From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== This novel is the story of the Berrys, a quirky New Hampshire family composed of a married couple, Win and Mary, and their five children, Frank, Franny, John, Lilly, and Egg. The parents, both from the small town of Dairy, New Hampshire, fall in love while working at a summer resort hotel in Maine as teenagers. There, they meet a Viennese Jew named Freud who works at the resort as a handyman and entertainer, performing with his pet bear, State o' Maine; Freud comes to symbolize the magic of that summer for them. By summer's end, the teens are engaged, and Win buys Freud's bear and motorcycle and travels the country performing to raise money to go to Harvard, which he subsequently attends while Mary starts their family. He then returns to Dairy and teaches at the local second-rate boys' prep school he attended, the Dairy School. But he is unsatisfied and dreaming of something better. Brash, self-confident beauty Franny is the object of John's adoration. John serves as the narrator, and is sweet, if naive. Frank is physically and socially awkward, reserved, and homosexual; he shares a friendship with his younger sister, Lilly, a romantic young girl who has stopped physically growing. Egg is an immature little boy with a penchant for dressing up in costumes. John and Franny are companions, seeing themselves as the most normal of the children, aware their family is rather strange. But, as John remarks, to themselves the family's oddness seems "right as rain." Win conceives the idea of turning an abandoned girls' school into a hotel. He names it the Hotel New Hampshire and the family moves in. This becomes the first part of the Dickensian-style tale. Key plot points include Franny's rape at the hands of quarterback Chipper Dove and several of his fellow football teammates. The actions and attitude of Chipper, with whom Franny is in love, are contrasted with those of her rescuer, Junior Jones, a black member of the team. The death of the family dog, Sorrow, provides dark comedy as he is repeatedly "resurrected" via taxidermy, literally scaring Win's father, Iowa Bob, to death at one point and foiling a sexual initiation of John's at another. John partakes in a continuing sexual/business relationship with the older hotel housekeeper, Ronda Ray, which ends when a letter arrives from Freud in Vienna, inviting the family to move to help him (and his new "smart" bear) run his hotel there. Traveling separately from the rest of the family, Mary and Egg are killed in a plane crash. The others take up life in Vienna at what is renamed the (second) Hotel New Hampshire, one floor of which is occupied by prostitutes and another floor by a group of radical communists. The family discover Freud is now blind and the "smart bear" is actually a young woman named Susie, who has endured events which leave her with little fondness for humans and feeling most secure inside a very realistic bear suit. After the death of his wife, Win Berry retreats further into his own hazy, vague fantasy world, while the family navigate relationships with the prostitutes and the radicals. John and Franny experience the pain and desire of being in love with each other. The two also feel jealousy when John becomes romantically involved with a communist who commits suicide, and Franny finds comfort, freedom, and excitement in sexual relationships with both Susie the Bear and Ernst, the "quarterback" of the radicals. Lilly develops as a writer and authors a novel based on the family, under whose noses an elaborate plot is being hatched by the radicals to blow up the Vienna opera house, using Freud and the family as hostages, which Freud and Win barely manage to stop. In the process, Freud dies and Win himself is blinded. The family become famous as heroes, and with Frank as Lilly's agent, her book is published for a large amount of money. The family (with Susie) returns to the States, taking up residence in The Stanhope hotel in New York. In the final part of the novel, Franny and John find a way to resolve their love, and Franny, with Susie's ingenious assistance, finally gets revenge on Chipper. Franny also finds success as a movie actress and marries Junior, now a well-known civil rights lawyer. Lilly is unable to cope with the pressure of her career and her own self-criticism and commits suicide. John and Frank purchase the shut-down resort in Maine where their parents met during the "magical" summer, and the property becomes another hotel of sorts, functioning as a rape crisis center run by Susie and with Win providing unwitting counsel to victims. Susie, whose emotional pain and insecurities have healed somewhat with time and effort, builds a happy relationship with John, and a pregnant Franny asks them to raise her and Junior's impending baby. ===== When Buffy is on patrol, she laments in song about how uninspired her life has become ("Going Through the Motions"). The next morning at the Magic Box, the gang reveal that they also sang that evening. Led by Giles, the gang theorizes about the cause of the singing; they sense no immediate danger but agree that by working together they can overcome anything ("I've Got a Theory/Bunnies/If We're Together"). Buffy learns that the whole town is affected when she looks outside the shop to see a large group (led by series writer and producer David Fury) singing and dancing about how a dry-cleaning service got their stains out ("The Mustard"). Tara and Willow leave to "research" at home, but dally along the way while Tara muses about how much Willow has improved her life ("Under Your Spell"). The next morning, Xander and Anya perform a duet about their secret annoyances with each other and their respective doubts about their impending marriage ("I'll Never Tell"). They realize that the songs are bringing out hidden secrets, and later insist to Giles that something evil is to blame. As they argue, they walk past a woman (series writer and producer Marti Noxon) protesting a parking ticket ("The Parking Ticket"). That evening, Buffy visits Spike, who angrily tells Buffy to leave him alone if she will not love him ("Rest in Peace"). Dawn tells Tara she is glad that Tara and Willow have made up after their argument. Since Tara has no recollection of an argument, she suspects that Willow has used magic to alter her memory. She goes to the Magic Box to consult a book, leaving Dawn alone. Dawn starts to bemoan that no one seems to notice her ("Dawn's Lament"), but is soon seized by minions of Sweet (Hinton Battle), a zoot suit-wearing, tap-dancing, singing demon. They take Dawn to The Bronze, where her attempt to escape transforms into an interpretive dance with the minions ("Dawn's Ballet") before she meets Sweet. He tells Dawn that he has come to Sunnydale in response to her "invocation", and he will take her to his dimension to make her his bride ("What You Feel") when his visit is complete. At the Magic Box, Giles recognizes that he must stand aside if Buffy is to face her responsibilities in caring for Dawn instead of relying on him ("Standing") and Tara finds a picture of the forget- me-not flower Willow used to cast a spell on her in a book of magic. Giles and Tara separately resolve to leave the people they love, respectively Buffy and Willow — Giles wants to leave Buffy for her own good, while Tara wants to leave Willow because she has become horrified by Willow’s magical manipulation of their relationship ("Under Your Spell / Standing—Reprise"). Captured by Spike outside the store, one of Sweet’s minions conveys a challenge from Sweet for Buffy to rescue Dawn from The Bronze. Giles forbids the gang to assist Buffy, so she goes alone, despite having no will to do so; eventually Giles and the Scoobies change their minds and leave to catch up. Although Spike initially thinks that things would be better for him if Buffy was dead, he also changes his mind and decides to help Buffy; Sweet opines that Buffy is drawn to danger ("Walk Through the Fire"). Meeting Sweet at The Bronze, Buffy offers a deal to Sweet: she will take the place of her sister if she can’t kill him. When asked by Sweet what she thinks about life, Buffy gives her pessimistic take on its meaning ("Something to Sing About"). When the others arrive, she divulges that Willow took her from heaven, and Willow reacts with horror at finding out what she’s done. Upon divulging this truth, Buffy gives up on singing and dances so frenetically that she begins to smoke — on the verge of combusting as Sweet’s other victims have been shown to do — until Spike stops her, telling her that the only way to go forward is to just keep living her life. Xander then reveals that he, not Dawn, called Sweet, hoping he would be shown a happy ending for his marriage plans. Sweet, after releasing Xander from the obligation to be Sweet's “bride”, tells the group how much fun they have been ("What You Feel—Reprise") and disappears. The Scoobies realize that their relationships have been changed irreversibly by the secrets revealed in their songs ("Where Do We Go from Here?"). Spike leaves The Bronze, but Buffy follows him out, and they kiss ("Coda"). ===== Charles Plumpick (Bates) is a kilt-wearing French-born Scottish soldier of the Signal Corps, caring for war pigeons, who is sent by his commanding officer to disarm a bomb placed in the town square by the retreating Germans. As the fighting comes closer to the town, its inhabitants—including those who run the insane asylum—abandon it. The asylum gates are left open, and the inmates leave the asylum and take on the roles of the townspeople. Plumpick has no reason to think they are not who they appear to be—other than the colorful and playful way in which they're living their lives, so at odds with the fearful and war- ravaged times. The lunatics crown Plumpick the King of Hearts with surreal pageantry as he frantically tries to find the bomb before it goes off. ===== > "The road cleared the cutting through the hills. He could see South > Queensferry, the marina at Port Edgar, the VAT 69 sign of the distillery > there, the lights of Hewlett-Packard’s factory; and the rail bridge, dark in > the evening’s last sky-reflected light. Behind it, more lights; the Hound > Point oil terminal they’d had a sub-contract on, and, further away, the > lights of Leith. The old rail bridge’s hollow metal bones looked the colour > of dried blood. > You fucking beauty, he thought . . . What a gorgeous great device you are. > So delicate from this distance, so massive and strong close-up. Elegance and > grace; perfect form. A quality bridge; granite piers, the best ship-plate > steel, and a never-ending paint job..." The three main characters represent different elements of the protagonist. Alex (full name hinted to be Alexander Lennox, but never explicitly named), John Orr and The Barbarian are one. Alex is a real person, born in Glasgow, who studied geology and engineering at the University of Edinburgh, fell in love with Andrea Cramond while there, and has continued their (open) relationship ever since. He is embittered by his betrayal of his working-class roots (he has become a manager and partner in his engineering firm), the Cold War, successive Thatcher governments, and the failure of his relationship under the pressure of Andrea's French lover's terminal illness. While returning from a sentimental reunion with an old friend in Fife, during which alcohol and cannabis are consumed, he becomes distracted by the power and beauty of the Forth Railway Bridge while driving on the neighbouring Forth Road Bridge and crashes his car. While in a coma in hospital, he relives his life up to the crash. > "He glanced back at the roadway of the bridge as it rose slowly to its > gentle, suspended summit. The surface was a little damp, but nothing to > worry about. No problems. He wasn’t going all that fast anyway, staying in > the nearside lane, looking over at the rail bridge downstream. A light > winked at the far end of the island under the rail bridge’s middle-section. > One day, though, even you’ll be gone. Nothing lasts. Maybe that’s what I > want to tell her. Maybe I want to say, No, of course I don’t mind; you must > go. I can’t grudge the man that; you’d have done the same for me and I would > for you. Just a pity, that’s all. Go; we’ll all survive. Maybe some good- > He was aware of the truck in front pulling out suddenly. He looked round to > see a car in front of him. It was stopped, abandoned in the nearside lane. > He sucked his breath in, stamped on the brakes, tried to swerve; but it was > too late." John Orr is an amnesiac living on the Bridge, a fictional version of the rail bridge, of indeterminate length but at least hundreds of miles long and packed with people. The crash which precipitated his arrival on the bridge was semi- deliberate; as such, he is reluctant to return to the real world. That part of himself who wishes to wake is represented by Dr Joyce, Orr's psychoanalyst. Given Orr/Alex's desire to remain within the world of the Bridge, a world where he is well treated and lives a fairly pampered life, his attempts to stonewall and block the doctor's attempts to cure him are understandable. Eventually, he stows away on a train and leaves the Bridge. He finds that, in stark contrast to the very orderly, indeed totalitarian, life on The Bridge, the countryside beyond exists in militaristic chaos and warfare. The Barbarian is an id-ish warrior with a superego-esque familiar in tow (phallic symbolism is referenced by the familiar within a few pages of their first appearance) whose hack-and slash antics through various parodies of Greek legends and fairy tales are phonetically rendered in Scots dialect (seven years before Irvine Welsh used the technique in Trainspotting). The Barbarian (along with his loquacious familiar) are a deep expression of Alex's character; when Orr's dreams are not themed around threat and opposition he dreams he is the Barbarian. The Barbarian appears to be an expression of Alex's deepest feelings. A woman is his enemy in their first appearance (Metamorphosis, Four), showing how Andrea Cramond has made her influence felt in Alex's very core, and how his love for her has been eroded and has transmuted into anger and contempt through the rift that has opened in their relationship. In their second appearance (Metamorphosis, Four), a female character is mentioned in passing, with a certain level of affection. The third appearance of the Barbarian and familiar (Metamorphosis, Pliocene) sees them old, decrepit, bed- bound and heading inevitably towards death. In each successive chapter the Barbarian's Scottish accent becomes less and less pronounced, another indication of how far Alex has gone from his Glaswegian roots. The Barbarian talks of his grief over his dead wife and his memories of their life together. While comparisons have been drawn between Sigmund Freud's structural theory of personality, this is the only point where the Barbarian, Familiar and another individual get together in a three-way arrangement. If the Barbarian's wife represents Andrea Cramond, it is another example of how deeply she has penetrated his being. In a move mirroring Alex's suicide drive and anticipating the end of the book, he is placed in a situation likely to kill him, but triumphs and emerges (literally) rejuvenated and reinvigorated. His Glasgow accent also returns. The Bridge is an unconventional love story; the characters eschew fidelity and barely see each other for years at a time, but they keep returning to each other. There is no marriage, no ring, no happy ever after, just the knowledge that their lives are so deeply entwined it would be difficult or impossible for them to break away from each other. > "You don't belong to her and she doesn't belong to you, but you're both part > of each other; if she got up and left now and walked away and you never saw > each other again for the rest of your lives, and you lived an ordinary > waking life for another fifty years, even so on your deathbed you would know > she was part of you." The fate of Alex and Andrea is revealed in a passage in a later book, Complicity. ===== The setting for the game is post-nuclear holocaust Earth, where a privileged group of humans have made it through the war in purpose-built shelters while rest of the humankind suffered. People outside, disapproving how they have been treated, have secretly constructed a laser cannon to even the score. ===== Victory Gundam is set in UC 0153, and succeeds the Federation Force and Crossbone Vanguard conflict of Mobile Suit Gundam F91. The Earth, still loosely controlled by the greatly weakened Earth Federation, comes under attack by BESPA, the armed forces of the space colony-based Zanscare Empire. Only a ragtag resistance movement, League Militaire, stands in BESPA's way as they swiftly conquer much of space and start their invasion of Earth, with the advanced mass-produced mobile suit, the Victory Gundam, as the League Militaire's secret weapon. However, BESPA's power continues to grow, using violent means, including public executions with guillotines, to strike fear into those living on Earth. Living peacefully on Earth in the remote Eastern European town of Kasarelia, 13-year-old Üso Ewin and his childhood friend Shahkti Kareen are soon thrown into the conflict when they encounter ace BESPA pilot Chronicle Asher. Soon, Üso finds himself joining forces with Marbet Fingerhut and the rest of the League Militaire, piloting the Victory Gundam against the BESPA, and soon discovering the horrors of war. ===== Turn A Gundam follows the character Loran Cehack, a young member of the Moonrace. Selected as part of a reconnaissance mission to determine whether or not the Earth was fit for resettlement, Loran lands on the continent of North America, spends two years living on Earth as the chauffeur to the Heim family, and grows attached to its people. With the expectation of a peaceful resettlement operation from his people, he and a pair of his close friends sent down with him confirm that the Earth is now fit for the Moonrace to make their return. He's taken by surprise when the Moonrace intends to return to Earth via an offensive with mobile suits, and their first attack sparks a violent conflict between Earth and moon. The night of the first attack, Loran is at the White Doll, an enormous humanoid statue, for a coming-of-age ceremony. When the Moonrace attacks and the battle in town can be seen from a distance the children panic. In the midst of this panic, the White Doll shatters, revealing a metallic figure within, and the shrine collapses around it. During the panic, Loran recognizes the White Doll as a mobile suit, and succeeds in applying his knowledge of the Moonrace's mobile suits to pilot it. The death of the Heim patriarch in the attack pulls the family and Loran into the budding war; Loran becomes the designated pilot of the White Doll, and its discovery prompts the excavation of further mobile suits in the various "mountain cycles" covering the Earth. As the Moonrace's invasion rapidly turns into a full-fledged war against the increasingly armed Earthrace, it becomes clear that this state of affairs is divisive among both groups; while the Moonrace's queen Dianna Soreil attempts to negotiate with the local leaders for a peaceful solution by which the Moonrace can come to reside on the Earth, the militaristic among both populations interfere with the negotiations again and again, forcing the war to continue as opposed to accepting a compromise. ===== The series is the first of the Gundam franchise set in the "Cosmic Era" in which mankind is divided between normal Earth dwelling humans, known as "Naturals", and the genetically altered super- humans known as "Coordinators". The primary conflict of the story plot derives from jealous hatred by Naturals of the abilities of Coordinators, leading to hate crimes, and eventually the emigration of almost all Coordinators who flee into space to live idyllic lives on giant orbital space colonies called PLANTS of their own design. War eventually breaks out between Earth and the Plants. The Earth is divided between two major factions, the Earth Forces formed from most of the natural born human nations, primarily the Eurasians and the Atlantic Federation, and a natural human supremacist group known as Blue Cosmos with its slogan, "For the preservation of our blue and pure world". The Earth Forces are not a unified alliance, and infighting and mistrust exist between their various nation states. The second major Earth nation is the Orb Union, a staunchly politically neutral and isolationist nation located on small Pacific Ocean islands ruled by a hereditary monarchy and still contains Coordinator citizens. Two major events precede the story, known as the Bloody Valentine tragedy that initiated war between the PLANTS and the Earth Forces when one of the PLANT space stations, Junius-7, is destroyed by a nuclear bomb. The second event is the counterattack by the PLANTS that buries Neutron Jammers deep into Earth's crust that halts all nuclear reactions and long range radar and radio, causing most areas of earth to go without electricity or communication, and requiring mobile suits to rely on rechargeable batteries. The PLANTS are a technological power house, developing many new technologies that give them equal power to Earth despite their very small population. It is the invention of the Mobile Suits that give their military the edge in the beginning of the war. The story begins in the neutral Orb Union owned space colony Heliopolis, where 5 advanced mobile suits for the Earth Forces war effort are developed in secret in exchange of sharing of their technical data with the neutral Orb Union military. Additionally Heliopolis constructs a unique carrier battleship, the Archangel to base the five mobile suits from for the Earth Forces. The colony is attacked by ZAFT forces, the military of the PLANTS, with the objective of stealing the new units. During the incursion an Orb union student and Coordinator named Kira Yamato, upon seeing his friends in danger, pilots the GAT-X105 Strike mobile suit to fend off the invaders but the colony is critically damaged in the ensuing fight. As Heliopolis disintegrates, the survivors board the Archangel, and begin their journey to the Alliance base in Alaska. During the journey to Earth, Kira pilots the Strike to counter a series of attacks by ZAFT but is seemingly killed by his childhood friend, ZAFT soldier Athrun Zala, during one of their battles in which he also is nearly killed. Kira survives the attack and is taken by a blind priest to one of the PLANT space colonies, home to the Coordinators to recover. The Archangel arrives in Alaska but ZAFT launches a full-scale attack on the base overpowering their enemies. Kira goes to Alaska with the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, a highly advanced, nuclear powered, and Neutron Jammer proof ZAFT mobile suit stolen by the PLANT pop star Coordinator Lacus Clyne, daughter of Siegel Clyne, President of the Supreme Council of PLANT. Using Freedom, Kira ends the battle between the two armies, but the Alaska base is subsequently destroyed. The Archangel flees to the neutral country of the Orb Union. The Archangel and a new ship, the Orb Union ship Kusanagi leave Earth for space where they then join Lacus Clyne's rebel faction and their stolen ZAFT battleship, the Eternal (meant to carry the Freedom and Justice mobile suites) to form the Three Ships Alliance with the common goal of ending the war between the Naturals and Coordinators. In the midst of the conflict, Athrun learns that Kira survived and searches for him under orders to recover the Freedom Gundam, and is given an equally powerful prototype Justice Gundam. However, after learning of Patrick Zala's, Athrun's father and the radical militant faction leader of the PLANT Supreme Council, plan to commit genocide, Athrun deserts him and joins the Three Ships Alliance. In a final battle, the Earth Forces deploys nuclear weapons equipped with Neutron Jammer Canceler technology copied from stolen data on the Freedom and Justice Gundam's power systems. The Earth Forces intend to destroy the PLANT space colonies but are stopped by ZAFT's GENESIS, a super weapon microwave laser designed to commit genocide on the Naturals. The Three Ship Alliance intervenes to defeat the GENESIS ending the battle. The war ultimately ends as a peace treaty is signed. ===== One day, a 9-year-old elementary schoolgirl named Miho Shinohara is given two stuffed dinosaurs by a unnamed stranger. The stuffed dinosaurs come to life and they present her with a magic sketchbook and pen. Within limits, and subject to varying degrees of control, she can draw in the sketchbook and bring the drawings to life. Miho can also transform into a teenage girl, whom she names Fancy Lala. One day, Lala is scouted by Yumi Haneishi, the president of the talent agency Lyrical Productions, and begins the long road to stardom. ===== The city of Bellona is severely damaged; radio, television, and telephones do not reach it. People enter and leave by crossing a bridge on foot. Inexplicable events punctuate the novel: One night the perpetual cloud cover parts to reveal two moons in the sky. One day a red sun swollen to hundreds of times its normal size rises to terrify the populace, then retreats across the sky to set on the same horizon. Street signs and landmarks shift constantly, while time appears to contract and dilate. Buildings burn for days, but are never consumed, while others burn and later show no signs of damage. Gangs roam the nighttime streets, their members hidden within holographic projections of gigantic insects or mythological creatures. The few people left in Bellona struggle with survival, boredom, and each other. The novel's protagonist is “the Kid” (sometimes "Kidd"), a drifter who suffers from partial amnesia: he can't remember either his own name or those of his parents, though he knows his mother was an American Indian. He wears only one sandal, shoe, or boot, as do characters in two other Delany novels and one short story: Mouse in Nova (1968), Hogg in Hogg (1995), and Roger in "We, in Some Strange Power's Employ Move on a Rigorous Line" (1967). Possibly he is intermittently schizophrenic: the novel’s narrative is intermittently incoherent (particularly at its end), the protagonist has memories of a stay in a mental hospital, and his perception of reality and the passages of time sometimes differ from those of other characters. Over the course of the story he also suffers from significant memory loss. In addition, he is dyslexic, confusing left and right and often taking wrong turns at street corners and getting lost in the city. It is therefore unclear to what extent the events in the story are the product of an unreliable narrator. ===== The Scar opens with the journey of a small ship which has set out from the city New Crobuzon (the setting of Perdido Street Station). It is heading to the city's new colony, Nova Esperium, which lies across the Swollen Ocean of Bas-Lag. On board the ship are: *Bellis Coldwine, a cold, reserved linguist who is fleeing for her life for her alleged connection to the events in Perdido Street Station. *Johannes Tearfly, a scientist whose interests lie in megafauna and underwater sealife. *Tanner Sack, a Remade criminal (that is, he has had his body surgically and magically altered as punishment for his crime) who is bound for slavery. *Shekel, a young cabin boy who befriends Tanner. Before the ship reaches Nova Esperium, it is captured by pirates, and the passengers, crew and prisoners are all press-ganged into being citizens of Armada, a floating city made of thousands of ships. Tanner uses his newfound freedom to embrace his remaking. He has his body further remade and the earlier, rough work perfected, becoming an amphibious sea-creature. Treated now as an equal citizen rather than a prisoner or slave, Tanner's loyalties fiercely lie in Armada. Bellis meanwhile despises her new life as a librarian for the city's vast collection of stolen books, and yearns for home. She gains the attention of the powerful Uther Doul, who is a bodyguard to the mysterious, scarred leaders of Armada known as the Lovers. Doul, for his own reasons, involves Bellis much more closely in the city's matters. She soon becomes privy to a plan formulated by the Lovers to raise a mythical sea creature known as the avanc. Simultaneously, she becomes involved with a New Crobuzonian spy named Silas Fennec, who reveals that the grindylow of the Cold Claw Sea are planning war on New Crobuzon. Silas was on his way home to warn his leaders of this war (thus saving the millions of innocents who might be slaughtered by the grindylow) when he was captured by Armada. Bellis and Silas find physical release in each other, and commiserate that they are powerless to save their home city. Shekel, who is learning to read with Bellis's help, finds a strange book in the Armada's library. He brings it to Bellis, and she realizes that it is the book the Lovers need to raise the avanc. Knowing that she must get a message home, Bellis destroys a large part of the Appendix which shows the equations and methods to raise the avanc. With the book destroyed, the Lovers seek the book's writer, Krüach Aum, the only person who knows how to summon the mythical creature. Armada mounts an expedition to his unnamed island home, which is the island of the dreaded Anophelii (a horrific and deadly race of mosquito-people). The Lovers find Aum and the information they need, while Bellis uses their time on the island, away from Armada, to get a message home warning of the impending grindylow invasion. Armada then successfully raises the avanc and captures it – no mean feat, as the avanc is an immense creature, several miles long. The Lovers' true plan is finally revealed: to use the great speed and pulling power of the avanc to find the fabled Scar, a place in the world where reality breaks down and anything is possible. The Lovers see this as a source of ultimate power. On the journey far into unmapped waters, numerous matters threaten the city. Silas Fennec's actions, which have been far from honest, single-handedly bring down the fury of the New Crobuzon navy and the inhuman wrath of the grindylows. Following this, a civil war breaks out within the city. Terribly damaged, Armada finally nears the Scar, and faces the unsettling horrors that accompany the breakdown of possibility. They pick up a shipwrecked friend from a different train of possibilities, chances and choices, who warns them of The Scar and that he saw the city fall into the wound of the world and everybody was killed. Mutiny follows and the people of Armada finally force the city to turn around and head back to the Swollen Ocean, the life of quiet and piracy, that they all want. The last chapter of the book is another excerpt of Bellis's letter home, in which she realizes how much she was being used by Doul. The reader is left to question how much Uther Doul actually was in control of the events in the book, which events were simply chance and which were 'planned' possibility. ===== A man named Aarbron is kidnapped as a child and corrupted through magic into a monstrous warrior-servant for the evil beast lord Maletoth. The creature's memory of his human life returns when he watches a man being executed, whom he later recognizes as his father. This prompts Aarbron to seek revenge on Maletoth. A long arduous journey ensues, with Aarbron forced to battle his way through both hostile terrain and Maletoth's forces. He eventually confronts one of Maletoth's minions, a gargantuan creature whose only visible body parts are its hand and foot. Defeating the creature, Aarbron is freed from his curse, the eponymous "Shadow of the Beast", and returned to a more humanoid form. ===== There is a general storyline behind the Amiga version of the game in which the player is an inter-galactic salesman whose spaceship has broken down. He needs to find a telephone to call the breakdown service and get the spaceship fixed. Shufflepuck Café is the nearest place for miles, so he goes in to use their telephone. The main eight Shufflepuck players are standing in his way and will not let him get to the phone until he has beaten them all. Once all are defeated, the player gets in his spaceship and flies off into the distance. ===== The player takes the role of Giana (referred to as "Gianna" in the scrolling intro and also the intended name before a typo was made on the cover art and the developers just went with that rather than having the cover remade), a girl who suffers from a nightmare, in which she travels through 33 stages full of monsters, while collecting ominous diamonds and looking for her sister Maria. If the player wins the final battle, Giana will be awakened by her sister.Sebastian Pranz: Theatralität digitaler Medien: Eine wissenssoziologische Betrachtung medialisierten Alltagshandelns. VS Verlag, 2009, , pp. 202 – 209 & 221. ===== ===== Most of the stories involve Black Jack doing some good deed, for which he rarely gets recognition—often curing the poor and destitute for free, or teaching the arrogant a lesson in humility. They sometimes end with a good, humane person enduring hardship, often unavoidable death, to save others. ===== In Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC, high priest Imhotep has a love affair with Anck-su-namun, the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I. Imhotep and Anck-su-namun kill the Pharaoh after he discovers their affair. Imhotep flees, while Anck-su-namun kills herself, believing that Imhotep would be able to resurrect her. Imhotep and his priests steal her corpse and travel to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, but the resurrection ritual is stopped by Seti's bodyguards, the Medjai. Imhotep's priests are all mummified alive, while Imhotep is sentenced to suffer the Hom Dai; the worst of Egyptian curses: his tongue is cut out, and he is buried alive with flesh-eating scarab beetles. He is sealed away in a sarcophagus at the feet of a statue of the Egyptian god Anubis and kept under strict surveillance by the Medjai, sworn to prevent Imhotep's return. In 1926, Jonathan Carnahan presents his sister Evelyn—a librarian and aspiring Egyptologist—with an intricate box and map that lead to Hamunaptra. Jonathan reveals he stole the box from an American adventurer, Rick O'Connell, who discovered the city three years earlier while in the French Foreign Legion. Evelyn and Jonathan find Rick and make a deal with him to lead them to the city. Rick guides Evelyn and her party to the city, where the group encounters a band of American treasure hunters led by Rick's cowardly acquaintance Beni Gabor, who'd previously left him to die at Hamunaptra. The expeditions are confronted several times by the Medjai, led by the warrior Ardeth Bay. Despite being warned to leave, the two expeditions continue to excavate. Evelyn searches for the famous Book of Amun-Ra, a book made of pure gold. However, instead of finding the book, she stumbles upon Imhotep's remains. The team of Americans, meanwhile, discover the black Book of the Dead, accompanied by canopic jars carrying Anck-su-namun's preserved organs. At night, Evelyn takes the Book of the Dead and reads a page aloud, accidentally awakening Imhotep. The expeditions return to Cairo, and Imhotep follows them with the help of Beni, who has agreed to serve him. Imhotep returns to full strength by killing the members of the American expedition and brings the ten plagues back to Egypt. Seeking a way to stop Imhotep, Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan meet Ardeth at a museum. Ardeth hypothesizes that Imhotep wants to resurrect Anck-su-namun by sacrificing Evelyn. Evelyn believes that if the Book of the Dead brought Imhotep back to life, the Book of Amun-Ra can kill him again, and deduces the book's whereabouts in Hamunaptra. Imhotep corners the group with an army of slaves. Evelyn agrees to accompany Imhotep if he spares the rest of the group. Although Imhotep goes back on his word, Rick and the others fight their way to safety. Imhotep, Evelyn, and Beni return to Hamunaptra, pursued by Rick, Jonathan, and Ardeth, who are able to locate the Book of Amun-Ra. Imhotep prepares to sacrifice Evelyn, but she is rescued after an intense battle with Imhotep's mummified priests. Evelyn reads from the Book of Amun-Ra, making Imhotep mortal, and he is fatally wounded by Rick. While looting treasure, Beni accidentally sets off a booby trap and is killed by a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs as Hamunaptra collapses into the sand. Ardeth bids Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan goodbye, and the trio rides off into the sunset on a pair of camels laden with Beni's treasure. ===== In 1921, an archaeological expedition led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) finds the mummy of an ancient Egyptian high priest named Imhotep (Boris Karloff). An inspection of the mummy by Whemple's friend Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) reveals that the viscera were not removed, and from the signs of struggling Muller deduces that although Imhotep had been wrapped like a traditional mummy, he had been buried alive. Also buried with Imhotep is a casket with a curse on it. Despite Muller's warning, Sir Joseph's assistant Ralph Norton (Bramwell Fletcher) opens it and finds an ancient life-giving scroll, the "Scroll of Thoth". He translates the symbols and then reads the words aloud. Imhotep rises, the sight of which snaps Norton's mind and causes him to laugh hysterically, as the Mummy shuffles off with the scroll. Ten years later, Imhotep is masquerading as a modern Egyptian named Ardeth Bay covering himself with makeup. He calls upon Sir Joseph's son Frank (David Manners) and Professor Pearson (Leonard Mudie) and shows them where to dig to find the tomb of the princess Anck-su-namun. After locating the tomb, the archaeologists present its treasures to the Cairo Museum and thank Ardeth for making their discovery possible. It is further revealed that Imhotep's horrific death was punishment for sacrilege: attempting to resurrect his forbidden lover, Princess Anck-su-namun. Ardeth soon encounters Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann), a half-Egyptian woman bearing a striking resemblance to the princess. Believing her to be Anck-su-namun's reincarnation, he attempts to kill her, with the intention of mummifying her, resurrecting her, and finally making her his immortal bride. Helen is rescued when she remembers her ancestral past life and prays to the goddess Isis to come to her aid. The statue of Isis raises its arm and emits a flash that sets the Scroll of Thoth on fire. This breaks the spell that had given Imhotep his immortality, causing him to crumble to dust. At the urging of Dr. Muller, Frank calls Helen back to the world of the living while the Scroll of Thoth continues to burn. ===== The lords of the city of Waterdeep hire a team of adventurers to investigate an evil coming from beneath the city. The adventurers enter the city's sewer, but the entrance gets blocked by a collapse caused by Xanathar, the eponymous beholder. The team descends further beneath the city, going through Dwarf and Drow clans, to Xanathar's lair, where the final confrontation takes place. Once the eponymous beholder is killed, the player would be treated to a small blue window describing that the beholder was killed and that the adventurers returned to the surface where they were treated as heroes. Nothing else was mentioned in the ending and there were no accompanying graphics. This was changed in the later released Amiga version, which featured an animated ending. ===== Once there was a writer named Drosselmeyer, who had the power to make his stories come to life. But he died before he could finish his final tale, The Prince and the Raven, leaving the two title characters locked in an eternal battle. After many years, the Raven managed to break free into the real world, and the Prince pursued him. To seal away the Raven's evil, Prince Siegfried shattered his own heart with his sword, causing him to lose all his memories and emotions. Drosselmeyer, now a ghost, decides the story must have an ending. He finds it in the form of a little duck, who has fallen in love with Mytho, the empty remainder of Siegfried. He gives her a magic pendant that can transform her, first into an ordinary human girl, then into the graceful ballerina Princess Tutu, another character in the story. As Tutu, it's Duck's job to find all the scattered shards of Mytho's heart and return them to him. But not everyone wants Mytho to get his heart back. Rue, the Raven's daughter reborn as a human, has fallen in love with him too, and worries he might not return her feelings if he has a heart. Her desire to stop him from regaining his emotions unleashes her ability to transform into Princess Kraehe, Tutu's evil counterpart. Fakir, the boy who found and took care of Mytho after he escaped the story, also tries to stop Tutu, fearing that the story progressing means the Raven will return and Mytho will have to risk his life fighting it again. What's more, Duck learns that part of Princess Tutu's story is that she can never confess her love to Mytho, or else she'll turn into a speck of light and vanish. However, it becomes clear that Mytho wants his heart restored, so despite Fakir and Kraehe's interference, she persists. Eventually, Fakir accepts Mytho's choice and decides to help Tutu, even discovering her true identity as a Duck and becoming good friends with her. He also learns he's a descendant of Drosselmeyer, meaning he too has the power to make what he writes a reality. Rue finds out she's not the Raven's daughter, but a human child he stole to serve him. After most of Mytho's heart is returned to him, the seal trapping the Raven begins to break. Finally able to feel love again, Mytho realizes he loves Rue – just as the Raven kidnaps her. Duck discovers her pendant is the final shard, meaning she must give up her life as a human to return it. She eventually finds the courage to do so, and becomes a humble duck again. Mytho and the Raven battle once more. When the fight turns bleak, Mytho considers shattering his heart to seal the monster away again. Duck begins dancing to show him he must not give up. As she does, Fakir writes a story about how she never stops, no matter how many times the Raven's minions attack her. Together they create hope, which gives Mytho the strength he needs to rescue Rue and defeat the Raven. Mytho asks Rue to be his princess and they return to his kingdom inside the story. Duck and Fakir continue their relationship, even though she's stuck in her duck form. With nothing left to do, Drosselmeyer departs in search of another story. ===== A North Carolina sheriff (Taye Diggs) investigates the near-fatal drug overdose of a working class college girl (Mia Kirshner) and discovers many sordid details of her life before and during her descent into drugs and debauchery.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0191074/ ===== The mountainous kingdom of Paro and the coastal city-state of Itha had been at peace for over a century. They would have remained that way but for the ambitions of Paro's power-hungry king. Paro invaded Itha, despite the love between Jill, Paro's prince, and Ahanas, Itha's princess. Caught between duty and emotion, the star-crossed lovers were forced to fight a war to its bitter conclusion. Meanwhile, Isu was a simple farmer from the neutral village of Saki, but he saved Itha from being destroyed by a spy from Paro, and found himself hungering for wealth and glory that the Ithan monarchy couldn't provide. Agents from Paro made him an offer to fulfill his wishes, and he left his wife Marin behind in what would turn into a battlefield between the two kingdoms. ===== The music of Bill and Ted's band, Wyld Stallyns, has created a utopian future society. In 2691, former gym teacher turned terrorist Chuck De Nomolos attacks the Bill & Ted University and steals a time-traveling phone booth, intending to alter the history of what he considers to be a foolish and frivolous society by sending evil robot replicas of Bill and Ted back to the late 20th century to prevent the originals from winning the San Dimas Battle of the Bands. Rufus attempts to stop De Nomolos but seemingly becomes lost in the circuits of time. Several years after their adventure through time, Wyld Stallyns is auditioning for an upcoming Battle Of The Bands. Though Bill and Ted's current girlfriends and former 15th-century princesses Joanna and Elizabeth have become skilled musicians, Bill and Ted are still inept. Despite this, the organizer, Ms. Wardroe, assures them a slot in the contest as the final act. They need to win the battle of the bands, if they win they get a record deal and 20,000 dollars prize money. Following a party, Bill and Ted propose to Joanna and Elizabeth right as the evil robots arrive from the future. After luring the real Bill and Ted away to Vasquez Rocks and killing them by throwing the two over the side of a cliff, the robots begin working to ruin the duo's eventual fame along with their relationships with their fiancés. In the afterlife, Bill and Ted's souls are met by Death who says they may challenge him in a game for their souls, but warns that nobody has ever won. Bill and Ted escape after giving Death a "melvin". Attempts to contact the police through possession of Ted's father and a deputy fail and next attempt for help at a séance held by Missy ends with them being cast down into Hell. Tormented by Satan and forced to face their own fears, the duo realize their only escape is to take Death's offer; he then appears and allows them to choose a game. To Death’s dismay, Bill and Ted select modern games like Battleship, Clue, Electric Football and Twister. Death is beaten every time, so in the end he reluctantly admits defeat, and places himself at Bill and Ted's command. Realizing they need to locate the smartest person in the universe to help build robots to counter De Nomolos' evil robots, Death escorts Bill and Ted to Heaven where they are directed by God to an alien duo named Station who readily agrees to help the group. On the eve of the Battle of the Bands, Bill and Ted return to the mortal world and race to the concert as Station constructs benevolent robot versions of themselves from supplies picked up at a hardware store. Elsewhere, Evil Bill and Ted abduct Joanna and Elizabeth and tie them high above the stage at the Battle of the Bands, intending to drop them to their deaths at the finale. Bill and Ted arrive just as the evil robots take the stage; the benevolent robots easily defeat their evil counterparts and Joanna and Elizabeth are lowered by Station before their ropes break. De Nomolos appears in the time booth, prepared to kill Bill and Ted himself, and overrides the broadcasting equipment to send a live feed of their confrontation across the entire planet. Bill and Ted deduce that they can go back in time following the encounter to arrange events for De Nomolos to be captured in the present; though De Nomolos attempts to do the same, Bill and Ted gain the upper hand by explaining that it is only the winners who get to go back. After De Nomolos is distracted by Death and arrested by Ted's father, Ms. Wardroe reveals herself to be a disguised Rufus, who urges them to play. Acknowledging that they are still terrible musicians, Bill and Ted decide to use the time booth; they immediately return to the auditorium with their families which now include "Little Ted & Little Bill" after spending sixteen months of intense guitar training along with a two-week honeymoon. Joined by Death, the Stations and the good robots on stage, Wyld Stallyns perform a stunning rock ballad as the worldwide broadcast created by De Nomolos continues, broadcasting their music across the globe and creating harmony. Following their win at the Battle of the Bands, Wyld Stallyns encounter many perks of fame that help them to fulfill their destinies and create their utopian society with their music, eventually taking their act to Mars. ===== Sometime in the early 1970s, "toward the end of the War in Vietnam" as stated in the opening narration, a large castle is used by the US government as an insane asylum for military personnel. Among the many patients there is a former astronaut, Billy Cutshaw (Scott Wilson), who aborted a moon launch and was dragged screaming from the capsule, suffering from an apparent mental breakdown. Colonel Kane (Stacy Keach), a former member of a United States Marine Corps special unit, arrives at the castle to take over the treatment of the patients. He meets Colonel Fell (Ed Flanders), who helps Kane acclimate himself to the eccentricities of the patients. Kane pays special attention to Cutshaw, repeatedly asking him why he did not want to go to the moon. Cutshaw refuses to answer but instead gives him a St. Christopher medal. Later, Cutshaw talks with Reno about Kane. Reno suspects that Kane is crazy himself. He asserts that psychiatrists often go crazy and have the highest suicide rate of any profession. Kane falls asleep in his office and has a nightmare. When recounting it, he explains to Fell that they are the nightmares of his brother Vincent, a former patient and murderer who is now dead. Cutshaw talks with Kane again, and they debate God and the idea that there is a divine plan. Kane, who believes that the existence of a God is far more likely than humanity's having emerged from "random chance", argues that deeds of pure self-sacrifice are proof of human goodness, which can only be explained by divine purpose. Cutshaw demands that Kane recall one concrete example of pure self-sacrifice from his personal experience; Kane is unable. Kane takes Cutshaw to a church service, which Cutshaw interrupts with several outbursts, and Kane momentarily hallucinates. After returning to the castle, Cutshaw thanks Kane and asks him to send him a sign as proof of an afterlife should Kane die first. Kane promises to try. When Kane meets with a new patient, the patient calls him "Killer Kane", and Kane flashes back to Vietnam, where he has decapitated a young boy. The soldier urges Kane to leave, and he screams. In the present, Kane collapses, unconscious. Fell explains to the staff that Kane is Vincent "Killer" Kane and suffered a breakdown in Vietnam. When Fell, who is Kane's brother Hudson, was dispatched back to America, Kane received the dispatch by accident. Kane created a new persona for himself – a healer, like his brother. Subconsciously hoping to heal people to make up for his "murders", Kane returned to the US as his brother. Realizing Kane's mental state, the Army psychiatric staff maintained the charade and sent him to Fell's hospital under the pretext of being its commanding officer. In reality, Fell has been the commanding officer all along. Kane awakens and remembers nothing of the incident. Cutshaw escapes the castle and visits a bar. A biker gang recognizes Cutshaw from news reports and brutalize him. A waitress (Linda Tuero, who was married to Blatty at the time) contacts the hospital, and Kane arrives to retrieve him. Kane humbles himself to the bikers to extricate Cutshaw, but the bikers are disgusted by his behavior. The gang attempt to rape Cutshaw, causing Kane to snap and kill most of the bikers with his bare hands. Kane and Cutshaw return to the castle, and the police arrive to arrest Kane for the murders at the bar. Colonel Fell interjects and tells the policemen that Kane must stay since he was provoked. Cutshaw visits Kane, who has wrapped himself in a blanket. Dreamy and distant, Kane disjointedly mumbles to Cutshaw about God and proof of human goodness before passing out. As Cutshaw leaves, Kane's hand emerges from his blankets and drops a bloodied knife. Outside Kane's room, Cutshaw notices a spot of blood on his shoe. Rushing back in, Cutshaw discovers that Kane committed suicide to provide proof of human goodness. Some time later, Cutshaw has returned to uniform, and visits the now-abandoned castle. After reading a note left by Kane, which expresses hope that his sacrifice will shock Cutshaw back to sanity, Cutshaw finds a Saint Christopher's medal has somehow appeared in his car. He turns it over to confirm whether it was the one he gave to Kane and silently rejoices at what he sees. ===== ===== Harry is back at the Dursleys' for the summer holidays, where he sees on Muggle television that a convict named Sirius Black has escaped from prison. After the Dursley's Aunt Marge repeatedly insults Harry and his parents, Harry accidentally inflates her, then runs away from home, fearing expulsion from school. After being picked up by the Knight Bus, meeting Stan Shunpike, and encountering a large black dog that seems to be watching him, he travels to the Leaky Cauldron, where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, asks Harry to stay in Diagon Alley for his own protection. While there, he reunites with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Before leaving for Hogwarts, Harry learns from Arthur Weasley that Sirius Black is a convicted murderer from the wizarding world, and has escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban to kill Harry. On the way to Hogwarts, a Dementor boards the train, causing Harry to relive his parents' deaths before fainting. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, protects him from the Dementor. They learn Dementors will be patrolling the school in an attempt to catch Black. Although Professor Lupin is popular with his students, the Potions master, Snape, seems to hate him. While Third Years are allowed to visit the all-wizarding village of Hogsmeade on holiday, Harry is blocked from going because he has no permission slip from his legal guardian. Fred and George Weasley give him the Marauder's Map, which shows all passages and people on Hogwarts grounds, to sneak out. Whilst at Hogsmeade, Harry overhears a conversation between Fudge, McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid and learns that Black is his godfather. Lupin later catches Harry with the map and confiscates it, believing it endangers Harry. During a Quidditch match, Harry faints and falls off his broomstick after Dementors invade the field. The broom is blown away and smashed by the Whomping Willow. Afterward, Professor Lupin teaches Harry how to defend himself from Dementors using the Patronus charm. Ron and Hermione's friendship suffers when Ron believes Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, to have eaten his rat, Scabbers. When Harry receives a top-of-the-range Firebolt broomstick as an anonymous Christmas present, Hermione gets it confiscated, fearing it might be jinxed by Sirius Black. Hermione becomes stressed by her many classes, some of which seem to occur at the same time, a detail she refuses to explain. Meanwhile, Hagrid's hippogriff Buckbeak is in danger of being executed by the Ministry of Magic after injuring Draco Malfoy, who provoked Buckbeak. Despite Hermione's and Ron's efforts to defend the hippogriff, they and Harry seemingly hear Buckbeak executed as they leave Hagrid's hut. While visiting Hagrid's, however, Hermione discovers Scabbers hiding there. Scabbers escapes from Ron, who gives chase. The large black dog appears and attacks Ron, then drags him into a tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Crookshanks, appearing to be in league with the dog, Harry, and Hermione follow them through the tunnel and to the Shrieking Shack, a haunted house in Hogsmeade. They discover that the dog is Black in animal form. Harry disarms Black, intending to kill him, but is unable to do so. Lupin enters and embraces Black as a friend. He explains that, although he believed Black to have betrayed the Potters, he realises now that it was their friend Peter Pettigrew. Lupin admits he is a werewolf and that, while at school, the Marauders (Lupin, Black, Pettigrew, and Harry's father, James Potter) learned to transform into animals to tame Lupin during his transformations. Lupin explains that Scabbers is Pettigrew in his animal form. Pettigrew faked his own death, framing Black for the murders, and has been hiding from Black since his escape from Azkaban. Snape, who holds a childhood grudge against Lupin and his friends, arrives to apprehend Black but is knocked unconscious by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who now believe Black to be innocent. Lupin and Black transform Pettigrew into human form and prepare to kill him, but Harry stops them, feeling his father would not have wanted it. He convinces Lupin and Black to send Pettigrew to Azkaban instead. As they attempt to bring Pettigrew to Hogwarts, Lupin, who had forgotten the full moon, transforms into a wolf, and attacks them. In the confusion, Pettigrew escapes. Harry, Hermione, and Black are chased to the shore of the lake, where they are set upon by Dementors. They are rescued by a Patronus cast by a figure on the opposite shore, whom Harry thinks is his father. Awakening in the hospital wing, Harry and Hermione are told that Black has been sentenced to have his soul sucked out by Dementors. Professor Dumbledore tells Harry and Hermione to use Hermione's time-turner, a device she has been using to attend her simultaneous classes, to go back in time and save Buckbeak and Sirius. They rescue Buckbeak and watch themselves attacked by Dementors at the lake. Harry realises that the figure he saw was not his father but himself, and casts the Patronus that drives away the Dementors. Harry and Hermione ride Buckbeak to the tower where Black is held and break him out. Black escapes on Buckbeak. Harry and Hermione return to the hospital wing. Enraged by Black's escape, Snape lets slip that Lupin is a werewolf, forcing him to resign. Harry returns to Kings Cross with his friends and receives a letter from Black, informing him that he sent the firebolt and giving him permission to visit Hogsmeade next year. ===== Bluebeard, his wife, and the key in a 1921 illustration Bluebeard is a wealthy and powerful nobleman who has been married several times to beautiful women who have all mysteriously vanished. When Bluebeard visits his neighbor and asks to marry one of his daughters, the girls are terrified. After hosting a wonderful banquet, he chooses the youngest daughter to be his wife – against her will – and she goes to live with him in his rich and luxurious palace in the countryside, away from her family. Bluebeard announces that he must leave for the country and gives the keys of the château to his wife. She is able to open any door in the house with them, each of which contain some of his riches, except for an underground chamber that he strictly forbids her to enter lest she suffer his wrath. He then goes away and leaves the house and the keys in her hands. She invites her sister, Anne, and her friends and cousins over for a party. However, she is eventually overcome with the desire to see what the forbidden room holds, and she sneaks away from the party and ventures into the room. She immediately discovers the room is flooded with blood and the murdered corpses of Bluebeard's former wives hanging on hooks from the walls. Horrified, she drops the key in the blood and flees the room. She tries to wash the blood from the key, but the key is magical and the blood cannot be removed. Fearing for her life, she reveals her husband's secret to her visiting sister, and they both plan to flee the next morning. However, Bluebeard unexpectedly returns and finds the bloody key. In a blind rage, he threatens to kill his wife on the spot, but she asks for one last prayer with her sister Anne. Then, as Bluebeard is about to deliver the fatal blow, Anne and the wife's brothers arrive and kill Bluebeard. The wife inherits his fortune and castle, and has the dead wives buried. She uses the fortune to have her other siblings married then remarries herself, finally moving on from her horrible experience with Bluebeard. ===== The setting is a steampunk Victorian era England. A time traveller on a reconnaissance mission from the distant future became stranded in the England of the late 1800s, and his technology came into the hands of the Royal Society, led by Baron Fortesque (based upon Charles Babbage), a grand inventor. Fortesque then retro engineered many of the futuristic contraptions, creating an entirely different, alternate timeline. Baron Fortesque then succeeded in his greatest creation yet: the Chaos Engine, which was able to experiment with matter and the very nature of space and time. Unfortunately for the rest of the proud kingdom, the Engine then proceeded to become sentient, captured and assimilated its creator, and began to change the countryside for the worse. Vile monsters and destructive automata appeared everywhere, and even prehistoric beasts were resurrected. Telegram wires connecting the British Isles to the European mainland are cut, and any ship attempting to enter a British port is attacked. The British Royal Family, members of Parliament and a large number of refugees manage to escape across the sea, bringing with them many tales of horror. The British Empire is left in tatters, and the world in economic and political chaos. That lures a number of mercenaries on a potentially-rewarding quest to infiltrate the quarantined Britain, find the root of the problem and swiftly bring a full stop to it. At the end of the cellars in the hall of machines, the player characters face the Chaos Engine itself in a last battle. Upon its destruction, the narrator of the game is revealed to be the baron himself, trapped within the machine and studded with implants. The introductory sequence is displayed in text on the screen on the floppy disk Amiga versions, but a slightly modified version is narrated with a voiceover on the Amiga CD32 version, together with some scene-setting animations. ===== The film's opening credits end with the words "dedicated to the memory of", with an image of Second World War British food and clothing ration coupons. In post-Second World War London, an unexploded bomb detonates in Miramont Gardens, Pimlico. The explosion reveals a buried cellar containing artwork, coins, jewellery and an ancient manuscript. The document is authenticated by the historian Professor Hatton- Jones as a royal charter of Edward IV that ceded a house and its estates to Charles VII, the last Duke of Burgundy, when he sought refuge there after being presumed dead at the 1477 Battle of Nancy. As the charter had never been revoked, an area of Pimlico is declared to still be a legal part of Burgundy. As the British government has no legal jurisdiction, it requires the local residents to form a representative committee according to the laws of the long-defunct dukedom before negotiating with them. Ancient Burgundian law requires that the Duke himself appoint a council. Sébastien de Charolais arrives and presents his claim to the title, which is verified by Professor Hatton-Jones. He forms the governing body which includes the local policeman, Spiller, and the manager of the bank branch, Mr. Wix; the neighbourhood shop keeper, Arthur Pemberton, is appointed as Burgundy's Prime Minister. The council begin discussions with the government, particularly about the Burgundian treasure. After the new Burgundians realise they are not subject to post-war rationing or other bureaucratic restrictions, the district is quickly flooded with black marketeers and shoppers; Spiller is unable to handle the rising problems by himself. In response, the British authorities surround the Burgundian territory with barbed wire. The residents retaliate against what they see as heavy-handed bureaucratic action; they stop a London Underground train as it passes through Burgundy, and ask to see passports of all passengers: those without documents are unable to proceed. The British government retaliates by breaking off negotiations, and Burgundy is isolated; the residents are invited to "emigrate" to England, but few leave. Power, water and deliveries of food are all cut off at the border by the British. Late one night, the Burgundians covertly connect a hose to a nearby British water main, which fills a bomb crater, solving the water problem, but this floods the food store. Unable to overcome this new problem, the Burgundians prepare to give up. Sympathetic Londoners begin to throw food parcels across the barrier, and soon others join in; the Burgundians have an ample supply, and decide to stay. A helicopter pumps milk through a hose and pigs are parachuted into the area. Meanwhile, the British government comes under public pressure to resolve the problem. It becomes clear to the British diplomats assigned to find a solution that defeating the Burgundians through starvation is both difficult and unpopular with the British people, so they negotiate. The sticking point turns out to be the disposition of the unearthed treasure. Wix, now the Burgundian Chancellor of the Exchequer, suggests a Burgundian loan of the treasure to Britain. With the final piece of the deadlock eliminated, Burgundy reunites with Britain, which also sees the return of rationing for food and clothing to the area. The celebratory outdoor banquet is interrupted by heavy rain. ===== The play is written in five acts. The plot of the play centres on a rich widow, Christian Custance, who is betrothed to Gawyn Goodluck, a merchant. Ralph Roister Doister is encouraged throughout by a con-man trickster figure (Matthew Merrygreeke) to woo Christian Custance, but his pompous attempts do not succeed. Ralph then tries with his friends and servants (at Merrygreek's behest) to break in and take Christian Custance by force, but they are defeated by her maids and run away. The merchant Gawyn arrives shortly after and the play concludes happily with reconciliation, a prayer and a song. ===== On the Fourth of July 1996 in Southport, North Carolina, Julie James and her friends Ray Bronson, Helen Shivers, and Barry Cox drive to the beach. While driving along a coastal byway, they accidentally hit a pedestrian. Julie's friend Max passes by them on the road. Julie reassures Max that everything is all right, and he leaves. The group decides to dump the body in the water and never discuss what happened. A year later in 1997, Julie returns home from college for the summer. The friends have gone their separate ways. Julie receives a letter with no return address, stating, "I know what you did last summer!" Julie tracks down Helen, and they take the note to Barry, who suspects Max. They confront Max on the docks, and Barry threatens him with a hook. Julie meets Ray, who now works as a fisherman; he unsuccessfully tries to reconcile with her. Later, Max is killed by a figure in a rain slicker wielding a hook. Barry discovers a note in his gym locker saying, "I know." He is ambushed by the same assailant driving Barry's car. Julie researches newspaper articles which lead her to believe the man they ran over was a local named David Egan. Helen and Julie meet with David's sister Missy at her home. Missy explains that their family was devastated by David's death, and that a friend of David's named Billy Blue visited her to pay his respects. That night, the killer sneaks into Helen's house, cuts off her hair while she sleeps, and writes "Soon" in lipstick on her vanity mirror. The following morning, Julie finds Max's corpse wearing Barry's stolen jacket in the trunk of her car. When she calls the others, the body is missing. Julie, Helen, and Barry confront Ray about the recent events. Ray claims to have received a threatening letter as well. Julie goes back to visit Missy, while Barry and Helen participate in the Fourth of July parade. Missy reveals David allegedly committed suicide out of guilt for the death of his girlfriend Susie in a car accident and shows David's suicide note to Julie. As the writing matches that of the note she received, Julie realizes it was not a suicide note, but a death threat. At the Croaker Beauty Pageant, Helen witnesses Barry being murdered on the balcony. She rushes upstairs with a police officer but finds no sign of the killer or Barry. A police officer escorts Helen home, but the killer lures him into an alley and murders him. Helen flees to her store, where her sister Elsa is closing for the night. The killer enters the store and murders Elsa. Helen is chased to the third floor of the building and escapes through a window, falling to a long alleyway. She runs toward the street, but the killer stops her and slashes her to death, her screams being drowned out by the oncoming parade. Julie finds an article mentioning Susie's father, Ben Willis, and realizes that Ben was the man they ran over, moments after he killed David to avenge his daughter. She goes to the docks to tell Ray, but he refuses to believe her. Julie notices Ray's boat is called Billy Blue and runs away. A fisherman steps out of the shadows and knocks Ray unconscious, inviting Julie to hide on his boat. On the boat, she finds photos and articles about her friends and her, and pictures of Susie. The boat leaves the docks, and the fisherman is revealed to be Ben Willis, who begins tormenting Julie, chasing her below deck; there, she uncovers the bodies of Helen and Barry in the boat's ice box. Ray regains consciousness and steals a motorboat to rescue Julie. He ultimately uses the rigging to sever Ben's hand and send him overboard. When Julie and Ray are questioned by the police, they deny knowing why Ben attempted to kill them, but are relieved not to have actually killed anyone, and reconcile. A year later in 1998, Julie is in college in Boston. As she enters the shower, she notices the words "I still know" on the mirror. Moments later, a dark figure crashes through it as Julie screams in horror. ===== Successful jazz musician C.K. Dexter Haven (with a Newport "robber baron for a grandfather") is divorced from wealthy Newport, Rhode Island, socialite Tracy Samantha Lord, but remains in love with her. She, however, is about to marry a bland gentleman of good standing, George Kittredge. Spy Magazine, a fictional tabloid newspaper in possession of embarrassing information about Tracy's father, sends reporter Mike Connor and photographer Liz Imbrie to cover the nuptials. Tracy begins an elaborate charade as a private means of revenge, introducing her Uncle Willy as her proper father Seth Lord and the latter as her "wicked" Uncle Willy. Connor falls in love with Tracy, who must choose among three very different men in a course of self-discovery. After becoming tipsy at a party on the eve of her wedding and going off with Connor for a romantic swim, Tracy decides to go through with it until Kittredge takes umbrage. While in the process of telling her guests that the wedding is off, Tracy is surprised by a proposal from Dexter to take the groom's place. Realizing where her heart truly is, she accepts. ===== The book is in three sections. ===== The film is based largely upon Norse mythology. In the film's opening scene Erik (Tim Robbins), a young Viking, discovers that he has no taste for rape and pillage, and suffers guilt over the death of Helga (Samantha Bond), an innocent woman. Erik learns from the wise woman Freya (Eartha Kitt) that Fenrir the wolf has swallowed the sun, plunging the world into the age of Ragnarök. Erik resolves to travel to Asgard to petition the gods to end Ragnarök. Freya informs him that to do so he must seek the Horn Resounding in the land of Hy-Brasil. The first note blown upon the Horn will take Erik and his crew to Asgard, the second will awaken the gods, and the third will bring the crew home. Erik sets out with a crew of all ages and professions from his village, including Harald (Freddie Jones), a Christian missionary who disbelieves in the entire narrative. Keitel Blacksmith (Gary Cady) is persuaded by his apprentice Loki (Antony Sher) into secretly opposing Erik's plan, as peace would end the demand for Keitel's swords. Keitel joins Erik's crew to sabotage Erik's plans. Meanwhile, Loki sneaks out to inform Halfdan the Black (John Cleese), a local warlord afraid that peace will mean the end of his reign. Halfdan's crew sets sail in pursuit. Arriving at Hy-Brasil, Erik and crew are astonished to find it a sunlit land where the people, who dress like ancient Greeks, are exceedingly friendly and hospitable (if musically untalented). Erik promptly falls in love with Princess Aud (Imogen Stubbs), daughter of King Arnulf (Terry Jones). During one of their romantic encounters, Erik hides from Arnulf using Aud's magic cloak of invisibility. Aud has warned the Vikings that should blood ever be shed upon Hy-Brasil, the entire island would sink beneath the waves. Erik and his crew defend Hy-Brasil against Halfdan's ship. Loki is found aboard the ship, and pretends to have sneaked aboard to sabotage it. In gratitude for Erik's having saved Hy-Brasil, King Arnulf presents him with the Horn Resounding, which is much larger than Erik had imagined. Loki steals the Horn's mouthpiece in the night, without which it cannot be sounded, and persuades Keitel to throw it in the sea. Snorri, one of Erik's men, catches them in the act, and Loki kills him. A single drop of the man's blood falls from Loki's dagger, triggering an earthquake that causes the island to sink. Erik's crew, joined by Aud, prepare to escape in their ship with the Horn safely aboard, but Arnulf refuses to join them, denying that the island is sinking up to the very moment he and the other islanders are swallowed by the waves. Aud, who witnessed Snorri's murder and was able to recover the mouthpiece, sounds the first note on the Horn. The ship is propelled over the edge of the flat Earth and into space, coming to rest upon the plane of Asgard. Erik sounds the second note to awaken the gods, and he and his crew climb a path made of stars to approach the great Hall of Valhalla. Erik and the crew encounter old friends and enemies slain in battle. The gods are revealed to be petulant children who have no interest in answering mortal prayers. Harald the missionary sees neither hall, nor ghosts or gods, and passes intangibly through its walls due to his Christianity. Odin persuades Fenrir to spit out the sun, but tells Erik that the end of Ragnarök will not bring peace to the world. Odin then informs Erik that he and his crew can neither return home, nor may they remain in Valhalla, since they were not slain in battle; instead they are to be cast into the fiery Pit of Hel. Some of the crew who died earlier in the adventure attempt to save them, but even as they are drawn into the Pit, they hear the Horn Resounding's third note, blown by Harald, who had returned to the ship, which flings them clear. Erik's crew, including the formerly dead men, immediately find themselves back in their home village. They are dismayed to find that Halfdan and his soldiers have arrived before them and are holding the villagers captive. Halfdan and his men are suddenly crushed to death by Erik's ship as it falls out of the sky, with Harald aboard. As the villagers celebrate Erik's return and Halfdan's defeat, the sun rises, ending the age of Ragnarök. ===== Launch of a V-2 rocket The opening pages of the novel follow Pirate Prentice, an employee of the Special Operations Executive, first in his dreams, and later around his house in wartime London. Pirate's associate Teddy Bloat photographs a map depicting the sexual encounters of U.S. Army Lt. Tyrone Slothrop, an employee of a fictional technical intelligence unit called ACHTUNG. Each of Slothrop's sexual encounters in London appears to precede a V-2 rocket strike in the same place by several days. Employees of a fictional top secret psychological warfare agency called PISCES, headquartered at a former insane asylum known as "The White Visitation" investigate Slothrop's apparent precognition, including statistician Roger Mexico and Pavlovian behavioral psychologist Edward W. Pointsman, among others. Slothrop's encounters and the rocket sites match the Poisson Distributions calculated by Roger Mexico, leading to reflections on topics as broad as Determinism, the reverse flow of time, and the sexuality of the rocket itself. Many characters not significant until later are introduced in "Beyond the Zero", including Franz and Leni Pökler, while others who appear significant in Part One, such as Thomas Gwenhidwy and Jessica Swanlake, vanish from the narrative and don't re-appear until the closing pages of the novel. Indeed, most of the 400 named characters only make single appearances, serving merely to demonstrate the sheer scope of Pynchon's universe. Slothrop is also submitted to various psychological tests, many involving the drug sodium amytal. Flashbacks reveal the story of Katje Borgesius, a Dutch double agent who infiltrated a V-2 rocket-launching battery commanded by a sadistic SS officer named Captain Blicero, who kept Katje and a young soldier named Gottfried as sex slaves. Pavlovian conditioning is a recurring topic, mostly explored through the character of Pavlovian researcher Pointsman. In Part Two, "Un Perm' au Casino Hermann Goering", Slothrop is sent away by his superiors in mysterious circumstances to a casino on the recently liberated French Riviera, in which almost the entirety of Part Two takes place. He is in fact being monitored by associates of Pointsman, including Katje and a linguist named Sir Stephen Dodson-Truck. One of the more bizarre Pavlovian episodes involves the conditioning of octopus Grigori to attack Katje. Early in part two, the octopus attacks Katje on the beach in France, and Slothrop is "conveniently" at hand to rescue her. Katje and Slothrop have sex after Slothrop rescues her from the octopus. At the Casino, he learns of a rocket, with the irregular serial number 00000 (Slothrop comments that the numbering system doesn't allow for four zeroes in one serial, let alone five), which features a mysterious component called the S-Gerät (short for Schwarzgerät, 'black device'), made out of the hitherto unknown plastic Imipolex G. It is hinted at that Slothrop's prescience of rocket hits is due to being conditioned as an infant by the creator of Imipolex G, Laszlo Jamf. Later, the reality of this story is called into question, as is the very existence of Slothrop's original sexual exploits. Slothrop becomes increasingly paranoid, and begins to suspect he is being monitored. He escapes from the casino into the coalescing post-war wasteland of Europe, "The Zone", searching for the 00000 and S-Gerät. In the closing of Part Two, Katje is revealed to be safe in England, enjoying a day at the beach with Roger Mexico and Jessica, as well as Pointsman, who is in charge of Slothrop's furtive supervision. While unable to contact Slothrop (or prohibited from contacting him), Katje continues to follow his actions through Pointsman. Slothrop's quest continues for some time in Part Three, "In The Zone", as he is chased by other characters. These include the sadistic American Major Duane Marvy and a drug-addled Soviet intelligence colonel named Vaslav Tchitcherine. Slothrop meets members of the Schwarzkommando, a fictional cadre of African rocket technicians, descended from survivors of the Herero genocide of 1904 who were brought to Europe by German colonials. An extensive subplot details a schism within the Schwarzkommando; one faction is bent on a program of racial suicide, while the other finds mystical, semi-religious meaning in the V-2 rocket. Another long subplot details Tchitcherine's quest to hunt and kill his half-brother Enzian, leader of the latter group of Schwarzkommando. Slothrop is briefly involved with a young witch named Geli Tripping, who is in love with Tchitcherine. Slothrop spends much of Part Three in various disguises, first as an English war correspondent, then as his invented alter-ego Rocketman, wearing an operatic Viking costume with the horns removed from the helmet, making it look like a rocket nose-cone. Rocketman completes various tasks for his own and others' purposes, including retrieving a large stash of hashish from the centre of the Potsdam Conference. Later, Slothrop meets and has a brief sexual affair with Margherita Erdmann, a former pornographic film actress and masochist. "In The Zone" also contains the longest episode of the book, a lengthy tale of Franz Pökler, a rocket engineer unwittingly set to assist on the S-Gerät's production. The story details Pökler's manipulation by an SS officer named Weissmann (earlier revealed by Enzian to be Blicero), who uses annual meetings with Pökler's daughter Ilse to coerce him into working on the S-Gerät. Pökler becomes increasingly paranoid that Ilse is really a series of impostors sent each year to mollify him. Originally meeting her in an abandoned film studio in "The Zone", Slothrop is led by Margherita to northern Germany and onto the Anubis, a private yacht filled with uninhibited European aristocrats. Here, Slothrop has sex with Margherita's teenage daughter, Bianca. Margherita, along with her partner, Thanatz, are revealed to know more about the 00000, S-Gerät, and Imipolex G than they let on. Margherita and Thanatz had brought their traveling sado-masochistic act to Captain Blicero's rocket battery, from which Rocket 00000 had apparently been fired in the Spring of 1945, towards the end of the war. Margherita spent many days in a mysterious and ambiguously described factory, where she was clothed in an outfit made from the "erotic" plastic Imipolex G. Slothrop falls overboard and is rescued by black marketeers heading towards Swinemünde. Slothrop later returns to the Anubis to find Bianca dead, a possible trigger for his impending decline. He continues his pilgrimage through northern Germany, having at various stages donned the costumes of a German actor, a Russian soldier, and mythical Pig Hero, while in search of more information on his childhood and the 00000. It becomes steadily apparent that Slothrop is connected to Laszlo Jamf through Lyle Bland, a Slothrop family friend who apparently played a role in funding Jamf's experiments on the infant Slothrop. Towards the end of this section, several characters not seen since early in the novel make a return, including the book's first character, Pirate Prentice, as well as Pointsman. He is repeatedly sidetracked until his persona fragments totally in Part Four, despite the efforts of some to save him. Throughout "The Counterforce", there are several brief, hallucinatory stories, of superheroes, silly Kamikaze pilots, and immortal sentient lightbulbs. These are presumed to be the product of Slothrop's finally collapsed mind. The final identification of him of any certainty is his picture on the cover of an album by obscure English band "The Fool" (another allusion to Tarot, which becomes increasingly significant), where he is credited as playing the harmonica and kazoo. At the same time, other characters' narratives begin to collapse as well, with some characters taking a bizarre trip within a shared dream and another encountering the god Pan. Much of Part Four takes place within the presumably hallucinated "Raketen-Stadt", a fascist futuristic dystopia. Slothrop's storyline disintegrates before the novel's end, which focuses more on the 00000, and the people associated with its construction and launch (namely Blicero, Enzian, and Gottfried, amongst others). At this point, the novel also concludes many characters' stories, including those of Mexico, Pointsman, and Pirate, leaving only the 00000. As the novel closes, many topics are discussed by the various protagonists around the world, ranging from Tarot cards to Death itself. The narrative jumps forward in time to the 1970s, where a character named "Richard M. Zhlubb" operates a Los Angeles theater. Towards the end of "The Counterforce", it transpires that the S-Gerät is actually a capsule crafted by Blicero to contain a human. The story of the 00000's launch is largely told in flashbacks by the narrator, while in the present Enzian is constructing and preparing its successor, the 00001 (which isn't fired within the scope of the novel), though it is unknown who is intended to be sacrificed in this model. In the flashbacks, the maniacal Captain Blicero prepares to assemble and fire the 00000, and asks Gottfried to sacrifice himself inside the rocket. He launches the rocket in a pseudo-sexual act of sacrifice with a bound Gottfried captive within its S-Gerät. The text halts, in the middle of a song composed by Slothrop's ancestor, with a complete obliteration of narrative as the 00000 lands (or is about to land) on a cinema. This image of Wernher von Braun is referred to in the narrative, giving a quite exact timeframe for some events in the book. ===== Most of The Honeymooners takes place in Ralph and Alice Kramden's small, sparsely furnished two-room apartment. Other settings used in the show included the Gotham Bus Company depot, the Raccoon Lodge, a neighborhood pool parlor, a park bench where Ralph and Ed occasionally meet for lunch, and on occasion the Nortons' apartment (always noticeably better- furnished than the Kramdens'). Many episodes begin with a shot of Alice in the apartment awaiting Ralph's arrival from work. Most episodes focus on Ralph's and Ed's characters, although Alice played a substantial role. Trixie played a smaller role in the series, and did not appear in every episode as did the other three. Each episode presented a self-contained story, which rarely carried over into a subsequent one. The show employed a number of standard sitcom clichés and plots, particularly those of jealousy, get-rich-quick schemes, and comic misunderstanding. As to the occasional plot continuations, there were two such sequences—one concerning Ralph being sent to a psychiatrist because of "impatient" behavior during work that resulted in several passengers lodging complaints about his professional demeanor, and one that continued for two sequential shows in which Aunt Ethel visited and Ralph hatched a scheme to marry her off to the neighborhood butcher. The series presents Ralph as an everyman and an underdog who struggles to make a better life for himself and his wife, but who ultimately fails due to his own shortcomings. He, often along with Ed, devises a number of get-rich-quick schemes, none of which succeed. Ralph would be quick to blame others for his misfortune until it was pointed out to him where he had fallen short. Ralph's anger then would be replaced by short-lived remorse, and he would apologize for his actions. Many of these apologies to Alice ended with Ralph saying in a heartfelt manner, "Baby, you're the greatest," followed by a hug and kiss. In most episodes, Ralph's short temper got the best of him, leading him to yell at others and to threaten comical physical violence, usually against Alice. Ralph's favorite threats to her were "One of these days ... One of these days ... Pow! right in the kisser!" or to knock her "to the Moon, Alice!" (Sometimes this last threat was simply abbreviated: as "Bang, zoom!") On other occasions, Ralph simply told Alice, "Oh, are you gonna get yours." All of this led to criticism, more than 40 years later, that the show displayed an acceptance of domestic violence. But Ralph never carried out his threats, and others have pointed out that Alice knew he never would because of their deep love for each other In retaliation, the targets of Ralph's verbal abuse often responded by simply joking about his weight, a common theme throughout the series. Incidentally, Alice never was seen to back down during any of Ralph's tirades. For the "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners, there was no continuing story arc. Each episode is self-contained. For example, in the series premiere episode "TV Or Not TV," Ralph and Norton buy a television set with the intent to share it. By the next week's show, the set is gone although in later episodes a set is shown in the Nortons' apartment. In the installment "The Baby Sitter," the Kramdens get a telephone, but in the next episode it is gone. And, in the episode, "A Dog's Life," Alice gets a dog from the pound which Ralph tries to return. But, in the end, Ralph finds himself growing to love the dog and decides to keep it along with a few other dogs. However, in the next episode, the dogs are nowhere to be seen and are never referred to again. Occasionally, references to earlier episodes were made, including to Ralph's various "crazy harebrained schemes" from the lost episodes. Norton's sleepwalking in "The Sleepwalker" was referenced in "Oh My Aching Back." But, it was not until the 1967 "Trip To Europe" shows that a Honeymooners story arc is finally used. ===== In this series, Takizawa Noboru transfers to a school where all disputes are settled through fighting. He quickly runs afoul of the school bully, Ibuki Saburo, who has a boxing match with "God's Hall Monitor", Jounouchi Kouichi, to determine who will date the lovely Yukari. Takizawa is enraptured with Yukari, and decides to intervene in the fight which Ibuki won by bending the rules. Takizawa loses the fight in the first OVA to Ibuki's deadly finishing punch, but in the second OVA Takizawa develops his own finishing punch and eventually wins the day. ===== A pair of truck drivers, the experienced Gorō and a younger sidekick named Gun, stop at a decrepit roadside ramen noodle shop. Outside, Gorō rescues a boy who is being beaten up by three schoolmates. The boy, Tabo, turns out to be the son of Tampopo, the widowed owner of the struggling business, Lai Lai. When a customer called Pisken harasses Tampopo, Gorō invites him and his men to step outside. Gorō puts up a good fight, but outnumbered by Pisken and his men, he is knocked out and wakes up the next morning in Tampopo's home. When Tampopo asks their opinion of her noodles, Gorō and Gun tell her they are "sincere, but lack character." After Gorō gives her some advice, she asks him to become her teacher. They decide to turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making". Gorō takes her around and points out the strengths and weaknesses of her competitors. She still cannot get the broth just right, so Gorō brings in the "old master" and his superlative expertise. When they rescue a wealthy elderly man from choking on his food, he lends her his chauffeur Shohei, who has a masterly way with noodles. Also, through clever trickery they pry ramen secrets from their competitors. During the transition, the group agrees to change the restaurant's name from "Lai Lai" to "Tampopo". Pisken feels bad for being too drunk to tell his men to stay out of the fight, so he offers Gorō another chance one-on-one. After the rematch ends in a draw, Pisken reveals he is a contractor and offers to make over the shop's interior. Tampopo's latest effort still comes up short, so Pisken teaches her his own secret recipe. When the five men consume her latest creation down to the last drop, Tampopo knows she has won. (Tabo also triumphs, beating all three of his tormentors). As customers fill her newly redecorated shop, the men file out one by one. The main narrative is interspersed with stories involving food on several levels. Other vignettes follow a lowly worker who upstages his superiors by displaying his vast culinary knowledge while ordering at a gourmet French restaurant; a housewife who rises from her deathbed to cook one last meal for her family; and a women's etiquette class on how to eat spaghetti properly. Another scene involves a supermarket clerk who has to deal with an aged woman obsessed with squeezing food. The clerk's scene segues into a restaurant involving an investment scam and the intended victim, who turns out to be a conman himself. The primary subplot involves a young gangster in a white suit and his lover, who explore erotic ways to use food. In the end, the man is shot several times by an unknown assailant, to his lover's horror, but uses his last words to convey his secret recipe for sausages. Throughout, the film puns off stereotypical American movie themes, characters, music and camera set-ups and shots. ===== The main character is Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous author in his early fifties who has recently been ennobled in honor of his artistic achievement (thus acquiring the aristocratic "von" in his name). He is a man dedicated to his art, disciplined and ascetic to the point of severity, who was widowed at a young age. As the story opens, he is strolling outside a cemetery and sees a coarse-looking red-haired foreigner who stares back at him belligerently. Aschenbach walks away, embarrassed but curiously stimulated. He has a vision of a primordial swamp-wilderness, fertile, exotic and full of lurking danger. Soon afterwards, he resolves to take a holiday. After a false start in traveling to Pula on the Austro-Hungarian coast, Aschenbach realizes he was "meant" to go to Venice and takes a suite in the Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido island. While shipbound and en route to the island, he sees an elderly man in company with a group of high-spirited youths, who has tried hard to create the illusion of his own youth with a wig, false teeth, make-up, and foppish attire. Aschenbach turns away in disgust. Later he has a disturbing encounter with an unlicensed gondolier—another red- haired, skull-faced foreigner—who repeats "I can row you well" when Aschenbach orders him to return to the wharf. Aschenbach checks into his hotel, where at dinner he sees an aristocratic Polish family at a near-by table. Among them is an adolescent boy of about fourteen in a sailor suit. Aschenbach, startled, realizes that the boy is supremely beautiful, like a Greek sculpture. His older sisters, by contrast, are so severely dressed that they look like nuns. Later, after spying the boy and his family at a beach, Aschenbach overhears the lad's name, Tadzio, and conceives what he first interprets as an uplifting, artistic interest. Soon the hot, humid weather begins to affect Aschenbach's health, and he decides to leave early and move to a cooler location. On the morning of his planned departure, he sees Tadzio again, and a powerful feeling of regret sweeps over him. When he reaches the railway station and discovers his trunk has been misplaced, he pretends to be angry, but is really overjoyed; he decides to remain in Venice and wait for his lost luggage. He happily returns to the hotel and thinks no more of leaving. Over the next days and weeks, Aschenbach's interest in the beautiful boy develops into an obsession. He watches him constantly and secretly follows him around Venice. One evening, the boy directs a charming smile at him, looking, Aschenbach thinks, like Narcissus smiling at his own reflection. Disconcerted, Aschenbach rushes outside, and in the empty garden whispers aloud, "I love you!" Aschenbach next takes a trip into the city of Venice, where he sees a few discreetly worded notices from the Health Department warning of an unspecified contagion and advising people to avoid eating shellfish. He smells an unfamiliar strong odour everywhere, later realising it is disinfectant. However, the authorities adamantly deny that the contagion is serious and tourists continue to wander round the city, oblivious. Aschenbach at first ignores the danger because it somehow pleases him to think that the city's disease is akin to his own hidden, corrupting passion for the boy. During this period, a third red-haired and disreputable-looking man crosses Aschenbach's path; this one belongs to a troupe of street singers who entertain at the hotel one night. Aschenbach listens entranced to songs that, in his former life, he would have despised – all the while stealing glances at Tadzio, who is leaning on a near-by parapet in a classically beautiful pose. The boy eventually returns Aschenbach's glances, and, though the moment is brief, it instills in the writer a sense that the attraction may be mutual. Next, Aschenbach rallies his self-respect and decides to discover the reason for the health notices posted in the city. After being repeatedly assured that the sirocco is the only health risk, he finds a British travel agent who reluctantly admits that there is a serious cholera epidemic in Venice. Aschenbach considers warning Tadzio's mother of the danger; however, he decides not to, knowing that if he does, Tadzio will leave the hotel and be lost to him. One night, a dream filled with orgiastic Dionysian imagery reveals to him the sexual nature of his feelings for Tadzio. Afterwards, he begins staring at the boy so openly and following him so persistently that Aschenbach feels the boy's guardians have finally noticed, and they take to warning Tadzio whenever he approaches too near the strange, solitary man. But Aschenbach's feelings, though passionately intense, remain unvoiced; he never touches Tadzio, or even speaks to him; and while there is some indication that Tadzio is aware of his admiration, the two exchange nothing more than the occasional surreptitious glance. Aschenbach begins to fret about his aging face and body. In an attempt to look more attractive, he visits the hotel's barber shop almost daily, where the barber eventually persuades him to have his hair dyed and his face painted to look more youthful. The result is a fairly close approximation to the old man on the ship who had so appalled Aschenbach. Freshly dyed and rouged, he again shadows Tadzio through Venice in the oppressive heat. He loses sight of the boy in the heart of the city; then, exhausted and thirsty, he buys and eats some over-ripe strawberries and rests in an abandoned square, contemplating the Platonic ideal of beauty amidst the ruins of his own once-formidable dignity. A few days later, Aschenbach goes to the lobby in his hotel, feeling ill and weak, and discovers that the Polish family plan to leave after lunch. He goes down to the beach to his usual deck chair. Tadzio is there, unsupervised for once, and accompanied by an older boy, Jasiu. A fight breaks out between the two boys, and Tadzio is quickly bested; afterward, he angrily leaves his companion and wades over to Aschenbach's part of the beach, where he stands for a moment looking out to sea; then turns halfway around to look at his admirer. To Aschenbach, it is as if the boy is beckoning to him: he tries to rise and follow, only to collapse sideways into his chair. His body is discovered a few minutes later. ===== Seventeen-year-old Effi Briest, the daughter of a German aristocrat, is married off to 38-year- old Baron Geert von Innstetten, who courted her mother Luise and was spurned for his status, which he has now improved. ===== In 1835, the wealthy and respected Buddenbrooks, a family of grain merchants, invite their friends and relatives to dinner in their new home in Lübeck, Germany. The family consists of patriarch Johann Jr. and his wife Antoinette; their son Johann III ("Jean") and his wife Elizabeth, and the latter's three school-age children, sons Thomas and Christian, and daughter Antonie ("Tony"). They have several servants, most notably Ida Jungmann, whose job is to care for the children. During the evening, a letter arrives from Gotthold, estranged son of the elder Johann and half-brother of the younger. The elder Johann disapproves of Gotthold's life choices, and ignores the letter. Johann III and Elizabeth later have another daughter, Klara. As the older children grow up, their personalities begin to show. Diligent and industrious Thomas seems likely to inherit the business some day. By contrast, Christian is more interested in entertainment and leisure. Tony has grown quite conceited and spurns an advance from the son of another up-and-coming family, Herman Hagenström. Herman takes it in stride, but Tony bears a grudge against him for the rest of her life. The elder Johann and Antoinette die, and the younger Johann takes over the business, and gives Gotthold his fair share of the inheritance. The half-brothers will never be close, though, and Gotthold's three spinster daughters continue to resent Johann's side of the family, and delight in their misfortune over the coming years. Thomas goes to Amsterdam to study, while Tony goes to boarding school. After finishing school, Tony remains lifelong friends with her former teacher, Theresa "Sesame" Weichbrodt. An obsequious businessman, Bendix Grünlich, of Hamburg, introduces himself to the family, and Tony dislikes him on sight. To avoid him, she takes a vacation in Travemünde, a Baltic resort northeast of Lübeck, where she meets Morton Schwarzkopf, a medical student in whom she is interested romantically. In the end, though, she yields to pressure from her father, and marries Grünlich, against her better judgment, in 1846. She produces a daughter, Erika. Later, though, it is revealed that Grünlich had been cooking his books to hide unpayable debt, and had married Tony solely on the hopes that Johann would bail him out. Johann refuses, and takes Tony and Erika home with him instead. Grünlich goes bankrupt, and Tony divorces him in 1850. Christian begins traveling, going as far as Valparaíso, Chile. At the same time, Thomas comes home, and Johann puts him to work at the business. Johann is able to calm an angry mob with a speech, defusing tensions during the unrest in 1848. He and Elizabeth become increasingly religious in their twilight years. Johann dies in 1855, and Thomas takes over the business. Christian comes home and initially goes to work for his brother, but he has neither the interest nor the aptitude for commerce. He complains of bizarre illnesses and gains a reputation as a fool, a drunk, a womanizer, and a teller of tall tales. Thomas, coming to despise his brother, sends him away, to protect his own and his business's reputation. Later, Thomas marries Gerda Arnoldsen, a musician from Amsterdam and Tony's former schoolmate. Klara marries Sievert Tiburtius, a pastor from Riga, but she dies of tuberculosis without producing any children. Tony marries her second husband, Alois Permaneder, a provincial but honest hops merchant from Munich. However, once he has her dowry in hand, he invests the money and retires, intending to live off his interest and dividends, while spending his days in his local bar. Tony is unhappy in Munich, where her family name impresses no one, where her favorite seafoods are unavailable at any price in the days before refrigeration, where even the dialect is noticeably different from her own. She delivers another baby, but it dies on the same day it is born, leaving her heartbroken. Tony later leaves Permaneder after she discovers him drunkenly trying to rape the maid. She and Erika return to Lübeck. Somewhat surprisingly, Permaneder writes her a letter apologizing for his behavior, agreeing not to challenge the divorce, and returning the dowry. In the early 1860s, Thomas becomes a father and a senator. He builds an ostentatious mansion and soon regrets it, as maintaining the new house proves to be a considerable drain on his time and money. The old house, now too big for the number of people living in it, falls into disrepair. Thomas suffers many setbacks and losses in his business. His hard work keeps the business afloat, but it is clearly taking its toll on him. Thomas throws a party to celebrate the business's centennial in 1868, during which he receives news that one of his risky business deals has resulted in yet another loss. Erika, now grown up, marries Hugo Weinschenk, a manager at a fire insurance company, and delivers a daughter, Elizabeth. Weinschenk is arrested for insurance fraud and is sent to prison. Thomas's son, Johann IV ("Hanno"), is born a weak, sickly runt and remains one as he grows. He is withdrawn, melancholic, easily upset, and frequently bullied by other children. His only friend, Kai Mölln, is a disheveled young count, a remnant of the medieval aristocracy, who lives with his eccentric father outside Lübeck. Johann does poorly in school, but he discovers an aptitude for music, clearly inherited from his mother. This helps him bond with his uncle Christian, but Thomas is disappointed by his son. In 1871, the elder Elizabeth dies of pneumonia. Tony, Erika, and little Elizabeth sadly move out of their old house, which is then sold, at a disappointing price, to Herman Hagenström, who is now a successful businessman himself. Christian expresses his desire to marry Aline, a woman of questionable morals with three illegitimate children, one of whom may, or may not, be Christian's. Thomas, who controls their mother's inheritance, forbids him. Thomas sends Johann to Travemünde to improve his health. Johann loves the peace and solitude of the resort, but returns home no stronger than before. Weinschenk is released from prison, a disgraced and broken man. He soon abandons his wife and daughter and leaves Germany, never to return. Thomas, becoming increasingly depressed and exhausted by the demands of keeping up his faltering business, devotes ever more time and attention to his appearance, and begins to suspect his wife may be cheating on him. In 1874, he takes a vacation with Christian and a few of his old friends to Travemünde during the off season, where they discuss life, religion, business, and the unification of Germany. In 1875, he collapses and dies after a visit to his dentist. His complete despair and lack of confidence in his son and sole heir are obvious in his will, in which he directed that his business be liquidated. All the assets, including the mansion, are sold at distress prices, and faithful servant Ida is dismissed. Christian gains control of his own share of his father's inheritance and then marries Aline, but his illnesses and bizarre behavior get him admitted to an insane asylum, leaving Aline free to dissipate Christian's money. Johann still hates school, and he passes his classes only by cheating. His health and constitution are still weak, and it is hinted that he might be gay. Except for his friend Count Kai, he is held in contempt by everyone outside his immediate family, even his pastor. In 1877, he takes ill with typhoid fever and soon dies. His mother, Gerda, returns home to Amsterdam, leaving an embittered Tony, her daughter Erika, and granddaughter Elizabeth, as the only remnants of the once proud Buddenbrook family, with only the elderly and increasingly infirm Theresa Weichbrodt to offer any friendship or moral support. Facing destitution, they cling to their wavering belief that they may be reunited with their family in the afterlife. ===== Set in Italy, Emilia Galotti tells the story of a virtuous young woman of the bourgeoisie. The absolutist prince of Guastalla, Hettore Gonzaga, becomes obsessed with the idea of making Emilia his lover after their first meeting. He thus gives his conniving Chamberlain, Marinelli, the right to do anything in his power to delay the previously arranged marriage between Emilia and Count Appiani. Marinelli then hires criminals who shortly thereafter murder the count on his way to the wedding. Emilia is quickly brought to safety in the prince's nearby summer residence. Unlike her mother Claudia, Emilia does not yet recognise the true implications of the scheme. A few moments later, Countess Orsina, the prince's former mistress, comes to the residence as well. Out of frustration over her harsh rejection by the prince, she attempts to convince Odoardo, Emilia's father, to avenge Count Appiani by stabbing the prince to death. Odoardo, however, hesitates in agreeing to this proposal and decides to leave the revenge in the hands of God. Emilia, who must remain under the protection of the prince due to another intrigue on Marinelli's behalf, attempts to convince her father to kill her in order to maintain her dignity in light of the prince's exertions to seduce her. The father agrees and stabs her, but immediately feels appalled by his deed. In the end Odoardo leaves the matter to the prince. He subsequently decides that Marinelli is responsible for the catastrophe and has him banned from his court. Ultimately, Emilia's father recognises God as the absolute authority. ===== The premise of the show is that the main character, Tom Chance, is frequently the victim of unlikely circumstances, although he cares little about this and is, in fact, largely oblivious to much of what happens around him. He meets his long-suffering girlfriend, Alison Little, by chance. This happens when Tom Chance goes to the same hotel on a blind date to meet a girl (who is also called Alison), that Alison Little has arranged to meet her cousin Tom (for the first time since they were young children). Tom is shy towards Alison. However, Alison has fallen in love with Tom at first sight and she is keen for their friendship to develop into something more intimate. Tom has a tendency to get into trouble as a result of unlikely coincidences. This leads to Tom being arrested for crimes he did not commit – which happens so often that police Sergeant Gough eventually gives orders for Tom not to be arrested, no matter how suspicious the circumstances. Tom has an amusing ability to drink an entire pint of beer in one gulp whilst in the middle of speaking a sentence. (According to Callow in a DVD commentary, a trick glass containing a fraction of a pint was actually used.) Tom's style of speaking is a key component of his comic nature. He speaks only in short staccato sentences similar to a telegram: "Can’t talk Alison. Car being towed. Problem with lawn furniture." He also has a fascination with Surrey and England cricketer Alec Bedser, and a cricket bat, which has been autographed by the cricketer, is one of Tom's most treasured possessions. (Or at least was, before it was chewed up by next door's alsatian.) ===== In Washington state in 1964, Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant, has moved to the United States with her son, Gene Ježek. They live a life of poverty as Selma works at a factory with her good friend Kathy, whom she nicknames Cvalda. She rents a trailer home on the property of town policeman Bill Houston and his wife, Linda. She is also pursued by the shy but persistent Jeff, who also works at the factory. Selma has a degenerative eye condition and is losing her vision. She has been saving up to pay for an operation which will prevent her young son from losing his vision. She also takes part in rehearsals for a production of The Sound of Music and accompanies Kathy to the local cinema, where together they watch fabulous Hollywood musicals, as Cvalda describes them to her. In her day-to-day life, Selma slips into daydreams. Soon Jeff and Cvalda begin to realize that Selma can barely see at all. Additionally, Bill reveals to Selma that his materialistic wife spends more than his salary, and the bank is going to take his house. To comfort Bill, Selma reveals her eye condition, hoping that together they can keep each other's secret. Bill then hides in the corner of Selma's home, knowing she can't see him, and watches as she puts some money in her kitchen tin. The next day, after having broken her machine the night before through careless error, Selma is fired from her job. When she comes home to put her final wages away she finds the tin is empty; she goes next door to report the theft to Bill and Linda, only to hear Linda discussing how Bill has brought home their safe deposit box to count their savings. Knowing that Bill was broke and that the money he is counting must be hers, she confronts him and attempts to take the money back. He draws a gun on her, and in a struggle he is wounded. Linda runs off to tell the police at Bill's command. Bill then begs Selma to take his life, telling her that this will be the only way she will ever reclaim the money that he stole from her. Selma shoots at him several times, but out of blindness manages to only maim Bill further. In the end, she performs a coup de grâce with the safe deposit box. Selma slips into a trance and imagines that Bill's corpse stands up and slow dances with her, urging her to run to freedom. She does, and takes the money to the Institute for the Blind to pay for her son's operation before the police can take it from her. Selma is caught and eventually put on trial. It is here that she is pegged as a Communist sympathizer and murderer. Although she tells as much truth about the situation as she can, she refuses to reveal Bill's secret, saying that she had promised not to. Additionally, when her claim that the reason she did not have any money was because she had been sending it to her father in Czechoslovakia is proven false, she is convicted and given the death penalty. Cvalda and Jeff eventually put the pieces of the puzzle together and get back Selma's money, using it instead to pay for a trial lawyer who can free her. Selma becomes furious and refuses the lawyer, opting to face the death penalty rather than let her son go blind, but she is deeply distraught as she awaits her death. Although a sympathetic female prison guard named Brenda tries to comfort her, the other state officials are eager to see her executed. Brenda encourages Selma to walk. On the gallows, she becomes terrified, so that she must be strapped to a collapse board. Her hysteria when the hood is placed over her face delays the execution. Selma begins crying hysterically and Brenda cries with her, but Cvalda rushes to inform her that the operation was successful and that Gene will see. Relieved, Selma sings the final song on the gallows with no musical accompaniment, although she is hanged before she finishes. ===== The Queen of the Fairies attends the birth of Tom Thumb Richard Johnson's The History of Tom Thumbe of 1621 tells that in the days of King Arthur, old Thomas of the Mountain, a plowman and a member of the King's Council, wants nothing more than a son, even if he is no bigger than his thumb. He sends his wife to consult with Merlin. In three months time, she gives birth to the diminutive Tom Thumb. The "Queene of Fayres" and her attendants act as midwives. She provides Tom with an oak leaf hat, a shirt of cobweb, a doublet of thistledown, stockings of apple rind, and shoes of mouse's skin. Tom cheats at games with other boys and because of his many tricks, the boys will not associate with him. Tom retaliates by using magic to hang his mother's pots and glasses from a sunbeam. When his fellows try the same, their pots and glasses fall and are broken. Thereafter, Tom stays home under his mother's supervision. At Christmas, she makes puddings, but Tom falls into the batter and is boiled into one of them. When a tinker comes begging, Tom's mother inadvertently gives him the pudding containing her son. The tinker farts while crossing a stile, but Tom calls out about the farting and the frightened tinker drops the pudding. Tom eats himself free and returns home to tell his mother and father of his adventure. His mother thereafter keeps a closer watch upon him. One day, he accompanies her to the field to milk the cows. He sits under a thistle, but a red cow swallows him. The cow is given a laxative and Tom passes from her in a "cowturd." He is taken home and cleaned. Another day, he accompanies his father for the seed sowing and rides in the horse's ear. Tom is set down in the field to play the scarecrow, but a raven carries him away. His parents search for him, but are unable to find him. The raven drops Tom at the castle of a giant. The cruel giant swallows the tiny boy like a pill. Tom thrashes about so much in the giant's stomach that he is vomited into the sea. There, he is eaten once more by a fish which is caught for King Arthur's supper. The cook is astonished to see the little man emerge from the fish. Tom then becomes King Arthur's Dwarf. Tom becomes a favorite at King Arthur's royal court, especially among the ladies. There is revelry; Tom joins the jousting and dances in the palm of a Maid of Honour. He goes home briefly to see his parents, taking some money from the treasury with the king's permission, then returns to court. The Queene of Fayres finds him asleep on a rose and leaves him several gifts: an enchanted hat of knowledge, a ring of invisibility, a shape-changing girdle, and shoes to take him anywhere in a moment. Tom falls seriously ill when a lady blows her nose, but is cured by the physician to King Twaddell of the Pygmies. He takes a ride in his walnut shell coach and meets Garagantua. Each boasts of his many powers. When Garagantua threatens to harm Tom, he is cast under an enchantment and Tom hurries home to safety. King Arthur listens with amazement to Tom's many adventures. Richard Johnson's 1621 narrative ends here, but he promised his readers a sequel that has never been found, if published at all. In 1630, a metrical version in three parts was published that continues Tom's adventures. ===== Popular Democratic President Andrew Shepherd is preparing to run for re-election. The President and his staff, led by Chief of Staff and best friend A.J. MacInerney, attempt to consolidate the administration's 63% approval rating by passing a moderate crime control bill. However, support for the bill in both parties is tepid: conservatives do not want it, and liberals think it is too weak. If it passes, however, Shepherd's re-election is presumed by his staff to be a shoo-in, and Shepherd resolves to announce the bill, and the Congressional support to pass it, by his State of the Union Address. With the President of France about to arrive in the United States to attend a state dinner in his honor, Shepherdwidowed when his wife died of cancer three years earlieris placed in an awkward predicament when his cousin Judith, with whom he had planned to attend the dinner, gets sick. Shepherd is momentarily taken aback when he realizes that his staff has occasionally portrayed him as a lonely widower for political gain, but also that it is true: he is, in fact, a lonely widower. The President's attention soon focuses on Sydney Ellen Wade, just hired by an environmental lobbying firm to persuade the President to pass legislation committing his Administration to substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions. During their first meeting, Shepherd and Wade are immediately intrigued by each other. At this meeting, Shepherd strikes a deal with Wade: if she can secure 24 votes for the environmental bill by the date of the State of the Union, he will deliver the last 10 votes. Whatever his personal feelings toward Wade, he expresses this to his staff, especially the pragmatic A.J., as a sound political move. He believes Wade will not be able to get enough votes to meet her side of the deal, thus releasing Shepherd from responsibility if the bill fails to pass. Later that evening, in a series of phone calls, Shepherd invites Wade to the state dinner. During the State dinner and subsequent occasions, the couple fall in love. When Republican presidential hopeful Senator Bob Rumson learns "the President's got a girlfriend," he steps up his attacks on Shepherd and Wade, focusing on Wade's activist past and maligning Shepherd's ethics and his family values. The President refuses to respond to these attacks, which drives his approval ratings lower and costs him crucial political support, without which his crime bill seems doomed to failure. At the White House Christmas Party, Wade is dejected about her meeting that day with three Congressmen from Michigan about the environmental bill and how it was a dismal failure; in the process, she inadvertently mentions to the President and A.J. that the Congressmen in question said the only bill they were more interested in defeating than the President's crime bill was Wade's environmental bill. Shepherd and A.J. are conflicted by this information both by how they learned it and because it reveals that their crime bill is in jeopardy. As Wade's boyfriend, Shepherd knows that she was venting about a bad day, but as the President, he cannot ignore the opportunity to pass the crime bill by going back on his deal with her as a political operative. Eventually, Wade does manage to get enough votes to meet her part of the deal. However, in the meantime, Shepherd's staff discovers he is exactly three votes short, with no other apparent options to acquire them except by shelving the environmental bill, thus solidifying the support of the three Congressmen from Michiganwhich he agrees to do. This results in disaster for Wade as she is immediately fired from her lobbyist job for failing to achieve her objectives, as well as seemingly jeopardizing her political reputation. She visits the White House to break up with Shepherd and says that she has a job possibility in Hartford, Connecticut. While he tries to politically justify his actions by defending the crime bill as his top priority, she rebuffs him for expending too much political capital on a weakly-worded bill with little chance of preventing crime. She concludes, "Mr. President, you got bigger problems than losing me. You just lost my vote." On the morning that he is to deliver his State of the Union Address, and after an argument with A.J. the previous evening, Shepherd makes a surprise appearance in the White House press room and rebukes Rumson's attacks on his values and character, as well as his relentless innuendos that Wade prostituted herself for political favors. He declares he will send the controversial environmental bill to Congress with a massive 20% cut in fossil fuelsfar more than the 10% originally envisionedand that he is withdrawing his support for the weak crime bill, promising to write a stronger one in due time including significant gun control measures. His passionate defense of those things in which he believes, in contrast to his earlier passive and measured behavior, galvanizes the press and his staff. Shepherd declares he is "gonna stand at her front door till she lets me in. And I'm not leaving till I get her back." However, Wade enters the Oval Office before he can leave. The couple reconcile and the President, accompanied by Wade, leaves to give his State of the Union Address. The film ends with Shepherd handing Wade a bouquet of roses and dogwoods (the state flower of her native Virginia), and entering the House chamber to thunderous applause. ===== Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties of growing up and the added challenge of being a famed wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but was mysteriously defeated after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry, though his attempt left a lightning-shaped scar on Harry's forehead. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his abusive Muggle (non-magical) aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, who have a son named Dudley. On Harry's eleventh birthday, he learns he is a wizard from Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and enrols in Hogwarts. He befriends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and confronts Lord Voldemort, who is trying to regain power. In Harry's first year, he has to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers at Hogwarts. After returning to school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked by the legendary monster of the Chamber of Secrets after the Chamber is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and thwarting another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears he has been targeted by escaped mass murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry encounters Black at the end of his third year and learns Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learns that it was his father's old school friend Peter Pettigrew who betrayed his parents. ===== Sinuhe recounts, in his old age at his location of forced exile by the Red Sea coast, the events of his life. His tone expresses cynicism, bitterness and disappointment; he says humans are vile and will never change, and that he's writing down his story for therapeutic reasons alone and for something to do in the rugged and desolate desert landscape. Sinuhe begins his life as a foundling discovered in a reed boat in the Nile, and grows up in the poor part of Thebes. His adoptive father Senmut is a doctor, and Sinuhe decides to walk in his footsteps. As an assistant to a royal doctor who knows his adoptive father, Sinuhe is allowed visit the court, during a trepanation on the dying Amenhotep III – here Sinuhe, the young crown prince Akhenaten and Horemheb meet for the first time. Well educated, Sinuhe sets up a clinic and acquires the sly and eloquent slave Kaptah, who will be his companion and close friend throughout his life. One day he gets acquainted with the gorgeous woman Nefernefernefer and is bewitched by her. Nefernefernefer gets Sinuhe to give her everything he owns – even his adoptive parents' house and grave. When the woman has realised that Sinuhe has run out of possessions, she gets rid of him. Ashamed and dishonored, Sinuhe arranges his adoptive parents to be embalmed and buries them in the Valley of the Kings (they had taken their lives before eviction), after which he decides to go to exile in the company of Kaptah to Levant, which was under Egyptian rule at the time. In Syria, his medical skill earns him fame and wealth. During an Egyptian military operation in Syria, he re-encounters Horemheb, serving as a military commander. From this, Sinuhe is commissioned to travel at his expense in the known world to determine what military potential the established nations have. Sinuhe, in company of Kaptah, travels first to Babylon where he engages in science and socializes with the city's scholars. One day he is summoned to the sick king Burraburiash, whom he manages to cure. Soon Kaptah is selected for the traditional day of the false king, where the city's greatest fool is king for a day and then killed. A young Cretan woman named Minea has been recently acquired to the king's harem against her will; during a feast Sinuhe, in the process of falling in love with her, smuggles Minea and Kaptah from the palace and flees with the two to the neighboring country Mitanni. From there they proceed to Anatolia and to the fast-growing Hittite empire. Sinuhe and his companions feel unhappy about the militarism and tough rule of law that characterize the kingdom of the Hittites, and they decide to leave Anatolia and sail to Crete, Minea's homeland. Minea has grown up with the mission to sacrifice herself as a virgin to the local bull god who lives in a mountain cave at the sea. Sinuhe is horrified by this and fears that he will not see her again. In the evening before Minea should enter the mountain cave, they marry each other unofficially. A while after Minea has been escorted into the mountain cave, Sinuhe enters the cave in search for her. He finds Minea's dead body and the remains of the Cretan god (described as a bull-headed sea serpent), and realises that she has been killed by the god's high priest Minotaurus to prevent her from returning and telling the god is dead. Sinuhe loses his mind from grief, but Kaptah eventually succeeds in calming him down and convinces him that it's best to move on and return to Syria. In Syria, Sinuhe returns to medical profession and successfully regains his previous status. He notices, however, that the Egyptian sovereignty in the area has now begun to be questioned and threatened. This rebellious mood is triggered not in the least by the Syrian, Hittite-friendly Prince Aziru, whom Sinuhe still befriends, among other things, through a medical assignment. Pharaoh Akhenaten with his family worshiping the solar disc Aten. In the novel, Akhenaten seeks to bring about an utopia with his new religion. One day Sinuhe decides to return to Egypt. He sails to Thebes and opens a clinic for the poor in the same neighborhood he grew up in. He does not get rich in this, being driven by ideological motives instead. His slave Kaptah (now released by Sinuhe) instead becomes a businessman and buys a pub called "Crocodile's Tail". There Sinuhe meets a woman named Merit, who becomes Sinuhe's life partner. In Egypt, a new king, Akhenaten, has begun to convey a monotheistic teaching centered around the sun god Aten. According to Akhenaten's doctrine, all people are equal, and in the new world order there no longer would be slaves and masters. Aspects of Akhenaten prove to be unpopular: his pacifism, among Horemheb and others concerned with the threat of Syrian and Hittite invasion; his attempts at redistributing property to the poor; and his worship of Aten at the exclusion of the old gods, among the clergy of the mighty state god Amon. Sinuhe is attracted to the teachings that the new king proclaims and, as he feels, focus on light, equality and justice, and joins Akhenaten's court. After a particularly violent public incident, Akhenaten, fed up with opposition, leaves Thebes with Sinuhe to middle Egypt where a new capital, Akhetaten, dedicated to Aten, is built. However, the conflicts between Amon and Aten continue, and it all develops into a civil war. Aten's kingdom on Earth begins to fall, and the courtiers, one after another, abandon Akhenaten and Akhetaten in favor of Amon and Thebes. The final battle takes also place in Thebes. Sinuhe fights for the sake of Aten and Pharaoh to the end, but ultimately the side of Amon priesthood is victorious. During the chaos, Merit and her son Thot are killed – the latter would turn out to be Sinuhe's offspring. When defeat has become reality, Akhenaten dies after having drunk a cup of poison mixed by the embittered Sinuhe. Queen Nefertite's father, Ay, takes the throne, after the boy king Tutankhamun's short reign, despite Sinuhe having realised from Tiy that he himself is of royal blood and must be the son of Amenhotep III and his Mitannic consort, and thus closer to the throne. With Akhenaten out of the way, Horemheb gathers all fit men and conducts a full- scale war against the Hittite kingdom – Egypt's premier rival at this time. Both Sinuhe and Kaptah participate in this battle, as Sinuhe wanted to know what war is like. A peace treaty is ultimately established, and king Aziru and his royal family are captured and publicly executed. Sinuhe later succeeds with Horemheb's and Ay's mission to assassinate the Hittite prince Shubattu, secretly invited by Baketamon to marry her, preventing him from reaching Egypt and seizing the throne. Sinuhe now goes back, afflicted by all the losses, to a simple dwelling in Thebes, bitter and disillusioned in the heart. Every now and then he is visited by his former servant Kaptah, who only becomes richer and richer, and is now Sinuhe's patron. Sinuhe begins to criticise the new regime led by his old friend Horemheb, and as a punishment for this he is exiled to the Red Sea coast. ===== In an opening scene, a group of men are interviewed regarding Christina Walters (Cameron Diaz) who introduce her as a player and a user of men in the swinging singles market. The men include: *A neurotic loser who gets a nosebleed when she fails to call him after promising to do so. *A man who saw the movie Swingers and is calling her after three days, only to find that she gave him a number for Moviefone. *A man who is denied by Christina so he claims that she is a lesbian. *A very talkative man who ends up propelling himself off an exercise bike when he starts talking about Christina. The scene shifts back to the sexist man whose claims of Christina's lesbianism causes an entire crowd of women to attack him with baseball bats and the movie moves along, introducing Christina Walters, a 28-year-old successful interior designer and Courtney Rockcliffe (Christina Applegate) who is a divorce lawyer as they console their friend and roommate Jane (Selma Blair), who had recently broken up with her boyfriend Kevin, by taking her out to a dance club and cancel their plans to stay in for pizza. At the club, Jane feels out of place and Christina grabs a man passing by to set Jane up with. She meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane) who confronts Christina for her methods before disappearing for the night. While in the bathroom with Courtney, she calls him by name, leading her to suspect that he got under Christina's skin and she is actually attracted to him which she denies. After running into Peter again, Christina buys him a drink and they spend time together. He explains that he will be attending a wedding on Saturday, and that he is at the club with his obnoxious, womanizing brother Roger (Jason Bateman) to celebrate. He invites Christina and Courtney to an after-party at their hotel, but Christina goes home and later regrets not going. The next day, Christina cannot stop talking about Peter, while Jane deals with an embarrassing "cleanup" from her fun with the guy she met the night before. In the unedited version, Jane returns to the lunch and the women talk about always complimenting men for the sizes of their penises, eventually breaking out into a restaurant-wide "Penis Song". Courtney arranges for Christina and herself to travel to Somerset, where Peter's brother's wedding is to take place, and they meet Jane's boyfriend. As a recurring gag, they indicate that he is well endowed, causing misery and enjoyment from Jane. After they leave in Courtney's Saab 9-5, Christina and Courtney go on a series of misadventures including an exploding toilet, a glory hole discovery, and a motorcyclist who is led to believe Christina is giving Courtney oral sex. Meanwhile, Jane encounters her boyfriend at her retail job and is nearly caught having sex with him in the changing rooms. When Christina and Courtney finally get to Somerset, they visit a store to replace their wet and ruined clothing, only to come out in extremely gaudy, indiscreet outfits. Christina begins having second thoughts, but a series of coincidences occasions a change of heart, and they go to Peter's brother's wedding. Arriving, they discover that it is Peter, not Roger who is getting married, and the pair nearly ruin the ceremonies in their attempts to escape. Peter and his fiancée then decide that they do not want to marry each other and they call off the wedding (much to her father's chagrin) while Christina returns home and back to a newly unfulfilled life of being single again. Later, Peter finds Christina's address in the log at the store they bought their clothing in and tracks her down. Christina, determined not to fear the commitment, kisses Peter and then walks away disappointed. Sometime later, Courtney is dating a doctor and is clearly very attracted to him, and Peter is interviewed like the men at the beginning of the film, retelling his version of the events calling her a bitch and a player, but ultimately revealing that he and Christina are together, having gotten married and are living very happily with Jane and Courtney and Roger as well. Whether they all live together is left ambiguous. ===== Amateur tennis star Guy Haines wants to divorce his vulgar, promiscuous wife Miriam so he can marry Anne Morton, the daughter of a US Senator. On a train, smooth-talking psychopath Bruno Antony recognizes Haines and in conversation mentions his idea for a murder scheme: two perfect strangers meet and "swap murders" -- Bruno suggests he kill Miriam and Guy kill Bruno's hated father. Each will murder a total stranger with no apparent motive, so neither will be suspected. Guy humors Bruno by pretending to find his idea amusing, but is so eager to get away from Bruno that he leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter, which Bruno keeps. Guy meets with Miriam, who is pregnant by someone else, at her workplace in Metcalf, their hometown. Miriam informs Guy that she no longer wants to end their marriage. When she threatens to claim that the baby is his to thwart any divorce, they argue loudly. Later, Bruno follows Miriam to an amusement park and strangles her to death while Guy is traveling on the train back to Washington. When Guy arrives home, Bruno informs him Miriam is dead and insists that he honor their deal by killing Bruno's father. Guy goes to the Mortons' home, where Anne's father informs Guy that his wife has been murdered. Anne's sister Barbara says that the police will think that Guy is the murderer since he has a motive. The police question Guy, but are unable to confirm his alibi: a professor Guy met on the train was so drunk that he cannot remember their encounter. But instead of arresting Guy, the police assign around-the-clock escort to keep watch on him. To pressure Guy, Bruno follows him around Washington, introduces himself to Anne, and appears at a party at Senator Morton's house. To amuse another guest, Bruno demonstrates how to strangle someone by playfully putting his hands around her neck. His gaze falls upon Barbara, whose glasses and physical appearance resemble Miriam's. This triggers a flashback and he blacks out. Barbara tells Anne that Bruno was looking at her while strangling the other woman and Anne realizes her resemblance to Miriam. Her suspicions aroused, Anne confronts Guy, who tells her the truth about Bruno's crazy scheme. Bruno sends Guy a pistol, a house key, and a map showing the location of his father's bedroom. Guy creeps into Bruno's father's room hoping to warn him of his son's murderous intentions, but instead, he finds Bruno there waiting for him, suspicious of Guy’s sudden agreement. Guy tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help; Bruno threatens to make Guy pay for the crime from which he is benefiting. Anne visits Bruno's home and unsuccessfully tries to explain to his befuddled mother that her son is a murderer. Bruno mentions Guy's missing cigarette lighter to Anne on leaving and claims that Guy asked him to search the murder site for it; Guy correctly surmises that Bruno intends to incriminate him by planting it there. After winning a match at Forest Hills, Guy eludes the police and heads for the amusement park to forestall Bruno. Bruno is delayed at Metcalf when he accidentally drops Guy's lighter down a storm drain and must retrieve it. When Bruno arrives at the amusement park, a carnival worker recognizes him from the night of the murder; he informs the police, who mistakenly think he means Guy. After Guy arrives, he and Bruno fight on the park's carousel. Thinking Guy is trying to escape, a police officer shoots at him but instead kills the carousel operator, causing it to spin out of control. A carnival worker crawls underneath it and applies the brakes but the mechanism fails, causing the carousel to violently rotate off its axis; Bruno is trapped underneath it and mortally injured. The worker who recognized Bruno tells the police chief that he has never seen Guy before. Guy tells the police of his suspicions. As Bruno dies, his fingers open to reveal Guy's lighter in his hand. While aboard a train the next day, a stranger asks if he is Guy Haines and he and Anne move to other seats. ===== Eva, an upper class housewife, becomes frustrated and leaves her arrogant husband. She is drawn to the idea of becoming a call girl. With the aid of a prostitute named Yvonne, Eva learns the basics and then they both set out looking for janes and johns together. She meets a charming man who she falls in love with and comes to his house late at night for a romantic tryst. He turns out to be a gigolo. Consequently, they move into his penthouse, which is large enough for both of them to offer their services separately. Then slowly Eva enters the world of sado-masochism. She finds being a dominatrix extremely satisfying, and begins to take pleasure in controlling others and causing them intense pain. She discovers this in a scene in which a man is hiding under a table. Eva can see that his hands are sticking out from under the table and are clearly visible. Coldly, and with intense inner satisfaction, Eva proceeds to crush the man's hands by slowly walking over them with her stiletto-heeled boots. Chris, the gigolo, becomes jealous of her and wants to know what's going on upstairs and how she is making so much money. She tells him it is from hurting men, and that the more she hurts them, the more money she gets. This upsets him greatly. She also becomes jealous of his boyfriend/client, a man who has been coming to him for many years. The scenes in the upstairs room intensify. One day he sneaks up and observes her in a scene dominating a man tied to a chair. He has a look on his face like "see, this is what you truly are," and the look on her face says proudly "yes, this is what I truly am." He tries to whisk her away from all of it, buying her furs, talking about marriage. She tells him that she's been dreaming about hitting him, and in the dream he likes it. The setting is all there for a romantic ending, and yet, he panics, he takes all their money and invests it in a restaurant that she doesn't want to be part of. She tries to walk out on him, and he gets angry, throws her against the wall, hits her, pours alcohol on her, and lights her on fire. But the last scene shows her unscathed, happy with her friend the sex worker/madame, and they're getting thrown out of a bar that Chris owns. ===== Xi and his San tribe are living happily in the Kalahari Desert, away from industrial civilization. One day, a glass Coca-Cola bottle is thrown out of an airplane by a pilot and falls to the ground unbroken. Initially, Xi's people assume the bottle to be a gift from their gods, just as they believe plants and animals are, and find many uses for it. Unlike other bounties, however, there is only one glass bottle, which causes unforeseen conflict within the tribe. As a result, Xi decides to make a pilgrimage to the edge of the world and dispose of the divisive object. Along the way, Xi encounters biologist Andrew Steyn, who is studying the manure of wildlife; Steyn's assistant and mechanic, M'pudi; Kate Thompson, a woman who quit her job as a journalist in Johannesburg to become a village school teacher; and a band of guerrillas led by Sam Boga, who are being pursued by government troops after a failed assassination attempt. Steyn is tasked with bringing Kate to the village where she will teach, but he is awkward and clumsy around her—he accidentally causes Kate to fall in a river, and she more than once mistakes his attempts to evade wild animals as advances towards her. Eventually, a snobbish safari tour guide named Jack Hind arrives, and takes Kate the rest of the way to the village. One day, Xi happens upon a herd of goats, and shoots one with a tranquilizer arrow, planning to eat it. He is arrested and sentenced to jail. M'pudi, who once lived with the San and can speak the San language, is discontent with the verdict. He and Steyn hire Xi as a tracker for the remainder of his sentence in lieu of prison time, and teach Xi how to drive Steyn's Land Rover. Meanwhile, the guerrillas invade Kate's school, taking her and the students as hostages as they make their escape to a neighbouring country. Steyn, M'pudi and Xi, immersed in their fieldwork, find that they are along the terrorists' path. They manage to immobilize six of the eight guerrillas using makeshift tranquilizer darts launched by Xi with a miniature bow, allowing Kate and the children to confiscate the guerillas' firearms. Steyn and M'pudi apprehend the remaining two guerrillas by frightening one with a snake and by shooting at a tree above the other, causing latex to drip from the tree and irritate his skin. Jack Hind arrives and takes away Kate, taking credit for the rescue that Steyn, M'pudi and Xi had actually planned and executed. Later, with Xi's term over, Steyn pays his wages and sends him on his way. Steyn and M'pudi then drive from their camp to visit Kate. Steyn attempts to explain to Kate his tendency to be uncoordinated in her presence, but accidentally and repeatedly knocks over a number of objects in the process. Kate finds his efforts endearing, and she and Steyn share a kiss. Xi eventually arrives at God's Window, the top of a cliff with a solid layer of low-lying clouds obscuring the landscape below. Convinced that he has reached the edge of the world, he throws the bottle off the cliff, and returns to his family. ===== Cody Banks, a 15-year-old high school junior in Seattle, applies for a junior field ops position at the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division after completing a training summer camp. Answering to his handler Agent Ronica Miles, Cody is called upon a mission to find information about a scientist named Dr. Albert Connors. Connors is employed by a SPECTRE type organization named ERIS led by Dr. Brinkman, and his henchman François Molay. As all CIA agents are known to Brinkman's organization, the CIA uses the unknown Banks, who is placed into the prep school of Dr. Connors' daughter Natalie, the William Donovan Institute. Cody soon finds he has no social skill with girls and has no time to do this while balancing his chores and homework. The CIA decides to help by doing his chores and homework, trying to build his status, and going into the school to set him up with Natalie. The CIA also assemble a varying team of "experts" to train Cody into how to talk to girls, and issue him with a variety of gadgets with various functions. Eventually, Cody befriends and falls in love with Natalie after rescuing her from a falling a ladder while putting up a banner, and he is invited to her 16th birthday party, where he goes undercover to her father's lab. Cody finds that Dr. Brinkman is planning to use nanobots — which can destroy any carbon or silicon-based substance — to destroy the world's defense systems so he can threaten anyone who opposes him. Since the nanobots are inactive in the cold, he plans to use ice cubes to distribute them. After Connors, Dr. Brinkman, and François leave the lab, Cody tries to take one of the ice cubes, only for it to melt when in his possession. Shortly after this, Cody fights with a number of delinquents, at the party. The fight makes the school newspaper, and the CIA suspends Cody from the mission. Meanwhile, with Connors refusing to aid him in his plans, Dr. Brinkman sends François and some men to catch Natalie and bring her into his base in the Cascade Mountains. Meanwhile, disobeying orders to leave her out of it, Cody and Natalie eat ice cream at a restaurant. Cody attempts to explain things to Natalie but François and a group of henchmen come over to their table and beat Cody up, and take Natalie. Cody is fully removed from the mission and is grounded for being missing for hours from his house. Cody gets his brother Alex to make sure his parents do not find out that he has disappeared by giving him the $5,000 the CIA gave him. Knowing Natalie's location via a tracking device in a necklace he gave her as a birthday present, Cody breaks into the CIA weapons hold and steals a rocket powered snowboard and other devices to rescue Natalie. Cody gets a ride to the top of the mountain and snowboards to the factory where Natalie is held. However, he gets caught in a grove of trees as Ronica finds him using a SoloTrek XFV. After convincing her that they need to rescue Natalie, the pair infiltrate the laboratory and Cody rescues Natalie, also explaining the truth about why he went out with her. However, the trio are captured by Brinkman's men, although Cody quickly escapes. Natalie is held hostage by Dr. Brinkman, who puts an ice cube with a nanobot inside on her forehead to make her father program the system. Cody sets off a series of explosive charges he and Ronica planted throughout the base, and in the ensuing battle, Ronica fights off several of Dr. Brinkman's men, and Natalie kills Dr. Brinkman by placing the ice cube with the nanobots into his mouth, causing it to melt, and the nanobots to devour him from the inside out. Cody later defeats François and sends him to the CIA using the SoloTrek XFV, before fleeing the exploding facility with Ronica, Natalie and Dr. Connors. The CIA welcomes Cody back to the team and congratulates him for completing the mission, and Cody decides to have Natalie earn her drivers license as a reward in which she succeeds in. They then stop by at a beach and kiss, starting a relationship. =====