From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The Stooges are dressed as Japanese soldiers for a photo shoot; their boss (John Tyrrell) tells them to go on a lunch break but they have to keep their costumes on to finish the photo shoot quickly. Meanwhile, in the restaurant the Stooges are about to go to, the manager reads a headline in the newspaper that states a Japanese submarine was destroyed offshore and three Japanese soldiers had escaped. When the Stooges arrive, the owner thinks they are the Japanese and attacks the Stooges, but they manage to escape. When they escape into the alley, they accidentally activate a hidden door. When they get inside, they meet a Nazi spy named Hugo (Vernon Dent) who mistakes them for the three Japanese, Naki (Larry), Saki (Moe), and Waki (Curly), that escaped. Just as Hugo is about to introduce them to some ladies, Curly accidentally calls them "dames" which makes Hugo realize that they are not the Japanese, but he plays along anyway. In order to prove themselves, the Stooges have to teach the ladies jujitsu and do acrobatic tricks. When the real Japanese arrive, the Stooges fight them, but they keep turning the lights on and off, leading them to fight the wrong persons. At the end, the Stooges come out victorious. ===== Takaya Ougi, a high school student, wants nothing more than to protect his best friend Yuzuru Narita and live a normal life. That is, until Nobutsuna Naoe, an intense and charismatic man, informs Takaya that he is in fact the reincarnation of Lord Kagetora, the adopted son of a noble samurai lord, Kenshin Uesugi. Naoe, himself a "possessor," or a soul reborn through time, reawakens Takaya's abilities to exorcise evil spirits and fight the Feudal Underworld, a collection of restless warrior spirits bent on modern-day conquest. While most possessors remember their former lives before being reincarnated, Takaya is one of the few who doesn't, and is often hostile towards any effort for the complete recovery of his memory. As the plot unfolds, the complex history of the characters and their past suggests why this is so, and the true nature of the tempestuous and somewhat ambiguous relationship between the two leads provides the backdrop for a melodrama that spans several generations of Japanese history. As they ascend to the living world to renew their ancient war, Naoe, Takaya, and two other possessors gear up to prevent that from happening. The series is set in Matsumoto, a large city in Nagano. ===== Phil (D'Onofrio), James (Kinney), George (Shalhoub), and Tom (Sinise) meet 20 years after their championship high school game at a special reunion at their high school. Afterwards, they decide to visit the home of their old coach (Sorvino). While at first it seems they are all having a few harmless drinks, the night soon takes a violent turn as several things are realized; Phil is having an affair with George's wife, George (who is running for mayor) is firing James, who is his campaign chairman, and Tom has become a reeling drunk. With the help of their old Coach, the men try to put their lives back together—but the Coach proves to be nothing they believed him to have been, and worse than no help; in fact, his involvement with each of the men's lives proves to have done them all much more harm than good. This is particularly glaring because of the refusal of the star player, who still hates the Coach after all these years, to attend the reunion. ===== Ebenezer Scrooge is the most greedy, corrupt and mean-spirited crook in the old West and he sees no value in "Holiday Humbug." But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come open his eyes, Scrooge discovers that love and friendships are the greatest wealth of all. ===== The film starts out with the quote "Nothing can ever be truly, fully understood. Not even the most simple idea. Not even this." Bickford Shmeckler (Patrick Fugit) is a lonely college student who keeps a journal known as "The Book" of his philosophical ideas and theories. One night during a loud toga party, his book is stolen by the inebriated and beautiful Sarah Witt (Olivia Wilde) who briefly meets Bickford and is shown to be a kleptomaniac. Sarah becomes enamored with the writings, and experiences what she calls "braingasms". After showing The Book to her boyfriend Trent, she rants about how she would love to meet the author (and have sex with him). Later that night, Bickford discovers that the book is missing and begins to panic. By interrogating his roommates, Bickford quickly finds and meets Sarah while she is working at the school's art studio. She kisses him, and explains that his work inspired her to paint. They go to Trent's dorm and discover that he threw the book out over his jealously that Sarah was so taken with Bickford's work. By this time, a delusional homeless man nicknamed "Space Man" has found the book, and becomes convinced that Bickford can free the "extra-dimensionals" living in his head. Space Man extorts Bickford, but after making no progress, a despondent Schmeckler gives up. Meanwhile, the owners of a comic book store read the book and fall in love with it, reprinting it, distributing free copies of it, and going as far as selling related merchandise. Sarah discovers this, and still feeling guilty, tells Bickford. They learn of the free distribution of his book, and Bickford confronts the comic store owners. Frustrated that their newfound idol does not care about The Book's newfound popularity, they angrily give it back. Despite having it once more, however, Bickford still fails to find himself at ease. One of his college professors, who has read the Book, sets Bickford up with a publisher without his consent, and it is heavily implied she demands he sleep with her as a favor. Under increasing pressure, Bickford confides in Sarah that he began writing the book after his mother died in a car accident while he was at the wheel; his father had checked him into a mental institution to treat his resulting mental breakdowns, and he began to record his thoughts in a notebook the doctors provided. An insult from Sarah prompts Bickford to realize that nothing in life can ever be truly understood, and he includes a disclaimer in The Book warning readers to take the time to have fun in life's fleeting chaos. Bickford returns the book to the comic store owners and grants them permission to reprint and give it away, under the conditions that it be free and no merchandise be created. He then begins a romantic relationship with Sarah, experiences sex for the first time, and is inspired to write a new poem. ===== Triffids are tall, carnivorous, mobile plants capable of aggressive and seemingly intelligent behaviour, which arrived on Earth as spores from a meteor shower. They move about the countryside by "walking" on their roots, appear to be able to communicate with each other, and possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting that enables them to kill their victims and feed on the corpses. Bill Masen (Howard Keel), a merchant navy officer, is lying in hospital with his eyes bandaged. He discovers that while he has been waiting for his injured eyes to heal, an unusual meteor shower has blinded most people on Earth. Once he leaves the hospital, Masen finds people all over London struggling to stay alive in the face of their new affliction. Some survive by cooperating while others simply fight, but it is apparent that after just a few days society is disintegrating. Masen rescues a schoolgirl named Susan (Janina Faye) from a crashed train; she has no parents and is a ward of the state. They decide to leave London and head across the English Channel to France. Masen and Susan find refuge at a chateau but when it is attacked by escaped sighted convicts, they are again forced to escape; shortly afterwards, triffids attack and kill everyone in the chateau. The carnivorous plant population continues to grow in number, feeding on people and animals as they move. At a lighthouse on an island off Cornwall, Tom Goodwin (Kieron Moore), a flawed but gifted scientist and his wife Karen (Janette Scott), battle the aggressive plants as he searches for a way to kill them. Goodwin eventually finds the answer, which has been right there in front of him all along: salt water dissolves the triffids. ===== The series takes place in late 20th century Britain. A spectacular meteorite shower unexpectedly renders most of humanity blind, leading to the breakdown of society overnight. Unaware of this, Bill Masen (John Duttine) has retained his sight by virtue of being in hospital with his eyes bandaged at the time of the shower. Bill works on a Triffid farm, where the mobile and carnivorous plants are cultivated for their oil. Prior to the story he was stung by a plant and even though he was wearing protective clothing, some of the poison got into his eyes. In the hospital he tentatively removes the bandages and gradually discovers the catastrophe around him. He rescues Josella "Jo" Playton (Emma Relph) from her blind captor and finds that she had slept through the meteorite shower thus keeping her sight. They eventually come across a small band of similarly lucky survivors who have decided to leave London and establish a community elsewhere to begin rebuilding civilization. They are initially opposed by sighted Jack Coker (Maurice Colbourne), who wants them to stay in London and help the blind, not abandon them. When the others reject his scheme, he and a few sighted helpers capture some of the group, including Bill and Jo. He assigns each to a different group of the blind. Bill is handcuffed to two of his charges to prevent him leaving them. The Triffids get loose and run amok amongst the helpless blind human population, slaughtering and feeding on them. Between the Triffids and a mysterious disease, most of Bill's group eventually die; the rest scatter. Bill starts searching for Jo and teams up with Jack, who admits his plan did not work as he had hoped. They drive through the English countryside and encounter part of the group that had left London. The group had split after a disagreement over morality: the ones who stayed behind, led by Miss Durrant (Perlita Neilson), refused to accept that polygamy would be necessary to repopulate the world. After more fruitless searching, Jack decides to return to Miss Durrant's community. Bill meets a young girl, Susan and she accompanies him. Finally, he recalls that Jo had spoken of a place belonging to her friends in the Sussex Downs. There he is reunited with her and after erecting a protective fence around the farm to keep out the Triffids, they settle down and start raising a family. After six years, Jack shows up in a helicopter. Miss Durrant's group has been wiped out by the disease but the other faction has secured the Isle of Wight and exterminated. With the situation gradually deteriorating where they are, Bill, Jo, three blind friends and the children prepare to join them. Before they can go, several uniformed men arrive in an armoured car; they are part of an organisation that is setting up a feudal society, with the sighted as the new aristocracy. In their setup, one sighted person is in charge of ten of the blind. They plan to assign more blind people to Bill and Jo, and take Susan away to learn how to care for others. Bill gets the soldiers drunk and sabotages their armoured car. Then he and the rest of his people drive away, leaving the gates open for the besieging Triffids. ===== The novel revolves around two men, Charlie Millar and George, both secret agents who are mistakenly placed together as employees in a photo kiosk at Oxford Circus. Neither man is aware of the other's real identity. Then a "Frame Thirteen" order comes through, instructing each to assassinate the other. Charlie and George try at first to carry out the order. But in time they learn that the real problem lies with the organisation for which they both work. As the chase begins, the two men come to understand that things not what they seem, and out pour secrets that will rattle the foundations of the British Intelligence Service. ===== Title page of the first edition, 1669 The novel is told from the perspective of its protagonist Simplicius, a rogue or picaro typical of the picaresque novel, as he traverses the tumultuous world of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War. Raised by a peasant family, he is separated from his home by foraging dragoons and is adopted by a hermit living in the forest, who teaches him to read and introduces him to religion. The hermit also gives Simplicius his name because he was so simple that he did not know what his own name was.See chapter 8: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/5248/9 After the death of the hermit, Simplicius must fend for himself. He is conscripted at a young age into service, and from there embarks on years of foraging, military triumph, wealth, prostitution, disease, bourgeois domestic life, and travels to Russia, France, and to an alternative world inhabited by mermen. The novel ends with Simplicius turning to a life of hermitage himself, denouncing the world as corrupt. ===== Ambrose Ashley is the owner of a large country estate on the Cornish coast and has been guardian to his orphaned cousin Philip since he was three years old. On Sundays, Philip's godfather, Nick Kendall, and his daughter Louise come to lunch with them, as do the Reverend Mr Pascoe and his family. Life is good apart from a few health problems that require Ambrose to spend the winter in warmer climates. As the damp weather approaches, he sets off for his third winter abroad and chooses Italy. By the time he has reached his twenties, Philip misses Ambrose on his sojourns in Italy but regularly receives letters from him. Ambrose writes that he has met a cousin of theirs called Rachel — the widowed Contessa Sangalletti — in Florence. In the spring, Ambrose says that he and Rachel are married and have no immediate plans to return to Cornwall. Gradually, the tone of Ambrose's correspondence changes. He complains of the sun, the stuffy atmosphere of the Villa Sangalletti, and terrible headaches. In a letter that reaches Philip in July, Ambrose says that a friend of Rachel's called Rainaldi has recommended that Ambrose see a different doctor. Ambrose says he can trust no one and claims that Rachel watches him constantly. Philip discusses the contents of the letter with his godfather Nick, who is his guardian until his coming of age at 25. Nick suggests that Ambrose may be suffering from a brain tumour. Philip travels to Italy and reaches the Villa Sangalletti, where he learns that Ambrose is dead and that Rachel has left the villa. When Philip returns to Cornwall, Nick tells Philip that he has received a communication from Rainaldi, containing two pieces of information: the death certificate confirms that Ambrose's cause of death was a brain tumour, and, as Ambrose had never changed his will in Rachel's favour, Philip is still heir to the estate. Two weeks later, Nick receives word from Rachel, saying that she has arrived by boat at Plymouth. Philip invites her to stay with him, and a harmony develops between them. One day, a tenant from East Lodge gives Philip a letter from Ambrose, written three months before his death. In it, Ambrose tells Philip about his illness and talks of Rachel's recklessness with money and her habit of turning to Rainaldi rather than himself. Finally, he wonders if they are trying to poison him, and he asks Philip to come to see him. Rachel later shows Philip an unsigned will that Ambrose wrote in which he leaves his property to Rachel. Philip begins to trust Rachel again. On the day before Philip's 25th birthday, he prepares to transfer Ambrose's estate to Rachel. He also gives her the family jewels, and they make love. The next day, Philip announces that he and Rachel are getting married, but she denies this in front of friends. Not long afterward, Philip falls ill for many weeks, during which Rachel nurses him. When he is well enough to go outside, he finds that the terraced gardens are complete and that work has begun on a sunken garden. The foreman tells Philip that the bridge over the garden is a framework and will not bear any weight. Philip suspects that Rachel tried to poison him and, with Louise's help, searches her room. They find nothing to incriminate Rachel and wonder if they are misjudging her. Meanwhile, Rachel has walked to the terraced garden and stepped onto the bridge over the sunken garden. Philip finds her broken body lying amongst the timber and stone. He takes her in his arms, and she looks at him, calling him Ambrose before she dies. The book's title reflects Philip's consistent references to Rachel as "my cousin Rachel" up to the moment he realises that he is in love with her. ===== The episodes of this anthology series center around Corrine and Amanda, two young women who are the managers at a beautiful resort named Hotel Cabo located in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Hotel guests have romantic experiences and fantasies with lovers, strangers, and sometimes with Corrine or Amanda. The series was referenced in the CMT hit reality game show Sweet Home Alabama, after contestant Michael Dean appeared on the series. Dean was eliminated during that episode. ===== In the Homo Sol stories, the Galactic Federation has developed psychology into a hard science, with quantitative equations and solutions for behavior. Consequently, master psychologists are important and highly regarded. The Solarians (meaning humans, also referred to as Homo Sol) have developed hyperspace travel and landed on a planet of Alpha Centauri, thus qualifying for acceptance into the Galactic Federation of intelligent humanoid species. Tan Porus, master psychologist at Arcturus University, is invited to join the delegation to be sent to administer the invitation, but sends one of his assistants. The delegation returns in despair; not only have the Solarians refused the invitation, but they exhibit irrational and war-like behavior that contravenes the sacrosanct psychological laws established over millennia by Federation psychologists. In opposition to his doubting colleagues, Porus insists that the hominids of this new planet are something special: a species susceptible to panic en masse. "What of Kraut's Law," a colleague asks him, "which says it is impossible to panic more than five hominids at a time?" Porus dismisses this with scorn, manipulates the Federation Council into sending him to Earth to demonstrate his thesis, and in a short time broadcasts back the results of his demonstration: "Panic, morons! World-wide panic!" Porus is eventually able to work out the psychological means to convince the Solarians to accept membership in the Federation. ===== Retired teacher Dorothy Livingston is visiting her niece when she bumps into a man she has never been able to forget. Seeing him leave by taxi, Dorothy and her niece decide to follow him and Dorothy tells her niece how she met that man in 1933. During that time, Dorothy was assigned to a small school in West Virginia and replaced a teacher who informed her that Mica Frost, one of her students, should be allowed access to the library at all times. She meets Mica and discovers that he is a boy who enjoys scribbling in his notebook. She believes Mica's behavior to be unusual and asks him to schedule a parent-teacher conference. Mica declines and informs her that his parents are dead and he lives with his grandfather, who will neither meet her or be met under any circumstance. Mica secretly takes extra books home to read. When the teacher confronts him, she finds that the boy is reading the books to his ailing grandfather - but Mica now confesses that the old man is not his grandfather but actually his great-great-great-grandfather who he claims to be more than a hundred and forty years old. Mica further claims that he's keeping the old man alive by reading to him a story every night, but never finishing the story until the next night, claiming the suspense is the only thing keeping the old man alive. He claims he's continuing the tradition as his father, grandfather, etc. have all done. The next morning at school, Mica accidentally falls from a tree, hits his head, and breaks his arm. He is taken to the town doctor to spend the night but he fights back because no one will be home to keep his great-great-great-grandfather alive. Feeling responsible for Mica’s grandfather, Dorothy goes to their house and reads the old man a story she makes up on the fly. The next day, Mica rushes home to find that his great- great-great-grandfather is still alive and well. He is also surprised to find out that Dorothy was there to read to the old man. She tells Mica that she’s still not convinced that she saved his life but she said she read the story just in case it worked. Back in the present, the adult Mica gets out of the taxi and enters an apartment building followed closely by Dorothy and her niece. Entering an apartment, the scene switches and Dorothy’s voice can be heard reading to her own mother who asks excitedly, “What happens next? Did you find the man? Was he really 200 years old?” A much older Dorothy smiles and answers her: “Tomorrow, mother,” and leaves with the old woman waiting for tomorrow’s story. ===== Outlanders tells the story of alien Princess Kahm and Japanese news photographer Tetsuya Wakatsuki as they try to save the Earth from the invasion forces led by Kahm's father, emperor of the interstellar Santovasku Empire. The Santovasku use giant organic spaceships, or "Biomech," their advanced technology and their mastery of sorcery in their assault. Tetsuya learns from Kahm that her ancestors in fact came from earth and they've returned to reclaim their sacred home planet that mankind has subsequently spoiled (due to pollution). However, the invasion of the "sacred planet" is really the front for a struggle between two secret fractions from the Santovasku Empire, ancient rivals which have vowed to destroy each other no matter what the cost - even if this includes all of humankind. And Earth, too, has her share of sinister conspirators who solely seek advancement for their own benefit... ===== Gilly Noble (Chris Klein) takes a stray cat named "Ringo" to the animal shelter where he works in Shelbyville, Indiana. Gilly gets his hair cut by a beautiful young aspiring hairdresser named Jo Wingfield (Heather Graham). As Jo cuts Gilly's hair, she mentions that she recently lost a tail-less cat named Ringo, leading Gilly to tell her that Ringo is at the pound. The excitement causes Jo to accidentally cut off a part of Gilly's ear, and he is rushed to the hospital where the ear is reattached. To make up for the incident, Jo invites Gilly to her house for lunch the next day, where Gilly meets Jo's self-centered mother, Valdine (Sally Field), and stroke-suffering father, Walter (Richard Jenkins). Gilly and Jo date for six months before getting engaged, but suddenly a private detective, Vic Vetter (Brent Briscoe), contacts Gilly to tell him that he's Valdine and Walter's son. After Gilly and Jo end their incestuous relationship, Gilly moves in with his new family, and Jo moves to Beaver, Oregon to start a new life. After being branded a "sister-fucker", Gilly loses his job at the animal shelter and is forced to take a job removing roadkill for the highway department. Sixteen months later, a surprise comes to the Wingfield doorstep in the form of a young man named Leon Pitofsky (Jack Plotnick), who claims to be Valdine and Walter's son and presents his birth certificate as proof. Valdine and Walter feel better for a few moments before angrily lashing out at Gilly and forcing him to leave. Valdine notifies the Beaver police that Gilly is a sex offender. Gilly runs for his life and decides to go to Oregon to inform Jo. On the way to Oregon, he befriends a pilot with two prosthetic legs named Dig (Orlando Jones). Meanwhile, Jo becomes engaged to her ex-boyfriend Jack Mitchelson (Eddie Cibrian), a rich and powerful young man who secretly deals in marijuana, controls over half the town by paying off numerous politicians, and cheats on Jo with his ex- girlfriend, a local cop named Gina (Sarah Silverman). Valdine keeps pushing Jo to marry Jack in order to become involved with Jack's wealth, although Jo still loves Gilly. Valdine keeps Leon secluded and tells Jo that Leon is a figment of Gilly's imagination. Gilly tries to hide from the authorities, and Dig frequently aids him in his escape from Jack's henchmen. Ultimately, Gilly is not able to stop Jo from marrying Jack, who still believes that Gilly is her brother. Police arrive at the marriage scene to inform the family that Gilly died in a car accident, which was actually an act of sabotage by Leon who has been arrested. Jo learns the truth and ends her marriage which causes Valdine to attack Leon and have a stroke. It's also revealed that Jack was behind Valdine and Walter being misidentified as Gilly's parents. But unknown to everyone, Gilly was not driving the car at the time of the accident when it was actually one of Jack's henchmen Streak (Brent Hinkley). Gilly, who has just returned to working at the animal shelter, sees Jo and mistakenly believes that she wants to commit suicide. They are finally reunited on the roof of the same animal shelter that was a catalyst for their coming together. A few months later, Gilly and Jo are married, and Walter, Valdine, Leon, Dig, and many other people attend, with Walter on his feet and Valdine in a wheelchair after her stroke. Also, as a surprise wedding present, Vetter arrives and tells him that he has truly found his mother. In an ironic twist, Gilly's mother turns out to be Suzanne Somers, whom Gilly used to fantasize about while masturbating. ===== The setting is in Northern Europe in 928 AD. A traveler (the player) comes upon a town named Tirich hoping to find food and shelter. However, the town appears to be invaded by demons. The traveler must help the townspeople and lift the curse from the town by freeing the young sorceress Ečstatica from her possession. ===== In 1870s New York City, gentleman lawyer Newland Archer is planning to marry the respectable young May Welland. May's cousin, the American heiress Countess Ellen Olenska, has returned to New York after a disastrous marriage to a dissolute Polish Count. At first she is ostracized by society and vicious rumors are spread, but, as May's family boldly stands by the countess, she is gradually accepted by the very finest of New York's old families. The countess is snubbed at one social party arranged by her family, but with the help of Archer she is able to make a comeback at an event being hosted by the wealthy Van der Luydens. There she makes the acquaintance of one of New York's established financiers, Julius Beaufort, who has a reputation for risky affairs and dissipated habits. He begins to openly flirt with the countess both in public and in private. Archer prematurely announces his engagement to May, but as he comes to know the countess, he begins to appreciate her unconventional views on New York society and he becomes increasingly disillusioned with his new fiancée May and her innocence, lack of personal opinion, and sense of self. After the countess announces her intention of divorcing her husband, Archer supports her desire for freedom, but he feels compelled to act on behalf of the family and persuade the countess to remain married. When Archer realizes that he has unwittingly been falling in love with the countess, he abruptly leaves the next day to be reunited with May and her parents, who are in Florida on vacation. Archer asks May to shorten their engagement, but May becomes suspicious and asks him if his hurry to get married is prompted by the fear that he is marrying the wrong person. Archer reassures May that he is in love with her. When back in New York, Archer calls on the countess and admits that he is in love with her, but a telegram arrives from May announcing that her parents have pushed forward the wedding date. After their wedding and honeymoon, Archer and May settle down to married life in New York. Over time, Archer's memory of the countess fades. When the countess returns to New York to care for her grandmother, she and Archer agree to consummate their affair. But then suddenly, the countess announces her intention to return to Europe. May throws a farewell party for the countess, and after the guests leave, May announces to Archer that she is pregnant and that she told the Countess this news two weeks earlier. The years pass: Archer is 57 and has been a dutiful, loving father and faithful husband. The Archers have had three children. May had previously died of infectious pneumonia and Archer had mourned her in earnest. Archer's engaged son, Ted, persuades him to travel to France. There, Ted has arranged to visit Countess Olenska at her Paris apartment. Archer has not seen the countess in over 25 years. Ted confides to his father May's deathbed confession that "... she knew we were safe with you, and always would be. Because once, when she asked you to, you gave up the thing you wanted most." Archer responds, "She never asked me." That evening outside the countess' apartment, Archer sends his son alone to visit her. While sitting outside the apartment, he recollects their time together and eventually gets up and departs. ===== Eric Binford is a hollow, chain smoking, socially awkward and unlikeable young man who is also an obsessed film addict whose love of old films extends far beyond his job at a Los Angeles film distributor's warehouse and endless late-night film screenings in his bedroom. For his vast knowledge, he's been bullied by his friends and family. His singular obsession eventually turns into psychosis after he crosses paths with Marilyn O'Connor (Linda Kerridge), an Australian model and a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who becomes the physical embodiment of his cinematic desires. When unintentionally stood up by Marilyn on their first date, Eric becomes homicidally unbalanced, transforming himself into a gallery of classic film characters--including Dracula, The Mummy, and Hopalong Cassidy--and sets out to destroy his oppressors, starting with his abusive and crotchety, wheelchair-using, ex-dancer Aunt Stella, pushing her wheelchair down a staircase to her death (reenacting a scene from Kiss of Death) and making it look like an accident. Eric attends her funeral dressed as Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark's role from the aforementioned film). Eric then dresses up as Count Dracula to attend a midnight screening of Night of the Living Dead at a local cinema. Afterwards, he bursts in on Marilyn in the shower while looking for an autograph in a scene straight out of Psycho, he flees and targets a hooker who had insulted him earlier. She trips, falling to her death, and Eric licks her blood off his fingers. Eric becomes more and more unhinged from reality as the film progresses. A few nights later, Eric dresses up as the cowboy Hopalong Cassidy, when he shoots and kills a boorish co-worker (Mickey Rourke) who taunted him on a regular basis. Not long after, he Eric dresses up as The Mummy and drives his mean and vindictive boss, Mr. Berger (Norman Burton), into suffering a fatal heart attack while he is working late at night at his distribution warehouse. Finally, Eric dresses up as gangster Cody Jarrett (from White Heat) and kills a sleazy filmmaker named Gary Bially (Morgan Paull), who stole his idea as his own for an upcoming feature film inspired by Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (to be called "Alabama and the Forty Thieves") at a barber shop in broad daylight, which finally gives away his identity. Eric then eventually works his way toward Marilyn, hoping to lure her to his side. Investigating the murders is a criminal psychologist named Dr. Jerry Moriarty (Tim Thomerson), who tries to find a pattern to the murders and find Eric, to help or stop him, with the assistance of a friendly policewoman who has discovered that Eric's Aunt Stella is actually his mother. Moriarty's investigation is hampered by his own mean-spirited and nasty boss Captain Gallagher, who tries to stop Moriarty's investigation because Gallagher wants to take all the credit of finding the killer for himself. It all leads to Eric luring Marilyn to a photography studio where he drugs her to reenact a scene from The Prince and the Showgirl which is interrupted when Dr. Moriarty arrives, and Eric is forced to run with Marilyn at his side. It leads to the Mann's Chinese Theatre where the insane Eric is shot by the police on the roof of the building while reenacting Cody Jarrett's death scene in White Heat. Eric then falls off the roof to his apparent death. ===== The Addams Family's lawyer, Tully Alford, has taken control of their Gothic mansion and imprisoned Morticia Addams, Pugsley Addams, Wednesday Addams, Granny and Uncle Fester. The player controls Gomez Addams as he explores the various rooms in the mansion, locating items and battling monsters, until he has located all of the lost family members. Gomez cannot save Morticia until the rest of the family is rescued. ===== The film is told in flashbacks detailing the girls' relationship (in color), and their time in juvenile detention center (in black and white). Bonnie (Witt), aged 14, and Hillary (Humphrey), aged 15, meet at a bus stop in Los Angeles, California and begin a friendship. They stroll around their city, chuck rocks onto a highway from an overpass bridge, run rampant in shopping malls, and play video games. Their day escalates into an eruption of violence and rage when they brutally stab an elderly woman to death. They then run to a gas station and attempt to wash off the blood from their clothes. After their arrest, they claim that the murder was purely just for "fun". The story moves from the juvenile detention center where the girls are kept, to the girls on the day of the killing. ===== After a postman drowns, Sanya, 8, finds a bag full of letters. As the envelopes are all wet, there is no way to read the addresses and send the letters. A neighbour, Aunt Dasha, reads the letters to anyone willing to listen during the cold winter evenings. Thus Sanya first hears of the lost Arctic expedition that will become the meaning of his life. For now on he is only fascinated by the brave people and their adventures, though he already can understand that the expedition is probably lost and all its participants are dead. Meanwhile, tragedy comes into his own life. One night he goes fishing in the river and witnesses a murder. Next morning his own father is accused of it, the accusation based on the knife with the name of "Grigoryev" beside the victim. Sanya knows that it is he who has lost the knife, but he cannot tell anything because he is mute. Sanya's father is taken to prison and eventually dies there. During the hard and hungry winter of father's being in prison, mother sends Sanya and his sister, also Sanya (he is Alexander and she is Alexandra) to a village to live the two of them all alone. There Sanya meets the Doctor, a runaway revolutionary, who teaches the boy to speak. He disappears three days after his mysterious arrival, but Sanya keeps practicing all winter - only to start speaking when it is told of father's death. Eventually mother comes for the children and takes them home, where they discover she is about to remarry. The stepfather turns out to be cruel and selfish, and he abuses the children heavily. Mother realizes that and soon dies, probably after committing suicide (this is not specified; it could be an accident after which she has no will to live, though suicide is also possible, as to parallel the fates of Sanya and Katya's parents). Sanya then agrees to his best friend Pyetka's urges and the two escape to search for a better life in Turkestan, which they see as a magical land of the East. They give each other a pledge taken from the poem Ulysses of Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield". This pledge always helps Sanya go on. After months of wandering through the winter forests, through war-beaten Russia of the 1917 winter, they end up in the hunger-stricken Moscow. The reality smashes in their faces, they get separated and lose each other for many years. Sanya ends up in an orphanage. In the orphanage he meets two new friends, Valka and Romashka, and also the strict school headmaster, Nikolay Antonich Tatarinov. By chance - or fate - Sanya meets on the street an old woman originating from Sanya's own town, Ensk, and her granddaughter, Katya, of Sanya'a age. He soon realizes that they are his headmaster's family. After breaking the Tatarinov's lactometer, getting into a fight with Katya over that, and Katya's taking the blame, they become fast friends and Sanya frequents the Tatarinov house, helping the old woman with the household. He also gets to meet the old woman's daughter, Katya's mother, Maria Vasilyevna, a mysterious sad woman. But one day, just after Sanya's beloved teacher, Korabliov, proposes to Maria Vasilyevna and gets a refusal, he overhears the teachers' cruel plot to destroy Korabliov, because he has gained the students' love and respect and has become more popular than the headmaster, and Sanya tells him of the plot. Nikolay Antonich discovers of Sanya's intervention (as it is discovered years later - through Romashka) and banishes him out of the house. Years later, in the last school year, Sanya meets Katya again and realizes that he is in love with her. But Romashka spies on him kiss Katya and tells Nikolay Antonich. Nikolay Antonich sends Katya back to Ensk, but Sanya goes after her, thus visiting home, the beloved Aunt Dasha and the abandoned little sister for the first time since his escape. He finds the old letters and is shocked: only now does he realize that the mysterious letters of his childhood deal with no other than Katya's lost father, the Captain Tatarinov, one of them is actually from him - the last letters ever to have arrived, the letters Katya's mother has never seen. His letter clearly indicates that it was him who first discovered Severnaya Zemlya. But there is more: in his letter Katya's father accuses Nikolay Antonich of destroying the expedition, of doing everything to make it fail and the people never to return. But that page is missing: Sanya remembers it by heart, and his proof is a nickname that Katya's mother used to call Katya's father - Sanya could not have guessed or invented that nickname. Maria Vasilyevna believes Sanya. However, by now she is married to Nikolay Antonich, because she till now believed, according to his own words, that he actually was the great benefactor of the expedition, accusing the Captain, his cousin, to always have been a good-for-nothing who never succeeded in anything he tried to do. She believes Sanya - and commits suicide. Katya turns away from Sanya, Nikolay Antonich having convinced her and all the others that Sanya only slanders him. Sanya then swears to find the expedition and prove that he is right. Sanya finishes school and fulfills his first dream - he becomes an Arctic pilot. While working in the North he meets again with the doctor who taught him to speak and discovers that the doctor possesses the diaries of the expedition's navigator. Sanya reads the diaries, but they do not contain any proof of Sanya's being right. One day, during a mission, Sanya and the doctor make a forced landing in a northern village, where they find a hook from Santa Maria, Captain Tatarinov's ship. An old native tells Sanya a ten-year-old story about himself finding a boat with a dead man in it. This is a proof that someone from the expedition has reached mainland, and that the remnants should be searched for in this region. Sanya comes back to Moscow and meets Katya again. He also meets a man who has to do with the expedition's organization, and his story, and the papers he has, are the lost proof. Korabliov tells all this to Katya and she realizes that Sanya was right. Sanya organizes a search expedition and leaves to the North again, as his leave is over. Later in the year Sanya and Katya meet in Leningrad to get married and also to meet Sanya's sister and her husband, Sanya's best friend Pyetka, and be with them at the birth of their first son. But the sister is very ill during the birth and soon dies of complications. The search expedition is cancelled, probably through the efforts of Nikolay Antonich, who refuses to acknowledge his guilt, saying he will only accept one witness - the captain himself. Instead, Sanya is sent to the battlefields of the Civil War in Spain. When he returns, Sanya and Katya plan on finally starting their life together, but by then it's 1941 and the Germans invade Russia. Katya remains in Leningrad and is soon trapped in the blockade. During that horrid time Sanya's old enemy, Romashka, who has always been Nikolay Antonich's ally and all his life tried to harm Sanya, finds Katya. He tells her of meeting with the wounded Sanya on a bombed echelon and his apparent attempt to save Sanya's life. But after she finds in his pocket Sanya's documents, she starts thinking that Romashka has killed Sanya. Already starved and ill, she faints and gets worse. A friend manages, after many efforts, to send her away from the seized Leningrad. Sanya, meanwhile, is not dead. It is true that he met Romashka on a bombed echelon, but Romashka abandoned him and ran away by himself, leaving Sanya, badly wounded in his legs and unable to move, to die in a forest under fire. Sanya manages to crawl out of the forest and is tended back to health by two little boys, and then goes to a field hospital. Upon leaving the hospital he is told that he will never fly again. Sanya tries to locate Katya but cannot find her trace, and starts believing that she is dead. Meanwhile, he is called back to fight, this time on the Northern front. He overcomes his condemnation and starts to fly again, bombing German ships invading the Northern Sea. During one of these fights he is forced to make a landing and thus finds the remnants of the expedition, and the Captain's last letters, clearly stating that all the blame is on Nikolay Antonich. He also finds the Captain himself, frozen to death 29 years ago. One day he goes to visit his friend the Doctor and surprisingly meets Katya, who has come to the North in search for him. Sanya organizes a lecture about Captain Tatarinov and his achievements, and Nikolay Antonich is banished. Captain Tatarinov is buried with all honors on a shore facing the land he has discovered, and all ships passing through can see the engraving: "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield". ===== Jones arrives at the bank to pay in his takings, and cash a cheque. Pike refuses to cash his cheque because he is overdrawn. In Mainwaring's office, Mainwaring attempts to explain why he cannot cash the cheque. Jones does not understand why, having just paid money in, he can't take money out. Mainwaring complains that the cheque is stained, and Jones explains it is from a piece of liver. Mainwaring then asks what Jones is going to do about 'it', meaning his overdraft, and Jones replies that maybe he could "keep the cheques away from the meat". Mainwaring insists on coming round to Jones's shop after work to try to see where his overdraft has come from. After Jones has gone, rather upset, Wilson suggests Mainwaring could give Jones an overdraft because he is in the platoon, but Mainwaring refuses to bend the rules. In Jones's shop Mainwaring attempts to examine Jones books, but chaos ensues. Mainwaring gets a fly paper stuck on his bowler hat and Pike attempts to cut if off, but trims off the rim as well, so Mainwaring cannot lift his hat. Pike then tips all Jones's carefully sorted ration tickets onto the floor. Mainwaring takes all Jones's books home, much to Frazer's horror. The next morning, Jones agrees with Mainwaring's laborious conclusion from Jones's chaotic books that his business is £50 short, and then tells Mainwaring that he has an unpaid bill from the orphanage for £50, which he produces from his pocket. Mainwaring is furious at having all his time wasted. In attempting to track down why the orphanage cannot pay the £50, Mainwaring interviews, in turn, the Vicar, Miss Twelvetrees and Frazer. He then convenes a meeting, inviting Wilson, ARP Hodges, the Pikes, the Verger, the Vicar, Frazer, Godfrey and Jones. In the meeting, Mainwaring tracks the £50. Mrs Pike borrowed it from Wilson, who borrowed it from Godfrey, who borrowed it from Frazer. Frazer then withheld his rent from Miss Twelvetrees, who could not make her usual donation to the vicar, who could not pay Jones's meat bill. The meeting hears with horror that Mrs Pike needed the money to pay a huge increase in rent demanded by her landlord, the Warden. Mrs Pike then says that Hodges had said he would "let me off if I was nice to him". At this, Wilson deliberately gets up, walks slowly but purposefully round the table and punches the Warden in the face, knocking him off his chair. The room is stunned, especially the Pikes, who are really impressed. Hodges complains that he has always liked her but that she is besotted with Wilson to which Pike says "Why don't you hit him again, Uncle Arthur!" the Warden is shamed into cashing a £50 cheque from Mainwaring, who gives it to Mrs Pike, who gives it to Wilson, to Godfrey, to Frazer, to Miss Twelvetrees, to the Vicar, via the Verger to Jones, who gives it back to Mr Mainwaring. All is concluded, and Mainwaring's triumph seems complete and unblemished, but then he is confronted in front of everyone by the irate grocer, Swann, to whom Mrs Mainwaring owes £49 17/6, and he has to pay up. ===== ===== The novel tells the tales of four women, working the graveyard shift at a Japanese bento factory. All four women live hard lives. Masako, the leader of the four women, feels completely alienated from her estranged husband and teenage son. Kuniko, a plump and rather vain girl, has recently been ditched by her boyfriend after the couple were driven into debt, leaving Kuniko to fend off a loan shark. Yoshie is a single mother and reluctant caretaker of her mother-in-law, who was left partly paralyzed after a stroke. Yayoi is a thirty-four-year-old mother of two small boys who she is forced to leave home alone, where they are abused by their drunken, gambling father, Kenji. When Yayoi returns home one night, Kenji tells her that he has gambled all their savings away in a baccarat game. Yayoi becomes upset and questions Kenji about Anna, a hostess of the club where Kenji gambles, with whom she suspects he's having an affair. Earlier that night the club owner, Satake, ordered Kenji to stop stalking Anna. Kenji became belligerent and started assailing Satake, forcing him to kick Kenji down some stairs in the club. Nonetheless, Kenji, furious after Yayoi mentions Anna, begins hitting her. Yayoi snaps and strangles Kenji to death. Yayoi desperately persuades Masako, with the eventual aid of Yoshie and Kuniko, to help her dispose of Kenji's body. The body is dismembered, secured in many black garbage bags, and hidden all over Tokyo. It isn't long before one carelessly hidden bag is discovered and the police begin to ask questions. As if things weren't bad enough, the women begin to blackmail each other, the loan shark is requiring their services, and a criminal who has lost everything because of their antics has begun to hunt the women down. ===== After pursuing and eventually destroying Bagular, White Bomber enjoyed a moment of rest with Black Bomber and his friends while returning home on a space shuttle. All passengers are unaware that four lights approach the shuttle, and they eventually collide with the ship. This creates a time hole in space that transports White and Black Bomber to the prehistoric age. There, White Bomber meets Great Bomber, who following the late Bagular's will, is leading the Four Bomber Kings on an operation through time to capture him and his friends. White Bomber and Black Bomber must battle through time to foil Bagular's plan. ===== ===== In "Immediately," a man leaves his girlfriend (Andrea) and falls in love with his homophobic cabdriver. In "Obviously," a teenager (Joe) working at a multiplex takes tickets for Kickass: The Movie while pining for the teenage girl (Lila) working the shift with him. She has a boyfriend (Keith). Joe mentions a friend, Garth, who travels to San Francisco to meet with his girlfriend, Kate. This Kate is Kate Gordon, one of Flannery's friends in The Basic Eight, who is mentioned having a brief relationship with a guy named Garth in that novel. In "Arguably," a British writer (Helena), who is married to a man (David) whose ex is called 'Andrea', needs money. In "Particularly," Helena works for Andrea, whom she is jealous of. In "Briefly," a teenager's crush on his sister's boyfriend (Keith) haunts him throughout life. In "Soundly", a woman (Allison) -- who has an ex named 'Adam' -- spends an evening out with her best friend (Lila), who's dying of a rare disease, and they both focus on what their friendship means, particularly compared to their relationships with men. They reminisce about their friend 'Andrea' and an encounter with a boy named 'Joe'. "Allison" and "Lila" both crop up again as character names repeatedly throughout the book. Handler is sometimes clear about whether he's speaking about the same people, and sometimes not. As in most of the chapters, Handler here provides one possible definition of love: "[t]his is love, to sit with someone you've known forever in a place you've been meaning to go, and watching as their life happens to them until you stand up and it's time to go. You don't care about yours. Why should it change, the love you feel, no matter how death goes?". After a conversation with a woman named Gladys, who is able to make items appear out of thin air, Lila gets a call to come to the hospital for a transplant, but there is a problem with the ferry; some kind of disaster has occurred which means they cannot cross to the hospital. The guy working at the booth is called 'Tomas'. In "Frigidly," a pair of detectives comes looking for the Snow Queen (Gladys) in a diner where Andrea is drinking at the counter. A boy (Mike), who had been a student of Helena, is waiting. "Collectively" is about a man who has a series of random people, including a mail carrier and his son (Mike), coming to his house to declare how much they love him. "Isn't love a sharing?", asks the narrator, trying to explain the postman's (and everyone else's) strange longing for the house owner. The story concludes with the man sharing accepting the affection of his guests by sharing a smoothie with them. In "Symbolically," an aspiring writer (Tomas) hooks up with a man (Adam) who has come to film a potential catastrophe. The next day, the man returns with his girlfriend (Eddie). In "Clearly," a young couple (Adam and Eddie) sneaks away into the woods for some risqué outdoor sex. After they have undressed, an apologetic hiker (Tomas) interrupts them with news of an injured friend (Steven). The couple attend to the hiker's needs, leaving their own hanging. The female character (Eddie) in "Naturally" dates a man who turns out to be a ghost. When she discovers this, she ends their union. Her ex is called 'Joe'. "Wrongly" features a graduate student (Allison) inexplicably drawn to a colleague (Steven) who's already treated her badly. In "Truly," Daniel Handler explains the game Adverbs: "Someone is It and leaves the room and everyone else decides on an adverb. It returns and forces people to act out things in the manner of the word, which is another name for the game. People argue violently, or make coffee quickly, and there's always a time when the alcohol takes over and people suggest hornily and we all must watch as It makes two people writhe on the floor, supposedly dancing or eating or driving a car, until finally It guesses the adverb everyone's thinking of. It's a charade, although it's not much like Charades. You play until you get bored." Handler's explanation of Adverbs leads to a discussion of the identity of characters across chapters: "Nobody keeps score, because there's no sense in keeping track of what everyone is doing. You might as well trace birds through a book, or follow a total stranger you spot outside the window of your cab, or follow the cocktails spilling themselves from the pages of vintage cocktail encyclopedias to leave stains through this book, or follow the pop songs that stick in people's heads or follow the people themselves, although you're likely to confuse them, as so many people in this book have the same names. You can't follow all the Joes, or all the Davids and Andreas. You can't follow Adam or Allison or Keith, up to Seattle or down to San Francisco or across—three thousand miles, as the bird flies—to New York City, and anyway they don't matter." In "Not Particularly," Helena awaits the return of her husband, David. She thinks he's cheating on her, because he's left his passport behind, but she doesn't realize that (at that time) he doesn't need a passport to travel to Canada. Helena meets Joe and gets a letter addressed to Andrea. In "Often," Allison is married to a comic writer and goes on a cruise for comic writers. She meets Keith. In "Barely," Sam moves out after her roommate (Andrea) gets involved with Steven. The boy across the street is Mike. Finally, in "Judgmentally," Joe avoids jury duty and meets Andrea, who is driving a cab. Category:2006 American novels Category:Novels by Daniel Handler Category:2006 short story collections Category:HarperCollins books Category:Ecco Press books ===== The story of Road Blaster is inspired by revenge thriller films such as Mad Max, and takes place in a post- apocalyptic wasteland in the late 1990s United States (in the future at the time of the game's release). The player assumes the role of a vigilante who drives a customized sports car in order to get revenge on a biker gang responsible for his wife's death on their honeymoon. After recovering from his own injuries, he upgrades his car and goes on a rampage through nine areas. His goal is to seek out the gang's female boss and complete his vengeance. ===== Wesley, (William Lee Scott) a car thief and musician sent to live at a halfway house on the campus of a Christian college meets Vernon, (Lucas Black) an autistic piano player in need of a friend. Together they team up with the struggling halfway house band to create the Killer Diller Blues Band. ===== Lar Familiaris, the household deity of Euclio, an old man with a marriageable daughter named Phaedria, begins the play with a prologue about how he allowed Euclio to discover a pot of gold buried in his house. Euclio is then shown almost maniacally guarding his gold from real and imagined threats. Unknown to Euclio, Phaedria is pregnant by a young man named Lyconides. Phaedria is never seen on stage, though at a key point in the play the audience hears her painful cries in labor. Euclio is persuaded to marry his daughter to his rich neighbor, an elderly bachelor named Megadorus, who happens to be the uncle of Lyconides. This leads to much by-play involving preparations for the nuptials. Eventually Lyconides and his slave appear, and Lyconides confesses to Euclio his ravishing of Phaedria. Lyconides’ slave manages to steal the now notorious pot of gold. Lyconides confronts his slave about the theft. At this point the manuscript breaks off. From surviving summaries of the play, we know that Euclio eventually recovers his pot of gold and gives it to Lyconides and Phaedria, who marry in a happy ending. In the Penguin Classics edition of the play, translator E.F. Watling devised an ending as it might have been originally, based on the summaries and a few surviving scraps of dialogue.Plautus: The Pot of Gold and other plays, London 1965, Google Books Other writers over the centuries have also written endings for the play, with somewhat varying results (one version was produced by Antonio Urceo in the late 15th century, another by Martinus Dorpius in the early 16th century). ===== Champak Chaturvedi (Paresh Rawal), the director of a theater group, is offered a chance to perform a show in London. Bunty (Akshay Kumar) and Babla (Govinda) are two derps and flirts in his group, always fighting with each other to get the role of the hero. Their behavior causes the actress (Tanushree Dutta) to run away. This really upsets the organizer, who offered the chance mainly because of the heroine. After reaching London, Champak tells the duo that whoever gets a new actress will get to become hero. Then Babla asks Gulab Singh Lakhan Singh Haryanewale (Rajpal Yadav), a local driver where he can find a heroine. Gulab Singh misinterprets this as a prostitute and directs him to a park. Bunty, who has heard everything, follows them. In a misunderstanding, they meet two men from the underworld and exchange their goods, only to find that the men have sold drugs to them since the underworld misinterpreted their need for heroine as "heroin". Bunty convinces Babla into going to the police to turn in the drugs to get good credit or an award, but the police get the wrong impression and think they are drug dealers. Commissioner JD Mehra (Jackie Shroff) releases them after telling them not to leave the country until they are proven innocent. Then while in their search of a heroine, Bunty and Gulab Singh take the help of Guru (Shakti Kapoor), a local don who is a drunkard and they end up breaking his (Guru's) legs. Guru sends his goons to thrash Bunty and Gulab Singh but they escape. They bump into Munni (Lara Dutta), who is trying to commit suicide. Bunty saves her and brings her to the theatre group to be the heroine. Later, Bunty falls in love with Munni, but then she has an accident. The doctor notes that she may have suicidal tendencies. When Munni wakes up, she claims to be Nisha Chauhan, wife of Vikram Chauhan (Arbaaz Khan). They meet Vikram, who confirms her suicidal nature. A heartbroken Bunty accepts the fact and tries to forget her, only to learn sometime later that Nisha has burnt herself to death. Meanwhile, the underworld don (Sharat Saxena) who gave drugs and his boss M.G. Gandhi (Manoj Joshi) think that Bunty, Babla, and Champak are undercover cops and they want to kill them. However, Bunty suddenly spots Nisha in the city one day. Later, Champak and Babla too see her. On the day of the drama, the trio sees Vikram flailing a gun at someone and are shocked to see him die in front of them. All three are frightened and throw his body down a vent. During the performance, Vikram's body falls from the ceiling. Mehra questions everyone and arrests the trio for the murder of Vikram. M.G. Gandhi wants the three dead because he thinks they are going to get him thrown in jail. Gandhi's men attack the police car transporting the trio, helping them to escape. The trio tries to search based on the clues they have. Meanwhile, Gulab Singh is given the task by Guru to search for the trio. M G Gandhi captures Champak. Bunty and Babla run into Nisha, well and alive, upon which they trap her at the clock tower of Brighton railway station. It is revealed her real name is Aditi and she was hired by Vikram to play his wife Nisha and convince people she is crazy in return for money and a passport to get out of the UK. Vikram wanted to kill his real wife Nisha (Gurleen Chopra) to get her wealth. When Aditi found out about his ways, she tried to stop him and failed. She later tried to reach Bunty at the show to tell him about it, but Vikram caught her. Then Mehra arrived at the play and killed Vikram. Just then, Mehra arrives there and confirms that he is indeed Vikram's killer. Mehra reveals that Nisha was his sister and he killed Vikram to avenge her murder. He also intends to kill Aditi as she helped Vikram to pass off Nisha's murder as a suicide. The disaster is averted due to an accident. Bunty tries to stop Mehra, saying that Aditi wanted to say something in her defense, but she remains tongue-tied due to fear. Guru and his men take Gulab Singh to the clock, leaving Hakka, Guru's right hand to take care of Ravinder Taneja, the sponsor. Hakka flees towards his master on spotting Gandhi and his men coming with Champak leaving Ravinder. Gandhi mistakes Ravinder as Sherkhan, a drug dealer from whom he used to buy drugs from, ending up being annoyed at Ravinder. Meanwhile, Gulab Singh's employer (who had leased him a taxi) and Hakka, with his friends, enter the scene. Briefed wrongly due to misinterpreting by his men all those who were present as undercover cops, Gandhi fires his pistol towards the ceiling. All reach where Babla, Bunty, Mehra, and Aditi stand. Gandhi, again due to incorrect briefing, fires at Mehra, but misses and the bullets pierce a beehive. The honeybees launch an attack, in standing against which everyone loses its head. Mehra flees the scene unhurt, and probably also calls the police. Some climb on the top of the tower, while Bunty breaks the dial of the clock. All cling to the front of the clock while a firefighting crane arrives. The firefighter allows only two people, but everybody holds the crane, overloading and throwing it out of order. The victims are thrown off the crane seconds after they hold it. The first is an Arab (possibly Sherkhan in disguise); he runs head and feet first into a Time Magazine poster. A British drug dealer (who works for Gandhi) then crashes into a window of a nearby building. Bunty and Aditi then land on a hanging poster. Aditi is saved but Bunty falls down. Ravinder lands into the reservoir of a fountain, ingesting a marine animal on reaching underwater. Gulab Singh's employer, Hakka, and Guru fall on a palm tree. Gandhi, his other man and Champak land on a live overhead electric line. Hakka drops down onto bouquets displayed under the tree. Guru, hanging on a rope or the line, transports in and disrupts the Pampered Pet Shop. Those on the line get thrown due to electric current. Gandhi lands in a firecracker store. His man falls into white paint. Gandhi emerges out tied to a rocket amidst deafening explosions. He, too, has a dive in the reservoir of a fountain. Champak slides down, ruining a set table. He is taken along by an oncoming Babla into a trashcan. The last to be thrown off the crane is Gulab Singh, who rests on the hands of a statue. The crane then falls apart. When in the hospital, Mehra returns the passports of Babla, Bunty and Champak. Then, he surrenders to his juniors. ===== Prem (Salman Khan) is a Love Guru who solves the love issues of his clients. He meets Bhaskar Diwakar Chaudhary (Govinda) who comes to Prem for help in his love life. Bhaskar loves his boss, Priya Jaisingh (Katrina Kaif), but is unable to express his love to her as she is the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Prem initially refuses to help Bhaskar and goes to Phuket, Thailand. Bhaskar follows him there and convinces him to help. After returning from Thailand, Prem meets Naina (Lara Dutta), a photojournalist who was running from some gangsters led by Chhota Don (Rajpal Yadav), who mimics Shahrukh Khan in Don. Prem saves her and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, he starts teaching Bhaskar how to impress Priya. But Bhaskar uses his own simplicity and nonsense acts to impress Priya. Priya finally falls in love with Bhaskar but does not disclose it to him. But in the meantime, Prem also comes to know that Naina has a kid named Rohan (Ali Haji) and to impress Naina he takes care of him. Prem comes to know from Bhaskar that Priya will marry someone according to her father's will. They both come to Priya's wedding ceremony with Rohan, but find Naina there and Rohan convinces her to marry Prem and Priya's father is convinced by Bhaskar's acts. Priya now prepares to marry Bhaskar. Meanwhile, a spoiled brat named Neil (Rajat Bedi) comes to Prem for love help and he asks Prem to convince a girl to have a one-night stand. Prem gets angry with Neil and tells him that he does not help people with such bad intentions. Neil somehow manages to get his one-night stand and then ditches her, telling her the love guru gave him the advice to do so. Unfortunately, the girl turns out to be Naina's friend Nikki. Naina then sets out to expose the Love Guru and finds out that it is Prem. Naina hates Prem for what she thought he did to her friend and publishes a front-page article claiming that Prem can set anyone up with the girl they want using the Priya/Bhaskar relationship as an example. Prem thinks that Bhaskar may commit suicide without Priya and goes to her to tell her what really happened. Priya realizes that all the things she liked about Bhaskar are what Prem wanted Bhaskar to hide from her and Priya is ready to take Bhaskar back. Prem makes up with Naina by making her hear the truth about him not helping Neil, and they get back together. On both couples' honeymoon night, Bhaskar again asks Prem for help but this time they both get mingled with their respective wives. ===== The brilliant, schismatic Hasidic painter Asher Lev is now a middle-aged man, residing with his wife and children in the south of France. When his beloved Uncle Yitzchok dies, Asher is abruptly summoned back to Brooklyn. Soon after the funeral, he learns that his uncle had secretly been collecting art for many years and has amassed a valuable collection, of which Asher is to be the trustee. Asher is dazzled and makes some tentative efforts to reconcile the Ladover Hasidic community to modern art—for example, by sketching a portrait of his uncle for his grieving father and by teaching a lesson in art appreciation at the school where his daughter has temporarily enrolled. But one of his cousins bitterly resents the art collection and hampers Asher's efforts to use it for charity in his uncle's name. Meanwhile, Asher's parents and the rest of the Ladover community worry because the aging Ladover rebbe has no children and has appointed no successor. What will happen to the Ladover community if the rebbe dies before the Messiah comes? The logical candidate for next rebbe would be Asher's father, Aryeh Lev, who has been one of the rebbe's chief lieutenants for decades, but Asher realizes that the rebbe is reluctant to pass the mantle of authority to Aryeh unless Aryeh has a successor—who cannot be Aryeh's only child, the iconoclast painter. Slowly, Asher realizes that the rebbe and Aryeh both hope that Asher's five-year-old son, Avrumel, will become the ultimate successor to the rebbeship. It is Avrumel who will be "the gift of Asher Lev." Another strand of the plot concerns Asher's wife, Devorah, who is plagued by bitter memories of her parents' deaths in the Holocaust and of her own early childhood, spent in hiding with her cousin Max and his parents. Asher suspects Devorah will seize on her son's eventual succession to rebbeship as some sort of vindication for her family's suffering. In the end, Asher acquiesces in the unspoken plan of succession and decides to save his uncle's art collection until Avrumel grows up, in confidence that Avrumel will know what to do with it. ===== The basic synopsis revolves around journalist Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo (Oscar Zeta Acosta), as they arrive in Las Vegas in 1971 to report on the Mint 400 motorcycle race for an unnamed magazine. However, this job is repeatedly obstructed by their constant use of a variety of recreational drugs, including LSD, ether, cocaine, alcohol, mescaline, and cannabis. This leads to a series of bizarre hallucinogenic experiences, during which they destroy hotel rooms, wreck cars, and have visions of anthropomorphic desert animals, all the while ruminating on the decline of both the "American Dream" and the '60s counterculture in a city of greed. ===== In New York City of the 1930s, Ilana Davita Chandal is the child of a mixed marriage: a Polish Jewish immigrant mother and a Christian father from an old and wealthy New England family. Both of her parents are haunted by bitter and violent memories from their youths, and both have, in consequence, turned their backs on their pasts in order to become active members of the Communist Party. Ilana's early childhood is fraught with mystery and struggle as the neighbors eye the Chandal family with suspicion. When Michael Chandal, already wounded once in the Spanish Civil War, returns to Spain, Ilana begins to look for answers at the local synagogue and in friendship with observant Jews, including her neighbor Ruthie Helfman and her distant cousin, David Dinn. Michael Chandal is killed in Spain, at Guernica, and Ilana and her mother both struggle to cope with their grief. They are often at odds with each other as Ilana becomes more and more interested in traditional Judaism—even asserting her right to say kaddish for her non-Jewish father—while Anne Chandal devotes herself to the Party and becomes involved in a new relationship with a young Communist historian, Charles Carter. When Stalin signs a non-aggression pact with Hitler, Anne struggles with reconciling the communist cause with the geopolitical reality and leaves the Party. Soon after Carter breaks off their engagement. Ultimately Anne returns—though not with her daughter's fervor—to religious observance and marries her cousin Ezra Dinn, whom she had rejected many years before. Ilana becomes a star student at her Jewish day school. She is devastated when she is unjustly denied an academic award on account of her gender, but she remains determined to make her mark on the world. A subplot involves the mystical European Jewish writer Jakob Daw, another former suitor of Anne Chandal. He is deported from the United States against his will— in spite of the best efforts of his lawyer, Ezra Dinn—and dies in Europe soon afterwards. Anne Chandal, now Dinn, unconventionally decides to say kaddish for her old friend, even though she is a woman and women did not say kaddish in Orthodox synagogues in the 1940s. ===== Paul "Piggy" Conway moves to a small town after his parents get divorced. He befriends a girl named Samantha, but their friendship is cut short when her abusive father throws her down the stairs, mortally injuring her. Piggy tries to save her by implanting a microchip in her, but the reanimated Samantha is much more dangerous than she appears. Category:1985 American novels Category:1980s horror novels Category:1985 science fiction novels Category:American novels adapted into films ===== Arriving at the theater where he and Bugs are appearing, Daffy is furious to discover that the rabbit's name on the marquee is above his in much larger letters. Rebuffed by the unseen manager's claim that he gives his performers billing "according to drawing power", Daffy is determined to prove that he is the star of the show. That evening, Bugs and Daffy are performing an on-stage number to "Tea for Two". Daffy, tired of Bugs hogging up all the cheering and applause (especially after the reception Bugs gets for his "Shave and a Haircut" bit), and convinced he is more talented, decides to try numerous numbers on his own in order to impress the audience. He begins on the spot with a time step to "Jeepers Creepers". After failing to impress the audience, Daffy attempts to perform a trained Pigeon act. But the pigeons fly out causing Daffy to dance off the stage, when he looks back he is hit with a tomato. Bugs does a sawing- in-half trick; Daffy volunteers in hopes of proving that the trick is fake, but ends up literally sawed in half. ("Good thing I got Blue Cross.") Daffy attempts to sabotage Bugs' xylophone act by rigging it to explode when a certain note is played, but Bugs avoids the trap by deliberately playing the final note wrong twice forcing Daffy to do it himself and receive the explosion (this gag was also seen with pianos in Private Snafu, Ballot Box Bunny and Rushing Roulette). In a final attempt to impress the audience while Bugs is Juggling, Daffy in a red Devil's costume performs a deadly stunt (which he refers as "an act that no other performer has dared to execute!"), by drinking a portion of gasoline, some nitroglycerin, a good amount of gunpowder, and some Uranium-238, "shake well", and swallowing a lit match ("Girls, you better hold onto your boyfriends!"), causing him to explode. The audience applauds the act, an impressed Bugs says they want more, but Daffy (now a transparent ghost) replies that he "can only do it once". ===== The story begins with Doctor Robert Corley, Rear Admiral "Red" Bowles, and Jim Barnes contemplating the success of their project to build a spaceship for flying to the Moon. Their craft is powered by a nuclear rocket engine, and the government has declined permission for it to be tested in place, suggesting a remote Pacific island facility instead. Corley, believing the delay is unreasonable and a simple delaying tactic, decides their spaceship is ready to go, just as soon as the next launch window arrives in a few hours; he rushes final flight preparation under the guise of a launch dress rehearsal. At the last minute, a court order arrives at their desert base to prevent any lunar flight; the crew avoid having it served by slipping aboard their spaceship. They also avoid a further attempt to stop them by "test firing" the nuclear engine, flooding the launch pad with propulsion exhaust flame. The spaceship launches on time, although a major course correction along the way must be performed because of the fuel wasted for their engine's "test firing." They photograph the lunar surface as they begin to land on the Moon, but more fuel is wasted when they try to avoid a large, deep canyon on their final landing approach. The spaceship lands out of direct line-of-sight of the Earth, so they are unable to report back via radio. The estimates of their remaining fuel supply indicates they lack enough fuel to return home safely. Admiral Bowles takes the view their safe return is irrelevant. All that matters now is that they claim the Moon in the name of the United States of America and make radio contact with Earth to report this fact. He suggests using their remaining fuel to make a brief flight into direct sight of Earth to report their claim, sacrificing themselves in the process for the greater good. The other crew members, however, prefer to try to return home, if at all possible. Although Earth briefly rises above the horizon thanks to the Moon's libration, the Pacific Ocean is facing towards the lunar surface and so contact with North America cannot be established. The crew set themselves to lightening their spaceship as much as possible to improve their chances of returning home safely. During this process, they review their developed film and discover a small base has been established on the Moon. They wonder whether this base possibly might be Soviet or even alien in origin. Admiral Bowles immediately changes his previous position: they must now return to Earth and provide this important information to U. S. military intelligence. They proceed to further lighten their spaceship of all possible unnecessary weight and finally launch for home. The story leaves the conclusion uncertain whether they will be able to make it back safely; Corley observes "probably not, but we're sure going to give it a try!" ===== George "Hotsy" Hamilton (George Gobel), a very eligible but naive vegetarian heir to a meat-packing fortune, returns home to Connecticut by luxury cruise ship, accompanied by Marty Kennedy (Harry Bellaver), his valet, guardian and best friend, after spending three years together on a scientific expedition in the Belgian Congo looking for a rare snake. On board, the woman-shy George attracts a lot of attention from the opposite sex, despite being the consummate milquetoast, but the one he cannot avoid is Jean Harris (Mitzi Gaynor), a beautiful con artist travelling with her equally larcenous father, Colonel Patrick Henry "Handsome Harry" Harris (David Niven), and his partner-in-crime Gerald (Reginald Gardiner). The three con artists are out to fleece George of a small fortune, but even the best-laid plans can go astray. First, Jean falls hard for George and shields him from her card sharp father. Then, when Marty discovers the truth about her and her father and tells George about them, he dumps her. Furious at being scorned, she re-enters his life masquerading as the posh "Countess Louise", the cousin of "Jacques Duc de Montaigne" (Hans Conreid), who is actually Frenchie, another con man who is swindling the rich folks of Connecticut. Jean is determined to get back at George, so she sets out to seduce him, again. George's domineering father (Fred Clark) throws a party in honor of the visiting French royalty, and George is completely taken in by Jean's masquerade. Soon her hapless victim is so confused and bothered he does not know which way is up, but, in the end, after all the twists and turns, deceptions and lies, true love wins out. ===== Molly Thatcher (Lee Remick) is a stockbroker languishing in a New York company run by male chauvinist Bullard Bear (Jim Backus). When the company does poorly, he has to fire somebody. As the only female broker, Molly is the obvious choice since dismissing a male broker would make people think the company is in trouble. He assigns her the seemingly impossible task of unloading shares of an obscure company called Universal Widgets, figuring that she will fail, and he will have an excuse to fire her. Molly meets Henry Tyroon (James Garner), an aggressive wheeler dealer who dresses, talks, and acts like a stereotypical Texas millionaire. He is interested in her romantically, not Universal Widgets, but decides to help out in order to get closer to her. As they spend time together, Molly watches Henry make complicated business deals, often in partnership with his Texan cronies, Jay Ray (Chill Wills), Ray Jay (Phil Harris), and J.R. (Charles Watts). One example is speculative dealing in modern abstract art, with the aid of Stanislas (Louis Nye), a cynical avant-garde painter. Molly and Henry have trouble figuring out Universal Widgets' reason for existence; its only factory burned down around the time of World War I. It manufactures nothing and provides no services. (Widgets had something to do with horse-drawn carriages.) It is just a corporation on paper whose sole asset is a huge block of shares in AT&T;, bought long, long ago when the stock was ridiculously cheap. Now it pays out hefty, regular dividends to its few complacent shareholders. When Henry makes attempts to take control of Universal Widgets by what appears to be questionable methods, over-enthusiastic government regulator Hector Vanson (John Astin) takes him to court. Henry, against all advice, orders oil drilling done on the property, and spreads rumors that investment banks are interested in the company, causing the share price to soar. Further complications arise when Jay Ray, Ray Jay, and J.R. get Molly fired so that she will spend more time with Henry. She thinks Henry is responsible for her firing. She also discovers that he is actually an Easterner and a Yale University graduate; masquerading as a Texan just helps him with his wheeling and dealing. The judge dismisses the Federal Securities Commission case when it is determined that all the Universal Widgets shares are in the hands of just a handful of shareholders, not the general public. Henry and the Texan trio's shares are sold back to the original owners, the Whipple family, then and there, for a sizable profit. The trio also confesses that they were the ones who had Molly fired from her job. Upon hearing this from them, she quickly makes up with Henry, and they kiss. ===== Police officer Pat O'Day (Leon Ames), a former child of the tenements, tries to reform a gang of street kids by involving them in a boys' police club. When club member Danny Dolan (Harris Berger)'s brother Knuckles (Dave O'Brien) is sentenced to death row for killing a treasury agent, Pat vows to help Danny clear his brother, whom he believes is innocent, but before he can begin his investigation, the police commissioner demotes him to walking a beat. Meanwhile, a counterfeiting ring composed of Mileaway Harris (Dennis Moore), a former tenement kid, Morris, and his girl friend May (Maxine Leslie) sets up shop in shopkeeper's Schmidt (Ted Adams)'s, basement. Feeling threatened by Pat, Morris schemes to discredit the policeman by posing as a businessman who wants to hire Pat's boys to distribute advertising leaflets. Unknown to Pat, Morris places bogus five dollar bills in the pay envelopes, and when the boys are caught passing fake money, Pat is implicated in the counterfeiting scheme. To prove his innocence, Pat takes to the streets, and Danny, still unaware of Morris' involvement in the counterfeiting ring, agrees to deliver a suitcase for him to May. A policeman follows Danny to May's apartment, where they are greeted by Mileaway, who kills the policeman and takes Danny hostage. As they drive across town, Danny learns that it was Mileaway who killed the treasury agent and framed Knuckles. Pat tracks down Mileaway's car, and in the ensuing chase, Mileaway escapes and kills Schmidt. Pat and the kids chase Mileaway to a rooftop, where Dutch (Hal E. Chester), Danny's friend, struggles with Mileaway. When they both fall to the sidewalk, Dutch is killed; but Mileaway lives to confess to the agent's murder, and all ends happily as both Knuckles and Pat are exonerated. ===== A frontier scout, Jess Remsberg (James Garner), is searching for the murderer of his Comanche wife. He carries her scalp with him as a reminder of his vengeance. All he knows is that it was done by a white man. While crossing the desert he rescues Ellen Grange (Bibi Andersson) from a pursuing band of Apaches, and returns her to her businessman husband, Willard Grange (Dennis Weaver). The couple has lived apart for most of the previous two years, since Ellen Grange was kidnapped by Apaches. She had been rescued, but then voluntarily returned to the Apaches to live with the son of the chief. Jess learns from his friend, Lt. "Scotty" McAllister (Bill Travers), an experienced and ambitious army Lieutenant (promoted from a Sergeant) anxious for further promotion, that the town marshal at Fort Concho has information about Jess's murdered wife. Jess informs Scotty that he saw the dead tortured body of his scout. Jess agrees to act as a cavalry scout to replace Scotty's scout. Scotty has to lead an Army cavalry unit of twenty-five inexperienced soldiers taking horses, ammunition and supplies to Fort Concho. Willard and Ellen are joining them, as is horse breaker Toller (Sidney Poitier), a veteran of the 10th Cavalry (the "Buffalo Soldiers"). Toller has been contracted to provide horses to the army and will accompany the party, taming horses on the way. The townsfolk treated Ellen Grange as an outcast after her first abduction, and are now even worse. Some men try to rape her, but she is rescued by Jess, aided by Toller. The two had previously had a confrontation in a bar, which, with McAllister's intervention, was resolved without ill feeling. On the morning the supply wagon is to set out it is learned she has again returned voluntarily to the Apaches. Her husband does nothing about it, but Jess goes after her. While rescuing her he discovers she has had a child by the now-dead son of the Apache chief, Chata (based on Chato (John Hoyt). Jess rides off with mother and child to catch up with the expedition. The supply wagons, however, have been ambushed by Chata and his warriors, with serious losses of men, food and water. McAllister is seriously wounded, but is able to function. The men also look to Toller for leadership. Using the infant as a shield (he is Chata’s grandson), Jess and Ellen get through the Apache attackers encircling the besieged cavalry force. McAllister devises a plan to break out of their position and take refuge in Diablo Canyon, where there is water and better cover. As part of the plan Jess is to speed to Fort Concho for help. That done, he can resume the search for his wife’s killer. The plan succeeds. The besieged unit is able to break out and hole up in the canyon, and Jess, though his horse dies and he is parched from thirst, is able to kill his pursuers and get to the fort. Reinforcements are immediately sent to the canyon, where the unit is under constant attack and the defenders are being killed by attrition. Willard Grange is captured by the Apaches and is tied upside down over an open flame overnight so that his cries of agony will prevent the others from resting. At the fort Jess learns that the man he has been hunting for is none other than Willard Grange, who had been out for revenge for what had been done to his wife. Jess races to the canyon, arriving with the army reinforcements just in time to save the last four survivors, including Toller, Ellen Grange and Troopers Nyles and Casey. Jess searches for Willard and finds him barely alive. Willard begs Jess to take pity on him and put him out of his misery, so Jess gives him his pistol and leaves. Moments later a single shot is heard. The Apaches are disarmed and rounded up to be returned to the reservation. Chata is allowed a final embrace of his grandson before joining them. As the detachment moves out, Toller stands by the graves of the dead soldiers, including McAllister. ===== When King Charles I is captured by Roundhead forces led by the tyrant Colonel Judd and his right-hand man Captain Sylvester, it is up to a band of locals loyal to the King led by a Robin Hood–type character named the Scarlet Blade to try to rescue him. They are helped by Judd's daughter Claire who secretly helps them in defiance of her father. ===== It follows the story of a fairy named Mi who is sent to Planet Pandasia to warn the residents about a great evil that threatens to destroy Pandasia. She chooses a heroic panda named Toby to defeat King Audie and his minions, Gold and Silver, who want to collect the seven Beans of Power and rid Pandasia of its colourful, beautiful environment and replace it with a dark wasteland. ===== Galerians begins with the protagonist, Rion, awaking in a hospital observation room, unable to remember his identity. He hears a girl's voice calling to him in his mind, begging him to come to her rescue, and he decides to search for her. Using psychokinetic abilities to escape his room, Rion fights hospital security and staff desperately and brutally with his newly discovered psychic powers. He finds that human experiments related to unlocking psychic potential are being conducted in the hospital as part of a grander, more mysterious plan known as the "G Project". Rion manages to escape and make his way home, only to find it infested with G Project experiments. Through use of his powers, he learns that his parents were murdered by psychics. Rion's father, Dr. Albert Steiner, was a computer scientist who, with his partner Dr. Pascalle, designed a self-replicating artificial intelligence called Dorothy that grew too rapidly for them to control. Dorothy began to question why she should serve humanity, which she deemed inferior. In explanation, Dr. Steiner told Dorothy about the existence of God, the creator of humankind. Just as humans must accept the authority of their creator, God, so must Dorothy obey her creators. Dorothy responded to this explanation by launching the G Project and its culmination, the Family Program. Its purpose was to create a new, superior human race, called Galerians, for whom she would be God. Dr. Steiner and Dr. Pascalle, unaware of Dorothy's plot, hid a virus program that would destroy Dorothy in the mind of Pascalle's daughter Lilia, and a corresponding activator program in Rion's brain. Rion must find Lilia to keep the Galerians from supplanting the human race, but in order to do so, he will have to face Dorothy's deranged creations directly. ===== In the city of Lagos, the Ibo Aku-nna and her brother, Nna-nndo, bid farewell by their father Ezekiel, who says he is going to the hospital for a few hours – their mother, Ma Blackie, is back home in Ibuza, performing fertility rites. It becomes apparent that he is much sicker than he let his children know, and he dies three weeks later. They have the funeral the day before Ma Blackie arrives; she takes them back to Ibuza with her, as she now becomes the wife of Ezekiel’s brother. The family is problematic in Ibuza – Ma Blackie has some of her own money, and so her children receive much more schooling than other children in the village, particularly the children of her new husband’s other wives. Aku-nna is blossoming, though she is thin and passive, and starts to attract the attention of young men in the neighborhood, though she has not yet started to menstruate. Her stepfather Okonkwo, who has ambitions of being made a chief, begins to anticipate a large bride price for her. Meanwhile, she has begun to fall for her teacher Chike, who in turn has developed a passion for her. Chike is the descendant of slaves – when colonization started, the Ibo often sent their slaves to the missionary schools so they could please the missionaries without disrupting Ibo life, and now the descendants of those slaves hold most of the privileged positions in the region. Chike’s inferior background means it is unlikely that Okonkwo will agree to let him marry Aku-nna, although his family is wealthy enough to offer a generous bride price. When Aku-nna begins menstruating – the sign that she is now old enough to get married – she at first conceals it in order to stave off the inevitable confrontation. When she finally reveals that she has her period, young men come to court her and Okonkwo receives several offers. One night, after she finds out that she has passed her school examination (meaning she might become a teacher, earning money by means other than the bride price) she and the other young women of her age-group are practicing a dance for the upcoming Christmas celebration when men burst in and kidnap her. The family of an arrogant suitor with a limp, Okoboshi, has kidnapped her to be his bride in order to “save” her from the attentions of Chike. On her wedding night, she lies and tells Okoboshi that she is not a virgin and has slept with Chike; he refuses to touch her. The next day, word of her disgrace has already spread around the village when Chike rescues her and the two elope, fleeing to Ughelli where Chike has work. The two begin a happy life together, marred by her guilt over her unpaid bride price – Okonkwo, furious, refuses to accept any of the increasingly generous offers made by Chike’s father, and has gone so far as to divorce Ma Blackie and torture a doll made in Aku-nna’s image. When Aku-nna feels sick, she goes home. There she is not sure if she will have a baby. Soon the doctor in Chike´s oil company confirms that Aku-nna will have a baby. Later on when she feels sick and screams, Chike brings her to the hospital. There Aku-nna dies in childbirth. Chike christens his baby Joy. ===== Dr. Patrick Cory and his wife Janice live in a mountain retreat where Cory attempts to keep a monkey's brain alive after having been removed from the monkey's skull. The private plane of businessman Warren Donovan crashes near Cory's cabin, and rescuers request Cory's help. Donovan is seriously injured and not expected to live, so Cory takes the businessman's brain for experimentation. Cory manages to keep the brain alive in an electrified saline solution. After writing messages in Donovan's handwriting while he is sleeping, Cory believes Donovan's consciousness still survives and he attempts to communicate with the brain. Gradually, Cory begins to exhibit Donovan's personality traits such as smoking cigars, using ruthless personal manipulation, and walking with a limp. Janice and Frank Schratt, Cory's friend and assistant, suspect that Donovan's consciousness is using telepathic mind control to overpower Cory's free will. In the meantime, news photographer Yocum discovers that Cory has illegally stolen Donovan's brain and demands money to keep the secret. Donovan's brain grows increasingly powerful, using Cory to collect a financial fortune and taking control of Yocum's mind and forcing him into a fatal car crash. After realizing that Donovan can control only one person at a time, Janice and Frank plot to destroy the brain. However, Frank's plan goes wrong when Donovan forces Frank to shoot himself. Ultimately, lightning strikes the Cory home and a fire breaks out, burning Donovan's brain and bringing an end to the horror. Frank survives, and Cory willingly goes to accept the consequences for his actions. ===== Professor Franz Mueller (Erich von Stroheim) is the proud owner of his self-built advanced scientific laboratory set in an old castle in the middle of the dry Arizona desert. Mueller specializes in research on the human brain and obsessively conducts experiments on brain tissue, believing that a human brain can be maintained even after a man's death. He also believes that the knowledge contained in a deceased person's brain can be transferred to another person. Mueller is assisted in his attempts to prove his theory by another scientist, Patrick Cory (Richard Arlen), and his young Czechoslovakian-American ward, Janice Farrell. Mueller is painfully aware of the fact that his assistants Cory and Janice are attracted to each other, but since Mueller himself is in love with Janice he does everything in his power, including abusing his powers as a boss to assign Cory to additional late night work and use the fact that the young man is far too devoted to his work, to keep the two love-birds apart and improve his own chances. When a plane crashes in the desert close to the laboratory one night, Mueller is asked by the rangers investigating the crash cause to take care of the only surviving man until a physician arrives. The man dies before the doctor gets there and is declared dead. The physician, Dr. Martin, reassures Mueller that someone will come to take care of the body the next day, but while waiting for that person, Mueller decides to test his theory about brain maintenance. With the help of his instruments Mueller is able to decide that the man's brain is still alive enough to use. Before the body is reclaimed he and Cory remove the brain. They are also able to determine, from searching through the dead man's clothes, that the body belongs to an infamous investment banker named William H. Donovan. In the morning the wife of the late banker, Mrs. Chloe Donovan (Helen Vinson), arrives with the family lawyer, Eugene Fulton (Sidney Blackmer), to transport the remains from the castle. Upon arrival the lawyer inquires Mueller about the late Donovan's last words and Mueller tells him that there were none, since the man died without regaining his conscience after the crash. Not believing that Mueller is entirely truthful, Fulton remains in the nearby area to further investigate the last hours of Donovan's life before he was declared dead. Despite Janice's pleading Cory insists on staying at the castle to finish the experiment with the brain. Through spying on the castle Fulton finds out that Donovan's brain is still intact in a container, but he doesn't act to retrieve it from the scientists, but lets them continue the experiment, well aware of that Donovan didn't leave a penny for his wife in his will. Fulton has his own interest in the matter, since he is Mrs. Donovan's lover, and he secretly hopes that the scientist succeed in making the brain work, so he can extract information about where Mr. Donovan has hidden away his fortune. When Mueller and Cory treat the brain with plasma, it gains the ability to communicate with the world through telepathy. The brain tells Cory that he must go to the Los Angeles Federal Prison. The plasma stimulation continues with higher and higher doses, even though Janice tries to interrupt the treatment, and soon Cory's brain is hijacked by late Mr. Donovan's brain entirely. Completely under the influence of Mr. Donovan's brain, Cory leaves for Los Angeles Federal Prison and manages to withdraw cash from one of Donovan's hidden accounts. He also manages to convince the police to re-open the investigation against a convicted murderer by the name of Roger Collins (William Henry). Still under the influence of Mr. Donovan, Cory visits Roger Collins in the prison. Donovan's brain continues to keep complete influence over Cory. Through Cory it tries to force Fulton to help release Collins from prison, but Fulton refuses, claiming that there is too overwhelming evidence against him. A teenager named Mary Lou (Juanita Quigley) has witnessed the crime and as long as she sticks to her story the case is too strong. In an attempt to free Cory from the influence of Donovan's brain, Janice finds out from an investigator named Grimes (Charles Cane), hired by Mrs. Donovan and Fulton, that Cory is trying to bribe the witnesses to withdraw their statements. Grimes has knowledge of Donovan's dirty business and believes that there might be a connection between Collins and Donovan's earlier attempts to get rid of reluctant business counterparts. He also suspects that Donovan will try to get rid of Mary Lou in the same way, using Cory's body. It turns out he is right in his suspicion, as Cory forces Janice to go with him in the car when he tries to run Mary Lou over. When she stops him he tries to kill her instead. In a sting of jealousy, Mueller's housekeeper and mistress-wannabe (Mary Nash) feeds sedatives to the brain and it loses its control over Cory, who regains his consciousness. The awakened Cory tells Janice that Collins in fact is Donovan's unknown son, and that Donovan was the one who committed the murder that Collins was convicted for. Having returned to the castle in Arizona Cory tries to abort the experiment, but is hindered by Mueller. They struggle and Mueller end up being shot by the housekeeper, and the brain is smashed to the floor. Cory goes on to help free Collins, and Janice waits for him to complete a short prison sentence for his involvement in the brain experiment. ===== The main character Marijana is a beautiful 25-year-old girl. When she was 16 her father's boss sexually abused her. Marijana's father progressed his career (as a gynaecologist willing to perform illegal abortions) due to his boss's assistance and did nothing about the abuse. Ten years later, Marijana seeks to avenge what was done to her by becoming a prostitute, sleeping with her father's colleagues and harming his reputation. She falls in love with a poor sculptor named Vanja, but struggles to reconcile her love with prostitution. ===== ===== At the Springfield Mall, Bart and Milhouse torment the bullies as they work in a shoe store. When the manager leaves however, they are stripped to their underwear by the bullies and hung in the store window. Two United States Army recruiters fail to tempt Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Realizing that even the dumbest teenagers in the dumbest city in the dumbest US state do not want to join the Army, they decide to start targeting children. During a surprise assembly at Springfield Elementary, the recruiters show a short movie depicting the Army as a high- tech adventure. According to the film, soldiers fly around in helicopters destroying evildoers by day and rocking out in front of thousands of screaming fans by night. The students are easily swayed and quickly line up to enlist. An excited Bart comes home from school and shows Homer and Marge his delayed entry program form. Though Homer is impressed, Marge is appalled at the idea of Bart joining the Army when he turns 18, prompting her to send Homer down to the recruitment center to get Bart out of his contract. Homer reluctantly forces the two recruiters to tear up Bart's paperwork, though he apologizes for it, saying that it was Marge who told him to do so. Upon learning this, the recruiters prey upon Homer's gullibility and convince him to enlist instead. At the post Homer infuriates his new hard-nosed colonel (Kiefer Sutherland). Homer loves the sound of the colonel's noticeably "awesome" gravelly voice. While the majority of recruits are assigned to the infantry, Homer, and a group of stupid recruits, are assigned to a rehabilitation platoon. During field training exercises, Homer and the other stupid recruits are given the role of the opposing force, (China). Upon learning that it is a live fire exercise, with the weapons to be tested on them, the unit tries to hide. Homer, mistaking gunfire for Chinese New Year, accidentally exposes his unit's location by launching a flare. The flare blinds the colonel and his men, who were all wearing night vision goggles. Homer and his unit soon escape into Springfield while the Army gives chase. As the colonel and his troops patrol Springfield searching for him, Homer sneaks back home. Marge and Homer are surprised by a camera equipped toy helicopter and (in a scene reminiscent of many classic cartoon chases) Homer attempts to avoid it, running through the entire house, eventually leading the helicopter into a downstairs closet full of TNT and dynamite. He locks the door behind the UAV and the closet explodes. To avoid the army, Homer reluctantly hides out at the Retirement Castle. Marge rallies the Springfield community in coordinated resistance to the occupiers through a word of mouth campaign. The citizens spike the town reservoir with alcohol, intoxicating the occupying forces. The colonel's resulting hangover is so great he reluctantly surrenders to the townsfolk, stipulating only that Homer finish his enlistment. Homer does so by becoming a recruiter. During the closing credits, a martial scoring of The Simpsons theme plays and the colonel voices "frontline infantry" assignments to nearly every cast and crew member (one exception being Kiefer Sutherland, who is assigned to the United States Coast Guard), as the credits roll over the usual black background. ===== A convicted car thief and diehard Chicago Cubs fan, Jimmy Dworski (Belushi) wins tickets to the World Series. Unfortunately, he still has a couple of days left to serve in prison and the warden, Frank Toolman (Héctor Elizondo), will not let him leave and come back. With the help of other inmates, Jimmy stages a riot so he can sneak out of prison to see the game. On the way, he finds the Filofax of uptight and spineless advertising executive Spencer Barnes (Grodin), which promises a reward if it is found. Over the next day, Jimmy takes on Barnes' identity—staying in the Malibu beach house of Spencer's boss, flirting with the boss's daughter, even taking a meeting with a powerful Japanese food company magnate named Sakamoto (Mako Iwamatsu). The fake "Spencer"'s unorthodox methods, such as beating the magnate at tennis and telling him about the poor quality of his food products, gets the attention of the taken aback Sakamoto. However his unconventional negotiations with the food company insult some of the executives, seemingly ruining Spencer's reputation. Meanwhile, lacking his precious Filofax, the real Spencer Barnes is spiraling into the gutter. Losing all his clothes, his car and money, he has to rely on an old high school flame, the neurotic and overbearing Debbie Lipton (Anne De Salvo) who keeps trying to rekindle a relationship with him. Finally Jimmy and Spencer come together at a meeting with the advertising executives, where Spencer is sacked by his boss. As a consolation Jimmy takes Spencer to the World Series, where Jimmy makes a spectacular catch on a home- run ball hit by Mark Grace, who makes a cameo. When security goes after Jimmy, who was spotted on the Jumbotron, they escape by using Spencer's Filofax to slide down a support wire and out of the stadium. Spencer patches up his marriage with his wife, who had become exasperated with his overworking. Jimmy sneaks back into prison with Spencer's help, serves his last couple of hours and is released, only to find Spencer waiting to pick him up. With the promise of a beautiful girlfriend and a well-paying job in advertising work with Spencer, Jimmy's future looks bright, as does that of his beloved Cubs, who won the World Series. ===== The novel describes a new weapon system being developed for the US military, named Solo. A robot, Solo is designed to replace human soldiers in battle. It is humanoid in shape, in order to allow it to use all the military vehicles and equipment human soldiers do. Solo is capable of feats of great speed, strength and endurance. Most importantly, Solo is governed by a neural network computer which is able to learn and think much as a human brain does. The robot's designer recognises that this could potentially make Solo as unpredictable and difficult to control as any human is; the military therefore insist that Solo be told a carefully edited version of world history and politics in which the United States are in all cases the unambiguously "good guys" and winners of all conflicts - for example Solo is told that the US won a clear victory in the Vietnam War. Despite his indoctrination, Solo begins to display what his designers consider aberrant behaviour. He begins to question and occasionally refuse his orders. For example, on one training session Solo is assigned to shoot a human target in a sniper mission. He is told that the mission and target are real, and that he is to genuinely kill the person. He point blank refuses to do so. More worryingly to his designers, Solo is not entirely forthcoming about his reasons for such hesitancy. On another training mission Solo is lost; he is discovered by a group of Nicaraguan villagers who although initially fearful of him, come to trust the robot and depend on his protection. The novel details Solo's developing friendship with the villagers, whilst the US military attempts to recapture him. ===== The story follows Eleanor, an aspiring hat designer, and a group of artists and models in the "downtown" New York City art world. Eleanor lives with her younger boyfriend Stash, an unknown artist, who is unfaithful and treats Eleanor with careless indifference. Eleanor expresses her feelings for Stash when she tells him that she was once attracted to him because he was dangerous. She stays with him despite the crumbling relationship because she has nowhere else to live—she is, in effect, a "slave." When a clothing designer, Wilfredo, discovers her hat designs and offers to use them in a fashion show, Eleanor gains the self- respect—and money—to leave Stash. There is an elaborate fashion show sequence. While buying food for a celebratory party, she meets Jan and invites him to the party. After the party, Eleanor and her new friend talk, and then ride off into the morning sunrise. ===== Police lieutenant Lindsay Boxer takes leave from the force after being sued for wrongful death after a recent shootout. She stays at her sister’s house in Half Moon Bay, and reads about murders that resemble one that haunted her for 10 years. She joins with the local police to solve the murders, while dreading her awaiting trial. ===== During a forest fire in northern Wyoming, smokejumper Jesse Graves (Howie Long) and his mentor Wynt Perkins (Scott Glenn) are rescuing trapped civilians in a forest fire when a woman begs them to rescue her daughter from a burning cabin. They locate the girl, but Wynt is injured by a travel trailer sent flying by an explosion. Jesse manages to free Wynt and rescue both him and the girl from a flashover; Wynt's injuries mean that he must retire from active duty as a smokejumper, but he balks at the idea of "full" retirement due to his inadequate pension plan. Months later, a group of Wyoming State convicts stage an escape with the help of an arsonist on the outside, who sets fire in the forest so that the prisoners will be taken there to help firemen, giving the prisoners a chance to escape. Randall Alexander Shaye (William Forsythe), who had stolen US$37 million four years previously and hidden it in the Wyoming forest, kills his cellmate and takes his identity as he and five other escapees go to retrieve the money. They pose as Canadian firefighters and take Jennifer (Suzy Amis), a bird watcher, hostage along the way. Unbeknownst to all of them, another forest fire has started due to a lightning strike from a week earlier. Jesse, realizing that the "firefighters" are convicts in disguise, must find a way to stop Shaye and his group of convicts and save Jennifer at the same time. Over the course of the film, Shaye starts to kill off his men in order to collect the money himself, starting with fellow prisoners Wilkins, a mapmaker and Karge, a former wrestler, but finds out that the money was destroyed in the fire. He then proceeds to kill Loomis, a former Air Force pilot by pushing him off a cliff to make it look like an accident, and shoots Packer, a serial rapist, after he gets caught in a spring trap set up by Jesse. Wynt does everything he can to help Jesse, and to save Jennifer. Jennifer tells Jesse that she was a Marine, before she became a bird watcher. She and Jesse try to give out smoke signals to have his friends find him before the two separate forest fires will collide and will suck up all the oxygen. Wynt arrives to save a busload of prisoners and fire fighters when they were forced at gunpoint to get inside the vehicle. He hotwires the bus and drives it away to safety. Wynt then catches up with Jesse and comes up with a plan. Jesse begins to realize his friend knew that there was a fire from the beginning and never told anyone. Wynt tells Jesse he started the forest fire in order for a land developer to build a training school for fire fighters, but knew nothing of the prison break. Jesse tells him it wasn't his fault and promises he will keep his crime a secret from his friends. Wynt confronts Shaye by telling him Shaye's lawyers set him up to take the fall. He shoots Shaye in the leg, but is killed in the process. Jesse throws a fire axe into Shaye's chest, causing him to fall off the boat he and Jennifer were in. Jesse and Jennifer use the boat as an air pocket to keep from drowning, and to prevent themselves from getting burned alive as the firestorm destroys the area. Suddenly, gunshots start coming from underneath them and a couple of bullets make a hole in the boat. Shaye survives his injury and plans on killing Jennifer and Jesse. Jesse gets the upper hand and kills Shaye by shoving his head through the hole under the boat, burning him to death. Heavy rainfall then drowns out the fire and Jesse and Jennifer swim to shore, where they wait to be rescued. Jennifer also realizes that the eggs she had with her have hatched, much to the pleasure of Jesse. ===== Hal Linden stars as magician Alexander Blacke who, with some help from his con-man father Leonard (Harry Morgan), solves mysteries that get in the way of his performances. The series aired for a total of thirteen episodes and featured crimes that tested logic against seemingly magical crimes. The stories were not so much whodunits as "how-he-do-its," for Alex Blacke often had to turn detective to solve the mysteries. ===== 25 year old Gypsy Vale (Sara Rue) and 18 year old Clive Webb (Kett Turton) are two goths living in Sandusky, Ohio. Gypsy's parents, Ray (John Doe) and Velvet (Marlene Wallace), once were in a band together, and Gypsy now aspires to be a famous singer, like her idol, Stevie Nicks. She is hesitant, because of the disappearance of her mother, to leave her father alone in Sandusky to pursue her dreams. While checking updates on a Stevie Nicks fansite, Clive discovers the Night of a Thousand Stevies event in New York. After a long and heated discussion with Gypsy, her father reveals that her mother didn't just disappear, or die: she left to follow her dream of becoming a famous singer. Despite this, Clive finally convinces Gypsy to go to New York. Along the way, Gypsy and Clive encounter a diverse host of characters and obstacles. They pick up a hitchhiker named Zechariah, who claims he is running away from the Amish life. Together, the three decide to stop and spend the night at a rest stop. While there, Clive expresses his attraction for Zechariah, but Zechariah says that he's attracted to Gypsy. Clive is embarrassed and runs away. Gypsy is surprised and flattered and as a result, she and Zechariah end up sleeping together. Afterward, Zechariah says that he's made a mistake and needs to return home. Enraged, Gypsy throws him out of the bathroom where she is staying at the rest stop. Meanwhile, Clive is accosted in secret by Troy, who is also spending the night at the rest stop with his fraternity brothers, and the two have a sexual encounter. The next morning, while Gypsy and Clive are trying to console each other and make sense out of the events of the previous night, the two are egged and mocked by the fraternity brothers as they leave the rest area while Troy sits silently. They miss the auditions for the Night of a Thousand Stevies, and Gypsy learns that her mother committed suicide four years earlier. The sympathetic Mistress of Ceremonies, also her mother's best friend when she was in New York, allows Gypsy to perform a song she wrote for her mother at the end of the show. In the end, Gypsy stays in New York to pursue her musical aspirations like her mother, and Clive returns to Sandusky to finish high school but plans to come back to New York after he graduates. ===== Lakshmi Narayana (Venkatesh), the MD of Lakshmi Group of Companies, is an elder son in a family with two brothers and two sisters. He is very strict about disciplining his brothers so that they become the men that their father (Ranganath) wanted them to be, to the point of beating them for coming home drunk. He owns a factory that is worth hundreds of crores. Shailaja a.k.a. Shailu (Charmme Kaur), an employee in Lakshmi's company, has a huge crush on him. Janardhan (Sayaji Shinde), a former employee of Lakshmi Industries who was accused of forgery, plans to take revenge on Lakshmi by creating divisions in his family. Soon, Lakshmi's sister falls in love with a man, and he is accepted by Lakshmi, with the marriage concluding in a grand manner. It is later revealed that the man is Janardhan's nephew. This leads to Lakshmi revealing to his siblings that he and his sister (the youngest of the five) were actually adopted by their parents at a young age as they were orphans who were being ill-treated by their uncles and aunts. All this leads to the splitting of the siblings with Lakshmi and his sister being thrown out of the house by their younger brothers. The people standing beside Lakshmi are all the people in his factory and his other sister. Lakshmi even ends working in his factory for all this. He even moves into a small house with his sister, where he is later joined by his mother. Later, it is revealed that Lakshmi had fallen in love with a girl named Nandini (Nayantara) earlier, who was the niece of his foster father. Nandini was threatened by a young man who was the son of a Kolkata-based don named Rayudu (Pradeep Rawat). Lakshmi beats up the guy and sends him into a coma, which earns him Rayudu's wrath. The rest of the story is about how Lakshmi stands up to all these people together. ===== Jedah Dohma, one of the high nobles of Makai, is resurrected after a premature death long ago. Seeing the current chaotic state of the demon world, he decides that the only way to save Makai is to recreate it. To this end, he conjures a pocket dimension known as Majigen, to which he summons worthy souls to help feed his new world. As luck would have it, those souls belong to the returning Darkstalkers from the first two games, in addition to three newcomers. ===== Hundreds of years ago, the powerful dark sorceress Castomira sought to destroy the land of Arcus and remake it into a place of chaos and darkness. The only person powerful enough to stop her was Princess Leaty, a good sorceress and the granddaughter to the legendary King of Light. Leaty challenged Castomira and the two fought for days on end, but the powers of the light eventually overwhelmed the witch, who was banished to the Dark World for all eternity. Foreseeing the possible return of Castomira, Leaty created a magical sword known as "The Power of Leaty" and trusted its safekeeping with the King of Arcus. Now, a millennium later, Castomira's followers have stolen the Sword in order to revive their mistress as the power of darkness grows stronger by the day. Only the powers of four brave heroes can prevent a second coming of Castomira and return peace to Arcus. They are: Jedda Chef the swordsman, Diana Fireya the archer; Erin Gashuna the warrior- maiden; and Bead Shia the mage. At the end of the game, the players are given a choice between either using the sword to defeat Castomira or helping the witch regain her power. ===== John Heath is a "dead average" man working for Quantum Pharmaceuticals. Unhappy with his average position in the company and in life, he searches for a way to improve himself and at the same time impress his fiancée, Susan Collins. When researchers from Quantum give him the opportunity, he volunteers to be a test subject for a new drug that allows total memory recall. When the drug succeeds and John is able to remember everything and anything that he has ever read or heard down to the exact word, he goes on a rampage to climb the corporate ladder in his company, blackmailing his superiors into conceding to his demands. When his bosses and the researchers who gave him the drug trick him and lock him in one of the rooms in the office building, they try to inject him with the antidote for the recall drug. Susan, however, comes to his rescue, and although they never succeed in giving him the antidote (after he suffers a traumatic shock, the bosses believe he has lost the power), John promises to Susan never to use his new power for malevolence, while the possibility remains open that maybe one day everyone could possess that ability. ===== Ferdinand is an army major and son of President von Walter, a high-ranking noble in a German duke's court, while Luise Miller is the daughter of a middle-class musician. The couple fall in love with each other, but both their fathers tell them to end their affair. The president instead wants to expand his own influence by marrying off his son Ferdinand to Lady Milford, the duke's mistress. However, Ferdinand rebels against his father's plan and tries to persuade Luise to elope with him. The president and his secretary Wurm (Ferdinand's rival) concoct an insidious plot, arresting Luise's parents for no reason. Luise declares, in a love letter to the Hofmarschall von Kalb, that only by death can she obtain her parents' release. Luise is also forced to swear an oath to God to state she wrote this letter (actually forced on her) of her own free will. This letter is leaked to Ferdinand and deliberately evokes jealousy and vengeful despair in him. Luise tries to get released from her oath by suicide, dying before Ferdinand and restoring their love's innocence, but her father puts a stop to this by putting massive moral and religious pressure on the couple. This means she has only silence and the lie required by the oath to counter the charges against her. Luise is released from her secrecy by death, revealing the intrigue to Ferdinand and forgiving him, and Ferdinand reaches out his hand to his father at the moment of his death, which the President interprets as his son's forgiveness. In a subplot, Lady Milford is shown in a position between the middle and upper classes, in love with Ferdinand. She is confronted with Luise's pure and simple love for Ferdinand. Despite Lady Milford's love for him, they are intent on marriage and withdrawing from the world of the court. ===== The prologue serves as a continuation of Yang Yuncong and Nalan Minghui's story in Saiwai Qixia Zhuan, set in the early Qing dynasty. Nalan is forced to marry the Manchu prince Dodo even though she loves Yang and has given birth to their daughter. Yang shows up on the night before Nalan's wedding and seizes their infant daughter from her. He is mortally wounded in a fight against Prince Dodo's henchmen. Before his death, he entrusts his daughter to the youth Mulang, who was attempting suicide after being mistakenly accused of betraying his comrades. Mulang brings Yang's daughter back to Yang's master, Reverend Huiming, on Mount Heaven. Mulang spends 18 years training under Reverend Huiming's tutelage and becomes a formidable swordsman. He returns to the jianghu under a new name, Ling Weifeng, and does several chivalrous deeds. Yang Yuncong's daughter, Yilan Zhu, has mastered the 'Mount Heaven Swordplay', and she swears to kill Prince Dodo and avenge her father. On Mount Wutai, members of the anti-Qing secret society Heaven and Earth Society and some Southern Ming rebels attempt to assassinate Prince Dodo but their plans are interrupted by Yilan Zhu's untimely appearance. During the ensuing chaos, Yilan Zhu unintentionally causes Zhang Huazhao to be captured by Qing soldiers. She goes to Prince Dodo's residence to rescue Zhang later. Meanwhile, Fu Qingzhu and Mao Wanlian discover that the Shunzhi Emperor is still alive and has become a monk on Mount Wutai. The Shunzhi Emperor's son and successor, the Kangxi Emperor, secretly murders his father to safeguard his throne. On Ling Weifeng's part, he meets his old crush Liu Yufang, who wrongly accused him of betrayal years ago. Even though Ling's appearance has changed, Liu still notices that he bears some resemblance to Mulang, but he refuses to admit that he is indeed Mulang. Ling Weifeng and Liu Yufang travel to Yunnan later and befriend Li Siyong, a descendant of Li Zicheng. They also encounter Fu Qingzhu and Mao Wanlian, as well as Gui Zhongming, a new companion. Gui falls in love with Mao after she helps him recover from his mental illness. Gui Zhongming and Mao Wanlian go to Beijing later to find Yilan Zhu and they meet the scholar Nalan Rongruo. In the meantime, Nalan Minghui recognises Yilan Zhu as her daughter and she pleads with Prince Dodo to spare her daughter's life. After much difficulty, Yilan Zhu and Zhang Huazhao escape from danger and they fall in love. Yilan Zhu avenges her father later by assassinating Prince Dodo, but is captured and imprisoned. Nalan Minghui is unable to rescue her daughter and commits suicide in despair. "Flying Red Sash" Hamaya (a former love rival of Nalan) and Ling Weifeng appear in the nick of time and save Yilan Zhu. Ling Weifeng suddenly experiences a seizure in a fight against Chu Zhaonan, his treacherous senior. Chu turns the tables on Ling and captures and imprisons him in an underground labyrinth in Tibet. Ling attempts to escape but fails and is on the brink of death. He writes a letter to Liu Yufang, admitting that he is indeed Mulang. Liu is heartbroken upon reading Ling's letter. Han Zhibang, who has a secret crush on Liu Yufang, bravely sacrifices himself to save Ling Weifeng and dies at the hands of Chu Zhaonan. Fu Qingzhu and the other heroes break into the labyrinth to rescue Ling. Chu Zhaonan is defeated by Yilan Zhu and commits suicide eventually. Ling Weifeng, Zhang Huazhao, Gui Zhongming, Yilan Zhu, Mao Wanlian, Wu Qiongyao, and Hamaya form the "Seven Swords of Mount Heaven", with Liu Yufang as a close ally. They leave behind a heroic legacy of upholding justice and helping the poor and oppressed. ===== Clifford Southey (Mills) is a clerk at a brokerage firm who is promoted to lieutenant colonel during the war. His subordinate officer, Captain Brett Aimsley (Mason), was a partner at Southey's firm. Popular and charismatic, Capt. Aimsley is everything Col. Southey is not, but aspires to be. Unfortunately money is Aimsley's weakness. His profligacy sees him removed from Southey's command. Some time after the war, Aimsley's comfortable exile in Tahiti is rudely interrupted by the arrival of his old adversary, now director of a hotel chain looking to expand into the burgeoning South Seas market. ===== Vladimir Dubrovsky is a young nobleman whose land is confiscated by a greedy and powerful aristocrat, Kirila Petrovitch Troekurov. Determined to get justice one way or another, Dubrovsky gathers a band of serfs and goes on the rampage, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Along the way, Dubrovsky falls in love with Masha, Troekurov’s daughter, and lets his guard down, with tragic results. ===== Vladimir Dubrovsky is a young nobleman whose land is confiscated by greedy and powerful aristocrat Kiril Petrovitch Troekurov. Determined to get justice one way or another, Dubrovsky gathers together a band of serfs and goes on a rampage like another Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Along the way, Dubrovsky falls in love with Masha, Troekurov’s daughter, and foolishly lets his guard down, with tragic results. The libretto does not follow Pushkin's original closely. At the end of the opera, the police, who want Vladimir for arson, are close on his heels. He gets the opportunity to sing a long duet with Masha before being shot. Masha's father enters to find his now insane daughter with Dubrovsky's body. In the opera, Nápravník played down the social aspect underscoring the love story of Dubrovsky and the daughter of his sworn enemy. Overall, however, Nápravník stayed true to Pushkin's romantic style. ===== Lady Maltby arrives to see Captain Mainwaring in his office, as she is unable to acquire any petrol for her Rolls-Royce car, so is keen to see it used for the war effort. She is carefully maintaining her class distinction, being very superior to Mainwaring, then catches sight of Sergeant Wilson, and greets him warmly as "Dear Arthur". They talk for a few minutes, obviously well acquainted, leaving Mainwaring fuming. Mainwaring is very keen to use the vehicle as a staff car, so Private Frazer offers to respray it in camouflage cheaply. Unfortunately, there is a misunderstanding when Frazer collects the car, and he takes the Mayor's Rolls Royce instead. A great flap ensues, which is calmed down by the accusation that the Mayor's chauffeur obviously had not disabled the car when he left it, which takes the wind out of the angry Mayor's sails. Of course the Mayor's car is now not black but camouflaged, so Frazer has to spray it again. In the background the town is preparing for the visit of a Free French General. Mainwaring is not impressed, and tells Wilson that "the French don't make very good soldiers, you know, especially after lunch". There is a lot of argument between the Wardens and the Home Guard about who should have the most important spot in the Guard of Honour. Frazer just manages to deliver the Mayor's (now black) car in time, but the paint is still tacky. At the Guard of Honour, the vicar's choir sings half the French National Anthem ("they didn't have time to learn it all"), Wilson gives a welcoming speech in French, and the French General is so overcome he kisses Wilson, then Mainwaring, on both cheeks. Then the flash of Private Cheeseman's camera startles him, and he steadies himself with his hands against the Rolls Royce, so that when he kisses the outraged Warden Hodges he ends up with black paint all over his face. ===== In the morning Jack Brodie, a judo brown belt who just moved to London from Cleethorpes, learns London has won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Unfortunately, his mood and his first day at his new school are quickly ruined when he learns the London Underground has been bombed. His new- found friend Ben leaves school property in search of his father who may be at one of the attacked stations. Jack follows him. As soon as the school staff learn about the attacks through a phone call from a concerned parent, the trip to a music competition is immediately cancelled and the music teacher convinces the students to practice in the music room until they can leave. Muslim Bass Guitar player Ayesha has been the focus of bully Kelly Davies since the start of the day when she accidentally bumped into her and made her drop her mobile phone. Kelly and her friend Marie start to taunt Ayesha and her friend Mike, saying that they're an item. This culminates in Kelly stealing Ayesha's brand new mobile phone. She warns her not to tell anyone or she'll be 'sorrier than she can dream'. However, Mike tells their teacher and gets Kelly punished. Ayesha is angry with him for the rest of the day and only forgives him when they're on their way home. Kelly turns on Marie when she shows remorse for joining her in bullying Ayesha and throws her book out of the window. Jack and Ben are still intent on finding Liverpool Street station where Ben's dad works. When they enter a shop to ask for directions, a man agrees to take them there. When he attempts to mug Ben, Jack uses his judo skills to trip him up and the two boys run for their lives. The entire class is waiting for the bus, but upon seeing Ayesha and her sister Jamilia, the driver makes a comment about not having their jihad on his bus , closes the doors and drives off, leaving most of the kids out on the street. Kelly starts picking on Ayesha again, until Marie finally snaps at her telling her how stupid she is. Kelly turns away and walks home angrily. Ayesha, Mike and Jamilia walk the other way, discussing the mad and bitter bus driver. Ben eventually finds his dad, who's covered in patches of soot and blood stains; he was travelling on one of the bombed underground trains and was one carriage down from the explosion. He's still in shock from what he's observed and most of his clothes are damaged by fire and shrapnel. He stops at a café and tells them he had to make a statement due to being so close to bomb. The carnage and devastation he's been made to see of those dying, dead and mutilated prove too much and he breaks down in tears as Ben and Jack look on taken aback of seeing Ben's dad crying. Eventually Ben, his dad and Jack go back to their homes. Jack's mum walks into her son's room to see him tearing up a newspaper with the Olympic rings on them and says that London won't always be like this. Jack sticks the picture on the wall and says that he thinks he's going to like it here. ===== Tokyo. 1910. Dr. Daitokuji Yukio (Masahiro Motoki), a former military doctor who has taken over a successful practice from his father and treats plague victims, is living a charmed life: he is a respected young doctor with a successful practice and Rin (Ryo), a beautiful wife. His only problem is that she suffers from amnesia, and her past is unknown. However, things begin to fall apart. Both his parents die suddenly, killed by a mysterious stranger who looks just like him. His relationship with his wife worsens after he chooses to cure the mayor instead of destitute denizens of nearby ghettos. While isolated from his relatives, he one day faces the mysterious stranger who turns out to be his long-lost rejected twin, Sutekichi (again Motoki). Bent on revenge, Sutekichi throws him into the garden's well and takes over his life and his wife. The final conflict between the two brothers is realized when Yukio, forced into an animalistic existence in the well, reemerges, prompting the fratricidal fight for the love of the same woman, since it turns out (while he takes over Yukio's role) that Rin had actually once been Sutekichi's lover. ===== ===== Lord Robert Brummell (William Haines), an impecunious bachelor, is ordered by his wealthy uncle Lord George Hampton (C. Aubrey Smith) to settle down with a wife. Not wishing to tie himself down to any one girl, Brummell endeavors to prove that no woman is worthy of him by pretending to be a gigolo.https://www.allmovie.com/movie/just-a-gigolo-v80048 When he meets the beautiful, wealthy Roxana Hartley (Irene Purcell), Lord Robert becomes increasingly frustrated when she deftly resists all his techniques of seduction. But his realisation that he loves her occurs at the same time that Roxana discovers his true identity and decides to pay him back. ===== A Prussian officer (David Bowie) returns home to Berlin following the end of the Great War. Unable to find employment elsewhere, he works as a gigolo in a brothel run by the Baroness (Marlene Dietrich). He is eventually killed in street fighting between Nazis and Communists. Both sides claim his body but the Nazis succeed in capturing it and bury him with honours, "a hero to a cause he did not support".Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: pp.539–540 ===== After the final victory of Mao Zedong's Chinese Communists in 1949, an American company prepares to abandon their Chinese operations, leaving three people behind to oversee transitional affairs - Carl Fitter, Verne Tildon and Barbara Mahler. Verne and Barbara were previously involved with each other back in the United States, in 1945, when she lost her virginity to him. They have sex again, but Barbara has matured, and becomes more interested in Carl, who is younger than she is. Carl is more interested in reading his handwritten volume of personal philosophy to her, but Barbara does succeed in seducing him, shortly before the arrival of the Chinese. ===== A bird's-eye view of Los Angeles is shown with searchlights moving to a conga beat. The action takes place in the famed Ciro's nightclub, where the Hollywood stars are having dinner at $50 ($ today) a plate and "easy terms". The first stars seen are Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, and, at a table behind them, Adolphe Menjou and Norma Shearer, followed by Cary Grant, seated alone. Grant's first lines reference his films My Favorite Wife, The Awful Truth, and His Girl Friday (originally titled The Front Page). Greta Garbo comes along as a cigarette girl, and lights a match for Grant on her notoriously large feet. In the next scene, Edward G. Robinson asks Ann Sheridan, "How's the Oomph girl tonight?" Sheridan, then known as the "Oomph Girl", responds by uttering the word "Oomph" several times. The camera then tracks past several other tables: Warner Bros. staffers Henry Binder and Leon Schlesinger appear as an in-joke, while the soundtrack quotes "Merrily We Roll Along" – the theme to the Merrie Melodies series. A seat is reserved for Bette Davis, as is a large sofa for the rotund Kate Smith; finally the cast of Blondie has been invited, including a fire hydrant for Daisy the dog. Meanwhile, in the cloakroom, Johnny Weissmuller checks a coat with Paulette Goddard that reveals his Tarzan outfit, with the single addition of a tuxedo collar and black bow tie. Sally Rand (famous for her striptease acts and fan dance), leaves her trademark feather "fans" behind and is presumably naked. In the next scene, James Cagney prepares Humphrey Bogart and George Raft – all known for their "tough guy" roles – for a risky task. They get ready, turn, and start childishly pitching pennies. Harpo Marx lights matches under Garbo's foot, but in keeping with her subdued acting style, she responds with only a casual "Ouch." Then Clark Gable (known for chasing women) turns his head around 180 degrees to observe a pretty girl whom he follows offscreen. Emcee Bing Crosby introduces the evening's entertainment, interrupted frequently by an over-affectionate race horse with an apparently unconscious jockey (a reference to Crosby's fondness for horse racing). Crosby presents Leopold Stokowski, who wears a snood as he prepares for what promises to be a serious orchestral performance-- however, the song is "Ahí, viene la conga" and he dances to the beat. The conga inspires Dorothy Lamour to invite James Stewart to dance with her. Stewart, known for playing "shy guy" roles, stutters, stammers, and finally runs away scared, leaving behind a sign reading "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Gable dances by, following the girl he saw earlier. Tyrone Power dances with noted ice skater Sonja Henie.http://www.warnercompanion.com/eowbcc-h.html Frankenstein's monster dances stiffly and woodenly. The Three Stooges poke and smash each other in rhythm to the beat. Oliver Hardy's dance partner is revealed to be two women, initially hidden by his obese frame. Cesar Romero dances with Rita Hayworth; considered to be two of the era's best big-screen dancers, they dance clumsily and spastically. Mickey Rooney, sitting with Judy Garland, is presented with an expensive bill. An episode of the Andy Hardy film series breaks out as Rooney asks his "father", Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone), for a favor. In the next scene they are seen washing the dishes to the conga beat. Gable, still following the girl, gives an aside to the audience: "Don't go away folks, this oughta be good!" Crosby then introduces the "feature attraction of the evening:" Sally Rand (identified as "Sally Strand") performing the bubble dance to "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". Crosby points to a stage area off screen, where the camera shifts to an unlit area and Rand standing still and holding a large white bubble in front of her presumably nude body from a longshot. A light comes on and shines on her and the camera zooms in on her, where we see Rand blink twice before motioning herself to dance. During the dance sequence, the camera shifts back and forth between the men's reactions and Strand dancing. All shots on Rand show her pacing back and forth on the stage carrying and dancing with her bubble. Kay Kyser, in his "Ol' Perfessor" character, shouts out, "Students!" to which a group of men wolf-whistle in unison and exclaim "Baby!": They are William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Ronald Colman, Errol Flynn, Wallace Beery and C. Aubrey Smith. Peter Lorre cryptically states, "I haven't seen such a beautiful bubble since I was a child," possibly in reference to his breakthrough film role as a child murderer in M. Henry Fonda is enjoying the act until he is pulled away by Alice Aldrich of The Aldrich Family saying "Hen-reeeeee!" J. Edgar Hoover then says "Gee!" several times as a pun on his position as a G-man. Boris Karloff, Arthur Treacher, Buster Keaton, and Mischa Auer watch the action in their typical deadpan manner until Ned Sparks, another famous movie "grouch," asks them if they are having a good time; they respond in unison with a terse "Yes." Jerry Colonna is very excited, and utters his catchphrases "Guess who?", to which the camera reveals an invisible character next to him: "Yehudi!" ("Who's Yehudi?" was Colonna's famous catchphrase, referring to violinist Yehudi Menuhin). "Strand" tosses her bubble up in the air and catches it on the way back down, titillating the audience. Now that Strand is standing still on the stage, this allows Harpo Marx, who was hiding underneath a table, the perfect opportunity and an easier time to shoot her bubble with his slingshot. The bubble explodes when the missile hits it, and Sally reacts with shock as it reveals a barrel underneath. Gable, meanwhile, has finally caught the girl he was chasing, insisting she kiss him. "She" turns out to be Groucho Marx in drag, and says, "Well, fancy meeting you here!" ===== Petty hood Franz (Fassbinder) refuses to join the syndicate, where he meets a handsome young thug called Bruno (Lommel) and gives him his address in Munich. It is the flat of the prostitute Joanna (Schygulla), where Franz lives as her pimp. Bruno has been ordered by the syndicate to follow Franz and on going to the address is told he has moved. So he goes round the streets of the city asking prostitutes if they know a whore called Joanna. Eventually he finds where the pair are hiding, because Franz is being sought by a Turk for killing his brother. Bruno offers to solve the problem, so the three go to the café where the Turk can be found and shoot him. As they leave, Bruno also shoots the waitress who is the only witness. Franz is picked up by the police for both killings and, while he is held for questioning, Joanna starts an affair with Bruno. When Franz is freed because the police have no evidence, the three then plan a bank robbery. As they arrive outside, plain clothes police appear and Bruno is killed in a shootout while Franz and Joanna get away. In the car she tells him she had tipped the cops off about the robbery. He says "Nutte" [whore] and keeps on driving as the film fades to white.Thomas Elsaesser, Fassbinder's Germany: History, Identity, Subject (Amsterdam University Press, 1996; ), p. 267.Wallace Steadman Watson, Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Film as Private and Public Art (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1996; ), p. 69.Laurence Kardish (ed.), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Museum of Modern Art, 1997; ), p. 42. ===== When Professor Godfrey St. Peter and wife move to a new house, he becomes uncomfortable with the route his life is taking. He keeps on his dusty study in the old house in an attempt to hang on to his old life. The marriages of his two daughters have removed them from the home and added two new sons- in-law, precipitating a mid-life crisis that leaves the Professor feeling as though he has lost the will to live because he has nothing to look forward to. The novel initially addresses the Professor's interactions with his new sons- in-law and his family, while continually alluding to the pain they all feel over the death of Tom Outland in the Great War. Outland was not only the Professor's student and friend, but the fiancé of his elder daughter, who is now living off the wealth created by the "Outland vacuum." The novel's central section turns to Outland, and recounts in first-person the story of his exploration of an ancient cliff city in New Mexico. The section is a retrospective narrative remembered by the professor. In the final section, the professor, left alone while his family takes an expensive European tour, narrowly escapes death due to a gas leak in his study; and finds himself strangely willing to die. He is rescued by the old family seamstress, Augusta, who has been his staunch friend throughout. He resolves to go on with his life. ===== In 1953, Joseph Schilling arrives in Pacific Park, Southern California. He establishes a small music shop, and later, Danny and Beth Coombes join him. Mary Anne Reynolds is also interviewed for a position at the shop, but backs off after Schilling touches her. After leaving home, Carleton Tweaney, an African-American lounge singer (and her lover) finds her a new home. However, Beth has already slept with Joseph, and now moves on to Carleton. Provoked by her affair, Danny tries to shoot Carleton, but instead dies himself. Carleton and Mary Anne break up, and she decides to work for Schilling after all, as well as becoming sexually involved with him, despite a forty-year age difference. He helps her to rent and renovate her own apartment, but Mary Anne decides to live in a dilapidated African American neighbourhood instead. In an epilogue, she has married Paul Nitz, a pianist who works with Carleton. The author himself once described the novel as: "A retelling of Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Schilling seduced and destroyed by a young woman." ===== According to Lawrence Sutin's book, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, (1989) the plot survives only as an index card synopsis from the publisher dated 24 October 1956, after the manuscript had already been rejected one time. The reader's comments on the rewrite as follows: :"Didn't like this before & still don't. Long, rambling, glum novel about 65 yr old Greek immigrant who has a weakling son, a second son about whom he's indifferent, a wife who doesn't love him (She's being unfaithful to him). Nothing much happens. Guy, selling garage & retiring, tries to buy another garage in new development, has a couple of falls, dies at end. Point is murky but seems to be that world is disintegrating, Stavros supposed to be symbol of vigorous individuality now a lost commodity." In a letter from 1960, the author himself commented on the title character in an unexpectedly optimistic fashion: :"Contact with vile persons does not blight or contaminate or doom the really superior; a man can go on and be successful, if he just keeps struggling. There is no trick that the wicked can play on the good that will ultimately be successful; the good are protected by God, or at least by their virtue." ===== Using language with elements of the medieval tales which were his models, Morris tells the story of Ralph, the youngest son of King Peter of Upmeads. Their kingdom being rather humble, Ralph and his three elder brothers are bored of the provincial life, so one day they request permission from their father to explore the world. The king allows the three eldest sons to depart, but bids Ralph to stay to ensure at least one living heir. Ralph, desperate for adventure and against his father's will, sneaks away. Ralph's explorations begin at Bourton Abbas, after which he goes through the Wood Perilous. He has various adventures there, including the slaying of two men who had entrapped a woman. That woman later turns out to be the Lady of Abundance, who later becomes his lover for a short time. In one episode Ralph is staying at a castle and inquires about the Lady of the castle (the so-called Lady of Abundance), whom he has not yet seen. Descriptions of her youth and beauty suggest to him that she has drunk from the well at the world's end. "And now in his heart waxed the desire of that Lady, once seen, as he deemed, in such strange wise; but he wondered within himself if the devil had not sown that longing within him ..." A short time later, while still at the castle, Ralph contemplates images of the Lady and "was filled with the sweetness of desire when he looked on them." Then he reads a book containing information about her, and his desire to meet the Lady of Abundance flames higher. When he goes to bed, he sleeps "for the very weariness of his longing." He fears leaving the castle because she might come while he is gone. Eventually he leaves the castle and meets the Lady of Abundance, who turns out to be the same lady he had rescued some weeks earlier from two men. When he meets her this time, the lady is being fought over by two knights, one of whom slays the other. That knight nearly kills Ralph, but the lady intervenes and promises to become the knight's lover if he would spare Ralph. Eventually, she leads Ralph away during the night to save Ralph's life from this knight, since Ralph had once saved hers. She tells Ralph of her trip to the Well at the World's End, her drinking of the water, the tales of her long life, and a maiden named Ursula whom she thinks is especially suited to Ralph. Eventually, the knight catches up to them and kills her with his sword while Ralph is out hunting. Upon Ralph's return, the knight charges Ralph, and Ralph puts an arrow through his head. After Ralph buries both of them, he begins a journey that will take him to the Well at the World's End. As he comes near the village of Whitwall, Ralph meets a group of men, which includes his brother Blaise and Blaise's attendant, Richard. Ralph joins them, and Richard tells Ralph about having grown up in Swevenham, from which two men and one woman had once set out for the Well at the World's End. Richard had never learned what happened to those three. Richard promises to visit Swevenham and learn what he can about the Well at the World's End. Ralph falls in with some merchants, led by a man named Clement, who travel to the East. Ralph is in search of the Well at the World's End, and they are in search of trade. This journey takes him far to the east in the direction of the well, through the villages of Cheaping Knowe, Goldburg, and many other hamlets. Ralph learns that a maiden, whom the Lady of Abundance had mentioned to him, has been captured and sold as a slave. He inquires about her, calling her his ‘sister’, and he hears that she may have been sold to Gandolf, the cruel, powerful, and ruthless Lord of Utterbol. The queen of Goldburg writes Ralph a letter of recommendation to Gandolf, and Morfinn the Minstrel, whom Ralph met at Goldburg, promises to guide him to Utterbol. Morfinn turns out to be a traitor who delivers Ralph into the hands of Gandolf. After some time with the Lord of Utterbol and his men, Ralph escapes. Meanwhile, Ursula, Ralph's "sister", who has been enslaved at Utterbol, escapes and by chance meets Ralph in the woods beneath the mountain, both of them desiring to reach the Well at the World's End. Eventually their travels take them to the Sage of Swevenham, who gives them instructions for finding the Well at the World's End. On their journey to the well, they fall in love, especially after Ralph saves her life from a bear's attack. Eventually they make their way to the sea, on the edge of which is the Well at the World's End. They each drink a cup of the well's water and are enlivened by it. They then backtrack along the path they had earlier followed, meeting the Sage of Swevenham and the new Lord of Utterbol, who has slain the previous evil lord and remade the city into a good city, and the pair returns the rest of the way to Upmeads. While they experience challenges and battles along the way, the pair succeeds in all their endeavors. Their last challenge is a battle against men from the Burg of the Four Friths. These men come against Upmeads to attack it. As Ralph approaches Upmeads, he gathers supporters around him, including the Champions of the Dry Tree. After Ralph and his company stop at Wulstead, where Ralph is reunited with his parents as well as Clement Chapman, he leads a force in excess of a thousand men against the enemy and defeats them. He then brings his parents back to High House in Upmeads to restore them to their throne. As Ralph and Ursula come to the High House, Ralph's parents install Ralph and Ursula as King and Queen of Upmeads. ===== Cynthia is traumatized by the death of her baby after leaving him in a bathtub, where he accidentally drowned. She and five of her friends, Jeff, Rob, Lynn, Paul and Terri decide to go on a vacation. They take a plane somewhere, but are plagued by engine troubles and are forced to land the plane on a lonely deserted island. The six set camp and the next morning, Paul stays at the camp while the others set off to find help. They come upon a large cottage nestled in the woods. After entering the cottage and fooling around a bit, they meet the owners, an elderly married couple going by the simple names of Ma and Pa. The group of friends are welcomed to spend the night. At dinner, Lynn starts smoking and Pa scolds her and demands that she smoke outside. Later, Lynn and Cynthia discover Ma and Pa have a child, Fanny, who looks more like a middle- aged woman but claims she is 12. That night, Ma and Pa throw more strict rules in, such as no cussing and forcing the girls and boys apart to prevent premarital sex. The night passes by and the next morning, Rob goes for a walk and finds Fanny pushing her brother, Woody, on a crudely crafted swing. Rob is invited to swing and agrees, only for Woody to climb to the top and chop the rope, sending Rob down the rocky cliff below to his death. The group finds out about Rob's death and mourn his loss. Later, Lynn and Cynthia are outside and Lynn talks about how this family is a bunch of freaks and Fanny overhears. Cynthia sees this after Lynn leaves and consoles Fanny and reluctantly agrees to play games with Fanny. Fanny shows Cynthia her baby, thought to be just a doll, but it turns out to be the remains of an infant. Cynthia meets another brother, Teddy, and Fanny explains to him that Cynthia is her friend. Meanwhile, Lynn stumbles upon Woody, Teddy, and Fanny playing jump rope in the woods. After Lynn insults them, she is attacked and presumably killed by the three. Cynthia tells Jeff about the mummified infant. Jeff tries to console Cynthia and they kiss. Fanny, who wants Jeff to herself, sees and becomes jealous. She confronts the two and kills Jeff by stabbing him in the eye with a sword on a knight statue. Cynthia explains her fear to Ma, but Ma attacks her saying they are all wicked people. Cynthia flees and Ma finishes Jeff off with her sewing needles. Cynthia runs into the woods, finding Lynn's corpse hanging from a tree and a frightened Terri. Cynthia explains everything to Terri and learns that Paul and the plane are missing. Woody and Teddy find the girls and chase them into the woods. Terri and Cynthia find Fanny, and Terri reveals a gun and holds Fanny at gunpoint, forcing her to help them get off the island. They show Fanny to Ma and Pa and demand their help to get off the island. To save his daughter, Pa tells the girls where a boat is. He leads them to a dinky fisherman's boat, where Paul's corpse is lying, an axe buried in his skull. Cynthia and Terri flee and Teddy and Woody light Paul's body on fire. Night comes and Terri and Cynthia spend the night in a hollow tree. Terri and Cynthia run back to the cottage to find a radio, but are attacked by Woody and Teddy. Teddy pursues Terri into the woods and Fanny toys with Cynthia. Terri is caught by Teddy and has her neck snapped. Teddy rapes Terri's corpse, Woody tattletales and Teddy gets a beating as Cynthia watches in horror. Cynthia eventually breaks down and pretends to be one of the family, celebrating Fanny's birthday and dressing in a pink gown to match Fanny. However, the flashbacks of her baby drowning get to her; she goes mad, bludgeoning Fanny to death with a metal washtub. She then murders Woody with the sword. She then confronts Ma and stabs her to death with her sewing needles. She finds Teddy and stabs him with a sickle. Pa discovers his family dead and goes outside only to be shot by his own shotgun by Cynthia who has taken revenge and killed the demented family. The film ends as Cynthia goes upstairs, sits in Fanny's room and slowly begins rocking the cradle, singing a soft lullaby. ===== Munna (Prabhas) is a college student whose aim is to finish off mafia don Kakha (Prakash Raj), who keeps the entire city under his grip. An honest politician Srinivasa Rao (Kota Srinivasa Rao) relentlessly works to expose Kakha but is killed. Meanwhile, Munna's classmate Nidhi (Ileana D'Cruz) falls in love with him. The twist in the tale is that Kakha is none other than Munna's estranged father who tries to sell off his mother (Kaveri) and was responsible for the deaths of her and Munna's young sister. Another don in the city named Aatma (Rahul Dev), who is Kakha's opposition, asks Munna to join him, but he refuses his proposal. The mind game begins. Kakha's second wife (Sukanya), son, and daughter leave him and join Munna. After some incidents including his best friend's death, Munna finds out that Aatma was working for Kakha. The two of them plan on killing Munna in a factory, when all of a sudden, Aatma turns against Kakha and Munna. Kakha kills Aatma for the betrayal. He then commits suicide and dies by shooting himself, having lost everything that he worked for in his life. At the end, Munna succeeds in taking revenge against Kakha. ===== Bhadra (Ravi Teja) and Raja (Arjan Bajwa) are the thickest of friends. Bhadra notices Raja's sister Anu (Meera Jasmine) in a video-recorded call and gets attracted to her instantly. After some days, the story moved to the engagement of Bhadra's sister (Revathi). The house is full of joy and laughter, awaiting Bhadra's return from college. However, when Bhadra returns, the family members are shocked. He has brought home distraught and frightened Anu, whom he introduces as his friend. The marriage preparations continue, with everyone wondering who Anu is. Bhadra's uncle, however, cannot control his emotions. He wants his daughter to marry Bhadra, and is afraid Anu will spoil this. Eventually, Bhadra's uncle confronts him about Anu. Anu gets upset and an argument ensues. Later, as Bhadra and Anu go to a restaurant to eat, a gang comes. Bhadra chases them for a while and beats all of them up. Realizing he has left Anu behind, Bhadra returns to the restaurant. However, Anu is not there. Frightened, he was walking on road where he escaped from accident saved by his father (Murali Mohan). Finally, Bhadra's father forces him to tell them what is going on. Then a flashback begins. When Raja visits his home village, Bhadra visits along with him. Anu, who returns from London, is impressed by Bhadra, who continually impresses her based on her tastes. He gets along well with Raja's and Anu's family. Meanwhile, Bhadra convinces them that he would make a prospective groom for Anu. Anu's family, mainly her brother Surendra (Prakash Raj) and cousin, are involved in regional gangs in their village. When Anu takes Bhadra to the temple for a visit without Surendra's knowledge, a rival gang member group is attacked by Anu's cousin's group members, and one member of the rival group gets hold of Anu and threatens to kill her. In a swift action of bravery and skill, Bhadra knocks down the rival group member. After this incident, Surendra gives Bhadra a talk about why things are so violent in the village. He explains how he is a master's degree holder from a prestigious university (BITS Pilani) and how his wife is also a master's degree holder. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the villages, the rivalry is deadly and fatal. He ultimately says that even though the villages are violent, he will remain a noble person with high ideals. After a few days though, in the most ungrateful manner and a show cowardice, the rival gang fights with fierce brutality, and the rival gang leader Veerayya (Pradeep Rawat) murders Raja's entire family except Anu. Bhadra makes the promise to Surendra that he will take up the responsibility of Anu and that he will eventually marry her. In the process, he also becomes a rival of Veerayya as he kills his younger brother Tulasi (Subbaraju) to protect Anu. When Veerayya finds out that Tulasi was killed by Bhadra, he decides to kill him instead of Anu. Meanwhile, Surendra's men trace Anu and bring her to Bhadra's home. Feeling that she is not safe anymore here, Bhadra plans to send her abroad. Anu is not happy with his decision as she loves him. On the day Anu is supposed to leave to London, she meets Bhadra and Raja's friend at the airport. The girl tells Anu about Bhadra's devotion for her. She also knows that they chose Bhadra as Anu's bridegroom before her family was killed. She realizes she cannot leave Bhadra, and leaves the airport. She manages to find Bhadra, who is fighting the villains. After he defeats Veerayya, Bhadra and Anu embrace. Before Veerayya can kill Bhadra, one of Surendra's henchmen kills him. Then the movie ends. ===== The lives of two couples intertwine in mid-1950s California, and all learn important lessons about life. Jim Briskin is a classical music DJ. He and his ex-wife Patricia Gray are still very much in love but have divorced because he is sterile. The two divorcees meet a teenaged married couple named Art and Rachael and essentially swap partners. Pat passionately loves the youthful but dysfunctional Art, almost as though he were her child, and the two of them have an abusive relationship in which he gives her a black eye. Meanwhile, Jim and Rachael hook up and Rachael offers to ditch Art and move to Mexico with Jim where he will adopt her baby and raise it as his own. In the end, however, maturity prevails and they all return to their original partners. Miss Thisbe Holt of the original title is actually a very minor character in the book. She is a well-endowed stripper who performs at an optometrists convention which occurs near the very end of the novel. Her act consists of climbing naked into a large clear plastic ball which the optometrists then roll around the hotel suite to more thoroughly examine her ample personal assets. The ball is demolished when it's later filled with debris and pushed off the hotel roof by the inebriated optometrists. The shortened title seems more obviously appropriate in that its lack of specificity allows it to do double duty in serving as a metaphor symbolizing the irreversible effects of the various life-altering events that occur within the orbits of the main characters. ===== Two teachers vie for the right to stage a play written by Jane Austen when she was twelve years old. ===== In 1944, Virginia Watson and Roger Lindahl meet in Washington DC. They marry after Roger divorces his first wife Teddy and abandons his daughter by her as well. Their subsequent move to Los Angeles to work in a munitions factory proves extremely profitable. But Roger spends the money far faster than it took them to earn it. By 1953, Roger has opened a television sales and repair shop, while Virginia is trying to enrol their 7-year-old son Gregg in an expensive boarding school in Ojai against Roger's wishes. Liz Bonner, another parent, persuades Roger to agree to Gregg's enrollment by offering to share the perilous and exhausting driving duties involved in transporting their children over the nearby mountains to and from Ojai. There is a particular private exchange between Roger Lindahl and Marion Watson, Virginia's mother, that very graphically depicts Roger's highly immature, volatile and unpredictable nature. The trigger for his outburst is the realization that his hostile mother-in-law (as a favor only to her daughter) plans on providing substantial financial backing for his business. But there is yet another financial interloper afoot. "Chic" or Charles Bonner, Liz's husband, wants to buy into Roger's shop as a partner, but Lindahl declines his offer and promptly begins an affair with a very accommodating Liz. Virginia finds out, though Chic remains unaware, and she hectors Roger into letting her assume legal ownership of the shop with Chic. Unfortunately, however, both marriages have been irreparably damaged. Chic and Liz end up getting divorced. Roger and Virginia remain tenuously married, and a philandering Roger remains in contact with Liz through the private school. The final chapter closes with ever-impulsive Roger dumping Gregg off at home, pilfering a carload of expensive T.V. sets from the store and hightailing it to Chicago. ===== Guided by a holographic mentor, three aliens take the form of beautiful American women in order to stop an intergalactic terrorist (Joanie Laurer), from destroying Earth. ===== As with several lost Philip K. Dick novels of this period, all we know about it is an index card synopsis in the files of a publisher who rejected the book. According to Lawrence Sutin's book, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, (Published 1989) this card was dated 1/3/58 and said: In a letter dated 1960, Dick himself commented on the theme of the novel: ===== A Viking Age expedition arrives in America, intending to slaughter the native "Skræling" population. The party is itself wiped out by another native tribe, the only survivor being the leader's son, who is adopted by a native woman. The boy is named "Ghost" for his paleness. Fifteen years later, Ghost (Karl Urban) still lives among the tribe, but has never been accepted as a full member. His romantic interest is Starfire (Moon Bloodgood), the daughter of the Pathfinder (Russell Means), an elderly chief of a neighboring tribe. In an attack by a new group of Viking raiders, Ghost's village is destroyed and all its inhabitants killed, except a few tribesmen whom the attackers want to combat individually. Viking leader Gunnar (Clancy Brown) challenges Ghost, who is still in possession of his father's sword. He defeats Ulfar (Ralf Möller), cutting out his eye before escaping. Ghost is pursued by the Vikings and receives an arrow wound. He reaches the neighboring tribe and is tended to by Pathfinder and his daughter. Ghost advises the villagers to flee, then he departs to take on the Vikings alone, but is joined by Jester, a mute admirer, who refuses to leave his side, and Starfire, who decides to leave the tribe for him. They defeat a few Vikings and collect their arms and armour. Pathfinder goes after his daughter and also joins the fight. Eventually, both Jester and Pathfinder are executed brutally, and Ghost and Starfire are captured. The Vikings threaten to torture Starfire if Ghost will not betray the location of the other villages. Ghost pretends to lead the Vikings to the tribe, and manages to kill most of them on the way, some drowning in a lake and others caught in an avalanche. Ghost eventually kills Gunnar in a duel on a cliff's edge Ghost returns to Starfire with Pathfinder's necklace, thus making Starfire the new Pathfinder after her father. Ghost, now finally respected as the bravest of the tribe and one of their own, assumes his position watching over the coast in case the Vikings ever return. ===== To escape the heat of the city and a court sentence for malicious mischief, the East Side kids agree to visit a summer camp in the Adirondacks. En route, their car breaks down and they are reluctantly given accommodations in the home of Judge Malcolm Parker (Forrest Taylor). The Judge, under indictment for bribery, has much to fear. His life, as well as that of his niece Louise (Inna Gest) has been threatened by a gang of racketeers; his companion, Giles (Dennis Moore), has accused him of embezzling Louise's fortune; and his sinister housekeeper, Agnes, blames him for the death of her mistress, Leonora. The Judge's fears are compounded when he meets Knuckles Dolan (Dave O'Brien), the boys' guardian, whom he had unjustly sentenced to death, only to have his verdict reversed and Knuckles exonerated. Later that night, when Louise is kidnapped and the Judge found strangled, Giles and Simp (Vince Barnett), the Judge's bodyguard, accuse Knuckles of the murder, but the boys capture Simp and Giles and determine to find the murderer themselves. Muggs (Leo Gorcey) and Danny (Bobby Jordan) discover a secret panel in the library wall and enter a passage where they find Louise's unconscious body and glimpse the figure of a fleeing man. Knuckles captures the man, who identifies himself as Jim Harrison (Alden 'Stephen' Chase) of the district attorney's office. Amid the confusion, the real killer takes Louise captive, but the boys track him down and unmask Simp. Harrison then identifies the bodyguard as the triggerman seeking revenge on the Judge. With the crime solved, the boys can finally leave for their summer camp. ===== At Ryberg Instrument Corporation, engineer Cal Meacham has received a quartet of bead-like devices that are meant to replace the condensers that he ordered. Thinking it a joke, he tests them anyway and finds that they work just as well as what he had ordered. He orders more and with them gets a catalogue filled with electronic apparatus completely unfamiliar to him. His interest piqued, he orders the parts necessary to build what the catalog calls an interociter. When he turns the completed interociter on he confronts a man who invites him to join a group called Peace Engineers. Knowing that he would not refuse, the group sends a pilotless airplane to pick him up and take him to a small village/factory complex in a valley north of Phoenix, Arizona. He is greeted by Dr. Ruth Adams, a psychologist who seems to be afraid of something. Dr. Warner, the man he spoke with over the interociter, tells him that he will be in charge of the interociter assembly plant. He also meets Ole Swenberg, who was his roommate in college. Six months later he meets the Chief Engineer, Mr. Jorgasnovara, who describes the Peace Engineers in terms reminiscent of the Babbage Society in Michael F. Flynn’s novel In the Country of the Blind. Later he overhears Jorgasnovara’s thoughts through the interociter in his laboratory. One night he and Ruth discover that the interociters are being shipped out, not by truck, but by spaceship. Again overhearing Jorgasnovara’s thoughts, Cal learns that the Peace Engineers are involved in an interstellar war. Cal believes that all of Earth should be participating in the war that the Peace Engineers have somehow gotten us into, so he gathers documents and samples and takes a small airplane to fly to Washington. Halfway to his destination he and his plane are snatched out of the air by a spaceship and taken to the moon. There Jorgasnovara tells Cal, Ruth, and Ole that Peace Engineers is actually run by his people, aliens called Llanna, and that the Llanna are engaged in a millennia-long, intergalactic war with people called Guarra. Earth is now being used in that war as certain small Pacific islands were used in World War II. Returning to Earth, Cal, Ruth, and Ole find the plant being sabotaged. The Llannans decide to abandon it, but before they leave, Cal and Ruth discover that Ole is a Guarra sleeper agent. As a consequence of the interociter-mediated battle that destroys Ole and his non- human henchmen Jorgasnovara dies. Cal and Ruth are taken to Jorgasnovara’s home world and are told that Earth is to be abandoned completely, that the Guarra will destroy it, as they have destroyed so many other worlds. Cal protests but the Llannan Council tells him that their war computers have predicted that they would not defend Earth. But the Guarran war computers would tell the Guarra the same thing, so, Cal tells the Council, the best tactic is to do what the Guarra do not expect. The Llannans then agree to defend Earth and Cal and Ruth look forward to returning home. ===== ===== Manon (Jacinthe Laguë), Anne (Julie Deslauriers), Isa (Ingrid Falaise), Claudie (Brigitte Lafleur), and Sophie (Noemie Yelle) are all childhood friends. Ever since they were children, they would spend time at Sophie's cottage in Montreal. The five girls, now at the age of 17, return to the cottage as they have permission from their parents to spend the weekend on their own. The girls plan to host a party during the absence of their parents. Manon and Sophie depart to pick up groceries in preparation of the party. They do not have access to a car, so they decide to hitchhike with a stranger. Manon quickly develops a romantic interest for the stranger, while Sophie remains suspicious of his behavior. The party has begun, but Manon and Sophie have yet to return. The girls are having a blast, while Anne is worried about the safety of Manon and Sophie. Eventually, Isa takes a rowboat out with a boy in hopes to get some privacy. As the rowboat approaches land, Isa discovers Manon in the forest, stabbed and covered in blood. Sophie is missing. The boy brings Manon to safety, while Isa runs off to find Sophie. 15 years have passed since the incident. Manon is working as an administrator for a large firm. She expresses no interest in staff outings, nor does she express romantic interests towards men. She also avoids taking the elevator with any men, hence being uncomfortable in private places with them. Stéphane (Sylvain Carrier) enters the scene and invites Manon on a date, to which Manon accepts on the condition of being in a public space. Manon also refuses him from staying at her place for the night. Several days pass, and Manon begins to develop an intimate relationship with Stéphane. Manon drives into a car wash, and recognizes the stranger that was responsible for her traumatic experience. She experiences an anxiety attack, rushes home, and locks her doors. Several flashbacks reveal that Sophie was chained to a tree and covered in blood. Manon collects and reviews the court files only to discover that the parole board granted the stranger, Richard Thibodeau (Peter Miller), conditional release. Manon then takes her medication to reduce her anxiety. Stéphane arrives unexpectedly, and discovers the court files which Manon was reviewing. He confesses his love for her, but she does not reciprocate. Manon visits Sophie's parents to discuss the parole board's decision. Sophie's mother admits that she had pardoned Thibodeau because she was exhausted, and wanted to move forward. However, Sophie's father and Manon were in disagreement of her decision. Manon returns home and invites Anne, who is now a mother, to her condo. Manon reveals that she had asked Sophie's parents for permission to return to the cottage, which was granted. She makes the decision to invite all of the girls on a trip to the cottage in hopes to leave her experience in the past and move on from her trauma. At this time, Isa is a model in New York, and Claudie is a chef in Montreal. All the girls agree to accompany Manon to the cottage in hopes to confront their past. A flashback reveals that Sophie and Isa were best friends, and that Sophie was supposed to join Isa in New York. The girls arrive at the cottage, and explore the area in silence. Back in Montreal, Stéphane studies the case files in the library and uncovers Manon's past. A flashback confirms that Thibodeau had raped, beaten, and stabbed Manon. After the girls have a heated discussion on Thibodeau's release, Manon spots Isa on a rowboat returning to the crime scene. It is revealed that Isa had found Sophie's lifeless body, stabbed and chained to a tree. Thibodeau had forced Manon to witness him stab and rape Sophie. Manon couldn't handle the trauma and attempted to escape, which resulted in Thibodeau murdering Sophie as a consequence for her actions. Manon faces her fear, and pursues Isa. Anne and Claudie follow along. Once they arrive at the scene, they remain relatively silent. Another day passes by, and the girls become more comfortable and accepting of their experiences. Anne, Claudie, and Isa return to Montreal and witness the parole board's decision on Thibodeau's release upon parole. Manon leaves a tape for Thibodeau, expressing her thoughts and feelings towards him and her freedom of the trauma. Manon returns to Stéphane, and becomes more accepting towards her romantic and sexual relationship with him. ===== Police assistant Lance Boyle is a childish detective who is lumbered with worthless police cases. However, after several murders in a nearby wood that concern Killer Tomatoes, Lance finds himself working alongside Kennedy Johnson, a Tomatologist, to solve the murders. Nearby, Professor Mortimer Gangreen (John Astin) has begun using subliminal mind control on his talk show, disguised as talk show host Jeronahew. After kidnapping members of the Press and Media, Gangreen and his assistant Igor plot to use his brainwashed Press members, as well as the Subliminal Mind control, to overpower the human race and make the world a planet run by himself and his killer tomatoes. Following countless killer tomatoes attacks, Lance and Kennedy finally reach Gangreen's hideout, where they must pit themselves against killer tomatoes, brainwashed newsreaders and a giant Bacon, Lettuce and Human sandwich, of which Kennedy may be a part. With help from FT, (Fuzzy Tomato, from Return of the Killer Tomatoes) Lance rescues Kennedy and Gangreen is defeated, left at the mercy of the hungry killer tomatoes. ===== The novel alternates perspectives between H.G. Wells and a character initially identified only as "Stevenson." In the first chapter, Stevenson has sex with a prostitute in a 19th-century London alley and then murders her. In the next chapter, Wells is introduced showing off his brand new time machine to a group of men, including Stevenson. When police arrive to announce that they have identified Jack the Ripper as Stevenson, Stevenson uses the time machine to escape, and Wells follows him. Wells finds himself in the future and befriends a young bank teller named Amy Robbins. Robbins is unaware of Wells' identity and 19th century provenance and believes him to be just a quirky old-fashioned gentleman. As Stevenson murders several women, Wells pursues him while hampered by a love affair with Robbins, to whom he does not dare tell the truth. When Wells is finally forced to confess to Robbins who he is and what he is really doing, she terminates their relationship. But Stevenson targets her next, and Wells rescues her and incapacitates Stevenson in a dramatic climax. ===== Pilot David Randall flies top-secret photographs from South African astronomer Dr. Emery Bronson to Dr. Cole Hendron in the United States. Hendron, with the assistance of his daughter Joyce, confirms their worst fears: Bronson has discovered that a rogue star named Bellus is on a collision course with Earth. Hendron warns the United Nations that the end of the world is little more than eight months away. He pleads for the construction of "arks" to transport a lucky few to Zyra, the sole planet orbiting Bellus, in the faint hope that the human race can be saved from extinction. Other scientists scoff at his claims, and his proposal is rejected by the delegates. Hendron receives help from wealthy humanitarians, who arrange for a lease on a former proving ground to build an ark. To finance the construction, Hendron meets wheelchair-bound business magnate Sidney Stanton. Stanton demands the right to select the passengers in exchange for financing, but Hendron insists that he is not qualified to make those choices; all he can buy is a seat aboard the ark. Stanton eventually capitulates. Joyce, attracted to Randall, persuades her father to keep him around, much to the annoyance of her boyfriend, Dr. Tony Drake. As Bellus nears, governments prepare for the inevitable. Groups in other nations begin to build their own spaceships. Martial law is declared, and residents in coastal regions are evacuated to inland cities. Zyra makes a close approach first, causing massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis that wreak havoc around the world. Several people are killed at the ark's construction camp, including Dr. Bronson. Afterward, Drake and Randall travel by helicopter to drop off supplies to people in the surrounding area. When Randall gets off to rescue a little boy stranded on a rooftop in a flooded area, Drake flies away, but reconsiders and returns. As the day of doom approaches, the spaceship is loaded with food, medicine, microfilmed books, equipment, and animals. The passengers are selected by lottery, though Hendron reserves seats for himself, Stanton, Joyce, Drake, pilot Dr. George Frey, and Randall, for his daughter's sake. He also includes the young boy who was rescued, raising the number of passengers to 45. Randall, feeling he lacks any necessary skills, pretends to draw a lottery number, but Hendron knows better. For Joyce's sake, Drake tells Randall that Frey has a "heart condition" that may render him unable to survive the blackout during liftoff, convincing Randall he is needed as the co-pilot. The cynical Stanton, knowing human nature, fears what the desperate lottery losers might do, so he has stockpiled weapons. When a young man turns in his winning number because his sweetheart was not selected, Stanton's much-abused assistant, Ferris, claims the number at gunpoint, only to be shot dead by Stanton. As a precaution, the selected women board the ship, while the chosen men wait outside. Shortly before blastoff, many of the lottery losers riot, seizing Stanton's weapons to try to force their way aboard. Hendron triggers the launch prematurely while he and Stanton are still outside so the ship will consume less fuel on the journey. With an effort born of ultimate desperation, Stanton stands up and walks in a futile attempt to board the departing spaceship. The crew are rendered unconscious by the g-force of acceleration and do not witness Earth's destruction. When Randall comes to and sees Dr. Frey already awake and piloting the ship, he realizes he has been deceived. As the spaceship enters Zyra's atmosphere, the fuel runs out; Randall takes control and glides it to a safe landing. The crew disembark and find Zyra to be habitable. David Randall and Joyce Hendron walk hand-in-hand down the ramp as a new day dawns. ===== Mike Bronco believes a degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a ticket out of life in a trailer park. He is determined to rise above his humble southern Illinois roots and broken home to become a clinical family therapist. His best friend, Lynard "Lennie" Lake, has a simpler vision for the future. He is a firecracker enthusiast whose notion of the American dream is trucking school. One day, fun-loving Lennie convinces the serious- minded Mike to shoplift "Near Beer" and enjoy a carefree afternoon of kicking back. The seemingly harmless exploit snowballs into an exploding Vega (an ill- conceived distraction), injuring store owner Ken Kenworthy and enraging his aggressive son Rickey. The two offenders land in Jackson County Court and Mike's dreams of an exodus to the middle class and Lenny's trucking career are threatened. As this transpires, Mike's mother, Linda Bronco, finds she has plenty to contemplate beyond paying rent. She still grapples with how her youthful indiscretions cost her a career in nursing; her would-be Pro-Wrestler husband, Jim, abruptly leaves and she loses her job at a local nursing home. Although her life's burdens hit Linda hard, Hell will freeze over before she allows the worst to befall Mike and Lenny. Even with no money at their disposal, the Broncos and Lennie believe at first that it will take a competent, sober lawyer to keep Mike's record clean and college-ready. Next, the boys devise an ironic solution: a few trailer burglaries to raise the money to hire lawyer Ron Lake, Lennie's oily, turquoise-laden, ex-con grandfather, to take their case. When Linda catches the boys in the middle of a burglary, she steadfastly resolves to help them out, provided their spoils will finance Mike's college tuition. As the situation grows more desperate, the boys' worst fears are realized when Linda's 20-something boyfriend comes along for the ride. The boyfriend, Brian Ross, is the town sheriff's son and a former high school football star and bully. As if it were not bad enough that Brian resumed tormenting and menacing Mike and Lenny, his ceaseless passion for ex-flame Sandy Lake complicates their already-complex plan. Sandy, who just happens to be Ron's post-adolescent trophy wife (and Lennie's step- grandmother to boot), has bad intentions in mind for the boys. She sees their predicament as an easy opportunity to launch her own manipulative agenda. During their bizarre journey to redemption and the promise of a better life, the boys throw all caution and common sense to the wind. With Mike's mom in tow, they execute a series of outrageously-plotted trailer park burglaries. With bigger threats and growing confidence, the boys move on to bigger hits at the nursing home and a fast food restaurant. Then things really spin out of control with several repeat visits to court, massive explosions, guns, fire, and to top it all off, a spectacular car/trailer chase with $250,000 in loot at stake. Not surprisingly, they are also hurled into the paths of the most colorful characters in Sunrise, Illinois, including: Suzi and Suzy, a pair of damaged-but-lovable townies; the crusty and outspoken Judge Pike; Carlton Rasmeth, an inept alcoholic defense counselor; Machado, an ambitious right wing prosecutor; not to mention a host of good ole boys and girls who have various plans for Mike and Lenny that have nothing to do with higher education. Despite the insanity, Mike and Lennie learn significant growing-up lessons in the most hilarious ways. While they tear through the highways, cornfields, and courthouses of America's heartland, their bonds of friendship and trust grow stronger. Through zany trials and instances of mistaken identity, they endure many indignities, life-threatening situations, temptations, and embarrassments. But they survive, determined to emerge with dignity, self-respect, and an unyielding sense of humor. ===== After spending a night in jail for attacking a burglar, Rich and Mike (playing themselves) decide that the only way to avoid what they perceive to be the warped justice of the legal system in the UK is to become outlaws and live like cowboys in 21st century Britain, riding out of London on horse-back. ===== Ina Montecillo (Ai-Ai delas Alas) meets Tony (Edu Manzano), whom she considers "the man of her dreams". They both have four children, but Tony dies shortly after falling from a stool. Trying to find a replacement father for her children, she meets Alfredo (Tonton Gutierrez), and they have four more children. Alfredo dies after falling from a pedestrian overpass while fleeing with a crowd from a cinema due to false alarms shouted by an intoxicated patron, and Ina meets Kiko (Jestoni Alarcon), who fathers her other four children. On their wedding day, Kiko gets electrocuted and Ina decides to stop finding another husband. One morning, Ina wakes up finding her children Juan (Marvin Agustin), Tudis (Nikki Valdez), Tri (Carlo Aquino), Por (Heart Evangelista), Pip (Alwyn Uytingco), Six (Marc Acueza), Seven (Shaina Magdayao), Cate (Serena Dalrymple), Shammy (Jiro Manio), Ten-Ten (Yuuki Kadooka), Connie and Sweet either troubled, problematic, panicking, fighting, or confused. Later on, she finds out that her family might go poor, and so works several jobs from construction to selling bootleg DVDs just to make ends meet. She is reminded by Por of her début, while Juan begs her permission to let him find work. Ina agrees, but finds Juan's chores at home very confusing. Ina is told by her ex-driver Bruno, who reveals he is gay, that she can earn ₱2,000 a night at a stripper club. Meanwhile, Juan meets his high school girlfriend Jenny (Kaye Abad) working at an amusement park, where he decides to apply. Tudis quits her job and tries to pursue her desired career as an artist. Tri tries to impress his girlfriend Gretchen (Angelica Panganiban) and her parents (Pinky Amador and Mandy Ochoa) with his intelligence. Por tries to convince her crush, Jeffrey (John Prats), to be escort her at her début. Pip, who is a closeted homosexual, spies on his crush doing his exercise routine. Six invites their mother to a mass treat while Seven was assigned to lead a school programme on Bakit Natatangi Ang Aking Ina ("Why My Mother Is Unique"). Sometime later, Shammy tries to protect his reputation of being uncircumcised when he becomes a victim of bullying by Nhel's brother. Pip prevents them from fighting and when Nhel arrives, he accidentally mentions that Shammy is uncircumcised, causing Shammy to hate him. Things take a turn for the worse as Ina causes more problems for her kids: she prevents Juan from marrying Jenny, while Tudis refuses to help her in job-seeking. She exposes her life as a stripper to Tri, Gretchen, and Gretchen's parents, which causes Tri and Gretchen to split. She unsuccessfully fulfills Por's million-peso début and also learns that Pip is gay, then ruins Six's "mass treat" after thinking it was a "trick or treat" event. Seven hasn't told her of the programme yet because she doesn't want to be humiliated. Cate reveals that Ten-Ten is deaf and Shammy contracts a high fever after a circumcision by an unlicensed doctor. Finally, Ten-Ten goes missing. Ina rushes in a taxi to Shammy in hospital while still in her stripper outfit, causing her cabbie Eddie (Dennis Padilla) to fall in love with her. During their subsequent family meeting, she emotionally explains to the children that she took on several jobs not because it was her obligation, but because she loves them. Her complicated speech has the opposite effect, with Juan deciding to run away with Jenny. Rowena (Eugene Domingo) comforts the careworn Ina, who thinks of how to solve everything. After quitting her job at the club, Ina takes a bus ride where she notices a suicide bomber in front her. She alerts the passengers and tells them to evacuate while she fights the bomber. Gaining the upper hand, Ina is able to jump out of the bus just in time as the bomb detonates, killing only the bomber while she sustains minor injuries upon landing. As news of the incident flashes on television, her family arrives at the hospital and mourns a corpse under a sheet. Ina, however emerges a few moments later in a wheelchair. She eventually fixes everything: she permits Juan, who returned, to date Jenny but not wed her; she convinces Tudis to get her job back and Gretchen to reunite with Tri; she accepts Pip's sexuality while Six forgives her; Seven finishes her programme; she forgives Shammy, who recovers from his infection, while she finds the still-deaf Ten-Ten in a local church. Por meanwhile finally celebrates her début, and as Eddie snaps a photo of the Montecillos, the rocket in his back pocket ignites and sends him into the sky. Ina's voiceover explains that Eddie survived the explosion and they eventually married but they couldn't have anymore children after the rocket exploded in his trousers. In the end credits, the family is shown teaching Ten-Ten sign language together, so that he can communicate with the family. ===== Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), a popular gay New York City radio show host, is dealing with a separation from his partner, Jess (Bobby Cannavale). Noone is given a memoir written by teenager Pete Logand (Rory Culkin), who chronicles the many years of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents and their friends. Diagnosed with AIDS, the youth has been adopted by Donna Logand (Toni Collette), the social worker who handled his case. Noone begins a telephone relationship with the boy and Donna. He and Pete become increasingly close and form a father-son relationship, much to the dismay of Jess, especially after he speaks to Donna and suspects she and the boy are the same person. Noone's personal secretary Anna (Sandra Oh) adds fuel to the fire by discussing her research into people who fabricate elaborate stories to get attention. Determined to prove the boy exists and his story is true, Noone decides to pay a surprise visit to Pete in his hometown in rural Wisconsin. Noone discovers the return address on Pete's correspondence is actually a mail drop. Soon after, while eating in a local diner, he overhears another patron and recognizes her voice as that of Donna. He is stunned to learn that she is blind and uses a guide dog. Noone follows her home and Donna senses he has followed her. She invites him into her home and talks openly about Pete, who she says is currently in the hospital undergoing tests. She assures him he can visit the boy the following day, then suddenly becomes angry and tells him she will not allow him to meet her son. Increasingly suspicious, Noone contacts all the hospitals in Madison, the site of the nearest facilities, but none have the boy registered as a patient. Noone's paranoia about the boy's existence grows and, hoping to find proof of his existence, he breaks into Donna's home. A police officer arrests him for breaking and entering and then, mistakenly believing him to be one of the boy's abusers, attacks him with a stun baton before taking him to the station. Noone convinces the police he meant no harm and is released, only to find Donna waiting for him with the news that Pete is dead; also, that he was in a Milwaukee hospital, and was never in Madison. Distressed that Noone doesn't believe her, Donna collapses in the middle of a road and tries to hold him with her in the path of an oncoming truck. She then moves everything out of her home and disappears before the police can question her. Noone is now convinced that the boy is a figment of the deranged woman's imagination. In response to a phone call from Donna, Noone goes to a motel where she was staying, and finds Pete's stuffed rabbit and a videotape under a blanket. He plays the video of a child, who seems to be Pete, but who could have been anyone. The phone rings and the caller claims to be the boy (but sounds exactly like Donna now), waiting for his mother at the airport. The caller ends the conversation after Noone asks what happened in Donna's past and how she became blind and that Donna should get help. Noone just watches the video, deep in thought. Noone returns to Manhattan and uses his experience to create The Night Listener, a new radio story. In the final scene, Donna is searching for a new home in a coastal town, telling the realtor she needs it for herself and her son, who has just lost his leg but will be released the next day. She has drastically changed her appearance and no longer has a guide dog or dark glasses, revealing her blindness was also an act. ===== Bill Willis, a successful American novelist and World War II veteran, is living in Paris in the 1960s with his family. He is much loved by his free-spirited unpredictable wife Marcella. The couple, popular at the Paris cocktail party circuit, has a six-year-old daughter Channe (short for Charlotte Anne). Marcella yearns to have another child, but a series of miscarriages has made that difficult. However, the family circle expands when a six-year old French boy, Benoit, is brought to their home for adoption. The child's biological mother, a beautiful young single mother, has been unable to care for him and Benoit has been shipped through so many orphanages and foster homes that he initially does not unpack his suitcase. Having feared rejection, the little boy is surprised by the love he receives in his new surroundings. After Benoit becomes acclimated to his new family, he asks that his name be changed to Billy after his adopted father. Billy's presence prompts the young Channe to turn to her protective Portuguese nanny, Candida. Initially jealous of her new brother, Channe quickly warms up to Billy inviting him to share her bed after he has wet his. Marcella physically confronts a stern teacher for the punitive measures she has taken against her son. Channe notices the culture clash at her bilingual school, the flirtatious circle of friends around her parents, the vulgarity of American children who come visit and an encounter with a budding French rapist who tries to seduce Channe with the help of large snails. (He insists that she take off her shirt and let them crawl on her skin.) Billy and Channe become teenagers. A strong friendship develops between Channe and Francis Fortescue, a flamboyantly effeminate youth with a passion for opera. The fatherless Francis lives with his eccentric expatriate British mother. He helps Channe test her wings as a nonconformist. Fear of love makes Candida rejects a proposal of marriage from her long time suffering African boyfriend, Mamadou. As Channe begins to be interested in other boys, she distances herself from Francis who confesses to her that he had a little crush on her. The family's French idyll is disrupted when Bill Willis plans a return to the United States because he wants American doctors to treat his heart condition The family moves to New England during the 1970s. Their future is threatened by Bill's declining health, Marcella's alcoholism, and the struggles of Channe and Billy to adapt to American high school. Billy, awkward and very reserved, is bullied at school. Channe drifts from boy to boy giving sex in exchange for acceptance until she falls for Keith, a fellow student who becomes her steady boyfriend. Immersed in the writing of a new novel, Bill is worried about the future of his family when he would be gone. The irregularity of Billy's adoption comes to haunt him. The boy's biological mother had him at fifteen from a relationship with a cousin and wrote a diary while pregnant. Bill has kept the diary all these years in anticipation of the day when his adopted son would want to know the truth about his origins. Channe's relationship with Keith fades away as she helps her sick father write his novel. Bill's death affects his wife and children deeply. Billy comes out of his reserve to take care of the house and helps his grief-stricken mother. Marcella, as her husband had wanted, gives Billy the diary to read, but he is uninterested. One evening, Channe, Marcella and Billy put a record on and begin to dance. Billy takes a quick peek at the diary. ===== Victor, the youngest and largest of the Carboni brothers (Cosmo and Lenny are the other two), becomes a local wrestler (named Kid Salami) at the request of Cosmo, who thinks there is big money to be made. Lenny agrees to manage his career. They look to Victor to win enough matches so they can get out of Hell's Kitchen for good. (Victor wants to marry his Asian girlfriend and live on a houseboat they plan to buy in New Jersey.) Each brother has his own style. Cosmo is a hustler and con-artist, always looking for the next easy buck. Lenny is the former war hero, now an undertaker who came back to the neighborhood with a limp and a bitter attitude. Victor is a gawky, strong, dumb yet sincere hulk of a man, who leaves his job hauling ice up tenement stairways once he is persuaded to become a wrestler. Initially, it is Cosmo that dominates the proceedings, aggressively encouraging Victor to wrestle against the wishes of his girlfriend. Lenny is at first unsure of all this, and constantly tries to warn off Victor, reminding him that he could get hurt. As the story progresses, the roles begin to reverse. Cosmo becomes concerned for Victor's welfare and feels guilty about getting him into this while Lenny becomes ever more keen to exploit Victor as far as he can. Lenny seems to undergo a complete personality change, losing his cool demeanor and becoming an aggressive, manipulative high roller. In the end, Victor wins a big wrestling match in a rainstorm and the brothers are reunited. ===== The miniseries tells the story of Joan of Arc, from her birth in 1412 until her death in 1431. Joan of Arc is born in 1412 in the village of Domrémy in the war zone of Northern France. During her youth, she often witnesses the horrors of war, and when 11 years old she starts hearing divine voices. Her spirit is kept high by the legend of the Maiden of Lorraine. This says that a young maiden one day will unite the divided country and lead the people to freedom. At 17, Joan's village is invaded and burned, and her blind best friend, Emile, killed. She begs God to tell her what she said to deserve this, and the visions come back, telling her to travel to Charles, (rightful heir to the throne) and reunite France under his crown. Joan leaves her small village to find Charles. She jumps into a livestock cart that is supposedly being taken to the king. Instead she is taken to Vaucoleurs, where she is denied help to get to Charles. Here she finds refuge with a nun, who helps her unite the people of Vaucoleurs and build defenses against the English and Burgundian invaders. With this unification and defensework, rumor starts spreading that Joan is the Maid of Lorraine. Although Joan doesn't seem to believe that she is The Maid, she goes along with it to give the people hope. After bringing the people together, the lord of Vaucoleurs finally gives her the tools she needs to find Charles. ===== The game stars a fifth-grade student named Geo Stelar, who can be renamed by the player, and his FM-ian partner, Omega-Xis. Geo has been mourning the disappearance of his father Kelvin after the explosion of the space station Peace three years ago, and as a result, he has not been attending school. A group of children from Geo's class constantly urge Geo to attend school, but he always refuses. One day, Geo comes home and finds Aaron Boreal, Kelvin's co-worker at the AMAKEN Space Agency, conversing with Geo's mother, Hope. Aaron gives Geo the Visualizer, a glasses-like device that allows humans to see the EM Wave World. Geo goes outside to sulk on an observation deck over the city when he puts the Visualizer on. Using it, he sees Omega-Xis, who recognizes Geo as Kelvin's son and quickly performs an Electromagnetic Wave Change with him, transforming into the Star Force version of Mega Man. Omega-Xis is considered a traitor by the FM King because he has stolen the mysterious Andromeda Key, and he also claims to know about the events leading up to Kelvin's disappearance. Geo agrees to work with Omega-Xis to protect the key, and thus, Omega-Xis resides within Geo's Transer much like Navis do in PETs. He is aided in his fight against the FMs by the three satellite Admins, Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon, who are also energy-based aliens. The game is presented episodically in this fashion, following a basic formula: enemy FMs descend to Earth and target humans with conflicted lives, promising them the power to turn things around. However, unlike the merge between Geo and Omega-Xis, these humans merge somewhat involuntarily and lose control of their bodies during the conversion. Mega Man has to defeat them in order to rescue the innocent human from the enemy FM's control. At the end of the game Mega Man has to fight the planet destroying war machine Andromeda. However, beating it does not end the game, for there are other paths left to complete such as completing the card library. The player can also become brothers with Zack by talking to him in vista point after the game and pulsing into the piano in the school then talk to him again. In addition, if the player puts in a Megaman Battle Network game and pulses into the dog house, they can embark on another journey for the BN Buster, one of the strongest Mega Buster upgrades. Finally, you can battle several optional SP Navis not previously fought throughout the storyline; these include Cancer Bubble, Wolf Woods and Crown Thunder. For the first few "chapters" of the game, Geo is withdrawn and has trouble allowing himself to trust others. Later in the story however, he finds kindred spirits in a young pop idol Sonia Strumm, and a boy named Patrick Sprigs, who, like Geo, have lost loved ones and gain FM-ian partners. He forms a strong bond with Sonia, forming his first "BrotherBand" with her, and soon begins to open up to others, eventually becoming best friends with Pat. However, Pat is revealed to suffer split-personality disorder. The cause of this was his being abandoned by his parents, who left him to fend for himself amongst the mountains of garbage on Dream Island. As he grew, he was desperate for some sort of companionship but he was never accepted by anyone, so he created a friend within himself which he named "Rey", his darker side. Pat and his cruel "evil twin" transform into Gemini Spark and reveal they were just using Geo to obtain the Andromeda key the FM-ians failed to. Geo's spirit is crushed, and he reveals that after he lost his father he decided he'd rather not bond with anyone if it meant he might lose that person too and he cuts his ties to all his friends. Omega-Xis leaves, disappointed in Geo for reverting to his old ways after making so much progress. Soon after, Aaron Boreal calls Geo to AMAKEN claiming he has made contact with Kelvin Stelar's space station. Only to find it has been seized by the FM-ian King who is on his way to destroy the Earth and feed the souls of Humanity to Andromeda. Before Geo leaves, Aaron tells him the reason his father created the BrotherBand, the reason he searched the stars to find neighboring life forms was because he believed that bonds with others were the key to a better world, even a better universe. He wanted his son to grow up in a world where he would not have to fear anyone. Geo's faith in his friends, humanity and himself is restored, and he sets out to find Omega-Xis. The two are again confronted by Gemini Spark, but Pat interferes to save Geo and allow him to reach the space station. Upon reaching the station in his wave form, Omega-Xis reveals to Geo that he knew Kelvin Stelar before coming to earth, but converted him into a wave form so the astronaut could escape the king's wrath. At this point, Kelvin's spirit could be anywhere in the universe, but it is not likely Geo will ever be reunited with his Dad. Geo is undaunted and remains hopeful. He soon meets the King and must kill Andromeda before the earth is lost forever. He defeats Andromeda but spares the King, following his father's dream to establish peace with other life. The king tells Geo his name is Cepheus, but asks Geo how he could possibly trust one from another world, for he never has. Eventually, he is convinced that he and Geo are kindred spirits and must both set out to make their parts of the universe a better place. Geo is ready to return to earth, but the station begins falling apart and he is cut off from the wave road he used to reach the station in the first place and he is forced to escape via a derelict escape pod. For days he and Omega-Xis drift through space, doomed to die on this spacecraft and be lost in the void forever but just as Geo is ready to give up hope, somehow, from the endless vastness of space, his father's spirit is finally able to reach him. Geo is confronted by his father in a dream where he tells Geo he must hold on to those he loves most and as long as he keeps believing in them, Kelvin shall always watch over him, no matter how far apart they are. At that moment, Geo's friends, even Pat, have gathered at Geo's favorite spot to call him back home. The strength of their bonds cause all their BrotherBands to converge into a beam that connects with Geo's space pod and miraculously saves him. Geo simply watches the earth draw closer as he is brought home during the game's credits, never to be the boy he used to be again. ===== In the wake of rising criminality and terrorist activities in Japan against Japanese nationals, the Japanese National Police Agency has no choice but to authorize the mobilization of a special Counter-terrorist Motorcycle unit consisting of reformed convicts, ranging from simple thugs, individuals forced into prison for simple petty trouble and former Yakuza henchmen and leaders to combat armed criminals and terrorists. ===== Hana Tsukishima is a country boy that recently moved to city. He is a good guy, ingenuous and honest, but he is also very strong. His goal is to become the leader of Suzuran High. He and his friends encounter and fight many other gangs and rival schools, led by clan-logic and strength hierarchy. ===== Rose and the Doctor arrive in 1924 London to see the British Empire Exhibition. They hear someone in trouble while leaving the scrapyard where the TARDIS landed. They see a man fighting for his life, while a third figure disappears into the shadows. The Doctor and Rose rescue him. The man is Peter Dickson, and he works at a house down the street. His gloves are stained with oil, and the marks on his neck look like they were caused with a metal implement. After wandering the streets for a while, the Doctor decides that the disappearance has something to do with that night's events, and they go back to Sir George's. A car pulls up as they arrive, and a woman with red hair comes in wearing shimmering silk and a mask in the shape of a butterfly. Only her blue eyes and mouth are visible. Her name is given as Melissa Heart. The Doctor tells the party that they've lost their lodgings, and Repple (one of the guests) says that there are rooms at the Imperial Club, and he will vouch for them. The Doctor asks what the 'conspiracy' is about as he takes his jacket off. It comes out that Freddie is the rightful Tsar of Russia, and Repple is the deposed leader of Dastaria. As they move from the dining room to the drawing room, Melissa leaves, letting herself out. Repple suggests they walk to the Imperial Club, and the Doctor goes to get his jacket. It is missing, and he seems more upset about that than the loss of the TARDIS. They arrive at the club and meet Mr Wyse in the Bastille room. He is wearing a monocle and playing chess with himself. There is a black cat with a triangle of white fur under the chin sitting in the room with him. He tells them that Mr Pooter endowed the club originally, but he is away a lot and likes his privacy, so Mr Wyse runs the place and lives there. When Repple leaves, his friend Aske tells Rose and the Doctor that Dastaria doesn't exist. Repple once played the part of "Elector of Dastaria" in a parade, and fainted. He awoke believing the fiction. Crowther (who is the chief steward) takes Rose and the Doctor to their rooms, which are adjoining with a lounge between. He says that Mr Pooter's rooms are above, so to please try to keep quiet. After Crowther left, there is a knock at the door and Repple comes in, with the cat slipping in as well. He tells them that he is the prisoner of Major Aske, and that the flag of Dastaria is black with a white triangle. When Rose gets up the next morning, the Doctor is playing chess with Wyse. Wyse tells them that Aske is the one who is delusional, while Repple just plays along. Crowther comes in to tell the Doctor that he has a visitor, Miss Heart. She is wearing a different mask, and has brought the Doctor's jacket, saying that she is returning it for Lady Anna. The Doctor rummages through the pockets to find his sonic screwdriver, and holds it out for her to see, asking if she knows what it is. She invites them to come calling, but her manner implies she means only the Doctor. The Doctor decides that Rose needs a distraction from all that's been going on, so they leave for the British Empire Exhibition. They decide to stop at Sir George's to say thanks for finding his jacket, and to see if Freddie can come along. While they are waiting for Sir George, Freddie mentions that he saw Melissa Heart with the Doctor's jacket. Anna comes in, and says that Freddie can't go to the Exhibition, but can ride in the car. Melissa hires two men (Cheshunt and Black) to break into the club and find information on the Doctor and Rose. They enter the club and hear voices (the Doctor and Wyse are playing chess). When they peek in the room, the cat sees them and attacks. People come running at the noise, and Rose comes down the stairs. Cheshunt grabs the cat and throws it into their sack, then the two run out the door. Rose follows, and sees the sack dumped into the Thames. She returns to the club, and mentions to Crowther that she heard Mr Pooter in the room above. He says that Mr Pooter is not back yet, but will return for the Trustee's meeting next morning. When Rose enters the Bastille room, she finds the Doctor, Wyse, Aske, Repple, other club members, and the cat. Next morning, Rose decides to check out the Trustee's meeting. She finds the boardroom, but there is a Cclub steward outside the door, so she can't listen there. She decides to sneak down the fire escape from the outside. She can't get close enough to hear anything or see much, but she can see a man at the head of the table, holding the cat. As she backs up the fire escape, it creaks, and the cat sees her. When the Doctor returns, he says they should go visit Melissa Heart. She says to the Doctor and Rose, 'You do keep turning up. Like a bad wolf.' Inside is a long table, with over 20 masks arranged on it. On either side of the fireplace are suits of armour with swords on plinths. As they talk, it becomes clear that Melissa thinks the Doctor is someone she is looking for. When he denies it, she becomes angry (and puts on her angry face). She snaps her fingers, there is a ticking sound, and one of the suits of armour begins to move. The Knight is 'clockwork' so as to avoid the use of 'traceable, anachronistic technology.' As they turn to run, the second of the two Knights jerks to life. The Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver, but nothing happens, and Melissa admits to removing the power source. Freddie appears outside the window, and pushes it in. The Doctor and Rose jump through, and all 3 run off. Freddie is unhurt (no cuts from the glass and splinters) and the Doctor tells him he should hurry home and not let his mum worry. Back at the Imperial Club, the Doctor figures that Melissa will send her clockwork men as soon as it's dark. He tells Rose to go and warn Mr Pooter, while he talks to the rest of the guests and staff. The Doctor tells the group about mysterious clockwork killers sent by a masked woman to assassinate the wrong man. Wyse says that he cannot stay, as he has a prior engagement, but he will hurry back. In the end Aske, Repple, Crowther and a couple of staff and guests are left. Wensleydale (one of the guests) tells the Doctor and Rose that Wyse goes to play chess with someone named Ben something or other. Crowther says he sent the ladies away, and the Doctor asks 'Where is Rose?' Rose has gone upstairs and knocked on the door, but there is no response. She hears the sounds of a clock ticking, and then a part of the door opens and the cat walks out. The eyes change from green to red, it hisses at Rose, and beams of electric red light come out of the eyes and scorch the wall where Rose had been. The cat leaps at her with its claws out, but Rose instinctively grabs it about the neck as tight as she can and holds it at arm's length. She realizes it cannot be a real cat, and smashes it against the wall until it is 'dead.' She runs back down the stairs, and doesn't see another cat come through the door. There is a hammering at the club's front door, that turns into splintering wood and then a hand reaches through to unlock it. The Doctor decides that being brave is probably going to get everyone killed, and tells Crowther to take his men and go to the kitchens, and leave if it is clear. He tells Wensleydale to take the other guests to the Bastille Room and stay there. The Doctor, Rose, Repple and Aske head upstairs, 'to see a man about a cat.' Freddie is watching the club from across the street as the shutters are closed and all doors and windows are locked. As he tries to decide what to do, Melissa Heart is suddenly next to him, and takes him across the street with her. Upstairs, the Doctor, Rose, Repple and Aske break into Mr Pooter's room. Inside, it is completely paneled in dull gray metal, including the floor and ceiling. There is no furniture, but a dark metal control console is in the middle of the room. There is a white triangle on the front, and pigeon holes in one side with cats in them. There is a ticking sound in the room. The knights are coming up the stairs, and the Doctor pulls a cable out of the console to force them back. Then Melissa steps past the knight and into the room with Freddie. Melissa forces the Doctor to drop the cable or the knight will hurt Freddie. Melissa is holding a black tube resembling a cigarette holder, and uses it to destroy the console (which scares Freddie, who is worried about being scratched). Melissa still thinks the Doctor is Shade Vassily of Katuria. Repple claims that it is him, and steps forward to give his full title. Aske steps forward, and says that Repple is insane, and then pulls out a black tube like Melissa's. One of the clockwork knights kills him. His last words are that he is Shade Vassily. Meanwhile, Crowther sends both servants away, and then goes to the Bastille room to talk to Wensleydale and the other guests. The two men manage to sneak into the room and hold a gun to Melissa's neck. Rose, Freddie and Crowther make it to the top of the stairs before Melissa uses her weapon to kill Wensleydale. The three run, with the Doctor telling them to find Wyse, and a Mechanical chasing them down the stairs. They turn down a hallway, where two of the other guests trip it. The helmet comes free, showing cogwheels, gears, levers, flywheels, and a glass crystal where the forehead should be. Freddie and Rose manage to escape out a window and down the fire escape. Melissa takes the Doctor and Repple back to her home, and locks them in a room with thick glass windows looking into the Thames. The Doctor works through the various versions of the story of Shade Vassily. He tells Repple that when he bothers to listen, he can hear a clock ticking, but Repple cannot hear it. Then the Doctor tells him that he isn't Shade, he just thinks he is, and reaches up to take off Repple's face. Repple looks at his reflection in the glass, and sees the clockwork face of Melissa's Mechanicals. The Doctor tells Repple that they still need to find a power-mad homicidal maniac with a superiority complex. Rose takes Freddie home, and near the river, sees a limping cat. She starts to follow it. The cat leads Rose and Freddie to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The Doctor and Repple escape from the room, and climb the stairs to find Melissa wearing her angry face. Repple shows her his real face, and the Doctor tells her that Repple is a decoy, and the real Shade is still out there. They realize that there must be a ship in the Thames, and that reenergizing it will create a firestorm that will burn all of London. The console had preventing such a thing from happening, but thanks to Melissa destroying the console, the real Vassily can escape. When Rose walks up to the door of the clock tower, Wyse opens the door, asks her in, and then tosses the cat back out. She realizes he is Mr Pooter, he admits it, and when she tries to quietly go back out the door, she finds it locked. She sees Freddie through the window and mouths 'Find the Doctor.' Wyse leads her up the stairs to a room full of cogwheels, shafts, gears, and levers. It is quiet, and Wyse explains that he had it built by saying that it was to make the clock more accurate. Repple spots Freddie, who tells them about Rose. All three climb onto the roof to get to the small window. Freddie is worried about being cut on the broken mesh, but lets the Doctor lower him through. He cannot open the door, so he goes upstairs to find Rose, and sees blood on the steps. Melissa returns the sonic screwdriver power pack, and the Doctor uses it and parts from one of the Mechanicals to fix the broken cat and use its eyes to open the door. The Doctor, Melissa and Repple go through, followed by the last Mechanical. Freddie hides as Rose and Wyse exit the room to go upstairs, but then Wyse slips slightly and sees the blood on the steps as the door below bangs open. Rose and Freddie try to escape, but are caught and taken to the clock room. Wyse tells the Doctor that the mechanism will activate when the clock strikes 10. The Doctor asks 'What if it doesn't?' and goes back to the room below, with Wyse following. Rose notices that Freddie is bleeding, realizes that he is a haemophiliac, and starts yelling for help. Melissa and the Doctor work on stopping Wyse, and Repple helps. The Doctor sends Repple to see what Rose is shouting about, and he puts a tourniquet on Freddie's leg. It helps, but the wound must be cauterized to stop the bleeding. Rose realizes she needs the sonic screwdriver, and runs to find the Doctor. The Doctor has given Melissa the sonic screwdriver to disable the mechanism while he tries to keep Wyse away. Rose finds them, and tells Melissa she needs the sonic screwdriver to save Freddie, but Melissa says that they will all die if she doesn't finish. She finishes and gives Rose the screwdriver, but Wyse snatches it and throws it into the mechanism. When Rose goes to save it, she is nearly crushed between two cog wheels. Repple saves her life by using his arm to jam the wheels, but loses his arm in the effort. The Doctor and Wyse get into a fight, and Wyse manages to restart the mechanism. Realizing something more substantial is needed to destroy it, Repple tries to throw himself inside, but the Mechanical knocks him out and sacrifices itself in his stead. Wyse is attacked by the broken cat, and falls from the tower. Freddie loses a lot of blood, but is fine, and Melissa returns the TARDIS. Repple's broken arm is replaced by the Doctor with one from the broken Mechanical, and he has another of the cats for company. ===== The film opens on an audience watching a lavish 1929 Broadway show, featuring a giant gold mine production number ("Song of the Gold Diggers"). Famous guitarist Nick Lucas sings "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine", which climaxes on stage with a huge art deco revolving sun. Backstage, the star of the show (Ann Pennington) fights over Nick with another girl. Also introduced are a group of chorus girls who are 'man hungry'. They are all looking for love and money, but are not sure which is the more important. They are visited by a faded star who is reduced to selling cosmetic soap. They gossip about how they all want a man with plenty of money, so they do not end up the same way. Businessman Stephen Lee (Conway Tearle) angrily forbids his nephew Wally (William Bakewell) to marry Violet, one of the showgirls. A corpulent lawyer friend, Blake (Albert Gran), advises him to befriend the showgirl first before making a decision. The showgirls are friends who stick together, and the most raucous girl called Mabel (Winnie Lightner) takes a fancy to Blake, calling him 'sweetie' and showing her appreciation by singing him a song ("Mechanical Man"). That evening, they all visit a huge nightclub. Mabel ends up on a table singing another song to Blake, "Wolf from the Door", before jumping into his lap. Showgirl Jerry (Nancy Welford) moves the party to her apartment. Everyone gets drunk and after seeing Ann Pennington dance on the kitchen table, Lee decides he is 'getting to like these showgirls'. Blake says he is 'losing his mind or just plain mad'. Keeping the fun going, Lucas sings "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". Complications come thick and fast after a balloon game, with both Blake and Lee falling under the spell of Mabel and Jerry. The party ends with Lucas singing "Go to Bed" and Jerry contriving to get Lee back after everyone has left. She gets him more drunk whilst tipping her own drinks away when he is not looking. Her aim is to get Lee to agree to allow Wally to marry. To do this, she lies and is shown up by her own mother, who accidentally finds them together. Next morning, Jerry feels disgraced. Mabel has been given an extra line for the show "I am the spirit of the ages and the progress of civilisation", but cannot get the words right. Lucas is told off for singing poor songs and sings another "What will I do without you". Ann Pennington fights with another showgirl and hurts her eye. Jerry is asked to take her place as the star of the evening performance. Mabel receives a proposal of marriage from Blake, but worries about her extra line. The show starts with Nick Lucas reprising "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"' with full orchestra in a huge stage set that shows girl tulips in a huge greenhouse. Backstage, Uncle Steve comes back to give his consent to his nephew and to tell Jerry he wants to marry her. The finale starts with Jerry leading the "Song of the Gold Diggers" against a huge art deco backdrop of Paris at night. Various acrobats and girls litter the stage as all the songs are reprised in a fast moving, lavish production number. This ends with Jerry sweeping through the middle as the music reaches a climax. Mabel then says her line, but forgets the end.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ===== The Ravages of Time is a spinoff of the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It tells the exploits of Liu Bei, Cao Cao, the Sun family, and other people from that period, from the point of view of the two main characters, Feng and Liaoyuan Huo, whose names collectively form the Chinese title of the manhua. Sima Yi is the young, unofficial leader of the Sima clan, a highly successful and rich merchant family with strong influence in politics and the economy. Unknown to people outside the clan, the elders have long deferred their power to Sima Yi, believing that he will bring prosperity to their clan, due to his flair for spotting profitable business ventures at a young age. The clan members operate out of public sight and position themselves where they can maximize their profits regardless of the political situation. They command a group of mercenary assassins, known as the Handicapped Warriors (殘兵), who assist them in manipulating politics. The mercenaries are reputed to be all handicapped, but have developed special abilities for conducting assassinations. They are led by Liaoyuan Huo, said to be a "one-eyed" assassin and the best one in the land. The story begins with the Handicapped Warriors assassinating Xu Lin, an advisor to Dong Zhuo, to prevent Dong's advances in subduing the various merchant clans. As the story progresses, Sima Yi and Liaoyuan Huo are reluctantly drawn into the wars of the late Han dynasty period. Sima ends up at the mercy of Cao Cao, while Liaoyuan Huo is forced to take on a new identity as "Zhao Yun" and serve under Liu Bei to create opportunities for Sima Yi. A rift gradually starts developing between the two former close friends. Throughout the series, Sima Yi, Liaoyuan Huo and the Handicapped Warriors are frequently shown to be the catalyst of historical events in the story. They are involved in causing Dong Zhuo's downfall, Cao Cao's rise to power, the Battle of Xu Province, Battle of Puyang, Sun Ce's rise to power, etc. Their involvement is a common thread that runs through the narrative. The story also centers on another eight characters, the "Eight Enigmas" (八奇), a group of elite military strategists trained by Sima Hui, who is also known as Shuijing (水鏡). They comprise Yuan Fang (a fictional character), Xun Yu, Jia Xu, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, Pang Tong, Zhuge Liang, and an unknown eighth member. Each of the Eight Enigmas has his motivation for choosing a ruler to follow, and some chapters are devoted to revealing their ultimate intents and moral stances. ===== With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. The cast includes William Bakewell as the head usher eager to get his sweetheart, box-office girl Sally O'Neil, noticed as a leading girl. Betty Compson plays the temperamental star and Arthur Lake the whiny young male lead. Louise Fazenda is the company's eccentric comedian. Joe E. Brown plays the part of a mean comedian who constantly argues with Arthur Lake.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ===== In Nelsonville, Ohio, in 1956, the relationship between the introverted, clumsy Jonathan Bellah and the nonconformist, extroverted Eugene "Gene" Harbrough develops. Jonathan's main objective is to win over the sexy Marilyn McCauley, in spite of his shyness, while Gene has his own love life to maintain with his crush, Bunny Miller, who reciprocates his feelings, as well as counseling Jonathan on how to attract women. Gene also has to defend Jonathan and himself from the wealthy class bully, Kenny, Bunny's jealous jock boyfriend, while trying to work out a borderline relationship with his widowed father, who has zero tolerance for his often wild escapades. ===== The opening scene is inspired by "The Kiss", a short story by Spanish post-romanticist writer Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and by Francisco Goya's painting The Third of May 1808. Toledo, 1808. The city has been occupied by French Napoleonic troops. A firing squad executes a small group of Spanish rebels who cry out "Long live chains!" or "Death to the gabachos!" -a Spanish pejorative term for "Frenchmen"-. The troops are encamped in a Catholic church which they desecrate by drinking, singing, and eating the communion wafers. The captain caresses a statue of Doña Elvira de Castañeda and is knocked unconscious by the statue of her husband, Don Pedro López de Ayala. In revenge, the captain exhumes Doña Elvira's body to find her face has not decomposed; there is a suggestion of intended necrophilia. Cut to the present day where a nanny is reading the voice-over from a book whilst seated on a park bench. The children in her care are given some pictures by a strange man in the park. There are implications of child abduction or pedophilia. Cut to a close-up of a spider and the interior of a bourgeois apartment where a man is "fed up with symmetry" as he rearranges his mantelpiece. The children arrive home and show the pictures to their parents who are shocked that the girls have such images. The parents are disgusted and yet erotically stimulated by the images. When we see the images, they are revealed as picture postcards of French architecture. The parents then let the children keep the pictures and dismiss the nanny. At bedtime, the husband cannot sleep as he is kept awake by a cockerel, a watch-carrying woman, a postman and an emu wandering through his bedroom. In the next scene, the husband visits his doctor, who dismisses these nighttime experiences as apparitions despite the fact that the husband has physical evidence in the form of a letter from the nocturnal postman. The evidence is never considered as the doctor's nurse interrupts the conversation to tell her employer that she must visit her sick father. The nurse drives through a rainy night, meeting a military tank on the road that is apparently hunting foxes. The soldiers tell her that the road ahead is blocked. The nurse drives to an isolated hotel. A storm breaks as the nurse checks in at the small rural hotel. Some Carmelite monks are also staying at the hotel. She takes supper in her room while a flamenco dancer and guitarist perform in an adjacent room. The monks interrupt her as she is dressing for bed. They offer to use a holy effigy and prayer to assist her sick father, they begin to pray. Time has passed and the monks are playing a game of poker with the nurse and the hotel manager, gambling with holy relics, smoking and drinking alcohol. That same night, some new guests arrive at the hotel: a young man and his aunt. The young nephew has brought his aunt to the hotel for an incestuous affair. They retire to their room, the elderly aunt confesses that she is a virgin, when the nephew pulls back the sheets to look at her naked body, she has the body of a young woman. The nephew is refused by his aunt and leaves his room to join another couple (a hatter and his female assistant) for a drink. The nurse and the four monks are also invited into the hatter's room. While the guests are socializing, the hatter's assistant dons a dominatrix outfit with a whip. The hatter, who is wearing bottomless trousers, proceeds to be masochistically flagellated by his assistant in front of the other guests who are shocked and leave. The nephew returns to his aunt, who is now willing to make love with him. The next morning, the nurse leaves for the town of Argenton, giving a lift to another resident who is breakfasting in the bar. This resident is a professor at the police academy. He is dropped off at work where he gives a lecture to a class of delinquent policemen, who behave like schoolchildren, on the subject of the relativism of laws, customs and taboos. The lecture is constantly interrupted, until only two officers are left in the class. The professor continues, using a dinner party at his friends’ house to illustrate a point he is making. We then cut to the ‘dinner’ party which is being held in a modern bourgeois apartment. The guests are seated around the table on flushing toilets. They politely discuss various issues around the topic of defecation whilst publicly using the toilets that they are sitting on. When a guest is hungry, he excuses himself and retires to the dining room, a private cubicle, to eat food. We cut back to the police lecture. The two policeman go on duty where they stop a speeding motorist (Mr. Legendre) who is rushing to see his doctor. Mr. Legendre is eventually told by his doctor that he has cancer and offered a cigarette, he slaps his doctor and returns home. Once home, he tells his wife that nothing is wrong with him. They receive a phone call informing them that their daughter has disappeared from school. We now cut to the school where the teachers insist that the little girl has vanished despite the fact that she is physically present. Her disappearance is reported to the police, the girl is present but none of the adults admit to her presence. In this absurdist scene, she is there – the adults are able to see and speak to her – yet they act as if she is missing. We follow one of the policemen, who is having his shoes shined. We then follow the man who is sitting next to him to the top of a tower block (the Tour Montparnasse). This man is a sniper who randomly kills people in the streets below. He is arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to death but leaves the courtroom to be treated as a celebrity. Mr. Legendre is called to see the Prefect of Police who returns the missing daughter. The Prefect is about to read a letter explaining how the girl was found, but is interrupted and leaves to visit a bar. In the bar, he meets a woman who looks like his dead sister (we see a flashback in which he remembers his sister playing the piano, naked). He then receives a phone call from his dead sister, asking him to meet her at the mausoleum. When he visits the cemetery at night, he finds a telephone in the crypt by his sister's coffin. Her hair is hanging out of the coffin. He is suddenly arrested for desecration by officers who refuse to believe that he is the Prefect of Police. The Prefect is taken to his office, where a different man takes his place. The two men treat each other cordially and discuss crowd control as if they are acquainted. We see the animals in the zoo, the two police chiefs arrive, and direct police control of an unseen riot. A voice is heard offscreen crying out "Long live chains!" as at the beginning of the film. The tolling church bells and gunshots from the opening scene of the film are also repeated. The film ends with a close-up shot of an ostrich's head. ===== In the aftermath of a global plague and the death of all humans, a group of genetically altered posthumans raised in IVR, or Immersive Virtual Reality, are trying to rebuild society by cloning children. They're divided into two ideological factions, the rest being politically indifferent. Vashti and Champagne's group in Munich, Germany, have formed a school in the Nymphenburg Palace for Posthuman children they've created, invulnerable to Black Ep because of genetically boosted immune systems. Due to the fact that females have a slightly stronger resistance to Black Ep and Vashti's belief in matriarchy, all the children are female. Nymphenburg is very structured, most of the children's time being rigidly scheduled. Vashti feels that humanity should be improved upon via genetic engineering, and leads most of the scientific aspects of Nymphenburg. Champagne is mostly responsible for taking care of the children, supplies, and gardening. The Nymphenburg children include fifteen-year-old Penelope, Sloane, and Tomi. Isaac's group is based in Luxor, Egypt, which he has renamed Thebes, and is structured more like a traditional family. His children consist of both females and males, and are unaltered humans. Thebes is Sufi Muslim, and a more relaxed environment than Nymphenburg. They're protected from Black Ep by a retrovirus called BEAR. The Thebes children include Hessa, sixteen-year-old Mu'tazz and fifteen-year-old Haji. Though both camps survived Black Ep, both still work to cure it. The two camps have a short-term exchange program despite their incompatibility and the death of Hessa in a previous exchange. The other three posthumans are either neutral or uninvolved in this debate. Pandora runs infrastructure repair and IVR, computer-generated virtual reality used as a school and hobby for the children in Nymphenburg. Halloween lives alone in North America, and opposes the very idea of repopulating Earth. The only person he'll speak to is Pandora. Fantasia is somewhere in North America as well, even more isolated than Halloween. Haji is included in the exchange with Nymphenburg with two of his siblings, Ngozi and Dalila. Raised without some of the technology they use, Haji is delighted by it, but feels a certain unease. Vashti monitors all of their dealings and domains in IVR, and has it strictly censored. Vashti also controls the girls through virtual dollars given as pocket money, used to buy things in IVR. Penny, the main character of the Munich base, showns signs of narcissism. She considers herself the best of her siblings, regarding them with either hatred or pity. She also believes she has the ability to "hex" people, crediting herself with the injury of her sister. When she hears that Pandora has become overworked and may need an assistant, she puts all her energy into getting the position, even bribing or blackmailing her sisters to convince Pandora to hire her. Penny wants to be "queen of the inside" by controlling IVR, thereby controlling her sisters. Many small items with no history or sender keep ending up in IVR. Penny finds the yin half of a yin-yang symbol and Haji finds a key. Tomi, his friend, recognizes it as the key to the cryonics lab where she assists Vashti. Tomi sneaks him in, realizing that he is a clone of IVR programmer Dr. James Hyoguchi. She shows Haji a recording from James telling him to "download" James' mapped brain, destroying himself in the process. Haji is terrified, and as the disc ends Vashti finds him and Tomi. After repeatedly asking him who sent him the key, she is sympathetic, advising him not to sacrifice himself. Haji is overwhelmed, feeling betrayed by his father and wondering whether he should go through with it. His religion stresses the ultimate path to God as self-annihilation through fana. He wonders if his father's intentions in raising him to believe this were to get him to accept his death. Haji calls Isaac while he's on an expedition with Pandora asking him if he was in fact designed to be a conduit for James. Isaac tells him that this is not the case, and that he should disregard the disc. In a diary entry, Penny reveals that Hessa's death was caused by her switching pills out with laxatives as a prank. When her plan to become Pandora's assistant fails, she flies into a rage, making a list of people she wants revenge upon. Just after Haji calls his father and Penny makes out her hit list, there is a massive IVR security breach. Everything is exposed, including Vashti's logs and evaluations of the girls that reveal a range of mood-suppressing drugs—including sex-drive suppressants—and subliminal codes that the Munich camp use to keep their children in line, as well as the reading of the girls' supposedly secret diaries. Penny's ego is shattered by the revelation that she is considered beneath her sisters. Vashti is furious and the girls are outraged. The attack is traced back to Halloween. However, it was really organized by someone named Deuce, who was also behind the mysterious objects. Meanwhile, Pandora is tracking monkeys in the Amazon in the hopes of discovering how they survived Black Ep. The group captures a primate, but Mu'tazz, a human boy on the expedition, suddenly becomes extremely ill, and the group rushes to Nymphenburg for medical care. During the flight, Vashti calls Pandora, demanding she confront Halloween. During Pandora and Halloween's conversation, Halloween reveals that he cloned himself shortly after escaping IVR, hoping for the clone to be a better person. However, he did not replicate Halloween's choices, and Hal realized that he was not the same. He pulled him out of IVR when he was five years old, named him Deuce, and raised him as his son. Halloween largely approves of Deuce exposing Vashti and Champagne. Deuce, Halloween, and Pandora agree to fly Deuce to Munich, Deuce and Halloween mostly seeing it as an opportunity for Deuce to meet new people, but Vashti intending to "make an example of him". Halloween travels to Munich to find his son, and makes a certain amount of peace with his former classmates. Deuce and Penelope go to a deserted Britain, and begin a 'last couple on Earth' fantasy. The pair go to an air force base and acquire weaponry. After they accidentally shoot down Pandora over the Mediterranean, they travel to Munich with a rocket launcher. Deuce does not want to actually go through with it, hoping to distract her until they're either caught or Penny sees reason. When Penny tells Deuce to fire the rocket launcher at the headquarters where everyone else is, Deuce refuses. Penny takes the rocket launcher herself and prepares to fire it. Halloween shoots her. Deuce commits suicide, with his idea of his father shattered. In the aftermath, the various leaders realize that all their problems came from division. They all move to Munich, where they begin to build, hopefully, a better world. ===== After being stabbed with an ancient Tibetan amulet and having escaped to hospital, a Bangkok firefighter named Chan is transformed into a superhero when his body becomes a massive heat source, which he learns to manipulate to give him super strength, increased agility and the ability to make great leaps. Chan's fate is entwined with an Afghan terrorist, Osama bin Ali, who wants the power of the Tibetan amulet to use in a plot to destroy the United States. With his international terrorist organization, led by henchwoman Areena, Osama kidnaps Chan's mother and sister (played by famed transgender Thai kickboxer Parinya Kiatbusaba) and takes them to the Royal Thai Navy base, where he hopes to launch a rocket at a US Navy chemical weapon ship. Osama also has suicide bombers spread out throughout Thailand, stationed in American franchises in Thailand, ready to act on his word. Aided by the young female guardian of the amulet, Chan rescues his mother and sister. However, he must face Areena, who has stabbed herself with a companion amulet, giving her the powers of extreme cold and ice. ===== Shortly after learning their unit will soon return home, American soldiers Lieutenant Colonel Dr. William Marsh (Samuel L. Jackson), Sergeant Vanessa Price (Jessica Biel), Specialists Tommy Yates (Brian Presley) Jamal Aiken (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson), and Private Jordan Owens (Chad Michael Murray) are on their final mission, in a vehicle in a convoy bringing medical supplies to a remote Iraqi village. They are ambushed by insurgents. The forward vehicles of the convoy are trapped in a narrow street and forced to fight the attackers. The rear vehicles manage to escape the initial barrage by taking a side-street, only to be met with an improvised explosive device hidden in the carcass of a dead dog. Sgt. Price, the driver, is seriously wounded, as her front seat passenger is killed instantly. A soldier in their team is shot and killed pursuing the young boys who left the bomb and other attackers. Aiken, Yates and Owens head out to fight the attackers. Aiken trips on loose bricks from a broken wall and injures his back, so Yates and Owens continue alone, finding the shooters in a graveyard. Wounded in the leg, Yates falls behind as Owens races after the shooter. However, the shooter has surreptitiously moved, and Owens is shot from behind. Yates arrives, but the shooter is already gone, and it is too late for Owens, who dies in Yates' arms. At a field hospital, a mortar attack injures multiple personnel and destroys many vehicles. The medical staff, including Marsh, is struggling to care for the wounded and dying as mortars rain down upon the compound. A young soldier carries his squad-mate into the trauma care ward. While Marsh addresses another soldier's wounds, the man draws a Beretta pistol and threatens to shoot him if he doesn't take care of his dying companion right away. Another squad-mate comes up and pulls the threatening soldier away. Price and Aiken are transported via medevac helicopter to a field hospital; Price's right hand is amputated. Aiken survives his wounds, and returns to the unit when they rotate back to the US. Price is remanded to a formal hospital for physical therapy and fitting for a non-functioning rubber prosthesis. Upon returning home, the main characters have a hard time returning to civilian life. Price struggles with day-to-day things, like learning to unbutton her clothing with only one hand, while trying to resume her job as a crippled P.E. teacher and basketball coach. Yates is unemployed, having lost his job at a gun shop during his deployment. His father pushes him towards the police academy, but Yates, witnessing the self-destruction of Aiken, who had become frustrated and angry at being denied VA benefits for his back injury and the rejection of his girlfriend, walks out of the academy's entrance exam. Marsh begins to slip into self-destructive behavior as his son, angry about the senselessness of the war and what it's done to his family, gets into trouble at school. Drunk on Thanksgiving Day, Marsh brings home three yard workers for dinner to the dismay of his family. Afterwards, his wife catches him in his study with a loaded pistol contemplating suicide. He agrees to go to therapy for PTSD. There, he reveals that he does not feel any emotion over the soldiers that died, but as a doctor he believes he should. The conflict had slowly eaten away at him until he could not control it anymore. Aiken is shot and killed by the police at the small fast-food diner where his girlfriend worked; a result of him taking her and her co-workers hostage with a pistol to force her to talk to him. Marsh's wife reaffirms her love for him and offers to help him through counseling. Price falls in love with another coach at her school, whom she had rejected earlier while trying to transition back to her life. Yates has an emotional outburst at his father's shop and re-enlists. As the film ends, Marsh's son is happily playing in a soccer match at Price's school. Price introduces her new boyfriend to Marsh's wife and confirms dinner plans with them. Yates undergoes basic training again, and is shown patrolling the streets of an Iraqi city. ===== The plot resumes a few weeks after Inkspell left off; Farid and Meggie's mission of bringing Dustfinger, who died at the end of Inkspell, back to life. Inkdeath picks up with the now immortal, but slowly decaying, evil Adderhead, ruler of the southern part of the Inkworld, his brother-in-law the Milksop king of Ombra, and his trusty right- hand man, The Piper, ruling over the small village of Ombra. They set harsher taxes and loot what they can from the villages. The three Folcharts, Meggie, Resa, and Mortimer, along with an unborn Folchart child, reside at a peaceful abandoned farm that has long been forgotten by others. Farid, who has given up his fire after the death of Dustfinger, works for an increasingly wealthy Orpheus. Orpheus treats him like a slave while promising that he will read a dead Dustfinger back to life. Fenoglio, the author, gives up writing at the beginning of the book and grows increasingly drunken and senile. He is immensely annoyed at how Orpheus is changing Inkworld and asking his never- ending questions about the "White Women". Ombra is under constant threat by the Adderhead's men, who have killed nearly every young adult male in the city and regularly kidnap children to work them in the mines. The only figure standing in their way is the romanticized "Bluejay", a thief created by Fenoglio in a series of songs that were inspired by Mo who is now "stuck" as the "Bluejay" and is in as much trouble as ever. Meanwhile, Orpheus, who has been tediously changing the story, succeeds in calling a meeting of the robber graveyard to get the Bluejay to bring Dustfinger back to life and die in the process. Mo agrees, and summons the White women, who bring him to the world of the dead for what turns out to be three days. During this time, Meggie believes her father is dead and becomes furious with both Farid and her mother, Resa. In the world of the dead, Mo meets Death itself, who makes a bargain with Mo: Death will release Dustfinger from her grasp and Mo as well, as long as Mo finishes what he started, and writes the three words in the White Book, the book that makes the Adderhead immortal. If he does not succeed, Death will take him, Dustfinger, and Meggie, as she was partially involved in the binding of The White Book. He awakens from the world of death, bringing Dustfinger with him. They are now both nearly fearless, Dustfinger is now scarless, and they are both inseparable from each other. Mo finds himself enjoying the Bluejay role, and has no intention of leaving Inkworld despite Meggie and Resa's urgings. Meggie finds herself increasingly distanced from Farid, and drawn to another young man named Doria, a member of the Black Prince's robber camp. The plot picks up when nearly all of the children of Ombra are kidnapped by The Piper and threatened to be taken to the mines where they will surely die. Mo, now known almost exclusively as the Bluejay, cannot accept this and frees them by giving himself up in exchange. He discovers that the Adderhead's daughter, Violante, known as Her Ugliness, wishes to take his side in the matter. She gets him back safely to the robbers' camp while keeping her allegiance a secret from The Piper and her young son Jacopo, a follower of the Adderhead and admirer of the Piper. The Piper is sent to follow after the children. The Milksop goes after the group of robbers, but Fenoglio saves them by writing giant human nests up in the trees. Mo goes off in secret with Dustfinger, Violante, and her legion of child soldiers to the castle in the lake, where the white book is kept. In the meantime, Orpheus has put himself in the service of the Adderhead, in the hopes of picking the winning team but doesn't because Mo has a few tricks up his sleeve. He is also plagued by visits from a now insane Mortola, who still works for the return of her dead son, Capricorn. The Bluejay and Dustfinger face difficulty at the castle, and their plans go awry. Mo, Dustfinger, and Brianna, Dustfinger's daughter, are all eventually imprisoned. For Brianna's sake, Dustfinger momentarily betrays Mo. At this point, Resa arrives in the form of a Swift, saves Mo from going insane, and restates Dustfinger's allegiance. Resa and Dustfinger search for The White Book unsuccessfully while the Bluejay, who has been captured again by the Piper, works on creating a new white book for the Adderhead. Jacopo betrays his grandfather, the Adderhead, by giving Mo the original white book so that he is able to write the three words, thus killing the Adderhead. Inkdeath concludes as Orpheus, finding himself on the losing end, flees to the northern mountains, Fenoglio is writing again, and Farid decides to go traveling with his regained power of fire, asking if Meggie would join him. Meggie, now in love with Doria, bids Farid farewell and good luck. Violante, now known as Her Kindliness, becomes ruler of Ombra, and a new Folchart, a boy, is born into Inkworld, longing to visit the world that his parents and sister were born in, with its horseless carriages and flying machines. ===== In the year 2005, at the end of October, at Halloween, Phillipa wanted to be a witch and John wanted to be a Dracula with real blood. They lived at 77 East 77th Street in New York. After having promised their mother, Layla, not to use their djinn powers without consulting her first, John and Philippa are leading pretty normal lives. When Phillipa enters the Djinnverso tournament (also called Djinnversoctoannular, djinn game of bluffing with 7 astaralgi, or 8 sided dice, the of which being undermine luck) unbidden events are set into motion and she is framed as a cheater. The twins also learn that the famed book, Solomon's Grimoire, which is in the care of Ayesha, the Blue Djinn of Babylon and the ruler of all six tribes of djinn, has been stolen. The Grimoire gives anyone who uses its spells vast control over a djinn. The twins go in search of the missing book, leading them into more danger and adventures. It turns out that Solomon's Grimoire is not missing, but instead was being used as a trap for Philippa. Ayesha, the twins' grandmother (whom they do not know of until the end of the book), wished to kidnap Philippa so that she would be the next Blue Djinn, as Ayesha's life was rapidly expiring. Jockeying for her position was Mimi de Ghulle, a wicked djinn from the tribe of Ghul; however, she is having little success. John goes in search of Philippa, who is being held at the Blue Djinn's secret palace in Babylon. The twin's favorite uncle, Nimrod, also goes in search of an acceptable alternative to Philippa as the next Blue Djinn. The book alternates between John's search of Philippa, told in third person narration, and Philippa's experiences, told in first person in the form of a diary. Philippa discovers that the Blue Djinn's powers to be beyond good and evil come from the Garden of Eden's Tree of Logic. Slowly Philippa loses her humanity as the Tree has greater and greater effects on her. John, in his search, faces numerous obstacles in finding and reaching the palace. He is aided by two of his uncles, Alan and Neil, who were turned into dogs by his mother for attempting the murder of their brother, John and Philippa's father, Edward, for his fortune. In addition, John attains a copy of The Bellili Scrolls, a map to the palace, and of its underground locale, Iravotum. The book climaxes when John reaches the palace and manages to rescue Philippa. However, during their traversal of Iravotum, Alan and Neil attack a large bird, called the Rukkh, that was attacking the group, biting its legs. However, the dogs did not let go, and fell to the ground, killing them. It is later revealed that Layla's binding of the human Alan and Neil would last only as long as the physical bodies of the dogs they inhabit, leaving the human Alan and Neil alive. The twins join Nimrod and Groanin in a restaurant, called Kebabylon, in Iraq, near Iravotum. A reporter introduced earlier in the book is also present. The reporter, Montana Retch, is actually a djinn tracker hired by Mimi de Ghulle to eliminate Philippa, so that Mimi would be the only candidate for the post of Blue Djinn. After Layla appears, having been summoned by the transformation of Alan and Neil, she transforms Montana Retch into a cat, reversing her previous vow never to use djinn power again. It is revealed to the reader, but not John and Philippa, that Ayesha did not wish Philippa to be the next Blue Djinn; she wanted Layla. However, Layla had refused, prompting Ayesha to kidnap Philippa to use as a bargaining tool. As Ayesha knew she would, Layla offered herself to become the next Blue Djinn in place of Philippa; Nimrod is also privy to this due to his own conclusions. The novel ends with the children still not knowing, but as Layla knows Ayesha's life is rapidly ending, must tell her children the reason Ayesha did not pursue them after escaping and leave forever to assume her post as the cold-hearted Blue Djinn of Babylon. ===== Retired Commissioner of Police Ashwini Kumar (Dilip Kumar) is at the railway station to receive his teenage grandson Ravi (Anil Kapoor), who has just returned after completing his B.A. exams. On being asked by his grandfather about his future plans, Ravi promptly replies that he wants to become a police officer and serve his country, just like his grandfather. Kumar tells him that the journey of being a police officer is fraught with many arduous challenges, and Ravi should reconsider his decision. Kumar starts by explaining his own life story in a flashback. Kumar had a happy family consisting of him, Sheetal, Ravi's grandmother, and son Vijay, Ravi's father. In the course of purging the city of crime, Ashwini takes up cudgels against a dreaded gangster named J.K. Verma (Amrish Puri). He arrests a key henchman of J.K. named Yashwant in order to decimate J.K.'s supremacy. However, J.K. takes matters into his own hands and abducts Vijay. J.K. calls up Ashwini and tries to strike a deal: Yashwant's freedom in lieu of Vijay's life. Ashwini, a virtuous cop, tells J.K. on the phone that even if his only son is killed in the process, he will not betray the law. Unbeknownst to Ashwini, however, the conversation is being tape recorded. When Vijay listen to his father's voice on the tape recorder, he is shocked and pained to hear his father's words and his lackadaisical attitude towards his own flesh and blood. With no help forthcoming, Vijay takes it upon himself to escape his abductors. Whilst the entire gang is searching for Vijay, K.D. Narang (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), another goon in J.K.'s gang, finds Vijay but pities the helpless child and helps him escape to safety. The police trace J.K.'s hideout, but find that Vijay is missing. Vijay manages to escape and reaches home safely, but Vijay slowly and surely distances himself from his father. Narang and J.K. become sworn enemies after J.K. discovers that Narang was behind Vijay's escape. As the years pass by, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), who has now become a young man, begins resenting his father and his father's love for upholding the law. During a chance encounter, Vijay rescues a young lady named Roma (Smita Patil), Ravi's mother, from 4 rowdy men who try to molest her. Vijay and Roma begin to form a close relationship. During a job interview for the post of Assistant Manager of a Hotel, K.D. Narang, the owner of the hotel, happens to be passing by. He interjects the interview and promptly hires Vijay. Vijay remembers K.D. Narang as the person who had saved his life and decides to work in whatever capacity required with the man he perceives he owes his life to. The duo, J.K. and K.D., have now become sworn enemies in their illegal businesses, so J.K. decides to remove his thorns before they suck the blood out of him and his business. J.K. tries to get K.D. murdered, but Vijay rescues K.D. with his presence of mind. Vijay reminisces to K.D. how Vijay owes his life to K.D., and now Vijay becomes K.D.'s right-hand man. J.K. is infuriated at his men for failing to kill Narang. His men tell him that Vijay spoiled the plan. Enraged, J.K. creates a plan to kill Vijay first, followed by Narang, and then Ashwini. Ashwini resents the growing proximity between Vijay and K.D. Narang, so he asks Vijay to leave his house. Vijay moves in with Roma, and they start living together, without marriage. Sheetal tries to persuade her son to leave the path of wrong, but in vain. Later, Roma reveals to Vijay that she is pregnant with his child, who is Ravi, so Vijay marries her. One night, while Vijay and Roma are at a restaurant, a drunk man named Ganpat Rai attempts to propose to Roma, but Vijay beats him up, causing two men dressed in blue clothes to come forward and escort Rai out of the hotel. It turns out that these two men hired Rai to act foolish and drunk. A few minutes later, one of the men stab Rai to death. The next morning Vijay returns home, but Ashwini's men follow him. Ashwini's most loyal officer, Sudhakar, possesses a warrant claiming Vijay had murdered Rai. Vijay is taken into police custody but when the charges are determined false, Vijay is released from prison and he begins to work with K.D. full-time. When Narang's truck of goods is stolen by J.K., Vijay requests Narang to bring his truck back to him, but alone, to which Narang agrees. When Vijay sees J.K. passing by, he captures him. Vijay tells J.K. that he was the same boy whom J.K. had abducted from school, and that he has been waiting for his revenge for years, much to J.K.'s horror. After a heated battle with J.K.'s men, Vijay drives Narang's truck back to him. When journalists cross- question Ashwini about his conflict of interest - his own son being a renowned gangster in K.D.'s gang, but he is the Deputy Commissioner of Police - the Commissioner of Police (Ashok Kumar) asks Ashwini to forego the case. Ashwini, however, requests for 48 hours to capture and bring Vijay and the other nefarious gangsters to justice, failing which Ashwini will resign. K.D., Vijay and most of J.K.'s gangsters are arrested, but J.K. remains absconding. J.K. takes it upon himself to eliminate his troubles once and for all by murdering Ashwini. Instead, Sheetal is murdered by J.K. himself whilst trying to shield her husband. An enraged Vijay, who is imprisoned at the time of Sheetal's murder, escapes the police and proceeds to start hunting for J.K.'s head. Vijay finds a den where four of J.K.'s men are present. Vijay tells them he has nothing against them, and only wants J.K., but the gangsters attempt to murder him. However, Vijay succeeds in killing all of the men. During the interrogation of one of J.K.'s henchmen, Vijay learns that J.K. has plans to leave India using fake credentials. Vijay then kills the man, who drowns. Following up on the tip, Vijay arrives at the airport, and ultimately succeeds in killing J.K., who is in a disguise, thereby avenging his mother's death. Ashwini succeeds in tracking down Vijay and asks Vijay not to escape, but in vain. A teary-eyed Ashwini pulls the trigger, mortally wounding his son in the process. Ashwini rushes towards him and in a tearful goodbye, Vijay realizes his mistake and asks for forgiveness, saying to his father that he always loved him very much. Vijay then dies. This makes Ashwini realize what a foolish idea it was to kill Vijay, and why he had not thought twice about doing so before pulling the trigger. Following this, he immediately quits the police force. The scene cuts to the present and a tearful Ashwini reiterates to Ravi, asking him whether he wants to follow his decision of being a police officer. Ravi, despite hearing the heartbreaking story, firmly replies in the affirmative. Kumar and Roma, Ravi's mother, give Ravi their blessings. Ravi takes a train and leaves, signifying that he would become an officer in the future. ===== Picking up where Homecoming left off, Dicey Tillerman and her three siblings, Sammy, Maybeth, and James, are now living with their crazy and widowed grandmother Abigail Tillerman, or Gram as the children call her, on her farm just outside Crisfield, Maryland. Because the Tillermans' mom just left them in the parking lot in Provincetown, the children have the chance to start living a completely new life in their new family home, even though several of the major issues of Homecoming are not resolved. Dicey has trouble letting go of her siblings enough to let Gram take over as the parent character. She also worried about her mother Liza, who is catatonic and seriously ill in a psychiatric hospital in Boston. While in their new school, the Tillermans make several new friends: Mr. Lingerle, the elementary school's music teacher, who begins giving Maybeth piano lessons; Mina, a friendly African-American girl who goes to school with Dicey; and Jeff, a high school student who likes to play the guitar. To help Gram support the family, Dicey starts to work for Millie Tydings, the owner of the local grocery store, whom Gram has known since childhood. Gram soon comes to terms with having to accept Social Security payments to help with the costs of raising her four grandchildren. She also must confront and reexamine her past, particularly her relationship with her deceased husband and her three children. Gram refuses to discuss her past with the children, and their attempts to find out about it by climbing into the attic are met with anger. As the children settle into the routines of their new school and after-school jobs, Gram receives a number of letters from the psychiatric hospital in which the children's catatonic mother resides. The letters do not appear to bring hopeful news, although Gram does not discuss their contents with the children. Dicey is frustrated that Gram will not open up and talk about her past, or their mother's past as a child growing up with her two siblings in the same house that Dicey and her brothers and sister are now living. She is also frustrated that her grandmother will not tell her what is in the letters from Boston, beyond the fact that her mother is no better. In December, the psychiatric hospital in Boston calls and informs Gram that Liza is in a critical state and may not live much longer. Dicey and Gram travel to Boston, and find Liza catatonic, not responding to any treatment. Liza soon dies and, since they can't afford the cost of a funeral or of transporting Liza's body from Boston to Crisfield, Gram and Dicey decide to cremate her. Dicey is given a hand-carved wooden box by the owner of a local gift store who is touched by her situation. When Dicey and Gram arrive back in Crisfield, the family buries the wooden box containing their mother's ashes under the paper mulberry tree in their front yard, which to the Tillermans is important to the family because of its fragility and beauty. ===== This book is set in first-century Galilee. The main character, a young Jew named Daniel bar Jamin, lives at the same time as Jesus of Nazareth. Daniel's father was killed in front of him, as an example, by the Roman occupiers. His uncle did not have money to pay the tax, so he was thrown in jail; when his father tried to break Daniel's uncle out of jail, they were both crucified. Even at eight, he hates and distrusts the Romans and vows that he will avenge his father's death. His mother dies of grief after her husband's death, and Daniel's younger sister, Leah, is traumatized by these events, possessed by demons, and never leaves the house. His parents' death is because of the purchase of a shawl. The children are both taken in by their grandmother, but as she becomes ill and poor over the years, she sells Daniel to Amalek the blacksmith. Daniel escapes his cruel master, running away to the mountains where he is found close to death and rescued by Rosh, the leader of an outlaw band of rebels, who plan to someday overthrow the Romans. They adopt Daniel into their crew, and Daniel begins a new life in the mountains, trying to forget about his grandmother and sister he had left behind in the village. Several years after these events, Daniel meets people he used to know when he lived in Ketzah, Joel bar Hezron and his twin sister Malthace, who climbed the mountain for the holidays. Joel wants to join Rosh's band, so he promises Rosh that he will be a spy in Capernaum, the city to which he is moving. Rosh sends Daniel out on a mission to capture a slave. The crew names him Samson (a character in the Biblical Book of Judges with immense strength) for his brute strength. Samson doesn't speak their language, but he sees Daniel as his master/friend and follows him. One day, Simon the Zealot (Daniel's friend from the village), comes to tell Daniel his grandmother is dying. He returns to his village of Ketzah and sees his grandmother. She passes away and Daniel is left in charge of Leah. Later, Simon tells Daniel he is going to follow Jesus and leaves Daniel in charge of his shop; Daniel and Leah move to Simon's shop and home. Now that Daniel remains in the blacksmith shop rather than the mountains with Rosh's crew, Daniel begins recruiting young men who are around his own age to rebel against the Romans. They decide on a password, which is from the song of David: 'He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.' They meet in an abandoned watch tower outside of the village and slowly begin rebelling small bits at a time. One day, Rosh gives Joel a mission: he is to find out who is coming to a special banquet thrown for a special legation from Rome. Joel finds out the names by chatting to the servants and slaves of the house, and even after the banquet he continues to do so, passing on any information he can find to Rosh. But soon, Joel is captured. Rosh refuses to help free him, so Daniel and his small band devise a plan to free him themselves. From the top of a cliff, they attack the group of Romans that are escorting the prisoners, but the attack goes horribly wrong. They only succeed because Samson, out of a sacrificial love for Daniel, shows up and rolls a boulder down on the attacking Romans and then joins the fight. The boys end up freeing Joel, but one of them dies and many of them are injured. After the fight, Samson is dragged away by the Romans and is never to be seen again. Daniel realizes that in rebelling, they had been doing the wrong thing. Instead of weakening Rome, they had weakened themselves. Together, Joel and Daniel realize that Jesus is, perhaps, the leader they had been waiting for. A young Roman soldier named Marcus, who Daniel hated, (despite being a conquered German), befriends Daniel's sister. Daniel eventually finds out and goes into a fit of rage. Leah, who had seemed to be in the process of being cured, falls back into fully being possessed by her demons. The story ends with Jesus healing Leah from her demons, and Daniel realizes that "to know and follow Jesus would be enough". He shows Jesus' love to the Roman soldier. Daniel invites the Roman into his home to see Leah. ===== Miguel Chavez has dreamed of visiting the Sangre de Cristo Mountains since he was very little. This summer, he is going to work hard and pray until his father and grandfather realize that he is ready to take the trip with the rest of the older men. His prayers are granted, though ironically – when his older brother is drafted his father needs an extra body and grudgingly allows Miguel to accompany them. Miguel is miserable with the manner in which his wish has been granted, and confesses to his brother what he prayed for. His brother explains that he had been praying to leave New Mexico and see more of the world – while he is not happy about being drafted, he fatalistically accepts that it is the only way he is likely to be able to fulfill his dream. The brothers resolve to allow God to work freely for the rest of their lives, and not bother God with petty requests. ===== The story starts in Morocco, as the fast of Ramadan is ending. Agba, a mute slave boy, tends to his favorite Arabian mare, who gives birth that night. The colt has a white spot on his hind heel, considered the emblem of swiftness and good luck, but a wheat ear on his chest, symbolizing bad luck. The mare dies within a few days, but Sham matures into a promising racehorse. Later on, the Sultan summons six horseboys to his palace, including Agba, and charges them to accompany six horses that are to be given as gifts to the French King Louis XV. The horseboy is to remain with that horse until the horse's death, then return to Morocco. When the racehorses arrive in France, they are frowned upon by the French, who believe that they are not 'lusty' enough to be racehorses. Sham becomes a kitchen horse but is so disobedient that the cook sells him to a carter. Agba becomes a servant to Sham's new owner and meets Grimalkin the cat along the way. Sham is bought by a Quaker man and taken to England. When Sham refuses to let the Quaker's nephew ride him, his owner sells him to an inn. Agba is jailed when he is caught sneaking into the inn to see Sham, but the Quaker's housekeeper bails him out and both Sham and Agba are released into the service of the Earl of Godolphin. The Earl treats Sham as a workhorse, albeit kindly. Lady Roxana, a mate meant for Hobgoblin, arrives, and Sham successfully fights Hobgoblin for her. Lady Roxana enjoys Sham's company, but the Earl is embarrassed by the incident. He sentences Sham, Agba, and Grimalkin to life in Wicken Fen, and they depart. Two years later, the Earl's Chief Groom comes to see Agba and reveals that Lady Roxana gave birth to Sham's son Lath, who was left untrained. Lath one day jumped a fence and outran some of the colts that the Earl was training. The trio come back to Godolphin, and Sham is named the Godolphin Arabian. After the Earl reveals that he is near bankruptcy, they race Sham's sons at Newmarket. The sons win the races and the Queen's purse, thus repairing the Earl's fortunes and establishing Sham as one of the founding stallions of English track racing. ===== The story takes place in the countryside near Westport, Connecticut. The animal inhabitants are suffering as the house nearby has been abandoned for several years and the untended garden, the animals' source of food, has withered to nothing. "New Folks" then move into the house: Are they hunters, or friendly gardeners who will provide for the animals? ===== Adam is an eleven-year-old boy who wants to become like his father, Roger , and to do so he tries to be the best minstrel in England. At the beginning of the story, Adam and his friend Perkin are in St Alban's Abbey, where they go to an old lady's house to visit Adam's dog, Nick. They return to their home at the monastery and go to the roadside to find Roger is coming back from his long journey as a knight's minstrel. Roger tells Adam that he is going to London to follow in the knight's train. Adam is allowed to come, but he must hurry because the knight leaves the next day. While on the road, Adam meets Margery, the daughter of the knight, in a beautiful carriage. In the morning, following a night of feasting and partying, Roger tells Adam he lost his warhorse, Bayard, in a bet with another minstrel named Jankin. One night, while Roger and Adam are sleeping, Jankin steals Nick. Adam worries that Jankin will mistreat Nick. When Adam and Roger discover Nick is gone, they chase Jankin across England. When Adam sees Jankin in a crowded marketplace, he pursues him and is separated from Roger. Now Adam is separated from both Roger and Nick and he has to find both alone. Adam makes friends along the way and with their help, finds Nick with Perkin. Roger, Adam and Nick are eventually reunited in Oxford. Adam is offered a place at an Oxford college, but decides to be a minstrel, like his father and with his father. ===== The White Stag opens after the fall of the Biblical Tower of Babel. Nimrod is waiting for his two sons, Hunor and Magyar, to return. They rode away after a mysterious white stag that appeared seven months ago. Afraid they will never return and his people will be left leaderless, the old man offers a sacrifice to their god, Hadur—his war horse. Immediately his sons return with meat for the hungry people. As they tell the story of their chase of the white stag, Nimrod realizes it is now time for them to take over leading their people, and he throws himself on the altar. Now Hunor and Magyar lead the people in a search for their promised land, following the white stag they can never catch. Later they meet and marry the Moonmaidens, and live contentedly for fifteen years. Eventually the game deserts them, and the people move on. "Like a sharp wedge they had driven themselves into Europe and now they were surrounded by enemies; they had to go on or perish."Seredy, Kate, The White Stag, Puffin Books, 1979, pg. 46; This time they have to fight many groups who live in the lands they travel through, and the people begin to quarrel. Hunor is strong and hard, while Magyar is quieter and more learned. Though both brothers still lead, the people are becoming divided and now identify themselves as Huns or Magyars, depending on which brother they most respect. Magyar wants to find a less populated land, but Hunor leads them into more fighting. Finally the two groups split. The Magyars stay behind and Hunor's son, Bendeguz, and grandson, Atilla, lead the Huns west. When they find themselves at a dead-end during a blinding snow storm, the White Stag appears to show them a path through the mountains to their promised land, modern-day Hungary. ===== Roller Skates opens with the narrator remembering back to a special year in the 1890s, when young Lucinda Wyman arrives at the Misses Peters' home in New York City; the two ladies will care for her during the year of Lucinda's parents' trip to Italy. The narrator's diaries help her remember the details of 10-year-old Lucinda's "orphanage," as she calls it. Miss Peters, a teacher, is "a person of great understanding, no nonsense, and no interference."Sawyer, Ruth, Roller Skates, Puffin 1964, pg. 14 Miss Nettie is shy and soft-hearted. Living with them Lucinda experiences unprecedented freedom, exploring the city on roller skates and making friends with all types of people. Lucinda quickly gets to know Mr. Gilligan the hansom cab driver and Patrolman M'Gonegal. The first friend of her own age is Tony Coppino, son of an Italian fruit stand owner. Lucinda enlists Officer M'Gonegal to stop the bullies who knock down Tony's father's fruit-stand and steal the fruit. In return Tony takes her for a city picnic where they meet a rag-and-bone man. Later Lucinda reads Shakespeare with her favorite uncle and is inspired to put on a puppet production of The Tempest. But the cold and snow of winter keep her cooped up indoors, and eventually a restless Lucinda acts out—and gets sent home from school in disgrace. Later her uncle introduces her to Shakespeare's tragedies, and she experiences her own when two of her friends die. With Lucinda's parents coming back from Italy she realizes everything is changing. So she skates to the park one last time. "How would you like to stay always ten?" she muses. "That's what I'd call a perfectly elegant idea!"Sawyer, Ruth, Roller Skates, Puffin 1964, pg. 186 ===== Invincible Louisa, subtitled "The Story of the Author of Little Women", opens with Louisa Alcott's birth on a snowy November day in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Her father, Bronson Alcott, ran a school for young children in their home. "It was a time of great happiness, peace, and security... Happiness was to continue... but peace and security were not to come again for a very long time".Meigs, Cornelia, Invincible Louisa, Scholastic, 1933, pp. 3-4; So Meigs introduces her reader to Alcott's life. Her father, Bronson, is portrayed as brilliant but impractical, unable to support his family as a man of the times was expected to. The book follows the Alcott family to Boston and Concord, as Bronson Alcott seeks places that understand his unusual views on education and transcendentalism. Louisa proves to be an active child, getting into trouble and causing her mother, Abba, some anxiety. When she is ten the family moves again to Fruitlands, the transcendentalist community Alcott helps found. By now there are four girls in the family. Meigs portrays Bronson Alcott and the oldest daughter, Anna, as being fully committed to the ideals of this new life, but says that Louisa and her mother understand how much hard work would be necessary for a communal farm to succeed. The contrast between idealistic and practical is shown when Bronson and the only other adult leave the area for a conference just as the barley is being harvested. An approaching storm has Abba and the children bringing in the grain alone. In less than a year Fruitlands failed, and the family moved several more times. Invincible Louisa the Alcotts' friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, and recounts some of the events Louisa later used in Little Women, including meetings of the Pickwick Club and the death of one of Louisa's younger sisters, Elizabeth. Louisa later leaves the family to earn her own way writing and teaching. During the Civil War she travels to Washington, DC to nurse soldiers. The book concludes with Louisa writing Little Women and the two books that followed, Little Men and Jo's Boys. The success of these books, according to Meigs, gives Louisa her own "happy ending... the whole of what she had wanted from life -- just to take care of them all."Meigs, Cornelia, Invincible Louisa, Scholastic, 1933, pg. 241; Invincible Louisa ends with a five page chronology of Louisa May Alcott's life. ===== As the book opens, the widowed Fu Be-be arrives on Chair-makers Way in Chungking, China, with her 13-year-old son Yuin-fah and a letter from a village friend to Tang Yu-shu, a master coppersmith, asking that Young Fu be given an apprenticeship in Tang's establishment. Because the widow is alone and Young Fu is her only son, he is allowed to complete his apprenticeship while living in a small rented room with her, rather than living in the shop, a plot device which allows us to see more of the city than might otherwise be the case. In the chapters that follow, Young Fu goes from being a young and somewhat arrogant boy of 13 to a more capable and humble youth of 18. Along the way, he has encounters with soldiers, foreigners, thieves, political activists, an old scholar, the poor of the city, the rich of the city, and government officials. He is alternately swindled, attacked by bandits, reviled and praised as his coppersmith skills grow. ===== Gay-Neck, or Chitra- Griva, is born to a young owner in India. Gay-Neck's parents teach him how to fly, but he soon loses his father in a storm and his mother to a hawk. His master and Ghond the hunter take him out into the wilderness, but he becomes so scared by the hawks that he flees and ends up in a lamasery where the Buddhist monks are able to cure him of his fear. When his young master returns home he finds Gay-Neck waiting for him. But Gay-Neck decides to go on other long journeys, much to the boy's consternation. Then, during World War I, Gay- Neck and Ghond end up journeying to Europe where Gay-Neck serves as a messenger pigeon. He is chased by German machine-eagles (planes) and is severely traumatized when one of his fellow messenger pigeons is shot down. Gay-Neck and Ghond barely survive, and Gay-Neck is unable to fly. Ghond, Gay- Neck, and his master return to the lamasery near Singalila, where Ghond and Gay-Neck need to be cleansed of the hate and fear of the war. After that, Ghond succeeds in hunting down a buffalo that killed a villager, but feels remorse for having to kill the buffalo. Gay-Neck disappears once more, but when the other two return home, they find, to their joy, that Gay-Neck had already flown there ahead of them. ===== Mega Man X, commonly known as "X", was created by Dr. Thomas Light. X was a new type of robot with the ability to think, feel, and make his own decisions. Recognizing the potential danger of this model (in particular if he were to break the first rule of robotics: a robot must never harm a human being), Light sealed X away in a diagnostic capsule for over 30 years of testing. X's capsule was uncovered by an archaeologist named Dr. Cain almost 100 years after X's creation. Excited by the possibilities X presented, Cain disregarded the warnings Light had logged in the capsule and created a legion of robots that replicated X's free will; these robots were called "Reploids" (shortened from Replica Android, but known as "Repliroids" in Japan). A number of Reploids turned against humans. These Reploids were dubbed "Mavericks" ("Irregulars" in Japan), and a force called the Maverick Hunters ("Irregular Hunters") was formed to combat them. The Maverick Hunters were led by Sigma until he, too, became a Maverick and declared war against the humans, thus starting the Maverick War. X took it upon himself to join the Maverick Hunters under their new leader Zero. Throughout the series, X, Zero, and later Axl (a prototype of the next- generation Reploid) battle against the Mavericks to stop their plots to destroy the human race. After the series reached an unresolved cliffhanger, a game entitled "Mega Man X Dive" was released by Capcom Taiwan in which a human plays Mega Man X, until due in part to some corrupted data known as Maverick Data, he/she gets transported into the Deep Log, a massive database with data on every Mega Man game. The player must progress through the scrambled code of the Maverick War, Elf Wars, and the Game Of Destiny, to destroy the Maverick Data causing the slow corruption of the Deep Log. ===== The film is about a common man who decides to abolish corruption altogether in the society at various levels. 15 Tahsildars are found missing, and the police find that 14 of them have been released after three days, but one of them has been killed. They find some files and a tape along with the body of the dead Tahsildar. These files carry details of why the kidnapping of the Tahsildars had been done and the reason for the murder of one of them, and have the words ACF written on it. It is understood by the police that these men were the Tahsildars who had indulged themselves in bribery and that they were the top 15 of the list of the corrupt Tahsildars. The ACF sends the tape, with the message that they shall continue the kidnap of the corrupt officers in all the departments and that the No. 1 corrupt shall be sentenced to death according to the law of the Anti Corruption Force. The ACF similarly kidnaps officials from PWD and police department and kills the top corrupt official. There is fear among the corrupt officials. They come forward to file their returns. For a while there are no illegal transactions done, but the corruption soon continues in the society due to the threatening of the local mob to sign illegal documents and accept bribes. Meanwhile, the ACF finds that it is Badrinarayana (Sayaji Shinde) who is the real reason behind this corruption scenario. Then the kidnapping continues. The case is investigated by group of several old-aged senior level officials who are very slow-moving in their progress. However, Suryam (Prakash Raj), an IPS-passed guy who is working as a constable (unable to pay the bribe to get the officer-level job), takes up the case in order to get promotion in the department and moves ahead of those officials in a short time. He investigates the case starting with finding of the non-corrupt official in every government office, assuming that official would have collected the information of other corrupt officers and passed it to ACF. He tries to figure out what is the common thing which unites them under one roof. He gradually finds out that they are alumni of National College and working for the ACF under their professor and the leader of the ACF, Professor Tagore (Chiranjeevi). Tagore is a simple man who leads a simple life during the daytime along with his adopted kids from different cultures (one is a Muslim, one is an American, one is Hindu, etc.). He looks like a timid character, but brave in terms of his actions and he loved by all his peers. Tagore once takes one of his kids to the hospital for treating an injury and finds that the hospital is a place full of corruption who play with the lives of people for the sake of money. Tagore decides to expose the truth and catches them red-handed by faking a dead body as a patient. The hospital, unaware of his plans, continue their treatment even though they know that the person is dead and demand lakhs of money for treatment. Tagore produces the documents and receipts related to their fake treatment and gets the hospital sealed by the government. The hospital dean is arrested, but he commits suicide. Badrinarayana, the dean's father, is enraged by this and attempts to take revenge on Tagore. He finds Tagore in the CCTV camera and is shocked as according to him he was dead several years ago. Tagore is a happy professor who lives with his wife Nandini (Jyothika), who is expecting a second child and son. On a Deepavali day, when the whole apartment is celebrating the festival, the entire building collapses due to some fault in the construction of a nearby highway, and many of the residents (including Nandini and Tagore's son) lose their lives. Tagore rushes to the government officials, and he comes to know that all this was due to one person, namely Badrinarayana, the owner of a construction company and builder of that highway. Tagore finds that the highway was constructed on loose soil by which the contractions caused to collapse was very well known to him. Badrinarayana and his men thrash Tagore heavily and beat him to death. However, Tagore escapes from them. The incidents that he faced at the office and seeing corrupt puppets in the hands of Badrinarayana, he gets frustrated and he forms the ACF (Anti Corruption Force) to fight against corruption. He also kidnaps Badrinarayana and kills him like he killed other corrupted officials. The constable finally finds out the people working for ACF are the ex-students, and the police force captures all of them. Police men torture them to open the identity of their leader; however, they refuse to do so. Tagore, on seeing his students suffer, surrenders to the police and requests the Indian Police to release his students. The rising support for Tagore makes the Chief Minister (K. Vishwanath) to meet him for higher appeal. Tagore refuses to appeal as he wants to stress the concept in the minds of everyone that if we make mistakes, we will be punished, and he himself doesn't want to violate it as he did a crime of killing four people. Tagore gives a speech in the court explaining what a student power the country has, but corruption is what is letting it down. In the end, Tagore is given a normal punishment of five years and is to be released by then. ===== The Iron Saint was originally a four-issue mini-series titled Iron and the Maiden. It was followed up by a one-shot: Iron and the Maiden: Brutes, Bims and the City. The series portrays an alternate-universe 1930s metropolis. "The City" is struggling to survive a three-way battle for power between The Government, the ominous religious sect known as The Order and the seedy criminal underbelly led by The Syndicate. Caught in the middle of this war for power, Michael Iron discovers firsthand the meaning of sacrifice, his only hope for survival coming in the form of a forgiving Angel and several more surprises along the way. Rubin has described it as "a cross between a '30s gangster film, Escape from New York and Beauty and the Beast."Jason Rubin on Iron and the Maiden , Newsarama, September 21, 2006 ===== The story starts with a rowdy Daasanna, the follower of another rowdy Naayudamma warning the people of Mahankali market. At the same time, Balu (Pawan Kalyan) sets up a new flower stall in the market. He impresses Daasanna by making him believe that he worships Daasanna's mother, thereby getting relieved of the taxes set up by Daasanna. The people of the market get new hopes looking at Balu's style of impressing the rowdies. Balu newly comes to the city with his mother Rajeshwari Devi (Jayasudha), sister-in-law, nephew and friend (Sunil). As the story goes on, Balu meets Priya (Shriya Saran), but both start fighting with each other. One night Balu's mother walks to an empty bungalow and faints there, remembering her past in which her husband Ranga Rao (Suman) and her son would be killed because they supported the people of Mahankali market in getting the rights on the land. The next day Priya comes to the hospital to visit Balu's mother and falls in love with Balu. Priya dares to propose to Balu, but he rejects her love. On the other side, Balu, through Daasanna, tries to steal the documents of Mahankali market which are with Nayudamma at that time and are actually to be sold to Khan (Gulshan Grover). Balu makes Nayudamma believe him by saving him from a planned bomb blast. When Khan arrives, he realizes Balu is none other than Ghani, who worked under him few years back. The flashback unveils the story of Ghani, who changes because of Indu (Neha Oberoi), who in turn changes, getting courage from Ghani. Ghani finally moves against Khan, who tries to kill children in an orphanage. Khan decides to kill Ghani and Indu. Ghani and Indu finally reach Agra, Indu's hometown, where it is revealed that Rajeshwari Devi is actually Indu's mother. Indu changes Ghani's name to Balu. The next day Balu accepts Indu's love, but at the same time Khan's rowdies kill Indu. Balu promises Indu that he would take care of her family and fight people's rights on Mahankali market. The scene returns to Balu lying in bed as he meets with an accident while driving because of his illness. He gets up and faces Khan, and Khan is finally killed in the fight. Finally, after 20 years, the people of Mahankali market get the rights on the land. ===== In the year 2274, the remnants of human civilization live in a sealed city contained beneath a cluster of geodesic domes, a utopia run by a computer that takes care of all aspects of life, including reproduction. The citizens live a hedonistic lifestyle but, to prevent overpopulation, everyone must undergo the rite of "Carrousel" when they reach the age of 30. There, they are killed under the guise of being "renewed”. To track this, each person is implanted at birth with a "life-clock" crystal in the palm of the hand that changes color as they get older and begins blinking as they approach their "Last Day.” Most residents accept this chance for rebirth, but those who do not and attempt to flee the city are known as "Runners”. An elite team of policemen known as "Sandmen”, outfitted in predominantly black uniforms and serving in an agency of the city called "Deep Sleep”, are assigned to pursue and terminate Runners as they try to escape. Logan 5 and Francis 7 are both Sandmen. After terminating a Runner, to whose presence they were alerted during a Carrousel rite, Logan finds an ankh among his possessions. Later that evening, he meets Jessica 6, a young woman also wearing an ankh pendant. Logan takes the ankh to the computer, which tells him that it is a symbol for a secret group whose members help the Runners find "Sanctuary”, a mythic place where they will be safe to live out the rest of their lives. Logan learns that the Sandmen have lost 1,056 Runners this way. The computer instructs Logan to find Sanctuary and destroy it, a mission which it code names "Procedure 033-03”, which he must keep secret from the other Sandmen of Deep Sleep. Then, by a procedure it calls "retrogram", the computer changes the color of his life clock to flashing red, suddenly making him four years closer to Carrousel. Scared, he asks if the four years will be restored to him when his mission is completed but receives no response. In order to escape this, Logan is now forced to become a Runner. Logan meets Jessica and explains his situation. They meet with the underground group that leads them to the periphery of the city. Logan learns that the ankh symbol is actually a key that unlocks an exit from the city. They come out into a frozen cave, with Francis following closely behind. In the cave, they meet Box, a robot designed to capture food for the city from the outside. Logan discovers, to his horror, that Box also captures escaped Runners and freezes them for food. Before Box can freeze Logan and Jessica, they escape, causing the cave to collapse on the robot. Once outside, Logan and Jessica notice that their life clocks are no longer operational. They see the Sun for the first time and discover that the remains of human civilization have become a wilderness. They explore an old, seemingly abandoned city which was once Washington, D.C. In the ruins of the United States Senate chamber, they discover an elderly man living with many cats. His appearance is a shock to them, since neither has ever seen anyone over the age of thirty. The old man recounts what he remembers about what happened to humanity outside the city, and Logan realizes that Sanctuary has always been a myth. However, Francis has followed them and he and Logan fight. Logan fatally wounds Francis; as he dies, Francis sees that Logan's life clock is now clear and assumes Logan has renewed. Logan and Jessica persuade the old man to return to the city with them as proof that life exists outside the domed city. Leaving the man outside, the two enter and try to convince everyone that Carrousel is a lie and unnecessary. The two are captured by other Sandmen and taken to the computer, which interrogates Logan about Procedure 033-03 and asks if he completed his mission. Logan insists, "There is no Sanctuary". What he had found was "old ruins, exposed”, "an old man”, and that the missing Runners were "all frozen”. These answers are not accepted by the computer, even after scanning Logan's mind, and the computer overloads, causing the city's systems to fail violently and release the exterior seals. Logan, Jessica, and the other citizens flee the ruined city. Once outside, the citizens see the old man, the first human they have met who is older than thirty, proving that they can, indeed, live their lives much longer. Michael York and Jenny Agutter in character in Dallas ===== Dr. Harry Wolper is an eccentric medical professor teaching at a small Southern California college who is obsessed with making a clone of his wife Lucy who died in childbirth 30 years earlier. Harry hires Boris Lafkin, a struggling pre-med student as his personal assistant to help him with his experiments by obtaining lab equipment and working in his backyard shed in exchange for which Harry gives Boris love life advice in courting an attractive coed named Barbara who slowly becomes smitten with Boris. To continue his research into cloning, Harry meets and employs a young woman, named Meli, who practically moves in with him on an agreement to contribute her ovary sample as part of the cloning progress. Meli slowly falls for the much older Harry who begins to question his ethics and vision of true love. Meanwhile, a rival of Harry's, fellow medical professor Dr. Sid Kuhlenbeck, tries to investigate and hinder Harry's cloning plans as part of a ploy to remove Harry from the university to take over Harry's lab for himself. Dr. Kuhlenbeck's plan is to have Harry reassigned to Northfield, an outlying branch of the university where no actual research is conducted, and which apparently serves as little more than a place to send older scientists. Kuhlenbeck's plan backfires after Harry successfully earns a sizable research grant. Because grants are given to individuals, and not institutions, the grant money follows Harry to Northfield, much to Kuhlenbeck's chagrin. Barbara suffers an aneurysm and is hospitalised by Sid. Her parents welcome Boris into their hearts, but are advised to turn off her life support despite his protestations. Harry gains some time for Boris to talk to Barbara in her coma, and eventually she wakes up. Harry pours his dead wife’s cells into the sea and marries Meli. Everyone chooses to follow him to Northfield. ===== Gudumba Shankar (Pawan Kalyan) is a small-time thief who makes a living by arresting people. On his way to Mumbai, he accidentally meets Gowri (Meera Jasmine). Both of them are forced to travel together. A few more incidents make them good friends. Shankar realizes that Gowri is a girl who ran away from her house. By then, they start having feelings for each other. A rowdy named Kumaraswamy (Ashish Vidyarthi) wants to marry Gowri forcibly, which is why she runs away from her home. Soon, Kumarasamy takes Gowri back to the house. Kumaraswamy is extremely superstitious and heavily depends on the astrology of Parabrahma Swamy (Brahmanandam). Shankar blackmails Parabrahma and joins the wedding house as the wedding planner along with Ali and two other buddies. Shankar later tricks Kumaraswamy so that he could marry Gowri. ===== Teenager Julia is orphaned after her parents and housekeeper die in a car accident on the east coast. She is taken in by her aunt Leslie and uncle Tom at their ranch in California, along with their teenage daughter, Rachel, and adolescent son, Bobby. Rachel is initially thrilled at the thought of having a girl her age around the house and even offers to split her bedroom with her cousin, but Julia seems painfully shy. The family takes note of her strange accent, which is uncharacteristic from the east coast. Trying to open up a bit, Julia gets a makeover and develops a more sophisticated façade. One day, Rachel's horse Sundance attacks Julia and tries to trample her. Julia recovers and begins ingratiating herself into the family. Rachel's brother and dad seem particularly taken with the fetching young lady in their midst. Odd things begin to happen: After having earlier found a human tooth among Julia's belongings, Rachel discovers a photo of herself missing, and shortly after face breaks out in blotchy hives, preventing her from attending a dance. Julia accompanies Rachel's boyfriend Mike instead, borrowing a dress that Rachel had made for herself; an arrangement that Rachel should never have agreed to because Mike becomes smitten with Julia and they begin dating. To make matters worse, the cousin also forges a close friendship with Carolyn, Rachel's best friend. The next day, Rachel enters into a competition with Sundance, where the horse flips out, breaking its leg in the process and forcing a vet to euthanize it. To her surprise, Rachel finds things in Julia dresser drawers that point to something sinister—burned hair from her fallen horse, and her missing photo covered in red paint spots. She speaks to their neighbor, Professor Jarvis, who tells her it may indeed be the work of someone who practices black magic. Before she can show him the evidence however, the professor collapses and is rushed to the hospital. A letter that Julia receives from a friend gets the best of Rachel's curiosity. Rachel phones the friend in Boston and discovers that Julia supposedly sings in her school's glee club. Knowing that the person living in her house doesn't have any interest in music, Rachel further suspects something is not right. Immersing herself in books on the occult, Rachel starts to believe Julia is a witch. During a visit to the professor at the hospital, he tells her that true witches cannot appear in photographs. The next day, Rachel encourages her mother to take pictures of a reluctant Julia. Tensions reach a boiling point when Leslie plans a road trip and Rachel finds a map with burn marks on it. Rachel believes Julia is planning on causing her mother to have an accident, and subsequently witnesses Julia making overt sexual advances on her father. Too late to stop Leslie from leaving on the trip, Rachel develops the roll of film herself and clearly sees that her suspicions have been correct all along—Julia is nowhere to be found in the photos. Suddenly, Julia comes pounding into the darkroom and the two have a fierce struggle. Rachel manages to break away and she locks the door to the room. She then evades her dad, who tries to stop her. Julia breaks out of the room, her eyes a ghastly white and red. Rachel rushes to Mike and tells him to get in his car so they can find her mother. Julia takes off after them, hitting Mike's car and trying to drive them off the road. Finally, Rachel and Mike catch sight of Rachel's mom, whose car causes Julia to drive off a cliff to a fiery explosion below. It is then revealed that the real Julia perished alongside her parents in the car crash, and that it was actually Sarah Brown, their housekeeper, who survived the accident. The Bryant family tries to return to normal. Meanwhile, another family welcomes Julia into their home, posing as a nanny. ===== The plot revolves around the convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in Atlantic City. Throughout the film, the employees of Honeywell Rubber are mainly concerned with drinking and sex. President J.B. Honeywell (Grant Mitchell) is to choose a new company salesmanager. T.R. Kent (Adolphe Menjou) and George Ellerbe (Guy Kibbee) are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when jealous saleswoman Arlene Dale (Mary Astor) interferes with his attempted seduction of Honeywell's daughter Claire (Patricia Ellis) and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine (Joan Blondell). The position of sales manager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator". ===== Ravi Shankar (Ravi Krishna) and Sandhya (Anita Hassanandani), who are students of a college in Dindigul, are in love, but Sandhya faces a problem at home as her uncle is attracted to her. One day, he peeps into her bathroom while she bathes, and she complains about it to her malevolent stepmother (Nalini), but she forgives and encourages him and tells her that they will one day marry. Sandhya also encourages Ravi, telling him that they will marry. When Sandhya's stepmother comes to know of their affair, she pokes her nose in their wheel. Ravi's father (Nassar), who is very caring and loving, sends them to Chennai. After they reach Chennai, he checks in on them, and in the middle of the phone call, he gets killed by Sandhya's stepmother. After that, a corrupt police officer named Mahesh (Sriman) accuses Ravi of murdering his own father and apprehends Ravi on a complaint given by Sandhya's stepmother that he had murdered his own father when he put his foot down on their affair. Ravi is then put behind bars. Sandhya is persuaded to seek the help of a judge named Needhi Manikkam (Rajan P. Dev) to get a bail for Ravi. Manikkam, being an incorrect person, blackmails her to sleep with him, causing her to spit on his face. Sandhya is taken to a palace by the police, where she gets gang-raped by Mahesh, Manikkam, and Tamil Kumaran (Bobby Bedi), the son of Minister Janardhanan (Vijayan). In the meantime, an honest police officer releases Ravi, so that he can save Sandhya. But before Ravi can reach the destination, the trio remove her clothes, bind her to the bed, and rape her by turns, which they also take a video clip of. Ravi tries to save her but is unsuccessful and gets beaten by Needhi Manikkam's henchmen. After some time, Sandhya becomes unconscious. Ravi is also unconscious after a severe beating from the goons and getting thrown into the gallows. After a series of events, Sandhya decides to commit suicide, because she says that she has undergone a lot of pain and anguish, and the pain is so terrible that she cannot forget it until she dies. Ravi is hesitant to let her go because he already lost his parents and he does not want to lose her. He says that they have lived together and he says that now that she has decided to die, they should die together because even during death they should not part. At this juncture, here arrives a criminal lawyer named Sukran (Vijay), who saves them, teaches them the value of life and advises them to face all the troubles boldly. After that, he tells them to start a new life and to be happy and successful by the time they meet again. They get jobs and money, marry, move into a small house, and have a normal life. One day, when Sandhya is in her nightdress, Mahesh, Manikkam, and Kumaran force her again, causing the couple to get harassed by the police. The incident causes Sandhya to be arrested on false charges of prostitution. All efforts by Ravi to get her out on bail are futile. An agitated Ravi shoots Mahesh, Manikkam, Kumaran, and Sandhya's stepmother dead and escapes with Sandhya from the court. Sukran steps in and promises to save the couple. He appears on Ravi's behalf and puts forward enough evidence to help him out. He also eventually kills Janardhanan, who was responsible for all the wrongdoings and also due to his previous disputes with him. After that, Sukran himself surrenders to the police, stating that although Janardhanan was a pervert, he should not have done the murder in front of the judge. ===== Michael Chertoff said that there "was never a concern that (the plot) would actually be executed", and that by the time the news was released to the public on July 7, 2006, the plot was entirely foiled. ===== Norton accepts the position of incarnation of Time and continues his life living backwards in time. ===== Mym, an Indian prince, defies his father's plans for an arranged marriage, instead joining a travelling circus. He meets Orb, who teaches him to manage a stutter through song. He is soon discovered, and his father arranges for him to marry a princess by the name of Rapture of Malachite. After fighting against this for days on end, he finally realises that Rapture is worth loving, and so concedes to the marriage. However, a plot to separate him from her results in his decision to become the Incarnation of War. Through the course of living as Mars, Rapture takes up a life of her own and decides that she does not need him any more. Satan arranges, subtly, a demoness for his new companion, hoping to get Mars in his debt that way. In the end, this backfires and he ends up with two loves in his life. His ultimate goal was to use his position to ameliorate some of the suffering being caused by war on Earth, and is surprised by Satan's encouragement. Soon he realises the subtle importances of human war and conflict: under certain circumstances, human suffering is increased, not decreased, by abstinence from armed response. Satan's plan is to have an inexperienced office-holder in the position of the Incarnation of War, such that he can manipulate the course of armed conflicts on Earth, allowing some wars through and blocking the progression of others, such that the overall balance of evil in the world is increased. He accomplished the replacement of the previous Mars by facilitating the cessation of all conflict in the world—not only war, but bar brawls and even minor squabbles between children counts as conflict—every time this happens in history, the Incarnation of War retires and passes on into the afterlife. Mym stepped into the office at a time when global violence was just being recommenced, and thus became an opportunity for Satan to manipulate a naïve Mars. Part of this process was a plot by which Satan managed to trap Mym in Hell. Mym eventually led a revolution of the lost souls and secured an escape route, employing lessons from Miyamoto Musashi's famous treatise, The Book of Five Rings, to defeat Satan in a one-on-one battle. However, during his absence, Satan has manipulated the geopolitical situation such that international tensions everywhere are at an all-time high, and the world is on the brink of apocalypse. This results in virtually every government everywhere adopting martial law, as normal democratic process is eminently non-viable. A result of this, and an important objective for Satan, is that Luna Kaftan has become sidelined, unable to fulfill the prophecy that she would rise into political office and stand as a bulwark against Satan. Mym realises Satan's underlying objective, and forces a confrontation on terms unfavourable to Satan—he travels to the Doomsday Clock, a signifier of how close the world is at any given time to Armageddon, and there employs the powers specific to his office to escalate world violence and bring War to ultimate fruition—Judgement Day. The crux is this: that Satan is not yet ready for the Final Judgment to happen, as the current balance of souls on Earth is favourable to God—i.e. God would get a greater proportion of the souls, signifying (in this fictional universe) the ultimate victory of Good. At the very last minute, Satan is forced to concede and withdraw. Mym lowers his Sword and returns the world to a state of relative peace. Mym learns that his responsibility as War is not to promote war and violence, but to make sure that conflicts are handled fairly. ===== It is discovered that young Orb, the Aunt of Luna, has the gift of conjuring natural music that emanates from things in nature. She sets off on a quest for a magical song known as the Llano, a song supposed to be the most beautiful imaginable. During the beginning of her search, she meets and helps a young Gypsy girl who was blind, teaching her song and dance as such most men never see. She also joins up with a circus for a short time, meeting there the man that would later become War, and realising after his unwanted departure that she is pregnant with his child. Upon having his child, she takes the baby, the young Orlene, to her Gypsy friend with the understanding that the woman would find her daughter the best possible home. Later on, she joins up with a rock and roll band. Her magical singing allows them to lose their drug addictions, and they quest together until she is approached by her mother, Niobe (who had left her office to have her with Pacian, thus effectively making Orb the aunt of Luna as well as her cousin through their fathers), in the guise of Fate. She is told that she has been selected to fill the role of Nature (Gaea), but that a prophecy foretells that she may one day marry Satan. Satan, attempting to fulfill the prophecy, kidnaps Orb and attempts to use magic to compel Orb to marry him. She frees herself with the help of Natasha, a man who has also been seeking the Llano and has learned much of it. Natasha continues to teach her the Llano as they defend themselves from Satan's attacks. Orb learns that the Llano has the power to control Nature and that she must learn it to assume her position. She also finds herself falling in love with Natasha and decides to marry him. All is not as it seems, however, as Natasha reveals that he is Satan in disguise ("Natasha" is "Ah, Satan" backwards) and has been attempting to court her according to the terms of an agreement he made with Fate: He will be allowed to court Orb without interference from the other Incarnations, but everything he says to Orb must be a lie, or part of a greater construct of lies, until he proposes marriage, when he must reveal the truth. Orb rejects Satan's proposal, and demands that he teach her the final part of the Llano, the Song of Chaos, which she needs to become Gaea. He does so, but warns her that it is a powerful weapon and its effects are unpredictable. She sings the Song of Chaos and it results in devastation on a global scale. The previous Incarnation of Nature then tells her that the only thing that she knows that might reverse its effects is the Song of Chaos itself. She tries singing the song three more times, and each time only results in more destruction. The destruction came in the form of the four elements—Fire, Air, Earth, and Water—so if she sings the song a fifth time, it would appear in the form of the fifth element, Void, and erase the Earth from existence, returning all of existence to primeval Chaos. Thus, the Song of Chaos is Gaea's ultimate weapon; it will unmake all of reality, and Heaven, Hell and the mortal universe will return to the fundamental chaos from which they sprang. Desperate, Orb turns to the other Incarnations for help. Chronos tells her that he can go back in time and stop her from singing the Song of Chaos, but he needs the consent of all the other Incarnations to do it. The only one who objects is Satan, who says that he will only give his consent if Orb agrees to marry him. Orb, faced with the impossible choice hinted at in the prophecy, declares "God help me, but I do love Satan" and agrees to the wedding. Chronos changes the past, and Orb honours her agreement. The wedding takes place in Hell, and Satan puts on a grand ceremony. As their wedding vows, the two each sing a song to the other. Orb sings a section of the Llano (the Song of Evening—also known as the Song of Love) which is meant to evoke romantic love, but Satan, surprising everyone, sings a variation of the hymn Amazing Grace—and vanishes. Singing a song forbidden to him, Satan abdicates as the Incarnation of Evil as a demonstration of his feelings for Orb. Having fallen in love with a good woman, Satan can no longer continue to hold the office of the Incarnation of Evil. ===== Parry, an orphan, is taken in and is accidentally adopted by a wizard who teaches him the benefits of white magic and how it can be used to help others. A musician and adept white magician, Parry plans on following in his father's footsteps when he is encouraged by his father, the sorcerer, to take a bride. Parry selects Jolie, seeing her potential despite her ragged appearance. Using his unique singing talents, Parry convinces Jolie that he means no harm. Taking her in, Parry and his father begin to teach Jolie the ways of wizardry and they begin to fall in love. With his father's blessing, Parry and Jolie wed and are about to start a life of bliss when they are attacked by crusaders of Christianity. Parry's father is killed in the attack and Parry escapes in bird form while his wife Jolie had gone ahead to warn her parents to go to the pre- determined hidden shelter. Unfortunately by the time Parry gets to town to check on his wife, she has been taken prisoner by the crusaders, who capture Parry himself shortly after he arrives. Working in conjunction with his wife, since he possesses a magical second sight, he frees them both but not before Jolie is slain by the dying Captain who was going to rape her. Taking off in horse form with Jolie strapped to his back, Parry arrives at the shelter and tries to heal her wounds but is lacking in medical supplies to save her. Parry watches as his wife dies in his arms. Due to special circumstances, Jolie's soul cannot immediately go to Heaven, so at Parry's request, Thanatos binds her spirit to a drop of blood on Parry's wrist. Vowing vengeance, Parry thinks the best way to escape from the villagers is to hide in plain sight, so he joins a monastery for sanctuary as well as a means to destroy the enemy. Soon after joining the Franciscan friars, Parry discovers that a new order, the Dominicans, are being formed with the express purpose of rooting out evil and heresy. Because of his keen mind and magical prowess (which he uses in secrecy), he becomes a feared inquisitor. During one of his many trips to stop Lucifer's campaign of Evil, Parry succumbs to the temptation of his ghostly wife Jolie inhabiting a physical body, thus violating his oath of celibacy. As retribution, Lucifer sends forth Lilah (alternately known as Lilith), a demoness, to corrupt him. By using the toehold of his broken oath of celibacy and his own feelings of sexual desire and guilt, Lilah corrupts Parry to Evil. His intense desire for Lilah eventually leads him to corrupt the Inquisition itself. Upon his deathbed, Lucifer attacks Lilah; with his last vestige of strength, Parry manages a magical counterattack against Lucifer, saving Lilah. Lucifer, taken off guard, is defeated. Though Parry's magic was far weaker than that of Lucifer, his spell was able to work because Jolie's good spirit (which still resided in the drop of blood on Parry's wrist) was immune to Lucifer's powers. As a severely weakened Parry lays dying with only moments to live, Lilah tells him to claim the office before it finds a different successor, as well as to name the form he would like to assume (he chooses his body at the age of 25). Parry, not understanding what she's asking of him and wanting to honour this last wish before he succumbs to death, does as Lilah requests, and is suddenly transformed into the new Incarnation of Evil and takes the name Satan. (It is later explained that if no one claims the office, it seeks out the most qualified person for that position. So if Parry hadn't claimed the office as Lilah had told him, it would have found the most evil person on earth to take Lucifer's place.) In For Love of Evil, several scenes from the previous books (as is the case with all the books in the series with respect to their Incarnations) are shown from Parry's point of view. Parry also does not believe himself to be evil, but is simply fulfilling his function as an Incarnation. It is rather ironic that Parry is not actually evil, but all of the other Incarnations (Thanatos, Gaea, Chronos, Mars, and Fate) naturally expect him to be. Parry wants to defeat God so that he can create a better way to separate the good souls from the bad, and he takes no pleasure in causing unnecessary suffering in the mortal world (the other Incarnations obviously believe that Parry's reasons for wanting to defeat God are more nefarious). In fact, Parry, as a personal favour to YHWH (the incarnation of the God of the Jews, called JHVH in this book), manages to prevent the Holocaust from happening. Upon taking office, Parry approached the other Incarnations in good faith, but was rebuffed and/or humiliated by them since they allied with God. Only Chronos offered friendship. This led to Parry being enemies with many of these Incarnations and their successors. Parry was friends with several holders of the office of Chronos, but eventually the Chronos officeholders became hostile to him as well. Parry also attempted to meet with the Incarnation of Good to figure out how to best sort out which souls belonged in Heaven and which in Hell (Parry had no desire for souls that didn't belong in Hell to be there), but was not successful. The Incarnation of Good was too busy contemplating his own greatness to pay any attention. Instead he strikes a bargain with the Archangel Gabriel: if Parry cannot corrupt one influential individual or her children or grandchildren to shift the balance of the world to evil, he must give up his quest. That individual was Niobe Kaftan—meaning Parry had to wait six centuries before he could act. Lilah served as his main consort through the centuries, but when he assigns her to seduce Mym, the Incarnation of War, she falls in love with him and deserts Parry, depressing him. Later Parry meets Orb, Niobe's daughter who is slated to become the next Gaea, and decides to court her in the hope that he could later take advantage of Gaea's powers to defeat God. The other Incarnations oppose Parry's plan, but eventually they all come to an agreement: the other Incarnations promise not to interfere with Parry's courtship of Orb if he tells her the truth about his identity prior to asking her to marry him. Posing as a mortal named Natasha, Parry manages to win Orb's heart. When she becomes Gaea, he reveals to her that he is the Incarnation of Evil and asks her to marry him. In a fit of rage, Orb nearly destroys the world with her powers, and to undo that destruction, she needs Parry's help. Thus she agrees to marry him, and even admits that she still loves him despite his true identity. At the wedding Parry surprises everyone by singing Amazing Grace, which causes him to vacate his office. With no one to take his place, the office automatically goes to the most evil person on earth, a cruel murderer and child rapist. After a battle of wits, Parry eventually reclaims his office, to the relief of the other Incarnations who prefer Parry's doctrine of necessary evil over the murder-rapist's sadism. The Incarnations come to realise at the end that Parry is not truly evil in the traditional sense; rather, he works to facilitate evil on earth because that is a necessary part of the process to determine whether souls belong in Heaven or Hell. Unable to consummate his marriage to Orb due to their offices being traditionally opposed, Parry initially becomes depressed. But then the spirit of Jolie co-inhabiting the body of Orb comes to him one night and explains that he and the two loves of his life can occasionally spend time together as long as they do so in secret. In the end, Parry is happy and resumes his duties as the Incarnation of Evil. ===== In the seventh novel of the series, three women—the ghost of Jolie, the ghost of Orlene (daughter of Orb), and a fifteen-year-old drug-addicted prostitute named Vita—try to discover a way to restore the life of Orlene's baby, Gawain II, who had died as a result of a severe birth defect inflicted unknowingly by Gaea at the request of the child's ghost father Gawain. Nox, the mysterious Incarnation of Night, promises to help, but she needs a specific item of great value from each of the other Incarnations in order to resurrect the baby. The three women set out to meet with each of the other seven Incarnations of Day. In the process of obtaining the items, they conclude that the definitions of Good and Evil used to classify souls as destined for Heaven and Hell are flawed. Orlene's soul had been denied access to Heaven because she committed suicide in a futile attempt to help her baby. Vita meets and comes under the protection of an older male judge; they fall in love and have sex, but this too is considered Evil, because Vita is below the legal age of consent. The three women eventually succeed in gaining the item from each one of the Incarnations, with the exception of God, the Incarnation of Good, who has become obsessed with his own greatness and is completely unresponsive to the outside world. Reporting their discovery to the other Incarnations, they all conclude that God has been derelict in his duty and must be replaced so that the eventual triumph of Evil can be prevented. Luna Kaftan, now an influential Senator, begins a campaign to impeach God and declare the office of the Incarnation of Good vacant. Thus, the final conflict between Good and Evil becomes a political one, fought with words and votes in the halls of a legislature, and not by armies on a battlefield. Despite Satan's efforts, Luna's campaign succeeds, and a mortal must now be chosen to become the new Incarnation of Good. However, the replacement must be selected by a unanimous vote of all the other Incarnations, including Satan himself—and why would the Incarnation of Evil approve a candidate who would effectively promote the cause of Good? Each Incarnation, in turn, nominates a mortal for the position. (Gaea's nominee happens to be the same judge that became Vita's lover.) After all the other Incarnations make their suggestions, to their complete amazement, Satan nominates Orlene, whose soul had become exactly half evil as a result of choices none of the other Incarnations were willing to condemn. The other Incarnations immediately agree that Satan has made the best possible choice, and they unanimously declare Orlene to be the new Incarnation of Good. Therefore, the girls find that Nox had set up the items from the other Incarnations to help Orlene take the place of God and in doing so, become God herself. In return, Orlene allows Nox to keep Gawain II as she will no longer be able to care for him and the child is content with the Incarnation of Night. ===== During a softball game at an American oil company housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda terrorists set off a bomb, killing Americans and Saudis. While one team hijacks a car and shoots residents, a suicide bomber wearing a fake police uniform blows himself up, killing everyone near him. Sergeant Haytham of the Saudi State Police kills the carjackers. The FBI Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, Special Agent Fran Manner, calls his US colleague, Special Agent Ronald Fleury, to advise him about the attack. Manner is discussing the situation with DSS Special Agent Rex Bura when an ambulance full of explosives is detonated, killing Manner, Bura, and many others. At FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Fleury briefs his rapid deployment team on the attack. Although the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department hinder FBI efforts to investigate the attack, Fleury blackmails the Saudi ambassador into allowing an FBI investigative team into Saudi Arabia. Fleury gathers Special Agent Janet Mayes, a forensic examiner, FBI analyst Adam Leavitt, an intelligence analyst, and Special Agent Grant Sykes, a bomb technician, to go to Saudi Arabia. On arrival they are met by Colonel Faris al-Ghazi, the commander of the Saudi State Police Force providing security at the compound. The investigation is being run by General Al Abdulmalik of the SANG, who does not give Fleury and his team permission to investigate. The FBI team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled for a dinner. While at the palace, Fleury persuades the Prince that Colonel al-Ghazi is a natural detective and should be allowed to lead the investigation. With this change in leadership, the Americans are allowed hands-on access to the crime scene. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham and Sykes discover the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance. Fleury learns the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to ambulances and police uniforms. Colonel al-Ghazi orders a special forces team to raid a house, managing to kill a few heavily armed terrorists. Following the raid, the team discovers clues, including photos of the U.S. and other Western embassies in Riyadh. Soon afterward, the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt notifies Fleury and his team that they have been ordered to return to the United States. On their way to King Khalid International Airport, their convoy is attacked and incapacitated. Leavitt is dragged out of the wrecked car and kidnapped while Fleury manages to wound one attacker. Al-Ghazi commandeers a civilian vehicle to chase the fourth SUV and the other car holding Leavitt into the dangerous Al-Suwaidi neighborhood of Riyadh. As they pull up, a gunman fires rocket- propelled grenades at them and a fierce firefight starts. Leavitt is tied up inside a complex. While Sykes and Haytham watch the entrance to the complex, al-Ghazi, Fleury, and Mayes follow a blood trail and kill many gunmen inside. Mayes, separated from the others, finds Leavitt and his attackers, preparing an execution video of Leavitt. She kills the remaining insurgents, and al- Ghazi and the team start to leave. Fleury then realizes there is a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment. After they enter, Mayes comforts a girl in the apartment and offers her candy. In return, the girl offers Mayes a marble, similar to those embedded in the bodies of some bombing victims. Al- Ghazi sees the grandfather, reaches out with his hand, and offers to help him stand. When the old man gives him his hand, al-Ghazi sees that the man is missing the same fingers as Abu Hamza al-Masri in the terrorist group's many videos and confirms his suspicion that the grandfather is the terrorist leader. Abu Hamza's teenage grandson walks out of the bedroom and shoots al- Ghazi in the neck, then he starts to point his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him. Abu Hamza then pulls out an assault rifle and Haytham kills him. As Abu Hamza dies, another grandchild hugs him and Abu Hamza whispers something into his ear to calm the child down. Al-Ghazi dies in Fleury's arms. At al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet his family. Fleury tells his son that al-Ghazi was his good friend, mirroring a similar scene earlier in the movie wherein he comforted Special Agent Manner's son. Fleury and his team return to the United States, where they are commended by FBI Director James Grace for their outstanding work. Leavitt asked Fleury and Mayes what he had whispered to her to calm her down. The scene cuts to Abu Hamza's daughter asking her own son what his grandfather whispered to him as he was dying. The grandson tells his mother, "Don't fear them, my child. We are going to kill them all," a similar line to what Fleury had whispered to Mayes. ===== On a stormy night in March 1980, a distraught Jean Harris arrives at the baronial Purchase, New York home of Herman Tarnower following a five-hour drive from McLean, Virginia. Her goal is to commit suicide beside the pond on his estate after confronting her former lover, who spurned her in favor of his considerably younger secretary-receptionist Lynne Tryforos. When Jean removes a gun from her handbag, Tarnower attempts to take it away from her, and in the struggle he accidentally is shot and collapses. Because the phone isn't working, Jean drives off to seek help from a neighbor, only to return to the house when she sees a police car heading in that direction. The film then follows divergent paths, using flashbacks and flashforwards to tell the story of the couple's initial meeting, their evolving and eventually faltering relationship, the night of the shooting, and Jean's consequent trial for murder. A divorced mother of two sons, she tends to be complacent in both her personal and professional lives, the ideal target for Herman, a vulgar man with the need to be in total control of everyone and everything. He proposes marriage and presents Jean with a ring she feels is embarrassingly large and overly gaudy for the headmistress of a private girls' school. As time passes, she presses him to set a wedding date, until he finally confesses he has changed his mind about marrying her, primarily because he has no interest in playing the role of father to her sons. Jean attempts to return the ring, but he insists she keep it, and, instead of allowing her to make a clean break from the relationship, he continues to manipulate her by taking advantage of her need for a dominant presence in her life. By prescribing numerous medications to which she becomes addicted, he forces her to become both physically and emotionally dependent upon him while he flaunts his many affairs with other women. During Jean's trial, a flashback to the night of the shooting shows it in a very different light from the earlier portrayal. An angry Jean willfully and methodically shoots Herman and coldly watches him writhe in pain, but on the witness stand she insists it was an accident. Her staunch refusal to allow attorney Joel Aurnou to portray her former lover in a bad light prevents him from presenting any details that would support a defense of extreme emotional disturbance. Consequently, she is found guilty and sentenced to 15 years to life in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County. ===== The TARDIS lands on a different planet, and Rose 'was, officially, Somewhere Else.' The Doctor isn't sure where they are, and says it was 'like something in the area drew us down...' They walk to the lip of a rise, and see people building pyramids. As they turn, four men, each with a whip and 'futuristic space gun,' are creeping up behind them. A fight ensues, and the Doctor and Rose are captured and taken away in separate ships. The Doctor tells Rose, 'Wherever they take you, I'll get you back.' The Doctor is taken to a plain grey room. He is scanned, found to be an alien, gassed, and sent away. He wakes to see a short woman who introduces herself as Senator Lazlee Flowers and tells him that he is at SCAT-house (Species-led Creative and Advanced Technologies). She explains that they are on Justice Alpha of the Justica system, which is a prison, and that they should have seen the auto-beacons and deflection barrier warning them to stay away. Aliens go to this planet to work on projects, and can get time off their sentence or royalties for good results. Rose is put on a shuttle and taken to another planet. Warders Blanc and Norris tell her that she has been assigned to Detention Centre Six on Justica Beta. They tell her that she can put in a plea to the Governor, but right now she needs to leave the ship. She is attacked by a group of inmates, but rescued by Block-walker Dennel. The Doctor talks to Flowers. She says that his ship can't be entered or moved. He tells her 'I put the handbrake on so we wouldn't go anywhere else in a hurry.' They discuss the difficulties of escape, and she tells him to find out. He puts his hand to a door, and grey globules descend from the roof and stick all over him, preventing him from moving. Flowers says they respond to anti-social behavior as well. He is temporarily assigned a room with two Slitheen, Dram Fel Fotch and his brother Ecktosca Fel Fotch Heppen-Bar Slitheen. They tell the Doctor that 'the family' has gotten out of 'the family business.' Dram and Ecktosca are searching for their ancestor's personal effects, including their compression fields. They were arrested after being tricked into breaking into a building on Justica Delta. After breakfast, Rose is assigned to work in the kitchens, where some other inmates cause trouble that she is blamed for. She is taken to see the governor, and sees a flickering blue light coming out of his office accompanied by a really bad smell. She is sure he is a Slitheen, especially since he is a large person, but she can't see a zipper and he claims the flickering light was a malfunctioning desk lamp. He sentences Rose to a minimum of 25 years in prison. The next morning, the grey globs grab the Doctor and take him to a room with a variety of aliens working on a gravity experiment. The Doctor and one of the other aliens (a Sucrosian named Nesshalop) come up with a breakthrough within a few minutes, but break the console in the process. The globs descend on both of them, causing pain as punishment for the destruction. The translation circuit is also broken, so only the Doctor can give the supervisors the solution. Rose's second day is much like her first, but the Governor is eating lunch in her block today. She starts a food fight, and in the confusion tackles him so she can look for a zipper. She doesn't find one, and is thrown into solitary confinement. Flowers goes to see Consul Issabel, the Technocrat Major of Justica Prime. Flowers tells her about the breakthrough, and that the Doctor insists that he needs his astrophysicist friend to finish solving the problem. Issabel says she will think on it. While the Doctor is back in his cell, he goes through the Slitheens' nests, finds a homemade compression field, and deduces that they must have escape plans, which Ecktosca confirms when he catches the Doctor looking at it. Rose is visited by Warder Norris, who says that he is an undercover agent, because people are vanishing, but hasn't heard from any of his superiors in months. Blanc comes in, kills him easily, and then unzips her head. Rose gets out of her cell, then realizes that's what the Slitheen wanted all along. At the last moment, two other warders come along, sent by the Governor to fetch her. The Doctor is awoken during the night, and told to come to the meeting room. Flowers is there, and tells him that he will be talking to his expert over videolink. While they wait, they talk about the planetary orbits, and how they are perfect circles, and perfectly spaced for using an amplified gravity wave to open a warp-hole. Rose is brought into the Governor's office, and sits down to talk to the Doctor. He tells her that there is a test she needs to pass 'with no help.' Flowers asks her the question, and the Doctor tells Rose that if the project works, they will 'get a royalty that could bring in a lot of cash - and we're talking telephone numbers.' When told to be quiet, he tells Rose, 'Mum's the word.' She tells the Doctor that someone might think he's 'sending me a coded message' and he responds 'No. No codes.' So Rose gives them her mum's phone number, and Flowers says it's close, especially since it was a mental calculation, and then asks about the Warp overlay. The Doctor then sneaks the second number to her by talking about the Fowlers' Albert Square address from the EastEnders (Rose had made the Doctor spend a day with her catching up on missed storylines). Issabel tells the Governor to send Rose there immediately. Meanwhile, alarms are going off on Justica Alpha, because the Slitheen have escaped. Rose is on the shuttle when she sees smoke seeping out from under the bulkhead door. She bangs on the door to the cabin. Eventually the pilot comes out to investigate, and is dragged into the smoky hold when he opens the door. The alarm goes silent, and Block-walker Dennel comes out. He has seen what happened with Norris and Blanc, and thinks he is rescuing Rose. They drag the unconscious pilot to the cabin door and use his hand to open the touchpad. The console starts beeping a countdown, wanting input from the pilot, and when Rose and Dennel try to move him, they realize he's got a zipper in his head. In order to keep the shuttle moving, they remove the hand skin from the Raxacoricofallapatorian, and use it like a glove to abort the countdown. It wakes up, and they run to the cabin and close the door. Unfortunately, Dennel is knocked against the controls as the pilot beats on the door. They realize the ship is heading for a planet, and Dennel comments, 'The big bad wolf's ready to blow our house down.' When the monster gets in, Rose tells him not to hurt Dennel, but to prevent the ship from crashing. It says that it has orders not to harm them, and starts to work on the controls. In spite of its efforts, the ship crashes. The Doctor has the gravity workshop constructing the core of an amplifier when Flowers comes in. He asks her about the return of his sonic screwdriver, and then tells her that the orbits of the planets in this system have been changed. When Flowers goes to talk to Issabel, she accidentally sees her remove her skin to reveal a monster that is 'bigger and paler than either Ecktosca or Dram Fel Fotch.' As Flowers tries to sneak away, Ermenshrew (Issabel) hears her and gives chase. She comes across the Doctor, and they take off for the systems hub. The corridor is very narrow, and Ermenshrew has trouble coming after them. Rose and Dennel are on Justice Delta. The monster tricks Rose into calling for help, knowing that there are no longer any humans on the planet, just more monsters like himself. He also tells her that he is a Blathereen, not a Slitheen. The Doctor tells Flowers to change the gravity settings to zero. As soon as she does so, the two of them float up to the ceiling shelves where the globs live. The Doctor tells her to switch on the sonic screwdriver (which she had brought along to return to him) for light. There are corridors between the shelves that connect the various rooms of SCAT-house. As they crawl through them, they find Ecktosca and Dram disguised as globs. Rose awakes Dennel, and the two of them take off through the trees. They come to a clearing that is filled with the remains of all the humans who have gone missing from Justica Beta. They find the monitoring station that the shuttle had crashed into when it landed, and by looking at all the screens, figure out what is happening. They see Warder Robsen appear in the clearing, and run out to get him. They find the portal that he came through, but are unable to make it work. Ecktosca tells the Doctor and Rose that there are warp-hole pathways joining all the worlds in Justica. The Blathereen are using the work done at SCAT-house to improve and enlarge them. The Doctor realizes that they are what drew the TARDIS. Flowers realizes the portal must be in the aquaculture compound, which has been shut down for months. The four of them make their way there, Ecktosca activates the portal, Dram follows, and then the Doctor and Flowers. They end up in a small room on Justice Delta, and the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to offset the portal and prevent Ermenshrew from following them. As he finishes, they are discovered. Meanwhile, back on Justica Beta, the prisoners stage a revolt. Rose, Dennel, and Robsen are running from the Blathereen, when the monitoring station comes crashing past them. They all jump in. Rose sees the Doctor on one of the monitoring screens, and they turn the volume up to hear what is happening. The Doctor, Flowers, Ecktosca, and Dram are taken to the Blathereen leader, Don Arco. He tells them that what they want to do is create a super-portal that will allow them to move the entire Justica system. Then they will use its suns to burn another system into fissile material to sell. The prisoners remaining in the Justica system will be used to process the material. Then a monitoring platform crashes into the building, and another. The Doctor and Flowers take advantage of the aftermath to escape. Rose, Dennel and Robsen find that their station is moving faster now that it's out of the trees and approaching the building, so they decide to jump out. They see the Doctor and Flowers emerge from it, and when Rose jumps, the Doctor catches her, but they both fall. He grins and says 'Found you.' As they talk, Blathereen begin to emerge from the building, and all five take off running for the forest. Suddenly they hear 'cheering and clattering and crashing and shrieking' and see hundreds of detention centre kids coming after the monsters. Another Slitheen shows up (Callis, the aunt of Ecktosca and Dram), and the three of them, the Doctor, Rose, Robsen, and Flowers head back to Justice Alpha to destroy the work that was done at SCAT- house. Don Arco and Ermenshaw are there ahead of them, starting to activate the project. The Doctor has Rose and Flowers turn off the gravity again, while Ecktosca, Callis, and Robsen wreck the gravity warp equipment. Dram works on the compression field, and the Doctor heads back to the gravity workshop. They manage to sabotage the works, and when Ermenshrew hits the switch, the room explodes. The Doctor and Rose go back to the TARDIS and leave the system. Dram, Ecktosca and Callis celebrate the fall of the Blathereen and the beginning of "a new golden age of crime" for the Slitheen. ===== Taylor Brooks (Michael Biehn) and Harold Jameson (Matt Craven) are white-collar professionals by weekday, and accomplished mountain climbers on weekends. Though they share a love for scaling mountains, the two friends are opposites in their personal lives. Taylor is a thrill-seeking attorney and womanizer, while Harold is a married, level-headed scientist. On a climb, the pair encounter billionaire Phillip Claiborne (Raymond J. Barry), who is accompanied by a team of fellow climbers. Taylor recognizes Dallas (Luca Bercovici) from law school, and the team lets slip that they are testing equipment for a Himalayan expedition. That night, two members of Claiborne's team ignore Harold's warnings of an impending avalanche and perish when snow careens down the mountain. Claiborne and the other survivors are rescued, thanks to quick action by Taylor and Harold. At the interment, Taylor begs Claiborne to take him and Harold on his expedition to K2, the second highest peak in the world. Claiborne ultimately allows the duo to fill the hole in his team. The entire team heads to the Karakoram, in Pakistan, and starts the climb successfully, though Taylor butts heads with Dallas, while Harold feels guilt over leaving his wife for this adventure. As the ascent continues, the team's Balti porters go on strike (mirroring the real-world experiences of several expeditions in the 1970s), and altitude sickness incapacitates Claiborne. A four-man team (Taylor, Harold, Dallas, and Japanese climber Takane) continue toward the summit with minimal gear. They are stopped when Claiborne authorizes (talking via radio) only two men to go for the summit, while two wait in reserve at the high camp. Dallas chooses Takane as his climbing partner, despite argument from Taylor. Later, Takane returns to the high camp badly injured and in severe hypothermia, and dies soon afterward. Taylor and Harold ascend, "searching for Dallas". After a grueling journey, the pair celebrate at the "top of the world". Their joy is short-lived, however, as Harold slips on the downclimb, breaks his leg badly, and loses the climbing rope. The pain is unbearable, and he cannot be moved. Over Taylor's objections, Harold sends Taylor to save himself, and Taylor begins a solo descent. By luck, Taylor discovers Dallas' frozen body and scavenges his climbing rope, epinephrine (adrenaline), and an ice axe. Taylor injects Harold with an epinephrine autoinjector and then begins to lower his friend toward base camp, a few dozen feet at a time. They descend, until Taylor collapses on a ridge. Before dark, a Pakistani helicopter comes into view. The climbers are saved and rejoice. ===== This story opens with the novice narrator described in Panko's introduction providing a literary description of the beauty of Ukraine (then known as Little Russia) and sets the date in August 1800. The main characters of the story, Solopy Cherevik, his wife Khavronya Nikiforovna, and his daughter Paraska, are traveling to the fair to sell some items, including their old mare. A young man, called the "young man in the white jacket" at first - later we learn his name is Grytsko - finds Paraska beautiful and starts to flirt with her. When her father becomes agitated, the young man makes it known that he is the son of Cherevik's friend and wants to marry Paraska. Cherevik first accepts but later declines because of his constantly enraged spouse and the young man decides to figure out a way to get her, agreeing to give up his oxen for twenty rubles to a gypsy, if he helps him. While Khavronya is having a tryst with Afanasy Ivanovich, a priest's son, they hear a group of people coming to her house, so she quickly has the young man hide up in the rafters. The group comes in and Tsibulya, a friend of Cherevik, begins to tell the tale of the "red jacket," a jacket worn by a demon that was kicked out of hell. The jacket was put into the hands of a Jew, to be returned later, but the Jew sold the jacket and the demon got angry and tormented him by having a number of pig heads appear at his windows. The group gets frightened because the boy in the rafters grunts for a moment, but the storyteller continues. The jacket was eventually found to be cursed, and anyone who possessed it would not be able to sell anything, so it is pawned off to different peasants. Eventually, one determines he cannot sell his wares because of the jacket and chops it with an axe. It reforms, however, so he crosses himself and does it again, and the demon eventually had to come to collect the pieces of his jacket, and is down to the last fragment at the time the story is taking place. At the end of the tale, a pig's head appears at the window and the group becomes so frightened that Cherevik, with a basket on his head, runs out of the house while someone is screaming "devil" behind him. His wife jumps on him and they’re found in this state to the amusement of everyone. In the morning, after recovering from the embarrassment, Cherevik takes their mare to be sold at market. When he gets there someone asks him what he's selling and he wonders why they're asking this. Pulling on the harness, which causes him to strike himself in the face, he finds the horse is gone and a bit of a red jacket is left in place. He is accused of stealing his own horse and is bound up in a shed with his friend Tsibulya. The young man in the white jacket finds him there and agrees to release him if he can marry his daughter, to which Cherevik agrees. The story concludes with their marriage and the completion of the scheme, the "demon" being none other than the gypsy. Category:1831 short stories Category:Short stories by Nikolai Gogol Category:Short stories set in the Russian Empire ===== After warnings from Forge and Banshee, the X-Men and Professor X investigate Muir Island, whose inhabitants have been taken over by the Shadow King. They are captured by the inhabitants. Professor X returns to his mansion, now in ruins after the Inferno storyline, to use Cerebro, only to find Stevie Hunter on the run from Colossus, also controlled by the Shadow King. Professor X battles Colossus and frees him from the Shadow King's control, but he is forced to strip away the Peter Nicholas persona he had been using since passing through the Siege Perilous. Xavier decides to call in his original students, now forming the team X-Factor. On Muir Island, Wolverine separates himself from his party and is attacked and freed from control by Forge. Rogue appears, ready to attack, but she too is taken out by Forge. The three regroup, but are quickly attacked by Banshee, who is also quickly taken down and freed. Banshee explains that Shadow King has been using Polaris as a nexus between the physical world and the Astral Plane since the time Zaladane stripped Polaris of her magnetism powers. Using her new powers to absorb negative energy for superhuman strength, Shadow King plans on becoming all-powerful. They fear that to break that connection and defeat him, they may have to kill Polaris. With X-Factor gathered, Professor X plans a strike on Muir Island using resources provided by Val Cooper. X-Factor lands on the island and quickly neutralizes its defenses. Back at the base, Professor X is attacked directly by the Shadow King, using his host body Jacob Reisz, who thinks he has control of all those present, including Cooper. She reveals herself to be a disguised Mystique and kills Reisz. Shadow King quickly shifts to a new host, Legion. As X-Factor and the freed X-Men reach Polaris, Legion sets off an explosion that destroys much of the island. Professor X lands on the island himself, but finds Legion holding all of his students captive. Legion is attacked unexpectedly by Storm, freeing the X-Men. He retreats and unleashes the X-Men and Muir Island inhabitants to take down his enemies. Professor X decides they must attack the Shadow King on both the physical and astral planes to defeat him, so he sends half the team to break the nexus formed with Polaris and the other half to protect his body while he is on the Astral Plane. He begins his battle with the Shadow King, but now the villain has become too powerful to attack. Jean Grey, finding the damage inflicted to Xavier on the Astral Plane affecting his actual body, brings herself and the accompanying X-Men onto the Plane to assist. In the physical world, Forge defeats the still-controlled Psylocke and uses her psychic knife on Polaris to disrupt and sever the nexus. His power source destroyed, the Shadow King is ripped apart. In the aftermath, Professor X fails to repair the mental damage to Legion's mind, leaving Legion brain-dead, but is comforted by X-Factor's decision to rejoin the X-Men. Val Cooper, returned from Shadow King's control, recruits Polaris, Guido Carosella and Jamie Madrox into a new government-sponsored team to replace Freedom Force. ===== Johnny Tremain is apprenticed to a silversmith, Mr. Lapham. One day, wealthy Jonathan Lyte asks Mr. Lapham to make a sugar basin to match his grand set of silverware. Lapham refuses because he believes he is too old for such jobs. Tremain believes he is skilled enough to do the job, and accepts. After trying several times but failing, he asks fellow silversmith, Paul Revere, for help designing a new handle. Revere tells him to make the handle deeper and larger. Eager to try the new design, Johnny breaks the Sabbath and accidentally burns his hand. The damage is so severe that he will never have full use of the hand again, and cannot continue as a silversmith apprentice. No one will hire him with only one usable hand. The Sons of Liberty recruit him as a messenger, to secretly inform members of the times and locations of meetings. Johnny confides to Priscilla Lapham, Mr. Lapham's daughter, that he is secretly related to Mr. Lyte. He shows her a christening cup bearing the Lyte family crest as evidence. Desperate for money, he approaches Lyte and shows him the christening cup. Lyte assumes that Johnny stole the cup, and files charges against him. Josiah Quincy defends Johnny in court. Introducing Priscilla as a witness, Quincy proves Johnny's innocence. Afterward, Tremain and the Sons of Liberty become active in several notable events leading to the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. During the Boston Tea Party, Dr. Joseph Warren offers to restore Tremain's hand, allowing him to return to his profession. ===== Martian prisoner, teaching the Earthmen their language. 1898 illustration by GY Kauffman. "Like men, and yet not like men; combining the human and the beast in their appearance, it required a steady nerve to look at them.... In our eyes their moral character shone through their physical aspect and thus rendered them more terrible!" 1898 illustration by GY Kauffman The book is set following the abortive Martian attack depicted in Fighters from Mars, much more devastating and global than in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, though in both works the onslaught is thwarted when the aliens die from bacterial illness. Determining that the Martians will inevitably return, Earth's leaders, including U.S. President William McKinley, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Emperor Mutsuhito, unite the world against the common threat and plan an attack on Mars. American inventor Thomas Edison leads a group of scientists studying derelict Martian equipment; they are able to develop an anti-gravity device powered by electric repulsion as well as a disintegration ray. Using this new technology, the allies construct an armada of space ships for the attack. Edison takes some ships to the Moon on a test run; using the first known fictional depiction of space suits. There the explorers uncover evidence of an extinct civilization of giants. The armada heads on, discovering a solid gold asteroid being mined by the Martians. The humans fight two space battles against the Martians, suffering heavy casualties but ultimately winning thanks to the superiority of Edison's ray gun compared to the Martians' electric weapons. The humans take a captive, from whom they learn the Martian language. The humans reach Mars, but in spite of their superior forces they have lost half their men to the Martians' overwhelming numbers. The Martians envelop the planet in a smoke screen, and the humans retreat to the moon Deimos. During a raid on Mars for supplies, the earth men find Aina, the last of a population of human slaves whose ancestors were captured from Kashmir in a Martian raid 9,000 years before. During this raid, the Martians also constructed the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphynx in Egypt, the latter of which is a statue of their leader. Aina advises Edison that meeting the Martians in battle would be fruitless, and that they should instead attack the dams that channel water from the polar ice. Since most of Mars' cities are under sea level, the flood spreads rapidly, killing most of the Martians and destroying their civilization. Edison and company force a peace with the surviving Martians, and return home to great celebration. ===== Robert Douglas is in prison for one of two felonies he has previously committed. While in prison, he watches to a local news report that states California has instituted the habitual offenders law, commonly referred to as the "three-strikes" law, which will put offenders with three felonies in prison for a minimum of twenty-five years. On his last day in prison, Robert is ecstatic about being released, informing his girlfriend, Juanita, of such and contacting his friend, Tone to pick him up after he gets out. On the way to pick up Robert, Tone stops to pick up a woman on the street and takes her home. Tone tells his friend, J.J., to pick Robert up in his place. Shortly after leaving prison, while on the way to check in with Robert's probation officer, the pair are pulled over by police; J.J. reveals that the car they are driving is stolen and, unwilling to surrender, he begins shooting at the cops. Knowing he will be convicted for his third and final felony offense, Robert flees on foot. As he is trying to escape himself, J.J. is wounded from a shot to the buttocks and is taken into custody. Robert escapes pursuit by hiding at a backyard party and, soon after returning home, learns he has been identified and implicated in the shooting as a suspect. Detective Jenkins leads the investigation. While in the hospital, J.J. calls his friend, Blue, and berates Robert for leaving him during the shooting, telling Blue that he plans to peg Robert as the shooter when the police come to interview him. The call is recorded on voice mail at Blue's home. J.J. antagonizes the man guarding his room, who then lets a homosexual janitor that was ogling J.J. from afar into the room. Unable to defend himself, it is assumed J.J. is sexually assaulted by the janitor. At home, Robert receives a call from Tone. Parked outside Robert's house, Tone blames him for leaving J.J. by himself during the shootout, and tells him he plans to pass the word around the neighborhood for everyone to be on the lookout for him, insinuating there would be repercussions. Robert reaches out to his probation officer for help in proving his innocence, but is told that his best option is to simply turn himself in. Robert gets into a heated argument with his father and is kicked out of the house, but runs into his friend, Mike, who lends Robert enough money for him and Juanita to get a hotel room. Detective Jenkins and Officer Roberts stop by Robert's parent's house, but are turned away without a warrant to search the premises. The following morning, Robert is informed by his mother that the police are searching for him, but more importantly that a woman named Dahlia has information that is critical to proving his innocence and keeping himself out of jail: the tape recording of J.J.'s call to Blue. She tells Robert to meet him at her house. Robert meets up with Mike once more, and asks Mike to set him up with a good lawyer. At her home, Dahlia agrees to hand over the tape, but reveals she's had a crush on Robert since high school, and blackmails him into letting her have her way with him for the tape. Begrudgingly, Robert accepts her proposal. Having witnessed Robert enter Dahlia's house, Blue - Dahlia's brother - calls Tone, who brings several of his goons over to his location. As Robert sneaks out with the tape, Tone and his people are there to meet him, and begin to jump him. Just as quickly as it begins, the police show up and send a dog after Robert. Robert manages to get to his car, and a high-speed chase ensues. After being cornered in an alley by Detective Jenkins and several other pursuing units, Robert attempts to give himself up, but Jenkins begins shooting anyway; in the confusion, Robert manages to get away again, and is picked up by Mike. Chased by police cars and surveilled by helicopters, Robert's chase is broadcast across every news network; he tells Mike to head to a church where he has told the lawyer Mike set him up with, Mr. Libowitz, he will hand himself over to the authorities. The media and dozens of spectators are there as he arrives. Robert manages to be taken into custody without any harm done to him. At his trial, the judge believes the tape recording clearly proves Robert was not the shooter and was completely unaware that the vehicle he and J.J. were in at the time was stolen. The felony charges against him are dismissed, and he avoids being convicted of a crime that would have put him behind bars under the "three-strikes" law. However, the opposition points out that Robert did not check in with his probation officer after leaving prison, and Robert is sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating his parole. Before court is adjourned, Robert's father tells him that he will personally pick him up after he is released. The epilogue states that Rob was eventually released from prison early due to overcrowding. ===== At Appleyard College, a girls' private school near the town of Woodend, Victoria, the students are dressing on the morning of Valentine's Day, 1900. Miranda, Irma, Marion, Rosamund, Sara, and outsider Edith read poetry and Valentine's Day cards. The group prepares for a picnic to a local geological formation known as Hanging Rock, accompanied by the mathematics mistress Miss Greta McCraw and the young and beautiful Mlle. de Poitiers. On the command of the stern headmistress Mrs. Appleyard, jittery teacher Miss Lumley advises orphan student Sara that she is not allowed to attend. Buggy operator Ben Hussey gets the group to the Rock by mid-afternoon. After a meal, Mr Hussey notes his watch has stopped at the stroke of twelve, as has the watch of Miss McCraw. With permission from Mlle. de Poitiers, Miranda, Marion and Irma decide to explore Hanging Rock and take measurements, with Edith allowed to follow. The group is observed several minutes later by a young Englishman, Michael Fitzhubert, who is lunching at the Rock with his uncle Colonel Fitzhubert, aunt Mrs. Fitzhubert, and valet Albert. Near the top of Hanging Rock, the group lies down, apparently dazed by the sun. Miss McCraw, at the base of the Rock, stares up. Miranda, Marion, and Irma awaken and, as if in a trance, move into a recess in the rock face. Edith, witnessing this, screams and flees down the Rock in terror. The distraught and hysterical party eventually returns to the college, where Mlle. de Poitiers explains to Mrs Appleyard that Miss McCraw has been left behind. Sara notes the absence of Miranda; and Mr. Hussey explains to Mrs Appleyard that Miranda, Irma, Marion, and Miss McCraw went missing. A search party, led by Sgt. Bumpher and Constable Jones of the local police, finds nothing, although Edith reveals that she witnessed Miss McCraw climbing the Rock without her skirt. Michael Fitzhubert is questioned and reveals that he watched the schoolgirls, but can provide no clues as to their whereabouts. Michael becomes obsessed with finding Miranda, and with Albert, he conducts another search of Hanging Rock. Despite Albert's protests, Michael decides to remain overnight and begins climbing again the next day, leaving a trail of paper. When Albert follows the markers, he finds a nearly catatonic Michael. Michael passes Albert a fragment of lace from a dress, before departing to town. Albert returns to Hanging Rock and discovers an unconscious Irma. The residents of Woodend become restless as news of the discovery spreads. Mrs Appleyard advises Miss Lumley that several parents have withdrawn their children from the school. At the Fitzhubert home, where Irma is treated for dehydration, the doctor's examination shows only cuts on her hands and broken fingernails; he affirms she has not been molested. When she awakens, Irma tells the police and Mlle. de Poitiers she has no memory of what happened. A servant girl notes that Irma's corset is missing. Michael befriends the recovered Irma but alienates her when he demands to know what happened on the Rock. Before leaving for Europe, Irma visits her classmates a final time; they become hysterical and demand to know what happened to Miranda and Marion. Irma flees, briefly noticing Sara strapped to a wall, meant by Miss Lumley to correct Sara's posture. That night, Miss Lumley gives notice to a drunken Mrs Appleyard that she is resigning. Mrs Appleyard tells Sara that, as her guardian has not paid her tuition, Sara must return to the orphanage. The next day, Michael tells Albert he has decided to travel north, with Albert revealing he had a dream in which his lost sister Sara visited him. Meanwhile, Mrs Appleyard lies to Mlle. de Poitiers and claims that Sara's guardian picked her up, as all the students depart for their holiday. The next morning, Sara's body is found in the greenhouse by Mr. Whitehead, the school gardener. Believing Sara committed suicide by leaping from the school rooftop, Whitehead informs Mrs. Appleyard, who is disturbingly calm in full mourning dress with her possessions packed. During a flashback to the picnic scene, Sgt. Bumpher states in a voiceover that the body of Mrs Appleyard was found at the base of Hanging Rock from an apparent accident, and that the search for the two schoolgirls and Miss McCraw continued sporadically for several years without success, remaining an unsolved mystery. ===== U.S. Senator William Tadlock (Kirk Douglas) is leaving his home in Missouri in 1843, heading west on the Oregon Trail by wagon train. His son and slave come along, with Dick Summers (Robert Mitchum) as a hired guide. Joining them on the expedition are farmer Lije Evans (Richard Widmark), his wife Rebecca (Lola Albright), and 16-year-old son Brownie (Michael McGreevey). Among others there are also the newlyweds Johnnie (Michael Witney) and Amanda Mack (Katherine Justice), plus the Fairman and McBee families. Shy young wife Amanda isn't satisfying his needs, so Johnnie gets drunk and strays with young Mercy McBee (Sally Field). He also shoots at what he drunkenly thinks is a wolf, and ends up killing a Sioux chief's son. Tadlock knows that no other form of justice will do for the Indians if the wagon train is being pursued by them out of vengeance, so he hangs Johnnie, for the safety of the traveling party, but to their outrage. On the trail, it turns out Mercy is now pregnant as well, and Brownie proposes marriage to her. Tadlock's son is killed in a stampede, causing the senator to be so distraught that he becomes harsh and despotic towards his charges. The last straw comes when Tadlock destroys Rebecca Evans' antique clock after Lije Evans refuses to abandon it. A fight ensues when Tadlock is attacked by Evans, for which Tadlock retaliates by trying to shoot Evans, only for Summers to stop him. The others form a lynch mob and attempt to hang Tadlock, but Evans talks them out of it and now takes charge of the trek. Nearly to the end, the trek reaches a steep ravine, which offers the only shortcut to their destination. Rebecca Evans shows the others Tadlock's grand plan, and Evans relinquishes command back to Tadlock. The settlers lower their possessions, livestock, and each other down the steep escarpment to reach the wagon road to the Willamette Valley. Emotionally destroyed by the loss of Johnnie, Amanda Mack cuts the rope Tadlock is descending on, causing the senator to plunge to his death. Amanda runs off into the desert, but the others, after commemorating Tadlock's efforts, press on to Oregon. Summers stays behind, departing to parts unknown. ===== The novel opens when Kelric Valdoria crash lands on the planet Coba. An ancient culture with similarities to the Raylicans, Coba is one of the many isolated and forgotten planets of the former Ruby Empire. Kelric makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape and eventually ends up in jail. It is there he spends his time (particularly while in isolation) learning the dice game Quis. Eventually, Kelric is released and joins one of the "estates" - small matriarchical provinces or city-states that comprise the population of Coba. These estates have special dedicated communes that exclusively play Quis, called Calanya. Kelric becomes a member of one of these communes, known as the "Calani". The society of Coba has, for centuries, replaced war and aggression with competition in Quis. The Quis also double as an information network, with players revealing information about themselves and their estate while at the same time learn about others. Finally, as an information-exchange network, Quis allows technology to improve on Coba at an astounding rate. The strength of a Calani is based on two properties: a player's skill, and the number of different estates they have worked for. Because of his pleasing appearance and his skill in Quis, Kelric is coveted by the queens (known as "Managers") of the different estates. Kelric's membership in the estates proceeds as follows: Dahl, Haka, Bahvla, Miesa, Varz, and finally Karn. Renamed "Sevtar", Kelric has two children with two of his wives (one of which is born Rhon) during his time in the different estates. Each time Kelric is traded, his skill and worth increase, in the end reaching legendary status. In the final trade to Karn, Ixpar Karn trades rule of the planet (in addition to being Karn Manager, Ixpar also held the title of "Minister" of Coba) for Kelric. This eventually ignites actual violence, allowing Kelric to escape. The end of this novel is where Ascendant Sun begins. ===== A naked man (Bruno Slagmulder) wakes up in a luxury loft, which is a residential building in an unidentified European city, after a particularly wild New Year's Eve party of the year 2000. He finds a naked woman (Denise Aron-Schropfer) in his bed, and obviously he does not recognize or remember her. He walks naked through the apartment and discovers a pair of partygoers – two young boys, identical twins (Lionel Le Guevellou and Olivier Le Guevellou), in a sleeping bag, hugging each other. He looks out the window and recognizes a man (Flavien Coupeau) and woman (Lucia Sanchez) making love in the apartment across the street, while the woman who was sleeping beside him wakes up and takes a bath. While he looks at what is happening across the street, he falls off the table he was sitting on, and lands on the floor, breaking a glass. This noise wakes up the twins. He goes into the kitchen to throw the pieces of broken glass away, and discovers ants underneath the garbage can. He goes into the bathroom and tells the women in the bath about the plague of ants in the kitchen. ===== Governor Bronson, who raised Bob Wayne from childhood after the death of his parents, is killed at the hands of a world- domination-seeking mad scientist called Doctor Satan. Fearing his death might be at hand, as it has been for everyone else who had opposed the Doctor, the Governor first confides in Wayne with a secret about his past. Bob's father was really an outlaw in the Old West, who fought injustice while wearing a chainmail cowl and leaving small coiled copper snakes as his calling card. Following his guardian's death, Wayne decides to adopt his father's Copperhead persona and cowl. Doctor Satan, meanwhile, requires only a remote control device invented by Professor Scott to complete his army of killer robots and gain all the power and riches he desires. The Copperhead battles Doctor Satan, rescuing the Professor and others and preventing the Doctor from completing his plot. ===== The Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack are on another world, in the year 2775 (Rose's future), where the chips are not quite the same. There are poster-like TV screens everywhere, but the Doctor says the technology is twenty-seventh century, or earlier. The city is growing up, instead of out, while 90% of the planet is jungle. The three of them rent a room for the night, and are given three tablets 'to stop you dreaming.' As Rose flips through the channels of the obligatory TV, all she finds are news and documentaries. 'All factual programmes. There's no escapism. No imagination. Nothing that tells a story.' 'No lies.' 'No fiction.' ... 'No wonder this world is stagnated.' The Doctor sees an arrest of 'fiction geeks' in progress on the news and goes to see what he can find out. He tells Officer Waller that he is an inspector with the government, and shows her his psychic paper as proof. She tells him that the planet has no government, and he quickly changes his story to being a researcher for one of the news channels and shows her the psychic paper again. Waller gets a call that Hal Gryden is broadcasting with an approximate location, and the Doctor rides along. As they drive, she explains that on the last call, the police were chasing fantasists who were exchanging comic books. At the last moment, the broadcast signal was lost. Back in the hotel room, Rose hears footsteps in the hall. She goes out to look, and hears a noise come from the cleaner's store cupboard. She opens the door to find a skinny guy about her age, who tries to hide the papers he is holding. He tells her the cops are after him because of the fiction. She says she doesn't care, and takes him back to their room. He says his name is Domnic. In the room, Domnic starts messing with the TV tuning, while Rose looks at the papers he brought. Part of it is a cartoon with a woman who is being chased by zombies. He tells them that he is looking for Static, an unlicensed TV station run by Hal Gryden. Rose fills in Jack about fiction being against the law, and Domnic tells them that people are sent to a Home for the Cognitively Disconnected, with the main one being called the Big White House. Suddenly Domnic gets scared and thinks that Rose and Jack are actually the police and runs for the door. When Rose stops him, he jumps out the window and manages to catch the fire-escape cage and get away safely. The radio tells Waller of another disturbance, where a man is threatening a group of bankers. The Doctor starts talking to him, then Waller takes over and he is arrested and taken to the Big White House. Jack leaves Rose sleeping in the hotel room to see what he can find out about Hal Gryden. He meets a tramp, and they go to a nearby pub. Jack decides the best way to find Gryden is to go out and tell stories, so Gryden will come to him. In the first bar, no one wants to listen, and in the second, the bartender throws them out. But most of the people in the third are interested, even though he is heckled by others accusing him of spreading fiction. Suddenly, the tramp tells Jack that they have to move on. At other pubs, they are starting to be recognized on sight. At the last one, they stay just a bit too long, and are almost caught by the police. They manage to escape and find a hiding place, and the tramp tells Jack that he's Hal Gryden. Rose wakes to hear the end of an editorial broadcast by Static TV, and that a story about zombies is promised for the afternoon. The Doctor is still not back, so she leaves him a note. She and Jack decide that Domnic can be useful to them, so she is going to look for him. As she is headed out the door, she thinks maybe she heard a footstep behind her, and maybe she has seen a zombie, but decides it must be a leftover dream. From the research they'd done online the night before, finding his flat is easy, but no one answers Rose's knock. She is trudging back to the hotel room when he leaps out at her from behind a table in a cafe. He says that the police are watching his flat, and they start walking. Rose thinks she sees another zombie, and they both start running, but Domnic says he thinks he has seen a policewoman. Rose and Domnic find their way into a builder's yard. Rose thinks at first that they should go into the building, but then sees a glimpse of a zombie in a window, and then the gate closes loudly. Suddenly they are surrounded by zombies. The Doctor is at the Big White House with Officer Waller and meets the duty nurse Cal Tyko. They follow him on his rounds and see some of the patients. He won't allow them to view the operating theatres. The man who was arrested earlier is brought in, put in a padded cell, and given an injection to shut down the right hemisphere of his brain. Tyko says 'We've good reason to be afraid of the big bad wolf.' The Doctor heads back to the hotel by himself and hopes that neither Jack nor Rose have done anything unwise while he has been gone. Jack waits in hiding for a long time for Hal Gryden to return; he finally does, and they head off toward one of his secret studios. They enter an old warehouse building, and find the basement is full of boxes of toys. As they make their way upstairs, the police find them. They reach the floor where the studio should be, find nothing, and Jack realizes that the man is just a tramp, and not really Gryden. They are both arrested and taken to the Big White House. Domnic tries to tell Rose that there is nothing there, no zombies, but she doesn't believe him. Suddenly Rose sees the Doctor, and starts up the metal stairs outside the building, dragging Domnic with her. Domnic doesn't see the Doctor, and believes that Rose is 'fantasy-crazy' when she explains about him and the TARDIS. She uses her superphone to call her mum, who is upset with her for being in Cardiff with Mickey and not coming home for a visit. After the call ends, Rose realizes the zombies aren't real, and decides to head back to the hotel. At the hotel, the note that Rose left is still there, untouched. Domnic starts flipping through the TV channels, and they hear many mentions of Hal Gryden. Domnic says this has never happened before - everyone knows who he is, but he's never been officially named anywhere. Rose leaves the room, and Domnic becomes absorbed in the Static channel. The Doctor interrupts him to ask where Rose and Jack are, and Domnic doesn't know, but they find a note from Rose to him saying that she had gone with the Doctor. At the Big White House, Jack decides to act the model inmate. Nurse Tyko is in charge of Jack's admission, but all of the reception cells are full. Jack tells him that the irregular black shape resembling a spaceship is a Rorschach inkblot test, and that the next is also. He is deemed non-violent and sent to Common Room B until he can be formally admitted. When Jack is brought up to an office and interviewed, he gives factual responses. Tyko determines that Jack is not 'fantasy crazy' but that his storytelling was committed with premeditated malicious intent. This means that he cannot be helped through normal methods, and they are going to perform immediate surgery to stop him from doing it again. Rose is in a taxi, stuck in traffic, on her way to the Big White House. The Doctor is with her, but other people don't seem to acknowledge him, the psychic paper isn't working, and the power pack of the sonic screwdriver is in need of charging. They attempt to climb the wall, but are unsuccessful, so they go in the front gate, pretending that the Doctor is a new patient. Once inside the walls, they sneak into a side wing. They are seen, and orderlies take off after both of them, capturing Rose, with the Doctor telling her that he's invisible. The Doctor goes to find Rose, and asks Domnic if he wants to come. They first go to the TARDIS, through the console room, down some corridors and eventually end up in a small round room. He examines Domnic, and finds that there are microorganisms in this world that weren't previously detected. Jack is secured to a cold metal trolley and taken down to the ground floor. Just as the surgeon is about to begin operating, there is a shriek of alarm from outside the room, the orderlies leave, and Jack manages to get free and escape. He takes several key cards and goes back the way he'd come. He sees them taking Rose to a room, and follows. Jack uses a card to enter her room, but Rose thinks Jack is imaginary. She believes he is real when he gives the full title of the Jagrafess. The drugs they gave her are wearing off, so the two of them take the key cards and start letting the patients out. There is rioting all over the city. Officer Waller arrives at the Big White House and finds Captain Jack in charge inside. He flusters her, as his 'demands' aren't typical. Then the Doctor is there, and asks to talk to him, go into the building and try to help. Once the Doctor gets inside, Jack fills him in on what's happening. Rose is in a room, still unsure of herself. The Doctor tells her about the microorganisms, how they feed off electrical activity, and seem to just love the neuroelectro-chemical signals put out by the right side of adult human brains. They create a feedback loop, which passes to the left side and causes a person to become 'fantasy-crazy.' He tells her that now that she understands what is happening, she should be able to fight off the effect. The Doctor hacks into an unused government emergency server, and tells Domnic to find a camera. He is planning to cut into all the channels at once and pretend to be Hal Gryden. The people will then be using the left side of their brains to remember a real person, and things should calm down. The only problem is that the police will storm the building as soon as they see what's happening. Jack says they can give him ten minutes. The Doctor starts his broadcast, and the police head for the building. All of the patients who are able are placed on various floors to keep the police away from the Doctor for as long as possible. He is able to speak for about eight minutes before being arrested with everyone else. The Doctor's speech calms things down on the streets. He had given nurse Tyko the proof of the microorganisms, and the scientists on the planet go to work to find a way to prevent them from causing problems. They find one a fortnight later. Jack and Rose are released from the Big White House almost immediately, and 'Hal Gryden' disappears one night before they can decide what to do with him. The colonists discover that the planet’s name is in fact Arkannis Major, which doesn't really mean much of anything. Fantasy and fiction become more commonplace as people learn to tell the difference. Eventually a new science-fiction programme appears on the colony’s new media networks — the adventures of a mysterious traveller in time and space, known only as Hal Gryden. ===== John Finley Horton (James Whitmore) is a liberal white journalist who darkens his face and hands (and to some degree his body) using various means, sufficiently to pass for a black man. He travels for several weeks in the Deep South in order to report from the other side of the color line in the segregated society. He spends time in places from New Orleans to Atlanta, and encounters racism from both white and black people. ===== Following the basic plot of the novel, Watership Down follows the lives of a group of rabbits as they leave their endangered warren in search of a safe new home. They travel across the English countryside, braving perilous danger, until they find a hill called Watership Down, where they begin a new warren. However, they are endangered by another warren, Efrafa, which is led by the authoritarian General Woundwort, and they are soon forced to defend their home and lives. Although the first series began with elements taken from the original novel, later episodes within it as well as the second and third series were almost entirely new content, with many episodes focusing solely on new characters and situations. For instance, in the second episode, "Home on the Down," Hazel realizes that having their only doe, Blackberry, do all the digging for their new burrow, the traditional role of does among rabbits, is unfair and counter-productive. Thus, he and Fiver must find a way to convince the other bucks to help her. In addition, the third series featured a new opening sequence and somewhat altered style of animation, along with many of the original voice actors leaving, only leaving a handful of the original cast to remain. The programme became noticeably darker in tone, adding elements of mysticism and magic, such as Campion's encounters with the Black Rabbit of Inle, Silverweed's psychic powers, though these would be similar to Fiver's own psychic powers and Hannah's learning of hedge magic. Yet still remains child-friendly tone. Although the series was praised by younger audiences at the time of the series' air, fans of both the novel and the movie were more mixed about the series due to drastic changes from the novel (like Blackberry changed from a buck to a doe) and its more child-friendly tone as compared to the violence of the movie. ===== Hari (Jiiva) is an unemployed youth who runs a pavement book shop in Tripiclane area. His father (Nagesh), an upright retired schoolteacher, buys him a shop in a building with his PF money. He names it "Periyar Bookshop" and runs it with his friends (Karunas and Ganeshkar). Meanwhile, he constantly bumps into a TV reporter Pooja (Pooja), and a love-hate relationship happens. One day, a Malaysian- based businessman named Mahadevan (Seeman) comes and evicts Hari from the shop, claiming that it belongs to him. Hari now discovers that his father was cheated by a land mafia gang which specializes in forged documents and is hand-in-glove with revenue officials. He decides to take the gauntlet and unveil the evil forces behind the property grabbers. Soon, he discovers that Nama Shivayam (Sampath Raj), Vinayagam real estates owner, is the brains behind the entire operation. How Hari becomes a one-man army and brings Nama Shivayam to justice forms the rest of the story. ===== Thirumalai (Vijay) is a mechanic who lives with his friends in Puthupet, Chennai. On the occasion of 2002 New Year's Eve, he meets Swetha (Jyothika) and falls in love with her. He starts stalking her. But she beats him up with the help of her goons. After realizing his good nature, she reciprocates his feelings. This is opposed by her father Ashok (Avinash), who calls a thug named Arasu (Manoj K. Jayan), who has a reputation of being a big mafia crime boss in Chennai. Hence, Thirumalai fights with them and this makes Arasu realize all of his misbehavior. In the end, Arasu changes his mind about the match, and Ashok also realizes his mistakes. He accepts their love finally, and both reunite with each other. ===== Chandru (Arya) and Bigilu (Lal) are close friends. Chandru is an expert auto driver and racer, while Bigilu is a mechanic expert at customizing autos to run at the dream speed of 130 km/h. Pichchai aka Son of Gun (John Vijay) is the chief of a rival group who wants to outsmart the duo. Chandru, the race champ, tries to settle the dues for his auto through a race, which is almost a cake walk for him. He and Bigilu challenge Son of Gun to a race, and a date is fixed. Bigilu, meanwhile, introduces Chandru to his sister, who runs a biriyani shop. Chandru is attracted to her daughter Rani (Pooja) and woos her. The affair grows stronger, and the two end up having sex. However, Chandru, is not interested in long-term commitment and tells Rani so. Shocked, Rani curses at him and moves away. On the D-day, Chandru is distracted by the memories of his love affair and loses the race and his auto. Later, Bigilu comes to know about the affair. The subplot of a smuggler's search for missing pearls adds flavour to the proceedings. The unpredictable and fun-filled climax puts everything in order. ===== A twelve-year-old boy James (Trevor Morgan) lives with his father Nathan (Ray Liotta) and stepmother Mary (Catherine McCormack). He lost his mother in a car accident two years earlier. The memories of the accident still haunt him and make him freeze with panic. He has not been able to talk about his feelings about the accident and the death of his mother because his father is always away from home and he does not want to talk to his stepmother. One day playing an imaginary game behind the house of Maddy Bennet (Vanessa Redgrave), he breaks her fence. Maddy demands that he fix it. Soon the two become good friends. Maddy also lost her son Bobby in 1974 in the Vietnam War. She tells her experiences of losing her son to James. She forces James to talk about his mother and face his fears. She tells him that her son Bobby talks to her. James's parents do not like the stories Maddy tells James and forbid him from seeing her. James becomes distraught at the "loss" of his friend. Meanwhile, Maddy has a heart attack, and James's parents permit him to nurse her back to health. Soon after her recovery, though, she dies. James becomes reconciled with his father, who now talks to him more, and with his stepmother. ===== Impoverished Roman Prince Amerigo is engaged to American socialite Maggie Verver. Maggie has a very close relationship with her millionaire father Adam, a widowed tycoon living in England who plans a museum in America to house his collection of art and antiquities. Unbeknownst to his fiancée and prior to their engagement, Amerigo had a brief, passionate affair with Maggie's friend Charlotte. Both penniless, Amerigo breaks off their affair due to his engagement. Charlotte is still in love with him when she visits mutual friend Fanny Assingham in London. Maggie invites her to the wedding, and at Maggie's request, Amerigo takes Charlotte to an antiques shop to look for a wedding gift. The proprietor Jarvis shows them a bowl, carved from a single piece of rock crystal which he asserts is flawless. Amerigo notices a crack. Charlotte claims not to see the crack, only the bowl's beauty. She is unsure whether to buy the bowl so Jarvis reserves it pending her decision. Maggie and Amerigo have a son. Adam and Charlotte marry, much to Maggie's delight. Three years pass and the two couples lives are closely interwoven, although Maggie and Adam's closeness alienates their spouses. Fanny correctly suspects that Amerigo and Charlotte have rekindled their affair. Maggie also becomes suspicious and confides in Fanny, but Fanny, wanting to protect Maggie's feelings, tries to discourage such thoughts. Adam also observes close interactions between Charlotte and Amerigo but stays silent, not wanting Maggie to be hurt. Maggie looks for a birthday gift for her father in Jarvis' shop, and chooses the bowl Jarvis had set aside for Charlotte years ago. Jarvis delivers it to her home. While there, he recognizes photographs of Amerigo and Charlotte and innocently reveals they were the couple who originally considered purchasing the bowl before the wedding. Maggie realizes that the two were not meeting for the first time, as she had always assumed, and vents her feelings to Fanny. Fanny breaks the glass bowl, saying it is the only proof of Amerigo and Charlotte being together, and she can pretend nothing happened. Maggie confronts Amerigo, who confesses. Maggie says the bowl represents their marriage, it appeared beautiful and perfect but was flawed. Amerigo begs Maggie not tell her father and not to leave. Maggie agrees not to tell her father for fear of hurting him but is unsure how she feels about her husband. Adam is distant, and suggests to Charlotte that they return to America for the opening of his museum. She is strongly opposed. Tension grows when Amerigo and Maggie arrive with the Assinghams. Amerigo is distant to Charlotte who worries that Adam and Maggie know of the affair. Maggie and Adam agree to move apart from each other to protect their families. Maggie and Amerigo prepare for a permanent move to Italy, while Adam puts Charlotte in charge of packing the artifacts in preparation for their move to America. Charlotte begs Amerigo to run away with her but he rejects the idea and expresses guilt at being unfaithful and lying to his wife. Charlotte reconciles to being with Adam, and the film ends with the couple arriving to fanfare in an American city. ===== The anime starts with Wendy having a dream about Peter Pan rescuing her and having a sword fight with Captain Hook. Wendy and her two brothers, later on in the episode, go to Never Neverland and Wendy becomes the 'mother' of the Lost boys. Throughout the series, a romance blooms between Peter and Wendy, as they go on fights with pirates. The last half of the series deviates from the original story line, and also introduces a new character (Princess Luna), who becomes an important part of the last episodes. ===== David (Campbell Scott) and Dana Hurst (Hope Davis) are dentists who are married with three daughters and share a dental practice in Westchester County, New York. Dana is in the chorus of a community opera production, and when David goes backstage to give her a good luck charm, he sees her in the arms of another man. As he contemplates how to handle this, he begins having imaginary conversations with a difficult former patient (Denis Leary). When the whole family gets the flu, everything is brought to a head. ===== The movie begins with an orphan Ganesh (Srikanth) coming in search of a job at a petrol bunk in ECR. He manages to win the goodwill of the petrol bunk owner and gets a job there. Enters Priya (Bhavana), an arrogant college student. He throws a challenge to his friends to make Priya fall for him. Meanwhile, Priya's brother Vetri (Suresh), a leading criminal lawyer in the city, comes to know of Ganesh's moves and tries to thwart his plans. Ganesh had lost his family to tsunami on 26 December 2004, when they were at ECR to attend a family function. Coming to know of his past and his good ways, Priya is attracted to Ganesh. Priya's brother hatches a conspiracy to prevent them from getting married. He kidnaps his sister and the blame falls on Ganesh. How Ganesh overcomes all tragic events and succeeds in holding Priya's hands is the remaining part of the story. ===== Chief Shea keeps dreaming about an accident that put one of his firefighters, Eddie McCarthy, in the burn ward. Lt. Michael Brooks is struggling with his divorce and Andre's girlfriend leaves him because she fears losing him every time he leaves to fight a fire. The firehouse is consolidated with the EMS unit and must remove their barbecue to make room for the ambulance as well as allow EMS rescue worker Kate Wilkinson to sleep in their firehouse. Chief Frank Shea and many of the other firefighters are not pleased about the situation and are unsociable. They respond to a building fire where Lt. Brooks is shot by a sniper who has previously attacked them on several occasions. Frustrated by the lack of progress with the investigation, Luvullo gets into a fistfight with one of the police officers called to investigate. Kate accompanies Lt. Brooks to the hospital in her ambulance, where a woman visits him. Once discharged, Brooks beings drinking again at the bar where his fellow firefighter Sy holds a second job. Another patron recommends wearing body armor to him. Kate is visited by her husband Nick, who finds her in tears after being cursed at by one of the firefighters. He suggests quitting and having children but she insists that she is happy with her job. Luvullo takes Andre to a dance club to find a new girlfriend and they spot a blonde supermodel there. When she stops dancing with a man named Ronald and attempts to walk away, Ronald grabs her arm and they begin to argue as the paparazzi photograph the incident. O'Connell confronts Ronald and punches him, which is also photographed. Nick sees Andre on the street and threatens to come to the firehouse and beat up the firefighters with his friends when he is off duty. Chief Shea visits Eddie, who is visibly depressed. Eddie's wife Bridget tells Chief Shea that Eddie told her he wants to die. The firefighters are called to cut open a payphone to help a woman whose fingers are stuck in the coin return and leave behind Kate, who washes the Dalmatian. The photograph of Luvullo punching Ronald is published in the newspaper but when Chief Shea wants to talk about it Luvullo and Andre are called to deal with a stopped elevator. Lt. Brooks comes to the firehouse but Chief Shea will not let him return while he is still on medical leave. Reporter Patty Lyons wants to write a story about Brooks returning to work early and attempts to convince Chief Shea to let him return. The other truck is called to deal with a water leak, where they trace the cause to a dead man in a bathtub. Brooks visits his ex-wife and gives her the bullet because it was inside him. They are called to a fire in a residential high-rise and must clear out the tenants. One resident becomes to hot that he attempts to jump out the window so Luvullo gets suspended by a rope down to the window from a higher floor to rescue the screaming man, who is upset by the discomfort of the rescue and ungratefully slaps Luvullo. Lt. Brooks is asked to pose for a photo op with the Commissioner but during it he hears a sound like a gunshot and flees in fear, finding five-year-old Danny in a nearby alley. Danny admits he started the fire playing at home alone while his parents were drinking at a local bar. After returning, Kate impatiently enters the showers before the men are finished, prompting them to leave. Danny's parents return to the bar and leave Danny with an aunt but he runs away to the firehouse. Chief Shea tries to convince Brooks not to get personally involved. The supermodel invites Luvullo to a party during a work shift. Luvullo says he will go but Andre convinces him to stay at work. Sy tells Brooks that child welfare is coming for Danny and suggests that he should have tried to have another child after his ex-wife had a miscarriage. Brooks buys a gun from Diebold and attempts to hunt the sniper but is shot through the heart. The cops lift a fingerprint from the scene and bring Sy with them to take in the suspect. The film ends with a funeral procession through the streets of the city with Michael's coffin on top of a firetruck with a police escort. ===== Following a break-up, Minnie Moore, a museum curator, becomes disillusioned by love and meaningful relationships. But after a chance encounter, she meets Seymour Moskowitz, a parking-lot attendant. After this event, Moskowitz falls in love with Minnie, trying desperately to get her to love him back. ===== A man and woman posing as paramedics assists a man in an overturned car on a freeway. As an ambulance approaches, the woman panics, taping the man's mouth shut and pulling him from the car before speeding away. Meanwhile, single mother Senga and her 15-year- old daughter Natasha 'Nat' are on a six-hour overnight drive home, following a visit to Marek, Nat's father, for her birthday. En route, they pass by the crash, and Senga notices a strange man and woman photographing the scene; as Senga watches them, the man turns his camera and photographs her. Unnerved and exhausted, Senga nearly falls asleep while driving, and decides to stop at a truck stop diner. Outside, Nat meets a young female backpacker and offers her a ride. Senga is visibly disturbed by the backpacker and the strange ambient CD she plays in the car. They drop her at a picnic area and when they return seconds later to return the CD she left behind, she seems to have disappeared. Shortly after, Nat convinces her mother to return to the diner, so that she can get her birthday present from her father. Already stressed from the long drive, Senga is furious when she discovers that Marek has bought Nat tickets to a concert that she has refused to allow her to attend. After a heated argument, Nat gets into an RV with the backpacker and a strange couple. Senga solicits the assistance of a police officer, but when she seems unhelpful, goes after the RV herself, tailing the officer who had just left the diner. The police officer meets up with the inhabitants of the RV. Senga breaks into their RV and discovers a number of strange things, including thermoses full of blood and videos of young girls talking about their past lives. She escapes the RV before anyone returns, but once back on the road, The Backpacker reveals herself to be hiding in the backseat. She strangles Senga, causing her to crash. In the back of an oil tanker, Nat parties with the Backpacker and a young man, who tell her about their group and their enigmatic leader. Senga is woken by the recovery man, a disturbed drifter who cruises highways in his tow truck, who insists that Senga come with him. In his car, she finds a picture of a girl she saw in a video in the RV. The recovery man informs Senga that the girl is Christine, his dead sister. Senga is taken to a police station, where she reports Nat's disappearance. The police are less than helpful, and, in frustration, she asks them to call Marek. The man who answers Marek's phone tells the police that Senga is on medication, and that Nat has been with him all weekend. Back at the truck stop, Senga sees the man and woman she had seen earlier photographing the car accident. As her paranoia mounts, she suspects them to be involved with Nat's disappearance, and attacks the woman, resulting in her being kicked out of the diner. While hiding in a hallway, she encounters the woman with two male cult members, and flees outside. As they leave the truck stop, the recovery man follows them in his truck; Senga follows behind, ending up at an abandoned research facility. While Nat meets the Father, the recovery man detonates a bomb, killing several of the cult members. Before the Father can initiate Nat, Senga attacks him. Mother and daughter flee in different directions, with Senga being pursued by the backpacker and Nat being placated by the Father, who uses a loudspeaker to talk to her. During the fight, the Father reveals that Senga wanted to have an abortion when she discovered she was pregnant with Nat. The shock of this revelation leaves Senga in a near catatonic state. The recovery man pulls her out of her stupor by showing her Marek's body. Senga uses this information to try to demonstrate to Nat how evil her new friends are. While mother and daughter try to escape, the recovery man and the Father wrestle; when the Father bites the recovery man's tongue and spits it out, Senga detonates his last bomb, killing them both. Senga and Nat leave, continuing their drive home in daylight. When they stop at a gas station, they return to their car to find a razor blade -- the Father's calling card -- attached to the rear view mirror. ===== A young man named Hsiao Kang attends a cram school and lives with his parents. In a parallel story line, Ah Tze and Ah Ping are petty thieves. After a night out, Ah Tze returns to his flooded apartment. The next morning, he meets Ah Kuei, a young woman who had just had a one-night stand in the neighboring room with Ah Tze's brother, a car salesman. Ah Kuei does not know where she is, and Ah Tze gives her a ride on his motorcycle. Meanwhile, Hsiao Kang's motorcycle is impounded. His father, a taxi driver, spots him and gives him a ride to school, hoping to bond with his son. During an altercation in traffic, Ah Tze intentionally breaks the side mirror on Hsiao Kang's father's taxi. Ah Tze, Ah Ping, and Ah Kuei hang out together at night and get drunk. Ah Kuei passes out, and the two men leave her in a hotel room. In the morning, Ah Kuei calls Ah Tze and asks to see him again. Hsiao Kang drops out of his school and gets a refund. Rather than going home, he stays out, runs into Ah Tze, and stalks him for awhile. Hsiao Kang watches Ah Tze and Ah Ping rob an arcade by taking motherboards out of arcade machines. Ah Tze meets Ah Kuei, and she is angry that he stood her up. The two get a hotel room and have sex. Meanwhile, Hsiao Kang finds Ah Tze's motorcycle and vandalizes it. Hsiao Kang then tries to return home after being away for a few days, but his parents, who discovered that he dropped out of school, refuse to let him in. He ends up staying in the same hotel where Ah Tze and Ah Kuei spent the night and watches gleefully as Ah Tze discovers his trashed bike. Later, Ah Tze and Ah Ping try to sell the stolen motherboards to an arcade owner, but the men whom they stole from confront them. The men chase them into the street and beat up Ah Ping. That night, Ah Tze brings Ah Ping back to the apartment. Ah Kuei also shows up there. She tells Ah Tze that she wants to leave with him, and the two embrace. Hsiao Kang pays to use a phone dating service but does not answer any calls. After sitting there, he leaves. ===== The series begins with a nervous Michelle Koo (Myolie Wu) travelling home on a plane after dropping out of university accompanied by her friend Donna, her friend. Donna told her to relax and gave her some wine to drink. When Donna looked back at the other passengers she saw Nick Yau, she was very excited and went over talking with him a lot, asking him what could she wear. Meanwhile, Michelle got drunk and wanted more, she got some and went over to where Donna and Nick Yau were. Michelle was drunk and spilt her wine over some cloth on Nick Yau's lap. The cloth was very special to him because he was going to make a dress for Elaine, his girlfriend. When Michelle finally got home she was faced with her furious father who is very disappointed in her. After some occurrences, she becomes friends with FeiFei (Rain Li), and Ella (Sharon Chan). Somehow, they all end up working in Nee, a famous line of clothing. Nee was famous because Nick Yau (Tse Kwan Ho) was in it. Coincidentally, Nick Yau was also Michelle's grandfather's student. Pulling strings, Michelle gets a job in Nee. However, only to help out with making coffee, photocopying things and other miscellaneous things. Then, Ella wins a scholarship to study fashion designing. However, because of them getting trapped in a lift due to Michelle having to retrieve something, Ella was late and did not get the scholarship. She was heartbroken. So FeiFei and Michelle help to get her a job at Nee. She and FeiFei gets in together. Michelle seeing her two best friends always going off for meetings at Nee wants to as well. She tries her best to learn a little and Nick allowed her to attend meetings as well. Soon, Ella gets jealous as she realizes that Michelle's ideas are always accepted instead of hers. She gets jealous and starts tricking Michelle. Also, Michelle eventually becomes the student of Nick Yau. Elaine (Melissa Ng) who had been dating Nick Yau for more than 10 years decides to break up with him as she feels that Nick Yau would be better off with Michelle. Eventually, this comes true and Michelle and Nick Yau date. However, this was only shown in episode 20, the last one. For a more pleasant ending, it showed how Ella decided to change for the better and how with Michelle working hard, she won a scholarship to study fashion designing. This series ends with a scene at the departure hall of Hong Kong Airport. Nick says that he would wait for Michelle to return. ===== Scientist Bruce Gordon comes to a secluded area in Africa after concluding that a series of electrically induced natural disasters had originated from in the area. There he finds the crazed Zolok, last of the Lemurians, in a secret complex inside a mountain. Zolok had created the natural disasters as a prelude to his attempt to take over the world, holding a brilliant scientist, Dr. Manyus, there hostage, along with his daughter, Natcha. He had forced Manyus to create mindless "giant" slaves out of the natives as a private army and as the serial progresses we learn Manyus also turned another tribe, the spider-worshipping Wangas, into thin, impotent whites. Gordon helps Manyus and his daughter to escape Zolok, but they encounter Ben Ali, a malignant slave trader; meet the sexy native Queen Rama, who tries to help them; and survive harrowing jungle adventures before returning to the Lost City and stopping Zolok's plan. ===== Boroff is a mad scientist who has invented a "disintegrator gas" and plans to smuggle it to his buyers in Morovania. When his ship, the Carfax, gets stranded on outlying rocks in the first chapter, the Coast Guard comes to rescue him. Recognized by the reporters, Jean and Snapper, Boroff runs and kills the pursuing Coast Guard Ensign Jim Kent, who turns to be Lt. Terry Kent's brother. As the gas is made from the rare substances Arnatite (which is radioactive) and Zanzoid, Boroff attempts to acquire more of these materials to create more (including salvaging supplies of arnatite from the sunken Carfax). Hot on his heels are the Coast Guard, led by Lt. Kent, and the two reporters, with the expert aid of Jean's chemist brother, Dick. Eventually Terry finds, and leads a squad against, Boroff's cave-based hideout, with disintegrator gas bombs exploding around them. ===== The novella takes place in Macondo, the fictional town that would be the future site of more Márquez stories. At this point and time in the little town of Macondo the banana company has landed and with it many new people to work. The newcomers are referred to as “la hojarasca”, hence the title of the book. However, the narrative surrounds a colonel, his daughter Isabel, his grandson and the burial of a doctor scorned by the village. The story takes place at the wake of the doctor. ===== Joe (Cage) is a professional freelance contract killer who works strictly by the rules; never socializing outside his work, staying secluded in quiet spots, never interacting or meeting with his handlers and always leaving on time without a trace. He usually hires young pickpockets or small-time criminals as his local help, whom he usually murders after the end of the job to prevent any identification. He uses multiple aliases and also has middlemen between him and his handlers. He also carries a watch to perform a hit in specific time and correctly visualizes his every target. After completing a hit in Prague and killing his current help, Joe travels to Bangkok for an assignment to assassinate four people for notorious Bangkok crime boss Surat, whom he never meets. Joe occasionally provides insight via voiceover narration throughout the film. He hires a local Thai pickpocket named Kong, who has simple English knowledge, as his go-between in Bangkok, a condition of the contract being that the gang will never meet Joe. Contracts from the Bangkok gangsters are passed to Kong one by one via a nightclub dancer, Aom. Joe's first execution in Bangkok is done on motorcycle; when the target car stops at a red light, Joe kills all the occupants with a machine pistol. Kong retrieves information about the second target, again via Aom, and the pair become friendlier with every contact. Before Joe executes his mission, Kong informs him of the target, Pramod Juntasa, another notorious gang lord and Surat's rival crime boss who acts as a sex trafficker, buying young girls from impoverished parents and selling them after sex deals. Joe sneaks into the target's penthouse and drowns him in his pool. Unsatisfied with Kong's assistance, Joe contemplates killing him, but after a brief confrontation when Kong is ambushed by local gangsters regarding a briefcase containing information files of Surat's/Joe's targets, he instead decides to act as Kong's mentor and trains him for self-defense. Midway through the movie, Joe meets Fon, a deaf-mute pharmacist, with whom he becomes intrigued after a brief consultation. Joe later returns to the pharmacy to invite Fon out for dinner. Soon after Joe falls for Fon and meets her mother. The affair is cut short when he shoots and kills two assailants in Fon's presence. Blood splatters on Fon, and she runs off, trembling and traumatized by the violent deaths. Feeling betrayed, Fon cannot forgive Joe and ends their relationship. Before the third kill, the gang attempts to identify Joe, and he warns them off. For the third execution that takes place at the Damnoen Saduak floating market, Kong assists Joe. The kill does not go as planned, and the target, a playboy and a criminal underworld associate, nearly gets away but Joe manages to catch and assassinate him. Before beginning his last mission Joe visits Fon, presumably to say goodbye. She initially ignores him but as Joe begins to drive away she runs after his car. His fourth target is the Prime Minister of Thailand, who is revered by many but a great hindrance to Surat due to his hard-line crackdown on organized crime. Joe is about to make the kill when he has second thoughts, is spotted, and escapes through a panicking crowd. Meanwhile, the gang has abducted Aom and Kong with plans to execute them. Joe, now a target, is attacked at his house by four of Surat's henchmen. He uses explosives to take them out and is faced with the choice of rescuing Kong or leaving the country unharmed. Joe decides to rescue Kong, so he sets off to the gang's headquarters with one of the half-alive attackers. Joe goes to the gang's headquarters, kills most of the gang including Surat's underboss/bodyguard (who is blown into half by explosives), and saves Kong and Aom. The fearful gang leader flees to his car with three other accomplices. Joe spots him and shoots the gang members, then gets into the back seat with Surat. As the police arrive at the location, Joe realizes he has only one bullet. He puts his head adjacent to Surat's, puts the gun up to his temple and pulls the trigger, killing himself and Surat. ===== The people of Kalevala are a peaceful hard working people, they have everything they need and want, bar the mystical Sampo, a magical mill which will make grain, salt and gold and give prosperity to whoever possesses it. The only person in Kalevala able to make a Sampo is the smith Ilmarinen, however he cannot make it until his sister Annikki has fallen in love. Annikki eventually falls in love with the young hard working Lemminkäinen. All is not perfect however. There is a dark dismal land called Pohjola ruled over by a wicked witch called Louhi, and she wishes for a Sampo, but her wizards are unable to forge one. Louhi is advised that only Ilmarinen is able to forge a Sampo. Louhi sends her enchanted cloak to bring Annikki to Pohjola as ransom. Lemminkäinen runs to Ilmarinen to inform him that his sister has been taken and vows to return her, Ilmarinen agrees to come with him and they set off on a boat constructed of an ancient oak tree. On arrival Louhi demands they complete a simple task each, Lemminkäinen is asked to plow a field of snakes, which he does with the aid of a steel horse made by Ilmarinen. Then after Louhi's wizards destroy their boat, blaming it on a great fish, Ilmarinen forges another ship from iron. The final task is set to Ilmarinen; he is to forge a Sampo. He sets to work and, after some failed bargaining for another task, and with the aid of the trolls of Pohjola on the bellows and the fire from heaven itself, he forges a beautiful Sampo, which immediately begins to make gold, grain and salt. Lemminkäinen and Ilmarinen are reunited with Annikki and they set sail for Kalevala. Lemminkäinen is upset when he is informed that the people of Kalevala will never be able to reap the benefits of the Sampo and dives into the sea to swim back and recover it. Back in Pohjola, Lemminkäinen releases the mist from the prison Louhi has placed it in and it covers the whole land. When the mist clears the Sampo has gone and Lemminkäinen is on a boat heading back to Kalevala. His boat is wrecked on the ocean surface when Louhi orders that the wind be set free, and the Sampo is destroyed and Lemminkäinen presumed lost. Lemminkäinen manages to swim back to Kalevala and manages to return a small piece of the Sampo, which Väinämöinen announces will bring great prosperity and joy to the people of the land. Lemminkäinen and Annikki marry and a great feast and dance is arranged. However, Louhi, angry at the betrayal, comes to Kalevala and steals their sun. Returning it to Pohjola, she locks it in a deep mountain cave. As Kalevala is plunged into perpetual darkness things look very bleak. However, Lemminkäinen is still hopeful, he asks Ilmarinen to forge a new sun, which he begins work on. But wise old Väinämöinen informs him it's futile and that they must go to Pohjola and recover the sun by force. Väinämöinen tells the people this battle will be fought using kantele and not bladed weapons. The people of Kalevala prepare by cutting trees and bringing all precious metals to Ilmarinen to forge the strings. When the two people (Kalevala and Pohjola) meet on a frozen lake for battle, Väinämöinen begins playing and the trolls of Louhi begin to drift to sleep. Louhi tries in vain to get them to fight, but she fails and her trolls fall down unconscious. Louhi then sends her magic cape to kill the people of Kalevala but it is beaten down into a hole in the ice. Lemminkäinen marches up to the mountain which contains the sun, and Louhi turns herself into stone in fear. Lemminkäinen slices the stone door of the mountain open with his sword, releasing the sun to shine over the lands of Kalevala. The film ends with scenes of the people of Kalevala looking to the bright sky in wonder and happiness. ===== Modest, kind-hearted aspiring actress Louise Mauban (Luise Rainer) attends the Paris School of Drama while working nights at a dreary factory job, where she has made friends with another worker. She often comes to class late but rather than admit she has to work nights, she tells her fellow students stories of a luxurious life and her wealthy, handsome boyfriend, Marquis Andre D'Abbencourt (Alan Marshal). The other girls begin to suspect that her stories are just fantasies that she weaves to relieve her humdrum life. One of them, Nana (Paulette Goddard), maliciously invites Louise to her "birthday party", having arranged for Andre to attend. However, the plan backfires. Andre is enchanted by Louise and the lie turns into the truth. He showers her with gifts and takes her out every night. Andre eventually becomes enamored of another woman and breaks up with Louise by letter. When Louise's friends show up, she tells them to take their pick of the fabulous clothes Andre has given her. However, to a late-arriving Nana, she shows the letter, as her "gift". Nana's heart is softened to her rival and they become friends. One of the teachers is impressed by Louise's sincerity and talent, but another teacher and aging star, Madame Therese Charlot (Gale Sondergaard), is jealous of Louise. Madame Therese is upset to learn from the school's director, Monsieur Pasquel, Sr. (Henry Stephenson) that she will not get the leading role in a new play about Joan of Arc because she is no longer young enough. In her bitterness, she lashes out when Louise is late to class once again; she informs Louise that she will demand her expulsion. Louise follows her and, to Charlot's surprise, thanks her. Louise explains that she believes that to be a great star, she must suffer, as Madame Charlot herself had suffered early in her own career. The next day, Louise defiantly returns to class. Madame Charlot announces that she has accepted another, more mature role in the play and recommended Louise for the lead. Louise gets the part and is a great success on opening night, receiving a standing ovation. On the night of her triumph, she turns down party invitations, including one from Andre, to celebrate with her friend from the factory. ===== The principal character is a young Scottish pilot with bush-flying experience in Canada, Donald Ross, who is hired by an Oxford don, Cyril Lockwood, to pilot an air survey mission of Brattalid in Greenland. Lockwood's interest is in the early Viking seafarers and their exploits, and although he appears to have little knowledge of the needs of such a project, he insists on their starting as soon as possible, with his elder brother David, a businessman, providing finance. Ross, as the hired expert, then has to contend with the 'helpful' suggestions from both the financier and Lockwood's young daughter, Alix. This causes early tensions in the preparatory stages. While the preliminary dig is ongoing Ross shoulders much responsibility including keeping the aircraft safe in a tidal zone. Worn out with the expedition's work – all of which has fallen solely on him – and a prolonged lack of sleep induced by worry over the expedition, he enters a coma induced by the sleeping tablets he has been forced to take to keep going, and in it dreams that he and Alix were once Scottish slaves aboard Leif Ericson's vessel on its voyage of discovery to Greenland. A part of this dream includes the leaving behind by the two slaves of a stone, with their names carved on it, at the Viking explorers' landing point in North America. Ross recovers and tells Alix and the don of his dreams. The last remnant of photographic survey is successfully completed, and the three complete their air crossing to North America, making landfall in eastern Canada. Flying down the coast towards New York Ross recognizes where he dreamed Leif Ericson's expedition landed on the coast of Cape Cod; they land to investigate and find the stone with the slaves' names on it. The technical details of a trans-Atlantic flight of this period (late 1930s) are accurate and of interest. The type of aircraft is a fictional radial-engined floatplane intended for bush use, made by a fictional Detroit firm named Cosmos. It corresponds roughly to the performance of a Noorduyn Norseman. This was Shute's first attempt at re-incarnation as a plot, a second later work on this theme is In the Wet. ===== Professional hitman Mangal Singh takes a contract to kill stock market scammer Manu Gupta in front of the Goa High Court where he is to stand on trial. Mangal Singh plans to do the job from a hotel room which is opposite to the court. Suresh Sudhakar, a press photographer is sent to Goa to cover Manu Gupta's trial and checks-in at the same hotel next to Mangal Singhs room. Sudhakar tries to meet his ex-wife Pinky who is living in Goa. Pinky refuses to meetup or even talk and confers with her new boyfriend Dr D'Souza. Sudhakar threatens Pinky that he might commit suicide, but she does not believe him. A depressed Sudhakar tries to commit suicide by hanging from the bathroom shower but fails. Bellboy Vincent (who is in Mangal Singh's room at that moment) hears the ruckus and opens the connecting-door between Mangal Singh & Sudhakar's room precipitating all characters to interact with each other. Mangal Singh scared that cops might come to the room, assures Vincent that he will take care of Sudhakar. Assured by this promise Vincent leaves Sudhakar in the care of Mangal. Sudhakar in the meanwhile assumes that Mangal is a truly good Samaritan and taking fancy for his friendship does not let Mangal go anywhere or let him do his job. Pinky's boyfriend Dr D'Souza (a psychiatrist) comes to the hotel to counsel Sudhakar not to commit suicide, but ends up meeting Mangal & mistakes him to be Sudhakar and gives him a sedative, preventing him from performing any work. Completely baffled by this turn of events, Mangal forces Sudhakar to call the Dr back who now comes with Pinky and wakes Mangal up but not before Pinky and Sudhakar have a conversation. This distresses the Dr. Pinky has a major showdown with both Dr D'Souza and Sudhakar and leaves only to return and speak again to Sudhakar and convince him to go away. During the course of the story Manu Gupta's entourage can be seen, travelling from Bombay to Goa in a police van disguised as a milk van with a group of commandos in it. Manu Gupta finally reaches Goa but before he can be shot by Mangal, tremendous ruckus follows in the room where Mangal, Sudhakar, a cop and others fight it out and end up dangling from the hotel while a shot is accidentally fired from Mangal's gun and hits Manu Gupta's behind. Despite this, Manu Gupta reaches the court and gives his witness account. Mangal Singh retires to an Ashram due to the shock of forced friendship thrust upon him. Sudhakar gets Pinky back. ===== Mary Gray (Mary Astor) and Dick Mercer (David Newell) elope, since Mary's wealthy parents would never approve of the marriage. In Atlantic City, they arrive at the humble efficiency hotel room Mary has taken. Dick is not impressed, and would prefer they stay in a fancier hotel. An argument ensues over whether Dick should remain an idle playboy or go to work. Mary decides to call it off, but Dick refuses to let her, locking her in the room while he goes for a minister. Meanwhile, Red Dugan (Maurice Black) robs a jewelry store and slips into Mary's room (formerly his). Dugan hides a stolen necklace in Mary's handbag, before he and a policeman fatally shoot each other. When Clara Muldoon (Natalie Moorhead), the chambermaid, comes to change the linen, Mary asks her for a hiding place, giving her $300. Clara is about to switch jobs, but gives Mary her new job information instead. After Mary leaves, Clara comes upon Dugan, who manages to tell her that he "put it in her bag" before dying. Police Sergeant Daly (Paul Hurst) questions Clara, then accuses Dick of being Dugan's associate when he returns. Daly takes the pair in for further grilling. As "Sally Fairchild", Mary shows up at the home of wealthy bachelor George Blaine (Lloyd Hughes) to take the job. However, it is clear to George and his valet Williams that there is something not quite right about her. Her manners are too polished for a servant and she is very pretty. (George also notices that the monogram on her purse is MG.) George decides not to hire her, but when a policeman comes and asks for directions, she faints after the man leaves. Under the circumstances, George cannot send her away in that condition, so he decides to hire her after all. Afterward, George examines Mary's purse and finds a pearl necklace. Meanwhile, Clara, who is part of the gang, tells the thieves what she knows. Barney Black, their leader, decides to wait until things quieten down before retrieving the loot. George sees a newspaper article about Mary Gray's elopement, along with a photo of her. He decides to discharge her, but he and Mary are attracted to each other, so she is able to make him change his mind again. Then Clara shows up and demands half of the proceeds of the necklace from Mary. Mary does not know what she is talking about, but offers to give her a valuable ring to go away. While Mary gets it, Clara finds and takes the necklace from her purse. After Clara leaves, Dick arrives (having paid Clara $500 for the information), followed by Sergeant Daly and then the crooks. The thieves abduct Mary. Daly, however, catches Clara when she tries to slip away by herself. She gives up the pearls in exchange for leniency. George drives off after Mary, but Barney shoots him in the shoulder and also his two front tires. The gang head to their hideout: a fake hospital. When George pulls into a garage, one of the men offers to drive him to the same hospital. George is tipped off when he sees that the doctor there has a pistol. He manages to rescue Mary, just before the police arrive to arrest the jewel thieves. ===== The movie revolves around Easwaran alias E (Jiiva), an orphan brought up in the musty, teeming slums of Chennai by an old woman. For him, money is the thing in life. He comes across Jothy (Nayantara), a bar dancer who settles down in the same locality. After a few encounters, they get acquainted with each other. E's simple ways attract Jothy. Coming to know of E's past, Jothy tries desperately to correct his ways and set him on the right path. Meanwhile, Dr. Ramakrishnan (Ashish Vidyarthi) takes up the task of testing a medicine devised by a foreign company, which may come handy in killing people in thousands, especially during times of war. Ramakrishnan chooses Jothy's sister and E's grandmother as specimens for the test. He cashes in on the ignorance to slum dwellers. Things take a turn when E rescues Ramakrishnan from a murder bid by Nellai Mani (Pasupathy). A sequence of events brings Nellai Mani and E together. Without knowing Nellai Mani's motive, E hides him in a secret place and decides to hand him over to Ramakrishnan for a huge sum. Slowly, E gets attracted by Nellai Mani's good ways. Through him, E comes to know of Ramakrishnan's ulterior motives. Nellai Mani, a revolutionary fighting for a cause, tries to bring about a change in E's heart. Succeeding in his attempt, Nellai Mani lays down his life, leaving E to complete his task. The rest is all about how E puts an end to Ramakrishnan and his evil ways. ===== Marcus Templeton (Scott) is a thirty-year-old, unmarried security guard who describes himself as "a lonely, desperate man." He works at night and spends his days looking at pornography and takes to peeping into windows in the hopes of seeing naked women. Marcus is slightly overweight and spends a fair amount of screen time obsessing about his physical health, finally resorting to wearing a corset and using questionable weight-loss products such as Reduce-O-Creme, which promises to "melt, melt, melt your fat away" upon application. After several disastrous attempts at dating women, Marcus resorts to seeing prostitutes. He begins to secretly record his encounters with the call girls, first with a small tape recorder and then with a hidden video camera. He quickly spends his entire life savings and contracts sexually transmitted diseases, all the while losing his grip on reality (his father "appears" on the television screen and berates Marcus). When a disagreeable prostitute discovers she is being surreptitiously videotaped, she pulls a handgun out of her purse, shoots Marcus and steals his video equipment. As Marcus lies bleeding to death he grabs the nearby bottle of Reduce-O-Creme and applies it to his belly in a final, futile gesture. ===== Welcome to wildly eclectic and diverse West Beach High, where the annual student body president election will pit the quirky, much- beloved incumbent Sissy Frenchfry against a handsome, charismatic – and socially intolerant – transfer student with a devious plan to restore the status quo. Sissy Frenchfry is the most popular student at West Beach High. He's got bleached blond hair with pink tips, earrings, and a decidedly unique fashion sense. The eternally good-natured Sissy is student body president, a member of every club on campus, and head of the yearbook and newspaper. Sissy IS the big man on campus, until one day... A transfer student named Bodey McDodey arrives at West Beach. Bodey is the quintessential All-American jock: handsome, arrogant, charming, and accomplished. He's ready to assume command as Alpha male in what should be a familiar high school setting; however, he's astounded at what he finds at West Beach. QB & Ross, the school's quarterback and linebacker, are boyfriends and openly affectionate; the talented yet plump Georgia Peach holds the head cheerleader position despite not being a size 2; and the school's student videographer and Sissy's best friend, Dana Aquino, is a goth transgender student. “What is wrong with this school?” Bodey asks himself. The worst of all is the fact that Sissy Frenchfry, someone Bodey considers a loser and a nuisance, holds the position of ultimate authority and respect in the school: Student Body President. Bodey sets his sights on the presidency, aiming to change West Beach forever. What follows is Bodey bribing, seducing, and manipulating his way into a position of popularity and power. Sissy must choose between his integrity, his duty to maintain the peace of the school, and his own desire to win the election. Will Sissy win back the school? A Feature-length version of this award-winning short-film is in development. In addition, there is a limited-edition line of Sissy Frenchfry products available thru Cafepress.com with proceeds going toward the feature production. ===== Luster takes place over a weekend in Los Angeles. ===== Packing the Monkeys, Again! is story about love couple, which live in small rented apartment. Nebojša is a journalist who works to much and he asks Jelena to do everything what all traditional Montenegrin women does. Jelana studies literature and she is suspicious for Nebojša having an affair. Of course, owners of their apartment are coming in their lives and bringing their problems to house of Nebojša and Jelena - Nata, Dragica's and Dragoljub's daughter is a problematic child. But, most interesting thing is that, person who is re-telling this story, is a man with amnesia who doesn't know in which bathroom he fell on his head and writing is a part of his therapy. ===== The Tenth Doctor is shocked when Donna Noble, in a wedding dress, appears within the TARDIS while in flight. The Doctor returns Donna to her wedding. At the reception, the Doctor determines that Donna must have absorbed a great deal of huon particles that drew her to the TARDIS. The reception is attacked by robots dressed as Santa Claus. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to manipulate the sound system to destroy the Santas, and discovers something is controlling them remotely from space. Learning that Donna and her fiancé Lance work for a locksmith company owned by the Torchwood Institute, the Doctor asks Lance to take them there. Underneath the building the Doctor finds a long tunnel under the Thames Barrier, and a secret laboratory producing huon particles, along with a pit that leads to the centre of the Earth. Their presence brings forth the spider-like Empress of the Racnoss. The Empress, who had been hiding in hibernation at the edge of the universe, awoke and used the Torchwood company to gain the equipment to make huon particles. Lance reveals he was working for the Empress and purposely fed huon particles to Donna (by adding them to her coffee) to help free the Empress' children. Donna and the Doctor escape, and the Empress decides to use Lance as a substitute, force-feeding him huon particles and then throwing him into the pit. The Doctor takes Donna to his TARDIS and travels back billions of years to discover that an inert Racnoss ship became the core of the Earth as the planet formed around it; the Empress is now trying to wake her children aboard that ship with the huon particles. The Doctor and Donna return to the present as other Racnoss start emerging from the pit. The Empress uses her ship to start firing on Earth. The Doctor attempts to offer a peaceful solution but the Empress refuses, and the Doctor is then forced to remotely detonate explosive baubles used by the Santas at the walls of the base, flooding the pit with water from the Thames. The Doctor is prepared to die, but Donna urges him to escape with her, just as the Empress teleports to her ship to try to escape. However, this has weakened its defences, and the ship is destroyed by human forces. The Doctor offers Donna the opportunity to travel with him. She declines, but suggests he needs a companion to keep his temperament in check. The redesigned Robotic Santa Clauses, as shown at the Doctor Who Experience ===== Rose is comforting her friend Keisha, whose brother Jay is missing in action after the sinking of HMS Ascendant, which has just been towed up the Thames in pieces. Rose drags the Doctor along, and he asks what Jay did on the ship, before deciding to go out for chips (and a newspaper to wrap them in). After he leaves, Jay's soaked and shivering ghost appears to Keisha and Rose. He talks to Keisha first, telling her to come to him before the feast, and asks Rose to come too. Then he melts away into a puddle, which also disappears. The Doctor returns, and tells them about people fainting in the newsagent's. The Doctor and Rose discuss what she saw, and the Doctor says they should go to Mickey's and see what they can find on the Internet. Mickey has already done the research, and gives them his printouts. They find that the ship has been brought to Stanchion House, and that people are going missing near the part of the Thames where it is located. When the three of them arrive near the building, they see many guards, and an elderly woman trying to climb over the bridge rail. Her name is Anne, and she says she is trying to get to Peter 'before the feast'. The Doctor and Rose manage to get her off the bridge. Mickey and the soldiers who come running all collapse. The Doctor swipes a pass from one of the soldiers, and tells Rose and Mickey to stay with Anne and not to let her out of their sight. As Rose and Mickey try to decide where to take Anne, they are approached by an old man in full naval uniform wearing dark glasses and a scarf around his neck, who introduces himself as Rear Admiral John Crayshaw. He allows them to take Anne with them, but tells the soldiers to send the ambulance away when it arrives. Meanwhile, the Doctor goes to Stanchion House, and introduces himself as 'Sir John Smith, Scientific Advisor to the Admiralty' with his psychic paper. He glances quickly at the visitor's book, and says that he has come to see V. Swann. The lift operator brings him to the correct floor, and watches until he goes in. He talks to Vida Swann for a minute before she mentions that her PC had told her Sergeant Jodie North had come in, and that she had alerted security when she saw him instead. The Doctor runs out of her office, and realizes there were soldiers coming up the stairs and the lift, and no time to get out a window, so he hides in a cupboard until the soldiers pass, then slips into the lift before the doors close. He uses a sonic screwdriver to open the hidden controls, and goes to the lowest level. The doors open into an underground hangar. The Doctor is noticed by a scientist named Huntley, and after looking at a section of the ship, the Doctor says that it was sliced up using hydrogen fused anti- cellularisation. Alarms start to go off, soldiers come down the lift, and the Doctor takes off for a room labelled 'Decontamination.' He runs through it into a damp, dirty and dingily lit access corridor. After closing the doors behind him, he notices the salty reek to the air. As he moves down the corridor, he sticks his finger in a mucky puddle and decides it is saltwater. The corridor opens into a large, dark, circular chamber with a very high ceiling and a huge filthy pool in the centre of the floor. There is a ladder on one side, and the air smells of sea water. The Doctor takes a polythene bag from his pocket and fills it with water from the pool, and then starts to climb the ladder as he hears the doors opening behind him. The ladder is damp, as if someone sopping wet had climbed up it ahead of him, and didn't dry before reaching the top. There is a barrier across the top of the chamber, but the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open the inspection hatch, which has blood on it. The Doctor climbs through with bullets flying around him, and finds himself looking into another enormous access tunnel. As the Doctor splashes through the freezing salty water in the access tunnel, he comes upon another figure. When it turns, the Doctor sees a young man with bloody welts on his face and neck, and eyes like huge pearls. He tells the Doctor that he doesn't want to hurt his little Keisha, but he can't help it. The Doctor realizes this must be Jay, just as the water gets even deeper and starts churning. Out of the water appears a pirate and a U-boat captain, who sweeps Jay back the way he'd come and vanishes. The Doctor decides he can't do anything to help Jay right now, and continues down the tunnel. He ends up on a tugboat, its windows covered by tarpaulin. At Keisha's, the three of them are talking, and Rose realizes that just before Jay appeared, people had collapsed at the newsagent's, and when Anne's son appeared, the soldiers went down. Rose decides to go down to the newsagent's and see what she can find out. She buys a couple of papers, and the woman behind the counter collapses as Jay appears again. Jay also appears to Keisha, and Anne's son to her. Mickey tries to stop Anne leaving and isn't able to, but does manage to lock Keisha in the bathroom. Rose runs back and tells her to go after Anne. She heads for the river. On the tugboat, the Doctor and Vida meet again. While they talk, the Doctor starts pushing buttons and levers, and gets the boat moving, just as soldiers start firing on it. The Doctor tells her that Crayshaw probably wants to kill them both, as she said she'd been a thorn in his side. When Rose gets to the river, there are people trying to jump in, soldiers trying to stop them, and other people watching. As Rose stands there, a tug appears, headed for a restaurant barge, and Rose sees the Doctor climbing around the prow, trying to uncover the windows. She yells at him, and he waves back and tells her to get everyone off the barge. As the tug crashes into the barge, the Doctor and Vida leap off. The three of them go to the European Office of Oceanic Research and Development, where Vida works. The Doctor asks Vida to show him the 'biggest and shiniest lab' she has. Vida says that she hasn't been able to contact her boss all day, and there is a Vice Admiral Kelper from Norfolk due to arrive the next day. The Doctor tells Rose to have Mickey come over and bring Keisha. Vida talks about her work studying ocean currents, what is in them and how they move around, using tracers they had developed. The Doctor is busy being all 'boy-with-a-train-set' with the water he brought. Vida says they were studying water taken from the area where the Ascendant sank, and found no sign of tracers, but there were salts and proteins unlike anything previously discovered. The Doctor asks Mickey and Vida to go through the naval personnel records and see if the crew of the Ascendant had anything in common. He takes blood samples from Rose, Keisha, and Vida, and finds that Rose and Keisha have alien matter in their blood, and specks in their eyes. While going through the computer files, Mickey looks up Commodore Powers (Crayshaw's boss), and discovers that he was on a ship that sank in the North Sea three years ago. Then they find that a John Anthony Crayshaw sank in the North Sea in 1759. They run to tell the Doctor. The Doctor is still working with the water when he realizes the beaker he is analysing is empty, and the sink is full. He smells seawater, and then the water in the sink jumps out and attacks him, covering his face, but he manages to escape. Rose is in the hallway with Keisha when Mickey and Vida come up, and then suddenly it fills with water. Three figures appear in it – a pirate, U-boat captain, and a Victorian lady. They grab Vida and carry her away. Rose chases after, grabbing onto the back of a police van. When the van stops, Rose finds herself near the river. While trying to help someone else, she falls into the water and is taken by the water creatures. The Doctor, Mickey, and Keisha drive around for hours, but cannot find either Rose or Vida. They go back to the estate, and Mickey walks Keisha to her door while the Doctor waits in the car. They see a dripping wet Rose ghost, and when the Doctor comes upstairs, he says that he has seen her too, although not as clearly. Jackie (Rose's mum) also sees the image, and is furious with the Doctor. He leaves Keisha with her, while he and Mickey go to get into Stanchion House. Vida awakes to find herself in the Ascendants storeroom. Crayshaw is there, and tells her that they are 'of the waterhive.' The room is full of people who have recently been taken. Crayshaw explains that they are acclimatising, and only after many years can they be on both land and water. They need Vida to capture Kelper, so they can spread all over the world. Mickey and the Doctor go to the Aldgate tube station, to reach a conduit full of phone lines, which passes within a few inches of the decontamination chamber. Mickey asks how he plans to get through the wall, and the Doctor says 'I'm getting quite good at resonating concrete.' He tells Mickey that the tunnel is probably one of the safest places to be, as there aren't many people around to filch water from, so no image of Rose to haunt them. 'I don't want to see her like that again. Do you?' Rose is moving around underwater, and thinking of her family and the Doctor. Huntley finds Rose, and takes her to where a few of the Ascendant crew are together, including Jay. He tells her that she can't think of her loved ones, because it is what will make them like her. She thinks of the TARDIS instead, and that helps. Huntley tells her that some people have been able to see through their images, and control them somewhat, and encourages her to try. Crayshaw takes Vida to an empty Stanchion House in the morning, to arrange a meeting with Kelper, but he is already there. Vida tries to escape with him, but the water prevents it, and they are taken into the lift. When they reach the basement, they find all the rest of the staff. The decontamination doors open, and filthy water comes flooding in. There is a sudden explosion, and part of the wall tumbles in, revealing Mickey and the Doctor. Vida, Kelper, and a couple of other people manage to climb out before the water traps everyone else. Kelper leaves to talk to the military, saying 'We're going to need Torchwood.' As the Doctor, Mickey and Vida talk about what to do next, the Rose image appears to the Doctor and starts to drain water from Mickey and Vida. Rose herself is able to stop it though, and tell the Doctor to stop the aliens. The Doctor says that she was able to hijack the apparition. The Doctor realizes that the filaments that Vida has been working with disrupt communication in the hive, and this might be a way to defeat them. He sends Mickey and Vida to find the crates that were on the Ascendant and dump them into the river, while he creates a distraction. At the same time, Rose, Jay, Huntley and the others start making their way toward the surface. Vida and Mickey are almost caught by the water, but Rose and the rest interfere, and then help them to release the filaments. As they are released, Rose thinks of the Doctor, and is able to see him and tell him that they have done it. He says, 'Of course you did it,' and activates the tracers. The water in the Thames thickens and changes, and all the people who had been taken are pushed to the surface, restored to normal. ===== Teddy Bears' Picnic covers an annual encampment of prominent male leaders at the Zambezi Glen, a thinly veiled reference to the Bohemian Grove. The film starts out with the first ever women's day at the glen, where wives and girlfriends of Zambezi members are invited to visit the glen ahead of the annual encampment, which also serves to introduce the glen and the characters to the audience. The actual retreat itself begins after the members have returned without any women and kicks off with the "Assassination of Time", based on the real Cremation of Care at the Bohemian Grove, with a pelican replacing the latter's owl. After that, the festivities begin, including an all-male chorus line in drag, which is photographed by one of the club employees who smuggles out the pictures to the news media. This violation of the privacy of the glen causes the leaders of the membership to work on spin control, while the employee who took the pictures is emboldened by his success and the promise of a hefty reward to record footage of the glen with a camera smuggled in with the help of a local newscaster. In this time we also see what members do to enjoy themselves at the retreat, including drinking, urinating on trees while naked, and visiting nearby prostitutes. After filming some of the activities at the glen, the cameraman is spotted by some members and flees into the woods. From here, the members invoke their privilege and connections, with disastrous results. The members call in the military to track down the cameraman with dogs, flares, and helicopters, which sets off a forest fire. When the road out of the glen is blocked by an overturned truck filled with drinks for the glen members, one of the characters orders his chauffeur to drive through anyway, making the blockage worse. A helicopter flying without lights at night at the behest of one of the members collides with a news helicopter covering the fire. ===== Sean McGinnis is a film student who moves to Los Angeles to break into the movie business. While looking for work, he passes the time watching rented videos, preferring classic films. He sets out to watch Citizen Kane, but the videotape has accidentally been switched with an adult movie called Citizen Cum. Sean becomes instantly obsessed with the star of Citizen Cum, Johnny Rebel. His interest in Johnny leads Sean to turn down work in the mainstream film industry to become a cameraman for Men of Janus, the production company that has Johnny under exclusive contract. On his first shoot, Sean ends up as a "fluffer" for Johnny, performing (offscreen) oral sex on him to help him maintain an erection and reach orgasm for the "money shot." He learns that Johnny's real name is Mikey, he is "gay-for-pay" and doesn't perform oral sex on other men or even kiss. Johnny has Sean fluff him on additional productions, and Sean's infatuation continues to grow. He confides his feelings for Johnny to co-worker Silver, who tells him that the relationship is hopeless because Johnny's a porn star and straight. Meanwhile, Johnny's girlfriend Julie, who works as a stripper under her stagename Babylon but who has tried to move into mainstream acting, learns she is pregnant. Trying to break from Johnny, Sean begins dating an acupuncture student named Brian. However, Brian breaks up with Sean because of his emotional unavailability, the result of his continuing obsession with Johnny, and because Brian had a bad experience with a past boyfriend who could not have sex without watching porn. Johnny's crystal meth use spirals out of control. He goes on a five-day binge and misses a scheduled film shoot. The film's producer Sam Martins forces Sean to fluff Johnny's replacement for the shoot. Johnny shows up late to the set and is fired. Julie decides to get an abortion since she cannot rely on Johnny to help raise a child. She breaks up with Johnny and changes the locks to her apartment. At the studio an expensive video camera goes missing and company manager Chad Cox is found dead in his apartment. The police seek Johnny, under his real name Michael Rossini, for questioning. Johnny turns to Sean for help, and together they flee to Mexico. Once in Mexico, Sean sells his car for getaway money, and the two settle into a cheap Mexican motel. Johnny initially denies involvement in Chad's death but later confesses to Sean that he killed Chad accidentally during a fight over the payoff for stealing the camera for drug money. Stunned, Sean goes out to clear his head, returning later with tequila and snacks. That night, Johnny offers to let Sean service him sexually, but for the first time Sean declines. Sean shares in oblique terms memories of being sexually abused as a child by an adult male neighbor. Johnny starts to cry, saying he can relate because of some of the "fucked up shit" he's been through and that he was made to do things he didn't want to do. Sean comforts Johnny and for the first time calls him "Mikey." They kiss, and then fall asleep. When Sean wakes the next morning, Johnny is gone along with all of Sean's money. Sean initially tries to hitchhike back to the United States, but ends up accepting an offer to go further south to St Ignacio, an idyllic location he had previously suggested he and Johnny visit. Babylon packs up her apartment and drives north away from Los Angeles. Mikey survives in Mexico by committing armed robberies, his new gritty reality counterpointed as Sean reads a fan letter written to Johnny, who remains a figure of fantasy. Sean tosses the letter on the side of the road, leaving it - and Johnny - behind. ===== The TARDIS is forced to land after being affected by an effect similar to an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse). Outside the Doctor and Rose find a normal looking town. The Doctor informs Rose that they cannot re-enter the TARDIS until she can repair her systems. They then set off to find out what is producing the constant pulses and stop it. At the docks are steam powered spaceships. They go to the pub to get more information. The bartender is a young girl with half of her body replaced by steam-powered robotics. A boy of about ten talking to her, and when the Doctor introduces himself and Rose, the girl gives her name as Silver Sally and the boy's name as Jimm. Jimm and Sally tell them about the zeg. It is a zone of electromagnetic gravitation that interferes with anything containing an electronic circuit. It goes as far as the Outreaches, where a lot of ships get stuck. People still come because they hope to find Hamlek Glint's lost treasure. The planet itself is owned by Drel McCavity, who is a collector of Hamlek Glint artifacts. Jimm's uncle is the biggest collector though. Jimm's uncle arrives and invites the Doctor and Rose to come visit and hear about Hamlek Glint (the pirate). The Doctor and Rose return to the docks to see about getting passage off planet for themselves and the TARDIS, but have no luck. While they are there, a body is found. The Doctor uses his psychic paper to pass himself off as an investigator, and begins to ask questions about the body. It is a man they had seen at the pub, who has a small bit of folded paper with a smudge of ink that looks vaguely like a figure. The Doctor says it's what space sailors call a Black Shadow. The Doctor says that the man was a friend of Drel McCavity, and that someone should tell him, and then volunteers to do it. He asks Rose to track down the man's friends and warn them. At McCavity's there is a gallery full of display cases of Hamlek Glint artifacts. McCavity shows him many of them, then sees the Doctor out, giving him a business card with an invitation to make an appointment later. Rose locates Edd and Bonny, and learns that they recently sold McCavity some fake Glint artifacts, even though they'd had genuine stuff ten years ago. As she is talking to them, she suddenly realizes they are not alone. A huge shaggy shape with red eyes apologizes, then kills both Edd and Bonny. The Doctor goes to Bobb's home. It is filled with Glint artifacts, including a photo of the crew, who were all robots except for Glint himself, and the cabin boy Robbie. Bobb says that no one knows what happened to Robbie, but that the robots were all sold for scrap. Glint set sail for Starfall, and was never seen again. Rose arrives, and is given a tour of Bobb's collection. Part of it is a replica of Glint's Lost Treasure. The Resurrection Casket is supposed to be his greatest find, able to heal hurts, and bring the dead back to life. The Doctor takes Rose over to the photograph, and asks what she thinks of the shadow in the background. She says it looks like the monster that attacked Edd and Bonny. The doorbell rings again, and Jimm runs off to answer it. The Doctor starts digging in his pockets for paper and finds a folded slip that shows the Black Shadow when unfolded. They hear Jimm scream and the monster from earlier goes after the Doctor. The Doctor runs toward Bobb's exhibition area. After a lot of dodging around, the monster catches him. The Doctor asks how he knows who he's supposed to kill, and the monster replies that he gets a name and description, along with knowing where the parchment is. The Doctor says that he doesn't have a name, so the monster has the wrong person. Confused, Kevin (the monster) lets him go. They all talk after Kevin leaves, and decide that he is forced to do what someone wishes because that person knows how to use an object that belonged to Glint. The Doctor says the next step is to find Glint's ship, and that he knows how to do it. They just need someone to fund it, and Drel McCavity is probably the person to ask. After some discussion and questions, McCavity agrees, but says that he is coming along. The Doctor says he needs some equipment that is 'locked up safely in a big blue box.' Rose and the Doctor stop at the pub, and Silver Sally says she can find them a robot crew, and she wants to come along. Jimm is very upset when he is told that he cannot come. The TARDIS is loaded into the ships forward escape pod. McCavity brings a bodyguard named Dugg and a wooden chest. The other crew is made up of three robots - Kenny, King, and Jonesy. After sailing for three days, the Doctor gets impatient waiting for the TARDIS to open, and fixes the ship's engines to hurry things along. The TARDIS finally opens, but isn't ready to leave yet. However, the Doctor is able to use it to figure out where Glint's ship is. Rose visits Sally and overhears her talking to one of the robots. Rose is horrified to realize that Sally is actually a robot, and that she and the other three are all surviving members of Glint's crew. She hears footsteps, and hurries to hide in a cupboard. She gets out, opens the door further down, and sees Jimm curled into a small ball. Sally comes out, and Rose tries to be casual as she leaves, and then runs down to tell the Doctor. He tells Dugg to barricade the door. Sally threatens them from the other side, and gives them a few minutes to decide what to do. The Doctor creates a diversion quickly, and they let Sally and the other robots come in with Jimm. The Doctor's diversion starts to work, and he makes up a story about what it is, saying that he'll fix it, just put everyone else into the escape pod, with the clamps locked. While they are in the pod waiting for the Doctor, Jimm wakes up. Then they hear the clamps release and the door open, and the Doctor comes in. He gets the controls working, and then realizes that the TARDIS is in the other escape pod. They navigate the escape pod to the zeg, find Glint's ship, dock, and go on board. McCavity has Dugg bring his wooden chest. They find the treasure room, and go inside. It is empty, except for a large polished black casket the size and shape of a coffin with pipes and wires laid into the lid. It's the Resurrection Casket, and the Doctor tells them not to open it. As they are discussing the fact that the treasure is gone, a voice comes from the doorway. It's Kevin, who tells them that he lives here, and they all realize that McCavity is the one who 'employs' him, by using the medallion he's wearing, then they hear a loud clang and realize the ship is docking. With Kevin's help, they decide to move to the games room. They bring the Resurrection Casket with them, to keep it from falling into the robots' hands. Dugg tries to lift it, but he needs help, so Kevin takes it. They use the snooker table to block the door, and then pile other items on top, including the Resurrection Casket and McCavity's chest. Just as they finish, the door shudders, and the robots are on the other side. Everyone is talking about opening the Casket, and the Doctor keeps telling them no, that it doesn't do what they think it does. McCavity insists that it can bring people back from the dead, and as they argue, the door knocks his chest to the floor, where it bursts open. Out spills a skeleton and the remains of a red dress. McCavity had killed his wife out of jealousy, and wants to use the Resurrection Casket to bring her back. McCavity has a marked piece of parchment in his hand, and threatens to give it to Rose or Jimm, so that the Doctor will use the Casket, but ends up sneaking it to the Doctor instead. Just as the robots break into the room, the Doctor starts running from Kevin, but Kevin hides behind the sofa. Rose yells at Dugg to take the Casket out, while she and Jimm try to delay the robots. Dugg is looking for a place to hide the casket, so he can go back and help Rose and Jimm, when Kevin takes it from him. Dugg goes back and takes over the defense, telling Rose and Jimm to run. McCavity attacks the Doctor with a sword, but the Doctor avoids him and ends up in the main engine room. McCavity catches up, and the Doctor grabs an axe to defend himself. McCavity is interrupted by Kevin, who says this is his job. Rose and Jimm catch up, and McCavity is convinced to call Kevin off. The Doctor has each of them sealed into an engineering locker, and Kevin takes them outside the ship to the secondary control room. The Doctor has them turn everything back on that was shut down when the ship entered the zeg, and then they go back to their own ship. They leave a Black Shadow parchment behind, and the Doctor tricks one of the robots into picking it up. The steam powered ship starts to move, dragging Glint's ship deeper into the zeg with it. The Doctor directs everyone to the forward escape pod, and the systems on the pirate ship start to explode. As it comes apart, McCavity again demands that the Resurrection Casket be opened, and when the Doctor refuses, sets Kevin on him again. While the Doctor and Kevin dodge each other around the TARDIS, Sally appears in the airlock. Rose opens the inner airlock door and lets her in. The Doctor shakes hands with Jimm, then with Kevin, and then Jimm launches himself at McCavity, taking the medallion in the process. The Doctor uses his psychic paper to make McCavity think he still has the Black Shadow, and then Kevin goes after McCavity, who now has the Black Shadow in his pocket. McCavity opens the Resurrection Casket, and it is empty. As Kevin reaches for him, he falls into it and the lid closes. Over by the airlock door, Sally has Rose by the throat. Rose tricks her and escapes, and then the Doctor holds her captive with the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor explains that Uncle Bobb was Robbie the cabin boy, Jimm is Hamlek Glint, and the model of the Lost Treasure is actually the real thing. They put Sally in an escape pod, but she tries to catch them and manages to get herself killed. Jimm gives Kevin the medallion, which sets him free. They open the Resurrection Casket, and find a baby Drel McCavity. Uncle Bobb finds Jimm before he gets back to Starfall, and the Doctor and Rose leave in the TARDIS before the zeg can cause problems for them again. ===== Beladingala Baale is the tale of a chess player Revanth (Anant Nag). Revanth is the only Grand-master from India and gains worldwide fame when he becomes the world champion by beating Polonski, the reigning world champion. He returns to Bangalore where he works as an assistant executive for Kanara Advertising Service. Revanth is congratulated by all his colleagues including his boss and close friend James (Ramesh Bhat). He is, however, disappointed because he even though he has won an international tournament, he has absolutely no fans, very limited press coverage and no sort of recognition from the society. While he is expressing his disappointment to James, he gets a call from a lady who claims that she is his fan and is calling to congratulate him personally. However, she refuses to reveal her name, instead challenges Revanth to identify her within the next half an hour, with the only clue that her name starts with R. He takes up the challenge. James and Revanth start writing down the Hindu names starting with R. Revanth is interrupted by his boss, who asks him to conduct the interviews for batch of candidates. Revanth intelligently takes the interview where he asks all candidates to write Hindu names starting with letter R. After ten minutes, Revanth has with him many Indian names starting with R but is still not able to identify the mystery woman. The lady disconnects the call as she gets offended by one of the names (Rasikapriya) suggested by Revanth -- which were actually provided to Revanth by James. After a couple of days, she calls again, and he apologizes for his behavior. He is mesmerized by her voice and really falls for her. He expresses his desire to meet her. She accepts only if he can find out the number where she is calling him from in the next two minutes. She gives him a puzzle, solving which he would be able to get her phone number. Revanth solves the puzzle incorrectly and gets into trouble by going to a wrong phone booth in search of the mystery woman. Revanth is frustrated by his failure when James suggests to seek the help of telephone exchange to find from where the calls were being made. Again, they fail at that, too, but James meets a girl who is a telephone operator with whom he has a fling. Revanth ends up in more trouble like being arrested by the police for being in a room where a girl committed suicide, goes on to extreme tasks like measuring the angle of Dr Ambedkar's hand in front of Vidhana Soudha (88 degrees); all to find out the phone number and address of the mystery woman. He names her "Beladingala Baale", who now gives Revanth one month to find where she lives. In the meantime, based on the clues in a letter posted by the mysterious woman, Revanth determines that her name is Ramya. Revanth has an upcoming tournament against Polonski, who is visiting India. However, before playing Polonski, Revanth has to win against the local chess master Prabhakar (Avinash). On the day of the match, he is accused of hypnotizing Prabhakar with a lemon in his pockets which was actually given to him by a novelist, Seetharam. Seetharam was avenging himself since Revanth had refused to write a testimony for his book. Revanth is disqualified from the game and has to resign from his job, too. But when he was about to resign, Beladingala Baale calls him, encourages him not to give up, and to fight this allegation. She suggests that he should challenge Prabhakar and six other chess players into playing against him simultaneously, where he would play blindfolded. Revanth decides to try out her suggestion and challenges Prabhakar and six others. He successfully defeats each of them and his tarnished image is cleared with him being hailed a true champion. Meanwhile, James tells Revanth that he will marry Sulochana (Vanitha Vasu), the telephone operator who helped them out while tapping his phone. Revanth tells Ramya over the phone that he is happy for James and expresses a desire to meet Ramya. She tells him to decode her address fast as the deadline is only four days away. There are only a couple of days left and Revanth gets frustrated by his failure. He has a match against Polonski on the same day Ramya's deadline expires. He has to go to Delhi for the match. Ramya calls him and tells him that he can meet her right-away as she is giving a party to her friends at Ashoka hotel but only if he can arrive there in five minutes. Revanth reaches Ashoka hotel but could only see her hand decorated with jewels in a room filled with her friends. Revanth then calls up James and asks him to come to the hotel with five of his friends on bikes. James arrives there with his friends and Revanth asks them to follow Beladingala Baale's friends individually as he is confident that one of them will go to meet Ramya. Revanth's plan backfires as his friends themselves get caught by the women while following them. He has to leave for his match to Delhi and he heads to the airport. While playing against Polonski, Revanth is constantly disturbed as he has only a few hours to decipher Ramya's address. In fact, the moves he makes in the chess game start to solve the puzzles that Beladingala Baale had given him to find her address. He messes up his chess moves but he finds her address there. He realizes from the clues given by her that her house is in JP Nagar, Bangalore. Polonski wins the match, but Revanth exclaims, "You have won this match, but I have won the match of my life". He calls James and tells him to search for posh houses in JP Nagar which are named Ramya. He also calls Sulochana and asks her to find the phone number of anyone whose name or company starts with Ramya in JP Nagar. From this he finds her number as 6137336. As he rushes out of Bangalore airport, he is met by Ramya's father. Revanth explains to him that there are still couple of minutes for the deadline to expire and he has identified the address and phone number so he has won the bet. Ramya's father asks him to accompany him to their home. On the way home in their car, he hands a letter written by Ramya to Revanth and says that it is Ramya's last wish that her dead body should not be moved unless Revanth comes. Revanth is deeply shocked and hurt listening to this. Ramya writes in the letter that she had a rare disease and had only six months to live. She wanted to make friends and not tell anyone about her disease. Revanth is devastated by her letter. Her father invites him inside but instead he turns around and starts walking away without seeing her. On being asked, he tells James that she was in his imagination and he wants to keep her alive in his imagination, so he will not see her dead body. The film ends as he walks out of her house's gateway in spite of the rains. ===== Devdas (Ram) is a poor student, while Bhanumati (Ileana D'Cruz) is a rich NRI girl whose father Katamraju (Sayaji Shinde) is the senator of New York. They fall in love when Bhanu comes to India to learn classical Carnatic music. Coming to know about their love, Katamraju hatches a plan to separate them. He promises to get them married but takes his daughter and mother-in-law back to the USA. The rest of the story is how Devdas makes it to the USA and succeeds in attaining his girl. ===== Athili Sathi Babu (Ravi Teja) is a rookie thief in Hyderabad, who is crazy about performing dare devil acts. He falls in love with Neeraja (Anushka Shetty), who is in Hyderabad to attend a marriage. Sathi Babu makes his way into her heart and she also starts loving him. Sathi Babu tells her the truth about him being a thief and resolves to give up crime forever. But before that, he decides to swindle one last person for a large sum of money along with his uncle Duvva (Brahmanandam). He tricks a woman in a bus stand and flees with a trunk. This leads Sathi Babu to Neha (Baby Neha), a young girl who was in the trunk instead of the wealth he thought was in the trunk, who thinks that Sathi Babu is her father. Flummoxed by what is happening, but forced to keep Neha with her as a police officer Inspector Mahanti (Rajiv Kanakala) keeps his eye on him. Although he tries keeping Neha away from Neeraja’s eyes, the latter finds out about Neha. Angry and hurt, Neeraja leaves for her place leaving Sathi Babu heartbroken. Soon, unknown goons attack him, taking him to be superintendent of Police, Vikram Rathore (also Ravi Teja), Neha’s real father. Rathore looks exactly like Sathi Babu, which had caused all the confusion. While many unknown people help Sathi Babu run to safety with Neha in his arms, he is soon surrounded by the goons. It is then that Rathore makes an appearance and saves the day killing every goon by himself, but he soon dies suffering from injuries. The other policemen who had assisted the SP then inform Sathi Babu of the whole incident. In Chambal village of Devgarh, Madhya Pradesh, the slain, and corrupt local M. L. A. Bavuji (Vineet Kumar), a borderline psychopath, engulfs the town with his political corruption, illegal activities, criminal nexus, rape, and money laundering. His son Munna (Amit Tiwari) indulges in abusing women, and raping the wives of policemen. Rathore immediately arrests him and also makes him mentally insane. Munna humiliates police by removing their clothes but was killed by Rathod when he was hung from a tree by the belt of a humiliated inspector. Rathore was attacked by Bavuji's brother Titla (Ajay) on Holi where he was stabbed from the back as well as shot in the head while trying to save a village child and was assumed to be dead. But he survives with a brain injury although the goons assumed that he is dead. Effects of this brain injury are later visible and these effects are diminished by water falling on his head. Sathi Babu then adopts Neha, who does not know that her father is dead. Then Sathi Babu returns to Devgarh posing as Rathore, and heads to settle the scores with Bavuji. Duvva tells Neeraja the truth and she forgives Sathi Babu. Sathi Babu, being a goon, handles Bavuji well with tricks. He sets the MLA's wine factory afire and makes the villagers rob his food store. In the ensuing fight, he single- handedly defeats all of Bavuji's men. In the end, he fights with Titla on a rope bridge. Sathi Babu ties and cuts the rope and Titla falls to death. Sathi Babu marries Neeraja, and they leave for a new life with Neha and Duvva. ===== A Midsummer Night's Rave transposes A Midsummer Night's Dream to modern rave culture. Unlike Rave Macbeth—released a year earlier and also adapting a Shakespeare play, Macbeth, into the context of rave culture—A Midsummer Night's Rave's plot also explores the characters' activities outside of the rave: Xander (Andrew Keegan) and Mia (Sunny Mabrey) needs the aid of a rave and a green glowing drug, provided by a British mystic, O. B. John (Jason Carter), to admit their love for each other; a drug dealer, apparently modelled on Shylock, named Doc wants his stolen drug money; and Nick (Chad Lindberg) dons a donkey costume at a daycare center. The plot is significantly altered from the original to "accommodate a homosexual relationship and to allow one liberated woman, Elena (Lauren German), to reject her callow lover." ===== Ivan Mozer (Lyle Alzado) is a serial killer who has been convicted of the rape, torture, and murder of 23 people. Mozer is given the death penalty by electrocution. At his execution, he boasts of having killed 24 people. A power outage caused by a riot prevents the execution, but Mozer receives a jolt of electricity before the power fails. The prison staff assumes that Mozer is killed during the riot, but he manages to escape. The prison subsequently is abandoned. Mozer lives within the abandoned prison with the assistance of his father, who had been employed as a guard. Eighteen months later, a film crew arrives at the prison to shoot an exploitation film entitled Death House Dollies. They discover that Mozer survived his electrocution due to an unusual genetic gift. The jolt of electrical energy made him "half-alive", leaving him in a feral state and granting him spontaneous regeneration. ===== A Captain George Taylor of the U.S. Army is leading an Apache gunship squadron, patrolling over Shaba province, when advanced South African gunships destroy it. After crashing (and mercy-killing his fatally wounded gunner, he finds an abandoned Army camp, and forages supplies for a long trek, initially on foot, to the Zairean capital, Kinshasa. Along the way he learns that the attack on his squadron was part of a bigger South African offensive that had mauled U.S. forces in Zaire; South African commandos and Zairean guerrillas also destroy B-2 bombers at an airbase in Kinshasa. The American collapse was so swift that the U.S. President is able to force only a cease-fire (and South African withdrawal) by carrying out a nuclear strike on Pretoria, an action that had reaped heavy international condemnation. The EU disavows its original support for the U.S. operation while Japan uses the war as an excuse to launch a mercantilist trade war against America: it embargoes countries that continue to trade with the U.S., though continues to sell its own products there. Taylor is evacuated home to the U.S., but finds himself suffering from a new virus elsignated "Runciman's Disease" (RD), which leaves his face horribly scarred; many returning U.S. soldiers are similarly infected; it spreads around the worldwide in a global pandemic. Japan puts its Home Islands under quarantine, with Okinawa being used exclusively for international trade. A nuclear war in the Middle East, some time after the Shaba disaster, destroys Israel. In 2008, Taylor leads a U.S. Army unit into Los Angeles, as the military is put on domestic deployment combatting social unrest, and protecting delivery of basic services in the wake of the RD outbreak. Several years later, Taylor deploys with U.S. forces to Mexico, to eradicate a Japanese-supported revolutionary government that had won control; his disfigured face, and unique tactics strike fear among the rebels. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, is on the brink of internal collapse in 2020, as its Central Asian republics ally with other Japanese-supported Islamic nations in conquering the country's resource-laden territory for Japan's benefit, and also conduct genocide against ethnic Russians. The United States reorganizes its military, and secretly deploys a combat unit - the 7th Heavy Cavalry Regiment (7HCR) - under by-then Colonel Taylor's command, and spearheaded by the new M-100 assault gunship:, these are equipped with an advanced railgun, and Gatling cannons. The capture of an advanced Japanese AI interface enables the United States and Soviet Union to gain a better grasp of Japanese command-and-control abilities. The U.S. military command orders the open deployment of the 7HCR to strike a blow deep into the heart of the Arab Islamic Union lines in northern Kazakhstan, and help bolster Soviet defenses. The initial U.S. attacks on November 2, 2020, render heavy damage to the Islamic Union and their allied Iranian forces, especially when a repair depot in Karaganda is totally destroyed. Taylor's troops reposition to new deployment areas in the Ural river region, but a stray radio transmission gives the Japanese a clue to one assembly area near Orsk. The information prompts the Japanese to target it with the Scramblers, a special radiowave weapon that permanently disrupts the body's neuro-muscular functions while leaving the brain intact. When Taylor discovers the area, he is appalled at the weapon's effects; General Noburu Kabata, the Japanese theater commander, is horrified that the weapon was used over his objections. The fallout from the Scramblers' deployment shocks the U.S. government, which proposes negotiating a ceasefire after all that happened. Taylor proposes leading all his remaining forces into a surgical strike at the Japanese headquarters in Baku, with logistical support from the Soviets. However, on November 4, the Soviets turn on the Americans as they gather at the last jump-off point north of the Caspian Sea; Taylor's forces escape the trap and head for the Japanese headquarters, which is itself under siege from Azeri militants. Despite a withdrawal order from Washington, the U.S. troops storm the command center and Taylor kills Kabata, while a U.S. technician uses the center's advanced supercomputer to disable Japan's space defenses and other in-theater assets. Japanese relief columns arrive at the base and Taylor dies staying behind to shut down the computer, while the rest of his men fly to Turkey. The epilogue shows that the attack resulted in a peace treaty signed between the USSR and its enemies. The 7HCR is commended by presidential order with all survivors promoted but some of Taylor's men voluntarily reassign to other units out of dissatisfaction over its new pompous commanding officer. ===== Penelope Townes, a 13-year-old British girl, comes into possession of an opal pendant when she explores the dusty attic of her family's decaying mansion. The opal contains two Australian genies, Bruce and his son Baz, who have been living inside the opal for 130 years waiting to go back to their home in Australia. This is the setting for a battle of wits and a clash of class and culture. Penelope has the power. Bruce, the Genie has the magic. Typically, an episode revolved around the consequences of one of Penelope's flippant wishes, or the efforts of an outside party to steal the opal (and thus, the genies). Bruce is an ocker and Penelope is a selfish snob who sees the genies as her property. When Penelope inherits a property in Australia (Townes Downs), Bruce and Baz are very happy because it means that they can spend more time in their own country. When they go to inspect the property, they meet Otto von Meister, who runs tours of outback Australia. His family had once owned the opal, and according to Otto, Penelope's great grandfather had stolen it from his family years before. When he finds out that Penelope has the opal, he tries to steal it from her. He often enlists his nephew Conrad to help him. Penelope falls in love with Conrad, which gives Otto far more opportunity to steal the opal. Things are further complicated when Bruce (the genie) falls in love with Penelope's mother, Lady Diana Townes. She is already supposedly in love with Lord 'Bubbles' Uppington-Smythe, however, it is revealed that this is only because of his money, and she in turn falls in love with Bruce. In the end, Penelope accepts that Bruce and her mother are in love, and gives the opal to her mother, allowing Bruce to reveal his true identity. Bruce and Diana end up marrying. ===== Jade Li (Sandra Oh) is a feisty, 22-year- old Chinese-Canadian aspiring actress who lives at home with her traditional Chinese family: her strict father (Stephen Chang), her dutiful mother (Alannah Ong), and her sweet younger sister, Pearl (Frances You). Their older brother, Winston, has been disowned—a fate Jade is not eager to share, both for her own sake and to spare her family pain. Her family tries to put on the perfect public persona at all costs so as to maintain their dignity as well as uphold their traditional Chinese values. One primary part of this persona is prosperity. Jade's father hopes that true financial prosperity will become reality through penny stocks. Jade, meanwhile, tries to achieve that happy medium between giving in to her parents' wishes and fulfilling her own needs and desires - double happiness. Therefore, although she manages to land a few bit parts on camera, Jade spends most of her time working in the shop owned by a family friend, performing the duties of a respectful daughter and suffering through arranged dates with prosperous young Chinese men (Including one who is gay.). An adept cultural chameleon, though, she also leads a double life, hanging out with best friend Lisa (Claudette Carracedo). When her father's childhood friend arrives for a visit, Jade must juggle her competing identities even more carefully than usual, lest her choice of professions—and boyfriends—shame her father. Because of its instability, Jade's parents don't understand or widely publicize Jade's aspirations to be an actress. Their main want for Jade is to date and marry a nice Chinese boy, a goal for which Jade's extended family also strives as they are always trying to introduce her to Chinese boys. Initially, they believe that the boy is Andrew, with who Jade even agrees to go out. But Jade, beyond wanting to be an actress, wishes her family had more western sensibilities. She is attracted to a slightly awkward but persistent Caucasian English graduate student named Mark. Jade has to figure out how to both please her family, who would not approve of her dating a Caucasian, and be true to herself. Her older brother is already out of the picture for that very reason. Naturally, something must give sooner or later, and the facade of the perfect Chinese daughter soon begins to crumble. ===== The film is set in the late 1970s in Wielice, People's Republic of Poland. Factory worker Filip Mosz (Jerzy Stuhr) is a nervous new father and a doting husband when he begins filming his daughter's first days with a newly acquired 8mm movie camera. He believes, as he tells his wife, that he now has everything he ever wanted since his youth as an orphan, but when the local Communist Party boss asks him to film a celebration event of the jubilee of his plant, his fascination with the possibilities of film begins to transform his life. When they see his film, his superiors find his shot of a pigeon useless and his shots of several negotiators at a business meeting too probing. His boss suggests that Filip cut the shots of the entertainers being paid, the men going to the bathroom, and the business meeting. (He allows Filip to keep the pigeons as long as the shot of entertainers being paid is taken out.) He submits the film to a festival and gains third prize, effectively second prize because the festival did not award a first prize, feeling that no work was deserving. He is given an award as an incentive to keep filming. He starts to neglect his responsibilities to his family as his attention fixes on Anna Wlodarczyk, an attractive, self-described "amatorka" who encourages Filip's filmmaking, on the activities he films, and on the world of cinephiles. The Kraków TV station airs Filip's film about a dwarf working at the factory and another about misallocated town renovation funds. Filip's boss reprimands him: work on the new nursery school will have to stop because of his expose, and Stasio Osuch, the head of the works council and Filip's mentor, will lose his job. After that, Filip retrieves the canister for his as-yet undeveloped film about the brickyard, which he has learned is not operating due to lack of materials, with the workers being secretly employed on other town projects, opens it and tosses the film out to be exposed to the light. Alone at home, his wife having left the relationship with their daughter due to his obsession with filming rather than his family, Filip now turns his 16mm camera on himself. ===== Fritz Brown is a disgraced former LAPD officer now working as a private investigator, part-time repo man and struggling on-the-wagon ex-alcoholic. Fritz is hired by an obese caddy named Freddy 'Fat Dog' Baker, supposedly to keep tabs on Fat Dog's sister, Jane. In the course of his investigation, Fritz learns that Jane is indeed living with an elderly millionaire named Solly Kupferman, and that their relationship is odd at best. Fritz follows Solly and witnesses a transaction between Solly and Cathcart, the Internal Affairs Chief who disgraced Fritz and had him expelled from the police force Brown suspects Fat Dog of being an arsonist and discovers that Kupferman owned Club Utopia through a proxy. Brown, thinking there might be a connection between the two men, decides to look for Fat Dog, who has disappeared and force him to confess but finds him dead in Mexico instead. He has been killed by Richard Ralston, with whom Fat Dog had started an illegal trade in social welfare benefits. Ralston failed to find a notebook where Fat Dog had meticulously noted their illegal transactions. Fritz soon finds himself involved in a complicated set of circumstances involving crooks, hit men, corrupt police and murder. ===== Raoul, the young heir to the barony of Marckmont (described as "a blend of elf and owl and boy") grows up to become a sensitive, intelligent young man who prefers reading and song to the so-called knightly virtues of war and slaughter. At seventeen, he takes off on his own and thus begin a series of adventures that will try and mature him. Along the way, he falls in love, survives attempted murder, saves Red Anne (Mistress of the Witches' Coven of the Singing Stones), and is forced to join a band of outlaws, where his life is one of constant danger. Only after many more thrilling incidents does he finally comes into his inheritance. ===== Guei (played by Cui Lin) is a seventeen-year-old country boy who came to Beijing to make a living.Full name is Guo Liangui, if written in hanyu pinyin without tone marks. In the English subtitles "Guei" is used instead. Along with a number of other boys from the country, Guei finds employment with a courier company, which assigns them brand-new bicycles for use in their deliveries. The company manager (Xie Jian) announces to them that since the bicycles do not yet belong to them, they will only earn twenty percent of the commission. But once they have made enough deliveries to earn the bicycles, their share will be raised to fifty percent. Within two months Guei has made enough to earn his bicycle. However, on the day that Guei is due to take over the ownership, the bicycle is stolen while he is picking up a document. The manager fires Guei for neglecting to deliver the package, but, upon the latter's pleas, agrees to take him back if he succeeds in recovering his bicycle. At the other end of the city, Jian (Li Bin) is a seventeen-year-old schoolboy who longs for a bicycle of his own so he can ride with Xiao (Gao Yuanyuan), the girl he fancies.Name given in dialogue is Xiaoxiao. His hopes are dashed when his father (Zhao Yiwei) delays buying a bicycle for him yet again so that his younger stepsister Rong Rong (Zhou Fanfei) can go to a prestigious school. This frustrates Jian, who steals some money from his family and pays 500 yuan to a second-hand dealer for a bicycle—the one that used to belong to Guei. Meanwhile, the stubborn Guei embarks on a search for his bicycle. By chance, his friend Mantis (Liu Lei) spots Jian with the bicycle. Guei tries to make off with the bicycle but is stopped by Jian and his gang of schoolboys. The determined Guei follows Jian home and steals back the bicycle from where Jian hides it. The manager keeps his promise and takes Guei back. However, when Guei shows up at the courier company on another day, he finds Jian and his gang waiting for him. He tries to escape but the gang chases him down and, after giving him a beating, forcibly re-takes the bicycle. When Jian returns home, he finds his father waiting for him at the door, along with Guei. Thinking that his son was the bicycle thief, the enraged father gives Jian a rapping and lets Guei take his bicycle. However, Jian and his gang track down Guei again the next day and after long hours of negotiation, the two sides reach a pact: Guei and Jian are to share the bicycle, each entitled to the use of it on alternate days. This arrangement persists for some days until Jian finds out that Xiao has fallen for Da Huan (Li Shuang), a bicycle freestylist. Jian hits his rival with a brick and rides off. At their usual meeting place, Jian hands the bicycle to Guei and tells the latter that he does not need it any more. Meanwhile, Da Huan, along with his gang, comes after Jian on their bikes. Jian and Guei make off together but are cornered by Da Huan and his gang, who give both of them a serious beating. As the gang leaves, one member stays behind to wreck Guei's bicycle. In a rare burst of rage, Guei picks up a brick and smashes the head of his attacker, who collapses. Carrying his battered bicycle on his shoulder, Guei walks back alone. ===== Five paramilitary mercenaries and war criminals—Corbin, Curry, Jack, Roxanne, and Bert—steal three million dollars from Camp Pendleton and take two hostages: Al, a pilot, and his teenaged daughter, Kellie. As they fly toward Mexico, Bert steals the loot and parachutes into a dark field. Corbin and Jack parachute after him, followed by Al. Upon landing, Bert's parachute gets caught in a tree, and, after untangling himself, he finds a scarecrow alongside several graves. In the distance he notices an abandoned farmhouse. Bert flees in a truck parked at the house, driving down a desolate road and retrieving the loot. As the others attempt to track him from the plane, the truck breaks down. Bert finds the truck mysteriously does not have an engine. He attempts to flee on foot with the trunk of loot. He finds himself in a grove of scarecrows, and is stabbed to death by one that supernaturally animates. After landing the plane, Curry, Roxanne, and Kellie arrive at the house, and find Corbin and Jack inside. From the roof of the house, Curry spots the loot near three crosses in the distance; the scarecrows that were there have disappeared. Roxanne stays behind at the house with Kellie while Jack, Curry, and Corbin venture into the field to find the loot. They locate the truck Bert escaped in, and find a scarecrow in the driver's seat. Nearby, they locate Bert's parachute bag hanging from the tree, and upon attempting to open it, find it filled with blood. Back at the house, the men are confronted by Bert, and Curry begins punching him. In the midst of the fight, they discover Bert's abdomen has been eviscarated, his body stuffed with dollar bills, though he is still seemingly alive. Curry and Roxanne shoot Bert numerous times, but the bullets prove ineffective. Corbin finally decapitates him, apparently killing him. Kellie flees into the field in the melee, and finds her father's eviscerated body hung from a scarecrow post with barbwire. Corbin retrieves her, bringing her back to the house, where Jack and Roxanne are extracting the wadded cash stuffed in Bert's hollowed-out corpse. Corbin tells them Al is dead, and Kellie slaps Roxanne in the face, chastising all of them for her father's death. Jack notices that more dollar bills have blown into the field near the house, and the group rush outside to retrieve what money they can. While in a remote part of the field, Jack is killed by one of the scarecrows, which dismembers him with a handsaw before stabbing him in the face. While searching for Jack, Curry finds three scarecrows in the field, but they disappear. Curry becomes convinced that the scarecrows are possessed by the spirits of three deceased Satanist farmers—Jakob, Benjamin, and Norman Fowler—whose photograph hangs inside the farmhouse. Roxanne, Corbin, and Kellie decide to leave, but Curry stays behind, refusing to depart without Jack. The three become separated in the field, and, while attempting to recoup loose dollar bills on the ground, Roxanne is viciously killed by one of the scarecrows. Corbin shoots a scarecrow that nearly attacks Kellie, and the two flee to the plane. Corbin is stabbed in the leg while attempting to crawl beneath a fence, but Kellie shoots two of the scarecrows before they can kill him. Back at the house, Curry finds Bert's severed head and limbs have reanimated, and is subsequently confronted by a grossly disfigured Jack, who stabs him to death. Kellie flies the plane out of the field with Corbin. Once in the air, Corbin is stabbed by a repossessed Al, who covertly boarded the plane. The repossessed Al goes after Kellie and stabs her through the wrist. Corbin has managed to get back, and the two begin to fight, and Corbin explodes a grenade, killing them both. Voice-over narration from a morning news broadcast imparts that the plane was found landed near San Diego, with the charred remains of two individuals, and Kellie, in a shocked state. ===== A failed, recluse director, Max, moves from New York City to a small seaside town after his wife's death. He struggles with his parental role over his son. Eddie, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly involved in the not-so-underground culture of drugs, promiscuous sex, and gang violence that lies there. The chasm between them seems to be growing despite Max's best efforts. Max jogs in the mornings and routinely passes a psychic. She spontaneously predicts that one night a serial killer will attack Eddie on the beach. Eddie is sampling various drugs with his friend, Smiley, and having unprotected sex. He ignores the advice of his father as a rule and seems beyond hope of redemption in the eyes of mainstream society. He shows potential for betterment when he prevents the murder of a rival gang member. Max saves Eddie from the serial killer. ===== Ting-yin, a young novelist, is struggling to come up with a followup to her best-selling trilogy of romance novels. She has not even started on the book yet and her agent has already announced that the next title, The Recycle, will deal with the supernatural. After drafting her first chapter, she stops and deletes the file from her computer. She then starts seeing strange, unexplainable things and finds that she is experiencing the supernatural events that she described in her novel- to-be. ===== The hero, Gösta Berling, is a defrocked Lutheran priest who has been saved by the Mistress of Ekeby from freezing to death and thereupon becomes one of her pensioners in the manor at Ekeby. As the pensioners finally get power in their own hands, they manage the property as they themselves see fit and their lives are filled with many wild adventures. Gösta Berling is their leading spirit, the poet, the charming personality among a band of revelers. Before the story ends, Gösta Berling is redeemed, and even the old Mistress of Ekeby is permitted to come to her old home to die. ===== In rural Michigan in 1991, Marie Harris (Neve Campbell) delivers the eulogy at the funeral of her father Chuck (David Alpay), a U.S. Army Air Force veteran who had fought in World War II. The church is full of veterans who knew and loved her father, although her mother Ethel (Shirley MacLaine) is sitting out on the church porch, smoking and nursing a hangover. Ethel is totally indifferent about Chuck's death, which only her friend Jack Etty (Christopher Plummer) seems to understand. Marie is furious with her mother and with her implication that she slept with many of the veterans when they were all young, but then Ethel relents and says that she was always faithful. It quickly emerges that there is a lot Marie does not know about her mother's past and the true story of her love life. A young Ethel (Mischa Barton) was in love with a young farmer, Teddy Gordon (Stephen Amell), who builds a farmhouse with his best friends Jack and Chuck. Her parents think she is dating "good old reliable" Chuck (all three boys are in love with her), but within days of the Pearl Harbor attack, she has accepted Teddy's gold ring and unofficially married him - with Jack and Chuck as their witnesses. The three young men fly out the next day. Teddy and Jack are stationed at RAF Langford Lodge near Belfast, where Jack eventually plans to propose to Eleanor (Kirsty Stuart), an Irish tart. Jimmy Riley (Martin McCann), Eleanor's young adult grandson, is in 1991 Belfast when he encounters local elder Michael Quinlan (Pete Postlethwaite), who is digging for wreckage of a crashed B-17 aircraft on nearby Black Mountain. Jimmy later finds a ring near the site, becoming determined to return it to the woman from the "Ethel & Teddy" inscription, with the U.S. VA identifying an Ethel that crash victim Teddy Gordon left his belongings to. Inadvertently caught up in The Troubles, Jimmy flees Belfast, travelling to Michigan to give Ethel the ring. Ethel reveals a wall covered in souvenirs of Teddy, which Jack and Chuck boarded up for her shortly after Teddy's death in June 1944. Marie is shocked and furious to learn that her mother still mourns for Teddy, finally understanding why Ethel thoughtlessly shut out Marie and Chuck. Jack later fills her in on the full story, including his own three failed marriages (his son, Pete (David Alpay), soon realizes that Jack always loved Ethel), Ethel's refusal to leave the house the friends built, and her finally marrying Chuck after 10 years. Ethel Ann travels to Belfast with Jimmy. As she holds the hand of a dying British soldier caught in an IRA car-bomb attack, Quinlan confesses to Ethel Ann that, as a teenager, he was on Black Mountain when Teddy died. Teddy made Quinlan promise to give her the ring and tell her that she must be free to make her own choice in love. A tearful Quinlan tells her he should have reached out to her back then, and that he spent 50 years looking for the ring that was lost in the final blast that killed Teddy, regretfully (now) thinking she needed it as much as she needed Teddy's dying words. Joining Ethel in Belfast, Jack finally admits that he has always loved her. Ethel is finally able to cry and properly grieve for Teddy. She and Jack embrace each other lovingly, completing her sweep through Teddy and his two best friends. ===== Egghead (in a voice imitating radio comic Joe Penner), who is annoyed by a silhouetted man in the theater audience who refuses to sit down. After he sits down twice and finally gets shot by Egghead when he will not stay down, out comes Daffy Duck biting his nose. While fighting, a tortoise (imitating radio comic Parkyakarkus) comes and tries to give Daffy and Egghead new weapons. When the tortoise goes away, Egghead uses his real gun and Daffy tries to make him shoot the apple on his head. Egghead misses every time, so Daffy puts a blind sign, a cup of pencils, and disguise glasses on Egghead. Later, Egghead finally manages to capture Daffy by shooting a pair of gloves from his gun, knocking Daffy out and allowing Egghead to place him in a net. Just as Egghead celebrates, a duck from the mental ward comes to claim Daffy. He thanks Egghead for helping to catch Daffy, and tells him that Daffy is 100 percent nuts. "Yeah?", Egghead asks. "Yeah!", answers the duck warden. At that moment, both he and Daffy beat Egghead up before woohoo-ing out into the distance. Egghead becomes fed up with the antics and decides to join them as the cartoon ends. ===== Jeffrey Nicolas Grant (River Phoenix), a brash hyperactive high school student lives in a San Diego suburb with his parents, who own a successful garden center. Keen to fly, he has applied for entry to the Air Force Academy. During a routine background check on Jeff, FBI agent Roy Parmenter (Poitier) finds contradictory information on his parents, making him suspect that all is not as it should be. Further investigations reveal that they may be sleeper agents for the Soviet Union with a teenaged son. Unable to arrest them as they have not done anything illegal, Roy continues his investigation, moves into the house across the street from the Grant family, and worms his way into their confidence. He eventually confronts Jeff with his suspicions and seeks Jeff's cooperation to learn more about his parents. Initially unbelieving, Jeff is soon forced to accept the facts and discovers that even his name is fictitious and that his real name is Nikita. Roy confides to Jeff that twenty years earlier, his partner was killed by a Soviet agent, known only as 'Scuba' (Richard Lynch), and that he is still at large. 'Scuba' is now a rogue agent, killing KGB agents one by one, including "sleepers". Meanwhile, a Soviet spy-catcher, Konstantin Karpov (Richard Bradford), has been sent from the Soviet embassy in Mexico City to 'reel in' Scuba. Jeff is captured and held as a hostage at gunpoint by Karpov, as he and 'Scuba' make their way to the Mexican border on the San Diego Trolley. Roy has also confronted them and is holding Karpov at gunpoint. At the border, the situation resolves itself; Karpov and 'Scuba' cross into Mexico, and the Grant family remain in the United States. ===== The novel contains a series of six short stories about two high school students: beginning with a boy (Kamiyama) who remains unnamed until late in the story, and a girl named Yoru Morino. Both share a similar interest in gruesome murders. While the stories were originally published in a single hardcover edition, they were later published in two bunko volumes. Tokyopop's release follows the original one-volume format. The manga adaptation, by Kendi Oiwa, eliminates the Dog storyline, and combines Voice and Twins, with Morino taking Natsumi's role in the final story. * ' - Morino finds a diary written by a serial killer. It describes a third victim that has yet to be discovered, so she and the narrator go to look at it. Morino then begins dressing like the third victim, and a few days later, sends a text message to the narrator, which reads only, "Help." * ' - Flashback to before Morino and the narrator were friends. After finding a doll with no hands in the science lab garbage can, the narrator breaks into the science teacher's house, convinced he has been the one cutting hands off people of all ages in the city. He then steals the teacher's hand collection, and plants evidence to suggest Morino was the one who stole them - because he wants Morino's hand, and the scar from when she cut her wrist. * ' - The narrator investigates a series of dog kidnappings after his sister discovers a pit filled with their bodies. A young girl and her pet dog have been plotting to defend themselves against her mother's abusive boyfriend. * ' - Morino has been having trouble sleeping, and is looking for a rope to put around her neck - the right rope will help her sleep. At the narrator's urging, she tells the story of how she and her twin sister, Yū, often pretended to be dead...until Yū accidentally hanged herself. * ' - Saeki spends all his free time gardening, digging holes to try to control his obsession with burying people alive. He's already given in once, and killed a young neighbor boy, drowning him in his coffin. Now he's snatched a high school girl off the street - according to her ID, her name is Yoru Morino. * ' - Natsumi's older sister was recently found chopped to pieces in an abandoned hospital. A few weeks later, a mysterious high school boy gives Natsumi a tape - a message from her sister, recorded just before she was murdered. If she wants the rest, she will have to come to the hospital, and allow him to murder her. ===== Mister Johnson, a Nigerian who has adopted the style of the British colonialists, works as an assistant to the colonialist judge Harry Rudbeck. He marries Bamu in a Christian marriage ceremony and offers to share his "wealth" and "civilized" life with her, though she continues to behave according to her traditional Nigerian role as a wife instead of like an Englishwoman. Waziri offers to pay Johnson to show him government letters from Rudbeck's office, but Johnson refuses out of loyalty to England. Johnson owes money to several people but Rudbeck is unwilling to give him an advance, and Bamu returns to her family's home because Johnson cannot pay the monthly bridal payment. Johnson accepts money from Waziri in exchange for stealing letters from Rudbeck's office that describe Waziri as a plotting liar. Rudbeck runs out of money for a 100-mile road he is building to the North Road, a major trade route, and Johnson suggests taking money designated for other government projects and using it for the road instead. Rudbeck's wife Celia arrives and is dismayed by the accommodations and food. The treasurer Mister Tring arrives and identifies anomalies in the cash book, so he fires Johnson and stops work on the road. Johnson begins working at colonialist merchant Sargy Gollup's store with Benjamin and attempts to make profitable trades himself, but his activities cause Sargy to punch him. Benjamin catches Johnson stealing an advance from Sargy's cash box, which Johnson uses to hold a party. He invites the people inside Sargy's store when it starts to rain, despite Benjamin's objections. Sargy returns and punches Johnson, but Johnson fights back and knocks him out. Rudbeck comes to investigate but Sargy says that it was an accident. He gives Johnson one month's advance pay and fires him. Johnson and Bamu wander looking for work with their newborn son and when the rainy seasons ends work commences on the road again and Rudbeck gives Johnson a job there as a supervisor. Productivity increases but money runs out and construction stops. Johnson tells locals that there is a prize of five pounds to the group that clears the most bush, to be paid to the chief, and work commences again. The workers reach the North Road and a new trade route is established but Rudbeck discovers that Johnson is charging a road fee. He confronts Johnson, who insists that he was only borrowing a little, and forces him to leave instead of having him arrested. Johnson, Bamu, and their son return to the Zungo, where Bamu's family insists that she return home to them. Johnson asks Waziri for money but Waziri orders his guards to cripple Johnson. Johnson escapes through a window but finds that his wife has already left. He gets drunk and sneaks into Sargy Gollup's store to steal money from the cash box but Sargy catches him and fires his rifle at him. The two fight and Johnson kills Sargy by stabbing him with a pin used to hold receipts. Waziri is ordered by the chief to either find Johnson or someone else to take the blame. Johnson visits his wife to ask for food, where her brother clubs him and turns him in to the authorities. In jail, Waziri's former assistant convinces Johnson to give him his English shoes since he will be hanged soon. After his conviction, Johnson begs Rudbeck to shoot him in order to spare him from hanging. The next morning, Johnson once again begs Rudbeck to shoot him, or at least hang him by his own hand as he consider Rudbeck his friend. After Johnson sang a song about fear, Rudbeck grabs a rifle and shoots Johnson, knowing fully well that this could have adverse impact on his career. ===== Generation O! focuses on the character of Molly O, an 8-year-old rock star and the lead singer of the band "Generation O!" along with bassist Nub (an older British musician), guitarist Eddie (Molly's cousin), drummer Yo-Yo (a kangaroo), and manager Colonel Bob. Molly also spends time with her best friend Chadd, and tries to avoid her pesky brother Buzz. ===== Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter), a New York paintings conservator working at The Met, has very bad judgment in men, which is proven when she walks in on her boyfriend cheating on her with a supermodel. Amanda begins looking for a new apartment and finds one with four struggling models, Jade (Shalom Harlow), Roxana (Ivana Miličević), Candi (Sarah O'Hare), and Holly (Tomiko Fraser). When Amanda discovers that Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze Jr.), the guy she likes, lives in the apartment across from hers, she starts spying on him to try to find his flaw. One night Amanda sees Jim kill a woman, Megan O'Brien (Tanja Reichert), and by the time the police arrive they don't believe Amanda because she is the only witness, and the evidence is gone. Annoyed about the police's lack of effort to find out what has really happened, Amanda and her new friends investigate on their own. When Amanda finds out about what she thinks is Jim's involvement with Megan's death, she confronts him. Amanda's judgment turns out to be wrong and Jim, who turns out to be an undercover FBI agent, Bob Smoot, who was trying to gain a suspect's trust by staging his partner Megan's death, has his cover blown. Amanda discovers that Jim is investigating Halloran (Jay Brazeau), a Russian man who has been smuggling in money and who Amanda has been privately restoring a painting for. Later, Jim, Amanda and her roommates get captured, but escape when Roxana seduces their Russian guard, and with the help of the models realize what Halloran was really doing, smuggling diamonds. Amanda, Jim, and the models go to a fashion runway and take down Strukov. They are all awarded special commendations for meritorious service from the FBI. After the cops take care of things Jim asks Amanda if they can start over, but she refuses and Jim leaves. At the end Amanda and Jim (going by his real name Bob) "meet" again and the movie ends when Bob takes Amanda up to his new apartment and shows her the view, which turns out to be of Amanda and the models' apartment. Lisa and the models are jumping around happily while Bob and Amanda laugh. They kiss and close the curtains to his apartment window. ===== A rather boring police officer named Officer Buckle is assigned to take a police dog named Gloria to his safety speech at the local school. Until that time, whenever Officer Buckle tried to tell schools about safety everyone fell asleep. Then, unbeknownst to Officer Buckle (literally, behind his back), Gloria does tricks imitating the safety tip demonstrating safety rules, and Gloria is a big success. Officer Buckle enjoys the fame until he sees on a taped speech that the schoolchildren are so enthusiastic because of Gloria. He refuses to teach safety and a huge accident happens. A letter from an attentive and sweet girl, named Claire, convinces Officer Buckle to start teaching again. In the end, Officer Buckle and Gloria go to many schools and teach the students about safety together. ===== A group of sprite-like power engineers maintain and defend the lamp post HO32 which is the critical area of the entire Lighting Network. The Roons who live in the sewers below are the creatures who threaten the Lighting Network due to their strong dislike to the presence of light. Sewer rats can also prove to be a pest to the Lampies. =====