From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Donald Duck and his nephews have rented a boat in order to collect seaweed in the West Indies for money. When they get back on land in order to wait out the low tide so they can collect seaweed inside a grotto, the four hear that "tonight is the night". It turns out that the night is the night the ghost of the grotto kidnaps a little boy. With the ducks luck, Dewey is the one to be kidnapped. Now the ducks are faced with the task of saving Dewey and not only have to face the kidnapper, but an octopus guarding a giant ship. The ducks manage to get rid of the octopus by using a ton of pepper, while collecting a ton of seaweed in the process. Later, Donald uses a mouse named Montmorency to disarm the kidnapper. He is revealed to be the latest guardian of the treasure of Sir Francis Drake while Dewey was expected to succeed him. The story ends with the guardian being allowed to keep the treasure and spend it as he sees fit, which to him, is on fancy clothing and hamburgers. ===== Worried about earthquakes damaging his money bin, Scrooge McDuck is determined to find out what causes them. Upon a suggestion by Donald, Scrooge has a shaft dug beneath his money bin to search for faults which might get cracked open by a tremor, but the miners are suddenly frightened away by voices coming from a gigantic cave. The next day, Scrooge, Donald, and his three grandnephews find strangely round, colorful rocks scattered around the mineshaft. They prepare to descend, but all of a sudden their minecarts are sabotaged, stranding them deep beneath the ground. In the caverns below Duckburg, Scrooge and his nephews soon discover that the smooth "rocks" are really subterranean beings calling themselves Terries and Fermies who look like bowling balls with arms and a head, but no legs, and move around by rolling on the ground. The Terries and Fermies can hear radio broadcasts through certain magnetic rocks, which allowed them to learn English - with a southern accent - from listening to country music radio stations. Terries cause earthquakes by rolling in massive groups of thousands against the giant pillars that support the land on the surface of the Earth, while Fermies cause earthquakes by gathering together in massive numbers and lifting up pieces of the Earth's crust. They treat this as a sports competition: Whichever group causes the biggest earthquake (as revealed by intercepted radio transmissions) wins the contest and gets the prize, a piece of Ancient Greek pottery that fell down a crevice in Ancient Roman times in the year zero (i.e., the year 1 BCE translated into astronomical year numbering, which includes a year zero). However, now the Terries and Fermies have assembled for a large-scale bout which would result in Duckburg getting destroyed. In an attempt to stop the earthquakes, Scrooge steals the trophy, but is forced to discard his top hat during the subsequent escape. The Terries and Fermies pursue in an attempt to stop them, before they can tell the upper world of their existence and thus stall their competition. When that fails, they trigger a series of powerful tremors in order to shake the Ducks back down the shaft. This accidentally causes Scrooge's money bin to dislodge, slide across the shaft, and crack open, spilling all his money into the underground. However, since they think of money as worthless garbage ("We all know what the above-grounders think of money--they try to give it away on their radio quiz shows!"), the Terries and Fermies unite for a massive clean- up. Proclaiming Scrooge's hat as their new trophy, they push the money back into the money bin and then seal the shaft to prevent more money from getting dumped on them. The story ends with a professor visiting Scrooge to assure him that there will be no more quakes. But when Scrooge asks him what triggered the tremors, and the professor answers that it was "gas that builds up in fissures as the Earth shrinks", Scrooge slyly winks at his nephews with the words (in Southern accent) "He shore ain't been around, has he, podners?" ===== Carrie Wink (Anna Nicole Smith) is a beautiful and voluptuous helicopter pilot employed by Heliscort, a company that offers heli-taxi transport to high level clients. She is married to Gordon Wink (Richard Steinmetz), a detective with the LAPD, with whom we see some flashbacks of their relationship. Fairfax (Charles M. Huber), a ruthless South African criminal mastermind prone to quoting Shakespeare, is intent on collecting a series of four interlocking electronic devices or circuits that can somehow "shift the balance of power in the world." Through deception and violence he has managed to acquire three of the devices. Carrie, unbeknownst to her, has shuttled two of Fairfax’s goons to the site of one of their exchanges. The location of the fourth device, tucked away in the Zitex building, an 86-floor skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, is the scene where most of the drama unfolds as Fairfax sets his sights on securing the last device. Carrie is again called to pick up a pair of VIPs, who this time turn out to be Fairfax himself and his French assistant Jacques (Jonathan Fuller). She takes them to the Zitex building, where Fairfax has his band of terrorists take over the entire security system and liquidate the security guards as well appropriate an entire floor. Somehow there seems to be very few people in the 86-floor building. He meets up with Cranston (Eugene Robert Glazer), the possessor of the fourth device. As with the previous three deliverers of the devices, Fairfax plans on killing him. Cranston is mortally wounded in a shootout. Before entering the building, Cranston had suspected trouble, so his companion went in unseen. Before he dies, Cranston escapes with the suitcase holding the device and meets up with Carrie, who helps him up to the roof. He gives her the suitcase and admonishes her to keep it away from Fairfax at all costs. Carrie is hotly pursued over the roof by a muscular goon. With no way out but over the top, she jumps into a window washer's rig. She attaches herself to a steel winch cable and drops many floors down the side of the building at the speed of gravity until she is brought to a halt by the end of the cable. Now, suspended and dangerously vulnerable to the gunman on the roof, who is shooting repetitively at her, she avoids being shot by constantly swinging around. Carrie finally crashes through a window just as the gunman destroys the winch with machine-gun fire, causing the cable to break free. Carrie hides the suitcase in a trash trolley. She finds a young boy playing on his toy bike and protects him (the boy's mother has been shot previously; she was blonde and was mistaken for Carrie earlier). Carrie meets up with a small but comically gung-ho security guard and asks for his gun. Now armed, she proceeds back to the floor where she knows that hostages have been taken. Carrie helps confuse the terrorist operating the surveillance cameras by lighting fires in the waste paper bins, causing the fire system to alert the LA fire brigade as well as disabling some monitors. Fairfax and his gunmen capture her and offer the freedom of the hostages for the location of the suitcase. Carrie witnesses a male hostage killed in cold blood by the female terrorist, after he attempts to exchange his own freedom for the $100,000 he has stolen from the building's computer accounts. Carrie reveals the location of the suitcase and is taken into a room by a guard with an obvious sexual intent. Carrie's LAPD officer husband, Gordon (Richard Steinmetz), has been investigating the strange goings-on around town. He heads for Zitex (not knowing his wife is also there) and coincidentally stumbles upon his wife's mobile phone. Fearing for his wife’s safety, Gordon leads Fairfax’s men on a chase around the building. The Guard strips Carrie and tilts her on the table and almost raped her, before stabbing him in the leg with a letter opener and shooting him dead. Now she comes up behind Natasha the terrorist (Deirdre Imershein) and ruthlessly shoots her in the back, freeing the hostages. A previous flashback of Carrie shooting a handgun with her husband shows her to be an expert shot. This flashback also takes the liberty of showing her second sex scene; the first shows her naked in the shower and then in bed with her husband. Her other physical skills—in combat—are still to be revealed. Gordon is being physically beaten up by a terrorist who is expert in hand-to-hand combat but is rescued by his wife. Fairfax finally finds the device, kills his right-hand man Jacques and heads for the roof, hoping to coerce Carrie at gunpoint into flying him out. He has not bargained on Gordon also being there (Gordon also has the young boy in tow). Gordon is shot in the shoulder. Carrie knocks the gun from his hand and engages Fairfax with swift kicks and punches which sends Fairfax falling to his death from the 86-story skyscraper to the street down below. The young boy is reunited with his blonde mother, who has not been killed after all, as an injured Carrie and her husband enter an ambulance. ===== Two bicyclists cycling on a canyon are followed by a mysterious matte black car down the road. At a bridge, the car proceeds to crush one cyclist against the wall and ram the other from behind, catapulting him off the bridge. A hitchhiker, hoping to get a ride, encounters the car and insults it after it purposely tries to run him down. In response, the car runs over him several times and leaves. The local sheriff's office, called to the first of a series of hit and run deaths, gets a lead on the car that appears heavily customized and has no license plate, as pointed out by Amos Clemens (R. G. Armstrong) after he sees it run over the hitchhiker. That night, in an apparent bid to kill Amos, the car instead runs over Sheriff Everett Peck (John Marley), leaving Chief Deputy Wade Parent (James Brolin) in charge. During the resulting investigation, an eyewitness to the accident states that there was no driver inside the car, furthering Wade's confusion. Wade asks his girlfriend, Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), who is a teacher at the local school, to cancel the upcoming marching band rehearsals for their safety. Lauren and her friend, who is Wade's deputy Luke Johnson's (Ronny Cox) wife, ask him to let them rehearse, to which Luke unwittingly agrees. The car enters the town and attacks the school marching band as it rehearses at the local show ground. It chases the group of teachers and students into a cemetery. Curiously enough, the vehicle will not enter onto the consecrated ground as Lauren taunts the purported driver that any of the townsfolk have yet to see. Seemingly in anger, the car destroys a brick gate post and leaves. The police chase the automobile along highways throughout the desert before it turns on them, destroying several squad cars and killing five of Wade's deputies in the process. Wade confronts the vehicle and is surprised to see that none of his bullets put a dent on the car's windshield or tires. After trying to open the door (when it is revealed that the car has no door handles), Wade is knocked out by the car door when it opens by itself, and the car escapes. After that, Wade decided to get her some spare clean clothes. That evening, Lauren, on her way home to pick up her things, is killed when the car jumps driving straight through her house and rams her, right when she is speaking to Wade over the phone. Luke puts forward to a grief-stricken and maddened Wade the theory that it acted in revenge for the insults hurled on it by Lauren and notes that it apparently did not enter the cemetery because "the ground is hallowed," a biblical reference. Wade concocts a plan to stop the car by burying it beneath a controlled explosion in the canyons that lie outside of town. After discovering it waiting for them in his own garage, they are forced to carry out his plans post haste. He is pursued by the car into a mountainous canyon area where his remaining deputies have set a trap for the machine. In a final confrontation, Wade and Luke at the edge of a cliff bait the car into running straight at them, then jump aside as it goes over the cliff. With the dynamite detonated and the rubble falling on it, a monstrous, demonic visage appears in the smoke and fire of the explosion, shocking the deputies. The final scenes show Wade refusing to believe what the group saw in the flames, despite Luke's insistence about what he saw. The film concludes, with the car prowling the streets of downtown Los Angeles, clearly having survived. ===== With archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. It features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, director Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary, and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis. The music of Blaxploitation films is discussed, focusing on Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly and Isaac Hayes' Shaft. Interviews with writer/director Larry Cohen and film historian Armond White are also featured. BaadAsssss Cinema was originally shown on the Independent Film Channel in August 2002 as part of a week-long Blaxploitation film festival. ===== Kiichi Nakajima (Toshiro Mifune), an elderly foundry owner convinced that Japan will be affected by an imminent nuclear war, resolves to move his family to safety in Brazil. Nakajima's fervent wish is for his family to join him in escaping from Japan to the relative safety of South America. His family decides to have him ruled incompetent, and he is brought before a three-man tribunal, including Dr. Harada (Takashi Shimura), a Domestic Court counselor, for arbitration. Harada, a civil volunteer in the case, sympathizes with Nakajima's conviction. He points out that the fear of atomic and nuclear weapons is present in every citizen of Japan, and wonders aloud whether it is wrong to rule someone incompetent simply for being more worried than the average citizen. Eventually, the old man's irrational behavior prevents the court from taking his fears seriously, and he is found incompetent. Nakajima grows more and more obsessed with the idea of escaping Japan, eventually resulting in a tragic decision, once he is convinced it is the only way to save his loved ones. The film ends with the doctor pondering whether it may be more insane to ignore the nuclear threat than to take it too seriously. ===== The Earth is being swept by a toad plague. Enter, the lone Samurai, Max Hell, the Earth's last hope to save the planet from the mad clutches of Mickey O'Malley. "Shaw stars as Max Hell in this no-budget mess that doesn’t really have much to do with earlier Frogtown movies. He uses a samurai sword and seems irresistible to women. The plot involves some renegade scientist about to detonate a bomb that’ll turn everyone into toads." Spinegrinder: The Movies Most Critics Won't Write About, Clives Davies Page 975 "Jackson and Shaw codirected 1996's Toad Warrior, which taps one of their other obsessions: amphibian ninjas. We're in an alternate universe set during the Third Toad Resistance, in which Joe Estevez is the president, who lives in a tent with dirt-covered babes. Shaw fights ninjas in a car park. Old Ed Wood player Conrad Brooks wears a beekeeper's getup and sleeps while a purple alligator talks to him." Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies: A Film Critic's Year-Long Quest to Find the Worst Movie Ever Made, Michael Adams Pages 301-302 This film follows the lead character, Max Hell, played by Scott Shaw, who goes on a mission to rescue Dr. Trixi T from the clutches of the evil Mickey O'Malley, played by Joe Estevez. According to Donald G. Jackson, Max Hell Frog Warrior is not so much a sequel as it is a standalone film inspired by the original concept for Hell Comes to Frogtown. ===== The story describes Augie March's growth from childhood to a fairly stable maturity. Augie, with his brother Simon and the mentally abnormal George have no father and are brought up by their mother who is losing her eyesight, and a tyrannical grandmother- like boarder in very humble circumstances in the rough parts of Chicago. Augie drifts from one situation to another in a free-wheeling manner—jobs, women, homes, education and lifestyle. Augie March's path seems to be partly self- made and partly comes around through chance. In lifestyle he ranges from near adoption by a wealthy couple who spoil him, to a struggle for existence stealing books and helping out friends in desperate straits. His most unusual adventure is his flight to Mexico with the wild and irrepressible Thea who tries to catch lizards with an eagle. Thea attempts to convince Augie to join her in this seemingly impossible task. His jobs include general assistance to the slightly corrupt Einhorn, helping in a dog training parlor, working for his brother at a coal-tip, and working for the Congress of Industrial Organizations until finally he joins the merchant navy in the war. Augie attracts and gets involved with a string of different women. Firstly a casual acquaintance as a youth, he gets engaged to a wealthy cousin of his brother's wife. However, through a scandal not of his fault, he is discarded. After a casual affair with Sophie, a Greek hotel maid, he is swept off by Thea, whom he had met when living with the rich Renlings and who forecast their relationship even though he loved her sister. After the fiasco in Mexico, where he suffered a terrible accident on a horse, he and Thea began drifting apart; he spending his time playing cards and she hunting for snakes and lizards in the mountains. Their inevitable split came the night he agreed to drive another woman, Stella, to another town to escape her troubled boyfriend. After the break-up, Augie returned to Chicago and picked back up with Sophie until joining the merchant navy and heading to New York. There he met up with Stella again and married her. All through the book, Augie is encouraged into education, but never quite seems to make it; he reads a great deal for himself and develops a philosophy of life. Something or somebody always tends to crop up, turning his path before Augie seriously considers returning to education. During the war, his ship is sunk and he suffers a difficult episode in a lifeboat with a man who turns out to be a lunatic. After rescue, he returns to Stella and the book ends with them living a slightly dubious existence in France, he involved in some fairly shady business deals and she attempting to pursue a career in acting. ===== This exploitation film belongs to the social guidance genre of quasi-documentary narratives, which exhort young adults to follow particular moral and social prescriptions related to sexuality and drug use. The film centers on Paul Lorenz, a "concerned citizen" alarmed at the spread of venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. However, at a New York City burlesque show, several protagonists are more intent on engagement in sexual pleasure, regardless of the subsequent costs. They include Paul's own son Tom, burlesque dancer Sheila Wayne (who has syphilis), and two secretaries, lesbian Peggy and Betty, whom she is trying to seduce. However, one figure is not amongst them—Millicent Hamilton, a reformed former burlesque dancer. Millicent won a beauty contest in her hometown, which led her to New York, but a "casting couch" sexual encounter led her to contract syphilis. Millicent is told by her physician, Dr. Hamilton, that her condition can be cured, but only after slow, and painstaking treatment, and she should reject quack pseudo-cures. Millicent consents to this, eager to return to her home town and marry her boyfriend Wendell, but will she heed the doctor's warnings? And what will the consequences be if she does not? Wild parties, lesbianism, and premarital sex are portrayed or heavily implied in various scenes. The promotion of the film for "educational" purposes allowed it to portray taboo subjects that were otherwise forbidden by the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, especially after those restrictions were strictly imposed on Hollywood productions after July 1934. ===== In the seventeenth century, pirate captain Ras Mohammed (Peter Boyle), accompanied by his incompetent Irish cook Dick Scratcher (Peter Sellers) and three crewmen, buries three chests of treasure on an unnamed island. Scratcher then kills the captain and three crewmen. He returns to the pirate ship and proclaims himself the new captain as only he knows the location of the treasure. He soon discovers his predecessor's treasure map was drawn in disappearing ink. Fourteen years later, the pirate ship reaches Ireland, although Scratcher believes they are on a Greek island. The crew behaves gluttonously, with the exception of the debonair and cerebral Pierre Rodriquez (Anthony Franciosa). They abduct an Irish boy, Jeremiah (Richard Willis), whom Scratcher believes can see ghosts and will therefore be able to contact Ras Mohammed's ghost for directions to the treasure. After seeing off the British Navy by posing as Portuguese fishermen suffering the "red plague", the pirates sail to Algiers, where Jeremiah is taken prisoner. The pirates encounter Scratcher's old friend Billy Bombay (Spike Milligan) and later release Jeremiah. After threats of mutiny by a pirate named Abdullah (Thomas Baptiste), the pirates end up back at the island of buried treasure. They dig up Billy Bombay's treasure chest of silver cannonballs and fire them at Billy Bombay and his six brothers, leaving only Billy alive. Separately, Pierre, Jeremiah and Abdullah discover Ras Mohammed's treasure. The film ends with Scratcher buried up to his neck in sand, while Billy Bombay is tied to a tree, and the two shout insults at each other. ===== Mr. Topaze (Peter Sellers) is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy Baroness (Martita Hunt). Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, Suzy (Nadia Gray), a musical comedy actress, to hire Mr. Topaze as the front man for his business. Gradually, Topaze becomes a rapacious financier who sacrifices his honesty for success and, in a final stroke of business bravado, fires Benac and acquires Suzy in the deal. An old friend and colleague, Tamise (Michael Gough) questions him and tells Topaze that what he now says and practices indicates there are no more honest men. ===== Robert Danvers is a vain, womanizing and wealthy host of a high- profile television cooking show. He meets Marion, a no-nonsense 19-year-old American hippie who has just broken up with her British rock musician boyfriend Jimmy. After a halting start, they begin an affair, and she accompanies him on a trip to a wine-tasting festival in France, where she embarrasses him by getting extremely drunk, but they enjoy their time together on the coast in the South of France. However, when they return to London, Marion makes up with Jimmy and turns down a desperate proposal of marriage from Danvers. Throughout the film, Danvers' favourite line with women is: "My God, but you're lovely"—which, in the final scene after Marion has gone back to Jimmy and Danvers has made a date with another woman, he says to his own reflection. ===== Telling her fiancé Tom she has to spend a week with her sick grandmother, Janet instead goes to the flat of Hoffman, a recently divorced executive in the firm where she works whom she hardly knows. Her visit is not voluntary, since Hoffman claims to have evidence that could send Tom to jail and has blackmailed her into spending the week with him. While full of desire for the young woman, he is also still bitter about women and, without pressuring her physically, bullies her psychologically. Young and inexperienced, she eventually begins to fight back and even starts some sexual provocation and then insults Hoffman when he does not respond. They are then interrupted when Tom comes looking for his missing fiancée, having been prompted by an 'anonymous' phone call actually made by Hoffman, and Janet leaves with Tom. Discussing the situation, Tom and his mother ask Janet to go back to Hoffman and continue being nice to him in order to keep Tom out of jail. Dismayed that both of them are more concerned for themselves than for her, she goes back to Hoffman and negotiates the terms to agree to his invitation to be his permanent companion. ===== Mega Man Soccer is set after Mega Man 4. A televised soccer game is interrupted when an explosion occurs on the field. As the smoke clears, all the players are suddenly replaced with several of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters. Having seen the events occur onscreen, the inventor Dr. Light sends his greatest creation, the hero Mega Man, along with some of his own Robot Masters to stop them. The game has no ending. ===== Flesh (Vince Murdocco) is kidnapped by cheerleaders from a world known only as the Strange Planet, after the men on their planet are rendered impotent thanks to the villain known only as the Evil Presence (William Dennis Hunt). The Evil Presence, who is in an unhappy relationship with Queen Frigid (Maureen Webb), soon learns of Flesh's arrival on the planet, and wishes to transfer Flesh's penis to himself, in order to make up for his own poor endowment. ===== Long ago, a young Plains warrior is tested for initiation by being the target of three different weapons. Centuries later, Ernest P. Worrell works as a maintenance man at Kamp Kikakee but hopes to become a counselor. He quickly becomes a valuable addition to the staff, skilled at Plains Indian Sign Language, used by Kikakee's owner, Chief St. Cloud. A small group of juvenile delinquents, the Second Chancers, come to Kikakee. Head Counselor Tipton assigns Kikakee's most experienced counselor, Ross Stennis, to be the boys' counselor. Stennis is unhappy with this assignment, and he treats the boys harshly. He ultimately goes too far by intentionally causing "Moose" Jones, the smallest boy in the group, to nearly drown in the lake while swimming. After Moose is rescued by Ernest, the boys retaliate against Stennis's cruelty by toppling his lifeguard perch into the lake, breaking Stennis' leg in the process. Since Stennis is no longer able to perform his duties as a counselor, and because Kikakee is already shorthanded, Tipton offers Stennis' position to Ernest. The Second Chancers initially give Ernest trouble, but they start to show some respect during a campfire session when Nurse St. Cloud, the Chief's granddaughter, translates her grandfather's description of the warrior initiation ritual for his tribe. The initiate must hold still while a knife, a stone hatchet, and an arrow are thrown or shot at him. The courage of the young warrior apparently alters the course of each weapon to prevent it from striking him. The Second Chancers later build a tepee only to see it get burned. They fight Pennington and his friends, because they were responsible for the fire. Tipton is poised to expel the Second Chancers, but Ernest convinces him otherwise. Meanwhile, a mining corporation run by Sherman Krader wants to mine the petrocite at Kikakee, but Chief St. Cloud refuses to sell. Upon realizing that the Chief does not even understand English, Krader manipulates Ernest into obtaining the Chief's signature under false pretenses. Ernest, thinking that he is helping the Chief sign an anti-pollution petition, instead unknowingly convinces the Chief to sign the land away. Tipton sadly announces that the camp must close. Nurse St. Cloud confronts Ernest, who stammers that he will fix the situation. Ernest and the Second Chancers storm onto the construction site and demand to see the boss. Krader is not present, but the foreman, Bronk is. Ernest tries to fight him, but Bronk brutally beats him up. The Second Chancers give up on Ernest and storm away. Later, Nurse St. Cloud overhears the kids demeaning Ernest's effort, so she reveals to them that Ernest is the only person who has defended them. They resolve to find him and apologize. They then form a plan to stop Krader and his construction crew. Krader is prepared to demolish Kikakee, and while the regular staff and campers are sent home, Ernest and the Second Chancers openly attack the construction site to stall for time. They are joined by Chief St. Cloud, chefs Jake and Eddie, and former camper rivals, Pennington and Brooks. The group improvises some non-lethal weapons. Chief St. Cloud arrives to bless the fighters, although Nurse St. Cloud begs them not to go through with it. The assault quickly cripples the construction site's equipment. However, Bronk escapes in a bulldozer and destroys several camp buildings. The group stops him with Ernest's motorized maintenance cart filled with explosives, Ernest then knocks out Bronk. Krader arrives on the scene with his lawyer, and then targets Ernest with his hunting rifle. Echoing Kikakee's ancient testimonial pow wow, Ernest faces down Krader and apparently passes the test as Krader takes three shots at him, missing every time. Ernest then plugs Krader's rifle with his finger and laughs in his face, signaling Krader's defeat. As Krader retreats, Nurse St. Cloud returns with a restraining order against the demolition. Kamp Kikakee is once again operational, with all the campers and a full staff on site. Nurse St. Cloud thanks Ernest for all he has done and reveals that Krader was ultimately arrested for fraud. Ernest is a full-fledged counselor, and the last chance kids get to stay at camp. When trying to rebuild the Kamp Kikakee sign, Ernest falls; and the sign falls on him. ===== Hussain bin Mansoor [sic] Al-Hallaj was condemned to hang by the neck for shouting in ecstasy Anā al-Ḥaqq, Anā al-Ḥaqq (I am the Truth, I am the Truth). The orthodox understood this to mean that he was claiming to be God himself, whereas he had proclaimed in his sublime spiritual ecstasy, simply a total annihilation of himself. Mansoor Al-Hallaj climbed the gallows with his head held high, not the least daunted by his imminent death. Nor could his shouts be drowned in the tumult of abuses which were hurled at him; they rose loud and clear and high Anā al-Ḥaqq, Anā al-Ḥaqq until his soul departed to the fountainhead of his life on high. ===== The only story arc of the series is called “Phoenix Agenda” and is set in 2060. The 20th century backstory is interwoven throughout the four books out of sequence via flashbacks. In December 1959, the Carson family meets with famous explorer Mike Worley in South America to investigate an ancient, giant spaceship that had crashed in the Amazon jungle in the distant past. The ship's systems trap the four and expose them a mutagenic substance intended to give the ship's crew powers as warriors on whatever planet they visit. The substance would later be nicknamed, "Gunk." They escape after brief exposure to the Gunk, but it gives each of them superpowers which they use to fight for good as the original Danger Unlimited. The members include Miss Mirage (Connie Carson), who can project illusions. Her brother Thermal (Calvin Carson) can fly and project heat and cold. Their father, Doc Danger (Dr. Robert Carson), is a brilliant scientist who had his intellect augmented even more, continuing his mutation over the years with an increasingly enlarged cranium and atrophied limbs until he became nothing more than an enormous head by 1985, supported by a flying platform with robotic manipulator arms. And Hunk (Worley), who gains rough, stone-like, superhard skin and superstrength. Connie was immediately attracted to Mike and they would eventually marry. In 1985, the team engages in a final battle with Umbra, their nemesis. During Umbra's attack on the team's headquarters, Thermal is seriously injured and Doc Danger places him into a biological stasis chamber before turning to battle Umbra alone. Nobody knows what happened after that, but Doc Danger shuts down all systems and seals the headquarters in a force field with a time lock set to disengage in 75 years. The team was missing and presumed dead. In 2060, the time lock releases the force field and the new Earth government moved in to demolish the headquarters. A sudden energy signature inside draws a military team to investigate. When they try to cut into the containment pod, Calvin's latent powers allow him to absorb the energy and burst free from the containment pod, after which he loses consciousness. A sample of Gunk was also stored inside the pod and explodes over Corporal Teresa LaFayette, a fan of Danger Unlimited. Both Calvin and Teresa are comatose for the next two weeks, Teresa as a giant, spiky, rocky humanoid. When they awake, Calvin has amnesia and no longer seems to have his powers after that first and only outburst. Teresa has reverted to human form. Professor Davis Palmenter, who was studying what happened to Teresa, realizes it was Gunk at work again and smashes the sample vial of it with his hand. He is split into three identical but independent clones who think in unison. Captain Brewster, Teresa's commanding officer and also a freedom sympathizer, explains to Calvin that an alien race called the Xlerii invaded Earth in 2010. All superhumans mysteriously vanished in 2011 during the ensuing Alien War. The ship that the Carsons investigated in 1959 was a Xlerii advance scout. After defeating the bulk of Earth's military forces, the Xlerii offered Earth a deal for peace and prosperity but in reality are taking over, altering the global environment to fit their needs. The Earth is now perpetually dark and shrouded by clouds, with almost constant rain. Discussion of the superhumans and their disappearance is forbidden under Xlerii rule. Brewster gives Calvin a mnemonic stimulator to help him recall memories of his past life with Danger Unlimited. As Teresa is introduced to Calvin, a Xlerii enforcer in battle armor attacks them in his hospital room. Teresa transforms and defeats the enforcer. The Xlerii try to excuse the attack as an automated response to Calvin's reappearance. They claim to have no role in the disappearance of Earth's superhumans and thus had never seen the need to remove them from their database as enemy combatants. Brewster is suspicious and arranges a police vehicle for Teresa and Calvin to leave the hospital. They're discovered and pursued but manage to escape. Teresa and Calvin flee to her supercentenarian great-great-grandmother's house in Louisiana. The three Palmenter clones arrive, sent by Captain Brewster, and convinces them to become a new Danger Unlimited, with additional encouragement from Teresa's ancestor, who remembers the time before the Xlerii arrived and there was still sunlight in the sky. Teresa takes on the name "Belabet," based on her great-great-grandmother's Creole exclamation of "La belle et la bete" (Beauty and the Beast) upon seeing her transform. The Palmenters call themselves "Caucus." They plan to pursue two main missions: to drive the Xlerii from Earth and to find out what happened to all of the superheroes. Calvin would continue to try to regain his memories and discover the fate of his Danger Unlimited teammates. ===== In Cold War Vienna, Milena (Russell), a young American woman in her twenties, is rushed to the emergency room after apparently overdosing. With her is Alex Linden (Garfunkel), an American psychiatrist who lives in the city as a teacher. Through fragmented flashbacks, the narrative depicts the story of their romance, which ultimately amounts to an unhealthy obsession on the part of Alex. Through these developments, Milena is revealed to suffer from depression and is married to a much older man, Stefan (Elliott), whom she occasionally crosses the border to see during the course of her affair with Alex. Though Alex initially enjoys her free-spirited ways, he becomes embittered by her lifestyle, which includes impulsive promiscuity and heavy drinking. Through spying on Milena, Alex becomes emotionally strained, and eventually tries to control her – leading to horrifying results, due in large part to very bad timing. Throughout, at the hospital where doctors and nurses fight to save Milena's life, an investigator, Netusil (Keitel), comes to realise that there may be more to her case than a simple suicide attempt. When he discovers the truth, he tries to corner Alex into a confession. Finally the film reveals that Alex raped her when she was unconscious. Later, just before Alex can confess, Stefan arrives and reveals that Milena has survived and is out of danger. Alex returns to America, where, some time later, he sees Milena getting out of a taxi. He shouts to her but she ignores him. ===== ===== Around the turn of the century, American mining engineer Ben Harris is working on the Cornish coast in England when he finds a body washed up on the beach. Ben makes inquiries at the nearby hotel. While talking to the hotelier's daughter, fellow American Jill Tregellis, and an eccentric artist, Harold Tufnell-Jones, a mysterious intruder appears but disappears. Later that night Jill is kidnapped by gill men. Ben, Harold and Harold's chicken follow the trail through a secret door into the caves under the house where they are sucked into a pool. They emerge in a cavernous city on the ocean floor. The city was built by a race of ancients who survive only as a breed of gill men. The city is now inhabited by a group of smugglers led by the cruel and tyrannical Captain who hid down there in 1803 and due to the strange mixture of oxygen have not aged in over a century. However, the volcano that powers the city has become unstable. The Captain now imprisons them until Ben can come up with a means of maintaining it. Dan, one of the Captain's men who wishes to leave, offers to help the two escape, provided they use their influence to secure him a full pardon for his past crimes of smuggling. The Captain finds out and reveals that because of the gas they've breathed for so long, exposure to sunlight would cause them to age rapidly and die. Dan is then sent to the surface as a means of execution while Ben and Harold are granted an audience with Jill. Whereupon they meet Rev. Jonathan Ives, who had vanished several decades ago from the surface. The Captain is shown to be under the delusion that Jill is his deceased wife Beatrice, who he believes has returned to him. Realising that Ben and Harold are untrustworthy, the Captain decides to allow the Gill Men to sacrifice the two as a means to appease the volcano's wrath. While they await this, Jill and Ives free them and Ives instructs them all on how to escape the city. The three make it to the airlock and trek across the ocean floor to a cave, containing a tunnel that leads to the surface. The Captain and his men pursue them there, but frequent volcanic eruptions cause rockfalls that bury him and his men. Ben and his friends decide to return to the sea and attempt to reach shore on foot. The Captain meanwhile digs himself free and follows the tunnel to the surface, where the sunlight does indeed age him to death. Ben and the rest make it to shore and watch as the volcano erupts, finally destroying the city. ===== A wealthy classical pianist, Ellen, is accused of already being married when she attempts to take her wedding vows; the wedding guests are shocked. They temporarily call off the wedding and the couple tries to investigate why someone would accuse her of already being married. With the help of a lawyer and the district attorney, the couple tracks down and questions the justice of the peace that signed her wedding papers. Even he recognizes her as the woman he married. Frustrated, the couple next visits the man to whom Ellen is accused of being married. In a back room a gunshot fires and Ellen is accused of killing the man. She breaks down after a lengthy trial, is eventually found not guilty due to insanity, and is sent to a mental institution. Meanwhile, her fiance David, still believing her innocence, begins to find clues that may help free her. ===== The Pursuit Force has been organised to destroy the threat posed by gangs responsible for many vehicle-related crime sprees across Capital State and to eliminate their leaders: *Capelli Family: One of the two gangs that are initially available at the start of the game, the Capellis are Capital State's most powerful Mafia family headed up by Don Capelli, and are said to be 'the state's oldest gang'. The other significant member of the Capelli Family is their best sniper Stefano De Tomaso, also known as 'Deadeye'. *Warlords: The second of the two gangs available at the start of the game, the Warlords are a group of mercenaries and rogue soldiers who feel that they were betrayed by the military. They focus primarily on hijacking military hardware and are led by 'The General', with the other significant member of the gang being 'Lieutenant Davies'. *Convicts: The Convicts are a group of psychotic escapees who are out to cause as much chaos as they can and escape Capital State to cause havoc on a much larger scale. The Convicts are organised by an escapee known only as 'Hard Balls'; the other significant member of the Convicts being the Lieutenant 'Billy Wilde'. *Vixens: The Vixens are an all-female group of professional thieves with a high-tech arsenal whose crimes focus around high- profile heists, from priceless artifacts to luxury speed boats. The Vixens are organised by their leader known as 'Whiplash' and her second-in-command and lover 'The Fox'. *Killer 66: The Killer 66 are Capital State's Yakuza branch, and the most powerful of all five gangs in the game, focusing primary in vehicle smuggling and drug dealing. They are led by 'Monster Toshima', the other significant member of the gang being his second-in-command 'Sudeko Arakawa'. ===== St.Swithin's Day tells the story of an alienated British teenager in the 1980s and in particular, Margaret Thatcher's time as British Prime Minister. We first meet the lead character, a teenager (who is not given a name in the story) shoplifting a copy of Catcher in the Rye from a London bookshop. He says, "I hate the rain. Everything bad happens in the rain." His reason for stealing the book is not clear beyond him saying they can find it in his pocket "when this is all over". During the course of the story we find out that the teenager is from an unnamed northern British town or city, stealing his housemates' unemployment benefits to come to London to assassinate Margaret Thatcher while she makes a public appearance at a technical college. We see he has a gun to shoot her and she is due to appear on July 15, which is Saint Swithin's Day, hence the title of the comic. Much of the strip is made up of the teenager preparing himself to assassinate Thatcher and exploring his own teenage angst. The final chapter starts with the teenager waiting for Thatcher after writing "neurotic boy outsider" on his forehead. It is raining on the day and the teenager manages to get near to Thatcher and starts to pull out what the reader thinks is the previously seen gun. However we see it is actually his hand and as he points his hand at Thatcher he says "bang" shortly before her bodyguards leap upon him and begin beating him. While being beaten the teenager thinks, "it was worth it just to see her scared". The last scenes are of the teenager traveling on a train on a sunny day and his final lines are "I don't care if it rains. I really don't care at all." ===== Claire Cooper is a suburban housewife and mother in rural Massachusetts who illustrates children's stories. Her husband, Paul, is an airline pilot, and is frequently away from home due to work, leaving Claire to care for their daughter, Rebecca. Claire begins experiencing bizarre, vague dreams involving an underwater city and the murder of a young girl. Shortly after, Rebecca goes missing during an outdoor school play, and is later found dead at the bottom of a lake. Claire is devastated and takes a while to recover. Believing her dreams are premonitory, Claire attempts to involve herself in the police investigation, but is met with resistance. Her dreams and visions increase, and she believes she is witnessing the movements of her daughter's killer, a serial killer named Vivian Thompson. She uncovers that the underwater city she has experienced in her dreams is a former town, Northfield, that was flooded when a reservoir was formed. The visions drive Claire to the brink of insanity, and she seeks help from a psychologist, Dr. Silverman, who diagnoses her as psychotic. She is subsequently committed to a psychiatric institution after slitting her wrists, but remains plagued by visions, including one of Vivian murdering Paul. When she experiences another vision of Vivian kidnapping another girl, Claire manages to escape from the institution, hoping to stop him from claiming another victim. She steals the vehicle of a security guard, and tracks Vivian to an abandoned fruit factory situated along the lake. Upon arriving at the factory, she is met by Vivian and the young girl, Ruby. The childlike Vivian, who was severely abused as a boy by his mother, kidnaps little girls to be his "playmates"; when they resist, he becomes enraged and kills them. He is holding Claire hostage at the factory, and wants her and Ruby to stay with him as his "new family". Police manage to track Claire to the factory, where they have a face-off with Vivian, holding a gun to Claire's head. While a SWAT team attempts to snipe Vivian from a helicopter, he chases Claire along a bridge crossing a tributary waterfall, knocking both her and himself over the guardrail. Claire and Vivian plunge below the falls. In the water, Claire has a vision of being reunited with her daughter before drowning. Later, Vivian, who survived the fall, is committed to the same psychiatric institute where Claire had been incarcerated. While lying in his bed, he has horrific visions of Claire's spirit haunting him and the phrase "Sweet dreams, Vivian" being scrawled in blood on the ceiling. The phrase emerges across the walls of his cell, and he screams in horror. ===== The Named opens with a prologue in which two children, Sera and Ethan, are running to witness a rare flower bloom. Ethan, at age four, recognizes his older sister's love for all things strange and otherworldly, and loves being included in her wonder. The moment of wonder is ruined by the appearance of a monster, Marduke, who murders 10-year-old Sera. Ethan's scream marks the transition from the prologue to the first chapter, where 16-year-old Ethan laments the recurring nightmare he has about the death of his sister twelve years before. Ethan's life changed drastically after the death of his sister; his parents, Laura and Shaun, are mere shells of themselves. Laura suffers from severe depression while Shaun exists in a state of perpetual numbness. His only solace is his position in The Guardians of Time, a group of soldiers organized by the immortal Lorian, whose sole purpose is to defeat the goddess Lathenia and her Order of Chaos. The Order's soldiers exist to alter the course of history in order to benefit their goddess; the more chaos created in the past increases her strength in the present. Ethan and his friend and mentor Arkarian spent the majority of the twelve years since Sera's death in training and going on missions to the past to stop the Order from derailing history. Ethan and Arkarian are not only members of the Guard, but also Named by an ancient prophecy that predicts the final battle between the Guard and the Order. After years of devotion to the Guard, Ethan is rewarded with an apprentice. Should he train her well, he could be awarded the Guard's highest honor; the power of flight. His only concern is that is would-be apprentice is Isabel Beckett, the kid sister to his former best friend Matt. Isabel spent her childhood chasing after Ethan, Matt, and their friends, wishing to be included in their adventures while harboring a not-so-secret crush on Ethan. He remembers her as a pest, and knows that Matt, who believes Ethan is after his girlfriend, will make training difficult. After overcoming multiple difficulties, including accidentally showing one of his powers to his history teacher, Ethan and Isabel reconnect and form a strong friendship. They succeed on several missions, revealing other members of the Named along the way. Isabel's crush on Ethan grows and then dwindles as she gets closer with Arkarian, and her passion for the cause and her skills makes her a powerful member of the Named. With the prophecy slowly being fulfilled, more identities of the Order are made known. Ethan and Isabel learn that Marduke, the monster of Ethan's nightmares, is actually a member of the Order, who holds a vendetta against Shaun, a former member of the Named. In an effort to speed up the prophecy, Marduke challenges Shaun to a battle, where the members of the Named face off against Marduke and his best soldiers. In a battle between the Named and Marduke, it is revealed that Matt's girlfriend Rochelle is also a member of the Order, and was planted by Marduke to break up Matt and Ethan's friendship. In a moment of compassion, Isabel frees her from the battle, with a promise that Arkarian will protect her from the Order. Ethan successfully defeats Marduke, and the battle ends. ===== The novel's protagonist is Harry M. Evans, the lone survivor of the disastrous first manned expedition to the planet Venus. Evans provides details of the doomed expedition as a novel in progress, and he proves to be a remarkably unreliable narrator,Pringle 1990, p. 36. constantly changing the particulars of his story as it progresses. It quickly becomes apparent to the reader that he may be completely insane, as a feeling of deep (and comical) paranoia underlies Evans's descriptions of the absurd conversations that ensue with the Venusian inhabitants. There is some indication that Evans could very well have murdered his fellow crewmember. The novel ends with a publishing house offering to purchase the rights to Evans's outlandish tale. ===== ===== When Katie Gregerstitch, from Minden, Louisiana, visits her boyfriend Billy, an aspiring model, in New York City, she catches him in bed with another woman. Thus, Billy breaks up with Katie, who then leaves to stay with her close friend Haley. She convinces Katie to start an independent life of her own, instead of sitting around doing nothing. One day, when Haley has to go to an audition, Katie takes over her job as a messenger and eventually has to deliver a shipment to a large building construction company. The deputy director of that company, Debra, preys on the job of Richard and has come up with a plan to frame Richard for sabotage, in order to take over the company. To help herself with that, she makes sure that Richard’s secretary gets dismissed and that the naive Katie takes her place. Katie meanwhile meets Ben, who works as a postman in the building, and befriends him. After losing a contract, by Debra’s doing, Katie gets fired, but by using her charms, she manages to get a second chance from Richard. When she manages to get the interest of a group of Norwegian investors, Richard shares an important confidential project with her. Debra manages to get the confidential information out of Katie and thereby make sure that the Board of Directors fires Richard. Meanwhile, Katie has discovered that Ben is actually Richard’s son. Together with him, she devises a ruse to outsmart Debra. When Debra proposes the project to the investors, she sends out Haley and some friends, who pose as the investors. At the same time, she presents her own proposal to the real investors, who satisfyingly take it. When Debra discovers the deception, she goes ballistic and thus gets fired. ===== Angel has a difficult time adjusting to the new situation at the hotel where Wesley has taken over his old office and Angel is taking orders from his new employers. A young couple making out in a car is attacked by something wearing a hood. Angel encounters several obstacles when trying to earn back his friends and their trust. Cordelia makes it very clear that she is still very angry and not his friend anymore. She gets a vision that sends the guys after the couple attacked in their car. Cordelia follows Angel's advice to take the rest of the night off, but as she's leaving, an old friend from Sunnydale, Harmony, shows up. The girls talk about their lives and how they've both changed, Harmony failing to mention that she's now a vampire. Harmony tells of her recent breakup, and Cordelia invites her to stay at her place while she's in town. Angel, Wesley and Gunn find the car with windows smashed, but run off in another direction when they hear a woman scream. The woman is rescued and the three fight the hooded creature, which is revealed to be a vampire, which is quickly staked by Angel. Upset that Cordy doesn't consider them friends, Angel asks Wesley about buying something like flowers for her, but Wesley responds sarcastically, making Angel feel even guiltier. Cordelia and Harmony are enjoying themselves immensely as they chat over glasses of wine. Harmony is hungry and tempted by her friend's neck. Later that night, Harmony goes to Cordelia's room while she's sleeping, but when Cordelia wakes she mistakes Harmony's actions as sexual. A phone call to Willow in Sunnydale clears up all the confusion. Willow stresses that Harmony is a vampire, not a lesbian, and cannot be trusted, though Cordelia embarrasses herself by voicing a mild slur before she learns of Willow's new relationship. Willow calls the hotel and informs Angel about Harmony. He and Wesley rush to Cordelia's rescue only to find that the ladies are getting along like friends, painting each other's toenails. Cordelia discourages them from any plans to kill Harmony as she intends to help her undead friend. Cordelia brings Harmony back to the hotel where she researches the symbol found on the robe. Angel, still attempting to get on Cordelia's good side, agrees that Cordy should be allowed to spend time with her friend. Back at the hotel, Harmony annoys Wesley, and Angel tries to find other clues from Cordelia's vision including a large bird figure she saw. To prevent Wesley from killing Harmony, Angel takes her back to the refrigerator for blood. Gunn returns having found that there have been humans taken off the streets, and it is concluded that they are taken not for food, but to add to an army of vampires. A vampire speaks to a crowd of robed vampires about his plan, revealing a large cage filled with humans. Cordelia finds that the symbol represents a pyramid scheme started by a motivational speaker named Doug Sanders, and it is assumed that he's now continuing it as a vampire. Harmony accidentally spills her cup of blood onto the keyboard prompting Wesley to demand that she leave immediately. Cordelia takes her desperate friend to Caritas for advice on what path the vampire should take. After Harmony sings poorly on stage, the Host says that Cordelia will guide Harmony to her destiny. The guys find Cordelia at the bar and request her help in locating the specific building where the vampire group is meeting. Harmony tags along, convinced that her mission is to be good and help people. Arriving at a theater, a bird statue is spotted but appears different than the vision that showed until Angel turns on some lights that illuminate the statue in red, making it recognizable to Cordelia. Before heading in, Angel (unable to not speak of the matter anymore) tries to tell Cordelia that Harmony is a danger and will betray her, but she reminds him that he betrayed her as well, even with his soul. Harmony is selected to go inside and pretend that she wants to join the group. While she goes inside, everyone else waits at the back of the building for her to let them in. She arrives late and tells them of the cage filled with people, but when they get inside, the room is deserted, and Harmony betrayed them. She thanks them for guiding her to her destiny as Doug approaches and offers to promote Harmony to a blue robe. Doug threatens the team, but they're up to the challenge and are prepared to kill them all. Cordelia fights with Harmony while Angel, Wesley, and Gunn take on the few members of the vampire cult that didn't flee, effectively slaying them all. Doug has his head chopped off by Angel. Cordelia pulls two crossbows on Harmony but instead of killing her, she lets her leave, telling her to get out of town. Back at the hotel, Wesley talks to Angel about his difficulties with Cordelia, but things take a sudden turn for the better as Cordelia finds a complete new wardrobe on her desk courtesy of Angel. She hugs him and praises his taste in clothes, making Angel smile and Wesley look unimpressed and annoyed. ===== Momokichi Momoi, the mob boss owner of a professional baseball team known as "the Peach Twisters", has a unique way of dealing with ineffective players: killing them. His daughter, Momomi, is twice as twisted as her father. Mikura and the Danger Service Agency are hired by a mysterious old man to kidnap Momokichi. But during that attempt they run afoul of Momomi. Before the resulting firefight, Momokichi dies when his head falls on a ventilation pipe. Now Mikura and the D.S.A. have to come up with a new plan before they end up as Momomi's next target. ===== Beginning in Karuizawa, the novel alternates between the now middle-aged Momoi and recurring memories of a lake from his hometown, and his interactions with a number of women, beginning with a relative and the uncomfortable circumstances surrounding a death in his family. The novel then explores his connection to a woman who loses a purse full of several years' worth of money earned as a lover to an older man as well as a relationship with a student, Hisako, when Momoi is a teacher, a relationship that begins with a somewhat odd-request for a good cure for a foot condition Momoi suffers from and then examines the circumstances of Hisako's family, who are well-off in the immediate post-war era. Finally, the now middle-aged Momoi follows a young girl during a summer period leading up to a festival and crosses path with a woman closer to his age. Category:1954 novels Category:Japanese-language novels Category:20th-century Japanese novels Category:Novels by Yasunari Kawabata Category:Novels set in Japan ===== Judgement 6, an organization seeking global domination, are hosting a third fighting tournament. The characters all enter to achieve their personal goals. Some wish to challenge Judgement 6 and uncover the group's secrets. Kage-Maru won the tournament. ===== Lucien Chardon, the son of a lower middle-class father and an impoverished mother of aristocratic descent, is the pivotal figure of the entire work. Living at Angoulême, he is impoverished, impatient, handsome and ambitious. His widowed mother, his sister Ève and his best friend, David Séchard, do nothing to lessen his high opinion of his own talents, for it is an opinion they share. Even as Part I of Illusions perdues, Les Deux poètes (The Two Poets), begins, Lucien has already written a historical novel and a sonnet sequence, whereas David is a scientist. But both, according to Balzac, are "poets" in that they creatively seek truth. Theirs is a fraternity of poetic aspiration, whether as scientist or writer: thus, even before David marries Ève, the two young men are spiritual brothers. Lucien is introduced into the drawing-room of the leading figure of Angoulême high society, Mme de Bargeton, who rapidly becomes infatuated with him. It is not long before the pair flee to Paris where Lucien adopts his maternal patronymic of de Rubempré and hopes to make his mark as a poet. Mme de Bargeton, on the other hand, recognises her mésalliance and, though remaining in Paris, severs all ties with Lucien, abandoning him to a life of destitution. In Part II, Un Grand homme de province à Paris, Lucien is contrasted both with the journalist Lousteau and the high-minded writer Daniel d’Arthez. Jilted by Mme de Bargeton for the adventurer Sixte du Châtelet, he moves in a social circle of high-class actress-prostitutes and their journalist lovers: soon he becomes the lover of Coralie. As a literary journalist he prostitutes his talent. But he still harbours the ambition of belonging to high society and longs to assume by royal warrant the surname and coat of arms of the de Rubemprés. He therefore switches his allegiance from the liberal opposition press to the one or two royalist newspapers that support the government. This act of betrayal earns him the implacable hatred of his erstwhile journalist colleagues, who destroy Coralie's theatrical reputation. In the depths of his despair he forges his brother-in-law's name on three promissory notes. This is his ultimate betrayal of his integrity as a person. After Coralie's death he returns in disgrace to Angoulême, stowed away behind the Châtelets’ carriage: Mme de Bargeton has just married du Châtelet, who has been appointed prefect of that region. In Part III, Les Souffrances de l’inventeur, in Angoulême David Séchard is betrayed on all sides but is supported by his loving wife. He invents a new and cheaper method of paper production: thus, at a thematic level, the advances of paper-manufacturing processes are very closely interwoven with the commercialization of literature. Lucien's forgery of his brother-in-law's signature almost bankrupts David, who has to sell the secret of his invention to business rivals. Lucien is about to commit suicide when he is approached by a sham Jesuit priest, the Abbé Carlos Herrera: this, in another guise, is the escaped convict Vautrin whom Balzac had already presented in Le Père Goriot. Herrera takes Lucien under his protection and they drive off to Paris, there to begin a fresh assault on the capital. Lucien's story continues in Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. ===== In Rocheworld, a small group of civilian and military personnel crew carries out humanity's first manned exploration of another star system. Against the protests of General (later Senator) Beauregard Darlington Winthrop III, the mission begins under the command of Major General Virginia "Jinjur" Jones and George G. Gudunov. Winthrop however, eager to fulfill a personal vendetta against Gudunov, uses his considerable influence to get Colonel Alan Armstrong, who had hoped to be second in command just for the sake of it, on the crew with the intention of promoting him after the mission is on its way. This plan is foiled however, and the expedition proceeds on its one way mission to Barnard's Star, where planets have been discovered by Robot Probes. Using a laser-pumped light sail spacecraft known as Prometheus, the journey to their destination of Barnard's star lasts 40 years. The crew use a drug called "No-Die" which slows their aging process, whilst proportionately lowering their effective I.Q., but allowing them to arrive only a decade physically older than when they left. However, all does not go as planned, and soon a dangerous disease erupts among the crew. The ship's doctor, William Wang, is taken off No-Die, where he sacrifices himself to treat the rest of the crew. When the ship arrives at Barnard, they begin their exploration, deploying various Robot probes. David Greystroke, the ships computer engineer as well as a talented sono-video composer, creates a free fall musical and visual composition called "Flight", with Arielle Trudeau, the pilot of the Dragonfly Spaceplane, performing. A fraction of the crew, led by George, visit the double planet Rocheworld, landing a Surface Lander and Ascent Module (SLAM) on the water-free lobe, dubbed Roche (French for rock as well as the name of the French mathematician who worked on Roche limits). After exploring Roche, they again split up, and one group journeys via the space-plane Dragonfly to the other lobe, Eau (French for water), which is covered almost entirely by ocean. The crew are caught in a violent storm that causes their plane to experience a crash water- landing. The flooded propulsion systems of the space-plane are unable to provide enough thrust to break free and take off from the ocean surface. The crew decide to use the plane's lift fans as propellers to make their way to the inner pole of the double planet, where the gravitation from the other lobe of the double planet should help them to break free and allow rendezvous with the remaining crew in the lander at the zero point between the two lobes. While making this journey, the space-plane attracts the attention of one of the native species of the planet: the very intelligent, but technologically lacking, Flouwen. The Flouwen and the artificial intelligence aboard the space-plane establish communications and the two species begin to exchange cultural and scientific knowledge. The crew witness the birth of a Flouwen youngling, while one crew member, Shirley Everett, takes a ride on Clear◊White◊Whistle (White Whistler) a Flouwen who understands the technologically oriented humans more than the others of the pod, and who is fascinated by their technology. Unfortunately for Shirley, the Flouwen morphs into rock form while thinking, leaving her stranded in the middle of the ocean and forcing a rescue operation to be mounted. The Flouwen realize the humans are travelling to the pole and warn the humans that they are approaching a period where the configuration of the star and planets of the system allow for a phenomenon where the ocean on the water lobe of Rocheworld can partially flow to the rocky lobe, due to the change in the gravitational equipotential. They try to stop the humans from continuing into this violent event by pinning the spacecraft to the ammonia-water ocean floor with ice as ballast (water ice sinks in the less dense ammonia-water solution of the ocean). However, the humans realize that the interplanetary waterfall poses a threat to the crew remaining on Roche. Fortunately, the tidal stresses cause nearby dormant volcanoes to become active again. This melts an underwater glacier and floods the area with warm water, upon which the ice floats off the plane. The crew manages to get airborne and takes advantage of the changing equipotential to return to Roche. They rendezvous with the lander just as water is reaching it. The Epilogue is set years later, as a follow on mission arrives. This sequence was later expanded and included in the last sequel novel, Rescued from Paradise ===== With baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates in last place, their combative, foul-mouthed manager Guffy McGovern (Paul Douglas) has plenty to complain about. All of this changes when, while wandering through Forbes Field in search of his good luck charm one night, Guffy is accosted by the voice of an angel (voice of unseen James Whitmore), who hints at having been a ballplayer during his earthly life. As the spokes-angel for the Heavenly Choir Nine, a celestial team of deceased ballplayers, he begins bestowing "miracles" upon the Pirates—but only on the condition that McGovern put a moratorium on swearing and fighting. With the help of the invisible ghosts of past baseball greats, the Pirates make it into the pennant race. During a game, 8-year-old orphan Bridget White (Donna Corcoran) insists she can see the angels helping out the "live" ballplayers—understandably so, since it was Bridget's prayers to the Archangel Gabriel which prompted the angel to visit McGovern in the first place. Local newspaper reporter and former "household hints" writer Jennifer Paige (Janet Leigh) inadvertently transforms Bridget's angelic visions into a nationwide news story, causing McGovern no end of trouble. After a line drive hits Guffy in the head during a game, Guffy himself confirms Bridget's claims to the press. He falls into the hands of vengeful sportscaster Fred Bayles (Keenan Wynn), who has been scheming to have McGovern thrown out of baseball and persuades the Commissioner of Baseball to investigate McGovern's fitness as a manager. Complication piles upon complication until the pennant-deciding game, wherein Guffy is forced to rely exclusively upon the talents of his ballplayers—notably "over the hill" pitcher Saul Hellman (Bruce Bennett) (who, the angel has told Guffy, will be "signed up" by the Heavenly Choir team shortly). Guffy also wins over Jennifer, and they plan to adopt young Bridget. The angels themselves are never actually seen by the viewing audience, just the effects of their presence—a feather dropping, or someone being jostled from time to time. The angel who talks to Guffy never reveals who he was in life. However, this angel does reveal his presence to Bayles: When Bayles sarcastically asks "the little angels up there" if they are happy with the Pirates' win over the New York Giants, Bayles hears the angel reply "Oh, why don't you just shut up?" and the angel pulls Bayles' hat down over Bayles' face. Bayles looks up incredulously upon hearing the voice, searching for the speaker. Since the Hays Code prohibited most profanity in films at the time, the "swearing" uttered by Guffy is audio gibberish, which was made by scrambling recordings of actor Paul Douglas's voice. ===== Sixteenth century Spanish sailors beach their launch on the Manzanita beach. They carry a treasure chest up Neahkahnie Mountain, leading a manacled African slave. The treasure is buried and the slave is killed and laid on top of the ground to "guard" the treasure and frighten away the local Indians. Julie (Suzanne Marie Doyon), a lonely 14-year-old girl, and her family move from California to an Oregon seaside town as a last resort after her father loses his job. Her family has trouble adjusting to their new life and Julie is forgotten and ignored, as the family adjusts to living in uncle Jimmy's (Brian Thompson) seaside home. Julie has a dramatic mystical encounter with a Roosevelt elk on the beach. The elk's fur has black hand prints on its neck. Its hooves uncover an old Spanish gold coin in the sand. The elk becomes Julie's silent, watchful guide and protector as she becomes drawn to the legend of Tillamook's gold. She seeks the wisdom and guidance of her grandfather (Max Gail) and his good friend, Standing Elk (Floyd Red Crow Westerman). The men tell Julie the legend of the Spanish treasure and also of an elk, saved from drowning by the slave who, before his death, had grasped the exhausted animal as it swam near the Spanish launch. Julie is confused because 400 years later, she is convinced that "her elk" is the same elk. Julie's desire to solve the treasure mystery becomes a passion that leads to further mystery and self-discovery. When she experiences visions of Indians, she is frightened. When she tells Grandpa and Standing Elk, the elders realize that she is having a magical experience. Grandpa and Standing Elk suspect that Julie has been chosen to find the treasure and to release the spirit of the slave. They watch and guide her on her quest. ===== In Beyond the Crystal Cave, the player characters are hired to rescue a recently eloped couple that has fled into the Cave of Echoes. The heroes must solve the mystery of the Crystal Cave to enter Porpherio's Garden, a magical place located on the island of Sybarate where it is summer all year long. Experience points are gained by dealing with encounters verbally and intelligently, rather than through unnecessary violence. ===== Stan and Cartman are playing in a boat that Cartman claims is his uncle's when Cartman dares Stan to drive the boat, claiming he will take the blame if trouble arises. However, as Stan does not know how to drive a boat, they crash into the world's largest beaver dam, flooding the town of Beaverton. Cartman reveals that he lied about the boat belonging to his uncle and convinces Stan to try to hide their involvement by maintaining complete silence about the incident. Meanwhile, the flood has a worse outcome than Stan expected. The people of Beaverton are in a state of disaster. Nobody tries to help the situation; instead, everybody would rather figure out who is to blame. At a conference at the Governor's office with top Colorado scientists and government officials, they all declare that the disaster is the result of global warming. At first, it is determined the full effects will take place on "the day after tomorrow". However, some scientists suddenly burst in and state that it has been proven that the disaster will take place "two days before the day after tomorrow". The declaration of the scientists causes mass hysteria, and everybody runs from "global warming". Most of the South Park people crowd in the community center. Randy authoritatively states that global warming is causing an ice age outside that would kill them if they left. Stan admits to Kyle that he and Cartman were the cause of the Beaverton flood (although Stan takes most of the blame). The trio then set off to rescue the people by boat. The attempt is a disaster in itself, as they wind up crashing into an oil refinery, compounding the problems of the stranded people who now must deal with drowning and fire. Meanwhile, Randy, Gerald, and Stephen brave the supposed ice age to find their sons. Dressed in heavy arctic mountaineering gear despite the mild weather, the trio quickly collapse in the street due to heat exhaustion and dehydration, but mistake their symptoms as the "last stages of hypothermia." Escaping to the roof of the flooded and burning refinery, the boys are rescued by an Army helicopter and fly back to South Park where the Army declares that Crab People, not global warming, are responsible for breaking the dam. In exasperation, Stan finally admits that he broke the dam, but one of the townspeople incorrectly interprets his admission as a lesson to stop obsessing over who to blame while ignoring the problem. The townspeople all begin to declare, "I broke the dam", with Cartman joining in knowing that he won't get in trouble now, while Stan tries unsuccessfully to explain that he literally did it, with a boat. Stan gets frustrated and finally just says, "Oh, fuck it!" ===== ===== As three US servicemen – Marine Private First Class Ira Hayes, Private First Class Rene Gagnon, and Navy Corpsman John "Doc" Bradley – are feted as heroes in a war bond drive, they reflect on their experiences via flashback. After training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii, the 28th Marine Regiment 5th Marine Division sails to invade Iwo Jima. The Navy bombards suspected Japanese positions for three days. Sergeant Mike Strank is put in charge of Second Platoon. The next day, February 19, 1945, the Marines land in Higgins boats and LVTs. The beaches are silent and Private First Class Ralph "Iggy" Ignatowski wonders if the defenders are all dead before Japanese heavy artillery and machine guns open fire on the advancing Marines and the Navy ships. Casualties are heavy, but the beaches are secured. Two days later, the Marines attack Mount Suribachi under a rain of Japanese artillery and machine gun fire, as the Navy bombards the mountain. Doc saves the lives of several Marines under fire, which later earns him the Navy Cross. The mountain is eventually secured. On February 23, the platoon under command of Sergeant Hank Hansen reaches the top of Mount Suribachi and hoists the United States flag to cheers from the beaches and the ships. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, who witnesses the flag raising as he lands on the beach, requests the flag for himself. Colonel Chandler Johnson decides his 2nd Battalion deserves the flag more. Rene is sent up with Second Platoon to replace the first flag with a second one for Forrestal to take. Mike, Doc, Ira, Rene, and two other Marines (Corporal Harlon Block and Private First Class Franklin Sousley) are photographed by Joe Rosenthal as they raise the second flag. On March 1, the Second Platoon is ambushed from a Japanese machine gun nest. During the fight over the nest, Mike is hit by a U.S. Navy shell and dies from his wounds. Later that day, Hank is shot in the chest and dies, and Harlon is killed by machine gun fire. Two nights later, while Doc is helping a wounded Marine, Iggy is abducted by Japanese troops and dragged into a tunnel. Doc finds his viciously mangled body a few days later. On March 21, Franklin is killed by machine gun fire and dies in Ira's arms. Of the eight men in the squad, only three are left: Doc, Ira, and Rene. A few days after Franklin's death, Doc is wounded by artillery fire while trying to save a fellow corpsman. He survives and is sent back home. On March 26, the battle ends and the U.S. Marines are victorious. After the battle, the press gets hold of Rosenthal's photograph. It is a huge morale booster and becomes famous. Rene is asked to name the six men in the photo; he identifies himself, Mike, Doc, and Franklin, but misidentifies Harlon as Hank. Rene eventually names Ira as the sixth man, even after Ira threatens to kill him for doing so. Doc, Ira, and Rene are sent home as part of the seventh bond tour. When they arrive to a hero's welcome in Washington, DC, Doc notices that Hank's mother is on the list of mothers of the dead flag raisers. Ira angrily denounces the bond drive as a farce. The men are reprimanded by Bud Gerber of the Treasury Department, who tells them that the country cannot afford the war and if the bond drive fails, the U.S. will abandon the Pacific and their sacrifices will be for nothing. The three agree not to tell anyone that Hank was not in the photograph. As the three are sent around the country to raise money and make speeches, Ira is guilt-ridden, faces discrimination as a Native American, and descends into alcoholism. After he throws up one night in front of General Alexander Vandegrift, commandant of the Marine Corps, he is sent back to his unit and the bond drive continues without him. After the war, the three survivors return to their homes. Ira still struggles with alcoholism and is never able to escape his unwanted fame. One day after being released from jail, he hitchhikes over 1,300 miles to Texas to see Harlon Block's family. He tells Harlon's father that his son was indeed at the base of the flag in the photograph. In 1954, the USMC War Memorial is dedicated and the three flag raisers see each other one last time. In 1955, Ira dies of exposure after a night of drinking. That same year, Doc drives to the town where Iggy's mother lives to tell her how Iggy died, though it is implied that he does not tell her the truth. Rene attempts a business career, but finds that the opportunities and offers he received during the bond drive are rescinded. He spends the rest of his life as a janitor. Doc, by contrast, is successful, buying a funeral home. In 1994, on his deathbed, he tells his story to his son, James, and in a final flashback to 1945, the men swim in the ocean after raising the flags. ===== In 1870, 18-year-old Travis Coates (Tommy Kirk) is left in charge of his precocious 12-year-old brother, Arliss (Kevin Corcoran), on the family farm in Southwest Texas, while their parents visit an ailing grandmother. While Arliss and his dog, Savage Sam, are tracking a bobcat, Travis is warned by Bud Searcy (Jeff York) that renegade Apaches are in the area. When Travis joins Bud's 17-year-old daughter, Lisbeth (Marta Kristen), in a search for Arliss, all three are captured by a band of Apaches led by a Comanche. The boys' Uncle Beck Coates (Brian Keith) witnesses the scene and manages to wound the Native American leader, but Beck's horse is shot by one of the braves, allowing the Comanche and his followers to escape with the captives. Beck alerts the U. S. Cavalry, but the Native Americans split into three groups and ride for the hills; in the confusion, Travis escapes but is knocked unconscious and left to die. Beck and his posse of five find Travis and his dog, set out in pursuit of the other captives, and eventually find the Native Americans in a valley fighting over Lisbeth. Although posse member Pack Underwood (Royal Dano), bent on revenge for the massacre of his family, fires a shot that alerts the Native Americans to their planned ambush, the youngsters are saved and the renegades captured. ===== A curse affects the Preston family, caused by their betrayal of the Satanic priest Jonathan Corbis (Ernest Borgnine). Corbis has harassed the Preston family for generations to obtain a Satanic book of great power. Corbis captures patriarch Steve Preston (George Sawaya), who is allowed to escape to warn his wife Emma (Ida Lupino) and younger son Mark (William Shatner) about Corbis' wrath. He tells them to give the book to Corbis, but during a rainstorm he melts into a waxy substance. Mark takes the book, hoping to meet with Corbis and defeat him. In a ghost town in the desert, Corbis gives Mark a drink of water from an old hand-pumped well. Mark drinks but then spits out the bitter water. He challenges Corbis to a battle of faith, then draws a pistol and aims it at him. Corbis belittles this threat and Mark tries to escape, but he is surrounded by Corbis' followers. He produces a cross, but Corbis transforms it into a snake and Mark discards it. Corbis' followers capture Preston, and Corbis uses a ritual to erase Mark’s memory in preparation for a ceremony later that evening. Mark's older brother, Tom (Tom Skerritt), and his wife, Julie, search for Mark. They are accompanied by Dr. Sam Richards (Eddie Albert), a psychic researcher. Their search leads them to Corbis' church, where Corbis is performing a ceremony to convert Mark into one of his soulless minions; during the proceedings Corbis transforms into a Satanic goat-like demon. Tom witnesses all of this; he is discovered by the Satanists but eludes capture. Later he and Richards meet at the Satanic church, where they discover that the source of Corbis' power is an ornate glass bottle known as "The Devil's Rain", which contains the souls of Corbis' disciples. Corbis and the Satanists converge on the church. Richards threatens to destroy The Devil's Rain, but he is overpowered by the acolytes. He appeals to Mark's lost humanity and convinces him to destroy the bottle, which he does in defiance of Corbis' entreaties. A storm rages outside, and the Satanists melt in the rain. Tom and his wife make a hasty exit. As Tom holds his wife, it is revealed that he is actually embracing Corbis, and his wife's soul has become trapped within a new Devil's Rain. ===== Royal Earle Thompson owns a dairy farm in southern Texas during the late 1890s. His farm is fairly unproductive, due in part to Thompson's laziness and distaste for most of the required labor on a dairy farm, which he considers "women's work." Thompson lives with his wife, Ellie, and two small sons, Arthur and Herbert. Ellie is continually ill, though she does her best to perform her domestic duties around the farm. The two boys, aged about six and eight when the story opens, are generally well-behaved. One day, a man named Olaf Helton presents himself at the farm. The remarkably taciturn Swede asks Farmer Thompson for a job. Thompson agrees to employ Helton, offering him a small monthly wage, plus room and board. It is clear that Thompson views Helton as somewhat beneath him because he is a foreigner. Even though the wage is far below what Helton reports having earned in the wheat fields of North Dakota, he nonetheless sets to work immediately and proves himself to be an efficient farmhand, single-handedly transforming Thompson's run-down dairy farm into a productive, profitable enterprise. Though he is unable to figure out anything about Helton's personal life or origins, Thompson grows to appreciate his mysterious, silent farmhand. He increases his pay and entrusts him with much responsibility. Ellie also values Helton for the prosperity he brings to the farm. She is troubled by him just once, in a bizarre event in which she sees Helton silently shake her two boys in a terrifying manner after they had snatched his harmonica. She asks her husband to tell Helton that in the future he is to leave the discipline of the boys to their parents. The family quickly moves past the event. Nine years go by, and the Thompson dairy farm thrives, thanks to Helton's incomparable work ethic. The Thompsons come to view Helton as one of the family; his traits of rarely speaking, never smiling, and continually playing the same song on his precious harmonica are oddities, once puzzling, that they simply accept. One day, an offensive and irritating stranger named Homer T. Hatch shows up at the farm. Like Helton, he has come to Texas from North Dakota, and says he is there to "locate" Helton. The man annoys Farmer Thompson immediately with his grating banter and subtle insults. Hatch eventually reveals the reason for his visit: he is a bounty hunter, and Olaf Helton is an escaped mental patient who must be returned to the asylum. Many years earlier, Helton killed his only brother with a pitchfork after he lost one of Helton's harmonicas and refused to replace it. Thompson is stunned by this news and unwilling to give up Helton to Hatch, whom he instinctively feels is an evil man. Thompson has a vision of Hatch driving a knife blade into Helton's stomach. The farmer rushes to Helton's defense, striking Hatch with an axe blade and killing him. Ellie comes on the scene only in time to see Hatch lying on the ground and Helton running away (unaccountably, in view of what Thompson "saw"), and she faints. The fleeing Helton, in the midst of an apparent "mad" episode, such as he had never exhibited while with the Thompsons, is killed by the sheriff's men. When found, Helton's body bears no mark of a knife. It appears (though what happened is never explained) that Hatch's attack on Helton was merely Thompson's hallucination. Thompson impresses on Ellie the importance of her swearing that she witnessed Hatch attacking Helton, and she reluctantly agrees. After a perfunctory trial, Thompson is acquitted on the ground of self-defense/defense of another. Thompson continues to relive the killing, at one moment sure that there must have been a way to get Hatch off his farm without harming him, at the next certain that he had no choice and that if the scene were playing before his eyes again, he would instinctively act as he did before. Worse, he is sure that though he is legally "not guilty," the community regards him as not innocent, and fears that he has become an outcast. He decides to pay a visit on every household of the small farming community, accompanied by the unwilling Ellie, in an attempt to regain his reputation. His efforts are unsuccessful; both he and Ellie can see that they have lost the esteem of their neighbors and former friends. In a climactic scene at home, Thompson realizes that even his wife is afraid of him and that their now nearly grown sons no longer trust him with her. He decides that he must end his ruined life. Dressed in his best, Thompson leaves the house and walks as far as he can while still on his land. He writes a note of explanation, saying that he never intended to harm Hatch, even though Hatch deserved to die; still, he is sorry that he had to be the one to kill him. Poignantly, Thompson puts no blame on Helton, observing that had Hatch come hunting him instead of Helton, his friend would have done the same for him. Thompson then shoots himself with his shotgun. ===== After Leo Fast Elk, a tribal council member of a Native American reservation in South Dakota, is murdered, FBI Agent William Dawes assigns Agent Ray Levoi to help investigate. The latter is chosen for his mixed Sioux heritage, which might assist in the inquiry as they interview local townspeople. Ray is partnered with Agent Frank "Cooch" Coutelle, who has diligently worked with tribal council president Jack Milton to apprehend a prime suspect: Aboriginal Rights Movement radical Jimmy Looks Twice. Though he is mocked and ridiculed by the locals (being called a "Washington Redskin"), including tribal police officer Walter Crow Horse, Ray finds that he has an unaccountable standing with some of the tribal elders such as Grandpa Sam Reaches. The natives recognize Ray as "Thunderheart": a Native American hero slain at the Wounded Knee Massacre in the past, and now reincarnated to deliver them from their current troubles. While helping Cooch track down the suspect, Ray meets Maggie Eagle Bear, a Native American political activist and schoolteacher. After experiencing the harrowing conditions and violence from Milton's pro-government faction on the res, Ray gradually becomes sensitized to Indian issues. Much to Cooch's anger, Ray comes to suspect a conspiracy and cover-up involving the reservation and Leo's murder. After being told to find 'the source', Ray and Crow Horse come across a government-sponsored plan to strip mine uranium on the reservation. The mining is polluting the water supply and fueling the bloody conflict between the reservation's anti- government ruling council and Milton's pro-government natives. While the land is not owned by Milton, he receives kickbacks from the leases; Ray and Crow Horse discover Maggie's body at the site. Ray finds Leo's murderer, former convict Richard Yellow Hawk, who confesses Cooch's part in the scandal of having been sent to silence the opposition and help broker the land deal. Yellow Hawk is then murdered, but Ray recorded his confession, forcing a showdown between Cooch, Milton, and his pro-government collaborators, and Ray, Crow Horse, and the anti-government activists. Cooch is apprehended after being cornered and outnumbered by the armed resistance. Ray, disillusioned by the corruption, leaves the FBI. ===== While scuba-diving near shipwrecks off Bermuda, vacationing couple David Sanders and Gail Berke recover a number of artifacts, including an ampoule of amber-coloured liquid and a medallion bearing the image of a woman and the letters "S.C.O.P.N." (meaning "Santa Clara, ora pro nobis", for "Saint Clara, pray for us") and a date, 1714. Sanders and Berke seek the advice of lighthouse-keeper and treasure-hunter Romer Treece on the origin of the medallion; he identifies the item as Spanish and takes an interest in the young couple. The ampoule is noticed by the man who had rented diving equipment to Sanders and Berke, which in turn attracts the attention of Henri "Cloche" Bondurant, a local drug kingpin for whom the shop owner works, who unsuccessfully tries to buy the ampoule and then begins to terrorise the couple with black magic. The ampoule contains medicinal morphine from the Goliath, a ship that sank during World War II with a cargo of munitions and medical supplies. The wreck of the Goliath is considered dangerous and is posted as off-limits to divers due to the danger of explosions. Treece concludes that a recent storm has exposed her cargo of morphine and unearthed a much older wreck containing Spanish treasure. Treece makes a deal with Cloche, so they can dive in peace and making him believe he will get the ampoules for a million dollars, while his real plan is to have the chance to find the treasure. Cloche gives him three days to recover them. Sanders, Berke and Treece make several dives to the wrecks, recovering thousands of morphine ampoules from Goliath and several additional artifacts from the Spanish wreck. Adam Coffin, the only survivor from Goliath, joins to help in the boat, but his loyalty is not very clear. When they are attacked by sharks, Coffin only says that he probably fell asleep without noticing they were in trouble. Through research in Treece's library, they reconstruct the history of the lost treasure ship, locate a list of valuable items, including a metallic jar with the letters "EF" engraved on it, and learn that it identifies Elisabeth Farnese, a noblewoman for whom they were made by the king of Spain. Sanders is determined to locate at least one item on the list to establish provenance, since without it there is no real value to the treasure. Treece wishes to destroy the Goliath to put the morphine out of reach of Cloche, and Cloche interferes with their efforts so that he can recover the morphine for himself. During a running series of conflicts, Treece's friend Kevin is murdered by one of Cloche's henchmen. Adam betrays them and is killed when he triggers a booby-trap while trying to steal the recovered morphine. A climactic battle during the final dive ensues, with Cloche and his divers being killed in the destruction of the Goliath and the recovery of a gold dragon necklace that will provide the needed provenance of the treasure. ===== Veronica Franco is an adventurous, curious, slightly tomboyish young woman in Venice. Her lover Marco, who will be a Senator like his father, cannot marry her because her family is too poor; he marries a foreign noblewoman instead. Veronica's mother plans for her family's financial security, as she still requires dowries for her younger daughters and money for her son's commission. Rather than go to a convent, Veronica's mother suggests she become a courtesan, a highly paid, cultured prostitute like her mother and grandmother before her. At first Veronica is repelled by the idea, but once she discovers that courtesans are allowed access to libraries and education, she tentatively embraces the idea. Veronica quickly gains a reputation as a top courtesan, impressing the powerful men of Venice with her beauty, wit, and compassion. Marco finds it difficult to adjust to his new wife, who is nothing like Veronica, and becomes jealous as she takes his friends and relatives as lovers. After Marco's cousin Maffio, a poor bard who was once publicly upstaged by Veronica, attacks her, Marco rushes to her aid. They rekindle their romance, but Veronica refuses to stop seeing clients and accept his support. Nevertheless, she spends a great deal of time with Marco, neglecting her business and ignoring her mother's warnings that such a relationship is dangerous for her. The Fourth Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–73) breaks out, and the city appeals to France for aid. Veronica is encouraged to seduce the King of France and secures a military alliance. Marco accuses her of enjoying being a courtesan, implying she ought to have rejected the King despite the risk to Venice. Veronica points out that she sacrificed their love for the good of the city, while he only did it to protect his family's political standing, and Marco leaves for war angry. While the Venetians are fighting at sea, a plague hits the city. Religious zealots take the war and plague as punishment for the city's moral degradation, and Veronica's home is quarantined and almost ransacked by a mob. Veronica is summoned to appear before the Inquisition on charges of witchcraft and refuses to name her clients. When it appears that she will be executed, Marco publicly shames the Venetian ministers and senators into admitting their own adulteries and sins by standing up in the assembly. Bewildered by the extent of sin in the city, the Inquisitor drops the charges of witchcraft, and Marco and Veronica reconcile. ===== In this military thriller, intelligence officer Jack Poynt (Antonio Sabato Jr.) discovers evidence of a CIA-backed raid on a medical facility in Cambodia in 1972, which led to the torture and killing of a number of civilians. Poynt decides it's high time that the men responsible were exposed and brought to justice, but the deeper he digs in search of the truth, the more he finds himself in danger. ===== For the past ten years, Baltimore industrialist Wendell Armbruster, Sr. has been spending a month at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in the Island of Ischia on the Bay of Naples, in Italy allegedly to soak in the therapeutic mud baths for which the resort island is known. When he is killed in an automobile accident, his straitlaced son Wendell Armbruster, Jr. journeys to Italy to claim his father's body. Upon arrival he discovers his father was not alone in the Fiat he was driving; with him was his British mistress, whose daughter, free- spirited London shop girl Pamela Piggott, is also on the scene, though she clearly knew of their parents' clandestine romance beforehand. Hotel manager Carlo Carlucci attempts to smooth things over, taking on all the arrangements for the body to be taken back to Baltimore in time for burial in just three days' time. Complications arise when the bodies disappear from the morgue. Wendell suspects Pamela, who has expressed a wish that they be buried in Ischia; however, it is revealed that the actual bodysnatchers are the Trotta family, whose vineyard was damaged when the elder Armbruster's car drove into it during the fatal automobile accident. The Trotta brothers have stolen the bodies from the morgue, holding them for a two million lire ransom. This is not Wendell's only problem. Bruno, the hotel valet, is determined to get back to America after being deported and has compromising photographs of Wendell's father and Pamela's mother swimming nude in the bay. As the Italian atmosphere begins to affect both Wendell and Pamela and animosity gives way to friendship, Bruno manages to get pictures of them swimming naked as well, and tries to blackmail his way to an American visa. This displeases the maid Anna, pregnant with Bruno's child, and in a fit of rage she lures Bruno to Pamela's room, kills him, and then runs off. Carlucci moves Pamela's belongings into Wendell's room to prevent an international incident, and the two are thrown together. Appearing in a U.S. Navy helicopter to speed the repatriation is State Department official J.J. Blodgett who, by posthumously appointing the deceased man to an embassy post, allows the U.S. government to recover his body. Finally, Carlucci, Wendell and Pamela find the perfect solution - their parents are buried side by side in Ischia (in the Carlucci family plot) whilst Bruno takes his place in the repatriated coffin, finding his way back to America after all. Wendell and Pamela part, with a vow to return next year, just as their parents did. ===== The story revolves around Hatsumi Narita, a passive sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a company housing complex that is ruled by the tyrannical Mrs. Tachibana, the wife of the company's vice president. How a family behaves in the housing complex can affect an employee's status in the company. When her promiscuous younger sister Akane thinks she might be pregnant, Hatsumi gets talked into buying her a pregnancy test. Unfortunately, things do not go exactly as planned and Hatsumi is blackmailed by Ryoki Tachibana, the arrogant teenage son of the powerful Tachibana family who bullied her as a kid, into being his slave. ===== Sayoko Bizen is a buxom, cynical, shrewdly intelligent, and sexually uninhibited loner trying to move up in the world. Sayoko quits her executive secretary job after her boss fails to seduce her, and she exposes his affair with a co-worker. By chance, she meets a meek and outwardly unimpressive young man named Satoru Ichi (actual name: Yuichi Tsugaru), a virgin whom she initially tries to scam by coming to his apartment as a massage girl, who Satoru mistakenly believes is a call girl. When Satoru is distraught to learn that she is not a prostitute and has wasted hundreds of dollars, Sayoko takes pity on him and decides to have sex with him. She quickly discovers that Satoru is blessed with an incredible libido and a surprising ability to perform sexually, which she takes advantage of by staying with him until morning. Because she loses her job as a result, she moves in with him, agreeing to have sex with him in exchange for room and board, and for additional money that she subsequently persuades him to give her for various get-rich schemes of hers. Sayoko also introduces Satoru to a collection of equally curvaceous women, all acquaintances of hers. These include Franco-Australian aspiring actress Neena Canberra, former co-worker and martial arts expert Takako Tosa, and incompetent nurse Emi Tanba, all of whom Satoru has sex with. Borrowing seed money from Satoru, Sayoko recruits all three of these women to aid her in her biggest get-rich-quick scheme: developing and selling the rights to a product that combines many popular fads, which works out very profitably. She then leaves Satoru with his cut of the profits, but with the promise that she may come back to him someday. In the bonus chapter "Slut Girl Alpha" that concludes the story, Sayoko returns to stay with Satoru. ===== The game takes place in the year 2015, ten years after a deadly man-made virus (Spontaneous Genome Degeneration Syndrome) kills billions across the planet. The initial protagonists are four soldiers who have spent the last decade in a bunker at a Russian Kalinina military base. What greets the survivors initially is a barren world populated by sporadic groups of survivors. Every community is self-sustaining, with trade organized by the Seeker Guild. Seekers are people who scavenge pre-catastrophe (referred to as Old Time) equipment from ruined cities. It is also revealed that after the disaster, central society became non-existent, with territories being controlled by gangs; apparently the area where the group's base was located was the territory of the Slingers, a group of thugs who have started to capture and kidnap people lately. The group took control of a nearby town and its radar station. They also interrupted another kidnapping and busted up the Slinger base nearby, securing vital intelligence. The kidnapped were due to be sold at a slave market in New Boston, which the group wiped out and freed the slaves. They also paid a small visit to the Slinger headquarters nearby, killing their leader and permanently crippling their operations, as well as narrowly avoiding being caught in the crossfire of a gang war between the Claws and The Final Revolution. The protagonists acquired intel about a secretive group of highly trained and heavily armed soldiers and scientists, known as NOAH. Their operations and location were a complete secret with only the local Seekers knowing the location of their laboratories. To gain this information in exchange, the protagonists intervened in the gang war in Bergstadt, joining one gang and wiping out the other (the choice is up to the player). However, the defeated gang retreated first to the township Solensk, then besieged the nearby NOAH base, leaving the protagonists to break the siege. The leader of the local NOAH forces, Prof. Vlamidir Czeko gave the group minimal info: they were extensively but not successfully researching SGDS in the hope of finding a cure. They were suspicious about a religious community known as COTUC (Church Of The Undying Child). Suspiciously, nearly all of COTUC survived the SGDS-catastrophe and seem to be benefited from it, as they used the past ten years to research advanced technology. To get more information, especially the location of the COTUC headquarters protagonists infiltrated a COTUC monastery protected by heavily armed troops, cyborgs and crawling mines: mines capable of subterranean movement and attracted to vibrations caused by surface movement. Fortunately the visit of a high ranked COTUC member can be used to extract the desired information. At this point, the storyline splits into two paths: the player can choose to join COTUC or to defeat them. Joining COTUC the protagonists accepted a mission to infiltrate a NOAH compound and got vital intelligence from a COTUC spy. The intelligence revealed NOAH as responsible for creating SGDS and distributing it through the world in order to develop and sell the vaccine at a high price. Obviously, the vaccine wasn't completed and billions died as a result. Finally, the joint protagonist-COTUC taskforce raided and destroyed the central NOAH headquarters. At the end, the leader of COTUC arrived and gave the group a Hobson's choice: either surrender and be transformed into Death Knight cyborgs, or go down fighting. Opposing COTUC the protagonists had to infiltrate the COTUC headquarters, disguised as unarmed monks. The group had to use anything they can find to fight their way out. It was also discovered that the COTUC not only found and synthesised a cure, but also perfected SGDS to become an even more potent toxin. Unfortunately the leader of COTUC escaped to his last resort and took the antidot with him. With a little help from a squad of NOAH soldiers the numerous enemies were defeated and a counterstrike targeting the players base was prevented. In his final standoff the COTUC leader offered an alliance, which was promptly and violently rejected. Depending on the players choice the game has three possible endings, which are narrated in the closing: * If the player joined COTUC and surrendered, the protagonists are transformed into hideous Death Knights. Their only hope is to eventually beeing able to break through the brainwashing and get revenge. * If the player joined COTUC and fights, everyone is slaughtered. Maybe someone else will rise up and win against the COTUC in the future. * If the player sided with NOAH and killed the COTUC leader, it is remarked as the first step of humanity towards restoring civilization. ===== Eccentric teenager Vivienne Freeman hitches a ride from a reluctant recluse, visiting Englishman Alex Hughes. Just when they reach her home town of Wawa, she is killed by a transport truck ramming their vehicle, while Alex only gets a nosebleed. Everybody confirms that it was not Alex's fault. Alex visits Vivienne's mother, Linda, to deliver some gifts Vivienne had bought her and to provide support. She has been informed about her daughter's death a few hours before Alex's visit, but does not show any signs of grief. Linda is autistic and constantly behaves in unusual ways while showing that she fully understands what is happening around her. She has a cleanliness mania which involves her constantly making sure everything in her home is neat, and prevents her from touching garbage bags. Her problem is finding someone who will put the garbage outside to be collected (but only when the truck arrives), as this was always something done by her daughter. Linda insists that Alex stay a few days so that he can do it for her. He agrees and also arranges Vivienne's funeral. During his stay he begins a relationship with Linda's back fence neighbor, Maggie, who Linda mistakenly thinks is a prostitute. Wawa’s Chief of Police, Clyde, is jealous of Alex’s connection to Maggie, which he tries to sour by telling Maggie that Alex has just been released after serving time for killing a man. Maggie does not ask Alex about this, but instead waits until he brings the subject up himself. Alex reveals that he punched and accidentally killed the man (he fell and cracked his head) who caused his son's death. The man had been driving drunk and hit Alex’s 22-year-old son while his son was on his way to meet Alex for the first time — Alex had only recently learned about his existence, the result of a brief affair. Alex, released from prison, has flown to Timmins and is driving to Winnipeg (he was not aware of the vast distance) to see his son’s mother. Linda dislikes Maggie to the point where she initially refuses her help. But after Alex leaves to continue his journey to Winnipeg, she allows Maggie to come into her home to take her garbage out. ===== The crew of follows an ancient SOS to a Class L planet whose atmospheric interference requires landing the ship to investigate. On the surface, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) leads an away team to discover the source of the transmission: a Lockheed Model 10 Electra with an alien generator added to sustain the SOS. Joining Commander Chakotay's (Robert Beltran) team, the crew finds a "cryostasis chamber" containing eight humans preserved since the 1930s, including Amelia Earhart (Sharon Lawrence) and her navigator, Fred Noonan (David Graf). After resuscitation, Noonan uses a handgun to hold the Voyager officers hostage, disbelieving their story and insisting on speaking to J. Edgar Hoover. Janeway speaks to Earhart and explains her significance to human history and to Janeway herself; Earhart, as Noonan's boss, tells him to cooperate, and some of them exit the caves. Outside, a firefight breaks out between the Voyager away team and three hooded figures. Janeway flanks the attackers and disarms them; they are human, and are surprised that Janeway is too. They had assumed the Voyager was a ship belonging to an alien species called the Briori. Janeway learns that the Briori visited Earth in 1937 and abducted some 300 humans, bringing them to the Delta Quadrant to use as slaves. The humans later successfully rebelled against the Briori, who fled and never returned. Fifteen generations later, there are more than 100,000 humans living in three cities on the planet. The last eight un-revived humans in cryostasis were believed dead by the others, who came to revere "the 37s" as "monuments to [their] ancestors". The settlers cannot offer the Briori technology that brought them there, as their ancestors dismantled the alien ship long ago, but they do offer to accept any of the Voyager crew into their society. Janeway thus faces a crisis of conscience over whether she can condemn all on Voyager to the 70-year journey home to Earth. Yet, if the choice is presented to the crew and only some decide to continue onward, the ship cannot be staffed by fewer than 100. Meanwhile, Earhart says that as much as she admires Voyager and yearns to learn more about it, she and the other 37s feel a stronger affinity to the people on the planet and they will all be staying. In the end, Janeway allows her crew to decide for themselves, and they all opt to stay aboard. ===== Dan is a world-class trampolining gymnast attending college at the University of California, Berkeley. The story begins when Dan experiences a series of nightmares, where he is in a dark lane. In front of him is Death, about to claim his life, when an old man appears out of nowhere and confronts Death. One particular night, Dan heads out to an all night gas station, where he meets the same old man from his dreams. Dan, nervous, leaves immediately, but as he turns back, he sees the man standing on the roof. Surprised that he could move so quickly, Dan strikes up a conversation with the old man, and calls him Socrates. Dan begins to meet Socrates on a regular basis, and is interested in his philosophy. Socrates ridicules Dan, pointing out that he is trapped in the illusions created by his mind, causing Dan so much trouble. Dan keeps a diary and is surprised that his mind is so troubled, that he is used to it. Dan demands Socrates to teach him. Socrates begins his initiation, by showing Dan visions of his whole life; his purpose; the world and "re arranges" the young man's mind. Socrates tells Dan that he should eliminate attachments and live in the present, but warns him that it would be a painful journey. Dan becomes besotted with Socrates's other protegé, a mysterious girl named Joy, who keeps turning up, unpredictably. A few weeks later, Dan suffers an accident, where his right leg is badly fractured. Socrates arrives and accelerates Dan's healing process. Socrates takes Dan to a café, owned by his former disciple, Joseph, who serves simple food. Socrates instructs Dan to take up celibacy, consume only light food and avoid intoxicating substances. Dan is frustrated, and even fails once, but resumes. Next, Socrates begins to train Dan physically, making him run, correcting his poise and breath, practice tai chi, meditation and aikido and refine his gymnastics. Dan graduates and Socrates decides to part ways with him, as Dan must travel his path on his own. Dan marries Linda, but the marriage fails. He travels around the world for six years, learning new physical teachings, but is unable to find peace. Dejected, Dan returns to Berkeley, to an old place which Socrates had told him about long ago. Dan meets Socrates again, now over hundred years old. Socrates tells Dan that he is almost near to his goal. Mystified, Dan follows Socrates to an ancient Native American burial ground. A thunderstorms breaks out and the two go inside a cave. Dan experiences a vision where he dies but still remains conscious. He finally overcomes his fear of death. Socrates reminds Dan of his teachings and that he must be happy without any reason. Socrates and Dan return home. Dan wonders where Socrates is and opens the door. Socrates has disappeared, died presumably. Dan returns home as a wiser man. He falls in love and marries Joyce, who is revealed to be Joy. ===== A womanizing racketeer (Montgomery) is wounded by police and hides out in a farmhouse, where he falls in love with a country girl (O'Sullivan) and meets her wholesome family. ===== ===== A pickup artist / womanizer named Patrick inadvertently pursues two young women who actually happen to be roommates. ===== Crossing the Atlantic on the luxurious liner Elephantine are an American judge, Crowdy Lobbett, and his children. A number of people around Judge Lobbett have been murdered, and he is said to be fleeing to England for safety. Apparent buffoon Albert Campion offers the family sanctuary with his friends in remote Suffolk, but a local commits suicide, the Judge vanishes, and another disappearance follows soon after. What is the Judge's mysterious secret? How was he kidnapped from a remote maze? Can Campion and his friends get to the bottom of things before it's too late? ===== ===== In Dublin, a working-class family has been unsuccessful in convincing their son to get a real job: the son prefers his job of scooping up horse's dung and selling it for flower gardens. An American exchange student almost runs him over and gets to know him. The dung man has ignored warnings from his family and suddenly the horses have been banned from Dublin. His new love is leaving for America and he must find a way to cope with the new reality. ===== An explosion resulting from an experiment gone awry rocks an Allied research facility near the border with the Soviet Bloc. A Soviet team abducts Dr. Lucas Martino, a leading Allied physicist in charge of a secret, high- priority project called K-88. Several months later, under American pressure, the Soviet officials finally hand over an individual, claiming that he is Dr. Martino. The man has undergone extensive surgery for his injuries. He has a mechanical arm that is more advanced than any produced in the West. More importantly, his head is now a nearly featureless metal skull, a kind of extreme craniofacial prosthesis. A medical evaluation reveals that several of the man's internal organs are also artificial. His biological arm and its hand's fingerprints are identified as Martino's, but this may be the result of an arm and hand transplantation. The Allies are suspicious that the Soviets have sent them a technologically altered spy and are holding the real Martino for further interrogation. The struggle to determine the man's true identity is the novel's central conflict. In the end, Shawn Rogers, the agent given the task, is unable to reach a conclusion. The man is released, but kept under surveillance and barred from working on physics projects. Later, when progress bogs down on the K-88 project, Rogers is sent to ask him to come back to work. The man refuses to go, and when finally asked directly if he is Lucas Martino, says simply "No": a reply that will later be seen as trenchantly mordant. Budrys tells the story in alternating chapters. Every second chapter relates part of Lucas Martino's life, highlighting his family, his struggle to support a career in physics, and his dalliances in romance. The young man spent his formative years in an Italian American New Jersey farm community (with English as his second language), then works his way through the City College of New York, and graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last part of the novel tells what happened on the Soviet side. It takes many weeks for doctors to save Martino's life. Soviet interrogator Anastas Azarin has little time to work with and is thrown off by the prisoner's expressionless appearance. An attempt was actually made to replace Martino with a Soviet agent (his former MIT roommate, who knows him well enough to take on the role), and who was to disappear in a staged air crash, but this fails. Thus, at the end of the book the mystery is resolved to the reader's satisfaction: the man is indeed Lucas Martino, not a Soviet agent, and he is perfectly willing to resume his scientific work. But since the Western authorities cannot be sure of that, he will never be allowed near sensitive material again; rather, he is doomed to live out the rest of his life as an obscure farmer, under a shadow of suspicion that he will never be able to dispel. The treatment he received on his return, the endless suspicion and hostility, transformed him: he is indeed no longer the Lucas Martino he was before the accident, hence the mordant quality of his final reply to Rogers. As made evident by one of the titles of the film adaptation, The Man in the Steel Mask, the book is loosely inspired by the historical mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask in the 18th century. ===== Jules, a young man, is a motorcycle courier for RCA in Paris, and an enthusiastic fan of classical music and opera. Jules is a particular fan of Cynthia Hawkins, a beautiful American opera singer, who only performs live and has never made a recording, studio or otherwise. One day, Jules secretly records a Cynthia Hawkins concert. He shares the tape with his friend Alba, a precocious teenage beauty. Alba shares the tape with her older friend Serge Gorodish, Serge is a successful part-time criminal in his mid-40s, who has Alba as a sort of muse. Serge realizes that the Cynthia Hawkins tape could fetch a lot of money from "pirate" record makers. This plot becomes entangled with the fate of Nadia, a young woman employed by Saporta, who controls the largest drug cartel and prostitution ring in Paris. Nadia records a statement exposing Saporta on a cassette tape, but is pursued by Saporta's henchmen. She hides the cassette in the satchel of Jules' motorcycle. Soon, Jules is being chased by the police, as well as gangsters, though he has no idea why. Saporta mobilizes his entire crime organization to retrieve the tape from Jules. Locating an intrepid and skilled motorcyclist in Paris is not easy. Meanwhile, there is a furious underground bidding war for the Hawkins tape. ===== When Nyssa's psychic abilities threaten her life, the Doctor takes her to ancient Traken. Will Nyssa be healed, or does the Doctor's arrival threaten Traken and its Source? ===== The Phantom of the Opera is a disfigured musician named Erik who lives below the Opéra Garnier in Paris. He has a large part in managing each performance until his friend, Gerard Carriere is dismissed. The new manager, Choleti refuses to listen to warnings about the "ghost" who haunts the opera house, even when the wardrobe man goes into the depths of the opera house and is killed. Christine Daaé comes to the Paris Opera House to receive voice lessons, however she is dismissed by Choleti's wife, Carlotta to working in the costume department. The doorman lets Christine stay in a storage room in the Opera House. Upon hearing her sing, the Phantom is entranced by her voice. He offers to be her teacher, but must remain anonymous; that is why he wears a mask. They begin lessons, and the Phantom falls deeper in love with her. Erik begins a campaign of humiliation against Carlotta, sabotaging her performances. With Erik's encouragement, Christine earns a singing contract. The Comte de Chagny realizes Christine was his childhood sweetheart. Erik witnesses them together and stays up all night in the rehearsal room. Finding out Christine has been living in the Opera, Carlotta blackmails Christine into telling her about her vocal coach. When Carlotta informs her husband that Christine's teacher is the Phantom, Choleti gives Christine the female lead of the opera Faust; he is working with the police to capture the Phantom. Carlotta gives Christine a drink that weakens her voice during the performance. The audience boos and Erik is enraged. He cuts through the ropes holding the chandelier and drops it on the audience, then abducts Christine to his underground lair. The Phantom discovers Carlotta was behind Christine's voice problems and dumps rats on her, driving her insane. Carriere pleads with him to let Christine go, but Erik refuses. He insists that the world above is not fit for her and believes that in time she will love him. Carriere goes to Christine and urges her to get out. He tells her the story of Erik's past and of Erik's mother, a great singer named Belladova to whom she bears a resemblance. Belladova gave birth to him below the opera house, and Erik has lived there his entire life. Christine refuses to leave without talking to Erik. She asks Erik to show her his face promising him that she would be able to look at him with love and acceptance, as his mother once did. When he does unmask, she faints. In the midst of an anguished breakdown, Erik locks her in one of his chambers. Christine escapes, and Carriere and the Count take her from the Opera House. Christine is stricken with guilt and begs Phillipe to take her back. The Comte agrees and he and Christine approach Choleti about singing that night. Choleti secretly arranges to have police planted throughout the opera house. Carriere tells Erik that Christine did not mean to hurt him. The older man reveals that he has seen Erik's face, because he is his father. Erik says he knew, as they have the same eyes (the only thing of his face he can bear to look at). Christine sings at that night's performance of Faust. Erik hears her and forces himself up to Box Five. He begins singing with her. Christine and the Phantom sing to each other with such passion that the audience is awed and gives them a standing ovation. The police shoot at Erik and he grabs a hold of Christine carrying her off to the roof. The Comte pursues them, but in the ensuing struggle is knocked off the roof, dangling above the street. At Christine's pleading, Erik pulls him to safety. Erik is cornered by police determined to take him alive. Carriere has retrieved a gun and upholding a promise, Carriere shoots him. Erik falls from the roof and Christine runs to him. While cradled in his father's lap, Christine removes Erik's mask, looks him straight in the face and smiles. Erik dies with his father and Christine at his side. Christine replaces Erik's mask and is led away by the Comte. ===== The series is set in the distant future. Humans have spread beyond living on Earth and have colonized planets across the universe, creating a New Frontier of man. In order to protect these new settlers and maintain law and order in the New Frontier, Earth's Cavalry Command was created. Cavalry Command is a military organization that maintains an army and fleet of ships to protect the New Frontier and the residents of the planets within it known as Settlers. Within Cavalry Command is a unit of special operatives known as Star Sheriffs that function as the organization's field agents, investigating any crimes and plots that threaten the security of the New Frontier. The main foe of Cavalry Command and the Star Sheriffs is a race of non-human creatures known as Vapor Beings (also sometimes called Outriders) that have jumped into our dimension in order to conquer it. They attack the Settlers, destroy settlements, and kidnap humans in order to mine various metals or crystals from the soil of various planets. Outriders are superior to humans in battle technology. They control a legion of gigantic robots ("Renegade Units") with weapons greatly superior to the weapons and defenses of the space-going fleets of Cavalry Command. In response to the Outriders's threat, Cavalry Command develops a prototype spaceship known as the "Ramrod Equalizer Unit" (or simply Ramrod) that has the ability to transform from a spaceship into a powerful robot that can fight the Outriders's Renegade Units on equal terms. ===== Dark Angel follows an original storyline that takes place after the destruction of the headquarters of Manticore, an organization which creates genetically-enhanced super soldiers, at the beginning of the TV series' second season. Seattle has been placed on a curfew as the I Corporation round up the escapees from Manticore. They are particularly interested in capturing super soldier Max Guevara. Max evades and fights I Corporation through the streets of Seattle as she returns to her apartment. After battling opponents in her apartment lobby, Max learns that her friend and flatmate Original Cindy has been captured by the sector police. After defeating the police and rescuing Original Cindy, Max goes to meet her friend and ally, cyber-journalist Logan Cale at his apartment. Outside the apartment complex she defeats an I Corporation genetically engineered boss character named Beetle. Meanwhile, a cloaked figure murders a police officer at the scene and steals his vehicle. Logan informs Max that he has received an email from someone named Sylan who claims that Max has a twin sister. He traces the email to an I Corporation research lab named Tritech. Max tells Logan that Sylan was one of the child soldiers at Manticore, and that she stayed behind in order to help Max and eleven of her siblings escape. Max proceeds to Tritech to find her. Max infiltrates the Tritech facility and defeats guards as well as a genetically engineered boss named Gekko. Then, she witnesses the cloaked figure kill a Tritech employee before capturing Sylan. Max continues her pursuit across a fortified bridge and a dockyard. Logan's research discovers Sylan is being held prisoner on a ship; Max enters the Marine Control Centre, the main headquarters of the I Corporation's offshore business operations, in order to learn which ship Sylan is on. Max boards the ship Stella Nova after learning that Sylan is aboard. Max rescues Sylan following a confrontation with an opponent disguised as her. Max discovers that her twin sister, Beka, was taken to the I Corporation headquarters years ago, and that an I Corporation scientist, Dr Stephen Van Der Mescht, knows more about her. Logan traces Van Der Mescht to a military train owned by I Corporation. Max breaks through security at the train yard and boards the train. She locates Van Der Mescht, who initially refuses to help her. After Max threatens him with torture, Van Der Mescht explains that I Corporation was a rival of Manticore, and had a military contract for more aggressive genetic research. They created a 'Y' series of genetically engineered soldiers (as opposed to Manticore's 'X' series); when Max and Beka were born, Beka was taken by I Corporation so that the two different series could be compared. I Corporation guards ambush the room, killing Van Der Mescht before he can divulge more. I Corporation send a single soldier, a transgenic boss named Bear, to kill Max. Bear is defeated, and Max reaches the I Corporation headquarters with the train. Max fights her way to the upper level of the headquarters, defeating guards and the boss characters Beetle, Gekko and Bear again, before she confronts Beka. Beka reveals that she now controls the I Corporation, and has engineered a younger replacement to succeed her using the DNA that she and Max shares. She tries to recruit Max to join her and their 'younger sister' in creating a new generation of genetically engineered soldiers. Max refuses and Beka attacks her. After killing Beka, Max tries to rescue her younger sister. The cloaked figure, whose identity is never revealed, tries unsuccessfully to stop her. Logan arrives in a helicopter and rescues Max and her younger sister from the complex. Later, while sitting on the roof of the Space Needle, Max laments that knowing the truth about Beka is worse than not knowing at all, but is determined to create a positive life for herself and her younger sister. A post-credits scene shows Max and Original Cindy dancing in their apartment. ===== The movie is set at St. Francis Academy, a fictional all-girls Catholic boarding school in Pennsylvania, operated by an order of nuns. Rosalind Russell plays the Mother Superior, who spends the movie at odds with Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills), a rebellious teenager, and her friend Rachel Devery (June Harding). The episodic story line follows the young women through their sophomore, junior and senior high-school years as they pull pranks on the sisters and repeatedly get into trouble. Both girls almost get expelled for smoking in a Bell tower, being overcome by carbon monoxide. Although Mary spends much of her time at St. Francis resenting the authority of the Mother Superior and puzzling over why any woman would choose the life of a nun, as time goes on she is touched by examples of the sisters' dedication, devotion, kindness, love, and generosity, and begins to see that their life is one of fulfillment, not deprivation. Mary receives "the call" senior year and, after graduation, remains at the school to begin her novitiate in the order. ===== The story focuses on Jane Marks, her adult daughters Michelle and Elizabeth, and her pre-teen adopted African American daughter Annie, each of whom allows her personal insecurities to affect her life. Jane, longing to look younger and thinner, opts for liposuction, with near tragic results. When Michelle's artistic talents fail to produce any income for her family, much to the dismay of her husband Bill, she takes a job as a one-hour photo developer and finds herself falling for the attention of her teenaged co-worker Jordan. Aspiring actress Elizabeth, who bestows upon stray dogs the affection she finds difficult to offer her boyfriend Paul, questions her appeal when she's rejected for a role based on her looks, and she seeks reassurance from film heartthrob Kevin McCabe. Overweight Annie tries to fit in better with her white adopted family by having her hair straightened by black Big Sister volunteer Lorraine, who Jane hopes will put the young girl in touch with her heritage. ===== Grace Ansley and Alida Slade are middle-aged American women visiting Rome with their daughters, Barbara Ansley and Jenny Slade. The women live in Manhattan, New York, and have been friends since girlhood. A youthful and romantic rivalry led Mrs. Slade to nurture feelings of jealousy and hatred against Mrs. Ansley. For her part, Mrs. Ansley looks down on Mrs. Slade, who she feels has led "a sad life." In the opening pages of the story, the two women compare their daughters and reflect on each other's lives. Eventually, Alida reveals a secret about a letter written to Grace on a visit to Rome many years ago. The letter was purportedly from Alida's fiancé, Delphin, inviting Grace to a rendezvous at the Colosseum. In fact, Alida forged the letter in an attempt to send Grace on a fruitless outing and expose her "delicate throat" to the "deathly cold." Mrs. Ansley is upset at this revelation, but explains that she was not left alone at the Colosseum; she responded to the letter, and Delphin arrived to meet her. Mrs. Ansley then says that she feels sorry for Mrs. Slade, repeating her earlier thoughts. Mrs. Slade states that, while she was "beaten there," Mrs. Ansley ought not to feel sorry for her, because she "had [Delphin] for twenty-five years" while Mrs. Ansley had "nothing but that one letter that he didn't write." Mrs. Ansley responds, in the last sentence of the story, "I had Barbara," implying that Barbara is Delphin's daughter. ===== Cate Blanchett portrays a marginally successful career woman preparing dinner for her gruff and unsympathetic mother. As she cooks the mashed potatoes and sausages, she tells an indifferent audience of her mother and cat about a recent promotion at work. While she rants about her job it becomes apparent that she is in the middle of a mental breakdown that culminates in burned sausage and mashed potatoes all over the floor. ===== The narrator describes the character "The Great Mahlke" from their youth together through to Mahlke's disappearance near the end of the Second World War. Much of the action of the story is on a half-submerged sunken minesweeper of the Polish Navy, on which the narrator, Mahlke and their friends meet each summer. Mahlke explores the shipwreck by diving through a hatch, and with his ever-present screwdriver salvages various items (information plaques, objects left behind by the crew, and even a gramophone) to sell or collect for himself. Over the course of the novella Mahlke steals an Iron Cross from a visiting U-boat captain, and is expelled from school. He joins a Panzer division and himself receives an Iron Cross thanks to his successes in battle. Returning to the school from which he was expelled, however, the principal forbids him from making a speech to the students, on the grounds of his former disgrace. The narrative in the story is often fairly incoherent. For instance, the timeline of the narration is often treated flexibly, moving from the narrator's perspective to different points within his memory of the events. There is also disunity about whether Mahlke is addressed in the second- or third-person, with Grass sometimes changing the form of address within a single sentence, possibly indicating the narrator's inability to remove his own emotions and feelings of guilt from an objective account of Mahlke. Mahlke, with the help of the narrator, returns to the shipwreck. Mahlke's main reason for entering the war in the first place was to make a speech at his school afterwards. Since he is denied that wish, Mahlke deserts his post, seeing no other reason to fight. Desertion implies treason and in consequence death. Pilenz, whose relationship to Mahlke becomes increasingly ambivalent, takes advantage of the situation and pressures an unwell Mahlke to dive into the wreck once more to hide, aware that Mahlke might not survive the dive. Pilenz never sees Mahlke again. ===== The story centers on creatures called "The Gruzzles". Because the Gruzzles cannot read, they steal words out of books, preventing others from reading as well. Playing as a boy or girl, the player must help Benny Bookworm take back all the stolen words and match them with their meanings so he may put them back in the books. ===== The book is set in two parallel times; the present-day Dalemark, and the time of Mitt (Drowned Ammet) and Moril (Cart and Cwidder), some 200 years in the past. Mitt, who has recently escaped from the South and met Moril in North Dalemark, finds himself embroiled in a race to find an heir to the throne of Dalemark, which has lain empty for over 200 years, and gets mixed up in the machinations of a number of powerful forces. Maewen, a girl from present-day Dalemark, is transported by magic back in time to assist with the restoration of the royal line. In ancient Dalemark, Noreth Onesdaughter, a twin likeness of Maewen and apparently descended directly from the ancient kings of Dalemark, asks people to accompany her on her quest to become Queen. Unfortunately, just before she goes to meet her followers, she disappears. Maewen is drafted to replace her, and she has to lead Noreth's followers, collect the four tokens that will prove her right to the throne, and convince everyone that she is Noreth, all the while hearing mysterious voices in the air. Maewen sets out on her quest for the ancient crown of Dalemark with a small band of followers from the previous books in the series: Moril, Mitt, Navis Haddsson (a refugee nobleman from the South, see Drowned Ammet), Wend (the ancient magician-singer Tanamoril, Osfameron or Duck: see The Spellcoats), and Hestefan the Singer (who is eventually exposed as the evil Kankredin's agent and the murderer of Noreth). When they finally receive the crown from the One, the supreme god-like power of Dalemark, it is not Maewen who receives it – but Mitt. As the new king, Mitt assumes the name Amil (one of the One's secret names) and continues to reunite and rebuild Dalemark as Amil the Great. Maewen goes back to her future, but she is followed by the evil Kankredin who seeks to kill her for foiling his plans in the past. This is represented as a bomb threat to the building where Maewen is. Mitt, who we now learn is one of the Undying, appears as a bomb expert, and destroys Kankredin by invoking the "strong name" of the god-like Earth Shaker, who has been helping Mitt ever since his adventures in Drowned Ammet. Mitt leaves, sending Maewen a message to wait four years to contact him, presumably until she is old enough to marry. On hearing this, Maewen decides that four years is far too long, and sets off to find him. The Crown is a particularly interesting addition to the Dalemark series, as many of the characters from previous books are seen from quite different perspectives, not necessarily favourable. Hildrida Navissdaughter, Earl Keril of Hannart, and the singer- magician Osfameron (appearing as Wend) are notable for the negative sides of their personalities that are brought out in the book. ===== Breath, Eyes, Memory was Danticat's first novel, published when she was only twenty-five years old. As she has recounted in interviews, the book began as an essay of her childhood in Haiti and her move as a young girl to New York City. The novel is written in a first person narrative. The narrator, Sophie Caco, relates her direct experiences and impressions from age 12 until she is in her twenties. Sophie is the product of a violent rape and is raised by her loving aunt in a village near Port-au- Prince for 12 years. At this point, Sophie is unexpectedly summoned by her mother, who lives in Brooklyn having gained asylum and immigrated to the United States. Living with her mother in New York, Sophie discovers the trauma her mother endures inclusive of violent nightmares reminiscent of her experience prior to fleeing Haiti. The major conflict of the novel is the main character's battle with her inner self. Because she is a child of rape (her mother had been raped at the young age of 16 by an unknown man), she is a reminder to her mother of the wounds that had been inflicted on her. Her mother as a result of the rape remained this wounded but very resilient woman. Her mother came to resent her own self and body and constantly has nightmares about the rape. This, along with the fact that Sophie's mother practiced the act of testing (which is when she basically checks on her daughter to make sure that her daughter is still a virgin), causes Sophie to grow into the same type of woman as her mother. She grows into a woman who fights a battle with herself as a woman, wife, mother, as well as daughter. She is also in turn fighting the weight of her inheritance, as well as her mother's past experiences. The rising action of the story is when Sophie leaves Haiti at age twelve to join her mother in the United States in New York. Sophie, despite her mother's warnings to focus on school and no men, falls in love with Joseph, a musician who lives next door to them. Sophie is caught one night by her mother when she returns home late. Her mother in turn begins testing her constantly to make sure she is still a virgin. Depression causes Sophie to act irrationally. One night she decides to impale herself with her mother's spice pestle so she can fail the test. When she fails her mother's test, she is thrown out of the house. She then elopes with Joseph and they marry. The climax of the story comes after she marries Joseph. Sophie begins to feel frustrated and confused, both by anxieties and responsibilities. To get away from it all, she flees to Haiti along with her infant daughter, without a word to her husband, Joseph, who is away touring. The falling action is when her mother, Martine, also comes to Haiti. Sophie hadn't spoken to her mother since her mother had thrown her out the house when she had failed the virginity test. That was about two years earlier. It is during that trip to Haiti that both mother and daughter reconcile. They return to New York and all seems well, until Sophie's mother becomes pregnant by her fiancé, Marc, and in turn commits suicide. ===== Jefferson Davis Bussey marches off to Leavenworth from Linn County, Kansas in 1861, on his way to join the Union volunteers. He is off to fight for the North, his zeal having been fueled by reaction to the guerilla war of "bushwhackers" that was taking place in eastern Kansas. However, Stand Watie is on the side of the South. We meet many soldiers and civilians on both sides of the war, including Watie's raiding parties, itinerant printer Noah Babbitt and, in Tahlequah, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) the beautiful Cherokee girl, Lucy Washbourne. During an undercover mission, Jeff finds that Captain Asa Clardy of the Union Cavalry is smuggling new Spencer rifles to the Indian forces of Stand Watie. Jeff winds up fighting for both the North and the South (while on a special undercover mission) during the conflict while making friends on each side. The book is also notable for the detailed depiction of contemporary Cherokee life in Indian Territory, including various tribal political factions. Keith portrays the difficulties Jeff Bussey faces in choosing one side or the other in the midst of huge conflicts. ===== Elliot Wade (Sam Bottoms) obtains ownership of the Dolly Dearest factory in Mexico. Not far from the factory is the underground Mayan tomb of Sanzia, or Satan on Earth. An archaeologist breaks into the sarcophagus but is crushed by the stone slab that covers the entrance, releasing the malevolent spirit of Sanzia. Upon its escape, Sanzia takes refuge in the porcelain doll, Dolly Dearest. Despite the demise of the archaeologist, the sale is finalized and the Wade family travels to Mexico to see their new home. Upon arrival, the family meets their realtor, Mr. Estrella and housekeeper, Camilla (Lupe Ontiveros). Estrella takes Elliot, Jimmy, and Jessica to see the factory. The building, long abandoned, is structurally unstable to the consternation of Elliot, but Estrella hurriedly brushes his worries aside and discusses the history of the factory. During the conversation, Jessica goes exploring. On a shelf she discovers many well- preserved dolls covered by a sheet. She asks her father if she may have one and he acquiesces, allowing her to take Dolly. Outside, Jimmy finds the entrance to the cave which is blocked by a wire fence. Unaware of recent events, Jimmy inquires about that area, but his father warns him to never go back there again. That night, Marilyn (Denise Crosby) tucks Jessica into bed. As she falls asleep, Dolly slowly turns her head to stare at the child. The next day, Marilyn finds a disturbing drawing that she thinks Jessica drew. Jessica becomes progressively more violent and obsessive with Dolly. To not arouse her father's suspicion, Jessica acts normal when he is around, but resumes her evil and threatening behavior around her mother. Camilla believes the doll is controlling Jessica. When the daughter speaks harshly in Sanzian tongue, Camilla tries to warn Marilyn, but is killed by the spirit. Jimmy sneaks out of the house one night and breaks into the factory from an unlocked window. He finds the night watchman Luis, dead on the floor and flees. Marilyn comes to the realization that Jessica may truly be possessed and tries to take the doll from her daughter. Jessica warns her mother not to touch the doll, but when Marilyn persists, Sanzia momentarily possesses Jessica and yells, "I will kill you!" before adding "The kid's mine." The next day, Marilyn visits the dig for the first time and talks with the archaeologist, Resnick (Rip Torn) about the purpose of their dig. Resnick tells Marilyn that they are searching for the remains of the Sanzia devil child inside the tomb, which has not been opened yet. Resnick continues to explain that the devil child, a true force of evil, fed on the warm blood of children. The tribe eventually killed the creature because its dietary needs almost wiped out the population of the tribe. Marilyn then explains that Jessica is being controlled by her doll and visits Camilla's sister, a nun, at a convent, informing her it is too late. At home, Marilyn looks for Jessica. She finds Jimmy hiding on the floor of the hallway closet, and he tells her that Jessica and Dolly are in Jessica's room. He also reveals that he saw Dolly talk and move. Jimmy hands her the key to Jessica's room, and Dolly reveals its true self to Marilyn. Marilyn goes back downstairs, loads ammo into the shotgun and tells Jimmy to call his father. At the factory, the dolls disconnect the phones from the hook. Marilyn returns to Jessica's room to find the doll gone. Jimmy continues to try to contact his father. When he is unable to get through, he attempts to call the operator, but is unable to communicate because he does not speak Spanish. When Jessica becomes separated from Dolly, her mother attempts to flee with her, only to be blocked by Dolly. Dolly calls to Jessica, and Jessica attacks her mother. As Marilyn and Jessica struggle, Dolly starts advancing towards them with a kitchen knife. Jimmy grabs the shotgun and, after figuring out how it works, fires it at Dolly. The impact of the bullets sends Dolly crashing through the door, and Jessica becomes herself again. Marilyn, Jessica and Jimmy get in the car and drive to the factory, where Elliot is being attacked by the dolls. Meanwhile, the professor enters the tomb and sees the remains of the devil child, which has the body of an infant and the head of a goat. Realizing the myth was true, the professor runs to the factory, where he saves Elliot from the dolls. They run outside and reunite with Elliot's family. The family plants dynamite around the factory. The dolls fail in stopping them; as a result, the factory explodes, killing the dolls. As the explosions continue, an agonizing demonic scream is heard, implying the evil Sanzia spirit is also destroyed. The film ends as the family watches the factory burn. ===== Orphaned and illegitimate, Jamie Sommers grows up believing he has "no hope of heaven", that he is doomed to a dreadful existence. A Roman Catholic, he is deeply depressed by the ideas of being conceived in adultery and born in sin. The impressionable Jamie is repeatedly told by nuns in the Bronx that he is destined to repeat the sins of his parents, and he proves them right. Taking to the sea, Jamie seeks out danger and adventure in exotic ports all over the world as a smuggler, gunrunner, and murderer. Life became a constant struggle in his search for excitement and fulfillment. Also, Jamie believed he didn't deserve a better life than he has, so he chooses to worsen himself. Tough enough to handle anything, he survives foreign prisons, pirates, and a shark attack. But in a quiet seaside town in Delaware, Jamie discovers something that pushes him over the edge mentally and changes his life forever. After being taken out of a mental institution life gets harder. Trying to deal with the townspeople who want him hurt and taking his medicine, all the while having to deal with his master. He starts to find himself when he switches medicines and Grenville takes him on a cruise. ===== In the eternally busy city of Din, the black-and-white Rushers constantly go about their business in a fast-paced way and stop only to sleep, due to their Cosmic Clock being wound too tightly. Din lies between two worlds that create dreams to deliver to the sleeping Rushers – one is the bright and cheerful Frivoli, where Greensleeves and his Figmen of Imagination bring sweet dreams; and the other is the Murkworks, a dark and dingy factory home to vultures who drop nightmare bombs. The evil Botch, maniacal ruler of the Murkworks, wants to foil Greenie's efforts and subject the Rushers to non-stop waking nightmares. He uses his vultures to kidnap the Figs and Greensleeves, but not before Greensleeves writes an S.O.S. to Frivoli. Meanwhile, two misfits - known as Ralph, the All-Purpose Animal (named so for his somewhat unreliable shapeshifting abilities), and Mumford, a Chaplinesque mime - are put on trial for their incompetence at work. They are determined to prove themselves when they meet Flora Fauna, Greensleeves's niece, who found her uncle's S.O.S. and wants to rescue him. Botch spies on the three through Ibor, his robot gorilla, and uses Ralph and Mum's desire to be heroes to his advantage. Botch deceives the three, claiming to be a friend of Greenie and telling them that Greensleeves can be saved if they go into Din and take the main spring from the Cosmic Clock. Flora stays behind to act the part of the damsel in distress for Botch's nightmares. Mumford and Ralph release the spring which causes time to freeze. They chase the spring throughout Din, but Botch's vultures steal the spring and begin planting every nightmare bomb in the Murkworks' inventory all over Din. A Fairy Godmother (FGM) twinkles in to tell Mum and Ralph that they have been tricked and gives them three dimes to make a phone booth appear in case they need her help. FGM also recruits the help of the dim-witted but musclebound Rod Rescueman to aid them. Rod is more interested in rescuing Fauna, however, and abandons the boys to find her. Ralph and Mum find nightmare bombs scattered in an office, ready to be set off by Botch once starts time again. Mumford accidentally detonates a bomb and the two are trapped in a nightmare in which they are nearly killed by office supplies. When they are finally freed from the nightmare, the Fairy Godmother transports them back to Frivoli, suggests that they give up after all the mistakes they've made, and fires them from the hero business. This further strengthens Ralph and Mum's resolve to do right. Meanwhile, Rod "rescues" Flora from the Murkworks and attempts to get a kiss from her. She tries to escape from his floating apartment in the sky and falls, landing on a mechanical serpent that attempts to stop Ralph and Mum from reaching the Murkworks. The trio and Rod storm their way in with the help of Scuzzbopper, Botch's former nightmare screenwriter, who decides to aid them after Botch cruelly discards his recently completed Amurkian novel. Rod and Flora rescue Greenie and the Figs but have to contend with Ibor. Rod tries to save Flora again but fails, and Flora destroys the robot herself. At the same time, Botch has his head vulture Rudy fly the spring back to Din as the final phase of his plan. When Ralph, Mum, and Scuzzbopper enter Botch's office, he has his pet rat attack them but Scuzzbopper tricks it into chasing a bowling ball out a window. Botch retreats to a control room housing his master nightmare bomb button, "The Big Red One", with Ralph and Mum chasing after him. Ralph finally manages to control his shapeshifting to get through Botch's arsenal of booby traps and flies into the control room, while Mumford struggles through the traps and into the barrel of Botch's cannon. Ralph, in the form of a fly, tricks Botch into pressing The Big Red One, detonating all the nightmare bombs before Rudy could put the spring back in the Cosmic Clock, the still- immobilized Rushers being unaffected. An enraged Botch is about to kill Ralph for ruining his plans when one last nightmare bomb appears, about to blow. Terrified of being subjected to his own nightmare, Botch is knocked out the window. The bomb turns out to be Mumford, who had stretched his hat over himself and used a cigar to simulate nightmare smoke. Ralph and Mumford consider themselves heroes, while Botch is saved and carried away by his vultures (who may harbor ill-will toward Botch for his insults and cruel demands). Scuzzbopper, Flora, and Rod assume command of the Murkworks, with Flora giving a parting kiss to Ralph and Mumford for helping to save Greenie. As the two heroes leave, the Fairy Godmother congratulates them and allows them to keep their last dime as a symbol of good luck. The spring returns to the Cosmic Clock of its own will, and restarts the flow of time, but at a pace where the Rushers can enjoy their lives. ===== Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1951. Sid Silver (Steven Gilborn) has a problem: his social guidance films aren't working anymore. The teens of the '50s are going crazy buck wild and Sid can no longer reach them. Clay Crawford (Jamieson Stern) also has a problem. He's on the run from the law and trying to make it to California to find a man who may be his father. A grizzled bounty hunter named Lucky (Geoffrey Lewis) is hot on Clay's trail. Sid and Clay cross paths in the hot desert winds of New Mexico. Sid's daughter Anne-Marie (Jessica Kiper) begins to fall for Clay to the dismay of her fiancé, Ted (Clayton Rohner) who also bankrolls Sid's films. The fates of Formosa Studios and perhaps New Mexico itself hang in the balance. ===== In a small village named Rack-Armor Terrace in Hebei, at the foot of the Great Wall of China, a local peasant called Ma Dasan (played by Jiang Wen) is caught by surprise when a man bursts into his home one night and deposits two men in gunnysacks, instructing him at gunpoint to keep them captive but alive for the next few days and interrogate them. The man, identified only as "Me", leaves before Ma can catch a glimpse of him. One of the gunnysacks contains Kosaburo Hanaya (Kagawa Teruyuki), a belligerent Japanese sergeant; the other Dong Hanchen (Yuan Ding), an obsequious Chinese interpreter working for the Japanese Army. Ma hurriedly enlists the help of his fellow villagers. Fearing both the mysterious "Me" and the Japanese, the village decides to follow the instructions from "Me" and detains the prisoners in Ma's cellar. Hanaya repeatedly attempts to provoke the peasants into killing him, but Dong, fearing for his own life, alters Hanaya's words in translation to make him appear conciliatory. The mystery man fails to return by the eve of Chinese New Year as promised. Six months later, the villagers finally run out of patience and resolve to kill the prisoners. The task falls on Ma after a drawing of lots. Not daring to commit murder, Ma instead hides the prisoners in a watchtower along the Great Wall, where he visits them regularly to bring them food and water. However, an unsuccessful escape attempt by the prisoners reveals Ma's secret to the rest of the village. A bitter argument ensues and the village decides to hire an assassin from town to carry out the deed. Ma enlists the help of an old man known as One Stroke Liu (Chen Qiang), a former Imperial executioner. He is told that being beheaded by Liu feels like a passing breeze, and that the severed head will roll nine times on the ground, blink three times, and smile in a gesture of gratitude for such a painless death. However, Liu fails to harm either prisoner with one stroke. Claiming that it is the will of Heaven, Liu leaves with the prisoners uninjured. By this time, however, Hanaya has lost all his defiance and is filled only with gratitude towards the villagers. He promises to reward the village with two wagons of grain should he be released. The villagers agree and return the prisoners to the Japanese Army encampment in the nearby town. However, the Japanese Army has already made Hanaya a war hero, believing that he was killed in battle. Returning alive after being a prisoner shames the Army. The commander of the encampment, Captain Inokichi Sakatsuka (Kenya Sawada), gives Hanaya a merciless beating but feels honor-bound to fulfill the agreement between the latter and the village. Captain Sakatsuka and his men bring a great bounty of food and wine to the village and hold a feast there that evening, as Ma goes off to fetch his lover Yu'er (Jiang Hongbo) from a neighboring village. During the feast, Captain Sakatsuka demands to have the man who captured Hanaya. He also accuses Ma of sneaking off to fetch resistance fighters. Not given a satisfactory answer, he orders all villagers to be killed and the village to be burned. Ma and Yu'er return on a raft only to find the entire village in flames. Meanwhile, Hanaya is about to commit harakiri before being stopped by Captain Sakatsuka and informed that Japan has recently surrendered, and the war is over. After the Chinese National Revolutionary Army takes back the area, Dong is publicly executed for collaborating with the enemy. Ma, bent on revenge, disguises himself as a cigarette vendor and loiters outside the Japanese encampment, now converted into a POW camp. When two Japanese soldiers come out to buy cigarettes, Ma hacks them with an axe and breaks into the camp, killing more POWs. He finds and pursues Hanaya, but is brought down by guards before he can kill the latter. Major Gao (David Wu), commander of the Chinese Army contingent administering the town, condemns Ma's act as too despicable to deserve death by the hands of a Chinese soldier, and instead orders a Japanese POW to carry out the execution before a massive crowd. Captain Sakatsuka hands a katana to Hanaya, who takes careful aim before delivering the fatal strike. As Ma's head falls to the ground, it rolls nine times, blinks three times, and smiles, just as 'One Strike' Liu's victims were supposed to have done. ===== Captain Dan Tracey and his two lieutenants are ordered to investigate trouble on the resort planet Clitoris, a pleasure world filled with shopping and gambling where, according to the Articles of the Venus Convention, only women are allowed. A variety of problems are occurring on the planet; most notably, several important pieces of Girlinium have been stolen from the Empress Nueva Gabor. Girlinium, as explained by the empress, is a very rare gem found only in the caverns of the fourth moon of Girlina, a distant planet. It is used by the empress to help the planet maintain its delicate orbit surrounding its sun. The stolen pieces must be found or the planet will fall into ruin as evidenced by increasingly violent earthquakes. The captain and his men, in order to remain undercover, become women via sex reversal pills and pose as showgirls from Earth performing a mid-20th century lounge act for the empress' annual off-world slumber party while investigating the crime.Synopsis of Vegas in Space ===== In 1962, Burt Munro is a sort of folk hero in his home town of Invercargill, New Zealand, known for his friendly easy-going personality, for having the fastest motorcycle in New Zealand and Australia, and for being featured in Popular Mechanics magazine. However, that recognition is contrasted by his exasperated next-door neighbours, some of whom are fed up with his un-neighbourly habits; such as revving his motorbike early in the morning, urinating on his lemon tree, and not mowing his grass. Burt, however, has a long-time dream; to travel to the US and test his motorbike's capabilities at the Bonneville Speedway. However, while modifying his motorcycle, Burt suffers a heart attack. An ambulance takes him to hospital and he is told he has angina, and is advised to take it easy and not to ride his motorcycle. Burt ignores this advice, and is given medication. Burt is finally able to save enough to travel by cargo ship to Los Angeles, working his passage as the cook, but when he arrives, he experiences bureaucracy, skepticism, and the indifference of big city people. It is his blunt but gregarious nature which overcomes each hurdle. He wins over the motel clerk, a transgender woman named Tina, who assists him in clearing customs and helps him in buying a car. The car salesman allows Burt to use his workshop and junkyard to build a trailer, and later offers him a job after Burt fine-tunes a number of the cars on the lot. Burt declines the offer, however, and shortly afterwards begins his long trip to Utah. Along the way, Burt meets numerous helpful people, including highway police, a Native American who aids him when his trailer fails, a woman named Ada who allows him to repair his trailer and briefly becomes his lover, and an Air Force pilot who is on leave from military service in Vietnam. He finally arrives at the Bonneville Salt Flats, only to be blocked by race officials for not registering his motorcycle for competition in advance, and not having the mandated safety equipment. In a show of sportsmanship, however, various competitors and fans in the Bonneville series intervene on his behalf, and he is eventually allowed to make a timed run. Despite various problems, he succeeds in his quest and sets a new land speed record at the 8th mile of his run; when he reaches 201.851 mph (324.847 km/h). By the end, his leg is burned by the exhaust, and he then falls with the motorcycle and skids to a stop, but he is able to return home to New Zealand a hero. ===== Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi) is a widowed cook making his living in a small southern town in China. His thirteen-year-old son, Liu Xiaochun (Tang Yun), is a violin prodigy. In the hope that Xiaochun might find success as a violinist, Liu Cheng and Xiaochun travel to Beijing to participate in a competition organized by the Children's Palace, an arts institution for school children. Even though Xiaochun emerges fifth, he is denied admission into the conservatory as he does not have Beijing residency. Determined to realize his hopes for Xiaochun, Liu Cheng persuades Professor Jiang (Wang Zhiwen), a stubborn and eccentric teacher from the Children's Palace, to take Xiaochun as a private student. In the subsequent days, Xiaochun makes friends with Lili (Chen Hong), a young and attractive woman living upstairs. Lili does not have a regular job but lives off the rich men she dates. However, her heart lies with Hui (Cheng Qian), her smooth-talking, cheating boyfriend. After Lili finds out about Hui's affairs in the presence of Xiaochun, Xiaochun sells his violin to a shop, buys a fur coat that Lili fancies, and leaves it at Lili's apartment for her to find. Unfortunately, Hui finds the gift before Lili does, and gives it to Lili, claiming that it was from him. Lili does not discover that Hui lied (and that the coat was from Xiaochun) until later. Meanwhile, Liu Cheng has learned about a Professor Yu Shifeng (Chen Kaige), a high- profile professor from the Central Conservatory of Music. Believing that Professor Yu is able to bring Xiaochun to fame and success, Liu Cheng decides to switch teachers for Xiaochun. He pays Professor Yu a visit and confides in the latter the truth about Xiaochun's birth. It turns out that Liu Cheng has never been married. He found the infant Xiaochun abandoned in a train station, a violin placed next to the baby. Liu Cheng brought both home and raised the baby as his own. Xiaochun turned out to be a child prodigy, and Liu Cheng resolved to devote his life to cultivate his adopted son's talent. Professor Yu, apparently unmoved, nonetheless agrees to give Xiaochun an audition. However, Liu Cheng arrives at Professor Yu's home with Xiaochun only to find the violin case empty. Xiaochun, angry at his father for choosing commercial success over music, refuses to play even when offered another violin. Liu Cheng is so enraged that upon returning home, he tears up the award certificates that Xiaochun won in previous competitions. Lili, remorseful over the affair of the fur coat, looks up Professor Yu and persuades him to give Xiaochun a second chance. This time Xiaochun plays, and an impressed Professor Yu accepts him without hesitation. Professor Yu has another talented young student, Lin Yu (Zhang Jing), a highly jealous and ambitious girl. When a selection trial for an international competition is coming up, Lin Yu and Xiaochun are in a contest for the only spot. Liu Cheng decides to pack up and return home first, both to allow Xiaochun full concentration and to raise some money should Xiaochun be selected to participate in the international competition. In an effort to infuse passion and emotion into Xiaochun's playing, Professor Yu tells the boy the truth about his birth. However, this only strengthens Xiaochun's love for his father. Just before the selection trial, Xiaochun, who has been chosen to participate, relinquishes his spot to Lin Yu after she reveals to him that Professor Yu had secretly bought Xiaochun's original violin from the shop to stop Xiaochun from being distracted by thoughts of it. Xiaochun then takes the violin and runs after his father. The two finally reunite at the train station. In place of fame and success, Xiaochun chooses to be together with his father. ===== Set in the summer of 1976, the film follows the adventures of Drew Tate (Larenz Tate), an autistic 16-year- old from upstate New York, when he and his family spend two weeks with affluent relatives on Martha's Vineyard. Drew's parents, Kenny (Joe Morton) and Brenda (Suzzanne Douglass), worry that their son is emotionally disturbed. His favorite companion is a doll, in which he names Iago (after the character in the Shakespeare classic Othello), with which he engages in animated conversations. They also fear that a fire he accidentally set in the family garage foreshadows a future as an arsonist. On Martha's Vineyard, Drew is thrown into an affluent, party-loving black society that congregates on a beach known as the Inkwell. The visit is also the occasion of some bitter family strife. Drew's Aunt Francis (Vanessa Bell Calloway) and her husband, Spencer (Glynn Turman), are conservatives whose walls are plastered with pictures of Republican dignitaries such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan (who they keep saying will become President someday). Kenny, a former Black Panther, and Spencer argue furiously about racial issues. The Inkwell follows Drew's bumbling pursuit of the insufferably snooty Lauren (Jada Pinkett). He also befriends Heather (Adrienne-Joi Johnson), a young woman whose husband, Harold (Morris Chestnut), is a faithless louse. The movie comes to an end on the Fourth of July, when the Bicentennial fireworks end up symbolizing not just America's 200th birthday but Drew finally losing his virginity with Heather. ===== After attending the wedding of a coworker, Selma begs Marge to help her find a husband. Marge asks Homer to help find a husband for her sister, but he struggles to find anyone suitable. When Bart is caught spelling his name on the school's lawn by killing the grass with an herbicide, Principal Skinner summons Homer to his office to discuss the prank. After learning that Skinner is single, Homer invites him to dinner. When Skinner arrives at the Simpsons' house, Homer accidentally introduces him to Patty instead of Selma; Skinner is instantly smitten with her, making Selma feel even worse about her marriage prospects. Skinner asks Patty for a date, but she is reluctant. Selma encourages her to go on her first date in 25 years and warns her this may be her last chance to marry. Patty does not enjoy her first date with Skinner, but they keep seeing each other, much to Selma's chagrin. Because of his love for Patty, Skinner allows Bart do whatever he wants at school. He soon enlists Bart's help to persuade Patty to marry him. Homer arranges a date between Barney and Selma, which she reluctantly attends. Following Bart's lead, Skinner uses an herbicide to write "Marry Me Patty" on the school's lawn. Skinner takes her to the top of the school's bell tower to propose marriage. Patty is flattered, but she declines because she and Selma share a special bond as twin sisters. Patty appreciates Skinner's understanding and gentlemanly conduct. She admits that were she ever to settle down with a man, she would marry him. After rescuing Selma from her date with Barney, Patty drives her home to their apartment. Single again, Skinner reasserts his authority over Bart by destroying the entire lawn with herbicide and forcing him to repair the damage by replanting the field seed by seed, much to Groundskeeper Willie's satisfaction. ===== In a Chicago recording studio, Ma Rainey's band players Cutler, Toledo, Slow Drag, and Levee gather to record a new album of her songs. As they wait for her to arrive they tell stories, joke, philosophize, and argue. Tension is apparent between the young hot- headed trumpeter Levee, who dreams of having his own band, and veterans Cutler and Toledo. By the time Ma Rainey arrives with entourage in tow, recording has fallen badly behind schedule, enraging white producers Sturdyvant and Irvin. Ma's insistence that her stuttering nephew Sylvester speak the title song's introduction wreaks further havoc. As the band waits for various technical problems to be solved, Levee and Cutler come to blows. Levee is then simultaneously fired by Ma and rejected by producer Sturdyvant and in rage fatally stabs Toledo, destroying any possibility of a future for himself. ===== Before the film begins, Ponette's mother dies in a car crash, which Ponette herself survives with only a broken arm (she consequently must wear an arm cast). Following her mother's death, Ponette's father (Xavier Beauvois) leaves the young girl with her Aunt Claire (Claire Nebout), and her cousins Matiaz (Matiaz Bureau Caton) and Delphine (Delphine Schiltz). Ponette and her cousins are later sent to a boarding school. There the loss of her mother becomes even more harsh and painful when she is mocked on the playground for being motherless. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/136160/Ponette/overview Not yet having come to terms with her mother's death, Ponette searches for her. Ponette becomes increasingly withdrawn, and spends most of her time waiting for her mother to come back. When waiting alone fails, Ponette enlists the help of her school friend Ada (Léopoldine Serre) to help her become a "child of God" to hopefully convince God to return her mother, in vain. In the end, Ponette visits a cemetery and cries for her mother, who suddenly appears to comfort her and ask her to live her life and not be sad all the time. Her mother (played by Marie Trintignant) says she cannot keep coming back, so Ponette must move on and go be happy with her father. Then it appears that her mother gives her a sweater that she did not bring to the cemetery, and her father comments when he sees her that "I haven't seen that sweater in a while". ===== It is the year 2020 and computers have become an integral part of daily life for most people. However, a teenage girl Yui Kasuga is one of the few who cannot use computers at all, despite the fact that her father is a software developer. An evil computer called Grosser wants to take over the ComNet (what the Internet is called in Yui's time) and as the programs that have been developed to stop it (called "Correctors") need her help, she is sucked into the ComNet where she is recruited by a corrector called I.R., who gives her downloadable element suits that allow her to become the ComNet Fairy Corrector Yui who can fight Grosser's computer viruses. In the first season, the series revolves around the war against Grosser, and reveals the mysteries that surround the Correctors, their seemingly missing creator, and the relationship that he seems to have had with the corrupted computer. In the second season, Yui and the Correctors must fight with a mysterious virus who menaces the ComNet, and also cope with the mysterious Corrector Ai, a Corrector who tends to work on her own and seems to have her own agenda. The key to the mysteries seems to be a strange young girl who seems lost and may be related with the devastating virus appearances. ===== Karin Kokubu (Kassie Carlen) is late for school one day when she comes across an apparently injured yellow pig. It turns out the pig wasn't injured, just hungry, and he gets back his health when he eats Karin's apple. When Karin gets to her school, called Sei Ringo Gakuen (St. Ringo School), she discovers that the pig has stowed away in her backpack, which gets her into trouble with her teacher Makoto Arashiyama (Fowley Fatback). Later, she meets the pig again and finds out he can talk and fly. The pig gives her a "Dream Tonpact" which she opens, and a pig snout appears from it and attaches itself to her nose! She finds the pig again who explains that he is actually Prince Tonrariano the 3rd (Iggy Pig) of the apple-shaped planet Buringo (Oinko). He tells her how she can transform: by saying "Ba Bi Bu Be Burin!" she transforms into a superpowered pink piglet called Tonde Burin (Super Pig). This is not something Karin is happy about at all, as she'd rather transform into a magical girl heroine like her idol, the tokusatsu character "Cutey Chao" (who is possibly a reference to Cutie Honey). Tonrariāno (who she calls Ton-chan) tells her if she can collect 108 pearls by doing good deeds as Burin, she can do so. The pearl collection operates on karma meaning if Burin abuses her powers, she will lose pearls. Whenever someone is in danger, Karin becomes Tonde Burin to thwart the crisis and uses her new abilities to help other people in need. ===== The cartoon featured a large mangy dog named Precious Pupp and his owner Granny Sweet. Granny was a kindly woman with a passion for motorcycles, completely oblivious to the fact that her beloved, affectionate pet was something of a neighborhood terror. He had a habit of slipping behind a victim quietly---sometimes in defense of their home, sometimes just for the fun of it---and jolting him with a ferocious series of barks . . . but never where or when Granny could catch him in the act. Unlike many cartoon animals, Precious did not speak. His usual vocalism was an asthmatic-sounding, "wheezing" laugh used even more famously by Muttley, a Hanna-Barbera character introduced three years later. He usually outsmarted his enemies, most notably Bruiser, the neighborhood bulldog, but he also usually outsmarted his oblivious owner, too. Twenty-six episodes were produced. ===== The book begins with the Mysterious Stranger, known as X, the renegade Ethical (one of the Riverworld's creators) who posed as the engineer Barry Thorne on the airship Parseval and there murdered Milton Firebrass and several others, all of whom were fellow Ethicals. He is now posing as a Mayan named Ah Qaaq, in the company of the Chinese poet Li Po. Through his internal reverie he reveals that his identity was discovered by Monat Grrautut, the director of the Riverworld project, who recalled 'X' to the Dark Tower to be judged. Against this, 'X' used a remote command to kill all the inhabitants of the tower and stop the resurrections of Riverworld's inhabitants. His reverie when the left bank's 'grailstones' (supplying food and stimulants) fail to operate and are not mended by the Ethicals, who are either dead or confined (like 'X' himself) to the river. After the grailstones fail, the inhabitants of the left bank invade the right for resources, and half of humanity dies in the conflict. Concurrently, protagonist Richard Burton and his friends have joined the crew of King John's ship, the Rex Grandissimus, where Burton, masquerading as a Dark Age British warrior, becomes King John's security chief. One day Tom Mix, Jack London, and Peter Jairus Frigate apply to join the crew; and Burton, recognizing Frigate, attacks him as a spy for the Ethicals. Realizing his mistake, Burton allies himself with Frigate, Mix, and London. Meanwhile, the Ethical Monat Grrautut has boarded Sam Clemens' ship, where he is murdered by the renegade Ethical. Eventually, the two riverboats reach Virolando, a wide lake before the headwaters, home to the pacifist Church of the Second Chance, where Hermann Göring has become a priest. There, King John and Clemens begin an aerial dog- fight, and later a naval combat in which both riverboats are sunk and most of the crews die. King John is killed by Clemens and Clemens dies of a heart attack after being pulled from the water by his mortal enemy Erik Bloodaxe, who has become an adherent of the Church of the Second Chance, and seeks no revenge against Clemens. Among the survivors are Burton, Frigate, Alice, Kaz, Joe Miller, Li Po, Ah Qaaq, and Nur ed-Din ("Light of the Faith"), now joined by Tom Turpin, Aphra Behn, a man claiming to be Gilgamesh, and Baron de Marbot. They take the only craft to survive the fight upriver, then scale the waterfall at the end of the river and enter the polar sea. At the tower, they expose Ah Qaaq as the renegade Ethical and take him prisoner. He identifies himself as Loga, a grandson of King Priam of Troy, resurrected centuries ago and raised by the alien Ethicals on the Garden World. He reveals the current date is 2307 AD and other stories were false stories to throw off investigators. He reveals also that the Riverworld is a moral test, to allow humanity enlightenment. When the project is brought to a close the souls of those who have not achieved enlightenment will wander the universe aimlessly. Loga, being obsessed with sparing his earthly family this fate, awakened Burton prematurely, recruited Clemens and the others, and diverted a metal meteorite (disrupting social harmony) to Clemens. The protagonists discover a malfunction in the computer which runs the tower, threatening to release the stored wathans (souls), of the people who died on the Riverworld. Göring attempts to fix the computer, but is killed by security measures put in place by Monat, who was a member of the fifth-generation sentient race to receive wathans from the First Race to have wathans. Alice then devises a way to evade this programming, and deactivate the security. Loga is then able to repair the computer. ===== Conor O'Neill (Keanu Reeves) is a gambler who secretly bets $6,000 on his dead father's account and is now severely in debt with two bookies. In order to repay the debts, he is told by a corporate friend that he must coach a baseball team of troubled African-American fifth grade kids from Chicago's ABLA housing projects in exchange for $500 each week, for ten weeks. Worried only about getting his $500 check, Conor shows up at the baseball field to a rag tag bunch of trash-talking, street-wise, inner city kids who live in the projects. Some of the team includes: Andre Ray Peetes (Bryan Hearne), a smart mouthed jokester, captain of the team who knows about all the players and forms a strong bond with Conor; Kofi Evans (Michael Perkins), a troubled, angry boy who has a rivalry with Andre, a quick temper, but is the best player on the team. Other characters include Jefferson Albert Tibbs (Julian Griffith), a sweet, overweight, asthmatic player; Jamal (Michael B. Jordan), Andre's best friend and the oldest on the team; Miles Penfield II (A. Delon Ellis, Jr.), the brilliant pitcher who listens to The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Big Poppa’ to pitch well; and Jarius "G-Baby" Evans (DeWayne Warren), Kofi's much younger brother who is too young to play so he becomes Conor's assistant. Conor's efforts are hindered from the onset by the fact that he does not have nine kids to make up the team—Jamal’s mother altered his birth certificate to be younger and G-Baby is sad because he is far too young to play. The older kids tell Conor it is because their teacher, Elizabeth "Sister" Wilkes (Diane Lane), is making several boys finish a book report. Conor visits the teacher, but his life is threatened repeatedly by his bookies for not paying his gambling debts. He is visited by the mother of two boys and her sisters son that are allowed to play in exchange for his tutoring them. Conor works to get the team to support each other and stop trash-talking each other's bad plays; but the team nevertheless loses its first game 16–1, which fosters hostility between the players. Conor brings them together by buying them pizza (trading sports tickets for the pizza) and leads the team to win their second game 9–3. The team starts to come together as Conor tries to kindle a romance with Wilkes. Conor risks everything and makes a $12,000 bet with a new bookie to cover the $12,000 debt he owes to the other bookies. His stress, already high from his gambling debts, runs higher at the baseball field because Jamal is pulled from playing after a competing coach questions the boy's age and Myles can't wear headphones while he pitches. Conor takes offense to the league president's threat to be removed, after he voices his objection to his team having to wear ratty T-shirts while the other teams have full uniforms. In protest, he announces it was his last game which draws dissension and resentment from his players. Conor barely wins his $12,000 bet, pays off all his debts, and is pressured into making another bet for $24,000 using his $12,000 winnings. Conor connects with the kids and finds it harder to leave than he thought it would. He surprises them with second row seats (behind Sammy Sosa's dugout) to a major league game. He stops gambling; his relationship with Wilkes grows; he gets new uniforms for the players (sponsored by one of his bookies); and he assumes a fatherly role in leading the team to the championship game (called "going to the ship" by the boys). Just after Conor drops the kids off at home after winning the pre-championship game, G-Baby is struck and killed by a stray bullet and Kofi has to hold him as he dies. Conor wants to forfeit the game, but Andre and especially Kofi, rallies the team together. The end credits indicate that the kids won the championship game. ===== Based on the 1963 book by Robert MacLeod, the title character is a beautiful horse (a breed, the Appaloosa) belonging to Matt Fletcher (Marlon Brando), a Mexican-American buffalo hunter who returns home only to have his beloved horse stolen by a powerful bandit, Chuy Medina (John Saxon) with the help of the bandit's girlfriend, Trini (Anjanette Comer) in the border town of Ojo Prieto. Trini was sold to Chuy at the age of 15, but has been brutalized and effectively discarded. Matt begins to hunt down the bandit to recapture the horse, but finds matters more complicated than expected when he meets the girlfriend of the bandit. Fletcher is subjected to torture and humiliation by Chuy and his minions. A later foray into Medina's camp results in a brutal arm wrestling match in a bar between Fletcher and the bandido. Fletcher loses and is stung on the arm by a scorpion. Again left to die, Fletcher is rescued by Trini, who despises her "lover", Chuy, and prefers Fletcher's company. She gets him assistance from a kindly old peasant, which later costs the old man his life. During the violence-laden climax, Fletcher is forced to choose between Trini and his beloved Appaloosa. Matt, realizing that Trini means more to him than the horse, sends out the Appaloosa to draw Chuy's fire. As the bandit prepares to aim for the horse, sunlight glints on his gun barrel, revealing his position. Matt fires and kills him. Matt and Trini then cross the border with the Appaloosa to start a new life.https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/2685/The-Appaloosa/overview ===== Robert Crain (Marlon Brando) is a German pacifist during World War II, living in India as a Swiss national. He is blackmailed by English Colonel Statter (Trevor Howard) and the Allies into going along with a plan to use his engineering knowledge to disable the scuttling charges on a German merchant ship carrying rubber from Japan. The Allies hope to bomb the ship and recover its cargo, as rubber is in short supply and essential for both sides' war effort. They provide Crain with fake documentation and a cover story that he is a high-ranking SS officer needing to sail to Germany. On board the ship, Crain finds the captain (Yul Brynner) to be a patriotic German whose humanistic inclinations are hostile to Nazi principles. The first officer, Kruse (Martin Benrath), is a fanatical Party member who keeps a close eye on the captain. Crain convinces Kruse that he too is suspicious of the captain's loyalties. Several of the crew are in effect prisoners because of their political views, however they are pressed into service because of labor shortages. In time, after one of them tries to kill him, Crain enlists them in a plan to have the Allies take the ship. Complications arise when a number of American prisoners and two German Naval officers are taken on board from a Japanese submarine. Also brought aboard is Esther (Janet Margolin), a young German Jew who has been raped and tortured by her Nazi captors. Despite the horrors she has been subjected to, she is still openly defiant of every German she encounters on board the ship, including the captain and Crain. The captain, when he is alone with her and is able to overcome her expectation that he too is a brutalizer, tells her he plans to assist her to escape once the ship gets to Europe. However, when Kruse learns that she is Jewish that is no longer a possibility. Later Crain persuades her to join in his plot, but she is disgusted by his lack of commitment to the anti-Nazi cause. The two German officers, who are familiar with military personnel and operations in the Far East, become suspicious of Crain and radio to Berlin to check on his credentials. That gives him less than 24 hours to complete the mission. While awaiting the report, the captain, upon hearing that his son has become an accomplished Nazi military officer, in a drunken rage reveals the full extent of his anti-Nazi beliefs. This gives Kruse a reason to take command of the ship. About to be exposed, Crain organizes a mutiny. For it to have any chance of success the American prisoners would need to participate, but when Esther appeals to them for help they only agree on condition that she is sexually compliant with them. The mutiny is easily defeated, and Kruse shoots Esther for her part in it. Crain is able to elude the search for him long enough to detonate the demolition charges he had not yet disabled. The surviving crew abandons ship, during which the anti-Nazi German sailors make sure the wounded Kruse drowns. Crain and the captain are the only persons left on board. The lard in the ship's hold spills and acts as a stopper, temporarily keeping the ship afloat. Crain asks the captain to radio the Allies for rescue, and is surprised when the captain does so. ===== The film is a lighthearted story of four teenage girlfriends of various temperaments who escape from their parents for a few days in 1963 for an adventure in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the big spring festival promises a dance contest, beer blasts, and many cute boys. Carson McBride (Phoebe Cates) is engaged to a tobacco executive's son who is rich but square; Melaina Buller (Bridget Fonda) is a preacher's daughter, but rather promiscuous and fancies herself as a Hollywood sexpot; the bespectacled Luanne Clatterbuck (Page Hannah) is an uptight, prim, and proper senator's daughter; and Caroline Carmichael (Annabeth Gish) is a "hometown cutie" who has recently lost weight, but she has always been called "Pudge," and she suffers from low self-esteem. The trip is spurred by the upcoming marriage of Carson to Harley, the son of a prominent tobacco farmer. On the main strip in Myrtle Beach, their paths cross Buzz and Chip, locals who are cruising around looking for girls. They stay at the second home of Luanne's parents, but are forbidden to sit on the furniture, drink the liquor, or make phone calls, as the trip is a secret. The girls decide to go to a local club so they can shag, but Carson has sworn she won't dance as she feels guilty being in Myrtle Beach instead of going to Fort Sumter, South Carolina, as her fiancé believes. Once at the club, Melaina flirts with the local men, dancing with one she had just told Pudge to reject. She has a run in with local girl Nadine's best friend Suette while doing the limbo and ends up flirting with Big Bob, who is Nadine's dance partner. In the bathroom, the local girls are overheard by Melaina talking about a local beauty pageant and she tells them they won't win because she is entering. While Carson and Pudge sit with Buzz and Chip, Luanne is dragged to the dance floor by a boy that refuses to let her go. Chip shows an interest in Pudge but says he can't dance, and when Buzz asks Carson to dance, she tells him to dance with Pudge instead. The two girls take a ride with Buzz and Chip to a local car-hop eatery, at the same time Melaina takes a ride with Big Bob. Meanwhile, Luanne finally escapes her dance partner and runs outside to see the girls take off in separate cars. Luanne ends up following Melaina and Big Bob, who are also being followed by Nadine and Suette. Bob takes her to a local makeout place, where Nadine and Suette attack his car with shaving cream and drag Melaina out of the car, covering her in the cream, facial tissue and pouring liquor down her throat. Luanne finds Melaina lying on the ground reciting Bible verses and takes her back to the house to clean up, where Melaina tells her she's entering the beauty contest. At the car-hop, Buzz begins to flirt with Carson, not caring that she's engaged and she finds herself drawn to him. Pudge asks Chip to let her teach him the shag, and he grudgingly relents. Once the boys take Carson and Pudge home, Carson calls Harley and tells him she's actually in Myrtle Beach, but doesn't tell him she went out with another man. Pudge is confronted by Chip in the morning while still in her nightgown and rollers, but she is pleased he has come by to see her and she begins their dance lessons. Buzz wakes Carson up by dangling a fly fishing lure in her face and asks her to go fishing with him. Once she tells him nothing will ever happen between them, he agrees and says they should just be friends. Melaina begins practicing her dance routine for the beauty pageant and Luanne walks in on her and shames her into giving a speech from Gone with the Wind instead. Carson and Buzz are fishing and they begin to get closer as the day wears on, while Chip and Pudge ask each other questions relating to sex and relationships. Buzz tells Carson that he doesn't believe she will marry Harley and forces her to confront her beliefs and rules she's set for herself. The girls later come together to see Melaina enter the contest but instead of using her dance routine and wearing a bikini, she has let Luanne influence her into being a more modest contestant, and she loses to Suette, who wins doing a dance routine in a bikini. Harley arrives during the contest and Carson hides from him, while Luanne seeks him out. Melaina gets the idea to have Luanne use her daddy's name as a Senator to invite Jimmy Valentine to the house for a small party, which turns into a rowdy affair. Melaina spends the evening dancing with and impressing Jimmy, while Carson spends more time with Buzz, Luanne and Harley get close, and Pudge and Chip get to know each other more. Carson and Buzz go to Luanne's father's yacht and even though he admits he doesn't believe in marriage, they end up sleeping together. Luanne and Harley also realize they have feelings for each other and are more suited than Harley and Carson were. Chip makes a mistake in saying his feelings for Pudge are friendship and she rejects him. Melaina tries to get Jimmy to pay attention to her once the sun has come up, but he's still drunk and his manager has come to the house to take him away. Melaina realizes the agent is the real celebrity maker and decides to set her sights on him instead. Luanne and Harley wake and are told by the maid that her father and mother are coming to town to judge the shag contest and she sends Chip to pick them up and take them to the pavilion while they repair the damage done to the home. Pudge takes Melaina to the pavilion to meet up with Jimmy's agent and there she sees Chip and realizes that he really does care about her. Luanne and Harley, along with Buzz and Carson, who snuck back from the yacht, follow Pudge and Melaina to the pavilion in time to see Pudge and Chip enter the contest. Once they all see Luanne's parents, she says she will lie to them about the weekend and Carson berates her for not telling the truth. Luanne says she'll tell them the truth if Carson tells Harley the truth. Carson tells Harley she can't marry him because she's in love with Buzz, and Luanne spills the beans about the two having sex in the yacht. Harley attempts to hit Buzz, who ducks his blow and hits a mirror instead, and Luanne comforts him. Chip and Pudge win the contest and agree to stay in touch while Chip attends Annapolis; Melaina impresses the agent who agrees to take her on as a client; Luanne ends up with Harley; and Carson realizes she does not need to be married to be happy. ===== Ernest "Stick" Stickley (Burt Reynolds), a former car thief, has just been released from prison after serving seven years for armed robbery. He meets up with an old friend, Rainy (Jose Perez), who talks Stick into accompanying him for a "quick stop" near the Florida Everglades before they go to his home. The "quick stop" turns out to be an illegal drug deal set up by Rainy's dealer, Chucky (Charles Durning), that goes sour. Chucky's albino henchman, Moke (Dar Robinson), kills Rainy, but Stick gets away. Stick must now hide out for a while to elude the killers, who must eliminate him as a witness. While lying low, Stick finds himself in the right place at the right time when he helps a wealthy eccentric named Barry (George Segal), get into his locked car. Hired as a driver, he now has a comfortable home with a stable job, and tries to make up for lost time with Katie, his teen-age daughter. He also finds a new flame in Kyle (Candice Bergen), a financial consultant who acts as a business adviser for Barry, who must decide if a relationship with Stick is worth it. Stick confronts Chucky to demand the money owed to his murdered friend, wanting to use the money to start a new life. Chucky refuses, and after being pressured by his voodoo obsessed cartel boss, Nestor (Castulo Guerra), to eliminate the ex-con, Chucky sends Moke and some other hitmen after Stick. Nestor has Stick's daughter kidnapped to force him out of hiding. Nestor, fed up with Chucky's bumbling, hires Moke to kill him. Stick confronts the two on the balcony of Chucky's high rise apartment before Moke can shoot Chucky, and Moke taunts Stick to try and get to him before he can pull a handgun from his belt. Chucky surprises Moke, pushing the men over the balcony railing. Chucky falls to his death, but Moke manages to grab onto a lower beam. Moke asks for help, but Stick mocks as Moke falls to his death, shooting his gun at Stick on the way down. Stick goes to Nestor's home, and methodically eliminates all of Nestor's henchmen, before confronting Nestor himself. After Stick shoots up the bar area around him, a terrified Nestor gives up, and agrees to leave Stick and his daughter alone in exchange for his own life. After rescuing his daughter, Stick calls Kyle on a mobile phone and arranges for the two lovers to meet in the median of a highway, where they embrace. ===== Planet 14 was just a speck on a spacial stereo map, just a world inhabited by a group of barbaric refugees. But to Belfeor, it was instant cash. All he needed was an iron hand and a means to dig out its radioactive resources for export to his own world. To Maddalena it was a final exam: this would be her last chance to prove herself worthy of Corps Galactica membership. To Saikmar, it was a nation and a people stolen from him by cruel treachery. To Gus Langenschmidt, it was part of a job he had, watching the skies and helping men who were being enslaved. But how do you help people who don't know you exist and who must not be told? ===== In 1956, gun shearer Foley joins a new shearing team sharing a room with Old Garth, a once great shearer who is now a drunk. Foley and his team battle to get in a new cook, Old Garth dies and Foley befriends the grazier's daughter. Foley loses his status as top shearer to Arthur Black and blows most of his money gambling. The shearers go on strike and Foley and his team get involved in a brawl with non union labour. ===== Set in London in the early 1990s, the film portrays the bittersweet lifestyles of a young gay couple in a fiery open relationship. Mark is an acerbic drag queen with a sharp tongue, who finds it difficult to accept his much better-looking partner's highly promiscuous lifestyle of non-stop clubbing and cruising. Worse still, Mark is HIV positive and his partner is negative. Both of them are struggling to come to terms with Mark's deteriorating condition. Nowadays, Mark prefers to stay at home when not performing – working on his own panel of embroidery for an AIDS quilt memorial project. Simon, however, prefers to turn a blind eye to the situation and continues to cruise London's gay bars at night looking for action. Mark dies early on in the story and Simon becomes the focus of the story as he buries his feelings and continues his torrid sex life. At first, he seems completely unaffected by his lover's death. However, when Mark returns to haunt him, his life suddenly becomes a lot more complex, especially as he is the only one who can see Mark. It turns out that Mark has actually returned to help his partner to accept his true feelings and to encourage him to reassess his reckless lifestyle – a lifestyle that he is sure will never bring him the happiness he seeks. Eventually, Mark gets through to him and Simon breaks down and weeps for the very first time. Mark's work is done and he can leave his one-time lover to move on with his life. ===== Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall) are long time best friends. Despite both of them being easy-going, womanizing, party animals, the two are professional freelance contractors and partners, working for Communications Integrity or ComTeg, a private intelligence agency that handles covert assignments for the CIA. In their latest assignment together, the two help rescue Vorodny (Helmut Dantine), an East European defector, blowing up a building to fake Vorodny's death. After delivering the defector to other ComTeg operatives, Locken and Hansen celebrate at a party that involves sex and dope. Hansen trolls Locken by pretending he went through the purse of the woman Locken slept with and found a letter from her doctor asking her to see him about a vaginal infection. Then Hansen reveals he's done up a whole bunch of these letters and just fills in the name. Arriving at a safehouse, the two of them relieve other ComTeg agents who have been guarding Vorodny. Unknown to Locken, Hansen had been bought out by an unknown rival group to assassinate Vorodny. Hansen kills Vorodny while Locken is in the shower. Exiting the shower, Locken finds Hansen holding a silenced pistol, which he assumes is another practical joke. Hansen critically shoots his friend in the knee and elbow, telling Locken that he has "just been retired". Rushed to a hospital, Locken is told by his ComTeg bosses Lawrence Weybourne (Gig Young) and Cap Collis (Arthur Hill) that he is crippled for life and that his career as a freelance contractor is over. He is subsequently visited by ex-friend Mac (Burt Young), former ComTeg operative and skilled wheelman, but Locken refuses to see him. After months of painful rehabilitation, Locken wears metal braces, but is able to walk with a cane. Upon being released from the hospital, Locken moves in with his nurse, Amy, to continue his therapy. As months pass, Locken undergoes serious martial arts training with a cane, becoming adept with it while vowing revenge against Hansen for his betrayal and crippling him for life. Cap refuses to put Locken back on the field again, assuming that he is only fit for a desk job. Danny O’Leary, a CIA operative, hires ComTeg to protect Yuen Chung, a known Taiwanese politician who arrived in the United States with his daughter, Tommie. The two were ambushed at San Francisco airport by Japanese ninja, led by one Toku. At first, Weyburn turns down the assignment O’Leary offers him until he learns that Hansen is leading a team of assassins to kill Chung. He orders Collis to hire Locken as leader of a team of mercenaries to go after Hansen, while protecting Yuen and his daughter. Assigned to the duty once more, Locken assemble his team to protect Chung and get his revenge on Hansen. The first was Jerome Miller (Bo Hopkins), a highly skilled marksman with professional knowledge of firearms and blacklisted from ComTeg employment, due to his psychopathic traits. Locken's old friend Mac is next; having gone to his garage to apologize for refusing to see him at the hospital, Locken convinces him to join his team. Mac is disappointed that Locken is back working for ComTeg and believes his obsession of Hansen will lead to his downfall, yet chooses to work with Locken once more. Mac takes Locken to look at a taxicab he outfitted with armor, unaware that Sam, a mechanic, has placed a bomb in the undercarriage. After Miller appears, the three drive to a phone booth and telephone Collis for instructions. After the call ends, it is revealed that Collis is in collaboration with Hansen to depose Weyburn as head of ComTeg and the Grand Master of the ninja team, who wants Yuen dead. Hansen is deeply unhappy at having two separate groups hunting the same target, and looked down on the ninjas as incompetent due to their actions at the airport. Collis nevertheless insists on the arrangement and the Ninja Grand Master agrees, willing to let Hansen make his move first, preparing to finish what he started if he fails to kill Yuen. Later, in Chinatown, Locken leaves Mac and Miller in the car as he goes to meet with Chung. Miller senses danger when a garbage truck parks, partially blocking the street. He runs into the building to tell Locken. Mac radios Locken that a police officer is approaching, then spots Hansen and Hamilton on a nearby roof. As Locken leads Chung's party downstairs, the police officer demands Locken throw down his gun. Miller notices that the policeman is not carrying the standard issue San Francisco police pistol, and shoots him with his shotgun. Locken provides cover fire as Miller, Chung and his people leap into the cab. Assassins disguised as garbage men open fire, but Mac refuses to leave until Locken gets into the car. As Mac speeds away, Miller guns down the assassins. Police give chase through the streets of San Francisco, until Mac's driving prowess causes them to crash. Later, Mac pulls over to investigate a rattle in the back of the car and discovers the bomb. As he works to remove it, a motorcycle cop appears and demands that everyone get out of the car. Mac crawls out and hands the bomb to the policeman, who runs to throw it into the bay, while Locken's group drives off, after calling the cop a "dummy". Locken telephones Collis and informs him that he is sailing Collis’ yacht and arranges for Chung to be picked up in the morning at Pier 70. Before Collis can alert Hansen, Weyburn insists no phone calls, so they can examine ComTeg's stock operations. Hours later, after Weyburn finally leaves, Collis calls Hansen and tells him where Locken will be. After arriving at Pier 70, Locken suggests Chung and Tommie go upstairs and turn on the light that causes Mac to immediately accuse Locken of using their client as bait to get Hansen. He tells Locken that his obsession has blinded him of how easily he is manipulated by politicians who are hypocritical, and rely on men like Locken and Hansen to do their dirty work. Soon, Chung and his daughter come downstairs dressed in black and carrying shurikens. Locken is infuriated when Tommie slips outside and asks Chung if it is true that his people do not care about dying. Chung replies that the manner one lives or dies is what gives life relevance, then explains that he is returning to Taiwan to promote democracy. Hansen, and his bodyguard, Hank Hamilton arrive on the scene, and Hamilton rows out to board the yacht. After killing Chung's bodyguard, he paddles under the pier. Mac hears the rowboat, looks through a crack in the pier and shoots Hamilton. Meanwhile, Hansen gets the drop on Tommie and, using her as a hostage, gets Mac, Locken and Chung to surrender. Hansen explains he is working for Collis, and argues that Locken being shot was nothing personal, and even offers to cut him in for some of the money, warning him that if he fails to kill Chung, more killers will be after them. Rather than accept the offer, Locken decides to walk away and take on Hansen another time on his own terms. However, Miller shoots Hansen while he was distracted, killing him. Completely shocked and infuriated that he is unable to exact his revenge on the man that crippled him, Locken punches Miller in the face. Locken then telephones Weyburn and tells him about Collis' treachery. Weyburn orders Locken to follow up with the rendezvous plans and tells him that if he comes up with evidence that Cap is the traitor, he can have Cap's job. The following day, Locken sails the yacht to the empty ships of the U.S. Naval Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, and orders Chung and Tommie to stay aboard. Locken, Miller, Mac, and a couple of other trusted ComTeg operatives board one of the ships and spot the ninja crawling overhead. Collis appears and offers Locken a bribe, but Locken shoots him in the arm and kneecap, using the same lines Hansen gave him when he betrayed him. The ninja attack, but Miller mows them down with his machine gun. He is then shot by a gunman, but not before shooting back, taking his killer with him. Tommie and Chung arrive, just as Toku arrives as well and challenges Chung to a duel. Locken wants to shoot, but Chung accepts the challenge and after a short battle, kills Toku. Weyburn arrives with reinforcements and the remaining ninja scatter. Mac accuses Weyburn of using them to do his dirty work, saying he is no different from Cap, and tries once more to convince Locken to leave ComTeg and retire like he did. Weyburn points out that a man like Locken has nothing else but his job. Surprisingly, Locken turns down Weyburn's job offer, but keeps Collis's yacht and the bribe money as payment, then sails away with Mac. ===== Moments after the end of the previous film, James Bond is driving from Lake Garda to Siena, Italy, with the captured Mr White in the trunk of his Aston Martin DBS V12. After evading pursuers Bond delivers White to M, who interrogates him regarding the then unknown organisation, Quantum. M's bodyguard, Craig Mitchell, is a double agent and attacks M, enabling White to escape. Bond chases Mitchell and kills him. Bond and M return to London and search Mitchell's flat, discovering Mitchell had a contact in Haiti, Edmund Slate. Bond learns Slate is a hitman sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, environmentalist entrepreneur Dominic Greene. Observing her subsequent meeting with Greene, Bond learns Greene is helping exiled Bolivian General Medrano, who murdered Camille's family, to overthrow the government and become the new president, in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert. After rescuing Camille from Medrano, Bond follows Greene to a performance of Tosca in Bregenz, Austria. Meanwhile, the head of the CIA's South American section, Gregg Beam, strikes a noninterference deal with Greene for access to putative stocks of Bolivian oil, which the CIA believes to be the reason for Greene's interest in the land. Bond infiltrates Quantum's meeting at the opera, identifying members of Quantum's executive board, and a gunfight ensues. A Special Branch bodyguard working for Quantum member Guy Haines, an advisor to the British Prime Minister, is killed by one of Greene's men after Bond throws him off a roof. M assumes Bond killed him, and she has Bond's passports and credit cards revoked. Bond heads to Italy and convinces his old ally René Mathis (whose innocence was confirmed after the events of Casino Royale) to accompany him to Bolivia. They are greeted by Strawberry Fields, a consular employee who demands Bond return to the UK immediately. Bond seduces her, and they attend a fundraising party Greene holds that night. At the party, Bond again rescues Camille from Greene. After Bond and Camille leave the party for Camille to show Bond the details of the Tierra Project, Bolivian police conduct a traffic stop. During this stop, the Bolivian police, who presumably were paid by Greene and/or Medrano, find Mathis unconscious in Bond's vehicle and attempt to frame Bond. One of the policemen shoots Mathis before Bond kills both of them. Mathis dies in James' arms, urging him to forgive Vesper and himself for everything that has happened. The following day, Bond and Camille survey Quantum's intended land acquisition by air; their plane is shot down by a Bolivian fighter aircraft. They skydive into a sinkhole and discover Quantum is damming Bolivia's supply of fresh water to create a monopoly. Back in La Paz, Bond meets M and learns Quantum killed Fields by drowning her in crude oil. Bond meets CIA Agent Felix Leiter, who discloses Greene and Medrano will meet in the Atacama Desert to finalize their agreement. Warned by Leiter, he evades the CIA's Special Activities Division when they attempt to kill him. At an eco hotel in the desert, Greene tells Medrano that he now controls the majority of Bolivia's water supply, and Medrano must accept a new contract that makes Greene Bolivia's sole provider of water at significantly higher rates; if Medrano refuses, Greene will have Medrano replaced and deprive the country of water until it collapses. Bond infiltrates the complex, kills the chief of police for betraying Mathis, and single-handedly assaults the hotel. After killing the security detail, he confronts Greene. Meanwhile, Camille kills Medrano, avenging the murders of her family. The struggle leaves the hotel destroyed by fire. Bond captures Greene and interrogates him about Quantum. Bond leaves him stranded in the desert with only a can of engine oil. Bond travels to Kazan, Russia, where he finds Vesper Lynd's former lover, Yusef Kabira, a member of Quantum who seduces women with valuable connections and is indirectly responsible for her death. Bond tells Kabira's latest target, Corrine Veneau, a Canadian Intelligence agent, of Kabira's true intentions, thus sparing her Vesper's fate. He allows MI6 to arrest Kabira. Outside, M tells Bond that Greene was found dead in the middle of the desert, shot twice and having drunk the engine oil. M tells Bond she needs him back; he responds that he never left. Walking away, he drops the necklace Kabira gave to Vesper in the snow. ===== As employee night at the Springfield drag races ends, Smithers fails to protect Mr. Burns from being harassed by a drunken Lenny. Smithers tries to make amends the next day but again bungles his duties. When he attempts to drown himself in a water cooler, Burns demands he take a vacation once a suitable replacement can be found. Seeking a substitute who will not outshine him, Smithers selects Homer. Homer is scolded for being unable to perform any of his duties to Burns' satisfaction. He is soon exhausted after rising at 4:30 to prepare Burns' breakfast, assist him at the office all day, and cater to his every whim late at night in his mansion. After enduring Burns' constant abuse for several days, Homer loses his temper and knocks him unconscious with a punch. Fearing he has killed his boss, Homer flees to his house in panic. At Marge's urging, he returns to the plant to apologize, but a fearful Burns turns him away. With no one around to help him, Burns learns to do things for himself and soon becomes completely self-reliant. After thanking Homer for his independence, Burns fires a returning Smithers. Unable to find another job, Smithers enlists Homer's help in a scheme to get his job back: he plans to save Burns from a phone call from his abusive mother, the one task he still cannot handle alone. Homer accidentally disconnects Burns' mother and tries to impersonate her voice. He is caught by Burns, who berates him and Smithers. A furious Smithers attacks Homer in Burns' office. During the tussle, Burns is accidentally pushed from a third-story window and seriously injured, forcing him to rely on Smithers completely again. In gratitude, Smithers sends Homer a fruit basket with a thank-you note. ===== Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), sits next to a car crash on the Brooklyn Bridge. He gets up and leaves the site of the crash. Psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) and his girlfriend, Lila (Naomi Watts) meet up before work. Sam discusses his new patient, Henry, a college student and aspiring artist whom he describes as depressed and paranoid, with feelings of guilt and remorse. During Sam's first meeting with Henry, Henry mentions that he sometimes hears voices, and seems able to predict future events. Henry is also suspicious of Sam because his regular psychiatrist, Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo), has suddenly taken leave. That night Sam attempts to call Beth but to no avail.The next day, Henry hints to Sam of his plans to kill himself that Saturday at midnight. Lila, who has survived a past suicide attempt, offers to help to dissuade Henry from killing himself. That night Henry disappears. Sam investigates Henry's circumstances and, after repeatedly attempting to reach Dr. Levy, he comes to her apartment to find her disoriented and lethargic, mumbling incoherent phrases like "I didn't touch him; I know you're not supposed to move them," occasionally belittling Sam with a maudlin reference to an implied unresolved tension between the two, and the fact that she's aware that he's dating an ex-patient, Lila. Henry, who had earlier claimed his parents are dead, has his account contradicted by Sam when he finds Henry's mother (Kate Burton) and her dog living in a bare house, confused about Sam's identity (she insists that he is Henry) and refusing to respond to his questions. Henry's mother's head starts bleeding and when Sam attempts to help her, her dog bites him. At the clinic, whilst having his dog-bitten arm treated, Sam discusses the visit with a present police officer (Michael Gaston) who is curious as to why he would visit that house. Sam explains what happened, but the police officer tells him that he had attended the funeral for the woman who lived there several months ago. This seems to send Sam into a fugue in which the same scene and dialogue is repeated several times. Later, Sam contacts a waitress named Athena (Elizabeth Reaser), with whom Henry has mentioned that he had fallen in love. She is an aspiring actress and he meets her at a script reading where she is reading lines from Hamlet with another man. She agrees to take him to Henry, but after a long trip down winding staircases he loses her. When he gets back to the rehearsal room, she is there reading the same lines as when he first encountered her. The search continues until 11:33 pm on Saturday, less than half an hour before Henry plans to kill himself. At a bookshop known to have been frequented by Henry, Sam finds a painting that Henry had painted and bartered for books about Henry's favorite artist. He learns that the artist killed himself on the Brooklyn Bridge on his twenty-first birthday. Henry's twenty-first birthday is Sunday, and Sam realizes that Henry plans to commit suicide on the Brooklyn Bridge in imitation of the artist. Sam finds Henry on the Brooklyn Bridge in a physical atmosphere (fog-like) that is increasingly unraveling. Sam admits to Henry that he doesn't know what is real anymore. Henry tells Sam that he is real, and he was just trying to help him. Henry tells Sam that he now knows the world is a dream, and shoots himself with his gun. The car crash of the first scene is then reprised. Henry was fatally wounded in the crash but, in his last moments, is suffering survivor guilt, thus spending his final moment in the dream in which the story occurred. Each of the characters introduced earlier in the film was in fact a random spectator at the site of the crash, including Sam (a doctor), and Lila (a nurse), who treat Henry in an attempt to save him. The brief remarks they make are the same ones heard previously by their counterparts earlier. They fail to rescue Henry, and Henry dies, but not before seeing Lila as Athena and proposing to her, which Lila accepts out of sympathy. Sam asks Lila out for coffee, saying that he can not sleep after what happened. ===== Twin sisters Sarah and Julie (Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen) are two naughty but sweet children who are the bane of their work-obsessed divorced mother, Rhonda (Cynthia Geary). They overhear her saying that they are a "handful" and she needs a "vacation". The girls decide to give Rhonda what she wants. They pack up their bags, and hop on their bicycles, determined to make it to their grandmother's house for Christmas. However, they are not allowed to cross the street on their own. A city bus pulls up and they sneak on through the back door. During their bus ride, an elderly lady informs them that the bus only goes from uptown to downtown and back, and that Edgemont (where their grandmother lives) is several hours away. After getting off the bus downtown, Sarah and Julie spot Eddie (J. Eddie Peck), a delivery man who has a crush on their mom, and his truck. They sneak into the back of the truck thinking that he will lead them to their great-grandmother's, only to reveal themselves to him because Sarah desperately has to go to the bathroom. Although Eddie does not like kids, he eventually starts to enjoy the girls' company, in part due to noticing he gets large tips when they deliver packages with him. He buys a lottery ticket and decides to play the numbers of the girls' birth date (6-13-19-8-7). Meanwhile, their babysitter has noticed the girls are missing and informs Rhonda. Rhonda frantically closes her convenience store, and rushes home to inspect the place and calls the police. During her attempt to file a police report, Eddie calls, telling her he has the girls and explaining how they got to be where they are. Rhonda announces she intends to come pick them up, but Eddie says he will watch over them, promising to bring them back at the end of the day when he finishes his delivery route. However, he tells the girls he will take them to Grandma's if they help out. After the day's deliveries are finished, Eddie brings Sarah and Julie home, even letting slip his feelings that adults will say anything to get kids to go along with them. He manages to return the girls home, telling them to go to the back to get their suitcases and meet him at the entrance to the house. He manages to step out of his truck, only to be attacked by two robbers who steal it with the girls still inside. When the robbers, Harvey and Shirley (Jerry Van Dyke and Rhea Perlman), discover them and why they are there, they decide they can make some money by holding them for ransom. Shirley makes a phone call to Rhonda, asking for a ransom (which she calls a "reward") of $10,000 in cash, threatening to disappear forever with the girls if the police are told. She says they will make the trade at the ice rink in Edgemont, and that Rhonda is to wear a red hat. Meanwhile, Harvey has begun to like the girls, and when he asks Shirley why they never had kids, she replies that it is because they are too busy being criminals, though rather than agreeing with her philosophy that it is their mission, he says he sees it as a job. Eddie and Rhonda reluctantly decide to raise the ransom money by opening and selling packages which Eddie is supposed to be delivering. However, they succeed as planned and manage to make it close to the threshold of the ransom amount. Eddie even gives Rhonda a red cowgirl hat from his stack of cowboy mementos. However, the pawnshops start noticing the stolen merchandise and report to Detective Gremp (Stuart Margolin) and his officials, who write out a warrant for their arrest, believing them to be Harvey and Shirley. Everyone makes it to the skating rink in Edgemont. Eddie and Rhonda argue, as do Harvey and Shirley. When Harvey reveals what he and Shirley intend to do with Sarah and Julie, the twins run off again. They visit with Santa Claus; the latter is sitting in a carriage disguised as a sleigh and accompanied by horses disguised as reindeer. Fed up with Harvey and Shirley pestering them, the twins take control of the carriage, hoping the reindeer will take them to Grandma's. Midway through their ride, they discover that the reindeer are actually horses and begin to realize the danger they are in when they are unable to stop them; unaware that they are also fast approaching the edge of a steep ravine. Eddie seizes another horse and pursues them, his love of all things cowboy motivating him to pull off a rescue. He manages to stop them in time, inches from the edge of the ravine and leads them to safety, unaware that they have come to a stop outside the home of Rhonda's Grandma Mimi. Just as everything settles down, and Eddie and Rhonda share a hug, Detective Gremp and one of his officials burst in and handcuff them. They try to tell Gremp their side of the story and what Eddie had planned to do to set things right, but Gremp still assumes that they are the real bandits because they agreed to the ransom exchange. Harvey is sympathetic to the pair, while Shirley is trying to force them to get away while they have the chance. Harvey's conscience kicks in and he tells the truth. He and Shirley get handcuffed and sent away, with Harvey telling Shirley that if they ever get out of prison, he promises to make her proud by being the worst convict possible. Through enough persuasion, Gremp agrees to let Eddie, Rhonda and the girls go all the back to the city with him, so Eddie can be back in time to be able to have a chance at winning the lottery of 1.3 million dollars on a TV show. He promises to split what he wins between Rhonda and the girls, and has the girls spin the prize wheel for him. Through pure luck, he wins the jackpot. Afterwards, they give all the people their parcels back, and everybody is happy spending Christmas together. ===== Balram "Ballu" Prasad (Sanjay Dutt) is a gangster who is arrested by Inspector Ram (Jackie Shroff). Ram shows compassion to Ballu while trying to get information that would lead to capture of Ballu's boss and mentor, Roshida. Ballu does not speak, and he promises to escape from the jail. Ballu escapes from the jail, while Ram is visiting his girlfriend, Ganga (Madhuri Dixit), who is also a police officer. When news of this breaks out, Ram's reputation is in tatters as the media portrays Ram as an officer who has neglected his duty. Ganga, in an attempt to restore Ram's reputation, goes undercover as a street-girl. Ganga realizes that Ballu is a kind-hearted person who turned to crime due to poverty and circumstances, and she tries to rehabilitate him while on the run. Meanwhile, Ballu begins to fall in love with Ganga. He becomes enraged when he finds out she does not love him and is a police officer. Ganga continues to help Ballu as she has seen good in him. Meanwhile, Ram approaches Ballu's mother for help and realises that Ballu is in fact, his childhood friend. Ballu's mother and Ballu then tell Ram and Ganga, respectively, the story of how Roshan Da used their poverty to corrupt Ballu. Roshan Da killed Ballu's sister, and put the blame on the police. Ballu kills the officer he believes to be behind this and from then on spirals into a life of crime. Ganga, afraid that police will kill Ballu, stops the police from shooting him, allowing him to escape. She is hence arrested for aiding a criminal and is accused of being in a relationship with Ballu, which destroys her professional and personal reputation. Ballu's mother finds him, while she is followed by Ram. In the following confrontation, Ballu's mother takes Ram's side trying to convince Ballu to give himself up. Ballu, seeing Ganga's picture in Ram's wallet realizes that Ram is the one who she loves. Ballu manages to escape to Roshida's base where Roshan Da promises to help him escape, but betrays him and attempts to kill him and his mother. The police, led by Ram, attack Roshan Da's lair. In the ensuing conflict, Ballu finds out that Roshan Da killed his sister. Ram kills Roshan Da and Ballu escapes. Following Roshan Da's death, Ballu claims himself as the new boss, but his girlfriend informs him that Ganga is about to go on trial for aiding him. Having a change of heart, Ballu appears to attack the court, but then surrenders himself and swears that Ganga is innocent, thereby restoring her reputation and reconciling her and Ram and Ballu goes to jail. ===== Hardware is set in "Hamway's Hardware Store" in London, where main character Mike (Martin Freeman) works with Steve (Ryan Cartwright) and Kenny (Peter Serafinowicz) for shop owner Rex (Ken Morley). They relax at the next- door-but-one cafe, "Nice Day Cafe", where Mike's girlfriend Anne (Susan Earl) works with Julie (Ella Kenion). The series revolves around the store staff as they engage in a daily wisecrack battle with packs of DIY obsessed clients. ===== The central figure of the film is represented by a mysterious figure called "Gaja Gamini" (Madhuri Dixit), who inspires, arouses, and confuses the common man. "Gaja Gamini" is the inspiration behind Leonardo da Vinci's (Naseeruddin Shah) 'Mona Lisa', Kalidas' poem "Shakuntala", and a photojournalist named Shahrukh's (Shah Rukh Khan) photographs. The mysterious "Gaja Gamini" appears as four characters, one of them being Sangeeta, a blind girl from Banaras at the beginning of time, who inspires village women (Farida Jalal, Shilpa Shirodkar, and Shabana Azmi) to revolt against a male-dominated system and carve a niche for women forever. Another character is Shakuntala, who is the subject of Kalidas' poem of the same name. Shakuntala incites jealousy in the women and love in the men around her, charming humans and animals alike in the forests of Kerala. "Gaja Gamini" is also Mona Lisa during the Renaissance, the object of painter Leonardo da Vinci's obsession. Finally, Monika, the most confusing sector of the film, is supposed to represent the woman of the New Millennium. Kamdev, the God of Love (Inder Kumar), walks the earth throughout history, attempting to win the love of "Gaja Gamini". Thrown into this mix is a large black wall, separating two different periods, and confrontations between Science (Ashish Vidyarthi) and Art (Mohan Agashe) at different points in history, showing that the world itself can change, but its original ideas will always be the same. For example, a play by Shakespeare wrote and performed by actors in the 15th century will still be performed in the 21st century, but with different actors. The confrontations between art and science also bring about the idea that while science is firmly set on believing that which can only be proved, the basis for art is that which can be proved and an intuitive sense that can be felt. Science uses the brain, while Art uses the brain and the heart. Another facet of the film is a "gathri", a small bundle which a woman carries upon her head, like a burden, with which she must walk forever.Gaja Gamini Yahoo! Movies. ===== Set in 2003, Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) is a young and talented poker player in Las Vegas haunted by his relationship with his estranged father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), a two-time World Series of Poker Champion. Huck is a regular in Vegas poker rooms but needs $10,000 to get a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event. After a good night at the Bellagio hotel's poker room, Huck goes to a party and meets aspiring singer Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore), who has just arrived in town. Billie's older sister Suzanne (Debra Messing) warns her that Huck is "hustle 10, commitment zero." Back at the Bellagio, Huck is doing well at the tables before L.C. returns to town from the South of France. Huck greets his father coldly. The two play heads-up. Loan shark Roy Durucher (Charles Martin Smith) tells Huck that he plays poker as well as anybody, except for his reputation as a "blaster" (not patient enough) who always goes for broke. Roy proposes to stake Huck in the $10,000 main-event with a 60% (Roy) — 40% (Huck) split of any winnings, but Huck refuses. After failing to borrow money from his friend Jack (Robert Downey Jr.), Huck goes to Suzanne's place hoping for a loan. Instead he runs into Billie, who gets a call confirming that she has landed a job singing at a club. Huck proposes a celebration and at Binion's Horseshoe he shows her how to play poker. L.C. arrives and shows Huck a wedding ring of Huck's late mother's that Huck had pawned and that L.C. has redeemed. Huck loses his winnings. Over dinner, he explains to Billie that his father stole from his mother before leaving her. Huck says his father taught him how to play on the kitchen table with "pennies, nickels, and dimes." They make love after dinner. As Billie sleeps, Huck steals money from Billie's purse. Huck plays in a "super satellite" for his entry to the main event. He appears to have the seat won, but a misdeal costs him. Roy agrees to stake Huck and even gives him an extra $1200 so that he can repay Billie. He apologizes to her, saying he feels they have a chance at something special. They later run into L.C., who wins all of Huck's stake money for the World Series in a quick game of guts. Billie holds the stopwatch in a golfing marathon that Huck must complete in 3 hours to win a bet. She declines to cheat for him when he finishes two seconds too late. Huck gets a black eye when Roy's thugs toss him into his empty pool. They warn him to return the $11,200 stake that he owes to Roy or get a seat in the World Series within 48 hours. When Huck goes to Suzanne's apartment looking for Billie, he learns Billie has gone home to Bakersfield. Huck sells the wedding ring to his father for $500, and makes the 10 grand playing poker in one night to buy a seat in the World Series. Huck travels to Bakersfield to tell Billie that he meant what he said when he felt they had a chance at something special. Back in Vegas, having found the entry money, Huck enters the World Series. He and his father both advance to the final table of nine. Billie looks on from the audience as Huck and L.C. have a showdown. Huck deliberately folds a winning hand, going out in third place. A few minutes later, L.C. gets rivered and goes out in second place, losing the title to Jason Keyes (Evan Jones) who had "won his entry in an online satellite" (a nod to Chris Moneymaker, who did win the 2003 Main Event after a similar entry to the tournament). After the tournament, L.C. offers his son a one-on-one rematch, playing only for pennies, nickels, and dimes. Their relationship is restored, as is Huck's and Billie's in the final scene. ===== This book concludes the chronicles of the adventures of such diverse characters as Sir Richard Burton, Alice Pleasance Liddell, Aphra Behn and Tom Turpin through a bizarre afterlife in which every human ever to have lived is simultaneously resurrected along a single river valley that stretches over an entire planet. Although Farmer's 1980 novel The Magic Labyrinth was originally intended to be the last in the series, Farmer continued it in this novel, which picks up with the characters who have just arrived in the alien-built tower at the headwaters of the river from which this constructed world gets its name; they must decide how to use the resurrection machinery they now control, and also solve the mystery of the murder of the mysterious stranger. It is revealed that the Ethicals have been recording humanity since about 97,000 BC. ===== Sutty, a woman of mixed India/British ancestry, travels from Earth to the planet Aka to provide observations as an outside observer. On Aka, all traditional customs and beliefs have been outlawed by the state. There Sutty experiences and tells of the conflicts there between the Corporation, a repressive State capitalist government, and the native people who resist. ===== Set in the late Victorian era, Sherlock Holmes is the world's only consulting detective. His practice is largely with private clients, but he is also known to assist the police, often in the shape of Inspector Lestrade, when their cases overlap. His clients range from private citizens of modest means to members of Royalty. His ability to spot clues overlooked by others, bring certain specialist knowledge - for example chemistry, botany, anatomy - and deductive reasoning to bear on problems enable him to solve the most complex cases. He is assisted in his work by military veteran Dr. John Watson, with whom he shares a flat at 221B Baker Street. He craves mental stimulation, and is known to relapse into depression when there are insufficiently complex cases to engage him. ===== Sideshow Bob is declared a changed man by Reverend Lovejoy and leaves prison on a work-release program, despite the protests of Bart, whom he has tried to kill several times. Although they have not spoken for ten years, Bob is taken into the care of his brother Cecil. Since he is Springfield's chief hydrological and hydrodynamical engineer, Cecil employs Bob to supervise the construction of a hydroelectric dam in a river near the town. Bart, believing Bob is still plotting his murder, follows his every move. Bob -- annoyed by Bart's intrusions and the dam's incompetent laborers, Cletus and his family -- expresses his desire to see the dam burst and obliterate Springfield. While searching Bob's trailer at the dam construction site, Bart and Lisa discover a briefcase full of cash. When confronted with the money, Bob denies knowing about it, stating he used his finances to put concrete in the dam's walls -- which he discovers are hollow and poorly constructed. Cecil arrives armed and reveals his own intention to embezzle the money from the project, and his plans to frame Bob as the scapegoat when the dam collapses from shoddy construction. Cecil's motivation for the crime is being upstaged at his audition as Krusty's sidekick by Bob, who was chosen as the clown's sidekick instead. Cecil locks Bob, Bart and Lisa in the dam and prepares to blow it up, taking the money with him. Deciding to work together, Bart, Lisa, and Bob escape and try to save the dam. While Lisa and Bob defuse Cecil's dynamite, Bart lunges at Cecil before he can press the plunger. Cecil attempts to swat him off with the briefcase, which falls open and scatters money over the river below, washing it away. Cecil throws Bart off a cliff, but Bob grabs the dynamite's chord and swoops down to save him. As the two dangle over the side of the dam, Bob cuts the cord on the dynamite to prevent Cecil from destroying the town. Bob and Bart plummet down the dam's wall, but a protruding pipe stops their fall. The police arrive and arrest Cecil. Bob gloats over his victory, having gained the respect of Bart and Lisa, but Chief Wiggum arrests Bob, despite Bart and Lisa's protests that he is reformed. As they are taken away, Cecil tricks Bob into swearing revenge and incriminating himself. The dam then crumbles and releases a torrent of water on Springfield, but does only minimal damage. In prison, the brothers share a cell and bicker because Bob is angry at Cecil for making Bart his nemesis again.Episode Capsule at The Simpsons Archive. ===== The Namesake depicts the struggles of Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli (Irrfan Khan and Tabu), first-generation immigrants from the East Indian state of West Bengal to the United States, and their American-born children Gogol (Kal Penn) and Sonia (Sahira Nair). The film takes place primarily in Kolkata, New York City and New York state suburbs. The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima leave Calcutta and settle in New York City. Through a series of miscues, their son's nickname, Gogol (named after Russian author Nikolai Gogol), becomes his official birth name, an event which will shape many aspects of his life. The story chronicles Gogol's cross-cultural experiences and his exploration of his Indian heritage, as the story shifts between the United States and India. Gogol becomes a lazy, pot-smoking teenager indifferent to his cultural background. He resents many of the customs and traditions his family upholds and doesn't understand his parents. After a summer trip to India before starting college at Yale, Gogol starts opening up to his culture and becomes more accepting of it. After college, Gogol uses his "good name" Nikhil (later shortened to Nick). He works as an architect and dates Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), a white woman from a wealthy background, who is clueless about their cultural differences. Gogol falls in love with Maxine and introduces her to his parents, who struggle to understand his modern, American perspectives on dating, marriage and love. They are hesitant and guarded when meeting her. Gogol gets along with Maxine's family and feels closer to them than he does his own family. Before he goes to Ohio for a teaching apprenticeship, Ashoke tells Gogol the story of how he came up with his name. Shortly after, while Gogol is on vacation with Maxine's family, Ashoke dies. Grieving, Gogol tries to be more like what he thinks his parents want him to be and begins following cultural customs more closely. He grows distant from Maxine and eventually breaks up with her. Gogol rekindles a friendship with Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson), the daughter of family friends. They begin dating and soon after get married. However, the marriage is short- lived as Moushumi, bored with being a wife, starts having an affair with an old boyfriend from Paris. Gogol divorces her, while Ashima blames herself for pressuring Gogol to marry a fellow Bengali. Gogol returns home to help Ashima pack the house when he finds the book Ashoke gave him as a graduation present. Searching for comfort, and accepting his new life alone, Gogol finally reads the stories written by his namesake on the train home. As well as depicting Gogol/Nikhil's experiences, the film describes the courtship and marriage of Ashima and Ashoke, and the effect on the family from Ashoke's early death from a massive heart attack. Through experiencing his father's (Tamal Roy Choudhury) funeral rites on the banks of the Ganges, Gogol begins to appreciate Indian culture. Ashima's decision to move on with her life, selling the suburban family home and returning to Calcutta, unifies and ends the story. ===== The fictional world of Grandia Xtreme is populated by three races: the militaristic and resourceful Humans; the pointy-eared Arcadians characterized by their magic; and the tribal, beast- like Hazmans. At the beginning of the game, the three races have co-existed in an uneasy alliance for several years, but a natural disaster known as the "Elemental Disorder" occurs and threatens them. In response, the Humans focus their Nortis Army into researching the cause of the disturbances. Representatives from the other races gather to help but tensions and distrust arise along with the possibility of the disasters having been created artificially. The player takes on the role of Evann, a young ranger, voiced by Dean Cain, who can activate the technology present in certain ruins of the world. He has trained himself to use a sword after his father's death, but has not developed a proper work ethic. Evann is thrown into a series of events that will lead him to discover the cause of the Elemental Disorder, the military's real intentions, and hidden truths behind the ruins. Seven characters join Evann as playable characters during the game: Carmyne, a female sergeant of the Nortis Army who fights with a saber and dislikes taking orders, but revels in giving them; Brandol, a brave but gentle soldier who wields a long sword and has a knack for engineering; Myam, a young and impulsive female archer from Hazma; Lutina (voiced by singer Lisa Loeb), a cold-blooded, experimented officer from Arcadia fighting with a dagger; Ulk, an aged Hazman wielding an axe and working with the Nortis Army; Titto, a young and timid Arcadian knife-user only comfortable around Jaid; and Jaid himself, an arrogant staff-wielding knight from Arcadia. All eight characters are eventually led to combine their forces in an attempt to put an end to the problems facing their world. ===== ===== Bobby Taylor (Robert Townsend) is a young black man aspiring to become an actor. His younger brother Stevie (Craigus R. Johnson) watches him prepare to audition for a part in Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge, a movie about street gangs which is so full of stereotypes that the light-skinned black actors who audition are cast as Latino gang members and have to speak with cartoonish Spanish accents. Bobby's grandmother (Helen Martin) overhears the "jive talk" of Bobby's lines and expresses disapproval. His mother (Starletta DuPois) is more supportive, but Bobby's grandmother says that if he desires a respectable job, there is honest work at the post office. Bobby assures his mother that if he lands the part, their lives will change for the better. After the audition, Bobby talks to Mr. Jones (John Witherspoon), who questions Bobby's dedication to his job at Jones's restaurant, Winky Dinky Dog, because Bobby frequently misses work so he can attend auditions and casting calls. A limousine arrives, and its passenger is B. B. Sanders (Brad Sanders), a famous black actor who plays a stereotypical comedy character, Batty Boy, in the popular sitcom There's a Bat in My House. Ecstatic to meet a potential role model, Bobby asks Sanders how to determine whether a role is a good one. Sanders tells him that if his character does not die, then it's a good part. Sanders says that acting is not about art, it's about making money -- sequels, merchandising, etc. Bobby's agent calls to say his audition went well, and he got a callback, but the producers want an "Eddie Murphy-type". That night, he has a nightmare in which the director (Eugene Robert Glazer), writer (Dom Irrera), and casting director (Lisa Mende) hound him to become Eddie Murphy. Waiting in line with a group of Eddie Murphy clones, Bobby starts turning into Eddie Murphy himself and then wakes up in shock. The next day, Bobby's restaurant co-workers, Donald and Tiny (Keenen Ivory Wayans and Lou D. Washington), tell him he will never succeed as an actor, so Bobby quits Winky Dinky Dog. Later that night, he visits his uncle Ray (David McKnight), a singer who gave up a chance at stardom to take a "real" job and provide for his family. Bobby expresses doubts about pursuing acting, but Ray encourages Bobby to follow his dreams. During his callback, the director, writer, and casting director are thrilled at Bobby's performance, and he wins the lead role. He then begins to experience attacks of conscience that manifest as daydreams based on what people around him are saying or doing, including one ("Black Acting School") where white coaches teach black performers how to act "more black", and one ("Sneaking into the Movies") where two young black men gain entry to a theater without paying and review films that spoof popular titles à la At the Movies, including Amadeus Meets Salieri, Chicago Jones and the Temple of Doom, Dirty Larry, and Attack of the Street Pimps. At home, Bobby is celebrating with his girlfriend Lydia (Anne-Marie Johnson) when his grandmother arrives. The three of them watch a film noir, which causes Bobby to fantasize about playing the lead in his own film noir, Death of a Breakdancer. That night, Bobby dreams of the roles that he wants to play, from a Shakespearean king, to a black superhero, to a black version of Rambo ("Rambro"). His final dream depicts him winning his fifth Oscar. The next day, Bobby starts filming Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge with his family in attendance. His guilt about playing a stereotypical character finally overwhelms him, and Bobby quits. Another cast member who previously complained about the stereotypical film hypocritically takes over Bobby's part, but Bobby and his family leave the set with their pride intact. In the closing scene, Bobby is completing preparations on a different set for an on-camera scene that is about to begin. In an echo of his grandmother's earlier admonition, Hollywood Shuffle ends with Bobby filming a TV PSA for the US Postal Service. ===== Grandia Online was set in a fantasy world that occupies the same universe as the original Grandia video game, and took place many years beforehand during the fabled "Age of Genesis". All players began their journey as an escapee from a village that has been mysteriously overcome by a dark force, becoming petrified and unlivable. Meeting with a powerful sorceress named Liete, the player learns that similar events are happening across the world, and an investigation as to its source is taking place. Venturing into the game's world, players traveled across the land interacting with playable and non-playable characters to expand the game's story, leading them to numerous locations including the Pulse of Gaia, a blighted land believed to be the source of the corruption, and the homeland of the ancient Icarians, a race known for their prowess with magic. GungHo games plans to introduce new plot points that expand the story of Gaia and the Icarians through regular updates. Players chose a character based on one of three races who inhabit the world: Humans, a small, bushy-tailed raced called the Coltas, and the imposing, tribal Ralgas. Other inhabitants of the world included the diminutive rabbit- like Mogays, who acted as merchants and guides, and numerous species of monsters and animals that serve as the game's primary enemies. Ruins from past civilizations appeared as additional areas, and included opponents such as automatons and robots from a bygone era. As the player ventured further into the game, they encountered progressively more difficult enemies and boss characters who required large groups to defeat. ===== Ambassador-designate to Saudi Arabia Ogden Mears sails back to America after touring the world. At a layover in Hong Kong, Ogden meets Nataschaa Russian countess whose parents died after the family was expelled following the Russian Revolutionwho then sneaks into his cabin in evening dress to escape her life as a prostitute at a sailors' dance hall. A refugee, she has no passport, and she is forced to hide in his cabin during the voyage. Ogden dislikes the situation, being a married man although seeking a divorce, and he worries how it might affect his career if she is found. But he reluctantly agrees to let her stay. They must then figure out how to get her off the ship, and it is arranged that she marry Hudson, his middle-aged valet. Although it is only a formality, Hudson wishes to consummate the relationship, a wish she does not share. She avoids him until they dock in Honolulu, then jumps off the ship and swims ashore. Ogden's wife Martha arrives in Honolulu to join the cruise, under advice from Washington that they avoid the impropriety of a divorce. Ogden's lawyer friend Harvey, who helped arrange the marriage, meets Natascha ashore and tells her that the immigration officers have accepted her as Hudson's wife, and she will remain in Honolulu. Martha confronts Ogden about Natascha, speaking rather roughly about her and her past lifestyle as a prostitute and the mistress of a gangster, having learned her past from a passenger who was Natascha's customer in Hong Kong. Ogden responds by asking if his wife would have done as well under such circumstances. The ship sets sail for the U.S. mainland, but Ogden surprises Natascha in the hotel's cabaret where they begin dancing as he has left the ship and his wife. ===== Guns of Batasi depicts an erupting world where newly empowered forces, both black and white, embrace the realpolitik of a post-colonial world. A group of veteran British NCOs, headed by upright Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale (Richard Attenborough), becomes entangled with a coup in an unnamed African state, recently-independent and dogged by political intrigue. The unnamed country is evocative of Kenya in east Africa: RSM Lauderdale mentions the Turkana peoples (who live in Kenya), native soldiers speak in Kiswahili, the lingua franca of the Kenyan region, and aspects of the story echo Kenya's troubled post- independence era, including the 1957 Mau Mau Uprising. Throughout the story contrasts professional British NCOs and their officers with the inexperienced African soldiers and their officers. After the post-colonial government is overthrown native troops supporting the new regime seize control of Batasi, a King's African Rifles army base. They seize weapons and arrest the newly appointed African commanding officer, Captain Abraham (Earl Cameron). With British NCOs isolated in their mess, action concentrates around their protection of the wounded Captain Abraham. This defence is complicated by Ms Barker-Wise, a visiting British MP (Flora Robson) and Karen Eriksson, a UN secretary (Mia Farrow), the latter providing some love interest. Eventually, the country's new administration allows British officers to return to the Batasi barracks and end the siege, although not before the NCOs destroy two Bofors guns targeting their mess. The film ends with the new government restoring amicable relations with the British Commonwealth, but on condition that RSM Lauderdale leaves the country. RSM Lauderdale loses his cool (the only time he has done so throughout) and flings a shot glass at a framed portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, a treasured centrepiece behind the bar. Regaining his composure, the resigned Lauderdale marches across the parade ground as a military march swells. ===== The game begins at U.S. Outpost 31 in Antarctica, a short time after the events of the film. Two teams of U.S. Special Forces have arrived to investigate the U.S. camp and the nearby Norwegian camp. Captain J.F. Blake (voiced by Per Solli) is the leader of Bravo Team, who are investigating the U.S. camp, whilst Alpha Team, under the command of Captain Pierce, investigate the Norwegian camp. Both teams are under the overall command of Colonel Whitley (William B. Davis), who is in constant communication via radio. Whilst investigating Outpost 31, Bravo Team soon discover the small spacecraft made by the Blair-Thing and a tape recorder with a message from R.J. MacReady, describing how nobody trusts anybody anymore. They then find information detailing how the base has been infiltrated by an extraterrestrial lifeform that is capable of imitating the physical appearance and characteristics of any living organism it assimilates. They also find the body of Childs, one of the two survivors at the end of the film, who has died from hypothermia. The film's other survivor, MacReady, is nowhere to be found. Under orders from Whitley, Bravo Team set up C-4 explosives throughout the facility, which are detonated remotely, destroying the outpost. Whilst the rest of Bravo Team are airlifted to safety, Blake heads to the Norwegian camp to locate and reinforce Alpha Team, with whom contact has been lost. He soon learns they have been attacked and scattered by a horde of "scuttlers;" small limbs and appendages of much larger Things. Eventually Blake finds Pierce. However, he has become paranoid, believing everyone to be infected and demanding Blake agrees to a blood test to prove he is still human. Blake does so, and he and Pierce set out to find a way to reestablish communication with Whitley. However, they are soon separated, and with no other choice, Blake continues on, finding the radio room, but discovering someone has stolen the radio and fled into a nearby warehouse. En route to the warehouse, Blake encounters Pierce in an observatory. However, he is infected, and rather than allow himself to turn into a Thing, Pierce shoots himself in the head. Blake continues to pursue the man with the radio, eventually discovering that he is a Thing. Blake kills him, and takes the radio. Moving on, he enters the "Pyron" sub-facility beneath the Norwegian base, learning of a company called Gen-Inc., who have installed a research team under the command of Dr. Sean Faraday (John Carpenter). Gen-Inc. had been conducting biological experiments on the Things when their team was infected, and now only a few survivors remain within the facility. Blake rescues Faraday and attempts to leave. However, he is prevented from doing so by Whitley, who shoots him with a tranquillizer gun, and reveals to Faraday that he has infected himself with the Thing gene, claiming it to be controllable, something of which he is living proof, and therefore demonstrating its capability as a weapon. When Faraday attempts to eradicate the Thing virus, Whitley kills him. Blake awakens in the now abandoned "Strata" research facility, and learns that his cells have a unique resistance to infection by the Thing virus. After escaping his confinement, he unearths a government conspiracy whereby Gen-Inc. isolated a microbiological form of the Thing called the "Cloud virus", which was intended for use in biological warfare. However, the Thing infected everyone at the facility. Blake learns that Whitley was in charge of the entire operation, and has injected himself with a strain of the virus known as "Cloud Virus B4" in an attempt to cure his terminal cancer. Blake fights his way through the facility, battling numerous black ops under Whitley's command, as well as many Things. Learning that Whitley plans to distribute the Thing virus around the world using a fleet of airplanes, he is able to destroy them before they take off. Eventually, Blake confronts Whitley himself. He sets him on fire, but Whitely is unhurt. He explains that an airlift team is on its way and when it arrives, he will begin global exposure. Whitley flees further into the base, pursued by Blake. At the partly excavated site of the original Thing's spaceship, Whitley transforms into a massive Thing creature. Blake encounters a helicopter pilot, who helps him defeat the Whitley-Thing. As the helicopter flies away from the base, the pilot reveals himself to be R.J. MacReady. ===== Captain Hugh "Bullshot" Crummond (Alan Shearman) is a World War I fighter pilot, Olympic athlete, racing driver, and part-time sleuth. He must save the world from the dastardly Count Otto van Bruno (Ronald E. House), his wartime adversary, and win the heart of the damsel in distress (Diz White). ===== ===== Ben (Kurt Russell), a horse trainer who takes his work very seriously, neglects his precocious daughter while he pours his heart into the care of the horses that he trains. Determined to make good on her father's overdue promise, Cale (Dakota Fanning) prods him to take her along to work and succeeds. One morning, Soñador, the horse that is to enter the race that day, refuses to leave her stall. Ben mentions that one of her legs feels warm but his boss, Palmer, tells him to get Soñador on the track. During the race, the horse falls and injures herself so badly that Palmer demands the horse be put down. Having Cale along and not wanting her to see something like this, Ben instead strikes a bargain with Palmer and becomes the owner of the wounded horse but loses his job. With no job and facing foreclosure on his property, he decides to breed Soñador (who is nicknamed Sonya). Sonya gets a cast on her injured leg and slowly begins to recover. Cale, having fallen in love at first sight with Soñador, begins to sneak out to the barn at night to see her. She also sneaks over to see her grandfather, 'Pop', Ben's dad (Kris Kristofferson), who loves teaching his granddaughter about horses. They go to another farm to pick out a stallion to breed with Soñador, but the stud fee is too high. Ben's father gives Ben some money to use to breed, and Ben reluctantly takes it. But before they can breed, the vet tests Soñador and finds out she is unable to have a foal. After, Cale hears her father tell her mother, Lilly (Elisabeth Shue), that Soñador has ruined them because she cannot have a foal. Lily responds that Soñador is the best thing that has ever happened to them, alluding to the fact that Ben is finally spending much-needed time with Cale. Frustrated, Ben says that if Cale wasn't there the day when Soñador was hurt, he would have let her be put down. Hurt after hearing the conversation, Cale sets out to run away and saddles Soñador. Not knowing of Cale's plan, Ben enters the barn. The door slams behind him, and a startled Soñador bolts out of the barn with Cale hanging on for dear life. Ben scrambles to his truck and sets out after them. He catches up and manages to get Cale to safety but also notices how fast Sonya is, despite her previous injury. This incident begins to cement the newly forming bond between father and daughter. They realize that Soñador is very fast and decide to race her. Unfortunately, after the race she is claimed, and Cale is angry at her father for entering the horse in a claiming race. At a parent-teacher night, Ben reads a story that Cale wrote about a king and his horse, and he realizes how much their family needs Soñador. He buys her back with money from his father. Cale decides to race Soñador in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with Manny, Ben's colleague, as the jockey. They start training together and manage to get a wealthy sponsor. On the day of the race, Ben notices Sonya's leg is warm and contemplates not racing her, scared that she may get injured again. This time however, Sonya refuses to go back in the stall. Manny and Sonya enter the race and eventually win. ===== Aging, cynical Shunsuke is one of postwar Japan's most respected authors. While vacationing at an exclusive Japanese resort, he meets Yuichi, a stunningly gorgeous young man of limited means and intellect who is engaged to a prim, conventional young woman from a very well- to-do family. While he needs the marriage for financial reasons, Yuichi innocently confides to the older man that he feels no real physical desire for his bride, or for any woman. The crafty Shunsuke senses an opportunity to mold the malleable, gullible young man into an exquisite weapon of revenge against the female sex as a whole. He tells Yuichi that his inability to feel desire for women is not a weakness but potentially a tremendous source of strength. He advises the young man to go through with the marriage and gain financial security, but also to omit no opportunity to experiment with the emotions of others, and to have as many affairs as possible with both women and men. ===== In 1925 Sydney, Caddie leaves her adulterous and brutish husband and takes her two children, Ann and Terry, with her. Forced to work as a barmaid in a pub she struggles to survive. A brief affair with Ted (Jack Thompson) ends badly when his involvement with another woman comes to light, but she falls in love with a Greek immigrant, Peter (Takis Emmanuel). Peter has to return to Greece to face family obligations-he is already married to another woman. Caddie runs out of money and goes to work as a barmaid. Peter sends letters from Greece and Caddie has to evade police as she works for an SP bookie. Peter asks her to come to Athens but she decides to stay. ===== Four bored beach bums from Miami come across kids playing with toy guns. They chase one of them into a house, which, by chance, belongs to one Roc Delmonico, a former gangster who is now retired from organized crime and has become a respectable businessman. Delmonico assumes it to be a kidnapping and volunteers to go quietly. The hippies like the idea, particularly their leader, Taurus, a gigolo who lives off rich ladies. He and his accomplices, Sureshot, Herby and Sandy, drive off with Delmonico in the trunk of their car. They hide out and demand a ransom of $200,000. No one, unfortunately, will pay the ransom—not Delmonico's unhappy wife, Monica, or his business partner, Fred, or even Sam, his old mob boss. The frustrated crooks decide that it is hopeless, but Delmonico is so offended that he personally takes charge of his own kidnapping. He raises the demand to $3 million, vowing to reveal secrets that will ruin Monica, Fred and Sam. The money is paid, whereupon the greedy Taurus suggests to Delmonico that they kill the others, leaving a two-way split. However, Delmonico knows not only that the boy cannot be trusted, but also that the bank has marked the bills from the ransom and that the police will trace them. Delmonico sets fire to the money and walks away. When asked what he will do now, Delmonico responds, without looking back, "Who knows?" ===== Dirk Pitt is summoned from his vacation on the sunny beaches of California and sent to the Arctic when an iceberg is discovered that contains the remains of a missing luxury yacht. The yacht was on its way to a top-secret meeting with the White House; now the entire crew is dead, incinerated at their posts. This discovery sets Pitt on a deadly adventure as he tries to stop a multi-millionaire madman from upsetting the balance of world power and possibly causing the collapse of the world’s economy. ===== Carolyn McDuffy is a privileged college senior beginning her last year of studies at an elite Southern California university. In an effort to help her sorority win a coveted award that has eluded them in the past years, Carolyn joins them in training some handicapped young adults for the Challenged Games (a fictional version of the Special Olympics). Carolyn is paired with Jesse "Pumpkin" Romanoff, and is horrified, mostly because she has never been in such an environment. Pumpkin is kind towards her and soon she finds herself developing affection toward him because he is genuine, unlike her boyfriend Kent Woodlands, or her sorority sisters, as led by Julie Thurber. Carolyn experiences backlash and disdain about the relationship from her friends and family, including Pumpkin's own mother, Judy, despite the fact that Carolyn's love has inspired Pumpkin to get out of his wheelchair and become the best athlete on the team. Judy later walks into her son's room and discovers that Carolyn and Pumpkin have been sexually involved. Pumpkin's mother accuses her of raping her son, claiming Carolyn "has no idea what she has done" to Pumpkin. Pumpkin's mother calls Carolyn's school, causing Carolyn to be kicked out of both her sorority and expelled from the university. Carolyn makes a suicide attempt by taking most of the pills and solutions from her medicine cabinet, but survives after vomiting the substances. After hearing of Carolyn's suicide attempt, the sorority convinces the university to allow her back in, and she is invited to attend a sorority ball with Kent; Julie feels the couple's attendance will help the sorority secure their award. At the ball, Pumpkin and his friends crash the party to allow Pumpkin a dance with Carolyn. Kent confronts Pumpkin and punches him repeatedly, who responds by tackling Kent to the ground, temporarily knocking him unconscious. Humiliated, Kent leaves the dance. Carolyn tries to take Pumpkin inside to the dance, but Julie and the sorority sisters block the door. Carolyn pushes her way through with Pumpkin and they dance alone. Soon, other attendees are impelled to join them on the dance floor. Kent leaves the dance in his car, sobbing and driving erratically. He swerves to avoid a truck and plunges off a cliff with the car exploding in mid-air, crashing to the bottom. Carolyn goes to the hospital to check on Kent and finds that he is now paraplegic, though not burned from the explosion. He blames Carolyn for his problems and she is left distraught. Carolyn drops out of college, swearing off Pumpkin forever. The sorority stops helping the team and their rival sorority wins the award. Carolyn enrolls at a public university, opening up to her peers who encourage her. The sorority sisters have a change of heart and show up at the Olympic event. Kent is now the coach for Pumpkin's team and has become both a motivator and humble person. Pumpkin races his rival, a bully who berates Pumpkin at every chance given. Pumpkin is motivated by Kent, telling him to win it for Carolyn and saying she wouldn't want him to lose. As he is running, he sees Carolyn in the stands and gets a sudden boost of energy. Pumpkin wins the race, and at the finish line is congratulated by the sorority sisters, his mother, and Kent. Carolyn comes down to see Pumpkin as his mother is hugging him. She endears him to Carolyn, finally accepting her son's progress into a man. As Carolyn and Pumpkin walk off together, she asks him what name she should call him, and he replies that "Pumpkin will be fine." Carolyn glances back at those behind her with an ambiguous expression before continuing ahead. ===== In 1937, a young Kainai girl named Ashtoh-Komi is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a Canadian policy to educate Aboriginal children and assimilate them into Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school, where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under harsh treatment. Combined with the rejection of her peers (as she is a so-called "Bush Indian" who has not learnt white customs), Komi attempts to escape one night on foot with her little brother, Pita. However her plan is quickly foiled as the Indian Agent assigned to the school, Taggert, catches up and brings them back to the school; where Komi is subjected to further punishment. Eventually Rachel, Komi's only ally among the students, plead with the teachers to free her by promising to teach Komi to behave. One teacher, Kathleen Gwillimbury, is portrayed as sympathetic and she becomes repelled by the bigotry of others at the school. She offers Komi help in the form of giving her English lessons which culminate in cultural exchange, where Kathleen learns Kainai words from Komi in exchange for her learning their English counterparts. Now Amelia, Komi improves her English quickly with the kindness and support of her teacher, gradually adjusting to the school environment while retaining her Kainai identity. But when Amelia learns that the teachers lied to her by telling her her parents had died, she decides to escape again, this time successfully. ===== In a small town in Goa steeped in azure seas and sultry secrets, the chief of local police station, Siddharth (Emran Hashmi) finds himself caught in the eye of a storm...and about to get blown away. Siddharth, who is going through a divorce with his wife, Sonia (Shamita Shetty) whom he still loves, finds himself involved with a local married woman named Anna (Udita Goswami). Unable to cope with the pressures of his wife's success who is in the special police force, he continues his secret and dangerous relationship with Anna. Things get even more complicated when Siddharth realizes that Anna's husband, Shawn (Sameer Kochhar) is a wife beater and Anna is dying from cancer. Being a good soul, Siddharth does not have it in him to abandon this woman who seems to have given him some affection in recent times. In the heat of the moment, Siddharth takes an irrational decision to give Anna the money he recovered in a drug raid, for her medication in a final effort to save her. Things are not what they seem since Anna dies in a fire that very night. Siddharth now races to uncover a murky tail of drug money, murder and deceit, because all the evidences points to him. With his wife heading the case, Siddharth is now in a race against time to find out the real truth behind Anna's murder, recover the drug money and also win his wife's love back. After a bunch of wild goose chases, Siddharth finds out that Anna is very much alive and was actually controlling Shawn and Siddharth in the whole plot for getting the Insurance money. Siddharth finds this in just nick of time and while confronting Anna with the truth, Anna points a gun at him. In the scuffle that follows, Sonia shoots Anna and she provides the alibi for him stating that Anna's death was an accident. The movie ends with Siddharth recovering the lost drug money and his wife. ===== After being devastated in the third World War (known as The Third Division), Japan was divided in two: the CFC, which controls the east half of Japan, and Nikkouren, which controls the west. Several years after the end of the war, a crime organization called Vischio has taken control of the destroyed city of Toshima (formerly Tokyo, Japan's capital city), where they are holding a battle game known as Igura. Igura is a vicious battle game that may result in the death or murder of participants. To participate, one must go to Toshima's palace, meet with a man named Arbitro, and tell him their reason for their decision to enter into Igura. Upon meeting with Arbitro, participants are given five dog tags, each engraved like a card in a standard deck of playing cards. One tag must hang from the participant's neck as proof of participation. Participants must then put their lives on the line to collect others' tags, with the goal being to collect a Straight or a Full House using cards 10 through Ace. (The game incorrectly refers to such a Straight as a Royal Flush, which is a poker hand that requires that all cards be of the same suit.) Tags representing cards less than 10 are referred to as "pig tags" and can be used in dedicated neutral zones to purchase sustenance, first aid supplies, and other essentials. If a participant collects a Straight or Full House consisting of the tags representing the cards 10 through Ace, they earn the right to challenge Il Re in battle. The rules for combat dictate that battles must be between two participants with at least one non- participating witness present, and end when one combatant either dies or allows their back to touch the ground. The winner takes the loser's tags and is free to do as they please to the loser after that, often consisting of rape and resulting in the loser's death; however, many of the participants wantonly break the rules of the game. Two executioners, Gunji and Kiriwar, work for Arbitro, patrolling Toshima to kill rule breakers and to clean up the corpses of the fallen; however, they view themselves above the rules and often kill participants at their whims without consequences. Many participants use a drug called "Rein," which temporarily boosts their strength significantly and gives them an advantage in battle; however, Rein has many side effects, is extremely addictive, and the withdrawal is unbearably unpleasant and can even be fatal. Il Re is involved in the distribution of Rein, which leads to him having a high level of wealth. If they defeat Il Re, they assume his position in distributing Rein and become incredibly wealthy, which is the primary motivation for many of the fighters who join Igura. The game begins with the protagonist, a young man named Akira living in the CFC district of Japan and a champion in Bl@ster - a fighting game with much stricter rules and moderation than Igura - being falsely accused of murder and arrested. After some time in prison, a mysterious woman and man involved in the government visit him, offering him freedom from his sentence if he agrees to participate in Igura and defeat Il Re. The story follows Akira's life in the harsh, lawless Toshima as he fights both to survive and to unravel the mysteries developing around him. The game has multiple endings, and binary decision points during the story determine which ending the player will achieve. Many of them are brutal, and the game contains themes around rape, BDSM, mutilation, and murder. ===== An ex soldier reunites his old army buddies, in order to get revenge on one Colombian dictator who killed his old friend, a freedom fighter. ===== In 1890s Mexico, María Álvarez (Penélope Cruz) is an uneducated, poor farm-girl whose caring father is being forced off his land by a cruel U.S. land baron named Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). Sara Sandoval (Salma Hayek) is the highly educated, wealthy daughter of the arrogant owner of the nearby properties, and has recently returned from Europe where she attended numerous grade schools and colleges in England, Spain, and France for several years. In one fell swoop, both María's and Sara's fathers fall under attack by the baron, (Sara's father is killed, María's is shot but survives) giving him free rein in the nearby territories. As an act of revenge, María and Sara team up to become bank robbers, stealing and giving back to the poor Mexicans who have lost their lands. At first, the pair's relationship is characterized by petty cattiness stemming in part from their different backgrounds, but under the tutelage of famed bank robber Bill Buck (Sam Shepard) they learn to trust each other. During their crucial training session at the edge of a cliff, the two women test their strength by hanging from a metal bar over a wide river. At the point of exhaustion María tells Sara she cannot swim before losing her grip on the bar. Sara voluntarily drops into the river and saves her. The two women put aside their differences and agree that, while they are not friends yet, they can at least work together as partners. María turns out to be a crack shot and, while Sara can barely hold a gun, she shows that she is an expert with throwing knives. Angered by the recent attacks by two women, who are now known by the public as the "Bandidas", Jackson brings in a specialist criminal investigator named Quentin Cooke (Steve Zahn). When Sara and María learn this, and they capture Cooke and seduce him to help them. He has already figured out that Sara's father was murdered and therefore discovers that his client is a criminal. The trio embark upon bigger, more ambitious heists, during which María and Sara compete for Quentin's affections. In a move to make the money they have stolen useless, Jackson moves the gold that backs the money on a train up towards U.S. territories. Midway, he decides to steal the gold, betraying the Mexican government. The Bandidas hunt him down, but when they get their chance to kill him, they decline to do so, feeling it would make them no better than him. Jackson manages to draw his gun and almost gets a shot off at María but Sara shoots first, killing him. Quentin meets with his fiancée, much to María's heartbreak. She and Sara ride off into the sunset, their eyes set on Europe, where Sara says the banks are bigger. ===== As the books in the trilogy progress, three story arcs become evident. The largest and overarching plot line is the rise and fall of London as a global hegemon. The second and third are more personal: the boy changing from the pitiful, yet noble, Nathaniel to the power-hungry, arrogant John Mandrake, and finally earning back his humility and nobility; and the third, involving Kitty and Bartimaeus, in which Kitty proves her faith to Bartimaeus by doing something only one non-demon (Ptolemy) had ever done when she goes to the Other Place. John Mandrake (Nathaniel) also shows unusual courage and loyalty when he dismisses Bartimaeus, as surely they were both going to die, thus eventually saving the life of a demon. They end up restoring each other's faith in their races. Each of the books is named for a magical artefact or spell: the Amulet of Samarkand, named after the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, renders the wearer invulnerable to magical attacks; a Golem's Eye is an enchanted piece of clay in the form of an eye that when placed in the forehead of a Golem, enables one to control the golem; Ptolemy's Gate, named for a fictional member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, is a method that enables a human to enter the realm of spirits; and the Ring of Solomon, which invests the wearer with unshakable dominion over all spirits. ===== In the prologue, the armies of the Westlands assemble in preparation for Tarmon Gai'don, as do the forces of the Shadow. The Forsaken Demandred stages a raid on the city of Caemlyn, sending Trollocs to capture the cannons, developed jointly by Matrim Cauthon, Queen Elayne Trakand, and the Illuminator Aludra. Talmanes Delovinde and the Band of the Red Hand launch their own counter-attack and successfully exfiltrate the cannons out of the city, but Caemlyn is lost. The Light is bolstered by people coming from all over the world to fight, sensing the end of all things, while the Shadow welcomes a new Forsaken: Mazrim Taim, now called "M'Hael". ===== In 1942, a young Scot, Charlotte Gray, travels by train to London to take a job in a surgery. Richard Cannerley enters her compartment, asking questions about her life and expressing interest that she is fluent in French. He gives Charlotte his business card with the details of a book launch party. There, he introduces Charlotte to some of his acquaintances and asks her to contact him later. Charlotte enjoys a quick wartime romance with Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Peter Gregory, whom she met at the party. Cannerley has recruited Charlotte for the SOE. She is seconded to First Aid Nursing Yeomanry with the rank of Driver. She completes rigorous SOE training. Charlotte learns that Gregory's plane has gone down over occupied France and that he is missing in action. Charlotte signs up for SOE operations in France, partly motivated by her wish to find him. Charlotte's first mission to France is to deliver radio vacuum tubes. She drops by parachute. She meets her contact in a café, but the contact is arrested by the police in front of her. Julien, Charlotte's main contact in the French Resistance, reassigns her to act as housekeeper to his father, Levade. Levade is hiding two French Jewish boys, André and Jacob, after their parents were deported to a German concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Charlotte participates in a Resistance mission: helping to blow up a train carrying Nazi armaments and soldiers. The Nazis bring their own forces and armoured vehicles to the village to crush the Resistance in the area. Charlotte's SOE contact tells her that Gregory died after his aeroplane was shot down. A French official arrives to work with the Germans to ensure that their quota for deporting Jews is met. Renech, the village schoolmaster, follows Charlotte. He learns that Levade is hiding Jewish children. He threatens Charlotte with reporting the boys to the Nazis unless she agrees to become his "friend". She promises to meet him the following night. That night, Julien's Resistance group is ambushed by German soldiers, armed with machine guns. All are killed except Julien. Believing Charlotte betrayed them, Julien confronts her the next day at his father's house. Soon afterwards, German soldiers, with Renech and the French official, arrive at Levade's house. They question him about his Jewish ancestry, about which Renech apparently informed him. Renech tells Julien he must betray either his father or the boys (Renech does not care which). Julien announces that his father has Jewish grandparents and that this means he himself is therefore of Jewish ancestry. The Germans arrest Levade, who understands Julien, who does not qualify for deportation because he is only Jewish, acted to protect the boys. Renech betrays the boys anyway. The Germans arrive at the boys' new hiding place before Charlotte can get there, and capture them. Julien lies in wait for Renech in his apartment, and shoots him dead. Julien leaves for southern France, perhaps to escape to fight elsewhere. Charlotte refuses to go with him, saying that she still has duties to fulfil. Charlotte simply smiles when he says that he does not even know her real name. Evading French police, Charlotte rushes to Levade's house where she hurriedly types a letter and takes it to the railway station where Jews are being loaded into cattle cars. Hearing the boys and Levade, Charlotte pushes the letter between the boards of their car. Levade reads it aloud to the boys: it purports to be a letter from their parents, encouraging them to care for one another, to eat well, to survive and reminding them of their parents' love. Although the film suggests that Levade and the Jewish boys are doomed, Faulks's novel states explicitly that they die in a concentration camp. Some time later, Charlotte leaves France and returns to London. Peter Gregory, who in fact survived his aeroplane crash and has been in hiding in France, contacts her, wanting to resume their romance. Charlotte explains that she grieved for him and cannot go back to their romantic relationship. After the war, Charlotte returns to Julien at what was formerly his father's home. For the first time, she tells him her real name is Charlotte Gray. ===== In May 1942, an Allied base on Java is bombed by Japanese aircraft, with another attack expected the next day. With only one working fighter and five American pilots who all volunteer to fly it, Dutch commander Major Eichel (Steven Geray) chooses George Collins (Franchot Tone) because he has come up with a daring plan: attach a bomb rack to the fighter to bomb the Japanese aircraft carrier from which the attack came. After George takes off, Eichel asks the other pilots to tell him about George. Flashbacks stories of his civilian life before the war are interleaved with radio broadcasts from George. Four years earlier, George is working his way through law school and is at the top of his class. He takes Freddie Andrews (Marsha Hunt) to an empty lot in the country, where he proposes and tells her that he has bought the land to build their home. She accepts. At first, they are happy, but then his friend and fellow lawyer Vito S. Alessandro (Gene Kelly) invites him to join his law firm after graduation. Vito's firm works for corrupt state governor Hank Durban. Despite Freddie's concerns, George takes the job. He ends up evicting poor farmers to make way for an irrigation project which will mostly benefit Durban and his cronies. Meanwhile, Vito's brother Nikola arrives from Italy. A member of the resistance to Benito Mussolini's regime, he had been imprisoned, but finally managed to escape. When he sees a portrait of the Italian dictator hanging in Vito's office, he becomes enraged and tears it down. The prison ordeal has taken its toll on Nikola's health, and he commits suicide. Freddie finally divorces George because, while she still loves him, she does not like him anymore. Eventually, George becomes sickened when a mentally disabled girl dies accidentally during the eviction of her family. He provides information that brings about the downfall of Governor Durban, but the residents of his town ostracize him, unaware of his pivotal role in the downfall. Freddie, however, knows that he has redeemed himself, and they get back together. Back in the present, George locates the Japanese carrier and dives on it, but the 500-pound bomb fails to release properly. After shooting down a couple of enemy fighters, George makes a fateful decision and deliberately crashes his fighter into the carrier. The explosion rocks the ship and fires spread rapidly. The carrier's battle ensign, now afire, is the last thing seen as it slips beneath the waves. ===== Mr. Mallik (Tariq Anam Khan) lives in an about 100 years old house in old part of Dhaka city. There are constructions developed by Real Estate companies around his house at Old Dhaka. They offers him to demolish his old house and build apartment instead. But, he is confused to decide. At that time, his daughter Ruba comes back from United States with her 6 years old child, being tortured by her husband. She was against of diminishing the house. Ruba moves from house to house, she remembers memories with the old house. One day, she finds a red cloth at the next door balcony. That's an underwear. 7 colors of underwears of neighbor Kislu (Humayun Faridi), different color every weekday. Ruba gets interested and starts to move out regularly with Kislu. She gets involved to a relationship with Kislu. Stranger Soleman (Fazlur Rahman Babu), who has committed murder in previous life is now working as a guard of Mallik's house. He often gets involved in fight with local boys. When Mr. Mallik knew about Ruba and Kislu he tried to fetch his daughter from Kislu. Kislu was murdered. ===== Following the events of The Crystal Shard, Bruenor leads his friends Drizzt Do'Urden, the barbarian Wulfgar, and a surprisingly enthusiastic Regis, on a quest to reclaim Mithril Hall, the ancient stronghold of his clan. However, Regis has an ulterior motive for coming along; namely to elude the dangerous assassin Artemis Entreri, sent by Pasha Pook of Calimshan to recover the magical ruby that Regis stole from him. Just as the companions are setting out, Entreri arrives in Ten-Towns, soon locating Regis' abandoned home and finding Catti- brie there. The young woman finds herself hopelessly outmatched and paralyzed by fear, telling him all about Regis and the companions' quest. Entreri allows her to live, confident that she will not dare to interfere with his plans. Afraid for her friends, and desperate to regain her honor, she follows after both the companions and Entreri, hoping to warn her friends. On the way to Luskan, Entreri realizes that he is being followed and captures Catti-brie again, this time taking her along as a prisoner to use against the companions. Meanwhile, the companions reach Luskan, and seek out a map of the Northlands to aid in their quest. However, Dendybar the Mottled — an ambitious wizard from the Hosttower of the Arcane — has heard of the Crystal Shard and believes that Drizzt still possesses it, and plots to take it for his own ends. He forges an uneasy alliance with Entreri so that both may achieve their goals, and sends his apprentice Sydney with Entreri, along with his golem (Bok) and a soldier named Jierdan. The companions travel across the Northlands towards Silverymoon, encountering barbarian tribes, an eccentric wizard family (the Harpells) and the soldiers of Nesme, who react to Drizzt with hostility, forcing the companions to divert across the Evermoors, also known as the Trollmoors, an ordeal that almost makes an end of them. Upon reaching Silverymoon, Drizzt is again shunned, but the companions are directed by Lady Alustriel to the Herald's Holdfast, where they obtain the final clues to the location of Mithril Hall. During her time as a captive, Catti-brie slowly overcomes her fear of Entreri, and begins to play on the volatile relationships between Entreri and his allies, creating an opportunity for her to escape as the evil group closes in on the companions. Reunited with her friends, Catti-brie accompanies them into the ancient Dwarven stronghold, discovering that the duergar who forced Bruenor's clan out are still there, working the mines for their own ends. Within the upper chambers of Mithril Hall, the two groups clash, and Drizzt and Entreri find themselves face-to- face. The meeting between Drizzt and Entreri marks the beginning of a long- running and deadly feud between the two. The two warriors are evenly matched in battle, and each sees a twisted mirror image of himself in the other; Drizzt the drow with a human soul, and Entreri the human who should have been born a drow. During the battle, a cave-in separates the two groups but results in Drizzt and Entreri being trapped together deep in the complex. They are forced to work together to escape, an experience which heightens both their resentment of the other's ideology, and their respect for one another's prowess. Although initially tasked with the capture of Regis and the return of the ruby for his master Pasha Pook, Entreri finds himself so challenged by Drizzt's very existence that he later uses Guenhwyvar's statue, stolen from Drizzt, to further bait the drow into following him so that they can duel to find out who is the better warrior. Bruenor, Wulfgar, Regis and Catti-brie, believing Drizzt to have perished, continue their quest with heavy hearts; Bruenor decides that they will only scout the upper levels, and begins to doubt the wisdom of trying to retake Mithril Hall. They find the Hall of Dumathoin, recovering the magical bow Taulmaril (the Heartseeker) which later becomes Catti-brie's signature weapon. On their way out, they find themselves attacked by duergar, and forced into a battle with the shadow dragon Shimmergloom, the master of the duergar. It is only because of Bruenor's heroic sacrifice that the dragon is slain and his friends survive. Shortly afterwards, Drizzt is reunited with his friends, although Entreri takes advantage of the situation to finally capture Regis and make his escape, taunting Drizzt to follow him. The story ends with Catti-brie making arrangements for Clan Battlehammer to reclaim the hall, along with help from Wulfgar's tribe and the dwarves of Citadel Adbar, whilst Drizzt and Wulfgar begin their chase to rescue Regis from the clutches of Entreri. ===== The dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar the barbarian race to Calimport to rescue their friend Regis—who is being held as a captive, along with Drizzt's magical panther Guenhwyvar, by Artemis Entreri—and his stolen gem from the vengeance of Pasha Pook, Regis's former boss whom Regis betrayed by stealing his hypnotizing gem. While Drizzt and Wulfgar's chase continue, it is shown to us that Bruenor is not dead. It turns out that after Bruenor jumped onto the back of Shimmergloom, he survived the fall and fire due to having hold of Drizzt's scimitar, Icingdeath. Having been invulnerable to the fire, besting the dragon, he crawled back to the surface. Breunor then fails to sneak past the duergar and fights through scores of them before facing off against a giant spider. Lady Alustriel finds the poisoned and near-dead dwarf, heals him back to health, reunites him with Catti-brie and sends both of them after Drizzt and Wulfgar by supplying them with a burning chariot. Meanwhile, Drizzt and Wulfgar are on the sea, chasing Entreri by boat with the help of his good Captain Deudermont. In the middle of a fight with pirates, Bruenor and Catti- brie arrive and "The Companions of the Hall" are united once again. Later, the heroes arrive in Calimport and storm in into Pasha Pook's palace, only to find wererats, Pasha Pook's new-found allies led by Rassiter. Bruenor, Catti-brie and Wulfgar fight the horde of wererats while Drizzt finally duels Artemis Entreri. The two of them duel both in the sewers and in the streets of Calimport but the duel is left unfinished when the wounded Entreri, in an effort to escape, calls to everyone that Drizzt - who had been hiding his appearance with the help of a magical mask acquired earlier - is a drow. Bruenor, Catti-brie and Wulfgar come to the rescue of Drizzt, protecting him from the frightened and angry crowd. In the throne room, Pook imprisons Drizzt and his friends in Tarterus with the help of a demonic artifact called "The Taros Hoop". Just when there seems to be no hope, Regis comes along, taking the wand that controls the portal and helping his friends. Our heroes try a desperate attempt to break free from the demodands but Catti-brie becomes unconscious, floating in the air because of the circular plane that is Tarterus. Drizzt sends everyone and rescues Catti-brie by fighting savagely with hordes of demodands. In the end, Pasha Pook dies by the claws of the freed Guenhwyar, the six companions are united once again, soldiers from the surrounding dwarven kingdoms, barbarian tribes, and human cities reclaim Mithral Halls and all turns out well. Entreri is still alive and plans his vengeance against Drizzt. The novel holds several key events and introduces a number of important characters like Captain Deudermont of the Sea Sprite. Also, this novel is the starting of Drizzt's romantic feelings for Catti-brie- he even kisses her during Drizzt's rescue in the demonic plane (although Catti-brie was unconscious at that time.) ===== Even in the remote far northern region of Icewind Dale, the renegade dark elf ranger Drizzt Do'Urden is not fully accepted, except by the dwarves whom he had eventually befriended. He roams the tundra, hunting down yeti and giants that threaten the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. When the Dale's native barbarians band together to slaughter the people of Ten-Towns, whom they view as invaders, Drizzt, with his drow stealth and ranger's knowledge of the terrain, discerns their plan and relays the information to his friends, the halfling Regis and the dwarf Bruenor. Regis, on the council of Ten-Towns, uses persuasion and a magical hypnotic ruby pendant to convince the stubborn leaders of the towns to work together to thwart the barbarian attack. Because of the warning and their unified efforts, Ten-Towns and the dwarves successfully repel the barbarian attackers. Drizzt personally meets the barbarian king, Heafstaag, in combat. He wounds Heafstaag many times, including a stab to the stomach that should have been fatal, but the king manages to survive and escape after wounding Drizzt. Meanwhile, Bruenor clashes with a young barbarian standard bearer, who breaks the shaft of his banner over the dwarf's head to no effect. Bruenor then slams the youth with his shield, rendering him unconscious. After the battle, Bruenor saves him from being killed in cold blood by the townspeople, instead taking the young man, Wulfgar, son of (the late) Beornegar into his care. Bruenor also defends the wounded and unconscious Drizzt, slamming Kemp to the ground and breaking the nose of his lieutenant when he finds them kicking the injured drow. Bruenor tells the people of Ten Towns that if not for Drizzt Do'Urden, they would now be dead, which grants Drizzt a measure of acceptance and respect in Icewind Dale. Five years pass, with Wulfgar indentured to the dwarves. Bruenor teaches him to smith and mine, and comes to love him like a son. Though Wulfgar initially resents the dwarves and his indenture, he grows to respect and even love Bruenor, like his own father who had died years past. During this time, the failed wizard Akar Kessel, left to die in the Spine of the World, finds Crenshinibon, the Crystal Shard, a magical, sentient crystal with the ability to lend power to its wielder, make tower sanctuaries in the likeness of itself, and insinuate itself into the minds of others, including that of its wielder. Crenshinibon, obsessed with gaining power, twists Akar Kessel's mind into doing its will. Kessel, oblivious to the manipulation, decides to conquer Icewind Dale for his own. He enslaves the goblins and orcs of the nearby mountains, building them into his own army, their wills completely destroyed by Crenshinibon. He even manages to gain control of Heafstaag, and through him the tribes of barbarians. He also acquires the services of a balor demon named Errtu to be his general, though the demon has more interest in obtaining Crenshinibon for himself than in serving Akar Kessel. Near the end of Wulfgar's indenture, Bruenor forges Aegis-fang, a magical warhammer, for his adopted son. He then takes Wulfgar to be trained in the ways of battle, choosing Drizzt as the young man's instructor. Despite his ambivalence about training under a drow, Wulfgar quickly comes to respect and admire the dark elf, and Drizzt turns the young man into a formidable warrior. The two of them clear out an entire lair of verbeeg (the least of the giant species, around a height of ten feet), led by a frost giant named Biggrin with only the help of Drizzt's magical black panther companion Guenhwyvar. Wulfgar then leaves to hunt down a white dragon, Ingeloakastimizilian, more commonly known as Icingdeath. Drizzt tracks him, and the two of them kill the dragon. Drizzt finds a scimitar in the treasure hoard and claims it for his own, eventually naming it after the dragon. As Akar Kessel moves on Ten-Towns, his armies sweeping aside the disorganized defense with little trouble, Wulfgar takes the horns of Icingdeath and challenges Heafstaag for kingship. He wins the challenge, killing the old king. Drizzt, sensing the demon Errtu, and recognizing the balor from his days living in the deep underground drow city of Menzoberranzan, calls the demon and faces it alone with Guenhwyvar. With the aid of the fire-banishing properties of the scimitar Icingdeath, he manages to defeat Errtu, banishing it to the abyss for one hundred years. After defeating the demon, Drizzt uses his stealth and Guenhwyvar's unnatural eyes to find his way into the Crystal Tower, Cryshal-Tirith, where he fights his way past Akar Kessel's orcs and trolls to face the wizard himself. The wizard, sure of victory, imprisons the drow in a cage of magical light, and taunts him with images of the barbarians joining the battle for Ten-Towns, thinking that Heafstaag still led them. However, Wulfgar leads his people not against Ten-Towns, but against Kessel. With the help of Regis, a halfling prisoner in the tower, Drizzt escapes his cage, and follows Kessel through a portal to the top of a mountain. There, after a short battle, the magical heat of Crenshinibon destabilizes the snow cap, and an avalanche kills Kessel and takes Drizzt back down the mountain. Crenshinibon, buried under the avalanche and blocked from the light of the sun (its power source) and weakened by Regis' destruction of Cryshal-Tirth, loses its control over the remaining orcs and goblins, who are ultimately slaughtered. Bruenor, faking mortal injury, tricks Drizzt into agreeing to search for Mithral Hall, Bruenor's boyhood home. ===== On August 6, 1945, Second Lieutenant Katell has just arrived at the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, and he orders his war- weary soldiers to make a desperate attack on a group of sick and wounded Japanese soldiers holed up in a cave. Seasoned veteran Sergeant Causarano tries to talk him out of it as he knows that the men have had enough of war and that "the attack will accomplish nothing but pointless deaths on both sides". Katell refuses to listen and stands firm on his orders, intent on proving himself and earning his rank. He berates the platoon, demanding that they shape up. Katell then accidentally drops his binoculars. When he goes to retrieve them, he finds himself in Corregidor fighting in the Imperial Japanese Army as a Japanese man named Lt. Yamuri. The year is now 1942, and he is ordered to attack a group of sick and wounded American soldiers who are holed up in a cave. Having found a new perspective, he tries in vain to dissuade the captain from the attack, arguing that the Americans inside the cave pose no threat and can be bypassed. The Japanese captain bluntly refuses to listen, suspecting that the young man is either sick with jungle fever or has lost his nerve to fight. He tells him to straighten up or stay with the wounded, but Yamuri does not back down. The captain then relieves him of command and moves the company forward to begin the attack anyway. Katell then finds himself back in 1945 as an American soldier. His men tell him that they've just gotten word that the atomic bomb has been dropped. They have been ordered not to attack the cave, but instead to fall back and wait to see how Japan responds. Causarano sardonically assures him "I wouldn't fret. I'm sure there'll be other wars, other countries, other human beings you can knock off." As the platoon withdraws, Katell says to himself "I hope not. God help us, I hope not." ===== Advocate Steve Myers (Billy Connolly) is a disillusioned lawyer who becomes fed-up with the perceived corruption within the judicial system. He quits the law business and buys a small fishing boat and takes up fishing for a living. His fishing boat is struck by lightning and explodes into pieces, burns and sinks. He informs his insurance company, which reviews and then subsequently declines his claim on the grounds that it is not liable as his fishing boat was destroyed due to an "Act of God". Frustrated that his claim is repeatedly declined, Steve files a claim against God, naming church officials as representatives of God and thereby the respondents. The church leaders, their respective lawyers and their insurance company get together to find a way to settle this dilemma, which catches the fancy of the media. It is in Court that God's representatives will have to admit that the destruction of Steve's fishing boat was actually God's Act, accept and compensate him, or deny it altogether thereby denying God's existence, leaving the onus on Steve to prove his claim. Steve's battle brings media attention leading to a meeting with journalist Anna Redmond (Judy Davis) who helps to raise his public profile, enlisting the support of others who had fallen victim to insurance companies' "Acts of God" clause. He also faces heavy criticism and protests from religious groups as his profile grows, and he backs the church into a disadvantageous position. However, the attention takes its toll on Steve's family, who are exploited by the media, his ex-wife already crippled by debt as the guarantor of the boat. Steve faces a reality check as his family considers moving to Perth, on the other side of the country. Meanwhile, Anna Redmond comes under fire for a history of disputes and attacks on insurance companies, drawing criticism that the case is little more than a publicity stunt. Facing a drawn out legal battle and the impact it would have on those around him, Steve decides he has won a moral victory, and withdraws from the case but not before convincing the judge that insurance companies' use of the term "Acts of God" is a misleading term. ===== The Eternal Quest covers a short period of time in Spain in the early 17th century during the reign of King Philip III. The events in the novel circle around Miguel de Cervantes and his attempts to complete and publish the first book of Don Quixote. The Eternal Quest provides a fictionalized rendering of that time, including an intrigue to stop Cervantes from publishing his work, set in the then-capital of Valladolid. Branston takes Cervantes’ comic style and grafts it on to his miniaturization of the Don Quixote myth. Although Cervantes himself is a character in this novel, much of the action centers on a character known only as the Old Knight, a soldier in the army of King Philip II and officer under the Duke of Alva who has gone mad from the violence of war. He now believes himself to be a soldier sent on a quest by God. Pedro, a friend of Cervantes and local trader, sees the Old Knight and tells Cervantes about him, inspiring the writer to create a series of short stories, published individually as pamphlets by the local printer Robles, about the comic adventures of a confused, self-proclaimed knight named Don Quixote. These events are set against a backdrop of political intrigue surrounding the impending appointment of a new poet laureate to the “emperor” (King Philip III). The marquis of Denia approaches the duchess, a widow who oversees an academy of poets and artists, to boast that he controls the emperor’s appointments and will decide who the new poet laureate shall be. He is met at the duchess’ mansion by Ongora, a local poet of small talents and great ambitions, who subsequently hatches a plot to disgrace Cervantes and elevate himself into the new royal position. The novel itself then follows three tracks: *The meanderings of the Old Knight through Valladolid, including his encounters with the other characters and his Quixote-like confusion of ordinary objects (e.g., Pedro’s family pot) for great artifacts (the sword of Lancelot); *The efforts by Cervantes to complete his work and maintain his reputation, even as the Old Knight appears to come to life from his pamphlets; and *Ongora’s plot, which involves having the duchess write a satire of Don Quixote in the form of a rejection letter from Dulcinea, with Ongora himself writing a scathing introduction in which he claims to have cuckolded Cervantes, and publishing both anonymously. The Old Knight’s misadventures take on a mystical quality, as he defeats stronger and better-armed enemies and always seems to arrive at scenes in the nick of time to stop some evil from being done. He eventually concludes that Ongora is a warlock and calls him the “Evil Magician of Bad Verse.” When Cervantes sees the satire and introduction, he approaches the duchess directly to offer to work with her on future writings if she will explain the reason for the violence of the introduction (which Cervantes believes was also written by the duchess). The duchess, who had not seen the introduction, then disavows Ongora and offers her financial and political support to Cervantes. Thus spurned, Ongora hires an assassin to kill Cervantes, but this attempt is foiled by the Old Knight, who knocks the assassin out with Pedro’s pot. Ongora eventually slays the Old Knight, who dies in Cervantes’ house, only to come back to life and die permanently with his head on Cervantes’ shoulder in front of the “Holy Grail” (an olive tree in Cervantes’ yard). Ongora tries to exact one last revenge by publishing various poor imitations of Don Quixote to stain Cervantes’ reputation, but these only serve to secure Cervantes' fame. Ongora is banished from the Spanish empire and Don Quixote is published to great acclaim. ===== Wanda Dunn, a frail and elderly woman, huddles in a dark basement apartment in an abandoned tenement. She is awakened by an altercation outside, in which Harold Beldon, a young police officer, is shot and falls just outside her door. He cries out that he is dying and pleads for her help, but she is afraid that he is "Mr. Death" trying to trick her into letting him in. She has no phone to call a doctor, and he continues begging her to help him, so she relents. She is relieved when she touches him and doesn't die, which convinces her that he is not Death after all. She helps him inside and stabilizes his condition. Explaining her reluctance to help him, she describes how she saw Death in the form of a man take an old woman's life just by touching her, and that she has seen him many times since then with different faces. A man knocks on the door, and Harold persuades Wanda to answer him. The man forces the door open and she collapses from terror. When she regains consciousness, the man apologizes amiably and explains he is a building contractor and is tasked to demolish the building in an hour. In an explanation of his role which doubles as an allegory for death as part of the circle of life, he tries to persuade her that his work is both necessary and good, since the building is no longer fit for habitation and demolishing it clears the way for new buildings. He firmly indicates that she has been given due notice, and if she will not leave he will call the police to force her from the premises. She turns to Harold for help, but the contractor doesn't see him, and leaves to get the authorities. It dawns on Wanda that Harold is in fact Death. He explains with a friendly smile that he set up the ruse to gain her trust and convince her that he means her no harm. Wanda continues her protests that she doesn't want to die. But he gently coaxes her, assuring her she has nothing to fear, and finally persuades her to give him her hand. Before she even realizes anything has changed, she finds herself standing beside her own dead body. Wanda and Harold walk arm in arm through the doorway, up the stairs, outside into the sunlight. ===== David Lewis (Peter Gallagher) is so affected by the death of his beautiful wife, Gillian (Michelle Pfeiffer), who fell from the mast of their yacht on a sailing trip, that he turns their summer cottage in Nantucket, Massachusetts into a permanent home and spends most of his time on the beach there, communicating with Gillian's spirit and unwittingly neglecting his daughter, Rachel (Claire Danes). On the second anniversary of Gillian's death, David invites her sister, Esther Wheeler (Kathy Baker), and her husband, Paul (Bruce Altman), to stay for the weekend. She insists on bringing a friend named Kevin Dollof (Wendy Crewson) whom she hopes David will become romantically interested in. He, however, ignores her in proceeding with a ritualistic celebration of Gillian's birthday. The events of the weekend cause the adults to re-examine their relationships; Esther and Paul have to deal with the problem posed to their marriage by Rachel's provocative friend, Cindy (Laurie Fortier), while, most importantly, David comes to realize that he can be a loving and attentive father to Rachel without betraying the memory of Gillian. ===== Two teen girls, Samantha Elizabeth "Sam" Kwan (age 13) (Brenda Song) and Allison Rachel "Allie" Thompson (age 13) (Hallee Hirsh) find a weather machine at a shack in the woods. After learning of its controls, they use it to make it snow in Los Angeles. It turns out that the weather machine belongs to Santa Claus (John B. Lowe) and he informs Mrs. Claus about this. To help Santa Claus, she sends two elves, Crumpet (John Salley) and Sparky (Bill Fagerbakke). A weather man named Edwin Hadley (Peter Scolari) tries to figure out what's causing the strange weather and track it down to keep himself from getting fired by his boss Mr. Martino (Jason Schombing). Edwin's boss expects Edwin to get down to the bottom of the sudden snow appearances. When Sparky and Crumpet catch up to Santa Claus, they find a footprint of a type of girl shoes that are only made in California. Santa and the elves set off to interrogate each girl on the naughty list that wears those type of shoes. Soon, the snowstorm gets so large that it spreads to San Francisco and Allie's dad gets snowed in at the airport and may not make it home in time for Christmas. Allie tries to turn it off, but over night it turns itself back on and it creates a blizzard. They are unable to make it do anything now. Samantha shares sad stories with Allie about how her dad would spend Christmas, while Allie is sad about her dad missing Christmas. During the blizzard, Edwin manages to trace the weather phenomenon to Allie's house. Due to traffic, he manages to borrow a guy's snowmobile. When Allie and Sam head to the shed to get the flashlights, they encounter Santa, Crumpet, and Sparky who identify Allie as the next person on their naughty list while her best friend Sam is a positive overachiever and good role model in school. They managed to get proof that he's Santa Claus when he tells the girls all about them and the weather machine. Edwin arrives at Allie's house and manages to gain entry. Edwin does manage to find the weather machine after Allie's brother found it and berated him for messing with it. Upon being cornered in Allie's room by the girls, Santa, and the elves, he announces his plans to be the best weather man in history and fain more publicity on television attempts. During his escape, he sees the guy he borrowed the snowmobile from and crashes into a chocolate making factory where he falls into a chocolate vat. The group follow his trail into the chocolate factory and follows Edwin's chocolatey trail. Sparky follows him up into the raftings where he falls into a box of cotton candy. The group then reclaims the weather machine. At Santa's shack, he then works to find the problem in the weather machine. With Sam and Allie's help, they manage to fix the weather machine (Santa forgot to put in the right batteries) and stop the weather. Santa then tells Edwin that there is another type of job that deals with weather. Crumpet and Sparky pick up Allie's dad just in time for Christmas morning. Meanwhile, Hadley gets a job in the Antarctic teaching scientists about the weather. ===== Roughly 100 years following the events of the Mega Man X series and the end of the Maverick Wars, the heroic Maverick Hunters X and Zero have long since vanished.. A human scientist named Ciel, her Cyber- elf Passy, and other Reploid companions are being chased through an abandoned underground laboratory. Their relentless pursuers are mass-produced androids called Pantheons, among other terrible machines. After taking heavy losses, Ciel, Passy and the remaining troops arrive at a sealed chamber containing Zero, who has been in stasis for a century. Passy sacrifices itself to awaken Zero, who is amnesic. Ciel, desperately seeking his help, explains they live in a world where Reploids are incorrectly accused of being Mavericks and systematically "retired", apparently under the direction of the once-famed Mega Man X. Shocked at this revelation and filled with doubt about his own identity as the Maverick Hunter of legend, Zero helps Ciel escape and joins her Resistance to fight against X and the utopia known as Neo Arcadia. Zero conducts missions on behalf of the Resistance in order to buy Ciel time to create a new energy source that will provide everyone with a safe place to live. One day, the base is attacked by Neo Arcadia, forcing everyone to flee. In the midst of the chaos, Ciel confesses to Zero that she helped create Neo Arcadia as a utopia where humans and Reploids were finally able to live in peace with X as their leader, but her plans fell apart when an energy shortage crisis began and X mysteriously disappeared. To counter this, while at age six, she created a "copy" of X to be its new leader. Copy X strived for X's ultimate desire for a peaceful world, but lacked the original's moral judgement. Believing that the Reploid race posed a danger to humans, Copy X began an operation to brand any Reploid whom he believed to be a menace to humanity as a Maverick and annihilate them without a fair trial, in order to reduce energy consumption. Zero invades Neo Arcadia and battles his way through the Four Guardians: Sage Harpuia, Hidden Phantom, Fighting Fefnir and Fairy Leviathan. Phantom self-destructs in a last ditch effort to destroy Zero, but fails, while the other three manage to escape. Copy X is eventually defeated, who also self-destructs in an attempt to take Zero with him. Zero escapes just in time from Neo Arcadia as Copy X, and everything around him, is destroyed. Running low on energy, Zero collapses in a nearby desert. A faint figure appears and reveals itself as the real X, now a Cyber-elf, who has been Zero's guide the entire time. X explains that he grew tired of fighting and, without a physical body, has left Zero the responsibility of bringing peace to the world. As X vanishes, Zero finds himself surrounded by an army of Pantheons. Zero accepts X's words and promises to continue the fight against Neo Arcadia. The final scene shows Zero as he dashes into battle against the Pantheons and slices one in half. ===== The story is told first- person by an unnamed narrator who reveals little about himself, other than that he is a wandering stranger stranded in a small Mexican border village. The narrator is fascinated by Joseph Calloway, a famous con-man believed to be extremely wealthy, who is in the Mexican village on the run from the law. The narrator claims to feel sympathy not for Calloway but for Calloway's dog, an ugly creature that he repeatedly kicks. Two detectives enter the village looking for Calloway, but though they have several conversations with the con- man, they never realize he is their quarry. Meanwhile, Calloway, overcome by homesickness for America, manages to get himself secreted across the border. In the end, Calloway is killed by the detectives' car, apparently while trying to save the dog's life and the truth about the human experience isn't revealed. The narrator claims to find something comic in the end of Calloway's life. He writes "Death doesn't change comedy to tragedy." The reader is left to evaluate the meaning of this statement and to weigh both the tragic and the comic elements of the story. The story builds its tension on dramatic irony, with the narrator knowing more about the story than both Calloway and the detectives, and the Mexican natives knowing more than the narrator, who says, "Any man doing dusty business in any of the wooden booths in the town is better fitted by long observation to tell Mr Calloway's tale than I am." ===== Initially narrated by the titular character through a flashback, Grendel (Peter Ustinov), the "Great Boogey", recounts how he first left his cave as a child and encountered the Danish King Hrothgar (Ed Rosser) and his thegns. After being rescued by his mother, Grendel pondered over the similarities he shared with the Danes, yet lamented on their not being able to understand his language. He watched as Hrothgar's power and wealth grew, disgusted at his excesses and the royal Shaper's (Keith Michell) revision of history, presenting the king's underhanded and brutal achievements as glorious victories. Desperate to find meaning in life, Grendel encountered the dragon (Arthur Dignam), who informed Grendel that his sole purpose in life is to terrify humanity, thus stimulating human imagination and encouraging social cohesion. Grendel accepts his new role and regularly visits the king's mead hall to frighten Hrothgar's people and devour them. He stops short of killing the king himself and the warrior Unferth (Ric Stone), whose delusions of grandeur and passive opposition to the king amuse Grendel. Feeling sympathy for Hrothgar's miserable wife Wealhtheow, who is also the object of Unferth's secret affection, Grendel decides to finally kill Hrothgar and take her to his lair. Before Grendel can arrive, the meadhall is visited by the hero Beowulf (also voiced by Dignam), who kills Unferth on the increasingly paranoid Hrothgar's orders. Beowulf then ambushes Grendel and tears off his arm, leaving the monster to die outside as he ponders over the accidental nature of his death. ===== In the year 2078, following a global pandemic that causes vampire-like symptoms, including super-human physical abilities, a healing factor and elongated canines. The infected "hemophages" die within twelve years after being infected. The "Archministry", a militant medical group headed by Vice-Cardinal Ferdinand Daxus, has taken control of the government and begun rounding up infected citizens and exterminating them in order to contain the virus. Having been infected a decade earlier, Violet Song Jat Shariff has become a member of an underground resistance movement fighting to protect the hemophages from the government. Working with the resistance, Violet steals a weapon that was supposedly designed to exterminate all hemophages, only to discover that it is a young boy named "Six". Rather than kill the child, Violet flees with him, believing that a cure for the disease can be reverse-engineered from the antigens before he dies from them. Violet eventually converses with Daxus, who tells her that the boy is his son, but she does not believe him. Instead she takes him to her friend Garth, who tells her the boy has no antigens and he has no value to anyone. Garth also tells her that the boy has a tracking device embedded in him ("so hot he's nearly radioactive"), that they can track him easily and he has only 8 hours to live. In the meantime, Violet's resistance handler Nerva reveals to her that the antigens in Six's blood are actually deadly to humans. Furthermore, Daxus clarifies that the boy is his clone, his previous claim to her being a ruse to earn her sympathy. Since the hemophages are nearly exterminated, the Archministry intends to engineer a new plague to maintain its power. When Daxus refuses to give her the cure, Violet escapes with Six and lets him spend his last moments at a playground. Daxus arrives, shoots Violet, and takes Six's body for dissection. Violet is revived in the facility run by Garth, and she realizes that Six might not actually be dead. Violet storms the Archministry and reaches a laboratory just as Daxus is about to begin the dissection. In the ensuing fight, Daxus reveals that he uses enhancements he gained from an accidental exposure to the hemophage virus to aid in his rise to power. Violet kills Daxus and leaves with Six's body. Six later wakes up, having been immunized by the hemophage virus in Violet's tears. It is theorized that Six might, after all, be instrumental in formulating a cure for the hemophages, although it may be too late for Violet (who is nearing the end of her 12 years). ===== George P. Hanley, a shy office worker, shops for a birthday gift for the beautiful Miss Ann Lawson, the secretary in the office where he works. The gift store has just received a heavily soiled oil lamp as part of a random assortment from a distributor; believing it to be worthless, the owner smooth-talks George into buying it for $20. He takes it back to work but is beaten to the punch when his brash co- worker Roger gives Ann a skimpy nightgown. Ann thanks Roger with a kiss. Despondent, George takes the gift-boxed lamp and heads home, where he is greeted by his dog Attila. When George rubs the lamp while cleaning it, a genie emerges. The genie is something of a disappointment; not only is he dressed in modern garb - except for his shoes - but also he offers George only one wish, rather than the traditional three. The genie suggests that George consider very carefully what he should wish for. Throughout the evening and the whole next day, as he considers his various choices, he daydreams various wish scenarios. Attila accompanies him through these dream sequences, but with his breed modified to match George's own changed profession. He first thinks about wishing for love, and dreams of being married to Ann, who is a successful movie star who will not be torn away from her career. George discovers she is having an affair with Roger, who is also a movie star. He concludes that in any circumstance, he would ultimately lose a woman like Ann. The next day at work, as Roger is in the boss's office discussing a promotion to head bookkeeper - a position George is supposedly up for as well - George contemplates having money. He is a wealthy tycoon with Roger as his chauffeur and Ann as his financial assistant. He is made to realize that being able to immediately buy anything he wants, without having to wait or struggle for it, and having the capacity to give away vast amounts, is not satisfying. Indeed, it takes the flavor out of life. He awakes from this fantasy to the news that Roger has won the promotion. As George and Attila later take a walk, George settles on power as his third prospective wish. He imagines being President of the United States. Though initially successful, he is paralyzed by indecision when faced with a global UFO crisis. George realizes the problem with all three wishes is that while his circumstances change, he himself remains a loser, and that he can only improve his life by changing himself. This inspires him to finally decide on a wish. In the final scene, a homeless man finds the lamp in a garbage can and polishes it. The genie who emerges is George, still accompanied by Attila. Unlike the genie who served him, George and Attila both wear the stereotypical turbaned genie garb, and grant three wishes to the finder on the condition that the lamp be returned to the alley afterwards for another needy person to find. ===== Eleven-year-old Eliza Naumann is the only "ordinary" member in a family of gifted people living in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Her father Saul is a cantor at the local synagogue and a keen student of Jewish texts; her mother Miriam is apparently a successful lawyer and her brother Aaron is a gifted student who is able to read and recite in Hebrew and is allowed into his father's study, where he plays the guitar with his father. One day Eliza surprises herself by winning the class spelling bee, then the school bee at McKinley Elementary School. At first Saul is unaware of her success, but then he becomes increasingly involved with her. Eliza is invited into his study to practice, and Aaron for the first time finds the door closed to him. But as Eliza progresses through the district bee and prepares for the national bee, the troubled lives of her family come into sharp focus. Saul, who has tried to reach God, first through drugs and then through study, becomes convinced that Eliza's talent shows a propensity for mysticism greater than his, which has the potential to lead her to shefa, the influx of the Divine. He gradually introduces her to the writings of Abraham Abulafia, a Medieval kabbalist writer, and it becomes clear that his ambitions for her go far beyond the winning of the spelling bee. Aaron, who had a "religious experience" at the age of eight (it was actually the wing-light of a plane), finds himself disillusioned with Judaism and begins to look elsewhere, first to Christianity and then to Buddhism. Through a chance encounter in a park he discovers the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and becomes a devotee, unknown to his family. Miriam, who has always had an obsessive personality, has kept from her family that she has not worked for years, instead being a kleptomaniac who spends her time stealing small items from department stores, believing that they are small parts of herself from which she has become separated, a concept she formed when Saul told her about Tikkun olam, the "fixing of the world". With the other members of her family preoccupied, Miriam's obsession takes a new turn when she finds herself entering people's houses and stealing small objects from them. Several times she is almost discovered, but, though she tries to anchor herself to the real world through emotionally detached sex with Saul, she cannot resist the pull of the empty houses. At the National Spelling Bee, Eliza performs well but does not win, so she begins to prepare for the following year, with Saul's enthusiastic help. But the family is about to be torn apart. Miriam is arrested and Saul learns she quit her job years ago. She has been putting her stolen items into a storage space, where she has arranged them all in a beautiful, complex pattern. She pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Aaron announces his intention to leave home, and his faith, to join ISKCON. Eliza, who has begun reading Abulafia on her own, without her father's knowledge, has a terrifying experience on the night that she attempts to achieve shefa. The following day, at the class spelling bee, she deliberately misspells a word. ===== Jane Brighton [Alana Austin] is a high school math whiz obsessed with J.D. McQueen [Aaron Carter], a teen music sensation whose parents have sent him back to public high school to improve his declining grades. J.D. risks missing a critical summer tour that could ruin his musical career. To get help with math, he builds a relationship with Jane. ===== Paradise Now follows Palestinian childhood friends Said and Khaled who live in Nablus and have been recruited for suicide attacks in Tel Aviv. It focuses on what would be their last days together. Their handlers from an unidentified resistance group tell them the attack will take place the next day. The pair record videos glorifying God and their cause, and bid their unknowing families and loved ones goodbye, while trying to behave normally to avoid arousing suspicion. The next day, they shave off their hair and beards and don suits in order to look like Israelis. Their cover story is that they are going to a wedding. An explosive belt is attached to each man; the handlers are the only ones with the keys needed to remove the belts without detonating them. The men are instructed to detonate the bombs at the same place, a military check point in Israel, with a time interval of 15 minutes so that the second bomb will kill police arriving after the first blast. They cross the Israeli border, but have to flee from guards. Khaled returns to their handlers, who have fled by the time Said arrives. The handlers remove Khaled's explosive belt and issue a search for Said. Khaled believes he is the best person to find Said since he knows him well, and he is given until the end of that day to find him. After Said escapes from the guards, he approaches an Israeli settlement. At one point, he considers detonating the bomb on a commercial bus, but he decides not to when he sees a child on board. Eventually, Said reveals his reason for taking part in the suicide bombing. While in a car with Suha, a woman he has fallen in love with, he explains that his father was an ameel (a "collaborator", or Palestinian working for the Israelis), who was executed for his actions. He blames the Israelis for taking advantage of his father's weakness. Khaled eventually finds Said, who is still wearing the belt and about to detonate it while lying on his father's grave. They return to the handlers, and Said convinces them that the attack need not be canceled, because he is ready for it. They both travel to Tel Aviv. Influenced by Suha, who discovered their plan, Khaled cancels his suicide attack. Khaled tries to convince Said to back off as well. However, Said manages to shake Khaled by pretending to agree. The film ends with a long shot of Said sitting on a bus carrying Israeli soldiers, slowly zooming in on his eyes, and then suddenly cuts to white. ===== A group of friends, including Matt, his fiancée Lily, his sister Molly, along with Joe and June, embark on a trip to Las Vegas, NV in an RV. After getting lost on a shortcut, they notice lights in the sky that appear to be following the RV. While entranced by them, they crash while swerving to miss a stranded motorist called Richard. Joe is injured by a knife in the crash. Unfortunately, the knife is dangerously close to an artery, forcing them to leave it in. While searching for assistance, Molly becomes acquainted with Richard, who was a POW who was tortured by the Iraqis in the Gulf War. When they return, Matt witnesses strange shapes and noises in the brush. Joe's condition deteriorates, due to damage to his artery, forcing the group to search for additional assistance. They find a house with a working phone. The group realize Matt has disappeared, when aliens surround them. Richard shoots at them, killing Matt in the process. Richard returns to the RV and tells the others of the aliens, while not mentioning Matt's fate. Molly forces her way out of the RV to find Matt, but is sucked up by a green light. As Joe's breathing stops, June is pulled out of the RV. The RV shakes violently and the windows burst inward, prompting the survivors to flee, eventually ending up in an abandoned shack, where Richard props a heavy table against the door. The aliens break in and overrun the building. Lily and Richard are subsequently captured Richard regains consciousness inside an organic chamber. He finds Lily having her three-month-old fetus removed by the aliens. In an act of mercy, he kills her. The aliens restrain Richard and begin operating on him. Some time later, a police officer patrols a deserted area, where he finds Richard. The end credits state that Richard was found about one hundred miles away from his broken down car and that no trace of anything else was ever found. ===== Differences from Shakespeare's plot include that the nature of the lovers' deaths is different, depending on the production. New characters such as Death (French, Belgian, Japanese, Netherlands, and Moscow productions only) and the Poet (French production only) appear for dramatic effect. Lady Capulet has a greatly increased role and in the case of the Hungarian version, has an affair with her servant. The role of Tybalt has changed slightly from being purely dark to a more pitiful character because of his growing up with the hate and a dark childhood, as well as an unrequited attraction to Juliet. ===== An alien spaceship appears above the Gaulish village, causing nearly all of the people and animals to turn rigid. Only Asterix, Obelix, Getafix and Dogmatix are unaffected due to consumption of the magic potion. An alien named Toon emerges from the spherical spaceship. He is from the planet Tadsilweny and is accompanied by "superclone" security men. Toon turns off his ship's "anti- collision magnetic field", ending the paralysis of the village. He informs the Gauls he is on a mission to confiscate their "secret weapon" (Getafix's potion) that is "known throughout the universe", in order to prevent it from being seized by evil aliens called Nagmas. Meanwhile, a Nagma has landed his spaceship in the nearby Roman camp of Compendium and seeks the "powerful deadly weapon". The Roman centurion Polyanthus gives him directions to the Gaulish village. Toon's army of superclones and the Nagma's "cyberat" robot warriors engage in battle. Asterix and Obelix enter the fray, and the Nagma attempts to abduct Getafix. The Nagma is eventually defeated, and Toon abandons his quest for the magic potion as its only discernible effect on the aliens is to cause them to temporarily increase to an enormous size. As he departs, Toon erases all memory of his visit from the village and the Roman camp. ===== In 2021, a radical Islamic terrorist movement has declared a global jihad against the West and established a Caliphate in Indonesia, initiating a wholesale slaughter of Chinese nationals there. In response, a US-led multinational task force of advanced warships and submarines sails to Indonesia to launch a counterattack against the Caliphate forces and retake the archipelago. With the fleet is a research vessel, the Nagoya, which is testing top-secret weapons and stealth systems that use the latest developments in quantum physics. As the task force lies at anchor off the coast of East Timor preparing for deployment, the Nagoya conducts a full- scale test of its new systems but there is a catastrophic accident—the experiment generates a massive rift in the time-space continuum, completely destroying the Nagoya and sending most of the fleet back in time to 1942. Many of the 2021 ships materialize in the middle of the US fleet that is steaming to engage the Japanese at the Battle of Midway, including one vessel which materializes into the structure of a 1942 ship, with horrific results. When the mystery fleet suddenly appears, the Americans mistake them for the enemy (due to the presence of Japanese vessels in the 2021 fleet) and they begin firing on them. With the crews of the 2021 fleet rendered helpless by "transition sickness", the computerized battle systems on their ships automatically activate, inflicting heavy damage and thousands of casualties on the 1942 fleet until the two forces work out what has happened and halt the battle. As the nature of the event dawns on the two fleets, the two commanders strike an uneasy truce and the combined fleet heads back to Pearl Harbor. The Americans then launch an intensive study into the 2021 fleet's futuristic computer and weapons technology, as well as the wealth of historical information which describes their own future - although many items of technology from the future fleet are stolen by unscrupulous sailors from 1942 and sold to the criminal underworld. Matters are further complicated by the fact that the chaotic nature of the Nagoya's "time bubble" has transported some 2021 ships to locations far from the main group, and these vessels variously fall into the hands of the Japanese, the Germans and the Soviets. After the Japanese capture an Indonesian ship from the 2021 fleet, they discover what they did not know in the conventional version of history - that the US fleet had not been crippled by the Pearl Harbor attack, as they thought, and that the Americans have broken their military codes and are fully aware of the Japanese battle plans. Acting on these revelations, Admiral Yamamoto immediately turns his fleet around, and the Battle of Midway never takes place. Another vessel is captured by the Germans and as they learn more about the future outcome of the war they halt and abandon their ill-fated invasion of Russia and prepare for an all-out assault on the United Kingdom. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin become allies and purge their military forces of anyone they believe to be a traitor. The series goes on to explore the far- reaching effects of the Transition, which radically alters not merely the balance of power between the Axis and the Allies, but the entire course of WWII and global history. The Soviet Union uses the treaty with Germany to assemble a powerful and massive military and launch a large scale invasion into Asia and Eastern Europe, conquering a vast amount of territory. The plot shares a premise with the 1980 movie The Final Countdown, about a modern USN aircraft carrier which travels back in time to just before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The plot also has similarities to that of the series Zipang, about a Japanese missile destroyer transported back in time right before the Battle of Midway. ===== It is September 1942, four months after the Transition. A cease-fire has been signed between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, and the dictators have re-established their June 1941 borders. Both nations are 'cooperating' in various areas of research (particularly rocketry) at the newly built Demidenko research facility in Ukraine. Thanks to the foreknowledge granted by the Transition, Hitler and Stalin have purged their military and party ranks of traitors (real and imagined) that have been revealed from our history but not without problems: the arrest of Field Marshal Rommel sparks off a mutiny of the Afrika Korps that throws the entire North African front into chaos. Most of the German war machine shifts to "Operation Sea Dragon": the invasion of Britain. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese have conquered New Guinea and the nearby island chains, and are battling Allied forces (reinforced with troops from the Multinational Force) along the Brisbane Line in Australia. In the United States a "Special Administrative Zone" has been carved out within the San Fernando Valley of California. Within "the Zone", the laws of the United States as of January 15, 2021 apply and it becomes an enclave for the 21st Century personnel. Many of the Multinational Force's members work in various technological areas and thousands of contemporary females and non-whites are clamoring to join their ranks. Over the next month, the Japanese position in northern Australia unravels after a massive blitzkrieg of 21st Century armor is unleashed. Japanese soldiers massacre entire towns, prompting both outrage and a reluctance to divert 21st forces anywhere else. Under interrogation, General Homma reveals that Australia was nothing more than a diversion to make the Multinational Forces expend as much of their limited weaponry as possible. Japanese survivors are executed under Multinational Force Sanction Four. The French stealth ship Dessaix, presumed lost, was found by the Germans off the Canary Islands a few weeks after the initial Transition, and it now spearheads the assault on Yamamoto's real target: Hawaii. The ship's cruise missiles lay waste to the islands' defenses (and one nearly obliterates the city of Honolulu) although a French crew member manages to sabotage several of them before being killed. With the American defense crippled, the Japanese easily take Oahu and send a message to Washington DC, stating that any attempt to retake the islands will result in the wholesale slaughter of the population. In Britain, preparations are underway for a commando raid on Norway against the heavy water plant there (a la Heroes of Telemark). However, information from Wehrmacht Colonel Paul Brasch (whose physically disabled son is eligible for 'disposal' under the T4 program) reveals that Germany's true nuclear effort lies elsewhere, and the mission is placed on hold. Operation Sea Dragon commences the next day with an attempt to invade across the English Channel. Hundreds of aircraft and warships, upgraded with new technology, duel in the waters and skies south of England; the 21st century ship HMS Trident, more valuable as a command and control center than as a weapon, ensures th-t key German formations identified by Brasch are destroyed. Three missiles taken off the Dessaix are launched at British targets, but suspected sabotage causes two to crash harmlessly into the North Sea. The third does hit Biggin Hill airfield, but its primary warhead does not detonate. Despite heavy losses sustained by the RAF and the damage to Biggin Hill, the Germans lose most of their navy. Any airborne units that reach England are quickly isolated and crushed by the Allies. In the United States, a series of German-instigated bombings and race riots takes place, targeting civilians for maximum effect. Wahabi and Baathist insurgents foment revolt across the Middle East and the Soviet Union, with enough time to train and equip its armies, has begun seizing the Afghan passes leading to India. Unbeknownst to either the Allies or Axis, the HMS Vanguard materialized on the Siberian ice pack, one day before the other ships, and is now providing the Soviets with invaluable resources and information. Stalin has also impounded the ships of Convoy PQ 17 and has his own atomic bomb program in place; it may take a decade of fighting, but Stalin sees nothing but global triumph for communism. As the German forces retreat from the Channel, a group of SS commandos led by Otto Skorzeny attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Churchill (as in The Eagle Has Landed). They are thwarted by SAS Major Windsor, but Skorzeny escapes in the melee. Drone coverage over Oahu reveals that the Japanese are slaughtering military prisoners in droves. With the supercarrier Hillary Clinton all but useless in a fight, the 21st-century Japanese cruiser Siranui (crewed by survivors of the Leyte Gulf) prepares to lead the Allied forces in what will be a very bloody retaking of the Hawaiian Islands. ===== Suddha depicts the death of the feudal system that existed among the Tulu speaking community in coastal Karnataka for many years, and the impact of The Land Ceiling Act which was ushered during the 1960s and 1970s, had on its social structure. It is the story of modern India – of changing caste equations and a realization of this reality among the land-owning class, albeit a bit late. Though the film is set in a remote village near Mangalore, it could well have happened in any other village elsewhere in India. An ex- landlord family comes to terms with the fact that they are living in their last leg of feudal existence when it cannot perform a last rites in a grand manner in which it was once used to. ===== The Federation starship Enterprise is docked at the Remmler Array to be decontaminated through the use of a baryon sweep, harmless to the inorganic materials of the ship but deadly to living beings. The ship is evacuated to the array's base and its systems shut down in preparation for the sweep. Captain Picard and the rest of the senior staff are invited by the base's commanding officer, Commander Calvin Hutchinson, to a cocktail party, but Picard foresees that he will be cornered by Hutchinson's "small talk" during the event. He returns to the Enterprise to retrieve his riding saddle to go horse riding instead, but on leaving finds an array technician working with the ship's panels. Picard tries to find out what the technician is doing, but he is attacked instead; Picard gains the upper hand and knocks the technician out. Meanwhile, at the cocktail party, Enterprise Chief Engineer La Forge detects strange readings coming from one of the centerpieces with his VISOR. Before he can investigate, the other array staff members take the partygoers as hostages, injuring La Forge and killing Hutchinson. They prevent them from communicating with the rest of the crew or Starfleet while the sweep is initiated. The crew stealthily work to devise a plan to break free of their captors. Aboard the Enterprise, Picard discovers that a small force of technicians, led by a woman named Kelsey, are aboard attempting to steal trilithium resin from the warp engines to sell to another group as part of a powerful explosive. He is captured but escapes. With the baryon sweep progressing forward through the ship, Picard plays a game of cat- and-mouse with the technicians while staying ahead. At one point, a terrible scream indicates that one of the technicians was caught in the baryon field. Eventually having neutralized all but Kelsey, Picard retreats to Ten-Forward, the last area that will be hit by the sweep. Kelsey manages to beam away to a waiting ship. Picard repeatedly hails the base to deactivate the baryon sweep. The Enterprise officers, having managed to overcome their captors by an elaborate ruse involving Geordi's VISOR, are able to stop the sweep just in time to save Picard's life. Data informs Picard of a shuttle trying to escape. Picard, having taken the control rod from the trilithium's storage container during his fight with Kelsey, states that they will not get far as the trilithium explodes, destroying the shuttle. ===== Cartman gathers the boys together in his basement to show them a videotape of the girls of South Park Elementary using a device, which he believes is a high-tech gadget that gives them the ability to see into the future (in reality, it is a paper fortune teller). The boys build a containment center to study the device, and devise a plan to steal it. The boys fake Butters' death by dropping a pig cadaver dressed as him from the Bowery Building. Stephen and Linda Stotch are devastated at the apparent death of their son and the funeral is held a few days later. Butters then dresses up as a new girl, "Marjorine", and infiltrates a slumber party hosted by classmate Heidi Turner, in an attempt to retrieve the device. At first the girls are cold and hostile towards "Marjorine" and consistently make fun of her until Butters takes the insults seriously and winds up crying in the bathroom, at which point the rest of the girls apologize and offer a makeover. Meanwhile, Linda is still distraught and heartbroken by the loss of her son, and Stephen is deeply troubled by her sorrow, also missing Butters. Unprompted, he is told by an old farmer not to dig up Butters' body and re- bury him at the Indian burial ground. Stephen—who had no intention of doing such a thing until the old man put the notion in his head—exhumes Butters' "remains" and reburies the pig carcass at the Indian burial ground, believing this will bring Butters back to life. Butters (as Marjorine) is just starting to have fun after being made over and is now dancing with the girls when Heidi's father realizes that there are boys around the house. Butters believes his cover is blown and makes a desperate escape with the fortune-telling device and gives it to the other boys. Stan tells Butters to come along to learn about the device, but he refuses, saying that the device is nothing but trouble and his job is done and goes home to tell his parents that he is not dead. When the boys attempt to ask so many questions with the device, Stan realizes what Butters has meant. The boys, this time around, decide that the power of the fortune-telling device is too great for any mortal. Rather than spending their lives defending it from girls, the CIA, terrorists and the Russians, they decide to destroy it by having Kenny blow it up (with enough force that it completely incinerates all the trees in the surrounding forest and is visible from space, to which Cartman merely responds "Damn, Ken.") Meanwhile, Butters' parents have now convinced themselves that their child will return as a demon. Butters knocks on the door but they do not want to see him back from the dead, in a reference to The Monkey's Paw. Butters returns home to his terrified parents who lock him in the basement and chain him up. When he says he is hungry, his father wallops a saleswoman with a shovel in front of him and offers up her corpse to feed on, still believing Butters to be hell-spawn. The episode ends with Butters asking for SpaghettiOs instead. ===== Confidence man S. Quentin Quale (Groucho) is heading west to find his fortune, but is short ten dollars for a train ticket. In the railroad station, he encounters brothers Joseph (Chico) and Rusty Panello (Harpo) and attempts to swindle their money, but the two manage to swindle Quale's money. The Panellos are friends with an old miner named Dan Wilson (Tully Marshall) whose near worthless property, Dead Man's Gulch, has no gold. They loan him their last ten dollars for a grub stake and he gives them the deed to the Gulch as collateral. Unbeknownst to Wilson, the son of his longtime rival and beau to his granddaughter Eve Wilson (Diana Lewis), Terry Turner (John Carroll) has contacted the railway to arrange for them to build through the gulch, making the deed holder rich. After crooked railroad executive John Beecher (Walter Woolf King) and shady saloon owner "Red" Baxter (Robert Barrat) manage to steal the deed, Quale and the Panello brothers work with Terry and Eve to retrieve the deed. ===== Bo-eun (Moon Geun-young) is an ordinary 16-year-old high school girl who worries about grades and has a crush on her school's baseball team ace, Jung-woo. One day, Bo-eun's grandfather orders her to marry Sang-min (Kim Rae-won) because of a pact he made with Sang-min's grandfather during the Korean War. Despite the grandchildren's opposition, they are forced to marry because of Bo-eun's grandfather's strong influence. However, later on in the story, it is revealed that Sang-min actually loves Bo-eun. Bo-eun's undercover married life begins: She pretends that she doesn't have a husband and starts dating Jung-woo. And her only best friend cannot help but to be envious of Bo- eun as she also has a crush on Jung-woo. But Bo-eun believes that she can manage both men and live a double life. Everything goes smoothly until Sang- min becomes an art teacher at Bo-eun's school and the duo have to try to keep their marriage a secret. From there, their relationship begins to grow. After an incident, Bo-eun's family finds out about Jung-woo. After talking to her mother, Bo-eun finally realizes that she loves Sang-min. At the school festival she breaks up with Jung-woo and confesses her feelings to Sang-min in front of the whole school. ===== The story concerns the tribulations of Martin (Hugo Weaving), a blind photographer. Through a series of flashbacks, Martin is shown as a child, distrustful of his own mother. She describes to him the garden outside his bedroom window. She tells him that someone is raking leaves, but he can't hear the sound and angrily decides she is lying to him. This childhood experience strongly affects Martin as an adult, as he anticipates that sighted people will take advantage of his blindness to lie to him, or worse yet, pity him. He has become a resentful, vaguely bitter person who spends his days taking some photographs of the world around him, then having various people describe them. He uses these photographs and the Braille descriptions before he stamps on them as "proof" that the world around him really is as others describe it to him. He also takes secret pleasure in rebuking the romantic advances of Celia (Geneviève Picot), his housekeeper. Celia harbors a deep-seated and possibly obsessive crush on Martin, as evidenced by the scores of photographs of him adorning the walls of her flat, and takes out her frustration at her unrequited love by tormenting Martin in small ways, such as rearranging the furniture in his house. Martin keeps Celia around because her love and hatred of him means he knows she can't pity him. One day Martin encounters Andy (Russell Crowe), and is pleased with the depth and detail with which Andy describes his photos. The two fast become close friends, and Martin soon comes to trust him implicitly. The jealous Celia is threatened by Andy's increasing presence in Martin's life. She seduces Andy, and Martin catches the two in the act, before Andy reluctantly lies to him about it. Celia recognizes this opportunity to foil Martin yet again, and sets up a series of events leading Martin to discover Andy's dishonesty. Martin is devastated and plunged into a deep despair, and breaks off his friendship with Andy. Later on, Andy confronts him, and tries to convince him that everyone has flaws, and shouldn't be judged on such simple terms. "People lie," he tells Martin, "but not all the time. And that's the point." Martin doesn't respond, but is swayed by Andy's impassioned words. Near the story's conclusion, Martin decides to fire Celia, but acknowledges his own role in purposely antagonizing her in their love-hate relationship. Despite his openness she is extremely angry that her efforts have gone to waste, and when asked to return her key to Martin's house, she throws it in the sink full of water. Finally, Martin asks Andy to describe one last photo for him, one he has kept locked away for years. Martin had previously told Andy that this was the first and most important photo he had ever taken. It is a photo of the garden from Martin's childhood, taken moments after his mother described it on that fateful day. However, Andy's detailed description includes the iconic man raking leaves Martin's mother told him about, that he had rejected for all these years. This revelation provides Martin with his proof, and emotional release. ===== The novel (as many of Little's works do) deals with a series of unexplained events in a small town in Arizona. A church is defaced with goat's blood, the pastor and his family disappear, and several townspeople begin having terrifying visions of deformed infants. Eventually, an unknown force begins to attack and murder several of the townspeople. Gordon, the main protagonist, discovers that his wife is pregnant and begins to fear for her safety and that of the unborn child. Soon, a seemingly unbalanced evangelical preacher named Brother Elias comes to the town to preach about the end times. Widely ignored at first, he gradually gains a following of people as more and more bizarre events unfold in the town. As the terror mounts, Elias convinces Gordon, the sheriff, and the new pastor to join him in his quest to stop Satan from raising an army of deformed infants. It seems that the devil has the power to corrupt the unborn into horrible servants of darkness, and over the centuries hundreds of these stillborn children have been buried in the hills surrounding the town. At this time, Elias also reveals he is not human, but an earthly servant of God whose role it is to stop Satan from assembling his army. He further explains that he has done this several times over the millennia. The four men face off against the incarnation of the devil, who has taken the form of the missing pastor. They succeed in stopping him, though Elias knows that the battle is never truly over and begins wandering away to make preparations for the next battle. Category:1990 novels Category:Novels set in Arizona Category:1990 debut novels =====