From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== It is the summer of 1984 in Paris. Sarah, a well-to-do writer of children's books, and her working-class husband, Mehdi, an inspector of North African descent, are confronting some marital problems after the recent arrival of their first child. Sarah, stumbling over a bout of writer's block, has little maternal instinct towards their newborn baby, whose cries she tunes out with earplugs while she works. Her husband despairs when she neglects the child, does what he can to fill in, and sometimes parks the child with his parents. The couple have an open marriage and both are allowed to take outside lovers in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangement that seems to work, although not without tensions. Meanwhile, Sarah's close friend Adrien, a middle-aged gay doctor, meets Manu, a carefree young man, at a cruising ground. Manu is not sexually attracted to Adrien and they do not have sex, but strike an emotional friendship. Manu is happy with the friendship and becomes Adrien's companion and his student of life's finer things. Wildly in love with his shallow, narcissistic protégé, Adrien is shrewd enough not to push too hard, but there is an element of masochism in his abject devotion. Manu, who has recently arrived to Paris from a provincial town in the south of France, shares a space with his sister Julie, while she struggles to affirm herself as an opera singer. They live in a cheap hotel that is a center of prostitution. This does not bother Manu, and he has a friendly relationship with Sandra, a prostitute. The hotel is under scrutiny by Mehdi, who leads the police force's vice division. Through Adrien, Manu meets Sarah and Mehdi. The group of friends get together at Sarah's mother’ summerhouse in the Calanques of Marseille. One afternoon, when Mehdi and Manu go swimming in a remote cove, Mehdi saves Manu from drowning and, while tugging him to shore and administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, becomes aroused. Later, when Manu makes a pass at Mehdi, he responds, and they embark on a secret, no-strings-attached love affair. They meet at the holiday camping site outside Paris, where Manu now works as a cook. When Manu confesses to Adrien that he has been having sex with Mehdi, Adrian is furious and hits Manu. After the fight, Adrian discovers spots on Manu's skin; it turns out that he has AIDS. Sarah tries to write a novel, and as a result Mehdi leaves temporarily to stay at his parents with the baby. Adrien becomes a leader in a medical crusade against AIDS, while meanwhile privately taking on Manu's treatment. Mehdi also does not shun his friend when he hears the news, although he is terrified that he has AIDS and cannot bring himself to tell his wife. He wants to see Manu, but Manu does not want to see him in the terrible state he is in. By contrast, Adrien is safe as his relationship with Manu was more companion-based than sexual. Desperate to see his former lover, Mehdi forces his way into the camping site. Manu shows him his gun, with which he will commit suicide when his illness gets worse. Mehdi secretly takes it with him and throws it in the Seine. Mehdi is relieved that he has not been infected. Sarah has not been infected either and they reconcile. Manu's health deteriorates and he commits suicide with pills supplied by Adrien for this purpose. Julie and Adrien take Manu's body to be buries in his native village to his grieving mother. Before he passes away, Manu uses a tape recorder to dictate his life for others to hear of. Sarah is inspired by the events as they have transpired so far and, once he is gone, listens to the tapes and begins writing a tale (for grown-ups) of it. She is free of her writer's block. Medhi is a bit concerned his life will become gossip, but Sarah assures him she has changed the names in the story. Julie decides to move to Munich, Mehdi and Adrien make amends while Sandra is HIV positive. The following summer, Sarah, Mehdi, Adrien and his new companion Steve, a young American, return to the summerhouse on the Riviera to celebrate Sarah and Medhi's child's birthday. ===== Jessie Cantrell's dying wish is that her daughter Casey (Sharon Stone) personally take a letter to Lord Richard Bredon who lives in the UK. Viewing the matter as a sacred trust Casey sets off for England from her horse farm in Kentucky. A failed attempt to find him at his country residence has her falling from a wall into the arms of Lord Bredon's playboy son, Michael (Christopher Cazenove). Casey manages to escape his grilling without giving her name, but the younger Bredon tracks her to an inn in the local village where he uses his clout to get it. Casey accepts his dinner invitation in order to learn the whereabouts of his father. The evening is spent with Michael attempting to seduce her and trying to get information out of her. It ends with neither one being any more informed than when it started. Wanting to see her again and to continue to try and solve her mystery Michael uses the lure of his stable to get her to visit Bredon Hall the next day. While she is there, Michael's flamboyant best friend Hamdan al Dubai (Leigh Lawson) arrives with his manservant Fordingbridge to discuss a filly with the horse manager. Much to Michael's annoyance Hamdan immediately homes in on Casey and begins enacting what is most likely an age old game between them of trying to steal the other's most recent conquest. After Casey learns that Michael's father is in London she accepts an offer made by Hamdan to go back there with him. This arouses Michael's suspicions a fresh and on a horseback ride while they wait for Hamdan to conclude his business he makes another unsuccessful effort for details Arriving back in London, Casey is able to find Lord Bredon at his office in Half Moon Square. While visibly shaken by the news of Jessie's death, he denies ever having known her and refuses to accept the letter. Instead of deterring her, Richard's confusing reaction only serves to make her more determined to uncover the mystery. Back at the hotel she finds that Michael has sent her flowers and during a phone call to thank him he asks her out for the afternoon of the following day. The scene then switches to Richard's office at Bredon Enterprises where he is clearly caught up in memories of the past brought on by his earlier meeting with Casey. The next day Hamdan calls to charm Casey into having lunch with him on his yacht. Michael, upon finding out her plans with Hamden, shows up at lunch uninvited but not unexpected by Fordingbridge who appears to be used to games that Michael and Hamdan play. The talk switches to a discussion of the party going on at Hamdan's house that evening. Hamdan invites her to the event but it's not until she finds out Lord Bredon is going to be there that she accepts. Later that evening as Casey is preparing to go she and Michael quibble over the cost of the dress he has bought her for the party. When she capitulates to him he looks over and happens to see that she's wearing a necklace that reminds him of his family crest. When she claims that it belonged to her mother he persists in trying to talk about it but she laughing blows off the conversation. At the party Casey and Michael are having a great time but that is soon stopped by a confrontation with his father who accuses her of being a con artist and tells his son about her trip to his office. Michael, who has a deep fear of being taken in by a woman, immediately lays into her. Casey becomes distraught by both men attacking her and runs off. Michael chases after her ultimately cornering her in a garden house where they end up in a passionate embrace. He agrees to hear her side of the story and the pair leave the party. Richard observes them leaving and a firework going off nearby takes him into a flashback. The scene changes to WWII where a young Richard and a woman who is clearly Jessie Cantrell flee to a bomb shelter during a German air strike. In the shelter Richard admits his love for Jessie despite having known her for only a short time. Coming out of the flashback Richard asks Hamdan to dig up information on Casey. Hamdan expresses his discomfort with the situation but this falls on deaf ears. Michael and Casey arrive at his apartment after her having told him the story about the letter on the way there. The two reexamine the pendant with him verifying that is the family crest. She postulates the theory that her mother and his father knew each other during the war. The scene fades to Richard driving home from the party and having a flashback about when he first met Jessie. It is revealed in the course of the flashback that Jessie was living with a friend of Richard's named Emily and that she was married to someone named Frank and that Frank appears to have died. The scene switches again back to the present day where Casey and Michael are talking about how Jessie might have met Richard. This leads to Michael seducing a somewhat reluctant Casey and carrying her off to bed. Later Richard arrives back at Half Moon Square, and it's revealed that the place was where Richard and Jessie used to meet. The next morning Hamdan sees Michael and Casey in a clinch on Michael's balcony. He's next seen talking with Richard on the phone. Richard asks him to work on Casey while he talks to Michael who is planning to come into the office. Once again Hamden expresses reluctance to involve himself in the situation but Richard hangs up on him. Hamdan then goes to see Casey at her hotel and ends up going with her to track down a woman whose name is in her mother's address book. While riding down the river Hamdan makes his position clear about his friendship with the Bredons, especially Michael, and that he wouldn't allow anyone to harm them. Casey swears that she would never do that. Back the office Richard confronts Michael about not getting rid of Casey and then Michael turns the confrontation on him asking how Casey's mother got the pendant. Richard kicks him out and goes into a flashback where it's revealed that Richard did in fact gave the pendant to Jessie. At a pub on the river Fordingbridge, who does a bit of sleuthing while getting drinks, reveals that the older lady he and Hamdan see Casey talking to is an old friend of her mother's named Billie Cooper. The scene shifts to Casey talking with Billie who confirms that Jessie was in England during the war. Billie further reveals that she came over as a member of the USO to follow Frank, Casey's father. Billie tells her about a fateful mission in which Frank was believed to have died trying to save Billie's husband. Billie continues the story where she confirms that Richard and Jessie knew one another and that their interest in each other was much to the disappointment of Richard's old friend, Jessie's flatmate Emily. A flashback reveals that Jessie got a telegram saying that Frank was still alive complicating her situation with Richard. As the two are talking Hamdan finally calls a PI to investigate Casey. Later at Michael's apartment Casey brings him up to speed on the situation. Michael has difficulty taking in this new information about his father and Casey expresses discomfort about what she sees as a shifting perspective of her parents. Michael and Casey end up revealing their feelings for one another and Michael asks Casey to marry him. At first she questions whether he really means it given their short acquaintance, and he explains that he feels that he has at last found what he believes to be true love. She accepts his proposal. Later at Bredon Hall, Michael tries to get Richard to read Jessie's letter. Richard continues to refuse. Michael confronts him with the knowledge that he knows about his relationship with Jessie. Richard, feeling that he can no longer deny it to Michael, confesses to having been in love with her. He also believes that Jessie screwed him over. Michael tells him that he is in love with Casey and plans to marry her. Richard continues to assert that he believes Casey to be a con artist and Michael walks out on him. A flashback reveals that Richard did intend to ask Jessie to marry him but when she didn't show up for their scheduled meeting he found out from Emily that Jessie had disappeared. Later Richard goes to meet with Hamdan at Bredon Enterprises to find out the results of the investigation on Casey. He not only learns that Casey's record is clear but that Frank was discovered not to have died around the time that Jessie vanished. This changes his whole perspective on what happened and he contacts Michael to apologize. Michael leaves Casey alone at his apartment to go to see his father. While she is alone there Casey receives a visit from Michael's mother. She turns out to be the Emily whose flat Jessie shared while she was in England. Emily tells the rest of the story which involves her meeting up with Jessie sometime after she had left London. Jessie was caring for Frank who was now being treated for blindness that he got from the explosion and wasn't aware that Jessie was pregnant with Richard's baby. Emily revealed to Jessie that she had married Richard and agreed to take and raise the baby as her own. The baby turns out to be Michael of course and the revelation prohibits marriage between him and Casey. Casey flees the flat and runs to Hamdan. After crying her heart out in the cabin on his yacht she tells Hamdan that she is leaving and asks him to take her to the airport. Fordingbridge, alarmed by the situation, calls Michael to tell him what was going on, and Michael races to the pier to try and talk to Casey. At first she is reluctant to do so but Hamdan convinces her that she must and she reveals to Michael the story Emily told her. At Bredon Enterprises Richard confronts Emily about what happened believing that somehow she interfered. A flashback reveals that in her determination to be the mistress of Bredon Hall and Richard's wife she manipulated events so that Richard was led to believe that Jessie had abandoned him. She then screws the knife in further by revealing to him the truth about Michael. Fordingbridge and Hamden arrive at the hotel to take Casey to the airport. Fordingbridge, who has developed a fondness Casey, has provided Hamden another file on her and his attitude reveals that he believes Hamden's probing has something to do with why Casey is leaving. On the drive, Casey reveals the whole story to Hamdan. As she dozes off in the seat next to him a flummoxed Hamdan remembers the file Fordingbridge gave him and looks through it. Whatever is in the file causes Hamdan mood to change for the positive and the then leans over and whispers something to Fordingbridge. Fordingbridge changes the car's direction. Back at Bredon Hall Richard and Michael have gotten together to share the reading of the letter. Hamdan's car pulls up outside and Casey awakens from her nap to find that she's there. She is distressed by this but Hamdan convinces her to come in with him. Once in the room with Michael and his father Hamdan hands Richard the file. Richard reads through it and then goes to sit next to Casey. He apologizes to her for how he behaved then reveals that according to the file Casey is actually not Jessie's and Frank's biological child and that she was adopted thus clearing the way for Casey and Michael's relationship to move forward. As Michael rushes to her side Richard lets her know that as Jessie sent her there to them they are now her family. The film closes with Richard rereading Jessie's letter then watching Michael and Casey from the window as they embrace. ===== Renny Basuki (Arnaz) is a young woman and a former judo champion who, after her father's demise, tries to look after her impoverished family. When her younger brother is diagnosed with a deadly disease, she is desperate to afford his surgery costs. One day, Indra (Prima), a professional wrestling manager, offers Renny and her friend Mia (Diana Suarkom) to join a female wrestling troupe. They agree but Renny's mother disapproves her wrestling career. ===== ===== The Spiraling Worm consists of seven interconnected tales. Each story features spies and government agents battling terrorists and government conspiracies who wish to release cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos from their hidden dimensions to destroy the Earth. The seven stories are: *"Made of Meat" by David Conyers *"To What Green Altar" by John Sunseri *"Impossible Object" by David Conyers *"False Containment" by David Conyers *"Resurgence" by John Sunseri *"Weapon Grade" by David Conyers *"The Spiraling Worm" by David Conyers and John Sunseri ===== Gloria (Sharon Stone) has just gotten out of prison, where she has served three years to save her boyfriend, Kevin (Jeremy Northam). During her stay in prison, she thinks about how Kevin never once visited her. She tells Kevin that the relationship is over and that all she wants is the money he promised her for taking the rap for him. He refuses to give it to her. Meanwhile, the gang's accountant has tried to protect himself by creating a computer disk with the names of all those involved in the outfit's criminal activities. The plan backfires, and--in trying to get the disk--one of Kevin's trigger-happy henchmen kills the accountant, his wife, his mother-in-law and his daughter. Only his seven-year-old son Nicky (Jean- Luke Figueroa) escapes, but is quickly caught and brought to Kevin's apartment. It is there that Gloria and Nicky meet. Gloria must decide whether or not to risk her life in order to save the boy. Gloria begins to feel love for the young boy as his innocence and intelligent nature inspires her. She tells him that she hates kids and that is why she doesn’t have kids. She lectures him to get used to this world and to grow up on his owns. She then tried to ditch him in a subway, but Nicky comes back. As Gloria and Nicky spend more time together, they both develop feelings for each other. The boy sees news reports of his family being killed by the mob and runs away from the apartment where they were staying. Gloria follows Nicky and catches him in a subway, taking him back to the room. Gloria gets emotional thinking about the boy's heartache over his dead family, and gives him love. ===== In 1978, David Raybourne is an American novelist who lives in Rome and works as a journalist in a small English-language newspaper. He is romantically involved with Lia, the estranged wife of an Italian Industrialist, and befriended by Italo Bianchi, a politically left-leaning lecturer at a Rome university. The movie re-creates the backdrop of politically charged atmosphere and student unrest, in which the infamous Red Brigades commit their spate of violent attacks which rocked northern Italy in the 1970s, culminating in the kidnapping and later murder of Aldo Moro, former Italian Prime Minister. As part of a plan to write a commercial novel and raise money to marry and support Lia in the style to which she is accustomed, Raybourne researches the activities and organization of the Red Brigades. He writes the draft of a novel, realistic but fictitious, with the plot centered on the kidnapping of a central political figure by the Red Brigades. During this time Raybourne meets a beautiful and sexually provocative young photojournalist, Alison King. She is eager for a news story and is introduced by Raybourne to Bianchi. Alison becomes convinced that Raybourne knows something about the Red Brigades and is hiding a potential scoop from her, so after a sexual dalliance she searches his apartment and finds Raybourne's novel draft. She brings this to the attention of Bianchi who, despite his mild manner and seemingly moderate politics, is actually collaborating with the Red Brigades. He delivers the draft to a Red Brigades contact and the similarity of his fictitious plot to their actual kidnap plans causes them to conclude that their plans have been leaked. Raybourne realizes he is being hunted when the Brigades shoot his boss Pierre Bernier dead at the newspaper office, moments before Raybourne himself arrives. He then attempts to escape with Alison with the aid of Lia. It turns out that Lia is even more deeply involved with the Red Brigades than Bianchi, and after a chase, Raybourne and Alison are captured. They are held while the kidnapping of Aldo Moro takes place. After this is achieved, the Brigades leadership accuses Lia of the leak and shoots her for her apparent betrayal right before Raybourne's and Alison's eyes. They force Alison to photograph the body and instruct Raybourne to publicize the story as a warning to any future traitors. The movie ends with Raybourne being interviewed on American television regarding the successful publication of a now non-fiction book about the Red Brigades and his contact with them, with a postscript saying that Moro was found shot to death in the trunk of a car nearly two months after his kidnapping. ===== This science fiction drama centers on Eric, teenage son of a computer scientist who worked for the Apollo program which sent the first humans to the moon. Eric, determined to become an astronaut himself one day, befriends Paul Andrews, the thirteenth man on the moon. Paul is avoided by other astronauts nowadays because he was very rude and rebuffing when he returned from space. Eric slowly learns that Paul discovered something during his excursion on the moon that he keeps as a secret. ===== It's the story of a fastidious king Balbir Singh (Ashok Kumar) of Himmatpur, whose stern, high handed behaviour leads to a breakdown in communication with his four children; eldest daughter Hemalata (Nanda), younger daughter Ashalata (Tanuja) and sons Pratap (Rohit Kumar) and Rajendra (Deven Verma). His intimidating commands lead to partial paralysis of Hemlata's lower limbs and also a simmering discontent amongst other descendants. After numerous attempts fail to cure Hemalata, the king hires a new doctor, Sanjay (Sunil Dutt), who contrary to expectations, is not just young and handsome, but also against silly protocols that hamper laughter, fun and frolic. Dr. Sanjay's experimentations provide greater mobility and joy to the youngsters, giving them a fresh lease of life and a much needed voice of rebellion. Transcending normal barriers of doctor-client confidentiality, Sanjay and Hemalata fall in love and the romance enables her to walk in double quick time on her feet! Initially reluctant, the king awakens to a new dawn of freedom and humbly accepts not just their relationship, but also Ashalata's betrothal to social activist (Soodesh Kumar), who defeats him in a general election. ===== In mid-1963, one group was composed of mid-level officers such as colonels, majors, and captains. Colonel Đỗ Mậu director of military security was in this group, which was coordinated by Trần Kim Tuyến, South Vietnam's director of intelligence. Tuyến had been a palace insider, but a rift had developed in recent years, and he began plotting as early as 1962.Shaplen, p. 197. As South Vietnam was a police state, Tuyến was a powerful figure and had many contacts.Tucker, p. 407.Shaplen, p. 158. Another person in this group was Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, an undetected communist agent who was deliberately fomenting infighting among the officers and mismanaging the Strategic Hamlet Program in order to destabilise the Saigon government.Tucker, p. 325. Tuyến's group had many officers who were members of the opposition Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng and Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng, who had been discriminated against on issues of promotions, which were preferentially given to members of the regime's secret Cần Lao Party, a secret Catholic organisation responsible for maintaining Diệm's grip on power.Dommen, p. 418.Hammer, pp. 131–33. These included commanders of airborne, marine and tank units from the 5th Division, mostly at battalion level.Shaplen, p. 198. When Tuyến's machinations were uncovered, he was exiled by Nhu.Shaplen, pp. 197–98. Mậu and Thảo took over but their initial coup plans for 15 July were shelved when American CIA officer Lucien Conein instructed Thảo's superior, General Trần Thiện Khiêm, the head of the ARVN, to stop the coup on the grounds that it was premature.Karnow, p. 300.Hammer, p. 264. Thảo and Mậu's group resumed plotting, intending to move on 24 October and they recruited a total of 3000 men. They augmented their forces with an assortment of officers from auxiliary units such as from the Signal Corps, Transportation Corps and some RVNAF pilots. Mậu enlisted the help of Khiêm following Tuyến's departure into exile. Mậu gained the cooperation of an assortment of military and civilian dissidents known as the Military and Civilian Front for the Revolution in Vietnam (MCFRV). The MCFRV had started to plot independently in August and their leader was a cousin of Mậu. Thảo's 24 October coup was canceled after senior officers decided that their younger colleagues could not succeed without the help of General Tôn Thất Đính, a loyalist who controlled the III Corps. The generals sabotaged the younger officers by ordering one of their key regiments into the countryside to fight the communists.Jones, p. 398. The younger officers' plot was integrated into the generals' larger group,Tang, p. 52. and because Khiêm and Mậu were involved with both groups.Shaplen, p. 206. After the coup was completed, the media learned that the conspiracy organised by Tuyến and Thảo had been more advanced than that of the generals' before the latter were integrated into the main plot. General Trần Văn Đôn threatened to have the younger officers arrested but Mậu intervened to protect them.Hammer, p. 251. ===== On the last day of summer at Camp Big-Tee-Pee, all the teenage campers are crazy with hormones and eager to go home. While on a nature walk with ditzy hippie camp counselor Michelle Farmer, four students - self-proclaimed stud Mitch, his girlfriend Annie, overweight Henry, and nerd Danny - break off from the rest of the group to indulge in some cannabis. They take refuge in a nearby cave, only to be caught in the act by Michelle some time later. While being shooed out, Henry's flatulence causes a landslide, trapping the five of them inside. To pass the time until their eventual rescue, the group shares stories of how each lost their virginity. In Mitch's story, Lucy, an elegant prostitute, picks up Mitch while he is hitchhiking and invites him to visit her fancy hotel room. Feeling nervous and inexperienced, he asks his ultra-cool, yet dim-witted friend Jeff to give him pointers (which include "when in doubt, whip it out"). However, upon meeting Lucy, Jeff unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Lucy, almost injuring her. When Mitch saves her and kicks Jeff out, Lucy repays him with mind-blowing sex. Henry is forced to tell his story next. In preparation for a big Halloween party, he dresses as a ghost. Unfortunately, in addition to not being able to see out of the eye-holes, the costume looks identical to a Klan robe. Blinded, he accidentally stumbles upon a group of (flamboyantly gay) African-American thugs about to kill a young white woman. The thugs turn their attention to Henry, beat him senseless, and then skip off, singing and holding hands. The girl, convinced Henry has just saved her life, instantly falls for him and the two make passionate love later that night next to a giant pile of donuts. Meanwhile, the camp's staff, in fear of a potentially expensive lawsuit, desperately search for the missing campers. In Annie's story, she discusses her first time, back when she was working on her family's farm. One night, she discovers an attractive drifter who had broken into her house in search of food. Overwhelmed by her hormones, she gives him a lot more than cookies in the back of the barn, much to the dismay of the sheep. Danny goes next: His flashback reveals that he was a pornography-addicted loser. While visiting the beach one day, he thinks he sees Penthouse Pet Sheila Kennedy smiling and winking at him, but quickly dismisses it as a mirage. Later that night, after being rejected from a double date with his brother, Danny returns to his room to find Kennedy waiting for him. While the two engage in lengthy foreplay, they are later joined by his brother's girlfriend, and they all participate in an orgy, which Danny mispronounces. Finally, Miss Farmer tells her story: Back in high school she was deeply in love with her psychotic, nerd boyfriend Dwayne. However, when Dwayne dumps her for another girl at the junior prom, she sucks up her pride and picks up two new boyfriends. The three of them proceed to have sex on a bowling alley lane. As more time passes and oxygen diminishes in the cave, the gang becomes convinced that they will all asphyxiate. In a moment of truth, everyone admits that their stories were false. They're all still virgins. Determined not to die as such, they all participate in an orgy. The symphony of thrusts and moans causes another landslide, thus opening the entrance of the cave and freeing everyone. As the group returns to camp, a narrator reveals the character's futures: Danny became a pornographic actor under the name "Dicky Long". Mitch became a priest and a staunch advocate of gay rights. Henry now works for the National Cheese Commissioners Board. After eight marriages, Annie had a nervous breakdown and became a vegetable. Miss Farmer runs the government's program for Wildlife Preservation. The film's final shot shows her trying to make a large trout "fly away" by tossing it into the air. ===== Marv Grant is a high school student who lives with his deadbeat, alcoholic father. At school he begins dating the attractive Betty Alexander (Virginia Aldridge), who eventually manipulates him into writing her English class term paper for her. Marv does this, but the subterfuge is easily uncovered by the professor. Betty fails the class, and the professor withdraws his recommendation from Marv's college application, without which Marv has no chance of earning a scholarship. In anger, Betty throws Marv over and returns to her old boyfriend, Vince, revealing that she had only been using Marv from the beginning. At his part-time job at the docks, Marv overhears his boss plotting a drug transaction worth $1 million cash. The money will be kept in the office safe prior to the deal. In despair, Marv plots to steal the money, with the help of safecracker Harry March and Sam Tolman, to cure troubles with his father and Betty and he secures $550,000 of the take for himself. He tells Betty about the pending robbery to entice her to marry him, and she apparently accedes. In reality she secretively tasks her boyfriend, Vince, to steal the money from Marv. Marv and his associates steal the money, but things then go horribly wrong when it's discovered Marv's father has hanged himself, then Vince and two accomplices intervene and shoots Sam, and he is horrified. When Betty arrives on the scene soon afterwards, Vince accuses her of making him do this, and he kills her, too. Vince's accomplices flee, but the police soon arrive. Marv is arrested and the money falls into the water, being lost. ===== In Cambodia, where families were torn apart in the communist Khmer Rouge's genocidal bid to transform the country into an agrarian utopia, it is ironic that people have lost touch with the land. For a generation of children, the rice comes not from the ground, but from a sack, offloaded from the back of a United Nations relief truck. So it is in these uncertain times, that a Cambodian family is attempting to grow rice. The father, Pouev, is concerned that the family's plot of land is shrinking, and he might not be able to grow a big enough crop. The mother, Om, is worried for her husband, and her worst fears are confirmed when Poeuv steps on a poisonous thorn, and then, after a protracted period of being bedridden, dies of infection. Om is unable to handle the pressure of being the head of the family, nor does she have the strength to tend to the rice fields. She turns to alcohol and gambling and is eventually locked up for her mental illness. Responsibility for bringing in the crop and raising her six sisters falls on the oldest girl, Sakha. ===== A group of drama students idolize their favorite horror film star, Conrad Razkoff. In the beginning, Conrad is acting in a commercial for dentures, and the Director stops the filming because he does not like Conrad's performance. While the director sits on the edge of the balcony, an angry Conrad pushes him off with his cane. Later, Conrad visits a school and talks about his performances, only to faint under excitement. One of the drama students, Meg, revives him. Later, as Conrad sits in his bed, his obese director Wolfgang visits him. After a long talk about his death arrangements, Conrad closes his eyes and tricks the director into believing he is dead. Then, the director denounces him until Conrad springs up and smothers him with a pillow. After Conrad dies, the seven drama students, Meg, Saint, Bobo, Eve, Donna, Oscar, and Stu, go to the cemetery after dark, they sneak into the tomb where Conrad's coffin resides. The lights turn on and they see a film of Conrad stating that he welcomes them into his tomb, unless, he says, they have broken in. Creeped out, Meg asks them not to take Conrad, but they do, and take him to an old mansion where they stay for the night. That night, Conrad's coffin explodes, and he rises from the dead. Later, Oscar and Donna are having sex but Donna says she is scared. Oscar goes to investigate and has his tongue ripped out by Conrad in the attic. Donna becomes worried and walks outside only to see Conrad, who uses black magic to set her on fire. Later, the five remaining teens realize that Oscar and Donna are missing and begin to look for them. Bob however is put in a trance by Conrad and walks to Conrad's tomb, only to suffocate from vapors that are released inside the crypt. Eve decides to watch a movie and is lured out of her room by the sound of Donna's voice, only to be smashed into the wall by Conrad's coffin, and hidden with Oscar's body. Meg, Saint, and Stu realize that the other two are now missing and begin to panic, and Meg decides she's going to tell the police. Stu runs upstairs to get a flashlight since Saint's car will not start, only to be decapitated by Conrad who then sends his severed head out onto the front lawn of the mansion. Meg and Saint venture outside looking for Stu and find Donna's burnt body, and hurry back inside. Saint decides to try to fix his car, while Conrad traps Meg in the attic, where she impales him with a cross. Saint safely hides her unconscious body and takes Conrad's body with him to put back in the crypt, while the police arrive to the mansion finding a delirious Meg and all her dead friends. At the cemetery, Conrad attacks Saint and puts him in the crematorium, and goes back to his grave. A while later, his wife and his psychic friend arrive to say their final goodbyes to the "dead" Conrad, only Conrad kills his psychic after she steals his jewelry from his body, and his wife locks the crypt for forever. The final scene shows a video being played on the television installed in the crypt of Conrad informing the audience that hell is actually quite pleasant and hopes that more respect will be shown for the dead. ===== Amar Kumar is an eligible bachelor and his parents are looking to match him up. Amar meets Roopa but is more attracted her cousin, Shobha. The girl is treated as a house servant in Roopa's household. When Amar's feelings become public, Roopa beats Shobha. Frightened, she keeps away from Amar. The man travels abroad for several months; again Shobha is beaten. She escapes from the abusive household and is taken in by Amar's parents. There is a twist, though, she is pregnant and the identity of the father is unclear. ===== Hester (De Carlo) is a wealthy heiress who was jilted years ago by her lover to marry her sister. Using her weapon of choice, a 200 lb. Rottweiler, Hester not only exacts her revenge on her sister and lover, but has now set her sights on the offspring of the ill-fated reunion. ===== Aspiring screenwriter Edgar Allen (Rufus B. Seder) arrives in Hollywood carrying his most valuable possessions: a battered suitcase and a typewriter. Edgar Allen's best attribute is his wild imagination. He imagines scenes so vividly for the murder mystery he is writing that they seem to come to life...and they do! As mysterious gruesome murders pile up, Edgar Allen must confront aging actresses, rock stars and the police in a bleak setting of broken dreams and hideously broken bodies in Hollywood. As the line between reality and imagination becomes more blurred, Edgar Allen, convinced the only way to be a real writer is to suffer, is driven slowly mad. ===== Night of the Blood Beast A rocket-ship carrying astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) launches and orbits the Earth, marking the United States' first manned space launch. Shortly after taking off, the ship is struck by an unknown object, forcing Corcoran to abort the mission and land. However, the equipment cannot handle the fast descent back into the atmosphere and the ship crash lands in the woods, killing Corcoran. Dave Randall (Ed Nelson) and Donna Bixby (Georgianna Carter), two technicians from a nearby space agency tracking station, locate the crashed ship and recover Corcoran's body. They are baffled, however, by what appears to be a giant tear in the side of the destroyed spacecraft and a mud-like substance covering some of the wreckage. Randall and Bixby are joined by lead scientist Dr. Alex Wyman (Tyler McVey), technician Steve Dunlap (John Baer) and physician Julie Benson (Angela Greene), who was also Corcoran's fiancee. Wyman observes that Corcoran's body exhibits no signs of rigor mortis, and that the blood pooling beside him is not livid as it should be. The team brings the corpse back to their lab to run tests and find further irregularities. Although the body lacks a heartbeat or pulse, it maintains the blood pressure of a living human being. After looking at his blood in a microscope, they find unusual, unidentifiable cells that seem resistant to destruction from human white blood cells. The team tries to call for further assistance, but find the radio is no longer working. Randall heads outside to check the power transformers, and is attacked by a large creature (Ross Sturlin) hiding in the underbrush around the station. Randall fires a few shots at the creature with his pistol and escapes unscathed. Although he did not get a good look at the creature, he describes it to the rest of the team as similar in size to a bear. Later, the team finds the infirmary has been trashed and Corcoran's body is gone. They initially believe the creature has broken in and stole the corpse, but are shocked to instead find Corcoran has mysteriously regained consciousness. Upon checking his blood again, there is no trace of the mysterious cells from before, but after investigating Corcoran's body, they find the cells have changed into lizard- like fetuses and entered into his abdominal cavity. The creature later breaks into the lab again, this time beheading Dr. Wyman. Randall and Dunlap are initially suspicious that Corcoran was involved in the death, which he denies, but it appears he has some sort of telepathic connection with the creature. Despite Wyman's death, Corcoran does not believe the creature is evil, but rather simply misunderstood. He implores the others to give the creature a chance to explain its actions, and asks that they not condemn it as a monster simply because it is different. As the others plot to destroy the creature with improvised gas bombs and flares, Corcoran flees the station and finds the creature in a nearby cave. After consuming Wyman's brain, the creature is now able to speak with the scientist's voice and has absorbed his knowledge. Corcoran asks whether Wyman's death was needed, but the creature insists it was a necessary sacrifice. The others arrive to destroy the creature, but hesitate because Corcoran will not step aside and let them throw their bombs. The creature insists it is not an evil monster, but an intelligent alien who has come to Earth to save the human race from its own self-destructive tendencies. It explains that Corcoran's body has been implanted with its embryos, which will allow the alien species to multiply and take over the human race, which the creature claims is the only way to truly save humanity. Upon realizing the creature is forcing the will of its species on the human race, Corcoran concludes the creature is evil after all and commits suicide so its embryos cannot come to fruition. The others then throw their explosives and kill the creature, which in its dying breaths warns that others from his species are waiting in space and will return one day to conquer humanity. ===== The story starts off with a father, named Kent, pleading for his young son not to eat an ice cream cone, but to no avail--the ice cream is eaten and Kent shockingly dissolves into a puddle of melted ice cream. At Kent's funeral, one of his childhood friends Layne Banixter attends. While there, Layne observes a shaggy individual hiding back in the trees, smirking. While Layne is at a pub, his friend, Toot, is drinking himself into a stupor. Toot claims that Kent was in a closed casket because there was nothing left of him but his clothes. He insists that Layne's moving back to town has created bad luck for everyone. Around midnight, Layne heads home and observes several children in a trance, standing outside, clutching coins with an eerie chant of "We all scream for ice cream...". Worried, Layne goes to bed. His wife is concerned at his distant behavior, and she urges him to tell her what's wrong. Layne tells his wife of his childhood, and the local ice-cream man named Buster Dawkins. He was a decent soul who drove an ice-cream truck and wore a clown suit. The neighborhood bully, Virgil Constance had pulled off his clown nose to reveal a burnt stub – Buster had no real nose. Layne ends the story there, stating that one day, Buster simply died. He gets a phone call and arrives at the scene of Toot's death – his clothes in a pile of something gooey. Layne's wife demands to know what part of the story he omitted. Distressed, Layne tells her that Virgil planned a prank on Buster that one of them would release the brake on his truck and make it roll down the hill. Virgil forced Layne to pull the brake, and the truck began rolling straight towards Buster. Too busy picking up fallen coins to notice, Buster was run over by the truck and killed. That night, Layne goes to see the adult Virgil – the shaggy man he spotted at the funeral. Virgil eventually tells Layne about Buster: that the clown has returned for revenge for their fatal prank. While they are talking, a ghostly ice-cream truck stops nearby in front of a little girl whom Virgil had molested. Buster reaches out of his truck to her, and his horribly-scabbed hand gives the girl a treat. He tells her she can use it to get revenge. Upon the girl biting into it, Virgil melts away, screaming as layers of skin and flesh strips off him like ice-cream. Layne returns home with a plan. He begs his wife to take their children away to their grandmother's house for one day while he fixes things. After they leave, he tests the garden devices with a remote, then uses ice cream from a bucket in the freezer to create a shape. He wraps the treat with one of Buster's wrappers that Layne had thrown away. Layne hears the creepy tune and, carrying a small cooler, walks outside for a showdown. His children, lured by Buster from the car a short distance away, run to them. Buster's vengeful spirit offers an ice-cream (shaped like Layne) to Layne's kids. Layne and Buster struggle until Layne turns on the garden sprinklers, freezing the clown. Layne's son sees the ice-cream treat Layne had dropped, and it's shaped exactly like Buster. The boy bites into it and the clown dies. In the next scene, everything appears normal again and the family is about to move away from that town, but suddenly Layne hears the old creepy tune again and the film ends with a flash of Buster's rotten face. ===== The warrior Deathstalker is sent by a witch on a quest to find a chalice, an amulet, and a sword, two of which are held by the wicked sorcerer Munkar (Bernard Erhard). Deathstalker finds the sword almost immediately, which has been hidden by the witch in a cave guarded by an ogre and an imp. The imp Salmaron reveals himself to be a thief cursed by the witch and aids Deathstalker in defeating the ogre. Deathstalker removes the curse from Salmaron and the thief agrees to accompany Deathstalker on his journey. Sword in hand, Deathstalker sets out to Munkar's castle to gain the remaining objects of power. On his journey, Deathstalker learns of a tournament from Oghris (Richard Brooker), a charming warrior. Munkar has invited warriors across the land to participate in contests until a winner is determined - the winner will inherit Munkar's kingdom. One night along the way to the tournament, the pair meet Kaira, a defiant female warrior (Lana Clarkson) who wears only a G-string and a cloak. Later that night Deathstalker has sex with her. Salmaron looks on with amusement at the pair. Kaira joins the group on their journey the next morning. Munkar reveals to his assistant that his true agenda is for the warriors to fight each other to the death until only a weakened survivor remains for Munkar to kill. This would remove all threats to his rule. Arriving at Munkar's castle, Deathstalker and the other participants gather in Munkar's banquet room the night before the tournament. The warriors are invited to get drunk and rape Munkar's harem slaves, including Princess Codille (Barbi Benton). Oghris connects with one slave girl while Kaira keeps Deathstalker to herself. Deathstalker rescues Princess Codille, briefly, but Munkar takes her back. Munkar transforms his assistant into the likeness of the Princess and sends him to kill the hero; when Deathstalker attempts to rape Codille, he discovers that the woman is not all "woman" and sends her away. Kaira finds the assassin; assuming she is the real Codille, she is tragically killed by the assassin in a sword fight after Munkar's disguise spell wears off. The night after the first day of the tournament, Oghris is taken by Munkar's men to a prison cell while Salmaron is attacked by prison guards. The thief is knocked into a well that leads to Munkar's harem. It is revealed that Oghris brought Deathstalker to the tournament expressly for Munkar and he is ordered to kill him. Reluctant to kill his friend, Oghris warns Deathstalker and asks the hero to just leave the tournament but Deathstalker refuses and attacks him. During the brawl, Oghris has the chance to draw the sword and kill Deathstalker but chooses to fight fairly and ultimately loses. Deathstalker says goodbye to the fighter and kills him. The last day of the tournament arrives and there are only two competitors left - Deathstalker and an ogre. After a long fight, Deathstalker kills the ogre and moves to claim his prize. He is attacked by Munkar's men but makes his way to the amulet. Salmaron is discovered in the harem room but frees the women and helps them slay the guards. Deathstalker defeats the holder of the amulet and faces Munkar; he is able to defeat the sorcerer's illusions and claims the third object of power. Deathstalker declares he has no interest in Munkar's power or kingdom - he destroys the three objects of power and throws Munkar to a crowd of slaves who tear him apart. ===== The events depicted in the film take place on a single night and results in several characters sharing their life stories. It is a fascinating depiction of some of the challenges faced by the poor and by women in Indian society, some of which continue to this day.Movie synopsis ===== Victor Mancini is a sex addict who works as a reenactor of life in Colonial America. He works with his best friend, Denny, who is also a reformed sex addict. To support his hospitalized mother, Ida, Victor cons others by intentionally choking at restaurants to get money from his rescuers. When he visits his mother one day, he meets Dr Paige Marshall, who takes care of her. She tells Victor that his mother's condition is worsening and that they could try an experimental stem cell technique that would require harvesting cells from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby with Victor's genes. She convinces Victor to have sex with her so she can have his child and save his mother. Victor never knew his father and is anxious to obtain the information from his mother, but she never recognizes him when he visits. He asks Denny to pose as him and ask her questions. Denny agrees and reveals that Victor's mother kept a diary. Victor finds it, but it is in Italian. Paige tells Victor she can read Italian and agrees to translate the diary. Victor and Paige try several times to have sex, but Victor cannot maintain an erection. After discussing it with Denny, Victor realizes he loves Paige. She then reveals to him that his mother may have fled Italy because she stole Jesus' foreskin, and used its cells to conceive Victor, making him the Second Coming. He is reluctant to believe but, in the end, accepts Paige's assertion. However, his mother finally recognizes him and tells him that she stole him as a baby and she has no idea who his birth parents are. As she tells him this, he feeds her chocolate pudding and accidentally chokes her to death. While Paige tries to resuscitate Victor's mother, a hidden band around her wrist falls into Victor's view, revealing that she is a patient in the hospital—not a doctor. Paige then reveals that she was admitted to the hospital years ago, in a catatonic state, and fell in love with Victor through the stories his mother told her about him. As she was a former medical student, the nurses allowed her to wear a white coat, as it calmed her down. Paige, a voluntary patient, checks herself out without saying goodbye to Victor. After his mother's funeral, Victor boards a plane. He goes to the bathroom and the door opens to reveal Paige joining him. ===== 11-year-old Roy and his big brother, Joe, are on the run from the authorities when they fetch up at the Bar None ranch. Their shared passion for horses soon wins them great respect, and Roy is offered the chance of a lifetime, to break in a wild pony that runs like the desert wind. He is even promised that if he can ride Lady Luck, he can keep her – a dream come true. But Roy knows that Joe has a dangerous secret... a dark obsession that could explode at any time and send Roy's dream, and their whole world, up in smoke. ===== A Swift Pure Cry opens a year after the mother of fifteen-year-old Michelle "Shell" Talent dies, leaving her husband and three children to cope with her death. The eldest of the children, Shell is given the responsibility to care for her younger siblings as well as continue attending school as their father changes drastically. When a new priest, Father Rose, comes to their village, Coolbar, Shell begins to believe once again in Jesus and in her mother's spirit. However, her father is also changed by religion; he quits his job to only collect money for church drives, leaving Shell and her family in poverty. At school, Shell's only friends are Declan, the altar boy, and Bridie, another misfit teen. As Shell feels more and more isolated from normal family life, she becomes involved with Declan, who makes her promise not to tell anyone, so he can continue seeing Bridie as well. Unfortunately, Declan abandons both girls for America, leaving Shell pregnant and alone. She manages to hide the pregnancy from her father and gives birth to a stillborn child around Christmas, whom she names Rose, for the priest. Around the same time, another baby is found dead, killed by exposure, and Shell is under suspicion of abandoning her child. The town is in an uproar, as is the rest of Ireland, and Shell finds comfort in Father Rose's help. However, Father Rose believes Shell's father to be the baby's father and the town folk believes that Father Rose is the father. In the end, it is revealed that Bridie was also pregnant from Declan and gave birth around the same time as Shell, but her child survived. Faced with pressure and despair, she left her child outside to die. Concluding, Shell returns to school and Father Rose is transferred to another location in Ireland for training. ===== Mani Kongo (Gérard Essomba) is the king of the Bakongo. His only daughter, Mwana, (Dominique Mesa) left for Belgium as a young child in hopes of becoming a doctor, but contact with her had been lost over the past few years. Mani Kongo decides to travel to Belgium in search of his beloved daughter. On arriving he will have to cope with the very best and the very worst of the black diaspora, as well as with prejudices rampant in European society. He himself will find good friends amongst poor low-class whites. ===== The main character of the series is a bird, whose full name is the "Fiddley Foodle Bim Bam Boodle Oo Diddley-Doodle Oodle Bird". The character is voiced by Dennis Waterman (actor and singer famous for his roles as Terry McCann in Minder and Detective Sergeant George Carter in The Sweeney). The bird was originally nothing more than just a picture in a book, which was found by a young boy named Algernon. He wished that the bird would come to life, and when the wish came true they set out on an adventure with Algernon's friends, the eternally hungry Princess Toto, and his housekeeper, the overly strict Mrs. Grumblebaum. The aim of the mission is to find Algernon's lost parents, two members of the Potty Explorer's Club- Carzy and Maudy. They were lost exploring in a sieve. However, Algernon's dastardly Uncle Arbathnot is out to ensure that their mission does not succeed, and also to seize a mysterious treasure chest. He is assisted by a muscle-man named Damage, a Frenchman named Flannel, and a pirate named Pierre Head, who, like most pirates, is accompanied by a parrot -- a wise-cracking green glove puppet. The show features a guest appearance from Cilla Black, who voiced the President of the Potty Explorer's Club. ===== Three dogs and one cat are naturally suspicious of each other. At first the dogs and cat are playing various tricks with each other, and their thoughts are translated to the viewers by actor Lev Lemke. Eventually the four pets become good friends and have adventures together. They follow their owner, a forest ranger (played by Petr Shelokhonov), on various trips. With the help of a girl (played by Katya Kishmereshkina) three dogs and cat also help other people and have lots of fun together. ===== A secret is buried in the heart of the Welsh countryside and a series of violent deaths that seem to point the finger of blame at Captain Jack Harkness. Can the team solve the riddle in time to prove Jack's innocence? ===== Roberto and Aurelia are ten-year exiles from Castro's Cuba, now residing in New York City with their 17-year-old daughter Aurelita. Roberto has become the super of the building in which he lives, with the troubles of his tenants and his overall discontentment with his current living situation driving the plot of the film. He and his wife have trouble understanding their daughter, who smokes pot and likes to disco dance; this is further compounded by the problems she gets into during the latter half of the film, including a pregnancy scare with potentially multiple men. Roberto spends the majority of the film conversing with other exiles, such as Pancho, a fellow Cuban, and Cuco, an exile from Puerto Rico; he also tries to find a way to move to Miami to escape from New York, as he feels that, despite the escape from Cuba, that this was a waste of his past ten years and seeks to live out the remainder of his life in peace. After Roberto makes his wish come true by finding a factory job in the area, he celebrates both his wife's birthday and the family's moving out with a grand party; the ending of the film has Roberto desperately laugh in the dim basement, playing further into the isolation he's felt in the past decade. ===== Dogs and cat are together again. Three dogs and one cat are now good friends and they continue their adventures while they are following their owner, a forest ranger (played by Petr Shelokhonov). This time the cat becomes the leader of the four friends. Cat Svetofor together with three dogs: Bubrik, Fram, and Toshka are going on a winter journey, they follow their owner on an airplane flying North. The four animals travel to a nursery where New Year trees are grown. There four animals help people to stop the fire and save New Year trees. Then, together with their owner, the four friends join children for celebration of the New Year. ===== The film is about an apartment in Tehran and its various tenants. ===== Ahmed Bazargan (an Iranian) leads the team of diplomats who descend to the planet World. On his team are Dieter Gruber, a geologist; Ann Sikorski, a xenobiologist, and David Campbell Allen III, a graduate student in xenology. Their mission is to learn as much as possible about World, the Worlders and their culture, particularly the peculiar phenomenon of shared reality, which causes "head-pain" to those holding, or in the presence of someone holding, views contrary to the majority. This has had the drawback of limiting science, technology and progress; Worlders, though a far older species than Terrans, are somewhere around the Renaissance in terms of its technology. Bicycles are the cutting edge in personal transportation, each produced by artisans and individual craftsmen. On the other hand, there has never been a war on World; even the average barroom brawl causes intense head-pain. World's religion focuses on flowers; they believe that their people were created by the First Flower, which descended into the Neury Mountains, and much of their ceremony, both religious and every-day, involves blossoms. The sacredness of the mountains themselves is maintained by a wasting sickness inflicted on any who enter it. The Terran contingent was delivered by the Zeus, a warship in the rather piecemeal Solar Alliance Defense Network. The diplomatic mission is merely a cover story for the military objective, which is headed by Colonel Dr. Syree Johnson (ret.), a soldier and military physicist. The true objective involves "Orbital Object #7", one of World's seven moons (known as "Tas" by the locals). It is in very low orbit, is clearly artificial, and was created by the same unknown progenitor race that created the space tunnels. Johnson's mission is to analyze Orbital Object #7, decipher its use, and discover if it can be used as a weapon. Whether it can or not, it is about nine times too large to fit through the tunnel, and Johnson and her team can think of no way to safely disassemble it. Orbital Object #7 has fourteen bumps on the outside, each labeled with a number of their own dots: one, two, three, five, seven, eleven, and thirteen. The ancient builders' love for prime numbers is well- known; the space tunnels are marked with primes as well. It is theorized that the bumps are activating studs, and manipulating both bumps of one integer (they are on opposite sides, to avoid accidental activation by, say, a passing meteor) will trigger the artifact. When Orbital Object #7 is tested on setting one, it sends out a spherical wave that causes all nearby material higher than atomic number 75 (rhenium) to go radioactive--not by irradiating them with energy, but by manipulating the heretofore-untouchable strong nuclear force. Johnson and her team are still deciding what to do when a Faller scout craft (a "skeeter") emerges from Space Tunnel 438. The Zeus attempts to engage using particle beam weaponry, specifically a directed proton weapon, and are shocked when the beam passes through it instead of destroying it. (This has nothing to do with the strength of the weapon; proton beams utilize particles accelerated to a high percentage of the speed of light. Were the skeeter to land a shot on the Zeus, she would be destroyed as thoroughly as if vice versa. The advantage of a larger ship like the Zeus is in higher-ranged weaponry: it attacks the skeeter hours before the Faller can counterattack.) Johnson comes up with a theory that the proton beam is subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and is simultaneously composed of waves and particles until it is "observed" by someone - specifically the ship it shoots - at which point it resolves into a stream of particles and destroys whatever has just observed it. Evidently, the Fallers have discovered a way to alter the beam's "phase complex" to prevent the beam from resolving; essentially, the skeeter chooses not to "observe" the proton beam and is thus unaffected by it. The skeeter, having thus proven that ignorance is bliss, performs a close fly-by of Orbital Object #7 and then departs. On World, Bazargan struggles particularly with David Allen, who is entranced by the forced altruism of shared reality and wishes to splice it into the human genome. He also liaises with the head of a rich trading family, Hadjil Pek Voratur, who sees plenty of chances for profit in the Terrans' advanced technology. He and his team, especially Pek Sikorski, are generally attended by Enli Pek Brimmidin, a household servant who picks up English with surprising speed. Enli, a point-of-view character, is a spy in the employ of the "Reality and Atonement" branch of World's government; her task is to gather information that will shed light on the question of whether Terrans are "real"--that is, subject to shared reality. This is not an idle concern: those few Worlders who are born without the ability or cannot socialize to it are quietly euthanized. Enli herself has been declared unreal, having murdered her brother, and has been assigned this task as atonement. Bazargan and Ann Sikorski eventually strike a bargain with Voratur, trading the secrets of antihistamines (for Worlders, flower-sickness is sacrilegious) for a chance to perform a "Lagerfeld" brain scan on him. They agree only after Voratur takes a dose of antihistamine himself (having commissioned Enli to steal it) and survives. One of the Worlders testing the first batch of home- made drug dies from it. The Lagerfeld scan is unable to pinpoint a specific place in the Worlder brain where shared reality nests, and Ann concludes that it did not evolve and is not genetic; David Allen refuses to believe this, and begins to suspect a conspiracy between Bazargan and the high priests of World. Aboard the Zeus, Johnson and the other crew make the decision to push Orbital Object #7 out of orbit and towards Space Tunnel 438, in the hopes of breakthroughs during the five-day journey. She informs Bazargan of the action, including that, if necessary, they will destroy the artifact, possibly creating a destabilizing wave that could affect World. Bazargan goes to inform Voratur of this, only to have Voratur discover that Bazargan did not know that his mission was a cover story. This is binding proof: Terrans do not share reality. Their lives thus endangered, the Terrans, along with Enli, flee to the Neury Mountains, where no one will (or can) follow them. They are protected by environmental suits from the radiation, but they are still subject to a bizarre phenomenon: a slowing-down of the brain, a neurological phenomenon that only Enli remains unaffected by. Deep in the mountains, Gruber discovers a second alien artifact, similar to the one found in space but much smaller (perhaps 25 meters in diameter). It appears to have crash-landed on the planet millions of years ago (precipitating a mass extinction) and is putting out prodigious amounts of radiation. However, the radiation field is in the shape of a torus (a doughnut), and when the team moves into the "hole" of the field, Enli is not afflicted with the head-pains normally associated with unshared reality. Gruber theorizes that the field they passed through alters probability; this allows it to have an effect on human brain tissue because the release of neurotransmitters is a quantum-level event and thus susceptible to probability (indeed, nerve cells do not always release neurotransmitters, even when stimulated with exactly the same amount of voltage). Speeding towards Space Tunnel 438, the Zeus is confronted by a Faller cruiser, and detaches from the artifact, which continues on at over 4,000 kilometers per second. The engagement is largely inconclusive until Orbital Object #7 actually enters the tunnel. Just prior to this, Dr. Johnson receives a transmission from the diplomatic team containing Gruber's theories on the probability field, and realizes that this could explain the Fallers' new shield. However, her speculation is short-lived; when Orbital Object #7 enters the tunnel and is subsequently destroyed by it, it fires off a destabilizing wave at its maximum setting (revealed in the sequel Probability Sun to have a range of about 6 billion kilometers, and to somehow be not susceptible to the inverse square law), which destroys the Zeus as well as all Faller craft, irradiates an outer planet in the World system, and then proceeds onward to World itself. David Allen abducts Enli and drags her out of the mountains, passing through sections of high radiation to do so. Enli, wearing one of the team's four e-suits, is protected, but David takes thousands of rads. (Back with the team, Ann speculates that David is suffering from grandiose paranoid schizophrenia). The two then descend back down to civilization, where they proclaim to be real and explain that a "sky sickness" is coming. David teaches Worlders the proper techniques to shelter against radiation, and, having proclaimed his reality by dying for the sake of others, convinces the Worlders that Terrans do share reality. Meanwhile, Bazargan, Dieter and Ann receive the final transmission from the Zeus (having traveled 54 light-minutes to reach them), only to discover that Dieter's artifact reacted to the destruction of Orbital Object #7 when it was destroyed, once again implying macro-level entanglement. World is ultimately unaffected by the destabilizing wave, for reasons that are not revealed until the sequel. Armed with new hypotheses, the team is retrieved by Terran forces a few days later. Category:2000 American novels Category:2000 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Works by Nancy Kress ===== Deshu (Randeep Hooda), a mechanic working in Dubai, returns to India after his mother's death in order to console his grieving sister and retired police constable father. Sometime later, Deshu unwittingly becomes the witness to a murder, when the henchmen of a gang led by Mangli, chase and kill a man in front of him. Even though he is aggressively pursued by the police to be a state witness, Deshu chooses not to testify after the gang intimidates and threatens him. Seeking revenge for the harassment, he joins a rival gang, led by Hashim, and ultimately kills Mangli. Due to his bravery and intelligence, Deshu quickly rises up the ranks, becoming the gang's unofficial second-in-command, much to the dismay of Hashim's two sons, Mukarram and Shabbir. Deshu begins a relationship with beautiful Bollywood actress, Bhakti Bhatnagar, after protecting her from sexual harassment by a male colleague, an association which opens him up to connections that go above and beyond the level of the gang. Resentful of his meteoric rise to power and his glamorous relationship, Mukarram and Shabbir begin to plot his demise. They plant the seeds of doubt in Hashim's mind and try to turn their father against his once most trusted member. At the same time, the Mumbai Police have begun to monitor Deshu and assign an Encounter Specialist to the case, in the hopes of bringing him down. Hashim finally relents and allows his sons to carry out an unwarranted attack on Deshu and his friend and partner, Raghav. Raghav and others are killed while Deshu survives; hellbent on revenge. He takes on the gang single-handedly and eliminates those involved in this attempted assassination one by one until he finally kills Mukarram and Shabbir. He intentionally spares the life of Hashim, since he is aware that Hashim has nothing left and will never be able to rebuild his gang again - effectively condemning him to a life of prolonged misery. Deshu, having successfully established himself as a crime lord and managing to evade the police on many occasions, crowns himself the Underworld King, and dreams of forming the "D" company - an organized crime syndicate which he plans to run like a well-tuned machine from outside India's borders. ===== A young archaeological apprentice named Doug Adler (David Charvet) is dragged into a perilous expedition deep beneath the timeless sands of Egypt. He and a group of others encounter ancient monsters and escape death traps, but through the expedition, they discover a secret older than time and a danger beyond imagination. However, The "sleepers" have awoken, The gods have risen and the countdown to the end of the world has begun. The Voyagers must find a way to stop the mummy named Al Khem Ayut (Cedric Proust) and escape from the pyramid before time runs out. ===== The story begins with Sudha and Anand getting engaged. To celebrate, Anand throws a party and promises Sudha that he will pick her up. Anand fails to appear and Sudha drives to his estate. She gets stuck in the rain and knocks on the door of a nearby house. There she discovers the body of a girl. Suddenly she senses that she is being attacked. In the struggle, she falls from the roof. While unconscious, she is admitted to a hospital. When she returns home, she describes what she experienced that night, but no one believes her. She never recovers from the experience. Later, she starts a fight with someone in her imagination and tries to kill that person. A psychiatrist fails to bring Sudha out of her mental state. Her fiancé also tries to bring her to a normal condition. The psychiatrist later believes Sudha when she says a person in a TV program is the killer. He does some research, finds the house where Sudha was attacked, and takes her there, along with her family. Sudha is clear about what she saw that night: she saw the body of a girl and has the button of a dress as evidence. When they arrive at the house, she does not find the body. She discovers that the person whom she believes attacked her on that night is deaf and blind, that the person who was following her and later attacked her was a relative of the residents of that house and that the girl who died had gotten engaged to him prior to her death. He explains the reason he followed her was to describe the truth he knew to their family. Now a big question arises in her mind as the persons whom she saw and attacked both are innocent. She finds a tie pin in a corner of the house and later identifies it as the one belonging to Anand. When she goes to recover it at the house, she encounters Anand, who is there to retrieve it. When she confronts him, he explains the reason behind his involvement in the murder. In a flashback, Anand is hurrying through the rain to pick up Sudha, when he hits and kills a schoolboy. When he buries the body, a girl sees the incident, a girl whom he unintentionally killed. As is explained, he was bound to do this by 'ill fortune'. The mystery unfolds as he explains he is the person who joined Sudha in the hospital and disposed of the body of the girl. After admitting this to Sudha, Anand attempts to kill her, but eventually ends up committing suicide instead. Then, after everything seems to have been resolved, it is revealed that Sudha's friend Maya, who visited her a few times during the film, is also a figment of Sudha's imagination. In fact Sudha has been hallucinating Maya since her childhood and has made up her whole life story, including Maya having a daughter who also visits Sudha. The psychiatrist explains that Sudha has a positive mind which includes positive characters like Maya and a negative mind, where she had placed Prashant. When Sudha gets home, she sees Anand in her room and screams, leading us to believe that she has now placed Anand in her negative mind and he will now haunt her. ===== The movie examines the tumults in the lives of the people residing in the Belli Moda estate. Indira is the heiress of her father's estate, named Belli Moda. A young man, Mohan, is engaged to her and is desirous of owning the Belli Moda, and leaves to US for studies. Mohan returns from the US, only to discover that his fiancée's mother has died in labor, leaving behind a son - the new inheritor of Belli Moda. This shatters Mohan's dreams of the estate and he bitterly refuses to marry Indira. One day, Mohan falls from the mountain and is severely injured in that accident. He is nursed by Indira, and then, Mohan falls truly in love with her and proposes her marriage. However, this time, Indira refuses to marry him and breaks his heart, for he only cared about her wealth. ===== The female lead of the film, Mallamma (B. Saroja Devi) is married to a dullard by her parents. While at her in-laws house, Mallamma realises that her husband has been made a dullard by his scheming stepmother, who wants to appropriate the vast property. She educates her husband and frees him from the clutches of his stepmother and makes him realise the value of life. ===== The film is divided into 16 days in which the director discusses a different issue with the Afghan people. Day 1 : He arrives in Kabul Airport and meets the family. A short introduction of the history of Afghanistan. Day 2: He visits the Blue Mosque of Mazar-e Sharif and discusses the situation with the caretakers, guards, and the ulemas who are there. An inside look into the historical artifacts of the mosque. An interview with a westerner who visited Afghanistan in the 1970s and discusses Islam and the Taliban. Day 3 : Interview with the colonel of the Afghan National Army about the status of women in Afghanistan. Interview with a businesswoman who sells mantu on the street. Interview with street children testing their education and questioning them about school. Interview with a traffic police on how the economy has effected the number of cars and drivers. Day 4 : Interviews with a kebab seller and an electronic seller about their business. Interview with a street woman and her view about the government and president Hamid Karzai. Interview with a blind street singer. He has his fortune read by a woman fortune teller. Day 5 : Interview with a doctor and pharmacist about medicine and foreign medical aid in Afghanistan. Interview with a sickle-maker about his business and what he thinks of life. Day 6 : Interview with a former representative of Iranian cinema about her perception of the people. Interview with a street photographer, comparing standard film to digital photography. Interview with a butcher and his customer about business and health. Day 7: On the way to Kabul, he eats and introduces Afghan cuisine. Interview with a UN representative and employee about UN activities in Afghanistan. The representative discusses land mines and how they affect people's lives. Hajher recalls his last days in Afghanistan during the Cold War. Day 8: Interviews with many day laborers and how the current political and economic system affects their lives. Day 9:Interview with the founder of Afghan Human Rights Committee about the involvement of United States and western powers in Afghanistan and terrorism. Day 10: Hajher visits an illegal local hashish bar to interview hashish sellers, users and addicts. People discuss why they smoke, how it affects their lives and why they don't drink alcohol. Day 11: Visiting the businesses in the popular Chicken Street and how it has changed or remain the same over the years. Interview with the sellers and western visitors who speak about the culture of Afghanistan. Day 12: Hajher visits his village to meet his extended family. Greetings and interviews with the family about religion, politics and the way of life in the United States. Day 13: Hajher faces death for a moment when he thinks that his village barber is going to cut his neck. The head of the village, the religious figure and other known figures come to meet and question him. Day 14: He visits his dad's enemy to make peace and visit his old house which was taken over by the enemies of his father. Day 15: Leaving Afghanistan, farewell to family and friends. Day 16: Landing in the United States Augusta, Georgia airport. A montage of his recollections of the people he met and the places he visited. ===== The plot of the film revolves around a murderer killing fishermen with an oversized fishhook during a Wisconsin fishing festival. ===== Louis Salinger, a British ex- Scotland Yard officer-turned Interpol detective, and Eleanor Whitman, an Assistant District Attorney from Manhattan, are investigating the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC), which funds activities such as money laundering, terrorism, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments. Salinger's and Whitman's investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan, where the IBBC assassinates Umberto Calvini, an arms manufacturer who is an Italian prime ministerial candidate. The bank's assassin diverts suspicion to a local assassin with political connections, who is promptly killed by a corrupt carabiniere. Salinger and Whitman get a lead on the second assassin, but the corrupt carabiniere shows up again and orders them out of the country. At the airport they are able to check the security camera footage for clues on the whereabouts on the bank's assassin, and follow a suspect to New York City. In New York, Salinger and Whitman are met by two New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives, Iggy Ornelas and Bernie Ward, who have a photograph of the assassin's face when he arrived in New York airport. Salinger, Ornelas, and Ward locate Dr. Isaacson to whose practice the assassin's leg brace has been traced. They find the assassin and follow him to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Jonas Skarssen, the chairman of the IBBC, reveals to his senior men White and Wexler that the bank had Calvini killed so that they could deal with his sons to buy missile guidance systems in which the bank has invested. Since the bank knows that Salinger and Whitman are close to finding their assassin, they send a hit team to kill him at a meeting between him and his handler, Wexler. Wexler leaves and is arrested by Ornelas. As Salinger and Ward speak to the assassin and attempt to arrest him, a shootout at the Guggenheim erupts when a number of gunmen attempt to kill them with automatic weapons. In the chaos Ward is killed, and Salinger is forced to team up with the assassin to fight off the gunmen. Despite escaping, the assassin is mortally wounded and dies of his injuries, thus losing another lead in Salinger's investigation. In interrogation, Wexler, a former Stasi colonel, explains to Salinger that the IBBC is practically untouchable because of its utility to terrorist organizations, drug cartels, governments, and powerful corporations of all complexions. Even if he succeeds in bringing the IBBC down there are hundreds of other banks that will replace them. If Salinger wants justice, he needs to go outside the system, and Wexler indicates a willingness to help. Salinger persuades Whitman to let him go on alone. In Italy, Salinger tells the Calvini brothers of the IBBC's responsibility for their father's murder, prompting them to cancel the deal with the bank and transmit orders for White to be killed. Salinger then accompanies Wexler to Istanbul, where Skarssen is buying the crucial components from their only other manufacturer. Salinger attempts to record the conversation so that he can obstruct the deal by proving to the buyers that the missiles will be useless, but he ultimately fails. Both Wexler and Skarssen are then killed by a hitman contracted by Enzo and Mario Calvini to avenge their father's murder by the bank. Salinger is left stunned, his investigation, pursuit, and determination to bring down the IBBC, have led him to nothing. During the closing credits, it is indicated that the bank is successfully continuing with its operations despite the death of its Chairman—as Skarssen had predicted to Salinger before he was killed. However, with the new and more aggressive chairman, it is hinted that the IBBC's increased expansion and aggression will ultimately lead to its downfall, as shown by the last panel, revealing the beginnings of a United States Senate investigation, headed by Whitman. ===== Antoine, a writer without ambition, is abruptly left by his girlfriend Solange for another man. Wounded in his pride, Antoine tells about his troubles to Jean Costal, his bookseller- publisher friend. Jean proposes to Antoine to use his story with Solange as a starting point for a new book. Antoine is going to pick a woman at random, make her fall in love with him, and then leave her. At the same time, he will keep a detailed journal of the experience, which Jean will publish as a novel. Hesitant at first, Antoine then proceeds with the plan and puts up an ad to find a typist, targeting exclusively young females. He then meets Catherine, whom he deems unattractive, but Jean convinces Antoine that this very aspect would make her a good candidate. But as Antoine gets to know Catherine better, the perfect plan starts falling apart. ===== Mischievous Tom Sawyer snacks on jam and is caught by his stern Aunt Polly. She threatens to punish him, but he tricks her and escapes. In town, Tom encounters Alfred Temple, a "model boy" in fancy clothes, who snubs him. A fist-fight ensues, witnessed by Huckleberry Finn, "the juvenile pariah of the village," who wears rags, smokes a pipe and spends his days fishing. The next day, Aunt Polly commands Tom to whitewash the fence outside their house. Tom successfully fools his friend, Joe Harper, into picking up a brush by pretending the work is actually great fun. Several other boys join in and soon the fence is finished. Becky Thatcher, a new arrival in town, catches Tom's eye and he is instantly smitten. At Widder Douglas' Sunday School, Tom plans to impress Becky by collecting a new Bible for the hundreds of verses he has supposedly learned; actually, he makes shrewd trades with his classmates to amass the number of tickets required to claim the prize. When Judge Thatcher asks Tom to name the first two disciples appointed by Jesus, Tom responds, "David and Goliath," and everyone ridicules him. The next morning, Tom is tardy for school after stopping to talk with Huck. The schoolmaster makes Tom sit with the girls, which allows Tom a chance to flirt with Becky. Tom proposes engagement to Becky and she accepts with a kiss—until Tom lets it slip he was previously engaged to Amy Lawrence. Becky is furious and refuses to have anything to do with Tom. After Aunt Polly blames Tom for breaking the sugar bowl that was actually destroyed by Tom's goody-goody half-brother, Sid, Tom has had all he can take; He decides to run away. Joe Harper, who also feels depressed, joins him, and the two seek out Huck, who has access to a raft that can take them to Jackson's Island. That night, the three sail to the island, intending to be pirates. The town is in an uproar when it's discovered the boys have disappeared. Their raft drifts away and is found by a boat captain, who reports to Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper that the boys must have drowned. The women are heartbroken. Meanwhile, the runaways are swimming, fishing and enjoying their new-found freedom. Huck lights his pipe and blows a cloud of smoke at Tom, tempting him to try smoking. Tom and Joe enjoy their first pipes and plan to surprise their friends with their new skill when they return home. But they eventually make themselves nauseous, much to Huck's amusement. That night, Tom sneaks back to his home and overhears Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper discussing plans for a funeral service on Sunday. Tom, Huck and Joe make plans to attend the funeral and, when they appear, everyone rejoices. The Widder Douglas takes an interest in Huck, but he manages to slip away from her. Becky reconciles with Tom and the congregation celebrates. ===== Shadow of the Beast II (Amiga) Shadow of the Beast II finds the hero Aarbron in half-beast form, wandering the lands of Karamoon in search of his kidnapped sister. She had been taken away from her mother's cottage by the dragon-form of the Beast Mage, Zelek, servant to Maletoth. Along the way, Aarbron befriends the wise dragon Barloom and must defeat the evil dragon Ishran. Tree Pygmies in the forest and the goblins in the Crystal Caverns serve as foes. ===== The play concerns orphaned Jerry Artminster, who blackmails a criminal named Jock Masters by promising he will not reveal his identity if Jock agrees to impersonate the boy's mother in the Reading, Berkshire, (England) hotel where the boy lives. Others involved are Mr. Booker, the gay hotel manager who fancies the boy, and Janice, a black woman who works in the hotel. ===== Huguely's finished product was a story about an over-the-road truck driver with the handle "Mean Machine" who receives a CB call from an individual claiming to be a truck driver. Identifying himself as "The White Knight," he broadcasts that there are no "smokeys" (police officers) in sight. Truck drivers regularly relied on each other to watch for such "smokeys" so they could circumvent the still widely unpopular National Maximum Speed Law, which limited all drivers to , so they could cover more distance in a given time than the law allowed. Unfortunately for the song's hero, The White Knight is an undercover member of the Georgia State Patrol who uses the CB radio to pretend to be a trucker himself to lure rig drivers into a speed trap. After driving for some time at high speed and listening to country music on the radio, the Mean Machine hears the White Knight warning him of a patrol car equipped with radar ahead. The Mean Machine dutifully slows down to the speed limit until he is past the patrol car (whom he mocks by calling him "Super Trooper" and noting "there's that crazy Smokey over there with a CB of his very own."). The White Knight then goads the Mean Machine into speeding to catch him by insulting Mean Machine's rig, inferring that he can't keep up. As he goes ever faster, the Mean Machine is soon surprised to see a patrol car's lights in his mirrors, and he is dismayed to learn that the "Super Trooper" patrolman and the White Knight are one and the same. The main hero is left to exclaim "Bubblegum-machine done hit the jackpot" as he is being pulled over for going "40 miles over the speed limit" (i.e., , although the singer only attests to going ). The Mean Machine is taken to jail to join eleven of the White Knight's other victims, and his truck confiscated. The "White Knight" appears in a cameo in the follow-up single, "Kentucky Moonrunner." While the singer in "The White Knight" attempts to speed only when he believes no cops are present, the titular Kentucky Moonrunner simply outruns them with superior speed, recorded at over 150 miles per hour. The White Knight catches the Kentucky Moonrunner when he crosses into Georgia from Tennessee, with no explanation of how he could do so when the Tennessee cops could not. ===== The film stars Elizabeth Alexander as Jessica Simmonds, who returns home from London to discover the street she grew up in being torn down by developers for high rise developments. Her father (Alexander Archdale), a vocal opponent of the developers, is killed in a suspicious fire and Jessica takes up the cause of the local residents. She joins forces with Jeff Elliot (John Hargreaves), a union leader. As they probe further into the background of the development they unearth sinister connections between the development group and organised crime. ===== After the death of his mother, Richard Herncastle (Colin Firth) is offered a job by his uncle, his mother's brother. Nick Ollanton is a stage conjurer in variety theatre and Richard joins the act where he meets the other members of the team and the rest of the acts on the bill as they travel around Britain appearing at the Empires, the old variety theatres that have since vanished. He becomes our eyes as he experiences the last few months of peace before World War One breaks out and changes the world forever. During the course of the seven episodes (eight hours), Firth's character, young Richard Herncastle, sees the "whole wide world" from backstage at the music hall variety shows with which the magic act travels, just as his uncle Nick (John Castle) has promised—hilarity, beauty, love, lust, fear, despair. Richard comes of age just as the world enters the fateful year of 1914—the outbreak of World War I, when the greatest of all disappearing acts becomes imminent: the disappearance of millions. The series has the second to last appearance of Olivier as a fading comedian named Harry Burrard, who has long since lost his audience and his comic abilities. Harry should have retired years before, however he has nowhere else to go and his brain is collapsing into paranoia. The role is a sort of older version of Olivier's Archie Rice, from The Entertainer (1960). ===== Neang Nhi (Ampor Tevi), a woman neglected by her abusive husband, Manop, is working in the fields one day when she accidentally loses her hoe in some shrubbery and encounters a giant python. The snake speaks to Nhi, and says he will return her hoe if she agrees to have sex with him. That night, the snake transforms into a man (Tep Rindaro), brings back the hoe, and has sex with Nhi, a union that results in Nhi's pregnancy. Manop eventually finds out that it was the python who impregnated his wife, so he beheads the python and then stabs his wife in the stomach. Nhi is killed by the blow, but dozens of small snakes pour out of her abdomen and into a nearby stream. Manop chases after the baby snakes, killing each one, but slips on a rock and is killed. A surviving baby snake transforms into a human infant, who is then found by a wandering monk. The monk names the baby girl Soraya and raises her. She grows into a beautiful teenage woman (Pich Chanbormey), but has living serpents instead of hair. The monk, however, is able to fashion a magical ring that allows her to keep the snakes at bay and appear to have normal hair. One day, Soraya is bathing at a waterfall when she encounters a young man, Wae-ha (Winai Kraibutr), who has fallen into the pool after a fight with another man over a woman. Wae-ha is nursed back to health and he and Soraya fall in love. Wae-ha then takes Soraya back to his home to meet his family. One of Wae-ha's friends attempts to rape Soraya, during which her ring comes off and the snakes appear in her hair and bite the man, killing him with their venom. It is further revealed that if Soraya's virginity is broken, she will permanently turn into a snake. ===== ;Promise The brother and father of Reiko, a teenage girl, died not long after she was born. She must cope with her mother neglecting her, including her mother's decision to remarry. Reiko begins skipping school and she often meets by chance a boy who had helped her when she was little. He helps her get used to her new situation. ;They Were Eleven Ten young space cadets are put onto a decommissioned spaceship as their final test. If they pass this test, their lifelong dreams of being valued people in their respective societies will come true. They find upon reaching the ship that they have an eleventh member. The crew suffers hyperthermia because their ship is too close to a star, and they must find out which of their number is the spy. ;The Changeling In the distant future, Lin is employed to check up on Earth's terraforming efforts. She runs across a peaceful-seeming world, but her ship is nearly sabotaged. ;Since You've Been Gone An unfaithful husband is with his lover as an earthquake devastates his home. His wife refuses to be evacuated, as she wants to find a purse with "deep sentimental value". ===== The show is about a trio of kung fu fighting chickens who live and work in a city-sized shopping mall owned by their archenemy, Dr. Wasabi. ===== Roro (Fares Fares) and Måns (Torkel Petersson) who are best friends, work at the park management and get to do all the menial jobs - clean up duck ponds and pick up dog poop. Roro's Swedish girlfriend Lisa (Tuva Novotny) wants to be introduced to his family but he refuses for a long time because of his Lebanese family traditions. When Roro finally decides to introduce Lisa to his family, he walks into the apartment full of relatives who are planning a marriage with the Lebanese girl Yasmine (Laleh Pourkarim). ===== Lee Gang-sik (Cha Seung-won) is serving a life sentence for robbery and murder. For the last 15 years, he has been on his best behavior, and now his wish has finally come true. Gang-sik has been granted a one-day leave to visit his family, and as the day draws closer and closer, he is overcome with both excitement and nervousness. There is so much he wants to say to his eighteen-year-old son Jun-seok (Ryu Deok- hwan), whom he hasn't seen since incarceration when the boy was three years old, but the feeling isn't exactly reciprocated. Forced to grow up at an early age, his son has had a tough life, taking care of his elderly grandmother with dementia on his own, and in his eyes, he sees not a father, but a stranger, a criminal. How can Gang-sik make up for 15 years with just one day's time? But the father's genuine feelings gradually open his son's heart. To enjoy every second given to them, the father and son hang out together all night until they must once again part ways the next morning. ===== A middle-aged psychiatrist finds a young insane woman wandering aimlessly along the streets. He takes her to his abode for treatment. Slowly the woman recovers from her trauma. The doctor promptly falls in love with her and decides to marry her. In the meantime, the doctor's nephew arrives and falls head over heels for her. The doctor cannot tolerate this intimacy and goes insane. ===== Life of theater artistes. The Oedipus complex. The tragic life of a quintessential movie heroine. These are some of the themes handled by ace director Puttanna Kanagal with his characteristic finesse in Ranganayaki. Aarathi in the title role delivers yet another power-packed performance, easily among her career best. Interestingly her story is told from the points of view of the men in her life - father, brother, husband and son. Ironically, the sequence of events in her life mirror the key situations she has enacted in some of her most popular plays, proving that life can imitate art. Ranganayaki is a theater artiste who plays the lead female role in all the plays staged by the drama company owned by her foster-father. When a rich man, Nagaraja, falls in love with her, she marries him and draws the curtain on her career. The drama company falls on tough times after her departure. On one occasion, when the drama company faces an emergency with the new actress absconding, Ranganayaki dons the grease paint to save her father's reputation. This one act ends her marriage, and her husband leaves town with their year-old son. Ranganayaki returns to theater but with the death of her father, and in the face of mounting losses is forced to close the drama company. Supported by her foster-brother Ramanna she goes onto become a popular movie heroine 'Mala'. Twenty years later, Shekhar, a college student, not only becomes her most ardent fan but also becomes besotted by her. Neither is aware of their true relationship - that they are mother and son. A chance meeting with her ex-husband makes 'Mala' yearn to meet her son. While circumstances make sure this does not happen, by the time Shekhar realizes the truth about her identity, 'Mala' who suffers from bouts of depression, would have taken her own life. ===== EE is mainly a history of the Ecotopian independence movement. The main characters are Vera Allwen, the leader of the Survivalist Party, and Lou Swift, a teenage physicist, along with their families and friends. Other characters are shown briefly as each one decides independently to break with the American status quo and begin living in an Ecotopian (low-tech, sustainable) fashion. Bolinas, California, high school student Lou Swift finds a way to generate electricity cheaply from seawater in a solar cell. However, she doesn’t understand how the cell works. She refuses to publish her results until she understands the science. Because she is determined to make the cell design freely available, she spurns corporate and academic offers to buy the cell design. Meanwhile, spies and burglars try to obtain her notes. Vera Allwen is a California state senator. Angered by an Eastern food corporation’s announcement it would stop selling fresh produce, she and other politicians, artists, and professionals form a new political party. It is decentralized, environmentalist, and populist. They create a platform and name it the Survivalist Party. As the book proceeds, they spread their ideas, coalition with like-minded people, and become a regional political force. Vera’s speeches are reprinted within the text. Some of their ideas come from a short novel called Ecotopia, and the Party publishes a paper called "The Survivalist Way to Ecotopia." The Party creates a think tank for environmentalist policies. When the Pacific Northwest states pass a special tax on cars to reduce car use, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns it; public outrage along the Pacific coast helps tip the people of the region toward supporting the Survivalist Party. When the Quebec government offers to establish diplomatic relations, the Party starts thinking about independence. A nuclear accident gives them the governorship of Washington State, and Northern California's refusal to keep supplying Southern California with water leads to the state splitting into two. An ardent secessionist claims to have planted dirty bombs in New York City and Washington, DC, and threatens they will explode if the U.S. attacks the region. Bolinas declares itself independent of other governments. The Survivalist Party has infiltrated local units of the National Guard, which are now sympathetic to the secessionists. The U.S. is too busy with a war in Brazil to send troops to pacify Bolinas and its supporters. In a lucky coincidence, the U.S. helicopters massing on the Nevada border and preparing to attack the region are suddenly recalled to deal with a crisis in Saudi Arabia, and secession seems likely to proceed. Meanwhile, in the future Ecotopia, individuals move the local economy toward a more sustainable model. A collective sets up a solar remodeling business; a young man uses goats to mow lawns. Berkeley creates car-free zones; other cities adopt them. A suburban tract is replanted as an orchard. Rural residents build a lightweight, cheap horse-drawn buggy, and stills to distill alcohol from farm waste. Eventually, a large part of the public is car-free and ready to take the final steps to a sustainable economy. Lou finally discovers the key chemical that makes her solar cell work. She publishes her paper and people start building their own cells. With this breakthrough, the region will no longer be dependent for energy on the rest of the U.S. for imported fossil fuels or nuclear power. With this energy independence, the future nation of Ecotopia becomes a practical possibility. These events occur against economic and political breakdown in the U.S.: corporate concentration, slashed government budgets, and military adventurism abroad, aided by a compliant corporate media. The automobile habit has essentially bankrupted the U.S. Refusing to develop alternative energy sources, “oil-hungry America lurched toward some unseen economic catastrophe.” At the end, the Saudi oil refineries have been bombed, and the U.S. military is caught up in a war in the Middle East. The Ecotopian storyline ends with the Party making Lou’s solar cell technology available to the public, and a constitutional convention where the region decides to secede from the U.S. following the Quebec-Canada model. The book Ecotopia begins about 20 years after secession, when the new nation is securely established. Neither book describes events in between, such as the political difficulties of secession, the economic dislocations and outmigration from the region, and the Helicopter War with the U.S. (referred to in Ecotopia). ===== Apple's story begins in a village in northern France. Her father has left and her mother works both as a barmaid and prostitute and they live in a noisy roadside apartment. We meet her again at age 18, living with her mother in a suburb of Paris and working at a hair salon near St. Lazare train station. At night mother and daughter watch TV or Apple reads romance novels and magazines. Her first friend in Paris is Marilyn, a 30-year-old redhead who is unsuccessfully modeling her life after a romance novel. She tries to make Apple more like herself, gets her to drink whiskey and wear makeup, but she begrudges Apple's simplicity and the friendship doesn't survive the entrance of Marilyn's next boyfriend. Marilyn abandons Apple while the two friends are vacationing in Cabourg. Apple is left eating an ice cream at a tea shop when Aimery de Béligny shows up. Aimery is initially fascinated by Apple's simplicity. An intellectual from a respectable family, he is different from Apple in every way. Her docile sincerity charms him at first; they live together in his studio in Paris where she expresses her devotion through continuous housework. But such humble tenderness only irritates the student, who thinks the intellectual gap between them is too profound. He breaks up with her and leaves. Apple takes off her rubber gloves, puts away her cleanser and leaves without complaint. She returns to her mother's convinced that she is unworthy and ugly and she loses what interest she had in life. She stops eating and ends up in a mental hospital. Apple is surrounded with characters who believe they know how to express themselves, while she remains mute. Her silent suffering is the central light of the book, like the candle in Vermeer's painting. ===== Marie (Gina Manès) was an orphan adopted by a bar-owner and his wife in the port of Marseille, and now she is harshly exploited by them as a servant in the bar. She is desired by Petit Paul (Edmond van Daële), a thuggish layabout, but is secretly in love with Jean (Léon Mathot), a dockworker. Marie is forced to leave with Petit Paul, but Jean follows them to a fairground where the two men fight. In the brawl a policeman is stabbed and, while Petit Paul escapes, Jean is arrested and gaoled. A year later, Jean rediscovers Marie, now with a sick baby and living with Petit Paul, who spends all their money on drink. Jean tries to support Marie, aided by a crippled woman (Marie Epstein, credited as "Mlle Marice"), who lives next door; but Petit Paul, warned by gossiping neighbours that Jean is seeing Marie, returns for a violent confrontation, this time armed with a gun. In the ensuing struggle, the crippled woman obtains the gun and kills Petit Paul. In an epilogue, we see Jean and Marie finally free to love each other, though their faces suggest that experience has taken its toll on their lives. ===== Bukowski uses his own life as the basis for his series of articles, and characteristically leaves nothing out. The different stories range from hooking up with the wife of a stranger who invites him over for dinner to admire his work, to Bukowski's versions of "debates" with other writers at "Open City". Bukowski goes through life and each event without caring about the consequences of his actions. He is almost always alone aside from the occasional prostitute that he invites over. A few times, generous people who admire his writings will allow him to stay with them rent free, though he does not understand why people enjoy his writings so much. As soon as he starts to get too close to these families or hosts he will leave without notice and go on to find a new place to stay. However, he does mention that he does not want readers to feel sorry for him, which is why he includes crude comedy along with each story. He always has some type of alcohol with him that allows him to be as carefree as he is. Whether he is drinking while writing his stories and poetry, or showing up to work and meetings already drunk, every story incorporates his vigorous drinking habits. ===== Conan has joined a band of warriors from the northern country of Asgard, while taking part in a raid against the Hyperboreans living east of the region. Eventually, Conan is captured and enslaved by the ape-like Hyperboreans. However, he doesn't remain a prisoner for long. After escaping from his chains and slaying his captors, Conan makes his way south. Soon, Conan is pursued by a pack of hungry wolves. Armed only with a broken length of chain, Conan manages to fight off the starving wolves until he finds refuge near a range of hills. Inside one of the hills, he discovers the entrance to a buried crypt. After hiding within an ancient chamber, which the wolves are strangely unwilling to follow him into, Conan lights himself a fire. Suddenly, he discovers a grisly occupant. Enthroned on a square boulder of black stone is the large mummified corpse of a man, apparently a great warrior or chieftain from ancient times. Noticing an iron sword which lies across the dead man's knees, Conan steals the weapon and claims it for himself. Exulted in his new-found sense of power, Conan hears the sound of a dry creaking and turns to face the mummy as it begins rising from its throne, having been raised from the dead by Conan's warcry. It advances on the young barbarian, but Conan, though frightened of the creature, stands his ground and engages in a desperate battle against the walking corpse. Finding that the wounds he inflicts are not enough to kill an undead creature, he eventually manages to hurl the mummy into the fire, utterly destroying it. Not wanting to spend all night inside the haunted crypt, Conan emerges with his new weapon and, seeing no sign of the wolves, continues on his journey. ===== Savage and Akira meet − seemingly for the first time − by Savage being dispatched by a Joyce Stone to liberate her sister, Rachel, whom Akira is guarding against that eventuality. Their brief clash triggers off memories of a previous meeting, where each believed he saw the other die in the course of a prior mission of protection together; memories that are quite obviously false, but that both believe to be entirely real. The two join together to uncover a string of other falsified memories, taking Rachel Stone with them – thus fulfilling both protectors' missions; Savage's to retrieve her, and Akira's to protect her. This is a phenomenon that Savage identifies as jamais vu, a familiar situation not recognized by the observer (this is considered the opposite of déjà vu). In the book, the occurrence of this phenomenon is explained by the discovery of evidence of brain surgery performed on both men, entailing a scarring of the temporal lobe of the brain, or the amygdala hippocampal area by an electrode inserted through the skull -– a process similar to that used to treat epilepsy – while both men were subjected to a series of hypnosis and dramatic re-enactments of the false memories.. The process served to 'delete' Savage's and Akira's memories, and supplant them with falsified ones. ===== While on assignment in Nigeria, covert operative Michael Westen learns that he's been "burned". For a spy, it is the equivalent of being fired. A burned spy is blacklisted from all government agencies and resources; his bank accounts are frozen and his credit is trashed. Michael barely escapes Nigeria and wakes up, battered, in a motel in Miami, Florida. In order to survive and fund his own personal investigation, Michael enlists the help of the only two "friends" he has: Fiona Glenanne, an ex-IRA operative who also happens to be an ex-girlfriend, and Sam Axe, a washed-out military intelligence contact who has been under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He is also forced to deal with the family he went halfway around the world to get away from—particularly his mother, Madeline Westen, who could not be happier to have her son back in town. Through former spy- turned-security consultant Lucy Chen—whom Michael helped learn the trade—he gets a lead on a small investigation job: a caretaker of an estate, Javier (David Zayas), has been accused of stealing valuable art from his employer, Graham Pyne (Ray Wise). All evidence points to it being an inside job and Javier, with very little money to offer, has nowhere else to turn. When Michael begins to dig around, he quickly discovers that it was in fact an inside job: Pyne orchestrated the robbery and framed Javier in order to collect insurance. Michael confronts Pyne with the incriminating evidence. When Pyne and his bodyguard come after Javier and his son, Michael is already a step ahead of them and has set up a trap at Javier's house. After the smoke clears, Pyne has accidentally shot his bodyguard, and Michael has enough evidence to send both of them to jail for conspiracy to commit kidnapping. With the mounting evidence hanging over his head, Pyne agrees to clear Javier's name and provide financial support to Javier and his son. Meanwhile, Michael keeps trying to get in touch with his old government handler, Dan Siebels (Dan Martin), who will not accept his calls. Deciding to get creative, Michael resorts to mailing Siebels a fake bomb in order to get his attention. The ploy works, and Michael finally gets to confront Siebels about the burn notice. Siebels believes Michael has probably been framed and there is nothing he can do to help him, but that he still has allies within the Agency. He tells Michael not to leave Miami, unless he wants a FBI manhunt after him. To top it all off, Michael returns home to find his door open and the floor covered with surveillance photos. It is not the FBI, but whoever it is, they have been tracking his every move. And they have left a message: "Welcome to Miami." ===== While the human race struggles at war with the Fallers, an advanced alien race, an artifact is discovered which might be the key to a lost science, be a weapon itself, or a doomsday device. ===== The film tells the story of Lara, who grows up as the daughter of deaf parents, Martin and Kai. Lara herself is hearing and is fluent in sign language. Even as a young child, she serves as an interpreter for her parents in many situations, such as credit negotiations at the bank as well as her own parent-teacher conference, although not always completely truthfully. Lara receives a clarinet for Christmas from Clarissa, her father's sister and an enthusiastic musician. Lara discovers the world of music, where her parents cannot follow her. In the years that follow, she is discovered to be a talented clarinet player. After Kai is killed in a bicycle accident, Lara's grieving father feels abandoned. When 18-year-old Lara wants to study at a music conservatory in Berlin, the family seems to break apart. The ending seems to reconcile it all: Martin tries to understand the love of music that his daughter feels, and the film comes to a careful reunion between him and Lara. ===== Captain Robert Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame. While icebound, the crew spots two dog sleds, one chasing the other. A few hours later, the crew rescues one of the sled drivers, a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton. Victor begins by telling of his childhood in 1793. Born into a wealthy family in Geneva, he grows up in a safe environment, surrounded by loving family and friends. Weeks before he leaves for university in Germany, his mother dies of scarlet fever. At university, he develops a secret technique to imbue inanimate bodies with life with electricity. After bringing a deceased dog back to life he decides to create a life using parts of the dead. He succeeds but is repulsed by his work: he flees the room, and the Creature disappears. Collapsing from pneumonia brought on by overwork and emotional stress, he is nursed back to health by his friend, Henry Clerval and Elizabeth. He returns home to find his brother William murdered. Certain this is the work of the Creature, Victor retreats into the mountains to find peace. The Creature finds Victor and tells him how he had become afraid of people and spent the first year of his life alone, learning to speak and read through his observation of a family whose shed he lived in. After approaching the blind grandfather, who responded to him in kindness, the Creature was physically attacked by the old man's son and ran away. Traveling to Geneva, he met a little boy — Victor's brother William — outside the town of Plainpalais. Wanting to keep the boy from yelling, the creature accidentally killed him. Even though this was accidental the creature took this as his first act of vengeance against his creator. The Creature concludes his story with a demand that Frankenstein create for him a female companion like himself promising that if Victor grants his request, he and his mate will vanish into the uninhabited wilderness of South America. Victor reluctantly agrees. Clerval tries to talk Victor out of his mission. Horrified by the idea that creating a mate for the Creature might lead to the breeding of an entire race of creatures, he abandons the project, destroying the notebook in which he had recorded the method by which he had brought the male Creature to life and then setting fire to the not-yet-living Bride. Furious, the Creature swears vengeance against Victor, promising to "be with him on his wedding night," and, shortly after, murders Clerval. Victor is imprisoned for the murder and suffers a mental breakdown. After being acquitted, and with his health renewed, he returns home with his father. Once home, Victor marries Elizabeth, but on the evening of the wedding, the Creature sneaks into the bedroom and strangles her to death. Victor's father goes mad with grief. Victor vows to hunt down and destroy the Creature. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole. After hearing Frankenstein's story, Walton relents and agrees to head for home. Frankenstein begs the captain to finish off what he could not, as the creature cannot be left alive. Close to death, he sees the ghost of his beloved wife beckoning to him, and dies shortly after. Walton soon after discovers the Creature on his ship, mourning over Frankenstein's body. Walton hears the Creature's misguided reasons for his vengeance as well as expressions of remorse. Frankenstein's death has not brought him any peace. Rather, his crimes have increased his misery and alienation; he has found only his own emotional ruin in the destruction of his creator and feels once again abandoned. He vows to kill himself on his own funeral pyre so that no others will ever know of his existence. Walton watches as the Creature, carrying his creator's body, wanders off into the icy wastes of the arctic never to be seen again. ===== ===== The film opens to Akshay (Shankar Nag), having escaped from jail, being chased by the police when accidentally runs into the house of Sudha (Vanitha Vasu), a high school classmate of his. He hides in a closet when Inspector Cowry (Avinash) knocks the door. As he hides, he finds the corpse of her husband, Rithwik Kumar (Devaraj) dumped there. The officer breaks the news to Sudha that the plane by which her husband Kumar traveled to Calcutta crashed, killing all the passengers. She appears shocked and breaks down in front of the officer. After he leaves, she reveals to Akshay that she killed her husband and confides in him. He joins her in disposing of the corpse in an abandoned well by her estate. The story goes into a flashback with Sudha narrating to Akshay the reason she killed him, shown in a series of broken sequences. Kumar, who suffers from schizophrenia is suspicious of his wife's fidelity and is unable to make love to her. He hallucinates scenes of her making love to her male friends, among who is Shashidhar, a friend who she meets often. Planning on catching them "red-handed", he plans on a fake trip to Calcutta, and returns to his house to find them talking, following the day of his departure. Mad with rage, he attacks Sudha intending to kill her, but from an accidental turn of events leading to his death, makes her believe that Shashidhar killed him. Shashidhar, in pursuit to report the matter at the police station, is hit by a police vehicle and finds himself admitted at a hospital. Cut to the present, Akshay disguising as Harish, a friend of Kumar, meets the mourners and appears to offer support to Sudha. Sudha receives phone calls from a person who demands a ransom from her husband's property that she inherits following his death, blackmailing her that he would otherwise report the matter of her killing and disposing of Kumar's corpse, to the police. The blackmailer directs her to come to a spot with an amount of 2 lakh. Pursued by the police, the blackmailer, who emerges to be Cowry, is arrested. Cowry reveals that he saw Sudha and Akshay throwing Kumar's corpse in the estate well and decided to blackmail Sudha. Following a further investigation at the crime scene, the investigating officer gets to know that the weapon used in the murder was a knife. Using this as evidence, he reveals the murderer, who then confesses to his crime. The murderer then narrates a story shown in a flashback sequence of his girlfriend Smitha (Vijayaranjini) being raped by Kumar and his friends, with Smitha committing suicide following the incident. A few days later, walking straight into Kumar's house intending to kill him to avenge Smitha's death, the murderer seizes the opportunity of the ensuing drama in the house between Kumar and Sudha and slits Kumar's throat unseen by Sudha. Cut to the present, he gets arrested along with Sudha and are being brought to jail by a police vehicle. The film ends with the murderer tackling the cops out and escaping. ===== The story opens with the kidnapping of an architect (Avinash) at night. He is taken away to a secluded location where he is tortured by unknown assailants for information regarding the structural details of a bank that he helped build. When the torture reaches excruciating levels, the architect gives in and shares the confidential details of the security alarms and safety devices in the bank. It is shown that the leader of the group called Devraj (B. C. Patil) is a terrorist and will stop at nothing to get the bank's money to further his group's operations. It is also shown that he commands a strong team of at least 20 deadly terrorists. The following morning, the scene opens at Bangalore's Manipal center, the place of the bank that Dev and his associates have planned to rob. It is a normal day, the staff slowly trickle in, and business resumes. Meanwhile, a van that enters into the building, unloads a bunch of carton boxes marked to be delivered to the bank. The boxes are then transferred slowly to the bank premises. Unknown to the security guards, the boxes contain automatic weapons and deadly explosives, which the terrorists plan to use to take control of the bank. Dev's team tactically disables all the security alarms and safety devices. Once the stage is set, they shoot the security guard, shut the front door, and take all the staff present as hostages. Dev and his assistant force the bank manager to open the safe. As they start looting the safe, another alarm, which Avinash had not revealed to them, goes off. Now, the terrorists find themselves trapped in the bank. No matter how hard they try to break out, they realize that they have painted themselves into a corner. The news spreads and an entire police force descends on Manipal Towers. The Police Commissioner Subhash (Ananth Nag) steps in and assesses the situation. He realizes that he does not command the requisite force to accomplish this task and requests the Chief Minister to dispatch an anti-terrorist squad immediately. The Chief Minister agrees immediately. Commando Ajay (Vishnuvardhan) is apprised of the situation. He has been a good friend of the Police Commissioner for a long time. He quickly assembles a team and meets with the police commissioner. Commando Ajay takes charge of the operation and learns that the terrorist Dev is the brother of another terrorist who he himself had killed a few years ago. Dev, too, learns that Ajay has been enlisted to supervise this operation and demands that he be taken off the force immediately. When he doesn't oblige, Dev kills the bank manager by throwing him out of the building. The commissioner is left with no choice but to listen to the terrorist. Soon enough, the police commissioner hatches a plot to bring back Ajay. He orders his fellow officers to bring a large number of pigeons from Shivajinagar. When the pigeons arrive, he informs Ajay of his plan, and when they start flying, Ajay replaces a lookalike commando and takes charge. Meanwhile, the hostages inside grow restless. Fearing that they will all die, they hatch their own plan and attempt a coup. It goes horribly wrong and a few of the hostages get killed. Gundanna (Ramesh Bhat) a lift mechanic, with whom Ajay is in constant touch, acts as a spy and aids Ajay in performing reconnaissance of the terrorists and their activities. In the end, Ajay infiltrates the terrorist stronghold with the help of his trusted commando (Prakash Raj) and Gundanna. Although the commando valiantly gives up his life and Gundanna is seriously injured, Ajay frees the hostages, kills Devraj, and saves the day. ===== Manoj (Shivarajkumar) is a film director, whose father is a singer and Music composer. He tells his producer (Avinash) that he plans to visit different locations for his forthcoming film. He decides to go to Karwar, which is 322 miles north west of Bangalore, in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. He then plans to stay with Praveen (Ramesh), a close friend, who lives in Yellapur, also in Uttara in order to see the location, and to shoot the location on video. Praveen says that Pramod Hegde is the best person to guide him. Next day, Manoj goes for a walk by the beautiful Satoddi Waterfalls, where he hears a girl with a beautiful voice. He films her, but when she sees him, she runs off. Then he meets a young lad, Deepu (Master Vinayak Joshi), to whom he shows the girl he has filmed in his video camera, and asks who she is. He tells her that she is his sister, Suma (Prema). Manoj is intrigued by the girl, and the sound of her voice. He gradually falls in love with her. He meets Shivram Dixit, her singing teacher, and Praveen's friend, Pramod who is to be his guide. Then Praveen introduces him to Suma ? they look at each other, with love in their eyes. There is a cry, Deepu has fallen in the well. Everyone runs to the well, and Manoj and Pramod jump in to save him. Manoj gives him artificial respiration, and everyone is relieved when he finally breathes again. Suma signals her gratitude to Manoj. They decide to go for a picnic to Yana, a place famous for two massive black, crystalline limestone rock outcrops, the Bhairaveshwara Shikhara and the smaller Mohini Shikhara. They take Suma, Praveen, Sudha (Praveen?s sister), Pramod and Maruthi (Praveen's servant). Manoj tells Suma that he loves her, and Suma begins to gradually fall in love with Manoj. Another girl, Jaji, arrives on the scene. Maruthi (to whom her father had promised her in marriage) had told her father that he had seen her out with Mahadev, whom she says she loves. Her back is bruised, where her father had beaten her because of what Maruthi had told him. Manoj tells Praveen that Suma could become a very famous singer. He says he will make a recording of her voice, and send it to his father. Praveen is delighted, and so is Suma. He also sends a video cassette of her to his mother, and later tells her that she is the girl he wants to marry. However, Praveen starts to behave differently way. Sudha, his sister realises that Praveen has loved Suma for a long time, but has never told her of his love for her, and Sudha tells him that she is going to tell Manoj but Praveen makes her promise not to tell anybody. Manoj overhears this conversation and decides to sacrifice his love for Praveen but Praveen also decides to sacrifice his love for Manoj. Who will marry Suma? ===== Each episode was set in an unsuccessful pub in London's East End. At the end of each episode, a disaster, visit from royalty, angry mob etc. destroys the pub. The pub is run by brothers, the nervous Barry and the idiotic Garry. The only regulars of the pub are Bob and Dodgy Phil. Every episode revolves around one of Dodgy Phil's plans to improve the pub, a plan which Barry always has doubts about. The doubts are often confirmed due to the pub's destruction at the end of every episode. One of the running jokes in the series is that, as the pub is next to a zoo, unusual animals are often found inside it. The plot often follows the same formula; The pub is destroyed or needs rebuilding, and Dodgy Phil produces a scheme to re-launch the pub, which Barry disputes. Dodgy Phil telephones a friend, such as 'Mock Tudor Mick' or 'Logistical Nightmare Len', who arrives immediately to rebuild the pub, together with a set of characters represented by sound effects, and often Edith Piaf. The work is then finished in a short sound effect (often to the sound of Je ne regrette rien). The plan is flawed, and the pub is destroyed or closed down at the end of each episode. ===== In a live news report, a high-speed car chase comes to an end in the Nevada desert. Assuming it to be a kidnapping, police pull the female passenger from the car and place her into the protective custody of a police vehicle. The driver, Patrick Crump (Bryan Cranston), is pushed to the asphalt and handcuffed. The woman in the police car begins violently banging her head against the car window. As the news chopper catches all of this on film, the woman's head explodes, sending a spray of blood across the window. Mulder and Scully get wind of this bizarre car chase as they're doing work in Buhl, Idaho investigating possible domestic terrorism. Mulder coerces Scully into taking a detour to Elko, Nevada on a hunch that this may be an X-File. Crump, who has started to develop symptoms of a sickness, is put in an ambulance. Mulder, wishing to speak to Crump, follows the ambulance, and ends up being kidnapped by Crump, who has escaped from the police. Mulder realizes that Crump is in a considerable amount of painful pressure and that the only way to alleviate this pressure is to drive west. At first, Scully believes that Crump is suffering from some sort of infection, but after investigating the Crumps' home, she discovers a U.S. Navy antenna array emitting ELF waves stretches beneath their property. Scully deduces that an abnormal surge in these waves somehow caused a rising pressure in the inner ear of the nearby inhabitants. Westward motion and an increase in speed seems to be the only thing to help ease the pain of the increasing pressure. Initially, thinking that the FBI agent is part of a government conspiracy, Crump forces Mulder at gunpoint to drive, infuriating him along the way with antisemitic slurs. Eventually, Mulder and Crump make amends and attempt to work out a solution before it is too late. Mulder explains to Crump that Scully will meet them at the Pacific Coast, the end of the highway. There she will insert a needle into Crump's inner ear, hopefully relieving the pressure. Unfortunately, when Scully arrives, Crump has already died. ===== ===== Wacky wannabe swordsmen Chong and Ling accidentally acquire the mysterious "Longevity Martial Arts", which is rumoured to be the key to a huge treasure. The target of numerous people who covet the treasure, the two friends adventure through China despite the danger. In their journey, Ling meets two girls from two opposing sects, while Chong falls for the sister of the future emperor of China. With their extraordinary experiences, will the two become heroes amidst the historical turbulence? ===== The game centers on an astronaut, who newly arrived to Moon Base One. The playable character is a male referred to by his title: "Miner". The period wherein the story is set is a hypothetical 2030 future in which mining robots, settlements and advanced vehicles are on the Moon. The current version of the game allows the player to compete in two adventures aimed at mining the lunar Regolith to find minerals, build additional mining robots, and complete adventures for other characters. ===== The story is set in Europe between April 1938 and July 1939, a time of ever-increasing fear and apprehension throughout the continent. Nicholas Morath is an expatriate Hungarian in his forties and the co-owner of an advertising agency in Paris. His uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, is a high-level functionary at the Hungarian embassy in France. Morath is in fact an amateur spy, sent on one dangerous mission after another at his uncle's behest (laundering money through the Antwerp diamond industry, or spending a week in a Romanian jail, for example). Polanyi tells his nephew little about the reasons for or the results of these excursions, and friction often rises between the two men. But after Polanyi disappears mysteriously, Morath continues his perilous work alone. ===== In one part of the video, the geek's parents get into an argument over the father creating a MySpace online profile for himself. The mother intends to, in turn, create one for herself, after becoming infatuated with Paisley after seeing him performing the song. "And he can sing!", she says to the father. "I can't sing?" the father inquires. "No!" she snaps back. The father then acts hurt, a tongue-in-cheek reference to William Shatner's own long-mocked music career. Later on, during the final scene of the music video, the mother tells Paisley "marching band music makes me...hot", to which Paisley stares at the camera in horror. ===== The serial is based on a girl named Simran, an orphan who has been brought up by her aunt and uncle. They are everything to her, therefore she believes that whatever they choose for her will be for the best. When Simran goes for an arranged marriage, she marries Ruhaan, who belongs to one of the wealthiest families in the city. However, on the day of her marriage, Ruhaan reveals that he loves someone else. This brings Simran at a crossroads where she can't go back to her house because her uncle is a cardiac patient, nor she can move forward with what Ruhaan told her. Like a traditional Indian woman, Simran decides to abide by her responsibilities as a wife, daughter and daughter-in-law of Ruhaan's prestigious Oberoi family. She decides to fight against the shadow of her husband's past and get her husband back. When Ruhaan and Simran go to Goa for their honeymoon, he learns that the girl he loves is married to someone else. Now, he tries to change and starts having feelings for Simran. After a few very predictable misunderstandings, Simran and Ruhaan are reunited. Suhana, Ruhaan's former love, returns and tries to win him back. She conspires against Simran to make Ruhaan's family hate her but after a while, her plans are exposed. Suhana, in a fit of rage, shoots at Simran and Ruhaan, who stumbles off a cliff. Unfortunately, Simran dies but Ruhaan is saved by a girl named Sargam (the new protagonist), who takes him to her home. However, Ruhaan has lost his memory and does not remember anything about Simran or his past. Ruhaan starts living with this new family. Sargam will marry Vedant, her childhood friend, but begins to grow feelings for Ruhaan and eventually marries the latter. He, however, tells Sargam that until he regains his memory, he will not consummate their marriage. One day, Ruhaan finally remembers everything when he sees his father Naresh. Eventually, Ruhaan returns to Oberoi house with Naresh and Sargam, but remains haunted and tormented by memories of Simran. ===== Novelist and playwright James Barrie (Ian Holm) meets the two oldest Davies boys, George and Jack, during outings with their nurse Mary Hodgson (Anna Cropper) in Kensington Gardens. He entertains them, especially George, with his fantasy stories, some of which include a magical young boy who shares a name with their infant brother Peter. Barrie and his wife Mary (Maureen O'Brien) meet the boys' parents Sylvia (Ann Bell) and Arthur (Tim Pigott- Smith) at a dinner party, and he forms a friendship with the mother and her sons. The Barries and Davies socialize, but Mary and Arthur each quietly resent Barrie: Mary for neglecting her, and Arthur for imposing upon his family. Sylvia and Arthur have two more sons, Michael and Nico, whom Barrie adds to his circle of young friends. He writes a play inspired by them: Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which is a great success for him and his producer friend Charles Frohman (William Hootkins). Arthur is struck by a disfiguring and ultimately fatal cancer. Barrie steps in to support the Davies family, attempting to be a friend to Arthur in his final days but alienating Jack with his interference. With George away at school, sensitive Michael becomes the centre of 'Uncle Jim's' attention. Tired of her husband's indifference toward her, Mary falls in love and has an affair with Barrie's young colleague Gilbert Cannan (Brian Stirner). When Barrie finds out, Mary refuses to end the affair, and he reluctantly grants her a divorce. Meanwhile, Sylvia has fallen ill with cancer, and dies a few years after her husband. Barrie claims they were engaged. The boys continue to live in the Davies's London house with Mary Hodgson, and Barrie becomes their guardian, following Sylvia's wishes. As the years go by, George becomes an adult confidant to Barrie, while Jack joins the Navy. When World War I breaks out, George and Peter enlist. George is later killed in combat. Jack returns to London to marry. Barrie gives the newlywed the Davies's house, and Michael and Nico move in with him in his flat which prompts Mary Hodgson to resign. Peter returns from the War with a morbid outlook on death. Michael spends increasing time with his school friends and chafes at Barries's desire to keep him close; he drowns short of his 21st birthday. In later years, Barrie suffers loneliness but takes some measure of enjoyment in the company of the young son of his secretary, Lady Cynthia Asquith (Sheila Ruskin). ===== Sonic Disruptors depicted a futuristic America ruled by a theocratic military dictatorship, where the only source of resistance is a pirate radio station broadcasting from orbit. ===== The story revolves around the young and talented natural gifted Torero Juan Gallardo (Christopher Rydell). Juan wants to be popular in bullfighting. One night, Juan takes the cousin of his love Carmen (Ana Torrent) with him for a bullfighting competition. They successfully earn some level and skills in the arena, but something goes wrong. As the bull charges at Juan, his friend saves Gallardo at the cost of his own life. Juan then leaves, and meets a beautiful rich woman named Doña Sol (Sharon Stone), the daughter of a wealthy landowner. Lady Doña Sol offers Juan an opportunity to join her company as a worker of her fields and lands, but Juan insists on becoming a superstar as a bullfighter in his country. As Juan leaves her home, a security guard tells him to join the bullfighting trainer Nacional (Albert Vidal). Nacional trains Juan until he is able to join the national bullfighting competition. Another one of Juan's friends named Garabato (Guillermo Montesinos) also joins him. Juan displays brilliant skills in his first appearance of national league and his popularity rises. Juan then marries Carmen, and his popularity increases weeks after weeks. Juan soon develops a crush on Lady Doña Sol, which starts a dramatic twist in the movie. As time passes, Juan falls deeply in love with Lady Doña Sol and offers to marry her, but Lady Doña Sol isn't interested in marrying him. Carmen finally visits Lady Doña Sol to talk about Juan, but instead, Lady Doña Sol shows where Juan is hiding. That night, Juan goes to a midnight bar. Against the advice of Nacional, Juan gets drunk and hangs out with some bar girls. Nacional advises Juan to focus on the competition for the next day. In response, Juan kicks Nacional and asks him to leave; an angry Nacional complies and storms out of the bar. Juan and Lady Doña Sol go to a popular city hotel, where Juan's rival, Pepe Serrano, is present. Juan angrily punches Serrano after he tries to make a move on Lady Doña Sol, but Serrano takes her anyway. The next day, Juan drunkenly goes to the office of his manager Don Jose, accompanied by two girls. Nacional admonishes Juan again, and in response, Juan slaps him hard; Nacional gives up on teaching Juan. To make amends for cheating on Carmen, Juan calls Carmen and apologizes, but Carmen does not forgive him. The next day, the bullfight commences; Juan begins failing to control the bull. At the same time, Carmen and Juan's mother pray for him, while Juan's brother-in-law Antonio advises Carmen to go help Juan and forgive him. As Carmen enters the stands, Nacional sees her and runs to Juan, telling him that Carmen has come to watch him. Before Juan begins the competition, he throws his cap to Carmen as an apology. Juan gives an outstanding performance, but in the final move, where he is about to kill the bull with his sword, the bull suddenly charges towards Juan, goring him in the stomach. The bull then throws him to the ground several times. Paramedics arrive and immediately take Juan to the emergency trauma room. Concerned for Juan, Carmen and Nacional follow them; Juan dies from the trauma and blood loss, and Carmen and Nacional walk away weeping. Back in the arena, Serrano defeats the bull, winning the competition, and he is escorted out of the arena. ===== Ten years prior to the story's beginning, Kurohime brought an end to a massive war fought to own and rebuild the Tower of the Gods, which once completed would allow the builder to become a god themselves. Upon completion, Kurohime destroyed the tower and entered the realm of the gods to slaughter them, as they were the ones who started the war in the first place. Through a combination of deception and brutality, the gods captured her and then split Kurohime into two beings, one representing her rage, and the other representing her compassion. The being representing her rage, in a form of a small girl named 'Himeko', seeks to regain her body and powers, and attempt to take down the gods again; however the curse can only be undone with love. Throughout the course of the manga, Kurohime is able to regain her ability to love through her relationship with Zero, causing her to evolve into different incarnations throughout the various story arcs. ===== Parasuram (Raja) is a self-employed youth with a difference. He does justice to the wrongdoers by charging SET (Self Employment Tax). Neelakanta (Upendra) is an anti-social element who is very fond of his blind sister Naina (Priyamani). They share a dark past. Nayak (Suman), the local police chief, appoints Parasuram as undercover cop to recover 10 crore stolen by Neelakanta. Parasuram gets hold of Naina and makes her fall in love with him. The rest of the story is about the conflict between Parasuram and Neelakanta. ===== Con man "Candy" Johnson (Clark Gable) and his friend "Sniper" (Chill Wills) flee town using quick wits and magic tricks. They catch a train to Yellow Creek, Nevada, where a gold rush is in progress. Aboard, he meets Elizabeth Cotton (Lana Turner); she takes an instant dislike to him. When they arrive, Candy is amused to discover she is the daughter of "Judge" Cotton (Frank Morgan), an old acquaintance of his. Elizabeth is unaware of her father's crooked past and present. Later that night, Candy, Sniper and the judge go to the local saloon. There, Candy finds another old friend of his, "Gold Dust" Nelson (Claire Trevor). She points out to him the owner (and sheriff), Brazos Hearn (Albert Dekker). When a gambler claims that the saloon is crooked, Candy takes his side. He forces Brazos into a game of Russian Roulette with him. The sheriff gives up after the fourth round and gives Candy $5000 to end the contest. Candy later reveals to Sniper and the judge that he had palmed the bullet; the gun was unloaded. When Candy brings the judge home, Elizabeth berates him for getting her father drunk and being a bad influence. Candy overhears a hotel guest, Mrs. Varner (Marjorie Main), the widow of a preacher, say there is no church in the town. Candy gives her $1,500 to build one. Before leaving, Candy manages to kiss Elizabeth three times before being slapped. Mrs. Varner asks her why she did not stop him at the second. Candy opens a rival saloon and gambling den, which becomes more popular than Brazos'. Gold Dust becomes jealous of Elizabeth and tells her not to expect a wedding ring. Undiscouraged, Elizabeth gets Candy to marry her by first getting him drunk. When Candy tells his new father-in-law, Cotton confesses to Elizabeth that he and Candy are both cheap crooks, and there is no hope of reforming either one. Elizabeth refuses to give up hope. That night, she locks Candy out of her bedroom in order for them to have a "proper courtship", infuriating him. He breaks down the door only to tell her "goodnight" and then storms off to have a "private" dinner with Gold Dust. Elizabeth shows up and makes up with Candy. The next morning, she persuades him to leave his guns at home. Brazos, seeing he is unarmed, sends one of his men to shoot him. Candy turns out to have a concealed weapon, and kills the man. Brazos tries to call it murder, but the townspeople disagree. When Candy learns that Brazos had appointed himself sheriff, he gets himself elected as his replacement. He soon controls the town and amasses a huge fortune through various underhanded means. Even Brazos joins him. When Elizabeth announces that she is pregnant, Candy is overjoyed. Upon hearing the news, the judge asks Elizabeth how Candy acquired the wealth to build her a mansion. When she replies that she doesn't care about Candy's method, only the results, Cotton tells her that she did not change Candy, he changed her. Candy's men pressure him to dispose of the judge, who is telling the townsfolk all he knows about Candy's setup. To save Cotton's life, Candy puts him on a train out of town, but the judge returns and is shot in the back by Brazos during a town meeting. When she hears of her father's death, Elizabeth falls from her carriage, losing the baby and nearly her own life. Following her life-saving operation, a distraught Candy decides to leave Elizabeth, as he is no good for her. Before he can, Candy learns of an armed confrontation between the townspeople and his men barricaded in city hall. Candy goes inside. He shoots it out with Brazos, who has taken over, and kills him. Then he lies to the crooks, telling them the governor has dispatched the militia to attack them (when in actuality, the corrupt governor offered Candy the militia to put down the rebellious townspeople). The crooks all flee. Candy and Sniper brazen their way out of town and end up at a hotel in Cheyenne. Sniper sends Elizabeth a telegram telling her where they are. She follows and is reunited with her husband. ===== In 20th century Mexico, newly wed couple Felipe (Mauricio Garcés) and Margarita (Luz María Aguilar) are visited by Margarita's father, Don Gerardo Montes (Carlos López Moctezuma), who tells them the story of La Llorona. In 16th century Mexico, an Indian and Spanish woman named Luisa is visited by an upper class Spanish conquistador named Don Nuño de Montesclaros (Eduardo Farjado). She falls in love with the man so much so that she leaves her life to start anew with Don Nuño. Don Nuño and Luisia have a boy and girl. However, Don Nuño leaves, as he must go on missions. Days later she is visited by one of Nuño's fellow conquistadors. He tells her that Don Nuño will not return home for a long time due to his duties. Suspicious, she follows the conquistador and comes to a palace where she finds Don Nuño. He explains that he will marry a new woman since Luisa is not fully Spanish. Enraged and heartbroken, she curses Don Nuño and his descendants that all his bloodline's firstborn will be murdered violently. When she returns home, she stabs her own children to death. The entire town finds out and Luisa is sentenced to death. Gerardo finishes the story and says that Margarita's brother was murdered violently when he was four because he was a firstborn. Felipe passes the story off as just a folktale but the house is then visited by a woman in a black cloak who is taking up the job of a nanny for Felipe and Margarita's newborn baby. Luisa (under the alias "Carmen Asiul") is accepted but secretly plans on murdering the baby. She tries killing the baby many times but is unsuccessful with each attempt. Gerardo is suspicious of the new nanny since he feels he has seen her before but cannot make out where. One night Felipe and Margarita decide to go out, leaving only Luisa and Gerardo home. Luisa is prepared to kill the baby using the very dagger with which she killed her own children. Gerardo realizes that it is Luisa and rushes to the baby's bedroom. Luisa is somehow pulled back and as Gerardo opens the door, he finds that Luisa has vanished and the dagger is impaled on the ground. With the baby safe, the parents home, and Luisa's ghost gone, Gerardo burns the dagger and the drawing of Luisa in a fire. He realizes that the curse under which his family had suffered for years is finally gone. ===== Anuradha Roy (Leela Naidu), a noted radio singer, dancer and daughter of a rich man, falls in love with an idealistic doctor, Dr. Nirmal Chowdhary (Balraj Sahni). She decides to marry him against her father's will. Nirmal, whose mother died of illness, has decided to serve the poor in the distant village of Nandagaon. He asks Anuradha to not follow the hardships his life has, but to live the life her father plans. But she still insists to follow her love. She rejects the wedding proposal set by her father with the London-returned Deepak (Abhi Bhattacharya). Deepak wishes her well, and promises to help her in future if she ever needs any. After the marriage and a daughter, Anuradha realizes the gravity of the choice of living in a village. Taking care of the family, doing all household chores, she quits singing, the singing that once was her life. One day, after many years, her father visits her family and reconciles. Seeing her poor condition, he then asks them to come and stay in the city with him. But, due to his patients, Nirmal rejects the offer and promises to move after some time. Deepak, while travelling with his girlfriend meets with a car accident and is hence rushed to Dr. Nirmal. Nirmal does successful plastic surgery on his girlfriend. Deepak gets to stay with Anuradha for a few days and realizes her hardships. He requests her to leave Nirmal and move to the city and pursue her passion for music. It is then that she has to decide between her love for her husband and music. The clinching moment is when Dr. Nirmal concedes to her desire to leave him and restart her life in the city. At this point she asks him: "Can't you ask him to go away? And never come back again?", indicating that she has no plans to leave him (her husband). ===== Anand (Dev Anand) is a spoiled grandson of rich businessman Rai Bahadur (played by Nazir Hussain). His grandfather wants him to marry Rekha (Indira), only daughter and heiress of a rich man, in spite of Anand's disinterest for her. In the ensuring fight, Anand leaves his house to prove his worthiness and ends up in the streets of Bombay (present day Mumbai). There, Mohan (Anwar Hussain) meets Anand and takes Anand to his house in a poor neighborhood. Anand settles himself there temporarily and tries to find work. He meets a beautiful, educated young woman Renu (Sadhana Shivdasani) and gets impressed with her. She helps him to find a job, but he soon loses it due to his incompetence. Renu works in a small company, but tells her mother (Leela Chitnis) that she is attending college. She lies to her mother that her father is sending them money. When Anand asks, she explains that she is hiding the fact that her father is dead as her mother can't tolerate that news. Anand further impresses her and asks Renu to marry him and she happily agrees. But Rai Bahadur comes to know about Anand's whereabouts and meets him. He demands that Anand should forget Renu and marry Rekha, to which Anand disagrees. Rai Bahadur blackmails Renu that he would tell her mother about his father's death if she wouldn't marry a different person. Having no other way, she agrees and tells Anand to forget her. Renu's mother overhears this conversation and understands that her husband is no more. She accepts her fate and tells Renu that she should marry according to her own wishes. Renu and Anand marry and at the end, Rai Bahadur accepts Renu and transfers all his property to her name. ===== A Grinch- like thief retreats to her hometown in Connecticut after a con goes bad and gets stuck baby-sitting her niece and nephew until their parents can make it home for Christmas. She spends most of her time devising ways to even the score with Clive, her partner in crime, until the spirit of the holidays can help put her priorities back on track. ===== The film is set in a small town, where an Egyptian cat god manifests in the form of a cheap statue. He turns cats into human women, and directs them to procreate with and thereafter kill human men, and take over the world. Ralph, a bumbling hitchhiker, and Warren, a "cat exterminator", join forces against the cats, but Ralph inadvertently falls for Cleo, one of the cats turned into human form. ===== The film revolves around the lonely Wally, a Trojan skinhead whose only friend is his beloved Dalmatian Neechee. One day while walking her, Wally accidentally becomes involved with a strange deal gone bad when he bumps into a fleeing stranger being chased by a group of mob thugs. When he gets tangled up in Neechee's leash and frantically kicks the dog, Wally proceeds to beat him up and gets arrested by passing police officers. The dealer gets away and Wally spends a night in jail. Upon being released, he learns that his dog has been kidnapped by the mob thugs, who are convinced Wally's holding the drugs that have been taken from them. Although he quickly proves that he's innocent, the mob's still not letting him off that easily: either he'll have to do some work for them, or both he and the dog are dead. Reluctantly, Wally agrees to run some illegal errands. When the errands are a bust and he's almost arrested, Wally flees and the mob puts a hit on both him and Neechee (who has managed to escape from the criminals' hideout). Enlisting the help of a young veterinarian, Wally attains an arsenal of firearms and is ready to exact his revenge on the ruthless kingpins. All he wants is his dog back. ===== The film's plot combines several elements from these original films. Starrbooty (RuPaul) is in the middle of a major karate fight when she receives a phone call informing her that her adopted niece Cornisha has been kidnapped. With the help of fellow crime fighter Agent Page Turner, Starrbooty learns that her nemesis Annaka Manners is using her billion-dollar cosmetics company as a front for kidnapping prostitutes and selling their organs on the black market. Starrbooty also discovers that Annaka is actually her long-lost sister, making Cornisha Annaka's daughter. Page and Starrbooty go undercover as prostitutes (as Pepper and Cupcake, respectively) and in order to be convincing enough to infiltrate Annaka's inner sanctum, they go "all the way" (this includes numerous sex scenes with explicit male nudity, generally designed for laughs). When Starrbooty finally confronts Annaka she discovers that Cornisha was in on the plot all along, and has become Annaka's lover. Informing them that they are actually mother and daughter, Starrbooty reveals Annaka's plans to double- cross Cornisha by selling her clitoris to a wealthy socialite (in one of the more memorable jokes, Annaka is also planning to sell Starrbooty's long legs to a "famous female rapper," quipping, "I guess they won't call her 'Lil' anymore!"). A final showdown between Starrbooty and Annaka leaves Annaka dead, and they are able to salvage Cornisha's genitals by taking Annaka's (a perfect biological match). Thus everyone who deserves to lives happily ever after. ===== After three thieves steal an armored truck and kidnap a witness, the abandoned building they use to transfer the cash to another vehicle happens to be the home of Moe, a penniless saxophone player, who is being visited by his small-time criminal brother Jack. While good-natured Moe only wants to save the hostage, Jack wants to steal some of the money in the truck for himself. Meanwhile, two of the thieves plan to betray the third, not knowing that he too has a plan of his own. ===== The series is set in the late 19th century, as well as the early 20th century, in the American West. There the coyote leaders of a local United States Army fort, one Colonel Kit Coyote (voiced by Kenny Delmar impersonating Theodore Roosevelt) whose name is an obvious parody of Kit Carson, and his right-hand man Sergeant Okey Homa (voiced by Sandy Becker impersonating John Wayne) who is rarely called by his name, which is a send-up of the State of Oklahoma. They make attempts to secure the town of Gopher Gulch by wiping out the last two surviving Gopher Indians (depicted as anthropomorphic gophers): Running Board (voiced by George S. Irving) and Ruffled Feather (also voiced by Sandy Becker). However, the Gophers prove to be very clever and always manage to foil the plans of Colonel Coyote and Sergeant Oakey Homa. Whenever they came up with an idea to stop their adversaries, Ruffled Feather would break into gibberish as he tried to explain it and Running Board would understand, ask about some detail of the plan, then laugh and say "Whoopee doopee! We have fun!". They are also aided by Colonel Coyote's own incompetence and ineptitude and also by his constantly ignoring the advice of Sergeant Homa, who is much more perceptive. In one episode, they actually mention that they need Colonel Coyote to stay in charge so that they can continue living in Gopher Gulch, worrying that any other replacement will prove to be impossible to deal with and might succeed in his mission to remove them. Another common statement is done when the Sergeant says: "Begging the Colonel's pardon", and also a common statement take place when the Colonel, who ignores the Sergeant reads his book of army regulations, and pays the price for it. Most episodes end with the Sergeant telling the audience at home "don't miss our next adventure", often saying that their plight will be solved by then. Some episodes feature General Nuisance (voiced by George S. Irving) who is the commanding officer of the Colonel and Sergeant. General Nuisance would have the Colonel and Sergeant use the plans provided by Washington D.C. to deal with the Gopher Indians. These plans would often be thwarted by the Gopher Indians which often ends with General Nuisance having the Colonel and the Sergeant thrown in the guard house. Some episodes also featured Corporal Crimp (voiced by Sandy Becker) who would sometimes try to strike a deal with the gophers for his own personal gain, such as buying water from the gophers (which the gophers spiked with Indian Hiccup Drops) for his root beer. Some episodes would be multi-part stories. For example, in the episode "The Raw Recruits", the Colonel enlists Ruffled Feather and Running Board into the army. But despite his best efforts, the gophers turn out to be impossible to train. This story continues through the episodes "Tenshun", "Cuckoo Combat" and wraps up in the episode "Kitchen Capers", in which the Colonel, finally tired of their antics, discharges the gophers from the army. ===== While Bugs is sitting in Central Park, he looks through the wanted ads, finally focusing on a job as a Hurdy-Gurdy (actually, a street organ), thinking at first of 'the masters - Beethoven, Brahms, Bach' (pronounced by Bugs as 'Beat-hoven,' 'Brammz,' and 'Batch'), but soon, while playing "Artist's Life" on the organ, is thinking of all the money his monkey assistant was able to get from the various apartments he visited. When the monkey tries to stiff Bugs, Bugs chases him off ("Ya' can't trust no one!", he sneers), suddenly thinking he can do the same job as the monkey - but quickly finds out that people willing to give a monkey money aren't willing to give Bugs anything (except a bucket of water on the head). The monkey runs to the zoo, where he tells a gorilla about what happened (the only intelligible words being Bugs' line "What's up doc? What's up doc? What's up doc?"). The monkey dramatizes being kicked by Bugs, which sends the gorilla in a frenzy. The gorilla breaks out of his cage and confronts Bugs. Bugs tells the gorilla that he's working, but the gorilla threatens him by punching a hole in the wall. Bugs is able to outwit the gorilla by asking the gorilla if he can inflate himself with his finger, causing the gorilla to literally inflate and float away from the ledge. Bugs tells the gorilla that what he's doing is too immature: "You're a big boy now. Take your finger out of your mouth!". The gorilla obliges, but falls many stories down from the apartment building. At one point, the gorilla gets tricked into unsuccessfully attempting to bounce off, only to crash into, the shaded entryway, falling through the basement and comes up an elevator, holding a newspaper and with his arm through a subway window. Bugs, acting as a conductor, orders the gorilla to "push in, plenty of room in the center of the car!", pausing to tell the audience "I used to work on the shuttle from Times Square to Grand Central", before pushing the gorilla back underground again where the train crashes into the gorilla off screen. Then, aping Ralph Edwards' famous declaration on Truth or Consequences, he says to the audience: "Ain't I a devil??". Bugs then encounters the infuriated gorilla again ("Oh, back again, eh? Well, if you can't take a hint, I'll have to get tough. And another thing...STOP BREATHING IN MY CUP! I'll bet this kid won't take much more of this guff.") A chase then ensues, and Bugs tries getting away from the gorilla on the outside of the building by climbing up and down a ladder while the gorilla keeps pulling the ladder in the opposite direction (once using the Groucho Marx line: "I've seen you before, I never forget a face. But in your case, I'll make an exception."). Bugs eventually makes his way into one of the apartments, literally assembling a brick wall into a window to trap the gorilla and put an exploding cigar into the gorilla's mouth. After the exploding cigar explodes, the gorilla breaks out of the brick wall, then Bugs puts in a door where both the window and brick wall were, and tells the gorilla "There he goes, Doc! Out that Door!", thus tricking the gorilla into falling again. However, he's soon cornered by the gorilla, who is all bandaged up and then chases him into a back room. Bugs spots a violin, and noting that "they say music calms the savage beast", he starts playing "Artist's Life" on the violin (about as well as Jack Benny might sound), which causes the gorilla not only to calm down, but to start dancing around. That gives Bugs an idea. Moments later, as the monkey from earlier cranks the musical organ, the gorilla visits the apartments, raining piles of cash down on Bugs. Bugs counts all the money coming, noting to the audience: "I sure hope Petrillo doesn't hear about this!" (a then-topical gag referencing the president of the American Federation of Musicians, which was on strike in 1948 when the short was copyrighted). ===== The king's daughter is sick while the kingdom is occupied by monsters. The king needs the player, who happens to be the offspring of the great warrior Mars, to investigate the cause of these incidents. The dark forces seek to conquer the world and the player must prevent it. ===== A son is born to a young couple in pre-war Italy. The father, motivated by jealousy, takes the baby into the desert to be abandoned, at which point the film's setting changes to the ancient world. The child is rescued, named Oedipus by King Polybus (Ahmed Belhachmi) and Queen Merope (Alida Valli) of Corinth and raised as their own son. When Oedipus (Franco Citti) learns of a prophecy foretelling that he will kill his father and marry his mother, he leaves Corinth believing that Polybus and Merope are his true parents. On the road to Thebes, Oedipus meets Laius (Luciano Bartoli), his biological father, and kills him after an argument. Later Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx. For freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx's curse he is rewarded with kingship and marriage to Queen Jocasta (Silvana Mangano), who is his biological mother. When they discover what they have done, fulfilling the prophecy, Oedipus blinds himself and Jocasta commits suicide. ===== The film begins in 1906 at the Baltimore Waterfront, where 11-year-old George Herman Ruth Jr. is taken away by Brother Matthias from George's abusive father to St. Mary's. When George is 18, his incredible baseball talent gets him hired to play for the Baltimore Orioles, and during the interview, he gets his "Babe" nickname. Babe becomes a successful baseball player and is soon sold off to play for the Boston Red Sox. After a bad game, Babe wonders what went wrong at a bar, until he is told by Claire Hogsdon that when he pitches he sticks out his tongue. He continues his success, landing a new $100,000 contract. He finds Claire, but she gives him the cold shoulder. During one game, Denny, a sick paralyzed child, and his father watch Babe Ruth play. When Babe says "Hiya, kid" to the boy, the child is miraculously cured and stands up. Babe soon becomes a player for the New York Yankees. During one game, he accidentally hurts a dog and decides to take the dog and the dog's young owner to the hospital. After Babe argues with the doctors that a dog is the same as a human, the dog is treated, but because Babe left a game to do this, he gets suspended from the Yankees. A depressed Babe Ruth finds himself at a bar, and amidst the crowd giving off negative vibes, he starts a fight and gets arrested. Soon, he decides to play Santa Claus at a Children's Hospital, where he runs into Claire again, visiting her nephew. She tells him that his actions affect the children of America, and Babe decides to keep that in mind. Miller Huggins, the same man who suspended Babe, fights to bring him back to the Yankees as the team has had a bad season. Babe is soon brought back, and the team wins the World Series thanks to him. With this, he and Claire get married. Soon after, Huggins dies from pyaemia. During Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe gets a call from the father of a dying child and promises the father that when he goes up to bat, he will call the third shot and the ball will land at a certain spot; all of this will be for the boy. During the game, Babe does exactly that, and the boy hears the news and starts to get better. Babe retires from the Yankees at the age of 41, and takes a management position with the Boston Braves, even though they want him to play in the games despite his age. During one game, Babe gets stressed out and can't continue playing, and retires from baseball after that game. Sadly, this means he goes off contract by retiring during his time with the Braves and is fired from anything related to baseball. Later, Babe complains of neck pain and soon learns that he is dying of throat cancer. The news of this leads fans to send letters telling Babe that they care. The doctors decide to try a treatment on Babe with a chance that he'll survive. As Babe is taken to surgery, the narrator gives words of encouragement to baseball fans, crediting Babe Ruth for America's love of the sport. ===== Quimby Falls, much like many American small towns, loves football with passion. When the Buzzard team owner moves the team to another town, a few die-hard fans formulate a drastic plan to bring the team back home again. ===== Bret starts suffering body image issues after Murray accuses him of being small during a photo session. He then gets visited in a dream by a Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie (performed by Jemaine, whose resemblance is acknowledged by Bret) telling him not to worry about his body image and advising him to get an eyepatch. Murray announces that he has arranged a meeting with a company who are interested in using one of the band's songs in a musical greeting card. Jemaine visits Mel and asks her to cheer Bret up complimenting him next time she sees him. Later Jemaine tries to cheer Bret up himself by singing him a song he has written, "Bret, You've Got It Going On". After Bowie's eyepatch suggestion causes accidents, Bret is visited again in a dream, this time by Bowie dressed as he appears in the "Ashes to Ashes" music video. Bowie advises him to do something "absolutely outrageous" when the "time is right". The next day they see Mel on the street who compliments Bret profusely at the expense of Jemaine who now starts to doubt his own body image. At the greeting card meeting the owner, David Armstrong (played by John Hodgman), tries to explain the workings of the audio card to technically challenged Murray, Jemaine and Bret. When Armstrong says that he feels that the band are not really interested in the opportunity, Bret sees it as the cue to do something outrageous. He leaps onto the manager's desk and exposes himself, featuring "lightning bolts down his wanger." On the bus ride home, Murray and Jemaine express their disappointment with Bret for ruining the business opportunity and Murray becomes depressed that his management skills were not good enough to prevent the incident or spin it well. That night Bret gets visited again. This time it is Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King from the movie Labyrinth. A disappointed Bowie tells Bret that he is out of advice and has lost confidence in his ability to help people. The scene ends with a song and music video, "Bowie", that mimics various performance styles and roles from David Bowie's career. Later, Bret drinks a cup of coffee with Jemaine and Dave (Arj Barker) outside of Dave's pawn shop, where he concludes that if even David Bowie sometimes loses self-confidence, then he should not have to be so insecure about his body image. Murray arrives and tells them that despite the disastrous meeting, the greeting card company decided to produce the card anyway, but because the chosen design is "Happy 80th Birthday, Son" very few cards are made and the band ends up earning only 50¢. ===== Mark Christopher (Powell) is a successful thirty-five-year-old Hollywood screenwriter who has suffered from partial writer's block since winning an Academy Award and has been unable to produce a decent script. One Christmas Eve, he receives an unexpected and very unwanted surprise present. Vice Squad Sergeant Sam Hanlon (Herb Vigran) brings seventeen-year-old Susan Landis (Reynolds) to Mark's luxurious apartment. Susan had been abandoned by her mother and was arrested for vagrancy and hitting a sailor over the head with a beer bottle. Not wanting to keep her in jail over the holidays and aware that Mark was interested in writing a script about juvenile delinquency, the kindhearted cop decides to bend the rules (much to the disapproval of his partner). Hanlon suggests that Susan stay with Mark until her arraignment the day after Christmas. Mark is naturally appalled, but is eventually persuaded to take the girl in. This doesn't go over too well with his long-time fiancée, Isabella Alexander (Anne Francis), the demanding daughter of a U.S. Senator. Isabella's jealousy grows when Susan develops a crush on Mark. Mark's secretary Maude Snodgrass (Glenda Farrell), his best friend Virgil (Alvy Moore), and his lawyer Harvey Butterworth (Les Tremayne) do their best to keep the situation under control. When Harvey lets slip that Susan will likely stay in a juvenile detention facility till she is 18, Mark impulsively takes her to Las Vegas and marries her. The marriage, he explains to his friends, will last for just long enough to convince the judge that Susan has made good. To avoid consummating the marriage, he takes Susan out dancing till she collapses with fatigue, and brings her back to Hollywood. Mark then slips away to a cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains to work on his script with Maude. The marriage is reported in the newspapers. Enraged Isabella confronts Susan, but is hauled away by Hanlon and his partner. Some weeks later, Isabella finds Mark in the cabin. She has calmed down, but Mark says he thinks they are not really suited to each other. Susan also arrives, determined to win Mark to a real marriage. She is encouraged and supported by Maude, who still regrets leaving her childhood love behind for an attempted acting career in Hollywood. Susan refuses to sign the annulment papers, while Mark still will not consummate the marriage. When Susan is seen eating strawberries and pickles, Mark's friend assumes that she is pregnant and tells Mark, causing him to misunderstand that Virgil had impregnated Susan while he's gone. Mark returns to his apartment and hits Virgil in the face before leaving again, later returning after a trip to Harvey's psychiatrist. Susan eventually confesses to Mark that she ate strawberries and pickles because she just likes that combination. Mark has his own confession: he is in love with Susan but is worried by their age difference. Susan tells him all the reasons that they should stay married, and Mark keeps pointing out about their age difference as they go to the bedroom. ===== A sidewalk fruit vendor, Sinjay (Aziz Ansari), refuses Bret and Jemaine service due to the fact that they are New Zealanders. He disinfects the fruit they touch, and they leave empty handed. They visit the consulate for a band meeting, where Bret is clearly upset about the incident. There they meet Jessica (Joan Hess), the pretty blonde tech support lady who is upgrading the consulate's computers from aging Commodore VIC-20s to newer IBM PCs. After she leaves, Murray tells the band that he is in love with her. Bret asks Murray about his wife, Shelley, and Murray reminds them that they are separated. Bret receives a package from home -- his favorite cardboard box -- and Murray lends them a tape of New Zealand TV shows that he received from his mother. At their apartment, the pair discuss the incident while they watch some of the recorded shows on Murray's tape. One of the shows is episode six of a children's program called "Albi The Racist Dragon". Bret, still upset about the vendor's attitude, watches from the comfort of his cardboard box. At Mohumbhai & Son, Bret and Jemaine consult Dave about the racism they experienced. Dave informs them of the great amount of "prejudism" against the English that exists in America. Ignoring their insistence that they are not English, Dave admits that even he hates them sometimes. A montage of scenes follow in which we see Jemaine and Bret being jostled on the street, being denied entry to a nightclub, getting cheated by a hot dog vendor, and being forced to ride at the back of a bus. They try once more to buy fruit from Sinjay but are chased off again. The frustrated pair ride off on their bicycles singing "Mutha Uckas". At another band meeting, Murray fakes a computer problem in order to see Jessica again. He asks the band to help him with a love song he is writing for her (so far he has written one word -- "Hi" -- which Jemaine admits is better than he expected). Back at their place, Bret, Jemaine and Dave try to come up with ideas for dealing with Sinjay. Dave suggests that they frame him for murder by poisoning his fruit, but settles for merely teaching Bret and Jemaine how to "flip the bird". After Sinjay escalates the conflict by nailing a kiwi fruit to their door, the boys storm to his fruit stand to confront him. They furiously flip him the bird and chastise him for his racism. However they soon realize that he has New Zealanders and Australians mixed up, and it is actually Australians that he hates. Realizing his mistake, the vendor apologizes and gives them some free fruit. Back at the consulate, Murray learns from Greg that Jessica is gone, as her upgrade work is complete. A despondent Murray sings "Leggy Blonde" to his lost love. Over the end credits, we see shots of Bret, Jemaine and Sinjay flipping the bird to the guard at the Australian consulate. ===== The narrator states his wish to reveal all he can of Yue-Laou and the Xin. He describes how he met his friend, Godfrey, at a gold-shop, where Godfrey showed him a golden chain. In the middle of the conversation they notice a strange creature is crawling in Godfrey's pocket. Godfrey says: Another friend arrives at the shop, a secret agent named Barris, who tells them that gold is a composite metal that can be made artificially, and that a large number of people have been making it. A few days later, the narrator, Barris, and Godfrey leave for Cardinal Woods by Starlit Lake on a hunting expedition. Barris wanders off to explore the area. While hunting, the narrator stumbles on a hidden fountain in the middle of the forest, where he meets a woman named Ysonde. They talk, and the narrator learns that she comes from the fictional city of Yian. She suddenly disappears. He believes that she was just a phantom, and returns to the hunt. He meets Barris, who describes the progress of his operation to catch the gold-makers. At night, the narrator sees a Chinaman, whom others have previously seen in the region. He is disturbed that he cannot find the fountain where he met Ysonde, even though he knew exactly where it was. He resigns himself to the possibility that she does not exist. Then he finds her again, and is thrilled. He asks her more about her origins. She frequently mentions the city of Yian, but not in great detail. After he returns to his cabin, the narrator becomes ill. After he recovers he asks Barris where Yian is. Barris denies the existence of the city, but under pressure he recants. Barris says that it is the center of Yue- Laou—the Maker of Moons—and his sorcerers, the Kuen-Yuin. Barris once lived there. He describes how he was tricked by Yue-Laou: the Maker provided him with a lovely woman with whom he fell in love, and then he took her away from Barris. Barris believes that Xangi, who "is God", is greater than Yue-Laou and that he shall bring him again to his beloved. The narrator searches for Ysonde (who is speculated to be Barris's daughter from the woman he lost) again. Evading hordes of fleeing animals, he finally finds her. They witness in horror as Yue-Laou brings forth the monstrous Xin. Barris arrives and shoots at Yue-Laou, but his body is never found. The story ends with the note, "Ysonde bends over my desk--I feel her hand on my arm, and she is saying, "Don't you think you have done enough to-day, dear? How can you write such silly nonsense without a shadow of truth or foundation?," casting doubt on the credibility of the narrative. ===== Set in the 1830s, the story centers on Rosina da Silva, the sophisticated eldest daughter of a wealthy Jewish Italian family living in a small enclave of Sephardic London Jews. When her father is murdered on the street and leaves behind numerous debts, she refuses an arranged marriage to an older suitor, declaring that she will work to support her family, even if she has to take to the stage like her aunt, who is a renowned singer. She decides to use her classical education and advertise her services as a governess, transforming herself into Mary Blackchurch - a Protestant of partial Italian descent - in order to conceal her heritage. She quickly accepts a position as governess for a Scottish family living on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides. Patriarch Charles Cavendish is a man of science intent on solving the problem of retaining a photographic image on paper, while his pretentious wife flounders in a sea of ennui. Their young daughter Clementina initially resists Mary's discipline, but eventually finds in her a friend and companion. Mary, well-educated and unusually curious in an era when a woman's primary focus is keeping house and attending to the needs of her family, surprises Charles with the depth of her interest and ability and becomes his assistant. He is delighted to find a kindred spirit in his isolation, and the admiration she feels soon turns to passion that he reciprocates. While secretly observing Passover in her room, she spills salt water onto one of Charles' prints, accidentally discovering a technique that preserves the image. The next morning she rushes to the laboratory to tell Charles, and their excitement spills over into making love for the first time. But he becomes increasingly consumed with the race to publish their new process, while she is captivated by the beauty of the photographs they create. Complications ensue when the Cavendishs' son Henry returns home after being expelled from Oxford University for smoking opium and being caught with a prostitute, and he becomes obsessed with Mary. While searching through her belongings, he uncovers evidence of her true background, and although he confesses to her he knows about her past, he promises to keep it secret. But eventually Henry tells Charles that he is in love with Mary, and Charles ridicules his affection and disparagingly remarks that Mary is "practically a demimondaine", refusing his consent and further alienating his son. One day she leaves a gift for Charles, a nude photograph that she took of him asleep in the laboratory after lovemaking, and he begins to shun her. When a fellow scientist visits he claims sole credit for the technique she discovered. Angered by his rebuff and betrayal, Mary at first takes it out on Henry, but then decides to leave the island and return to London. On her way out, conspicuously dressed as a Jew once more, she presents to Mrs. Cavendish at their dinner table the picture of her naked husband. At home again, she embraces her true identity and becomes a portrait photographer noted for her distinct images of the Jewish people. Her sister announces her next sitter and when Charles appears, she quietly proceeds to take his portrait. When she has finished he asks her if they are done, and she says yes, "quite done," dismissing him. She muses to the audience in closing, "I hardly think of those days at all. No, I don't think of those days at all." But his portrait remains foremost among the scattering of prints in her personal studio. ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== A man wants to kill his wife, and in order to do so, he begins inputting her data into the cooking robot so she will be the ingredients for the next night's dinner. ===== ;"The Record of Peter Kürten" :Peter Kürten, a former prisoner-of-war, forms an idealistic couple with his wife and is a devoted unionist at meetings. In actuality he is a sexually perverted serial killer nicknamed the Vampire of Düsseldorf who taunts the police with escalating murders. After one of the murders, the police force a fake confession from another man, causing Peter to angrily reveal the truth to his wife, who gives him up to the police. At trial it is revealed that Peter is actually a criminal with a history of incest, bestiality, arson, and murder. When his lawyer tries to defend him by claiming madness, Peter angrily exclaims that his actions are revenge against the bourgeois. Peter is executed by guillotine. (Tezuka based the story on the work of Shunsuke Tsurumi) ;"Sensual Nights" :A wealthy Japanese playboy visits Vietnam to seduce a woman who has supposedly stopped aging while waiting for her sweetheart who was taken away by soldiers. As he is in the middle of preparing to have sex with her, his contact tells him that the woman's man was taken away by the Japanese army during the Pacific War, causing a deep hatred of Japanese people in her. He panics, but recovers when the woman reacts by offering him her body. When she fights back against his attempts at intimacy, he tells her that her lover is likely dead and forces himself on her. The man then sees a sight of a wrinkled old woman that startles him so much he jumps out of the window. The woman he had seduced was actually the daughter of the unaging woman and her sweetheart, and his contact was her fiancé. ;"The Suspicious Lord Mogami" (Lord Iechika Mogami) :Piipii, a meager farmer, dreams of being a samurai so he can support his wife and their four children. One day he is employed by a lord to be his double, and Piipii's family is secretly killed. Piipii trains to be a lord, grooming and dressing himself to be the spitting image of the lord. As a test, the lord tells him to give the order to open the castle gates. Piipii rides back to visit his family, only to learn about their deaths. On the lord's wedding day, his double is supposed to replace him during the wedding ceremony to protect him from any attempts on his life. During the switch, Piipii murders the lord and consummates the marriage with the lady Sasa instead. When she learns of his identity, the lady has an affair with a syphilitic beggar, and kills herself. The disease spreads to Piipii and Sasa gets her revenge. ;"Lady of the Rhine" :A Japanese woman accompanies her husband on a business trip to Düsseldorf. She catches him having an affair, and when she confronts him, he leaves her. As she desperately searches for him in the streets, the woman is hit by a car and is hospitalized for a month. When she recovers, she visits her benefactor Lady Rathwood, the owner of a castle they had visited earlier. As she lives with Lady Rathwood, the woman learns of her hatred for men and her hatred for her husband is kindled. One day she discovers that the car she was hit with belongs to Lady Rathwood and she witnesses Lady Rathwood taking off the disguise of the woman who seduced her husband. Lady Rathwood calls her husband to the castle and gives the woman a knife, telling her to take her revenge. The woman refuses and goes back to her husband. ;"The Thief Akikazu Inoue" (The Mountain of Fire) : ===== Laura and Steven Harding (Barbara Eden and Don Murray) move with their children to the town of Stepford, Connecticut where Steven had lived with his first wife who had died mysteriously. While Laura is occupied with passing the bar exam, Steven is disturbed by their children, athletic but unfocused David (Randall Batinkoff) and free-spirited, music loving Mary (Tammy Lauren). Steven joins the Men's Association, which is still assimilating their wives into robots. This time, they have begun to turn their out-of-control teens into robots as well. Once they are assimilated, the children are obedient, homework-loving, accomplished droids, but with little personality. The Hardings befriend the Gregsons: Laura with sloppy and high-spirited mom, Sandy (Sharon Spelman), and David dates their sly-humored daughter, Lois (Debbie Barker), with whom he shares a love of motorcycles. Laura is confused when the principal discourages her plans to establish a PTA, and Mary feels unnerved by her passive classmates as well as (unknowingly) the methods used to collect her image, hair, and body information. At the school's Parents' Night, Laura becomes aware of the disconnection between her and Steven's parenting styles. She allows the children space, while he has become obsessed with a perfect image. On the night of a dance, David, Mary, and Lois become suspicious when Sandy seemingly has changed, having become obsessed with cleaning and bundt cakes. They make the best of the dance, playing rock music over the local choice of big band and easy listening/beautiful music, but cause a riot as the children dance awkwardly (never having been programmed to dance freestyle). The kids are arrested, but then released on Steven's and Mr. Gregson's vows to do something about them. Lois calls David, upset, asking him to help her as all the men in town have gathered at her house and are "coming for her". They escape on their motorcycles, but Lois crashes when a car tries to run them off the road. David goes to the hospital where Lois lies entirely wrapped in bandages. When he sneaks into her room, he sees one of her limbs is missing in an unnatural manner as well as her vacant eyes, and he runs in fear. The next day, Lois appears back to normal—but she is now a mindless double who dates a boy she previously had dismissed. David and Laura visit the Gregsons where she witnesses the change in Sandy as well. Next, Laura finds that Mary has also changed after an evening's "shopping trip" with Dad, losing all her individuality and even doing some ironing. Laura digs open the grave of Steven's first wife and finds an android in the coffin. Returning home, Laura learns Steven has taken David out for a "shopping trip" just before Mary's duplicate attacks her with a knife, but Laura is able to thwart the duplicate; as she throws it to the floor, it malfunctions. Laura goes to the Men's Association to find David; while investigating a greenhouse, she discovers the true Mary strapped to a table. They are surrounded by Steven and the other Men's Club members, as well as the bodies of the town's children, who are going through a bizarre bio-organic process to make them into docile drones. They are then replaced by their robot doubles during the procedure. Having escaped from his father earlier, David bursts in on his motorcycle and causes a diversion, allowing Laura and Mary a reprieve. As the Hardings escape, damage to the machines causes an explosion, which destroys the Men's Association, its members (including Steven), and the half-processed children, although two of them survive the explosion. Laura and the kids race out of town. ===== The story tells about Zuri Barlev, who moves with his father, who was fired from the ministry of education, to a city in the southern part of Israel called the NRV (Nuclear Research Village), where technology is much more sophisticated than everyday technology. NRV residents have different colored tags, going from blue to green and red - the highest level, only given to administrators and researchers. The village was started during Moshe Dayan's years, when Dayan and Noah's father found a portal in the Negev, and began researching it. Before Noah's father died, he gave a special "key" to his son, and told him to hold onto it, because it is the world's only surviving artifact from the Earth's first years. Zuri afterwards discovers that some NRV residents had a relative, who died two months before they moved in. Afterwards, he and his friends discover it was Noah who killed these people, in order to bring them to the NRV. Some time later, Zuri arrives to the "-5" floor, where he finds the portal, enters it, and discovers the spaceship (Gachnect Americofabish). The spaceship contains a dangerous combination of various gases, which cause people to go insane and lose control of their actions, but it somehow has no effect on Zuri. Later on, he discovers that the alien owners of that spaceship, used to throw their criminals onto our "jail" planet using the portal. However, the special alignment and ingredients of the atmosphere, caused the criminals to obtain "super-powers". Therefore the locals called them "Ha'Nephilim" – "The Outsiders". Several days later, Zuri discovers he is one of them, when the computer's hologram, a female "human" (Yamit Sol (linked to Hebrew article)), shows him a video recording of the past spaceship commander. Some time later, he enters the spaceship with Noah, which disables the force field, set by the previous commander, to stop other "unique people" from using their abilities. Noah succeeds, and suddenly a lot of people discover their abilities, ranging from freezing, controlling people and putting them to sleep through dreams, to super-speed, super-strength, super-stretch (whose effect is rendered horribly), duplicating, starting fires by mere thought, and more. Due to this, a person named Assaf, which discovered his abilities as super-strength and shield creation, teams up with Noah to find the other outsiders and take control of the spaceship, as it can control the entire planet it's facing. ===== Four thieves attempt to make the richest score in history. ===== Teenage outcast Johnny Rourke (Aidan Quinn) falls for upper-class cheerleader Tracey Prescott (Daryl Hannah). A random draw at the high school 'Tin Can-Can' dance pairs the two. Worlds collide and opposites attract as the two fall in love. Living dangerously, Rourke's anti-social behavior clashes with the privileged socialite Prescott. Hopes dashed, future prospects dim and the omnipresent American Steel mill looming large in the background of this one-industry-town, Rourke comes to grips with his estranged mother and recently deceased father (Kenneth McMillan). Meanwhile, Tracey is forced to decide between her stable longtime boyfriend Randy Daniels (Adam Baldwin) and Rourke. ===== The story focuses upon Chad, a young half-boy, half-chimp, developed by scientists as part of a top secret government operation. However, Chad becomes aggressive, strong and uncontrollable, with the inability to communicate on a human level, escaping from the lab, brutally killing several nurses and scientists in the process. The hunt is on to find and capture Chad before the public encounters this strange and dangerous creation. During Chad's escape, he wrestles with his natural child tendencies after befriending some local children and trying to control his wild primal inner instincts. ===== The central characters in Bless the Beasts and Children are six adolescent boys, whose preoccupied parents send them off to the Arizona Box Canyon Boys Camp for the summer. John Cotton (Barry Robins) leads this bunch of "misfits" who are all, to varying degrees, emotionally or psychologically disturbed. Cotton's group, composed of rejects and outcasts from the other cabins, is known as the "Bedwetters" and the boys are constantly demeaned and ridiculed, which inevitably crushes what little self-esteem they might otherwise have possessed in the first place. Cotton, through trial and tribulation, becomes the leader of this tight-knit group, and he sets out to mold his followers into a unit that commands respect rather than derision. His is obviously a formidable task in view of the fragile psychological state of the small group, which includes two warring dysfunctional brothers who are known as "Lally 1" and "Lally 2". Lally 1 reacts to threats against his emotional security by throwing violent temper tantrums, often directed at his younger brother Lally 2, who in the face of these attacks plunges himself into a fantasy world that is filled with tiny creatures he calls "Ooms", and seeks solace in the scorched foam rubber pillow he always carries. Lawrence Teft III (Billy Mumy) is shown in the film as quiet and sullen, but whenever he is confronted with authority, he turns rebellious. Before he came to camp, one of Teft's favorite adventures had been stealing cars, but because of the "connections" of his father, Lawrence Teft Jr., he was never arrested for any of his offenses. Hoping that he will learn some self-discipline which will make him worthy of attending Exeter or Dartmouth, his parents enroll him in the camp. Cotton's group also includes Sammy Shecker, an overweight, paranoid Jewish boy, whose father is a successful comedian who trades upon the Jewish stereotype. Sometimes to the annoyance of the other boys, Sammy mimics his father's routines, he compulsively bites his nails, and he is loud, nervous, and obnoxious. The designation "Bedwetters" applies especially well to Gerald Goodenow, the sixth member of the group, who often wets the bed at night – a behavior that had resulted in his having been ejected from two cabins before Cotton takes him in tow. Bedwetting, however, seems to be the least of Gerald's problems, as he suffers from a phobic reaction to school, which results in several unsuccessful sessions with a psychiatrist. Goodenow is also handicapped by a heavy-handed stepfather who is determined to make a man out of him, by physical force if necessary. Kramer and his screenwriter Mac Benoff decided to compromise Swarthout's time sequence by having the entire film set in the present with flashbacks into the past of all the boys, to explicate their presence at the camp. Whereas Swarthout's novel – thematically powerful though it is – is episodic and difficult for some sixth-graders to follow, the Kramer film flows almost faultlessly to its tragic conclusion. The plight of the American buffalo and any other endangered species is at the center of the film's focus. Almost predictably, the dysfunctional group, under Cotton's guidance, set out to free a large herd of the bison after they witness their perverted macho camp counselor, "Wheaties", shooting the animals in a festive (and deeply disturbing) western lottery, which is given validation as a proper method to thin out the large numbers by eliminating the "weak" or "sick" buffalo. The buffalo are not the only targets of this destructive urge, as the Bedwetters – similarly – have also been "tamed", "penned" and crushed in spirit. As a result of their parents' neglect or abuse, they have all been reduced to psychological misfits. Ridiculed and rejected by the other boys in the camp, they are forced to cling even more strongly to their deviant behavior. The boys' pilgrimage to free the buffalo is also a search for their own freedom. Cotton perceives that success will free the boys of psychological crutches and allow each to stand alone in defense of self. Cotton sacrifices his life not only for the buffalo but for the boys he has led to this one miraculous triumph. The implication at the end of the film is that the remaining boys are no longer "dings" or "weirdos", as they have all gained a sense of pride in their abilities and have saved themselves, as well as the buffalo, from extinction. The title of the film (and novel) exemplifies the dual yet unified nature of the theme. Both beasts and children need to be free to roam, to develop and to discover, but the freedom that is given to the buffalo at the film's conclusion is worthless because their very natures have been altered by man. Outside the fence of the preserve, the tame buffalo will never find wild plains and grasslands on which to roam and their natural habitat, along with their natural spirit, has been destroyed. The children, however, have regained their spirit and independence and eventually they will triumph over the fear instilled in them by their parents and society. But it is conspicuous that they will require the love and compassion of others. ===== Susy Conner accuses former employer, Gary Fitzgerald, of harassment and unfair dismissal for failing to comply with his sexual demands. Relating the incident to conciliation lawyer, Marion Lee, Susy comments that the trauma experienced should entitle her to a compensation payment of $40,000.00. ===== Millionaire publisher Richard Trainor (Robert Culp) is celebrating the success of his new calendar, featuring twelve beautiful nude women. However, the party is ruined when Miss January is pushed off a building. Later in the evening, Miss February is knifed to death. Police Lieutenant Dan Stoner (Tom Skerritt) is assigned to the case and he immediately strikes up a friendship with photographer Cassie Bascomb (Sharon Stone). While Dan investigates the case, Cassie is attacked. What connection might she have to the case, if any... and will the murderer be caught before he/she reaches Miss December? ===== Fifteen-year-old Sam Franks has returned from a Melbourne boarding school to his hometown in Victoria. He has an obvious affection towards a local girl, Silvy, who has a disability affecting her legs which requires a brace and prevents her from walking freely. This does not stop the two friends from enjoying each other's company, and they are virtually inseparable. Sam's mother has died, and his stern father provides the young boy with little comfort or love, so his relationship with Silvy is all that matters to him. She reads to him regularly out of her beloved poetry book, showing him a world of beauty and harmony within words that he comes to enjoy. One night, Sam and Silvy decide to go for an aimless ride, and end up at a river. Sam jumps in the water and removes Silvy's leg braces, and together they "dance" in the water. They share a kiss and stare into the stars — everything seems perfect for them. Sam lets go of Silvy's hand to point to a shooting star. After closing his eyes and making a wish, he looks around to find Silvy no longer with him. After a frantic search as he struggles against the current, Sam returns to Silvy's home to tell her parents what has happened. Her body is not found until much later, in an underwater cave. Twenty years later, 35-year-old Sam (Guy Pearce) is teaching psychology at a Melbourne institute when he must return to his hometown to bury his recently deceased father. On the train, Sam briefly meets a pleasant woman who introduces herself as Ruby (Helena Bonham Carter). Sam leaves the compartment to talk to the conductor about his father's casket. When he returns, the woman is nowhere to be seen. That night, in a massive downpour, Sam sees a woman fall from the bridge into the river below. He rescues the woman and finds that it is Ruby. She has lost her memory and can't remember her own name. The woman's behavior and speech patterns remind Sam of Silvy. Sam hypnotizes her, and the woman describes being pulled down, lower and lower into the cold, and feelings of panic, followed by a sensation of warmth and comfort. Sam believes that Silvy has come back from death in the form of this woman. The next day, she asks to be taken to her "real home". Sam carries her because her legs are failing her once more; he senses that she will not be with him much longer. Safe and warm in her old bed in her abandoned childhood home, Sam reads her the last few lines from her favorite poem, T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "Till human voices wake us, and we drown." She dies with a smile on her lips. Sam places her in a boat and releases it onto the river. He swims with it for a while, and when he looks into it, all that remains is his coat that he had draped over her. He climbs into the boat as it drifts away. ===== Daffy is not going to fly south for the winter like other ducks. He manages to convince the rather simple-witted dog, Leopold, to let him stay for the winter by pretending to have saved Leopold's life. Unfortunately, Leopold's master is a mad scientist who needs the wishbone of a duck for his experiment. Daffy is insulted by the scientist's requirement and tries to get rid of him, while Leopold interferes to save his master. At one point, Daffy throws a baseball bat at the scientist from behind, and Leopold grabs it, but cannot stop it in time from hitting the man. The scientist misunderstands, taking the bat away and calmly scolding Leopold while breaking the bat into many pieces with his bare hands before going to sleep. Daffy's assassination attempt fails and the scientist turns the tables, trying to kill Daffy with numerous booby traps around the house. Meanwhile, Leopold feels left out of the cartoon. Daffy finally leaves, but the master wants a dog's wishbone, so Leopold flees as well. As Daffy tries to con his way into another house, a grey duck (with a Joe Besser-like personality) is already occupying the place and kicks Daffy into the sky, southbound. On his flight, he is surprised to find he has company: Leopold, aided by a fan strapped to his back, is flying south, too. ===== The film opens with an archaeologist looking at some artifacts he has dug up from an Indian burial ground. Among these items is the skull of an Indian chief, Skeleton Man appears through a portal and kills the archaeologist. Skeleton Man then chases the archaeologist's assistant to a power plant, killing her and the two men working there. Skeleton Man, now on horseback, kills a soldier and chases his partner. Before being killed, the second soldier manages to record a video and send it back to his bosses. They receive it and send in Delta Force to deal with this unknown threat. As they advance, a female soldier falls behind and is impaled through the chest. The team finds an old Indian man who tells them that Skeleton Man, known as Cottonmouth Joe, was a genocidal warrior who killed the old man's tribe and is now stalking the soldiers. The team pays him no heed. Meanwhile, Cottonmouth Joe slaughters the workers at an oil pumping station. That night, two sentries are also killed (but are technically MIA as their bodies are never found). The team's scout (Casper Van Dien) also disappears. The next day, the team encounters Cottonmouth Joe. The heavy weapons specialist charges him but is killed and the team opens fire to no effect. A support helicopter of Citizen's Militia is also destroyed. One man goes to recover the heavy weapons specialist's body but finds it missing. The squad then discovers the team scout, whom they accidentally shot in the firefight (Cottonmouth Joe having captured him and put him in a location to be shot). The team tries to lure their adversary into a trap, but run out of ammo. Another trooper is killed, as is the team sharpshooter who has her skull crushed by a tomahawk. The two remaining troopers (Captain Leary (Michael Rooker) and Lt. Scott (Sarah Ann Schultz)) again try to lure Cottonmouth Joe into a trap to no avail. Skeleton man ends his pursuit of them and heads to a nearby chemical plant where he kills several workers, two guards, the manager and several scientists. The two remaining soldiers arrive and find the place surrounded by law enforcement. Captain Leary takes a sheriff's Armsel Striker and goes to confront the undead adversary. After a cat-and-mouse chase through the chemical plant, Captain Leary lures Cottonmouth Joe into a generator room and blows him up with electric current. As the film's credits begin to roll, they suddenly reverse and show Skeleton Man back on his horse in the woods, thus indicating that he has survived. ===== Captain Karl Taylor is sent to investigate mysterious alien signals from the Moon, but the sights and sounds of the alien “city” he encounters are entirely incomprehensible to human perceptions. Taylor thus orders his people to open fire, apparently fearing that they are under attack. This is the start of a war between the alien Myloki and PRISM, the secret organisation created to fight the invaders. The Myloki attack by transforming ordinary human beings into their puppets; most are merely drone-like zombies known as Shiners, but two are different. One is Captain Taylor, who is sent back to Earth as a walking, indestructible, reanimated corpse, an emotionless killing machine. The other is Captain Grant Matthews, who is killed and duplicated while on a routine escort mission; however, his duplicate is caught and deprogrammed of his Myloki conditioning, and, like Taylor, is found to be literally indestructible. The Doctor and Storm trace Verdana to a private hospice in Barbados, where his body is slowly wasting away, perhaps due to the hours he spent monitoring the Myloki’s unfathomably alien signals during the war. He is bitter that he’s been condemned to this slow death while Matthews, a jumped-up clerk and chauffeur, became immortal; this is why he wrote the book exposing PRISM. He refuses to help track down Matthews, but when he makes a snide comment about Matthews’ rich friends, Storm deduces where Matthews must be. Storm offers to put Verdana out of his misery, but Verdana refuses, determined to cling on to life until the bitter end. As the Doctor and Storm leave the hospice, Storm admits to the Doctor that he was a mercenary for hire before the war; Bishop freed him from a Polish prison and gave him the authority to kill whoever he had to defeat the Myloki. John Sharon, once the wild child of the Sharon family, is now working as a doctor for an isolated tribe in a tropical rainforest. A nearby village was recently struck by a blast from the Myloki grid, and the Doctor chips in to help John tend to those affected by the blast; like everything else touched by the Myloki, however, their bodies have been warped by contact with the alien energy, and the Doctor knows that he can do nothing to save the victims’ lives. John eventually explains to the Doctor that the people of the world turned on Matthews, fearing what he had become, after Verdana’s exposé revealed his secret; Matthews turned to Buck for help, and he agreed to let Matthews hide out on the Sharons’ private island. As far as John knows, Matthews is still there. However, John is torn by conflicting emotions regarding his family and his inability to live up to their shining example, and when the Doctor sees that the photographs of John’s beloved family members have been repeatedly defaced, he realises there’s nothing he can do to help the unfortunate man. ===== Some years after the previous film, Dennis Mitchell (Justin Cooper) is worse than ever. At the beginning of the film, he goes over to the house of George Wilson (Don Rickles) to offer him some pets as gifts for his birthday. They include frogs, lizards, snakes, insects, tarantulas, scorpions, mice, exotic mammals, and even a baby alligator. This ordeal ends with George unintentionally riding down a flight of stairs in Dennis' red wagon and accidentally getting his birthday cake thrown in his face by Martha (Betty White). Soon after this incident, Mr. Johnson, Dennis's grandfather, Alice's father, and Henry's father-in law (George Kennedy), shows up and announces that he is moving in with the Mitchells. Dennis starts spending more time with him than George. George, upset that he's getting older, gets tricked by two crooked con men, the Professor and his assistant, Sylvester (Brian Doyle-Murray and Carrot Top), who try to talk him into buying a "rare" root used to make tea to make people younger. He is about to pay $10,000 when Dennis comes by. Dennis then reveals that he owns a root of the same kind, which he says he found on a place where those abound. Soon afterwards, the Professor and Sylvester return and sell George a machine that allegedly makes people younger. Suddenly, the attitudes of him and Mr. Johnson reverse as the latter feels the former's pain of living in the same neighborhood as Dennis, while he starts to feel youthful and happy. While Dennis is trying to clean up a pile of garbage that he accidentally threw on Mr. Johnson's car while taking out the trash, he accidentally destroys George's machine with cotton candy mix that he mistook for soap. As a result of this, George declares that he and Martha will be moving away to be away from Dennis for good, whereupon Mr. Johnson decides to move into their house, although no one seems to really want to carry out this plan. Overhearing everything, the Professor and Sylvester decide to use George's plan as an opportunity to get more money from him. Dennis helps the police (unintentionally) catch them, who were pretending to be several different workmen at the Wilson house when they were planning to move, attempting yet again to drain his bank account by stockpiling a hoard of his as yet un- endorsed checks by claiming that the house needed several repairs before it could be sold. Dennis, who was a "menace" throughout the whole film, ends up being a hero. The police return the uncashed checks and George decides not to move after Dennis begs him not to do so. Mr. Johnson, however, announces intentions to get his camper back, having promised to take Dennis to the Grand Canyon, also because of everything he has put him through. The film ends as Dennis and Mr. Johnson are in his camper in the Grand Canyon and Dennis, wanting to take a rock home to George as a present, accidentally takes the one from under the camper, causing it to roll down the incline it is parked on top of with Mr. Johnson still in it. While enjoying the Christmas season, George and Martha see on the news what has happened as Dennis explains to the camera and Mr. Johnson is being airlifted to safety. Dennis gives a shoutout to George, which leaves him so flabbergasted that he mutters to the viewers "He's a menace!". ===== When a passenger plane crashes near the top of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, greedy Christopher Teller (Wagner) decides to go and rob the dead. However, he has no hope of getting to the crash site without the help of his older brother Zachary (Tracy), a highly skilled mountain climber. Zachary wants to leave the dead in peace, but Chris hounds him until he finally gives in. When they reach the downed plane, they find one badly injured survivor, an Indian woman (Kashfi). Chris wants to leave her there to die, but Zachary insists on bringing her down the mountain. On the descent, Chris, ignoring Zachary's warning, tries to cross an unsafe snow bridge and falls to his death. When Zachary gets the woman to his village, he tells everyone that he went up the mountain to rob the plane and forced his brother to go with him, but his friends (Trevor, Demarest) know better. ===== In 1279 A.D., the downfall of the Chola dynasty seems imminent as the Pandyas drive the Chola people out of their kingdom in southern India. To escape them and save the life of his successor, the Chola emperor sends his son along with the Chola people to a secret territory. The refugees take along an idol sacred to the Pandyas, angering them. To capture the escaped Cholas and the stolen idol, the Pandyas extend their invasion to unexplored territories but cannot find them. Centuries later, in 2008, Indian archaeologists continue searching for the existence of the lost Chola group based on clues left by the ancient Pandyan warriors. All archaeologists who attempted to search for the secret land have disappeared. Archaeologist Chandramouli is the most recent person to have gone missing suddenly. The Indian government organizes a search expedition led by the cruel and arrogant officer Anitha to find Chandramouli and the Chola empire; she is assisted by the Indian army led by Ravisekharan. They recruit the aloof and quiet archaeologist Lavanya, the estranged daughter of Chandramouli, because her insight is essential for the success of the expedition. She hands over crucial documents on the Chola dynasty, prepared by her father, with instructions on the route to reach the destination. Along with the army, Anitha employs a group of porters headed by Muthu, who she and the army continually ill-treat and see as inferior, to transport the baggage during the journey. The crew embark on their voyage leading them to an island, Min-gua, near Vietnam. The island borders three countries: Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. They face seven traps set by the Cholas: sea creatures which they flee from, cannibals who cannot eat them as long as they don't look at their face, warriors whose land they invade and brutally kill, snakes, hunger, quicksand, and a village. Many porters and army men are killed by these traps, with Anitha forcing the porters to carry on despite their protests and emotionally manipulating Muthu into not retreating with his fellow porters by insulting his masculinity. She had not warned them of the dangers and treated the porters as expendable, with the army commander, approved by Anitha, forcing the porters to carry on under threat of being shot and refusing their rightful payment for services rendered. Muthu, Anitha and Lavanya get separated from the others. They reach the ruins of a village where they are subjected to black magic and nearly go mad before reaching the secret hideout of the Chola. The three find an ethnic isolated primitive Tamil group, ruled by a Chola king. The king and his people are in hiding, awaiting the arrival of the fabled messenger who will bring glory and prosperity back to their land and lead them back to Thanjavur, their motherland. The king and the priest consult the gods for omens and order Muthu, Anitha and Lavanya to be burnt alive as sacrifices. Anitha tells the king that she is the messenger sent from the homeland. Muthu and Lavanya are enslaved while Anitha is given a chance to prove herself. She tries to seduce and convince the Chola king to march towards the homeland in two days so he can be crowned properly as a king. He suspects her to be a false messenger since none of her actions match those described by the king's ancestors. The ancestors wrote that the messenger will be ill treated, even so he will console the destitute and finally it will rain. Meanwhile, Anitha drugs the priest and cruelly poisons the water sources. She catches a glimpse of the Pandyas' sacred idol and leaves, finally exposing her identity as a descendant of the Pandya Dynasty. The central minister, who sponsors the expedition and Ravishekaran are also shown to be Pandyan. The Chola king is shattered for having believed in Anitha. Ravishekaran, who has escaped the traps and is the sole survivor, gets backup and a larger army after getting an information from a hypnotized follower of Anitha from the Chola kingdom. The king discovers that Muthu is the true messenger who would save the Cholas from the evil clutches of Anitha and the army. The priest gives all of his magical powers, such as invisibility and invulnerability, to Muthu and dies. The Cholas fight bravely but eventually lose to technology and are taken prisoners. Their women are molested and raped by the army. The king is killed, and the men drown in the seas with his body. Muthu was able to escape and save the Chola Prince, giving hope that their civilisation can continue to survive despite the imperialist genocide at the hands of Anitha and the army. ===== Mao, son of the netherworld's Overlord, has not once attended class since the beginning of school. His ambition is to overthrow his father and claim his title (along with claiming revenge for having his gaming systems destroyed). After reading a few volumes in his manga about the Super Hero, Mao resolves to become a hero, convinced that it is the quickest way to gain enough power. Eventually, Raspberyl, Mao's childhood rival, learns about his goal, and realizes that if Mao became a Hero, it would endanger her position as the Academy's top delinquent. She makes up her mind to stop Mao's plan to sustain her title. However, since Raspberyl is a demon delinquent, she tries to solve the problem without violence and talk him out of it instead. Almaz, a meek hero fanboy from Earth on a mission to protect princess Sapphire by defeating the overlord who he believes is targeting her, misunderstands the situation and tries to save the day. Mao accepts the challenge and defeats him, stealing Almaz's title and giving him the title of "Demon". Almaz slowly starts becoming a demon, but he sticks with Mao, who claims he is his slave now, to defeat the overlord. Visiting the "Heart Bank", in which demons store parts of their heart and memories to be less feeling, they make several attempts to open up Mao's heart, where the hero title is stored, but are unsuccessful. Geoffrey, Mao's butler, is unhappy with Almaz's meddling. At one point, Mao comes across his sealed memory of him contributing to his father's demise by telling the Super Hero Aurum his weak spot. Aurum later clarifies this by revealing that the Overlord intentionally lost in order to protect Mao from his ultimate attack. Eventually, all the freshmen become delinquents, being brainwashed by the Senior class. After fighting them, Mao learns that Geoffrey orchestrated the plan. Actually the Super Hero Aurum in disguise, Geoffrey attempted to raise Mao to be the ultimate overlord so he could eventually destroy him. Mao tries to get revenge by destroying the human world, but the words of his friends convince him not to release the evil in his heart, and he instead goes after Aurum, who is disappointed to see Mao has not succumbed to evil. Aurum initially dismisses Mao as weak, but Mao uses the power of a hero to defeat Aurum. The ghost of his father gives Mao the Overlord title and he runs the Evil Academy henceforth. ===== Crippled trapeze aerialist and former star Mike Ribble (Burt Lancaster) sees great promise in young, brash Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis). Ribble—only the sixth man to have completed the dangerous triple somersault—thinks his protégé is capable of matching the same feat, but only if he gives him rigorous training. However, Orsini is distracted by the new third member of their circus act, the manipulative Lola (Gina Lollobrigida). Tensions rise as a love triangle forms. ===== In 2092, humanity has conquered immortality through the endless renewal of cells. The world watches in fascination as the 118-year-old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on Earth, edges towards death. Curious to know of life before quasi-immortality, they interview Nemo. Dr. Feldheim, a psychiatrist, uses hypnosis to help Nemo recall some of his memories, while Nemo relates other memories to a journalist. As he is prodded, Nemo makes contradictory statements. He recounts his life at three primary points: at age 9, when his parents divorced, at age 15 when he fell in love, and at age 34 as an adult. All three unfold into their many possible outcomes. Nemo explains that before birth, children remember everything that will happen in their lives. At the moment of conception, the Angels of Oblivion erase their memory. The Angels, however, forget about Nemo, allowing him to "remember" different possible futures for himself. At age 9, at a railway station, he is forced to choose as his mother leaves on a train while his father stays on the platform. In one case, he manages to board the train while in another he stays with his father. ===== The childhood friendship of Devdas (Phani Sarma) (who is from a wealthy family) and Paro (Zubeida) (whose family is not as well off) blossoms into love as they grow up. Devdas' father does not approve of the relationship due to differences in their families' status in the village and of their castes. (Devdas is of the Brahmin caste and Paro of the Merchant caste.) Devdas realizes he cannot live without Paro and seeks her out, but she has already been married off to an older man with children. Devdas falls into despair and drinks to excess; then he meets a courtesan, Chandramukhi (Mohini), who falls in love with him and looks after him. During his alcohol-instilled dreams, he frequently dreams of Paro and Chandramukhi. The two women replace each other in his dreams, so it is left unclear, if, in the end, Devdas overcomes his love for Paro and finds some peace by falling in love with Chandramukhi. Devdas returns to meet Paro, but dies at her doorstep before seeing her. ===== When their mother died, Olive and Boadicea were sent to live with their mother's sister, Caroline, and her husband Jasper Hemingford on Old Manor Farm. The farm is remote with few neighbours and while Aunt Caroline would have made a wonderful mother, the girls do exactly as they want and have her twisted completely round their thumb. Jasper is a distant figure, spending most of his time in his museum room with his nose stuck in a book or studying his collection and muttering to himself in Latin. It was hardly surprising then that Olive, the elder of the girls, sought to find herself a rich husband who would whisk her away from the lonely farm to the highs of London society, and this she did three years earlier, marrying Sir Baldwin Jefferys, a middle aged gentleman of wealth and position. The story starts in June 1835. Olive has been the subject of society gossip after spending too much time in the company of Lieutenant Jack Carrington of and her reputation has suffered as a result. Sir Baldwin knows the Lieutenant is incapable of vulgar intrigue but Olive has given him the full charm offensive. Enraged as his wife's behaviour, Sir Baldwin has insisted that she must leave London mid-way through the season. Olive in turn accuses him of insane jealously and she agrees, only on the condition that she can spend the month at her childhood home in Thanet. After accompanying his wife to the farm for the first time since their wedding, Sir Baldwin is about to leave when he runs into Cousin Barnaby in the hall. Barnaby bemoans the addition of another female to the household and declares that he is spending all his time avoiding women and sailors, for HMS Dolphin has just put into Ramsgate harbour. Sir Baldwin suspects this might be the reason why his wife was so amenable to leaving London, even though he doesn’t want to believe her capable of such duplicity. He decides to stay until the evening, so he can talk to Olive and flushed with rage he goes to catch up with his friend Mr Culpepper for a couple of hours to calm down. After he has left there is then an almighty commotion from outside as a stranger starts shouting that a young girl is in danger, this followed by Boadicea's entrance – crashing through the loft skylight while clutching some owl eggs. The eggs are smashed by the fall, which is a source of great amusement to the stranger – who soon turns out to be none other than Lieutenant Jack Carrington. Aunt Caroline is delighted to see the son of her old friend Mamie Carrington and invites him to stay for supper. While waiting for Olive to come down, Jack starts to tease Boadicea, holding her hands and kissing her on the cheek and neck while she protests and gets redder and redder. Olive catches them like this and with a disapproving look tells Jack to leave Boadicea alone as she looks like a bedraggled chicken. Jack realises he has made a grave mistake by paying attention to another woman in Olive's presence, even if that attention was meant purely in brotherly kindness Embarrassed by Olive's comments about her appearance, and upset by the way Jack acts when her sister is in the room, Boadicea produces a passionate outburst about how she hates mincing 'ladies' with their white hands and chicken livers and storms out of the room. When Olive and Jack are left alone it becomes apparent that she is the one pushing the relationship, Jack does not want to get involved with a married woman, even one as beautiful as Lady Jefferys and he spurns her advances. She then demands that he must return her letters later that evening. Olive is looking forward to supper, as Jack's presence will surely teach her husband a lesson. However, Sir Baldwin shows no reaction when he returns to find the Lieutenant in the house, and worse still for Olive, Boadicea comes down to supper dressed and acting like a charming young lady, tomboy manners put to the side. Her complete change in appearance and demeanour means that it is Boadicea rather than Olive who is the centre of attention, and in a fit of pique Olive accuses her of throwing herself at the Lieutenant and suggests she should be sent to boarding school for a year. Sir Baldwin finally leaves for his estate racked with jealousy and not without reason, for at 10pm when all are in bed, Olive tiptoes downstairs to meet Jack, who has promised to return her letters. Jack is bewildered to find the house is in darkness. Having carefully engineered the situation, Olive moves in to kiss him, and asks him to tell her that he loves her – Jack is almost about to relent when he hears a noise – Boadicea is standing outside the door. Olive accuses her of eavesdropping but Boadicea is adamant that she came down because she saw a second man arrive on horseback and the next moment Sir Baldwin is banging on the front door demanding to be let in. Sir Baldwin is furious to find Jack with his wife while everyone else is in bed and forcefully demands an explanation from Olive, waking the whole house. Olive's answer to her predicament is to insist that she was playing gooseberry for Boadicea and the Lieutenant claiming her sister had set up the rendezvous and that she had heard the child leave her room and followed. Boadicea cannot understand why her sister is telling such lies about her but accepts the role she has been forced into, even though it could mean public disgrace. This she does because she loves her sister and she understands that Olive is in grave danger from her husband. Sir Baldwin insists that he does not believe the story and Jack then tells him that he came to ask for Boadicea's hand in marriage. Realising that she might as well go the whole hog, Boadicea confirms the story is true and announces that she has accepted. Over the next month Jack spends most evenings at the farm and before long he has fallen madly in love with Boadicea and she with him, this is obvious to everyone but the self- obsessed Olive, who still thinks the engagement is a farce that will be broken off as soon as the Lieutenant has returned to sea. Her illusions are shattered however after Cousin Barnaby starts complaining about young love birds, and having realised that her plans are not working out as expected Olive spins a web of lies, splitting the young couple up and inflicting misery and pain on both of them. ===== The novel is somewhat unconventional and non-linear in its construction. It begins with a group of travelers disembarking on a small island in the Irish Sea after their ship runs aground. There they stumble upon a house inhabited by Professor Kreutznaer,"Kreutznaer" is the historic family name of Daniel Defoe's ship-wrecked hero, Robinson Crusoe. his assistant Licht, and an unnamed character who figures centrally in the novel and who is referred to only as "Little God." It is later revealed that Little God can be identified with Freddie Montgomery, the narrator of The Book of Evidence. Much of the latter half of the book focuses on Montgomery's account of his experiences after having been released from prison, his reflections on the crime (the murder of a young woman) he committed, and his continuing struggle with the ghosts of his past and the nature of his perceptions. Kreutznaer's relationship to a painting entitled The Golden World by a fictional Dutch artist named Vaublin plays a central role in the novel. The fictional painting is based to a large extent on The Embarkation for Cythera by Watteau. The narrator mentions "Cythera" several times and, to a certain degree, the characters are modelled on those in the painting. It is revealed that Kreutznaer and one of the travellers—a man named Felix—are acquainted with one another, and that Felix had been involved in art forgery. The novel ends with the travellers re-embarking and leaving the island, with many of the central issues and tensions left unresolved. ===== Screenshot of the Master System version The evil witch Magica De Spell has stolen Scrooge McDuck's Number One Dime and kidnapped his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Donald Duck embarks on a mission, traveling around the world to save his three nephews and recover Scrooge's lucky dime. ===== Two young adults, Mitsuru and his girlfriend, Maki, kidnap a little girl and hold her for ransom to pay off a drug-related debt. As they hide out at an abandoned school, they attempt to call the girl's parents only to find out from her parents she has been dead for a year. Mitsuru's friends also arrive, with ulterior motives of their own. Soon, members of the group are brutally killed by an unseen force. Is the mysterious little girl responsible, or is something far more sinister at work? ===== The book starts with the departure of the Germans from the camp. The sick were left on their own after the healthy ones were taken on a death march away from the approaching Red Army. As all the services have left the camp, exploration journeys begin in search for food and essential items. When they arrive the Red Army is shocked by the state of the people in the camp and they provide basic medical aid. All remaining inmates are taken to a hospital in the main camp. After the protagonist has regained some strength, he starts a long journey. First to Kraków, then to Katowice where he stays for some time and works as a pharmaceutic assistant. The journey continues after weeks eastwards to Tarnów, Rzeszów, Przemyśl and into Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil, Proskurov, Zhmerynka. The plan was to go south to Odessa but instead he had to take the train northwards and arrives at Slutsk (Belarus). From there he walks and rides in a horse cart to Starye Dorogi where he lives inside Krasny Dom ("Red House") and works as a medical assistant. Then, after weeks, a Russian Marshal, Semyon Timoshenko, came to the displaced persons camp and declared that they can make their way back home now. By train the journey continues southwards and then westwards: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany. After 35 days of travel since leaving Krasny Dom he arrives in his home town Turin, which he had last seen 20 months ago. ===== Shelby Barret is a stable hand who rides show horses for snobbish wealthy widow Mrs. Nicholas, nicknamed Nicko. She meets Johnny Wyatt, the destitute son of a once-wealthy Long Island family who plays polo for Nicko. Nouveau-riche Gene Fairchild, a horseman who rides his own entries, is in love with Shelby, while Nicko is in love with Johnny, who has curried her favour. However, despite their efforts, Shelby and Johnny fall in love, and Nicko and Fairchild are jealous of their budding relationship. Nicko fires Shelby, which only encourages Johnny to leave her employ, and they elope to marry. Johnny brings Shelby home to Wyattville, the town named for his family, but his snobbish family does not approve of Shelby and treat her frigidly. They frown even more when the newlyweds start a business handling the horses of wealthy neighbours. Shelby had been expecting a loan from her grandfather in Kentucky to start the business, but when he is unable to provide the money, Shelby borrows from Fairchild without telling the proud but broke Johnny. Nicko soon shows up and starts gossip against Shelby, which does not help matters. When Johnny is away Fairchild invites Shelby aboard his yacht to help him entertain a wealthy client. She tries to contact Johnny, but when that fails she accepts the invitation. The client and his female companion, chorus girl Olga, show up drunk. Olga accidentally falls overboard and drowns, and Fairchild is accused of her murder. He intends to keep Shelby out of the case although it looks bad for him, while Shelby is afraid of scandal. While the case is in progress, with one of the ship's officers saying that he saw Fairchild leaving the ship with a mysterious "woman in red," the Wyatt family talk about the case. Shelby snaps and confesses that she is the woman in question. She shows up at the court at the last minute to provide witness. The Wyatt family also comes to the court to defend her, if only to protect the family name. Shelby tells the court it was her, and thus she saves Fairchild. She knows that in making her confession she is risking her marriage, and wonders whether Johnny will understand and forgive her, although she has done nothing to be forgiven for. Eugene proposes that Shelby divorce Johnny and marry him, but Shelby admits she still loves her husband. In the end, Shelby and Johnny are reconciled, and Johnny chooses her love over his family acceptance. ===== In 1940/50, world peace is threatened when the "United States of Europe" comes into conflict with the "Empire of the Atlantic States". The former comprises Europe, India, the Middle East, Canada, Africa, and Australasia. The latter is a combination of the United States and South America. In the film the prohibition era in America extends to 1940 and the tension is initially caused by bootleggers crossing the borders between territories. One such incident leads to a shoot-out between border guards in which both sides suffer casualties. War looks likely, but the pacifist Peace League intervenes. Meanwhile, we learn that the tension is in fact carefully orchestrated by a sinister terrorist group financed by arms manufacturers. They blow up a rail tunnel under the English Channel. The President of Europe orders a mass enlistment and mobilisation, fearing that the Atlantic States are preparing a sneak attack. Dr. Seymour, leader of the Peace League, desperately attempts to avert war. His daughter Evelyn seeks to convince her boyfriend Michael, commander of the European air force, not to fight, but he insists he must do his duty. Evelyn says she will leave him. The European council are divided, but the president decides on war, saying that he will announce the outbreak of hostilities on television. The terrorists try to kill Dr. Seymour by bombing the Peace League, but Seymour survives. He tells Evelyn to make another effort to stop Michael ordering the airforce to attack, while he appeals directly to the President. Pacifists led by Evelyn demonstrate en masse at the airfield. Michael is uncertain what to do, but Evelyn convinces him to delay the attack. Seymour confronts the President, but is forced, despite his pacifism, to shoot him to stop him making the broadcast. ===== Gopikrishnan (Mammootty) and Anwar Hussain (Arjun) are tough police officers. They analyze farmers' struggle and related social violence to put forward an amicable solution to have lasting harmony. They are highly disturbed by the terrorists' infiltrations. Nandini (Sneha), an aviator, is Gopikrishnan's wife, and they are sad that they do not have a child. The rest of the story deals with how they counter act against the terrorists and save the land. ===== The main influence in fourteen-year-old Will Burrow's life is his father, Dr. Burrows, and together they share an interest in archaeology and a fascination for the buried past. When Dr. Burrows begins to notice strange 'pallid men' where they live in Highfield, and then promptly goes missing, Will and his friend Chester go search for him. They discover a blocked passageway behind bookshelves in the cellar of the Burrows home and re-excavate it, finding the passage leads to a door set into the rock, and beyond the door is an old lift that takes them down to another set of doors. A cobblestone street lies beyond, lit by a row of orb-like street lamps; houses that appear to be carved out of the walls themselves flank the street. They are soon captured by the police of the underground community, known as the Colony. In prison, Will is visited by Mr. Jerome, and his son Cal. They reveal Will was actually born in the Colony, and that they are his real family; Mr. Jerome his father and Cal his younger brother. Will is eventually released from the prison and taken to the Jerome's home, where Will and Cal's Uncle Tam is delighted to see him and informs Will that his adoptive father, Dr. Burrows, was recently there, and had willingly traveled down into the Deeps — a place even deeper in the Earth than The Colony. Will learns that the Styx, the religious rulers of the Colony, are either going to enslave Chester or banish him to the Deeps to fend for himself. Will refuses to abandon his friend, and Uncle Tam formulates a plan for him to rescue Chester and to take him back to the surface. Will and Cal attempt to rescue Chester before he is sent to the deeps on the 'Miner's Train', but the Styx arrive and they are forced to leave Chester behind. During the botched escape attempt, it is revealed that Rebecca, Will's adoptive sister, is actually a Styx implanted in his family to monitor him. The boys head through a series of tunnels to the Eternal City, and old stone city, estimated by Will to be from Roman times, where the air is filled with deadly bio-toxins. They avoid the Styx soldiers, who patrol the city with their vicious stalker attack dogs, and eventually emerge on the bank of the Thames. Will makes for his home in Highfield, but there Will's health deteriorates, so Cal helps him to his Auntie Jean's flat where he recovers. Soon they return underground to find Will's adoptive father, and attempt to rescue Chester once again. They encounter another Styx patrol, and Uncle Tam kills a member of the Styx, whom he calls Crawfly, but is mortally wounded in the fight, and the strong willed Uncle Tam chooses to stay behind to give the boys time to escape. With the help of Imago Freebone, a member of Uncle Tam's gang, Will and Cal escape to a small hiding place halfway between the Colony and the Eternal City. There, they rest and mourn for Uncle Tam; and are told by Imago that Chester's train to the deeps will pass directly under their hiding spot shortly. They jump down into the train through a hole in the floor of the hiding spot, and find Chester. Together they ride down to the Deeps. In the book's epilogue, Rebecca kills Imago, who was hiding on the surface, by poison. ===== The film begins with Mario on his way to La Paz. As the bus moves through the countryside, we see flashbacks of Mario's memories of his wife, and of his son, who lives in Miami. Mario tries to get a Visa of the United States in order to go there and visit his son, and eventually stay and live in that country. At first the process seems to go well. Mario gives his papers to the US embassy, where he is told that everything is in order and that he can return in a week to obtain his Visa. Thinking the Visa is secured, he buys a ticket to Miami. Then, returning to the hotel where he is staying, he meets Blanca, an exotic dancer, who lives there as well. He tells her that he is going to the US to live with his son, but she tries to convince him to stay in Bolivia because she does not believe in the "American Dream." Nevertheless, despite their vastly different dreams, the two share an immediate attraction, and they quickly fall into a promising relationship. After a week he returns to the embassy, and discovers his visa has been denied. An official tells him that he should say that he would not try to stay in the United States, which is something he can not do. Naturally Mario is angered, and he is forcibly removed from the office. Outside the embassy, a woman gives him the business card of a company that might help him with the visa. Visiting their office, he discovers that the company will charge him $5,000 for providing a visa. This is, of course, an amount that he does not have. He continues his relationship with Blanca while thinking about the possibilities for getting the money. When he sells some gold to a woman in a shop, he thinks of a plan. For days he watches the store and follows the courier after the shop closes. He finds out that the owner of the shop has several businesses of the same type. After a time he decides to rob the owner in order to get the money he needs. Meanwhile, Blanca has fallen in love with him. Eventually Don Mario breaks into the owner's home to rob him, but during the theft, Mario is discovered and in the ensuing fight with the owner, Mario strikes him, knocking him to the floor. At this, Mario thinks he has killed him, and returns to the hotel, lamenting what he has done. The next day, Mario contacts the document broker and buys the visa. He discovers that the US embassy official, a corrupt man without scruples, is the source of the visa. After receiving the visa, he plans his visit to his son, but the man whom he assaulted has other plans, sending two of his workers to abduct him and rake him into the countryside to interrogate him. When they realize that Mario no longer has the money, they give him a beating and throw him off a cliff. Luck is with Mario, however. He is not killed, but is taken to a hospital, where he is reunited with Blanca. After recovering, he postpones his plans to travel to Miami and goes with Blanca to visit her village. ===== The film is an autobiographical account of Tony Ayres' life at age eight, however the names have been changed. The story is narrated by Darren Yap as an adult Tom typing the story on a computer and reflecting on the story "which defines them, which shapes who they are." His mother Rose Hong (Joan Chen) was a nightclub singer in Hong Kong in 1964, where she met Bill, an Australian sailor, and married him to seek a better life in Australia, taking her daughter May (Irene Chen) and son Tom (Joel Lok). An opening montage of scenes shows Rose making several unsuccessful attempts to establish herself with Chinese partners before moving in with Bill again. The story begins seven years after their initial migration to Australia, with the family returning to Bill's house in Melbourne. Bill's mother, Norma (Kerry Walker), who is disapproving of the family, has moved in. When Bill leaves on a tour of duty, Rose and Norma struggle for control over the house. Soon, Rose begins to have an affair with Joe (Qi Yu Wu), the son of the local Chinese restaurateur, who is in his twenties. He moves in with Rose, who tells Norma he is her aunt's son. Rose and her children are eventually kicked out when Norma finds Joe in Rose's room. Rose settles in with Joe after renting a place from a Chinese man. Their relationship begins to break down, and Rose attempts suicide, however May and Joe discover an affinity for each other which develops into a friendship. Rose, believing that May is trying to take Joe away from her, beats her and curses her. May, as a result, also attempts suicide and Rose also ends up in despair. However, the mother and daughter are reconciled in forgiveness as Rose tells May the story of the difficulties and traumatic experiences in her childhood, where she was forced into a marriage and lost her first two daughters. The relationship between Rose and Joe collapses, and the family once again returns to Bill's home, with Norma moving out. One afternoon when Tom is walking home with his classmate they encounter Rose in the front yard, and upon overhearing a conversation between two of his classmates bagging out Rose and her clothing, Tom blocks himself from his mother completely. Rose, in the meantime, has had her dream shattered, and is contemplating returning to Hong Kong when Tom abruptly tells her his apathy. The film culminates in the adult Tom narrating, "Of all the things I remember about my childhood, this is what I remember the most." The eight-year-old Tom wakes up early in the morning to see the light to the backyard shed on and enters to find that Rose has hanged herself. Although she does not die initially, Bill receives a phone call later on confirming her death. The epilogue to the film shows the adult Tom and his sister May with her family (who happen to be Ayres' real life family) returning to Bill's home. He narrates again, recalling how he never shed a tear for his mother, but instead, wrote the story fully to understand what has shaped him. The real Tom, Tony Ayres, and his sister stayed with Bill after their mother's death. May ends up marrying the teacher who became their guardian soon after Bill's death. ===== During the 1800s in the Wild West, a gunman by the name of Chance is hired to escort emotionally challenged people across the desert safely. ===== 200px After the 1991 peace agreements, a handsome, young Cambodian doctor returns from Paris to volunteer his services at a clinic in his home village in rural Cambodia, just outside the capital city. Most of his patients are victims of land mines. A love triangle of sorts comes to pass as he falls in love with a young nurse at the clinic, while fending off the advances of his cousin (unhappily married to an amputee war hero). ===== Go Byung-hee (Go Hyun-jung) is a 33-year-old woman working as a reporter for a third-rate magazine, but with the heart of a 24-year-old virgin girl. She frequently finds it hard to cope with the unexciting aspects of her life. She dreams of someday working for a company that she can be proud of, and of finding the man of her fantasies: someone her age who has a good educational background and is financially stable, who'll provide warm support when she needs it, and who'll go with her on a world tour in a campervan. One day, she gets into an accident with her friend Seung-hye's younger brother, Chul-soo (Chun Jung-myung), and begins to see him in a new light. Park Chul-soo is a 24-year-old high school graduate working as a mechanic at a car repair shop. Although Chul-soo does not seem to have much, he is filled with maturity and enjoys life by doing the things he loves: working as a mechanic and traveling. How many people actually find the love they dream of? Until they realize that true love is just around the corner, this couple continues to pursue this unique romantic relationship of "dating a friend's brother" and "dating my sister's friend." ===== The plot involves a charming Las Vegas hotel owner named Neil Chaine (Hudson) who gets fired by his superiors from the hotel-casino where he operates. Determined to seek revenge on his former employers in a subtle way, Chaine uses his severance pay to purchase a decaying casino next door to his former hotel to turn it into the Strip's top attraction. Help for Chaine comes from an assortment of people who include Sarah Shipman (Stone) a young casino hostess who tries to help him gain a gambling license, as well as Jack Madrid (Jones) a flamboyant sports promoter who is asked to hold a boxing match at Chaine's hotel, while Madrid may or may not be on Chaine's side... depending on where the money should be. Towards the end when Chaine's new hotel looks like it will be closed down because of various debts having rung up during his opening of the place, he decides to settle his debts by playing high-stakes roulette and craps at his former partners hotel to get the money the honest way and not through various and less-than-legal means. ===== British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday wartime job of defusing unexploded bombs. Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he is parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a member of the fascist Iron Guard. He makes his way to Czechoslovakia to steal the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the chemical plant where it is being manufactured. However, his contact is arrested before he can arrange for a job in the factory. Tartu is instead assigned work as a foreman at a munitions factory, where he is issued a German uniform. He is billeted in the house of Anna Palacek (Phyllis Morris) and her daughter Pavla (Glynis Johns), who works in the plant; also living there are German Inspector Otto Vogel (Walter Rilla) and the lovely Maruschuka Lanova (Valerie Hobson), who lives well by making herself popular with the German officers. That day Pavla shoots a German who earlier had had the man she loved executed. Tartu provides her with an alibi, winning her trust, and then reveals himself as a secret agent. Needing to get into the chemical plant, he asks her help to contact the Czech underground, and is surprised when she contrives for him and Maruschuka to go on a date. They talk guardedly but make it clear they are both working against the Nazis. At work the next day, Pavla is seen attempting sabotage. She whispers to Tartu to protect himself by denouncing her. He does, and she is summarily executed. The factory manager rewards Tartu by arranging the transfer he wants, to the chemical plant. The same day, Maruschuka contacts Dr. Novotny (Martin Miller), the leader of the local resistance group, and says she trusts Tartu. However they have already concluded that he had saved Pavla as a trick to win the confidence of the underground and order him killed. To arrange this while avoiding the execution of 200 Czechs by the Nazis in retribution, Maruschuka returns home and comes on seductively to Vogel. She tells him she's sure Tartu is a spy and Vogel says he will call the Gestapo. But she suggests Vogel advance his career by taking the initiative and killing Tartu himself. Vogel wants evidence, so she goes out again with Tartu that night, so that Vogel can overhear them talking. But they are interrupted before this can happen. The next day, Tartu goes to work for Dr. Willendorf (Percy Walsh), the head of the chemical plant. He is dismayed to learn that the first shipment of gas is scheduled for the following night. Desperate to reach the resistance, he pretends to get drunk in a bar and brags that he knows of six Czech resistance members about to be arrested and killed. His idea works: he is abducted by the underground, and with a great deal of effort, finally convinces them they are on the same side. Working all night, they manufacture enough miniature bombs to demolish the plant if properly placed. Screenshot of the climactic escape At the Palacek house, Vogel checks up on Tartu's credentials and happily informs Maruschuka that Tartu is indeed a spy. She believes Vogel and, trying to stop him telling anyone else, accidentally kills him. She hurries to the chemical plant to warn Tartu that he is in danger. He sounds an air raid alarm and runs through the plant setting the bombs in their places. The Germans quickly realize he is a saboteur, but he just manages to complete his task and escape from the heavily guarded plant, which blows up as he is driven away. Finally he, Maruschuka, and a pilot steal a German bomber and fly to safety as he proposes "just a simple little wedding". ===== The story focuses on Dr Plonk, a scientist and inventor who, in 1907, determines that the world will end in 101 years. However, he is ridiculed for his beliefs and so invents a time machine in order to collect evidence from the future to prove his case. But each visit he makes to 2007 only causes him more problems, and he eventually becomes a wanted man... ===== The series explores the lives and relationships of two record store employees, an "object of perfection" greeter at the American Eagle store across the way, as well as a slightly psychotic girl who works in a lingerie store, and a bad-boy poseur from the requisite mall juice bar. ===== In the magical land of Coventry, Queen Miranda is in King Aron's study speaking to his portrait how much she misses him. She exits the room followed by a shadow, waves her hand and a wall conceals the opening. In the Earth dimension, Camryn makes a mess when she tries to magically put dishes into a dishwasher. Alex is living with them because she is going to Waverly University. Karsh and Ileana show up and announce they are getting married and that Miranda wants to see them. Alex does not go because she doesn't want to miss her first day of classes, so Camryn goes by herself, she then meets a handsome man named Demitri. She believes him to be a prince, but he is a powerless kitchen servant. At school, Alex meets Marcus, who is Camryn's ex-boyfriend. He mistakes her for Camryn until Beth tells him otherwise. Alex and Camryn receive clues that their father is alive in the Shadowlands. Miranda believes that Thantos is becoming powerful again, and wants the girls to use a vanquishing spell during an eclipse, when their powers will be at their strongest. If they perform the spell, everything in the Shadowlands will be destroyed, including their father Aron. Alex does not want to do it, but Camryn finishes the vanquishing spell. Alex finds a possible way to bring Aron from the Shadowlands but brings back Thantos. He goes off to destroy Aron's Shadow, who was the shadow present on Earth. Camryn and Alex follow, and when Thantos takes Aron back to Coventry, everyone is locked out. Demitri helps them get into the castle. When asked how, he reveals that Miranda returned his powers to him. Together as one, Camryn, Alex, and Miranda bring Aron back and he defeats Thantos, who falls down a portal, sending him to the afterlife. Karsh and Ileana marry. Everyone is there: David and Emily, their housekeeper, and even Beth and Marcus. Camryn and Demitri share a loving look. Then she waves to Beth while Marcus and Alex wink at each other. Marcus whispers to Beth: "I can't believe you're not more freaked out about this." Beth replies, "What's there to be freaked out about? I'm just jealous she's got this much room in the back of her closet." Karsh and Ileana exchange rings and Aron and Miranda pronounce them husband and wife. They kiss and have the reception. The twins, Ileana, Karsh, Miranda and Aron, are all chanting, "Go Twitches, Go Twitches!" ===== The Five Find Outers - Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets, and their Scottie dog, Buster, are shocked when someone starts sending anonymous spiteful letters to several people in their village of Peterswood. Pip and Bets are involved when their young maid Gladys receives one of the letters, which reveals a secret - her parents are in prison for theft and she has lived in a girls home. Frightened and distraught, Gladys leaves her job. The children decide that they must discover who is sending the letters. They make a list of suspects - could the letter writer be Mr. Nosey a busybody or Miss Tittle a lover of gossip - or someone else? Their arch-enemy, village policeman Mr Goon is also on the case, and the children must hurry to solve the mystery before he does. ===== In the early 1990s, a tractor mechanic nicknamed Steelhead (Jackie Chan) illegally enters Japan from China in search of his fiancée, Xiu-Xiu (Xu Jinglei) with the help of his "brother" Jie (Daniel Wu). Jie has taught Steelhead how to make a living by teaching him the trades of the underworld. One day, while illegally working as part of a clean-up crew in the sewers, Steelhead and his Chinese comrades are spotted by the police. Unwilling to get caught, Steelhead and the others run for their lives. In the ensuing turn of events, Steelhead saves Detective Kitano from drowning, and in gratitude, Kitano decides to stop pursuing Steelhead. One night, while working in a restaurant with Jie, Steelhead finds Xiu-Xiu with Yakuza leader Eguchi (Masaya Kato). Saddened by seeing his fiancée with another man, he spends the night with Jie drinking and partying with hookers. Once sober, Steelhead decides to become a legal citizen of Japan by any means possible. Steelhead and his Chinese friends then go on an aggressive money laundering operation, but leave Jie out of it due to his kind hearted nature. Unfortunately, Taiwanese triad leader Gao (Jack Kao) discovers one of his pachinko machines has been tampered with (fixed by Steelhead's group) and vows to punish the culprit. Jie gets caught playing the tampered pachinko machine and is taken to a dark alleyway where Gao slices Jie's face and cuts off his right hand while trying to get information. Upon learning that Jie is held by the Taiwanese gang, Steelhead and the rest of their group go and collect Jie. Full of anger and pity for Jie's fate, Steelhead sneaks inside Gao's establishment and hides to take revenge, but instead learns of the plot between the Togawa group (rival "allies") and Gao to kill Eguchi. Eguchi, unaware of the plot, arrives at Gao's. Just as Gao is about to kill Eguchi, Steelhead saves him by chopping off Gao's arm with his machete and the two run for their lives. They successfully escape their pursuers and Steelhead is welcomed to the Eguchi estate to recover. Steelhead has the chance to catch up with Xiu-Xiu as Eguchi gives them a moment to speak to each other. Steelhead learns that Eguchi and Xiu-Xiu have a little girl, Ayako. Xiu-Xiu tells him that her name is now Yuko and that she is happy with her new life. Eguchi returns and offers Steelhead a high paying job, which he refuses. Later, Eguchi tries unsuccessfully to expose Togawa for the attempted assassination, but their boss makes Eguchi apologize for the accusations instead. Eguchi then asks Steelhead to be a hitman. Steelhead agrees, under two conditions: he'll take control of Gao's territories and legally become a citizen of Japan. Steelhead kills all of his targets, which results in a gang war within the Yakuza ranks; Steelhead and Eguchi get what they wanted. Eguchi is promoted after Togawa and Steelhead become a vassal under Eguchi with Gao's territories. Steelhead does everything to make a better life for his Chinese brothers, but has no interest in the daily operations of Yakuza activity. He leaves all the daily operations to his brothers as he starts a successful tractor business. Sometime later, Detective Kitano meets with Steelhead and warns him that all of his brothers have become corrupted. Kitano tells Steelhead that he would be arrested along with his friends, with him charged as the head conspirator. Steelhead makes a deal with Kitano: Steelhead would find evidence to have Eguchi arrested in exchange for his comrades' freedom. That fateful night, Steelhead and Kitano return to the vassal HQ to warn his comrades about their impending arrest if they don't stop their operation and is met with furious opposition. His brothers violently refuse to give up their rich lives they made with the Yakuza. Eguchi arrives just as Steelhead is stabbed by one of his "brothers". Meanwhile, the Yakuza can't tolerate Eguchi's leadership anymore. Gao, Nakajima (Eguchi's former subordinate), and Togawa's son agree to take Eguchi down the same night. Waves of Yakuza storm into the building and proceed to kill everyone, leaving only Eguchi, Steelhead, and Kitano to survive the onslaught. Gao is also killed with Steelhead's retaliation. Mortally wounded by Nakajima, Eguchi gives Steelhead a flash drive that contains data on the Yakuza operations. As Kitano and Steelhead escape out of the building, the police arrive and arrest the Yakuza. After being split up from Kitano, Steelhead met and bid a sorrowful farewell to a dying Jie, who had also escaped, but did not survive the attack at the vassal HQ. Steelhead calls Yuko to meet in Okubo station, along with Ayako, but Togawa has already taken Ayako hostage and forces Yuko to tell him where Steelhead is headed. Nakajima intercepts Steelhead; the police arrive in time and exchange gunfire with Nakajima and his men. Nakajima shoots Steelhead, but is then gunned down by Kitano. Steelhead, still alive, flees into the sewers. Kitano follows and finds him being swept away by sewage currents and tries to pull him out, but Steelhead tells him it is useless and Kitano does not know how to swim. Steelhead gives the flash drive to Kitano before the current sweeps his body away, calling his debt to Kitano repaid while remembering how happy it was when he was with his comrades in simpler times. ===== It is the year 1916 in India. Sardar Kishan Singh and his family, including son Bhagat, are distressed when Sardar's brother, Ajit Singh, is arrested for speaking out against the British. He then mysteriously disappears after supposedly escaping from prison and is never heard from again. This makes a strong impression on young Bhagat Singh's mind. When he grows up, he joins the freedom fighting movement headed by Chandrashekar Azad. He sees an unarmed protester against the Simon Commission, killed by the police. Bhagat, Chandrashekar Azad, Rajguru, Sukhdev, and Jaygopal decide to avenge this death by killing Assistant Commissioner Saunders. They succeed in killing him. They then flee to evade the massive police manhunt. Bhagat is a prime suspect, having been identified as the Sikh with the turban. Bhagat removes his turban, shaves his beard, and, having changed his appearance, returns to the freedom movement. Time passes. Bhagat Singh and comrade Batukeshwar Dutt explode a bomb in the Central Assembly of the British Parliament as an act of protest. Together with other freedom fighters, including Bhagat's best friend Sukhdev, they are arrested and prosecuted, then thrown in prison. They are incarcerated in the jail at Lahore, where they are continually persecuted and tortured by the prison guards. After seeing the maltreatment of Bhartiya prisoners, Bhagat and his fellow freedom fighters announce a hunger strike, during which Yadintranath dies. The government gives in and agrees to change the way prisoners are treated. As the case in the killing of Saunders continues, Bhagat and his comrades give poignant speeches in the court condemning British imperialism. Chandrashekhar Ajad and Bhagwati Charan Vohra try to help the freedom fighters escape, but the attempt fails, and Bhagavati Bhaiya dies in the process. Chandrashekhar Ajad subsequently kills himself (he vowed to neverbe captured alive) during his encounter with a group of British men in Alfred Park. The trial ends. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are all given death sentences. Fearing public protests, the British secretly send Bhagat Singh and Rajguru to the gallows a day before they are officially supposed to be executed. The men shout: "Long live the Revolution!" just before they are executed. ===== The novel is told in the form of a fictional diary by the 12-year-old protagonist Lola Hart, and details Lola and her family's experiences in a near-future Manhattan in which violence, rising unemployment, and riots are commonplace in the city, as well as the rest of the United States. As the novel progresses, Lola transforms from a student at one of Manhattan's most privileged private schools to a street-wise gangster as she and her family struggle to survive the despair of a crumbling government and economy. ===== Ruth Gordon as Lola Pratt in the Broadway production of Seventeen (1918) The middle-class Baxter family enjoys a comfortable and placid life until the summer when their neighbors, the Parcher family, play host to an out-of-town visitor, Lola Pratt. An aspiring actress, Lola is a "howling belle of eighteen" who talks baby-talk "even at breakfast" and holds the center of attention wherever she goes. She instantly captivates William with her beauty, her flirtatious manner, and her ever-present prop, a tiny white lap dog, Flopit. William is sure he has found True Love at Last. Like the other youths of his circle, he spends the summer pursuing Lola at picnics, dances and evening parties, inadvertently making himself obnoxious to his family and friends. They, in turn, constantly embarrass and humiliate him as they do not share his exalted opinion of his "babytalk lady". William steals his father’s dress-suit and wears it to court Lola in the evenings at the home of the soon-regretful Parcher family. As his lovestruck condition progresses, he writes a bad love poem to "Milady", hoards dead flowers Lola has touched, and develops, his family feels, a peculiar interest in beards and child marriages among the 'Hindoos'. To William's constant irritation, his ten-year- old sister Jane and the Baxters' Negro handyman, Genesis, persist in treating him as an equal instead of the serious-minded grown-up he now believes himself to be. His parents mostly smile tolerantly at William’s lovelorn condition, and hope he will survive it to become a responsible, mature adult. After a summer that William is sure has changed his life forever, Lola leaves town on the train. The book concludes with a Maeterlinck-inspired flash-forward, showing that William has indeed survived the trials of adolescence. ===== The novel primarily follows the story of a white teenager and an African-American man on their journey down the devastated Mississippi River. Although the focus of the novel is the journey of the two main characters, there are dozens of side-stories and parallel plot lines throughout the book. Some of which are: a preacher who leads his flock to believe that the end has come, a Sheriff (and KKK member) who begins a program of genocide against the people left homeless by the disaster, a technician struggling to keep a Louisiana nuclear power plant from melting down, and an Army Corps of Engineers commander trying to curtail the devastation wrought by the failure of the levee system. The author also plays on actual historical events and personalities such as Huey Long, the uprising at the Sobibor concentration camp, and the Jonestown incident. ===== Set in Prague during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the film follows Dr. Braun, a Jewish doctor forbidden to practice medicine who instead works for German officials cataloging confiscated Jewish property. All Braun wants to do is survive, but his pragmatic mentality is challenged when an injured resistance fighter stumbles into his apartment building. A quest for morphine leads Dr. Braun through his tortured city, where fear eats away at the social structure. Superficially, the city might appear to be normal, but hallucinations, awkward outbursts, and nervous, self-conscious behavior make it clear that society is falling apart. Although images of the Holocaust are never seen, its devastation is understood through an overarching sense of destitution and fear. As Dr. Braun travels through the seedy undergrounds of Prague and back up to his apartment building—where a long winding staircase connects the lives of all his eccentric neighbors—a wide variety of personalities are introduced to the screen, each of whom appears equally as tortured. With minimal dialogue and a creeping pace, the sense of impending doom never leaves the screen. Crying babies, heavy shadows and broken records set a consistent tone of nightmarish anxiety. Drawn frenetically from the dancehall, where beautiful young couples bob and empty Champagne glasses litter the tables, to the apartment building of a former piano teacher that's stacked high with sheet music and out onto the empty cobblestone streets, the audience is never allowed to feel at ease. The film is scored with discordant piano music and full of expressionist cinematography. At the beginning, the camera follows Dr. Braun through his work, where exaggerated shots lend themselves to symbolic interpretation. For example, in one scene, Dr. Braun stands silently in front of a wall full of ticking confiscated clocks. Clocks serves as a symbol for time; and the Jews who lost their clocks also had their time on Earth taken from them. Later, short choppy shots of the doctor's home work act as exposition. A small pile of books and an empty jar of milk hint at poverty and intellect. His neglected violin suggests passion and creativity that's been suppressed; and his small bedroom window, which shows a solitary smoking chimney, subtly alludes to the horrors of the Holocaust. Towards the end of the film, a voice from the radio, declares in a monotone voice, "The longer the war lasts the greater is our faith in the final victory." Not a voice of hope, Brynych's film sends out a message of despair. ===== 2005 book cover The tale relates the encounters of a musically talented, novice Buddhist monk named Tum and a beautiful adolescent girl named Teav. During his travels from Ba Phnum, Prey Veng province, to the province of Tbaung Khmum, where he has gone to sell bamboo rice containers for his pagoda, Tum falls in love with Teav, a very beautiful young lady who is drawn to his beautiful singing voice. She reciprocates his feelings and offers Tum some betel and a blanket as evidence of her affections; she prays to Buddha that the young monk will be with her for eternity. Upon returning to his home province, Tum is consumed with longing for Teav and soon returns to Tbaung Khmum. He initially spends some time in Teav's home despite her being 'in the shade' (a period of a few weeks when the daughter is supposedly secluded from males and taught how to behave virtuously). After professing their love for one another, Tum and Teav sleep together. Soon afterward, he is recruited by King Rama to sing at the royal palace, and he leaves Teav once again. Teav's mother is unaware of her daughter's love for the young monk, and in the meantime she has agreed to marry her daughter off to the son of Archoun, the powerful governor of the province. Her plans are interrupted, however, when emissaries of Rama—equally impressed by Teav's beauty—insist that she marry the Cambodian king instead. Archoun agrees to cancel his son's wedding arrangement, and Teav is brought to the palace. When Tum sees that Teav is to marry the king, he boldly sings a song that professes his love for her. Rama overcomes his initial anger and agrees to allow the young couple to marry. When Teav's mother learns of her daughter's marriage, she feigns illness as a ruse to lure Teav back to her village, whereupon she once again tries to coerce her into marrying Archon's son. Teav sends word to Tum of the impending wedding, and Tum arrives with an edict from the king to stop the ceremony. Tum gets drunk, announces he is Teav's husband and kisses her in public. Enraged, Archoun commands his guards to kill Tum, who is beaten to death under a Bo tree. Grief-stricken, Teav slits her own throat and collapses on Tum's body. When Rama hears of the murder, he descends upon Archoun's palace, ignores the governor's pleas for mercy, and orders Archoun's entire family—including seven generations worth of relatives—be taken to a field and buried to their necks. An iron plow and harrow are then used to decapitate them all.Our Books » Tum Teav ===== Actress Yulia Martynova (Natalya Sayko) is starring in a new film, but in the middle of the film production she is suddenly hospitalized with a serious illness. Film director (Leonid Filatov) is emotionally involved, he becomes frustrated, but the actress comes back from her hospital bed to the studio to continue her work in post-production. Yulia cannot imagine her character speaking with a voice of another actress, so she is dealing with her condition, taking drugs to overcome her pain, in order to contribute her original voice to the film. Cast and crew members are helping the star to overcome, and her original voice brings new depth and meaning to the film, after her death. ===== Eberlin's (Laurence Harvey) superiors in Britain instruct him to find and assassinate a KGB agent named Krasnevin, believed to have killed a number of British agents. This presents a problem for Eberlin, as he is Krasnevin. Summoned to a meeting at a country house, he is presented with film footage of the suspected Krasnevin. It turns out to be his handler and go-between with Moscow. He is partnered with a ruthless, cynical, and sociopathic British agent Gatiss (Tom Courtenay), who openly distrusts and dislikes him. Mia Farrow plays a London-based photographer with whom Eberlin has an affair. Much of the film takes place in West Berlin, where Eberlin tackles the dilemma posed by his mission by attempting to escape across the Berlin Wall to the East. His attempts are frustrated by his partnership with Gatiss and by the Soviet authorities, who are keen to retain one of their top agents in British intelligence. ===== A plague in the form of a toxic viral gas is unleashed at major sporting events across the United States. The gas turns its victims instantly "into an immediate rage of insanity and violence". Controversial Los Angeles talk show radio host Logan Burnhardt and his production team are caught up in the middle of the chaos. Only blocks away from the explosion site, they begin to receive reports of rioters in the streets and listeners continue to call in reports of their first hand experiences. In addition to those infected by the virus, the terrorists responsible for the attacks, led by Abir, attempt to make their way to Logan's studio and kill anyone in the way. ===== The first season was mostly a crime thriller-whodunit with only occasional episodes on the supernatural. After the first season, each story focused on a different aspect of paranormal activity, such as ghosts, zombies, phantoms, undead persons, possessed objects and witches and wizards. ===== Hector Kipling is an artist who is famous for his ovarian paintings of big heads. When one of his closest friends is found to have a brain tumor, Hector finds himself longing for someone close to him to die, as being the one left behind would make him the subject of sympathy. Hector's girlfriend Eleni leaves for her native Greece after her mother is injured in a kitchen accident. Meanwhile, Hector's own father has ended up in hospital as well: the money his mother spent on a replacement settee, after Eleni and Hector stained the old one during sex, is too much for him to handle. At an exhibition, an assailant badly damages one of Hector's paintings. To make up for the damage, the assailant Monger will buy an expensive settee from Hector's parents to get his father out of hospital. He does so, but also robs Hector's parents of £15,000 and kills their pet dog. Eleni returns home to tell Hector that her mother has died, but leaves in anger after she finds him with an American punk poet named Rosa Flood. Monger ends up killing Rosa and Lenny Snook, one of Hector's friends. Hector shoots Monger with the latter's gun and heads for the Tate Britain, where he paints the words "The simplest act of surrealism is to walk into a crowded street with a loaded revolver, and open the fire at random." He then does just that. After his arrest, Hector is charged with killing Rosa and Lenny, but has decided to let it go. Hector's father has died in hospital upon hearing of his son's deeds, and his mother has committed suicide by throwing herself into the Irish Sea. He never hears from Eleni again. ===== When a wagon crashes into a ravine, prospector Ben Rumson finds two adult male occupants, brothers, one of whom is dead and the other of whom has a broken arm and leg. While burying the dead man, gold dust is discovered at the grave site. Ben stakes a claim on the land and adopts the surviving brother as his "Pardner" while he recuperates. Pardner is innocent and romantic, illustrated by him singing a love song about a girl named Elisa ("I Still See Elisa"), who he later confesses exists only in his imagination. Pardner is a farmer who hopes to make enough in the gold rush to buy some land, and is suspicious of the drunken and seemingly amoral Ben. Ben claims that while he is willing to fight, steal, and cheat at cards, his system of ethics does not allow him to betray a partner. Ben will share the spoils of prospecting on the condition that Pardner takes care of him in his moments of drunkenness and melancholy. After the discovery of gold, "No Name City" springs up as a tent city with the miners alternating between wild parties ("Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans") and bouts of melancholy ("They Call the Wind Maria"). The men become frustrated with the lack of female companionship, so the arrival of a Mormon, Jacob Woodling, with two wives is enough to catch the attention of the entire town. The miners persuade Woodling to sell one of his wives to the highest bidder. Elizabeth, Jacob's younger and more rebellious wife, agrees to be sold based on the reasoning that whatever she gets, it can't be as bad as what she currently has. A drunken Ben winds up with the highest bid for Elizabeth. Ben is readied for the wedding by the other miners ("Whoop-Ti-Ay"), and is married to Elizabeth under "mining law," with Ben being granted exclusive rights to "all her mineral resources." Elizabeth, not content to be treated as property, threatens to shoot Ben on their wedding night if she is not treated with respect. While she believes Ben is not the type to truly settle down, this is acceptable if he builds a proper wooden cabin to provide her with some security for when he inevitably leaves. Ben, impressed by Elizabeth's determination, enlists the miners to keep this promise, and Elizabeth rejoices in having a proper home ("A Million Miles Away Behind the Door"). Sensing the other miners becoming obsessed with her, Ben is consumed by jealousy and paranoia. News comes of the pending arrival of "six French tarts" to a neighboring town and a plan is hatched to kidnap the women and bring them to "No Name City" ("There's a Coach Comin' In"), thus providing the other miners with female companionship. Ben heads up the mission and leaves Elizabeth in the care of Pardner. The two fall in love ("I Talk to the Trees"), whereupon Elizabeth, saying she also still loves Ben, convinces them that "if a Mormon man can have two wives, why can't a woman have two husbands?" As the town booms, the arrangement with Ben, Pardner, and Elizabeth works well for a while. But soon the town becomes large enough that civilized people from the East begin to settle there. A parson begins to make a determined effort to persuade the people of No Name City to give up their evil ways, warning the townsfolk that they will be swallowed up by God's wrath if they do not repent ("The Gospel of No Name City"). As the gold plays out, Ben and a group of miners discover that gold dust is dropping through the floor boards of many of the saloons. They tunnel under all the businesses to get the gold ("The Best Things in Life Are Dirty"). Meanwhile, a group of new settlers is rescued from the snow, and the strait-laced family is invited to spend the winter with Elizabeth and Pardner, who is assumed to be her only husband. Ben is left to fend for himself ("Wand'rin' Star"). In revenge, he introduces one of the family, naive young Horton Fenty, to the pleasures of Rotten Luck Willie's saloon and cat house. This leads to Elizabeth dismissing both Ben and Pardner from the log cabin. Pardner takes to gambling in Willie's ("Gold Fever"). During a bull-and-bear fight, the streets collapse into the tunnel complex dug by Ben and the others after the rampaging bull falls into it and knocks out all of the support beams, and the town is destroyed. A reprise of "The Gospel of No Name City" plays as the town is literally swallowed by the earth. Ben departs for other gold fields, commenting that he never knew Pardner's real name, which Pardner then reveals: Sylvester Newel. Elizabeth and Pardner reconcile and plan to stay. ===== Janki (Asha Parekh) is a temple priest's daughter. When she is a little girl, a man kills her father and kidnaps her and sells her to a brothel. When she grows up, she refuses to be a courtesan and wants a love marriage with a poor man named Ramesh. Noble and compassionate Thakur Virendra Singh (Ashok Kumar) lives a wealthy life-style with his wife, Ratna, but they have no children. Ratna's brother Vikram has designs on Janki and has bought her. Ramesh saves her from being raped, and they get married with help given by Virendra Singh's assistant Munshi. Ratna has a child after 14 years of marriage and it turns out to be a stillborn baby. While she is still unconscious, Janki decides to help by giving up her son Suraj to Virendra Singh. When Ratna wakes up, she is overjoyed to see that she has a son. Virendra Singh is grateful to Janki and promises her that he will raise her son as his own. Janki and her husband leave town and decide to start a new life and have another child- a daughter named Kiran (played by Asha Parekh again). Meanwhile, Virendra Singh and Ratna have a second son Prakash (Vijay Arora). Kiran grows up and is in college, which is where she meets Prakash. Another student Raja (Danny Denzongpa) harasses Kiran, and Prakash stands by her when she complains to the principal about Raja's behavior. Raja gets expelled from school, and Kiran and Prakash fall in love. Janki is a widow who supports Kiran by taking in sewing, and Kiran feels guilty. Mrs. Reen (Helen), a club owner, sees Kiran dance on the stage at her college and offers her a job as a cabaret dancer. She and Prakash have a run-in with Raja at the club, and he vows revenge. Prakash's brother Suraj(Kabir Bedi) falls in love with Munshi's daughter, Shobhna, but Ratna opposes this match as Shobhna is not in the same social and economic standing as her son. Prakash brings Kiran and her mother to his home to introduce them to his mother. Vikram instantly recognizes Janki and tells Ratna that she is a courtesan. Kiran gets upset and runs out, with Prakash following her. Suraj throws Janki out, when Virendra Singh slaps him and tells them the whole truth about how Janki is his real mother. Raja kidnaps Kiran and tries to rape her. Suraj and Prakash fight the goons and save her. However, Suraj kills Raja and is imprisoned. Janki and Kiran visit him in jail. Kiran cries to her brother that instead of rakhi, all she got for him was hathkadi(handcuffs) for her brother. Janki prays to God to help her son. In court, the judge rules that Raja's death was justified and Suraj is released. Janki is very happy. Suraj marries Shobna, and Prakash marries Kiran in a double wedding. Vikram asks for Janki and Munshi's forgiveness, which is granted. ===== After the New Alcatraz massacre, long time inmate Twitch (Kurupt) gets himself transferred to another. He claims it's to be closer to his lady but his real motives are a bit more grandiose than that. There he crosses paths with Burke (Bill Goldberg) a bulky prisoner who is unfriendly and doesn't want to talk about anyone. Twitch, despite being less muscular, is just as mouthy and is pretty much the same. But there is a gang war brewing between the Black and Hispanic inmates that explodes into a hostile takeover of the prison when the Blacks' gang leader is shot dead and the finger points at Burke. But the situations worsen when the real killer and leader of the Hispanics, Cortez (Robert Madrid) takes Twitch's girlfriend (Angell Conwell) and Burke's daughter (Alona Tal) hostage as well, betraying his comrades to escape. Eventually things get more complicated as Twitch's real reason for his transfer is to find the gold from the heist, organized from the fellow New Alcatraz inmate Lester McKena. Cortez demands a helicopter out of state or otherwise the hostages are dead. Burke and Twitch eventually catch up to Cortez and after a long fight with Burke ending up wounded, Cortez is knocked out and transferred to another prison. Twitch is given parole after his actions that could have seen him wait even longer before he actually gets out, with Burke having to serve only a few more weeks rather than years. Twitch and his girlfriend find the gold and, as a favor for Burke, set up his account with 80 million dollars along with a plan to help Burke's daughter for college, surprising Burke himself. ===== Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger take Julie to the hospital after she breaks her wrist during a soccer game, though before they leave, Monk gives the other parents the satisfaction of exposing the other team's coach as a murderer. At the hospital, Monk is stunned when he sees his old assistant Sharona Fleming working as a nurse. She explains that after leaving Monk's employ to remarry her ex-husband, Trevor Howe, and move to New Jersey, a friend of Trevor's from Los Angeles who owned a landscaping business sold his business to Trevor. They moved to Los Angeles and took over the business. However, recently, when one of his clients, a professor named Ellen Cole, was found bludgeoned to death with a lamp in her house, evidence turned up suggesting Trevor was the killer. Sharona has no trouble believing it, so she and Benjy have moved back up to San Francisco, with Benjy currently staying with Sharona's sister Gail. Sharona doesn't hide the fact that she'd like her old job with Monk back, and before long there is open hostility between her and Natalie. To save her job, she works out a compromise: they will travel to Los Angeles so that Monk can see if Trevor is really guilty. Monk, Natalie and Sharona drive to Los Angeles, arriving by nightfall. They meet Lieutenant Sam Dozier of the Los Angeles Police Department while he's investigating the shooting of a cashier killed in an antiques store robbery. Here, Monk (wearing a gas mask due to fear of the smog) exposes the owner's wife as the killer. They then travel to Ellen Cole's house. Monk examines the scene and concludes (somewhat to his own regret), that Trevor is innocent. He notices several clues that suggest that Ellen Cole's killer was waiting for her, meaning that the murder was premeditated. However, Dozier informs Monk that jewelry from Trevor's clients was found in his truck, and Sharona dismisses this as not being enough to arrest Trevor - after all, it's not too difficult to commit identity theft and open an account with someone else's name to fence stolen goods. They go on to question some of the people closest to the victim, on the chance that one of them might be the real killer (with Monk also busting one of them for shoplifting). Later, Monk, Natalie and Sharona head down to a bookstore to question the person who found the evidence to "convict" Trevor, LAPD consultant Ian Ludlow. Ludlow is a household name everywhere, writing his Detective Marshak stories and publishing new ones at a rate of one book every three months. He mentions the damning evidence, although Monk refuses to believe it. While they are at the bookstore, Natalie buys a few of Ludlow's titles, including his latest, Death Is the Last Word. The saleswoman at the bookstore mentions that Ludlow has a compulsion - he can't pass a store without signing his own books, and today, unsigned Ludlow titles are more valuable than signed books. Sharona remains behind in Los Angeles, intending to do some asking around about Ellen Cole, while Monk and Natalie head back to San Francisco. During the drive, Monk flips through the Ludlow titles and quickly solves the mysteries in the books after only reading the first few pages. Natalie berates him for ruining the plots, but Monk remarks that there's really no point to reading his books: after all, in San Francisco, he solves a lot of cases that are usually a lot more interesting and complicated than what Ludlow can conjure. Not to mention, Ludlow has a certain key aspect present throughout his titles - the killer is always the least likely suspect who is betrayed by a personality quirk. While Monk and Natalie have been away, Julie has been staying with Benjy. She remarks that they seem to have way too many similarities (including having lost a father), and doesn't want to become identical to him at any point soon. The next few days go by with no incidents, as Monk recuperates from the smog in Los Angeles. Natalie briefly has a run in with Joseph Cochran, a firefighter she dated briefly during a different homicide investigation. Cochran informs Natalie that he needs Monk's help again - this time, on a property theft. It seems that someone has stolen his fire company's hydraulic rescue equipment. That Friday, when Natalie is leaving the house, her car starts leaking oil and she is forced to rent a Toyota Corolla while her Jeep Grand Cherokee goes into the shop for repairs. Baker Beach, where Ronald Webster's body was dumped Later that day, Monk and Natalie are called by Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher to a crime scene on Baker Beach. Monk has to face his issues with nudists as he is led to the crime scene. They are shown the crime scene, which Stottlemeyer mentions as possibly being a crime scene but at the same time is possibly not one: a 37-year-old shoe salesman by the name of Ronald Webster has been found brutally mauled to death, and his midsection has been ripped open. The medical examiner has determined the approximate time of death to be some time the night before, but they can't be more precise, given the body's immersion in the water. Monk learns that this was probably not a robbery, as Webster's wallet is still in his pocket, as are his car and house keys. He also learns that the victim's car is not in the nearby parking lot. Randy theorizes that Webster came out skinny dipping with a special friend, who may have been washed away, however, this turns out to be an unlikely lead. At Monk's request, the medical examiner turns Webster's body over, and he mentions that drowning is the likely cause of death. The wounds on his body, while still extremely painful, are not fatal, and they appear to have been made by a creature of some sort. After Randy makes several wild guesses about what kind of animal could make a bite like the one on the body, (his guesses getting more bizarre until he guesses that a clam is responsible) Monk dismisses him and tells all that the animal that did this was an alligator. He points out that all of the teeth marks are identical, as alligators have teeth that are all perfectly identical. The medical examiner points out to Monk that alligators are not indigenous to San Francisco, but an alligator may have been responsible - after all, alligators kill their prey by grabbing them with their mouths, and then holding them underwater until they drown, and the pattern of injuries is consistent with this theory. Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher are all convinced that this is a rather cleverly committed homicide. With Stottlemeyer unable to mobilize a homicide task force with the San Francisco Police Department until the medical examiner completes his autopsy, Monk and Natalie ask around to see if there might be anything that would explain why Ronald Webster was killed in a rather bizarre fashion. They go to the shoe store where Webster worked, and question some of his fellow employees. Coincidentally, it seems that the store is in Natalie's neighborhood. They talk to one of his fellow employees, who tells them that Webster lived a very dull life, and also mentions that his priest is the only person who'd know more about him. Leaving the store, Monk mentions to Natalie that as Ronald Webster lived a rather quiet life, the theory that the alligator attack was premeditated homicide looks more compelling - for one thing, skinny dipping wasn't something that fit his personality. Also, his car was never found near the crime scene, and Monk figures that they'll find Webster's Buick Lucerne either near his house or near the store. Monk deduces that the crime scene at the beach was entirely staged, and Webster had to have been killed somewhere else. The next day, Monk and Natalie head to Mission Dolores, a few blocks away, and speak to Father Bowen, Webster's priest. In questioning, he tells them that Webster attended mass every day. Monk figures that Webster had done something worth feeling very guilty about that caused him to attend daily mass. Bowen mentions that a few years ago, Webster hit a woman with his car and he fled the scene. He felt so guilty about the incident that he started attending church to pay for what he did. Natalie quickly calls Disher to ask for a check on the victim that Ronald Webster hit. Their next stop is the office of Dr. Paula Dalmas, a dentist in Walnut Creek, and the woman that Webster had hit with his car. Questioning Dr. Dalmas, they learn that Webster has been sending money to her anonymously for a while, and had been following her for years. She mentions that she had to undergo quite a lot of surgery after the hit-and-run, including hip surgery and facial surgery, and has lost the ability to reproduce. Monk quickly figures that Dr. Dalmas is a dead end - she was left with permanent injuries after the hit-and-run, and as such has made it her job to fix other peoples' teeth. Also, she has an alibi for the night of the murder. As Monk and Natalie return to San Francisco, Stottlemeyer calls to inform them that the medical examiner has completed his report and wants them down at the morgue. When they arrive at the morgue, they find Stottlemeyer and Disher waiting for them, as well as Ian Ludlow himself. Ludlow admits that Randy called him in, and that Randy was one of his top students when he was teaching a class on mystery writing at Berkeley, during the 2007 SFPD police strike. Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer, Disher, Ludlow and the medical examiner all look at Webster's body. The bite does appear to have been made by an alligator, judging by the amount of force per square inch applied. At the same time though, the medical examiner mentions that there are traces of bath water and bath salts in the body, suggesting he drowned in his bathtub, which only makes things more complicated. Natalie asks if it is easy to fake an alligator bite, and learns that it is actually more difficult than one thinks: you have to get the right amount of force per square inch, and if there are no signs of a struggle, it's a dead giveaway. Ludlow mentions that one of his characters in Death Is the Last Word actually tried faking an alligator bite with a bear trap with no success. For obvious reasons, Monk is unhappy with Ludlow's presence, and dismisses some of the crucial clues Ludlow has found, such as the fact that Webster had his last meal (a few slices of pizza) less than an hour before he was killed. They decide to check out Ronald Webster's loft apartment. As they arrive, Stottlemeyer points out that the building he lived in was recently converted from an old warehouse, and Webster was the only occupant the building - so if he was killed here, no one would have heard anything like the sounds of a struggle. Monk examines the scene and notices streaks on the floor, some hydraulic fluid, and a drop of blood in the bathtub - clues that suggest that this is where Webster was killed. He also notices that their killer apparently was very messy and left behind basically everything except a name and a phone number, and is somewhat confused - why would someone who'd killed a guy in a very clever way suddenly become so messy? Monk also notices that the victim was a fan of Ludlow's books, judging by the fact that he has all but the latest title on his bookshelf. They also find a pizza box from Sorrento's with a receipt dated to Thursday night, and Natalie begins to wonder if she and Julie came very close to encountering Webster or spotted him and never recognized him. While they are investigating the apartment, Natalie gets a call from Joe Cochran. Monk quickly figures out who the caller is, and learning about the theft that happened at Joe's firehouse, he insists on checking it out. Monk and Natalie head down to Joe's firehouse where they meet Joe and Fire Captain Mantooth, who is pleased to meet Monk again. They explain to Monk that on Wednesday night, earlier in the week, at around 9:00pm, their crew was called away to a car fire in Washington Square. Someone had blown up a painter's van (the arson investigators have ruled it arson, having discovered that someone stuffed rags into the van's fuel tank). Monk quickly figures that the arsonist who did it wanted to get a lot of attention. It took Joe's crew at least two hours to fight the fire and clean up the rubble, and when they got back to their firehouse, they did their standard unloading procedure - cleaning the rig and doing an inventory check - and that's when they found that someone had stolen one of their Jaws of Life kits (the Jaws themselves are designed as a spreader to help extricate people who are trapped in their cars in accidents). Monk learns that the power unit stolen is powered by gasoline, and the Jaws also have a cutting force of 18,000 pounds per square inch. With this, Monk not only has figured out how Ronald Webster was killed, but he's also solved the case - and figured that Webster's killer is the same person as Ellen Cole's killer, even though both crimes have different M.Os (with Ellen being bludgeoned and Webster being mauled). Unfortunately, he doesn't believe he can recover the gear that was stolen, and reluctantly tells Joe and Mantooth that the thief probably dumped the gear in the Bay after he killed Ronald Webster. ===== On the first day of high school, best friends Virgil (Jason Dolley), Derek (Steven R. McQueen), and Stephanie (Chelsea Kane) each decide to try out various activities around the school. However, while Derek tries football and Stephanie tries cheerleading, Virgil's high school career takes a turn when young genius Charlie Tuttle (Luke Benward) interrupts football practice as he tears across the field on a rocket car. As the football team begins harassing Charlie, Virgil comes to his defense only to get bullied as well. Virgil and Charlie are forced to dress like cheerleaders and are hung from the school mascot's statue by their underwear. Three years later, Virgil and Charlie are still outcasts because of the incident despite Derek claiming that he had tried to stop the bullies from humiliating them. Charlie informs Virgil that he has invented the time machine. After befriending grease junky Zeke (Nicholas Braun), the time machine is built, and they test the time machine out by attempting to purchase a winning lottery ticket in the past. Forgetting that they are underage, they ask a local street performer to buy it for them but are forced to return to the present early. This, in turn, causes the street performer to win the lottery using the numbers they provided. After this failure, Charlie comes up with the plan to only use the machine to undo embarrassing mistakes made by their classmates dressed in white snowsuits to protect themselves from the portal's cold temperature. The group later become known as the "Snowsuit Guys" (though they themselves prefer to be called the "Minutemen") and are named local heroes by the students, but labeled as troublemakers by the principal because of them accidentally breaking his model of the school. However, they soon realize that the teenagers they saved have started changing and the formerly bullied have now become bullies themselves. It is then revealed that in order for the time machine to work, Charlie had to hack into NASA and steal old files. Charlie warns Zeke and Virgil to refrain from using the Time Machine for the time being. Virgil arrives at school and sees Stephanie with a broken leg due to a cheerleading injury that caused her to lose her scholarship to her dream college, so he convinces a reluctant Charlie and Zeke to save Stephanie from falling off her cheerleader's pyramid, leading her to confront him after he accidentally talks to her in his disguise. After Derek experiences a humiliating loss at the state championship, Stephanie asks Virgil to help him out; in turn, the former friends are reunited. After hanging with the popular kids, Virgil begins to abandon Charlie and Zeke in favor of Stephanie and Derek. However, Stephanie eventually learns that Derek is cheating on her with his tutor Jocelyn, and Derek pleads with Virgil to go back in time to stop Stephanie from finding out, but Virgil is unsure as he has discovered he now has feelings for her. The FBI comes to town after monitoring suspicious activity. After consulting with the government's top scientists, Charlie learns that their continuous trips in the time machine have damaged the space- time continuum, thus creating a black hole. With only hours to live, the trio is forced to venture into the hole and close it. Once they have entered the black hole, they are transported back to their first day of high school, as the key component from the time machine was in Charlie's rocket cart. Virgil realizes that he can undo the events that caused him to lose his popularity. Charlie truthfully tells him that although Virgil hates this day, it's his favorite day as it's the day he finally got a real friend. Charlie and Zeke leave Virgil to make a decision, but as Virgil watches the incident unfold, he discovers that Derek didn’t defend him at all. Instead, he had betrayed him in favor of gaining popularity by suggesting to also put lipstick on the two. Having come to his senses, Virgil then reunites with Charlie and Zeke after picking up the rocket car. The trio race back to the black hole just as it closes. They are then thrown back in time to the day they first time traveled. As they walk through the school, nobody suspects a thing and have no clue of the group’s heroic actions. Virgil stands up to Derek for his treachery and wins Stephanie's heart. Unfortunately, Charlie comes up with a new scientific idea involving teleportation and the film ends with Virgil and Zeke dragging Charlie away as he rambles about his plan. ===== Government officer Sameer takes charge of the old fort and palace of Jasor, last ruled by one King Param Singh. En-route his journey to Jasor, Reva meets Sameer in the train in a mysterious way. She keeps meeting and disappearing, during his stay in Jasor. The mysterious appearance and disappearance initially shakes Sameer but reassurance that spirits exist from an expert on the field gives him an unknown inner motivation to find out the truth behind Reva, and his own self as well as find out the reason he is connected with this story. As the story is revealed by Reva herself, she is a spirit stranded in a period of time, attempting to cross the desert to meet her long lost sister Tara. The older sister, Tara, comes to Maharaja Param Veer's palace for a singing and dancing performance one night. The Maharaja eyes her malevolently and orders his men to not let her go out of the palace that night so he can rape her. Ustad Miraj Ali, the musical maestro in the king's court, who also happens to be Tara and Rewa's music teacher, learns of the king's plan. He warns the father of Tara and Rewa and advises them to run away from the town by crossing the desert. The King learns of this and imprisons Miraj Ali and Rewa while Tara's camel runs ahead in the desert but is never heard of. The cruel Maharaja also orders Tara and Rewa's father to be lashed till he bleeds to a near-death condition and then orders his men to put him on a camel's back and send him into the desert. The lecherous King then turns his attention to Rewa. He would wait until she would grow into a young woman. Rewa spends 8 years in captivity and one day the King wishes to sexually gratify himself with her. Ustad Miraj Ali along with the help of one of the king's servants hatch a plan to help Rewa run away from prison to save herself from the King. We learn that Rewa narrowly escaped the clutches of indulgent King Param Singh. Her mentor Ustad Miraj Ali gives an oath of the Quran to one of his acquaintances, Mehru, who is supposed to help Reva cross the desert. But in the attempt to cross the desert, Mehru is caught by the King's men and punished by lashes and dropped to his village in a near-dead condition. Rewa gets killed in a severe desert sandstorm. She gets frozen in a moment of time. As events unfold towards the end, we come to know that Sameer is the rebirth of Mehru and that Rewa's elder sister, Tara successfully managed to cross the desert when her camel ran ahead. Tara is now older and has a daughter named after her dead, lost sister, Rewa. Ustad Miraj Ali also is alive and at Tara's house although he is very old. As soon as Sameer reaches Tara's house with the news about Rewa, Ustad Miraj Ali recognises him as Mehru and dies in his arms. Sameer also discovers a skeleton of Raja Param Singh in the castle dungeon. The 2 gold teeth in the skull help establish the identity of that skeleton as belonging to King Param Singh. It remains a mystery how King Param Singh died in the castle dungeon and how Ustad Miraj Ali managed to escape. Sameer eventually ends up fulfilling his commitment to help Reva's spirit not only cross the desert but also liberate her from the period of time in which she is stranded. ===== The main protagonist is Xan Meo, a well-known actor and writer, who is the son of Mick Meo, a violent London gangster who had died in prison years previously. Xan is severely beaten, apparently for mentioning the name of Joseph Andrews, one of his father's gangland rivals, in a book. Brain damage from the beating affects Xan's personality, and he becomes increasingly estranged from his wife, Russia (an academic who studies the families of tyrants), and two young daughters. Andrews is also conspiring with Cora Susan, who wants to take revenge on Xan because Mick Meo had crippled her father (who was sexually abusing Cora). Using the pseudonym of Karla White, a porn actress, Cora lures Xan (her uncle) to California and tries to seduce him, with the intention of wrecking his marriage, but fails. Xan confronts Andrews, who is also living in California, and learns that Andrews is his biological father. Xan confesses this to Cora, who reveals her own identity and confesses that Xan's refusal to have sex with her, coupled with the fact that he is not really Mick Meo's son, has undermined her plans for revenge against the Meo family. Henry IX is the reigning monarch in this book. His 15-year-old daughter, Victoria, is about to become involved in a scandal when a videotape of her in the nude is released to the press. It transpires that Joseph Andrews has conspired with Henry's mistress, He Zhizhen, to obtain the tape and blackmail the authorities into allowing him to return to Britain without being arrested. Andrews returns, still intending to use his henchman, Simon Finger, to intimidate Xan by assaulting Russia Meo. The king and princess decide to abdicate, effectively abolishing the monarchy. Clint Smoker, a senior reporter with a downmarket tabloid newspaper, is writing a series of articles of Ainsley Car, a maverick footballer with a history of assaults upon women. Despite his macho image, Clint is sexually dysfunctional, and responds hopefully to a series of flirtatious text messages from someone named "k8". Upon discovering that "k8" is a transsexual, Clint, who has talked with 'Karla White' in California, becomes enraged and drives to confront Andrews (whom Clint appears to blame for his ill-fated meeting with “k8”). Clint kills both Simon Finger and Andrews, but is blinded in his struggle with the latter. Throughout the novel, reference is made to the arrival of a comet, which is to pass dangerously close to the earth. An airliner experiences a number of problems on its journey to New York from London, and is obliged to make an emergency landing at the moment the comet arrives. ===== In this novel Lanny Budd's marriage to Irma breaks down after he imposes on her to help smuggle a revolutionary named Trudy out of Germany. Her husband Ludi had been arrested and vanished into the Gestapo prison system. Months later Lanny, at a séance, hears that Ludi is dead. He persuades Trudy that Ludi is dead and they secretly marry. Meanwhile, Lanny gets interested in Spain, and is in Barcelona for the Socialist People's Olympiad, in competition to the Berlin games. The Spanish Civil War breaks out. The son of Lanny's English friend Rick enlists in the Republican cause. In the climax at the end of the novel the son has been captured by the Nationalists and Lanny undertakes a dangerous attempt to spring the son from captivity and send him home to England. ===== Visiting New York in 1937 to see paintings for sale, Lanny runs into his old mentor from the Paris Peace Conference, Professor Alston, who is working in the Roosevelt administration. Upon hearing that Lanny's wealthy European customers include top Nazis Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Josef Goebbels, and that Lanny's father Robbie has started a military aircraft Company in Connecticut, but is finding only Nazi customers, Alston suggests a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR is impressed with Lanny’s grasp of the situation in Europe. Lanny agrees to gather information in Europe as a confidential agent. In Germany, Lanny’s old school friend Kurt is rising as a German agent. In England, schoolmate Rick is a leftist writer of political analysis. Lanny's American heiress ex-wife Irma is looking to marry into the English aristocracy. The English upper crust, including Lanny's ex- lover Rosemary (back from the Argentine, her husband's scandal having blown over), and the wealthy DeBruyne family of Lanny's deceased French ex-lover Marie, all fear a "Red" Spain and see Hitler as preferable to Stalin. In Paris, Lanny finds his secret wife Trudi has vanished, as have others working in the anti-Nazi underground. He seeks help from his “Red” uncle Jesse. His Spanish friend Raoul may be able to reach Trudi’s old underground contact Monck, who is fighting against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Lanny believes Trudi may be imprisoned in the walled, guarded Chateau Belcour outside Paris. Lanny manages get himself, Monck and a locksmith into the chateau dungeons, where they find Trudi has already been taken to Germany. Trying further to rescue Trudi, Lanny steps up his mingling in Nazi society as an art dealer and by posing as a convert to Nazism. Hitler purchases Detaze paintings and asks Lanny to spy on wealthy Austrians in Vienna. Lanny learns Hitler is preparing to force the Anschluss; he notifies FDR. By a device involving an occult séance, Lanny maneuvers Nazi Rudolf Hess to reveal that Trudi died at Dachau Concentration Camp. Lanny again reports to FDR on Nazi terrorism and aims of domination. In New York City, Lanny witnesses a fascist rally of the Christian Front (United States). Back home on the Riviera, Lanny discovers that his sister Bess' husband, the Italian fascist officer Vittorio, has stolen Marcel Detaze paintings from the home of Lanny's mother Beauty; soon after, a pregnant waitress threatens to sue Vittorio for child support. Lanny allows Vittorio to avoid arrest by leaving France permanently. Bess becomes a professional dancer. Back in Germany, Lanny sees Czechoslovakia partially dismembered "in the name of peace" at the 1938 Munich Conference. The Krystallnacht pogrom erupts all over Germany. Discouraged by the failure of England and France to arm themselves against Hitler and the political difficulties preventing FDR from acting, Lanny considers resigning as a Presidential Agent, but he stays on. Lanny sees the future holds a fateful struggle of Roosevelt against Hitler. ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== The three short stories that form this cycle are as follows. ===== Kimihiko Onizuka (Sadao Abe) is a salaryman infatuated with maiko (apprentice geisha) and whose greatest goal in life is to play a party game called yakyuken with one. Upon being transferred to his company's Kyoto branch, he dumps his coworker girlfriend Fujiko (Kou Shibasaki) and makes his first ever visit to a geisha house. However, when the realization of Kimihiko's lifelong dream is rudely interrupted by a professional baseball star named Kiichiro Naito (Shinichi Tsutsumi), he vows revenge by becoming a pro baseball player himself. Meanwhile, Fujiko decides to become an apprentice geisha. A rivalry between Kimihiko and Naito ensues in which they try to out-do each other at baseball, K-1, cooking, acting and even politics. ===== "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" is a fictional essay surveying the following works, written by fictional deceased Irish author Herbert Quain: *The God of the Labyrinth (1933), a detective story in which the solution given is wrong, although this fact is not immediately obvious *April March (1936), a novel with nine different beginnings, trifurcating backwards in time *The Secret Mirror, a play in which the first act is the work of one of the characters in the second act (à la The Waltz Invention) *Statements (1939), eight stories which are deliberately calculated to disappoint the reader; The Circular Ruins is supposedly an extract from the third story, "The Rose of Yesterday" ===== Nine-year-old Anna de la Mesa weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris. Her Spanish-born lawyer father Fernando is inspired by his sister's opposition to Franco and by Salvador Allende's victory in Chile; he quits his job and becomes a liaison for Chilean activists in France. Her mother, Marie, a Marie Claire journalist-turned-writer documenting the stories of women's abortion ordeals, supports her husband and climbs aboard the ideological bandwagon. As a result, Anna's French bourgeois life is over. She must adjust to refugee nannies, international cuisine, and a cramped apartment full of noisy revolutionaries. ===== A gang of teenage youngsters is running riot on the streets. Responsible for a number of burglaries and car thefts, the police are at their wits' end trying to put a stop to the gang's activities. Terror and hatred have become part of everyday life for local residents and, just when it seems things cannot get any worse, the gang targets Shelby House - an old people's home. Supervisor Veronica Porter, her two staff and the nine elderly residents become the gang's most vulnerable victims yet as the thugs conduct a hate campaign against them, sending abusive mail, daubing graffiti on walls and shattering windows. The intimidation escalates until Veronica's own father is dragged into the scene of terror when, disturbing some of the gang members burgling his house he is put into a coma. But enough is enough. The senior citizens of Shelby House decide to take the law into their own hands and fight back. ===== Borges gives an enigmatic description (or at least, assertion of the existence) of a secret society dating back to ancient times, the members of which "resemble every man in the world" and whose membership consists simply of the performance of a strange ritual. ===== Benny Fikus decides to cash in on his business' fire insurance by committing arson. Benny plans to have Sherman, who is in a mental hospital believing that World War II is still being fought, escape and burn down Benny's failing clothing store which he has made Sherman believe is a Nazi military headquarters. During a vacation trip with Marion, Benny has a heart attack, and his sons Ezra and Russell take over the store. The low self-esteemed Russell wants to expand the store and marry his girlfriend, while Ezra needs money to adopt an orphaned 6'8" African-American teenage boy named Booker T (Byron Stewart). Ezra needs Booker T. to play on the high-school basketball team he coaches because he has won a total of two games in seven years as a coach and is in danger of losing his job. Russell discovers that his father is bankrupt, with his only asset being the surrender value on the store's fire insurance policy. Russell cashes in the policy and splits it with Ezra, using the money to buy more stock. Back at home, Benny is practically comatose after his heart attack. An "in denial" Marion is told by house painters helping with a home redecoration project that her husband is "very sick" which she interprets as Benny being already dead. She then decides to change redecoration plans to prepare for funeral services. Meanwhile, Sherman has escaped and is on his way to burn down the "Nazi headquarters" (as he believes the store is). Benny recovers from his heart attack, and informs Russell that Sherman is on his way to burn down the store so they can collect the fire insurance that they no longer have. Hilarity ensues as Ezra has his wife run his basketball team while he and Russell attempt to stop Sherman from his quest to fight the Huns "by any means necessary". ===== At the mysterious Fossil Island, three visitors have come for a visit. Newspaper Reporter Rock, Songwriter Kodama, and manga artist Osamu Tezuka. On the island are many rocks shaped like human people. When each one of them witness a different rock, each with their own name on them, the three enter into a dream like world. In Rock's dream world, he finds himself partnered with the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Together, they race against the French master thief Arsene Lupin for a sculpture that has been hidden away. In Osamu Tezuka's dream world, the consumption of ancient foods take him to a world where humans and animals have switched brains. Now the humans all act like animals, while the animals all act like humans. For Kodama, she finds herself robbed of her own body by Eros, the God of Love, who is in the form of an old man. Without her body, her spirit ascends to Heaven and to an amazing adventure. Two more stories follow after these, ending with the introduction of one of Tezuka's stars from his Star System: Pippy. ===== Tetsuo "Tecchin" Utsuki is a normal, everyday junior high school student. Without much willpower, he is often shy and unable to assert himself. His life changes one day when, on his way back from school, he finds the body of a dead girl lying in the street. Rushing off to get the police, Tetsuo brings them to the spot where the girl was, only to find that she has disappeared. Instead, a strange, human-sized doll has taken the girl's place. Curious, Tetsuo takes the mysterious doll home and finds that a small bit of it is broken and repairs it. Instantly the doll transforms into the girl that Tetsuo had seen earlier. Once active, the girl informs Tetsuo that she is a "Grand Doll". At first, a Grand Doll looks like a kind of ordinary, blank doll, but when the back of the neck is rubbed, the doll can take on the form of a human or a horse. Scratching the back of the neck turns them back into their doll forms. However, the doll also informs Tetsuo that he himself is a Grand Doll. The dolls are part of an alien plot to invade Earth by secretly replacing human beings with dolls. Learning this, Tetsuo decides to take up the fight against the aliens. With his newspaper reporter father, and his friend Yoko Kashiwa, Tetsuo is determined to stop the alien threat (even if he's one of them, himself). ===== In 1982, the Edo Shoji Corporation is a large Japanese trading company that has created a new branch in the fictional country of Cannibalia (or Kanivaria depending on how you transcribe it). Executive Director Yabushita assigns Hitoshi Himoto to be the head of the new South American office, which is an exceptional promotion for Hitoshi. Having joined the workforce after his days of being a sumo wrestler, Hitoshi finds himself rapidly climbing the corporate ladder. However, not long after he is assigned to South America, Director Yabushita suddenly resigns from the company. Apparently he was involved in a scandalous affair with a woman and forced to leave after news of the affair had leaked. This severely affects Hitoshi as he is then demoted and transferred to a different location in South America. Hitoshi finds himself assigned to the city of Esecarta in the Republic of Santalna, a South American country that is in a state of political turmoil. Each day, the government soldiers fight with a rebel group of guerrillas in the streets. However, while reading some information at the Japanese embassy, Hitoshi learns of a certain metal that is indispensable to the manufacturing of electronics. This rare metal is mined at Mt. Montetombo in the Fego Province of South America. However, the mountain serves as the stronghold for the rebel guerrillas, led by the fearsome José García. Hitoshi attempts to make a name for himself in a dangerous land, working together with the people that know him as the "Gringo". Political and corporate intrigue and drama are all around in Tezuka's last manga. ===== In this children's manga, Punch and his sister Pinko are approached by a strange man calling himself the God of Gum. Looking like a kind of eccentric scientist, he explains that the gum he has is special as it will allow the gum chewer to create whatever they want with the bubbles they blow. However, since Punch and Pinko are still young, they have not mastered the ability to blow bubbles. Seeing as this might be a problem, and to prevent the children from potentially misusing the gum, the God of Gum assigns his disciple, Gum Gum, to stay with the children. Together, the three explore the many possible uses of the magical chewing gum and get into mischief. ===== The series focused on the adventures of three animal friends: two kittens named Tango and Ricky and a puppy named Charlie. Tango and Ricky live in their own house in the country side while Charlie lives in a small cave in their backyard. The three meet up every day and play together at the backyard of Tango and Ricky's house. Tango and Ricky's backyard also has a large tree which is the home of an absolutely massive bird named Flap, who is a good friend of the main characters and easily eight times their size, and visits them frequently. Along the series the main characters spend most of their time making up games and stories to act out and learn about life and friendship. ===== The days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve are dead days, when spirits roam beneath the surface of our lives. A magician called Valerian has only 4 days to live and will die on the dawn of the new year, he must save his own life within those few days, or pay the price that he made with evil so many years ago, but are no match against the great power pursuing him. Helping him is his servant, Boy, a child with no name or past, and the orphan girl, Willow. Together they dig in death-fields at midnight, and are swept into the subterranean city on a journey from which there is no escape. ===== The book begins with her as a confident and sexually adventurous senior PR worker. On a business trip to Peru she decides to have sex with a fat and unattractive man. After she loses her job and is deceived and robbed of her savings by her Spanish boyfriend Jaime, she decides to become a call-girl to pay off her debts. The book then deals with the internal politics of the brothel, the other girls and the various clients. Tasso finds the experience an interesting one, despite a few scrapes, unpleasantness of some of the other girls and ruthlessness of the manager, Manolo. Having made the sum of money she set out to make, she falls in love with a client, Giovanni, and decides to leave the business. Ultimately her relationship with Giovanni does not last. ===== Gopal (Ajay Devgn) lives with his wife Ekta (Kareena Kapoor), who is addicted to watching Indian dramas and soap operas. He also lives with sister Esha (Amrita Arora) and a mute brother-in-law Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor). Lucky is in love with a deaf girl named Daisy (Anjana Sukhani). One night, while returning from his office, Gopal saves an attractive young woman named Meera (Celina Jaitly) from some dreadful goons. Due to circumstances, both of them decide to spend the night at Gopal's friend's yacht. When he arrives home the next day, an over-suspicious Ekta suspects Gopal of flirting around with his female employees and having an affair with his secretary. Knowing how difficult it is to convince her with the truth, he invents a story about spending the night with a fictitious friend named Anthony Gonsalves. Ekta becomes suspicious and does not believe his story as she knows that he never had a friend by that name, and hence, she decides to write to Anthony to visit her and to confirm Gopal was telling the truth. Gopal meets Laxman Prasad (Shreyas Talpade) who has come to interview for a position in his office. He is Meera's boyfriend, which is not known to Gopal who asks him to pretend to be Anthony, and meet and convince Ekta that he was indeed telling the truth, in return for a job. Laxman agrees to do so, and everything goes according to plan until the address on which Ekta had written a letter to Anthony turns out to be real. Meanwhile, Gopal finds out that a dead body was found at the same location where he saved Meera from the goons. Investigating Officer Madhav (Arshad Warsi), who also happens to be Esha's boyfriend, does not get along with Gopal. He finds out that Gopal was missing from his home that very night and that the dead person was Gopal's colleague whom he had threatened to kill over a spat. Madhav also finds out that Laxman is not the real Anthony. He asks Gopal to get the girl to the police station to prove that Gopal had been with her, and did not murder his employee. After three days and a lot of attempts, they still are not able to find the girl. In panic, Laxman and Lucky hire a woman called Munni (Ashwini Kalsekar) who needs money to get her boyfriend Vasuli (Mukesh Tiwari) out of jail. But Munni is kidnapped by the murderer. In a rage, Vasuli comes to Meera's house, where Laxman and Lucky learn the woman was none other than Meera whom Gopal had saved from the goons that night. After an initial shock, they decide to go to the police station. However, Vasuli kidnaps Meera in anger. Gopal is later bailed out by Sawant (Murali Sharma) who is going along with him to the Lover's Point along with Madhav, Esha, Lucky and Laxman in tow and Ekta, Vasuli and Meera arriving later. Munni is found tied up with her mouth gagged with tape in the back of the murderer's jeep. Munni is heard moaning through the tape on her mouth. Laxman unties Munni and removes the tape from her mouth. Gopal learns that this was a plot concocted by Sawant to frame him for the murder, as his illegal drug trade was about to be exposed. The drama grows, as everyone attempts suicide (except Madhav and Lucky), much to Sawant's anger. Finally, Sawant goes crazy and tries to kill himself. Ekta and Gopal get back together, Madhav and Gopal also shake hands in the end. Lucky, meanwhile, marries the daughter of the president of Gopal's company, who happens to be Daisy and becomes the new boss, giving a shock to the others. Gopal and Laxman are the junior bosses while Madhav is a 24-hour guard for Lucky. ===== Sangeeta (Rekha) is a young, strong and idealistic girl. She is 25 years old, but unlike her contemporaries, she is still not married. The reason for this is her being a member of a poor family. Her father left the family; Her mother is an old homemaker; Her younger sister Geeta (Madhu Kapoor) is a young widow; Her nephews have to go to school while their father, her brother (Raj Babbar) is an inebriated and unemployed man. All the members of this family live in one little house. She is the only one who takes care of them. She is the only one who works to support the family. She is concerned for her nephews' future and makes her best to bring them up and educate them. However, secretly, she dreams of the day when she could also have her own family, husband and children. A man who is secretly in love with her, Prem (Kanwaljit) follows her to her office everyday. She reciprocates his feelings after she is unable to find him on the bus one day and this causes her to introspect. They start dating and she brings him home to meet her family. Her younger sister who was widowed at a young age and now lives with them, falls in love with Prem as well. When Sangeeta finds out about this she asks Prem to forget her and marry her sister indeed. He accepts and they are married. After a few unfortunate incidents, involving her brother and her best friend's family, Sangeeta's boss asks her to marry him. Her boss, (played by Rakesh Roshan) offers Sangeeta's brother a job in his company and the family begin preparations for the wedding. However, on the day of the wedding Sangeeta's brother is killed by a goon he owed money too and Sangeeta breaks off her marriage to continue living with her family to financially support them. The film ends on a tragic note with Sangeeta telling the bus conductor she used to make small talk with on her way to her office everyday that a woman who has a mother, a widowed sister-in-law and three children to take care of and support cannot dream of a life for individual self. ===== The film tells the story of Matt Clark (Aaron Smolinski), a male hockey player who dies in a game due to an accident made by the angel Allan, (Brendan Beiser) that caused the hockey player to die when he was trying to get to a choking man. As four days have passed where Matt has been pronounced dead, cremated and buried on national television, Allan is instructed by his boss Peter (Alec Willows) to put Matt in a suitable body. Matt comes back to life as Sara Bryan (Nicolle Tom), a female figure skater who fell into a coma who just passed into Heaven. Both share the dream of competing in the Winter Olympics. The male hockey player specified that if he returned to earth, he wanted to have a chance to win an Olympic Gold medal on ice, leaving the detail that he wanted to be on the hockey team implied. With time running short, Matt in Sara's body has to get skating lessons from Sara's one-time rival (Tara Lipinski) if he wishes to earn gold. ===== Undercover San Francisco narcotics cops Sean Kane (Norris) and Dave Pierce (Terry Kiser) head into a dark alley to meet up with an informant named Tony Montoya (Mel Novak), who promises to break their big investigation wide open, by providing the name of the oriental drug ringleader. Minutes later Pierce is dead, after having been shot, hit by a car, and burned. Kane gets into trouble with his boss, Captain Stevens (Richard Roundtree), for sending one of the killers flying out a third-story window to his death in view of the public. Rather than face discipline, and told to keep his distance by his superiors, Kane decides to quit the force, and sets out to exact vengeance. Dave's girlfriend, reporter Linda Chan (Rosalind Chao) is also angry, and vows to bring the drug gang down herself, by way of investigative reporting and public exposure. However, when Linda uncovers the secret that Kane and Pierce never found, she too is killed. Kane sets out for revenge, as does Linda's grieving father James Chan (Iwamatsu), and Linda's close friend, news editor Heather Sullivan (Cooper). Kane asked his friend and fellow detective Tom McCoy (Clark) to keep him informed about the case, but Stevens takes charge of the case, and all the larger aspects of the case go through him. Kane and Chan are attacked by hitmen connected to the drug cartel. With Heather's help, Kane sees Montoya near a ship in one of Linda's televised news reports. Linda's boss and mentor, editor-in-chief Morgan Canfield (Lee), offers Kane's support to find the killers. Kane finds Chan confronting Nicky LaBelle (Stuart Pankin), Montoya's boss. LaBelle reluctantly reveals Montoya's location. After Kane and Chan confront Montoya, he reveals that he was bait, because the drug dealers were on to them. Before he can revealed names, the same hitmen who killed Linda open fire and kill Montoya. Kane suspects a mole is helping the dealers remove any loose ends. When Heather's apartment is trashed, Kane suspects the people who killed Linda are looking for a tape that Linda discovered. Heather tells Kane the ship where Linda was doing her interview was a freighter called the Sulu Sea. Kane checks the cargo hold of the Sulu Sea, and finds that the drugs are imported inside fireworks transported from Hong Kong. After being spotted, Kane sets the fireworks on fire, and escapes as Stevens and his fellow officers watch in the distance. Heather finds Linda's tape in a locker at the train station, with a key hidden in her shoe. She leaves a message for Kane to meet her at the news station. He meets McCoy there and they go to Canfield's office. The tape contains the phone conversation between Canfield and the dealers, which reveals Canfield as the ringleader, and McCoy reveals himself to be a traitor. As Canfield and his hitmen take Heather with them, Kane is about to be killed, when Chan arrives and takes down the assailants. Kane confronts McCoy over his involvement with Canfield, who tells him was in it for money, and that he wasn't the one who drove that car that killed Dave. McCoy chases Kane on the roof, and is killed during a fight with Kane. Kane and Chan go to Canfield's estate, where he is meeting with the other drug dealers. When the truck carrying the drugs is spotted by Stevens and the SFPD, Kane and Chan fight Canfield's men as Stevens and the cops fire at them. Chan confronts the assassin who killed Linda known as The Professor (Professor Toru Tanaka), but is incapacitated by the Professor's brute strength. Kane then fights the Professor, and after a brutal fight, finally takes down The Professor by kicking him through a glass coffee table. Canfield then arrives with Heather as a hostage. Kane remembers seeing Canfield's dog in the car that killed Dave, and realizes that Canfield was driving the car. When Chan distracts Canfield, Kane overpowers him as Stevens and the cops arrive. Stevens reveals that he knew about McCoy and Canfield's involvement, but couldn't move in without evidence, and now that they have the drug shipment, they can convict Canfield. With encouragement from Heather and Chan, Kane lets go of his revenge and finds Linda's tape on Canfield. He gives the tape to Stevens, and Canfield is taken into custody. Kane and Stevens part ways amicably, and he leaves the estate with Heather and Chan. ===== The plot involves a depressed witch who is 'summoned' by a pair of children, named Small and Tender, who are upset at not being able to scare anyone on Halloween. The witch turns them into a werewolf and ghost (previously their Halloween costumes), and their babysitter Bazooey into a Frankenstein's monster. The witch then takes them to the Halloween party-in- progress at her isolated mansion on the edge of town. However, the citizens of the town get offended at the thought of real monsters in their town, and form a mob, under the leadership of the strait-laced 'Goodly'. The witch loses her magic wand, which gets attached to a woman named Malicious, and is unable to turn Bazooey and the kids back to humans. The group of supernatural beings is chased through the town and forest by the mob, eventually losing them. Malicious and her partner, Rotten, misuse the wand's powers, which causes a lot of damage to the town, but also summons the witch and the kids to their location. Regaining her wand, the witch uses its power to turn Malicious and Rotten into monsters, while turning the Frankenstein monster, ghost and werewolf back into Bazooey, Tender and Small. Eventually, the witch uses her powers to restore everything to normal, showing the town that she is not evil. The town quickly accepts the witch, and she starts turning people into what they want to be for Halloween. A disco song entitled "Witch Magic" was sung in this film. ===== Liz (Tina Fey) has become very happy since dating Floyd (Jason Sudeikis), and their relationship together is going strong. Don Geiss (Rip Torn), the CEO of General Electric, speaks to Jack (Alec Baldwin) about his career, and points out that Jack is the only executive at his level to be unmarried. Geiss takes away Jack's role as the head of the Microwave Oven division, which makes Jack become extremely depressed. Liz decides that she wants Jack to meet Floyd at dinner, although Jack becomes obsessed with Floyd and becomes a third wheel in Liz and Floyd's relationship. Liz, extremely bothered by Jack's obsession, tells Jack to leave Floyd alone. Jack agrees, and he tells Liz that he has begun a relationship with Phoebe (Emily Mortimer), a Christie's auction house art dealer who has Avian Bone Syndrome and on their third meeting still greets Liz with "Hi, I'm Phoebe, I don't know if you remember me..." Jack asks Liz's approval in his relationship with Phoebe, and when Liz grants it, he immediately proposes to Phoebe. Meanwhile, Tracy (Tracy Morgan) tries to get Don Geiss to finance his film, Jefferson, which is based on Thomas Jefferson's life. However, Geiss is not interested in Tracy's $35 million project, even after Tracy uses NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer), Grizz Griswold (Grizz Chapman) and "Dot Com" Slattery (Kevin Brown) to put together a trailer for the film. After failing to convince Geiss, who would rather see him do a sequel to one of Tracy's previous films, Fat Bitch, Tracy decides that he will make Jefferson on his own. ===== Pink Panther becomes hungry and rushes down to the kitchen, only to find no food. Pink then goes to the supermarket, gets in after some trouble with the automatic door, and collides with the employer. He runs from the employer who jumps and ultimately crashes into a pile of cans. After he picks the cans up, Pink removes some from the pile, causing it collapse again. While the employer is picking up the cans, the Pink Panther runs into a food test, where the salesman tells him to drink Cups "A" and "B". Pink, wanting to be on television and steal the spotlight, then makes funny faces at the camera so the cameraman gets mad and grabs the panther's tail. Then, the Pink Panther finally chooses to sample the two cups. After he's finished sampling, the salesman attempts to make Pink say that Cup "B" is better than "A". Pink disagrees, saying that cup "A" is better, and causes the man to become furious. The salesman fights with the Pink Panther. The employer passes by, and when seeing the fight, he jumps into the fight. The Pink Panther manages to get out of the fight and resumes shopping, getting pinched on the tail by a live lobster. Furiously, he throws the lobster, which lands in the employer's hat. The employer puts on the hat, and then gets pinched on the head. After getting pinched, the lobster flies out and lands in the boss's hat, when he walks to the employer after getting pinched himself. Pink passes by with a shopping cart and pushes the employer into the cart, then pushes it, causing it to start rolling down the supermarket. The shopping cart goes outside of the supermarket and crashes. After that the Pink Panther has to pay for the things he intends to buy. He finds out he has no money and, the clerk, furious, calls the employer, so the employer throws the food at the [Pink Panther who gets away and goes home...with the food, after it has all been thrown out the door at him. Then, after realizing he was had once again, the employer pushes a button on the register, causing the register to print "No Sale". ===== A young doctor named Larry Forbes (Shepperd Strudwick) arrives in a French village in order to wed the niece of prominent local doctor, Dr. Renault (George Zucco). Dr. Forbes learns from the innkeeper that a storm has washed out the bridge to Renault's house and he ends up spending the night at the inn. There he meets most of the film's main characters including Dr. Renault's strangely deformed man servant, Noel (J. Carrol Naish). It is during the night that the first of the murders occurs. Another tourist takes the room meant for him and is killed mysteriously. The next day, Forbes travels to the house of Dr. Renault, where he is reunited with Renault's pretty young niece, Madeline (Lynne Roberts). A sequence of strange events, including an incident in which Noel is viciously attacked by a stray dog that Madeline picked up, convince Forbes that there is something unusual about Noel, but he does not know what it is. Also, it quickly becomes clear that Noel is interested in Madeline as well. After Madeline's stray dog is killed, Renault confronts Noel and it is revealed that his man servant is actually an experiment - an animal given the physical and mental characteristics of a man. Fearing for Forbes' life (as well as his own), Renault locks Noel in a cage, but the former animal is able to use his strength to escape and follows Forbes and Madeline to a carnival. There he is heckled by a pair of villagers, who are promptly murdered in their homes. Forbes' suspicions increase and he sneaks into Dr. Renault's laboratory. There he finds a book detailing the experiments Dr. Renault carried out to transform Noel from an ape into a man. Renault catches Forbes reading his notes and threatens to kill him if he reveals the truth to anyone, but Noel sneaks up on the both of them and attacks and kills Dr. Renault. In the closing sequence, Madeline is abducted by her gardener, an ex-convict named Rogell (Mike Mazurki), and Noel pursues them. After a lengthy chase, Rogell shoots Noel. Before succumbing to his wounds, Noel strangles Rogell. ===== In The Sentinel, the adventurers rid a village of a marauding skulk, which leads them into a quest to find a magical gauntlet. The module details the village, and a xvart lair. The player characters move through a series of linked encounter areas as they seek clues to the history of Kusnir and the ill fortune that has befallen it. ===== In The Gauntlet, the player characters follow instructions to a magical glove, which leads them into a confrontation with an ogrillon in the Keep of Adlerweg, who wears its mate. ===== DryCo has sent two operatives, retired African-American general Luther and his white bodyguard Jake, to post-communist Moscow, where rival multinational corporation Krasnaya dominates Russian society through consumer capitalist mass production of products. However, Luther and Jake discover that Krasnaya has two highly advanced quantum physicists under duress, Oktobriana Osipova and Alekine. The two Dryco mercenaries manage to abduct Oktobriana, but their escape sends them back to 1939 in a conservative alternate history. In this world, Abraham Lincoln was killed by a Baltimore pro-slavery mob in 1861 CE, so the American Civil War never happened, and Theodore Roosevelt abolished slavery in 1907 due to European pressure on J.P. Morgan, who feared loss of his European financial assets. On February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara assassinated Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill died from a car accident in 1931. As a result of Roosevelt's premature death, it is noted that John Nance Garner proved to be a fiscal conservative, leading to a situation where much of the western United States had to threaten civil war to obtain economic relief from the ongoing Depression. As the novel progresses, Alekhine, actually a Krasnaya operative, abducts Joseph Stalin from Moscow, to be transferred to Krasnaya custody and kept in a dacha, in a future which has abandoned communism and uses the image of "Big Boy" as nostalgic consumer iconography. When this world eventually does undergo its World War II, it is assumed that there will be no effective opposition to Nazi Germany from its Soviet Union or United Kingdom as a result. However, as is disclosed in the novel's sequel, Elvissey, this is an incorrect assumption. Luther and Jake make the acquaintance of Norman Quarles, an African American doctor and his wife, Wanda, but their presence attracts the suspicions of (unseen) J. Edgar Hoover, who sends FBI agents in pursuit. During the chase, Norman is killed, and Oktobriana contracts Dovlatov's Syndrome, a mutated influenza virus that emerged in Irkutsk, Siberia in 1909, and led to the deaths of Queen Alexandra, US House Speaker William Dean Howells, Charlie Chaplin, Christy Mathewson, French Premier Clemenceau, Claude Debussy, Guillaume Apollinaire and Amedeo Modigliani, amongst others, during the ten year space of this epidemic. Ultimately, Luther and Wanda return to Dryco's future, while Oktobriana and Jake are lost in the interdimensional void. Luther and Wanda spend the rest of their lives together, with a coda that takes place several decades later, just after her death. As an aside, Luther notes that there are sects described as the Albigensian Church of Jesus the Light, Reformed and the Valentinian House of God in this world, which implies the survival of gnosticism has occurred in this timeline. Amongst the books cited in the Albigensian Bible are the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but this gnostic bible also includes the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, and the Hymn of Light. The latter revelation will play an important role in Womack's next novel, Elvissey. ===== In this novel, DryCo is facing problems from a mass religious movement centered on the premise that Elvis Presley was a semi divine figure, who performed miracles for believers in his sect. It decides to resolve this problem by retrieving a younger alternate history Elvis, and bringing him to present day New New York to discredit the posthumous reputation and mythology that now surrounds Elvis. The retrieval team are a married couple, Iz and John. Iz is actually an African American, although cosmetic surgery has led to an uncomfortable masquerade as a "Caucasian" woman in the chosen alternate history. It turns out to be that of Terraplane, the previous novel in the DryCo quartet, where Abraham Lincoln was prematurely assassinated in early 1861, the American Civil War never took place, and slavery was only abolished by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Therefore, this world is backward when it comes to the civil rights movement and racist segregation is still widespread there. In Terraplane (1989), it was hinted that the assassination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933, Winston Churchill's death in a car accident in 1931, and the abduction of Joseph Stalin would lead to a Nazi victory in its World War II. However, this envisaged outcome did not transpire. Instead, Leon Trotsky takes advantage of the power vacuum in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union, returns from exile in Mexico, and assumes power in his stead. Therefore, there is still a Nazi-Soviet Pact, but Operation Barbarossa does not occur because the USSR rearms to the same extent as Nazi Germany. Moreover, Trotsky declares war on Nazi Germany before it can launch Barbarossa to its east and betray the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1941. In the Pacific theater, the United States defeats Japan in 1946, but they do so through dropping fourteen atomic bombs on the Home Islands, which reduces the nation to an irradiated wasteland. Meanwhile, Hitler is assassinated in 1944, and the new Chancellor Speer signs an armistice with the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union, which leads to an unstable multi polar world due to the inconclusive result of World War II in this world. In its 1954, the alternate Elvis turns out to be a sexual predator who has already murdered Gladys Presley when John and Iz encounter him for the first time. He then tries to rape Iz, much to John's anger, and displays symptoms of psychosis and latent schizophrenia. His poor mental health is not assisted by his strong religious beliefs and an unexpectedly early divergence point in this world's past, where Valentinian gnosticism survived and became the dominant belief system in this alternate Southern United States instead of evangelical Christianity. This was noted in passing in Terraplane, with mention of an Albigensian Bible and a Valentinian House of God as background detail, alerting aware readers to the survival of Gnosticism in this timeline. The dualist religious philosophy of this belief framework worsens Elvis' mental illness; as a Valentinian gnostic, his core religious beliefs are not based on messianic criteria as are those of orthodox Christianity, and he is horrified at the demand of DryCo that he become a virtual messiah that they can use to manipulate the Elvisian faith. He comprehends this as prompting that he become an instrument of the demiurge, the evil and flawed creator of the material world in his gnostic world view. Due to this psychological pressure, his psychosis escalates after he is transferred to Dryco's homeworld. However, his masquerade collides with scepticism at a London "ElCon" (Elvis Convention) religious gathering and there is a riot. Iz, John and Elvis use bootleg DryCo time travel technology to travel back to London in the alternate world's forties and Elvis loses himself amidst the debris of St Paul's Cathedral. However, Elvis is relatively psychologically healthy and morally sane compared to the intense anti-human pathology of DryCo's world; in the end he risks everything to escape it. DryCo's plan has failed. Although John and Iz are sacked from DryCo Central, DryCo Europe offers Iz a position within their local hierarchy. John commits suicide in the bath, and is persuaded by Iz (frightened for her own life, and that of her fetus) that she intends to join him moments later; she does not. Dying, John becomes aware that she deceived him and intends to remain behind and continue living during his last cognizant moment. He communicates non-verbally that he understands, although whether he believes in the end that the child is his own is unclear. Iz has survived, but at great personal cost. ===== The films follows Pak Belalang, a lazy man who loathes hard work. He has a young son named Belalang, who is smarter and more hardworking than his father. During his way home from work one day, Belalang encounters two thieves, Badan and Nyawa, who were just on their way back from stealing two cows. Using his wits, he scares them away and takes the cows back with him. He tells his father about it who panics and tells him to return the cows to their rightful owners. Belalang retorts that without knowing who they were, they couldn't do the right thing even if they wanted to. He then suggests that he would go to the mayor's house to seek out the rightful owners who would presumably go to report the loss of their cows to the mayor. Belalang could then tell them to come and see Pak Belalang who could pretend to be psychic and tell them the cows' whereabouts. Pak Belalang agrees and all goes as planned with a reward in place for both of them. And then the thieves strike again, this time at the royal palace. It was then announced that anyone who could retrieve the stolen items would be greatly rewarded by the king, Sultan Shahrul Nizam. The mayor then excitedly goes to the Belalang's house in the middle of the night to bring him to the palace so he could help retrieve the stolen items with his psychic powers, as he had previously done with the cows. Pak Belalang is caught off guard and fails to bluff his way out of it, angering the king who gives him 3 days to retrieve the stolen items or be sentenced to death for his deception. The mayor is seen as a conspirator and is also promptly arrested causing him to faint when hearing the news. Pak Belalang returns home in a hurry to pack his belongings and tells Belalang that he will hide it out for the next three days. Belalang informs him of a perfect hiding place of a cave at Bukit Tunggal (Sole Hill) and Pak Belalang then tells him to bring food to him whenever he can. When Pak Belalang arrives at the cave, he overhears some people talking and discovers the two thieves trying to divide the coins from a gold chest they had stolen from the palace. He pretends to be a hunched back wise old man (Penunggu Gua) and scares them away. Once they run away, he gleefully places all the coins back in the chest and chants how lucky he is at having found exactly the same thing which he had been ordered to do. In the meantime, Belalang was on his way to bring his father the promised food when he is intercepted by officials from the palace who bring him back to the palace. He is then interrogated on the whereabouts of his father and he tries to manipulate the conversation, thus angering the king who threatens to behead him. Pak Belalang then appears and reveals his discovery of the stolen palatial chest of gold. But he tells them that to retrieve it, they have to crawl on all fours, which they reluctantly adhere to. When the chest of gold is indeed found by the king, he decides to appoint Pak Belalang as the 'National Healer'. During the official appointment ceremony, the princess, Puteri Sri Bujur Sirih, takes a liking to Pak Belalang and in his first official task, he is called upon when she has a fainting spell (pengakit angau). She had actually just wanted to meet him; pretended to faint to get Pak Belalang to see her and then persuades him to arrange so that they could meet in secret. After the king and queen are called back in, he goes on to prescribe 'midnight air' for her fainting spells. Bewildered, the king agrees to it anyway. When the princess and Pak Belalang meet at midnight, they reveal their affections for each other and she declares to call him 'Kanda Satria' from then on. The next morning, he meets her again but this time in his official capacity as the 'National Healer'(ahli nujum) and prescribes water which he had blessed. As Sultan Shahrul Nizam revels in his newfound relief that his daughter is in good health again, he and his ministers are met with thunderous sounds. Just then, a palace messenger arrives to inform the king that a rival kingdom's fleet belonging to the King of Masai has been spotted approaching their shores. He tells them to cautiously receive them and to strike back if met with hostility. The King of Masai is welcomed and promptly goes to the palace to present himself to Sultan Shahrul Nizam. He reveals that instead of waging war, he instead wanted to seek peace by waging a war of wits with their two National Healers. Pak Belalang was to be presented with a set of questions by the National Healer of the Kingdom of Masai to which he must answer all correctly. If he does, the Kingdom of Masai loses the wager and it relinquishes its rights, title and land to the Kingdom of Beringin Rendang. If Pak Belalang fails to answer all of the questions correctly, the land of Beringin Rendang would be forfeited to the Kingdom of Masai. Pak Belalang puts on a brave front but then rushes home to flee the country persuading his son to seek out a boat they could escape in. As he does, he inadvertently lands in a boat occupied by the Kingdom of Masai's king and accompanying officials. He quickly hides himself and listens on as The Masai National Healer was persuaded to tell the rest of the party the answers to his questions. He had, up until then, kept them all a secret to himself and once the Masai contingent had alighted the boat, he swam to shore to inform his father of his discovery. After the three days are up, the royal parties meet again and Pak Belalang was able to answer all the questions correctly thanks to Belalang overhearing everything on the boat. The Kingdom of Masai's National Healer was so convinced that he would win that he collapsed after Pak Belalang answered the last question correctly. The King of Masai then asks for another chance stating that it could be that he had been deceived by his National Healer himself. Pak Belalang tries to refute the demand and reminds them that the original agreement consisted of only three questions but he is then ordered by Sultan Shahrul Nizam to do it. Pak Belalang panics and calls out for his son, Belalang, who had been the one who persuade him to take the challenge and go through with the wager. It turned out to be a lucky guess as the King of Masai was holding a locust (called Belalang in Malay). Pak Belalang, who had been afraid, quickly recovers his composure and joins in the joy of Sultan Shahrul Nizam as they celebrate their victory. Badan and Nyawa, the two thieves who had stolen the cows and the palatial chest of gold, arrives at the palatial boat of the King of Masai. They demand an audience with the Sultan of Masai, claiming to be his brother in law. They then tell the King that they have a plan for him to regain his country back and ask him to follow them. Having nothing to lose, the Sultan complies and he and his officials are taken to the same cave Badan and Nyawa had used when they stole the palatial chest of gold. Badan and Nyawa cast a spell on the palace putting everyone into a deep sleep and they then abduct the princess and take her back to the cave. The Sultan of Masai had never known Sultan Shahrul Nizam to have such a beautiful daughter but is puzzled as to how her being there could help him get his kingdom back. Badan and Nyawa then told him that once her disappearance is discovered, her father will issue a decree promising a reward to anyone who could return the princess unharmed. The prime minister then persuades him to instead use the services of their National Healer, Pak Belalang. In the meantime, the Sultan of Masai tried to charm his way with the princess but to no avail. When called upon, Pak Belalang is threatened with death if he failed to use his powers to find the princess. By some miracle, when he blessed the water, it gave apparitions of the princess and all those connected with he disappearance including the King of Masai. Pak Belalang quickly made his way there and rescues the princess. Pak Belalang and the princess lock in an affectionate embrace but is interrupted by the king and queen. He puts all the perpetrators under arrest and orders the immediate wedding of Pak Belalang and the princess. As all are brought away, Belalang is seen entering the cave and when asked why he was there, he tells his father that he had asked for his own room and never got one. Now that they are to be married, he would have no place to sleep. The movie then ends with the theme song. ===== The game draws heavily from Welsh, Celt, Christian and Roman mythology, with characters named Arawn, Arthur, Epona, Llŷr, Morgan, Pwyll, Rhiannon, and Taliesin. Set in a Late Antiquity-inspired fantasy setting, story starts on an island Erin (or Hibernia, as shown on an in-game map) on the west border of the Holy Empire. Prologue is centered around the precognition-gifted priestess of the Gael tribe, Rhiannon. She is kidnapped by a rogue priest of the Holy Empire, Drwc, to be used as a sacrifice in a ritual meant to resurrect the Demon King Arawn and put Drwc in his favor. As a response the Gael people burn their village and swear to bring Rhiannon back or exact revenge on the Empire. In the middle of the ritual, as the Gael people attack Drwc's soldiers, Arawn is resurrected and offered Rhiannon. At this point, he kills Drwc, frees Rhiannon, and proclaims no intention in wreaking havoc which the legends attributed to him. Instead, he shows interest in Rhinannon's brother Arthur, the First Warrior of his tribe. Rhiannon, on the other hand, falls in love with Arawn, and by declaring her decision to marry him, makes him the chieftain of the Gael tribe (hers and Arthur's father was the previous chieftain, but Arthur could not assume the title due to being the First Warrior). As the prologue ends, point of view is switched from Rhiannon to Arawn, revealing him to be the protagonist of the game, and the story continues with the exodus of Gael tribe to the neighboring island of Albion (or Insula Britannica, as shown on an in-game map) in hope of eluding the Empire. ===== The poor trio of best friends Do, Re and Mi live in a simple treehouse in the forest, where they work together collecting, cutting and selling firewood at the local marketplace. After they were driven out from their treehouse by the land owner they walked in the forest then in the night they hear a voice calling for help in the forest. Although they are scared that it is a spirit trying to trick them, they follow the voice and discover that it is coming from a bamboo tree. The bamboo tree is wounded, and asks them to pull out the spear that is stuck in it. They comply, and the bamboo transforms into a fairy princess, who explains that she is the Tuan Puteri Buluh Betong (Giant Bamboo Princess). When Do asks her whether she is related to Anak Buloh Betong (a character of S. Kadarisman's film Anak Buloh Betong), she explains that he is her father. She thanks them and gives them each a magical item. Do receives a magic carpet that can fly, Re receives a telescope that can see anything the viewer asks of it, and Mi receives a harmonica that can give them any wishes they want. The trio decide to use their items to find their fortune. Re uses the telescope to find that the Sultan of their kingdom is looking for brave men to become his Admirals. The trio attend the competition that is being held to find the bravest and strongest men. Mi uses his harmonica to give the trio superhuman strength, and they win the competition easily. The Sultan, impressed by their feats, makes them his Admirals. As part of an assignment, the Admirals are sent to an ally neighbouring kingdom, Pasir Dua Butir (lit. 2 Grains of Sand) that is under attack by Fasola, a former Minister of Defense turned traitor after his proposal to the sultan's princess, Princess Puncak Mahligai was rejected. In an act of retaliation, he and his army sack the entire kingdom, rape young girls, butcher loyal civilians and going as far as raze the palace to ground, an act that is considered brainless. He also hold the princess captive in his hiding place. After seeing his princess' distress through Re's telescope, the sultan then promises to marry his princess to anyone who slays Fasola. The excited Do, Re and Mi then sets out on their rescue missions. They then defeated whole of Fasola's army, some of it by using Mi's wish-granting harmonica with comical result (make them dancing, for instance). They then confront Fasola. After being insulted by Do, in a fit of rage he defeats them single-handedly with little effort. He and Do then have a sword fight. When it seems that Do gets the upper hand by stabbing Fasola, it is revealed that Fasola is magically impervious to any attack. By using Re's telescope to seek Fasola's weakness, it is revealed that Fasola can only be killed by stabbing a sharp bamboo to his sole. Mi then uses his harmonica to provide them with a sharp bamboo. Seeing the sharp bamboo in Do's hand, Fasola is frightened and he even begs Do to spare his life but Do nonetheless kill him and thus ends the traitor's life. They free the Princess, whom all three fall in love with. When Do, Re and Mi fight over her, the Princess declares that she will marry all three of them, which three of them agreed, although stunned at first. (The princess reason that if men are able to practice polygamy, why don't women as well?) Do, Re and Mi return to their sultan in triumph. The sultan, like the trio, also falls in love with the princess. When the sultan finds out their odd situations, he then remind them the tale of the legendary Malay Admiral, Hang Tuah who presents Tun Teja, the princess of Pahang to his sultan as sign of his undivided loyalty, despite Hang Tuah and Tun Teja deeply love each other. Then, why don't the Admirals Do, Re and Mi emulate him? The princess, impressed by the sultan's wisdom, agreed. The sultan then announce his wedding to the princess and the entire court give their full approval. Of course, the three Admirals disappointed but the sultan offers to reward them with three palace handmaidens as their handmaidens, whom the sultan claimed are very beautiful. However, it turns out the handmaidens are ugly, old hags. The sultan jokingly tells them the three Admirals are their future husbands! The handmaidens are thrilled and start chasing the Admirals, while the entire court laugh. The Admirals, don't wish to end up marrying old hags, flee with their magic carpets and sending them itchy all over their bodies with Mi's harmonica. Do, Re and Mi laugh at the helpless hags and then flies to an unknown destination. ===== Puteri Nora Mat Jidin is a young factory worker living in a rented apartment with her best friends in Kuala Lumpur. Despite being a tomboy, Nora has always dreamed of escaping poverty and becoming a princess. Following the success of a popular local reality show called 'Chasing Dream', Nora sends in her application with the hope that her dreams will come true for at least a short period of time. Her application is successful and she is called to the TV station. Nora is given a makeover and she is given the chance to stay at the most luxurious penthouse suite of one of the most expensive hotels in the city for a week. The only letdown of the experience is the show's cameraman, Zulfikli has to follow her around the entire time to record her experience. The two do not get along very well since Zul loves to make fun of Nora's naive attitude. To add to her misery, the show's producer, Miss Nancy Lee tries to control her every move to get higher ratings. Nora starts to realize that the show is not as fun as she had expected it to be. As the week comes to an end, Nora is made to go horse riding with Zul by her side as one of her last activities for the show. When her horse losses control, she is saved by Tengku Faizal, a real life prince. The two develop a friendship as Faizal is attracted to Nora's simplicity and humility. Zul starts to become jealous and warns Faizal to stop playing with Nora's feelings. However, Faizal surprises everyone by proposing to Nora. To prove to everyone that he is serious about Nora, Faizal takes her to meet his mother, the Queen. Realizing that this can boost her show's ratings even more, Nancy starts treating Nora kindly. However, Nora can see through Nancy's intentions and confronts her about her hypocrisy. Meanwhile, Zul starts to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Nora and can no longer stand her being around Faizal. As a result, he requests that he be transferred to another show. He is then replaced with Kuman, another cameraman. Nora also starts to miss Zul now that he is no longer with her. In the end, Faizal decides to take Nora with him to America to meet his father who is there for work. However, as they are about to leave the hotel for the airport, Nora sees Faizal and realizes that royal life is not for her. She has always been happier as a commoner and she decides to make her own living. She leaves Faizal and returns to her friends. ===== The books opens with Marco and Tobias in bird morph, surveying a freight train transporting tanks into the city. They are spotted and attacked by Controllers in bird of prey morph, revealing that the Yeerks now have the ability to morph after obtaining the Escafil device in the previous book. Marco and Tobias escape by stealing a tank, which they use to demolish Chapman's house before fleeing. Back in the Hork-Bajir valley, the Animorphs speculate that the Yeerks are planning to infest the state's National Guard en masse. A personal issue is also presented in the form of Jake's depression, which affects the morale of the group. Marco also notices tension between Jake and Cassie, but does not know the reason for it, as he, Rachel, Tobias, and Ax are still unaware of Cassie's actions at the end of the previous book. Jake decides to send Marco, Tobias, and Ax to the state capitol to warn the governor of the Yeerk plot, while he, Cassie, Rachel, and the Auxiliary Animorphs attempt to slow the Yeerks down with the usual assault tactics. Marco's team infiltrates The Gardens to acquire mallard ducks for the long-distance flight to the capitol. Here, they are again attacked by Controllers with the morphing ability, but manage to escape. They arrive at the capitol and locate the governor in cockroach morph, eventually demorphing and revealing themselves to whom they think is the governor when he is alone (other than his wife and bodyguards). They are surprised to find out that the man to whom they reveal themselves is not the governor, but that his wife is the one they seek. The possibility of the governor being a woman had escaped Marco, Tobias, and Ax's minds. Unfortunately, her husband is a Controller, and he alerts the Yeerks. Marco, Tobias, and Ax grab the governor and race through the streets of the capitol, aided by her closest bodyguard, Collins, while being pursued by the Yeerks. Collins is injured in the shoulder with a Dracon beam, but is saved by Marco. After destroying a helicopter and a yacht, they lose their pursuers and return to the governor's mansion to explain the situation to her and Collins. The governor and Collins (who refuses to go off duty in spite of his injury) are accepting of the danger, and the governor calls in a group of National Guardsmen who have been doing training missions in the desert for the last few weeks, and can therefore be assumed to be uninfested. Unfortunately, an infested company arrives first with the intention of kidnapping and almost certainly infesting the governor. Marco deceives them by morphing the governor, letting himself be captured by the Yeerks, and being rescued by Tobias and Ax (meanwhile, the real governor escapes, along with Collins). Marco, Tobias, and Ax return to the Hork-Bajir valley in time to see the governor issue a televised warning about the Yeerk invasion. ===== Mrs. Bentley, a Protestant minister's wife, writes journal (or diary) entries on a regular basis; the time span is just over a year (from 8 April 1939 to 12 May 1940, if the weekday noted with each entry is assumed to be correct). The couple has just moved to yet another small town, "Horizon". Mrs. Bentley, whose first name we never learn, despairs of Philip (her husband), who is becoming ever more remote. As she records her feelings, it is clear she, as she suspects of her husband, has nothing but contempt for her husband's flock. Mrs. Bentley sees herself and Philip as frustrated artists; she has a passion for music and, in her youth, entertained dreams of success as a pianist, and he spends much of his time sketching and painting. Her journal tells mostly of her efforts to win her husband's affections, yet he appears to withstand her efforts, which are conflicted and subtly evasive. She strikes up a friendship with Paul, a local schoolteacher and philologist, while Philip engages the affections of Judith. They attempt to adopt a Catholic child, Steve, who seems to fulfil Philip's desire for a child that Mrs. Bentley cannot apparently deliver, but this arrangement falls apart. Eventually, putatively under pressure from an increasingly hostile congregation, they prepare to move to a city. However, it is plain that the congregation and town are nothing like as philistine as Mrs. Bentley insists—neighbourhood boys admiringly lurk outside the manse listening to her practise the piano and the audience for her recital in the church hall is vastly appreciative—but Mrs. Bentley is unmoved in her contempt for them and scornful of their applause for her bravura piano performance. Assuming that they are moving to a mid-sized prairie city in the middle of the Great Depression, Mrs. Bentley's dream of establishing a second-hand bookstore there as a means of escape from their unappealing life in a small town is patently absurd. Judith, who mysteriously has become pregnant, dies shortly after giving birth and the Bentleys adopt her child. ===== During a reconnaissance flight taken by Rachel, Ax, and James, the Animorphs learn that the Yeerks are herding people into the subway system. The subways have been redirected to the Yeerk pool complex, where humans are being infested en masse. Back at the Hork-Bajir valley, Rachel makes her report to Jake. Marco comes up with a plan to use the subway system to destroy the Yeerk pool by loading one of the pool-bound trains with explosives and detonating once the train reaches its destination. Despite some resistance from Cassie, the Animorphs agree to carry out the plan. Later that night, Ax sneaks away from the camp with the zero-space transmitter constructed by Marco's father. Ax contacts the Andalite military and tells them of the Animorphs' plan to destroy the Yeerk pool. The Andalites do not support the plan and feel that the war for Earth is lost. Ax is ordered to sabotage the Animorphs' operation to destroy the Yeerk pool so that the Yeerks will continue concentrating the majority of their forces on Earth, allowing the Andalites to wipe them out more easily. The next morning, the Animorphs finalize their plan to destroy the Yeerk pool. During the meeting, Cassie announces that she and her parents will not be going on the mission, since they cannot face risking so many Controllers' lives. She gets into an argument with Rachel over it, and then another with Jake. With Rachel, Cassie is accused of essentially giving up in the fight against the Yeerks, which makes Cassie admonish Rachel for how horrible her attitude has become, even to the point where even Rachel's own mother cannot stand to be in her presence. With Jake, who initially tries to defuse Cassie and Rachel's dispute, Cassie derides him for being so willing to risk human lives, adding that she had previously thought that she had known him better than that. However, Jake fires back that Cassie had acted as though she had thought that she had known what was best for him and everybody on the team, subtly referring to her actions with Tom two books prior. As a result, the stress of the arguments causes Cassie to break down and confess that it was she who allowed Tom to escape with the morphing cube. Despite the shock and anger at this realization (as well as Rachel attempting to punch Cassie before being stopped by Tobias, who is in his human morph at this time), the other Animorphs forgive Cassie for her actions and continue planning the operation, with the exception of Ax, who feels a cold hatred towards Cassie for letting Tom take the cube. After the meeting, Ax pulls Cassie aside and asks her to justify her actions. He reminds her that regardless of her reasons, she betrayed the memory of his brother, Elfangor, by giving up the one thing he'd given the Animorphs to give them a fighting chance against the Yeerks. Cassie feels incredible guilt when she realizes this, also realizing that she has hurt Ax in the process, but still remains firm in her convictions. She recalls Aftran 942 and the Yeerk Peace Movement, and speculates that the morphing technology could give the Yeerks a means to abandon their policy of infesting sentient beings and instead morph new bodies. Ax concedes that he encountered a Yeerk who planned to do this on the subway mission, though he also speculates that the Yeerk could have been lying. After speaking with Cassie, Ax talks with Tobias, who voices his support of Cassie's reasoning, even if he did not necessarily agree with her actual actions. As a result of their talk, Ax decides to disobey the orders he was given and not sabotage the plan to destroy the Yeerk pool. The next night, Ax leads the other Animorphs' parents through the woods towards a National Guard base, where the Animorphs hope to steal the explosives they need for their operation. Upon reaching the base's perimeter, the parents pose as lost campers in need of medical attention. The National Guardsmen load them into a truck and drive towards the base, with Marco clinging to the back of the truck in gorilla-morph. The other Animorphs follow as either fleas on Marco or in various bird-of-prey-morphs. Upon reaching the National Guard base, the Animorphs begin searching the various warehouses for the explosives. Once they are found, they begin loading the explosives onto the trucks commandeered by Rachel's mother, Naomi, and Cassie's father, Walter. On their way out, the Guardsmen, alerted by an alarm, halt the trucks. Rachel initially tries to run them down, but is stopped by Ax. Jake and Naomi speak with the Guardsmen's commander, Captain Olston, and explain the situation. The Guardsmen agree to assist the Animorphs in their operation. The Animorphs' parents all return to the Hork-Bajir valley, while several National Guard troops drive the trucks into the city, where the Animorphs themselves, along with the troops, disable the Yeerk forces guarding the subway station. The Animorphs are forced to fight with several morph-capable Controllers, with several using wolf-morphs (the same battle morph as Cassie). The Guardsmen kill several of the wolves, making Ax fear that Cassie has been killed in a friendly fire incident. Fortunately, Cassie survives the battle and Ax silently reconciles with her. Marco, Ax, and Cassie volunteer to accompany the train to the Yeerk pool, now loaded with explosives. Ax keys the detonator so that the explosives will go off five minutes after reaching the Yeerk pool, giving the Controllers and hosts there time to escape. The subway train jackknifes into the Yeerk pool. Ax, Cassie, and Marco survive due to being in various insect-morphs during the collision. They demorph and warn those in the pool of the situation, and then begin freeing caged-hosts. Visser One briefly emerges to do battle, but leaves after Marco tells him of the impending explosion. Ax, Cassie, and Marco leave the doomed Yeerk pool complex just as the bombs detonate. The Animorphs survey the devastation. The destruction of the Yeerk pool destroys a large area of the Animorphs' hometown. Jake privately thanks Ax for his participation, and Ax silently pledges his continued support to his prince. ===== As an unnamed Animorph lies on the brink of death, the Ellimist appears and recounts his origins as Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down- Messenger, Forty-One (Toomin) the Ketran and his transfiguration into the Ellimist as a final request to the dying Animorph. The Ketran race was virtually extinguished by the Capasins, who had seen transmissions of violent virtual Ketran games that had been broadcast into space and mistook them for a violent species that meddled with other ones. A Ketran named Toomin was one of the few survivors. These survivors became space nomads, seeking a replacement for their home planet. Toomin became the leader of this group and was the only survivor when it crash-landed on a mostly aquatic moon. His mind was absorbed and kept alive at the bottom of the sea by a moon-spanning entity known as Father that absorbed the information in the brain (or equivalent) of every corpse on it. After defeating Father at music, Toomin began to grow too intelligent for Father and defeated him, incorporating all the memories of corpses on the moon, eventually becoming a blending of minds. After he defeated Father he began to wander the universe without purpose until he started to resolve conflicts and crises under the name Ellimist. The Ellimist worked like this for several thousand years until he encountered a being named Crayak, who existed to destroy all life in galaxies, a strong antithesis to what the Ellimist had come to stand for. Crayak engaged Ellimist in games that had entire planets at stake. Ellimist did not fare well and lost far more often than he won. Losing motivation to continue fighting Crayak, the Ellimist temporarily retreated to the Andalite home planet, possibly beginning his worship as an Andalite god. The Andalites at the time were not the advanced civilization but a primitive collection of tribes. By living on the planet as an Andalite, the Ellimist learned that the key of survival was to create as many offspring as possible; although so many die, with repeated efforts life could multiply faster than Crayak could wipe them out. With a renewed vigor, the Ellimist fought Crayak, creating the Pemalites, creators of the Chee, who spread quickly throughout the galaxy (until they were destroyed by Crayak's own creations, the Howlers). Although Crayak eventually caused his death, the Ellimist found he had become a part of space-time itself. Soon, both the Crayak and the Ellimist recognized direct combat to be much too dangerous for themselves and space-time itself. To prevent such catastrophic damage, Crayak and the Ellimist agree to construct the intricate "game" they are seen to play in the Animorphs series. In the epilogue, it is hinted, though not confirmed, that the Animorph to whom the Ellimist told the entire story was none other than Rachel, who would be killed in battle in the final book of the series. She asks a final question about whether or not she mattered or made a difference in the war. The Ellimist says that she did. The final sentence confirms Rachel's cessation of existence and ultimate death with: "A small strand of space-time went dark and coiled into nothingness." Category:2000 novels Category:Animorphs books Category:Novels about consciousness ===== In the Earth year 1968, Aldrea and her family come to live on the Hork-Bajir homeworld after her father – formerly Prince – Seerow, is relieved of duty by Alloran and many other Andalites in 1966, who feel he is no longer fit to command them. This is mainly due to his peaceful philosophy towards the Yeerks, which has resulted in the Yeerks' enslavement of many other species. On the Hork-Bajir homeworld, two Hork-Bajir, Dak Hamee and his friend Jagil Hullan make contact with Aldrea's family, and Aldrea makes friends with Dak. Dak is a seer, meaning he possesses intelligence greater than most others of his species. Aldrea's mother, a biologist, is fascinated with the reptilian, tree-dwelling, peaceful Hork-Bajir, as well as with the other life on the planet. Aldrea herself begins to learn more about Hork-Bajir culture from Dak, and he in turn learns about Andalites. But then tragedy strikes in the form of a Yeerk invasion. Aldrea's entire family is killed, but she escapes—barely—along with Dak. Dak is sickened by his first taste of violence when they are forced to fight Yeerks and Gedd-Controllers. The Yeerks arrive at the enormous tree where the other members of Dak's tribe live, and proceed to enslave every single Hork-Bajir they find. Aldrea and Dak, meanwhile, continue to flee the Yeerks, and they journey down into Father Deep, a huge chasm (the Hork-Bajir believe they were born from Father Deep and Mother Sky). There they meet the Arn, a powerful but arrogant race who created the Hork-Bajir, as well as many other creatures that inhabit their planet. Aldrea convinces the Arn that it is in their best interest to fight back against the Yeerks. Aldrea also urges Dak to round up the remaining Hork-Bajir and train them to fight. Eventually, Dak does so, and he and Aldrea then lead their Hork-Bajir army, along with various monsters and terrifying creatures created by the Arn, against the Yeerks on the ground. In the ensuing bloodbath, Aldrea is disgusted by the carnage, and Dak blames Aldrea for turning his people from innocence and peacefulness towards violence. Dak becomes more distant with Aldrea. After many months, an attack force of Andalite ships appears, though not enough to fight off all the Yeerks. The Andalites, including Alloran, now a powerful leader, join Dak and Aldrea on the ground and take part in their campaign of guerilla warfare against the Yeerks. As their numbers began to dwindle, Alloran becomes desperate and finally resorts to using a biological weapon, a virus which will kill all Hork-Bajir, from the Hork-Bajir-Controllers (whose bodies are being controlled by Yeerks) to all the free Hork-Bajir still alive on the planet. When Aldrea realizes what is about to happen, she betrays Alloran and her fellow Andalites in order to help Dak destroy the virus before it can be employed. In the resulting conflict, the virus is accidentally released into the environment. Aldrea, who had morphed into a female Hork-Bajir (who is actually Delf Hajool, the wife of Jagil Hullan) during the struggle, willingly stays too long in that form and is thus trapped as a Hork-Bajir nothlit. She and Dak realize their love for each other, and the two become a mated pair. They eventually produce a son named Seerow and go to live in the deep valleys, where the toxin will not reach for some time. At least one of their descendants will eventually become a founding member of the small Hork-Bajir colony on Earth. About 30 Earth years later, Jara Hamee, Dak and Aldrea's grandson, tells the story of the Yeerk invasion of the Hork-Bajir homeworld to Tobias. Sitting around a campfire at night with other Hork-Bajir, Jara reveals at the end of his story that he and his kalashi, Ket Halpak, have named their daughter Toby after Tobias. Responding to Tobias' comment that it is a strange name for a Hork-Bajir, Jara comments that Toby (like her great-grandfather) is different. As Tobias begins to fly away the next morning, he pauses to ask and Toby (still only four feet tall at this point) replies to him "Yes, Tobias, friend of the Hork-Bajir. Yes, I am different." Tobias is happy to know that she is a seer just like Dak Hamee. (Note: Dak and Aldrea's story would later be extended somewhat further in Animorphs #34, The Prophecy.) ===== Watching TV, Daffy Duck is excited by an episode of the hunting show called "The QTTV Sportsman Hour" in which the host, voiced by Mel Blanc somewhat in the manner of actor Frank Nelson, offers $1,000.00 for the first viewer to bring a rabbit to Station QTTV. Attempting to convince Bugs Bunny to come to the station, Daffy first tries a ruse with TV show tickets, but Bugs immediately suspects Daffy is up to no good and declines. Daffy then grabs a gun from Bugs' fireplace and tells Bugs to oblige or be shot. At the scene of Station QTTV, Daffy has Bugs at gunpoint when they see a parade of prizes coming out of a studio (car, boat, fur coat, refrigerator, "Key to Fort Knox", etc.), and they see people going into the show People Are Phoney starring Art Lamplighter. With dollar signs in his eyes, Daffy locks Bugs in a telephone booth and runs into the studio. Bugs receives a call in the telephone booth from an announcer who tells Bugs if he correctly answers a question, he will win a jackpot. Bugs answers the math question and the jackpot dispenses through the coin return slot. The announcer then asks Bugs how he knew the answer so quickly. Bugs says, "One thing we rabbits know how to do is multiply." Meanwhile, Daffy appears as a contestant on People Are Phoney (starring Art Lamplighter) where his task is to help a little old lady across the street while on camera. Things backfire in a hurry when the old lady starts belting Daffy with her umbrella, belligerently declaring she does not need help crossing the street. Daffy staggers, is missed by a speeding truck ("Nyaah, ya' missed me", he gloats, sticking out his tongue), then gets hit by a motorcycle. Lamplighter tells the hysterical audience that Daffy did not quite make it, and that it goes to show that "People Are Phoney." Sorely mad, Daffy comes back to the telephone booth where Bugs is counting the jackpot. Bugs says he got a call in the phone booth, which Daffy does not believe. Bugs says at any time now an announcer might call again. Bugs makes the sound of a ringing phone and cons Daffy into thinking they want another contestant. Daffy pushes Bugs out of the booth, telling Bugs to let him have it. Daffy grabs the "receiver" - now a stick of dynamite - and it explodes as Bugs walks away. He shrugs and says: "So I let him have it." Looking for Bugs, Daffy asks a studio usher (actually Bugs in disguise) if he saw a rabbit. Bugs points him to a door, and Daffy is sent into the show Were You There (a takeoff of the show You Are There) which happens to be reenacting "Indian Massacre At Burton's Bend." Daffy then comes out with his head having been scalped by Indians as he mutters "All right, where's the wise guy?" slapping his scalp back onto his head. At the end, Bugs is disguised as a producer and he tells Daffy that he is suddenly wanted for Costume Party (a reference to the real Masquerade Party), tricking him into donning a rabbit costume. The show he is sent to is the QTTV Sportsman Hour to which Daffy intended to bring Bugs and Bugs collects the fee Daffy wanted for himself. When Daffy protests that he is no rabbit but a duck, the host declares it is now duck season, and a bunch of hunters shoot at Daffy. Bugs shrugs off Daffy's plight, noting: "Eh, they always shoot blanks on TV," Daffy, his beak full of bullet holes, mutters: "'Blanks', he says." Emptying a stack of buckshot from his mouth, he offers them to Bugs: "Have a handful of blanks! Sheesh!" ===== Ram (Jeetendra) and Sadhana (Rekha) are a wealthy married couple. Ram is a graduate, and works as an administrator in a multinational company and earns well. Their marriage comes to an end when Ram cheats on Sadhana with her best friend Urvashi. Ram confesses the truth as he gets drunk, and tries to explain himself, and even Sadhna's family tries to convince her to condone this one mistake, but Sadhana cannot forgive his unfaithfulness and divorces him. After their divorce, Sadhana finds out that she is pregnant with Ram's child. She moves into her new home. Ten years later, they meet each other in a bus and Ram is the new manager of the office where Sadhna works. Coincidentally, Ram's new house is close to Sadhana's. Now when they're neighbors, Ram tries to rekindle their relationship and return his family and wife. He gets close to his son Raju. Will Sadhana forgive him his one and only mistake? ===== Thaddeus J. Banner (Gene Lockhart), a lonely, eccentric millionaire who owns a baseball team, the Brooklyn Loons, takes a liking to a dog-chasing stray cat (played by Orangey), and takes him into his home. He names the cat "Rhubarb," which is baseball slang for an on-field argument or fight. When the man dies, it is discovered that his last will and testament made Rhubarb his sole beneficiary; hence the cat inherits the baseball team. Team publicist Eric Yeager (Ray Milland) is named the cat's guardian. His fiancée Polly Sickles (Jan Sterling), daughter of the team's manager (William Frawley), is terribly allergic to Rhubarb, causing many problems. Banner's spoiled, greedy, and unhappy daughter Myra (Elsie Holmes) files a lawsuit, contesting the will. And when the team's players discover they are owned by a cat, they stage a protest until Yeager persuades them that Rhubarb brings them luck. Brooklyn begins winning and will play the powerful New York team for the championship. But a bookie who stands to lose big if Brooklyn wins decides to kidnap the cat. Brooklyn's fortunes turn for the worse while the search for Rhubarb goes on, until the cat finally escapes from his captors and races to the ballpark to save the day. ===== Rick is a young American who suffers from a rare skin disease that prevents him from exposing himself to any kind of light, especially sunlight. After having tried several cures without success, his father takes him to a village in Yugoslavia where they meet a healer, who is supposed to save him. But the treatment does not work and Rick decides to forget about his illness and enjoy life, feeling the sun on his skin for the first time. In the short time he has left a young American actress enters his life.Filmaffinity.com ===== Two young men hit the road to Hollywood, CA to look for money, fame, and the wild life in this youthful comedy. Tucker "Downer" Downs tires of his boring job as a clerk in a women's fashion outlet and heads West. He also hopes that he will find his father, who disappeared 24 years before. En route, Downs hooks up with wasted video addict/hustler Ben Frank. Together they have many adventures during their trek to Tinsel Town.TV Guide The film is a black comedy of failed expectations and disillusion. Ultimately both men must confront the reality that dreams often do not come true. ===== A brilliant professor invents a complex computer program meant to better society by altering the bad behavior of its test subjects. However, this sometimes causes the personal belongings of these subjects to transform into deadly metal pinballs that attack people, as one unfortunate burglar discovers. His shut-in daughter also uses the machine like a video game, unaware or uncaring of its real world effects on nearby machinery turning against their users. She also owns a strange puppet named George which may be alive, helping her make decisions about her life. In league with a mysterious man, the professor's psychotic assistant gets a hold of the program and manipulates it to warp people's minds and turn them into murderous weapons. She selects three young college girls as her victims and invites them to the professor's house for a weekend of torture and diabolical experiments. Accompanying the young women are a pair of local sleazy barflies who are looking to score with the college girls. Over the course of the weekend, freakish and sexy hijinks ensue while the college girls are subjected to the machine's weird effects. Meanwhile, the shut-in daughter contemplates the meaning of falling in love after turning to George for advice. ===== The plot of the show was centered on three thieves, who all participated in crimes that brought no legitimate suffering to others. They were captured by a secret agency that forced them to use their abilities on the agency's behalf to combat criminals who were a threat against the American way of life, under threat of going to prison themselves. ===== Jacques Bonnard is a prize-winning photographer who travels the world. He returns to his 1920s French-Canadian village, after five years away, seeking the happy time of his childhood. His cantankerous but lovable father (Grandpere), two brothers and their wives, and their children all welcome him ("He's Back"). His stories of his travels have a profound effect on his nephew Bibi, who is having trouble at school and going through an especially rough puberty, inspiring the boy to want to live life to the fullest. Jacques goes to a nightclub and takes Grandpere and Bibi, where they are entertained by the dancers (Six Angels) ("Catch My Garter"). After their night on the town, Bibi begs Jacques to "Please Stay". When Bibi takes Grandpere's "naughty" pictures to school and is discovered, his stern father Philippe forces him to apologize to his school-mates. Bibi is embarrassed and upset and tries to cajole Jacques into taking him away when he leaves. Although Jacques at first agrees, thinking that Bibi will be a companion, he quickly realizes that this would not be good for Bibi. Meanwhile, Jacques finds it difficult to commit to his former sweetheart Laurie ("I Don't Remember You"). The couple finally realize that they have opposite ideas about life and the future ("Seeing Things"), with Laurie understanding that Jacques is emotionally a boy, like her students. Grandpere, Jacques and Bibi playfully sing an ode to "A Certain Girl". Jacques finally realizes that he returned home searching for family and love ("Running"), and understands that he must set out alone again. ===== The world of Innocence is divided between the "divine" world of Devaloka (divided between the regions of Sensus and Ratio) and the lower human world of Naraka. As Devaloka needed human souls to survive, the Sensus general Asura decided to use the Manifest, an artifact created by the ancient Primordial Giant, to merge Devaloka and Naraka. This plan was opposed by many, leading to war between Sensus and Ratio. Asura was aided by the Devalokans Inanna, Orifiel and Sakuya; his sentient sword Durandal; and his dragon companion Vrtra. Asura eventually won, defeating the Ratio general Hypnos in battle. Before he could use the Manifest, Inanna betrayed and stabbed him with Durandal. He kills her before he dies, leaving the unification of Devaloka and Naraka unfinished. Most of Devaloka's population is killed in the process, with the others eventually dying years later. In the present, Naraka is governed by the imperial capital of Regnum and the western country of Garam, who are in a state of war. Added to this is the emergence of "avatars", Devalokans reincarnated in human form who hold supernatural powers. They are hunted and inducted into Regnum's military and used for experimentation or as front line troops in the war. The story begins when Luca Milda, the reincarnation of Asura, encounters another avatar Illia Animi, an avatar of Inanna. She is being chased by agents of Regnum. Luca decides to protect her, awakening his supernatural powers. The two are eventually captured and forced to become fighters on the front lines along with swordsman Spada Belforma, the reincarnation of Durandal. During their time as prisoners, Luca develops a relationship with Chitose Cxarma, who is a reincarnation of Sakuya and retains her former self's deep love for Asura. Luca, Illia and Spada eventually escape, briefly encountering the mercenary Ricardo Soldato, who is a reincarnation of Hypnos. The three are eventually joined by Ricardo, along with Ange Serena and Hermana Larmo, the respective reincarnations of Orifiel and Vrtra. As they travel across the war-torn land, they are confronted by avatars in the service of multiple nations, and Arca - a cult made up of avatars led by a woman known as Mathias. Chitose joins Arca to further their cause of a utopia for avatars, and tries to persuade Luca to join, causing a rift between them. The conflicts between the groups is further inflamed as more people regain their memories as warriors of Sensus or Ratio, sparking old conflicts. In their adventures, the group works to end the fighting and learn about their past lives. When the full truth is revealed, they decide to fulfill Asura's wishes and unite the two worlds. This brings them into conflict with Mathias, who is revealed to be the incarnation of Asura's wrath at being betrayed, and now wishes to destroy both Devaloka and Naraka. Chitose, consumed by Sakuya's love for Asura, helps Mathias in her task. The party confront Mathias and Chitose in Devaloka's ruined capital, where the Manifest is hidden. They defeat Mathias, and Chitose kills herself in a fit of despair. Luca then proceeds to use the Manifest to merge Devaloka and Naraka, nullifying the avatars' powers and lessening the chance of future conflicts. The group then returns to their normal lives. Innocence R mostly preserves the story of Innocence, while adding two further characters: a spearwoman named QQ Selezneva, and a spellcaster named Kongwai Tao. These two belong to different worlds, and enter the world of Innocence through the so-called "Triverse Gate". Kongwai came to "save" two souls (Chitose and the antagonist Hasta Ekstermi, a reincarnation of the demonic spear Gaebolg), while QQ is an archeologist who comes to investigate the world of Innocence. Each enters and leaves the world while leaving the main events mostly unaltered. While they appear to be on friendly terms, a second playthrough reveals that they are bitter enemies who have been playing a "friendship game" while in the world of Innocence. As they return to their world, they part ways, with QQ swearing to kill Kongwai the next time they meet. ===== Ashok Mehra (Rajesh Khanna), is a wealthy industrialist, whose business produces cosmetic products. He is happily married to Purnima (Rekha), but she suffers complications after giving birth to their daughter, and the doctors are not able to save her life, leaving Ashok devastated. He is able to pull himself together and rediscover his will to live only because of his obligation to his daughter, Mini. Several years pass, and Ashok is able to resume his life as normal, except that he is unable to handle Mini's (Baby Shabana) envious pining for a mother to love her the way other children's mothers love them. He is forced to lie to satisfy her, saying that it is possible that her mother will return from "God’s house". Eventually, Mini becomes frustrated with waiting for her mother to return to her, and her behavior degrades severely, to the point that no school is willing to teach her, nor is any governess willing to deal with her. Meanwhile, Ashok's business, while fairly successful, is unable to adequately compete with foreign cosmetics companies, because of their general superiority to Indian companies in the way of advertising. He hires Raj Bedi (Raj Babbar), a successful photographer in the modeling industry, to run his new advertising campaign. Mr. Bedi willingly accepts, as Ashok is one of few Indian businessmen willing to pay Bedi's steep prices. Mr. Bedi finds a beautiful woman, named Radha, also played by Rekha, while scouting for model at the beach. At first, Radha is reluctant, but eventually Mr. Bedi is able to convince her to model for him in the Ashok Mehra campaign. Over the course of the project, the two fall in love, and eventually wed. Because Ashok Mehra's model has now become his wife, Mr. Bedi is unwilling to give him the photos, and sells all of his personal possessions to arrange for the cost of backing out of the contract. Mr. Bedi's reputation is ruined by Ashok as a result of this incomplete project, and his career takes a nosedive. In time, Mr. Bedi is able to build a modest, but decent life for Radha and himself by taking on small jobs. However, even this modest life is threatened when Mr. Bedi, in going to extreme lengths to take the best photos possible for a particular project, suffers a crippling fall. Radha decides to take on a job in order to run the house and save money for her husband's treatment, but no one is willing to hire a married woman, whose primary focus will be her husband rather than her job. Eventually, she decides she is willing to lie about her marital status to get a job. Her job search leads her to Ashok Mehra's office, where his associates are looking for a governess for Mini. She is offered the position instantly based on her uncanny resemblance to the late Mrs. Purnima Mehra, although this fact is hidden from her; his business manager, Shakur Ahmed (Madan Puri), simply tells her that he has a great feeling about her. Unwilling at first, holding Mr. Mehra responsible for her and her husband's current situation, she is forced to accept the position, because Ashok's associates are offering her far more money than she can make anywhere else. At first, Mini displays her usual poor behavior, but after watching Radha's perseverance through her antics and devotion to her, and finally realizing that her mother will never return, Mini comes to feel that the void left by her mother has been filled. Even Ashok begins to feel that the void in his life is similarly being filled, and, being unaware that Radha is married, falls in love with her. As the relation between Radha and Mini grows beyond a professional one, and as Radha continues to keep her bedridden husband in the dark as to the details of her job, Mr. Bedi begins to suspect his wife's marital integrity. Ashok's attempts to grow closer to Radha, and Bedi's interloping friend Chandu (Asrani), only serve to add to his suspicions. After a heated confrontation between Ashok, Mr. Bedi, and Radha, her and Mini's relationship comes to an abrupt end. Ashok is unable to handle his obligation as a father to quell Mini's obvious frustration with being deprived, once again, of a mother's love, and sends her to live in a hostel. Another confrontation occurs between Radha and Ashok, and the two parties officially sever all ties. Feeling guilty for judging Radha as selfish, and feeling a sense of obligation to her for giving his daughter a mother's love, Ashok learns that a lottery ticket that Radha had purchased through him has won the jackpot, and sends Shakur Ahmed to deliver her prize on his behalf. The lottery winnings are enough to pay for Mr. Bedi to be treated in America. Ashok meets the couple at the airport, and misconceptions between the three are cleared up. The movie ends with Ashok taking advantage of a delay in the Bedis’ flight to arrange for the adoption of Mini by Mr. and Mrs. Bedi, as he is unable to give her the love she desires and deserves. The last line of the movie is delivered painfully by Ashok Mehra, directed at both of Rekha’s characters: "I Loved you once, but lost you twice." ===== =====