Experiment 221 trapped in the vase. Announcing that she has named it "Sparky", she says that Sparky is part of Stitch's, and thus her, ohana. Furious, Hämsterviel tells her to give him the experiment or Jumba will die. After several moments of thinking and hearing Cobra, Pleakley, Jumba and Hämsterviel persuading them, Lilo and Stitch set Sparky free and break Jumba from his bonds. On Cobra's signal, the Grand Councilwoman's ship rises out of the nearby ocean and aims several guns at Hämsterviel to obliterate him. Lilo protests, saying that Hämsterviel has the other experiments while Sparky overhears this. Sparky then proceeds to use his electrical abilities to blow the power on the Councilwoman's ship, while Hämsterviel and Gantu climb back aboard their own ship with the captured experiments. In a last attempt to stop Hämsterviel, Lilo, Stitch and Sparky stow away on it as it leaves Earth. Inside the ship, Lilo and Stitch manage to swipe the container with the other experiments in it. The struggle for the container between Lilo, Stitch and Gantu results in releasing the dehydrated pods to rain down and scatter throughout Hawaii. Having captured the two, Hämsterviel reveals his plans to clone Stitch a thousand times over and orders Gantu to do what he wants with Lilo. While Gantu puts Lilo in a teleportation pod to send her to an intergalactic zoo, Stitch is strapped to a weight just heavier than he can lift. Watching as Stitch tries to avoid being vivisected by a laser for the cloning process, Sparky shows that he has reformed by short-circuiting the cloning machine. He then breaks Stitch free from his bonds and the two strap Hämsterviel to the device before they rescue Lilo. Having locked Hämsterviel in handcuffs, Lilo, Stitch, and Sparky short-circuit Gantu's ship, causing it to crash near a waterfall on Kauai. Landing Hämsterviel's ship back at the rendezvous point, they give Sparky a new home powering Kīlauea Lighthouse, which hasn't been running in years because powering it was very expensive. They then persuade the Grand Councilwoman to let them rehabilitate the other 623 experiments. The Councilwoman places Hämsterviel under arrest, and Jumba whispers to Pleakley that he has plans for making Experiment 627. At that moment, Experiments 202, 529, 455, 489, and 390 are activated, beginning the events of the series. Later, Jumba and Pleakley hope to go home with the Grand Councilwoman this time, but they are left stranded on Earth once again. ===== Roadkill is set in 1997, against the backdrop of that year's World Series in which the Florida Marlins won a stunning upset in Miami, Florida. The book begins in media res, with the discovery of three corpses in South Florida, the murders of whom are eventually detailed as the book fills in the events precipitating them, starting eleven months before the World Series. ===== At the start of the novel, Evelyn, a male English professor, is taking up a new post in a university in New York. His tribute to Tristessa de St Ange, a (fictional) American silent movie star, on his last night in England is to be given fellatio by a girl he takes to see one of her films. He arrives in a dystopian New York, a city in its last stages of rotting death, overrun by huge rats and human emotions distilled to their most primeval. The job that he has been offered at a university falls through after the school is taken over by a militant black rebel group. He is then left destitute in the middle of New York with very little money and no job. Evelyn then befriends a Czech neighbour, Baroslav, who is an alchemist. Baroslav is killed by a group of men in the city and Evelyn is then left alone. On a late night run to the local drug store he meets Leilah. He becomes fascinated with Leilah, an exotic young African American night club dancer, and he follows her home through the city. He lives with her and they have a short sexual relationship where he frequently abuses her. He makes no emotional link, seeing her only in terms of sex. He writes to his parents and finds out that he is left a lot of money from a recently deceased relative. He becomes repelled by Leilah after he impregnated her, and he then abandons her to a voodoo abortionist. The abortion goes wrong and Leilah is put in hospital. Evelyn is expected to pay a large fee for Leilah's hospital bills, but only plans on using some of the money. The rest Leilah gets from selling her fur coats. After Evelyn withdraws the money to pay for the bill, he is mugged and beaten by a group of young men. At the last moment, they are scared away before they can find the wad of cash Evelyn has taped under his genitals. He sends Leilah red roses, then rents a bulletproof car and heads straight to the desert, leaving everything behind including Leilah. Evelyn seeks out the clean, clear desert and is captured by a woman from the subterranean female city of Beulah and dragged across the sandscape to encounter Mother, a mother goddess figure who fashioned herself with the surgeon's knife. She operates on Evelyn, removing his genitals and implants a fully functioning vagina and ovaries, as well as giving him breast augmentation surgery. She plans on impregnating him with a new Messiah, using his own sperm that she harvested from him before the operation. The transformation from male to female seems to be absolute, despite the fact that Eve struggles to learn to become the woman that her body is, and from this point on she is referred to only in female pronouns. Eve escapes but is captured, raped, and enslaved by Zero, a cruel male cult leader and "poet" with only one eye and one leg. His harem are all passive, slavish "wives" who he whips unless they talk in grunts and honour their bedfellows, the pigs. Zero leads Eve on a search for the silent film star Tristessa, an embodiment of beauty, sorrow, and loneliness, whom he hates obsessively, because he believes Tristessa has made him infertile. Tristessa was Evelyn's first object of desire in his boyhood, and Eve still has her own obsession with this figure. Zero leads his dungaree-clad harem to the glass palace of Tristessa and invades the beautiful gothic pile, discovering Tristessa herself laid out in a room surrounded by waxwork effigies in coffins. However she is alive and only when Zero tracks her down to the top of one of the towers and cuts her thong do the gang discover that Tristessa is male. Upon discovering this, Zero and his wives create a mock-up wedding ceremony and marry the two, forcing Tristessa to rape Eve. Eve and Tristessa escape, spin Zero and his harem to death in Tristessa's spinning glass palace. They escape back into the desert where they imbibe each other's newly discovered sexuality and fall in love through their realisation that they are Tiresias. Tristessa is shot by a passing band of teenage desert mafia boys. Their Colonel is 14 years old and scared of the dark. They "rescue" Eve, but she escapes and encounters Leilah in a new guise of Lilith, vagabond rebel leader. Lilith takes Eve to the coast to meet with Mother again, here they see a crazy old lady on a beach—a manifestation of ageing superficiality: dirty, caked in make-up, with piled high golden locks, singing old musical songs and living on vodka and cold tinned food and defecating in the bushes behind her deck chair. Eve realises that Leilah never objectively existed but was only a manifestation of his own lusts and corruption. Lilith tells Eve she must go and meet The Mother and pushes her into a cleft in the rocks that metamorphoses into the uterus of time. Eve progresses through the increasingly deep and warm subterranean rock pools to her rebirth. The amber Eve discovers in one of the caves and holds in her hands liquifies into ancient pine forests and primeval species. Eve is then symbolically reborn, guided by Leilah, and rejects her chauvinistic male past. Eve emerges onto a beach by Lilith, (name taken from the apocryphal story of Adam's first wife) who leaves her to go back and fight with her rebels, saying Eve cannot join her because she is pregnant. Eve swaps the gold alchemical on a neck chain that Lilith has given her for the purple skiff belonging to the crazed old woman and takes the boat and sails away. ===== Two generals, Macbett and Banco, put down a rebellion. In payment for their heroic service, Archduke Duncan promises to bestow on them land, titles and cash, but he reneges on the deal. Encouraged by the seductive Lady Duncan, Macbett plots to assassinate the Archduke and crown himself King. He tries to maintain his tenuous grip on the throne through a vicious cycle of murder and bloodshed. Meanwhile, he is haunted by the ghosts of his victims and discovers that his new wife is not all that she seems. ===== Machizo Sakaida's father is a successful manga artist. Machizo feels he's living under his father's shadow, and resents his father's success. Machizo recently transferred to Tetsuo's school. Tetsuo's friends start Tetsuo on reading Oretachi no Banka, a manga by Machizo's father, Daizō Sakai. A manga competition advertised in the magazine sets Tetsuo on redrawing manga, hoping to win some money to help pay his mother's hospitalization fees. Tetsuo's initial efforts are ruined by Machizo. Kumiko, a ruthless girl who adored Tetsuo, threatened Machizo to repay Tetsuo. Machizo's novel writing efforts were recognized by Tetsuo, and they end up working together to create a manga. In the meantime, it is revealed that Tetsuo's father had returned and was trying to end the publication of Oretachi no Banka. It is also revealed that a manga written by Tetsuo had caused his mother to fall ill, and that Daizō took possession of the aforementioned manga. Daizō describes his motivation as trying his best so that one day Tetsuo would return to creating manga. Machizo and Tetsuo's manga is completed in the nick of time, with Machizo writing the story and Tetsuo drawing the graphics. Kumiko also advises Machizo on the plot details. They manage to receive the Special Merit Award. Daizō, as a judge of the competition, went up to present the prize to Tetsuo and Machizo, and remembering Tetsuo as his inspiration, hugged him before even realizing that Machizo was on stage as well. Tetsuo's father puts another handicap on both of them: they could not enter any collaborative works for the next competition, but had to create their own work. The death of Tetsuo's mother allows him freedom to create manga, and he begins to work on manga obsessively. Machizo, on the other hand, apprentices himself to another manga artist in order to learn the basics of making manga. ===== The Toronto-filmed show starred Roberta Maxwell as Jean Lipton, a radio talk show host and widowed mother, who lived with her daughter Zoe, played by Ingrid Veninger, and her father Bob, played by Roland Hewgill."Airwaves gets back to basics after reaching too far". Ottawa Citizen, February 27, 1987. Maxwell has indicated that Canadian journalist-activist June Callwood was a basis for her portrayal of Jean. The show's cast also included Taborah Johnson, Alec Willows, and Kimble Hall. Writers for the series included Judith Thompson, John Frizzell, Susan Martin, Rob Forsythe, Linda Svendsen and Paul Gross. ===== Cal (his masculine identity), also known as Calliope (feminine), recounts how 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, a recessive condition, caused him to be born with female characteristics. The book continues with accounts of his family's history, starting with his paternal grandparents in their home village and ending with his father's funeral. These accounts cover the conception of Cal, his teenage years, and the discovery of his intersex condition. Throughout the book, Cal weaves his opinion of the events in hindsight and of his life after his father's funeral. Eugenides sets Middlesex in the 20th century and interjects historical elements, such as the Balkan Wars, the Nation of Islam, the 1967 Detroit riot, and the Watergate scandal in the story. Cal's grandparents flee from Smyrna, boarding a passenger ship, as the city burns in flames. The accounts of Cal's family history start in 1922. His grandfather, Eleutherios "Lefty" Stephanides, lives in Bithynios, a village in Asia Minor. Eugenides places the village high on the slope of Mount Olympos, above the city of Bursa, and describes incestuous marriages between cousins as a quietly accepted custom among the villagers. Lefty makes a living selling silkworm cocoons harvested by his sister, Desdemona. The siblings are orphans; their parents are victims of the ongoing Greco-Turkish War. As the war progresses, Lefty and Desdemona develop a romantic relationship. Fleeing the chaos brought by the war, they board a ship amid the Great Fire of Smyrna and set sail for the United States. Their histories unknown to the other passengers, they marry each other on board the vessel. After arriving in New York, they locate their cousin, Sourmelina "Lina" Zizmo, in Detroit, Michigan, and go to stay with her. Lina is a closeted lesbian and the only person there to know of the siblings' incestuous relationship. Starting a new life, Lefty takes on a job at Ford Motor Company, but is later retrenched. He unknowingly joins Lina's husband, Jimmy, in bootlegging. Desdemona gives birth to a son, Milton, and later a daughter, Zoe. Lina gives birth to a daughter, Theodora or "Tessie". The relationship between Lefty and Desdemona declines after she learns that there is an increased chance of genetic disease for children born from incest. In 1924, after Milton's birth, Lefty opens a bar and gambling room, calling it the Zebra Room. Milton and Tessie marry in 1946. They have two children, Chapter Eleven and Calliope ("Callie"). Prior to Callie's birth, Desdemona predicts the child to be a boy, although the parents prepare for a girl. Chapter Eleven is a biologically "normal" boy; however, Callie is intersex. Her family members are unaware of her situation for many years, so they raise Callie as a girl. Elements of family life are portrayed against the rise and fall of industrial Detroit, where so many struggled. The family gets caught up in the 1967 Detroit riot resulting from racial tensions, after President Johnson authorizes the use of federal troops. The family home is raided during this period, to the shock of the parents. After this harrowing experience, the family moves to a house on Middlesex Boulevard, Grosse Pointe. When she is 14 years old, Callie falls in love with her female best friend, whom Callie refers to as the "Obscure Object". In separate encounters, Callie has her first sexual experiences with a woman, the Obscure Object, and with a man, the Obscure Object's brother. After Callie is injured by a tractor, a doctor discovers that she is intersex. She is taken to a clinic in New York and undergoes a series of tests and examinations. After learning about the syndrome and facing the prospect of sex reassignment surgery, Callie runs away and assumes a male identity as Cal. He hitchhikes cross-country and reaches San Francisco, where he joins a burlesque show as Hermaphroditus. Cal is arrested by the police during a raid on his workplace. He is released into Chapter Eleven's custody and learns of their father's death. The siblings return to their family home on Middlesex. In a private moment, Desdemona recognizes Cal's condition, associating it with stories from her old village about children born of incest. She confesses to Cal that her husband, Lefty, is also her brother. As Milton's funeral takes place at the church, Cal stands in the doorway of his family home, assuming the male-only role in Greek traditions to keep his father's spirit from re-entering the family home. Several years later, Cal becomes a diplomat stationed in Berlin. He meets Julie Kikuchi, a Japanese-American woman, and tentatively starts a relationship with her. ===== Sirius is raised by scientist Thomas Trelone in North Wales, near Trawsfynydd. Thomas embarks on a program of using steroids and other chemicals to rapidly develop cognitive power of dogs, resulting in super sheep dogs. Sirius, however, proves to possess a dog intelligence comparable to a normal human being, as he is able to communicate with English words, although it takes some time for the humans to understand his canine pronunciation. He is born at the same time as his creator's human daughter, Plaxy, and the two of them are raised together as brother and sister. During childhood, Sirius and Plaxy develop an intense bond for each other. Their physical and intellectual growth become a sort of competition, with Sirius striving to equal his handed sister. But as they grew, their relationship comes under strain, as Sirius develops a dog-like sensitivity to sound leading to a unique musicality, while Plaxy had a strong visual aesthetic. Their different sensory experiences afforded less interest in each other's experience of the world. Soon it was time for Plaxy to attend primary school, but Sirius could not attend. Despite his pleas to learn, Plaxy became reluctant to share her school and social life experiences with him. Their lives drifted further apart. When Plaxy departed to attend boarding school, Thomas wanted to bring Sirius to Mr. Pugh's farm, where he would work as a "sheep-dog apprentice" before taking him to the city, believing the experience would be beneficial to his character. However, Thomas wanted Sirius to keep most of his human intelligence a secret, with Pugh only suspecting him to be a "Super-super-sheep-dog." After a period of time, Sirius became desperately lonely and longed for his family, Plaxy especially. He yearned to write to her, and after weeks of difficulty and strings of failure, but gradually building upon his successes, he managed to write and send out a letter to her, without the aid of human hands. After a year being a silent sheep-dog, save for the holidays with Thomas and Plaxy, Sirius surprises Thomas by describing the psychological trauma he has experienced. Sorely realizing the insensitivity of his program, Thomas decides to show Sirius the university, where he marvels in awe. Sirius is acquainted with his creator's most trusted colleagues and scientists. They soon begin to study his mind and body. Months pass, and his new life as a pampered laboratory animal takes a toll on his physical and mental well-being, becoming overweight and agitated. After realizing his declining state, he arranges a meeting with Plaxy, now a university student. Plaxy, however, does little to console his feelings. After sensing her coldness and discomfort with him, Sirius is left feeling nauseated. As they part for the night, an embittered and dispirited Sirius strolls through town. His mind floods with brooding thoughts of his own loneliness, analyzing the cruelty and hypocrisy of humankind, and the harshness of the universe towards all living things. Miserably depressed, lonely, and frustrated, he sought for an outlet to express the "spirit" within him. He develops a mystical idea of the perfect hunting, which is associated with his sophisticated sense of smell. The scent he pursues, the prey he's looking for is God. Sirius experiences a spiritual epiphany, seeing and sensing the world in a new light. He becomes instantly fascinated by human religion, realizing it had the answers he sought for, beyond the strict boundaries of science. His foster-mother, Elizabeth, agrees to take Sirius to a priest, Rev. Geoffrey Adams, who serves in the impoverished East End. Over a period of time, Sirius converses with Geoffrey, hoping to find the heart of spiritual truth and love, but is disappointed to learn that human religion has become lost in its doctrine and mythology. Fortunately, he discovers one outlet for his spirit, his feelings and life experience. After great persuasion to express himself, Geoffrey, with caution, allows Sirius to sing in his church — in front of an astounded audience. When Sirius returns home, he mostly works as a sophisticated sheep-dog. But after seeing the destruction, death and misery of war, and mankind's stupidity, combined with his unique nature, which makes him isolated, he has a spiritual breakdown, and begins to indulge more and more his "wolf mood" which is irrational and murderously destructive. The final part of the story deals with his hatred towards humans and towards himself, and his violent acts. It also deals with the rumors of the rural community about Sirius' advanced nature being the work of the devil, and the scandal of Plaxy possibly having a sexual relationship with Sirius — which the novel's narrator, Plaxy's human lover, indirectly suggests that their love has a physical nature, but not directly sexual. Plaxy and Sirius have, during the whole tale, their political and personal issues, but also a very special bond, which leads to the idea of a mystical or metaphysical relationship, transcending ordinary love and understanding, which Plaxy refers to as a unique double-being, a 'Plaxy-Sirius.' Eventually, Plaxy is conscripted during the Second World War. People continued to attack Sirius, and he subsequently sinks into deep despair. The hysterically religious population, who seek to vent their own fear and frustration with the war on an easy target, persecute Sirius with increasing violence, provoking violent responses by Sirius. Depression with what he calls the "tyrant species" cause him to abandon many of his more humane pursuits and live wild, killing many animals on their farms. One farmer and his sheepdogs venture out to hunt him, but Sirius kills the farmer in self-defense. Fear and rage rises in the town, solidifying their resolve to destroy him. Plaxy, after a desperate search, finds a terrified and feral Sirius, hiding from the townspeople. Plaxy manages to re-awaken Sirius' human mind, and tries to console him. But Sirius laments, realizing there's no place for him in the world, insisting that his human- needing spirit, and his wild wolf-side, made his nature fundamentally incompatible and torn. As they planned for their escape to Scotland, Sirius is hunted and eventually shot by the community. He dies professing his love for Plaxy, stating their life and time together, despite all the hardship, was worthwhile. ===== The film is about two couples: Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis), and Gabe (Woody Allen) and Judy (Mia Farrow). The film starts when Jack and Sally arrive at Gabe and Judy's apartment and announce their separation. Gabe is shocked, but Judy takes the news personally and is very hurt. Still confused, they go out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. A few weeks later Sally goes to the apartment of a colleague. They plan to go out together to the opera and then to dinner. Sally asks if she can use his phone, and calls Jack. Learning from him that he has met someone, she accuses him of having had an affair during their marriage. Judy and Gabe are introduced to Jack's new girlfriend, Sam (Lysette Anthony), an aerobics trainer. While Judy and Sam shop, Gabe calls Jack's new girlfriend a "cocktail waitress" and tells him that he is crazy for leaving Sally for her. About a week later, Judy introduces Sally to Michael (Liam Neeson), Judy's magazine colleague, in whom Judy is clearly interested herself. Michael asks Sally out, and they begin dating; Michael is smitten, but Sally is dissatisfied with the relationship. Meanwhile, Gabe has developed a friendship with a young student of his, Rain (Juliette Lewis), and has her read the manuscript of his novel. She comments on its brilliance, but has several criticisms, to which Gabe reacts defensively. At a party, Jack learns from a friend that Sally is seeing someone, and flies into a jealous rage. He and Sam break up after an intense argument, and Jack drives back to his house to find Sally in bed with Michael. He asks Sally to give their marriage another chance, but she tells him to leave. Less than two weeks later, however, Jack and Sally are back together and the couple meet Judy and Gabe for dinner like old times. After dinner, Judy and Gabe get into an argument about her not sharing her poetry. After Gabe makes a failed pass at her, Judy tells him she thinks the relationship is over; a week later Gabe moves out. Judy begins seeing Michael. Gabe goes to Rain's 21st birthday party, and gives her a music box as a present. She asks him to kiss her, and though the two share a romantic moment, Gabe tells her they should not pursue it any further. As he walks home in the rain, he realizes that he has ruined his relationship with Judy. Michael tells Judy he needs time alone, then says he can't help still having feelings for Sally. Angry and hurt, Judy walks out into the rain. Highlighting her "passive aggressiveness," Michael follows and begs her to stay with him. A year and a half later they marry. At the end, the audience sees a pensive Jack and Sally back together. Jack and Sally admit their marital problems still exist (her frigidity is not solved), but they find they accept their problems as simply the price they have to pay to remain together. Gabe is living alone because he says he is not dating for the time being, as he does not want to hurt anyone. The film ends with an immediate cut to black after Gabe asks the unseen documentary crew, "Can I go? Is this over?" ===== Christopher John Francis Boone is a fifteen- year-old boy who is implied to be on the autism spectrum, who lives with his father, Ed. He explains in his narration that his mother, Judy, died two years ago. The boy discovers the dead body of the neighbour's dog, Wellington, speared by a garden fork. Mrs. Shears, the dog's owner, calls the police, and Christopher comes under suspicion. When a policeman touches him, Christopher is uncomfortable with being touched and hits the policeman. He is arrested, then released with a police caution. He decides to investigate the dog's death, despite his father's orders to stay out of other people's business. He is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him. Throughout his adventures, Christopher records his experiences in a book, which he calls a "murder mystery novel". During his investigation, Christopher meets people whom he has never before encountered, even though they live on the same street, including the elderly Mrs. Alexander, who informs Christopher that his mother had an affair with Mr. Shears and had been with him for a long time. Ed discovers the book and confiscates it after a brief argument with the boy. While searching for the confiscated book, Christopher uncovers a trove of letters which his mother wrote to him, dated after her supposed death, which his father has also hidden. He is so shocked by his father lying about his mother's death that he is unable to move, curls up on the bed, vomits and groans for several hours until his father returns home. Ed realizes that Christopher has read the letters and cleans him up. He then confesses that he had indeed lied about Judy's death; he also admits that he was the one who had killed Wellington, stating that it was a mistake resulting from his anger after a heated argument with Mrs. Shears. Christopher, having lost all trust in his father and convinced that his father might try to kill him, decides to run away to live with his mother. He remembers his mother's address from the letters and embarks on an adventurous trip to London, where his mother lives with Mr. Shears. After a long and event-filled journey, evading policemen and feeling ill from the overwhelmingly large amount of information and stimuli from the trains and crowds around him, he finally finds his way to the home of his mother and Mr. Shears, and waits outside until they arrive. Judy is delighted that Christopher has come to her; she is upset that Ed told Christopher that she was dead. Mr. Shears does not want Christopher living with them, and never did. Very soon after arriving, Christopher wants to return to Swindon in order to take his mathematics A-level. His mother leaves Mr. Shears, their relationship having broken down because of the rejection of Christopher by Mr. Shears. Judy then moves into a rented room in Swindon. After an argument with Ed, she agrees to let him meet Christopher for daily brief visits. Christopher remains terrified of his father and makes repeated attempts to prevent him from talking. He hopes Ed will be imprisoned for killing Wellington, although his mother explains that for this to happen, Mrs. Shears would have to press charges. The story ends with Ed getting Christopher a Golden Retriever puppy, who Christopher gets to name, and promising that he will rebuild trust with Christopher slowly, "no matter how long it takes". Christopher asserts that he will take further A-level exams and attend university. He completes his mathematics A-level with top grades despite having eaten and slept very little. Earlier in the story he talks about wanting to become an astronaut, but at the end he declares that his goal is to become a scientist. The book ends with Christopher optimistic about his future, having solved the mystery of the murdered dog, gone to London on his own, found his mother, written a book about his adventures, and achieved an A in his A-level maths exam. ===== ===== This Cold War espionage thriller follows the moves of British anti-hero spy Charlie Muffin (Hemmings) who has fallen on hard times since the forced retirement of Sir Archibald Willoughby, his previous boss at the U.K. secret service (played by Sir Ralph Richardson). His new boss, Sir Henry Cuthbertson (Ian Richardson), who epitomises the haughty upper class British imperialist, hardly attempts to conceal his disdain for the under-educated agent who quite obviously does not stem from the "right class". Right at the start of the film, it is shown how Charlie has evidently been deemed expendable and accordingly gets set up to be caught or killed during a joint mission in East Germany—this despite Muffin essentially having been responsible for the mission's success. Cuthbertson's lap-dog agents Snare and Harrison—who are both totally lacking in experience and as arrogant as their boss—are shocked and embarrassed to see Muffin returning alive and well. Once home in the UK, Muffin's humiliation does not end, as he gets demoted and put on leave, which he spends with his wife Edith (Linden), but not until after a hilarious take on the obligatory spy agent–secretary-receptionist affair. Next, a classic yet utterly unpredictable spy story unfolds around British and American attempts to facilitate a safe defection of high-ranking Soviet General Valery Kalenin (Braun). Director of Central Intelligence Garson Ruttgers (Wanamaker) proves not much smarter and ultimately equally officious and presumptuous as his British counterpart, though in a distinctly—satirically—American way. After Harrison and Snare's spectacular downfalls at the task (one ends up dead trying to escape and the other captured), Ruttgers' aide Braley (Rimmer), a good-hearted but docile sideshow official, is assigned to join Muffin on a trip to Prague, to liaise with Kalenin. ===== Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. They live together and just want a quiet life. Then they meet John the barman who died but is much better now. John gives them a tape, which leads to meeting Dave the wimp. They find out about The People's Front For The Liberation of West Yorkshire. The man with no name called Mr Peterson came to see them. He was followed by the six men in grey suits. Jill goes to see The Oldest Suffragette In Town. Trevor and Jill go on a trip to Amsterdam with their class from "San Quentin High". Trevor and Jill meet The Honourable Order of Elks who are "looking for a bit of action". The tone throughout is deliberately discursive and undramatic. Trevor and Jill are mistakenly given a secret tape recording, which results in their harassment by security forces, their home being invaded, their private lives used to discredit them at school and their being pursued all the way to Amsterdam and Edinburgh. Eventually the tapes are revealed as just a charade invented by shady government forces as a part of a disinformation campaign. ===== Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. They live together and just want a quiet life. Since their last adventure in The Beiderbecke Tapes, Jill and Trevor have a child - Firstborn. Big Al asks them to put up a friend of his and, of course, they agree. But when Ivan arrives, they find he speaks no English but thinks that "Bix is cool". Meetings with criminals, smuggling people over the border, fighting for the right to education even when it's against the rules. These and other adventures are played out to a soundtrack of jazz music in the style of Bix Beiderbecke performed by Frank Ricotti with Kenny Baker as featured cornet soloist. ===== Provincial pre-teenager Zazie stays in Paris with her Uncle Gabriel for two days, while her mother spends some time with her lover. Zazie manages to evade her uncle's custody, and métro strike notwithstanding, sets out to explore the city on her own. ===== The Duke of Auge dreams that he is Cidrolin, living on a barge alone with his daughter, while Cidrolin dreams that he is the Duke of Auge, travelling through the history of France. They will meet in 1964. Carl Reinecke, a critic writing for the London Times, has argued that this novel is an example of the archetypal "prodigal son" storyline. Category:1965 novels Category:Novels by Raymond Queneau ===== Atlantis is ruled by the beautiful and intelligent Empress Salustra. The fate of the Empire will be decided by an arranged marriage with the ruler of a less advanced, semi-barbarian northern kingdom, as the advanced technology of Atlantis is powerless against strange environmental and ecological disasters. ===== ===== A pair of explorers, Lewis Moon and Wolf, become stranded in Mãe de Deus (Portuguese: Mother of God), an outpost in the deep Brazilian Amazon River basin, after their plane runs out of fuel. The local police commander wants the Niaruna tribe, living upriver, to move their village so they won't be killed by gold miners moving into the area and cause trouble for him with the provincial government. The commander cuts a deal with Moon: if he and his fellow mercenary would bomb the Niaruna village from the air and drive them away, they will be given enough gasoline for their airplane to be allowed to leave. Born-again Christian evangelist (and missionary) Martin Quarrier and his wife Hazel arrive with their son Billy, here to spread the Christian gospel to the primitive Niaruna indigenous natives. They arrive in Mãe de Deus to meet fellow missionaries Leslie and Andy Huben, who live with a Niaruna helper. In town, they meet a Catholic priest who wants to re- establish a mission to the Niarunas, as the former missionary was killed by them. Moon and Wolf leave in their plane to attack the Niaruna. But upon seeing the community with his own eyes as well as an Indian firing an arrow at the plane, Moon has second thoughts. The plane returns to Mãe de Deus. That night, after a discussion with Wolf, Quarrier and the priest, Moon takes an Indian drug and begins hallucinating. He takes off alone in his plane and parachutes into the Niaruna village. Moon, a half-Native American Cheyenne, aligns himself with the Niarunas. He is accepted as "Kisu-Mu", one of the Niaruna gods, and begins to adapt to Niaruna life and culture. The four evangelists travel upriver to establish their mission. Indians originally converted by the Catholics turn up, awaiting the arrival of the Niaruna. Eventually they do come and accept the gifts that the Quarriers offer, not staying long. Young Billy dies of blackwater fever (a serious complication of malaria), causing Hazel to lose her sanity. She is returned to Mãe de Deus. Martin becomes despondent, arguing with Leslie and gradually losing his faith. Meanwhile, Moon encounters Andy swimming nude. After they kiss, Moon catches her cold. He returns to the Niaruna camp and inadvertently infects everyone there. Much of the tribe becomes sick. Moon and the tribe's leaders go to the missionary Leslie to beg for drugs. Leslie refuses, but Martin agrees to provide the drugs. He travels to the Niaruna village with the missionaries' young helper. In the village, after Martin speaks with Moon, helicopters arrive to begin bombing. Martin survives the bombing, but killed by his helper soon thereafter. Moon is exposed not as a god but as a man. He runs, ending up alone. ===== Lee Simon (Kenneth Branagh) is an unsuccessful novelist turned travel writer who immerses himself in celebrity journalism following a midlife crisis and subsequent divorce from his insecure wife, Robin (Judy Davis), a former English teacher, after sixteen years of marriage. As he stumbles his way through both professional encounters and sexual escapades with performers, models, and other players in the world of entertainment, Lee increasingly questions his purpose in life. He ruins numerous opportunities due to his fame-seeking, insecurities and neuroses. Meanwhile, Robin trades her many neuroses for a makeover and a job with television producer Tony Gardella (Joe Mantegna) that leads to her own celebrity interview program. She takes advantage of numerous opportunities and ends up happy and successful. ===== The film starts with a 12-year-old girl whose babysitter is on a date with serial killer Patrick Bateman. After Bateman kills and starts to dissect her babysitter, the girl stabs him with an ice pick. Fast forward to the present day and the girl, who is named Rachael Newman, is now a college student studying criminology under Professor Starkman, a former FBI agent. Rachael aspires to join the FBI and is determined to get the teaching assistant position under Starkman, which would make her a shoo-in for the FBI training program. Tough competition for the position stands in her way, and Rachael proceeds to kill off classmates one by one. During her killing spree, she decides to see the school psychiatrist, Dr. Eric Daniels. Realizing that Rachael is a textbook sociopath, Daniels tries to warn Starkman, who mistakenly thinks the psycho student is Cassandra Blaire, with whom he had an extramarital affair. When Cassandra reveals that her affair with Professor Starkman has guaranteed her the TA position, Rachael decides to murder her as well. After she does so, Professor Starkman discovers Cassandra's body and calls Daniels to tell him that "she's dead". But he does not identify the victim, and Daniels assumes it must be Rachael. Distraught, Professor Starkman leaves his teaching position, which angers the obsessed Rachael. She reveals that she is not Rachael Newman; she killed the real Rachael at the beginning of the semester and assumed her identity. During spring break, Rachael stays on campus and locates an intoxicated Starkman, impaired by the effects of Valium and alcohol, and tries to seduce him to get the job. However, Starkman sees she is wearing a dress and necklace he had given to Cassandra. She then confesses her crimes to him, her "crush" on him, and that she knew about his affairs with various women (which included her former babysitter, whom he indirectly killed, since he had told her about Bateman and she decided to track him down), as he backs up towards the window in a state of confusion and fear. Rachael blows him a kiss, and he falls out the window to his death. As she leaves, Rachael realizes a janitor has witnessed Starkman's death, and she murders the janitor, too. Driving away from campus with Starkman in her car, Rachael is stopped by campus security, whom she stabs to death with an ice pick. As the film reaches its conclusion, Daniels and two cops pursue Rachael in a car chase, started when she sped by the cops who had Daniels in the car. It ends with Rachael driving off a cliff, resulting in the car exploding. At this point, she is presumed to be dead by the cops who witnessed the event and the media. Two years later, Dr. Daniels is giving a lecture on Rachael's mind and how he wrote a book about her. When he looks up from speaking with a student, he sees Rachael, who has not died after all; she indirectly reveals that she killed Starkman's last assistant, Elizabeth McGuire, and stole her identity to get into Quantico. She allows Dr. Daniels to know because she believes there is no point in committing the perfect crime if no one knows about it and she is confident he will not divulge this information because it would make a farce of his best-selling book in which he proclaimed to completely understand her and witnessed her death in the fiery car. The body that was in the car was the real Rachael, whose decaying body had been kept in the killer's dorm closet. It was revealed by another student that she is the youngest agent to be drafted to the Bureau in her sophomore year. As Rachel walks out of his class, Dr. Daniels is visibly shaken by what he had just learned. ===== The game centers on Jonathan Ingram, one of the five "Policenauts", astronauts with police training, assigned to ensure the safety of Beyond Coast, mankind's first fully functional space colony in the year 2013. Jonathan tests a new space walking suit, but drifts away into space by accident and is presumed dead by his colleagues. He is found alive and well 25 years later thanks to the cold-sleep module connected to the suit. The year is now 2040, and Jonathan (now a private investigator working in Old Los Angeles) is visited by his former wife, Lorraine, who asks for Jonathan's help in solving the disappearance of her husband, Kenzo Hojo. Lorraine tells him that the only clues he left behind being a torn leaf, a set of capsules, and the word "Plato". Jonathan is reluctant to take her case at first, but after Lorraine leaves his office, she is attacked and murdered by a man in a black motorcycle suit. Jonathan, unable to catch the culprit, decides to fulfill his ex-wife's final request and travels to Beyond, where he is reunited with his former partner from his LAPD and Policenaut days, Ed Brown. Ed then introduces Jonathan to two of his underlings, Meryl Silverburgh and Dave Forrest, and all three agree to help Jonathan investigate the circumstances surrounding Hojo's disappearance and Lorraine's murder. Ed then reunites Jonathan with another former Policenaut, Gates Becker, who is now the chief of the Beyond Coast Police Department (BCP). Gates also agrees to help Jonathan in solving his case. To begin their investigation, Jonathan and Ed travel to Hojo's house to meet Karen Hojo, who is the daughter of Hojo and Lorraine, and a news reporter for Beyond Coast Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Though reluctant at first, she agrees to talk with Jonathan about her father's disappearance. Karen tells them that her father was incredibly stressed out regarding his job. She also reveals to Jonathan and Ed that she is suffering from a bone marrow cancer called aplastic anemia, and that her father was able to improve her spot on the priority list so she can receive a treatment. While investigating Hojo's private study, they discover that Hojo had made a spare ID card, and while investigating his Compact Disc collection, Jonathan and Ed discover a CD in a blank case with the Hojo family crest on it containing nothing but sound. After coming up short, Jonathan and Ed then travel to Tokugawa Pharmecuticals, and investigate Hojo's office for clues. They discover that on Hojo's whiteboard that he was supposed to deliver 100 sets of Tokugawa's new drug, K-9, to Beyond Coast Central Hospital (B.C.C.H.) on the day he went missing. The two travel to the hospital and meet Chris Goldwyn, the hospital's director, and Jun Ishida, one of Hojo's co-workers who works in the hospital's pharmacy. Unable to get a strong lead from Ishida and Goldwyn, Jonathan and Ed travel to Tokugawa Headquarters to find a stronger lead. After talking with the receptionist, they learn that Hojo's last known location was at Tokugawa HQ, as he checked into the building on the day he disappeared but never checked out. To learn more, Jonathan and Ed run into former Policenauts Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa, the head of the Tokugawa group, and Salvatore Toscanini, the head tour guide of Tokugawa's moon plant. After being unable to get any clues from Tokugawa, Jonathan gets into a heated argument with him, suspecting that Tokugawa may have had something to do with Hojo's disappearance. Jonathan is restrained by Ed, who then forces him out of the building to prevent things from escalating into a fight. Later on, while eating dinner at Ed's house, Jonathan and Ed receive a call from an anonymous informant who claims to have information on Tokugawa, and tells them to meet them at the Beyond Space Museum. Upon arriving at the museum, Jonathan and Ed encounter a man in an astronaut costume. They learn that the man in the costume is indeed the informant, and is also using a voice scrambler to keep his identity hidden. The informant tells them that the secret behind the K-9 drug is that it is being used to distribute Narc, a type of illegal drug. He also claims that Hojo has been killed, and is hinting that the one responsible for Lorraine's death works for Tokugawa. He then tells them that Hojo made a presentation for K-9 meant for the mafia that's on a CD. Before he departs, he warns Jonathan and Ed that the organization responsible for Lorraine and Hojo's deaths have infiltrated BCP, and that they should trust nobody. Upon returning to Hojo's house, Jonathan and Ed obtain the blank CD from Hojo's CD collection, and travel back to Tokugawa Pharmecuticals to insert it into a special computer meant only for use by Tokugawa personnel - a TGear-99. Upon returning to Hojo's office, they discover that his whiteboard has been wiped clean, his pictures removed, and his TGear missing. With no other options, the two of them travel to the hospital and run into Chris, and asks her if she has a TGear computer in the hospital. She gives them permission to use the TGear in the pharmacy, and after inserting Hojo's ID and the CD into the terminal, they discover that K-9 is indeed meant to be a vessel for the illegal drug Narc, confirming what their informant had told them. Jonathan and Ed then learn from Meryl that their informant wants to meet them at the museum again. Both men head down to the museum at night, and after breaking in, they discover that their informant had been killed - his head sliced clean off. After investigating further, they discover that the informant was Ishida, and that he was killed because he and Hojo were working together to sell K-9 illegally to the mafia in order to obtain the funds for Karen's treatment. Before returning to their car, they discover the assailant that killed Lorraine. Both men give chase in a major firefight throughout the city, until arriving at a jewelry store, where they discover that Dave had been shot by the assailant. Before dying, Dave tells Jonathan and Ed that the person in the bike suit is a member of BCP's AP division - Tony Redwood. He comes to this conclusion based on the fact that Redwood is a Frozener - an artificial human hatched from eggs that runs on artificial white blood, meant for military and police usage. Dave then dies, and Jonathan and Ed are left with no choice to hunt down Redwood. They chase Redwood into a jewelry store where they discover that he has set a bomb, and if they don't defuse it, it will blow a hole in the colony. They manage to defuse the bomb, but at the cost of losing Redwood. Upon returning to the crime scene where Dave was shot dead, they learn that Dave's body has gone missing. The next day, Jonathan and Ed are chewed out by Gates for their reckless behavior and has decided to hold on to Jonathan's gun until he leaves for home. In order to prove that Tokugawa is running a Narc smuggling ring, Jonathan and Ed sneak into Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals once again for more clues. Upon arriving, Jonathan claims to see one of the security cameras moving, but Ed believes he is hallucinating. Nonetheless, the men take a risk to get into the Restricted section of Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals using Hojo's spare ID card. The card works, and the men enter the area. They then learn that their suspicions have indeed been proven correct. Tokugawa has been secretly growing black poppies, the plant needed to make Narc, in the restricted area of the Pharmaceuticals building. Jonathan also learns that the leaf he received from Lorraine came from a black poppy plant in the restricted area. They then move into the processing area, where the K-9 drug is being produced, and they grab a few sample pills as evidence. Upon arriving back at BCP, they show the pills to Gates, who orders a raid on Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals. However, it doesn't go as planned. Jonathan discovers that the poppies have been switched out, along with the pills they collected last night. Then, BCP, along with an AP squad lead by President Tokugawa himself, unveil Hojo's dead body, all shot up. They conclude that the bullets used to shoot Hojo came from Jonathan's Beretta handgun. Jonathan then learns that he has been set up by both Gates and Tokugawa, and is then framed for the murder of Lorraine, Hojo, and Ishida. Ed is restrained, and Jonathan is knocked out by AP officers. A few days later, Jonathan awakens in Hojo's house, with Karen by his side. Karen tells him than she, the BBC news agency, and Ed, worked together to free Jonathan from BCP's custody. Jonathan then reveals the truth about his relationship with Lorraine to Karen - he tells her that Karen's mother had been against him being a cop, that she almost committed suicide twice, and after being accepted to join the Policenauts program, Jonathan and Lorraine then separated. Karen thanks Jonathan for telling her the truth, and is willing to assist him in his quest to bring down Tokugawa. Jonathan then learns in a phone call from Ed that Tokugawa has almost completely colonized BCP, as they control the AP outfit outright, and that Gates and Tokugawa are working together to keep the Narc smuggling ring a secret. Jonathan and Karen then meet up with Ed at the hospital's morgue at night, and discover that BCP's mortician, Victor, has been killed and placed in a capsule meant for warehouse #7 at Tokugawa's moon plant. They also discover capsules containing Ishida's heart and one of Dave's kidneys, also with labels on them for warehouse #7. Jonathan and Ed send Karen home and assign Meryl to protect her while they travel to the Moon to investigate further. Upon arriving at warehouse #7, they discover that Tokugawa has been running an illegal organ trafficking ring in order to counteract the negative side-effects of being in space for long periods of time. They manage to find both Hojo and Dave's bodies, as well as numerous other bodies, some being women and children. They record the evidence on camera, but before leaving the warehouse, they are then confronted by Salvatore. After confessing more about Tokugawa's scheme, he then reveals to Jonathan that his famous accident in space was in fact no accident, and that Gates and Tokugawa had planned to kill Jonathan by tampering with his EMPS unit. Salvatore then attempts to kill both men, but is then shot and killed by Jonathan. After a lengthy gun battle with Moon Plant security, Jonathan and Ed then escape via a pod on the plant's mass driver. They arrive back on Beyond one week later, where they discover that Ed's adopted son, Marc, has been kidnapped by Tokugawa and are holding him hostage at the museum, which is having a celebratory party for the 30th anniversary of Beyond. Jonathan, Ed, Meryl and Karen make their way to the museum, and upon confronting Marc, who is with a mysterious person in a spacesuit, Ed is then shot by Redwood, and warns Jonathan that he will be next. Karen then collapses from her illness, and both she and Ed are rushed to the hospital. Jonathan then discovers from Karen's doctor that she does not have much longer to live, and that the only thing that can save her is a bone marrow transplant from someone with a matching HLA type. Jonathan learns that the only person with a matching HLA type is Gates. However, the doctor decides to look up Jonathan's HLA type and takes a blood sample from him, but admits that it will take some time. Jonathan is then confronted by Meryl and Marc, and discovers from a picture that Marc drew that the person in the spacesuit who had accompanied Marc after being kidnapped was Chris. After confronting Chris, she reveals that she was forced into working for Tokugawa if she wanted a future on Beyond. She also reveals that she decided to become a Frozener surrogate mother, and that Redwood is her son. Before Jonathan is able to get any more information out of her, Redwood arrives at the hospital and kills Chris, and then prompts Jonathan to come to Tokugawa HQ if he wants to get his hands on Gates' bone marrow. Jonathan decides to go to Tokugawa HQ, and he has Meryl figure out a plan. After taking out most of Tokugawa's guards, Jonathan then heads to the Zero-gravity Garden on the 40th floor to confront Tokugawa and Gates. However, he is then confronted by Redwood, who disables the elevator, and Jonathan is forced to proceed on foot. He then gets into a lengthy gunfight with Redwood, and Jonathan eventually comes out on top. Redwood reveals that he was the one responsible for killing Lorraine, Hojo, Dave, and Ishida, and before Jonathan gets a chance to finally kill him, Redwood then throws himself off the guardrail in the stairway leading up to the 40th floor, killing himself in the process. Jonathan then arrives at the 40th floor, and discovers Gates alone in a prototype EMPS combat unit. Jonathan fails to shoot Gates, as his recoil Beretta has been rendered useless by the Zero-gravity area, and is shot numerous times by Gates, however he hits none of Jonathan's vitals, as he plans to apprehend him and have his organs sold off to the highest bidder. However, Jonathan records Gates' confession about the drug and organ scheme thanks to a camera Meryl gave him, and Meryl then broadcasts Gates' confession to the entirety of Beyond, exposing Tokugawa's scandals to the public. This enrages Gates, who then attempts to kill Jonathan, but he is then shot by Ed, and Gates' EMPS then crashes into a pillar, blowing a hole in Tokugawa HQ. Upon arriving back at the first floor, Jonathan and Ed are then confronted by Tokugawa and his AP unit, who orders them shot dead, however, Meryl arrives with the remaining BCP officers, surrounding and then arresting Tokugawa for his crimes. Afterwards, Jonathan arrives back at BCCH, and the doctor tells him that his HLA type matches that of Karen's, and that he is Karen's actual biological father. Jonathan donates his marrow to Karen, saving his daughter's life. Jonathan then says goodbye to Meryl and Ed, who is now the new chief of BCP, and then departs back to Earth. ===== U. S. Air Force Interceptor Command Experimental Station No. 6 is a long-range radar installation located in Winthrop, Manitoba, Canada. Unexplained deaths begin to occur in the general area of a farming village near the American base. Postmortems reveal the victims were murdered and the brains and spinal cords are missing from the corpses; the only clue left behind are two puncture marks at the base of each skull. The locals, however, become convinced that radiation leaks from the radar installation's nuclear-power experiments are the cause of the mysterious deaths. Air Force Major Jeff Cummings (Thompson) begins an investigation as the local deaths continue, interviewing various townsfolk, while looking for anything unusual. Cummings becomes suspicious of Professor R. E. Walgate (Reeves), a retired British scientist living near the airbase; Walgate is in the process of writing another book about his ongoing experiments with telekinesis, this time as it applies to thought projection. Major Cummings' suspicion of Walgate is later proved to be correct. The scientist finally admits he has not only succeeded in developing his mental ability, but in the process created a living thought projection. Unknown to Professor Walgate, the nuclear power radar experiments underway at the nearby U. S. airbase have greatly enhanced his mental abilities to the point that, through him, his living thought projection has become a malevolent and invisible new life form. It escaped from Walgate's laboratory and is now attacking humans as a means of replicating physical, though still invisible, new versions of itself, all of which are now feeding on the base's nuclear-generated power. The invisible creatures eventually attack and kill the military personnel at the airbase in order to take over control of the radar station's nuclear reactor; two of them dial-up the power to very dangerous levels. As they do so all the creatures suddenly become visible. Their now visible bodies are revealed to be the missing brains with spinal cords stolen from their victims; their spinal cords have become very flexible and have now sprouted tendrils. These mutations also allow the brain-spine creatures to move quickly and even leap distances; each brain-spine has also developed a pair of small eyes at the ends of extended eye stalks. The slithering creations then attack Walgate's home, where most of the film's principal characters have gathered to discuss the crisis. Some of the brains get inside by breaking through a boarded-up window using their tendrils, while others leap to the roof and slither down through the fireplace's open flue. Some of the defenders are attacked and killed, but well-aimed .45 semi-automatic pistol shots to the brains soon make short work of most of the attacking creatures; they gorily bleed out as they expire. Professor Walgate exits his home as a diversion, but is quickly attacked and killed by his creation. Meanwhile, Major Cummings escapes out the back way and quickly heads to the airbase, where he saves the day by blowing up the radar installation's power machinery. This immediately robs the surviving brains of their high-energy food source, and the creatures quickly die, dissolving into puddles of goo. ===== With Lestat still in slumber, the vampire coven is reunited around the "brat prince" and the vampire David Talbot asks Armand tell his life story. Born somewhere in the Kievan Rus in the late 15th century, Armand (at this time called Andrei) becomes an icon painter in a monastery. He is forcefully taken out of this life of prayer and devotion by slave traders, who transport him to Constantinople and then to a brothel in Venice. Soon after his arrival, he is purchased by the vampire Marius de Romanus, who names him Amadeo. Marius lives the extravagant life of a respected Renaissance painter, and mentors many boys who serve as his apprentices. Marius provides them with education, shelter, and food, and he assists them in finding respectable positions once they are grown. Over time, Amadeo's relationship with Marius develops and they become much closer than Marius is with any of the other boys. In addition to developing a sexual relationship, Amadeo sleeps in Marius' bed, is privy to special privileges, and becomes something of a "head boy" in the household. Still, Marius maintains strict control over Amadeo, and expects industriousness from him in all things. When Amadeo comes of age, Marius begins Amadeo's education in sexuality and coupling. He takes Amadeo to a brothel, where he remains for several days. Amadeo later visits a male brothel, and makes several observations about the difference in sexual activities with the different genders. There is a distinct bisexuality to Amadeo's nature, as he enjoys activity with either sex. He later has a brief affair with an Englishman called Lord Harlech, who develops an unrequited obsession with Amadeo. During this period, Amadeo befriends and ultimately seduces Bianca Solderini, a wealthy debutante and courtesan whose primary role in life seems to be to throw nightly parties. Marius eventually divulges his vampire nature to Amadeo, who almost immediately begins asking to be turned. Marius shows Amadeo some of what it means to be immortal, and allows him to join him in the hunt on several occasions. He tells Amadeo that they must always focus on killing evildoers; they assist Bianca by murdering her kinsmen who have been forcing her to poison those from whom they have borrowed money. Eventually, on a night when Marius is out of the country, Harlech breaks into Marius's palazzo and attacks Amadeo, murdering two apprentices in the process. Amadeo kills Harlech, but not before the Englishman wounds him with a poisoned sword. Amadeo falls critically ill, and over several days falls into fever and delusions. Upon returning and finding Amadeo on his deathbed, Marius heals Amadeo's external wounds, cleans and grooms him, then gives him the Dark Gift, turning him into a vampire. Marius sets out to train Amadeo, retaining high expectations of him, and forces him to continue his education in the arts. Amadeo's transition to vampire is relatively easy for him, although the Dark Gift brings about nightmares of his childhood. Marius and Amadeo return to Ukraine, where Amadeo visits his old school and home. He finds his elderly parents, reveals that he is alive, and leaves them with all the money and jewels he has with him. Shortly after returning to Venice, the vampire Santino and his coven attack Marius' home, kidnap Amadeo and the apprentices, and burn the villa. Marius is burned and thought to be destroyed; his boys are taken to a bonfire and thrown in one by one by the coven as Amadeo watches. Santino spares Amadeo and educates him in the laws of the coven. Amadeo later goes to Paris, changes his name to Armand, and creates his own coven under the Cimetière des Innocents, which Lestat would years later drastically impact, thus resulting in the creation of the Théâtre des Vampires. In the final segment of the book, Armand explains what occurred to him after the final chapters of Memnoch the Devil. At the end of Memnoch the Devil, Armand rushes into the open daylight and appears to be destroyed in a conflagration. Armand explains to David that by some means beyond his understanding he survived, and ended up on a rooftop in a stairwell protected from further exposure to the sun. However, he is badly burned and unable to move or fully function. While in this delirious state, he makes a mental connection to two children in a nearby apartment—Sybelle and Benji. The connection is forged through Sybelle's constant piano playing. Eventually, Armand is able to reach out to the children and lead them to him. They believe he is an angel, but are moderately unsurprised when Armand divulges his true nature to them. Armand cannot hunt, so the two agree to trick a drug dealer up to the apartment so that Armand may feed on him. The plan works, and ultimately Armand is fully healed. He becomes friends with Sybelle and Benji and ultimately falls in love with them, showing to a certain degree a lolita complex. He shares his wealth with them without limit, mirroring the relationship Marius had with him to a certain degree. Armand brings them to see Lestat, which he has some concerns about since vampires are traditionally not safe for mortals to be around. After trying to wake Lestat from his catatonic state, Armand returns to Marius's house to discover that Marius has given Benji and Sybelle the Dark Gift. Armand is at first furious at Marius because he wanted Sybelle and Benji to have full, mortal lives. The fact that Benji is ecstatic about the prospect of eternal life, only serves to fuel his anger. Marius explains to Armand that he did it since Armand never could without the two coming to hate him for it. Marius is willing to take the burden of Sybelle and Benji's eventual anger. Category:The Vampire Chronicles novels Category:1998 American novels Category:1990s LGBT novels Category:1998 fantasy novels Category:Alfred A. Knopf books Category:American LGBT novels Category:Novels by Anne Rice Category:Novels set in Venice Category:LGBT speculative fiction novels Category:Novels with bisexual themes ===== Two men bail on a wedding, go to a strip joint, and end up at a hotel. ===== The character Japhy drives Ray Smith's story, whose penchant for simplicity and Zen Buddhism influenced Kerouac on the eve of the sudden and unpredicted success of On the Road. The action shifts between the events of Smith and Ryder's "city life," such as three-day parties and enactments of the Buddhist "Yab-Yum" rituals, to the sublime and peaceful imagery where Kerouac seeks a type of transcendence. The novel concludes with a change in narrative style, with Kerouac working alone as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak (adjacent to Hozomeen Mountain), in what would soon be declared North Cascades National Park (see also Kerouac's novel Desolation Angels). His summer on Desolation Peak was desperately lonely. “Many's the time I thought I'd die of boredom or jump off the mountain,” he wrote in Desolation Angels. Yet in The Dharma Bums, Kerouac described the experience in elegiac prose. > Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said > 'God, I love you' and looked up to the sky and really meant it. 'I have > fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other.’ The blend of narrative with prose-poetry places The Dharma Bums at a critical juncture foreshadowing the consciousness-probing works of several authors in the 1960s such as Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey. One episode in the book features Smith, Ryder, and Henry Morley (based on real-life friend John Montgomery) climbing Matterhorn Peak in California. It relates Kerouac's introduction to this type of mountaineering and inspired him to spend the following summer as a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service on Desolation Peak in Washington. Chapter 2 of the novel gives an account of the legendary 1955 Six Gallery reading, where Allen Ginsberg ('Alvah Goldbrook' in the book) gave a debut presentation of his poem "Howl" (changed to "Wail" in the book). At the event, other authors including Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, and Philip Whalen also performed. > Anyway I followed the whole gang of howling poets to the reading at Gallery > Six that night, which was, among other important things, the night of the > birth of the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Everyone was there. It was a > mad night. And I was the one who got things jumping by going around > collecting dimes and quarters from the rather stiff audience standing around > in the gallery and coming back with three huge gallon jugs of California > Burgundy and getting them all piffed so that by eleven o'clock when Alvah > Goldbrook was reading his poem 'Wail' drunk with arms outspread everybody > was yelling 'Go! Go! Go!' (like a jam session) and old Rheinhold Cacoethes > the father of the Frisco poetry scene was wiping his tears in gladness. ===== In a world populated by sentient robots, Rodney Copperbottom, son of Herb and Lydia Copperbottom from Rivet Town, is an aspiring young inventor who idolizes Bigweld, a famous inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose company, Bigweld Industries, hires other inventors and provides robots with spare parts. Following Bigweld's example to "see a need, fill a need", Rodney develops a small, flying robot, named Wonderbot, to assist his father, who works as a dishwasher at a restaurant in town. When Herb's supervisor confronts them, Wonderbot malfunctions and wreaks havoc in the kitchen, leaving Herb in debt. To help Herb pay for the damages, Rodney decides to move to Robot City, hoping to present Wonderbot to Bigweld Industries in order to get a job there. Upon his arrival at Robot City, Rodney is ejected from Bigweld Industries by the company's current head Phineas T. Ratchet, who in Bigweld's absence has stopped producing spare parts in favor of expensive "upgrades", thereby "outmoding" robots who are unable or unwilling to pay for them. Ratchet's mother, Madame Gasket, runs the Chop Shop, a place that collects scrap and spare parts (and sometimes outmoded robots) and melts them to create ingots for Upgrades. Rodney befriends Fender Pinwheeler, a ne'er-do-well he met at the train station. Fender takes him in to a boarding home populated by other outmodes, known collectively as the "Rusties". Word of Rodney's mechanical prowess spreads, and he is hailed as a local hero after he and the Rusties fix outmodes throughout the neighborhood, although they are eventually unable to cope with the demand due to the spare part shortage. Hoping to enlist Bigweld's help, Rodney and Fender infiltrate the Bigweld Ball – where Bigweld is reputed to make an appearance – only for Ratchet to announce that Bigweld will not attend. Enraged, Rodney publicly berates Ratchet, who orders his security team to eliminate him. Cappy, a Bigweld Industries executive opposed to Ratchet's plans, rescues Rodney and Fender. Fender is captured by a Sweeper, a vehicle that collects scrap metal and outmodes, and taken to the Chop Shop where he discovers Gasket and Ratchet's plan to use a heavily-armed fleet of Super-Sweepers to destroy all outmodes throughout the city in order to make them into more ingots. Meanwhile, Rodney and Cappy fly to Bigweld's mansion, where they eventually find Bigweld and tell him what has been going on. But he reveals that Ratchet's greed and business sense won over his idealism in the management of Bigweld Industries, and orders Rodney and Cappy to leave. Crushed, Rodney calls his parents and plans to return to Rivet Town but Herb encourages Rodney to fight for his dreams or he will spend the rest of his life regretting it like Herb did. Fender returns upon escaping from the Chop Shop and reveals Gasket and Ratchet's plot. Rodney rallies Cappy and the Rusties to stop them, soon joined by Bigweld who has regained his resolve after realizing how much he and his ideals meant to Rodney. The group returns to Bigweld Industries where Bigweld fires Ratchet, who ultimately knocks him unconscious, planning on melting him down as well. Rodney, Cappy, and Wonderbot rescue Bigweld from Ratchet and escape with the Rusties in a security vehicle with Ratchet close behind. Rodney unclips Ratchet’s vehicle to break free but their vehicle loses control in front of the Chop Shop and Bigweld is rolled inside. Undetermined to give up, Rodney upgrades the Rusties to rescue Bigweld. Rodney, Cappy and the Rusties battle Gasket and her army of Super Sweepers alongside an army of outmodes that Rodney had repaired earlier. Rodney and Bigweld immobilize the Super-Sweepers and defeat Ratchet, who accidentally throws Gasket into the incinerator while trying to escape and is stripped of his upgrades, being left chained to the ceiling with his father (who was already there for an unknown reason). Taking control of Bigweld Industries once again, Bigweld promises to make spare parts available to everyone. Later, he holds a public ceremony in Rivet Town, where he nominates Rodney as his new second-in-command and eventual successor. Rodney provides Herb with new replacement parts and a flugelhorn-like instrument to fulfill his dream of being a musician. After a shaky start, Herb leads Rodney, Cappy, the Rusties, Bigweld and the townspeople in a rousing rendition of "Get Up Offa That Thing". ===== "Johnny Mnemonic" is a data trafficker who has undergone cybernetic surgery to have a data storage system implanted in his head. The system allows him to store digital data too sensitive to risk transmission on computer networks. To keep the cargo secure, the data is locked by a password known only to the intended recipient. Johnny enters a trance-like state while the data is being transferred or the password is being set, making him unaware of the contents and unable to retrieve them. He makes a modest living in the Sprawl by physically transporting sensitive information for corporations, underworld crime rings or wealthy individuals. As the story opens, Johnny has arranged to meet with his most recent customer, Ralfi Face, at the Drome bar. Ralfi is overdue to retrieve the hundreds of megabytes of data he has stored in Johnny's head. To add to his troubles, Johnny has learned that Ralfi has placed a contract on him, although the reasons are unclear. Johnny finds Ralfi at his usual table, accompanied by his bodyguard Lewis. Johnny threatens them with a sawed-off shotgun in his bag, but Lewis incapacitates him with a neural disruption device hidden under the table. Ralfi reveals that the data was, unknown to him at the time, stolen from the Yakuza, who are very interested in ensuring it is not revealed. Johnny is rescued by Molly, a "Razorgirl" who has undergone extensive body modifications, most notably razor-sharp blades under her fingers. She joins the action at the table, looking for a job. When Lewis tries to attack her, she cuts his wrist tendons and takes the incapacitating control device from him. Ralfi offers to pay her off, but she turns off the device and frees Johnny. Johnny immediately offers a higher bid to hire her as a bodyguard. Johnny and Molly take Ralfi as they exit the bar, but a Yakuza assassin waiting outside cuts Ralfi to pieces with a monomolecular wire hidden in a prosthetic thumb. Johnny fires his shotgun at the assassin but misses due to the man's enhanced reflexes. Molly is delighted to be facing another professional. Johnny decides that the only way to save himself from the same fate as Ralfi is to get the data out of his head, which can be done only by using a SQUID to retrieve the password. Molly takes him to an amusement park to meet Jones, a cybernetically enhanced dolphin retired from Navy service. Jones' previous assignment was to locate and hack into enemy mines using the SQUID and other sensors implanted in his skull. Since he is now addicted to heroin, the result of the Navy's efforts to keep its dolphins loyal, Molly trades him a batch in exchange for finding the password. Johnny then has Molly read it out so he can enter his retrieval trance, with recorders capturing all the data. They upload a snippet to a Yakuza communications satellite and threaten to release the rest unless Johnny is left alone. To deal with the Yakuza assassin, who is still following them, Molly leads Johnny to the Lo Teks, a group of anti-technology outcasts who live in a suspended hideout near the top of the geodesic domes covering the Sprawl. At Molly's request, the Lo Teks allow the assassin to climb up so she can face him on the "Killing Floor," a sprung-floor arena wired to synthesizers and amplifiers. Molly dances around the assassin, causing discordant noise to blare from the sound system. She eventually tricks him into slicing off his own hand with his thumb wire. Overwhelmed by the noise and the strange environment, he jumps through a hole in the floor and falls to his death. The story closes nearly a year later, with Johnny now living among the Lo Teks. He and Molly have gone into business for themselves, using Jones' SQUID to retrieve traces of all the data he has ever carried and blackmailing former clients with it. ===== Harry Folger is a snobby and arrogant food critic for a major newspaper. Restaurants live or die by his reviews which are often nasty. Folger's hobby is to collect matchbooks of restaurants he's destroyed and he displays them as tombstones in a graveyard scene at his office. One day, he hears about a mysterious new Chinese restaurant called "Mr. Lee's Chinese Cuisine" and immediately begins typing a review even though he had not visited the restaurant. "If you love your Pekingese don't ask for a doggie bag," he writes. Harry grudgingly agrees to visit the establishment in person after being urged by his boss. When he enters, he orders a massive amount of food and then immediately asks for the check before trying any of his meal. Though disappointed, the owner Mr. Lee presents Harry with a fortune cookie. The fortune reads "A grand reward awaits you just around the corner." As Harry is walking through the alley outside the restaurant, a bank robber knocks him down and drops $100,000 in diamonds before running away. The grateful jewelry store owner gives Harry $1,000 as a reward. Realizing the fortune cookies are indeed magical, Harry returns for more. He promises to change his review, but then receives a fortune that says "April arrives today bringing romance." As it is September, an angry Harry storms out, intending to go back on his promise. Before he can get to his office, he meets a woman asking for directions. He shows her the way and asks her out for dinner. When he asks her name she replies that her name is April. At dinner, April's fortune tells her that she will soon recognize a grievous error in judgment, while Harry's message says "You're going to die." Outraged, Harry swears at Mr. Lee and causes a scene. April, seeing him for who he truly is, leaves. Mr. Lee tells him the cookie only delivers true fortunes. As he exits the restaurant, Harry is overcome with massive hunger pangs. He finds that he is on a seemingly never-ending street of Chinese restaurants that were not there before. He wanders into one restaurant after another, but is unable to satisfy his hunger. As he continues to endlessly eat, he receives a fortune that informs him why he is perpetually hungry: "You're dead." The last scene shows Folger's matchbook graveyard. The latest tombstone has Folger's name on it. ===== Sissy Hankshaw, the novel's protagonist, is a woman born with enormously large thumbs who considers her mutation a gift. The novel covers various topics, including free love, feminism, drug use, birds, political rebellion, animal rights, body odor, religion, and yams. Sissy capitalizes on the size of her thumbs by becoming a hitchhiker and subsequently travels to New York. The character becomes a model for The Countess, a male homosexual tycoon of menstrual hygiene products. The Tycoon introduces Sissy to a staid Mohawk named Julian Gitche, whom she later marries. In her later travels, she encounters, among many others, a sexually open cowgirl named Bonanza Jellybean and an itinerant escapee from a Japanese internment camp happily mislabeled The Chink. The Chink is presented as a hermetic mystic and, at one point writes on a cave wall, "I believe in everything; nothing is sacred. I believe in nothing; everything is sacred." and frequently says "Ha Ha Ho Ho and Hee Hee." A flock of whooping cranes also makes frequent appearances throughout the novel, which includes details of their physical characteristics and migratory patterns. Robbins also inserts himself into the novel (as a character). ===== The series focused on middle-aged couple Stanley (Norman Fell) and Helen Roper (Audra Lindley), who were landlords to Jack, Janet and Chrissy on Three's Company. In this spin-off, the Ropers have sold their apartment building in the Three's Company episode "An Anniversary Surprise" (season 3, episode 20) to live in the upmarket community of Cheviot Hills, where the social-climbing Helen struggled to fit in with her neighbors. Stanley made little attempt to fit in with the standards of the community, thereby causing Helen much embarrassment. As was the case during their time on Three's Company, opening credits for The Ropers alternate between Audra Lindley and Norman Fell credited first. ===== Cat burglar Jackie Thompson breaks into a museum late one night and steals a rare stone from a display case. After tripping the alarm, he gets shot by a security guard, but is amazed to discover that the stolen stone heals him. Jack escapes and heads back to his apartment, where he studies the stone. Hearing a commotion in the hallway, he discovers that his friendly neighbor Harry is having a heart attack. One of the other neighbors is attempting CPR but to no avail. Thinking quickly, Jackie runs over and while grasping the stone touches Harry's chest and begs for healing. Harry makes a full recovery. Harry tells Jackie everything he saw while he was unconscious-- about floating over the neighbors and how he seemed to get pulled back into his own body. Harry tells Jackie that they could make a fortune with that kind of power, and Jackie soon becomes "Brother John," a healer on a TV ministry. Harry, who is only interested in the money, acts as his business manager, but Jackie truly feels altruistic and enjoys helping others. Duende, a Native American man, appears one day and states that his people loaned the stone to the museum and warns Jackie that he is traveling down the wrong path. While Jackie is inclined to return the stone, Harry disagrees and tells him not to do it due to their good fortune. Living in a palatial house and having more money than he needs, it becomes apparent that Jackie truly wants to give back the stone, but Harry continues to convince him otherwise. One day, Joseph Rubello, a drug lord from Jackie's past, begs him to heal his terminal cancer. Because Rubello treated him horribly in the past, Jackie demands $2 million to heal him, and while Rubello agrees to his demands, they both find that the stone no longer works. Later at the TV ministry, Jackie fails to heal a deaf boy and his old bullet wound opens and begins bleeding profusely. Duende reappears and explains that the stone only works when used unselfishly. Harry refuses to help Jackie, and instead plans to take all the money for himself. The deaf boy follows Jackie outside and he hands the stone to the boy, who heals him in return. Jackie then gives the boy back his hearing and, with his redemption complete, gives the stone to Duende who will return it to his people. Duende takes the boy to his mother and Jackie smiles, knowing he did the right thing. ===== Day 1: Someday Peter Jay Novins is at a bar and attempts to call someone but accidentally dials his own home phone number. The phone is answered by someone who claims to be Peter Jay Novins. Peter has a casual conversation with himself thinking the strange circumstance is a joke, but eventually hangs up the phone in shock. Flustered, he leaves the bar and uses a phone booth to call his house. He gets himself again and begins to believe that the man on the other end of the line is his own alter ego. Peter thinks about heading over to his apartment, but the man on the phone warns him against it. Peter then asks if the two of them could just lead normal lives. The man on the phone tells him that because Peter's life is terrible, he is going to change it. Peter threatens the man on the phone and hangs up. Day 2: Duesday The next day, Peter cashes out his bank account, calls the grocery store and insults them to ensure that his alter ego cannot get any food delivered and then calls his apartment again. The man on the other end tells him that Peter is too late because he used the $200 that was stashed away to buy enough groceries to hold him for a while. The man on the phone tells Peter his situation is similar to what happened in the Jack London novel The Star Rover, and explains that the character in the novel used astral projection to leave his body. He figures that Peter is a piece of him that wandered off while he was sleeping and claims that he is in fact the real Peter. Peter, however, thinks that it's possible that when he went to a friend's lab and a picture of his "aura" was taken it somehow "stole" something from him. The man also tells Peter his estranged mother phoned to attempt patch things up and that the man has invited her to live with him. Angry at the prospect of his alter ego stealing his mother, Peter hangs up. Day 3: Woundsday During a storm, a sick Peter stares into his apartment from the street. From a pay phone, he calls the man who claims to be the other Peter and says he wants to work things out. The other Peter says that the more deserving of them should take over his life. Other Peter also reveals that he turned down an unethical advertising job that Peter had previously accepted. When Peter asks why he has done this, the other Peter tells him that he did this to himself. Day 5: Freeday Peter sits in a hotel room growing sicker. He receives a phone call from other Peter, who tells him that he tried to make amends with an ex-girlfriend of his who left her husband to pursue their affair. The other Peter reminds him that when he had put the woman and her child up in an apartment, he eventually dumped her when he got bored of their relationship, which was cruel. Other Peter then goes on to tell him that he had a long discussion with his current girlfriend and that she was ready to leave him, but other Peter convinced her that their relationship was worth saving. Other Peter tells Peter he plans on marrying her and having children—something Peter had apparently not considered. Day 6: Shatterday Other Peter finally visits a very ill Peter, who is lying in a hotel room wracked with sickness. Other Peter tells him that it is time to come to terms with the fact that he is being replaced and that he is becoming a memory. Peter goes to the window and stares out with forlorn ambivalence. Other Peter reveals that things are going well with him and that he has put his life in order—something Peter failed to do. He asks Peter if there is anything he would have done differently. Peter says no. As other Peter leaves, Peter wishes him well, shakes his hand, and then disappears. ===== David Wong (Brian Tochi), a young Asian American, has spent three years looking for a mysterious place called "The Lost and Found Emporium." He finally tracks it down in a backroom of a sleazy San Francisco porn shop. Once inside, he finds that the place has no owner or any staff. Browsing around, David meets an elderly woman who is looking for lost time. He is not interested in her story, but suddenly, he sees an orb of light which is trying to point him to something. Following the orb, which the woman does not see, he finds a cage with mice that have instructions to rub them until they calm down. Believing this is her chance to win back her lost time, the woman tries to do so but mice scatter and hide. She breaks down in tears and David makes a condescending remark. The next person David meets is an elderly man who came to the emporium by accident. He eventually admits he lost the respect of his children and David grudgingly points him (with help of the orb) to a mirror, which he must look at for no less than five and a half minutes. The man begins this procedure but is disgusted by what he sees-—a distorted, monstrous image of him. Unable to control himself, he smashes the mirror and then realizes what he has done. Just like with the old woman, David merely shakes his head and leaves. As he is walking away from the man, David is confronted by Melinda who scolds him for his lack of compassion. David admits that it is his compassion he is after and explains how he lost it years ago due to racial intolerance. He mentions the murder of Vincent Chin, which was an important event for the Asian-American community in the USA. Melinda offers him a deal—-she will find his compassion if he finds her lost item (which she refuses to reveal). David agrees and follows the orb to an old thermos, which releases a stream of vapor. After inhaling the vapor, Melinda receives back her sense of humor. She points David to three flasks, one of which contain his compassion. Unable to choose, David smashes the two biggest flasks, regaining his integrity and childhood memories. The third flask (a small white test tube) rolls away from him and is lost for good. David is unhappy, but realizes he did gain back much in the way of who he was. Compassion, to some extent, came along with it. Feeling like a man reborn, David realizes it is destiny to help other unfortunate souls. Melinda agrees to stay with him as his assistant. They start their journey by helping the elderly man and woman, as even lost chances can be recovered. ===== Adam Grant (Peter Coyote) is being judged for murder in the first degree and is found guilty. After being told that he will be executed, he laughs in disbelief. He tells the judge that his execution won't matter because he is only dreaming. After returning to his cell, Grant continues talking about his dream. Of course, his fellow inmates don't believe what he's saying, even after Grant is able to provide detailed accounts of what it feels like to be executed each night. While Grant is in his cell, prosecutor Mark Ritchie (Guy Boyd) ponders the case. Ritchie's wife Carol (Deborah May) attempts to distract him but then Grant's attorney Erin Jacobs (Janet Eilber) shows up and tries to explain that Grant may be telling the truth despite the overwhelming evidence against him. For evidence, Jacobs asks why there was no press in or around the courtroom despite this being a murder trial. Ritchie is puzzled by this notion. Ritchie visits Grant and claims that he is using a crazy dream theory to try to fool everyone, even though Grant can lip-sync everything Ritchie says to him. Grant asks Ritchie if he is to be executed today, which is the right day for executions (Mondays at 12:01 am), then how is it that he was sentenced on a Sunday, as courts do not operate on Sundays. Grant then mentions Carol who is the only person who never changes in the dream because she is in fact Grant's sister in reality. Grant even knows what Carol told Ritchie earlier that evening which makes Ritchie panic and leave. The execution proceedings begin and a priest visits Grant in his cell. Grant claims that the priest is actually his own father who died years ago. Meanwhile, Ritchie frantically tries to get a stay of execution, and just as the governor calls the execution chamber - the switch is thrown. Grant is hanged but disappeared along with everyone in this world. Suddenly, a courtroom scene appears and Grant is being sentenced for murder in the first degree, only the characters in the courtroom are different now—Jacobs is now the judge, Grant's father is the jury foreman, inmate Flash is now the prosecutor, and Jimmy (another inmate) is the defense attorney. It's implied that Grant is doomed to repeat the same nightmare forever with the same people always changing parts. ===== Run-down alcoholic Miley Judson is sitting in a bar trying to light his cigarette when he is given a box of matches that advertises a method for quitting alcohol. He laughs it off and orders another drink, but when the bartender makes last call Miley realizes he brought in a pizza he was supposed to bring home for dinner—five hours ago. After he gets home his son asks if he is sick again, while his wife gives him an ultimatum. In lieu of divorce and losing his child, Miley decides on trying the Hellgramite Method, which was advertised on his box of matches. Miley visits the home of Dr. Eugene Murrick who offers him a red pill. He takes the pill and Dr. Murrick sends him home as that is all it takes—for now. He returns to his favorite bar only to discover that alcohol has no effect on him anymore. After drinking enough booze to knock out a normal man, he doesn't even have a buzz. He then goes to Murrick to discover why he can no longer become intoxicated. It turns out that the pill contained a Hellgramite, a tapeworm that absorbs all traces of alcohol in a person, thus rendering the individual sober no matter how much they drink; but since it feeds on alcohol it will grow larger in his stomach and kill him if he continues to drink. The only solution is to starve the tapeworm, but to do so invites painful withdrawals. If he can endure the withdrawal pains, the tapeworm will eventually be forced into a hibernation state, thus giving a measure of freedom to the host. But if he ever drinks another drop of alcohol the tapeworm will re-awaken and grow. At home, Miley determines to starve the tapeworm. In order to succeed and not frighten his family, he sends them away for a couple of weeks and dumps all of the alcohol in the house down the drain. As the days pass, he undergoes ever-increasing pain until he is in agony. Miley goes to Murrick and begs him for help, but Murrick feels no pity, as it is nowhere near the pain Murrick felt when he lost his family. A drunk driver was responsible for killing Murrick's wife and two children as they tried to cross the street. At home again, Miley is near the brink of insanity from the pain exposing his torso to reveal the worm shifting and moving under the skin. Later at the bar Miley used to frequent, he approaches a man and offers him matches with the Hellgramite Method advertised on the box. He's now well-dressed and self-confident and he walks to the bartender and pays his tab. The bartender offers him a drink on the house but Miley declines and walks out of the bar into the sunlight. ===== Callous businessman Tom Bennett returns to his office after recovering from a heart transplant. At the party given to celebrate his return he wants it ended quickly as he becomes embarrassed at the attention. Tom turns his attention to a building his firm is contracted to build, and during a meeting to discuss it he suddenly acts odd - at least to his colleagues Spence and Julie. He suddenly becomes obsessed with buying a pair of boots and then buys his colleague Julie a hot dog for lunch. They take a walk on a beach and run into a sad-looking young woman with whom he is instantly drawn. Later, at the office, he tells his secretary to order some plants to which she comments that he always hated plants. On a drive through the city with his other colleague, Spence looks for a place to eat and they end up leaving the city and find a diner. This diner happens to be the workplace of the woman he ran into at the beach. The woman's name is Mary Jo and she is mystified and can't understand his instant attraction to her. He's persistent but she rejects his forwardness. Her friend at work tries to talk her into accepting his offer of dinner. Julie, who has had an on-again, off- again relationship with Tom, gets jealous and confronts Tom about his obsession with Mary Jo. When he tries again, Tom is told by her work friend that Mary Jo is still grieving due to the loss of her boyfriend Jamie Adler, who died in a car accident. When Mary Jo finally talks to Tom, she explains how she and Jamie knew each other since they were kids and they always knew they'd be together. They were making plans to get married when the accident occurred, and she tells him that someone received his heart. Tom then realizes that it was Jamie's heart that he received for his transplant. At work, Tom begins slipping in his "shark-like" attitude toward business, but he doesn't seem to care. The next day, Tom drives to the diner dressed in jeans and T-shirt and in a pick-up truck. He sits and waits for Mary Jo all night. She finally decides to talk to him and he tells her about his heart transplant. He confesses that before the transplant he was not a nice person, but now he has been given a second chance. Tom says he will wait for her as long as it takes and he orders her favorite dessert for her. She asks how he knew and he simply shrugs and smiles, promising that he will be there for her just like Jamie. ===== A woman bursts into a hospital emergency room and demands to see a doctor. Nurse Claire Hendricks attempts to help her but the woman is rude and insistent on only seeing the doctor. Before long, the doctor arrives, but it is too late—the woman is now blind from cataracts. In another instance, an elderly man is desperately trying to get Claire to help his wife but she claims that hospital policy forces her to be unhelpful; however, it's clear she is an uncaring person. The blind woman, Mrs. Reed, wants Claire to come visit her, but Claire is apprehensive and negative. Mrs. Reed admits that she's beginning to realize what's happening and that she "sees" a lot of herself in Claire. She apparently wanted to warn her of something but Claire dismisses her and leaves. Mr. Reed shows up at the hospital blind as well. It is discovered that Mrs. Reed, in her own selfishness, knew she was going blind and abandoned him to get help for herself. Suddenly, more and more people show up blind from spontaneous cataract development. An epidemic ensues from coast to coast, and Claire, despite her incredible workload now, visits with Mrs. Reed again. Mr. Reed talks about how much they are alike and he also claims the blindness is happening because humans have become monkeys—see no evil, speak no evil, etc. Humans have become such an uncaring society, he says, and since we have turned a blind eye to suffering - nature has turned a blind eye to us. Soon, a report surfaces that an explosion at a bio-weapons facility may be responsible for the blindness but Claire starts to realize that Mrs. Reed might be right. Claire soon succumbs to blindness. News arrives about a surgery that will cure the blind and Mrs. Reed visits with Claire and they discuss the surgery. Mrs. Reed and others will get their sight back, but when she asks Claire when her surgery will take place Claire says she will not undergo it. She believes in what Mrs. Reed said and thinks that no surgery will ever help her. The doctor says Claire will see again but it will take her a little longer, as Claire's eyes are clear and her blindness is psychosomatic. ===== A down-and-out, injured baseball player named Ed Hamner tries to juggle his love for baseball and time with his wife Cindy, who insists he needs to get on with his life. Moreover, his teenage neighbor Paula shows her adoration for him by encouraging his baseball card collection and her potential as a player herself. Paula finds an old baseball card of a player from the early days named Monte Hanks, who happens to resemble Ed. After a fight with Cindy about a missed job interview and a victorious game for Paula, Ed goes to sleep and awakens to discover the card magically opening a door. Ed stumbles through the doorway to find himself in the uniform of Monte Hanks. He no longer has an injury and he is ready to play baseball. When Paula shows up the next day, Ed explains all that happened: that he went back in time seventy-eight years and played ball without the use of his cane. Paula is skeptical until she sees the back of the card which reveals more home runs (hit by Hamner) than were there the day before. Still skeptical, Paula agrees to try to go with him. As they stare into the card, it envelops them and they go to the ball field in the past. After returning to the present, Paula leaves both excited about another game tomorrow and for Ed to play in the World Series. An uncomfortable dinner with Cindy that evening leaves Ed wanting to migrate to the other life even more. Paula comes over sad because she cannot go to the game with him today, but wonders whether or not Ed belongs back in 1910. He seems so much happier there. At the game, Ed (as Monte) is playing late much later than the dinner he is supposed to attend with Cindy. Cindy arrives at the empty house but is upset that Ed is gone so she burns his card collection. Paula comes in just in time to save the magical card with Monte Hanks on it. Paula realizes she can help Ed have the life he truly wants. She tears the card in half leaving Ed in 1910. At home, she later looks at the torn card, which magically begins to fill itself with statistics. Ed went on to be a great Monte Hanks, a batting champion and happily played baseball for many years. ===== Gary Pitkin, an Elvis impersonator, opens his show in a smoke-filled lounge by singing "Heartbreak Hotel" in Elvis's signature 1950s gold lamé suit. Much to Gary's chagrin, his performance receives mediocre applause. Afterward, Gary is in his dressing room when his manager Sandra enters and tells Gary that she was able to book him into a small hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The mere mention of Las Vegas drives Gary into a rant about how Vegas killed Elvis. He laments about how it was great music, but she reminds him that while it was, it still wasn't "his" music. Sandra then mentions that she once met the real Elvis years ago after he picked her out of an audience. He took her back to his hotel room where he began acting strange and gave a bizarre, paranoid rant. Gary remarks that Elvis "got weird" towards the end of his life. As Gary is driving home, he sees an incoherent driver coming the opposite direction. To avoid hitting the driver, Gary steers off the road only to get into an accident. Gary awakes the next morning and sees the damage done to his car, grabs his guitar, and starts thumbing for a ride. A man in an old pickup truck sees Gary and pulls over. To Gary's shock, the man resembles Elvis. He offers Gary a ride and Gary notices a sign on the door that reads "Crown Electric Co.", which was the company Elvis worked for before getting his first recording contract. They break the ice by talking about how they're both musicians. As they're talking, Gary looks over and sees an old Chrysler DeSoto drive by and then picks up a newspaper from the floor. The date reads: July 3, 1954. Gary comes to the realization that the man sitting next to him not only looks like Elvis Presley but that he actually is Presley. Gary begins to believe that all of this is a hallucination resulting from his accident. When they arrive at Crown Electric, Elvis's boss comes out and chides him about picking up hitchhikers "even if it's your brother." Elvis begins to question Gary about who he is and where he comes from and he then uses Elvis's belief in the supernatural to convince him that he is Jesse (Elvis's twin brother who died at birth). Elvis, thinking that Gary is his thought-to-be-deceased twin, asks him why he came back. Gary tells him that he came back to help him because he was going to be bigger than he could ever imagine. Gary starts listing all the positives of Elvis's future career and then he starts listing all the negatives, but affirms that it doesn't have to be that way. Feeling remorseful about deceiving Elvis, Gary begins to back out, until Elvis asks to meet him the next day so that he could help him rehearse the song he was going to record for Mr. Phillips. Gary agrees. The next day, Gary continues to tell Elvis about his future success and how he is going to be the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Elvis starts playing an easy-listening ballad called "I Love You Because" with his guitar. Gary is disappointed with Elvis's choice of song and attempts to convince him to play "That's All Right" and even moves around and shakes his hips. Elvis is horrified and claims that it's the devil's music and even accuses Gary of deviltry. The two break into an argument that leads to a brawl, and Elvis grabs a guitar to swing at Gary, but he misses and hits the edge of a shelf instead, breaking off the top part of the guitar's neck. As they continue to fight, Elvis leaps towards him and accidentally lands on the broken guitar when Gary moves out of the way. The guitar goes right through Elvis's chest and he dies. With no other alternative, Gary buries Elvis and wonders about his future. He thinks about it and decides from that point on to assume Elvis's identity and to do everything just the way Elvis did. The following day, a nervous Gary (wearing Elvis's clothes from the day before) goes into Sun Studio and is received by the office manager who lets him know that everyone is already waiting for him in the recording booth. As Sam Phillips is preparing his recording equipment, Gary plays a little of "That's All Right" to the other band members who immediately join in with the song. Phillips interrupts the trio but tells Gary to keep playing. As he plays the song, the scene flashes forward to 1970s Las Vegas where Gary talks to a woman in his hotel room. He tells her that he did all the songs and all the moves as closely as he remembered. He questions whether or not the real Elvis would've been a better King than he would've been or if there would've even been a King at all. He says that he has terrible dreams and that he talks to Elvis all the time, who tells him that he still owes him for what he did. He even goes as far as to say Elvis would have liked Vegas. The woman turns out to be a young Sandra. She tells him that he is tired and not to worry about it and no one could ever take his place. He was the King and the only King. He then sends her off with a kiss, and after she leaves Gary sits in front of a window facing the Vegas Strip. ===== When criminal mastermind Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) is released from prison after seven years, he goes to see a bookie named Cobby (Marc Lawrence) in an unnamed Midwest river city (probably Cincinnati), who arranges a meeting with Alonzo Emmerich (Louis Calhern), a lawyer. Emmerich listens to Doc's plan to steal jewelry worth half a million dollars or more. Doc needs $50,000 to hire three men—a "box man" (safecracker), a driver, and a "hooligan"—to help him pull off the caper. Emmerich agrees to provide the money and assume the responsibility for disposing of the loot. Doc hires Louie Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso), a professional safecracker. Ciavelli only trusts Gus Minissi (James Whitmore), a hunchbacked diner owner, as the getaway driver. The final member of the gang is Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden), a friend of Gus. Dix explains his goal to Doll Conovan (Jean Hagen), who is in love with him. His dream is to buy back the horse farm that his family lost. During the crime (an 11-minute sequence in the film), the criminals carry out their work. Ciavelli hammers through a brick wall to get into the jewelry store, deactivates a door alarm to let in Doc and Dix, and opens the main safe using home-brewed nitroglycerine ("the soup"). Things begin to go drastically wrong. The concussion of the explosion disrupts the power grid causing all the alarms in the area to sound. On their way out, Dix slugs an arriving security guard, who drops his revolver, which discharges and wounds Ciavelli in the belly. The men get away unseen, but a police manhunt begins. Ciavelli insists on being taken home by Gus. Dix and Doc take the loot to Emmerich, who is broke. He had sent a private detective named Bob Brannom (Brad Dexter) to collect sums owed to him, but Brannom returned with excuses. Emmerich then plots to double cross the others with Brannom's help. Emmerich suggests to Doc that he leave the jewelry with him, but Doc and Dix become suspicious. Brannom then pulls out his gun. Dix kills Brannom but is wounded himself. Doc tells Emmerich to contact the insurance companies and offer to return the valuables for 25% of their value. Emmerich disposes of Brannom's body in the river, but the police find the corpse. When they question Emmerich, he lies about his whereabouts and calls his mistress, Angela Phinlay (Marilyn Monroe in her first important role), to set up an alibi. Under pressure from Police Commissioner Hardy (John McIntire), a police lieutenant named Ditrich (Barry Kelley) (who had previously protected Cobby for money) beats the bookie into confessing everything in a vain attempt to save himself (he is later arrested for corruption). With the confession, Hardy arrests Emmerich, persuading Angela to tell the truth. Emmerich is permitted to leave the room for a minute to phone his wife and commits suicide. Gus is picked up, then attacks Cobby at the jail. When the police break down Ciavelli's door, they find they have interrupted his funeral. That leaves Doc and Dix, who separate. Doc asks a taxi driver to drive him to Cleveland. They stop at a roadside diner. Doc nearly gets away but is distracted by a pretty young woman. Because of the delay, Doc is recognized by two policemen and he is arrested. Doll gets Dix a car, and then insists on going along. When he passes out from loss of blood, Doll takes him to a doctor, who phones the police to report the gunshot wound. Dix regains consciousness during an IV infusion and escapes before they arrive. With Doll, he makes it to his Kentucky horse farm across the Ohio river from Cincinnati. He stumbles into the pasture, collapses, and dies. ===== The story opens with a paragraph about Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, whose western summit is called in Masai the “House of God.” There, we are told, lies the frozen carcass of a leopard near the summit. No one knows why it is there at such altitude. The reader is introduced to Harry, a writer dying of gangrene, and Helen, who is with him on safari in Africa. They are stranded in the camp, because a bearing in their truck's engine burnt out. Harry's situation makes him irritable, and he speaks about his impending death in a matter-of-fact, sarcastic way that upsets Helen. He quarrels with her over minute things, from whether he should drink a whiskey and soda, to whether she should read to him. Helen is obviously concerned for his welfare, but Harry's frustration makes him talk unpleasantly towards her. Harry then begins to ruminate on his life experiences, which have been many and varied, and on the fact that he feels he has never reached his potential as a writer because he has chosen to make his living by marrying wealthy women. In italicized portions of the text that are scattered throughout the story, Hemingway narrates some of Harry's experiences in a stream-of-consciousness style. Harry's first memories consist of traveling around Europe following a battle: hiding a deserter in a cottage, hunting and skiing in the mountains, playing cards during a blizzard, and hearing about a bombing run on a train full of Austrian officers. Harry then falls asleep and wakes in the evening to find Helen returning from a shooting expedition. He meditates on how she really is thoughtful and good to him, and how she is not to blame that his talent as a writer has been destroyed. Helen, he remembers, is a rich widow who lost her husband and a child, was bored by a series of lovers, and eventually "acquired" Harry because "she wanted some one that she respected with her"; she loves Harry "dearly as a writer, as a man, as a companion and as a proud possession", while Harry makes it clear that he does not love her. Harry then recalls how he developed gangrene two weeks earlier: they had been trying to get a picture of some waterbuck, and Harry scratched his right knee on a thorn. He had not applied iodine right away, and the wound got infected; because all other antiseptics ran out, he used a weak carbolic solution that "paralyzed the minute blood vessels", thus the leg developed gangrene. As Helen returns to drink cocktails with Harry, they make up their quarrel. Harry's second memory sequence then begins. He recalls how he once patronized prostitutes in Constantinople "to kill his loneliness", pining for the very first woman he fell in love with, with whom he quarreled in Paris and broke up. Harry had a fight with a British soldier over an Armenian prostitute, and then left Constantinople for Anatolia, where, after running from a group of Turkish soldiers, "he had seen the things that he could never think of and later still he had seen much worse". Then Harry recalls that upon his return to Paris, his then-wife inquired about a letter that was actually from Harry's first love—a reply to the letter he wrote to that woman (mailed to New York, asking to write to his office in Paris) while being in Constantinople. Helen and Harry eat dinner, and then Harry has another memory—this time of how his grandfather's log house burned down. He then relates how he fished in the Black Forest, and how he lived in a poor quarter of Paris and felt a kinship with his poor neighbors. Next, he remembers a ranch and a boy he turned in to the sheriff after the boy protected Harry's horse feed by shooting and killing a thief. Harry ponders: "That was one story he had saved to write. He knew at least twenty good stories from out there and he had never written one. Why?". Then he felt once again that he'd prefer to be in a different company rather than with Helen, as "rich were dull". Next, his thoughts wander to beating the fear of death, and the limits of being able to bear pain. He remembers an officer named Williamson who was hit by a bomb, and to whom Harry subsequently fed all his morphine tablets. Harry considers how he does not have to worry about pain in his current condition. As Harry lies on his cot remembering, he feels the overwhelming presence of death and associates it with the hyena that has been spotted running around the edge of the campsite. He is unable to speak. Helen, thinking that Harry has fallen asleep, has him moved into the tent for the night. Harry dreams that it is morning, and that a man called Compton has come with a plane to rescue him. He is lifted onto the plane (which has space only for him and the pilot) and watches the landscape go by beneath him. Suddenly, he sees the snow-covered top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and knows that is where he is bound. Helen wakes up in the middle of the night to a strange hyena cry, and finds Harry unresponsive on his cot. ===== Maury is a playwright who is desperately behind in his rent. After incessant hounding by his landlord and arguing over their latest play, his partner Harry dies of a heart attack. Harry, in his last moments, hands Maury an ancient relic and explains to Maury that the bearer of this relic grants the individual one wish and one wish only. He continues by telling Maury that he had already used his wish and needs Maury to use his wish to heal him. After pondering for a moment, Maury apologizes to Harry and tells him that the wish should be used for something a whole lot more. Harry dies and Maury wishes he could have the greatest playwright ever as his partner. Maury finds himself dressed in Elizabethan-era clothing, and realizes he has gone back in time. Maury sees a man speaking to himself and recognizes him as William Shakespeare. Realizing he has made a serious miscalculation in his wish, Maury informs Shakespeare that he cannot work with him and that he does not belong there. Before he can think of a way to return to his own time, Maury notices that the relic is now in Shakespeare's possession. Clenching it in his hand in a gesture of thought, William says to Maury, "I wish for you to work with me." Suddenly Maury is filled with thoughts of all the plays that William has written. Realizing that his fate has been set, he succumbs and sits at a desk and begins to write Hamlet from memory. ===== Karen Billings (Pam Dawber) is an overworked, underappreciated secretary. While making copies on the office Xerox machine, it malfunctions and Karen finds herself transported to another reality. Unaware of the fact that she is no longer in her own universe, Karen attends a party where she is supposed to meet her current boyfriend. She discovers to her surprise that secretaries are a rare and cherished commodity in this dimension. Men at the party hit on her and women talk of how jealous they are of her position. Even the hostess feels her party is now a real event upon finding out a secretary has deemed her party worthy enough to attend. Karen is approached by a wealthy-looking man who offers her a job as his secretary. She does enjoy the attention but realizes she has lost her keys and leaves the party. She goes back to the copy room and accidentally runs the Xerox machine again, and is returned to her reality. Still completely unaware of the change, Karen returns home to find a message from her boyfriend about missing her at the party. She remembers the card given to her by the man offering her a job and attempts to call. The number, however, doesn't exist and Karen returns to work only to find that her boss is upset with her for not doing her job. He berates her and secretaries in general. While talking with her office friend, Karen realizes what has happened. She runs down to the copy room and finds workmen about to remove the defective machine. Before they can take it away, she frantically operates the copier. A flash of light erupts from the machine and Karen disappears. Now in the alternate dimension, Karen calls the number on the card, which now works. The wealthy man ushers her to a waiting limousine, which will take her to the company's Paris office. ===== Kevin and Dan are two scientists who create a holographic projector. One day, the device starts generating images of a human fetus. The two watch as the fetus matures into a baby, a young girl, then a full grown woman, growing at a rate of ten years each day. They find out that Nola, as she calls herself, was once a young woman who lived in Westchester County, New York (near Hastings-On- Hudson) during the early twentieth century. They debate over whether or not Nola is a human soul somehow integrated into their hologram generator. Kevin begins to fall in love with this creation. He spends more time at the lab than at home, and his troubled home life deteriorates as a result. Nola talks with Kevin about her father, and how he tried to keep her burgeoning intellect from blossoming. She asks Kevin about his estranged wife, causing him to recall with fondness how they first met. They discuss the poetry of Yeats. Nola relates meeting and falling in love with Robert, a kindred intellectual, which arouses Kevin's jealousy. During the fifth day of studying Nola, she reveals she is pregnant and then relives a miscarriage. Interviewing her acquaintances, Dan later discovers the miscarriage was the cause of Nola's death, and that Robert never forgave himself, dying of grief soon after. As the holographic Nola ages and nears death she uses a voice modifier machine to call Kevin's wife Carol. Posing as Kevin, Nola tells her to come pick him up from the laboratory. In their final conversation, Nola reveals that Kevin is Robert reincarnated, his grief carried "into the next" life. Nola has finally been able to give him closure by experiencing the life he longed to have with her. He brings out the Yeats book and reads their favorite passage. Nola fades away as Kevin's wife enters the lab, and they have an emotional reunion. Carol is then quite surprised as a child's toy ball bounces out of the holographic chamber and into her hands. ===== Aboard an airplane, obnoxious teenager Keith Barnes is annoying those around him with his radio. A lightning storm, however, transforms his Walkman into a telepathic tuning device. He begins to hear the voices of all the people around him in the plane, and then he finds out that Mr. Williams, the man sitting next to him, is carrying a bomb. It turns out that Mr. Williams is distraught over the death of his wife and child in a similar airplane, due to the negligence of an indifferent airline. As revenge and as a way of teaching the airline how to be more careful, he intends to destroy the plane with a bomb. Keith, knowing his plan after reading his mind, tries to talk him out of it. Mr. Williams cannot understand how Keith knows his plot but is still determined to detonate the bomb on the airplane. Mr. Williams tries to put his plan into effect, frightening the passengers. Keith manages to sneak up behind him and put the headphones over his ears. Hearing the pleading thoughts of the other passengers, especially those of a young man who has a daughter about the age of Mr. Williams' child, he is immediately filled with remorse and he relents. As Mr. Williams is taken away, however, he accidentally steps on Keith's radio and crushes it. ===== Johnny Davis is a truck driver unemployed due to his many accidents. Johnny asks Pete, a friend of his father, for help in getting a job. Pete is reluctant and warns Johnny that the jobs he takes require unusual resilience and fortitude. Johnny insists that he understands and Pete agrees to take him on his next run. Johnny quickly discovers that the run involves delivering souls to Hell via semi-trailer truck. He also finds out that the souls of the newly dead have been causing disturbances in Hell and it is making the truckers nervous. Dropping their cargo in Hell, Pete and Johnny witness anarchy. Souls run around loose and some of the dead plead with Johnny to rescue them. Other souls attack the drivers, but Gary Frick (another dead man) comes to Johnny's aid. Gary tells Johnny that the cause of the commotion is that people who don't deserve it are being sent to Hell. Gary explains that a new bureaucracy has taken over the job of deciding who goes to Heaven or Hell. Pete and one of the guards in Hell find Johnny, who is summoned to a meeting with upper management. Johnny relates what he heard and saw, and the manager explains how the process works. Johnny thinks the standards used to determine who is sent to Hell are excessive and biased and people are being damned for minor offenses. The executive reasons that they're simply using "time-honored Biblical standards". Johnny decides to interview the dead that ride with him and then he can decide which of the dead should go to Hell and which he should release (in hopes that they can find a way to Heaven). When one of the souls asks why he is doing this, Johnny replies that he remembered a story from the Bible: between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus went down to Hell to give the souls there another chance. Johnny reasons that he is just using his own "time-honored Biblical standard." ===== Alex Mattingly and his young son Jeff move to a remote cabin in the woods following Alex's divorce. Jeff is lonely and unhappy because he has no one for companionship. Jeff awakens in the middle of the night and sees a boy playing in the woods, but the boy disappears before Jeff can speak to him. One day Jeff and the boy Mike meet and they become friends. Mike is upset by the idea that Jeff may have told someone about him but Mike convinces Jeff to follow him into a makeshift fort in the woods. The fort collapses on Jeff and Mike disappears. Alex finds and rescues Jeff. Some time later, Alex discovers Mike out in the woods and he realizes that Mike was his imaginary childhood friend. Mike says that he has been waiting for a long time for Alex to come back and play with him. Realizing that Mike isn't a normal imaginary friend, Alex instructs Mike to not play with Jeff any more. During a barbeque, Jeff gets into a fight with other children and runs into the woods to find Mike. Mike tells Jeff that he does not want to be his friend any more. Alex finds the two and tells him about the value of real friends. Mike realizes that he is no longer needed and transforms into a being of light. Alex asks Mike who he really is and Mike tells him that he is a being who has lived on Earth since it was first created. Alex and Mike reminisce about their friendship and then say goodbye. Alex then returns to the cook-out and is glad to see his son making new friends with other children. ===== Jenny Templeton is a young college student who discovers that things around her are disappearing. For example, her trash is empty after having filled it with her old notes and her political science book is missing and then reappears. She accuses her roommate Kathy of playing a prank on her, and then realizes that not only are her study books missing but her high school year book and other items are absent as well. Suddenly, she hears a noise in her closet and thinks someone might be hiding inside. Kathy thinks Jenny is hearing things and she jokingly opens the closet only to reveal two weirdly- dressed people, out-of-sync and draped in light who return her pencil mug. They tell her that they didn't want to take anything that would have been missed. Apparently, the two are a pair of time travelers from 2139 and they apologize to Jenny for any inconveniences they may have perpetrated on her. While they discuss how foolish they have been, they inadvertently reveal that Jenny will become the first president of Earth and she will be called "The Great Peacemaker." After the woman returns to 2139 and the man goes back to 32 B.C. to see Cleopatra (the woman warned him if he did this he "shan't bother coming home.") Kathy stands in shock while Jenny thinks that she maybe shouldn't cut her political science class anymore. ===== Far north of the Arctic Circle, a nuclear bomb test, dubbed "Operation Experiment", is conducted. Prophetically, right after the blast, physicist Thomas Nesbitt muses "What the cumulative effects of all these atomic explosions and tests will be, only time will tell". The explosion awakens a long carnivorous dinosaur known as a Rhedosaurus,The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen: Features, Early 16mm Experiments and Unrealized Projects by Roy P. Webber thawing it out of the ice where it had been held in suspended animation for millions of years. Nesbitt is the only surviving witness to the beast's awakening and later is dismissed out-of-hand as being delirious at the time of his sighting. Despite the skepticism, he persists, knowing what he saw. The dinosaur begins making its way down the east coast of North America, sinking a fishing ketch off the Grand Banks, destroying another near Marquette, Canada, wrecking a lighthouse in Maine and destroying buildings in Massachusetts. Nesbitt eventually gains allies in paleontologist Thurgood Elson and his young assistant Lee Hunter after one of the surviving fishermen identifies from a collection of drawings the very same dinosaur that Nesbitt saw. Plotting the sightings of the beast's appearances on a map for skeptical military officers, Elson proposes the dinosaur is returning to the Hudson River area, where fossils of Rhedosaurus were first found. In a diving bell search of the undersea Hudson River Canyon, Professor Elson is killed after his bell is swallowed by the beast, which eventually comes ashore in Manhattan. A later newspaper report of its rampage lists "180 known dead, 1500 injured, damage estimates $300 million". Meanwhile, military troops led by Colonel Jack Evans attempt to stop the Rhedosaurus with an electrified barricade, then blast a hole with a bazooka in the beast's throat, which drives it back into the sea. Unfortunately, it bleeds all over the streets of New York, unleashing a horrible, virulent prehistoric contagion, which begins to infect the populace, causing even more fatalities. The infection precludes blowing up the Rhedosaurus or even setting it ablaze, lest the contagion spread further. It is decided to shoot a radioactive isotope into the beast's neck wound with hopes of burning it from the inside, killing it without releasing the contagion. When the Rhedosaurus comes ashore and reaches Palisades amusement park, military sharpshooter Corporal Stone takes a rifle grenade loaded with a potent radioactive isotope and climbs on board a roller coaster. Riding the coaster to the top of the tracks, so he can get to eye-level with the beast, he fires the isotope into its open neck wound. It thrashes about in reaction, causing the roller coaster to spark when falling to the ground, setting the amusement park ablaze. With the fire spreading rapidly, the park becomes engulfed in flames. The Rhedosaurus collapses and eventually dies from isotope poisoning and heat stroke. ===== After a surprise birthday party given by her husband Marc, Christine, a news anchor in her 40s, begins to wonder about her employment outlook now that she is getting older. She worries that she may lose her job to someone younger. She hears about another reporter named Shauna who is actually almost 50 years old but is incredibly young-looking. Curious, she learns about a bottled water called "Aqua Vita" which can make one look younger with its use which she quickly orders for herself. The delivery man installs the system and states Christine should drink 5 to 6 glasses of water at first, then just one glass from then on. Christine soon learns that although the first batch is free the following shipments continue to raise in price. When the delivery man offhandedly calls her "missy", she asks him his age. He cryptically answers, "Don't ask." Christine soon begins to spend massive amounts of money on the water to ensure their continued delivery. An unfortunate side effect of Aqua Vita is that without constant use, withdrawal results in rapid aging. When this effect becomes apparent in Shauna, Marc confronts Christine and he tells her that regardless of her age and appearance he loves her. They contemplate what to do next and he decides to drink the water himself in order to join her in old age. The episode ends with them sitting together on a park bench, aged and condemned to look old "for the next 30 years or so", nonetheless happy because they know they are going to spend these years together. ===== Donald Knowles is a professor and joint commander of an expedition team who returns to a barren Earth 1,000 years after all life has been destroyed by an unspecified disaster. His fellow commander Jacinda Carlyle is only interested in finding whatever resources are left on the planet. Knowles has four days to explore before mining ships come to strip the planet of resources. As Knowles explores the ruins of the planet he proceeds to play an old CD player. As Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 begins, Knowles is confronted by ghosts of the planet. He finds them in an abandoned café where they ask him not to forget their existence. Knowles pleads with Carlyle not to strip the planet but she insists upon it anyway. Knowles soon discovers that the ghosts are spirits of the forefathers who had not left the Earth when life began dissolving. They believe that humans are coming back to repopulate the planet, but Knowles explains why they are really there. He tries to get them to leave the planet, but they say they cannot leave on conventional ships because of how they warp space in a way that makes it impossible for them to survive the trip. They then plead with him not to let the others dig and destroy what remains of the planet in their search for valuable minerals. Carlyle continues to ignore him until he takes her to the café to hear the voices for herself. However, they refuse to speak and Carlyle concludes that he is going insane. Later, the specters try to possess Knowles and force him to destroy the mission, but Carlyle and the other crew members stop him, believing he is doing it of his own free will. Carlyle, feeling sorry for her friend, does not report it and gives him medical leave. Knowles returns to the café to confront the ghosts. They tell him he is their only hope of leaving. By channeling through him they can live although the procedure may not work. He angrily refuses and says that it was their fault the Earth was destroyed. When they claim that there is nothing else to be done, Knowles reminds them that if they were able to change the methane to oxygen to allow him to breathe without a spacesuit, surely they could change the planet into a living world again. They claim they may not be able to do so without losing their life- force in the process. He calls them cowards for not trying and without a response he returns to the ship. Suddenly, a miracle occurs: it begins raining, restoring the biosphere. The first stages of life are discovered in the oceans. Evolution is accelerated, returning Earth to a living planet once again. Knowles steps outside and--not knowing if they can hear him or not-- calls out that one day they will be back. ===== Tang Shuisheng (Wang Xiaoxiao) has arrived in Shanghai to work for a Triad Boss (played by Li Baotian), also named Tang. He is taken to a warehouse where two rival groups of Triads carry out an opium deal that goes wrong, leaving one of the rival members dead. Shuisheng is then taken by his uncle to Tang's palatial home, where he is assigned to serve Xiao Jinbao (Gong Li), a cabaret singer and mistress of the Boss. It is soon learned that Jinbao is also carrying on an affair with the Boss's number two man, Song (Sun Chun). On the third night, Shuisheng witnesses a bloody gang fight between the Boss and a rival, Fat Yu, in which his uncle is killed. The Boss and a small entourage retreat to an island. There, Jinbao befriends Cuihua (Jiang Baoying), a peasant woman with a young daughter, Ajiao. When Jinbao unwittingly meddles in Cuihua's business, it results in the Boss's men killing Cuihua's lover. Furious, Jinbao confronts the Boss and tells Shuisheng to leave Shanghai. By the seventh day, Song arrives to the island along with Zheng (Fu Biao), the Boss's number three man. During a mahjong game, the Boss calmly confronts Song with evidence of his treachery. The gang kills Song's men and buries Song alive. The Boss then informs Jinbao that she will have to die as well for her role in Song's betrayal, along with Cuihua. As Shuisheng attempts to save her from her fate, he is thrown back and beaten. The film ends with Shuisheng tied to the sails of the ship as it sails back to Shanghai. The Boss takes Cuihua's young daughter with him, telling her that in a few years, she will become just like Jinbao. ===== Nelson Moss meets Sara Deever, a woman very different from anyone he has met before. His ignorance leads to her failing her driving test. She beguiles him and continually asks him to spend a month with her on the promise that she will change his life for the better. On the first night of November, after Nelson is fired and dumped on the same day, she sleeps with him, and the next day Chaz, a close friend of Sara's, arrives and refers to Nelson as Sara's "November". Throughout November, the two experience happy times together and fall in love. Nelson examines his life and past, and befriends a fatherless child named Abner. Eventually, he realizes he is in love with Sara and asks her to marry him. It is revealed that Sara has terminal cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Because she cannot bear to have Nelson experience her death, she asks him to leave. Sara tells Chaz that Nelson proposed to her. Chaz says that it wasn't the first time that a man had proposed, implying Sara has had numerous "months" before. Sara confirms this but claims it was the first time she had wanted to say yes. She decides she will not continue the relationship to protect Nelson from being hurt. Nelson complies, but then stages a surprise return during the Thanksgiving holiday, giving her gifts that remind her of their happy times. They stay together for one more day; he posts November calendars all over her apartment walls, saying it can always be November for them. They make love, but the next morning, Nelson finds Sara is dressed. She asks him to leave, and he sees she has taken down the calendars. Nelson becomes confused and heartbroken. Sara asks Nelson to let her go so that he will always have happy memories of her and explains that this is how she needs to be remembered. She will return home to her family (whom she had been avoiding) and face her last days. Sara then blindfolds Nelson, leads him to a park, and gives him a last kiss. Nelson takes off the blindfold and sees that he is alone in a park he and Sara went on one of their first dates. His eyes fill with tears and the movie ends. ===== A group of scientists (psychologist Norman Johnson; mathematician Harry Adams; zoologist Beth Halpern; astrophysicist Ted Fielding; and marine biologist Arthur Levine), along with U.S. Navy personnel, travel to a deep sea habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where an enormous spacecraft has been discovered. During the descent Levine becomes claustrophobic and is returned to the surface. The other scientists arrive safely at Habitat DH-8. After their arrival and subsequent pressurization to the habitat's exotic-gas environment, the Navy sends a robot to enter the spacecraft first, which locates and opens a panel near the spacecraft door. As the robot's cameras focus on the opened panel, labels in English indicate the spacecraft is a U.S. spacecraft constructed in the future and sent through time, appearing on the seabed at least 350 years before its creation. The robot is unable to open a hatch leading further inside, forcing the team to don pressure suits and explore the spacecraft. In a large cargo hold, the team discovers a mysterious spherical object that is clearly of extraterrestrial origin. Reasoning the ship's future builders were apparently unaware that it had already been found in their past, Adams becomes convinced that the team will not survive to report their discovery. Remaining behind after the rest of the team returns to the habitat, Adams succeeds in opening and entering the sphere. Meanwhile, on the surface, a Pacific cyclone forces the supporting Naval ships to evacuate, trapping and isolating the scientists on the ocean floor for five days. Adams is found and returned to the DH-8 Habitat where he awakens with a terrible headache and little-to-no memory of how he opened the sphere or what occurred while he was inside. Immediately afterwards, the team is contacted by an intelligent, seemingly friendly alien entity that calls itself "Jerry". At first, Jerry communicates with the scientists using a numeric code transmitted to the habitat's computer. While the team struggles to communicate with Jerry, increasingly bizarre and deadly events occur, including the appearance of impossible sea creatures that Halpern claims cannot exist (such as shrimp with no digestive organs), confirmed when Jerry informs them he is "manifesting" the creatures. At this point, members of the team start to die in various attacks by giant squid, and the dwindling band of survivors struggle in their dealings with the unthinkably powerful, childlike, and temperamental alien entity. Johnson realizes he must use psychology to keep the remaining survivors alive (Johnson, Adams, Halpern). After re- translating the original code, Johnson realizes by transposition the entity's name should be "Harry" (Adams). Johnson hypothesizes that the sphere is an object which allows a person's subconscious thoughts to manifest in reality, and Harry Adams has acquired the power through entering it. (Confirmed by his childhood fear of squid, especially the giant squid in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, manifested in the form of a vast number of small squid and later a giant squid that attacks the DH-8 Habitat.) Johnson and Halpern sedate Adams and wait for contact to be re-established with the surface, but the manifestations continue. Halpern accuses Johnson of having entered the sphere and gaining access to the power. While unable to recall this incident, Johnson comes close to yielding, until he watches a security video of Halpern entering the sphere herself. Rejecting the notion, Halpern decides that Johnson is an imminent threat and defends herself by planting potent explosives around the spacecraft and habitat, and then attempts to suffocate Johnson by manipulating the habitat's life-support system. Escaping from the habitat, Johnson goes to the spacecraft and enters the presence of the sphere, then the sphere itself. Inside the sphere, he finds a large sea of translucent "foam," and has a conversation in his thoughts with some sort of entity that speaks in cryptic riddles, who eventually tells Johnson that the greatest power humans possess is the ability to imagine things. After leaving the sphere, Johnson decides to escape using the submarine docked at Habitat DH-7, a nearby habitat for Navy personnel, but cannot abandon the other survivors. Now empowered in the same way as Adams and Halpern, Johnson returns to DH-8 and - using the submarine - the trio escape before the explosives set by Halpern count down and destroy the spaceship, the research habitat, and surrounding site. On the surface, confined to a decompression chamber, the trio ponder on what version of their story to tell the Navy. Realizing they could not control the power granted them by the sphere, they decide its knowledge to be too dangerous to be communicated, and resolve to use its power to remove it from themselves and alter their memories, replacing the fantastical experiences with more mundane memories of a technical failure. Johnson's final words to Halpern suggest that she potentially did not remove her power. ===== It was decided that Tresckow's group would assassinate Hitler and thereby provide the 'spark' for the coup, which Olbricht would direct from Berlin. In late 1942, Olbricht indicated that he still needed about eight weeks to complete preparations for the coup. Shortly thereafter, Tresckow traveled to Berlin to discuss the few remaining questions and emphasize that time was running short.Fest 1997, p. 192. In the winter of 1942, Olbricht declared: "We are ready. The spark can now be set off."Von Schlabrendorff 1994, p. 227. Tresckow assured the conspirators that he would take action at the first available opportunity. It came on 13 March 1943, when Hitler finally visited troops on the Eastern Front at Smolensk after a few cancellations and postponements. Under the initial plan, a group of officers were to shoot Hitler collectively at a signal in the officers' mess during lunch but Kluge, Commander of Army Group Center, who had been informed about the plot, urged Tresckow not to carry it out saying, "For heaven's sake, don't do anything today! It's still too soon for that!"Fest 1997, p. 193. He argued that the German army and people were not ready to accept the coup and would not understand such an act. He also feared a civil war between the Army and SS, since Heinrich Himmler had canceled his visit and could not be killed at the same time.Philipp von Boeselager, Daily Telegraph book review of Valkyrie: the Plot to Kill Hitler by Philipp von Boeselager, February 5, 2008. Tresckow, however, had a backup plan. During the lunch in question, he asked Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt, who was travelling with Hitler, whether he would be good enough to take a bottle of Cointreau to Colonel Helmuth Stieff (who was not yet a conspirator at that time) at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia as a payment for a lost bet. Brandt readily agreed. The "Cointreau" was actually a bomb constructed of a British plastic explosive "Plastic C" placed into the casing of a British magnetic mine, with a timer consisting of a spring which would be gradually dissolved by acid. Before Hitler's Condor plane was to take off, Schlabrendorff activated the 30-minute fuse and handed the package to Brandt, who boarded Hitler's plane. After takeoff, a message was sent to the other Berlin conspirators by code that Operation Flash was under way, which they expected to take place around Minsk. Yet when Hitler landed safely at his East Prussian headquarters, it became obvious that the bomb had failed to detonate (the extremely low temperatures in the unheated luggage compartment probably prevented the fuse from working). The message of failure was quickly sent out and Schlabrendorff retrieved the package to prevent discovery of the plot.Fest 1997, p. 194. A week later, on 21 March, Army Group Centre organised a display of Russian Army flags and weapons seized at the Eastern Front. It was exhibited at Zeughaus, military museum in Berlin, which Hitler was to visit on Heroes' Memorial Day with Himmler and Hermann Göring. Colonel Gersdorff volunteered to be the suicide bomber, intending to explode a bomb on his person near Hitler while serving as a tour guide. He had with him bombs with ten-minute fuses, knowing that Hitler was scheduled to be in the museum for 30 minutes. But at the last minute, just before Hitler was to arrive, the duration of his stay was reduced to just eight minutes as a security precaution. Hitler breezed through in two minutes. As a result, Gersdorff could not accomplish his mission, the assassination plan failed again and he barely managed to get out and defuse the bombs.Fest 1997, p. 196. Other plots similarly failed because of Hitler's good luck and irregular habits. Most importantly, they had no access to Hitler since he no longer visited the front, rarely visited Berlin and spent most of his time at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia or the Berghof in Bavaria. Tresckow lacked the required clearance to enter either site and the extremely high security made any attempt impractical and unlikely to succeed. The elimination of Oster's group in April 1943 (his deputy Hans von Dohnanyi and Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer were arrested, and Oster was placed under house arrest) was a further setback. Tresckow worked tirelessly to persuade army commanders such as Field Marshals Fedor von Bock, Günther von Kluge and Erich von Manstein to join in the conspiracy without much success. With unwitting help from Schmundt, he placed like-minded officers as their adjutants and staff officers to bring them closer to the conspiracy. Kluge sympathised with the conspirators and at times seemed ready to act, only to become indecisive at critical moments. Others refused outright, Manstein declaring, "Prussian field marshals do not mutiny." Nonetheless, no-one reported their treasonable activities to the SS. Erika and Henning von Tresckow ===== To pay off debts, Wallace lets the spare bedroom to a penguin, who befriends Wallace and drives Gromit from the house. The penguin takes an interest in Wallace's new "techno trousers", which can walk on walls and ceilings, and secretly rewires them for radio control. Gromit realises that the penguin is a wanted criminal, who disguises himself as a chicken, Feathers McGraw. Feathers forces Wallace into the techno trousers and sends him on a test run through town. Later, Gromit spies on Feathers as he takes measurements of the city museum, and discovers Feathers' plans to steal a diamond from the museum. While Wallace sleeps, Feathers marches him to the museum and uses the trousers to infiltrate the building. He uses a remotely operated crane claw, contained in a helmet he has made Wallace wear, to capture the diamond, but accidentally trips the alarm. As Wallace wakes up, Feathers marches him back to the house and traps him and Gromit in a wardrobe at gunpoint. Gromit rewires the trousers to break open the wardrobe. He and Wallace chase Feathers aboard their model train set. Wallace disarms Feathers and frees himself from the trousers. After Feathers' train collides with the trousers, Gromit captures him in a milk bottle. The police imprison Feathers in the city zoo. Wallace and Gromit pay their debts with the reward money, while the techno trousers walk off into the sunset. ===== Cheese-loving inventor Wallace (Peter Sallis) and his dog Gromit run out of cheese. As "everyone knows the moon is made of cheese", they build a rocket and fly to the Moon. They encounter a coin-operated robot. Wallace inserts a coin, but nothing happens. After he and Gromit leave, the robot comes to life and gathers the dirty plates left at the picnic spot. The robot discovers a skiing magazine and yearns to travel to Earth. It repairs a broken piece of landscape, issues a parking ticket for the rocket, and is annoyed by an oil leak from the craft. The robot sneaks up on Wallace and prepares to strike him, but the money Wallace inserted runs out, and it freezes. Wallace takes the robot's nightstick as a souvenir, inserts another coin, and prepares to leave with Gromit. Returning to life, the robot follows Wallace and Gromit. Wallace panics and he and Gromit retreat into the rocket. Unable to climb the ladder, the robot cuts into the fuselage with a can opener and accidentally ignites some fuel. The explosion throws it off the rocket and Wallace and Gromit lift off. Dejected, the robot fashions discarded rocket fuselage into skis and skis across the lunar landscape. It waves goodbye to Wallace and Gromit as they return home. ===== Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" telling the story of Misty Marie Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. The story is not exactly told by Misty but through a second-person perspective instead. Once she was an art student dreaming of creativity and freedom, but now, after marrying her husband Peter while they were both still at school and then giving birth to their daughter shortly after, she is eventually brought back to Waytansea Island, a place that was once-quaint but is now tourist-overrun. Misty has been reduced to the lowly condition of a mere waitress within a common resort hotel. Peter, before falling into his coma, was building hidden rooms within the houses he was remodeling and scrawling vile messages all over the walls; this is an old habit of builders but it's been dramatically overdone in Peter's case. Angry homeowners are suing Misty left and right and her dreams of artistic greatness have been ruined. But then, as if she was possessed by the spirit of the fabled Waytansea artist Maura Kincaid, Misty begins painting again, excessively and compulsively. Misty discovers that the islanders, including her father-in-law (previously thought to be dead) are involved in a conspiracy which repeats every four generations. A young artist (in this case Misty) is lured to the island by an old piece of jewelry, she becomes pregnant and has her child within the community. It is implied that this old jewelry works to lure and entrap Misty because it was hers in a past life, during which these same events played out before. During middle age, her husband dies, followed by all her children, resulting in a wave of great artistic creativity, the product of which is mesmerizing to the observing audience. The islanders create an exhibition of Misty's art work at the local hotel where a fire is started by Misty's daughter, who is revealed to be alive after a previous point in the book when she was thought to have drowned, and all the hotel's occupants are burned to death due to their being mesmerized by her painting. The result is a huge insurance claim which leaves the remaining island citizens wealthy enough to support their luxuriant lifestyles for the next four generations, at which point a new young artist will be found to repeat the cycle. Peter, Misty's husband, attempted to warn her of this plot using his hidden writing and it is revealed that his suicide attempt was in fact a murder attempt. It is never revealed in the end whether Peter recovered from his coma, but from Misty's descriptions of his state of health, he more than likely died. ===== In the New England town of Peyton Place, drunkard Lucas Cross stumbles out of his house, just as his stepson Paul, fed up with his alcoholism, leaves town. Lucas's downtrodden wife, Nellie, works as housekeeper for Constance "Connie" MacKenzie, the owner of a local clothing shop. The daughters of both families, Allison MacKenzie and Selena Cross, are best friends and will soon graduate high school. While the MacKenzies live a privileged life, the Cross family is indigent. At Peyton Place High School, a newcomer, Michael Rossi, is hired to be the new principal by school board president Leslie Harrington; the students' choice for the position is long- time teacher Elsie Thornton. Rossi wins over Ms. Thornton by offering to work with her. For Allison's 18th birthday, Connie allows her to have an unchaperoned party, attended by various classmates, including the overtly sexual Betty and her boyfriend, Rodney. Connie is horrified when she returns home to find all of the teenagersincluding Allisonmaking out. The next morning, Allison goes to meet Selena for church, and witnesses Selena's stepfather, Lucas, beat her. Later, Rossi announces that Allison has been named valedictorian, and asks Connie to chaperone Allison's graduation dance; the two slowly develop a romance. Meanwhile, Harrington informs his Rodney that he does not approve of Betty, so Rodney is forced to uninvite her. He instead goes with Allison, though she is in love with the shy, bookish Norman Page. At the dance, Rodney tries to make out with Betty, but she is still angry at him for dumping her. Principal Rossi asks Ms. Thornton to give a short speech and lead the song "Auld Lang Syne"; she graciously accepts. This annoys Marion Partridge, a member of the school board and malicious gossip. After the dance, Selena is raped by Lucas and becomes pregnant. When she sees Dr. Matthew Swain, the town's leading physicians for an abortion, he refuses; she confides in him that Lucas raped her. Furious, Dr. Swain confronts him, and Lucas is forced to promise to leave town after signing a confession, all of which Nellie secretly witnesses. Now out for revenge, Lucas chases Selena when she returns home, and although she escapes, she falls, injuring herself. After treating her, Dr. Swain records that she had an "appendectomy", when in fact she has had a termination. At the Labor Day parade, Rodney and Betty reunite and go skinny dipping; nearby, Allison and Norman go swimming in proper suits. Marion Partridge and her husband Charles see a naked couple and make an assumption, telling Connie it was Allison and Norman. Connie and Allison have a fight. In a fit of anger, Connie admits that Allison was an illegitimate child, as Connie was her father's mistress. A hysterical Allison runs upstairs, and finds Nellie' dead body; she has committed suicide. Sometime after, Rodney and Betty elope, infuriating Rodney's father. After recovering from the shock of Nellie's suicide, Allison leaves for New York City. World War II erupts in 1941, and Peyton Place's men go off to war. When Rodney is killed in action, his father offers to take care of Betty and she is finally welcomed into the family. During Christmas of 1942, Connie visits Rossi to apologize for being dismissive to him. After confessing that she was a married man's mistress, Rossi decides to stay in Peyton Place, saying that his earlier marriage proposal to her is still open. A drunken Lucas returns from the Navy and tries to again rape Selena, but this time she bludgeons him to death in self-defense. After Easter of 1943, Selena tearfully confesses Lucas's murder to Connie, and she is later arrested and tried by the District Attorney. Allison, still estranged from Connie, returns for the trial, as does Norman; the truth about Selena killing Lucas in self-defense, his physical and sexual abuse of her, as well as Dr. Swain's false report about her "appendectomy," all come to light. Dr. Swain admonishes the town for their gossipy ways and failure to offer Selena help. Ultimately, Selena is acquitted, and she and Ted are free to marry. Allison has a change of heart and approaches Connie with a hope of reconciliation, and Norman is welcomed into the house. ===== At the beginning of Return Engagement, North America is a continent divided. Canada, minus the independent Republic of Quebec, is under U.S. occupation — which, as the Confederacy re-arms and the United States redeploy forces south to meet them, has come to mean occupation by U.S.-allied Québécois soldiers. To the south, Kentucky and Houston have recently been returned to the Confederacy by popular vote with Houston also rejoining Texas. However, Sequoyah — having been flooded by U.S. citizens, and its original Native American inhabitants outnumbered, has voted to stay in the United States, but other formerly Confederate territories occupied by the United States after the Great War remain unredeemed. In total, Virginia north of Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock River has been annexed to West Virginia, a sliver of northeastern Arkansas is attached to Missouri, and a portion of northwestern Sonora (purchased by the Confederacy along with Chihuahua in 1881) is part of a larger New Mexico that also contains the real- life state of Arizona. The United States also control the formerly British island territories of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Newfoundland, Bermuda and the Bahamas; Cuba, purchased by the Confederacy from Spain in the 1870s, remains Confederate. On the international scale, the United Kingdom has reformed itself around conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill and fascistic "silver shirts" led by Oswald Mosley. In the wake of another defeat by the hated Germans, the French Third Republic had collapsed under popular support for the hard-line Catholic and monarchistic Action Française around 1930 and is now under control of King Charles XI. Both countries are politically allied with the Confederacy, as are Japan (though it openly threatens Pacific European possessions) and Russia (the Russian Revolution never occurred; as was mentioned in the American Empire series, the "Great Man" and the "Man of Steel" (Lenin and Stalin) were defeated and killed by loyal forces at Tsaritsyn, aka Stalingrad/Volgograd). The United States is allied with the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, while Quebec stays neutral officially, but in fact continues to supply occupation soldiers to the United States for now-exclusively-English Canada. Ireland, with some material support from the United States, won its independence from Britain at the end of the Great War, but has now been invaded by British forces and exists in a state of guerilla war. On June 22, 1941, Confederate dictator Jake Featherston launches the war with a bombing attack on all major U.S. cities within reach of the border, quickly followed by an invasion of Ohio from Kentucky. Despite fierce U.S. resistance, the country is cut in half, though both sides remain linked by (risky) shipping and the rail network in occupied Canada, though it is occasionally subject to sabotage by the Canadian resistance. Meanwhile, the Mormon population of Utah rebels against the United States with support from the CSA, and proclaims the State of Deseret, forcing the United States to send troops to try to put down the uprising. Meanwhile, Japan attacks the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), sinking a U.S. carrier and threatening to capture the islands, and taking Midway Island, resulting in fierce naval and air battles. On the European Front, fighting breaks out between Germany and Austria, allies of the U.S., and Britain, Russia, and France, allies of the CSA. Minor fighting also takes place between American and Russian troops in Alaska. As the war progresses, Featherston launches a campaign of genocide against the country's black population. Many blacks arm themselves with U.S. aid and begin a campaign of resistance. Both sides launch air raids on enemy cities, and Confederate aircraft manage to kill U.S. President Al Smith during a raid on Philadelphia when it damages the Powel House, forcing the inexperienced Charles W. La Follette to take office, and resulting in a massive retaliatory raid on Richmond which fails to kill Featherston. The United States attempts a counter-attack by invading Virginia, but the advance bogs down under heavy resistance. Futile U.S. attempts to capture the heavily defended city of Fredericksburg result in heavy losses. The stall allows the Confederates to concentrate their forces in Ohio and push into Pennsylvania, with the support of Mexican forces, committed by Emperor Francisco Jose at the demands of Featherston. However, U.S. forces manage to prevent the encirclement of Pittsburgh, forcing the Confederates into heavy street fighting, where their advance stalls. Meanwhile, two U.S. escort carriers reach Oahu, and the tide begins to turn, as the Americans hold the Sandwich Islands. In a climactic battle, a Japanese carrier guarding Midway is sunk and Midway Island is retaken. Under the cover of an early November storm, U.S. forces launch an armored offensive, which quickly breaks through the Mexican units guarding the Confederate flanks. Joining with another salient moving out of West Virginia, the bulk of the invading Confederate army is encircled, and U.S. forces begin driving deeper into Confederate-occupied Ohio. An attempt by Confederate forces to reach Pittsburgh is stopped at Salem, and U.S. forces launch a number of incursions across Confederate territory, which prevents the Confederates from gathering enough troops to relieve their forces in Pittsburgh. One of the thrusts comes dangerously close to capturing a Confederate extermination camp and revealing its true purpose and its mass graves. Featherston refuses to allow his troops to fight their way out of Pittsburgh. Attempts to supply the besieged Confederates by air fail, and the remnants of the trapped Confederate army surrender, while Confederate control of Ohio crumbles. On the European front, British, French, and Russian forces are gradually pushed back, as Irish and Serb rebels continue to attack their occupiers, and fighting between two sets of guerrillas supported by either sides continues in Ukraine. Meanwhile, U.S. forces push into Confederate territory. Kentucky and Tennessee fall first, followed by an advance into Georgia. At the Battle of Chattanooga, American forces land paratroopers atop Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge rather than fight their way up. The Confederates squander resources through a series of futile counter-attacks. Meanwhile, a black revolt takes place in Richmond. As the genocide of blacks continues at the Concentration Camp known as Camp Determination, U.S. forces push into Texas. As these troops are lacking in resources, Confederate forces manage to stall them long enough for the Camp guards to murder all the blacks. Meanwhile, both sides are seeking a nuclear bomb, and the Confederates try to stall the U.S. nuclear program by bombing the U.S. nuclear project site in Washington, to which the U.S. replies by bombing the Confederate nuclear research site in Virginia. Meanwhile, the Mormon rebellion in Utah is finally crushed, but a British-supported Canadian uprising against occupation authorities is fully active, forcing American units who had been previously fighting the Mormons to be transferred to Canada and hold it down. In Virginia, the ground fighting seems largely quiet as the Confederates are unable to attack U.S. forces as often due to heavy casualties. Fighting also takes place in other Confederate states the U.S. invades, and in Sequoyah (Oklahoma), with both sides sabotaging oil wells there. The U.S. also begins smuggling arms to a nascent rebellion in Confederate Cuba, recaptures Bermuda in a costly action, and increases activity in the South Atlantic to cut off food shipments from South America to Britain. The U.S. demands the CSA's unconditional surrender: the Confederates refuse and fire two long-range rockets into Philadelphia. U.S. forces drive through the center of the CSA and cut it in half, while a second U.S. force drives through Virginia to capture Richmond, and eventually take it in heavy street fighting. With British aid, the Confederacy produces a fission bomb. Under the commands of Clarence Potter, Confederate troops dressed as their U.S. counterparts smuggle the bomb into Philadelphia and it detonates. However, this occurs on the outskirts of the city west of the Schuylkill River, and none of the government buildings are affected. The U.S. responds by bombing Newport News and Charleston. Six cities in Europe are also destroyed (Petrograd, Paris, London, Brighton, and Norwich) by Germany. The United Kingdom nukes Hamburg. After London, Brighton, and Norwich were nuked, Britain builds a second nuke. However, before the nuclear bomb could strike a major German city, it is shot down in German occupied Belgium, where it explodes harmlessly somewhere between Bruges and Ghent. Germany and Austria eventually defeat their European adversaries and kill or overthrow their heads of state. Japan, having failed to capture the Sandwich Islands and Midway, begins contemplating betraying its British allies and invading their colonies. Texas declares independence from the Confederacy and arrests Camp Determination officials. Featherston attempts to escape to the deep South, but his plane is shot down, and he is killed by an anti- Confederate guerilla. Confederate Vice President Don Partridge then takes office, and agrees to unconditionally surrender to the United States. Before the war officially ends, some Confederate units continue to resist, but when the time to surrender comes, they peacefully lay down their arms. Top Confederate officials are arrested, tried, and most of them are executed. The Confederates involved in the murder of blacks are also extradited from Texas, tried for crimes against humanity, and hanged. Despite the surrender, small bands of Confederates continue to resist, and the United States responds to each attack by executing random civilians unless the perpetrators turn themselves in or are captured, and then executed. The U.S. dissolves the Confederate government after 83 years and places the country under indefinite military occupation. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Houston are readmitted into the Union shortly after the war is over. The remaining states in the now former Confederacy will probably readmitted into the United States later. The rebellions in Canada are also suppressed, and Texas is given independence and hosts U.S. troops on its soil. ===== Twelve- year-old Johnny receives a pirate edition of the new video game Only You Can Save Mankind from his friend Wobbler. However, he hasn't been playing for long when the ScreeWee Empire surrenders to him. After accepting the surrender he finds himself inside the game in his dreams, where he must deal with the suspicious Gunnery Officer as well as the understanding Captain, and work out exactly what they're all supposed to do now. This might all be the result of an over-active imagination except that the ScreeWee have disappeared altogether from everyone else's copy of the game. With the help of another player, Kirsty, who calls herself "Sigourney" (as in Weaver), Johnny must try to get the ScreeWee home. ===== In 1973, a nuclear-powered spaceship blasts off from Mars for Earth, bringing with it the sole survivor of the first mission, Col. Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson). He is suspected of having murdered the other nine members of his crew for their food and water rations, on the premise that he had no way of knowing if or when an Earth rescue mission would ever arrive. Carruthers denies this allegation, attributing his crew's deaths to a hostile humanoid life form on the Red Planet. Commander Col. Van Heusen is unconvinced and makes sure that Carruthers is constantly accompanied by another member of his crew. While the ship was on the Martian surface, a large external exhaust had been left open, allowing the creature easy access. The crew are at first skeptical that something crawled aboard while they were on Mars. However, when Kienholz investigates odd sounds coming from a lower level, he is killed and his body hidden in an air duct. Next is Gino Finelli. He is found, barely alive, but the creature attacks his would-be rescuer. Bullets have no effect, forcing the crewman to leave Gino behind, much to the distress of his brother Bob. An autopsy of Kienholz's body reveals that it has been sucked dry of all fluids. The crew use hand grenades and gas grenades, but the creature proves immune to both. They next try electrocution, with no effect. When "It" is tricked into going into the spaceship's atomic reactor room, they shut the heavily shielded door and expose the creature directly to the ship's nuclear pile. It easily crashes through the door and escapes. The creature is so strong that it can tear through the metal hatches separating each of the ship's levels. The survivors (except for an injured crewman, who is trapped below in a spot inaccessible to the creature) retreat to the control room on the topmost deck. When Carruthers notices the ship's higher-than-normal oxygen consumption rate, he surmises that this is due to the creature's larger lung capacity, needed for the thin Martian atmosphere. In a last desperate move, everyone puts on their spacesuits, and Carruthers opens the command deck's hull airlock directly to the vacuum of space. A violent decompression follows, and the plan works: "It" suffocates and finally expires, stuck part way through the final hatch. A press conference is later held on Earth, revealing the details of what happened aboard the rescue ship. The project director emphasizes that Earth may now be forced to bypass the Red Planet "because another word for Mars is death". ===== In Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, a cowgirl named T.J. Breckenridge hosts a struggling rodeo. Her former lover, Tuck Kirby, a heroic former stuntman working for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, wants to buy her out. Along the way, he is followed by a Mexican boy named Lope, who intends to join the rodeo on a quest for fame and fortune. T.J. is not interested in Tuck because of this, but Tuck is still attracted to T.J., especially when T.J. jumps off a diving board on her horse. T.J. finally accepts Tuck when he saves Lope from a bull and the two kiss. T.J. has an ace she hopes will boost attendance at her show - a tiny horse called El Diablo. Tuck meets a British paleontologist named Horace Bromley, who is working in a nearby Mexican desert. Bromley shows Tuck fossilized horse tracks, and Tuck notes their similarity to El Diablo's feet. Tuck sneaks Bromley into the circus for a look at El Diablo, and Bromley declares the horse to be a prehistoric Eohippus. The tiny horse came from a place known as the Forbidden Valley. A gypsy known as Tia Zorina claims that the horse is cursed, and demands that it be immediately returned. Later, she and the other gypsies collaborate with Bromley to steal El Diablo and release it back in the valley. Bromley hopes to follow the horse to its home in search of other prehistoric specimens. Carlos, an ex-member of the Gypsy tribe now working for T.J.'s circus, walks in on the theft and tries to stop it, but is knocked out. Tuck arrives just as the Gypsy posse leaves. Carlos sees him as he is regaining consciousness. Tuck notices that the horse is missing, and sets off after Bromley. When T.J. and her crew discover Carlos, Carlos claims that Tuck has stolen El Diablo for himself. Carlos, T.J., and the others decide to follow Tuck and Bromley into the valley. Making their way into the Forbidden Valley, Tuck, T.J., and the rest of the group meet up and soon discover why the valley is said to be cursed when a Pteranodon swoops down and snatches Lope but due to the weight it falls back to the ground. After Carlos kills the Pteranodon by twisting its neck, they spot an Ornithomimus, which they chase after in the hopes of capturing it. Just as it is about to escape, it is killed by Gwangi, a vicious Allosaurus which chases Bromley and the rest of the group. However, a Styracosaurus appears and drives Gwangi away. As Gwangi leaves, he takes the dead Pteranodon with him. Later, Gwangi pursues the group to their base camp and they try to rope him down, but he breaks free when the Styracosaurus reappears. Gwangi battles and kills the Styracosaurus and later manages to catch and kill Carlos, but is knocked out by a rockslide while trying to exit the valley in pursuit of the rest of the group. Securing the creature with ropes, Tuck and the other men in the group take Gwangi back to town to be put on display in T.J.'s show. On the opening day of the show, the dwarfed Gypsy sneaks in and begins to unlock Gwangi's cage in an effort to free him, only to be killed when Gwangi breaks free. The crowd begins to flee as Gwangi attacks, and Tia Zorina is trampled to death in the chaos. Bromley is crushed by a broken piece of the cage, and Gwangi attacks and defeats a circus elephant before rampaging through the town. Tuck, accompanied by T.J. and Lope, tries to hide the crowd in a cathedral, but Gwangi finds them and breaks in. Tuck urges the crowd out through a back exit, leaving Tuck inside with Gwangi, T.J. and Lope. Though Gwangi tries to eat them, he is distracted when the cathedral's organ is accidentally sounded off as Tuck falls backwards into the keyboard. Tuck then manages to wound the dinosaur with a flag and throws a torch onto the floor near Gwangi, setting the building on fire. Tuck and the others manage to escape, leaving Gwangi trapped in the burning, collapsing building. Shrieking in agony, Gwangi is finally crushed to death by the falling debris, as Tuck, T.J., Lope (with tears in his eyes), and the townspeople look on. ===== The first U.S. spaceship to Venus, the XY-21, crashes into the Mediterranean sea off the coast of Sicily, Italy as fishermen watch. They row to the spacecraft, enter through a hole in the spacecraft and pull two spacemen from the nose-down craft before it completely sinks. In Washington, D.C., Major General A.D. McIntosh discovers that the missing spaceship, piloted by Colonel Bob Calder, has been located. As McIntosh flies to the site, Pepe, a little boy, finds and opens a translucent cylinder marked “USAF” on the beach. It contains a gelatinous mass, which he sells to Dr. Leonardo, a zoologist studying sea creatures. Meanwhile, Leonardo's granddaughter Marisa, a third-year medical student, is summoned to take care of the injured spacemen. When Calder regains consciousness, he finds his crewmate, Dr. Sharman, in the last throes of the fatal disease that killed his other eight crewmen. After Marisa returns to the trailer shared with her grandfather, a small creature hatches from the mass, and Leonardo locks it in a cage. By morning, the creature has tripled in size. McIntosh arrives, accompanied by scientist Dr. Justin Uhl, and meets with two representatives of the Italian government, informing them the spaceship has returned from Venus. Leonardo and Marisa hitch the trailer to their truck and head for Rome. Calder's spacecraft carried a sealed metal container bearing an unborn Venusians species. As police divers begin to search for it, McIntosh offers a half-million lira reward for the capsule's recovery, prompting Pepe to lead them to the empty container. When Pepe tells them that he sold the mass to Dr. Leonardo, McIntosh and Calder pursue him. That night, Leonardo discovers that the creature has grown to human size. Soon after, it breaks out of the cage and heads to a nearby farm, terrorizing the animals. The creature eats sulfur and rips open several bags it discovers in a barn. While feeding, the creature is attacked by the farmer's dog, and the creature kills the dog, alerting the farmer. Calder and the others reach the barn, trapping the creature inside. Calder explains that the creature is not dangerous unless provoked. However, he provokes it by trying to prod the creature with a pole into a cage-like cart, and the creature injures the farmer after he stabs the creature with a pitchfork. After the creature breaks out of the barn and disappears into the countryside, the police commissioner insists that it must be destroyed. After the Italian government grants Calder permission to capture the creature alive, he devises a plan to ensnare it in a giant electric net dropped from a helicopter. The Italian police conduct their own pursuit, shooting at it with flamethrowers. Gunfire has little effect on the creature, as it has no heart or lungs. Aware that sulfur is the creature's food of choice, Calder uses bags of sulfur as bait, luring the creature to a secluded site and subduing it with an electric jolt from the net. Later, at the American Embassy in Rome, McIntosh briefs the press corps and allows three reporters to view the creature, which has been placed in the Rome zoo. There, Calder explains that the creature is being sedated with a continuous electric shock so it can be studied. Marisa, who is aiding her uncle, begins flirting with Calder. Suddenly, electrical equipment shorts out and the creature awakens. The fully grown ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth. The creature battles a zoo elephant and sends the panicked patrons scurrying. Taking their fight to the streets of Rome, the two beasts destroy cars and damage buildings. The creature finally kills the elephant and continues its rampage. Calder rams the creature with his car and tracks the creature to the River Tiber, where it submerges. Soldiers lob grenades into the river, and the creature surfaces, now gargantuan in size. It heads for the Colosseum and destroys an ancient temple, killing a few soldiers. As the creature disappears into the ruins, Calder charges after it with a group of bazooka-carrying soldiers, driving it to the top of the structure. Calder scores a direct bazooka hit. Direct fire from a tank then destroys the ledge the creature is clinging to, and it plunges to its death. A relieved Marisa runs into Calder's arms. ===== On the Swiss mountain Trollenberg, one of three student climbers is suddenly killed, his head ripped from his body. Two sisters, Anne (Munro) and Sarah Pilgrim (Jayne), a London mind-reading act, are travelling by train to Geneva when Anne faints as the train passes the mountain. Upon waking, Anne insists that they must get off at the next stop. UN troubleshooter Alan Brooks (Tucker), in the same train compartment as the sisters, goes to Trollenberg's observatory, where Professor Crevett (Warren Mitchell) explains that, despite many climbing accidents, no bodies are ever found; an always-stationary radioactive cloud is regularly observed on the mountain's south face. Brooks learns that similar incidents took place in the Andes three years earlier, before a similar radioactive cloud vanished without a trace. Local rumours circulated that something was living in the mist. Anne is giving a mind-reading demonstration at the hotel when she "sees" two men in a base camp hut on the mountain: Dewhurst (Stuart Saunders) is asleep when the other man, Brett (Andrew Faulds), under some kind of mental compulsion, walks outside. Meanwhile, the cloud has enveloped the hut. Anne suddenly faints again, and Brooks phones the hut but no one answers. A rescue party ventures to the hut looking for both men. Anne, in a trance- like state, urges the rescuers to stay away. Inside the hut, the group discovers that everything is frozen solid, despite the hut being locked from the inside. Dewhurst's body is found under the bed, its head missing. A spotter plane arrives and circles overhead, and a man is seen off in the distance. At his location, the first rescuer there finds a rucksack with a severed head inside. He is suddenly set upon and killed by Brett, who quickly dispatches the second rescuer. At the hotel, Brett wanders in, claiming he has was lost. Thereafter, he launches a knife attack on Anne, but the men manage to subdue him. During the struggle, Brett sustains a severe head gash, but no blood flows from the wound. Brett is heavily sedated and locked away. Brooks recalls a similar incident in the Andes that followed a similar pattern: a man murdered an elderly woman who allegedly possessed psychic abilities just like those displayed by Anne. The killer's body was discovered to have been dead for at least 24 hours prior to his murder of the old women. Brett escapes his improvised cell and resumes his hunt for Anne, this time armed with a hand axe. Before he can reach her, Brooks quickly dispatches Brett with a pistol. Upon inspection, Brett's flesh appears to be frozen, and rapidly melts into nothing in the heat. The cloud has begun to move down the mountainside towards the hotel, so the group retreats to the heavily fortified observatory. As they enter the cable car, a mother realises that her young daughter is missing. In a thickening mist, a giant, multi-tentacled creature with a single huge eye appears at the hotel, smashing down the front door. Brooks manages to rescue the child from the lobby, both of them narrowly escaping its tentacles. They return to the cable car, but the delay has given the thickening mist a chance to reach the car platform. The transport motor begins to freeze, starting and stopping, the cable slipping, but the cable car arrives safely. The sole cloud has now split and become five while converging on the observatory. Hans (Colin Douglas), who left the hotel, suddenly turns up at the observatory. Once inside, he begins exhibiting the same obsession with Anne. Hans tries to strangle her, but Brooks stops him by stabbing him. As the large tentacled monsters near the observatory, everyone makes Molotov cocktails to combat them. By radio, Alan orders an aerial firebombing raid against the observatory, which has a reinforced concrete roof and walls that can withstand the assault. Journalist Philip Truscott (Payne) strikes one of the huge one- eyed creatures with a Molotov cocktail, setting it ablaze. He is caught by a tentacle from another monster now atop the observatory's roof. With another Molotov cocktail, Brooks sets that one ablaze, forcing it to drop Truscott. Later, Truscott does the same to another creature that has managed to breach a thick wall in order to get at Anne. The aerial firebombing assault begins and is successful at torching all the remaining monsters. ===== The story starts with Johnny Maxwell, a twelve-year-old boy, taking a shortcut through the local Blackbury cemetery to reach his home. In the cemetery, Johnny meets the spirit of Alderman Thomas Bowler and realizes that he can interact with the spirits of the dead. Later, Johnny meets all the deceased occupants of the cemetery and discusses with them the council's sale of Blackbury's neglected cemetery to a faceless conglomerate, who plan to build offices on it. Various dead citizens, led by a former town councillor, ask Johnny to help stop it. While Johnny (helped by his semi-believing friends) tries to find evidence of famous internees and speaks out at community meetings, the dead begin to take an interest in modern-day life and realise they are not, as they once believed, trapped in the cemetery. Finally the council is forced to back down, but the dead are no longer interested; they have decided that instead of waiting for the Day of Judgement, they will make the decision themselves. Most of them depart the cemetery to continue their journey into the afterlife but, thanks to the campaigning of the Blackbury Volunteers, the town's living residents have rediscovered the cemetery as a link to their past. As one of the dead puts it before leaving: "The living must remember, and the dead must forget." ===== Terri Griffith is an aspiring teenage journalist in Phoenix who feels that her teachers don't take her articles seriously because of her good looks. After failing to get her dream job as a newspaper intern, she comes to the conclusion that it is because she is a girl. With her parents out of town on a two-week Caribbean vacation, Terri decides to remedy the situation. Enrolling at a rival high school, she enlists the help of her little brother, Buddy, and her best friend Denise to disguise herself as a boy. Along the way she meets Rick Morehouse, a nerd who becomes her pet project. After helping him through an image makeover and encouraging him to start talking to girls, Terri starts to fall for him. After many episodes in and out of school, including fending off a group of bullies led by bodybuilder Greg Tolan, dealing with her real college boyfriend Kevin and being set up on a blind date with a potential new girlfriend named Sandy, Terri manages to be accepted as "one of the guys". At the senior prom, a jealous Greg picks a fight with Rick, who ultimately trounces the bully in front of the entire class. When Terri's boyfriend shows up unexpectedly and discovers the ruse, Rick assumes that Terri's big secret was that she was gay. To prove otherwise, Terri opens her shirt and reveals her breasts to Rick. Although she admits to loving him, Rick rejects her, prompting a desperate Terri to kiss him in front of everyone. To placate the awestruck students, Rick derisively announces that Terri "has tits" before leaving the prom and Terri behind. Heartbroken and humiliated, Terri retreats to her room and writes a long article on what it is like to be a girl in boys' clothing, detailing all of her experiences, both good and bad. Terri returns to her own school. When her article is printed in the newspaper, she receives high praise and finally earns her dream job at the newspaper. Nevertheless, she still finds herself yearning for Rick, who has not spoken to her since the prom. One day during the summer, Rick suddenly turns up after reading her article. Realizing their true feelings for each other, they reconcile and make plans for another date. They decide to go for a drive in Terri's car, but before Buddy can join them, an attractive blonde on a motorcycle rides up and beckons to him with a smile. Buddy then climbs onto the back of her motorcycle, and both couples happily drive away. ===== When Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder), the star of out-of-favor director Viktor Taransky's (Al Pacino) new film, refuses to finish it, Taransky is forced to find a replacement. Contractual requirements totally prevent using her image in the film, so he must re-shoot. Instead, Viktor experiments with a new computer program he inherits from late acquaintance Hank Aleno (Elias Koteas) which allows the creation of a computer-generated woman which he can easily animate to play the film's central character. Viktor names his virtual actor "Simone", a name derived from the computer program's title, Simulation One. Seamlessly incorporated into the film, Simone (Rachel Roberts) gives a fantastic performance, exactly controlled by Viktor. The film is immediately a huge success. The studio, and soon the world, ask "who is Simone?" Viktor initially claims that Simone is a recluse and requests her privacy be respected, but that only intensifies media demands for her to appear. Viktor intends to reveal the secret of her non-existence after the second picture. To satisfy demand, he executes a number of progressively ambitious stunts relying on misdirection and cinematic special effects technology. Eventually, it escalates to simulated remote location video live interviews. In one instance, two determined tabloid reporters discover Viktor used out-of-date stock photography as a background during an interview instead of being on that site as claimed and blackmail him into getting Simone to make a live appearance. He arranges her to perform a song at a stadium event appearing in a cloud of smoke and then using flawless holographic technology. The perception of being in person is reinforced with realtime visualization on the stadium's monitors. Simone becomes even more famous, simultaneously becoming a double winner for the Academy Award for Best Actress, tying with herself in the process. Once the pressure of serving his creation reaches a breaking point for Viktor, he decides to ruin Simone's career as an act of vengeance. Simone's next film, I Am Pig, is her directorial debut and a tasteless treatment about zoophilia intended to disgust audiences, which not only fails to achieve the desired effect of audience alienation but also serves to foster her credibility as a risk-taking, fearless and avant-garde artist. Taransky's subsequent attempts to discredit Simone by having her drink, smoke and curse at public appearances and use politically incorrect statements similarly backfire when the press instead begins to see her as refreshingly honest. As a last resort, Taransky decides to dispose of Simone completely by using a computer virus to erase her and dumps the hard drive and floppy disks into a steamer trunk and buries it at sea, then announces to the press she has died of a rare virus contracted on her Goodwill Tour of the Third World. During the funeral, the police interrupt, open the coffin and find only Simone's cardboard cutout. He is arrested and shown a security camera video where he loads a large trunk on his yacht. After being charged with her murder, he admits that Simone is not a person, but a computer program. The chest containing the computer data is brought up empty. Viktor's daughter Lainey and ex-wife Elaine enter his studio to try to help. They find Viktor's forgotten virus source disk (Plague) and apply an anti-virus program to eradicate the computer virus. They revive Simone and have her appear on national television laughing while holding up a newspaper headline with her obituary. They pick up a confused Viktor, to whom Elaine asks to get back together with. In the end, Simone and Viktor are remotely interviewed at home about their new (virtual) baby, used as a cover story for her absence. Simone is concerned about her child's future and decides to enter politics. The film shows how the fake is produced using the chroma key technique. A post-credits sequence shows Viktor creating fake footage of Simone in a supermarket, which one of her pursuers sees, believing it real. ===== In Three's Company's final episodes, Vicky Bradford (Mary Cadorette) is introduced as a love interest of Jack Tripper (John Ritter), beginning with the episode titled "Cupid Works Overtime." In the following two-part episode, "Friends and Lovers", Jack proposes marriage, but Vicky, afraid of marriage after witnessing her parents' tumultuous relationship and bitter divorce, declines the offer. Vicky instead convinces Jack to move in with her in the vacant apartment above his restaurant. Vicky's wealthy father James Bradford (Robert Mandan) buys the building from Jack's former boss, Frank Angelino. James does not approve of Jack and he constantly tries to disrupt his and Vicky's relationship. Other characters include E.Z. Taylor (Alan Campbell), Jack's eccentric assistant at the bistro, and Claudia Bradford (Jessica Walter), Vicky's mother and James' ex-wife. ===== The film begins with the contorted body of a young woman lying in a ditch, covered in frost. From this image, an unseen interviewer (Varda) puts the camera on the last men to see her and the one who found her. The action then flashes back to the woman, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire), walking along the roadside, hiding from the police and trying to get a ride. Along her journey she takes up with other vagabonds as well as a Tunisian vineyard worker, a family of goat farmers, an agronomy professor, and a maid who envies what she perceives to be Mona's beautiful and passionate lifestyle. Mona explains to one of her temporary companions that at one time she had an office job in Paris but became unsettled with the way she was living, choosing instead to wander the country, free from any responsibility. Her condition worsens until she finally falls where we first encounter her—in a ditch, frozen. ===== Rose Tyler, a teenage shop assistant, is chased by mannequins in the basement of Henrik's, the department store where she works. She is rescued by the Ninth Doctor, who destroys the building with an explosion. The next day, the Doctor visits Rose at her home, where he is attacked by a plastic mannequin arm which he and Rose subdue. Rose investigates the Doctor and meets Clive, who has been tracking the Doctor's appearances throughout history. Clive tells Rose that the Doctor is dangerous and that if he's there, something bad is about to happen. While Rose is talking to Clive, her boyfriend Mickey Smith is kidnapped by a wheelie bin and replaced with a plastic doppelgänger. The fake Mickey takes Rose to lunch and attempts to question her about the Doctor, but the Doctor shows up and beheads the doppelgänger. The Doctor takes Rose and the plastic head to the TARDIS and attempts to use the head to locate the controlling signal. With the head connected, the TARDIS takes them to the London Eye. The Doctor explains to Rose that the fake Mickey was an Auton, controlled by a signal from the Nestene Consciousness. He has a vial of anti-plastic that can be used to destroy the Nestene Consciousness if necessary. Realising that the transmitter is the London Eye itself, Rose and the Doctor descend underneath it to stop the Nestene Consciousness. They find Mickey, tied up but alive, and the Doctor speaks to the Nestene Consciousness. He tries to negotiate with it, but the Consciousness blames the Doctor for the destruction of its planet. The Nestene Consciousness activates all the Autons at a shopping arcade, where several shoppers are shot and killed, including Clive. The Doctor is also held down by a pair of Autons, but Rose rescues him and the anti-plastic drops into the vat where the Nestene Consciousness resides, killing it. With the Nestene Consciousness dead, the Autons all collapse. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to take Mickey and Rose home, then persuades Rose to join him as his new companion in the TARDIS. ===== Dr. Coppélius is a doctor who has made a life-size dancing doll. It is so lifelike that Franz, a village youth, becomes infatuated with it and sets aside his heart's true desire, Swanhilda. She shows him his folly by dressing as the doll, pretending to make it come to life and ultimately saving him from an untimely end at the hands of the inventor. ;Act I The story begins during a town festival to celebrate the arrival of a new bell. The town crier announces that, when it arrives, anyone who becomes married will be awarded a special gift of money. Swanilda and Franz plan to marry during the festival. However, Swanilda becomes unhappy with Franz because he seems to be paying more attention to a girl named Coppélia, who sits motionless on the balcony of a nearby house. The house belongs to a mysterious and faintly diabolical inventor, Doctor Coppélius. Although Coppélia spends all of her time sitting motionless and reading, Franz is mesmerized by her beauty and is determined to attract her attention. Still upset with Franz, Swanilda shakes an ear of wheat to her head: if it rattles, then she will know that Franz loves her. Upon doing this, however, she hears nothing. When she shakes it by Franz's head, he also hears nothing; but then he tells her that it rattles. However, she does not believe him and runs away heartbroken. Later on, Dr. Coppelius leaves his house and is heckled by a group of boys. After shooing them away, he continues on without realizing that he has dropped his keys in the melée. Swanilda finds the keys, which gives her the idea of learning more about Coppélia. She and her friends decide to enter Dr. Coppelius' house. Meanwhile, Franz develops his own plan to meet Coppélia, climbing a ladder to her balcony. ;Act II Swanilda and her friends find themselves in a large room filled with people. However, the occupants aren't moving. The girls discover that, rather than people, these are life-size mechanical dolls. They quickly wind them up and watch them move. Swanilda also finds Coppélia behind a curtain and discovers that she, too, is a doll. Dr. Coppelius returns home to find the girls. He becomes angry with them, not only for trespassing but for also disturbing his workroom. He kicks them out and begins cleaning up the mess. However, upon noticing Franz at the window, Coppélius invites him in. The inventor wants to bring Coppélia to life but, to do that, he needs a human sacrifice. With a magic spell, he will take Franz's spirit and transfer it to Coppélia. After Dr. Coppelius proffers him some wine laced with sleeping powder, Franz begins to fall asleep. The inventor then readies his magic spell. However, Dr. Coppelius did not expel all the girls: Swanilda is still there, hidden behind a curtain. She dresses up in Coppélia's clothes and pretends that the doll has come to life. She wakes Franz and then winds up all the mechanical dolls to aid their escape. Dr. Coppelius becomes confused and then saddened when he finds a lifeless Coppélia behind the curtain. (Note: In some Russian versions of the ballet, after getting caught, Swanhilda confesses to Dr. Coppelius about what she and her friends did and her situation with Franz. Coppelius decides to forgive Swanhilda and teach her how to act like a doll coming to life to fool Franz, thus ending Act 2 on a happier note.) ;Act III Swanilda and Franz are about to make their wedding vows when the angry Dr. Coppelius appears, claiming damages. Dismayed at having caused such an upset, Swanilda offers Dr. Coppelius her dowry in return for his forgiveness. However, Franz tells Swanilda to keep her dowry and offers to pay Dr. Coppelius instead. At that point, the mayor intervenes and gives Dr. Coppelius a bag of money, which placates him. Swanilda and Franz are married and the entire town celebrates by dancing. ===== The film focuses on Antwone "Fish" Fisher, a temperamental young man with a violent history who is serving in the U.S. Navy. His father was killed before he was born and his teenage mother, Eva Mae Fisher, ended up arrested soon after and put in jail, where she gave birth to him. He was then placed in an orphanage until such time as she was released and could claim him. Since she had not yet claimed him, at the age of two Antwone was placed in a foster home run by a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Tate. Antwone suffers years of physical and emotional abuse at Mrs. Tate's hands, and is molested by her adult daughter Nadine. He finally leaves the home at age 14. After living out on the streets for the next few years, he decides to join the U.S. Navy to make something out of his life. The rough life he had as a child has caused him to have a violent temper; after getting into a fight with a fellow sailor, Antwone is sentenced at a captain's mast to be demoted, fined, and restricted to the ship for 45 days. His commanding officer also orders him to go to psychiatric treatment. Antwone goes in to meet Dr. Jerome Davenport, who attempts to get him to open up. Antwone is at first extremely resistant, but gradually comes to trust Davenport and opens up about his traumatic childhood. Meanwhile, Antwone develops feelings for fellow Navy sailor Cheryl. With Antwone still getting into altercations, Davenport tries to explore his feelings for Cheryl in order to channel Antwone's feelings into something positive. Antwone finally goes on a date with Cheryl and establishes a relationship with her. While on leave in Mexico, Antwone gets into a fight with a sailor who insinuates that he is gay, and is thrown into jail. Davenport meets him in jail, where Antwone confides the sexual abuse he suffered as a child. Antwone eventually reveals to Cheryl that he sees a psychiatrist, and they share their first kiss. At a Thanksgiving dinner, Davenport advises Antwone to find his real family. Antwone refuses, but thanks Davenport before inviting him to a graduation ceremony. Following the graduation ceremony, Davenport tells Antwone that he's ending the sessions and feels Antwone needs to progress on his own. Antwone breaks down, feeling everyone has abandoned him. He reveals his best friend Jesse was killed while attempting a robbery, and that he resents Jesse for leaving him behind. Realizing he needs to find his parents to find closure, Antwone asks Cheryl to go with him to Cleveland. After a dead end at social services, Antwone decides to return to the Tate household. There he confronts Nadine and Mrs. Tate about their abuse. Mrs. Tate ultimately reveals Antwone's father's name: Edward Elkins. After looking through multiple telephone books, Antwone comes into contact with his aunt Annette and visits her. Antwone learns his mother lives nearby, and goes to visit her. Antwone finds closure, forgives her, and leaves. When he returns to the Elkins household, he finds a feast prepared for him and finds the family he lost. Antwone visits Davenport and thanks him for everything. Davenport then replies that it is he who should be thanking Antwone. Davenport confesses that he had been failing to deal with his own problems, and that treating Antwone prompted him to finally confront his demons. The film draws to a close as Davenport and Antwone go to eat. ===== Wayne Grey (Seann William Scott), a trainee firefighter in Arizona, practices fire rescue and resuscitation in a shack near Glen Canyon, where a meteor lands in a cavern. College professor Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and his colleague, geology Professor Harry Block (Orlando Jones), investigate, taking a sample of strange blue liquid that oozes from it. Ira discovers that it harbors extraterrestrial nitrogen-based life that condense millions of years of evolution within a matter of hours: the very next day, they take the science class to survey the meteorite site and find it already surrounded by evolved oxygen-converting fungi and alien flatworms that cannot breathe oxygen. Ira and Harry discover that even the multicellular organisms reproduce through mitosis after seeing one of the flatworms they collected in a jar split into two. The site is soon sealed off by the Army. Ira and Harry take General Russell Woodman (Ted Levine) and the clumsy CDC Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) to court for the right to be part of the research of their discovery, but their efforts fail when it is revealed Ira was discharged from the army after creating an anthrax vaccine that led to terribly debilitating side effects, which the soldiers dubbed "The Kane Madness". Woodman steals Ira and Harry's research, forcing them to infiltrate the base to get another sample; they find an alien rainforest teeming with life. They are caught by Allison as a mosquito-like alien gets inside Harry; they are forced to rectally remove the mosquito, which then dies. Wayne arrives at the college and shows the two the dead body of an amphibian alien which killed a country club owner; they later investigate a dead dog-like alien in a woman's home and more dead flatworms. They find a valley behind the home filled with dead dragon-like aliens; Ira and Harry theorize the aliens are spreading through the caves connected to the main cavern. One of the dying creatures spits out a pod containing a newborn, which then hatches into an oxygen-tolerant alien. The alien attacks a mall, where it carries off a shopper until Ira, Harry, and Wayne shoot it down. The positions of carbon and nitrogen relative to arsenic and selenium in the periodic table are referenced in the film. Other alien encounters also make the news, forcing the Governor of Arizona (Dan Aykroyd) to demand answers. Allison explains that the aliens will engulf the United States in two months; and Woodman attempts to blame Ira, especially when Ira, Harry and Wayne arrive. When the governor demands a solution, Woodman suggests a napalm strike, despite protests from Ira and Allison that they don't know how the aliens will react. At that moment, primate-like aliens attack them, but are fought off; the shaken governor approves Woodman's plan. A disgusted Allison quits the CDC and leaves the site, procuring Ira's original research and samples for him. At the college, Harry accidentally tosses a match into a Petri dish of alien liquid, causing an amoeba-like mass to rapidly grow from it. Ira realizes heat triggers the aliens' DNA, and the meteor crashing to earth activated it; Allison attempts to warn Woodman, but he ignores her call completely. Looking at the positions of nitrogen and carbon on the periodic table, Ira theorizes that selenium might be poisonous to the aliens as arsenic is to Earth's carbon life. Much to Ira's surprise, his dumbest students Deke and Danny Donald (Ethan Suplee and Michael Ray Bower) recall that selenium sulfide is the active ingredient in Head & Shoulders; this makes Ira award the two with A's, much to their excitement, and them to tag along. Wayne procures a firetruck and the team fills it with the shampoo, with help from the college students. But just as the team arrives at the cave and prepare to use the fire hoses, Woodman's napalm strike goes off ahead of schedule. While the resulting mass begins mitosis, the team drives under it and finds what looks like a rectal hole to inject the shampoo into; Harry, intending to settle a score for his rectal incident, explodes the creature himself. The governor declares Ira, Harry, Wayne and Allison heroes; Wayne is made a fully credentialed firefighter, while Ira and Allison skip the festivities for sex in the fire truck. Later, Harry, Ira and Wayne are shown promoting Head & Shoulders for both hair care and fighting the aliens. ===== The Simpson family goes to Rainier Wolfcastle's bankruptcy garage sale. Homer asks Rainier if he has anything that will increase in value when he dies, and is shown an old weight-lifting set, complete with dumbbells and bench press. Homer takes it and packs everything and everybody in the car in the style of a Tetris game. The car ends up being so overpacked that Homer has no room in it for himself and ends up being carried home by Rainier Wolfcastle in a baby harness built for an adult. On the way home, Marge and the kids discover that Maggie has soiled her diaper. Marge pulls into the Kwik-E-Mart, and changes Maggie in the restroom. As she is leaving the store, a shady character in a Goofy hat accosts her and threatens her with a gun. Finding only diapers in Marge's purse, he grabs Marge's pearl necklace and takes off. Marge, stunned, walks to her car in a daze and breaks down crying at the wheel in front of her kids. The next day, they inform the police and Chief Wiggum declares he will investigate immediately. Later, as Marge is about to leave the house, Homer gives her some pepper spray and some tips on how to handle an attacker. She pulls up to the Kwik-E-Mart, but she snaps when Ralph greets her. She pepper-sprays him on impulse and, feeling guilty, drives back home where she feels safe. When she reaches home, Bart tells her she is parked over the mailman. Marge is a nervous wreck and cannot bring herself to cross the threshold of her house to help the mailman. Dr. Hibbert diagnoses Marge with agoraphobia. Homer and the kids try their best over the next few days to encourage her to go outside, but to no avail. Eventually, she moves into the basement. There, feeling a bit safer, she prepares breakfast for the family and sets up a bed for herself. One day, when she is alone at home, she eyes Rainier Wolfcastle's weight-lifting set and decides to use it to pass the time. In two weeks, she builds herself up and even gets a well-defined washboard stomach (much to Homer's delight). She dashes out to the garden to get some lemons and, realizing that she is not afraid anymore, starts running around town. She runs into her mugger; even though the mugger does not move a finger against Marge, she beats him to a bloody pulp out of revenge in a scene that references the 1972 film The Godfather, when Sonny Corleone beats his brother-in-law Carlo Rizzi. The cops arrive and arrest the crook, and Marge starts exercising even more. One day, as she jogs by an open-air gym at the beach, she runs into Ruth Powers, her old neighbor (seen in episodes "New Kid on the Block" and "Marge on the Lam"). Ruth is also very muscular, and tells Marge that she owes it all to steroids. She talks Marge into using them, and also advises Marge to enter a women's bodybuilding contest. Using the steroids, Marge exercises harder than ever, becoming very muscular and estrogen-depleted, which results in a short temper and a violent streak. Homer, seeing these changes, finds himself less attracted to her. When Homer refuses Marge's sexual advances the night before the contest, she callously ignores his worries and then proceeds to pin him down and rape him, before leaving him completely sore and exhausted to take care of the kids the next morning. That night, the family attends the Iron Maiden Fitness Pageant to see the women's bodybuilding final. Marge wins second place, which irritates her when her muscular ears overhear her family's unhappy conversation in the audience. Later that night, at Moe's, Marge boasts to all the male attendees about her performance at the competition. Homer then tells her he is proud of her ability to bulk up but not lose her femininity. Marge is angered by that, saying that was the reason she came in second place. She then tells everyone at the bar that she intends to up her glycol-load, use a denser ripping gel, and that she did not sacrifice her period to come in second place. Moe says to Marge, "I don't got enough booze to make you look good". She flies into an uncontrollable rage and ultimately trashes the bar. Homer confronts his wife as she prepares to hurl Lenny at him. Terrified, Homer tells Marge that he misses the sweet, feminine woman he married. Marge, horrified with what she has done, apologizes, drops Lenny, and leaves with Homer. In order to cover the costs of repairing his bar, Moe sets fire to it; however, Carl points out that he has not insured the place yet. Later, at the Simpson house, Marge burns the weight set in the furnace as the show ends. Homer asks if Marge is ready for a "real workout" which turns out to be a request to wax the car, after which he gets beaten by Marge into meekly saying that he was just kidding. ===== Typical of many stories that deal with themes of psychological trauma, Going After Cacciato contains distinct ambiguities concerning the nature and order of events that occur. The chronology is nonlinear for most of the book. The main idea of the story is, by O'Brien's estimation, that being a soldier in Vietnam for the standard tour of duty entails constant walking; if one were to put all the walking in a straight line, one would end up in Paris, where Cacciato is going. Paul Berlin, the main character, is a frustrated soldier. During one night while on watch duty, Paul Berlin thinks about the past and events that lead him to daydream about going to Paris. The courage it takes to chase one's dreams is a recurring theme, which is often expressed through Paul Berlin's reveries. Cacciato, who is always portrayed as self-sufficient and happy, is pursued by Berlin and his comrades in arms. Cacciato's actions are sometimes portrayed as those of a man who is not particularly bright or gifted, but who is untroubled by the larger questions of the war itself. In the chapter "Tunneling Toward Paris", the characters escape the endless tunnels by "falling out" just as they fell in; this allusion to Alice In Wonderland helps to reveal the story as surrealistic fiction. This surrealism also appears earlier in the novel, when Cacciato flies off a mountain. ===== The Seventh Doctor brings Ace back home to Perivale in west London. The suburb is not as it should be: a mysterious black cat is wandering around, somehow creating a situation in which humans are hunted down and made to disappear to another dimension. Ace becomes worried when most of her old friends seem to have disappeared, but the Doctor is more preoccupied with the behaviour of the strange cat. It becomes apparent the black cat is being controlled by a strange being in the other dimension, viewing the scenes in Perivale through the cat's eyes and choosing which humans to chase and transport. An unhappy young man called Stuart becomes his next victim. Ace follows soon afterwards, hunted down by a Cheetah Person on horseback, which seems to have a hunting affinity with the curious cat. Later the Doctor and a keep-fit instructor called Paterson are chosen and teleported to another world, bathed in a blood-red sky, where the Doctor is greeted by his nemesis the Master. A Cheetah Person, shown at a 50th Anniversary event. The renegade is evidently unwell, his eyes and mouth displaying feline characteristics, and is using the black cat (or kitling) to create a dimensional bridge for the Cheetah People to hunt prey on Earth. He tells the Doctor that the planet is alive and has a bewitching influence; the indigenous population bred the kitlings and had a great civilisation, but they regressed into animals through the power of the planet. He too is beginning to show changes and needs the Doctor's help to escape from the planet. Ace has meanwhile made contact with some of her friends, Shreela and Midge, who are hiding in some woods with a young man called Derek. The planet is evidently dangerous as both Stuart and a terrified milkman find out when a Cheetah Person hunts him to the death. Ace and her friends soon find the Doctor and Paterson, and the Doctor has deduced they are on a very ancient planet, which is dying. A Cheetah pack then attacks and during the fight back Midge kills one Cheetah while Ace injures another, called Karra. She begins to form an attachment to Karra and nurses her, tending her injuries, which worries the Doctor greatly. In time Ace's eyes change and she begins to transform into a Cheetah herself. She abandons the Doctor to go hunting with Karra but he eventually wins her round. Midge has meanwhile completely fallen to the power of the planet and is turning into an animal. The Master seizes on this and uses Midge to teleport them both back to Earth and away from the dying world. The Doctor persuades Ace to help him get back to Perivale and she does so, also enabling Paterson, Derek and Shreela to flee the strange planet. Paterson denies anything amiss has taken place, falling back on his "survival of the fittest" mantras and his self-defence classes. The Doctor and Ace now head around Perivale in search of Midge and the Master. They eventually find them at the youth club, where they have killed Paterson for sport, and Midge too is killed in the Master's machinations. Karra's arrival brings comfort to Ace, whose transformation is continuing, but the Master kills Karra too. The Master transports the Doctor with him back to the Cheetah Planet for a final conflict but the Doctor resists the pull of the planet, turning away from violence, and is transported away from the dying world. However, the Master looks doomed on the planet as it begins to break up. The Doctor has gone back to the TARDIS and Earth, where he finds Ace, whose metamorphosis has reversed, and tells her she will have grown through the experience: the element of the Cheetah Planet, however, will remain within her forever and they return to the TARDIS. ===== Around the world, unusual phenomena are occurring that bear resemblance to signs of the Biblical apocalypse; these include a mass death of sea life in Haiti and a devastating freeze in the Middle East, and at each of these locations, a mysterious traveler opens a sealed envelope just prior to the event taking place. The Vatican tasks Father Lucci with investigating these events, though Lucci advises that they are all either hoaxes or have scientific explanations. Concurrently to this, Abby Quinn, a pregnant woman living in California, prepares for the birth of her child. Her husband, Russell, is a defense lawyer representing Jimmy Szaragosa, a man with Down syndrome, who is on trial for murdering his incestuous parents and claiming that he did so because of God's teaching. Jimmy is convicted of the crime. For additional income, Abby and Russell rent a room to the mysterious traveler, who identifies himself as David Bannon. Soon after, Abby begins to have terrible nightmares of a man resembling David being struck down by a soldier, who then asks "would you die for him?" of her. Abby also learns of the apocalyptic signs that have occurred, and combined with her nightmares and David's suspicious behavior, she begins to worry that something terrible is taking place. She snoops through David's papers and discovers an ancient note that leads her to believe that he intends to harm her child. When Abby confronts David about this, he tells her that God's grace is empty and soon, no souls will remain to be given to newborn people. Abby panics and stabs David, only for him to shrug off the injury and claim that he "cannot die again." It becomes apparent that he is actually the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Abby's nightmares are visions of his original crucifixion, and she is the reincarnation of Seraphia, the woman who offered Jesus water only to be turned away by Cartaphilus, who was Pilate's porter who struck Jesus. The signs of the apocalypse continue to unfold and eventually cause a giant storm. Abby connects with Avi, a rabbinical student who helps her understand the events. Father Lucci, who has come to California as part of his investigation, finds her and hears her concerns. However, while meeting with Lucci, Abby spots a ring on his finger identical to the one that Cartaphilus wore and learns that Lucci is Cartaphilus himself who was cursed to wander the Earth until Christ's return to judge humanity. He intends to allow the apocalypse to take place so that his curse will finally be broken. Abby flees from Lucci with Avi's aid, and together the two of them find a Bible to learn what will happen next. They discover that the sixth sign will be a solar eclipse that will take place the next day, meaning that the fifth sign — the tortured death of a martyr for God's cause — must take place very soon. Abby realizes that clemency has been denied to Jimmy and his execution will be the fifth sign. In a panic, she drives to the prison to stop the execution; however, Lucci has already infiltrated the prison. As Abby approaches, Lucci kills Jimmy and wounds Abby and is taken away by the guards. The eclipse begins along with a catastrophic earthquake. Despondent over her failure to save Jimmy and the rest of humanity, Abby goes into labor and is rushed through the disaster to a nearby hospital. Despite the best efforts of Russell and the doctors to help her, the child's heart stops beating as Abby gives birth, thus fulfilling the seventh and final sign, the birth of the soulless child. However, Abby has another vision of her past as Seraphia and remembers Cartaphilus' question. Finally finding true hope, Abby answers the question in the affirmative—"I will die for him"—and reaches out to her child, who revives and holds her finger. Her soul is thus transferred to the child, saving him at the cost of her own life. This act of faith ends the apocalypse. Jesus appears in the hospital and tells Russell that Abby's sacrifice has refilled the Hall of Souls, ensuring that humanity will continue to survive. ===== Set in contemporary Victorian times, the novel concerns businessman Paul Bultitude and his son Dick. Dick is about to leave home to return to a boarding school run by the cane-wielding headmaster, Dr. Grimstone. Bultitude, seeing his son's fear of returning to school, asserts that schooldays are the best years of a boy's life, and how he wishes he were the one going. At this point, thanks to a magic stone brought by an uncle from India which grants the possessor one wish, the father becomes a boy identical to the son. They are now on even terms. Dick, holding the stone, is ordered by his father to return him to his own body, but Dick refuses, and decides instead to become a man identical to how his father looked before the change. Mr Bultitude has to begin the new term at his son's boarding school, while Dick gets a chance to run his father's business in the City. In the end, both are restored to their own bodies, with a better understanding of each other. ===== The film attempts to portray the craziness of life on the road as a rock musician, and as such consists of a series of unconnected nonsense vignettes interspersed with concert footage of the Mothers of Invention.Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 207. Ostensibly, while on tour The Mothers of Invention go crazy in the small fictional town of Centerville ("a real nice place to raise your kids up"), wander around, and get beaten up in "Redneck Eats", a cowboy bar. In an animated interlude passed off as a "dental hygiene movie", bassist "Jeff", tired of playing what he refers to as "Zappa's comedy music", is persuaded by his bad conscience to quit the group, as did his real-life counterpart Jeff Simmons. Simmons was replaced by Martin Lickert (who was Starr's chauffeur) for the film. Almost every scene is drenched with video special effects (double and triple exposures, solarisation, false color, speed changes, etc.) which were innovative in 1971. The film has been dubbed a "surrealistic documentary".Canby, Vincent (November 11, 1971). "Film: Frank Zappa's Surrealist '200 Motels'". The New York Times. 60. ===== The anime casts Yoko Nakajima, a Japanese girl who is suddenly transported to another world and eventually discovers that she is the empress of the kingdom of Kei, in the role of the main character; however, in the novels, Yoko is only one of many main characters and her story is focused upon in only two novels. The anime focuses on the Kingdom of Kei and the events surrounding it. Several of the other countries are introduced, the most prominent being Kou, En and Tai, while Kyou, Hou, Sai and Ryuu play a minor role compared to the other three. The rest of the kingdoms are only introduced by name and a brief description of the current ruler and taiho. The anime also introduced the characters Asano and Sugimoto to accompany Yoko to the Twelve Kingdoms. Their role is to externalize some of Yoko's problems that were internal in the novels."Translator Notes by Yamamoto Davey", Twelve Kingdoms - Chapter 3 - Coup, Media Blasters. ===== In 1929, nine-year old Chiyo Sakamoto and her 15-year-old sister, Satsu, are sold by their father to work within the entertainment districts of Kyoto. They are taken from their home, the coastal fishing village of Yoroido along the Sea of Japan, and travel to Kyoto by train; upon arrival, Chiyo is taken to the Nitta Okiya (geisha boarding house) in Gion, whereas Satsu - deemed less attractive and therefore a poor investment - is instead taken to a brothel within Kyoto's pleasure district. Chiyo is taken inside, and is introduced to Auntie, Mother (Auntie's adoptive older sister and the matriarch of the house) and Granny, their elderly and poor-natured adoptive mother and the okiya's former "mother". Both Auntie and Mother are strict, though Auntie is kinder to Chiyo, whereas Mother is driven by money and business. Chiyo is also introduced to Hatsumomo - the premier geisha of the okiya, its primary earner, and one of the most famous, beautiful and ill-mannered geisha of Gion. Hatsumomo takes an instant disliking to Chiyo, and goes out of her way to torment her. Auntie warns Chiyo against both angering and trusting Hatsumomo, knowing the ill- mannered geisha's true nature very well. Chiyo begins her "training" at the okiya, which consists of household drudgery, before she is deemed worthy enough and starts her geisha training. Having learnt the location of Satsu from Hatsumomo, upon an errand one day, Chiyo runs off to find her, and discovers her working in the pleasure district. The two conspire to run away and escape. Returning to the okiya, Chiyo discovers Hatsumomo with her boyfriend, Koichi; both Hatsumomo and Chiyo are punished after Chiyo is falsely accused of stealing by the furious Hatsumomo. Miserable and desperate, Chiyo plans to finally run away from the okiya; however, she is caught when she falls off the roof and breaks her arm. Enraged at her for being a poor investment, Mother stops investing in Chiyo's geisha apprenticeship and returns her to the life of a maid. In a letter, Chiyo learns of her parents' deaths, and that Satsu managed to escape and return to Yoroido, only to run away with the son of a fisherman. A few years later, a downtrodden Chiyo is given money and a handkerchief in the street by a kind stranger known to Chiyo as the Chairman. She donates the money to a shrine in Gion, praying to become a geisha of sufficient status to entertain the Chairman, and keeps the handkerchief as a memento. Soon afterwards, Pumpkin prepares to make her debut as a maiko, and the "younger sister" of Hatsumomo, whilst Chiyo remains a maid; this is, however, until Mameha, another famous geisha in Gion, persuades a reluctant Mother to reinvest in Chiyo's training, with Mameha acting as Chiyo's mentor and "older sister". Under Mameha's care, Chiyo becomes a maiko with the given name of Sayuri, and is reacquainted with Chairman Iwamura (who appears not to recognise her), his closest friend and business partner Nobu, and a number of other prominent men. As Sayuri gains popularity, Hatsumomo - who has been refused succession of the okiya through adoption by Mother - tries to hurt Sayuri's reputation and career in the hopes of Mother adopting Pumpkin instead, through whom Hatsumomo can run the okiya by proxy. Mameha devises a plan to orchestrate a bidding war for Sayuri's mizuage (portrayed as a deflowering "ceremony" for maiko as a step to becoming a full-fledged geisha). The plan is almost ruined when Hatsumomo attempts to spread the rumour of Sayuri no longer being a virgin; however, her attempt fails, and Mameha uses the record-breaking payment for Sayuri's mizuage to cover all of her debts. Mother adopts Sayuri over Pumpkin, ultimately destroying their friendship forever, and Hatsumomo begins a downward spiral into alcoholism before being thrown out of the okiya permanently following the assault of a kabuki actor during a party. Upon Sayuri's promotion to fully-fledged geishahood, Nobu expresses an interest in becoming Sayuri's danna (patron), but loses to General Tottori; with Japan on the eve of war, Mother decides that a connection to the military is more important to the okiya. In 1944, geisha districts are ordered to close, and with many geisha conscripted to work in the factories, Sayuri desperately asks Nobu for help to avoid being conscripted into factory work. He sends Sayuri far north to live with his old friend, Arashino, a kimono maker, where she stays for much of the war. At the end of the war, Nobu visits Sayuri, asking that she return to Gion to entertain the new Deputy Minister, Sato, whose aid Nobu desperately needs to rebuild his and the Chairman's business, Iwamura Electric. Sayuri returns to Gion to find Pumpkin working in a new okiya; despite hoping to rekindle their friendship, Pumpkin later sabotages Sayuri's plan to scare Nobu off from proposing to be her danna, as revenge for taking her place in the adoption so many years ago. A few days after her plan fails, Sayuri is summoned to meet a client at a teahouse. Believing Nobu has called her to discuss the arrangements for becoming her danna, Sayuri is surprised to see the Chairman instead, and confesses that she has worked for years to become close to the Chairman. The Chairman admits that he has always known she was the girl he met on the street, and confesses his feelings for her as well, but felt he owed Nobu - his oldest and closest friend - the chance to be with Sayuri out of kindness. He also admits to having asked Mameha to train Sayuri. Sayuri peacefully retires from geisha work when the Chairman becomes her danna. It is heavily implied that they have an illegitimate son together. Foreseeing the consequences this could have regarding the inheritance of Iwamura Electric, she relocates to New York City and opens her own small tea house for entertaining Japanese men on business in the United States. Sayuri severs her links to the Nitta okiya and in effect, Japan. The Chairman remains her danna until his death and the story concludes with a reflection on Sayuri and her life. ===== In 2004, a satellite detects a mysterious heat bloom beneath Bouvetøya, an island about off the coast of Antarctica. Wealthy industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) discovers through thermal imaging that there is a pyramid buried beneath the ice. He attempts to claim it for his multinational communications company, Weyland Industries, a subsidiary of the Weyland Corporation, and assembles a team of experts to investigate. The team includes archaeologists, linguistic experts, drillers, mercenaries, and a guide named Alexa "Lex" Woods (Sanaa Lathan). As a Predator ship reaches Earth's orbit, it fires an energy beam aimed at the pyramid site. When the team arrives at the abandoned whaling station above the heat source, they find a perfectly circular, unnatural tunnel running directly beneath the ice towards the pyramid. Weyland shows the team satellite images showing that the passage was not there 24 hours ago. The exploration team descend the tunnel and locate the mysterious pyramid and begin to explore it, soon finding evidence of a prehistoric civilization and what appears to be a sacrificial chamber filled with human skeletons. Inexplicably, all the skeletons appear to have ruptured rib cages. Meanwhile, three Predators – Scar, Celtic and Chopper – arrive and kill the remaining team members on the surface. They make their way down to the pyramid and arrive just as the team unwittingly activates the structure and are trapped within it. The Alien Queen awakes from cryogenic stasis and begins to produce eggs. When the eggs hatch, several facehuggers attach themselves to humans trapped in the sacrificial chamber. Chestbursters emerge from the humans and quickly grow into adult Xenomorphs. Conflict erupts between the Predators, Xenomorphs, and humans, resulting in several deaths. Celtic and Chopper are killed by a Xenomorph, and Weyland buys Lex and Italian archaeologist Sebastian De Rosa (Raoul Bova) enough time to escape from Scar, giving his life in the process. The two witness Scar kill a facehugger and a Xenomorph with a shuriken before unmasking and marking himself with the blood of the facehugger. After Lex and Sebastian leave, another facehugger attaches itself to Scar due to him not wearing his mask. Through translation of the pyramid's hieroglyphs, Lex and Sebastian learn that the Predators have been visiting Earth for thousands of years. It was they who taught early human civilizations how to build pyramids, and were worshipped as gods. Every 100 years they visit Earth to take part in a rite of passage by which several humans sacrifice themselves as hosts for the Xenomorphs, creating the "ultimate prey" for the Predators to hunt. As a fail-safe, if overwhelmed, the Predators would activate a self-destruct device to eliminate the Xenomorphs and themselves. The two deduce that this is why the current Predators are at the pyramid, and that the heat bloom was a ruse to attract humans to the site for the sole purpose of making new Xenomorphs to hunt. Lex and Sebastian decide that the Predators must be allowed to succeed in their hunt so that the Xenomorphs do not escape to the surface. Sebastian is captured by a Xenomorph, leaving only Lex and Scar to fight the Xenomorph. Scar uses parts of a dead Xenomorph to fashion weapons for Lex and the two form an alliance. The Xenomorph Queen, using her own acidic blood, is freed from her restraints and, along with the other Xenomorphs, begins pursuing Lex and Scar. Just as they are about to escape, Scar detaches and uses a bomb in his wrist module to destroy the pyramid and the remaining Xenomorphs and eggs. Lex and Scar reach the surface, however the Xenomorph Queen has survived and continues chasing them. They defeat the Queen by hooking her chains to the whaling post's water tank and pushing it over a cliff, dragging her to the ocean floor. Scar, however, had been impaled by the Xenomorph Queen's tail and succumbs to his wounds, dying. A Predator ship uncloaks and several Predators appear. They retrieve their fallen comrade and an elite Predator presents Lex with one of their spear weapons as a gift. The other Predators recognize her skill as a warrior by the symbol that Scar burned on her cheek before he died, using alien blood. The Predators' spaceship flies off, leaving Lex behind. Lex walks over to a snowcat and leaves the area. The Predators leave Scar's body on a plinth in front of a window on the ship. Moments later, a Predalien with Alien and Predator traits erupts from Scar's chest, leading into the events of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. ===== James Dalton is a professional "cooler", a specialized bouncer, with a mysterious past who is enticed from his job at a club in New York City by Frank Tilghman to take over security at his club/bar, the Double Deuce, in Jasper, Missouri. Tilghman plans to invest substantial money into the club to enhance its image, and he needs a first-rate cooler to maintain stability. Arriving in Jasper, Dalton takes lodging at a local farm owned by Emmett. Handed control of all bar operations and hiring by Tilghman, Dalton attracts attention by having a quiet demeanor—contrasting with the tough locals. Dalton's "real" car is a 1986 Mercedes 560SEC with New York license plates which he keeps hidden, instead wisely going about in a used 1965 Buick Riviera that is repeatedly vandalized by disgruntled bar patrons. Dalton is soon introduced to local business magnate Brad Wesley, who lives in a mansion across a river from Emmett. Wesley appears to have a stranglehold on the town; little happens without his knowledge and approval. In the course of cleaning up the violent nightclub, Dalton dismisses several unruly and corrupt employees, some of whom are connected with Wesley. After one particularly violent night where Dalton is forced to physically remove Wesley's henchmen, he suffers a knife wound. Going to the hospital for staples, he strikes up a friendship with Dr. Elizabeth "Doc" Clay, which develops into a romantic relationship. Wesley summons Dalton to his home in a seemingly innocent attempt to make peace, but has an ulterior motive: Wesley would like Dalton to work for him once he extorts Tilghman's club. He reveals knowledge of Dalton's past by mentioning an incident where Dalton killed a man in Memphis, Tennessee, then claimed self-defense at the trial. When Dalton declines, Wesley begins an assault on Dalton's friends, including interfering with liquor deliveries to the Double Deuce. Dalton's mentor, legendary but aging cooler Wade Garrett, arrives in town after a disconcerting phone call from Dalton and helps him defend a liquor shipment from Wesley's thugs. That evening, the auto parts store of local business owner Red Webster is destroyed by a fire after he refuses to give ground to Wesley's persistent extortion demands. Dalton, not wanting to exacerbate matters, allows Wesley and his men entrance to the club that night. However, Wesley deploys Jimmy, a violent ex- con and skilled martial artist, to start a brawl with the Double Deuce bouncers. After a brief skirmish with Dalton and Garrett, Wesley calls an end to the fight and leaves the club. The next day, car dealership owner Pete Stroudenmire becomes Wesley's next victim when he also refuses to pay. As a result, Wesley has one of his goons, Gary Ketchum, demolish the dealership and crush four station wagons in the showroom with his monster truck as Dalton and his friends look on with contempt. Wesley warns everyone not to forget that Jasper is his town. That night, Doc visits Dalton and attempts to persuade him to leave. However, their conversation is interrupted by a powerful explosion at Emmett's house next door. Dalton rescues Emmett from the blaze before his house is destroyed. He then witnesses Jimmy fleeing the scene and manages to intercept him. After a vicious fight, Jimmy points a revolver at Dalton, but Dalton kills him by ripping out his throat with his bare hand. The next morning, Dalton receives an ominous phone call from Wesley, who vows to have either Wade or Doc killed by the flip of a coin. After Wesley hangs up leaving the outcome unknown, a badly beaten Wade staggers into the Double Deuce. Believing Doc to be in danger, Dalton races to the hospital alone, but she refuses to leave with him, repulsed by his increasingly violent nature. Upon returning to the Double Deuce, Dalton finds Wade sprawled out on the bar with a knife lodged in his chest and a note reading, "It was tails." In tears of rage, Dalton pulls the knife free and jumps into his car, determined to settle the score with Wesley. Driving his Mercedes, Dalton speeds recklessly toward Wesley's estate. The car draws gunfire from Wesley's henchmen, but when it crashes, they discover the car empty, and the knife that was used to kill Wade stuck in the accelerator. Using the distraction, Dalton sneaks onto the estate and dispatches each of Wesley's henchmen, eventually coming face-to-face with Wesley himself. Dalton gains the upper hand in their fight and prepares to finish Wesley in the same brutal manner as Jimmy, but decides against it. As Dalton releases him and walks away, Wesley seizes the opportunity to reach for a gun, but is promptly shot to death in succession by Red, Emmett, Pete, and finally Tilghman, who declares to Wesley, "This is our town, and don't you forget it." The men stash the weapons away prior to the arrival of the sheriff, and proceed, along with a surviving henchman, to corroborate each other's innocence, with the implication that what happened in Wesley's mansion will remain a secret. The final scene shows Cody, an old friend of Dalton’s, and his band at the bar performing "When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky", while cutting to Dalton and Doc enjoying each other's company in a swimming hole, suggesting that they do get together and Dalton remains in town for good. ===== Richard Clark (Jon Lovitz) is an unsatisfied prep school teacher at the fictional Wellington Academy, who accepts a job at inner city Marion Barry High School, much to the chagrin of his boss and father, Wellington headmaster Thaddeus Clark (John Neville). Richard arrives to find the school in a state of disarray and disorder, while meeting several students and faculty members, including jaded, sour principal Evelyn Doyle (Louise Fletcher), her cheerful assistant Victoria Chappell (Tia Carrere) and student Griff McReynolds (Mekhi Phifer). Despite initial opposition to his teaching style and harassment from the school gang leader Paco (Guillermo Díaz), Richard begins connecting with his students and teaches them effectively, while developing a romantic relationship with Victoria. Barry High eventually is transformed into a fine educational establishment. Frustrated, Paco and his gang tamper with the school's final exam scores, causing everyone to fail. Griff, who grew to see Richard as a mentor, loses faith in him, as does the rest of the school and Richard is fired. Griff subsequently joins Paco's gang to make extra money. Victoria learns through word of mouth that Paco was behind the failing test scores and rushes to inform Richard, who decides to confront Paco and rescue Griff with the help of several of his students, including Anferny Jefferson (Brian Hooks), Natalie Thompson (Malinda Williams) and Julie Rubels (Natasha Gregson Wagner). By deceiving Mr. DeMarco (Marco Rodríguez), a local gangster, Richard and Victoria reach Paco and the local crime boss, "Mr. A", whom they find has been Principal Doyle the entire time. Griff is told the truth about the test scores and after a brief fight, Paco, Doyle and DeMarco are arrested. Richard (now principal of Barry High) presides over the graduation ceremony and proudly names Griff as the class valedictorian. The six main students of the film graduate (but only those six). Richard makes good on his promise to send Griff to college and is in a relationship with Victoria. ===== Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortune of a handful of unnamed characters who are among the first to be stricken with blindness, including "the doctor's wife", her husband, several of his patients, and assorted others, who are thrown together by chance. After a lengthy and traumatic quarantine in an asylum, the group bands together in a family-like unit to survive by their wits and by the unexplained good fortune that the doctor's wife has escaped the blindness. The sudden onset and unexplained origin and nature of the blindness cause widespread panic, and the social order rapidly unravels as the government attempts to contain the apparent contagion and keep order via increasingly repressive and inept measures. The first part of the novel follows the experiences of the central characters in the filthy, overcrowded asylum where they and other blind people have been quarantined. Hygiene, living conditions, and morale degrade horrifically in a very short period, mirroring the society outside. Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by delivery irregularities, acts to undermine solidarity; and lack of organization prevents the internees from fairly distributing food or chores. Soldiers assigned to guard the asylum and look after the well-being of the internees become increasingly antipathetic as one soldier after another becomes infected. The military refuses to allow basic medicine to be delivered, which ensures that a simple infection becomes deadly. Fearing an imminent escape, soldiers shoot down a crowd of internees waiting for a food delivery. Conditions degenerate further as an armed clique gains control over food deliveries, subjugating their fellow internees and exposing them to violent assault, rape, and deprivation. Faced with starvation, internees battle each other and burn down the asylum, only to discover that the army has abandoned the asylum, after which the protagonists join the throngs of nearly helpless blind people outside who wander the devastated city and fight one another to survive. The story then follows the doctor's wife, her husband, and their impromptu “family” as they attempt to survive outside, cared for largely by the doctor’s wife, who can still see (though she must hide this fact at first). At this point, the breakdown of society is near total. Law and order, social services, government, schools, etc., no longer function. Families have been separated and cannot find one another. People squat in abandoned buildings and scrounge for food. Violence, disease, and despair threaten to overwhelm human coping. The doctor and his wife and their new “family” eventually make a permanent home in the doctor's house and are establishing a new order to their lives when the blindness lifts from the city en masse just as suddenly and inexplicably as it struck. ===== Norwegian police officer Harry Hole is sent to Sydney, Australia to serve as an attaché for the Australian police's investigation into the murder of a young female Norwegian girl residing in Australia, Inger Holter. Her boyfriend, Evans White, is initially approached as a suspect. Hole is assisted by Aboriginal colleague Andrew Kensington; together they find out that they are dealing with a serial killer who strangles blonde women. Hole befriends a red haired Swede named Birgitta. As the story becomes more complex, Hole struggles to find the killer and falls deeper into alcoholism. There are more back stories about Harry's past and culture in Australia. ===== A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star – a pentagram, the devil's star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Hole is already on notice to quit the force and is left with little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and get to work. A wave of similar murders is on the horizon. An emerging pattern suggests that Oslo has a serial killer on its hands, and the five- pointed devil's star seems to be the key to solving the riddle. ===== In the first book, The Bourne Identity, the title character suffers amnesia. Over the course of the book, he regains his memory with the help of a Canadian economist, Marie, and eventually finds that his real name was Webb. He had previously been an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency in an elite project in Southeast Asia and Vietnam codenamed Medusa. Following the American forces' withdrawal from Vietnam, he joined Project Treadstone 71, where he was used as bait for the infamous Venezuelan assassin Carlos the Jackal, and assumed the identity of a mock assassin, Jason Bourne. “Bourne" took credit for various kills in China and the rest of Asia, acting as a rival to the Jackal, in order to draw him out of hiding. The story of The Bourne Supremacy is set during the British negotiated handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China on the expiration of its ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories. Bourne has recovered from most mental and all physical injuries and is teaching Asian studies at a university in Maine under his real name of David Webb, living happily on campus with Marie under supervision of psychiatrist, Morris Panov. Meanwhile, high-ranking U.S. officials Ambassador Raymond Havilland and Undersecretary Edward McAllister discuss an increasingly alarming situation in the People's Republic of China, where the popular Communist official Sheng Chou Yang is boosting his rise to power with assassinations perpetrated by someone impersonating Jason Bourne (“impostor"). They fear that Sheng, a fanatical nationalist, might trigger a war, and therefore want him to be found and killed. Webb would be ideal for this, but they plan to involve him indirectly owing to his mistrust of the U.S. government and Webb's deep-seated emotional instability due to the loss of his first wife and children in Vietnam. A representative of the U.S. Government, Edward McAllister arrives and informs Webb of the assassin in Asia who is killing under the name of Jason Bourne, a name feared because of the accredited kills during his work with Treadstone 71. Webb is told he requires a more visible security force because someone wants him dead. Soon thereafter, Marie is abducted by unknown people. Webb returns to the house, finds clues to her abduction, and immediately phones government officials, threatening to leak information about Treadstone and Medusa in an attempt to get assistance. He finds out information has been manipulated in order to make him seem crazy and delusional, and that his only course of action is to follow the instructions left for him by the kidnappers. He turns to the only person he thinks will be able to help him, Alexander Conklin, even though Conklin tried to kill him once before. Conklin, now limping, is convinced there is government involvement but that they have lost control of the situation and the hired guns holding Marie are no longer in their control. Webb, who has transformed back into his hated persona of Jason Bourne, now has no choice but to go to Hong Kong and play out the scenario to get Marie back. In Hong Kong Bourne is led to a wealthy Tai-Pan who wants Webb to bring back the impostor Jason Bourne because the impostor killed his wife; the Taipan is actually a British intelligence officer named Lin Wenzu collaborating with the CIA to make Bourne find the impostor. Bourne agrees, saying that if his wife is not heard of the very moment he returns, he will kill his nabbed impostor without a second thought. Lin Wenzu is later fatally injured when he uncovers and kills traitors in his team passing information to Sheng. Marie, held captive in a British hospital, fakes illness and escapes, taking refuge with Catherine Staples, a former colleague now employed at the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong. The duo make runs and go incognito to avoid the CIA and to find Webb. Unfortunately Marie runs away from Staples thinking she has joined forces with her captors who want to take her back, and Staples gets killed by Sheng's men. Marie later contacts Conklin and Mo, who arrive in Hong Kong and confront Under-Secretary McAllister and Ambassador Havilland, the orchestrators of the plan to manipulate Webb. Mo and Conklin keep Marie safe and away. Webb, tracking the impostor Bourne on land, water and air, through Kowloon and Macau, encounters D' Anjou alias Echo, another former Medusa operative, who is also tracking down the impostor Bourne, whom he had personally trained to be like Bourne. They join forces and track the impostor to mainland China, where they realise that a trap was laid by Sheng who was anticipating them following the impostor, and Echo is unfortunately captured. But Webb tracks him to a bird sanctuary at night, where Sheng Chou Yang is seen holding an open air conference with his rebel supporters and captured 'traitors' to his cause, whom he is going to 'judge', including Echo and the impostor Bourne. Echo is executed but not before he manages to delay Sheng and buy enough time for Bourne to mount a surprise attack on everyone. Amidst explosions and gunfire and killings, Webb captures the impostor Bourne, hijacks an empty charter plane and brings him to Kowloon, but in attempting to swap the impostor for Marie, is misled by McAllister, as Marie is not with them as was agreed, and still hidden by Conklin. Thinking Marie has been killed, an angry Webb now attacks and bombs Havilland's "sterile house" estate called 'Victoria Peak', where the impostor Bourne gets killed and Webb nearly as well, saved only by the timely arrival of Marie, Mo and Conklin. The cat is now out of the bag. Webb and Marie learn he was selected because no one was more skilled and lethal, and Marie was abducted because Webb would have never agreed to the mission, had the CIA told him the truth. Since Webb has now seen what Sheng is capable of and since Echo died for his sake, he decides to go back into the fray and kill the zealot. McAllister accompanies Webb, and during their search for Sheng, McAllister explains that he should be the one to kill Sheng, and Sheng will only trust McAllister for agreeing to rendezvous, and this has been McAllister's plan from the start. They fool Sheng into meeting with them for destroying single copy confidential documents that can expose him, in return for money. The meeting between Sheng, Webb and McAllister takes place on the Chinese border with the assistance of Wong, a previous acquaintance of Bourne. During the meeting McAllister sees that Sheng has already grabbed the confidential documents from Victoria Peak, and he is shot by Sheng before he can shoot the latter. But on scene arrives the lethal Bourne who stabs Sheng dead. Webb, McAllister and Wong escape in Sheng's helicopter amidst gunfire. In the end, it is shown that Lin Wenzu and McAllister have survived, Havilland commends McAllister for his acts of bravado, saying he will be promoted, Mo and Conklin have left for the USA, and Webb and Marie have now flown to Hawaii to rest. Marie tells Webb that every one has a dark side which they must accept. Jason Bourne is David Webb's dark side, the one who returned to save Marie. ===== In the Latin Quarter of Paris, sculptor Margaret Dauncey is injured when the top of the huge statue of a faun she is working on breaks off and falls on her. After a successful surgery by Dr. Arthur Burdon saves her from paralysis, she and Burdon fall in love. The surgery is watched by various doctors and others including Oliver Haddo, a hypnotist, magician and student of medicine (a character in Maugham's original novel based on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley). Later, in the Library of the Arsenal, Haddo finds what he has been searching for - a magic formula for the creation of human life. One of the ingredients is the "heart blood of a Maiden". He rips out the page and presents the old book to Dr. Porhoet, Margaret's uncle and guardian, who has also been looking for it. When Margaret, Burdon and Dr. Porhoet go to the Fair at Leon de Belfort, they encounter Haddo, whom Margaret dislikes immediately. When Dr. Porhoet claims that the snake charmers use harmless snakes, Haddo refutes him and demonstrates his powers by letting a deadly horned viper bite him. He then magically makes the wound disappear. Porhoet remains unconvinced until the discarded viper strikes a young woman performer. Burdon has to rush her to a hospital. Later, Haddo visits Margaret uninvited. He hypnotizes her and tells her to concentrate on her statue. It seems to come to life to preside over an orgy. Critic Carlos Clarens calls this the high point of the film: "a nightmarish sequence in which the hypnotised heroine (Alice Terry) see herself in the midst of an orgiastic rite presided over by Pan himself, a prancing naked satyr played by Stowitts, the American dancer at the Folies Bergere."Carlos Clarens. Horror Movies: An Illustrated Survey. London: Secker and Warburg, 1968 (revised enlarged from the 1967 Putnam's edition published under the title An Illustrated History of the Horror Film), p. 73. Two days before her wedding to Burdon, Margaret receives a note from Haddo, asking her to see him the next morning. She tries to resist the summons, but fails. On the day of the wedding, Burdon learns that Margaret has married Haddo instead but Porhoet is convinced it was against his niece's will and Burdon tries to track them down. Burdon eventually encounters the couple at a casino in Monte Carlo. He and Porhoet free Margaret while Haddo is away. Porhoet places her in a sanatorium to recover. However, Haddo finds her and takes her to his laboratory in a tower. Just as Haddo is about to stab a bound Margaret, Burdon bursts in. After a violent struggle, Haddo falls into a huge fire and is killed. Margaret emerges from her trance and is reunited with her true love. Porhoet finds the page with the formula and burns it and sets the laboratory on fire. ===== On the way to show Brighton to Leela, the TARDIS lands on the island of Fang Rock off the south coast of England in the early 20th century. Noticing that the lighthouse isn't functioning properly, the Fourth Doctor decides to investigate, as well as to ask for directions, as the TARDIS seems to have got 'lost in the fog'. Upon arrival at the lighthouse, and after introducing themselves, the Doctor discovers the dead body of one of the keepers, Ben. The other two keepers, old superstitious Reuben and the keen young Vince Hawkins, report that a light fell from the sky near the island. They also explain the electricity flow to the lamp on the lighthouse has become erratic and the Doctor deduces something is feeding on the flow. Reuben does not help matters with his constant references to the mythical Beast of Fang Rock, which reputedly once terrorised the lighthouse. As the Doctor and Leela explore, something moves Ben's body out of the lighthouse and onto the island, and they witness a curious electric crackling which seems to have killed fish nearby. The loss of the electric light due to the unexplained draining of power from the generators causes a luxury yacht to crash on to Fang Rock. The four survivors are brought to the lighthouse: the bosun Harker; Colonel James Skinsale MP; the owner, Lord Palmerdale; and his highly strung secretary Adelaide Lessage. Over time it emerges Palmerdale has bought government secrets from Skinsale and was desperate to reach the stock exchange to make a killing – hence the reason the ship was travelling at such a pace. Harker and the Doctor retrieve Ben's body and the Time Lord deduces it has been used as an anatomy lesson for an alien life form. He determines that their best protection is to secure the lighthouse to keep the creature out. Reuben then disappears for a time and then reappears a changed man, which the others put down to shock. But the pattern of death now speeds up. Palmerdale is killed in the lamp room by a glowing alien presence on the outside of the lighthouse, and then Harker is killed when Reuben corners him in the boiler room. From the alien light emanating from Reuben it is clear he has become possessed or transformed by the alien creature. The Doctor finds Harker's body and then Reuben's own – the latter cold for some time – which means the creature in Reuben's form has chameleonic properties. The creature then stalks down and kills the others in the lighthouse. Vince dies first, then Adelaide. With its presence now revealed, the alien sheds its disguise: revealing itself to be a Rutan, the hereditary enemies of the Sontarans, a green blob-like amphibious life form, whose scout ship crash landed in the sea and is trying to summon its mother ship. With the Rutans losing the war against the Sontarans, they plan to turn Earth into a base for its strategic position, which will allow them to launch a counterattack. However, once the Sontarans find the planet, it will become subject to a photonic bombardment, taking countless human lives. The Doctor modifies a weapon to destroy the alien. The Doctor and Skinsale retrieve diamonds from Palmerdale's body belt to use the weapon, but Skinsale is killed by the Rutan in the process. The Doctor uses the diamonds as a focus for the electric lighthouse beam to convert it into a high-energy laser by which he destroys the Rutan mother ship. Disobeying the Doctor, Leela watches the laser destroy the ship and is momentarily blinded, and as a side effect the blinding flash turns Leela's eyes from brown to blue. The Doctor quotes Wilfrid Wilson Gibson's poem Flannan Isle as they leave. ===== Henry Bigg learns that his parents have been lost during an archaeological trip to Africa, although the remains of their aircraft have been found. His housekeeper Mrs. Evans says his Uncle Augustus is his next of kin and therefore his legal guardian. Thus, Henry moves to Augustus' residence, as the uncle neither wants to have a housekeeper nor move to his nephew's house. Meanwhile, Tom and Lucy Little (two of the tiny people inside the walls of Henry's house) snag an apple that Mrs. Evans had left for Henry. They repay the boy by finding his lucky rabbit's foot and sneaking it in his suitcase. They are carried away to Augustus' house, trapped inside the luggage. Another two of the tiny creatures, Grandpa and Dinky, soon find them. There, the Littles soon learn of Augustus' ill-tempered and mean-spirited ways: He treats Henry more like a slave, and is planning on replacing his nephew's house with a shopping mall. While the creatures try to escape, Henry discovers Grandpa and Dinky, not knowing who—or what—they are. Augustus also sees them, but mistaking them for toys, grabs them from Henry and locks them in the desk drawer in his study. Here, Dinky and Grandpa discover that Augustus forged the documents in order to become Henry's legal guardian, as well as to steal and redevelop the Biggs' property. To rescue those two, Lucy persuades Tom to talk to Henry—a bold move, considering that humans never knew about the creatures until recently. Grandpa and Dinky, whom Henry finds inside the study, both prove the evidence of Augustus' fraud. Before Augustus locks him inside his room, Henry soon creates a diversion allowing Tom and Lucy to save them. Eventually, Lucy and Tom are hungry, and begin to search for food. Tom gets trapped in a jar of honey, and a change of plans ensues: the Littles must rescue Henry before they can save Tom. At first Grandpa resists, but consents since Henry has already met them. After several attempts to escape, the Littles finally flee away aboard their gas-powered toy aircraft, but cause a garage fire that wakes up Augustus. Henry attempts to go to the police station, but gets lost and is eventually caught by his uncle. The Littles, however, distract Augustus long enough for Henry to run down there. Meanwhile, Augustus orders the demolition crew by phone to start tearing down the Biggs' place. When the Littles get to Henry's house, they split up; Grandpa looks for Mr. and Mrs. Little while the others try to sabotage the bulldozer. Both plans succeed just in the nick of time. The moment Augustus arrives, policemen arrest him for propose illegal destruction of private property and the abuse of young Henry. Henry is reunited with Mrs. Evans, and prepares to meet his rediscovered parents at the airport. He casts a knowing wink at the gate, as the Littles watch on. ===== The novel revolves around Montgomery Brewster, a young man who inherits one million dollars from his rich grandfather. Shortly after, a rich uncle who hated Brewster's grandfather (a long-held grudge stemming from the grandfather's disapproval of the marriage of Brewster's parents) also dies. The uncle will leave Brewster seven million dollars, but only under the condition that he keeps none of the grandfather's money. Brewster is required to spend every penny of his grandfather's million within one year, resulting in no assets or property held from the wealth at the end of that time. If Brewster meets these terms, he will gain the full seven million; if he fails, he remains penniless. Brewster finds that spending so much money within the course of a year is incredibly difficult under the strict conditions imposed by his uncle's will. Brewster is required to demonstrate business sense by obtaining good value for the money he spends, limiting his donations to charity, his losses to gambling, and the value of his tips to waiters and cab drivers. Moreover, Brewster is sworn to secrecy, and cannot tell anyone why he is living to excess. Working against him are his well-meaning friends, who try repeatedly to limit his losses and extravagance even as they share in his luxurious lifestyle. Brewster's challenge is compounded by the fact that his attempts to lose money through stock speculation and roulette prove to increase his funds rather than decrease them. He throws large parties and balls, and charters a cruise lasting several months to Europe and Egypt for his large circle of friends and employees; the press lampoons him as a spendthrift. Despite his loose purse strings, Brewster repeatedly demonstrates a strong moral character. At one point, he uses his funds to bail out a bank to save his landlady's account, despite risking his eligibility for the will. At another, he jumps overboard to save a drowning sailor from his cruise even as his rich friends choose not to. Brewster's would-be wife Barbara Drew turns down his marriage proposal early in the year, believing him to be financially irresponsible and bound to a life of poverty, and his attempts to win her back repeatedly fail as his attention is entirely absorbed by the requirement to spend so much money. At the conclusion of the year, he succeeds in spending the last of his funds, which he has meticulously documented, and confesses his love to another woman, Peggy Gray, who has been sympathetic to his lifestyle despite knowing nothing about his challenge. Tragedy strikes the night before the deadline, as his lawyers informed him that the executor of his uncle's will has vanished after liquidating all of the assets. Brewster convinces himself that he is doomed to poverty, but marries Peggy Gray, who accepts him despite the lack of wealth. Shortly after the wedding, the executor of his uncle's will arrives to inform him that he has successfully met the challenge and that he has come to deliver the money to Brewster in person. ===== The fixup novel describes a legend consisting of eight tales that the pastoral, pacifist Dogs recite as they pass down an oral legend of a creature known as Man. Each tale is preceded by doggish notes and learned discussion. An editor's preface notes that after each telling of the legend the pups ask many questions: :"What is Man?" they'll ask. :Or perhaps: "What is a city?" :Or: "What is a war?" :There is no positive answer to any of these questions. ===== Two romantic couples, consisting of four teenagers, decide to spend a weekend together located in a remote cabin found in the woods. An unseen force stalks and watches the group without their knowledge. Ellen and her boyfriend Bruce enter the woods to have a picnic lunch. The other couple, Scotty and Shelly, remain at the cabin playing Monopoly to pass time. During their lunch, Bruce announces to Ellen that they're camping on an Indian burial ground. Ellen is concerned, but Bruce assures her that they will be fine as long as they don't disturb the graves of the dead. Bruce then explores the area and discovers an ancient dagger belonging to the Indians. Ignoring his own advice, he takes the dagger with him. After lunch, Ellen takes a nap. When she awakes, she finds Bruce missing and wanders into the woods looking for him. To her horror, she finds Bruce's dead body, horribly mutilated with apparent knife wounds. She is then startled by the presence of a demonic entity hiding within the woods, and quickly runs back to the cabin. While fleeing, she is attacked by unseen forces. She runs back to the cabin and screams to be let in immediately, being let in just as the entity is approaching her. Ellen tells her friends that Bruce has been murdered, but Scotty dismisses the whole thing as a joke and goes to find Bruce. Shelly and Ellen are concerned when Scotty doesn't return right away. Shelly walks outside to begin a search for the missing men, but a possessed Bruce assaults and strangles her, eventually stabbing her in the neck and killing her with the dagger that he found, moaning "join us." Ellen encounters her possessed friend and flees into another room, grabbing knives to protect her. Something attempts to enter the room where Ellen is hiding, and she blindly lashes out with a knife - mistakenly stabbing Scotty who had just returned to the cabin. While horrified, Ellen is then attacked by the possessed Bruce. Ellen manages to trap Bruce outside, stabbing Bruce's hand several times in the process. The bleeding Scotty tells Ellen to look into the cellar for the gun they brought along. While walking down the stairs to the cellar, she trips on a broken step and injures herself. After finding the gun, she goes back up stairs and discovers that Scotty had been stabbed to death while she was downstairs. The demonic Bruce then attacks her, but she manages to cut off his hand. Ellen attempts to flee but is severely beaten by the possessed Bruce, who throws her around the cabin. While being strangled, Ellen picks up Bruce's mutilated hand which is still holding the dagger found from before, and she uses it to stab Bruce. A large amount of blood is expended by Bruce, who lies motionless for a moment, only to then continue his assault on Ellen. Ellen mutilates Bruce's body even further with an axe, chopping off nearly every limb from the writhing body. Severely disturbed by the things she has witnessed, Ellen rocks back and forth muttering to herself. The corpse of Scotty suddenly springs up, before turning towards the oblivious Ellen, ready to attack. The screen then cuts to black, leaving the fate of Ellen ambiguous. ===== In the early 1980s, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Jade (Giovanna Antonelli), a young Muslim girl, is orphaned when her mother dies and has to go to Morocco where her uncle Alí lives. The problem is that Jade was living in a country with a culture very different from that of an Islamic country. Thus, once she arrives in Morocco, she must learn all concomitant new traditions and customs, adjust to her new way of living, and face all the punishments she will be exposed to because of her conflicting personality and actions that go against her religion. Back in Rio, a well-off family, the Ferraz, go to vacation in Morocco. Twin brothers Lucas and Diogo Ferraz (Murilo Benício), along with Leônidas (Reginaldo Faria), their father, and doctor Augusto Albieri (Juca de Oliveira), friend of the family and the twins Godfather who is a genetic scientist, visit Alí, a friend of Albieri's. There, Lucas and Jade meet for the first time, and they fall in love at first sight. Jade, knowing it's haraam (a sin) to love Lucas, decides to forgo her religious mandates for the sake of love, which prohibit her from marrying a non-religious person. Meanwhile, in Rio, Diogo tragically dies in a helicopter crash. Both Lucas and Leônidas are devastated by the news and Lucas' plans of running away with Jade are subsequently ruined. Albieri, his godparent, is shattered and becomes deeply despondent. He never recovered fully from the death of his fiancée, and Diogo's death reinvigorates his distress. In an effort to change the natural course of events, Albieri in his despair resolves to utilize Lucas' cell in order to make the first human clone. Deusa (Adriana Lessa), a low-middle class woman who has not been able to get pregnant, is subsequently inseminated with Lucas' cell, and as a result gives birth to a baby, not knowing that it is a clone. Léo is born without complications, but Albieri wants to stay close to Léo and watch him grow up. Léo gradually becomes attached to Albieri, thus making Deusa uneasy. Several years have passed since Léo was born. Now, Jade is married to Saíd (Dalton Vigh) and she's a mother of a little child, Khadija (Carla Diaz). She lives happily with her new family and is even starting to love Saíd. However, due to Said's insecurities a new encounter with Lucas is forced upon her to test Jade's love for him, with this encounter the old passion revives, but they're not the young lovers they once were and now they have new lives and new responsibilities. Lucas, who also is married, to Maysa (Daniela Escobar) and with a daughter, Mel (Débora Falabella) doesn't know he had been cloned 20 years before. Albieri had kept this a secret from everybody's knowledge and is trying to make it so that Léo and Lucas never meet and thus find out the truth. The last thing Albieri knew from Léo is that he and Deusa went to the north of Brazil, but with the return of both, Léo has become a young, handsome man, and the living image of the young Lucas whom Jade met in Morocco. The appearance of Leo in Brazil and his later travels to Morocco will change the life of all the characters forever. ===== Rudolf Ising is thinking of ideas for a new character, until he draws a blackfaced person with an ink pen, who comes to life. Ising then talks to the character, and then asks his name. The new character introduces himself as Bosko. Ising tells Bosko to show what he can do. Bosko starts to tap dance, whistle, and sing. After dancing, Bosko looks directly to the screen. Bosko asks, "Who's all them folks out there in the dark?" Ising tells Bosko that they are the audience, and asks him if he can make them laugh; Bosko agrees to try. Bosko asks Ising if he can draw a piano; Ising does so. Bosko starts to press some piano keys. When one of the keys near the upper end of the keyboard produces a low note, Bosko removes the key and puts it in its proper place near the left end of the keyboard. Bosko hits more random notes, then plays a glissando. Bosko laughs, and then sings "Sonny Boy", accidentally sliding his tongue out. Bosko opens his hat and pulls his hair, letting his tongue out of his mouth again. He plays another song, singing, which causes his head to pop out like a slinky. After that, Bosko sings again. Ising says this is enough. He sucks Bosko, who also pulls the piano, back into his fountain pen, and then him back into the ink bottle. Bosko then pops out of the ink bottle and promises to return. ===== Maddie Wirtz is a high school senior living in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. Her plans to coast through her last school year before college are waylaid when she meets another teenage girl, "Legs," a drifter who takes shelter from the rain inside Maddie's school. The same day she meets them, Legs convinces Maddie and fellow students Rita Faldes and Violet Kahn to confront Mr. Buttinger, a teacher who's been sexually harassing Rita and Violet. Maddie, Rita, and Violet flee after the confrontation turns violent, witnessed by student Goldie Goldman, who flees with them. Later, Legs finds Maddie at her house from the address in a notebook Maddie dropped in Mr. Buttinger's classroom. Legs spends the night at Maddie's house and bonds with her further in the morning before school. At school, Maddie, Rita, Violet, and Goldie are suspended for the confrontation of Mr. Buttinger, despite their explanation of what happened. After getting kicked out of school, the girls go to an abandoned house where Maddie suggested Legs stay, finding Legs there. All five girls quickly form a close bond, with the abandoned house as their "headquarters" and engaging in further acts of rebellion, such as breaking into the school to retrieve part of Maddie's art school application (which the principal refused to let her get before she got kicked out) and Legs tattooing a flame on all of them. Legs and Maddie also learn Goldie's father physically abuses her. Everything culminates when the girls crash a car stolen from a group of boys who were about to rape Maddie in "revenge" for what happened to Mr. Buttinger. Though not seriously injured, the girls go on trial for stealing the car, with the boys and one of their girlfriends, Cindy, lying about the events leading up to it. Legs is sent to a juvenile prison and the group flounders without her, with Goldie starting to use heroin. Eventually, Cindy, feeling guilty, tells the judge the truth, leading to Legs' release. The girls' reunion is tempered by Legs learning of Goldie's addiction; Maddie has taken her to the abandoned house to detox. In an effort to help her, Legs leads Maddie, Rita, and Violet to Goldie's house to demand $10,000 from her parents to send Goldie to rehab. The situation escalates when Goldie's father refuses and Legs, holding him at gunpoint, forces the others to take him to the abandoned house. He is tied to a chair while the girls try to think of what to do next, and the tension rises as Legs begins taking her own paternal frustrations out on him. In the midst of the chaos, Rita accidentally shoots Goldie's father in the shoulder. Panic ensues and the girls resolve to get Goldie's father to the hospital. When Goldie, Rita, and Violet leave with Goldie's father, Maddie realizes Legs is missing. She finds Legs walking along the bridge, looking for a ride to another town. Both girls make proposals, Maddie for Legs to stay with her and the others and Legs for Maddie to join her on the road. Sad but resolute, the two eventually go their separate ways. Legs gets a truck to stop and boards as Maddie watches it disappear. In a voice-over, it's revealed that Maddie reunited with her boyfriend, finished high school, and went on to attend art school in New York City. She travels the world, always stopping at airports and bus stops along the way. Although none of the group ever see Legs again, they still get together once in a while and strengthen their bond over the past. ===== Shrek and Princess Fiona are set to succeed the dying King Harold, but Shrek's attempts to serve as the Regent during the King's medical leave end in disaster. He insists that an ogre as king isn't ideal and that there must be someone else. Before he dies, Harold tells Shrek of another heir: his nephew, Arthur "Artie" Pendragon. Meanwhile, Prince Charming vows to become King of Far Far Away and avenge the death of his mother, the Fairy Godmother. Charming goes to the Poison Apple tavern and persuades fairy tale villains to fight for their "happily ever after". Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots set out to retrieve Artie. As they sail away, Fiona reveals to Shrek that she's pregnant, much to Shrek's horror who doesn't believe he's capable of raising children. The trio journey to Worcestershire Academy, an elite magical boarding school, where they discover Artie as a scrawny, 16-year-old underachiever. At the school pep rally, Shrek tells Artie he's been chosen for king of Far Far Away. Artie is excited until Donkey and Puss inadvertently frighten him by discussing the king's responsibilities. Immediately losing confidence, Artie tries taking control of the ship to go back to Worcestershire, and following a scuffle with Shrek, the ship crashes on a remote island where they encounter Artie's retired wizard teacher, Merlin. Charming and other villains attack the castle, but Wolfie, Pinocchio, Gingy, and others stall them long enough for the castle's occupants including Fiona and her mother Queen Lillian to escape. One of the Pigs accidentally reveals that Shrek has gone to retrieve Arthur, and Prince Charming reacts by sending Captain Hook and his pirates to track them down. The ladies are locked in a tower after Rapunzel betrays them, having fallen in love with Charming. Captain Hook and his pirates catch up to Shrek on Merlin's island. Shrek avoids capture, and Hook reveals Charming's takeover of Far Far Away. Shrek urges Artie to return to Worcestershire. Instead, Artie cons Merlin into using his magic to send them to Far Far Away. The spell causes Puss and Donkey to accidentally switch bodies. They find Pinocchio and learn that Charming plans to kill Shrek as part of a play. Charming's men arrive, but Artie tricks the knights, and they avoid capture. Later, they break into the castle during rehearsals for the play. Caught in Charming's dressing room, the four are taken captive. Charming prepares to kill Artie to retain the crown. To save Artie's life, Shrek tells Charming that Artie was a pawn to take his place. Charming believes Shrek and allows Artie to leave. Donkey and Puss are imprisoned with Fiona and the ladies, where Fiona grows frustrated with their lack of initiative. Queen Lillian smashes an opening in the stone wall of the prison with a headbutt. While the princesses launch a rescue mission for Shrek, Donkey and Puss free Gingy, Pinocchio, and others along with Dragon and Donkey's children. Puss and Donkey mollify Artie by explaining that Shrek lied to save Artie's life. Charming stages a musical in front of the kingdom. Just as Charming is about to kill Shrek, Fiona, Puss, and Donkey, the princesses and other fairy tale characters confront the villains. They lose in a showdown: the pigs are kidnapped by henchmen, Gingy is held hostage by knights, Dragon is surrounded by guards, and Fiona is tied up. Artie shows up and gives a speech to the villains, convincing them that they can be accepted into society instead of being outcast. The villains agree to give up their evil ways, while Charming refuses to listen and lunges at Artie with his sword. Shrek blocks the blow and it initially appears that he was stabbed. Charming decrees himself the new king, but Shrek reveals that the sword actually went inbetween his arm and torso and pushes Charming aside, while Dragon knocks the tower down onto Charming. Artie is crowned king. While the kingdom celebrates, Merlin reverts Puss and Donkey's body swap. Shrek and Fiona return to their swamp, where they become the parents of ogre triplets, coping with parenthood with the help of Puss, Lillian, Donkey and Dragon. ===== During a patrol through the cemetery, Xander shows Buffy a silver necklace he intends to give to Cordelia the following night for Valentine's Day. The next day at school, Xander witnesses Amy Madison use magic to avoid a homework assignment. Soon after, Giles runs into Jenny Calendar; however, their relationship remains frosty, with Giles deciding talking to Buffy is more important than making amends with Jenny. Giles warns Buffy that Angelus becomes particularly vicious around Valentine's Day, and suggests she stays indoors for the following nights. Meanwhile, Cordelia is insulted by Harmony and the Cordettes, revealing to Cordelia that her relationship with Xander is not as secret as she once thought. Xander gives the necklace to Cordelia, but she breaks up with him under pressure from her friends. Xander is heartbroken, and blackmails Amy into casting a love spell upon Cordelia so he can take revenge by breaking up with her. However, as he intended to use the spell for revenge rather than its true purpose, the magic goes wrong, with Cordelia becoming the only female not to be affected by the spell (protected by her necklace). The following day, Xander is shocked to find Cordelia repels his advances, and retreats to the library. Buffy makes it clear that she is attracted to Xander, but Amy interrupts them and tells Xander she believes the spell went wrong. She begins to act similarly to Buffy, so Xander rushes home and finds Willow in his bed, where she attempts to seduce him. The following day, all of the girls of Sunnydale High obsessively start following Xander around the corridors and Harmony criticises a shocked Cordelia for breaking up with Xander. Xander seeks help from Giles, who is appalled by Xander's foolishness. Giles goes looking for Amy, so that she can reverse the spell, while Xander barricades himself in the library. However, Buffy gets in and attempts to seduce a reluctant Xander. Amy also arrives, and becomes jealous of Buffy, ultimately casting a spell that changes Buffy into a rat. An angry Giles orders Xander to go home, while he attempts to make Amy reverse the spells. Oz looks for the Buffy-rat to ensure that she is not hurt. As Xander is leaving the school, he finds the spell is becoming stronger and more uncontrollable. He saves Cordelia from an attack by Harmony and a group of girls. Xander and Cordelia seek shelter in Buffy's home, locking Joyce out when she too falls under the spell. While in Buffy's room, Xander is pulled out of the window by Angelus, who intends to kill him to upset Buffy. Xander is saved by an infatuated Drusilla. Xander barricades himself in the basement with Cordelia, who is touched to learn that Xander performed the spell for her. The love-crazed mob breaks in and attacks Xander and Cordelia just as Giles and Amy manage to lift the spell. ===== After making love with Buffy, Angel is racked with pain as his soul is ripped from him. In the street, he kills a passer-by when she offers to help him. He goes to the factory to join Spike and Drusilla, but the Judge attacks him. It is unable to burn him because Angel has fully reverted to the evil Angelus. Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus are clearly pleased to be reunited. Angelus vows to destroy Buffy for how she made him feel when he was Angel. While researching a way to defeat the Judge, a demon with the power to destroy the world whom "no weapon forged" can harm, Xander and Cordelia are caught kissing in the library by a jealous Willow. Buffy finds Angel in his apartment, not knowing that he is now Angelus, and he blows her off, laughing at her as she weeps. Jenny is castigated by her uncle Enyos, who tells her that if Angel has one moment of true happiness, the curse placed on him will be broken and his new soul taken from him. Angelus terrorizes Willow and the Gang at school, emotionally tormenting Buffy. Later, as they discuss Angel's transformation in the library, Buffy realises that having sex with Angel is what caused him to turn evil. Buffy has a dream in which Angel indicates that Jenny knows more than she is letting on. The next morning Buffy confronts Jenny who tells her that Angelus was cursed with a soul in vengeance for what he did to her people, and that Enyos had tasked her with keeping Buffy and Angel apart. When Buffy, Jenny, and Giles arrive at Enyos' home, they find that Angelus has brutally killed him, leaving Buffy a message written in blood on the wall. Buffy begins to accept that she has to kill Angelus. Xander, using memories from being a soldier on Halloween, hatches a plan to kill the Judge. He and Cordelia break into an army base and steal a shoulder-launched rocket. Oz declines Willow's offer to make out, as he suspects that she only wants to make Xander jealous. Tracking down the Judge, who is slaughtering people at a crowded mall, Buffy blows him to bits with the anti-tank weapon. Buffy stalks Angelus through the fleeing crowd and, when he ambushes her, they battle ferociously. Reaching a stand-off, Buffy is still unwilling to kill Angelus and settles for kicking him in the crotch. Buffy blames herself for everything that has happened, but Giles reassures her that although she acted rashly, she and Angel loved each other and that Giles still supports and respects her. Later, Joyce lights the candle on Buffy's birthday cake and tells her to make a wish, but Buffy decides to let it burn, while they watch the classic movie Stowaway. ===== One year has passed since Zero defeated Copy X. He has since separated from Ciel and the Resistance, now wandering the desert and defeating countless Pantheons. The three surviving members of the Four Guardians have assumed command of Neo Arcadia, with Harpuia as the leader. Copy X's death was covered up, as the humans revered him as their savior. The Resistance is now being led by a Reploid named Elpizo, while Ciel continues her work on a new form of energy that will hopefully eliminate the need for war. Zero wearily makes his way through a sandstorm wrapped in a tattered cloak. As the sands die down he is once more being chased by enemies. Despite being in disrepair, with cracked armor and broken weapons, he charges into the fray. After the battle, Zero collapses from exhaustion and is found by Harpuia. Wishing to see Zero die in battle rather than perish from exhaustion, Harpuia rescues Zero and covertly delivers him to a location near the Resistance base, where he is found and repaired. He learns that Elpizo is planning a frontal assault on Neo Arcadia, as he doesn't believe in Ciel's plan of creating energy as means to resolve the war. Unable to convince him to call it off, Zero is left to do busy-work in the meantime. Elpizo's assault fails miserably, himself being the only survivor. Driven mad, he declares his desire to harness the power of the legendary Dark Elf to destroy Neo Arcadia (and wipe out the humans), which had brought about the Elf Wars a century ago that left the Earth in a disastrous state. Using the powers granted by partially unsealing the Dark Elf, he invades Neo Arcadia and breaks into the temple where the body of the real X is kept. It is revealed that X ended the Elf Wars by sealing the Dark Elf away with his body, thus leading to his disappearance. Despite the Guardians' and Zero's best efforts, Elpizo destroys X's body, which unseals the Dark Elf, and Elpizo absorbs its powers. After a fierce battle, Zero puts an end to Elpizo's plans, who reverts to his normal self and apologizes as he dies. Surprisingly, the Dark Elf turns him into a Cyber-elf, convincing Elpizo that she is not truly evil. As the Dark Elf departs, X appears and tells Zero about the Dark Elf: she was originally known as the Mother Elf and was the savior who ended the Maverick Wars, but was later cursed by a man named Dr. Weil. Zero admits to feeling like he knows her. In a post credits scene, an unknown man notes the Dark Elf has been released, and tells an entity known as "Omega" that it is time to take action. ===== Broadcast in the year 2008, the film is presented in a TV documentary style format, combining talking head interviews, news coverage clips and video surveillance footage surrounding the assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush in Chicago around a year earlier on 19 October 2007. The president is fatally shot by a sniper after he addresses an economic forum at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel, before which an anti-war rally had taken place. News outlets immediately begin reporting on the incident along with its political ramifications. After authorities earlier arrest and interrogate war-protesting detainees, Jamal Abu Zikri (Malik Bader), an IT professional of Syrian origin, becomes the prime suspect. Vice President Dick Cheney, now president, uses the possible al-Qaeda relationship in connection with the suspected assassin, Zikri, to push his own domestic political security agenda. He calls for the legislation of PATRIOT Act III, trying to increase the investigative powers of the FBI, the police, and other government agencies over American citizens and foreign residents as he contemplates attacking Syria. As his wife Zahra (Hend Ayoub) listens to the verdict with family attorney Dawn Norton (Patricia Buckley) in a packed courtroom, Zikri is convicted of killing the U.S. President and sentenced to death based upon dubious forensic evidence. Meanwhile, a new report which surfaces, substantiated by interviews with Marianne Claybon (Chavez Ravine), indicates that the perpetrator is most likely her husband Al Claybon (Tony Dale), a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, who lived in Rock Island, Illinois, and who also was the father of David Claybon, a U.S. soldier recently killed in the Iraq War. The assassin, who blames President Bush for the death of his son, killed himself after Bush's assassination. Claybon's suicide note, addressed to a second son, Casey Claybon (Neko Parham), an Iraq War veteran living in Chicago who was previously considered as a suspect, reads: Ten months after President Bush's assassination, Zikri remains on death row at the Stateville Correctional Center, because government officials are deliberately delaying his legal appeal. Moreover, in his dead father's Rock Island house, Casey Claybon finds evidence of his father's planning of the shooting. The most incriminating piece of evidence is a copy of a top secret presidential itinerary outlining, to the minute, President Bush's Chicago whereabouts on 19 October 2007. The news report ends while the U.S. Government continues investigating how presidential assassin Al Claybon obtained that top secret document. The final closing titles of the film inform the viewer that President Cheney's USA PATRIOT Act III was signed into permanent law in the U.S., stating the following: "It has granted investigators unprecedented powers of detention and surveillance, and further expanded the powers of the executive branch". ===== Atouk (Ringo Starr) is a bullied and scrawny caveman living in "One Zillion BC - October 9th".Done in memory of the birth of John Lennon who was killed 5 months before the film's release, was Ringo Starr's friend and bandmate with The Beatles, and whose birthday was October 9. He lusts after the beautiful but shallow Lana (Barbara Bach), who is the mate of Tonda (John Matuszak), their tribe's physically imposing bullying leader and brutish instigator. After being banished along with his friend Lar (Dennis Quaid), Atouk falls in with a band of assorted misfits, among them the comely Tala (Shelley Long) and the elderly blind man Gog (Jack Gilford). The group has ongoing encounters with hungry dinosaurs, and rescues Lar from a "nearby ice age", where they encounter an abominable snowman. In the course of these adventures they discover sedative drugs, fire, invent cooking, music, weapons, and learn how to walk fully upright. Atouk uses these advancements to lead an attack on Tonda, overthrowing him and becoming the tribe's new leader. He rejects Lana and takes Tala as his mate, and they live happily ever after. ===== ʻIolani Barracks, 2007 In April 1887, Princess Liliʻuokalani attended the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria as part of Kalākaua's delegation. Soon after the Jubilee celebrations, the delegation learned of the Bayonet Constitution that Kalākaua had been forced to sign under the threat of death. A planned tour of Europe was cancelled and the group returned to Hawaii. Liliʻuokalani felt that her brother, Kalākaua, was not competent to be King. In October 1887 and about the same time as Liliʻuokalani, Kalākaua's distant cousin, a native Hawaiian officer and veteran of the Italian military, Robert William Wilcox returned to Hawaii. Wilcox had returned when the funding for his study program stopped after the new constitution was signed. Wilcox, Charles B. Wilson, Princess Liliuokalani, and Sam Nowlein plotted to overthrow King Kalākaua to replace him with his sister, Liliuokalani. They had 300 Hawaiian conspirators hidden in Iolani Barracks and an alliance with the Royal Guard, but the plot was accidentally discovered in January 1888, less than 48 hours before the revolt would have been initiated. No one was prosecuted but Wilcox was exiled. So on February 11, 1888, Wilcox left Hawaii for San Francisco, intending to return to Italy with his wife. ===== The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed exile. There, he learns the fate of a former classmate, Hjalmar Ekdal. Hjalmar married Gina, a young servant in the Werle household. The older Werle had arranged the match by providing Hjalmar with a home and profession as a photographer. Gregers, whose mother died believing that Gina and Håkon had carried on an affair, becomes enraged at the thought that his old friend is living a life built on a lie. The remaining four acts take place in Hjalmar Ekdal's apartments. The Ekdals initially appear to be living a life of cozy domesticity. Hjalmar's father makes a living doing odd copying jobs for Werle. Hjalmar runs a portrait studio out of the apartment. Gina helps him run the business in addition to keeping house. They both dote on their daughter Hedvig. Gregers travels directly to their home from the party. While getting acquainted with the family, Hjalmar confesses that Hedvig is both his greatest joy and greatest sorrow, because she is slowly losing her eyesight. The family eagerly reveals a loft in the apartment where they keep various animals like rabbits and pigeons. Most prized is the wild duck they rescued. The duck was wounded by none other than Werle, whose eyesight is also failing. His shot winged the duck, which dived to the bottom of the lake to drown itself by clinging to the seaweed. Werle's dog retrieved it though, and despite its wounds from the shot and the dog's teeth, the Ekdals had nursed the duck back to good health. Gregers decides to rent the spare room in the apartment. The next day, he begins to realize that there are more lies hanging over the Ekdals than Gina's affair with his father. While talking to Hedvig, she explains that Hjalmar keeps her from school because of her eyesight, but he has no time to tutor her, leaving the girl to escape into imaginary worlds through pictures she sees in books. During their conversation, Gregers hears shots in the attic, and the family explains that Old Ekdal entertains himself by hunting rabbits and birds in the loft, and Hjalmar often joins in the hunts. The activity helps Old Ekdal cling to his former life as a great hunter. Hjalmar also speaks of his 'great invention', which he never specifies. It is related to photography, and he is certain that it will enable him to pay off his debts to Werle and finally make himself and his family completely independent. In order to work on his invention, he often needs to lie down on the couch and think about it. During a lunch with Gregers and Hjalmar's friends Relling and Molvik, Håkon arrives to try to convince Gregers to return home. Gregers insists that he cannot return and that he will tell Hjalmar the truth. Håkon is certain that Hjalmar will not be grateful for Gregers' intervention. After he leaves, Gregers asks Hjalmar to accompany him on a walk, where he reveals the truth about Gina's affair with his father. Upon returning home, Hjalmar is aloof from his wife and daughter. He demands to handle all future photography business by himself with no help from Gina. He also demands to manage the family's finances, which Gina has traditionally done. Gina begs him to reconsider, suggesting that with all his time consumed he will not be able to work on his invention. Hedvig adds that he also will not have time to spend in the loft with the wild duck. Embittered by Gregers' news, Hjalmar bristles at the suggestion and confesses that he would like to wring the duck's neck. Indulging his mood, Hjalmar confronts Gina about her affair with Håkon. She confesses to it, but insists that she loves Hjalmar intensely. In the midst of the argument, Gregers returns, stunned to find that the couple are not overjoyed to be living without such a lie hanging over their heads. Mrs. Sørby arrives with a letter for Hedvig and news that she is marrying Håkon. The letter announces that Håkon is paying Old Ekdal a pension of 100 crowns per month until his death. Upon his death, the allowance will be transferred to Hedvig for the remainder of her life. The news sickens Hjalmar even further, and it dawns on him that Hedvig may very well be Håkon's child. He cannot stand the sight of Hedvig any longer and leaves the house to drink with Molvik and Relling. Gregers tries to calm the distraught Hedvig by suggesting that she sacrifice the wild duck for her father's happiness. Hedvig is desperate to win her father's love back and agrees to have her grandfather shoot the duck in the morning. The next day, Relling arrives to tell the family that Hjalmar has stayed with him. He is appalled at what Gregers has done, and he reveals that he long ago implanted the idea of the invention with Hjalmar as a "life- lie" to keep him from giving in to despair. The pair argue as Hjalmar returns to gather his materials to work on the invention. He is overwhelmed by the number of details involved in moving out of the apartment. Hedvig is overjoyed to see him, but Hjalmar demands to be 'free from intruders' while he thinks about his next move. Crushed, Hedvig remembers the wild duck and goes to the loft with a pistol. After hearing a shot, the family assumes Old Ekdal is hunting in the loft, but Gregers knows he has shot the wild duck for Hedvig. He explains the sacrifice to Hjalmar who is deeply touched. When Old Ekdal emerges from his room, the family realizes he could not have fired the gun in the loft. They rush in to see Hedvig lying on the ground. No one can find a wound, and Relling has to examine the girl. He finds that the shot has penetrated her breastbone and she died immediately. Given the powder burns on her shirt, he determines that she shot herself. Hjalmar begs for her to live again so that she can see how much he loves her. The play ends with Relling and Gregers arguing again. Gregers insists that Hedvig did not die in vain, because her suicide unleashed a greatness within Hjalmar. Relling sneers at the notion, and insists that Hjalmar will be a drunk within a year. ===== Brian Stimpson (Cleese), headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, has been elected to chair the annual Headmasters' Conference meeting at the fictional University of Norwich. Extremely disorganised as a young man, Stimpson is now obsessively organised and punctual, and his school runs "like clockwork". He is the first headmaster of a comprehensive school to chair the Headmasters' Conference, that honour usually being reserved for heads of the more elite public schools. Despite repetitive rehearsal of his speech and preparations for the journey to the conference, Stimpson's ordered world unwinds as a series of misadventures plague him en route. He mistakenly boards the wrong train, missing his connection for Norwich, owing to a lingering habit of saying "right" as emphasis in situations where it would be mistaken for a direction; then, in his desperation to board the departing correct train, he leaves the text of his speech behind on the wrong one, and is finally left at the railway station by his wife, who thinks he departed on the train. Frantic to get to Norwich on time, Stimpson searches for his wife at home and then at the hospital where she volunteers looking after dementia patients, but narrowly misses her. Attempting to hail a taxi, Stimpson stumbles across Laura, one of his sixth form students (grades 11-12 in some countries, ages 16-18) who is driving truant during a study break; he commandeers her and her car in a bid to drive to Norwich. Stimpson's wife sees the duo at a petrol station and assumes the worst, suspecting that her husband is carrying on with the student and taking her down to attend the conference. Mrs. Stimpson (who is still looking after three senile old women) drives after Stimpson and both parties forget to pay for their petrol. The police are called and, responding to a call from Laura's parents (reporting the car as stolen and their daughter as missing) as well, attempt to find Stimpson and arrest him for kidnapping. Stimpson's wife, Laura's parents, the police and Mr. Jolly, a music teacher at Thomas Tompion who has secretly been dating Laura, all pursue Stimpson and Laura to the conference. En route, Stimpson and Laura try to call the conference from a telephone box. A local mistakes them for vandals after Stimpson vents his rage at the malfunctioning phones, and calls the police. The local sends her daughter Pat to Stimpson, but she turns out to be a childhood friend and former girlfriend of Stimpson. Stimpson coerces her into driving them to the conference. After a series of wrong turns, the group desperately turn into a farm field in order to escape cows and a lorry, and shortly after get stuck in deep mud. Brian leaves the stuck car to seek help, and ends up at a monastery where he is persuaded to take a bath and collect himself. While he's gone, a local farmer tugs the car out of the mud; Pat finally drives away in the car but is soon arrested for assaulting a police officer. All the while, Stimpson's wife and the others arrive at the conference uninvited, much to the annoyance of the headmasters; they attempt to sequester the growing group of concerned parents, wives, senile ladies and police officers as the conference continues. Stranded without transport, Laura and Stimpson (who is dressed in monks' robes, leaving his muddy suit with the monks) attempt to hitchhike. They are picked up by a wealthy car salesman, whom they persuade to come for a walk in the woods. They trick the traveller into swapping clothes with Stimpson under the ruse of naughty fun, but Stimpson and Laura run away and steal his car. Stimpson finally arrives at the conference in the torn suit of the car salesman and delivers an improvised recount of his lost speech, which becomes increasingly strident and imperious in tone to the shocked headmasters. During his speech various characters including the old women, Mr. Jolly and Laura's parents walk into the hall, and Stimpson addresses them like he would late pupils, commanding and shaming the entire collected group with the same strict demeanour with which he runs his own school. Finally, he directs all of the headmasters to stand and sing the hymn "To Be a Pilgrim", as he walks out of the building to face the police. The headmasters rush like excited children to watch as Stimpson, his wife, Laura and her parents, Mr. Jolly and the senile old women are all lead away by policemen, with Stimpson still giving headmasterly orders to all the officers in the car. ===== Homer and Marge take the kids to get their shots. Just before Dr. Hibbert is about to inject Bart, he escapes. After a chase through town, Hibbert finally outsmarts Bart, by having Barney wear a latex mask, and finally injects him. The shot, however, causes Bart's earholes to swell shut, making him temporarily deaf. Hibbert also tricks Homer into signing a malpractice waiver. Marge wanted Bart to stay home; however, Bart wants to play in the donkey basketball game. While at the Springfield Elementary School donkey basketball game, Bart taunts a donkey with a carrot, unaware that the school is reciting the national anthem. After he places the carrot in his shorts, the donkey takes it and rips off Bart's shorts. While Bart is bent over to keep his privates covered with his shirt, the US flag is put up behind him and a photo is taken, which results in the crowd assuming that Bart is mooning the US flag. Shortly afterwards, the Springfield Shopper takes the story and completely turns it around, making it seem as if Bart had deliberately mooned the flag. Marge tries to tell Skinner that Bart was deaf at the time; however, because of Bart's history of similar pranks, Skinner does not believe it, a nod to The Boy Who Cried Wolf. He and his family soon are hated by all of Springfield. The Simpsons are later asked to appear on a talk show and tell their side of the story. Homer advises Marge to not take it too far. However, the host asks, instead, "What part of America do you hate most?" (an example of the fallacy of many questions). Marge says that, if by Americans you mean loud mouth talkshow hosts which everyone seems to be, then yes she DOES hate the Americans. She also said that she is well liked in Springfield, prompting the host to say that Springfield hates the US. The US then turns their back on Springfield (though there is widespread celebration in praise of Springfield in the Middle East), so Mayor Quimby frantically decides to change the name of Springfield to "Liberty-ville." Everything in town is quickly patriotized; the traffic light colors are changed to red, white, and blue, and everything costs $17.76. While at church, Lisa speaks her opinion about patriotism, and the Simpsons are taken into custody, in violation of the "Government Knows Best Act." The Simpsons are taken to the "Ronald Reagan Re-education Center", which houses Michael Moore, the Dixie Chicks, Elmo, Al Franken, and Bill Clinton, as well as a man who moans "My only crime was driving a van full of explosives in from Canada!". Marge feels bad that she took it too far after Homer warned her not to. With some help from the last-registered Democrat, the Simpsons escape the prison (in a parody of the escape scene from The Blues Brothers), but realize that the re- education center is actually Alcatraz Prison. While they are swimming to land (choosing to swim to Oakland instead of San Francisco because they "aren't made of money"), they are picked up by a French freighter and are brought to France. They are well adjusted, but still miss the United States, mainly because it is where all their stuff is. They then move back to the US dressed as 19th century immigrants from Europe where Homer speaks of plans of integration into the United States. ===== After seeing his wife (Janet Warren) off on her trip, Kerry West (Hans Conried), a philosophy teacher at a small-town college goes inside his home to contemplate his new purchase: a television set. Sitting down in his office, he places a cigarette in his mouth and is about to light it when a solid beam of light shoots from the television screen, lighting it for him. Absentmindedly unaware of what has taken place, it is only when the television subsequently lights his pipe that West realizes that his television is behaving abnormally. West soon discovers that the television can walk and perform a variety of functions, including dishwashing, vacuuming, and card-playing. When the television deliveryman (Edwin Max) returns to settle the bill, the television materializes copies of a five-dollar bill in order to provide payment. Yet the television soon exhibits other, more controlling traits, permitting West only a single cup of coffee and breaking West’s classical music records in favor of military marches to which it dances. After West demonstrates the television to his friend Coach Trout (Billy Lynn), the coach declares the television set to be a “twonky”, the word he used as a child to label the inexplicable. Trout concludes that the Twonky is actually a robot committed to serving West. When he tests this hypothesis by attempting to kick West, the Twonky paralyzes his leg. After tending to the coach, West attempts to write a lecture on the role of individualism in art, but the Twonky hits him with beams that alter his thoughts and censors his reading. When West attempts to give his lecture the next day, he finds himself unable to do more than ramble on about trivialities. Frustrated, West goes to the store from which his wife had ordered the television and demands that they take it back or exchange it. Meanwhile, at West’s house, the coach summons members of the college's football team and orders them to destroy the Twonky. West arrives with the television deliveryman and his replacement set, only to find the players passed out in front of the machine. Upon being awakened by West, they appear to be in a hypnotic state mumbling that they have “no complaints,” a condition the Twonky soon inflicts on the deliveryman as well. Upstairs, Trout theorizes that the Twonky is from a future “super state” that uses such machines to control the population, which the Twonky soon demonstrates by walking into the room and altering his mind so that he no longer believes there to be a problem. As the now-fixed Trout attempts to leave, police storm into the house in response to a call made by the device seeking female companionship for West, followed by Treasury men tracking down the bogus $5 bills manufactured by the set. When the law enforcement officers attempt to arrest West, though, the Twonky places all of them in a trance, and they leave without complaint. Frustrated, West escapes the house and returns drunk, only to have the Twonky return him to sobriety with a light beam. After his wife returns to see a visiting bill collector driven from their home by the machine, West decides to take action. Luring the device into his car, he attempts to crash it by a variety of means but is frustrated by the Twonky’s ability to control the vehicle. Spotting a vehicle parked alongside the road, West pulls over and abandons his car, hitching a ride from the other driver, an elderly Englishwoman. His relief at having escaped is soon negated by the woman’s erratic driving, and by the discovery that the Twonky was able to hide in the trunk. When the Twonky attempts to stop the woman’s reckless driving, it precipitates a crash that destroys itself. ===== The play tells the story of a young couple, Cathy (played by Carol White) and Reg (Ray Brooks), and their descent into poverty and homelessness. At the start of the film, Cathy leaves her parents' overcrowded rural home and hitchhikes to the city, where she finds work and meets Reg, a well-paid lorry driver. They fall in love, marry, and rent a modern flat in a building that does not allow children. Cathy soon becomes pregnant and must stop working, and Reg is injured on the job and becomes unemployed. The loss of income and birth of baby Sean force them to leave their flat, and they are unable to find another affordable place to live that permits children. They move in with Reg's mother, until tensions develop between her and Cathy in the crowded flat. A kind elderly landlady, Mrs. Alley, rents to them for a while, during which time Cathy has another son, Stevie. Mrs. Alley even allows them to stay when they fall behind on the rent. However, she dies suddenly and an agent of her nephew and heir appears at the door demanding all the back rent, which they are unable to pay. Again Cathy and Reg go house hunting but are continually turned down as they can find nothing available that permits children. During this time Cathy gives birth to her third child, a girl they call Marlene. Their new landlord takes them to court, and the judge rules against them. The family are evicted by bailiffs. The family then moves to a caravan parked in a camp where several other families are already living in caravans, but the local residents object to the camp and set it on fire, killing several children. Cathy, Reg and their children are forced to illegally squat in a wrecked, abandoned building. They repeatedly try to get decent housing through the local council, but are not helped because of their many moves and the long list of other people also seeking housing assistance. Cathy and Reg decide to separate temporarily so that Cathy and the children can move into an emergency homeless shelter where husbands are not allowed to stay. Reg leaves the area to seek employment. Cathy's loneliness and frustration finally boil over and she becomes belligerent with the shelter authorities, who are often cold and judgmental towards the women living in the shelter. Cathy's allotted time at the shelter expires while Reg is away, and she and her two remaining children (one having been sent to live with Reg's mother) have nowhere to go. They go to a railway station, where Cathy's children are taken away from her by social services. ===== Jim Halsey, a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego, spots a man hitchhiking in the West Texas desert and gives him a ride. The hitcher, John Ryder, is brooding and evasive. When Jim passes a stranded car, Ryder forces his leg down on the accelerator. Ryder states he murdered the driver and intends to do the same to Jim, threatening him with a switchblade. Terrified, Jim asks what Ryder wants. He replies, "I want you to stop me." When Jim realizes that Ryder never put on his seat belt and the car's passenger door is ajar, he shoves him out the door. Relieved, Jim continues on his journey. When he sees Ryder in the back of a family car, Jim tries to warn them but becomes involved in an accident. He later comes across the family's blood-soaked car and vomits. At an abandoned gas station, Ryder corners Jim but simply tosses him the keys he took from Jim's car. After Ryder leaves with a trucker, Jim encounters him again at another gas station, where the truck nearly runs him down as it crashes into the pumps. As Jim flees, Ryder causes the station to explode. At a roadside diner, Jim meets Nash, a waitress, and calls the police. He finds a severed finger in his food and realizes Ryder is present. The police arrest Jim, as Ryder has framed Jim for his murders. Though the police doubt his guilt, they lock him up overnight as protocol. When Jim wakes, he finds the cell door unlocked and all the officers dead. He panics and flees with a revolver. At a gas station, he sees two officers, takes them hostage, and speaks to Captain Esteridge, the officer in charge of the manhunt for Jim, on the radio. As Esteridge convinces Jim to surrender, Ryder pulls up and kills the two officers. The patrol car crashes, and Ryder disappears again. After briefly considering suicide, Jim reaches a cafe, where Ryder confronts him. After pointing out Jim's revolver is unloaded, Ryder leaves him several bullets and departs. Jim boards a bus, where he meets Nash and attempts to explain his situation. After a police car pulls over the bus, Jim surrenders, and the furious officers accuse him of killing their colleagues and attempt to kill him. Nash appears with Jim's revolver, disarms the officers, and flees with Jim in their patrol car. As the police chase after them, Ryder joins the chase and murders the officers by causing a massive car accident. Jim and Nash abandon the patrol car and hike to a motel. While Jim is in the shower, Ryder abducts Nash. Jim searches for her and is discovered by Esteridge, who takes Jim to two trucks with Nash tied between them with a gag in her mouth. Ryder is at the wheel of one truck and threatens to tear Nash apart. Esteridge tells Jim that his men cannot shoot Ryder as his foot will slip off the clutch, which would cause the truck to roll and kill Nash. Jim enters the cab with Ryder, who gives him a revolver and tells him to shoot, but Jim is unable to do so. Ryder, disappointed, releases the clutch, killing Nash. Ryder is taken into custody. Esteridge gives Jim a ride, but Jim, believing the police cannot hold Ryder, takes Esteridge's revolver and vehicle to chase down Ryder's prison bus. Ryder kills the deputies and leaps through Jim's windshield as the bus crashes. Jim slams on his brakes, sending Ryder through the windshield and onto the road. Ryder challenges Jim to run him over, which he does. As Jim leaves his car to observe Ryder's body, Ryder jumps up, and Jim shoots him repeatedly with a shotgun. Jim leans against Esteridge's car and begins smoking as the sun sets. ===== The film opens with two correctional officers and Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read watching an interview of Mark on TV in a prison cell. The scene then cuts to H Division, Pentridge Prison, Victoria, Australia, 1978. Mark is placed into a room with other cellmates, including an external group that uses the other half of the room. The man in charge, Keithy George (David Field) whistles to Mark, stating that the line placed in the center of the yard is used to separate the groups and tells him to “stay on that side and we’ll stay over here”. After a brief verbal spat between Keithy and Mark, the scene cuts to Jimmy Loughnan (Simon Lyndon), Bluey Barnes (Daniel Wyllie) and Mark in their cells. Jimmy exclaims that Keithy's in the Painters and Dockers, to which Mark replies that in prison, he's just “another bare bum in the shower.” Jimmy questions why they've been fighting with them for the past 3 years, to which Mark replies he doesn’t know. Jimmy states that there has to be a reason, to which Mark replies "We'll make one". The next day, Mark enters the room and glances over to Keithy, rushing over towards him and horrifically stabbing him multiple times in the face and neck. In his anger, Mark paces off and proceeds to process his actions. Bluey calls out to the correctional officers; all the while Mark rolls Keithy a cigarette and tells him that it’s going to be okay. After another brief verbal spat, Mark states that he's the one who runs the division. Correctional officers soon enter the room and drag Keithy out for medical treatment. Mark walks over to Bluey and Jimmy on the other side of the room, who are angered by what happened, knowing that there'll be consequences. The day following the attack, Mark is summoned to meet with two detectives; Detective Senior Sergeant Creswell (Caleb Cluff) and Detective Sergeant Wyatt (Hilton Henderson) from the Prison Liaison Office, who are investigating the attack on Keithy. Mark states that no one in the room had any idea of who attacked him. Creswell informs Mark that Keithy died that morning of exsanguination. Mark, Bluey, and Jimmy are seen in their cells, exclaiming that the Painters and Dockers will soon want to have Mark killed for killing one of their members. Mark is then met with Governor Beasley (Fred Barker), who informs him that there's a rumor that the Painters and Dockers have placed a contract on him worth $10,000. In his paranoia and effort to maintain dominance, Mark soon devises a plan to kidnap two correctional officers, lead a siege on H Division and cripple most of the inhabitants, in response to the newly created contract. Bluey and Jimmy attempt to break away from the plan, knowing that it would be a suicide mission. Mark reminds Jimmy of what he’s done for him in the past and reminds Bluey of the first time that he met him, sulking and crying in a corner. They are intimidated into agreeing. Whilst pacing back and forth in their cell, Mark, Jimmy and Bluey discuss who will be participating in the riot. Suddenly, Jimmy seemingly punches Mark’s stomach twice, before walking back a few steps while Bluey anxiously moving into the corner of the cell behind Jimmy. Mark looks down and discovers that Jimmy has shanked him twice, and then twice more, while Mark stands still in awe. Jimmy soon tears up and apologizes for doing so, but stabs him twice more before Mark pins him up against the cell wall. Jimmy is disarmed and Mark removes his own clothes, revealing that he's covered in blood. Mark begins to lose blood, collapsing onto the ground, struggling to remain conscious. Jimmy rolls him a cigarette and they call out for the correctional officers, but not before Jimmy slashes his own arm to claim self-defense. Mark soon awakens to Creswell and Wyatt informing him that Jimmy has made a statement against him. Mark recovers and is returned to a separate cell from Bluey and Jimmy. Mark, Jimmy and Bluey exchange words over the walls about the future court case between Jimmy and Mark. The scene then turns to the court case, where it's revealed that Mark is serving a 16 ½ year sentence for the attempted abduction of a judge in order to give Jimmy Loughnan freedom. Back at the Prison, Mark’s picture is all over the newspapers and Jimmy is visibly annoyed by this, Mark’s celebration is cut short when members of H Division soon display their hatred for Mark over the Prison's walls. Mark meets with Governor Beasley and other members of the Prison Board, attempting to negotiate a change of Prisons for security, which becomes unsuccessful. In response, Mark has a member of H Division cut his ears off to relocate to the mental health wing, in which he's successful in doing, and serves out the remainder of his sentence. In 1986, Mark is out of prison and reunites with an old girlfriend of his. The two spend the night drinking, taking heroin and having sex. Later on, Mark visits his father. The two have a beer together and discuss Jimmy Loughnan, who's apparently at large. Mark and Tanya later go to a club and share a few drinks, they soon run into Neville Bartos (Vince Colosimo), flaunting his wealth. Mark apologizes for the leg injury he had inflicted on Neville. Mark overthinks the situation and confronts Neville about the injury. Later at the club, Mark runs into Sammy the Turk (Serge Liistro), and accuses Tanya of flirting with him. Mark flies into a rage at this, and forcefully takes Tanya out of the club. On the way out, Neville makes an arrogant grin towards the pair leaving, to which Mark responds with revealing and firing a handgun off in the club multiple times. Outside of Tanya’s house, Mark apologizes for the evening and discusses moving away to Tasmania. Tanya laughs it off, infuriating Mark, who then accuses her of cheating. Tanya then heads inside, to which Mark heads inside soon after her. In the house, Mark catches Tanya on the phone with Neville and responds by physically abusing both her and her mother (Pam Western). Mark then storms out of the house. Mark meets with Detective Downie (Bill Young) and Detective Cooney (Peter Hardy) at a bar, feeling ashamed that he’s letting them down. Not knowing what he’s talking about, informing Mark that they don’t condone his “poetic justice”. Mark grins, salutes and unabashedly confirms that he understands perfectly what they mean. Mark later goes to Neville’s house; an angry and disgruntled Neville reluctantly lets him in. During the tour of the house, Neville feeds his dogs cocaine. In the house, Mark enjoys free alcohol and cocaine. It’s revealed that Neville is supplying most of the western suburbs of Melbourne, upon learning this, Mark begins to pressure Neville for money, insisting that he owes him. He then begins to count to 20. After ignoring Mark's threats to produce cash, Mark shoots Neville once in the abdomen. Neville's friends Robbo (Sam Houli) and Nick (Robert Rabiah), with Mark's help, take Neville to the hospital. In the background, Downie and Cooney are questioning Mark over the shooting of Neville and rumors of him having arrangements with the police force to execute criminals with impunity, and it’s also revealed that there's a contract out on him for an unknown amount. Later, Mark heads to Jimmy Loughnan’s apartment. After a brief frisking for weaponry, he is allowed to enter. He also shares the apartment with his pregnant fiancée, Mandy (Skye Wansey), and their young daughter (Annalise Emtsis). The pair are addicted to heroin and are in financial hardship. Jimmy and Mark begin to talk. Mark asks Jimmy if he’s employed and how much heroin he uses. After a few sarcastic remarks, Mark reveals that he’s working for the police, stating that he has a green light to shoot criminals and that he shot Neville. Mark realizes that Jimmy knows Neville. Mark then tells Jimmy that he heard about the contracts and that Jimmy was meant to do them, and then holds a gun to Jimmy’s head. Jimmy begs Mark not to shoot him while his kids are here. After he apologizes and gives money to Jimmy, Mark leaves. Jimmy then calls Neville, informing him that Mark is going to the Bojangles Club. After a brief phone call, Mark then runs into Sammy the Turk again. After a few drinks, Sammy and Mark go into a parking lot outside of Bojangles, Mark then produces a Sawed-off 410 Shotgun and questions Sammy on why they’re there. After a brief argument, Mark shoots him in the eye, Sammy begins to walk away and collapses. Mandy had witnessed the murder and tells Jimmy of it. The pair then leave. Later, Mark meets with Downie and Cooney, explaining the shooting of Sammy, changing the story but ultimately admitting to killing him, after Sammy supposedly took his handgun. Downie and Cooney soon affirm Mark that he isn’t the one that killed Sammy and that they believe Mark to be a liar, stating that they've picked up the man who committed the murder. Mark then later visits his father, admitting that he killed the man at Bojangles to which Keith replies; “that’s my boy, one in the skull!” Mandy Carrol turns crown witness against Mark for the murder of Sammy the Turk. It’s then revealed that Sammy took Mark out to the car park for Jimmy to cash in on the contract against Mark, but unknowingly took him to the wrong car park. Mark then beats the murder charge but is convicted of malicious wounding of Neville Bartos, and is sentenced to 5 years. The scene then turns to the interview that is viewed during the beginning of the film as it's being filmed. The scene then turns to the present day, with Mark and the two correctional officers watching the interview on TV in Mark's cell. After the interview, Mark has a brief conversation with the officers and they leave the cell. After the door closes, Mark brushes off his trousers, before staring aimlessly at the wall of his prison cell. ===== On a crowded New York City subway train, pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) steals Candy's (Jean Peters) wallet. Unbeknownst to Skip or Candy, in the wallet is microfilm of top-secret government information. Candy was delivering an envelope as a final favor to her ex-boyfriend, Joey (Richard Kiley). Joey has told her that it contains stolen business secrets and she believed him, unaware that Joey is actually a communist spy. Government agent Zara (Willis Bouchey) had Candy under surveillance, hoping she would lead him to the top man in the spy ring. He seeks police help to identify the thief. Police Captain Dan Tiger (Murvyn Vye) has professional informant Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter) brought in. She asks Zara several questions about the pickpocket's technique, and after she and Tiger agree on a price, she gives him a list of eight names; Zara quickly identifies Skip from his mug shot. Zara tries to get Skip to give up the film, revealing its importance and appealing to his (non-existent) patriotism, but Skip denies everything. Meanwhile, Joey persuades a reluctant Candy to track down the thief using her underworld connections. The trail leads to Moe, who is delighted to be able to sell the same information a second time, knowing that her good friend Skip will not mind. Candy searches Skip's waterfront shack that night while he is out. When he returns, he spots her flashlight, sneaks in and knocks her out. When she comes to, she tries to get the film from him without success. The second time she visits, she is puzzled when he calls her a "commie" and demands $25,000 for the film. Despite his rough treatment, however, she finds herself falling in love with him. Skip thinks she is only acting. When she returns to Joey, his superior gives him a day to get the film back, and leaves him a gun. Candy finally realizes the truth. She turns to Moe for help, since Skip will not believe it if she tells him he is in danger. Moe tries, but fails, to convince Skip to give the film to the government. Moe goes home, and finds Joey waiting for her. Knowing that her strength is failing, and that she doesn't have long to live in any event, Moe refuses to reveal Skip's address for any amount of money and taunts Joey for being a turncoat and a rat until he shoots her dead. The next morning, Skip returns home to find Candy there. She blames herself for Moe's death, but to her dismay, Skip is still willing to deal with Joey. When he starts to leave with the film, she knocks him out with a bottle and takes it to Zara and Tiger. Zara asks her to give Joey the film, so he can lead them to his boss. Candy does, but Joey notices that there is a frame missing. He beats Candy in an attempt to get Skip's address, then shoots her as she tries to leave. In her purse, Joey finds the address. Skip visits Candy in the hospital and comforts her. Joey and an associate go to the shack, but Skip hears them coming and hides underneath. When Joey is ordered to deliver the portion of film he does have, Skip follows him to a subway station. He watches as the film is exchanged in a restroom, then knocks out the ringleader and chases after and beats up Joey. Later, at the police station, Tiger predicts Skip will return to his criminal ways, but he and a recovered Candy depart to start a new life. ===== The American destroyer USS Bedford (DLG-113) detects a Soviet submarine in the GIUK gap near the coast of Greenland.Specifically, they are in Greenland territorial waters at the entrance to the J.C. Jacobsen Fjord, which is due northwest from Iceland. Although the U.S. and the Soviet Union are not at war, Captain Eric Finlander mercilessly harries his prey while civilian photojournalist Ben Munceford and NATO naval advisor Commodore Wolfgang Schrepke look on with mounting alarm. Finlander exploits the fact that the Russian sub has to surface periodically to replenish air and recharge batteries because it is not nuclear-powered; knowing full well it will make the Soviets more desperate. Also aboard the Bedford are Ensign Ralston, an inexperienced young officer constantly being criticised by his captain for small errors and Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, the ship's new doctor, who is a recently recalled reservist. Munceford is aboard to photograph life on a Navy destroyer but his real interest is Finlander who recently was passed over for promotion to rear admiral. Munceford is curious whether a comment made by Finlander regarding the American intervention in Cuba is the reason for his lack of promotion. This prompts the captain to become openly hostile to Munceford, who he sees as a civilian who is interfering into military matters for questioning the risks involved in continually harrying the Soviet submarine. The crew becomes increasingly fatigued by the unrelenting pursuit as the captain continually demands full attention to the instruments. At the same time, Finlander becomes intolerant of anyone who questions his tactics including the ship's doctor who advises him that crew are feeling the pressure but the captain will not relent. When the submarine is found, it ignores Finlander's order to surface and identify itself. The captain, angered by this defiant act, orders the Bedford to run over its snorkel, ordering that it be logged as an "unidentified floating object". He then orders the Bedford to arm weapons and withdraw to a distance to wait for the submerged sub to run out of air and be forced to surface. Confidently he reassures Munceford and Schrepke that he is in command of the situation and that he will not fire first but "If he fires one, I'll FIRE ONE". A tired Ensign Ralston mistakes Finlander's remark as a command to "fire one". He launches an anti-submarine rocket which destroys the submarine. Sonar then detects four Soviet nuclear-armed torpedoes targeting the destroyer. Finlander initially gives basic orders to evade but then silently steps outside the bridge. Munceford follows frantically pleading with him to do something. But the captain has realised his actions have sealed the fate of everyone on board as the ship cannot evade the nuclear torpedoes. The film ends with still shots of various crewmen "melting" as if the celluloid film were burning as the Bedford and her crew are vaporised in an atomic blast. The film's final image is a mushroom cloud. ===== At an independent record store in Delaware named Empire Records, employee Lucas has been tasked by store manager Joe with closing the store for the first time. While counting the day's receipts in Joe's office, Lucas discovers that Empire Records is about to be sold and converted into a branch of Music Town, a large national chain. Determined to keep the store independent, Lucas hatches a plan and takes the day's cash receipts of approximately $9,000 to a casino in Atlantic City and quadruple it playing Craps. Though he successfully doubles the money on his first roll, he loses everything on the second. Lucas is found the following morning by fellow Empire employees A.J. and Mark. He confides in the pair about the previous night's events, just before riding off on his motorcycle. Joe arrives and quickly receives frantic phone calls about the missing deposit from both the bank and the store's owner, Mitchell Beck. Other employees arrive for work, including overachieving high school student Corey and her uninhibited best friend Gina. Hostile employee Deb, who has survived an apparent suicide attempt, also arrives. When Lucas arrives, Joe confronts him about the missing deposit, and Lucas confirms the money was lost. Joe explains his anti-Music Town plan to the employees - he had saved enough money to invest and become part-owner of the store to save it, but will now be $9,000 short when he covers for the missing money with Mitchell. Joe is distracted from dealing with the crisis due to a major store event: Rex Manning Day. Manning is a washed-up 1980s pop idol who will be performing an autograph session at the store for fans. The staff is unenthused and reacts by mocking both Manning and the event, and ultimately many of the fans showing up to meet him are either older women or gay men. Shoplifter "Warren" is taken away by police but vows to return seeking revenge. Though detained by Joe in his office, Lucas nonetheless apprehends a belligerent young shoplifter who identifies himself only as "Warren Beatty". Encouraged by Gina, Corey indulges her schoolgirl crush on Manning by attempting to seduce him, but winds up humiliated and dejected; A.J. then chooses this inopportune time to confess his love to Corey, which she rejects. After Gina and Corey argue about their respective bad reputations, Gina has sex with Manning. When this is discovered by the staff, A.J. attacks Manning, Gina reveals Corey's addiction to amphetamines, Corey hysterically trashes the store, and Joe asks Manning to leave the store. Deb reacts uncharacteristically to Corey's dilemma by attempting to cheer her up, and in return Corey holds a mock funeral for Deb which the whole staff attends. The belligerent young shoplifter "Warren" returns to the store with a gun (ultimately loaded with blanks), and Lucas defuses the situation by revealing that he himself was a troubled youth until he was taken in and saved by Joe. Joe in turn offers "Warren" a job at the store. After the police leave, Lucas admits defeat, and suggests confessing the truth about the missing money to store owner Mitchell. However, the staff try to replace the missing money but can only raise $3000. Suddenly inspired, Mark runs in front of the store to a news crew covering the holdup, and announces on live TV a late-night benefit party at the store to "Save the Empire". The store opens its doors and collects donations during an impromptu concert on the roof by Gina and another employee named Berko. Joe hands the money raised to Mitchell, who confesses that he hates the store and offers to sell it to Joe. Corey finally finds a dejected A.J. on the roof fixing the Empire Records sign, and confesses that she loves him too. A.J. decides to attend art school in Boston so he can be near her while she attends Harvard. They kiss, and the staff ends the long day with a dance party on the roof. ===== The Scarecrow is upset when Professor Woggle-bug tells him that he has no family, so he goes back to the corn-field where Dorothy Gale found him to trace his "roots." When he fails to return, Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion set out to search for him. They meet an elderly knight, Sir Hokus of Pokes. They also meet the Doubtful Dromedary and the Comfortable Camel. Together, they have several curious adventures while searching for the Scarecrow. In this novel the Scarecrow discovers that, in a previous incarnation, he was human. More specifically, he was the Emperor of the Silver Islands, a kingdom located deep underground beneath the Munchkin region of Oz, inhabited by people who resemble Chinamen. When Dorothy first discovered the Scarecrow (in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) he was hanging from a beanpole in a cornfield; it now develops that this pole descends deep underground to the Silver Islands. The Emperor of the Silver Islands had been transformed into a crocus by an enemy magician; this magical crocus had sprouted and grown into the beanpole all the way up to the surface of the earth. When the farmer placed his scarecrow on the beanpole, the spirit of the transformed Emperor entered the Scarecrow's body, causing him to come to life. The Scarecrow digs at the base of the beanpole and slides down the beanpole to the Silver Islands. The islanders hail him as the Emperor, returned to save his people. After spending some time in his former kingdom ruling the quarrelsome Silver Islanders, the Scarecrow decides to return to Oz and continue his carefree existence there. The islanders, however, are reluctant to let him go, and plot to change him back into his human form, an 85-year-old man. Dorothy and her party reach the Silver Islands, rescue the Scarecrow from the islanders, and accompany him back to the Emerald City. Sir Hokus, the Comfortable Camel, and the Doubtful Dromedary become residents of the Emerald City. Sir Hokus and the Comfortable Camel return as principal characters in The Yellow Knight of Oz. ===== Daniel Kintner and Susan Watkins are frustrated that their hard-working lives do not allow them to spend much time together. They decide to go on a scuba- diving vacation to help improve their relationship. On their second day, they join a group scuba dive. A head count is taken and the passenger total is recorded as 20. Daniel and Susan decide to separate briefly from the group while underwater. Half an hour later, the group returns to the boat; two members of the group are inadvertently counted twice, so the dive master thinks that everyone is back on board and the boat leaves the site. However, Daniel and Susan are still underwater, unaware that the others have returned. When they resurface, the boat has gone. They believe that the group will soon return to recover them. Stranded at sea, it slowly dawns on Daniel and Susan that their boat is not coming back for them. They bicker, battle bouts of hunger and mental exhaustion and realize that they have probably drifted far from the dive site. They also realize that sharks have been circling them below the surface. Soon, jellyfish appear, stinging them both, while sharks come in close. Susan receives a small shark bite on the leg, but does not immediately realize it, Daniel goes under and discovers a small fish feeding on the exposed flesh of her bite wound. Later, a shark bites Daniel and the wound begins to bleed profusely. Susan removes her weight belt and uses it to apply pressure to Daniel's wound, but he appears to go into shock. After night falls, sharks return and attack Daniel during a storm, killing him. The next morning, Daniel and Susan's belongings are finally noticed on the boat by a crew member and he realizes that they must have been left at the dive site. A search for the couple begins. Susan realizes that Daniel is dead and releases him into the water, where sharks attack and pull him down in a feeding frenzy. After putting on her mask, she looks beneath the surface and sees several large sharks now circling her. Susan looks around one last time for any sign of coming rescue; seeing none, she removes her scuba gear and goes underwater to drown before the sharks can attack. Elsewhere, a fishing crew cut open a newly caught shark's stomach, finding a diving camera (apparently that of Daniel and Susan). One of the fishermen asks offhandedly to another, "Wonder if it works?" In a deleted scene included on the film's Blu-ray DVD release, entitled "Susan Not Responding", Susan is shown having fainted. Daniel yells repeatedly to her, but she does not respond to him. ===== In 1916, the bandit "El Guapo" and his gang are collecting protection money from the Mexican village of Santo Poco. Carmen, daughter of the village leader, searches for someone who can come to the rescue of her townspeople. While visiting a village church, she sees a silent film featuring "The Three Amigos", a trio of gunfighters who protect the vulnerable from villains. Believing them to be real heroes, Carmen sends a telegram asking them to come and stop El Guapo. Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander are silent film actors from Los Angeles, California, who portray the Amigos on screen. When they demand a salary increase, studio executive Harry Flugleman fires them. Shortly afterward, they receive Carmen's telegram but misinterpret it as an invitation to appear in character and perform a show for the people of Santo Poco. After breaking into the studio to retrieve their costumes, the Amigos head for Mexico. Stopping at a cantina near Santo Poco, they are mistaken for associates of a fast-shooting German pilot, who arrived just before they did and who is also in search of El Guapo. The Amigos perform a musical at the Cantina, singing "My Little Buttercup", and leave the locals confused. The German's real associates then arrive at the cantina, proving themselves lethal with their pistols when everyone else laughs at them. A relieved Carmen picks up the Amigos and takes them to the village, where they are put up in the best house in town and pampered. The next morning, when three of El Guapo's men come to raid the village, the Amigos do a Hollywood-style stunt show that leaves the men bemused. The bandits ride off, making everyone think that the Amigos have defeated the enemy. In reality, the men inform El Guapo of what has happened, and he decides to return the next day and kill the Amigos. The village throws a victorious party for the Amigos. The next morning, El Guapo and his gang come to Santo Poco and call out the Amigos, but the Amigos think this is another show. After Lucky gets shot in the arm, the Amigos realize that these are real bandits and beg for mercy. El Guapo allows the Amigos to live, then has his men loot the village and kidnap Carmen. The Amigos leave Santo Poco in humiliation. Ned persuades Lucky and Dusty to go after El Guapo, saying that they have nothing worth going back to in America and this is their chance to be real heroes. They spot a cargo plane and follow it; the plane is flown by the German, who has brought a shipment of rifles for the gang. Preparations are underway for El Guapo's 40th birthday party, and he plans to make Carmen his bride. The Amigos try to sneak into the hideout, with mixed results: Lucky is captured and chained up in a dungeon, Dusty crashes through a window into Carmen's room, and Ned ends up stuck, suspended from a piñata. Lucky frees himself, but Dusty and Ned are held hostage. The German, having idolized Ned's quick-draw and gun spinning pistol skills since childhood, challenges him to a shootout. Ned kills the German, and Lucky holds El Guapo at gunpoint long enough for Carmen and the Amigos to escape in the German's plane. Returning to Santo Poco with El Guapo's army in pursuit, the Amigos rally the villagers to stand up for themselves. Drawing inspiration from one of their old films, they have the villagers create improvised Amigos costumes. The bandits arrive, only to find themselves suddenly being shot at by Amigos from all sides and falling into hidden trenches dug by the villagers. El Guapo's men either ride off or are shot, and he takes a fatal wound as well. As he lies dying, the villagers, all dressed as Amigos, step out to confront him. El Guapo congratulates them, then shoots Lucky in the foot and dies. The villagers offer to give the Amigos all the money they have, but the Amigos refuse it, saying (as in their movies) that "seeing justice done is enough of a reward for them". They then ride off into the sunset. ===== Colonel Proudfoot (Barker) of Proudfoot Industries aims to entice a couple of dentists to advertise "Dreem", a revolutionary type of toothpaste, but he knows that if the dentists learn that they are part of an advertising campaign, they will be struck off. His cousin, the director of a Dental School (also Barker), sees his chance to rid the field of dentistry of two newly qualified incompetents David Cookson and Brian Dexter (Monkhouse and Stevens). However, once employed by Proudfoot, they set about improving on Dreem's terrible formula, and accidentally succeed in creating a much better toothpaste. Their attempts to convince Proudfoot of its merits are foiled by Proudfoot's assistant, Macreedy (Wattis). They then read a newspaper article about the forthcoming launch of a rocket from a British base carrying a satellite which will continuously broadcast a taped message of peace from the President of the United States, and conceive a plan. They record an impromptu commercial for the new formula Dreem and, with the help of an ex-convict friend Sam Field (Connor) and actress Jill Venner (Eaton), manage to smuggle it aboard the rocket in place of the President's speech, guaranteeing Proudfoot years of free advertising. The resulting publicity ensures the product's success and the pair are promoted. ===== Set in third century BC China, the story of The Emperor's Shadow revolves around the relationship between Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, and later the First Emperor; and the musician Gao Jianli. Gao Jianli's mother was the king's wet nurse when the young king was a hostage in the Zhao state, but they were separated after the former returns to Qin to become king. After reaching adulthood, Ying Zheng embarks on a series of wars to fulfill his plan of unifying China. He kidnaps Gao Jianli from the Yan state to compose a powerful anthem for his new state. The two conflict over the new composition, the construction of grand public works, Ying Zheng's ruthless mass killing policies, and Ying Zheng's daughter, Princess Yueyang. ===== Leo (John Hannah) and Lily (Famke Janssen) are a couple and a couple of con artists. Lily wants to get out of the racket and settle down in a nice place somewhere far away. Leo agrees saying that within a week they should have enough to leave for good. Leo's cousin Bruno (Brian Conley) is having a problem with his casino losing money. He wants Leo to run it. But he hates Leo and wants to get rid of him. Further complicating Leo's life is Julius (Peter Stormare) who has asked Leo to kill his wife, Gloria. Only when it comes time to be paid, Julius, who has Leo committing the murder on tape, confesses he does not have a wife; he paid a woman to pretend to be his wife. Julius wants 500,000 in pounds, otherwise he will release the tape to the authorities. Then Moose shows up and He is looking for a woman who is the love of his life. Her name is Gloria. He asks if Leo could help him find her and Leo reluctantly agrees. Finally, there's Troy, a loan shark. Leo owes him a lot of money, but he has lost it all at the track. Troy is getting increasingly impatient and violent as he does not like to be kept waiting on his money. Evidence is piling up that Lily is working a con on Leo. With all these problems, it does not look as if Leo will survive the week. Bruno's in trouble with the Inland Revenue, so his accountant, Julius, comes up with an idea to con Lily by turning all of Bruno's shipping company over to her, while Bruno pockets a $20 million. Only the problem is that Leo has got to Julius first and worked out a con of his own. Together Julius and Leo staged Gloria's murder. Leo goes to meet Julius with the blackmail money. Bruno has men with guns waiting, but Moose shows up to even out the fight. A bloodbath ensues and Julius, the only survivor, tells the tale to Bruno. Only Leo is not dead, and he leaves a recording that Lily finds and then shows to Bruno. Leo figured out that Lily was conning him, and he confesses that he stole Bruno's money. An enraged Lily and Bruno go to find Julius and catch him as he is splitting town. But then Leo shows up wanting to kill Bruno. Bruno says that Leo cannot possibly kill him because he would have to kill his wife also. Reluctantly Leo agrees, and shoots Lily. Then he convinces Julius that the only way they can be partners is if he kills Bruno, so that they have a murder each on their hands. Julius does not mean to, but the gun goes off and Bruno is dead. During their getaway, Julius begins to feel odd. Leo confesses that he slipped a sedative into Julius' drink. He leaves a drugged Julius by the side of the road and with the con finished he makes his way to the train station where he meets up with Lily. ===== The plot revolves around the character of Augusto, a wealthy, intellectual and introverted young man. He falls in love with a young woman named Eugenia as she walks past him on the street, and he sets about trying to court her. He is aided in his efforts by the other members of Eugenia's household. Her Aunt Ermelinda is particularly keen for a relationship to evolve, so that Augusto might help with her niece's financial troubles. Nevertheless, Eugenia rejects his advances, since she is already in a relationship with the down-and-out Mauricio. Augusto pays off Eugenia's mortgage as a goodwill gesture without her knowing, but this only serves to insult Eugenia, rather than endear him to her. In the meantime, Augusto becomes involved with another girl, Rosario, and he begins to question if he is really in love with Eugenia at all. After talking with various friends and acquaintances, Augusto decides he will propose to Eugenia in any case. To his surprise, Eugenia accepts the engagement. A few days before the marriage is to occur, Augusto receives a letter from Eugenia. The letter explained that she was leaving him for Mauricio. Augusto, heartbroken, decides to kill himself. Because everything Augusto does involves a lengthy thought process, he decides that he needs to consult Unamuno himself (the author of the novel), who had written an article on suicide which Augusto had read. When Augusto speaks with Unamuno, the truth is revealed that Augusto is actually a fictional character whom Unamuno has created. Augusto is not real, Unamuno explains, and for that reason cannot kill himself. Augusto asserts that he exists, even though he acknowledges internally that he doesn't, and threatens Unamuno by telling him that he is not the ultimate author. Augusto reminds Unamuno that he might be just a character in one of God's dreams. Augusto returns to his home and dies. Whether or not he is killed by Unamuno or commits suicide is a subject of debate and is mostly down to the reader's opinion. The book ends with the author himself debating himself about bringing back the character of Augusto. He establishes, however, that this would not be feasible. The eulogy is given by Orfeo, Augusto's dog. The title, Spanish for 'fog', is a reference to how Augusto sees his life. Augusto describes his world as full of small and almost imperceptible occurrences, some of them good, some of them bad, that all serve to obscure his vision. =====