From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The Grudge is described as a curse that is born when someone dies in the grip of extreme rage or sorrow. The curse is an entity created where the person died. Those who encounter this supernatural force die and the curse is reborn repeatedly, passing from victim to victim in an endless, growing chain of horror. The following events are explained in their actual order, however, the film is presented in a nonlinear narrative. In 2004, American social worker Karen Davis tried to burn down the Saeki house to stop the curse, but failed, finding herself hospitalised and haunted by Kayako. Karen's younger sister, Aubrey, goes to Tokyo to retrieve her. In Japan, Aubrey struggles to communicate with the hospital staff but a journalist named Eason aids her. Aubrey briefly speaks with Karen, who panics and has to be restrained. Karen is later killed by Kayako in front of Aubrey and Eason. Eason explains the curse to Aubrey, revealing he rescued Karen from the house fire and has been investigating the Saeki murders and surrounding events. The two go to the house to retrieve Kayako's diary, but Toshio drags Aubrey inside to curse her. Eason takes the diary to an associate, who explains Kayako's mother was an itako who exorcised evil spirits from visitors and fed them to her daughter. Eason and Aubrey make plans to visit Kayako's mother. As Eason develops photographs he took of the Saeki house, Kayako emerges from a photo and murders him. After discovering his body, Aubrey travels alone to Kayako's mother's remote rural home. Kayako's mother warns her the curse is irreversible before being killed by her daughter. Aubrey ventures to the house, following an image of Karen inside. She encounters Takeo's ghost, who reenacts the night he discovered his wife's disloyalty and snaps Aubrey's neck. In 2006, school girls Allison Fleming, Vanessa Cassidy and Miyuki Nazawa break into the house on a dare, but Allison is locked in the closet and encounters Kayako's ghost but the girls escape. After Miyuki and Vanessa are consumed by the curse, Allison speaks with school counsellor Ms. Dale about the curse, but Dale denies its existence, revealing she went to the house and is actually a ghost herself. Allison is haunted by the ghosts of her friends and she eventually flees back to Chicago, where she stays with her parents. The Kimbles move into an apartment block in Chicago. A young boy named Jake is disturbed by a strange presence in the building brought about by a hooded stranger who covers windows with newspaper. Jake's father Bill and stepmother Trish are influenced by the curse, Bill accusing his wife of having an affair and he bludgeons her with a frying pan. Jake and his sister, Lacey, return from school, but Jake finds his family are all dead. He runs into the hooded person, revealed to be Allison, who explains the curse followed her. Kayako appears in Allison's hood, finally taking her and then emerges to attack Jake. ===== The story begins with a narrator explaining a case study of "aquamania" (obsession with boats and boating), with Goofy (called "Mr. X" in this short) as the subject. Then the story switches to Goofy and his son on a boating trip, inadvertently entering a water skiing race. In the process, Goofy meets up with an unfortunate octopus that joins him in the race, and they accidentally take an unwanted spin on a roller coaster at a waterside amusement park which plays the song Sailing, Sailing. Goofy wins the race. ===== In this cartoon, we start with flashbacks featuring a "Goofy"-like version of Christopher Columbus, who is given a cigar by a Native American. His three ships bring it back to their country, with smoke floating from them. A man in Europe rolls a cigar with a leaf and a midget lights it with a small torch, and we see the impact of the popularity of smoking today. Then we fade to Goofy, in the role of George Geef, who is an extreme nicotine addict, smoking various cigarettes, cigars and pipes, as we watch him smoke during the evening and as he goes to bed (as a huge cloud of smoke covers his head), when he wakes up in the morning, as he shaves, as he drinks coffee and at work. But soon his throat tickles and his eyes get irritated and he cannot blow out his matches. So he throws away all of his smoking products and decides to quit. It works fine at first, and feels he can do it. But then the boss congratulates George for being able to quit smoking, and as he lights up a cigarette, he says "It ain't easy. If it was, I'd quit!" Another employee, who is now a father, nearly offers George a cigar in honor of the occasion, but then remembers that he quit smoking. Almost everyone at the office still smokes, and George admits that he loves smoking, and he babbles like crazy and runs out of the office like a madman, leading into the following montage... ===== Sam Bell (Hugh Laurie) and his wife Lucy (Joely Richardson) are a married couple struggling for a baby, having tried everything they can think of to improve their chances of conceiving. At the same time, Sam begins to find his job (as a commissioning editor of drama at the BBC) increasingly unfulfilling. While he resolves to write his own screenplay, he begins to suffer writer's block. The idea dawns upon him to write about his own predicament, something to which Lucy objects strongly. He uses her diary entries to help him achieve authenticity, and the film is a success. Lucy finds out about the film and, shocked, leaves Sam. Eventually they reconcile, and at the end of the story are still trying for a baby. It marks the second time Laurie and Richardson have starred in the same film; the first was 101 Dalmatians (although in that film they shared no scenes). ===== Much of the film is composed of flashbacks of Marcel's memories of the past. One leads to another in what Proust called involuntary memory triggered by sights, sounds, and smells from the present. The movie starts off with Marcel Proust on his death bed. He is dictating something for his caretaker Céleste to write out for him. He dismisses her and flips through some pictures naming each person in the photos. This reminds him of his childhood. We then cut to Charlie Morel playing the piano at a party. Odette de Crécy directs the guests in the room to observe Marcel who is about ten years old. Marcel tips his hat to Odette's daughter Gilberte and both are called to take a picture. We return to adult Marcel asking Celeste about the smell of roses in the room. This reminds him of a lunch he once had with Gilberte. Gilberte and Marcel are having lunch and discussing books. Marcel asks to borrow The Goncourt Journals. Marcel recalls a relationship he had with his ex-fiance Albertine, in which he was heartbroken that she had been unfaithful with both women and men. Marcel breaks a tea cup and Gilberte has the pieces cleaned and put in her mahogany box. Marcel has a nightmare and as he tries to pull the service bell, something stops him. He wakes up to a ghostly Albertine stroking his face. He wakes up again to realize that he had been dreaming this ghostly encounter. Marcel and Gilberte are walking down the street discussing her husband Robert de Saint-Loup as it starts to storm. A younger Marcel is examining a picture of the younger Gilberte. There is a note on the back of the photograph. Marcel and his nurse (nanny) are playfully arguing about the signature being signed at the bottom. It transforms from Gilberte, to Albertine, to Libertinage. Robert is reading an excerpt from the newspaper to Charlie with whom he has been having an affair. Charlie dismisses himself saying he must attend an algebra class and Robert becomes upset that he's leaving and throws his newspaper and a picture of Charlie onto the floor. Charlie returns home to Madame Verdurin who also believed he had been at algebra class. She is holding up a picture of a woman that she found hidden behind another picture. She slaps him in fear that he is being unfaithful. Robert and Marcel discuss Robert's mistress Rachel until Gilberte arrives. She is dressed in a red evening gown with a decorative headdress that is an exact copy of the costume Rachel wears to perform at the Comedie Francaise. She walks down the staircase and is followed by a vision of Rachel in the same outfit. As she descends the stairs, it switches back and forth between Gilberte's and Rachel's faces. Gilberte suddenly bursts into tears. Marcel and Gilberte make eye contact which prompts him to check the mahogany box that is on the fireplace. He discovers the broken tea cup. He is then surrounded by friends at a dinner table where they are telling stories about art and gossiping about others. He is then riding a train when he stops to see a younger version of himself in the window. Going back to the party where Charlie is playing the piano, Madame Verdurin asks him to play a song. He claims he has enlisted to go to the front because of boredom and to maintain his reputation. He starts to play Beethoven which is considered shocking since France is at war with Germany. Odette de Crécy and Marcel take a carriage to another party. A siren then sounds which prompts the lights and music to turn off. Odette is then asked to leave the party. There are sounds of missiles and explosions in the background. Marcel makes his way back into the building and moves from a room with guests around a dinner table to the kitchen where Le Prince de Foix and some other men are playing a game with food. The flags in the food represent war zones as they are studying the German troop movements. Robert discusses the war with his uncle, the Baron de Charlus as they hear the all-clear siren. Odette visits a former lover who is sick and in bed. He instructs her to open a gift on the table which reveals several hundred francs. She closes the box and walks towards the bed to caress the man. It then cuts to a funeral in which Marcel attends. The widow reveals the anger she feels at finding letters from her husband's mistress. Marcel reassures her that he loved her best. Robert and Marcel then discuss the war. It then cuts to Marcel inside of an elevator in conversation with the bellhop about whether he had an intimate relationship with Robert. We then see Robert and Marcel at a later time where Robert is dressed in his military uniform. He discusses the bravery of commoners and their willingness to die for their country which makes them the best soldiers. Rachel and Charlie are seen having lunch. She speaks of being written a prescription for croissants as it cures her headaches. She asks Charlie about his recent encounter with his former lover Charlus and we flash back to it. Charlie turns down an invitation to spend the night with Charlus to which he replies, “Charlie! Look out. I’ll get even!” Marcel walks down a dark street and has flashbacks of his childhood. He encounters Le Prince de Foix and they discuss Robert who has been wrongly implicated in a spy scandal. Marcel visits a male brothel full of soldiers earning extra money while on leave from the war. He discovers a room where he hears the cries of Charlus who is being brutally whipped by one of the male prostitutes. As he is being tortured the screen turns red with blood. The whipping turns out to be erotic roleplaying requested by Charlus. He is a regular and knows all of the male prostitutes who work there. Marcel is still spying on him through the window. Marcel joins the soldiers in the common room where he sits in a chair. All the men then tell him not to sit in that chair as it is the place where the elder Prince de Foix died. The soldiers all line up as Charlus enters the room. Charlus walks by each of the soldiers, addresses them, and gives them money. Sirens sound throughout the city once more, signaling air raids. People are seen fleeing the city carrying their belongings. Marcel's maid Francoise discovers that Marcel is still alive and expresses her gratitude towards Robert who rescued him from the cellar. Marcel reads a note from Charlus giving the location of Morel, who is hiding from the police. Marcel meets with Charlie. He says that he is wanted for desertion from the army. Marcel persuades Charlie to settle his differences with Charlus who may be able to help him. Charlie explains that he fears the man. We cut back to the funeral of Robert de Saint-Loup where several women mourn his death. We flash back to Robert talking with a teenage Marcel. This reminds him of their first meeting. Marcel points toward the beach and asks his grandmother if that is Robert de Saint-Loup. She pretends not to see who he's pointing at. Back at Robert's funeral, Charlie shows up with military police. Gilberte tries to ask him to leave but he rebuffs her. Robert's mother thanks Marcel for attending. As they leave, Madame Verdurin frantically searches for Odette to try to prevent Charlie's punishment for desertion. After the war, Marcel is dropped at the park after a long stay at a sanatorium for an unspecified illness. He is met by an elderly, unkempt Charlus who is also suffering from an illness. He is accompanied by the former proprieter of the male brothel Jupien. He starts to list his family members that have passed. He bows to the carriage of Mrs. De Saint-Eurverte. Jupien reminds him that he always hated her but Charlus is unconcerned. Charlus reminds Marcel of their first meeting. Flashback to a teenage Marcel being called by his grandmother. Charlus walks up and scolds him for ignoring his grandmother. Charlus gives Marcel advice about how to behave in the future and lightly insults him. The older Marcel starts walking in the park. He trips and the background changes several times to different places in Marcel's past. Marcel is led into the library at the Princesse de Guarmantes' home where he moves from chair to chair until he is back on the same seat he started in. He is served tea and the sound of the spoon hitting the side of cup reminds him of train operators banging on the wheels of the train. He wipes his mouth after finishing his tea which reminds him of his teenage years at an oceanfront cottage. There is a statue on the beach which is carried off by six gentlemen. We see the same statue, only smaller, in the room where adult Marcel is drinking tea. He picks a book off the library shelf which reminds him of his mother reading the same book to him as a child to help him sleep. A ballroom filled with many guests opens and the crowd moves toward a room filled with sweets and treats. Oriane de Guermantes walks towards Marcel, not knowing it is him. She finally recognizes him and they exchange memories of the past. She tells him that things have changed since he's been away. Charlie is now accepted into polite society and is even a favorite of the princess. She warns Marcel that Gilberte is a tramp; not worth his time. She claims (falsely) that Gilberte's infidelity was the reason that Robert enlisted and that Gilberte enjoyed the status her marriage brought her. She claims that Robert deliberetely got himself killed in the war. He is then introduced to Madame de Farcy, an American married to Count de Farcy by Jacques de Rozier (Austin Bloch). Marcel then introduces him to Prince de Guermantes. Marcel then bumps into Marquis de Cambremer who asks about Marcel's symptoms as he is in the later stages of the same illness. The music reminds Marcel of the time when Albertine played the piano when they lived together. Marcel is discussing music and literature with Albertine, but she does not seem to be listening. She mentions letters exchanged between Morel and her androgynous friend Lea, which arouses jealousy in Marcel. She says that Leá and Gilberte had an affair. He asks if she was ever intimate with Leá. Albertine explains that Leá used to send carriages to Albertine's house to pick her up and ask her if she really liked girls, to which Albertine replied yes just to mess with Leá. Marcel is moved to tears as the violin and piano play in the ballroom. The seating arrangements in the room start to shift back and forth as if they are sliding in the room. He is then greeted by a much older Gilberte who now looks a lot like her mother. She reminisces about Robert and tells Marcel that the former Madame Verdurin (now much older) is now the new Princesse de Guermantes. Gilberte explains that the Guermantes' were ruined by the war and the Verdurin fortune set them right. Oriane then asks Marcel if Gilberte was just playing a grieving widow act. She is upset at what she calls Gilberte's nonchalant attitude despite her husband passing away. Marcel becomes increasingly uncomfortable listening to people criticizing Gilberte and her mother. Madame de Farcy says she feels close to Oriane but is disgusted with Odette despite their being related "distantly." Marcel says that he finds it ironic how a person's relations are distant or close depending on how much they are accepted in society. Finally, we see Odette wandering through the party looking lost and sad. Marcel realizes that Odette is the mistress of Oriane's husband the duke, which has made her a social outcast. The duke asks her to leave with him but she says she has better plans. Several people speak to Marcel but he says nothing. Gilberte begins talking and this reminds Marcel of a conversation he had with her husband Robert about men who are attracted to other men. The duke appears about to speak to Marcel but walks away. Odette explains to Marcel that the duke is so overprotective and jealous that he seems to be going mad. He locks her away from the world though she loves her freedom. All of her lovers have been jealous she says. This reminds Marcel of his first meeting with Odette when he was a young child. She was the mistress of his uncle who was also very jealous. The grown-up Marcel finds himself in the same position as his younger self from the beginning of the film: in a room full of hats on the floor. The elderly Marcel visits the young Marcel and tells him of his love for Albertine and Gilberte. We then find both young Marcel and old Marcel travelling through different spaces in time throughout his life. Their last destination is the beach. We are read a quote from the sculptor Salvini. “My life has been a series of extraordinary adventures. To revisit them would only make me sadder. I’d rather use my remaining time to review my last work, Divine Nemesis, otherwise known as The Triumph of Death.” As the angel of death revisited to claim his life, he exclaimed, “What a paradox! You gave me enough time to revisit my whole life, which lasted sixty-three years. The same length of time was too short to review an object I made in 3 months.” The Angel replied, “In this work is all of your life and the life of all men. To review it would take an eternity.” We end with the present day Marcel walking towards the younger Marcel on the beach. ===== Events are listed here not in chronological order, but in the order they were originally presented in the novel. ; Year 1045 The sorcerer Nevyn sees an omen indicating that a person whose destiny is intertwined with his own has been reborn, and sees the infant Jill in a vision. ; Year 1052 Jill, a seven-year-old girl who sometime has precognitive dreams, loses her mother Seryan to a fever. Because her father, Cullyn, is a mercenary soldier – known as a "silver dagger" for the weapon he carries – and visits irregularly, Jill is taken in by a local tavern owner. Cullyn arrives in Jill's village a month later. Finding Seryan dead, he decides to take Jill with him on his wanderings, which he calls "the long road.” For seven years, Nevyn has been searching for Jill, with nothing more than luck and intuition to guide him. He finds a clue when he meets the ten- year-old lord Rhodry Maelwaedd, and sees that the boy's destiny is linked with his and Jill's. ; Year 643 Galrion, a prince of Deverry, has secretly begun studying sorcery. He begins to fall in love with its power, and out of love with his betrothed, Brangwen of the Falcon clan. Galrion considers breaking his betrothal so that he will have more time to devote to the study of sorcery. Galrion's father, King Adyroc, is infuriated when he discovers that his son has been studying sorcery, and puts Galrion under house arrest, though the prince escapes by a ruse. Adyroc soon finds his son and sends him into exile, taking from him all his rank, titles, and property. He even takes Galrion's name from him, and gives him a new name, Nevyn, meaning "no one." Adyroc also breaks Nevyn's betrothal to Brangwen, who then falls into an incestuous relationship with her brother Gerraent, and the two promise to end their lives together when autumn comes. When Gerraent's sworn friend, Blaen of the Boar clan, discovers the incestuous relationship, Gerraent kills him. Gerraent is in turn killed by Blaen's brother. Nevyn takes Brangwen away from the Falcon lands, but the distraught girl drowns herself. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, Nevyn rashly swears an oath that he will not rest until he sets things right. Thunder booms from a clear sky – a sign that his oath has been accepted by the Great Ones (transcendent spiritual beings similar to Bodhisattvas). ; Year 1058 When Jill turns thirteen, Cullyn, who has been teaching his daughter swordcraft, buys Jill a silver dagger like his own for a birthday present. Otho, the smith who made the dagger, notices that Jill can see spirits called Wildfolk, and tells her a riddle. "If you ever find no one (nev yn), ask him what craft to take." Some time later, Otho tells Nevyn about Jill. Unable to find her, Nevyn returns to his home province of Eldidd, where he saves the life of Rhodry Maelwaedd, earning the gratitude of his mother Lovyan, the local feudal lord. Nevyn receives a prophecy about the boy – Rhodry's destiny is somehow bound to that of the entire province. ; Year 696 Nevyn comes to Deverry province to banish an unnatural drought. Here he finds the bard Gweran (Blaen reborn), his wife Lyssa (Brangwen reborn), and a soldier called Tanyc (Gerraent reborn). When Tanyc angers Gweran by his behavior towards Lyssa, Gweran takes his revenge by subterfuge. He provokes Tanyc into attacking him – but as a bard, Gweran's life is sacrosanct. Tanyc is hanged for his crime. While this is happening, Nevyn meets Lyssa's elder son, Aderyn. He teaches the boy a little herbcraft, and eventually takes him as apprentice in sorcery. ;Year 1062 Lovyan discovers that Rhodry has fathered a bastard child on a low-born girl, and decides to put the child into fosterage with one of her noble servitors when it is born. In the meantime, Lovyan is having trouble with some of her vassals. A number of minor lords are sitting on the edge of rebellion over matters of succession and taxes. Lovyan's own liege lord, Rhys, the Gwerbret of Aberwyn (who is also her eldest son), makes it very clear that he won't intervene unless she disinherits Rhodry. Cullyn, meanwhile has taken a hire guarding a caravan heading toward the kingdom's western border to trade with the mysterious Westfolk. On the way, Jill sees the eerie Loddlaen, a councilor to Lord Corbyn of Bruddlyn. At the trading camp, Jill meets Aderyn, an old Deverrian man who lives with the Westfolk. She also learns that Loddlaen is a fugitive murderer. At the conclusion of the trading, Aderyn and several of the Westfolk accompany the caravan back to the city of Cannobaen, to begin legal proceedings against Loddlaen in Lovyan's court. On the way to Cannobaen, the caravan is attacked by bandits, and flees to an abandoned fort to make their stand. Aderyn transforms himself into an owl to spy on the bandits. He discovers that they aren't bandits at all, but warriors from several different lords, including Corbyn. Cullyn sends Jill to beg the Lovyan for aid. By a stroke of luck, Jill comes across Rhodry and his entire warband on the road, in the midst of a day- long training exercise. Meanwhile, the attacking army has reached the fort. The defense is thin: two swordsmen, two archers, and six stavemen. Albaral, a man of the Westfolk, is slain, but the attackers are defeated when Rhodry and his warband arrive. ===== Once In A Blue Moon is the story of Aeslin Finn, a teenage girl who buys the sequel to a story book that her parents read her when she was young. She never found out what happened next because her Father died on a business trip, her Mother , stricken with grief, throws away all of her fantasy items, Aeslin manages to save a special toy dragon. Then, years later when she and her best friend read the book, she wishes she was there, and finds herself transported to the kingdom of Avalon. There, she meets up with a tough girl whom she becomes friends with,and the author of the books son, who is chronicling the story. He tells her that it is her destiny to save the kingdom, but she refuses. Then she is transported back into the real world, that the son makes her look bad in the book so she decides to go back and accept her destiny. Back in the real world her mother finds the book and is transported there. She tells her that she was originally the "Dragon Knight" (savior of the kingdom) but fell in love with her dad the prince after she slays the bad guy and goes home and returns to a normal life. Then she finds out that the bad guy wasn't slayed so she and her husband go back on a "business trip" but her father is "killed" by the bad guy but then they find out that he is still alive via the means of a magical flame that will always burn while the current member of the royal family is alive. Her mother pours water on it but it doesn't go out. ===== Maria's Wedding is a comedy-drama about a wedding at a large Italian family, the first traditional wedding since the family was split into bickering sides over a gay wedding. Maria's cousin Frankie, whose brother had married another man, has vowed to tell off the family members who were against that wedding, and the family wonders if he will destroy Maria's wedding in the process of carrying out that threat. Complicating matters is the fact that no-one likes Maria's groom, and that Frankie may be more interested in rekindling his romance with Maria's bridesmaid, Brenna. Category:Oni Press graphic novels ===== A typical episode of Toonsylvania starts with a cartoon series called "Frankenstein" (a parody of Mary Shelley's novel of the same name), about the adventures of Dr. Vic Frankenstein (voiced by David Warner), his assistant Igor (voiced by Wayne Knight) who always sets out to prove that he is a genius like his master, and their dim-witted Frankenstein Monster known as Phil (voiced by Brad Garrett). Before the second cartoon, there is an animated vignette where Igor is on the couch with Phil and tries to fix the TV remote, but in every episode there is a new problem with it (a running gag akin to the couch gags seen on The Simpsons). After that, there is a cartoon series called "Night of the Living Fred", about a family of zombies. This segment was created by cartoonist Mike Peters. Sometimes, a parody of a B-list horror movie would air instead of a "Night of the Living Fred" cartoon. After that, there is a short segment called "Igor's Science Minute", where Igor gives a science lesson (be it a musical piece or a spoken piece) that always ends in disaster. The final segment is "Melissa Screetch's Morbid Morals", where Phil the Frankenstein Monster does something bad and Igor punishes him by reading a horror tale involving a bratty girl named Melissa Screetch (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) who does not heed the warnings of adults (usually given by her mother) and suffers the consequences for it one way or another. ===== The first episode takes place in the year 2030 in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Tenma, the Minister of Science, is attempting to create a robot capable of expressing human emotions. After his fourth failed attempt, Tenma is approached by Skunk Kusai, a man who offers him an "Omega Factor" circuit which, when installed, will humanize a robot. After rejecting Skunk's offer and throwing him out, Tenma's nine-year-old son, Tobio, suggests his father make a robot shaped like a child. Inspired by his son, Tenma sets off to the Ministry of Science to work, forgetting his promise to take Tobio to an amusement park. Upset by his father's neglect, Tobio drives an aerocar home but crashes into an oncoming truck, dying in the process. Just before he dies, Tobio makes his father promise to name his boy robot "Tobio" and make it the strongest robot in the world, while still loving it like a son. Tenma then creates a robot capable of flight, equipped with lasers and machine guns. However, Skunk obtains the blueprints, duplicates them, and takes them to the evil Count Walpurgis, who aspires to put the Omega Factor into a super robot and use it for world domination. Afraid of the potential threat Tenma's robot son could pose to humanity, the Prime Minister of Japan orders the robot dismantled by the next night. Tenma, however, secretly finishes constructing the robot that night, only showing his two assistants that "Tobio" exists, and takes him home to raise him. After various mishaps with raising the robot, Tobio's mind suddenly goes blank, his eyes start blinking red, and he is summoned to wait in the middle of town. Atlas, Walpurgis' new super robot, had been activated and was connecting to Tobio. When the connection process fails, Tobio regains his senses, only to come under attack from a robot disposal tank piloted by Tenma, Honda, and Ushiyama. Something goes wrong and the tank malfunctions and goes berserk. Tobio recovers and saves everyone in the vicinity. Recovering in the hospital, Tenma realizes the public will discover that Tobio exists, and decides to take Tobio on an ocean cruise to America. Tobio struggles to control his strength. After a disastrous meal on the cruise, Tenma disowns Tobio. Tobio hides on deck and is tricked into signing himself into a contract of slavery to the ringmaster Hamegg, who runs the Robot Circus. Tobio spots Atlas nearby and tries to attack him, but Tobio loses most of his energy in the process. Hamegg then shuts him in his suitcase. Tenma soon regrets his actions and begins searching for Tobio. At the circus, Tobio is renamed "Mighty Atom/Astro Boy" and is cruelly treated by Hamegg, but taught and cared for by a performer named Kathy, who shows him kindness and compassion. Professor Ochanomizu, a local scientist, discovers Tenma's lost robot at the circus and, with Kathy's help, smuggles Astro Boy out of the circus. Professor Ochanomizu becomes the new head of the Ministry of Science. From there, Astro Boy learns more about the world and becomes the defender of Tokyo and beyond. ===== Late at night inside a theater, a troupe of actors and crew consisting of the director Peter, Alicia, Mark, Sybil, Betty, Corrine, Laurel, Danny, Brett, and Ferrari are rehearsing a musical about a fictional mass murderer known as the Night Owl. When Alicia sprains her ankle, she and Betty sneak out of rehearsal for medical assistance, the closest being a mental hospital. When speaking to the psychiatrist, Betty notices an imprisoned patient named Irving Wallace, a former actor gone insane who committed a killing spree. Unbeknownst to any of them, Wallace killed one of the attendants with a syringe and snuck out of the asylum to hide inside Betty's car. Upon returning, Peter fires Alicia for leaving during the rehearsal. Outside, Betty returns to the car only to be murdered by Wallace with a pickaxe to the mouth. Moments later, Alicia finds her body and contacts the police. The body is removed and two officers are stationed outside the premises. Meanwhile, Peter creates an idea by altering the play's script; he renames the show's antagonist to Irving Wallace instead of an ambiguous killer, and insists that everyone (including rehired Alicia) stay the night to begin immediate rehearsals with the new material. The group reluctantly agrees to stay with the promise of additional cash, and Corrine hides the theater's exit key. While changing her costume, Laurel is stalked by a shadowy figure who she thought to be Brett. Brett then stays behind to search for his costume, not noticing Wallace who's donning the theater's owl costume behind him. Peter shoots a scene with Corrine. Wallace appears in the owl costume and approaches Corinne before grabbing and strangling her, unbeknownst to the others. He pulls out a knife and stabs Corinne several times, killing her, while the others watch in shock. Without the key's whereabouts, the group begins to panic, and the killer disconnects the phone lines to prevent them from contacting the officers. While the group tries to find an escape route, Ferrari is stabbed by Wallace, who hangs his body upon being found by the group. While Peter and Danny leave the group inside a room to search for the killer, Laurel notices Wallace outside trying to open the door and the group barricades it. The killer then breaks the window to grab Mark before killing him with a power drill through the door. Peter and Danny return, and, upon witnessing Mark's murder, they plan to stick together and defend themselves. While the group moves on to the stage, Peter notices the killer up on the upper catwalks and goes after him, while asking the others to corner him too. Laurel leaves Alicia behind after accidentally knocking her out. Peter then hacks up the missing Brett (who is donning a similar owl costume and is unknowingly tied up) with an axe, thinking he was Wallace. Soon, Sybil is grabbed by the killer and is pulled into the floor. Danny and Peter grab her arms and try to pull her up, but, as a result, Sybil is torn in half. Danny immediately goes down and is also killed by Wallace with a chainsaw. Cornering Peter and Laurel, Wallace wounds Laurel and cuts off Peter's arm before the chainsaw runs out of fuel. The killer takes the axe and ultimately decapitates the director. Alicia wakes up and finds a wounded Laurel hiding in the shower room. While she hides, Wallace grabs Laurel and stabs her before dragging her body away. Alicia arms herself and searches for the key, only to see Wallace sitting next to the group's bodies placed around the stage and covered with feathers. Underneath the stage, she successfully finds the key and defends herself against Wallace before going up to the catwalks. Just as Wallace corners her, she sprays a fire extinguisher into his face, knocking him over and leaving him hanging onto a loose cable. After the cable is severed and the killer falls, Alicia makes her way to the door, but Wallace attacks again. She dumps a burning bin onto him, igniting him, then escapes the theater and tells the police about the events. The next morning, Alicia returns to the theater to find her missing watch, just before an unmasked Wallace prepares to attack her. Willy shoots him in the head and he rambles about getting him "right in-between in the eyes" while a disturbed Alicia walks out. Wallace then looks at the camera and smirks, apparently having survived from his headshot. ===== The film is set in a period between 1971 and 1974, during the later stage of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Two city boys in their late teenage years, Luo Min (played by Chen Kun) and Ma Jianling (Liu Ye), are on their way to a remote village in the mountainous Sichuan province for re- education. Upon arrival, the boys are questioned on their "reactionary backgrounds" by the Chief (Chen Tianlu), the village leader, in the presence of the other villagers. Luo's father turns out to be a dentist who had once fitted a false tooth for Chiang Kai-shek, while Ma's father is a doctor. The Chief also examines the boys' luggage and burns a cookbook, which he claims to be bourgeois. He is about to throw Ma's violin into the fire as well before he is stopped by Luo, who lies that the Mozart's Divertimento KV 334 Ma plays is a "mountain song" titled Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao. The two boys are allocated a house and immediately join in the labours of the locals, which include transporting buckets of human waste used for fertilizer as well as working in the coal mine. One day, a young girl, granddaughter of a tailor from the neighbouring village and known to everyone as the Little Seamstress (Zhou Xun), comes by with her grandfather to listen to Ma play violin. Luo and Ma befriend the Little Seamstress and soon both fall in love with her. The girl, illiterate but hungry for knowledge, and the boys, vowing to transform her, devise a plan to steal a suitcase filled with banned translated Western novels from Four-Eyes (Wang Hongwei), another boy undergoing re-education in the village but bound to return to the city. Luo begins to read to the Little Seamstress every day, books including those by Stendhal, Kipling and Dostoevsky. But her favourite turns out to be Balzac. The Little Seamstress soon falls in love with Luo. One day, as Luo is departing for the city on a two-month leave to visit his sick father, she tells him that she has a problem but does not elaborate. She later confides to Ma that she is pregnant, but population-curbing laws forbid marriage before 25 and abortion is illegal without a marriage certificate. Ma travels to the city to find a gynecologist who knows his father and begs the latter for help. The gynecologist is moved and agrees to travel to the village to perform a secret abortion. Upon Luo's return, life resumes as before. One day, however, the Little Seamstress, now completely changed by the new ideas Luo and Ma have introduced her to, abruptly decides to leave the village to seek out "a new life," despite pleas from her grandfather and Luo. Later, in 1974, Luo and Ma both return to the city as well. Luo later becomes a professor in a dental institute in Shanghai, while Ma moves to France and becomes a professional violinist. In the late 1990s, when he sees on the news that the construction of the Three Gorges Dam will soon flood the village he spent three years in, Ma travels back in the hope of finding the Little Seamstress again. However, his efforts are futile and he brings back only a video recording of the village and the people, including the now aged Chief. As Ma meets up with his old friend Luo in Shanghai, the latter confesses an earlier failed attempt to search for the Little Seamstress in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The film ends with a news clip of the flooded towns and villages and a scene of the three, back to their youth years, also submerged in water. ===== The story is told by an unnamed narrator who describes the qualities of Ligeia: a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed. He thinks he remembers meeting her "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness". He describes her face in detail, from her "faultless" forehead to the "divine orbs" of her eyes. They marry, and Ligeia impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science, and her proficiency in classical languages. She begins to show her husband her knowledge of metaphysical and "forbidden" wisdom. After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill, struggles internally with human mortality, and ultimately dies. The narrator, grief- stricken, buys and refurbishes an abbey in England. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine". In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening anxiety and fever. One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opium, he sees (or thinks he sees) drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial. As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of color to Rowena's cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle, the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room. When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia. ===== Edward "the Torch" Garrotte (Jean-Claude van Damme) is a serial killer who has a penchant for killing women and setting them on fire. All of his victims are also mothers. Detective Jake Riley (Michael Rooker) is a Seattle police detective who has spent three years chasing Garrotte. Just days before Jake's retirement Garrotte strikes again, but Jake is off the case. During his retirement party, Jake receives a call from Garrotte, who threatens to go after his friends and family. Realizing Garrotte needs to be stopped no matter what, Riley sets out to stop him. A secret government agency hires Jake as a consultant on a special project. They have cloned Garrotte from DNA evidence found at a crime scene. They need Jake's help to train this Replicant, who has genetic memories from Garrotte and a telepathic link to him. The Replicant has the body of a 40-year-old but the mind of a child. Jake's job is to help the Replicant track Garrotte down by using the memories stored in Garrotte's DNA. The Replicant and Jake begin to hunt Garrotte. Jake believes the Replicant could turn on him at any time, as Garrotte's killer instinct may take over. The Replicant tries to understand the world, and his connection with Garrotte. The Replicant does not understand why Jake treats him so roughly, since he views Jake as family. Though Jake is abusive, the Replicant looks to him for protection and guidance as they close in on Garrotte. Garrotte and the Replicant confront each other in a bar after Garrotte fails to kill Jake with a bomb. Garrotte kills a bartender, but lets the Replicant live. An origin story shows that Garrotte was abused by his mother, who then killed her unfaithful husband, and tried to burn their house down, which reveals why Garrotte hates women. They confront each other later in a parking garage. Garrotte tries to convince his "brother" that Jake cannot be trusted. Frustrated that Garrotte got away, Jake asks why the Replicant let him go. The Replicant replies, "We are the same." Jake tries to tell the Replicant that Garrotte is a sociopath, but he refuses to listen. They find out Garrotte's real name, Luc Savard, and go to the hospital to talk with Savard's mother (Margaret Ryan), but she had already died of a heart attack. Garrotte arrives and beats Jake and also wants his "brother" to join him by killing Jake, but he refuses, forcing Garrotte to try and execute both of them. Jake and the killer fight, leading to an ambulance chase in the parking garage. The van crashes into a toll booth, but the killer escapes. He hits Jake with a shovel and plans to burn him alive. The Replicant and killer fight again in the hospital's furnace room. The Replicant wants to kill Garrotte, but realizes that he is not a killer like him. Garrotte hits the Replicant with a shovel, which causes Jake to shoot him. The Replicant suddenly understands that Jake is his real family. An air conditioner, damaged in the fight, explodes, supposedly killing the Replicant after he gets Jake to safety. Upset by the death of his new "partner", Jake decides to retire from his new job as a consultant. Weeks later, Jake is with his wife Anne (Catherine Dent) and stepson Danny (Brandon James Olson). Jake spots a man in a raincoat putting a package in their mailbox. However, Jake realizes the Replicant is alive when he finds the package contains a music box as a gift for Jake's help. The Replicant is dating Hooker (Marnie Alton) as the film ends. ===== ===== While driving at night along the northern California coast, architect Dan Merrick (Tom Berenger) and wife Judith (Greta Scacchi) are involved in a car wreck. Dan suffers major injuries and brain trauma, resulting in psychogenic amnesia. After extensive plastic surgery, Dan returns home in Judith's care. Dan relies on those close to him to help him restore his past, including his business partner Jeb Scott (Corbin Bernsen) and Jeb's wife, Jenny (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer). Dan has frequent flashbacks he believes to be events that led up to the car crash. Dan finds discrepancies in the stories about his former self. He stumbles upon photographs of Judith sleeping with another man. Dan finds an expensive bill to a pet store and follows up with its proprietor, Gus Klein (Bob Hoskins). Gus says the payment was for services provided as a private investigator to follow Judith, and it revealed she was cheating with Jack Stanton (Scott Getlin). Judith arranges a meeting with Stanton and Dan follows her. Judith stops at an old shipwreck slated for removal by Dan's company. Assuming the wreck is a key in remembering his past, Dan has its removal postponed. Jeb's wife Jenny accuses Judith of planning the accident to eliminate Dan. As he works with Gus to keep tabs on his wife with a wiretap, Dan tails her to a hotel where she and Stanton are to meet, but Stanton leaves and a chase ensues through a wooded area. After gunshots are fired from Stanton's car, Dan and Gus crash while Stanton escapes. That night at home, Dan arms himself and lies in wait. At gunpoint, an intruder is revealed as Judith disguised as Stanton. She explains that Stanton is actually dead, killed by Dan on the night of the accident. Judith had intended to stop the affair with Stanton. Judith says she and Dan covered up the murder by disposing of Stanton's body in the shipwreck. When Dan reveals he postponed the ship's removal, Judith becomes hysterical and suggests they should flee. Dan receives a phone call from Jenny imploring him to see her, but when Dan arrives, he finds Jenny dead. He is confronted at gunpoint by Gus, who followed him, thinking Dan must have murdered Stanton. Pleading for his life, Dan convinces Gus to visit the shipwreck, where they find a chemical storage container. Dan dredges up a body of a man who looks exactly like himself. Dan realizes he is not Dan Merrick; he is Jack Stanton. In a flashback, it is revealed that an abusive Dan confronted his wife Judith with evidence of her infidelity. She called for help and Jack raced to her home, arriving too late to prevent her from shooting her husband in the head. Jack wanted to go to the police, but Judith convinced him to cover up the murder and hide Dan's body. After doing so, Jack told Judith he wanted out of the relationship. This angered and distracted Judith, who drove into the car wreck. Judith had banked on the chemical dissolving Dan's body, but because it was actually Formaldehyde, she had preserved it. Gus is shot by Judith, and falls into the water. Judith forces Jack to leave with her. She drives erratically down the same stretch of road from the night of the accident, confessing to the murder of Jenny, saying she had figured everything out and had to be killed. She hid the facts from Jack so he would have plausible deniability. After the crash, she told the plastic surgeons that the man she was with was her husband Dan. Distracted by a police helicopter, Judith loses control of the gun, and Jack grabs it, demanding she stop the car. Judith decides to kill them in a murder-suicide car crash. Jack, at the last second, rolls out, while she plummets to her death. The police helicopter lands, and an injured Gus Klein emerges. Gus survived his plunge into the water after being shot thanks to his asthma inhaler. The two board the helicopter, with Gus referring to Jack as Dan, presumably securing Merrick's fortune for him. The helicopter lifts off, flying over the burning car at the bottom of the cliff. ===== Several years before World War II, Ernie Wiseman, a precocious and confident child performer, is signed up by influential impresario Jack Hylton. In Morecambe, pushy stage mother, Sadie Bartholomew, drags her slightly reluctant son Eric, an eccentric dancer, from one audition to the next until he too is employed by Hylton. At first glance the boys do not initially get on but Sadie sees a way to use their cross-talk to form a bantering double act, originally known as Bartholomew and Wise. But as time goes on, Sadie comes to the conclusion that their name is stopping them from getting noticed, so after reading the local newspaper, The Morecambe Visitor, she suggests that they should change their name to Morecambe and Wise. After war service they become successful on stage and on radio but their attempt to crack the new medium of television is a disaster because they have been forced to accept a script which will make their Northernness acceptable to Southern viewers. As a result, the duo go their own ways and split up. However, Sadie knows that their formula will work and pushes Eric, now married to dancer Joan, into contacting Ernie, who is married to dancer Doreen. They decide to reform, and to completely rewrite their own act that would become one of the most successful performing duos ever in British comedy. ===== Pleasure Island is a resort off the coast of Costa Rica, owned by famous musician Coconut Pete. Staff members Rolo, Stacy, and Kelly sneak into the jungle to have sex. They are ambushed by a masked figure, who stabs Rolo to death. The killer chases the girls through the jungle. The killer pushes Kelly off a cliff and decapitates Stacy before she can reach help. The resort staff remain unaware of the killings until Carlos' body is found behind the kitchen. Dave relates a story about a former employee named Phil Colletti who lost his mind and murdered his fellow staff members, before castrating himself and running away; though Pete insists it is a story made up to scare guests around the campfire, the mounting death toll suggests otherwise. Putman alerts the others when he finds Cliff murdered in a hedge maze. A message left by the killer suggests that he is targeting only the staff. All communication devices and transportation have been stolen or destroyed. Hank, a former FBI serial killing investigator, convinces the staff to continue with their jobs and allow him to catch the killer. Yu remains intent on warning the guests, despite warnings not to do so from the killer. When she lures the guests to the beach to make the announcement, she is attacked by the killer. Hank intervenes, but the killer slashes his throat and turns on Yu. Their bodies are found the next day. The staff begins to suspect one of the guests, Penelope. Juan, believing her innocent, tries to eliminate her as a suspect. Putman disappears into the jungle after having a nightmare. Sam and Dave find a shrine of photos of Lars and his friends, in which all of the faces except Lars' have been replaced with Pete's; suspicion turns on Lars and the staff lock Lars in the resort's Drunk Tank. The killer attempts to Kill Jenny by dropping a Television into the swimming pool, but Jenny escapes just in time, ultimately killing Dirk, one of the guests, who at the time, was attempting to make a lecherous pass at Jenny, while also completely oblivious to the situation, despite Jenny's futile attempts to warn him, and causing a power failure. Putman returns, and he and Jenny deduce that Lars is not the killer, and return to the drunk tank to release him, only to find that he has mysteriously escaped. When Pete is found dead as the result of Juan accidentally discovering it, whilst being goaded into revealing a secret, the staff members turn on each other, following an argument about Juan being incarcerated for raping a goat, as well as Dave's Parents being trampled to death years ago at a Coconut Pete concert. Partway through the argument, Lars returns and discovers Pete's body. Lars briefly grieves, before proceeding to lunge at Sam for locking him in the drunk tank in the first place. Just as everything escalates rapidly, Jenny calms everyone else down and tries to convince the group that they must work together to survive until the shuttle from the mainland returns for the guests. Juan leaves to seek out Penelope, Sam leaves out of mistrust for the group, with Dave following behind him. Putman leaves out of being haunted by dreams he had suffered whilst searching the jungle for clues, which culminated in his newfound reclusiveness. Dave manages to restore the electricity, seconds before the killer, having retrieved his machete, beheads Dave. Jenny and Lars are drawn by distorted music to the electricity hut where they find Dave's severed head. Thinking the killer is coming for them, Lars and Jenny hide under a bed. thinking quickly, Jenny places a nearby pair of handcuffs on what she believed to be the killer's feet, only to realize that she handcuffed Putman by mistake. just as Jenny and Lars come out of hiding, the killer appears and starts moving towards the trio. Putman attempts to fend off the killer by Launching Tennis balls at him with his racket, but the Killer craftily throws his Machete at Puttman, fatally stabbing him. With his terminal breath, he tells a guilty Jenny and Lars to hide. as Lars and Jenny follow his instructions, They hide in a shower and overhear Putman flippantly taunting the killer, before being repeatedly stabbed, thus ensuring his death. During a party in the nightclub, Jenny and Lars discover Dave's disembodied head. The Killer then reveals the corpses of his previous victims to the guests and a panic ensues. Juan, having discovered the deaths of Dave and Putman, whilst searching for Penelope, returns to join Lars and Jenny, with the killer's machete in his hand. Penelope, Juan, Lars and Jenny find Sam's apparently lifeless body in a mud bath. While they consider their next move, Sam leaps from the bath, forcefully snatches his stolen machete from Lars and grabs him. Sam reveals that although the castration rumor was false, he wanted to kill everyone on the island because Pete had intended to sell the island to the military, but decided to give the island to Dave, and also out of feeling betrayed that Rolo did not give him a bag of marijuana that he had previously loaned to him, instead lying about having none at all and simply sharing it with Stacy and Kelly, both respective events happening at the same time. Jealous and Enraged, Sam assumed that Dave would mismanage the resort and destroy it. Lars grabs the machete, allowing the others to escape. Penelope is lost among the party- crazed guests, and Jenny and Juan lock themselves in the nightclub. They see Sam drowning Penelope in a large tank. Juan smashes the tank and rescues Penelope. Sam prepares to kill them, but Lars appears and stabs Sam. Sam pursues Lars, Jenny, Penelope, and Juan as they escape through the jungle. Cornered on a cliff, they jump to the water below. They find the resort's damaged boats, and try to cobble together enough working parts to leave the island. Sam appears and kills Juan, then attacks Jenny and Penelope. noticing this, Lars breaks his vow of pacifism and overcomes Sam, and Sam is bisected by a rope attached to the power boat. Just as everything seems to settle down, Sam's upper half emerges and grabs Penelope, but Lars tosses him into the ocean, before they motor away. As they do so, Sam's lower half continues to pursue them despite his fatal wounds. ===== Monica gets back together with her old boyfriend, Fun Bobby. When the group discovers that they somehow went through five bottles of wine, they realise exactly what puts the "Fun" in Fun Bobby: alcohol. Monica convinces him to quit drinking, which turns out to be a bad idea – he becomes, as Chandler refers to him, "Ridiculously Dull Bobby". In order to put up with Bobby's boring stories, Monica develops a drinking habit of her own. Bobby then dumps her because he doesn't feel he can be in a co-dependent relationship. Meanwhile, Rachel starts dating Russ, a periodontist who bears an eerie resemblance to Ross (although at first, Rachel thinks Russ reminds her of Bob Saget). She remains oblivious to the group's concerns until she catches Ross and Russ arguing, sees the similarities, and freaks out. Joey's agent, Estelle, gets him an audition for a part on Days of Our Lives. The catch: he has to sleep with the casting agent to get the part, and gets conflicted, wanting to advance his career but not wanting it to be because of a fling. At the audition, he flat out refuses to sleep with the casting agent, showing integrity for his career. As he goes to leave, the casting agent catches up to Joey and offers him an even bigger role: the part of "Dr. Drake Ramoray", recurring in at least four episodes, which he accepts. At the end of the episode, Russ comes into Central Perk and reveals to Chandler and Phoebe that Rachel broke up with him, telling him he reminds her too much of someone else but she cannot figure out who. Julie then arrives to give Ross some of his stuff back. She locks eyes with Russ... and they fall in love at first sight. ===== It's the beginning of baseball season, and Charlie Brown is looking forward to the new season with a mixture of joy and apprehension. The apprehension is mainly due to Lucy, who is constantly bothering him with idiotic questions, sarcastic remarks and non-sequiturs, to the point where poor Charlie literally becomes physically ill on the pitcher's mound. After his team loses their first game to Peppermint Patty's team, Charlie Brown then thinks of a great idea of trading one of his team players to Peppermint Patty. He decides to trade Snoopy for five of Peppermint Patty's players (because Snoopy is the only player Patty would want). However, the team is angry with Charlie Brown for this, and Charlie Brown finally decides to rip up the contract made for the trade (which is just as well, as the five players Patty was going to trade declared they'd give up baseball before they'd ever play for Charlie Brown). The team continues to play throughout the season normally until Peppermint Patty suggests that they should trade Lucy for one of Peppermint Patty's team members, which Charlie Brown does. Peppermint Patty gets Lucy, while Charlie Brown gets Marcie (and a pizza). Marcie, however, chooses to not play at her position but spend the entire game next to Charlie Brown on the pitcher's mound. Meanwhile, Lucy, over on Peppermint Patty's squad, gets into her usual fuss-budget business by failing Peppermint Patty at every game the team plays by doing something stupid. Peppermint Patty finally has enough and asks Charlie Brown for the trade to be reversed, which Charlie Brown agrees to do, though he does admit to Peppermint Patty that he had already eaten the pizza included in the trade. At the end, everyone but Charlie Brown leaves due to rain. Charlie Brown stays on the pitcher's mound as the credits roll, only leaving the field when the credits end. ===== In the year 2003, a comet designated Apollon collides with the planet Venus and disperses much of the planet's atmosphere, adds enough moisture to form acidic seas, and speeds up its rotation to give it a day that matches its year. This unlikely yet scientifically sound accident enables humanity to partially terraform Venus, sending the first manned ships in 2007 and begin colonizing it in 2012. By the year 2089, Venus has a population in the millions and is divided into two separate nation states, the northern continent of Ishtar and the southern continent of Aphrodia. Susan Sommers, a bubbly reporter from Earth, travels to Venus hoping to get a scoop on the military tensions that have arisen between the two nations. She arrives in the Aphrodian capital of Io shortly before the city is invaded by the forces of Ishtar, led by General Donner. Meanwhile, a brutal, Rollerball-esque racing game is being held in a local stadium. One team, the Killer Commandos, is led by hotshot Hiro Seno. The game is disrupted by the invasion and the team quickly evacuates. Hiro's teammate Will picks up Sue on the way and takes her to the garage where the rest of the team is lying low. The invasion of Io is completed in one day, and the politicians, police, and press submit to Ishtar's authority. The city is put under martial law and a curfew imposed. Many of Io's citizens, including Hiro's girlfriend Maggy, try to pretend that nothing has changed since the invasion, but Donner's iron grip on the city is too tight to ignore. Hiro visits his teammate Jack, who's staying in his uncle's high rise apartment. However, the police see them as trespassers and lead an unprovoked assault against Hiro, who makes a daring escape from their custody. However, his leg is pierced by a bullet and he barely makes it to Maggy's home before he collapses. Hiro reveals many of the terraforming farms funded by the Aphrodian government were frauds simply meant to secure land away from Ishtar and that their crops continually kept failing since the plants couldn't endure the constantly changing weather conditions of the planet, despite the planet's politicians saying otherwise. This upsets Maggy so much that she breaks down in tears prompting a concerned Hiro to comfort her. Hiro and Maggy share a passionate kiss before Maggy's father returns from work, forcing Hiro to hide in a back room. Maggy's father, a bureaucrat, reveals his plan to have himself and Maggy evacuated out of Io as he did with her brother and mother. Maggy defiantly stands up to her father and defends her friends, before he furiously shouts her into silence as Hiro secretly storms out. Meanwhile, Miranda of the Killer Commandos discovers that their manager, Gary, has been secretly smuggling arms into the city. Raiding his cache, she reveals her plan to demolish the Ishtar tanks that are parked in the old stadium. Gary says that the Commandos would be fools to try such a suicidal mission, but Hiro likes the idea and inspires his teammates. The Killer Commandos lead an assault against the tanks, but underestimate the strength of Ishtar's military. Jack and Gary are killed in the melee, and Hiro nearly shares their fate. At the last minute, however, the team is saved by the Aphrodian Freedom Force, which had also been planning to attack the stadium that night. Sue and the Killer Commandos are forcibly recruited by Lt. Kurtz, who thinks that their skills as monobikers would be useful in his Bloodhound Squadron. Tensions run high among the Killer Commandos and the team is divided; Will and Sue think that it's important to fight for Aphrodia's freedom, but Hiro and Miranda want nothing to do with war. Will is called out on a mission and Sue begs him to take her along. He instead convinces her to wire her camera to his monobike so he can film their attack. But to Sue's horror, Will disappears in battle. Sue steals a buggy to search for him on the battlefield, only to stumble upon the terrible truth of his death. Upset over Will's fate, Hiro and the Commandos demand to be freed from the Freedom Force's custody. Lt. Kurtz and Hiro quickly strike up an animosity, and Kurtz challenges Hiro to a race across a ravine in their monobikes. Despite having a ten-second head start, Hiro is taken out by Kurtz. Nevertheless, Kurtz is impressed by Hiro's raw talent, and makes him a deal: he will release the Killer Commandos on the condition that Hiro joins the Bloodhound Squadron. Hiro grudgingly accepts his offer, and says goodbye to Miranda and his friends. Back in Io, General Donner is visited by Sue, who requests an interview with him for the Independent Press on Earth. Once alone with him, Sue pulls a gun and threatens to kill him in order to avenge Will and all the other innocent people who have died in the war. She fails to release the safety however, and is quickly disarmed and arrested. Displaying his sadism Gerhard accosts Sue, snatches away her firearm, then discharges her pistol inches from the side of her head, before putting it to her skull and pulling the trigger, cruelly revealing he's used up all the bullets. Kurtz leads the Bloodhound Squadron in a surprise and intense strike on Io. Kurtz is disabled, but Hiro manages, through sheer luck and skill, to corner Donner's tank and destroy it by getting Gerhard to fire on him (raging that he shall not be beaten by children), with his shots missing Hiro and striking a runway that collapses on top of (screeching with frustration) Gerhard in his tank. With their leader dead, the Ishtar forces are quickly disbanded and Aphrodia is freed from their control. Kurtz and Hiro end their animosity and Kurtz gives Hiro his monobike as a sign of goodwill. While driving through the streets, Hiro encounters the recently released Sue, who's being evacuated to Earth. She thanks him for all of his help, and he tells her to come back and visit Venus again. Following Sue's tip, Hiro makes the long trek to a refugee camp; there, he and Maggy are happily reunited (thanks to her siamese cat Andrew). Back on Earth, Sue has given a world exclusive on the Venus Wars. She plans to spend her vacation on Venus so she can rejoin her friends. ===== The book is narrated by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the 3 friends, whose elation on making it to one of the best engineering colleges in India is quickly deflated by the rigour and monotony of the academic work. Most of the book deals with the numerous attempts by the trio to cope with and/or beat the system as well as Hari's fling with Neha who just happens to be the daughter of Prof. Cherian, the domineering head of the Mechanical Engineering department of their college. It takes some dark turns every now and then, especially when it comes to the families of the protagonists. Most of the action, however, takes place inside the campus as the boys, led by the ever creative Ryan, frequently lamenting how the internationally lauded IIT system has stifled their creativity by forcing them to value grades more than anything else. Uninspiring teaching and numerous assignments add to their woes, though the boys do find a sympathiser in Prof Veera. ===== Throughout the novel the true identity of the young, attractive woman found hanging dripping wet from a rope in her hotel room remains a mystery. Neither her clothes nor the conspicuous lack of any shoes provides the police with any clue as to what has happened, and they assume the woman has committed suicide. At the same time a young woman from a prominent New York family goes missing, but when the stolen body is retrieved by Crane her relatives assert that these are not her human remains. Only in the final pages is it found out that a case of switched identities is at the bottom of the riddle. The Lady in the Morgue is remembered for its frank treatment of drug addiction among artists, for its frequent references to contemporary jazz and swing music, and for its bizarre setting (morgues, cemeteries). ===== In a small Virginia town, Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) is the son of a murderer who was hanged for his crimes. Throughout his childhood, he is haunted by his father's past and cruelly harassed by other children, including the bully Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges). As a young man, Danny's only friend is Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell), who is falling in love with him, despite the fact that her boyfriend is Danny's chief tormentor, Jerry Sykes. After a particularly intense confrontation in the woods, during a dance, Danny and Sykes fight and, in self-defense, Danny kills him. He fears the same fate as his father and his behavior grows erratic and temperamental, puzzling Gilly. When Jerry's body is found and Sheriff Clem Otis (Allyn Joslyn), who suspects Danny acted in self- defense and is sympathetic, starts closing in, Danny becomes crazed. He nearly strangles the harmless mute Billy Scripture (Harry Morgan), who found Danny's pocket knife near the murder scene, and he jumps from a Ferris Wheel when he notices Otis following Gilly and him as they try to enjoy a date at the fair. While hiding out in the swamps, Hawkins visits his grandma (Barrymore), who tells him the truth about his father's crime. Hawkins realizes he is not tainted by "bad blood" and turns himself in to the police. ===== On August 18, 1973, five young adults – Erin, her boyfriend Kemper, and their friends Morgan, Andy, and Pepper – are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after traveling to Mexico to purchase marijuana. While driving through Texas, the group picks up a distraught and severely traumatised hitchhiker they see walking in the middle of the road. After they try to talk with the hitchhiker, who speaks incoherently about "a bad man," she pulls a loaded revolver from between her legs and shoots herself in the mouth. The group goes to a nearby diner to contact the police, where a woman named Luda Mae tells them to meet Sheriff Hoyt at the mill. Instead, they find a young boy named Jedidiah, who tells them Hoyt is at home, getting drunk. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find his house, leaving Morgan, Andy, and Pepper at the mill with Jedidiah. They come across a plantation house, and Erin is allowed inside by an amputee named Monty to call for help. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin, and is killed with a sledgehammer by Thomas Hewitt, also known as "Leatherface", who drags his body into the basement to make a new mask. Meanwhile, Hoyt arrives at the mill, and disposes of the hitchhiker's body. After Erin discovers that Kemper is missing, she and Andy go back to Monty's house, and Erin distracts him, while Andy searches for Kemper. When Monty realizes that Andy is inside, he summons Leatherface, who attacks him with a chainsaw. Erin escapes and heads towards the woods, but Leatherface severs Andy's leg, and carries him to the basement, where he is impaled on a meat hook. Erin makes it back to the mill, but before she and the others can leave, Hoyt shows up. After finding marijuana on the dashboard, he orders Erin and Pepper to get out of the van, gives Morgan the gun he took from the hitchhiker, and tells him to reenact how she killed herself. Morgan, disturbed by his demands, attempts to shoot him, but the gun is unloaded. Hoyt then handcuffs Morgan and drives him back to the Hewitt house, taking the van's key with him. Erin and Pepper are tracked down by Leatherface, who is wearing Kemper's face as a mask, and when Pepper attempts to run, she is killed by Leatherface. Erin runs and hides in a nearby trailer, belonging to an obese middle-aged woman known only as the Tea Lady, and a younger woman named Henrietta, who gives her tea that has been drugged. Erin discovers that they have kidnapped the hitchhiker's baby, but passes out before she can escape. Erin wakes up at the Hewitt house, surrounded by the entire family: Leatherface, his mother Luda Mae, Hoyt, Monty, and Jedidiah. Luda Mae explains to Erin that Leatherface was tormented his whole life, because of a skin disease that left his face disfigured, and she felt that no one cared for her family besides themselves. Erin is taken to the basement, where she finds Andy, and kills him to end his suffering. Afterwards, she finds Morgan handcuffed in a bathtub. Jedidiah, who does not agree with his family's actions, leads them out of the house, and distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned shack in the woods, and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin, but Morgan attacks Leatherface, who hangs him from a chandelier by his handcuffs, and cuts through his groin with the chainsaw. Erin escapes into the woods with Leatherface in tow. She finds a slaughterhouse and attacks Leatherface with a meat cleaver, severing his right arm. Erin runs outside and flags down a trucker, whom she tries to convince to drive away from the Hewitt house, but he stops to find help at the eatery. While the family is distracted by the trucker, Erin sneaks the baby out of the eatery, and places her in the sheriff's car. Erin hot-wires the car and Hoyt tries to stop her, but she runs him over repeatedly until he is dead. Leatherface suddenly appears in the road and slashes the car with his chainsaw, but Erin manages to escape with the baby, and he watches in frustration as she drives away. Two days later, two investigating officers are killed by Leatherface while doing a crime scene investigation of the Hewitt house, and a narrator states that the case still remains open. ===== The story begins in a prison in occupied France during the Second World War. It is decreed that one in every ten prisoners is to be executed; lots are drawn to decide who will die. One of the men chosen is a rich lawyer. He offers all his money to anyone who will take his place. One man agrees. Upon his release from prison the lawyer must face the consequences of his actions. The story comprises four parts. In Part I, set in prison, the occupying German guards issue a decimation order to the thirty inmates. One of the three chosen by drawing lots is a rich lawyer named Chavel. Chavel becomes hysterical and desperately offers his entire wealth to any man willing to die in his place. A young man, known as Janvier, accepts his offer and is executed. In Part II, the war is over and Chavel is alive and free, but virtually destitute. He returns to the house he sold for his life and finds it occupied by Janvier’s mother and sister, Thérèse. Assuming the false name Charlot, he becomes their servant. Part III sees the arrival of an impostor, named Carosse, who claims to be Chavel. Carosse attempts to denounce Charlot, win the favour of Thérèse and stake a claim on the property. Finally in Part IV, Charlot, having fallen in love with Thérèse, must save her from Carosse, as a means of redemption from his earlier cowardice. ===== Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle), a political election specialist, must find a Democratic candidate to oppose California Senator Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter), a popular Republican. With no big-name Democrat eager to enter the unwinnable race, Lucas seeks out Bill McKay (Robert Redford), the idealistic, handsome, and charismatic son of former California governor John J. McKay (Melvyn Douglas). Lucas gives McKay a proposition: since Jarmon cannot lose and the race is already decided, McKay is free to campaign saying exactly what he wants. McKay accepts in order to have the chance to spread his values, and hits the trail. With no serious Democratic opposition, McKay cruises to the nomination on his name alone. Lucas then has distressing news: according to the latest election projections, McKay will be defeated by an overwhelming margin. Lucas says the party expected McKay to lose but not to be humiliated, so he moderates his message to appeal to a broader range of voters. McKay campaigns across the state, his message growing more generic each day. This approach lifts him in the opinion polls, but he has a new problem: because McKay's father has stayed out of the race, the media interpret his silence as an endorsement of Jarmon. McKay grudgingly meets his father and tells him the problem, and the elder McKay tells the media he is simply honoring his son's wishes to stay out of the race. With McKay only nine points down in the polls, Jarmon proposes a debate. McKay agrees to give answers tailored by Lucas, but just as the debate is ending, McKay has a pang of conscience and blurts out that the debate has not addressed real issues such as poverty and race relations. Lucas is furious, as this will hurt the campaign. The media try to confront McKay backstage, but arrive as his father congratulates him on the debate; instead of reporting on McKay's outburst, the story becomes the reemergence of the former governor to help his son. The positive story, coupled with McKay's father's help on the trail, further closes the polling gap. With the election a few days away, Lucas and McKay's father set up a meet-and-greet with a labor union representative to discuss another possible endorsement. During the meeting, the union representative tells McKay that he feels that they can do a lot of good for each other if they work together. McKay ostensibly tells him that he is not interested in associating with him, but the tension is quelled with uncomfortable yet unanimous laughter. After a publicized endorsement with the union rep, and with Californian workers now behind him, McKay pulls into a virtual tie. McKay wins the election. In the final scene, he escapes the victory party and pulls Lucas into a room while throngs of journalists clamor outside. McKay asks Lucas, "What do we do now?" The media throng arrives to drag them out, and McKay never receives an answer. ===== The events of the novel follow and continue those of The Lantern Bearers. Artos (Sutcliff's version of Arthur) recalls his life as he lies near death, from the time when he served under his uncle, the British high king Ambrosius. He gathers a core cavalry group, Artos' Companions, who will be pivotal to the resistance of the British kingdoms to the invading Saxons. While visiting Arfon, in North Wales, where he grew up, Artos meets a woman, Ygerna, who drugs and seduces him. He is unaware that the woman is his half-sister, and that her seduction was a deliberate plan to gain revenge against their father; Ygerna is Uther's daughter, whereas Artos is Uther's illegitimate son. Artos' seduction and the conception of Medraut is Ygerna's means of bringing ruin to Artos. Artos marries Guenhumara in order to bolster his forces with much needed troops. His relationship with her is difficult as a result of his previous involvement with Ygerna, and his best friend Bedwyr eventually betrays Artos by his involvement with Artos' wife. Sutcliff presents the Arthur legend in a realist manner, portraying Arthur as a historical figure, and excluding the grail quest, Merlin and many of the more fantastic elements of the legend. However many elements, such as the death of his daughter being linked to a Celtic 'curse', retain magical elements, but linked to Celtic religious practices. Indeed, Artos is shown as a man of two worlds, part Romano British, the descendant of the Romanised city-dwelling peoples of the South of Britain and part descendant of the more Celtic tribes of the mountains of Wales and Southern Scotland. The tension between these two cultures influences Artos's character, and his seduction by Ygerna. The battles in particular are described realistically. The Battle of Badon Hill is set at the Vale of the White Horse at Uffington and was planned out with the aid of a military advisor. The story removes Lancelot, and gives the friend-and-lover's role to Bedwyr (old Welsh form of the name Bedivere). The name Ygerna is related to Igraine. Other characters familiar from Arthurian legend who are members of Arthur's Companions include Gwalchmai (Gawain) and Cei (Kay). ===== The cartoon starts where Boo Boo is happily skipping along in the forest of Jellystone Park, until he comes across the teenage cub bullies, who asks him about who is a "big brown man" with him. Boo Boo replies that the "big brown man" is his best friend Yogi. So as the mean bullies are having fun picking on Boo Boo with mean things (such as shaving his fur off of his tail, rubbing his tail into pink, and put a bee in his ear), Ranger Smith stops them, which causes the bullies to flee away, leaving Boo Boo injured. Ranger Smith helps poor Boo Boo up and Boo Boo asks the ranger about those bullies he met, wondering why they have to act mean to little bears. Smith then answers to Boo Boo that it's rough for the fact that the forest is rough on little fellow and tells him that he had to "bear" with a fact about fair life, right until Yogi shows up and asks Boo Boo if he want to tag along with him for a picnic goodies. After the two bears left, Ranger Smith breaks the fourth wall by telling the audience about although he still has his likes of Boo Boo since is surely a nice bear, he just didn't know what he sees in that..... man. The tree burps in his face before the cartoon cuts to credits. ===== Ross' ex-wife Carol (Jane Sibbett) and her lesbian life partner Susan (Jessica Hecht) are getting married; Ross' sister Monica caters the wedding. Carol's parents refuse to attend the wedding, leading Carol to doubt her decision, but Ross – initially hesitant to see his ex-wife remarry – finds himself in the position of being the one to encourage her to go ahead with the ceremony despite her parents' opposition. At the reception, Susan thanks Ross for his part in saving the wedding, and offers to dance with him; he agrees, apparently resolving their strained relationship. One of Phoebe's massage clients, Rose Adelman, dies on the massage table and her spirit apparently gets stuck inside Phoebe for a while. Rose, via Phoebe, corrects people's behavior and makes weird jokes using references to obscure people or events. Upon talking to Rose's husband, who states that Rose wanted to see everything, Phoebe takes Rose sightseeing around New York, but is not able to rid herself of Rose. However, during Carol and Susan's wedding, Rose blurts out that she has now seen everything and promptly bolts out of Phoebe's body. During the reception, Phoebe muses to Chandler about how she misses Rose; one of the wedding guests (Lea DeLaria), comically assuming that Phoebe and Rose were a lesbian couple, suggests that Phoebe find a way to forget about Rose and move on with her life, and offers to buy her a drink, which Phoebe accepts. Meanwhile, Rachel's mother, Sandra (Marlo Thomas), makes a major life decision after seeing how Rachel has learned to fend for herself: she is considering leaving Rachel's father. Rachel is horrified at the thought of her parents splitting up and angry at her mother, but Sandra admits she wants to do this because Rachel did not marry her Barry, the man she never loved, but she did hers. Rachel, stunned at this revelation, gives her mother her blessing to move on. Early on in the episode, Joey makes his first appearance on the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. He shares with the group a "smell-the-fart" acting tip he had learned from the actress he did his first scene with. ===== After seeing a monkey in a beer commercial that reminds him of his former pet monkey Marcel, Ross decides to pay a visit to his old pet at the San Diego Zoo during his business trip to California. When Ross cannot find the monkey, the zoo administrator (Fred Willard) tells him that Marcel has died. However, a janitor (Dan Castellaneta) later informs Ross that Marcel was kidnapped and forced into show business and is currently filming a movie in New York. Meanwhile, Joey has to contend with a mentally ill stalker (Brooke Shields) who delusionally thinks that Joey is actually Dr. Drake Ramoray, the character he plays on Days of Our Lives. Despite this, Joey goes on a date with her. She later confronts him when she suspects "Drake" is cheating on her with another woman (actually another character in the soap opera). He tells her he is just an actor, but when she does not believe him, the others claim that Joey is "Drake"'s evil twin "Hans", in order to get her to leave him alone. Phoebe dates Rob (Chris Isaak) who hires her to perform at children's concerts at a local library. However, the songs she sings to the children are disturbing to the attending parents because they tell truths that the children have never heard before. When Rob's attempts to convince Phoebe to tone down her material for her next performances fail, he is forced to fire her, but the children then come to Central Perk to listen to more of Phoebe's songs. Ross, hoping for a reunion with Marcel, looks for him on the movie set. Joey meanwhile, sucks up to the production assistant to land a part in the movie. While on set, Chandler meets his old childhood friend Susie "Underpants" Moss (Julia Roberts) working on the production, with whom he has a colored history; when they were in elementary school, Chandler pulled up Susie's skirt when she was on stage, revealing her panties to the entire school. They arrange a date, Chandler unsuspecting that it is a plot to get revenge. After convincing him to wear her panties, Susie leaves him wearing nothing but the panties in a bathroom stall in the restaurant where they are having dinner. Meanwhile, Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel meet the movie's star Jean-Claude Van Damme, and compete for his attention. This creates tension between them, as they both argue over who should get to date him. They both dump him when he tries to convince them to have a threesome with Drew Barrymore. Ross finally reunites with Marcel and Joey lands a small role in the movie, but loses his solitary line after overacting. ===== The story is about a new team of high-tech crime fighters assembled by the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG, formed by Wilton Knight) who follow in the tracks of the legendary Michael Knight and his supercar KITT. Instead of "one man making a difference", there are now five team members who each have a computerized talking vehicle counterpart. Like the original duo, TKR goes after notorious criminals who operate "above the law" – from spies and assassins to terrorists and drug dealers. The final episode of the season, and series, featured the reappearance of Michael Knight (seen only from behind and played by a body double) at the very end, serving as a cliffhanger to the season which was never resolved due to the series being cancelled. ===== The fourth graders are rehearsing for the "Thanksgiving Extravaganza", where they have to perform The Miracle Worker, which is the story of Helen Keller, starring Timmy as Helen. Butters provides them reports that the kindergarteners' play is the greatest show he has ever seen, and the other kids agree to put extra effort into making their play better. Cartman agrees to adapt the play into a musical, and eventually Jeffrey Maynard, who played the lead in Les Misérables for the Denver Community Playhouse (which is why he is singing his lines), is brought in to help. The kids also decide to replace Helen's pet dog with a turkey, which is also to perform tricks for the audience. Timmy helps to pick out the turkey, and chooses a disabled turkey which he names "Gobbles". At rehearsal, Maynard brings in a professional performing turkey named Alinicia, and her trainer Lamond declares that she will not perform with Gobbles, and suggests Cartman kill it. Cartman attempts to kill Gobbles with a falling stage-light, but it hits and kills Kenny by mistake. Eventually, Lamond tells Timmy that animal control is going to take Gobbles from him because he is disabled, and Timmy reluctantly lets Gobbles go. When Timmy realizes he has been tricked, he leaves to rescue Gobbles, who has been found by a slaughterhouse and is now being pursued by Jimbo and his hunter friends. In Timmy's absence, Maynard goes on as Helen Keller and surprises everyone by singing ad-libbed songs to express Helen's thoughts, much to Cartman's annoyance. Also after hearing the kindergarteners' play even has pyrotechnics, Cartman rigs laser shows, choreography and water effects into the fourth graders' show, culminating with Alinicia leaping through a ring of fire. Gobbles survives the slaughterhouse due to his limp neck meaning that he is not decapitated along with the healthy turkeys, but is subsequently found by Jimbo and Ned, who shoot him before Timmy arrives just in time to jump in the way of the bullet. Timmy survives, but a guilty Jimbo asks if there is any way he can make it up to Timmy. Timmy, Gobbles, Jimbo, Ned and the rest of their hunter friends, go to the Thanksgiving Extravaganza and shoot Alinicia, killing her to Lamond's horror. While Timmy cheers, Cartman and Kyle arrive, with Cartman announcing that they are ready for Alinicia but then sees the bloody body of her. Cartman curses at the hunters for ruining the finale but Kyle directs everyone's attention to Gobbles. Gobbles goes onstage and jumps through the ring of fire during the grand finale, and the audience, following a stoned Principal Victoria's lead, gives a standing ovation. In the end, the kindergartners' play is finally shown to be just a song to the tune of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" about the first Thanksgiving, ending with them setting off a small confetti cannon (Butters viewed this as special effects) which scares one kindergartner into fleeing the stage, and bringing a prop horse on stage. The performance is less than a minute long. The Fourth Graders become disappointed that by listening to Butters, they had "worked their asses off for that" ('that' being the kindergarteners' play,) and promptly get mad at Butters, because it turns out that, in reality, Butters just liked the play and declared it amazing. ===== Just when Ranger Smith is making sure everything in Jellystone Park is in order, Boo Boo enters a feral state due to his impatience with all the rules, much to the displeasure of Ranger Smith, who expected Yogi Bear to do this. Boo Boo's actions go from clawing the backsides off trees to savagely devouring honey from a hive, which even convinces Cindy Bear to go feral as well. After Ranger Smith is alerted to this, he is ordered to put Boo Boo down by his chief. Yogi and the Ranger get into a physical altercation over this, finally Yogi ends up beating Ranger. When Boo Boo witnesses this, he tries to stop the fight, but is knocked out by Yogi. This, along with Ranger Smith throwing water on him returns him to normal, much to everyone's' delight and the cartoon ends. ===== During the 23rd century, man has discovered faster-than-light travel and has finally reached the stars. Galactic exploration had confirmed man's worst two fears. First, a warlike, alien race with vastly superior technology does exist. The exploration fleet reported sentient structures which appear to have been annihilated eons ago, scattered all over the galaxy. Incidentally, the exploration consisted of vessels from three large Earth corporations or, as they are called in the game, CorpoNations (Rimtech, Mil-Agro, and Neuropa). It began as an industrial alliance, and the opportunity to plunder alien technology spurred them onward towards the Hedoth homeworld. As survey ships finally reached the Hedoth sector, the three CorpoNations massed their war fleets nearby. They were prepared for the ultimate conflict, only to discover that man's second worst fear was realized—that humanity is all alone in the universe; the Hedoth homeworlds were vacant. The Hedoth initially left no clue of where they went, but their departure was remarkably tidy. Scattered installations and miscellaneous war machines were all they left behind. The discovery set off a frenzied "gold rush" among the three CorpoNations for the Hedoth technology and its potential power. At the end of the game, the Hedoth revealed that the humans were merely being tested, to see if they were worthy of being soldiers in the Hedoth's armies. The Hedoth concluded that humans would make excellent soldiers in the Hedoth armies, and that "Humanity is ready to learn obedience." ===== This story takes place mainly on a territory called Zadaa. There will be two main tribes here: The Rokador and the Batu. The Rokador live in tunnels and are fair-skinned, while the Batu are dark- skinned and live in a sunbathed city called Xhaxhu in the desert. For years, the Rokador have relied on the Batu to protect them from other savage tribes on Zadaa, and the Batu have relied on the Rokador to provide them with water. But the Rokador seem to be holding back the water, causing all the Batu to starve. ===== A year or so before the beginning of World War I, a young woman named Lisa la Giuffria is seduced by a white magician, Cyril Grey, and persuaded into helping him in a magical battle with a black magician and his black lodge. Grey is attempting to save and improve the human race and condition by impregnating the girl with the soul of an ethereal being — the moonchild. To achieve this, she will have to be kept in a secluded environment, and many preparatory magical rituals will be carried out. The black magician Douglas is bent on destroying Grey's plan. However, Grey's ultimate motives may not be what they appear. The moonchild rituals are carried out in southern Italy, but the occult organizations are based in Paris and England. At the end of the book, the war breaks out, and the white magicians support the Allies, while the black magicians support the Central Powers. ===== Ranger Smith awakes to a depressing morning where he declares his hate of the job. He then walks outside and wakes the sun by kicking on a mountain in the foreground. Then he proceeds to walk through the forest, changing appearances every time he passes a tree. His mood improves as he walks through the forest. He then finds a squirrel holding acorns and demands to see a license for them. When the squirrel doesn't produce one, Ranger Smith confiscates the nuts. The squirrel's children then poke their heads from the door. Ranger Smith notices this and demands to see a marriage license. When the squirrel can't produce one Ranger Smith decides to write a ticket but to "let him off easy" this time. He demands that the squirrel store pickles for the winter and may only keep one child. The scene then changes to Yogi Bear and Boo Boo Bear's cave. The two bears are showering while Ranger Smith watches them, taking notes. The scene suddenly changes to night with Ranger Smith on his hands and knees holding a flash light to his face. He then says that it is "Owl Feeding Time" and that what he has to do is not for civilian eyes. The screen cuts to black and strange sound effects are played. When the scene cuts back Ranger Smith is now standing; he looks as if he were beaten. He then proceeds to go back to his cabin. He gets back in bed once again complaining about his job and life. ===== A hostile nation is secretly planning to launch a new type of weapon against its enemies. As a member of a special armed force, the player's objective is to prevent the enemy from launching their weapon. The player's initial objective is to rescue a covert agent codenamed Spider, who has been captured in one of the enemy's bases. ===== The film is set in Britain and Ireland in the Dark Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire. Lord Marke of Cornwall plans to unify the people of Britain – Celts, Picts, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes – under himself as high king to resist Irish domination. The Irish king, Donachadh, discovers this and sends troops to attack Tantallon Castle where a treaty between the British tribes is being discussed. The raid claims the lives of the castle's lord and his wife, but Marke manages to save their young son, Tristan, at the cost of losing a hand. Feeling compassion for the boy, whose father loyally supported him, Marke welcomes Tristan into his home and regards him as a son. Nine years later, Tristan has grown into a fierce, courageous warrior whose loyalty to Marke is that of a son to his father. Tristan and other Cornish warriors launch an attack on an Irish slave caravan. Tristan fights Morholt, the leader of the army, his father's killer and the man Donachadh's daughter, Princess Isolde, has been promised in marriage to. Though Tristan kills Morholt and Donachadh's forces are overrun, he is severely wounded in the fight and believed dead, though he is in fact only suffering the effects of Morholt's poisoned sword. Tristan's body is put out to sea on a funeral boat which eventually washes up along the shores of Ireland. He is discovered by Isolde and her maid, Bragnae, who administer an antidote that revives him. Bragnae insists that Isolde conceal her identity so Isolde tells Tristan her name is Bragnae and that she is a lady-in-waiting. Tristan and Isolde fall in love as she nurses him back to health. The two lovers must separate after Tristan's boat is discovered. Tristan returns to Cornwall and receives a hero's welcome. An overjoyed Marke welcomes him back with open arms. Plotting to defeat Britain, Donachadh proposes a peace treaty, promising Isolde in marriage to the winner of a tournament. Tristan wins the tournament on behalf of Marke, unaware that "the prize" is the woman he fell in love with in Ireland. When he discovers the truth about Isolde, he is heartbroken to see her betrothed to Marke, but accepts it since the marriage will end the bloodshed between their two peoples. Marke is kind to Isolde and genuinely falls in love with her. Isolde grows fond of him, but her heart still belongs to Tristan. Tristan is cold and distant towards Marke, who is confused over what is tormenting Tristan. Isolde tells Tristan that she is his anytime he wants. Tristan is torn between his love for Isolde and his loyalty to Marke. Tristan eventually gives in to Isolde; they renew their love and begin an affair. The affair is discovered by Lord Wictred, a Saxon chieftain and a longstanding dissenter to Marke's leadership. He informs Donachadh and they conspire to use the affair to overthrow Marke, with Wictred getting Marke's throne in exchange. Marke confides in Tristan that he believes Isolde is having an affair. Tristan is tormented by the guilt and burns down the bridge where he would meet Isolde. After Marke and Isolde's coronation, Tristan attempts to end their relationship, but Isolde begs him not to leave her. They are caught in an embrace by Marke, Donnchadh, and the other British kings. Donachadh pretends to be furious that his daughter is being used as a "whore" and ends the alliance. Seeing this as weakness on Marke's part, the other kings also decide to part ways with him. Marke is hurt and furious over Tristan and Isolde's betrayal. However, after Isolde explains their history, Marke relents. Tristan is taken to the river and Isolde tells him that Marke is letting the two of them and Bragnae leave together. Tristan puts Isolde in the boat meant for their escape and tells her that if they leave they will be remembered for all time as those "whose love brought down a kingdom." Tristan pushes the boat away from the shore and runs off to the ensuing battle. At the same time, Marke's nephew and Tristan's close friend, Melot, resentful of his uncle's long favoring of Tristan, shows Wictred an old passage into the Roman foundations of Marke's castle. Wictred had made Melot believe that he will become king when Marke is defeated. Once they are in the passage, Wictred stabs Melot and sneaks his army into the castle. Marke and his forces swiftly become pinned down by Donachadh's army outside the castle and Wictred's men within. Tristan sneaks back into the castle via the secret tunnel, which he and Isolde used to carry out their affair. On the way, he finds a dying Melot; the old friends forgive one another before Melot dies. Tristan attacks Wictred's men, allowing Marke's soldiers to secure the castle. Tristan is mortally wounded in combat by Wictred, whom he still manages to kill. Now outnumbered, Tristan, Marke and the soldiers loyal to him emerge from the castle and present Wictred's severed head to Donachadh. Marke urges the British kings standing with the Irish to aid them in making Britain a single, free nation. Inspired by his words, the British kings and their men attack Donachadh and his army. As a fierce battle between the British and Irish erupts, Marke carries a dying Tristan to the river, where they are met by Isolde. Marke has to leave to lead the British to victory, leaving Tristan and Isolde to say their final goodbye. Before he takes his last breath, he tells her: "You were right. I don't know if life is greater than death. But love was more than either." Isolde sees to Tristan's burial beneath the ashes of the Roman villa where they had met to be with each other. She plants two willows by the grave, which grow intertwined. She then disappears from history and is never seen again. Marke went on to defeat the Irish, unite Britain, and rule in peace until the end of his days. ===== Jerilee Randall is an innocent schoolgirl living in the San Fernando Valley area of California with dreams of becoming a famous screenwriter. Shortly after winning a trophy for her creative writing, she meets Walt, the son of famous screenwriter Walter Thornton, at a party. She goes home with him, along with some other friends, and during a late evening pool party, one of Jerilee's friends beats her, slaps her and then sexually assaults her with a garden hose nozzle. Walter arrives after the assault has taken place and saves Jerilee from further attacks. A friendship, then a love affair, develops between them, and they soon marry, despite the disapproval of Jerilee's mother. The marriage begins to fall apart when Jerilee rewrites one of Walter's scripts and is told she had improved it greatly. (She had actually only added the word, "Why?") Despite this, the revised script works well for the actress delivering the line and she thanks Walter for it. Divorce is inevitable when Walter scorns Jerilee during an argument and accuses her of enjoying having been raped all those years ago. After the divorce, Jerilee has several love affairs while trying to get her own screenplay produced, using her sexual charms to pave the way to recognition, with revenge thrown in the end for good measure. One affair, with actor George Ballantine, quickly ends with her pregnant; upon realizing he would not support her, she gets an abortion. While meeting club owner Vincent Dacosta, who has contacts to agents who can help produce a screenplay, Jerilee ends up working for him as a waitress for a short time. Eventually she has an affair with him as well, and when visiting the agent he had promised would possibly approve of, she realizes that she has been had and that he sent her there to have sex with him and another woman. After confronting Vincent about this, he gives Jerilee her screenplay back, laughing about it while on drugs with two other women. Jerilee finally has a nervous breakdown in a sequence wherein she sees the callous people of her past appear as faces on the keys of her typewriter. After spending a few days in a mental facility, Jerilee rewrites her screenplay. Upon meeting director Guy Jackson, he does help her get her screenplay produced successfully; however, once again she's expected to have sex, this time with Mrs. Jackson. At the live awards telecast, Jerilee ultimately wins a prestigious award for her screenplay of a film titled The Hold-Outs. On stage, she admits to her ex-husband Walter Thornton that she has never learned "the meaning of self-respect" and bluntly speaks out about the Hollywood system in which women have to "fuck [their] way to the top". Jerilee then refuses to accept the award, and walks out of the auditorium with her newfound dignity. ===== The gamer is first introduced to SpongeBob SquarePants, who realizes that Plankton has taken over Bikini Bottom. Then Goddard exits a portal, and displays a message to SpongeBob from Jimmy Neutron. Following Goddard through the portal, he meets Jimmy, Danny Phantom, and Timmy Turner. Jimmy coats SpongeBob with self- regenerating moisture to keep him healthy. Jimmy then explains that his latest invention, the Universe Portal Machine (a device to open portals to other dimensions) had been copied by Prof. Calamitous, who went on to use it to form a Syndicate with Plankton, Vlad Plasmius, and Denzel Crocker; they have already begun stealing energy from each of their worlds for their masterplan. Since Calamitous' lair cannot be found, they start with the other worlds first by stopping the Syndicate from siphoning any more energy. The heroes arrive in Vlad's new castle by accident, where he reveals his ghost portal is siphoning energy from the Ghost Zone to further the Syndicate's plans, and as a precaution, Vlad has captured Danny's parents. Vlad then knocks them out and imprisons them in the Ghost Zone Prison. Befriending the Box Ghost, the heroes escape after knocking out Walker. Danny leads the heroes to the Fenton Works ghost portal, where he claims no relation to the Fentons and that they are Ghost Hunter experts. They meet Danny's friends, Sam and Tucker, who explain that some ghosts have possessed the citizens. Danny drives out the ghosts before the group cuts through the Amity Park Graveyard to Vlad's castle. Upon arrival, Jimmy realizes there are generators keeping the portal open. The gang destroys the generators, thus shutting off the portal. Confronting Vlad, Danny possesses his dad Jack, using the 'Ghost Gauntlets' to pummel Vlad. Vlad gloats the Syndicate is building something and they already have sufficient ghost energy to help power it before fleeing. The heroes' next destination is Bikini Bottom (with Jimmy, Danny, and Timmy using Jimmy's air gum to breathe underwater). They meet Sandy, who explains that Plankton is using harvesters to capture jellyfish to extract power from their sting; he has also imprisoned Mr. Krabs. Sandy sends them to Jellyfish Fields to meet Patrick, but upon meeting him, he is sucked into a harvester. After destroying the harvesters, the group find themselves on the Flying Dutchman's ship; for he wants them (minus SpongeBob since he's annoying) to be his new crew. However, Danny persuades him to let them go in exchange for bringing back his old crew. Upon arriving at the Chum Bucket, they free Patrick and the jellyfish. On the roof, they face Plankton, using a robotic crab, and rescue Mr. Krabs. The heroes then learn that the Syndicate is extracting energy for a Doomsday Device, and Crocker is still supplying power to it. In Dimmsdale, the heroes infiltrate Crocker's golden fortress, finding a rainbow of Fairy Magic ending there. After cutting off the fortress' supply of Fairy Magic, they arrive in Fairy World and Since Jimmy has been here before, he gives an incorrect explanation about it not being real. They encounter Jorgen von Strangle, who explains that Crocker is extracting the magic from the Big Wand to feed the Doomsday Machine. After freeing the fairies, they reach The Big Wand, where they defeat Crocker flying a massive exosuit fueled by Fairy Magic. SpongeBob and Danny deduce that the villains have retreated to Retroville in order to regroup after being defeated. Timmy, on the other hand, believes everything will be okay with the Big Wand giving fairies back their full magic, by wishing the bad guys into jail and the dismantling of the Doomsday machine. However, Wanda announces that Da Rules only allow changes to Dimmsdale's dimension, disappointing the heroes. They return to Jimmy's lab, where they meet Cindy Vortex when suddenly Calamitous contacts them, revealing that the Doomsday Machine is almost finished. SpongeBob sees Goddard scratching himself and says he should take a bath, making Jimmy realize Calamitous planted a flea-bot in Goddard to spy on him. Realizing that the only way to stop Calamitous is to trace the flea-bot's signal, the heroes use Jimmy's shrink ray to shrink down and enter Goddard, and after defeating the flea-bot, Jimmy hacks the flea- bot's circuitry to locate Calamitous' lair. Upon arrival, the Syndicate declares that the current world of Retroville will be destroyed as a show of their power, and the machine will protect them from the destruction. Despite the heroes' damaging the machine, the villains continue the count down. SpongeBob miraculously unplugs the Doomsday Machine, and Calamitous laments that he had forgotten to finish the back-up power supply. With Calamitous in prison, the heroes part ways. Jimmy gives the heroes each a Neutronic Recaller in case of a future incident. SpongeBob leaves first, most likely holding Plankton captive in his pocket. Danny gives Jimmy a second Fenton Thermos that he had made with Jimmy's matter copier (since Vlad is trapped in the original), which Jimmy thinks will help him figure out what "those phantasm images really were." Timmy thanks Jimmy for a Hyber-Cube, which is holding Crocker captive. Cindy waves Timmy off. After this, Jimmy shouts a familiar line: "Cindy, get out of my lab!" ===== In 2006, the city of Stilwater suffers from gang warfare at the hands of three distinct criminal syndicates: the Vice Kings, an African American gang that primarily earns revenue from strip clubs and record labels; Los Carnales, a Hispanic drug cartel that dominates the narcotics trade and gun running; and the Westside Rollerz, who operate on the lucrative underground racing club. The player, an unnamed figure, becomes caught in a crossfire between the three while walking through the streets of the Saint's Row district, but is saved by Troy Bradshaw, a member of a fourth gang called the 3rd Street Saints. Owing to the increasing violence, Saints leader Julius Little initiates the player into the gang and has them reclaim Saint's Row from their rivals, before assigning them to work under his top lieutenants, Dexter "Dex" Jackson, Johnny Gat, and Lin, in wiping out each rival gang. Gat focuses on hitting operations owned by the Kings, including faking the death of their key asset - Gat's girlfriend and popular R&B; singer Aisha - which culminate in the gang's leader, Benjamin King, being betrayed by his closest associates for refusing to respond to the Saints' actions. After Julius has him rescued, Benjamin agrees to retire in exchange for the deaths of those who turned on him. Meanwhile, Dex focuses on the Carnales by having the player help the Saints take over their drug operations, ultimately leading to the gang eliminating the Carnales' leaders, Hector and Angelo Lopez, and securing a deal with the gang's chief supplier. Concurrently, Lin works undercover amongst the Rollerz, slowly learning that the gang is attempting to source and steal vehicles for a client. After Lin is killed by their leader, private attorney William Sharp, the player retaliates by murdering him, along with his nephew when he declares war on the Saints. With the city firmly under the control of the Saints, Julius makes the player his chief lieutenant. Shortly after this, Stilwater's corrupt police chief, Richard Monroe, arrests Julius and threatens to kill him unless the player helps to murder the city's mayor and allow his opponent, Alderman Richard Hughes, to win the upcoming mayoral election. Correctly guessing that Monroe has no intention of upholding his promise, the Saints ambush Monroe's motorcade and kill him, freeing Julius. After becoming mayor, Hughes invites the player to his private yacht, and reveals his intention to have the Saints arrested and Saint's Row sold to private developers after being razed. Unknown to the player, Troy prepares to meet with the cops, having been an undercover cop himself, while Julius watches the yacht from a distance. Just as Hughes orders for the player's execution, the yacht is destroyed in an explosion, ending the story on a cliffhanger. ===== The highest stakes poker match of all time was played over the course of a few years, between Andrew Beal and a group of professional poker players called "The Corporation." The group included Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, Minh Ly, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, David Grey, Chip Reese, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Lyle Berman and others. Many of them kept their identities anonymous, or were part of the group at different points. Ted Forrest, a professional poker player, was driving outside of Las Vegas when he called the Bellagio poker room. The personnel in the poker room informed him the highest game is $10,000-$20,000. He went to the poker room and sat down with his last $500,000. He played against Chip Reese and Andy Beal. Forrest had lost $400,000 without playing a single hand, and questioned why he was there. Back in February 2001, Beal first visited the Bellagio poker room. He enjoyed the atmosphere and met professional poker players, like Todd Brunson. He ended up winning over $100,000 crediting it to luck. Beal decided to study the game and face top players. Andy returned to Las Vegas and played heads-up with professionals for the highest stakes. Top professional poker players decided to pool their money with everybody who they thought could play the game against Beal. Beal began his match with Chip Reese, then Ted Forrest sat down. Down to his last $100,000 Forrest makes a comeback and wins $1.5 million. He is then asked to join the group and nobody else sits down besides Beal and his selected opponent, who alternates. The matches continued for three years with the amateur multi-millionaire Andy Beal surprisingly winning most of the contests and eventually flying back to Texas with over $10 million of The Corporation's money. Late in the series, The Corporation was forced to have all of its members add money to the collective bankroll in order to continue the match. In March 2004, Beal announced he was finished with poker for good after losing $16 million in two days, primarily to The Corporation's young star Phil Ivey. ===== Private investigator Mike Hammer, by assisting a prostitute being assaulted, cannot help noticing a unique ring on her finger. Later, when she is found murdered that ring is nowhere to be found. From here the story moves to a cache of jewelry stolen by the Nazis during World War II and smuggled out of France after the war by an American army colonel, who, together with Mike Hammer, tries to find the ring and recover all the other jewels. However, many parties are on the lookout and the private eye runs into big trouble. ===== A post-World War II feel-good movie, It Happened in Brooklyn begins in England at the end of the war. Danny Miller (Frank Sinatra) is with a group of GIs awaiting transportation home to the US. On his last night there, he meets Jamie Shellgrove (Peter Lawford), who is a very shy young man whose grandfather feels should be taken under someone's wing. After observing Miller come to his grandson's aid at the piano, he asks Danny to speak with his son, to give him "some words of encouragement". In order to look good in front of the Brooklyn-born nurse (Gloria Grahame) who scolded him for not making friends, he agrees, even going so far as to saying what would really fix Jamie up would be for him to come to Brooklyn. As he rushes out to catch his transport to the docks for the voyage home, Danny discovers that Jamie is really the heir to a duke. Upon Danny's return to Brooklyn, the film revolves around characters realizing their dreams of escaping working-class drudgery: in Sinatra's case to become a singer/musician rather than a shipping clerk, in Lawford's case to break out of his extreme shyness to gain a wife and a career as a songwriter, and in Grayson's case to break out of her school teaching job to star in the opera (although this last is not shown coming to pass, but she presumably lives happily ever after as she is brought to England as the fiancée of the Lawford character, who is heir to a dukedom). The story ends with Danny realizing the nurse he talked to at the start of the film is the only girl for him, and since he figures she's got to be back in Brooklyn herself, and he's got all kinds of friends now, he's optimistic about finding and winning her. The film's tagline was "Happy songs! Happy stars! Happy romance!". Lawford dances while singing a song, a performance that was particularly well received by both critics and public, outshining future fellow Rat Pack member Sinatra. One highlight of the film is seeing and hearing Sinatra and Grayson singing "Là ci darem la mano" from Mozart's 1787 opera Don Giovanni. ===== The plot centers on ghosts invading the world of the living via the Internet. It features two parallel story lines. ===== Fred and Gunn work at the office searching through files for current cases and try to get by without Wesley. Lorne joins them and a discussion arises about Angel, who is upstairs alone. As they continue to discuss whether Angel would actually kill Wesley, Cordelia returns to the hotel with Groo in tow. The sight of her friends quickly dampens her mood. Upstairs, a depressed Angel watches Connor's crib. At a demon-populated casino, a demon by the name of Jenoff meets with another, the "Repo-Man." The Repo-Man is given instructions to collect someone's soul and hands over a card to Angel Investigations to guide the collection demon. Back at the hotel, the next day, Angel rests silently in his room. Lorne packs Wesley's belongings into boxes while Groo tries to carry on a conversation about the recent events affecting the agency and group of friends. Meanwhile, a couple of elderly demons talk with Gunn and Fred about their case. They explain that there is an uninvited demon staying at their lair, then begin to bicker. Gunn recognizes the type of demon, a Skench, and agrees to battle the phlegm projecting demon to rid the couple of their problem. Gunn and Fred admire the couple's long relationship while Groo appreciates Fred and Gunn's concern for each other. Lorne leaves for a private reading while Fred takes the box of Wesley's belongings to him at the hospital. There, she fills him in on the whole story and everyone's knowledge of his true motivations as well as their feelings of betrayal. She reveals that the prophecy was a fake and warns him never to return to the hotel or Angel really will kill him. Gunn investigates the demon lair and finds the grotesque Skench demon. He fights with the demon and eventually manages to slay it without getting hit by phlegm. His luck changes however when the Repo-Man appears at the lair after receiving directions from Groo at the hotel. Seven years before, Gunn visited Jenoff at the casino and assuming he didn't have a future, sacrificed it in exchange for something he wanted badly. The Repo-Man advises Gunn that since Gunn was preparing to offer his soul to a girl (Fred), Jenoff wanted to ensure he collected before that happened. Gunn is given 24 hours to show up at the casino to pay and any failure to go through with it will not only cost Gunn his soul, but also Fred's. Back at the hotel, Gunn is disconnected and preoccupied with his thoughts, which Cordelia picks up on. She assumes he's feeling guilty about being happy with Fred when Angel's so down, and advises him to enjoy life and seize the day. The following day, Gunn follows that advice and brings Fred breakfast in bed and announces he has planned the day for them to spend together. A doctor at the hospital informs Wesley that he'll be released soon, and asks if he has anyone who can pick him up. Wesley is left with the stark reality that he has no friends left. Angel muses over Connor. Gunn treats Fred to a fun day all over town, with excessive amounts of her favorite foods. Fred gets tired and full of food and then realizes that something is wrong with Gunn because he's trying to live the day like it's his last. She pressures him for the truth and he explodes. He throws insults and rudeness at her and ends their relationship brutally, leaving Fred in tears. Back at the hotel, Cordelia is distracted by crying that she hears out in the hallway. A tearful Fred stands out in the hallway and tells them there's something wrong with Gunn. Meanwhile, Gunn shows up at the casino to pay his debt to Jenoff. Fred tries to explain the situation with Gunn, but her story is confusing to the others. Trusting Fred's judgment, Angel assures his friends that they will rescue Gunn as the family will not be losing another member. As they plan to search for Gunn, Groo reveals a business card from the Repo-Man and tells the gang about the demon's visit. Just before Jenoff can suck Gunn's soul, Angel and the gang break into the casino and start fighting the demons. Gunn is detained and dozens of demons surround the gang. Angel puts his soul on the line along with Gunn's in order to get Jenoff to agree to a challenge. Angel instructs Cordelia to stake him quickly if he loses, and she assures him she will. Jenoff allows Angel to pick the game and he suggests the winner be determined by cutting the deck for a high card. His plan doesn't work however and he loses the game. Cordelia reacts quickly and stakes Jenoff's hand to the table while Angel decapitates him. Gunn breaks free, but he knows the terror is not over as the parasitic soul-sucking creature within Jenoff's body emerges from where his head was and starts emitting horrible, high-pitched screams. Thinking quickly, Angel questions whether anyone else in the crowd is in Jenoff's debt and the customers all jump on Jenoff while the Angel Investigations team escapes. In his truck, Gunn apologizes repeatedly to Fred for breaking up with her and she accepts after many repetitions. With her prompting, he reveals that he traded his soul not for a girl, but for his truck, which served him and his fellow vampire hunters (first seen in "War Zone") well in their years of protecting their neighborhood; at the time, he valued such a resource far more than his life, since he presumed he would be killed in action long before Jenoff could claim his soul anyway. At the hotel, Angel begins to dismantle the crib in his bedroom. ===== Andrea Zoppo, an Italian peasant schooled in the arts and versed in the ways of nobility during his University years, loses his old identity during the French invasion of Florence, and becomes Andrea Orsini, a bastard member of a dead Neapolitan junior branch of the great house of Orsini. Having made his name with the French forces, he takes service with Cesare Borgia, with dreams of uniting Italy to stop the depredations of foreign adventurers and the manipulations of France and the Holy Roman Empire. However, his love of Lady Camilla of the Bagliones and respect for her husband Lord Varano of Citta del Monte derail those plans when he is sent to their court to take the city by treachery. ===== The book Call It Courage is a novel of 117 pages, it is about a boy who tries to overcome his fear of the sea. Call It Courage is a story set in the Pacific Islands. It chronicles the journey of Mafatu, the son of the chief of Hikueru Island, Tavana Nui. Mafatu is afraid of the sea due to witnessing his mother die while he was a young child, which makes him a shame to his father, and referred to as a coward among his tribe. So one-night Mafatu takes a dugout canoe and sets sail into the ocean without knowing where he will end up. He is caught in a storm and the canoe is lost. He lands on a deserted island and learns to hunt and fish for himself, along with his companions Uri, a yellow dog, and Kivi, an albatross. Soon Mafatu finds a sacrificial altar built by cannibals from a neighboring island. Mafatu realizes he has inhabited the island for about a week and begins designing his escape by making a canoe. He gathers things he will need to survive a trip across the ocean. He finds a spear point on the terrible altar and uses it to hunt. After a number of encounters with natural foes, including a hammerhead shark, a wild boar, and an octopus, all of which he successfully kills, this is when he realizes he is gaining courage and learning to deal with the things that have frightened him. The cannibals return and he makes a daring escape from them, returning home at last to his village. The experience has transformed him into an imposing figure. His father does not recognize him at first, but then he proudly accepts him on his return. Mafatu's story is told throughout the ages to the future generations by his tribe's people. It is a 5 chapter book. ===== After booking a boat trip to attend a rave on an island located off the coast of Seattle named "Isla del Morte" ("Island of Death"), two college students, Simon (Tyron Leitso) and Greg (Will Sanderson) meet up with three girls: Alicia (Ona Grauer), Karma (Enuka Okuma) and Greg's girlfriend Cynthia (Sonya Salomaa). When the five arrive at the dock, they find that they are late and the boat that is supposed to take them to Isla del Morte has already left. A boat captain named Victor Kirk (Jürgen Prochnow) and his first mate Salish (Clint Howard) offer them a ride on their boat. Arriving at Isla del Morte, they find the rave site messed up and deserted. Alicia, Karma and Simon leave the site to go find anybody around while Cynthia and Greg stay behind. As Greg and Cynthia are about to make out in a tent, the former leaves to urinate. Alone in the tent, Cynthia is killed by a group of zombies. Meanwhile, Alicia, Karma and Simon find a derelict house and as they attempt to investigate the place, they discover Alicia's ex-boyfriend Rudy (Jonathan Cherry), Liberty (Kira Clavell) and Hugh (Michael Eklund), who inform them of a zombie attack during the rave. The six leave the house to fetch Greg and Cynthia. Meanwhile, the zombies kill Salish when he is alone in the forest. Alicia, Rudy, Karma, Simon, Liberty and Hugh return to the rave site and find Greg. A zombified Cynthia comes out from behind a tree and kills Hugh but is killed when Casper arrives and shoots her. They form a plan to return to Kirk's boat and leave the island. When they return to the beach they find zombies on Kirk's boat. Casper and Greg leave the group to go find help, but Greg is killed in the forest. Kirk reveals the island's history; Isla del Morte was home to a Spanish Catholic priest named Castillo Sermano, who was banished from Spain in the 15th century for his dark experiments, which the Catholic Church forbade. Castillo murdered the crew of St. Cristobal, the ship that was taking him to the island, enslaved the island's natives, and murdered anyone who visited the place. He then created the immortality serum which he injected himself with, allowing him to live forever and return dead souls to life and support his cause. Kirk leads the group to a spot in the forest where he has hidden a box full of guns and weaponry. Once everyone is armed, they decide to head back to the house only to find the courtyard filled with zombies. Liberty and Casper are killed in the ensuing fight and Alicia, Rudy, Kirk, Karma and Simon manage to take shelter inside the house. When Kirk is alone, he hears Salish whistling outside. He goes outside and sees Salish as a zombie. Kirk sacrifices himself by killing Salish and a bunch of zombies with a stick of dynamite, but the explosion also blows up the entrance to the house. The remaining four lock themselves in a lab inside the house, but the zombies break in. Karma finds a hatch in the floor which she, Alicia and Rudy use to escape. Simon sacrifices himself to kill the zombies by shooting a barrel of gunpowder, blowing up the house and the zombies. Alicia, Rudy and Karma find themselves in tunnels. They make their way through the tunnels, but Karma is killed by zombies as she attempts to hold them off as Rudy and Alicia flee. Alicia and Rudy are aided out of the tunnels by a mysterious man wearing Greg's face as a mask. The man is revealed to be Castillo Sermano, who then orders a horde of zombies to restrain Alicia and Rudy in an attempt to kill them and use their flesh for his own purposes. Alicia and Rudy escape Castillo, blowing the tunnels up in the process. Castillo manages to survive the blast and Alicia gets into a sword fight with him. Castillo stabs her in the heart, and Rudy manages to decapitate him soon after. However, the still- alive headless body of Castillo begins to strangle Rudy. Alicia, who is barely alive, gets up and crushes the head under her foot, which finally kills him. Although Alicia seemingly dies, she and Rudy are rescued by a team of agents. The agents ask for Rudy's name, to which he responds with Rudolph "Curien". The ending narration reveals that Rudy gave Alicia the immortality serum. The two survivors return home. ===== Borribles are runaway children whose ears become pointed as they take to the streets, indicators of their independence and intelligence. As long as their ears remain unclipped they will never age; for this reason, they wear woollen hats pulled low over their ears in order to remain undetected by the authorities, who find their freedom threatening to the social order. Borribles are skinny, scruffy, and tough; they have nothing to do with money, and steal what they need to survive. Following on from the adventures of The Great Rumble Hunt, the second volume of The Borrible Trilogy begins with the surviving adventurers discovery that Sam the horse is still alive. In attempting to rescue him the Borribles are lured into danger both by the newly-established Special Borrible Group, a branch of the police determined to wipe out the Borribles and their way of life, and by one of their own – Spiff, whose motives behind the mission to Rumbledom are slowly revealed. All this leads the Borribles deep in to Wendle territory beneath the streets of Wandsworth, and down in to a shifting tunnel of mud dug deep beneath the mudflats of the Wandle River. ===== In 2003, three years after the Goldman Case, veteran American AMS agent James Taylor, and a new rookie agent, Kate Green, are gathering intelligence at the fifth basement floor of the European headquarters of the AMS in Italy (London in the Japanese dub). James has a sharp memory of the 2000 "Goldman Case", and believes that the ordeal has not yet ended. A sudden earthquake rocks the room while they talk, collapsing the basement walls and leaving the agents trapped. Several days later, as the two await a rescue team, James' PDA goes off, and a group of undead are seen on the security cameras. Realizing that they are in danger, James has Kate gather all the weaponry they can find to defend themselves. Soon after, the two travel through the sewers to an information room where they uncover a plot to fire nuclear missiles worldwide within 24 hours' time, facing the four-armed giant zombie Justice and a pair of mutant tarantulas known as The Lovers along the way. Taking the subway into zombie-infested streets from an underground shopping district, the agents narrowly avoid attacks by The Empress, a double- ended chainsaw-wielding assassin, and the massive, obese, and nearly impervious Temperance. James and Kate then learn that the late one-time CEO of the now-defunct DBR Corporation, Goldman, is responsible for the resurgence of undead. All of his messages and current plans were set in motion even before his death. Upon reaching the surface, they find the city completely obliterated. Goldman sends them a PDA message indicating that the launch will occur in one hour. The agents head for the abandoned Goldman Building and upon arrival, a levitating humanoid named The Star, confronts them in the foyer. After the Star is defeated, the duo arrive in time to halt the missile launch, though it is revealed that Goldman's true intention is to revert humankind to its original state in order to prevent them from harming the planet further. As such, his final legacy, The World, an insectoid humanoid with powers over ice, is released in the opening of "Pandora's Box" to fulfill its role as the successor to his original Emperor project in 2000, having developed underground since his death. As the AMS agents fight it, the World continuously evolves to become larger and more powerful. Following the World's second defeat, James sets his PDA to self-destruct and, telling Kate not to give up hope, sacrifices himself to destroy the World in the ensuing explosion. A shaken and distraught Kate walks out of Goldman's premises. ===== In modern-day San Francisco, reporter Daniel Molloy interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac, who claims to be a vampire. Louis describes his human life as a wealthy plantation owner in 1791 Spanish Louisiana. Despondent following the death of his wife and unborn child, one night he is attacked by the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt while drunkenly wandering the waterfront of New Orleans. Lestat senses Louis's dissatisfaction with life and offers to turn him into a vampire, which Louis accepts. However, he quickly comes to regret it. While Lestat revels in the hunt and killing of humans, Louis resists killing them, drinking animal blood to sustain himself. He is disgusted by Lestat's pleasure in killing and comes to suffer tremendously as a vampire. Wandering the streets of New Orleans, amid an outbreak of plague, Louis can resist his hunger no more and feeds on a little girl whose mother has died in the plague. To entice Louis to stay with him, Lestat turns the dying girl, Claudia, into a vampire. Together they raise her as a daughter—Louis has a pure love for Claudia, while Lestat treats her more as a student, training her to become a merciless killer. As thirty years pass, Claudia matures psychologically but still remains a little girl in appearance, and she is treated as such by Lestat. When she finally realizes that she will never grow any older or become a mature woman, she is furious with Lestat and tells Louis that they should leave him. She tricks Lestat into drinking the "dead blood" of twin boys that she killed by overdosing them with laudanum, which weakens Lestat, and then slits his throat. With Louis's help, she dumps Lestat's body in a swamp containing alligators and the two see blood rise to the surface. They then plan a voyage to Europe. However, Lestat returns on the night of their departure, having drunk the blood of swamp creatures to survive. Lestat attacks them, but Louis sets him on fire and, in the ensuing blaze, they are able to escape to their ship and depart. After traveling around Europe and the Mediterranean (but finding no other vampires), Louis and Claudia settle harmoniously in Paris in 1870. Louis encounters vampires Santiago and Armand by chance. Armand invites Louis and Claudia to his coven, the Théâtre des Vampires, where the vampires stage theatrical horror shows for humans. On their way out of the theater, Santiago reads Louis's mind and suspects that Louis and Claudia murdered Lestat. Armand warns Louis to send Claudia away for her own safety, and Louis is intrigued to stay with Armand and learn more about the meaning of being a vampire. Claudia demands that Louis turn a human woman, Madeleine, to be her new protector and companion, and he reluctantly complies. The Parisian vampires abduct all three and punish them for Lestat's murder, imprisoning Louis in a metal coffin, and trapping Claudia and Madeleine in a well where sunlight burns them to ash. Armand does nothing to prevent this, but the next day he frees Louis. Seeking revenge, Louis returns to the Theater at dawn and sets it on fire, killing all the vampires including Santiago. Armand arrives in time to help Louis escape the sunrise and once again offers him a place by his side. Louis, however, refuses Armand and leaves for good, knowing Armand could have saved Claudia. As decades pass, Louis explores the world dejectedly alone and eventually returns to New Orleans. One night he comes across Lestat, living as a recluse in an abandoned mansion and surviving on rat blood as Louis did. Lestat asks Louis to rejoin him, but Louis rejects him and leaves. Louis concludes the interview, prompting Molloy to offer to be his new vampire companion. Louis is outraged that Molloy has not understood the tale of suffering he has related and scares him into abandoning his idea. After Louis vanishes, Molloy runs to his car and takes off. On the Golden Gate Bridge Lestat appears and attacks him, taking control of the car. Revived by Molloy's blood, Lestat offers him the choice that he "never had"—whether or not to become a vampire. ===== The film is about American men building a harbour on a Caribbean island when they accidentally uncover two dinosaurs that have been frozen in suspended animation for millions of years. They are a Brontosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex. That night, during a storm, the beasts are struck by lightning and come back to life. The islanders have no idea that the dinosaurs are alive because of the storm and are now roaming the island. Also awakened is a caveman (Gregg Martell) who befriends Julio, an island boy, and along with the Brontosaurus. The caveman dies while holding a beam in a collapsing mine, allowing others to escape. Meanwhile, the islanders have found refuge from the Tyrannosaurus by hiding in the old fortress, which is protected by a ring of burning fuel. To ensure the Tyrannosaurus does not get in, the hero Bart (Ward Ramsey) drives out to face the beast in a mechanical digger. They duel on the edge of an island cliff and, after a tense fight, the Tyrannosaurus is knocked into water, ending the island terror. The film ends with a picture of the apparently dead Tyrannosaurus on the sea bed. In an ending similar to his previous films The Blob and 4D Man, the words "THE END" are shown, followed by a question mark. ===== Desperate Housewives focuses on the lives of several residents of the fictitious street of Wisteria Lane. The suburban neighborhood is shocked by the suicide of Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong), who seems to have led an ideal domestic life. Mary Alice's close friends, Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross), and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria), struggle to come to terms with the news. Later, Mary Alice's son, Zach (Cody Kasch), awakens in the middle of the night to find his father, Paul (Mark Moses), unearthing a mysterious chest from the drained swimming pool in their backyard. Susan, a divorced mother, takes interest in Mike Delfino (James Denton), a plumber who has recently moved to Wisteria Lane; however, she faces competition with neighbor Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), a promiscuous serial divorcée. Suspicious that Mike is spending the night with Edie, Susan enters Edie's home uninvited with the pretense of borrowing sugar. While inside, she accidentally knocks over a candle, which sets fire to the entire house. Susan flees the scene, leaving behind her glass measuring cup. Though wracked with guilt, Susan is relieved to learn that Mike was not the man with whom Edie was fornicating. Meanwhile, Lynette, a former career woman, is frustrated with raising four young children while her husband, Tom (Doug Savant), is constantly away on business. Bree, a perfectionist homemaker who feels unappreciated by her family, is troubled when her husband Rex (Steven Culp) asks for a divorce. She poisons him by mistakenly putting onions, to which he is deathly allergic, in his salad. At the hospital, Rex accuses Bree of being emotionally unavailable and obsessed with achieving domestic perfection. Elsewhere, Gabrielle, a former model, grows increasingly unhappy with her marriage to Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), who buys her love with extravagant gifts. She continues an affair with her sixteen-year-old gardener, John Rowland (Jesse Metcalfe). Paul asks Susan, Lynette, Bree, and Gabrielle to sort through Mary Alice's belongings, as he cannot bear to do so himself. In a box of Mary Alice's clothes, the women discover a blackmail note reading "I know what you did[.] It makes me sick[.] I'm going to tell[.]" The postmark indicates that Mary Alice received it the day she killed herself and the women begin to wonder what secret their friend could have been keeping. ===== In a sparsely populated town in 1974, ten years after a nuclear war has devastated the US, the townspeople have discovered a supply of canned food. However, they are waiting for Mr. Goldsmith, the town's leader, to return with a message from the mysterious and unseen "old man in the cave" who will tell them whether the food is contaminated with radiation. Some of the townsfolk want to take their chances and eat the food, but they refrain from doing so after seeing the disastrous harvest yielded when they failed to take the old man's advice about which farming areas were contaminated. When Mr. Goldsmith returns, he informs them that the old man has declared the food is contaminated and that it should be destroyed. Shortly thereafter, a group of soldiers led by Major French enter the town and clash with Goldsmith as they try to establish their authority. The soldiers may or may not be representatives of the US government; Goldsmith claims that wandering packs of self-styled military men have previously intruded on the town and tried to establish authority—all unsuccessfully. French, meanwhile, reveals that there are maybe 500 people left alive between Buffalo, New York and Atlanta, Georgia, and also talks of small, isolated primitive societies on the shores of Lake Erie and in "what used to be" Chicago. He claims his job is to organize the region so that society can be re-built. However, Goldsmith believes that French and his men simply want to strip the town of its food. A clash of wills ensues and, frustrated by Goldsmith's quiet and steadfast refusal to bend, French tries to dispel the townspeople's strange beliefs about the seemingly infallible old man in the cave and take control of the area. French tempts the townspeople with some of the food Goldsmith claimed was contaminated and many throw caution to the wind and partake. Everyone except Goldsmith eventually consumes the food and drink and Goldsmith falls into disfavor among the townspeople. After being bullied and threatened with his life, Goldsmith finally opens the cave door and it is ultimately revealed that in reality, the townsfolk have been using information from a computer the whole time. French rallies the townspeople into a frothing frenzy into destroying the machine, after which French leads the people into celebrating their new found freedom from this "tyranny". However, as Mr. Goldsmith had insisted, the "old man" was correct; without an authority figure to tell them which foods are safe, the entire human population of the town (including French and the soldiers) die—except for the lone survivor, Mr. Goldsmith, who somberly walks out of the now dead town. ===== His Family tells the story of a middle-class family in New York City in the 1910s. The family's patriarch, widower Roger Gale, struggles to deal with the way his daughters and grandchildren respond to the changing society. Each of his daughters responds in a distinctively different way to the circumstances of their lives, forcing Roger into attempting to calm the increasingly challenging family disputes that erupt. ===== ===== Korean descent Japanese karate master who tries to prove that his karate is better than the modern "dance" karate. Based on Mas Oyama portrayed by student and actor Sonny Chiba. ===== ===== Cassiel and Raphaella, two angels, observe the busy life of reunited Berlin. Due to their divine origin, they can hear the thoughts of the people around them, and try to console a dying man. Cassiel has been following his friend Damiel (a former angel), who senses his presence and talks about his experiences as a human. He owns a pizza parlor named Casa dell'angelo (Angel's House) and has married Marion, a trapeze artist whom he met when an angel. She works in a local bar in West Berlin, and the two have a young daughter, Doria. Cassiel follows Raissa Becker, an 11-year-old girl who lives in the former East Berlin. He observes her life and notices that she and her mother Hanna Becker are being followed by Philip Winter, a detective who works for Anton Baker. The latter is an American arms dealer and pornographer who owns a transport company. Cassiel follows Hanna Becker (and Winter) to an abandoned building in the outskirts of East Berlin. As Raphaella and Cassiel sit on top of the Brandenburg Gate, he expresses a desire to experience human life. Visiting Raissa, he finds her alone at her flat and leaning over the balcony railing. As she falls, Cassiel tries to save her and suddenly becomes human, catching the child. He has to adjust to the transformation, learning to modulate the volume of his voice and to negotiate streets and avoid being hit by cars. His only possession is an angel's armor, which became tangible when he leaped into humanity. In the underground (subway), Cassiel is tricked into gambling by Emit Flesti, losing his armor and money won during the game. Raphaella begs Flesti to give Cassiel time to understand what it is to be a human; he agrees but does not promise to stop hunting him. Arrested and detained, Cassiel struggles to satisfy police demands for identification. He cannot give (or comprehend) his name or address, but refers the police to his friend's pizza shop. Damiel arrives at the station and takes his now human friend home. Tricked by Flesti into drinking alcohol, he becomes addicted and robs a shop with a gun taken from a teenager, who had been planning to kill his abusive stepfather. Cassiel begins acting to make his way and feigns a car accident with Baker. He manages to get Baker to forge him a passport and birth certificate under the name Karl Engel (Charles Angel). Baker hires Cassiel as his valet, to pass him cards for cheating his fellow gangsters at poker. Stopping by Casa dell'Angelo to return items borrowed from Damiel, Cassiel encounters Flesti again. He is collecting money from Damiel, after having loaned him money to set up the business. After he saves Baker's life, Baker makes Cassiel his partner. Finally learning the true nature of his business, Cassiel decides to leave his service and stop him. Winter is killed by Flesti and Baker has reunited with his sister, Hanna. With the help of former angel Peter Falk, Cassiel gets into Baker's airport storage area. His team takes all the weapons and destroy the pornography copying machines. They send the weapons to a barge owned by other friends. Once having completed the plan, Cassiel feels ready to live as a human, but Flesti reports that Baker's rival, Patzke, has hijacked the barge with Baker's and Cassiel's friends inside. Flesti reveals himself as Time and says that he has to make Cassiel understand he does not belong in the human world; he has a word written on his forehead. At a boat lift, Cassiel gets on the barge and frees Raissa, moments before being killed. Flesti slows time so the rest can take over the barge and save the entire party. Cassiel's friends are saddened by his death, but when Damiel hears a ring in his ear, he understands that Cassiel is near and laughs in joy. ===== ===== A few months after the events of the first film, Professor Roy Curien at the fictional Cuesta Verde University (CVU), has managed to subdue and contain a "Hyper sapiens" specimen, who is revealed to be his son, Rudy Curien (a survivor of Isla del Morte incident from the first film). Curien experiments on another survivor (Alicia), trying to determine the source of her immortality, with apparent disregard for the rotted state of Alicia's body. When Curien has created a serum that he believes will bring back the dead and grant immortality, Curien murders one of his students and injects her with the serum. She returns to life, infects Curien and breaks out of the building. A month later, the university has a full-fledged outbreak, which is confirmed by AMS reconnaissance teams. Jake Ellis, an agent for AMS, goes in search of fellow agent Alexandra "Nightingale" Morgan. He finds her on a date at a restaurant, where she must execute several infected people before she returns to base with Ellis. After being ordered to retrieve a blood sample from the originally infected specimen on campus, they are warned that missiles will level the campus at midnight, regardless of whether the agents are still present or not. She assigns a gender-mixed Special Forces team of U.S. Marines to provide them with backup. Ellis openly questions the competence of the soldiers, leading to friction between the two units. Upon arrival at CVU, the soldiers encounter zombies. One soldier panics and another becomes infected after his gun jams. When the others discover his injury, they sever his infected arm, but he turns and infects the team medic; both are executed by Ellis. The team continues forward into the university proper. They proceed to battle through the hordes of infected, splitting into two teams. Two female soldiers, Lieutenant Alison Henson and Private Maria Rodriguez, and a male soldier, Bart, investigate the dorms. They break into a female dormitory where they find the deceased naked body of a zombie. Bart attempts to pose with the corpse and is bitten by a mosquito trapped in the room. Fearing contamination but unwilling to execute Bart, who is threatening them with a handgun, Henson handcuffs Bart to a radiator and the two soldiers exit the room, falling back to the van. Meanwhile, the second team, including Ellis and Nightingale, are attacked multiple times. Eventually, every soldier escorting them is killed, including the leader of the unit, Sergeant Griffin. They fight their way to the professor's laboratory and find the original specimen still imprisoned, as well as a pair of students, Lonny and Sarah, who had survived. They enter the confinement room and extract blood from the zombie, but are forced to kill it when it breaks free. Lonny and Sarah, who had allowed them into the confinement room are overrun and torn apart by zombies, and Ellis and Nightingale escape while the zombies are feeding on the bodies. Henson and Rodriguez make it to the extraction vehicle. There, they prepare to rescue Nightingale and Ellis, but Rodriguez is bitten by a zombie who was locked in the back of the van by the soldier assigned to guard it. Henson executes Rodriguez, and the duo arrive in front of the science building as Nightingale and Ellis fight their way through a horde of zombies. Ellis and Nightingale are saved by Henson, but the blood sample vial is destroyed in the process. They are forced to turn back, with ten minutes before the military releases the missile level the campus, and fight their way back to the confinement room. They retrieve a second vial, but Henson is bitten on the ankle. She remains behind and commits suicide, as Nightingale and Ellis escape before the missile strikes the campus. Only Ellis makes it out before the missile hits, with Nightingale surrounded by zombies. Bart breaks free from the dormitory by amputating his hand and forces Ellis to hand over the vial. Bart decides to kill Ellis anyway, but Nightingale is revealed to have survived and kills Bart. His dying action is to pull the pin on a hand grenade, destroying the vial in the process. Nightingale is wounded but uncertain of whether she's infected. Ellis refuses to execute her, and the two leave together as they head to Seattle, finding that the infection has spread to the rest of the city. ===== As the game opens, the Master of Mischief, a common antagonist of The Learning Company's Super Seekers games, steals the kingdom's crown and hides all of the castle's treasures. The player takes on the role of the Super Seeker once again, whose job is to find the treasures and remove the Master of Mischief from the throne. ===== While at Stan Marsh's house, Eric Cartman discovers a used tampon in the garbage which he mistakes for an aborted fetus. In an effort to get the kids never to mention the tampon again, Stan's mother, Sharon buys the kids a video game system, the Okama Gamesphere. The boys are completely fascinated by the Okama Gamesphere and intend to play with it for the entire weekend, without sleeping. During their playing, a talking towel called "Towelie" comes in whenever they mention any subject involving water and advises them to keep a towel handy, before asking if they want to get high; however, the boys largely ignore him and tell him to go away. Returning to school on Monday, the boys wait the bus stop, where a man asks them if they have seen Towelie. When they indicate that they have, the man yells into a walkie-talkie and drives off. Returning to Stan's house after school, the boys find the Okama Gamesphere is gone. In its place is a ransom note, saying that if the boys want the console, they will have to take Towelie to a secluded gas station during the night. The boys locate Towelie and take him to the gas station. An elderly man that works for the company that made Towelie is there, and he thanks the boys for bringing Towelie to him. When the boys ask for their Okama Gamesphere, the old man realizes that it is a trap, and the United States Military ambushes them. During the fight, Towelie and the boys escape. For the rest of the episode, the boys and Towelie go back and forth between a military base and the company that made Towelie (Tynacorp) in an effort to get their Okama Gamesphere. The plot gets increasingly thick, involving aliens trying to take over Earth using genetically modified towels. Throughout the story, the boys show no interest in these revelations, as they single-mindedly want nothing more than to retrieve their Okama Gamesphere; in spite of their utter indifference, the increasingly complicated plot continues to surround them and the two sides attempt to play them against the other. In the midst of a confrontation between the military and Tynacorp, the boys find their Okama Gamesphere, but before they can play for long the building is blown up in order to kill the aliens that want to rule the world. Kenny McCormick falls in a pool of lava, but the other boys and Towelie escape with the Okama Gamesphere. The boys and Towelie then go home and play the Okama Gamesphere. As they share a laugh, Cartman comments to Towelie, "You're the worst character ever, Towelie", to which he complacently replies, "I know." ===== On Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the ferry Sen. Alvin T. Stumpf is carrying hundreds of U.S. Navy sailors and their families across the Mississippi River from their base to the city. Suddenly, the ferry explodes and sinks, killing 543 passengers and crew members. Special Agent Douglas Carlin (Denzel Washington) from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is sent to investigate and discovers evidence of a bomb planted by a domestic terrorist. Arriving at the scene he meets with local investigators and FBI Special Agent Paul Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer), and informs them of his findings. He learns about and is invited to examine a partially burned body pulled from the river, identified as Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), which was reported to the authorities minutes before the explosion. Pryzwarra is impressed with Doug's detective expertise, and asks him to join a newly formed governmental detective unit whose first case is to investigate the bombing. Led by Dr Alexander Denny (Adam Goldberg), they investigate the events before the explosion by using a program called "Snow White", which enables them to look into the past (4 days, 6 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds, 14.5 nanoseconds) in detail by (according to Pryzwarra) using several satellites to form a triangulated image of events. The system is limited in that they can only see past events once; there is no fast forwarding or rewinding, although they can record what they see in the process. Convinced that Claire is a vital link, Doug persuades them to focus on her. While the team observe Claire's past through "Snow White", the bomber calls her to talk about the SUV that she advertised for sale. He does not buy her car, but the "Snow White" team now know exactly where and when he was during the call. Doug finds out "Snow White" is actually a time window, and can send inanimate objects into the past. Despite Denny's protests against tampering with the past, Doug has the team send a note back to his past self with the time and place to stop the ferry bomber. Instead, his partner Larry Minuti (Matt Craven) gets the note and while following up on it is shot by the terrorist. The team attempts to follow the fleeing terrorist, who takes Minuti with him, but he moves outside of Snow White's range. However, Doug is able to follow him in the present using a specially equipped vehicle with a mobile Snow White unit. In the past time, the bomber takes Minuti to his bayou shack where he kills him and sets fire to his body. Still needing a vehicle big enough to hold the bomb the terrorist goes to Claire's address, kidnaps her and takes her car. Using a facial recognition system, the ferry bomber is identified and taken into custody. He turns out to be Carroll Oerstadt (Jim Caviezel), who is angry at the military because he attempted to join both the Marines and Army, and was rejected after their psychological screening tagged him as unstable. Considering the case now closed, the government shuts down the Snow White investigation. Despite the killer having been caught, Claire and the ferry victims remain dead, which unsettles Doug since he is convinced that the Snow White team can actually alter history. Doug persuades Denny to do one last experiment: send Doug to the past to save Claire and stop the bombing; a risky procedure, since no human has ever been sent back. Doug survives the trip, because he was sent back to a hospital emergency room, where they were able to revive him. He steals an ambulance and gun and races to Oerstadt's shack just in time to stop Claire's murder, while Oerstadt flees with the bomb. Doug and Claire go to the ferry. Doug boards to try to find and disarm the bomb, but meanwhile Oerstadt captures Claire and restrains her inside the vehicle in which he has placed the bomb. A brutal gunfight ensues which culminates with Doug attempting to negotiate with Oerstadt but finally catching him off guard and killing him. He gets into the vehicle to try to free Claire but police surround them and threaten to open fire. To save everyone, Doug purposely drives the vehicle off the end of the ferry before it explodes. Claire escapes but Doug, unable to get out, dies in the subsequent underwater explosion. As Claire mourns Doug's death, she is approached by an identical Doug Carlin, the one from her present, who consoles her. ===== It is the 1970s; Fritz the Cat is now married, on welfare, and has a baby named Ralphie, who casually masturbates. As his wife berates him for being an irresponsible father and husband, Fritz sits on the couch, staring off into space, smoking a marijuana joint. Tired of listening to his wife nag at him, he fades off into his own little world, imagining what life would be like for him if things were different. The first character he meets on his stoned journey is Juan, a Puerto Rican. The two talk about Juan's sister Chita. The scene fades to Juan's house where Fritz is seen sitting on the couch smoking a joint next to Chita, while Juan is at the store. Chita complains to Fritz when he blows smoke in her eyes. His reaction is to tell her to loosen up and "embrace her fellow man", then he suddenly shoves a joint into her mouth, taking her off into her own hallucinogenic fantasy. The pot makes her horny. Meanwhile, outside, a pair of crows are about to rob the place, but decide to stay outside and watch what happens inside instead. A car pulls up and out comes Chita's father, who sees Fritz and Chita having sex, and blows Fritz apart with a shotgun. This violent display turns off the two crows, who decide to come back at another time. In his second life, Fritz meets a drunken bum claiming to be God. In his third life, Fritz imagines that he is a soldier in World War II-era Nazi Germany. After being caught having a ménage à trois with two German girls by a commanding officer (the two girls being the officer's wife and daughter), Fritz escapes, and winds up being an orderly to Adolf Hitler. Fritz takes the form of a therapist, and analyzes Hitler, telling him that his world domination plans were just a way of trying to get attention. In the showers, Hitler "accidentally" drops his soap, and urges Fritz to pick it up, in an attempt to rape him, and ends up getting his single testicle (a reference to the song "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball") blown off. In this segment, Fritz meets his death by way of the United States Army. The film cuts back to 1970s-era New York in Fritz's fourth life as Fritz attempts to sell a used condom to a liquor store owner, Niki, who bets he knows who Fritz used it on. The two break out laughing as they take turns describing the woman. Fritz at one point blurts out that the woman has got the clap. When Niki asks who her name is, Fritz responds by telling him "Gina". Niki says that that's his wife's name and that she doesn't have the clap. Fritz tells him "she does now," causing Niki to curse and shout at Fritz. As he walks out of the store, Fritz bumps into a pig named Lenny. Fritz tells him that he was an irresistible stud in the 1930s. Fritz's fifth life is a psychedelic montage of old stock film and animation, vaguely illustrating Fritz's downfall in the 1930s (losing everything to excessive partying and drinking). In his sixth life, Fritz shows up at a pawn shop run by a Jewish crow named Morris, and tries to get a welfare check cashed. Fritz tries to make a deal with Morris: If Morris will cash Fritz's welfare check, then Fritz will give Morris a toilet seat. Morris doesn't like the deal, but suddenly getting diarrhea from the pickles he has been eating, he reluctantly accepts the deal, but instead of cashing Fritz's welfare check, he gives Fritz a space helmet. We then see Fritz in his seventh life, as NASA hires Fritz to go into space on the first mission to Mars. While waiting for the shuttle to take off, Fritz decides to have sex with one of the reporters, a black girl. However, the space shuttle takes off a little early, and once in space, it explodes. In Fritz's eighth life, the film portrays Fritz talking to the ghost of his black crow friend Duke, who was shot to death in the previous film. The film then flash-forwards to a future where New Jersey is a separate country from the rest of the United States, and has been renamed "New Africa", home to all black crows. Fritz is just starting his job as a courier, and he is asked by President Henry Kissinger to deliver a letter to the president of New Africa. In New Africa, Fritz finds a high crime rate, corruption, and violence. Once Fritz is led to "The Black House", he hears the president of New Africa and his vice-president talking about how low his popularity is, and how an assassination attempt would boost his popularity. The president refuses to get shot, but is shot anyway, because the vice president needs his president's popularity to increase so he will not lose the upcoming election. The vice-president blames the assassination on Fritz, because he is the only "white" cat in New Africa. Because of this, America and "New Africa" are at war, and Kissinger eventually admits an unconditional surrender. In the end, Fritz is shot for the crime he did not commit. In his final life, Fritz finds himself living in the sewers of New York, where he meets an Indian guru and the devil. However, Fritz is given a rude awakening from his drug-induced reality by his wife, who finally throws him out of the apartment. After a quick look at all of his lives, Fritz sighs and says "This is about the worst life I've ever had." ===== In a small Midwestern town, Roger Phillips is found dead. When insurance investigator Sam Donovan (O'Keefe) arrives looking into the apparent suicide, all clues lead him to suspect murder. The man was shot, but there are no powder burns on the body (which would indicate he was not shot at close range) nor was a pistol found. Unfortunately, no one wants to assist him with the case, including Sheriff Larry Best (Bendix), despite a double indemnity clause. It turns out the dead man was universally hated. One of the prime suspects is Frank Baker, who eloped with Phillips' daughter the night of the death when Phillips objected to the marriage. During the investigation, Sam and local girl Anita Weatherby (Britton) are strongly attracted to each other. This causes complications when Anita finds her father's hidden Luger pistol (Phillips was shot with a Luger) while searching for a place to store her diary away from her inquisitive younger sister. Meanwhile, at the annual town Christmas tree lighting, the residents are grieved to learn that beloved longtime physician Dr. Gerrow has died of a heart attack. Finally, Sam plants a false story in the newspaper, stating that he has sent for a chemist to find clues of the killer's identity from the floor of the house where Phillips died. The chemist is due very soon, so Sam waits for the murderer at the scene of the crime. Sheriff Best shows up first, but he knew the story was a fake. Next to arrive is Anita's father, Stu Weatherby, followed by Anita. Sam accuses Stu of the crime, but then realizes from the position of the murderer that he had to have been left-handed, which rules Stu out. Then Sam remembers, from his previous investigation, that Dr. Gerrow was left-handed. Stu confirms Sam's guess. Weatherby came upon Dr. Gerrow, just after the doctor snapped and killed the man responsible for so much misery to his loved townspeople. He talked Gerrow out of turning himself in and took the Luger away. Sam finally decides that the town will be better off if Gerrow's memory is protected, and agrees to report Phillips' death as suicide. ===== After sustaining a head wound in combat, decorated World War II veteran Eddie Rice (John Payne) is treated at a San Francisco military hospital for a permanent form of amnesia. This leaves him with no knowledge of his life, family and friends prior to his enlistment, a void that the army intelligence unit was unable to fill as they couldn't find any information about him, other than the fact he enlisted in Los Angeles. Doctors tell him that no medical cure exists for his case, but that if he returns to Los Angeles he might run into people who know him and could help him fill in the blanks. Rice follows this advice and he promptly runs into people who recognize him. However, he is recognized not as Eddie Rice, but as Eddie Riccardi, a dangerous gangster gone missing, whose past behavior generates mistrust among the police and all those who knew him in the past. Furthermore, ruthless crime boss Vince Alexander (Sonny Tufts), who was betrayed by Eddie before he left the town, is now out for revenge. ===== The novel centres on two characters: Voss, a German, and Laura, a young woman, orphaned and new to the colony of New South Wales. It opens as they meet for the first time in the house of Laura's uncle and the patron of Voss's expedition, Mr Bonner. Johann Ulrich Voss sets out to cross the Australian continent in 1845. After collecting a party of settlers and two Aborigines, his party heads inland from the coast only to meet endless adversity. The explorers cross drought-plagued desert then waterlogged lands until they retreat to a cave where they lie for weeks waiting for the rain to stop. Voss and Laura retain a connection despite Voss's absence and the story intersperses developments in each of their lives. Laura adopts an orphaned child and attends a ball during Voss's absence. The travelling party splits in two and nearly all members eventually perish. The story ends some twenty years later at a garden party hosted by Laura's cousin Belle Radclyffe (née Bonner) on the day of the unveiling of a statue of Voss. The party is also attended by Laura Trevelyan and the one remaining member of Voss's expeditionary party, Mr Judd. The strength of the novel comes not from the physical description of the events in the story but from the explorers' passion, insight and doom. The novel draws heavily on the complex character of Voss. ===== Karan (Shahid Kapoor) is a shy and nerdy canteen boy and college student, running a café with his friend Murugan (Johnny Lever), and Tanya (Rimi Sen) is a student in the same college. She is the most popular girl on campus. Karan is in love with Tanya but is too shy to tell her. After he musters some courage and rescues her step-brother from some goons, he catches her attention and is eventually able to invite her to a fake birthday party. On her way there, Tanya witnesses the murder of a scientist, Khurana (Om Puri) by his evil twin brother, the underworld don Mehboob, and as a result is forced to flee the country to save her own life, since the law had been bought out by the very same killers. The scientist had stored a secret code in a stuffed toy, a parrot, now being sought by Mehboob, and Khurana was able to hide the toy in Tanya's car before being killed. Unawares, Tanya leaves the toy at home before fleeing the country, and the toy is later picked up by Karan, ignorant of Tanya's fate. Three years later, still in love with Tanya, but depressed by her sudden and complete disappearance, Karan stumbles across old schoolmates of hers at a café, and learns from them that she had been living in Dubai all this time. Karan coaxes Murugan to help him track down Tanya in Dubai. They enlist the aid of a local hustler and bounty hunter, Rocky (Akshay Kumar). Rocky travels to Dubai, where his friend Babloo (Vijay Raaz) has already tracked down Tanya, who has become Natasha, a successful singer and performer. Rocky and Babloo stakeout Natasha's villa to make sure they are on the right track, but as soon as Rocky spots Natasha, it's love at first sight. While he has Natasha under surveillance, Karan and Murugan arrive at the Dubai airport from India. Faced with a potential competitor to woo Natasha, Rocky attempts to eliminate Karan from the picture by lying to him about Tanya. He says that Tanya had taken up drinking and smoking, had had two husbands, six children and also an affair with a gangster, with whom she had a further illegitimate child. He further lies that Tanya had been left wheelchair bound after a drunk driving accident. Karan is heartbroken to hear all this, and decides to go back to Mumbai. He is about to board his flight, when at the last moment, he spots a picture of Tanya as Natasha on a club advertisement printed across an airport Taxi. He is overjoyed, and assumes that Rocky made a mistake, not being aware that Rocky is in fact trying to deceive him. Things are about to get more complicated, since not only has Rocky to contend with Karan, there are two other people already in her life, trying to catch her in their web of deceit. Local plumber, Sanju Malvani (Sunil Shetty) has been currying favours for Natasha by pretending to be a paraplegic on crutches. Every time Natasha meets someone she likes, Sanju eliminates the competitor using a unique trick. He edits and prints out a fake newspaper featuring an article showing that person as a crook, and comes over to Natasha and shares "the news" with her while acting all shocked himself, thus earning her admiration. On the other hand, there is Tanya's physically disabled live-in friend Tommy (Paresh Rawal), who also has a soft spot for her. Having heard of the death of Tanya's disabled brother a year ago, Tommy has since faked being run over in a car accident and now acts like he himself is disabled and mentally challenged, thus managing to stay close to Natasha by seamlessly filling in the void left behind by her deceased brother. Nonetheless, Rocky begins his attempted seduction of Natasha. Having wired the villa, and thus overheard what Natasha craves in a man, Rocky shows up at the local shopping mall, pretending to be an architect. Natasha, who is shopping at the mall, is ambushed in the parking lot by a bunch of thugs (who it later transpires are simply mugs hired by Rocky himself). Rocky intervenes, and after seemingly beating the living daylights out of the supposed thugs (the scene is similar to Jean-Claude Van Damme's introductory action sequence from Hard Target (1993)), introduces himself to Natasha, and proceeds to show himself off as a charming professional with a heart of gold. Somewhat awed, Natasha offers Rocky an invitation for tea later in the evening, which he accepts. When Rocky arrives at her villa later in the evening, he is confronted by several obstacles, Natasha's aunt Sweety (Supriya Pilgaonkar), the jealous Tommy and the family's pet dog. Rocky is easily able to charm Sweety, but has to drug the dog, who dies due to an overdose while the sisters are making Rocky a drink in the kitchen. Crisis is avoided when Rocky is able to revive the dog by electrocution using wiring from a lamp in the living room. The parties then quickly depart to the grand opening of Natasha's latest album at a social event, where Rocky now comes face to face with Sanju, who puts Rocky on the spot right away, as he himself is pretending to be an architect! With Natasha and company under surveillance, Rocky now intercepts Sanju trying to discredit him at Natasha's home. Later, when the shocked Natasha confronts Rocky about him being an alleged impostor, Rocky is able to fast-talk his way out of the situation and convince the gullible Natasha that he is indeed not an architect, but a captain on a ship, something his mother does not approve of, thus the ruse. Tommy, however behaves in a somewhat jealous manner and puts Rocky in a confusing situation, involving him jumping on Rocky's back and then accusing the latter of having twisted and bitten his arm. A food bill from a bar drops out of Tommy's pocket during his supposed accusation. This arouses Rocky's suspicions about his supposed "condition". The next day using that food bill, Rocky and Babloo track down Tommy at a local disco where, unaware that he is being followed, Tommy shows up every week, for a little fun and dance away from his daily existence as a fake disabled victim. Rocky confronts Tommy while he is on the disco floor and threatens to expose him in front of Natasha. At the end, Rocky lets Tommy go, on the condition that the latter will no longer attempt to get in his way of seducing Natasha. The scene now shifts to the harbour, where Rocky has invited Natasha over for a cruise. While he is coddling her on the harbour front, Natasha spots Karan and Murugan sitting at the grounds. Unaware that Karan is in Dubai searching for her, she is overjoyed to see an old friend from her past. She introduces Karan to Rocky, unaware that they know each other quite well already! Karan, however, seeing Rocky and Natasha all smiles and happy, simply wants to leave them alone out of his love for Tanya. He just wants her to be happy, even if it is with Rocky and not himself, much to Murugan's frustration. While he tries to leave the scene, pretending that he and Murugan have a flight to catch, Natasha convinces Karan to stay one more night in Dubai, and come over for dinner later in the day. Sanju shows up later at the party, and pulls Natasha aside to reveal his latest newspaper creation, showing Rocky as an international crook, murderer and serial killer wanted by many crime agencies the world over, whose M.O, as Sanju explains is to trap and seduce innocent girls like Natasha and then destroy their lives. Rocky overhears the conversation and while Natasha is occupied elsewhere, chases Sanju outside in the club parking lot. Sanju drops the pre tense of being crippled, throws his crutches on the ground, and runs for dear life. Later, Rocky, Sanju and Tommy are seen sitting in a bar nearby after a confrontation, exposing each other as fraudsters and having a drink together, cursing their luck at the emergence of Karan as the new love in Natasha'a life. With Rocky having bugged Natasha again, the trio now listen to Natasha's views about them and find out, in a hilarious manner, that all is not what it seems, since she views Sanju as a brother like figure, Tommy as something similar to her deceased brother, and Rocky as a fraud and murderer. They then go to Natasha's house, where she is having coffee with Karan. Rocky uses a gun to shoot some specially medicated pills into the drawing room to be consumed by the dog. One of them is consumed by the dog, but the other is consumed by Sweety. The effects are hilarious as Sweety suddenly becomes hyperactive and so does the dog. Confusion ensues as the dog attacks Karan and he ends up throwing it out the window. The next day, Karan goes to Natasha's house to propose to her and finds that she has been sent an anonymous letter, informing her that he indeed had hired Rocky to follow her. In a spate of anger, she sends him out of the house. Later, when he goes to Rocky's house to confront him about this, he finds Sanju and Tommy there as well, who also reveal themselves to have been conning Natasha. Further, Sanju reveals that he had written the anonymous letter to Natasha and goes on to reveal his trick with the newspapers, disgusting Karan. Meanwhile, Mehboob and his family, including Sunny, (his illegitimate son, who has also been obsessed with Tanya since college) arrive at Natasha's house and interrogate her about the stuffed toy. Realising that his father had used his obsession to track down Natasha, Sunny turns on his father and kidnaps her. Sweety informs Sanju about this and he along with Rocky, Karan and Tommy follow them after having gotten directions from Murugan, who happened to see them from a taxi. The chase takes them to the middle of a desert, where after some confusion, it is revealed that Khurana had stored the code of a vault in the stuffed toy. The vault had carried a secret solution, two drops of which could decrease a person's age by 25 years. The night Khurana had died, he had found that his brother wanted to use the formula for his own consumption and had tried to escape in Natasha's car as she had been passing by. He had slipped the toy into a package, a birthday present she had been carrying for Karan's fake birthday dinner, thus explaining how he had the toy. Khurana used the toy to counteract his forgetfulness. Natasha sent him out of the car at first, but, undergoing a change of heart, had gone back later just in time to witness Mehboob's son Baljeet kill Khurana. Rocky intervenes and cleverly destroys the toy after having it speak the code into Natasha's ear, making sure she cannot be killed, the code being in her mind now. A gunfight ensues, during which Natasha discovers Tommy and Sanju's deceit, much to her shock and disgust. After the commotion, Baljeet, wanting the solution all for himself, to sell to a Chinese buyer and make millions, kidnaps Natasha. Rocky and Sanju follow them on bikes and finally manage to catch up with them. After beating up all the men, they take Natasha to her house where a further argument ensues as to who should be more worthy of Natasha. The argument ends when Karan arrives with Raj Sinha (Aftab Shivdasani) and tells Natasha about Sanju's newspaper scams (which the latter confesses), one of which had exposed Raj as a drug dealer and addict earlier. Raj and Natasha are reunited. Wishing them luck, Karan leaves in sadness after the others are left cursing. Natasha realises her love for Karan and stops him as he is leaving, saying that she and Raj had had no future ever since their earlier break up. She then accepts and reciprocates his love and they finally unite. This tearful union is once again being witnessed by a grumbling Rocky, Sanju and Tommy along with Sunny. Rocky impatiently tells them to stop cursing and asks them to admit to the fact that they were never worthy enough for her. He then turns to Babloo and suggests, in a whisper, that they try to find out where Karan and Tanya are going for their honeymoon and they eagerly put on a pair of earphones. In the last frame, the camera pans to Tanya and Karan walking away towards the sunset, hand in hand. At the end, the narrator says that after all the effort he had undertaken to acquire the solution, Mehboob had become too overexcited and had consumed the whole quantity instead of two drops. He had ended up becoming a baby and Sunny unwittingly became his father. The film ends as the narrator requests the audience not to forget him. ===== The movie begins with Antonio talking to two men, Solario and Salerio. Antonio tells them he is sad, and that there is no specific reason why. We meet Bassanio, Gratiano and Lorenzo, and we find out Bassanio needs money to court a beautiful woman named Portia. Antonio agrees to help Bassanio and gets a loan from a Jewish money lender named Shylock. Shylock agrees to the bond, with the condition that if he is not repaid, he gets a pound of flesh. ===== Eighteen-year-old aspiring musician and composer Joel Johnston, a Ganymedean on Earth for his education, falls in love with fellow college student Jinny Hamilton. Both are orphans, and virtually penniless. When Jinny decides their relationship is ready for marriage, she reveals that she is actually Jinnia Conrad, a granddaughter of humanity's richest man, Richard Conrad. Joel learns that Conrad has already mapped out his future; he is to be groomed for a role in the family business and to produce children to continue the dynasty. Preferring to pursue his own destiny, he flees the Conrad estate with the help of Jinny's cousin, seven- year-old Evelyn. To escape the Conrads and their vast reach, Joel joins the crew of the RSS Charles Sheffield. The ship is headed to a distant star on a 20-year voyage to establish a colony, one of several scattered dozens of light-years from Earth. With experience from his family farm, Joel works as a farmer for the ship's crew of 500 and as a part-time musician. He regularly corresponds with Evelyn through the twins on board who maintain contact with Earth via telepathy with their siblings. Six "relativists" are essential to the voyage, controlling the ship's quantum ramjet drive with their minds. The drive has to run continuously; at relativistic speeds, it is nearly impossible to restart it, and then only for a short period after it has stopped. Each relativist can only stand the strain reliably for six hours a day. Five years into the voyage, one is killed and another mentally incapacitated, leaving only four and no margin for error. The next year, the Sheffield learns through its telepaths that the Sun has gone nova, killing everyone in the solar system. A wavefront of deadly gamma radiation is expanding at lightspeed, threatening the colonies that are all that is left of humanity. The crew is only able to warn one colony in time; the rest are doomed. The Sun going nova is contrary to all astrophysical theories, and because over 90% of the sun's mass was converted into energy, it is speculated that an alien species caused the disaster. Unable to bear the catastrophe, one of the relativists commits suicide. Despite the other three's efforts, the quantum ramjet drive soon shuts down. The Sheffield will not be able to stop; it will coast by its intended destination at 97.6% of the speed of light. A vessel overtakes the ship, however; Jinny married a genius scientist who has developed a revolutionary faster-than-light drive. Only one experimental ship exists, capable of carrying ten people; aboard are several Conrads, including the domineering Richard, Jinny, her husband, and Evelyn, who has aged faster than Joel because of time dilation. She is now 19, and explains that she persuaded her grandfather into coming to get him. Conrad proposes an evacuation plan, shuttling people to their destination planet nine at a time. Joel realizes that Conrad is lying; he only contacted the Sheffield to obtain needed supplies and has no intention of returning. The businessman needs to establish control of the colonies and cannot spare the time. Conrad is defeated and the faster-than-light engine is transferred to the Sheffield. Joel and Evelyn marry, then join the mission to warn the other colonies of the coming radiation wave. Joel decides to stay in space with his wife and child, rather than becoming planet-bound. ===== Two down-and-out hoboes pretend to be pugilists in order to make some money to eat. One of them claims to be Cyclone Flynn, the boxing champion. In the meantime Pug, a good-hearted local strongman, has fought and defeated several mashers who were bothering his girlfriend. The mashers make up with Pug and propose to enter him to fight the fake Cyclone Flynn at a local theater. Enter the real Cyclone Flynn, who expels the hoboes and takes over the engagement. The fight starts, comically refereed by Chaplin's character. It quickly deteriorates into chaos, after Pug steals a gambler's revolvers and chases the champion from the ring. A long chase sequence involving the boxers, spectators, Pug's girlfriend, and the Keystone Kops follows. ===== The story follows Richard Kinnell, a successful horror writer, as he drives back from Boston to his home in Derry, Maine. Along the way, he comes across a yard sale where he notices a bizarre, disturbing painting of a sinister-looking man with sharply filed teeth driving his car across Boston's Tobin Bridge. Entitled "The Road Virus Heads North", the painting was created by a tortured genius who burned his other pieces of artwork before committing suicide; the artist left a cryptic note explaining that he couldn't stand what was happening to him any longer, thus justifying his suicide. Kinnell, an avid collector of such oddities, purchases the painting without hesitation from the woman holding the sale. As Kinnell travels north, he stops at his aunt's house to show her the painting. He quickly notices that some of the details in the painting have changed. He initially dismisses this by assuming he hadn't examined it closely enough. However, Kinnell quickly realizes that the painting is continuing to change. Deeply unsettled by his observations, he discards the painting at a rest stop. Once home and much to his horror, Kinnell discovers that the painting has somehow arrived ahead of him and is hanging above his fireplace. It has changed yet again, this time depicting a horrific and gory scene of slaughter at the yard sale where he purchased it. Kinnell later overhears a news story about the brutal murder of the woman who had sold him the painting. He soon realizes that the man in the painting actually exists, and the ever-changing painting shows him getting closer and closer to his home. Confident that this will destroy it once and for all, Kinnell tosses the painting into the fireplace and sets it alight. He then decides to take a shower. Without warning, Kinnell passes out and has a nightmare about the horrors he has encountered throughout his day. Upon awakening, Kinnell remembers that the artist burned all of his paintings, except this one. The painting survived Kinnell's attempts to destroy/discard it and the man in the painting had already arrived at his house. Kinnell tries to escape and fails. In the end, the painting gets him: the story's final passage describes Kinnell seeing the latest change to the painting, with fresh blood on the driver's seat of the killer’s car, and realizing that it is portraying what is about to happen to him. ===== Originally based on didactic Buddhist tales, kaidan often involve elements of karma, and especially ghostly vengeance for misdeeds. Japanese vengeful ghosts (Onryō) are far more powerful after death than they were in life, and are often people who were particularly powerless in life, such as women and servants. This vengeance is usually specifically targeted against the tormentor, but can sometimes be a general hatred toward all living humans. This untargeted wrath can be seen in Furisode, a story in Hearn's book In Ghostly Japan about a cursed kimono that kills everyone who wears it. This motif is repeated in the film Ring with a videotape that kills all who watch it, and the film franchise Ju-on with a house that kills all who enter it. Kaidan also frequently involve water as a ghostly element. In Japanese religion, water is a pathway to the underworld as can be seen in the festival of Obon. ===== House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigators Jim McLain (Wayne) and Mal Baxter (Arness) come to Hawaii to track American Communist Party activities. They are interested in everything from insurance fraud to the sabotage of a U.S. naval vessel and plans to have local unions go on strike to prevent the loading and unloading of ships on the Honolulu docks. After receiving useful information from reporter Phil Briggs (Vernon "Red" McQueen), the agents begin searching for Willie Nomaka, a former party treasurer, who has allegedly experienced a nervous breakdown and is being treated by psychiatrist Dr. Gelster (Gayne Whitman). The doctor's secretary, Nancy Vallon (Nancy Olson), is helpful, as well. McLain asks her on a date and a romance develops. Nomaka's landlady, Madge (Veda Ann Borg), assists in the investigation, flirting with McLain. Nomaka's ex-wife (Madame Soo Yong) also helps McLain. Nomaka is eventually found under another name in a sanitorium, heavily drugged and unable to speak. Party leader Sturak (Alan Napier) gives orders to Dr. Gelster to get rid of him, but McLain rescues Nomaka and takes him to safety. However, two of the communists kidnap Baxter, and Gelster accidentally kills him by giving him an injection of truth serum. Sturak orders the members of the communist cell to attend a meeting. Sturak orders Gelster to confess his party membership to the authorities and identify several nonessential members of the "cell" so the government will believe that the cell has been destroyed and the others can continue their work. The meeting is interrupted by McLain, who punches out one of the communists after the communist uses the "N-word". McLain is losing the brawl that follows, but the police arrive and place the communists under arrest. The men responsible for Baxter's death are convicted of murder, but ultimately McLain and Nancy Vallon see the others plead the Fifth Amendment and go free. ===== Georgie, the heroine of the book, becomes fascinated while watching a stranger attempting to poach fish in an area where nobody can maintain secrets for very long; disillusioned with her relationship with the local fisherman legend Jim Buckridge, she contrives a meeting with the stranger and soon passion runs out of control between two bruised and emotionally fragile people. The secret quickly becomes impossible to hide, and Jim wants revenge, whilst the poacher hikes north via Wittenoom (out of respect for his father who died of mesothelioma in the town) and Broome to an island off the remote coast of Kimberley beyond Kununurra to escape a confrontation. His subsequent struggles to survive in the hostile environment, knowing that he must try to literally cover his tracks, give this book its gripping denouement. ===== Alex (the main character) is an 11-year-old Jewish boy living in a Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II with his father and their friend, Boruch. German soldiers come into the Ghetto and send people into trains to be taken away (most likely to concentration camps). Alex and his father get separated, and soon Alex has to learn how to kill time in the empty ghetto by himself. As it turns out the ghetto is not entirely empty, and that is where he comes across various people, from neighbors to robbers, some of whom even try to help him. He finds himself in an abandoned, bombed out building on Bird Street (Ptasia street) where he seeks refuge. The only thing he has to pass the time away with is his pet mouse Snow, the novel Robinson Crusoe and other books, and a small window overlooking the town. He has to hunt for food on his own and still stay hidden from soldiers. It is a great test for Alex to see if he can make it through tough conditions, and also wait for the arrival of his father. ===== The story focuses on the border disputes between the countries of Inner and Outer Horner, the former of which is "so small that only one Inner Hornerite at a time could fit inside, and the other six Inner Hornerites had to wait their turns to live in their own country while standing very timidly in the surrounding country of outer Horner." Phil, an embittered Outer Hornerite, decides that the puny Inner Hornerites do nothing but stand around very close together solving math proofs all day, and have to stretch one at a time every morning. Seen as an evil threat to the leisure of the five Outer Hornerites, they are understood as abusing the vast good will that they have received courtesy of the Outer Hornerites. As they stand in the short-term residency zone in Outer Horner, they wait their turn to reenter their country. So Phil, gaining the support of the other Outer Hornerites and hiring two giants as his personal policy enforcers, begins to tax the Inner Hornerites for staying in his country. He settles in the end to accept the disassembling of the Inner Hornerites as sufficient payment. The story chronicles Phil's tyrannical rise to power and his attempted Inner Hornerite genocide. ===== The novel is based on the arrival of General John J. Pershing with American troops on the Western Front in 1917. Moving in a new direction from Shaara's previous novels, the book focuses not only on generals but also on the everyday American doughboys, including the experiences of a character named Roscoe Temple, and a chapter about a new British recruit who refills the ranks, only to be killed during an attack on the German trenches several hours later. The book also profiles aviation aces such as Germany's Manfred von Richthofen and America's Raoul Lufbery. ===== Marty and Grace O'Hara are thirteen-year-old twins with differing personalities; Marty is a "mischief maker" with a photographic memory and is very curious; Grace is very intelligent but has a "healthy dose of phobias". They have been attending boarding school in Switzerland. Their parents are photojournalists, however, one day they go missing in the Amazon jungle from a helicopter crash. The twins are consequently sent to live with their uncle, Travis Wolfe, an anthropologist who lives on a private island called Cryptos, off the coast of the state of Washington. Wolfe has dedicated his life to finding cryptids, which are animals "whose existence has not yet been proven scientifically." During the twins' stay, Dr. Laurel Lee arrives with an egg that is presumed to be a Mokélé-mbembé, a dinosaur thought to have gone extinct, but believed by some to still exist in the Congo. Lee explains that she gave the egg to Dr. Noah Blackwood, a conservationist who is known for his animal theme parks and appearances on television shows. Although Blackwood appears to be sweet and caring, he is later revealed to be a ruthless collector and harvester of rare animals, so Lee has stolen the egg back, but has left her field notes in Blackwood’s lab. Wolfe assembles a team to head to the Congo to contact his local friend Masalito and to find the Mokélé-mbembé before Blackwood gets there. They plan to send Marty and Grace back to boarding school on the same flight. During the flight, Marty frees Bo, a chimpanzee, from his cage, and they have to find him. Marty and Grace follow Bo down a supply chute in the cargo bay, and discover that both Bo and PD, a teacup poodle, are down there. The chute opens, and they are air dropped into the Congo jungle. Marty uses a device called a Gizmo to find Grace and their animal companions. Wolfe contacts Marty and directs them to a sky house by Lake Télé, but Wolfe's group will not be able to reach there for a week. He explains that they need to avoid Butch McCall, Blackwood's top henchman, and instructs them on how to contact Masalito by using a molimo. Butch spots the children, and reports back to Blackwood, who tells him to find the girl. Butch steals the Gizmo and impersonates Marty in his communications with Wolfe. Grace and Marty eventually reach the sky house, but when Marty leaves briefly to fetch a pack, Grace faints and knocks herself unconscious; Butch and his men abduct her. Marty calls Masalito with the molimo, and they manage to communicate. Marty realizes Butch has kidnapped Grace. The twins discover that Grace is actually Wolfe's daughter, and Blackwood's granddaughter (Wolfe married Blackwood's daughter and had Marty's parents take care of Grace). Grace, who has had nightmares of various events throughout the story, realizes some of her dreams are actually memories. Wolfe tells Lee that Mokélé-mbembé had killed Grace's mother and tore his leg. Wolfe also becomes suspicious of Marty's communications. As Marty and Masalito search for Grace, Wolfe and Lee spot a note through Bo's video camera feed. They realize that Butch is hunting them, so they ditch their possible tracking devices. Meanwhile, Grace gives first aid to one of Butch's men who was injured by a silverback gorilla. She later drugs their food and tries to escape while the men are sleeping. One of the men stays awake long enough to alert the others to follow her. Marty finds Butch and attacks him. He takes back the Gizmo, and throws Butch's boots into the swamp. He catches up to Grace, and they rush into a tunnel of trees. They find the body of Mokélé-mbembé, which Wolfe directs them to burn. They recover its eggs from a nest, and return to the sky house, however, Blackwood and Butch lie in wait. Marty rushes upstairs; Grace follows but is stopped by Butch, who ties her up and is about to put her into Blackwood's helicopter. Marty has Butch and Blackwood hand over Grace by tossing one of the eggs (actually a fake, a ball with motor oil). Lee and Wolfe arrive at the clearing. With Blackwood's helicopter, they fly home to Cryptos. ===== World War I veteran Waldo Pepper (Robert Redford) feels he has missed out on the glory of aerial combat after being made a flight instructor. After the war, Waldo had taken up barnstorming to make a living. He soon tangles with rival barnstormer (and fellow war veteran) Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson). Antagonistic at first, Waldo and Axel become partners and try out various stunts. One of these stunts, a car-to-aircraft transfer, goes wrong and Waldo is nearly killed after Axel is unable to climb high enough to clear a barn, slamming Waldo into it. Waldo then goes home to Kansas to be with on- again, off-again girlfriend Maude (Margot Kidder) and her family. Maude is not happy to see Waldo at first, as every time he returns from a barnstorming tour of the country, he is injured in some way. Eventually, they make up and become lovers once again. Meanwhile, Maude's brother Ezra (Edward Herrmann), a long- time friend of Waldo's since boyhood, promises to build Waldo a high- performance monoplane as soon as he is well enough to fly it. Waldo's goal is to become the first pilot in history to successfully perform an outside loop, and Ezra feels Waldo can do it with the monoplane. In the meantime, Waldo rejoins Axel. The two eventually get a job flying for a traveling flying circus owned by Doc Dillhoefer (Philip Bruns). However, Dillhoefer's Flying Circus is in a slump, as there is very little attendance at the shows. In an effort to attract bigger crowds, Dillhoefer hires Mary Beth (Susan Sarandon) to act as the show's new sexual attraction, in which she would climb out on the wing of an aircraft in flight wearing shredded clothes, thus allowing the wind to blow them off. But while performing this new stunt for the first time, Mary Beth freezes up on the wing, afraid to return to the cockpit. As Waldo (who did a "plane-to-plane transfer" in flight to climb aboard Mary Beth's aircraft) extends his hand to help Mary Beth back into the cockpit, she slips and falls off the wing to her death. As a result of Mary Beth's death, Waldo, Axel, and Dillhoefer are temporarily grounded by an inspector of the newly formed Air Commerce division of the federal government, Newt Potts (Geoffrey Lewis), a man from Waldo's wartime past. Soon after, at the Muncie Fair, another tragedy occurs with the Dillhoefer Circus when Ezra (flying in place of the grounded Waldo) attempts the outside loop in the monoplane. He crashes on his third attempt, and the crowd rushes out of the stands to see the wreckage. One of the spectators carelessly flicks a cigarette into gas leaking from the aircraft, igniting it. Helpless against the flames, Waldo kills Ezra with a piece of lumber to spare him the agony of being burned alive. Because no one helped Waldo try to save him, Waldo goes on a rampage, jumps in one of Dillhoefer's aircraft and begins buzzing the crowd away from the wreckage. He ends up crashing into a carnival area, which leads to his permanent grounding. Waldo goes to Hollywood where Axel is working as a stuntman, and Waldo and Axel get jobs as stunt pilots in an upcoming film depicting the air battles of the Great War. Axel has been cleared of his grounding and reinstated as a pilot, but Waldo uses an alias so that he can dodge his grounding and fly in the film. Famous German air ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin) has also been hired by the producers as a consultant and to fly a Fokker Dr. I replica in the film. During filming of a famous wartime duel, Waldo in a Sopwith Camel and Kessler in the Fokker—although their aircraft are disarmed—begin dogfighting in deadly earnest, using their aircraft as weapons, repeatedly playing chicken and colliding with each other. Eventually, Waldo damages Kessler's aircraft so badly that it is no longer airworthy, and Kessler surrenders to Waldo. Waldo and Kessler then salute each other and fly their separate ways. ===== The series focuses on two best friends: 10-year-old Annie Redfeather, who is Native American, and 11-year-old Zach Nichols, who is white American. In each episode of the series, one of them commits an act contrary to that day's chosen virtue (loyalty, compassion, courage, moderation, honesty, etc.) and suffers pain as a result (be it physical or moral). They seek counsel of one of Annie's animal friends. These animal friends are four anthropomorphic mountain-dwelling entities who between them possess immense knowledge of legends and literature as well as common sense and a lively sense of fun. They utilize classical works of famous authors, philosophers, poets, as well as fables and myths to communicate the truth of virtue to Zach and Annie. Plato, the oldest, is a scholarly bison; Aurora, the most gentle, is a Red-tailed hawk; Socrates "Soch" is a rambunctious bobcat; and Aristotle "Ari" is a prairie dog who is seldom without his bag of books. These four, whose existence seems a secret from the majority of humans in the town of Spring Valley, advise Annie and Zach patiently and often. The children then proceed to live according to the virtue of the day, completing what they have begun. ===== Drowned Wednesday is the first Trustee among the Morrow Days who is on Arthur's side and wishes the Will to be fulfilled. She appears as a leviathan/whale and suffers from Gluttony. The book begins when Leaf is visiting Arthur and they are discussing the invitation that Drowned Wednesday sent him. Arthur had been admitted to hospital because of the damage done to his leg when he attempted to enter Tuesday's Treasure Tower. Suddenly, the hospital room becomes flooded with water as the two are transported to the Border Sea of the House. Leaf is snatched away by a large ship with green sails, known as the Flying Mantis, while Arthur remains in his bed. When the Medallion given him by the immortal called the Mariner apparently fails to summon help, Arthur is without hope. Eventually, a buoy marking the pirate Elishar Feverfew's treasure floats toward him. As soon as Arthur opens it, his hand is marked with a bloody red color. Arthur now has the Red Hand, by which Feverfew marks whoever has found his treasure, so that he can identify them later. Not long after, a scavenging ship called the Moth rescues Arthur. On board, Arthur (going by the name of Arth) is introduced to Sunscorch, the First Mate, and to Captain Catapillow. Their journey brings them through the Line of Storms and into the Border Sea, where they are later pursued by Feverfew's ghostly ship, the Shiver. The damage inflicted on the Moth is serious; therefore Sunscorch commands an Upper House Sorcerer, Dr. Scamandros, to open a transfer portal to elsewhere in the Secondary Realms. Scamandros claims that Arthur is carrying something that interfered with his magic, and tells Sunscorch to throw him overboard. As a last resort, Arthur shows them the Mariner's Medallion, which stops Scamandros saying that they must get rid of Arthur. After going through the transfer portal (with Arthur's help), the ship is grounded on a beach. When Arthur wished to learn what happened to Leaf, Dr. Scamandros applies his sorcery to make it possible. She is revealed to be aboard the ship Flying Mantis. Arthur joins Catapillow for supper, later to reveal his identity. At first, Propaganda issued by Dame Primus (Arthur's Steward) makes them skeptical of this, but they eventually become convinced. A few days later, Wednesday's Dawn takes Arthur to meet Wednesday for her 'luncheon of seventeen removes'. As they approach, Wednesday shrinks into her human form to meet Arthur. During their lunch, Wednesday tells Arthur that after Part 3 of the Will has been released, she will surrender the Third Key to Arthur. Arthur is then taken by Wednesday's Dawn to a place called the triangle in search of his friend Leaf. He learns that Leaf has been forced to work on the Mantis, but is otherwise intact. Arthur later makes a deal with the Raised Rats, a group of anthropomorphic rats brought to the House by the Piper, to take him to Feverfew's hideout, which they believe is inside a miniature world located within Drowned Wednesday's stomach. On the Raised Rats' ship, Arthur opens a gift from Dr. Scamandros, which proves to be a golden transfer watch. With this, he communicates with and rescues Dr. Scamandros. He then uses a scrying mirror Dr. Scamandros gave him to watch Leaf. A rat watches him during the scry, and later saves him from a battle with Feverfew. Later, the Rats bring Arthur onto their submarine, where he meets with Suzy Turquiose Blue. In contrast to Suzy's former cockney attitude, she has assumed a more "ladylike and proper" demeanor on the orders of Dame Primus. Only when they are no longer on the Border Sea, but under it, does she resume her customary ways of speech and dress. They are, with navigational difficulty, able to enter the stomach of Lady Wednesday and the worldlet therein. There, Arthur and Suzy, disguised as rats, find escaped slaves, professed followers of the Carp. These exiles take them to the Carp, who is the third part of the Will. They are halted in their attempt to escape by Feverfew, who proposes that each of them will try to kill the other by means of one strike only. Arthur fails his first try, then dodges Feverfew and severs his head. Leaf, who is Feverfew's prisoner, then kicks it into a mud puddle containing Nothing, which consumes it. Upon his death, the worldlet begins to collapse. Via the Moth, Arthur and all his friends (with the exception of the reluctant Catapillow) are able to escape. Lady Wednesday recovers from her gluttony, then dies as a result of being poisoned by the worldlet, which had opened a void to Nothing. Arthur, now Duke of the Border Sea, appoints Sunscorch as his Noon and Scamandros as his Dusk. ===== Tom Ward has lived his whole life in the county (loosely based on the English county of Lancashire). Because he is the seventh son of a seventh son and thus has the ability to see ghosts and fight other supernatural beings, his parents have apprenticed him to the Spook, a cloaked man named John Gregory. The Spook travels the County fighting troublesome creatures such as boggarts, ghosts, ghasts and witches for the people who need these things gone. Tom will have to learn how the Spook fights "The Dark", so that he may one day become a Spook as well. The Spook tells Tom that most of his other apprentices have failed due to them being cowardly, disobedient, or deceased. It is revealed that one of the deceased was Billy Bradley, who had his finger bitten off and died from loss of blood while fighting a particularly dangerous boggart . Tom goes to live in the Spook's house in Chipenden. This house is protected from unwanted visitors by a boggart, with whom the Spook has made a contract which states that as long as the house is standing, the boggart must guard it (as well as cook and clean for the Spook and his apprentices). Tom is sent out on an errand to pick up some food for the house. He is given a strict warning by the Spook: Do not talk to women wearing pointy shoes. On his way home, some boys about the same age as Tom threaten to beat him unless he gives them some food. Tom refuses and the boys are about to beat him when suddenly a girl in pointy shoes shows up and scares them away by telling them a certain person is back. The mysterious girl's name is Alice, and she is a relative of some of the most dangerous witches in the county: Mother Malkin and Bony Lizzie. ===== The play is divided into eight scenes. * Scene 1: In the firemen's forecastle of a cruise ship that has just sailed from New York for a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Off-duty men are talking and singing drunkenly. Yank, portrayed as a leader among the men, is confident in his strength to fuel the machinery of the ship and the world. He shows particular contempt toward two other firemen: Long, an Englishman with socialist leanings, and Paddy, an old Irishman who reflects wistfully on the days of wind-powered sailing ships. * Scene 2: Mildred Douglas (a steel tycoon's daughter) and her aunt are talking above deck on the ship whilst sunbathing. They argue over Mildred's desire to do social work, ending only when two officers come to escort her below decks for her planned visit to the ship's stokehole. Her aunt does not understand why Mildred desires to help the poor. She ends up going below deck regardless. * Scene 3: In the stokehole, Yank and the other firemen take pride in their daily work. Yank does not notice Mildred when she enters, and instead shouts threats toward the unseen engineer ordering the men to keep coaling the engines. The men stop to turn when she enters. Confused as to why they have stopped working, he turns to see Mildred; she is so shocked by his attitude and appearance that she calls him a filthy beast and faints. * Scene 4: In the firemen's forecastle yet again. Yank is mulling over the incident in the stokehole. The other men try to understand his fury by questioning him and asking if he is in love. Yank is infuriated at Mildred for claiming that he resembles a hairy ape. He becomes enraged and tries to charge after Mildred in revenge. However, his men wrestle him to the ground before he can even reach the door. * Scene 5: Three weeks later, on Fifth Avenue in New York, the ship has returned from its cruise. Yank and Long argue over how best to attack the upper class while admiring how clean the city is. Still obsessing with avenging himself against Mildred, Yank rudely accosts several churchgoers that come out into the streets as Long flees the scene. Yank punches a gentleman in the face and is arrested shortly thereafter. * Scene 6: The following night at the prison on Blackwell's Island, Yank has begun serving a 30-day sentence. Seeing the prison as a zoo, he tells the other inmates of how he wound up there. One of them tells him about the Industrial Workers of the World and suggests that he think about joining. Enraged by the thought of Mildred and her father again, Yank starts to bend the bars of his cell in an attempt to escape, but the guards retaliate in force. * Scene 7: A month later, Yank visits the local IWW office upon his release from prison and joins the group. The local members are happy to have him in their ranks at first because not many ship's firemen have joined. However, when he expresses his desire to blow up the Steel Trust, they suspect him of working for the government and throw him out. In the streets, Yank comes in contact with a policeman, who shows no interest in arresting him and tells him to move along. * Scene 8: The following evening, Yank visits the zoo. He sympathizes with a gorilla, thinking they are one and the same. He releases the animal from his cage and approaches it to introduce himself as if they were friends. The gorilla attacks Yank, fatally crushing his ribs, and throws Yank into the cage where he dies. ===== A rich novelist, Stephen Byrne, who lives and works by a river, accidentally kills his attractive maid after she begins screaming when he makes a drunken pass. The writer manipulates his brother, John, who is physically impaired with a limp, to help him dispose of the body. Making use of a sack, which is shared between the two men's households for loading and transporting firewood, they stuff the maid inside and dump her into the river. Days later, the sack and body float up and past Stephen's house. He goes onto the water and desperately tries to retrieve it, but fails. The police recover the bundle and, because John's initials have been stenciled on the sack, it is all traceable to him. An inquest is held and, to Stephen's great pleasure, a cloud of suspicion hangs over John, who is tortured by his role in the situation and contemplates suicide. He and Stephen's wife, Marjorie, harbor feelings for each other. Stephen, meanwhile, has used the maid's disappearance and death as publicity for his books. Looking to reap great financial gain, he begins writing a novel specifically about the crime; in it he implicates himself. The circumstances are resolved after Stephen resorts to deliberate attempts at murder. ===== Isobel's ghost wanders around lost, in a playground. "Is my house but is not my house is my street but is not my street my people is gone I am lost." (Thompson, Lion in the Streets, line 11-13)Worthen, W. B. (2010). Wadsworth Anthology of Drama 6th edition. Wadsworth publishing. Page 1580 A women named Sue comes to her rescue from other kids picking on her. Before Isobel follows Sue home she sees her father, and recalls that he is dead. After Sue's son Tommy makes some depressing comments, Isobel follows Sue on to a dinner party with her husband. Sue calls him to come home and find out he's been having an affair with a woman at the party. Isobel realizes Sue's inability to care for her and calls to the audience for someone to take her home. Isobel stays with Laura, the dinner party hostess, and witnesses a flashback to when Isobel's mother, Maria, found out about Isobel's father's suicide. As Maria tells of her vision of her husband dying, Isobel dramatically acts out her father falling onto the train tracks. As Laura goes on to a day care meeting, she gets into a heated conversation with Rhonda, the child care provider. After all the drama, Isobel points her finger at each member of the meeting and "shoots" them individually, though real shots are heard. Isobel clings to Rhonda's feet as they move onto the next scene, where Rhonda meats a friend, Joanne, at a bar. Joanne shares that she has cancer, and asks Rhonda to help her plan out an Ophelia-like suicide. As they leave the bar, Isobel realizes her purgatorial state and that she wants to go to heaven. She follows the bartender, David, to confession with his childhood priest. At confession, David realizes he is also long dead. In Act Two, Isobel starts looking to protect rather than be protected. It begins with Isobel in a playground again, warning the people around that the Lion in the Streets is coming. She follows Christine from the park to an interview with a young women with cerebral palsy named Scarlet. Scarlet shares a private topic but is betrayed by Christine, who threatens to publish it. Scarlet begins to provoke Christine, who then attacks and kills Scarlet. Isobel calls Christine a "slave" of the Lion, and follows her to the next scene, where she hopes to find the Lion. Christine's assistant, Rodney, has an unpleasant conversation with her and then receives an unexpected visit from an old friend. The friend, Michael, alludes to their youthful sexual experimentation and accuses Rodney of being queer. They fight, and Rodney "kills" Michael. After Michael leaves, Rodney has a monologue about his interactions with Michael growing up. Sherry, his coworker, bursts in, tries to calm him down, and gives him some chocolate before she goes home. Isobel watches a conversation between Sherry and her boyfriend quickly escalate into a fight where he makes her relive a rape that happened to her years before. He makes her say that it was her fault, to satisfy his own fantasies. The scene ends with Sherry continuing to talk about preparing for their wedding. Sherry and Isobel then walk over to the graveyard where Ben, Isobel's murderer, (a.k.a. the Lion) is sitting. Sherry lays down at her grave, and as Ben continues to tell his story of justification of why he killed Isobel, she confronts him. She tells her part of the story and has an internal battle between vengeance and forgiveness. Forgiveness wins: she tells Ben "I love you" and asks him for her life back. Now appearing as an adult, Isobel tells the audience that though he took her heart, her heart was never silent, and she urges the audience to take back their lives. ===== ===== An archeologist named Dr. Condor discovers the coffin of a demon in ancient ruins. During a press conference announcing his discovery, he decides to open the coffin for the first time, only to be transported into another world alongside a reporter named Labryna and another archeologist named Zorlock. The three heroes must now fight their way out of the Devil World in order to defeat the evil Demon King who is keeping them trapped and return to the human world. ===== In 1924, Jeremy Hartwood, a noted artist and owner of the Louisiana mansion Derceto (named after the Syrian deity), has committed suicide by hanging himself. His death appears suspicious yet seems to surprise nobody, for Derceto is widely reputed to be haunted by an evil power. The case is quickly dealt with by the police and soon forgotten by the public. The player assumes the role of either Edward Carnby—a private investigator who is sent to find a piano in the loft for an antique dealer—or Emily Hartwood, Jeremy's niece, who is also interested in finding the piano because she believes a secret drawer in it has a note in which Jeremy explains his suicide. Whether Carnby or Hartwood, the character goes to the mansion to investigate. A monster watches the character approaching the house from the open window. Upon entering the house, the doors mysteriously slam shut behind the player character. He or she continues up to the attic, but is attacked by monsters. The player character progresses back down through the house, fighting off various creatures and hazards. The player character finds documents throughout the house indicating that Derceto was built by an occultist pirate named Ezechiel Pregzt, and that beneath the house are caverns that were used for dark rituals meant to increase Pregzt's fortunes and unnaturally extend his life. Pregzt was shot and Derceto was burned down by encamped Union soldiers during the American Civil War. However, Pregzt's spirit lived on, and his corpse was placed by his servants in an old tree in the caverns underneath Derceto. Jeremy Hartwood committed suicide to prevent his body being used as a host for Pregzt; so Pregzt now focuses on the player character. If the player character is incapacitated, their body is subsequently dragged to a sacrificial area and possessed by Pregzt, whereupon the game ends with an image of supernatural horrors being unleashed from the house into the world at large. The player character finds a passage into the caverns in Hartwood's study, and makes his or her way to the tree where Pregzt resides. The player character hurls a lighted lantern at the tree, then flees the collapsing cavern. Pregzt is consumed by the flames, and the house is purged of supernatural creatures and other effects caused by his influence. The player can finally open the front doors and leave the house, which is also now completely safe to explore (except for physical hazards such as falling to one's death through chasms or rotten floorboards, and two magical books in the library which remain lethal to read without certain precautions). The driver is outside to take the character home; however, the driver is revealed to be a zombie. The zombie then drives the car back to civilization. The story is heavily influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. The setting for the story is inspired by Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". Grimoires found in the mansion's library include the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis, both taken from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Other Mythos references include books that feature the narrated history of Lord Boleskine, a direct reference to another Infogrames Cthulhu Mythos-based game, Shadow of the Comet, and the last name of player character Edward Carnby, a reference to John Carnby, a character in the mythos tale The Return of the Sorcerer by Clark Ashton Smith. Several of the supernatural opponents are recognizable creatures from the Mythos, including Deep Ones, Nightgaunts and a Chthonian. ===== John McClane decides to visit his wife Holly in Nakatomi Plaza, only to discover that she is taken hostage on the 30th floor, along with a number of other hostages. The terrorist leader, Hans Gruber, is after the money locked away in a safe on the 30th floor. His hacker, Theo, is slowly breaking the locks into the vault. McClane decides to fight the terrorists on his own, ascending the building as he does so. ===== A fictional Apollo 19 mission suffers a major system failure, forcing its crew to strike out on their own. ===== In February 1975, Apollo 19 lands near the Aitken Basin near the lunar south pole (called "Marlow" in the novel) following a discovery of a vast quantity of water ice at that location. (Observation data from the 1994 unmanned spacecraft Clementine has indicated the existence of subsurface water ice mixed with lunar soil, as confirmed by Lunar Prospector and subsequent missions, but exposed water ice on the Moon's surface has not been recognized by the scientific community.) There the crew tests an experimental heavy Lunar rover, launched to their location earlier by a Saturn 1B and delivered to the Moon using a stand-alone Apollo Lunar Module descent stage called the "LM Truck." (Both of these vehicles might have been actually used on the Moon, according to Johnson, had not Project Apollo been cut short.) All goes well until the astronauts are ready to lift off to return to the orbiting Apollo CSM. Unfortunately, their LM ascent engine fails to fire. Repeated attempts to restart that engine—the only part of the LM system without a backup—all end in failure. Finding themselves stranded, the mission commander and LM pilot say goodbye to their wives. The commander peremptorily orders his CM pilot, in orbit around the Moon, to return home. He and the LM pilot then abandon the LM and strike out on their own, driving their rover to the limit of its remaining driving range "to see what we can see." In their last message to Earth, they ask their colleague and Capsule Communicator to help their returning crewmate understand that he must not blame himself for their deaths. Before their oxygen runs out entirely, they find a vast and incredible Out-of-place artifact that might save their lives - or kill them. It is an ancient, abandoned, but fully functioning Lunar base - which they find immediately before the last seconds of their air run out. The base contains technology far beyond the reach of human science and engineering, best exemplified in the "war room" that they find immediately upon entry. This leads the two men to argue whether extrasolar visitors built it. LM Pilot Charlie Shepherd, a fundamentalist Christian, refuses to admit the possibility, because the Bible contains no warrant for it. Both men agree, however, that whoever the base builders are (or were) would be able to conquer Earth easily, had they chosen to attack—though why they never did attack remains a mystery. The two men soon find EVA suits that are one-third again as tall as human EVA suits are. Shortly thereafter, they find many members of the base crew—dead of various acts of violence, and in at least one case, a suicide. The suicide's living quarters contains multiple artworks depicting various scenes of torture, indicating that the base builders were a thoroughly evil people whose mania for causing suffering is incomprehensible. Subsequently, Mission Commander Gary Lucas vanishes into an apparent journey into the past—specifically to the builders' home world. His friend, left on the base, searches it in vain for his friend, not realizing that his friend has entered a machine that can simulate events stored in its historical memory, based on input from a base-wide and planet-wide surveillance system. Shepherd finds a means of sustenance, and then finds a hangar—which turns out to be empty. Angered and desperate, Shepherd activates all the base' systems in the war room, except for one system that refuses to activate. In the process, he activates the base computer system, which regards him as non-human and starts broadcasting a distress signal to Earth. That signal will turn out to be the salvation of the two astronauts—because Congress, on the point of cancelling Project Apollo completely, reverses itself and authorizes Apollo 20 in direct response to the signal, which clearly is coming "from the Marlow Basin". They cannot read the message, but—at least subconsciously—they realize that its activation after the men of Apollo 19 were supposed to have died cannot be coincidental. Gary Lucas has many perilous adventures in the "home world" simulation, which he accepts as entirely real. They begin with his rescue of a woman being assaulted, and continue with his capture by men bent on offering him as a human sacrifice and by his rescue by the woman's husband and brother-in-law. In gratitude, Lucas offers to join the workforce that is now applying the finishing touches to a vast granary that his hosts have been building and stocking. Meanwhile, Shepherd tries again to activate the last war-room system—and realizes, too late, that he has in fact started a self- destruct sequence. One by one, various base systems—gravity, climate control, and ultimately the food dispensary—begin to shut down. Lucas is injured during the storehouse construction project and, after the householders have an apparent argument concerning him, is given a sedative. He awakes to find himself in an empty house and steps outside in time to hear the roar of an onrushing wall of water, which lifts the storehouse off its foundations (incredibly, without damaging it) and threatens to sweep Lucas to his death. But then Lucas finds himself back on the base, in time to watch its crew destroy one another in mutiny, mayhem, murder, human sacrifice, and the eventual suicide of the base commander, who is the crew's last survivor. Following this, Lucas experiences an attack of vertigo. In fact the simulator machine has run its program, sounds three piercing alarm tones, and ejects him into the waiting arms of Shepherd just as the crew of Apollo 20 arrive to rescue them. That rescue is just in time—because after Apollo 20 completes trans-Earth injection, the self-destruct sequence runs its course, and the base destroys itself, apparently in a thermonuclear detonation. Back on Earth, the mission commander studies the Bible—and realizes that he actually witnessed the Noachic Flood and even ate at Noah's table. Also, the base builders never attacked Earth, because they were from Earth originally—from Antediluvian Earth. He and Shepherd further realize that God has entrusted him with a warning, which he must convey to anyone who will listen. The novel ends when it shifts to somewhere on the surface of Mars, where another base similar to the one found on the Moon, ominously activates by itself. ===== In 1936, Madariaga is an 80-year-old patriarch of a large Argentinian cattle ranch. He has two grandsons – Julio, son of the French son-in-law Marcelo, and Heinrich, son of the German Karl. Heinrich returns home from studying in Germany to reveal he has become a Nazi. Madariaga slaps Heinrich and predicts that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest, War, Pestilence, and Death) will soon devastate the earth; he runs outside into a storm with visions of the four horsemen and then dies in Julio's arms. In 1938 Julio goes to Paris with his family and befriends Marcelo's anti-Nazi friend Etienne Laurier. Julio falls in love with Laurier's wife, Marguerite, and becomes her lover after war breaks out and Laurier is sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. He takes advantage of his status as a neutral to live a pleasant life with Marguerite in German-occupied Paris where his cousin Heinrich is an important official in the SS. When Marguerite becomes the object of German General von Kleig's lust, Julio defies him and incurs von Kleig's personal enmity. Julio's younger sister Chi Chi becomes active in the French resistance, troubling Julio about his own lack of character. Laurier is released from prison an apparently broken man and Marguerite leaves Julio to care for him. When Julio discovers that Laurier is an important figure in the resistance, he joins it as well. Eventually both Chi Chi and Laurier are tortured and murdered by the Gestapo, and Laurier reveals to von Kleig that Julio is working for the resistance and on an important mission: guiding Allied bombers to destroy a Nazi headquarters in Normandy. Heinrich captures him when he realizes Julio is probably a French agent, but too late: just as the bombs are falling on them, killing both. The final scene – the most important scene in the film – is missing from several versions shown. In it, the grandchildren's parents are listening helplessly on the telephone as the deaths happen. The final words are from one set of parents to another: "Our children have killed each other". In other prints, the film ends with the four horsemen riding on to create future havoc for other generations. ===== The main character, Ronan Chantry, who is of Irish ancestry, is going into the West away from his troubles. Chantry's wife and son are dead, burned to death in the fire that consumed his home, for which he is blamed. He takes with him a Ferguson Rifle, given to him by Major Ferguson himself. He meets up with an outfit of trappers after crossing the Mississippi River. Although never stated directly, Chantry quickly becomes the leader of the group. Main members of the group are an Irishman, Davy Shanagan, and Solomon, who by the end of the book is revealed to be very well known throughout the wilderness. Early on the outfit's journey west, they encounter the Spanish Captain Fernandez accompanied by Ute Indians. The Captain attempts to arrest the outfit for trespassing on Spanish colonies. The outfit informs him that the land was bought under the Louisiana Purchase. That night it is believed that Captain Fernandez attacks them but fails with two Utes being killed. The outfit presses on. Another night Chantry hears gunshots ring out in the distance after being awakened by a wolf who was trying to steal bacon. The next morning Chantry discovers the dead body of a man in a Mexican uniform. He searches the body and recovers a medallion. Chantry and Walks-by-Night back-track him and come to the realization that he was with a woman and boy and they had been chased and he had been killed. Chantry goes off by himself and encounters the girl and the boy. ===== The player assumes the role of James Chase, an American who has volunteered to serve as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force starting in May 1940. After displaying above-average skill and bravery during the evacuations at Dunkirk, he is transferred to the Battlehawks; a special unit in the RAF that operates under Prime Minister Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive. The Battle of Britain, North Africa, China, the Battle of Midway, the Eastern Front, Norway, and Germany are all featured in one or more missions. The final mission of the campaign is on June 6, 1944, with the Battlehawks flying air support as Operation Overlord begins. The overall goal of the Battlehawks throughout the campaign is to "halt the most insidious plans of the Third Reich." The player's principal opponent is the Luftwaffe, in particular the Battlehawk's counterpart, the elite squadron of top German pilots known as Nemesis (similar to the real KG 200), commanded by Oberst Krieger. The player will also face off against the forces of the Japanese Empire. ===== Captain Pausert is a well-intentioned but inexperienced merchant traveler from the planet Nikkeldepain, voyaging solo on the old pirate chaser Venture. While on the planet Porlumma, the captain is moved by sympathy to purchase three young sisters – Maleen (about 14 years old), Goth (9 or 10), and the Leewit (5 or 6) – who had been enslaved while visiting another planet on a jaunt of their own. In getting clear of Porlumma, the Venture escapes pursuit when the girls desperately use what they call the Sheewash Drive, which enables far faster transit than is possible with primary or secondary space drives available either in or outside the Empire. The girls reveal that they are witches from the planet Karres, with klatha (psionic) powers. The girls’ powers, but especially the possibility of this incredibly fast drive, draw the unwelcome attention of planets and ships they pass. After taking the three sisters to their homeworld of Karres, the captain attempts to return to his home planet but is stunned when faced with a barrage of criminal charges, many relating to his encounter with the witches and his brief stay on the prohibited planet of Karres; in addition, the planetary government avidly want the suspected new space drive. Captain Pausert escapes the Nikkeldepain police and military with the help of the middle sister, Goth, who had stowed away on the ship. The two head for the planet Uldune, formerly a pirate stronghold but now a place to buy anything, where they rebuild the ship and assume new identities in preparation for starting a trading business. The captain also finds himself developing minor klatha powers. The pair run afoul of both the planetary government and the Imperium, including industrial espionage and even kidnapping. Finally the newly renamed Evening Bird lifts off for the planet Emris via a shorter but far more dangerous route through an area of space called the Chaladoor. Aboard are the captain, Goth, a hired ship-hand named Vezzarn, two paying passengers, the passengers’ cargo, and a mystery: the ruler of Uldune, believing that the captain and the girl are both witches, asks them to also transport a frightening rocky mass and the catatonic witch found with it. All is not as it seems aboard the Evening Bird. Vezzarn and one of the passengers, Hulik do Eldel, are spying and creeping around the ship in an attempt to locate the Drive. Unfortunately, Vezzarn uncovers the mystery mass, thereby attracting ominous yellow tendrils of insanity called Worm Weather. The captain is having increasingly odd interactions with an immensely powerful alien presence called a vatch, which seems to be manipulating events and watching with glee. Then the second passenger, Laes Yango, drugs everyone on board and redirects the ship for his purposes: he is actually the leader of a feared fleet of space pirates in the Chaladoor, and he is also after the Sheewash Drive. When the Worm Weather attacks, the vatch decides to interfere and they are able to land the ship on a seemingly deserted red planet. The captain, Goth, Vezzarn, and Hulik defeat Yango and his murderous giant spider-robot before taking off once again for space. The vatch is delighted in the captain’s cleverness, and sends him on the next leg of what it calls a game. As a ghost-like projection, the captain is sent to talk to Cheel, the leader-in-hiding of an enormous interdimensional space ship that has been taken over by its insane computer. The captain learns that the computer wants to conquer all known space, using the Worms as its advance guard, and their only salvation is that mystery mass. The group is reunited when the vatch transports them all to Karres, but 50,000 years in the past. The captain continues to refine his klatha powers, including how to grab and manipulate small amounts of the vatch’s black energy. When the Leewit shows up – thrown through space and time by the vatch – Goth and the captain learn that the witches of Karres have attacked the Worm World. The two girls and the captain are transported by the vatch to the mad computer’s temple/throne room. There they use their witch powers to destroy the computer and its machine minions. Cheel then emerges to retake the Worm World space ship using the mystery mass, but he has no intention of returning to his home dimension and instead proclaims his intent to conquer all. The vatch is elated by the trick, until the captain hooks and manipulates its energy in order to send the former Worm World back to its own dimension, send himself and the witches back to his ship, and send the ship to its rightful time and place. They arrive on the planet Emris in time to rejoice about the victory with the young witches’ parents. Testing shows that the captain does indeed possess klatha powers: two rare talents for now, with a strong overall capacity for future development. The witches’ father recruits the captain as a special courier for the Empress, with the understanding that Goth accompany him because the witches have foreseen it. The captain and Goth are only hours into their first courier mission when Vezzarn and Hulik enter the control room, admitting that they stowed away and asking to join his crew. When the Leewit suddenly appears – once again thrown through space but by an unknown force this time – the captain can only mutter, “here we go again!” ===== Princess Holiday takes place in a medieval town near a kingdom. After travelling as a bard for three years, returns to his hometown Symphonia Kingdom, where his kind and gentle younger sister lives. Shilphy is a probationary sister at a church run by her parents, and she handles the church alone because her parents are away on propagation. She also teaches children in the slums and they like her very much. By chance, Cliff happens to meet the kingdom's princess , who is also the main heroine of Princess Holiday. She is running away from her home, and needs to accustom to the outside world; this is difficult due to her naive personality. To help conceal her true identity, Leticia gives the false name to people who don't know she is a princess. She starts to work at the Korogaru Ringotei pub. Cliff and Shilphy have a childhood friend called , she is a knight who guards Leticia. Eleanor is good at swordsmanship and she regrets that Cliff abandoned the skill. Being the daughter of a dressmaker, she is also good at sewing. is the main attraction at the Korogaru Ringotei pub. She acts as an older sister to Cliff, Shilphy and Eleanor, and she is a favorite with regular customers. As Rachel hates the monarchy and the nobility, Leticia keeps her status secret from Rachel. One of the regular customers at Korogaru Ringotei includes , who wears a mantle and a hat and lives near the lake. She has been seen flying on a broom and is known as the "Witch beside the Lake". Lapis has extensive knowledge of many things but knows little of love. is a daughter of Prime Minister Eryngii. At a ball, she falls in love with Cliff at first sight. Later, she works at Korogaru Ringotei with Leticia. Though she was a very minor character in the original PC version, she was popular with fans, so her scenario was added in the console versions. ===== ===== Daryl Zero is the world's greatest detective, but is also a socially maladroit misanthrope. Among his quirks is that he never meets or has direct contact with his clients, instead conducting business through his assistant, Steve Arlo. Throughout the movie, Zero provides narration as he reads lines from his proposed autobiography. Zero and Arlo are hired by Portland area millionaire Gregory Stark. Stark has lost the key to a safe deposit box and is being blackmailed by an unknown person who forces him to follow elaborate instructions to deliver the cash payments. Zero quickly discovers that the blackmailer is Gloria Sullivan, an EMT with a mysterious past. Zero becomes attracted to Gloria and they sleep together, compromising his trademark objectivity. He lets his guard down and tells her that his abusive father killed his mother and himself. Stark pressures Arlo to reveal the blackmailer's identity so that he can have that person killed. Arlo must also deal with Zero's absurd demands on his time, which increasingly interfere with Arlo's relationship with his girlfriend Jess. Zero eventually discovers that Stark had raped Gloria's mother after she broke up with him. She later blackmailed Stark with the threat of exposing him as a rapist, so he had her killed. However, she had already given birth to their daughter Gloria, who was discovered and raised by the hitman who killed her mother. Gloria grew up knowing that Stark was behind her mother's murder, and when her adoptive father contracted a terminal illness, she used the information to pay for medical treatment. At the meeting to deliver the final blackmail payment, Stark collapses from a heart attack and Gloria is compelled to save his life. She then flees the country with Zero's assistance. ===== Sally Cambridge is the divorced mother of two sons, 16-year-old Jack and 9-year-old Leo. As the film opens, she is arrested on suspicion of child abuse, and during questioning, she reveals the story of what actually happened, told via flashback. One evening, a call to Jack's basketball coach reveals that he has been given a two-week suspension from the team due to poor grades, which Jack did not tell her. Compounded with the fact that he stayed out past curfew that night, Sally attempts to talk to Jack about his problems, but he angrily orders her out of his bedroom, slightly shoving her in the process. A short time later, while hanging out with his friend Luke, Jack is arrested for shoplifting at the local mall, and when Sally attempts to question him afterwards, he again becomes furious and smashes a glass. She later tries to ask Jack what caused this outburst, but he tells her he doesn't know and tearfully apologizes. Not long afterwards, Sally goes on a date with a colleague named Frank, who is also divorced. While Leo warms up to him immediately, Jack is outright rude when Frank arrives to pick Sally up, and when she reprimands Jack for his behavior, he shouts at her and then pushes her aside. Later that night, Jack receives a phone call from Luke, and although entrusted with watching his little brother, he leaves Leo alone to go to a party. Furious, Sally grounds Jack for a month and takes the phone to call Luke's mother. A confrontation ensues, which soon turns physical, and when Sally slaps Jack in retaliation, he attempts to punch her, but she ducks and he ends up putting his hand through a window, cutting his arm in the process. A couple of nights later, Sally has Frank over for dinner, but Jack is once again rude, and when Sally tries to talk to him afterwards, it escalates into another physical confrontation, which is cut short by a visit from the police. Both Sally and Jack claim that nothing's wrong, which satisfies them, but the next day sees Leo discovering Gus, the family cat, with a broken leg. After he and Sally return home from the vet, she finds Jack crying in his room, apologizing over and over. Realizing her son has a problem, Sally seeks advice at a women's shelter, where a counselor suggests she take out an order of protection against Jack. Though she goes to the police station, Sally changes her mind and instead goes to her ex-husband Brad's office and attempts to explain what happened the night of Jack's "accident", but Brad blames her for not having control over the situation, and takes custody of the boys. While at Brad's, an argument ensues between Leo and his stepmother Marcia, with Leo taking an angry tone not unlike Jack's. Later that night, Jack decides to go back home and apologize to his mother, but is greeted upon his arrival by the sight of his mother in an embrace with Frank, which sets off another physical confrontation between Jack and Sally. Having followed his brother there, Leo attempts to stop Jack, but gets pushed in the struggle and inadvertently strikes his head as he falls to the floor. After Sally's arrest, she is brought to the hospital to see Leo, where Jack and Brad are waiting; realizing the charges his mother faces, Jack finally owns up to his misdeeds, confessing to the accompanying officers and his father that he was the one responsible for everything. As a result, Sally is released and Jack gets arrested for assault. Although the prosecutor is unwilling to drop the charges against Jack, an offer is made to defer them if Sally and Brad file an at-risk youth petition, which mandates that Jack be placed in a treatment program, during which time he will also be put in temporary foster care, and that his parents undergo individual counseling. Afterwards, Brad takes responsibility for his own anger issues, which Sally points out that their sons have picked up on, and informs him they need to work together to get Jack the help he needs. During his group counseling sessions, Jack comes to understand that his violent outbursts were learned behavior, rooted in the verbal abuse his father often dealt towards his mother, while Sally's individual sessions gives her the opportunity to acknowledge her own father's verbally abusive behavior toward her mother, as well as her own tendency to back down on enforcing discipline in an effort to avoid a verbal showdown, and what she perceives as having failed at her marriage. However, her therapist points out that Sally did not fail at her marriage; she simply couldn't tolerate the verbal abuse from Brad, and getting out of it was the best thing she could have done. After returning home, Jack admits to his mother about having felt relief when Brad left and knowing she felt the same, while Sally acknowledges she had no idea how to make Brad stop behaving the way he did towards her, and Jack adds that he didn't either. The two then embrace, with Jack apologizing to Sally as she assures him that things are going to be OK and they're both getting the help they need. ===== The film and book tell the story of Eddie (David Wenham), a principled man with a seemingly stable and happy life. He has a wife, the academic Tanya (Frances O'Connor), a daughter, Abby (Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik), is paying off a house and has a job as a government land assessor. Yet when the forces of economic and social change threaten this, he realises just how fragile his reality and security is. After losing his job, he checks his bank balance and realises he has only the 'three dollars' of the title to his name. Eddie's life also becomes entwined with that of childhood friend Amanda (Sarah Wynter), whom he unfailingly runs into every nine-and-a-half years, and every time he has just three dollars. The novel and film are set largely in Melbourne, at a time when the policies of economic liberalisation were gaining credence in Australian politics and were arguably affecting many lives similarly to Eddie and Tanya. They explore the choices we make between what we have and what might be. ===== In 2057, the Sun is dying and Earth is freezing. Eight international astronauts pilot a colossal stellar bomb aboard the spaceship Icarus II, with the intent to jump-start the Sun, and return to Earth. As they slingshot past Mercury, Icarus II discovers the distress beacon of Icarus I, the first ship to attempt a similar mission, which disappeared seven years earlier. Reasoning that two payloads have a better chance of success than one, physicist Capa recommends Captain Kaneda change course and commandeer Icarus I. Mace, the ship's engineer, opposes the deviation as risky. Navigator Trey calculates and implements a trajectory to intercept Icarus I, but forgets to realign the shields that protect the ship from the sun, causing damage to four shield panels. Kaneda and Capa embark on a spacewalk to make repairs, assisted by pilot Cassie, who angles the damaged portion of the shield away from the Sun. As expected, this allows the Sun to destroy the protruding communications tower; however, reflected light also destroys the ship's oxygen garden and oxygen reserves. As Icarus IIs autopilot returns the shield to its original alignment, Kaneda orders Capa to safety, and Kaneda repairs the last panel, moments before he is immolated. Trey blames himself for the loss of Kaneda, and psychiatrist Searle assesses him as a suicide risk, sedating him. Icarus II docks with Icarus I. Capa, Searle, Mace, and former communications officer now-Captain Harvey search the vessel, leaving Cassie and botanist Corazon on board Icarus II. They discover Icarus Is mainframe has been sabotaged, making its bomb delivery impossible. In the ship's log is a rambling message from Captain Pinbacker, who abandoned his mission. The crew of Icarus I is found charred to death in the solar observation room, where they were long ago exposed to the unshielded Sun. Suddenly, the two ships explosively decouple, destroying Icarus Is outer airlock, stranding the four crew members on it. With only one spacesuit, Mace suggests that Capa wear it and the rest of them wrap themselves in salvaged insulation material and then jettison between airlocks, using the vacuum release for propulsion. Searle then points out that one of them must stay behind to manually operate the airlock and volunteers to do it. Searle releases the airlock and the three crew members rocket into space. Harvey misses the airlock and freezes to death, while Capa and Mace make it back to Icarus II. Searle, having spent the mission obsessed with looking into the shielded sun, voluntarily exposes himself to its full, deadly force in the observation room. Corazon calculates that there is enough oxygen left for four of the five survivors to reach the Sun. After a contentious vote, Mace decides to kill Trey, but discovers Trey has already committed suicide. With the remaining crew somewhat relieved that they will now at least make the trip to the Sun, Capa is informed by Icarus that there is still not enough oxygen to complete the mission, because an unknown fifth person is on board the ship. When Capa investigates, he discovers an insane and disfigured Pinbacker. Pinbacker attacks and wounds Capa and locks him in an airlock. He then kills Corazon and removes the mainframe from its coolant bath, shutting down the computer. He then pursues Cassie. Mace attempts to manually lower the computer back into the freezing coolant, but when his leg catches on the descending computer he becomes trapped, and the computer is disabled. As he freezes to death, he begs Capa to complete the mission. Capa blows the airlock, separates the bomb from the ship, which explodes, and enters the payload, where he finds Cassie. Pinbacker ambushes them, telling them God ordered him to send all humanity to Heaven. As they hurtle into the Sun, Capa escapes Pinbacker, reaching the bomb controls. Unsure if it will work under these extreme conditions, he watches as the bomb begins to successfully ignite at the edge of the Sun itself. As time and space distort, Capa blissfully reaches out and touches the surface of the Sun. Back on the frozen Sydney Harbour, Capa's sister witnesses the Sun returning to its full power. ===== The film begins at Thanksgiving, with five-year-old Danny (Cory Buck)ringing a distinctive doorbell,labeled "Swan". He is with his military doctor father visiting the house of his late mother's dearest friend, Grace (Brenda Blethyn), and her family. Grace is expecting her fourth baby soon, and goes into labor later that day. The baby won't wait for the hospital, and so Danny's Doctor father is delivering the baby on the couch in the den. but the umbilical is snagged and, as he's been enjoying Thanksgiving wine all day, he fears he may not be sober enough to reach in and untangle the cord. Danny had been hiding in a corner but now is curious and his Dad spots him and asks him to use his smaller hands to unwrap the umbilical cord from the baby's neck to allow it to be born. A girl, and Grace names her Anna immediately. Danny is astounded by the whole event but happily, and announces, as the others celebrate, "I'm going to marry her!" Everyone chuckles but the wise and romantic Grace, looks at him again, with more thought and the scene ends. Danny's Dad has new work in England and so they move away. But Twenty-five years later, Danny, (Jude Law)now 30, moves back to his hometown after his father dies. He is a Mosaic Tile Restorer, a graduate of training by masters and hopes to be a Master Tiler himself, interviewing for a recommended restoration. He finds a cheap apartment owned by a bakery shop couple who offer him a job delivering cakes while he waits for his tile work start day. During his first delivery, Danny gets lost and when he stops for directions, the bell he rings is the distinctive Swan bell that he rang so long ago. He is at Grace Swan's and before he leaves, she realized who he is. He also sees Nina (Jennifer Tilly)and THE Anna, he helped bring into the world, but then goes on to complete the delivery, mystified at the coincidence. He tells his kind Baker boss and his wife about the chance reunion, and they fill him in a bit on their story. Anna and Nina's family order a cake from the bakery and Danny immediately leaves to deliver it, hoping to see Anna, but crashes his bike into a car right outside the home and loses consciousness. He awakes in Grace's house to meet Anna's entire family— Nina again, revealing her lifelong blindness and the fears she lives with keeping her from any kind of normal life. He meets their brother Billy (Jeremy Piven) and Billy's distraught wife, Irene (Jane Adams),who is distraught over her husband's infidelities and exhibits bizarre behaviors. Danny reacquaints with Anna's kind father father Richard (Bruce Jarchow), her sister Karen (Martha Plimpton), and Anna's boyfriend Eric (Jon Tenney). He is invited to stay for dinner, during which he learns of Anna's recent engagement to Eric. They talk about love and when asked what love is like, Danny states it is like hearing Music from another room, but it is so beautiful, that you hum along and it stays. Danny next begins his job as a tiler/mosaic artist in the local museum. He confesses his love for Anna to his coworkers, who give him a trick, two-headed coin, telling him to tell Anna "Heads you love me ,tails I leave you alone" - he uses it the next time he is alone with Anna, but she claimed the right to read the result and calls "Tails", and gets away. A few days later, he is with Anna again asking her to run away and marry him. Anna rejects him kindly and rides away, with Danny chasing her. He is now friends with the family and fails in attempts to help Nina out of her self-imposed prison of fears. He sees that Anna's motherly way with her siblings is a bit stifling, and works at helping her lighten her grip and let them all be freer. He enjoys some success with Nina, even getting her to go with him to a local dance, where she meets Jesus, a young tradesman who cares for her immediately and she dances with him, and they are rarely separated after that, and soon it is clear they are a pair. Just in time because Grace has been ill and is now dying. Anna becomes jealous of the love between Nina and Jesus (Vincent Laresca), and rushes to Danny's home, to actualize her passion as well, confessing she lied and the coin read "heads". The two then sleep together, but part to let Anna tell her Mother about her love for Danny first. Irene and Billy have another bizarre confrontation, ending in her shooting him in the foot. Nina and Jesus elope during the night and his people celebrate the union in church and party after. Nina returns home to tell her mother gleefully, and Grace is thrilled because she can now die in peace concerning Nina. And later that night, Grace dies in Richard's arms. Anna arrives home to tell her Mother about her relationship with Danny only to find that she is too late - Grace has died. At Grace's funeral, Anna tells Danny that she already told Eric about their affair. Danny tells Anna he is leaving in a couple of days, anyway, and says goodbye. He winds up business at the tile site, making something special for the last and packs, painting over Anna's name he'd had over his bed. That night, Eric announces he and Anna are going to Paris to get married in a few days. Nina is convinced that this direction for Anna is all wrong. The next day, Nina has Anna meet her on the site of Danny's tile work - Swans! Like the family name - and carrying a message to Anna. Nina insists at Anna making her point to Anna that she belongs with Danny, not Eric, and advises her to go after Danny. Anna at first denies but then the swans in the tile work inspire and clear her own blindness: she races to the train station, till she finds Danny and begs him to take her with him. Her own adventure, as her Mother had wished for her at their last good talk. Now it is Danny's turn to demur: Danny says that it won't last. Anna holds up a regular coin and says if it lands heads, she will go with him, tails she will leave him alone. Danny says, "fine, but I get to read it" Anna filps the coin and Danny puts his foot on it when it lands. But then he simply looks at Anna with resolve and, without looking at the coin, he claims it is heads and the two kiss and off together to their new life. ===== A group of astronauts set out to blow up an asteroid named Flora (which may or may not be the real asteroid 8 Flora), which is now on a rapid collision course with the Earth. They land on the asteroid, plant explosive charges, and destroy it, barely escaping destruction by the explosion's massive shock wave. Afterwards, they return to the mission's staging area, space station Gamma 3, in high Earth orbit. Unfortunately, a scientist from the mission has unwittingly carried back a luminous-green substance on the leg of his spacesuit, which quickly mutates into one-eyed, tentacled monsters with the ability to discharge lethal bolts of electricity. The Gamma 3 crew fend off the alien creatures with their laser-based weaponry, only to discover the creatures feed off the laser energy which, in turn, allows them to multiply rapidly, sprouting even more one-eyed creatures from their own blood. As the creatures overrun the station, the crew continues to fight against overwhelming odds. The proceedings are further complicated by a love triangle consisting of two commanders and a female doctor. ===== A 16-year-old American boy calling himself Billy approaches Tom Ripley in the French village near the latter's residence, asking for a job. Ripley agrees to give him a small amount of gardening work and puts him up in the guest room, but he believes that he recognizes the youth from a newspaper. Further investigation reveals that "Billy" is actually Frank Pierson, the son of a recently deceased American tycoon who has fled the United States. Frank soon confesses to Ripley that he did in fact murder his own father by pushing him off a cliff. Ripley recognizes a kindred spirit in Frank, discovering that he deliberately sought him out for advice after learning of his questionable reputation. Ripley commissions a false passport for Frank and they travel to West Berlin, where they stay with a friend of Ripley's erstwhile partner in crime, Reeves Minot. Frank is kidnapped while strolling through a wooded area in West Berlin. Ripley communicates with the Pierson family and with a private detective the family has sent to Paris. The Piersons wire the ransom to West Berlin, and Ripley takes it to an appointed drop-off point where he impulsively kills one of the kidnappers. The other three drive off. Ripley returns with the money and arranges a rendezvous at a gay bar, which he infiltrates by dressing in drag. He identifies the kidnappers, who again leave empty-handed, and follows them back to the flat where they are keeping the boy. Ripley scares the amateur thugs into dashing out of the apartment, and he single-handedly rescues the semi-conscious hostage. Ripley then dispatches the money back to the Pierson family, encourages Frank to New England, and accompanies him there besides. Despite Ripley's coaching and reassurances, Frank is overwhelmed by guilt as well as by his unrequited love for a teenaged girl named Teresa, and eventually commits suicide by throwing himself over the same precipice from which he pushed his father. Shaken and, much to his own surprise, saddened by Frank's death, Ripley returns to Belle Ombre after securing a former possession of the boy's as a memento. ===== The plot revolves around a series of Village People-themed murders in a small town, and the police who investigate the crimes. The title is a satirical reference to the 1980 film Can't Stop the Music, in which the Village People star. Eck and Saleh play two police constables in a rural village, 'Gary' and 'Akmal' who lead fairly unremarkable lives. Gary's main aim is to be crowned line dancing champion of the village, having always been the runner-up. However, a series of horrific murders, involving the mutilation of bodies, rock the town, and 'Tony' (Mir), a detective from the city, is called in reluctantly to investigate. Whilst the young Akmal is in awe of the dashing detective, Tony's aggressive methods clash with the uptight Gary, and 'Chief Carter' (Richard Carter), the officer in charge of the station. Tony is eventually sent back to the city, after shooting a French male stripper. Gary and Akmal soon discover that the murders have a Village People theme, with those murdered having been in one of the occupations of a Village Person, or resembling one. They fearfully deduce that either a policeman or a dentist (Akmal is uncertain, as he doesn't clearly remember the Village People, although Gary quickly deduces that it is, in fact, a policeman) will be next to die, as does Tony, who rushes back from the city. ===== It's 1925 and after Edward Carnby's success in his previous two investigations, a journalist has nicknamed him the 'Supernatural Private Eye'. This time, he is called to investigate the disappearance of a film crew at a two-bit ghost town known by the name of Slaughter Gulch located in the Mojave Desert in California. Among the disappeared crew is Emily Hartwood, Jeremy Hartwood's niece from the original. Edward soon discovers that a curse has gripped the town, and an evil cowboy from the Badlands named Jed Stone is the villain who is responsible for the crew's disappearance. Lurking around town are many trigger-happy sharpshooters, deranged prospectors, and bloodthirsty lost souls whom Edward must ward off with both his strength and his wit. ===== A man in Central America finds his brother's murdered body. It turns out that his brother has been murdered because he knows the whereabouts of a lost city in the jungle. The man teams up with a search expedition and goes off to hunt for these ancient ruins. Unfortunately, almost every member of the group has plans to double-cross the others. All is resolved in bloody fashion in the middle of the jungle wilderness. ===== The novel tells the tale of the planet Zyrgon, ruled by the galactic police called The Law-Enforcers. They are after Mortimer, who has cheated the government lottery for the 27th time in a row. His family is governed by the youngest daughter, 12-year-old X, who wants to save her father from the detention centre. The family also includes Mother, who would rather design clothing and leave all worries to her daughter X. The oldest sister Dovis is a cosmic flier who writes poetry and levitates. The youngest is a boy genius, Qwrk who is a professor at age 8. X is the lead character: a stressed girl who has to balance between strange Earth customs such as school and her duty to take care of her family. Zyrgonians have special powers such as levitation, simulations, and kinetics. They love gambling and live on an ultra-modern and dystopian planetoid. ===== The city of San Francisco is pushed into a state of terror and fear as a deranged murderer stalks the city. The police are baffled by the case and are led to extremes by a lunatic whose victims all have something in common: their hearts have been skillfully and surgically removed. Meanwhile, across town, a man must make a difficult decision regarding his wife, who needs a transplant. ===== Due to the actions of the High Ridge government in War of Honor, which led to a successful attack on key Alliance shipyards by the Republic of Haven, the Star Kingdom of Manticore finds itself decidedly on the short end of the strategic balance between the two warring star nations. Admiral Honor Harrington is placed in command of Eighth Fleet, the Manticoran Alliance's primary offensive force, which is the sole heavy formation available for operations against Haven. Queen Elizabeth and her senior advisors project it will be at least two "T-years" (Terran years, i.e. Earth years) before they can expect any significant numbers of new construction to begin bolstering their thin wall of battle; this while Haven's progress under Admirals Theisman and Foraker have given them an even larger force advantage, and smaller technological disparity, than Haven suffered before the beginning of hostilities in Short Victorious War. Strategically, the Eighth Fleet's goal is to instill enough operational caution and sensitivity to losses in Haven to force redeployments of starships in defensive postures, reducing Haven's offensive resources. To expedite this, they are assigned the lion's share of Manticore's cutting-edge warfighting hardware, including the new "Apollo" self-guided missile system and "Keyhole" platforms that increase the efficacy of their own counter-missiles. Their first two raids do indeed instill some panic into the Havenite populace, but on the third, at Solon, a defensive ambush led by Admiral Javier Giscard is waiting for them. Honor is sorely trounced, losing several ships and being forced to abandon a vessel captained by her best friend, Admiral Michelle "Mike" Henke, Countess Gold Peak, to its own devices; Henke is believed killed in action. Honor continues to work closely with Hamish Alexander, now First Lord of the Admiralty, on the military and political challenges facing the Alliance, and they fall into the very romantic relationship the High Ridge government tried to insinuate during War of Honor. She and Hamish are married and conceive a son, Raoul, who is "tubed" while his mother goes into combat and is born before the end of the novel. Emily, with the assistance of Honor's mother Allison, a leading geneticist, also becomes a mother with Hamish. Republic of Haven President Eloise Pritchart continues to work towards finding a peaceful solution to the war. She and her administration discover the peace talks were sabotaged by her Secretary of State, Arnold Giancola. Unfortunately, both he and his accomplice, Yves Grosclaude, are killed before they can be questioned. This lack of proof prevents Pritchart from coming forward and accepting culpability for the current war, but she nonetheless sends Mike Henke—actually a POW—back to Manticore with an offer for a peace conference. Queen Elizabeth accepts, but several more cases of the nanotechnology are deployed to in assassination attempts on other figures of Manticoran note, including Queen Berry of Torch and her Head of Intelligence. This forces Elizabeth to resume the war, ordering the Eighth Fleet to attack the Lovat System. Honor does so, and this time turns the tables on Giscard's ambushers, leading to the destruction of most of his fleet, as well as his death. Pritchart, with few options and devastated by the loss of her lover Giscard, realizes that if Haven cannot conclude the war peacefully, they must conclude it violently. She authorizes "Operation Beatrice," a direct strike at the Manticore System itself. The result is the largest space battle in recorded history: Haven's Second and Fifth fleets against the Manticoran Home, Third and Eighth Fleets. After several engagements, Harrington arrives and obliterates the Fifth Fleet, and Tourville surrenders the remainder of Second. ===== The fictional protagonists are a proto- Germanic tribeswoman, Auriane, daughter of a Chattian war leader; and Marcus Arrius Julianus, a Roman senator and imperial advisor whose character and circumstances are loosely based on the Roman philosopher Seneca, as well as another contemporary in the reign of Nero, Stoic philosopher and statesman Helvidius Priscus, a man known for his outspokenness in public life. Rome’s interference in tribal affairs compel Auriane to take the warrior’s oath and lead her father’s retinue after his death. In Rome, Stoic humanist Marcus Julianus reaches the highest levels of government, where he is taken into the confidence of the Emperor Domitian. Through political maneuvering, he attempts to check the excesses of the increasingly corrupt Emperor Domitian. Auriane is captured in Domitian's Chattian War and taken to Rome. As Domitian's reign of terror begins, Julianus orchestrates a plot to assassinate the Emperor; here the author has inserted a fictional character into a gap left by history. The Emperor Domitian, who according to Suetonius, was fond of pitting women against dwarfs in the arena, condemns Auriane to a gladiatorial school. Here Auriane discovers the tribesman who betrayed her people in war. As Julianus’ assassination plot reaches its conclusion, Auriane must carry out the tribal rite of vengeance in the Colosseum. ===== ===== The film opens with the cast gathering after the funeral of Jude to see a film he had been working on for two years. It turns out that the film is secret videos of all those gathered together in their most despicable moments including thievery, spousal abuse, adultery, etc. The revelations remove the masks from the so-called close friends. ===== Christine Riverton Duncan (Esther Williams) attempts to play matchmaker for her lovelorn friend Ellen (Paula Raymond) by pursuing Douglas J. Morrissen, Jr. (John Lund), the man Ellen loves, all the way to Idaho. There, Christine decides to play a joke on Douglas. After boarding his train to Sun Valley, Christine wins the man's affections and then shocks him with hints that she expects a commitment. Once she's in Sun Valley, however, things become problematic when Christine falls in love with hotel bandleader Dick Layne (Van Johnson). During her time in Sun Valley, Christine wins the title of "Duchess of Idaho" in a dance contest. ===== Neil Klugman is an intelligent, working-class army veteran and a graduate of Rutgers University who works as a library clerk. He falls for Brenda Patimkin, a wealthy Radcliffe student who is home for the summer. They meet by the swimming pool at Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase, New York, a private club that Neil visits as a guest of his cousin Doris. They face obstacles from Brenda's family (particularly her mother), due to differences in class and assimilation into the American mainstream. Brenda's family are nouveau riche, their money coming from the successful plumbing supply business owned and run by her father. Brenda herself is old enough to remember "being poor". Other conflicts include propriety and issues related to premarital sex and the possibility of pregnancy and Mrs. Patimkin's envy of her daughter's youth. After a few dates, Brenda persuades her father to invite Neil to stay with them for two weeks. This angers her mother, who feels that she should have been asked instead. Neil enjoys being able to sneak into Brenda's room at night but has misgivings over her entitled outlook, which is reflected in her spoiled and petulant younger sister, and her naive brother Ron, who misses the hero worship he enjoyed as a star basketball player at Ohio State University. Neil is astonished when Brenda reveals that she does not take birth control pills or use any other precautions to avoid pregnancy. She angrily rejects Neil's concerns. He prepares to leave, but she decides to persuade him to stay by agreeing to get a diaphragm. At the end of his stay, Neil attends Ron's wedding to Harriet, who was his college sweetheart from Ohio. Brenda returns to Radcliffe in the fall, keeping in touch by telephone. She invites Neil to come up to spend a weekend at a Boston hotel. However, once they are in the hotel room, Brenda tells Neil she just received letters telling her that her mother found her diaphragm and that her parents know about their affair. They argue, with Neil asking why she left it to be found unless she wanted it to happen. Siding with her parents, Brenda ends the affair as abruptly as she allowed it to commence. Neil walks out of the hotel, leaving her alone in the room. ===== Jacey Jeffries (Danielle Panabaker) is a 16-year- old high school student and the mother of a baby boy named Charlie. Instead of giving him up for adoption as planned, she chose to keep the baby. Her mother, Terry (Mercedes Ruehl) pretends the infant is hers to allow Jacey to finish high school and lead a relatively normal life and graduate. When Jacey attends a new school, she criticizes several of the students for their promiscuous behavior during a class discussion. Jacey's opinions lead Donna Cooper (Jane Krakowski), the Health teacher, to take a special interest in Jacey. Jacey's comments are unique in that she does not have an interest in following what her classmates say. The teacher's husband, the swim coach Bob (Colin Ferguson), convinces Jacey to join the swim team. Jacey passes out after taking tranquilizers stolen from her mother and ends up in the hospital. Donna and Bob are unable to conceive and are devastated when they discover their latest round of In-Vitro Fertilization has failed. Jacey feels that matters are unresolved with Charlie's father, Brad. It is apparent that Jacey was and still is in love with him. Jacey feels guilty because Brad is unaware that Jacey gave birth. Brad currently attends college. When Jacey attempts to call him, she becomes nervous upon hearing his voice and hangs up. Donna sees Jacey with Charlie, and asks if Jacey is his mother. Although Jacey lied, many students from the school witnessed the interrogation and believe Jacey is really the mother. She begins to get teased at school for her behavior. Her secret is found out at school, when the students were asked about how guys react to what girls wear. When other students criticize her for her hypocrisy, she goes to a mothers meeting for teen mothers. After being teased at school, she leaves abruptly to see Brad. They spend the day together, and are about to have sex, when Jacey announces that the reason she left him was because she got pregnant. Brad takes the news badly and leaves. Jacey returns home and has a huge argument with Terry who hands her Charlie and tells her to handle things on her own, angry that Jacey doesn't understand the sacrifices she has made to help Jacey have a normal life. Exhausted and confused, she turns to Donna for help and advice. Donna advocates for Jacey telling her mother that she wants to be Charlie's mom to which Terry gives a speech about the sacrifices it takes to be a 'real Mom'. A few weeks later, Brad arrives at Jacey's house to apologize and tells Terry that he will make it work between Jacey and him. However, when Jacey makes a surprise visit to his school, she finds out Brad's parents will only help if a DNA test is done to prove Brad is the father; Jacey feels betrayed and leaves him. At school, Jacey gives a speech on pregnancy and teen sex, using examples from her friends from the teen mother's meeting. She gets applause and respect from her former bullies for being honest and sensible. Afterwards, Macy, her sister, gives her a DVD she had put together for Charlie for him to watch when he is older. Watching it together with Terry, the two reconcile. Later, Donna receives a call that there is a baby waiting to be adopted. Overjoyed, Donna and Bob go to adopt the child, only to find that it is Terry and Jacey who have decided to give him up to give him his best chance. She apparently remains a part of Charlie's life, as five years later she's there at Charlie's first day at kindergarten, Donna and Bob have a new baby daughter, and Bob is shown recording Charlie and asks Charlie to talk about himself. "I'm Charlie Cooper and I'm 5 years old, I got a new baby sister." Charlie tells the camera that he has two mommies and that Jacey is his special mommy and Bob asks why. Charlie replies, "because I'm the only one who knows how her heart feels from inside her." It is indicated in one scene that this is in fact the couple that was originally going to adopt him before Jacey changed her mind. ===== The film is a semi-historical narrative and depicts the real-life courtship, marriage, and forced breakup of Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, and his wife from the American South, Elizabeth Patterson. Napoleon did not approve of the union (despite the fact that her family was one of the wealthiest in America), and the marriage was annulled. Jérôme was subsequently forced to marry Catharina of Württemberg. They had one child, depicted in the film, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte. In order to provide a "happy ending", Jérôme in the film leaves France to be with his wife. However, in historical fact he remained in Europe. ===== Francie "Gidget" Lawrence (Deborah Walley) and Jeff "Moondoggie" Matthews (James Darren) have just gotten pinned when Gidget's father announces that they are going to Hawaii for two weeks; the remainder of Moondoggie's summer break. Gidget refuses to go and leave Jeff alone. However, when Jeff encourages Gidget to go to Hawaii, an angry and disappointed Gidget gives him back his pin and tells her folks she has changed her mind. On the plane en route to Hawaii, Gidget meets Abby Stewart (Vicki Trickett) and her parents, popular dancer Eddie Horner (Michael Callan), and several more boys. In recounting her break-up to Abby, Gidget dramatically describes having gone overboard and "surrendered herself completely," which Abby misinterprets as "she went all the way". As heart- broken Gidget mopes in her room, her father feels badly and decides to send for Jeff, suggesting that he come to Hawaii to surprise Gidget. Jeff immediately accepts. That night, Abby visits Gidget and invites her to join her and Eddie and the rest of the gang. Gidget declines at first, but her mother persuades her to change her mind. When Gidget makes a big hit with the boys and dances with Eddie, she inadvertently becomes Abby's rival. Gidget makes an even bigger impression surfing the next day, leading to an unexpected kiss from Eddie just as Jeff arrives. The two argue and finally decide to go their separate ways. That night at dinner, Jeff arrives with Abby (who is unaware that he is Gidget's boyfriend "Moondoggie") and Gidget retaliates by flirting with Eddie. The contest continues through water-skiing and other activities until Abby, fed up and jealous, decides to spread a wanton rumor that Gidget has slept with Eddie and other guys. Abby's mother relays this gossip to Gidget's mother, quickly leading to arguments between the two, between Gidget and her parents, and finally between both married couples. Gidget's father finds himself drinking with Abby's mother in the hotel bar, while Abby's father and Gidget's mother also make peace. The two mismatched couples eventually meet and resolve their respective disputes. At the Luau that night, Eddie runs into Gidget and confesses he's in love with her. A crestfallen Gidget tells him that she doesn't love him but they agree to be friends. However, Gidget still can't bring herself to go to the Luau since she doesn't know how far Abby's rumor has spread, so she goes for a walk alone on the beach and in a series of musical vignettes, pictures herself as a tramp, a fan dancer, and an unwed mother. Back at the Luau, Abby tells Jeff about the rumor that Gidget sleeps around, admitting that it's a lie and that Gidget only had one affair with a guy named "Moondoggie". Jeff then realizes how much he cares about Gidget, so he puts Abby in her place by telling her to call him what everyone at home calls him: "Moondoggie". Jeff and Gidget reconcile on the beach and head back to the hotel to straighten everything out with the adults. Through a few mix-ups, Gidget believes her parents are cheating on each other with Abby's parents, and Gidget's parents believe Gidget's gone missing and alert all of her friends, including Abby who deeply regrets the trouble she has caused. Soon, everybody is gathered in Gidget's room, deeply worried and unaware that Gidget is just down the hall in her parents' suite with Jeff waiting for them. As Gidget kisses Jeff on the couch, her father finally enters and expresses shock, then relief. Gidget tries desperately to cover for each of her parents' apparent indiscretions, but soon all misunderstandings are cleared up. Gidget and Jeff also explain their relationship to Eddie and the rest of the gang. The next day, as punishment for spreading the rumor, the guys drag a terrified Abby into the ocean and place her on Gidget's surfboard. When the surf comes rolling in, Abby frantically clings on for dear life while Gidget and Jeff enjoy riding the waves. ===== Set at the turn of the 20th century, the story follows the separate but intersecting lives of two very different British men: a half- Indian solicitor and son of a Vicar, George Edalji, and the world-famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Roughly one- third of the book traces the story of Edalji's trial, conviction, and imprisonment for a crime he did not commit. About one-third of the book traces the story of Doyle's life and his relationships with his first wife Louisa Hawkins and his platonic lover Jean Leckie. Roughly one-third of the book concerns Doyle's attempt to clear the name of Edalji and uncover the true culprit of the crime. Julian Barnes called it "a contemporary novel set in the past" and the book does not aim to stick closely to the historical record at every point. ===== On her twentieth wedding anniversary, Maggie receives a diamond necklace and a price on her head; both from her husband, Jack. While waiting for the signal, all the way from Connecticut, to do the murder, the hitman Tony starts bonding with Maggie instead. Later, Jack shows up himself, complicating the entire situation. ===== Peter's devout Catholic father, Francis, visits Quahog. Upon arrival, he insists that Stewie be baptized as a Catholic. After visiting a church with Peter and Stewie, Francis is informed that the holy water is tainted and he will have to wait. Francis is in disbelief, and baptizes Stewie himself. Stewie soon becomes unwell and is informed that he must be quarantined and kept in a germ-free environment by a doctor for the time being until his immune system's strength recovers at the end of the episode. Then Lois discovers that Francis coaxed Peter into having Stewie baptized without her knowledge, and tells Peter to choose his own religious beliefs and not allow himself to be a slave to his father's religion. Peter initially converts to Mormonism to take advantage of polygamy, but then discovers that Mormons cannot drink alcohol. He then tries Jehovah's Witnesses and attempts door-to-door preaching. However, when he finds someone who is actually interested in hearing what he has to say, he realizes he has no idea what to teach them. As a last resort, Peter tries Hinduism but gets himself kicked out after tackling the guru to the floor, believing the red dot on his head to be a laser spot from a sniper rifle. Unable to find a religion suited to him, Peter decides to create his own religion, based on Happy Days, calling his newly founded church the "First United Church of the Fonz". To the Griffins' (mainly Lois') surprise, many people turn up for the first worship service, much to the annoyance of Brian, who dislikes the idea that Peter is a religious leader (likely due to Brian being an atheist). In order to stop Peter from continuing his new religion, Brian joins forces with Francis to find a way to deter people from worshiping the Fonz. Three actors - serving as representatives from other religions - show up to the services of the Church of the Fonz. The first, Sherman Hemsley, informs people that he has formed the Church of George Jefferson (from All in the Family and The Jeffersons) and a good portion of the congregation leaves with him. The second person is Gavin MacLeod, who claims to have created the Church of Captain Stubing (from The Love Boat) and another chunk of the congregation leaves with him. The third person is Kirk Cameron and Peter assumes that Cameron is there to announce the formation of the Church of Mike Seaver (Cameron's character on Growing Pains), but Cameron lets him know that he's only here to convert people back to Christianity and the remainder of the congregation leaves with him. Back at home, Lois comforts Peter, who is upset at the failure of his Church, by telling him that if his church embraced the Fonz's values of friendship, it is worthwhile, but Peter highly doubts it and Peter converts back to Christianity, however the scene shifts and Francis is shown looking at a picture of the Fonz, puts it down on a table, gets on his knees as if to pray, and claps to the beat of "Rock Around the Clock" as the episode ends. ===== At the beginning of Lady Friday, a cleaner tells Leaf that everybody has become infatuated with a "Dr. Friday", because she is so beautiful and refined; as a result, every member of the staff calls her Lady Friday. Lady Friday, a Denizen and Trustee of the House, is in command of the Middle House. It is later revealed that Lady Friday has kidnapped thousands of people and taken them to Avraxyn, the world that is mentioned in Sir Thursday as the world from which the Skinless Boy's mind-controlling mould originated. There, Lady Friday drains from them their emotions and memories, which she then drinks in order to experience them (being a House Denizen herself, she cannot have these emotions herself, but must take them from others). Arthur, the Piper, and Superior Saturday all receive messages from Lady Friday, saying she has abdicated the rule of the Middle House and that the first of the three who can reach her Scriptorium in the Middle House can claim the Fifth Key and her domain as their own. Along with each message is sent a Transfer Plate that sends whoever touches it straight to the Middle House (which is a giant, terraced mountain). Arthur accidentally takes the plate and is sent to the Middle House; he still retains the Fourth Key. While the Piper is contemplating what to do with his Plate, the Piper's Children Suzy Turquoise Blue and Fred Initial Numbers Gold, along with their loyal New Nithling bodyguard Ugham, grab it and are transferred to the Middle House. In the Middle House, Arthur takes refuge in a Manuscript- Gilding workshop, where he fights off some Fetchers and eventually meets Fred and Suzy. At first, he does not trust them, fearing their allegiance to the Piper; however, they and his own inclinations convince him that they can be trusted. Around their necks are bindings that bend them to the Piper's will; these are removed by Arthur with the power of the Fourth Key, at Suzy's behest. While on the way to the Scriptorium, they meet some of the Middle House's Winged Servants of the Night, who are fighting several of Saturday's elite forces, known as Artful Loungers. Arthur singlehandedly defeats four of the latter, earning the friendship of the Servants. While flying to the pinnacle of the mountain, on which stands the Scriptorium, Arthur is guided to the Fifth Part of the Will, which is chained within the lair of the Winged Servants. This part of the Will (shown on the British cover), a bizarre creature having the head of a fox, the upper torso of a bat, the lower body of a blue dragon, and four legs, is much more likable than the other parts; it is stated that this part, presumed to embody the virtue of moderation, is the part without which the Will has no self-control. When Arthur reaches the Scriptorium, he finds that the Piper has apparently killed Saturday's Dusk. The Piper orders Ugham to pick up what is supposed to be the Fifth Key; when Ugham does so, a trap from Lady Friday, in the form of an entrance to the Void of Nothing, is sprung. Ugham is instantly dissolved; as the breach gets bigger, Arthur decides to use the Fourth Key, even if it turns him into a Denizen, to close the hole. One Key alone is not sufficient to accomplish this task; therefore the Will advises him to call upon the power of the remaining Keys in his possession; the Keys appear with him, and he fixes the breach. To return to the Lower House, Arthur uses the Improbable Stair, the Architect's own personal transport, to transport himself, Suzy, and Fred to Monday's Dayroom. There, the butler Sneezer uses the Seven Dials to transport Suzy, Fred, Arthur, and their friend Dr. Scamandros to Friday's hideout. They find that Friday has lost her self-control and is about to "experience" thousands of people at once. Arthur arrives just as Friday transfers their beings into the Key; having obtained mastery of the Middle House, he returns their experiences. He finds that his friend Leaf was among the people, but that his own mother is not. It is confirmed thereafter that Arthur's mother is not in the Secondary Realms, and is therefore deduced to be in the Upper House. Arthur gives all the keys to the Will, except for the Fifth, and decides to go to Earth to settle matters there before going after Saturday. As the book closes, Suzy gives Arthur a note that Ugham gave her before he died. It appears to be a piece of a letter sent from Sunday to Saturday or vice versa. It reads "For the last time, I do not wish to intervene. Manage affairs in the House as you wish. It will make little difference in the end. S". The sender of this message, 'S', is presumed to be either Saturday or Sunday and is later revealed to be Sunday in Superior Saturday. The final sentence may remind readers of the suggestion raised in Sir Thursday by Dame Primus that the Trustees are wittingly or unwittingly part of a plan to destroy the House, and itself makes the suggestion that the sender believes the House to be doomed. ===== Anjali Chauhan (Shilpa Shetty) is a young woman who hails from an extremely rich and influential family. Her father, Narendra Chauhan (Kiran Kumar), is a renowned businessman. Anjali is in love with Dev Chopra (Suniel Shetty) who is the poor son of Narendra's late rival Ranjan Chopra, and often cannot even afford to clothe himself properly. Dev also loves Anjali and wants to marry her. When Anjali puts forward to Narendra and her mother Veena (Anjana Mumtaz) the proposal of marrying Dev, she is rebuked and gets an outright refusal. Because Narendra does not like Dev for his bad manners and arrogant outlook. When Anjali tells Dev about this, he says that he cannot live without her. But Anjali leaves Dev. Upset by Anjali's betrayal, Dev tells all this to his mother Jhanvi (Sharmila Tagore), who dies after listening this. On the other hand, Narendra and Veena have chosen for her a wealthy suitor from Delhi; and the boy is very religious minded. Not wanting to hurt her parents, Anjali finally gives in and marries Rambhan "Ram" Verma (Akshay Kumar), the boy who her parents believe will be a perfect match for her. Ram is a man of great ideals, who believes in giving a rightful place to his wife and respects her sensibilities. Despite this, he is unable to win Anjali's love at first and their marriage remains on the edge. However, after seeing the magnanimity of Ram's heart in forgiving and accepting her, Anjali realizes that she has fallen in love with Ram and they happily enjoy their life as a married couple. ===== The plot follows Art Chew's (a pun of the sound one makes when sneezing) quest to retrieve the ancient peach. The movie starts with Art Chew traveling to America, as well as showing Art's training at the Shur-li temple (a play on words with the child actor Shirley Temple), showing many kung-fu clichés such as grabbing the pebble from the masters hand (which Art succeeds without effort), fighting on trees (in this case small potted palms) and "listing" for elements (Earth, Wind & Fire play a funky tune). After the montage is shown, Art meets up with his cousin Wayman (a parody on the way Chinese pronounce r as w), a Chinese adult who tries to act American so he isn't embarrassed by stereotypes, and foster cousin Roy Lee, an African American who sincerely believes he is a reincarnation of Bruce Lee. Not long after Art arrives, Helen Hu, an MSG (Monosodium glutamate) dealing (portrayed like a cocaine dealer) restaurant owner, forces Art's stereotypical uncle into buying more MSG. Art intervenes and tries to fight Helen's muscle, the overweight and strong One Ton (perhaps a play on the Chinese dish wonton soup), the wise cracking "brains" of the outfit Lo Fat and the Kung-Fu fighter Non Fat. After blocking One Ton's attack, Art reels to attack showing a smiley face on his arm which Lo Fat points out as a symbol of a Shur-li monk and they run away. Art talks to his uncle and asks where the Ancient peach is and is told that it is in Helen Hu's restaurant (a brief humorous spectacle emerges in the conversation as Art and the others mix the name Hu with the article "who") that Art's uncle sold to her a few years ago. Art, Wayman and Roy Lee go to Helen's restaurant and are taken to her by a waiter that is badly dubbed because "This is how all Hong Kong actors talk". Helen claims to know nothing about the peach and gets One Ton to escort Art and his friends to leave. On the way out, Roy Lee tries to kick Non Fat but misses and breaks a hole in the wall. After Art and crew are thrown out Lo Fat notices a glowing coming out of the hole in the wall and looks in and finds the ancient peach. Events lead to the peach being swapped around a couple of times and the appearance of a romantic interest, Sue Shi (sushi), who is later revealed to be an agent of the Shur-li temple. ===== Shepard stars as Howard Spence, an aging, hard-living Western movie star, who, disgusted with his life & washed up, flees by horse from the set of his latest western filming in the desert outside Moab, Utah. He hits the road looking for refuge in his past, traveling to his hometown of Elko, Nevada to visit his mother, who he hasn't seen in 30 years. And, eventually, to Butte, Montana, looking for a woman (Jessica Lange) he left behind twenty years before when he was filming a movie there. Also converging on Butte is a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley), returning her late mother's ashes to her hometown and conducting a search of her own. Spence is doggedly pursued by Mr. Sutter (Tim Roth), a humorless representative of the company insuring Spence's latest film, whose mission is to return Spence to the set to finish filming the movie.DVD of the Week: Don't Come Knocking|The New Yorker ===== An oil tanker runs aground, spilling millions of gallons of oil on Baby Seal Beach. Lisa begs Marge to help celebrities scrub oil tar from shorebirds and sea mammals. Marge, Lisa and Maggie drive to the beach, leaving Bart and Homer home alone. Soon the house becomes a filthy mess, so Bart goes outside to play with his friends. Milhouse's toy airplane crashes atop the roof of a Gothic house. While Bart is retrieving it, he accidentally falls, destroying a stone gargoyle. Belle, the owner of the house, grabs Bart by the ear and takes him home, much to his friends' horror. At the Simpson home, Belle demands that Homer will punish him for trespassing her property. Belle sees that Homer is wearing a grocery bag. Homer balks until Belle threatens to come back and speak with Marge if he won't discipline Bart. Homer forces Bart to perform chores for Belle at the Maison Derrière, which the boy soon learns is a burlesque house. Bart does his job with enthusiasm and becomes indispensable to Belle. Marge and Lisa arrive at the beach but discover that cleaning beach tar from animals is a task reserved only for celebrities. Instead they are put to work scrubbing rocks, a job they soon abandon to return home. After Homer learns the truth about the burlesque house, he does nothing to stop Bart from working there. Principal Skinner visits the house and sees Bart is the door greeter. He reports it to the Lovejoys and the Flanders, who confront Homer about Bart's workplace. As Homer crows that he has no problem with Bart working at a burlesque house, Marge returns home unexpectedly and is upset to learn this. Marge asks Belle to close the house, but Belle refuses, saying it is a part of Springfield. Marge presses the matter at a town meeting and shows slides of several prominent citizens leaving the Maison Derrière. Marge's campaign convinces the town to form a mob to destroy the house. The mob arrives at the house and starts smashing property. Homer tries to stop the mob's rampage by singing a musical number, accompanied by Belle and her burlesque dancers. The townfolk join in singing and are persuaded to let the house stay. However, Marge arrives with a bulldozer, having missed the song. As she starts a song about her stance on the house, she accidentally puts the bulldozer in drive and destroys a wing of the Maison. She apologizes profusely to Belle and the townsfolk for wrecking their beloved house. To pay for the damage, Marge performs a ventriloquist act at the house, where she is heckled by Homer — who is promptly removed by the bouncer, Bart. ===== Joey is up for a role in a movie directed by Warren Beatty. The role calls for him to kiss another man – something Joey has trouble doing. At first he asks the girls to kiss him and let him know if he is really a bad kisser; Phoebe agrees on grounds that she had already kissed Joey once before. Phoebe judges that Joey has a firm and tender kiss and she would recommend him to a friend. Monica suggests that Joey has a problem kissing men, and which makes him very uncomfortable. He tries to get Ross and Chandler to help him, but with little success. Ross finally relents and surprises Joey with a kiss. Joey then reveals that they had already picked someone else for the role but thanks Ross for helping out. Rachel reluctantly agrees to be maid of honor at her ex-fiancé Barry's wedding, but inadvertently steals the couple's thunder when she walks up the aisle with her butt showing. She is even angrier to find out that when she dumped Barry at the altar, his parents told everyone that she ran away because she was insane because she had syphilis. Rachel is about to leave, but stops when she learns that Barry was betting on her to leave before 9:45. She tells Barry that she promised herself she would make it through at least one of his weddings. She then sings "Copacabana" at the wedding, a song she was unable to perform at high school. Monica is anxious to find out what the future has in store for her and Richard. They talk, and realise they want different things in life. Monica wants to have children of her own, but Richard does not want to have any more kids. Later, Richard says he will have kids with her if that is what Monica wants, but she tells him that she cannot have kids with someone who does not really want them, and they reluctantly agree to break up. Chandler has met a woman online – they chat late into the night. Things go well until she reveals that she is married and that her husband is cheating on her. At Phoebe's urging, Chandler decides to look past that. They agree to meet in person at Central Perk – and his online girlfriend turns out to be Janice. The two immediately get back together, much to the others' chagrin. ===== The Simpson children participate in the annual Easter celebration at Mayor Quimby's mansion. When Maggie is unable to gather any Easter eggs, Homer decides to take the other children's eggs. Maggie is delighted, but Hugs Bunny, who is refereeing the egg hunt, voices his immediate displeasure. Homer and Hugs get into a huge fight. Meanwhile, Marge goes on a tour of the mansion, led by Quimby's estranged wife, Martha Quimby, but things quickly go downhill when the fight spills into Quimby's office. Marge is embarrassed by Homer's childish actions, and her friends determine she is bad news and shun her. At home, Marge tells Homer exactly how she feels, and while Homer unsuccessfully tries to find some new friends for her, she meets some members of the Cheery Red Tomatoes while walking down a street. She quickly impresses the group's leader, Tammy (voiced by Lily Tomlin), and after participating in a few low-key meetings is soon invited to become a member of the women's group. However, when it comes time for the initiation, Tammy asks Marge to assist in their efforts to break into Burns's mansion to steal $1 million in Fabergé eggs. They explain they are a group that raises funds for charity, and that Burns once promised them that amount to donate to a children's hospital; however, at a press conference, the selfish millionaire announced he would keep the money for a life-extending procedure for himself. Marge is reluctant to go ahead with the burglary, however bad of a person Burns is, but when told her membership rides on her participation, she agrees to cast her morals aside. At home, Homer finds Marge's Tomatoes folder lying around the house and after rummaging through it, learns about the group's plans to break into Burns's safe. As he tries to get to the mansion to stop her, his reckless driving gets the attention of the police, who follow him, after leaving Officer Eddie behind to direct traffic. Meanwhile, Marge is able to sneak onto Burns's grounds through an air duct and unlock a gate; from there, the women crack open the safe and begin helping themselves to the Fabergé eggs that sit inside. As the women are leaving, Chief Wiggum and Burns arrive at the mansion to arrest the women. Homer arrives to stop Marge from doing something she might regret, but finds himself a prime suspect in the heist. However, once everything is explained, Marge realizes she does not need the group to make friends; after all, she already has one very special friend – Homer. The group returns the eggs to Burns, but Marge later reveals that she hid one in her hair and gives it to them before departing. Meanwhile, Lisa is seeking summer opportunities and decides on studying abroad in Rome. After meeting with Principal Skinner about it, Lisa realizes that she meets all but one of the requirements: being fluent in Italian. She tries to convince Principal Skinner that she speaks Italian, but the principal is skeptical. Rather than putting her on the spot, he decides to test Lisa later. This gives Lisa time to hire a tutor, who shockingly turns out to be Milhouse; Milhouse explains that ever since he was a baby, he spends some time in Tuscany every summer with his grandmother, Sophia, who only spoke to him in Italian, as she hated English due to being left pregnant by an American G.I. after World War II, whom is his uncle "bastardo." Milhouse is actually quite good at teaching Lisa, and before long, Lisa's speaking the language fluently and even develops a crush on Milhouse. However, just as it seems that Milhouse's unrequited feelings for Lisa are about to be reciprocated, she catches him with a girl named Angelica. This makes Lisa mad and she starts chasing him around while beating him up and cursing him in Italian, just like his grandmother did whenever he spoke in English to her. ===== At Rachel's request, Ross tells her one of his sexual fantasies: the scene from Return of the Jedi, where Princess Leia is in the gold bikini. He then gets upset when he finds out Rachel told Phoebe about the fantasy. Rachel tells Ross that girls tell each other everything, and she is surprised that guys do not do the same. He and Chandler later decide to try it, but Chandler overshares when he reveals that sometimes he sees his mother's face when he is with a woman. Ross gets back at Chandler by sharing this news to Joey, who reveals to Chandler that he always pictures Chandler's mom when he is having sex, much to his embarrassment. Rachel borrows a gold bikini outfit much like Princess Leia's to fulfill Ross's fantasy but, thanks to Chandler, Ross cannot stop picturing his own mother. Joey is annoyed to learn that Chandler has resumed his relationship with Janice and has no intention of breaking up with her this time. When Chandler buys tickets to the Rangers for the three of them, he confiscates the tickets because Joey cannot stand Janice, which is now a problem for Chandler as he is now crazy about her. Janice decides what Joey needs to get over his intense dislike of her is some bonding time and the two spend the day together. At the end of the day, Joey still cannot stand Janice but he tells Chandler he can now tolerate being in the same room as her, much to his relief. Monica tries to get over her breakup with Richard but she has not slept for three days and keeps finding things and going to places that remind her of their relationship. Phoebe tries to help her relax, but with minimal success. After she breaks down in tears at the post office her father comes to comfort her. He reveals that Richard is also suffering as a result of the breakup, worse than his divorce. The fact that Richard misses her too is enough for Monica to finally fall asleep. ===== Chandler (Matthew Perry) tricks Joey (Matt LeBlanc) into drinking chicken fat from a glass in Monica's (Courteney Cox) fridge. Ross (David Schwimmer) arrives to gather everyone together for an important function at his museum. Despite only 22 minutes remaining for them to don their formal attire, no one else is ready, apart from Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) who arrives fully dressed and ready to go. When Monica returns, she checks her answering-machine messages and hears a message from her ex- boyfriend Richard (Tom Selleck). She is unable to determine whether the message was left before or after they broke up. After Chandler comes back from the bathroom, he is dismayed to find that Joey took his chair while he was up. They argue over the chair until Joey accidentally flings hummus onto Phoebe's dress. She tries to ask Monica what gets out hummus, but Monica is too distracted with her own problems. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) then tries to find something else for Phoebe to wear, but is unsuccessful. In a fit of insecurity, Monica breaks into Richard's voicemail, and hears a message left by another woman, leading her to believe that Richard has already begun seeing someone else. Chandler suggests the woman might be Richard's daughter Michelle, and Monica confirms this by prank-calling her. Michelle calls her back, and Monica admits her indiscretions. She is unable to secure Michelle's silence on the matter, so Chandler and Phoebe are left yanking her off the second phone in her bedroom. Ross orders Chandler to get dressed. When he does, Joey surrenders the chair but takes its cushions with him. Phoebe eventually finds a Christmas ribbon meant to garnish a present in Rachel's room and wears that on her dress to cover the stain. Rachel is the only one almost ready to go, but she cannot decide on what to wear, trying Ross's patience. Eventually he snaps and yells at her in front of everyone, demanding that she pick out any outfit at all so that they can go. In response, Rachel emerges in sweat pants, having lost interest in attending the function. Unbeknownst to Joey, Chandler has already taken his revenge by hiding all of Joey's underwear, forcing him to go commando in a rented tux. Joey promises to do the "opposite" of Chandler hiding his underwear, and emerges wearing everything Chandler owns (and still sans underwear). Ross finally steps in and bans them from the function, and apologetically asks Rachel what he can do to make it up to her, to which Joey suggests that he drink the glass of chicken fat. Ross agrees, but Rachel stops him just in time. Overwhelmed by the depths of his love for her, she dresses in record time while Ross sorts out Joey and Chandler's argument, and Monica makes her final disastrous access to Richard's answering machine. She breaks into his voicemail again to erase all his messages and record a new one. However, she accidentally deletes and re- records his outgoing message, humiliating herself. Finally, Rachel and Ross are the only ones in the apartment, with five seconds to spare. They kiss, but Rachel hurries them out the door to make sure they are not late—but not before telling him she is going commando too. Over the credits, Professor Sherman Whitfield (Peter Dennis) joins Ross' table to congratulate him. When Chandler returns, he declares that Whitfield is in his seat, culminating in his demanding the professor's underwear. ===== Scrooge (played by Yosemite Sam) is counting money in the counting house of his firm when Bob Cratchit (Porky) comes in, wanting to borrow a lump of coal as he is freezing. Scrooge refuses ("I gave you one last Tuesday," he says; "You should've made it last.") and tells him to just work faster so he'll keep warm. Then Scrooge's nephew Fred (Bugs) comes in with Christmas decorations and mistletoe. He is tossed out, and decides that "somebody oughta teach that little humbug some Christmas spirit". Fred then borrows a piece of coal and places it in the office of Cratchit, who graciously thanks him. However, Scrooge's cat Sylvester notices this and warns him. Scrooge takes back the coal and fires Cratchit...throwing him out along with carolers (Elmer Fudd, Pepé Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn) whom Fred let into the office. Cratchit invites Fred to dinner and introduces him to his youngest son Tiny Tim (Tweety Bird). "Kinda puny, isn't he?" Bugs notes. "If you had to live on birdseed, you'd be puny too!" Tim retorts. Scrooge sends the light company to take the last candle (as Cratchit is past due) and a notice that the house is being foreclosed, forcing Cratchit to move out by midnight. Fred decides this is the last straw, remarking Bugs's catchphrase "Of course, you realize that this means war." First, Fred annoys Scrooge with more carolers. When Scrooge goes out to deal with this, he slips into a pile of snow. Next, he puts snow into Scrooge's hot bath, turning it ice-cold as Scrooge jumps in. Fred then dresses up as a ghost - specifically, Scrooge's late business partner Jacob Marley. As Marley, he drags around chains and beats a drum. Investigating, Scrooge accidentally slips down the stairs and into the cold along with Sylvester. When they return to bed, Marley reappears. Sylvester promptly flees, slamming the door behind him and cutting off Scrooge. Marley threatens to take Scrooge to see "the man in the red suit" (the Devil, though Scrooge first guesses Santa Claus). Scrooge promptly changes his ways for the better. To prove himself reformed, he dresses up as Santa Claus and runs through the streets at night - giving money to the poor, widows, orphans, and the like. He also rehires Bob Cratchit by making his new partner in the firm, succeeding Marley. Tweety raises a toast to him, and Fred kisses him. Scrooge (now going by the name of Sam) still hates kissing, though. This story is the first part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales. As the second one featuring Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner (Freeze Frame) begins, Bugs congratulates Sam for making Scrooge a charitable character, but Sam tells Bugs that it was all a play, and asks Porky and the gang to give all his money back to him. ===== 3,000 years ago, a warlord named Yaotl opens a portal into a parallel universe. The portal's energies grant Yaotl and his four sibling generals immortality, but the generals are turned to stone. The portal also releases 13 immortal monsters that destroy his army and his enemies while becoming the famous mythical monsters of legend as centuries pass. In the present, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have grown apart after defeating the Shredder; Master Splinter has sent Leonardo to Central America for training, where he protects a village from local bandits. Donatello works as an IT specialist, Michelangelo works as a birthday party entertainer called "Cowabunga Carl", and Raphael continues to fight crime at night as a masked vigilante known as the Nightwatcher, which he keeps a secret from his family and friends. The Turtles' old friend April O'Neil now operates a shipping company that locates and acquires relics for collectors, assisted by her boyfriend, Casey Jones. April travels to Central America for work and finds Leo, telling him that his brothers have drifted apart. She returns to New York City with a statue for wealthy tycoon Max Winters. Leo also returns, and April and Casey deliver the statue to Winters. Winters hires Shredder's former second-in-command, Karai and her ninja Foot Clan to search the city for the 13 monsters before the portal opens again. Raph encounters Casey, who reveals his knowledge of Raph's double identity and joins him in hunting criminals. Winters, who is actually Yaotl, reanimates his four stone generals using technology created by his company. Leo returns to the Turtles' sewer lair, reuniting with Splinter and his brothers. Splinter forbids the Turtles from fighting crime until they can act as a team again. While training, the Turtles encounter one of the 13 beasts, Bigfoot. The Turtles engage Bigfoot, going against Leonardo and Splinter's orders, and coming into conflict with the Foot Clan in the process. While the Turtles and Foot ninja fight, a fleeing Bigfoot is captured by the generals. The next day, Splinter sees a news report of the destruction left in the wake of the battle, and sharply reprimands his sons for disobeying him. Raphael later visits Casey, and they encounter Vampire Succubor, another of the monsters. They witness its capture by the Foot and the Stone Generals, but are spotted. Despite a successful escape, Raph is injured and knocked out. Casey takes Raph back to the apartment while April calls the other Turtles for help and realizes the identities of Yaotl and his generals. After being revived, Raph suggests they pursue Yaotl, but Leonardo forbids him to go until Splinter gives his permission. Raphael angrily quits the team and investigates alone. Leo, Donnie and Mikey plan their next move, and Donatello discovers the next portal will open over Winters' tower. Splinter tells Leonardo that his team is incomplete, and that he knows what he must do. After 11 monsters have been captured, General Aguila questions Yaotl's plans for them and the portal. Yaotl reveals that he wishes to free his generals from their stone prisons, and break the curse that keeps them alive. The generals conspire to betray Yaotl, wanting to remain immortal. As the Nightwatcher, Raph encounters the Jersey Devil, one of the remaining monsters, but drives it off. Leo, not recognizing his brother, pursues the Nightwatcher across the city, believing him to be nothing but an arrogant thug. After a brief fight, Leo discovers that Raph is the Nightwatcher. The brothers argue about how much things have changed since Leo left. Another fight breaks out, but when Raph breaks Leo's swords and almost runs his brother through with his sais, he flees in a fit of guilt and shame. The generals seize a weakened Leo, intending to substitute him for the 13th missing beast, and Raph decides to make amends by rescuing Leo. As the portal opens, Yaotl discovers his generals' treachery, while Splinter and the Turtles, accompanied by Casey and April, fight their way through the Foot Clan cordon and breach the tower. Yaotl admits to the heroes that he only wants to send the monsters back to where they came from, and the generals reveal that they intend to use the portal to bring in more monsters to conquer the world. Refusing to betray Yaotl in exchange for serving the Generals, Karai, April, Casey and the Foot Clan work together, searching for the final monster, the Sea Monster, while the Turtles fight the generals. Splinter and Yaotl fight off numerous monsters emerging from the portal. April, Casey, and Karai arrive at the tower with the Sea Monster. The Sea Monster crashes into the Generals, dragging them into the portal before it closes. Karai warns them to enjoy their victory while it lasts, cryptically claiming they will soon contend with faces from their past before vanishing. A now-mortal Yaotl honors Splinter and the Turtles, thanking them for fulfilling his wish before dissipating. Splinter places Yaotl's helmet among his trophy collection, as well as Raph's Nightwatcher helmet and Mikey's "Cowabunga Carl" head. As they return to their roles as the shadowy guardians of New York City, Raph says that the Turtles will always be brothers. ===== The world is in the throes of an energy crunch and the United States is on the brink of financial disaster. Desperate to find any solution that can save the nation from national bankruptcy, the President of the United States looks to Dirk Pitt and NUMA to pull off an audacious double salvage operation. ===== It is 1989 and the United States is in an economic decline because "From Franklin Roosevelt on, every chief executive has played a game of tag, pinning a multiplying financial burden on the office of his successor," (said by the POTUS in part 1) and by increasing scarcity of oil. CIA estimates put the depletion of the Middle East oilfields at just two years away. The total worldwide demand for oil is more than 50% of estimated supplies and while nuclear and other alternative energies are trying to make up the difference they are coming up short. Canada is now the exclusive supplier of electricity to 15 states in the Northeastern U.S. after investing billions in a massive new hydro-electric power plant in Quebec. To make matters worse, a top-secret experimental sub developed by NUMA has recently discovered a stratigraphic trap, potentially the richest kind of oil deposit, which lies just across the border in the territorial waters of Quebec. Radicals in Quebec resembling the FLQ, secretly led by French Canadian MP Henri Villon, are pushing for a referendum on the independence of Quebec from Canada. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Charles Sarveux fears that if Quebec declares independence Canada will disintegrate as the other provinces either follow Quebec into independence or possibly petition the U.S. for statehood. Heidi Milligan, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, is working on her PhD in history by researching the naval policies of President Woodrow Wilson between assignments. She stumbles across a reference to a "North American Treaty" in a long forgotten letter and is intrigued when she finds out that all traces of the treaty appear to have been erased from the National Archives. The North American Treaty, it is later revealed, was a landmark agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1914, the U.K. had found itself in economic hard times with a world war looming on the horizon. Fearing that the nation will not survive without a large infusion of capital, the British Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, with the cooperation of King George V, quietly approached the United States government and offered, for the sum of one billion dollars, to sell Canada to the United States. President Wilson quickly agreed and paid a down payment of $150 million to seal the deal. Tragedy strikes when, on the same day in May 1914, the American copy of the treaty plunges to the bottom of the Hudson River when the Manhattan Limited express passenger train attempts to cross a downed railroad bridge and the British copy plunges to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River when the liner RMS Empress of Ireland is accidentally rammed by a Norwegian collier. With both nation's copies of the treaty lost and the British cabinet outraged at having Canada sold off without their knowledge, Wilson orders all records of the treaty destroyed and records the $150 million payment as a war loan. Now that knowledge of the treaty has once again emerged, the President of the United States orders NUMA and Dirk Pitt to attempt to recover the copies of the treaty, which have both lain submerged for more than 70 years. The treaty becomes the cornerstone in the President’s plan to save the United States from national bankruptcy by proposing an audacious plan, to merge the United States and Canada into one nation, "the United States of Canada." The British see the loss of Canada to the United States as the start of the unacceptable and unthinkable disintegration of their Empire. If Canada is allowed to leave the Empire, so too might Australia, or even Wales and Scotland. The British Secret Intelligence Service recalls one of their best former agents, Brian Shaw, from retirement and orders him to keep an eye on the American salvage efforts and to ensure the destruction of the North American Treaty at all costs. The salvage team decides to try for the St Lawrence copy of the treaty on the grounds that this copy would have been packed in waterproof material to guard against the risk of damage on the sea voyage. Despite efforts by Shaw and hired thug Foss Gly to sabotage the project, the treaty is recovered, but it transpires that the waterproof covering was unable to withstand several decades of immersion and the document has turned to pulp. They then try to recover the Hudson copy, hoping that some freak of chance will have saved it from a similar fate. The atmosphere becomes increasingly panicked as extensive searches fail to discover any trace of the wrecked train, either in the wreckage of the bridge or elsewhere in the river. Extra suspense is provided by the mystery of the "ghost train" which on stormy nights howls up the abandoned trackbed and suddenly vanishes on reaching the site of the bridge. Pitt solves this particular mystery by chance - walking along the trackbed one night the "ghost train" passes him and he sees that it is faked by means of a locomotive headlight and a PA playing locomotive sounds running along a cableway strung above the trackbed. This gives him the clue as to the whereabouts of the real train - it was in fact the victim of an elaborate scheme to rob it of a cargo of bullion. One group of robbers demolished the bridge with black powder charges, then staged a holdup of the nearest station; while one of them kept the stationmaster at gunpoint on the floor, another, who remained outside, played a gramophone record of train sounds and flashed a lantern through the windows to give the impression of a passing train, misleading the stationmaster into thinking that he had failed to prevent the train tumbling off the downed bridge. In fact another group of robbers had hijacked the train further up the line, diverted it along a disused spur into an abandoned underground quarry, and then blown up the entrance to the quarry concealing the train and allowing them to remove the heavy load of bullion at their leisure through the quarry's old ventilation tunnels. Pitt locates the quarry and discovers that the robber gang had failed to ascertain whether the ventilation tunnels were actually passable; in fact they were flooded, trapping both robbers and train passengers in the quarry to starve to death. Pitt passes through the tunnels by means of diving equipment and finds the train. Shaw, meanwhile, has mined into the quarry from above and arrives at almost the same moment. There is a fight for the possession of the treaty - which is intact - and Pitt is victorious. Pitt races desperately to deliver the treaty to the President before he delivers a crucial address in which possession of the treaty will be decisive. He makes it by the skin of his teeth. The President receives the treaty, announces that from now on Canada and the U.S. will be united as "The United States of Canada". Heidi Milligan and Pitt say goodbye at John F. Kennedy Airport, where Pitt has arranged for Shaw (who is currently under arrest as an enemy agent) to also say goodbye. After Heidi leaves to board her plane, Pitt informs Shaw that he has arranged for Shaw's release and departure on the same plane with Heidi, claiming that "The President owes me a favor." Shaw releases himself from his handcuffs and Pitt remarks, "James Bond would have been proud of you ... I hear you two were quite close." ===== The first and last parts of the novel are set in Tep's Town, on the site of modern Los Angeles. The town consists of three classes: the Lords, the ruling class, who live in a separate area of the town; the kinless, essentially a slave class forbidden to carry weapons, descendants of a people conquered by the allied ancestors of the Lords and the Lordkin; and the Lordkin, proud, uneducated, undisciplined and indolent knife fighters organised into street gangs, who live by "gathering" whatever they wish from the kinless. The Lords supervise the kinless and placate the Lordkin. The kinless are unarmed and untrained in the use of weapons, and cannot resist the Lordkin. Some leave the town, but the surrounding vegetation is malevolent. The town is the base of a fire god, Yangin-Atep, who possesses the Lordkin every few years to burn the town down and rape any kinless woman they can catch. The main character, Whandall, is an 11-year-old Lordkin boy severely beaten unto scarring and broken bones by Lordsmen (police) for associating with a Lord girl and illegally entering the segregated Lord's Hills. As an adult he becomes a product of his culture — a thief, a rapist, and a murderer, but, strangely, not without regret, not without honor, and not without the reader's sympathy. He teams up with an ex-Atlantis wizard and some kinless and they escape from the city. Beyond the city they find traders and Whandall founds a successful trading empire. Eventually, he returns to the city to establish a trade route there, and defeats Yangin-Atep. In the epilogue the authors add further information to the timeline of the described reality: long after the described events, the savage people who became the "so-called Native Americans" appear on the stage and wipe out the existing civilization, including horses (and presumably cats and wheels) in their conquest of the Americas. ===== As it opens, tensions are rising between the Oldtimers, those dragonriders who came forward in time 400 turns (Pernese years) to help the undermanned contemporary dragonriders protect the planet Pern and its inhabitants from the destructive Thread. F'nor (rider of Canth, a Brown dragon that rivals the size of the Bronze dragons) attempts to mediate, but things escalate to the point that an Oldtimer, T'reb (who is disturbed by his green dragon being in heat), stabs F'nor. F'nor is sent to the Southern Continent to recover, where he falls in love with Brekke and discovers the wicked deeds of Weyrwoman Kylara. F'lar, F'nor's half- brother, is eventually forced into a duel with T'ron, the leader of the Oldtimers, which ends in banishment for the Oldtimers who will not accept F'lar's leadership and in a grave injury for F'lar. Brekke's queen dragon (Wirenth) rises in mating flight but is attacked by Kylara's queen dragon (Prideth), and both dragons die, leaving their riders in near-catatonic states. Only Brekke recovers, mostly because she can hear other dragons (besides her own queen, Wirenth). With the Lords Holder adamant that the dragonriders attempt to eliminate Thread at its source, F'nor attempts to direct himself and his dragon, Canth, to the Red Star, but they find the atmosphere inhospitable, and they fall back to Pern, badly injured. Brekke's cry for F'nor not to leave her was also the inspiration for a song by Menolly, after she found that a certain guitar chord sounded amazingly like Brekke's voice when she screamed. This is chronicled in Dragonsinger. ===== The story follows immediately from the final scene of Renegades of Pern, in which the Admin building from Pern's first generation of colonists is discovered, along with an advanced computer called AIVAS (Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System), at the Landing site that is being excavated. AIVAS has remained undisturbed since the events of Dragonsdawn some 2500 years earlier and, in addition to holding a huge volume of stored information long since lost to the Pernese society, claims to be able to eliminate the threat of Thread forever. The Weyrs, led by Lessa and F'lar, enthusiastically embrace this possibility, and with the support of the Holds (led in particular by Jaxom) and the Crafthalls (championed by Masterharper Robinton) proceed to implement the ambitious plan under the careful guidance of AIVAS. Aivas itself had been programmed to speak with a masculine-analogue, inquisitive, somewhat humorous personality, which gave the impression of a light-hearted counsellor to the Pernese, who have no real concept of what artificial intelligence entails. Over the course of the next four years, Pernese society systematically regains much technology that was lost to the colonists in early attempts to survive Threadfall, including marvels such as electricity, plastics manufacture, heating & cooling, printing presses, and surgery. Although most technological development focuses on the tools and knowledge needed to eliminate the threat of Thread, there are huge developments in the areas of Medicine and Science, and along the way new Crafthalls are created, including the Print Hall, Paper Hall, Computer Hall, and Dolphin Hall (this last occurs in a parallel story later in the series The Dolphins of Pern). The phenomenal advancements in technology lead to a kind of culture shock, manifesting in certain traditionalist elements among the Pernese who label AIVAS an "Abomination" that is corrupting their society. This dissenting opinion results in attempts to sabotage AIVAS itself and the projects it initiates, culminating in the kidnapping of the beloved Masterharper Robinton in an attempt to ransom his life for the destruction of AIVAS. When the conspirators responsible for the kidnapping are brought to justice, two Lords Holder and a Craftmaster are among those sentenced to exile for the crime. The Weyrs, Holds, and Halls are successful in carrying out AIVAS's plan to transfer the anti-matter engines from the ships used to colonize Pern to the Red Star, and detonate them. The explosion alters the Red Star's orbit, eliminating the configuration that allowed Thread to land on Pern. AIVAS earlier reveals to Jaxom that in order for the project to succeed, he must lead the other Dragonriders into using the lesser-known Draconic capability to transfer between time to deposit two of the three engines 1800 and 600 years in the past. Only the cumulative effect of three interspersed explosions will provide sufficient force to alter the planet's orbit. Jaxom's Ruth, who has an unusually precise ability to know exactly his location in time, is the only Dragon capable of performing this feat. In parallel to the primary task to alter the Red Star's orbit, a team of medical researchers led by Masterhealers Oldive and Sharra develop an improved parasitic vector which is capable of infecting the space-born Ovoids that are the precursors to Thread. During the course of the three engine-transfer missions, Green Dragons are deployed to seed the surface of the Red Star with these infected Ovoids so that they can be dragged back to infect the Oort Cloud, which is the origin of Thread in the Pernese system. The combination of Jaxom's time travel and this infestation is responsible for the two Long Intervals in the history of Pern wherein Thread failed to appear. The book concludes with a final conversation between AIVAS and Masterharper Robinton, with AIVAS expressing both satisfaction that its objective of eradicating future Threadfall has been achieved and concern over the possibility that Pernese society could come to idolize the facility as an all-knowing Oracle, thereby stifling further development. To prevent the latter, AIVAS deactivates its artificial intelligence functions, leaving its wealth of knowledge available to the Pernese via computer access, but without the crutch of AIVAS' direct guidance. Robinton, whose health has declined since the kidnapping, and himself satisfied that Pern has a promising future ahead, passes away in his sleep alongside his fire-lizard Zair. ===== Three years after the death of a young man, Liam Lombard (Jeremy Brennan), the story flashes forward to assess the toll it has taken on his parents, brother, and ex-girlfriend, all set against the backdrop of suburban Sydney. Jordan Lombard (Steve Rodgers) is a broken man, now hideously obese and unable to function. His once happy marriage is skidding hopelessly out of control. His wife Penelope (Noni Hazlehurst) is trapped in routine, devoid of self-respect. Her pain only deepens with the onset of menopause. This humiliation has driven her straight into the arms of another, younger, man. Their surviving son Ben (Christopher Weekes) has developed a peculiar relationship with the local boy Matt (Matthew Newton). Though an unlikely pair, a romance has begun to blossom. As Ben’s sexuality comes further into question, he turns his attentions to the girl next-door Indigo (Leeanna Walsman), his dead brothers former lover. Never quite the same since his death, her destructive relationship with a married man, Greg (Gary Sweet), is fading as is her relationship with her mother Jackie (Penne Hackforth-Jones). As Ben sets out to woo her in his own twisted fashion, including dressing like an old neighbour, Indigo comes to find he might be her one true friend. Then history repeats. Jordan suffers a heart attack, shaking his family to their core. In the middle of a night, three years on from the death of her son, Penelope fights for her husband at a hospital bedside. Desperate to reclaim his life, Jordan races to quit his oppressive job in spectacular and uncharacteristic fashion on his bosses doorstep. When Jordan finally gets home that night – he crumbles in his wife’s arms - a second chance now awarded. Meanwhile, Ben makes his way to a lonely bus, planning to skip the city with Indigo. While there, he impulsively reaches over and kisses her, hoping all his questions might finally be answered. But there’s nothing. Liam is no longer the driving force of their lives. So as Ben races off to Matt, Penelope kisses her loving husband goodnight and Indigo begins her adventure from the back seat of a bus, they all finally see a road promised ahead, one with hope and the lessons learnt of living.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448205/synopsis ===== Two old brothers, Moe and Pa, have lived together for their whole life and are content with their daily and weekly routine. This is disturbed later by the arrival of Pa's grown-up and disabled son Konrad, whose existence (due to a two-day trip of Pa to Småland, the only time Pa and Moe were separated) was unknown to Moe. The weirdness of Konrad and the jealousy of Moe and Konrad then disturb the routine, and Moe leaves home in the end. ===== In a fairy tale, Princess Moanna, whose father is the king of the underworld, visits the human world, where the sunlight blinds her and erases her memory. She becomes mortal and eventually dies. The king believes that eventually, her spirit will return to the underworld, so he builds labyrinths, which act as portals, around the world in preparation for her return. In 1944 Francoist Spain, ten-year-old Ofelia travels with her pregnant but sickly mother Carmen to meet Captain Vidal, her new stepfather. Vidal, the son of a famed commander who died in Morocco, believes strongly in Falangism and has been assigned to hunt down republican rebels. A large stick insect, which Ofelia believes to be a fairy, leads Ofelia into an ancient stone labyrinth, but she is stopped by Vidal's housekeeper Mercedes, who is secretly supporting her brother Pedro and other rebels. That night, the insect appears in Ofelia's bedroom, where it transforms into a fairy and leads her through the labyrinth. There, she meets a faun, who believes she is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna. He gives her a book and tells her she will find in it three tasks to complete in order for her to acquire immortality and return to her kingdom. Ofelia completes the first task — retrieving a key from the belly of a giant toad — but becomes worried about her mother, whose condition is worsening. The faun gives Ofelia a mandrake root, instructing her to keep it under Carmen's bed in a bowl of milk and regularly supply it with blood, which seems to ease Carmen's illness. Accompanied by three fairy guides and equipped with a piece of magic chalk, Ofelia then completes the second task — retrieving a dagger from the lair of the Pale Man, a child-eating monster. Although warned not to consume anything there, she eats two grapes, awakening the Pale Man. He devours two of the fairies and chases Ofelia, but she manages to escape. Infuriated at her disobedience, the faun refuses to give Ofelia the third task. During this time, Ofelia quickly becomes aware of Vidal's ruthlessness in the course of hunting down the rebels. After he erroneously murders two local farmers detained on suspicion of aiding the rebels, Vidal interrogates and tortures a captive rebel. He asks Doctor Ferreiro to tend to the captive, whom Ferreiro then euthanises at the rebel's own urging. Realising that Ferreiro is a rebel collaborator, Vidal kills him. Vidal later catches Ofelia tending to the mandrake root, which he considers delusional. Carmen agrees and throws the root into the fire. She immediately develops painful contractions and dies giving birth to Vidal's son. Mercedes, having been discovered to be a spy, tries to escape with Ofelia, but they are caught. Ofelia, mistaken as a traitor, is locked in her bedroom, while Mercedes is taken to be interrogated and tortured. Mercedes frees herself, stabs Vidal, and re-joins the rebels. The faun, having changed his mind about giving Ofelia a chance to perform the third task, returns and tells her to bring her newborn brother into the labyrinth to complete it. Ofelia successfully retrieves the baby and flees into the labyrinth. Vidal pursues her as the rebels launch an attack on the outpost. Ofelia meets the faun at the centre of the labyrinth. The faun suggests drawing a small amount of the baby's blood, as completing the third task and opening the portal to the underworld requires the blood of an innocent, but Ofelia refuses to harm her brother. Vidal finds her talking to the faun, whom he cannot see. The faun leaves, and Vidal takes the baby from Ofelia's arms before shooting her. Vidal returns to the labyrinth's entrance, where he is surrounded by rebels, including Mercedes and Pedro. Knowing that he will be killed, he hands the baby to Mercedes and asks that she tell his son the exact time of his death. Mercedes refuses, telling him that his son will not even know his name. Pedro then shoots Vidal dead. Mercedes enters the labyrinth and comforts a motionless but breathing Ofelia. Drops of Ofelia's blood fall down the centre of the spiral stone staircase onto an altar. Ofelia, well dressed and uninjured, then appears in a golden throne room. The King of the underworld tells her that, by choosing to spill her own blood rather than that of another innocent, she passed the final test. The faun praises Ofelia for her choice, addressing her once more as "Your Highness". The Queen of the underworld, her mother, invites Ofelia to sit next to her father and rule at his side. Back in the stone labyrinth, Ofelia smiles as she dies in Mercedes' arms. The epilogue completes the tale of Princess Moanna, stating that she returned to the Underworld, ruled wisely for many centuries, and left quiet traces of her time in the human realm "visible only to those who know where to look." ===== In Toronto, Peter is an 18-year- old boy who dislikes the middle-class comfort of his family life, headed by his father, who sells cars for $300 per commission, and what he perceives as society's general fixation on profit. He has a girlfriend, Julie, whose parents dislike him, and his own parents feel he spends too much time with her, at the expense of his school work. Peter steals his father's company's car and rides with Julie, only to be arrested for dangerous driving without a licence. He starts meeting with a probation officer weekly, and also leaves home to rent his own place, and finds work. Unable to make much money, he pressures Julie to find a job. She comes to his residence after a fight with her parents and demands they leave Toronto, telling Peter to borrow money from his father. Peter meets his father at the car dealership, only to find him incensed with Peter's appearance. His father tells him he is a bad investment and he does not want to see him any more. Peter subsequently steals money and a car to leave with Julie. When Julie realizes the truth about Peter's theft, she tells him she is pregnant and that she can't raise her baby with him. ===== (After spending a short amount of time 2001, the film uses a non-linear structure through extensive use of flashbacks and timeskips of indeterminate duration, including flashbacks within flashbacks. However, each of the sequences, 2001 and 1996, occur roughly in order.) Summer of 1996 Ji-hwan is an amateur photographer working part-time at his older friend's cafe. Two young women enter and when they leave Ji-hwan chases after them, declaring his love for Soo-in. Soo-in feels uncomfortable and Ji-hwan leaves only to shortly return holding a clock over his face with a note saying he has wound back time so that in the future they can meet again as friends as if his declaration of love never happened. The girls turn up at his workplace unannounced and they bond. After Ji-hwan stands up for Soo-in against two men disturbing her at the movie, all three quote a line from the movie (Il Postino) "I'm in love. It hurts but I want it to go on hurting." with both the girls appearing to be developing feelings for Ji-hwan. Soo-in enlists Ji- hwan's help in dating the guy who works at a manhwa store, only she later tells Ji-hwan she has changed her mind as the man is insincere. (However, near the end of the film the guy is seen re-reading a note she wrote to him and he has a photo of her taped to his army bunk.) The trio take a magazine personality test and unseen by either of the other two, Gyung-hee is secretly happy when her personality and Ji-hwan's are seen as a good match. However, the cafe owner comes along and says how lucky the other two to have found love, a sentiment that hurts Gyung-hee. Gyung-hee and Soo-in fight which confuses Soo-in. They soon reconcile and runaway to go on a road trip, asking Ji-hwan along. During the trip, Soo-in watches Ji-hwan sleep and caresses a mole on his ear. In the morning she is absent and Ji-hwan nearly kisses a sleeping Gyung-hee. Going outside he asks Soo-in about her first love. She says it was a young boy at hospital when she was a young girl. They both spent a long time there but he never complained and kept her spirits up. She told the boy they would swap names so that even if they separated they would still be connected. Admiring the scenery in the rain trio promise to return in winter. Soo-in becomes ill due to the rain. While she rests alone in a hotel room, Gyung-hee cries, scolds Ji-hwan for being disturbed by seeing her cry (she is normally cheerful) and then she leans in and kisses him. After returning to Seoul, Soo-in is still ill and the other two go out with Ji-hwan commenting it's like a date. Gyung-hee becomes uncomfortable, insists they change plans and go drinking, then scolds Ji-hwan for acting like her boyfriend when he isn't. She storms off. Later, the girls attend a party at Ji-hwan's work. Ji-hwan comments that it is taking forever for her to get over her cold. Soo-in sings a love song about the three of them and then leaves early, asking Ji-hwan to walk with her. She touches his face to remember it. Before Gyung-hee leaves, Ji-hwan writes a note addressed to Soo-in declaring his love for Gyung-hee. He expects Gyung-hee to read it and includes lines written to her. He gives it to Gyung-hee to give to Soo-in. Thinking it is a love letter to Soo-in, when he has gone Gyung-hee starts to open it but then tears it up. Some time later, Gyung-hee visits Soo-in in the intensive care unit. Soo-in reads aloud a letter that she wrote to Gyung-hee. She says she has been brave while receiving treatment and that she was expecting Gyung-hee and Ji-hwan to come to her as a couple. It gets too much for Gyung-hee who says she'll read it later. Soo-in gives Gyung-hee a wax-sealed letter to be given to Ji-hwan. Late autumn or winter 1996 Ji-hwan has not seen his friends for months and he is chided by his boss for not getting their addresses or phone numbers despite all the time they spent together. Ji-hwan receives a phone call and meets Gyung-hee for a drink. He immediately asks about her injured right hand which she dismisses as just an injury. When he asks about Soo-in she tells him they became uncomfortable around him, he says the same about them, and tells her to go if she has nothing else to say. She leaves, he stays and gets drunk. When he leaves he falls down, punches the ground in anger and falls asleep. He awakes in his bedroom with his hand bandaged. (A brief flashback occurring later shows Gyung-hee tending to his injury in his bedroom while he is asleep, kissing him, then leaving.) 2001 Ji-hwan opens yet another handmade envelope containing only a black and white photo with no sender information on or in the envelope. He visits his former workplace, a cafe, where his friend the owner returns to him a box of photographs. Ji-hwan decides to track down his former friends, Gyung-hee and Soo-in, two young women whom he has not seen for five years. Going to their high school, a teacher who was their classmate tells him that both girls missed a lot of school as they were very sick. She says Gyung-hee died five years ago and Soo- in left Seoul after that. Ji-hwan goes to the small town where the envelopes are postmarked but the postman denies any knowledge of the sender. (However, in a brief flashback the postman is seen to sneak into a woman's house and take one of the envelopes from under her bed. In voiceover, the postman says he is in love with the woman, that he wonders why she has a suitcase full of the letters, and that he will deliver the letter because he's a postman.) Walking around the town Ji-hwan hears children calling his name, only to find it is the name of their dog. A neighbour of the woman from whose house the envelopes are taken from tells her they have found Ji-hwan. The woman goes out expecting to see her dog but instead she is greeted by her former friend and Ji-hwan sees that Gyung-hee is still alive, albeit not looking as vibrant as she did five years ago. They touch faces as Soo-in had touched Ji-hwan's face when they last met. She accompanies Ji-hwan to the wedding of the cafe owner where they make a wonderful couple. Other flashbacks * When Soo-in dies, Gyung-hee hops onto her bed and hugs her friend. ** A flashback inside the flashback shows that the young boy in the hospital in Soo-in's story was actually a young girl, Gyung-hee, and that Soo-in hid in Gyung-hee's bed prior to Gyung-hee's surgery. * The two girls swapped names as children, but the school used their official names. So, when the teacher said Gyung-hee died she was referring to the woman Ji-hwan (and the rest of the movie) called Soo-in. * Immediately following Soo-in's funeral, so she could wind it back like Ji- hwan had done, Gyung-hee punched a clock to break its glass cover, injuring her right hand prior to calling Ji-hwan. After the wedding Alone, Ji-hwan opens another envelope. It contains the sealed letter Soo-in wrote on her deathbed, saying she thinks she will be dying soon and giving him advice on how to date Gyung-hee.(In the flashback showing the letter being written, Soo- in draws a mark on her father's ear to match Ji-hwan's so that her dad will look more handsome.) The envelope also contains a letter from Gyung-hee. She confesses that she tore up his letter to Soo-in. She thanks him for his kindness and for passing on the love of photography to her. She thanks him for accepting her awkward kiss a long time ago. Then she says that she has been feeling very weak and has told her dad about what she wants at her funeral, including her beloved Ji-hwan. The camera pans to the beautiful blue sky, her voiceover says that she will be seeing Soo-in soon. "Goodbye Ji-hwan. I loved you before and I love you now. Goodbye." The last shot is the trio in happier times, a photo taken on their road trip. ===== Based on a true story out of Wisconsin, Farmer Vincent Smith and his younger sister Ida live on a farm with an attached motel, named "Motel Hello" (but the neon "O" flickers, turning the name into "Motel Hell"). Vincent's renowned smoked meats are actually human flesh. He sets traps on nearby roads to catch victims. He buries the victims up to their necks in his "secret garden", then cuts their vocal cords to prevent them from screaming. They are kept in the ground and fed until they're ready for "harvest". Ida helps Vincent, as they both see the victims as animals. Vincent shoots out the front tire of a couple's motorcycle. The male, Bo, is placed in the garden, but Vincent brings the female, Terry, to the motel. Sheriff Bruce, Ida and Vincent's naive brother, arrives the next morning. Vincent tells Terry her boyfriend died in the accident and was buried. A trip to the graveyard shows his crude grave marker. With nowhere to go, Terry decides to stay at the motel. She gradually becomes attracted to Vincent's honest manner and folksy charm, much to Bruce's dismay, who tries to woo her without success. Vincent captures more victims by placing wooden cardboards of cows in the middle of the highway to cause his victims to stop, allowing him to capture them. He also places a fake ad and lures in a pair of swingers, believing the hotel to be a swing joint. The next day, Vincent suggests he teach Terry to smoke meat. Ida becomes jealous and attempts to drown Terry, but Vincent arrives to save her. This causes Terry to fall in love with him completely, and she tries to seduce Vincent. Vincent denies her advances, saying they must marry first. She agrees to marry the following day. Bruce visits the motel to protest Terry's choice. He tells Terry that Vincent has "syphilis of the brain". Vincent arrives and drives off his brother with a shotgun. Vincent, Terry, and Ida drink champagne, but Ida drugs Terry's glass and she faints. Ida and Vincent then prepare some victims for the wedding. Meanwhile, Bruce investigates the disappearances and becomes suspicious of his brother. Vincent and Ida kill three victims and take them to the slaughterhouse. As they remove the victims' bodies, the dirt around Bo loosens and he begins to escape. Bruce sneaks back to the motel to rescue Terry, but Ida returns. She ambushes Bruce and knocks him out, then holds Terry at gunpoint to the meat processing plant where Vincent reveals his secret. Terry is horrified by the prospect of smoking human flesh. Meanwhile, Bo escapes and frees the other victims from the garden. Ida goes back to the motel to get something to eat, but the victims attack her and knock her out. Terry tries to escape, but Vincent gases her and ties her to a conveyor belt. He is interrupted by Bo, who crashes through a window, but Vincent strangles the weakened Bo. Bruce awakens and finds one of his brother's shotguns. He goes to the plant but finds that his brother has armed himself with a giant chainsaw and placed a pig's head over his own as a gruesome mask. Vincent disarms his brother, but Bruce grabs his own chainsaw and duels Vincent. During the fight, the belt restraining Terry is activated, sending her slowly to a cutting blade. Despite his wounds, Bruce drives the chainsaw deep into Vincent's side. Bruce frees Terry and returns to Vincent. He gasps his final words, leaving the farm and "secret garden" to Bruce and lamenting his own hypocrisy for using preservatives. Bruce and Terry go to the "secret garden" and find only Ida, who is buried head first. As they leave the motel, Bruce comments he is glad he left home when he was eleven. Terry suggests burning the motel, claiming it's evil. The neon sign saying "Motel Hello" fully short- circuits, permanently darkening the "O". ===== In 500 CE, Hrothgar, king of Denmark, and a group of warriors chase a large and burly man, whom they consider a troll, and his young son, who already bears cheek and chin whiskers, to the edge of a steep seaside cliff. The father directs his young son, Grendel, to hide from the attackers' view; whereupon The Danes shoot the father dead, and his dead body plunges onto the beach far below. The Danish king sees the young Grendel, but spares him. Later, Grendel finds his father's body and cuts the head off to take it home. Many years later, the severed (and mummified) head is inside a cave, apparently the centerpiece of a primitive memorial. The boy Grendel has now become as large and powerful as his father, and contemplating the head, he plans revenge. When Hrothgar finds twenty of his warriors killed inside his great hall, the Danish king falls into a depression. Beowulf, with the permission of Hygelac, king of Geatland, sails to Denmark with thirteen Geats to slay Grendel for Hrothgar. The arrival of Beowulf and his warriors is welcomed by Hrothgar, but the king's village has fallen into a deep despair and many of the pagan villagers convert to Christianity at the urging of an Irish monk. While Grendel does raid Hrothgar's village during the night, he flees rather than fight. Selma the witch tells Beowulf that Grendel will not fight him because Beowulf has committed no wrong against him. A villager, recently baptized and thus now unafraid of death, leads Beowulf and his men to the cliff above Grendel's cave. When the villager is found dead, Beowulf and his men return with a rope and gain entry to Grendel's secret cave, where one of Beowulf's men mutilates the mummified head of Grendel's father. That night, Grendel invades Hrothgar's great hall, kills the Geat who desecrated his father's head, and leaps from the second story, but is caught in a trap by Beowulf. Grendel, refusing capture, escapes by severing his captive arm, and dies near the site of his father's death, where his body is claimed by a mysterious webbed hand. Thereafter Hrothgar admits to Beowulf that he had killed Grendel's father for stealing a fish but had spared the child Grendel out of pity. Grendel's severed arm is kept by the Danes as a trophy. In revealing more about Grendel, Selma recounts that Grendel had once clumsily raped her and has protected her since that day; and Beowulf becomes her paramour. The Danes are later attacked by Grendel's mother, the Sea Hag. Beowulf slays her with a sword from among her treasure, and then notices that the battle had been observed by the child of Grendel and Selma. Later Beowulf, with Grendel's son watching, buries Grendel with ceremony. Shortly thereafter, Beowulf and his band of Geats leave Denmark by ship, having warned Selma that she must hide her son, lest the Danes destroy him. ===== In Edinburgh in 1831, Mrs. Marsh (Rita Corday) visits the house of Dr. Wolfe "Toddy" MacFarlane (Henry Daniell), seeking a cure for her paraplegic daughter Georgina (Sharyn Moffett). MacFarlane suggests surgery for the girl, but insists that he cannot perform the operation himself because his teaching position keeps him too busy. Later that night, MacFarlane's prized student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) tells the doctor he cannot afford to continue his studies. MacFarlane offers Fettes a job as a lab assistant to help with an experiment he is planning. Fettes is awakened in the middle of the night by John Gray (Karloff), a cab driver and graverobber, who has arrived to deliver a corpse to MacFarlane to dissect in one of his classes. Later, MacFarlane and Fettes go to an inn and run into Gray, who threatens to reveal MacFarlane's "dark secret" if he does not operate on Georgina. MacFarlane initially agrees, but later tries to renege on his promise. Fettes asks Gray to get another human specimen so Georgina might have hope of walking again. After visiting Gray, Fettes gives a coin to a blind street singer (Donna Lee). He is shocked when Gray arrives later at the lab with the corpse of the singer. Fettes shows MacFarlane the body and accuses Gray of murder. The conversation is overheard by Joseph (Lugosi), MacFarlane's other assistant. MacFarlane tells Fettes that he could be arrested as an accomplice and advises him not to notify the police. Georgina recovers from the surgery, but she is still unable to walk. MacFarlane is tortured by his failure, and goes to the inn to drown his sorrows. Gray shows up and torments him about their "secret". Joseph visits Gray and attempts to blackmail him to keep quiet about his body-snatching operation. Gray tells Joseph the story of the infamous murderers Burke and Hare, and reveals that they procured bodies for Dr. Knox, MacFarlane's mentor. Gray promises to pay Joseph, but smothers him to death when the other man allows him to get too close. Later, he delivers the body to MacFarlane's lab as a "gift". Meg Camden (Edith Atwater), MacFarlane's housekeeper and secret wife, tells Fettes that Gray admitted to robbing graves during the Burke and Hare trial to shield the real perpetrator - MacFarlane. Later, MacFarlane offers Gray money to stop tormenting him. Gray refuses to take the bribe, and vows that the doctor will never be rid of him. Enraged, MacFarlane beats Gray to death. Fettes meets with Mrs. Marsh and Georgina. The girl hears horses nearby and stands up to see them; the operation was a success after all. Fettes rushes to tell MacFarlane the good news, but Meg tells him that the doctor has gone to another town to sell Gray's horse and carriage. Fettes finds MacFarlane at a tavern. He tells Fettes that he plans to rob a freshly dug grave. Fettes sees no alternative than to assist the doctor, and they load the unearthed corpse onto Gray's carriage. As they drive through a storm, MacFarlane hears Gray taunting him from the back of the carriage. He stops the carriage and orders Fettes to check the body. When he uncovers the body and shines a light on it, MacFarlane sees Gray's corpse. The horses, spooked by the storm, bolt. The carriage breaks loose and falls over a cliff with MacFarlane and the corpse. Fettes looks down at the wreck and sees MacFarlane's corpse, next to that of a woman.Hanson, AFI Catalog, p. 270. ===== One month after the events of Metal Slug 3, the threatening presence of General Morden looms over the world once again. Marco Rossi and Tarma Roving of the Peregrine Falcon unit reunites with Eri Kasamoto and Fio Germi of SPARROWS as the quartet is ordered to investigate Morden's latest plan, being joined by two new allies named Ralf Jones and Clark Still of the Ikari Warriors. Together, they proceed into the mountains where Morden's Rebel Army has established an outpost. After destroying their latest war machine in a long hillside battle, the six soldiers confront Morden and discover that he has rebuilt his alliance with the Martians. However, it is soon revealed that the Martians themselves are being invaded and eaten by a new dangerous race of aliens called Invaders and they have turned to Morden for help. As the Invaders invade Earth's cities, the soldiers fight them off and chase them into the desert, where the Invader Queen has established a nest. With help from the Rebels, they rescue the captured Martians and succeed in destroying the Invader Queen. ===== Ovidiu Gorea is a jaded, mid-40s, high-school teacher and novice writer, still living with his parents. He has just published a collection of short stories called 'Nobody Dies For Free', that the bookstores reject because no one buys it. The high school principal asks him to deal with a problem-student, Robert. Ovidiu has Robert call one of his parents for talks, but the boy sends his sister, Diana, a gorgeous teenager, instead. Ovidiu is smitten. He convinces Diana to go on a date with him, but what he thinks will be a quiet evening over coffee turns into a bar-hopping binge that leaves him nearly broke. One night, he meets a shabby-looking drunk beggar who offers to recite poems in exchange for vodka. The two start talking and Ovidiu learns that the guy makes two or three times more money than him in a month out of this. He asks for an explanation and the beggar refers him to the Filantropica Foundation. Located in a desolate basement, the Filantropica Foundation is actually the lair of Bucharest's beggars' leader, Pavel Puiuţ. A former convict, he realized that begging leads nowhere "unless there is a touching story behind the hand that begs", so he created an organized network of beggars, each with an invented, tear-jerking, background story that yields millions. Puiuţ listens to Ovidiu's story and thinks he is perfect for his new "project". He pairs Ovidiu with Miruna, his secretary, and sends them to high-profile restaurants, where, in collusion with a waiter, they pose as a couple of poor teachers celebrating their wedding anniversary who find, at the end of their dinner, that they don't have enough money to cover the check; Ovidiu is responsible with making a scene that would strike a chord with one of the rich people present, who would pick up their check out of pity; later, out in the back, Ovidiu, Miruna and the waiter would split the money. After several such performances, Ovidiu makes enough money to impress the material Diana. He rents a roadster, takes her to lakeshore clubs, his sole purpose being sleeping with her. The reluctant Puiuţ even gives him access to the foundation's "show-house" (a day- rental house meant to impress third parties), but a poorly timed customer call gives Ovidiu's cover away and an angry Diana leaves him. Meanwhile, Miruna falls for her partner in crime and is angry that he keeps "bitching" about that "bimbo", instead of going for a "real woman". She manages to get him into her bed and Ovidiu is surprised to find out she is a former prostitute. The scam goes terribly wrong when Ovidiu and Miruna go to a karaoke bar, where their scene has no effect and the waiter, who is not in on it, takes Ovidiu to the back and beats him. Puiuţ then unveils the grand purpose of his "project": he sets the unsuspecting Ovidiu to appear with Miruna "in character" on a popular TV night show and tell the karaoke bar beating story; he then calls, pretends of being revolted and announces that his foundation has opened an account for people who want to offer money for the "poor teachers". Meanwhile, in school, Ovidiu is visited by two thugs who ask him about Robert, who owes $3,000 to "a person" and who only has two days to make good. Ovidiu withdraws the amount from the foundation's account, calls Diana and gives her the money for her brother. She pretends being impressed and teases Ovidiu by telling him to visit her later that night. Naturally, she deceives him once more, by leaving the city in the afternoon. To top it off, Ovidiu finds Robert in a park, turned into a beggar, who tells him that "Diana" was not his sister, just some "chick". Now $3,000 short, Ovidiu goes home to find the media and Puiuţ claiming he has just won the big prize in the lottery. It is again one of Puiuţ's scams, who reminds Ovidiu he "has him" because of the $3,000. Ovidiu accepts his fate and Miruna as his wife. The movie has an ominous ending, with Puiuţ finding Robert in the street, convincing him to join his operation and then breaking the fourth wall: "Do you feel pity for this piece of trash? Hah! Got your money!". ===== Mary Stuart (drawing by Arthur von Ramberg (1859)) Mary Stuart is imprisoned in England — nominally for the murder of her husband Darnley, but actually due to her claim to the throne of England held by Queen Elizabeth I. While Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, hesitates over signing Mary's death sentence, Mary hopes for a reprieve. After Mary finds out that Mortimer (created by Schiller), the nephew of her custodian, is on her side, she entrusts her life to him. Mortimer is supposed to give Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, a letter from Mary, in which she pleads for help. This is a delicate situation, for Leicester seems to support Queen Elizabeth. After numerous requests, Mary finally gains the opportunity to meet Queen Elizabeth (something that, in reality, never happened). This meeting ends in an acrimonious argument, caused by Mary's unwillingness to submit entirely to Elizabeth's wish. The argument leads to the inevitable suspicion that the cause of reprieve will not succeed. To complicate matters further, Mortimer plans to free Mary from the prison by force, a dramatized version of the unsuccessful Babington Plot, but when his attempt is found out, he commits suicide, while the Earl of Leicester uses this convenient suicide to rescue himself from suspicion. Queen Elizabeth eventually persuades herself to sign Mary's death warrant. Elizabeth insists that her only reason for signing is the pressure from her own people to do so. The signed warrant is handed to Queen Elizabeth's undersecretary William Davison without any clear instructions on what to do with it. In the process, Elizabeth transfers the burden of responsibility to him, fully aware that he in turn will hand over the warrant to Lord Burleigh, and thus confirm Mary's death sentence. Burleigh demands the signed document from Davison, who — despite his uncertainty — eventually hands it to him. As a result, Burleigh has Mary executed. The play ends with Elizabeth blaming both Burleigh and Davison for Mary's death (banishing the former from court and having the latter imprisoned in the Tower), Lord Shrewsbury (who pleaded for mercy for Mary throughout the play) resigning his honors and Leicester leaving England for France. Elizabeth is left completely alone as the curtain falls. ===== Silver Canyon takes place in modern-day San Juan County, just east of the Colorado River, in what is today the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Canyon Rims Recreation Area, not many miles upstream from Hite, Utah, which is mentioned in the story. The plot revolves around a young rider and gunfighter, Matt Brennan, who drifts into the town of Hattan's Point and immediately falls in love with a local rancher's daughter, Moira Maclaren. The town and the area around it are dominated by two large ranches, the Boxed M owned by Rud Maclaren, Moira's father, and the CP Ranch owned by the Pinder brothers. With a reason to stay in the area, Brennan buys into the Two-Bar Ranch, owned by old man Ball. The Two-Bar is sandwiched between the Pinder and Maclaren Ranches, and being squeezed out, as the two bigger ranches prepare for their showdown with each other. ===== Old Earth is dead, devastated by the nuclear holocausts. New Earth lives on as a shadow world, inhabited by the vestiges of humanity, divided into tyrannical petty kingdoms, wracked by fear, superstitions, and barbaric poverty. Strange, fearsome mutated beast roam the blasted lands and waters, while on the cold northern frontiers, a race of malformed men with strange mental powers plot the eventual conquest of the planet from the fortress of Psi-Keep. Zeph the Tinker travels with his young wife Marnie from Country Clayro through Country McCall and the Demon Waste. While Zeph is hunting game, Marnie is startled by two riders fleeing pursuers. The riders — the dying wizard-king Amarix and his companion Balzamo — make the barren woman a deal to not only transfer the post-holocaust knowledge in his head to Marnie, but to make it possible for that information to be passed onto her unborn child That child, Blackmark, eventually becomes a gladiator slave. ===== In 1958, Erik Ponti, a 15-year-old boy, lives with his mother and sadistic stepfather in Stockholm. At home, his stepfather beats him every day after dinner. His docile mother ignores her husband's sadistic nature and allows the violence to proceed. At school, Erik is violent and frequently engages in fights, as a result of his violent upbringing. After a particularly vicious fight, Erik is expelled. The headmaster labels him vicious and accuses him of being pure evil. In an attempt to provide her son with a fresh start and last chance to finish school, his mother sells some of her valuable family heirlooms and sends Erik to an affluent boarding school. Upon arriving in Stjärnsberg, realising the boarding school is his final chance at reaching Sixth Form, Erik attempts to forgo his violent tendencies. At the prestigious school twelve members of the Sixth Form form a Student's Council. They exercise a sadistic rule over the school and punish disobeying students physically and psychologically, which is completely ignored by the school staff members who opt to leave the students to their own ways of governing one another's behaviour. When Erik refuses to obey the ludicrous requests of two councilmen, Silverhielm and Dahlén, he becomes the target of relentless bullying. His refusal to demean himself by obeying their humiliating punishments lands him a number of weekend detentions. Erik befriends his intellectual roommate Pierre, who flies below the radar in order to avoid bullying. Whilst in the school kitchens one weekend, after a particularly grueling day of labour, Erik meets Marja, a pretty cafeteria staff member on a work visa from Finland. The two begin a romantic relationship as Marja admires Erik's resistant and righteous personality. Meanwhile, Erik joins the swimming team. A swimming match approaches and Erik is determined to win, but soon realises that in order to win he must defeat the current school champion and son of the most prominent donor to the school. He knows that winning would make him more of a target than ever, but his fair and dedicated swim coach assures him that it is a matter of honour and he must not lose. Erik wins, breaking a number of school records and humiliating a number of Sixth Formers who sarcastically clap when his accomplishments are vocalised by the swim coach. For Christmas break Erik goes home. His stepfather beats him mercilessly, whilst his mother plays the piano to disguise the sounds of the cane. When he arrives back at school, the student council begins targeting Erik's intellectual friend Pierre. Pierre does not stand up for himself. Pained to see his friend humiliated Erik leaves the swim team as he believes this will save his friend from the relentless bullying. But that doesn't seem to be enough. A while later, Erik is called up to the council president, Silverhielm's room. There Pierre has been made to strip and Dahlén threatens to put out a cigarette on his chest, but Erik volunteers instead and unflinchingly endures the pain. The next day, Pierre is challenged to fight the councilmen. He gets severely beaten but does not obey their requests. The following day, Erik is ambushed when walking back from detention. They tie him to the ground and pour boiling water over him followed by cold water and leave him outside to freeze. However, he is rescued by Marja. The two sleep together and Erik returns to his room to find Pierre has left the school. Erik, bitter and fed up, challenges Dahlén and von Schenken to a fight. He quickly defeats both, and then goes in search of Marja, who has left for Finland after being fired for unknown reasons. The headmaster is given an intercepted love letter by Silverhielm from Marja to Erik, resulting in Erik's expulsion for having sexual relations with a staff member. Erik searches for and finds Silverhielm for revenge in the woods and threatens to kill him. As Silverhielm begs for his life on his knees after being scared into hysteric crying and vomiting, Erik catches himself about to exploit his violent tendencies but stops himself and assures Silverhielm he won't kill him because he is not like him. Erik returns to the school with his mother's family friend, who is a lawyer, and subsequently threatens to publish the culture of loose law and intentional ignorance of the headmaster and other staff members in the school. He is then reinstated, given back the letter from Marja, and is allowed to finish his last semester in relative peace. The school year ends and Erik returns home to find his mother has been beaten by his stepfather. His stepfather tries to beat him again, but Erik warns him that it is over. He tells his mother, who was in shock, that it is the last time there will be violence in the household and closes the door behind himself as he prepares to get payback for years of violence and beats his stepfather off screen, it is unknown if his stepfather changed or if he left his stepson and wife after Erik beat him. He reconciles with Pierre, who is about to leave for Geneva to continue his education, and sets out to contact Marja and realise his dream of becoming a lawyer. ===== The story centres on the legacy of a dead Indian underworld don Baba Baldev Prasad, who dies of a heart attack. He leaves diamonds worth $200mn at the New York Bank, to be distributed equally between his son Vikrant, his daughter Preeti, and Preeti's husband Guru Gulab Khatri. To claim the diamonds, all three benefactors must be present at the bank or, if dead, their death certificates must be presented. Shortly after Don's death, Vikrant attempts to eliminate Guru by assassinating the Indian home minister in full view of television cameras while disguised as him. Guru flees to the US disguised as someone else to escape prosecution. Guru moves to the street where Anmol and his family live. Anmol recognizes him from the news. His mother-in-law forces him to go to India, along with his father-in-law, Manilal to tell Vikrant about Guru and get the reward. But everything turns wrong when Vikrant doesn't give the reward and instead sends Anmol and Manilal back to the USA with his hired men, Yeda Anna and Chota Chathri to kill Guru. Later, they find out that Yeda Anna was a double agent: He was working for Guru the whole time because he offered more money. The group receive Vikrant and Preeti at the airport and drive to the hotel. At the hotel, Vikrant is kidnapped by a mysterious group of Chinese goons. Yeda Anna receives a phone call and finds out that the kidnapped Vikrant was a duplicate of the real one and the real one was going to come later by plane. They kill the second Vikrant and put his body in a car by the Brooklyn Bridge. With Vikrant's death, Preeti and Guru each get half of the diamonds. When they are outside the bank, a group of policemen arrest them and take them to an unknown desert area. It is revealed that Vikrant is still alive and the first Vikrant was kidnapped by Chinese goons. Vikrant gets the diamonds and tries to kill Guru. A fight occurs. At the end of the fight, Guru kills Vikrant. When it's all over, they ask each other to find out who has the diamonds. Anmol has them and says he will give them to Guru if he gives Preeti a divorce. Guru arrives at the location selected by Anmol and gets the diamonds while giving Anmol the divorce papers. Yeda Anna double crosses Guru and tries to steal the diamonds. Guru wins in a fight and Yeda gives the diamonds to Guru while hanging him to a bar and having him stand on Chota Chathri's shoulders. In the end, Anmol and his love, Preeti, are seen going to India. Anmol's ex-father-in-law gives him some diamonds that he received from Guru. Preeti comments that she didn't know that Guru was so nice. ===== Taylor's realistic novel—despite the Tom-Sawyer-like protagonist and narrator, it is aimed at an adult audience and contains episodes that would have kept it off any school list at the time—was published in 1958 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year. In it, the young Jaimie (spelled with two "i"s) accompanies a wagon train headed from St. Louis, Missouri, to California after the 1849 Gold Rush. ===== Dale, who is held on remand, is awaiting a court hearing and yet to be sentenced, highlighting the horrific injustice of the repeated beatings he's subjected to. Although the first depicted beating lasts less than 3 minutes of screen time, the actual beating it was based on allegedly lasted a gruelling 7 hours. Initially Dale submits to the psychological and physical traumas of his situation. By day they attempt to break his spirit and sanity by forcing him to smash blue-stone with a pick, invoking images of Australia's convict heritage, while another inmate is compelled to perform more demeaning behaviour such as licking faeces off toilet doors. Gradually Dale becomes indifferent to the bashings and horrors of prison life and develops an alternative, subversive way to exist and express his rage. At one point Dale is depicted pacing his cell naked and mumbling incoherently. It seems as if the ego shattering experience has forced him to the verge of insanity. It's not until he claims : "I've resigned from this life" and urges the other inmates to do so as well, that we see method in his madness. By refusing to play the dehumanising prison game anymore the guards have lost their threat of psychological and physical suppression over him and he in turn has reaffirmed the power of the simple utterance of which he can never be deprived. Although contact between the inmates is strictly forbidden at night they manage to shout and finally communicate through the prison walls. "Unity in adversity!", Dale shouts beginning a chant which reverberates throughout the cells. Meanwhile, Berriman, realising the threat of pure violence or psychological abuse is no longer effective starts to panic. As Dale walks defiantly from the prison in the last scene to be tried, the failure of the correctional system to produce docile, disciplined bodies pulls its last punch. Even if the system has enframed Dale he has maintained his sanity and his voice. ===== When an Amacore oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid) and co-pilot A.J. (Tyrese Gibson) are sent to shut down the operation and transport the crew (Amacore executive Ian, rig supervisor Kelly, Rodney, Davis, Liddle, Jeremy, Sammi, Rady, Kyle, Newman, and Dr. Gerber) out of the desert, along with a load of cargo from the site to be liquidated or redistributed to another site, causing the plane to be overweight. However, en route to Beijing, a major dust storm disables one engine when Towns attempts a vertical climb with the overweight plane, forcing them to crash land their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the Gobi Desert. Kyle falls to his death and the crash kills Dr. Gerber and Newman. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and Elliot (Giovanni Ribisi), a hitchhiker. When the dust storm ends, it becomes apparent that they are 200 miles off course with only a month's supply of water. Jeremy (Kirk Jones) thinks about walking to get help, but Rady (Kevork Malikyan) explains that July is the hottest month in the Gobi, and that he would not make it. In the middle of the night, Davis (Jared Padalecki) goes out to urinate without informing anybody, trips, gets lost in a sandstorm, and dies. The group panics after a failed search for him, and Kelly (Miranda Otto) argues with Frank, who says that walking out of the desert would fail and that their only option is to await rescue. The group initially agrees but reconsiders after Elliot, claiming to be an aeronautical engineer, pitches a radical idea: rebuild the wreckage of their C-119 into a functional aircraft. Frank initially refuses, which causes Liddle (Scott Michael Campbell) to wander off on his own in protest. Frank attempts to find him. He comes across a valley littered with debris, cargo from the aircraft, which dropped out when the tail was torn open. Among the debris he discovers the bullet-ridden and stripped body of Kyle, after which Liddle appears saying he came to retrieve his watch which he lost to Kyle in a poker game; Towns then deduces that either nomads or smugglers used Kyle's corpse for target practice. Liddle says he will only go back with him if they build the plane, and Frank agrees. They struggle for several weeks building the new aircraft, during which they experience losing their fuel reserves in a spark fire, an electrical storm, lack of water, and fighting amongst the group. Rady christens it Phoenix after the legendary bird. A problem evolves when they notice a group of smugglers camping nearby. When Ian, A.J., and Rodney attempt to communicate, the bandits mortally wound Rodney (Tony Curran) after Liddle notices that one of them is wearing his watch. A fierce, but short skirmish takes place when Frank (who is with Liddle) ambushes the bandits. Most of the bandits are killed, one is wounded, and one escapes. When going through the smugglers encampment, they find a wounded smuggler and argue about what to do until Elliot walks over and executes him with a pistol. Towns accuses him of murder, but Elliot states that Towns murdered him by deciding to go investigate the smugglers after being advised against it. He also states that he caused Rodney's death as well, therefore wasting a whole days work as well as manpower. Towns, in anger, punches Elliot which causes the project to stall due to Elliot's no longer being interested in the project. In desperation, the remaining group agree to give Elliot complete control of the project, and the project resumes. After it is finished, it is revealed that Elliot's aircraft design experience has been restricted to the design of model aircraft, much to the anger of everyone, especially Ian (Hugh Laurie), who threatens to shoot Elliot. However, as a storm is brewing, the high force winds causes the plane to lift off temporarily, making the group realize that Elliot's plane will indeed fly. Forced to take shelter in the old plane's hull during the sandstorm, they later dig out the plane from beneath the sand and take off, barely in time to escape a larger group of bandits seeking revenge for the murdered smugglers. Through a series of photos, we see what becomes of the survivors when they make it back to civilization. All have been revitalized by the experience: Frank and A.J. start their own airline (appropriately named Phoenix Aviation), Sammi (Jacob Vargas) and his wife start their own restaurant (Jeremy and Rady are there to celebrate), Liddle is reunited with his wife and kids, Ian becomes a professional golfer, Kelly is working at an ocean oil rig, and Elliot is wearing a flight suit on a Flight International magazine cover with the headline: "NASA's New Hope?" ===== The novel is the story of John Johnson and Susan Colgate. It begins with a meeting between Susan and John after their yearlong absences from the world, and then progresses to tell the stories of their disappearances through flashbacks. The flashbacks have no temporal order. Each chapter is a different flashback, intermixed with chapters of temporally present plot. ; Susan Colgate : A former child pageant star, a 1980s television family daughter, a closeted rock star's wife, and a B movie actress. She was on a plane heading across the United States that crashed, but she survives without a scratch. She takes this opportunity to disappear into the night, leaving behind her identity. ; John Johnson : A decadent film producer. His life is composed of drugs and women. He dies from the flu, but his death is only temporary. While dead, he has a vision of Susan Colgate. Once revived, Johnson decides to give away his decadent lifestyle and to live on the road like Jack Kerouac. The novel tells their stories, the stories of the characters that they encounter, and the story of their lives after they meet. The novel is written in the third person. ===== The boys are at Sea Park where they are watching the antics of an orca whale named Jambu. While Stan, Cartman and Kenny go elsewhere, Kyle stays behind. While getting a closer look at Jambu, Kyle is surprised to hear the whale speak, unaware the voice is really coming from Brian, a show announcer, and his co-announcer Mike. Jambu tells Kyle about his dream to one day go to space in a big rocket ship. Kyle brings the other boys back to the tank, but for a while, Jambu remains silent. A few minutes later, when the announcers notice the boys' return, Jambu starts to speak again. The boys learn that Jambu, whose real name is "Willzyx", will die unless he returns to his family's home on the moon. The boys rally some of their classmates to help them liberate Jambu. They put together a plan that involves the pool from Clyde's backyard, Timmy's wheelchair, the Russian government and all of their skateboards. The boys sneak into Sea Park and manage to free Jambu. The next morning at the Sea Park, Mike and Brian find that the boys stole Jambu, and Mike starts panicking knowing that their prank has gotten out of hand, but Brian tries to calm him down by saying what they have done was funny. Rather than tell their colleagues about the prank and risk being fired, Mike and Brian decide that they must find the boys and retrieve Jambu before the police do. In Russia, the government is looking for a way to raise money and they take a call from Kyle who wants to hire them to take Willzyx to the moon. When they give their price of $20 million, Kyle tries to explain what they are really trying to do, but the Russians assume that this is a prank call from George Bush. The boys decide to shop around for another Third World country with a cheaper space program, and they need to hide the whale. At the Sea Park in Denver, protesters from the Animal Liberation Front have gathered to applaud the whale liberators. Brian and Mike are in South Park looking for the whale; they find the pool behind Clyde's house, along with a broken fence. While looking at the pool, they find whale feces, but see that the whale and the boys are gone. The whale is inside, in Kyle's bedroom to be exact, where the boys are keeping him wet. Kyle is on the phone with the Japanese government, while Jimmy, Timmy and Tweek are at the Chinese embassy, but everyone's prices are too high. Stan and Craig are in Mexico, where they find that Mexicano Aeronáutica y Spacio Administración (MASA) will take their whale to the moon for $200. Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Butters and Clyde are on the road to meet Stan and Craig in Tijuana to get the whale home when Brian and Mike stop their truck. Just as the hosts are about to tell the boys the truth, the police arrive and demand that they give the whale back. However, the ALF comes to their rescue as the whale is saved in a hail of gunfire, killing Mike, the police officers and possibly the truck driver the boys hired. The ALF leader drives the van for the boys as they resume their trip to Tijuana, while Brian sadly exclaims to a dying Mike the past times were always funny. In Tijuana, the rocket is being prepared. The ALF leader and the boys crash through the Mexican border, and the boys work on getting the whale into the water. Just before they do, Kyle says a tearful goodbye to him, which also brings tears to Clyde's and Butters' eyes. The whale finally gets into the water, and the ALF declares victory when the manager of Sea Park arrives with the police. The rocket is finally launched, with the whale in tow, much to the horror and disbelief of the ALF members. The boys celebrate their victory back home, seeing the night sky of a black speck on Luna of the whale; meanwhile, on the surface of the moon, the asphyxiated orca lies dead. ===== One day Emil Sinclair, an eleven-year-old boy, returns from school and as nobody is at home he goes upstairs into his father’s room where he steals sugared and dried figs out of his dad’s chest of drawers. Although he has pangs of conscience and thinks a lot about his deed, he does not confess it to his father. Sinclair pretends to have bought the figs at the cake shop in Calw. That is why his father punishes him by taking him there; but before entering the shop, the boy tells that he did not get them there. At home he finally admits that he stole the figs. The book ends with the phrase: "Als ich im Bett lag, hatte ich die Gewissheit, dass er mir ganz und vollkommen verziehen habe – vollkommener als ich ihm." ("As I lay in bed I had the certainty that he had completely forgiven me - more completely than I had him.") Hesse himself made a comment on his book in a letter to his sister Adele, in which he stated that the way described in Kinderseele was one of extremely straight psychology and love of truth. ===== Every year, widower Christy Byrne (Tate Donovan) has traveled from Nova Scotia with his children to sell their homegrown Christmas trees in New York City. His teenage son Danny (Michael Mitchell) is not into his father's business, but instead has a true passion for photography. One year in New York City, Danny is grounded by Christy after an argument until he gets his priorities straight, but runs away, leaving Christy and his 10-year-old daughter Bridget (Courtney Jines) to return home without him. The next year, the two return to New York City to sell the trees while Christy goes out every night looking for Danny. Catherine (Anne Heche) lives in the same New York neighborhood and hasn't celebrated Christmas since the year her husband died. Every year Christy has tried to sell her a tree, but Catherine politely refuses. Neither of them realize that their lives are connected by Danny. While Christy is back in Nova Scotia with Bridget, Catherine pays Danny for photographs that he takes and puts them in the newspaper. When Christy comes back the following year, Catherine does not tell him that she knows where Danny is because Danny made her promise not to. Catherine does tell Christy afterwards when Danny injures himself by falling off the roof of the Belvedere Castle and into a frozen pond. In the hospital, Christy tells Danny that he is allowing him to stay in New York City to become a photographer. ===== The book, which takes place in late 19th century New York City, tells the story of Basil March, who finds himself in the middle of a dispute between his employer, a self-made millionaire named Dryfoos, and his old German teacher, an advocate for workers' rights named Lindau. The main character of the novel, Basil March, provides the main perspective throughout the novel. He resides in Boston with his wife and children until he is persuaded by his entrepreneurial friend Fulkerson to move to New York to help him start a new magazine, where the writers benefit in a primitive form of profit sharing. After some deliberation, the Marches move to New York and begin a rather extensive search for a perfect apartment. After many exhausting weeks of searching, Basil finally settles on an apartment full of what he and his wife refer to as "gimcrackery"—trinkets and decorations that do not appeal to their upper- middle-class tastes. Work at the new magazine, entitled Every Other Week begins. The magazine is bankrolled by a millionaire named Dryfoos, who became wealthy after discovering natural gas on his farm in the Midwest, and who is now making money on Wall Street. Dryfoos gives his son, Conrad, the job of business manager for the magazine in order to try to dissuade him from becoming an Episcopalian priest. An artist by the name of Angus Beaton, an old friend of Fulkerson's, is chosen to head the art department. Beaton chooses Alma Leighton, for whom he has feelings, to illustrate the cover of the first issue. Berthold Lindau, an old friend of Basil March's (and his former German teacher) and a veteran of the American Civil War, becomes the translator. Lindau knows many languages, so he selects and translates Russian, French, and German stories to publish in the magazine. Lindau lost his hand in a Civil War battle, fighting for the North because he was a strong abolitionist and an idealistic American immigrant. Colonel Woodburn, a wealthy Southerner, and his daughter move to New York and become involved with the newspaper when their social circle connects with the magazine's through Alma Leighton; they board with Alma Leighton and her mother. Fulkerson decides that he would like to publish some of Colonel Woodburn's pro-slavery writings in Every Other Week, because he believes it would sell more copies of the new magazine. At a dinner banquet, the political views of Dryfoos the capitalist, Lindau the socialist, and Colonel Woodburn the pro-slavery advocate clash. Lindau fiercely criticizes Dryfoos, expressing his harshest feelings in German to March, because he does not think anyone else at the table speaks German. Later we learn that Dryfoos (of Pennsylvania-Dutch background) speaks German, and he was insulted by Lindau's comments. In the end of the book, the New York City streetcar drivers strike. The strike, similar to the Haymarket Riot, turns into a riot. Conrad Dryfoos, already a humanitarian helping the poor and working class, is charmed by the lovely Margaret Vance, who shares his values of charity. She encourages Conrad to try to end the strike by telling all sides to desist. While attempting to stop a policeman from beating the aged and disabled Lindau, Conrad is fatally shot. March emerges from a streetcar to see the fallen men lying on the street next to each other. Dryfoos grieves the loss of his son. After further amputation of his already disabled arm, Lindau dies with Margaret Vance at his side. Dryfoos sells the magazine to Fulkerson and March for an extremely low price and takes his remaining family to Europe. Fulkerson moves into the apartment above the magazine with his new wife, Colonel Woodburn's daughter. The Marches pass Margaret Vance on the street; she has become an Episcopalian nun. ===== Bree Van De Kamp has always been the envy of most suburban housewives much due to the fact of her elegant dinner parties. At these treasured events, Bree will always treat her guests as though they were part of her family between the size of food portions, alcohol consumption and the excellent conversations. As she hosts yet another not very different party for an upcoming charity ball, the dinner is interrupted by George singing into a karaoke machine outside. When Bree comes out to tell him to stop, he refuses which causes Bree to sink to drastic measures. She tells her guests who look concerned to return to their seats as Bree takes care of what is going on outside. George continues to sing and Bree pulls out her shotgun and shoots at the speaker. George is immediately stopped by Bree's action and the guests listen in horror as a gunshot is heard. The following day, Bree is stalked by George who wants to rekindle their engagement. Bree asks him to leave and drives off in her car. While visiting Dr. Goldfine in the hospital, Bree discovers that George may be his attacker. Bree takes no time in calling the police who begin to search George's home for evidence. When George comes home from the grocery shopping, he is shocked to find a police squad who are searching George's home. George drops his groceries in horror and calls Bree. Bree refuses to answer causing George to leave a very worrisome message. Bree finally picks up the phone to tell George that she knows that he attacked Dr. Goldfine. George hangs up and runs away hoping the police will not catch him. Later George checks into a hotel where Bree is co-chairing a charity event. George sends a message down with the bell hop informing Bree that he is attempting suicide (by drug overdose) and if she really loves him she will come up and save him. Bree calls Detective Barton who tells her that there is evidence that George poisoned and killed Rex. On the way up to George's room, Bree breaks down in the elevator and pulls the emergency stop button. When she finally calms down, Bree walks to George's room where she demands answers. She tells George she knows what he did to Dr. Goldfine but poisoning Rex was a true blow. George denies both accusations but says that whatever he does, he does for her. George warns Bree that he is in peril and needs help. Bree assures him that she has called an ambulance (when in reality she has not) and quietly waits until George dies. Carlos is a new man after having been paroled, when Gabrielle discovers his letters to a nun, Sister Mary Bernard, who helped push up his parole case. At first Gabrielle thinks it is a nice idea that he has become more faithful but when she gets a look of Carlos's nun friend she immediately balks claiming she is "young and hot". Carlos assures Gabrielle that their relationship is platonic and that Sister Mary is helping him become a more spiritual person. Gabrielle wants to make sure that Carlos is doing just that when she invites Sister Mary over the following day for lunch. There Sister Mary explains her ministry and how Carlos is becoming more moral and spiritual through their ministry. When Carlos tells Sister that he would like to donate his car to her charity, Gabrielle becomes offended since she will have to share her Aston Martin. Carlos also tells Gabrielle that her shopping privileges will be cut down as well. While Carlos goes to look for the deed to his car, Gabrielle excuses herself from the dining room. Gabrielle manages to stall Carlos by seducing him. The two make love with Sister downstairs. Gabrielle returns downstairs to tell Sister Mary that they had an enjoyable lunch, but Carlos will not be giving up his car and that she should back off. Sister Mary tells Gabrielle that she has no intentions of leaving since Carlos is still prone to violence and crime. Sister Mary advises Gabrielle and Carlos to get an annulment. Gabrielle asks Sister Mary, "What kind of nun are you?" and gives Sister Mary a threat that she will bring her down if she comes between Gabrielle and Carlos. Sister Mary tells her that if she wants to give a threat she will have to do better than that. After an unsuccessful pitch to Nina and Ed, Lynette is forced to go back to the drawing board with her idea. When she forgets something from her office, she quickly returns to find Stu, the receptionist and Nina kissing and having sex. As Nina looks up she sees Lynette spying on her telling her to watch out. The following morning while getting the coffee, Lynette advises Nina that sleeping with the help can get her fired. Nina offers Lynette a variety of options in order for her not to tell Ed. Lynette refuses each of them and asks that she only be nicer when it comes to her work attitude. When Nina fires Stu, Lynette automatically assumes it was because of their consensual affair. Lynette then decides to invite Stu over to her home for tea. Lynette talks about their affair and how Nina can get fired if Ed found out what happened. Stu would also be entitled to money if he takes the case to court. Stu decides that he will definitely talk to Ed the following day. The following day, Lynette walks in to work to find Ed firing several of her co-workers including Nina. Ed tells her that Stu was going to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against the firm if the firm did not settle. As a result of this, a majority of the workers must be fired in order for the accounts to remain stable. Ed likes Lynette and decides to elevate her to Vice President of Accounts. Nina congratulates Lynette but tells her to "say goodbye to her kids" since she will probably never see them anymore. Susan meets her father, Addison Prudy who owns a hardware store. Susan decides at first not to tell Addison who she really is since she did not want to shock him. Instead she decides to fill out an application for a job but when he sees that she is overqualified he thinks his wife put her up to this. Susan quickly tells him that she is his daughter and explains to him the situation. Addison leaves for his store room and collapses. Susan quickly calls 911. At the hospital, Addison explains to Susan that he had given Sophie money years prior and told her to keep their affair private. Addison tells Susan she is going to have to leave since his wife and children are coming and that Susan is not considered part of his family. Susan understands this and does not expect a lot, she just wants a father figure. The two are interrupted by Addison's wife, Carol who introduces herself and asks who Susan is. Susan explains to Carol that she is Addison's guardian angel since she was a customer in the store when he collapsed. She gave him CPR and called an ambulance. Carol thanks her for her noble deed. Susan then kisses her father on the cheek and whispers in his ear that she is not giving up. ===== The novel begins in 1922 with a depiction of traditional life in the Arabic village during the British Mandate of Palestine: Ibrahim al Soukori al Wahhabi asserts his inherited position as leader of the town, takes the pilgrimage to Mecca, and starts a family, but suffers humiliation in that his wife does not bear him a son before his third child. The family had settled in the area about 100 years previously, still maintains contact with their Beduin relatives, and sets great value in their traditions and values. In 1936 their youngest son, Ishmael, is born. As youngest son his expected lot in life is to become the family shepherd, but his mother Hagar protects him and helps give him opportunities to develop his skills. He seeks out continued opportunities through use of his natural resourcefulness and drive, two qualities generally lacking in his brothers. Only his sister Nada seems to share these traits with him, and they have a close bond. Traditional life is altered permanently with the establishment of a kibbutz nearby on land sold to Jewish farmers by Effendi Fawzi Kabir, a rich Palestinian absentee landlord who owns a great deal of land in the region, including the town of Tabah, but lives in Damascus. One of the settlers is Gideon Asch, who helps establish a tenuous but workable co-existence with the residents of Tabah through the leadership of Haj Ibrahim. Their struggles lead to reciprocal trust and eventually friendship, but these continue to be tested throughout the novel. The villagers feel compelled by the history of brave warriors in Arabic culture to destroy Kibbutz Shemesh. The villagers attack the kibbutz on its first night but are repelled. Haj Ibrahim secretly acknowledges this failure, which he expected. But his defeated villagers come back to Tabah proudly proclaiming that they killed many Jews, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. Haj Ibrahim gradually develops a personal friendship with Gideon Asch, and he even visits the kibbutz from time to time. But Ibrahim's tolerance of and even friendship with Jews does not fit in with the general mood during the 1930s and 1940s. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni whips up emotions against the Jews with his fiery speeches. The Egypt-supported Muslim Brotherhood, as represented by Mr. Salmi, Ishmael's school teacher, infuses their classrooms with hatred of Jews. Radio broadcasts in the village coffeehouse heard on the radio given to the villagers by the kibbutz (along with the electricity to run it) promise the Arab locals revenge against the Jews. And Transjordan's well-trained Arab Legion stands ready to move in and claim the land in the name of a Greater Syria for King Abdullah I. Against the background of the United Nations General Assembly passage of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on 29 November 1947, Haj Ibrahim is summoned to Damascus to talk with Effendi Fawzi Kabir at his luxurious home. Also at the meeting are Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and General Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, whom Haj Ibrahim has made an enemy when he repulsed his attempt to overtake the village of Tabah as a strategic military position. The three try to convince Ibrahim that as leader of his people, he should evacuate Tabah, and they give him promise of financial support. He is wary of their offer, and makes no firm promise. Al-Qawuqji expresses his lust for revenge against Ibrahim after the Haj has left the meeting. Tensions in the village rise to fever pitch as a result of the Battle of Deir Yassin, and Haj Ibrahim can no longer keep his followers from abandoning Tabah; he leads them to Jaffa, where he plans to hire a boat to take them to the Gaza Strip. They find themselves in the Manshiya neighborhood with little money, caught between Al- Qawuqji's troops and the rival Jewish forces, Haganah and Irgun. Haj Ibrahim and a business contact in Jaffa, Bassam el Bassam, manage to strike a deal with a Greek Cypriot ship owner, but Ibrahim and family are unable to meet the boat on account of pursuit by Al-Qawuqji, and hide in St. Peter's Church. Ishmael is able to reach Gideon Asch, who had offered the family help in a crisis, if ever they need it. Asch helps them escape to Tulkarm in Samaria on the West Bank, in the triangle that includes Jenin and Nablus. While in Jaffa, al-Qawuqji's men search for and discover the family's women, whom they gang- rape. Ishmael witnesses the rape of his mother, stepmother, and sister-in-law, but does not tell his father until the book's climax. The family continues to Nablus, where they are able to live more reasonably, and eventually Ibrahim contacts Clovis Bakshir, the city's mayor. Bakshir introduces Ibrahim to Farid Zyyad, who is undercover at the meeting, but who is actually a colonel in Abdullah's Arab Legion. The two try to persuade Ibrahim to give his support to their political aims, but Ibrahim maintains his distance. While accepting the gifts they offer him, Ibrahim plans an escape for the family from Nablus to a cave in the desert around Qumran by the Dead Sea. They enlarge their family group with teenager Sabri Salama, a clever auto mechanic who helps keep their stolen truck in operating condition for the journey, and sees to it that it can be sold afterwards. Life in the desert is difficult at times, but also satisfying to the family as it gave them a chance to find strength in their isolation and in their desert traditions. However, as the weather worsens during early 1949 they abandon their cave in Qumran and wander further to Jericho where they settle into refugee camp Aqabat Jaber at the foot of the supposed Mount of Temptation. In Jericho they make contact with a disfigured archeologist, Dr. Nuri Mudhil, in the hope of using him to make contact with their old friend Gideon Asch. They guess correctly that he has contact with Jews in Jerusalem, and they are able not only to contact Asch but also to arrange a sale of some valuable artifacts they had found in Qumran. Asch encourages Ibrahim to become involved as a moderating representative of the refugees in the conferences being arranged to discuss the Palestinian situation. He travels to Amman where he meets like-minded moderates, Charles Maan, a Palestinian Christian, and Sheik Ahmed Taji, who like Ibrahim are willing to negotiate with the new State of Israel for the return of Palestinians to their homes. They arrange an alternative conference in Bethlehem, where they manage to pass a resolution whereby they would represent the plight of the Palestinians at an international commission in Zurich later that year. The conference ends in disaster when Zyyad's Arab Legion makes a mass arrest of the three ringleaders and the youth gang members they brought to protect the conference building, one of these being Ibrahim's son, Jamil. In spite of threats against his son by Arab leaders threatened by his moderate pragmatism, Ibrahim travels to Zurich along with Maan and Taji. Their participation credentials are constantly challenged by the rest of the Arabs at the conference, and the commission's committee work is stifling and unproductive. Charles Maan negotiates with the Vatican for a modest low-key solution that would return many Christian Palestinians to their homes, and Sheik Taji is bought off by the opulent and corrupt Fawzi Kabir, who represents a Saudi Arabian prince in Zurich. Ibrahim gives up hope for a solution at the Zurich conference, revenges himself on Kabir, and returns to the refugee camp to face the dissolution of his life, traditions and values, the murder of his son Jamil, continued disappointment by Arab national leaders, his family's loss of respect for him, his community's passivity and inability to face reality. In July 1951 Charles Maan is murdered by Arab leaders while Abdullah I of Jordan's assassination provokes anti-Palestinian riots. Ibrahim brutally takes the life of his daughter, Nada, after she dishonors him by cursing him and telling him that she is no longer a virgin, the biggest possible disgrace to an Arab father. Ishmael becomes crazy after this, and "talks his father to death". (Ibrahim dies of a heart attack after his son graphically informs him of the gang rape in Jaffa.) When Ishmael's family returns home, they stare at him in fear, realizing he is now the leader of the family and he himself has taken down the most powerful man he knew. Ironically, according to Ishmael, "the most glorious moment in the story of Haj Ibrahim came after his death," as large flocks of people attend his funeral, and the "display of grief at his funeral was of a nature usually reserved for high holy men or great heads of state". Afterwards, Ishmael starts to become obsessed about his deceased sister Nada in his grief, and it takes a turn for the worst for him. The novel ends with Ishmael going insane and becoming delusional. ===== Polly Adler is a poor Polish immigrant who works in a sweatshop. She loses her job after she is sexually assaulted by her boss, for which her housemates blame her. She then is forced to move out. Her next apartment is in a building owned by Frank Costigan, a gangster. Frank approves of Polly's attractive girlfriends and pays her to have the ladies go out socially with his friends. One thing leads to another, and soon Polly is the madam of a bordello. She has genuine feelings for musician Casey Booth, but does not reveal her true occupation to him. Costigan becomes the top enforcer for mob boss Lucky Luciano and backs Polly's business, which ends up on Park Avenue offering high-class call girls. Casey proposes marriage, so Polly finally confesses what she does for a living. He is willing to overlook it, but Polly feels it is for the best if they part. ===== The Enterprise comes to the assistance of the USS Yosemite, a science vessel where several crewmen have gone missing after a transporter accident. The Enterprise is unable to transport directly to the ship due to interference, but Lt. Reginald Barclay suggests linking the transporter systems of both ships, allowing them to transport one-by-one to the Yosemite albeit after a lengthy dematerialization/materialization process. Barclay, assigned as part of the team, hesitates on his turn and instead walks away. Barclay discusses the matter with Counselor Deanna Troi, who teaches him Betazoid meditation techniques to help calm himself. Transporter Chief Miles O'Brien also provides Barclay with some advice on dealing with his fears, speaking how he overcame his fear of spiders, before attempting to transport him over again. Barclay is safely transported to the Yosemite and continues to help the other engineering crew investigate the disappearance. On his return trip, Barclay believes he sees wormlike-creatures in the matter stream that attempt to approach him and touch his arm, but he materializes on the Enterprise without harm. He decides that he is suffering from transporter psychosis, a rare affliction. His paranoia forces Troi to declare him unfit for duty. Barclay asks O'Brien to review the transporter logs, and O'Brien agrees there was a strange surge during Barclay's transport. Barclay asks O'Brien to transport him again, recreating the surge, and Barclay again sees the creatures in the matter stream. Barclay calls a meeting with the senior staff and explains his observations. Captain Picard orders a thorough review of the transport systems and those that have used it recently. Barclay's arm is found to be out-of- phase, and further examination reveals microbes that were not detected by the biofilter. To remove the microbes, Barclay is put through the transport again, holding him in the matter stream for a longer duration to allow the biofilters to work. While in the stream, Barclay sees one of the creatures approach him, and at the last moment, he reaches out to grab it to his body. When he materializes, one of the missing Yosemite crew safely materializes alongside him. Barclay quickly explains that the other crew members are the remaining worm creatures in the matter stream based on their equivalent numbers, and soon they rescue the remaining crew. The Enterprise crew determine that an explosion near the Yosemite during the transport caused the people to become trapped. Later, Barclay and O'Brien meet at Ten-Forward to discuss the nature of fear, upon which O'Brien shows Barclay his pet spider Christina to share with a visibly frightened Barclay. ===== The Enterprise in the process of transporting Mikulak biological tissue samples intended for use in combating an epidemic of Correllium fever on Nahmi IV. The transport of the samples is delicate, and when they find one of the sample containers is leaking, they are forced to destroy it to prevent the contamination of the other samples. La Forge tells Riker he is concerned that one of his engineers, Reginald Barclay, has been underperforming and notes that he is late to help with the sample transport. What La Forge does not realize is that Barclay has been in the holodeck acting in a simulation of other Enterprise crew members, avoiding contact with their real counterparts. La Forge requests that Barclay be transferred from the Enterprise but Picard recommends that La Forge take Barclay on as a "pet project". La Forge works at supporting Barclay as their team works to investigate the failure of unconnected systems around the ship. Picard invites Barclay to a bridge meeting to review the investigation, but slips up and accidentally calls him "Broccoli", a nickname given to him by Wesley Crusher, due to Barclay's tendency to 'veg out'. Barclay later returns to the holodeck to seek refuge in the simulated version of the bridge members. In talking to La Forge, Guinan suggests that Barclay is simply imaginative and that La Forge keep a more open mind towards him. On her advice, La Forge visits Barclay on the holodeck and discovers the exaggerated simulation of the bridge crew. La Forge suggests Barclay get counseling from Troi, whose counterpart on the holodeck displays clear signs of sexual attraction towards Barclay. Barclay attempts to undergo a real counseling session with Troi, but freaks out when she tries to relax him with the appearance of actions his holodeck version of her would do, and ends the counseling session to flee back to the holodeck. When Barclay cannot be located to attend a briefing with Riker, Riker storms into the holodeck with La Forge and Troi to locate him. They find comical versions of the senior staff, with bumbling versions of Picard and La Forge, a slothful idiot version of Wesley, and an extremely short, comical version of Riker. Riker attempts to stop the program angrily, but Troi stops him saying it might traumatize Barclay and exploring this world can help them understand Barclay better. However, when they come across the sexed up version of her, it's her turn to want to immediately stop the program, but Riker stops her, sarcastically throwing her own words in her face. They finally locate Barclay sleeping in the lap of a fantasy Dr. Crusher. Suddenly, the Enterprise mysteriously accelerates to warp speeds, and Riker, La Forge and Barclay go to Engineering to discover the matter/anti-matter injectors have jammed; the ship will continue to accelerate until its structural integrity collapses unless the injectors are cleared. The team is unable to come up with any immediate solutions that will work in the limited time they have, but Barclay realizes all the failures they have seen have been connected by a human element: a member of La Forge's Engineering team has been present at each incident, so he surmises that somehow they became carriers of an undetectable contaminant. Using a process of elimination, they reduce the possible contaminants from 15,525 to 2. The contamination that has been interfering with the systems is quickly discovered to be invidium, which was used as part of the Mikulak samples. They are able to quickly repair the injectors, stop the ship, and set course for a nearby starbase to remove the rest of the invidium contamination. La Forge commends Barclay for his contribution in saving the ship. Barclay returns one more time to the holodeck and addresses the simulated bridge crew, believing it best he leave them, and then deletes all of his holodeck programs but one, program #9. ===== The story is about three friends growing up in Stockholm in the early 1990s. The youths are rebellious with a passion for money and crime. They dream about having money and living the life of superstars. To achieve this lifestyle they commit certain misdemeanors, property crimes, and various violent crimes; especially against Nazi skinheads, a subculture whose movement had a renaissance in Sweden in the early 1990s. After participating in a raid of a clothing warehouse, Joakim Wahlåås (Liam Norberg) gets arrested and sentenced to a few years in a Swedish penitentiary. While in jail, Joakim gets exposed to inmate brutality, and associates with the heavily criminal Tony (Thorsten Flinck), who introduces Joakim (also called Jocke, or Jocke-pojken) to cocaine. Shortly after being released from Jail Joakim and Tony team up with Joakim's old friends and begin to commit more violent crimes: bank robberies, and drug distribution. The friends quickly become rich, and spend thousands of crowns on Versace clothes, champagne, drugs, and women. A few years, many women, and plenty of free-base pipes later, their lavish lifestyle begins to take its toll. The friends become dependent on cocaine and heroin. They also begin to distrust each other, and subsequent to an argument about the division of profit from a drug trade, Tony kidnaps Joakim's longtime girlfriend Helen. As Joakim becomes aware of the kidnapping, he begins searching for Tony. The film ends in a deadly confrontation, between Tony and Joakim. Joakim survives the confrontation with Tony, but a few minutes later Joakim is arrested by the police. ===== Josh's main talent lies in the piano, having been taught by his mother. He and his friend Howie are praised by their teacher, Miss Crowne. However, tired of the continual ridicule and temper of his father, he decides to leave Chicago and find a living on his own. His mother, Mary, supports his decision against her will, realizing that Josh's conflicts with his father, Stefan, and their entire family's lack of food would eventually lead to deeper problems. Howie convinces the reluctant Josh to bring his brother Joey along, which later turns out to be a good decision. With the hope that their musical talents can earn them a living, they set out. Howie brings his banjo, and Joey is a great singer. On the first day, Joey's singing combined with Howie's talented playing allows the trio to gain 78 cents. Josh realizes Joey's importance and no longer regrets bringing him along. However, while trying to get to Nebraska by riding on a freight train, a tragedy falls upon the trio. Howie, while running alongside a train which the brothers had already boarded, is struck by a train coming from the opposite direction. Though quite grieved, Josh and Joey continue, even declining the hospitality of a kind man. The two manage to survive by begging, despite Josh's humiliation at doing such a thing. Finally, in a stroke of luck, the two receive the warmth of a woman who persuades Joey to write home to their mother. They also become acquainted with Lonnie Bromer, a truck driver. Lonnie lost a child named David who would be as old as Josh, if he were alive. Lonnie brings the brothers to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, Josh and Joey receive a job at a carnival run by Pete Harris. Lon leaves the two with his address and they promise that they will write to him. At the carnival, Josh befriends a dwarf named Edward C., who helps Josh by introducing him to the other carnival people. Josh takes a special interest in a clown named Emily. Josh finds Emily extremely attractive despite the differences in their ages; he is 15 years old and she is 30. Josh feels certain desires towards her and accompanies her whenever possible. Josh wants to buy Emily earrings for Christmas. When he discovers that Emily is engaged to Pete Harris, he almost completely throws away any relations with her. They later reconcile. Unfortunately, the carnival burns down, so Josh and Joey leave Baton Rouge with $18 Josh saved up and $2 that Pete Harris gives them. The pair ends up traveling with a bootlegger named Charley, who is transporting beer in his car. Charley gives Josh a $20 bill in exchange for his smaller bills. Josh passes a store that sells shoes and he goes in, planning to buy some overshoes for Joey. He tries to pay for the $1.50 shoes with the twenty dollar bill, but the shopkeeper takes all of it, instead of giving him the change. Once the money is gone the two then resort to begging again. One of the women they meet at first refuses to help them, but then changes her mind out of guilt and invites the two to have soup. Joey repays her the next day by offering her half of a loaf of bread he had gained while begging. Furious at Joey for giving away their hard-earned food, and hampered by his own sickness of pneumonia, Josh strikes Joey. Joey vows to leave him, and indeed does leave, taking along Howie's banjo. When Josh is unable to find him, he falls unconscious from the cold and sickness. He is discovered with Lonnie's contact information in his wallet. When Josh wakes up, he finds himself at Lonnie's home in Omaha, Nebraska. Josh discovers that Joey has not been found, and describes to Lonnie what happened. Josh also meets Janey, Lonnie's niece. The two soon become fond of each other and fall in love. Josh finds renewed hope in the new President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lonnie, worried about Joey and sends postcards to Mary and Emily. When Mary responds, Josh is surprised that Stefan is having sleepless nights over Josh and Joey. Joey is found after being described in a radio announcement and a happy reunion occurs. They find a new job working at a restaurant as a pianist and singer, and immediately become popular, despite Joey's occasional offtune singing. Josh and Janey part ways, leaving sorrow in their hearts. Josh and Joey return to Chicago and back to their father, who, surprisingly, comes to meet them at the train station and breaks down into tears, after which Josh notices he and his dad share many things in common. ===== Tomás Tomás, a womanizing bachelor who works in advertising, is having an affair with his boss Gloria. After visiting his doctor Mateo, who is also his friend and neighbor, he is struck by the new nurse Silvia and starts an affair with her too. When she finds out about Gloria, she falsifies the results of his blood test, notifying him that he has AIDS. He meanwhile has been struck by his neighbour Clarisa, a flight attendant engaged to a pilot Carlos, but realizes he cannot pursue her now. In despair at his fate, he decides to commit suicide. While contemplating various methods, Clarisa bursts in in despair. She has found Carlos in bed with another woman and wants to end her life, so the two decide to go to the Torre Latinoamericana and jump from the top. Tomás leaves a voice message for Mateo and in the middle of the night the pair set off. When Mateo gets the message among friends at a party, he rushes to the Torre with the whole group, including his wife Teresa, Carlos, and Silvia. At the top, Tomás tells Clarisa he loves her but can go no further because he has AIDS. She says, since they are both about to die, that does not now matter and the two make ecstatic love. Climbing the emergency stairs, Silvia calls out that the blood test was not positive. Instead of jumping, the lovers think about marrying. ===== This romantic story is told through the viewpoint of the children in the story, the adults playing only supporting roles. Daniel Latimer befriends the troublesome Ornshaw. However, when Daniel falls in love with Melody Perkins, the boys' friendship becomes jeopardized, as Ornshaw grows jealous of the amount of time that Daniel gives her. Initially embarrassed by the attention, Melody comes to return Daniel's feelings, and the couple announce to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future, but now. The adults attempt to dissuade them, but Daniel and Melody's determination leads Ornshaw to have a change of heart. Their classmates gather together at one of the children's hideouts to 'marry' the couple, with their discovery leading to a final showdown between children and teachers. ===== Teenage outcast Angela Franklin and her friend Suzanne are throwing a party at Hull House, a mortuary abandoned from its gruesome past and rumored to be cursed by evil spirits. On the way there, Stooge, Helen and Rodger drive past an elderly man who is carrying apples and razor blades. When Stooge taunts him by showing his buttocks out of the passenger window, the elderly man curses at them and says that "they'll get what they deserve." Judy Cassidy and her boyfriend Jay Jansen pick up their friends, Max and Frannie, for the party. When they arrive, Judy's ex-boyfriend Sal Romero crashes the party. They start the party by dancing, but the radio dies out. Angela then holds a séance as a party game, but Helen screams when she sees a demon in the mirror foreshadowing her demise, and the mirror falls to the ground in pieces. The group suddenly hears thuds below them, and the demon frees itself from the crematorium to possess a distracted Suzanne. The group searches around the house, and the possessed Suzanne forcefully kisses Angela for the demon to manifest in her, too. When Judy discovers that Jay only invited her to have sex, he abandons her in a room only for her to be apparently locked in. Rodger and Helen find no exit outside, but as Helen disappears and the demons call out Rodger's name he locks himself in the car. Stooge wanders with Suzanne to find a bathroom and he gets locked outside, where her face transforms and she smashes a mirror before disappearing. A confused Stooge finds Angela seductively dancing in front of the fireplace and begins to dance with her, but when they kiss she possesses him as she bites off his tongue. Meanwhile, Jay wanders off to find Suzanne in a bathroom with her breasts out and distorted lipstick all over her face and nipple. While they have sex, she reveals her inner demonic appearance to him and gouges his eyes. The possessed Stooge comes across Max and Frannie having sex in a coffin and promptly murders them both gruesomely. As Sal becomes horrified when he sees Angela putting her hands in the fire, Rodger (who had fallen asleep) is awoken from Helen's body crashing on the car. The two manage to free Judy, but are split up when the now openly demonic Angela chases after them. Hiding from Angela, Sal and Judy discover Suzanne with Jay's body before Sal is thrown out of a window. Judy escapes and she evades the demons throughout the house. When she attempts to climb down and Angela tries to kill her, Sal appears to fight her off and they both fall off the roof, with Sal impaled on a spike. Judy and Rodger are chased by the demons, and they lock themselves in the crematorium. Just as Angela and Stooge break down the door, she uses a pipe funneling gas and ignites it to torch them. They escape upstairs and are cornered by the demons, including a burnt Angela and Stooge along with the demon possessed undead bodies of Suzanne, Jay, Max, Frannie and Sal. Rodger smashes through a window that leads them outside and they begin to climb up a wall by grabbing on the barbed wire around it, but the demons try to drag down Judy by her ankles. Rodger pulls her up and they escape over the wall as the sun rises to destroy the possessed corpses and banish the demons back to hell. A severely shaken Judy and Rodger walk home together and they pass by the elderly man who watches them with disgust. He then enters his home to eat one of his wife's homemade pies, only to realize too late she used the apples that he placed the razor blades in. The blades graphically slice through his throat, killing him; his wife then casually approaches his dead body to kiss his head, saying "Happy Halloween, dear." ===== ===== The three main characters are Sandry, a Lord of Tep's Town, Sandry's cousin Regapisk, also a Lord, and Burning Tower, a daughter of Whandall, the main character of the previous book. Regapisk is an incompetent Lord and his family arrange for him to be shanghaied to become an oarsman on a coastal ship. Sandry and Burning Tower are romantically linked throughout the book. Large flightless birds attack trading caravans, but Sandry fights them off. He is sent by the Lords with the caravan, of which Burning Tower is also a part, to discover the source of the birds. They travel to the southern city of Condigeo and then to Crescent City, defeating terror bird attacks along the way. In Crescent City, they are joined by Regapisk, who has escaped from his ship. The three of them travel on to the high-magic city of Aztlan, where Regapisk redeems himself. The authors researched Aztec culture for the book, and many aspects of the culture depicted in the book are based on that research. This is explained in a brief note at the end of the book. Also mentioned is that within the described timeline, the terror birds continued to exist until long after humans spread through the Americas; this is based on the North American phorusrhacid Titanis walleri (but see McFadden et al. 2007). ===== In London in the year 1907, a British aristocrat, industrialist and millionaire named Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden) hastily arranges an expedition to the Arctic to search for his lost son Donald. Donald had become lost on a whaling expedition to find the fabled island where whales go to die. Sir Anthony employs the talents of a Scandinavian-American archaeologist Professor John Ivarsson (David Hartman) and Captain Brieux (Jacques Marin), a French inventor/aeronaut who pilots the expedition in a French dirigible named the Hyperion, which Captain Brieux invented. Upon reaching the Arctic, they meet Oomiak (Mako Iwamatsu), a comically cowardly/brave Eskimo friend of Donald's, and trick him into helping them join in the search. Ultimately, the expedition becomes (temporarily) separated from Captain Brieux, and discovers an uncharted island named Astragard, occupied by a lost civilization of Norsemen, cut off from the rest of the world for centuries. They capture Sir Anthony and Ivarsson, but Oomiak escapes. Shortly thereafter they find Donald, but are nearly put to death by the fanatical Godi (pronounced [ɡəʊdi], a religious soothsayer/authority figure. The three men (Sir Anthony, Ivarsson and Donald) are saved from being burned alive by a brave and beautiful girl named Freyja, with whom Donald is deeply and mutually in love. They escape, and are rejoined by Oomiak and eventually find the Whale's Graveyard, but are attacked by killer whales. Here they are saved by the sudden reappearance of Captain Brieux, but they are still being pursued by the angry Godi and his rather unwilling warriors. Finally, Godi is killed by the explosion when he shoots a fiery arrow at the Hyperion, but the Vikings will not let the expedition return to their world unless one of them remains behind as a hostage. Ivarsson however, willingly volunteers to stay, because this is a chance to live history. Ivarsson also points out that if someday mankind is ever foolish enough to destroy itself, places like Astragard may become humanity's final refuge. Sir Anthony, Donald, Freyja, Captain Brieux and Oomiak, are allowed to depart in peace, promising not to tell the outside world about Astragard. As Ivarsson heads back to Astragard, he turns to look back just in time to see his four friends move further and further away until they vanish into the Arctic mist. ===== ===== Strieber is in New York City in October 1988 when it is attacked by Soviet nuclear weapons. He experiences the initial blast while riding a bus, and witnesses the flooding of the subway system by a tsunami in the wake of a nuclear detonation at sea. Strieber is reunited with his family at his son's school and shelters there, but experiences radiation sickness. Upon his recovery, he and his family leave New York for San Antonio which they soon discover was destroyed as well. They eventually settle in Dallas, where he becomes a news reporter for the Dallas Times Herald. Five years later, Strieber and Kunetka decide to document the effects of Warday on the United States; they travel first through devastated southeast and southwest Texas. They then visit the new nation-state of Aztlan in the former American Southwest, and conduct interviews with its foreign minister and citizens. They then conduct interviews while trying to evade the omnipresent police in Los Angeles, California. California, physically not touched by the attack, has become a self-governing, authoritarian police state which treats outsiders as "illegal immigrants." In San Francisco they reunite with an old friend of Strieber's, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, but then are captured, arrested, and sentenced to years of hard labor in prison. En route to prison they escape by train and continue their interviews across the Midwest, taking refuge periodically from the highly radioactive dust storms now ubiquitous in the dustbowl conditions of the Midwest (created by the nuclear bombing of the Dakotas). After visiting Chicago, they continue east into Pennsylvania and into what remains of New York City, where Strieber, overcome with emotion, returns to his old apartment in the very dangerous ruins of Manhattan. The book ends with Strieber and Kunetka back in Texas facing an uncertain future. ===== The curtain opens on Domenico Soriano, 50, a wealthy Neapolitan shop-keeper who is raging against Filumena, 48, a former prostitute. They lived together for 26 years as husband and wife (but with his frequently having trysts with other women) and she has tricked him, pretending to be near death, and convincing him to marry her in extremis. Domenico, however, would rather marry Diana, a young girl, who is already in the house pretending to be a nurse. Filumena reveals the real reason for the marriage to Domenico: She wants to create a family for her three children (Umberto, Michele and Riccardo) who have no idea of who their mother really is. Domenico is not going to allow this and asks his lawyer Nocella to annul the marriage. Filumena speaks to the young men telling them that she is their mother. Filumena accepts the defeat of the annulment, but tells Domenico that one of the three children is actually his. All attempts to find out who his son is fail, and Domenico, after 10 months, remarries Filumena accepting to be the father of all three. In the play, Filumena memorably tells Domenico that "children are children, and they're all equal" (I figli sono figli e sono tutti uguali). ===== The game opens with President Krieger of Earth's United Nations talking about how he came up through the ranks of the LightStormer Corps. This turns out to be a recruiting commercial airing at the LightStormer Corps Headquarters. There, Jack Curtis, a new recruit, is talking to his elder brother and commanding officer Blake Curtis. Jack is sent on a training mission, after which he and his fellow LightStormer Troy Alexander receive psionic implants. Troy and Jack are sent on another training mission, through an "abandoned" chemical factory. Upon returning, they are given another psionic implant, drain. Jack's third and final training mission is across several rooftops. He completes this with flying colors, then reports to Blake, who congratulates him. In fact, Jack has placed right up there with Blake himself - and their late father, a revered LightStormer who was a personal friend of U.N. President Krieger, Curtis Senior's commanding officer. Then Blake gets an emergency call: a crew of Cryo-Pirates have commandeered a space station in Jupiter's orbit. Blake sends Jack to activate the station's self-destruct sequence, which Jack does. Unbeknownst to both him and Blake, however, a mysterious girl named Eve is monitoring Jack in action and says, "This Jack Curtis might be the one we've been looking for." Back at LightStormer HQ, Blake promotes Jack to corporal for proving his value in the field; Jack has accomplished, in one mission, what took their dad three missions. Moreover, President Krieger has taken notice of Jack and ordered an endorphine boost for him. In Blake's words, "They don't hand these out like candy." They talk briefly with Troy, who has already been promoted to sergeant and is being sent on a "special assignment" by President Krieger. Then another emergency call comes in, this time from Triton: one of Neptune's moons, where a colony of scientists was established ten years ago to terraform the moon. The colony has been overrun by hostile aliens, so Jack is dispatched to eradicate them, which he succeeds. Returning from Triton, Jack learns that Troy has been killed in action on Mars while attempting to locate a mysterious psionic orb. Blake hopes Jack will succeed where Troy failed; Jack comes through, despite having little more than his psionics to fight with. Jack is unhappy that he's not allowed some R&R; to clear his head given the orb's vast enhancement of his psionic abilities, and expresses disgust when Blake casually refers to the three-day hospital stay recovering from the effects as such, feeling his brother has a perverse view on the matter. Blake reminds him that President Krieger has final say on all such decisions before promoting him to sergeant. Then he's sent to Antarctica to wipe out a group of extraterrestrials. This time, it's the test subjects recovered from the Triton incident that got loose and stole a batch of Cyclone weapons, and Jack's objective is to retrieve their genetic databank. For this mission, Jack receives a new psionic: shield. After this, Jack is sent to Jupiter's moon Io; retaking the colony from Jovian gangsters who've commandeered a sulfate mine and production plant. President Krieger personally congratulates Jack upon his triumphant return, and promotes the young LightStormer to lieutenant. He then dispatches Jack to New Atlantis, to join Blake for some R&R.; Just then, Blake calls in from New Atlantis. The colony has been overrun with hostile mechs and a reactor coolant leak is about to destroy the whole place. Jack rushes over, outfights the mechs and kicks in the backup coolant to find it disabled. New Atlantis explodes, killing Blake and thousands of innocents. Jack alone survives because Eve beamed him out of there just in time. She explains that President Krieger used Jack to locate and bring back the psionic orb and the Triton alien soldiers' genetic databank, because this will give him all but unlimited psionic power and a private military company staffed with physically superior extraterrestrial soldiers. Eve is the head of the rebel faction the Alliance Of Democracy, attempting to overthrow Krieger's tyrannical Presidency and replace it with their own benevolent regime. She convinces Jack of their cause, then gives him a new psionic implant: Terrablast. Jack takes on Krieger's private army as he infiltrates the evil president's headquarters, but he gets captured by a teleporter in his office and restrained to a chair. Krieger is visibly unnerved by Jack's flippant defiance and reveals Curtis Senior got wise to Krieger's pursuit of the orb and threatened to expose his then LightStormer commanding officer, promoting Krieger to send a group of "terrorists" to kill Curtis Senior. Krieger uses his Extractor torture device to try to retrieve the Terrablast implant from Jack's skull while putting him under an induced hallucinatory nightmare to erode his will, but Jack resists and battles his way free of the hallucinations. He then storms through Krieger's secret base and the rest of the evil president's forces, at last taking out Krieger. At this point, two different endings await depending on the difficulty level. In easy mode, Eve becomes President of the U.N., and Jack head of the LightStormer Corps. In hard mode, Jack himself becomes the U.N.'s new president. Either way, he gets the girl and the orb. ===== ===== In the waning years of the Cold War, Nicholas Foley, a Soviet sleeper agent and a survivor of the World War II siege of Leningrad, is a scientist and technological genius quietly working in American academia. He develops an ultrasonic gadget with which he can indetectably control the minds of others. His wife knows his secrets, but loves him too much to turn him over to Federal authorities. When both the Americans and the Soviets find out what Foley has invented, his wife is kidnapped, and he is forced to flee the CIA and the KGB. He must save his wife, elude capture in a massive manhunt and, at a summit meeting between the President of the United States and the Soviet premier, make a daring masterstroke for peace in our time, and for all time. Category:1987 American novels Category:1987 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:American spy novels Category:Novels by Joe Haldeman Category:William Morrow and Company books ===== The novel details the lives of three characters, first as children and then as adults – Waldo, Em and Lyndall – who live on a farm in the Karoo region of South Africa. The story is set in the middle- to late-19th century – the First Boer War is alluded to, but not mentioned by name. The book is semi-autobiographical: in particular, the two principal protagonists (Waldo and Lyndall) display strong similarities to Schreiner's life and philosophy. The book was first published in 1883 in London, under the pseudonym Ralph Iron. It quickly became a best-seller, despite causing some controversy over its frank portrayal of freethought, feminism, premarital sex and pregnancy out of wedlock, and transvestitism. ===== =====