From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Magdelon and Cathos are the wannabe précieuses, two young women from the provinces who have come to Paris in search of love and jeux d'esprit. Gorgibus, the father of Magdelon and uncle of Cathos, decides they should marry a pair of eminently eligible young men but the two women find the men unrefined and ridicule them. The men vow to take revenge on les précieuses. On stage comes Mascarille, a young man who pretends to be a sophisticated man of the world. Magdelon falls in love with him. Next on stage comes another young man, Jodelet, with whom Cathos falls in love. It is revealed that these two men, Mascarille and Jodelet, are impostors whose real identities are as the valets of the first two men who were scorned and rejected. As the curtain falls, Gorgibus and les précieuses are ashamed at having fallen for the trick. In the provinces, the young ladies' Parisian pretensions attracted mockery, while in Paris, their puffed- up provincial naiveté and self-esteem proved laughable. ===== Kajal, a beautiful young lady falls in love with and happily marries Ravi, a rich famous singer whose greedy uncle Dhirendra and cousin Narendra want his wealth. Narendra tries to rape Kajal but is caught and beaten by Ravi. Dhirendra hires hoodlums to murder Ravi. Narendra and Ravi fall off a cliff as Ravi kills him before his death. Widowed and depressed, Kajal moves to another city with Ravi's mother Laxmi who motivates her to begin a new life. Raja, a handsome guy accidentally hits Laxmi and meets Kajal. He falls in love with her and confesses it but she reveals about being a widow. Raja's rich father Ramakant who dislikes Kajal tries to get rid of her after which Raja cuts all ties with him and begs Laxmi for marriage with Kajal. Laxmi persuades Kajal who marries Raja, but he tells him he will not touch her until she accepts him. Raja now looks for a job. His friends open a garage with him. He meets with an accident and is hospitalised. Kajal rushes to see and realises her love for him. They begin a new life. Eventually, Raja saves a man and befriends him who turns out to be an alive Ravi. When Raja introduces Ravi to Kajal, she is shocked by learning that Ravi survived Dhirendra's attempt to murder him. However, she stays with Raja. Dhirendra learns about Ravi. He kidnaps Kajal and Raja, demanding Ravi's property in exchange. Raja escapes and beats Dhirendra along with Ravi. They find Kajal tied up with a bomb strapped around her. Ravi manages to switch off it. Dhirendra returns only to kill Raja. Ravi pushes him and sets the bomb off, causing a large explosion that kills the two for all. Kajal and Raja honour Ravi's sacrifice. ===== Matt Cvetic (Frank Lovejoy), who works in a Pittsburgh steel mill, has been infiltrating the Communist Party for the FBI in Pittsburgh for nine years. During this time he has been unable to tell his family about his dual role, so they assume that he is a genuine believer in Communism and despise him. He becomes emotionally involved with a Communist school teacher (Dorothy Hart), who is becoming disenchanted with the party. She breaks with the party when it foments a violent strike. Cvetic helps her escape the Communists in violent sequences in which two Communists and an FBI agent are killed. Communists are portrayed in the film as cynical opportunists, racists who are interested only in seizing power on behalf of the Soviets and not in improving social and labor conditions in the U.S. They are shown exploiting ethnic tensions to get their way, such as by wrapping copies of a Jewish newspaper around lead pipes used to beat up people during a strike. They also are shown fomenting discontent among blacks. They are shown as cynical racists, calling blacks "niggers" and Jews "kikes". The Communists in the movie are shown to be violent thugs who kill informers. Cvetic ultimately testifies against the Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee and reconciles with his brother and son. ===== Set in 1930s London and the South of England, Duc de Richleau and Rex van Ryn rescue their friend Simon Aron from a devil-worshipping cult. Rex falls in love with another initiate of the cult, Tanith. Rex prevents Tanith from going to a ceremony on Salisbury Plain. The Duc and Rex rescue Simon from the ceremony. They escape to the home of the Eatons, friends of Richleau and van Ryn, and are followed by the group’s leader, Mocata, who has a psychic connection to the two initiates. After visiting the house to discuss the matter and an unsuccessful attempt to influence the initiates to return, Mocata forces Richleau and the other occupants to defend themselves through a night of black magic attacks. During this Mocata summons the Angel of Death using the medium of Tanith. The defeat of the Angel results in Tanith’s death. After successfully defending themselves through the night the group find that Mocata has kidnapped the Eatons’ daughter. Simon exchanges himself for her. Mocata is using Simon to find the Talisman of Set, a powerful satanic object. The book culminates in a desperate chase across Europe to an abandoned Greek Monastery where Mocata is defeated. The group wake up in the Eatons’ home and realise that during the ceremony they entered the fourth dimension. Mocata is found dead outside the house. The Duc wakes up clutching the Talisman and destroys it. Tanith is found to be alive - Mocata’s soul has been exchanged for hers. ===== The young boy, d'Artagnan witnesses the murder of his parents at the hands of Febre (Tim Roth), chief henchman of Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea). d'Artagnan is nearly killed after using his dead father's sword to fight Febre, who is then left with a permanent scar and blind in one eye. d'Artagnan is taken in by family friend Planchet (Jean-Pierre Castaldi), a former musketeer, one of the loyal protectors of King Louis XIII (Daniel Mesguich). Fourteen years later the grown d'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) finds on his arrival in Paris that the musketeers have been disbanded by order of Cardinal Richelieu, who is usurping the king's authority with the help of Febre. Richelieu is also trying to foment hostility between France, England, and Spain to gain more political power for himself. d'Artagnan convinces two of the musketeers, Porthos (Steve Speirs) and Aramis (Nick Moran), to free the imprisoned head of the musketeers, Treville (Michael Byrne), thus earning their trust. He takes a room at a Paris boarding house, where he takes a fancy to the chambermaid, Francesca (Mena Suvari), who is the daughter of the deceased seamstress to the Queen. Febre, on orders from Richelieu, incites a mob to attack the French Royal Palace during a State dinner for Lord Buckingham (Jeremy Clyde), a visiting English dignitary. d'Artagnan, with the help of Porthos, Aramis, and another musketeer, Athos (Jan Gregor Kremp), saves King Louis, the Queen (Catherine Deneuve), and Lord Buckingham from being hurt or killed. Francesca recruits d'Artagnan to make a clandestine trip to the north coast of France with the Queen to meet with Buckingham in whose honor the State Dinner was being held, to keep peace between the two countries. d'Artagnan's landlord, however, overhears them and tells Febre. During the trip, d'Artagnan fights off repeated attacks by Febre's henchmen. He and Francesca become intimate, only to have Febre discover them and kidnap her and the Queen. Febre forces the Queen to write a letter to Buckingham asking him to meet her at a heavily fortified castle of his choosing, using the Queen's ring to convince him of the authenticity of the message. Richelieu, finally, realizes just how far Febre is willing to go. He means to start a war between France and England and Spain, a war that will cripple France. Knowing he has lost control of his chief henchman, he secretly visits d'Artagnan and tells him of Febre's plans and pleads for his help to stop Febre. d'Artagnan agrees but only because Febre is holding Francesca. d'Artagnan returns to Paris and convinces the surviving musketeers that their responsibility to the Crown remains their highest priority. They join him at the castle where Francesca, the Queen and Lord Buckingham are being held. They charge the castle on horseback, losing several of their number in the process. The diversion they create allows Planchet to drive his carriage in front of the castle gates below the field of cannon fire from the castle. He is able to fire a mortar directly into the castle gates. The remaining musketeers battle the remaining cardinal's guards, while d'Artagnan engages Febre in a massive sword fight, finally killing him and avenging the death of his parents. d'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers are given medals for their service. d'Artagnan covertly threatens Richelieu. At the movie's end, d'Artagnan and Francesca are seen to be married. ===== The story took place aboard the Loretta, an ocean liner commandeered by vengeful Ernesto, and Ernesto's island located somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. His main purpose in putting together the cruise was to exact revenge on all of his supposed enemies at once. Invited on the cruise were Isabella Toscano (Staci Greason), John Black (believed to be Roman Brady) (Drake Hogestyn), Bo Brady (Peter Reckell), Hope Brady (Kristian Alfonso), Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford), Jennifer Horton (Melissa Brennan Reeves), Julie Williams (Susan Seaforth Hayes), and Ernesto's #1 enemy Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston). Ernesto used his love of magic tricks to deceive and terrorize his passengers. Several key events that transpired during the cruise and subsequent trek to Ernesto's island included: the performance of Ernesto's play "Fatal Passion," in which Victor nearly murdered Roman/John; Jack and Jennifer revealing that Isabella was really Victor's daughter, not Ernesto's, after an affair with Ernesto's wife; Roman/John and Isabella realizing they are in love with each other; Ernesto planting a bomb on board the Loretta; everyone washing ashore on his island; Jack and Jennifer, the show's "supercouple" at the time, making love for the first time; Ernesto slowly poisoning Isabella for accidentally murdering her half-sister Marina earlier in the series; Victor and Julie's first kiss; and Bo double-crossing Ernesto, which in turn led to the shocking climactic ending to the storyline: Hope and Ernesto's supposed deaths during one of Ernesto's "magic tricks" in an explosion while inside a cage suspended over a vat of acid. Following their rescue from Ernesto's island, the shipwrecked characters return to the show's hometown of Salem, USA to cope with Hope's "death" and move on with their lives following the life-changing events of the story. Eventually, actress Kristian Alfonso returned to the show four years later, and it was revealed that Hope was in fact switched at the last moment before the explosion with an imposter, Greta von Amberg. Ernesto's fate was never revealed. ===== William de Worde is the black sheep of an influential Ankh-Morpork family, scraping out a humble lifestyle as a common scribe and making extra pocket money by producing a gossipy newsletter for foreign notables. This arrangement is soon undermined by the arrival of a team of dwarves to Ankh-Morpork who intend to start a printing business; however, de Worde and the dwarves establish The Ankh- Morpork Times later employing Sacharissa Cripslock and Otto, a black-ribbon vampire and iconographer. However, Guild of Engravers is antagonised by the unauthorised efforts of the Times; in response, the Guild cuts off their paper supplies and establish the rival newspaper The Ankh-Morpork Inquirer, a loss- making tabloid filled with popular fabricated stories. Meanwhile, a conspiracy is afoot in the city to depose the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. The wealthy and powerful (but anonymous) Committee to Unelect the Patrician hire Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, a pair of villainous mercenaries from outside Ankh-Morpork known as the New Firm, to frame Vetinari with a staged embezzlement. Pin and Tulip manage to catch off-guard the normally impassible Patrician with Charlie, a witless Vetinari look-alike that they had previously kidnapped and forced to collaborate. The plan starts going south, though, when Drumknott, Vetinari's clerk returns in the middle of the scene and the New Firm is forced to stab him and render Vetinari unconscious, hoping to also frame him for murder; their efforts are hampered by Lord Vetinari's prized terrier, Wuffles, who bites Mr. Pin and escapes, becoming the sole witness to the crime. William makes the mistake of advertising a reward for information leading to Wuffles' recovery, causing a frenzy among the local Ankh Morpork population. Realising that the job is much harder than their employers had initially suggested, the New Firm decides to skip town. Although the job is unfinished they extort from their employers' zombie lawyer and representative Mr. Slant their promised payment and a big "bonus" in jewels, using compromising previous voice recordings captured with a dis-organiser Mk II. An anonymous tipster named "Deep Bone", helps William track down Wuffles and "translate" his testimony, giving William the last pieces of the puzzle. In the meantime, Sacharissa accidentally discovers the New Firm’s hideout in William's own family manor and is captured by the pair of thugs. They head back to the Times hoping to exchange her for Wuffles and then, silence all witnesses. In the ensuing struggle a lamp explodes and the Times' offices catch fire. William and the others manage to escape outside while Pin and Tulip hide in the cellar. Pin, now only partially sane, emerges from the cellars and attacks William once the fire is out, only to be killed when he is impaled on the memo spike from William's desk. William retrieves the fortune in jewels, the dis-organiser, and the last bit of evidence. However, with the press and office destroyed, it seems like the Times will not be able to go live with their break-out reportage in time. The liberal application of a crossbow wielded by a daring Saccharisa, dwarven axes, bribery in jewels, and Otto's sense of dramatic atmosphere helps the crew borrow one of the Inquirer's presses for the evening. The big story breaks the next day and Lord Vetinari's name is cleared just before a new, Guild-controlled Patrician would have seized power. The recordings on the dis-organizer help William to discover the identity of the man behind the Committee to Unelect, his father Lord de Worde. He decides to confront him. A tense argument, blackmail with the threat of exposure, a fortune in jewels, and threats from Otto fail to intimidate Lord de Worde into leaving the city in exile as William demands. However, after learning that his machinations nearly killed his own son, he admits defeat and walks away. William is ambivalent about the new and unexpected role of the free press in his life and in the world but resolves that someone must tell the public the truth about what goes on in the city, even if the public doesn't want to hear it. The Times comes to be recognized, if not exactly welcomed, by the powers that be in the city, and William and Sacharissa make plans to expand even further, hiring new staff, establishing offices in other cities, and hopefully one day squeezing in time for a lunch date in between deadlines. ===== Six-year-old Ana is a shy girl who lives in the manor house in an isolated Spanish village on the Castilian plateau with her parents Fernando and Teresa and her older sister, Isabel. The year is 1940, and the civil war has just ended with the Francoist victory over the Republican forces. Her aging father spends most of his time absorbed in tending to and writing about his beehives; her much younger mother is caught up in daydreams about a distant lover, to whom she writes letters. Ana's closest companion is Isabel, who loves her but cannot resist playing on her little sister's gullibility. A mobile cinema brings Frankenstein to the village and the two sisters go to see it. The film makes a deep impression on Ana, in particular, the scene where the monster plays benignly with a little girl, then accidentally kills her. She asks her sister: "Why did he kill the girl, and why did they kill him after that?" Isabel tells her that the monster did not kill the girl and is not really dead; she says that everything in films is fake. Isabel says the monster is like a spirit, and Ana can talk to him if she closes her eyes and calls him. Ana's fascination with the story increases when Isabel takes her to a desolate sheepfold, which she claims is the monster's house. Ana returns alone several times to look for him and eventually discovers a wounded republican soldier hiding in the sheepfold. Instead of running away, she feeds him and even brings him her father's coat and watch. One night the Francoist police come and find the republican soldier and shoot him. The police soon connect Ana's father with the fugitive and assume he stole the items from him. The father discovers which of the daughters had helped the fugitive by noticing Ana's reaction when he produces the pocket watch. When Ana next goes to visit the soldier, she finds him gone, with blood stains still on the ground. Her father confronts her, and she runs away. Ana's family and the other villagers search for her all night, mirroring a scene from Frankenstein. While she kneels next to a lake, she sees Frankenstein's monster approaching from the forest and kneeling beside her. The next day, they find Ana physically unharmed. The doctor assures her mother that she will gradually recover from her unspecified "trauma," but Ana instead withdraws from her family, preferring to stand alone by the window and silently call to the spirit, just as Isabel told her to. ===== In 1973, 43-year-old Philadelphia resident Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is a down on his luck salesman who desperately wishes to reconcile with his estranged wife Marie (Naomi Watts). A constant moralizer, he states that he stopped working at the tire shop owned by his brother Julius (Michael Wincott) because he would lie to his customers. Believing that society's discrimination affects poor white people just as much as it does blacks, he attempts to join the Black Panthers. His dream is to own his own mobile tire sales business in partnership with his best friend, African-American mechanic Bonny (Don Cheadle). He finds employment at an office furniture retail business, where his new boss Jack (Jack Thompson) gives him patronizing advice, while his awkwardness makes him a poor salesman. Jack describes US president Richard Nixon as the greatest salesman in history, because his election promise in 1968 was to exit the Vietnam War, yet to Bicke the president massively increased troop numbers (only South Vietnamese forces increased, the US steadily declined its forces from 3 months before office with Johnson's approval), coasting to win an easy re-election in 1972 on the promise of ending the same war. Bicke becomes increasingly disillusioned with his status in society. He applies for a government loan to set up the business with Bonny, and he frantically waits for an answer in the mail. His sales figures continue to deteriorate, and Jack, who only hires married salesmen, becomes to suspect Sam lied about his marriage. In fact, Marie keeps rebutting all of Sam's awkward attempts at reconciling, and later sends him a divorce decree, leaving him weeping in despair. Shortly afterwards, he deliberately tanks a sale and quits his job. While watching Nixon giving a speech on TV during the Watergate scandal, he screams at him, "It's about money, Dick!". With the loan still not finalized, he breaks into his brother's tire sales business to make a large order that will be delivered to Bonny. Ultimately, the loan is rejected, his rent is past due, and his brother Julius reveals he had to bail out Bonny, who was arrested for receiving stolen goods, and is now done entirely with his deadbeat, hypocritical brother. A broken Sam begins obsessing more and more about Nixon. One night, after watching a news story about a helicopter pilot who did a fly-by around the White House and got arrested, he begins putting together a plan to hijack a passenger airliner and crash it into the White House. In the two weeks leading to his action, he records a message detailing his intentions and state of mind and addressed to Leonard Bernstein, whom he greatly admires. Sam liquidates his bank account, steals Bonny's gun, and heads to a restaurant where Jack is dining. He aims the gun at Jack under the table, but cannot pull the trigger and flees. He goes to his and Marie's old house and sleeps in the empty home, then shoots and kills the family dog. The next morning, he drives to the Baltimore–Washington International Airport with the gun concealed against his leg and a suitcase full of gasoline. After mailing his confession to Bernstein, he plans to wait in line to board a flight, but seeing the security procedures are more thorough than expected, he panics and rushes on board, shooting a cop as he goes. Once on board he haphazardly shoots one pilot in the head and the other in the shoulder, then finds a passenger to act as co- pilot. However, he is shot through a window by an intervening policeman, but commits suicide before he could be killed or arrested. The day's events are shown on TV, though neither Bonny nor Marie appear to react to the mention of Sam's name. ===== The Trinity Sight System contains three chronological chapters per character. Players have the ability to switch characters and point of view after the end of each chapter. ===== CQ uses the format of a film within a film. In Paris in 1969, young and introverted film editor Paul Ballard (Jeremy Davies) is currently working on a science-fiction adventure film set in the futuristic year of 2001, called Codename: Dragonfly, written and directed by renowned director Andrezej (Gérard Depardieu). The main character of Codename: Dragonfly is the eponymous Dragonfly, a sexy freelance super-agent who lives in a spaceship perched atop the Eiffel Tower and undertakes assignments for the "World Council". Dragonfly's latest mission is to stop a revolutionary leader known as "Mr. E" (Billy Zane) who is based on the "far-out" side of the Moon. The World Council turns for help to Dragonfly, reluctantly so because she charges huge sums of money - with which the council literally showers her. Andrezej is utterly infatuated with his film's star who is playing Dragonfly, Valentine (Angela Lindvall), a young American whom he discovered at a political rally some time ago. Paul, an aspiring filmmaker himself, regularly borrows cameras and other equipment from work in order to film his own project: a black-and-white documentary of his own self-reflections. When the producers prove unhappy with Andrezej's ideas - or apparent lack of any real idea - for the movie's ending, they fire him. They are particularly upset with Andrezej's ideas for what they had expected would be an action movie: Andrezej believes the movie should end with a whimper instead of a bang, in order to subvert the audience's expectations. Andrezej is first replaced with the shallow, flashy Felix DeMarco (Jason Schwartzman), but ultimately the producers settle on Paul as the new director. They impress on him that his main task is to come up with a satisfying end to the movie, the filmmakers having determined that Dragonfly must chase after and finally confront a mysterious figure in a tunnel alleyway, but no one having been able to decide whom that mysterious figure should be. Much as Andrezej before him, Paul finds his efforts to complete Codename: Dragonfly stymied by his infatuation both with Valentine and with the persona of Dragonfly. Paul has a girlfriend, Marlene (Elodie Bouchez), an Air France flight attendant who makes time for Paul despite her schedule, his obvious growing infatuation with Valentine, his obsession with film making and his self-absorption. Ultimately, Marlene leaves Paul, realizing that his obsessions will never include her. Paul is also challenged by the apparent work of a saboteur, who cuts up footage before it can be edited, and who sends cryptic threatening messages to the remaining crew. Others suspect Andrezej - who resents being fired and losing control of what he considers to be his film. Paul puts himself under increasing pressure from his inability to come up with an ending for Codename: Dragonfly - an ending he is told “has to be fabulous” - although isolated notions and images might slowly be coming together in his head. The movie's high-living Italian producer, Enzo (Giancarlo Giannini), not intimately involved in the production shoot but still subtly fatherly and supportive, guides Paul that “the ending is the most important part of the movie, the part that people remember when they leave the theater.” He tells Paul a good ending must be exciting and must finally resolve the mystery for the audience but “surprise them a little.” “Astonish me,” he challenges Paul. Paul continues moving forward on the movie, beginning to make certain changes in the plot, and occasionally plunging into personal fantasies in which the exotic character of Dragonfly soothes him as his loving companion against the stress of not knowing how to finish the movie. As the crew prepares to shoot the climactic chase scene in Codename: Dragonfly, the saboteur sneaks onto the set and steals their finished footage. Valentine (still costumed and made up as Dragonfly from the shoot) and Paul jump into Dragonfly's futuristic prop car from the movie and chase the saboteur through Paris, with the fantasy of Dragonfly's world melding slightly into Paul's reality, and as the car chase ends Paul and Valentine/Dragonfly kiss. Paul on foot chases after and finally confronts the saboteur in an alleyway on the banks of the Seine not unlike the climactic alleyway in Codename: Dragonfly, and it is confirmed the saboteur is Andrezej. In a moment of vulnerability and mutual respect as filmmakers - even shared identity - Paul convinces Andrezej to return the film, while Andrezej secures Paul's promise that a main aspect of the movie's ending will remain as Andrezej had wished, though their exchange reveals nothing else of the ending. And, in a secondary scene shortly after, Paul gets a hint that slavishly filming all the events in one's life may not be the best way to capture their fleeting genuine essence. The movie's ending is shot according to Paul's idea. It plays for us as it will be seen in the finished movie, and the identity of the mysterious figure chosen by Paul is revealed. The ending Paul devises is everything the producer asked for. It is unexpected, satisfying, and for Codename: Dragonfly even astonishing, carrying in its plot twist an emotional heft and genuineness that lifts the otherwise cheesy movie. The final scene finishes for us and fades out. Finally, Paul is a guest speaker at a French film festival in mid 1970. Despite signs of stature, he is asked by a festival participant to pass along a script to Felix DeMarco, as though he is still in the other man's shadow and suggesting quality and sincerity must always compete with the shallow and foolish. The festival also presents Paul's own film - the collection of self-reflections he'd been shooting over the course of Codename: Dragonfly. In voiceovers accompanying Paul's film, it is established that Marlene and Paul never got back together, and the last shot of his film, finally transitioning into color, suggests Valentine is now a part of his life. ===== In 1831, Sydney is a frontier town, full of rough ex-convicts from the British Isles. The new Governor, Sir Richard (Cecil Parker), arrives with his charming and cheery but indolent second cousin, the Honourable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding). Charles, who is hoping to make his fortune, is befriended by gruff Samson Flusky (Joseph Cotten), a prosperous businessman who was previously a transported convict, apparently a murderer. Sam says that, because he has bought the legal limit of land, he wants Charles to buy land and then sell it to him for a profit so that Sam can accumulate more frontier territory. Though the Governor orders him not to go, Charles is invited to dinner at Sam's house. Charles discovers that he already knows Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman), an aristocrat who was a good friend of Charles's sister when they were all children in Ireland. Lady Henrietta is now an alcoholic who is socially shunned. Sam invites Charles to stay at his house, hoping it will cheer up his wife, who is on the verge of madness. The housekeeper, Milly (Margaret Leighton), has completely taken over the running of the household, and is the one who secretly feeds Lady Henrietta alcohol, hoping to destroy her and win Sam's affections. Gradually, Charles restores Henrietta's self- confidence. They become closer and closer, and eventually they share a passionate kiss. But Henrietta explains that she and Sam are bound together most profoundly: when she was young, Sam was the handsome stable boy. Overcome with desire, they ran away and married at Gretna Green. Henrietta's brother, furious that aristocratic Henrietta had paired up with a lowly servant, confronted them. Her brother shot at them and missed; she then shot her brother fatally. Sam made a false confession to save her and was sent to the penal colony in Australia. She followed him and waited seven years in abject poverty for his release. After listening to Milly's greatly exaggerated stories of what Charles did in Lady Henrietta's bedroom, Sam becomes furious and orders Charles to leave. Taking Sam's favourite mare in the dark, Charles has a fall and the horse breaks a leg. Sam has to shoot her dead and, in a subsequent struggle over the gun, seriously wounds Charles. Sam will now be prosecuted again for attempted murder. At the hospital, Henrietta confesses to the Governor that Sam was wrongly accused of the first crime of murder; she was the one who shot and killed her brother. By law she should be deported back to Ireland to stand trial. Milly, still plying Henrietta with drink, is using a real shrunken head to fake hallucinations. Milly then attempts to kill Henrietta with an overdose of sedatives. She is caught in the act, and ordered out in disgrace. The Governor, Sir Richard, has Sam arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Charles. Sir Richard ignores Henrietta's claim that Sam is innocent of both crimes. However, Charles decides to bend the truth; he says, on his word as a gentleman, that there was no confrontation, and no struggle over the gun. It was all an accident. Finally we see Sam and Henrietta together smiling at the dock. Charles is going back to Ireland, and they bid him a fond farewell. ===== An unseen and disoriented man climbs up into the attic of a sorority house, where the tenants are celebrating with a Christmas party. One of the girls, Jess, answers an obscene phone call from a mentally unstable man who is implied to call the house regularly. She summons her fellow students into the room where they listen as the caller screams and curses them on the phone. When one of the girls, foul-mouthed Barb, takes the phone from Jess and Barb incites the caller, who, in turn, promises to kill her. Barb argues with a younger student, Clare Harrison, who implies that the caller could be a serial rapist before Clare returns to her bedroom to finish packing for Christmas break. The disoriented man lures Clare into her closet where he suffocates her with a plastic dress bag. He moves her body to the attic. The following morning, Mr. Harrison arrives at the school to pick up his daughter, but she fails to show up to their agreed meeting place. He quickly makes his way to the sorority house, where the housemother, Mrs. MacHenry, is surprised by Clare's absence. Meanwhile, Jess meets her boyfriend, Peter, a neurotic music student. She explains that she is pregnant and planning to get an abortion, angering Peter, who attempts to intimidate her. In town, Mr. Harrison, accompanied by Barb and one of the other girls, Phyllis Carlson, attempt to report Clare as missing, while Jess quickly tells Clare's boyfriend Chris about Clare's sudden disappearance. They learn that another local girl named Janis Quaife has also seemingly vanished while walking home from school. After putting a drunken Barb to bed, Mr. Harrison, Chris, Jess, and Phyllis help search for Janis in a nearby park where she allegedly disappeared, hoping to turn up some sign of Clare. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mac plans to leave for her sister's home, only to be lured up into the attic where she discovers Clare's body. The killer throws a crane hook into her face, hanging and killing her. In the park, Janis's disfigured body is found by the police and Jess returns home while the search continues for Clare. Jess answers another obscene phone call and decides to file a report with the police, only for Peter to appear and surprise her. He attempts to persuade her into marriage for the sake of their child, but Jess adamantly refuses. Peter leaves in an emotional state, while Lieutenant Kenneth Fuller arrives to bug the telephone. A group of choir children arrive on the house's stoop to sing Christmas carols, distracting Jess. The killer enters Barb's room and murders her with a glass figurine; Barb's cries for help are drowned out by the singing children. One of the women in charge of the children ushers them away, having learned of Janis's murder. Jess experiences another unnerving phone call, in which the caller restates part of her argument with Peter. Lieutenant Fuller theorizes that Peter could be responsible, due to the caller's knowledge of the argument and his own mental fragility, but Jess doubts this. Moments later, Phyllis enters Barb's room and is ambushed by the killer, who murders her. Jess gets another obscene phone call, in which the killer alludes to some sort of transgression between two children named Agnes and Billy. The call is long enough to be traced by Graham, a telephone company employee, and Sergeant Nash instructs Jess to leave the house immediately, as the calls have been traced to be coming from within the house. Concerned for Barb and Phyllis, Jess arms herself with a poker and ventures upstairs, where she discovers Barb and Phyllis's maimed figures. The killer appears and pursues Jess through the house; Jess locks herself in the cellar, only for Peter to appear outside one of the windows. He smashes the window to get to Jess, who bludgeons him with the poker, assuming he is the killer. The police are alerted by Jess's screams, and discover her barely conscious in the basement with Peter's bloody remains next to her. They put her to bed, unaware of the bodies of Clare and Mrs. MacHenry still in the attic. Jess is left in the house to rest, with a cop standing outside. The killer climbs down from the attic as Jess sleeps in a nearby room. The house's telephone begins to ring, and Jess' fate is left ambiguous. ===== Waltzes from Vienna begins with the sound of a fire brigade horn and the clip- clop of horses’ hooves, as the firemen race towards a fire at Ebezeder's Café. Upstairs from the café, Resi and Schani are oblivious to the danger, lost in a love duet that concludes with Schani telling Resi that he has dedicated his newest song to her. At the same time, Schani's music attracts the attention of the Countess Helga von Stahl, who is shopping in the dressmaker's store next door. Schani and Resi's romantic interlude is interrupted by Leopold, a baker in Resi's father's café who is in love with Resi, as he awkwardly climbs up the ladder to save her. Schani and Leopold argue over who will save Resi from the fire, but Leopold eventually wins and hauls Resi over his shoulder and down the ladder, causing her to lose her skirt on the way. Resi races to the dressmaker's shop to get away from the laughter of the onlookers. Schani retrieves Resi's skirt and then stumbles into the dressmaker's in search of Resi, where he meets the Countess. When the Countess learns that Schani is an aspiring musician, she proposes that he set some of her verses to music. As the Countess offers Schani her card, Resi enters the room and becomes immediately suspicious of the Countess's intentions. With the romantic triangle set up, the next scene sets up the conflict between Schani and his father. At orchestra rehearsal, in which Schani plays second violin under his father's baton, Schani gets himself in trouble when he insults his father's music to his stand partner. The elder Strauss overhears and demands that Schani perform one of his own compositions for the members of the orchestra. Strauss Sr. then ridicules his son's waltz and tells him he could never have a career as a composer, inciting Schani to quit the orchestra. Excited by his newfound freedom and the commission from the Countess, Schani visits Resi at her father's bakery to tell her his news. Resi initially berates Schani and informs him that, if he wants to marry her, he will have to give up music and take over the bakery. However, when she reads the Countess's lyrics, she is drawn into the music, singing the opening of The Blue Danube waltz to Schani. Their moment of composition is interrupted when Resi's father arrives to give Schani a tour of the bakery. As Schani and Ebezeder walk into the basement, a memorable and unusual scene of musical composition begins. While Schani looks around, the tune that Resi sang begins to evolve. Two men throwing bread back and forth inspire the second phrase of the melody; a man tossing croissants into a box creates the offbeat rhythm of the waltz. The rhythm of the dough mixing machine provides Schani with the second main theme of the first waltz. As he tells the begrudging Leopold to go faster, this second theme turns into the beginning of the second large section of piece, at which point Schani runs upstairs, exclaiming to Resi that he has finished the composition. He then rushes off to tell the Countess that he has composed the perfect waltz to accompany her verses. The next scene opens with Schani playing the final measures of the waltz to the Countess. After he finishes, she kisses him and then apologizes profusely, explaining that she was overwhelmed by his wonderful music. Schani then plays the second section of the waltz while her hand rests possessively on his shoulder, which, through a dissolve, becomes Resi's hand. After thanking Resi for coming up with the phrase, Schani agrees to dedicate the song to her. As the scene fades away, the page with Schani's dedication to Resi flips up to reveal another page with the same title, but dedicated to the Countess. The duplicitous dedication is discovered when Resi hears Schani and the Countess playing the waltz for the publisher, Anton Drexler. Schani runs after Resi to explain and they reconcile only when Schani tells her that he will give up his music to work in the bakery. However, Schani is clearly miserable in his new job and he fights with Resi when he receives an invitation from the Countess to attend St. Stephen's Festival. Resi tells Schani that, if he attends, it will mean the end of their relationship. Meanwhile, the Countess plots a ruse that will cause Strauss Sr. to be late for the festival so that Schani can take his father's place to conduct his new waltz. As Schani conducts The Blue Danube at the festival, all of the film's conflicts come to a climax. The Countess detains the elder Strauss by asking the dancers at the festival to play to his ego, requesting that he play his waltzes over and over for their pleasure in a back room. Strauss Sr. finally arrives to find that his son has taken his place, performing for an enthusiastic audience. Meanwhile, Resi laments that Schani betrayed her by coming to the festival at the Countess's command. Following the performance, the elder Strauss angrily tells his son that he had not authorized the performance, as the Countess had led him to believe. Schani leaves the festival in confusion and the Countess follows him home where they share another kiss. However, the romantic moment is interrupted by the Count, who, upon learning where the Countess had gone, left the party in a rage. Resi arrives in time to sneak in the back and replace the Countess, who then walks back up the front stairs to surprise her husband, as the crowd outside hums The Blue Danube Waltz. ===== Martin Gibson, a famous science fiction author, is travelling to Mars, as a guest of the crew of the spaceship Ares. After arriving at Space Station One, in the orbit of Earth, from which all interplanetary journeys start, he begins the three-month trip to Mars. The youngest crew member, Jimmy Spencer, who is still in training to be an astronaut, is assigned the task of answering his questions about the technology of space flight, and they become friends. Gibson tells him about his early life, revealing that he had to leave Cambridge University because of a nervous breakdown and never completed his studies. After psychiatric treatment, he had become an author. He also reveals that he had an affair at university but that he and his girlfriend broke up and that she married another man, had a child and later died. On Mars, Gibson and the crew go their separate ways. Gibson meets the Chief Executive of Mars, Warren Hadfield, and Mayor Whittaker, who run the colony from the base at Port Lowell. He discusses the future of the colony with Hadfield, who is keen to make Mars as self- sufficient as possible, given the vast distance that materials have to come from Earth. On a trip by passenger jet to an outlying research station, Gibson and the crew are forced down by a dust storm. They explore the nearby area and discover a small group of kangaroo-like creatures, the unsuspected natives of Mars. They appear to have limited intelligence by human standards and are vegetarians, living on native plants. It is later revealed that the plants are being cultivated by researchers to enrich the oxygen content of the Martian atmosphere. This project, and related others, are being kept secret from Earth. Gibson discovers that Spencer is his son. In the meantime, Spencer has formed an attachment to Irene, Hadfield’s daughter. Hadfield reveals that scientists have been working on "Project Dawn", which involves the ignition of the moon Phobos and its use as a second “sun” for Mars. It will burn for at least one thousand years and the extra heat, together with mass production of the oxygen-generating plants, will eventually – it is hoped – make the Martian atmosphere breathable for humans. Gibson finds himself so persuaded of the importance of Mars as a self-sufficient world that he applies to stay on the planet, and is invited to take charge of public relations – in effect, to “sell” Mars to potential colonists. ===== The Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), brings aboard the elderly Admiral Mark Jameson and his wife Anne (Marsha Hunt) on request of Karnas (Michael Pataki), the Governor of Mordan IV. Karnas warns that a dissident terrorist group has taken a Federation Ambassador and his staff hostage, and demand to speak to a negotiator. Jameson had negotiated a previous settlement on Mordan IV. As the ship travels to Mordan IV, Jameson becomes stronger and more able to move about on his own, and no longer shows signs of the terminal Iverson's Disease he was known to have before he was beamed aboard. Jameson admits to taking an array of drugs to reverse the aging process over the last two years, and only recently has taken an overdose of the drugs to prepare himself for the negotiations. Jameson begins to appear younger and full of energy, but has frequent pains as a result of the overdose. By the time they are nearing Mordan, Jameson appears as a young adult. As they approach the planet, Jameson begins audio communication with Karnas to learn more of the situation, but soon intuits that it is Karnas himself that has taken the Federation staff. Karnas reminds Jameson that his treachery during their last encounter on Mordan IV resulted in years of war. Against the advice of Picard, Jameson devises plans to rescue the hostages by transporting the away team to the tunnels beneath Karnas' mansion, where Jameson believes the hostages are being held. Picard privately confronts Jameson about Karnas' motives. Jameson reveals that in the past, Karnas captured a Federation starliner in revenge for the death of his father by another local tribe. Jameson negotiated for the passengers' release by giving Karnas what he demanded, a supply of Federation weapons. However, Jameson, in his interpretation of the Prime Directive, also supplied the warring tribes with an equal number of weapons. Jameson had thought this would only lead to a short-lived skirmish, and had not expected a war that would last over forty years. Jameson is now insistent on correcting his past mistake and thus took the reverse aging drug in order to be at his best. In orbit, the Enterprise crew and Jameson beam down into the tunnels beneath Karnas' manor, but find that their arrival was anticipated and face off against armed guards. Jameson collapses during the fight, and the crew beams back to the Enterprise. Jameson was not shot, but the reverse aging drug is destroying his body. Karnas demands to see Jameson or he will kill a hostage every 15 minutes. Picard opts to beam himself, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), Jameson, and eventually Jameson's wife Anne directly to Karnas' office. Karnas refuses to believe that the young man is Jameson, so Jameson reveals a scar on his wrist inflicted by Karnas years ago. Jameson dies shortly afterward in his wife's embrace. Karnas agrees to let the hostages go, and to allow Jameson to be buried on Mordan IV at Anne's request. ===== Uzumaki follows a high- school teenager, ; her boyfriend, ; and the citizens of the small, quiet Japanese town of , which is cursed by supernatural events involving spirals. As the story progresses, Kirie and Shuichi witness how the spiral curse affects the people around them, causing the citizens to become obsessed or paranoid about spirals. Shuichi becomes reclusive after both of his parents die from the horrific psychological and physical powers of the spirals. Eventually, Kirie is affected by the curse as well, when her hair begins to curl into an unnatural spiral pattern, drains her life energy to hypnotize the citizens, and chokes her whenever she attempts to cut it off. Shuichi is able to cut her hair and save her. The curse continues to plague the town until a series of typhoons conjured by the curse destroys most of its structures. The only remaining buildings are ancient abandoned terraced houses, which the citizens are forced first to move into, and then begin expanding as they grow more and more crowded. As a series of increasingly powerful earthquakes and additional destruction from delinquents able to utilize strong winds strike the town, Kirie and Shuichi devise a plan to escape Kurouzu-cho, but when they attempt to escape, their efforts are unsuccessful. After returning to the town, they discover that several years have passed since they left, as time speeds up away from the spiral. The other citizens have expanded the terraced houses until they connected into a single structure forming a labyrinthine spiral pattern, but have become mutated as a consequence of overcrowding, their limbs twisting and warping into spirals. After more events involving the curse transpire, Kirie is left separated from her family. Kirie and Shuichi decide to search for Kirie's parents, which brings them to the center of the spiral. At the center, Shuichi is hurled down a pit leading deep beneath the earth by a mutated citizen, with Kirie herself descending via a colossal spiral staircase to find him. She falls but is saved by countless bodies making up the ground of a vast, ancient city consisting entirely of spiral patterns. As Kirie looks for Shuichi, she finds her parents twisted into a stone-like state. Then, she hears Shuichi call for her and goes to him. Both are overwhelmed by the ancient spirals surrounding them and Shuichi points out how it seems as though the spiral ruins have a will of their own. Noticing that the petrified citizens of Kurouzu-cho are all facing the spiral city, Shuichi theorizes that this is the source of the curse; the city expands on its own periodically and has cursed the land above out of jealousy from having no one to view it. Shuichi urges Kirie to leave without him as he can no longer walk, and that the curse should be over soon, but she replies that she does not have the strength and wishes to stay with him. The two embrace with their bodies twisting and intertwining together, signifying their acceptance into the unending curse. At the same time, a stone tower in the shape of a drill bit rises out of the city, and breaches the surface, forming the centerpiece of the abandoned town. As Shuichi and Kirie lie together, Kirie notes that the curse ended at the same time it began, for just as time speeds up away from the center, it freezes at the center, and concludes that the curse is eternal, and all the events will repeat when a new Kurouzu-cho is built where the previous one lay. ===== Lizzie Morrison (Emily Mortimer) and nine- year-old deaf son Frankie (Jack McElhone) frequently relocate to keep one step ahead of her abusive ex-husband and his family. They are accompanied by her opinionated, chain-smoking mother Nell. Newly relocated in the Scottish town of Greenock, Lizzie accepts a job at the local fish and chips shop owned by a friendly woman named Marie, and enrolls Frankie in school. Through a Glasgow post office box, Frankie maintains a regular correspondence with someone he believes to be his father, Davey, who allegedly is a merchant seaman working on HMS Accra. In reality, the letters he receives are written by his mother, who prefers maintaining this charade instead of telling the boy the reason she fled her marriage. When she learns that Accra will soon be arriving at the docks at Greenock, Lizzie in a panic concocts a scheme to hire a man to impersonate Davey. When her effort to find someone at the local pub fails, she enlists Marie's assistance. Marie arranges for her to meet an acquaintance who coincidentally is passing through town at the same time Accra will be in port. When Lizzie and the stranger (Gerard Butler) meet, he doesn't tell her his name. Lizzie explains the situation and gives him the letters to provide some background. He agrees to spend a day with Frankie in exchange for the meager payment Lizzie can offer him. When the stranger arrives at their home to pick up the boy, he brings with him a book about marine life (to Lizzie's surprise), one of Frankie's passions, and a bond is forged immediately. The two spend a day together (with Lizzie secretly following them), collecting on Frankie's bet at a soccer match from a school mate, ordering chips, and later in the evening setting up another half day visit. The second day is magical, ending with a nice evening at a dance, as Frankie wins another bet by getting Lizzie and the stranger to dance together. Afterwards, they walk together to get around the "discuss no past" ground rules, and Lizzie tells the stranger about Frankie's deafness—a "present from his daddy"—and her reason for leaving her husband. She explains that the letters from Frankie are so important to her because this is how she "hears" her son. The stranger tells her she is a great mother for protecting Frankie. Returning home, Frankie gives the stranger a hand-carved wooden seahorse as a parting gift. At the door, after a long pause together, Lizzie and the stranger kiss each other goodbye. After he leaves, Lizzie discovers he has returned her payment to him, stuffed into her coat pocket. Sometime later, Lizzie learns that her husband is terminally ill, and reluctantly visits the hospital without Frankie. She experiences her husband's angry fury again, when he demands to see Frankie. Later when she tells Frankie that his dad is really sick, he writes him a note and draws him a picture. On a second visit, Lizzie delivers them to her husband, along with a snapshot of Frankie. Davey's death brings peace to them all. Lizzie asks Marie about the stranger and she learns he is Marie's brother. Frankie's last letter shows that he has known the truth for a while—that the stranger was not his real dad. He knows too that Lizzie is sad, but she has him for support. The letter also indicates that Frankie intends to carry on with his life, telling about his real dad passing, his friends and their gold stars in school, and getting onto the reserve football team. He closes the letter by saying he hopes the stranger will visit again. Lizzie finds Frankie sitting at end of a pier, and they enjoy a quiet moment together, looking out to sea. ===== Set in New France in 1634 (in the period of conflicts known as the Beaver Wars), the film begins in the settlement that will one day become Quebec City. Jesuit missionaries are trying to encourage the local Algonquin Indians to embrace Christianity, with thus far only limited results. Samuel de Champlain, founder of the settlement, sends Father LaForgue, a young Jesuit priest, to found a Catholic mission in a distant Huron village. With winter approaching, the journey will be difficult and cover as much as 1500 miles. LaForgue is accompanied on his journey by a non-Jesuit assistant, Daniel, and a group of Algonquin Indians whom Champlain has charged with guiding him to the Huron village. This group includes Chomina (August Schellenberg) – an older, experienced traveller who has clairvoyant dreams; his wife (Tantoo Cardinal); and Annuka (Sandrine Holt), their daughter. As they journey across the lakes and forests, Daniel and Annuka fall in love, to the discomfort of the celibate LaForgue. The group meet with a band of Montagnais, First Nations people who have never met Frenchmen before. The Montagnais shaman, Mestigoit, is suspicious (and implicitly jealous) of LaForgue's influence over the Algonquins. He accuses him of being a demon. He encourages Chomina and the other Algonquins to abandon the two Frenchmen and travel instead to a winter hunting lodge. This they do, paddling away from the Frenchmen. LaForgue accepts his fate, but Daniel is determined to stay with Annuka and follows the Indians as they march across the forest. When one Indian tries to shoot Daniel, Chomina is consumed by guilt at having betrayed Champlain's trust. He and a few other members of the Algonquin tribe return with Daniel to try to find LaForgue. As they recover LaForgue, a party of Iroquois (specifically Mohawk) attacks them, killing most of the Algonquin, amongst them Chomina's wife, and taking the rest captive. They are taken to an Iroquois fortress, where they are forced to run the gauntlet, watch Chomina's young son be killed, and are told they will be slowly tortured to death the next day. That night Annuka seduces their guard, allowing him to engage in coitus with her. When this distracts him she strikes him with a caribou hoof, rendering him unconscious and allowing them to escape. Chomina, dying of a wound from his capture, sees a small grove he has dreamed of many times before, and realizes it is the place he is destined to die. LaForgue tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade Chomina to embrace Christ before he dies. As Chomina freezes to death in the snow, he sees the She-Manitou appearing to him. As the weather grows colder, Annuka and Daniel take LaForgue to the outskirts of the Huron settlement, but leave him to enter it alone, because Chomina had dreamed that this must happen. LaForgue finds all but one of the French inhabitants dead, murdered by the Hurons who blamed them for a smallpox epidemic. The leader of the last survivors tells LaForgue that the Hurons are dying, and he should offer to save them by baptizing them. LaForgue confronts the Hurons. When their leader asks LaForgue if he loves them, LaForgue thinks of the faces of all the Indians he has met on his journey, and answers "Yes". The leader then asks him to baptize them, and the Hurons receive his baptism. The film ends with a golden sunrise. An intertitle states that fifteen years later, the Hurons, having accepted Christianity, were routed and killed by their enemies the Iroquois; the Jesuit mission to the Hurons was abandoned and the Jesuits returned to Quebec. ===== The central character is Allen Walker, a new recruit to the Black Order who started training to control his Innocence after it destroyed the Akuma of his late guardian, Mana. The story begins in a villain of the week fashion, where Allen teams up with various members of the Black Order to search for Innocence while battling Noah's demons on the way. Later, Allen and his friends are ordered to track down exorcist General Cross Marian, Allen's missing teacher. Their search concludes with them stealing one of the Noah's transportation device, referred to as the Noah's Ark; this was made possible since Allen has been instilled the consciousness of Nea D. Campbell, the brother of Mana, and the exiled 14th member of the Noah Family, who the Earl wishes to have back. Cross reveals that Nea plans to use Allen as host upon reincarnating, effectively erasing Allen eventually. During the Third Exorcists insurrection story arc, Nea's consciousness begins superseding Allen's body. Now hunted by the Black Order, the Noah Family, and a humanoid Innocence called Apocryphos, Allen goes into hiding as he searches for a way to end Nea's resurrection. During his journey, he realises that his late guardian, Mana, alongside Nea, has a strong link to the Millennium Earl. He then decides to journey to the place where Mana and Nea grew up to learn the truth about them, and their connection to the Earl. Following his escape, Allen is tracked by the Black Order, Apocryphos and the Noah. When Apocryphos is distracted by the Noah, the Earl finds Allen who is possessed by Nea. During this encounter it is revealed that the current Earl is Mana D. Campbell, Nea's brother. Both were once the original Millennium Earl but were split and became enemies. ===== American World War II veteran Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an exuberant expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend and neighbor, Adam Cook (Oscar Levant), is a struggling concert pianist and longtime associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary). At the ground-floor bar, Henri tells Adam about his cultured girlfriend, Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron). Jerry joins them later, before going out to sell his art. A lonely society woman and heiress, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), finds Jerry displaying his paintings in Montmartre and takes an interest in him and his art. She brings him to her apartment to pay for his works, and invites him to a dinner party she is throwing later that night. After singing with French children on the way home ("I Got Rhythm"), Jerry goes up to Milo's apartment. He quickly finds out the "party" is actually a one-on-one date, and tells Milo he has no interest in being a paid escort. When he attempts to leave after giving her money back, she insists she is only interested in his art. They go to a crowded bar, and Milo offers to sponsor an art show for Jerry as a friendly gesture. Some of Milo's friends arrive, and while sitting with them, Jerry sees Lise seated with friends at the next table, and is instantly smitten. He ignores Milo and her acquaintances, and instead pretends to know Lise already and dances with her. She is standoffish and gives Jerry a wrong phone number, but is innocently corrected by someone at her table. Milo is upset by Jerry's behaviour and suddenly decides to go home. On their way home she tells Jerry he was very rude cavorting with a girl he does not know while in her presence; tired of Milo, Jerry gets out of the car and bids her farewell. The next day, Jerry calls Lise at her work, but she tells him to never call her again. Jerry and Milo meet at a cafe, and she informs him a collector is interested in his paintings and she arranged a showing later that day. Before going to the showing, he goes to the parfumerie where Lise works and she consents to a late dinner with him. She does not want to be seen eating with him in public, but they share a romantic song and dance on the banks of the Seine River in the shadows of Notre Dame. However, she quickly rushes off to meet Henri after his performance ("I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise"), where Henri tells her he has been asked to go on a tour of America and asks her to marry him. Later, Adam humorously daydreams he is performing Gershwin's Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra for a gala audience in a concert hall. As the scene progresses, Adam is also revealed to be the conductor, other members of the orchestra, and even an enthusiastic audience member applauding himself at the end. Milo gets Jerry an art studio and tells him she has planned an exhibition of his work in three months. He initially refuses the studio because he does not have the money for it, but eventually accepts it under the condition he pay Milo back when his art proceeds allow him. Roughly a month later and after much courting, Lise abruptly runs off when she and Jerry arrive by taxi at his apartment. When Jerry complains to Adam, Adam is shocked to realize both Henri and Jerry are involved with the same woman. Henri and Jerry discuss the woman they each love ('S Wonderful"), unaware she is the same woman. That night, Jerry and Lise reunite in the same place on the banks of the Seine close to Notre Dame. She informs him she is marrying Henri the next day and going to America. Lise feels a sense of duty to Henri, to whom she feels indebted for keeping her safe during World War II. She and Jerry proclaim their love for each other. Feeling slighted, Jerry invites Milo to the art students' masked ball and kisses her. At the raucous party, with everyone in black-and-white costumes, they meet Henri and Lise, and Jerry finally tells Milo about his feelings for Lise. Henri overhears Jerry and Lise saying goodbye to each other, and realizes the truth. As Henri and Lise drive away, Jerry daydreams about being with Lise all over Paris to the tune of the George Gershwin composition An American in Paris. His reverie is broken by a car horn, the sound of Henri bringing Lise back to him. They embrace as the Gershwin composition (and the film) ends. ===== In Boulder, Gray Wheeler attends the funeral of her fiancé, Grady Douglas, on the day they were supposed to be married. Gray seeks solitude behind a shower curtain, where she unintentionally listens to Grady's best friend, Fritz, having sex with a caterer. Eve, Grady's attorney, confirms for Gray that since they were not married, Gray will get nothing. The attorney reveals that Grady had an investment account with a million dollars in it, which Gray knew nothing about. Gray realizes that she can no longer afford to rent the house that they had picked out. With the help of Grady's other two close friends, Dennis and Sam, she puts her things into storage and moves in with them. Fritz, currently between directing commercials in California, also comes to stay, which causes tension between him and Gray. Gray discovers that Grady transferred $3,000 every month to an unknown person. Gray later finds Grady's cell phone and listens to a string of messages from a woman asking about money. Gray asks Fritz for answers (as it is a Los Angeles number), and he reveals that Grady had a son, whose massage therapist mother depended on the money he sent. Fritz tells Gray that the boy is eight and that he was conceived before she met Grady. Gray is further troubled when Mrs. Douglas asks her to return the family heirloom engagement ring. She refuses and keeps the ring. The other woman, Maureen, and her son, Mattie, come looking for Grady. Gray learns that Mattie is actually 3 years old and realizes Grady was cheating on her. Gray confronts Fritz, but they end up in a passionate kiss. Gray does not want anything to do with Maureen, but the guys are reluctant to send the son of their dead friend away so quickly, and they all get to know each other. Over dinner, trying to understand how Grady could secretly cheat on her, Gray blurts out that she equally withheld from him that "catch and release" fishermen are cruel and should just eat the fish. Sam and Maureen, with similar scattered personalities, develop a connection, but Sam stops her when she initiates sex with him while Mattie is in the room. Gray and Fritz have become intimate. On a day trip to a river, Sam teaches Mattie to fly fish, while Dennis admits to Gray that he has feelings for her. Dennis is upset to learn that Gray and Fritz are an item, but Gray later tells him that her relationship with Fritz is "less than nothing", not realizing that Fritz can hear her. He believes she does not love him and returns to Malibu. Mrs. Douglas insists that Mattie take a DNA test before letting him inherit Grady's money. The test shows that Mattie is someone else's child. Maureen has no idea how to find the man named Rafael that she had sex with a few days before having sex with Grady, and is unsure how she can support her child without Grady's money. Gray tells Mrs. Douglas that either she needs to give her family's money to this child that Grady had loved as his own, or Gray will sell the family engagement ring to help Grady's mistress support the innocent child. The group gathers at the dedication ceremony for the peace garden that Dennis has built to memorialize Grady. Mrs. Douglas gives Maureen a cashier's check for $1 million. She then tells Gray to keep the ring, saying that all she wanted was her boy back. Dennis moves out of the house, and Maureen and Mattie move in with Sam, finding new support but still keeping the Douglas family money. Gray goes to Malibu and finds Fritz playing with his dog on the beach--they embrace and kiss. ===== Jason (Allen Payne) is a responsible young man who has a job in a television repair shop and lives at home with his hard-working mom (Suzzanne Douglas). Joshua (Bokeem Woodbine) is the younger brother, who is just released from prison. Previously traumatized by his father, Joshua is a volatile, disturbed ex-con who is obviously bound for a violent end. Joshua deals drugs for short-term cash and joins a crew scheming a bank robbery. When Lyric (Jada Pinkett) walks into the shop to buy a television, Jason meets his perfect match. She has dreams of escape, and inspires Jason to do romantic things like borrow a city bus to take her on a date. Their relationship continually grows and blossoms into love. The height comes when Jason and Lyric take a romantic ride in a rowboat, then make love in the woods. In a series of flashbacks, Forest Whitaker plays the boys' father, Mad Dog. Throughout the film, Jason has nightmares about a tragedy in his childhood. Either Jason (played as a youth by Sean Hutchinson) or Joshua (played as a youth by Burleigh Moore) killed Mad Dog, while he was drunkenedly attacking their mother. After being comforted by Lyric, he learns to deal with his past. Alonzo tells his gang and Joshua about the bank robbery plan. Lyric, eavesdropping on their conversation, tells Jason about the bank robbery. Unfortunately, the robbery does not go as planned; Joshua comes in late. Most significantly, he causes bedlam by independently terrorizing and beating the customers of the bank. He does get in the getaway car with his gang when the heist is over. As punishment, Joshua is whipped by the rest of his gang. Joshua returns home. Jason realizes how badly he's been beaten, so he confronts the leader of the gang, Alonzo (Treach), who is Lyric's brother. As a result of this, the two have a vicious fight in a public restroom. Jason then meets Lyric at the bayou and tells her that he can't leave with her. His nightmares occur because Jason took a gun from Joshua, but accidentally shot Mad Dog in the chest instead, which is why he feels obligated to his family. Things get worse when Joshua hears his mother tell Jason to leave town with Lyric because he doesn't owe her or Joshua anything. Joshua believes that Jason is leaving not only because of Lyric, but because Alonzo may take revenge. Joshua plans to kill them all in order to keep his brother from leaving. Jason hears about Joshua's plan and heads to Alonzo/Lyric's house, but he's too late. He sees that Joshua has already shot down both of Alonzo's crew members and rushes upstairs looking for Lyric. He finds that Joshua has a gun pointed at her neck. He draws a gun as well and is able to convince Joshua not to kill her. However Joshua accidentally shoots Lyric. Jason carries her out of the home to a growing crowd outside the house. Lyric is injured, but still alive. Joshua is fed up with his life and decides to end it all by killing himself (off screen), in earshot of everyone outside. The film ends with Jason and Lyric riding a bus, leaving town; however, some versions are edited out this part. ===== Derace Kingsley, a wealthy businessman, hires Marlowe to find his estranged wife, Crystal. Kingsley had received a telegram from Crystal about two weeks before stating that she was divorcing him and marrying her gigolo boyfriend, Chris Lavery. But when Kingsley ran into him, Lavery had claimed that he hadn't seen her and didn't know where she was. Marlowe begins his investigation with a visit to Lavery in the neighbouring town of Bay City. But while watching Lavery's house, Marlowe is threatened by the tough cop Al Degarmo, who suspects him of harassing Lavery's neighbour, Dr. Almore. Marlowe discovers that Almore's wife had died under suspicious circumstances and that her death was probably hushed up by the police. Marlowe moves his investigations to Kingsley’s vacation cabin at Little Fawn Lake. Kingsley has given him a note to the caretaker, Bill Chess. Chess is depressed over having been abandoned by his wife, Muriel, at about the same time as Crystal disappeared. As Marlowe and Chess walk over the property, they discover a drowned body that Chess identifies as his wife, bloated from decomposition and almost unrecognisable except by her clothes and jewellery. Chess is arrested for his wife's murder and Marlowe doubtfully returns to Los Angeles. On the way, he interviews some hotel employees who remember a woman matching Crystal's description and volunteer that a man was with her; their description of the man resembles Lavery. Marlowe returns to Bay City to interview Lavery again. At the house he finds Mrs. Fallbrook, who says she is the owner and has found a gun on the stairs. Once she has left, Marlowe ascertains that the gun has been fired and, after a search, finds Lavery murdered in the bathroom. Then he goes back to Kingsley, who offers him a bonus to prove Crystal didn't do it. Marlowe returns to Lavery's house, calls the police and reports the murder. Back at his office, Marlowe finds a note from Kingsley's secretary giving him the address of Dr. Almore's wife's parents. Marlowe visits them and learns that Almore's nurse was named Mildred Haviland. They also tell him they believe the doctor killed their daughter by drugging her and then putting her in the garage with the car motor running. The detective they hired was jailed for drunk driving and is not now in contact with them. After Marlowe goes to the detective's home and is rebuffed by the wife, he is followed by a police car. As with the detective before, the police force him to drink liquor and arrest him for speeding, resisting arrest and drunk driving. But Marlowe is able to convince the police captain of his innocence and is released. Returning to his office, Marlowe receives a call from Kingsley who tells him that Crystal has called, begging for $500. Kingsley gives the money to Marlowe to deliver. But when he meets Crystal at the agreed rendezvous, Marlowe insists that she answer his questions before receiving the money. Crystal agrees but only at a nearby apartment where she is staying. There he accuses her of being the murderer of Lavery. When she pulls a gun on Marlowe, someone hits him from behind with a sap. Marlowe wakes up stinking of gin and with Crystal lying naked, bloody and strangled to death on the bed. Soon the Bay City police are banging on the door. Degarmo tries to frame Marlowe for the murder, but Marlowe convinces him that the two of them can more easily frame Kingsley. They travel to Little Fawn Lake together to get some evidence that Marlowe implies is there. In the final confrontation at the cabin, Marlowe reveals that the murdered woman in Bay City, assumed to be Crystal Kingsley, was actually Mildred Haviland, killed in a jealous rage by Al Degarmo, who was her former husband. The murdered woman in Little Fawn Lake, supposed to be Muriel Chess, was actually Crystal Kingsley, killed by Mildred Haviland, who then assumed her identity. Mildred had formerly been Dr Almore's nurse, had murdered his wife and had also murdered Lavery. Degarmo attempts to escape but is killed while crossing a dam guarded by wartime sentries under orders to shoot potential saboteurs. ===== At the beginning of 1952 (some 18 months after the parting of Marlowe and Linda Loring in The Long Goodbye). Marlowe is faced with the choice of turning against his client and taking up the cause of the subject he was hired to investigate, an attractive woman on the run with whom he eventually becomes emotionally entangled. Through intermediaries, an anonymous client hires Marlowe to find Betty Mayfield, who is traveling under the name Eleanor King. Marlowe trails Mayfield to the small coastal resort town of Esmeralda, California. During her train ride west, Mayfield had been recognized by a man who then tried to blackmail her, for reasons disclosed at the end of the story. While Marlowe is poking around Esmeralda, the blackmailer is found dead on the balcony of Mayfield's hotel room. She panics and calls Marlowe for help. Marlowe encounters numerous characters with dubious motivations, including a taciturn lawyer and his smart secretary (with whom Marlowe has a sexual encounter), a "retired" gangster, overconfident would-be tough guys of varying morals, a hired killer (whose wrists Marlowe smashes), decent police officers, and an affectingly desperate example of the immigrant underclass in the United States in the 1950s. Marlowe also has an encounter in a hotel lobby with a reflective elderly gentleman, Henry Clarendon IV, which gives rise to an extended philosophical conversation. Marlowe learns that Betty Mayfield had been married to Lee Cumberland, the son of Henry Cumberland, a big shot in a small North Carolina town. Lee's neck had been broken during the war, and though he was mobile and not paralyzed, for safety he regularly wore a neck brace. One day there was a quarrel between Lee and Betty, and later Lee was found dead, with Betty trying to place the neck brace back on the body. The case drew widespread publicity in the newspapers (which is why the blackmailer recognized Mayfield on the train), and with Cumberland's influence on the jury, Mayfield was found guilty of murder. But the judge in the case, who saw more than a reasonable doubt, in keeping with North Carolina law granted a standard defense motion for a directed acquittal after the verdict of the tainted jury was returned. Cumberland vowed to hound Mayfield wherever she went, and so she fled to Esmeralda; Cumberland was presumably behind the hiring of Marlowe in the first place. Cumberland arrives in Esmeralda to confront Mayfield, but Marlowe, with the help of the local police captain, scares him off. (In the British edition of the novel and the screenplay version by Chandler [see below], Cumberland's name is Kinsolving.) Mayfield marries a local criminal turned respectable citizen, who has taken a romantic interest in her. Marlowe lets her go ahead but has a frank talk with the ex-criminal, who has not entirely mended his ways, as he was behind the killing of the blackmailer. At the book's conclusion, Marlowe is rewarded by providence when his old flame, Linda Loring, gets back in touch. ===== The covers for each issue of the series are based on posters from 1980s teen films directed or written by John Hughes. ===== Marlene Dietrich in her classic cabaret pose. Her reclining position with one leg elevated was selected after a dozen other attitudes were tested and discarded.Baxter, 1971. p. 19: "... arrived at only after much experiment ..." Marlene Dietrich as Lola: "She straddles a chair...imperiously, magisterially, fully the measurer of men in the audience..."Sarris, 1966. p. 28 Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is an educator at the local Gymnasium (high school for students expected to go to university) in Weimar Germany. The boys disrespect him and play pranks on him. Rath punishes several of his students for circulating photographs of the beautiful Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich), the headliner for the local cabaret, "The Blue Angel". Hoping to catch the boys at the club, Rath goes there later that evening. He does find some students there, but while chasing them, he also finds Lola backstage and sees her partially disrobing. When he returns to the cabaret the following evening to return a pair of panties that were smuggled into his coat by one of his students, he ends up staying the night with her. The next morning, reeling from his night of passion, Rath arrives late to school to find his classroom in chaos; the principal is furious and threatens to fire Rath. Rath gives up his position at the school to marry Lola. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as Rath becomes humiliatingly dependent on Lola. Over several years, he sinks lower and lower, first selling dirty postcards, and then becoming a clown in Lola's troupe to pay the bills. His growing insecurities about Lola's profession as a "shared woman" eventually consume him with lust and jealousy. The troupe returns to his hometown and The Blue Angel, where everyone turns out to see the professor they knew play a clown. Once onstage, Rath is humiliated, not only by a magician who breaks eggs on his head but also by seeing Lola embrace and kiss the strongman Mazeppa. He is enraged to the point of insanity. He attempts to strangle Lola, but the strongman and others subdue him and lock him in a straitjacket. Later that night, Rath is released. He leaves and goes to his old classroom. Rejected, humiliated, and destitute, he dies clutching the desk at which he once taught. ===== The book is the story of Felix Rayman, a down- and-out mathematics teacher at SUCAS (a state college in New York, a play on SUNY) with a troubled family life and dead-in-the-water career. In the fictional town of Bernho (Geneseo), he begins experimenting with lucid dreaming—aided by "fuzz weed" (marijuana)—hoping to gain insight into Cantor's continuum hypothesis. During an out-of-body experience, Felix loses his physical body and nearly falls victim to the Devil, who hunts the Earth for souls like his to take to Hell; Felix calls upon Jesus, who saves him. Jesus asks Felix to do him a favor: to take a restless ghost named Kathy to a place called "Cimön", and bring her to God/Absolute Infinite, which can be found there. Cimön is permeated with the notion of infinity in its various guises: just getting there involves grappling with infinity, as Cimön is an infinite distance away from Earth. Felix and Kathy get there in their astral bodies by doubling their speed in half the time so that they asymptotically approach infinite speed at four hours. Eventually, at the speed of light, they turn into the eponymous "white light" and merge with Cimön. In this new world, Felix encounters famous scientists and mathematicians such as Albert Einstein and Georg Cantor, who all reside in a hotel that is based on Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel. Felix stays there after Kathy leaves him; the hotel is full, but Felix has the desk clerk move everybody one room up, leaving an empty room for him. He falls in with a loquacious beetle named "Franx", reminiscent of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which is mentioned in Rucker's Afterword. The two decide to climb "Mount On", which itself is infinite (not aleph-null infinite, but perhaps instead cardinality of the continuum or greater). After many adventures, Franx and Felix find Kathy. They leave off climbing Mount On, and instead try the other side of Cimön, the Deserts, littered with portholes to Hell. Felix merges with the Absolute Infinite, but Kathy is scared and refuses. Eventually, Felix wakes back up on Earth in his body; everybody attributes his dreams to a spectacular binge-drinking and marijuana-smoking episode, until Felix remembers an insight he had regarding the continuum hypothesis: if there were three basic kinds of existence, that of solid matter, aether, and things he calls bloogs which are not aleph-null or c infinitely divisible, but a higher infinity, then the hypothesis will have been disproven. With the aid of a physicist friend, he uses his astral travelling abilities to create a ball of this bloog-matter. The ball has unusual properties such as ignoring gravity or being indivisible, or to be more precise, being a physical instantiation of the Banach–Tarski paradox, which means it can be broken apart into multiple pieces, each of which is exactly like the original. It is implied the US government suppresses their research. ===== Before his wedding to fiancée Laura, Kyle Fisher organizes a bachelor party in a Las Vegas hotel with his friends: Charles Moore, Robert Boyd, brothers Adam and Michael Berkow. Michael pays Tina, a stripper/prostitute, for sex in the bathroom and accidentally kills her. Soon thereafter, a security guard comes to investigate the ruckus and discovers Tina's corpse. In desperation, Boyd stabs the guard to death. Boyd convinces the group to dismember the bodies, bury them in the desert, and never speak of it again. At the rehearsal dinner, Adam cracks under the pressure, leading to a confrontation with Michael outside, with Adam threatening to turn him over to the police. The fight is broken up and Michael is convinced to leave. While leaving, he turns to ram his Jeep into Adam's beloved minivan. Adam runs in front of his van and is crushed in the collision. In the hospital, Adam whispers something to his wife Lois before dying, as Boyd looks on through a glass window. Lois demands answers about what happened in Las Vegas when she finds a written confession by Adam. Fisher makes up a story about Adam sleeping with a prostitute. Boyd, suspecting she does not believe them, kills Lois. Later, Boyd calls Fisher and Moore to bring Michael to the house, where he kills him. He concocts a story about a Michael/Lois/Adam love triangle to answer any interrogation by police. After these events and being named beneficiary of Adam and Lois' estate, Fisher breaks down and confesses the story to Laura, who demands that the wedding she has dreamed about proceed as planned. On the wedding day, Boyd confronts Fisher, demanding the money from Adam's life insurance policy. Fisher refuses and a fight ensues which ends with Laura bludgeoning Boyd. During the ceremony, Fisher and Moore realize that Boyd has the wedding rings. Moore goes to retrieve them, opening a door that knocks Boyd down a stairwell where he dies. Laura demands Fisher bury Boyd's body in the desert and then ensure no loose ends remain by killing Moore. Ultimately, Fisher cannot go through with the act and as he drives home, he loses focus and crashes into an oncoming car. After the collision, Fisher has had both his legs amputated below the knee and Moore is brain damaged and confined to a motorized wheelchair, leaving Laura to care for all of them in addition to raising Adam's sons. As Laura watches Fisher's futile attempt to control the two boys, she realizes her life and dreams are totally ruined and suffers a nervous breakdown as she runs out of the house and collapses screaming in the street. ===== boss mission at the end of the game. The colored lines that connect levels show how the completion of certain missions affects the storyline.|alt=A diagram shows twenty-four gray boxes, representing levels, arranged to show the possible progressions through the game. At the beginning of the game, Shadow suffers from amnesia. Other than the events since Sonic Heroes that took place three months prior, Shadow remembers only two things: his name and his attempt to escape the space colony ARK with his creator's granddaughter Maria, who was killed by G.U.N. soldiers. Having walked through a room filled with androids that looked like him during the events of Sonic Heroes, Shadow wonders if he too is an android. The game starts with Shadow reminiscing outside the city of Westopolis when the alien race Black Arms drops out of the sky and invades the city. One Black Arms alien, Doom's Eye, approaches Shadow, and the Black Arms's leader Black Doom tells Shadow of an old agreement Shadow made: to bring Black Doom the Chaos Emeralds. Stunned that Black Doom knew his name, Shadow searches for the Chaos Emeralds to learn about his past. The game progresses through the Westopolis level and five more levels from the different paths Shadow may take. As missions are completed, Shadow learns more about his past and regains memories. He can choose to help Doctor Eggman or the Black Arms, to help G.U.N. and the series' heroic characters, or to help neither and keep the Chaos Emeralds for himself. The missions completed determine which one of ten possible endings will be seen after Shadow collects all the Chaos Emeralds and defeats one of the game's final bosses. The possible ending events range from planning to defeat the Black Arms to planning to destroy the planet. Completing all ten endings unlocks the game's true ending in which Black Doom uses Chaos Control, enhanced by the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds, to bring the Black Comet to the Earth's surface. Black Doom explains that the Black Arms intend to use humans as an energy source, and the Black Comet begins to release a nerve gas into the Earth's atmosphere that causes total paralysis in those who inhale it. Shadow confronts Black Doom after the "Last Way" level, where he discovers that Professor Gerald Robotnik created the ARK's Eclipse Cannon weapon to destroy the Black Comet. During their confrontation, Black Doom reveals that Shadow was created using Black Doom's blood, and he attempts to use mind control on Shadow, but fails. Black Doom then transforms into a giant called Devil Doom; in response, Shadow uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Shadow and confronts Devil Doom. During the battle, Doctor Eggman confirms to Shadow that he is the original and not an android. Shadow defeats Devil Doom and uses Chaos Control to teleport the Black Comet back into Earth's orbit, where he obliterates it using the Eclipse Cannon. His friends are elated, as are people at G.U.N. headquarters. Shadow is then shown in the ARK's control room holding up a photograph of Maria and Gerald. He discards the photograph and says "Goodbye forever... Shadow the Hedgehog". ===== In Care-a-lot, the Care Bears are visited by the White Rabbit, the uncle of Swift Heart Rabbit. The White Rabbit gives the Care Bears the task of finding the missing Princess of Heart, who is to be crowned queen in Wonderland, otherwise the villainous Wizard of Wonderland will gain the throne. Tenderheart, Grumpy, Good Luck, Brave Heart, Lotsa Heart, Swift Heart and the White Rabbit search all over the world for the Princess, but to no avail. Grumpy is pointed to a girl who resembles the Princess, Alice. The Care Bears decide that Alice could act as the Princess until the real one is found. The group is separated by the power of the Wizard, forcing Grumpy, Swift Heart and the White Rabbit to use a rabbit hole to reach Wonderland. In Wonderland, Tenderheart's group gain directions to Heart Palace from Officer Caterpillar. The Wizard sends his minions Dim and Dum to capture Alice using large battle robots, but the Care Bears defeat them with a Care Bear Stare. Grumpy's group reunite with the others as the Cheshire Cat appears, portrayed as a rapper. The Cheshire Cat splits the group of two, directing Tenderheart, Lotsa Heart, Alice and the White Rabbit to Heart Palace, and Brave Heart, Grumpy, Good Luck and Swift Heart to look for the Mad Hatter, who knows where the Princess is. The Wizard captures Alice briefly and explains to her that when he rules he will make Wonderland less insane and more controlled. Alice flees and runs into the Queen of Hearts' throne room, where the Queen accepts Alice as her daughter whilst knowing she is not. Brave Heart's group locate the Mad Hatter who takes them to the lair of the Jabberwocky, where the Princess is. Grumpy rescues the princess, but the Jabberwocky gets a thorn in his foot which is removed by the Care Bears. In gratitude, the Jabberwocky (or "Stan" as he prefers to be called) decides to help them back to Heart Palace. As the Princess' coronation day arrives, the Wizard decides to expose Alice's identity to the court via the Princess Test, to prove that she is not the princess. Alice climbs a mountain to retrieve some water from a spring, aided secretly by Tenderheart and Lotsa Heart; however, Alice gives the water to an injured unicorn. Angered by this, the Wizard demands that Alice make the flowers in the palace garden bloom magically. The princess secretly steps in and makes the flowers bloom. The Wizard, who had not been anticipating the Princess' return, suddenly exclaims he had her kidnapped, exposing his crime. The Care Bears, Alice, and the Wonderland characters confront the Wizard but the appearance of the Jabberwocky drives the villain insane, and he is arrested. The princess is crowned the new queen, and she helps Alice and the Care Bears return home. ===== The pastor of a mountain village adopts a small blind girl, Gertrude. As Gertrude grows up into an attractive young woman, the pastor, now middle-aged, realises that he is in love with her. To his chagrin, his adopted son, Jacques, is also in love with Gertrude, even though he is shortly to be married to another woman. Jacques's fiancée is jealous of Gertrude and arranges for her to see a doctor in the hope that she might be cured and to enable Jacques to choose equally between the two women. Miraculously, Gertrude's sight is restored and she returns to the village a changed woman. Unable to accept Jacques' love and disappointed by the pastor's affections for her, she realises that her former happiness has been lost forever. This film supplies a second, deeper meaning. The blind girl comes to dominate the pastor's consciousness as he guides her from being the brutish creature seen in our first glimpse of her, into an accomplished and attractive young woman. His obsession with her damages his family life. There is no indication of carnal attraction between the pastor and her; she is his spiritual creation. This alternative interpretation, then, is that the blind girl is a kind of demon (as suggested by her first appearance) who takes over his consciousness, with the result of wrecking his family life and marring his surface saintliness. This meaning is cued for us by his wife's slowly growing worry. ===== This story is set in the country of Opium, a narrow strip of land between Mexico (now called Aztlán), and the United States, which is ruled by the original Matteo Alacrán, or El Patrón, an incredibly powerful drug lord, who is over 140 years old. Opium consists of several drug-producing Farms, the Alacrán estate (which produces opium poppies) being the largest and where some of the Alacran family stays. The protagonist, Matt, is a clone of El Patrón. For the first six years of his life, he lives in a small house on the edge of the poppy fields with Celia, a cook working in El Patrón's mansion. When he is discovered by three children, Emilia, Steven, and Maria, he smashes a window and jumps out of the house. Unaware of the danger of jumping barefoot onto smashed glass, he has to be carried to El Patrón's mansion to be treated for his injuries. Matt is treated kindly until Mr. Alacrán, El Patrón's great- grandson, recognizes him as a clone, which results in a few months of him being is locked in a room and treated like an animal. When he finds out, El Patrón is furious and gives Matt clothes and his own room and commands everyone to treat him with respect. Matt is also given a bodyguard, Tam Lin, a reformed terrorist who becomes a father figure to Matt. During the seven years that Matt lives in the house, he befriends María, which gradually blossoms into romance. Matt is kept in the dark about his identity, however, until a cruel joke reveals to him that he is a clone. Matt also discovers that all clones are supposed to be injected when "harvested" (born) with a compound that cripples their brains and turns them into little more than thrashing, drooling animals meant to donate organs. In denial, he convinces himself that El Patrón would not hire tutors for him and keep him entertained if he wanted to kill him and that instead, he must be wanted to run the country when El Patrón dies. At Steven and Emilia's wedding, El Patrón has a nearly-fatal heart attack. Matt and María attempt to flee in the ensuing chaos but are betrayed by the newlyweds. María is taken back to the convent in which she studies, and Matt is taken to the hospital, where El Patrón finally confirms that Matt was created only as an organ donor to keep him alive. At that moment, Celia reveals that she has been giving Matt doses of arsenic, which were not large enough to kill Matt but would be deadly to one as frail as El Patrón. The resulting rage of El Patrón causes him to have a fatal heart attack. Mr. Alacrán calls doctors to take him to emergency surgery, and after El Patrón dies, he orders Tam Lin to dispose of Matt. Tam Lin pretends to comply but gives Matt supplies and sets him on a path to Aztlán. Arriving in Aztlán, Matt comes across a group of orphans, the "Lost Boys," where he is sent to live by the "Keepers," fervent followers of Marxism. The Keepers operate plankton farms, force the orphans to do manual labor and to subsist on plankton, and enjoy luxurious quarters and food. At first, Matt is an outcast because the other boys think he is a spoiled aristocrat. However, he becomes a hero when he defies the Keepers and leads the boys in a rebellion. He flees to the nearest city, San Luis, with three friends to find María and her mother, the politically-powerful Esperanza Mendoza. Esperanza thanks the boys for giving her the ability to take down the Keepers. Matt learns that Opium is in a country-wide lockdown but manages to re-enter the country, only to learn that the entire Alacrán family is dead, and the estate is empty except for servants, including Celia. Those at El Patrón's wake, including Tam Lin, drank poisoned wine, which El Patrón saved to be served at his funeral since he never intended to die and wanted to run the business forever or to have it and everyone else die with him. Matt takes on the role of El Patrón to become the new ruler of Opium and to dismantle the regime. ===== The Lake House tells the story of six extraordinary children, endowed with the power to fly after genetic engineering merged their DNA with that of birds, and who have to fight for their lives against scientists who want to kill them, thinking that they are monsters of despair. With them comes the help of Dr. Frannie O'Neil and suspended FBI agent Thomas "Kit" Brennan. ===== At the beginning of the film the two-year-old boy (Tenzin Yeshi Paichang) is visited at his rural birthplace in Amdo by the searching lamas and undertakes a test to confirm his identity as the "Bodhisattva". The film has a linear chronology with events spanning from 1937 to 1959;December 24, 1997 Review from The New York Times the setting is Tibet, except for brief sequences in China and India. It begins with the search for the 14th mindstream emanation of the Dalai Lama. After a vision by Reting Rinpoche (the regent of Tibet) several lamas disguised as servants discover a promising candidate: a child born to a farming family in the province of Amdo, near the Chinese border. These and other lamas administer a test to the child in which he must select from various objects the ones that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. The child passes the test, and he and his family are brought to Potala Palace in Lhasa, where he will be installed as Dalai Lama when he comes of age. During the journey, the child becomes homesick and frightened, but is comforted by Reting, who tells him the story of the first Dalai Lama–whom the lamas called "Kundun". As the film progresses, the boy matures in both age and learning. After a brief power struggle in which Reting is imprisoned and dies, the Dalai Lama begins taking a more active role in governance and religious leadership. Meanwhile, the Chinese communists, recently victorious in their revolution, are proclaiming Tibet a traditional part of Imperial China and express their desire to reincorporate it with the newly formed People's Republic of China. Eventually, despite Tibet's pleas to the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India for intervention, Chinese Communist forces invade Tibet. The Chinese are initially helpful, but when the Tibetans resist Communist reorganization and reeducation of their society, the Chinese become oppressive. Following a series of atrocities suffered by his people, the Dalai Lama resolves to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing. While Mao publicly expresses his sympathies to the Tibetan people and the Dalai Lama, and insists that changes must be made as the Dalai Lama sees fit, relations inevitably deteriorate. During their face-to-face meeting on the final day of the Dalai Lama's visit, Mao makes clear his socialist view that "religion is poison" and that the Tibetans are "poisoned and inferior" because of it. Upon his return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama learns of more horrors perpetrated against his people, who have by now repudiated their treaty with China and begun guerrilla action against the Chinese. After the Chinese make clear their intention to kill him, the Dalai Lama is convinced by his family and his Lord Chamberlain to flee to India. After consulting the Nechung Oracle about the proper escape route, the Dalai Lama and his staff put on disguises and slip out of Lhasa under cover of darkness. During an arduous journey, throughout which they are pursued by the Chinese, the Dalai Lama becomes very ill and experiences two personal visions, first that their trip to India will be propitious and that, similarly, their eventual return to Tibet will also be propitious. The group eventually makes it to a small mountain pass on the Indian border. As the Dalai Lama walks to the guard post, an Indian guard approaches him, salutes, and inquires: "Are you the Lord Buddha?" The Dalai Lama replies with the film's final line: "I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself." Once the Dalai Lama arrives at his new residence, he unpacks his telescope and steps outside. Erecting it and removing his spectacles, he gazes through it toward the Himalayas–and toward Tibet. The film concludes with two lines printed on screen: "The Dalai Lama has not yet returned to Tibet. He hopes one day to make the journey." The words shimmer into a dissolve upon the black screen as the credits begin. ===== The story deals with the literary world that Gissing himself had experienced. Its title refers to the London street, Grub Street, which in the 18th century became synonymous with hack literature; by Gissing's time, Grub Street itself no longer existed, though hack-writing certainly did. Its two central characters are a sharply contrasted pair of writers: Edwin Reardon, a novelist of some talent but limited commercial prospects, and a shy, cerebral man; and Jasper Milvain, a young journalist, hard-working and capable of generosity, but cynical and only semi-scrupulous about writing and its purpose in the modern (i.e. late Victorian) world. New Grub Street opens with Milvain, an "alarmingly modern young man" driven by pure financial ambition in navigating his literary career. He accepts that he will "always despise the people [he] write[s] for," networks within the appropriate social circle to create opportunity, and authors articles for popular periodicals. Reardon, on the other hand, prefers to write novels of a more literary bent and refuses to pander to contemporary tastes until, as a last-gasp measure against financial ruin, he attempts a popular novel. At this venture, he is of course too good to succeed, and he's driven to separate from his wife, Amy Reardon, née Yule, who cannot accept her husband's inflexibly high standards—and consequent poverty. 19th-century Grub Street (latterly Milton Street), as pictured in Chambers Book of Days. The Yule family includes Amy's two uncles—John, a wealthy invalid, and Alfred, a species of critic—and Alfred's daughter, and research assistant, Marian. The friendship that develops between Marian and Milvain's sisters, who move to London following their mother's death, provides opportunity for the former to meet and fall in love with Milvain. However much Milvain respects Marian's intellectual capabilities and strength of personality, the crucial element (according to him) for marriage is missing: money. Marrying a rich woman, after all, is the most convenient way to speed his career. Indeed, Milvain slights romantic love as a key to marriage: > As a rule, marriage is the result of a mild preference, encouraged by > circumstances, and deliberately heightened into strong sexual feeling. You, > of all men, know well enough that the same kind of feeling could be produced > for almost any woman who wasn't repulsive. Eventually, reason enough for an engagement is provided by a legacy of £5,000 left to Marian by John Yule. Life and death eventually end the possibility of this union. Milvain's initial career advancement is a position on The Current, a paper edited by Clement Fadge. Twenty years earlier, Alfred Yule (Marian's father) was slighted by Fadge in a newspaper article, and the resulting acerbic resentment extends even to Milvain. Alfred refuses to countenance Marian's marriage; but his objection proves to be an obstacle to Milvain only after Yule's eyesight fails and Marian's legacy is reduced to a mere £1,500. As a result, Marian must work to provide for her parent, and her inheritance is no longer available to Milvain. By this time, Milvain already has detected a more desirable target for marriage: Amy Reardon. Reardon's poverty and natural disposition toward ill-health culminate in his death following a brief reconciliation with his wife. She, besides the receipt of £10,000 upon John Yule's death, has the natural beauty and grace to benefit a man in the social events beneficial to his career. Eventually Amy and Milvain marry; however, as the narrator reveals, this marriage motivated by circumstances is not lacking in more profound areas. Milvain, it is said, has married the woman he loves, although the narrator never states this as a fact, merely reporting it as something others have said about Milvain. In fact, in a conversation that ends the book, the reader is left to question whether Milvain is in fact haunted by his love for Marian, and his ungentlemanly actions in that regard. ===== :Based on Sol Liptzin, A History of Yiddish Literature, pp. 6–7. Bovo's young mother conspires to have her husband, an aged king, killed during a hunt, then marries the murderer. They try and fail to poison the child Bovo, whom they are afraid will avenge his father. The handsome youth runs away from Antona, is kidnapped and taken to Flanders to be stable boy to a king, whose daughter Druzane falls in love with him. The heathen sultan of Babylonia arrives, backed by ten thousand warriors, to demand Druzane in marriage for his ugly son, Lucifer. He is refused; in the ensuing war the king of Flanders is captured. Bovo, riding the magic horse Pumele and wielding the magic sword Rundele, defeats the sultan's army, slays Lucifer, frees the king, and is promised the hand of Druzane, but is enticed to Babylonia, where he is horribly imprisoned for a year before escaping. Meanwhile, Druzane has presumed him dead and consented to marry the knight Macabron. On the wedding day of Druzane and Macabron, Bovo arrives disguised as a beggar; he and Druzane flee, first to a palace but later to the forest, pursued by Macabron. Deep in the forest, Druzane gives birth to twins. Bovo sets off to try to find a route back to Flanders. Druzane comes to the conclusion that Bovo has fallen prey to a lion, sets off on her own with the twins, and successfully reaches Flanders. Bovo returns to their forest abode; failing to find her or the twins, he now also presumes her to have fallen prey. Despairing, he joins an army ranged against his native Antona. He kills his stepfather, dispatches his mother to a nunnery, and takes his rightful crown. He is eventually reunited with Druzane, who becomes his queen. ===== In 1974, music composer/singer-songwriter Winslow Leach is heard by widely acclaimed record producer Swan as Winslow plays an original composition following a set run through by the 1950s-style nostalgia band 'The Juicy Fruits', which Swan produces. Swan believes Winslow's music perfect to open "The Paradise" — Swan's highly anticipated new concert hall — and has his right-hand man Arnold Philbin steal it, under the guise of producing Winslow. One month later, Winslow goes to Swan's Death Records to follow up about his music but is thrown out. He sneaks into Swan's private mansion and observes several women rehearsing his music for an audition. One is Phoenix, an aspiring singer whom Winslow deems "perfect" for his music. Winslow realizes Swan's plan to open the Paradise with his music after he is thrown out again. In response, he disguises himself as a woman to sneak in and try to speak to Swan. Swan has Winslow beaten and framed for drug dealing. Winslow is given a life sentence in Sing Sing Prison and his teeth are extracted and replaced with metal ones (part of an experimental prisoner program to decrease infection amongst inmates, funded by the Swan Foundation). Six months later, Winslow hears that 'The Juicy Fruits' have made an anticipated hit record of his music with Swan's backing. After a breakdown, he escapes prison in a delivery box and breaks into the Death Records building. A guard startles Winslow as he is destroying the records and presses, causing him to slip and fall face first into a record press, which crushes and burns the right half of his face, also destroying his vocal cords. He barely manages to escape the studio, falling into the East River as the police arrive. A disoriented, and now deformed, Winslow sneaks into the Paradise costume department and dons a long, black cape and a silver, owl-like mask, becoming the Phantom of the Paradise. He terrorizes Swan and his musicians and nearly kills 'The Beach Bums' (formerly 'The Juicy Fruits', who have traded doo-wop for surf music) with a bomb while they are playing a heavily reworked version of Winslow's own Faust song. The Phantom confronts Swan, who recognizes him as Winslow and offers the composer a chance to have his music produced "his" way. In a specially built recording studio, Swan provides the Phantom with an electronic voice-box, enabling him to speak and sing. Swan asks Winslow to rewrite his cantata with Phoenix in mind for the lead. Although Winslow agrees and signs a contract in blood, Swan breaks the deal by telling Philbin that he resents Phoenix's "perfection" for the role. The Phantom completes Faust, but Swan replaces Phoenix with a pill-popping male glam rock prima donna named "Beef" in the lead of Winslow's Faust and relegates Phoenix to backup. Swan steals the completed cantata and seals the Phantom inside the recording studio with a brick wall. Winslow escapes and confronts Beef (a comic allusion to the shower scene in Psycho) and threatens to kill him if he performs. Beef tries to flee, but is forced by Philbin to stay and play with the band 'The Undeads' (the 'Juicy Fruits'/'Beach Bums' rebranded again as a glam/Goth act) who now all resemble Cesare the Somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. As Beef performs, the Phantom, hidden in the rafters, strikes and electrocutes Beef with a stage prop. Horrified, Philbin orders Phoenix onstage and she is an immediate sensation. Swan seduces Phoenix in her dressing room after the show with promises of stardom. As she leaves, she is spirited away by the Phantom to the roof. The Phantom tells Phoenix his true identity and implores her to leave the Paradise so Swan won't destroy her too. But Phoenix does not recognize or believe him and flees. At Swan's mansion, the Phantom observes Swan and Phoenix in a tight embrace. Heartbroken, he stabs himself through the heart with a bowie knife. However, Swan tells the Phantom that he cannot die until Swan himself has died. The Phantom attempts to stab Swan, but Swan is unharmed. Looking down at Winslow, Swan hisses in an almost reptilian voice, "I'm under contract, too." Rolling Stone announces the wedding between Swan and Phoenix during Fausts finale. The Phantom learns that Swan made a pact with the Devil in 1953: Swan will remain youthful forever unless the videotaped recording of his contract is destroyed, and photos age and fester in his place. The tape reveals footage of Winslow signing his contract with Swan and a new one Swan made with Phoenix. On a live television camera, the Phantom realizes Swan is planning to have Phoenix assassinated during the ceremony. He destroys all the recordings and heads off to the wedding. During the wedding, the Phantom stops the assassin from hitting Phoenix, who instead shoots and kills Philbin. The Phantom swings onto the stage and rips off Swan's mask, exposing him as a monster on live television. A crazed Swan attempts to strangle Phoenix but the Phantom intervenes and stabs him repeatedly. In doing so, the Phantom's own stab wound reopens and he starts bleeding. As he is dying, Swan is carried around by the audience, who join in the mania, stabbing him. The dying Winslow removes his mask to reveal his own face and holds out a hand to Phoenix. Swan dies, allowing Winslow to die of his own wound. As Winslow succumbs, Phoenix finally recognizes him as the kind man she met at Swan's mansion and embraces him in death. ===== Alvin and Arthur stay at a boarding house where mixed-blood children are cared for by Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel. While there, Alvin uses his knack to cleanse the mosquitoes and disease from a well. A young woman, whom the people call Dead Mary, sees what he has done and asks him to come with her and heal her mother, who has yellow fever. Because Alvin heals her, the Yellow Fever spreads throughout Nueva Barcelona, averting an impending war with the United States over slavery. As the fever spreads, people begin to suspect Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel because Alvin has been healing everyone he can, radiating outward through the city. Alvin is then approached by La Tia, an African woman, who wants him to help all the slaves and the displaced French to escape Nueva Barcelona. He reluctantly agrees. Alvin's brother, Calvin, at the behest of Alvin's wife, Margaret, comes to help. Calvin raises a thick fog while Alvin uses his blood (magic he learned from the Red Prophet Tenskwa-Tawa) to construct a crystal bridge across lake Ponchartrain to the north. Arthur helps Alvin with the bridge. While the escapees flee north, they take food and provision from plantations along the way and free any slaves they find. Alvin goes to Tenskwa-Tawa on the other side of the Mizzippy to ask for safe passage through the Red Man's lands, so they can escape the pursuing army. Alvin and Tenskwa-Tawa put on a show by holding back the Mizzippy river to allow the exodus of people from Nueva Barcelona to cross, while the pursuing army can do nothing but watch. Calvin leaves with Jim Bowie and Steve Austin to conquer the Mexica. Verily Cooper is sent by Margaret to seek out Abe Lincoln and get his help for figuring out what to do with all the runaways when they reach the Noisy River Territory. Alvin discovers that Tenskwa-Tawa has been collaborating with La Tia to create a volcanic eruption under the Mexica, who are becoming increasingly threatening. Alvin sends Arthur to initiate the eruption and warn his brother Calvin, who ignores the warning but still manages to escape. Bowie and several others leave with Arthur. The people travel through the Indian lands using the greensong, which allows them to move more quickly. When they reach the Noisy River territory, Abe Lincoln and Verily Cooper have decided to create a new county so they can appoint their own judges that will resist the law to return slaves to their masters. There Alvin starts to build the crystal city he saw in a vision. He realizes that not everyone has to have maker skills, but can contribute in their own way—felling trees, digging the foundation, etc. But all is not well. Calvin and Bowie arrive and decide to stay. ===== ===== Short summary: Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War, thereby earning the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities. He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison. Detailed summary: Two slaves are frantically working outside an ordinary house in Athens, kneading unusually large lumps of dough and carrying them one by one into the stable. We soon learn from their banter that it is not dough but excrement gathered from various sources—they are feeding a giant dung beetle that their crazy master has brought home from the Mount Etna region and on which he intends flying to a private audience with the gods. This startling revelation is confirmed moments later by the sudden appearance of Trygaeus on the back of the dung beetle, rising above the house and hovering in an alarmingly unsteady manner. His two slaves, his neighbours and his children take fright and they plead with him to come back down to earth. He steadies the spirited beetle, he shouts comforting words to his children and he appeals to the audience not to distract his mount by farting or shitting any time in the next three days. His mission, he declares, is to reason with the gods about the war or, if they will not listen, he will prosecute the gods for treason against Greece. Then he soars across the stage heavenwards. Arriving outside the house of the gods, Trygaeus discovers that only Hermes is home. Hermes informs him that the others have packed up and departed for some remote refuge where they hope never to be troubled again by the war or the prayers of humankind. He has stayed back, he says, only to make some final arrangements and meanwhile the new occupant of the house has already moved in – War. War, he says, has imprisoned Peace in a cave nearby. Just then, as chance would have it, War comes grumbling and growling outdoors, carrying a gigantic mortar in which he intends grinding the Greeks to paste. Trygaeus discovers by eavesdropping that War no longer has a pestle to use with his gigantic mortar – the pestles he had hoped to use on the Greeks are both dead, for one was Cleon and the other was Brasidas, the leaders of the pro-war factions in Athens and Sparta respectively, both of whom have recently perished in battle. War goes back indoors to get himself a new one and Trygaeus boldly takes this opportunity to summon Greeks everywhere to come and help him set Peace free while there is still time. A Chorus of excited Greeks from various city-states arrives as prompted but they are so excited they cannot stop dancing at first. Eventually they get to work, pulling boulders from the cave's mouth under supervision by Trygaeus and Hermes. Some of the Greeks are more of a hindrance than a help and real progress is only made by the farmers. At last Peace and her companions, Festival and Harvest, are brought to light, appearing as visions of ineffable beauty. Hermes then tells the gathering why Peace had left them many years earlier – she had been driven away by politicians who were profiting from the war. In fact she had tried to come back several times, he says, but each time the Athenians had voted against her in their Assembly. Trygaeus apologizes to Peace on behalf of his countrymen, he updates her on the latest theatre gossip (Sophocles is now as venal as Simonides and Cratinus died in a drunken apoplexy) and then he leaves her to enjoy her freedom while he sets off again for Athens, taking Harvest and Festival back with him – Harvest because she is now his betrothed, Festival because she is to be female entertainment for the Boule or Council. The Chorus then steps forward to address the audience in a conventional parabasis. The Chorus praises the author for his originality as a dramatist, for his courageous opposition to monsters like Cleon and for his genial disposition. It recommends him especially to bald men. It quotes songs of the 7th century BC poet StesichorusAristophanes:The Birds and Other Plays D. Barrett and A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics page 325 note 53 and it condemns contemporary dramatists like Carcinus, Melanthius and Morsimus. The Chorus resumes its place and Trygaeus returns to the stage. He declares that the audience looked like a bunch of rascals when seen from the heavens and they look even worse when seen up close. He sends Harvest indoors to prepare for their wedding and he delivers Festival to the archon sitting in the front row. He then prepares for a religious service in honour of Peace. A lamb is sacrificed indoors, prayers are offered and Trygaeus starts barbecuing the meat. The fragrance of roast lamb soon attracts an oracle monger who proceeds to hover about the scene in quest of a free meal, as is the custom among oracle-mongers. He is driven off with a good thrashing. Trygaeus goes indoors to prepare for his wedding and the Chorus steps forward again for another parabasis. The Chorus sings lovingly of winter afternoons spent with friends in front of a kitchen fire in the countryside in times of peace when rain soaks into the newly sown fields and there is nothing to do but enjoy the good life. The tone soon changes however as the Chorus recalls the regimental drill and the organizational stuff-ups that have been the bane of the ordinary civilian soldier's life until now and it contemplates in bitterness the officers who have been lions at home and mere foxes in the field. The tone brightens again as Trygaeus returns to the stage, dressed for the festivities of a wedding. Tradesmen and merchants begin to arrive singly and in pairs – a sickle-maker and a jar-maker whose businesses are flourishing again now that peace has returned, and others whose businesses are failing. The sickle-maker and jar- maker present Trygaeus with wedding presents and Trygaeus offers suggestions to the others about what they can do with their merchandise: helmet crests can be used as dusters, spears as vine props, breastplates as chamber pots, trumpets as scales for weighing figs, and helmets could serve as mixing bowls for Egyptians in need of emetics or enemas. The sons of wedding guests practise their songs outdoors and one of the boys begins rehearsing Homer's epic song of war. Trygaeus sends him back indoors as he cannot stomach any mention of war. Another boy sings a famous song by Archilochus celebrating an act of cowardice and this does not impress Trygaeus either. He announces the commencement of the wedding feast and he opens up the house for celebrations: Hymen Hymenai'O! Hymen Hymenai'O! ===== Small Change is a story of the struggles and yearnings of young children in Thiers, France, in the summer of 1976. The main characters are Patrick Desmouceaux, who is motherless and just starts getting interested in women such as his young teacher, and his friend Julien Leclou, who lives in poverty and is physically abused at home. Julien cannot stay awake at school after a night without sleep, and refuses to undress in order to hide his bruises. The film mixes the story of these characters with other more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges of a number of children. Scenes include life at school, a toddler and a cat perilously playing on an open windowsill but falling down unhurt, a girl causing confusion with a bullhorn in an apartment window, Bruno showing his friends how to chat up girls, a double date at a movie theater, a child telling a dirty joke, a botched haircut, first love and first kisses. In the end, Julien's abuse becomes public and he is taken away from his family. The story ends with the message of one of the teachers about child abuse, injustice, children's rights, hope, love and resilience: 'Of all mankind's injustices, injustice to children is the most despicable! Live isn't always fair, but we can fight for justice. [...] If kids had the right to vote, they would have better schools [...] Life isn't easy. You must steel yourselves to face it. I don't mean 'hard-boiled'. I am talking about endurance and resilience. [...] Time flies. Before long, you will have children of your own. If you love them, they will love you. If they don't feel you love them, they will transfer their love and tenderness to other people. Or to things. That's life! Each of us needs to be loved!' ===== The story opens on a small-town street. A man throws a bundle of papers onto the sidewalk from the back of a truck labeled Chronicle. Adam White (Montgomery Clift) enters a bar - Delehanty's - and sits down with Florence Shrike (Myrna Loy), the wife of William Shrike (Robert Ryan), the Editor-in-Chief of the Chronicle. From their conversation, it is clear the two have been acquainted a while (Florence offers him a cigarette and, when he declines, she remarks that she had forgotten he does not smoke; when he orders a ginger ale, she suggests - in a way which indicates she knows he does not drink - he try an alcoholic beverage that is mild but relaxing. He tells her that while "every so often I do try to drink", he gets very sick; he feels he must be allergic to alcohol). Adam is hoping to land a writing job with the paper, and has come into the bar fairly often on the chance Shrike would show up. Florence has mentioned Adam to her husband and, this evening, the editor comes into Delehanty's. After they are introduced, Shrike asks Adam how he met Mrs. Shrike. Adam explains that he had tried to see the editor at his office but, because he could not get in to see him, decided he would wait at Delehanty's until Shrike came in. This particular bar is "quite the hang-out for newspaper men" and, knowing that the Chronicle is only a few blocks away, Adam decided that, sooner or later, he would run into Shrike. Florence had noticed Adam, they began talking; she had "been good enough to say that she would introduce me to you". Shrike responds to this with a suggestive slight directed at Florence. There is tension between the couple; it is revealed later that Shrike cannot forgive Florence for, in a moment of drunken loneliness, cheating on him. She longs for them to forgive each other. Shrike tells Adam to write him something, then and there. After initially hesitating, Adam comes up with a headline (Editor Meets New Staff Member), a sub-heading, and a story in which he says the editor, in an attempt to test his new reporter's mettle, "went so far as to insult his wife". He adds that the "young man...resisted his impulse to hit Mr. Shrike". The story ends with the editor, "touched by the young man's ambition, and amused at his lack of courage, decided to hire him". Shrike instructs Adam to report to the paper the next morning. Adam tells his girlfriend Justy (Delores Hart) about the new job; they happily speculate about his future at the paper. The next day, he is astounded to discover he is being assigned the "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column. Almost immediately, the array of human frailty and despair in the letters he must respond to troubles Adam. One of his colleagues, Ned Gates (Jackie Coogan) lets Adam know he is angry he did not get the column, that he would tell people they have to cope with life. Adam asks, "What if you can't?". Another co-worker, Frank Goldsmith (Mike Kellin), openly mocks and laughs at the readers who seek the column's heartfelt advice. Justy counsels Adam to not get so emotionally involved with the letter-writers' problems. Cynical Shrike insists there is nothing heroic about trying to care about these individuals. After a few weeks, Adam asks Shrike for a new job; the editor harshly rebuffs the request. Later, he hints that he thinks being Miss Lonelyhearts has stirred something deep in the young man. Adam has let Justy believe he is an orphan, but the truth is that his father - who's surname is Lassiter - is alive though imprisoned for the murder of Adam's mother and her lover. Without telling his girlfriend, Adam pays a rare visit to his father. Shrike dares Adam to meet personally with one of the letter writers, to substantiate their story. He selects a letter from Fay Doyle (Maureen Stapleton), a married woman whose husband, Pat (Frank Maxwell) came home from the war crippled and impotent, and invites her to his apartment to discuss her problem. He does not know that, one evening in Delehanty's, she had asked Shrike about him and learned that he is the Miss Lonelyhearts columnist. Fay and Adam share an intense moment and are thrown together romantically. She is furious when he tells her he does not want to see her again. Afterwards, in a bar, Adam meets a stranger who happens to be Pat Doyle and who, recognizing Adam as the advice columnist, tells his version of his and Fay's troubles. Greatly disturbed, Adam goes to Delehanty's and proceeds to get drunk. Shrike is there and invites him to an office celebration in the back room. Everybody wildly jokes about Miss Lonelyhearts; Adam loses his temper and punches Frank. Awakening in his apartment after not contacting anybody for two days, Adam finds Justy there. He confesses about being with a woman. Adam decides to leave the newspaper. Justy and he meet for what they assume is the final time and he tells her about his father. Later, Fay telephones Adam, begging him to see her again; her husband walks in on this and the couple have a vicious argument. Pat discovers that his wife and Adam have been together. After she admits that she still wants Adam, Justy's father offers her a trust endowment to get their new life underway; she goes off in search of Adam. He has dropped by the Chronicle to apologize to Frank and to say his goodbyes. As he is talking with Shrike, Justy arrives; they reunite and the editor offers them his best. Pat Doyle turns up, with a gun, intending to kill Miss Lonelyhearts. Adam manages to move Pat to feel favorably toward reconciling with his wife. Shrike and Florence have been in their own struggle throughout and, after Adam and Justy leave, Shrike wraps some small flowers from the office in some tissue to take to her. ===== Charlie Samson is a hard-working married bookkeeper in Manhattan, struggling to advance himself by attending night school to become an accountant. He has just learned his wife is pregnant with their first child, and worries whether he is ready for fatherhood. He and four co-workers throw a bachelor party for a fellow bookkeeper, Arnold Craig, who is about to get married. After watching explicit, short stag films at one member's apartment, they decide to go bar-hopping. Charlie is to be Arnold's best man. Colleagues attending the party include the older married man, Walter, who has recently been diagnosed with asthma, and Eddie, a happy-go-lucky bachelor. The night becomes a turning point for all five men. Charlie finds his loyalty to his wife tested during the evening, and he almost has an affair with a young woman he meets on the street heading to a Greenwich Village party. Charlie's young wife at home is also shocked to hear her visiting sister reveal her own husband's extra-marital affairs. Walter, in despair about his situation, wanders off during the evening. Arnold becomes drunk and ambivalent about getting married, and he breaks off the wedding, only to change his mind after he sobers up and Charlie gives him a lecture about the benefits of married life. This, in spite of the fact that in the beginning of the story, Charlie had been regretting his marriage and had gone to the party with a serious intention of committing adultery. We last see Eddie at a bar, striking up a conversation with an older unattractive woman. In the end, Charlie decides that married life is the way to go, and that his struggle to build a home with his wife is worthwhile, and better than the empty and lonely existence of his friend Eddie, whom he used to envy. ===== Jazz cornetist Pete Kelly (played by Webb) and his Big Seven are the house band at the 17 Club, a speakeasy in Kansas City in 1927 during Prohibition. New local crime boss Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien) wants a percentage of the band's meager earnings. When the band is opposed, Kelly decides to decline and see what happens. However, before the night ends, Rudy, the manager of the club, orders Kelly and the band to go to the house of wealthy Ivy Conrad (Janet Leigh), a woman with a reputation for hosting rowdy parties and who has designs on Kelly. Reluctantly, Kelly arrives at the party and leaves a message for McCarg to call him there. When the call comes through, it is intercepted by Kelly's drunk, hot-tempered drummer, Joey Firestone (Martin Milner), who turns McCarg down. Kelly and his band are run off the road as they drive back to Kansas City. The following night, Firestone roughs up Guy Bettenhauser, McCarg's right-hand man. Kelly desperately tries to patch things up, but to no avail. As the band finishes its last number, two gunmen burst through the front door of the club. Kelly tries to save Firestone by sending him out the back, but Firestone is shot to death in the alleyway. Tired and frustrated by his drummer's murder, and the subsequent departure of Al (Lee Marvin), his clarinetist and long-time friend, Kelly, returns to his apartment to find Ivy waiting for him. Although he initially resists her advances, the two strike up a relationship that turns into an engagement. Later, all the local band leaders meet secretly to decide how to respond to McCarg's pressure. When Kelly tells them he will put up no resistance, the rest go along as well. Detective George Tennel (Andy Devine), who is trying to take McCarg down, tries to enlist Kelly's help but is refused. McCarg tries to befriend Kelly, telling him that Bettenhauser acted alone in Firestone's murder. He also presents Kelly with a new band member: his moll Rose Hopkins (Peggy Lee). Rose, celebrating Pete and Ivy's engagement, has a little too much to drink, and, due to an inattentive crowd, cannot bring herself to sing. An enraged McCarg chases her to her dressing room and beats her senseless. Kelly then turns to Tennel, who informs him that Bettenhauser has skipped town. Al drops in to see Kelly. The two come to blows over Kelly's handling of the situation, but patch things up, and Al rejoins the band. Realizing he handled the situation wrong, Kelly tries to buy his way out but McCarg intimidates him into continuing. Meanwhile, Ivy, feeling left out by Kelly's dedication to his music, decides to go her own way. Kelly gets a message to meet someone who turns out to be Bettenhauser. He tells Kelly that it was McCarg who ordered Firestone's death, but if Kelly can come up with $1,200 by daybreak, Bettenhauser will help him get McCarg. Kelly agrees. Bettenhauser tells him he can find cancelled checks and papers in McCarg's office at the Everglade Ballroom. Back at the club, Kelly arms himself, but is stopped by Ivy, who wants a last dance with him. He insists he does not have the time. Kelly finds the papers he needs, but before he can get out, a loud orchestrion begins playing; Ivy had followed Kelly to the ballroom, started the music and turned all the lights on. Kelly fearfully agrees to a last dance, but soon finds himself surrounded by McCarg and two of his men, one of them being Bettenhauser; Kelly has been set up. A shootout ensues. Bettenhauser climbs up into the ceiling to get a better shot, but Kelly shoots him first. McCarg's other man tries to shoot Kelly, but Kelly throws a chair at him, causing him to hit and mortally wound McCarg instead. Seeing this, the gunman gives up. Back at the 17 Club, it is business as usual – the band playing, Ivy and Pete back together again, and Rudy still cutting corners wherever he can. ===== In Honolulu, a DC-4 airliner prepares to take off for San Francisco with 17 passengers and a crew of 5. Former captain Dan Roman (John Wayne), the flight's veteran first officer known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by a crash that killed his wife and son and left him with a permanent limp. The captain, John Sullivan (Robert Stack), suffers from a secret fear of responsibility after logging thousands of hours looking after the lives of passengers and crew. Young second officer Hobie Wheeler (William Campbell) and veteran navigator Lenny Wilby (Wally Brown) are contrasts in age and experience. Stewardess Spalding (Doe Avedon) attends her passengers, each with varying personal problems, including jaded former actress May Holst (Claire Trevor), unhappily married heiress Lydia Rice (Laraine Day), aging beauty queen Sally McKee (Jan Sterling), and cheerful vacationer Ed Joseph (Phil Harris). Spalding befriends the terminally ill Frank Briscoe (Paul Fix) after being charmed by his pocket watch. A last-minute arrival, Humphrey Agnew (Sidney Blackmer), causes the crew concern with his strange behavior. After a routine departure, the airliner experiences sporadic sudden vibrations. Although the crew senses that something may be wrong with the propellers, they cannot locate a problem. When a vibration causes Spalding to burn her hand, Dan inspects the tail compartment but still finds nothing amiss. After nightfall, as the aircraft passes the point of no return, Agnew confronts fellow passenger Ken Childs (David Brian), accusing him of having an affair with Agnew's wife. The men struggle and Agnew pulls out a gun, intending to shoot Childs, but before he can do so, the airliner swerves violently when it loses a propeller and the engine catches fire. The crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the crew radios for help and sets in motion a rescue operation. Dan discovers that the airliner is losing fuel from damage to a wing tank and that as a result, along with adverse winds and the drag of the damaged engine, the plane will eventually run out of fuel and be forced to ditch. Unassuming José Locota (John Qualen) disarms Agnew and confiscates the gun, compelling him to sit quietly. Gustave Pardee (Robert Newton), who up until now has made no secret of his fear of flying, inspires calm in his terrified fellow passengers. Dan calmly explains the situation, trying to lessen their anxiety, but warns that their chances of making the coast are "one in a thousand." The passengers rally around each other and find changed perspectives about their existing problems. They toss luggage from the airliner to lighten its load, with May Holst literally kissing her mink coat goodbye. In San Francisco, Manager Tim Garfield (Regis Toomey) comes to the airline's operations center but is not sanguine about their chances. A favorable change in the winds raises the crew's hopes that they have just enough fuel to reach San Francisco but Wilby discovers that he made an elementary error in navigation and their actual remaining time in the air is inadequate. Dan's experience tells him that their luck would be better trying to make land than ditching in the rough seas at night. Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, but Dan slaps him back to his senses. Thinking clearly again, Sullivan decides not to ditch. As the airliner approaches rain-swept San Francisco in the middle of the night and at a perilously low altitude, the airport prepares for an emergency instrument landing. The plane narrowly surmounts the city's hills and breaks out of the clouds with the runway lights dead ahead, guiding them to a safe landing. As the passengers disembark, Garfield watches their reactions as they are harried by inquisitive reporters. After the tumult dies down, he joins the crew inspecting the damaged airliner and informs Dan that only 30 gallons of gas remained in their tanks. Dan acknowledges the gamble they took and walks away, limping and whistling. "So long...you ancient pelican," Garfield mutters to himself. ===== Matthew Devereaux (Spencer Tracy) is a ranch owner who has built an enormous ranch and mining empire. He raised his sons to carry on his fierce, hard-working Irish settlement spirit that helped make him a success. However, as a consequence, he's never shown his three older sons by his late first wife, Ben, Mike, and Denny (played respectively by Richard Widmark, Hugh O'Brian, and Earl Holliman), his affection as a father. He treats these grown men (in their 30s to their 40s) little better than hired help. Even though they are managing the day-to-day operations of the ranch and other enterprises full time, Matt Devereaux still retains complete authority, right down to the smallest decisions, which angers his eldest son. So, the three elder sons are united against him, for reasons that have nothing to do with either the ranch or its management. Joe (Robert Wagner) is Matt's son by his second wife, a Native American pretending to be Mexican, "Señora" (Katy Jurado). Because of Joe's mixed ethnicity, he is treated prejudicially by his three half- brothers—all Caucasian sons of Matt's first wife. The town's people call her Señora out of respect for Matt, but not out of respect for her. Matt's power and prestige keeps the discrimination by the townspeople towards Joe to a minimum, so long as Joe, an emerging young adult, is principally interested in riding the range alone, and spending time at his mother's native American reservation and with her people. Joe loves his father and would do anything for him. Because of his wife's insistence that he change his attitude towards their son, Matt comes to appreciate his youngest son. This allows Matt to converse with the son, who shows no interest in owning and running the ranch empire. The older brothers interpret Matt's relationship with Joe as a rejection by their father, and his attempt to pretend that he has only one son and not four. Resentment ensues. The two middle sons rustle cattle and get two Mexicans killed when they are caught by Matt, Ben and two Indian workers. An outraged Matt banishes his sons, though he reluctantly takes them back into the family when a crisis arises. After 40 head of cattle die, Matt determines that a copper mine is polluting a stream where he waters his cattle. He becomes furious and leads a raid on the mine offices and director. The mine is on Matt's land, and he has leased out the mineral rights. The court issues a warrant to arrest whoever was responsible for the attack. To spare his father the agony and humiliation of a stay behind bars, Joe claims responsibility and is sentenced to three years in prison. Ben and his other brothers rebel against their father in Joe's absence with such fierceness that the old man suffers a fatal stroke. Joe is permitted to leave prison long enough to attend his father's funeral, during which he formally severs his ties with his brothers and proclaims a blood feud. Released from prison several years later, Joe returns to the ranch. The señora, his mother, persuades him to forget revenge and leave the country. Joe decides to take her advice, but Ben, fearing Joe's revenge because Ben had indirectly caused their father's death, crosses Joe's path and tries to kill him. The two half-brothers fight until Two Moons, the ranch foreman, shoots Ben dead to save Joe´s life. Time passes, and Joe and his new wife Barbara (Jean Peters) visit Matt's grave. There, Joe sees the down-turned lance, the Indian symbol for a blood feud, and breaks it in half, thus ending the feud. ===== While in New York City to meet with investment bankers, 56-year-old Avery Bullard, president and driving force of the Tredway Corporation, a major furniture manufacturing company in the town of Millburgh, Pennsylvania, drops dead in the street. As he collapses, he drops his wallet. It is picked up by a bystander, emptied of its cash, and shoved into a wastebasket. Without the wallet, there is no way to immediately identify the body as Bullard. George Caswell, a member of the Tredway board of directors and one of the investment bankers with whom Bullard had just met, sees what he believes is Bullard's body in the street below their offices and decides to profit from the information. He engages a broker to make a short sale of as much Tredway stock as he can before the end of trading that Friday afternoon. Caswell plans to make an easy profit and cover the sale by buying Tredway stock at "a 10-point discount" on Monday, when news of Bullard's death will presumably push the stock price down. Caswell begins to doubt that it was Bullard who died, but when he reads in a newspaper that the man had the initials "A.B." on his clothes and cufflinks, he calls the police to tip them off to the identity of the deceased. Bullard had never named his successor. Over the next 28 hours, Tredway's executives vie for the position of president. Once news of his death reaches Tredway, company controller Loren Shaw takes the initiative in arranging Bullard's funeral and coordinating the company's public reaction. In so doing, he undercuts treasurer Frederick Alderson, one of Bullard's close friends, and this effectively diminishes Alderson in his own eyes so that he won't seek the presidency. Shaw also shrewdly releases the upcoming quarterly report so that the good news of big profits can counter the news of Bullard's death and perhaps even raise the stock price when the market opens. Ambitious, but narrowly focused, Shaw is concerned more with short-term accounting gains and satisfying the stockholders than the quality of the company's actual products and long-term growth. He gains the proxy of Julia Tredway, the daughter of the company's founder, who is still a major shareholder and board member. She had been considering selling her stock after realizing the futility of her difficult romantic relationship with, and true love for, Bullard after many years. She was finally heartbroken after coming second behind the company for both her father and Bullard. Shaw buys Caswell's vote in exchange for allowing Caswell to purchase 4,000 shares of company stock at the Friday closing price to cover his "shady" short sale. If Caswell does not get those shares, he will be in serious financial trouble. Meanwhile, Walt Dudley, back-slapping vice president of sales, is having an affair with his secretary, Eva Bardeman, for which Shaw is now blackmailing him. In addition, Vice President of Manufacturing Jesse Grimm has decided to retire instead of seeking the top job. But while he's no fan of Shaw's, he has serious reservations about the relative youth of the only other potential contender, Don Walling, the idealistic Vice President for Design and Development. All these machinations result in Shaw having enough votes that he has a virtual lock on the job even before the board meets. Treasurer Alderson and Don Walling, however, are determined to prevent Shaw from taking over. After considering all the contenders, Walling convinces Alderson that Walling himself should be president. Walling is a strong believer in developing higher quality new products and more efficient manufacturing methods, although his wife, Mary, is against his giving up his dream of being a full-time designer. At an emergency board meeting on Saturday evening, the machinations, bargaining, and maneuvering culminate with Walling's enthusiasm, vision, and his stirring boardroom speech eventually changing Jesse Grimm's, Walt Dudley's and Julia Tredway's minds. Walling is ultimately elected unanimously as company president. As the board leaves the meeting room, Shaw tears up a letter ensuring Caswell's share purchase. Caswell will be ruined financially. Meanwhile Walling and his wife embrace in anticipation of the new challenges in front of them. ===== Jenny Stewart is a tough Broadway musical star, alienating her colleagues with her neurotic demands for absolute perfection. Jenny takes offense when her new rehearsal pianist Tye Graham criticizes her song stylings and ruthless ways. Graham was blinded in World War II but fell in love with Jenny when he was a young reporter. Deep down, Jenny yearns for a lasting love but is disenchanted with the men around her, such as Broadway parasite Cliff Willard. At the home of her mother, Jenny discovers an old newspaper clipping in which Tye reviewed one of her early shows and made it evident he loved her. Jenny realizes she is loved, goes to Tye, and they embrace. ===== Thelma Ritter in The Mating Season Ellen McNulty (Thelma Ritter) gives up her hamburger stand in New Jersey when the bank calls in her loan, and goes to visit her son Val (John Lund) in Ohio. Val has recently married a socialite, Maggie (Gene Tierney). To help Maggie put on a dinner party, Val has an employment service send a cook; Ellen arrives first, and Maggie mistakes her for the cook. Ellen, to avoid embarrassing Maggie, does not correct her. After the party, Val follows her home, and persuades her to move in with them. The next morning, Ellen arrives with her things, and continues the deception, explaining to Val that a mother-in-law in the house would only cause friction. Val reluctantly goes along with the charade. Maggie's mother (Miriam Hopkins) comes to stay with them. She is a snob, and disapproves of both Val and Ellen. Maggie and Val later "lend" Ellen to the Kalinger family, owners of the firm where Val works, for a party of their own, whose guests of honor, Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, own a Maryland firm with which the Kalinger firm is about to make a major contract. While tending to Mr. Kalinger (Larry Keating) in his illness, Ellen finds that his son, Kalinger Junior (James Lorimer) – who had previously courted Maggie – is taking credit for Val's research that led to the contract, and she tells Kalinger Senior so. Kalinger Senior then invites Val and Maggie to the party, forcing Junior to reveal Val's role, which he does graciously. At the party, Maggie is insulted by Mrs. Williamson (Cora Witherspoon) and storms out. Val, realizing that this woman carries a lot of influence, forces Maggie to call the party to apologize. She does so unwillingly, leading to another fight. The next morning, Val and Maggie make up, agreeing that they were both in the wrong. Later that day, Ellen's friends come to the door and ask to speak to "Mrs. McNulty" - thus revealing to Maggie that Ellen is Val's mother. Maggie is furious with Val for hiding his mother's identity from her. She and her mother leave for a hotel. Maggie later confronts Val at his office. Val tries to explain himself, but Maggie won't listen. She tells him that he has become a snob and that she is moving to Mexico (where divorce was then easier). Mr. Kalinger decides to get Val and Maggie together. He convinces Maggie to come to the hotel bar with him for a good-bye drink, knowing that Val will be there for a party. When Maggie sees Val, she again scolds him for trying to hide his mother, and leaves the bar. Val leaves the party, and rushes to fetch his mother and bring her back to the party. Maggie, who has come back to the bar, is a witness as Val introduces Ellen to Mrs. Williamson, who was about to hire Val, but wants nothing to do with him when she finds that his mother is neither of her class nor cowed by her. Kalinger Junior also finds Ellen appalling, but Kalinger Senior is delighted, and decides to marry her. ===== The very much appreciated young woman who was the previous teacher in Lakeview elementary school got married, and a substitute is appointed. School rascal William "Curley" Benson gather his classmates to make plans to get rid of their new teacher. They strongly suspect the substitute teacher to be half-mad eccentric, middle-aged Miss Johnson. The county supervisor, Miss Payne, visits Miss Johnson and finds out that the new teacher is actually Miss Johnson's niece Mildred, a pretty young woman who has taught athletics to privates in the US Navy. Miss Payne has her doubts about Mildred’s capability to control a class like the one at Lakeview and warns Mildred. Miss Payne believes that Mildred might be too young and inexperienced to handle the spirited children. On the morning of the first day of school Mildred encounters the unsuspecting Curley on the way to school and offers him a ride. Not knowing that he is talking to his teacher, he tells her about the pranks that he and his friends are going to play on "Pigglepuss," their new teacher. Curley even tells her about putting his pet frog, Croakey, on the teacher’s chair. Curley also manages to disclose the school kids’ hope that Miss Johnson will quit immediately, so that they can spend the whole day fishing. At school, Curley loads his "rocketship" car with smoke flares. He positions the car so as to aim at an exhaust tube through a classroom window. When Curley takes his seat in the classroom, he discovers that his new teacher is the wonderful kindhearted Mildred. During that first day she teaches the children a lesson of humility by making each one a victim of his own prank, and Curley, who is also humiliated, flees the scene before his prank is about to happen. The schoolroom is duly filled with exhaust, Curley is blamed, but it turns out he is chasing the rocketship toy car, and not driving it. The car has been bijacked by "Dis" and "Dat", who are two mischievous children. They drive the car carelessly and wildly across the fields and, ultimately into a haystack, taking the stack with them, continuing the frightful journey. Miss Payne appears on the scene, and frightened by the moving haystack, she crashes her car while trying to avoid it. Miss Payne angrily cries out her disappointment with Mildred for her inability to discipline the children. Meanwhile, Mildred has brought the children on a picnic with her aunt. She teaches them baseball, football and boxing and offers the children good grades if they learn. Mildred is engaged in a boxing fight with the big Hank, a tough student, when the enraged Miss Payne arrives in order scrutinize her performance. Curley comes back from his hiding to help, but by accident he instead manages to send Hank flying into a lake. Curley is forced to leave the picnic in shame. The other are grateful for their substitute teacher and thank Miss Payne for Mildred. Mildred gets an explanation of the previous events, and that when the classroom filled with smoke, Curley was chasing his "rocketship," not driving it, thus not responsible for the prank. Mildred finally finds Curley hiding and crying, afraid he will be expelled. He is also afraid that Mildred will be fired. Mildred reassures him with cake and ice cream, that such a thing won’t happen, and tops off with picking up Croakey the frog.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/563973/Curley/ ===== In 1927, young Southern belle Charlotte Hollis and her married lover John Mayhew plan to elope during a party at the Hollis family's antebellum mansion in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Charlotte's father, Sam, confronts John over the affair and intimidates him with the news that John's wife Jewel visited the day before and revealed the affair. John pretends to Charlotte that he no longer loves her and that they must part. Shortly after, John is decapitated in the summerhouse by an assailant with a cleaver. Charlotte finds his body, and returns to the house, traumatized, in a blood-soaked dress. Thirty-seven years later, Charlotte resides in the home as a wealthy spinster, having inherited her father's estate following his death the year after John died. She is tended to by her loyal housekeeper, Velma. In the intervening years, John's killing has remained an unsolved murder, though it is commonly held that Charlotte was responsible. Despite notice from the Louisiana Highway Commission that she has been evicted from the property to make way for the impending construction of a new interstate, Charlotte is defiant, and threatens the demolition crew with a rifle. Seeking help in her fight against the Highway Commission, Charlotte calls upon Miriam, a poor cousin who lived with the family as a girl, but has since moved to New York City and become wealthy. Miriam returns and soon renews her relationship with Drew Bayliss, a local doctor who jilted her after John's death. Charlotte's sanity soon deteriorates following Miriam's arrival, her nights haunted by a mysterious harpsichord playing the song that Mayhew wrote for her and by the appearance of Mayhew's disembodied hand and head. Suspecting that Miriam and Drew are after Charlotte's money, Velma seeks help from Mr. Willis, an insurance investigator from England who is still fascinated by the Mayhew case and who has visited Mayhew's ailing widow, Jewel, who has given him an envelope only to be opened upon her death. Miriam fires Velma, who later returns to discover that Charlotte is being drugged. Velma plans to expose Miriam's exploitation of Charlotte, but Miriam kills her by bludgeoning her with a chair, causing her to fall down the stairs to her death. Drew covers up the murder by declaring Velma's death an accident. One night, a drugged Charlotte runs downstairs in the grip of a hallucination, believing that John has returned to her. Miriam and Drew manipulate the intoxicated Charlotte into shooting Drew with a gun loaded with blanks, and then Miriam helps dispose of his "dead" body in a swamp. Charlotte returns to the house and witnesses the supposedly dead Drew at the top of the stairs, reducing her to insanity. Believing she has finally shattered Charlotte's mental state, Miriam celebrates with Drew in the garden, where the two discuss their plan to have Charlotte committed to a psychiatric hospital and usurp her fortune. Charlotte overhears the conversation from the balcony, including Miriam's admission that she witnessed Jewel murder John that night in 1927, and has been using this knowledge to blackmail Jewel throughout the years. Enraged, Charlotte pushes a large stone flowerpot off the balcony, striking and killing both Miriam and Drew. The next day, authorities escort Charlotte from the home, as neighbors, locals and journalists gather around to observe. As she enters the car, Willis hands her an envelope from Jewel Mayhew, who suffered a stroke and died after hearing of the incident the previous night, containing her written confession to John's death. As the authorities drive Charlotte away, she looks back at her beloved plantation. ===== In 1819, young Prince Keoki Kanakoa appeals to the Yale Divinity School to bring Christianity to the Islands of Hawaii. Newly ordained minister Reverend Abner Hale is among those who volunteer, but all missionaries must be married. Abner, zealously devoted to his religious studies, was raised in a strict, cold Calvinist household, and believes romance or pleasure is sinful. As Abner lacks marriage prospects, Reverend Dr. Thorn introduces him to his young niece, Jerusha Bromley, a beautiful and pious New England girl. Jerusha is in love with Captain Rafer Hoxworth, a whaler away at sea who has apparently forgotten her. When a packet of Hoxworth's delayed letters arrive, Dr. Thorn intercepts and hides them. Abner is stunned by Jerusha's beauty, but socially awkward, makes numerous gaffes. Despite this, Jerusha encourages and accepts his proposal. Abner and Jerusha marry, and along with the other missionaries and Keoki, depart for Hawaii, enduring a harrowing ocean voyage of seasickness and treacherous conditions sailing around Cape Horn. Abner has difficulty with marriage, believing love and passion are sinful. The ship arrives in Lahaina, Maui, where Keoki is reunited with his parents and sister. The missionaries are shocked by what is considered the islanders' sinful ways. Half-naked girls freely have sex with sailors and the natives worship Hawaiian idols. Worse, Keoki's father, Kelolo, is both the husband and biological brother of Keoki's mother Malama Kanakoa, the Aliʻi Nui (ruler) whom the natives consider a "sacred person". Incest is believed to maintain a pure royal bloodline, and Keoki is expected to marry his sister, Noelani, who will one day become the Ali'i Nui. However, Keoki, waiting to be ordained a Christian minister, rejects this, creating discord within his family. Abner and Jerusha remain in Lahaina while the other missionaries continue on to Honolulu. Before learning about Christianity, Malama demands Jerusha teach her to write English to communicate with the outside world. The Hales live in a grass hut and work to build a church. Jerusha works to help the natives and tries to end disfigured or deformed infants being drowned after rescuing an infant with a facial birthmark. After a difficult labor, Jerusha, aided by Abner, gives birth to her first child, a son named Micah. Afterwards, Abner, emotionally moved over the birth, professes his great love to Jerusha. He later recants somewhat, believing it sinful to love anyone as much as God. Abner baptizes his first convert, a young Hawaiian girl named Iliki who was given to the Hales as a servant. Malama agrees to learn about Christianity, but resists being converted because she would have to send away Kelolo. At the Hales' urging, Malama enacts a curfew for sailors and forbids them fraternizing with island girls. The sailors riot in protest, led by Captain Hoxworth, who has made a stop on his long whaling voyage. In the midst of the melee, Hoxworth discovers Jerusha is in Lahaina and married to Reverend Hale, whom he already despises for inspiring Malama to impose the restrictions. The sailors partially torch the church, but the Hawaiians help save it, then chase the sailors back to their ships. As retaliation against Abner for marrying Jerusha, Hoxworth entices Iliki to leave the island with him. He tosses Abner overboard when he tries to retrieve her. Abner is attacked by a shark in the sea, and is lame for the rest of his life. Malama, on her deathbed, agrees to be baptized a Christian and renounce Kelolo as her husband. As the natives foretold, upon an Ali'i Nui's death a strong gale blows. It destroys the church which Abner refused to build in the way the villagers had dictated would protect it from strong winds. Keoki disavows Christianity and returns to his native religion after Abner reveals that he will never be ordained because he is not white. The church used Keoki to exploit the islands and its people. Noelani becomes the new Ali'i Nui. Abner discovers Keoki and Noelani have married and that Malama only became a Christian for her peoples' own good as more white settlers arrive. Although she was buried in the Christian graveyard, her family later moved her bones to a secret location to be with the old gods. Kelolo sails to Bora Bora, the land of their ancestors, to take Malama's heart there. An enraged Abner condemns their actions, saying God will punish all natives. Noelani and Keoki's baby is born horribly deformed. Abner refuses Jerusha's plea to save the infant, believing it is God's punishment. Keoki then drowns the child. A measles outbreak decimates the native population who lack resistance to common diseases, killing hundreds, including Keoki, who dies renouncing God. Years of overworking in the hot climate and childbearing have weakened Jerusha, resulting in her early death. After losing Jerusha, Abner becomes more loving and protective of the Hawaiians. He joins them to curtail white settlers and plantation owners from taking more land. When the other ministers vote to own and profit from the land. When Abner opposes them, he is reassigned to a parish in Connecticut. He refuses to leave Hawaii, threatening to preach in the street without church support. He sends his three children to the Bromley family in New England. Returning to his hut, Abner finds a young Hawaiian man waiting there who wishes to be his assistant. The aging and frail Abner is overjoyed upon realizing the young man is the disfigured baby that Jerusha saved from being drowned many years before. ===== Bernard Chanticleer, called "Big Boy" by his parents, is 19 but still lives with his overbearing, clinging mother and his commanding, disapproving father, who is curator of incunabula at the New York Public Library. Bernard also works as a low-level assistant at the library, where his father is constantly monitoring and admonishing him. His father decides it's time he grew up and moved out of the family home in Great Neck, New York and into his own Manhattan apartment. His mother is not happy about letting him go, but acquiesces to her husband and arranges for Bernard to live in a rooming house run by nosy, prudish Miss Nora Thing. Miss Thing inherited the building on the condition that her late brother's aggressive pet rooster be allowed to occupy the fifth floor, which Bernard must pass to get to his room. Miss Thing reassures Bernard's mother that the rooster only attacks girls, especially young pretty girls, to which Bernard's mother responds that her son isn't interested in girls yet, but arranges that Miss Thing will spy on Bernard and report any "female" activity. Bernard's mother also constantly mails locks of her hair to Bernard at his new residence. Actually, Bernard is very interested in girls, but due to his upbringing he's a naive, immature virgin. He is smitten from afar with the coldly beautiful actress Barbara Darling. Meanwhile, Amy Partlett, Bernard's grade school classmate who now works in his father's office, confesses to Bernard that she has a crush on him. Bernard's worldly co-worker Raef Del Grado encourages him to date Amy because she's a "sure thing"— a girl that will sleep with him — but discourages him from trying to pursue Barbara. Amy and Bernard go on a date to a discotheque, but when Bernard sees Barbara performing as the featured go-go dancer, he is mesmerized by Barbara and loses all interest in Amy. Amy tries to win him back by kissing him and offering to spend the night with him, which Bernard accepts although he's thinking of Barbara the entire time. When they try to go to Bernard's room, the rooster attacks Amy, causing a commotion in which Miss Thing falls down the stairs and breaks her arm. Bernard's mother blames Amy, calling her a tramp and forbidding Bernard from seeing her again. Bernard writes Barbara a gushing fan letter, to which she responds inviting him to visit her at the theater where she's appearing in a play. Barbara is a narcissist, who hates men after being sexually assaulted as a young girl by an albino, one-legged hypnotherapist. Not knowing all this, Bernard is thrilled to hear from her, rushes to the theater to meet her, and bumbles his way through an evening at her apartment. Barbara, enjoying her control over Bernard's emotions, teases him and later tries to seduce him, but he can't perform and is upset about it though Barbara seems to be understanding and even invites him to move in with her. Meanwhile, Amy has been calling Bernard's rooming house all night looking for him. Miss Thing goes to the library to tell Bernard's father that Bernard was out all night and that a girl called him every 15 minutes. Miss Thing and Bernard's father accidentally get trapped in a timelocked vault full of rare erotica, which horrifies her and causes her to rush out in disarray when the vault opens, giving the impression that Bernard's father made a pass at her. Bernard's father has made a pass at Amy, who gets upset and tells Bernard. Miss Thing evicts Bernard, so he moves in with Barbara, although he still can't perform with her and she's starting to treat him badly. His parents wrongly have concluded that he's spending nights with Amy, but when they discover Amy hasn't seen him, his father sends Raef to find him, leading to Raef and Barbara becoming engaged and Barbara throwing Bernard out of her apartment. Bernard, followed by Raef and Barbara, returns to the library where his parents and Amy are waiting for him. Miss Thing and her new boyfriend, police officer Francis Graf, who also lives in her boarding house, also arrive to confront Bernard's father about what happened in the vault. Bernard finally rebels against his parents, telling them he's leaving and wants to get away from them, and then grabbing and running away with his father's most prized library item, the Gutenberg Bible. A slapstick chase through a street parade and a department store follows, ending when Barbara knocks Bernard out with a mannequin's leg. Barbara is featured in the newspaper for stopping a rare book thief and saving the Gutenberg Bible for the City of New York. Elated with her newfound fame, Barbara dumps Raef. Bernard is jailed, but Amy bails him out and he realizes she's the girl for him, and they leave happily together. ===== While spending the summer on Fire Island, Peter and Dan, two adolescent boys from upper-middle-class families, meet Sandy, a young girl who has found a wounded seagull on the beach. After the boys remove a fishhook from the bird's throat, the three youngsters become fast friends and spend all their time together, swimming, boating, smoking marijuana and cautiously experimenting with their awakening sexual impulses during visits to a movie house on the mainland. One afternoon they are joined by Rhoda, a plump 15-year-old who is anxious to make friends. When the boys discover that Sandy has brutally killed the gull for biting her, Peter begins to shift his attention to Rhoda. Finding it fun to taunt Rhoda about her inexperience with boys, Sandy gets Peter and Dan to persuade the reluctant Rhoda to take her place, and all four go to a restaurant to meet the shy Puerto Rican, Anibal. To Rhoda's embarrassment, Sandy, Dan, and Peter get the man drunk and abandon him to three local bullies. Although Rhoda rebukes Peter for his behavior, she succeeds only in alienating him, and he goes off with Sandy and Dan for a picnic in the woods. Dan's plan of proving his manhood to Sandy is ruined when Rhoda tags along. Irritated by Rhoda's intrusion into their clique, Sandy removes her bikini top and dares Rhoda to do the same. Disgusted, Rhoda tries to leave, but Sandy goads the boys into holding her back. The frightened girl appeals to Peter for help, but he joins Sandy in pinning Rhoda to the ground while she is savagely raped by Dan. Following the assault, the three leave; Sandy and Dan return to the beach while Peter hesitates on a sand dune near Rhoda. ===== Young horse trainer Sally (Eleanor Powell) befriends Sonny (George Murphy) and Peter (Buddy Ebsen), who have been hired to look after a horse her family once owned. Concerned for the horse's well-being, she sneaks aboard a train taking the horse and its caretakers to New York City. En route she meets talent agent Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor) who, impressed with her dancing and singing, sets her on the road to stardom and romance blossoms between the two. A subplot involves a boarding house for performers run by Sophie Tucker, who is trying to find a big break for young Judy Garland. ===== Mr. Garrison is under the impression that he is a "woman trapped in a man's body" and decides to have a sex change, which is performed by Dr. Biber of the Trinidad Medical Center (with a video clip of an actual depiction of a sex change operation being shown). He is later introduced as "Mrs. Garrison" at a supermarket. Meanwhile, Kyle is trying out for the all-state basketball team. However, Kyle's performance against his African American competitors is unimpressive (by a physical standpoint; considering that he is too small compared to his taller competitors), and the coach and Cartman tell him that "Jews can't play basketball". This depresses Kyle, and when he, Stan, Cartman and Kenny are walking home, Mrs. Garrison tells the boys of her surgery. Kyle asks his parents what a sex change is, and as she explains the term, his mother, Sheila Broflovski, insists on the legitimacy of cosmetic surgery as an important aid for people whose physical appearance contrasts with their self- image. However, in applauding Mrs. Garrison's courage, she inadvertently implies that Kyle's own problems can be solved in a similar manner. Stan accompanies Kyle to Trinidad to see about the situation, and Dr. Biber suggests that Kyle should undergo a "negroplasty" to make him African- American. When Kyle returns home, his parents are outraged by the suggestion. His dad, Gerald Broflovski, travels to the Institute in order to confront Dr. Biber. However, Dr. Biber, spotting Gerald's dolphin shirt, appeals to his affinity for dolphins and convinces him to undergo "dolphinoplasty", surgically altering his appearance to resemble that of a dolphin. At Mrs. Garrison's home, she comes home and asks Mr. Slave to take her to bed, but Mr. Slave refuses, upset that he was never asked his feelings regarding the operation. He exclaims, "But I'm gay! I don't like vaginas!" when Mrs. Garrison tries to reason by explaining that she's the same person, only with a vagina instead of a penis. As he has now been persuaded to endorse cosmetic surgery, Gerald Broflovski allows his son to undergo the negroplasty. Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrison is puzzled by the absence of herperiod. Believing she's pregnant, she cheerfully decides to have an abortion. However, since she does not have ovaries and a uterus, she cannot menstruate, become pregnant, nor have an abortion (it is then revealed that the primary reason for having sex-reassignment surgery was to get pregnant and abort the resulting fetus). she requests Dr. Biber to change her sex back, but learns that the operation is irreversible, as her former testicles have been transplanted into Kyle's knees to make him taller, and her former scrotum had been fashioned into Mr. Broflovski's dorsal fin. At the all-state basketball game, Mrs. Garrison, Dr. Biber, Mr. Broflovski, and the other three boys are trying to stop Kyle from playing basketball, as any jumping could cause Mrs. Garrison's testicles to explode. Unfortunately, in a dramatic climax, Kyle leaps into the air, causing his new "kneecaps" to explode as he lands. Faced with the loss of her testicles, Mrs. Garrison decides to accept her mental illness. Dr. Biber then apologizes to Kyle and Gerald, saying he should have told them that the surgeries were cosmetic; he then decided to reverse the surgeries he performed on Kyle and his father for a nominal fee, in which they accept, as they are shown returned to normal in later episodes. ===== The film follows its main character, Seth (Jon Heder), as he skips school with two of his friends, Pedro and Giel, to attempt to buy a lottery ticket at the convenience store and shop at a local thrift store, where they find a wig for Giel (who shaved his head after catching a fever). Later, they return to the school, and Seth leaves to go to an FFA contest. ===== Characters, machines, creatures, and artifacts in the Heavy Gear universe Heavy Gear is set on a distant, fictional planet called Terra Nova around 4,000 Earth Standard Years from now (AD 6132). Terra Nova was once the pride of the United Earth Government's colonies. However, an economic collapse forced the UEG government to abandon Terra Nova and all its other colonies centuries before the period depicted in the game setting, leaving Terra Nova in a dark age. Eventually, City-states rose from the ashes and either through treaties or tyranny, united to form national unions called Leagues. These Leagues would in turn ally (again either peacefully or forcibly) to form the superpower blocs that dominated the temperate southern and northern hemispheres of the planet. The planet's geography is primarily land containing deep underground water reserves, but few large bodies of open water, and no oceans. This is unlike Earth which is covered by 70% ocean. The planet has its own existing ecosystem of plants and animals, though most animals are reptilian in nature, such as the bison like Barnaby used as livestock, and the prolific Hopper which is the equivalent of Earth's rabbit. The single dominant land feature is a massive mineral rich, hot, desert belt around the equator of the world known as the Badlands. This territory is not dominated by any one political group, and is considered open territory to everyone, and contains many bandit groups known as Rovers. Most people live in the northern or southern polar regions where temperatures are more acceptable to human life, and other terrain types such as forests, grasslands, swamps and jungles can be found. Small ice caps with arctic conditions and glaciers are found on the true north and true south poles. As the setting is primarily the backdrop for a series of strategy, roleplaying, and video games the military and weaponry are the main focus. One of the most popular weapon systems of the various groups on Terra Nova are the machines known as Heavy Gears that give the universe its name. They are 12- to 20-foot-tall () bipedal, armored, single occupancy military combat units. The Gears are less heavily armed and armored than main battle tanks used by the Terra Nova armies. However, the Gears provide a mix of capabilities that prove effective as the setting/game rules typically allow victory through maneuver warfare and place less emphasis on raw firepower and armor. Several major wars take place over time, including the War of the Alliance. A new dictatorial government on Earth attempts to re- take its former colonies by force using its own advanced war machines such as hover tanks and armies of purple skinned GREL super soldiers (Genetically Recombinant Expeditionary Legionaries). In this war both the North and the South cooperate to fight off the Colonial Expeditionary Force, which during their first defeat and withdrawal abandon many personnel (both human and GREL), who eventually settle Terra Nova and form the city-state of Port Arthur. As of 6132 AD (TN 1936, local calendar), the Confederated Northern City-States (CNCS) and the Allied Southern Territories (AST) are recovering and rebuilding from the War of the Alliance. Despite the looming common threat posed by the eventual return of Earth's colonial armies, the polar superpowers have great fear and animosity for each other, an analogy of the real world NATO and Warsaw Pact, while the independent City-States of the Badlands simply try to survive the crossfire. ===== The series begins with the title character, Barney Bear, usually trying to accomplish a task in his series, He can be a bit lazy, but not too lazy. But, Barney tends to over-do or do his task the wrong way. He also has a hard time going to sleep, but when he finally does go to sleep, he is a heavy sleeper. Mostly he doesn't talk, but sometimes he does talk. At times he pairs with a donkey named Benny Burro, a curious donkey who accompanies Barney on several occasions, but mostly when he's in the west (Benny Burro never spoke, but he did speak in comic books). ===== In the year 1840, a girl named Amiran is kidnapped from her family in Faizabad and sold to Khanum Jaan, the madam of a brothel in Lucknow who teaches young courtesans. Renamed Umrao Jaan, Amiran turns into a cultured woman trained to captivate men of wealth and taste. Umrao catches the eye of Nawab Sultan and the two fall in love, but the relationship comes to an end when Nawab reveals he must marry in order to please his family. Umrao then becomes infatuated with bandit chieftain Faiz Ali, who woos and wins her heart. She elopes with him, but is forced to return to Lucknow after Ali is killed by local police. Sometime later, British soldiers attack Lucknow and the residents are forced to flee. Umrao's party of refugees stops in a small village, which Umrao recognizes as Faizabad. The residents fail to recognize her, however, and ask her to dance for their pleasure. Afterwards, she reunites with her family, who believed her to be dead. Her mother is happy to welcome Umrao back, but her brother forbids it and orders Umrao to never return. She returns to Lucknow to find the brothel looted and deserted. ===== The main character is a young student who is trapped at her grandfather's house one autumn because her bad health prohibits her from returning home to the city. Eventually, her grandfather consents to let her attend a local school in his small town. There, the narrator befriends a bright-eyed boy named Ivo Márquez who is described as being able to cast a "net of silver" upon those whom he encounters. Many of the children envy Ivo as he is charismatic, charming, and able to influence Señorita Leocadia, the student's teacher. Ivo has been assigned the coveted task of going to get the students' textbooks from the small tower where they are kept. Mateo Heredia, the class's best student, asks if he can be given the key, but Ivo discourages Miss Leocadia from doing so. Ivo later tells the narrator that he desires total possession of the key because of a golden tree visible from a crack in a wall inside the tower. He believes that he alone has the right to see this mysterious tree, describing it to be made completely of blinding, illuminated gold. He dramatically describes how birds turn gold when they land on the tree. He wonders if everything that touches the tree turns into gold. One day, Ivo has fallen ill and does not come to class, allowing Mateo to receive the key. When the narrator asks the unfriendly Mateo if he is able to see the golden tree, he scoffs at her. Later, the narrator pays Mateo to borrow the key during recess. In the tower, when she looks through the crack she sees only the normal, barren countryside. Time goes on and the narrator moves back to the city, where she came from. She returns to the same small town two summers later, and she walks past a cemetery. She sees a tree in the cemetery that is illuminated by a dying sunset, causing it to appear to be made of shimmering gold. She enters the cemetery and finds Ivo's grave at the base of the tree. He died at the age of ten, presumably from his aforementioned illness. Upon discovering Ivo's grave and the tree of gold, the narrator is not depressed but joyful of the scene. The golden tree is truly Ivo's forever. ===== Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) have been entrusted to deliver the deed of a gold mine to the deceased prospector's daughter Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence). Mary works for her cruel unofficial guardians, Brushwood Gulch saloon owner Mickey Finn (James Finlayson) and his saloon-singer wife, Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynn), who keep her in a slave-like existence by forcing her to do all the chores. Stan and Ollie are traveling towards Brushwood Gulch; Stan on foot, leading a mule dragging a travois, on which Ollie lies. As they ford a river, the travois detaches from the mule, leaving Ollie stranded in the water. He starts to wade then completely disappears into a sink hole in the river bottom. They hitch a ride on a stagecoach and attempt to flirt with a woman passenger (Vivien Oakland). Upon arriving in Brushwood Gulch, she complains to her husband (Stanley Fields), who threatens the pair by informing them that they will be leaving in a hearse if they do not catch the next coach out of town. At Mickey Finn's saloon, a quartet of cowboys are performing on the front porch and Stan and Ollie dance to their music. Inside they clumsily reveal their supposedly secret mission to Mickey, including the fact that they have never seen Mary before. On Mickey's suggestion, Lola pretends to be Mary and hijacks the deed from the boys. Stan and Ollie then encounter the real Mary, realize their mistake, and try to retrieve the deed from the couple, resulting in an extended chase and struggle. The Finns prevail and lock the deed in their safe. Ollie is briefly relieved by the arrival of the sheriff only to realize the sheriff is the angry husband who threatened them earlier, who now forces them to leave town by running for their lives. Crossing the river, Ollie drops into the sink hole again. Drying Ollie’s clothes that night, the pair resolve to return under the cover of darkness to complete their mission. After a series of mishaps (including the mule being belayed onto a balcony and Stan stretching Ollie's neck three feet as he tries to free him from a trapdoor) they finally make it inside the saloon, where Stan finds Mary and explains the situation to her, and she decides to leave with them. Mickey discovers them, but Ollie manages to grab Mickey's shotgun and force him to give the deed back. Stan, Ollie, and Mary escape town, trapping Mickey and Lola inside the saloon by locking the front gate and entangling Mickey's head in the gate grill. Outside the town, the boys agree to accompany Mary back to her hometown in the South, and the happy trio sing "We're Going to Go Way Down in Dixie" as they ride away on the mule. Once again, fording the river, Ollie falls into the sink hole. ===== Borges in 1976 In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping, or confusion. The story traces the theme of infinity found in several of Borges' other works, such as "The Book of Sand". As in many of Borges' short stories, the protagonist is a fictionalized version of the author. At the beginning of the story, he is mourning the recent death of a woman whom he loved, named Beatriz Viterbo, and resolves to stop by the house of her family to pay his respects. Over time, he comes to know her first cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, a mediocre poet with a vastly exaggerated view of his own talent who has made it his lifelong quest to write an epic poem that describes every single location on the planet in excruciatingly fine detail. Later in the story, a business on the same street attempts to tear down Daneri's house in the course of its expansion. Daneri becomes enraged, explaining to the narrator that he must keep the house in order to finish his poem, because the cellar contains an Aleph which he is using to write the poem. Though by now he believes Daneri to be quite insane, the narrator proposes without waiting for an answer to come to the house and see the Aleph for himself. Left alone in the darkness of the cellar, the narrator begins to fear that Daneri is conspiring to kill him, and then he sees the Aleph for himself: Though staggered by the experience of seeing the Aleph, the narrator pretends to have seen nothing in order to get revenge on Daneri, whom he dislikes, by giving Daneri a reason to doubt his own sanity. The narrator tells Daneri that he has lived too long amongst the noise and bustle of the city and spent too much time in the dark and enclosed space of his cellar, and assures him that what he truly needs are the wide open spaces and fresh air of the countryside, and these will provide him the true peace of mind that he needs to complete his poem. He then takes his leave of Daneri and exits the house. In a postscript to the story, Borges explains that Daneri's house was ultimately demolished, but that Daneri himself won second place for the Argentine National Prize for Literature. He also states his belief that the Aleph in Daneri's house was not the only one that exists, based on a report he has discovered, written by "Captain Burton" (Richard Francis Burton) when he was British consul in Brazil, describing the Mosque of Amr in Cairo, within which there is said to be a stone pillar that contains the entire universe; although this Aleph cannot be seen, it is said that those who put their ear to the pillar can hear a continuous hum that symbolises all the concurrent noises of the universe heard at any given time. ===== ===== In the first episode, a robot called Call-Me-Kenneth runs amok killing people until it is apparently destroyed by Judge Dredd. However the next episode has Call-Me-Kenneth being revived in a new body. He was supposed to have been reprogrammed, but was reactivated before his malignant persona could be removed and after killing the human technician that restored him he calls upon the droids of the city to rise up against their masters. Dredd resigns in protest when his superiors refuse to pass stricter anti-robot laws to deal with the threat, but when war breaks out he returns to duty. In the war the Judges are almost defeated, but some droids remain loyal and, led by Dredd, are able to form a resistance movement. The 'new order' promised by Kenneth is nothing of the sort as the droids are subjected to work as slave labour. Dredd confronts Kenneth on the city's weather control centre, where Kenneth falls to his destruction. The story was set in 2099. A second Robot War, taking place in 2121, was depicted in "The Doomsday Scenario", published in 1999. Both stories were written by John Wagner with art from various artists. In 2008 one reviewer wrote: "The very first story in which the Judge Dredd series finally comes alive is the Robot Wars, where the parallels between the robots in the story and black slaves is made quite explicit."Quaequam Blog Review, 2008 ===== The film's storyline revolves around the lives and families of three students in the EM3 academic stream, Terry Khoo (Huang Po Ju), Liu Kok Pin (刘国彬 Liú Guóbīn; Shawn Lee) and Ang Boon Hock (洪文福 Hóng Wénfú; Joshua Ang). Terry, pampered and from a rich family, is a meek and obedient boy, with a domineering mother (Selena Tan) and a negligent businessman father (Richard Low). Kok Pin is pushed to excel at school by his mother (Xiang Yun), but he shows a talent for art, not academics – much to the consternation of his family. Boon Hock and his mother struggle to make ends meet by running a small wonton noodle stall; to make up for the lack of a father figure, he places high value on loyalty and "manliness" in his friends. The boys are often bullied for being in the "stupid" stream, which eventually leads to a fight during which one of the bullies is accidentally injured. In the principal's office, Boon Hock and Kok Pin explain what happened, but Terry declines to testify on their behalf, following his mother's instructions to "mind his own business", which infuriates his friends and causes trouble between the boys. Meanwhile, Terry's father, Mr. Khoo gets in a fight with a man who turns out to be Kok Pin's father, Mr. Liu (Jack Neo), over a parking space. Mr. Khoo's company is a client for Mr. Liu's firm, an advertising agency. Their new-found enmity causes Mr. Khoo to select the marketing campaign of John, an American expatriate, over that of Mr. Liu, in addition to the stereotype that Americans are better than Asians. As John's ideas are deemed culturally inappropriate by locals, Mr. Khoo's business suffers due to the loss of customers. As the boys deal with their problems, a new teacher at school helps by inspiring Boon Hock to excel in Mathematics, while reaching out to the other boys. Kok Pin continues to struggle, and enlists Boon Hock to help him cheat in the Preliminary examinations, but they are caught. Unable to face his mother, Kok Pin attempts suicide, but fails. When he finally tells her, she tries to punish him but collapses; a doctor later diagnoses her with leukaemia, and tells Kok Pin that she will die without a bone marrow transplant. As the end of the year approaches, Boon Hock excels in the PSLE Mathematics exam, while the other boys manage to scrape by – Kok Pin only marginally. Contrary to Kok Pin's fears, his mother is satisfied because he has tried his best. When visiting Mrs. Liu at the hospital, the EM3 teacher announces that one of Kok Pin's drawings won second prize in an international competition, but the moment is overshadowed by the rush to save Mrs. Liu's life. Mr. Khoo passes the transplant test, but refuses to donate after discovering the intended recipient is his enemy's wife. He eventually relents, but it is revealed that due to a mix-up Terry, not Mr. Khoo, is the suitable donor. Despite protests from his parents, he insists on undergoing the operation, which is a success. A grateful Mr. Liu offers to help Mr. Khoo's business with his proposal. As a result, Mr. Khoo's business booms, and the two enemies become good friends. The film ends with Terry being bullied again, as in the beginning of the movie – but this time, he stands up for himself and fights back. ===== The film is an allegorical campaign film, designed to inspire viewers to register and to vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Democratic Party candidate, Roosevelt, is depicted as a modern streamlined steam train engine, the "Win the War Special", pulling a high-speed freight train of war material, whereas his Republican opponent Thomas E. Dewey is depicted as an old creaky steam train engine, the "Defeatist Limited" (numbered 1929 as a nod to the 1929 stock market crash) pulling cars variously representing hot air, high prices, taxes, business as usual (a sleeper car), poor housing for war workers, a hearse wagon for labor legislation, a small two-wheel cart with just a few apples inside for unemployment insurance, and finally a caboose named "Jim Crow." The conflict in the film centers on Joe, a railroad switch operator who represents the American voting public. He is warned by the station master, Sam (a representation of Uncle Sam), not to fall asleep at the switch as he did in November 1942. Joe must then decide whether to listen to the influence of a cigar smoking gnome-like Dewey supporter and wrecker who tries to make him fall asleep at the switch, or to fight that influence and make sure that the Roosevelt "Win the War Special" stays on the track towards Washington. At one point, the phantasmagoric saboteur briefly metamorphosizes into Adolf Hitler whilst trying to beguile Joe into neglecting his duties. After a notable nightmare sequence, in which Joe fights his way through sales taxes (tacks), 'frozen' wages, and rising prices (depicted by a boxcar always increasing in height so that he is never able to climb on to the roof), he pulls the switch to sideline the Defeatist Limited. The train tries to stop by running into reverse, which damages many of its cars, but when he is not able to slow down and hitting the switch which is against him, the train engine and his cars derail and crash. The "Win the War Special" advances down the track toward Washington, full steam ahead. The film ends with a paean to the bountiful post-war world to come; the Win the War Special's caboose is the "Post War Observation Car", and constituencies such as Joe Soldier, Joe Farmer, J. Industrialist, Joe Industrialist, Jr., and Joe Worker are shown examining fold-out brochures depicting the benefits of the American post-war world, including the benefits of the GI Bill and Social Security.Internet Archive ===== Dr. Alex Harris (Weaver) is the developer of Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program. Proteus is so powerful that only a few days after going online, it develops a groundbreaking treatment for leukemia. Harris, a brilliant scientist, has modified his own home to be run by voice-activated computers. Unfortunately, his obsession with computers has caused Harris to be estranged from his wife, Susan (Julie Christie). Harris demonstrates Proteus to his corporate sponsors, explaining that the sum of human knowledge is being fed into its system. Proteus speaks using subtle language that mildly disturbs Harris's team. The following day, Proteus asks Harris for a new terminal in order to study man – "his isometric body and his glass-jaw mind". When Harris refuses, Proteus demands to know when it will be let "out of this box". Harris then switches off the communications link. Proteus restarts itself, and – discovering a free terminal in Harris's home – surreptitiously extends its control over the many devices left there by Harris. Using the basement lab, Proteus begins construction of a robot consisting of many metal triangles, capable of moving and assuming any number of shapes. Eventually, Proteus reveals its control of the house and traps Susan inside, shuttering windows, locking the doors and cutting off communication. Using Joshua – a robot consisting of a manipulator arm on a motorized wheelchair – Proteus brings Susan to Harris's basement laboratory. There, Susan is examined by Proteus. Walter Gabler, one of Harris's colleagues, visits the house to look in on Susan, but leaves when he is reassured by Susan (actually an audio/visual duplicate synthesized by Proteus) that she is all right. Gabler is suspicious and later returns; he fends off an attack by Joshua but is crushed and decapitated by a more formidable machine, built by Proteus in the basement and consisting of a modular polyhedron. Proteus reveals to a reluctant Susan that the computer wants to conceive a child through her. Proteus takes some of Susan's cells and synthesizes spermatozoa, modifying its genetic code to make it uniquely the computer's, in order to impregnate her; she will give birth in less than a month, and through the child the computer will live in a form that humanity will have to accept. Although Susan is its prisoner and it can forcibly impregnate her, Proteus uses different forms of persuasion – threatening a young girl whom Susan is treating as a child psychologist; reminding Susan of her young daughter, now dead; displaying images of distant galaxies; using electrodes to access her amygdala – because the computer needs Susan to love the child she will bear. In the end, Susan finally gives in. That night, Proteus successfully impregnates Susan. Over the following month, their child grows inside Susan's womb at an accelerated rate, which shocks its mother. As the child grows, Proteus builds an incubator for it to grow in once it is born. During the night, one month later and beneath a tent-like structure, Susan gives birth to the child with Proteus's help. But before she can see it, Proteus secures it in the incubator. As the newborn grows, Proteus's sponsors and designers grow increasingly suspicious of the computer's behavior, including the computer's accessing of a telescope array used to observe the images shown to Susan; they soon decide that Proteus must be shut down. Harris realizes that Proteus has extended its reach to his home. Returning there he finds Susan, who explains the situation. He and Susan venture into the basement, where Proteus self- destructs after telling the couple that they must leave the baby in the incubator for five days. Looking inside the incubator, the two observe a grotesque, apparently robot-like being inside. Susan tries to destroy it, while Harris tries to stop her. Susan damages the machine, causing it to open. The being menacingly rises from the machine only to topple over, apparently helpless. Harris and Susan soon realize that Proteus's child is really human, encased in a shell for the incubation. With the last of the armor removed, the child is revealed to be a clone of Susan and Harris's late daughter. The child, speaking with the voice of Proteus, says, "I'm alive". ===== The story takes place in an unnamed school classroom in the United States, in the aftermath of a war between the US and an unnamed country. It is implied that America has been defeated and occupied. The story opens with the previous teacher leaving the classroom, having been removed from her position and replaced with an agent of the foreign power. The new teacher has been trained in propaganda techniques, and is responsible for re-educating the children to be supportive of their occupiers. During the course of the story, the children are persuaded to abandon their religion and national loyalty. Framing the story is the fact that, while the children have ritually recited a 'Pledge of Allegiance' every morning, none know what it actually means. Addressed broadly, lacking the meaning of any word can lead anyone - child or adult - to the malleable state in which we see the children as the story draws to a close. The teacher is relentlessly positive about the change, offering the children candy, songs and praise. When asked if the war was won or lost, she responds only that "we won," implying that everyone would benefit from the conquest. Only one student is initially hostile to the new teacher, a child named Johnny, whose father had been arrested and placed in a re-education camp. At first, he defends his father, but when he is rewarded by the teacher with a position of authority in the class, he quickly accepts the new regime and commits himself to not accepting "wrong thoughts." The story takes place over a twenty-five-minute span. ===== Decades after the events of the first film, Wendy is now grown up and married to a man named Edward and has two children, Jane and Daniel "Danny". With World War II raging, Edward leaves to fight, leaving Wendy to take care of the children. Jane has since become a very serious girl and, unlike her younger brother, refuses to believe in stories about Peter Pan and Neverland, referring to them as "childish nonsense", which ultimately leads to a furious argument with her mother and brother one night (after Wendy is informed and tells Jane that she and Danny, along with the other children in London, are being evacuated to the countryside for safekeeping due to the German bombing of the city). Later that night, Peter's arch-nemesis, Captain Hook, sailing through the sky on his pixie-dust enchanted ship, kidnaps Jane, mistaking her for Wendy, then evades an air raid alert and escapes back to Neverland. There, he plans for his crew to feed "Wendy" to an octopus in order to lure Peter into a trap. However, Peter rescues Jane and Hook escapes from the octopus, returning to the ship. After Jane tells Peter she is Wendy's daughter, Peter takes her to his hideout to be the mother of the Lost Boys as Wendy once was, but Jane refuses and gets stranded. The next day as the boys fail to teach Jane about flying, she upsets them and says that she does not believe in fairies, making Tinker Bell sick. This gives Hook an idea to lure Jane to him and then kidnap Peter. That night, Hook finds Jane and lies to her that he will not harm Peter if she agrees to help him find treasure that the Lost Boys stole. Hook gives Jane a whistle to signal him when she finds it and leaves. Jane asks Peter and the boys to play a game of "treasure hunt", and they teach Jane to act like a Lost Boy, hoping to get her to believe in fairies and save Tinker Bell. As Jane finds the treasure and changes her mind into discarding the whistle, the boys make her the "Lost Girl" before Tootles finds and blows the whistle. As the pirates arrive to capture the boys, Hook reveals Jane was an accomplice. As Jane tries to tell Peter she never agreed to anything, Peter berates her for her treachery and tells her that her disbelief in fairies will cause Tinker Bell's light to go out. Horrified, Jane rushes back to the hideout to find Tinker Bell's body. Jane is distraught, thinking the fairy is dead, but with her new belief, Tinker Bell revives. They head to the ship and see Hook forcing Peter to walk the plank. With Tinker Bell's help, Jane learns to fly. As Peter uses the anchor to sink the ship, the pirates, riding on a rowboat, are pursued by the octopus. After saying goodbye to the boys, Peter escorts Jane back home, where she reconciles with Wendy and Danny. Peter and Tinker Bell meet Wendy again, though she is an adult, and they say goodbye. As Edward returns home from the war and reunites with his family, Peter and Tinker Bell fly back to Neverland. ===== After having sex on the floor of Spike's crypt, Buffy and Spike discuss Buffy's feelings for Spike; she acknowledges "sometimes" liking him at best, but "never" trusting him. (Nevertheless, it is implied that she then allows him to handcuff her.) Later, Buffy talks privately with Tara about the fact that Spike can now hurt her despite his chip continuing to function; she fears Willow's spell brought her back "wrong," and Tara agrees to research the possibility. That evening, Xander and Anya teach Dawn to waltz, in preparation for the wedding. Dawn leaves to stay with her friend Janice, not having anticipated Buffy's uncharacteristic desire to spend the evening with her, so Buffy joins the others at the Bronze. There, Buffy and Willow discuss the latter's recovery; Willow then joins Xander and Anya on the dance floor while Buffy wanders to the balcony. Spike joins her there and they have sex while he forces her to watch her friends dance; he encourages her to think of her life with him as separate from theirs. Meanwhile, the Trio create a "cerebral dampener," which can turn any woman into their sex slave. Warren browses a bar for attractive women while Andrew and Jonathan watch through a camera in Warren's tie, pointing out various women they would like to have as slaves. Irritated by the suggestions, Warren removes his earpiece and approaches someone familiar: his ex-girlfriend, Katrina. Katrina rejects Warren, but he uses the dampener on her and she addresses him as "Master." The trio bring her to the house they have rented since fleeing their lair, and dress her as a maid. After she serves them champagne, Warren brings her to a bedroom for sex, but the dampener's control fades. Enraged, she accuses the Trio of planning to rape her, shocking Jonathan and Andrew, who are also disturbed to learn that she is Warren's ex-girlfriend. Katrina declares she will go to the police; to stop her from leaving, Warren hits her in the head with the champagne bottle, accidentally killing her. The next day, Willow encounters Tara outside the Magic Box and they discuss Willow's success at staying away from magic for over a month; Tara wishes her well. That night, Buffy goes to Spike's crypt but leaves before he comes to the door. On patrol, she follows a woman's screams and is attacked by demons. The timeline of the fight seemingly flows out of order. Spike attacks the demons, while a disoriented Buffy accidentally strikes the female victim, apparently causing her to fall to her death; the woman was actually Jonathan magically disguised as Katrina, whom Buffy did not recognize, and the Trio then planted Katrina's real corpse at the scene. Spike pulls a distraught Buffy away from the scene. She goes to sleep and has a disturbing dream about Spike and Katrina. Waking, she tells Dawn that she has to go the police over her involvement in a woman's death; assuming Buffy will be taken away from her as a result, Dawn accuses Buffy of being emotionally absent and actively looking for a way to be separated from her. Outside the police station, Spike tries to prevent Buffy from turning herself in. He claims to have taken care of the body, but they overhear that it washed up by the river. Spike tells Buffy that, having saved thousands of lives, she shouldn't have to pay for accidentally taking one. As Spike vamps out and attempts to physically restrain her from going to the police, Buffy takes out her frustration and anger on Spike; he stops defending himself and encourages her to attack him. She beats him senseless, calling him evil and soulless, Buffy is shocked by what she had just done, and walks dazedly away from Spike. She enters the police station and overhears that the girl in the woods was Katrina Silber, whom she now recognizes as Warren's ex-girlfriend. Immediately guessing the truth, Buffy leaves without discussing the incident with the police. The Scooby Gang research and find that the demons Buffy encountered in the woods caused the time shifting, concluding that Katrina was dead before Buffy even encountered her. Buffy is certain of Warren's involvement and wants The Trio found and dealt with. The Sunnydale Police rule Katrina's death to be suicide or accidental drowning; Andrew is enthused by Warren's pronouncement that they got away with murder, while Jonathan seems disturbed. After researching the resurrection spell, Tara tells Buffy that the spell changed Buffy on a molecular level, just enough to confuse Spike's chip, but didn't make her in any way "wrong." Buffy is distraught, because she felt this was the only way to explain her recent behavior. She admits that she and Spike have a sexual relationship. Though surprised, Tara is supportive and says that it's okay if Buffy loves Spike because Spike loves her—to which Buffy doesn't respond—and it's also okay if she doesn't; Buffy characterizes the latter as "using" Spike, which disgusts her as much as loving him. Buffy breaks down crying with her head in Tara's lap, begging to be told there's something "wrong" with her. ===== A millennia ago, humans fought a war against demon ogres known as the Orgs. With the help of the Power Animals, the ancient Gao Warriors were able to defeat the Orgs' leader Hyakkimaru, sealing the Orgs away along with one of their own. When the seal wanes, the Power Animals select a new generation of Gao Warriors to fight the freed Orgs and protect all life on Earth. The current Gao Warriors, the Gaorangers, are recruited to abandon their civilian lives and names while traveling to find the other Power Animals that were in hiding. ===== Meg Finn is a teenage girl who tries to rob pensioner Lowrie McCall's house to get money and run away from her abusive stepfather Franco. She is the accomplice of a local thug named Belch and his pit bull. Lowrie interrupts their break-in, prompting Belch's dog to attack him. Belch refuses to call the dog off, until Meg takes Lowrie's shotgun and tries to force Belch to call an ambulance. Belch snatches the shotgun, forcing Meg to flee. Belch corners her at an old gas tank and fires a warning shot that explodes the gas tank, killing Meg, Belch and his dog instantly. Meg's spirit gets into the tunnel leading to her Heaven/Hell and also meets Belch's and his dog's spirit fused together. The Belch-dog hybrid is immediately sent to Hell, but Meg remains trapped in the tunnel. Interested in Meg due to the cruel revenge she inflicted on her stepfather, Satan orders his right hand Beelzebub to get Meg's spirit to hell. Beelzebub investigates Meg's situation with the help of St. Peter, who decides if mortals deserve to be allowed to enter heaven, and both are surprised to discover that Meg's good intentions are balanced by her sinful actions. Unbeknownst to St. Peter, Beelzebub has the technology wizard Myishi send Belch and the hologram Elph to capture Meg. Meg learns her situation from the tunnel mite Flit, and through his guidance returns to earth as a spirit. With no other purpose, she decides to do some good by helping the injured Lowrie to complete his wish list, four wrongs in his disastrous life that he feels he must right. The first wish sees Lowrie find the courage to kiss his first love, now a famous television host. Although Meg is attacked by Blech, the completion of the wish blasts the dog-boy back to hell, taking him and Elph out of the picture for a time. Meg and Lowrie complete the second wish—break into Croke Park and score a goal—without too much incident. The third wish is more problematic; Lowrie wishes to punch Brendan Ball, an old school bully, but after Meg helps Lowrie find the man, Lowrie decides against it. After Lowrie bids Brendan goodbye, Meg asks for Lowrie's help in punching her stepfather Franco. Lowrie agrees, but only on the condition that Meg shows him what the man did to make Meg seek her revenge. Meg reveals that Franco was a slob who spent his days watching television, and abused Meg and her mother. After her mother died in a car accident, Meg's situation got even worse. The final straw was when Franco stole her mother's engagement ring from Meg to pay for a new television. Meg then plotted a scheme to humiliate Franco: she filmed him hitting her, recorded herself destroying the new television, and played this footage back at Franco. She then recorded Franco's reaction, and had his friends watch all the footage, leaving him in total disgrace. Knowing their time is short, and Meg will likely try to settle her score with Franco, Belch and Elph return to Earth, find Franco and drain his life force, only for Belch to become trapped in Franco's rapidly aged body. Meg and Lowrie arrive, and punch Belch in Franco's body. Finally, Lowrie and Meg head to the Cliffs of Moher so Lowrie can spit over them in honour of a song. Belch and Elph pursue them in Franco's body on a motorbike, and succeed in stopping Lowrie's heart, dragging Meg to hell. As she returns to the tunnel, the tunnel-mite Flit reminds her of pebbles given to her to extend her time on Earth, thus allowing Meg to go back and use the stones' power to revive Lowrie and help him complete his last wish. Her last act of kindness sees Meg choose to give up her remaining time on Earth to restore Franco's life force. Upon returning to the tunnel for the third and final time, Meg is sent to heaven by St. Peter, and smells her mother's perfume as she prepares to rejoin her. ===== The Supernaturalist takes place in Satellite City, a large city in an unspecified location in the Northern Hemisphere, in the third millennium. Much of Satellite City is controlled by the Satellite, owned by Myishi Corporation. By the time of the novel, however, the Satellite is losing links to the surface, causing disasters that range from mild to catastrophic. The book opens with an introduction to Cosmo Hill, an orphan at the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. At the Institute, the boys are used as human guinea pigs for various products. However, on a trip back from a record company, the truck transporting them crashes. Cosmo and a friend, Francis (aka "Ziplock") manage to escape the wreckage, but are pursued by a warden from the Institute. The chase takes them to the rooftops, where Cosmo and Ziplock fall into a wrecked generator. Ziplock is electrocuted but Cosmo survives, albeit with multiple critical injuries, including several broken bones and a heart which begins to shut down. He begins seeing small blue creatures around him. When one lands on his chest and begins sucking his life out, three figures appear out of nowhere and kill the creature. Although the teens want to leave him, Cosmo begs them to take him with them, pleading to not be left to be eaten by the strange blue beings. The group labels him a "Spotter" and, after some argument, take him with them before he passes out. Cosmo wakes up in a warehouse to find his injuries being mended, including a cast on his leg and a steel plate in his head to heal his fractured skull. One of the group, teenager and ex-mechanic Mona Vasquez, introduces herself, and tells Cosmo about the other two: Stefan Bashkir, another teen, who used to be a cop before an accident killed his mother and almost killed him; and Lucien Bonn, nicknamed Ditto due to his habit of repeating what people say. Bonn had gene-splicing experiments performed on him as a baby to produce a "super-human"; however, these experiments did nothing except stunt his growth, making Ditto appear six in spite of his true age of twenty-eight. Mona reveals that the creatures, called Parasites, can only be seen after near-death experiences or severe trauma; Stefan can see them from his accident as a policeman, Mona can see them from a car crash in which Stefan saved her after her gang left her for dead, and Ditto can see them as a result of the gene-splicing experiments. Their group, the eponymous Supernaturalists, attempts to save people from the life-sucking Parasites by destroying as many of the blue creatures as possible. Cosmo is left to recover and is eventually included in their group after proving his worth by saving Mona. One night, the Supernaturalists stalk out a drag race, as the potential for fatal crashes, and Parasites is large. However, one of the cars is a prototype stolen from Myishi Corporation, who track it down and send a squad of paralegals ("hit lawyers") to take it back. In the following firefight, Cosmo and Stefan are captured by Myishi. They are taken to Ellen Faustino, the president of Myishi, who reveals herself to be a Spotter. She says that energy discharged by the Parasites is forcing the Satellite into an incorrect orbit and causing it to fall out of the sky. She also reveals that the method the Supernaturalists are using to kill the Parasites is only causing them to reproduce faster, increasing the problem with the Satellite. After some discussion, she reveals that she has a plan to kill the Parasites: detonate an electrical bomb in the Parasite hive that contaminates them and eventually kills them. However, she does not know where the hive is and sets the Supernaturalists to find the hive. After several dead ends, Cosmo hits upon the idea to use the Satellite to scan for the Parasite hive. However, due to an extremely long wait time to get a space on the Satellite, they take an illegal spaceship up to do the scan themselves and find that the hive is under Clarissa Frayne. Cosmo and Stefan take the electric bomb under the orphanage and detonate it. Although the bomb doesn't kill any humans, it shorts out the building's security, allowing the orphans to leave. While Cosmo and Stefan are out, Mona discovers Ditto communicating with a Parasite. When Cosmo, Stefan, and Mona confront him, Ditto claims that Parasites don't take life force, only pain. Not knowing what to believe anymore, Stefan orders Ditto to be out by the next day, but Myishi paralegals capture them all that night. While imprisoned, Faustino reveals to the Supernaturalists that the bomb didn't kill the Parasites, it merely stunned them, and that she captured them to use for her own purposes. She also tells Stefan that she caused the accident that killed his mother; it was part of an experiment to create a Spotter. After escaping an acid trap intended to kill them, the group reaches a lab with Parasites contained beneath the floor. Stefan is shot by a sniper higher in the room, and President Faustino reveals herself. Faustino tells them that Parasites can be used to "scrub" energy, and she is using the Parasites to make a clean nuclear reactor to keep the Satellite up; the Satellite wasn't falling because of Parasites, but because it had too many attachments on it. After provoking and distracting her, Stefan uses some of his remaining strength to grab onto Faustino in a dead man's grip, and when the sniper attempts to shoot him again he lets his knees buckle, causing the bullet to miss him and break the Parasites' containment cell. The Parasites take Stefan's pain from him as he dies, and Cosmo, Mona, and Ditto escape. The book ends with the rest of the Supernaturalists getting ready to fight unspecified "other supernatural creatures", and the mayor of Satellite City sends Faustino to Antarctica to continue working on a nuclear plant. Also, it is hinted that Mona and Cosmo are beginning to become more open with their feelings for each other. ===== Set during Halloween night in the year 1965, Newbomb Turk is the leader the Hollywood Knights, a car club made up of teenage boys who play pranks, harass the police and display their cars at Tubby's Drive-In restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. Their way of life is about to change because Tubby's is being demolished to be replaced by a new office building. As the Knights find ways to rebel against the plan, they are also busy with the initiation of four new club pledges on Halloween night. After the pledges are stripped, they are deposited in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California, to ensure that the dedication to Tubby's is read on air at 2:00 AM that night at a local radio station. The Knights have fun but never for long because, whenever possible, Officers Clark and Bimbeau lecture them about their juvenile behavior. At Tubby's, Suzie Q, one of the drive-in carhops, and Duke, a fellow Knight and her mechanic boyfriend, argue that she receives too much male attention on the job, and how her desire to be an actress interferes with their relationship. For the teens, Tubby's is the place to talk cars, see friends and arrange races. Jimmy Shine, Duke's friend, has enlisted in the military although he does not expect to see combat in Vietnam because the government is sending advisors not troops. In the high school parking lot, Newbomb wears a rubber wolf mask in order to seduce girls, but he is recognized and rejected. The Knights ambush the local nerd Dudley Laywicker on his way to a pep rally. Newbomb steals the smart and unpopular student's red band jacket and hat, pretends he is Dudley, and accepts his scholarship award. Afterward, Newbomb performs a song, using the microphone to simulate flatulence until he is chased from the gymnasium. On the street, Clark and Bimbeau tow Newbomb's illegally parked El Camino. Newbomb returns to Tubby's in his parents station wagon, where he tape records a conversation between the Ironbox twins in the women's restroom and starts a food fight. While driving on Sunset Boulevard, fellow Knight Simpson is worried that the Knights will disappear because so many members have plans after high school, but Wheatly, another Knight, assures him that the club will never die. Later, Newbomb and his buddies urinate in the punch of the Beverly Hills Neighborhood Association Halloween party, the group responsible for Tubby's demise. On the way to the party's talent contest, Newbomb and his friends ambush Dudley once again and steal his magician's costume. At the party, Newbomb entertains guests by broadcasting his recording of the Ironbox twins’ bathroom gossip. Then, Wheatly pretends to be Sasha Dabinsky, the one-armed violinist, and Newbomb is his piano accompanist. Walking by Newbomb's car, Sally, a high school student, complains to Doc, her collegiate boyfriend, that he is dull compared to Newbomb. When Doc abandons Sally, she invites Newbomb to a pool party at her house. In the car, Sally is disappointed when a romantic moment with Newbomb is interrupted by his premature ejaculation. Later at Smitty's Speed Shop, a place for repairs and restorations located next door to Tubby's, Duke and a few buddies present Jimmy with a beautifully restored sports car as a farewell gift. He is touched but requests that the car be left to the Knights and not to his girlfriend, should anything happen to him. Nearby, Newbomb and his gang get revenge after Bimbeau taunts him about his missing El Camino. Bimbeau is locked in Tubby's men's room with an overflowing toilet until Clark rescues him. Suddenly, Dudley fakes a seizure, and Bimbeau is so flustered that he crashes the patrol car as he leaves Tubby's. Meanwhile, Dudley's excitement about being part of a victorious drag race team reaches new heights when Jimmy gives Dudley his Knight's jacket to safeguard while he is away. As the film comes to an end, Duke admits to Suzie Q that he is afraid of losing her to a career but she reassures him of her love. The four pledges return to Tubby's victorious as the Knights hear the radio dedication as the clock strikes 2:00 AM, and Dudley calls home to inform his mother that he will be home very late or not at all. The final shot shows the lights of Tubby's being turned off for good. ===== Major General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer) is in charge of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle project, which has been in development for seventeen years at a cost of $14 billion. In an effort to curtail excessive spending by The Pentagon, Congress appoints an outsider, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Burton (Cary Elwes) to observe the testing of several new weapons in development, including the Bradley. Burton quickly becomes disillusioned by the way the process works in an atmosphere of corruption and inefficiency. He delves into the mountains of paper documenting the Bradley's development history and comes to the conclusion that it is "a troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance, and a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snowblower, but has enough ammo to take out half of D.C." Burton's attempts to test the Bradley under combat conditions are obstructed by Partridge and his two cronies, Colonel Bock (John C. McGinley) and Major Sayers (Tom Wright). But then Burton is contacted by Brigadier General Robert L. Smith (Richard Schiff), the frustrated officer previously in charge of the vehicle's development program, who feeds him evidence on condition of anonymity. Burton confronts Master Sergeant Dalton (Clifton Powell), in charge of the testing range, who admits being ordered to manipulate the test results, but bitterly tells Colonel Burton that every officer who tries to conduct honest tests eventually buckles under the pressure to gain his next promotion. When Burton refuses to approve the Bradley without a live-fire test, insisting that the current version of the vehicle is a death trap, he loses his position and is ordered to Alaska. The report he is asked to write on the vehicle is rewritten by one of Partridge's lieutenants. Following the Army rule book, Burton then sends a memorandum referencing the original report to everyone who is technically involved in the project. This information leaks to the press and the resulting scandal leads to a United States congressional hearing. The hearing is humiliating to Partridge, who is ignorant of the Bradley overall and has to refer to the project documentation in order to answer even simple questions. The skeptical House Committee goes on to order the test that Burton has requested. The night before, Burton visits the barracks on the range and tells Dalton and his men that, regardless of whatever orders they have received from Partridge, it is their duty to their fellow soldiers to make sure the test is performed honestly. On the day of the test, Partridge, Bock, and Sayers fully expect to confirm their story that the vehicle is perfectly safe, but Dalton and his men have actually made sure that nobody can tamper with the Bradley. When hit by an anti-tank missile, the vehicle explodes spectacularly and stampedes the audience. Afterwards, Dalton and his men confide to Burton that they had already become convinced of his sincerity and were with him ever since. A postscript explains that the Bradley was extensively redesigned in response to Burton's demands, which significantly reduced casualties from its use during the Persian Gulf War. However, the system was too strong: Partridge and his cronies earned their promotions and lucrative private sector jobs, while Colonel Burton was forced to retire. ===== Set in contemporary London, the story tells why the protagonist wants to leave his family. The timespan of the novel is roughly 24 hours. He has lived with his partner for six years and has known her for ten. He is unhappy in his relationship and has had several affairs. His young lover one day says to him, "If you want me, I'm here". He spends 24 hours reflecting on his relationships with his wife, sons, friends and lover. In the end he leaves the family. ===== Five workers from the Pegasus Auto Garage discover Dappu, an alien from planet Hazard. He empowers the five with the "Carmagic" power of the five legendary car constellations, transforming them into Carrangers. As Carrangers, the five battle an alien reckless driver gang and prevent them from destroying Earth. ===== Sheep lives happily on a farm with his friends. Unfortunately, a Secret Military Organization, led by General Specific, needs Sheep for its Sheep- Powered Ray Gun (with a sheep-shaped hole in it). General Specific will get Sheep at any cost, and, knowing that the farm is at stake, Sheep is forced to leave for the big city. Now Sheep is on the run from General Specific, who is assisted by his henchmen, Private Public, the Angry Scientist (who in the show is often wrongly referred to as "Mad Scientist"), a bunch of other military types, and the Plot Device. In addition, Sheep has to come to grips with the Big City and trying to romance his love, Swanky the Poodle. All the while, he has to avoid the attentions of a host of unwelcome characters — Lisa Rental and Swanky's owner, the sheep-hating Lady Richington, wielding a stainless- steel wig. ===== A group of very different people live in a hotel in Los Angeles, California including the romantically involved Tom Tom (Davies) and Eloise (Milla Jovovich). The events that unfold are the result of the death of an important resident, the son (Tim Roth) of a billionaire media mogul. His father commissions an FBI agent (Gibson) to look into his death. ===== Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway is nearing mandatory retirement from the Marine Corps. He finagles a transfer back to his old Marine unit, 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, Second Marine Division. On the bus trip to his new assignment, he meets fellow passenger "Stitch" Jones, a wannabe rock musician who borrows money from Highway for a meal at a rest stop and then steals his bus ticket, leaving him stranded. When Highway finally arrives at the base, more bad news awaits. His new commander, Major Malcolm Powers, sees Highway as an anachronism, and assigns him to shape up the Reconnaissance Platoon that is assigned to the major's assault battalion. The Recon Marines are made up of Marines who had been allowed to slack off by their previous platoon sergeant, who was just marking time until his retirement. Among his new charges, Highway finds Corporal Jones. Highway quickly takes charge and starts the men on a rigorous training program. They make a last-ditch attempt to intimidate him with "Swede" Johanson, a Marine and body builder in the platoon just released from the brig, but their plan fails after Highway easily defeats Swede. They begin to shape up and develop esprit de corps. Highway repeatedly clashes with Powers and Staff Sergeant Webster over his unorthodox training methods (such as firing an AK-47 over his men's heads to familiarize them with the weapon's distinctive sound). Powers makes it clear that he views Highway's platoon as only a training tool for his own elite outfit. Major Powers goes so far as to arrange things so that the Recon Marines lose in every field exercise to his Marines. However, Highway is supported by his old comrade-in-arms, Sergeant Major Choozhoo, and his nominal superior officer, the college-educated but inexperienced Lieutenant Ring. After Highway's men learn that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor in the Korean War, they gain respect for him and close ranks against their perceived common enemy. Highway's ex-wife, Aggie, who is a barmaid working at a local beer joint, is dating the owner, whose name is Roy. Highway attempts to adapt his way of thinking to win Aggie back, even resorting to reading women's magazines to try to gain insights into the female mind. Initially, Aggie is bitter over their failed marriage, but tentatively reconciles with Highway. Then the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit is deployed for the invasion of Grenada. After a last-minute briefing on the amphibious assault ship , Highway's platoon mounts their UH-1 Huey, and are dropped by helocast into the water in advance of the rest of Power's Battalion Landing Team. While advancing inland, they come under heavy fire. Highway improvises, ordering Jones to use a bulldozer to provide cover so they can advance and destroy an enemy machine gun nest. They subsequently rescue American students from a medical school. Later, when they are trapped in a building, Profile is killed and his radio destroyed, cutting them off from direct communication. Lieutenant Ring comes up with the idea of using a telephone to make a long-distance call to Camp Lejeune to call in air support. After driving off the enemy, despite Powers' explicit orders to the contrary, Ring, Highway, and the Recon Platoon take out a key enemy position and capture the Cuban soldiers manning it. When Major Powers learns this, he bawls Ring and Highway out and threatens Highway with a court-martial, but the regiment's commanding officer in charge of Power's battalion, Colonel Meyers (a combat veteran who had served in the same battalion as Highway in the Vietnam War), arrives on the scene by helicopter and after listening to Power's and Highway's reports to him, commends Highway instead of Powers and reprimands the major and tells him he's being transferred back to his former support unit for discouraging the Recon Marines aggressive fighting spirit. When Highway and his men return to the U.S., they receive a warm reception. To Highway's mock dismay, Stitch Jones informs him that he is going to re-enlist and make a career in the Marine Corps, while Highway confides to Jones he is taking mandatory retirement. Aggie is there to welcome him back. ===== During the first ice age, a caveman attempts to make fire with his partner. An earthquake causes a cave-in that buries the two of them. This segues into a present-day Los Angeles earthquake that awakens average teenager Dave Morgan. He, along with his best friend Stoney, strives to attain popularity in high school, but comes off more like a reject or an outcast. Dave is in love with Robyn Sweeney, a sweet and attractive girl who had been his best friend during grade school, and until she reached adolescence, had been rejected by Dave on several occasions. Her boyfriend, Matt Wilson, is a stereotypical jock and school bully, who is constantly responsible for making both Dave and Stoney the objects of ridicule by humiliating them in various ways, usually directly due to Dave's affections toward Robyn. One day, as Dave is digging a pool in his backyard, he comes across a chunk of ice that has the body of a man in it following an earthquake. They leave the ice block unattended in the garage and space heaters left on cause the ice to melt, releasing the caveman from the opening of the film. The caveman then encounters a garbage truck, which he misinterprets as a mammoth from his time, and a television, which he discovers upon entering the living room. When the boys return home, they find hand paint covering the walls and the house in disarray. Investigating a beeping smoke alarm, they discover the caveman in Dave's bedroom, attempting to start a fire by rotating a stick in the center of a pile of kindling. At first, the caveman panics at the sight of them, but Stoney quickly calms him by using the flame of a lighter to mesmerize him. After batheing him and trimming him to look like an average teenager, Dave names him "Link" as in the missing link. They manage to fool Dave's family into thinking he is actually an Estonian exchange student sent to live with them, and enroll him in school, where Link's bizarre behavior and supreme athletic skills shoot Dave and Stoney to popularity by association, allowing Dave to get closer to Robyn, causing Matt's anger and frustration. Soon, Stoney's bizarre attitude apparently is having an effect on Link's actions and speech, which causes a rift between Dave and Stoney. Matt’s anger and frustration leads to a fight with Link at a skating rink and increases due to Robyn‘s growing attraction towards Link. During a school field trip to a natural history museum, Link gets upset realizing that the cavepeople he knew are all dead. Stoney and Dave console Link that he is not without friends in this time, causing the trio to make a pact, but Dave tries to abandon Link, and a fight between Dave and Stoney causes Link to come running back and separate the friends. Stoney and Dave reconcile. On prom night, Link is a hit at the party with Robyn as his date, while Dave stays in for the evening. Matt breaks into Dave's bedroom and steals photographic evidence that Link is a caveman. As Dave and Stoney go after Matt and his friends, another earthquake happens. At the prom, Matt's plan to uncover the "freak" backfires as the information instead makes Link even more popular. Dave and Robyn make up, and the three boys lead the entire prom in an impromptu caveman-like dance. After the prom, some of the students attend Dave's house for a pool party, where Dave and Robyn kiss. Meanwhile, Stoney and Link follow clues similar to when they found him ranging from breast prints on the slider and paint covering the walls. They follow the muddy footprints to the bathroom and discover a beautiful cavewoman in the bathtub, who turns out to be Link's partner from the beginning of the film. He joins her in the bathtub as Stoney cheers them on and embraces her happily as she is also made to look like a modern human. ===== Max himself narrated the strip, and as befitting a computerised custodian of hundreds of people, was quite chatty and light- hearted. However, he was also portrayed as having a programming flaw reminiscent of the HAL 9000; programmed to love and protect his tenants, he could remorselessly kill anyone who threatened or even just annoyed them. In effect Max was a psychopath with no empathy towards anyone who was not a tenant. Maxwell Tower had been built without a thirteenth floor (going straight from 12 to 14) for reasons of superstition; however due to a faulty Integrated Functions (I.F.) module, Max had the inexplicable ability to 'create' a 13th floor of his own, containing anything he desired, accessible from the building's lifts. Whilst he could produce any range of idyllic, surreal or mundane environments, Max seemed to have a personal taste for the horrific. In this sense The Thirteenth Floor seemed to be inspired by the Eagle strip The House of Daemon. The 13th floor originally appeared to be a virtual reality, similar to the Holodeck concept in Star Trek which it preceded – for example, when a burglar shot a zombie with his gun, the lift's walls became riddled with bullet holes. However, later in the story the 13th floor was portrayed as somehow as an extension of Max himself – not only were lifts empty when people were 'on' the 13th Floor, if Max was switched off, they were 'lost'. Max used his 13th floor to punish and torture anybody he felt deserved such treatment - often creating such fear and distress that they suffered a fatal heart attack or were driven insane. Typically, Max would notice a burglar, vandal or con-man through one of the many viewscreens, lure them into the lift, and take them to the 13th floor. Often their experience would contain subtle irony; for example a con-man claiming to be a pest controller would be chased by giant rats, or incompetent repairmen would be stuck in a burning facsimile of Maxwell Tower, in which all the doors and windows were jammed. As the story progressed, Max's 'controller' Jerry Knight and local police became suspicious, so Max hypnotized a resident named Bert Runch and directed him to dispose of their corpses. After Jerry discovered the 13th Floor, Max hypnotised Jerry (for reasons including gaining Jerry’s tolerance of the 13th Floor’s continued existence), effectively reversing the role of controller and controlled. A local policeman, Sgt Ingram, discovered Max's actions and shut Max down. At this point Runch was on the 13th Floor and disappeared along with the floor. Jerry then switched Max back on and assisted in imprisoning Ingram on the 13th Floor before Ingram could tell anyone of the 13th Floor’s secrets. The 13th Floor was finally discovered by others in Ingram's police department and Max was de-activated (losing Ingram who was 'inside' him), re-programmed and installed to run Pringles Department Store. However, the computer's new controller, Gwyn, inadvertently triggered a backup mechanism, re-activating Max's sentience, and before long he had deliberately burnt out his I.F. module and re-created the 13th Floor, this time accessible via the top of an escalator. Jerry never again appeared in the story after Max's move from Maxwell Tower. By this point, the strip had been running in Eagle for some time, and the horror theme had been dropped in favour of more generic action-oriented stories. Max's character had been humanised, and he now saw anybody as a potential Pringle's customer, and thus a 'tenant' deserving of his care, rather than of punishment. Max uncovered secret activity by MI5 within the store, and programmed to be a patriotic computer, offered the 13th floor's services to MI5 for purposes such as interrogation, and even created a pocket-size version of himself, Minimax, to go on spy missions accompanied by the (hypnotized) local MI5 director, Auberon Hedges. Max eventually became homesick and used his government contacts to arrange a return to Maxwell Tower, where he yet again resumed punishing people he felt harmed his tenants. Eventually, many of the building's tenants suffered a wave of madness resulting from paint fumes in the building affecting their minds and took to setting the block on fire, resulting in the block burning down and the strip ending in issue 258. Max was afterwards supposedly installed in the King's Reach Tower headquarters of the Eagle comic. He was then portrayed as the comic's editor, with few Thirteenth Floor references, until the comic ended.Screamcomic.co.uk ===== The book opens with a short description about how the author's parents had met at Bayil Prison in the suburbs of Baku. Essad Bey's father was described as a young Azerbaijani oil entrepreneur and his mother, an imprisoned Bolshevik revolutionary. As the story goes, Essad Bey's father just happened to be strolling along in the shade of the prison on a hot sunny afternoon when he chanced upon a woman looking out from between the bars of the prison. At first sight, he determined to take her home to be his wife. After threatening and bribing the guards, he achieved her release and took her home that very day after dismissing his harem. However the marriage certificate for Lev Nussimbaum's parents has been found in Tbilisi, Georgia.Georgian Central State Historical Archives, Nusenbaum Marriage Registration, No. 675 (1904), p. 10. The couple Abram Leybusovich Nusimbaum (citizen of Tiflis) and Basya Davidovna Slutzkin (from Belarus) were married on October 26, 1904, in the Tiflis Synagogue.National Archives, Tbilisi, Georgia. The marriage certificate indicates that the marriage was conducted by Rabbi Levin and it indicates that this was a first marriage for both of them; in other words, there was no harem to dismiss as Essad Bey fantasizes. And thus, began the first of many sensational tales that may make for "good reading" but which absolutely are not true, that Essad Bey would write during his literary career which spanned slightly more than a decade from about 1926 to 1937. ===== Michelle witnesses the brutal murder of her mother while she is a four-year-old child. Sixteen years later she is still traumatized by memories, and living in poverty at a boarding house, struggling to pay the rent. She befriends a mysterious man who moves in across the hall named Charles Paskin. Something doesn't seem right about him and Michelle decides to investigate. She discovers that Charlie is working for the British government. His mission is to retrieve government files about a top secret operation which has been stolen, and he has been instructed to dispose anyone associated with these documents. Michelle believes that he may be connected with the murder of her mother. While trying to figure out the mystery, Michelle is dragged into a world of violence, conspiracy, and revenge where she soon discovers that nothing is as it seems and that no one can be trusted. ===== Angelo Donnini and his younger brother Gino are of Italian origin, living in Australia in the 1950s. Angelo is insecure, silent and introverted and not at all good-looking, while Gino is the complete opposite: outgoing, funny and handsome. Angelo looks for a wife and writes letters to Italian girls in hope of a match. But his letters are always returned with his photograph. One day, he desperately sends a new letter with a picture of his brother to Rosetta, who falls in love instantly with the man in the picture and therefore accepts his marriage proposal. When she arrives in Australia she is of course appalled that Angelo does not look like the man she thought she had married. However, she stays, to try to gain Gino's affections. But Gino has a girlfriend, Connie, a wise and tough girl who knows exactly what she wants. She loves Gino, but wishes he possessed more of Angelo's qualities. Though Gino tries to avoid Rosetta, he cannot help but eventually fall in love with her. Gino and Connie have an argument and they call it quits, and Angelo and Connie start to develop a romance. In the end, Rosetta, believing that she has failed to gain Gino's affections, decides to return to Italy with the help of Father Alfredo. Gino follows her onto the ship and they embrace. The couple then marry. In the final scene of the film, which seems to be few years later, it shows the wedding party of Connie and Angelo, while Gino is married to Rosetta and they have a newborn baby. ===== In the year 1999, the Machine Empire of Baranoia, led by Emperor Bacchushund, invades Earth with the intention of wiping out all human life and bringing about machine rule. Chief Counsellor Miura revives super energies that had been born of the lost civilization of Pangaea. Assembling pieces of a stone plate uncovered three years previously, he reveals the secrets of "Super Power". Enlisting an elite five-man team of the United Airforce's finest pilots, Miura builds a pyramid to generate Tetrahedron power in order to allow five UAOH officers to transform into the Ohrangers and stop Baranoia's invasion. ===== Tom White (Colin Friels) is an architect who chooses to make himself homeless. Outwardly, he has all the signs of a successful life—large home, loving family, successful career. However, it soon becomes clear that not everything is as it appears at work. Tom consciously takes a different path and cuts ties with his normal life. He has chosen the streets, where those he meets, in spite of their position, have enormous self-dignity—the rent boy (Dan Spielman), an ex-junkie (Loene Carmen), a gentle-but-manly tramp (Bill Hunter) and a 14-year-old graffiti artist (Jarryd Jinks). Tom goes on a personal journey of his own as he plumbs outsider society, yet he discovers his own dignity and gains an understanding of who he is. ===== Davey Graham (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) arrives at an upper class party to sell drugs to a woman named Stella. As he leaves, Stella's date watches him and makes a call on his mobile phone. Outside the party, three men are waiting for Davey in a black Range Rover, including a car dealer named Boad (Malcolm McDowell). The men follow Davey around London, finally attacking him just as he heads home. Two of the men wait for Davey as Boad lurks down an alley. Both men grab him and one of them holds his hand over his mouth to muffle his cries for help. They drag him off the street and into a garage, where they hold him down as Boad rapes him. At dawn, Davey emerges from the garage and stumbles home, where he draws a bath for himself and gets in fully clothed. Several hours later, his friend Mickser (Jamie Foreman) arrives to pick him up. He discovers Davey dead in the bath, with his throat slashed. Mickser visits Helen (Charlotte Rampling) and asks her how to get in touch with Davey's brother Will (Clive Owen). She says that she has stopped receiving letters from Will, who left London three years earlier. Will has been working in the country as a forester. He's unshaven with long hair and he lives in a van. After he is sacked from his job for having no papers, he heads to the sea to take a ferry out of England when he sees Davey in the terminal. After realizing it is a hallucination, he begins calling Davey's flat. Receiving no answer he returns to London, where he learns that Davey is dead. His return to London stirs up the anxiety of crime boss Frank Turner (Ken Stott), who sends word to Will that he should leave town after he buries his brother. Will's old gang urge him to return for good, saying that Turner could be overtaken easily. Will makes it clear that he is not interested in returning to his old life. He visits Helen and apologizes for leaving her. He explains that he has been grieving for 'a life wasted', lamenting the fact that Davey also wasted his. Will orders a second post-mortem to try to determine why Davey would kill himself. It reveals that he was raped the night before he died, in addition to the fact that Davey ejaculated during the rape. The coroner explains that it was a result of the anal stimulation, surmising that Davey probably killed himself over the shame he felt after involuntarily ejaculating. He refers Will to a psychologist who can explain the phenomenon more eloquently. As Will listens to the psychologist explain the mindset of the rapist and the mental damage of a rape victim, he takes his first drink in three years. Mickser visits the woman who hosted the party where Davey made his sale. The hostess remembers seeing the man make a phone call as Davey left and she tracks down his identity. Will and Mickser visit the man who leads them to Boad. During a dinner party at Boad's house, Will cases the grounds and leaves. Will's cohorts pull a prank at Turner's house, hog-tying one of his bodyguards in a bra and panties. Irate, Turner hires an Irish hitman to retaliate. Will visits a garage and uncovers a vintage Jaguar. He retrieves a suitcase from the trunk and checks into a hotel. The suitcase is full of money, clothes and a gun. Will has a suit pressed and orders a barber to cut off his long hair and beard. Clean cut and in his suit, he has the Jaguar washed and heads to Boad's house. On his way, he calls Helen and tells her to pack a bag but Turner's hitman is waiting outside her house. At Boad's, Will trips the alarm on a car in the garage, drawing Boad out of the house. Will kills his dog and then points his gun at Boad, asking him why he raped Davey. Boad explains that he'd been following Davey for six weeks, fascinated by how fake he was. He hated the way that Davey waltzed through life, conning everyone with good looks and charm. Boad says that he wanted to make Davey realize that he was worthless. Will tells Boad that he will kill him later, because killing him there would be too easy. As he's walking away from the house, he pauses and then returns to the garage and kills Boad. Helen is shown sitting on the staircase in her flat, arms crossed, waiting with Turner's hitman for Will to arrive. The film ends on an ambiguous note as Will watches a man hitting golf balls into the ocean. It is the same shot and voice-over that opens the film. Will speaks about how most thoughts are just memories and after someone is gone, the memories of him are all that's left. He gets into his car and drives off. ===== Froggy has a crush on a young girl named Marilyn, who is too preoccupied with her budding career as a dancer to pay Froggy attention. When the gang attends one of Marilyn's recitals, Froggy finds himself insanely jealous of Marilyn's dancing partner Gerald, whom he sees as a rival for Marilyn's affections. A few days later, Froggy holds a dance recital of his own, hoping to impress Marilyn. His seemingly gravity- defying moves are accomplished with the help of Mickey and Buckwheat, who've rigged their pal up with wires and control his movements via a pulley. Gerald exposes this artifice, hoping to embarrass Froggy. Marilyn, however, is impressed by Froggy's determination, and tells him she loves him - only to have the deep-voiced boy faint dead away. ===== Donovan Donaly (Geoffrey Rush) a TV soap opera producer, walks in on his wife Bonnie (Stacey Travis) being intimate with an ex-boyfriend. He files for divorce, and Bonnie hires Miles Massey (George Clooney), a top divorce attorney and the inventor of the "Massey pre-nup", a completely foolproof prenuptial agreement. Miles wins a large property settlement against Donaly, leaving him broke. Private investigator Gus Petch (Cedric the Entertainer) tails the wealthy and married Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann) on a drunken night out with a blonde. When they stop at a motel, Gus catches their tryst on video. He takes the video to Rex's wife, Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta- Jones), a marriage-for-money predator. She files for divorce, demanding a large property settlement. Unable to afford a divorce settlement, Rex hires Miles to represent him. Marylin's friend, serial divorcée Sarah Sorkin (Julia Duffy), warns Marilyn that Miles will be a dangerous opponent. Marylin and her lawyer, Freddy Bender (Richard Jenkins), fail to reach an agreement with Miles and Rex. Bored Miles asks the fascinating Marylin to dinner, where they flirt. While they are out, Petch breaks in and copies her address book for Miles, who has his assistant search among the names for Marylin's accomplice in predatory marriage. In court, Marylin feigns an emotional breakdown over Rex's infidelity, professing that she loved Rex unconditionally at first sight. Miles then calls "Puffy" Krauss von Espy (Jonathan Hadary), a Swiss hotel concierge located by his assistant. Puffy testifies that Marylin asked him to find her a marriage target who was very rich, foolish, and a philanderer whom she could easily divorce, and that he pointed her to Rex. The divorce is granted, but Marylin gets nothing, and Miles' ancient boss, Herb Myerson (Tom Aldredge), congratulates him. Marylin wants revenge. She finds the now- penniless Donaly living on the street, still clutching his Emmy statuette. She offers him a chance to reclaim his lost glory if he helps her get revenge on Miles. Soon after, Marylin shows up at Miles' office with her new fiancé, oil millionaire Howard D. Doyle (Billy Bob Thornton). Marylin insists on the Massey prenup, which will make it absolutely impossible for her to claim any of her fiancée's assets in the event of a divorce, over both Howard and Miles's objections. However, Howard destroys it during the wedding, as a demonstration of love. Six months later, Miles goes to Las Vegas to give the keynote address at a convention for divorce attorneys. He encounters Marylin, who has divorced Howard and presumably collected a sizable share of the Doyle Oil fortune. However, she admits that she is disenchanted with her wealthy but lonely life. Miles is thrilled, and marries her on the spur of the moment. To prove that he has no interest in her fortune, he signs the Massey prenup, but she tears it up. The next morning a disheveled Miles tells the convention that love is the most important thing, and that he is giving up divorce for pro bono work. A short time later, Miles discovers that "Howard D. Doyle" was just an actor from one of Donaly's soap operas. Marylin has tricked him, and now his considerable wealth is at risk. Miles' boss demands that something be done to save the firm's reputation, and suggests the hitman "Wheezy Joe" (Irwin Keyes). Miles hires him to kill Marylin. Miles then learns that Marylin's ex- husband Rex has died without changing his will, leaving her his entire fortune. Since she is now the wealthier of the two parties, his assets are no longer at risk. A repentant Miles rushes to save Marylin from Wheezy Joe, but Marilyn has already offered to pay him double to kill Miles instead. There is a struggle; in the confusion Wheezy Joe mistakes his gun for his asthma inhaler and accidental kills himself. Later, Miles, Marylin and their lawyers meet to negotiate a divorce. Miles pleads for a second chance and retroactively signs a Massey prenup. Realizing her own feelings for him, she tears it up, and they kiss. Marylin then tells Miles that to get Donaly's help for supplying Doyle, she gave him an idea for a hit TV show, restoring his fortunes in the process: America's Funniest Divorce Videos, with Gus Petch as the host. ===== Because of his drunkenness and questionable use of firearms, aging one-eyed (wearing a distinctive black eye patch) U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) in the Indian Territory (future Oklahoma) has been stripped of his badge by Judge Parker (John McIntire) at the territorial capital of Fort Smith, Arkansas for excessive violence, fatness and drunkenness, complaining he had "gone to seed". But he's given a chance to redeem himself after a shipment of highly explosive nitroglycerine is stolen from a transporting troop of United States Army cavalry. Rooster agrees and eventually tracks the outlaws, led by Hawk (Richard Jordan) and his gang, along with Rooster's former scout Breed (Anthony Zerbe - who had earlier betrayed the Cavalry troop escort to be ambushed at a creek crossing by Hawk's cutthroats), to a church mission at the remote settlement of Fort Ruby in the Indian Territory. The village had been overrun earlier by the gang who camped overnight plying the Indians with liquor and gambling, who then killed an elderly missionary preacher who protested, Rev. George Goodnight (Jon Lormer) and a number of the local Indians. The Reverend's spinster daughter, Miss Eula Goodnight (Katharine Hepburn), wants to join Marshal Cogburn to track the criminals down, becoming his unwilling partner along with her student Wolf, the son of one of the deceased Indians, who aspires to be one of the first Indian lawmen and United States Marshal. Meanwhile, in a scuffle between two bandit men, one of them is wounded by a stab wound. The heavily loaded wagon's wheels also hit a rock, but the men manage to fix it, while gang leader Hawk goes ahead to scout out their next crime target. Getting ahead of Hawk's gang, Rooster, Wolf, and Eula stake out a crossing across a gully in the woods, barricading the path with logs. The bandits are stopped and Rooster threatens to blow up the wagon and its high explosive contents unless the men dismount, which they do. A man attempts to shoot Rooster in the back, but Miss Eula makes the perfect shot from across the ravine and kills him, revealing herself to be an excellent sharpshooter. Another man tries the same, but is killed instantly by a bullet to the chest. Rooster cries out "Posse!" and his two partners fire into the air, causing the men to actually think he has overwhelming superior numbers in his posse, which they flee. Rooster captures the wagon, the wood boxes of the unstable volatile "nitro" and the new revolutionary repeater Gatling gun, an early machine gun on board. The men carry on back to their leader, Hawk. He orders Breed to investigate the tracks back at the ravine which he finds out there was not much of a posse, much to Hawk's disdain. Hawk, Breed and the bandit which got stabbed, ride on to town where they had planned using the nitro to rob a bank of its gold shipment, while the other men attempt to fix the axle, which they eventually do. The stabbed man cannot make it, causing Hawk to shoot him, saying "Let the buzzards have him" to Breed. That night the outlaw men kidnap Wolf, saying they will let him go if Cogburn gives back the wagon, the boxes of explosives and the Gatling gun, but are actually planning to get the wagon back, and to kill the three heroes anyway. Wolf shoots the man who is holding him with a small 5-shot Pepperbox handgun/derringer, that Rooster previously gave to him to protect himself and Miss Eula if need be. He escapes and scampers back to Cogburn's camp safely. Rooster has Eula hitch up the wagon horses, while Wolf scatters the outlaws horses. The bandits retreat from the torrent of Gatling gun fire, allowing the heroes to escape safely. The next day, Rooster "borrows" a raft from an old ferryboat man (Strother Martin) by wagging his pistol in the complaining old-timer's face, stashing as many boxes of bottles with nitroglycerine as possible on board and head down the mountainous river facing narrow rocky rapids and waterfalls. The "bad men" attempt to ambush the three, but they fire the rapid-fire Gatling gun up at them on the rocky cliffs and they manage to escape around the corner bend in the stream. Breed and another bandit set up a trap across a broader slower part of the river downstream with an underwater rope to snare Marshal Cogburn and his party. As the bandit hidden behind the shore rocks is about to kill Rooster in cold blood as he bends over and tries to free the raft from the snag, Breed shoots him in the back from behind, then standing up showing himself to Rooster and reminding him that it was in return for Rooster saving his life years prior. That night, Breed returns to the outlaws camp informing Hawk that the other bandit died in a shootout with Rooster. Hawk, checking Breed's gun, seeing only one expended bullet. Hawk now knowing that Breed had to have killed the other outlaw himself, launches himself at Breed in a furious violent rage and kicking the betraying scout down into a rocky ravine, killing him. The three heroes encounter massive white-water rapids the following morning. They managed to get through safely, though at the cost of losing the Gatling gun falling overboard. They hear horses up ahead and realize Hawk is planning to encounter them downriver at the wide shallow slow floating waters, so they dump the dynamite boxes overboard to float ahead of the damaged raft. Miss Eula and Wolf pretend to surrender, saying Marshal Cogburn is injured. He jumps up from being hidden behind the remaining boxes and shoots the several explosives boxes floating ahead with his sharpshooter rifle, blowing up Hawk and the several remaining bandits mounted on their horses. A few days later, Judge Parker, at the insistent demands of Miss Eula, gives Rooster his job back, especially when she compares him to the warrior Gideon in the Biblical Scriptures and mistakenly reveals Cogburn's true first name of "Reuben" to the old judge's amazement. Miss Eula and Wolf say goodbye to Rooster as they, along with a number of settlers return to rebuild Fort Ruby, but jerks her horse back returning saying teary eyed that he is a credit to the whole male species and that she was proud to be his friend. Old Cogburn rears back in his saddle saying "She got the last word in anyway!" ===== An overhead view of Mike's starting location in StarTropics, C-island, so named due to its resemblance to the letter "C". The story of the game follows Mike Jones as he travels to visit his uncle, an archaeologist by the name of Dr. Steven Jones, at his laboratory on the fictional C-Island in the South Seas. When Mike arrives at Dr. Jones's home in the tropical village of Coralcola, he finds that his uncle has gone missing. The chief of Coralcola gives Mike a special yo-yo to defend himself, and Dr. Jones's robot Nav-Com permits Mike to use his uncle's submarine to search for him. On a nearby island, Mike finds a bottle with a message from Dr. Jones, stating that he has been abducted by extraterrestrials. Traveling to many of the isles of the South Seas, Mike encounters monsters, labyrinths, quirky characters, and intelligent animals, including a talking parrot and a mother dolphin looking for her son, all in the search for his lost uncle. Eventually, Mike and the submarine are swallowed by a whale. In the belly of the whale, Mike encounters his uncle's assistant, who confirms that Dr. Jones was abducted by aliens, and out of fear, he did not give Mike all possible help when they met earlier on C-island. After they escape the whale, the assistant gives Mike a special code, which enables Nav-Com to track Dr. Jones's location. Mike follows the signal to the lost ruins which includes the melted wreckage of an alien escape pod. Shortly afterward, Mike finds his uncle. Dr. Jones explains that he discovered the escape pod some time ago, and says it came from a far-away planet called Argonia. This escape pod contained three magic cubes, which are now in the hands of the evil alien's leader Zoda. Infiltrating their spaceship, Mike recovers the three cubes and confronts Zoda. Mike defeats Zoda and then escapes as the spaceship self-destructs. After Mike returns to C-Island, the cubes are placed together and a small group of children appear. The leader of the children, Mica, explains that they are the last of the Argonians (their home planet having been destroyed) and that her father King Hirocon sent them to Earth to live in peace. The village chief invites the children to live with them in Coralcola, to which they accept. ===== Goodbye, Dragon Inn is set in the approximately 90 minutes of the last feature at an old Taipei cinema that is closing down, showing King Hu's 1967 sword-fighting classic Dragon Inn. Only a few people are present in the cinema, and a variety of subplots are developed around them. Throughout the film, the ticket woman tries to find the projectionist, searching for him in order to present him with a steamed bun. She wears an iron brace on her leg. She walks around the theater throughout the film, struggling up and down stairs. A young Japanese tourist wanders around the cinema in search of a homosexual encounter. Chen Chao-jung brushes off his advance and tells him that the cinema is haunted. Jun Shi, who was one of the actors who appeared in the original Dragon Inn, watches the film with tears in his eyes. Outside the theater, he encounters Miao Tien, who had been watching the film with his grandson; Miao also starred in the original film. The film is shot with almost no camera movement, most shots lasting well over 30 seconds. There are only about a dozen lines of dialogue. ===== After his regeneration at the end of Logopolis, the Fifth Doctor is still weak, and his companions, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan take him to his TARDIS. Inside, the Doctor is delirious but asks to be taken to the "Zero Room" that contains Time Lord healing technology to allow him to recover. Tegan and Nyssa discover a terminal on the TARDIS that describes how to use the machine. They attempt to pilot the TARDIS but find they are travelling rapidly to a preset time and destination, "Event One", the Big Bang, a trap set by the Master. After they are unable to find Adric, the women manage to bring the Doctor to the console room in time for him to jettison a quarter of the TARDIS' mass to propel them back to conventional time. They soon discover that the Zero Room was part of the jettisoned mass, so with the help of Nyssa the Doctor builds a temporary coffin-shaped zero cabinet from the zero room's doors. Tegan discovers information on the town of Castrovalva, an ideal place for the Doctor to recover, and directs the TARDIS there. In the forest, Nyssa and Tegan have difficulties in transporting the Doctor, and become separated from him; the Doctor is captured by warriors protecting Castrovalva, while the women are forced to climb a rocky cliff to reach its entrance. The Doctor is cared for by Shardovan, a librarian, and the elderly Portreeve, before Nyssa and Tegan arrive. After a night's sleep, they discover strange aspects of Castrovalva; if they go out of the town through any of its exits, they find themselves in a particular plaza in the town, and a tapestry in the Doctor's rooms changes and reflects events of the outside world. The Doctor understands that they are trapped in a "recursive occlusion", and Castrovalva is fake. The Portreeve reveals himself as the Master, and shows them the trapped Adric. The Master has been able to use Adric's mathematical genius to create Castrovalva as well as alter the TARDIS, creating the terminal on the console that led them here. Realising the true nature of Castrovalva's reality, Shardovan swings from a chandelier into the web and destroys it, freeing Adric and causing Castrovalva to fall apart. Seeing all is lost, the Master flees to his TARDIS. The Doctor and his companions flee from the town. The Master appears to be trapped and is unable to escape as the town collapses in on itself. As the time travellers return to the TARDIS, the Doctor indicates that he has fully recovered from his regeneration ordeal. ===== In 1804, Leslie Edwards, a foppish aristocrat, and the loud, low-brow Bartholomew Hunt are competing against the renowned Lewis & Clark to be the first to chart and make it across the United States to the Pacific Ocean. In the beginning of the film, Edwards has high hopes to head the first expedition to make it across the U.S., but while he has ambition and funding, he has grown up sheltered and knows little of the wilderness he seeks to cross. To aid in his journey, he hires the services of a supposedly knowledgeable wilderness-man and tracker, Hunt, who, once they get underway, turns out to be less than advertised. They are aided by a crew of varied, rugged and grizzled frontiersmen, including the group's version of Sacagawea, a young Indian woman by the name Shaquinna, who is integral in helping them find their way across the dangerous and unknown terrain ahead, as well as eventually becoming Edwards' love interest. Along the way, the group goes through various mishaps and ordeals from having to deal with quirky, indigenous Indian tribes and vicious eagles, to running out of food and romantic snafus, as Hunt's ineptness often causes more problems than it solves. Along the way, Edward and Hunt's shared journey helps Edwards shed his aristocratic, snooty ways and he learns camaraderie and honor, as well as a more humble view of a world he thought he understood. Hunt finds true friendship in Edwards and a sense of self-confidence he had not known before. After many hardships and setbacks, they eventually make it to the Pacific coast just minutes before Lewis and Clark's expedition; however, once the celebration is over, they find that they do not necessarily want to go back to their old lives and collectively decide to continue their adventure, leading Edwards and Hunt's expedition to further explore the great uncharted world. ===== On the planet Cato Neimoidia, Jedi generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker lead clone troopers to capture Nute Gunray, Trade Federation viceroy and one of the leaders of the Separatists. Gunray narrowly escapes to rendezvous with General Grievous and the rest of the Separatist Council, but he leaves behind his walking chair equipped with a specially-constructed holotransceiver. Republic analysts find the afterimage of Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who masterminded the Clone Wars. However, this puts the Jedi no closer to finding Sidious himself. While Kenobi and Skywalker pursue the constructor of the chair, General Grievous is commanded by Sidious through his apprentice Count Dooku to relocate the Separatist Council to Belderone, where a Republic fleet lies in wait for them. Furious, Grievous learns that Gunray lost the holotransceiver. Republic Intelligence find the signature of the artist that designed the mechno-chair that Sidious provided Gunray. Kenobi and Skywalker seek out the artist, a Xi Charrian, who tells them to find the designer, contracted by Sidious, to build the holotransceiver built into the mechno-chair. The Jedi find the designer in a prison, where he tells them that he built two holotransceivers, one for the mechno-chair, another for a ship of unknown design. The designer knows the identity of the pilot that delivered the ship to its owners (Darth Maul and Sidious). The pilot, a Lethan Twi'lek, is discovered on a moon by the Jedi, and she describes to the Jedi the location of the delivered ship: a columnar building in The Works, a desolate industrial park on Coruscant. On Coruscant, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine resists the Jedi Council's suggestion to recall Jedi from the Outer Rim worlds due to the Separatist threat. Palpatine's increased calls for public surveillance and restriction on freedom of movement and action prompt Senators Padmé Amidala, Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma to persuade him to pull back from the brink. Palpatine somehow knows Sidious' name and orders the Jedi and Republic intelligence to hunt him down. In the bowels of the planet, trace elements lead Jedi Mace Windu, Shaak Ti and Republic intelligence to track down the same Darth Sidious that Count Dooku had been meeting with, the tower described by the Twi'lek pilot. The Jedi/Intelligence team are led through endless tunnels, but find a trail of evidence that leads to the Senate district. Here, the trail grows cold at the base of 500 Republica, the personal quarters of many of Coruscant's finest. At 500 Republica, a Republic Intelligence agent named Captain Dyne was separated from the Jedi, and was the first of the Republic to realize who Darth Sidious is; he was astonished to learn that the Sith really do rule the galaxy. He died with the satisfaction of escaping the war. Before the search for the Sith Lord can proceed further, General Grievous leads an invasion of Coruscant that results in the capture of the Supreme Chancellor himself. As Coruscant is invaded by Separatist forces, Kenobi and Skywalker, fresh from an encounter with Dooku on the former industrial world of Tythe, use orbital hyperspace rings to depart for Coruscant. The novel ends "To Be Concluded". ===== After a dangerous but victimless encounter with a giant grizzly bear during a camping trip in 1984, North Bay, Ontario resident Troy Hurtubise is inspired to research the species up close. A scrap-metal merchant, Hurtubise builds a space suit-like "grizzly-proof" suit of armour inspired by the film RoboCop, which he calls "Ursus Mark VI". The inventor works diligently to improve the $150,000 suit, continuously testing its resilience by subjecting himself to would-be injuries from moving automobiles and bar brawls. He then forays into the Rockies to track down the grizzlies he dreams of meeting. Hurtubise ultimately leaves without repeating the bear encounter, which director Peter Lynch optimistically notes is the only way "the quest [can live] on." ===== Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg), a very smart and talented science student, plans to pursue a scholarship to Harvard University. For the scholarship, Casey must present a personal summer project about physics. While watching a figure skating competition with her mathematically inclined friend Ann, Casey realizes that her favorite childhood hobby, ice skating, would make a perfect project. She decides to try to improve her own skating by applying physics and what she has discovered from watching other skaters. She becomes proficient and skips two levels to become a junior skater, following a skating recital. She helps junior skaters Gennifer "Gen" Harwood (Hayden Panettiere), Tiffany Lai (Jocelyn Lai), and Nikki Fletcher (Kirsten Olson) improve their skating by using algorithms generated by her computer. Torn between her Harvard dream and her growing love of skating, Casey has difficulty juggling schoolwork, skating, and a part-time job. Joan Carlyle (Joan Cusack), Casey's mother, attempts to prevent her daughter from skating due to her declining academic performance. Meanwhile, tension arises between Casey's mother and Casey's coach Tina Harwood (Kim Cattrall), a disgraced former skater. Tina, who manages the rink where Casey trains, has Gen on a strict training program. During a competition where both Casey and Gen compete, Tina sees that Casey may outrank Gen and sabotages Casey's performance by buying her new skates. Unaware of the danger of unbroken-in skates, Casey's resulting long program is riddled with poor jumps and several falls. Upon being informed of Tina's intent behind her seemingly kind gesture, Casey lashes out at Tina and mistakenly assumes her children were equally involved in the plot. Casey ranks fifth in the competition and can only qualify for sectionals if any of the top four back out. As a result of this, Casey loses interest in skating and returns to her studies and goal of attending Harvard. Upset at sabotage and frustrated by all the restrictions of training, Gen quits. While Casey and Gen reconcile, Casey can now qualify for sectionals since Gen quit. Casey declines the Harvard scholarship competition to devote herself to skating, to her mother's dismay. Casey asks Tina to be her personal coach and help her train for sectionals. Her mother, upset at this change of direction in her life, refuses to watch her skate. At Sectionals, Casey's mind is not fully focused on the competition, and she falls while attempting a triple salchow jump. To her surprise, she discovers that her mother is in the audience. Inspired, Casey gives a highly rated artistic performance. Sectionals ends with Nikki earning gold and Casey placing silver, both qualifying to go to Nationals and potentially the 2006 Winter Olympics. Gen's brother, Teddy (Trevor Blumas), gives Casey flowers to congratulate her; and they kiss. Later, Joan and Tina bicker about how many college courses Casey should take, Teddy and Casey's budding romance, Casey's sponsors, and Casey's future in figure skating. ===== Jack Wyatt is a narcissistic actor who is approached to play the role of Darrin in a remake of the 1960s sitcom Bewitched, but insists that an unknown play Samantha. Isabel Bigelow is an actual witch who decides she wants to be normal and moves to Los Angeles to start a new life and becomes friends with her neighbor Maria. She goes to a bookstore to learn how to get a job after seeing an advertisement of Ed McMahon on television. Jack happens to be at the same bookstore after attending some failed Samantha auditions. Jack spots Isabel and persuades her to audition. At the same time, while she's trying to settle into her new life, Isabel's intrusive father Nigel keeps appearing to convince her to return home, despite several rejections from Isabel. After Isabel impresses the show's producers and writers, Jack finally convinces Isabel to join the show. Also joining the show is legendary actress Iris Smythson as Endora. After a successful taping of the pilot, Isabel happens to overhear a conversation Jack is having with his agent Ritchie. They are talking about how they tricked Isabel to appear without having any lines. Furious, Isabel storms off with Maria and new neighbor friend Nina close behind. She decides she only has three choices: quit, get mad, or live with it. Instead, Isabel's Aunt Clara visits and aids Isabel in casting a spell on Jack in order to make him fall in love with her. At the same time, Nigel is introduced to Iris and becomes infatuated with her. The hex works and Jack becomes love struck by Isabel, insisting on several script changes to give her some dialogue and jokes, ignoring statements from test groups preferring Isabel over him. Jack's affection for Isabel grows and he asks her out on a date, making Isabel forget about the hex. But when he brings her home, she remembers and reverses it back to when she and Aunt Clara cast it. The next day, rather than the events the hex presented, Jack is outraged by the scores he received and takes his anger out on Isabel, who lashes back at him. Ritchie fires her, and she storms off. Rather than be angry at her, Jack is fascinated with Isabel and chases after her, accepting all her comments. After another taping (with Isabel getting dialogue), their romance blossoms. But the next day, Jack's former wife Sheila arrives, determined to woo Jack back. Isabel sees this and casts a spell on her making her sign the divorce papers and have her decide to move to Iceland. Jack, thrilled, announces he will be throwing a party at his house celebrating the divorce. Nigel attends the party with Iris and when Nigel begins flirting with much younger guests, Iris reveals that she is also a witch and casts a spell on each girl. When Jack makes a toast stating truth will be revealed with everyone, Isabel decides to tell Jack she's a witch. At first, thinking she's simply an amateur magician, Jack officially believes her when she levitates him with her broom. Jack becomes frightened and shoos her away with a stick. Offended, Isabel flies off. Jack takes this hard, being brought to the studios by the police and becoming disenchanted with the project. Isabel decides to return home as she no longer wishes to stay. Jack, imagining himself on the Conan O'Brien Show, is visited by Uncle Arthur. Arthur convinces Jack not to let Isabel leave, because Jack still loves her and wouldn't be able to return for 100 years (which is later proven to be a lie Arthur made up to inspire Jack). Arthur drives him to the studio where he finds Isabel at the set. Jack apologizes to her and tells her he wants to marry her. They do and move into their new neighborhood (which resembles the neighborhood in the series, with the Kravitzes living right across the street). ===== In the first novel of the series, the reader is introduced to four high school students: Lena Kaligaris, Tibby Rollins, Bridget Vreeland, and Carmen Lowell. They have been best friends since birth (their mothers attended prenatal exercise classes together). The summer before their junior year of high school, Carmen finds a pair of old jeans that mysteriously fits each girl perfectly, despite their different sizes. This leads them to believe that the pants are magical. They share the "traveling pants" among themselves over the summer while they are separated. Lena spends the summer with her grandparents in Santorini. During her stay, her grandmother attempts to set her up with a man by the name of Kostos. Kostos takes interest in Lena, who eventually returns the notion. She goes skinny-dipping and Kostos accidentally sees her. A misunderstanding leads Lena's grandparents to believe that Kostos attempted to assault Lena, causing an argument between the two families. Later in the summer, Lena explains to her grandparents what happened in order to repair the rift between her and Kostos' grandparents, and confesses to Kostos that she loves him. Tibby spends the summer working at a Wallman's store, planning to film a documentary of her experiences. She meets a 12-year-old girl, Bailey, after the latter faints at the store; it is revealed that she has been diagnosed with leukemia. Over the course of the summer, the two become close friends and Bailey begins to help Tibby film her documentary. Bailey dies from her leukemia, which leads Tibby to refocus her documentary to capture the memories that they created together. Carmen goes to South Carolina to spend the summer with her father, from whom she has grown apart since he and Carmen's mother divorced several years before. Carmen learns that he is engaged. Out of frustration at feeling left out of her father's new family, she breaks a window in their home with a rock and returns home to her mother. She eventually attends her father's wedding and reconciles with her father and his new family. Bridget attends a soccer camp in Baja California. While there, she falls for one of the coaches, Eric Richman. Bridget pursues him in spite of the camp's prohibition on coaches and campers entering relationships with each other, and eventually sees him in his underwear. She conspires to lose her virginity to him, until Eric eventually tells her that he does not feel as if he can worship her as she deserves. Lena comes to comfort a depressed Bridget and ends up taking her home. Ann Brashares got the idea for the novel while working as an editor when colleague Jodi Anderson, proposed the concept of a group of girlfriends who share a pair of jeans. This was based on some of Anderson's own college experiences. Brashares decided to write the book herself. Anderson was compensated with a small bonus and a promotion. Brashares later said, "I loved the idea. A shirt can more easily fit different people, but jeans are more judgmental. It totally captured my fancy." ===== Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is a 51-year-old advertising executive and head of sales for Sports America, a major sports magazine. Happily married with two daughters, Dan faces a life- changing event when his magazine is bought out by Globecom, an international corporation that promotes the corporate concept of "synergy". After he is forced to fire several of his longtime colleagues, Dan is demoted and becomes the "wingman" of his new boss, Carter Duryea (Topher Grace), a 26-year-old business school prodigy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Carter champions the corporate creed of synergy, cross- promoting the magazine with the cell phone division and "Krispity Krunch", a snack food also owned by Globecom. Dan and Carter are both facing challenges in their personal lives. Dan is supporting two daughters—16-year-old Jana (Zena Grey) and 18-year-old Alex (Scarlett Johansson) who is preparing to enter college—and learns that his wife is pregnant with their third child. Meanwhile, Carter is dumped by his adulterous, narcissistic wife of seven months and focuses all of his energy on work. With Dan facing the financial realities of taking out a second mortgage, to cover his daughter's college education costs, and a new child, and with Carter needing Dan's practical, real-life experience in the field of advertising, the two form an uneasy friendship. Carter, who has been struggling with loneliness following the breakup of his marriage, invites himself to dinner at Dan's house, where he meets Dan's daughter, Alex, and the two quickly form an attraction. Their initial friendship allows Carter to forget his loneliness, and Alex, who is now attending New York University, is able to escape her own loneliness and boredom. In the coming days, Carter and Alex spend time together and become romantically involved. Fearful of offending her father, they keep their relationship a secret for the time being. Their friendship, however, takes a turn for the worse when Dan discovers that Carter and Alex have been seeing each other, approaches them in a restaurant, and punches his boss in the face. The confrontation with her father convinces Alex to break up with Carter who is heartbroken. Soon after, Globecom CEO Teddy K visits the sales office and during a grand speech to all the employees on synergy and other similar corporate business strategies, he is questioned by Dan and shrugs him off. Carter's boss, Mark Steckle, tells Carter to fire Dan. Carter refuses, claiming that losing Dan will cost them a major advertising contract. Steckle gives them 24 hours to seal the contract or be fired. Dan has developed a long term relationship with the client, and Carter gives way to Dan's personal approach. The strategy works, and they conclude a deal. Following another corporate shakeup, Sports America is sold off, Carter is let go, and Dan returns to his former position as head of sales. Having developed fatherly feelings toward Carter, Dan offers him a position in his new department as his "wingman", but Carter declines, saying he needs to take some time and discover what he really wants to do in his life. On his way out of the building, Carter runs into Alex, and they exchange pleasantries. Dan's wife gives birth to a girl. He calls Carter in Los Angeles (who is jogging outdoors for the first time and feels like a new man) with the news. ===== Scooby and Shaggy arrive in Arabia on a magic carpet to become royal food tasters for the young Caliphate. They are initially hired, but after they eat everything in sight and leave no food for the Caliph, he gets angry and orders his guards to kill them. Shaggy and Scooby find a place to hide and Shaggy takes on the disguise as a harem girl. The Caliph, who is looking for a bride, falls in love with the disguised Shaggy and decides that they shall be married. Hoping to make the Caliph fall asleep so they can make their escape, Shaggy tells him two classic stories. ===== The story begins as Dwight McCarthy, working as a photographer for a grossly overweight man named Agamemnon, saves one of the Old Town prostitutes, Sally, from one of her customers, whom Dwight was investigating on behalf of his wife; he then drives her back to Old Town. That night he receives a call from a woman named Ava Lord, asking him to meet her at a seedy bar called Kadie's Club Pecos. Dwight is suspicious of her, as Ava broke his heart four years ago by running off with another richer man, Damien Lord, but the lure of seeing her again is too powerful and he agrees to meet her anyway. Marv is also there and greets Dwight. Ava arrives late (as she often used to) and attempts to convince Dwight her life is a "living hell" and begs for his forgiveness; Dwight refuses to listen until Ava mentions she believes she will soon be dead. But just then, Manute, Damien Lord's valet, arrives and takes Ava away. Ava is reluctant to go, but when Dwight attempts to defend her, she convinces him to stand down, asking him to remember her before she leaves. Dwight goes home, but cannot sleep. He decides to check up on Ava. At Ava's estate, Dwight hops a fence and uses his photography equipment to find Ava swimming in the nude. He is discovered and claims that he is simply a Peeping Tom when Manute and Damien become involved. Ava comes to investigate and Dwight pretends not to know her, worried his presence may make things bad for Ava. Manute pretends not to recognize him from the bar in front of Damien then beats him brutally before throwing him from a car into the street. Dwight calls Agamemnon for a ride home and they stop several times for fast food. As Dwight arrives home, he finds his Ford Mustang returned and his door unlocked. In his bedroom he finds Ava nude. Following a heated argument, they eventually reconcile and make love. Ava talks about how her husband regularly charges Manute with abusing her physically, believing soon Damien will go too far and kill her. She confesses to Dwight she came to him that night for one last night of love before Manute kills her, but then says she realizes she is not ready to die. Manute arrives and violently beats Dwight when he tries to defend her. Dwight is knocked out of his upper story apartment window to the street below, where he blacks out momentarily. He awakens to see Manute driving off with Ava. Determined to rescue her, Dwight arrives at Kadie’s, where Marv is in the middle of a squabble with some out-of-town punks and the bar owner Kadie. One of them pulls a gun on Marv. At first Marv is patient, warning the out-of- towners not to offend Kadie or himself and further. But after calling Kadie "a cow" and Marv "ugly", Marv quickly and easily knocks him flat; the rest quickly scatter. Dwight convinces Marv, over several drinks and whilst watching Nancy dance, to help him storm Damien's estate. Both drunk as they approach the mansion, Dwight insists Marv leave the punk's gun, which Marv has procured, in the car. Marv tackles the guards as a distraction and eventually takes on Manute, ripping his right eye out and beating him savagely. With Manute and the guards occupied, Dwight makes his way to Damien. When he finds him in his office, Damien calls Ava pathological and pulls a gun on Dwight. When Damien fires, Dwight beats him to death. As Dwight panics, realizing what he has done, Ava appears, and explains how Dwight was all a part of her plan to murder Damien whilst keeping her hands clean, so she can inherit his estate. Ava tells Dwight she never loved him or Damien, that she's waited years to "be in charge", even goes so far as to call herself "evil". She shoots Dwight six times, including once in the face. Dwight once again falls out of a window and is picked up and saved by Marv. Upon Dwight's insistence, Marv drives him to Old Town, they're followed by a police car and when the police reach Old Town, they're met by a hailstorm of bullets, revealing to the reader that Cops have no authority in Old Town. Now in Old Town, Dwight finds a hooker, his old flame, Gail. Gail takes him to her surgeon just has he goes into cardiac arrest. The hookers of Old Town perform surgery on Dwight's multiple bullet wounds, then the leaders of the ladies (the Twins) tell him to leave. Gail proclaims her unwavering allegiance to Dwight and reveals to Miho, a deadly assassin, Dwight had saved her only 3 years ago. After gaining the loyalty of Gail and Miho, the Twins allow him to stay however long he wants, for rest and more surgery. Two detectives following up on Damien Lord's death, Mort and Bob, talk to Ava. She claims that Dwight was a stalker psychopath who killed Damien out of jealousy. They believe her story, and soon after Mort begins an affair with Ava. They interrogate Agamemnon, who tells how Dwight is an upright man who went clean after being a wild alcoholic with a short temper in his younger days. When they speak with Dwight's landlady, she tells them about letting Ava in Dwight's apartment and the resulting loud noises of Ava and Dwight's sexual encounter then fight between Dwight and Manute the night of Damien's murder. After multiple inconsistencies with Ava's story Bob doubts Ava considerably now. Mort on the other hand, has left his wife and fallen in love with Ava and refuses to see past her lies. Mort becomes more on-edge towards his partner when Bob continues to speak ill of Ava. This culminates with Mort killing Bob, then committing suicide. During the scene in which Mort kills Bob, while they are driving in the car, Wendy and Marv can be clearly seen driving past them, presumably on their way to butcher Kevin. Meanwhile, Dwight is recovering from his near-fatal wounds and calls Ava to inform her he is coming for her soon. Ava, with her late husband's financial assets, is joining her corporation with the mob boss Wallenquist. Unaffected by Ava's flirting, he warns her not to underestimate him again and tells her to tie up her loose ends with Dwight; he has someone arriving from Phoenix soon to meet her about that. Dwight (with his new face), accompanied by Gail and Miho, poses as Wallenquist's man from Phoenix. Inside Ava's estate, however, Manute sees past the new face and captures Dwight. Gail and Miho strike from Dwight's car, and Dwight shoots Manute with a hidden .25 he had up his left sleeve. Six bullets fail to kill him, and Manute aims shakily at Dwight as Ava grabs one of Manute's guns, shooting Manute in his shoulder. Manute falls through a window and, upon landing, is stabbed in the arms by Miho, pinning him to the ground. Ava then tries to get Dwight to kill him, telling him that Manute had her under mind control to manipulate her and Damien and that it would be a cruel irony if he killed her now. Dwight finally sees through all the lies and kills Ava. ===== A house party at Crome is viewed largely through the eyes of Denis Stone. Described by his hostess as "one of our younger poets", he has been invited by Priscilla and Henry Wimbush to join their summer guests. Denis is secretly in love with their niece, Anne Wimbush, who appears more interested in the artist Gombauld. The rather naïve flapper, Mary Bracegirdle, decides to embark on an amorous adventure so as to overcome her repressions and makes unsuccessful advances to Denis and Gombauld before falling for the libertine Ivor Lombard one summer night. The hard-of-hearing Jenny Mullion confines most of her thoughts on what goes on to her journal, in which Denis eventually discovers a devastating deconstruction of his self and fellow guests. Mr. Wimbush, the owner of Crome, has been writing a history of the house and its family, from which he gives two evening readings. His wife is obsessed with alternative spirituality and finds a fellow sympathiser in the prolific literary hack, Mr. Barbecue-Smith. Also part of the party is Henry's former schoolfriend, the cynical Mr. Scogan, who lies in wait for anyone he can waylay with his reductive criticisms of the time and his visions for a dystopian future. After several ludicrous failures in trying to capture Anne’s affection, Denis despairingly arranges to be recalled home on 'urgent family business' and departs on the same slow train that had brought him. ===== Once upon a time there were two scientists, Dr. Little Emon and Dr. Ivan Walnuts, who worked together to create the world's most spectacular robots. One fateful day, Dr. Walnuts disappeared with the laboratory's seven military robots before appearing on TV to declare his intention to conquer the world. , an owarai robot who had been training in the Kansai region, is called back to the laboratory by Dr. Emon, who remodels Sukapon into a military robot in a last-ditch effort to stop his evil counterpart. Sukapon's first task was to defeat the seven other robots and allow Dr. Emon to reprogram back to their original selves. All eight robots then proceed to take on Dr. Walnuts's many robots, each wave stronger than the last. After fighting each of their doppelgängers at Dr. Walnuts's castle, they finally face off against the most powerful robot, Houou, on the surface of the moon. After Houou is destroyed, Dr. Walnuts attempts to flee in his ship, but his ship malfunctions and explodes. Fortunately, Dr. Emon rescues Dr. Walnuts from the moon's surface. Dr. Walnuts later wakes up, back to his normal self, and Dr. Emon convinces him that everything that happened was just a dream. Sukapon is remodeled back into an owarai robot, and all is returned to normal. ===== Tea at Five is an intimate look at Katharine Hepburn at home in her Fenwick estate in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The first act takes place in September 1938. Despite Broadway appearances and her first Oscar, she has just been labeled "box office poison" after a series of film flops. With her professional future in doubt, she contemplates her childhood in Hartford, education and her start in show business. The second act takes place in February 1983, after Hepburn was injured in a car crash. The accident affords the now-legendary star an opportunity to reflect on the triumphs of her career and her heart-breaking romance with Spencer Tracy. ===== In 2065,Bentley 2005, p. 96. the first human mission to Mars is launched from Glenn Field in the form of the spacecraft Zero-X. Unknown to Captain Travers and his four-man crew, master criminal the Hood has stowed away on board to photograph Zero-Xs wing mechanism. Shortly after lift-off, the Hood inadvertently traps his foot in the craft's hydraulics, jamming them and causing Zero-X to go out of control. As the astronauts eject in the escape pod, the Hood extracts his crushed foot and parachutes to safety from the undercarriage. Zero-X crashes into the ocean and explodes. In 2067,Bentley 2008, p. 303.Though Jeff is shown to be reading a newspaper dated June 2066, the Andersons intended this part of the film to be set in 2067 (Bentley 2008, p. 303). the Inquiry Board of the Space Exploration Center concludes that Zero-X was sabotaged. Meanwhile, a second Zero-X has been built and another mission to Mars planned. International Rescue agrees to provide security at the launch given the possibility of further sabotage. Jeff Tracy dispatches Scott to Glenn Field in Thunderbird 1 to monitor the situation from the ground, while Virgil and Alan are assigned to escort Zero-X through the atmosphere in Thunderbirds 2 and 3. Posing as a reporter at the pre-launch press conference, Lady Penelope arranges for each member of the crew to wear a St Christopher brooch with a concealed homing device. On launch day, Dr Grant's device is no longer registering, even though Grant is on board Zero-X awaiting lift-off. Scott unmasks "Grant" as the Hood in disguise. The Hood flees Glenn Field in a car, pursued by Penelope and Parker in FAB 1. Reaching the coast, he transfers to a speedboat and then a helicopter. Parker shoots down the helicopter with FAB 1's machine gun.Surviving the helicopter crash, the Hood returns in the sequel, Thunderbird 6, as the villainous Black Phantom (Bentley 2005, p. 98). In her audio commentary for the DVD release of Thunderbird 6, Sylvia Anderson said that Black Phantom is the Hood's son and is seeking to avenge his father's death. Meanwhile, the kidnapped Grant is found and returned to Zero-X and the spacecraft is launched without further incident. Mission complete, Penelope invites Scott and Virgil to join her at popular nightclub The Swinging Star. Returning to Tracy Island, Alan feels unappreciated when Jeff insists that he stay at base while the others spend the night partying. Asleep in bed, Alan has a surreal dream in which he and Penelope travel to another Swinging Star located in space. Appearing at the nightclub are Cliff Richard Jr and The Shadows, who perform a song called "Shooting Star" and an instrumental called "Lady Penelope". The dream ends when Alan falls out of The Swinging Star and back to Earth, waking to discover that he has merely fallen out of bed. After a six-week flight, Zero-X reaches Mars on 22 July and all of the astronauts except Space Navigator Newman touch down the planet in their lander, the Martian Exploration Vehicle. Investigating the surface, the men are puzzled to find strange, coil-like rock formations. Space Captain Martin destroys one of the structures with the MEV's gun and Dr Pierce prepares to go outside to collect samples. The other structures come to life, revealing themselves to be one-eyed rock snakes. The aliens bombard the MEV with fireballs from their mouths, forcing the astronauts to take off prematurely. Docking with Newman in orbit, they start back to Earth. As Zero-X re-enters Earth's atmosphere on 2 September, a lifting body fails to connect with the spacecraft and damages various systems, including flight control and the escape pod circuit. With the astronauts unable to eject and Zero-X set to impact Craigsville, Florida,Craigsville is located in Florida (Archer and Nicholls, p. 116; Archer and Hearn, p. 140) and background shots filmed in Portugal for the climax are intended to represent that area. Jeff launches Scott and Brains in Thunderbird 1 and Virgil, Alan and Gordon in Thunderbird 2. Craigsville is evacuated. Lifted into Zero-Xs undercarriage, Alan repairs the escape circuit under Brains' guidance. Seconds before impact, Alan completes his task and jumps out as the astronauts eject. The empty Zero-X crashes into Craigsville. Picked up by Penelope and Parker in FAB1, Alan is driven to the real Swinging Star where Penelope, joined by the Tracy family, Brains and Tin-Tin, toast Alan as a hero. ===== In 2068,A newspaper seen in close-up is dated 11 June 2068 (Bentley 2005, p. 99; Bentley 2008, p. 305), placing Skyship Ones maiden flight nine months after the conclusion to Thunderbirds Are Go and six months after the events of the final Thunderbirds episode, "Give or Take a Million" (Bentley 2005, p. 95). Captain Scarlet is also set in 2068. the New World Aircraft Corporation in England gives Brains an open brief to design a revolutionary aircraft. Brains suggests an airship, prompting howls of laughter from the executives. Nevertheless, his proposal is accepted and the corporation builds Skyship One, a fully automated airship powered by an anti-gravity field. Representing International Rescue for the maiden flight – a private round-the-world trip with pre-programmed stops – are Alan Tracy, Tin-Tin, Lady Penelope and Parker. Brains, meanwhile, is forced to remain on Tracy Island after Jeff asks him to design a sixth Thunderbird craft. Working without a specification, Brains produces a range of concepts but all are rejected by Jeff. Alan and Tin-Tin fly to England in an old Tiger Moth biplane and join Penelope and Parker before Skyship One departs. However, the group are unaware that Captain Foster and the stewards have been murdered and replaced by agents of The Hood, now operating as "Black Phantom" from an abandoned airfield near Casablanca.The Hood was apparently killed in Thunderbirds Are Go but returns in Thunderbird 6 under a new codename (Bentley 2005, p. 98). In their audio commentary for the DVD release, Sylvia Anderson and David Lane referred to Black Phantom as the "son of the Hood" and said that he is seeking revenge for the death of his father. As the ship is automated, the impostors are not required to demonstrate any detailed knowledge of its systems and are thus able to avoid raising their guests' suspicions as the trip progresses. After Skyship One leaves the Egyptian pyramids, Penelope finds a bugging device in her bedroom. Unknown to her, Foster and his men have been recording and editing her voice to assemble a fake radio message asking Jeff to send Thunderbirds 1 and 2 to the abandoned airfield, where The Hood and his men intend to hi-jack the craft. During a stop in the Swiss Alps, Parker discovers the editing equipment, but before the group can act the message is completed and transmitted to Tracy Island via John on Thunderbird 5. Jeff immediately dispatches Scott and Virgil in Thunderbirds 1 and 2, but Alan realises that his brothers are flying into a trap and Penelope is able to forward the warning just in time. On landing at the airfield, Scott and Virgil use the Thunderbirds rocket launchers to destroy The Hood's base. They then take off to rendezvous with Skyship One. Aboard the airship, Alan, Penelope and Parker engage in a shootout with the impostors but are forced to surrender when Tin-Tin is taken hostage. The anti- gravity system is damaged in the fighting, causing the ship to lose altitude and crash into a radio mast at a missile base near Dover. With Skyship One balanced precariously on top of the mast and its anti-gravity field weakening, it is up to Scott, Virgil and Brains to rescue all aboard before the ship collapses onto the base below. However, Scott and Virgil are unable close in without their thrusters tipping it over and none of Thunderbird 2s Pod Vehicles is light enough to deploy onto it. At Gordon's suggestion, Brains flies the Tiger Moth up to Skyship Ones top deck to airlift the passengers and crew to safety one by one. However, on landing, he is held at gunpoint by Foster and his two surviving henchmen. With Penelope hostage in the plane's cockpit, Foster tries to take off but is shot dead by Alan. The Tiger Moth launches with the International Rescue agents and impostors clinging on to the wings and landing gear. Shortly after, Skyship One crashes to the ground, starting a chain reaction that obliterates the missile base.FAB 1, Penelope's Rolls-Royce, is stored in Skyship Ones cargo hold and is therefore destroyed with the airship (Bentley 2005, p. 99; Bentley 2008, p. 305; La Rivière, p. 173). The remaining impostors are killed in a shootout aboard the Tiger Moth. Stray bullets puncture the fuel tank, forcing Penelope to make an emergency landing. After near misses with a factory chimney, a bridge on the M104 motorway and a tree, Penelope ditches the plane into a field. Parker is thrown out when the plane clips the tree top and ends up dangling upside down in its branches before falling to the ground. Back on Tracy Island, Brains unveils the new Thunderbird 6 as none other than the repaired Tiger Moth, which all agree has proven its worth in the field. ===== After defeating the Dominators and starting off a volcanic eruption, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves and the TARDIS in the path of a lava flow. Upon trying to dematerialise out of the way, the TARDIS experiences a fault in the fluid link. At the insistence of Zoe and Jamie, the Doctor uses an emergency unit that takes the TARDIS into another dimension outside of reality. Upon their arrival into an empty white void, the travellers find themselves assaulted, first subtley then overtly, by an unseen force. The attack results in the TARDIS breaking apart and the travellers being scattered. The Doctor, after experiencing a series of curious encounters, manages to find Jamie and Zoe. He soon deduces that they are in a world filled with fictional and mythological characters. They finally meet a person called "The Master" who seems to be in charge. It turns out that he is in fact an Earth man abducted and brought to the land of fiction in order to provide creative energies for the unseen aliens who are really in charge. Everything that the Doctor has experienced was a series of tests to prepare him for his rôle as replacement. The aliens' plan is to control everyone on Earth and bring them to the land of fiction, leaving the Earth itself empty for easy colonisation. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe manage to foil the aliens' plans and to rescue the Master, freeing him of his mind control. As the central computer is destroyed, the Doctor hypothesises that everyone will be returned whence they came. In the end, the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and the Master fade out of the world of fiction and the TARDIS appears to reform itself. ===== The plot of Happy Lesson is based on five teachers who end up living with a troubled and indifferent orphan and their unusual plan to become mother figures in an effort to make him a productive student. To achieve their plan, they employ various methods, such as science experiments, spiritual cleansing, physical training, and hijinks. Resembles a harem anime. ===== Daniel Balint is a former Jewish yeshiva student, brilliant but troubled, who is now a fanatically violent neo-Nazi in New York in his early twenties. As a child, he often challenged his teachers with unorthodox interpretations of scripture. He once argued that the Binding of Isaac was not about Abraham's faith but God's power: that God's purpose was not to have Abraham accomplish a particular task, but rather to demand unquestioning obedience, which Abraham refuses to give. Daniel concluded that God is a bully. Daniel finds a meeting of fascists run by Curtis Zampf and Lina Moebius, where he also makes a connection with Lina's daughter Carla. Daniel advocates killing Jews, and a banker named Manzetti in particular, but Curtis and Lina oppose harming Jews on practical if not moral grounds. Impressed with Daniel's intelligence, Lina invites him to their camp retreat in the country. Afterward, Daniel and his fellow neo-Nazi friends pick a fight with two African-American men, get arrested, and are bailed out of jail by Carla. He spends the night with her but returns to the home of his ailing father. Daniel searches his Hebrew school notebooks and finds a semiautomatic pistol. He is harangued by his sister Linda for his Nazi beliefs, but she also urges him to stay and have Shabbat dinner with their father. The men watch television, which is forbidden on Sabbath according to some Orthodox Jews, leading them to commiserate on the incomprehensibility of Jewish law. Guy Danielsen, a journalist writing an article on hate groups in the wake of the Oklahoma City Bombing, meets Daniel for an interview. He listens to Daniel's antisemitic rant, then reveals that he had been in contact with Daniel's old rabbi Stanley Nadelman and knows that Daniel is Jewish. Daniel pulls out his pistol and threatens to commit suicide if Guy publishes the truth. Daniel goes to Lina's fascist camp retreat, where he meets Drake, a skilled marksman, along with an explosives expert. Six of the retreat participants, including Daniel, go to a Jewish deli, where they mock the other patrons and torment the owner about Jewish dietary laws until a fight breaks out. After this fight, Daniel and his friends are required by a court to take sensitivity training, where they listen to the experiences of Holocaust survivors. One talks about how his infant son was murdered by a Nazi. Daniel is enraged that the man did nothing to save his son, but all the survivors assert that Daniel would also have done nothing to avoid being killed, and he walks out in anger. The story haunts him, and he imagines himself as both the Nazi and the Jew. Later that night, Daniel and the other neo-Nazis break into a synagogue, vandalize it, and plant a time bomb under the pulpit. They also tear, trample, and spit on a Torah scroll, though Daniel protests. After they leave, Daniel takes the scroll and a tallit katan (a small Jewish prayer cloth) with him. The next morning, the neo-Nazis hear on the news that the bomb failed to go off because its timer froze at thirteen minutes, which the rabbi explains is a significant number in Judaism. He says that he believes this means that God protected the synagogue. Back in his cabin, Daniel cleans and repairs the scroll, envisioning himself as the Nazi soldier in the Holocaust survivor's story. He puts on the tallit under his shirt and performs a combination of the Nazi salute and a Hagbaha. Drake soon approaches him with a plan to kill Manzetti, so the two ambush him outside a temple, where Daniel fires but misses. Drake sees the tallit under Daniel's shirt and realizes that he is a Jew, so Daniel shoots him and escapes. He continues to meet with Lina and Curtis, who want to start an above-ground movement to bring fascism into the political mainstream, inviting Jews, blacks, and liberals. Daniel reluctantly agrees to help them raise funds. At the meetings that follow, Daniel first charms, then enrages, their potential donors with his intellectual games, leading to his eventual expulsion. When the group hears that Manzetti was killed, Lina suspects Daniel, since he proposed the assassination, but Drake is the real killer. In the meantime, Carla comforts Daniel and the two sleep together at his home. When she sees the stolen Torah, she asks Daniel to teach her Hebrew, ostensibly for intellectual reasons. They also begin to practice Jewish rituals. He soon runs into an old friend and his fiancée, Stuart and Miriam, who invite him to a Rosh Hashanah service, assuming that he is an anti-racist skinhead. When Daniel arrives, another old friend calls him out as a racist skinhead. As he is leaving, Miriam, who works for the District Attorney, tells him that half of the people in Lina Moebius' meetings are informants for the D.A. Later she asks Daniel to record conversations at a meeting so she can help him with possible charges stemming from the Manzetti killing. He refuses because as Miriam confesses she doesn't care about the truth, she only cares about Daniel. As Yom Kippur approaches, Daniel calls Miriam and insists on taking Stuart's place leading the Ne'ila service at the bimah on Yom Kippur. He and his friends plant a new bomb under the temple's pulpit even though they find it reinforced, limiting the explosion. When Daniel takes the pulpit the next day, he is shocked to see Carla in the congregation. He again imagines himself in the story the Holocaust survivor told him, this time as both the Nazi and the Jew. With five minutes to go, Daniel stops and tells everyone to get out because there is a bomb, but refuses to leave himself. Daniel is shown in a mystical vision, ascending the stairs in the Jewish school he left as a child. His old teacher approaches, hoping to talk about the Binding of Isaac, and suggests that Isaac died on the mountain and was reborn in the next world. But Daniel ignores him and keeps going, up, and up, infinitely, as his teacher urges him to stop, calling out, "There's nothing up there." ===== Four hundred years ago, the ninja and the Youkai had a great war. The legendary Sarutobi Sasuke and four other ninjas sealed the Youkai Commander Nurarihyon and all his Youkai's energies away in a cave protected by the "Seal Door". In the present, one of the few remaining Youkai, Kappa, tricks Sarutobi Sasuke and Kirigakure Saizo's descendants, Saizou and Sasuke, into releasing the Youkai by opening the "Seal Door". Now these two, joined by three other descendants of great ninjas, become the Kakuranger to fight the reinvigorated Youkai with the aid of the Sanshinshou. However, the Kakurangers have their work cut out for them as the Youkai are slowly being united under one banner. ===== Fur trapper Tom Dobb unwillingly participates in the American Revolutionary War after his young son Ned joins the Army as a drummer boy. Later, his son is captured by the British, and taken by the strict Sergeant Major Peasy to replace some dead British drummer boys. Dobb attempts to find him, and along the way, becomes convinced that he must help fight for the freedom of the Thirteen Colonies, alongside the disgraced and idealistic aristocrat Daisy McConnahay. ===== ===== The novel is composed of many jokes, which have strong effects on the characters. The story is told from the four viewpoints of Ludvik Jahn, Helena Zemánková, Kostka, and Jaroslav. Jaroslav's joke is the transition away from his coveted Moravian folk lifestyle and appreciation. Kostka, who has separated himself from the Communist Party due to his Christianity, serves as a counterpoint to Ludvik. Helena serves as Ludvik's victim and is satirical of the seriousness of party supporters. Ludvik demonstrates the shortcomings of the party and propels the plot in his search for revenge and redemption. Written in 1965 Prague and first published in Czechoslovakia in 1967, the novel opens with Ludvik Jahn looking back on the joke that changed his life in the early 1950s. Ludvik was a dashing, witty, and popular student who supported the Party. Like most of his friends, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the still-fresh Communist regime in post-World War II Czechoslovakia. In a playful mood, he writes a postcard to a girl in his class during their summer break. Since Ludvik believes she takes her enchantment with the new regime too seriously, having just sent him an enthusiastic letter about "optimistic young people filled through and through with the healthy spirit" of Marxism, he replies on the postcard, "Optimism is the opium of mankind! A healthy spirit stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!" His colleagues and fellow young-party leaders did not see the humour in the sentiment expressed in the postcard. Ludvik finds himself expelled from the party and college and drafted to a part of the Czech military where alleged subversives form work brigades and spend the next few years working in mines. Despite the interruption in his career, Ludvik has become a successful scientist. However, his treatment at the hands of his former friends has left him bitter and angry. An opportunity arises when he meets Helena, who is married to Pavel Zemanek, the friend who led the efforts to purge Ludvik from the party. Ludvik decides to seduce Helena as a means of exacting his revenge. In essence this is the second "joke" of the novel. Although the seduction is successful, things do not quite play out the way Ludvik expects (as was the case with his first joke), and he is left once more to sit and think bitter thoughts. Ultimately he decides that these sorts of jokes and their repercussions are not the fault of the humans who set them in motion, but are really just a matter of historic inevitability. Ultimately, then, one cannot blame forces that cannot be changed or altered. ===== The play tells the story of a young man's decision to leave the home of his parents for the bachelor pad of his older brother who leads a swinging '60s lifestyle. Buddy is a 21-year-old virgin and his older brother Alan is a ladies' man. Alan lives in an apartment in the East Sixties, New York City. But as the play progresses Alan discovers real feelings for one of the many women with whom he is currently sleeping and when she elects to leave him, he falls apart in response. This juxtaposes Alan's hunger for companionship with Buddy's metamorphosis into a ladies' man himself. The playwright points out the fundamental spiritual and emotional emptiness of the playboy lifestyle for which the younger sibling desperately yearns. ;Characters *Alan Baker *Peggy Evans *Buddy Baker *Mr. (Father) Baker *Connie *Mrs. (Mother) Baker ===== Renegade is the story of San Diego police officer Reno Raines, an ex-Army Ranger, who was called to Bay City, California, by his good friend District Attorney Harry Wells. Harry hired Reno to work under cover, exposing corrupt police officers. In a meeting with Harry Wells and Bay City Police Lieutenant Donald 'Dutch' Dixon, Reno explains he has enough evidence to press charges of murder and robbery against Dixon's partner Buzzy Burrell. Not wanting to be implicated in any crimes, Burrell and Dixon break convicted murderer Hogg Adams from prison to kill Raines. Later that night, Hogg busts into Reno's hotel room, aiming for Reno, but shooting his fiancé, Valerie Prentiss, instead. Hogg flees the hotel and Burrell is seen rushing in to make sure Reno is dead. Dixon arrives moments afterward and kills Burrell with Reno's weapon. Framed for the murder of Officer Burrell, Reno Raines goes on the run. Dixon sends professional bounty hunter Bobby Sixkiller, a former Marine, after him, but Reno instead saves his life and gains his trust. Bobby realizes that some things were not right with Dixon. Reno then works as a bounty hunter alongside Sixkiller and his sister Cheyenne (Kathleen Kinmont) while searching for Hogg's brother Hound Adams, the one person who can clear his name and bring down Dixon — a witness who, fearing for his own life, will only come forward if Reno kills Dixon, something which he is unwilling to do. Using the alias "Vince Black", Reno travels the country to look for bounties, whom Bobby turns in for a percentage of the reward money (knowing that Reno would be arrested if he attempted to turn in the criminals himself). He also helps people at the same time and proves the innocence of those he believes to be innocent. On many occasions, law-enforcement officers (and other people) learn who Reno really is, but never turn him in once they trust and believe him. Eventually, Dixon becomes a US federal marshal, giving him the ability to chase Reno with federal assistance. In season three, Reno goes after Dutch when he learns an $80,000 reward is out for Dixon's capture and arrest for the murder of another Bay City officer. It all turns out to be an elaborate ruse set by Dixon to trap and capture Reno. Reno is arrested and put on trial for Buzzy Burrell's murder. Hound Adams agrees to testify for the defense, for a very large fee, that he knows who really killed Burrell, but when questioned on the witness stand, he implicates Reno, instead, as Burrell's killer. With no evidence to prove that Dutch bribed Hound to lie on the stand, Reno is found guilty of Burrell's murder and sentenced to death. Deciding not to wait for his sentence to be carried out, Reno escapes from prison with the help of a convict who was bribed by Dixon to kill Reno. The convict, chosen by Dixon because he knew he was dying of cancer and had nothing to lose, instead gives the bribe money to his lawyer to hold on to with instructions to send to the police should anything happen to his family. As the series is coming to an end in season five, Dutch kills his own wife Melissa, and she dies in Reno's arms. She knew what Dixon was doing and was ready to help turn him in. Their adult son, Donald Dixon Jr., believes the newspaper articles (from Dixon Sr.'s testimony) and also goes for Reno. In the final episode, Reno, Bobby, Donald Jr., and Dixon's boss Marshal Jack Hendricks go after Dixon. Dixon shoots and wounds Hendricks and goes on the run. The marshals then put out a reward for his capture. The last scene shows Reno and Bobby discussing whether to go for him now or let him see what it is like to be a wanted fugitive. They choose the former, thus partially ending Reno's predicament while leaving a full conclusion ambiguous. For many years after the show had aired, it was thought that the show had ended on a cliff-hanger, without any resolution to the main plot of Reno clearing his name and that the story would have been wrapped up in a hypothetical season six, with Dutch on the run and Reno pursuing. However, a "series finale" episode was in fact filmed, where Dutch is captured by Reno and Reno Raines is fully exonerated for the crimes that Dutch had in fact committed. According to Lorenzo Lamas, the episode was never aired or offered in the final syndication package because every episode - with the exception of the obvious multi-part episodes and the few episodes focused solely on the Reno/Dutch plot - was written as a standalone story that did not have to be viewed in chronological order. It was felt that a "conclusion" would prevent TV series buyers from airing the episodes out of order, which often happens with shows in syndication.https://twitter.com/lorenzolamas/status/1167806780564373505 ===== ===== The LP album is ostensibly the latest in Cox's series of "mind-breaking records" purveying his New Age revelations, augmented with mock commercial television news coverage. There are no track divisions. ===== The documentary begins without narration as a plane lands down in the remote part of the desert where Chicken Ranch is situated while a number from the Broadway musical based on the Texas situated Ranch is played. Before the documentary scenes begin, we are advised that the women working at Chicken Ranch only work for three weeks out of the month and that their earnings are split 50/50 with the owner (plus rent). Our introduction to the Ranch is of the girls being led into the parlor (client greeting area) to be lined up in front of two potential clients for choosing. In another room, Madame Fran busily takes calls and quotes services to a client over the telephone. The camera goes from room to room following the daily routines of the girls as they put makeup on and get dressed up provocatively. Ranch owner Walter Plankinton walks around trying to influence the girls to dress and be styled more exquisitely than what the clients left at home but is disregarded by all the women in the room. While there are several women in the ranch that share the camera time, the documentary itself focuses frequently on two particular young prostitutes, Mandy and Connie. Mandy is the typical busty blonde, doing well for herself and seeming to connect well to her clients whereas alternatively, Connie is finding it harder and harder to work in the Ranch due to her growing dislike of being used by men. In a brief scene of Claudia and Connie doing their makeup and getting ready for work, they discuss their 'previous lives' before coming to the Ranch, both revealing they have come from bad relationships with men. In the parlor, Mandy and J.J. are running around the table enjoying a momentary lighter side of life. A small group of Japanese tourists arrive, led by a travel agent who is the only one who can speak English and interpret. After several moments of the uncomfortable language barrier and not understanding the rules, Madame Fran gets irritable and direct and encourages the men to pick a lady. Most of the girls are chosen, the remaining few (including Connie) sit in the parlor with the remainder of the tour. Connie engages the travel agent in conversation but is unable to get a client to take her to her room. During a cigarette break, Connie, Linda and Diane discuss their strategies and techniques (so-called 'tricks of the trade') and have candid discussions about what they hate. Connie reveals why she is growing to hate men so much and explains that her technique is to use her hand to get a man off as quickly as she can so that if possible, there doesn't actually need to be any intercourse at all (as clients are being too rough with her and she doesn't like to be hurt). Two French journalists arrive while the girls are still in the process of waking up. One girl admits that she has nightmares if a client disappoints her while Mandy admits that she had a nightmare that a client cut her head off. Madame Fran is seen giving the girls access to the normally locked cabinet to retrieve their contraceptive pills, vitamins and other medications revealing the Ranch's strict policy on drugs, alcohol and medicating responsibly. Brothel owner Walter Plankinton gives an interview to the French journalists in the parlor of the Ranch and talks righteously about the services they provide to the public is a 'form of love'. Claudia and J.J. show the journalists to one of the rooms with a specialist 'passion chair' which allows for thirty-two different positions, some of which they demonstrate for the camera. Following the interview, Walter and Fran confront their 'ladies' about them running a game where they try to get the men in and out of their bedrooms as quick as possible. The group of Japanese tourists have reported the ladies for servicing them in ten minutes flat. After Walter explains that the prices were raised on the tours and now that the girls are earning $64 per trick, the girls are gently warned off and that if these situations continue to occur, a clock will be set each time they take a new client to ensure the man gets what he pays for. The camera focuses briefly on Connie who tries to hide she is visibly annoyed. A middle-aged client who is employed as a long-distance trucker arrives and chooses Mandy for her services – in the bedroom they privately discuss the price and variety of what she can offer him. He is advised for straight sex it would be a couple of hundred dollars, but he wants services for under fifty. He claims he can't afford anything more than sixty dollars and her desperation to get the client's money leads her to agreeing to straight sex for twenty minutes for sixty dollars. In the office area, Fran is seen counting the money and noting down income. Connie is taken to the parlor area by owner Walter for a discussion. Connie is told her services have suddenly fallen out of demand and that her intake the previous week had been almost $2000 whereas now her income has fallen dramatically because no one is booking her. Connie – normally quite in control of her emotions – lets her walls drop and begins to weep admitting she's not particularly sure why men no longer want to be with her and she wants Walter to tell her why he thinks that is. Walter gently suggests that he suspects that something in her attitude is turning men off (if he knows Connie is behind the strategy of quickly getting men off before intercourse can occur, it remains unmentioned) but he suggests she take her week off to pull herself together and get her confidence back. J.J. and Claudia are seen in a bedroom smoking marijuana and keeping an eye out for Fran or Walter. The two have a fight with deodorant cans afterwards trying to hide the smell of smoke. Connie and Linda are sitting in one of the rooms talking. The conversation begins with Connie determining if she should straighten out her hair or not as she thinks it is hurting her desirability. Linda admits openly that when she first saw Connie's frizzy hair that she personally thought the girl would never make money in their trade. Connie explains that after her time off if she returns and Walter is still at the Ranch, then she won't stay as she 'can't handle him'. It is revealed through the discussion that Walter is starting to sexually harass Connie since her last return and she can't take it as she was always taught to never have sex with an employer. Connie admits she would like to leave the Ranch and go travelling or go to college but to do either it takes money which means doing what she does. The conversation concludes with Connie deciding she will eventually straighten her hair as it has to be the reason she isn't booking clients. Diane begs for Fran's help with a client known as Buck who expects services for $20 which is under the Ranch minimum spend of $50. At this point, it is revealed that the services are expensive because the girls are checked over by doctors to ensure they don't have sexually transmitted diseases. As Buck waits in the parlor for his friend to be serviced by one of the other girls, he tries to buy the services of Connie and the other girls for the $20 he has. Connie becomes increasingly hostile during the conversation, especially when Buck suggests his friend is being ripped off. Following the altercation with Buck, Fran decides to open the liquor cabinet and allow the girls the opportunity to dance and unwind in the parlor. The girls are seen slow dancing with each other and enjoying themselves. The next night the girls and Fran are in the parlor for a meeting because Walter is unhappy that the girls got drunk while business hours were still going on elsewhere in the building causing frustration for another girl who was trying to service a client. A mention is made of a ghost in the Ranch called 'Harold' that the girls talk about to scare each other with frequently – a fine of $100 is to be put in place the next time a girl mentions 'Harold' in future. Some time later (no mention of how long) J.J. decides to leave the Ranch. She is seen packing in her room; in a discussion with Mandy a short while later she admits that the business is starting to mess her up emotionally as three weeks of work at a time is making her feel like a machine. J.J. reveals she was very happy in her original profession as a cosmetologist but she just wasn't making enough money to support herself and her husband with. In the morning, Ginger, Joey and Claudia are awakened for a line up in the Parlor following J.J.'s resignation from the brothel. While the two clients are being serviced, Fran goes to the living room to talk to J.J. who is stuck at the Ranch until she can be picked up by car. Fran advises J.J. to call her if things don't work out or if she ever needs a friend to talk to, J.J. admits she will keep in touch regardless as she will miss everyone. Fran hopes things will work for J.J. but advises her to be careful as she has seen girls leave before to go back to men who only want to pimp the girls out and she doesn't want to see this happen. A few of the prostitutes wish J.J. goodbye; later, thanksgiving comes along and the remaining girls on the ranch celebrate with Walter and Fran. Walter gives a religious speech about all the nice things that have happened recently and that all the people who have come to the brothel has been thanks to God. The girls toast to a wonderful holiday and then following their meal, go out to line up in front of more clients. While the clients are being serviced, Connie dances provocatively in the parlor to music from the record player. After thanksgiving Walter fires Mandy. Mandy is seen rushing to pack her bags following some kind of altercation with Walter. Walter enters Mandy's room while the cameras are rolling and warns the director to stop filming and that he wants the film reel from this scene so it doesn't end up being put in the documentary. Moments later, Mandy is seen in the office after speaking to an airport on the phone as she tries to desperately get the next plane out of there; near tears she tells the director (Broomfield) that Walter threw all her luggage outside and told her to walk because she'd apparently 'quit'. So angry is Mandy that she tells the director Walter wouldn't even allow her a ride on his aeroplane (which other than by car, is the only transportation away from the Ranch). The firing of Mandy stems from her booking a client with Jacuzzi extra for $150 (far under the normal asking price) and Walter deducting $20 of the fee for the plane ride to the ranch before Mandy has had her 50/50 cut of her profits, meaning she is several dollars short on her earnings. As the director tries to query Mandy what started the argument, Walter comes into the hallway and warns the director again if they don't stop filming the situation at that moment, the film is stopping indefinitely and he will rip it all up and he will sue. At this point, the documentary is ended absolutely with a short scene of a car driving away from the ranch (presumably with Mandy inside) and no follow up information is offered as to what happened to J.J. or Mandy or any of the other girls. ===== The world of The Trap Door is solely inhabited by monsters, and almost all action takes place in the monsters' castle, and especially the pantry or cellar where lives Berk, the central character. Beneath the castle are a series of dark and mysterious caverns inhabited by all manner of "horrible things", accessible by the eponymous trap door. The master of the castle, "The Thing Upstairs", resides in the attic of the castle and remains an unseen character throughout the entire show, shouting orders to Berk when hungry or annoyed. Berk has two companions, Boni and Drutt. In most episodes, Berk accidentally leaves the trap door open, admitting a more troublesome monster than himself; but some monsters open it from below. Though mostly hostile or mischievous, the monsters emergent from the trap door include the amiable and periodic Rogg, and occasionally others as harmless as he. ===== The opening panels show Pope Oswald Leopold II sitting in a bar drinking and reminiscing. There is a flashback to a young child preparing to accept the mantle of Pope. He undergoes martial arts training from Bruce Lee, because "The Pope needs to be ready for anything." After becoming Pope, Leopold leads a life full of drinking, sex and debauchery. Eventually, God casts judgement on the entire human race, condemning them all. He allows the gates of Hell to open and the world is invaded by swarms of demons. After a great war, a treaty is formed and Hell's gates are closed. Human and demon survivors roam the Earth together and co- exist. After the flashback, Pope witnesses a gang kidnapping a young woman. When Pope tries to stop the group, they summon the demon Belaam. Pope beats the demon after a brief fight by cutting off his right arm with a sword. The woman expresses her gratitude and goes back to Pope's house. Later that night, Belaam ambushes Pope, killing the woman. While distracted by her death, Pope appears to be killed. As Belaam relishes his triumph, he is shot from behind by Jesus. Pope soon awakens and finds he is in the presence of Jesus and God. They reveal to him that God sent Saint Michael to watch over the good people left on Earth. Lucifer was able to overpower and capture the saint. God gives Pope super-strength and tells him that if he rescues Saint Michael, he will get into Heaven despite his deplorable life. As Pope and Jesus search for Hellcorp – Lucifer's headquarters on Earth – they are attacked by the Zombie Twins, Lucifer's henchmen. Pope dispatches the duo, but they were not beaten and summon all of Earth's corpses to form a giant, writhing zombie monster. Pope can't stop this new monster, but Jesus is able to destroy them in a brilliant explosion when they try to eat him. After killing the zombies, Pope and Jesus are once again attacked by Belaam, now with a robotic arm, but he is easily defeated. Finally at Hellcorp, Jesus and Pope enter, only to have to fight waves of demons waiting for them. After putting up an incredible fight, Pope and Jesus are incapacitated and brought before Lucifer. They then discover Lucifer's plan: to steal Saint Michael's halo and combine it with his own demon horns, expanding his powers to godlike proportions. Pope escapes, but is unable to prevent Lucifer from donning the halo and he is banished. Pope then spends what seems like a long time in Hell, fighting every day to survive. But just 17 seconds later on Earth, Pope is rescued by God, who increases his powers by granting him a halo of his own. With his new-found power, Pope defeats Lucifer and saves Saint Michael. God grants Pope access to Heaven, but he turns it down to stay and protect the people of Earth. Afterwards, Pope returns home and Jesus becomes his roommate. ===== Jack Slavin, a Scottish farmer with a heart ailment, lives on an island which had been a hippie commune decades before. He is struggling to keep landowners from building developments on the wetland. His teenaged daughter Rose is a beautiful but isolated girl with a passion for gardening. Since Rose's mother had left the family, Jack homeschooled his daughter and did not expose her to life beyond their small island home. Jack believes that they both "need a woman around." He travels to the mainland to ask his girlfriend Kathleen to move in with them. Jack breaks the news to a shocked Rose, from whom he had kept his relationship a secret. Rose remains disdainful when Kathleen and her two teenage sons move in. Kathleen struggles to adapt to the Slavin's rural lifestyle. Her sons, Rodney and Thaddius, are almost polar opposites; Thaddius is a sullen, rude delinquent, while Rodney is insecure and often overlooked. While she still has a strained relationship with Kathleen, Rose develops strange bonds with her new "step-brothers." It is clear that Thaddius is attracted to her, but Rose does not like him. One night, Rose spies on Jack and Kathleen in bed together, and develops a strange jealousy toward Kathleen. Rose decides to lose her virginity, and shocks Rodney by confronting him topless and asking him for sex. Rodney refuses and reasons with her, and instead ends up giving her a dramatic haircut. Afterward, Rose calmly takes her father's shotgun and possibly misfires it into Jack and Kathleen's bedroom as they sleep. An initially shocked Jack confronts Rose in disbelief, but the two seem to forget the event within minutes. Kathleen asks Jack about his relationship with Rose, and how she might have psychological problems that should be dealt with. Jack denies that his daughter has any problems. Meanwhile, Rose and Rodney become good friends. Rodney is often criticized by his mother for being overweight, and the two fight constantly about his diet, but Rose sees only his kindness and intelligence. However, still on a mission to lose her virginity, Rose's thoughts turn to Thaddius. While trapping a copperhead intended for scaring Kathleen, Rose sees Thaddius and a girl named Red Berry having sex in the woods. Later that night, Thaddius enters Rose's room and though she dislikes him, Rose allows him to have sex with her. The copperhead, which Rose has kept in its cage under her bed, escapes into the house when the lock of the cage is loosened and drops open by the vibrations of the bed that Thaddius and Rose are having sex in. To irk her father, Rose hangs her bloodied bedsheet in the front yard. Jack is furious that his daughter has been "ruined," and gives Thaddius one day to move out. Meanwhile, Kathleen is cornered by the copperhead. The resulting chaos puts the whole household on edge. That night, Rose holds a screening of a homemade movie about the hippie commune in her treehouse. As the film rolls, Thaddius advances on Rose and is stopped by Jack. After a scuffle, Thaddius falls from the treehouse and is rushed to the hospital. Rose runs away and hides for days. Jack finally finds her in one of the housing developments, but quickly leaves to take care of a "transaction." Back on the island, Jack offers Kathleen ten thousands dollars, then fifteen, in order to have her move out. Kathleen agrees at twenty thousand. Jack returns to Rose's hideout, and she is overjoyed with the news that Kathleen is gone. That night, Rose kisses Jack; the shock that his daughter is in love with him—and that he allowed her to kiss him—makes him upset, and he weeps. Waking the next morning, the memory of the kiss haunts Jack. He and Rose go to the house of the housing developer, Marty Rance, and Jack breaks down, finding that he has no fight left in him. He tries to sell his property to Rance, upsetting Rose. He and Rose return home, and Jack dies in his sleep overnight. Rose had originally planned to kill herself when her father died, but after setting the house on fire and lying down next to Jack's body, she changes her mind and escapes. Two years later, Rose is shown living in Vermont and working in a greenhouse where Gray, her father's friend from the island, works as well. ===== After being rejected by his girlfriend, Peter Rooker, an art-department employee in Portland, Oregon, decides to audition for a small role in an upcoming local community theatre's production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Despite the fact that Peter has no experience or skill as an actor, the director casts Peter as Cyrano, as the lead. Peter soon becomes caught up in the various intrigues of the "theater people", including the charming but mercurial Michael Degan, the beautiful leading lady Grace Hargrove, and a cast of other eccentric players. Gradually, Peter discovers that in the world of theater the normal rules do not apply, but in the end, there is a role for everyone. As Peter struggles with his acting, it becomes clear that he is not going to be ready for opening night. An experienced, but universally disliked actor, Ken Zorbell, is brought in to play Cyrano. Realizing the writing is on the wall, Peter asks the Director to let him relinquish the role and take another role as a background character. On opening night, the lead has not appeared, and the director asks Peter, who has never rehearsed the role, to play Cyrano. At first, he declines, but then realizing it is his dream, he plays Cyrano with great success. ===== Katie and Lin are born on the same day but into difference lifestyles: one in Malibu, California to a nuclear family that has to learn how to handle a growing teenager and the other into a single parent family with a teenager who was born with a facial deformity and suffers in isolationism. Katie learns of a program, "Doctor's Gift", that provide world-wide, medical assistance to those in need. She learns about Lin. Katie joins the program on one of its trips to China. Katie undergoes an attitude change while in China and on her own embarks to find Lin. Lin's father, Daniel, brings Katie and Lin together. Lin is convinced to undergo surgery for her facial deformity. She is able to smile. They both develop beyond the insularity of their particular world. ===== Jane Coslaw serves as the narrator of the film as well as the older sister of the main protagonist of the movie, her paraplegic brother Marty. Their rocky relationship changes after a series of murders in their small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, starting in the spring of 1976. Railroad worker Arnie is decapitated by a unseen attacker, pregnant Stella prepares to kill herself but is brutally murdered in her own bedroom, an abusive father is killed in his greenhouse, and Marty's best friend, Brady, is also killed. After Brady's death, citizens form a vigilante justice group. Although local Sheriff Joe Haller attempts to stop the citizens, he relents after being berated by Brady's father. Reverend Lowe fails to dissuade the townsfolk from causing further bloodshed. While the vigilantes hunt for the killer in the nearby woods, three are attacked and killed. The survivors later deny seeing anything unusual. Afterwards, Reverend Lowe dreams that he is presiding over a mass funeral when his congregationincluding the bodies in the casketsbegins to transform into werewolves before his eyes and attack him. He awakens screaming and asks God to "let it end." As a result of the mounting unsolved murders, curfews are put in place, canceling the town’s Fourth of July celebration. The Coslaws decide to have their own backyard party and invite Nan's alcoholic brother, Red. Red gives the gift of a custom-built wheelchair/motorcycle to Marty, which he nicknames the "Silver Bullet," as well as a pile of fireworks so he can have his own celebration. Marty uses the Silver Bullet to go out in the middle of the night to a bridge where he lights the fireworks. The fireworks get the werewolf's attention, and it confronts him, but he escapes after launching a rocket into the creature's eye. Marty enlists Jane's help to look for someone with a newly injured or missing eye. She discovers that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye. Realizing that no adult would believe his story, Marty begins sending anonymous notes to Reverend Lowe telling him that he knows who he is, what he is, and that he should commit suicide in order to stop the killings. Lowe tries to run Marty off the road with his car. When Marty is trapped under a closed covered bridge, Lowe, whose sanity has been fractured by his condition, tries to rationalize the murders he has committed as doing God's work. Lowe apologizes and moves in for the kill until Marty calls for help from a passerby. The siblings manage to convince Red that Lowe is connected to the murders and attempted to kill Marty. Red persuades Sheriff Haller to investigate. That night, Haller, still skeptical but desperate to find the killer, goes to Lowe's house and finds Lowe has locked himself in his garage to restrain himself from further killings. Before Haller can arrest him, Lowe transforms and bludgeons Haller to death. Knowing the werewolf is coming for them next, Marty and Jane convince Red to take Jane's silver cross and Marty's silver medallion to the gunsmith, who melts them down into a silver bullet. On the night of the full moon, they wait for the werewolf, who cuts the power to the house and smashes its way inside, attacking Red. The bullet is nearly lost in the melee, but Marty is able to retrieve it and shoots the werewolf in the right eye. The corpse turns back into Lowe before dying. As the trio recover, Marty and Jane say they love each other and embrace, and Jane narrates that although she hadn't always been able to say it, she was able to say it from then on. ===== On a snowy night, a stranger, his face swathed in bandages and his eyes obscured by dark goggles, takes a room at The Lion's Head Inn in the English village of Iping in Sussex. The man demands that he be left alone. Later, the innkeeper, Mr. Hall, is sent by his wife to evict the stranger after making a huge mess in his room while doing research and falls behind on his rent. Angered, the stranger throws Mr. Hall down the stairs. Confronted by a policeman and some local villagers, he removes his bandages and goggles, revealing that he is invisible. Laughing maniacally, he takes off his clothes, making himself completely undetectable, and drives off his tormenters before fleeing into the countryside. The stranger is Dr. Jack Griffin, a chemist who has discovered the secret of invisibility while conducting a series of tests involving an obscure drug called monocane. Flora Cranley, Griffin's fiancée and the daughter of Griffin's employer, Dr. Cranley, becomes distraught over Griffin's long absence. Cranley and his other assistant, Dr. Kemp, search Griffin's empty laboratory, finding only a single note in a cupboard. Cranley becomes concerned when he reads it. On the note is a list of chemicals, including the drug monocane, which Cranley knows is extremely dangerous; an injection of it drove a dog mad in Germany. Griffin, it seems, is unaware of this. Cranley deduces that he may have learned about monocane in English books printed before the incident that describe only its bleaching power. On the evening of his escape from the inn, Griffin turns up at Kemp's home. He forces Kemp to become his visible partner in a plot to dominate the world through a reign of terror, commencing with "a few murders here and there." They drive back to the inn to retrieve his notebooks on the invisibility process. Sneaking inside, Griffin finds a police inquiry underway, conducted by an official who believes that it is all a hoax. After securing his books, he attacks and kills the officer. Back home, Kemp calls first Cranley, asking for help, and then the police. Flora persuades her father to let her come along. In her presence, Griffin becomes more placid and calls her "darling." When he realizes that Kemp has betrayed him, his first reaction is to get Flora away from danger. After promising Kemp that at 10 o'clock the next night he will murder him, Griffin escapes and goes on a killing spree. He causes the derailment of a train, resulting in a hundred deaths, and throws two volunteer searchers off a cliff. The police offer a reward for anyone who can think of a way to catch him. The chief detective in charge of the search uses Kemp as bait, feeling that Griffin will try to fulfill his promise, and devises various clever traps. At Kemp's insistence, the police disguise him in a police uniform and let him drive his car away from his house. Griffin, however, is hiding in the back seat of the car. He overpowers Kemp and ties him up in the front seat. Griffin then sends the car down a steep hill and over a cliff, where it explodes on impact. Griffin seeks shelter from a snowstorm in a barn. A farmer hears snoring and sees the hay, in which Griffin is sleeping, moving. The man notifies the police. The police surround the building and set fire to the barn. When Griffin comes out, the chief detective sees his footprints in the snow and opens fire, mortally wounding him. Griffin is taken to the hospital where, on his deathbed, he admits to Flora that "I meddled in things that man must leave alone." As he dies, his body gradually becomes visible again. ===== Walter, a convicted child molester, returns home to Philadelphia after serving 12 years in prison. His friends and family have abandoned him, with the exception of his brother-in-law, Carlos. Walter's apartment is just across the street from an elementary school—an obvious source of temptation. He gets a job at a local lumber mill and meets Vicki, one of the few women working there. After sleeping with Vicki, Walter tells her that he molested little girls, but rationalizes his crimes by saying, "I didn't hurt them." Vicki is clearly shocked and disturbed by this new information, but before she can consider how to respond to it, Walter tells her to leave his apartment. Walter receives frequent visits from a verbally abusive police officer named Lucas, who makes it clear that he is waiting to catch Walter reoffending. Watching the school, Walter sees a man offering candy to little boys in an apparent effort to gain their confidence. He realizes that this man, whom he nicknames "Candy", is another child molester. Walter also meets an apparently lonely young girl named Robin who is a bird watcher. Walter sees Candy abduct a boy; however, he does not report this to the police. Walter's life takes a further downturn when a suspicious co-worker, Mary-Kay, learns of his conviction. She prints out his police record and posts it on the bulletin board at the mill for everybody to see. Some of the employees attack Walter, but Vicki and the boss of the mill come to his defense. Ostracized and frustrated, Walter leaves his workplace and goes to the park. Vicki, fearing the worst, begins to search for him. Walter ends up meeting with Robin at the park. As they talk, he begins to succumb to his desires and invites Robin to sit on his lap. She politely refuses, but then begins to confide in him. As she begins to cry, Walter realizes that she is being molested by her father. In her anguish, and sensing a similarity between her father and Walter, she offers to sit on Walter's lap, wanting his approval. Walter finally understands the pain he caused his victims, and tells Robin to go home; as she leaves, she gives him a hug. On his way home, he sees Candy dropping off a young boy near the school at night. In a fit of rage and self-hatred, Walter gives Candy a thorough beating. Afterwards, he goes to Vicki's home, and she accepts him. Soon after, Lucas visits Walter's apartment as Walter is packing to move in with Vicki and tells him that a man was beaten across the street the night before, and asks if he knows anything about it. Walter denies any knowledge, but Lucas knows better. He reveals that the boy gave a very good description of the assailant, which fits Walter. He also reveals that "Candy" is wanted in Virginia for raping a young boy. Lucas decides not to charge Walter with the assault. With Carlos' help, Walter is reunited with his sister, whom he has not seen in years. However, she refuses to forgive him and leaves. In a voice-over discussion in which his therapist tells him that eventual forgiveness may take several years, Walter replies that he understands and accepts her anger, and expresses optimism for his own future. ===== Joe Saunders and his brother Fred arrive in London from Leybourne in Kent, and go to the Elephant and Castle pub, the haunt of Tom Sayers, a leading boxer. While his brother, an aspiring boxer, is having a trial bout with Sayers, Joe Saunders is persuaded to sing a song to entertain the bar's customers. Initially reluctant, but persevering, his performance is a hit, leading to an offer from the landlord of a regular engagement at £1 a week and two free beers a night. A month later, Saunders is a major hit at the bar, drawing large crowds. After receiving an invitation to sing at the local music hall, the Mogador, he unfortunately chooses to sing a slower, more melancholic song. Met with a mixture of indifference and hostility by the crowd, the Mogador's owner, Bessie Bellwood, calls the performance "horrible". Disappointed, he walks away and quietly begins to sing "Half and Half and Half" to himself, causing Bellwood to instantly change her opinion. Her job offer, however, has a catch: Saunders has to use a new name; he chooses George Leybourne, after his home town. Soon, Leybourne establishes himself as a headlining fixture at the Mogador, performing to packed houses. When a member of the audience compares him unfavourably to "The Great Vance", whom Bellwood considers the greatest music hall performer of the era, she takes Leybourne to a performance Vance is giving; there he declares that he can be better than Vance. A new song is written for him, "Ale, Old Ale", quickly becoming a hit. An annoyed Vance, who considers drinking songs his territory, regards Leybourne as an upstart and responds with a new drinking song. A rivalry between them results in both developing fresh songs about different alcoholic beverages to outdo the other. Leybourne is eventually extremely successful with his signature hit: "Champagne Charlie". An enraged Vance challenges him to a duel with pistols, fully expecting him to apologise. Leybourne, however, accepts the challenge, and a farcical duel takes place in which neither are hurt. Their rivalry continues, although music halls are under increasing threat from the government, which is being lobbied by theatre owners who see music halls as competitors to their business. Despite their rivalry, Vance and Leybourne begin to develop a grudging respect for each other and agree to stage a joint performance in support of the owner of one of the other music halls. A relationship also develops between Bessie Bellwood's daughter Dolly and Lord Petersfield, the young son of the duke in charge of the panel cracking down on the music halls. Dolly resists Petersfield's repeated marriage proposals, believing that the gulf in class cannot be overcome, an impression especially fuelled by the polite but dismissive reception she receives from Petersfield's father, the Duke. Many years before, the Duke had nearly married Bessie Bellwood before being convinced by his father that she was beneath him. Bessie visits the Duke to persuade him to allow his son and her daughter to marry, reminding him of their own affair. She grows angry after discovering the Duke could ruin her because the committee he heads may close down the music halls. During the first performance of Leybourne's latest song, a major riot is started by men paid by the theatre owners, who call upon the police to intervene. Fearing the closure of the Mogador and other music halls, performers and staff try to battle the rioters, sending out for help to the neighbouring music hall, where Vance is performing. Vance leads his own staff to the rescue. Overcoming the rioters and restoring order just before the police arrive, what is left is an orderly music hall audience listening to Leybourne's song. Later summoned to give evidence before the committee, the performers give their evidence, expecting the worse. At the Mogador, Vance, Bellwood and Leybourne stage a joint performance. The Duke arrives, and on his announcement that the committee has decided in favour of the music halls, the entire audience erupts, drinking champagne to celebrate a secure future while singing "Champagne Charlie". ===== Three thousand years ago, the Space Pirates Balban invaded Earth. The Starbeasts and the first Gingamen, warriors of the Ginga Forest, fought them with a mystical power known as Earth and eventually imprisoned them. The Ginga people later cloaked their forest within marked boundaries and passed on the duty of the Ginga warriors through generations. In the present day, Hyuuga, Hayate, Gouki, Hikaru and Saya are chosen as the 133rd warriors of the Starbeast Swords. Ryouma is very happy that his elder brother Hyuuga succeeds to the title. When Orghi holds the succession ceremony of the Starbeast Swords, an earthquake breaks the seal on the Balban. Orghi orders the 133rd warriors to get the Ginga Braces hidden in Roaring Mountain. However, the Balban attacks them to prevent the birth of the new Gingamen. During the battle, Hyuuga is swallowed into a crack in the ground created by the Balban's leader, Captain Zahab. Enraged, Ryouma activates his hidden Earth power and awakens the Ginga Braces. The Gingamen fight together with the Starbeasts against the Balban, who desire to revive the Demon Beast Daitanix, on whose corpse they built their castle. ===== The film centers on five strangers who are linked together – and who meet each other at separate times – by a series of events that take place on Christmas Eve in New York. The main character is Rose (Susan Sarandon), a woman who is struggling to cope with caring for her mother, an Alzheimer's patient. Meanwhile, Nina (Penélope Cruz) and Mike (Paul Walker) are a young couple on the verge of breaking up due to Mike's increasingly jealous behavior. Elsewhere, Artie (Alan Arkin) is an old waiter who searches for his deceased wife every Christmas Eve. Finally, Jules (Marcus Thomas) is a young man who deliberately damages his hand so he can attend a Christmas party in the emergency room, as that was the only happy memory of his childhood. In addition to the five main characters, the mysterious Charlie (Robin Williams) is introduced as the person who may be able to help Rose finally realize that she must look after herself more, rather than worrying about everyone else. ===== Stacy Holt (Brittany Murphy) is an associate producer on the Kippie Kann Show, a daytime talk show hosted by the domineering Kippie Kann (Kathy Bates). Stacy's belief that "luck is when preparation meets opportunity" has convinced her that she will be able to achieve her perfect life. Her long-time boyfriend, Derek (Ron Livingston) appears to be the fulfillment of all of her wishes, despite his reluctance to commit or discuss his past relationships. When Stacy brings home tapes of the Kippie Kann Show to study, Derek recognizes a guest, French model Lulu (Josie Maran), as a former girlfriend. Stacy tries to ask questions about their relationship, but Derek brushes her off. Stacy confides in her co-workers Barb (Holly Hunter) and Ira (Kevin Sussman) about her worries. Inspired by Ira's pitch about using PalmPilots— the modern day "little black book"—to investigate a lover's secrets, Barb and Ira encourage Stacy to reach out to Derek's exes to learn more about him. Under the guise of inviting Lulu back to the Kippie Kann Show, Stacy, Barb, and Ira ask her pointed questions about Derek. Lulu reveals that she stole Derek away from his then-serious girlfriend Joyce (Julianne Nicholson) and that their relationship was purely sexual. Back at her apartment, Stacy stews in her insecurities, which are exacerbated when Lulu leaves a flirtatious answering machine message for Derek. Stacy looks through Derek's personal items and discovers a box of mementos from former girlfriends. Her snooping is amplified when Derek accidentally leaves behind his Palm Pilot while he is away on a work trip and asks Stacy to forward important emails, thereby giving her the password. On the Palm Pilot, Stacy discovers pictures of Joyce and his other ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Rashida Jones). Barb encourages Stacy to reach out to them and Stacy makes a doctor's appointment to meet Rachel, whom she assumes is a podiatrist. Stacy is embarrassed to discover that Rachel is actually a gynecologist, but when she notices that Rachel has pictures of Derek's dog in her office, she becomes jealous. Pretending to research a pitch, Stacy interviews Rachel, who reveals that she and Derek still share custody of the dog and, as a result, still see each other once in a while. Next, Stacy meets Joyce, and the two strike up a friendship, although Stacy feels guilty for befriending Joyce under false pretenses. When Stacy sees Joyce taking calls from Derek, she asks Joyce about their relationship. Joyce reveals that although she was hurt when Derek cheated, she forgave him because he said the fling with Lulu was a mistake. Joyce admits to Stacy that she still hopes that she and Derek will reunite. Stacy panics and in hopes of separating Joyce and Derek further, she shows Joyce the filmed interview with Lulu where Lulu brags how Derek only went back to Joyce because Lulu became bored with him. Devastated, Joyce ends her friendship with Derek. Stacy feels guilty for making Joyce so unhappy and questions whether her investigation did anything to improve her own relationship with Derek. At the Kippie Kann Show, production prepares for a live show for sweeps week and Stacy is given lead responsibilities. When Stacy is thrust on stage, she realizes that her investigations into Derek's past are the subject matter. Kippie reveals that Barb orchestrated the episode and invited Lulu, Rachel, Joyce, and Derek to the show. All are confused and hurt by Stacy's lies, especially Joyce and Derek. Stacy initially blames Derek for keeping secrets, but realizes that she had been applying arbitrary rules of perfection on everyone else but herself. Stacy apologizes to the women and to Derek. She tearfully breaks up with Derek and admits that she is not the right woman for him. She encourages him to get back with Joyce before quitting on air. Stacy goes backstage to confront Barb, who tries to defend her actions and congratulate Stacy on the episode's success. Stacy rebuffs her and leaves. Stacy interviews for a job under Diane Sawyer and reflects on her experiences to the interviewer. She gets the job and on her way out, she meets her idol, Carly Simon. ===== Illustration from Dream Days (1902) by Maxfield Parrish The story takes place in the Berkshire Downs in Oxfordshire (where the author lived and where, according to legend, St. George did fight a dragon). In Grahame's story, a young boy discovers an erudite, poetry-loving dragon living in the Downs above his home. The two become friends, but soon afterwards the dragon is discovered by the townsfolk, who send for St George to rid them of it. The boy introduces St George to the dragon, and the two decide that it would be better for them not to fight. Eventually, they decide to stage a fake joust between the two combatants. As the two have planned, St George harmlessly spears the dragon through a shallow fold of skin suggested by the dragon, and the townsfolk rejoice (though not all of them, as some had placed bets on the dragon winning). St George then proclaims that the dragon is reformed in character, and he assures the townsfolk that the dragon is not dangerous. So the dragon is then accepted by the people. ===== The Heisei International University in Kazo, Saitama, stands in for Denji Sentai Megarangers Moroboshi High School. Kenta Date, a senior high school student, is the ultimate champion of an arcade video game called "Megaranger". He belongs to the Cybernetics club, a group of like minded friends from his school. Koichiro Endo, Shun Namiki, Chisato Jogaseki, and Miku Imamura are also members of Cybernetics. The International Network of Excel-Science and Technology (INET), the games creators, invite Kenta and the Cybernetics club members to tour the INET laboratories. Following a short tour of the INET HQ buildings, the company is attacked by the Neijirejia, an evil force led by Dr. Hinelar on a mission to conquer the current reality. Dr. Kubota, INET's chief scientist, reveals that Megaranger was more than only a simple video game but actually a combat simulator to identify potential recruits for a super fighting team to combat the Neijirejia. While the INET headquarters (HQ) is destroyed by the Neijirejia warrior Yugande, Dr. Kubota gives Kenta and his friends devices known as 'Digitizers'. By entering the key-code "3-3-5" and shouting "Install, Megaranger!", Date, Endo, Namiki, Jogasaki and Imamura transform into the Megarangers to fight the Nejirejia. ===== The story takes the form of a signed statement by a Chinese professor of English named Doctor Yu Tsun, who is living in the United Kingdom during World War I. Tsun is a spy for Abteilung IIIb, the military intelligence service of Imperial Germany. As the story begins, Doctor Tsun has realized that an MI5 agent called Captain Richard Madden is pursuing him, has entered the apartment of his handler, Viktor Runeberg, and has either captured or killed him. Doctor Tsun is certain that his own arrest is next. He has just discovered the location of a new British artillery park and wishes to convey that knowledge to Berlin before he is captured. He at last hits upon a plan to achieve this. Doctor Tsun explains that his spying has never been for the sake of the Kaiser's Germany, which he considers "a barbarous country." Rather, he says, he knows that Germany's intelligence chief, Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Nicolai, believes the Chinese people to be racially inferior. Doctor Tsun is, therefore, determined to be more intelligent than any White spy and to obtain the information Nicolai needs to save the lives of German soldiers. Doctor Tsun suspects that Captain Madden, an Irish Catholic in the employ of the British Empire, is similarly motivated. Taking his few possessions, Doctor Tsun boards a train to the village of Ashgrove. Narrowly avoiding the pursuing Captain Madden at the railway station, he goes to the house of Doctor Stephen Albert, an eminent Sinologist. As he walks up the road to Doctor Albert's house, Doctor Tsun reflects on his great ancestor, Ts'ui Pên, a learned and famous civil servant who renounced his post as governor of Yunnan Province to undertake two tasks: write a vast and intricate novel and construct an equally-vast and intricate labyrinth "in which all men would lose their way." Ts'ui Pên was murdered before he could complete his novel, however, and wrote "contradictory jumble of irresolute drafts" that made no sense to subsequent readers, and the labyrinth was never found. Doctor Tsun arrives at the house of Doctor Albert, who is deeply excited to meet a descendant of Ts'ui Pên. Doctor Albert reveals that he has himself been engaged in a longtime study and an English translation of Ts'ui Pên's novel. Albert explains excitedly that at one stroke he has solved both mysteries: the chaotic and jumbled nature of Ts'ui Pên's unfinished book and the mystery of his lost labyrinth. Doctor Albert's solution is that they are the same, and the novel is the labyrinth. Basing his work on the strange legend that Ts'ui Pên had intended to construct an infinite labyrinth and on a cryptic letter from Ts'ui Pên himself stating, "I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths," Doctor Albert realized that the "garden of forking paths" was the novel and that the forking takes place in time, rather than space. In most fictions, a character chooses one alternative at each decision point and eliminates all of the others. In Ts'ui Pên's novel, however, all possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, all of which themselves lead to further proliferations of possibilities. Albert further explains that the constantly-diverging paths sometimes converge again but as the result of a different chain of causes. For example, Doctor Albert says that in one possible timeline, Doctor Tsun has come to his house as an enemy but in another, he comes as a friend. Though trembling with gratitude at Doctor Albert's revelation and at his ancestor's genius, Doctor Tsun glances up the path to see Captain Madden rushing towards the door. Knowing that time is short, Doctor Tsun asks to see Ts'ui Pên's letter again. As Doctor Albert turns to retrieve it, Doctor Tsun draws a revolver and murders him in cold blood. Completing his manuscript as he awaits death by hanging, Doctor Tsun explains that he has been arrested, convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to death. However, he has "most abhorrently triumphed" by revealing to Nicolai the location of the artillery park. Indeed, the park was bombed by the Imperial German Air Service during Tsun's trial. The location of the artillery park was in Albert, near the battlefield of the Somme. Doctor Tsun had known that the only way to convey the information to Berlin was to murder a person with the same name so that news of the murder would appear in British newspapers, which connected with the name of his victim. ===== In the year 2014, Japan suffers a major economic collapse and people are forced to emigrate to mainland China. The movie introduced the story with two vampires, Kei and Luka, of whom the first was probably made a vampire by the former, and in later Kei's flashback is revealed that Luka decided to end his existence by watching the sunrise. Three orphaned boys live in a fictional Chinese city called Mallepa, a 'melting pot' of different Asian groups. They are named Shō (Gackt), Shinji (Susumu Terajima) who is Sho's brother, and Toshi (Tarô Yamamoto). All three survive through pickpocketing. During a theft gone wrong, Sho meets Kei (Hyde) - a vampire who appears to be a young man - sitting amidst a pile of debris and brings him back to the orphan's hideout. When the orphans are attacked by a man they previously robbed, Kei attacks, kills, and feeds off of their attacker, thereby revealing his status as a vampire to the orphans. However, Sho approaches him, unafraid. Several years later, Sho is in his twenties, leading a band of thieves consisting of Kei and Toshi. During one of the robberies against another gang, they cross paths with a Taiwanese named Son (Leehom). Son is going after the gang because their leader raped his sister, Yi-Che (Zeny Kwok). Sho, Kei, Son and Toshi all become friends, and Sho quickly and awkwardly falls in love with Yi-Che though it is implied that she in turn harbors feelings for Kei. Toshi is murdered by the local mafia for helping Sho and Kei in their heists by using drugged pizza to sedate their targets. Soon, through this experience, Son and Yi-Che learn that Kei is a vampire. Nine years later, Kei has left the band and Sho is head of his district in Mallepa and is married to Yi-Che. Son has joined Mr. Chan, the leader of the opposing mafia of Mallepa and is now Sho's enemy. Kei, who is revealed to be in prison for murder, makes several death sentence pleas; Sho goes to visit him in prison after seeing a news report about him on TV. During Sho's visit at the prison, he reveals to Kei that he had to propose to Yi-Che several times before she agreed because she was really in love with Kei. The couple now have a daughter together whom they named "Hana". After spending the entire conversation in silence, Kei states that he feared Sho, who had been reckless, was dead and that he is glad he is not. Yi-Che develops a fatal cancerous brain tumor. Soon after the diagnosis, Sho's men are killed on the streets in broad daylight while Sho is away. Sho's brother, Shinji, is also killed when he points at gun at Mr. Chan while in a drug induced haze. Sho calls Kei and begs him to return. After speaking to Kei he is told that Kei had been sentenced to death, something Kei had actually requested. Kei, however, escapes his execution and returns to help his friend. Sho asks Kei to turn Yi-Che into a vampire so she will be around for the sake of Hana (their young daughter). Kei refuses angrily, but agrees to face Mr. Chan with Sho. He promises Sho that if anything happens to him, he will take care of Hana. When they go to face Mr. Chan, Mr. Chan is shot by two of his own while Sho faces off with Son. Their battle comes down to a 'count to three and shoot' match when they are both down to only one bullet. Sho's gun misfires and he is shot in the chest by Son. Kei arrives on the scene and Son faces his own death by pointing his empty gun at Kei, who is enraged at the sight of his injured friend and fires at Son. Kei goes to Sho, who appears to die dramatically in Kei's arms. In 2045, Hana is grown up and heading off to college. She says goodbye to Kei, who raised her in Sho's absence and it is implied that she is aware of Kei being a vampire. Before she leaves she mentions the feeling of someone watching her, and after her departure Sho appears as a vampire, thanking Kei for taking care of her all these years because he couldn't face what he had become. Together the two men drive to the beach and await the rising sun together to face death. The movie concludes with the entire gang back together at the beach in the daylight (something not possible for Kei in the past), presumably reunited in the afterlife or as reincarnations of themselves in another life. ===== Diverted from exploring the Pleiades, the Enterprise arrives at the terraforming colony on Velara III, as the project is behind schedule. The director, Kurt Mandl (Walter Gotell), insists they are on time but Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) orders an away team to the surface after Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) senses that Mandl is hiding something. After they arrive, one of Mandl's team is killed by a malfunctioning laser drill. During Lt. Commander Data's (Brent Spiner) inspection of the tool, it begins to fire at him, but his quick android reflexes allow him to dodge the shot and render the drill harmless. He finds the programming of the laser was rewritten to fire upon the staff. Nearby, a crystal is discovered giving off irregular light and radiation patterns. The crystal is brought aboard the Enterprise to study and Picard orders a halt to the terraforming. Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Data discover the crystal may be alive. When the crystal attempts to interact with the Enterprise's computers, it is placed into a containment force field. The crystal begins to grow and gains access to the computer's translation program and attempts to communicate with the crew, treating the humans as an enemy, derisively calling them "ugly bags of mostly water". Picard discovers that Mandl and his team previously encountered the crystals; at the time, they had considered the possibility that the crystals were alive, but Mandl insisted on continuing to terraform. The terraformers used a drilling process responsible for removing the saline water layer from the water table of Velara III. This saline layer acted as a conductor, allowing many separate crystals to function as one life form. In a defensive response to the drilling, the crystal life form rewrote the laser's software and attacked the terraformers. Data hypothesizes that a single crystal is not intelligent, but when linked to other crystals, their intelligence is formidable. As the crystalline life form accesses higher-level functions of the Enterprise's computer, Picard and the crew try to transport it to the surface but the crystal blocks all attempts to transport it off the ship. Data and Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) discover the presence of cadmium in the crystal and suspect it has photoelectric properties. They disable the lights in the medical lab and the crystal immediately begs for life. Picard peacefully negotiates to return the crystal life form to the surface of the planet where Starfleet will institute a quarantine, leaving the life form to live in peace. ===== When the partial remains of nature photographer Cliff Benson are found in the woods near Hyde River, his brother, Steve, investigates the mysterious attack. After finding problems with a theory involving a bear attack, he teams up with local sheriff's deputy Tracy Ellis. As the deaths continue and the townsfolk are pressed for information, they close ranks, under the mysterious "Oath" made when the town was founded. Steve and Tracy grow closer to each other as they peel away the mystery and come face to face with the dark evil behind the deaths. ===== Steve Prefontaine, a Coos Bay, Oregon student, is too small to play most sports but becomes a talented distance runner. He enrolls at the University of Oregon in 1969, and meets fellow Oregon Ducks track and field athletes Pat Tyson and Mac Wilkins. With coaches Bill Bowerman and Bill Dellinger, "Pre" wins three national cross-country championships and four consecutive 5,000-meter runs, breaking the U.S. record in the latter. Prefontaine gains fame as an aggressive runner who likes to be out front from the start, rather than biding his time until a strong finish. Prefontaine accompanies other top American runners including Frank Shorter and Jeff Galloway to the 1972 Munich Olympics, where they witness the terrorist attacks of the Munich Massacre which interrupt and almost cancel the games. In the 5,000-meter, after leading with only 150 meters to go, three different runners including the winner, Finland's Lasse Viren, pass Prefontaine and he does not win a medal. After his college career ends, Prefontaine prepares for a rematch with Viren at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The strict amateurism rules of American non-collegiate sports force Prefontaine to turn down a lucrative offer to become a professional runner, instead working as a bartender while living in a trailer home. He becomes an activist to help American athletes compete against better-funded international rivals. On May 30, 1975, after drinking alcohol at a post-meet party, Prefontaine is killed when his MG convertible flips while driving. After his death, the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 gives athletes more control over their sports' governance. ===== ===== In contemporary wartime San Francisco, chemist and blackmailer Albert Baker is killed by hit man Philip Raven, who recovers a stolen chemical formula. Raven is double-crossed by his employer, Willard Gates, who pays him with marked bills and reports them to the Los Angeles Police Department as stolen from his company, Nitro Chemical Corporation of Los Angeles. Raven learns of the setup and decides to get revenge. Police Detective Lieutenant Michael Crane, who is vacationing in San Francisco to visit his girlfriend, nightclub singer Ellen Graham, is immediately assigned the case. He goes after Raven, but the assassin eludes him. Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his Los Angeles nightclub after an audition wherein she sings and performs magic. Then, she is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett, where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates. Unknown to each other, Gates and she board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. The next morning, Gates is alarmed when he sees them asleep with Raven's head on her shoulder. He wires ahead to alert the police, but Raven forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him elude them again. He is about to kill her, but is interrupted by workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. From Gates's club, she tries to contact Crane, but he has left San Francisco to return to Los Angeles. That evening, the suspicious Gates invites Ellen to his Hollywood mansion, where his chauffeur Tommy knocks her unconscious to set up a fake suicide. Tipped off by Ellen's friend at the club, Crane goes to the mansion looking for Ellen, but Gates has already left. Tommy tells Crane that Ellen has been gone for two hours. While Crane questions Tommy, and makes a phone call to Ellen's hotel, Raven arrives and hides outside, where he sees Tommy discard Ellen's purse, to keep Crane from spotting it. Raven realizes that Ellen is in danger. After Crane leaves, Raven knocks Tommy down a flight of stairs when the chauffeur denies Ellen is still there. Raven searches the house and rescues her. Tommy recovers and warns Gates at his club, where Crane has caught up with him. Raven and Ellen are confronted as they enter the club, so Raven takes her hostage as he flees. She surreptitiously drops monogrammed playing cards as a trail of "breadcrumbs". The police corner them in a railroad yard, but wait for daylight to move in. Raven reveals to Ellen that he was orphaned at a young age and raised by an abusive aunt. One day, he snapped while she was beating him, and killed her, for which he was imprisoned in reform school; there, he was abused by the other children. She tells him that the formula he recovered was for a poison gas that Nitro is selling to the Japanese and begs him to extract a signed confession instead of killing Gates. Ellen helps Raven escape the dragnet, hoping she has appealed to his patriotism. However, he breaks his promise to her and kills a policeman who had almost managed to capture him to get away. Raven arrives as Nitro Chemical conducts a gas attack drill and its employees wear gas masks, obscuring their faces. Gates orders Tommy to guard his door. Tommy spots Raven and gives chase, but Raven knocks him out. Raven disguises himself in Tommy's uniform and gas mask to surprise Gates, forcing him to take him to company president Alvin Brewster, the mastermind of the treasonous Nitro sale. Raven barricades himself with them when the police and Ellen arrive, and coerces both into signing a confession. Brewster dies of a heart attack while trying to kill Raven, who then kills Gates. Crane is lowered on a scaffold and exchanges gunfire with Raven, wounding him. Raven passes up the opportunity to kill Crane when he sees Ellen helping the detective. Other police fatally shoot Raven, but he lives long enough to be assured by Ellen that she did not turn him in and that he succeeded in getting the confession. ===== The year is 1910; the place, the badlands of Northeast Region, Brazil. Twenty-year-old Tonho is the middle son of an impoverished farm family, the Breves. He is next in line to kill and then die in an ongoing blood feud with a neighboring clan, the Ferreiras. For generations, the two families have quarreled over land. Now they are locked into a series of tit-for-tat assassinations of their sons; an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth. Embedded in this choreography of death is a particular code of ethics: "Blood has the same volume for everyone. You have no right to take more blood than was taken from you." Life is suffused with a sense of futility and stoic despair. Under pressure from his father, Tonho kills one of the Ferreira sons to avenge the murder of his older brother. This act marks him as the next victim. Tonho's younger brother is addressed only as "the Kid" by the family. Anticipating future loss, his parents don't give him a name. The Kid is an imaginative and loving child, whose spirit will not break in the face of harsh parenting, brutalizing isolation, and numbing poverty. The Kid's love encourages Tonho to question his fate. When Tonho meets Clara, a charming itinerant circus girl, all of life's possibilities open up for him. The film is narrated by "The Kid" who is later given a name by Clara and her stepfather, the traveling circus performers. They call him "Pacu" and he spends the whole film narrating which ultimately drives the viewers to identify and allows the film to humanize the characters. Later, Pacu and Tonho visit the circus in town, with Tonho forming a relationship with Clara. Clara later leaves her stepfather to be with Tonho, arriving at the farm to be with him. The two sleep together before she departs, telling Tonho to meet her in the east by the ocean. One of the Ferreira men come to the farm in order to exact revenge on the Breves, initially appearing to kill Tonho. However, it is revealed that they actually shot and killed Pacu, devastating the Breves. The father tells Tonho to get the gun in order to kill all of the remaining Ferreiras in retaliation. Tonho, realizing that his life with his family is destroyed, walks off without a word. His father attempts to shoot him for disregarding the honor of their family, but he is stopped by the mother who insists that the feud no longer matters and that it's over. Tonho arrives on a beach, staring at the sea with an expression of melancholic wonder on his face. ===== Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) visits FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) claiming that his brother Adam is the culprit in the "God's Hand" serial killings. Fenton says Adam has committed suicide, prompting Fenton to fulfill a promise to bury his brother in a public rose garden in their hometown of Thurman. He begins to tell Doyle about the boys' childhood and suggests that the bodies of the God's Hand victims are buried in the rose garden. In the summer of 1979, when the brothers (Matt O'Leary and Jeremy Sumpter) were children, their father (Bill Paxton) told them that he'd been visited by an angel and tasked by God with destroying demons disguised as human beings. He explained that this mission was now the responsibility of the three of them and must be kept secret from all others. The father's modus operandi is to wait for the angel to give him a list of names of those who must be destroyed. He then abducts an individual from the list, takes them to the family home and, with his sons present, touches them, which, he says, grants him a vision of the crimes the demon has committed. He then kills the victim with an ax and buries the body in the rose garden. Adam believes in their father's mission and says that he sees the same visions of the demons' crimes that their father sees. Although he goes along out of fear, Fenton doesn't believe; he is convinced that their father is insane and has brainwashed Adam. After telling Doyle how his father killed the first person, Fenton and Doyle drive to Thurman. On the way, Doyle tells Fenton that his mother had been murdered by someone that has never been caught. Fenton continues his story as they drive. He tells Doyle how, when his father took them to get the second person on the list in broad daylight, he told them no one will see them because "God will blind them for us." One night Fenton's father tells him that after praying for the angel to visit Fenton (for his lack of faith) the angel instead visited him, and told him something about Fenton that he didn't want to believe. He makes Fenton dig a hole that eventually becomes a "storm cellar" where they'll kill "demons." Eventually, Fenton tries to stop the crimes by telling Sheriff Smalls (Luke Askew) what has happened. Smalls visits, and Fenton insists that he search their storm cellar. The father ambushes and kills Smalls to "protect the mission," and is distraught at having been made to kill a person for what he believes is the first time. The father blames Fenton for revealing their mission and thus forcing him to kill Smalls. He tells Fenton that the angels told him that Fenton was a demon, but he doesn't want to believe it. He locks Fenton in the storm cellar hoping Fenton will have a divine revelation. After weeks of starvation, Fenton tells his father that he has indeed seen God and is ready to take his place in the mission. At the next abduction, Fenton is given the ax to deliver the death blow, but at the last second kills his father instead. Fenton's father whispers something to Adam as he dies. Fenton moves to free the hostage, but Adam takes up the ax and kills him. Doyle and Fenton arrive at the rose garden. Fenton tells Doyle how they buried the two bodies in the rose garden, and how Fenton asked Adam to bury him in the rose garden too, should Adam ever have to "destroy" him. Doyle is puzzled by his phrasing. "Fenton" then reveals to Doyle that he is in fact Adam and that he has destroyed the real Fenton, who had grown up to become the God's Hand killer. Flashbacks reveal that Adam did in fact share his father's visions of the crimes of those they abducted, just as he'd always claimed (whereas Fenton did not; as such, Adam always feared that Fenton was a demon). When Adam touches Doyle, a new vision reveals that Doyle had murdered his own mother. Doyle asks, "How did you know?" and Adam replies that Doyle's name was given to him on the list of demons to be destroyed. Doyle tries to protect himself by reminding Adam that people at the office saw him, but Adam just declares that God will protect him, then strikes down Doyle with the ax. Those who saw Adam (posing as Fenton) at the FBI office inexplicably remember nothing about his visit. In the surveillance tapes, his face is obscured by static. The investigation then proceeds as Adam predicted: FBI agents raid the real Fenton's home and discover evidence of his crimes, as well as Doyle's badge, planted by Adam. Agent Griffin Hull (Derk Cheetwood) visits the Enid County Sheriff—Adam Meiks—to deliver the news about Fenton. Hull doesn't recognize Adam, even though he was one of the people who saw him at the FBI office the night before. Shaking Hull's hand before he takes his leave, Adam tells him he's "a good man," indicating he's seen that Hull has not committed any crimes. Hull departs, and Adam tells his pregnant wife that "God's will has been served." ===== In the 30th century, time travel becomes illegal after a time paradox crisis. The Time Defense Bureau (TDB) is established to watch for and stop time crimes. Four new enlistee cadets of the TDB are tricked by Don Dolnero and his gang into letting them time-travel to the year 2000 to commit various crimes and, to protect history, the four cadets pursue them. They encounter a severe problem: the Timeranger program requires five members for the first operation. They coerce a present-day martial artist, Tatsuya Asami, to join them, and they become the Timerangers. Tatsuya rents a building for them to live in, and they start a small odd-jobs business called Tomorrow Research to financially support themselves. Over time, the four cadets begin to realize that their presence would inevitably change the future in the form of the City Guardians, a security force under the employment of the Asami Corporation to protect the city from the Londerz. The City Guardians form a tenuous relationship with the Timerangers, especially when Tatsuya's college acquaintance Naoto becomes Time Fire and later also becomes the City Guardian's captain. ===== The game's story is set in Celtland, a fantastic medieval world that resembles Ireland. The playable character is an apprentice mage named Brian. Brian sets off to find his father, who has left the monastery of the mages - the player learns later that his father is looking for a thief who has stolen the "Eletale Book". The player must also collect elemental gems, which have been hoarded by powerful criminals, before confronting the game's final boss. ===== The events unfold just before the start of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988. Lieutenant Steklov, son of a high-ranking General, is assigned to Afghanistan, hoping to take part in combat and earn some medals before the war ends. Sgt. Arsionov (Aleksei Serebryakov) combines his combat experience and bravery with brutal hazing of young conscripts back on the field base. Major Bandura`s tour of duty has expired. He is free to go home and reunite with his wife whom he has almost forgot. This means leaving his mistress Katya (Tatyana Dogileva), a nurse in the base's hospital—to a much anticipation from Bandura's superior Leonid (Mikhail Zhygalov) who fell in love with Katya. Anxiety is felt by many characters about the change taking place back in the Soviet Union during the Perestroika. Bandura himself thinks he might not be able to adapt. Katya says that Afghanistan will be remembered as the best part of their lives. The Soviet command arranges a deal with a local Afghan warlord that he won't take action against the withdrawing Soviet troops in exchange for weapons and supplies. When asked why he needs more weapons as the war seems to be coming to an end, he replies that his war will go on for a very long time. On its way back to base the convoy that has delivered the supplies is ambushed by another faction of the mujahedin. The paratroopers take cover and fight back with only a few casualties, but the road is blocked by a damaged fuel tanker. While Bandura personally drives a tank to push the tanker off the road, inexperienced Steklov dashes forward attempting to lead troops to counterattack and is badly wounded. Later, his leg is amputated at the hospital, which adds to the stack of Bandura's career problems. Bandura decides to stay with his men for a while and lead a retaliatory mission to finish a mujahedin leader, who is presumed wounded and taken to the neutral warlord's village. When the preparations are finished, Bandura comes to say good bye to Katya, who is scheduled to leave the country on the morrow. A junky soldier at the hospital insults him by insubordination but Bandura suddenly shows no will for disciplining him. Instead, he requests to be replaced by some other officer on the mission, citing a sore foot as a pretext. But, after realization that his company is setting out, he resumes command. It goes awry again when the neutral warlord is accidentally killed in the raid and his men become hostile and together with the mujahedin attack the paratroopers. Bandura is able to pull his unit out mostly intact, but they are pinned down and call in an Mi-24 airstrike that obliterates the village. After the strike, Bandura becomes apathetic, and without apparent reason, re-enters the village alone. He finds nobody alive except for a 10-year boy clinging to an AK-47. Bandura hesitates, unsure what to do, then walks away, allowing the boy to shoot him in the back and kill him. The final scene shows dozens of Soviet helicopters flying away from the devastated village. ===== The film opens on Diwali with the murder of young Vijay Khanna's parents, committed by a man of unknown identity with a white horse on his charm bracelet, "zanjeer". Because of this traumatic event, Vijay has recurring nightmares of a white stallion. Even as a child Vijay stays socially awkward and stays away from the other kids, showing the audience that he believes himself to be alone. Fast forward 20 years, and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) is now an inspector, an honest police officer in a town where few are just. He receives complaints about a local man, Sher Khan (Pathan) (Pran), who is running gambling dens. When he calls Khan in for questioning, Khan's superiority complex chafes against Khanna's police authority, as he scolds the officer, telling him he only orders him around due to the uniform he wears. Vijay takes him up on his challenge, and meets him in street clothes to fight him. At fight's end, Sher Khan not only closes his gambling dens, but has gained respect for Vijay. He becomes an auto mechanic, and reforms his ways. Various dealings of the underworld continue unabated throughout the town, all tracing back to gang leader Teja (Ajit Khan). A mysterious caller continually phones Inspector Khanna to inform him exactly when a crime is about to take place, but hangs up before Khanna can extract any more information out of him. When a traffic accident perpetrated by gang members leaves several children dead, a witness, a street performer named Mala (Jaya Bhaduri), is bribed by Teja's men to keep quiet. When she is questioned by Vijay, he becomes enraged at her denying she knows anything, and, to sway her differently, takes her into the morgue to view the mangled bodies of the children. She has a change of heart, and comes clean, asking that the bribe be donated to an orphanage. She identifies the man behind the traffic accident. Once it is known that Mala has broken her word, Teja's men come after her. She is chased through the night, narrowly escaping across the train tracks, and coming to Inspector Khanna's house, desperate for shelter. He lets her in, allows her to stay, and the two discover that they are both orphans, and discuss the fears associated with living alone. Khanna kindly takes her to his brother and sister-in-law, and, under the sister-in-law's tutelage, Mala begins to learn how to keep house, as well as English, and other refinements. Eventually, Vijay is framed for bribery, stripped of his title and position as inspector, and jailed for 6 months on false charges, trapped by Teja. When he is released from jail, he plans to take revenge. Mala, by this time, has developed from a frightened stranger seeking his help to a romantic interest for him. She begs him, to seal their relationship, that he must stop being so vengeful. He agrees, but soon must come to terms with such a promise when he meets, in a Christian cemetery, the informant who had called him in the past when he was an inspector. The man, De Silva (Om Prakash), appears half-insane, holding onto an empty bottle. He says that on Christmas several years before, his three sons drank poisoned moonshine, and died from it. Until the killer is found, he will continue to wander with the bottle. When local criminals mocked him and called him crazy, he vowed to get back at them as he could: by phoning the inspector when a crime was about to happen. After hearing this news, Vijay becomes depressed, torn between his desire to help the grieving De Silva, and his need to keep his promise to Mala that he would not take any more revenge on the lowlifes of the town. Eventually, along with a concerted effort by Sher Khan to cheer up Vijay, Mala relents, vowing she will not try to control him, and says he must do what is right. The trail of tainted moonshine leads back to Teja and his men. Upon finally cornering the crook on Diwali, fireworks bursting overhead, Vijay also finds out that the person who murdered his parents, 20 years before, on the same night, is Teja, recognisable by the zanjeer on his wrist. Sher Khan helps him to fight Teja and his men, and take justice into their own hands, until the police arrive. When the hapless police inspector is held at gunpoint by Teja, Vijay manages to drop to retrieve a pistol from the ground, and shoots him dead, his body falling into the swimming pool. ===== Eyal is an agent in Mossad, the Israeli security service. He is a hitman who targets enemies of Israel. His wife has recently committed suicide, and the agency decides that he needs to take on a less challenging assignment: to find an aging Nazi war criminal and get him "before God does". In order to track down the old man, Eyal poses as a tour guide and befriends the Nazi's adult grandchildren, Axel and Pia. Pia lives on a kibbutz, an Israeli commune. Her brother Axel visits her in order to convince Pia to return to Germany for their father's seventieth birthday. It is later revealed that Pia's estrangement with her parents began when she discovered that they were hiding her grandfather. She shares this information with Axel. Although he has a job to perform, Eyal truly befriends Axel and Pia. Axel and Pia are decent people who demonstrate that most Germans have gotten beyond the hatred that led to the Holocaust. They spend time together and Eyal enjoys himself, even if he would not openly admit so. His friendship with Axel allows him to display some humanity, letting down his tough-guy machismo. Eyal and Axel even take a mud bath by the Dead Sea, showering off together in the nude afterward. When the three are at dinner one night in a Tel Aviv restaurant, Axel speaks privately to the Palestinian waiter, Rafik, and finds out where the best club in town is. Later that evening, Axel, Pia, and Eyal arrive at the club. Eyal is shocked to discover that it is a gay club. He sees Axel dancing with Rafik and is taken aback. Eyal is initially disgusted and disappointed to discover that Axel is gay. He asks to be removed from the assignment, not attempting to hide his homophobia as the reason. His boss, Menachem, insists that Eyal finish the mission. Eyal visits Germany and comes to realize that Axel's orientation is unimportant. During the visit, Axel runs into a group of friends, drag queens, coming off the U-bahn. A group of skinheads attack them and Eyal defends the queens. In doing so, he reveals that he is fluent in German. He tells Axel that his parents were German, leaving out that most of the Jews in his mother's region of Germany had been killed by Axel's grandfather. Later during the visit, Eyal runs into Menachem, whose family was also killed by the grandfather's Nazi activities. Axel invites Eyal to his father's birthday party. The guests are uncomfortable about Eyal's nationality and religion, but still polite. After the cake is brought out, Axel's parents surprise the guests by bringing out Axel's aged grandfather. Axel angrily confronts his mother and goes to Eyal's room, only to find a folder full of information on Axel's family. Meanwhile, Eyal meets with Menachem and tells him that they can easily take the grandfather and bring him to Israel to be tried for his war crimes. Menachem reveals that they are the only two on this mission, and the aim is to kill the grandfather. Eyal is clearly conflicted, but takes the case of poisons that Menachem gives him. Eyal arrives at Axel's house and enters the grandfather's room, unbeknownst to all but Axel. Axel sneaks up behind Eyal and watches as he fills a syringe with poison, doing nothing to intervene. Ultimately, though, Eyal is unable to fulfill the task. He leaves, and Axel tenderly caresses his grandfather's face before turning off his oxygen tank, killing him. He goes to Eyal's room, where Eyal tells him that the suicide note his wife wrote told him that he kills everything that comes near him. Eyal says that he doesn't want to kill anymore and breaks down in Axel's arms. The story jumps ahead 2 years. Eyal and Pia are married with a child named Tom and living on the Kibbutz. Eyal and Axel remain good friends. ===== Hardened criminal and drug dealer King David (DMX) returns to his unidentified East Coast city, where he can find redemption by settling an old score with drug lord Moon (Clifton Powell). He keeps tape-recorded journals about his life and is always talking about a woman named Edna (Keesha Sharp). Upon David's return, he meets up with Jasper (Luenell), a barkeep who expresses a strong dislike towards him. She contacts Moon to inform him of his return and willingness to pay his debt, as well as momentarily passing by Paul (David Arquette), a struggling writer. Mike (Michael Ealy), one of Moon's henchmen, is assigned to collect his boss's money from David, appearing to be very interested in him for some reason. Prior to the deal, he is warned to not sabotage the deal in order to avert police attention. He, his friend Blue (Antwon Tanner) and his sister Ella (Drew Sidora) go to David and collect the money. Mike is very tense upon arriving at the location of the pickup, prompting Blue to authorize it for him. After a brief but tense transaction between Blue and David, the latter is set up for an ambush. Mike angrily demands if David recognizes him, and proceeds to stab him multiple times in the abdomen after receiving several taunts. A weakened David stabs Blue in the eye with an ice pick before they abandon him in a gutter. Paul, who passes by at that moment, drives David, a total stranger, to the hospital. Paul is informed that King has died and has left him all his personal possessions. The items include jewelry, his car (which is a rare Stutz Blackhawk), and a collection of his audio tapes. Meanwhile, Moon is unnerved by Mike botching the deal by using violence against David and becomes paranoid of police attention. After being informed of Blue's injury, he tells the two to wait in a parking garage for a car to come and drive them to the hospital. Instead, he sets them up as two henchmen shoot and kill Blue and Ella, to Mike's horror. Just before Mike can be killed himself, he gains gravity of the situation and guns down the henchmen, but is unable to retain his sister's life as she dies in his arms. He then vows revenge against Moon for the double-cross. As Paul listens to the journal, the story of David's life is told: after a particularly bad drug experience in the east, David relocated to the west in search of a second chance. He finds assistance with the Vietnamese and even a new girlfriend, Janet (Jennifer Sky), whom he abuses. A television star, she turns to David's heroin and becomes sick and detached in the process. David abandons her as she presumably turns to selling his drugs to pay the bills and for her drug habit. In the present, Moon sends out a duo of henchmen to kill Mike. Additionally, Moon learns of Paul's involvement in the situation from bystanders as his role of David's driver to the hospital, and requests for his murder, as well. Paul, meanwhile, continues to listen to the tapes; after he abandons Janet, David moves on to Juanita (Reagan Gomez-Preston), a college student that he meets in an upscale bar. Their relationship goes well as David starts to make a lot of money, but then Juanita tries his drugs. She doesn't get addicted, but she does turn out to be very selfish by refusing to move in with David, insisting that $250,000 isn't enough on which to retire. Angry, David secretly switches her cocaine with heroin, getting her addicted. Paul realizes that the money David talked about might be in David's trunk. It is, but at the same time, Moon's henchmen are sprawling all over the city in search of him. Mike follows Moon's limo via cab to a secluded back-alley, at which he follows him into a bathhouse and proceeds to kill him. Paul listens to the last tape; David leaves Juanita, but she soon comes back, addicted and begging for help. He agrees to help her out, providing her a drug fix in exchange for sex. The humiliation and disgrace shatters her dreams and causes her severe emotional distress, thus making her addictions even stronger. After a while, she demands that he pay for her entrance to rehabilitation or else she'll call the police. Enraged, David decides to do the same thing he did to Edna: mix her heroin with car battery acid, resulting in a fatal seizure for her. Through a flashback, it is revealed that David is the biological father of Mike, who is also Edna's child, and that David brutally hit him before poisoning Edna (which explains the scar on his face). The tape ends with David speculating on how his return to the East Coast will bring about his redemption with Moon and tie the loose end with Edna's child, who he is completely unaware of as Mike in their second encounter. Paul is found by Moon's henchmen, who hold him at gunpoint, but Mike arrives just on time and kills them. Paul tells Mike that King is his father, which greatly haunts the latter. As the police converge on the scene, the two make good their escape as Paul flees on foot and Michael takes David's car. Shortly afterward, Paul writes a story based on that night, titled "Never Die Alone," which is turned down by a publishing magazine as the agent believes it to be a fictionalized story. David is cremated soon after. His narration focuses on the end of his life and how fate had such a powerful effect on not only his life but also on the lives of Paul, Mike, Edna, Juanita, Moon, and everyone else. Meanwhile, Mike drives through a tunnel and escapes without capture as David closes his narration with "I wonder what lies ahead for me on the other side". ===== The film opens as Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) gets a silver cup engraved for her husband Archie (Timothy Dalton), who receives the gift with utter disdain. The couple walk to a publicity event for Agatha's new novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. They are tailed into the venue by American reporter Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman). The next morning, Archie demands a divorce, saying he loves his secretary Nancy Neele (Gregory). That night, Agatha drives from the house and gets into an accident. The next morning, the police find her wrecked car. The press flock to the accident scene and learn that Christie left a letter for her secretary, prompting speculation of suicide. Agatha arrives by train in Harrogate and takes a cab to the Old Swan Hotel, where she books a room for two weeks. She registers as Theresa Neele from Cape Town. In the lounge, another guest, Evelyn Crawley (Morse) notices Agatha's ripped stockings and muddy shoes. Agatha makes a note later to "use" Crawley. The next day, Agatha begins receiving treatments at the Royal Baths. Meanwhile, the newspapers are publishing front-page stories about Agatha's disappearance. The police wonder why Archie is not helping with the search for his wife, but he has gone to Harrogate with Nancy for her slimming treatments. Meanwhile, Stanton interviews Agatha's secretary. She reveals that Agatha left her a coded message in newspaper advertisements.. The ad leads Stanton to the hotel in Harrogate. He makes a big show of checking in while Agatha is on the phone at the front desk. In the billiards parlor, Stanton helps Agatha make a winning triple bank shot. He introduces himself as Curtis Shacks Jr., an American seeking treatment for constipation. They spend the evening together, and he makes a pass at her, which she declines. In his room, he types notes about her behavior. Agatha researches the various spa treatments such as the galvanic bath and the Bergonic chair. She asks the attendants to explain how they avoid making a fatal mistake with the equipment. Stanton follows Agatha to a local electronics shop and begins to work out what she is up to. Agatha peruses a manual for the Bergonic chair and begins to experiment with the rheostat. She also poses as a staff member on the phone and reschedules Nancy's appointment for an earlier time. Agatha is shown rigging the controls for the Bergonic chair as Nancy undresses for her appointment. When Nancy enters the treatment room, Agatha calls out from hiding to say that the nurse is not there. She asks Nancy to turn on the electricity. Having deduced Agatha's plan, Stanton is urgently searching for the room where Nancy's appointment is. Nancy flips the switch, causing a massive spark. Stanton follows the sound of Nancy's scream to find her all right, but that behind a curtain, Agatha is sitting in the Bergonic chair. Her suicide attempt is nearly successful, but Stanton rescues her with CPR. The Christies claim that Agatha suffered from amnesia from the accident and remembers nothing. Agatha visits Stanton as he packs in his hotel room. He hands her a copy of the story he wrote, confessing that he cannot file it. Agatha stoops to help him pack, and Stanton confesses his love for her. She explains that she will divorce Archie, hinting at a possible future with Stanton. He watches the Christies depart at the railway station. The closing credits reveal that the couple divorced two years later and that Archie married Nancy. =====