From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Gally is down at Blandings and writing his memoirs, to the horror of all who knew him in their wild youths, particularly Lord Emsworth's neighbour and pig-fancying rival Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. While sinister forces, including the efficient Baxter and the unpleasant Percy Pilbeam, scheme to put a stop to the book, Ronnie Fish and his old pal Hugo Carmody are entangled in difficult relationships, which require much subterfuge, some pig-theft and a little imposter-ing to resolve. ===== When four unsuspecting kids attend a remote, sinister-looking boarding school which is known as the Creepschool, they embark on an adventure into the fascinating, supernatural world. Imagine nightmares in your so called "Natural" life. Elliot, Josh, Janice and Victoria also share our everyday problems and… More! Who Says School Is Boring? ===== The first installment of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward was promoted with an outsized banner headline on the cover of Weird Tales. The second installment received a less prominent headline. Charles Dexter Ward is a young man from a prominent Rhode Island family who has disappeared from a mental asylum. He had been incarcerated during a prolonged period of insanity, during which he exhibited minor and inexplicable physiological changes. His empty cell is found to be very dusty. The bulk of the story concerns the investigation conducted by the Wards' family doctor, Marinus Bicknell Willett, in an attempt to discover the reason for Ward's madness and physiological changes. Willett learns that Ward had spent the past several years attempting to discover the grave of his ill-reputed ancestor, Joseph Curwen. The doctor slowly begins to reveal the truth behind the legends surrounding Curwen, an eighteenth-century shipping entrepreneur and alleged alchemist, who was in reality a necromancer and mass murderer. A raid on Curwen's farm was remarkable for the shouted incantations, lights, explosions, and some not-quite-human figures shot down by the raiders. The raiders swore any witnesses to strict secrecy about what they saw and heard. As Willett's investigations proceed, he finds that Charles had recovered Curwen's ashes, and through the use of magical formulae contained in documents found hidden in Curwen's home in Providence, was able to call forth Curwen from his "essential saltes" and resurrect him. Willett also finds that Curwen, who resembles Charles enough to pass for him, murdered and replaced his modern descendant and resumed his evil activities. Although Curwen convinces onlookers that he is Charles, his anachronistic mindset and behavior lead authorities to certify him insane and imprison him in an asylum. While Curwen is locked up, Willett's investigation leads him to a bungalow in Pawtuxet Village, which Ward had purchased while under the influence of Curwen. The house is on the site of the old farm which was Curwen's headquarters for his nefarious doings; beneath is a vast catacomb that the wizard had built as a lair during his previous lifetime. During a horrific journey through this labyrinth, in which Willett sees a deformed monster in a pit, he discovers the truth about Curwen's crimes and also the means of returning him to the grave. It is also revealed that Curwen has been engaged in a long-term conspiracy with certain other necromancers, associates from his previous life who have somehow escaped death, to resurrect and torture the world's wisest people to gain knowledge that will make them powerful and threaten the future of mankind. While in Curwen's laboratory, Willett accidentally summons an ancient entity who is an enemy of Curwen and his fellow necromancers. The doctor faints, awakening much later in the bungalow. The entrance to the vaults has been sealed as if it had never existed, but Willett finds a note from the being written in Latin instructing him to kill Curwen and destroy his body. Willett confronts Curwen at the asylum and succeeds in reversing the resurrection spell, returning the sorcerer to dust. News reports reveal that Curwen's prime co-conspirators and their households have met brutal deaths, and their lairs have been destroyed. ===== The plot relies heavily on the shared remembrance of the 1969 World Series involving the New York Mets. In time-leaping ham radio conversations between firefighter Frank Sullivan, speaking from 1969, and his son John, speaking from 1999, discussing events in the 1969 World Series, the two come to a point of trust about the details of events and how they play out. In October 1969, FDNY firefighter Frank Sullivan (Quaid) dies in a warehouse fire, leaving behind his wife Julia, a nurse, and six-year-old son John. Thirty years later, in 1999, John, now an NYPD detective, is dumped by his girlfriend Samantha for being emotionally shut off. John's neighbor and childhood buddy, Gordo, finds a Heathkit single-sideband ham radio that once belonged to Frank, but fails to get it working. The night before the anniversary of his father's death, John is surprised to find the radio operating during an occurrence of the aurora borealis, and has a brief conversation with another man concerning the 1969 World Series, which John is able to recount in specific detail. Eventually, he realizes that the other man is his father in 1969 and tries to warn him of his impending death. The next day, while attempting to rescue a young girl, Frank remembers John's warning and manages to escape the burning warehouse. In 1999, everyone is given an altered set of memories brought about by Frank's survival, but only John simultaneously remembers his father dying in the fire. That evening, Frank and John reconnect and learn a great deal about each others' lives. Subsequently, John begins to notice major changes in the present: His mother Julia no longer lives at her current address, Samantha does not recognize him, and he learns that Frank died in 1989 from lung cancer due to his persistent smoking. His boss, Sgt. Satch DeLeon, an old friend of Frank's, assigns him to investigate the "Nightingale", a serial killer who murdered three nurses in the 1960s and was never caught. However, John discovers that the Nightingale is now connected to ten murders, including that of his mother two weeks after Frank's now-avoided death. Feeling guilty that their actions somehow led to the Nightingale committing more murders, John persuades his father to help him prevent these crimes from occurring. Frank manages to save the first victim. But when he tries to rescue the second, the Nightingale subdues him, steals his driver's license, and plants it on the victim to frame Frank for the murder. When Frank shares his experience with his son, John realizes Frank's wallet has the Nightingale's fingerprints. John instructs his father to wrap his wallet in plastic and hide it somewhere in the house where John can find it 30 years later. Using the preserved fingerprints from the wallet, John identifies the Nightingale as Jack Shepard, a former detective. In the original timeline, Shepard died from a medical error the same night Frank died. Julia was supposed to leave work at the hospital early after learning of Frank's death, but since it did not happen in the new timeline, Julia remained at work and prevented the error that would have killed Shepard. Meanwhile, Frank is approached by then-Detective Satch DeLeon who tries to arrest him on suspicion of murder. In the resulting struggle, the radio is knocked over and sustains damage, shutting it off. At the station, Frank attempts to prove his innocence to Satch by being able to accurately predict various aspects of the 1969 World Series, including the infamous Game 5 "shoe polish incident." While awaiting questioning, Frank activates the precinct's fire sprinkler system, escapes, and breaks into Shepard's apartment, where he finds jewelry taken from the victims. Shepard catches Frank in the act and pursues him, ending with a fight underwater where Frank appears to have killed Shepard. Satch, having realized that Frank was telling the truth, arrives in time to witness the struggle, finds the victims' jewelry and Frank is exonerated. Frank fixes the radio, but while talking both he and John are attacked by the 1969 and 1999 versions of Shepard. Using a shotgun, Frank manages to blow off Shepard's right hand in 1969 and Shepard flees. In 1999, as the changes in the past affect the present, Shepard's hand disappears just as he is about to kill John. Furnishings in the house change as the timeline rapidly updates itself in 1999. An elderly Frank, having quit smoking to avoid his cancer-related death in 1989, appears and kills Shepard with the same shotgun, and embraces his son. The film concludes with a softball game including John, Samantha (now his wife), John's young son, Frank, Julia, Satch and Gordo. In 1969, as a child, Gordo had talked briefly over the radio to John in 1999; John told him to pay attention to "Yahoo." At the baseball game. the license plate of Gordo's expensive car is seen to bear the word Yahoo!. ===== In the small fictional town of Dukesberry, New Hampshire, Davey Stone is a 33-year- old Jewish alcoholic troublemaker with a long criminal record whose antics have long earned him the community's animosity. Davey is arrested for refusing to pay his bill at Mr. Chang's Chinese restaurant, attempting to evade arrest ("Davey's Song"), stealing a snowmobile, and destroying festive ice sculptures in the process. At Davey's trial, Whitey Duvall, a 70-year-old volunteer referee from Davey's former basketball league, intervenes. At Whitey's suggestion, the judge sentences Davey to community service as a referee-in- training for Whitey's Youth Basketball League. Under the terms of the community service, if Davey commits a crime before his sentence is completed, he will serve 10 years in prison. The next day, Davey's first game ends in disaster. After Davey causes disruptions and torments an obese player for his gynecomastia, Whitey suffers a grand mal seizure, and the game is abruptly halted, Davey forfeiting it to the opposing team for the sole purpose of making said obese player cry. Attempting to calm Davey down, Whitey takes him to the mall, where they meet Davey's childhood friend Jennifer Friedman and her son Benjamin. Whitey reminds Davey that he lost his chance with Jennifer 20 years earlier, but Davey secretly still has feelings for her. As time progresses, Davey and Whitey's relationship becomes more strained. Whitey's various attempts to encourage Davey are met with humiliation and assault—including but not limited to Davey knocking Whitey into a porta-potty then spraying him with a hose when he climbs out, causing him to be frozen in defecation for several hours before a group of grazing deer licks him out. When Davey gets home ("Long Ago") his trailer is being burned down by a man who lost a basketball match to him earlier and was forced to chew on a jock strap. Davey runs into the burning trailer to rescue a Hanukkah card from his late parents, then watches the trailer burn down. Whitey opens his home to Davey, who reluctantly accepts; also living there is Whitey's diabetic fraternal twin sister Eleanore. The Duvall household has many complex rules, to which Whitey refers as technical fouls ("Technical Foul"). Davey seemingly overcomes them and starts to turn his life around. But Davey's progress in reforming stops short when Whitey recalls what happened two decades ago: En route to one of Davey's basketball games, his parents were killed in a car accident when a truck skidded on black ice and swerved into them, and Davey learned of their deaths when the police showed up at the end of his game to inform him. Devastated by the loss of his loving parents and leaping from foster home to foster home, Davey spent the next 20 years numbing his pain with alcohol and petty crime. Uncomfortable with this reminder of his tragic, painful childhood, Davey loses his temper and insults both Whitey and Eleanore and Whitey kicks Davey out. Davey spends the rest of the day drinking, and that night he breaks into the closed mall. In his drunken stupor, he imagines the logos of various stores coming to life and confronting him about his inability to grieve for his parents, which they identify as the source of his alcoholism ("Intervention Song"). He finally opens his parents' Hanukkah card, which contains a heartfelt message praising him for being a good son, and two photos: one of a young Davey and Jennifer at one of their basketball games, and one with his late parents. Davey finally cries and comes to terms with his loss. Just then the police arrive to arrest him, but he escapes and boards a bus to New York City. En route, the bus is forced to stop when a single thumbtack in the road punctures all eight rear tires. Reminded of the Miracle of Hanukkah, Davey walks off the bus, intending to find Whitey and make amends with him. Davey finds Whitey at the All-Star Banquet, an annual town celebration in which one member of the community is recognized for positive contributions to Dukesberry with the "Dukesberry All-Star Patch" which Whitey has wanted for 35 years. When Whitey is passed over for seemingly the final time, he decides to move to Florida and live the rest of his life in anonymity. Risking arrest, Davey enters the hall and sings Whitey's many selfless contributions to Dukesberry throughout his life, causing the townspeople to realize the error of their ways ("Bum Biddy"). Davey leads them to Whitey, who has gone to the mall with Eleanore to "speak to it" one more time. The townspeople thank Whitey for his service over the years and the Mayor officially grants him the Patch Award. All 34 previous recipients of the awards give theirs to Whitey. Davey and Jennifer reconcile and Whitey goes into a seizure, which he calls "the happiest seizure of my life!" ===== The future in 334 has brought few technological advances except for new medical techniques and recreational drugs. There have been no dramatic disasters, but overpopulation has made housing and other resources scarce; the response is a program of compulsory birth control and eugenics. A welfare state provides for basic needs through an all-encompassing agency called MODICUM, but there is an extreme class division between welfare recipients and professionals. The novel consists of five independent novellas (previously published separately) with a common setting but different characters, and a longer sub-novel called "334" whose many short sections trace the members of a single family forward and backward in time. The sections are as follows: * "The Death of Socrates": A high-school student finds that, due to poor scores on his Regents Examinations and his father's health history, he has been permanently forbidden to have children; he searches for ways to get extra credit. * "Bodies": Porters at Bellevue Hospital moonlight as body-snatchers catering to a necrophiliac brothel. Their task is complicated by the desire of some patients to be cryonically preserved for a better future. * "Everyday Life in the Later Roman Empire": A privileged government worker, trying to decide where to send her son to school, pursues a parallel existence in a hallucinogen-assisted role-playing game set in the year 334. * "Emancipation: A Romance of the Times to Come": A young professional man and woman face marital conflicts and parenthood, with several twists unique to the 2020s. * "Angouleme": A group of highly educated prepubescent children decides to commit a gratuitous murder in Battery Park. * "334": Vignettes of the Hanson family from 2021 to 2025. ===== After the outbreak of the Second World War and many years after they worked for British intelligence, middleaged Tommy and Tuppence Beresford feel useless and sidelined. Then, Tommy is approached by a secret agent named Grant to go undercover once more. Grant tries to find German spies and fifth columnists but is hampered by traitors within British intelligence who follow and sabotage his work. Since Tommy has not been in the field for many years, nobody knows him, and he can investigate unofficially. Grant explains that another British agent was recently murdered but left a cryptic message on his deathbed: "N or M. Song Susie". Grant suspects that "Song Susie" stands for Sans Souci, a hotel in (fictional) seaside Leahampton (based on Bournemouth), and "N" and "M" are known to be two top German spies, one male and one female. Tommy is to go to Sans Souci to investigate whether N, M or both are at the hotel and to figure out their identities. Tommy is sent alone, but Tuppence decides to join him on his mission whether invited or not. Through good sleuthing, she learns where he is to be sent and actually arrives there before he does. Working together, they begin a search for the master spies. Both N and M's identities are revealed at the end of the book; "N" is a top German spy, who is shot by British intelligence at the book's conclusion as he threatens Tuppence's life, and "M" is his female co-conspirator. ===== A teenage girl named Megan Voorhees (Natasha Lyonne) becomes possessed by the spirit of Hugh Kane (Richard Moll), the house's previous owner. During a formal dinner party, where everyone is singing “Shake Ya Ass”, she emerges in her nightdress, saying “you suck” before proceeding to urinate profusely on the floor. In response, Megan's mother (Veronica Cartwright) seeks help from two priests, Father McFeely (James Woods) and Father Harris (Andy Richter). After paying a trip to the bathroom, the men attempt to drive Hugh's ghost out, but the exorcism does not go as planned. After everyone vomits on each other, and one of the priests shows signs of pedophilia towards the girl, Megan insults Father McFeely's mother. He responds by pulling out a gun and shooting Megan. Meanwhile, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans), and Shorty Meeks (Marlon Wayans) are at college, trying to live new lives since having survived the events of the first film. Cindy and Brenda get tagged by a socially maladjusted girl, Alex (Tori Spelling). Shorty is still the same stoner he was before. Ray, still confused about his sexuality, has two new male friends, Tommy (James DeBello) and Buddy (Christopher Masterson). Buddy becomes romantically interested in Cindy, but she rebuffs him. Agreeing to become friends nonetheless, Buddy gives Cindy a not so friendly wedgie, since he doesn’t know how he should treat a female friend. Professor Oldman (Tim Curry) and his charming paraplegic assistant, Dwight Hartman (David Cross), plan to study the paranormal activity at a local haunted mansion called Hell House. They use Cindy and her friends as test subjects. At the mansion, Cindy encounters a foul-mouthed parrot and Hanson (Chris Elliott), the caretaker with a badly malformed hand. Later, the group is joined by newcomer hottie Theo (Kathleen Robertson). They sit down for dinner, but soon lose their appetite due to Hanson's repulsive antics, such as licking the turkey, and sticking his hands in all the food. Later that night, Cindy hears voices directing her to a secret room, where she and Buddy discover the diary of Hugh Kane's wife. Seeing her portrait, they note Cindy's resemblance to her. Meanwhile, other teens also experience bizarre encounters. Hugh Kane's invisible ghost has sex with Alex in her bedroom, and quickly leaves afterwards, since Alex shows signs of wanting to marry Huey. Cindy gets involved in a fistfight with the house cat, Mr. Kittles. When Cindy tries to tell the professor, he dismisses it, and sends Theo to take Cindy to bed, while hinting the girls should start “experimenting.” Later, while Cindy is possessed by Huey Kane’s wife, Cindy almost has sex with Oldman. Luckily she returns to normal, with no memory of the event. A toy clown (Suli McCullough) attempts to kill Ray, but in a strange turn of events, the clown doll gets raped by Ray instead. A weed-monster rolls Shorty into a joint. It tries to smoke him (and succeeds, much to Shorty's enjoyment as he states: 'I'm getting as high as a motherfucker!'), but gets distracted by munchies and lets him escape. The next morning, Oldman tells Dwight no one is leaving the house, despite the attacks, and claims he is “this close to getting laid.” Dwight is given the only keys to get out of the house, and told to give them to nobody. Theo attempt to take the keys from Dwight by attempting to give him oral sex, but Dwight does it to himself, while a horrified Theo watches in disgust, then knocks him out. Professor Oldman is seduced and killed by the ghost of Hugh's mistress. Shorty later encounters the same ghost, but seduces and has sex with her. After Dwight equips the teens with weapons that can injure their spectral enemy, they are pursued throughout the mansion, Alex attempts to win Huey’s love, but is killed by Crane's ghost. Buddy and Cindy get locked in the walk- in freezer. Cindy gives Buddy a handjob and "revives" him, resulting in him releasing semen blasting Cindy to the door. Cindy then uses a collection of random objects in the room to produce a Caterpillar 2-Ton tractor and escapes the freezer. Hanson gets possessed by Kane and kidnaps Shorty, who is high on drugs. In the dining room, Hanson sets up a cooker and cuts off the top of Shorty's head. Instead of a brain, there is a small man rapping (Beetlejuice) inside. Cindy, Brenda, and Theo team up to fight the Kane-possessed Hanson using moves taken from Charlie's Angels, but ultimately wind up defeated. Dwight regroups with the teens. Cindy acts as bait to lure Kane into a device that will destroy him. The plan succeeds, freeing the group from the house's curse. Two months later, Cindy and Buddy are in a relationship. They are out on a walk when Hanson shows up, closing in menacingly. Buddy disappears as Hanson gets hit by a car, driven by Shorty, who is receiving a blowjob from the ghost that he seduced earlier (much like the opening and closing scenes of the previous movie). ===== In the Middle Ages, a Norwegian invasion of Scotland is suppressed by Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, and Banquo. A traitor, the Thane of Cawdor, is captured, and King Duncan decrees Macbeth shall be awarded the title of Cawdor. Macbeth and Banquo do not hear of this news; when out riding, they happen upon Three Witches, who hail Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor and future King, and Banquo as lesser and greater. At their camp, nobles arrive and inform Macbeth he has been named the Thane of Cawdor, with Macbeth simultaneously awed and frightened at the prospect of usurping Duncan, in further fulfilment of the prophecy. He writes a letter to Lady Macbeth, who is delighted at the news. However, she fears her husband has too much good nature, and vows to be cruel for him. Duncan names his eldest son, Malcolm, Prince of Cumberland, and thus heir apparent, to the displeasure of Macbeth and Malcolm's brother Donalbain. The royal family and nobles then spend the night at Macbeth's castle, with Lady Macbeth greeting the King and dancing with him with duplicity. Urged on by his wife, Macbeth steps into King Duncan's chambers after she has drugged the guards. Duncan wakes and utters Macbeth's name, but Macbeth stabs him to death. He then murders the guards. Fearing a conspiracy, Malcolm and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland, and the Thane of Ross realises Macbeth will be king. An opportunistic courtier, he hails Macbeth at Scone, while the noble Macduff heads back to his home in Fife. When Macbeth begins to fear possible usurpation by Banquo and his son Fleance, he sends two murderers to kill them, and then sends Ross as the mysterious Third Murderer. Banquo is killed, while Fleance escapes. After Banquo appears at a banquet as a ghost, Macbeth seeks out the witches, who are performing a nude ritual. The witches and the spirits they summon deceive Macbeth into thinking he is invincible, as he cannot be killed except by a man not born of woman, and will not be defeated until "Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane." After Macduff flees to England, Ross leaves Fife's castle doors open, so Macbeth's murderers can kill Lady Macduff and the rest of the family and servants. With nobles fleeing Scotland, Macbeth chooses a new Thane of Cawdor, bestowing the title on Seyton over Ross. Disappointed, Ross joins Malcolm and Macduff in England, where the English King has committed forces led by Siward to overthrowing Macbeth and installing Malcolm on the Scottish throne. The English forces invade, covering themselves by cutting down branches from Birnam Wood and holding them in front of their army to hide their numbers as they march on Macbeth in Dunsinane. When the forces storm the castle, Macduff confronts Macbeth, and during the sword fight, Macduff reveals he was delivered by Caesarean section. Macduff beheads Macbeth, and Ross presents the crown to Malcolm. Meanwhile, Donalbain, out riding, encounters the witches. ===== A stray tom tabby cat is chased by a dog, and nearly gets run down by a car. He hides from the dog in a delivery truck, which drives to New York City. The tomcat sees the disembodied image of a young girl pleading for help because something is threatening her. The tomcat is then picked up by a man named Junk, an employee of Quitters, Inc. ===== Charles “Chuck” Lumley (Winkler), formerly a successful stockbroker, has found a refuge from the ulcer-inducing Wall Street rat race in his job as an attendant at the New York City morgue. His displeasure at being "promoted" to Night Shift Supervisor to make room for his boss' nephew Leonard (Di Cicco) is exacerbated by the irrational exuberance of Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski (Keaton), his new co-worker. They are inspired by the plight of Chuck's prostitute neighbor, Belinda (Long), to apply Chuck's financial acumen and Bill's entrepreneurial spirit to open a prostitution service headquartered at the morgue. Chuck falls in love with Belinda, but their relationship becomes complicated when Belinda refuses to quit prostitution. Chuck's passiveness keeps him from telling Belinda he loves her. Meanwhile, Chuck and Bill's foray into the prostitution business draws the ire of dangerous pimps who come to the morgue and threaten to kill Chuck. Bill inadvertently leads undercover cops to the morgue where Chuck is being assaulted by the pimps. A shootout ensues. Chuck and Bill are rescued, but are arrested for promoting prostitution. Because their arrest would be a political embarrassment, the guys are offered their old jobs back and a dismissal of all charges. Chuck accepts this, but Bill sees it as an opportunity to bargain with the mayor's office. Chuck and Bill fight and part ways. Chuck's fiancée Charlotte (Gina Hecht) ends their engagement. Chuck sees Belinda in the hall of their apartment complex, but again fails to express his true feelings for her. Belinda leaves, and Chuck becomes angry with himself for being afraid. With renewed determination, Chuck finds Belinda working in an adult club and professes his love for her. He also finds Bill is employed there. The three leave the club together and go out on the town. ===== The series tells the story of Johnny, a Mexican truck driver and family man who falls in love with a woman he meets in his travels, and of the complications as a consequence of his new love. Dos Mujeres... used the then-new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a backdrop to the story; Johnny transported merchandise from Mexico to the United States. Johnny had enemies in Tijuana, where he was blamed for the death of Bernardo Montegarza (Eduardo Liceaga), son of the Montegarza family. Johnny is still very much in love with his wife (Laura León) when he falls for a young waitress, Tanya (Bibi Gaytán), whose mother owns a restaurant that Johnny frequents. Tanya does not know he is married, and Raymundo, a police officer in love with Tanya, is working with fellow officer Ángel to pursue the head of the family that blames Johnny for the young man's death. It is later discovered that Johnny did not cause Bernardo's death, and while he was struggling to decide whether he wants to stay with his wife or his girlfriend, Tanya dies taking a knife thrust intended for her rival – Johnny's wife – Ana Maria. Johnny and Ana Maria reconcile after Tanya's death. The final scene shows the couple retiring for the evening. Johnny, dreaming of Tanya's death, calls her name in his sleep. When he awakes in the morning, Ana Maria and the children are gone. ===== Martial arts champion Steve Chase is hired by Kandy Kane to rescue her father, Dr. Horatio Kane, who had accidentally discovered a mind-control drug while researching potatoes as an energy source. The government offers Steve $2 million to find him, but he gets $5 million and is allowed to select his own team. He recruits four of his old friends: a mystic known as the Fly, a reclusive former martial arts champ named Gypsy Billy, a large former wrestler named Gorilla, and a crazy redneck called Hot Dog. The government officials brief them on their mission: Wellington Forsyth III, a billionaire who supposedly disappeared years ago, now calls himself Marduk (MAR-dook); they believe he kidnapped Kane for his mind-control drug to create an army with the intention of totalitarianism. Having seized control of a town called Ironville, Marduk is now a warlord with many followers under his control from Kane's drug (which has to be re-administered when it wears off). They want Steve and his team to stop Marduk's plans and rescue Kane. When Kandy insists on joining them, Steve eventually relents when she reveals that she too can fight. In his fortress, Marduk seeks a challenger for his undefeated champion, the Optimus, a large man who fights with raw power. Steve and his group wrangle their way into Ironville only to be captured by Marduk's guards, and are each forced to fight members of his army. They all best their respective opponents, including Steve who defeats the Optimus. Marduk then forces Steve to drink a new serum and orders him to kill his friends, but the serum fails and Steve forces Marduk to declare everyone free and destroy him instead. Chaos erupts, and Steve eventually saves Kane from being shot by Marduk's top guard. Marduk tries to escape via helicopter, but cannot take off with Gorilla holding one of the rotors. The remaining guards open fire on Gorilla, but end up hitting the helicopter, which explodes with Marduk still on board. Kandy later reveals that she was actually an undercover government agent, and the real Kandy Kane, formerly under Marduk's control, has been reunited with her father, who decides to stay behind to give his antidote to everyone else affected, and the heroes head for home. ===== The morning after a severe thunderstorm, an unnaturally thick mist gradually envelopes the small town of Bridgton, Maine. Artist David Drayton, along with his son Billy and neighbor Brent Norton (whose car had been smashed by a fallen tree), go to the local supermarket for groceries. Upon arrival, their suspicions are aroused by the sound of a siren. The mist completely covers the supermarket and conceals strange and hostile creatures. The situation is aggravated by an earthquake, which damages communications and leaves the store without electricity. When a young bagger, Norm, goes outside to fix a clogged vent in the store's generator, he is dragged into the mist by tentacles. David and assistant manager Ollie Weeks witness Norm's death and try to convince the remaining survivors of what has happened, imploring that no one leave the store. Norton and a small group of people accuse David of lying and go outside for help, only to be killed by a huge creature. Ollie is given a revolver by the young Amanda Dumfries. Later, pterosaur-like creatures fly into the store and are killed by improvised means. David leads a group of people to obtain medical supplies from an adjacent pharmacy, where they encounter huge spiders. In the wake of mass hysteria among the survivors, religious fanatic Mrs.Carmody convinces them that the current events fulfill a biblical prophecy of the end time, and believes that human sacrifice is required to save themselves from God's wrath. Two soldiers from a nearby military base reveal that the mist may be associated with "Project Arrowhead" – in which they were involved – before committing suicide. Later, David, Billy, Ollie, Amanda and a few other survivors attempt to break out of the store, but are thwarted by Mrs.Carmody, who convinces the crowd to offer Billy and Amanda as sacrifices. Ollie shoots Mrs.Carmody and dissolves her congregation. En route to David's car, Ollie and one other survivor are killed, while another flees back to the store. The group attempts to reach David's house, but the roads to it are either blocked or damaged. On the radio, through the interference, David hears of Hartford, and he drives on in the hope of an escape from the mist. ===== In the last days of renting the estate Chimneys, Sir Oswald and Lady Coote host a party including Gerry Wade, Jimmy Thesiger, Ronny Devereux, Bill Eversleigh and Rupert "Pongo" Bateman, Sir Oswald's secretary. Gerry Wade has a bad habit of oversleeping. The others plan a joke on Gerald by placing eight alarm clocks in his room and timing them to go off at intervals the next morning. The alarms are heard but Wade is not awake. A footman finds that he is dead in his bed, with chloral on his nightstand, a shocking event. Jimmy Thesiger and Ronny Devereux break the news to Loraine Wade, Gerry's step-sister. At Chimneys, Jimmy notices that there are seven alarm clocks; one is missing. It is later found in a hedge. Lord Caterham and his daughter Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent move back into Chimneys. The coroner gives a verdict of Death by Misadventure for Gerry. Bundle, a friend of Bill Eversleigh, puzzles over this. Gerry Wade died in her room; she finds an unfinished letter from Gerry to Loraine dated the day before he died. He asks Loraine to forget about that Seven Dials business. Bundle goes to London to see Bill. On the way, a man steps out of a hedge and into the road. Bundle misses him but he collapses anyway, muttering about "Seven Dials..." and "Tell... Jimmy Thesiger." The man dies. Bundle gets his body into the car and to a doctor who tells her that the car did not hit the man; he was shot. The man is Ronny Devereux. Bundle returns home and tells her father what has happened, and he tells her that George Lomax has received a warning letter written on Seven Dials letterhead. The next day Bundle reaches London and gets Jimmy's address from Bill. She tells Loraine Wade and Jimmy of Ronny's death. Was Gerry's death a murder? Bundle tells the other two of the warning letter that George Lomax received. Lomax is hosting a house party the following week at his house at Wyvern Abbey; Jimmy and Bundle get themselves invited to it. Bundle visits Superintendent Battle at Scotland Yard; he hints that Bill knows something about Seven Dials. According to Bill, Seven Dials is a seedy nightclub and gambling den and Bundle insists he takes her there. In the club, Bundle recognizes the doorman as a footman from Chimneys. Bundle returns to the Seven Dials club and questions Alfred, the footman. He tells her that he left Chimneys for far higher wages offered by Mosgorovsky, owner of the club. Further, Mosgorovsky sends a replacement for Alfred at Chimneys, John Bauer. Alfred takes her into a secret room with a table and seven chairs. She hides in a cupboard in the room and witnesses a meeting. They wear masks with eye slits and clock faces on the hoods, each clock showing a different time. One is a woman with a mole on her exposed shoulder blade. They talk of the always- missing Number Seven, and about Lomax's party at Wyvern Abbey where Eberhard will be present with a valuable invention. The meeting over, Alfred frees Bundle from her watching place. Eberhard has invented a formula which could strengthen metals, revolutionizing aeroplane manufacturing. The meeting at Wyvern Abbey is for a possible sale to the British Air Minister. Bundle and Jimmy arrive at Wyvern Abbey and are introduced to the Cootes, Sir Stanley Digby the Air Minister, Terence O'Rourke, and the Hungarian Countess Radzky. Superintendent Battle is there, disguised as a waiter. Bill Eversleigh is there as staff of Mr Lomax. Realising that Sir Stanley is staying one night, they deduce that any theft will be attempted that night. Jimmy and Bill agree to keep watch, changing over at 3.00 am. On the first watch in the hallway at 2.00 am, Jimmy thinks he hears a noise coming from the library. He continues his watch from there. Bundle, acting alone, changes her clothes and climbs down the ivy outside her room. She runs into Superintendent Battle, on his own watch outside. He persuades her to go back. She does so, and then checks on Jimmy in the hall. Finding him gone, she goes to Bill's bedroom but finds that she has erred and is in the Countess's empty room. Bundle hears a tremendous struggle in the library, and two gunshots. Loraine Wade arrives at Wyvern at the dead of night. A few moments before the commotion, a paper packet lands at her feet near the darkened terrace. She picks it up and sees a man climbing down the ivy from above her. She turns and runs almost straight into Battle whose questions are interrupted by the fight in the library. Running there, they find Jimmy unconscious and shot through his right arm. The household is awakened by the noise and pours into the room. Jimmy comes round and tells how he fought the man who climbed down the ivy. Sir Stanley finds that the formula is gone. Battle is not perturbed as Loraine still holds the dropped packet and is able to return its precious contents. The Countess is discovered in the library, unconscious behind a screen. She says she came down for a book to read, and fainted from fear. Bundle spots a mole on the Countess's shoulder through her negligee: she is a member of Seven Dials! The next morning, Battle finds a charred, left-handed glove with teeth marks, in the fireplace. He theorizes that the thief threw the gun onto the lawn from the terrace and then climbed back into the house via the ivy. Bundle’s father reports that the footman Bauer is missing. Jimmy gets an invitation to the Cootes’ new house in Letherbury, because he suspects Sir Oswald of being Number Seven. Jimmy looks through Sir Oswald's study. He finds no evidence against Sir Oswald. Bill goes to Jimmy's London flat. Ronny Devereux's executors have sent him a letter written by Ronny, and Bill is amazed. Jimmy rings up Bundle and Loraine and tells them to meet him and Bill at the Seven Dials club, Bill's story being "the biggest scoop of the century." The two girls arrive first. Jimmy arrives, having left Bill outside in the car. Bundle shows Jimmy the room where the Seven Dials meet. Loraine interrupts them to report that something is wrong with Bill. They find him unconscious in the car and take him into the club. Jimmy runs off to get a doctor. Someone knocks Bundle unconscious. She comes round in Bill's arms. Mr Mosgorovsky takes them into the meeting of the Seven Dials. Number Seven is there: he is Superintendent Battle. He reveals that they are a group of criminal-catchers and people doing secret service work for their country. Gerry and Ronny are honoured as late members. The true identity of the Countess is the actress Babe St Maur. Bill is a member. Battle tells Bundle that the association has succeeded with their main target, an international criminal whose stock in trade is the theft of secret formulae: Jimmy Thesiger was arrested that afternoon with his accomplice, Loraine Wade. Battle explains that Jimmy killed Gerry Wade when he got onto Jimmy's track. Ronny took the eighth clock from the dead man's room to see if anyone reacted to there being "seven dials. Jimmy killed Ronny Devereux for the same reason; Ronny’s last words were a warning to the Seven Dials about Jimmy. At Wyvern Abbey, Jimmy climbed up the ivy to Sir Stanley Digby's room, threw the formula down to Loraine, climbed back down the ivy and into the library where he staged the fight, shot himself in his right arm and threw the second pistol onto the lawn. As his right arm was disabled he disposed of his left-hand glove using his teeth. Bill feigned unconsciousness in the car outside the Seven Dials club. Jimmy never went for a doctor but hid in the club, and he knocked Bundle unconscious. His plan was to leave Bill and Bundle there, dead. Bundle is offered the empty place in the Seven Dials and she and Bill agree to marry. ===== The Astro Investigation and Defence Service (AIDS) sends their agents, Derek, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry to investigate the disappearance of the entire population of the town of Kaihoro. They find the town has been overrun by man-eating space aliens disguised as humans in blue shirts. Barry kills one of the aliens and is attacked by others. After Derek notifies Frank and Ozzy, he begins torturing Robert, an alien they caught earlier. Robert's screaming attracts a number of aliens in the area. Derek kills the would-be rescuers, but he is attacked by Robert and falls off a cliff ledge, to his presumed death. Meanwhile, a charity collector named Giles is passing through Kaihoro. He is attacked by Robert, but escapes in his car. He stops at a nearby house for help. Another alien answers the door and captures Giles. He later wakes up in a tub of water filled with vegetables and is told he is about to be cooked and eaten. Derek also wakes up to find that he landed in a seagull's nest. He also finds that his brain is leaking out the back of his head, so he stuffs it back in and uses a hat to hold it in place. That night, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry infiltrate the aliens' house and find a room filled with bloody cardboard boxes. They kill a nearby alien and Frank wears its shirt to infiltrate an alien meeting. He finds out that the residents of Kaihoro have been harvested for alien fast food and also hears of their recent hostage. Robert vomits into a bowl, which the aliens dine on, including the disguised (and disgusted) Frank. He escapes and tells the others of the plan. They sneak out to save Giles as the aliens sleep. At sunrise, they try to leave but are attacked by the aliens, which quickly dissolves into a gunfight. Derek emerges and his hat is shot off due to the ensuing gunfire, and he starts losing more of his brain, so he uses his belt as a headband. He grabs a chainsaw from the boot of his car and heads for the alien house. As the boys leave with Giles, the alien leader (Lord Crumb) and his followers transform into their true form and follow. Ozzy uses a rocket launcher to blow up Frank's car, which has been overrun by aliens. Frank and Ozzy hunt for Lord Crumb and kill many aliens along the way. Meanwhile, Derek kills an alien with his chainsaw and replaces the missing parts of his brain with its brain. An alien prepares to shoot Frank and Ozzy, but it is beheaded by Derek after he bursts through the wall behind it. Frank and Ozzy are shocked to see him alive. After they escape the house, Lord Crumb shoots Ozzy in the leg and Frank fires his rocket launcher at the leader, but it misses and almost hits Derek, finally taking out a sheep in a nearby meadow. Derek is knocked out by Lord Crumb and the house transforms into a giant space ship, which blasts off into space with Derek still aboard. On board, Derek looks out the window to see that he is leaving Earth. Crumb is then killed by Derek, who ambushes him and cuts through the alien with his chainsaw. Derek proclaims into his phone: "I'm coming to get you bastards!" He then puts on the alien leader's skin, laughing maniacally as he rockets towards the alien planet. On Earth, the rest of the group drive away into the sunset in Derek's car. ===== The play is primarily set in Zürich, Switzerland during the First World War. At that time, three important personalities were living in Zürich: the modernist author James Joyce, the communist revolutionary Lenin, and Dada founder Tristan Tzara. The play centers on the less notable English consular official Henry Wilfred Carr, a British consular official (also mentioned in Joyce's novel Ulysses),Playbill, April 2018, p. 23. as he recalls his perceptions and experiences with these influential figures. As he reminisces, Carr's memory becomes prone to distraction, and instead of predictable historical biography these characters are interpreted through the maze of his mind. Carr's memories are couched in a Zürich production of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest in which he had a starring role. Stoppard uses this production and Carr's mixed feelings surrounding it as a framework to explore art, the war and revolution. Situations from Earnest feature prominently within the action. The characters in Travesties also include versions of two characters from Earnest, Gwendolen and Cecily, and the comedic situations of many of the other roles are shared by other characters. Stoppard uses many linguistic devices within the play, including puns, limericks, and an extended parody of the vaudeville song "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean". ===== Eight years after Chucky's second demise, the Play Pals company has recovered from the bad publicity brought about by Chucky's murder spree and resumes manufacturing of the Good Guys dolls. The company restores the abandoned factory (where Chucky's mutilated body still remains) and starts releasing a new line of Good Guys dolls. However, the workers accidentally mix Chucky's blood into a vat of plastic. Since the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray still inhabits the remains, the mixture causes Chucky to be reborn. Chucky is unwittingly given to Play Pals' CEO Mr. Sullivan, whom he kills with a variety of toys. He then uses computer records to locate Andy. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Andy Barclay, still troubled by his past encounters with Chucky, has been sent to Kent Military Academy after failing to cope in several foster homes. Colonel Cochrane, the school's commandant, begrudgingly enrolls Andy but advises him to forget his "fantasies" about the doll. Andy befriends cadets Harold Aubrey Whitehurst, Ronald Tyler, an 8-year-old cadet he met on his way to Kent, and Kristin DeSilva, for whom he develops romantic feelings. He also meets Brett C. Shelton, a lieutenant colonel who routinely bullies the cadets. Shortly after Andy arrives, Tyler is asked to deliver a package to his room. Tyler realizes that the package contains a Good Guys doll and, excited, takes it to the cellar to open it, only to have Chucky burst free from the package, intending to possess his now teenaged nemesis. When Chucky sees that Andy is not there, he is furious that Tyler took the package. Remembering the rule from his late voodoo instructor John Bishop that he can possess the first person who learns his true nature and that he has a new body, Chucky tells Tyler his secret, and decides to make Tyler his new target. Just as Chucky is about to possess him, they are interrupted by Cochrane, who takes the doll away. Cochrane throws Chucky into a garbage truck, but Chucky escapes by luring the driver into the truck's compactor and crushing him. That night, Chucky attacks Andy and tells him his plans for taking over Tyler's body instead of Andy’s and tells Andy to stay out of his way. Before Andy can attack Chucky, Shelton comes in and takes the doll from him. Andy tries to get the doll back by sneaking into Shelton's room (where Chucky steals a dagger from a wooden wall mounted plaque containing blades), but Shelton catches him in the act. Upon realizing the doll has vanished, Shelton suspects it stolen and forces all the cadets to do exercises in the courtyard as punishment. Andy unsuccessfully tries to warn Tyler about Chucky. At one point, Chucky lures Tyler into playing hide-and-seek in Cochrane's office, where he attempts to possess Tyler again. However, they are interrupted by DeSilva and Ivers, and, moments later, Cochrane himself. When the cadets leave, Cochrane is suddenly confronted by a knife-wielding Chucky. The resulting shock causes Cochrane to suffer a fatal heart attack. The next morning, Andy tries to convince Tyler that Chucky is evil, but Tyler refuses to believe him. Meanwhile, Chucky kills the camp barber Sergeant Botnick by slashing his throat with a razor after Botnick tries to shave Chucky's hair off. Despite Cochrane's death, Sgt. Clark declares that the school's annual war games will proceed as planned, with Andy and Shelton on the same team. However, Chucky secretly replaces the blank paint bullets of the Red team with live ammunition. When the simulation begins, Chucky accosts Tyler. Finally realizing that Andy was telling the truth about Chucky, Tyler stabs Chucky with a pocket knife and flees to find Andy. Chucky then attacks Kristin and holds her hostage, attempting to lure the teams into fighting each other to save her. Chucky forces Andy to exchange Kristin for Tyler. Suddenly, the Red team descends upon the area and obliviously opens fire with their live rounds, with Shelton being killed in the crossfire. Amidst the chaos, Tyler makes a quick getaway, but before giving chase, Chucky tosses a live grenade at the quarreling cadets. Recognizing the danger, Whitehurst (who had been too scared to say anything after discovering Chucky's existence) bravely leaps on top of the grenade and sacrifices himself to save the others. With no time to mourn his friend, Andy heads off in pursuit of Chucky, with Kristin close behind. Eventually, the chase leads the group into a fake haunted house at a nearby carnival. Tyler tries to get a security guard to help him, but Chucky kills the guard offscreen and kidnaps Tyler. In the ensuing melee, Chucky shoots Kristin in the leg, leaving Andy to fight Chucky alone. Chucky also gets half his face cut off by a scythe. When Tyler is inadvertently knocked out, Chucky seizes the opportunity to possess him, but Andy intervenes, firing at him several times and landing two shots. Enraged, Chucky springs back and attempts to strangle Andy, but Andy uses Tyler's knife to cut off Chucky's hand, then hurls the killer doll onto a giant fan which ultimately destroys him. Afterwards, Andy is taken into custody by the police for questioning and Kristin is rushed to the hospital, leaving Tyler's fate unknown as the carnival shuts down. ===== In 1988, Charles Lee Ray, a fugitive and serial killer, is chased through the streets of South Side, Chicago by homicide detective Mike Norris, who fires at him several times and lands a shot. Charles' accomplice, Eddie Caputo, escapes in a getaway vehicle without him. Charles breaks into a toy shop where Mike lands another shot on him. Charles, realizing that he is dying, performs a Haitian Vodou spell to transfer his soul into one of the Good Guy dolls, causing the store to be struck by lightning and explode. Mike survives the explosion and re-enters the shop, only to find Charles' dead body and the doll. The following day, widow Karen Barclay unknowingly purchases the doll—which now calls itself "Chucky"—from a homeless peddler as a birthday gift for her six-year-old son Andy Barclay. Later that evening, Karen's best friend Maggie babysits Andy while Karen is working late. After Andy’s bedtime Maggie finds Chucky sitting in front of a television tuned to an evening newscast about Charles Lee Ray. She returns the doll to bed but is then hit in the face with a hammer and falls out a window to her death. The police search the apartment and Detective Norris deems Andy a suspect. Before going back to bed, Andy claims Chucky killed Maggie. Karen angrily tells the police to leave. The next morning, Chucky orders Andy to skip school and take the Chicago "L" train downtown. While Andy is distracted, Chucky sneaks into Eddie's house and kills him by causing a gas explosion. Andy is once again deemed a suspect and is placed in a psychiatric hospital after again claiming that Chucky is responsible for the murder. When Karen picks up the Good Guys box and a pack of batteries drop out, Karen realizes that Chucky has been functioning without them. Unnerved, Karen starts a fire and threatens to burn Chucky, causing him to violently spring to life in her arms. He attacks her before running out of the apartment. Karen chases after him, but Chucky escapes. Karen goes to the police station and explains what happened, but Mike does not believe her. Karen finds the peddler and asks for more information on where he found the doll. As the peddler attempts to sexually assault her, Mike rescues her, and the pair forces the peddler to admit he took the doll from the demolished toy store. Karen again tries to convince Mike that the doll is alive, but he refuses to believe her, insisting that he killed Charles Lee Ray. After driving Karen home, Mike is attacked by Chucky, and in the ensuing fight, Chucky is shot, and his wound inexplicably bleeds and causes pain. Chucky flees to his former Voodoo instructor John, who informs him that the longer Chucky stays in the doll, the more human he will become. Chucky demands that John help him reverse the spell, but John refuses. Chucky grabs a voodoo doll of John and uses it to break John's leg and arm. John reveals that in order to escape the doll, Chucky must transfer his soul into Andy, the first human he revealed himself to. Chucky stabs the voodoo doll in the chest and escapes. Karen and Mike arrive shortly afterward. Before dying, John tells them that although Chucky is a doll, his heart is fully human at this point and vulnerable to fatal injury. Chucky arrives at the hospital where Andy is being held. Chucky kills a doctor, and in the process Andy escapes and flees home. Chucky follows him and knocks him unconscious. As Chucky prepares to possess him, Karen and Mike arrive to stop him. Chucky slashes Mike's leg but is then tossed into the fireplace by Karen. Andy drops a lit match in it, burning Chucky. Karen and Andy leave the room to help Mike, but a charred Chucky escapes the fireplace and chases Andy. Karen shoots Chucky several times and he is again presumed to be dead. Mike's partner Jack arrives at the apartment, initially refusing to believe the trio's story. Chucky's body bursts through an air vent to strangle Jack. During the struggle, Mike shoots Chucky in the heart, finally defeating him. Jack, Mike, Karen, and Andy all leave the room, and a freeze-frame shot captures Andy's face as the screen fades to black. ===== Two years after the defeat of Chucky, the remains of the doll are recovered and reassembled by the Play Pals Corporation, the producer of the Good Guy dolls, to reassure its stockholders after the negative publicity from the murders. During the process a power surge occurs and one of the assembly line workers is killed by electrocution. Mr. Sullivan, the executive of the company, orders his assistant Mattson to cover up the accident and dispose of Chucky, unaware that the doll has been brought back to life by the accident. Meanwhile, Andy Barclay, who is now eight years old, has been in foster care ever since the murders; his mother is in a mental institution, having been pronounced mentally unstable for supporting his story about Chucky. Andy goes to live with foster parents Phil and Joanne Simpson, who are also fostering Kyle, a cynical, street smart, teenage girl. Chucky soon discovers Andy's whereabouts by using Mattson's car phone to call Grace Poole, the manager of Andy's foster center, before hijacking his car at gunpoint and suffocating him with a plastic bag after he reaches the Simpson house. Chucky infiltrates the home by destroying another Good Guy doll called "Tommy" and replacing it with himself. After Chucky destroys an heirloom that Joanne forbade the kids to touch, Phil punishes both Andy and Kyle for smashing it. Andy spends the rest of the day bonding with Kyle, initially believing Chucky to be an ordinary Good Guy doll. That night, Chucky ties Andy to his bed and reveals himself, but Kyle enters the room before he can complete the ritual to possess him. Kyle disbelieves Andy's assertions about Chucky while Phil and Joanne believe Kyle to be responsible and throw Chucky in the basement, where he realizes that he is becoming human after suffering a nosebleed. The next day, Chucky secretly follows Andy to school. Andy's teacher, Miss Kettlewell, forces him to stay after school for detention after Chucky defaces his homework with vulgarity. Chucky beats Miss Kettlewell to death with a yardstick, but Andy manages to escape. Later, Andy tries to tell his foster parents about Chucky, but Phil refused to believe him and considers returning him to the foster center. That night, Andy sneaks into the basement to destroy Chucky with an electric knife, but Chucky overpowers him. When Phil arrives to investigate the commotion, Chucky trips him, causing Phil to fall to his death. After finding Phil, Joanne immediately assumes Andy to be responsible and promptly sends him back to the foster center. Kyle discovers "Tommy" buried in the garden and realizes Andy was telling the truth. She rushes to warn Joanne, whom Chucky has already killed. Chucky ambushes Kyle and forces her to drive him to the foster center where Andy has been sent. At the foster center, Chucky clears the building by pulling the fire alarm. He stabs Grace to death and forces Andy to take him to the Play Pals toy factory for the transfer. Kyle pursues them to the factory, where Chucky knocks Andy unconscious and completes the ritual. He suffers another nosebleed, realizing it's too late to transfer his soul into Andy and is now permanently trapped inside the doll, much to his despair. Enraged, he goes after both Andy and Kyle, intending to kill them. As Andy and Kyle search for an exit and Chucky chases them over the machinery, Kyle slams a gate shut on Chucky's hand, which Chucky tears off and replaces with a makeshift blade. After Chucky murders a factory technician, Kyle and Andy knock the doll into some machinery that mutilates him by attaching numerous arms and legs to his torso. Chucky escapes from the machinery by cutting off his own mixed waist, but his knife-hand gets stuck in a radiator when he attempts to stab Andy, who pours molten plastic all over the evil doll. The half-melted Chucky suddenly attacks them again; in the struggle, Kyle shoves a high-pressure air hose into Chucky's mouth, blowing off his head. Andy and Kyle exit the factory unsure of where to go, and walk off together. ===== The plot begins by showing that Earth was being observed by extraterrestrials with immense intelligence and no compassion. As man dominated the world without doubt, much in the way microorganisms swarm in a drop of water, these beings plotted to take it all from us. Divorced longshoreman Ray Ferrier works at a dock in Brooklyn, New York, and is estranged from his children: 10-year-old daughter Rachel, and teenage son Robbie. Ray's pregnant former wife, Mary Ann, drops them off at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey, on her way to visit her parents in Boston. Later, a strange storm occurs during which lightning strikes multiple times into the middle of a local intersection, disrupting all technology and electricity. Ray joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive "tripod" war machine emerges from the ground and uses powerful energy weapons to destroy the area, disintegrating most of the witnesses into a grey dust. Ray collects his children, steals a van that had just been repaired, and drives to Mary Ann's empty home in suburban New Jersey to take refuge. That night, they take shelter in the basement, but they soon hear a strange roaring noise followed by an explosion, which destroys the house. The next morning, Ray discovers that a Boeing 747 had crashed into the neighborhood. A wandering news team scavenging food from the wreckage explains to him that there are multiple tripods that have attacked major cities around the world. The tripods have force shields to protect them from human weapons, and the tripods' pilots traveled to Earth within the lightning storms as a way to enter their machines, which are assumed to have been buried underground for millions of years. Ray decides to drive the kids to Boston to be with their mother, but a desperate mob swarm their vehicle and they are forced to abandon it. They eventually board a ferry to cross the Hudson River only to be surrounded by several tripods, which begin massacring and abducting many of the refugees, but Ray's family manages to escape. They then witness U.S. Marines engaging in a futile battle with some tripods; Ray tries to stop Robbie from joining the fight, but is reluctantly forced to release him so that he can take Rachel to safety. Ray and Rachel flee as the machines annihilate the marines, and are offered shelter in a farmhouse basement by a deranged man named Harlan Ogilvy. The three remain undetected for several days, even as a probe and a group of tripod aliens explore the basement. They soon discover that the aliens are cultivating a red-colored vegetation across the landscape that is quickly spreading; the group deduces the aliens are modifying Earth to make it more like their home planet. The next morning, Ogilvy suffers a mental breakdown upon witnessing the tripods harvesting human blood and tissue to fertilize the alien vegetation. Fearing that Ogilvy's mad shouting will alert the aliens, Ray reluctantly kills him. A second tripod probe catches the Ferriers sleeping; Rachel flees and is abducted by a nearby tripod, and Ray joins her after picking up a belt of grenades. Ray uses the grenades to destroy the tripod from within, freeing all the abductees. Ray and Rachel arrive in Boston, where they find the alien vegetation withering and the tripods inexplicably collapsing. When an active tripod appears, Ray notices birds landing on it, indicating its shields are offline. Ray alerts the soldiers escorting the fleeing crowd, who shoot it down with anti-tank missiles. As the soldiers advance on the downed tripod, a hatch opens and a sickly alien struggles halfway out before dying. Ray and Rachel finally reach Mary Ann's parents' house, where they are reunited with Mary Ann and Robbie (who somehow managed to survive). A closing narration explains that the aliens' immune systems could not handle the countless billions of microbes that inhabit the Earth, and that humanity has "earned" the right to the planet by virtue of naturally coexisting with the rest of its biosphere. ===== Andy and Charlene "Charlie" McGee are a father/daughter pair on the run from a government agency known as The Shop. During his college years, Andy had participated in a Shop experiment dealing with "Lot 6", a drug with hallucinogenic effects similar to LSD. The drug gave his future wife, Victoria Tomlinson, minor telekinetic abilities and him a telepathic form of mind control he refers to as "the push". They both also developed telepathic abilities. Andy's and Vicky's powers were physiologically limited; in his case, overuse of the push gives him crippling migraine headaches and minute brain hemorrhages, but their daughter Charlie developed frightening pyrokinetic ability. The novel begins in medias res with Charlie and Andy on the run from Shop agents in New York City, the latest in a series of attempts by The Shop to capture Andy and Charlie following a disastrous raid on the McGee family in suburban Ohio. After years of Shop surveillance, a botched operation to take Charlie leaves her mother dead; Andy, receiving a psychic flash while having lunch with colleagues, rushes home to discover his wife murdered and his daughter kidnapped. He then uses his push ability to track the trail of Charlie and The Shop agents, catching up to them at a rest stop on the Interstate. He uses the push to incapacitate The Shop agents, leaving one blind and the other comatose. Charlie and Andy flee, and begin a life of running and hiding, using assumed identities. They move several times to avoid discovery before The Shop catches up to them in New York. Using a combination of the push, Charlie's power, and hitchhiking, the pair escapes through Albany, New York and is taken in by a farmer named Irv Manders near the fictional town of Hastings Glen, NY; however, they are tracked down by Shop agents, who attempt to kill Andy and take Charlie at the Manders farm. At Andy's instruction, Charlie unleashes her power, incinerating the entire farm and fending off the agents, killing a few of them. With nowhere else to turn, the pair flees to Vermont and takes refuge in a cabin that had once belonged to Andy's grandfather. With the Manders farm operation disastrously botched, The Shop's director, Captain James "Cap" Hollister, calls in a Shop hitman named John Rainbird to capture the fugitives. Rainbird, a Cherokee and a Vietnam veteran, is intrigued by Charlie's power and eventually becomes obsessed with her, determined to befriend her and eventually kill her. This time the operation is successful, and both Andy and Charlie are taken by The Shop. The pair are separated and imprisoned at The Shop headquarters, located in the fictional Washington, D.C. suburb of Longmont, Virginia. With his spirit broken, Andy becomes an overweight drug addict, seemingly loses his power, and is eventually deemed useless by The Shop. Charlie, however, defiantly refuses to cooperate with The Shop and does not demonstrate her power for them. Six months pass until a power failure provides a turning point for the two: Andy, sick with fear and self-pity, somehow regains the push - subconsciously pushing himself to overcome his addiction - and Rainbird, masquerading as a simple janitor, befriends Charlie and gains her trust. By pretending to still be powerless and addicted, Andy manages to gain crucial information by pushing his psychiatrist. Under Rainbird's guidance, Charlie begins to demonstrate her power, which has grown to fearsome levels. After the suicide of his psychiatrist, Andy is able to meet and push Cap, using him to plan his and Charlie's escape from the facility, as well as to finally communicate with Charlie. Rainbird discovers Andy's plan, however, and decides to use it to his advantage. Andy's plan succeeds, and he and Charlie are reunited in a barn for the first time in six months but Rainbird is already there, planning to kill them both. A crucial distraction is provided by Cap, who is losing his mind from a side effect of being pushed. Andy pushes Rainbird into leaping from the upper level of the barn, breaking his leg. Rainbird then shoots Andy in the neck and fires another shot at Charlie, but she uses her power to melt the bullet in midair, and then sets Rainbird and Cap on fire. Mortally wounded, Andy then instructs Charlie to use her power to escape and to inform the public, to make sure the government cannot do anything like this ever again. He dies, and, grief-stricken and furious, Charlie sets the barn on fire. She exits the barn, and people start going after her. She uses her pyrokinesis to kill the employees and blow up their getaway vehicles. People try to flee, and some do. Military men are called, but Charlie blows up their vehicles; when they fire at her she melts their bullets. Charlie blows up the building, leaving the Longmont facility burning, with almost all its workers dead. The event is covered up by the government and released to the media as a terrorist firebomb attack. The Shop quickly reforms, under new leadership, and begins a manhunt for Charlie, who has returned to the Manders farm. After some deliberation, she comes up with a plan and leaves the Manders', just ahead of Shop operatives, and heads to New York City. She decides on Rolling Stone magazine as an unbiased, honest media source with no ties to the government, and the book ends as she arrives to tell them her story. ===== The main story is centered on Aaron Quicksilver (played by Christopher Lloyd), a travelling showman who tells horror stories to the people he meets. He first runs into a newly married couple who are hitchhiking, to whom he tells the story "Chattery Teeth", about a man who is saved from a dangerous hitchhiker by a set of wind-up toy teeth. He later runs into a pickpocket to whom he tells "The Body Politic", a story about a man whose hands rebel against him. ===== Islington, 9 August 1967. Literary agent Peggy Ramsay knocks on the door of playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell, but nobody opens. She calls the police. They find the corpses of the two men. A decade later theatre critic John Lahr visits Peggy Ramsey because he wants to write Orton's biography. They find Orton's diaries, and Peggy tells Lahr about Orton's life. Orton and Halliwell's relationship began at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Orton started out as the uneducated youth to Halliwell's older faux-sophisticate. As the relationship progressed, however, Orton grew increasingly confident in his talent while Halliwell's writing stagnated. They fell into a parody of a traditional married couple, with Orton as the "husband" and Halliwell as the long- suffering and increasingly ignored "wife" (a situation exacerbated at a time when being a sexually active homosexual was illegal). Orton was commissioned to write a screenplay for The Beatles. Halliwell got carried away in preparing for a meeting with the "Fab Four", but Orton was taken away for a meeting on his own. Finally, in August 1967, a despondent Halliwell kills Orton and commits suicide. ===== Charlie Decker, a Maine high school senior, is called to a meeting with his principal about a previous incident in which he struck his chemistry teacher with a pipe wrench, leading to the teacher's hospitalization and Charlie's suspension. Charlie then subjects the principal to a series of insulting remarks, resulting in his expulsion. Charlie storms out of the office and retrieves a pistol from his locker, then sets the contents of his locker on fire. He then returns to his classroom and fatally shoots his algebra teacher, Miss Jean Underwood. The fire triggers an alarm, but Charlie forces his classmates to stay in the room, killing a history teacher, Mr. Peter Vance, when he attempts to enter. As the other students and teachers evacuate the school, the police and media arrive at the scene. Over the following four hours, Charlie toys with various authority figures who attempt to negotiate with him, including the principal, the school psychologist, and the local police chief. Charlie gives them certain commands, threatening to kill students if they do not comply. Charlie also admits to his hostages that he does not know what has compelled him to commit his deeds, believing he will regret them when the situation is over. As his fellow students start identifying with Charlie, he unwittingly turns his class into a sort of psychotherapy group, causing his schoolmates to semi- voluntarily tell embarrassing secrets regarding themselves and each other. Interspersed throughout are narrative flashbacks to Charlie's troubled childhood, particularly his tumultuous relationship with his abusive father Carl. Several notable incidents include a violent disagreement between two female students and a police sniper's attempt to shoot Charlie through the heart. However, Charlie survives due to the bullet's striking his locker's combination lock, which he had earlier placed in the breast pocket of his shirt. Charlie finally comes to the realization that only one student is really being held against his will: a seeming "Big Man On Campus" named Ted Jones, who is harboring his own secrets. Ted realizes this and attempts to escape the classroom, but the other students brutally assault him, driving him into a battered catatonic state. At 1:00 p.m., Charlie releases the students, but Ted is unable to move under his own power and remains. When the police chief enters the classroom, the now-unarmed Charlie moves as if to shoot him, attempting suicide by cop. The chief shoots Charlie, but he survives and is found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital in Augusta, Maine until he can answer for his actions. The final chapters contain an inter-office memo concerning Ted's treatment and prognosis at the hospital where he is now a patient, and a letter from one of Charlie's friends describing assorted developments in the students' lives during the months following this incident. The story ends with Charlie addressing the reader: "That's the end. I have to turn off the light now. Good night." ===== The film is a picaresque tale about an intelligent talking blue-crowned conure named Paulie (voice of Jay Mohr), and his long quest to return to his owner. Misha Vilyenkov (Tony Shalhoub), a Russian immigrant and former teacher of literature, lives in America and works as a janitor at an animal testing lab. At the lab, Misha encounters Paulie and is shocked to see Paulie speaking fluent English. Subsequently, Paulie doesn't speak a word when Misha brings others to witness the talking bird. Misha woos Paulie to tell his story by offering him pieces of mango. Paulie tells Misha about his original owner, a little girl named Marie (Hallie Eisenberg) who has a stutter. The story transitions to a flashback scene in which Paulie is a baby bird. As Marie works on speech therapy, Paulie begins to speak too, beginning with understanding the meaning of words and progressing to the construction of complex sentences. Marie's father Warren (Matt Craven), a soldier, returns home from Vietnam and decides that Paulie is not helping Marie. The father's resentment of the close bond between Paulie and Marie, and their shared progress in speech development, is evident. It becomes obvious that he wants Marie to forget Paulie, when the father brings her a cat. The cat and Paulie do not get along. Once again, Warren blames Paulie for Marie's speaking problems and believes she has imagined Paulie's ability to speak. Eventually after a dramatic event in which Marie falls off the roof in an attempt to teach Paulie to fly, Warren convinces Marie's mother Lila (Laura Harrington) to send him away. Paulie is passed from one owner to another, eventually ending up in a pawn shop, where he spends his time insulting the customers. One day a shady customer named Benny (Jay Mohr) shows interest in buying Paulie, thinking he could profit from the bird's ability to talk. Before he can act, however, a widowed artist named Ivy (Gena Rowlands) purchases him with the intent of reforming his rude personality. She befriends the bird and agrees to help him find Marie who has moved across the country to Los Angeles. They begin traveling using her mobile home but when Ivy loses her sight in the middle of their trip, Paulie decides to stay and take care of her. After Ivy dies, Paulie, having finally learned to fly, continues his journey. In East Los Angeles, Paulie joins a group of performing conures owned by migrant musician Ignacio (Cheech Marin), temporarily forgetting about Marie as he develops feelings for a female conure named Lupe. At one of his performances, Benny, having also moved to L.A., recognizes Paulie and attempts to purchase him from Ignacio. When Ignacio refuses his offer, Benny makes a phoney police call at one of his performances. As the police show up, Benny kidnaps Paulie amidst all the chaos and Ignacio is arrested and presumably deported. Under Benny's influence, Paulie begins a life of crime. In a botched jewel theft, Paulie flies down through the chimney of a house, where he is trapped inside, then abandoned. Paulie is then brought to the institute, his current home, where employees and scientists are stunned by his intelligence. They subject him to testing, and promise that he will be reunited with Marie. When Paulie discovers that he has been lied to—that Marie has been found but the institute has instead decided to keep him as their property—he refuses to cooperate with any more tests, humiliating Dr. Reingold (Bruce Davison), the head of the institute, in front of his scientific peers by acting like an ordinary parrot and then insulting him. As a result, his wings are clipped, and he is eventually imprisoned in the basement when he starts biting the researchers. Moved by Paulie's story, Misha decides to give up his menial job to release Paulie and take him to Marie. After escaping from the institute and taking a bus to her address, they find her, now a full grown, beautiful young woman (Trini Alvarado) unrecognizable to Paulie, who believed Marie was her little friend. After a moment of confusion, Paulie and Marie are happily reunited as Marie sings Paulie's favorite song and he remembers her. The film ends with the trio happily entering the house. ===== U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has trained in the ways of ninjutsu under his sensei Senzo Tanaka (Roy Chiao). As a boy, Dux and a group of his friends broke into Tanaka's home to steal a katana, but Dux was apprehended while returning the katana to its place. Impressed by Dux's integrity and toughness, Senzo decided to train him alongside his son, Shingo (Sean Ward). After Shingo's death, Senzo trains Dux as a member of the Tanaka clan. Dux is invited to the Kumite, an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong. After his Army superiors refuse to let him go, Dux goes absent without leave, says goodbye to his sensei and leaves for Hong Kong. Two Criminal Investigation Command officers, Helmer (Norman Burton) and Rawlins (Forest Whitaker), are assigned to track down and arrest Dux. After arriving in Hong Kong, Dux befriends American fighter Ray Jackson (Donald Gibb) and their guide Victor Lin (Ken Siu). When they arrive at the Kumite arena, the officials are skeptical but eventually accept them after Dux proves his connection to the Tanaka clan by performing the "death touch." On the first day of the tournament, Dux earns the enmity of the ruthless Kumite champion Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) after breaking his record for the fastest knockout. Dux becomes involved with American journalist Janice Kent (Leah Ayres), who is investigating the Kumite. Although Dux refuses to help her, she sneaks into the arena by agreeing to a date with another spectator. On the second day, Jackson is matched against Chong Li. Although Jackson comes close to defeating Li, he wastes time gloating, allowing Li to recover and viciously beat him. Dux visits Jackson in the hospital and vows to avenge him. After witnessing the brutality of the tournament, Kent argues with Dux and tries to convince him not to return. Dux tells her that he has to win in order to become the best he can be. Helmer and Rawlins arrive in Hong Kong and contact the local police. They begin asking around for Dux and track him down to his hotel. A chase through the downtown ensues but Dux evades them when they fall into a canal. When Dux arrives at the Kumite, the local police are waiting for him. He eludes them as well but agrees to return with Helmer and Rawlins after the tournament. On the final day, Li kills his opponent, much to the consternation of the crowd. Fearing defeat, Li conceals a salt pill in his waistband before the final match against Dux. When Dux gains the upper hand, Li blinds him by crushing the pill and throwing it into Dux's face. Dux falls back on his training from Tanaka, who taught him to fight blindfolded, overcoming the handicap and defeating Li. The next day, he bids farewell to Kent and Jackson before returning to the United States with Helmer and Rawlins. ===== It's 1987 in Bayonne, New Jersey and Debby Miller has just been diagnosed with a condition called hysterical blindness in which there are moments when her sight fades in and out. The doctor tells her to try to have fun with her friends. She and her best friend Beth go to their favorite pub, Ollie's, and try to find a man and have a drink. Beth flirts with the bartender and Debby gets angry with her and decides to go outside. There she meets Rick. He wants little to do with her but she convinces him to walk her to her car. As a 'thank you' she offers to buy him a drink and tells him that she will be at the same bar again tomorrow. The next day they run into each other at the same bar and she asks him to go somewhere else and they end up at his house. It is clear that Rick has little interest in Debby, so to move things along she tells him that she 'gives a great blow job.' Afterwards, she thinks she has found love, but Rick was only looking for a one-night stand. Debby goes home, where her mother Virginia has also started dating an older man named Nick who wants her to move with him to Florida. Nick passes away suddenly from a heart attack, and Virginia realizes that until she met Nick, she had been living her life waiting for things to happen to her. In the end, Debby, Beth and Virginia struggle to find stability in their New Jersey town and agree that all they need is each other. ===== The Two Georges, being displayed in New Liverpool, is stolen while a crowd is distracted by the murder of 'Honest' Dick (a.k.a. 'Tricky' Dick), the Steamer King, a nationally-known used car salesman. In its place is left a gramophone with a recording of the "Yankee Doodle," a notorious subversive song serving as the anthem of the Sons of Liberty. Colonel Thomas Bushell of the Royal American Mounted Police leads the search for the painting, accompanied by its former curator Dr. Kathleen Flannery and Captain Samuel Stanley. Some days later, a ransom note is received from the Sons of Liberty. The Governor-General of the North American Union, Sir Martin Luther King, informs Bushell in confidence that the painting must be recovered before King- Emperor Charles III's state visit, or the government will have to pay the Sons' ransom demand of fifty million pounds. The search takes Bushell, Flannery, and Stanley across the country via airship (an advanced form of dirigible), train, and steamer. They also meet many members of the Sons of Liberty, including Common Sense editor John F. Kennedy. After chasing many false leads and the wrong suspects, Bushell and his associates arrive at Victoria (the nation's capital, on the south side of the Potomac River across from Georgestown, Maryland), and find The Two Georges an hour before the King arrives. They also uncover the true culprits: the Holy Alliance and Bushell's superior officer and covert fanatic Sons of Liberty sympathizer, Lieutenant General Sir Horace Bragg, whose family had formerly owned slaves. Bushnell then thwarts Bragg's attempts to assassinate the King, first by gunfire then by a bomb concealed in the frame of The Two Georges. When Bragg is arrested and awaiting trial, he and Bushell argue over the outcomes of a potential war against the Holy Alliance and a resultant American separatist uprising caused by the theft of the painting. Later, Bushell and Stanley are both knighted by King Charles for their accomplishments. ===== ===== Holmes is enjoying his retirement in Sussex when one day at the beach, he meets his friend Harold Stackhurst, the headmaster of a nearby preparatory school called The Gables. No sooner have they met than Stackhurst's science teacher, Fitzroy McPherson, staggers up to them, clearly in agony and wearing only an overcoat and trousers. He collapses, manages to say something about a "lion's mane", and then succumbs. He is observed to have red welts all over his back, possibly administered by a flexible weapon of some kind, for the marks curve over his shoulder and round his ribs. Moments later, Ian Murdoch, a mathematics teacher at The Gables, comes up behind them. He has not seen the attack, and has only just arrived at the beach from the school. Holmes sees a couple of people far up the beach, but thinks they are much too far away to have had anything to do with McPherson's death. Likewise, the few fishing boats off the beach are too far out. It emerges that Murdoch and McPherson were friends, but had not always been. Murdoch is an enigmatic fellow with an occasional bad temper. He once threw McPherson's dog through a plate-glass window, for instance. Despite this, Stackhurst is sure that the two were on good terms with each other. McPherson also had a lover, and on further investigation, it turns out that Maud Bellamy was McPherson's fiancée. A note confirming a meeting with her was found on McPherson, although it gave no clear details. Holmes goes to look at the lagoon formed by a recent storm that local men have been using as a bathing pond. He sees McPherson's towel lying there dry and concludes that he never went into the water. Holmes arranges to have the caves and other nooks at the foot of the cliffs searched. Nothing and no-one turns up, which is what Holmes expected would be the case. Stackhurst and Holmes decide to go and see Miss Bellamy to see whether she can shed any light on this perplexing mystery. Just as they are approaching The Haven, the Bellamys' house, they see Ian Murdoch emerge. Stackhurst demands to know what he was doing there, and an angry exchange ensues with Murdoch declaring in effect that it is none of Stackhurst's business. Stackhurst loses his temper and sacks Murdoch on the spot. Murdoch then storms off to get ready to move out. A Lion's Mane jellyfish capturing a sea gooseberry. They visit the Bellamys and find an amazingly beautiful woman in Maud Bellamy, but two extremely unpleasant men in her father and muscular brother. It seems that Mr. Bellamy and his son did not approve of the liaison between Maud and McPherson; indeed, they do not even find out about the engagement until this meeting, so secret had been the affair. Maud says that she will help however she can. It emerges that Murdoch was once a potential suitor to Miss Bellamy. This, in turn, causes Holmes to suspect that he may be responsible for McPherson's death, out of jealousy. Then McPherson's dog is found dead at the pool where McPherson met his end. It obviously died in agony, much as its master had. At this point, Holmes begins to suspect something else. The dead McPherson's dying words, "lion's mane", have triggered a memory, but he cannot quite place it. Inspector Bardle of the Sussex Constabulary visits Holmes to ask if there is enough evidence to arrest Murdoch. Holmes is sure that there is not. Murdoch has an alibi. He also could not have singlehandedly overcome McPherson, who was quite strong, despite having heart trouble. The two men also consider McPherson's wounds. The weals actually looked as though they may have been administered by a hot wire mesh, or perhaps a cat o' nine tails. Holmes is about to go back to the bathing pond to test a theory he has formed which might explain McPherson's death. As he is about to leave, Murdoch arrives, helped in by Stackhurst, who is afraid that Murdoch might be dying; he fainted twice in pain. He has the same wounds on him that McPherson had. In great agony, he passes out, but finally recovers. At the bathing pond, Holmes spots the murderer: a lion's mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), a deadly creature about which Holmes has read. Holmes takes a rock and kills it. Murdoch is exonerated. It turns out that, given his former relationship with Maud, he acted as a go-between for her and McPherson, but for the same reason, did not wish to discuss it with anyone. Stackhurst forgives Murdoch and gives him his job back. ===== alt= Shy, soft- spoken Joel Barish and unrestrained free spirit Clementine Kruczynski meet on a Long Island Rail Road train from Montauk to Rockville Centre. Both had felt the need to travel to Montauk that day, and they almost immediately connect, feeling drawn to each other despite their contrasting personalities. They agree to a second date, during which Clementine takes them to the frozen Charles River in Boston. Although Joel and Clementine do not realize it, they were once in a relationship, having separated after dating for two years. After a fight, Clementine had hired the New York City firm Lacuna, Inc. to erase all her memories of their relationship. Upon discovering this from his friends Rob and Carrie, Joel decides to undergo the procedure himself. Directly before this, he buys Clementine a necklace from an antique store and goes to her work to give it to her. Clementine does not recognize him and Joel sees her kissing a younger guy named Patrick. The narrative subsequently takes place in Joel's mind during the memory erasing procedure. Joel finds himself revisiting his memories of Clementine in reverse, starting from the downfall of their relationship. As he comes across earlier, happier memories with Clementine, he realizes that he does not want to erase her. Attempting to preserve his remaining memories of her and his love for her, he takes her hand and they run through his head as memories start to disintegrate in their wake. He finds temporary success in evading the procedure when Clementine comes up with the idea of taking her to memories not linked to her. He also attempts to wake up and stop the process but both plans are fruitless; the technicians succeed in erasing his memories by morning. Joel arrives at his last remaining memory of Clementine: the day he first met her at a beach house in Montauk. Both have achieved some degree of lucidity despite being all in his head and as the memory crumbles around them, Clementine whispers to meet her in Montauk. Joel wakes up, and this is where the beginning of the film occurs. Concurrently, a separate story arc occurs during Joel's memory erasure, revolving around Lacuna's employees. Every memory and memento of Joel and Clementine's relationship has resided in Lacuna's storage as well as a cassette tape of each recounting the other, directly prior to their procedures. These allow the employees to link Clementine and Joel, and also allow Patrick, who is revealed to be one of the Lacuna technicians, to unethically use Joel's memories to seduce and date Clementine in the present. He quotes many of the things Joel had said to Clementine, uses his nickname for her, "Tangerine", and even gifts her the necklace that Joel never gave to her, to which she is surprised that it is exactly her taste. Mary, the Lacuna receptionist, is dating another technician, Stan, but has feelings for the married head of Lacuna, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak. During Joel's memory wipe, Mary discovers she previously had an affair with Dr. Mierzwiak and agreed to have the affair erased from her memory after Dr. Mierzwiak's wife found out. Devastated by this discovery, and realizing that erasing someone's memories is unethical and still fails to change their true self, Mary quits her job, steals the company's records, and mails all of Lacuna's past clients the tapes of them recounting their memories before the erasing procedure. In the present, Joel drives Clementine home from their date, but is briefly intercepted by Patrick, who realizes to his dismay that they have found their way back to each other. When they both receive their Lacuna records in the mail, they are shocked and disturbed by the bitter memories and unresolved feelings they have for each other. Clementine gets up to leave, saying that their relationship is just going to end the same way it did in the past. Joel, in a surprising act of bravery and optimism for him, tells her that it is okay because it is still worth it, and they agree to try again. ===== The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers. Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named Jimmy who grew up in a world dominated by multinational corporations and privileged compounds for the families of their employees. Near starvation, Snowman decides to return to the ruins of a compound named RejoovenEsense to search for supplies, even though it is overrun by dangerous genetically engineered hybrid animals. He concocts an explanation for the Crakers, who regard him as a teacher, and begins his foraging expedition. In Snowman's recollection of past events, Jimmy's family moves to the HelthWyzer compound, where his father works as a genetic engineer. Jimmy meets and befriends a brilliant science student named Glenn. Jimmy begins to refer to him as Crake when he uses that name in an online trivia game called Extinctathon. Jimmy and Crake spend much of their leisure time playing online games, smoking "skunkweed", and watching underground videos such as live executions, graphic surgery, Noodie News, frog squashing, and child pornography.Coral Ann Howells, The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, Cambridge University Press, 2006, , p.186John Moss, Tobi Kozakewich, "Margaret Atwood: The Open Eye", Re-appraisals, Canadian writers, volume 30, University of Ottawa Press, 2006, , p.398Sharon Rose Wilson, Myths and fairy tales in contemporary women's fiction: From Atwood to Morrison, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, , pp.43,49 During one of their child pornography viewings, Jimmy is very much lovestruck by the gazing eyes of a young girl seen in the porn. After graduating from high school, Crake attends the highly respected Watson-Crick Institute, where he studies advanced bioengineering, but Jimmy ends up at the loathed Martha Graham Academy, where students study humanities, only valued for their propaganda applications. Jimmy gets a job writing ad copy, while Crake becomes a bioengineer at RejoovenEsense. Crake uses his prominent position to create the Crakers, peaceful, gentle, herbivorous humanoids who have sexual intercourse only during limited polyandrous breeding seasons. His stated purpose for the Crakers, actually a deliberate deception, is to create "floor models" of all the possible options a family could choose in the genetic manipulation of their future children. Crake's bio-engineering team consists of the most expert players gathered from the online Extinctathon community. Crake tells Jimmy about another very important project, a Viagra- like super-pill called BlyssPluss, which also promises health and happiness, but secretly causes sterilization in order to address overpopulation. Crake officially hires Jimmy to help market it. At the Rejoov compound, Jimmy eventually sees a human in the Craker habitat and recognizes her as the girl from the pornographic video. Unaware of Jimmy's obsession with her, Crake explains that her name is Oryx and that he has hired her as a teacher for the Crakers. Oryx notices Jimmy's feelings for her and makes herself sexually available to him, despite also being Crake's romantic partner. As their relationship progresses, Jimmy becomes increasingly fearful that Crake has found out about it. He also makes a promise to both Oryx and Crake that he will look after the Crakers if anything happens to them. After Crake's wonder drug BlyssPluss is widely distributed, a global pandemic, deliberately caused by it, breaks out and begins wiping out the human race and causing mass chaos outside of the protected Rejoov compound. Realizing that this was planned by Crake all along, and sensing that something dangerous is happening regarding Crake and Oryx, Jimmy grabs a gun to confront Crake, who is returning with Oryx from outside the compound and needs Jimmy to let them in. Crake presents himself to Jimmy with his arm around an unconscious Oryx, saying that he and Jimmy are immune to the virus. Jimmy lets them in, whereupon Crake slits Oryx's throat with a knife. Jimmy then immediately shoots Crake dead. During Snowman's journey to scavenge supplies, he cuts his foot on a sliver of glass and becomes infected. He returns to the Crakers' camp and learns that three other humans are camping nearby. Snowman follows the smoke to their fire. Snowman is unsure of whether and how to confront them, but makes a decision. ===== Honda 305 Superhawk motorcycle used in the film Musician Charlie Rogers is fired from a job at a teahouse after brawling with several college students in the parking lot. After a night in jail, Charlie hits the road on his Honda 305 Superhawk motorcycle. He spots Cathy Lean driving with her father Joe, and their employer, Maggie Morgan. When Charlie tries to become friendly with Cathy, Joe forces him off the road and the bike is wrecked after crashing into a wooden fence. Maggie offers him a place to stay and a job with her struggling traveling carnival while the bike is being repaired. Charlie becomes a "carnie", a roustabout. Maggie recognizes his musical talents and promotes him to feature attraction. His act soon draws large crowds. Off stage, Charlie romances Cathy, which creates animosity with Joe. After the two men repeatedly clash and Charlie is accused of holding back a customer's lost wallet that Joe was accused of stealing, Charlie leaves to star in the much better financed show of rival carnival producer Harry Carver. Once again, he is a great success. However, when Charlie learns that Maggie is facing bankruptcy, he returns to her carnival. In the musical finale, he is happily reunited with Cathy. ===== Honey Daniels holds down jobs as a bartender, a record store clerk and a dance teacher at a community center run by her mother in New York. Honey's dream is to make it as a renowned hip hop choreographer even though her mother presses her to teach ballet in an Uptown school. When Honey hits the dance floor after her shift at the club she works at where her rival Katrina performs, the two are recorded as they try to out dance each other. When Honey and friend Gina leave the club, they encounter brothers Benny and Raymond street dancing with other kids from the neighborhood. Honey invites them to attend her classes at the community center, where they work together to inspire new dance moves. The video from the club catches the attention of music director Michael Ellis, who gives Honey a job as a backup dancer in Jadakiss' new video. Unimpressed with his current choreographer, Michael decides to let Honey choreograph the video. Before long, Honey is asked to choreograph for Tweet, Sheek Louch, and Shawn Desman. Honey's new choreography career brings her money, fame and freedom, but at the same time takes her away from the center and the kids in the neighborhood. She continues to work for Michael and being given more choreography work, leading up to Ginuwine's new video. Benny begins to get in trouble and Honey finds him sporting a fat lip. He is angry that she hasn't been around due to her new career and lashes out at her. She offers him a job as her assistant in the coming week for Tweet's video if he keeps himself out of trouble. Meanwhile, she convinces Michael to let her use the kids she teaches at the center as backup dancers in Ginuwine's new video she's been promised with a fresh take on his video theme. Since Benny has been out of trouble, BB (the drug dealer he works for) goes to Honey's apartment and threatens her. The barber who did Raymond's hair, Chaz comes along and intervenes in backing BB off. She begins to date Chaz and he inspires her to focus on what makes her happy and not the fame her career can bring. She finds an old store she can turn into a dance studio and puts down a hefty deposit. Honey made plans to take Gina to Atlantic City for her birthday, but Michael tells her that they have an important meeting they can not miss. However on that evening, it turns out to be an exclusive Black and White party for them to network at. When Honey asks Michael for his phone so she can call Gina, his associates encourage him to follow her and he drunkenly hits on her. Honey slaps him, refusing his advances and leaves the party. Gina is furious when she sees Honey in the paper being kissed by Michael since she claimed it was work (not play) that kept her from her birthday celebration. When the day of Ginuwine's video comes, Michael shows up on set with Katrina and changes the video's concept back to the standard exotic cars and scantily clad females. The kid dancers are heartbroken and Honey is angered at Michael's behavior. Benny starts working for street corner drug dealers and soon lands in juvy. When Honey visits him there, Benny refuses her help and insults her. As she leaves, Honey asks him how often his drug friends visit and he is visibly saddened by her question realizing that his "best friend" Otis is the main reason that he is in there and none of his friends haven’t even bothered to visited him once. Benny also comes to the realization that Honey cared enough to come visit him and that he could do a lot better with his life. Depressed, Honey is relieved when Gina renews their friendship. She had a realization that she was attempting to ride Honey's coattails and their friendship was worth more. Since the ruined Ginuwine video, the large choreography checks haven't been coming in and the remainder of the down payment needs to be paid or the store will go back on the market. She comes up with the idea to hold a dance benefit at an abandoned church and Benny (released from juvie) brings his dance friends to help prep for the benefit. Michael has been hired to direct a new video for Missy Elliott. He pushes Katrina as the choreographer, but she doesn't want the latter. Missy reminds Michael that she had asked for Honey months ago and doesn't want anyone else to choreograph her video. He tries to convince Missy to just watch Katrina's dance, but she's not impressed. Missy calls Michael out for his arrogance and makes it clear that she will postpone the filming of her video until he fires Katrina and brings in Honey like what she asked. She also tells Katrina off that her dance moves are terrible and leaves. Michael crawls back to Honey and begs her to work for him. When she declines, he reveals that he knows about the dance benefit and offers to buy her the studio. She realizes that now that since she's no longer working for him, his artists are upset and want her back. She refuses both his apology and his help, saying she will pay for the studio on her own since she now sees her value. Before leaving, she tells Michael how selfish and arrogant he is and makes him realize that not only did his selfishness get Honey fired from her job but make her unintentionally upset her dance students who were hoping to star as backstage dancers in Ginuwine’s upcoming music video. Gina talks to the bank manager, who calls some local arts community donors to attend. The benefit is a full house with Honey's parents, Benny and Raymond's overworked mother, Tweet and Honey's boyfriend Chaz in attendance. The audience is wildly enthusiastic about the performances of the talented kids. Benny's mother sees he wants a trouble free future and is proud of both of her sons. Honey's Dad brought her mother to the benefit as a surprise and for the first time, she sees that the dance form her daughter loves can give her all that ballet could. At the end, the kids bring Honey up to give her recognition for all she has done and the bank manager assures Honey that the building is fully funded. Missy Elliott arrives as the benefit finishes and rushes in to finally meet Honey in person after berating her directionless driver for making her late. As the credits roll, we watch Missy introduce the R&B; group Blaque to Honey at her new dance studio, The Bronx Dance Center to prepare them for their new video. ===== ===== The troll in this story is based on the troll from the Three Billy Goats Gruff fairy tale. However, in this story, no goats ever cross the troll's bridge and he is forced to survive on fish that he catches from the river. He does encounter, in turn, a spider, a mouse and a rabbit, each of which convinces the troll not to eat them by telling him that he should try a bridge further down the river that is more suitable for capturing goats as he is "sick of fish". Meanwhile, the pirate captain Hank Chief and his crew (Peg Polkadot, Ben Buckle, and Percy Patch) are searching for the treasure that is marked on their map, but are unable to locate the correct island. The pirates also display very poor culinary skills. Eventually, the troll reaches the sea and realises that he has been tricked by the other animals; he sees what he thinks are goat tracks in the sand and sets about laying a trap for the goat in a spot not too far from the location on the pirate's treasure map. He duly discovers an old chest when digging a large hole to ensnare his prey and throws away the "round shiny objects" he finds therein. He decides to lie in wait in the chest for the goat and falls asleep. Predictably, the pirates then arrive and make off with their "treasure"; upon opening the chest the pirates decide to make the troll walk the plank, until Peg discovers the troll's frying pan and cookbook. On discovering the troll's culinary talents, they agree to spare the troll and make him their cook. The troll is delighted and proceeds to tell the pirates that he will make them his favourite goat stew only to be advised, to his horror, that all the pirates desire is fish. ===== Act I A strike is imminent at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory, where the workers churn out pajamas at a backbreaking pace ("Racing with the Clock"). In the middle of this, a new superintendent, Sid Sorokin, has come from out of town to work in the factory ("A New Town Is a Blue Town"). The union, led by Prez, is seeking a wage raise of seven-and-a-half cents an hour. Sid and Babe are in opposite camps, yet romantic interest is sparked at their first encounter. Despite cajoling from her fellow garment workers, Babe appears to reject Sid ("I'm Not At All in Love"). Meanwhile, Hines, the popular efficiency expert, is in love with Gladys, the company president's secretary, but is pushing her away with his jealous behavior. After witnessing a fight between the couple, Sid's secretary, Mabel, tries to help Hines break from his jealous ways ("I'll Never Be Jealous Again"). Meanwhile, Sid, rejected again by Babe, is forced to confide his feelings to a dictaphone ("Hey There"). During the annual company picnic, kicked off with the official Sleep-Tite Company Anthem, Prez chases after Gladys, who rejects his advances ("Her Is"), a drunken Hines demonstrates his knife throwing act (these knives are thrown at Babe), and Babe warms up to Sid ("Once a Year Day"). As the picnic-goers head home, Prez turns his attentions to Mae, who responds in the positive far more quickly and aggressively than he'd expected ("Her Is (Reprise)"). At Babe's home, Sid's romantic overtures are deflected by Babe, who makes casual conversation on tangential subjects ("Small Talk"). Eventually the walls come down between the two, who admit their love for one another ("There Once Was a Man"), but their estrangement is reinforced when they return to the factory. A slow-down is staged by the union, strongly supported by Babe ("Racing with the Clock (Reprise)"). Sid, as factory superintendent, demands an "honest day's work" and threatens to fire slackers. Babe, however, is still determined to fight for their cause, and kicks her foot into the machinery, causes a general breakdown and Sid reluctantly fires her. As she leaves, he begins to wonder again whether a romance with her is a mistake ("Hey There (Reprise)"). Act II At the Union meeting, Gladys (Mae in the 2006 revival) performs for the rest of the union, with "the boys from the cutting room floor" ("Steam Heat"). After the main meeting, the Grievance Committee meets at Babe's house, to discuss further tactics, such as mismatching sizes of pajamas and sewing the fly-buttons onto the bottoms such that they are likely to come off and leave their wearer pants-less. At the meeting, as Prez and Mae's relationship is waning, Sid arrives and tries to smooth things over with Babe. Despite her feelings for Sid, she pushes him away ("Hey There (Reprise)"). Back at the factory, the girls reassure Hines, who is personally offended by the slow down ("Think of the Time I Save"). Sid, now convinced that Babe's championship of the union is justified, takes Gladys out for the evening to a night club, "Hernando's Hideaway" (Hernando's Hideaway), where he wheedles the key to the company's books from her. Hines and Babe each discover the pair and assume they are becoming romantically involved. Babe storms out, and Hines believes his jealous imaginings have come true ("I'll Never Be Jealous Again Ballet"). Using Gladys' key, Sid accesses the firm's books and discovers that the boss, Hasler, has already tacked on the extra seven and one-half cents to the production cost, but has kept all the extra profits for himself. In Gladys' office, Hines, still jealous out of his mind, flings knives past Sid and Gladys (deliberately missing, he claims), narrowly missing an increasingly paranoid Mr. Hasler. After detaining Hines, Sid then brings about Hasler's consent to a pay raise and rushes to bring the news to the Union Rally, already in progress ("7½ Cents"). This news brings peace to the factory and to his love life, allowing him to reconnect with Babe ("There Once Was a Man (Reprise)"). Everyone goes out to celebrate—at Hernando's Hideaway ("Pajama Game").Pajama Game Guide to Musical Theatre ===== Lorenzo is a bright and vibrant young boy living in the Comoro Islands, as his father Augusto works for the World Bank and is stationed there. However, when his parents relocate back to the United States, he begins to show signs of neurological problems (such as falling, loss of hearing, tantrums, etc.). The boy is diagnosed as having adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), which is fatal within two years. Failing to find a doctor capable of treating their son's rare disease Augusto and his wife, Michaela, set out on a mission to find a treatment to save their son. In their quest, the Odones clash with doctors, scientists and a support group that is skeptical that anything could be done about ALD, much less by laypeople. But they persist, setting up camp in medical libraries, reviewing animal experiments, enlisting the aid of Professor Gus Nikolais, badgering researchers, questioning top doctors all over the world and even organizing an international symposium about the disease. Despite research dead-ends, the horror of watching their son's health decline and being surrounded by skeptics (including the coordinators of the support group they attend), they persist until they finally hit upon a possible therapy. The Odones sponsor an international meeting of scientists doing research on ALD, requiring two conditions ahead of time. First they insist that the meeting focus on potential treatments and second, they require that they be allowed to participate, despite being non-scientist laypeople. The pivotal scene in the movie portrays this meeting, in which the scientists are presenting their research. When Dr. William B. Rizzo mentions his studies in which the addition of oleic acid to cultured cells blocked accumulation of the factors which cause ALD, the Odones jump into the conversation, asking if this oil might help their son. Although the scientists play down their hope, pointing out that it would take years of work to produce the oil and test in clinical trials, the Odones seize the promise of this possible curative treatment. As the scene ends, Michaela Odone is shown beginning the effort to find someone able and willing to produce the same oil Dr. Rizzo gave to his cells. They contact over 100 firms around the world until they find an elderly British chemist, Don Suddaby, who is working for Croda International and is willing to take on the challenge of distilling the proper formula. The Odones obtain a precious vial of the oil (actually containing two specific long chain fatty acids, isolated from rapeseed oil and olive oil) and add it to their son's diet. This treatment proves successful in normalizing the accumulation of the very long chain fatty acids (which had been causing their son's steady decline), as measured in blood levels. This treatment halts the progression of his disease and is dubbed "Lorenzo's Oil". This oil is soon found to be successful in preventing the progression of harm in other patients with ALD. Meanwhile, however, Lorenzo has a great deal of neurological damage, and the Odones are dismayed to see that the oil can reverse their son's symptoms only very, very slowly. The Odones realize that more rapid improvement of his son's severe condition will require treatments to repair the myelin sheath (a lipid insulator) around the nerves, and Augusto is shown taking on the new challenge of organizing biomedical efforts to heal myelin damage in patients. Finally, Lorenzo, at the age of 14, shows definite improvement (swallowing for himself and answering "yes" or "no" questions by blinking) and it is revealed that he has regained his sight, can move his head from side to side, vocalize simple sounds and is learning to use a computer. The movie ends with scenes of ALD patients who were treated with Lorenzo's Oil earlier in the course of their disease. In these patients the devastating neurological problems from which Lorenzo suffered were able to be prevented. ===== After finishing a long shift as a nurse at the Milwaukee County Hospital, Ana returns to her suburban neighborhood and her husband Louis. Caught up in a date night, they miss an emergency news bulletin. The next morning, a girl from the neighborhood enters and kills Louis, who immediately reanimates as a zombie and attacks Ana. She flees in her car, crashes, and passes out. Upon waking, she joins police sergeant Kenneth Hall, electronics salesman Michael, petty criminal Andre and his pregnant wife, Luda. They break into a nearby mall and are attacked by a zombie security guard, who slightly bites Luda. Three guards — C.J., Bart, and Terry — make them surrender their weapons in exchange for refuge. They split into groups to secure the mall. On the roof, they see another survivor, Andy, who is stranded in his gun store across the zombie-infested parking lot. During this time, a broadcast from a television features a group of cops burn the corpses of zombies and introduce the viewers to shoot the zombies in the head to kill them quickly, enabling the survivors to prioritize headshot for the zombies from now on. The next day, a delivery truck carrying more survivors enters the lot, pursued by zombies. They include Norma, Steve, Tucker, Monica, Glen, Frank and his daughter, Nicole. Another woman is too ill to walk; she is wheeled inside, only to die and reanimate. After she is killed, the group determines the disease is passed by bites. Luda keeps her bite a secret from the group, though Andre knows. Frank, who has been bitten, elects to be isolated. When he reanimates, Kenneth shoots him. Kenneth and Andy start a friendship by way of messages written on a whiteboard; romance buds between Ana and Michael, and Nicole and Terry. When the power goes out, a few of the survivors go to the parking garage to activate the emergency generator and find a friendly dog who is adopted by Nicole and named Chips. Zombies kill Bart, forcing the others to douse the zombies in gas and set them ablaze. Meanwhile, Luda — tied up by Andre — dies before giving birth. She reanimates and Norma kills Luda. This makes Andre snap; he exchanges gunfire with Norma and the two kill each other. The others find a zombie baby in Andre's arms delivered after Luda's death, which they kill reluctantly. The group decides to fight their way to the marina and travel on Steve's yacht to an island on Lake Michigan. They reinforce two shuttle buses from the garage for it; welding on a snowplow, attaching metal bars and chains as well as stocking chainsaws, propane tanks and road flares. To rescue Andy, the group straps supplies onto the dog, Chips, and lower him into the parking lot; the zombies have no interest in him. Chips enters Andy's store safely, but a zombie follows and bites Andy. Pursuing Chips, Nicole crashes the delivery truck into the gun store, where she is trapped by a zombified Andy. A group of them reach the gun store via the sewers, kill Andy, and rescue Nicole. They grab ammunition and go back to the mall; along the way, Tucker breaks his legs, and C.J. shoots him out of mercy. Once inside, they are unable to lock the door because Steve temporarily abandoned his guard duty. Zombies storm the mall, forcing an evacuation via the buses. While navigating the city, Glen loses control of a chainsaw, accidentally killing himself and Monica. In the chaos, their bus crashes. Steve tries to flee on his own but is ambushed by a zombie. Ana kills the zombified Steve and retrieves his boat keys. At the marina, C.J. sacrifices himself so the others can escape. Michael, after revealing a bite wound, kills himself as Ana, Kenneth, Nicole, Terry, and Chips flee on the yacht. Footage from a camcorder found on the boat shows the group runs out of supplies, arrives at an island and is attacked by a swarm of zombies. The camcorder drops leaving their fate unknown. ===== ===== In 1975, Daniel Eakins, a young college student, is visited by his "Uncle Jim". Uncle Jim offers to increase Daniel's monthly allowance for living expenses as long as Daniel promises to keep a diary. Shortly after, Uncle Jim dies, and Daniel inherits a "Timebelt" from him that allows the wearer to travel through time. Daniel quickly learns how to use the Timebelt and makes a few short jumps into his own future. He meets an alternate version of himself, who goes by "Don," who accompanies him to a race-track where the pair make a fortune betting on horse-racing. The following day, Daniel realises that it is his turn to act as Don and guide his younger self through the previous day at the races; through this and other events the time-travelling Daniel learns more about the belt, about the nature of the 'timestream', and about his personal identity. Daniel repeatedly encounters alternate versions of himself and enjoys his own company, ultimately having sex with himself and beginning a relationship with himself. He learns that the changes he has made to his timeline have erased all traces of his childhood and early life. Though he has been able to become closer to himself than he has in any other relationship, at some point he comes to find that he no longer meets other versions of himself. Lonely and hoping to correct the situation, he jumps many millennia backwards in time, where his jumps have not altered the timeline, and there he meets a female version of himself called Diane. Diane's future is a mirror of Daniel's - she was given the Timebelt by her Aunt Jane, and she had also begun a relationship with her other selves, called Donna. Daniel begins a relationship with Diane and Diane becomes pregnant. Daniel and Diane secretly desire a son and a daughter, respectively, and unbeknownst to each other jump and use future technology to make their own changes to ensure that Diane gives birth to the desired child. Shortly after the birth of their child, Daniel and Diane separate. Daniel raises his son in 1950s America. As Daniel ages, he misses the relationship he had with Diane, but the interference of an obsessive version of himself has erased the point in the past where the two can meet. He spends much of his time at a house party set in 1999, enjoying the company of dozens of versions of himself at different ages. At one point late in the party an elderly Daniel dies after a jump, and Daniel is consumed with the thought of his own inevitable death. Daniel eventually realises that he has now become his Uncle Jim, and that his son will grow up to be the young version of himself who will inherit the Timebelt, and that his life has 'come full circle'. He makes preparations for after his death to ensure that the young Daniel experiences the same events that he did when he was the same age and have his own experience with time travel. The book ends with the young Daniel, who has read the now-complete diary, having to decide whether he will use the Timebelt. ===== Sing is a master of Shaolin kung fu, whose goal in life is to promote the spiritual and practical benefits of the art to modern society. He experiments with various methods, but none bear positive results. He then meets "Golden Foot" Fung, a legendary Hong Kong soccer star in his day, who is now walking with a limp, following the betrayal of a former teammate Hung, now a rich businessman. Sing explains his desires to Fung who offers his services to coach Sing in soccer. Sing is compelled by the idea of promoting kung fu through soccer and agrees to enlist his former Shaolin brothers to form a team under Fung's management. Sing and Fung attempt to put together an unbeatable soccer team. Fung invites a vicious team to play against them and the thugs proceed to give the Shaolin team a brutal beating. When all seems lost, the Shaolin disciples reawaken and utilise their special powers, dismantling the other team's rough play easily. The thugs then give up and ask to join Sing's team. Empty Hand uses his superhuman speed to catch objects kicked at him. Sing meets Mui (Zhao Wei), a baker with severe acne who uses Tai chi to bake mantou, and even takes her to look at very expensive dresses at a high-end department store after hours. She soon forms an attachment to Sing and even gets a makeover in an attempt to impress Sing. However, this backfires and when Mui reveals her feelings to him, he tells her he only wants to be her friend. This revelation, coupled with the constant bullying from her overbearing boss, leads Mui to disappear. striker of Team Evil prepares for his most powerful attack. Team Shaolin enters the open cup competition in Hong Kong, where they chalk up successive and often ridiculous one-sided victories. They end up meeting Team Evil in the final, owned by none other than Hung. Team Evil had been injected with an American drug, granting them superhuman strength and speed, making them practically invincible, and they bring Team Shaolin back to reality when Team Evil's amazing capabilities prove more than a match for them. After Team Evil takes out Team Shaolin's goalkeepers, Mui, who has shaved her hair and improved her face, reappears to keep goal for Team Shaolin. In their final attack, Team Evil's striker leaps into the sky and kick the ball with enormous force towards Mui; she uses her martial art to divert and stop it, thus preventing a goal. Mui and Sing combine their martial skills and rocket the ball downfield. The ball plows through Team Evil's goal post, thereby scoring the winning goal. Sing is then thrown into the air in celebration as the trophy is presented to him and his team. A newspaper article then shows Hung being stripped of his title of soccer chairman and sent to jail for five years, while Team Evil players are permanently banned from playing soccer professionally. Sing goes out for a morning walk and feels happy to see people practicing Kung Fu. The camera pans to the poster of Sing and Mui who have married and become famous, for winning a world championship in bowling among other things. ===== The novel tells the story of a British officer, Harry Feversham, who resigns from his commission in the Royal North Surrey Regiment just before Lord Garnet Wolseley's 1882 expedition to Egypt to suppress the rising of Colonel Ahmed Orabi. He is censured for cowardice by three of his comradesCaptain Trench and Lieutenants Castleton and Willoughbysignified by their delivery of three white feathers to him. His fiancée, Ethne Eustace, breaks off their engagement and also gives him a white feather. His best friend in the regiment, Captain Durrance, becomes a rival for Ethne. Harry talks with Lieutenant Sutch, a friend of his late father who is an imposing retired general. He questions his own motives, but says he will redeem himself by acts that will convince his critics to take back the feathers. He travels on his own to Egypt and Sudan, where in 1882 Muhammad Ahmed proclaimed himself the Mahdi (Guided One) and raised a Holy War. On 26 January 1885, his Dervish forces captured Khartoum and killed its British governor, General Charles George Gordon. Most of the action over the next six years takes place in the eastern Sudan, where the British and Egyptians held Suakin. Durrance is blinded by sunstroke and invalided. Castleton is reportedly killed at Tamai, where a British square is briefly broken by a Mahdi attack. Harry's first success comes when he recovers lost letters of Gordon. He is aided by a Sudanese Arab, Abou Fatma. Later, disguised as a mad Greek musician, Harry gets imprisoned in Omdurman, where he rescues Captain Trench, who had been captured on a reconnaissance mission. They escape. Learning of his actions, Willoughby and Trench give Ethne the feathers they had taken back from Harry. He returns to England, and sees Ethne for what he thinks is one last time, as she has decided to devote herself to the blind Durrance. But Durrance tells her his blindness is curable (a white lie) and frees her for Harry. Ethne and Harry wed, and Durrance travels to "the East" as a civilian. ===== Mountain scenery at Davos, the novel's Alpine setting The narrative opens in the decade before World War I. It introduces the protagonist, Hans Castorp, the only child of a Hamburg merchant family. Following the early death of his parents, Castorp has been brought up by his grandfather and later, by a maternal uncle named James Tienappel. Castorp is in his early 20s, about to take up a shipbuilding career in Hamburg, his home town. Before beginning work, he undertakes a journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos, high up in the Swiss Alps. In the opening chapter, Castorp leaves his familiar life and obligations, in what he later learns to call "the flatlands", to visit the rarefied mountain air and introspective small world of the sanatorium. Castorp's departure from the sanatorium is repeatedly delayed by his failing health. What at first appears to be a minor bronchial infection with slight fever is diagnosed by the sanatorium's chief doctor and director, HofratHofrat (literally, court advisor) is an honorific title given by monarchs or, as in this case, their family members to people of merits. It is not his title as director of the sanatorium, which is Director. However, the novel mirrors the then German custom to call Hofräte by their honorific rather than their functional title. The most recent English translator of Magic Mountain, Woods, uses Director as a translation. Behrens, as symptoms of tuberculosis. Castorp is persuaded by Behrens to stay until his health improves. During his extended stay, Castorp meets a variety of characters, who represent a microcosm of pre- war Europe. These include Lodovico Settembrini (an Italian humanist and encyclopedist, a student of Giosuè Carducci); Leo Naphta, Jewish Jesuit who favors totalitarianism; Mynheer Peeperkorn, a dionysian Dutchman; and his romantic interest, Madame Clawdia Chauchat. Castorp eventually resides at the sanatorium for seven years. At the conclusion of the novel, the war begins, and Castorp volunteers for the military. His possible, or probable, demise upon the battlefield is portended. ===== The narrator of the story is an unnamed disfigured woman who goes by multiple identities, notably Daisy St. Patience and Bubba Joan—identities that were given to her by Brandy Alexander, with whom she spends the majority of the book. The novel opens in medias res on the wedding day of Evie Cottrell, whose house is burning to the ground. Brandy, who has been shot by Evie, asks the narrator to tell her life story. She remembers how she first met Brandy, and the story is told in a non-linear sequence of memories. The narrator is the daughter of a farmer. Her older brother, Shane, was kicked out of the house for being gay after contracting gonorrhea. After their parents receive a phone call from a stranger that Shane is dead from AIDS, they become obsessive supporters of gay rights, so that even in death, Shane gets more parental attention than the narrator. This attention is a huge source of resentment for the narrator towards her brother. She sought a career in modeling in attempt to get attention for herself. The narrator's best friend in modeling school is Evelyn "Evie" Cottrell, who begins a secret relationship with the narrator's boyfriend, Manus Kelley. While driving down the highway, the narrator is shot in the face and her jaw is ripped off. She immediately drives to the hospital and recovers, but her lower jaw is lost and her modeling career has been destroyed. In speech therapy she meets Brandy Alexander, a trans woman. During their sessions, Brandy attempts to teach the narrator how to give herself a new life and a new identity, giving her a new name, Daisy St. Patience, the first among many new identities given to the narrator. Evie begs the narrator to come live with her, goes to Cancún as soon as she arrives, leaving the narrator alone in the house. The first night, Manus breaks into the house, holding a huge kitchen knife. Because of the rapid non-linear motion of the novel's events, the narrator has often referred to Manus as "Seth", an identity given to him by Brandy, and it is not until this moment in the novel that the reader learns that Manus and Seth are the same person. When Manus and Evie's affair is exposed, both claim that the other was the one who shot the narrator. The narrator locks Manus in a closet and sets fire to Evie's house. Then the narrator forces Manus to ingest pills before locking him in the trunk of his own car. The narrator flees to the hotel room where Brandy lives. There she meets Brandy's roommates, the Rhea sisters, a trio of drag performers who are paying for Brandy's sex change operations. The narrator learns that Brandy is really Shane, and that he strives to look like his sister (the narrator) through surgery. Brandy wants to find her sister, and is unaware of the narrator's true identity. She then leaves with the narrator and Manus. They travel the country, pretend to view expensive homes for sale, steal whatever drugs they can find and alternately ingest or sell them. Later, the narrator hears of Brandy's stories of sexual abuse by Manus. "Brandy" divulges that she is not actually transgender—Shane chose to become a woman when he does not want to be because he sees it as a way to disfigure himself beyond being in the control of others. One day they are viewing a home and realize that the realtor is Evie's mother, who reveals that Evie transitioned from being a man at a young age and that they are marrying her off to save themselves trouble. The trio attend the wedding. The narrator once again sets fire to Evie's house, and thus we are returned to the opening scene of the novel. It is revealed that Brandy originally met Evie in a transgender support group, in which Evie told Brandy of the narrator's accident. Brandy reveals she has known that the narrator was her sister, Shannon McFarland, since the beginning of their friendship. In turn, Shannon reveals that she shot herself in the face to permanently escape from being beautiful, mirroring Shane's decision to transition. Later, sitting in Brandy's hospital room, Shannon determines that she has never truly loved anyone except her brother. Leaving her pocket book with all of her identification, she tells a sleeping Brandy that since Shane is still confused about what he wants out of life, he can have the only thing she has left, her identity. The novel ends with Shannon leaving the hospital and into the world to find a new start. In the Remix version, it is revealed that Shannon, now going by Daisy St. Patience full-time, has established a cemetery after her parents have died, in which people can buy relatives they disliked with spiteful sayings carved into the tombstones. Additionally, Daisy creates a group for disfigured girls called "Elephant Women". In the end, we see her at her wedding, marrying an unidentified man. ===== During a particularly intense Florida heatwave, inept local lawyer Ned Racine meets and begins an affair with Matty Walker. She is married to wealthy businessman, Edmund Walker, who is home only on the weekends. One night, Ned arrives at the Walker mansion and playfully propositions a woman he mistakes as Matty. The woman, who bears a strong resemblance to Matty, is Mary Ann Simpson, Matty's visiting high school friend. Soon after, Matty tells Ned she wants to divorce Edmund, but their prenuptial agreement would leave her with little money. She also says that she wishes her husband dead. Eventually, Ned suggests murdering Edmund so Matty can inherit his wealth. He consults a shady former client, Teddy Lewis, an expert on incendiary devices, who supplies Ned with a bomb while strongly encouraging him to abandon whatever he is scheming. Ned, aided by Matty, kills Edmund and moves the body to an abandoned building connected to Edmund's business interests. Ned detonates the bomb to look like Edmund died during a botched arson attempt. Soon after, Edmund's lawyer contacts Ned about a new will that Ned supposedly drafted for Edmund and which was witnessed by Mary Ann Simpson. The new will was improperly prepared, making it null and void, resulting in Matty inheriting Edmund's entire fortune while disinheriting his surviving blood relatives. Matty later reveals to Ned that she forged the will, knowing that it would be nullified and that she would be the sole beneficiary. Ned knows the police will view the sudden change to Edmund's will shortly before his death as suspicious. Two of Ned's friends, assistant deputy prosecutor Peter Lowenstein, and police detective Oscar Grace, suspect that Ned may be involved in Edmund's death. Edmund's eyeglasses, which he always wore, are missing, and Mary Ann Simpson has also disappeared. Nervous over the mounting evidence implicating him, and questioning Matty's loyalty, Ned happens upon a lawyer who once sued him over a mishandled legal case. The lawyer says that to make amends, he recommended Ned to Matty Walker, and admits he told her about Ned's limited legal skills. Lowenstein informs Ned that on the night of the murder, hotel phone records show that repeated calls to Ned's room went unanswered, thereby weakening his alibi. Teddy tells Ned about a woman wanting an incendiary device, and that he showed her how to booby trap a door. Matty calls Ned and says that Edmund's glasses are in the Walker estate boathouse. Ned arrives later that night and spots a long twisted wire attached to the door. When Matty arrives, Ned asks her to retrieve the glasses. Matty walks toward the boathouse and disappears from view; the boathouse explodes. A body found inside is identified through dental records as Matty Walker (née Tyler). Now in prison, Ned, having realized Matty duped him, tries to convince Oscar Grace that she is still alive. He believes the woman he knew as "Matty" assumed the real Matty Tyler's identity in order to marry and murder Edmund for his money. The "Mary Ann Simpson" that Ned met had discovered the scheme and was blackmailing Matty, only to also be murdered. Had Ned been killed in the boathouse explosion, the police would have found both suspects' bodies. Sitting in his cell, Ned obtains a copy of Matty's high school yearbook: in it are photos of Mary Ann Simpson and Matty Tyler, confirming his suspicion that Mary Ann assumed Matty Walker's identity. Below Mary Ann's photo is the nickname "The Vamp" and "Ambition--To be rich and live in an exotic land". In the final scene, the real Mary Ann (Matty) is seen lounging on a tropical beach alongside a Brazilian Portuguese-speaking man. ===== ===== While trying to escape from East to West Berlin, British agent 009 dies in the residence of the British Ambassador, dressed as a circus clown and carrying a fake Fabergé egg. MI6 immediately suspects Soviet involvement and, after seeing the real egg appear at an auction in London, sends James Bond to identify the seller. At the auction, Bond swaps the real egg for a fake one and subsequently engages in a bidding war with exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan, forcing Khan to pay £500,000 for the fake egg. Bond follows Khan back to his palace in Rajasthan, where Bond defeats Khan in a game of backgammon. Bond escapes with his contact Vijay, foiling the attempts of Khan's bodyguard Gobinda to kill the pair. Bond is seduced by Khan's associate Magda, and notices that she has a blue-ringed octopus tattoo. Bond permits Magda to steal the real Fabergé egg, fitted with listening and tracking devices by Q, while Gobinda captures and takes Bond to Khan's palace. After Bond escapes from his room, he listens in on the bug and discovers that Khan is working with Orlov, a Soviet general, who is seeking to expand Soviet control in Europe. Bond infiltrates a floating palace in Udaipur, and there finds its owner, Octopussy, a wealthy businesswoman, smuggler and associate of Khan. She also leads the Octopus cult, of which Magda is a member. Octopussy has a personal connection with Bond: she is the daughter of the late Major Dexter-Smythe, whom Bond was assigned to arrest for treason. Bond allowed the Major to commit suicide rather than face trial, and Octopussy thanks him for offering her father an honourable alternative, inviting Bond to stay on as her guest. Earlier in Khan's palace and later in Octopussy's palace, Bond finds out that Orlov has been supplying Khan with priceless Soviet treasures, replacing them with replicas while Khan has been smuggling the real versions into the West via Octopussy's circus troupe. Orlov is planning to meet Khan at Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz) in East Germany, where the circus is scheduled to perform. Gobinda sends mercenaries to kill Bond, but he and Octopussy gain the upper hand when the assassins break into the palace. Bond learns from Q that Vijay has been killed by the goons. Travelling to East Germany, Bond infiltrates the circus and finds out that Orlov has replaced the Soviet treasures with a nuclear warhead, primed to explode during the circus show at a US Air Force base in West Germany. The explosion would trigger Europe into seeking disarmament in the belief that the bomb was a US one that detonated by accident, leaving its borders open to a Soviet invasion. Bond takes Orlov's car, drives it along the train tracks and boards the moving circus train. Orlov gives chase, but is killed at the border by East German guards after they mistake Orlov for a defector. Bond kills the twin knife-throwing assassins Mischka and Grischka and, after falling from the train, commandeers a car to get to the airbase. Bond penetrates the base and disguises himself as a clown to evade the West German police. He attempts to convince Octopussy that Khan has betrayed her by showing her one of the treasures found in Orlov's car, which she was to smuggle for him. Octopussy realizes that she has been tricked, and assists Bond in deactivating the warhead. Bond and Octopussy return separately to India. Bond arrives at Khan's palace just as Octopussy and her troops have launched an assault on the grounds. Octopussy attempts to kill Khan, but is captured by Gobinda. While Octopussy's team, led by Magda, overpower Khan's guards, Khan and Gobinda abandon the palace, taking Octopussy as a hostage. Bond pursues them as they attempt to escape in their plane, clinging to the fuselage and disabling the tailplanes. In the subsequent struggle with Bond, Gobinda takes a deadly plummet off the roof of the plane and Bond rescues Octopussy from Khan, the pair jumping onto a nearby cliff only seconds before the plane crashes into a mountain, killing Khan. While M and General Gogol discuss the transport of the jewellery, Bond recuperates with Octopussy aboard her private boat in India. ===== A hermit walking in the woods encounters his dog, who has died of a bloody infection, and the hermit becomes infected. Meanwhile, college students Jeff, Marcy, Paul, Karen and Bert take a vacation to a remote cabin to celebrate spring break. Bert leaves to shoot squirrels but shoots the now disfigured and bloody hermit. Despite the hermit's pleas, Bert flees and remains silent about the incident. The group gather around a campfire that night, where they are joined by a friendly drifter named Grimm and his pet dog, Dr. Mambo. When it rains, Grimm leaves with his dog to pack up his belongings. While the friends wait for Grimm indoors, the hermit returns, begging for help. When Bert shuts the door on the sick hermit, he tries stealing the group's car while vomiting blood. When the hermit approaches Marcy and Karen, Paul accidentally sets him on fire. While seeking help the next day, Jeff and Bert encounter a butcher but leave after learning she is the dead hermit's cousin. Paul receives assistance from police Deputy Winston, who promises to send up a tow truck. Paul tries comforting Karen, who is upset over the killing of the hermit. After calming her down, Paul attempts to have sex with her; as he reaches between her legs, he discovers an infection that has spread in her groin. The group isolates her in a shed. After fixing the truck, Bert coughs up blood but does not tell the others. Bert drives off after Paul and Jeff discover he has caught the disease. Jeff takes the remaining beer and leaves, terrified of becoming infected. Bert seeks help at a convenience store but angers the owner after his son, Dennis, bites him. Bert flees, chased by Dennis's father and two friends. At the cabin, Marcy worries that they will all contract the disease. When Paul comforts her, they impulsively have sex. Regretting the affair, Paul leaves while Marcy takes a bath, crying; as she shaves her legs the flesh begins to peel off and she runs outside in a panic, where she is eaten alive by Dr. Mambo. Paul discovers the hermit’s body floating in the reservoir, and realizes the infection is spreading through the water supply. Racing back to the cabin, Paul finds Marcy's remains and Dr. Mambo feeding on Karen. After killing Dr. Mambo with Bert's gun, he bludgeons Karen with a shovel out of mercy. A dying Bert returns to the cabin pursued by Dennis's father and his two companions. The posse shoots and kills Bert, and Paul kills all three of them. Paul looks for Jeff; he instead finds Grimm's corpse. Paul takes the convenience store's truck, and, while driving, discovers he is infected before hitting a deer. He reunites with Deputy Winston, who is partying with underage drinkers. Paul requests a ride to the hospital, but before the group departs, Winston is ordered to kill on sight several infected people on a killing spree. With the group turning on him, Paul attacks and infects several of Winston's friends before knocking Winston out. A passing truck drops off Paul at a hospital, where he weakly discusses where he caught the disease. The doctors inform the sheriff that Paul must be transferred. Lying in the back of Winston's squad car, Paul unsuccessfully warns him about the contaminated water supply; Winston dumps him at the edge of a creek. Jeff, who has been hiding out and drinking in the woods, returns to the cabin the next day. Initially crying after seeing the remains of his friends, he becomes ecstatic upon realizing he is the only survivor. As he raises his arms in victory, Winston shoots him and burns his body with the others. At the convenience store, several children sell lemonade, which they have made with the water from the creek Paul was dumped in, to the same police officers. A large truck filled with bottles of water taken from the creek can be seen leaving the store. ===== The narrator, known only by his surname, Robinson, is a schoolteacher who lives in Las Vegas. He has become a widower after Dolan, a wealthy crime-boss, had his wife murdered with a car bomb in order to prevent her from testifying against him. The murder remains unsolved, and Robinson, unskilled in the arts of revenge, has no recourse. Over a seven-year period, however, Robinson—mentally haunted by his wife's voice—devises a scheme of retaliation. Discovering that Dolan regularly takes the same route along State Route 71 when traveling to Los Angeles while in his Cadillac, Robinson decides to trick Dolan into missing a detour, which leads the Cadillac to crash into a ditch in which he'll be buried alive; while the Cadillac is armored against most conventional forms of attack, he realized he can use that against Dolan. He takes on a summer job with a road paving crew so that he can learn to operate the heavy equipment needed to excavate an oblong ditch just long and deep enough to contain the car, but not so wide as to allow escape through its doors. The trap works, and Dolan is stuck in his Cadillac as it crashes into the pit. One of Dolan's bodyguards is killed in the crash, while the other, crushed by the engine block, screams out in pain and panic, prompting Dolan to kill him. Robinson greets him and announces his intent on burying Dolan alive. Dolan addresses Robinson by name, prompting him to lean over the roof of the car as Dolan fires a few bullets skyward. He misses Robinson, who proceeds with the burial. Dolan, increasingly desperate, pleads with Robinson for his freedom, offering him a large sum of cash. Robinson merely tells him he will be released if he screams as loud as the explosives that killed his wife, gleefully listening to Dolan's cries as he completes the burial and paves over his car. With what must be the last gasp of air left to him, Dolan screams out, "For the love of God, Robinson!" (An allusion to The Cask of Amontillado) as the latter drops the last piece of paving into place. Robinson pays a relatively small price of undergoing much physical and mental exhaustion, but he feels satisfied that he has done a great service to the memory of his late wife, whose voice finally falls silent; this silence is something of a relief to Robinson. The press reports Dolan missing, joking that he is "playing dominos or shooting pool somewhere with Jimmy Hoffa." Robinson notes that he often traveled along the same highway to the area where he buried Dolan alive. During his final trip, he urinated on the spot where he thought Dolan was buried. He notes that this was his final trip down the highway and that he now takes an alternate route. Robinson's wife's voice no longer haunts him, and he finds this a relief. ===== Similar to Beowulf, Judith conveys a moral tale of heroic triumph over monstrous beings. Both moral and political, the poem tells of a brave woman’s efforts to save and protect her people. Judith is depicted as an exemplar woman, grounded by ideal morale, probity, courage, and religious conviction. Judith's character is rendered blameless and virtuous, and her beauty is praised. In line 109, Judith is referred to as an ides ellenrof, which translates as brave woman. The author also gives her the entitlement of a 'halige meowle' (line 56), which translates as holy woman, a 'snoteran idese' (line 55), which translates as wise woman, whilst her appearance is described as 'aelfscinu' (line 13), which translates as 'elf- shining'. Although Judith kills a man, she appears to be doing God's will; Holofernes, while described to some extent as a standard military leader in the Beowulfian vein, is also cast as a salacious drunk and becomes monstrous in his excess. Portraying the epitome of Germanic heroism, Judith was likely composed during a time of war as a model for the Anglo-Saxon people. The Abbot Ælfric similarly created his own homiletic interpretation of the Book of Judith. At the time of his creation, Vikings were ransacking England. Ælfric professed that Judith was to serve as an example to the people. In a letter, Ælfric wrote: “þeo is eac on English on ure wisan iset eow mannum to bisne, þet ge eower eard mid wæpnum beweriæn wið onwinnende here.” Translated into modern English, the phrase reads: “It is also set as an example for you in English according to our style, so that you will defend your land with weapons against an attacking force” (Nelson, pg. 47). Ælfric’s Judith is quite similar to that of the poem; and furthermore, the characters seem to have served the same purpose—to stand as an example to the people in a time of war. Judith’s city of Bethulia was being plundered by Assyrians. Holofernes was an Assyrian general and king, often drunk and constantly monstrous. Judith hatched a plan to save the Israelites and Bethulia. As Holofernes was often drunk, Judith anticipated that he would attempt to seduce her. She pretended to be charmed by Holofernes, allowing herself to be taken to his bedroom. When the unsuspecting Holofernes fell into a drunken slumber, Judith severed his head with a sword. Thereafter, she proudly displayed his head to her Hebrew army and led them into a victorious battle against the Assyrians. In the Book of Judith, though, the Assyrians simply fled Bethulia after discovering the deceased body of Holofernes (Marsden, pg. 148). ===== Scott Hastings is the frustrated son of a family of ballroom dancers, who has been training since childhood. His mother Shirley teaches ballroom dancing, and his father Doug meekly handles maintenance chores at the dance studio, while secretly spending hours in a back room watching old footage of his bygone dance competitions. Scott struggles to establish his personal style of dance on his way to win the Pan- Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship, but his innovative and flashy steps are not considered "strictly ballroom", and as such are denounced by Australian Federation head Barry Fife. Scott loses a competition because he started dancing his own steps, and his dancing partner Liz leaves him to team up with Ken, whose partner Pam Short has broken both her legs in a car accident (as just previously wished upon by Liz). With Scott now alone only three weeks until the championships, Shirley and her co-instructor at the studio, Les, embark on a desperate hunt for a new partner for Scott. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to both Shirley and Les, Scott is approached by Fran, an overlooked "beginner" dancer at the studio. Scott eventually agrees to partner with Fran, intrigued by her willingness to dance "his way". The pairing faces its first challenge when Fife, in an effort to pull Scott into line and prevent him from threatening the Dancesport status quo, arranges for Scott to become the new partner of Tina Sparkle, an established Champion dancer. When Shirley and Les hear the news, they are overjoyed; Fran, happening upon them exclaiming over their happiness about Scott's new dance partner, misunderstands initially and believes they have discovered that she and Scott have become partners. When she realises the truth, she leaves, devastated. Scott chases after her and, although she is hurt, he entices her to dance backstage with him, and her anger is forgotten. However, their dance is witnessed by several onlookers, among them Shirley and Les, who then do everything they can to persuade both Scott and Fran that the best way forward for all concerned is for Scott to forget about Fran and sign on as Tina Sparkle's partner. Fran, accused of damaging Scott's chances, reluctantly accedes and returns home crestfallen. Scott argues with his mother, telling her and all he won't be manipulated, so won't become Tina's partner. He follows Fran home, where he is discovered and challenged by Fran's overprotective Spanish father. Scott, to appease the father, proposes that they dance a Paso Doble for the assembled company. Fran's father and grandmother demonstrate how the Paso Doble should be danced, and offer to teach the youngsters. Fran and Scott spend the next week training, supported by her family. However, Fife intervenes, telling Scott that Scott's father, Doug, ruined his career by dancing his own steps too, which he's regretted ever since. Not wanting to cause his parents further heartache, Scott reteams with Liz to attempt win the Pan-Pacific. During the competition, Doug tells Scott that Fife's story is a lie: he had convinced Shirley not to dance with him so he, Fife, could win the competition. It is also revealed that Fife is plotting to sabotage Scott in favor of audience favorite Ken Railings. Scott runs after Fran and persuades her to dance with him. In the next round, Scott and Fran make their own dramatic entrance and begin dancing, immediately riveting the audience. Fife tries to disqualify them, but Scott's friend Wayne, having overheard Fife's treachery, disconnects the PA system, allowing Scott and Fran to dance a Paso Doble routine that wins the audience over. Desperate, Fife tries to turn off the music, but Scott's sister Kylie and her partner Luke interfere until Fife's girlfriend Charm Leachman disconnects the sound system. Fife then disqualifies Scott and Fran, but Doug begins clapping out a beat to enable Scott and Fran to continue dancing. The audience claps along, as Scott and Fran begin dancing again. Liz restores the music, and Scott and Fran's spirited dancing brings down the house. Doug asks Shirley to dance with him and the whole audience joins them on the floor. As the performance finishes, Scott and Fran kiss, the competition forgotten. ===== When they meet up in Bulawayo, Anthony Cade agrees to take on two jobs for his friend James McGrath. Anthony heads for London to deliver the draft of a memoir to a publisher, and to return letters to the woman who wrote them. In England, politician George Lomax persuades Lord Caterham to host a house party at Chimneys. George's cousin Virginia Revel is invited, as is Hiram Fish, a collector of first edition books, along with the principals in a political scheme to restore the monarchy in Herzoslovakia – while assuring that newly discovered oil there will be handled by a British syndicate. On Cade's first night in London, the letters are stolen from his hotel room by his waiter. The publisher sends Mr Holmes to pick up the memoirs. These were written by the late Count Stylptitch of Herzoslovakia; now that oil has been discovered, the nation is in turmoil between republicans and royalists. On advice, Cade puts a dummy package in the hotel safe. The thief brings one letter to Virginia Revel at her home, as it is her name in the signature of each letter. Unaware she did not write the letters, he wants to blackmail her. On a whim, she pays, and promises more money the next day. When she arrives home the next day, she finds him murdered in her house, and Anthony Cade on her door step. Cade arranges to have the body discovered elsewhere by the police, to avoid a scandal and allow Virginia to proceed to Chimneys. At Chimneys, Prince Michael, presumed heir to the long-empty throne of Herzoslovakia, is killed the night of his arrival. Cade was at Chimneys that same evening, leaving footprints outdoors but not indoors. He boldly introduces himself to Superintendent Battle, explaining the story of the memoirs, and persuading Battle of his innocence in the murder. After seeing that the dead prince had posed as Mr Holmes, Cade pursues his own ideas in finding the murderer, while Battle leads the main investigation. The next heir to the throne, Nicholas, cousin to Michael, was raising money on his expectations in America. Cade checks out the governess, a recent addition to the household; he travels to France to speak with her prior employer. The Koh-i-Noor diamond had been stolen from the Tower of London and replaced by a paste copy some years earlier, by a French thief named King Victor. Chimneys is one place where it may be hidden, though many searches have not found it. King Victor was released from prison in France a few months earlier, so Battle expects he will seek to recover it. The night Cade is in France, there is a break-in at Chimneys. Virginia Revel hears the noise, and sees one or two men taking old armor apart. She and Bill Eversleigh do not catch the thief. The next night, the three wait for a second attempt; they catch M Lemoine of the Sûreté, on the track of King Victor. Battle has been waiting for him. The stolen letters appear in Cade's room. Battle realizes the thieves want him to decode the letter that points to the location of the stolen gem, because Count Stylptitch had moved it from the place where the Queen had hidden it. This is done, revealing the clue: "Richmond seven straight eight left three right". Battle follows the Richmond clue to a brick in a hidden passage, which in turn reveals a puzzling conundrum. Cade slips out to Dover, to find an address on a slip of paper given him by Boris Anchoukoff, valet to the late prince. He finds the meeting of King Victor's gang; Hiram Fish, really a Pinkerton detective on the thief's trail for his crimes in America; and the real M Lemoine tied up as a hostage. At Chimneys, all are gathered to hear the mysteries explained. In the library, Boris finds Miss Brun with a pistol, as she means to kill him and get the jewel. They struggle; the gun goes off in her hand, killing her. Miss Brun killed Prince Michael, because he had recognized her as someone else. She was the last queen consort of Herzoslovakia, thought to have been murdered with her husband in the revolution; but she escaped. She wrote the coded letters to Captain O'Neill, an alias of King Victor, and signed them with Virginia Revel's name. Cade introduces the real M Lemoine to the group, while Hiram Fish snares King Victor, who has been posing as the French detective and in America as Nicholas. Anthony Cade gave "Mr Holmes" the dummy package; he gives the real memoirs to Jimmy McGrath to earn his one thousand pounds. Cade and Fish solve the conundrum; it points to a rose on the grounds, where the Koh-i-Noor is subsequently recovered. Anthony presents himself as the missing Prince Nicholas, ready to ally with the British syndicate. He offers himself as Herzoslovakia's next king. Earlier that day, he married Virginia, who will be his queen. ===== One night, in Brussels, Belgium, a pair of criminals discreetly break into the aquarium and steal a priceless pearl. As soon as the security guards on duty see the empty shell, they rush away to raise the alarm. The criminals take advantage of the guards' absence by putting a fake pearl, the same size as the real one, in the shell. When the guards return with the director and the director sees the fake pearl, he thinks the guards were making it up, but then has second thoughts about the incident as a similar case happened at another museum two weeks before. Meanwhile, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock arrive in Syldavia, a country in the Balkans. They have come to join their friend professor Cuthbert Calculus who has rented a villa near a lake in order to build his latest invention. At the airport they run into Thompson and Thomson, who are also heading for Calculus on a special mission. The four men and dog fly by hired plane to Calculus' house, but during the flight they get into some engine trouble and the pilot bails out with the only parachute. Tintin attempts to safely land the plane, but it ends up on the edge of a cliff and on fire. They are saved with the help of two local children, Niko and his sister Nouchka, and their dog Gustav. But as it turns out, the crash was deliberately set up, as the pilot contacts his superior ("Mr. Big"/"Shark King") via walkie-talkie to inform him that the plan has failed. The children give their new friends a lift in their wagon, but as they learn of their destination, they warn them that there is a curse on the lake, at the bottom of which is an old submerged town. The party finally arrives at Calculus' villa where he demonstrates his invention: a camera which can project holographic images. His ultimate aim is to create a machine which will make actual copies of physical objects. Later, over dinner, Thompson and Thomson explain that they are Calculus' bodyguards as they suspect that a criminal organization specializing in making art forgeries wants to steal his machine. Eventually, everybody goes to bed. In the middle of the night, Snowy wakes up Tintin at one point after hearing a noise outside, but Tintin shakes it off as bird calls. In fact, the noise is made by Calculus' housekeeper, Madame Black, who is in league with "Mr. Big" as well. Next morning, while Tintin explores the local country with Niko and Nouchka (unaware that there are cameras spying on his every move), and the Captain and the detectives play a game of golf, Snowy runs into a frogman who has obtained from Madame Black some plans stolen from Calculus' laboratory. The frogman escapes by jumping into the lake, but Snowy manages to bite off a part of one of his flippers. After the Captain and the detectives tell Tintin what has happened, he gives the dogs the bitten-off flipper to sniff. While Gustav leads Haddock to a pile of abandoned tires, Tintin follows Snowy to a buried chain which, when pulled, opens a passage to a hidden cave where the criminals have stashed the stolen art. After getting sealed inside the cave, Tintin finds an underwater tunnel leading out to the lake. On his way through, Tintin gets trapped by a wire net, but Snowy (who remained outside the cave) dives in and chews through the net, saving Tintin from drowning. Back at home, Calculus demonstrates his new invention to the children—a machine that can copy any object from a piece of special soap. Unfortunately the effects are as yet short-lived, as the copied objects shortly turn back into their original substance. The criminals attack Calculus and the detectives with laughing gas and take the children away. Tintin and Haddock pursue them but fail to rescue Niko and Nouchka. The criminals leave behind a message on a tape player from their leader, "King Shark", who tells the heroes (with a voice which is startingly familiar to Tintin) that they will get the children back in return for Calculus' invention. Tintin himself is to do the exchange and is not to call the police. Tintin, Haddock, Calculus and the detectives search the house for bugs, and Tintin discovers a secret passage that leads to Madame Black's walkie-talkie hidden in the empty well, catching Madam Black in the process. Tintin decides to contact the police and comes up with a ruse to cover his tracks. Tintin and Snowy set off to the local town and just happen to meet their old friend, the opera singer Bianca Castafiore, who gives him a lift in her car to the town and even helps him in getting to the police. The chief of police listens to his story, but he is limited in what he can do since half the lake is in the jurisdiction of Borduria, a rival nation, and there are thus risks of a diplomatic incident. Two days pass before Tintin finally returns to Calculus' house with the shark- like submarine which Calculus built during the search for Red Rackham's Treasure. The plan is that Tintin will meet the crooks on the beach, and Haddock will follow him in the sub. At the meeting point, criminals pick Tintin up in a submarine, and they head underwater to the flooded city where their base is situated. The mastermind behind this operation is revealed to be none other than Tintin's nemesis Rastapopoulos, now calling himself "King Shark"/"Mr. Big". Rastapopoulos promises to set Niko and Nouchka free for the device, but, unaware of Tintin's arrival, the children escape from their cell and hijack an underwater tank. Rastapopoulos takes over control of the tank with his computer, but he then notices Captain Haddock's sub on his monitor and uses the tank to fire torpedoes at Haddock, which provokes a fight between Tintin and the other gangsters as he attempts to stop Rastapopoulos. Haddock's mini-sub is hit, jamming its propulsion, and the tank is returned to the base by remote control. While waiting for the children to return, Rastapopoulos takes Tintin to his office and shows him his art collection, gloating that with Calculus' machine, they can make multiple copies of all the stolen masterpieces and sell them off for huge amounts of money. Rastapopoulos tries out Calculus' machine by cloning a cigar box, but the imitation proves highly unstable and grows to monstrous size, almost crushing Rastapopoulos and his lieutenant. In a rage, Rastapopoulos locks Tintin and the children in a chamber, but then learns that police boats are patrolling the lake. He therefore decides to evacuate the base and orders his men to take all the art he has in the underwater city to the cave. He then floods the chamber Tintin and the children are in with water. As soon as the water has reached a device high on the wall, the base will self-destruct. Haddock manages to regain control of the disabled submarine and makes his way to the surface, encountering Thompson and Thomson and the chief of the Syldavian police in a patrol boat. Down below, with all of his men having evacuated the base, Rastapopoulos and his lieutenant leave the base in the submarine. Tintin and the children manage to get free and escape through an airlock in life jackets, just before the base explodes. They then reach the surface and rejoin their friends and the police. The police have captured all of Rastapopoulos' men, but the mastermind himself has already crossed the border in his submarine. Since they are not Syldavian officials and therefore not bound by international conventions, Tintin and Haddock insist in going after Rastapopoulos in a motor boat. In order to pass the border posts, Rastapopoulos tries to navigate the sub through an underwater tunnel, but forgets to lower the sub's periscope, which hits a low rock and breaks, causing the sub to crash and get flooded. The villains make for the surface, but they are captured by Tintin and Haddock as soon as they attempt to leave the wrecked vessel. Tintin, Snowy and Haddock return to Calculus' villa and are welcomed by a huge party of villagers who want to celebrate the end of the terror imposed by the gang, and Bianca Castafiore, who makes Haddock flee the party. Haddock tries to have a quiet moment to drink some whiskey, but gets his bottle destroyed by the Thompson twins playing golf. They all laugh over it. ===== On stardate 49655.2, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Neelix (Ethan Phillips) are sent to collect botanical samples from a class-M planet. When beamed back aboard , the two men and the Orchidaceae they collected are merged at the molecular level to become a single lifeform which names himself Tuvix (Wright). After ruling out transporter malfunction, the crew discovers that when demolecularized, the genetic material of the alien orchids acted as a symbiogenetic catalyst and is the culprit for the combination of the two crewmembers. Unfortunately, the process cannot be reversed, and Tuvix is accepted as a member of the crew with the rank of lieutenant, functioning as chief tactical officer in Tuvok's stead. Kes (Jennifer Lien) reacts poorly to Tuvix as his existence deprives her of both Tuvok and Neelix, her mentor and boyfriend respectively. Her displeasure lessens over the course of the episode, but never completely goes away. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) accepts Tuvix in his role as an excellent chief tactical officer and "an able advisor, who skillfully uses humor to make his points". Tuvix himself, having the combined memories and personalities of his constituents, melds the previously intractable qualities of both and improves upon them, flexing either muscle as the situation requires: "Chief of security or head chef, take your pick!" Two weeks after the accident, the Doctor (Robert Picardo) develops a contemporary equivalent to barium sulfate (BaSO) radiocontrasting using a custom radioisotope with which he can identify the disparate DNA of the two original crewmen and use the transporter to disentangle them. However, Tuvix denounces the procedure; he argues that he has rights and to restore the two lost crewmen would require his execution. After discussing the situation with Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran), Kes, and Tuvix himself, Janeway ultimately decides to proceed with the separation, acting in absentia to protect the rights of the two constituent men. Tuvix makes a final emotive plea for support from the crew, but finds no supporters. After the Doctor refuses to take Tuvix's life in compliance with the medical precept of doing no harm, Janeway performs the procedure herself and succeeds in restoring both Tuvok and Neelix. ===== Captain Haddock (Georges Wilson) learns that an old shipmate, Paparanic, has died and left him a ship, the Golden Fleece. Tintin (Jean-Pierre Talbot), Snowy and the Captain travel to Istanbul only to find it's an old cargo ship in a dilapidated state. On board, they meet the ship's cook Clodion and Paparanic's pet parrot Romulus. A businessman named Anton Karabine (Demetrios Myrat) arrives and claiming to be an old friend of Paparanic, offers to buy the boat for "sentimental" reasons, but the huge amounts that he offers makes Tintin suspicious and on his advice Haddock to take time to think it over. While touring Istanbul, there are several attempts on their lives, and determined to find out what is going on Haddock decides to keep the ship. One of the clauses of Paparanic's will was that on accepting the ship, they also fulfill its current obligations so after hiring 3 crewmen - Angorapoulos, Attila and Yefima, they set off for Athens to deliver the cargo. During the journey Tintin catches Angorapoulos (Marcel Bozzuffi) searching through Paparanic's papers. After a short round of judo, he is subdued and locked in the hold but escapes, stealing a lifeboat. In Athens, Tintin and Haddock go to the carpet seller Midas Papos (Darío Moreno), who turns out to be another of Paparanic's old shipmates. Grief-stricken to learn of his friend's death, he is shot by a man through the window before he can relate any information. Caught holding the gun, Tintin and Haddock are arrested but released thanks to the arrival of the policemen Thomson and Thompson, and on Papos' word, who is alive and recovering in hospital. Tintin finds an old newspaper article showing that in their youth, Paparanic, Papos, Karabine, plus two strangers, were adventurers who were involved in a coup in the Latin American republic of Tetaragua, and formed a short-lived government. The article includes a photo of the five men. Tintin later spots Angorapoulos in a barber's shop and follows him to the local offices of Karexport, which is run by Karabine. Trailing him by car, Tintin, Snowy and Haddock follow him to a village in the countryside where Angorapoulous and some accomplices kidnap a musician at a wedding. Chasing them on a motorbike, the crooks' car is forced off the road, and the villains flee on foot. Saving the kidnap victim, Scoubidouvitch (Dimos Starenios), he is revealed as the fourth man in the photo. He suffers from "memory loss", but for 1000 drachmas reveals that a large amount of gold is involved, and suggests that Tintin and Haddock consult the fifth man in the photo, Alexandre (Charles Vanel) who now lives in a monastery in Meteora. Travelling there, they find the former adventurer is now Father Alexandre, as he has repented and become a monk. He reveals the rest of the Tetaragua story: when forced out, they'd taken a large quantity of gold from the central bank, and that Captain Paparanic had kept half while the others split the rest. Before departing, Father Alexandre gives Tintin and Haddock a bottle of wine which Paparanic gave him while visiting him last Christmas, and told him to drink only after his death. When Haddock accidentally breaks the bottle, the label is discovered to be a map to the location of Paparanic's gold. Tintin and Haddock return to the Golden Fleece, where Professor Cuthbert Calculus has arrived to join them. Secretly, Yefima drains the fuel to prevent the ship from leaving port, but Tintin discovers him and throws him overboard in another bout of judo. Fortunately, Calculus has invented a special tablet called "Super-Cuthbertoleum" which, mixed with the remaining fuel, is more than enough to enable the ship to reach their destination, the island of Thassika. The map includes an X just off the island's coast and, using his pendulum, Calculus locates the gold's location. Diving underwater, Tintin discovers a sea-chest filled with long, oddly shaped bars of gold. No sooner have the members of the Golden Fleece got the chest out of the water that they are held at gunpoint by Karabine, Angorapoulos, Yefima and their men who'd snuck aboard. Haddock gets caught up in a fishing net, Snowy gets tied up and Tintin is shot at and falls back into the water, left for dead. The companions are locked in a cabin, and explosives placed to blow up the ship. Karabine and his men take the chest back to their helicopter only to come under attack by the police, including Thomson and Thompson, led by Attila who is revealed to be an undercover police officer. Karabine gets aboard the helicopter, which suddenly takes off; Tintin has dispatched the pilot and is flying. Karabine pulls a gun, but Tintin disarms him. Beaten, the crook declares that no-one will get the gold, opens a hatch and lets the chest fall into the sea. The rest of the gang surrender to the police. Aboard the ship, Snowy manages to get loose, and rolls on the fuse to put it out, saving the companions. With Tintin back on board, Calculus, using his pendulum, insists that the gold is still right below them, despite the sea-chest being too deep to recover. Thinking of the words in Paparanic's will, Tintin chips away at the paint on the ship's oddly shaped railings to find they are in fact solid gold, painted over. The chest had contained the original copper railings, and was just a red herring. Back home at Marlinspike Hall, a package arrives from Tetaragua announcing the main square in the capital is renamed Paparanic Square, and bestowing on Haddock their highest decoration, the Order of the Scarlet Cheetah, as thanks for returning the gold. As the film ends, the local band helps Tintin, Snowy, Haddock, Nestor, and Clodion (their new cook) celebrate, while Calculus displays his latest invention: a flying birdcage for the parrot Romulus! The End. ===== The overbearing wife of James Cabpleasure demands that Holmes investigate the abnormal attachment her husband has to an ordinary umbrella. Gloria Cabpleasure has gone to the trouble of having a mechanic examine the umbrella for any secret compartment. Holmes and Watson discover that Mrs. Cabpleasure has even gone to the police, and Inspector Lestrade is investigating Mr. Cabpleasure also. While conducting surveillance on the Cabpleasure home, everyone observes James Cabpleasure emerge from his front door, go back for his umbrella, and then vanish completely, along with valuable diamonds from his company.The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, Chapter 4 ===== This is a sample of size 50 from a normal distribution, plotted as both a histogram, and a normal probability plot. File:normprob.png|Normal probability plot of a sample from a normal distribution – it looks fairly straight, at least when the few large and small values are ignored. File:normhist.png|Histogram of a sample from a normal distribution – it looks fairly symmetric and unimodal This is a sample of size 50 from a right-skewed distribution, plotted as both a histogram, and a normal probability plot. File:normexpprob.png|Normal probability plot of a sample from a right-skewed distribution – it has an inverted C shape. File:normexphist.png|Histogram of a sample from a right-skewed distribution – it looks unimodal and skewed right. This is a sample of size 50 from a uniform distribution, plotted as both a histogram, and a normal probability plot. File:normunifprob.png|Normal probability plot of a sample from a uniform distribution – it has an S shape. File:normunifhist.png|Histogram of a sample from a uniform distribution – it looks multimodal and supposedly roughly symmetric. ===== The story begins with the assassinations of two ideologically divergent Supreme Court Justices. Both murders are committed by Khamel, the most wanted hitman in the world. Justice Rosenberg, a liberal, is killed at his home while Justice Jensen, a Republican-appointed swing voter, is killed inside a gay movie theater in Washington, D.C. The circumstances surrounding their deaths, as well as the deaths themselves, shock and confuse a politically divided nation. Darby Shaw, a Tulane University law student, conducts research on Rosenberg and Jensen's records and writes a legal brief speculating they were not killed for political reasons. She shows the brief to Thomas Callahan, her law professor and lover, who in turn shows it to his friend, an FBI lawyer, Gavin Verheek. Soon afterwards, Callahan is killed by a car bomb, while Darby, who witnesses his death, is contacted at the scene by suspicious people. Afraid that she is the next target, Darby goes on the run. She contacts and agrees to meet Verheek, but Khamel murders Verheek and impersonates him when they meet. He is just about to kill Darby when he is shot by an unknown person. Darby manages to escape again. Gray Grantham, a reporter for The Washington Post, is contacted by an informant calling himself "Garcia", who believes he has seen something in his law office that is related to the assassinations. However, Garcia is reluctant to come forward. Darby shows her findings to Grantham, believing that the assassinations were committed on behalf of Victor Mattiece, an oil tycoon who seeks to drill on Louisiana marshland which is home to an endangered species of pelican. A case that would decide whether Mattiece can gain access to the land is expected to be heard before the Supreme Court. Despite their status as ideological opposites, the two slain justices had a single characteristic in common: a history of environmentalism, causing Darby to surmise that Mattiece orchestrated their murders to make sure their replacements would be appointed by the current President, a hardline reactionary. Grantham agrees to help Darby prove her suspicion is correct. The President and his Chief of Staff, Fletcher Coal, try to cover up the White House's link to Mattiece, afraid that it might endanger the President's re-election. The President orders FBI Director F. Denton Voyles to temporarily stop working on the brief, and asks the more trusted CIA Director Bob Gminski to conduct the investigation instead. They also send an agent to Mattiece to find out whether the brief is true, but Mattiece, who has become practically insane over the past several years, has the agent killed. Darby and Grantham manage to track down Curtis Morgan, a.k.a. "Garcia", an employee of the law firm representing Mattiece, only to find out that he died some days before in an apparent mugging. They manage to contact his widow, leading them to discover Morgan's written and videotaped testimony. Morgan reveals that, some time before the assassinations, he accidentally looked at an internal correspondence and realized that some of his co-workers were involved in the murders. Afraid that he himself might be killed, Morgan decided to record his testimony. With this evidence, Grantham and Darby approach the Posts chief editor. Voyles appears at the newsroom and reveals that he has a tape recording of the conversation with the President ordering him to stop working on the brief, and that the CIA was investigating Mattiece and killed Khamel to save Darby's life. He also arranges a plane for Darby to disappear. The story prominently appears in the Post, over the objections of the President and his staff. One of the implicated lawyers commits suicide. The President is expected to lose his bid for re-election. Mattiece disappears. Darby settles on an island in the Caribbean and is joined by Grantham, who agrees to stay for at least a month. ===== Holmes and Watson are relaxing in their vacation hotel in East Grinstead when Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard arrives to obtain assistance in a dreadful murder. Colonel Jocelyn Dalcy, a guest in the home of Sir Reginald Lavington, has been found stabbed to death. No weapon was found, but a dagger is missing from a nearby display. Sir Reginald claims he was using it while fishing and mislaid it. All suspicion falls upon him, and Gregson is about to make the arrest, but Holmes asks for a day to do some more research. An interview with the beautiful Lady Lavington provides the final clue.The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, Chapter 5 ===== Brandon Teena is a young trans man whose birth name was Teena Renae Brandon. When Brandon is discovered to be transgender by a former girlfriend's brother, he receives death threats. Soon after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin's trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska, where he befriends ex-convicts John Lotter and Tom Nissen, and their friends Candace and Lana Tisdel. Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is initially unaware both of his actual anatomy and his troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis, where Brandon will manage Lana's karaoke singing career. Eventually, they kiss during a date night which ends with them having sex. The police detain Brandon on charges that arose prior to his relocation; they place him in the women's section of the Falls City prison. Lana bails Brandon out and asks why he was placed in a women's prison. Brandon attempts to lie to her, saying he was born intersex (in the movie said "hermaphrodite") and will soon receive genital reconstruction surgery, but Lana stops him, declaring her love for Brandon regardless of his gender. However, while Brandon is in prison, Candace finds a number of documents listing Brandon's birth name, Teena Brandon, and she and her friends react to this news with shock and disgust. They enter Brandon's room, search among Brandon's things, and discover some transgender literature that confirms their suspicions. Tom and John violently confront Brandon, forcing him to remove his pants and reveal his genitals. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes and turns away. After this confrontation, Tom and John drag Brandon into John's car and drive to an isolated location, where they brutally beat and gang rape him. Afterwards, they take Brandon to Tom's house. Though injured, Brandon escapes through a bathroom window. Although his assailants threaten Brandon and warn him not to report the attack to the police, Lana persuades him to do so. However, the police chief proves to be less concerned with the crime than with Brandon's "sexual identity crisis." Later, John and Tom get drunk and drive to Candace's house. Lana attempts to stop them, but they find Brandon, who has been hiding in a nearby shed. John shoots Brandon under the chin, killing him instantly. While Candance is crying out to them to spare her baby, Tom shoots her in the head as Lana fights with them, begging them to stop. Tom stabs Brandon's lifeless body. John and Tom flee the scene while a crying Lana lies with Brandon's body and the baby toddles through the open door to the outside, crying. The next morning, Lana awakens next to Brandon's corpse. Her mother arrives and takes her away from the scene. As Lana leaves Falls City, a letter Brandon wrote to her is heard in a voiceover. ===== Middle-aged Cecilia Carol "C.C." Bloom, a New York actress and singer, receives a note during a rehearsal for her upcoming Los Angeles concert. She leaves in a panic to travel to the side of her friend Hillary Whitney, a San Francisco heiress and lawyer. Unable to get a flight to San Francisco because of fog, she rents a car and drives overnight, reflecting on her lifelong friendship with Hillary. Hillary and C.C. meet in 1958, under the boardwalk on the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hillary is lost and C.C. is hiding from her overbearing stage mother. They become fast friends, growing up and bonding through letters of support to each other. Hillary becomes a human rights lawyer, while C.C.'s singing career does not exactly take off. Hillary shows up at the New York City dive bar where C.C. is performing, their first meeting since Atlantic City. She moves in with C.C. and gets a job with the ACLU. C.C. is now performing singing telegrams, leading to a job offer from John, the artistic director of the Falcon Players, after she sings his birthday telegram. A love triangle ensues as Hillary and John are instantly attracted to one another, leaving C.C. resenting her best friend. Hillary and John sleep together on the opening night of C.C.'s first lead role in an off- Broadway production. When Hillary returns home to care for her ailing father, the two friends resolve their issues about John as John does not have romantic feelings for C.C. After her father passes away, Hillary spends time at her family beach house with lawyer Michael Essex, eventually marrying him. C.C. and John spend a lot of time together, start dating and eventually marry. Hillary and Michael travel to New York to see C.C. perform on Broadway, where she has become a star. When C.C. finds out that Hillary has stopped working as a lawyer, she accuses her of giving up on her dreams. Hillary responds that C.C. has become obsessed with her career. After the argument, Hillary ignores C.C.'s letters, throwing herself into being a dutiful, but unchallenged, wife. John tells C.C. that her self-centeredness and obsession with her career have him feeling left behind and he asks for a divorce. C.C. turns to her mother for advice. Her mother tells her that she has given up a lot for her daughter, and C.C. starts to understand when her mother tells her the effect that her selfishness has had on those closest to her. Hillary discovers her husband is having an affair. When Hillary learns that C.C. is performing in San Francisco, she makes contact for the first time in years. They learn of each other's divorces, then discover that they have been secretly jealous of each other for years: Hillary is upset that she has none of C.C.'s talent or charisma, while C.C. admits she has always been envious of Hillary's beauty and intelligence. Hillary tells C.C. that she is pregnant and has already decided to raise the child as a single parent. This wins her admiration from the feisty and independent C.C., who promises to stay and help her out. C.C. starts talking of settling down and having a family of her own, having become engaged to Hillary's obstetrician. However, when C.C.'s agent calls with the perfect comeback gig for her, C.C. abandons her fiancé and races back to New York City. Hillary gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Victoria Cecilia. When Victoria is a young girl, Hillary develops viral cardiomyopathy, requiring a heart transplant. Having a rare tissue type, she realizes she will most likely die before a heart is found. C.C. has become a big star, having won a Tony award and completed her latest hit album. When she learns of Hillary's illness, she accompanies Hillary and Victoria to the beach house for the summer. Hillary becomes depressed due to her debilitated state and takes her frustration out on C.C. whom she sees having fun with and connecting with Victoria. Hillary eventually begins to accept her prognosis bravely, appreciating her time with Victoria and C.C. Hillary and Victoria return to San Francisco, while C.C. heads to Los Angeles for a concert. Hillary collapses, leading to the note C.C. receives that prompts her to leave her rehearsal. C.C. takes Hillary and Victoria to the beach house, where Hillary dies. After the funeral, C.C. takes custody of Victoria, and the two console each other in their grief. C.C. goes forward with her concert and concludes it by singing "The Glory of Love", the first song Hillary heard her sing 30 years ago; as the song ends, C.C. tearfully waves toward the sky, in tribute to her. After the show, she leaves hand-in-hand with Victoria and begins telling stories of when she first met her mother. ===== The story begins with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help. As he arrives, the narrator notices a thin crack extending from the roof, down the front of the house and into the adjacent lake. It is revealed that Roderick's twin sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into cataleptic, deathlike trances. Roderick and Madeline are the only remaining members of the Usher family. The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings and attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his improvised musical compositions on the guitar. Roderick sings "The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he lives in to be alive, and that this sentience arises from the arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it. Further, Roderick believes that his fate is connected to the family mansion. Roderick later informs the narrator that his sister has died. Fearing that her body will be exhumed for medical study, Roderick insists that she be entombed for two weeks in the family tomb located in the house before being permanently buried. The narrator helps Roderick put the body of Roderick’s sister in the tomb, and notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks, as some do after death. They inter her, but over the next week both Roderick and the narrator find themselves becoming increasingly agitated for no apparent reason. A storm begins. Roderick comes to the narrator's bedroom, which is situated directly above the vault, and throws open his window to the storm. He notices that the tarn (lake) surrounding the house seems to glow in the dark as it glowed in Roderick Usher's paintings, but there is no lightning. The narrator attempts to calm Roderick by reading aloud The Mad Trist, a novel involving a knight named Ethelred who breaks into a hermit's dwelling in an attempt to escape an approaching storm, only to find a palace of gold guarded by a dragon. He also finds, hanging on the wall, a shield of shining brass on which is written a legend: :Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin; :Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;Poe, Edgar A. "The Fall of the House of Usher." 1839. Elements of Literature. Fifth Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2009. 321-333. Print. With a stroke of his mace, Ethelred kills the dragon, who dies with a piercing shriek, and proceeds to take the shield, which falls to the floor with an unnerving clatter. As the narrator reads of the knight's forcible entry into the dwelling, cracking and ripping sounds are heard somewhere in the house. When the dragon is described as shrieking as it dies, a shriek is heard, again within the house. As he relates the shield falling from off the wall, a reverberation, metallic and hollow, can be heard. Roderick becomes increasingly hysterical, and eventually exclaims that these sounds are being made by his sister, who was in fact alive when she was entombed. The bedroom door is then blown open to reveal Madeline standing there. She falls on her brother and both land on the floor as corpses. The narrator then flees the house, and, as he does so, notices a flash of moonlight behind him which causes him to turn back, in time to see the moon shining through the suddenly widened crack. As he watches, the House of Usher splits in two and the fragments sink into the lake. ===== Sam and Andy give Mike a hand with his swing, 1968 Father and son stories involving Sam and Mike Jones are reminiscent of the episodes that starred Andy Griffith. Both characters are introduced in the last season of The Andy Griffith Show (TAGS), beginning with Sam's election as head of the town council. Most of the town folk from TAGS continued their roles. Loyal Mayberry citizens Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) and Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) are seen regularly. Sheriff Andy Taylor and his sweetheart, Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut), marry in the new title's first episode. Both make additional appearances (mostly Andy), then leave the series in late 1969 with a move to Charlotte, North Carolina, as the explanation. Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) becomes Sam's housekeeper but leaves after the second season to be replaced by Sam's cousin, Alice Cooper (Alice Ghostley). Don Knotts as Barney Fife and Ronny Howard as Opie Taylor respectively, appear in the first episode. Actress Arlene Golonka (who played Howard Sprague's sweetheart Millie Hutchins/Swanson in the Griffith show) becomes Sam's love interest in the retitled seasons. A recurring character named Ralph (Charles Lampkin) lives with a teen daughter and pre-teen son next to the Jones farm. Mary Lansing appeared occasionally as Emmett's wife, Martha. As with its predecessor, Mayberry R.F.D. continued under the sponsorship of General Foods and its products. ===== The show follows the lives of the Mitchell family – Henry, Alice, and their only child, Dennis, an energetic, trouble-prone, mischievous, but well-meaning boy, who often tangles first with his peace-and-quiet-loving neighbor, George Wilson, a retired salesman, and later with George's brother John, a writer. While the series was based on the Dennis the Menace comic strip, differences exist between the two. On the sitcom and in the comics, Dennis is basically a good, well-intentioned boy who always tries to help people, but winds up making situations worse – often at Mr. Wilson's expense. In early episodes of the first season, more outlandish disasters occurred as a result of his actions. The character of Dennis was toned down by the sixth or seventh episode. Instead of Dennis's dog Ruff, a smaller Cairn Terrier (per the episode "Miss Cathcart's Friend") named Fremont belonged to George and Martha Wilson. He did not appear during the fourth season, when John and Eloise Wilson moved into 625 Elm Street. ===== In 1988, Dottie Hinson attends the opening of the new All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. She sees many of her former teammates and friends, prompting a flashback to 1943. When World War II threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, candy magnate and Cubs owner Walter Harvey persuades his fellow owners to bankroll a women's league. Ira Lowenstein is put in charge, and Ernie Capadino is sent out to recruit players. Capadino attends an industrial-league softball game in rural Oregon and likes what he sees in Dottie, the catcher for a local dairy's team. Dottie turns down Capadino's offer, happy with her simple farm life while waiting for her husband Bob to come back from the war. Her sister and teammate, Kit, however, is desperate to get away and make something of herself. Capadino is not impressed by Kit's hitting performance and refuses to evaluate her pitching, but agrees to take her along if she can change Dottie's mind. Dottie agrees, but only for her sister's sake. Dottie and Kit head out to Harvey Field in Chicago for the tryout. There they meet a pair of New Yorkers, taxi dancer Mae "All the Way Mae" Mordabito and her best friend, bouncer Doris Murphy; along with soft- spoken right fielder Evelyn Gardner; illiterate, shy left fielder Shirley Baker; pitcher/shortstop and former Miss Georgia beauty queen Ellen Sue Gotlander; gentle left field/relief pitcher Betty "Spaghetti" Horn; homely second baseman Marla Hooch, who was scouted by Ernie, Dottie and Kit in Fort Collins, Colorado; genteel first baseman Helen Haley; and superstitious Saskatchewan native Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers. They and eight others are selected to form the Rockford Peaches, while 48 others are split among the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, and South Bend Blue Sox. The Peaches are managed by former marquee Cubs slugger Jimmy Dugan, a cynical alcoholic (loosely based on the real-life Jimmie Foxx, who did have post-career alcohol issues and did manage in the AAGPBL, though not in its inaugural season, managed the Fort Wayne Daisies, not the Peaches, and was remembered by his players as having behaved significantly more gentlemanly with them than the character in the movie was portrayed). Dugan initially treats the whole thing as a joke and is abrasive toward his players. The league attracts little interest at first, and the Peaches must adjust to traveling with Evelyn’s bratty son Stillwell and tightly wound team chaperone Miss Cuthburt. With a Life magazine photographer in the stands, Lowenstein begs the players to do something spectacular. Dottie obliges when a ball is popped up behind home plate, catching it while doing a split. The resulting photograph makes the magazine cover. A publicity campaign draws more people to the ballgames, but the owners remain unconvinced. The Peaches experience success on the field while forming a tight sisterhood off the field; Marla marries a man she meets on a raucous roadhouse outing, Mae teaches Shirley to read, and Evelyn writes a team song. As Dottie becomes one of the league’s brightest stars, Kit becomes resentful and their sibling rivalry intensifies, culminating in Kit’s trade to the Peaches' rival, the Racine Belles. The Peaches end the season qualifying for the league's World Series. In the locker room, Jimmy gives Betty a telegram that informs her her husband was killed in action in the Pacific Theater. The grief-stricken Betty leaves the team. Later that evening, Dottie receives a surprise when Bob shows up, having been wounded and discharged from the Army. The following morning, Jimmy discovers that Dottie is going home with Bob. Unable to persuade her to at least play in the World Series, he tells her she will regret her decision. The Peaches and Belles meet in the World Series, which reaches a seventh and deciding game. Dottie, having reconsidered during the drive back to Oregon, is the catcher for the Peaches, while Kit is the starting pitcher for the Belles. With the Belles leading by a run in the top of the ninth, Dottie drives in the go-ahead run. Kit is distraught but gets a second chance when she comes to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Under immense pressure she gets a hit, and ignoring the third base coach's sign to stop, scores the winning run by knocking her sister over at the plate and dislodging the ball from Dottie's hand. The sellout crowd convinces Harvey to give Lowenstein the owners' support. After the game, the sisters reconcile before Dottie leaves with Bob. Back in the present, Dottie is reunited with several other players, including Kit. The fates of several of the characters are revealed: Jimmy, Bob, and Evelyn have died; Marla has been married to Nelson, a man she met in a bar in an earlier scene, for over 40 years; Mae and Doris are still best friends; and Kit is a mother and grandmother many times over. The original Peaches sing Evelyn’s team song and pose for a group photo. ===== Fear and Desire Fear and Desire opens with an off-screen narration by actor David Allen who tells the audience: :There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war. And the enemies who struggle here do not exist unless we call them into being. This forest then, and all that happens now is outside history. Only the unchanging shapes of fear and doubt and death are from our world. These soldiers that you see keep our language and our time, but have no other country but the mind. The story is set during a war between two unidentified countries. An airplane carrying four soldiers from one country has crashed six miles behind enemy lines. The soldiers come upon a river and build a raft, hoping they can use the waterway to reach their battalion. As they are building their raft, they are approached by a young peasant girl who does not speak their language. The soldiers apprehend the girl and bind her to a tree with their belts. The youngest of them, Sidney, is left behind to guard the girl. He starts to talk to her, but as she doesn't understand him, he descends into a state of delirium. When he unbelts her, believing she will embrace him, she tries to escape and Sidney shoots her dead. Mac, another of the four soldiers, finds the dead girl and watches as Sidney runs off towards the river. Mac persuades the commander, Lt. Corby, and his friend Fletcher to let him take the raft for a solo voyage, in connection with a plan to kill an enemy general at a nearby base. Mac distracts the general's guards by shooting at them while on the raft and is wounded. While this is happening, Fletcher and Corby successfully infiltrate the base, and the enemy general is killed. After killing the general, they use an enemy plane to escape to their home base. After landing, they talk and eat with their own general, and return to the river to await Mac. Sitting there, they philosophize about war and how no man is made for it, before finding the raft floating downriver, with a dying Mac and a delirious Sidney. ===== Fourteen-year-old Melinda Sordino begins her freshman year in high school and struggles on the first day. She doesn't have any friends to hang out with, and appears awkward and uncomfortable when speaking to others. Throughout the day, she is made fun of by several students, repeatedly called a "squealer". A series of flashbacks reveal that she called the police to a house party during the previous summer. Her actual reason for calling 9-1-1 was that she'd been raped by a senior student at the party, Andy Evans, but her trauma prevented her from reporting the rape over the telephone or when the police arrived. When her parents see her report card, they prompt Melinda to see a teacher nicknamed Mr. Neck, who tells her to write an essay on any history topic. After refusing to read her paper aloud to her class, she is sent to the principal's office. Melinda is nice to a new student named Heather Billings, who claims to be Melinda's "friend", but Heather soon abandons Melinda when the chance for social advancement arises. The only other student with whom Melinda has a positive experience is her lab partner, Dave Petrakis, who has successfully managed to avoid affiliating himself with a clique. The restoration of Melinda's confidence progresses at a painfully slow rate, with some help from Dave and her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. Her former best friend, Rachel Bruin, starts dating Andy, and Melinda fears that Rachel will suffer the same fate as she did. Melinda meets Rachel at the library and tells her the truth about what happened at the party by writing it on paper. Rachel first refuses to believe, thinking that Melinda is lying out of jealousy and calls her “sick”, but comes to realize the truth by confronting Andy who had spoken Melinda's name earlier (despite claiming to have never met any of Rachel's friends before). Rachel then avoids Andy out of anger for his lies and for fear of getting raped by him; telling other people of what happened at the party all the while. Exposed as a rapist and a liar, Andy retaliates against Melinda, cornering her; he tries to force her to tell everybody at school that the incident is false and attempts to rape her again. Melinda struggles and throws a bottle of turpentine at his face, irritating his eyes, overpowers him after holding a shard of broken mirror to his neck, threatening to kill him. They are found by Melinda's distanced friend Nicole who, along with other girls from her field hockey team, help Melinda trap Andy to prevent further attack. The altercation removes any doubt about what happened at the house party, and the girls who restrain him are outraged by it and tempted to beat him with their sticks. Mr. Neck sees Melinda walking away from the scene and asks what was going on, but Melinda doesn't respond. On the way back from the hospital after being treated for her injuries, Melinda rolls down the car window and breathes in deeply. She finally finds the strength to tell her mother, who already suspects something awful, the truth about what happened at the party. ===== ===== Gilbert Gosseyn (pronounced go sane), a man living in an apparent utopia where those with superior understanding and mental control rule the rest of humanity, wants to be tested by the giant Machine that determines such superiority. However, he finds that his memories are false. In his search for his real identity, he discovers that he has extra bodies that are activated when he dies (so that, in a sense, he cannot be killed), that a galactic society of humans exists outside the Solar system, a large interstellar empire wishes to conquer both the Earth and Venus (inhabited by masters of non-Aristotelian logic), and he has extra brain matter that, when properly trained, can allow him to move matter with his mind. ===== Two gods, Fate and the Lady, oppose each other in a game over the outcome of the struggle for the throne of the Agatean Empire on the Counterweight Continent. The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork receives a demand that the "Great Wizzard" be sent to the distant Agatean Empire, and he orders Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully of Unseen University to comply. As the spelling, "Wizzard," matches that on Rincewind's hat, the faculty decide to send him. Using the machine Hex, which has seemingly been augmenting its own infrastructure, they teleport him to the University from a desert island where he has been living since the events of Eric. They offer him the right to call himself a Wizard, which he never actually earned, if he will let them send him to Agatea; he agrees. Teleportation requires an exchange of mass, and they end up exchanging him with a very heavy live cannon (which they extinguish upon its arrival); this results in Rincewind arriving in Agatea at a very high speed, but he lands safely in a snowbank. As is typical for Rincewind, his dedicated efforts to run from any kind of danger quickly embroil him in momentous events, and coincidence makes it appear on several occasions that Rincewind is responsible for significant feats of magic. He encounters his friend Cohen the Barbarian, now accompanied by a "Silver Horde" of elderly warriors, who is planning to infiltrate the Empire and live a luxurious retirement by taking over as Emperor. Rincewind eventually learns that the first Agatean Emperor supposedly conquered the land with the assistance of a "Great Wizard" and a "Red Army." Now, a new "Red Army" movement of young people, dedicated mainly to the promulgation of mildly worded slogans, has been inspired by a supposed revolutionary tract, which turns out to be a travelogue of Ankh-Morpork written by Rincewind's erstwhile traveling companion, Twoflower, whom Rincewind ends up freeing from a dungeon and whose two daughters are leaders of the Red Army. It turns out that the villainous Grand Vizier, Lord Hong, has made the harmless Red Army appear to be a threat to the Empire and had Rincewind brought to Agatea so that he could blame the problems on foreigners, then put the "revolution" down violently and turn to the conquest of Ankh- Morpork, whose culture he secretly seeks to emulate. But when Hong murders the Emperor with the intention of framing the Red Army, it inadvertently creates the opportunity needed by the Silver Horde, who have infiltrated the palace. Cohen and Ronald Saveloy, a member of the Horde who is a retired schoolteacher, had hoped to conquer the Empire by simply installing Cohen as Emperor, since almost nobody has ever seen the Emperor's face. But Lord Hong leads four other lords who had been vying against him for the throne to rally their armies against the Horde, to the chagrin of Saveloy who had been trying to civilize the barbarians. As the battle begins, Rincewind flees and inadvertently discovers the actual Red Army, a multitude of terra cotta warriors that can be controlled by magical armor that he accidentally dons. The automatons destroy the Agatean forces. However, Rincewind inadvertently wanders into a terracotta ditch and sinks up to his thighs, but realises that the magic boots are weighing him down, and frees himself with Twoflower's help. Once Cohen realizes that he is now recognized as the Emperor, he prepares proclamations to relax the regime's oppression of the people. He invites Rincewind to serve as Chief Wizard and found his own university, which convinces Rincewind that something horrible is about to happen. Indeed, Lord Hong takes Rincewind hostage and plans to murder him on the steps of the palace. But, just then, the faculty of Unseen University teleport Rincewind away. Twoflower challenges Hong to a duel, as his wife was killed in a battle waged by Hong. The cannon, re-lit by the faculty, then arrives and kills both Hong and Saveloy; Saveloy, despite never having managed to be a barbarian in life, decides to go to the warrior's afterlife. The Luggage had followed Rincewind to its native Agatea, but became distracted by meeting and mating with a female Luggage. Upon Rincewind's disappearance, the Luggage leaves its mate and their offspring to once again follow its owner. The Lady has won the game against Fate. And she interfered in Hex's calculations so that Rincewind is teleported to the unexplored continent of XXXX where he lands safely, while a XXXXian kangaroo (instead of Rincewind) suffers a fatal collision with a wall at Unseen University. Rincewind meets XXXXian natives who give him a boomerang, with which he manages to hit himself in the head. ===== In downtown Los Angeles, an earthquake strikes. Michael Roark, the director of the city's Office of Emergency Management, insists on coming to work to help out with the crisis, although he has been on vacation with his daughter Kelly. His associate, Emmit Reese, notes that the quake caused no major damage, but seven utility workers are later burned to death in a storm drain at MacArthur Park. One escapes and survives, but is severely burned on one side of his face. As a precaution, Roark tries to halt the subway lines that run parallel, but Los Angeles MTA Chairman Stan Olber opposes, feeling that there is no threat to the trains. Against regulations, Roark and his coworker Gator Harris venture down the storm sewer in the park to investigate. They barely escape when hot gases suddenly spew out of a crack in the concrete lining and flood the tunnel. C.I.G.S. geologist Dr. Amy Barnes believes that a volcano may be forming beneath the city with magma flowing underground. Unfortunately, she has insufficient evidence to make Roark take action.Jackson, Mick (Director). (1997). Volcano [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox. The next morning, at around 5:15 A.M., Barnes and her assistant Rachel venture in the storm sewer to investigate the scene of the incident. They discover the crack in the ground that released the gases earlier. While taking samples, a more powerful earthquake strikes and Rachel is killed when she falls into the crack that is later engulfed by a rush of the hot gases. A subway train derails underground and power is knocked out across the city. Minutes later, steam explodes from the sewer system. In the La Brea Tar Pits, volcanic smoke and ash billow out, followed by lava bombs that burst out of the tar pits, which ignite several buildings. Roark helps injured firefighters out of the area. Moments later, a newly formed underground volcano erupts from the tar pits and lava begins to flow freely down Wilshire Boulevard, incinerating everything in its path, including Roark's OEM Sport utility vehicle, and an LAFD fire truck downed by a lava bomb, killing two firefighters inside. Roark and his daughter become separated as she is injured when a lava bomb badly burns her leg and she is taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by Dr. Jaye Calder. In the Red Line metro tunnel, the passengers in the derailed subway train are exposed to severe heat and toxic gases, which causes them all to eventually lose consciousness. The train driver tries but fails to open the doors along the length of the train, until reaching the rear where he sees the incoming lava flow in the tunnel hundreds of meters away. Meanwhile, Olber leads his team through the tunnel to the derailed train, searching for survivors. They manage to save everyone, but Olber notices that the train driver is still missing and goes back. He finds the driver alive but unconscious, just as the lava reaches the train and begins to flow underneath it. Olber sacrifices his life by jumping into the lava flow, throwing the driver to safety. Roark, Barnes, and LAPD police lieutenant Ed Fox devise a plan to stack concrete barriers at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, creating a cul-de-sac to pool the lava as helicopters dump water on it and all fire fighters open their hoses to form a crust, making the operation a success. However, Barnes later theorizes that the magma is still flowing underground through the Red Line subway extension, and calculates that the main eruption will occur at the end of the line at the Beverly Center near Cedars-Sinai. To prove this, Barnes and Roark lower a video camera into the tunnel to watch it, only for the camera to be incinerated by a fast-moving flow of lava. They calculate the speed and realize that they have thirty minutes until the lava flows reaches the end of the Red Line. Through Roark's direction, explosives are used to create channels in the street to divert the flow of lava into Ballona Creek, which will later flow into the Pacific Ocean, but Barnes realizes that the street is sloping in the opposite direction, and instead, the lava would flow directly towards the injured patients. Roark devises another plan to demolish a twenty-two story condominium building to block the lava's path from flowing towards the medical area and the rest of the Los Angeles West Side. Gator refuses to abandon an LAPD SWAT cop, who has gotten trapped under a fallen ventilation duct while slotting explosive charges when it fell on him due to the tremors. At that point, the lava reaches the dead end of the subway tunnel extension, and bursts out of the ground in a massive geyser. Gator and the officer sacrifice their lives to detonate the final explosive charge by giving Fox the all-clear to ignite the charges. Roark then spots Kelly nearby, trying to retrieve a small boy who wandered off, putting them in the direct path of the collapsing building. Roark barely manages to save both of them from being crushed as the building collapses. The plan is successful, and the lava flows directly into the ocean. Roark escapes from the wreckage with Kelly and the young child still alive. The death toll is nearly a hundred people, thousands injured, and damages in billions. It starts to rain, with surviving civilians having a sigh a relief. Reese shows up with the family dog Max, along with a call from the police chief on how to rebuild the city. Roark tells Reese that he is on vacation after all, and to tell the chief that too, as he goes home with Kelly while Reese takes over to handle the situation. Words are displayed in view of the volcano that says "Name: Mount Wilshire. Location: Los Angeles, California. Status: Active." ===== Holmes is startled by the sudden appearance during a blizzard of Andrew Joliffe, the butler of horticulturalist Sir John Doverton. During a dinner party, the Abbas Ruby disappeared from the Doverton house, as did all the blooms on Sir John's camillia bush. The police arrive at Holmes residence to arrest Joliffe, but not before Joliffe admits that he was the same Joliffe involved in the Catterdon Diamond robbery. Before departing with his prisoner, Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard shows Holmes and Watson the empty jewel case found concealed in Joliffe's room.The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, Chapter 8 > Lady Doverton smiled coldly. "In the meantime, the police will have arrested > the thief." > [Holmes]"I think not." > "Absurd! The man who fled was a convicted jewel-robber. It is obvious." > "Perhaps too obvious, madam! Does it not strike you as somewhat singular > that an ex-convict, though aware that his record was known already to your > brother, should steal a famous stone from his own employer and then > conveniently condemn himself by secreting the jewel-box under his mattress, > where even Scotland Yard could be relied upon to search? > Lady Doverton put a hand to her bosom. "I had not considered the matter in > that light," she said. > "Naturally...." ===== An Irish-American girl from Boston spends two hellish weeks in Northern Ireland, after she has been persuaded to help the Irish Republican Army. ===== Henri Verdoux had been a bank teller for thirty years before being laid off. To support his wheelchair-bound wife and child, he turns to the business of marrying and murdering wealthy widows. The Couvais family becomes suspicious when Thelma Couvais withdraws all her money and disappears two weeks after marrying a man named "Varnay", whom they only know through a photograph. As Verdoux (Chaplin) prepares to sell Thelma Couvais's home, the widowed Marie Grosnay (Isobel Elsom) visits. Verdoux sees her as another "business" opportunity and attempts to charm her, but she refuses. Over the following weeks, Verdoux has a flower girl (Barbara Slater) repeatedly send Grosnay flowers. In need of money to invest, Verdoux, as M. Floray, visits Lydia Floray (Margaret Hoffman) and convinces her he is her absent husband. She complains that his engineering job has kept him away too long. That night, Verdoux murders her for her money. At a dinner party with his real wife and their friend the local chemist, Verdoux asks the chemist about the drug he developed to exterminate animals painlessly. The chemist explains the formula and that he had to stop working on it after the local pharmaceutical board banned it. Verdoux says he could test the drug by using it on a tramp off the street, then laughs it off as a morbid joke. Later at his furniture office he attempts to recreate the drug. Shortly thereafter, Verdoux finds The Girl (Marilyn Nash) taking shelter from the rain in a doorway and takes her in. When he finds she was just released from prison and has nowhere to go, he prepares dinner for her with wine laced with his newly developed poison. Before drinking the wine, she thanks him for his kindness, and starts to talk about her husband who died while she was in jail. After she says her husband was a helpless invalid and that made her all the more devoted to him, Verdoux says he thinks there's cork in her wine and replaces it with a glass of unpoisoned wine. She leaves without knowing of his cynical intentions. Verdoux makes several attempts to murder Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye), who believes Verdoux to be Bonheur, a sea captain who is frequently away, including by strangulation while boating, and by poisoned wine, but she is impervious, repeatedly escaping death without even realizing while, at the same time, putting Verdoux himself in danger or near death. Meanwhile, Grosnay eventually softens and relents from the continual flowers from Verdoux and invites him to her residence. He convinces her to marry him, and Grosnay's friends hold a large public wedding to Verdoux's disapproval. Unexpectedly, Bonheur shows up to the wedding. Panicking, Verdoux fakes a cramp to avoid being seen and eventually deserts the wedding. Before the Second World War breaks out, the European markets collapse, and Verdoux loses his assets. The Girl, now well-dressed and chic, once again finds Verdoux on the street. She invites him to an elegant dinner at a high-end restaurant as a gesture of gratitude for his actions earlier. The girl has married a man she doesn't love to be well-off. Verdoux reveals that he has lost his family. At the restaurant, members of the Couvais family recognize Verdoux and attempt a pursuit. Verdoux delays them long enough to bid the unnamed girl farewell before letting himself be captured by the investigators. Verdoux is exposed and convicted of murder. When he is sentenced in the courtroom, rather than expressing remorse he takes the opportunity to say that the world encourages mass killers, and that compared to the makers of modern weapons he is but an amateur. Later, before being led from his cell to the guillotine, a journalist asks him for a story with a moral, but he answers evasively, dismissing his killing of a few, for which he has been condemned, as not worse than the killing of many in war, for which others are honored, "Wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!" His last visitor before being taken to be executed is a priest (Fritz Leiber). When guards come to take him to the guillotine he is offered a cigarette, which he refuses, and a glass of rum, which he also refuses before changing his mind. He says "I've never tasted rum", downs the glass, and the priest begins reciting a prayer in Latin as the guards lead him away and the film ends. ===== Harold Cooper is bathing his young son when his wife, Dr. Sarah Cooper, receives a phone call at their Richmond home telling her that their friend Alex, who had been staying at their vacation home in South Carolina, has committed suicide. At the funeral, Harold and Sarah are reunited with college friends from the University of Michigan. They include Sam, a television actor; Meg, a real estate attorney in Atlanta; Michael, a journalist for People; Nick, a Vietnam vet and former radio host; and Karen, a housewife from suburban Detroit who's unhappy in her marriage to her advertising executive husband, Richard. Also present is Chloe, Alex's young girlfriend. After the burial, everyone goes to Harold and Sarah's vacation house, where they stay for the weekend. During the first night, a bat flies into the attic while Meg and Nick are getting reacquainted. Sam later finds Nick watching television, and they briefly talk about Karen. They go into the kitchen and find Richard making a sandwich, and the three have a discussion about responsibility and adulthood. Richard states, "Nobody said it was going to be fun. At least, nobody said it to me." The next morning Harold and Nick go jogging. Harold tells Nick that his company is about to be bought out by a large corporation, and he's going to be rich. Harold confides in Nick that Sarah and Alex had an affair five years earlier. Nick comforts him by saying "She didn't marry Alex." Richard returns home to look after his kids, but Karen decides to stay in South Carolina for the weekend. Nick, Harold, Michael, and Chloe go for a drive, while Sam and Karen go shopping. Meg reveals to Sarah that she wants to have a child, and that she is going to ask Sam to be the father, knowing that Nick can't. Out in the country, Harold listens to Michael's plans to buy a nightclub. Chloe takes Nick to the abandoned house that she and Alex were going to renovate. She tells him that he reminds her of Alex, to which Nick replies "I ain't him." During dinner, Sarah becomes tearful over Alex as the group talks about him. Harold puts a record on the stereo, and everyone dances while cleaning up. While the others sit around and smoke marijuana, Meg asks Sam to father her baby, but he declines. The next morning Nick, Sam, and Harold go jogging, and the subject of Alex's suicide comes up again. Harold's surprise arrives: sneakers for everyone to wear during the upcoming Michigan football game. The group, minus Nick, watches the game on TV, and Sarah tells Karen about her brief affair with Alex and how it affected their friendship. During the game, Michael offers to father Meg's child, alluding to the fact that they had sex in college. At halftime, Chloe, Sam, Harold, and Michael go outside to play touch football. Nick returns, followed by a police car. The officer says that Nick ran a red light, but says that he will drop the charges if Sam would hop into Nick's Porsche 911 as his TV character, J.T. Lancer, always does. Sam is unsuccessful and hurts himself, but the officer drops the charges anyway. Karen later tells Sam that she loves him, wants to leave Richard and live with Sam and her two sons. When they kiss, Sam pulls away and tells Karen to not leave Richard. He confesses that it was "boredom" that caused his own marriage to fail, and he doesn't want her to make the same mistake. Karen feels misled and storms into the house. Harold is on the phone with his daughter, Molly, and lets Meg talk to her. Observing their interaction on the phone, Sarah decides to let Harold impregnate Meg, but does not tell him yet. The group once again discusses Alex. Nick says "Alex died for most of us a long time ago", but Sam disagrees and leaves. Karen follows him, and the two have sex outside. Sarah tells Harold about Meg's situation, and Chloe and Nick go to bed together. Meg and Harold then have sex, and Michael and Sarah jokingly interview each other with a video camera. In the morning while Karen is packing, she tells Sam that she has decided to stay with Richard. At breakfast, Harold reveals that Nick and Chloe will be staying so they can renovate the old abandoned house. Sam and Nick then make up from their argument the previous night. Nick gives Michael an old clipping of an article he had written about Alex. Michael states, tongue in cheek, "Sarah, Harold. We took a secret vote. We're not leaving. We're never leaving," and they all laugh. ===== Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li), once an agent of the MultiVerse Authority (MVA) which polices interdimensional travel, seeks to hunt down all variations of himself in alternate universes. By killing 124 versions of his other selves and absorbing their life energies, Yulaw believes that he will become a superpowered-godlike being called "The One". After killing Lawless, the 123rd variation in the Anubis Universe, Yulaw is captured by MVA agents Rodecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Statham) and taken back to the MVA headquarters in the Alpha Universe. After he is sentenced to life in the Stygian penal colony in the Hades Universe, Yulaw manages to escape and teleports to the Charis Universe where the last variation of himself lives. The last known variation, Gabe Law, is a police officer working in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. For two years, Gabe has been experiencing increases in strength, speed, and mental ability, but neither he nor his wife T.K. (Carla Gugino) can understand why. While transporting a prisoner, Gabe "feels" Yulaw's presence in time to avoid being shot. Gabe sustains an injury after falling from a wall which Yulaw scales with ease. Rodecker and Funsch arrive in time to stop Yulaw from finishing off Gabe. Although unfamiliar with interdimensional travel, Gabe realizes that Yulaw is identical to him in every way. Rodecker and Funsch track Yulaw to the hospital where Gabe is being examined. Yulaw deters them from shooting him because if he is killed, Gabe would then be left as the One. Dressed alike and identical to each other, Gabe and Yulaw's battle confuses the other police officers. Both Gabe and Yulaw manage to escape the hospital. The MVA agents deviate from their orders and split up. Rodecker pursues and fights Yulaw but is killed when the latter breaks his neck. Funsch catches up with Gabe and explains to him that there are multiple universes with wormholes briefly connecting them at uncontrollable times. Yulaw sneaks into Gabe's residence where T.K., believing him to be Gabe, agrees to hide him from the police. She realizes that Yulaw is deceiving her but not in time to avoid being captured. Gabe arrives, only to watch helplessly as Yulaw kills T.K. Funsch finds a guiltridden Gabe and both team up to find Yulaw at the next wormhole. Gabe and Funsch arrive at an industrial plant, where they encounter and fight Yulaw. Funsch is easily defeated but Gabe and Yulaw are more evenly matched. Gabe manages to gain the upper hand but only seconds before the wormhole arrives. All three of them are sucked into it and collapse on the floor of the MVA headquarters. Yulaw is transported immediately to the Hades Universe after a failed attempt to switch places with Gabe. The MVA then prepares to send Gabe back to his own universe, where he will be arrested and put into prison for the crimes that Yulaw committed. Recalling an earlier conversation with Gabe, Funsch sends him to a different universe in which Gabe can have a normal life again from when he first met T.K. Meanwhile, Yulaw, now on the penal colony in the Hades Universe, declares he that will still become the One and then proceeds to battle a prison inmate. The camera than pulls back to show an army of other prison inmates taking on Yulaw on top of a ziggurat. ===== Marie St. Clair and her beau, aspiring artist Jean Millet, plan to leave their small French village for Paris, where they will marry. On the night before their scheduled departure, Marie leaves her house for a rendezvous with Jean. Marie's stepfather locks her out of the house, telling her to find shelter elsewhere. Jean invites Marie to his parents' home, but his father also refuses to let her stay. Jean escorts Marie to the train station, and promises to return after going home to pack. When he arrives at home, he discovers his father has died. When Jean telephones Marie at the station to tell her they must postpone their trip, she gets on the train without him. One year later in Paris, Marie enjoys a life of luxury as the mistress of wealthy businessman Pierre Revel. A friend calls and invites Marie to a raucous party in the Latin Quarter. She gives Marie the address but can't remember whether the apartment is in the building on the right or the left. Marie enters the wrong building and is surprised to be greeted by Jean Millet, who shares a modest apartment with his mother. Marie tells Jean she would like for him to paint her portrait and gives him a card with her address. Jean calls on Marie at her apartment to begin the painting. Marie notices he is wearing a black armband and asks why he is in mourning. Jean tells Marie his father died the night she left without him. Marie and Jean revive their romance, and Marie distances herself from Pierre Revel. Jean finishes Marie's portrait, but instead of painting her wearing the elegant outfit she chose for the sitting, he paints her in the simple dress she wore on the night she left for Paris. Jean proposes to Marie. Jean's mother fights with him over the proposal. Marie arrives unexpectedly outside Jean's apartment just in time to overhear Jean pacify his mother, telling her that he proposed in a moment of weakness. Jean fails to convince Marie he didn't mean what she overheard, and she returns to Pierre Revel. The following night, Jean slips a gun into his coat pocket and goes to the exclusive restaurant where Marie and Pierre are dining. Jean and Pierre get into a scuffle, and Jean is ejected from the dining room. Jean fatally shoots himself in the foyer of the restaurant. The police carry Jean's body to his apartment. Jean's mother retrieves the gun and goes to Marie's apartment, but Marie has gone to Jean's studio. Jean's mother returns and finds Marie sobbing by Jean's body. The two women reconcile and return to the French countryside, where they open a home for orphans in a country cottage. One morning, Marie and one of the girls in her care walk down the lane to get a pail of milk. Marie and the girl meet a group of sharecroppers who offer them a ride back in their horse-drawn wagon. At the same time, Pierre Revel and another gentleman are riding through the French countryside in a chauffeur-driven automobile. Pierre's companion asks him, "What ever happened to that Marie St. Clair?" Pierre replies that he doesn't know. The automobile and the horse-drawn wagon pass each other, heading in opposite directions. ===== Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), a risk analyst for life insurance, is celebrating his honeymoon with his new wife, Lisa Kramer (Debra Messing), on the island of St. Barts, but catches her having sex with Claude (Hank Azaria), a French scuba instructor. Returning home to New York alone, he attempts to piece his life back together. Reuben goes to an art gallery with his friend, Sandy Lyle (Philip Seymour Hoffman), where he runs into former junior high school classmate Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston). Reuben and Polly begin dating, with her introducing him to activities he once wrote off as "too risky". This included eating at a Moroccan restaurant which ends badly due to Reuben's IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome). Luckily, Polly gives him a second chance where they end up salsa dancing and later enthusiastically having sex together, with Reuben shouting "50" at the climax. The contrast between their two personalities is a source of comedy until Lisa returns and tells him she wants to reconcile their relationship. Meanwhile, Sandy, a self-centered, former teen idol, is trying to make a comeback by having a documentary filmed about his starring role as Judas in an amateur production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Reuben is torn between the free spirited Polly and the safe and familiar Lisa. To solve this issue, he enters information about Polly and Lisa into a computer insurance program which measures risk. The computer tells him that, despite his numerous blunders with her, Polly is the least risky choice for Reuben. Polly joins Reuben on a sailing trip where he is to inspect Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown), a high risk client, but she is offended when she sees his risk analysis of her. She rejects his proposal to move in together, telling him that he would be better off going back to Lisa. Back home, Reuben tries talking to Polly, but to no avail. He eventually invites Lisa to Sandy's opening show, where he learns that Polly is leaving New York in a few hours. After a speech given by his father, Irving (Bob Dishy), to Sandy about not living in the past, Reuben realizes he wants to be with Polly and not Lisa, and he rushes to her apartment to stop her from leaving. Polly is not convinced she should stay with him, so Reuben eats food off the ground to prove he is capable of taking risks. Reuben and Polly vacation on the same beach where he and Lisa had their honeymoon. Reuben again encounters Claude, but instead of being angry, he thanks Claude before heading into the water with Polly to join Van Lew on his new boat. ===== In the 1970s, two Bay City Police detectives, the macho David Starsky (who loves his Ford Gran Torino and recklessly pursues minor offenders) and the easy-going Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (who often works alongside criminals to investigate their activity) are forced to become partners as punishment for recent antics. Meanwhile, Jewish-American drug kingpin Reese Feldman and his right-hand man Kevin Jutsum develop a new type of cocaine that is untraceable in scent and taste. When one of his dealers botches an operation, Feldman kills him. The body washes ashore a few days later, and Starsky and Hutch investigate the scene. A clue leads them to Feldman, who denies any knowledge of the crime, but his wife mentions the dealer had been dating a cheerleader. After meeting cheerleaders Stacey and Holly, the detectives are given a jacket from cheerleader Heather. Their street-wise informant Huggy Bear directs the pair to Big Earl's motorcycle bar. Disguised as "Captain America" and "Billy" from Easy Rider, Starsky and Hutch learn that Big Earl is in jail, where they question him on his connection to Feldman's illicit dealings; Big Earl, forces the detectives into humiliating acts in exchange for information and a packet of what they believe is cocaine. However, Captain Doby, angered by their wild interrogation, tells them the packet contains artificial sweetener and takes them off the case. The duo invite Stacey and Holly to Starsky's place where Starsky puts the “sweetener” in his coffee while Hutch sings "Don't Give Up on Us". The four visit a disco where Starsky, suffering the effects what proves to be Feldman's modified cocaine, loses a dance-off. Hutch takes him home and puts him to bed, then proceeds to have a threesome with Stacey and Holly. The duo are then assaulted by an Asian dealer and his knife-wielding son, working for Feldman. After an interrogation, they deduce that Feldman stores the drugs in his garage. They go undercover as mimes at his daughter's Bat Mitzvah; confronting Feldman, Starsky shoots the lock off his garage door, inadvertently killing a pony inside that had been a gift for his daughter. Feldman comes to their defense, figuring the botched operation will take heat off him, but Doby indefinitely suspends both detectives, and though Starsky defends Hutch, Doby reveals a complaint Starsky filed against his partner weeks ago. Starsky tries to explain himself to Hutch, but an argument leads to a split in their friendship. Hutch's young neighbor Willis is injured by a bomb meant for Hutch. Starsky and Hutch visit Willis in the hospital where they reconcile and decide to put an end to Feldman's drug business. With help from Huggy Bear, who grudgingly serves as Feldman's golf caddie, they learn that the kingpin plans to sell the drugs at a charity ball by hiding them in Volkswagen Karmann Ghias to be given away to other dealers. The duo enter the party in disguise with Stacey and Holly as their dates. Deducing Feldman's plan, they and shoot open a VW's trunk, revealing the large stash of cocaine. Feldman takes Hutch hostage, and Starsky accidentally shoots Captain Doby in the shoulder, though Hutch declares Reese was responsible. In the confusion, Feldman and his girlfriend Kitty escape with the money from the cocaine deal, leading Starsky and Hutch on a car chase through a golf course. As Feldman and Kitty take off in his yacht, Starsky and Hutch try to ramp Starsky's Torino off a pier in pursuit, but jumps way off course and lands in the sea. Huggy, hiding on board, knocks Feldman out and takes one of Feldman's money briefcases for himself. Celebrating the capture of Feldman, Jutsum, and Kitty, Starsky mourns the loss of his car. Huggy surprises him with another Gran Torino (bought from the original Starsky and Hutch duo, David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser). The two partners roll out on another case in their new ride. ===== After five years of marriage, Cassius Clare and his wife Catherine cannot bear each other any longer and decide to get a divorce. Although the separation is basically amicable, it is Cassius Clare's condition that Catherine leave their two sons—Fabian, aged four, and Guy, aged two—under his custody and never see them again. Catherine Claire accepts, and for the next nine years disappears from their life. ===== The story describes a few days in the life of a five-year-old named Jenny, her father, Martin, and his boyfriend Eric who lives with them. Jenny's mother Karen lives nearby and often visits the household. The book covers such small adventures as * Jenny, Eric and Martin going to the laundrette together * Jenny, Martin and Karen preparing a surprise birthday party for Eric * Eric and Martin having a small quarrel and making up * A woman expressing homophobic disgust when passing the family in the street. This is the subject of a later discussion between Eric and Jenny. ===== Holmes, Watson and Inspector Hopkins. Forest Row in the Weald is the scene of a harpoon murder, and a young police inspector, Stanley Hopkins, asks Holmes, whom he admires, for help. Holmes has already determined that it would take a great deal of strength and skill to run a man through with a harpoon and embed it in the wall behind him. Peter Carey, the 50-year-old victim and former master of the Sea Unicorn of Dundee, who lived with his wife and daughter, had a reputation for being violent. Carey did not sleep in the family house, but in a small cottage that he built some distance from the house, whose interior he had decorated to look like a sailor's cabin on a ship. This is where he was found harpooned. Hopkins could find no footprints or other physical evidence. However, a tobacco pouch made of sealskin and with the initials "P.C." was found at the scene, which was full of strong ship's tobacco. This is rather unusual, as Peter Carey--or "Black Peter" as people called him--seldom smoked. Indeed, Hopkins found no pipe in the cabin. Carey was found fully dressed, suggesting that he was expecting a visitor, and there was some rum laid out along with two dirty glasses. There were brandy and whisky, too, but neither had been touched. There was also a knife in its sheath at Carey's feet; Mrs. Carey has identified it as her husband's. A little notebook was also found at the scene. It contains the initials J. H. N. and the year 1883. It also says C. P. R. on the second page, which Holmes reckons stands for Canadian Pacific Railway. The first set of initials is likely a stockbroker's, as the little book is full of what appears to be stock exchange information. Holmes decides to accompany Hopkins to Forest Row, and upon arrival, Hopkins observes that someone has tried to break into Carey's cabin, but failed. After examining the inside of the cabin, Holmes deduces from the lack of dust that something has been taken from a shelf, even though the burglar did not get in. The stolen item was a book, or possibly a box. Holmes believes that the burglar will likely try again, this time bringing a more useful tool for the job. So, Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Hopkins all lie in wait for the burglar that night, and they are not disappointed. Along he comes, he breaks into the cabin, and goes through one of Carey's old logbooks, cursing when he finds that the information that he wants is missing, having been torn out of the book. As he is leaving the cabin, Hopkins moves in and arrests him. John Hopley Neligan is discovered. He is John Hopley Neligan—which matches the initials in the notebook—the son of a long-vanished, failed banker. He claims he was looking at Carey's logs to test a theory of his. His father disappeared with a box full of securities after his bank failed. He took them on a yacht bound for Norway. He believes that his father's boat may have been driven north on the North Sea by bad weather, and met the Sea Unicorn, captained by Carey. He believes that Carey knew something about his father's disappearance, and that possibly his father was murdered by the man who has now himself become a murder victim as he has traced some of his father's long lost securities back to Carey. Hopkins takes Neligan off to the station, even though Neligan swears that he has nothing to do with the murder. Holmes believes this to be true, because Neligan is a slight, anemic thin man, hardly capable of running a man through with a harpoon. Holmes saves Neligan from the noose by finding the true killer in a most unusual way. He advertises for a harpooner, posing as a sea captain named Basil. He gets three applicants at 221B Baker Street for the job, and one of them is indeed Peter Carey's killer, as confirmed by his name, Patrick Cairns, and the fact that Holmes had established that he was once Carey's shipmate. Holmes also felt sure that a murderer would want to leave the country for a while. Holmes handcuffs the unaware Cairns after which Cairns confesses. While he freely admits to killing Carey, he furiously denies that it was murder, claiming self-defence. He was actually at Carey's cabin to extort hush money from him. Neligan's father had indeed come aboard the Sea Unicorn with his tin box of securities, and Carey had murdered him by throwing him overboard while he believed no-one was looking, though Cairns had witnessed the event. While Carey initially had agreed to the payoff, when Cairns came to collect, things were different. The two drank together, during which Carey's mood darkened. When Carey reached for his knife, which Carins viewed as a threat, he took action. Cairns then examined the box of securities, but finding them impossible for him to sell, escaped, leaving his tobacco pouch on the table. The rum was another clue. Holmes was sure that it, and the fact that the brandy and whiskey had been left alone, were sure signs that the killer was a seaman. Neligan is released and the securities returned to him, although the ones that Carey sold cannot be recovered. ===== The first portion of the film is set on November 21, 1963 (the day before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated). Birdlace and three of his Marine buddies have arrived in San Francisco for twenty-four hours, before shipping off to Okinawa, and are planning on attending a "dogfight" (a party where Marines compete to bring the ugliest date, unbeknownst to the girls they bring) later that evening. They separate into the city to attempt to find dates. After a few women reject his advances, Birdlace ducks into a coffee shop, where he encounters Rose, a waitress, on her break, practicing her guitar. She is not particularly "ugly", but rather plain, shy and awkward. Birdlace attempts to charm her, complimenting her on her guitar playing, and inviting her to a party. She is suspicious of his motives, but decides to accept his invitation. While walking to the bar where the party is to be held, Birdlace begins to have second thoughts about playing such a cruel trick on Rose after realizing she's not ugly enough to compete, and attempts to talk her out of going in. However they encounter one of Birdlace's buddies and his "date" in front of the bar, and so he has no choice but to proceed with Rose into the dogfight. Birdlace proceeds to get drunk, presumably feeling guilty. Shortly after, Rose convinces Birdlace to dance with her, though at first he resists because he knows that's where the dates get judged. The alcohol and dancing eventually make Rose feel dizzy, and she rushes off and ends up getting sick in the rest room. Rose does not win the dogfight; Marcie, the date of Birdlace's friend Berzin, is the winner. In the ladies' room, it is revealed that Marcie is actually a prostitute whom Berzin has hired (which is a violation of the rules of the dogfight) and clues Rose in to the true nature of the party. Rose is devastated, tears into Birdlace, and then storms off. Birdlace immediately regrets having treated Rose so cruelly, and chases after her. He convinces her to let him buy her dinner, in an attempt to make it up to her. After dinner, the two walk to a club where Rose hopes to perform soon, and then to an arcade. Birdlace is surprised to find himself enjoying spending time with Rose, so much so that he forgets that he was to have met up with his three buddies at a tattoo parlor where they were to get matching tattoos to solidify their friendship. Rose tells Birdlace about her dream to become a folk singer, and he reveals to her that he will be shipping off to Okinawa the following day, and from there on to "a little country called Vietnam," he hopes. She offers to write to him, and asks if he will write back. Birdlace walks Rose home, and they share an awkward moment on her doorstep, before she hesitantly invites him in. They attempt to talk, but end up engaged in a self- conscious yet endearing sexual encounter. As he is leaving at dawn, Rose gives him her address and asks him to write. Birdlace meets up with his buddies, where they board their bus. Birdlace makes up a story that he did not show up because he spent the night with the beautiful wife of an officer. Berzin later shares with Birdlace that he saw him with Rose; Birdlace counters that he is aware that Berzin's "date", Marcie, was actually a prostitute. They agree to keep one-another's secrets, as Birdlace tears up Rose's address and throws it out the window of the bus. Rose is then shown with her mother, weeping and watching coverage of President Kennedy's assassination on TV. The film then cuts to 1966, where Birdlace and his three friends are shown at Chu Lai, South Vietnam. They are playing cards and trying to pass time, when they are suddenly mortared. The scene descends to chaos. Birdlace is wounded in the leg, Berzin and Oakie drag him away and tell him that Benjamin is dead, then another mortar round hits. Birdlace is then shown getting off of a Greyhound bus in San Francisco in 1967. Discharged from the Marines, he is walking with a limp, and it is suggested that his three friends were all killed in combat. He is taken by how much things have changed since he was last there, with hippies and flower children everywhere. He walks to the neighborhood where Rose's coffee shop is, and goes to a bar across the street to have a drink. The bartender tells him that Rose's mother has turned the coffee shop over to Rose. He then makes his way across the street and into the coffee shop. Rose, not having heard from him in three years, is surprised to see him, and can only say "hi". She walks over to him and they embrace as the film ends. ===== In 1887, Transylvania, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, with help from his assistant Igor and Count Dracula, successfully creates a monster. Dracula, a vampire, kills Frankenstein to use the creature for his own purposes. As an angry mob storms Castle Frankenstein, the monster flees to a windmill with his dead creator. The mob burn down the windmill, apparently destroying the monster. One year later, monster hunter Van Helsing kills Mr. Hyde after a brawl in Notre-Dame de Paris. Van Helsing suffers from amnesia, slaying evil on behalf of the Vatican City, hoping that he will earn redemption for forgotten sins. He is tasked by Cardinal Jinette to go to Transylvania and destroy Dracula. He must also protect the last members of an ancient Romanian family, the Valerious, whose ancestor vowed that his descendants would kill Dracula, or fall into Purgatory. He receives a torn parchment, reading "In the name of God, open this door" in Latin. Van Helsing travels to Transylvania, accompanied by Carl, an eccentric friar and inventor. Anna and Velkan Valerious attempt to kill a werewolf controlled by Dracula, but both it and Velkan fall into a river. Van Helsing and Carl arrive in a village, where they and Anna are attacked by Dracula’s three brides – Verona, Marishka, and Aleera. Van Helsing slays Marishka. Anna agrees to work with Van Helsing, but encounters Velkan, now cursed to become a werewolf during a full moon. The two follow Velkan to Castle Frankenstein, now used by Dracula in an attempt to duplicate Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments to give life to his undead children, using Velkan as a conduit. While Anna tries to rescue Velkan, who succumbs to his curse, Van Helsing confronts Dracula, who expresses familiarity with Van Helsing, addressing him as “Gabriel” and offering to return his memories to him. Van Helsing and Anna flee the castle, Dracula discovering that his experiment has failed. Carl witnesses a painting come to life, depicting two knights respectively transforming into a vampire and a werewolf. Van Helsing and Anna reach a deep cave below the destroyed windmill, where they meet Frankenstein’s monster, who is the true key to fulfilling Dracula’s plans. Van Helsing opts to shelter the monster in the Vatican. Just outside Budapest, the group are ambushed by the brides and Velkan. Verona and Velkan are both killed, but not before the latter bites Van Helsing, cursing him to become a werewolf. Anna is kidnapped by Aleera, who arranges with Van Helsing to trade her for the monster. Van Helsing locks the monster within a crypt, but he is captured by Dracula’s undead horde. Van Helsing and Carl save Anna, using a solar-based bomb created by Carl to destroy the vampires. Returning to the Valerious family's castle, Carl explains that Dracula is, in fact, the son of Anna’s ancestor, imprisoned within an icy fortress, hidden behind a large walled map of Transylvania. Using the torn parchment, Van Helsing opens the door, finding Dracula’s fortress. The captured monster informs Van Helsing that Dracula possesses a cure for lycanthropy; Carl realizes that only a werewolf can kill Dracula. Capturing Igor, Van Helsing sends him, Anna, and Carl to retrieve the cure, while he frees the monster. As he does so, the monster is struck by lighting twice, bringing Dracula’s children to life. Dracula, spotting Van Helsing, transforms into a demonic form, fighting Van Helsing in werewolf form. Aleera and Igor are both killed as Anna and Carl retrieve the cure. Following a fierce skirmish, Dracula then reveals to Van Helsing that it was he who murdered Dracula. Dracula offers to restore all of Van Helsing's memories but he declines stating that some things are better left forgotten. Eventually, Van Helsing kills him and his children by biting Dracula’s throat, but accidentally kills Anna as she delivers the cure. Van Helsing and Carl host a funeral for Anna overlooking the sea, where the monster departs by boat, as he witnesses Anna’s spirit reuniting with her family in Heaven, freed of their vow. Together, Van Helsing and Carl ride off on their next adventure. ===== Andrew Carr is employed as a technician in the Empire's Mapping and Exploration survey of Cottman IV, known locally as Darkover. His survey plane encounters a storm over the mountains and crashes. Carr survives through the intervention of a diaphanous figure that he initially believes to be a ghost. She tells him her name is Callista, a Keeper, and she is communicating with him through the Overworld. Carr believes none of this, but follows her directions to shelter. Meanwhile, on the road to Armida, Damon Ridenow discusses recent violent conflicts with a native species called the cat-men with his guardsmen. Ridenow is a matrix technician who was recently dismissed by Leonie Hastur, Keeper of Arilinn, on the grounds that he is "too sensitive." During the journey, the group is attacked by an unseen entity. Only Damon Ridenow survives. He arrives at Armida to find that it, too, has been attacked, and Callista Lanart was kidnapped. Her twin, Ellemir Lanart, assures him Callista is alive because she can feel her sister's telepathic presence, though they cannot communicate directly. Damon ventures into the Overworld to seek Callista, but finds only a "great darkness" and a vaguely evil presence. Meanwhile, Andrew Carr arrives at the door seeking shelter and assistance. He mistakes Ellemir for Callista. After introductions and food, Andrew describes his experiences. Damon concludes Callista is being held by the cat-men. Ellemir's father, Esteban Lanart, Lord Alton, arrives with his guard. His party has also been attacked by an invisible enemy, and Lord Alton was gravely wounded. Damon uses his laran abilities to save one of the wounded guards, but can do nothing for Lord Alton, who is permanently paralyzed. The next day, Lord Alton is informed of the situation, and Damon Ridenow tells him he wants to marry Ellemir. Alton approves Damon's suit, but disapproves of Andrew Carr's interest in Callista because she is a Keeper. Damon says he will attempt to rescue Callista. Lord Alton suggests he use his Alton gift of forced rapport so that he can provide Damon with his own superior sword skills, which Damon lacks. After testing this theory and mounting a small matrix jewel in the hilt of his sword, Damon leaves for the darkening lands and the Caves of Corresanti. They engage the cat-men in several small skirmishes along the way. At Armida, Andrew Carr has learned how to enter the Overworld, and locates Callista. Desperate to help her, he somehow manages to teleport himself into the caves. Andrew and Callista make their way through the caves with Damon and face off against the Great Cat, a larger cat with a powerful matrix jewel. The matrix is destroyed, and everyone returns to Armida. Callista, the Keeper who is sworn to lifelong virginity, contemplates giving up her vows to be with Andrew. =====