From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Set in the Dark Ages a century after the Roman withdrawal from Britain and during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Arthur is not a glamorous king with an elaborate court; instead, he is (as presumed by some historians) just a Celtic leader who installs and maintains a Celtic alliance against the Saxon invaders. He is instructed by his adoptive father Llud and assisted by Kai, a Saxon orphan reared as Arthur's brother. His greatest rival is his cousin, Mark of Cornwall. The Jute chief Yorath and his daughter Rowena are in the beginning allies against the Saxons but finally use their special position to mediate peace negotiations between the Celts and the Saxons. Cerdig, chieftain of the Saxons, is Arthur's principal counterpart who in the episode "The Treaty" even insults him as a man "with many brothers but no father" but learns to respect him in the end. The series dispenses with the legendary Round Table and popular figures such as Merlin, Guinevere and Lancelot and attaches no significance to magic or superstition. Neither Arthur nor his fellow celts are at any time clad in shining armour. Arthur is once again portrayed as a skilled fighter but especially as a cunning politician who eventually comes to good terms with the Saxons. After he has created the basics for a peaceful coexistence between his folk and the Saxons, he falls in love with a Roman princess (last episode, "The Girl From Rome") called Benedicta (portrayed by Catherine Schell) who wants to live with him in Rome. But Arthur refuses to leave the land and people he loves, and she leaves along with her escort, though it is hinted that she may return. ===== The story starts when eight-year-old Joslyn Musey's parents die in a vicious pirate attack on his home ship, the merchant Mukudori. Jos, along with a handful of the ships other children, are captured by the attackers. Vincenzo Marcus Falcone, an infamous pirate and captain of the "Genghis Khan", keeps Jos as his hostage, with the intention of making him a protégé. Falcone teaches Jos how to "win people over" with manners and cunning, and especially good looks. The human race, EarthHub, is at war with aliens called the striviirc-na, who are called "strits" by the Hub. When the pirate ship Genghis Khan docks at Chaos Station, which is located in deep space, the station is suddenly attacked by the striviiric-na. Jos escapes Falcone during the attack, but is shot, then captured and is taken to the alien homeworld, Aaian-na, by the Warboy, the leader of the human sympathizer movement on Aaian-na, Nikolas S'tlian. Jos gradually accepts his place on Aaian-na and the Warboy teaches him to be a Ka'redan, or "assassin-priest" which is the ruling caste on the planet. Jos is trained on Aaian-na until he is fourteen, when he is formally made a member of the Ka'redan. At that time, being told that the only way to end the war is through a treaty with EarthHub's most notorious spacecarrier, the Macedon, he is assigned to spy on the ship as part of its elite crew. Jos is taught to act like an Earthhub human and sent back to Austo Station in the Hub to join the Macedon. Once on the Macedon, however, he discovers that his previous distinctions between good and bad no longer apply. Jos battles on the Macedon, eventually encountering Evan D'Silva, one of his former friends on the Mukudori, who he rescues from a pirate ship. He discovers a connection between the Warboy's brother, Ash-dan, and Falcone's pirates, who have been trading weapons to the sympathizers in exchange for aid in hiding captured children. The novel ends with a face off between the Genghis Khan and the Macedon. The Macedon encounters the Genghis Khan meeting with the Warboy's brother's ship, and is boarded by the pirates. Jos and his unit are captured by the Khan and Jos is interrogated by Falcone. It is eventually revealed to his ship mates that he is spying for the Warboy. However, at that point, the Warboy, who had been tracking his brother, shows up with his ship, and his crew release Jos and the other prisoners and takes them to his ship. The Warboy's ship then helps the Macedon destroy the pirate ships, after which Macedon's Captain, Cairo Azarcon, arranges for the Warboy to dock on Chaos Station. Jos encounters Falcone on deck, being transported to police facilities, when Falcone attempts to escape. Jos then stabs Falcone to death on deck, after which he is taken back to the Macedon under Captain Azarcon's protection. He is made a liaison officer as Azarcon attempts to negotiate a peace treaty with the striviiric-na. ===== The Soviet Union became a world superpower by dropping the first atomic bomb on Berlin, ending World War II, and propping up communist states throughout the globe which begin to surround the US in the present day. New York plumbing brothers Chris and Troy Stone travel to meet with their next client, an activist named Isabella Angelina, only to find her apartment abandoned. The Soviet Union launches a surprise invasion of New York City and suddenly Soviet soldiers, led by General Vasilij Tatarin, seize Troy. Amidst the attack, Chris escapes to the streets, encountering a man named Mr. Jones and resistance member Phil Bagzton. After rescuing Isabella from a police station and Troy from a post office, the group retreats to the sewers and sets up a base of operations as New York is lost, with the media now being controlled by the Soviet Union. Months later, Chris, Phil, and Isabella sabotage key Soviet facilities and reclaim areas within the city, building up a resistance group of New York citizens and disillusioned Soviet soldiers. Chris becomes known as the "Freedom Phantom" within the Soviet-controlled media network, SAFN. Troy is captured by Soviet troops and tortured for information. Forced into issuing a public statement aimed at the resistance to cease their actions, he breaks from the prepared text and urges Chris to continue fighting. In response, General Tatarin has Troy taken to Fort Jay and executes him personally. Mr. Jones suggests assassinating Tatarin in retaliation. Chris succeeds, but returns to find Isabella missing and the resistance base occupied by the Soviet Army. The operation was orchestrated by Mr. Jones who reveals himself to be KGB agent Colonel Bulba. Chris escapes with Phil and others to a new underground area while SAFN reports on the death of Tatarin, Colonel Bulba's promotion to General, and the "end" of the resistance in New York. During the winter, Chris leads the resistance deeper into occupied New York, culminating with a major raid on SAFN Studios. Chris uses the station to send a broadcast encouraging the city and beyond to rise up and bring an end to the Soviet occupation. A final assault on Governors Island, consisting of massed resistance forces, is planned and carried out, capturing key objectives against extremely heavy Soviet resistance. After capturing Fort Jay and rescuing Isabella, New York is liberated for the time being as Chris and the group solemnly celebrate their victory. Chris knows the Soviets will not give up the occupied United States easily, but resolves to fight on as long as is necessary. ===== Nana (Anna Karina), a beautiful Parisian in her early twenties, leaves her husband and infant son hoping to become an actress. Without money, beyond what she earns as a shopgirl, and unable to enter acting, she elects to earn better money as a prostitute. Soon she has a pimp, Raoul, who after an unspecified period agrees to sell Nana to another pimp. During the exchange, the pimps argue and Nana is killed in a gun battle. Nana's short life on film is told in 12 brief episodes, each preceded by a written intertitle. ===== The game takes place on an island continent called Riberia, which had long been divided and ruled under four kingdoms. However, these kingdoms were destroyed by the evil Zoa Empire and its devil-worshipping ruler, and the island was starting to regress into a period of instability and darkness. The Rīve Kingdom was one of the four kingdoms of Riberia, and the first protagonist, , is the prince of Razelia; one of the principalities within the kingdom. After the fall of his father's principality, he escaped and went into hiding in a nearby port-town. However, this town also fell into the hands of the Empire, and Runan and , the prince of another one of the kingdom's principalities, retreat to the newly created Uelt Kingdom with a small contingent of troops. The two receive assistance from the Uelt king, and begin a long journey to destroy the evil empire. ===== In 1920s Britain, Arthur Chipping is an established member of the teaching staff at the Brookfield School. He is a stodgy teacher of Latin, disliked by his pupils, who find him boring and call him "Ditchy," short for "dull as ditch-water." Chips meets Katherine Bridges, a music hall soubrette, in the dining room of the Savoy Hotel in London on the eve of his summer holiday. Dissatisfied with her career and depressed by her romantic entanglements, she sets sail on a Mediterranean cruise and is reunited with Chips by chance in Pompeii. Seeing in him a lonely soul similar to herself, she arranges an evening at the theatre after they return to Britain, and the two find themselves drawn to each other. When Chips arrives at Brookfield for the autumn term, it is with his new wife on his arm, much to the shock of the staff and delight of the pupils, who find Mrs Chips' charm to be irresistible. His marriage softens him and makes him more liked by his students. Although her close friend and confidante Ursula Mossbank helps Katherine thwart Lord Sutterwick's plan to deprive the school of a generous financial endowment because of the woman's background, her past eventually deprives Chips of his longheld dream of being named headmaster in 1939. Still, the couple's devotion to each other overcomes all obstacles threatening their marriage, extending through 20 years together, when Katherine is killed in 1944 by a German V-1 flying bomb while entertaining the troops at a local Royal Air Force base. Too late for his wife to share in his happiness, Chips was picked as headmaster of Brookfield that same day, and lives out his years at the school, loved by his pupils and comforted by his happy memories. ===== Thirty-five years after their television show's cancellation in 1964, Rocket J. "Rocky" Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose have been living off the finances of their reruns on TV. Their home, Frostbite Falls, has been destroyed by deforestation, Rocky has lost his ability to fly and the show's unseen Narrator now lives with his mother, spending his time narrating his own mundane life. Meanwhile, their archenemies Fearless Leader, Boris Badenov, and Natasha Fatale have lost power in Pottsylvania following the end of the Cold War. However, the three escape to a real-world Hollywood film studio, where they trick executive Minnie Mogul into signing a contract giving her rights to the show, transforming the villains from their two- dimensional cel-animated forms into live-action characters. Six months later, in Washington D.C., FBI agent Karen Sympathy and her superior, Cappy von Trapment, inform President Signoff that Fearless Leader intends to make himself President of the United States by brainwashing television viewers using his own cable television network named "RBTV" ("Really Bad Television"), which airs mind-numbing programming designed to zombify the public and persuade them to elect him as president. Karen is sent to a special lighthouse to bring Rocky and Bullwinkle into the real world by literally greenlighting a film starring the pair. Karen succeeds, with The Narrator being brought along as well but never being physically seen. Fearless Leader is informed that Rocky and Bullwinkle have returned and sends Boris and Natasha to destroy them. The two spies are given a weapon called the CDI ("Computer Degenerating Imagery"), which removes cartoon characters from the real world by sending them to the Internet. Karen steals the villains' truck, but is subsequently arrested by an Oklahoma state trooper who was tricked by Natasha, posing as Karen. Natasha and Boris in turn steal a helicopter to pursue Rocky and Bullwinkle, who are picked up and given a ride by Martin and Lewis, two students at a live-action version of Bullwinkle's old university, Wossamotta U. Boris and Natasha arrive first and make a large donation to the university in Bullwinkle's name. In return, the head of the university gives Bullwinkle an honorary "Mooster's Degree" and Bullwinkle addresses the student body, who are currently protesting against cartoons, whilst Boris attempts to kill him with the CDI from a water tower. Rocky recovers his lost ability to fly and saves the oblivious Bullwinkle, winning the hearts of the students. Martin and Lewis lend the two their car, which Bullwinkle drives to Chicago. Boris and Natasha once again attempt to kill the two, but instead accidentally destroy their helicopter. Meanwhile, Karen escapes prison with the help from a love- struck Swedish guard named Ole. Karen, Rocky and Bullwinkle are reunited, but are quickly arrested for various misdemeanors (mostly related to the Fourth Wall) that they have committed during their journey. The three are put on trial, where Bullwinkle inadvertently sabotages their case by cross-examining Karen as the prosecutor, not the defense attorney. However, the presiding Judge Cameo dismisses their case upon recognizing Rocky and Bullwinkle, stating to the district attorney that celebrities are above the law. The trio obtain a biplane from a man named Old Jeb and evade Boris and Natasha once again. The duo consider quitting their evil occupations and getting married, but are interrupted by a call from Fearless Leader. Afraid to admit they have failed, they lie and tell him they have killed Rocky and Bullwinkle. Fearless Leader initiates his plan, brainwashing the entire country. Meanwhile, the plane is unable to carry the weight of all three aboard. Rocky flies Karen to New York City to stop Fearless Leader, but they are captured. Meanwhile, Bullwinkle accidentally flies the plane to Washington, D.C., confusing it for New York, and crashes on the White House lawn. To get Bullwinkle to New York in time to stop Fearless Leader, Cappy scans Bullwinkle into the White House's computer and emails him to RBTV's headquarters, where he interrupts the broadcast and save Karen and Rocky. Karen knocks Boris and Natasha together, Bullwinkle throws Fearless Leader to his comrades and Rocky ties the three villains together with the cable's wire. The heroes convince the American public to vote for whomever they want, as well as replant Frostbite Falls' trees. Bullwinkle accidentally activates the CDI, and zaps Boris, Natasha and Fearless Leader, reverting them back to their two-dimensional animated cartoon forms and banishing them to the Internet once and for all. In the aftermath, RBTV is changed from "Really Bad Television" to "Rocky and Bullwinkle Television" (Bullwinkle, in a self-deprecating manner, jokingly says "What's the difference?") Karen and Ole start dating, and Rocky, Bullwinkle and The Narrator return home to a rejuvenated Frostbite Falls. ===== The cartoons are about Peabody, who is the smartest being in existence, having graduated from Harvard at age 3 ("Wagna cum Laude"). Peabody has accomplished many things in his life as a business magnate, inventor, scientist, Nobel laureate, gourmand, and two-time Olympic medalist. Peabody becomes sad and lonely and decides to adopt his own human as a son. In an alley, he meets Sherman (voiced by Walter Tetley), a bespectacled, red-haired boy. After saving Sherman from a group of bullies, Peabody discovers that Sherman is an orphan and decides to adopt him. After a court appearance and a talk with the President and the government, Peabody becomes Sherman's new guardian. Mr. Peabody tells Sherman not to call him "Daddy" and to call him by his name, "Mr. Peabody", or, when speaking informally, "Peabody". Believing that boys need running room, Peabody invents the WABAC machine as a birthday gift for Sherman. He and Sherman go back in time to see a Roman speaking in Latin; Peabody adds a translator circuit to the machine so that everyone seems to speak English. They see the Roman again and learn that he is a used-chariot salesman. Their next trip is to see Ben Franklin flying his kite that proved lightning was electricity, but Peabody and Sherman discover that they cannot interact with the past. Peabody makes some more adjustments, turning the WayBac into a "should-have-been machine". This causes past events to seem distorted and anachronistic and famous people to behave out of character. Each of the cartoons usually ends with Mr. Peabody making a bad pun. Mr. Peabody's face and voice caricature were modeled after Clifton Webb, whose role as Mr. Belvedere is a similarly pompous, authoritarian, know-it-all character. ===== A full motion video clip features the character Jane introducing the player to the main objective and basic rules of the game. From that point onwards the entire format is that of still photographs with actors reading the dialogue. The narrator also changes once during the game, before being changed back to the original a few scenes later. In the early 1990s, Los Angeles locals John (Edward J. Foster) and Jane (Jeanne Basone), are both being pressured by their respective parents to find a suitable spouse. John, a plumber, is told by his mother (Violetta Gevorkian, voiced by Samantha Eggersoll) to go to her house with the girl she had set a date up with, Amy, for dinner at 6:00 pm. College student Jane, meanwhile, who is considered a "daddy's girl", is going to a job interview, having disliked her coworkers at her previous job. John and Jane both meet in a parking lot by 8:00 AM and John instantly falls in love with Jane, calling her "perfect". John decides not to go to work and stays in the parking lot to wait for Jane to leave from her job interview so he can meet Jane again, thinking it is more important than his job, possibly due to the fact of his mother's wanting of a spouse for him. Around this time, it is revealed that the game is being narrated by Harry Armis (who also played Jane's father). When Jane is at the interview, her prospective boss, Paul Mark Thresher (Paul Bokor), tells her that, despite her outstanding qualifications and recommendations, her position was canceled an hour before. When Jane gets very upset about this, Thresher says that "something can be worked out, after all," and asks her to take her clothes off, which appears to be an attempt to lead Jane to have sex with him to get a job. However, when Jane refuses, Thresher attempts to rape her and eventually Jane (still partially undressed) runs away from him. John sees Thresher chasing Jane and dashes off to save her. After a long chase sequence through the streets of Los Angeles, the three find themselves in an abandoned building. Around this time, Harry Armis is replaced by a female narrator named Wilma (Thyra Metz). Later, she is shot multiple times by Armis, who then returns as narrator. After the chase, Thresher offers to pay Jane $5 million for sex. Jane refuses after John confesses his feelings for her. John and Jane both walk out of the house with Thresher having a date with somebody else (Samantha Eggersoll) as a consolation to lose Jane to John, and asking to call the police, while John and Jane return to the parking lot where they first met. As a reward for being honorable, Jane decides to treat John to dinner and they travel to her place on John's bike. While he attempts to tell her that his profession is that of a plumber, Jane believes he is joking, then replies, "Plumbers don't wear ties." Bad endings include the following: * If John doesn't chase after Thresher in the parking lot, Thresher will seduce John, and they two will suddenly become a couple before the game tells the player that they should try again. * If John decides to chase after Thresher in the parking lot, to help protect Jane, a few different alternative endings become possible. * If Jane accepts this offer, it also would force John to have to marry Amy and have 3 kids to please his mother, and Jane to be turned into a prostitute. * If the "Gimme Something Completely Different" is selected instead, Jane confesses to John that she is still a virgin and plans to become a nun, much to John's surprise. After failing to talk her out of it, John is forced to return home to have dinner with his mother, who arranges a shotgun wedding between him and Amy. ===== The story opens on the 21st day of May 1971 with the escaping of a few Naxalite youths. The most prominent among them is Anirban Sen. On that day, one of them named Samar dies while Anirban and their leader SankarDa go absconding. After nearly 42 years one fine morning a FAX arrives at the Kolkata Metro Railways Headquarters. It says that today Anirban will commit suicide under the last Metro. Questions regarding his identity and demands start emerging as the news has taken centre stage in the city. This news shake the entire city from Kolkata Police Headquarters (Lalbazar) to the news channels, while Anirban rattles the administration with one FAX after the other. On the other hand, Siddhartha Chowdhury, CEO of the number-one Bengali News Channel engages himself in using this incident to boost his channel's TRP. Shubhankar, a journalist with Siddhartha’s channel, while searching for Anirban, discovers that one of those persons who went missing on 21 May 1971, SankarDa is still alive and is living under cover in the city Siddhartha announces that he will telecast Anirban's Suicide LIVE on television, which in turn has plummeted the commercial value of his channel. ===== The story begins with a clip of actual German newsreel footage from 14 February 1939, when Nazi Germany's largest and most powerful battleship, , is launched in a ceremony at Hamburg with Adolf Hitler in attendance. The launching of the hull is the beginning of a new era of German sea power. Two years later, in 1941, British convoys are being ravaged by U-boats and surface raider attacks that threaten to cut the supply lines essential for Britain's ability to continue the war. In May, British naval intelligence discovers Bismarck and the heavy cruiser are about to break out of the Baltic and into the North Atlantic to attack Allied convoys. Meanwhile, a spy in German- occupied Norway, while perched on a ledge, spots Bismarck and its escort Prinz Eugen at anchor in Grimstadfjord. He attempts to alert the British Admiralty by radio, but he is discovered by a German patrol and is shot. The spy, still alive, attempts to message the Admiralty but is only able to transmit that one of the ships is Prinz Eugen; he is killed before he can complete the identity of the second ship, which was Bismarck. The man assigned to coordinate the hunt is the Admiralty's chief of operations, Captain Jonathan Shepard (Kenneth More), who has been distraught over the death of his wife in an air raid and the sinking of his ship by a German cruiser, commanded by Fleet Admiral Günther Lütjens (Karel Štěpánek). Upon receiving his new post, Shepard discovers Lütjens is the fleet commander on Bismarck. Shepard's experience of conflict with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine and his understanding of Lütjens allow him to predict Bismarcks movements. Shepard acts coldly to his staff but comes increasingly to rely on the coolness and skill of his assistant, WRNS Second Officer Anne Davis (Dana Wynter). Lütjens is also bitter. After the First World War, he considered that he had received no recognition for his efforts in the war. Lütjens promises the captain of Bismarck, Ernst Lindemann (Carl Möhner), that this time, he and Germany will be remembered as the victors. Next morning, in the Denmark Strait Bismarck and Prinz Eugen encounter and . The four warships engage in a gun duel, and a shell from Bismarck hits Hood, slightly damaging her. Bismarck‍ fires another salvo from her main battery and both sides watch as three shells hit the water near the Hood. The fourth hits the vessel just below its main mast, penetrating through the thin deck armour; suddenly the ship's deck simultaneously disintegrates and explodes in a massive fireball, even blowing one of the turrets off into the ocean. Both sides are shocked and horrified at the devastation, as Hoods remains are enveloped by smoke. The captain of Prince of Wales, John Leach orders the yeoman to send a message to Admiralty saying that Hood has blown up. Now Prince of Wales is alone and is fired on by the two German ships. The battleship fires back and manages to hit Bismarck on the bow. Bismarck fires back and hits Prince of Wales on the bridge, destroying it and leaving only two men alive. Prince of Wales is hit multiple times before it makes smoke and retreats behind it. Only one gun is left firing as Prince of Wales retreats. Bismarck and Prinz Eugens escape is shadowed by the cruisers HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk using radar. Later, Prinz Eugen breaks away and heads toward the port of Brest, in occupied France, while Bismarck turns around and fires at the British cruisers to provide cover as it escapes. The attack forces the cruisers to retreat. An attack by aircraft from the carrier HMS Victorious causes damage to the fuel tanks but otherwise Bismarck is still largely undamaged. Meanwhile, Shepard, obsessed with the German battleship, acknowledges that his son, an air-gunner on a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber from , one of the British ships deployed to the hunt, may die when the British aircraft attack Bismarck. Shepard gambles that Lütjens is returning to friendly waters where U-boats and air cover will make it impossible to attack, so he plans to intercept and attack Bismarck before it reaches safety. Shepard commits large forces stripped from convoy escort and uses Catalina flying boats to search for the German battleship. His hunch proves correct, and Bismarck is located, apparently steaming towards the French coast. British forces have a narrow window to destroy or slow their prey before German support and their own diminishing fuel supplies preclude further attacks. Swordfish torpedo planes from HMS Ark Royal have two chances. The first fails. The pilots misidentify as Bismarck, and their new magnetic torpedo detonators are faulty, with most exploding as soon as they hit the sea. Returning to the carrier and changing to conventional contact exploders, the second attack is successful. One torpedo hits Bismarck amidships causing minor damage; but a catastrophic second hit detonates near the stern, jamming the German battleship's rudder and drastically slowing her down. Unable to repair its rudder, Bismarck steams in circles. During the night the German battleship is attacked by two British destroyers. They fire torpedoes, and one torpedo hits, but Bismarck returns fire, sinking the destroyer HMS Solent. The main force of British ships (including battleships and ) find Bismarck the next day and rain shells upon her. Lütjens in his final moments insists to Lindemann that German forces will arrive to save them, but dies when a shell destroys Bismarcks bridge. Shortly afterwards the remaining bridge officers are killed. After that, the remaining officers abandon their sinking ship. On board King George V, Admiral Tovey orders the newly joined cruiser to finish off Bismarck. The cruiser fires a salvo of six torpedoes at the severely damaged German battleship. Four torpedoes strike home, causing the vessel to sink faster than the crew can escape. The captain in King George V lowers his head as Bismarck rolls over and disappears beneath the waves. The admiral orders Dorsetshire to pick up any remaining survivors, finally saying tersely: "Well, gentlemen, let's go home." After the sinking of Bismarck, and having been told that his son has been rescued, Shepard asks Davis out for dinner, believing it to be nine o'clock at night, only to realise it is nine in the morning after stepping outside and seeing the sky. Davis instead suggests breakfast, as they walk off together. ===== Young Christopher has just enrolled at the prestigious Carmichael Bible College, managed by the somewhat unusual Mrs. Bouvier. After some unexplained disappearances, Christopher discovers that Mrs. Bouvier and the Reverend Carmichael have some very bad intentions for the young men of their school. It soon becomes clear that voodoo magic is being used and the boys are the tools with which the college faculty will try to resurrect Satan. ===== Sherlock Holmes receives a cipher message from Fred Porlock, a pseudonymous agent of Professor Moriarty. After Porlock sends the message, however, he changes his mind for fear of Moriarty's discovering that he is a traitor. He decides not to send the key to the cipher, but he sends Holmes a note telling of this decision. From the cipher message and the second note, Holmes is able to deduce that it is a book cipher and that the book used for the encryption is a common book, large (with at least 534 pages), printed in two columns per page, and standardised. An almanac fits these conditions exactly. Holmes tries the latest edition of Whitaker's Almanac, which he had only received a few days earlier, and fails; he then tries the previous edition. With this almanac, Holmes is able to decipher the message as a warning of a nefarious plot against one Douglas, a country gentleman residing at Birlstone House. Some minutes later, Inspector MacDonald arrives at Baker Street with news that a Mr. John Douglas of Birlstone Manor House, Birlstone, Sussex, has been murdered. Holmes tells MacDonald of Porlock's warning, suggesting Moriarty's involvement. However, MacDonald does not fully believe that the educated and well-respected Moriarty is a criminal. Holmes, Watson, and MacDonald travel to Birlstone House, an ancient moated manor house, to investigate the crime. Douglas had been murdered the evening before. Cecil Barker, a frequent guest at Birlstone House, had been in his room at half-past eleven when he heard the report of a gun, according to his testimony. He had rushed down to find Douglas lying in the centre of the room nearest the front door of the house, a sawn-off shotgun lying across his chest. He had been shot at close range: receiving the full charge of the shotgun in the face, his head was blown 'almost to pieces'. Barker had rushed to the village police station and notified Sergeant Wilson, who was in charge of the station. Wilson followed Barker to the house after notifying the county authorities. Wilson had begun investigating immediately. Barker drew his attention to the open window, and to a smudge of blood like the mark of a boot-sole upon the window sill. The drawbridge over the moat had been raised at 6:00 pm. Barker speculated that the murderer had entered by the drawbridge before that time, hid in the room, and left by the window directly after killing Douglas. The moat was only a few feet deep, and could be easily crossed. Wilson found a card beside the corpse with the initials "V.V." and the number 341 beneath them. Muddy boot-prints were found behind the curtains, bearing out Barker's theory. On the murdered man's forearm was a curious design, a triangle within a circle; it was not a tattoo, but a brand. This mark had been noticed many times before upon John Douglas's forearm. Douglas' wedding ring appeared to have been taken from his hand. The chief Sussex detective, White Mason, had arrived at Birlstone House by 3:00 in the morning. By 5:45, he had sent for Scotland Yard. MacDonald took the case, and notified Holmes because he thought Holmes would be interested. By noon, MacDonald, Holmes and Watson meet White Mason in Birlstone. Holmes, MacDonald, and White Mason go to the scene of the murder. They discuss the case, agreeing that suicide is out of the question, and that someone from outside the house committed the murder. Barker believes a secret society of men pursued Douglas, and that he retreated to rural England out of fear for his life. Douglas married after arriving in England five years earlier. His first wife had died of typhoid. He had met and worked with Barker in America before departing for Europe. Some episode of Douglas's life in America caused the fear for his life, and Mrs. Douglas said her husband mention something called "The Valley of Fear". By studying Barker's slippers, Holmes determines Barker's shoe made the mark on the window, to give the appearance that someone exited that way. In their lodgings, Holmes tells Watson that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are certainly lying: the events as they tell them would be impossible. Moreover, Holmes learns that the housekeeper heard a sound, as if of a door slamming, half an hour before the alarm; Holmes believes that this sound was the fatal shot. White Mason and MacDonald track a bicycle found on the grounds of the house to an American staying at a guest house. The American appears to be the murderer, but there is no sign of the man. Holmes asks MacDonald to write to Barker, telling him that the police intend to search the moat the next day. That night Holmes, Watson, MacDonald and White Mason lie in wait outside Birlstone Manor and see Barker fish something out of the moat. The four men rush Barker and discover the bundle from the moat contains the clothes of the missing American connected with the bicycle. Barker refuses to explain the situation. At that moment, Douglas appears, alive and well. He hands Watson a written account called "The Valley of Fear", which explains why he feared for his life. Douglas explains that he had spotted an enemy of his, Ted Baldwin, in the area and expected an attack. When Baldwin attempted to shoot Douglas in his study, Douglas grabbed the gun and, in the struggle, Baldwin was shot in the face. With Barker's help, Douglas dressed the man in his own clothes, except for Douglas's wedding ring, to deceive the secret society which he and Baldwin had belonged to, since both arms bore the society's mark. Barker and Mrs. Douglas had covered for Douglas, who had been hiding in a secret compartment in the room where the shooting occurred. In an interview with Watson, Douglas explains that his real name was Birdy Edwards and he had been a Pinkerton detective in Chicago. Edwards had infiltrated a murderous gang, known by locals as the Scowrers, in Vermissa Valley (a.k.a. the Valley of Fear) and brought them to justice. Afterwards, the criminals attempted to kill him after being released from jail. Hounded, Douglas had run to England, where he met and married his second wife. Holmes urges Douglas to leave England and warns that a new threat now hangs over him. Douglas takes this advice, but shortly after Holmes learns that he was lost overboard on the vessel to Africa. Holmes believes Moriarty was responsible for ending Douglas' life. Holmes wants to bring Moriarty down, but warns Watson and Barker that it will take some time to achieve. ===== During World War I, the pilots of an RFC squadron deal with the stress of combat primarily through nightly bouts of heavy drinking. The two aces of the squadron's "A Flight", Courtney (Richard Barthelmess) and Scott (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), have come to hate the commanding officer, Brand (Neil Hamilton), blaming him for sending new recruits directly into combat in inferior aircraft. Unknown to them, Brand has been arguing continually with higher command to allow practice time for the new pilots, but command is desperate to maintain air superiority and orders them into combat as soon as they arrive. Brand is so disliked by the two he cannot even easily join the men for the nightly partying, drinking alone and clearly breaking under the strain. The tension grows worse when an elite Luftstreitkrafte squadron led by "von Richter" takes up position just across the front lines from them. After losing several of the squadron's veteran pilots, the ranks become increasingly made up of new recruits, who have absolutely no chance against the German veterans. Von Richter issues a taunt that Courtney and Scott answer by attacking the Germans' airdrome in defiance of orders from Brand not to go up against them. Brand gets revenge when he is recalled to headquarters and Courtney is made squadron commander. Courtney quickly learns the misery that Brand endured when four patrols a day are ordered and his pleas not to send green men are ignored. Scott and Courtney have a falling out when Scott's younger brother is one of the new replacements and is immediately ordered on a mission. He is killed flying the Dawn Patrol. Brand returns with orders for what amounts to a suicide mission far behind enemy lines. Courtney is forbidden to fly the mission, so Scott angrily volunteers. Courtney gets him drunk and flies off in his stead. He shoots down von Richter returning from the successful mission but is killed by another German pilot. Scott becomes squadron commander and reads orders to his new replacements. ===== Set in 1969, Alan Parker is a young artist, studying at the University of Maine, where his professor believes he is obsessed with death. On October 30, his birthday, he thinks his girlfriend, Jessica, is trying to break up with him. Alan gets high in the bathtub and begins to contemplate suicide. The Grim Reaper appears and tries to convince Alan to kill himself so that he can come to the other side. Murals of people painted on the wall also appear to be urging him to kill himself. Alan accidentally cuts himself when Jessica and a group of friends startle him by coming in to surprise him for his birthday. Alan wakes up in the hospital. Jessica says that she is angry with him for the "selfish" act he attempted to commit, but also tells Alan that she loves him. She surprises him with concert tickets to see John Lennon in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The next day, when Alan is released from the hospital, Jessica tells him that he has a wall around him, and Alan realizes that Jessica really was going to leave him. Alan gets a phone call that his mother, Jean, has had a stroke. He makes plans to go home that night, giving the concert tickets to his roommates. As he tries to hitchhike home to Lewiston, Maine, Alan remembers the funeral of his father, Julian, when he was 6 years old. He envisions the death of his mother, and then himself, with a devastated Jessica weeping at his grave. He is picked up by a Volkswagen van that is driven by Ferris, an army deserter. They narrowly miss colliding with an oncoming car, spinning out and landing in a ditch. Alan walks away from the incident shaken but alive. Alan begins to hallucinate and has multiple experiences with the living and the dead. He sees a billboard for the "Ride The Bullet" rollercoaster at Thrill Village, which triggers a memory of him standing in line with his mother to ride it, where he ultimately chickened out. He walks through a cemetery and comes across the grave of George Staub, whose grave marker indicates that he died 2 years ago. Alan sees an apparition of himself come up through the ground. The apparition tells him that they are saving a place for him. He is then picked up by a man who he realizes is George Staub. His apparition accompanies him in the car and warns him to not give his real information because there is something wrong with George. The apparition smells embalming fluid, which prompts Alan to remember a phrase that he had read in a book: "the dead travel fast". Alan does not inform George that he knows that George is dead. George asks him about Thrill Village and asks if he rode "The Bullet", and Alan lies and said that he did go on the ride. George knows that Alan is lying, and he calls Alan by his name. George explains that he was decapitated in a car accident when he tries to pass a truck on a 2 lane road, and that he crashed into a produce truck when he swerved to avoid a collision with another car. George tells Alan that he has to take one person with him, and that Alan has to choose whether it will be Alan's mother or Alan. If he does not make a choice, George warns that he will have to take them both. In a moment of panic and fear, Alan chooses his mother to be taken. George throws Alan out of the car, and when he wakes up, Alan is back in the cemetery. He hitches the next ride and finally makes it to the hospital. He is about to go see his mother, when George appears and beats him to the elevator. Alan, now in his 40s, says his mother died of a heart attack while watching television. He married his girlfriend Jessica, but it only lasted a little while. Alan never made a living as an artist, but he continues to paint as a hobby. He goes back to Thrill Village and rides "The Bullet". ===== In the story, which opens in the early 1900s, Jannings plays August Schiller, a bank clerk in Milwaukee who is happy with both his job and his family. But when bank officials ask him to transport $1,000 in securities to Chicago, he meets a blond seductress on the train, who sees what he is carrying. She flirts with him, convinces him to buy her a bottle of champagne, and takes him to a saloon run by a crook. The next morning he awakes alone in a dilapidated bedroom, without the securities. He finds the woman, and at first pleads with her, then intimidates her to return the stolen securities. He is knocked unconscious by the saloon owner and dragged to a nearby railroad track. As the crook strips him of everything that might lead to his identification, Schiller recovers consciousness, and in a struggle the crook is thrown into the path of an oncoming train and killed. Schiller flees, and in despair is about to take his own life, when he sees in a newspaper that he is supposedly dead, the crook's mangled body having been identified as Schiller's. The time passes to twenty years later. Schiller is aged and unkempt, employed to pick up trash in a park. He sees his own family go to a cemetery and place a wreath on his grave. Following other scenes in a Christmas snowstorm, Schiller makes his way to his former home, where he sees that the son whom he had taught to play violin is now a successful musician. He walks away, carrying in his pocket a dollar that his son has given him, not recognizing that the old tramp is his father. The film is unrelated to Samuel Butler's novel The Way of All Flesh. ===== When Adam Bishop, a middle-aged self-made man in the building trade, is cruelly murdered at his London home, Detective Inspector Ed Newson has a hunch that the crime has been committed by a psychopath who has killed before. He links up the new case with a number of older, unsolved ones, and a certain pattern emerges: It turns out that each victim was a bully many years ago when they went to school, and that they have now been killed in exactly the same way as they used to torture their peers. However, when Newson and Sergeant Natasha Wilkie talk to the former victims they soon find out that none of them could be the serial killer. Although successful in his job, when it comes to his private life Edward Newson is a lonely, sex-starved man secretly in love with his assistant, Natasha. Now in his mid-thirties, he nostalgically looks back at his school days and the two girls with whom he was romantically involved when they were all 14--Helen Smart, the leftist intellectual, and Christine Copperfield, the "golden girl". Newson cannot resist the temptation and logs on to Friends Reunited. To his surprise, more of his former classmates than he would have thought are also online, and soon a class reunion is being organised--by Christine Copperfield, of all people. This is the point where Newson's private life collides with his murder investigation. The serial killer uses the same web site--Friends Reunited--as the source of his knowledge about instances of bullying that happened decades ago. When Helen Smart posts a long account of how back at school she was forced by Christine Copperfield to stuff a tampon down her throat the murderer is supplied with one more story on which he or she might act. Christine Copperfield dies with a tampon stuffed down her throat. In the tradition of the whodunnit, while new murders are committed, the identity of the killer remains unknown until the final pages of the novel. ===== In 1943, Major Keith Mallory (Robert Shaw) and Sergeant Donovan "Dusty" Miller (Edward Fox) from British Commandos, are sent to find and eliminate Nicolai (a German spy, Colonel von Ingorslebon), who previously betrayed the Navarone mission to the Germans and is now believed to have successfully infiltrated the Yugoslav Partisans as "Captain Lescovar" (Franco Nero). To get to Yugoslavia, the two men pair with "Force 10", an American sabotage unit, led by Lieutenant Colonel Mike Barnsby (Harrison Ford), a US Army Rangers officer, and steal a Lancaster bomber. They are joined by Weaver (Carl Weathers), a US Army sergeant escaping arrest by the military police, and escape, only to be shot down by the Luftwaffe. Only Barnsby, Mallory, Miller, Weaver, and Lieutenant Doug Reynolds (Angus MacInnes) escape the crippled plane. The survivors come upon a band of men they believe to be partisans but are later revealed as collaborationist Chetniks led by Captain Drazak (Richard Kiel). Taken prisoner, they tell the German commander in control of the area, Major Schroeder (Michael Byrne), that they are criminals deserting Allied authorities. To keep Schroeder from opening Miller's suitcase, which contains explosives, Mallory tells him it contains the new drug "penicillin" which will spoil if exposed to air. The next morning the prisoners are told that Schroeder has opened the case, finding it full of firewood. They improvise an excuse, "admitting" they buried the samples. Schroeder sends Barnsby and Mallory to retrieve them under the guard of his concubine Maritza (Barbara Bach) and three soldiers. Miller, Weaver, and Reynolds are left in a cell in camp. Far from camp, Maritza kills the Germans, revealing herself to be a partisan; she hid the explosives and replaced them with firewood. She directs Mallory and Barnsby towards the partisan camp under the command of her father, Major Petrovich (Alan Badel). Mallory and Barnsby escape and meet a patrol of real Yugoslav partisans led by Mallory's target – Captain Lescovar alias Nicolai, who has the trust of Petrovich and has evaded suspicion by having had another man framed and executed as "Nicolai". Mallory and Barnsby are taken to the camp, which lies near a hydroelectric dam. An arch bridge spanning the river ravine is set to be used by a German force for an impending assault on the partisans, who have been unable to destroy the bridge. Barnsby reveals that the bridge is Force 10's target. Mallory convinces Petrovich to mount a rescue mission of the demolitions expert Miller, using Lescovar and Marko (Petar Buntic), a loyal partisan. The four re-enter the camp at night, with Mallory and Barnsby posing as captives, and Lescovar and Marko disguised as Chetniks. However, Drazak discovers that Maritza must have helped Miller and Mallory escape, and begins beating her viciously. Schroeder and Reynolds are killed in a gun battle, but Mallory, Barnsby, Miller, Weaver, Lescovar, and Marko escape with a badly beaten Maritza and the recovered explosives. Miller reveals that the bridge is impregnable, which Barnsby refuses to accept. Mallory hits upon the idea of destroying the upstream dam, to use the sudden onrush of millions of gallons of water to destroy the bridge. A night-time air drop is arranged to replace Force 10's lost supplies, but Lescovar, revealed to be the saboteur, calls in German planes to stop the drop. Maritza catches Lescovar in the act, but he kills her before she can warn the others, and German planes bomb the illuminated drop zone, killing numerous partisans. Petrovich, angered by the botched air drop, orders the men to be sent to Marshal Tito's headquarters for transport back to Italy. Accompanied by Lescovar and Marko, the team instead infiltrates the German marshaling yards at Mostar to steal explosives. Lescovar again betrays them, alerting a German officer, Sergeant Bismark (Paul Humpoletz), to their presence and identifying himself as an Abwehr intelligence officer. Marko sacrifices himself to save the others, who escape with Lescovar aboard a train leaving for Sarajevo. Lescovar is questioned by the others as to why the German sergeant saluted him and why he did not reveal that the train passes quite close to the dam. Lescovar initially denies the accusations but gives himself away and is shot dead by Barnsby, who then asks Mallory to return the favour by helping him accomplish Force 10's mission. Jumping the train near the dam, the team splits up: Miller and Weaver set off diversionary explosives while Mallory and Barnsby sneak into the dam. Weaver runs into Captain Drazak and kills him in a knife fight, sustaining a serious injury. Mallory and Barnsby set their charges within the dam; its structural integrity ruptured by the blast, the dam wall bursts, releasing millions of tonnes of water in a wave that topples the bridge. The German assault is thwarted, saving Petrovich and the partisans. Mallory and Barnsby rejoin Miller and an injured Weaver. Mallory reminds the others they are trapped on the wrong side of the river. As the credits roll, the men begin a strenuous journey back to friendly lines. ===== The novel deals with the life of the Cossacks living in the Don River valley during the early 20th century, probably around 1912, just prior to World War I. The plot revolves around the Melekhov family of Tatarsk, who are descendants of a cossack who, to the horror of many, took a Turkish captive as a wife during the Crimean War. She is accused of witchcraft by Melekhov's superstitious neighbors, who attempt to kill her but are fought off by her husband. Their descendants, the son and grandsons, who are the protagonists of the story, are therefore often nicknamed "Turks". Nevertheless, they command a high level of respect among people in Tatarsk. The second eldest son, Grigori Panteleevich Melekhov, is a promising young soldier who falls in love with Aksinia, the wife of Stepan Astakhov, a family friend. Stepan regularly beats her and there is no love between them. Grigori and Aksinia's romance and elopement raise a feud between her husband and his family. The outcome of this romance is the focus of the plot as well as the impending World and Civil Wars which draw up the best young Cossack men for what will be two of Russia's bloodiest wars. The action moves to the Austro-Hungarian front, where Grigory ends up saving Stepan's life, but that doesn't end the feud. Grigory, at his father's insistence, takes a wife, Natalya, but still loves Aksinia. The book deals not only with the struggles and suffering of the Cossacks but also the landscape itself, which is vividly brought to life. There are also many folk songs referenced throughout the novel. And Quiet Flows the Don grew out of an earlier, unpublished work, the Donshina: > I began the novel by describing the event of the Kornilov putsch in 1917. > Then it became clear that this putsch, and more importantly, the role of the > Cossacks in these events, would not be understood without a Cossack > prehistory, and so I began with the description of the life of the Don > Cossacks just before the beginning of World War I. (quote from M.A. > Sholokhov: Seminarii, (1962) by F.A. Abramovic and V.V. Gura, quoted in > Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, by L.L. Litus.) Grigori Melekhov is reportedly based on two Cossacks from Veshenskaya, Pavel Nazarovich Kudinov and Kharlampii Vasilyevich Yermakov, who were key figures in the anti-Bolshevist struggle of the upper Don.And Quiet Flows the Don, part 1, And Quiet Flows the Don, part 2 ===== While following an unsuspecting team of water skiers, a great white shark enters an aquatic park through its closing gates. Meanwhile, Florida announces the opening of the park's new underwater tunnels. Kathryn "Kay" Morgan, the park's senior marine biologist, and her assistants notice that the resident dolphins are afraid of leaving their pen. Shelby Overman, a mechanic, dives into the water to repair and secure the gates. He is attacked by the shark and killed, leaving only his severed right arm. Later that night, two men sneak into the park and go underwater to steal coral they intend to sell, but both are killed by the shark in the process. The next day, Kay and Michael Brody are informed of Overman's disappearance. They go down in a submarine to look for his body, and during the search, they encounter a smaller, shark. The dolphins rescue Kay and Mike, first by warning them of the shark but getting misunderstood, then by giving them a ride back to the dolphin pen at a speed the shark can't match, but the shark escapes back into the park. They inform Calvin Bouchard, the park manager, and it excites his hunter friend, Phillip FitzRoyce, who states his intention to kill the shark on network television. Kay protests and suggests capturing and keeping the shark alive in captivity, to guarantee more publicity for the park. The shark is successfully captured, and Kay and her staff nurse it to health. During this time, the shark does not even try to attack her. Calvin, desperate to start the money rolling in immediately, orders it moved to an exhibit, despite the fact they were to wait for Kay's blessing to do this. When she hears of it, she runs to the tank and tries to save the baby shark, but the shark dies in her arms anyway. Coldly, she gives FitzRoyce permission to photograph it. Later, Overman's corpse is discovered. Reviewing the body, Kay realizes that the shark that killed him is the first shark's long mother and that it must also be inside the park. FitzRoyce alone understands what she's saying but dismisses her as being silly, but she persists, arguing that her shark was just the baby. She is able to convince Calvin about this newest development only when the shark herself shows up at the window of the underwater cafe. Flushed out from her refuge inside a filtration pipe, the shark begins to wreak havoc on the park, injures a water skier, and causes a leak that nearly drowns everyone in the underwater tunnel. FitzRoyce and his assistant, Jack, go down to the filtration pipe in an attempt to lure the shark back in as a trap. FitzRoyce leads the shark into the pipe, but his tether rope suddenly snaps due to the strong current, and he is then attacked and killed. Hearing that the shark has been lured into the pipe, Michael and Kay go down to repair the underwater tunnel, so the technicians can restore air pressure and drain the water. Calvin orders the pump to be shut down to suffocate the shark, which the two technicians question, preferring to blow it up. But Calvin asserts himself, so they obey him. This act instead allows it to break free from the pipe and attack Michael and Kay. but they are again saved by the dolphins Cindy and Sandy, who distract the shark with a brief counter-attack. Mike and Kay make their way back to the control room, but the shark appears in front of the window and smashes through the glass, flooding the room and killing a technician. Michael notices FitzRoyce's corpse still in the shark's throat with a grenade and uses a bent pole to pull its pin, triggering the grenade's explosion and killing the shark. In the aftermath, Mike and Kay celebrate with the dolphins, who survived their battle with the shark. ===== Ronald Malcolm is a CIA employee who works in a clandestine operations office in Washington, D.C. responsible for analyzing the plots of mystery and spy novels. One day, when he should be in the office, Malcolm slips out a basement entrance for lunch. In his absence a group of armed men gain entrance to the office and kill everyone there. Malcolm returns, realizes he is in grave danger, and telephones a phone number at CIA headquarters he has been given for emergencies. When he phones in (and remembers to give his code name "Condor"), he is told to meet an agent named Weatherby who will "bring him in" for protection. However, Weatherby is part of a rogue group within the CIA, the same group responsible for the original assassinations. Weatherby tries to kill Malcolm, who manages to escape. On the run, Malcolm uses his wits to elude both the rogue CIA group and the proper CIA authorities, both of which have a vested interest in his capture. Seeking shelter, Malcolm kidnaps a paralegal named Wendy Ross whom he overhears saying she will spend her coming vacation days holed up in her apartment. Knowing no one will notice her absence, Malcolm enlists her aid in finding out more about the forces after him. She is shot and seriously wounded in the process, but survives. It is then revealed that the rogue group was using the section where Malcolm works to import illegal drugs from Laos. A supervisor stumbled onto a discrepancy in the records exposing this operation, thus necessitating the section's elimination. ===== Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in New York City, calls a midnight summit of all the city's gangs, requesting them to send nine unarmed delegates to Van Cortlandt Park. The Warriors, from Coney Island, attend the summit. Cyrus proposes to the assembled crowd a permanent citywide truce and alliance that would allow the gangs to control the city since they outnumber the police by three to one. Most of the gangs applaud his idea, but hidden in the crowd, the Rogues' leader Luther shoots Cyrus dead just as the police arrive and raid the summit. In the resulting chaos, Luther frames the Warriors' leader Cleon for the murder, and Cleon is beaten down by the Riffs. Meanwhile, the other Warriors escape, unaware that they have been implicated in Cyrus' murder. The Riffs put out a hit on the Warriors through a radio DJ. The Warriors' "War Chief" Swan takes charge of the group as they try to make it back home. The Turnbull ACs spot the Warriors and try to run them down with a bus, but the Warriors escape and board an elevated train, taking advantage of an unstated protocol among the gangs that forbids them from fighting one another in the subways. On the ride to Coney Island, the train is stopped by a building fire alongside the tracks, stranding the Warriors in Tremont, in the Bronx. Setting out on foot, they come across a lower-echelon group named the Orphans who were not invited to Cyrus' meeting and who are sensitive and belligerent about their low status in the city's gang hierarchy. Swan makes peace with the Orphans' leader, Sully, who agrees to let the Warriors pass through their territory unharmed. However, a young woman named Mercy mocks Sully as a "chicken" and instigates a confrontation. Goaded by Mercy, Sully insists that the Warriors must remove their gang clothing before he will let them pass. The Warriors refuse, prompting the Orphans to challenge them to a fight. Outnumbered and unarmed, Swan and the Warriors throw a Molotov cocktail at a car, blowing it up and using the opportunity to escape to the subway station. Impressed, and desperate to escape her depressed neighborhood, Mercy follows the Warriors. When they arrive at the 96th Street and Broadway station in Manhattan, they are chased by police and separated. Three of them, Vermin, Cochise, and Rembrandt, board a train to Union Square, while Fox, struggling with a police officer, falls onto the tracks and is run over by a train as Mercy escapes. Swan and the remaining three Warriors – Ajax, Snow, and Cowboy – are chased by the Baseball Furies into Riverside Park, where a brawl ensues in which the Warriors manage to outwit and defeat the swarm of attackers. After the fight, Ajax notices a lone woman named Chloe in the park, and insists on lagging behind to chat her up. He becomes sexually aggressive and is arrested when Chloe turns out to be an undercover police officer. Arriving at Union Square, Vermin, Cochise, and Rembrandt are seduced by an all-female gang called the Lizzies and invited into their hideout. The trio manages to escape the Lizzies' subsequent attack, learning in the process that everyone believes they murdered Cyrus. Having scouted ahead on his own, Swan returns to the 96th Street station and finds Mercy there. A police officer corners them, but Swan throws a baseball bat and immobilizes him; when backup officers arrive, Swan and Mercy flee into the tunnel. The sexual tension between the two boils over into an argument, which ends with Swan spurning Mercy and continuing on to Union Square, where he reunites with the other Warriors. They get into a fight with the roller-skating, overall-clad Punks and win, and Mercy proves that she can hold her own in combat. Meanwhile, a member of a different gang visits the Riffs and tells them that he saw Luther shoot Cyrus. The Warriors finally arrive at Coney Island at dawn, only to find Luther and the Rogues waiting for them. When asked, Luther tells Swan he shot Cyrus for no reason, only for the thrill of it. Swan challenges Luther to a one-on-one fight, but Luther pulls a gun instead. Swan dodges his shot and throws a knife into Luther's forearm, disarming him. The Riffs arrive and apprehend the Rogues, taking a moment to acknowledge the Warriors' courage and skill. Luther screams in anguish as the Riffs descend upon him and the other Rogues, while the Warriors depart the scene. The radio DJ announces that the big alert has been called off and salutes the Warriors with a song, "In the City". Swan, Mercy, and the rest of the gang walk down the beach, illuminated by the rising Sun. ===== Texhnolyze takes place in the city of Lux, a man-made underground city that has crumbled after years of neglect and lack of repairs. Citizens of Lux have come to refer to their home as simply "The City" and treat it as though it has a mind and will of its own. Three major factions battle to control Lux: Organo, a group of "professionals" who collaborate with the criminal underworld that controls Texhnolyze (prosthetics), the Salvation Union, a populist group that seeks to disrupt Organo's business, and Racan, a collection of young individuals with Texhnolyzes that use their abilities for personal gain. Ichise was once an orphan who has made a place for himself in Lux as a prize fighter. One day, a fight promoter grows angry with him and the altercation that follows results in Ichise losing an arm and a leg. Before death can take him, Ichise is found by the scientist Eriko Kamata, who uses him as a test subject for her newly designed Texhnolyze. With these powerful new limbs at his disposal, Ichise begins to work for Oonishi, the leader of Organo. He soon meets a mysterious young girl, Ran, who has the power to see possible futures. Together, they soon realize that Lux is on the brink of war and collapse, and that they may be the only ones who can save The city. Texhnolyze takes the audience into an Wellsian dystopia in which hope is scarce and evil is unbound. ===== More than a year after the defeat of Arawn's army and death of his warlord the Horned King which ended The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, pp. 5, 15. Prince Gwydion has called allies to a council hosted by Dallben, one of Taran's guardians. Men are disappearing and more and more of the undead Cauldron-Born have joined the forces of Arawn the Death Lord. Evidently the Black Cauldron is active: Gwydion proposes to capture it. King Morgant will lead the main force in an attack on Annuvin after a smaller raiding party led by Gwydion has broken off to enter by a mountain pass known only to Coll. Gwydion's party plans to steal the cauldron from Arawn's stronghold without being detected. Three men have been designated to remain behind with pack animals to serve as a rearguard and secure the retreat: Adaon, the warrior son of chief bard Taliesin; Taran; and Ellidyr Prince of Pen-Llarcau, who is arrogant, wiry, strong, and threadbare. Ellidyr disdains Taran for his place on the farm and his unknown parentage. Taran envies Ellidyr for his noble birth, despite Dallben's counsel that that youngest son of a minor king has only "his name and his sword". The Black Cauldron, p. 22. Both are dismayed to share a role with no chance for glory. Leaving aside the feud between the two youths, all goes smoothly until Gwydion's raiders find that the cauldron has disappeared. That company rejoins the rearguard in haste because the Huntsmen of Annuvin have been deployed. Meanwhile, the uninvited Princess Eilonwy and man/beast Gurgi have caught up with the quest from behind. Gwydion and Coll are split off from the party but, thanks to Doli of the Fair Folk, all others find refuge underground in a Fair Folk waypost maintained by Gwystyl. From Gwystyl and his pet crow Kaw, they learn that the cauldron has been stolen by the three witches Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch, who reside in the bleak Marshes of Morva. According to maps by Evaline Ness, the witches live on the opposite fringe of the Marshes, near the south coast of the southwestern tip of Prydain, far from people and Fair Folk. • Ness prepared one map of Prydain for each of the five novels. The last, best-informed, and largest scale map illustrates book five, The High King (1968), and the expanded edition of The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain (1999). When they depart the waypost, Ellidyr rides southward, determined to retrieve the cauldron single-handedly. With the Huntsmen abroad, Adaon leads the others in pursuit: Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, Doli, and the wandering bard Fflewddur Fflam. When they are attacked and scattered, Adaon is mortally wounded and Taran inherits his brooch, whose gift and burden is prophetic dreams and visions. With its guidance, he gathers and leads all but Doli toward the Marshes. From the fringe he both guides his small party through the Marshes to temporary safety and leads a pursuing band of Huntsmen to their deaths. Orddu and her sisters refuse to give up the cauldron unless they accept the offer in exchange for something of (in their judgment) equivalent value. After other characters offer their magical artifacts, Taran is compelled to barter the brooch of Adaon. The companions then try to destroy "their" cauldron but learn from the witches that it can only be destroyed by a living person who knowingly and willingly climbs in to die. Horrified, the questors resolve to take the cauldron to Dallben to seek an alternative solution. At the ford of the river Tevyn, the heavy and cumbersome cauldron sinks into the riverbed. Ellidyr arrives and offers to help extricate the cauldron if the others will credit him for the whole enterprise. Taran agrees, yet Ellidyr rides off with the cauldron alone when they have freed it. Soon the companions meet the army of Morgant, who welcomes them. Unfortunately, he is a traitor. In Morgant's camp they see Ellidyr beaten and bound, and the cauldron waiting to generate Morgant's own undead legion. He offers to spare the companions' lives if Taran will enter personal service. Later, Doli arrives invisibly and cuts everyone's bonds. Ellidyr determines to rush the cauldron and make the sacrifice himself. Although wounded, he is able to force himself into the opening and destroy the cauldron. Gwydion, King Smoit, and his army defeat Morgant in battle. The story closes as Taran, Eilonwy, and Gurgi take leave of Gwydion at the verge of Caer Dallben. ===== A 37-year-old Toru Watanabe has just arrived in Hamburg, West Germany. When he hears an orchestral cover of the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood", he is suddenly overwhelmed by feelings of loss and nostalgia. He thinks back to the 1960s, when so much happened that touched his life. Watanabe, his classmate Kizuki, and Kizuki's girlfriend Naoko are the best of friends. Kizuki and Naoko are particularly close and feel as if they are soulmates, and Watanabe seems more than happy to be their enforcer. This idyllic existence is shattered by the unexpected suicide of Kizuki on his 17th birthday. Kizuki's death deeply touches both surviving friends; Watanabe feels the influence of death everywhere, while Naoko feels as if some integral part of her has been permanently lost. The two of them spend more and more time together going for long walks on Sundays, although feelings for each other are never clarified in this interval. On the night of Naoko's 20th birthday, she feels especially vulnerable and they have sex, during which Watanabe realizes that she is a virgin. Afterward, Naoko leaves Watanabe a letter saying that she needs some time apart and is quitting college to go to a sanatorium. These events are set against a backdrop of civil unrest. The students at Watanabe's college go on strike and call for a revolution. Inexplicably, the students end their strike and act as if nothing had happened, which enrages Watanabe as a sign of hypocrisy. Watanabe is befriended by a fellow drama classmate, Midori Kobayashi. She is everything that Naoko is not— outgoing, vivacious, and supremely self-confident. Despite his love for Naoko, Watanabe finds himself attracted to Midori as well. Midori reciprocates his feelings, and their friendship grows during Naoko's absence. Watanabe and Midori share a special kind of relationship where both of them understand each other. Watanabe visits Naoko at her secluded mountain sanatorium near Kyoto. There he meets Reiko Ishida, an older patient there who has become Naoko's confidante. During this and subsequent visits, Reiko and Naoko reveal more about their past: Reiko talks about the cause of her downfall into mental illness and details the failure of her marriage, while Naoko talks about the unexpected suicide of her older sister several years ago. When he returns to Tokyo, Watanabe unintentionally alienates Midori through both his lack of consideration of her wants and needs, his continuing thoughts about Naoko. He writes a letter to Reiko, asking for her advice about his conflicted affections for both Naoko and Midori. He does not want to hurt Naoko, but he does not want to lose Midori either. Reiko counsels him to seize this chance for happiness and see how his relationship with Midori turns out. A later letter informs Watanabe that Naoko has killed herself. Watanabe, grieving and in a daze, wanders aimlessly around Japan, while Midori—with whom he hasn't kept in touch—wonders what has happened to him. After about a month of wandering, he returns to the Tokyo area and gets in contact with Reiko, who leaves the sanatorium to come to visit. Reiko stays with Watanabe, and they have sex. It is through this experience and the intimate conversation that Watanabe and Reiko share that night, that he comes to realize that Midori is the most important person in his life. After he sees Reiko off, Watanabe calls Midori to declare his love for her. Midori asks, "Where are you now?", and the novel ends with Watanabe pondering that question. ===== Gavallan, based in Scotland, runs S-G Helicopter company operating in Iran during the Shah's reign. When Khomeini comes to power, Gavallan must get his pilots and their families, and his valuable helicopters, and the spare parts for the helicopters (of equal or greater value than the aircraft) out of the riot-torn country. Complicating matters is his power struggle with his company's secret owner, the Noble House of Hong Kong. The pilots' escape efforts form the basic story and the action sweeps across many lives: lovers, spies, fanatics, revolutionaries, friends and betrayers. British, Finnish, American, Canadian, Australian and Iranian are all caught up in a deadly religious and political upheaval, portraying the chilling and bewildering encounters when Westernized lifestyle clashes with harsh ancient traditions. ===== A massive meteor strike has devastated Earth. Human civilization comes to an end in the ensuing cataclysms and humanity regresses into tribes of Stone Age dwellers. A primordial rainforest covers the land and the continental landmass has shifted into the shape of a fire-breathing dinosaur skull. The planet is now primitively referred to as "Urth" by the survivors of the cataclysms. Seven fearsome creatures with supernatural abilities emerge from their slumber deep within the Urth's crust, and become worshiped as gods by the humans, who form segregated clans beneath the ones they follow. The beasts themselves are divided between those who wish to keep peace on Urth, and those who attempt to plunge the world into further chaos for their own benefit. ===== ===== Bernie LaPlante (Dustin Hoffman) is a pickpocket and petty criminal who anonymously rescues survivors including TV reporter Gale Gayley (Geena Davis) at an airplane crash. He rescues Gale Gayley but also steals her purse, losing a shoe in the process. After his car breaks down, he flags down John Bubber (Andy Garcia), a homeless Vietnam veteran, and tells him about the rescue at the crash site, giving him his remaining shoe. When Deke (Chevy Chase), the television station news director, offers $1 million to the "Angel of Flight 104", Bernie realizes he can't claim the reward, due to his arrest while fencing credit cards he stole from the people he rescued. John, however, contacts Gale, recounting Bernie's tale of the rescue and provides the single shoe to take credit for the selfless act. When Bernie tries to tell people that John is a fake, the media, after sensationalizing his heroic image, will not believe Bernie. Bernie is released from jail and his lawyer informed him that he will be heading to prison soon because of the stolen goods he carried in his apartment. Gale, as one of the crash survivors, considers herself to be in John's debt and soon grooms his public image. She finds herself falling in love with him even though she has questions about his authenticity. Despite his reluctant acceptance of his fame, he turns out to be a decent person, using his fame and reward money to help sick children and the homeless. John finds himself in an ethical dilemma since his persona is inspirational to countless people. Meanwhile, Bernie continues to aggravate his ex-wife, Evelyn (Joan Cusack), and fails to bond with his son, Joey (James Madio), who is now enamored with John. He begins to feel that if Joey is going to idolize anyone, perhaps John is the better choice. A police detective tells Gale her credit cards were recovered during Bernie's arrest. She and her cameraman, Chucky (Kevin J. O'Connor), break into Bernie's apartment with the help of Winston (Maury Chaykin), the landlord. While searching for evidence to incriminate Bernie, Gale finds a stolen Silver Microphone Award that she won in New York City, the night before the crash. Bernie arrives only to be confronted by her, who speculates that John stole her purse in a moment of weakness during the rescue, sold it to Bernie, and accuses him of attempting to now blackmail John. They are interrupted by Winston, who says John is on television, about to commit suicide by jumping from the ledge of a high-rise skyscraper. Gale rushes to the scene and brings Bernie along, threatening to have him prosecuted if John leaps to his death. In addition, she demands Bernie apologize for the attempted blackmail. Evelyn and Joey rush there as well, with Evelyn reminiscing how Bernie is selfish and cynical, but always becomes a great person in a crisis. When they arrive, Bernie goes out on the ledge, hatching a scheme to milk the media attention for all its worth. Ultimately, he convinces John that the world needs a hero, and that he is clearly the right one for the job, though he does negotiate a discreet share of the $1 million to pay for his son's college tuition and a letter to the judge to put in a good word for him to suspend his prison sentence. When Bernie slips off the ledge, John grabs him and pulls him to safety, a (true) hero once more. When Gale sees Bernie's face covered with dirt, as on the night of the crash, she realizes it was he who saved her. She confronts him "off the record" with her supposition, but he insists that John was the hero. As Gale leaves, however, she thanks Bernie for saving her life; and he impulsively replies, "You're welcome." She tells him to tell Joey the truth. John agrees to continue playing the part of public hero. While on an excursion to the zoo, Bernie decides to tell Joey the true story of the crash. After he does so, a lady cries out that her daughter has fallen into the lion's cage. Joey pleads with him to help, to which he sighs, slips off his shoes, and heads off to see what he can do. ===== Bangkok Hilton begins as Hal Stanton (Denholm Elliott) leaves Bangkok by ship in the present day. He explains that he has been travelling for years since he was involved in a shameful incident when he was a prisoner of the Japanese in Bangkok in WWII. He then takes us to early 1960s Sydney, where he is working as a lawyer under the pseudonym of Graham Greene. He is assigned a wealthy rural client, meeting and falling in love with their daughter Katherine Faulkner (Judy Morris). Katharine has led a sheltered life living at Guardbridge, a large isolated cattle station in the Australian outback. Hal is invited to Guardbridge where he seduces Katherine and they fall passionately in love. During the war Hal betrayed a group of his own men who were planning an escape from their Japanese captors and was consequently court-martialled for doing so. The fact Hal did this to protect the rest of his men from reprisals was considered irrelevant and he has lived with the shame of the court-marshalling ever since. Once Hal's true identity is exposed, Katherine's family break up the relationship and Hal is forced to move (despondently) away. As the result of their brief affair Katherine is pregnant and soon gives birth to an asthmatic girl, Katrina (Nicole Kidman). The young girl is raised on her own at the estate, treated as a shameful product of the illicit affair. As an adult twenty years later Katrina loses her mother to cancer and inherits the family fortune. Having never ventured off the estate, she travels to Sydney, where she learns that her father is not dead, as she was told as a child. She decides to go to London, where his family lived to track him down. In London, she makes contact with the uncle and cousin she has never met before, facing their initial reluctance to meet with her. While planning her return to Australia, Katrina is befriended by Arkie Ragan (Jerome Ehlers), a young American photo-journalist who becomes her lover and travelling companion. As the trail leads Katrina to Bangkok, Arkie suggests they go by way of Goa. While enjoying a romantic weekend there, he secretly picks up a shipment of narcotics and loads it into a hidden compartment in the carrying case of a camera he has given to Katrina. Katrina and Arkie attempt to find Hal in Bangkok, but find the family lawyer, Richard Carlisle (Hugo Weaving), unwilling to help. Reluctantly returning to Australia, Katrina is arrested at the airport when drug sniffing dogs detect the drugs in her camera case and she is detained by the Thai authorities. Arkie, who had joined another queue in the customs hall, disappears. Katrina is given an unfair trial in which she has to face the judge barefoot in a brown prison smock, is imprisoned in a squalid, overcrowded Bangkok prison nicknamed the "Bangkok Hilton". There she meets another Australian woman, Mandy Engels (Joy Smithers), a heroin addict also imprisoned for drug trafficking. Mandy had used her brother, Billy (Noah Taylor), who has a profound intellectual disability, to carry her drugs as they passed through airport customs but the drugs were detected and both were sentenced to death for trafficking. As Katrina's case works its way through the courts they become friends, with Mandy teaching Katrina the ropes of prison life. Meanwhile, Richard Carlisle convinces Hal to take an active part in the case, pretending to be a lawyer from Carlisle's firm. Hal finds it especially difficult to visit Katrina in the "Bangkok Hilton" as it is the same prison where he was kept by the Japanese forty years earlier as a prisoner of war. Nonetheless, he finds the will to do so and retraces Katrina's footsteps to London and Goa, reuniting with his family in the process as he tracks down the elusive Arkie, hoping to save his daughter from a death sentence in Bangkok. Eventually though Hal and Katrina will be forced to rely only on their own strength to save her life. ===== The Hero Discovered follows Kevin Matchstick, an alienated young man who meets a wizard called Mirth and discovers that he, among other things, possesses both a magic baseball bat and superhuman abilities. In the course of the comic, he defeats the nefarious plans of a being called the Umbra Sprite. He ultimately discovers that Mirth is Merlin, the baseball bat is Excalibur, and he is, in some ambiguous way, King Arthur. All the chapter titles are lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet.The Annotated Mage: The Hero Discovered A backup story, "Devil by the Deed", appeared in issues #7–14 of The Hero Discovered. This was a Grendel story that led directly into the Grendel comic series written by Wagner and drawn by a series of other artists. The Hero Defined picks up Matchstick's adventures several years later as he fights supernatural menaces in the company of other heroes, including Kirby Hero and Joe Phat. Each hero he encounters is based both on a mythological character and a comics professional of Wagner's acquaintance (Kirby as Hercules and Bernie Mireault, Joe as Coyote and Joe Matt).Matthew David Surridge, "The Tripartite Hero: Matt Wagner’s Mage" Black Gate, July 13, 2017 There is a new mage this time—Mirth has disappeared, and Matchstick is followed around by an old tramp called Wally Ut, who insists he is Matchstick's new mentor. In the course of the story Matchstick learns that he has misunderstood his mission, meets his future wife, and is alienated from his fellow heroes. He also discovers that he represents more than one mythical character: he is also Gilgamesh, and Kirby is also Enkidu. The chapter titles of The Hero Defined are from Macbeth,Mage: The Hero Defined (1997) – Comic Book DB and Matchstick's wife and her siblings are heavily based on the Weird Sisters. The Hero Denied takes place several years after the second series. Matchstick and his family are in hiding, trying to avoid the Umbra Sprite, now known as the Umbra Witch, who has regenerated in a female form, and has female children called Gracklethorns, instead of the males in the first two series called Grackleflints. All of the chapters have titles taken from Shakespeare's The TempestMage: The Hero Denied (2017) – Comic Book DB. The final issue came out on February 27, 2019, thirty-five years after the publication of the first comic.MATT WAGNER'S MAGE SERIES COMES TO EPIC CONCLUSION AFTER 35 YEARS, FINALE ISSUE TO FEATURE EIGHT-PAGE GATEFOLD image comics.com The ultimate issue of each volume was double-sized, and featured a gatefold page of panoramic art. The final issue will contain an 8-page gatefold.MATT WAGNER'S MAGE SERIES COMES TO EPIC CONCLUSION AFTER 35 YEARS, FINALE ISSUE TO FEATURE EIGHT-PAGE GATEFOLD image comics.com Mage ran as a back up feature in Comico's Grendel series issues #16–19. ===== A grainy- voiced narrator (Solomon) recounts the events of the tornado while disturbing home-movie images play — mostly of the town's people — showing the storm's aftermath. A mute adolescent boy, known as Bunny Boy, wears only pink bunny ears, shorts, and tennis shoes on an overpass in the rain. Tummler, a friend of Solomon, carries a cat by the scruff of its neck and drowns it in a barrel of water. The film then cuts to a different scene with Tummler, in a wrecked car with a girl. They fondle each other, and Tummler realizes there is a lump in one of the girl's breasts. Tummler and Solomon then ride down a hill on bikes. In narration, Solomon describes Tummler as a boy with "a marvelous persona", whom some people call "downright evil". Later, Tummler aims an air rifle at a cat. Solomon stops him from killing the cat, protesting that it is a housecat. They leave and the camera follows the cat to its owners' house. The cat is owned by three sisters, two of whom are teenagers and one who is pre-pubescent. The film cuts back to Tummler and Solomon hunting feral cats, which they deliver to a local grocer who intends to butcher and sell them to a local restaurant. The grocer tells them that they have a rival in the cat killing business. Tummler and Solomon buy glue from the grocer, which they use to get high via huffing. The film then cuts to a scene in which two foul- mouthed young boys dressed as cowboys destroy things in a junkyard. Bunny Boy arrives and the other boys shoot him "dead" with cap guns. Bunny Boy plays dead and the boys curse at him, rifle through his pockets, then remove and throw one of his shoes. They grow bored of this and leave Bunny Boy sprawled on the ground. Tummler and Solomon track down a local boy who is poaching "their" cats. The poacher, named Jarrod Wiggley, is poisoning the cats rather than shooting them. When Tummler and Solomon break into Jarrod's house with masks and weapons with intent to hurt him, they find photos of the young teen in drag and his elderly grandmother, who is catatonic and attached to life support machinery. Jarrod is forced to care for her, which he had earlier opined was "disgusting". Seeing that Jarrod isn't home, Tummler and Solomon decide to leave. Tummler then discovers the grandmother lying in her bed, states that it is "no way to live," and turns off the life support machine. A number of other scenes are interspersed throughout the film, including: an intoxicated man flirting with a gay dwarf; a man pimping his disabled sister to Solomon and Tummler; the sisters encountering an elderly child molester; a pair of twin boys selling candy door-to-door; a brief conversation with a tennis player who is treating his ADHD; a long scene of Solomon eating dinner while taking a bath in dirty water; a drunken party with arm- and chair- wrestling; and two skinhead brothers boxing each other in their kitchen. There are also a number of even smaller scenes depicting Satanic rituals, footage seemingly from home movies, and conversations containing racial bigotry. The next scene in the movie is set to the song "Crying" by Roy Orbison, which had been previously mentioned by Tummler as the song his older brother, who was a transsexual, would sing (the brother eventually went to the "Big City" and abandoned him). The final scene involves Solomon and Tummler shooting the sisters' cat repeatedly with their air rifles in the rain with jump cuts to Bunny Boy kissing the teenage girls in a swimming pool. Bunny Boy runs towards the camera through a field holding the body of the dead cat, which he shows to the audience, breaking the fourth wall. The final scene shows a girl, who shaved her eyebrows earlier in the movie, singing "Jesus Loves Me" in bed next to her mom (or sister). The film finally cuts to black as the girl signing is told to "dial it down" and go to bed. ===== Joseph is an ordinary boy with ordinary interests; he dislikes lessons and enjoys playing marbles with his friends. But in 1941, when Paris is occupied by the Nazis, his childhood comes to an end. Never before having known what it means to be a Jew, Joseph is forced to wear a yellow star. Unwilling to wear a label announcing to the world he is different, he makes his first business transaction with Zérati, a friend from school: his yellow star exchanged for a bag of marbles. The racism which results from the occupation leaves only one possibility to Joseph and his brother Maurice: they must flee. Their father, who owns a hairdressing salon, advises them what to do when they leave. Despite having been driven from their home because of their Jewish identity, they are told they must never let anyone know that they are Jews. They are attempting to escape from the grasp of Hitler and his S.S. men as they infiltrate France. They travel through northern France to the de-militiarised zone in the South. They cross the Demarcation Line in the dead of night with the help of another young boy called Raymond. Once into safe France they travel down to Menton via Marseille, where they spend a fantastic day taking in the sea - something they have never seen before. The boys then spend four blissfully safe months in Menton with their brothers, Henri and Albert, before having to leave the town for Nice, where their parents are waiting. The boys spend the summer in Nice with their parents, but due to the surrender of the Italians and the arrival of the Germans in safe France, they have to flee quickly to "Moisson Nouvelle", a camp for boys run by the Vichy government. The boys are safe here for a while, and make many friends, until one day when they accompany the lorry driver Ferdinand into Nice where he leads them, unintentionally, straight into a Nazi trap. They are taken to the "Hotel Excelsior", the Nazi headquarters in the region. Fortunately, due to their carefully thought up lies and the persistence of a priest, they escape a month later, still alive but pretty rattled. Sadly, they soon learn of the arrest of their father, who had his papers with him at the time, which means it is no longer safe for the two youngsters to remain in Nice. As the autumn turns to winter, Joseph and Maurice travel north to see their sister, where they learn that it is unsafe for them to stay; so they go to join their brothers in the Alpine resort of Aix-les-Bains. Here Maurice spends the rest of the war working in a bakery, and Joseph works for the owner of the village bookshop - a staunch Petainist. Joseph returns to Paris shortly after peace is announced, in an over-crowded train. Maurice does also, although in his typical style he also takes enough cheese to make a very large profit on! They are both re-united with their family in the salon - although sadly not their father, who perished in a concentration camp before the end of the war. ===== Arthur Burdon, a renowned English surgeon, is visiting Paris to see his fiancée, Margaret Dauncey. Margaret is studying art in Parisian school, along with her friend Susie Boyd. On his first evening in Paris, Burdon meets Oliver Haddo, who claims to be a magician and is an acquaintance of Burdon's mentor, the retired doctor and occult scholar Dr. Porhoët. While none of the company initially believe Haddo's claims, Haddo performs several feats of magic for them over the following days. Arthur eventually fights with Haddo, after the magician kicks Margaret's dog. In revenge, Haddo uses both his personality and his magic to seduce Margaret, despite her initial revulsion towards him. They get married and run away from Paris, leaving merely a note to inform Arthur, Susie and Porhoët. Arthur is distraught at the abandonment and promptly returns to England to immerse himself in his work. By this time Susie has fallen in love with Arthur, although she realises that this love will never be returned, and she goes away to Italy with a friend. During her travels, Susie hears much about the new Mr. and Mrs. Haddo, including a rumour that their marriage has not been consummated. When she eventually returns to England, she meets up with Arthur and they go to a dinner party held by a mutual acquaintance. To their horror, the Haddos are at this dinner party, and Oliver takes great delight in gloating at Arthur's distress. The next day, Arthur goes to the hotel at which Margaret is staying, and whisks her away to a house in the country. Although she files for divorce from Haddo, his influence on her proves too strong, and she ends up returning to him. Feeling that this influence must be supernatural, Susie returns to France to consult with Dr Porhoët on a possible solution. Several weeks later, Arthur joins them in Paris and reveals that he visited Margaret at Haddo's home and that she suggested her life was threatened by her new husband. She implies that Haddo is only waiting for the right time to perform a magical ritual, which will involve the sacrifice of her life. Arthur travels to Paris to ask for Dr Porhoët's advice. A week later, Arthur has an overwhelming feeling that Margaret's life is in danger, and all three rush back to England. When they arrive at Skene, Haddo's ancestral home in the village of Venning, they are told by the local innkeeper that Margaret has died of a heart attack. Believing that Haddo has murdered her, Arthur confronts first the local doctor and then Haddo himself with his suspicions. Searching for proof of foul play, Arthur persuades Dr Porhoët to raise Margaret's ghost from the dead, which proves to them that she was murdered. Eventually, Haddo uses his magic to appear in their room at the local inn, where Arthur kills him. However, when the light is turned on Haddo's body has disappeared. The trio visit Haddo's abandoned home to find that he has used his magic to create life – hideous creatures living in tubes – and that this is the purpose for which he sacrificed Margaret's life. After finding the magician's dead body in his attic, Arthur sets fire to the manor to destroy all evidence of Haddo's occult experiments. ===== Men of Valor follows Dean Shepard and his squad of Marines from the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division through sixteen missions during the Vietnam War including missions at the height of the Tet Offensive. In historically-based scenarios, the player assumes a variety of roles in which they man the door gun on a Huey helicopter, steer a riverboat along enemy-infested shores, battle their way through enemy tunnel complexes, and call down fire as a forward observer. Mission types include pilot rescues, recon patrols, POW rescue, and search- and-destroy ops. ===== Five songs on this album (first four and "Haunted") form a short story. Narrator sees a face in "every candle that [he] burns". This face speaks one word to him: "Jonah". So he finds an old book, speaks a rhyme and frees the spirit from the candle. It's the spirit of a little girl named Molly, who tells him her story, that happened seven years before. Mrs. Jane kept her 4-year-old daughter Molly in the attic until she (Molly) died. Before, Mrs. Jane painted Molly's portrait and put it above the fireplace, so that Molly would become immortal; however, Molly made the portrait speak to her mother, so that Jane would know about Molly's pain. Mrs. Jane then speaks a rhyme and burns the portrait. A free spirit of Molly returns to haunt her until she goes insane. ===== In 1980, J-21 (John Garrick) sets his aircraft on "hover" mode in New York, lands and converses with the beautiful LN-18 (Maureen O'Sullivan). He describes how the marriage tribunal had refused to consider J-21's marital filing and applications, and LN-18 is going to be forced to marry the conceited and mean MT-3 (Kenneth Thomson). J-21 plans to visit LN-18 that night. RT-42 (Frank Albertson) tries to cheer him up by taking him to see a horde of surgeons experimentally revive a man from 1930, who was struck by lightning while playing golf, and was killed. The man (originally named Peterson now is called Single O) is taken in hand by RT-42 and J-21, where it is revealed that aircraft have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food and liquor, and the only legal babies come from vending machines. That night, LN-18 feigns a headache, and her father and the despicable MT-3 decide to go to "the show" without her. The second they are gone, RT-42 and J-21 appear and woo D-6 and LN-18 respectively. MT-3 and LN-18's father return quite early, as MT-3 was highly suspicious, and RT-42 and J-21 hide. However, the game is foiled by the moronic Single O (El Brendel), the man from 1930, becoming addicted to pill- highballs, getting drunk, and trying to get some more pill-highballs from J-21. J-21 is depressed, but is contacted by Z-4, the scientist. He is told that Z-4 (Hobart Bosworth) has built a "rocket plane" that can carry three men to Mars. After a farewell party where J-21 works, on the Pegasus, a dirigible they call an "air-liner," the rocket blasts off, carrying J-21, RT-42 and Single O, who has stowed away for the synthetic rum. Landing on Mars, they are received by the Queen, Looloo and the King, Loko. That night, Looloo and Loko take them to see a "show," a Martian opera, where a horde of trained Martian ourang-outangs dance about. They are suddenly attacked by Booboo and Boko, the evil twins (everyone on Mars is a twin) of the King and Queen. They escape and return to Earth, and as one of the first men on another planet, J-21 is permitted to marry LN-18. Finally, Single O is reunited with his aged son, Axel. ===== The novel is set in the early years of the 19th century. Silas Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small Calvinist congregation in Lantern Yard, a slum street in Northern England. He is falsely accused of stealing the congregation's funds while watching over the very ill deacon. Two pieces of evidence implicate Silas: a pocket knife, and the discovery in his own house of the bag formerly containing the money. There is the strong suggestion that Silas' best friend, William Dane, has framed him, since Silas had lent his pocket knife to William shortly before the crime was committed. Lots are drawn in the belief – shared by Silas – that God will direct the process and establish the truth, but they indicate that Silas is guilty. The woman Silas was to marry breaks their engagement and marries William instead. With his life shattered, his trust in God lost, and his heart broken, Silas leaves Lantern Yard and the city for a rural area where he is unknown. Marner travels south to the Midlands and settles near the rural village of Raveloe in Warwickshire where he lives isolated and alone, choosing to have only minimal contact with the residents beyond his work as a linen weaver. He devotes himself wholeheartedly to his craft and comes to adore the gold coins he earns and hoards from his weaving. One foggy night, the two bags of gold are stolen by Dunstan ("Dunsey") Cass, a dissolute younger son of Squire Cass, the town's leading landowner. On discovering the theft, Silas sinks into a deep depression despite the villagers' attempts to aid him. Dunsey immediately disappears, but the community makes little of this disappearance since he has vanished several times before. Godfrey Cass, Dunsey's elder brother, also harbours a secret past. He is married to, but estranged from, Molly Farren, an opium-addicted working-class woman living in another town. This secret prevents Godfrey from marrying Nancy Lammeter, a young middle-class woman. On a winter's night, Molly tries to make her way to Squire Cass's New Year's Eve party with her two-year-old girl to announce that she is Godfrey's wife. On the way, she collapses in the snow and loses consciousness. The child wanders away and into Silas' house. Silas follows the child's tracks in the snow and discovers the woman dead. When he goes to the party for help, Godfrey heads outdoors to the scene of the accident, but resolves to tell no one that Molly was his wife. Molly's death, conveniently for Godfrey and Nancy, puts an end to the marriage. Silas keeps the child and names her Eppie, after his deceased mother and sister, both named Hephzibah. Eppie changes Silas' life completely. Silas has been robbed of his material gold, but thinks that he has it returned to him symbolically in the form of the golden-haired child. Godfrey Cass is now free to marry Nancy, but continues to conceal the fact of his previous marriage—and child—from her. However, he aids Marner in caring for Eppie with occasional financial gifts. More practical help and support in bringing up the child is provided by Dolly Winthrop, a kindly neighbour of Marner's. Dolly's help and advice assist Marner not only in bringing up Eppie, but also in integrating them into village society. Sixteen years pass, and Eppie grows up to be the pride of the village. She has a strong bond with Silas, who through her has found a place in the rural society and a purpose in life. Meanwhile, Godfrey and Nancy mourn their own childless state, after the death of their baby. Eventually, the skeleton of Dunstan Cass—still clutching Silas' gold—is found at the bottom of the stone quarry near Silas' home, and the money is duly returned to Silas. Shocked by this revelation, and coming to the realisation of his own conscience, Godfrey confesses to Nancy that Molly was his first wife and that Eppie is his child. They offer to raise her as a gentleman's daughter, but this would mean Eppie would have to forsake living with Silas. Eppie politely but firmly refuses, saying, "I can't think o' no happiness without him." Silas revisits Lantern Yard, but his old neighbourhood has been "swept away" in the intervening years and replaced by a large factory. No one seems to know what happened to Lantern Yard's inhabitants. However, Silas contentedly resigns himself to the fact that he will never know and now leads a happy existence among his self-made family and friends. In the end, Eppie marries a local boy she has grown up with, Dolly's son Aaron, and they move into Silas' house, which has been newly improved courtesy of Godfrey. Silas' actions through the years in caring for Eppie have apparently provided joy for everyone, and the extended family celebrates its happiness. ===== In Marin County, two utility workers are lured by a scantily clad woman (Jones) to a remote spot in Mill Valley and killed by Bobby Maxwell (Bookwalter). Maxwell's gang, the People's Revolutionary Strike Force (PRSF), plans to use the workers' uniforms and van as part of an ambitious series of crimes that will make them rich. Inspector Harry Callahan (Eastwood) and his partner Frank DiGiorgio (Mitchum) arrive at a liquor store where robbers have taken hostages. The robbers demand a car with a police radio; Callahan provides one by driving his squad car into the store and then shooting the robbers. Callahan's superior, Captain McKay (Dillman), angrily reprimands him for "excessive use of force", injuring the hostages, and causing $14,379 in damages, and temporarily transfers him out of the SFPD's Homicide unit. While assigned to Personnel, Callahan participates in the interview process for promotions, and learns that under affirmative action rules three of the new inspectors will be female, including Kate Moore (Daly), despite her very limited field experience. The PRSF uses the van to steal M72 LAW rockets, M16 rifles, a taser, and other weapons from a warehouse. In the course of the robbery, the terrorists kill DiGiorgio when he stumbles upon the scene. Callahan is brought back to Homicide, but is distressed to find out that Moore is his new partner; she claims to understand the risk, noting that, besides DiGiorgio, two other partners of Callahan's have died. After watching an army demonstration of the LAW rocket on a firing range, Callahan and Moore visit the Hall of Justice to sit in on an autopsy on a security guard killed in the robbery. Shortly afterwards, a bomb explodes in the bathroom. The inspectors chase down and capture the bomber, Henry Lee Caldwell, and meet "Big" Ed Mustapha (Popwell), leader of a black militant group to which the bomber formerly belonged. Although Callahan makes a deal with Mustapha for information, McKay arrests the militants for the PRSF's crimes. Callahan angrily refuses to participate in a televised press conference in which the publicity-seeking mayor would commend Moore and him for solving the case, and McKay suspends him from duty. However, Moore supports Callahan, finally gaining his respect. Meanwhile, the PRSF boldly kidnaps the mayor after a Giants game in an orchestrated ambush. With Mustapha's help, Callahan and Moore locate the gang at Alcatraz Island, where they battle the kidnappers. Moore frees the mayor, but Maxwell kills her as she saves Callahan's life. Callahan avenges Moore by killing Maxwell with a LAW rocket. He is uninterested in the mayor's gratitude, returning to his partner's corpse as McKay and others arrive to agree to Maxwell's demands. ===== In 1973, college-age artist Jennifer Spencer and her sister, Beth, are raped by a group of young men after being betrayed by female friend Ray Parkins. The brutal rape leaves Beth in a catatonic state. Ten years later, an enraged Spencer seeks revenge on the attackers. She kills one of the rapists, George Wilburn, with two shots—one to the genitals and one to the head—from a .38 Colt Detective Special revolver. Spencer leaves San Francisco because of the subsequent police investigation. Relocating to the town of San Paulo, she begins restoring its boardwalk's historic carousel near the beach where the rapes occurred. Meanwhile, Inspector Harry Callahan is frustrated when a judge yet again dismisses one of his cases due to what she sees as unreasonable search and seizure. Later, at his favorite diner, Callahan foils a robbery and kills three of the criminals. When the surviving robber takes a hostage, Callahan targets him with his .44 Magnum and challenges him to, "Go ahead, make my day". The criminal surrenders. Callahan later causes powerful crime lord Threlkis to suffer a fatal heart attack at his granddaughter's wedding reception when Callahan threatens him with prosecution in a murder case. Callahan's angry superiors call him in. While they cannot fire or suspend Callahan because his methods "get results", they instead order him to take a vacation. Callahan spends his time off target shooting with his .44 AutoMag and shotgun-armed partner Horace. However, his relaxation is short-lived when four of Threlkis's hitmen attack him. Callahan dispatches three, and the fourth escapes in an armored limousine. The suspect from the dismissed case and his friends also attack Callahan, throwing two Molotov cocktails into his car. He retrieves an unbroken firebomb and throws it at the attackers' car, causing them to crash into the bay, killing them. Callahan's supervisor, Lieutenant Donnelly, immediately sends him to San Paulo to investigate the Wilburn murder. Upon arriving in San Paulo, Callahan chases down a would-be robber. The reckless pursuit, during which Callahan commandeers a minibus carrying a group of senior citizens, draws the anger of the local police. While jogging with his bulldog Meathead, Callahan accidentally runs into Spencer. While she is less than thrilled, Spencer feels no extreme anger toward Callahan. Upon returning to his room at a motel, Callahan is targeted by the surviving Threlkis hitman, but the inspector kills him after being warned of his presence by Meathead. Meanwhile, Spencer kills a second rapist, Kruger, at the beach. Callahan recognizes the modus operandi, but local police chief Lester Jannings refuses to work with the famous "big city hotshot." Callahan learns that the victims and Parkins are friends of Jannings' son, Alby. Parkins figures out that the rapists are being targeted and warns the remaining two, Tyrone and Mick. After fighting Kruger's uncooperative brothers-in-law, Eddie and Carl, Callahan meets Spencer again at an outdoor cafe. Over drinks, he learns that she shares his emphasis on results over methods when seeking justice. But, the inspector adds the caveat "'til it breaks the law." Callahan reveals that he is investigating Wilburn's murder, which rattles Spencer. Later, Callahan finds Tyrone dead. Mick stays at Parkins' home, where both await a probable attack. When Callahan visits them for questioning, Mick attacks him. After Callahan subdues Mick and takes him to the police station, Spencer arrives and guns down Parkins. Having survived the assault, Callahan and Spencer meet again and sleep together. On his way out, Callahan notices Spencer's car, which he had seen earlier at Parkins' house, where he soon finds Parkins' body. Eddie and Carl bail Mick out of jail. Meanwhile, Horace arrives at Callahan's motel to celebrate the easing of tensions in San Francisco. He meets Mick and his henchmen instead, who have been waiting to spring an ambush. Horace is killed, Meathead is neutered by switchblade, and Mick and his henchmen brutally beat Callahan before throwing him into the ocean. Spencer arrives at the Jannings home with the intention of killing Alby, who was one of the rapists. To her surprise, she finds Alby, like her sister, is also catatonic; a guilty conscience caused him to attempt suicide via a car crash that left him with permanent brain damage. Jannings admits that to protect his reputation and his only child, he "fixed" the crimes and failed to jail the guilty parties. He convinces Spencer to spare Alby's life and promises that Mick, whom he does not know is free, will now be punished. Mick and the others, however, arrive and capture Spencer, killing Jannings with her .38. Callahan retrieves his .44 from the motel, having lost his long-barreled Model 29 in the ocean. Enraged at what Mick's gang have done to Horace and Meathead, he sets out after them. Mick's gang brings Spencer to the boardwalk for another rape, but she escapes to the carousel. They recapture her, but are startled by Callahan's apparent return from the dead. After killing Eddie and Carl, Callahan chases Mick, who absconds with Spencer atop a rollercoaster. The inspector reiterates his challenge of "make my day"—this time to Mick. When Mick laughs maniacally at Callahan, Spencer uses the diversion to break free. Callahan shoots Mick, who plunges through the carousel's glass roof and is impaled on a carousel unicorn. The police arrive and find Spencer's .38 on Mick; ballistics, Callahan states, will prove that "his gun … was used in all the killings." A compassionate Callahan and a vindicated Spencer leave the crime scene together. ===== Inspector Harry Callahan's testimony against crime lord Lou Janero puts the mobster in prison. Callahan becomes famous and the target of Janero's men as well as the news media, both of which he dislikes. After Callahan kills four attackers during an ambush, the SFPD assigns Al Quan (Kim) as his partner; Callahan advises him to get a bulletproof vest, as his partners often get killed. The pair investigate the fatal heroin overdose of rock singer Johnny Squares (Carrey), found in his trailer during filming of a slasher film directed by Peter Swan (Neeson) at the Port of San Francisco. Squares's death was not a typical overdose, but actually murder. Dean Madison, Swan's executive producer, is killed during a Chinatown restaurant robbery. Callahan kills four of the robbers, and Quan captures the fifth. They discover a list in Madison's pocket with Callahan and Squares's names on it. It is revealed that Madison and Swan are participants in a "dead pool" game, in which participants predict celebrity deaths in the Bay area: whether by accident, violence, or natural causes. Film critic Molly Fisher, also on Swan's list, is soon murdered by an intruder claiming to be Swan — causing panic among the surviving celebrities, and making Swan a suspect. After Callahan destroys a television station's camera, he must cooperate with reporter Samantha Walker (Patricia Clarkson) to avoid a lawsuit; if he agrees to a profile of his controversial career, the suit will be dropped. Callahan sees this as a ploy to exploit the danger he's in for its ratings value. Yet after they survive another attack by Janero's men, the incident and her own unwillingness to be the subject of news coverage cause Walker to reconsider the dangers police officers face in juxtaposition with the public's right to know. Meanwhile, at San Quentin State Prison, Callahan uses triple murderer Butcher Hicks to threaten an imprisoned Janero if anything happens to him. Janero ends the attacks, and assigns two men to Callahan as his personal bodyguards. Gus Wheeler, claiming responsibility for the murders, douses himself in gasoline and threatens to light himself on fire. Wheeler is not the murderer, but an attention seeker desperate to appear on camera. Walker foils his plan by refusing to film him; Wheeler accidentally sets himself on fire, but Callahan saves him. Impressed by her refusal to exploit Wheeler, Callahan and Walker become close. Meanwhile, Swan tells Callahan and Quan of Harlan Rook, a deranged fan suffering from "process schizophrenia" who thinks the director stole his ideas and work; Swan has a restraining order against him. Rook kills talk show host Nolan Kennard, another person on the dead pool list, using a radio-controlled car filled with C4 explosive under the victim's vehicle. Callahan finds a toy car wheel at the crime scene, and later sees another toy car following him and Quan. Recognizing the threat, they flee through the city pursued by the car and Rook himself. Trapped in an alleyway, Rook sends the car in armed. Callahan is able to back the car up enough so the engine takes most of the blast. Both survive, but Quan has broken ribs. Rook, claiming to be Swan, calls Walker at the television station and invites her to Swan's film studio for an interview. The police discover at Rook's apartment torn posters of Swan's films, large quantities of explosives, and Walker's name replacing Callahan's on the dead pool list. At the studio, Callahan confronts Rook holding Walker hostage. The detective surrenders his .44 Magnum revolver after Rook threatens to slit her throat. Callahan lures Rook to a pier after a chase during which Rook shoots at him with his own gun. Rook runs out of ammunition, and Callahan shoots Rook with a Svend Foyn harpoon cannon, impaling him. Callahan leaves with Walker as the police arrive. ===== In the early 1950s, world-renowned film-maker John Wilson travels to Africa for his next film, bringing with him a young writer chum named Pete Verrill. Part of his travel plans include hunting elephants and other game, which he prioritizes ahead of making the film. This leads to a conflict between the men on several levels, most notably over the idea of killing for sport such a grand animal. Wilson concedes that it is so wrong that it is not just a crime against nature, but a "sin" and that is the reason he wants to do it. He cannot overcome his desire to bring down a giant bull, a "tusker" with massive ivory tusks. Wilson's final realization that his is a petty, ignoble pursuit comes at a late point and with a tragic price, as the local animal tracker Kivu is killed protecting him from an elephant Wilson decides not to shoot. ===== The film's opening text establishes that King Arthur (Sean Connery) of Camelot, victorious from his wars, has dedicated his reign to promoting justice and peace and now wishes to marry. However, Malagant (Ben Cross), a Knight of the Round Table, desires the throne for himself and rebels. The film opens with Lancelot (Richard Gere) a vagabond and skilled swordsman, dueling in small villages for money. Lancelot attributes his skill to his lack of concern whether he lives or dies. Guinevere (Julia Ormond) the ruler of Lyonesse, decides to marry Arthur partly out of admiration and partly for security against Malagant, who is shown raiding a village. While traveling, Lancelot chances by Guinevere's carriage on the way to Camelot, and helps spoil Malagant's ambush meant to kidnap her. He falls in love with Guinevere, who refuses his advances. Though Lancelot urges her to follow her heart, Guinevere remains bound by her duty. She is subsequently reunited with her escort. Later, Lancelot arrives in Camelot and successfully navigates an obstacle course on the prospect of a kiss from Guinevere, though he instead kisses her hand. He also wins an audience with her husband-to-be, Arthur. Impressed by Lancelot's courage and struck by his recklessness and freewheeling, Arthur shows him the Round Table which symbolizes a life of service and brotherhood, and warns Lancelot that a man "who fears nothing is a man who loves nothing". That night, Malagant's henchmen arrive at Camelot and kidnap Guinevere. She is tied up and carried off to Malagant's headquarters, where she is held hostage. Lancelot poses as a messenger to Malagant to escape with Guinevere and return her to Camelot. Once again, Lancelot tries to win her heart, but is unsuccessful. On the return journey, it is revealed that Lancelot was orphaned and rendered homeless after bandits attacked his village, and has been wandering ever since. In gratitude, Arthur offers Lancelot a higher calling in life as a Knight of the Round Table. Amidst the protests of the other Knights (who are suspicious of his station) and of Guinevere (who struggles with her feelings for him) Lancelot accepts and takes Malagant's place at the Table, saying he has found something to care about. Arthur and Guinevere are subsequently wedded. However, a messenger from Lyonesse arrives, with news that Malagant has invaded. Arthur leads his troops to Lyonesse and successfully defeats Malagant's forces. Lancelot wins the respect of the other Knights with his prowess in battle. He also learns to embrace Arthur's philosophy, moved by the plight of villagers. Lancelot feels guilty about his feelings for the queen and loyalty to Arthur and in private announces his departure to her. She cannot bear the thought of him leaving and asks him for a kiss, which turns into a passionate embrace, just in time for the king to interrupt. Though Guinevere claims to love both Arthur and Lancelot – albeit in different ways – the two are charged with treason. The open trial in the great square of Camelot is interrupted by a surprise invasion by Malagant, ready to burn Camelot and kill Arthur if he does not swear fealty. Instead Arthur commands his subjects to fight, and Malagant's men shoot him with crossbows. A battle between Malagant's men and Camelot's soldiers and citizens ensues, and Lancelot and Malagant face off. Disarmed, Lancelot seizes Arthur's fallen sword and kills Malagant, who falls dead on that same throne he so desired. The people of Camelot win the battle, but Arthur dies of his wounds. On his deathbed, he asks Lancelot to "take care of her for me" – referring to both Camelot and Guinevere. The film closes with a funeral raft carrying Arthur's body floating out to sea, which is set aflame. ===== In the animated series, the pair are anthropomorphic animal superheroes without known secret identities (the green-eyed caped crimefighter and his squeaky-voiced companion are usually addressed as simply "Courageous" and "Minute") who live in the Cat Cave. When summoned via the Cat Signal over their television set, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse race to the scene of the crime in their sleekly feline red Cat Mobile which can convert into both the extendable-winged Cat Plane and submersible Cat Boat and thwart the criminal plots of various villains who threaten Empire City. Though they fought many miscreants, the duo's recurring arch-enemy was Chauncey "Flat-Face" Frog who appeared in nearly every episode. The five-minute length of the cartoons made the series suitable for use as interstitials or airtime fillers, especially to accommodate a movie or show that ended at an unusually early time, as well as animated content for local children's shows. ===== In Postal 2, the player takes on the role of the Postal Dude, a tall and thin red-headed man with a goatee, sunglasses, a black leather trench coat, and a T-shirt with a grey alien's face printed on it. Postal Dude lives in a dilapidated trailer on land behind a house in the small town of Paradise, Arizona, with his nagging wife, who is identified in the credits as simply "The Bitch". The game's levels are split into days of the week starting Monday and finishing Friday. At the beginning of each day, Postal Dude is given several tasks to accomplish, such as "get milk", "confess sins", and other seemingly mundane tasks. The object of Postal 2 is to finish all of the tasks throughout the week, and the player can accomplish these tasks in any way they wish, be it as peacefully and civilly as possible, or as violently and chaotically as possible. It is possible, if occasionally difficult, to complete most tasks without engaging in battle, or at least, harming or killing other characters, as evidenced by the game's tagline: "Remember, it's only as violent as you are!" The daily tasks can be accomplished in any order the player desires, and the game also includes one task that is activated only when Postal Dude urinates, in which the player is tasked with getting treatment for gonorrhea after Postal Dude discovers he has the infection. Throughout the course of the game, Postal Dude must put up with being provoked by other characters on a regular basis. He is given the finger, mugged, attacked by various groups of protesters, and is harassed by an obnoxious convenience store owner/terrorist and his patrons who cut before Postal Dude in the "money line". During the game, Postal Dude also encounters a marching band, a murderous toy mascot named Krotchy, the Paradise Police Department and its SWAT team, overzealous ATF agents, the National Guard, an eccentric religious cult, cannibalistic butcher shop workers, fanatical al-Qaeda terrorists, and former child actor Gary Coleman, among many others. By Friday afternoon, the final day in the game, the apocalypse occurs and societal collapse soon follows, with all law and order breaking down. Cats begin to fall out of a darkly-colored sky, and almost everyone in town becomes heavily armed, with random gun battles breaking out in the streets. Despite this, Postal Dude returns home to his trailer as normal, where he then gets into an argument with his wife, who demands that Postal Dude explain why he never picked up the "rocky-road" she asked for at the beginning of the game. Postal 2 then ends with a gunshot being heard, before being kicked to the end credits. ===== ===== The setting is an 18th- century Bavarian town with a glassblowing factory that produces a brilliant ruby glass. When the master glass blower dies, the secret of producing it is lost. The local Baron, who owns the factory, is obsessed with the ruby glass and believes it to have magical properties. With the loss of the secret, he descends into madness along with the rest of the townspeople. The main character is Hias, a seer from the hills, who predicts the destruction of the factory in a fire. ===== The story begins with the narrator having to respond to a wedding invitation that will take place in England, and which the narrator will not be able to attend, because the date of the wedding conflicts with a planned visit from his wife's mother. The narrator does not know the groom, but he knows the bride, having met her almost six years earlier. His response to the invitation is to offer a few written notes regarding the bride. The first of the two episodes the narrator relates occurs during a stormy afternoon in Devon, England, in 1944. A group of enlisted Americans are finishing up training for intelligence operations in the D-Day landings. The narrator takes a solitary stroll into town, and enters a church to listen to a children's choir rehearsal. One of the choir members, a girl of about thirteen, has a presence and deportment that draws his attention. When he departs, he finds that he has been strangely affected by the children's "melodious and unsentimental" singing. Ducking into a tearoom to escape the rain, the narrator encounters the girl again, this time accompanied by her little brother and their governess. Sensing his loneliness, the girl engages the narrator in conversation. We learn that her name is Esmé, and that she and her brother Charles are orphans – the mother dead, the father killed in North Africa while serving with the British Army. She wears his huge military wristwatch as a remembrance. Esmé is bright, well-mannered and mature for her age, but troubled that she may be a "cold person" and is striving to be more "compassionate". In the next episode, the scene changes to a military setting, and there is a deliberate shift in the point of view; the narrator no longer refers to himself as “I”, but as “Sergeant X”. Allied forces occupy Europe in the weeks following V-E Day. Sergeant X is stationed in Bavaria, and has just returned to his quarters after visiting a field hospital where he has been treated for a nervous breakdown. He still exhibits the symptoms of his mental disorder. "Corporal Z" (surname Clay), a fellow soldier who has served closely with him, casually and callously remarks upon the sergeant's physical deterioration. When Clay departs, Sergeant X begins to rifle through a batch of unopened letters and discovers a small package, postmarked from Devon almost a year before. It contains a letter from Esmé and Charles, and she has enclosed her father's wristwatch - "a talisman"- and suggests to Sergeant X that he "wear it for the duration of the war". Deeply moved, he immediately begins a recovery from his descent into disillusionment and spiritual vacancy, regaining his "faculties". ===== George Monroe, an architectural model fabricator, is fired when he refuses to use computer technology. At his boss' refusal to let George keep a few models, he destroys all but one of the models with a spindle from an architectural drawing. As he exits the building with the remaining model, he collapses and is rushed to the hospital, where it is revealed he has advanced stage cancer and any treatment would be futile. George decides to demolish the home left to him by his father and replace it with a house in keeping with the neighborhood. He enlists his son, Sam, who is alienated from his stepfather Peter and his mother Robin. Sam must spend the summer with George, who has not revealed his terminal condition, and help him with the house, but Sam makes it a point not to help him. When George refuses to give Sam money unless he works for it, Sam toys with becoming a prostitute, but is nearly caught and flees from his first encounter. This leads him to steal George's Vicodin. George slowly reconnects with Sam. Robin decides to assist as well, and she finds herself rediscovering George. Also joining in the construction are Alyssa, Sam's classmate who lives next door with her mother Colleen; local policeman Kurt Walker, George's childhood friend; Sam's young half-brothers Adam and Ryan; various neighbors; and eventually Peter, even after separating from Robin when she tells him that her feelings for George have re-awakened. George tells Robin of his disease, sending her into shock. George tells Sam, who feels betrayed and accuses George of being selfish and takes refuge at Alyssa's house. George collapses and is found by Robin the following morning. Complications arise when neighbor David Dokos tries to halt construction because the building's height exceeds the allowable limit by six inches. His plans to halt the project are stopped by Sam, who recognizes him from his prostitution attempt and blackmails him. Sam puts Christmas lights all over the unfinished house and shows George the gleaming house from his hospital window. The next morning, Sam returns to finish the house and Robin sits beside George until his death. Robin goes to the house and tells Sam about his father's death. Sam inherits the house he finished building. Sam gives the property to a woman who has been living in a trailer park. As a girl, she was injured in a car crash caused by his grandfather. ===== Sarah is the young mother of Jeremiah (Dylan and Cole Sprouse) who has him move back in with her after spending his early years with a stable foster family. Their life soon becomes hectic with Sarah giving her young son drugs and giving him a chaotic life on the road. Sarah (Asia Argento) becomes involved with a series of men who treat her, and her seven- year-old son, Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett), poorly, and she uses them as an excuse to abandon her son. She disappears to Atlantic City with her boyfriend, Emerson (Jeremy Renner), and then abandons him; Emerson returns to their home and rapes Jeremiah. After a trip to the hospital, Jeremiah's grandmother (Ornella Muti) takes him to a West Virginian radical Christian cult led by his grandfather (Peter Fonda). After he has been three years with the cult, Sarah returns to reclaim the 11-year-old Jeremiah (Dylan and Cole Sprouse). Sarah's current lover, Kenny (Matt Schulze), a truck driver, eventually abandons them at a truck stop while Sarah is soliciting. Sarah realizes that if she is going to keep her men she cannot say Jeremiah is her son. She persuades Jeremiah to cross dress so he can act as her "little sister", and Jeremiah's cross- dressing evolves to include his mother's seduction techniques. After dressing up as a "baby doll" version of Sarah which consisted of her makeup, her white nightgown and her red high heel pumps, Jeremiah seduces Jackson (Marilyn Manson), his mother's latest man, who initially tries to rebuff the boy's advances, but then gives in. Sarah is furious with Jackson for giving in to the boy's advances and with Jeremiah for ruining her panties with drops of blood on them, and she takes Jeremiah and leaves. Later, they are in a house where the basement houses a methamphetamine laboratory, which later blows up with Sarah's latest boyfriend inside. After fleeing, and while detoxing from methamphetamine, Sarah is convinced that everyone is after them and that only certain foods are edible (mainly chips and soda). She convinces Jeremiah that if they eat anything but those foods, they will be poisoned which leads them to a failed attempt to shoplift at a grocery store; afterwards, Jeremiah finds a hamburger to eat from a dumpster. His mother, in a state of "meth psychosis", is convinced the food he ate was poison, and makes him drink ipecac in order to make him better and rid him of any "poisons". Jeremiah wakes up in the hospital with his grandmother beside him. She tells him that Sarah is in the psychiatric ward. Later that night, Sarah collects Jeremiah from his hospital room, and, rather than have him go back to the cult, she clutches his hand and they walk away in hospital gowns. The final scene is of Sarah and Jeremiah driving away. ===== Ruth Stoops is a slow-witted, inebriated addict in Nebraska who is capable of doing nearly anything to get money or drugs. She has four children, all of whom have been taken from her custody by the state because of her inability to care for them. One morning, Ruth and her boyfriend have intercourse on a bed in a flophouse, after which he disrespectfully throws her out of the apartment. She later goes to a hardware store to buy wood sealant and huffs it in a paper bag in an alley to get high. After, she visits the home of her brother and sister-in-law to sneak a look at two of her children and to beg her brother for money. After Ruth is arrested for her continuing drug use, she discovers that she is pregnant again. At her arraignment, she learns to her horror that she is facing felony charges for endangering a fetus; her many earlier arrests had all been on misdemeanors. The judge, who knows of the situation with Ruth's other children, informs her after the hearing that he will lessen her sentence if she has an abortion. Ruth is bailed out of jail by Norm and Gail Stoney, a middle-aged radical Evangelical couple who have become aware of Ruth's story through the local news. The couple take her into their home and attempt to persuade her to keep her child. On the first night, Ruth, impervious to their convictions, sneaks out of the house with the couple's reckless teenage daughter, Cheryl, and again huffs paint and smokes marijuana. At the Stoneys' urging, Ruth visits a pregnancy clinic where she is further persuaded to go forward with her pregnancy, despite her resistance given her limited opportunities and drug problem. After she is found huffing glue at an abortion protest with Gail and Norm, they kick her out of the house. Diane, a friend of Gail who participates in abortion protests, offers to take Ruth in. Upon arriving at Diane's farmhouse, Diane discloses that she is in fact a lesbian pro-choice activist and spy who attempts to help women she feels the Stoneys and others prey upon. The witless Ruth soon finds comfort in Diane and her partner, Rachel, as well as Harlan, a gruff biker and friend of the women. After the Stoneys discover Diane was working against them, they stake out in front of Diane's home with numerous other anti-abortion activists and engage in religious song and mass prayer. They offer Ruth $15,000 to keep her child, which Harlan ultimately agrees to match if Ruth goes through with her abortion. The scene becomes a spectacle documented by news stations, which is exacerbated when Blaine Gibbons, a charismatic and famous evangelist, arrives to participate. Blaine offers Ruth an additional $15,000 from his ministry to cancel the abortion. On the morning Ruth is to have her abortion, she suffers a miscarriage, and becomes disillusioned with Diane, whom she realizes is using her as a pawn to promote her message, similar to the Stoneys. Ruth conceals the miscarriage from Diane and Rachel, and agrees to travel to the abortion clinic with them; the three are escorted via helicopter with renowned pro-choice activist Jessica Weiss, who saw Ruth's story in the media and felt compelled to help her. Upon arriving at the clinic, Ruth manages to locate the $15,000 Harlan had promised her, which he has stashed behind the front desk, and escapes out of a back window. Though the clinic is surrounded by anti-abortion and pro- choice picketers alike, they fail to notice Ruth as she walks through the crowd before ultimately running down the street with her backpack of money. ===== In Japan's Sengoku period, Takeda Shingen, daimyō of the Takeda clan, meets with his brother Nobukado, and an unnamed thief whom the latter met by chance and spared from crucifixion due to the thief's uncanny resemblance to Shingen. The brothers then agree that he would prove useful as a double, and they decide to use the thief as a kagemusha, a political decoy. Later, Shingen's army has besieged a castle of Tokugawa Ieyasu. One evening when Shingen visits the battlefield he is shot by a sniper who has mapped Shingen's previous movements in the camp. Mortally wounded, he orders a withdrawal and commands his generals to keep his death a secret for three years. Shingen soon dies with only a small group of witnesses. Meanwhile, Shingen's rivals Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Uesugi Kenshin each contemplate the consequences of Shingen's withdrawal of his army still not knowing of his death. Nobukado presents the thief to Shingen's generals, proposing to have this kagemusha impersonate Shingen full-time. At first, even the thief is unaware of Shingen's death, until he tries to break into a huge jar, believing it to contain treasure, and instead finds Shingen's preserved corpse. The generals then decide they cannot trust the thief and set him free. Later, the Takeda leaders secretly drop the jar with Shingen's corpse into Lake Suwa. Spies working for Tokugawa and his ally Oda witness the disposal of the jar and, suspecting that Shingen has died, go to report the death. The thief, however, overhearing the spies, goes to offer his services, hoping to be of some use to Shingen in death. The Takeda clan preserves the deception by announcing that they were making an offering of sake to the god of the lake. The spies follow the Takeda army as they march home from the siege. Although they suspect that Shingen has died, they are later convinced by the kagemusha's performance. Returning home, the kagemusha successfully fools Shingen's retinue. By imitating Shingen's gestures and learning more about him, the kagemusha begins to uncannily mimic the persona of Shingen, and even convinces Takeda Katsuyori's son and Shingen's grandson, who was very close with Shingen. When the kagemusha must preside over a clan council to plan how to respond to provocative attacks made by Tokugawa against Takeda border castles, he is instructed by Nobukado to not speak until Nobukado brings the generals to a consensus, whereupon the kagemusha will simply agree with the generals' plan and dismiss the council. However, Katsuyori is incensed by his father's decree of the three year subterfuge, which delays his inheritance and leadership of the clan. Katsuyori thus decides to test the kagemusha in front of the council, as the majority of the attendants are not aware that Shingen is dead. Katsuyori directly asks the kagemusha what course of action the "lord thinks" should be taken. After a long pause, the kagemusha replies, "A mountain does not move," convincingly in Shingen's own manner. The kagemushas effective improvisation further impresses the generals. Soon, in 1573, Oda Nobunaga is mobilizing his forces to attack Azai Nagamasa, continuing his campaign in central Honshu to maintain his control of Kyoto against the growing opposition. When the Tokugawa and Oda clans launch an attack on Takeda territory, Katsuyori begins a counter-offensive against the advice of other generals. The kagemusha is forced to lead reinforcements to the 1574 Battle of Takatenjin, and helps inspire the troops to victory. In a fit of overconfidence, the kagemusha attempts to ride Shingen's spirited horse. When he falls off, those who rush to help him see that he does not have their lord's battle scars, and he is revealed as an impostor. The thief is driven out of the palace in disgrace, and Katsuyori takes over the clan. Oda and Tokugawa, sensing weakness in the Takeda clan leadership, are emboldened to begin a full-scale offensive into the Takeda homeland. Now in full control of the Takeda army, Katsuyori leads the counter-offensive against Nobunaga, resulting in the Battle of Nagashino. Although courageous in their assault, wave after wave of attacking Takeda cavalry and infantry are cut down by volleys of tanegashima fire from Oda troops deployed behind wooden stockades, effectively eliminating the Takeda army. The exiled kagemusha, who has followed the Takeda army, is dismayed and in a final show of loyalty, he takes up a spear and makes a hopeless charge against the Oda lines. Mortally wounded, the kagemusha attempts futilely to retrieve the fūrinkazan banner, which had fallen into a river, but succumbs to his wounds in the water. His body floats past it as the film concludes with a long shot of the abandoned fūrinkazan. ===== In 1943, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu (Clifton Webb) devises a scheme to deceive the Nazis about the impending invasion of Southern Europe. It entails releasing a corpse with a fictional identity off the coast of Spain. The strong currents would almost certainly carry it ashore near where a known German secret agent operates. The non-existent Royal Marine, Major William Martin, would appear to be a plane-crash victim carrying falsified letters about a forthcoming Allied invasion of German-occupied Greece, rather than Sicily, the more obvious target. Montagu receives approval to carry out Operation Mincemeat. Following a medical expert's advice, Montagu procures the body of a man who died of pneumonia so it appears he drowned. After proper preparations, the corpse is placed in a canister packed with dry ice and transferred to a waiting submarine. The body is released in the Mediterranean where it washes ashore on a Spanish beach. The local authorities, observed by German and British consulate staff, process the body. After the attaché case containing the letters is returned to London, a forensics expert confirms the key letter, describing the (false) Allied invastion in Greece, was cleverly opened, photographed, and resealed. Hitler is convinced the document is genuine, though Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, is skeptical. The Nazis dispatch Patrick O'Reilly (Stephen Boyd), a pro-German IRA spy, to London to investigate. O'Reilly investigates Martin's "fiancée", Lucy Sherwood (Gloria Grahame), who is the roommate of Montagu's assistant, Pam (Josephine Griffin). O'Reilly arrives at their flat, posing as Martin's old friend, on the same day Lucy received news that her real boyfriend was killed in action. Her genuine grief mostly convinces O'Reilly. As a final test, however, he gives Lucy his north London address, telling her to contact him if she needs anything. He then radios his German contacts saying that if he does not send another message in one hour, it means he has been arrested. As Montagu, General Coburn (Michael Hordern) of Scotland Yard's Special Branch and police officers are en route to O'Reilly's flat, Montagu realises why he left his address. Montagu convinces a reluctant Hordern to let O'Reilly go. After no one arrives to arrest him, O'Reilly sends a "Martin genuine!" radio message. The Germans then transfer most of their Sicily-based forces to Greece, making the Allied deception successful. After the war, Montagu leaves his CBE medal at the grave of "the man who never was". ===== Somewhere in the Pacific, Bugs is floating in a box, singing to himself, when 'the island that inevitably turns up in this kind of picture' turns up. Bugs swims towards it, admiring the peace and quiet, when bombs start going off ("The Storm" from the William Tell Overture is also heard in the background). Bugs ducks into a haystack, and soon comes face-to-face with a Japanese soldier; a short, buck-toothed, bare-footed Japanese man who says his 'Ls' as 'Rs' and who might be rapidly stating the names of Japanese cities whenever he moves. The soldier chases Bugs into a rabbit hole, where the soldier dumps a bomb inside. However, Bugs manages to blow up the soldier with the bomb. When the soldier tries to swing a sword at Bugs, Bugs appears as a Japanese general (presumably Hideki Tojo), but is soon recognized by his trademark carrot-eating, prompting the soldier (who says that he had seen Bugs in the "Warner Bros. Leon Schlesinger Merrie Melodies cartoon pictures", referring to the fact that Bugs was originally exclusive to that series) to ask him "What's up, Honorable Doc?" Bugs then jumps into a plane; the soldier also jumps into a plane. However, Bugs ties the soldier's plane to a tree, causing the plane to be yanked out from under him. The soldier parachutes down, but is met in mid-air by Bugs, who hands "Moto" (cf. Mr. Moto) some 'scrap iron' (an anvil),This is a reference to US companies selling scrap metal to Japan before the war. causing the soldier to fall. Painting a Japanese flag on a tree to denote one soldier down, Bugs runs into a sumo wrestler, against whom he confidently faces off (cockily marking a second and bigger flag on the tree). After being temporarily beaten by the sumo wrestler (and, to be fair, wiping the second mark off the tree before collapsing), Bugs dresses as a geisha girl and knocks out the wrestler, who repaints the second flag on the tree before passing out. Seeing a group of Japanese landing craft making their way toward the island (and exclaiming "Japs! Hundreds of 'em!"), Bugs thinks of a plan to get rid of them all. He comes out in a 'Good Rumor' (a parody of Good Humor) truck, which plays Mozart ("Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" from The Magic Flute), and hands each of the Japanese an ice-cream bar with a grenade inside it, calling them racist slurs such as "monkey-face" and "slant-eyes" whilst doing so. All of the Japanese are killed by the explosions, save one, who is killed after redeeming a 'free' ice-cream bar from Bugs. Having now painted dozens of Japanese flags on the trees, denoting all the downed enemy forces, Bugs comments again about the 'peace and quiet – and if there's one thing I CAN'T stand, it's peace and quiet!'. Then Bugs spots an American battleship in the distance and raises a white flag, yelling for them to come get him, but they keep going. Bugs is insulted. "Do they think I want to spend the rest of my life on this island?" With this remark, a female rabbit (dressed in a Hawaiian outfit) appears, saying, "It's a possibility!" Bugs pulls down the distress flag, lets out a wolf-cry and goes running after her. ===== Balzac, p. 67. Original French is at French Wikisource. The illustrations in this article were included by various publishers and not part of the original novel. The first third of the novel provides a lengthy exploration of the characters' histories. Balzac makes this clear after 150 pages: "Ici se termine, en quelque sorte, l'introduction de cette histoire." ("Here ends what is, in a way, the introduction to this story.")Balzac, p. 149. Original French is at French Wikisource. At the start of the novel, Adeline Hulot – wife of the successful Baron Hector Hulot – is being pressured into an affair by a wealthy perfumer named Célestin Crevel. His desire stems in part from an earlier contest in which the adulterous Baron Hulot had won the attentions of the singer Josépha Mirah, also favored by Crevel. Mme. Hulot rejects Crevel's advances. The Baron has so completely lavished money on Josépha that he has borrowed heavily from his Uncle Johann – and, unable to repay the money, the Baron instead arranges a War Department post in Algeria for Johann, with instructions that Johann will be in a situation in that job to embezzle the borrowed money. The Hulots' daughter, Hortense, has begun searching for a husband; their son Victorin is married to Crevel's daughter Celestine. Mme. Hulot's cousin, Bette (also called Lisbeth), harbors a deep but hidden resentment of her relatives' success, especially of Hortense 'stealing' Bette's intended sweetheart. A peasant woman with none of the physical beauty of her cousin, Bette has rejected a series of marriage proposals from middle- class suitors who were clearly motivated by her connection to the Hulots, and remains unmarried at the age of 42. One day she comes upon a young unsuccessful Polish sculptor named Wenceslas Steinbock, attempting suicide in the tiny apartment upstairs from her own. As she nourishes him back to health, she develops a maternal (and romantic) fondness for him. At the beginning of the story Bette is living in a modest apartment in a lodging house shared by the Marneffe couple, both of whom are ambitious and amoral. Bette befriends Valérie, the young and very attractive wife of a War Department clerk, Fortin Marneffe; the two women form a bond to attain their separate goals – for Valérie the acquisition of money and valuables, for Bette the ruination of the Hulot household by means of Valérie's luring both the Baron and Steinbock into infidelity and financial ruin. Baron Hulot, meanwhile, is rejected by Josépha, who explains bluntly that she has chosen another man because of his larger fortune. Hulot's despair is quickly alleviated when he visits Bette in her lodging and there meets and falls in love with Valérie Marneffe. He showers her with gifts, and soon establishes a luxurious house for her and M. Marneffe, with whom he works at the War Department (Bette joins them in their new home, to serve as an excuse for the Baron's visits). These debts, compounded by the money he borrowed to lavish on Josépha, threaten the Hulot family's financial security. Panicked, he convinces his uncle Johann Fischer to quietly embezzle funds from a War Department outpost in Algiers. Hulot's woes are momentarily abated and Bette's happiness is shattered, when – at the end of the "introduction" – Hortense Hulot marries Wenceslas Steinbock. Crushed at having lost Steinbock's as her intended spouse, Bette swears vengeance on the Hulot family. Her strategy is to work on Baron Hulot's demonstrated weakness for acquiring and lavishing more money than he has on young mistresses. Soon the Baron is completely besotted – and financially over-extended – with Valérie, and completely compromised by repeatedly promoting her husband within the Baron's section of the War Department. Before long, Bette has already contrived to have Crevel and Steinbock also ensnared by Valérie's charms. Hortense discovers Steinbock's infidelity and returns to her mother's home. Before long, the Baron's misconduct becomes known to the War Department; Uncle Johann is arrested in Algeria and commits suicide, the Baron is forced to retire suddenly, his brother, a famous war hero, saves him from prison and then quickly dies of shame over the family disgrace. The Baron deserts his family and hides from his creditors. It appears that Valérie, soon a widow, will marry Crevel and thus gain entrance to the Hulot family as Celestine's mother-in-law. In short, the family is devastated by these repeated blows – and Bette's machinations are completely concealed from them. ===== Herbert H. Heebert (Jerry Lewis) is a young man who loses his girlfriend, swears off romance, and then takes a job at a genteel, women-only boarding house, run by Helen Wellenmellen (Helen Traubel). Although most of the women treat him like a servant, Fay (Pat Stanley) helps him with his fear of women. ===== In 1943, Captain Buzz Rickson (Steve McQueen) is an arrogant pilot in command of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber nicknamed The Body. While stationed in Britain during the Second World War, one of the bombing missions is aborted because clouds obscure all potential targets, but Rickson ignores the order to turn around and dives under the clouds. He completes the mission, at the cost of one of the bombers in his squadron and its entire crew. Rickson revels in the fighting and destruction; when he is assigned to drop propaganda leaflets on a later mission, he makes his displeasure felt by buzzing the airfield. His commanding officer tolerates his repeated insubordination because he is the best pilot in the bomber group. Even so, when he asks the flight surgeon his opinion, the latter is uncertain whether Rickson is a hero or a psychopath. However Rickson's crew, especially his co-pilot, First Lieutenant Ed Bolland (Robert Wagner), trust his great flying skill. Between missions, Rickson and Bolland meet a young English woman, Daphne Caldwell (Shirley Anne Field). Although she is attracted to both pilots, she quickly finds out what kind of man Rickson is and chooses Bolland. They soon begin sleeping together. She falls in love with him, although she suspects he will leave her behind and return to America at the end of his tour of duty. Meanwhile, Bolland becomes increasingly disillusioned with Rickson and his arrogance and his callousness. Rickson pressures his navigator, Second Lieutenant Marty Lynch (Gary Cockrell), into transferring to another crew, because he questions his orders and behaviour. Lynch even says that Rickson is the kind of man who would have fought on either side. Soon afterwards, family man Lynch is killed in action. His friend Bolland takes it hard and blames Rickson. Rickson meets a prostitute but does not do more than give her money to buy a dress, provided she looks in the mirror and calls herself "Daphne". When the crew is near the end of the required 25 missions to complete a tour and rotate back home, Rickson makes a move on Daphne, visiting her in her flat after Bolland has returned to the base. Rickson plans to embark on a second tour of duty, while his rival goes home. Daphne rejects his forceful advances, telling him she loves Bolland, but Rickson tries to make Bolland think otherwise. Finally, on a long-range bombing mission to Leipzig, Colonel Emmet (Jerry Stovin) B-17 is shot down during the attack, leaving Rickson in command. Sergeant Bragliani (George Sperdakos), one of the waist gunners, is wounded during a Messerschmitt attack run; though hit in the hand although he is still able to shoot. Rickson'S B-17 reaches Leipzig and drops its bombs. During the attack, Rickson's B-17 is badly shot up and one crew member, the ball turret gunner, Sergeant Sailen (Michael Crawford) – known as "Junior" – dies of his wounds. The B-17 limps back over the English Channel, its bomb bay doors stuck in the open position and one armed bomb still partially stuck on its rack in the bay. As the plane approaches the English coastline near Dover, the air-sea rescue team is contacted and the rest of the crew (except Sergeant Prien, who was killed off-screen) bails out. As the last two crew members escape, Bolland is waiting with Rickson to jump out of the open bomb bay when he notices that Rickson isn't wearing his parachute. Rickson then kicks the unsuspecting Bolland out of the B-17's bomb bay, returns to the cockpit and tries to nurse the bomber back to base by himself, only to crash into the white cliffs on the Kent coast. Bolland reports Rickson's death to Daphne in Cambridge, who says: "It's what he always wanted." The pair of lovers walk away together. ===== I am Charlotte Simmons is the story of college student Charlotte Simmons's first semester-and-a-half at the prestigious Dupont University. A high school graduate from a poverty-stricken rural town, her intelligence and hard work at school have been rewarded with a full scholarship to Dupont. As Charlotte prepares to say goodbye to her family and leave for college, an event happens at Dupont that will play an important role in her future. Hoyt Thorpe, member of the exclusive and powerful fraternity Saint Ray, and fellow frat brother Vance, stumble upon an unnamed California Republican governor (who was at the college to speak at the school's commencement ceremony) receiving oral sex from a female college student. When the governor's bodyguard spots the two fraternity members, a fight ensues with Hoyt and Vance beating up the bodyguard and fleeing. The story of the night soon spreads across campus, increasing Hoyt's popularity. Charlotte arrives at Dupont in the fall. Her roommate is wealthy Beverly, the daughter of the CEO of a huge multinational insurance company. She is obsessed with sex, in particular with members of the school's lacrosse team. Jojo Johanssen is a white athlete on the college's predominantly black basketball team. He is struggling to keep his position because the school recently recruited an up-and-coming black freshman player, and the coach wants to bench Jojo in his senior year. This would severely hurt Jojo's chances of playing in "the league" (the NBA). Jojo enjoys the spoils of being a college athlete, such as using a tutor program to force other students to complete his school assignments. Jojo's "tutor" Adam Gellin is, like Charlotte, from a working- class background. Adam writes for the college's independent newspaper and is a member of the "Millennial Mutants," a group of like-minded intellectuals who oppose the anti-intellectualism and class snobbery they see in their fellow students. Charlotte and Adam first meet at the university's computer lab, where Adam is to write a paper for Jojo. Charlotte does not back down when Adam insists that he needs the computer more than she does. Adam is instantly smitten. Charlotte finds herself dealing with the sexual temptations of college life, culminating in her hooking up with Hoyt, who tells Charlotte of catching California's governor receiving oral sex from a college student. He also tells Charlotte he knows that Adam Gellin has begun investigating the incident and how, at the behest of the governor a large Wall Street firm has offered him (Hoyt) a high-paying entry-level job in exchange for his silence. (The firm, Pierce & Pierce, is the name of the one that Sherman McCoy works for in Wolfe's earlier novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities.) Hoyt and Charlotte attend an important fraternity formal together, after which Hoyt takes full advantage of a drunken Charlotte, seducing her into giving up her virginity to him. The following morning, Charlotte is dumped by Hoyt. She is further humiliated when she returns to campus and discovers that Hoyt's seduction and rejection has been made public via two girls Charlotte had previously befriended. The two cruelly mock Charlotte, both over her poverty-stricken background, and for how she drunkenly lost her virginity. This drives Charlotte into a depression and eventually into the arms of Adam, who has wanted Charlotte for her beauty, innocence, and intellect since they first met. Charlotte finally emerges from her depression but finds that she has received terrible grades (B, B−, C−, D) for her first semester at Dupont. As Adam prepares to publish his article, his world collides with Jojo Johanssen's when a paper that Adam wrote for the athlete is accused of being plagiarized. Jojo, who treats Adam as beneath him socially, denies the plagiarism charge and protects the athletic department's perversion of the athlete/tutor program from being exposed. Jojo has begun to transform himself academically from a stereotypical "dumb jock" into a student who takes his academics seriously and even develops an interest in philosophy (partly as a result of Charlotte's influence). Jerome Quat, Jojo's professor, confronts Adam about the plagiarized paper and shows sympathy toward him in a college dominated by students obsessed with sports and sex. However, when Adam confesses to having written the paper for Jojo, the professor double-crosses him. He will sacrifice Adam in order to bring down the basketball program, which has circled the wagons to protect Jojo. This devastates Adam, who breaks down and needs Charlotte to take care of him as he waits to be formally charged with cheating. In the meantime, Adam's article on "The Night of the Skullfuck" is published. The sordid details of sex, violence, bribery, and a high-profile political figure cause it to be picked up by the national media. The governor's Presidential ambitions are potentially ruined, and the job offer/bribe made to Hoyt is revoked, effectively shattering Hoyt's life. Hoyt now faces a post-graduation judgment day, with his family's life savings exhausted in order to pay for his college education, and a college transcript with such bad grades that will effectively keep him from getting a job as an investment banker. Jojo's and Adam's necks are saved, as the liberal college professor decides to drop the entire plagiarism complaint so as to avoid undercutting Adam's credibility in destroying the conservative governor's political career. Adam's self-esteem restored, he begins to bask in the glow as the student who brought down a governor. Adam and Charlotte drift apart and she begins to date Jojo, who keeps his position as a starter on the team. Charlotte ascends to the envied position of girlfriend of a star athlete. Charlotte now reflects upon her first semester with an elitist view, looking down at her former friends and at Hoyt, who casually threw her away. She no longer feels intellectualism is what is most important to her — rather it is being a person recognized as special, regardless of the reason. ===== The film is an anthology of overlapping vignettes exploring the lives of a variety of characters who live in a suburban shantytown atop a rubbish dump. The first to be introduced is the boy Roku-chan, who lives in a fantasy world in which he is a tram (trolley) driver. In his fantasy world, he drives his tram along a set route and schedule through the dump, reciting the refrain "Dodeska-den", "clickety-clack", mimicking the sound of his vehicle. His dedication to the fantasy is fanatical. Roku-chan is called "trolley fool" (densha baka) by locals and by children who are outsiders. His mother is shown as being concerned that Roku-chan is genuinely mentally-challenged. (Roku-chan has earned the label in several cinematographic writings.) Ryotaro, a hairbrush maker by trade, is saddled with supporting many children whom his unfaithful wife Misao has conceived in different adulterous affairs, but is wholeheartedly devoted to them. There also appear a pair of drunken day laborers (Masuda and Kawaguchi) who engage in wife-swapping, only to return to their own wives the next day as though nothing has happened. A stoic, bleak man named Hei is frequented by Ochō who appears to be his ex-wife, and he watches emotionless as she takes care of his domestic chores. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Shima-san. Shima, the man with the tic, is always defending his outwardly unpleasant and bullying wife, and flies into a rage when friends criticize her. A beggar and his son live in a derelict car, a Citroen 2CV. While the father is preoccupied with daydreams of owning a magnificent home, the boy dies tragically of food poisoning. A girl (Katsuko) is raped by her alcoholic uncle and becomes pregnant, and in a fit of irrationality stabs a boy at the liquor shop who has tender feelings for her not having any other way to vent her emotional turmoil. When her uncle is confronted as a suspect for this abusive act, he decides to gather his meager belongings and flee from the town barely one step ahead of the investigation. Tamba-san the chasework silversmith is a sage figure, who disarms a youth swinging the katana sword, and allows burglars to rob him of his money. After exploring the set-backs and anguish which surrounds many of the families in this indigent community, along with the dreams of escape which many of them support to maintain at least a superficial level of calm, the film comes full circle returning to Roku-chan. As the film ends Roku-chan is again seen preparing to board his imaginary train tram and serve his community of passengers as best he can. ===== The story picks up immediately after the end of Another World. Buddy lands the pterodactyl in the ruins of his village, lays Lester down on a cot to rest and walks through the village, thinking of his past. A flashback follows showing that Buddy's people were captured by soldiers led by one of the alien humanoids with red eyes. After recovering his power whip Buddy returns to the prison he and Lester escaped from in the first game trying to save his people. Buddy and Lester overcome various obstacles, but later in the game Buddy is knocked unconscious, and Lester saves him by attacking an enemy alien but is electrocuted while doing so. Eventually Buddy is able to find the red-eyed alien and traps him in a cage with a beast that kills him. At the end of the game, Buddy gives Lester's body a ceremonial cremation. It is shown later how Buddy's village is rebuilt with its citizens living again in harmony. ===== Seina Yamada is a young Japanese high school student living with his parents and younger sister in rural Okayama, Japan. One morning, following a hapless bike ride through the country, a large spacecraft crashes into the lake behind the Masaki residence, causing a violent tsunami that Seina is unable to escape from and he sinks, almost drowning. He regains consciousness shortly after, meeting Amane Kaunaq, the spacecraft's pilot, who gives Seina an application. Seina takes it, and shows it to his family at home. Mistaking it for a contest entry, his mother and sister aggressively force him to fill it out; afterwards he retreats to his room and falls asleep. The following morning, awakened aboard a vessel in orbit, Seina is informed by an official that he has successfully joined the Galaxy Police. It also revealed that the Galaxy Police originally meant to recruit Tenchi, but they got Seina instead. ===== During the American Civil War in 1863, Amy, a 12-year-old student at the Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies in rural Mississippi, discovers a seriously wounded Union soldier, John McBurney. She brings him to the school's gated enclosure where the school headmistress, Martha Farnsworth, first insists on turning him over to Confederate troops, but then decides to restore him to health first. He is initially kept locked in the school's music room and kept under watch. Edwina, the schoolteacher who has had no experience with men, takes an immediate liking to John, as does Carol, a 17-year-old student who makes advances with an experienced air. John begins to bond with each of the women in the house, including the slave Hallie. As he charms each of them, the sexually repressed atmosphere of the school becomes filled with jealousy and deceit, and the women begin to turn on one another. After Carol, who earlier made a welcomed pass at John, witnesses John kissing Edwina in the garden, she ties a blue rag to the school's entrance gate to alert the Confederate troops to the presence of a Yankee soldier. When a band of Confederate soldiers see it while passing the school, Martha lies and helps John pretend he is a relative loyal to the Confederacy. Martha also becomes infatuated with John, and a flashback shows her having an incestuous relationship with her brother. Martha considers keeping John at the school as a handyman. She makes sexual advances toward him, which he resists. Late one night, Edwina discovers John having sex with Carol in her bedroom. In a jealous rage, she beats him with a candlestick, causing him to fall down the staircase and break his leg severely. Martha insists he will die of gangrene unless they amputate his leg. The women carry him to the kitchen where they tie him to the table. Martha saws off his leg at the knee. When John awakens and learns that his leg has been amputated, he goes into a fury, convinced that Martha performed the operation as revenge for his rejection of her sexual advances. John, under lock and key, convinces Carol to unlock his door. He sneaks from his room into Martha's room and steals a pistol and some personal items of Martha's including some letters from her brother. Convinced that Martha plans to hold him prisoner, John confronts Martha at gunpoint, claiming control of the house and declaring his intention to have his way with any of the women or girls. He gets drunk and then confronts the entire household, revealing that he read Martha's letters and that they implicate Martha and her brother in an incestuous relationship. In a fit of anger he also kills Amy's pet turtle. Edwina follows John to his room and professes her love for him. They begin to kiss and it is later implied that they had sex. Meanwhile, Martha convinces the others (except for Edwina, who is not present) that they need to kill John to prevent him from denouncing them to Union troops who have made camp within sight of the school. Martha asks Amy to pick mushrooms they can prepare "especially for him" and Amy says she knows just where to find some. At dinner, John apologizes for his actions, and Edwina reveals that she and John have made plans to leave the school and marry. John has been eating the mushrooms and the others pass the bowl without taking any except for Edwina. When she starts to eat some, Martha cries out for her to stop. John realizes he has been poisoned, and leaves the dining room disoriented, and collapses in the hallway. The following day, the women sew his corpse into a burial shroud and carry him out of the gate to bury. They agree he died of exhaustion, and Amy denies she could ever pick a poisonous mushroom by mistake. ===== Rysiek (Stanisław Tym, who also co-wrote the screenplay), the shrewd manager of a state-sponsored sports club, has to get to London before his ex-wife Irena (Barbara Burska) goes to collect an enormous sum of money from a savings account the two used to share in happier days. But getting out of a communist country is never easy, even for a well- connected operator like Rysiek. It seems that Irena has destroyed Rysiek's hard-won passport to strand him in Warsaw while she's off to London, forcing him to craft a Byzantine scheme which involves the production of a movie with his friend. He uses this as an opportunity to track down his look-alike "borrowing" his passport to stop his wife. Hilarity ensues as Bareja gives the audience a guided tour of the corruption, absurd bureaucracy, pervasive bribery and flourishing black market that pervaded socialism in the People's Republic of Poland. The bear is a nickname of the main character, but also a big straw-bear used in a corruption scheme. ===== Writer Jack Torrance arrives at the remote Overlook Hotel in the Rocky Mountains to be interviewed for the position of winter caretaker. The hotel, which opened in 1909 and was built on the site of a Native American burial ground, closes during the snowed-in months. Once hired, Jack plans to use the hotel's solitude to write. Manager Stuart Ullman warns Jack about the hotel's reputation: a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, killed his family and himself. Jack is nevertheless impressed with the hotel and takes the job. In Boulder, Jack's son, Danny, has a premonition about the hotel, and Jack's wife, Wendy, tells a doctor about Danny's imaginary friend, Tony. She also reveals that Jack is a recovering alcoholic who once injured Danny in a drunken rage. When the family moves into the hotel, head chef Dick Hallorann surprises Danny by telepathically offering him ice cream. Hallorann explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared this telepathic ability, which he calls "shining". Hallorann tells Danny that the hotel has a "shine" and its own memories. He also tells Danny to stay away from room 237. A month passes; while Jack's writing goes nowhere, Danny and Wendy explore the hotel's hedge maze and Hallorann goes to Florida. Wendy learns that the phone lines are out due to the heavy snowfall. Danny has frightening visions, while Jack becomes prone to violent outbursts as his mental health deteriorates. Danny's curiosity about room 237 overtakes him when he sees the room's door open. Later, Wendy finds Jack screaming during a nightmare while asleep at his typewriter. After she awakens him, Jack says he dreamed that he killed her and Danny. Danny arrives, visibly traumatized and bruised. Wendy accuses Jack of abusing him, which Jack denies. Jack wanders into the hotel's Gold Room and meets a ghostly bartender named Lloyd, to whom he complains about his marriage. Wendy tells Jack that Danny told her a "crazy woman" in room 237 attempted to strangle him. Jack investigates room 237 and encounters a dead woman's ghost, but he tells Wendy that he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue over whether Danny should be removed from the hotel, and Jack returns to the Gold Room, which is now filled with ghosts attending a ball. He meets a ghostly waiter who identifies himself as Delbert Grady. The ghost informs Jack that Danny has reached out to Hallorann using his "talent", and says that Jack must "correct" his wife and child. After telepathically sensing Danny's fear, Halloran flies back to Colorado. Danny calls out "redrum" and goes into another trance, referring to himself as "Tony". Wendy discovers that Jack has been typing pages filled with the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". She begs a psychotic Jack to leave the hotel with Danny, but he threatens her. Wendy knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat and locks him in the kitchen pantry, but she and Danny are both trapped as Jack has disabled the hotel's two-way radio and snowcat. Jack converses through the pantry door with Grady, who unlocks the door, freeing Jack. Danny continues chanting and drawing the word "REDRUM". When Wendy sees the word reversed in the bedroom mirror, the word is revealed to be "MURDER". Jack hacks through the quarters' main door with an axe. Wendy sends Danny through the bathroom window, but cannot get out herself. Jack breaks through the door, but retreats after Wendy slashes his hand with a knife. Hearing Hallorann arriving in a snowcat, Jack ambushes and murders him in the lobby, then pursues Danny into the hedge maze. Wendy runs through the hotel looking for Danny, encountering ghosts, a cascade of blood Danny envisioned in Boulder, and Hallorann's corpse. In the hedge maze, Danny lays a false trail to mislead Jack and hides behind a snowdrift while Jack follows the false trail. Danny escapes from the maze and reunites with Wendy; they leave in Hallorann's snowcat, while Jack, now hopelessly lost in the maze, freezes to death. In a photograph in the hotel hallway, Jack is pictured standing amid a crowd of party revelers from 1921. ===== In the novel Jack recovers his sanity and goodwill through the intervention of Danny while this does not occur in the film. Writing in Cinefantastique magazine, Frederick Clarke suggests, "Instead of playing a normal man who becomes insane, Nicholson portrays a crazy man attempting to remain sane." In the novel, Jack's final act is to enable Wendy and Danny to escape the hotel before it explodes due to a defective boiler, killing him. The film ends with the hotel still standing. More broadly, the defective boiler is a major element of the novel's plot, entirely missing from the film version. Because of the limitations of special effects at the time, the living topiary animals of the novel were omitted and a hedge maze was added, acting as a final trap for Jack Torrance as well as a refuge for Danny. In the film, the hotel possibly derives its malevolent energy from being built on an Indian burial ground. In the novel, the reason for the hotel's manifestation of evil is possibly explained by a theme present in King's previous novel Salem's Lot as well as Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House: a physical place may absorb the evils that transpire there and manifest them as a vaguely sentient malevolence.Cinema of the occult: new age, satanism, Wicca, and spiritualism in film, by Carrol Lee Fry, notes similarities to both the Jackson story and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher (p. 230). The film's Hallorann speaks to Danny about that phenomenon occurring at the Overlook. In the novel, Jack does a great deal of investigation of the hotel's past through a scrapbook,The chapter is analyzed at length in a subplot almost omitted from the film aside from two touches: a brief appearance of the scrapbook beside the typewriter, and Jack's statement to the ghost of Grady that he knows his face from an old newspaper article describing the latter's horrific acts. Kubrick in fact shot a scene where Jack discovers the scrapbook but removed it during post- production, a decision which co-screenwriter Diane Johnson lamented. Some of the film's most iconic scenes, such as the ghost girls in the hallway and the torrent of blood from the elevators, are unique to the film. The most notable of these would be the typewritten pages Wendy discovers on Jack's desk. Similarly, many of the most memorable lines of dialogue ("Words of wisdom" and "Here's Johnny!") are heard exclusively in the film. ===== Paul "Wrecking" Crewe is a former star pro football quarterback who walks out on his wealthy girlfriend Melissa in Palm Beach, Florida. He takes her Maserati- engined Citroën SM without permission and leads police on a car chase. Crewe is eventually caught and sentenced to 18 months in Citrus State Prison. The convicts disrespect Crewe because he was dismissed from the NFL for point shaving. The warden, Rudolph Hazen, is a football fanatic who manages a semi- pro team of prison guards. He wants Crewe to help coach the team and clinch a championship. Responding to pressure from the head guard and coach, Captain Wilhelm Knauer, a reluctant Crewe eventually agrees to play in an exhibition game. Crewe forms a prison team that includes Samson, a former professional weightlifter, and Connie Shokner, a serial killer and martial arts expert. With the help of the clever Caretaker, former professional player Nate Scarboro and the first black inmate willing to play, "Granny" Granville, plus long-term prisoner Pop—and with an assist from the warden's amorous secretary, Miss Toot—Crewe molds a team nicknamed the "Mean Machine". He agrees to play quarterback himself. After witnessing "Granny" being harassed by some of the prison guards without breaking, the black inmates decide to volunteer their services and join the team. Unger, one of the prison trustees, persistently asks Crewe if he can replace Caretaker as manager of the team, which Crewe refuses to do. In retaliation, Unger attempts to kill Crewe by fashioning a home-made bomb from a light bulb filled with a combustible fluid, designed to detonate inside Crewe's cell when he turns on the light. However, Caretaker is killed instead, when he enters Crewe's cell to retrieve some papers and Unger closes the cell door, locking him in and preventing rescue. Crewe's teammates are given a stern lecture from Hazen about the consequences of any attempted escape after the game. Afterward, Crewe re-energizes the team with a surprise - presenting them with professional uniforms (stolen from the guards by Caretaker before he was killed). They charge onto the field, to the shock of the guards and Hazen, in their new uniforms. The "Mean Machine" starts out surprisingly well, and at halftime the game is close, with the guards leading, 15-13. Hazen threatens Crewe as an accessory to Caretaker's murder unless Crewe loses the game to the guards by at least 21 points. Crewe reluctantly agrees, but only if Hazen promises not to hurt the other prisoners; Hazen agrees, but in bad faith, and tells Knauer to have his team "inflict as much physical punishment on the prisoners as humanly possible" as soon as they are ahead by 21 points. Crewe makes deliberate mistakes, putting the "Mean Machine" down by more than three touchdowns, 35-13, then takes himself out of the game. The guards gladly injure several of the prisoners, and Crewe's teammates feel betrayed. Depressed, Crewe goes back into the game, but the prisoners refuse to co-operate with him until he convinces them of his change of heart. The "Mean Machine" gets back into the game, trailing 35-30, one of their touchdowns scored by Nate despite his bad knee, and he is immediately cut down and crippled by guard Bogdanski. As he is wheeled off the field, Nate tells Crewe to "screw Hazen" and win the game. Crewe scores the winning touchdown with no time left and the "Mean Machine" wins, 36-35. As the prisoners celebrate, Crewe walks away across the field towards the departing crowds. Hazen furiously repeatedly orders Knauer to shoot him because "he's trying to escape." But he hesitates due to his new found respect for Crewe who is actually retrieving a football. Disgusted at what he almost did, Knauer hands the rifle back to Hazen saying "game ball". Crewe reaches Hazen and hands him the ball, saying "Stick THIS in your trophy case." ===== Nineteen-year-old Roy Hobbs is traveling by train to Chicago with his manager Sam to try out for the Chicago Cubs. Other passengers include sportswriter Max Mercy, Walter "The Whammer" Whambold, the leading hitter in the American League and three-time American League Most Valuable Player (based on Babe Ruth), and Harriet Bird, a beautiful but mysterious woman. The train makes a quick stop at a carnival along the rail where The Whammer challenges Hobbs to strike him out. Hobbs does just that, much to everyone's surprise and The Whammer's humiliation. Back on the train Harriet Bird strikes up a conversation with Hobbs, who never suspects that Bird has any ulterior motive. In fact, she is a lunatic obsessed with shooting the best baseball player. Her intended target was Whammer, but after Hobbs struck him out, her attention shifts to Hobbs. In Chicago, Hobbs checks into his hotel and promptly receives a call from Bird, who is also staying there. When he goes down to her room, she shoots him in the stomach. The novel picks up 16 years later in the dugout of the New York Knights, a fictional National League baseball team. The team has been on an extended losing streak, and manager Pop Fisher's and assistant manager Red Blow's careers appear to be winding to an ignominious end. During one losing game, Roy Hobbs emerges from the clubhouse tunnel and announces that he is the team's new left fielder, having just been signed by Knights co- owner Judge Banner. Both Pop and Red take Hobbs under their wing, and Red later tells Hobbs about Fisher's plight as manager of the Knights. The Judge wants to take over Pop's share in the team but cannot do that until the current season ends and provided the Knights fail to win the National League pennant. Being the newest player, Roy has a number of practical jokes played upon him, including the theft of his "Wonderboy" bat. Once Roy gets his first chance at bat, however, he proves to be a true "natural" at the game. During one game, Pop substitutes Hobbs as a pinch hitter for team star Bump Baily. Pop is disappointed with Baily, who has not been hustling and decides to teach him a lesson by pinch-hitting for him. Pop tells Roy to "knock the cover off of the ball." Roy literally does that—hitting a triple to right field. A few days later, a newly hustling Bump attempts to play a hard hit fly ball. He runs into the outfield wall, later dying from the impact. Roy permanently takes over Bump's position. Max Mercy reappears, searching for details of Hobbs' past. Hobbs remains quiet even after Mercy offers five thousand dollars, telling him that, "all the public is entitled to is my best game of baseball." At the same time, Hobbs has been attempting to negotiate a higher salary with the judge, arguing that his success should be rewarded. Mercy introduces Hobbs to bookie Gus Sands, who is keeping company with Memo Paris, Pop's niece. Hobbs has been infatuated with Memo since he came to the Knights. Hobbs' magic tricks appear to impress her. Max Mercy writes a column about the judge's refusal to grant Hobbs a raise, and a fan uprising ensues. Hobbs, however, is more occupied with Memo and attempts to further their relationship. Pop warns Hobbs about Memo's tendency to impart bad luck on the people she associates with. Hobbs dismisses the warning, but soon after, he falls into a hitting slump. Numerous attempts to reverse it fail until he finally hits a home run during a game where a mysterious woman rises from her seat. Before Hobbs can see who she is, she has left. Roy eventually meets her, Iris Lemon, and proceeds to court her. Upon learning she is a grandmother, however, he loses interest and returns his attention to Memo Paris. Memo rebuffs Roy's advances; Hobbs continues to play brilliantly and leads the Knights to a 17-game winning streak. With the Knights one game away from winning the National League pennant, Roy attends a party hosted by Memo where he collapses and awakens in the hospital. The doctor says he can play in the final game of the season, but must retire after that if he wants to live. Hobbs wants to start a family with Memo and realizes he will need money. The judge offers Hobbs a bribe to lose the Knight's final game. Hobbs makes a counter-offer of $35,000, which is accepted. That night, unable to sleep, he reads a letter from Iris. After seeing the word 'grandmother' in the letter, he discards it. He plays the next day and while at-bat, fouls a pitch into the stands that strikes Iris, injuring her, and splits the Wonderboy bat in two lengthwise. Iris tells Roy that she is pregnant with his child, and now he is determined to do his best for their future. At the end of the game, with a chance to win it, Hobbs, now trying to win, comes to bat against Herman Youngberry, a brilliant young pitcher similar to Hobbs at the same age. Youngberry strikes out Hobbs, ending the game and the season for the Knights. As he sits bemoaning the end of the season and possibly his career, Mercy rediscovers the shooting and also finds out that Hobbs was paid to throw the game. If this report from Mercy is true, Roy Hobbs will be expelled from the game and all of his records removed. ===== ===== The beginning of the game with Mike Finn still inside the Perseus (Acorn Electron version) The player takes the role of Mike Finn, a leading member of a space- exploration organisation called Columbus Force, who have been ordered to the planet Phoebus as part of a rescue mission. Finn is tasked with abetting Commander David Sprake and the surviving crew of the disabled Pericles ship from a psychotic renegade genetic engineer, Triax (the titular Exile), who appears briefly at the very start of the game removing a vital piece of equipment called a Destinator from Mike's ship, the Perseus. As with Elite, a novella (written by Mark Cullen, with input from the game's authors) was included to set up the story, and to provide some clues as to the nature of the planet Phoebus' environment. The novella implies the events take place some time in the 22nd century. ===== Rudy Robles (Cheech Marin) is told by his mother to pick up his cousin Javier (Paul Rodriguez) at a factory before she leaves for Fresno. Robles arrives shortly before immigration officials raid the factory looking for illegal immigrants. Because he is carrying no identification, and his mother and sister are not available to verify he is a US citizen, Robles is deported with the undocumented immigrants to Mexico. Robles cannot speak more than very simple Spanglish, though he is fluent in German from having served in Germany in the United States Army. In Tijuana, Robles becomes friends with a guy named Jimmy (Daniel Stern) and a waitress named Dolores (Kamala Lopez-Dawson). Unable to contact his mother, Robles makes repeated attempts to cross the border, all ending in failure. Jimmy offers to get him back home for a price. Having left home without his wallet, Robles works for Jimmy as doorman at a strip club, earning extra money selling oranges and teaching five would be illegal immigrants, two Central Americans and three Asians, to walk and talk like East Los Angeles natives. They become called the "Waas Sappening Boys" or "What's Happening Boys". Robles falls in love with Dolores and finally raises the money needed to be smuggled across the border. He goes on a date with Dolores and the next day, Robles bids farewell to Jimmy, receives a last kiss goodbye from Dolores and climbs into the coyote's truck. He sees a woman pleading to also be taken as her husband is already in the truck and their family is in the United States, but she lacks the money to pay for her to be smuggled. Robles gives the woman his place. Robles stands for the last time on the hill of the Mexico – United States border while two immigration officers sit in their truck watching in laughter. The song "America" by Neil Diamond is heard as Robles raises his arms and hundreds of people appear and race forward to reach the American Dream. The immigration officers hide in their truck. Rudy, Dolores, and their "Waas Up" friends walk with their heads up high into the United States. ===== The protagonists in the early episodes are the titular Howard family—Tom (Maurice Colbourne), wife Jan (Jan Harvey) and grown-up children Leo (Edward Highmore) and Lynne (Tracey Childs). Tom is made redundant from his job as an aircraft designer after twenty years and is unwilling to re-enter the rat race. A sailing enthusiast, he decides to pursue his dream of designing and building boats, putting his redundancy pay- out into the ailing Mermaid boatyard, run by Jack Rolfe (Glyn Owen), a gruff traditionalist, and his daughter Avril (Susan Gilmore). Tom immediately finds himself in conflict with Jack, whose reliance on alcohol and whose resentment of Tom's new design ideas threaten the business, but has an ally in Avril, who turns out to be the real driving force behind the yard with her cool, businesslike brain. Jan, who has spent the last twenty years raising the children and building the family home, is less than impressed with her husband's risky new venture, and finds herself pursuing her own life outside the family through establishing a new marine boutique whilst working for flash "medallion man" Ken Masters (Stephen Yardley). Other major characters introduced during the first series are Kate Harvey (Dulcie Gray), Jan's sensible and supportive mother, the suave, scheming millionaire businessman Charles Frere (Tony Anholt) and the wealthy but unhappy Urquhart family. Gerald (Ivor Danvers) is a financial wizard and the right-hand man of Charles Frere. Polly (Patricia Shakesby), a friend of Jan, is a bored corporate wife preoccupied with preserving her social status, and their daughter Abby (Cindy Shelley) is a socially awkward young woman who has returned to Tarrant after completing her education at a Swiss finishing school and who establishes a friendship with Leo Howard. Unlike the comparatively close and secure Howard family, the Urquharts have secrets to hide. Gerald and Polly's marriage is a sham—an arrangement to cover the fact that Gerald is bisexual, give him respectability in the business world, and give a name to Abby, Polly's illegitimate daughter after an affair at university. Abby herself is pregnant, after a brief relationship in Switzerland. The first series establishes the narrative blueprint for the remainder of the programme's run: combining standard melodramatic storylines involving family drama, romance and extramarital affairs (Tom and Avril, Jan and Ken) with business-related plots of corporate intrigue and scheming for power, climaxing with an end-of-series cliffhanger. In the first series, Lynne Howard is seduced by the ruthless Charles Frere. She runs tearfully across the Tarrant harbour during a rainstorm after finding him in bed with another woman, trips and falls unconscious into the water. Later cliffhangers would involve a fatal water- skiing accident, a plane crash, an accident during a powerboat race and a road accident. By virtue of being produced during the mid-to-late 1980s, Howards' Way gives much insight into Thatcherite values, in its portrayal of the years of boom and bust, of individual aspiration and enterprise, and the conspicuous consumption of wealth. The class clashes during the decade were reflected in the character of Ken Masters, a nouveau riche chancer always involved in shady schemes to establish himself as a credible figure in the business world, but generally looked down upon by those with 'old money' (for example Charles Frere and merchant banker Sir John Stevens (Willoughby Gray) and often used as an unwitting pawn in their wider power games. Through the character of Jan Howard and her attempts to go it alone as a businesswoman by establishing her own fashion label, the series explored a standard 1980s melodramatic motif of female emancipation via capitalism, similar to that associated with the characters of Alexis Colby in Dynasty and Abby Ewing in Knots Landing and with ITV drama series Connie. ===== While researching an ordinary real estate transaction, title examiner Leah Farrell (McCormick) discovers a property transfer document with the forged name of a missing woman, and proceeds to investigate. When she is threatened by gangsters for snooping around, she turns for help to Assistant District Attorney Paul Shaughnessy (Atkins). As Paul tries to protect Leah from the danger that looms from all sides, romance blooms. The two of them foil the plot to bring illegal gambling activities to a small seaside town in Massachusetts. ===== In 1943, Lieutenant Commander MacClain has just lost his ship and most of his crewmen due to enemy action. While accompanying a convoy, he was attacked by a U-boat with a distinctive large Iron Cross painted on the conning tower. The U-boat surfaced and machine- gunned many of the survivors. Offered duty ashore, MacClain is determined to avenge his men. He is allocated a new ship and while waiting for it to be built, befriends Joyce Cartwright, whose brother Dick, an officer, was killed under his command. MacClain's new ship is christened as HMCS Donnacona , and soon a crew of 65, including officer Paul Cartwright, Joyce's younger brother is assigned to the corvette. Setting out as an escort to a convoy heading for England, the Donnacona comes upon a grisly sight, a lifeboat filled with dead sailors, the result of a deadly U-boat attack. In an ocean storm, his ship is separated from the convoy, but 300 miles from the Irish coast, MacClain finds other lost ships that had also been separated from the other escort ships. The captain of one of the ships, the tanker Egyptian Star relays the information that he thinks a submarine has been trailing the ship. The small group of ships becomes the target of Luftwaffe bombers that are chased off by a British fighter launched from one of the escort ships. The submarines below are still the main concern and when the Egyptian Star is torpedoed and sunk, MacClain attacks, sinking a U-boat with depth charges. Another U-boat surfaces and in a running battle badly damages the Donnacona . The U-Boat is damaged by deck gun fire from the corvette. MacClain attempts to ram the submarine and when it begins to dive, Lt. Cartwright and seaman Stooky O'Meara fire off depth charges, sinking the U-boat. As it breaks up, MacClain recognizes it as the one which had machine-gunned his men, killing his former crew. The corvette, along with six surviving merchant ships, limps to safely in Ireland, but before it sets anchor, MacClain is asked to sail the Donnacona past the other ships in the harbor, so that its crew may be saluted for their bravery. ===== Emil, a fastidious and orderly older man, carries his happy new bride, Eva, over the threshold of their home. He has great difficulty opening the lock on the front door, trying key after key. She is greatly disappointed on their wedding night because he does not even come to bed. He has pinched his finger in the clasp of Eva's pearls when he attempts to remove them. He is unable to consummate their marriage due to the minor injury on his finger. Emil continues to ignore Eva for many days often retreating behind his newspaper. Eva refuses to live in a loveless marriage. She can no longer bear to be Emil's wife in name only and returns to the estate of her father, a wealthy horse breeder. Eva seeks and is granted a divorce from Emil. One day, Eva goes horseback riding in the countryside surrounding her father's estate. She has a swim in the nude, leaving her clothes on her horse, which wanders off to find a stallion locked in a nearby corral. Eva, still completely naked, chases after her horse. Adam, a virile, young engineer working in road construction in that area, happens to look up and see Eva trying to catch her horse. Finally, Adam is able to catch the runaway horse. Eva is so embarrassed that she hides in the bushes when Adam approaches her. At first, Eva is ashamed of her nudity, but then she glares up at him in defiance. He hands Eva her clothes. When she tries to leave, she hurts her ankle. At first, she resists Adam's efforts to help, then acquiesces. That night, Eva is restless and cannot stop thinking about Adam. Finally, she goes to his isolated residence, which is located near the field where they met. After some hesitation, they embrace and spend the night together. In the throes of passion, Eva's pearl necklace is broken and falls to the floor. She forgets to take it with her the next morning. But the young lovers promise to meet in town at the local hotel the following evening. When Eva returns home the next morning, she finds an unwelcome visitor. Her ex- husband, Emil, has been waiting for her all night. He wants to reconcile with her, but she tells him that it is too late. Brokenhearted, he leaves. By chance, while driving away, Emil encounters Adam on the road. Adam helps to guide Emil through the construction. Then Adam asks Emil for a ride into town. Emil agrees. They stop at Adam's residence in order to pack his suitcase. While packing, Adam notices Eva's pearls on the floor. He takes them along intending to return them to her. While traveling to town, Emil notices Adam admiring the pearl necklace. Emil instantly recognizes the distinctive pearl necklace as those belonging to his ex-wife. Immediately, Emil becomes jealous and enraged. Adam has no idea that Emil had been married to Eva. In his anger, Emil considers driving into an approaching train at a crossing, but at the last moment thinks better of it. That night, Emil sits alone in a hotel room while a fly tries futilely to get out through a closed window and several others are shown trapped in flypaper. Meanwhile, downstairs, Adam is arranging flowers as he waits in the hotel restaurant for his lover, Eva, to arrive. The young lovers are very happy to be reunited. While they are drinking champagne and dancing, they suddenly hear a gunshot. Emil has shot himself. Everyone in the hotel runs to the door of Emil's room. Adam still does not know of the connection between Emil and Eva. She is deeply saddened by the suicide of Emil. However, she does not divulge her relationship with Emil to anyone, including Adam. The young couple were to take the train to Berlin later that evening and begin their new life together. While waiting at the train station, Adam falls asleep. A distraught Eva slips quietly away while Adam sleeps. She leaves on a different train without Adam because of the guilt that she feels over the suicide of her former husband, Emil. When Adam awakens, he realizes that Eva has left him without a word. Later, he returns to his work in construction and daydreams of Eva. Adam imagines Eva happily holding his baby. ===== "Wedge" Donovan (John Wayne) is a tough construction boss, building airstrips in the Pacific for the U.S. Navy during World War II. He clashes with his liaison officer, Lieutenant Commander Robert Yarrow (Dennis O'Keefe), over the fact that his men are not allowed to arm themselves against the Japanese. When the enemy lands in force on the island, Donovan finally takes matters into his own hands, leading his men into the fray. This prevents Yarrow from springing a carefully devised trap that would have wiped out the invaders in a murderous machine gun crossfire, with minimal American losses. Instead, many of Donovan's men are killed unnecessarily. As a result of this tragedy, Yarrow finally convinces the US Navy to form Construction Battalions (CBs, or the more familiar "Seabees") with Donovan's assistance, despite their mutual romantic interest in war correspondent Constance Chesley (Susan Hayward). Donovan and many of his men enlist and receive formal military training. The two men are teamed together on yet another island. The Japanese launch a major attack, which the Seabees barely manage to hold off, sometimes using heavy construction machinery such as bulldozers and a clamshell bucket. When word reaches Donovan of another approaching enemy column, there are no sailors left to oppose this new threat. In desperation, he rigs a bulldozer with explosives on its blade, intending to ram it into a petroleum storage tank. The plan works, sending a cascade of burning liquid into the path of the Japanese, who retreat in panic, right into the sights of waiting machine guns. However, Donovan is shot in the process and dies in the explosion. ===== Jack Ryan, a surfer and small-time thief, has a fight with the intimidating Lou Harris, involving a baseball bat. Harris is a foreman on a Hawaii construction site run by duplicitous millionaire Ray Ritchie. When Jack is released from jail, both the police and Ritchie's business partner, Bob Rogers, Jr., tell Jack to leave the island. However, Judge Walter Crewes takes a liking to Jack and offers him a place to stay and a job as a handyman at a small resort of beach-front bungalows that the Judge owns. Jack has treacherous encounters with Harris and Rogers, Jr., on numerous occasions. Ritchie has all his (substantial) property registered in the name of his wife, Alison. He is also cheating on his wife with a much younger mistress, Nancy Hayes. When Nancy takes an interest in Jack, the Judge warns him that she likes "the criminal type" and cannot be trusted. Jack is falling for Nancy, and the two break into houses for fun and profit. Nancy suggests to Jack a scheme to steal $200,000 that Ritchie keeps for bribes and mob business. She arranges for Jack to sneak into Ritchie's house to steal the money from his safe. Jack arrives to find that Nancy has poisoned Ritchie, in a conspiracy with Alison. Nancy has set up Jack to be Ritchie's "killer", with Alison to shoot him dead as an intruder. It turns out that the Judge is Alison's lover and has been part of the conspiracy, with the two promising to give Nancy the $200,000 for her part. Jack manages to steal the money from the safe and narrowly escapes, leaving Alison and the Judge to set up Nancy as Ritchie's killer. Alison and the Judge are seen sailing on Ritchie's yacht, disposing of his body in the ocean. Nancy is seen in disguise, trying to escape the island before she's arrested for Ritchie's murder. Jack drives past Nancy in a limousine, stopping to wish her well and refusing to help her after she set him up. He gets back in the limo, with the money and a beautiful vacationer named Number 9 he met while working at the Judge's resort. ===== After the body of Sadako Yamamura is retrieved from a well, her uncle Takashi is summoned by police to identify her. Detective Omuta explains to Takashi that forensics concluded Sadako may have survived in the well for thirty years. Forensics experts reconstruct her body, giving it to Takashi, who gives his niece a burial at sea, hoping to be free from the guilt he has carried since her mother Shizuko committed suicide because of his actions. The police search for Reiko Asakawa following the sudden death of her ex-husband Ryuji Takayama and her father Koichi a week later. Mai Takano, Ryuji's university assistant, investigates his death, visiting Reiko's news office where her colleague Okazaki joins Mai in her search for answers. They find a burnt out videotape in Reiko's apartment, Mai sensing Reiko's father died the same way as Ryuji. Investigating the urban legend of the cursed videotape, Okazaki meets a high school student Kanae Sawaguchi, who gives him a copy of the tape but admits she watched it herself. She begs Okazaki to watch the tape before the week is up, but he chickens out and hides his copy in his desk drawer at work. Mai and Okazaki go to a mental hospital to speak to Masami Kurahashi, a friend of Reiko's niece Tomoko, but learn she is both mute and has a phobia of televisions, having witnessed Tomoko's death. They meet Doctor Oisho Kawajiri, Masami's doctor, and a paranormal researcher, who is trying to expel the psychic energy within Masami through experimentation. Mai steps out for some air, encountering Masami, whose presence causes Sadako to materialise on a television and terrify the patients. Mai finds Reiko's son Yoichi alone in a shopping mall before his mother appears. Mai learns Yoichi has been mute since his father and grandfather's deaths and his psychic abilities intensified, and Reiko asks if Kawajiri can help. Returning to the hospital, Mai, Okazaki, and Detective Omuta observe Kawajiri's experiment to exorcise the psychic energy from Masami by projecting her mental imagery onto a blank tape. However, it causes the cursed videotape's imagery to appear, killing Masami, and Mai destroys the recording. Upon learning Kanae has died from the curse, Mai surrenders Reiko and Yoichi to the authorities. Realising the two are to be separated, Mai telepathically warns Yoichi, who escapes with Reiko, who is consequentially hit by a truck. Okazaki attempts to delete his interview with Kanae, only for her ghost to materialise and haunt him. Mai and Yoichi travel to Oshima Island and stay in the Yamamura Inn. Yoichi has a nightmare, causing Shizuko's and a young Sadako's ghosts to appear before Mai wards them away. Dr. Kawajiri arrives in the night, offering to exorcise Yoichi as he tried with Masami, with Mai volunteering to act as a conduit to expel Sadako's hatred into a swimming pool, water being able to neutralise the energy. However, the attempt turns frightening, Sadako's coffin appearing in the pool. Takashi drowns himself to stop Sadako, while Kawajiri goes insane and commits suicide by diving into the pool carrying electrical equipment. Mai and Yoichi fall into the water, appearing inside the well. Ryuji's ghost appears, absorbing Sadako's rage from his son, and summons a rope that will guide Mai to safety as long as she doesn't look down. Mai ends up doing so, causing Sadako's ghost to appear, who scales the well only to cryptically ask, “Why is it only you were saved?”, before falling back into the well. Mai and Yoichi emerge in the pool, free of their fear. While Okazaki is institutionalised, a nurse takes a picture of him. As she leaves the room she notices something in the photo, seemingly shocked; behind Okazaki is Kanae's laughing spirit looking for revenge. ===== When the school district of Whittaker Magnet School expands to cover Kate and George's duplex, they are forced to go to the frightening school, which is suspected to house a demon. But when the First Lady comes to visit the school, the vengeful demon causes more deaths and accidents. It's up to Kate and George to stop them. The cast of characters includes the spoiled Swiss milkmaid incarnation Heidi, her doting mother Cornelia, her brother Whit, Kate's not-so-secret unwanted admirer, who touches Kate inappropriately, and Pogo, a librarian who can only speak in nursery rhymes. ===== The novel is narrated by 30-year-old Barnaby, whose life has gone off the rails since he was caught robbing neighborhood homes as an adolescent. To the despair of his distant father, his social climbing mother, his chilly ex-wife and his prematurely patriarchal brother, Barnaby now works for a company called Rent- a-Back, doing odd jobs for elderly clients. He also waits, without much hope, for a visitation from the Gaitlin angel, who first suggested to Barnaby's great-grandfather the invention of the wooden dress form that made the Gaitlins rich. He finds his angel but perhaps not where he expects. He believes his angel was 36-year-old Sophia Maynard. Barnaby first sees Sophia on the train, while he is going to see his 9 year old daughter in Philadelphia, and Sophia is going to visit her mother. While he is in Philadelphia, his ex-wife told him he was not allowed to see their daughter anymore. The next week, he went back. Sophia was on the train again, and he is able to tell her about his job at Rent-a-Back, and she tells him about her job at the bank. They also discuss Opal, Barnaby's daughter, and Sophia agrees he should see her, and that Opal would want to continue to see her daddy. Later, Sophia contacts Barnaby's employer. She claims her aunt needs help working, and she needs Barnaby to help. Although, Barnaby's friend who is working with him, claims that Sophia hangs around while they are working, hoping Barnaby will ask her out. He finally does and she accepts. After a few months, Barnaby introduces Sophia to his family, and later Sophia introduces Barnaby to her mother. That summer, Barnaby introduces Sophia to his daughter, who has come to visit for a week. Opal says she likes Sophia, but by fall, when Opal sees Sophia's name on her Birthday card, she realizes that they are dating. While Barnaby and Opal are going to eat lunch, and they spot Opal's mother. Opal takes her stuffed Hedgehog from her father, and asks her mother to take her home. The novel traces the lead characters development towards maturity as he is influenced by his family and employers. ===== Pyramids of Mars depicts Ancient Egyptian Pyramids as extraterrestrial in origin In 1911 Egypt, an archaeology professor Marcus Scarman excavates a pyramid and finds the door to the burial chamber is inscribed with the Eye of Horus. His Egyptian assistants flee in fear as he enters the chamber alone and is hit by a beam of green light. The Fourth Doctor, intending to land in UNIT's base, ends up in the sealed wing of an English estate after the TARDIS was forced out of its flight path as Sarah Jane Smith sees an apparition of a Typhonian Animal in the console room. The two are found by the butler, who reveals they are in the Scarman estate which has been taken over by a mysterious Egyptian named Ibrahim Namin claiming to represent Scarman's estate, Scarman's friend Dr Warlock confronting him over foul play. When Namin sends a robot dressed like an Egyptian mummy after them and Warlock, they reach a hunting lodge used by Scarman's brother Laurence, whose marconiscope intercepted a signal from Mars. The Doctor decodes the signal as "Beware Sutekh", explaining to Sarah Jane that Sutekh is the last of a powerful alien race called the Osirans, his imprisonment by his brother Horus being the inspiration for ancient Egyptian mythology. Namin and the mummies greet the arrival of Sutekh's servant who travels to the priory via a spacetime tunnel portal disguised as a sarcophagus, the servant killing Namin for serving his purpose. The servant is revealed to be Marcus Scarman, whom the Doctor discovers is now a corpse animated by Sutekh's will. As Scarman and the robots secure the estate's perimeter while killing off anyone they find (like Warlock) before constructing an Osirian war missile aimed for Mars, the Doctor disrupts the tunnel using the TARDIS key before retrieving Namin's ring from his corpse. Hiding in the TARDIS, Sarah suggests they should just leave with the Doctor briefly taking them to 1980 to show what becomes of Earth if they allow Sutekh to escape. The extraterrestrial Sutekh is said to be the origin of the Egyptian deity Set Once back in 1911, the Doctor makes a jamming unit with Namin's ring to break Sutekh's hold over those animated by his will including Scarman, causing Laurence to attempt stopping him from activating the device. The robots chasing after the groundskeeper Clements kill him before they overrun the hunting lodge, one shutting down after destroying the machine while Sarah Jane uses Namin's ring to send the other back to Scarman. The Doctor decides to blow up the partially assembled rocket, Laurence suggesting the blasting gelignite kept in Clements's hut. The Doctor and Sarah Jane leave to obtain the gelignite, ordering Laurence to strip the bindings from the deactivated robot. When Scarman arrives, Laurence attempts to rekindle his brother's humanity but is killed by Scarman. After he and Sarah Jane return, the Doctor disguises himself under the robot's binding to set up the explosives before Sarah Jane detonates them with a shot from a rifle. Sutekh telekinetically suppresses the explosion, forcing the Doctor to use the space-time tunnel to reach Sutekh and break his concentration for the explosion to run its course. A furious Sutekh interrogates the Doctor before decides to turn him into a thrall to transport Scarman to a Martian pyramid to destroy the Eye of Horus which maintains his prison. Though strangled once serving his purpose, the Doctor survived through his respiratory bypass system as he and Sarah Jane follow Scarman through a series of locked chambers which are dependent upon solving logical and philosophical puzzles. While the Doctor is unable to stop Scarman from destroying the Eye, Scarman decaying to dust, he realises that Sutekh will not be released for two minutes due to the time of the Eye's signal travelling from Mars to Earth. The Doctor returns to the Priory and use a module from the TARDIS on Sutekh as he travels through the space-time tunnel, subjecting the Osirian to rapid ageing until his body dissolves once aged passed 11,000 years. But the Doctor's action causes the portal to overload with him and Sarah Jane fleeing into the TARDIS as the priory is consumed in flames. ===== The film revolves around everyman high school student Kyle (Chris Evans), who needs a high score on the SAT to get into the architecture program at Cornell University. He constantly compares himself to his older brother Larry, who is now living above his parents' garage. Kyle's best friend, Matty (Bryan Greenberg), wants to get a high score so he can go to the same college as his girlfriend, but he is an underachiever who had previously received a low score on his PSAT. They both believe that the SAT is standing in the way of their futures. The two boys realize that fellow student Francesca Curtis' (Scarlett Johansson) father owns the building that houses the regional office of ETS, where the answers to the SAT are located. Francesca initially doesn't want to help but changes her mind, saying "What the hell? It sounds like fun." Meanwhile, Kyle becomes attracted to Anna Ross (Erika Christensen), the second-highest ranked student in the school, and tells her about the plan. Anna had bombed a previous SAT and needs a good score to get into Brown University. However, Matty doesn't like the fact that she now knows about the plan and has a rant, right in the presence of stoner Roy (Leonardo Nam), who then has to be included in the heist. And finally, Anna tells the school basketball star Desmond Rhodes (Darius Miles), who needs a score of 900 or better to join the basketball team at St. John's University. An early attempt to break into the ETS offices fails, but the team then devises another plan. On the eve of the exam, Francesca will arrange for Kyle and Matty to have a meeting near the top floor, staying after closing. The other three will wait outside and watch the night guard until Francesca, Kyle, and Matty have successfully stolen the answers. The first part of the plan goes well, with Francesca, Kyle, and Matty successfully avoiding security cameras and the night guard. However, the answers are located on a computer, and only the technical genius Roy can crack the password; he and the other two get into the building, and Roy correctly guesses the password after seeing a photograph of an employee. Still, the answers can't be printed, so the group decides to take the test with their combined knowledge and get the answers that way. In the early hours of morning, they are finished and have all the answers written down. Just then, the guard comes up the stairs, and they try to escape through the ceiling; however, Francesca is left behind and is about to be discovered, so Matty bravely sacrifices himself in order to save her. Everyone else escapes, but each faces a certain confrontation before the exam: Kyle's brother asks him if he's really worse than a thief, Matty is bailed out by Francesca, Anna finds independence from her parents, and Desmond's mother convinces Roy to quit drugs. Before the SAT testing begins, the group realizes that, although it will help get them what they want, they would be better off without cheating. Roy grabs the answers and distributes them in the bathroom. After the decision, Matty comments that "this whole thing was for nothing." Kyle replies, "I wouldn't say nothing", as he glances at Anna. Matty and Francesca also share a look, as they have also presumably started a relationship. Each person eventually gets their desired test score without the answers: Kyle's dream of becoming an architect is still alive by attending Syracuse University, Desmond ends up going to St. John's, Matty becomes an actor, Francesca writes a novel (which is about six kids who conspire to steal the answers to the SAT), and Anna decides to travel to Europe for a while before starting college. As for Roy – the narrator of the film – he earned the highest SAT in the county, and, under Desmond's mom's guidance, he gets a GED. He then puts his untapped intelligence to use through programming, becoming a successful video game designer. ===== Dan Tanna (Robert Urich) is a Las Vegas private detective whose many clients include Phillip Roth (Tony Curtis), aka "Slick," the owner of several hotel casinos including the Maxim Hotel Casino and the Desert Inn Hotel & Country Club in Las Vegas. Tanna is often called to help investigate criminal cases, locate missing people, or even in absurd situations such as the case of a nun, played by Cassie Yates, who has a claim deed that says she owns the land on which the Desert Inn Hotel Casino stands. Tanna lives on the Las Vegas Strip next to Circus Circus Hotel/Casino, in the theatrical showroom props warehouse owned by the Desert Inn Hotel and Country Club. The large props warehouse where he lives has been partially converted into his living quarters. The unique design of Tanna's home allows him to park his red T-bird in his living room. Tanna also uses gadgets considered high-tech for the late 1970s, such as a car phone and an answering machine that physically picks his phone off the hook and into the microphone of a tape recorder. ===== Bowie (Granger) escapes from prison with bank robbers Chicamaw (Da Silva) and T-Dub (Flippen); the three take shelter with Chicamaw's brother, who operates a service station, and niece, Keechie (O'Donnell). The robbers have concocted a plan whereby they secure a car, rob a bank and use part of the money to help T-Dub's sister-in- law get her husband out of prison. Bowie wants money to hire a lawyer, who he believes will be able to easily prove that he was unjustly convicted of murder. The robbery goes fairly smoothly but, along the way, Chicamaw causes Bowie to have a car accident and then shoots and kills a police officer who shows up at the scene. Chicamaw leaves an injured Bowie in the care of Keechie and joins T-Dub in another town. In short order, the two young people fall in love, flee and plan to live an honest life. On the run, they get married and Keechie gets pregnant. But then Chicamaw and T-Dub return and demand that Bowie come with them for one more job. Bowie is forced to accept but the heist goes wrong: T-Dub ends up dead and Bowie, after a violent argument in the getaway car, leaves Chicamaw stranded. Bowie soon finds that he is unable to escape being hunted by the law and meets a tragic end. ===== Rozat "Rusty" Sabich is a prosecutor and the right-hand man of district attorney Raymond Horgan. When his colleague Carolyn Polhemus is found raped and murdered in her apartment, Raymond insists that Rusty take charge of the investigation. With the election for District Attorney approaching, Tommy Molto, the acting head of the homicide division, has left to join the rival campaign of Nico Della Guardia. Rusty, a married man, faces a conflict of interest since he had a brief sexual affair with Carolyn. As he had shown little ambition and would have therefore been of little use in advancing her career, Carolyn abruptly dumped him. Rusty has since reconciled with his wife Barbara, but is still obsessed with Carolyn. Detective Harold Greer is initially in charge of the murder investigation, but Rusty has him replaced with his friend Detective Dan Lipranzer, whom he persuades to narrow the inquiry so that his relationship with Carolyn is left out. Rusty soon discovers that Molto is making his own inquiries. Aspects of the crime suggest that the killer knew police evidence-gathering procedures and covered up clues accordingly. Semen found in the victim's body contains only dead sperm. The killer's blood is type A, the same as Rusty's. When Della Guardia wins the election, he and Molto accuse Rusty of the murder and push to get evidence against him. Rusty's fingerprints are found on a beer glass from Carolyn's apartment, and fibers from his carpet at home match those found on her body. Lipranzer is removed from the case, and Greer's inquiries uncover the affair. Raymond grows furious with Rusty's handling of the case, but admits that he had also been romantically involved with Carolyn at one time. Rusty calls on Sandy Stern, a top defense attorney. At trial, it is revealed that the beer glass is missing, and Stern persuades Judge Larren Lyttle to keep this from the jury. Raymond testifies and perjures himself, claiming that Rusty insisted on handling the investigation, thus confirming the defense's claim of a frame-up. Rusty discovers that Carolyn had acquired a file for a bribery case involving a man named Leon Wells. Upon being confronted by Rusty and Lipranzer, Wells confesses that he paid Judge Lyttle $1,500 to have criminal charges against him dropped, with Carolyn acting as a facilitator. The thrust of Stern's defense is that Della Guardia and Molto have framed Rusty in order to cover up the bribery case. During the cross-examination of the coroner, it is revealed that Carolyn underwent a tubal ligation, thus having no reason to use the spermicidal contraceptive which was found on her. Stern asserts that the only explanation for this discrepancy is that the fluid sample was not actually taken from Carolyn's body. Based on the disappearance of the beer glass, the lack of motive and the fact that the fluid sample was rendered meaningless, Judge Lyttle dismisses the charges. Rusty confronts Stern for bringing up the bribery file in the case. Stern swears him to secrecy, revealing that Lyttle had a brief sexual encounter with Carolyn. Stern also confesses that he and Raymond knew that Lyttle was taking bribes, and although Lyttle had offered his resignation, Raymond felt that he was a brilliant judge and deserved another chance. Lipranzer meets with Rusty and reveals the missing beer glass, explaining that he never returned it to evidence when the investigation was turned over to Della Guardia and Molto. Rusty throws it into a river. At his home, Rusty discovers a small hatchet covered with Carolyn's blood and hair on it. As he washes the tool, Barbara admits that she murdered Carolyn, her motive being Rusty's adulterous affair. She expresses that she had left enough evidence for Rusty to know that she committed the crime, but did not anticipate him being charged with the murder. In a voice-over, Rusty explains that Carolyn's murder has been written off as unsolved, since trying two people for the same crime is "a practical impossibility" and he cannot leave his son without a mother even if she could be tried. Rusty regrets that it was his own lust that caused his wife to commit murder. ===== ===== Not long after the Pearl Harbor attack, United States Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle orders 24 North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers—with volunteer crews—to report to Eglin Field, Florida, for a secret three-month-long mission. They arrive on March 1.The film does not mention that the planes were specially modified before being handed over to the crews. Among them is the craft piloted by Ted Lawson. His crew consists of Lt. Dean Davenport, co-pilot; Lt. Charles McClure, navigator, Lt. Bob Clever, bombardier, and Corporal David Thatcher, gunner-mechanic. Doolittle warns them: This work is top-secret. He offers them the chance to opt out, particularly if they have wives and families. Lawson's wife, Ellen, drives to Elgin to join him. She is pregnant. They are very much in love, but giving up never occurs to them. The intensive training includes learning how to take off on a runway only 500 feet long.The short takeoff space was necessary because the bombers were too big to be stored belowdecks. As shown in the film, they were lashed to the.carrier. The Official Website of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders They are not told why, and those who guess keep quiet. Lawson's plane acquires the nickname “Ruptured Duck” and nose art to match. One dark morning, General Doolittle sends them off to fly cross-country at hedge-hopping height to Naval Air Station Alameda, California. The planes are immediately loaded aboard the aircraft carrier . At last, Doolittle reveals the mission: Bomb Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya. The carrier will get them within 400 miles of mainland Japan. After dropping their payloads, they will continue to designated landing spots in parts of China controlled by Nationalist forces and regroup in Chungking.Glines 1998, pp. 166–168.Although the pilots were told that they had a 50-50 chance of survival, 77 out of 80 men initially survived the raid. The Japanese deployed massive numbers of troops which ravaged the countryside searching for airmen and taking reprisals. The next day, they learn about takeoff procedures: If a plane malfunctions, it will be pushed over the side. Lt. Jurika works with each crew on its own bombing run. At the penultimate briefing, Doolittle warns that any man who cannot cope with the unavoidable killing of civilians should drop out, without shame. The call to battle stations comes twice daily, at dawn and dusk, when the enemy “pig boats” (submarines) come up. When an enemy surface vessel does discover the convoy, the crews assemble to take off immediately—12 hours earlier than planned. It will be daylight over Japan and night when they reach China. Doolittle leads the raid, dropping incendiary bombs to mark key targets. The Ruptured Duck is the seventh flight.Although most sources state that the men of the Doolittle Raid were the first to fly bombers of this type off of an aircraft carrier, they were not the first. On February 2, 1942, two USAAF pilots took two B-25's off the USS Hornet's deck, to see if it could be done. Neither pilot went on the Doolittle Raid. The Official Website of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Flying low over the ocean and into Tokyo, through the smoke of burning targets, dropping their bombs as planned. Flak bursts around them, but fighters ignore them. Lawson crashes in the surf while trying to land on a beach in darkness and heavy rain. Everyone but Thatcher is badly injured. Lawson's left leg is laid open to the bone, and McLure's shoulders are broken. Friendly Chinese help them, and the Americans face hardships and danger while being escorted through Japanese-held territory. In the absence of any medical supplies, the injured men endure terrible pain, and Lawson's leg becomes infected. He dreams of Ellen. There is a Red Cross banner in the village of XingMing. Doctor Chung arrives with good news and bad. He will take them to his father's hospital, some 19 miles farther. The bad news is that the Japanese have captured an American crew. Hurrying into the hills, they look back: XingMing is burning.An April 15, 2015, article in Smithsonian magazine, The Untold Story of the Vengeful Japanese Attack After the Doolittle Raid excerpted by James M. Scott from his book, Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, describes the horror of those reprisals. There is no surgeon at the elder Dr. Chung's hospital, but Lt. Smith's crew is on its way with Lt. “Doc” White, who volunteered as gunner. The Japanese approach, and the able-bodied Americans leave, except for Doc. He takes Lawson's leg off well above the knee, using the single dose of spinal anesthesia in their possession. It wears off too soon.Dr. White received the Silver Star for Gallantry in the line of duty for saving Lawson's life by amputating his leg.White donated some of his own blood to Lawson. Doolittle Raiders Lawson passes out and dreams of Ellen. Cut to a chorus of Girl Scouts singing "the Star Spangled Banner", in Mandarin, celebrating Lawson's first day out of bed. His forehead shows a tracery of scars.Van Johnson was in a devastating automobile accident in April 1943 during the filming of A Guy Named Joe. His face was permanently scarred. The damage to Lawson's countenance was far more severe than the movie shows. After he returned home, he endured reconstruction of his lower face and a second amputation. See Ted W. Lawson. When Dr. Chung senior gives Lawson an heirloom bracelet for his wife, Lawson is puzzled. He does not remember talking about her. When he totters on his crutches, he becomes distraught at the idea of Ellen seeing him like this. They hurry to Ch'ang Chou to rendezvous with an American plane that takes them home. General Doolittle calls Ellen. Sobbing with joy, she tells her mother why Ted refuses to see her: “As if that would matter!” Doolittle visits Lawson in hospital and tells him he has work for him to do. When Ellen comes in, Lawson, overjoyed, forgets his missing leg and stands. He falls and they embrace on the floor, all smiles. "When things were the worst...I could see your face, your beautiful face." he says. “I knew you were coming home, Ted,” Ellen declares. ===== Following his discovery of the body of his wife Alison (Amy Irving) in a bathtub after her apparent suicide, Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro), a psychologist, decides to move with his 9-year-old daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to upstate New York. There, Emily makes an imaginary friend she calls "Charlie". Her friendship with Charlie begins to disturb David when he discovers their cat dead in the bathtub, who Emily claims was a victim of "Charlie". David has nightmares of the New Year's Eve party that occurred the night before Alison's death. When a family friend, Dr. Katherine Carson (Famke Janssen), comes to visit David, Emily reveals that she and Charlie have a mutual desire to upset her father. David meets Elizabeth Young (Elisabeth Shue), a local woman, and her niece, Amy, who is the same age as Emily. Hoping to cultivate a healthy friendship for Emily, David sets up a play date. Amy is anxious to become friends but the play date is spoiled when Emily cuts up Amy's doll's face. Emily tells David she doesn't need any friends. David invites Elizabeth over to dinner one night, where Emily acts hostile toward her. Elizabeth later tries to make peace with Emily. When Emily tells her that she is playing hide-and-seek with Charlie, Elizabeth indulges her by pretending to look for Charlie. When she opens the closet, someone bursts out and pushes her out the window to her death. David asks Emily what happened. Emily claims Charlie killed Elizabeth and forced Emily to help him move the body. She tells David the location of the body. David discovers Elizabeth in the bathtub full of blood (similar to how Alison died). Armed with a knife, he goes outside, where he meets their neighbor and assumes that his neighbor is Charlie. He cuts the neighbor and the neighbor calls the police. Back in the house, David finds that, although he has been in his study many times, the boxes were actually never unpacked after the move. He realizes that he has dissociative identity disorder and Charlie is not imaginary at all: "Charlie" is David himself. Whenever "Charlie" would emerge, David would be in his study. He also finally recalls the New Year's Eve party the night before his wife's death. He had caught Alison making out with another guest. "Charlie" was created as a way to express David's rage so that he could murder his wife, something the docile David was too decent to do. Emily knew the entire time about her father's split personality but did not tell him because she was unsure which personality murdered her mother until "Charlie" killed Elizabeth. Once David realizes the truth, he becomes completely consumed by Charlie, leading him to murder the local sheriff, who arrives to investigate the neighbor. Emily calls Katherine for help, tricks Charlie, and escapes into the cave where she originally met Charlie. Katherine takes the gun from the dead sheriff and finds Charlie in the cave. He pretends to be David and attacks Katherine. Katherine begs for David to fight his murderous other personality. Charlie says David no longer exists. Emily emerges, begging Charlie to let Katherine go. Her distraction allows Katherine to shoot Charlie, killing him at last. Later, Emily is preparing for school in her new life with Katherine. But Emily's drawing of herself with two heads suggests that she might also have dissociative identity disorder. ===== During World War II, the submarine USS Thunderfish, under the command of CDR John T. "Pop" Perry (Ward Bond), while on a special mission to the Philippines takes charge of a group of nuns and children, including a newborn infant nicknamed "Butch", transporting them to Pearl Harbor. On their way, the sub sights a Japanese aircraft carrier and attacks, but its torpedoes malfunction, exploding halfway to the target. Pursued by the carrier's escorting destroyers, Thunderfish manages to escape. While in Pearl Harbor, the ship's Executive Officer, LCDR Duke E. Gifford (John Wayne) goes to visit Butch at the base hospital, and runs into his ex-wife, LTJG Mary Stuart (Patricia Neal), a Navy nurse, and they kiss passionately. Unfortunately, Mary is now romantically involved with Navy pilot LTJG Bob Perry (Philip Carey), Pop's younger brother. Duke pursues Mary anyway, but is sent to sea again before anything is settled. As the sub returns from the patrol, they spot a Japanese freighter, but again their torpedoes fail to explode. The enemy ship raises the white flag, and Thunderfish surfaces and approaches. The freighter turns out to be a heavily armed Q-ship that opens fire on the sub. Mortally wounded, Captain Perry orders the boat to crash dive, knowing that he will not be able to get below before she submerges. With the sub now under Duke's command, he takes the offensive against the Q-ship. He notifies the crew that the boat will "battle surface" after moving into position to attack the ship. Then, upon surfacing the Lieutenant Commander orders the boat's deck guns and anti- aircraft guns, as well as numerous portable light and mountable heavy machine guns operated by the deck crew, to fire at will. After the Q-ship's engines are disabled and deck on fire, Duke orders flank speed, ramming the boat into the Japanese ship, holing the engine room and sinking the Q-ship. Thunderfish, with her forward torpedo room seriously damaged but flooding contained, limps back to port. Back at Pearl Harbor, Bob Perry believes that Duke's order to dive the boat killed his brother, and he refuses to listen to Duke's explanation. Mary tries to comfort Duke, but he rejects her attempts, declaring he only did his duty and feels no regret. Working with the sub base's torpedo specialists, Duke and the crew of the Thunderfish undertake an investigation to find out why the torpedoes are not exploding. When they finally discover the answer, Duke goes to Mary to celebrate, but she rejects him. Since he wouldn't let her into his life when he was at his lowest, she feels that they cannot have a real relationship. Her superior, Cmdr. Steele (Kathryn Givney), overhears the conversation and castigates Mary for throwing away her chance for happiness with Duke. Once again, Thunderfish heads out to sea, this time finding a Japanese fleet heading for Leyte to savage the American invasion force there. Even though it will reveal their presence, Duke broadcasts the fleet's position. Once Pearl Harbor acknowledges the message, Duke salvoes his torpedoes and makes a run for it, throwing the attacking Japanese warships into chaos. Despite enduring a battering from Japanese depth charges, Thunderfish manages to sink a Japanese aircraft carrier. In the battle's next phase, American carrier aircraft arrive and attack the Japanese fleet. Thunderfish, now assigned to lifeguard duty, helps to rescue shot down American flyers, and does so while under attack from Japanese fighters. While rescuing LT Bob Perry, the Chief of the Boat and Junior, a seaman from a Navy family, are killed and Duke is wounded by a strafing Japanese Zero. When the Thunderfish returns to Pearl Harbor after the patrol, Mary is waiting for Duke. The two, reconciled, head to the hospital, intending to adopt Butch. ===== The escape tunnel for the Allied prisoners at a German prisoner-of-war camp for naval officers is discovered. Lieutenant Ainsworth devises a scheme with the escape committee to use a disassembled mannequin named Albert to convince the Germans that all prisoners sent outside the camp for a bathhouse wash up are returned to the camp. A piece of Albert is smuggled with the prisoners going to the bathhouse and reassembled for the return. Ainsworth also has a woman pen pal he has never seen; he plans to marry her once he is free. Though the originator has the right to try out his own idea, Ainsworth insists that his hut mates draw cards for the privilege; Erickson wins and gets away. After waiting a while, they decide to reuse the ploy. This time, Ainsworth's friend, after hearing that his pen pal has not written in a while, sees to it that the draw is rigged so that he wins. Ainsworth, however, auctions off his place, only to have Captain Maddox, the senior prisoner of war, order him to go. Ainsworth is recaptured the same day. Later, the camp commandant informs the men that Erickson was shot while resisting arrest by the Gestapo; his ashes are handed over. When SS Hauptsturmführer Schultz expresses interest in American Lieutenant "Texas" Norton's chronometer, Norton notes Schultz is in charge of the camp's boundary lights and asks him to see that they malfunction during the next Allied nighttime bombing raid. However, it is a trap. Schultz signals his men to turn the lights back on while Norton is cutting through the barbed wire fence, then shoots him down in cold blood. Schultz tries to suborn Ainsworth, but Ainsworth tells him he will see to it he is prosecuted for murder after the war. When Schultz becomes the new Kommandant, Ainsworth insists on trying to escape again, using Albert. He gets away, but waits at night to confront Schultz outside the camp. After a struggle, he gets Schultz's pistol. When Allied bombs drop uncomfortably close by, Schultz runs for it. Ainsworth is unable to bring himself to shoot the fleeing German in the back, but a bomb kills him. Ainsworth takes back Norton's chronometer from the dead man and walks away. ===== An iguana nest is exposed to the fallout of a military nuclear test in French Polynesia. In the South Pacific Ocean, a Japanese fishing vessel is suddenly attacked by an enormous creature, with only one seaman surviving. A mysterious Frenchman questions the traumatized seaman in a hospital regarding what he saw, to which the latter only replies "Gojira." Dr. Niko "Nick" Tatopoulos, an NRC scientist, is in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine (site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster) researching the effects of radiation on wildlife, but is interrupted by the arrival of an official from the U.S. State Department. He is sent to Panama and Jamaica to study a trail of wreckage across land leading to the recovered Japanese fishing ship with massive claw marks on it. Nick identifies skin samples he discovered in the shipwreck as belonging to an unknown species. He dismisses the military's theory that the creature is a living dinosaur, instead deducing it is a mutant created by nuclear testing. The creature travels to New York City, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. The city is evacuated before the U.S. military, on Nick's advice, lure the creature into revealing itself with a large pile of fish. They fail to kill it, however, and their fight with it causes further damage before it escapes. Nick collects a blood sample, and by performing a pregnancy test, discovers the creature reproduces asexually and is collecting food for its offspring. Eventually, Nick meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Audrey Timmonds, a young aspiring news reporter. While she visits him, she uncovers a classified tape in his provisional military tent concerning the monster's origins and turns it over to the media. She hopes to have her report put on TV as to launch her career, but her boss, Charles Caiman, uses the tape in his broadcast, declaring it his own discovery, and dubs the creature "Godzilla." With the classified information released mainly because of his inadvertent actions, Nick is removed from the operation and disowns Audrey, before being kidnapped by Philippe Roaché, an insurance agent he met in Jamaica. Revealing himself as an agent of the French secret service, Philippe explains he and his colleagues have been closely watching the events to cover up their country's role in the nuclear testing that created Godzilla. Suspecting a nest somewhere in the city, they cooperate with Nick to trace and destroy it. Meanwhile, Godzilla dives into the Hudson River to evade a second attempt by the military to kill it, where it is attacked by Navy submarines. After colliding with torpedoes, Godzilla sinks, believed to be dead by the authorities. Nick and Philippe's strike team, followed by Audrey and her cameraman Victor "Animal" Palotti, find the nest inside Madison Square Garden, with over 200 eggs. Before the French can succeed in destroying them, the eggs hatch, and thinking the humans to be food, the offspring attack. Nick, Animal, Audrey and Philippe take refuge in the Garden's broadcast booth and successfully send out a live news-report to alert the military. A prompt response involving an airstrike is initiated as the four escape moments before Air Force jets bomb the arena. Audrey and Nick reconcile, before the adult Godzilla, having survived, emerges from the Garden's ruins. Enraged by the deaths of its young, it takes its full rage out on the four, chasing them across Manhattan. After a taxi chase, they manage to trap Godzilla within the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, allowing the returning Air Force jets to shoot it. Godzilla dies from its wounds, and the remaining citizens celebrate. Audrey tells Caiman that she quits working for him after what he did, before leaving with Nick. Philippe, taking a tape Animal was recording and promising to return it after removing certain contents, thanks Nick for his help and parts ways. In the ruins of Madison Square Garden, a single surviving egg hatches and the emerging hatchling roars. ===== The film opens with Oscar Wilde's 1882 visit to Leadville, Colorado during his lecture tour of the United States. Despite his flamboyant personality and urbane wit, he proves to be a success with the local silver miners as he regales them with tales of Renaissance silversmith Benvenuto Cellini. Wilde returns to London and weds Constance Lloyd (Jennifer Ehle), and they have two sons in quick succession. While their second child is still an infant, the couple hosts a young Canadian named Robbie Ross (Michael Sheen), who seduces Wilde and helps him come to terms with his homosexuality. On the opening night of his play Lady Windermere's Fan, Wilde is re-introduced to the dashingly handsome and openly foppish poet Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law), whom he had met briefly the year before, and the two fall into a passionate and tempestuous relationship. Hedonistic Douglas is not content to remain monogamous and frequently engages in sexual activity with rent boys while his older lover plays the role of voyeur. Douglas' father, the Marquess of Queensberry (Tom Wilkinson), objects to his son's relationship with Wilde and demeans the playwright shortly after the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest. When Wilde sues the Marquess for criminal libel against him, his homosexuality is publicly exposed; he is eventually tried for gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. In prison, he is visited by his wife, who tells him she is not divorcing him but is taking their sons to Germany and that he is welcome to visit as long as he never sees Douglas again. Wilde is released from prison and goes straight into exile to continental Europe. In spite of the advice or objections of others, he eventually meets with Douglas. Throughout the film, portions of the well-loved Wilde story The Selfish Giant are woven in, first by Wilde telling the story to his children, then as narrator, finishing the story as the film ends. ===== Private Joe Armstrong (Michael Dudikoff) is conscripted into the U.S. Army by a judge, as an alternative to prison. Joe ends up fighting off the Black Star Order of ninjas while stationed in the Philippines. He saves Patricia Hickock (Judie Aronson) — daughter of Colonel William Hickock, Joe's commanding officer — from a kidnapping attempt. But because the rest of Joe's platoon is wiped out by the ninjas, Joe's popularity with his fellow GIs takes a nosedive, even as he is targeted for revenge by the Black Star Master ninja (Tadashi Yamashita). While performing chores on the base, Corporal Curtis Jackson (Steve James) goads Joe into a fight. Jackson proves no match for Joe's ninjitsu expertise, which greatly impresses him and their fellow soldiers. Shortly thereafter, Jackson discovers that Joe is an amnesiac; he remembers very little of his past, other than running with various street gangs and mastering a number of exotic martial arts. The grateful Patricia organizes a date for herself with Joe. Jackson and a third soldier, Charley Madison (Phil Brock), sneak Joe off the base. They are caught during dinner by Sergeant Rinaldo, who is in the middle of a business meeting with black marketeer Victor Ortega, whose payroll the sergeant is on. To get Joe out of the way, Rinaldo leads him to an abandoned warehouse - ostensibly for the purpose of dropping off supplies. Black Star ninjas ambush Joe, who defeats all of them. Then Joe's truck is stolen, and he gives chase using a motorcycle. The truck driver runs Joe off the road, wiping out the bike; thinking Joe dead, the driver brings the truck to Ortega. Joe, however, hides under the truck and is brought to the heart of Ortega's operation - which encompasses the Black Star ninja training camp. Ortega is paying the Black Star Order for weapons stolen from the Army, which he then resells to the highest bidder. Joe is discovered by the ninjas-for-hire, but escapes with the aid of Ortega's servant Shinyuki (John Fujioka). Joe returns to the base, where he is promptly arrested by military police under Rinaldo's false accusation that he is fencing the arms. Jackson realizes that Joe has been set up, but his protests are wasted on Rinaldo. The Black Star Master infiltrates the stockade that night, slaughters the on-duty MPs and then tries to kill Joe as well. But Joe's would-be-assassin is thwarted by the sudden arrival of MP reinforcements, none of whom see the Black Star Master fleeing the scene. One of the dead MPs is found with a throwing star lodged in his head, which further implicates Joe in the bizarre goings-on. Only Jackson, Charlie, and Patricia believe that Joe is innocent of the charges he now faces. They tell Patricia's father everything they know about the hijacking and murders, but he just scoffs at their story. After briskly dismissing them, Colonel Hickock meets Rinaldo in private - revealing that the Colonel himself is Ortega's accomplice. Colonel Hickock orders Rinaldo to finish off Joe; but then the Black Star Master steals into the Colonel's residence and kidnaps Patricia, since her father is becoming a less-than-reliable partner. Rinaldo attempts to run Joe off the road, only to be killed himself. Joe returns to Ortega's mansion and the Black Star training camp, where he is reunited with Shinyuki. It is revealed that Shinyuki, a former Japanese holdout soldier, adopted Joe at birth after the boy's parents died. He trained Joe in the ways of ninjitsu, until the two were separated by a bomb blast; each has believed the other to be dead for years. Now Shinyuki completes Joe's training, and they launch a surprise attack on the Black Star camp. Shinyuki sacrifices his life to help Joe defeat the Black Star Master; meanwhile, Colonel Hickock leads his own assault on the Ortega manor, both to rescue his daughter and to tie up loose ends - in other words, wipe out anything that might connect him to Ortega's weapon-jacking. Ortega flees by helicopter with Patricia as his hostage, after gunning down her father. Joe, however, infiltrates Ortega's chopper; he and Patricia jump to safety just before Jackson shoots down the helicopter, killing Ortega. ===== The somewhat fictionalised version of the true story is set in Stalag Luft III — the same POW camp where the real events depicted in the film The Great Escape took place, albeit from a different compound – and involved Williams, Michael Codner and Oliver Philpot, all inmates of the camp. In the book and film, the escapees are renamed "Flight Lieutenant Peter Howard", "Captain John Clinton" and "Philip Rowe". The prisoners are faced with the problem of digging an escape tunnel despite the accommodation huts, within which the tunnel entrance might be concealed, being a considerable distance from the perimeter fence. They come up with an ingenious way of digging the tunnel with its entrance located in the middle of an open area relatively near the perimeter fence and using a vaulting horse (constructed largely from plywood from Canadian Red Cross parcels), to cover the entrance. Recruiting fellow-prisoners to form a team of vaulters, each day they carry the horse out to the same spot, with a man hidden inside. The prisoners begin gymnastic exercises using the vaulting horse, while the concealed man digs down below it. At the end of the session, the digger places wooden boards, cut to fit the aperture, in the hole, and fills the space with sandbags and dry sand kept for the purpose – wet sand taken from below the surface would be darker and hence give away the tunneling activity. As the tunnel lengthens, two men are eventually hidden inside the horse while a larger group of men exercise, the two men continue to dig the tunnel. At the end of the day, they conceal the tunnel entrance once more and hide inside the horse while it is carried back to their hut. They also devise a method of disposing of the earth coming out of the tunnel. They recruit a third man, Phil, to assist them, with the promise that he will join the escape. At the final break-out, Clinton hides in the tunnel during an Appell (roll call), before three men are carried out in the horse: the third to replace the tunnel trap. Howard and Clinton travel by train to the Baltic port of Lübeck; (in fact, they travelled via Frankfurt an der Oder to Stettin). Phil elects to travel alone, posing as a Norwegian margarine salesman and travelling by train via Danzig (now Gdańsk). He was the first to get to neutral territory. Howard and Clinton contact French workers and through them meet "Sigmund", a Danish resistance worker who smuggles them onto a Danish ship. They then have to transfer to a fishing boat and arrive in Copenhagen, before being shipped to neutral Sweden. There they are reunited with Phil, who arrived earlier. Some details from Williams' book were not used in the film, e.g. the escaped POWs discussing the possibility of visiting potentially neutral brothels in Germany, an idea that was abandoned because of the fear that it might be a trap. ===== Harlan Williams, an elderly janitor, is caught up in an explosion at the top-secret laboratory where he works. After surviving but discovering he is now "aging" in reverse, he ends up on the run from an operative of "The Shop". ===== Buford Union "Bud" Davis moves to Houston for a job in the city's oil refinery industry. He hopes to save enough money to move back to his hometown of Spur, Texas and buy some land. Bud stays with his Uncle Bob and his family, with whom Bud is close. Bob takes Bud to the local honky tonk, Gilley's, a bar in the suburb of Pasadena, co-owned by singer Mickey Gilley and his record producer Sherwood Cryer. Bud quickly embraces the local nightlife. He also gets a job at the oil refinery where Bob works, and quickly befriends his co-workers. At the club, Bud meets Sissy, who asks if he is a real cowboy. They fall in love, and Bud soon asks Sissy to marry him. Their wedding reception is held at Gilley's, and they move into a brand new mobile home. Although they are in love and passionate, Bud and Sissy have many quarrels. Sissy is a feisty, independent woman, while Bud believes in traditional gender roles. However, their lives settle into a routine of work by day and Gilley's at night, where Bud likes to ride the mechanical bull. When Sissy also wants to ride, he forbids her from doing so. Wes Hightower is released on parole from Huntsville Penitentiary, and lands a job at Gilley's running the mechanical bull with his old friend, and Gilley's employee, Steve Strange. He openly flirts with Sissy, who is flattered and attracted to Wes, but a drunken Bud is enraged at the insult, and ends up in a fist fight with Wes. Sissy, against Bud's wishes, spends time at Gilley's during the day with Wes, Steve, and her friend Jessie, learning how to ride the mechanical bull. Meanwhile, at the refinery Bud has a serious accident and is sent home for the day. That night at Gilley's, Jessie and Wes convince Sissy to ride the bull. She does it to impress Bud, but he becomes angry and resentful that Sissy defied and lied to him, and he challenges her. When Bud falls off during his second ride in the challenge, Wes intentionally swings the bull around fast, breaking Bud's arm. At home, Bud asks Sissy if she is having an affair with Wes which she denies, and Bud forbids her from riding the bull anymore. Sissy accuses Bud of being jealous because she rides the bull better than he can. Bud slaps her and throws her out of the trailer. The next night Sissy and Bud see each other at Gilley's, but Sissy is angry, and refuses to talk to Bud. To make Sissy jealous, Bud introduces himself to a beautiful girl named Pam, and dances with her, while Sissy dances with Wes. Bud and Pam leave together to have sex but Sissy, hurt and upset, declines Wes' sexual advances. The next morning, Sissy moves out of Bud's trailer, and into the run-down trailer behind Gilley's where Wes lives. Bud wants to enter the mechanical bull riding rodeo at Gilley's to win the $5,000 prize and starts training with Bob, who happens to be a former rodeo champion. Meanwhile, Sissy returns to Bud's mobile home to pick up her things, but also cleans house and leaves Bud a note saying she hopes they can get back together. Pam arrives and, after Sissy leaves, throws the note away. Bud later returns home and Pam lets him believe it was she, and not Sissy, who cleaned the house. Meanwhile, Sissy arrives home and catches Wes having sex with her friend Marshalene, another Gilley's employee. Wes orders Sissy to cook him a meal and when she, hurt at his infidelity, angrily refuses Wes becomes physically abusive. One night during a late shift at the refinery, Bob, citing his own past behavior that nearly cost him his wife Corene and their children, advises Bud to swallow his pride and make up with Sissy. Shortly thereafter, Bob is struck by lightning and dies. At Bob's funeral, Sissy tells Bud that Wes was fired from Gilley's for hurting too many people with the mechanical bull and is unable to find another job. Sissy and Wes plan on going to Mexico after he wins the $5,000 prize at the bull riding rodeo. On the night of the contest, however, it is Bud who wins, and when Pam realizes that he still loves Sissy, Pam admits that she tore up the note Sissy left for him out of jealousy. Pam encourages him to reconcile with Sissy. Bud leaves to find Sissy before she departs for Mexico with Wes. Sissy refuses to go to Mexico, but relents after Wes hits her. He orders her to wait for him in her car behind Gilley's. Unknown to Sissy, Wes is inside Gilley's robbing the place for the prize money. Bud finds Sissy in the parking lot and tells her he still loves her and apologizes for hitting her. She reciprocates and they embrace. Seeing Sissy's bruised face, a furious Bud goes after Wes and a fight ensues at the bar entrance. The fight causes Wes to drop his gun, and the stolen money falls from his jacket. Bud overpowers Wes by punching him several times and pins him down on the floor. Gilley's staff, having discovered the robbery, apprehend Wes, implying that he will likely go back to prison for violating his parole. Bud and Sissy, reconciled, go home together. ===== Dr. Gerald Bull designs a supergun codenamed Project Babylon for Iraq. He believes that it is for launching satellites into space and concludes it could serve no military purpose because it could fire only once before being located, targeted and destroyed. He comes to discover the true reason only shortly before being assassinated by his paymasters masquerading as Israeli Mossad operatives. Iraq subsequently invades Kuwait, leading the British and Americans to require top-level intelligence on the ground. Major Mike Martin of the Special Air Service is seconded to SIS to work with the Kuwaiti resistance. Not only does Major Martin speak fluent Arabic, but with his black hair and dark complexion, he can practically pass for an Arab. His brother, Terry, an expert in Arab military studies, works with the Medusa Committee, a joint British-American panel investigating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The CIA does not have any assets in the Iraqi government and the Mossad initially deny they have any active assets in Iraq. However, they are forced later to admit they have an unnamed top agent, codenamed "Jericho", whom they have been paying for information on the Iraqi military through an account in Vienna, but from whom they have not heard since the invasion began. Since Israel is forced to stay out of the war to prevent alienating Arab countries in the Coalition, they agree to let the Americans run Jericho, if they can find him. Mike Martin is recalled from Kuwait and sent into Iraq to run Jericho through a series of dead drops while working a cover job as a house gardener for the Soviet Union's First Secretary to the Soviet Embassy in Bagdad. The Medusa Committee concludes that Iraq's biological weapons capability is not a threat and, despite possessing a plentiful supply of yellowcake, it's had insufficient time with its limited underground centrifuges to spin it out into the weapons-grade uranium to make an atomic bomb. They decide that gas is the real danger, and the Americans make an unequivocal threat to the Iraqi government to retaliate and attack Baghdad with nuclear weapons should gas be used. However, an over-eager American F-15E pilot, frustrated at an aborted bombing run, drops his bomb on a building unlisted on his target list and reconnaissance photographs reveal strange large metal discs underneath the roof. Terry Martin takes the photographs to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to see if they can identify the discs, where a retired Manhattan Project employee identifies the discs as Calutrons (California Cyclotrons), a low-tech solution to refining uranium, ideal for Third World nations wanting to develop their own nuclear capability, and subsequently determines that if Iraq had used them in conjunction with their existing centrifuges, they could have made a nuclear bomb already. Jericho reveals the location of a factory where such a bomb was put together and it is destroyed; however, he later reports that the weapon had been moved hours prior to a new site, a place called the "Qa'ala" (Fortress). Despite the $5 million already paid to him, Major Martin offers him $3 million more to expose the bomb's new location. The Americans, however, remain highly skeptical because such a bomb would be too heavy to attach to a Scud missile and the Coalition's air supremacy would prevent a plane from getting close enough to drop it. Iraq's solution, however, is a supergun, hidden in a classified location, designed to fire the atomic weapon, called “The Fist of God”, into Saudi Arabia should the Coalition begin the ground phase of Desert Storm so that approximately 100,000 soldiers die and the resulting radioactive fallout is carried into Iran. Jericho next reports the cannon's location to be somewhere in the Jebal al-Hamreen mountains in eastern Iraq (after having interrogated the project's lead engineer). Major Martin, who narrowly escapes capture by Iraqi counter-intelligence for transmitting Jericho's messages to his own handlers, decides to leave Iraq. Safely recovered across the border, Mike volunteers to HALO jump with a British SAS team into Iraq to destroy the cannon. The Americans agree to delay the invasion by two days, citing weather conditions as the reason. The SAS squad designates the target and a lone U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle destroys the supergun in a bombing run. General Norman Schwarzkopf is told the mission has been successful and orders the land invasion of Kuwait to commence. Because of the pressure on the Israelis to admit Jericho's existence, the Mossad executes "Operation Joshua", an attempt to infiltrate the Viennese bank holding Jericho's account and seize the money. An agent's seduction of the bank manager's secretary helps the Mossad access and photocopy the details of the Jericho account, allowing the Israeli government to recover the entire reward rendered to Jericho: the secretary, Edith Hardenberg, eventually commits suicide when she realised that her "lover" has used her to obtain the information. Jericho – who turns out to be AMAM director Brigadier Omar "The Tormentor" Khatib – is picked up by Mossad agents masquerading as American intelligence agents, flown out of Iraq, drugged, and his body thrown into the sea from 10,000 feet. ===== Original cockleshell canoe During the Second World War, newly promoted Major Stringer of the Royal Marines devises a novel idea for a raid. By using collapsible canoes, he believes it is possible for commandos to reach an enemy-held harbour undetected and blow up ships with limpet mines. He is given command of a small group of volunteers. However, he clashes with his veteran second-in- command, the cynical, by-the-book Captain Hugh Thompson. The two officers represent the clash of cultures in the Royal Marines in the Second World War and postwar. Stringer is the enthusiastic promoter of commando operations requiring daring and initiative, but has no experience leading men or operations. Thompson represents the old guard of traditional ship's detachments. Sergeant Craig trains the men following Stringer's directions, but Thompson strongly disapproves of his commander's lax methods. When a test mission ends disastrously, Stringer admits his mistake and turns to Thompson, who soon whips the marines into shape. Ruddock, one of the men, goes AWOL due to marital problems. Thompson gets to Ruddock's wife first and finds her with her civilian lover, but leaves when they both insult him. He goes to the local pub for a drink and finds the missing Marine. Thompson gives Ruddock enough time to beat up his wife's paramour, then drives him back to camp. The raid is launched soon afterwards by submarine in under the command of Lieutenant- Commander Dick Raikes. The commandos are inserted into the sea close to the mouth of the Gironde river in their collapsible klepper canoes as Raikes resubmerges and HMS Tuna disappears. As the submarine carrying the canoeists arrive off the Gironde estuary, a depth charge attack by a passing German patrol boat knocks out Ruddock's partner. Thompson, who was not supposed to go on the raid, volunteers to take his place. The raiders then disembark and begin their attack. Following hard routine they now face seventy miles of arduous paddling upriver in their Cockle Mk II canoes. After moving by night and hiding by day, only four crews reach the target, where they plant limpet mines on a number of German cargo ships. All this during harsh December weather. The raid is successful, but only Stringer and Clarke manage to escape. Four, including Thompson and Ruddock, are captured while the other four are killed on the way to the docks. When Thompson and the other prisoners refuse to divulge what their mission was, they are shot by firing squad, just as the mines explode. ===== Peter McGowan (Kenneth Branagh) is a chain-smoking, impotent, insomniac British playwright who lives in Los Angeles. Once very successful, he is now in the tenth year of a decade-long string of production failures. His latest play is in the hands of effeminate director Brian Sellars (David Krumholtz), who is obsessed with Petula Clark; his wife Melanie (Robin Wright Penn) is determined to have a baby; he finds himself bonding with a new neighbor's lonely young daughter (Suzi Hofrichter) who has mild cerebral palsy; and during one of his middle-of-the-night strolls, he encounters his oddball doppelgänger (Jared Harris) who claims to be Peter McGowan and develops a friendship of sorts with him. ===== In the year 2025, the military contractor Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) has developed an experimental unit of telepathically controlled clone supersoldiers known as the Replicas. Their psychic commander Paxton Fettel goes rogue and takes command of the Replica prototypes, seizing control of the ATC headquarters in Fairport, Washington and killing all occupants.Genevieve Aristide: There was an uprising. Fettel has taken command of the prototypes. A covert special forces unit, F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon), is deployed to Fairport in response to the crisis. The team is commanded by Commissioner Rowdy Betters, and consists of Spencer Jankowski, Jin Sun-Kwon, and the newly-minted, unnamed Point Man. The team's mission is to eliminate Fettel, operating in conjunction with Delta Force.Betters: This wacko's name is Paxton Fettel. He's the key. If we contain him, we contain the situation. / Jin Sun-Kwon: What's his story? / Betters: Property of Armacham Technology Corporation. They're working on a military contract to develop an army of clones that respond to a psychic commander. Top secret, of course. Fettel was one of the commanders. Fettel is located by means of a satellite tracking device and hunted by F.E.A.R. but manages to evade capture. F.E.A.R is later joined by Delta Force operatives led by Douglas Holiday to assist them in capturing Fettel. Jin Sun-Kwon: How do we find him? / Betters: That's easy. He's got a transmitter embedded in his head that'll lead us right to him. Over the course of the night, Jankowski mysteriously vanishes and the Point Man witnesses unexplained, and occasionally life-threatening, paranormal phenomena, including increasingly-vivid hallucinations that frequently afflict him, all of which are centered on a red-dressed young girl named Alma. Laptops found in the course of the mission, remotely hacked by Commissioner Betters, provide details regarding Fettel's background; as a part of ATC's "Project Origin", he was raised to become a telepathic commander of the ReplicasBetters (reading from an ATC laptop): Well, this confirms the point of Perseus was to train telepathic commanders to work with cloned soldiers, although Paxton Fettel was the only commander of the program. The weird thing is they refer to him as the second prototype. and that he is the son of Alma, a powerful psychic.Betters (reading from an ATC laptop): More info on Origin: the genetic reference they used for the program was apparently a powerful psychic. Makes sense. If you want a telepathic commander, you need a telepath. And it was a woman. Says here she gave live birth to the prototypes. Seems Wade wasn't convinced the psychic characteristics were genetic. He figured there was better chance they'd be passed along if the fetus gestated inside the subject. So they put her in a coma, made her carry a genetically engineered baby to term, then induced labor. The files mention something called a "Synchronicity Event", in which a comatose Alma telepathically linked with Fettel when he was ten years old and resulted in several deaths. The files also mention the existence of another child of Alma, who was born before Fettel.Betters (reading from an ATC laptop): Here's some more info about Fettel: he's developed as part of a project called Origin. It says the first prototype didn't work out, Fettel was the second, and there was never a third. They just pulled the plug a few years after he was born. All clues lead F.E.A.R. to believe Fettel is being controlled by Alma,Betters (reading from an ATC laptop): I figured out what a synchronicity event is. There was an incident when they lost control of Fettel, he just suddenly started freaking out. He was only about ten years old at the time, but I guess he killed a few people. In the investigation, they discovered that there had been a telepathic link between Fettel and Alma even though she was in a coma. They concluded that she was influencing him. That's must've been why they pulled the plug on Origin. who was locked in the Origin facility when ATC closed down the project owing to the danger the woman posed; Fettel is searching for that same facility to free his mother.Betters: It's starting to make sense. The name of the woman they used for Origin is Alma. That's who Fettel's looking for. The Point Man travels to the abandoned structure, fighting back both the Replicas and ATC guards, who have received orders to cover up the whole affair.Betters (reading from an ATC laptop): She was just a kid. Says here Alma was eight years old when Origin started up. They used a little girl. No wonder they're so fucking anxious to keep a lid on this mess. When the protagonist comes to finally face Fettel, he is drawn into a hallucination where the Point Man is Alma's first son and is thereafter enabled to kill Fettel himself. Fettel's death results in all Replica forces shutting down.Fettel: We are brothers, you and I. [...] You and I were born from the same mother. Alma is nonetheless freed when her storage chamber is opened by ATC researcher and leader of Project Origin, Harlan Wade, who felt guilty over the company's treatment of Alma and who was actually her father.Wade: They want to destroy her. But I think she's suffered enough. We put her in there two days before her eighth birthday. She died six days after we pulled the plug. The Point Man is then called to sabotage the structure's reactor,Mapes: You have to destroy this facility, before he lets her out. There are four pylons. Damage the reactor cells and you'll trigger a chain reaction. Blow the whole place to hell, where it belongs. running a gauntlet against Alma's ghosts before the whole location explodes. In the aftermath of the detonation, a Delta Force Black Hawk helicopter extracts the Point Man from the rubble, rescuing him. While he and the survivors of the F.E.A.R. team survey the results of the explosion from the helicopter, Jin wonders what happened to Alma. Just then, the helicopter loses power, and Alma is seen pulling herself up into the cabin: the destruction of the Origin facility has not stopped her quest to get closer to her son.Holiday: We still don't know the extent of the damage. / Jin Sun-Kwon: We haven't been able to get through to anyone since the explosion. What about Alma? What happened to her? (After a loud crash is heard) What was that sound? After the game's credits, the player can listen to a phone call between a mysterious senator and ATC president Genevieve Aristide, which offers some further explanation: the woman considers the project under control and deems the "first prototype" (presumably a reference to the Point Man) a success.Genevieve Aristide: I just wanted to assure you that the Origin situation has been resolved. / Senator: But so much for discretion. / Genevieve Aristide: It was unavoidable. There is some good news, however: the first prototype was a complete success. ===== Dr. Rowan Mayfair is a gifted neurosurgeon in San Francisco, California. When her estranged birth mother Deirdre Mayfair dies in New Orleans, she begins to learn about the old Southern family to which she belongs. Michael Curry is a contractor who specializes in the restoration of old homes while dreaming of his childhood in New Orleans and yearning to return there. Rowan gradually realizes that she has the psychic power to either save or take lives. Michael drowns but she revives him, the near-death experience triggering a new and unwanted clairvoyant ability within him. Michael and Rowan fall in love, and when he decides to return to New Orleans, she follows him to learn the secrets of her past. Aaron Lightner, a psychic scholar and member of the Talamasca, has studied the Mayfairs from afar for decades. The matriarchal family—known to the Talamasca as the "Mayfair Witches"—have a long and sordid history. Among the supernatural events surrounding them is a mysterious man, seen by Michael in his childhood and by other members of the family over time. Michael is revealed to be a Mayfair cousin, he and Rowan sharing lines of descent from the male witch Julien Mayfair. Rowan and Michael marry and conceive a child. As the designee of the Mayfair legacy, Rowan assumes control of the family's affairs. Soon the mysterious man reveals himself to her: he is Lasher, a spirit with wicked motives who has plagued the Mayfairs for centuries. His wish is to be made flesh so that he may walk the earth again in the permanent physical form of a human being, and he sets about slowly seducing Rowan. Secretly thinking that she can outwit Lasher, Rowan sends Michael away from the house on Christmas Eve. Her plan is to bind Lasher to "weak matter" which she can destroy with her mental killing power, but this backfires. Lasher enters her womb and makes himself at home in the fetus. Rowan immediately goes into labor, which is violent and bloody, and Lasher enters the world as a human infant. But the hybrid baby immediately grows into a full-sized, intelligent man. Michael returns and tries to kill the creature, but Lasher is too strong and nearly drowns Michael in the pool. During this second near- death experience, Michael ends up losing the unwanted psychic sensitivity in his hands. Fearing for Michael's life, Rowan flees to Europe with Lasher. ===== Rowan has disappeared and Michael, feeling betrayed by her, has sunk into a depression, helped along by the useless drugs prescribed to him after his near-drowning. The sexually adventurous Mona Mayfair, a precocious teenage cousin also descended from Julien, is a powerful witch. She seduces Michael, who snaps out of his stupor and commits himself to finding Rowan, who he is now convinced did not leave willingly. Rowan, meanwhile, is essentially Lasher's prisoner. His first two attempts at impregnating her are failures ending in miscarriage, but he is successful the third time. Traveling with Lasher throughout Europe, Rowan manages to send DNA samples to colleagues in San Francisco. They discover that Lasher is a completely different species, later identified as a Taltos. Rowan herself has a genetic abnormality, polyploidy, or 92 chromosomes, which is probably what made Lasher's quasi-supernatural birth at all possible in the first place. In the past, Julien finds himself to be the only known male Mayfair witch, and learns how to manipulate the spirit Lasher. Julien impregnates numerous Mayfair women as part of Lasher's scheme of inbreeding, which Julien believes is a means to keep power in the family but is actually the way by which Lasher hopes to resurrect himself in flesh. Rowan returns to America with Lasher, who sets out to impregnate other female members of the Mayfair family. All attempts are unsuccessful as the women immediately miscarry and hemorrhage to death. Rowan manages to escape Lasher, and after hitchhiking to Louisiana, she collapses in a field and gives birth to Emaleth, a female Taltos. Rowan's last words to Emaleth are to find Michael, which she sets out to do, thinking that Rowan has died. Rowan is found and is rushed to a nearby hospital in a state of toxic shock. An emergency hysterectomy is performed to save her life, eliminating any chance of her ever giving birth again. She is taken home to Michael, where she remains in a deep coma. Lasher tells Michael and Aaron his story of his past life. Born to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, and a man from Donnelaith, Scotland, Lasher is believed to be a saint known as Ashlar. He is quickly taken away by his father, who is the son of the Earl of Donnelaith, and from there he is sent to Italy to become a priest. Lasher returns to Scotland after Elizabeth I takes the throne, and is killed there while performing Christmas Mass by followers of the Protestant reformer John Knox. His next memory is the summoning of his spirit by the witch Suzanne Mayfair in Donnelaith. When Lasher's story is complete, Michael kills him and burys him under the great oak in the yard. Michael discovers Emaleth in Rowan's room, feeding her mother the highly nutritious milk from her breasts. Rowan is revived, but upon seeing Emaleth before her, panics and screams at Michael to kill her. Michael refuses to, so Rowan grabs a gun and shoots her daughter in the head. Rowan immediately realizes what she has done, and crying for her daughter, insists that she be the one to bury her alongside Lasher. ===== Ashlar, the founder of a multi-million dollar toy corporation based in New York City, believes himself to be the last living Taltos. He is shocked to learn from his friend Samuel that a male Taltos has been seen in the glen of Donnelaith. Having buried Emaleth, Rowan exists a semi-catatonic state. She walks, she bathes, she eats, but she does not speak and does not respond to those around her. Rowan is awakened by the news that Aaron, now excommunicated from the Talamasca and recently married into the Mayfair family, has been deliberately run over by a car. She makes plans with Michael to seek revenge on the Talamasca, who she believes are responsible for Aaron's death. Mona discovers that she is pregnant by Michael and, after Rowan gives her blessing, ecstatically shares the news with the family. Mona later discovers that her unborn child is a Taltos, a female she names Morrigan. She runs off with Mayfair cousin Mary Jane to Fontevrault, an old plantation sunken into the marsh that has been owned by a separate branch of the Mayfair family for generations. Mary Jane's grandmother, Dolly Jean, helps deliver the new Taltos. Mona names Morrigan the designee of the Mayfair legacy, and she and Mary Jane make plans for the future in case Rowan and Michael try to kill Morrigan. In London, Michael and Rowan meet up with Yuri Stefano, a pupil and friend of Aaron who has also been excommunicated by the Talamasca. Through Yuri they meet the Ashlar and his friend Samuel, who is one of the Little People of Donnelaith, dwarf-like Taltos who never fed on their mother's milk and were subsequently stunted. Ashlar kills Anton Marcus, the Superior General of the Talamasca, for his part in Aaron's death. Another Talamasca Scholar, Stuart Gordon, has been plotting with his pupils Marklin and Tommy to unite Ashlar with a female Taltos he has acquired. The excommunications of Aaron and Yuri, as well as Aaron's death, were a ruse perpetrated by Stuart to keep the men from interfering with his plans. Ashlar meets the female Taltos, Tessa, and disappoints Stuart with the news that Tessa is too advanced in age to bear children. Rowan uses her strong telepathic abilities to cause Stuart to have a fatal stroke. Yuri takes Tessa to the Talamasca, who welcome Tessa with open arms and punish Marklin and Tommy by burying them alive. In New York, Ashlar tells Rowan and Michael the story of his long life. He explains that the Taltos once thrived peacefully on a tropical island north of the British Isles, where they had been since "The Time Before the Moon". The island's semi-active volcano reawakens, forcing the Taltos to flee south to the bitter cold of Scotland. They become hunter-gatherers, and occasionally see early humans, whom they sometimes keep as pets. The Taltos break off into different tribes and the largest of them, led by Ashlar, goes south to Somerset where they settle. Their peace is often disrupted by Celtic raids on the land. To adapt and live peacefully among humans, the Taltos become the Picts, and Ashlar their king. When Christianity comes to them in the form of St Columba, Ashlar converts with more than half his tribe. But there is a conflict between the Christians and non-Christians, and war ensues. Soon only five Taltos males are left, and they all become priests, including Ashlar. Several years later, he attempts to tell his story to a fellow priest, who believes the story is blasphemy. Ashlar is disillusioned, and goes on a pilgrimage, leaving Donnelaith forever. Rowan and Michael return to New Orleans, where Michael is introduced to his daughter, Morrigan. He and Rowan accept Mona's decision to make Morrigan the designee. A frenzied Morrigan smells Ashlar on the gifts he has sent, just as he comes to the First Street house to visit. Morrigan rushes into his arms, and they run away together. ===== The film opens in 1099 at the end of the First Crusade, depicting Christian Crusaders sacking Jerusalem and slaughtering the local population. A Flemish Christian knight named Charles Le Vaillant becomes demoralized by the horrors of war and decides to create a new religious order. This new order brings together members from the three main religions of the region: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. As a self-declared leader and messiah, Charles writes the sacred texts of the Order. While traveling to Syria, his camp is attacked by the Christian knights, who kill Le Vaillant. The last chapter from their religious text, buried by Le Vaillant in a secret place, becomes lost in the desert after the attack. In the modern day, Rudy Cafmeyer (Jean-Claude van Damme), a thief and smuggler of valuable historical artifacts, breaks into a high-security building and steals a precious Fabergé egg. He triggers an alarm in the process and is forced to fight his way out of the building, finding no car to meet him because the getaway driver, Yuri, was forced to leave by police. His problems are compounded when a potential buyer attempts to steal the egg and falls on it, destroying it. It is revealed that Rudy's father is archaeologist and museum curator Oscar "Ozzie" Cafmeyer (Vernon Dobtcheff). Ozzie travels to Israel in search of a secret he has discovered and is kidnapped while on the phone with Rudy, who travels to Jerusalem to rescue him. Ozzie's associate, Professor Walt Finley (Charlton Heston), gives Rudy the key to a safe-deposit box in East Jerusalem before being gunned down by unknown assailants. Rudy opens the safe-deposit box and finds an ancient map showing a series of tunnels and a treasure room beneath Jerusalem. Meanwhile, a devout contingent of Le Vaillant's followers known as the Order continues to practice his peaceful teachings in Israel. One of the disciples, Cyrus (Brian Thompson), enters into conflict with the Order's leader Pierre Gaudet over Cyrus's inflammatory rhetoric regarding an imminent holy war. Cyrus has Pierre Gaudet killed using a car bomb and assumes control of the Order. Israeli Police Chief Ben Ner (Ben Cross) views Rudy's arrival with hostility and takes steps to have Rudy deported, appointing Lt. Dalia Barr (Sofia Milos) to ensure that Rudy does not escape. Lt. Barr escorts Rudy to the airplane but Ben Ner calls and demands their return, claiming that Rudy is smuggling an artifact. Lt. Barr knows that Rudy has been searched and is not in possession of any artifacts so she unlocks Rudy's handcuffs and lets him escape in a feigned struggle, meeting up with him again after he escapes from the airport in a stolen ramp-towing vehicle. Lt. Barr reveals that she was once a disciple of the Order but that she left when she was 18. Together they visit Yuri, who translates the map and explains that it leads to treasure, but thieves break in and steal the map, shooting and killing Yuri in the process. Rudy steals a motorcycle and pursues the thief who has the map. He catches up with him and shoots him, causing the thief to drop the map, but is also shot and injured. Rudy hides from the police and is found by Lt. Barr, who drives him to be helped back to health by her old friend Avram, who is still a member of the Order. Lt. Barr gives Rudy papers left by his father in which Ozzie explains he had discovered the lost manuscripts of the Order, lost since the Crusades, and that the new sect within the Order does not wish for them to be revealed because they show the location of a mythical Jewish treasure. Rudy shows it to Avram, who insists that the "treasure" is merely a metaphor for the wisdom of the ancient sages and says that its location in the Order's monastery cannot be accessed by outsiders anyway. With Avram's aid Rudy and Lt. Barr pose as foreign members of the Order visiting on a pilgrimage in order to gain access to the monastery during a massive assembly of the members, now led by Cyrus. In the catacombs Rudy finds the remaining manuscripts as well as his imprisoned father and a large bomb. Ben Ner arrives and explains to Rudy and Lt. Barr that he joined the Order when he found out about the treasure. Cyrus arrives and forces Ozzie to lead him through the tunnels in order to detonate the bomb under the Temple Mount during Ramadan to maximize casualties and make martyrs of the Israeli Lt. Barr and American Rudy Cafmeyer in order to trigger World War III. Rudy saves Avram from falling into a pit trap before they reach a room loaded with treasure next to the chamber underneath the Well of Souls. Ben Ner attempts to delay the detonation in order to collect more treasure, leading to a standoff with Cyrus's followers. Rudy, and Lt. Barr use the opportunity to escape but Ozzy is injured and Avram is killed. Lt. Barr shoots Ben Ner and helps Ozzie out of the catacombs. Rudy catches Cyrus in the treasure room and kills him with one of the swords found there. Rudy moves the bomb from under the Well of Souls and drops it into the pit trap. Ben Ner jumps at Rudy but only grabs his shirt and tears it off as he falls into the pit. Rudy races away from the pit as the bomb explodes. Worshipers above hear the explosion but continue praying. Rudy is later shown visiting the office of his father, who has published a new book. In the office Rudy finds an ancient map that Ozzie claims shows the location of the Seven Cities of Gold. Rudy grabs the map and runs out of the office with Dalia. The film ends with a compilation of quick action cuts as well as a few outtakes. ===== This book opens with Richard and Kahlan still in the Old World traveling back to the New World. A new character, Owen, pleads for Richard and Kahlan's help in freeing his people from the hands of the Imperial Order. They are set upon by a seemingly mysterious dust storm that holds the silhouette of a man. They are sent a warning letter by Nicci, but before they are able to finish reading the letter they are set upon by Imperial Order mercenaries. After learning that Richard has been poisoned by Owen, they must travel back deeper into the Old World to the Bandakar. They find an ancient boundary protecting the Bandakar Empire from outside invaders came down two years past and now the Imperial Order has occupied this nation of frail-minded people. Soon Richard and Kahlan learn of a new monster that was created by Jagang's Sisters of the Dark. ===== A famous cat pirate, Captain Nathaniel Joseph Claw, is imprisoned by the Cocker-Spaniards (a dog species, a pun on Cocker Spaniel) after they attack and sink his ship. In the prison cell, waiting for his execution, he finds a note and a piece of a map hidden in the wall. The note tells of the Amulet of Nine Lives—a mystical artifact that grants its wearer near-immortality. Breaking out of his cell, Claw sets out to collect all 9 gems of the amulet and retrieve it for himself. The game begins with Claw outside his cell. As he progresses through the prison, he eventually gets to the outer wall and escapes to the forest after defeating the warden, Le Rauxe. In the forest, he encounters a gang of thieves, headed by his former love interest, Katherine. He manages to defeat them and finds his way out of the forest, and into the nearby port town of El Puerto del Lobo, where he is hunted down by the magistrate, Wolvington, and the city guards. After running through the city, escaping the guards, and defeating Wolvington himself, the Captain stumbles into a bar and overhears a conversation between two of the crew of Captain Red Tail, a lion who is Claw's arch enemy. He learns that Red Tail is looking for the gems of the amulet as well, and that Red Tail's first mate, Gabriel, has one of them in his possession. He also hears that Red Tail might have more himself. Claw quickly makes his way through the port and jumps on Red Tail's ship, where he defeats the seamen (Gabriel among them) and hides in the ship until it sets port near the Pirate's Cove. Claw goes through the rickety wooden structures of the pirate cove, defeating the pirates and their leader, Marrow, Claw's former friend. Claw descends into the caves, where he discovers his old crew, presumed dead after the attack on his ship. The crew informs Claw that they were given three gems by a merchant in the tavern, but were forced to give two of them to Red Tail; they managed to keep the third as Red Tail believed there were only two in their possession. The crew then reveals that Red Tail has set sail for Tiger Island, a legendary place most doubted even existed, including Claw. Claw takes the crew's gem as well as a piece of the map, which shows a path to Tiger Island through the labyrinth of underwater caverns. The crew offers to accompany him through the caves to Tiger Island, but Claw insists on going alone, telling his crew to acquire a ship and meet him there. The Captain takes the shortcut through the caverns, where he fights through a race of merpeople, who fight him in order to defend their king: a giant frog-like creature called Aquatis. Claw manages to defeat Aquatis with explosives. Claw resurfaces to face Red Tail and his crew on Tiger Island. Claw manages to bring Red Tail down and acquire the final two gems, yet Red Tail escapes. Claw enters the Tiger Temple at the heart of the island to claim the amulet. There he fights the highly trained tiger guards, avoids the many death traps in the lava-filled temple, and defeats Omar, the captain of the tiger guard, who holds the final gem. Claw places the gems on a pedestal. They rearrange themselves and the ghost of a princess comes and gives him the amulet, granting him 9 lives, after summarizing his adventure. Omar is sworn to defend to the holder of the Amulet, thus becoming Claw's bodyguard. The final scene shows him leaving on his ship with the amulet, Omar, and his crew. ===== In the small town of Oakey Oaks, which is populated by anthropomorphic animals, Chicken Little rings the school bell and warns everyone to run for their lives. This sends the whole town into a frenzied panic. Eventually, the Head of the Fire Department calms down enough to ask him what is going on, and he explains that the sky is falling because a piece of the sky shaped like a stop sign had fallen on his head when he was sitting under the big oak tree in the town square; however, he is unable to find the piece. His father, Buck Cluck, who was once a high school baseball star, assumes that this "piece of sky" was just an acorn that had fallen off the tree and had hit him on the head, making Chicken Little the laughingstock of the town. A year later, Chicken Little has become infamous in the town for being prone to accidentally ruin everything. His only friends are outcasts like himself: Abby Mallard (nicknamed "Ugly Duckling"), Runt (who is an extremely large pig), and Fish Out of Water (who wears a helmet full of tap water). Trying to help, Abby encourages Chicken Little to talk to his father, but he really only wants to make his dad proud of him. He joins his school's baseball team in an attempt to recover his reputation and his father's pride, but is made last until the ninth inning of the last game. Chicken Little is reluctantly called to bat by the coach (even though the coach is certain that he will lose the game for them and urges him to not swing). Chicken Little is able to hit the ball and make it past first, second, and third bases, but is met at home plate by the outfielders. He tries sliding onto home plate but is touched by the ball. While it is presumed he lost the game, the umpire brushes away the dust to reveal Chicken Little's foot barely touching home plate, thus declaring Chicken Little safe and the game won; Chicken Little is hailed as a hero for winning the pennant. Later that night back at home, Chicken Little is hit on the head yet again by the same "piece of the sky" — only to find out that it is not a piece of the sky, but a panel which blends into the background (which would thereby explain why Chicken Little was unable to find it last time). He calls his friends over to help figure out what it is. When Fish pushes a button on the back of the hexagon, it flies into the sky, taking Fish with it. It turns out to be part of the camouflage of an invisible UFO. Chicken Little manages to ring the bell to warn everyone, however the town's mayor stops them to find a penny, Chicken Little reminds them and they resume, but the aliens escape, leaving an orange alien child behind. No one believes the story of the alien invasion, and Chicken Little is ridiculed yet again. He and his friends discover the orange alien named Kirby, and a few minutes later a whole fleet of alien ships descend on the town and start what appears to be an invasion. The invasion is actually a misunderstanding, as the two aliens are looking for their lost child and attack only out of concern. As the aliens rampage throughout Oakey Oaks, vaporizing everything in their path, Chicken Little realizes he must return Kirby to his parents to save the planet. First, though, he must confront his father and regain his trust. In the invasion, Buck, now regaining his pride and trust in his son, defends him from the aliens until they get vaporized. It is then discovered that the aliens weren't vaporizing people, but teleported aboard the UFO. It turns out the aliens were touring Earth and came across the town for its acorns. It also reveals that it is the alien family's ship that has a broken camo panel that "could fall and hit someone on the head". After everything is explained, the apologetic aliens return everything to normal, and everyone is grateful for Chicken Little's efforts to save the town. ===== Two unnamed World War II servicemen, one American (Lee Marvin) and one Japanese (Toshiro Mifune), are stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island. The Japanese soldier suddenly discovers a military plane crash kit near his camp. The American, whose plane it recently came from, watches him salvage the kit and confronts him on the beach. After aggressive gestures from both men, the American notices that the Japanese has a small reservoir of drinking water and makes a dash to drink some, but is run off into the jungle. The Japanese sets fire to the jungle, smoking out the American. After chasing him off again, he wades out into the water to check his fishing trap. While his back is turned, the American makes another run for the drinking water, eventually stealing some and running off. The next day, the American tries to steal more water, but is caught and falls on the reservoir, destroying it. After escaping, he destroys the fish trap, makes noises and plays tricks on the Japanese. After urinating on him from the cliff above, he's chased into the jungle by the infuriated Japanese, but collapses from dehydration. The Japanese takes him prisoner, binds his arms to a log and makes him walk back and forth in the sand. Eventually, the American escapes, surprises the Japanese and then binds him to the log and makes him walk back and forth in the sand. After getting frustrated trying to cook a meal, the American cuts the Japanese loose so that he can do the cooking. They cease hostilities and share chores and food from then on. Later, the American notices the Japanese trying to build a raft. He scolds him for stealing "his" log to make the raft and for being sneaky about its construction. After observing what a poor attempt the raft is, he gets the idea that they should build a better one together. They argue over the design, but eventually work together and build a large raft. After setting sail and overcoming the strong waves of the reef, they hit open water. Days later, they come upon a new set of islands, on one of which there appears to be an abandoned base. The Japanese takes the lead, since he recognizes it as a Japanese base. The American then spots American supplies and runs after him, imploring any soldiers who might hear to not fire because the Japanese is his "friend". At one point, startled by running into his friend, the American exclaims in relief, "for a moment there, I thought you were a Jap". Realizing that the base truly is abandoned, they rummage around for useful items and luxuries, eventually finding shaving supplies, a bottle of wine, cigarettes and an issue of Life magazine. That night, each seeing the other clean shaven for the first time, they drink wine together, sing songs and tell each other stories, despite the language barrier. Casually, the Japanese picks up and looks through a Life magazine and is horrified to see photos of dead and imprisoned Japanese soldiers. The American gets upset that the Japanese isn't answering a question about if the Japanese believe in God and the two angrily glare at one another, too upset to notice the increasingly loud sounds of the island being shelled. The Japanese stands up and walks a few paces away and the American gets up and kicks over the campfire. As the Japanese turns and walks back, a shell hits the building that they're in and destroys it. In the alternate ending (available on home video releases), no shell hit occurs and the two men are shown going their separate ways. ===== During the retreat of 1951, a small force of British soldiers is in danger of being cut off by the advancing Chinese army. The plot emphasizes the plight of the National Service men who, as they say, were "old enough to fight, but too young to vote." The film also depicts a "friendly-fire" incident, in which the British are bombed by the Americans. The film opens in Korea with a British Army patrol, led by Lt. Butler. In the patrol is tough veteran Sergeant Payne, a slightly psychotic Corporal Ryker, and the cowardly signaller Wyatt. As they search a small village, one of the party falls victim to a bomb planted in a small shack. With the death of one of his men, Butler moves the patrol out of the village. Out in the open plain, Butler and Payne discover a large force of Chinese soldiers heading directly for them. Sending Payne and the patrol back towards their own lines, Butler and three of his men stay behind to cover the withdrawal. After fending off two attacks, Butler discovers Lance Corporal Hodge is dead. Payne returns with the patrol, informing Butler that they were cut off by other enemy forces. The patrol heads through the village and up a winding path towards an isolated temple located on a hill, with only a steep cliff to its rear. On the way, Wyatt throws away the only radio because he cannot be bothered to carry it up the hill. Then they run into an enemy patrol on the path. They ambush the Chinese, and continue up to the temple. With the Chinese knowing now exactly where they are, Butler must keep his troops together, and fend off the enemy attacks. ===== One day, 12-year-old Sandy Brown receives a package from her long- lost grandfather containing a stuffed Koala named Blinky that was lost in a shipwreck 38 years ago. Sandy gives the koala a Noozle (another term for an Eskimo Kiss) and it revives him from "magic sleepytime". His first word is "Blinky!!" in response to Sandy thinking out loud what she should name the bear right before she awakens him. They are soon joined by Blinky's sister Pinky, who appears out of thin air soon after Blinky is awakened, and demands immediately that Blinky returns with her to KoalaWalla Land. Blinky refuses however, and the trio go on to have many adventures together. Blinky is able to sustain himself while living on Earth with Sandy because of the Eucalyptus trees that Sandy's grandmother had planted 38 years ago when Sandy's grandfather, an archaeologist who had mysteriously disappeared while on an expedition to Ayers Rock, just before the ship was lost, told her that he was sending a Koala as a gift, as Sandy's grandmother had expressed that she had always wanted one as a pet. It takes Sandy some time to determine that the "noozle" is the action that revives Blinky from magic sleepytime. She does this several times without thinking about it, and gets frustrated over the fact that Blinky falls asleep repeatedly (during which time his appearance is similar to that of an ordinary stuffed animal) and stubbornly refuses to awaken until she realizes what she must do to revive him. Early in the series, Sandy decides to introduce Blinky and Pinky to her grandmother, but decides to keep them a secret to everyone else. About halfway through the series, Blinky and Pinky bring Sandy to their homeworld of KoalaWalla Land. KoalaWalla Land is a parallel dimension inhabited by anthropomorphic koalas, kangaroos, platypuses, cassowaries, kiwi, and frill-necked lizards. It is ruled by a wise old koala known as the High Dingy Doo. Humans aren't allowed in KoalaWalla Land (and in fact a human will be arrested and jailed on sight just for being in KoalaWalla Land), so Sandy has to wear a koala mask during each visit. A portal to KoalaWalla Land can be found at Ayers Rock. Pinkie also has the ability to create instant portals to KoalaWalla Land at any point, as well as portals back and forth through time, by utilizing the red lipstick in her magic cosmetic kit to draw an interdimensional hole in the time-space continuum. Meanwhile, Sandy's father Alex, who is also an archaeologist like his father before him, is exploring Ayers Rock and trying to solve the mystery of what happened to his father 38 years ago. While there, he discovers a cave, and on the wall of the cave is a message that his father wrote 38 years ago, saying "I must leave on a mission of great importance. The little koala will know where I'll be." Alex stumbles into the portal to KoalaWalla Land at the end of the tunnel, where he is chased by the KoalaWalla Land police. Sandy, Blinky, and Pinky travel to KoalaWalla Land to rescue him. Alex stumbles upon a crystal planetoid in KoalaWalla Land, where he sees a shadowy figure resembling his father in one of the crystals. There, the KoalaWalla Land police find him and place him under a sleeping spell, but Sandy and Blinky and Pinky arrive to rescue him. They bring him back to Ayers Rock. Alex wakes up, convinced that the entire experience was a dream. When Sandy hears that her father saw her grandfather, she and Blinky and Pinky decide to go back to KoalaWalla Land to look for him. They decide to look in The Crystal Place, which is connected to the crystal planetoid where Alex saw his father. The Crystal Place, which lies at the very core of KoalaWalla Land and helps hold the universe together, is a giant crystalline sphere filled with brightly colored orbs, which when touched by bare hands immediately entrap that person's essence forever with no escape. Sandy, protected by Pinky's magic bubble, enters The Crystal Place, and finds the spirit of her grandfather imprisoned in one of the orbs, trapped in a limbo-like state. He tells her to learn from the creatures of KoalaWalla Land and to understand how their community has come to survive in a world of love and companionship. Finally, he delivers the cryptic message "as the world of KoalaWalla Land goes, so goes the world of mankind." Sandy wants to know what he means, but that's all he can tell her, and he tells her that more will be revealed in due time. Some time later, Alex is exploring Africa. He is scheduled to return home, but when he hears the story of a magic stone called the "wiseman stone", he decides to stay in Africa to search for it. Sandy and her mother are disappointed when they hear that Alex is staying in Africa, so Blinky and Pinky travel there to try to find a way to convince him to come home. They attempt to scare him back home by making ghost noises, and even create illusionary dinosaurs in an attempt to scare him away from the dig site, but nothing seems to work. Finally, Sandy's grandmother appears. She has traveled to Africa to scold her son for running off to look for the wiseman stone when his wife and daughter are waiting for him to come home. Alex decides to come back home with his mother. Shortly after arriving back home, Alex receives a phone call from his assistant Lionel who says that his team has found what they believe to be the Wiseman Stone, but they need Alex to check if it's the real deal since he's the expert on the subject. Later, during a visit to Sandy's grandmothers house, Blinky uses his magic powers to teleport an unknowing Alex to Africa. Confused as to how he got there, Alex checks the stone and confirms that it's authentic. Alex still has the stone with him when Blinky transports him back. Alex is still confused about the whole thing. When he shows the stone to his mother, she tells him that he must've found the stone in her attic, and that it is a stone that his father had found many years ago. After Sandy and her Parents have gone home, her grandmother brings the stone up to her attic, and it is revealed that there are two wiseman stones, one that Alex found in Africa, and another that his father had found years before. One day, during another trip to Sandy's grandmother's house, Alex finds the two Wiseman stones in her attic. Alex is confused as to why there is now a second wiseman stone. His mother tells him that his father found one, and that he put the other one there when he came back from Africa. It is then that Sandy decides to tell her parents the truth about Blinky and Pinky. Shortly afterward, they receive a surprise visit from the High Dingy Doo, who has come to ask Alex a very important favor. The High Dingy explains that KoallaWalla Land and the Earth are destined to one day separate from each other naturally. However, because of Seismic Testing in the Australian Outback, the trans-dimensional axis that binds the two worlds together has become severely shaken, speeding up the process so much that both worlds could be destroyed in the separation. The High Dingy Doo also explains that Sandy's grandfather knew that this would happen someday due to his research of ancient Australian folklore. He entered The Crystal Place and became trapped there while trying to unravel the secrets of KoalaWalla Land. The High Dingy Doo says that Sandy's grandfather likely knows how to save the worlds from destruction, but that his spirit can only communicate with someone who is related to him by blood. The High Dingy Doo asks Alex to come to The Crystal Place so he can speak to his father's Spirit. Alex, protected by a magic bubble created by the High Dingy Doo, enters The Crystal Place and tells his father's spirit of the impending disaster. His father tells him that the only way to restore the balance between the two worlds so they can separate safely is to give the wiseman stones to Blinky, who will know what to do from there. After returning to earth, Alex gives the wiseman stones to Blinky, who now remembers what it is that he must do. Blinky teleports himself, Pinky, Sandy, her parents, and her grandmother to Ayers Rock, where the separation has already begun. Blinky and Pinky bring the stones to the top of Ayers Rock and place them in a predisposed altar, where Blinky manipulates them in a joystick-like fashion to keep the two worlds from destroying each other. Blinky and Pinky return to KoalaWalla Land in the process. Because the two worlds now exist as completely separate dimensions, Pinky's magic is no longer able to bridge the ties that formerly bound them meaning Blinky and Pinky must now forever remain in their home separate from Earth. ===== ===== The first episode revolved around Oliver's parents (Agnes Fleming and Edwin Leeford) as they struggled to fight their love for each other. Edwin struggled with his estranged wife Elizabeth Leeford, mother of his son Edward Leeford (later also "Monks"), and Agnes struggled with her family's life. When it came to them both being together, Elizabeth murdered Edwin and planned on murdering Agnes. She made Monks kill her, but Agnes ran away; her sister Rose (Keira Knightley) witnessed this and was left traumatised. Agnes was pregnant with Oliver when she ran away. She ran into the main streets of London and collapsed; she was then taken into the workhouse where she gave birth, and she died shortly after. Once he reached nine years of age, Oliver was taken to a different sort of workhouse where he was abused and tortured. The boys of the workhouse pulled straws to decide which of them should try asking for more food; Oliver got the short straw. He was then sold to Mr Sowerberry, after Mr Bumble beat him. Most of Mr Sowerberry's family abused Oliver as well. When Noah Claypole insulted Oliver's mother he lost control and ran away. Monks, who was aware that Oliver was alive, arranged for Fagin to take the boy in and train him as a pick-pocket. Oliver was taken by the Artful Dodger and taken to Fagin. Oliver believed Fagin to be a magician as he knew his name straight away. Monks arrived and began having a fit when Oliver was asleep, shortly after he told Fagin that he wanted Oliver to be disgraced in public. Fagin set up Oliver to get caught pick pocketing by Mr Brownlow. Dodger, Oliver and Charley (a newcomer to the story) stole from Mr Brownlow, the Dodger pushed Oliver into him and the street thought Oliver was guilty. Before the trial, Oliver was badly beaten and when he came to the trial the drunken magistrate. During the trial, the owner of the book store reveals that it wasn't Oliver who stole the book. The charges are dropped and Oliver is thrown out onto the streets. Mr Brownlow takes Oliver in and Oliver lives with him and Mrs Bedwin, unaware that Mr Brownlow was very close to his mother and father. Nancy (Emily Woof) is forced to bring Oliver back by Fagin and Bill (Andy Serkis). She does so, despite Oliver's best attempts to run away. Mr Brownlow later shows hostility towards Mrs Bedwin and sends her to another house down South. Oliver is taken back to Fagin's hideout and the gang strips him of his clothes and take the books and money he was given to return by Brownlow. Bill Sykes then comes up with a plan to steal money from a house down south, it's actually the house in which Mrs Bedwin is now living. Agnes' sister Rose is also living there too. Oliver, Bill and one of Fagin's thugs break in and Oliver is shot by the guards. Oliver is dumped in a ditch by Bill. Fagin then informs Monks who loses his temper unaware that Nancy is listening outside the door. Oliver is found by Mrs Bedwin, Rose and the guards and taken in. Mr Brownlow arrives to apologise to Mrs Bedwin, they make up and Mr Brownlow learns what happened to Oliver. Fagin and Monks head to find if Oliver is still alive, when they arrive Oliver sees Fagin and Rose sees Monks, who she saw years ago trying to kill her sister. When Fagin learns that Brownlow is looking for him, he tells his gangs to scatter. Meanwhile, Mr Brownlow and the others move back to London to continue their search. Rose tells Mr Brownlow about her nightmares of Agnes' attacker and her vows to find him. Nancy heads to Brownlow's house to tell him what she heard between Monks and Fagin. Fagin is already aware of her deceit and send Dodger and Charley to spy on her. Dodger returns and Fagin tells Bill. Elizabeth (Monks' mother) dies of a heart attack and Monks means to end his quest to have Oliver convicted. He is arrested afterwards, though. by Brownlow and his guards. Bill returns to Nancy and kills her. She is found by Charley and one of Nancy's friends. A manhunt begins for Bill. Fagin begins to lose control of the situation and is forced to change his looks in order not to be captured. Bill is cornered when an army of London men and women plan to kill him, he leads them up to Fagin's new quarters and the pair plan an escape. They both make their way up on the rooftop. Fagin pretends that Bill has kidnapped him and Bill loses his balance and falls off the building to his death. Fagin is mistaken for a humble victim. Oliver recognises Fagin and he is arrested by the police. Oliver and Brownlow visit Fagin in prison to find out about a letter which Monks gave Fagin. Fagin tells Oliver where it is. Whilst in prison, Fagin shows signs of becoming insane as he talks to himself and is constantly forgetting he's in prison. Brownlow and Oliver find the letter which was made by Oliver's father to his mother. Brownlow reads the letter. Monks tells Brownlow and Oliver about the horrible childhood he has had and promises to change his ways, Brownlow frees him and allows him to go down South. Years later, Monks is married and expecting a baby and Rose marries the man of her dreams – Doctor Losberne (David Bark-Jones). Oliver is present at the wedding as the series draws to a close. ===== The protagonist of the game, Nick Vrenna, has been unjustly incarcerated in a prison where the staff are performing unethical medical experiments upon the inmates. A prison riot occurs and an experiment goes horribly wrong. The people inside the prison - except for Nick, who seems to be immune - are infected with a substance called Abuse that transforms them into monsters. With the water supply in danger of being infected, Nick arms himself and fights through the horde to prevent this, and then escapes from the prison complex. ===== The series is about the mountain-based adventures of a young boy named Sebastian and his Pyrenean mountain dog, Belle, who live in a small village in Southern France. He has no friends because he is teased by the other children for not having a mother. But one day, he meets a gentle white dog who has been falsely accused of attacking people. He names her Belle and they become the best of friends. To save her from being put down, he leaves his adoptive family and flees to Spain with her and his little dog, Poochie. They have many adventures as they elude the police and search for his long-lost mother. ===== The story is introduced with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, then sets the scene in Asia, where a community of Jews live in a Christian city. A seven-year-old school-boy, son of a widow, is brought up to revere Mary. He teaches himself to sing the first verse of the popular Medieval hymn Alma Redemptoris Mater ("Nurturing Mother of the Redeemer"); although he does not understand the words, an older classmate tells him it is about Mary, the mother of Jesus. He begins to sing it every day as he walks through the ghetto to school. Satan, 'That hath (built) in Jewes' heart his waspe's nest', incites some Jews to murder the child and throw his body into a public cesspit. His mother searches for him and eventually finds his body, which begins miraculously to sing the Alma Redemptoris. The Christians call in the city magistrate, who has some of the guilty Jews drawn by wild horses and then hanged. The boy continues to sing throughout his Requiem Mass until the local abbot of the community asks him how he is able to sing. He replies that although his throat is cut, he has had a visit from Mary who laid a grain on his tongue and told him he could keep singing until it was removed and she would come for him. The abbot removes the grain and he becomes silent and passes away. The story ends with a reference to Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, another child martyr whose death was blamed on Jews. ===== Domino Harvey, a bounty hunter, has been arrested by the FBI, investigating the theft of $10 million from an armored truck. She is interviewed by criminal psychologist Taryn Mills and tells her everything she knows about the case. Domino explains her profession and the events leading up to the theft with Mills occasionally prompting her to give more detail. Domino is a former model living in Los Angeles who becomes a bounty hunter when, after being kicked out of college, she notices a newspaper advertisement for a bounty hunter training seminar. Her colleagues are Ed Moseby, Choco and Afghan driver Alf. They are employed by Claremont Williams III, a bail bondsman who also runs an armored car business, and whose mistress, Lateesha Rodriguez, works for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Lateesha's granddaughter Mica is suffering from a blood disease and needs an operation that costs $300,000. Claremont sets up the robbery of $10 million from Drake Bishop, the owner of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and a client of Claremont. His bounty hunters would return the stolen money and collect a $300,000 finder's fee from Bishop. Lateesha has been running a counterfeit driver's license racket at the DMV. A teenager named Frances arrives at the DMV and asks Lateesha for fake licenses for himself, his brother, and two of their friends. The FBI are tipped about Lateesha's racket. They threaten to send her to jail unless she gives them information about Frances, whom they have been surveilling. Lateesha throws them off the trail by saying that Frances, his brother, and his two friends are going to commit the armored car robbery, when in reality she and Claremont are doing it themselves. Lateesha carries out the robbery with the help of three co-workers. Claremont finds that Frances and his brother are the sons of mafia boss Anthony Cigliutti. He phones Lateesha and tells her to abort the plan, leaving the money with getaway driver Locus Fender, who takes the money to his mother's trailer home. Claremont has the bounty hunters apprehend Frances, his brother and his two friends and then tells them to deliver them to men working for Drake Bishop. Claremont tells them to retrieve the money from Fender and to deliver it to Bishop at the Stratosphere Casino. Following a shootout with Fender's mother, the money is retrieved. Cigliutti is told about his sons' arrest and is led to believe that Bishop had his sons killed. In reality Bishop's men released the boys after learning that they did not know anything about the robbery. Believing his sons dead, Cigliutti wants revenge and heads for the Stratosphere. In Las Vegas, Domino takes $300,000 of Bishop's money and gives it to Lateesha for Mica's operation. At the Stratosphere, the bounty hunters meet with Bishop, who has an armed crew with him. Domino and Bishop discuss the money and what should happen next. Alf has stolen the money and filled the sacks with plastic explosives. He then reveals that he has the remote detonator taped to his hand, and has shipped the money to free Afghanistan. Shortly after this revelation Cigliutti turns up with his crew. Though Bishop denies he had Cigliutti's sons killed, Cigliutti shoots him. In the ensuing gunfight Choco and Ed are severely wounded, but make it into the elevator with Domino. Alf blows up the top of the Stratosphere and Domino is the only survivor. After telling Taryn Mills everything, Domino is released by the FBI. Mills advises her to retire from bounty hunting. The money in boxes is delivered to Afghanistan and opened by celebrating children in the streets, Mica gets her operation, and Domino shares a moment with her mother. ===== Prior to the start of Blood of the Fold, Richard comes to terms with his true identity as a War Wizard, a powerful wizard with both additive and subtractive magic. The New World, and all the freedom of humankind, is under threat from the Imperial Order after the barrier between the Old and New World was brought down. The Imperial Order has already sent delegations and armies into the New World. Richard's only option to stop the invasion is to claim his heritage and unite all free kingdoms and provinces under one rule and one command. ===== Jagang, Emperor of the Imperial Order, has invoked a bound fork prophecy binding Richard and Kahlan to a fate of pain, betrayal, and a path to the Underworld. At Jagang's behest a Sister of the Dark gains access into the fabled Temple of the Winds and has unleashed a plague that sweeps across the lands like a firestorm consuming lives at an alarming rate. To stop the plague Richard and Kahlan are forced to sacrifice everything they have between them. ===== Richard and Kahlan are finally married and are enjoying their wedding night back in the Spirit house in the Village of the Mud People. Soon, sudden and unexplainable deaths begin to occur, and Richard comes to the conclusion that when Kahlan called forth "the chimes" in order to save him, they remained free, causing havoc. Zedd sends Richard and Kahlan off to the Wizard's Keep in Aydindril to get a special bottle that contains a spell that will stop the threat. While en route, Richard, Kahlan, and their Mord-Sith protector Cara are sidetracked into dealing with the people of Anderith, who have a powerful weapon of mass destruction called the Dominie Dirtch. They find that the leadership of Anderith wishes to surrender to the Imperial Order rather than surrender to the D'Haran Empire. As Richard tries his best to convince the people of Anderith of the danger the Imperial Order poses, he becomes firmly convinced that the chimes are loose. =====