From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== In the early 1980s, Jaime Escalante becomes a mathematics teacher at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. The school is full of Latino students from working-class families who are far below their grade level in terms of academic skills and also have a lot of social problems. Escalante seeks to change the school culture to help the students excel in academics. He soon realizes the untapped potential of his class and sets a goal of having the students take AP Calculus by their senior year. Escalante instructs his class under the philosophy of ganas, roughly translating to "desire" or "motivation". The students begin taking summer classes in advanced mathematics with Escalante, who must withstand the cynicism of the other faculty, who feel that the students are not capable of this. As they struggle with the lower expectations that they face in society, Escalante works hard to teach and encourage them, and they pass the AP Calculus exam. To the dismay of both Escalante and the students, the Educational Testing Service questions the success of the students, insisting there is too much overlap in their errors and suggesting the students cheated. Escalante defends his students and feels that the allegations are based more on racial and economic perceptions. He offers to have the students retake the test months later, and the students all succeed in passing the test, despite having only a day to prepare. ===== After her parents died, Utena Tenjou was given a rose-engraved signet ring by a traveling prince. The prince promised Utena that they would one day meet again; inspired by his noble demeanor, Utena decided to one day become a prince herself. Years later, Utena's search for the prince leads her to Ohtori Academy, where she enrolls as a student. She finds herself drawn into a dueling tournament with the school's Student Council, whose members wear signet rings identical to Utena's. Victors of the duel become engaged to Anthy Himemiya, a mysterious girl known as the "Rose Bride" who possesses the "power to revolutionize the world". Utena emerges victorious; forced to defend her position as the Rose Bride's fiancée, she decides to remain in the tournament in order to protect Anthy from the other duelists. As Utena and Anthy grow closer, she learns that Anthy is connected to "End of the World", the mysterious organizer of the duels. Revolutionary Girl Utena is a surrealist story that makes heavy use of allegory and symbolism, with many aspects of its plot revealed indirectly or in a manner that is open to audience interpretation. The anime series is divided into four story arcs, in each of which Utena comes to face a different challenge at Ohtori Academy: *Student Council Saga (episodes 1–13) :Utena faces the members of the Student Council, who challenge Utena on orders from End of the World. *Black Rose Saga (episodes 14–24) :Utena faces Souji Mikage, a prodigy who uses his powers of persuasion and knowledge of psychology to manipulate others into becoming duelists who seek to kill Anthy. *Akio Ohtori Saga (episodes 25–33) :End of the World is revealed as Akio Ohtori, the school's chairman and Anthy's brother. Upon meeting Akio, the Student Council members gain new abilities and face Utena in rematches. Utena finds herself the target of Akio's seduction, creating a rift between her and Anthy. *Apocalypse Saga (episodes 34–39) :Akio reveals himself as Utena's prince, and is confronted by Utena in a final duel to free Anthy from his influence. ===== Keiichi Morisato is a college sophomore who accidentally calls the Goddess Help Line. The goddess Belldandy materializes and tells him that her agency has received a system request from him and has been sent to grant him a single wish. Believing that a practical joke is being played on him, he wishes that she will stay with him forever, and his wish is granted. Since he is unable to live with Belldandy in his male-only dorms, they are forced to look for alternative housing, eventually seeking shelter in an old Buddhist temple. They are allowed to stay there indefinitely after the young monk living there leaves on a pilgrimage to India upon being impressed by Belldandy's intrinsic goodness. Keiichi's life with Belldandy becomes even more hectic when her elder sister Urd and her younger sister Skuld move in as well. A series of adventures ensue as his relationship with Belldandy develops. ===== In modern-day Tokyo, Kagome Higurashi lives on the grounds of her family's Shinto shrine with her mother, grandfather, and younger brother. On her fifteenth birthday, while searching for her cat, Kagome is dragged into the enshrined by a centipede demon that emerges from it. But rather than hit the bottom, Kagome finds herself in another universe which is parallelly the past during Japan's Sengoku period. The demon was originally defeated fifty years prior by Kikyo, a warrior priestess who was the previous keeper of the , a powerfully magical artifact created from the sacrifice of the priestess Midoriko, which grants its holder any wish their heart desires. Kagome is revealed to be the reincarnation of the now-dead Kikyo. The Shikon Jewel was burned along with Kikyo's body to cast it out of this world entirely, in order to keep it safe from the hands of those who would use its power for evil. Kagome comes across a sleeping boy pinned by a sacred arrow to a tree, learning he is Inuyasha, a half dog-demon (yōkai), whom Kikyo pinned to the tree as her final act when he attempted to steal the jewel. Kagome frees Inuyasha to kill the centipede demon, but when he turns on her and tries to steal the jewel again, he is subdued with a magical beaded necklace to keep him in line with Kagome saying "sit" or "sit boy", which causes him to violently fall to the ground. The Shikon Jewel is extracted from Kagome's body, and then taken by a crow demon, which Kagome destroys with an arrow, but in doing so, accidentally shatters the jewel into many shards that scatter across Japan and into the possession of various demons and humans. After Inuyasha gains his father's sword Tetsusaiga, placing him at odds with his older half-brother Sesshomaru, a powerful demon who detests Inuyasha and seeks Tetsusaiga for himself, he aids Kagome in collecting the shards and dealing with the threats they come across as they are joined by Shippo, a young fox demon. Kikyo is later revived and revealed to have been Inuyasha's lover, but her version of how their falling out occurred brings the events into question. It is when the group is joined by the perverted monk Miroku, whose hand is cursed with a Wind Tunnel that was passed on to him from his grandfather, that they learn that his family's curse and the events which resulted in Inuyasha's imprisonment and Kikyo's death were all caused by the half spider-demon Naraku, who was born from the soul of the bandit Onigumo, who, longing for Kikyo, made a pact with demons to acquire the Shikon Jewel for his own ends. Naraku comes into possession of most of the shards while absorbing demons to increase his power and remove any weaknesses. Inuyasha's group is soon joined after by the demon slayer Sango and her two-tailed demon- cat Kirara. Sango's entire clan was killed when they were tricked by Naraku and her younger brother Kohaku fell under his control. Over time, Inuyasha enhances Tetsusaiga into stronger forms while he contends with Naraku's schemes and minions. Inuyasha's team is loosely allied with Sesshomaru, who also becomes an enemy of Naraku after he attempts to manipulate him into doing his bidding, the resurrected Kikyo who plans to destroy Naraku by purifying the Shikon Jewel once it is completed and him with it, and Koga, the leader of the eastern wolf-demon tribe who seeks to avenge many of his comrades' deaths at the hands of Naraku. As Inuyasha and his companions journey together, he and Kagome begin to fall in love with one another, which is complicated by Inuyasha's lingering feelings for Kikyo. Hunted by his enemies, Naraku temporarily removes his heart and mortally wounds Kikyo. Kohaku, having been previously killed but later revived by Naraku and kept alive and under his control by a Shikon Jewel shard, eventually regains his free will and memories and attempts to escape Naraku's grasp and avenge his slain family. During that time, Sesshomaru settles things with Inuyasha to enable his brother to perfect Tetsusaiga to its optimal abilities. Kikyo uses the last of her life force to give Kohaku a second chance at life as Naraku finally reassembles the Shikon Jewel. Although Inuyasha and his allies finally defeat him, realizing his true desire is for Kikyo's love despite his hatred towards her and that it can never be granted, Naraku uses his wish to trap himself and Kagome inside the Shikon Jewel before dying. Revealed to be sentient, the Shikon Jewel intends for Kagome to make a selfish wish so she and Naraku will be trapped in an eternal conflict, thus prolonging its existence. But with Inuyasha by her side, Kagome wishes for the Shikon Jewel to disappear forever, which causes Kagome to return to her time with the Well sealed, and she and Inuyasha lose contact for three long years. In that time, the Sengoku period changes drastically: Sango and Miroku marry and have three children together; Kohaku resumes his journey to become a strong demon slayer with Kirara as his companion; and Shippo trains to make his demon magic stronger. Back in the present, Kagome graduates from high school before finally managing to get the Bone Eater's Well in her backyard to work again. Kagome returns to the Sengoku period, where she reunites with Inuyasha, marries him, and continues to train to become a priestess. ===== Hibiki Amawa is an enthusiastic young man whose dream career is to be a professional teacher, having graduated from college with a certificate in athletics. When he is unable to pay his landlady, Lulu Sanjo, the monthly rent for his apartment, he rushes off to the nearby Seitō Sannomiya Private School to apply for a position that is open, but is summarily denied employment because of his gender. Offended, and more determined than ever to have his way, Hibiki vows to demonstrate the merits of his educational philosophy to his detractors, and with offered help from Lulu, agrees to disguise himself by cross-dressing in order to deceive the school's female-only administration. With assistance from some gadgets Lulu engineered for this purpose, he disguises himself very convincingly. Following an initial demonstration of his merits as an educator, he is hired. Unfortunately for Hibiki, however, life as a gym teacher at this school does not go completely smoothly. With interpersonal conflicts among students causing fights and occasional mild missteps endangering his disguise, Hibiki must not only mediate his class, but also keep up appearances and navigate life in disguise. ===== From left: Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), Opie Taylor (Ron Howard), Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), and Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) Andy goes out of town and leaves Barney in charge. Upon returning, he finds that Barney took his job so seriously, he has put the entire population of Mayberry in jail for petty crimes. The series plot revolves around Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and his life in sleepy, slow-paced fictional Mayberry, North Carolina. Sheriff Taylor's level-headed approach to law enforcement makes him the scourge of local moonshiners and out-of-town criminals, while his abilities to settle community problems with common-sense advice, mediation, and conciliation make him popular with his fellow citizens. His professional life, however, is complicated by the repeated gaffes of his inept deputy, Barney Fife (Don Knotts). Barney is Andy's cousin, but that is only mentioned in a few early episodes. Andy socializes with male friends in the Main Street barbershop and dates various ladies until a schoolteacher becomes his steady interest in season three. At home, Andy enjoys fishing trips with his son, Opie (Ronny Howard), and quiet evenings on the front porch with his maiden aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier). Opie tests his father's parenting skills season after season, and Aunt Bee's ill-considered romances and adventures cause her nephew concern. Andy's friends and neighbors include, at various times, barber Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear – but played by Walter Baldwin in the 1960 episode "Stranger in Town"), service station attendants and cousins Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) and Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), and local drunkard Otis Campbell (Hal Smith). There were two mayors: Mayor Pike, who was more relaxed, and Mayor Stoner, who had a more assertive personality. On the distaff side, townswoman Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Barney's sweetheart Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) and Andy's schoolteacher sweetheart Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) become semi-regulars. Ellie Walker (Elinor Donahue) is Andy's girlfriend in the first season, while Peggy McMillan (Joanna Moore) is a nurse who becomes his girlfriend in season 3. Ernest T. Bass made his first appearance in Episode #94 ("Mountain Wedding") and four later episodes. The actor who portrayed him, Howard Morris, also appeared as George, the television repairman, in Episode #140 ("Andy and Helen Have Their Day") and in two, uncredited voice roles as Leonard Blush and a radio announcer. Morris also directed a total of eight episodes of the show, none while portraying Ernest T. Bass. In the color seasons, County Clerk Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) and handyman Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) appear regularly, while Barney's replacement deputy Warren Ferguson (Jack Burns) appears in about half of season six. Unseen characters such as telephone operator Sarah, and Barney's love interest, local diner waitress Juanita Beasley, as mentioned in the first season, are often referenced. The show's announcer for the first five seasons, Colin Male, portrayed Game Warden Peterson in Episode #140 ("Andy and Helen Have Their Day"). In the series' last few episodes, farmer Sam Jones (Ken Berry) debuts, and later becomes the lead of the retitled show, Mayberry R.F.D.. Don Knotts, Aneta Corsaut, Jack Dodson, and Betty Lynn also appeared on Andy Griffith's later show Matlock. ===== Jim is a normal earthworm, until a special "super suit" falls from the sky and allows him to operate much like a human, with his "worm-part" acting as a head and the suit acting as arms, body, and legs. Jim's task is two-fold, he must evade the game's many antagonists, who are after him because they want the suit back, and also rescue and protect Princess What's-Her-Name from them. The game plays out with Jim eluding and defeating all enemies, and saving Princess What's-Her-Name. However, not only does she not return Jim's affection, but she is also crushed by the flying cow that was launched at the beginning of the game by Jim himself. ===== On their way to join their friends ice skating on a frozen pond, Charlie Brown confides in Linus that despite the onset of Christmas he is still depressed. After Linus' reproach, and a put-down from Violet, he visits Lucy's psychiatric booth and tells her his problem. She suggests getting involved in a Christmas project, inviting him to direct a Christmas play. Lucy relates to Charlie Brown's holiday depression, complaining about never getting what she really wants: real estate. En route to the auditorium, Charlie Brown is discouraged when he sees Snoopy decorating his doghouse for a neighborhood lights and display contest, and then even more so when Sally, dictating a letter, asks Santa Claus for either a long and specific list of gifts or just "tens and twenties." Charlie Brown arrives at the rehearsal only to find the play being modernized with dancing, lively music and a "Christmas Queen" (Lucy). Charlie Brown decides they need a Christmas tree for "the proper mood", and Lucy sends him and Linus to get a "great big, shiny aluminum tree... maybe painted pink". At the tree lot, Charlie Brown picks a small sapling that, ironically, is the only real tree there. Linus is dubious about Charlie Brown's choice, but he believes that once decorated the little tree will be perfect. But when they return Lucy and the others scorn him and the little tree and walk away laughing. In despair, Charlie Brown loudly asks if anyone knows what Christmas is all about; Linus says he knows and walks to center stage. Under a spotlight, Linus quotes Luke 2:8–14, and when finished quietly says, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." Realizing that he doesn't have to let commercialism ruin his own Christmas, Charlie Brown decides to take the tree home to decorate it and show the others that it will work in the play. He stops at Snoopy's winning doghouse and takes a large red ornament from it to hang on his tree. But when the heavy bulb causes the tiny tree to bend to the ground, Charlie Brown walks away dejected. The others, who also heard Linus' oratory, realize that they were too hard on Charlie Brown and quietly follow him. Linus gently uprights the drooping tree, bulb and all, and lovingly wraps his blanket around the tree's base. After the others give the tree a startling makeover using more decorations from the doghouse, even Lucy concedes to Charlie Brown's choice. The kids then start humming "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Hearing them, Charlie Brown returns to see that his little sapling is now a magnificent Christmas tree. All the kids shout, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!", and then sing "Hark" with Charlie Brown joining in as snow begins to fall during the end credits. ===== Mr. Magoo is heading to a theater on Broadway, where he is starring as Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical production based on A Christmas Carol. Due to Magoo's nearsightedness, he arrives thirty minutes late and accidentally injures the director ("It's Great to Be Back on Broadway"). Scrooge is a miserly money lender in Victorian London on Christmas Eve, counting money while his clerk Bob Cratchit is underpaid and has no coal for his fire ("Ringle, Ringle"). After rudely refusing two men who ask him for a donation to charity, Scrooge reluctantly allows Cratchit to take the holiday off. Scrooge goes home and gets ready for bed, but is visited by the ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley, who has been dead for seven years. Marley is bound in heavy chains due to his misdeeds in life, and warns Scrooge that he risks the same fate unless he heeds the advice of three spirits who will visit him over the course of the night. The Ghost of Christmas Present visits Scrooge and takes him to observe Cratchit and his family, who are counting their blessings despite their poor situation ("The Lord's Bright Blessing"). The Ghost warns Scrooge that Cratchit's young son Tiny Tim, who is sickly, will not survive until next Christmas if things do not change. The Ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge next and takes him back to his boyhood, where Scrooge was a lonely schoolboy ("Alone in the World"). The Ghost also shows him Belle, a woman he had a relationship with before she left him due to his desire for money ("Winter Was Warm"). Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and is shown a vision of the future, where an unloved man has recently died. Scrooge sees his belongings being sold to Old Joe, the local rag-and-bone man ("We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)"). Scrooge begs to be shown "tenderness connected with death", but discovers that Tiny Tim has died. The Ghost takes Scrooge to a cemetery and shows him his own grave, revealing that this deceased man is him. Scrooge realizes in anguish that he has spent his life poorly, and repents ("Alone in the World (Reprise)"). Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning with a renewed purpose. He meets the two men from the previous day and makes a generous donation, then anonymously sends Cratchit a Christmas turkey. He later visits Cratchit to give him a raise in pay and help nurse Tiny Tim back to health, and shares Christmas together with them ("The Lord's Bright Blessing (Reprise)"). The musical concludes and the audience applauds. Magoo brings the director out on stage, but the stage's props fall on him. Magoo proudly exclaims, "Ah, Magoo, you've done it again, and by George, I've brought down the house!" and wishes both his audience and the television audience a merry Christmas. ===== A manned space flight with eight crew members crash lands on what the astronauts believe to be an unknown asteroid, with an area of desert and jagged mountains. Only four of the crew survive the crash: the commanding officer Donlin, crewmen Corey and Pierson, and a crewman named Hudak who is badly injured and barely alive, and the chances of rescue or survival are bleak. After they bury the dead men, Donlin and Pierson concern themselves with taking care of Hudak, but Corey, who is only concerned with saving himself, declares that sharing their limited supply of water with Hudak, who is likely to die soon anyway, will reduce the chances of survival for the rest of them. This sets Corey at odds with both Pierson and Donlin, who insist that they're going to continue caring for Hudak and sharing their water with him, for as long as he does survive. About an hour later, Hudak dies and, after they bury him, Donlin has Corey and Pierson trek out into the barren desert to see if there is anything that might improve their chances of survival. Six hours later, Corey returns alone, claiming not to know where Pierson went. Donlin calls Corey out on having more water in his canteen now than he had when he left, and demands to know where Pierson is. Corey claims that he found Pierson dead, and filched the dead man's water. Not buying it, Donlin wants to see for himself and forces Corey at gunpoint to lead him to Pierson's body. When they reach the spot Corey claims to have found Pierson, the body is not there, nor is there any evidence that backs Corey's claim, leaving Donlin more dubious. They later find Pierson, near the edge of a mountain, alive but severely wounded. Donlin drops the gun and rushes to Pierson, who wordlessly gestures that he climbed the mountain and saw something. With his last bit of strength, Pierson draws a primitive diagram in the sand with his finger (two parallel lines intersected by a perpendicular line), and then dies. Meanwhile, Corey grabs the dropped gun, and confesses that he attacked Pierson earlier. He then shoots and kills Donlin and sets out alone, confident that he will survive longer now that he has all of the water for himself. Corey climbs a mountain and sees a sign for Reno, along with telephone poles, which was what Pierson had attempted to draw before he died. Realizing that they had in fact never left Earth and that he had killed his partners for nothing, Corey breaks down weeping and begging his deceased crewmates for forgiveness. ===== Nan Adams, 27, on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Los Angeles, gets a flat tire on U.S. Route 11 in Pennsylvania and survives losing control of the car and skidding onto the shoulder. The mechanic she has called to come put a spare tire on comments that he is surprised she survived, saying "you shouldn't have called for a mechanic, somebody should've called for a hearse". He directs her to follow him into town where he will supply her with a new tire. As she is driving from the site of her blow-out, Nan notices a shabby and strange-looking man hitchhiking. Later, as she is preparing to leave the service station in town, she again sees this hitchhiker; but the mechanic does not see him when she mentions it. Unnerved, she drives away. As she continues her trip, Nan sees the same hitchhiker thumbing for a ride again in Virginia and at several other points in her journey. She grows increasingly frightened of him. When she stops at a railroad crossing for an oncoming train, the man is situated on the other side of the tracks. She decides to drive ahead but the car stalls on the tracks. She manages to restart the vehicle and back up just as the train speeds past. Nan is now convinced that the hitchhiker is trying to kill her. She continues to drive, becoming more and more afraid, stopping only when necessary. Every time she stops, however, the hitchhiker is there, always ahead of her. She takes a side road in New Mexico but gets stranded when she runs out of gas. She reaches a gas station on foot but it is closed; although she rouses the proprietor from bed, he refuses to reopen and sell her gas due to the late hour. Nan is startled by a sailor on his way back to San Diego from leave. Eager for protection from the hitchhiker, she offers to drive the sailor all the way to his destination. He gladly accepts and persuades the station attendant to provide gas. As they drive together and discuss their mutual predicaments, she sees the hitchhiker on the road and swerves toward him. The sailor, who cannot see him, questions her driving; she admits she was trying to run over the hitchhiker. The sailor begins to fear for his safety and leaves her, despite her efforts to have him stay, even going so far as offering to go out with him. In Arizona, Nan stops to call her mother. The woman who answers the phone says Mrs. Adams is in the hospital, having suffered a nervous breakdown after finding out that her daughter, Nan, died in Pennsylvania six days ago when the car she was driving blew a tire and overturned. Nan realizes the truth: she never survived the accident in Pennsylvania and the hitchhiker is none other than the personification of death, patiently and persistently waiting for her to realize that she has been dead all along. She loses all emotion, concern, and feels empty. Nan returns to the car and looks in the vanity mirror on the visor. Instead of her reflection, she sees in her place the hitchhiker, who says, "I believe you're going...my way?" ===== Franklin and his wife Flora go to Las Vegas because she won a slogan contest. He detests gambling, but his wife is excited about their vacation. In a casino, she puts a nickel in a slot machine and Franklin admonishes her for wasting money. She convinces him to let her pull the arm since she already put the money in, but doesn't win anything. Happy that his point was made, he implores her to go back to their room so they can get ready for dinner. As they walk, Franklin is given a coin by a drunk man who makes Franklin use it in another machine. He wins and tells his wife that they should keep the winnings and not lose it back like other people. As they depart, Franklin believes he hears the slot machine calling his name. He continues to hear this as he tries to sleep. He gets out of bed, telling his wife he cannot keep "tainted" money, and that he is going to get rid of it by putting it back in the machine. Later, Flora goes to the casino and finds him playing the machine obsessively. Addicted, Franklin has cashed numerous checks and draws crowds that watch him continuously plunk coins in. When Flora tries to coax him to stop, he declares that he has lost so much, that he has to try to win some of it back. He becomes enraged when she presses him to leave; he declares that the machine is "inhuman", that it "teases you, sucks you in". The casino workers watch and talk about him as he constantly plays and ignores his wife's pleas to go to bed. When Franklin puts his last dollar into the machine, it malfunctions and will not spin. Franklin begins yelling and pushes the machine over. He is taken out of the casino screaming. Later in bed, he tells Flora that it was about to pay off, but deliberately broke down so that it would not have to give him his money. He then hears the machine again calling his name. Then, to his horror, he sees the slot machine coming down the hallway towards their room, pursuing him; but Flora cannot see it. The machine hounds him towards the window, repeating his name over and over. He crashes through the glass and falls to his death. The police stand over his body, noting that his wife had stated that he had not slept in 24 hours. A casino manager comments that he's "seen a lot of 'em get hooked before, but never like him". The last scene shows Franklin's last dollar rolling up and spinning out flat near his outstretched, dead hand. The camera pans in the direction from which the coin had come, and there sits the slot machine, "smiling". ===== Widowed Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) keeps several suitors at arm's length in Houston, focusing instead on her close, but controlling, relationship with daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Anxious to escape her mother, Emma marries callow young college professor Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels) over her mother's objections, moves away, and has three children. Despite their frequent spats and difficulty getting along, Emma and Aurora have a tie between them that cannot be broken, and keep in touch by telephone. Emma and Flap soon run into financial and marital difficulties. Emma has trouble managing the children and household, and she and Flap both have extramarital affairs. Emma relies increasingly on her mother for emotional support. Meanwhile, the lonely Aurora overcomes her repression, and begins a whirlwind romance with her next-door neighbor, retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson). The Horton family moves from Houston to Des Moines and eventually to Nebraska, apparently for Flap's career, but mostly so he can be near his girlfriend. Emma is diagnosed with cancer, which becomes terminal. Aurora stays by Emma's side through her treatment and hospitalization, even while dealing with her own pain after Garrett suddenly ends their relationship. The dying Emma shows her love for her mother by entrusting her own children to Aurora's care. After Emma's death, Garrett reappears in the family's life, and begins to bond with Emma's young children. ===== The plot is based on Harwood's experiences as dresser to English Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, who is the model for the character "Sir". The film opens with a performance of Othello at a regional theatre in Britain during World War II. In the title role is an aging, once- famous Shakespearean actor identified to us only as "Sir" (Albert Finney). He is of the old, bombastic school of British acting, full of grand gestures and fine oratory. As the curtain comes down on the last act, and as the actors line up for their curtain call, Sir lectures them on the mistakes they've made during the performance, showing us that he is the leader of this travelling band of actors bringing Shakespeare to the provinces during wartime. Waiting backstage is Norman (Tom Courtenay), who has been Sir's dresser for decades. Norman is an efficient, somewhat effeminate man who knows Sir's every whim and fancy, is used to his tirades and temperamental rants and is, for all intents and purposes, Sir's servant. As Norman waits for Sir to come offstage after a typically florid closing address to the audience, we see one way he copes with his job as he takes a nip from a little bottle of brandy always in his back pocket. The company is hurrying to its next venue, the industrial city of Bradford, where Sir is to give his renowned portrayal of the title character in King Lear. The train nearly leaves without them, as Sir makes his stately progress through York railway station to the platform, Norman scurrying ahead to plead with the train guard to hold the train for Sir's arrival. But the train begins to pull out of the station, until Sir delivers a loud, commanding "STOP....THAT....TRAIN!" from the platform steps. The guard is taken aback, the train halts, and Sir placidly leads his company aboard. Arriving in Bradford, however, another source of Norman's anxiety soon becomes clear, for it becomes obvious that Sir's mental capacities are rapidly fading. Norman rescues him from a confused, almost violent rant in Halifax town square near Piece Hall that lands Sir in hospital. As the company tries to decide what to do, Sir unexpectedly arrives at the theatre, disoriented and exhausted, saying he has discharged himself from hospital. Norman ushers Sir to the dressing room, fiercely resisting the stage manager's insistence that the show be cancelled, and insisting Sir will be ready to go on. The middle section of the film takes place nearly entirely in the dressing room, as Norman struggles to prepare Sir for the curtain. Sir's wandering mind and nearly incoherent ramblings gradually become more focused as Norman gets him to concentrate on applying his makeup, remembering his lines; and we see how dependent the two men are on each other. Sir would have no career left without Norman; Norman, even worse, would have no life without Sir, to whom he has so long dedicated all his time and energy. By the time Sir's wife, referred to only as "Her Ladyship", who is playing Cordelia to her husband's Lear, arrives in the dressing room for the five-minute call, Sir is ready for the role he has performed 227 times. The curtain rises for the opening dialogue among Lear's courtiers, but Sir seems to mentally drift away while waiting for his cue, much to Norman's distress, forcing the hapless actors on stage to improvise speeches while Norman struggles to convince Sir of his entrance. Air raid sirens sound, signalling the onset of an air raid; and, indeed, distant bombs that can be heard falling seem to rouse Sir and he strides on stage to deliver what all agree is his finest portrayal of Lear in his long career. After the triumphant performance, however, Sir collapses from exhaustion and Norman helps him to his dressing room to lie down. Sir requests that Norman read from an autobiography he claims to have been writing. Although all Sir has written is the opening dedication, Norman reads aloud Sir's gracious "thank you"s to his audiences, his fellow actors, to Shakespeare, to stage technicians...but not a word about his dresser who has served him so long and loyally. About to protest, Norman discovers that Sir has died while he's been reading. Norman, by now slightly drunk from the evening's brandy nips, flies into a rage, accusing Sir of being a thankless old sod, and in his anger even madly scribbles an addition to Sir's writing thanking himself. But Norman's anger only temporarily covers his disorientation at losing the only life he has known for so many years and, as Norman tearfully admits, the only man he has ever loved. The film closes with Norman sprawled across Sir's body, unwilling to let go of his life and his love. ===== The film begins in 1947 at the Muroc Army Air Field in California, with civilian and military test pilots flight- testing high-speed aircraft, including the rocket-powered Bell X-1. Death is a part of their life. After privateer Slick Goodlin demands $150,000 () to attempt to break the sound barrier in the X1, World War II hero Captain Chuck Yeager is given the chance. While horseback riding with his wife, Glennis, the evening before his historic flight, Yeager falls and breaks his ribs, an injury which inhibits his ability to lock the door on the X-1. Worried that he might not fly the secret mission, he confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley, who solves the problem by giving Yeager the stump of a broom handle to use as leverage. Though the X1 bucks like a wild bronco, and pushes him to his limit, Yeager goes supersonic and lives. Yet the attendant sonic boom initially causes people to think his plane has exploded. However, an officer immediately classifies his achievement, denying him the fame of his accomplishment, which some people thought couldn't be done in an airplane. Six years later, Muroc, by then Edwards Air Force Base, remains a beehive of danger, competition, and risky behavior. Major Yeager and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break each other's speed records. Crossfield gets featured on the newsreels for achieving Mach 2, while Yeager, unnamed, shakes his hand as the former record-holder. They often visit the Happy Bottom Riding Club run by pioneering aviatrix Pancho Barnes for raucous nights of drinking. Loud and vulgar, she favors the pilots at Edwards who fly the best equipment, such as Yeager and Crossfield, whom she dubs "prime", over green "pudknockers" who only dream about it. Newly arrived United States Air Force captains Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, and Donald "Deke" Slayton hope to prove that they have "the Right Stuff". Publicity has replaced secrecy to generate continued funding, adding further pressure to the pilots. Cooper's wife, Trudy, and other wives fear becoming widows as the ever more gripping competitions of man versus machine, man versus Nature, and man versus man grow, but cannot change their husbands' powerful ambitions and what they lead to. The stress and deprivations result in Trudy taking the kids and going to live with her parents. In 1957, the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite triggers a crisis for the United States government. Politicians such as Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand America wage and win an emerging Space Race. NASA is founded, and seeks to develop the first U.S. astronauts. When approached, Yeager is dismissive of the "spam in a can" program, saying they don't need pilots. The recruiters then don't pursue him in spite of his proven abilities, saying he lacks a college degree. Air Force Pilots Cooper, Grissom and Slayton decide to tryout for the program as their opportunities are limited as second-tier pilots behind Yeager and Crossfield. Grueling physical and mental tests select an initial roster of gentlemen officers drawn from the U.S. Air Force and naval aviation. These include Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter of the United States Navy, John Glenn from the United States Marine Corps, and Cooper, Grissom and Slayton. Dubbed the "Mercury Seven", the men immediately become national heroes. They along with their wives receive compensation for exclusive features in Life magazine. In spite of repeated launchpad and in-flight explosions of the booster rockets which will carry them, the ambitious competitors all hope to be the first in Space as part of Project Mercury. Early U.S. test flights include a chimpanzee to test G-forces and other loads upon animal life. NASA engineers view the astronauts basically similarly, as mere passengers on pre-programmed flight paths. This comes up during an argument among themselves over conduct, where they realize they must present a united front to compete with the "monkey". The men insist that the Mercury spacecraft at least have a window, a hatch with explosive bolts, and pitch-yaw-roll controls to give them some role in its piloting. They say that the public supports funding for "Buck Rogers" and "that's us". While agreeing to this, Wernher von Braun next launches the capsule with the chimpanzee. Russia then beats them into Space on April 12, 1961 with the launch of Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin. U.S. efforts redouble. Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3, on May 5, 1961. He and his wife are given a White House visit, meeting the president and first lady, John and Jackie Kennedy. After Grissom's similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsule's hatch blows open upon splashdown and quickly fills with water. Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft sinks. Many accuse him of opening the hatch prematurely and panicking, a personal smirch, not on the program. The Grissoms don't get a parade, and Betty Grissom is distraught as she won't get to meet Jackie, which was her dream and feels is her due for all the years of being a test pilot's wife. Meanwhile test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury program, saying Gus Grissom should have been washed out. Yeager states that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's on national TV." They then recognize the courage it takes, irrespective of flying skill. John Glenn is in the capsule and expected to be launched into orbit, but the mission that day is postponed. Meanwhile, the vice-president, LBJ, is trying to get Glenn's wife to appear with him on TV. She refuses, as she speaks with a stutter. Incensed, LBJ decides to "go to the top". Once out of the capsule, Glenn is ordered by the director to tell his wife to cooperate. He refuses, telling his wife by phone not to let the vice- president into their home. When the director suggests someone else will be given his spot, his fellow astronauts back him up, asking, "and who are you going to get?" Soon Glenn, boosted on Mercury-Atlas 6, becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. Arriving at a communications site in Australia, Cooper meets Australian aborigines and explains their mission. One says their elder has been to space in his mind. Glenn's mission is cut short from 7 orbits to 3, as an alarm suggests a possibly loose heat shield, while he sees sparks outside the capsule in the Earth's shadow, which he calls "fireflies". While initially keeping the danger of a catastrophic failure from Glenn, his fellow astronauts insist he be told the condition of his craft. Von Braun decides that the capsule's best chance is to not jettison the package below the heat shield, hoping the straps will keep it and the heat shield in place for re-entry. Glenn is heard humming as the capsule violently hits the atmosphere. He survives and receives a ticker-tape parade. The entire Mercury Seven and their families become celebrities, and are feted at a gigantic celebration to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston. During an interview, Cooper is asked, who's the greatest pilot he's ever seen. In a long answer he is about to name Chuck Yeager, but is interrupted by other reporters, so says "You're looking at him," which he often says to his wife. Back in California, Yeager hears that a Soviet pilot holds the altitude record in a jet plane. A new Lockheed NF-104A has arrived for testing, but funding for his program is being cut as NASA's funding is increasing. Yeager decides to take it out to attempt to beat the altitude record. Upon breaking it, the jets flame out and can't be reignited. His aircraft spins out of control and he is nearly killed in a high-speed ejection. Seriously burned, Yeager simply gathers up his parachute upon landing and walks to the ambulance, proving that he still has the "Right Stuff." On May 15, 1963, Cooper has a successful launch on Mercury-Atlas 9, ending the Mercury program. As the last American to fly into space alone, the narrator notes he "went higher, farther, and faster than any other American... for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen." ===== Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a washed up, alcoholic country singer, awakens at a run-down Texas roadside motel and gas station after a night of heavy drinking. He meets the owner, a young widow named Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), and offers to work in exchange for a room. Rosa Lee, whose husband was killed in the Vietnam War, is raising her young son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard), on her own. She agrees to let Mac stay under the condition that he does not drink while working. The two begin to develop feelings for one another, mostly during quiet evenings sitting alone and sharing bits of their life stories. Mac resolves to give up alcohol and start his life anew. After some time passes, he and Rosa Lee wed. They start attending a Baptist church on a regular basis. One day, a newspaper reporter visits the motel and asks Mac whether he has stopped recording music and chosen an anonymous life. When Mac refuses to answer, the reporter explains he is writing a story about Mac and has interviewed his ex-wife, Dixie Scott (Betty Buckley), a country music star who is performing nearby. After the story is printed, the neighborhood learns of Mac's past, and members of a local country–western band visit him to show their respect. Although he greets them politely, Mac remains reluctant to open up about his past. Later, he secretly attends Dixie's concert. She passionately sings several songs that Mac wrote years earlier, and he leaves in the middle of the performance. Backstage, he talks to Dixie's manager, his old friend Harry (Wilford Brimley). Mac gives him a copy of a new song he has written and asks him to show it to Dixie. Mac tries to talk to Dixie, but she becomes angry upon seeing him and warns him to stay away from their 18-year-old daughter, Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin). Upon his return home, Mac assures Rosa Lee he no longer has feelings for Dixie, whom he describes as "poison" to him. Later, Harry visits Mac to tell him, seemingly at Dixie's urging, that the country music business has changed and his new song is no good. Hurt and angry, Mac drives away and nearly crashes the truck. He buys a bottle of whiskey but, upon returning home to a worried Rosa Lee and Sonny, he tells them he poured it out. He tells them he tried to leave Rosa Lee, but found he could not. Some time later, Mac and Sonny are baptized together in Rosa Lee's church. Eventually, Sue Anne visits Mac, their first encounter since she was a baby. Mac asks whether she got any of his letters, and she says her mother kept them from her. Sue Anne also reports that Dixie tried to keep her from visiting Mac and that she plans to elope with her boyfriend despite her mother's objections. Mac admits he used to hit Dixie and that she divorced him after he tried to kill her in a drunken rage. Sue Anne asks whether Mac remembers a song about a dove he sang to her when she was a baby. He claims he does not, but after she leaves he sings to himself the hymn "On the Wings of a Dove," which references a dove from the Lord saving Noah and descending at Jesus' baptism. Boys at school bully Sonny about his dead father, and he and Mac grow closer. The members of the local country band ask Mac permission to perform one of his songs, and he agrees. Mac begins performing with them and they make plans to record together. His newfound happiness is interrupted when Sue Anne dies in a car accident. Mac attends his daughter's funeral at Dixie's lavish home in Nashville and comforts her when she breaks down. He also complains to Rosa Lee that during their marriage, Dixie kept saying she would give up her career but never did. Back home, Mac keeps quiet about his emotional pain, although he wonders aloud to Rosa Lee why his once sorry existence has been given meaning and, on the other hand, his daughter died. Throughout his mourning, Mac continues his new life with Rosa Lee and Sonny. In the final scene, Sonny finds a football Mac has left him as a gift. Mac watches the motel from a field across the road and sings "On the Wings of a Dove" to himself. Sonny thanks him for the football and the two play catch together in the field. ===== ===== It is 1935 and Waxahachie, Texas, is a small, segregated town in the midst of the Great Depression. One afternoon the local sheriff, Royce Spalding, goes to investigate trouble at the rail yards. He dies after being accidentally shot by a young black boy, Wylie. Local white vigilantes tie Wylie to a truck and drag his body through town before hanging him from a tree. The sheriff's widow, Edna Spalding, is left to raise her children alone and maintain the family farm. The bank has a note on the farm, and the price for cotton is plummeting. The local banker, Albert Denby, suggests that she sell the farm as he doesn't see how she can afford to make the loan payments. A drifter and handyman, a black man by the name of Moses Hadner - "Moze" - appears at her door one night, asking for work. He offers to plant cotton on all her acres and cites his experience. Edna declines to hire him but offers him a meal and sends him on his way. The next morning, she sees him voluntarily chopping wood in her yard. She offers to make him breakfast on the condition that he leaves. Moze steals some of her silver spoons and leaves. When the police capture Moze with her stolen silver and bring him back to confirm the theft, Edna says she had hired him. The next day, Edna visits Mr. Denby to relay her decision not to sell the farm. He unloads his blind brother-in-law, Will, on Edna, compelling her to take him in as a paid lodger. Will is slow to warm up to her children, but they eventually become close and he rescues her daughter Possum during a tornado. Moze helps Edna's son Frank find his way home during the tornado. Edna realizes she cannot make the next payment even if she sells all her cotton. The bank declines Edna's request for relief, but she learns of an Ellis County contest: a $100 cash prize to the farmer who produces the first bale of cotton for market each season. Edna realizes the prize money plus the proceeds from the sale of her cotton would be enough to allow her to keep the farm. Edna knows she will need more pickers, and Moze agrees to help her find the help so they can harvest the cotton on time. Their efforts pay off as Edna and Moze find themselves first in line at the wholesaler with the season's first bale of cotton. Moze carefully coaches Edna on how to negotiate with the buyer, and as a result he is unable to cheat her. That night, Moze is accosted by Ku Klux Klan members and savagely beaten. Will, who recognizes all the assailants' voices as local white men, confronts and identifies them one by one; they all run off. Moze realizes he will have to leave the farm because of possible future attacks. The story ends with the community in prayer. Communion is passed among the assembled congregants at the church, hand to hand and mouth to mouth, between both the living and the deceased. The last line of the film is spoken by Wylie to Royce Spalding, "Peace of God". The film closes with all the characters gathered in church singing in unison. ===== In 1944 during World War II, Vernon Waters, a master sergeant in a company of black soldiers, is shot to death with a .45 caliber pistol outside Fort Neal, a segregated Army base in Louisiana. Captain Richard Davenport, a black officer from the Judge Advocate General's Corps, is sent to investigate, against the wishes of commanding officer Colonel Nivens. Most assume Waters was killed by the local Ku Klux Klan, but others are doubtful. Nivens gives Davenport three days to conduct his investigation. Even Captain Taylor, the only white officer in favor of a full investigation, is uncooperative and patronizing, fearing a black officer will have little success. While some black soldiers are proud to see one of their own wearing captain's bars, others are distrustful and evasive. Davenport learns that Waters' company was officially part of the 221st Chemical Smoke Generator Battalion; though eager to serve their country, they are assigned menial jobs in deference to their white counterparts. Most are former players from the Negro baseball league, grouped as a unit to play ball with Waters as manager. Their success against white soldiers gives them a good deal of popularity, with talk of an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. James Wilkie, a fellow sergeant Waters demoted for being drunk on duty, initially describes Waters as a strict disciplinarian, but also a fair, good-natured NCO who got on well with the men, especially the jovial and well- liked C.J. Memphis. Davenport uncovers Waters' true tyrannical nature and his disgust with fellow black soldiers, particularly those from the rural South. Private Peterson reveals he stood up to Waters when he berated the men after a winning game. Waters challenged Peterson to a fight and beat him badly. Interviewing other soldiers, Davenport learns that Waters charged C.J. with the murder of a white MP, after a search conducted by Wilkie turned up a recently discharged pistol under C.J.'s bunk. Waters provoked C.J. into striking him, whereupon the weapons charge was dismissed and C.J. was charged with striking a superior officer. When C.J.'s best friend Corporal Cobb visits him in jail, C.J. is suffering from intense claustrophobia and tells Cobb of a visit from Waters, who admitted it was a set-up Waters had done to others. Davenport learns from Cobb that C.J., awaiting trail, hanged himself. In protest, the platoon deliberately lost the season’s last game, and Waters was shaken by the suicide. Taylor disbanded the team, and the players were assigned to the 221st. Davenport learns that white officers Captain Wilcox and Lieutenant Byrd had an altercation with Waters shortly before his death. Both officers admit to assaulting Waters when he confronted them in a drunken tirade, but deny killing him as they had not been issued .45 ammunition. Though Taylor is convinced Wilcox and Byrd are lying, Davenport releases them. Privates Peterson and Smalls go AWOL, and Davenport forces Wilkie to admit he planted the gun under C.J.'s bunk on Waters' orders. Waters had divulged his internalized racism to Wilkie, revealing that during World War I, he helped lynch a black soldier who acted as an Uncle Tom to French civilians. Davenport asks why Waters did not target Peterson because of their fight, and Wilkie explains that Waters liked Peterson. Davenport has Wilkie arrested just as an impromptu celebration begins, as the platoon is to be shipped out to join the fight overseas. Realizing Peterson and Smalls were on guard duty the night of Waters' murder, and thus had been issued .45 ammunition for their pistols, Davenport interrogates Smalls, found by the MPs. Smalls confesses Peterson killed Sergeant Waters, as revenge for C.J.’s death. Captured and brought to the interrogation room, Peterson confesses to the murder, saying "I didn't kill much. Some things need getting rid of." Taylor congratulates Davenport, admitting that he will have to get used to Negroes being in charge. Davenport assures Taylor that he will get used to it – "You can bet your ass on that," he adds, as the platoon marches in preparation for their deployment to the European theatre. ===== The film talks about two very different individuals who share a prison cell in Brazil during the Brazilian military government: Valentin Arregui, who is imprisoned (and has been tortured) due to his activities on behalf of a leftist revolutionary group, and Luis Molina, an effeminate homosexual in prison for having sex with an underage boy. Molina passes the time by recounting memories from one of his favorite films, a wartime romantic thriller that is also a Nazi propaganda film. He weaves the characters into a narrative meant to comfort Valentin and distract him from the harsh realities of political imprisonment and separation from his lover, Marta. Valentin encourages Molina to have self-respect and opens him up to political commitment. Despite Valentin's occasionally snapping at Molina over his shallow views of film watching and unrealistic romance, an unlikely friendship develops between the two. As the story develops, it becomes clear that Valentin is being poisoned by his jailers to provide Molina with a chance to befriend him, and that Molina is spying on Valentin on behalf of the secret police. Molina has apparently been promised parole if he succeeds in obtaining information that will allow the secret police to break up the revolutionary group. When Molina declares himself in love with Valentin, a physical consummation of that love occurs on Molina's last night in prison. Molina is granted parole in a surprise move by the secret police. Valentin provides Molina with a telephone number and a message for his comrades. Molina at first refuses to take the number, fearing the consequences of treason, but he relents, bidding Valentin farewell with a kiss. Now out of prison, Molina calls the telephone number, and a meeting is arranged with the revolutionary group. But the secret police have had Molina under surveillance, and at the rendezvous, a gun battle occurs, with the revolutionaries shooting Molina. As he wanders the streets wounded, the secret police catch him and demand the telephone number, but Molina refuses and dies. On the orders of the police chief, the policemen dump Molina's body in a rubbish pit and fabricate a story about his death and his presumed collaboration with the revolutionary group. In the prison, Valentin is being treated after being tortured. After a sympathetic doctor risks his job by administering morphine to help him sleep, Valentin finds himself on an idyllic tropical island with Marta. ===== Charley Partanna is a hit man for a New York Mafia clan headed by the elderly Don Corrado Prizzi, whose business is generally handled by his sons Dominic and Eduardo and by his longtime right-hand man, Angelo, who is Charley's father. At a family wedding, Charley is quickly infatuated with a beautiful woman he doesn't recognize. He asks Maerose Prizzi, estranged daughter of Dominic, if she recognizes the woman, oblivious to the fact that Maerose still has feelings for Charley, having once been his lover. Maerose is in disfavor with her father for running off with another man after the end of her romance with Charley. Charley flies to California to carry out a contract to kill a man named Marksie Heller for robbing a Nevada casino. He is surprised to learn that Marksie is the estranged husband of Irene, the woman from the wedding. She repays some of the money Marksie stole as Charley naively (or willfully) believes that Irene was not involved with the casino scam. By this point they have fallen in love and eventually travel to Mexico to marry. A jealous Maerose travels west on her own to establish for a fact that Irene has double-crossed the organization. The information restores Maerose to good graces somewhat with her father and the don. Charley's father later reveals that Irene (who had claimed to be a tax consultant) is a "contractor" who, like Charley, performs assassinations for the mob. Dominic, acting on his own, wants Charley out of the way and hires someone to do the hit, not knowing that he has just given the job to Charley's own wife. Angelo sides with his son, and Eduardo is so appalled by his brother's actions that he helps set up Dominic's permanent removal from the family. Irene and Charley team up on a kidnapping that will enrich the family, but she shoots a police captain's wife in the process, endangering the organization's business relationship with the cops. The don is also still demanding a large sum of money from Irene for her unauthorized activities in Nevada, which she doesn't want to pay. In time, the don tells Charley that his wife's "gotta go." Things come to a head in California when, acting as if everything were alright, Charley comes home to his wife. (A famous line from the movie, spoken by Charley, is "Do I marry her? Do I ice her? Which one of these?") Each pulls a weapon simultaneously in the bedroom. Irene ends up dead, and Charley ends up back in New York, missing her, but consoled by Maerose. ===== In 1967, U.S. Army volunteer Chris Taylor arrives in South Vietnam and is assigned to an infantry platoon of the 25th Infantry Division near the Cambodian border. The platoon is officially led by the young and inexperienced Lieutenant Wolfe, but in reality the soldiers defer to two of his older and more experienced subordinates: the hardened and cynical Staff Sergeant Robert "Bob" Barnes, and the more idealistic Sergeant Elias. Taylor is immediately sent out with Barnes, Elias and veteran soldiers on a planned night ambush for a North Vietnamese army force. The NVA soldiers manage to get close to the sleeping Americans before a brief firefight ensues; Taylor's fellow new recruit Gardner is killed and Taylor himself lightly wounded. After his return from the hospital, Taylor bonds with Elias and his circle of marijuana-smokers while remaining aloof from Barnes and his more hard-edged followers. During a subsequent patrol, three men are killed by booby traps and unseen assailants. Already on edge, the platoon is further angered when they discover an enemy supply and weapons cache in a nearby village. Barnes, through a Vietnamese- speaking soldier, Lerner, aggressively interrogates the village chief about whether the villagers have been aiding the NVA. In a fit of anger, Barnes shoots the chief's wife dead after she shouts at him and threatens to kill the chief's daughter. Elias then arrives, getting into a physical altercation with Barnes over the killing before Wolfe breaks it up and orders the supplies destroyed and the village razed. The blaze causes a few of the burning homes to explode, suggesting they contained hidden munitions kept by the villagers. Taylor later prevents or interrupts a gang rape of two girls by some of Barnes' men. When the platoon returns to base, the veteran company commander Captain Harris declares that if he finds out that an illegal killing took place, a court-martial will ensue, leaving Barnes worried that Elias will testify against him. On their next patrol, the platoon is ambushed and pinned down in a firefight, in which numerous soldiers are wounded. More men are wounded when Lieutenant Wolfe accidentally directs an artillery strike onto his own unit before Barnes calls it off. Elias takes Taylor and two other men to intercept flanking enemy troops. Barnes orders the rest of the platoon to retreat and goes back into the jungle to find Elias' group. Barnes finds Elias alone and shoots him, then returns and tells Taylor that Elias was killed by the enemy. While the platoon is being extracted via helicopter, they glimpse Elias, mortally wounded, emerging from the treeline and being chased by a group of North Vietnamese soldiers, who kill him. Taylor surmises that Barnes was responsible for mortally wounding Elias. At the base, Taylor attempts to talk his group into fragging Barnes in retaliation when Barnes, having overheard them, enters the room and mocks them. Taylor assaults the intoxicated Barnes but is quickly overpowered. Barnes seems ready to kill Taylor, but Rhah tells Barnes that it is not worth ten years in prison for killing an enlisted soldier, so instead Barnes cuts Taylor near his eye with a push dagger before departing. The platoon is sent back to the front line to maintain defensive positions, where Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis. That night, a major NVA assault occurs, and the defensive lines are broken. Most of the platoon, including Wolfe and most of Barnes' followers, are killed in the ensuing battle. Sgt. Red O'Neill, known for shirking duties and one of Barnes' lackeys, hides under a dead soldier to avoid being seen. Taylor, along with Francis, finds his courage and counterattacks, killing many of the invading NVA. Taylor even leaves the fighting hole to pursue the enemy. During the attack, an NVA sapper, armed with explosives, destroys the battalion headquarters in a suicide attack. Now in command of the defense, Captain Harris orders his air support to expend all their remaining ordnance inside his perimeter. During the chaos, Taylor encounters Barnes, who is wounded and driven to insanity. Just as Barnes is about to kill Taylor, both men are knocked unconscious by the air strike. Taylor regains consciousness the following morning, picks up an enemy rifle, and finds Barnes, who orders Taylor to call a medic. Seeing that Taylor will not help, Barnes contemptuously orders Taylor to kill him; Taylor does so. Francis, who survived the battle unharmed, deliberately stabs himself in the leg and reminds Taylor that because they have been twice wounded, they can return home. Taylor waves goodbye to the remaining troops as helicopters carry him and Francis away along with other wounded soldiers. Overwhelmed, Taylor sobs as he glares down at craters full of corpses. In a voice-over, Taylor says that although the war is now over for him, it will remain with him for the rest of his life. ===== The story is told in three main arcs, with most of it occurring during a 24-month period beginning and ending at Thanksgiving parties, held at The Langham, hosted by Hannah, and her husband, Elliot. Hannah serves as the stalwart hub of the narrative; most of the events of the film connect to her. Elliot becomes infatuated with one of Hannah's sisters, Lee, and eventually begins an affair with her. Elliot attributes his behavior to his discontent with his wife's self-sufficiency and resentment of her emotional strength. Lee has lived for five years with a reclusive artist, Frederick, who is much older. She finds her relationship with Frederick no longer intellectually or sexually stimulating, in spite of (or maybe because of) Frederick's professed interest in continuing to teach her. She leaves Frederick after admitting to having an affair with somebody. For the remainder of the year between the first and second Thanksgiving gatherings, Elliot and Lee carry on their affair despite Elliot's inability to end his marriage to Hannah. Lee finally ends the affair during the second Thanksgiving, explaining that she is finished waiting for him to commit and that she has started dating someone else. Hannah's ex-husband Mickey, a television writer, is present mostly in scenes outside of the primary story. Flashbacks reveal that his marriage to Hannah fell apart after they were unable to have children because of his infertility. However, they had twins who are not biologically his, before divorcing. He also went on a disastrous date with Hannah's sister Holly, when they were set up after the divorce. A hypochondriac, he goes to his doctor complaining of hearing loss, and is frightened by the possibility that it might be a brain tumor. When tests prove that he is perfectly healthy, he is initially overjoyed, but then despairs that his life is meaningless. His existential crisis leads to unsatisfying experiments with religious conversion to Catholicism and an interest in Krishna Consciousness. Ultimately, a suicide attempt leads him to find meaning in his life after unexpectedly viewing the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup in a movie theater. The revelation that life should be enjoyed, rather than understood, helps to prepare him for a second date with Holly, which this time blossoms into love. Holly's story is the film's third main arc. A former cocaine addict, she is an unsuccessful actress who cannot settle on a career. After borrowing money from Hannah, she starts a catering business with April, a friend and fellow actress. Holly and April end up as rivals in auditions for parts in Broadway musicals, as well as for the affections of an architect, David. Holly abandons the catering business after the romance with David fails and decides to try her hand at writing. The career change forces her once again to borrow money from Hannah, a dependency that Holly resents. She writes a script inspired by Hannah and Elliot, which greatly upsets Hannah. It is suggested that much of the script involved personal details of Hannah and Elliot's marriage that had been conveyed to Holly through Lee (having been transmitted first from Elliot). Although this threatens to expose the affair between Elliot and Lee, Elliot soon disavows disclosing any such details. Holly sets aside her script, and instead writes a story inspired by her own life, which Mickey reads and admires greatly, vowing to help her get it produced and leading to their second date. A minor arc in the film tells part of the story of Norma and Evan. They are the parents of Hannah and her two sisters, and still have acting careers of their own. Their own tumultuous marriage revolves around Norma's alcoholism and alleged affairs, but the long-term bond between them is evident in Evan's flirtatious anecdotes about Norma while playing piano at the Thanksgiving gatherings. By the time of the film's third Thanksgiving, Lee has married someone she met while taking classes at Columbia University, while Hannah and Elliot have reconciled their marriage. The film's final shot reveals that Holly is married to Mickey and that she is pregnant. ===== ===== High school student Casey Becker receives a flirty phone call from an unknown person, during which they discuss horror movies. However, the caller turns sadistic and threatens her life. He reveals that her boyfriend Steve Orth is being held hostage and demands she answer questions about horror films. After Casey gets one wrong, Steve is murdered. When Casey refuses to answer more questions, she is murdered by a masked killer. Her parents come home shortly after to find her corpse hanging from a tree. The following day, the news media descend on the town and a police investigation begins. Meanwhile, Sidney Prescott struggles with the impending first anniversary of her mother's, Maureen, murder by her lover Cotton Weary. While waiting at home for her friend Tatum Riley, Sidney receives a threatening phone call. After she hangs up she is attacked by the killer, but manages to evade them. Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis arrives shortly after, but after he drops his cell phone, Sidney suspects him of making the call and flees. Billy is arrested and Sidney spends the night at Tatum's house, where she receives another threatening call. The next day, Billy is released and suspicion shifts to Sidney's father Neil Prescott, as the calls have been traced to his phone. School is suspended in the wake of the murders. After the students have left the school, the killer stabs Principal Himbry to death in his office. Tatum's boyfriend Stu Macher throws a party to celebrate the school's closure. The party is attended by Sidney, Tatum, their friend Randy Meeks, and many other students. Reporter Gale Weathers attends uninvited to cover the situation, as she expects the killer to strike. Tatum's brother deputy sheriff Dewey Riley also looks out for the murderer at the party. The killer corners Tatum in the garage and murders her by crushing her neck with the garage door. Billy arrives to speak to Sidney privately and the two ultimately consummate their relationship, while Dewey and Gale investigate a nearby abandoned car. Many party attendees are drawn away after hearing news of Himbry's death, leaving only Sidney, Billy, Randy, Stu, and Gale's cameraman Kenny. After having sex, Sidney and Billy are attacked by the killer, who ostensibly kills Billy. Sidney narrowly escapes from the house and seeks help from Kenny, but the killer slashes his throat; Sidney then flees again. Gale and Dewey, having discovered that the car belongs to Neil Prescott, return to the house. They believe Neil is the killer and has come to the party to continue his spree. Gale tries to escape in her van, but drives off the road to avoid hitting Sidney and crashes. Meanwhile, Dewey is stabbed in the back while investigating in the house, and Sidney takes his gun. Stu and Randy appear and accuse each other of being the killer. Sidney retreats into the house, where she finds Billy wounded but still alive. She gives Billy the gun; he lets Randy into the house and shoots him. Billy reveals that he feigned his injuries and is actually the killer, with Stu as his accomplice. Billy and Stu discuss their plan to kill Sidney and frame the murder spree on her father, whom they have taken hostage. The pair also reveal that they murdered her mother and framed Cotton for it, as she was having an affair with Billy's father, which drove his mother away. Gale, who survived the crash, intervenes, and Sidney takes advantage of this to turn the tables on her attackers, knocking out Billy and dropping a television set on Stu's head. Randy is revealed to be wounded but alive, and remarks that the killer always resurfaces for one last scare. Billy then awakens and attacks Sidney, but Gale shoots him; Sidney takes the gun and shoots Billy in the head, killing him for good. As the sun rises and police arrive, Dewey, badly injured, is taken away by ambulance and Gale makes an impromptu news report about the night's events. ===== William Blake (Johnny Depp), an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio, rides by train to the frontier company town of Machine to take up a promised accounting job in the town's metal works. During the trip, the train Fireman (Crispin Glover) warns Blake against the enterprise. Arriving in town, Blake notes the hostility of the townsfolk towards him. He then discovers that the position has already been filled, and he is driven from the workplace at gunpoint by John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company. Jobless and without money or prospects, Blake meets Thel Russell (Mili Avital), a former prostitute who sells paper flowers. He lets her take him home. Thel's ex-boyfriend Charlie surprises them in bed and shoots at Blake, accidentally killing Thel when she tries to shield Blake with her body. The bullet passes through Thel and wounds Blake, but he is able to kill Charlie using Thel's gun before dazedly climbing out the window and fleeing the town on Charlie's horse. Company-owner Dickinson is Charlie's father, and he hires three legendary frontier killers, Cole Wilson, Conway Twill, and Johnny "The Kid" Pickett to bring Blake back 'dead or alive'. Blake awakens to find a large Native American man (Gary Farmer) attempting to dislodge the bullet from his chest. The man, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake's heart to remove, and Blake is effectively a walking dead man. When he learns Blake's full name, Nobody decides Blake is a reincarnation of William Blake, a poet whom he idolizes but of whom Blake is ignorant.In an interview Jarmusch states "For Nobody, the journey is a continuing ceremony whose purpose is to deliver Blake back to the spirit-level of the world. To him, Blake's spirit has been misplaced and somehow returned to the physical realm." He decides to care for Blake, and use Native methods to help ease him into death. Blake learns of Nobody's past, marked both by Native American and white racism; it is detailed that he is the product of lovers from two opposing tribes, and how as a child he was abducted by English soldiers and brought to Europe as a model savage. He was briefly educated before returning home, where his stories of the white man and his culture were laughed off by fellow Native Americans. He gained his name, Xebeche, at this point, the literal translation of which is revealed to be "He who talks loud, saying nothing". Nobody resolves to escort Blake to the Pacific Ocean to return him to his proper place in the spirit-world. Blake and Nobody travel west, leaving a trail of dead and encountering wanted posters announcing higher and higher bounties for Blake's death or capture. Nobody leaves Blake alone in the wild when he decides Blake must undergo a vision quest. On his quest, Blake kills two U.S. Marshals, experiences visions of nature spirits, and grieves over the remains of a dead fawn that was killed accidentally by his pursuers. He paints his face with the fawn's blood and rejoins Nobody on their journey. Meanwhile, the most ferocious member of the bounty hunter posse, Cole Wilson, has killed his comrades (eating one of them) and continued his hunt alone. At a trading post, a bigoted missionary identifies Blake and attempts to kill him but is instead killed by Blake. Shortly after, Blake is shot again and his condition rapidly deteriorates. Nobody hurries to take him by river to a Makah village and convinces the tribe to give him a canoe for Blake's ship burial. Delirious, Blake trudges through the village, where the people pity him, before he collapses from his injuries. He awakens in a canoe on a beach wearing Native American funeral dress. Nobody bids Blake farewell and then pushes the canoe out to sea. As he floats away, Blake sees Cole approaching Nobody, but is too weak to cry out and can only watch as the two men shoot and kill each other. As he looks up at the sky one last time, Blake dies and his canoe drifts out into the sea. The film fades out with beams of sunlight in the clouds still visible, showing Blake is either in the Spirit World or has been reborn. =====