From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The following synopsis is based on videos of the show as provided by the production manager, Chris Mitchell, and the script he provided to pocketmonsters.net. ===== Arthur (Ken Campbell) and George (Vas Blackwood) are two London sewage workers who discover a tunnel in one of the walls, a tunnel with which neither of them is familiar. Arthur starts exploring the tunnel alone, while newbie George stays behind. After a while, George decides to enter the tunnel too and soon discovers Arthur, injured and in a state of shock. Moments later, a similarly injured young woman jumps out in front of them, crying for help, only to be pulled back into the darkness. The focus then shifts to a young German woman, Kate (Franka Potente), at a party. After hearing that her friend Jemma went to seek George at another party without her, even though they had planned to go together, she decides to try and join her. She heads to Charing Cross Underground station but soon falls asleep on the platform while waiting for the train. When she awakens, she is alone; and the entire station has been locked up for the night. An empty train arrives, and she boards it; but it soon abruptly stops, and the lights go dark. While searching for help, she meets Guy (Jeremy Sheffield), a coworker who followed her from the party and whose awkward advances she kept rejecting. Guy, who appears to be under the influence, starts to flirt aggressively, the situation quickly escalating into a rape attempt, only to be stopped by an unseen aggressor who drags Guy out of the train. Guy briefly reemerges, covered in blood, warning Kate to run. Kate flees from the train and runs into a homeless Scottish couple living in a storeroom, Jimmy (Paul Rattray) and Mandy (Kelly Scott), and their dog Ray. Kate explains what happened, and Jimmy reluctantly agrees to help her by taking her to the night guard after she pays him. Together, they find Guy, horribly maimed and in shock but still alive. Meanwhile, Mandy, left alone, is also attacked and kidnapped, triggering Jimmy's despair and escape into a heroin-induced stupor. Kate manages to communicate with the security guard through intercom, but the man gets killed before being able to call for help. Guy, meanwhile, also dies of his wounds. Kate and Jimmy decide to walk through the tunnel to the next station. A train passes by and stops near them, and Kate fears that the maniac killer might be driving it. Jimmy decides to face him to avenge Mandy's probable death, but he is slaughtered as well. While fleeing in panic, Kate falls into the sewer system below the station, where she finds Arthur's body. Moving on from there, she ends up in a storage facility with hundreds of boxes, where she finally meets and is captured by the killer, the titular "creep"—a hideously deformed, mentally ill hermit named Craig (Sean Harris), who keeps his victims in semi-submerged, rat-infested cages until they're dead, after which he eats them. Kate finds herself in one of these cages, along with George. Together, they manage to escape and end up in an abandoned medical facility (looking like an illegal abortion clinic with a long series of fetuses lined up along a wall), where they find an unconscious Mandy strapped to a rusty surgical chair. Thinking she's dead, Kate and George move on. After they're gone, Craig puts on a surgical gown and mimics the gestures of a surgeon in front of a terrorized Mandy before he disembowels her with a bone saw while apparently mimicking an abortion procedure. Back in the railway tunnels, Kate and George find the disused railcar where Craig lives. Ray is there, along with old pictures of a medical doctor with a deformed child. Craig ambushes them, but George gains the upper hand. Kate has an opportunity to finish the creep; but Craig parrots Mandy's pleas for mercy, which confuses Kate long enough for Craig to kill George. Kate tries to run away, but she's relentlessly hunted down by Craig. In a last, desperate effort, she sinks a hook and chain in Craig's throat, then has a running train rip it apart and Craig eventually bleeds to death. Tattered and filthy, Kate eventually gets back to the initial station, by which point it's already the next morning. She collapses on a platform's floor, and Ray the dog shows up and curls onto her lap. Mistaking her for a beggar, a man waiting for the train leaves a coin next to her. Kate breaks into hysterical giggles and tears. ===== The series focuses on the major events which occurred during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing dynasty. These include the power struggle with Oboi, the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, and the campaign against the Kingdom of Tungning. ===== In 1840, Loxi Claiborne (Goddard) is running a marine salvage business started by her deceased father. A hurricane is passing through the Key West area, leaving behind at least one wreck on the nearby shoals. The Jubilee founders, and Loxi and other salvagers race to claim the cargo. Not arriving first, Loxi and her crew rescue the captain, Jack Stuart (Wayne), but do not share in the salvage rights. Apparently, the first salvager on the scene, King Cutler (Raymond Massey), may have actually planned the wreck. Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard Nursing Jack back to health, Loxi falls in love with him. When she visits Charleston with her cousin Drusilla (Hayward), Loxi schemes to win a plum captain's position for Jack by seducing Steve Tolliver (Milland), who is running the sailing ship line for which Jack works. Steve falls for Loxi and returns with her to Key West to investigate the truth about Jack's shipwreck. Drusilla goes home to Havana when Loxi and Steve return to Key West. Steve has come to rid the Keys of pirates like Cutler (and to be near Loxi). Cutler, in turn, arranges to have Steve shanghaied by the crew of a whaler. Loxi hears of the plot and gets Jack to help her save Steve. Later, they discover that Steve has concealed Jack's appointment to the steamship Southern Cross on orders from his superior. Angry over a seemingly underhanded act, Jack meets with Cutler. He learns that Steve's boss has just died and that Steve will be taking over the shipping line. Jack realizes that he is unlikely to keep his command with Steve in charge and agrees to work with Cutler to sabotage his new ship; he sails to Havana to take command. John Wayne as Jack Stuart in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) Rumors circulate and prices of the cargo of the Southern Cross fluctuate wildly, leaving Steve to suspect a wreck is planned. He commandeers the Claiborne with Loxi on board and heads to Havana to stop Jack. Loxi, believing Jack is innocent, disables her ship, and they sit becalmed in a fog bank as the Southern Cross piles into a reef and sinks. Unknown to Jack, Drusilla had stowed away to be with her lover, King Cutler's brother Dan (Preston), and she drowned. Jack is put on trial for wrecking his ship. The testimony reveals a woman may have been on board, though none was rescued. To determine if a woman is in the wreck, Steve agrees to dive to the wreck with Jack. While down in the wreck, Jack and Steve discover proof that Drusilla was on board and has been drowned. They are attacked by a giant squid. Jack saves Steve's life, but is lost when the Southern Cross slips off the continental shelf into deep water. Dan Cutler accuses his brother of murder and is shot dead by him, whereupon, Steve shoots King Cutler, killing him. Loxi and Steve return to Charleston together. ===== Between 1980 and 1982, Toronto bank employee Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is given access to bigger and bigger accounts with his promotion to assistant branch manager. His boss trusts him, but is unaware that Mahowny is a compulsive gambler. Mahowny is soon skimming larger and larger amounts for his own use and making weekly trips to Atlantic City, where he is treated like a king by a competent casino manager (John Hurt). Mahowny's girlfriend, fellow bank employee Belinda (Minnie Driver), cannot understand what is happening. Mahowny's criminal acts come to light when Toronto police begin to investigate his longtime bookie Frank (Maury Chaykin). The movie's focus is on Mahowny as a character—how his compulsion drives him and all the domino effects it has on the rest of his life. The love story between Mahowny and Belinda and the inclusion of other finely drawn characters such as hapless casino employee Bernie (Chris Collins) put the emphasis squarely on the gambling addiction, not on the flash and sizzle of big casinos or multimillion-dollar frauds. ===== Workaholic Minneapolis mattress salesman Howard Langston loves his wife, Liz, and nine- year-old son, Jamie, but is unable to find time for his family and often put in a bad light by his neighbor, divorcé Ted Maltin, who harbors unrequited feelings for Liz. After missing Jamie's karate class graduation, Howard resolves to redeem himself by fulfilling Jamie's Christmas wish of an action figure of Turbo-Man, a popular television superhero, despite Liz actually having asked him to buy one two weeks earlier, which Howard forgot about. On Christmas Eve, Howard sets out to buy the toy, but finds that every store has sold out, and in the process develops a rivalry with Myron Larabee, a postal worker father with the same ambition. In desperation, Howard attempts to buy a figure from a counterfeit toy brand, which results in a massive fight in the warehouse that is broken up when the police arrive. Howard narrowly escapes arrest by posing as an undercover officer. Exhausted at his failure and out of fuel, Howard goes to Mickey's Diner and calls home, intending to tell his wife the truth. Jamie answers the phone but keeps reminding Howard of his promise to be home in time for the annual Holiday Wintertainment Parade. Losing his patience, Howard yells at Jamie, after which he feels guilty and depressed after Jamie scolds him for not keeping his promises. Howard finds Myron at the diner and they share their experiences over coffee, where Myron tells Howard of his resentment towards his own father for failing to get him a Johnny Seven OMA for Christmas. A radio station advertises a competition for a Turbo-Man doll. The ensuing fight between Howard and Myron results in the diner's phone getting damaged, forcing Howard and Myron to race to the radio station on foot, where the DJ tells them that the competition was actually for a Turbo- Man gift certificate. The police are alerted, but Howard and Myron escape after Myron threatens the officers with a letter bomb, which one officer sets off by accident. Upon returning to his car, Howard finds it stripped by car thieves, with "Merry X-Mas" spray-painted on the windshield. He returns home in a tow truck only to find Ted putting the star on his Christmas tree. In retaliation, Howard attempts to steal the Turbo-Man doll Ted bought for his son, Johnny, but is caught in the act and left alone while his family go to the Christmas parade with Ted. After letting Jamie and Johnny out of the car, Ted attempts to seduce Liz, but she violently rejects him by hitting him with a thermos of eggnog that Ted offered to her. Meanwhile, remembering his promise to Jamie to go to the parade, Howard decides to attend as well, but runs into the officer from the radio station. The ensuing chase leads to Howard hiding inside a storage room, where he is mistaken for the actor portraying Turbo-Man and dressed in the highly technological costume. As Turbo-Man, Howard uses his chance to present a limited-edition action figure to Jamie, but they are confronted by Myron, dressed as Turbo-Man's enemy, Dementor. Despite Howard's pleas for Myron to stop, a long chase ensues, involving even a jetpack flight. Myron acquires the toy from Jamie but is cornered by police officers, while Howard saves his son. Howard reveals himself to his family and apologizes for his shortcomings. The police return the toy to Jamie as Myron is arrested, but Jamie decides to give the toy to Myron for his son, proclaiming his father as his true hero. In a post-credits scene, that night, Howard finishes decorating their Christmas tree by putting the star on top. But when Liz asks Howard what he got for her, he realizes in horror that he forgot to get Liz a gift. ===== The mini-series begins shortly after its predecessor, with Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios in their freshman year at Columbia University. Elektra can only stand by as her father makes a deal with his cousins, Paul and Leonder, who are in organized crime, so that he can rebuild the family's laundromat. Paul and Leonder hope to launder the money earned from their criminal life, but their book keeper Kenneth Cullen has turned state's evidence. Elektra Natchios makes a bargain with her cousins, she will recover the evidence in return for her father's financial freedom. She fakes being a call girl so that she can recover the evidence, just in time to see Kenneth Cullen killed by Benjamin Poindexter (Ultimate Bullseye) who was sent by the Kingpin. ===== Arkady Kirsanov has just graduated from the University of Petersburg and returns with a friend, Bazarov, to his father's modest estate in an outlying province of Russia. His father, Nikolay, gladly receives the two young men at his estate, called Marino, but Nikolay's brother, Pavel, soon becomes upset by the strange new philosophy called "nihilism" which the young men, especially Bazarov, advocate. Nikolay, initially delighted to have his son return home, slowly begins to feel uneasy. A certain awkwardness develops in his regard toward his son, as Arkady's radical views, much influenced by Bazarov, make Nikolay’s own beliefs feel dated. Nikolay has always tried to stay as current as possible, by doing things such as visiting his son at school so the two can stay as close as they are, but this in Nikolay's eyes has failed. To complicate this, the father has taken a servant, Fenechka, into his house to live with him and has already had a son by her, named Mitya. Arkady, however, is not troubled by the relationship: to the contrary, he openly celebrates the addition of a younger brother. The two young men stay over at Marino for some weeks, then decide to visit a relative of Arkady's in a neighboring province. There, they observe the local gentry and meet Madame Anna Sergevna Odintsova, an elegant woman of independent means, who cuts a seductively different figure from the pretentious or humdrum types of her surrounding provincial society of gentry. Both are attracted to her, and she, intrigued by Bazarov's singular manner, invites them to spend a few days at her estate, Nikolskoye. While Bazarov at first feels nothing for Anna, Arkady falls head over heels in love with her. At Nikolskoye, they also meet Katya, Anna Sergevna's sister. Although they remain for only a short period, both characters undergo significant change: their relationship with each other is especially affected, as Arkady has begun to find himself and drift from the position of Bazarov's follower. Bazarov, in particular, finds falling in love distressing because it runs against his nihilist beliefs. Eventually, prompted by Odintsova's own cautious expressions of attraction to him, he announces that he loves her. She does not respond overtly to his declaration, though she too is deeply drawn to Bazarov while finding his dismissal of feelings and the aesthetic side of existence troublesome. While Anna does have some feelings toward Bazarov, they are not akin toward love and Anna cannot open herself to him because she does not see the possibility of a good future with him. After his avowal of love, and her failure to make a similar declaration, Bazarov proceeds to his parents' home, and Arkady decides to accompany him. At Bazarov's home, they are received enthusiastically by his parents, and the traditional mores of both father and mother, who adulate their son, are portrayed with a nostalgic, idealistic description of humble people and their fast-disappearing world of simple values and virtues. Bazarov's social cynicism, invariably on display with outsiders, is still quite clear as he settles back into his own family's ambiance. Interrupting his father as he speaks to Arkady, he proves rather abrupt and still the powerful center of attention despite being around his parents. Arkady, who has delighted Bazarov's father by assuring him that his son has a brilliant future in store, in turn, reproves his friend for his brusqueness. Later, Bazarov almost comes to blows with Arkady after the latter makes a joke about fighting over Bazarov's cynicism. This once again shows the distance and changes within Arkady and Bazarov's relationship, as Arkady becomes more defiant against Bazarov's ideals. After a brief stay, much to the parents' disappointment, they decide to return to Marino, stopping on the way to see Madame Odintsova, who receives them coolly. They leave almost immediately and return to Arkady's home. Arkady remains for only a few days and makes an excuse to leave in order to go to Nikolskoye again. Once there, he realizes he is not in love with Odintsova, but instead with her sister Katya. Bazarov stays at Marino to do some scientific research, and tension between him and Pavel increases. Bazarov enjoys talking with Fenechka and playing with her child, and one day he kisses her, against her will. Pavel observes this kiss and, secretly in love with Fenechka himself and in protection of both Fenechka and Nikolay's feelings for her, challenges Bazarov to a duel. Pavel is wounded in the leg, and Bazarov must leave Marino. He stops for an hour or so at Madame Odintsova's, then continues on to his parents' home. Meanwhile, Arkady and Katya have fallen in love and have become engaged. Anna Sergevna Odinstova is hesitant to accept Arkady's request to marry her sister, but Bazarov convinces her to allow the marriage. While back at home, Bazarov changes quite drastically. Instead of focusing on his experiments he turns to help his father in being a country doctor. At home, Bazarov cannot keep his mind on his work and while performing an autopsy fails to take the proper precautions. He cuts himself and contracts blood poisoning. On his deathbed, he sends for Madame Odintsova, who arrives just in time to hear Bazarov tell her how beautiful she is. She kisses him on the forehead and leaves; Bazarov dies from his illness the following day. Arkady marries Katya and takes over the management of his father's estate. His father marries Fenechka and is delighted to have Arkady home with him. Pavel leaves the country and lives the rest of his life as a "noble" in Dresden, Germany. ===== As the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the British to the People's Republic of China nears, Bond is given ten days to investigate a series of terrorist attacks that could disrupt the fragile handover and cause the breakout of a large-scale war. Simultaneously a nuclear bomb is test-detonated in the Australian outback. In Hong Kong, Bond suspects a British shipping magnate, Guy Thackeray, who he catches cheating at mahjong at a casino in Macau. Later, after cheating the cheater and winning a large sum of Thackeray's money, Bond attends a press conference where Thackeray announces that he is selling his company, EurAsia Enterprises, to the Chinese; not disclosed to the public is that this is due to a long-forgotten legal document that grants the descendants of Li Wei Tam ownership of the company if the British were to ever lose control of Hong Kong. Because the descendants were believed to have abandoned China, General Wong claims the document on behalf of the Chinese government and forces Thackeray out. Immediately following the announcement, Thackeray is killed by a car bomb planted by an unknown assassin, the latest of a series of assassinations that claimed the lives of the entire EurAsia board of directors, as well as several employees. Through his Hong Kong contact, T.Y. Woo, Bond also investigates Li Xu Nan, the Triad head of the Dragon Wing society and the rightful descendant of Li Wei Tam. Li's identity as the Triad head is supposed to be a secret, though after Bond involves a hostess, Sunni Pei, 007 is forced to protect her from the Triads for breaking an oath of secrecy. When she is finally captured, Bond makes a deal, off the record, to go to Guangzhou and retrieve the long-forgotten document from General Wong that will give Li Xu Nan ownership of EurAsia Enterprises upon the handover at midnight on July 1, 1997. Through Li's contacts, Bond successfully travels and meets General Wong in Guangzhou under the guise of a solicitor from England. Bond's cover is later blown and T.Y. Woo, who followed Bond, is executed. Bond avenges his friend's death by killing General Wong, stealing the document, which he hand-delivers to Li Xu Nan, and rescuing Sunni Pei. With Li Xu Nan in Bond's debt, Bond uses Li's contacts to go to Australia to investigate EurAsia Enterprises and find a link between it and the nuclear blast. As it turns out Thackeray is very much alive and has been mining unreported uranium in Australia to make his own nuclear bomb, which he plans to detonate in Hong Kong at the moment the handover takes place in retaliation for the loss of his family's legacy. Returning to Hong Kong, Bond, Li Xu Nan, and a Royal Navy captain track down Thackeray's nuclear bomb and defuse it. The battle claims the lives of Li Xu Nan as well as Thackeray, who is drowned by Bond in the harbour. ===== Pat Riley is a chubby, whiny, and obnoxious job-hopper of indeterminate gender who is searching for a steady foundation in life. Pat encounters Chris, whose sex is also unrevealed. The two fall in love, and get engaged. Meanwhile, Pat's neighbor, Kyle Jacobsen, develops an unhealthy obsession with unveiling Pat's sex, and begins stalking Pat. Kyle sends in a tape of Pat performing karaoke to a TV show called America's Creepiest People, bringing Pat to the attention of the band Ween, who feature Pat in one of their performances; Pat plays the tuba. When Pat learns that Ween intended to only use Pat for one gig, Pat and Chris break up. Kyle steals the laptop containing Pat's diary and tries to coerce Pat into revealing the computer's password, so he can access the files. Pat's only answer is that the word is in the dictionary. Kyle then begins to type in every single word in the dictionary. Meanwhile, a gang of thugs intent on discovering Pat's sex begin harassing Pat, and Pat becomes distraught over the thugs' androgynous nature. Pat goes to complain to Kathy, a friend who is a therapist and host of a radio talk show. When Pat gives acerbic reactions to call-in listeners, the station fires Kathy and replaces her with Pat. Kyle ends up going through the entire dictionary until he reaches the last word, "zythum" (an Egyptian malt beer), which is the password. After reading through the diary, he discovers no new information in regards to Pat's sex, and finally snaps. Kyle calls into Pat's radio show, and tells Pat to meet him at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, stating that this is the only chance for Pat to retrieve the laptop. Pat arrives to find Kyle dressed exactly like Pat. Kyle demands that Pat strip naked, but Pat runs off into a Ween concert. After Kyle corners Pat on a catwalk, Pat falls, and Pat's clothes get caught on a hook. This tears off Pat's pants and lowers Pat in front of the cheering audience, though Pat's genitals are revealed neither to Kyle nor to the moviegoer. Kyle is subsequently taken away by security guards. Pat then runs to see Chris, just as Chris is leaving on an ocean liner. In an epilogue, Pat and Chris get married. During the end credits, Kathy is now hosting her radio show again and the first caller is none other than Kyle, whose obsession with Pat has driven him to cross-dressing. ===== The story spans four days in the life of Robert "Bob" Jones, a newcomer to Los Angeles from Ohio. With some college education, he works as a crew leader in a naval shipyard. In this period, black workers are gaining opportunities in the defense industry as a result of executive orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. However, Jones cannot escape the pressures of racism. He believes he was promoted as a supervisor only to gain the cooperation of black workers in the war effort. He is forced to deal with anti-communist paranoia, resentment from whites on the floor working at the same jobs as "colored boys", and the baiting of black workers by some white females. His fears invade his dreams, aspirations, and passions. His dream of making something of himself in California is jeopardized as he reacts to the actions of the white people around him. He struggles to contain his urges to fight, kill, and rape as ways to overcome his resentment of white power arrayed against him. The main characters are the protagonist, Bob Jones, and two women: Madge Perkins, who is white; and Alice Harrison, his higher-class African-American girlfriend. Bob struggles for place in a white-dominated world and is filled with violent thoughts against white people, but does not act on them. In what is described as a "sexually charged novel", Madge makes a racial slur toward Bob. His calling her a "bitch" results in his demotion. He considers raping her as a way to get back at white America, seeing her as a symbol of "whiteness", but when she expresses sexual attraction to him, he rejects her. Alice tells Bob it is no use getting angry about the inequality that blacks must live with, and he has to learn to deal with it. ===== In 1794, Captain Walton leads a troubled expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, the crew hears a frightening noise and witnesses dogs being viciously killed. The crew discovers a man, Victor Frankenstein, traveling across the Arctic on his own. Victor proceeds to tell Walton and the crew his life story, presented as a flashback. Victor grows up in Geneva with his adopted sister, Elizabeth Lavenza, who will become the love of his life. Before he leaves for the university at Ingolstadt, Victor's mother dies giving birth to his brother William. Traumatized by grief afterward, Victor vows on his mother's grave that he will find a way to conquer death. However, he is shunned by his peers, who view him as a madman. Eventually, Victor and his friend Henry Clerval meet Shmael Augustus Waldman, a professor whose notes contain information on how to create life; Waldman warns Victor not to use them lest he create an "abomination." While performing vaccinations, Waldman is murdered by a stubborn patient, who is later hanged in the village square. Using the body, a leg from a fellow student named Schiller who died from cholera, and Waldman's brain, Victor builds a creature based on the professor's notes. He is so obsessed with his work that he drives Elizabeth away when she comes to take him away as Ingolstadt is being put into quarantine. Victor finally gives his creation life, but soon regrets his decision and tries to kill it with an axe; the creature steals his coat and is driven away by the townspeople when it tries to steal food. The creature escapes, running off into the wilderness. He spends months living in a family's barn without their knowledge, gradually learning to read and speak based on observations and memories from Waldman's brain. He attempts to earn the family's trust by anonymously helping them with their failing farm, and eventually converses with the patriarch, an elderly blind man, after murdering an abusive debt collector. However, when the blind man's family returns, they attack the creature and abandon their farm. The creature finds Victor's journal in his coat and learns of the circumstances of his creation. He burns down the farm and vows revenge on his creator. Victor, who believes the creature to be dead from the cholera epidemic, returns to Geneva to marry Elizabeth. He finds his younger brother William has been murdered. Justine, a servant of the Frankenstein household, is inadvertently framed for the crime by the creature and hanged by a lynch mob before anyone can prove her innocence. The creature abducts Victor and demands that he make a companion for him, promising to leave his creator in peace in return. Victor begins gathering the tools he used to create life, but when the creature insists that he uses Justine's body to make the companion, Victor breaks his promise and the creature exacts his revenge, strangling Victor's father and tearing out Elizabeth's heart. Maddened with a grief beyond measure, Victor races home to bring Elizabeth back to life. There, he finds Henry, who tells him he should let Elizabeth rest in peace. Victor stitches Elizabeth's head onto Justine's fully intact body, and she awakes as a re-animated creature. The two are briefly and happily reunited until the creature appears, demanding Elizabeth as his bride. Victor and the monster fight for Elizabeth's affections, but Elizabeth, horrified by what she has become, commits suicide by setting herself on fire. Both Victor and the creature escape as the mansion burns down. The story returns to the Arctic. Victor tells Walton that he has been pursuing his creation for months to kill him. Soon after relating his story, Victor dies from pneumonia. Walton discovers the creature weeping over Victor's body, confessing that for all his hatred, he still considers Victor to be his "father." The crew prepares a funeral pyre, but the ceremony is interrupted when the ice around the ship cracks. Walton invites the creature to stay with the ship, but the creature insists on remaining with the pyre. He takes the torch and burns himself alive with Victor's body. Walton, having seen the consequences of Victor's obsession, orders the ship to return home. ===== Christine "Chris" Parker (Linda Blair) is a 14-year-old runaway who, after getting arrested one too many times, is sentenced to do time in a girls' juvenile detention center, which doubles as a reform school for the girls. It is revealed that Chris comes from an abusive home; her father (Richard Jaeckel) would beat her on a regular basis, which led to her repeated flights from home. Her mother (Kim Hunter) is just as troubled as Chris is; unfeeling, sitting in her recliner, watching television and smoking cigarettes all day, and in complete denial as to what her husband is doing. Only Chris' older brother Tom (Mitch Vogel) is aware of the abuse, but he is powerless to help Chris, as he has his own family to care about and look after. Chris' social worker Emma Lasko (Allyn Ann McLerie) never realizes that her dysfunctional parents are the cause of her troubles, and that the juvenile justice system places the blame for her troubles on Chris herself. With the exception of one dedicated counselor named Barbara Clark (Joanna Miles), the reform school personnel are mostly apathetic and allow an unhealthy, destructive culture to fester in the school. Despite Barbara's attempts to help Christine talk about her problems, she is powerless as Chris refuses to open up to her or anyone else about her problems at home. After a riot results in a beating of a pregnant detainee by abusive staff members, and in her miscarriage, Chris is investigated for causing the riot. She calmly maintains that she had nothing to do with it. In the final shot, Barbara looks on helplessly as she sees Chris, an innocent, intelligent, decent girl, now fully transformed into a violent, pathological, manipulative, vengeful and cold person, devoid of any guilt or remorse for her actions, who will most likely become an adult criminal when released upon turning legal age. ===== Bill Cosby plays Leonard Parker, a CIA spy-turned-restaurateur. According to the opening sequence of the movie, the title refers to the idea that this film is actually the sixth installment of a series of films featuring the adventures of Leonard, as parts one through five were locked up in the interests of world security. In actuality, there are no films preceding this one. The theatrical release poster points out that Leonard Parker is, at the time of his reluctant return to action, coping with domestic issues: The film starts with Parker being called out of retirement by his CIA director Snyderburn (Baker) to save the world from evil vegetarian Medusa Johnson (Foster), who brainwashes animals to kill people. The film ends with Leonard infiltrating Johnson's headquarters (an "International Tuna" factory), fending off the vegetarians with magic meat he received from a Gypsy, freeing the captive animals, and flooding the base using Alka-Seltzer. He escapes by riding an ostrich across the roof; the unlikely steed flies him to the ground. ===== Manfred is a Faustian noble living in the Bernese Alps. Internally tortured by some mysterious guilt, which has to do with the death of his most beloved, Astarte, he uses his mastery of language and spell-casting to summon seven spirits, from whom he seeks forgetfulness. The spirits, who rule the various components of the corporeal world, are unable to control past events and thus cannot grant Manfred's plea. For some time, fate prevents him from escaping his guilt through suicide. At the end, Manfred dies, defying religious temptations of redemption from sin. Throughout the poem he succeeds in challenging all of the authoritative powers he faces, and chooses death over submitting to the powerful spirits. Manfred directs his final words to the Abbot, remarking, "Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die". "The unconquerable individual to the end, Manfred gives his soul to neither heaven nor hell, only to death." ===== The story is set in Padua, Italy, in a distant and unspecified past. From his quarters, Giovanni Guasconti, a young student of letters at the University of Padua, looks at Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, a scientist who works in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens, which are filled with poisonous plants grown by her father. Giovanni notices Beatrice's strangely intimate relationship with the plants as well as the withering of fresh flowers and the death of an insect when exposed to her skin or breath. Having fallen in love, Giovanni enters the garden and meets with Beatrice a number of times, while ignoring his mentor, Professor Pietro Baglioni, who warns him that Rappaccini is devious and that he and his work should be avoided. Giovanni discovers that Beatrice, having been raised in the presence of poison, is poisonous herself. Beatrice urges Giovanni to look past her poisonous exterior and see her pure and innocent essence, creating great feelings of doubt in Giovanni. He begins to suffer the consequences of his encounters with the plants—and with Beatrice—when he discovers that he himself has become poisonous; after another meeting with Baglioni, Giovanni brings a powerful antidote to Beatrice so that they can be together, but the antidote kills Beatrice rather than cure her of her poisonous nature. ===== The story revolves around a young girl named Pooja who hails from a conservative middle-class Gujarati household in Mumbai. Pooja dreams of becoming a successful film director and idolises Karan Johar. To realise her dream, Pooja secretly joins a coveted film studies course at the trendy St. Martin's College, keeping her father in the dark. At the college, the simple and straightforward Pooja instantly comes face to face with the hip and high-class students of St. Martins's and is made intensely aware of her middle-class looks and attitude. She is ill-treated by the well- to-do English speaking students who label her as 'vernacular' as she speaks in her Gujarati tone and accent. The story revolves around her college life as she gradually wins over her classmates, makes new friends and successfully completes her course. Later, the story shifts to Pooja's life after college as she starts the new chapter in her life as an independent working woman. Her sister, Poornima falls in love with and marries Ronit. Young and rich businessman Ashmit woos Pooja and they get married. Pooja soon discovers that Ashmit, supposedly ROnit's step-brother, is in fact an impostor who kills Poornima to keep his secret safe. Eventually, Ashmit is arrested and is sent to prison. A broken and dejected Pooja is encouraged by Ronit to regroup herself and to continue her journey of accomplishing her goal of becoming a film director. Pooja finally finishes her first film. At the premier, Ronit proposes to her and she happily accepts. ===== Private detective Sam Grunion (Groucho Marx) has been searching for the extremely valuable Royal Romanoff diamonds for eleven years, and his investigation leads him to a troupe of struggling performers, led by Mike Johnson (Paul Valentine), who are trying to put on a musical revue called Love Happy. Grunion notes that the impoverished young dancers would starve were it not for the sweet, silent Harpo (Harpo Marx), at Herbert & Herbert, a gourmet food shop that also trafficks in stolen diamonds. Harpo kindly helps ladies with their shopping bags, all the while pilfering their groceries and stuffing them in the pockets of his long trench coat. When the elegant Madame Egelichi (Ilona Massey) arrives, store manager Lefty Throckmorton (Melville Cooper) tells her that "the sardines" have come in. Harpo sneaks into the basement and watches as Lefty lovingly unpacks a sardine can marked with a Maltese cross, and swipes the can from Lefty's pocket, replacing it with an unmarked one. Madame Egelichi, who has gone through eight husbands in three months in her quest for the Romanoff diamonds, is furious when Lefty produces the wrong can. When Lefty remembers seeing Harpo in the basement, she orders him to call the police and offer a $1,000 reward for his capture. At the theater, meanwhile, unemployed entertainer Faustino the Great (Chico Marx) asks Mike for a job as a mind-reader, and when Faustino's clever improvisation stops the show's backer, Mr. Lyons (Leon Belasco), from repossessing the scenery, Mike gratefully hires him. Harpo, who is secretly in love with dancer Maggie Phillips (Vera-Ellen), Mike's girl friend, gives her the sardine can, and she says she will eat them tomorrow. A policeman sees Harpo inside the theater and brings him to Madame Egelichi, who turns Harpo over to her henchmen, Alphonse (Raymond Burr) and Hannibal (Bruce Gordon) Zoto. After three days of interrogation, Harpo still refuses to talk, and when he is left alone, he calls Faustino at the theater, using the bike horn he carries in his pocket to communicate. Madame Egelichi listens on the extension as Faustino declares that there are plenty of sardines at the theater, and she goes there at once. Meanwhile, Mike has just finished telling the troupe that they do not have enough money to open when Madame Egelichi arrives and offers to finance the show. Mike cancels his plans to take Maggie out for her birthday so that he and his new backer can discuss the arrangements. In the alley outside the theater, Harpo, having escaped from Madame Egelichi's suite, finds the diamonds in the sardine can which had been set out for a cat, and puts them in his pocket. When he finds Maggie crying in her dressing room, Harpo takes her to Central Park, where he plays the harp for her and gives her the diamonds as a birthday gift. On the opening night of the show, Grunion is visited by an agent of the Romanoff family, who threatens to kill him if he does not produce the diamonds in an hour. At the theater, Lefty and the Zoto brothers spy through a window as Maggie puts on the diamond necklace, but Mike asks her not to wear it, promising to buy her an engagement ring instead. As they kiss, Maggie removes the necklace and drops it on the piano strings. The curtain goes up, and when Harpo sees Lefty and the Zoto brothers menacing Maggie, he distracts them with a piece of costume jewelry and leads them up to the roof. Meanwhile, on stage, Faustino plays the piano, and when he strikes the keys forcefully, the diamond necklace flies into the air, drawing the attention of Madame Egelichi, who is watching from the audience. Faustino pockets the diamonds, then rushes to the roof to help Harpo. Madame Egelichi shows up with a gun and demands the necklace, but Faustino gives her the fake diamonds. After tying up Lefty and the Zotos and recovering the real diamonds, Harpo encounters Grunion, who has been hiding on the roof. Harpo drops the diamonds in Grunion's pocket, but then steals them back as Madame Egelichi begins to lead the detective away. Later, in his office, Grunion comments that Harpo disappeared with the diamonds, never realizing their true value. Grunion interrupts his story to take a phone call from his wife, who turns out to be the former Madame Egelichi. ===== The protagonist is a young US Army lieutenant, Philip Nolan, who develops a friendship with the visiting Aaron Burr. When Burr is tried for treason (that historically occurred in 1807), Nolan is tried as an accomplice. During his testimony, he bitterly renounces his nation and angrily shouts, "I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" The judge is completely shocked at that announcement and, on convicting him, icily grants him his wish. Nolan is to spend the rest of his life aboard US Navy warships in exile with no right ever to set foot on US soil again and with explicit orders that no one shall ever again mention his country to him. The sentence is carried out to the letter. For the rest of his life, Nolan is transported from ship to ship, lives out his life as a prisoner on the high seas, and is never allowed back in a home port. Though he is treated according to his former rank, nothing of his country is ever mentioned to him. None of the sailors in whose custody Nolan remains is allowed to speak to him about the US, and his newspapers are censored. Nolan is unrepentant at first, but over the years, he becomes sadder and wiser and desperate for news. One day, as he is being transferred to another ship, he beseeches a young sailor never to make the same mistake that he had: "Remember, boy, that behind all these men... behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother...!" On one such ship, he attends a party in which he dances with a young lady he had once known. He then beseeches her to tell him something, anything, about the US, but she quickly withdraws and no longer speaks to him. Deprived of a homeland, Nolan slowly and painfully learns the true worth of his country. He misses it more than his friends or family, more than art or music or love or nature. Without it, he is nothing. Dying aboard the , he shows his room to an officer, Danforth. It is "a little shrine" of patriotism. The Stars and Stripes are draped around a picture of George Washington. Over his bed, Nolan has painted a bald eagle, with lightning "blazing from his beak" and claws grasping the globe. At the foot of his bed is an outdated map of the United States, showing many of its old territories that had, unbeknownst to him, been admitted to statehood. Nolan smiles, "Here, you see, I have a country!" The dying man asks desperately to be told the news of American history since 1807, and Danforth finally relates to him almost every major event that has happened to the US since his sentence was imposed; the narrator confesses, however, "I could not make up my mouth to tell him a word about this infernal rebellion." Nolan then asks him to bring his copy of the Presbyterian Book of Public Prayer and to read the page at which it automatically opens. Here are the words: "Most heartily we beseech Thee with Thy favor to behold and bless Thy servant, the President of the United States, and all others in authority." Nolan says, "I have repeated those prayers night and morning, it is now fifty-five years." Every day, he had read of the US but only in the form of a prayer to uphold its leaders since the US Navy had neglected to keep that book from him, which is the supreme irony of the story. Nolan asks him to have them bury him in the sea and have a gravestone placed in memory of him at Fort Adams, Mississippi, or at New Orleans. When he dies later that day, he is found to have drafted a suitably patriotic epitaph for himself: "In memory of PHILIP NOLAN, Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at her hands." ===== Enterprise heads to Andoria after Ambassador Soval informs them that the Vulcans believe they have been developing Xindi weapon technology. Soval guides Enterprise to a nebula where the Andorian fleet is hiding. Commander Shran is dubious, and abducts and tortures Soval. After believing him, Enterprise joins a fleet of six Andorian ships to intercept the Vulcans. Commander Tucker attempts to buy time by ordering Enterprise directly between the two fleets — this works for a while until Administrator V'Las orders them to be targeted too. Meanwhile, at The Forge, Captain Archer, Commander T'Pol, and T'Pau, having found the sacred Kir'Shara (which the Syrrannites believe will usher a Vulcan enlightenment), endeavor to take it to the capital. En route, T'Pol and T'Pau discuss the taboo of mind-melds, and T'Pau offers to mind-meld with T'Pol. She states the meld is safe when performed by those trained in the art, and that Pa'nar Syndrome is merely the by-product of an improperly conducted meld. The trio are then attacked by Major Talok and Vulcan commandos, and T'Pol is captured while the others escape. She tells her captors that they are headed to Mount Seleya in order to mislead them from their true destination. She is then taken to the capital. Archer and T'Pau also arrive after T'Pol's husband, Koss, provides transporter security codes. They present the Kir'Shara to the Command and reveal that the embassy bombing was merely a pretext to weaken the pacifist Syrrannites prior to the Andorian strike. Visibly angered, V'Las lunges for the Kir'Shara, but is stunned by High-Minister Kuvak, who orders the fleet to stand down. Enterprise returns to Vulcan, and Koss visits to release T'Pol from their marriage. Meanwhile, the Vulcan High Command is dissolved, granting Earth greater autonomy, and the katra of Surak is transferred to a Vulcan high priest. V'Las, relieved of his post, meets secretly with Talok, revealed as a Romulan agent, who states that the reunification of their worlds is only a matter of time. ===== A bloody Caleb rises and Buffy finally kills him with the scythe by slicing him in two from the crotch up. Angel has brought an amulet intended to be worn by someone ensouled, yet more than human. He tells her he will fight alongside her, but she turns him down, asking him to instead organize a second front in case she loses to The First. They discuss Spike, his soul, and Buffy's feelings for him, with Angel clearly unsettled and jealous. When Angel asks whether he has a place in her future, Buffy explains that she still needs to grow up; there might be a future for them, but it will be a long time coming, if ever. Angel walks into the shadows (as in his very first appearance), saying with a smile, "I ain't getting any older." Back at the house, Dawn angrily kicks Buffy in the shin for having Xander try to take her away from Sunnydale in the previous episode. Spike is in the basement, working out his anger on a punching bag with a crude drawing of Angel's face on it. He asks for the amulet, whose exchange he had witnessed from the shadows, and she explains that it is very powerful and meant only for a champion. She then hands it to him. Buffy tells Spike coyly that Faith is still sleeping in her room. Spike says he doesn't want Buffy downstairs with him, because he still has his pride and she has "Angel Breath". When Buffy starts to walk upstairs, he says that the whole pride thing was just a smoke-screen and he has none when it comes to her so she can stay. Late at night, as Buffy and Spike are sleeping in each other's arms, the First appears to taunt Buffy in the form of Caleb. His words give Buffy a plan; when Spike wakes up, Buffy tells him that she now knows that they will win. The next morning, Buffy unveils her plan to the potentials off- camera. Afterward, Willow expresses to Kennedy her concerns about using magic again. She says this is the most powerful magic she will have attempted and asks Kennedy to kill her if it turns bad. Faith and Principal Wood also have a discussion while preparing the school for the battle. Wood demonstrates that he understands her defensiveness over getting emotionally involved with men and asks her to give him a chance after the battle. During the night, Buffy goes to the basement, where she apparently spends her last night with Spike. The next morning, everyone arrives at Sunnydale High in a yellow school bus. The Slayers and the Potentials head to the seal in the basement while Kennedy helps Willow set up her spell in Principal Wood's office. After trying to give a farewell speech, Andrew is dragged off by Anya. Dawn leaves to set up her post with Xander, determined to see her sister again. Principal Wood leaves to wait at his post for Giles. The core four share a moment talking about going to the mall after saving the world which causes Giles to say "the earth is definitely doomed," echoing the end of the second episode of the first season of Buffy. Xander and Willow walk down the hallway with Buffy before each one peels off, leaving Buffy walking alone to the seal. The Potentials, Faith and Spike are waiting, and the potentials/slayers cut their hands to open the seal with their blood. They climb down the hole in the ground and come face to face with the army of Turok-Han. The Ubervamps spot Buffy, Faith and the Potentials, and attack. "Come on, Will," Buffy pleads. Willow sits in the school principal's office directly above the Seal, the scythe before her. While chanting a spell, she places her hands on the scythe, and both she and the weapon light up in an ethereal glow and her hair turns white, the opposite of Dark Willow. A flashback to Buffy's final speech to the Potentials reveals that Willow is channeling the essence of the scythe in order to activate Potentials all over the world. Defying the tradition of only one slayer per generation, Willow's spell will raise an army strong enough to do battle with The First. As Willow performs the actual magic, Kennedy tells Willow that she is a goddess. "And you're a Slayer," Willow replies. Kennedy takes the scythe to Buffy, who is deep in the fight with Faith and Spike against the army of the Turok-Han, numbering in the thousands. As she pauses to give orders, Buffy is stabbed through her abdomen from behind by a Turok-Han and falls to the ground. She passes the scythe to Faith and asks her to hold the line. As she lies on the ground, she sees several Slayers fall, including Amanda. In the halls of the school, a few Turok-Han make it to the surface and attack the group guarding the entrances. A small group of Bringers also appear and attack. During the battle, Anya is bisected by a Bringer. Andrew fights until he is overwhelmed. Principal Wood is stabbed by a Bringer who is then killed by Giles. Xander and Dawn take on some Turok-Han who are disintegrated by sunlight when Dawn throws open a skylight window, but more follow. In the Hellmouth, the First then appears to Buffy as a mortally wounded Buffy herself, saying "What more do you want?". Ordering The First to "get out of my face!" Buffy arises with renewed determination and knocks several Turok-Han off the ledge. Other Slayers are reinvigorated as well. Just then, Spike's amulet consumes him in blue light and blasts a hole upward into the sky. The sunlight is channeled through his soul to the amulet and in powerful rays that begin dusting the ubervamps. The ground begins to shake and rocks tumble. The few surviving Slayers start to flee. Buffy tells Spike to do so as well, but he insists on finishing it. They share a quiet moment as the world crumbles around them. With tears in her eyes, Buffy tells Spike she loves him (fulfilling a prediction by Cassie in "Help"); Spike replies, "No you don't. But thanks for saying it." He orders her to leave as he has to stay and finish the job. As Buffy flees, Spike laughs, "I wanna see how it ends." Spike burns to dust as the Hellmouth collapses. On the way out of the school, the Slayers find Andrew crouched in a corner. Xander yells for Anya, whose body lies nearby, unseen. Dawn pulls him out. The survivors board a school bus and flee. Buffy runs across rooftops to catch up, and leaps onto the top of the bus. The entire town of Sunnydale collapses into the Hellmouth cavern, leaving a large crater. The ground stops shaking. Andrew comforts Xander by telling him that Anya died saving his life; Xander smiles, "That's my girl: always doing the stupid thing." While a few of the new Slayers tend to the wounded, the other survivors look back at the crater's rim. Dawn ponders, "What are we going to do now?" Buffy slowly begins to smile, knowing that she is no longer alone in the world and that the burden of being the one chosen Slayer is no longer on her shoulders. ===== Killzone takes place in a fictional world set in the year 2357. After nuclear war rendered much of the Earth uninhabitable in 2055, world governments formed an international order known as the United Colonial Nations. Partnering with private firms, the UCN moved to establish human colonies in Alpha Centauri, a system occupied by two planets: Vekta, a rich Earth-like world (named after the CEO of the mining conglomerate Helghan, Philip Vekta), and Helghan, a barren wasteland named after the same company. The Helghan Corporation sought to buy ownership of Vekta as well, but when the UCN imposed sanctions against its unfair business practices, a war broke out (known as the First Extrasolar War), which led to the ISA, the military arm of the UCN, driving the company out of Vekta. In response, the exiled colonists established their own civilization on Helghan, built on the principles of militarism and authoritarianism. The harsh environment and atmosphere killed many Helghans, forcing the survivors to use respirators and air tanks just to breathe. Eventually, the population, now known as the Helghast, mutated into pale-skinned hairless humanoids with increased strength, stamina, and intelligence. Violently xenophobic and convinced of their superiority, the Helghan consider humans to be beneath them, and dream of one day reconquering Vekta and expanding their empire to Earth and the neighboring star systems. ===== Gameplay screenshot Arkos, a former loyal lieutenant of the beautiful but evil galactic empress Queen Gremla, became a rebel dedicated to end her cruel tyranny. The first part of the game takes place on the prison planet Hypsis, from which Arkos must try to escape. In the second part, Arkos arrives in the jungle swamp planet Sckunn to infiltrate the queen's palace, defeat her Giant Guardian robot, and assassinate her. ===== The beginning sees Lusiphur left to die in a desert. He makes use of a lamp, with the subsequent genie, that he received after trading the dead body of a Doppleganger to his ex-wife, Hyena. After a failed attempt to ask for a million wishes, he settles on three: A powerful Elven sword named Cinlach, super speed to get out of the desert, and the "well of souls," an assassin tool. Genie gives him the wishes. But to give them, she has to take them from somewhere. Cinlach comes from an Elven Warduke named Ailwon Sann Fenlach, who quickly notices it missing. He is a veteran of many long-ago wars against the Orcs even if age and time have worn down his fighting acumen. Sann Fenlach has his mage transport him to Lusiphur's location in the desert where he challenges the elf to a duel for stealing his property. At first the Fenlach is winning, due in part to his mage immediately fixing any wounds Lusiphur can inflict. The turning point comes when a magician named Tenth steps in. Tenth was quietly reading in his study when he felt a temporary shock. The genie drained his power to accommodate Lusiphur's request for super speed. Tenth also pinpoints where Lusiphur is located and sees that he is currently fighting Sann Fenlach. He also sees the disparity in the fight. Lusiphur is a young but experienced assassin, having to fight for everything he ever had. The High Lord is sedentary, fighting his last significant battle hundreds of years ago. In the meantime he has been sitting on his throne recounting past battles. Tenth sees that he is relying too much on the magical connection and severs it. After Lushiphur defeats the High Lord when the odds are more even, he starts burying the body. Tenth then arrives to take back the small sliver of power that Lusiphur took from him. Tenth wants it to be a fair contest however. Lusiphur could best Tenth in a physical contest and Tenth could destroy Lusiphur quickly if he chose. The wizard has not had a challenge in a while, and so decides to make a sport of it. In "Tenth's Game," the Elf is given a fighting chance: Make it across 50 meters through an arch. If he does he will survive. His only weapon is a temporary power of shape-changing into animals given to him by Tenth. The wizard promises to only use his shape-changing powers in return. The two play a cat- and-mouse game, Lusiphur at one point turning into panther-like creature to fend off Tenth who had become a hawk. Tenth turns to a fly, so Lusiphur turns to a rattle snake, but he cannot figure out how to move a rattlesnake. This was when Tenth turns to a Unicorn, causing Lusiphur to panic and he chose a Nightmare (A black batwinged unicorn that bleeds acid and breathes fire.) Tenth becomes a Drake, where as Lusiphur turns to a black Dragon, knocking Tenth into a mountain. After recovering Tenth becomes a gold dragon, the two fight. Lusiphur gets his teeth on Tenth's throat. Up to this point in his existence Tenth has thoroughly beaten any competitor. Lusiphur has made the wizard fear for his life for the first time in many years. The dragon battle drags on, until Lusiphur disappears. Tenth assumes he is dead and scans the ground for his body. As Tenth searches for Lusiphur's body, he tries to go through the gate as a dragon, but he finds he can't fit. So Tenth becomes a Hell hound and goes through the gate, the moment he crosses it, Lusiphur appears out of nowhere and nearly carves Tenth's heart out. Lusiphur had become a flea and let Tenth carry him through the gate. ===== While the Simpson family attends a French Canadian circus called "Cirque de Purée", a wild blizzard hits Springfield, turning it into a snowsquall overnight, and the circus is cut short. All the local schools have closed, except Springfield Elementary School. Only some students, including the classmates of Bart and Lisa, show up while Skinner and Willie are the only faculty members at the school that day. To pass the time, Skinner plays his professed favorite film, a very low- budget, long-running, 1938 holiday film called The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, But Then Was, which Lisa notices has very little to do with Christmas. By the time the DVD of the movie catches fire in the projector, it is already the end of the school day, and Skinner lets the kids go home — however, Skinner and the students quickly realize that over the course of the day, the snow has piled up tremendously, leaving them and Willie trapped inside the school, much to the horror of the kids. While waiting for the snow to melt, Skinner tries to keep the children under control, forcing them to stay together in the cafeteria and eat apples, relish and (only if they behave well enough) mayonnaise. After Nelson tries to escape, Skinner unearths his U.S. Army memorabilia and is reminded of the days when he commanded respect from his troops. Skinner tries to command respect from the students, and briefly succeeds after threatening to hang them in their clothes on hooks on the wall if they rebel. Bart tries to tunnel his way out, but Skinner stops him and destroys the tunnel, only to get stuck in the resulting cave-in. The students rebel and tie Skinner up in a dodge ball bag as they take total control of the school; even burning numerous books in the school's library. Meanwhile, Homer, with the help of Ned Flanders, sets out to rescue the children, driving Ned's car and sawing off part of his roof to use as a snow plough, but crashes the car into a fire hydrant, which sprays water that freezes it in place. Homer's repeated gunning of the accelerator causes carbon monoxide to flood the front of the car. Ned and Homer get high from the fumes and wildly hallucinate. Skinner uses the school hamster, Nibbles, to get a message from the school to the outside world. Nibbles makes it to Ned and Homer, breaking the window and reviving them: they crash into a salt silo, melting the snow around the school and badly rusting the car but freeing the kids in the process. Superintendent Chalmers appears and is ready to scold Skinner for the school's current poor state when Bart takes the blame, amending things with Skinner. As he and Lisa leave with Homer and Ned and Ned's sons, Homer starts hallucinating again making him see Lisa as a camel and Bart as a dancing girl. Homer tries to kiss Bart, who tries his best to escape, causing the car to lose control and crash, and camel Lisa then says "Merry Christmas from the Simpsons"! ===== Eddie McDowd (Jason Dohring) is considered to be a schoolyard bully by his peers. McDowd considers himself very attractive and powerful and so he bullies others without mercy. One day, while bullying a kid after school, he is caught by a kind of mystical man. He tells McDowd that due to his bullying he will be punished for his wrongdoings by living life as a dog, and that in order to be restored as a human he has to do 100 good deeds for others. Besides The Drifter, the only one who can hear him talk is Justin Taylor, the last kid he bullied. At first the two are firmly against the idea, but McDowd realizes that he must work alongside Justin and his family to finish his good deeds. Every time Eddie performs a good deed the Drifter appears with a creatively presented number stating the remaining deeds he has left. Occasionally when Eddie misbehaves the Drifter takes away one of his deeds. The story has no ending as the series was cancelled before a final resolution could be made. ===== One day, Marge sees a friend from high school, Chloe Talbot, on TV and is jealous of her success as a news reporter. When they meet, an embarrassed Marge confesses she never left Springfield, but the two are glad to see each other again. Chloe comes to the Simpsons' house for dinner, but her exciting stories annoy Marge and inspire Lisa, who goes out to dinner with Chloe. Marge reveals that she and Chloe were reporters for their high school newspaper, but after high school Marge stayed with her sweetheart Homer after Bart was born, with Chloe leaving her sweetheart Barney when he proposed. With all of Chloe's success, Marge seems to begin to resent both her decision and her family but receives supporting words from Homer. On their way back from dinner, Chloe invites Lisa to the United Nations women's conference, with Lisa saying she would need parental permission. Upon arriving at the Simpsons house, a drunk Marge, who is worried that Lisa likes Chloe more, provokes Chloe and the two fight on the lawn. This leaves Marge with a black eye. After Marge talks with Lisa about what happened, she forbids her to go to the women's conference, but Lisa sneaks out and hides in Chloe's car's trunk. Then, as Chloe drives off, her boss calls her, telling her to cover the story of the eruption of Springfield Volcano. When Lisa pops out of the trunk, Chloe has her be her cameraman after her original one fled at the sight of lava. When Marge and Homer arrive at the women's conference to find Lisa, they see Chloe's live broadcast from the volcano, crediting Lisa behind the camera and the two trapped by a sea of lava. Marge and Homer race to the volcano and the former leaps from rock to rock to rescue Lisa. Moments later, Barney descends in a helicopter to rescue Chloe, who grants him a half hour of pity sex. When Marge imagines her life as a reporter, she screams to her family, who shows little interest. ===== In Montana in 1882, "Boss" Spearman is an open range cattleman, who, with hired hands Charley, Mose, and Button, is driving a herd cross country. Charley is a former soldier who served in a "special squad" during the Civil War and feels guilty over his past as a killer of both enemy soldiers and civilians. Boss sends Mose to the nearby town of Harmonville for supplies. The town is controlled by a ruthless Irish immigrant land baron, Denton Baxter, who hates open-rangers. Mose is badly beaten and jailed by the marshal, Poole. The only friendly inhabitant is Percy, a livery stable owner. Boss and Charley become concerned when Mose does not return. They retrieve him from the jail but not before getting a warning from Baxter about free-grazing on his land. Mose's injuries are so severe that Boss and Charley take him to Doc Barlow. There they meet Sue Barlow. Charley is attracted immediately, but assumes that Sue is the doctor's wife. After catching masked riders scouting their cattle, Boss and Charley sneak up on their campfire in the night, and disarm them. At the same time, another attack results in Mose's death. Button is badly injured and left for dead. Charley and Boss vow to avenge this injustice. They leave Button at the doctor's house and go into town, where they lock Poole in his own jail. Boss knocks him out with chloroform he has stolen from the doctor's office. The deputies are locked up as well. Charley learns that Sue is the doctor's sister, not his wife. He declares his feelings for her, and she gives him a locket for luck. Charley leaves a note with Percy, in which he states that if he should die, money from the sale of his saddle and gear are to be used to buy Sue a new tea set, having accidentally destroyed her previous set during a "flashback" episode. Boss and Charley are pitted against Baxter and his men. Charley shoots Butler, the gunman who shot Button and killed Mose. An intense gun battle erupts in the street, with Boss, Charley and Percy outnumbered before the townspeople begin to openly fight against Baxter. After an intense firefight, Baxter's men are dead and Baxter ends up wounded and alone, trapped in the jailhouse. Boss shoots open the jailhouse door and engages him in a brief close-quarters gunfight which leaves Baxter mortally wounded. Sue's brother tends to the wounded townspeople and open-rangers. Charley speaks to Sue in private, telling her he must leave. She counters that she has a "big idea" about their future together and that she will wait for him to return. He does return, and proposes to Sue. Charley and Boss decide to give up the cattle business and settle down in Harmonville, taking over the saloon. ===== The story begins sometime in the 29th century on the planet Wilson (orbiting Arcturus) with a young man named Giraut and his romantic, swashbuckling friends, who are all members of the Nou Occitan culture and residents in the Quartier de Jovents, a sort of playground for teens and twenty-somethings who have not yet moved on to the more "grown-up" lifestyle of their parents. Technologically safeguarded, these young adults have swordfights in the streets with "neuroducer" épées and frequent the taverns of the Quartier, living in an imaginative recreation of Occitan literature and the trobador tradition. However, Giraut is forced to grow up much more quickly than most of his friends, because one day his friend Aimeric, who was, before coming to Wilson and becoming a jovent, an economist in the Caledon culture of the nearest inhabited planet, Nansen (orbiting Mufrid), is called upon by the government to return to his home planet on a mission to regulate the effects of the springer on Caledonian economy. The springer is a method of instantaneous transportation which is quickly reuniting humanity across known space. Giraut decides to leave when he catches his girlfriend getting into the Interstellar "arts scene" (the art is called "sadoporn") which is an acting out against the exclusive values and code of honor valued by Giraut and his friends. Thus, Aimeric and Giraut advise the rational council of the Caledonians to adjust their economy to that of the rest of the universe so that the springer will have as few adverse effects as possible. When the Caledonians decide that Aimeric and Giraut, as well as the Interstellar government, are trying to usurp their power, they begin to try to seize back control of everything, and an urban conflict ensues. Giraut discovers among the strife who he really is and begins to see how fake his life back home was, and recognize faults in his home culture. ===== Andrzej (Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka) are driving to a lake to go sailing when they come upon a young man (Zygmunt Malanowicz) hitchhiking in the middle of the road. After nearly hitting him, Andrzej invites the young man along. When they arrive at the lake, instead of leaving the young man behind, Andrzej invites him to go sailing with them. The young man accepts the offer, and, not knowing much about sailing, must learn many hard lessons from Andrzej. Meanwhile, tension gradually builds between Andrzej and the hitchhiker as they vie for the attentions of Krystyna. The title refers to the major turning point in the film when Andrzej taunts the young man with the latter's treasured pocket knife, which is accidentally lost overboard. A fight ensues between Andrzej and the hitchhiker and the latter falls into the water. Andrzej and his wife search for him, but cannot find him and assume that he has drowned, since earlier he said that he could not swim. Andrzej and his wife quarrel about what to do, and Andrzej swims to shore to fetch the police. When the young man realizes that Andrzej has gone he comes out from hiding behind a buoy on the lake and swims to the yacht. There he sees Krystyna naked drying off. He boards the yacht and Krystyna tells him he is as bad as Andrzej but sexual attraction wins out and they have sex, off screen. Krystyna sails back to the dock, the man jumps off and goes on his way before Andrzej appears and takes charge again. He wants to go to the police to report the young man missing. Krystyna tells him that the young man returned and she was unfaithful. Andrzej does not know what to believe and at the road junction, where they would turn one way to return home and another to go to the police station, the car does not move. ===== Just outside the town of Crescent Cove, Mike Tobacco and his girlfriend Debbie Stone are parked with other couples at the local lovers' lane when they spot a strange glowing object falling to Earth. Nearby, farmer Gene Green also spies the object, and believing it to be Halley's Comet, he ventures into the woods to find the impact site. He instead stumbles upon a large circus tentlike structure, and he and his dog are captured by mysterious clownish aliens, the "Klowns". Shortly thereafter, Mike and Debbie arrive to investigate for themselves. Entering the structure, they discover a complex interior with elevators and various bizarre rooms. They soon find a gelatinized Green encased in a cotton candy-like cocoon and are spotted by a klown, who shoots popcorn at them from a large gun. The couple flees, pursued by the klown and another one who uses a living balloon dog to chase after them. Narrowly escaping, Mike and Debbie travel to the police station to report the incident to Debbie's ex-boyfriend, Deputy Dave Hanson, and his curmudgeonly partner, Deputy Curtis Mooney. The skeptical Mooney believes the story to be a hoax. After taking Debbie home, Mike and Dave return to the woods, only to find the circus tent has vanished, leaving a large crater in its place. They then travel to the lovers' lane, only to find all the cars abandoned and covered in a cotton candy-like substance. Back in town, the klowns arrive and begin capturing townspeople in cocoons using rayguns that resemble toys. Several klowns perform pranks, such as putting on a puppet show, pretending to deliver a pizza, and ransacking a drugstore, all of which result in the deaths of several onlookers. Mike and Dave witness one of the klowns using shadow puppets to shrink a crowd of people into the palm of its hand, then dump them into a sack of popcorn, revealed to be sentient creatures that eagerly gobble up their human prey. Back at the police station, Mooney is inundated with calls from townspeople reporting incidents with the klowns, but he dismisses all of them. Soon after, a klown arrives at the station and Mooney arrests it, believing it to be a teen prankster. Dave returns to the station to find two prisoners encased in cocoons, and the now-escaped klown using a deceased Mooney as a ventriloquist's dummy. Dave shoots the klown several times before destroying its nose, which causes it to spin wildly and explode. Elsewhere in town, Mike meets up with his friends Rich and Paul, the Terenzi brothers, and using the PA speaker on an ice cream truck, they drive around town attempting to warn people of the invading klowns. At Debbie's house, popcorn stuck to her clothes from her earlier encounter with the klowns mutates into monsters and attacks her. She fends off the creatures, but another group of klowns arrives and traps her in a giant balloon. Mike, Dave, and the Terenzis witness Debbie's capture and give chase, following the klowns to an amusement park, and the relocated circus tent. Journeying through a funhouse leading to the klowns' lair, the Terenzi brothers become separated and meet two female-looking klowns. After Dave and Mike witness a klown using a crazy straw to drink gelatinized townspeople blood, they rescue Debbie and flee into a maze full of tricks and traps. When they emerge, the trio finds themselves under a massive circus tent and surrounded by klowns. The Terenzis arrive in their ice cream truck and use the PA to distract the klowns. A gargantuan klown marionette, Jojo the Klownzilla, descends from the ceiling, breaks free from its strings, and attacks the group. After Jojo destroys the ice cream truck, apparently killing the Terenzis, Dave creates a distraction, and Mike and Debbie are able to escape the structure. The tent begins to spin and rises into the air, revealing it to be a massive spaceship. Back inside, Jojo grabs hold of Dave, who removes his police badge and uses it to destroy the klown's nose. Jojo explodes, destroying the entire ship along with him. Debbie and Mike briefly mourn the loss of their friends, until a klown car suddenly drops out of the sky and Dave emerges along with the Terenzi brothers, who survived the ice cream truck's explosion by hiding in the truck's freezer. As the group watches the fireworks created by the exploding ship, pies fall from the sky and hit them in their faces. ===== In 1988 Rome, famous film director Salvatore Di Vita returns home late one evening, where his girlfriend sleepily tells him that his mother called to say someone named Alfredo has died. Salvatore obviously shies from committed relationships and has not been to his home village of Giancaldo, Sicily in thirty years. As his girlfriend asks him who Alfredo is, Salvatore flashes back to his childhood. A few years after World War II, eight-year-old Salvatore is the mischievous, intelligent son of a war widow. Nicknamed Toto, he discovers a love for films and spends every free moment at the movie house Cinema Paradiso. Although they initially start off on tense terms, he develops a friendship with the middle-aged projectionist, Alfredo, who often lets him watch movies from the projection booth. During the shows, the audience can be heard booing when there are missing sections, causing the films to suddenly jump, bypassing a critical romantic kiss or embrace. The local priest had ordered these sections censored, and the deleted scenes are piled on the projection room floor. Alfredo eventually teaches Salvatore how to operate the film projector. Cinema Paradiso catches fire as Alfredo is projecting The Firemen of Viggiù after hours, on the wall of a nearby house. Salvatore saves Alfredo's life, but not before a reel of nitrate film explodes in Alfredo's face, leaving him permanently blind. The movie house is rebuilt by a town citizen, Ciccio, who invests his football lottery winnings. Salvatore, still a child, is hired as the new projectionist, as he is the only person who knows how to run the machines. About a decade later, Salvatore, now in high school, is still operating the projector at the "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso". His relationship with the blind Alfredo has strengthened, and Salvatore often looks to him for help – advice that Alfredo often dispenses by quoting classic films. Salvatore has been experimenting with film, using a home movie camera, and he has met, and captured on film, Elena, daughter of a wealthy banker. Salvatore woos – and wins – Elena's heart, only to lose her due to her father's disapproval. As Elena and her family move away, Salvatore leaves town for compulsory military service. His attempts to write to Elena are fruitless; his letters are returned as undeliverable. Upon his return from the military, Alfredo urges Salvatore to leave Giancaldo permanently, counseling that the town is too small for Salvatore to ever find his dreams. Moreover, the old man tells him, once Salvatore leaves, he must pursue his destiny wholeheartedly, never looking back and never returning, even to visit; he must never give in to nostalgia or even write or think about them. They tearfully embrace, and Salvatore leaves town to pursue his future as a filmmaker. Salvatore has obeyed Alfredo, but he returns home to attend Alfredo's funeral. Though the town has changed greatly, he now understands why Alfredo thought it was important that he leave. Alfredo's widow tells him that the old man followed Salvatore's successes with pride and he left him something -- an unlabeled film reel and the old stool that Salvatore once stood on to operate the projector. Salvatore learns that Cinema Paradiso is to be demolished to make way for a parking lot. At the funeral, he recognizes the faces of many people who attended the cinema when he was the projectionist. Salvatore returns to Rome. He watches Alfredo's reel and discovers it comprises all the romantic scenes that the priest had ordered Alfredo to cut from the movies; Alfredo had spliced the sequences together to form a single unreduced film of aching desire and lustful frenzy. Salvatore has made peace with his past with tears in his eyes. ===== The player comes upon a scene of a Greek city being devastated by a huge Aztec army after being summoned from a "pure prayer". After the player saves a certain number of people, their people are transported to a new land with a handful of refugee worshipers, the player must re-establish a power base from which to eventually defeat the Aztec empire. To do so, the player must conquer the Norse, the Japanese and the Aztecs, either by peace or war. Throughout the game there is a theme of "The prophecy", which states that a tribe will be destroyed by the mightiest power in the world but will receive a god who will lead them to glory and dominance of the world. ===== The eponymous hero undergoes a journey of self-realization. The story centers upon Wilhelm's attempt to escape what he views as the empty life of a bourgeois businessman. After a failed romance with the theater, Wilhelm commits himself to the mysterious Tower Society. ===== ===== The cartoon begins with a mother buzzard instructing her children to go out and catch something for dinner. Three take off like jets from an aircraft carrier. One stays behind, his back turned. This is Beaky Buzzard (Killer) who is shy, easily embarrassed, and a little on the slow side. Against his will, his mother kicks him out of the nest with instructions to at least catch a rabbit. Beaky spots Bugs Bunny and, after sneaking around some clouds 'stalking' his prey, soars down to catch him. Bugs makes like an air-traffic controller and "guides" Beaky down, purposely causing him to crash. Beaky then lands on the ground unable to move or speak. Bugs rises out of his hole and says his usual line, "What's up, doc?" Bugs asks Beaky what he is having, then Beaky grabs Bugs' shoulders and says, "I am going to eat Wabbits." Bugs agrees to come along as soon as he “tidies up” and heads back into his rabbit hole to have a shower. Beaky stares at the Fourth wall when he says the line, "I think he's-a-tricking me." Then Beaky pulls Bugs out of his rabbit hole. Bugs, (disguised as a girl) then pops out of his rabbit hole and says, "You naughty naughty boy." in a feminine voice. As a result, Beaky goes all gibberish and embarrassed with a red face going, "Oh no no, oh no." Bugs Then proceeds to whack Beaky's bottom with his towel, then as soon as Beaky reaches the ground, Bugs hides behind the rocks. Beaky comes looking for Bugs when he suddenly jumps out from behind the rocks and plays with his throat. After some heckling and trickery from Bugs, a chase ensues. Beaky manages to grab Bugs in his talons and swoops away. Bugs tickles the buzzard with one of his own tail feathers, resulting in Bugs being released and falling. There is the skeleton of a dead animal resting on the ground and, as Bugs' bottom half is actually driven into the earth, he disturbs the bones and the wildflowers around them. They all come to land around his top half, making it appear that the remains are his. Thinking he is dead, Bugs begins to sob ("Gruesome, isn't it?", he briefly confides to the audience in a Jerry Colonna-like aside). As he cries, his feet pop out of the ground; when Bugs sees them, then feels them, he laughs with relief and then suggests he knew all along that he was fine. As Bugs wanders along enjoying a carrot, Beaky leaps out and grabs him. After a struggle, the two start jitterbugging together. Bugs says, "Why don't we do this more often," to which Beaky replies, "Ya mean just what we're doing tonight?" This is a quote of the first line of the song "Why Don't We Do This More Often?" After a 'dip', Bugs releases Beaky into a spin; the buzzard twirls like a top over to the skeleton, spins into the earth and himself ends up in the same position Bugs was earlier. He screams "Oh, MA!" and his mother shows up. At first the mother buzzard thinks Bugs did something to Beaky. Bugs assures her 'the kid' is okay, and pulls Beaky out of the ground. Seeing that Beaky is unharmed, the mother abandons her desire to eat Bugs and declares him her hero and kisses him. A blushing Bugs copies Beaky's shyness and embarrassment. ===== In 1880 in County Mayo, during the period of Irish history known as the Land War, Irish tenant farmers agitated for reinstatement of their former lower rents and increased tenants' rights, especially from absentee English landlords. They particularly resented evictions. Some resorted to the gun to achieve justice, but others, inspired by the Irish statesman Charles Stewart Parnell (played in a brief cameo role by Robert Donat), shunned violence and adopted a form of passive resistance. Parnell advocates the theory that potential new tenants should never bid for farms from which the old or current tenant has been evicted: this is the core of the "boycott" concept. The crowd, containing Davin and his friends, who had thought that Parnell was going to speak in favour of eviction, put their rotten eggs away and are instead impressed. The farmers are led by Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) who, with the moral support of the local priest, Father McKeogh (Alastair Sim), encourages his fellow tenants to ostracize their land agent, the bombastic Captain Boycott (Cecil Parker). There is a love interest in the form of Ann Killain (Kathleen Ryan), whose father is also shunned for taking up a farm from which another farmer had been evicted. The resultant stand-off attracts international news coverage and will ultimately introduce a new word – to boycott – to the English language.IMDb reviews – Captain Boycott (1947)New York Times Movie Review by Bosley Crowther, 6 December 1947 Actions begin with Boycott's servants abandoning his house. One final servant, Bridget, is caught as last to leave. She tells him Davin asked them to leave. Everyone refuses to gather Boycott's crops. The situation persists and Boycott asks for the support of the British parliament. The story reaches every newspaper and becomes the subject of music hall jokes. The British press go to the Boycott estate, followed by a squad of troopers to support him. Things start to get out of hand when the authorities, at the word of Boycott, demolish Divan's farm. Captain Boycott risks his survival, having lost all other income, on his horse racing at the Curragh. The Captain acts as his own jockey on a horse bought from Divan. However, the crowd will not tolerate it, and despite the number of mounted troopers they block the Captain on his horse as he approaches the finishing line and mob him. Michael Fagan steals Divan's revolver and tries to kill Killain, who has been signing the eviction notices. A fight ensues and Fagan falls in a river. It is reported that he has been murdered. Divan tries to stop the mob from lynching Killain because he loves his daughter. Divan rushes to the Killain cottage and finds the priest giving Killain the last rites having been shot by Fagan. When the mob arrive they are pointed to Boycott and the troops leaving: their cause lost. The priest says if anything like this happens again they will be able to "boycott" him. ===== Kidnappers violently take the Secret Service chief M from his house and almost capture James Bond, who is visiting. Intent on rescuing M, Bond follows the clues to Vrakonisi, one of the Aegean Islands. In the process, Bond discovers the complex military- political plans of Colonel Sun of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Sun had been sent to sabotage a Middle East détente conference which the Soviet Union is hosting. He intends to attack the conference venue and use M and Bond's bodies to blame Great Britain for the disaster, leading to a world war. Bond meets Soviet agents in Athens and they realise that not only is a third country behind the kidnap, but that there is a traitor in the organisation. An attack on the Soviet headquarters kills all the agents except Ariadne Alexandrou, a Greek Communist. As he is dying, the Soviet leader encourages Bond and Ariadne to work together to prevent an international incident. Ariadne persuades Litsas, a former Second World War resistance fighter and friend of her late father, to help them by telling him about the involvement in the plot of former Nazi, Von Richter. Trying to find M and Colonel Sun, Bond is nearly captured by the Russians, but is saved by Litsas. Finally, Bond finds Sun's headquarters, but is knocked out by one of Sun's men; Bond learns that Von Richter will use a mortar to destroy the conference venue and that Bond will be tortured by Sun, before his inevitable demise. Sun tortures him brutally, until one of the girls at the house is ordered by Sun to caress Bond fondly. In the process she cuts one of Bond's hands free and provides him with a knife. She tells Sun that Bond is dead: when examined Bond stabs Sun. He then frees other captives who help Bond stop Von Richter. However Sun survives the stab wound and kills several of the other escapees. Bond tracks down Sun and kills him in the confrontation. The Soviets thank Bond for saving their conference, offering him the Order of the Red Banner for his work, which he politely turns down. ===== A badger takes up residence in Santa's Little Helper's doghouse. After several failed attempts to lure it out (including sending in Homer, whom the badger attacks), Homer calls animal control. When he is unable to get through, Marge explains that the phone company has introduced a new area code to Springfield. Half of the town keeps the original 636 area code, the other has 939. At a town meeting, Homer rallies an angry mob to protest the change, noting that the upper class side of town got to keep their area code while the poorer half were forced to switch. Homer proposes that the town split into two halves, and the mob agrees. Homer is declared mayor of New Springfield and tensions arise between the two towns. Old Springfield businesses discriminate against customers from New Springfield, and condescend to them on the nightly news. Bart and Homer shut off the power to Old Springfield. Old Springfield hijacks a beer truck heading for New Springfield and dumps its contents in the river; Homer and New Springfield then cut off their water supply. When the lack of water reveals gold in the river bed, making Old Springfield even richer, an enraged Homer has a wall built between the two towns. However, a lack of supplies and sanitation drives all of the New Springfield residents over to Old Springfield, leaving the Simpsons alone. Bitter, Homer attempts to sabotage a concert in Old Springfield by the Who by convincing them to play in New Springfield instead. When the people of Old Springfield realize this, they confront the Simpsons at the wall. After a brief riot, the members of the Who hear about the area code problem and suggest that the townspeople get speed dial. Pete Townshend's opening riff from "Won't Get Fooled Again" crumbles the wall, and the citizens of Springfield reunite and dance to the music as the badger leads an animal invasion of the town. ===== The three story lines in Aliens Versus Predator 2 intersect and impact one another, unlike the preceding game. ===== The events of Primal Hunt are set on LV-1201, the same setting as the main game, but take place in earlier time periods. The stories of the Alien and Predator characters begin five hundred years before the events of Aliens Versus Predator 2 and continue in the year 2230, approximately six weeks before the events of the main game, which is also the time period of the human character's story. Primal Hunt revisits the Forward Observation Pods of the research facility and explains the destruction of Pod 5. ===== The film plot takes its starting point from the French play The Human Voice (La Voix humaine, 1930) by Jean Cocteau where a desperate woman tries to avoid being dumped by her lover through a series of phone calls. In the film, TV actress Pepa Marcos is depressed and taking sleeping pills because her boyfriend Iván has just left her. Both she and Iván work as voice- over actors who dub foreign films, notably Johnny Guitar with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. The voice he uses to sweet-talk her (and many other women) is the same one he uses in his work. He is about to leave on a trip and has asked Pepa to pack his things in a suitcase that he will pick up later. Pepa returns home later to find her answering machine filled with frantic messages from her friend, Candela. In anger, she rips out the phone and throws it through the window onto the balcony. Candela arrives, still overwhelmed, but before she can explain her situation, Carlos, Iván's son with previous lover Lucía, arrives with his snobbish fiancée, Marisa. It turns out they are apartment-hunting, and by coincidence have chosen Pepa's penthouse to look at. Carlos and Pepa figure out each other's relationship to Iván; Pepa wants to know where Iván is because she has to tell him something, but Carlos doesn't know where his father is. Candela unsuccessfully attempts to kill herself by jumping off the balcony. Meanwhile, Marisa has become bored and decides to drink some gazpacho she finds in the fridge, not realizing that it has been spiked with sleeping pills. Candela finally gets to explain her situation: a while ago she had a love affair with an Arab who later came to visit her, bringing some friends with him. It turns out that they are a Shiite terrorist cell and Candela was unknowingly harboring them in her home. When the terrorists left, Candela fled to Pepa's place for help. Candela fears that the police think she is involved and will come for her. Pepa sets out to see a lawyer Carlos has recommended to help Candela, and ends up catching the same cab with the same Mambo-loving driver. However, Paulina, the lawyer she visits, is acting strangely. Pepa sees that Paulina has tickets to Stockholm. Iván calls the office at one point, and Paulina seems to know Pepa, and is very rude to her. Meanwhile, Candela reveals to Carlos that the Shiites plan to hijack a flight to Stockholm that evening and divert it to Beirut, where the Shiite terrorists have a friend who was captured by the authorities. After Carlos fixes the broken phone, he quickly calls the police, but hangs up before (he believes) they can trace the call, then surprisingly kisses Candela. Pepa returns and Lucía calls, announcing she is coming over to confront her about Iván. Carlos reveals that Lucía has been in a mental hospital since Iván left her and has only now been released. Pepa, now sick of Iván and no longer wanting to see him, heads back down with Iván's suitcase; she throws it out, just barely missing Iván, who has arrived with Paulina on their way to the airport. He leaves Pepa a message. Pepa returns to her apartment and hears the song from the opening, Lola Beltrán's "Soy Infeliz", which Carlos is playing. Enraged, Pepa yanks off the record and throws it out of the window, and it ends up hitting Paulina. Pepa then hears Iván's message and once again rips out the phone and throws the answering machine back out of the window; it lands on Paulina's car. Back in the apartment, Lucía arrives, along with the phone repairman and the police, who have traced Carlos' earlier call. Candela starts to panic, but Carlos comes up with an idea: to serve everyone the spiked gazpacho. The policemen and repairman are knocked out, Carlos and Candela make out on the sofa and also fall asleep, and Lucía grabs the policemen's guns and aims them at Pepa, who figures out that Paulina is the other woman Iván is going to Stockholm with, and that their flight is the one that the terrorists are planning to hijack. Lucía reveals that she is still insane and only faked sanity when she heard Iván's voice dubbed on a foreign film. She throws the gazpacho into Pepa's face and rushes to the airport to kill Iván; she sees a motorcyclist and forces him to act as her driver. Pepa chases her and is joined by her neighbour Ana, who happens to be the motorcyclist's stood-up girlfriend. They quickly hail a cab (driven by the Mambo taxi driver again) and a mad chase ensues to the airport, with Lucía firing the gun at them. Lucía arrives at the airport, sees that Iván and Paulina are about to pass security, and aims her gun at them. Pepa arrives just in time and thwarts the murder attempt by rolling a luggage cart at Lucía. Iván runs over to Pepa, who is now mentally and physically exhausted after two days of trying to chase down her lover. Iván offers to finally speak with her about whatever she has been trying to speak to him about, and for a moment, it seems he might even leave Paulina to take her back. But Pepa refuses, saying, "There was still time last night, this morning, even today at noon. But now it's too late". Having saved his life, she leaves the airport, and Iván, for good. Pepa returns to her home, which is a mess with a burnt bedroom, broken windows, a telephone ripped from the wall, spilled gazpacho on the floor, her menagerie of chickens and geese running around loose, and several unconscious visitors all overdosed on sleeping pills. Pepa sits on her balcony where Marisa has just woken up. The two women chat, sharing a moment of tranquility at the end of a hectic 48 hours, and Pepa finally reveals what her big news for Iván was: she's pregnant. ===== The tale starts the day after Anodos' twenty-first birthday. He discovers an ancient fairy lady in the desk that he inherited as a birthright from his late father. After the fairy shows him Fairy Land in a vision, Anodos awakes the next day to find that his room is transforming into a forest, which he soon finds to be Fairy Land itself. Anodos then encounters a woman and her daughter in a cottage who warn him about the evil Ash Tree and the Alder Tree. He is told that the spirits of trees can leave their tree-hosts and wander throughout Fairy Land. He then explores the world of the fairies, which live in flowers. He then has a nightmarish encounter with the spirit of the Ash Tree, escapes, and finds rest in the warmth and love of the Beech Tree's spirit. After this, he finds a marble statue by Pygmalion. After he sings to it, the statue flees from him. He pursues the Marble Lady, but finds instead the Maid of the Alder Tree in disguise. The Maid deceives Anodos into letting his guard down so the Ash can attack. He narrowly escapes doom, being saved by the knight Sir Percivale. Anodos then meets a woman and her daughter who believe in fairy tales and the magic of Fairy Land, despite the disbelief of the woman's husband. Anodos also finds his shadow, an evil presence that follows and torments Anodos throughout the rest of the story. Anodos finds a large palace with many rooms, including a bedroom labelled as his own. In the palace library, he reads the story of Cosmo of Prague. Cosmo is a believer in fantasy who sacrifices his life to free the soul of his lover from an enchanted mirror. Anodos spends much time in the palace. He comes upon corridors filled with still statues. Anodos explores the halls and realises that the statues dance in the halls, and return quickly to their pedestals when he enters. He dreams of the marble lady, that she alone has an empty pedestal among the statues. He later finds this pedestal and sings to it. The marble lady materialises on the pedestal, but flees him. Anodos follows, going into a strange subterranean world with gnome-like Kobolds that mock him. Anodos escapes this place and finds himself on the beach of a stormy sea. A boat takes him to an "island" with a cottage with four doors which is inhabited by an ancient lady. Anodos enters each door in turn, each containing a different world. In the first he becomes a child again, remembering the death of his brother. In the next door he finds the marble lady and Sir Percivale in love. Here Anodos makes a last outburst of his love for the marble lady. The next door recounts the death of a loved one of Anodos, and he finds his family mausoleum. Finally, Anodos travels through the last door ("the door of the timeless") but is saved by the ancient lady without remembering anything. The ancient lady says that because she saved him, he must leave via an isthmus before the island sinks underwater. Next Anodos finds himself with two brothers who are forging armour and swords in order to fight three marauding giants living in a fortified stronghold. Anodos joins them in their fight, but they are ambushed by the giants unprepared. The brothers die in the fight, but Anodos lives, killing the giants and becoming a hero of the kingdom. He journeys to tell a woman whom one of the brothers loved of the brothers' death, but along the way is captured by a manifestation of his shadow and imprisoned. Anodos escapes by the song of a woman whom he had met before in Fairy Land, and he is not troubled by his shadow again. Anodos again encounters Sir Percivale, becoming his squire. They come upon a cult of worshipers doing an unknown evil to a select few. Anodos decides to try to stop the ritual. He destroys the worshippers' idol, exposing a dark opening out of which a monster rushes to attack him. He kills the monster but is killed in the struggle as well. He floats as a spirit for a time before awakening alive on Earth, retaining the memory of his experiences in Fairy Land. His family informs him that he had only been gone 21 days, despite his seemingly long journey. ===== The game starts out with the player standing at the end of a dirt road, but it turns to the surreal when players realize that they are actually walking around inside a Unix system, and teleporting themselves around the Arpanet. There are many subtle jokes in this game, and there are multiple ways of ending the game. Throughout the game the player moves through different areas and rooms trying to collect treasure to earn points. ===== In 1999, 45 years after Godzilla's first attack in 1954, Lieutenant Akane Yashiro, a maser-cannon technician, is unable to kill a new member of Godzilla's species during her first fight. She accidentally knocks a vehicle down the mountain where it and its occupants are crushed by Godzilla and she is transferred to a desk job. During the battle, it was discovered that Godzilla is immune to maser fire, rendering all of the Japanese military useless against it. Scientists, including single father Tokumitsu Yuhara, are gathered to build a bio-mechanical robot from the original Godzilla's skeleton. The cyborg Mechagodzilla, named Kiryu, is finished and inducted into the Japan Self-Defense Forces along with its human pilots as the Kiryu Squadron. Akane becomes the main pilot for Kiryu. However, memories of Akane's actions during the original fight still linger, and one of her squadron mates, Second Lieutenant Susumu Hayama holds her responsible for the death of his brother (who was in the car she knocked down the mountain). Four years later, Mechagodzilla is shown to the world, and the complete system that controls the unit is explained. Controlled remotely from a control craft that resembles a very large jet fighter with V/STOL capabilities, it can be remotely recharged from the ground using microwaves that are relayed through a power system on one of the command aircraft, and then beamed back down to Kiryu. For the end of the presentation, its greatest and most powerful weapon, the freezing Absolute Zero Cannon, is shown. At the same time, Godzilla shows up once again, and Kiryu is launched into battle. In the midst of the first battle, Kiryu's soul is awoken by Godzilla's roar and brings with it the memories of the original Godzilla's death. As if it were the original Godzilla, Kiryu proceeds to destroy the city around it after Godzilla retreats to the ocean floor. Horrified, the Kiryu Squadron can only watch in alarm as the rampaging cyborg destroys more city property than Godzilla did. After one hour, Kiryu runs out of energy and is brought back to headquarters for further work. All the while, Akane deals with Hayama resenting her and trying to get her to leave, along with Tokumitsu’s attempts to get to know her despite her always seeking solitude. Later, Godzilla attacks again. After repairs are made, Kiryu is released from the air and hits Godzilla with immense speed. Godzilla and Mechagodzilla face off in a head-to-head battle where each combatant sizes up its opposite and exchange powerful blows that devastate the cityscape around them. Kiryu gains the upper hand and beats down Godzilla. Kiryu proceeds to launch the Absolute Zero Cannon, but Godzilla fires its atomic breath. During the course of the impact, Kiryu is disabled, and the remote piloting system completely taken off-line. In an effort to continue the fight, Akane orders Hayama to land his command craft so that she can make her way to Mechagodzilla and take control from its internal backup cockpit. As she leaves, Hayama wishes her good luck signifying he forgives her, to which she gives a thumbs up. Now under direct human control, Kiryu rises from the ground one more time and closes in on Godzilla for a final blow, hoping to use the Absolute Zero Cannon at point-blank range. The two titans collide, and Akane uses Kiryu's thrusters to propel it and Godzilla out to sea before firing, freezing a huge portion of the ocean around them. After the blast clears, Godzilla is shown to be alive but with a huge gash in its chest, walking back into the ocean. Kiryu is heavily damaged, missing its right arm, and the Absolute Zero Cannon is devastated. With Squadron Kiryu successful in repelling the monster, Kiryu is taken back to base for repairs. In a post-credits scene, Akane agrees to have dinner with Tokumitsu and his daughter Sara and gives Kiryu one last salute. ===== In spring 1740, Peter Palafox, his friend Sean O'Mara and Sean's uncle Liam are riding from Connaught to Cork so that Peter can join the Royal Navy as a midshipman. Sean decides to join, too, so Liam will take the horses back home. They meet Peregrine FitzGerald at the market fair, another boy heading for HMS Centurion. Both lose their money. FitzGerald meets Lord Culmore who loans him ten guineas, solving their money problems. They meet the brig Mary Rose, at Cove of Cork and reach HMS Centurion at Spithead on time. Peter is wearing all his best clothes, including a green stone given to him as a "luck giver". On board Peter learns he must have a sea chest and a uniform. Mr Walter, the chaplain, recognises the emerald pinned to his neck cloth, which can supply all that Peter needs. The emerald from a Spanish ship of the Armada now helps Peter as England fights Spain. Peter likes the ship HMS Centurion, but takes time to be at ease with naval discipline. Peter knows the Irish names for the parts of a ship, but not yet the English names. At dinner with Commodore Anson he meets officers on his ship and others in the squadron. Neighbour to Peter is Captain Callis, a man who loved Peter's mother long ago and lost her to Peter's father. Anson remarks on the terrible decision by the Admiralty to include the Chelsea pensioners (500 infirm sailors) as part of his crew. Peter tells the chaplain that he knows the ship's destination, to the golden ocean, the Pacific, to fight the Spanish. Anson is disappointed that his secret mission is common knowledge on the Irish coast. Common knowledge also knows that the Spanish have a squadron of the same number of ships, under Pizarro. The true voyage begins, after the squadron escorts merchant ships heading east. Six weeks of contrary winds keep them in the English Channel, long enough for the landsman to be used to the sea. FitzGerald, wounded in his fight with Ransome, is now ready for duty, assigned to a watch. When sent to the topmast, FitzGerald can barely do it. Ransome helps him down, so FitzGerald apologises to him. Peter is at home up on the masts, with no fear of heights or the motion of the ship. At Funchal in Madeira in November, FitzGerald returns to England, carrying a letter from Peter to his father, and many gifts for his siblings. Mr Elliot, midshipman, teaches Peter the trigonometry, by the example of a stick of known height and its shadow, a tree whose shadow is paced out, thus the height of the tree is calculated; Peter understands it and succeeds in his classes on board. Before the equator, Peter gets a delirious fever, lasting until they land at Saint Catherine's island off Brazil, where they stay past Christmas. Many die of tropical diseases. Mr Ransome is friendlier with him, but still calls him Teague, an insulting name for an Irish boy. Rounding Cape Horn is fierce. They meet with high winds, thick fog, bitter cold and storms, naming several rendezvous points in the Pacific. Pearl rejoins after having fallen in with five Spanish ships, the fleet Peter described to Anson. In March 1741, they reach 52 degrees 32 minutes south. Peter is glad for the warm clothes from FitzGerald. None agree on the longitude in waters uncharted by the English. Peter's ribs are broken from a rope that froze in this cold, windy weather; he feels lucky he was not tossed into the sea like so many others. Mr Elliot is taken by the scurvy in April, a sore loss to Peter, just after they lose Pearl and Severn. Centurion, Gloucester, Wager, Tryal and the pink Anna think they are west enough to turn north. Hopelessness pervades. Commodore Anson appears to be made of "iron and oak", a little more affable the worse the weather gets. Sean is captain of the foretop, as he performs well, being sure-footed and brave with frozen sails and ropes. Centurion reaches Juan Fernandez, staying there a few months to fix ships and heal the men with good food there. Peter spends a second birthday as a midshipman, having learned the tone of authority and grown out of his best clothes. Peter computes the losses of crew on Centurion, Gloucester and Tryal since leaving England: 961 sailed out, 626 dead after reaching Juan Fernandez. Tryal takes a prize, a Spanish merchant ship, which vessel replaces the damaged Tryal. Spanish passengers are well-treated, a wise move. Wager never makes this rendezvous. Reduced squadron sails north, reaching Paita. Centurion and Tryal crews take the town, made easier by the fear of the locals, who flee on seeing them. An Irishman living there tells Peter where the huge merchant treasure is. They take the ship with the merchant treasure, truly great wealth. All the crew become experts on the rules of sharing prizes, happy with the share they will see. They keep sailing north, aiming for the Acapulco Galleon, which sails between Manila and Acapulco with treasure. Missing the galleon, the Commodore sails west to Manila. Storm damaged Gloucester is burned at sea, and her crew taken aboard Centurion, the only ship of the squadron now. Centurion stops at Tinian Island in September 1742. Peter is carried ashore. His health is improved by the fresh food. Centurion sails to Macau, next to Canton, to refit the ship. Peter spends two years of pay in less than a month. They lose Mr Walter and some officers, who take a merchant ship on the well-travelled route back to England, to report progress and carry mail and gifts home. Refit and rested, Centurion is homeward bound. Commodore Anson, once at sea, informs the crew of 227 that they will try again for the Acapulco Galleon, before she reaches Manila. Sailing east, Centurion waits for the galleon, engaging her in close battle on June 20, 1743, taking her and her cargo of silver and gold. Mr Saumarez sails the prize and both ships stopped in Macau to transfer the treasure to Centurion. Sean is promoted to bosun's mate, guarding the treasure aboard the prize and Centurion for the year's voyage home. Truly homeward bound, they put in at Prince's Island, Cape Town (gaining Dutch seamen), speeding to England through a fog in the Channel where they pass unseen French ships, now at war with England. Peter and Sean are paid their shares of the prizes. All of his family is on the lookout for him, for a joyous reunion after four years away. Peter gives his father the good round sum of 1,000 pounds, which will lift his family from genteel poverty. ===== In the early part of the novel, set in London, other members of the expedition are featured. They appear in more detail in The Golden Ocean, another O'Brian novel about the Anson expedition. The expedition is beset by storms while rounding of Cape Horn, the Wager is shipwrecked off the coast of Chile as their position could not be determined. The crew reject the authority of their officers, once the ship was wrecked and leave the captain, some officers and some other crew on the island when they sail away in a boat built from the wreck. The marooned officers make their way to a Spanish settlement with the help of the native people. The novel is based on the accounts of the survivors. Survivors from the lower deck made their way back to Britain long before the officers. The novel describes the crew members asserting that the officers had no authority over them, once their ship was wrecked. ===== Fighting in the trenches of Biscay in 1875 during the Third Carlist War, Carmelo Mendiluze, an army sergeant, learns from a young errand boy named Ilegorri that Manuel Iriguíbel, his neighbor from his native village, has joined their exhausted battalion. Eager for news of his child's birth, Carmelo befriends the inexperienced soldier whose reputation as an expert aizcolari (competition log cutter) cannot conceal his apprehension and fear of armed combat. Panicking under fire, Manuel drops to the ground and smears himself with blood gushing hot from the neck of his mortally wounded neighbor, Mendiluze. When the battle is over, Manuel crawls out from a cartload of the dead, naked bodies as he is transported away from the front lines. Nobody has seen his escape, except a curious, solitary cow. Thirty years later, in 1905 in rural Guipúzcoa, a lingering animosity has continued between the Mendiluze and Iriguíbel families. Manuel, now an old man, is still regarded as a coward; he spends his time painting the family’s cows watched over by his three granddaughters, the offspring of his son Ignacio Iriguíbel and his wife Madalen. Ignacio and Carmelo's son, Juan Mendiluze, have maintained family traditions by honing their skills as aizcolari. Despite the strained relations between the neighbors, the destinies of the two families are fatefully interconnected. Juan's sister, Catalina, cannot conceal her romantic interest for Ignacio as she furtively watches him practice cutting logs in the woods - an attraction that proves to be mutual through Ignacio's playful attempts to catch her already piqued attention. Paulina, the Mendiluze widow, warns her daughter that her interest for Ignacio Iriguíbel will bring the downfall of the Mendiluze family. In an attempt to capitalize from the rivalry between the two families, Ilegorri, now a grown man, arranges a waged competition between Ignacio and Juan. Ignacio wins and his career as an aizcolari contender is launched. Catalina and Ignacio start a secret affair. Ten years later, in the spring of 1915, Ignacio returns home after traveling to national competitions. He now enjoys fame and success. Although Ignacio takes care of his family farm, he neglects Madalen, his wife. He is promptly reunited with Catalina, and they have a ten-year-old son. After the death of their mother, the relationship between the bitter Juan and Catalina is increasingly strained. Juan, still a bachelor, is more obsessed and delusional in his incestuous feelings for his sister. Catalina, afraid of him, wants to escape to America with Ignacio. A close childhood friendship develops between Peru, Catalina and Ignacio's ten-year-old illegitimate son, and his half- sister Cristina; they wander amidst the mountain forest under the supervision of their limp and old grandfather, Manuel. Eventually the boy's parents elope to America and take him with them. In the summer of 1936, Peru has left his family behind, coming back to Guipúzcoa, as a photojournalist reporting on the Spanish Civil War. The Mendiluze farmhouse is empty. Juan, his uncle, has put on his Carlist red beret, joining the Nationalists. Peru is reunited with Cristina, his half-sister and childhood sweetheart. He stays at the Iriguíbel’s farm. Cristina has had a relationship with Lucas, Iligorri’s son. She shows Peru the last paintings made by their grandfather. The Spanish Civil War comes to the village. The men try to find refuge in the forest when the Nationalists come. Peru and Cristina follow them and are joined by Lucas, who offers to protect them. Lucas is killed and Peru is captured with the surviving men of the region. The men are executed but Peru is spared thanks to the intervention of Juan who recognizes him as his nephew. Reunited with Cristina, Peru and Cristina flee to the French frontier. ===== The book's protagonist is Andrew Horne (nicknamed "Bear"), a Russian-born U.S. scientist, who works at "West Wing" on Project Beta, a secret government mind-control project, which aims to perfect the art of brainwashing until it is possible to completely re-make a person's mind and soul. The Project operates on hopeless cases from psychiatric wards, and "prison-volunteers" who would otherwise be executed. The Project's first Remake having failed disastrously, it is decided to base the second Remake on the mind of Horne himself. The prison-volunteer chosen for the Remake is a Black soldier, referred to as Prisvol 233/234, who has killed an officer and been sentenced to death. The project first uses ultrasound to destroy his access to his old memories, and then, having washed the slate clean, exposes him to immersive movie reenactments of Horne's childhood, college days, war service, and entry into the Project. (As this is performed, the reader discovers that Horne himself was on the receiving end of torture and brainwashing in the Korean War, which he fought against by creating a "false self" which he betrays to the enemy, the "Lieutenant Kijé defense"). At the end of the process, 233/234, now known as "Black Bear", is, for all intents and purposes, Andrew Horne in a new body. However, when Security realizes that Black Bear also has all of Horne's secret knowledge and considers him a security risk, it sets off a chain of events where their mirror image identities will lead both Black Bear and Horne to "East Wing" in Russia. ===== In 1957, Indiana Jones and his partner George "Mac" McHale have been kidnapped from their archaeological excavating work in Mexico by Soviet agents working under Irina Spalko, who infiltrate a secret, governmental Nevada warehouse labeled "Hangar 51" and force Jones to locate a mummified corpse (from the Roswell UFO incident, 10 years earlier, on which he was forced to work). Shortly after, Mac reveals he has become a double agent on the KGB’s payroll. After an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the body and a fight with Spalko's henchman Dovchenko, Jones escapes to a model town within the Nevada Test Site, right before an atomic bomb test. He takes shelter in a lead-lined refrigerator and is rescued, decontaminated, and interrogated by FBI agents, who suspect him of working for the Soviets. Though freed through the recommendation of General Ross, he ends up put on indefinite leave of absence from Marshall College, and the dean resigns to keep Indiana's job at the college. Jones is approached by greaser Mutt Williams, who tells him Harold Oxley found a crystal skull in Peru and was later kidnapped along with Mutt's mother, Mary who went after him. Jones tells Mutt of the legend of crystal skulls found in Akator, and Mutt gives Jones a letter from his mother, with a riddle from Oxley in an ancient language. Two Soviet agents attempt to capture them, but Jones and Mutt escape and, following the riddle's meaning, reach Peru. At the local psychiatric hospital, Oxley's scribbling on the walls and floor of his cell lead them to the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a Conquistador who searched for Akator. They find the skull at the grave, with Jones reasoning Oxley had returned it there. Jones and Mutt are captured by Mac and the Soviets and taken to their camp in the Amazon jungle. Spalko believes the crystal skull belongs to an alien life form and holds great psychic power, and finding more skulls in Akator will grant the Soviet Union the ability to rule the world through the use of telepathy. Spalko threatens to kill Mutt if Jones doesn't help, but when that doesn't work, the Soviets threaten to kill Marion Ravenwood. Spalko uses the skull on Jones to enable him to understand Oxley and identify a route to Akator. Jones and his allies try to escape, but Marion and Jones get caught in a dry sandpit, where Marion reveals that Mutt is Jones' son, Henry Jones III. and are recaptured by the Soviets. While on their way to Akator, Jones and his team fight their way out of the KGB's clutches, Mac tells Jones he is a CIA double agent, and Dovchenko is devoured by siafu ants. After surviving three waterfalls in an amphibious vehicle, Jones and Oxley identify a skull-like rock formation that leads them to Akator, unaware that Mac lied about being a CIA agent and has been dropping transceivers to allow the surviving Russians to track them. Jones' team evade the city's guardians, gain access to the temple, and find it filled with artifacts from many ancient civilizations, identifying the aliens as "archaeologists" studying the different cultures of Earth. They find and enter a chamber containing thirteen crystal skeletons, the tenth missing its skull. Spalko arrives and presents the skull to its skeleton, whereupon the skeletons telepathically offer a reward in ancient Mayan through Oxley. Spalko immediately demands to know everything and the aliens, actually extra- dimensional beings, begin reanimating and transfer their knowledge into her mind. A portal to their dimension is activated, and the other remaining Russians are drawn into it. As Jones, Marion, Mutt, and Oxley (who has regained his sanity) escape, the thirteen beings fuse into one, and in the process of receiving the overwhelming knowledge, Spalko is disintegrated and sucked into the portal. Mac is sucked in too when he tries to collect some of the ancient artifacts. Jones tries to help him up by throwing his whip, but Mac says that he will be fine and willingly lets go of Jones' whip. Jones' team escape and watch as the city crumbles, revealing a flying saucer rising from under the ground and vanishing into the "space between spaces", while the hollow in the valley floor left by its departure is flooded by the waters of the Amazon. The following year, Jones is reinstated at Marshall College and made an associate dean, and he and Marion are married. ===== After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they did not know they were agents and can be activated only by a special code phrase. (The phrase is a line from the Robert Frost poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", followed by the agent's real first name.) Their mission was to sabotage crucial parts of the civil and military infrastructure in the event of conflict. More than 20 years pass, and the Cold War gradually gives way to détente. Narrowly escaping a relentless purge of old Stalinism loyalists, Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence), a rogue KGB headquarters clerk, travels to America, taking with him the Telefon Book which contains the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all the sleeper agents. He starts activating them, one by one. American counterintelligence is thrown into confusion when seemingly ordinary citizens blow up what were formerly top secret facilities that have since become relatively inconsequential, and then either commit suicide or die in the act itself. The KGB dares not tell its political leaders, much less the Americans, about its negligence in not deactivating the spy network. KGB Major Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson), who is selected for his photographic memory, memorizes the contents of the only other copy of the Telefon Book. He is then sent to find and stop Dalchimsky quietly, before either side learns what is happening, which would greatly embarrass the KGB and possibly even start a war between the powers. Borzov is given the assistance of only a single agent, Barbara (Lee Remick), planted in America years before. Eventually, Borzov realizes the method behind Dalchimsky's pattern of attacks: he has chosen the agents by the first letters of their American hometowns, "writing" his own name in sabotage across America. Using that information, Borzov is able to anticipate Dalchimsky's next chosen sleeper agent, and locate and kill Dalchimsky. However, there are a number of twists. Barbara has orders from the KGB to assassinate Borzov once he succeeds, to get rid of a dangerous loose end. In addition, she is a double agent actually working for America. When she informs her American superior, Sandburg (Frank Marth), he also tells her to kill Borzov, so she will retain the confidence of the KGB. However, Barbara has fallen in love with her would- be target. She informs Borzov, and together they blackmail both sides into leaving them alone, holding the threat of the remaining Telefon agents over their heads. ===== Eventually, the humans who are visiting Nor'Dyren discover that until 200 years previously, there were four distinct groups of Nor'Dyrenese. The fourth group (Qattagon) had been specialized to perform all of the creative work of society and was very artistic. However, the Qattagon had gotten too wild and radical and had come into conflict with the Gonnegon. This conflict ended when the administrative Gonnegon engineered the Qattagon out of the social system. This was possible because the Qattagon were not capable of reproducing; Qattagon were the result of interbreeding among the other three groups. To engineer Qattagon out of the society, the administrators decreed that members of each of the other three groups could only mate with other members of their own group. Under this imposed rule, none of the artistic hybrid Qattagon were born anymore. The reason that the Qattagon had gotten out of control and become a problem for Nor'Dyren was because the balance between the four groups had been engineered to be appropriate for worlds that were part of a large interstellar empire. But in the distant past, that empire had collapsed, leaving the planet Nor'Dyren isolated and unable to absorb the full force of the creativity of its Qattagon. ===== The book describes, in an idealized form, the childhood of Němcová. The plot weaves together a remembrance of the agrarian calendar and customs of the neighborhood with the love stories of several women, which reveal more of the history and customs of that area. The main action of the novel seems to take place during the first one or two years after the Grandmother has come to live at the Old Bleachery with her daughter's family, to help manage the household. The father is frequently absent due to his job as equerry to the local noblewoman, which takes him away to Vienna during the winter. The principal action of the story is to tell the intertwining tales of Viktorka, Kristla, and the Countess. The author is identified with Barunka, the eldest daughter of the Prošek family; however, the novel is not told from her point of view. ===== On a seaside pier in Los Angeles, friends Jenny Tate and Becky Morton decide to get their fortune told by Zela. Zela foretells that they will suffer a horrible fate, but they don't believe her and walk away disgusted. That night, 16-year-old high-schooler Jimmy Myers is picked up on Mulholland Drive by his 24-year-old sister Ellie, who has just returned from visiting her boyfriend, Jake Taylor. Jimmy had a run-in with some bullies and his crush, Brooke. Driving home, Jimmy and Ellie collide with an animal and another car. They attempt to rescue the other driver, Becky Morton, but an unseen creature slashes the siblings before it drags Becky off and rips her in half. When interviewed by police, despite Jimmy's belief that it was a wolf or dog-type animal, the official report credits it to a bear or cougar. The next day at work, Ellie finds herself attracted to the scent of a coworkers blood. But she dismisses it. At a party, Jenny interrupts a conversation between Ellie and Jake. Annoyed that Jenny is flirting with Jake, Ellie leaves the party early. Soon after this Jenny heads down to the parking garage where she is chased and killed by a werewolf. Zela's predictions for both Jenny and Becky have come to pass. Jimmy does research about wolves in California and starts to believe that the creature was a werewolf, sharing his thoughts with a disbelieving Ellie. To ease Jimmy's concerns she touches a silver picture frame without getting burned. Jimmy is becoming much stronger and more aggressive, as shown when a bully named Bo coerces him to join the wrestling team. He easily defeats three wrestlers, including Bo, and calls Bo out for constantly making gay jokes towards him, saying that Bo himself is repressing his own homosexuality. Ellie starts to believe the werewolf hypothesis when she meets Zela, who warns about the effect the coming full moon will have. Jimmy proves they have been cursed when he holds a silver cake server and gets burned, discovering that the picture frame Ellie touched earlier was only stainless steel. Their dog, Zipper, bites Jimmy, tastes his blood, becomes a lycanthropoid monster, and goes on a rampage. Realizing what's happening, Jimmy goes to warn Ellie with Bo, who showed up at their house to confess that he is gay and has feelings for Jimmy; Bo is flatly rejected by Jimmy who believes the attraction to be his werewolf pheromones, but Bo still helps Jimmy. Ellie has deduced that Jake is a werewolf. He confirms it, but claims it wasn't he who attacked her and Jimmy. When a fourth werewolf attacks them, Bo and Jimmy try to help, but Bo is knocked out. The new werewolf turns back into Joanie, who was cursed after a one-night stand with Jake. She now wants revenge by killing all of the other girls Jake dates. When Jake refuses to let Joanie hurt Ellie, she knocks him out, then turns into werewolf form and starts attacking. Ellie and Jimmy fight her, and when the police arrive, the two draw her out by insulting her. The police open fire, apparently killing her in werewolf form, but she rises again as her head and heart are still connected. A policeman shoots her in the head, finally killing her. Bo is okay, but Jake has disappeared. Jimmy and Ellie return to a wrecked home. As Jimmy works to restore the power, Jake arrives. He reveals that since Joanie's curse was caused by him, the only way to cure it is to kill the werewolf who started the curse-line and wants to kill Jimmy (due to his alpha male instinct) and have Ellie live forever by his side. She and Jake fight, but her werewolf form emerges sporadically while he has complete control over his, dominating the fight. Werewolf Jimmy joins in, climbing across the ceiling and biting Jake, allowing Ellie to stab and badly injure Jake with the silver cake server. Ellie decapitates Jake with a shovel and breaks the curse on the two siblings (and Zipper). They watch as Jake's body bursts into flames. Bo, Brooke, and Zipper arrive at the house. Bo and Jimmy are now friends; Jimmy kisses Brooke and walks her home along with Bo. Ellie is stuck with the clean- up of the messy house. ===== In the early parts of the novel Shaw goes to great lengths to make the point about "Jordache blood" – violent, bitter, resentful. One of the ways he does this is by meticulously describing the hate-filled marriage of the parents, Mary and Axel. The novel is told in the third person omniscient point of view but never wholly objectively, often through the lens of the consciousness of one of the five family members. When told through the POV of either Mary or Axel the view of humanity, and of the Jordache family, is relentlessly bleak and pessimistic. The tripwire that sets all of the ensuing plot action in motion occurs when Gretchen Jordache begins an affair with the president of the company she works for, Teddy Boylan, a man much older than herself. Eventually her brothers Rudolph and Thomas also become involved with Boylan, in different ways, and it is his influence upon all three that first springs each of them into the world beyond the small upstate New York town where their parents scrape by with their bakery. Boylan constitutes their first true encounters with an adult beyond their parents. Many people, mainly because of their familiarity with the miniseries rather than the actual source material, thought of the story as a very simplistic juxtaposition of the virtuous, goody two shoes brother (Rudolph) with the black sheep, ne'er-do- well younger sibling (Thomas, whom Shaw seeks to differentiate psychologically by means of a physical symbol – he is the only blond haired member of the family), but the novel is much more complex than this in its demonstrative understructure. For example, Rudolph is constantly developing positive relationships only with people who can help him - his father, Mr. Calderwood, Johnny Heath, Boylan. In stark contrast to this both Gretchen and Thomas consistently entangle themselves with the kinds of people that modern self- help literature calls "drain people" or "toxic people". A couple of examples: Thomas' only friend in the world, Claude, gives him up immediately to the authorities the second his own well being is threatened, and when Axel Jordache learns of Tom's actions his only impulse is to get rid of him, to send him away to live with family in Ohio. Contrast this with Rudolph's friend, Johnny Heath, who becomes his lifelong friend, attorney, and business partner, and also with what Axel Jordache does when confronted by Rudolph's French teacher over a behavior miscue – he slaps the teacher in the face. We cannot imagine him defending either Gretchen or Thomas in this manner. Boylan serves as the macguffin that drives the plot for all three of the Jordache siblings. For Gretchen he is an introduction to the world of men and relationships. He awakens in her the realization that she is the kind of woman who reduces men to cowering wimps but who cannot, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, put together a sound, completely fulfilling relationship. Her marriage to Willie Abbott collapses under the weight of his alcoholism and her marriage to Colin Burke ends in tragedy when Burke dies in a car accident. Similarly none of her numerous affairs bear any genuine emotional fruit. It is because of Boylan that Thomas embarks on a savage act of vandalism (with his friend Claude, who eventually turns him in). When caught, the men of the town present Axel Jordache with a choice – send Thomas away or let him and the family face the consequences with the law. Jordache sends him away to live with his brother in Ohio, thus beginning a pattern that is repeated over and over and over in the novel: Thomas settles somewhere for a while, does OK for a time, then gets into trouble and has to flee. Finally Boylan offers to pay for Rudolph to go to college. Although on one level Rudolph despises Boylan as a petty vindictive rich pervert of an old man, he sees another side of him as well - the financially independent man of the world who wants for nothing. Shaw uses Rudolph's even, balanced judgment of Boylan as a counterpoint to the wholly negative, wholly one-sided opinion of him both Gretchen and Thomas, in their own separate ways, cling to. ===== A team visits fictional planet Ireta to survey its mineral wealth. Several anomalies are discovered, including some decidedly large animals that resemble prehistoric beings from Earth's history and legend. Before all can be explained, the Heavyworlder "muscle people" mutiny after gaining a taste for flesh and blood. ===== On Monday night, Nick, Dallas, and Billy Hill argue with a Los Angeles convenience store cashier. Dallas shoots her dead. They conceal the killing from a police officer until he sees blood on the floor. Early Thursday morning, Casey in Texas receives a call from his old drug dealing partner Nick asking to stay a couple of days. Since they split some years ago Casey has cleaned up, married, and is hoping to adopt a child. Nick borrows Casey's car, and Casey finds Nick's suitcase to be full of heroin. Furious, he calls Nick with an ultimatum or he calls the cops, but Nick says he'll be along once he has finished some business. Casey puts the heroin down the garbage grinder. At 11:55, Casey answers the door to hitman Ice. Casey asks that they smoke some ganja together before he dies, then takes advantage of a distraction. Ice ends up gagged and bound in Casey's garage just as Dr. Jarvis, the adoption agent, rings the doorbell. Casey, stoned, rushes to clear away the drug paraphernalia before letting Jarvis in to discuss his suitability to adopt. Dr. Jarvis is particularly curious to know what Casey did for several years when he lived in L.A., as there is no account of his time there. Casey tries his best to cover up his past as well as his recent encounter with the hitman. During the interview, Dallas, who wants the money that she believes Nick left with Casey along with the heroin, shows up. She scares Dr. Jarvis away by telling a story about Casey's drug-dealing and murdering past. When left alone with Casey, Dallas questions him about the money's whereabouts. Angry that he cannot help her, she decides to kill him, but not before she ties him to a chair, fellates him to force an erection, strips naked, and proceeds to mount and rape him. She tells him she will not kill him until he orgasms and she plans to go on until she makes him do so. Delivering on her word, she reaches multiple orgasms, but gets no results from him. While Dallas reaches a third orgasm, Billy breaks in and shoots her, splattering her blood all over Casey, his walls, and his floor. Billy believes Casey when told that he does not have the heroin, but plans on torturing him with a saw and a blow torch anyway, while he brags about his prowess and technique of cauterization as he sets to work. Billy is interrupted by cops raiding the house next door. As Billy checks on it Casey is able to loosen the tape around his wrists and grabs a frying pan and sits back down. Billy returns and tells Casey the cops got the wrong house. As he is about to proceed, he notices something is wrong, but Casey catches him off guard, overpowers him, and leaves him in the garage. Nick calls Casey from a pay phone, apologizes for everything, and admits he had stolen the heroin and money from the police. After he hangs up, it is revealed that Nick has been shot and is bleeding severely, about to die. Finally, corrupt cop Kasarov arrives with a bag which contains Nick's head. He gives Casey until 7 p.m. to find the money, but says that he does not care about the heroin. Kasarov then sees the garage with Ice and Billy tied up and Dallas dead and unloads a magazine into Ice and Billy. He tells Casey to throw them out, as it is garbage day. In the end, Casey calls Ice's boss and tells him that the heroin is being auctioned off at 7 p.m. at his house, setting up a gun battle between the Jamaicans and the corrupt officers. He recalls Nick's earlier words, which lead him to find the money and a wedding present in the spare tire of his car. He takes them, puts them in Dallas's Lamborghini Diablo car, and leaves to pick his wife up at the airport. ===== The film begins with a flashback to a young Mordechai Jefferson Carver. At school, Mordechai is tormented by his fellow students and his teacher for being a Jewish child in a public school predominantly attended by Christians, and for celebrating Hanukkah while everyone else celebrates Christmas. He feels further alienated as he walks through his neighborhood and sees a seemingly endless number of Christmas decorations and window displays celebrating the holiday and announcing that Jews aren't welcome. As he lies down on the sidewalk in front of a store saying "Jews 'OK' (for about 5 minutes)" and spins his dreidel to cheer himself up, Santa Claus walks by and crushes the toy under his foot, then gives Mordechai the finger. The scene then changes to the present with Mordechai as the Hebrew Hammer, a certified circumcised dick who has dedicated his life to defending Jews. His snappy dress (a cross between that of a pimp and a Hasidic Jew) and tough-guy demeanor have made him a local hero within the Jewish community. Jews and African-Americans have enjoyed a tenuous peace with the White Christians over the previous few decades because the current Santa (the son of the cruel Santa who stomped Mordechai's dreidel years earlier) has pursued a policy of inclusion and tolerance. This Santa is murdered and replaced by his son, Damian, who seeks to destroy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa thus reserving December for Christmas alone. Mordechai is reluctantly recruited to stop Damian, gaining allies along the way, including love interest and daughter of the Chief of the Jewish Justice League Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal and the Kwanzaa Liberation Front's leader Mohammed Ali Paula Abdul Rahim. The fight takes them to exotic locales such as Israel, K-Mart, the Jewish Atomic Clock outside Jerusalem and the final battle at the North Pole. ===== A young, idealistic American hopes to "show some kindness" to the German people soon after the end of World War II. In US-occupied Germany, he takes on work as a sleeping-car conductor for the Zentropa railway network, falls in love with a femme fatale, and becomes embroiled in a pro-Nazi terrorist conspiracy. ===== The story opens with an unnamed war correspondent and a young lieutenant surveying the calm of the battlefield and reflecting upon the war between two unidentified armies. The opponents are dug into trenches, each waiting for the other to attack, and the men on the war correspondent's side are confident they will prevail, because they are all strong outdoor-types —men who know how to use a rifle and fight—while their enemies are townspeople, "a crowd of devitalised townsmen . . . They're clerks, they're factory hands, they're students, they're civilised men. They can write, they can talk, they can make and do all sorts of things, but they're poor amateurs at war."The Land Ironclads, H. G. Wells, 1909 The men agree that their "open air life" produces men better suited to war than their opponents' "decent civilization." In the end, however, the "decent civilization," with its men of science and engineers, triumphs over the "better soldiers" who, instead of developing land ironclads of their own, had been practising shooting their rifles from horseback, a tactic rendered obsolete by the land ironclads. Wells foreshadows this eventual outcome in the conversation of the two men in the first part, when the correspondent tells the lieutenant "Civilization has science, you know, it invented and it made the rifles and guns and things you use." The story ends with the entire army captured by thirteen land ironclads, with the defenders managing to disable only one. In the last scene, the correspondent compares his countrymen's "sturdy proportions with those of their lightly built captors", and thinks of the story he is going to write about the experience, noting both that the captured officers are thinking of ways they will defeat what they call the enemy's "ironmongery" with their already- existing weaponry, rather than developing their own land ironclads to counter the new threat, and also noting that the "half-dozen comparatively slender young men in blue pajamas who were standing about their victorious land ironclad, drinking coffee and eating biscuits, had also in their eyes and carriage something not altogether degraded below the level of a man." ===== The beginning of the book establishes the framework in which a 17th-century gentleman, mourning the death of his beloved, Lady Mirdath, is given a vision of a far-distant future where their souls will be re-united, and sees the world of that time through the eyes of a future incarnation. The language and style used are intended to resemble that of the 17th century, though the prose has features characteristic of no period whatsoever: the almost-complete lack of dialogue and proper names, for example. Critic Ian Bell has suggested that John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" (1667) is probably a partial literary inspiration for Hodgson's novel, especially due to the hellish visions of sombre intensity which mark both works, and other similarities including the use of massive structures (the Temple of Pandemonium in Milton and the Last Redoubt in The Night Land).Ian Bell. "A Dream of Darkness: William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land". Studies in Weird Fiction 1, No 1(Summer 1986), pp. 13–18. Once into the book, the 17th century framing is mostly inconsequential. Instead, the story focuses on the future. The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, nearly eight miles high – the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a shield known as the "air clog", powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For millennia, vast living shapes—the Watchers—have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness beyond, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human. To leave the protection of the Circle means almost certain death, or worse an ultimate destruction of the soul. As the story commences, the narrator establishes mind contact with an inhabitant of another, forgotten Lesser Redoubt. First one expedition sets off to succour the inhabitants of the Lesser Redoubt, whose own Earth Current has been exhausted, only to meet with disaster. After that, the narrator sets off alone into the darkness to find the girl he has made contact with, knowing now that she is the reincarnation of his past love. At the conclusion of the adventure, the narrative does not return to the framework story, instead ending with the homecoming of the couple and his inauguration into the ranks of their most honoured heroes. ===== The story is told by an unnamed narrator, an agent of an unnamed U.S. intelligence bureau. The agent is tasked with an investigation into an atomic power plant which has been completely drained of power. A Professor of Nuclear Physics, Elmer Tywood, is found dead. As the investigation progresses, bringing in Tywood's research students and his university colleagues, it is revealed that Tywood had developed a means to send objects back in time via "micro-temporal translation." His plan was to "improve" the world by giving Hellenic Greece advanced knowledge in the form of chemistry. The investigating agents and their superior, The Boss, gradually realize that the changes introduced into history might, through the butterfly effect, cause the deletion from existence of every human being alive. The trail eventually leads to the doorstep of Mycroft James Boulder, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, who had been hired by Tywood to translate a textbook of chemistry into Attic Greek. He states that he had figured out Tywood's plan and translated only enough to coincide with historical accounts. With no clear solution, the investigation is shelved and filed under the heading of "?". ===== The year is 2070, and the United Republic of America, an authoritarian conservative regime constructed after the second revolution, has built its first starship: the URSS Alabama. The welcoming celebration for Captain Robert E. Lee takes a sudden turn when Lee initiates his plan to steal the Alabama. Working with a handful of conspirators, Lee manages to take the ship by the helm and override the clearance codes. URS soldiers climb aboard to stop Lee, but they are too late. Not wishing to abandon their orders, Colonel Reese and the other soldiers become stowaways. Captain Lee knew exactly what he was doing. His destination: the 47 Ursae Majoris system, some 46 light years away—far enough to escape the tyrannical United Republic. At a cruise velocity of .2c, Alabama would not arrive at its destination until 230 earth years have passed. So the crew of 104 soldiers, scientists, and civilians were put in biostasis, to be awakened from their virtual immortality by the ship's AI 226 years into the future. (Four years are spared due to time dilation.) 47 Ursae Majoris' system has four planets- named Fox, Raven, Bear and Wolf after Native American mythology. Bear has six satellites- Dog, Hawk, Eagle, Coyote, Snake and Goat. Of these six, Coyote is large enough to support its own biosphere.Coyote, p.158 Just three months into the journey, something goes terribly wrong. Leslie Gillis, the senior communications officer, is awakened from biostasis. Expecting the year to be 2300, Gillis is horrified when he questions the AI. There was a mix up, and now it is inexplicably impossible for Gillis to return to his dreamless sleep. His gruelling options are either suicide or a lonely existence surviving off the ship's supplies. While suicide may be more honorable than devouring his crewmates’ rations, Gillis chooses life. After a brief chat with the AI, Gillis learns that Eric Gunther was originally scheduled to awake three months into the trip. Gunther is an agent for the URA, and would attempt to contact the president, or destroy the ship. The program was changed at the last minute to wake someone else instead - Les Gillis. Gillis leaves a note for Captain Lee explaining Gunther's plans for treason. Why they were changed at the last minute remains a mystery, but it was a change that would cost Gillis his life. During Leslie Gillis’ solitary life, he did everything he could to keep from going insane, attempting to eat and sleep at regular hours, reading all of the books which were on board, playing chess against the AI, writing stories, and painting. Using practically all of the ship's art supplies, Gillis created a story about a prince named Rupurt and the fantastic alien world he lived in. He painted scenes of his books on the ship's inside walls. Eventually, Gillis died in his old age after a fall from a ladder while trying to get a better look at an alien ship he had seen. The AI automatically expelled his body into space with the arms of a maintenance bot, and the ship sailed on to 47 Ursae Majoris with no more incidents. The crew is awakened as planned in the year 2300. The Alabama has entered the 47 Ursae Majoris system and is approaching its third planet, Bear. Bear (currently known as 47 Ursae Majoris b) is a gas giant that orbits 47 Ursae Majoris at 2.1 AUs and Coyote, its fourth moon, is larger even than Mars. This habitable satellite is lush with green plants and rivers of water. This will be the crew's new home. Captain Lee directs the landing procedures of the two ships docked to the Alabama, the Wallace and the Helms. The crew finds Coyote to be habitable, but very peculiar nevertheless. Coyote's seasons change at a much slower rate than Earth's. A year for Coyote consists of 1,096 days with 27 hours per day. Life forms on Coyote seem similar to those on Earth at first glance, but behave in unique ways. As described in Gillis’ novel, the world is home to gigantic bird-like creatures which are anything but friendly. The settlers call them "boids", which was Gillis’ term for the beasts in his novel. Boids are common in the grasslands around the new settlement. The remainder of Coyote tells of the adventures of Carlos Montero and Wendy Gunther along the banks of the equatorial river which stretches around Coyote. ===== A flying saucer arrives on Earth while searching for planets suitable to raise "Gargons", a lobster-like but air- breathing monster that is a delicacy on their home planet. Thor (Bryan Grant) shows his alien contempt for Earth's creatures by vaporizing a dog named Sparky. Crew member Derek (David Love), after discovering an inscription on Sparky's dog tag, fears that the Gargons might destroy Earth's native inhabitants. This makes the other aliens scoff at the thought. Being members of the "supreme race", they disdain "foreign beings", no matter how intelligent; they pride themselves that "families" and "friendships" are forbidden on their world. Derek turns out to be a member of an underground rebellion that commemorates the more humane periods of their world's history. The Gargon they brought with them suddenly falls sick to Earth's atmosphere. While his crew members are distracted, Derek escapes on foot. Eventually, the Gargon revives from being unconscious. When the Captain gives his report, Derek is quickly connected to the Leader of their race (Gene Sterling); revealing to be his son, although Derek is unaware of this. Thor is sent to hunt down Derek, with orders to bring him back alive or kill him and any other intelligent beings to protect their mission to Earth. The rest of the crew returned to their homeworld, leaving the Gargon behind in a near by cave. Meanwhile, Derek finds the home address he found on the dog's tag. There he meets Betty Morgan (Dawn Anderson) and her Grandpa Joe (Harvey B. Dunn). They have a room to rent, and Derek inadvertently becomes a boarder. When Betty's friend, reporter Joe Rogers (Tom Graeff), cannot make it to their afternoon swim at Alice Woodward's place (Sonia Torgeson), Derek tags along with Betty. He shows the tag to Betty, who recognizes it immediately. Derek takes her to the place where the spacecraft landed and shows her Sparky's remains. She does not believe him, so he describes Thor's weapon that can also vaporize humans. Betty takes this surprisingly well and vows to help Derek stop his crewmate. For the rest of the day, Betty and Derek have several run-ins with Thor, and Joe follows up on stories of skeletons popping up all over town. Eventually, Thor is wounded, and he kidnaps both Derek and Betty to help him receive medical attention, in the process revealing Derek's true parentage to them. Two car chases and a gunfight follow, and Thor is finally captured by Earth authorities after plummeting off a cliff in a stolen car. Shortly after, the Gargon grows immensely large, after killing and devouring a policeman investigating the alien's landing site, and attacking numerous people. Derek and Betty go to the car wreck site to look for Thor's raygun. They share a kiss, and Derek vows to stay on Earth. The Gargon suddenly appears and ruins their romantic moment, but Derek finds the disintegrator ray under a rock just in time for them to escape. Unfortunately, it is damaged and out of power. The giant Gargon begins heading towards the town. They follow and confront it, having used the electricity from the overhead power lines to fuel the raygun's components. Derek eventually kills the monster, but it is too late. The invading fleet appears in Earth's orbit. Derek retrieves Thor from the police and the whole gang, including Joe and Grandpa, hurry to the landing site. He then reunites with the Captain and meets his father for the first time. Derek pretends to feel regret for his insubordination and offers to help guide the spaceships to land. Derek then goes into the spacecraft alone, making the ultimate sacrifice. Leading the invasion fleet at full speed directly towards his ground location, causing a massive explosion, killing his father, the Captain and Thor in the process. Derek does not survive the blast but is remembered by Betty for declaring, "I shall make the Earth my home. And I shall never, never leave it." ===== Helen Lyle is a semiotics graduate student in Chicago who is researching urban legends. She hears a local story about the Candyman who can be summoned by saying his name five times to a mirror, causing him to appear and kill the summoner with a hook that was attached to the bloody stump of his right arm. Helen meets two cleaning ladies who claimed that it was the Candyman who killed Ruthie Jean, a resident in the notorious Cabrini-Green housing project. Helen and her colleague Bernadette Walsh look into the case and learn about another twenty-five murders like that of Ruthie Jean's. Skeptical about the legend, Helen and Bernadette repeat the Candyman's name to Helen's bathroom mirror, but nothing happens. Helen decides to write a thesis on how the residents of Cabrini-Green used the Candyman legend to cope with the hardships. She and Bernadette enter the housing project and visit the scene of Ruthie Jean's murder. There, they meet Anne-Marie McCoy and her infant son Anthony who tells her more about the night of the murder. Helen also learns more about the Candyman from Professor Philip Purcell. According to Purcell, the Candyman was the son of a slave who became prosperous by mass- producing shoes after the Civil War. At an early age, he was accepted by the white society. As a well-known artist, he was sought after to paint the portraits of wealthy landowners and their children. After falling in love with a white woman that he was hired to paint and fathering a child with her, the Candyman was set upon by a lynch mob that was hired by his lover's father. They cut off his right hand with a rusty saw and smeared him with honey stolen from an apiary, attracting the bees which stung him to death. His corpse was burned and his ashes were scattered across the land on which Cabrini-Green was built. On a return visit to Cabrini-Green, Helen meets Jake, a young boy who tells Helen that a child was castrated by the Candyman in a restroom. While exploring the restroom, Helen is attacked by a gang leader who carries a hook and calls himself the Candyman. Helen survives the assault with a black eye and identifies her attacker to the police, who believed him to be responsible for the killings. Later, in a parking garage, Helen is confronted by the real Candyman. He tells her that because she discredited his legend, he must "shed innocent blood" to perpetuate it. Helen blacks out and wakes up in Anne- Marie's apartment covered in blood. Anne-Marie, whose dog was decapitated and baby was stolen, attacks Helen, who is arrested by the police. Helen's husband Trevor, a university professor, bails her out of jail. The Candyman appears again and cuts Helen's neck, causing her to bleed and pass out. Bernadette shows up at Helen's apartment, where she is murdered by the Candyman, who frames Helen for the crime. Helen is sedated and placed in a psychiatric hospital. After a month in the hospital, Helen is interviewed by a psychiatrist named Dr. Burke in preparation for her upcoming trial. She attempts to prove her innocence by summoning the Candyman. The Candyman appears and kills Dr. Burke, allowing Helen to escape. Once Helen is home, she finds Trevor living with Stacey, one of his students with whom he's been having an affair. Helen flees to Cabrini-Green, seeking to confront the Candyman and rescue Anthony. When she finds the Candyman, he tells her that surrendering to him will ensure the baby's safety. Offering Helen immortality, the Candyman opens his coat, revealing a ribcage wreathed in bees. The bees pour out of his mouth as he kisses her, sending the bees down her throat. The Candyman vanishes with Anthony, and Helen discovers a mural of the Candyman and his lover, who bears a striking resemblance to Helen. The mural, as well as a message that was left by the Candyman, implies that Helen is a reincarnation of the Candyman's former lover. The Candyman promises to release Anthony if Helen helps him strike fear in Cabrini-Green's residents. In a bid to feed his legend, the Candyman tries to immolate Helen and the child in a bonfire, but he is destroyed in it. Helen saves Anthony, but she is burned severely and dies. The residents, including Anne-Marie and Jake, pay their respects at Helen's funeral. Jake tosses the Candyman's hook into her grave. Afterward, a grief-stricken and guilt-ridden Trevor looks at his bathroom mirror and says Helen's name five times. Helen's vengeful spirit appears and kills Trevor with a hook, leaving his body to be found by Stacey. As the credits begin to roll, in the Candyman's former lair, a new mural of Helen with her hair ablaze is displayed, implying that she entered the local folklore. ===== Shortly after World War II, in 1945–46, in one of the suburbs of Prague (the film was shot in Michle), Eda Souček attends a boys' elementary school where he belongs to a class with a complete lack of discipline. After the class drives their teacher Maxová to a mental breakdown during one of her classes, the schoolmaster has to implement special measures. A new male teacher, Igor Hnízdo, is employed, who is said to be a great war hero. Authoritative Hnízdo immediately introduces corporal punishment, which, as he explains, is not normally allowed but the school has received an exception from the Ministry of Education as a result of their dreadful behaviour. Despite his strict methods, the boys soon become charmed by the man. They love his battlefront stories and the fact that he is always armed and wears a uniform. Eda sees him as the very opposite of his own father, whom he considers to be too cowardly. Hnízdo makes the same positive impression on the townspeople (including Eda's mother). Nevertheless, his persona is also surrounded by many controversies. For example, his war heroism is disputed as he is unable to provide any accurate information about his military service. There is even an unconfirmed rumour that Hnízdo was only guarding goats during the war. But the boys from his class ignore all such criticisms and even fight those who are spreading the rumours. Hnízdo's reputation suffers after he is accused of having a sexual relationship with local twins who attend a girls' school in the same area. He is forced to leave because this is not the first time he has been involved in a similar affair. The formerly unmanageable boys begin to defend Hnízdo and call for his return. The accusation is finally withdrawn and Hnízdo comes back to the class. He states that the way they were dealing with the accusation is a proof that the physical punishments are no longer necessary. ===== 3D. Blaze the Cat is somehow pulled from her native dimension into Sonic's world. Her world had seven Sol Emeralds—similar to the Chaos Emeralds—but they were stolen by Doctor Eggman. She then makes it her goal to retrieve them. While searching, she meets Cream the Rabbit and is surprised by her politeness. Meanwhile, Sonic is searching for the Chaos Emeralds, which have been stolen by Doctor Eggman Nega, Eggman's alternate counterpart from Blaze's dimension. Sonic briefly encounters Blaze during his search, but she departs before he can question her. His friend Tails learns that the two dimensions are merging somehow, and both will collapse if the process is not stopped. Suspicious of Blaze, Sonic and Tails begin searching for her. Upon finding Blaze and Cream, Sonic questions Blaze about her nature, but she refuses to give any information and leaves with Cream. Sonic follows her to Eggman Nega's base, where it is revealed that Eggman and Eggman Nega are working together to collect both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds. Blaze declares that she is the only one who can save their worlds, without anyone's help. Sonic and Blaze fight each other, until Sonic wins the fight and Blaze realizes the error of her ways. After Eggman kidnaps Cream, Blaze goes after him while Sonic takes on Nega. Sonic collects the last of the seven Chaos Emeralds and catches up with Blaze, who fails to prevent Eggman and Eggman Nega from draining the Sol Emeralds's power for their Egg Salamander mech. As the world begins to destabilize, Sonic and his friends help Blaze realize the meaning of friendship. This restores the Sol Emeralds, and Sonic and Blaze use both sets of Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic and Burning Blaze. The two destroy the Egg Salamander, restoring the dimensions to normal, and Blaze returns to her world, now better understanding her powers. Cream is saddened by Blaze's departure, but Sonic assures her that Blaze promised to return someday. ===== In The Escape, humans live in a planetary system millions of light years from Earth. Space travel is common, but hyperdrive research is restricted: any research pertaining to hyperdrive travel is destroyed by the oppressive solar government. However, one group has spent a decade in secret developing a hyperdrive ship and plans to use it to escape the force field encasing their planetary system. The government hires Stone to stop them. It is eventually revealed that the solar government is conspiring with a race of superior aliens to stop the development of hyperdrive technology. These aliens keep species for study, and push these species toward war. Travel to other planetary systems is barred by invisible force fields around the systems. The aliens and their agents travel by means of fixed, self-made portals, opened with special keys. Ultimately, Stone is able to travel through one of the portals where he is greeted by an alien agitator, who seeks his assistance to bring to an end the cruel treatment of these species. In Universe, Jake Stone continues his work with these agitators to disrupt the portals. Meanwhile, a human colony fleet from Earth is heading for the force field surrounding the Solar System (Earth's planetary system). Ultimately Stone is able to work for the enemy to get close enough to destroy the Controller that maintains the force fields and portals, thus freeing these worlds. ===== Peter Evans is a lawyer for a millionaire philanthropist, George Morton. Evans' main duties are managing the legal affairs surrounding Morton's contributions to an environmentalist organization, the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF) (modeled after the Natural Resources Defense Council [NRDC]). Morton becomes suspicious of NERF's director, Nicholas Drake, after discovering that Drake has misused some of the funds Morton had donated to the group. Soon afterward, Morton is visited by two men, John Kenner and Sanjong Thapa, who appear on the surface to be researchers at MIT, but, in fact, are international law enforcement agents on the trail of an eco-terrorist group, the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) (modeled on the Earth Liberation Front). The ELF is attempting to create "natural" disasters to convince the public of the dangers of global warming. All these events are timed to happen during a NERF-sponsored climate conference that will highlight the "catastrophe" of global warming. The eco- terrorists have no qualms about how many people are killed in their manufactured "natural" disasters and ruthlessly assassinate anyone who gets in their way (few would recognize their preferred methods as murder: the venom of a rare Australian blue-ringed octopus which causes paralysis, and "lightning attractors" which cause their victims to get electrocuted during electrical storms). Kenner and Thapa suspect Drake of being involved with the ELF to further his own ends (garnering more donations to NERF from the environmentally-minded public). Evans joins Kenner, Thapa, and Morton's assistant, Sarah Jones, on a globe-spanning series of adventures to thwart various ELF-manufactured disasters before these disasters kill thousands of people. Kenner's niece, Jennifer Haynes, joins the group for the final leg as they travel to a remote island in the Solomon Islands to stop the ELF's pièce de résistance, a tsunami that will inundate the California coastline just as Drake is winding up the international conference on the "catastrophe" of global warming. Along the way, the group battles man-eating crocodiles and cannibalistic tribesmen (who feast on Ted Bradley, an environmentalist TV actor whom Drake had sent to spy on Kenner and his team). The rest of the group is rescued in the nick of time by Morton, who had previously faked his own death to throw Drake off the trail so that he could keep watch on the ELF's activities on the island while he waited for Kenner and his team to arrive. The group has a final confrontation with the elite ELF team on the island during which Haynes is almost killed, and Evans kills one of the terrorists who had previously tried to kill both him and Jones in Antarctica. The rest of the ELF team is killed by the backwash from their own tsunami, which Kenner and his team have sabotaged just enough to prevent it from becoming a full-size tsunami and reaching California. Morton, Evans, and Jones return to Los Angeles. Evans quits his law firm to work for Morton's new, as yet unnamed, organization, which will practice environmental activism as a business, free from potential conflicts of interest. Morton hopes Evans and Jones will take his place in the new organization after his death. ===== Bernard 2 discovers that he is actually a clone of his "brother" (Bernard 1), who was sent to a clinical home years before by his father (Salter) after the suicide of his mother, which left him in a constant state of fear and pain. Salter explains that he agreed to a cloning experiment to try again at parenting another version of his son. But, unbeknownst to Salter, the doctors had unethically made several more clones. Salter decides that they should sue the doctors, which soothes the shaken Bernard 2. In the next scene, angry Bernard 1 visits Salter for the first time since his childhood while Bernard 2 is away. He has learned about the clones, and is furious at his father for doing it. Salter then admits that the clones were meant to give him another chance at raising Bernard, without any of his many parental mistakes. Bernard 1 grows increasingly agitated, before threatening to murder Bernard 2. Later, after Bernard 1 has left, Bernard 2 returns, having met Bernard 1 in the park. He has learned the truth about the situation, and now hates Salter for what he has done. Bernard 2 decides to leave the country for a while, both to get away from Salter and because he fears that Bernard 1 might try to kill him. Salter tries to convince him not to go, or at least to come back soon, but Bernard 2 refuses, saying he needs to go. Some time later, Bernard 1 returns and tells Salter that he followed and killed Bernard 2 after he left the country. Salter, stricken with grief, demands to know the details, but Bernard 1 refuses to say anything. Bernard 1 then leaves and kills himself, leaving Salter alone. Salter then decides to meet the other clones of his son, starting with the one named Michael Black. Michael, who never knew Salter, is a happily married maths teacher with three children. He is completely undisturbed that he is a clone, and tells Salter that he does not care. Salter demands to know more about him, particularly about something personal and unique, but Michael cannot answer. Salter then becomes unsatisfied with what Michael can give him. ===== The tiny (three miles by five miles) European Duchy of Grand Fenwick, supposedly located in the Alps between Switzerland and France, proudly retains a pre-industrial economy, dependent almost entirely on making Pinot Grand Fenwick wine. However, a California winery makes a knockoff version, "Pinot Grand Enwick", putting the country on the verge of bankruptcy. The prime minister decides that their only course of action is to declare war on the United States. Expecting a quick and total defeat (since their standing army is tiny and equipped with bows and arrows), the country confidently expects to rebuild itself through the largesse that the United States bestows on all its vanquished enemies (as it did for Germany through the Marshall Plan at the end of World War II). With the counterfeit wine as a casus belli, they send a formal written declaration of war, but this is misplaced by the State Department. Receiving no response, the Duchy is forced to muster some troops and hire a ship to stage an actual invasion. Landing in New York City, almost completely deserted above ground because of a citywide disaster drill, the Duchy's invading "army" (composed of the Field Marshal Tully Bascomb, three men-at-arms, and 20 longbowmen) wanders to a top secret government lab and unintentionally captures the "Quadium Bomb" (a prototype doomsday device that could destroy the world if triggered) and its maker, Dr. Kokintz, an absent- minded professor who is working through the drill. This "Q-Bomb" has a theoretical explosive potential greater than all the nuclear weapons of the United States and the Soviet Union combined. The invaders from Fenwick are sighted by a civil defence squad and are immediately taken to be "men from Mars" when their chain mail is mistaken for reptilian skin. The American Secretary of Defense pieces together what has happened (with help from the five lines in his encyclopedia on The Duchy of Grand Fenwick and the Fenwickian flag left behind on a flagpole) and is both ashamed and astonished that the United States was unaware that it had been at war for two months. With the most powerful bomb in the world now in the smallest country in the world, other countries are quick to react, with the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom offering their support. With the world at the tiny country's mercy, Duchess Gloriana, the leader of Grand Fenwick, lists her terms: all the nuclear weapons of the powerful nations must go through an inspection by impartial scientists. Continued inspection of the continuing nuclear programs of the world powers will be supervised by Dr. Kokintz, who recalls his identity as a Fenwick-American and accepts repatriation to his ancestral home. Kokintz takes on his new role as scientific director of the "Tiny Twenty", a new superpower of 20 of the world's smallest nations headed by Grand Fenwick. The United States and the other world powers accept these humiliating terms, leading to hope for world peace. As a celebration of the triumphant outcome of the war, Duchess Gloriana and Tully Bascomb are united in marriage. As a sequel to the marriage, Dr. Kokintz accidentally drops the Q-Bomb onto the stone floor of the Grand Fenwick castle dungeon. As a result of this mishap, the scientific director inadvertently discovers that the Q-bomb is, and always has been, a powerless dud. The book concludes with Kokintz deciding to keep this key fact to himself. ===== Prince of Persia 3D begins with the Prince and Sultan of Persia visiting the Sultan's brother, Assan. Soon enough, the Prince's personal bodyguards are killed, himself locked in the dungeon, and the Sultan taken by Assan. The Prince escapes the dungeon, and it is revealed that the Sultan of Persia promised Assan many years ago that his daughter would marry Assan's son, Rugnor, not the Prince. The Prince finds the two, but Assan kills the Sultan by mistake while trying to kill the Prince. Assan runs, but the Prince decides to pursue Rugnor, who has taken the Princess of Persia captive. The Prince and Rugnor have many standoffs, but when it becomes clear to Rugnor that the Prince won't give up, and the Princess won't submit to him, he decides to kill her. He ties her to a large gear machine, attempting to crush her. The Prince, however, arrives before this happens, kills Rugnor, and deactivates the machine. The Prince then escapes with the Princess, via a flying beast, but the Prince takes the Princess in the opposite direction of Persia, rather than towards it. ===== About a year before the beginning of the novel (as chronicled in the preceding short story ""Much More"), the Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra. Queen Calanthe, mortally wounded, commits suicide and her granddaughter, Cirilla, called Ciri and nicknamed the "Lion Cub of Cintra" manages to flee from the burning capital city. Emhyr var Emreis, Emperor of Nilfgaard, sends his spies to find her. He knows that this young girl has great importance, not only because of her royal lineage, but also because of her elven blood which gives her immense magical potential. The war ends with Nilfgaard's defeat by a coalition of the Northern Kingdoms, though the Empire retains much of its power. Almost two years after the armistice, the rulers of the Northern Kingdoms meet in secret to discuss the political situation. Peace with Nilfgaard is not what it was supposed to be - the Empire's financial clout is ruining the northern economy, Imperial emissaries agitate aristocrats and merchants against their monarchs, elves and dwarves have formed partisan groups called Scoia'tael (Squirrels) and are conducting acts of terror against humans - and in every major city cultists are prophesying that the world will end, unless the Savior comes from the South. The kings decide to start a war, before the Empire weakens their countries further, and to regain Cintra. They are aware that the Emperor is looking for Ciri to marry her (morganatically) and thus to legitimize his continuing occupation of Cintra. To prevent this, the monarchs decide to find and kill Ciri. Ciri is being protected by the Witcher Geralt of Rivia, a magically and genetically mutated monster-slayer-for-hire, who takes her to the witchers' keep, Kaer Morhen, to be educated and trained by the few remaining witchers. The oldest member of the Order, Vesemir, asks the sorceress Triss Merigold to come to Kaer Morhen and help with occasional strange and abnormal behavior he had seen in Ciri. Much of what Triss observes is just the normal aspects of a woman's maturation, which the (exclusively male) Witchers are ignorant of, but she eventually realizes that Ciri is a "Source". She acknowledges that she does not have the power to control Ciri's talent, and advises Geralt to swallow his pride and seek help from his former lover Yennefer, a much more experienced and powerful sorceress. At the same time, a mysterious wizard called Rience is searching for Ciri, the servant of a more powerful mage, whose identity remains unknown. He captures Geralt's friend, Dandelion the bard, and tortures him for information about Ciri. Dandelion is saved by the timely arrival of Yennefer, who engages in a short magic duel with Rience. Rience manages to escape through a portal opened by his master, but is left with a prominent facial scar from Yennefer's spell. In the spring, Geralt leaves Kaer Morhen with Triss and Ciri, intending to deliver Ciri to the Temple School in Ellander where she would receive a "normal" education from the priestess Nenneke. On the way, Triss falls ill, and they join Yarpen Zigrin's dwarven company who is leading a caravan for King Henselt of Kaedwen. Geralt tells Ciri about the roses of Aelirenn, an elf who died leading elven youths to fight the humans in a hopeless attack. The caravan is attacked by the Scoia'tael, and it is revealed that the escort mission was a trap set by the kings who doubted Yarpen's loyalty. Ciri's stay in Ellander is still haunted by disturbing dreams until the arrival of Yennefer, who starts educating her in the ways of magic. From an initial antagonism, their relationship develops into a strong and deep bond, like that of a mother and daughter. Meanwhile, Geralt does his best to track Rience and his mysterious employer. With the help of Dandelion, the novice priestess Shani, and the sorceress Philippa Eilhart, he forces a confrontation with Rience (the latter aided by the famous Michelet brothers, quadruplet assassins for hire), during which both are injured. Rience's master intervenes again, opening a portal for him, and Geralt is prevented from pursuing the mage by Eilhart, who also kills the last surviving Michelet brother so as to keep Geralt from learning the mysterious mage's identity. Geralt is left gravely wounded. As they are about to leave the Temple School in Ellander, Yennefer asks Ciri whether she did not like her at first, leading to a series of flashbacks detailing Ciri's studies with Yennefer from the day they were introduced and back to the present as they are about to leave the Temple. Ciri admits that she did not like Yennefer, at first, and they leave. ===== The series focuses on 8-year- old pink-haired girl Stephanie, the newest resident of the LazyTown community. She has moved to LazyTown to live with her uncle, Mayor Milford Meanswell, and is surprised to learn that all of her neighbors lead inactive lifestyles. With the help of an above-average hero named Sportacus, she helps teach the other residents how to partake in more athletic pastimes. Her attempts are often nearly thwarted by Robbie Rotten, who prefers to lead a sluggish life and is agitated by the sudden boom of physical activity. On a regular basis, Robbie devises ill-judged schemes to make LazyTown lazy once again. However, his plans are never foolproof and always end with him losing. Each of the children that Stephanie befriends embodies negative characteristics. Ziggy, who is kindhearted and wants to be a superhero when he grows up, has an unbalanced diet devoid of fruits and vegetables. Trixie is a troublemaker with little respect for rules and other people. Pixel is an inventor who displays anti- social behaviour and spends too much time on his computer. Stingy has a self- centered attitude and is possessive of nearly everything in town. As the series progresses, the characters become less lazy in favor of a healthier way of living. The program features a predominantly Europop soundtrack. Each episode features at least one original song and concludes with a different performance of "Bing Bang (Time to Dance)", which is sung by Stephanie. Many tracks are reworked versions of songs from the Icelandic plays. ===== In early 19th century Russia, a bored St. Petersburg socialite named Onegin inherits his uncle's estate in the country. There, he meets a neighbouring landowner and aspiring poet, Lensky, and a widowed mother and her two daughters. The poet is engaged to the elder daughter Olga. Her sister, Tatiana, writes Onegin a passionate love letter but is cruelly spurned by him apparently due to her lack of social experience. His flirtatious attentions towards Lensky's fiancée lead to a duel. The duel is arranged to take place in a secluded place by a local lake, and unknown to the participants, Tatiana secretly witnesses the duel from a safe distance. She sees the outcome of Lensky taking the first shot and missing his opponent, followed by Onegin taking careful aim and disposing of Lensky with a shot to his opponent's head killing him instantly. Onegin soon after departs from his country estate. On his return, six years later, to St Petersburg, he encounters Tatiana, the woman whom he spurned, who is now a woman of refinement and married to a prince. Onegin begs her forgiveness for his past behaviour and becomes solicitous of her favors. After explaining to him that too much time has now passed, she refuses him and he is in turn now spurned by her. ===== Wojciechowska's novel covers the trials of young Mott as he tries to find a new mother for himself and his two brothers, Harley and Davidson. Mott sets his father up on dates with a string of women, but each one has at least one personality quirk his brothers just cannot stand. ===== While working as the companion to a rich American woman on holiday in Monte Carlo, the unnamed narrator, a naïve young woman in her early 20s, becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, George Fortescue Maximilian "Maxim" de Winter, a 42-year-old widower. After a fortnight of courtship, she agrees to marry him and, after the wedding and honeymoon, accompanies him to his mansion in Cornwall, the beautiful estate Manderley. Mrs Danvers, the sinister housekeeper, was profoundly devoted to the first Mrs de Winter, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident about a year before Maxim and the second Mrs de Winter met. She continually attempts to undermine the narrator psychologically, subtly suggesting to her that she will never attain the beauty, urbanity, and charm her predecessor possessed. Whenever the narrator attempts to make changes at Manderley, Mrs Danvers describes how Rebecca ran it when she was alive. Each time Mrs Danvers does this, she implies that the narrator lacks the experience and knowledge necessary for running an important estate. Cowed by Mrs Danvers' imposing manner, and the other members of West Country society's unwavering reverence for Rebecca, the narrator becomes isolated. The narrator is soon convinced that Maxim regrets his impetuous decision to marry her and is still deeply in love with the seemingly perfect Rebecca. The climax occurs at Manderley's annual costume ball. Mrs Danvers manipulates the narrator into wearing a replica of the dress shown in a portrait of one of the former inhabitants of the house—hiding the fact that the same costume was worn by Rebecca to much acclaim shortly before her death. The narrator has a drummer announce her entrance using the name of the lady in the portrait: Caroline de Winter. When the narrator shows Maxim the dress, he angrily orders her to change. Shortly after the ball, Mrs Danvers reveals her contempt for the narrator, believing she is trying to replace Rebecca, and reveals her deep, unhealthy obsession with the dead woman. Mrs Danvers tries to get the narrator to commit suicide by encouraging her to jump out of the window. However, she is thwarted at the last moment by the disturbance occasioned by a nearby shipwreck. A diver investigating the condition of the wrecked ship's hull also discovers the remains of Rebecca's sailing boat, with her decomposed body still on board. This discovery causes Maxim to confess to the narrator that his marriage to Rebecca was a sham. Rebecca, Maxim reveals, was a cruel and selfish woman who manipulated everyone around her into believing her to be the perfect wife and a paragon of virtue. On the night of her death, she told Maxim that she was pregnant with another man's child, which she would raise under the pretense that it was Maxim's and he would be powerless to stop her. In a rage, Maxim had shot her through the heart, then disposed of her body by placing it in her boat and sinking it at sea. The narrator thinks little of Maxim's murder confession, but instead is relieved to hear that Maxim has always loved her and never Rebecca. Rebecca's boat is raised and it is discovered to have been deliberately sunk. An inquest brings a verdict of suicide. However, Rebecca's first cousin and lover, Jack Favell, attempts to blackmail Maxim, claiming to have proof that she could not have intended suicide based on a note she sent to him the night she died. It is revealed that Rebecca had had an appointment with a doctor in London shortly before her death, presumably to confirm her pregnancy. When the doctor is found, he reveals that Rebecca had cancer and would have died within a few months. Furthermore, due to the malformation of her uterus, she could never have been pregnant. Maxim assumes that Rebecca, knowing that she was going to die, manipulated him into killing her quickly. Mrs Danvers had said after the inquiry that Rebecca feared nothing except dying a lingering death. Maxim feels a great sense of foreboding, and insists on driving through the night to return to Manderley. However, before he comes in sight of the house, it is clear from a glow on the horizon and wind-borne ashes that it is ablaze. The novel is remembered especially for the character Mrs. Danvers, the fictional estate Manderley, and its opening line: ===== In Monte Carlo, Max de Winter (Laurence Olivier) stops to speak to Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates) only after recognizing her companion (Joan Fontaine), the girl he had encountered earlier. Trailer for Rebecca. An inexperienced young woman (Joan Fontaine) meets aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) at the French Riviera and soon becomes the second Mrs. de Winter. Maxim takes his new bride back to Manderley, his grand mansion by the sea in south-western England, dominated by its housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), a chilly individual who had been a close confidante of the first Mrs. De Winter—Rebecca—with whom she is clearly still obsessed. She has even preserved Rebecca's grand bedroom suite unchanged and continues to display various items that carry her monogram. Eventually, her constant reminders of Rebecca's glamour and sophistication convince the new Mrs. de Winter that Maxim is still in love with his first wife, which could explain his irrational outbursts of anger. She tries to please her husband by holding a costume party like he and Rebecca used to. Danvers advises her to copy the dress that one of Maxim's ancestors is seen wearing in a portrait. Nevertheless, when she appears in the costume, Maxim is appalled since Rebecca had worn an identical dress at her last ball, just before her death. Mrs. de Winter confronts Danvers about this but Danvers tells her she can never take Rebecca's place and almost persuades her to jump to her death. At that moment, however the alarm is raised because a sunken boat has been found with Rebecca's body in it. Maxim now confesses to his new wife that his first marriage had been a sham from the start when Rebecca had declared that she had no intention of keeping to her vows but would just pretend to be the perfect wife and hostess for the sake of appearances. When she claimed she was pregnant by another man, she taunted Maxim that the estate might pass to someone other than Maxim's line. During a heated argument, she fell, struck her head and died. To conceal the truth, Maxim took the body out in a boat, which he then scuttled and identified another body as Rebecca's. The sudden crisis causes the second Mrs. de Winter to shed her naïve ways as they both plan how to prove Maxim's innocence. When the police claim the possibility of suicide, Rebecca's lover Jack Favell attempts to blackmail Maxim by threatening to reveal that she had never been suicidal. When Maxim goes to the police, they suspect him of murder. However, further investigation reveals that she was not pregnant but terminally ill due to cancer, so the suicide verdict stands. Maxim realizes that Rebecca had been trying to goad him into killing her via indirect suicide, so that Maxim would be ruined. A free man, Maxim returns home to see Manderley on fire, set ablaze by the deranged Mrs. Danvers. All escape except Danvers, when the ceiling collapses on her. The film ends with an R-monogrammed nightdress-case consumed by flames. ===== ===== Student Bodies is about a serial killer who stalks students at Lamab High School, while at the same time, voyeuristically watching them. The killer calls himself "the Breather", presumably because the killer is always breathing heavily. The Breather enjoys stalking victims over the telephone and, much like Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th films, he hates seeing youngsters having sex. The Breather uses many unusual objects to kill his female victims such as a paper clip, a chalkboard eraser and a horsehead bookend. The film itself ends with several twists: initially, it is revealed that the Principal and his elderly female assistant are working as a duo as "the Breather", even though they are shown at one point in the film in the same room as other characters when the Breather contacts the school in order to threaten to commit further murders. The film then goes to reveal that the entire film was a fevered dream, caused by the main character Toby being sick and consumed by overwhelming sexual repression. In a send-up of the film The Wizard of Oz, many characters are revealed to be much the opposite of what they appeared to be for the bulk of the film: the jock-like shop instructor is really the school's French teacher, the stuck-up would-be prom queen is actually the school nerd (who is given the crown by Toby after she wakes up, due to her kind nature), the two handicapped kids turn out to be ablebodied, and a local ROTC cadet is a hippie. After being released from the hospital, Toby and her boyfriend are about to have sex, at which point he puts on gloves similar to the ones worn by the Breather and strangles Toby, as he has lost respect for her. However, in a homage to the nightmare-ending of the film Carrie, Toby's hands rise up from the freshly dug grave after her funeral to attack her killer. ===== A mysterious "spaceship" floats over a baseball game eventually revealing Stretch, Stinkie, and Fatso, The Ghostly Trio, who cause panic in the ballpark. Their nephew Casper, attempts to settle the terrified crowd, but they are just as scared of him as they are of his uncles. The park empties, and after watching their effect with satisfaction, Casper's uncles plan a vacation. Meanwhile, a malevolent warlock named Desmond Spellman believes himself to be the greatest warlock to have existed until he receives an unwelcome message from the Oracle in the Mirror, who tells him that in the future, none other than Wendy the Good Little Witch will surpass him in being the greatest witch ever. To avoid this, Desmond plans to get rid of her once and for all with the advised "Mystic Abyss", a dimensional rift that can destroy living beings upon entering. He then creates a pair of spies: Jules and Vincent, and assigns them to bring Wendy to him where she is living in the country with her three mischievous aunts: Gert, Gabby, and Fanny. Jules and Vincent arrive at Wendy's house to take the young witch, who narrowly escapes with her aunts. To keep Wendy safe from Desmond, her aunts hide and vacation at a resort hotel which happens to be the same place in which Casper and his uncles are vacationing. Casper and Wendy meet in a barn and, due to their amiable personalities and having been bossed around by their respective guardians, they become great friends. Unfortunately, her aunts and his uncles do not get along because ghosts and witches are natural enemies. However, the pair are certain their guardians would get along if they only got to know each other. In order to do that, they devise a plan. Casper tricks the Ghostly Trio to break the record for possession so that he can learn how to do it, and they possess three men at the party. Wendy convinces her aunts to go to the party to meet men. Thanks to their plotting, they meet and soon the Trio are flirting with the three witches, who are posing as regular women. Though everything goes well at first, with the ghosts and witches unwittingly enjoying each other's company and finding that they have a lot in common, the plan is spoiled when the possession wears off and the ghosts' real selves are revealed to Wendy's aunts, who, in turn, revealed their real selves and threaten them with magic. However, as Wendy explains to Casper, she and her aunts cannot use any high- level magic or else Desmond will be able to track them down. She begs Casper not to tell anyone about this. Unfortunately, when the Ghostly Trio suspects that Casper is protecting the witches, they interrogate and pressure him into blurting out that the witches cannot use their powers, prompting the Trio to terrorize Wendy and her aunts. Wendy feels she has no choice but to cast a high-level spell to cover the Trio in plaster, thus alerting Desmond's magic tracker of their location. Distraught that Casper broke his promise, Wendy ends their friendship. Casper soon confronts his uncles and tells them that Desmond is coming after the witches and they should help. The Trio scoff at first and refuse, but Casper reminded them that at the party the Trio showed that they could get along with the witches if they put their differences aside. Before the witches can evacuate the resort, Desmond and his spies arrive. After confronting the witches, Desmond explains the Oracle's prediction and, after trying to resist him, summons the Mystic Abyss and casts Wendy into it to destroy her, with Casper diving inside in an attempt to rescue her. Her aunts attempt to battle Desmond, but are no match for him. Before Desmond can turn the witches into fertilizer, a giant three-eyed monster appears and scares the warlock who, while recoiling in fear, trips and falls into the Abyss and to his doom. The monster turns out to be the Ghostly Trio, who have a change of heart and decides to help after they combine their powers to defeat Desmond. While they hold the door to the Abyss open, Wendy's aunts pull her and Casper out. Both Casper and Wendy are weak and unconscious; but with encouragement and comfort from their guardians, Casper is restored by his uncles and Wendy is treated by her aunts. After a touching reunion between the witches and an awkward one between the ghosts, the witches thank the Trio for helping them. The Oracle then proclaims that Wendy is the greatest witch because she did something no other witch ever could; she befriended a ghost. Later, Casper, his uncles, Wendy, and her aunts, all bid each other goodbye. Casper and Wendy assure each other they will meet again soon. Before flying back home with her aunts, Wendy gives Casper a goodbye kiss, causing him to blush. ===== In a charming Connecticut village, Lloyd and Caroline Chasseur (Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis) are in marriage counseling on Christmas Eve; the session does not go well and their problems become evident. Caroline has had an affair, and Lloyd is miserable and blames the problems with their 14-year- old son, Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.), on his wife. (She coddles and protects him and thinks he does no wrong, while he continues to treat him like the criminal he turns out to really be.) The marriage counselor Dr. Wong (B.D. Wong), tries to get them to open up, but, behaving professionally, he refuses to intercede on either side. Meanwhile, a criminal named Gus (Denis Leary) is in the midst of stealing jewelry from a safe in a home he has broken into; however, he accidentally sets off the alarm, a trap door opens and he lands in the basement. Only after he is bitten on the leg by a guard dog is Gus able to escape the house, but his getaway car, driven by his bumbling, alcoholic partner Murray (Richard Bright), is no longer there. Then he runs into Lloyd and Caroline. Holding a gun on them, Gus orders the couple to drive him to their house. Along the way Caroline and Lloyd continue to argue, with Gus beginning to act as a referee and repeatedly telling them to shut up. At the house, Lloyd and Caroline continue to argue. Knowing full well that Murray will seek refuge at a seedy bar, Gus calls the bar and describes Murray to the bartender. He tells Murray to steal a boat for their getaway. Jesse comes home and discovers his parents tied up. Jesse is unhappy, forced to attend military school, and has been blackmailing a commanding officer there named Siskel (J.K. Simmons) with photographs of an affair, and is also in possession of a baby Jesus from their town's nativity scene for unknown reasons (which is discovered by Gus when snooping around the house after Caroline denies Jesse had anything to do with it to him). He prefers Gus to his parents, but Gus, despite claiming earlier to Lloyd that his life as a criminal is more meaningful than Lloyd's seemingly pampered life is, explains to Jesse that his life isn't all as great as he thinks it might be. Meanwhile, police set up roadblocks and set a curfew to help look for Gus, while two inept officers go door to door. Lt. Huff, the chief at the local precinct is less than concerned over it because nothing like this ever happens there. However, Huff does obtain video footage of Gus in action, but while taking a call, his bumbling officers accidentally record over the footage trying to change the channel back to the movie they were watching; It's a Wonderful Life. Due to this and his lax attitude over the whole thing, he is later informed by Bob, a councilman, that his officers are to report to him and that he is fired the day after Christmas. However, his joy is crushed when Lt. Huff informs him that he slept with his wife once while out of town, and was a better lover than he was. Another side story is a neighbor dressed as Santa named George. He comes by to deliver a fruitcake to the Chasseurs, then goes off to a Christmas party to hand out gifts, but eventually gets belligerent with the kids and winds up so drunk he is kicked out of the party. Lloyd's family is en route for the holidays. It includes his brother Gary (Adam LeFevre), sister- in-law Connie (Christine Baranski), their two children Mary and John (Ellie Raab and Phillip Nicoll), and Lloyd’s mother Rose (Glynis Johns), who is extremely wealthy and bullies everyone in the family. Gus pretends to be Lloyd's and Caroline's marriage counselor, Dr. Wong, since he cannot hold everyone hostage. Jesse is tied up and gagged upstairs in his parents' closet. Caroline and Lloyd are unable to stop fighting, and Caroline demands a divorce. Gus' pointed comments goad Lloyd to finally find the guts to stand up to his wife and his mother. Everyone finds out who Gus really is after Rose attempts to go upstairs; Gus puts a gun to her head and Connie, fed up with everybody, says, "Shoot her." Siskel turns up to reveal how he is being blackmailed. Jesse has managed to untie himself and is discovered with his hidden money. Then George, still dressed as Santa, returns, very drunk, wondering why he never gets a gift in return. He spots the gun, realizes who Gus is, then runs at him, only to get knocked out. The state police arrive and Lloyd, having a change of heart decides he cannot "spend his life sending everyone he cares about to prison" and tells Jesse to take Gus to the docks using a path through the woods. Gus steals the Santa suit and makes it safely to the boat. He escapes, arguing with Murray much the same way he argued all night with Caroline and Lloyd. Back at home, the couple's bickering even drives away the police. Having aired out their differences throughout the evening with their armed robber's assistance, they make up and decide to stay together and kiss. Their reconciliation is interrupted when John informs them that "grandma Rose is eating through her gag." ===== ; Season 1 The fairy protagonist is a love fairy named Mirmo (Mirumo in the Japanese version). Katie Minami (Kaede Minami in the Japanese version) is the human protagonist and a cheerful and energetic eighth-grader who is shy around her male classmates, which makes it difficult for her to date. One day, on her way home from school, she walks into a mysterious shop and buys a blue cocoa mug. When she arrives at home, she peeks into the bottom of the mug and discovers an engraved note which says, "If you read this message aloud while pouring hot cocoa into the mug, a love fairy ("muglox") will appear and grant your every wish." The skeptical but curious Kaede follows the directions and announces her wish to date Dylan Yuki (Setsu Yuuki in the Japanese version), her crush. Mirmo arrives. At first she is afraid of him but later understands that he is a muglox. Kaede soon finds out that Mirmo prefers eating chocolate and creating mischief over helping Katie. Mirumo is a prince of the muglox world. Horrified at the prospect of having to marry Rima (Rirumu in the Japanese version), his princess bride-to-be, Mirmo escaped the muglox world. Hot on his heels, however, are Rima, Yatch (Yashichi in the Japanese version) the bounty hunter, Mulu (Murumo; Mirmo's brother), and many other muglox as well. The villains of the first season are the Warumo gang, a gang of criminals who plan to overthrow the Marumo kingdom. Though they are villains, they actually aren't evil; they just pull childish pranks and faint after hearing an evil plan. At the end of the season, Akumi gives Warumo Gang a time sphere, which they play around with and accidentally smash, causing the muglox world to freeze. Mirmo, Mulu, Rima, Yatch and their partners save the muglox world by having the fairies dance in front of a magical door (which allows it to open) and having the partners find the magic time bird which flew into the door to escape being captured by them. ; Season 2 In this season a new transfer student named Saori comes to Katie's school. The villain Darkman, created by the darkness in human hearts, tries to resurrect himself. He influences the minds of Akumi and the Warumo gang. Session magic is introduced for two-person magic, with each person combo producing different magic. Darkman controls Saori and uses her flute to control peoples' emotions. He is then defeated by Golden Mirmo, the outcome of three person session magic. With the help of Nezumi/Rato, he is resurrected until the muglox's four-person session magic gives Saori the power to defeat Darkman. The two worlds are separated until reunited by the muglox and their partners' friendship. Saori goes to Germany to study music with Akumi as her new partner. ; Season 3 In this season a robot octopus, Tako, convinces the gang to look for the legendary seven crystals which are drawn out by different emotions. After all are collected, the gang faces seven trials. Mirmo must pass these tests for the crystals to unite and form a pendant. Tako steals it to save his girlfriend and his land. In the end, they succeed and Tako becomes king of crystal land. ; Season 4 Two new characters, Koichi and Haruka, are introduced. Koichi has a crush on Katie, and Haruka is Setsu's childhood friend who wants to be a cartoonist. Her partner Panta is a ghost muglox. Thanks to Azumi, Katie and Koichi kiss. Also, Koichi confessed to Katie after Katie had a whole day of helping him confess to his crush that she didn't know was her. Setsu starts to fall in love with Katie, and Koichi realizes that he is not right for Kaede and gives up on her. After Haruka tells Dylan she loves him, he chooses her over Katie. Haruka realizes Dylan's true love is Katie and gives up on him. Dylan tells Katie he loves her and they become a couple; Katie's wish is fulfilled. Mirmo has to leave in one hour or something terrible will happen, which the Warumo gang make so. Mirmo loses all memories of Katie and turns into a rabbit. Katie brings his memories back and he turns back to normal. ===== The old Amagi tunnel, setting of the opening of the story. "The Dancing Girl of Izu" tells the story of the interactions between a young male student from Tokyo, and a small group of travelling performers from nearby Oshima island whom he meets while touring the Izu Peninsula. The student sees the group several times and focuses on the beauty of the youngest looking dancer carrying a large drum. He considers how being on the same road as these travelling performers was exciting. Later, he encounters them again at a tea house, but upon hearing that they were leaving for the next town, he struggles with the thought of chasing after them. Upon catching up with the group, he acts inconspicuously as he passes them on the trail. Much to his relief, the only male in the group, Eikichi, suddenly strikes up a conversation with the student, giving him a reason to keep pace with the travellers. During the trip, he takes a liking to the young dancer that he saw earlier, because of her refreshing and naïve character. He quickly befriends Eikichi, and follows the group until they arrive at an old inn. However, much to his disappointment, Eikichi insists that he stay at a better inn, because he saw the student as someone of higher status. Later that night, he hears the performers putting on a show at a nearby restaurant, and recognizes the distinct sound of the young dancer’s drum. He listens intently to the sound of her drum, and convinces himself that after they are finished performing at the party they will come visit him. However, he becomes very restless during the night when they do not meet him until the following morning. Eikichi invites him to a nearby public bath to relax and share stories. To his surprise, when he sees the young women playing in the adjacent river, he realizes that the girl he was developing feelings for was much younger than he had originally perceived. Upon understanding his mistake, he felt the burden of his infatuation disappear and subsequently breaks into a fit of laughter; he spends the rest of the day in really good spirits. The next day, he gets ready to leave with the performers, however he finds out that they plan on staying an extra day and have no problem if he leaves ahead of them. Again, Eikichi saves him from much trouble and suggests that he stay an extra day as well. As a result, he continues to accompany the performers throughout the following days. Furthermore, the student is able to maintain his affection towards the young dancer through acts of friendship. One day, while they are on the road, he overhears the other women talking about him, and he is very relieved to discover that they think he is a nice person. He is dismayed when he eventually has to separate from the group to return home, and after a brief exchange of farewells with the dancer and Eikichi, he becomes very upset with having to part ways with his new friends so soon. With the thought that he will not likely see them again, he solemnly boards a ship heading to Tokyo. An air of uncertainty about their future meeting remains in the reader's mind, however, because Eikichi on several occasions through the story has spoken of the student returning to visit them on Oshima. ===== George (Bing Crosby) and Harold (Bob Hope), American song-and-dance men performing in Melbourne, Australia, leave in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals. They end up in Darwin, where they take jobs as deep sea divers for a prince. They are taken by boat to an idyllic island on the way to Bali, Indonesia. They vie for the favors of exotic (and half-Scottish) Princess Lala (Dorothy Lamour), a cousin of the Prince (Murvyn Vye). A hazardous dive produces a chest of priceless jewels, which the Prince plans to claim as his own. After escaping from the Prince and his henchmen, the three are shipwrecked and washed up on another island. Lala is now in love with both of the boys and can't decide which to choose. However, once the natives find them, she learns that in their society, a woman may take multiple husbands, and declares she will marry them both. While the boys are prepared for the ceremony, both thinking the other man lost, plans are changed. She's being unwillingly wed to the already much-married King (Leon Askin), while the boys end up married to each other. Displeased with the arrangement, a volcano god initiates a massive eruption. After fleeing, the three end up on yet another beach where Lala chooses George over Harold. An undaunted Harold conjures up Jane Russell from a basket by playing a flute. Alas, she, too, rejects Harold, which means George walks off with both Lala and Jane. A lonesome Harold is left on the beach, demanding that the film shouldn't finish and asking the audience to stick around to see what's going to happen next. ===== The King of Kings (1927) trailer Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a wild courtesan, entertaining many men around her. Upon learning that Judas is with a carpenter she rides out on her chariot drawn by zebras to get him back. Peter is introduced as the Giant apostle, and we see the future gospel writer Mark as a child who is healed by Jesus. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is shown as a beautiful and saintly woman who is a mother to all her son's followers. The first sight of Jesus is through the eyesight of a little girl, whom he heals. He is surrounded by a halo. Mary Magdelene arrives afterwards and talks to Judas, who reveals that he is only staying with Jesus in hopes of being made a high official after Jesus becomes the king of kings. Jesus casts the Seven Deadly Sins out of Mary Magdalene in a multiple exposure sequence. Jesus is also shown resurrecting Lazarus and healing the little children. Some humor is derived when one girl asks if he can heal broken legs, and, when he says yes, she gives him a legless doll. Jesus smiles and repairs the doll. The crucifixion is foreshadowed when Jesus, having helped a poor family, wanders through the father's carpentry shop, and, himself a carpenter's son, he briefly helps carve a piece of wood. When a sheet covering the object is removed, it is revealed to be a cross towering over Jesus. Jesus and his apostles enter Jerusalem, where Judas incites the people and rallies them to proclaim Jesus King of the Jews. Jesus, however, renounces all claims of being an Earthly king. Caiaphas the High Priest is also angry at Judas for having led people to a man whom he sees as a false prophet. Meanwhile, Jesus drives away Satan, who had offered him an Earthly kingdom, and he protects a woman caught in adultery. The words he draws in the sand are revealed to be the sins the accusers themselves committed. Judas, desperate to save himself from Caiaphas, agrees to turn over Jesus. Noticeably at the Last Supper, when Jesus distributes the bread and wine saying that they are his body and blood, Judas refuses to eat. Judas puts the cup to his lips but refuses to drink; he tears off a piece of bread but lets it drop to the ground. Towards the end, Mary confronts her son and tells him to flee from the danger that is coming. Jesus replies that it must be done for the salvation of all peoples. They leave the room but the camera focuses on the table upon which a dove alights for a moment. Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane where he is soon captured by the Roman soldiers and betrayed by Judas. Judas' life is saved, but, upon seeing that Jesus is going to be killed as a result, he is horrified. Judas takes a rope that the Romans had used to bind Jesus' wrists and runs off. Jesus is beaten and then presented by Pontius Pilate to the crowd. Mary pleads for the life of her son and Mary Magdalene speaks for him but Caiaphas bribes the crowd to shout against Jesus. Jesus is taken away to be crucified, though he pauses on the Via Dolorosa to heal a group of cripples in an alley, despite his weakened condition. Jesus is crucified and his enemies throw insults at him. (One woman even anachronistically eats popcorn and smiles with glee at Jesus' crucifixion.) When Jesus does die, however, a great earthquake comes up. The tree where Judas had hanged himself, with the rope used to bind Jesus's wrists, is swallowed up amidst gouts of hellfire. The sky turns black, lightning strikes, the wind blows, the people who had mocked Jesus run in terror, and the veil covering the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple is torn in two. The tumult ends when Mary looks up at heaven and asks God to forgive the world for the death of their son. The chaos ends and the Sun shines. Jesus is taken down from the cross and is buried. On the third day, he rises from the dead as promised. To emphasize the importance of the resurrection, this scene from an otherwise black and white film is shot in color. Jesus goes to the Apostles and tells them to spread his message to the world. He tells them "I am with you always" as the scene shifts to a modern city to show that Jesus still watches over his followers. Many of the film's intertitles are quotes (or paraphrases) from Scripture, often with chapter and verse accompanying. ===== As the film opens, Henri's father, a chauffeur, is falsely accused of having murdered his boss. During his trial and imprisonment, Henri's mother finds a job in a tavern on a Normandy beach. There Henri sees a film adaptation of Les Misérables. His father dies attempting to escape from prison, and upon hearing the news Henri's mother commits suicide. Henri grows up an orphan and learns boxing. The film next takes up the story of Elisa, a ballerina, and André Ziman, a young Jewish journalist and law student. They meet following a performance of a ballet based on Les Misérables. Later, during World War II, André and Elisa, now married, and their daughter Salomé attempt to cross the Swiss border to escape the Nazis. They encounter Henri, who owns a moving company, and they discuss the Hugo novel. The Zimans entrust Salomé to Henri and enroll her in a Catholic convent school. André and Elisa are ambushed while trying to cross the frontier. Elisa is arrested and André wounded. Farmers who find him give him shelter. Henri and the members of a local gang join the French Resistance, but the gang members take advantage of their anti-Nazi attacks to steal from local houses. Elisa and other women are forced to entertain the Nazi occupiers. She is sent to a concentration camp for being defiant. After staging an attack on a train transporting funds for the Vichy government, Henri and his mates travel to Normandy to visit the tavern where he lived as a child. The D-Day invasion is launched the next day and Henri supports the Allied forces when they conquer the beach. In the process he saves the life of the tavern owner's son Marius. At the war's end, Henri accepts an offer to run a seaside camp in Normandy. There he receives a letter from Salomé, who has no way of contacting her family. He takes her with him to the resort, which he names Chez Jean Valjean. Elisa, having survived a Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland, joins them later. A former Vichy police agent accuses Henri of abetting the gang's activities during the war and of robbing and burning a train. He is imprisoned to await trial. Meanwhile André's one-time rescuer is holding him captive, hoping to live off his bank account. The farmer has told André that the American D-Day invasion failed and the Nazis now rule the world. With evident reluctance, the farmer's wife support her husband in these lies until he attempts to poison André. Then she shoots her husband before he can feed André the poisoned soup. As she checks to see if her husband is dead, he grabs her and chokes her to death. André escapes from his cellar prison on a bad leg and emerges to find the farmer couple dead and a liberated Europe. He rejoins his wife and daughter at Chez Jean Valjean and then represents Henri at his trial and wins his acquittal. As the film ends, Henri, now the mayor, presides at the civil marriage of Salomé and Marius in the presence of André and Elisa and the mother superior of the school that sheltered Salomé. André Ziman quotes Victor Hugo: "The best of our lives is yet to come." ===== The previous volume saw Simon wound a dragon with the mystical sword Thorn, splashing himself in dragon’s blood, leaving himself deeply scarred (physically and emotionally). Now bearing the sobriquet "Snowlock", he and his companions leave the mountains in search of the mysterious "Stone of Farewell". Meanwhile, Josua "Lackhand", brother to the king, leads a motley band of survivors after the disastrous events at Naglimund. Princess Miriamele, having escaped before the siege of Naglimund, gets caught up in events that demonstrate the evil powers surrounding her father. Princess Maegwin of Hernystir leads her people deep underground, where they discover secrets that may help turn the tide in a war thought to be hopeless. Finally, a power rises in the North, but its true implications may not yet be fully revealed. ===== As the Storm King's power grows, the loyal allies of Prince Josua struggle to rally their forces at the Stone of Farewell. There, Simon and the surviving members of the League of the Scroll attempt to unravel a prophecy that may ultimately allow them to strike down the undead Storm King and bring peace to the kingdom. This epic saga concludes as Simon travels back to castle Hayholt to confront Ineluki. ===== High school student Candy Christian seemingly descends to Earth from space. Following a poetry recital at Candy's school, eccentric Welsh poet MacPhisto offers her a ride home in his limousine. En route, MacPhisto forces himself on her, but is unable to proceed after becoming too inebriated. With the help of her Mexican gardener, Emmanuel, Candy takes MacPhisto inside in order to help him out of his liquor-soaked clothes. In the basement, MacPhisto drunkenly recites poetry while humping a mannequin, inciting Emmanuel to sexually assault Candy. Scandalized upon walking in on the scene, Candy's uptight father (also her high school teacher) decides to send her away to live with his twin brother Jack and his wife Livia in New York City. At the airport, the family is accosted by Emmanuel's three vengeful sisters, who accuse Candy of corrupting their brother. During the scuffle, Candy's father is rendered unconscious due to a head injury. The Christians escape by boarding a military plane commanded by General Smight, who later orders Candy to undress while expressing a desire to impregnate her. Meanwhile, he accidentally pushes the button that signals his paratroopers to leap from the plane. When General Smight realizes this, he jumps as well, only to slip out of his parachute harness. Upon landing in New York, Dr. Krankheit meticulously performs surgery on Candy's father in front of an audience. When Uncle Jack attempts to seduce Candy during a post-operative cocktail party, the hospital's executive director, Dr. Dunlap, berates her for her perceived lewd behavior, causing her to faint. Dr. Krankheit takes Candy to another room and tricks her into sex by pretending to examine her. While searching for her father, Candy wanders back into the operating room to find that Dr. Krankeit has branded all the nurses with his initials, as he prepares to do so to Livia. When he attempts to have Candy captured so that she is next, she flees the hospital. After wandering aimlessly on the streets of New York, Candy ends up in a Sicilian bar, where she is beset by a group of mobsters, until an offbeat underground filmmaker, G3, shows up, taking her into the men's room and shooting her for a film. As the room floods due to broken pipes, two policemen arrive and assault G3, whereupon a drenched Candy escapes. In Central Park, she meets a hunchback who takes her into a deserted mansion later that night. A gang of thieves walks in and proceeds to ransack the place, while the hunchback rapes Candy on top of a grand piano. After arresting Candy, the two policemen maliciously plan to frisk her. However, they lose control of their squad car and crash into a club full of drag queens. As mayhem ensues, Candy escapes again. The next morning, Candy asks for a ride in the back of a semi-trailer truck, which turns out to be the sanctum of Grindl, a sham guru. He talks Candy into sex by taking her through the "seven stages" of enlightenment. After several days on the road, Grindl informs Candy that a different guru will guide her through the rest of her journey. Upon arrival in California, Candy is chased through the desert by the New York police officers, but she manages to outwit them. Shortly thereafter, Candy finds her new guru—a robed figure sporting a toucan on his shoulder, his face covered with white clay. She follows him into an underground Hindu temple, which then partially collapses due to a cataclysm. As the two proceed to have sex, Candy is shocked to discover the guru is actually her brain-damaged father, after his face is washed clean. As Candy wanders across a field—surrounded by flapping banners and hippies playing music—she revisits many of the characters she met throughout the film, before finally returning to outer space. ===== When a chimpanzee arrives in the tiny coastal city MacOongafoondsen during the Napoleonic Wars he is taken for a Frenchman. Arousing insular prejudice, he is put on trial on suspicion of being a French spy and the thief responsible for a string of local burglaries. He is defended by 13-year-old Emmaline Perth with the help of Flurp, the town fool. Eek ends up being found guilty. However, he is rescued and not hanged. MacOongsafooden's population starts to rapidly rise. ===== Jota, a failed musician whose girlfriend has recently left him, is about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge when a girl on a motorcycle, Sofía, crashes off it. Rushing to help her, he discovers she has lost her memory, even forgetting her name. After telling the paramedics and staff at the hospital that she is his girlfriend, he later tells her the same. He invents an entire identity for her, giving her the name Lisa, and a history of their relationship according to his own fantasies. With the hospital psychiatrist starting to become suspicious, he spirits her out of the hospital and away on a trip to the 'Ardilla Roja' campsite, which he claims they have been planning for some while. As their relationship becomes intimate, their behaviour sparks the suspicions of campers Antón and Carmena. It becomes clear that Lisa/Sofía's memory is not entirely missing and she is hiding her own past secrets; notably, the existence of a psychotic ex-boyfriend, Félix, who is rampaging across the country in search of her. ===== The Clerk's tale is about a marquis of Saluzzo in Piedmont in Italy named Walter, a bachelor who is asked by his subjects to marry to provide an heir. He assents and decides he will marry a peasant, named Griselda. Griselda is a poor girl, used to a life of pain and labour, who promises to honour Walter's wishes in all things. Griselda's child is kidnapped After Griselda has born him a daughter, Walter decides to test her loyalty. He sends an officer to take the baby, pretending it will be killed, but actually conveying it in secret to Bologna. Griselda, because of her promise, makes no protest at this but only asks that the child be buried properly. When she bears a son several years later, Walter again has him taken from her under identical circumstances. Finally, Walter determines one last test. He has a papal bull of annulment forged which enables him to leave Griselda, and informs her that he intends to remarry. As part of his deception, he employs Griselda to prepare the wedding for his new bride. Meanwhile, he has brought the children from Bologna, and he presents his daughter as his intended wife. Eventually he informs Griselda of the deceit, who is overcome by joy at seeing her children alive, and they live happily ever after. ===== Annie "Daisy" Miller and Frederick Winterbourne first meet in Vevey, Switzerland, in a garden of the grand hotel,James, Henry (2008). "Daisy Miller", p.5. Stilwell, KS. . where Winterbourne is allegedly vacationing from his studies (an attachment to an older lady is rumoured). They are introduced by Randolph Miller, Daisy's nine-year-old brother. Randolph considers their hometown of Schenectady, New York, to be absolutely superior to all of Europe. However, Daisy is absolutely delighted with the continent, especially the high society she wishes to enter. Winterbourne is at first confused by her attitude, and though greatly impressed by her beauty, he soon determines that she is nothing more than a young flirt. He continues his pursuit of Daisy in spite of the disapproval of his aunt, Mrs. Costello, who spurns any family with so close a relationship to their courier as the Millers have with their Eugenio. She also thinks Daisy is a shameless girl for agreeing to visit the Château de Chillon with Winterbourne after they have known each other for only half an hour. Two days later, the two travel to Château de Chillon and although Winterbourne had paid the janitor for privacy, Daisy is not quite impressed. Winterbourne then informs Daisy that he must go to Geneva the next day. Daisy feels disappointment and chaffs him, eventually asking him to visit her in Rome later that year. In Rome, Winterbourne and Daisy meet unexpectedly in the parlor of Mrs. Walker, an American expatriate, whose moral values have adapted to those of Italian society. Rumors about Daisy meeting with young Italian gentlemen make her socially exceptionable under these criteria. Winterbourne learns of Daisy's increasing intimacy with a young Italian of questionable society, Giovanelli, as well as the growing scandal caused by the pair's behaviour. Daisy is undeterred by the open disapproval of the other Americans in Rome, and her mother seems quite unaware of the underlying tensions. Winterbourne and Mrs. Walker attempt to persuade Daisy to separate from Giovanelli, but she refuses. One night, Winterbourne takes a walk through the Colosseum and sees a young couple sitting at its centre. He realises that they are Giovanelli and Daisy. Infuriated with Giovanelli, Winterbourne asks him how he could dare to take Daisy to a place where she runs the risk of catching "Roman Fever". Daisy says she does not care and Winterbourne leaves them. Daisy falls ill and dies a few days later. ===== A young man wakes up with no memory of who he is, where he is, or anything about his life and is initially unable to move. After a short period of time, he regains motion, but no memories. Over the next few pages, he is faced with flashing lights, disembodied voices, a cathedral, teddy bears nailed to wooden posts, graveyards, the realization that he is both alone and that his world is impossibly small, and terrifying creatures known as Nightgaunts, before meeting with Jasmine, a 'human' who identifies him as Halloween. As the book progresses, Halloween realizes where he is. He's in a virtual reality school that his parents have sent him to. Upon completion of the school, each student will receive both a scholarship to go through college and a position in a prestigious medical company called Gedaechtnis Corporation (in German, Gedächtnis means memory, or ability to recall). The ten students are Mercutio (Adam), Pandora (Naomi), Simone, Isaac, Lazarus, Vashti, Tyler, Champagne (Charlotte), Fantasia (Gina), and Halloween (Gabriel) himself. Fan, Merc, Hal, and Ty are considered the "clods" while Simone, Isaac, Laz, Vashti, Cham, and Pan are the "pets". Where pets study and follow all of the rules, clods do the opposite. The digital teacher of the school is named Maestro, but the clods call him Mae$tro (pronounced 'Maeshtro') and do not respect or care for him. Each student is given a digital world that they may edit to their liking; this is where they 'live' while in IVR and where Halloween first finds himself at the beginning of the book. They are also assigned a "Nanny," a digital being that can help a student with anything they need help with. For example, when Halloween realizes that Jasmine is not real, he asks Nanny to bring her back to life (she died in a fight against Fantasia), and Nanny does so. Because of Halloween's suspicions that he may have killed Lazarus, he does not confide in anyone for a long period of time. Mercutio asks Halloween if he'd like some food, and they decide to dine at the Taj Mahal. Mercutio begins to order a steak, but halfway through his order, the entire world freezes up. Merc has triggered a jammer so that he and Hal can escape IVR, and they both wake up in their beds in the school. They decided to visit their favorite diner, Twain's, and enjoy a nice meal before Merc decides to head back to IVR. Halloween, however, chooses to call his parents and report that he is dropping out. After a tough time with both his parents and Ellison, the school's headmaster (and the man Maestro was modeled after), Halloween is sent back to IVR. Halloween "graduates" all of the remaining students, waking them up from IVR. They decide to fulfill Gedaechtnis' plans for them to rebuild the world, but Halloween rejects the plan. The book ends with Halloween standing in the woods of Michigan, angry at the world for robbing him of his illusions, the girl he loved and his two best friends. ===== Gloria Mullins has been sent to her home town of Grimley to determine the profitability of the pit for the management of British Coal. She also plays the flugelhorn, and is allowed to play with the local brass band after playing Concierto de Aranjuez with them. The band is made up of miners from whom she must conceal her purpose. She renews a childhood romance with Andy Barrow, which soon leads to complications. Andy is bitter about the programme of pit closures and determined to fight on, but he is also realistic about the circumstances and predicts a 4-to-1 majority for closure and redundancy. When Andy realises that Gloria is working for management, he accuses her of naïvety for thinking that the Coal Board is considering whether the pit has any viable future and argues that the decision to close Grimley would have been taken years earlier. It is later revealed, during a confrontation between Gloria and the management of the colliery, that the decision to close the colliery had been made two years previously, and that this was to have gone ahead regardless of the findings of her report; the report was simply a public relations exercise to placate the miners and members of the public sympathetic to their plight. The passionate band conductor, Danny Ormondroyd, finds he is fighting a losing battle to keep the rest of the band members committed. His son, Phil, is badly in debt and becomes a clown for children's parties, but this fails to prevent his wife and children walking out on him. In debt, Phil votes for the redundancy money, which he becomes ashamed of. As Danny collapses in the street and is hospitalised, Phil suffers a mental breakdown while entertaining a group of children, as part of a harvest festival in a church. He refers to himself as "Coco the scab"—a name that he had been called by a debt collector who he had asked to wait until the redundancy money had come through. Eventually, he attempts suicide by trying to hang himself, but is taken to the hospital. Phil reveals to Danny that in light of the colliery's closure, the band has decided not to continue playing. When Jim realises that Gloria is working for management, he is unimpressed with Andy's relationship with her. In a pub conversation, the other miners are not particularly concerned and feel that Jim is being too harsh on Andy. When Andy says that he should be old enough to make his own decisions, Jim responds with, "Old enough to be a scab then?" The pub falls silent at the accusation, as the word was an extremely serious insult in a mining community and implies treachery to the working class. Jim then withdraws the insult and says that Andy is just "stupid". Later on in the film, Jim asks Gloria to leave the band and mocks her attempts to fund the band's trip to the National Finals. With the intention that it will be their last performance, the band, in full uniform, and wearing their miners' helmets and lamps, plays Danny Boy (the famous Percy Grainger arrangement of Londonderry Air) late at night outside the hospital. Andy, having lost his tenor horn in a bet, whistles along with his hands in his pockets. After they finish, they all switch off their lamps. Whilst the band is playing in the National Semi-Finals, the outcome of the ballot is announced as 4-to-1 in favour of redundancy, as Andy had predicted. After Gloria sets up a bank account to fund travel to the National Finals, the band is brought back together to compete. Andy wins his tenor horn back in a game of pool, and having forgiven Gloria, after she gives them the money she was paid to compile the report (saying she does not want it because it's "dirty money"), the band travels to the final at the Royal Albert Hall in London (Birmingham Town Hall was used to film these scenes), where they are amused by the inability of the woman on the dressing room's PA system to pronounce 'colliery'. Before departing, Phil leaves a note for Danny saying that they are going to the finals. Danny arrives just in time to see the band win the competition with a stirring rendition of the finale from William Tell Overture, during which Phil notices his wife and children are in the audience. Danny refuses to accept the trophy, stating that it is only human beings that matter and not music or the trophy and that "this bloody government has systematically destroyed an entire industry. Our industry. And not just our industry—our communities, our homes, our lives. All in the name of 'progress'. And for a few lousy bob." However, following this gesture, Jim takes the trophy anyway. The band celebrates their victory as Andy and Gloria kiss on the upper deck of an open-topped bus travelling through London, while the rest of the band play Land of Hope and Glory conducted by Danny. ===== No Crystal Stair is a coming-of-age story set in the Little Burgundy district of Montreal during the 1940s. Widow Marion Willow works at two jobs to raise her three daughters properly. Fighting racism and sexism, Marion schools her girls in manners, English poetry and the need for an education; her elegant neighbour and rival (both women are in love with railway porter Edmund Thompson) teaches the children the ways of the street and their black cultural heritage. ===== Volkswagen Blues is a road novel, in the tradition of Jack Kerouac, about a middle-aged, formerly successful writer who has adopted the pen-name Jack Waterman (a metonymy can play on Waterman pens) and, as the novel begins, is experiencing a bout of writer's block. Discovering an old postcard, the protagonist embarks on a quest in search of his long-lost, rambling brother, Théo. Early in the narrative, Jack picks up a hitchhiker, a young Métisse woman, nicknamed "La Grande Sauterelle" due her long, grasshopper-like legs, as a travel companion, as well as a cat named Chop Suey. Together in Jack's Volkswagen Minibus, which through personification becomes a character in the story, they travel from Gaspé to San Francisco, passing through Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis and the American West on their way, exploring the history of European contact with the native people of the Americas. While on the road, they discuss language, literature, American expansion, the Oregon Trail, etc., and their trip becomes an allegory for the history of the French exploration of North America. At the same time, La Grande Sauterelle, who is struggling with her own identity, presents another version of American history, as recounted by the natives, where "discovery" is viewed as "invasion." Throughout the episodic novel a number of interesting and entertaining characters appear, including journalists, museum directors, railroad hoboes and writers such as Saul Bellow and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as well as the spirit of Ernest Hemingway, John Muir and the Beat Generation. All in all, Jack's journey through an America that scholar Paul Socken describes as a "lost paradise" is one of disillusionment and self-discovery that allows him to break through the impasse he had met in his writing. ===== Former L.A. SWAT officer Jeff Talley is a hostage negotiator in Los Angeles. One day, Talley negotiates with an abusive man who has taken his wife and son hostage after learning his wife was cheating on him. Shortly after Talley denies a SWAT commander's request to give snipers the order to open fire, the despondent man kills his wife, son, and himself. Traumatized, Talley moves with his family and becomes police chief in Bristo Camino, a fictional suburban hamlet in nearby Ventura County. A year later, Talley finds himself in another hostage situation. Two troubled teenaged brothers, Dennis and Kevin Kelly, and a sociopathic accomplice, Marshall "Mars" Krupcheck, all very well-armed, take Walter Smith and his two children, Jennifer and Tommy, hostage in the Smith home after a failed robbery attempt. Dennis had told his younger brother to wait in the car, not anticipating the siege to come, but Kevin refused. A female police officer, Carol Flores, responds after Tommy turns on the silent alarm. She is shot twice by Mars after being informed by dispatch that the red truck (parked by the hostage takers in front of the house) is a stolen vehicle just before Talley arrives. She dies in front of him. Traumatized and unwilling to put himself through another tragedy, Talley hands authority over to the county sheriff and leaves. Smith had been laundering money for a mysterious right-wing militia and mafia syndicate through offshore shell corporations. He was preparing to turn over a batch of important encrypted files recorded on a DVD when he was taken hostage. To prevent the incriminating evidence from being discovered, the syndicate orders one of their men, a ruthless operative, known as "the Watchman", to kidnap Talley's wife and daughter. Talley is instructed by "the Watchman", to return to the hostage scene, regain authority, and stall for time until the organization can launch its own attack against Smith's house. Otherwise, Talley's wife and daughter will be murdered. Dennis forces Kevin and Mars to tie up the children, while he knocks out Smith and finds a small fortune in cash, money which the syndicate had paid Smith. In an attempt to end the standoff and secure the DVDs himself, Talley meets with Dennis and agrees to provide a helicopter in exchange for half of the money. When the helicopter arrives, Dennis and Kevin bring the money to Talley and prepare to leave, but Mars refuses to leave without Jennifer, with whom he has become infatuated. Talley says the helicopter will only carry three passengers and insists Jennifer stay behind, but the deal breaks down and the boys and Jennifer return to the house. Talley learns that Mars is a sociopath who could turn on the hostages and his own accomplices at any moment. Mars does, in fact, kill Kevin, just as Kevin is about to release the children. Mars then kills Dennis. The syndicate dispatches fake FBI agents to recover the DVD and they storm the house; Talley is instructed to not go near the house. Jennifer manages to stab Mars, but not fatally, and locks herself and Tommy in the panic room. Hearing their screams, Talley breaches the house and is attacked by Mars, who then kills most of the fake agents using his pistol and multiple homemade Molotov cocktails. Mars is then shot in the side by the only surviving agent. The agent tracks down Talley and the children, and demands the encrypted DVD. When Talley asks that the children be allowed to leave, the fake agent shoots Talley, but it is not a fatal wound. After Talley gives him the DVD, Mars reappears, carrying two homemade Molotov cocktails, distracting the agent long enough to be killed by Talley. Mars then prepares to throw his last Molotov, but collapses to his knees, weakened by his injuries. He makes eye contact with Jennifer, then drops the Molotov and immolates himself. Talley escapes with the children by shooting the indoor glass waterfall, which extinguishes the fire caused by Mars' first Molotov. He and a recovered Smith then go to a rundown inn where Talley's wife and daughter are being held captive by the Watchman and his crew. Smith, feigning hatred for Talley, is freed in exchange for the family. While demanding that the Watchman kill Talley, Smith shoots the Watchman in the head. This allows Talley to kill the other gunmen in similar fashion and rescue his own family. ===== Bart is taunted by school bullies Nelson, Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney, because he does not have a 10-speed bike as they do. In order to get Homer to buy him one, Bart has his current bike run over by Dr. Hibbert's Mercedes-Benz G500. Homer buys the 10-speed for Bart, but refuses to pay the small assembly fee and builds it himself. Bart is happy since it looks great and works perfectly at first, but it falls apart when he moons the bullies. Homer, wanting Bart to be proud of him, tries to build a battle robot for the "Robot Rumble". He fails to construct one, but then decides to build a robot with himself in it; Bart names the robot "Chief Knock-a Homer". Unaware of Homer's ruse, Bart enters the robot in the Rumble. Meanwhile, Dr. Hibbert's car runs over and kills the Simpsons cat Snowball II shortly after crushing Bart's bike. A devastated Lisa recites a poem tearfully at the funeral, where Snowball II is buried next to Snowball I. Lisa gets a ginger cat, which she names Snowball III, but he drowns in the fish tank. The next cat, Coltrane (Snowball IV), jumps out of a window after hearing Lisa play her saxophone. Because of this the owner of the cat sanctuary refuses to give Lisa any more cats. As Lisa sits outside brooding over the recently deceased cats, the Crazy Cat Lady shows up, screams nonsense and hurls a cat (which has a striking resemblance to Snowball II) at her. At first Lisa tries to drive it away, fearing it will meet the same fate as her other cats, but this cat proves to be more durable, when an oncoming car driven by Gil Gunderson swerves and crashes into a tree (this proves good for Gil because he has insurance). Lisa elects to keep the cat and says "You're Snowball V, but to save money on a new dish, we'll call you Snowball II and pretend this whole thing never happened". In an instance of meta-humor, Principal Skinner then stops by and asks Lisa "That's really a cheat, isn't it?" Lisa replies "I guess you're right, Principal Tamzarian." Skinner walks away defeatedly, acknowledging the new cat as Snowball II. Homer defeats numerous opponents to make it to the finals, but he is physically injured from the battles with the other robots, and at one point he finds a large piece of jagged metal in his arm. In the final match against Professor Frink's undefeated super-robot, an ED-209 look-a-like, Bart finds Homer in the bot after the grueling first round. Caught, Homer apologizes to Bart, but Bart is impressed because of all the pain Homer went through to win his son's admiration. In the second round, ED-209 squeezes Homer out of the robot, but immediately stops as soon as it sees him. Frink explains that the robot follows Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and "is programmed never to harm humans, only to serve them". ED-209 sets out a comfy seat for Homer and pours him a martini. Homer wins and Bart is proud of his dad. ===== At the start, the narrator is living with a Hispanic boy named Pedro and performing sex acts with older men in the basement of the dwelling for money, along with Pedro's teenage sister Maria. He engages in sex with Maria, Pedro, a gang of bikers, and a group of black men. The narrator consistently assumes the bottom role in these sex acts. One out of the group of black men chooses the narrator specifically, remarking that he appears of possible part-black ancestry. The second chapter takes place sometime after the narrator has left Pedro's. It introduces Hogg, raping a woman in an alley. Hogg calls the narrator to him to "finish him up" orally. Hogg takes the narrator to his truck where he explains that while he is a trucker by trade, he prefers getting paid to rape women. Hogg also reveals a bit about himself and his personal history, painting a picture of his overall persona, which is one of extreme filth, violence, and sexual sociopathy. They drive to meet Mr. Jonas, who despite his apparent wealth answers his own door and later is revealed to drive his own limousine. Mr. Jonas is Hogg's current client. After Mr. Jonas describes Hogg's next assignment Hogg states his intention to bring along several other men, and the narrator as well, to participate. At this point the narrator's place as Hogg's companion is solidly established. Hogg and the narrator meet the other men—Nigg, Wop, and Denny—at the Piewacket bar. Nigg turns out to be the black man who the narrator first encountered at the beginning of the story. Wop is a violent Italian-American workman. Denny is a rather shy teenage boy, older than the narrator but quite a bit younger than the other men. The quintet of rapists set out to complete their jobs, which grow in succession from a single woman, a woman and her wheelchair-bound daughter, and a nuclear family—mother, father and son. Each successive job increases in violence, and the victims' young children (male and female) are also descended on by the pack. During the third rape scene, Denny absconds to the family's kitchen where he decides to pierce his own penis using a nail. Soon Denny's penis begins to bleed, swell and pus, seemingly infected. At this point he begins repeating the phrase "it's all right." When their last job is completed, the group retires to the Piewacket bar, where they fraternize with members of the Phantoms—the same biker gang encountered in the beginning of the novel. Nigg and one of the bikers, Hawk, hatch a scheme to sell the narrator to a black tugboat captain called Big Sambo. Without consulting Hogg, all three ride away on Hawk's motorcycle to meet Big Sambo at the docks in Crawhole. Big Sambo talks down the price and pays Nigg and Hawk fifteen dollars for the narrator. Big Sambo is a large, physically-powerful tugboat operator who keeps his twelve-year-old daughter, Honey-Pie, around as a sex object for his own pleasure. The narrator goes walking around the docks at night, where he overhears a radio on the deck of a garbage scow. The newscaster on the radio reports on a series of murders that has occurred recently—as it turns out, the suspect is Denny. This is confirmed to the reader when it is noted that the phrase "it's all right" is written in blood at the crime scenes. The Piewacket bar, where the gang had previously hung out, was attacked by Denny with gunfire. Several people including the bartender and some bikers were killed. On the docks the narrator then meets two garbagemen: Red, a red-headed white man, and Rufus, a black man. While having sex with the narrator outside, they plan to "borrow" the narrator from Big Sambo and keep him at their scow on a collar and leash. They are interrupted by Whitey, a cop who patrols the area, who also has sex with the narrator. Whitey is called down to the waterfront to help investigate the murders of Mona, Harry and their year-old baby. Rufus, Red and the narrator return to the waterfront where a radio crew has recently arrived and reports live from the scene. Big Sambo sees the narrator by the docks and tells him to return to his scow. Hogg arrives at Big Sambo's scow and assaults Big Sambo. Hogg and the narrator leave the docks in Hogg's truck, in which Denny was hiding from the police. After driving out of the Crawhole area and getting clear of the law, Hogg commands Denny to bathe himself, dress in clean clothes, and hitch a ride to Florida. While driving back from the truck stop Hogg declares his intentions to spend the next few months with the narrator and expresses his happiness that they are reunited. However, the narrator is formulating a plan to leave Hogg at the next opportune moment. Hogg finally asks him "What's the matter?" to which he responds, "Nothin,"—his only line of dialog in the novel. ===== During Bastille Day when most people are enjoying the French national holiday, a group of thieves prepare to commit a warehouse robbery at a massive industrial park. Meanwhile, Laborie, a special agent in the French special forces, is leading an international team that is escorting the captured leader of the Albanian mafia, Abedin Nexhep, who is due in court on charges of running an extensive European prostitution network. Despite the considerable security escort, Nexhep's henchmen still manage to set up an ambush. Laborie manages to escape with Nexhep. They take refuge in the warehouse that is being robbed of computer equipment by the group of criminals. While facing off against the would-be thieves, the Albanian mafia surround the warehouse. Soon the three groups are involved in a long firefight with everyone involved struggling to survive. ===== A 25-year- old Chinese adoptee travels to China to find her birth parents, but they reject her, stating they never had a daughter. While praying, she lifts a small Buddha and immediately collapses, vomiting blood. The initial diagnosis is that the woman contracted SARS in China. Meanwhile, House learns his father has died, but refuses to attend the funeral. Cuddy uses the SARS diagnosis as a ruse to “inoculate” House, in reality injecting him with a powerful sedative. House wakes up to find himself in a car with his estranged best friend Wilson, who is taking him to his father's funeral. While being driven to the funeral, House works with his team by phone. Their discussions are interrupted when Wilson is pulled over by a policeman for a House-created traffic offense. The stop results in Wilson's arrest on an old out-of-state warrant, still open because of another House-related error. Back at Princeton- Plainsboro, the team is still perplexed by the patient's illness. House arrives at the funeral and delivers an unsuitable yet self-enlightening eulogy. Afterwards, House feigns grief in order to obtain a DNA sample from his father's corpse. House calls China to learn more about his patient's trip, and finds out that the birth parents adamantly refused to acknowledge the daughter's existence. Wilson suggests that China's one-child policy may have caused the parents to try to kill the girl. House hypothesizes that the biological parents attempted to kill their infant by pushing needles into her brain. The needles were disturbed by a powerful magnet contained within the Buddha statue, affecting her brain functions and causing her first collapse. Kutner, who has formed an emotional attachment with the patient, explains to her adoptive parents that her alcoholism was caused by a needle which had embedded itself in the portion of her brain that controls addictive behavior. As the day ends, Wilson tells House that he is returning to Princeton- Plainsboro, and House tells Wilson that the DNA test has proved his theory that John was not his biological father. Wilson says that no one gets to choose their parents, and admits that the trip was the most fun he has had since Amber died. ===== Danny "The Mean Machine" Meehan (Vinnie Jones) is a retired footballer and former captain of England, who was banned from football for life for fixing an unspecified match they played against Germany. In the present day, after a long drinking session, he drives recklessly to a local bar, where he is chased by police. Inside the bar, when asked to take a breathalyser test, he assaults two police officers and is arrested; he is later convicted and sentenced to three years in Longmarsh prison. Once inside, his status as a celebrity immediately runs him foul of the guards, and he is unfairly beaten by the prison guards soon after arrival for "misbehaving". After being shown around the prison, Meehan is told to visit the prison governor's office, who tells Danny that he pulled strings to make sure he served his sentence in Longmarsh, wanting him to work as the head coach of the prison wardens' football team. Not wanting to make enemies with the other inmates, Meehan declines, and instead suggests the guards allow him to train a team made up of other convicts, who will take on the wardens in a practice match to gear them up for the new season. Shortly after, Meehan is met with an unwelcome reception his cellmates, Raj, Jerome and Trojan, who immediately express their dislike for him. Outside, Danny meets and befriends an elderly convict, Doc, who teaches him prison lore. While cleaning the yards with Doc, Meehan is introduced to Sykes, a gangster and one of the most respected inmates in the prison. Sykes also shows resentment towards Meehan, revealing he lost a large amount of money betting on the England game he had fixed. Later in the prison cafeteria, Meehan makes another ally, meeting the prison's friendly contraband dealer "Massive". Massive tells a somewhat apprehensive Danny he could get him anything he wanted smuggled into the prison, and offers himself as his right hand man. The next day, Meehan is sent to solitary confinement after getting into a fight in the cafeteria. While Danny is locked in his cell, Massive, proving his skills as a contraband dealer, gifts him a packet of mints through his cell door. After his release back into general population, Danny and Massive begin the recruitment process for his team, but struggle, as many of the inmates are apprehensive to join due to both Sykes' influence over the prison and their disdain for Meehan as a cheat. As Danny tries and fails to form a team, Massive is playing football in a prison hallway, when a racist guard approaches him and attacks him as the other inmates watch in anger. Meehan charges at the guard and saves Massive from further beating, earning the respect of many of the other inmates for doing so. This leads to him being sent to solitary again. Massive, thankful for Danny's help, this time gifts him a tennis ball to pass the time with. When Danny is released from solitary again, he is greeted by Raj and Trojan who have recruited a team of players and is occupied with the task of training up his team of cons, including a dangerous maximum-security inmate named "The Monk". Meanwhile, the warden gets himself into trouble with "Barry the Bookie," an unlicensed bookmaker who was recommended to him by Sykes. After being threatened on the phone by Barry, the warden decides to try to make back the money he owes by betting on the prison guards' team. As Danny begins to earn the trust and respect of his fellow inmates and they continue to improve as a football team, a shifty inmate named Nitro accuses him of being a snitch, which leads to two other inmates and associates of Sykes attacking Danny in the showers. As they threaten to cut his eyes out, they are caught by the guards who ask what happened, but Meehan refuses to tell, which earns him the respect of both Sykes' men and Sykes himself. The next day, Sykes and his associates offer to help the team, under the condition that Danny beats one of them in a fight. The fight takes place later that night, and Danny wins by knocking out Sykes' henchman. Sykes and his associates join, and Sykes tells Danny all is forgiven if his team wins, which would allow Sykes to make back the money he lost on the England match. Frustrated that his plan to have Danny taken out didn't work, Nitro, a bomb expert, offers to take Meehan out in exchange for a transfer to a lower security prison which one of the guards, Mr. Ratchett agrees to. Nitro crafts a bomb in his cell and places it in Danny's locker while he's not around. With almost all of the inmates on board and the game approaching, Danny and the rest of the team are going over tactics in one of the cells, when he realises he has left a tape containing footage of the guards playing last year in his locker. Doc offers to go and get it, and as he leaves, Jerome asks Danny why he fixed the England match. Danny reveals he was heavily in debt at the time, and was blackmailed into fixing the game with the promise of enough money to pay off his debt if he threw the game, or the threat of being crippled for life if he didn't. As Danny is telling the other inmates, Doc arrives at the cell and is killed by the bomb. Nitro is subsequently sent to another facility, but not to the minimum-security prison he was promised – he is sent to a mental facility where Ratchett tells him he will be heavily sedated all the time. The match commences shortly after Doc's death. Before the game begins, Sykes gives the team one last gift from Doc - custom football kits with the name "Mean Machine" printed on all of them. At half time, the inmates' team is winning 1–0, and things are going well until the governor, fearing what will happen if he loses a second bet, attempts to blackmail Meehan, accusing him of accessory to Doc's murder and threatening to sentence him to 20 years unless he throws the match. At first he puts his own interests before that of the team's, deliberately playing poorly and faking injury to be taken off the pitch. As the final moments of the game tick down, he redeems himself, bravely using a square-ball to fellow inmate 'Billy the Limpet' to win the game for the cons. Afterward, the Captain of the Guards, Mr. Burton, refuses to co-operate with the governor's attempts to get revenge on Danny, instead congratulating him on the win. The governor's vehicle explodes, and Sykes informs him that he, and Barry the Bookie, will retaliate if he tries anything. A victorious Danny and Massive walk triumphantly across the pitch. ===== This is the life story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 28-year campaign to win the right to end his own life with assisted suicide. The film explores Ramón's relationships with two women: Julia, a lawyer suffering from Cadasil syndrome who supports his cause, and Rosa, a local woman who wants to convince him that his life is worth living. Through the gift of his love, these two women are inspired to accomplish things they never previously thought possible. ===== Dino Corelli marries Muffin Brenner and attends the reception at the Corelli mansion. Bedridden matriarch Nettie Sloan, mother of Dino's mother Regina Sloan Corelli, is being tended by disreputable Dr. Jules Meecham. While speaking with wedding planner Rita Billingsley, Nettie suddenly dies. Meecham informs Dino's father, Luigi Corelli, but Luigi is unable to tell his wife Regina because she is mentally unstable. Nettie's corpse remains in bed throughout the reception, while various attendees visit her room without realizing she's dead. By the time bossy daughter Toni finds out and plans a dramatic announcement, other family members are mostly unsurprised or not even too upset. The Brenners are a nouveau riche family from Louisville, Kentucky, where Muffin's father, "Snooks", made millions in the trucking industry. The Corellis are an old money North Shore Chicago family. Due to rumors that Luigi has mob connections, virtually every invitee sent regrets. Only one guest (other than family members) attends. Nevertheless, Rita is determined to run the reception by the book, setting up a receiving line for the one guest and asking family members and staff to go down the line so it will not look empty. A series of disasters unfolds, including the display of an embarrassing nude portrait of the bride; caterer Ingrid Hellstrom becoming ill, then getting high and causing a disturbance after Meecham gives her a pill; and a tornado when the cake is to be cut, forcing everyone to find shelter in the cellar. Two guests arrive late: the groom and bride's disgruntled exes, Tracy Farrell and Wilson Briggs, who bond over their mutual anger. Unsavory family drama unfolds. Regina is a drug addict. Her marriage was arranged by Nettie after Luigi met Regina while working as a waiter in Italy. Luigi was forced to change his name and be estranged from his Italian family for 22 years. His Italian-speaking brother unexpectedly shows up, and when Meecham reminds Luigi that Nettie is dead and can no longer impose the marriage conditions, Luigi is thrilled to see his long-lost brother. Regina's sister Clarice has a romance with her African-American butler, Randolph; her other sister, Toni, is married to Mack Goddard, who falls in love at first sight with Tulip Brenner, mother of the bride, and tries to woo her. Snooks has a borderline incestuous attachment to his nearly mute daughter Buffy, the maid of honor, who speaks at the reception only once, to tell Dino she is pregnant and he is the father. Not wanting to be upstaged by the bride, Buffy disrobes in front of Muffin's nude portrait. Dino confides to Wilson about Buffy's pregnancy; Wilson tells Tracy, who vindictively spreads the news. Snooks confronts Dino, who admits to sleeping with Buffy but says she also slept with nearly every member of his military- school barracks. Snooks' sister Marge Spar from New Jersey starts romancing the Corellis' gardener, while bridesmaid Rosie Bean is unaware her shy friend Shelby Munker is having an affair with Rosie's husband Russell. Muffin and Dino prepare to leave for their honeymoon in a new car, the Corellis' wedding gift. Muffin is rattled when Rita makes an unexpected pass at her. She then finds Dino in the shower with his groomsman, Reedley Roots, seemingly engaged in a gay sexual encounter. The newlyweds' car is seen driving away and the families assume Dino and Muffin left without saying goodbye. Snooks drives his family back to their hotel. They see Dino's car wrecked and in flames, and rush back to the mansion to share the awful news. The families are grieving when Muffin and Dino appear from upstairs, having never left because of Dino's passing out drunk; Tracy and Wilson, out for revenge, swiped the car and died in the crash. Tulip declares the incident was God punishing her for sinful thoughts of having an affair with Mack. Luigi pays his respects to Nettie. He tells her corpse he kept his bargain for 22 years, and no one there knows who he really is. Now he will take his leave. He finds his brother in the bushes, making love with Buffy. Luigi and his brother happily drive away as a half- dressed Buffy waves goodbye. ===== In 1945, Grace Stewart occupies a remote country house in Jersey and awakens one day from a nightmare in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She lives with her two young children, Anne and Nicholas, who have a rare disease characterized by photosensitivity (possibly xeroderma pigmentosum). Grace hires three new servants--the aging Mrs. Bertha Mills, elderly gardener Edmund Tuttle, and a mute girl named Lydia. Mrs. Mills explains to Grace that she worked in the same house many years before. When odd events occur at the house, Grace begins to fear there are unknown "others" present. Anne claims to have seen a group of people in the house several times: a man, a woman, an old woman and a child called Victor, who claimed that "the house is theirs". After Grace hears footsteps and unknown voices, she orders the house to be searched. She then finds a 19th-century Book of the Dead, a photo album of mourning portrait photographs. When Grace asks Mrs. Mills about her previous experience in the house, Mrs. Mills recounts that many left due to an outbreak of tuberculosis. At night, Grace witnesses a piano playing itself and becomes convinced that the house is haunted. She runs outside in search of the local priest to bless the house. Before leaving, Grace instructs Tuttle to check a small nearby cemetery to see if there was a family buried there who had a little boy named Victor. Tuttle finds the cemetery but, per Mrs. Mills's orders, covers the gravestones with leaves. Mrs. Mills assures Tuttle that Grace will learn in due time the reasons behind the unexplained events. Outside, Grace runs into her husband Charles, whom she thought had been killed in the war. Charles greets his children after a long absence, but is distant during his short stay at the house. Later, Grace comes across an old woman in one of the rooms and attacks her. The old woman is only a vision and Grace has in fact attacked her own daughter, Anne. Later, Anne tells her brother that their mother went mad in the same way "that day" but he does not remember. Charles says he must leave for the front, even though Grace claims that the war is over. The two embrace and lie motionless together in bed. The next morning, Charles has left and the children are screaming that the curtains are gone, letting in sunlight. Grace accuses the servants of removing the curtains and banishes them from the house. That night, the children sneak outside and discover that the headstones in the cemetery belong to the servants. The children retreat in fear when they see the servants approach. Meanwhile, Grace finds a photograph that has fallen out of the Book of the Dead onto the floor under some furniture. It is a photograph of the corpses of the three servants. The children run upstairs and hide in the bedroom where they are discovered by the elderly woman. Mrs. Mills returns to the house and tells Grace to go upstairs and talk to the intruders. Grace discovers that the old woman is in fact a medium in a séance with Victor's parents, who has found out via automatic writing that Grace smothered the children to death with a pillow in a fit of despair before committing suicide. Grace realizes that "the others" are the family that has moved into the house, and that she, her young children and the three servants are all dead (the servants since 1891 and Grace and the children some time in the very recent past, her fit of despair presumably due to finding out her husband had died fighting in WWII). Following this display of supernatural and spiritual activity, Victor and his family vacate the house and leave it in the occupancy of the spirits of its predecessors. However, due to the fact that they are dead, Anne and Nicholas' spirits are finally allowed to play in the sun. Mrs. Mills informs the Stewarts that others will come back to the house and they will have to learn to coexist together, but Grace ominously states that the house is theirs. As she says this, more "For Sale" signs are posted outside. ===== In 1920, Apu (Pinaki Sen Gupta) and his parents, who have left their home in rural Bengal, have settled into an apartment in Varanasi where his father Harihar (Kanu Banerjee) works as a priest. Harihar is making headway in his new pursuits: praying, singing, and officiating among the ghats on the sacred river Ganges. Harihar catches a fever and soon dies, however, and his wife Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee) is forced to begin work as a maid. With the assistance of a great-uncle, Apu and his mother return to Bengal and settle in the village Mansapota. There Apu apprentices as a priest, but pines to attend the local school which his mother is persuaded to allow. He excels at his studies, impressing a visiting dignitary, and the headmaster takes special interest in him. Within a few years, the teenaged Apu (now played by Smaran Ghosal) has done well enough to receive a scholarship to go to Kolkata for further studies. Sarbajaya feels abandoned and frightened by this, but gives in and lovingly packs his suitcase. Apu travels by train to the city and starts working at a printing press, after school hours, to subsist. He becomes more accustomed to the city life and feels out of place in the village. Sarbajaya expects visits from him, but he visits only a few times. Her loneliness and yearning for her son continue to grow. She becomes seriously ill, but does not disclose her illness to Apu, lest his studies get disturbed. When Apu finally comes to know about her poor health, he returns to the village to find that she has died. Bhabataran, Apu's great uncle, requests that he stay there and perform last rites of his mother. Apu replies that he will perform the last rites in Kolkata and starts his journey back to the city. ===== Mankind has achieved space flight capability and built "The Wheel" space station in orbit above Earth. It is commanded by its designer, Colonel Samuel T. Merritt. His son, Captain Barney Merritt, having been aboard for a year, wants to return to Earth. A giant spaceship has been built in a nearby orbit, and an Earth inspector arrives aboard the station with new orders: Merritt Sr. is being promoted to general and will command the new spaceship, now being sent to Mars instead of the Moon. As General Merritt considers his crew of three enlisted men and one officer, his close friend, Sgt. Mahoney volunteers. The general turns him down for being 20 years too old. Hearing that Mars is the new destination, Barney Merritt volunteers to be the second officer. Right after the crew watches a TV broadcast from their family and friends, the mission blasts off for the Red Planet. The general's undiagnosed and growing space fatigue is beginning to seriously affect his judgement: reading his Bible frequently, he has doubts about the righteousness of the mission. After launch, Sgt. Mahoney is discovered to be a stowaway, having hidden in a crew spacesuit. Their piloting radar antenna later fails, and two crewmen go outside to make repairs. They manage to get it working just as their monitors show a glowing planetoid, 20 times larger than their spaceship, coming at them from astern. The general fires the engines, barely managing to avoid a collision, but the planetoid's fast-orbiting debris punctures Sgt. Fodor's spacesuit, killing him instantly. After a religious service in space, Fodor's body is cast adrift into the void. Eight months later, the general is becoming increasingly mentally unbalanced, focusing on Sgt. Fodor's loss as "God's judgement". On the Mars landing approach, he attempts to crash their spaceship, now convinced the mission violates the laws of God. Barney wrests control away from his father, landing the large flying wing glider-rocket safely. Later, as the crew takes their first steps on the Red Planet, they look up and see water pouring down from the now vertical return rocket. Barney quickly discovers the leak is sabotage caused by his father, who threatens his son with a .45 automatic. The two struggle and the pistol discharges, killing the general. Sgt. Mahoney, who observed only the last stages of the struggle, wants Barney confined under arrest with the threat of court martial, but cooler heads prevail; Barney becomes the ranking officer. Mars proves to be inhospitable, and they struggle to survive with their decreased water supply. Earth's correct orbital position for a return trip is one year away. While glumly celebrating their first Christmas on Mars, a sudden snowstorm blows in, allowing them to replenish their water supply. As their launch window arrives, they hear low rumbling sounds, then see rocks falling, and feel the ground shake violently. The ground level shifts during this violent marsquake. Their spaceship is now leaning at a precarious angle and cannot make an emergency blast off. To right the spaceship, the crew uses the rocket engines' powerful thrust to shift the ground under the landing legs. The attempt works and they blast off, the spaceship rising just as the Martian surface completely collapses. Once in space, Barney and Mahoney reconcile. Impressed with Barney's heroism and leadership while on Mars, Mahoney concludes that pursuing Barney's court martial for his father's death would only impugn the general's reputation, tarnishing what previously had been a spotless military career. Better is the fiction that "the man who conquered space" died in the line of duty, sacrificing himself to save his crew. ===== George Khan is a Pakistani Muslim who has lived in Britain since 1937. He has a wife in Pakistan. He and his second wife Ella, a British Roman Catholic woman of Irish descent, have been married for twenty-five years and have seven children; Nazir, Abdul, Tariq, Maneer, Saleem, Meenah (the only daughter) and Sajid. George and Ella run a popular fish and chip shop. While George is obsessed with the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan and arranging marriages for his children, the children themselves, born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and reject Pakistani dress, food, religion and living. After George disowns Nazir for running out on his arranged marriage, he immediately begins making plans to have another of his children married to maintain his image. On a trip to Bradford, George is introduced to Mr Shah, a fellow Pakistani Muslim who wishes to marry off his two unattractive daughters. George arranges in secret for his second and third sons, Abdul and Tariq, to marry them, despite Ella's misgivings, a conversation that the youngest child, Sajid, overhears. During a quarrel, Sajid reveals the arranged marriages to his brothers; Tariq, the most rebellious son and in a relationship with a local girl, flies into a rage and defiles the wedding garments George had bought. The most obedient son, Maneer, is caught by George trying to tidy the mess up and beaten when he refuses to tell George who was responsible; Ella intervenes and is also beaten. Tariq travels to Eccles and tracks down Nazir, who is in a homosexual relationship and returns to confront George for his actions. However, upon seeing Ella's and Maneer's bruises, he becomes frightened his appearance will anger George further and make the situation worse for his siblings and his mother. Ella urges him to go, so he obeys her wish and flees before George catches sight of him. After a heated argument with his father, Tariq reluctantly agrees to go along with the marriage. Mr and Mrs Shah arrive with their daughters to meet George's family. Ella maintains her composure despite Mrs Shah's condescending and rude attitude, but things come to a head when a scuffle ensues over a sculpture of a vagina and Saleem accidentally drops it on Mrs Shah's lap. Angered, Mrs Shah insults George's entire family and is ejected from the house by Ella along with her husband and daughters. Enraged, George attacks Ella but is stopped by Abdul and the other children long enough for him to see how his actions have turned his entire family against him, and leaves the household in shame to seek solace in his shop. In the aftermath, George and Ella make amends over tea while the kids play in the street. ===== Xavier (Romain Duris), a 24-year-old student from France, attends the Erasmus programme in Barcelona to further his career, against the wishes of his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou). On the flight, Xavier meets a married couple from France, a doctor and his wife. They invite him to stay in their home while he looks for somewhere to live. Xavier finds a flatshare with students from England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Denmark. The roommates develop a companionship as they struggle with their different languages and cultures. Martine visits Xavier and returns disappointed when she realizes things are not the same. Xavier begins an affair with the French doctor's wife, using seduction tips learned from Isabelle (Cécile de France), his lesbian roommate from Belgium. William arrives from England to visit his sister Wendy and creates tension with his abrasive manner and culturally insensitive comments. Xavier gets depressed and hallucinates after Martine breaks up with him. He seeks the doctor's advice, but the doctor tells Xavier that his wife has confessed everything, and tells him to stop seeing her. Discord divides the roommates, but they come together to aid Wendy, who was nearly caught by her boyfriend in a romantic encounter with an American. After saying goodbye to his new close friends, Xavier returns to Paris and gets his desired job at the ministry, but realizes that his experiences in Spain have changed him. He subsequently runs away on his first day on the job and pursues his dream to become a writer, recounting the story of his experiences in the Auberge Espagnole. Towards the end Xavier can be seen getting together with his now ex-girlfriend Martine as well. =====