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Irréversible contains fourteen scenes presented in reverse chronological order. They are arranged here in chronological order. # An Italian woman living in France named Alex (Monica Bellucci) is reading An Experiment with Time by J. W. Dunne in a park, surrounded by playing children. Beethoven's 7th Symphony is heard in the background. The camera spins around faster and faster until it blacks out into a strobe effect, accompanied by a pulsing, roaring sound. A rapidly spinning image of a lawn sprinkler resembling the cosmos can be dimly perceived. A title card reads: "Le Temps Detruit Tout" ("Time destroys everything") – a phrase uttered in the film's first scene. The film ends. (The use of Beethoven's 7th Symphony also ties this film directly to Noé's next picture, Enter The Void, where the same song is used in the title sequence. # Alex sits on the bed clothed, her hand on her belly. A poster for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the tagline "The Ultimate Trip", is above the headboard. # Alex lies in bed with Marcus (Vincent Cassel) after having sex. Alex reveals she might be pregnant, and Marcus is pleased with the possibility. They prepare to go to a party, and Marcus leaves to buy wine. Alex takes a shower, then uses a home pregnancy test that confirms she is pregnant. She is elated. # At a nearby Paris Métro station and aboard a subway train, Alex, Marcus and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) are on their way to a party. They discuss sex, and Pierre refers to the fact that he and Alex were once dating, but are no longer in a relationship. He implies that Marcus stole Alex from him. # Alex, Marcus, and Pierre have arrived at the party. Alex is annoyed by Marcus's unrestrained use of drugs and alcohol and his flirtatious behavior with other women, and consequently decides to leave the party alone. # On her way home, Alex sees a pimp called "Le Tenia" ("The Tapeworm") (Jo Prestia) beating a transsexual prostitute named Concha (Jaramillo) in a pedestrian underpass. Once the man sees Alex, he releases Concha and turns his attention to Alex, who attempts to flee, but Le Tenia catches her and threatens her with a knife. Le Tenia pins Alex to the ground and anally rapes her for several minutes of screentime, after which he brutally beats her into unconsciousness. # Marcus and Pierre leave the party and encounter commotion on the street. Marcus wails as he discovers Alex's bloodied body being wheeled on a stretcher into an ambulance by paramedics. # Alex is hospitalized and revealed to be comatose. Marcus and Pierre are questioned by the police. They then talk to a street thug named Mourad (Mourad Khima) and his friend Layde (Hellal). The two gangsters promise, if they get paid, to help them find the rapist, who Mourad claims is Le Tenia. Marcus and Pierre go looking for the man who raped Alex. Marcus is still high on drugs and very agitated. # The men track down Concha, Le Tenia's last victim. At first, she refuses to talk to them. After Marcus threatens to slash her with a piece of broken glass, she identifies Le Tenia as the rapist and says he can be found at a gay BDSM nightclub called The Rectum. They are soon chased by angry sex workers seeking to defend Concha. Mourad and Layde run in a different direction. # Marcus and Pierre hail a taxi. Marcus assaults the taxi driver and steals the car. # Marcus and Pierre are seen driving in the taxi. They encounter people in and around a local bar as they attempt to locate The Rectum. While sitting in the taxi, Pierre begs to go to the hospital to see Alex, but Marcus gets angry and breaks the windshield with a wrench. # Marcus and Pierre go to The Rectum, but do not know what Le Tenia looks like. Marcus finds Le Tenia standing with another man, Mick. Thinking Mick is Le Tenia, Marcus assaults him, but Mick wrestles him to the ground, breaks Marcus's arm, and attempts to rape him on the club floor. Pierre defends Marcus by using a fire extinguisher to crush Mick's skull, killing him. Le Tenia stands by and stares, shocked and amused that he got away. # Police arrest Pierre and put him in handcuffs. An ambulance arrives, and Marcus is put on a stretcher and taken from the club. Outside, Mourad and Layde shout insults at Pierre and Marcus. The murdered man is revealed not to be Le Tenia after all. Rather, the man standing next to him in the club was the real Le Tenia. # Across the street in a small apartment, two men are talking about sex. One of them is "the Butcher", the protagonist of Noé's previous film, I Stand Alone. In a drunken monologue, the Butcher reveals that he was arrested for having sex with his own daughter. The subject of their discussion shifts to the commotion in the streets outside. Without looking out the window, they derisively attribute the commotion to the patrons of The Rectum. Outside, Mourad is seen talking to a police officer. 

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On New Year's Eve 1986, professional thief Jim Rawlings breaks into the apartment of a senior civil servant and inadvertently discovers stolen top secret documents. Despite being a notorious and infamous criminal, he is enough of a patriot to send the documents anonymously to MI5 so that they might locate the traitor. In Moscow, British defector Kim Philby drafts a memorandum for the Soviet General Secretary stating that, should the Labour Party win the next general election in the United Kingdom (scheduled for sometime in the subsequent eighteen months), the "hard left" of the party will oust the moderate populist Neil Kinnock in favour of a radical new leader who will adopt a true Marxist-Leninist manifesto, including the expulsion of all American forces from the United Kingdom and the country's withdrawal from (and repudiation of) NATO. In conjunction with a GRU general, an academic named Krilov, and a master strategist, they devise "Plan Aurora" to secure a Labour victory by exploiting the party's support for unilateral disarmament. John Preston, an ex-Parachute Regiment soldier-turned-MI5 officer, who was exploring hard-left infiltration of the Labour Party, is tasked to investigate the stolen documents and discovers they were leaked by George Berenson, a passionate anti-communist and staunch supporter of apartheid South Africa. Berenson passed on the documents to Jan Marais, who he believes is a South African diplomat, but is in fact a Soviet false flag operative. SIS chief Sir Nigel Irvine eventually confronts Berenson with the truth and "turns" him, using him to pass disinformation to the KGB. As part of Plan Aurora, Soviet agent Valeri Petrofsky arrives under deep cover in the United Kingdom and establishes a base in a house in Ipswich. From there, he travels around the country collecting packages from various couriers who have smuggled them into the country either hidden or disguised as seemingly harmless artefacts. One of the couriers, masquerading as a sailor, is assaulted by Neds in Glasgow and hospitalised, where he commits suicide rather than submit to interrogation. Preston investigates and finds three out- of-place looking metal discs in a tobacco tin in his gunny sack. He shows the discs to a metallurgist who identifies the outer two as aluminium but the third as polonium, a key element in the initiator of an atomic bomb. Preston reports his findings to his antagonistic MI5 superior, Acting Director-General Brian Harcourt-Smith, who ignores them, has Preston taken off the politically embarrassing case and requests the human resource department to arrange that Preston take leave. Irvine, however, suspects that a major intelligence operation is underway, and has Preston work unofficially for him to search for other Soviet couriers (his absence from the office would be explained by the coincidental order to take leave). Simultaneously, he uses Berenson to pass a deliberate piece of disinformation to the KGB. In Moscow, the director of foreign operations for the KGB, General Karpov, discovers Aurora's existence. He determines that the general secretary is responsible, and blackmails Krilov into revealing the plan: in contravention of the Fourth Protocol, the component parts of a small atomic device are to be smuggled into the United Kingdom, to be assembled and exploded near RAF Bentwaters a week before the general election. Irrefutable evidence will be left that the explosion was an accidental detonation of an American tactical nuclear weapon, leading to a general wave of anti-Americanism, support for unilateral nuclear disarmament and for the only major party committed to disarmament, the Labour Party. The day after they win the election, the hard left will take over and begin to dismantle the Western alliance in Europe. Preston attempts, albeit fruitlessly, to uncover other couriers connected to the operation. A month into the investigation, a bumbling Czechoslovakian operative, originally believed to be an Austrian, under the name 'Franz Winkler' arrives at Heathrow with a forged visa in his passport and is shadowed to a house in Chesterfield. Preston's patience is rewarded when Petrofsky shows up to use the radio transmitter that is located there. He trails Petrofsky to his rented house, where the bomb has been assembled. An SAS team is called in to storm the house, and wounds Petrofsky before he can detonate the bomb. Despite Preston's express wishes, the commander kills the Spetsnaz man during the raid. Before dying Petrofsky manages to say one last word: "Philby". Preston confronts Irvine with his theory that the operation was deliberately blown by Philby; the latter did not know Petrofsky's location but instead sent Franz Winkler, with an obviously false visa, to the location of the transmitter, and ultimately, to Petrofsky. Irvine admits to sabotaging the KGB's British operation by leaking disinformation through Berenson to General Karpov that they were closing in on their suspect. In turn, Karpov (and not Philby) sent Winkler, sabotaging Plan Aurora. By sending Winkler, Karpov has thwarted a British publicity victory as Irvine understood the implication that Petrofsky must not be captured alive or exposed in the media. Irvine also admits that Philby has indeed been passing intelligence to the British embassy in Moscow (via carrier pigeons), hoping to earn repatriation back to the United Kingdom, but he did not expose Plan Aurora, and even if he had, as far as Irvine is concerned, "he can rot in hell." At the novel's end, Harcourt-Smith is not confirmed as Director-General of MI5, because of his poor judgment in the case, and subsequently resigns from MI5 altogether. Preston also resigns but, through Irvine, finds lucrative private-sector employment that enables him to obtain full custody of his son. Marais is taken into custody by South African intelligence and Berenson's efforts are rendered unusable to the KGB, as Irvine intends to use his own spy network and plant the suspicion that Berenson was, in fact, a double agent, so that his information will be considered suspect. 

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In an attempt to steal the six Chaos Emeralds and harness their power, the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik has trapped the animal inhabitants of South Island inside aggressive robots and stationary metal capsules. The player controls Sonic, who aims to halt Robotnik's plans by freeing his animal friends and collecting the emeralds himself. If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds and completes the game, an ending sequence is shown. If all the emeralds are not collected, Robotnik taunts the player while juggling any of the Chaos Emeralds not collected by the player. 

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Mr. Garrison's job is on the line because he does not teach anything relevant, so in an effort to save his job, he makes the class do oral presentations on a current event for the town committee. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny are grouped together with Tweek, a jittery child. Tweek suggests that the presentation be about the "Underpants Gnomes", tiny gnomes that sneak into his house and steal his underpants. The boys agree to stay at Tweek's house to work on Mr. Garrison's homework assignment and to see if Underpants Gnomes exist. Tweek's parents, who own a coffee shop, give the boys coffee to help them stay up. The boys drink too much coffee, and end up wired, bouncing off the walls of Tweek's bedroom rather than writing their report. Tweek claims the gnomes arrive at 3:30 a.m.; as the time approaches, the boys realize they have nothing to present. Tweek's father enters the room, offering the boys a propagandist speech against Harbucks, a national chain of coffee houses that is threatening his business. As he does this, the gnomes steal underpants from Tweek's dresser, but only Tweek notices them. The boys' presentation is a hit, much to Mr. Garrison's surprise; the town committee is so moved that they lobby Mayor McDaniels to pass a law against Harbucks. The mayor agrees to a so-called prop 10, allowing the townspeople to vote on whether Harbucks may remain in South Park. Mr. Garrison, knowing that the boys did not write the first presentation, piles the pressure on, telling them they better follow through, or else Mr. Hat will do "horrible things" to them. After Cartman effortlessly turns the townspeople against Harbucks, it is revealed that the mayor expects the boys to do yet another presentation just before the vote. The boys, however, know nothing on the subject. As they are at their wits' end, they finally see Tweek's gnomes and ply them for information. At the gnomes' lair, the gnomes claim to be business experts and explain their three phase business plan: Gnomes' three- phase business plan : _Phase 1_ : Collect underpants : _Phase 2_ : ? : _Phase 3_ : Profit When the boys give their presentation for the vote, they do a report that is completely different from their previous piece. They now say, having spoken to the gnomes, that corporations are good, and are only big because of their great contributions to the world. While speaking, they admit that they did not write the previous paper, which causes Mr. Garrison to be carried away as he lashes out at the boys telling them they ruined his life for the last time. Mrs. Tweek applauds their honesty and admits to the same facts herself. She convinces the whole town to try Harbucks Coffee. When everybody does try it, they all agree that Harbucks coffee is better than Tweek's coffee, including Mr. Tweek, who accepts an offer to run the Harbucks shop. Meanwhile, the gnomes continue to steal underpants from the oblivious townspeople. 

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Mary Astor and Louis Wolheim in Two Arabian Knights During the First World War, two American soldiers become trapped in no man's land. Expecting to die, W. Dangerfield Phelps III (William Boyd) decides to fulfill his fondest desire: to beat up his sergeant since training camp, Peter O'Gaffney (Louis Wolheim). While they are brawling, the Germans sneak up and capture them. In a German prison camp, the two become friends when Phelps takes responsibility for an unflattering caricature he drew of a guard, rather than let O'Gaffney take the blame. The two escape, stealing the white robes of Arab prisoners to blend in with the snow. However, they encounter (and are forced to join) a group of similarly garbed Arab prisoners being sent by train to Constantinople. Near the end of their journey, Phelps creates a distraction, and the two men jump off, landing in a hay wagon. When the hay is loaded onto a ship bound for Arabia, so are they. The stowaways are discovered, but the skipper (Michael Visaroff) is satisfied when Phelps pays him their fare. When a small boat founders nearby, Phelps jumps in to try to rescue an Arabian woman, Mirza (Mary Astor). Both he and the woman have to be saved by O'Gaffney. The two soldiers and the skipper vie for the veiled woman's affections. Phelps eventually coaxes her into removing her veil, and is entranced by her beauty. Meanwhile, the woman's escort observes this development with disapproval. The skipper insists on being paid for Mirza's fare, but none of the three have any money left. They hold him off as best they can. When they reach their destination, the skipper refuses to let Mirza debark without paying, so O'Gaffney robs the purser (Boris Karloff) to get the money. Mirza is met by Shevket Ben Ali (Ian Keith); Mirza informs Phelps that her father has arranged for her to marry Shevket. They depart. The Americans jump overboard when the skipper discovers what happened to his purser. The two men head for the American consul, but leave hastily without speaking to him when they find the skipper already there lodging a complaint. They decide to seek the assistance of Mirza's father the Emir, who turns out to be the governor of the region. However, Mirza's escort has told him and Shevket that Phelps has seen her without her veil. Outraged, the Emir sends his men to bring the Americans back to be executed. Unaware of this, the two soldiers saunter into the Emir's palace. Phelps reads Mirza's warning note in time, and the two escape. When Phelps sets out to rescue Mirza, O'Gaffney shows true friendship and accompanies him. They are trapped by Shevket and his men, but when Mirza threatens to kill herself, Shevket proposes they settle this with a duel in which only one of the pistols is loaded. Phelps agrees and fires first; his gun is unloaded. Mirza is made to leave the room. Then Shevket reveals that both guns are empty; he did not wish to wager his life with a "dog". He exits, leaving his men to dispose of Phelps. The two men overcome their captors, relieve Shevket of Mirza, and ride away. 

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Ex-criminal Gary "Gal" Dove is happily retired in Spain with his beloved wife DeeDee, best friend Aitch and Aitch's wife Jackie. A boulder falls from a hill, nearly hits him, and lands in his swimming pool, damaging its double-heart insignia. After an unsuccessful rabbit hunt with Aitch and Enrique, a Spanish boy who helps him around the house, Gal has a dream of a demonic, anthropomorphic rabbit pointing a gun at him. An old criminal associate, the feared sociopath Don Logan, arrives at Gal's villa, intent on enlisting Gal for a bank robbery in London. Crime lord Teddy Bass learned about the vault from Harry, the bank's chairman, whom he met at an orgy. Gal politely declines, claiming he is no longer “match fit” (and, privately, still traumatised by a prior long prison stay) but Don grows increasingly aggressive and violent. After Gal suggests Don's real reason for visiting is his infatuation with Jackie, with whom he had a brief affair, Don grows furious and demands to be taken to the airport. On the plane, Don refuses to extinguish his cigarette prior to take-off, is aggressive to staff and other passengers, and is ejected. Don returns to the villa screaming obscenities and attacks Gal with a bottle. Enrique threatens him with a gun, but Don disarms him. DeeDee aims Gal’s shotgun at Don, but in the next scene Gal appears in a rainy London at the hotel where he was told to stay by Don, suggesting he has had no alternative but to accept the job. Teddy asks Gal where Don is. Gal claims Don called him from Heathrow Airport and continues to feign ignorance and hide his panic as Teddy asks more questions. During the heist, Teddy's crew use diving gear to drill into Harry's vault from a pool in a neighbouring bath house. As Gal works, Don’s fate is revealed – DeeDee shot Don in the stomach with the shotgun and then she, Jackie and Gal beat him. When a bloodied Don taunts Aitch that he had sex with Jackie, Aitch crushes his head with a barbeque set. The pool water floods the vault and shorts its security system. As the crew empties the vault's safe deposit boxes, Gal secretly pockets a pair of ruby earrings encrusted with diamonds. After the job, Teddy insists on driving Gal to the airport. He stops at Harry's home, where he kills Harry and demands Gal tell him where Don is. Gal finally responds that he is "not into this any more", effectively admitting he did not want to do the job and has killed Don. Teddy tells Gal that he does not care about Don but implies Gal would also be dead if he did. He gives Gal £10 as payment for the job (Don had promised him 2.5 or 3% of the takings), giving him a twenty-pound-note and demanding change. Teddy leaves Gal at a bus stop. Gal pulls out the stolen gem encrusted earrings, his hidden reward for the job. Gal returns to his friends and family in Spain, where DeeDee wears the earrings and life has returned to normal. Gal hears Don's voice tell him that he knew Gal would do the job; Gal responds that Don is dead now and can shut up. Under the restored double-heart insignia of the swimming pool, the demonic rabbit kicks open a coffin, revealing Don, who exhales smoke with contempt. 

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Malcolm Little is raised in a poor household in rural Michigan by his Caribbean mother and African-American father. When Malcolm is a young boy, their house is burnt down and his father, an activist for black rights, is killed by a chapter of the Black Legion. His death is registered as a suicide and the family receives no compensation. Malcolm's mother's mental state deteriorates and she is admitted to a mental institution. Malcolm and his siblings are put into protective care. Malcolm performs well in school and dreams of being a lawyer, but is discouraged by his teacher due to his skin color. In 1944, Malcolm, now a teenager, lives in Boston. One night, he catches the attention of the white Sophia, and the two begin to date. Malcolm travels to Harlem with Sophia. At a bar, he meets "West Indian" Archie, a gangster who runs a local numbers game. The two become friends and start co- operating an illegal numbers racket. One night at a club, Malcolm claims to have bet on a winning number; Archie disputes this, denying him a large sum of money. A conflict ensues between the two and Malcolm returns to Boston after an attempt on his life. Malcolm, Sophia, Malcolm's friend Shorty, and a woman named Peg decide to perform robberies to earn money. By 1946, the group has accrued a large amount of money from thievery. However, they are later arrested. The two girls are sentenced to two years as first offenders in connection with the robberies, while Malcolm and Shorty are sentenced to 8–10 years in jail. While incarcerated, Malcolm meets Baines, a member of the Nation of Islam, who directs him to the teachings of the group's leader Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm grows interested in the Muslim religion and lifestyle promoted by the group, and begins to resent white people for their maltreatment of his race. Malcolm is paroled from prison in 1952 after serving six years, and travels to the Nation of Islam's headquarters in Chicago. There, he meets Muhammad, who instructs Malcolm to replace his surname "Little" with "X", which is symbolic of his lost African surname that was taken from him by white people; he is rechristened as "Malcolm X". Malcolm returns to Harlem and begins to preach the Nation's message. Over time, his speeches gather large crowds of onlookers. Malcolm proposes ideas such as African-American separation from white Americans. In 1958, Malcolm meets nurse Betty Sanders. The two begin dating, quickly marry and become the parents of four daughters. Several years later, Malcolm is now in a high position as the spokesperson of the Nation of Islam. During this time, Malcolm learns that Muhammad had fathered numerous children out of wedlock in contradiction to his teachings and Islam. After US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in November 1963, Malcolm comments that the assassination was the product of the white violence that has been prevalent in America since its founding, comparing the killing to "the chickens coming home to roost." This statement damages Malcolm's reputation and Muhammad suspends him from speaking to the press or at temples for 90 days. In early 1964, Malcolm goes on a pilgrimage to Mecca where he finds that Muslims come from all races, including white. Malcolm, having lost his faith in the Nation of Islam, publicly announces that is founding the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which teaches tolerance instead of racial separation. He is exiled from the Nation of Islam, and his house is firebombed in early 1965. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm prepares to speak before a crowd at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem before he is shot several times by disciples of the Nation of Islam. One of the shooters, Thomas Hagan, is shot in the leg by one of Malcolm's bodyguards and beaten by a furious crowd. Malcolm is transported to a hospital, but is pronounced dead on arrival. The film concludes with a series of clips showing the aftermath of Malcolm's death. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers a eulogy to Malcolm, and Ossie Davis recites a speech at Malcolm's funeral. Nelson Mandela delivers a speech to a school, quoting an excerpt from one of Malcolm's speeches. 

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The Little Mermaid finds the prince's statue under the sea. The Little Mermaid lives in an underwater kingdom with her widowed father (the sea king or Mer-King), her dowager grandmother, and her five older sisters, each of whom had been born one year apart. When a mermaid turns fifteen, she is permitted to swim to the surface for the first time to glimpse the world above, and when the sisters become old enough, each of them visits the upper world one at a time every year. As each returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their various descriptions of the world inhabited by human beings. When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she rises up to the surface, watches a birthday celebration being held on a ship in honor of a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a safe distance. A violent storm hits, sinking the ship, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here, she waits until a young woman from the temple and her ladies in waiting find him. To her dismay, the prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life. The Little Mermaid becomes melancholic and asks her grandmother if humans can live forever. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than a mermaid's 300 years, but that, when mermaids die, they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean. The witch willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her tongue and beautiful voice, as the Little Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the world. The witch warns the Little Mermaid that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Consuming the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her body, yet when she recovers, she will have two human legs and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, she will constantly feel as if she is walking on sharp knives and bleed constantly. In addition, she will obtain a soul only if she wins the love of the prince and marries him, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries someone else, the Little Mermaid will die with a broken heart and dissolve into sea foam upon the waves. After she agrees to the arrangement, the Little Mermaid swims up to the surface near the prince's castle and drinks the potion. The liquid felt like a sword piercing through her body and she passed out on the steps of the prince's palace, naked. She is found by the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace, even though she is mute. Most of all, he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite suffering excruciating pain with every step. Soon, the Little Mermaid becomes the prince's favorite companion and accompanies him on many of his outings. When the prince's parents encourage their son to marry the neighboring princess in an arranged marriage, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, who he believes rescued him. It turns out that the princess from the neighboring kingdom is the temple girl, as she was sent to the temple for her education. The prince declares his love for her, and the royal wedding is announced at once. The mermaid sisters give the knife to The Little Mermaid. The prince and princess celebrate their new marriage on a wedding ship, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has sacrificed and of all the pain she has endured for the prince. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters rise out of the water and bring her a dagger that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long, beautiful hair. If the Little Mermaid kills the prince and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid once more, all her suffering will end, and she will live out her full life in the ocean with her family. However, the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his new wife, and she throws the dagger and herself off the ship into the water just as dawn breaks. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warm sun and discovers that she has turned into a luminous and ethereal earthbound spirit, a daughter of the air. As the Little Mermaid ascends into the atmosphere, she is greeted by other daughters, who tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to obtain an immortal soul. Because of her selflessness, she is given the chance to earn her own soul by doing good deeds for mankind for 300 years, and will one day rise up into Heaven. 

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Ariel is a 16-year-old mermaid princess unsatisfied with underwater life in the underwater kingdom of Atlantica. She is fascinated by the human world, wanting desperately to become a human and live on the land. With her best friend Flounder, Ariel collects and keeps random human artifacts in her grotto and consults a seagull named Scuttle for inaccurate knowledge about human culture and the items she finds. Ariel's father, King Triton, and a crab who serves as his advisor/court composer named Sebastian, constantly warn her against humans and tell her that contact between merpeople and humans is forbidden. One night, Ariel, Flounder, and an unwilling Sebastian travel to the ocean surface to watch a celebration for Prince Eric's birthday on a ship. Ariel falls in love with the prince instantly. Soon a violent storm arrives, wrecking the ship. Ariel rescues Eric from drowning and brings him to shore. She sings to him but returns to the sea just as he regains consciousness to avoid being discovered. Fascinated by the memory of her mesmerizing voice, Eric vows to find and marry the girl who saved his life, and Ariel vows to find a way to join him as a human being. Noticing a sudden change in Ariel's behavior, Triton questions Sebastian, who accidentally exposes that Ariel has come in contact with humans and fallen in love with Prince Eric. The angry king confronts Ariel, uncovers her grotto, and destroys her beloved collection. After Triton leaves, two eels named Flotsam and Jetsam convince the devastated young princess to visit Ursula, the evil sea witch. Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her form into a human for three days in exchange for Ariel's voice, which Ursula puts in a nautilus shell she keeps around her neck. Within these three days, Ariel must cause the prince to fall in love with her and give her the "kiss of true love." If Ariel gets Eric to kiss her, she will remain human permanently. If she fails, Ariel will become a miserable polyp and belong to Ursula. Ariel accepts and is then given human legs and taken to the surface by Flounder and Sebastian. Eric finds Ariel alone on the beach and takes her to his castle, but is still unaware that she is the one who saved him before due to her muteness. Ariel spends time with Eric, and at the end of the second day, they almost kiss but are thwarted by Flotsam and Jetsam. That night, to ensure Ariel's failure, Ursula disguises herself as a beautiful young woman named Vanessa and appears on the shore in front of Eric's castle, singing with Ariel's voice. Eric recognizes the song immediately, and the incognito Ursula casts an enchantment on Eric, which causes him to forget Ariel. The next morning, Ariel discovers that Eric will be married to Vanessa later in the day and is heartbroken. Scuttle then discovers Vanessa's true identity and informs Ariel, who immediately pursues the wedding barge upon receiving the news. Sebastian informs Triton what's happened, and Scuttle is sent to sabotage the wedding. In the chaos, the nautilus shell around Ursula's neck is destroyed, and Ariel's voice is returned, breaking the enchantment Ursula has placed over Eric. Realizing that Ariel is the girl who saved him from the shipwreck, Eric rushes to embrace her, but the sun sets, and she transforms back into a mermaid. Ursula takes her true form as a terrifying sea witch and drags Ariel into the ocean with her. Triton confronts Ursula and demands that she release his daughter, but the deal is inviolable, even against the king. When Ursula offers to free Ariel in exchange for his trident, Triton agrees to take her place and is transformed into a polyp, losing his authority over Atlantica. Ariel is then released, and Ursula declares herself the new ruler. But before she can use the trident, Eric stops her with a harpoon. She tries to kill Eric, but when Ariel intervenes, Ursula inadvertently kills Flotsam and Jetsam; this enrages Ursula, and she uses the trident to grow to a monstrous size. Ariel and Eric reunite on the surface just before Ursula emerges from the water, towering over them. She then creates a vicious storm and pulls huge, sunken ships from the ocean's bottom to the surface. Just as she is about to kill Ariel, Eric steers one of the wrecked ships towards Ursula and impales her with its splintered bowsprit, killing her once and for all. With Ursula finally dead, Triton and the other polyps in Ursula's garden revert to their original state. Realizing that Ariel truly loves Eric, Triton willingly changes her from a mermaid into a human permanently and accepts their marriage. Ariel and Eric marry on a ship and depart. 

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In terms of structure, the book opens at chapter six to give context to the other chapters. Thus, the flow is Chapter six overview of Chapter one, then Chapter one. Next, is Chapter six overview of Chapter two, then Chapter two. Chapter six then concludes, and the story proceeds with chapter seven. In terms of the setting in the future, in Part I, the novel specifically refers to the date October 3, 2070, as a date when the character Hallam entered the laboratory to work. Later in Part I, in chapter two, the book states that the character Peter Lamont had been two years old when Hallam performed the work set in 2070, and Lamont was 25 years old when he began working at the Pump Station. Accordingly, the bulk of the novel is set sometime around the year 2100. In Part III, the novel states that the Earth's population has been reduced to two billion people following a "Great Crisis". It caused significant ecological damage, with all apes except for gibbons extinct outside of zoos, and technological progress being viewed with suspicion - for example, genetic engineering research is banned outright. Part III of the novel takes place on a lunar colony with about 20,000 people, half of which were "native Lunarites". The colony is stated to be the last leftover of the pre-Crisis humanity, making it the leader in many sciences. The main plot-line is a project by those who inhabit a parallel universe (the para-Universe) with different physical laws from this one. By exchanging matter from their universe—para-Universe—with our universe, they seek to exploit the differences in physical laws. The exchange of matter provides an alternative source of energy to maintain their universe. However, the exchange will likely result in the collapse of the Earth's Sun into a supernova, and possibly even turning a large part of the Milky Way into a quasar. There is hope among those in the para-Universe that the energy explosion does happen in our universe. 

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A psychopathic sniper, later referred to as "Scorpio", shoots a woman while she swims in a rooftop pool. He leaves behind a blackmail letter demanding he be paid $100,000 or he will kill more people. The note is found by SFPD Inspector Harry Callahan. The mayor teams up with the police to track down the killer, although to stall for time, he agrees to Scorpio's demand over Callahan's objections. During his lunch break Callahan foils a bank robbery. He shoots two robbers and holds a third at gunpoint with his Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, bluffing him to surrender with an ultimatum: > I know what you're thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to > tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. > But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and > would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do > I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk? Callahan is assigned a rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez, against his opposition to working with an inexperienced police officer. Meanwhile, Scorpio is spotted by a police helicopter near Saints Peter and Paul Church as he is staking out potential victims (in retaliation to the mayor's coded message to him put in a newspaper). Callahan and Chico are unsuccessful in finding him, and Callahan is briefly mistaken for a peeping tom. After assisting in preventing a suicide, Callahan and Chico learn that Scorpio has murdered a 10-year old African American boy. Based on his blackmail letter, the police think that Scorpio's next victim is a Catholic priest. The police set up a stake-out where the killer was first spotted. Scorpio eventually arrives, kills a police officer in the shootout that follows, then escapes. The next day, the police receive another letter in which Scorpio claims to have kidnapped a teenager named Ann Mary Deacon. He threatens to kill her if he is not given a ransom of $200,000. Callahan is assigned to deliver the money, and uses a tracking device so Chico can keep secretly following him. Scorpio instructs Callahan via payphones to run around the city. They meet at the Mount Davidson cross, where Scorpio beats Callahan and admits he intends to kill him and let Mary die. Chico successfully intervenes to stop Scorpio from killing Callahan, but is wounded in the shootout. Callahan uses a concealed knife to stab Scorpio in the leg. The killer flees without the ransom and seeks medical help. Callahan learns of Scorpio's hospital visit and a doctor reveals to him that the killer lives in a room at Kezar Stadium. Callahan finds him there and chases Scorpio, shooting him in the leg. Callahan tortures Scorpio into confessing where Mary is being held, but she is found already dead. The district attorney reprimands Callahan for his conduct, explaining that because Callahan obtained his evidence against Scorpio (namely a sniper rifle in Scorpio's possession) illegally, all of it is inadmissible in court and Scorpio is to be released as a free man. Stunned and outraged, Callahan continues to shadow Scorpio on his own time. The killer pays a man $200 to beat him severely and then publicly announces himself as a victim of police brutality. Scorpio steals a Walther P38 handgun from a store owner and hijacks a school bus. He contacts the police with another ransom demand that includes a flight out of the Santa Rosa airport. Callahan jumps onto the roof of the bus from an overpass. After Callahan forces Scorpio off the bus, the killer flees to a nearby quarry and holds a boy at gunpoint. Having shot Scorpio through the shoulder, Callahan aims his revolver and reprises his ultimatum about losing count of his shots. Unlike the earlier encounter, Callahan does have one remaining bullet. Scorpio reaches for his gun, but Callahan shoots and kills him. Callahan removes his police badge, throws it in the nearby water, and walks away. 

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The game is set in a fictional city on the Atlantic coast in the United States named Metro City. According to the game's intro, in the 1990s (or 1989 in the Japanese version), the city's crime rate reached alarming levels. But since the election of pro wrestler turned politician Mike Haggar as the new Mayor, Metro City was changed and cleaned up drastically. Under his run, Haggar managed to suppress the crime rate of the city to its lowest points. While the citizens of Metro City were thankful for Haggar's hard work in curbing crime, one gang, the Mad Gears, would not go down so easily. Under the leadership of the crooked businessman, Belger, the group attempted to bribe Haggar with a large payoff to keep him from going after them, which Haggar refused. The Mad Gear responded by abducting his daughter, Jessica, and creating further unrest among the citizens of the city. When Haggar found out about his daughter's abduction, he becomes furious, and decides to take his fight against Mad Gear to a personal level. Seeking additional manpower, Haggar recruits Cody Travers, an expert fighter and Jessica's boyfriend, as well as Guy, a ninja in training and Cody's good friend. Together, the three dedicate themselves to the complete eradication of the Mad Gear gang, as well as the safe rescue of Jessica from their clutches. The game gained notoriety for its morbid continue screen, where whatever character the player was using is shown tied to a chair with a bundle of dynamite on the table in front of him. In the 10 seconds the player has to insert another quarter, both Cody and Guy struggle to escape their bonds, while Haggar is feverishly blowing in a futile attempt to extinguish the lit fuse. If the player activates the continue option, a knife falls from the ceiling, disconnecting the fuse from the bomb. {| class="wikitable" |- valign="top" ! Stage ! Description ! Boss |- |1 |Slums |Damnd |- |2 |Subway |Sodom |- |Bonus |colspan="2"|Break Car |- |3 |West Side |Edi. E |- |4 |Industrial Area |Rolento |- |Bonus |colspan="2"|Break Glass |- |5 |Bay Area |Abigail |- |6 |Up Town |Belger |} 

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An Allied spy has been captured and taken to Castle Wolfenstein for interrogation by the SS and is subsequently thrown into the dungeon. A dying prisoner emerges from a hiding place and in his last moments, hands the spy a fully loaded Mauser C96 pistol. The spy proceeds to escape the dungeon, steal the battle plans from the officers' headquarters and leave Castle Wolfenstein. 

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In 1951, in the midst of the Second Red Scare, Peter Appleton is an up and coming young screenwriter in Hollywood. He learns from studio lawyer Leo Kubelsky and his own attorney Kevin Bannerman that he has been accused of being a communist, because he attended an antiwar meeting in his college years, a meeting he claims he only attended to impress a girl. In an instant, Peter's new film Ashes to Ashes is pushed back for a few months, the credit is given to someone else, his movie star girlfriend Sandra Sinclair leaves him, and his contract with the studio is dropped. Peter gets drunk and goes for a drive up the coast, where he accidentally drives his car off a bridge to avoid an opossum. He comes to on an ocean beach experiencing amnesia. Peter is found by Stan Keller who helps him to the nearby town of Lawson, California, and the local doctor, Doc Stanton, tends to his wounds. As the town welcomes him, Harry Trimble arrives and believes Peter to be his son Luke, who went MIA during World War II nine years ago. Due to his amnesia, Peter accepts himself being treated as Luke by the rest of the town, led by Mayor Ernie Cole, as Sheriff Cecil Coleman tells Doc to "tell her slowly." Peter warms up to the town, including getting to know Harry and also Luke's girlfriend Adele, who is the Doc's daughter. Peter adjusts to the new life and helps to renovate The Majestic, a movie theater that had become derelict due to hard times. Bob Leffert, a veteran of the war who knew Luke, does not believe Peter is Luke, and fears Peter may be setting the town up for heartbreak, given they had lost sixty other young men during the war. Despite this, Peter helps to restore the theater, invigorate the town, and encourages Mayor Cole to display a memorial, commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the war, that the town did not previously have the heart to display. Meanwhile, Peter's disappearance leads Congressional committee member Elvin Clyde to believe Peter is a communist, and he sends two federal agents Ellerby and Saunders to California to search for him where they follow a lead on his car showing up on a beach. Peter recovers from his amnesia when The Majestic shows his first movie Sand Pirates of the Sahara and his screenwriting credit jolts him. Harry suffers from a fatal heart attack before the reel change. After examining him, Doc reports that Harry's time is short. Peter cannot come to admit the truth, allowing Harry to die believing he is Luke. After the funeral, Peter admits the truth to Adele, who had already suspected it and supports his decision to tell the rest of town. Before he can do so, federal agents Ellery and Saunders, as well as Leo and some police officers, arrive. When Sheriff Coleman asks if they need any help with anything, the federal agents reveal Peter's true identity to the whole town and give him a summons to appear before a congressional committee in Los Angeles. During their meeting, Leo advises Peter to agree to reveal a list of other named "communists" in order to clear his own name. Later that night, the Majestic's usher Emmett admits that he knew Peter wasn't Luke after hearing Peter play a roadhouse boogie at the town festival, since Luke was more inclined to classical music. The next day, Peter has an argument with Adele over this decision, and she gives him a letter she had gotten from the real Luke, as he boards the train. On the train, Peter reads the letter which contains Luke stating his awareness that he might die in the war for a real cause, as well as a pocket sized version of the U.S. Constitution and Luke's Medal of Honor. Peter changes his mind at the session, which is watched by all of Lawson on television, and confronts Congressman Doyle during the session. Peter gives an impassioned speech about American ideals, which sways the crowd, especially when he holds up Luke's Medal of Honour, and forces the lawmakers to let him go free. As Peter discusses the result with Kevin, he learns that the girl he met in college was the one that had named him to the committee. Peter attempts to return to his former career, but finds he cannot deal with the ridiculousness of the studio executives' ideas, and leaves Hollywood. After sending Adele a telegram, Peter instead returns to Lawson, fearing an unwelcome reception. Instead, he receives a hero's welcome from the town's citizens who have come to respect him as an individual. Peter then resumes ownership and management of The Majestic, marries Adele, and they have a son together. 

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The film is set during spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Texan singing waitress Kelly Taylor meets Pennsylvanian college student Justin Bell, who then fall for each other, and various romantic complications ensue. Kelly's friend Kaya falls in love with charming busboy Carlos; Kelly's other friend Alexa schemes to keep Justin and Kelly from meeting; Justin's friend Brandon is always getting on the wrong side of a sexy beach patrolwoman; and Justin's other friend Eddie tries to hook up with a cyber-pal. 

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Chuck Clarke (Hoffman) and Lyle Rogers (Beatty) are inept songwriters who are down on their luck, but dream of becoming a popular singing duo in the mould of Simon and Garfunkel. Though they are poorly received at a local open mic night, agent Marty Freed (Weston) offers to book them as lounge singers in a hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco, explaining that the last act quit due to political unrest in the area. Nearly broke, both single, and without any better options, Lyle and Chuck decide to take the gig. When they arrive in the fictional neighboring country of Ishtar, Chuck agrees to give his passport to a mysterious woman who claims her life is in danger. She promises to meet him in Marrakesh. Unfortunately, Chuck learns at the U.S. Embassy that it will take longer than expected to get a new passport. Lyle goes to Morocco in a bid to save their booking while Chuck stays behind. Alone in Ishtar, Chuck meets CIA agent Jim Harrison. Chuck agrees to be a mole for the CIA and, in return, Harrison gets Chuck to Morocco by the next evening. Now together again, Chuck and Lyle unwittingly become involved in a plot to overthrow the Emir of Ishtar. The mysterious woman, named Shirra, has a map that she needs to get to the leftist guerrillas opposing the government of Ishtar. Harrison gets involved when Shirra contacts Lyle and Chuck. Both Shirra and the CIA attempt to use Lyle and Chuck to further their own agendas, resulting in Lyle and Chuck getting lost in the desert, and unwittingly exposing the CIA's top secret operation in Ishtar. To keep the situation quiet, the CIA ends up having to support Shirra leading social reforms in the country, and back an album written by Rogers and Clarke with a tour starting in Morocco. At the show, Shirra is in the audience. Meanwhile, a military officer orders the rest of the men in uniform that make up the audience to "APPLAUD!" when songs are finished. 

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Jewish-American Fran Fine turns up on the doorstep of British Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) to sell cosmetics after having been both dumped and fired by her boyfriend and employer Danny Imperialli. Instead, she finds herself the nanny of Maxwell's three children: Maggie, Brighton, and Grace. Maxwell Sheffield is reluctantly unhappy about it at first, but Fran turns out to be just what he and his family needed. While Fran Fine manages the children, butler Niles (Daniel Davis) manages the household and watches all the events that unfold with Fran as the new nanny. Niles, recognizing Fran's gift for bringing warmth back to the family (as Maxwell is a widower), does his best to undermine Maxwell's business partner C.C. Babcock (Lauren Lane) who has her eyes on the very available Maxwell Sheffield. Niles is often seen making witty comments directed towards C.C., with C.C. often replying with a comment of her own in their ongoing game of one-upmanship. As the series progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that Maxwell is smitten with Fran even though he won't admit it, and Fran is smitten with him. The show teases the viewers with their closeness and "near misses" as well as with an engagement. Towards the later seasons, they finally marry and expand their family by having fraternal twins. By the end of the series, it's also clear that Niles and C.C.'s constant sharp barbs are their bizarre form of flirtation; after a few false starts (including multiple impulsive and failed proposals from Niles), the pair marry in the series finale. 

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An elderly woman tells her granddaughter the story of a young man named Edward who has scissor blades for hands. As the creation of an old inventor, Edward is an artificially created humanoid who is almost completed. The Inventor homeschools Edward, but suffers a heart attack and dies before giving real hands to Edward, leaving him "unfinished" forever. Many years later, Peg Boggs, a local door-to-door Avon saleswoman, tries to sell at the decrepit Gothic mansion where Edward lives. She finds Edward alone and offers to take him to her home after discovering he is virtually harmless. Peg introduces Edward to her family: her husband Bill, their young son Kevin and their teenage daughter Kim. Edward falls in love with Kim, despite her initial fear of him. The Boggs' neighbors are curious about their new houseguest, so the Boggs throw a neighborhood barbecue welcoming Edward. Most of the neighbors are fascinated by Edward and befriend him, except for the eccentric religious fanatic Esmeralda and Kim's boyfriend Jim. Edward repays the neighborhood for their kindness by trimming their hedges into topiaries. This leads him to discover he can groom dogs' hair and later he styles the hair of the neighborhood women. One of the neighbors, Joyce, offers to help Edward open a hair salon. While scouting a location, Joyce attempts to seduce him, but scares him away. Joyce lies to the neighborhood women that he attempted to seduce her, reducing their trust in him. The bank denies Edward a loan as he does not have a background or financial history. Jealous of Kim's attraction to Edward, Jim suggests Edward pick the lock on his parents' home to obtain a van for Jim and Kim. Edward agrees, but when he picks the lock, a burglar alarm is triggered. Jim flees and Edward is arrested. The police determine that his period of isolation has left Edward without any sense of reality or common sense. Edward takes responsibility for the robbery, telling Kim he did it because she asked him to. Edward is shunned by those in the neighborhood except for the Boggs family. During Christmas, Edward carves an angelic ice sculpture modeled after Kim; the ice shavings are thrown into the air and fall like snow, a rarity for the neighborhood. Kim dances in the snowfall. Jim arrives and calls out to Edward, surprising him and causing him to accidentally cut Kim's hand. Jim accuses Edward of intentionally harming Kim, but Kim, fed up with Jim's jealousy, breaks up with him. Edward flees in a rage, destroying his works and scaring Esmeralda until he is calmed by a stray dog. Kim's parents set out to find Edward while Kim stays behind in case he returns. Edward returns to the Boggs home to find Kim there, who asks him to hold her, but Edward fears he will hurt her. Jim drives around in a drunken rage and nearly runs over Kevin, but Edward pushes Kevin to safety, inadvertently cutting him. Those witnessing the event think that Edward is attacking Kevin and Jim assaults Edward. Edward defends himself, cutting Jim's arm before he flees to the mansion. Kim races after Edward, while Jim obtains a handgun and follows Kim. In the mansion, Jim ambushes Edward and fights with him; Edward refuses to fight back until he sees Jim slap Kim as she attempts to intervene. Enraged, Edward stabs Jim in the stomach and pushes him from a window of the mansion, killing him. Kim confesses her love to Edward and kisses him before departing. As the neighbors gather, Kim convinces them that Jim and Edward killed each other. The elderly woman finishes telling her granddaughter the story, revealing that she is Kim and saying that she never saw Edward again. She prefers not to visit him because decades have passed and she wants him to remember her as she was in her youth. She believes Edward is still alive, immortal because he is artificial, and because of the "snow", which Edward creates when carving ice sculptures. 

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Fifty-year-old John Gadsby is alarmed by the decline of his hometown, Branton Hills, and rallies the city's youth to form an "Organization of Youth" to build civic spirit and improve living standards. Gadsby and his youthful army, despite some opposition, transform Branton Hills from a stagnant municipality into a bustling, thriving city. Toward the conclusion of the book, the members of Gadsby's organization receive diplomas in honor of their work. Gadsby becomes mayor and helps increase Branton Hills' population from 2,000 to 60,000. The story starts around 1906 and continues through World War I, Prohibition, and President Warren G. Harding's administration. Gadsby is divided into two parts: the first, about a quarter of the book's total length, is strictly a history of the city of Branton Hills and John Gadsby's place in it, while the second part of the book fleshes out the book's main characters. The novel is written from the point of view of an anonymous narrator, who continually complains about his poor writing skills and often uses circumlocution. "Now, naturally, in writing such a story as this, with its conditions as laid down in its Introduction, it is not surprising that an occasional "rough spot" in composition is found", the narrator says. "So I trust that a critical public will hold constantly in mind that I am voluntarily avoiding words containing that symbol which is, by far, of most common inclusion in writing our Anglo- Saxon as it is, today".Gadsby: A Story of 50,000 Words Online copy hosted at Spineless Books 

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18-year-old Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters living in Market Chipping, a town in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where fairytale tropes are accepted ways of life, including that the eldest of three will never be successful. As the eldest, Sophie is resigned to a dull future running the family hat shop. Unknown to her, she is able to talk life into objects. Things change however when the powerful Witch of the Waste turns her into an old crone. Sophie leaves the shop and finds work as a cleaning lady for the notorious Wizard Howl. She strikes a bargain with Howl's fire-demon, Calcifer: if she can break the contract between Howl and Calcifer, then Calcifer will return her to her original youthful form. Part of the contract, however, stipulates that neither Howl nor Calcifer can disclose the main clause, leaving Sophie to figure it out on her own. Sophie learns that Howl, a rather self-absorbed and fickle but ultimately good-natured person, spreads malicious rumours about himself to avoid work and responsibility. The door to his castle is actually a portal that opens onto four places: Market Chipping, the seaside city of Porthaven, the royal capital of Kingsbury and Howl's boyhood home in Wales, where he was named Howell Jenkins. Howl's apprentice Michael Fisher runs most of the day-to-day affairs of Howl's business, while Howl chases his ever-changing paramours. When Prince Justin, the King's younger brother, goes missing while searching for Wizard Suliman, the King orders Howl to find them both and kill the Witch of the Waste. Howl, however, has his own reasons to avoid the Witch; the Witch, a jilted former lover, has laid a dark curse on him. He successfully continues to avoid her until she lures Sophie into a trap. Believing the Witch has taken Howl's current love interest, Miss Angorian, Sophie goes to save her and is captured by the Witch. Howl spends hours in the bathroom everyday primping himself to look handsome for girls; Michael had said that the day he does not do this is the day Michael will believe that Howl is truly in love. So when Howl comes to save Sophie, unshaven and a mess, it demonstrates his love for her. He kills the Witch and reveals that Miss Angorian was actually the Witch's fire demon in disguise; the fire demon had taken control of the Witch and was attempting to create a "perfect human" by fusing Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin. It was to be completed by the addition of Howl's head. At the castle, Miss Angorian takes hold of Calcifer to capture Howl's heart. Howl had given his heart to Calcifer. This was the contract between them; the heart kept Calcifer alive, and in return Calcifer put his magic at Howl's disposal. Sophie uses her ability of bringing things to life to free Calcifer, thus breaking the contract between him and Howl. With his heart restored, Howl destroys the witch's fire demon, freeing Suliman and Justin. Calcifer, as promised, breaks Sophie's spell and she returns to her proper age. Howl had realized early on that Sophie was under a spell and secretly attempted to remove the curse; when he had met with failure, he'd figured Sophie simply enjoyed "being in disguise". Calcifer returns, preferring to stay with Howl. Sophie and Howl admit they love each other when Howl suggests they live happily ever after. 

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Blake Thorn (Hulk Hogan) is a conceited self-made millionaire who sells bodybuilding supplements and equipment that have his picture on them. One day, while recklessly playing paintball, he is targeted by police. He is chased to a shopping mall, where he hides by putting on a Santa costume. He slides down a garbage chute to escape the police and bangs his head, resulting in amnesia. Mistaken by Lenny (Don Stark) as the mall Santa, Blake begins to think he really is Santa Claus. Meanwhile, the evil scientist Ebner Frost (Ed Begley, Jr.) tries to take over an orphanage in order to gain access to the magical crystals underneath it and dispatches his henchmen to destroy it. However, Blake after discovering that being Santa has made him a better person and that Frost wants to destroy the very same orphanage he grew up in, manages to rescue the children. Frost and his henchmen are arrested, but the orphanage is destroyed due to the overload of the crystals, so Blake opens his mansion as a new home for the orphans. 

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The first person narrator of the novel is Palatine Ross, a 70-year- old cleaning woman originally from New Orleans, whose childhood is dominated by poverty and loss. Shutting her eyes to all the evil in the world and firmly relying on God and the words of the Bible as guidance, Palatine tries to raise Joy and her sisters to be educated, honest and religious members of society. The fact that, growing up in a rough neighbourhood, the not-yet-teenaged girls are very early in their lives confronted with sex willingly escapes her notice. It troubles Palatine a great deal when Dagwood, her neighbour's new boyfriend, starts spending the night with the girls' mother. One morning during the summer vacation, while his girlfriend is at work and Palatine is taking care of the children, Dagwood stays on in the apartment. Right from the start, Palatine tries to take the three girls along to church, seeing that their blaspheming mother will never do so. Time and again, in the course of more than twenty years, Palatine tries to convince Joy that finding herself a nice coloured boyfriend whom she could marry and have children with would be the right thing to do. However, "Chocolate Chip" remains a one-hit wonder after an interview given by Brenda to some gay magazine in which she announces her coming out as a lesbian. However, rather than being able to mourn Joy's death, she for the first time learns things about Joy which finally force her to abandon her blinkered view of her "God-sent child" and admit that she was a sinner rather than a saint. Category:1990 American novels Category:African- American novels Category:Novels set in New Orleans Category:Novels set in San Francisco Category:Novels set in New York City Category:Literature by African- American women 

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The novel is framed as the memoir of Howard W. Campbell, Jr. He is writing it while imprisoned and waiting for his war crimes trial for his actions as a Nazi propagandist. Campbell, an American who moved to Germany with his parents at age 11, recounts his childhood as the Nazi Party is consolidating its power. Instead of leaving the country with his parents, Campbell continues his career as a playwright, his only social contacts being Nazis. Being of sufficiently Aryan heritage, Campbell becomes a member of the party in name only. He is politically apathetic, caring only for his art and his wife Helga, who is also the starring actress in all of his plays. Campbell encounters Frank Wirtanen, an agent of the U.S. War Department. Wirtanen wants Campbell to spy as a double agent for the United States in the impending world war. Campbell rejects the offer, but Wirtanen quickly adds that he wants Campbell to think about it. Once the war starts, Campbell begins to make his way up through Joseph Goebbels' propaganda organization, eventually becoming the "voice" of broadcasts aimed at converting Americans to the Nazi cause. Unbeknownst to the Nazis, all of the idiosyncrasies of Campbell's speeches - deliberate pauses, coughing, etc. - are part of the coded information he is passing to the American Office of Strategic Services. Campbell never discovers, nor is he ever told, the information that he is sending. About halfway through the war, Helga goes to the Eastern Front to entertain German troops. Campbell is extremely distraught when he hears that the camp Helga visited in Crimea has been overrun by Soviet troops and she is presumed dead. In early 1945, just before the Red Army invades Berlin, Campbell visits his in-laws one last time. During the visit, he has a conversation with Helga's younger sister, Resi, that resonates with him for years afterward. After Campbell is captured by American forces, Wirtanen works out a deal in which he is set free and given passage to New York City. Fifteen years later, Campbell lives an anonymous life, sustained only by memories of his wife and an indifferent curiosity about his eventual fate. His only friend is George Kraft, a likewise lonely neighbor--who, through an extraordinary coincidence, also happens to be a Soviet intelligence agent. He tries to trick Campbell into fleeing to Moscow by publicizing his identity and location. A white supremacist organization makes Campbell a cause célèbre, inviting him to speak to new recruits. The group's leader, a dentist named Lionel Jones, shows up at Campbell's apartment with a surprise: a woman claiming to be Helga, alive and well and professing her undying love. Campbell's will to live returns, and remains even after he finds out that she is not Helga, but rather Resi. They plan to escape to Mexico City after attending one of Jones' fascist meetings. There, Wirtanen makes an appearance to warn Campbell of Kraft's plot and Resi's complicity. Heartbroken, Campbell decides to go along with the charade. He confronts Kraft and Resi, the latter swearing her feelings for him are genuine. The FBI then raids the meeting and takes Campbell into custody, while Resi commits suicide by taking a cyanide capsule. As before, Wirtanen uses his influence to have Campbell set free. Once Campbell returns to his apartment, however, he realizes that he has no real reason to continue living, and decides to turn himself in to the Israelis to stand trial. While imprisoned in Israel, Campbell meets Adolf Eichmann and gives him advice on how to write an autobiography. At the very end of the book, he inserts a letter that he has just received from Wirtanen. The corroborating evidence that he was indeed an American spy has finally arrived, and Wirtanen writes that he will testify to Campbell's true loyalties in court. Rather than being relieved, Campbell feels "nauseated" by the idea that he will be saved from death and granted freedom only when he is no longer able to enjoy anything that life has to offer. In the last lines, Campbell tells the reader that he will hang himself not for crimes against humanity, but rather for "crimes against himself." Campbell then realizes that he is alone in the world. 

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Giles De'Ath (John Hurt) is a British writer who doesn't use or understand anything modern. One day, he forgets his keys and locks himself out of his flat. It begins to rain, so he goes to see an E. M. Forster movie but, instead, accidentally enters the wrong theatre and sees the teen flick Hotpants College II starring Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley). He becomes instantly infatuated with Ronnie's beauty and obsessed with the young actor. He goes to his movies in the cinema, buys teen magazines and cuts out pictures of him, and buys a VCR and TV in order to play rented video tapes of his movies. He lets his housekeeper come into his office less and less, so that he can do these things undisturbed. As his infatuation grows, it becomes obvious to those around him that Giles is becoming increasingly disturbed, though they don't know why. His friend and agent suggests that he take a holiday. Giles sets out to meet Ronnie on Long Island, New York. He flies to Long Island and takes a train to Ronnie's home town where he takes a motel room for several weeks. He searches the town for Ronnie - unsuccessfully at first - but finally spots Ronnie's girlfriend and follows her to the supermarket. Giles rams his shopping cart into her to force an introduction and invents a story about his god-daughter, Abigail, being in love with Ronnie. The girlfriend, Audrey (Fiona Loewi), is seemingly glad to have found a fan-base for Ronnie in England, and spends the day talking to Giles. She then tells him that she and Ronnie will invite him over at another time, and they can talk about Ronnie's career. Eventually Giles becomes a regular visitor at Ronnie and Audrey's house. Ronnie is flattered by Giles, and Giles is able to stay longer in his presence by claiming that he will write a new script for Ronnie, one that better suits his acting abilities. Audrey becomes suspicious of Giles's motives regarding Ronnie, and she tells Giles that she is taking Ronnie to see her parents for an extended visit. Giles is very upset, and in a last-ditch effort confronts Ronnie and tells him how he feels about him. He says that many artists have had younger male lovers, and that Ronnie should split up with Audrey because it is obvious to him (Giles) that it won't last. Ronnie rejects Giles but seems genuinely concerned for him. The film ends with a screening of Ronnie's next film: another Hotpants College movie where he quotes Walt Whitman at his mother's funeral as written by Giles. What happens to Giles in the end is not shown. 

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During the events of the preceding film Beneath the Planet of the Apes, occurring off-screen, Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter) escaped Earth prior to its destruction when they accompanied their fellow chimpanzee Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) in salvaging and repairing the spaceship originally used by Taylor. The shock wave of Earth's destruction sends the ship through a time warp that brings the apes to 1973 Earth, splashing down off the Pacific coast of the United States. (The backward time travel of the apes creates a time paradox which is a key element of the plot in the confrontation between the apes and Dr. Otto Hasslein: is it possible for the apes or humans in 1973 to alter the future where the apes have come from? Can the future dominance of apes be prevented from happening?) The apes are transported to a secluded ward of the Los Angeles Zoo, under the observation of scientists Dr. Stephanie Branton (Natalie Trundy) and Dr. Lewis Dixon (Bradford Dillman). With Dr. Milo explaining their situation in private, the apes decide not to let the humans know that they can speak while agreeing not to reveal Earth's destruction from the Ape War. However Zira's impatience exposes the apes' power of speech during an experiment and Dr. Milo is killed moments later by a zoo gorilla who became agitated by the chimpanzees' argument. Lewis tries to communicate with the apes that he is peaceful and he wishes to treat them as equals, winning their friendship as a result. A Presidential Commission is formed to investigate the return of Taylor's spaceship and determine how atypically intelligent apes came to be aboard it. The apes are brought before the Commission, where they publicly reveal their ability to speak. The council asks them about Taylor, but Cornelius and Zira tell them that they know nothing about him. They reveal that they came from the future and escaped Earth when war broke out. They are welcomed as guests of the government. Cornelius and Zira secretly tell Stephanie and Lewis that they did know about Taylor, explain how humans are treated in the ape-dominated future, and about the Earth's destruction. Stephanie and Lewis are shocked but still sympathetic, the latter advising the couple to keep this information secret until they can gauge the potential reaction of their hosts. The apes become celebrities, and are lavished with gifts and media attention. They come to the attention of the President's Science Advisor Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden), who discovers Zira is pregnant. Fearing for the future of the human race, he offers her champagne (for which she has developed a taste) to loosen her inhibitions and questions her further while recording it. Her candid responses enable him to convince the Commission that Cornelius and Zira must be subjected to more rigorous questioning. Hasslein insists that he simply wants to know how apes became dominant over men. Cornelius reveals that the human race will cause its own downfall and become dominated by simians, and that simian aggression against humans will lead to Earth's destruction by a weapon made by humans. Zira explains that the gorillas started the war, and the orangutans supported the gorillas, but the chimpanzees had nothing to do with it. Hasslein suspects that the apes are not speaking the whole truth. During the original hearing, Zira had accidentally revealed that she dissected humans in the course of her work. Hasslein orders Lewis to administer a truth serum to her while Cornelius is confined elsewhere. Lewis assures Zira that the serum will have the same effect as champagne. As a result of the serum, Hasslein learns details about Zira's examination and experimentation on humans along with her knowledge of Taylor. Zira joins Cornelius in confinement while Hasslein takes his findings to the President (William Windom), who reluctantly must abide by the council's ruling to have Zira's pregnancy be terminated and that both apes be sterilized. In their chambers, Cornelius labels Hasslein and the others savages for Zira's treatment as she reminds Cornelius that she did the same thing to humans and Taylor called them savages. Zira is relieved to have revealed the truth because she was tired of lying. Cornelius fears that the truth will get them killed. When an orderly arrives to offer the apes food, his playful reference to their unborn child as a "little monkey" makes Cornelius lose his temper and he knocks the orderly to the floor, before escaping with Zira. Cornelius assumes he merely knocked out the orderly, but he is actually dead. Hasslein uses the tragedy in support of his claim that the apes are a threat and calls for their execution, but is ordered by the President to bring them in alive as he will not endorse punishment for the orderly's death until due process has been served. Branton and Dixon help the apes to escape, taking them to a circus run by Señor Armando (Ricardo Montalbán), where an ape named Heloise has just given birth. Zira gives birth to a son, whom she names Milo in honor of their deceased friend. When Hasslein, knowing that Zira's labor was imminent, orders a search of all circuses and zoos, Armando insists the apes leave for their safety. Lewis arranges for the apes to hide out in the shipyard in the Los Angeles harbor until the coast is clear to return to the circus as it heads to Florida, giving Cornelius a pistol as the couple do not want to be taken alive. Hasslein tracks the apes to the shipping yard and mortally wounds Zira when she refuses to hand over the infant, firing several shots into the infant before being killed by Cornelius. Cornelius is shot by a sniper and falls, Zira tossing the dead baby over the side and crawling to die with her husband, witnessed by a grieving Lewis and Stephanie. As Armando's circus prepares to leave for Florida, it is revealed that Zira switched babies with Heloise prior to leaving the circus and that Armando is aware of this. Milo begins to talk. 

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The play begins with two middle-aged men stumbling across a hillside wilderness, guided by a pet crow and a pet jackdaw. One of them advises the audience that they are fed up with life in Athens, where people do nothing all day but argue over laws, and they are looking for Tereus, a king who was once metamorphosed into the Hoopoe, for they believe he might help them find a better life somewhere else. Just then a very large and fearsome bird emerges from a camouflaged bower, demanding to know what they are up to and accusing them of being bird-catchers. He turns out to be the Hoopoe's servant. They appease him and he returns indoors to fetch his master. Moments later the Hoopoe himself appears—a not very convincing bird who attributes his lack of feathers to a severe case of moulting. He is happy to discuss their plight with them and meanwhile one of them has a brilliant idea—the birds, he says, should stop flying about like idiots and instead should build themselves a great city in the sky, since this would not only allow them to lord it over men, it would also enable them to blockade the Olympian gods in the same way that the Athenians had recently starved the island of Melos into submission. The Hoopoe likes the idea and he agrees to help implement it, provided of course that the two Athenians can first convince all the other birds. He calls to his wife, the Nightingale, and bids her to begin her celestial music. The notes of an unseen flute swell through the theatre and meanwhile the Hoopoe provides the lyrics, summoning the birds of the world from their different habitats—birds of the fields, mountain birds and birds of the trees, birds of the waterways, marshes and seas. These soon begin to appear and each of them is identified by name on arrival. Four of them dance together while the rest form into a Chorus. On discovering the presence of men, the newly arrived birds fly into a fit of alarm and outrage, for mankind has long been their enemy. A skirmish follows, during which the Athenians defend themselves with kitchen utensils they find outside the Hoopoe's bower, until the Hoopoe at last manages to persuade the Chorus to give his human guests a fair hearing. The cleverer of the two Athenians, the author of the brilliant idea, then delivers a formal speech, advising the birds that they were the original gods and urging them to regain their lost powers and privileges from the johnny-come-lately Olympians. The birds are completely won over and urge the Athenians to lead them in their war against the usurping gods. The clever one then introduces himself as Pisthetaerus (Trustyfriend) and his companion is introduced as Euelpides (Goodhope). They retire to the Hoopoe's bower to chew on a magical root that will transform them into birds. Meanwhile, the Nightingale emerges from her hiding place and reveals herself as an enchantingly feminine figure. She presides over the Chorus of birds while they address the audience in a conventional parabasis: ::Hear us, you who are no more than leaves always falling, you mortals benighted by nature, ::You enfeebled and powerless creatures of earth always haunting a world of mere shadows, ::Entities without wings, insubstantial as dreams, you ephemeral things, you human beings: ::Turn your minds to our words, our etherial words, for the words of the birds last forever!The Birds lines 685–688 The Chorus delivers a brief account of the genealogy of the gods, claiming that the birds are children of Eros and grandchildren of Night and Erebus, thus establishing their claim to divinity ahead of the Olympians. It cites some of the benefits the audience derives from birds (such as early warnings of a change in seasons) and it invites the audience to join them since birds easily manage to do things mere men are afraid to do (such as beating up their fathers and committing adultery). Pisthetaerus and Euelpides emerge from the Hoopoe's bower laughing at each other's unconvincing resemblance to a bird. After discussion, they name the city-in-the-sky Nephelokokkygia, or literally "cloud-cuckoo-land" (Νεφελοκοκκυγία), and then Pisthetaerus begins to take charge of things, ordering his friend to oversee the building of the city walls while he organizes and leads a religious service in honour of birds as the new gods. During this service, he is pestered by a variety of unwelcome visitors including a young versifier out to hire himself to the new city as its official poet, an oracle-monger with prophecies for sale, a famous geometer, Meton, offering a set of town-plans, an imperial inspector from Athens with an eye for a quick profit, and a statute-seller trying to peddle a set of laws originally written for a remote, barely-heard-of town called Olophyx. Pisthetaerus chases off all these intruders and then retires indoors to finish the religious service. The birds of the Chorus step forward for another parabasis. They promulgate laws forbidding crimes against their kind (such as catching, caging, stuffing, or eating them) and they end by advising the festival judges to award them first place or risk getting defecated on. Pisthetaerus returns to the stage moments before a messenger arrives with a report on the construction of the new walls: they are already finished thanks to the collaborative efforts of numerous kinds of birds. A second messenger then arrives with news that one of the Olympian gods has sneaked through the defenses. A hunt is organized, the goddess Iris is detected and cornered and soon she wafts down under guard. After being interrogated and insulted by Pisthetaerus, she is allowed to fly off to her father Zeus to complain about her treatment. Hardly has she gone when a third messenger arrives, declaring that men in their multitudes are now flocking to join the new city-in-the-sky. Another set of unwelcome visitors arrives as advertised, singing due to the inspiration of the new city. One is a rebellious youth who exults in the notion that here at last he has permission to beat up his father. The famous poet, Cinesias, is next, waxing incoherently lyrical as the poetic mood takes hold of him. Third is a sycophant in raptures at the thought of prosecuting victims on the wing. All of them are sent packing by the Pisthetaerus. Prometheus arrives next, sheltering under a parasol because he is an enemy of Zeus and he is trying not to be seen from the heavens. He has come with advice for Pisthetaerus: the Olympians are starving because men's offerings no longer reach them; they are desperate for a peace treaty but Pisthetaerus shouldn't negotiate with them until Zeus surrenders both his sceptre and his girlfriend, Sovereignty—she is the real power in Zeus's household. His mission accomplished, Prometheus departs just moments before a delegation from Zeus arrives. There are only three delegates: the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, the oafish Heracles and some even more oafish god worshipped by barbarians called Triballians. Pisthetaerus easily outwits Heracles, who in turn bullies the barbarian god into submission, and Poseidon is thus outvoted – the delegation accepts Pisthetaerus's terms. He is proclaimed king by a heavenly herald and he is presented with Zeus's sceptre by Sovereignty, a vision of loveliness. The festive gathering departs amid the strains of the wedding march: Hymen O Hymenai'O! Hymen O Hymenai'O! 

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Stefan Viziru lives in Bucharest and works for the Romanian state. He lives with his wife Ioana and also has a mistress, Ileana, whom he met at a Midsummer celebration. Stefan is torn between his affection for both women and is at the same time on a spiritual quest. He wishes to discover a sacred time which stands independently from the historical time and the destructive developments in contemporary Europe. Stefan befriends several people who influence him. A philosophy teacher argues that Stefan is searching for the paradise of his childhood. When Stefan tries to provide refuge for a member of the Iron Guard, he is put in a prison camp and temporarily loses his job. Ileana becomes engaged to an officer who dies in a car accident, after which she leaves Bucharest. Stefan's wife Ioana and their son die in the bombings of Bucharest in 1944. Stefan realises that he loves Ileana and sets out to find her. He travels around Europe and goes through a lot of searching. Eventually he finds her, on Midsummer's eve of 1948 in the same forest where they originally met. As they leave the forest together they are killed in a car accident. 

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There are many continuations from The 400 Blows; discharged from the army as unfit, Antoine Doinel seeks out his sweetheart, violinist Christine Darbon. He has written to her voluminously (but, she says, not always nicely) while in the military. Their relationship is tentative and unresolved. Christine is away skiing with friends when Antoine arrives, and her parents must entertain him themselves, though glad to see him. After she learns that Antoine has returned from military service, Christine goes to greet him at his new job as a hotel night clerk. It is a promising sign that perhaps this time, the romance will turn out happily for Antoine. He is, however, quickly fired from the hotel job. Counting the army, Antoine loses three jobs in the film, and is clearly destined to lose a fourth, all symbolic of his general difficulty with finding his identity and "fitting in". Later, Christine attempts to guess Antoine's third job, amusingly tossing out guesses like sheriff or water taster. Finally, his job as a private detective is revealed. Throughout the film, Antoine works to maintain the job, working a case that requires him to pose as a shoe store stock boy. The job separates Antoine from his relationship with Christine. Soon, he falls for his employer's attractive (and older) wife, who willingly seduces him. He quarrels with Christine, saying he has never "admired" her. Fired from the detective agency, by the film's end, Antoine has become a TV repairman. He still avoids Christine, but she wins him back by deliberately (and simply) disabling her TV, then calling his company for repairs while her parents are away. The company sends Antoine, who is once again bumbling and inept, trying for hours to fix a TV with just one missing tube. Morning finds the two of them in bed together. The film's final scene shows the newly engaged Antoine and Christine, strolling in the park. A strange man who has trailed Christine for days approaches the couple and declares his love for Christine. He describes his love as "permanent" and unlike the "temporary" love of "temporary people". When he walks away, Christine explains that the man must be mad. Antoine, recognising similarities in much of his own previous behaviour, admits, "He must be". 

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In the near- future, following a major recession, the Japanese government has passed the "BR ACT” to curb the nation's juvenile delinquency. Middle school student Shuya Nanahara copes with life after his father committed suicide. Noriko Nakagawa is the only student regularly attending class 3-B. Their teacher, Kitano, resigns after being wounded by Yoshitoki Kuninobu, Shuya's best friend. One year later, class 3-B takes a field trip, but they are gassed and taken to a remote island. Kitano reappears surrounded by JSDF soldiers, explaining to the class that they are chosen to participate in the annual Battle Royale as a result of the Act: they have three days to fight to the death until a victor emerges, while explosive collars will kill uncooperative students or those within daily "danger zones". Each student is provided rations, water, a map of the island, compass, flashlight, and a random weapon. Kitano personally kills two of the students for disobedience, one of them being Kuninobu, who dies from collar detonation. The first six hours see twelve deaths, four by suicide, and eight caused by the desperate, psychotic Mitsuko Souma and psychopathic volunteer Kazuo Kiriyama. Transfer student Shogo Kawada lets Shuya go after killing one student, while Shuya accidentally kills another student, Oki, which is witnessed by Yuko Sakaki, while basketball player Shinji Mimura plots to hack into the JSDF's computer system to disrupt the program. Amid shifting loyalties and violent confrontations, Shuya promises to keep Noriko safe as Yoshitoki secretly loved her. He carries her to a clinic, where Kawada reveals that he won a previous Battle Royale at the cost of his girlfriend, whose death he seeks to avenge. When Kiriyama attacks, Shuya entrusts Kawada to protect Noriko and runs as a distraction. Shuya is wounded by Kiriyama's Uzi. However, he is saved by Hiroki Sugimura, a martial artist who has recently had his friend Takako Chigusa die in his arms, and is on a personal mission to find his unrequited love, Kayoko Kotohiki. Shuya awakens in the island's lighthouse, bandaged by female class representative Yukie Utsumi, who has a crush on him. Five other girls are also hiding in the building, including Yuko, who attempts to poison Shuya out of fear of him possibly killing them like he did Oki. However, Yuka accidentally eats the food, leading to a shootout between the girls. Yuko is the only survivor; horrified and realizing her mistake, she apologizes to Shuya and commits suicide. Shuya finds Noriko and Kawada, and they set out to find Mimura. Now only ten players left, Hiroki is killed by Kotohiki, who is then killed by Mitsuko. Kiriyama kills Mitsuko with her own weapon, making Noriko the last surviving girl. Mimura and two others, Yutaka Seto and Keita Iijima, infiltrate the JSDF's computer system, but Kiriyama kills them, but not before Mimura uses his homemade bomb to explode the base to hide all evidence. When Kawada, Noriko and Shuya arrive at the hackers' burning base, Kawada confronts and kills Kiriyama, who had his eyes burned out by the explosion, by detonating the collar with his shotgun, but in turn is seriously injured by Kiriyama's Uzi. On the final day, Kawada, aware of the collars' internal microphones, seemingly kills Shuya and Noriko by shooting them. Suspicious, Kitano ends the game and dismisses the troops, intent on personally killing the supposed victor. Kitano realizes that Kawada hacked the system months beforehand, and has disabled Shuya and Noriko's tracking devices. The three survivors confront Kitano in the game's control room, and he unveils a homemade painting of the massacred class depicting Noriko as the sole survivor. He reveals that he was unable to bear the hatred between him and his students, having been rejected by his daughter, and confesses that he always thought of Noriko as a daughter. He asks her to kill him, but Shuya shoots him after he threatens her with a gun. As he falls, Kitano shoots, revealing the gun to be a water pistol. Kitano's daughter calls him; after an argument, he shoots the phone with an actual gun before dying of his wounds. Shuya, Noriko and Kawada leave the island on a boat, but Kawada dies from the injuries, happy that he found friendship. Shuya and Noriko are declared fugitives, and are last seen on the run in the direction of Shibuya Station. Noriko gives Shuya the Seto Dragon Claw butterfly knife Kuninobu used to injure Kitano at the beginning of the film. They then run off together. 

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Ben Healy is a kind man working for his father, "Big Ben" Healy, a successful, but tyrannical sporting goods dealer running for mayor. Although Ben has worked for his father for ten years with nothing in return, his father plans on selling the company to the Japanese rather than giving it to his son, considering his son "too nice" to be his heir. Meanwhile, Ben and his wife, Flo, cannot conceive, and visit a fertility doctor who states Flo is infertile. Wanting a child, Ben seeks help from adoption agent Igor Peabody, who presents him and Flo with a cute 7-year-old boy named Junior. However, he is a devilish and incorrigible child. He often causes chaos, and is pen pals with serial killer Martin Beck, the "Bow-Tie Killer". The film is interspersed with scenes of an imprisoned Martin looking to escape and meet Junior. Shortly after Ben and Flo bring Junior home, Big Ben visits them, and is shocked that they adopted. Junior's bedroom catches fire when he shorts out the clown lights, and Big Ben calls him "The Devil". Junior throws Flo's cat at Big Ben and they both fall down the stairs and are injured. Next, Junior ruins a camping trip with the neighbors by urinating on the campfire, and luring in a bear to scare Roy's kids. He then sabotages Lucy Henderson's 6th birthday party, after she snobbily bans him from her magic show for touching her presents. Ben gives Junior his lucky prune, which his grandfather gave him shortly before he died, and which he considered a special bond. Finally, Junior wins a Little League game by belting rival players with a bat for bullying him. Horrified, Ben decides to return Junior. However, hearing that Junior was returned 30 times, Ben decides to love him. However, Ben leaves his keys in the car, and Junior drives through Big Ben's sporting goods store, leading to Ben's individual retirement account being seized to pay for damages. Martin escapes from prison and arrives at the house, with Junior asserting Martin is his uncle. Flo sees this as a chance to get rid of Junior, and sleeps with Martin while Ben listens from the other room. The following morning, Martin kidnaps Flo and Junior by pretending to take her on their honeymoon, and him on a family outing, leaving a ransom note for Ben. Martin then reveals that he works alone. Ben first sees this as good riddance to both Flo and Junior, but he starts to realize Junior is not as bad as he initially seemed. A series of Junior's drawings depict children and adults who mistreated him as deformed monsters with hostile surroundings, but depict Ben as a happy man in a pleasant background, revealing that Junior valued him as a father, and that Junior's behavior was simply a reaction to the mistreatment he had received most of his life. Also finding the prune intact, Ben undertakes a mission to rescue Junior. Ben assertively commandeers Roy's SUV, then drives tracks in Roy's yard. He visits Big Ben, who is preparing for a speech, explaining the situation and asks him for ransom money, but Big Ben refuses. Enraged, Ben activates the camera while Big Ben is ranting, and Big Ben even moons the camera. Ben catches up with Martin and Junior at the circus. Junior is rescued after escaping from Martin through a trapeze act, and he calls Ben "Dad" for the first time. Martin drives away, but the Healys are catching up. Flo, locked in a suitcase, tells Ben she wants a divorce. Eventually, the suitcase flies over the wall, and lands in the back of a pig farmer's truck heading to Mexico. Martin is arrested, but not before shooting Ben in the chest. Thinking he has died, Junior apologizes for everything he has done, promises not to be naughty again, and says he loves Ben. However, Ben wakes up and says he loves Junior too, much to Junior's joy. Ben then reveals he survived because the bullet hit the prune. Junior asks if Ben will hold him to all he said about being nice. Ben denies it, and advises Junior to just be himself, and the two hug. Ben and Junior start home, but not before Junior removes his bow-tie, and throws it over the bridge, following Ben's advice. 

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The story of Doom 3 is conveyed through in-game dialogue and cutscenes, as well as e-mails, audio logs and video files found throughout the game. Doom 3 opens with UAC board member Elliott Swann and his bodyguard Jack Campbell arriving at Mars City, the main access to the UAC's Mars base, disembarking from an Earth transport ship, with the player's anonymous marine just behind them. Swann and Campbell, here to investigate multiple incidents, have a heated conference meeting with the man in charge of the Mars laboratories, Dr. Malcolm Betruger, while the marine heads to Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly for orders. Kelly gives the marine instructions to find a scientist from the Delta Labs who has gone missing. The marine finds the scientist in a nearby decommissioned communications facility, where he is frantically trying to send a warning to the UAC on Earth about Betruger's teleportation experiments. However, as he tries to explain the situation to the marine, another teleportation test takes place but loses containment, at which point the entire Mars base is swept with an unnatural shockwave. The forces of Hell invade through the teleporter's portal and transforming most of the base's personnel into zombies. Much of Doom 3, such as this section in the Delta Labs, was planned using storyboards Now forced to fend off attacks from zombified base personnel and the demons from Hell, the marine returns to Mars City, where Kelly remotely gives the marine orders to link up with another squad of marines (Bravo Team) and get a transmission card containing a distress call to the main communications facility to call for reinforcements. As the marine progresses through the base, he learns that Swann and Campbell have survived, and are also en route to the communications facility to prevent any messages being sent in hope of containing the situation on Mars. The marine squad is ambushed by demons and slaughtered in the EnPro Plant, and although the marine recovers the transmission card, he is too late to prevent the bulk of equipment at the communications facility being destroyed by Campbell. However, Kelly directs the marine to a backup system, where the marine is given the choice of whether to obey Kelly's orders to send for reinforcements, or accept Swann's argument to keep Mars isolated until the exact nature of the invasion is understood, so as not to endanger Earth. The marine is told to go to the Delta Labs by Kelly or Swann, depending on whether the transmission is sent or not. On the way to the Delta Labs, the marine is contacted by Betruger, who is now clearly shown to be working in cooperation with Hell in order to invade Earth. If the marine did not send the distress call to Earth, Betruger does so himself, hoping to use the ships bringing reinforcements to transport the demons to Earth. Betruger then unsuccessfully attempts to kill the marine using the toxic gases in the base's recycling facilities. Upon arriving at the Delta Labs, the marine learns of the details behind the teleportation experiments, expeditions into Hell to retrieve specimens and Betruger's increasing obsession with the tests, as well as of a xenoarchaeological dig under the surface of Mars. The dig is excavating the ruins of an ancient civilization discovered on Mars, and has produced a relic known as the Soul Cube. According to a scientist the marine finds alive in the labs, the Soul Cube is a weapon created by the ancient civilization to defend against the forces of Hell. The scientist also reveals that the invasion began when Betruger took the Soul Cube into the portal at the beginning of the game, depositing it in Hell. The marine pursues Betruger through the labs, but is pulled into the main teleportation portal after being lured into a trap by Betruger. The portal takes the marine directly into Hell, where he proceeds to fight his way through the large number of demons to the Soul Cube, defeating its demonic guardian. The marine is then able to reinitialize the teleportation equipment left by research expeditions into Hell and return to the Delta Labs. Betruger, however, tells the marine that although the main UAC teleporter has been destroyed, Hell is opening a Hellmouth on Mars, capable of bringing millions of demons to Mars. The marine encounters the injured Swann further in the Delta Labs, who informs the marine that Kelly has been working with Hell for possibly the whole time, and has been transformed by the demons. Telling the marine that Campbell has gone after Kelly, Swann gives the marine his PDA containing information on the location on the Hellmouth under the surface of Mars and assures him that he will try to make his way out of the base alone. However, when the marine catches up with Campbell in the central computer processing sector of the base, Campbell is mortally wounded and only has enough strength to say that Kelly has taken Campbell's BFG 9000 weapon before expiring. Kelly then begins to taunt the marine in a demonic voice. The marine eventually faces off with Kelly in the central computer core, revealing Kelly as a cybernetic human grafted onto a tank-like base. The marine is able to kill Kelly and takes the BFG 9000 before proceeding deeper under the Martian surface to Site 3, the archaeological dig site where the Soul Cube was unearthed. At the primary excavation site, the marine discovers the Hellmouth, defended by Hell's mightiest warrior, the Cyberdemon. Using the Soul Cube, the marine defeats the Cyberdemon in combat, and the Soul Cube then seals the Hellmouth. The ending cut scene shows the reinforcements from Earth arriving at the base to discover the carnage. They find the marine alive, but discover that Swann has died. They are, however, unable to locate Betruger, who in the final scene is shown in Hell, reincarnated as a dragon-like demon. 

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The movie is set 30 years after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack and none of the characters that had previously appeared in the series were present in the film. In the year U.C. 0123, the military arm of Cosmo Babylonia, the Crossbone Vanguard, attacks the Earth Federation colony Frontier IV. Student mechanic Seabook Arno and his friend Cecily Fairchild are caught in the middle of the fighting as the Federation garrison is quickly overwhelmed. Seabook and Cecily lead a group of refugees into the lower levels of the colony, where they meet up with Seabook's father, Leslie. As the group boards a lifeboat, Seabook catches sight of Cecily's father, Theo, attempting to abduct her and tries to intervene. However, the Crossbone Vanguard arrives and takes Cecily, who is actually Berah Ronah, part of the Ronah family who are the leaders behind Cosmo Babylonia. Seabook is forced to retreat to the lifeboat while Leslie stays behind to help a lost child. Cecily is taken to meet her real father Carozzo and grandfather Meitzer, who both dream of overthrowing the corrupt Earth Federation and replacing it with a more just aristocracy. Cecily is reluctant to join them, but feels she has no choice. Meanwhile, the lifeboat manages to reach the neighboring colony Frontier I, but it is also under attack by the Crossbone Vanguard. Seabook's group then comes across the Space Ark, a Federation training ship carrying the inoperative Gundam F91. Due to the confusion caused by the Crossbone Vanguard's surprise attack, the Space Ark is run by a barely experienced skeleton crew with no available pilots. Pressed into Federation service, Seabook works on repairing the F91 and discovers it was developed by his mother, Monica. The crew is able to repair the F91 just in time to repel an assault by the Crossbone Vanguard, forcing them to retreat. Seabook then uses the F91 to return to Frontier IV, where Cosmo Babylonia has already repaired most of the damage to the colony and has fully occupied it. He infiltrates the Ronah estate and makes contact with Cecily. However, he is forced to flee without her when the guards pursue him. Leslie helps Seabook escape Frontier IV, but he suffers a mortal head injury in the process and dies on the return trip to Frontier I. Cecily joins the Crossbone Vanguard under Zabine Chareux's command. He helps train Cecily to be a mobile suit pilot and warns her that there are several factions within Cosmo Babylonia working against each others' interests, with one faction working on a secret superweapon codenamed "Bug". Seabook returns to Frontier I, where he is again forced by the Federation to help defend the colony against an impending attack by the Crossbone Vanguard. Instead, Seabook and the crew of the Space Ark secretly decide to desert and flee to the Moon. Cecily is assigned the advanced Vigna Ghina mobile suit and accompanies the Crossbone Vanguard as they break into Frontier I. After a brief but intense skirmish, the Crossbone Vanguard are once again forced to withdraw. Seabook encounters Cecily in battle and she decides to defect upon discovering her friends are still alive. Carozzo then arrives at Frontier I and deploys the Bugs, automated war machines designed to specifically hunt down humans. He believes that Earth's population must be purged to preserve its environment, and intends to use Frontier I as a testing ground for the Bugs. Seabook and Cecily work together to destroy the Bugs, with Cecily destroying their mothership. Angered, Carozzo deploys in his own mobile armor, the Rafflesia, and battles Seabook and Cecily. The Vigna Ghina is destroyed, ejecting Cecily into space and Seabook destroys the Rafflesia in response. Zabine arrives on the scene, but decides to spare Seabook and the Space Ark due to his disagreement over Carozzo's use of the Bugs and Rafflesia. After a desperate search, Seabook is able to find and rescue Cecily as the Space Ark arrives to pick them up. 

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The setting and plot of Overman King Gainer are a loose adaptation of the novel series La Compagnie des glaces by the French writer Georges-Jean Arnaud. After an environmental cataclysm, much of the world's population retreated into domed cities called Domepolis, which are run by an organization known as "London IMA" (International Management Authority) and its police arm, "Saint Regan". However, the Domepoli are maintained and supplied by privatized firms such as the "Siberian Railroad Company". Many years have passed since the cataclysm, and many have begun to believe that the world environment has recovered sufficiently enough for humans to begin living outside Domepoli. As such, some inhabitants begin planning Exoduses to leave these cities and to resettle their ancestral homelands. However, this does not sit well with the London IMA or the private firms that monopolize trade between the Domepoli, as the loss of people would not only lead to a loss in tax and trade revenue, but if the Exodus were to be successful, it would show the people that it was no longer necessary to rely on the London IMA or the private firms for survival. They fiercely oppose any Exoduses, spreading propaganda on the evils effects of Exoduses on the Earth's environment, and using military force to prevent any attempted Exodus. The story begins in a Domepolis in Siberia, where championship video game player Gainer Sanga is arrested by Siberian Railroad policewoman Adette Kistler on suspicion of being an Exodus member. Ironically he isn't, but his friends Sara Kodama and Bello Korissha along with his schoolteacher Mamado Azaf are members of the Gauli team, a militia unit of the local Exodus group. At the same time, Exodus expert and coordinator Gain Bijou lets himself be arrested by the Siberian Railroad police as part of his plan to infiltrate the city and steal an "Overman", which is a biomechanical giant robot, for use in defending the Exodus. Gain is placed in the same prison cell as Gainer, and when Gain initiates his escape, only Gainer is willing to escape as well. They infiltrate the castle of Duke Medaiyu and steal an Overman in the Duke's secret museum collection, which Gainer logs into as his videogame handle: "King Gainer". As Gainer gets the hang of piloting a real Overman, he and Gain encounter shut-in Princess Anna, the Duke's daughter, who supports the Exodus and wants to see the world and people other than her tutor, Lioubov Smettana. Using an annual festival presented by idol singer and co-Exodus leader, Meeya Laujin, as cover, the Exodus executes their plan: take much of the Domepolis, block by block, using heavy hauler machines called Silhouette Mammoths and move them over 3000 km across the Siberian tundra to their ancestral homeland, "Yapan". As the Exodus moves out, the Siberian Railroad police chief, Yassaba Jin, mobilizes his forces to stop them. Other obstacles to the Exodus are Kistler's and Jin's subordinates Jaboli Mariela, Kejinan Datto, and Enge Gam, Siberian Railroad president Kizz Munt, Saint Regan policemen Asuham Boone and Zakki Bronco, and Overman aces Cynthia Lane and Kashmir Valle. 

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CIA operative John Clark forms a secret multi-national counter- terrorist unit known as Rainbow. Based in Hereford, United Kingdom, the unit consists of two operational squads composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, and is supplemented by intelligence and technological experts from MI6, Mossad, and FBI. Clark is the commanding officer, son-in-law Domingo Chavez leads one of the two squads, and the second in command is Special Air Service (SAS) officer Alistair Stanley. The first deployment of Rainbow involves Chavez's squad in the rescue of hostages during a botched bank robbery in Bern, Switzerland. Several weeks later, they are deployed to Austria, where a group of left-wing German terrorists have taken over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman in order to obtain imaginary "special access codes" to the international trading markets. Their third deployment involves a hostage situation in an amusement park in Spain, where a group of French terrorists take a group of children hostage and demand that various prisoners, including Carlos the Jackal, be released. Clark and his colleagues become suspicious about the sudden spate of terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to them, the first two attacks are part of a master plan to wipe out nearly all of the human race, called "the Project". Dr. John Brightling, a staunch environmentalist who heads a biotechnology firm called the Horizon Corporation, ordered the attacks through ex-KGB officer Dimitri Popov in order to raise awareness of terrorism, which then helps former FBI agent and co- conspirator Bill Henriksen's security firm land a key contract during the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. From within the Olympics security apparatus, Henriksen plans to launch a sophisticated bioweapon attack using nanocapsules containing the Shiva virus, a strengthened form of the Ebola virus that had been used by Iran in its biological attack on the U.S. (in Executive Orders). The resulting epidemic would kill millions, but then Brightling's company would distribute a "vaccine" that actually contains a slow-acting version of the virus itself, which would kill or overwhelm nearly all of the rest of the world's population. The "chosen few", having been provided with the real vaccine, would then inherit the emptied world, justifying to themselves mass murder as "saving the world" from humanity. Popov, unaware of the Project, discovers the existence of Rainbow through review of the responses to his terrorist attacks, and brings it to Brightling's attention. He is later tasked by Brightling and Henriksen with orchestrating an attack on Rainbow itself in order to prevent them from being deployed to the Sydney Olympics. He persuades breakaway members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army to take over a hospital near Rainbow's base and take Clark and Chavez's wives (who work there) hostage. While two Rainbow troopers are killed and several others wounded in an ambush, Rainbow teams manage to retake the building without civilian casualties and capture some of the terrorists. Interrogation reveals Popov's involvement, causing Brightling to bring the Russian to Horizon's secret main base in Kansas. Upon learning about the Project, an appalled Popov escapes and tells all he knows to Clark. Meanwhile, Chavez and some of his men, who were deployed at the Olympics to oversee venue security, thwart the attack. Their plans in shambles, Brightling and key co-conspirators escape to another, smaller Horizon base deep in the Brazilian rain forest. Clark leads Rainbow there. They defeat the eco- terrorists' defences and destroy their facility and supplies. Knowing that there is not enough evidence to convict them, Clark has the survivors stripped naked and left to fend for themselves in the jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature." Chavez remarks that even he would not be able to survive there very long. 

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Jasmine, which was based on an earlier short story in The Middleman and Other Stories, tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl widowed after her husband's murder in a bomb attack. She and her husband originally planned to move to Florida, but as a result of his death Jasmine continues with the trip on her own. In her path she faces many obstacles as she travels from Florida to New York City to Iowa. The novel begins with Jasmine retelling a story from her childhood about an astrologer who predicts her future as a widower living in exile. She fast forwards to life in Baden, Iowa where Jasmine (known as Jane in Iowa) is 24 years old, pregnant and living with 53-year-old banker Bud Ripplemayer, and his adopted son Du. Bud insists on marrying Jane, who refuses for unknown reasons. Bud is also in a wheelchair because he was shot in the back two years ago. Jane and Bud have a neighbor named Darrel Lutz, a recent college grad who inherited his family's farm. He is contemplating whether or not to sell his farm. Bud refuses to loan Darrel money to expand his herd and grow his crops because Bud doesn't trust Darrel's character as a farmer and a manager. Darrel also shows some romantic interest in Jane. Jane walks us through her life with Du and Bud before flashing back to her life in Hasnapur, Jullundhar district, Punjab, India (page 39). Here in India, she is known as Jyoti. She has a teacher named Masterji, who teaches her English. Masterji urges Jyoti to continue with her education instead of getting married. Soon after Jyoti's father passes away, she meets Prakash. They marry and move in together. He begins to call her Jasmine. Prakash works two jobs and studies for his diploma exams while Jasmine runs a Ladies' Group raffle and sells detergent to make money. Prakash receives a letter from Professor Vadhera who encourages Prakash to study in America. He makes plans to move the two of them to Florida, when while out shopping for saris, Prakash is killed by a bomb, set off by a man named Sukhwinder. He yells "Prostitutes! Whores!" at Jasmine before the bomb goes off. As "a matter of duty and honor," Jasmine continues with Prakash's plans to move to Florida, travelling by plane, train, and ship. Half-Face, the captain of the ship drives Jasmine to a motel when they arrive to land. He then sexually assaults her. Jasmine contemplates killing herself but instead kills Half-Face. She burns Prakash's suit that she carried with her and leaves the motel. Jasmine meets Lillian Gordon, who takes her in. Mrs. Gordon is also housing three Kanjobal women. She calls Jasmine "Jazzy," and helps Jazzy get to New York to meet with Professor Vadhera. Lillian also has a daughter named Kate Gordon-Feldstein who works as a photographer in the city. Lillian is later sent to jail for "exploiting" undocumenteds for free cooking, cleaning and yard work. For five months, Jasmine lives with Professor Vadhera, whom she calls Professorji. She becomes depressed because she fears to leave the house without a green card. Professorji agrees to get her a green card, for fifty thousand rupees, or three thousand dollars. Jasmine begins working for Wylie and Taylor Hayes, friends of Kate Gordon-Feldstein. She moves in with them in Manhattan to take care of their adopted daughter, Duff. Taylor calls her "Jase." Wylie falls out of love with Taylor and falls for Stuart. Wylie leaves Taylor, but Jase continues to take care of Duff. She falls in love with Taylor, but one day while the three of them are at the park, Jase spots Sukhwinder, the man that killed Prakash. She flees New York for Iowa. She chooses Iowa because Duff's birth mother lives in Iowa. Back in present- day Iowa, Jane recalls the night two years ago when Harlan Kroener shot Bud. They were walking to Harlan's car when he shot Bud. He then proceeded to kill himself. Harlan was angry at Bud because of money issues with the bank. Before Bud met Jane, he was married to Karin. Karin initially hates Jane for taking her husband from her, but they maintain a platonic relationship. Jane receives a letter from Taylor, letting her know he and Duff are on their way to find Jane. Du figures out Jane is in love with another man besides Bud. Jane goes to visit Darrel because he says he feels crazy, but she leaves soon when he starts insulting her and Bud's relationship. She suspects he might shoot himself that night. When she returns home, Du announces that he is going to Los Angeles to live with his sister and he leaves with his friend John. Karin visits, and the two of them drive to see how Darrel is faring. He is fixing up his hog house. Back at the house, Jane tells Bud that Du went to visit his sister but he will be back before school starts. Bud later approves of Darrel's loan application, and the two of them drive over to let him know the news. But when they arrive, they discover him hanging from a rafter. Bud begs for Jane to tell him she loves him, but she doesn't respond. Du has decided to stay in California. While Jane is working in the kitchen, she sees a car pull up the driveway and Taylor and Duff get out of the car. Taylor tries to convince Jase to come with him to California. She is conflicted, thinking of Bud who will lose everything if she leaves. She calls Karin and tells her she's "going somewhere," to see Du. Jasmine stops thinking of herself as Jane and follows Taylor and Duff to the car, whispering "Watch me re-position the stars," to the astrologer who foretold her widowhood and exile. 

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The game's start-up credits give a summary of the game's narrative: > What began as a conflict over the transfer of consciousness from flesh to > machines escalated into a war which has decimated a million worlds. The Core > and the Arm have all but exhausted the resources of a galaxy in their > struggle for domination. Both sides now crippled beyond repair, the remnants > of their armies continue to battle on ravaged planets, their hatred fueled > by over four thousand years of total war. This is a fight to the death. For > each side, the only acceptable outcome is the complete elimination of the > other. Screenshot of an Arm campaign mission. The interface is visible along the top and left sides, displaying resource, minimap, construction and movement information. In the far future the galaxy is ruled by a benevolent central body of humans and artificial intelligences called the Core (a contraction of "Consciousness Repository"). The Core's technological and economic triumphs have allowed humanity to colonize most of the Milky Way and enjoy peace and prosperity. However, the balance is broken by a technological breakthrough which allows the consciousness of a human being to be reliably transferred into a machine, thereby granting theoretically indefinite life in a process called "patterning". Following a mandate imposed on humanity by the Core requiring everyone to undergo patterning as a public health measure, a rebel band is formed out of colonies from the edges of the galaxy (hence named the Arm), whose members refused to leave their natural bodies to join the Core's machines. A war lasting four thousand years followed, with the Arm mass- producing clones as pilots for its vehicles and the Core duplicating consciousness-embedded microchips to pilot its own machines. An alternative explanation for the two warring sides stems from an inside joke conceived by the developers. The Core relates to the CPU of the computer - computer core (AI), while the Arm relates to the arm of the player or human intelligence. The game's two campaigns focus on their respective sides' military leaders, the Commanders. The story of either the Core or the Arm starts with an effort to defend the protagonist's homeworld and initiate a turning point in the overall war. The player then fights a series of battles on a number of planets and moons, as transported to through Galactic Gates, a fictional form of faster-than-light travel. As the player progresses, more units become available for construction, either through the course of background story or upon completion of a mission centered on the unit in question. Mission objectives include protecting a vital structure or area, eliminating all enemy units, or capturing a pivotal enemy unit. The worlds upon which the player wages warfare force the player to adapt to different strategies; for example, deployment on a world whose surface is entirely composed of archipelagos necessitates the construction of an effective navy. Some have occasional weather conditions, such as meteor storms. Both campaigns include 25 missions, the final mission ending the war with a final strike on the enemy's homeworld either the Arm's bucolic Empyrrean or the Core's artificial Jupiter Brain world of Core Prime. 

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The terrain is "the London side of Essex", "theoretical Romford" according to Leigh.Coveney, p.116 Beverly Moss invites her new neighbours, Angela and Tony, who moved into the road just two weeks ago, over for drinks. She has also invited her neighbour Susan (Sue), divorced for three years, whose fifteen-year-old daughter Abigail is holding a party at home. Beverly's husband Laurence comes home late from work, just before the guests arrive. The gathering starts off in a stiff, insensitive, British middle-class way as the virtual strangers tentatively gather, until Beverly and Laurence start sniping at each other. As Beverly serves more drinks and the alcohol takes effect, Beverly flirts more and more overtly with Tony, as Laurence sits impotently by. After a tirade when Beverly insists on showing off her kitsch print Wings of Love, Laurence suffers a fatal heart attack. 

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After six years behind bars, Gilly (Dempsey) wants to settle down and live a quiet life. But it is not to be. He is released from prison only to find that his crime partner J (Howard) has invested all their money in a massive array of submachine guns, forcing Gilly back into a life of crime. Their last deal goes down in seven days, but the way things are going, Gilly's not sure he can hold out that long. 

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Taking place over the course of one day, the play begins with the discovery of Hester Collyer in her flat by her neighbours, after Hester has failed in an attempt to take her own life by gassing herself. In flashback, some time before, Hester left her husband, Sir William Collyer, a respectable High Court judge, for a semi-alcoholic former RAF pilot, Freddie Page. Their relationship was physical and passionate, but his ardour eventually cooled, leaving her emotionally stranded and desperate. Initially unemployed, Freddie eventually takes a post in South America. The aftershocks of her attempted suicide unravel even the remnants of this relationship. By the end of the day, Hester is brought to a hard decision to live, partly through the intercession of another resident of the tenement house, Mr. Miller, an ex-doctor struck off the register for an undisclosed reason. These two outcasts find a curious kinship. 

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United States Under Secretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom commits suicide after being informed that he has tested positive for HIV. Angela Bennett is a systems analyst in Venice, California who telecommutes to Cathedral Software in San Francisco. Her interpersonal relationships are almost completely online and on the phone, with the exception of forgettable interactions with her neighbors and visits to her mother, who is institutionalized with Alzheimer's disease and often forgets who Bennett is. Bennett's co-worker Dale sends her a floppy disk with a backdoor labeled "π" that permits access to a commonly used computer security system called "Gatekeeper" sold by Gregg Microsystems, a software company led by CEO Jeff Gregg. Dale and Bennett agree to meet, but the navigation system in Dale's private aircraft malfunctions and it crashes into a tower, killing him. Bennett travels to Cozumel, on vacation, where she meets Jack Devlin. After seducing Bennett, Devlin pays a mugger to steal her purse as they walk along the beach. He chases the mugger into the foliage, catches the mugger, and roots through the purse to find the disk before shooting the mugger. He takes Bennett out on his speedboat to kill her as well, but she finds his gun and confronts him. While fleeing with the disk and Devlin's wallet, Bennett's dinghy collides with rocks, destroying the disk and hospitalizing her. She is unconscious for three days. When Bennett wakes up, she finds that all records of her life have been deleted: She was checked out of her hotel room in Cozumel, her car is no longer at the airport parking lot, and her credit cards are invalid. Bennett's home is now empty and listed for sale. Moreover, because none of the neighbors remember her, they cannot confirm her identity. Bennett's Social Security number is now assigned to a "Ruth Marx," for whom Devlin has entered an arrest record by hacking the police computer system. When Bennett calls her own desk at Cathedral Software, an impostor answers and offers Bennett her old life back in exchange for the disk. She contacts the only other person who knows her by sight, psychiatrist and former lover Alan Champion. He checks her into a hotel, offers to contact a friend at the FBI, and arranges to have her mother moved for her safety. Using her knowledge of the backdoor and a password found in Devlin's wallet, Bennett logs into the Bethesda Naval Hospital's computers and learns that Under Secretary of Defense Bergstrom, who had opposed Gatekeeper's use by the federal government, was misdiagnosed. Fellow hacker "Cyberbob" connects π with the "Praetorians," a notorious group of cyberterrorists linked to recent computer failures around the country. Bennett and Cyberbob plan to meet, but the Praetorians intercept their online chat. Bennett escapes from Devlin--a contract killer for the cyberterrorists, but the Praetorians kill Champion by tampering with pharmacy and hospital computer records. After Bennett is arrested by the California Highway Patrol, a man identifying himself as Champion's FBI friend frees her from jail. She realises he is an impostor and escapes again. Now wanted for murder and thought to be Ruth Marx, Bennett hitchhikes to Cathedral's office where, using her impostor's computer, she connects the cyberterrorists to Gregg Microsystems and uncovers their scheme: once the Praetorians sabotage an organization's computer system, Gregg sells Gatekeeper to it and gains unlimited access through the backdoor. Bennett emails evidence of the backdoor and Gregg's involvement with the Praetorians to the FBI from the Moscone Center and tricks Devlin into releasing a virus into Gregg's mainframe, destroying Gatekeeper and undoing the erasing of her identity. During a battle on the catwalks of the convention center, in which Devlin accidentally kills the Bennett impostor from Cathedral Software (the real Ruth Marx), Bennett ambushes Devlin with a fire extinguisher, causing him to fall to his death. Bennett regains her identity, home, and life. She then reunites with her mother, and the conspiracy is exposed, with Jeff Gregg being arrested by the FBI. 

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At a Hallowe'en party held at Rowena Drake's home in Woodleigh Common, thirteen- year-old Joyce Reynolds tells everyone attending she had once seen a murder, but had not realised it was one until later. When the party ends, Joyce is found dead, having been drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. Ariadne Oliver, attending the party while visiting her friend Judith Butler, calls on Hercule Poirot to investigate the murder and Joyce's claim. With help from retired Superintendent Spence, Poirot makes a list of deaths and disappearances for the last few years in Woodleigh Common: Rowena's aunt, Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe, died suddenly; her au pair Olga Seminoff disappeared, when a codicil that favoured her in her employer's will was found to be a forgery; Leslie Ferrier, a lawyer's clerk, was stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant; Charlotte Benfield, a sixteen-year-old shop assistant, was found dead with multiple head injuries; and Janet White, a teacher at Elms School, was strangled to death. Poirot learns a few interesting facts: Judith's daughter Miranda was Joyce's closest friend, and the pair shared secrets between them; Joyce was known to be a teller of tales to gain attention; Elizabeth Whittaker, a mathematics teacher attending the party, witnessed Rowena become startled and drop a glass vase of water outside the door of the library, while the party-goers were playing snapdragon; Ferrier had previous convictions for forgery, and many suspected that he and Olga were working together to steal Mrs Llewellyn- Smythe's fortune; a one-time cleaner of Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe had been witness to her employer making the codicil; a beautiful garden built within an abandoned quarry for Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe, was designed by Michael Garfield, a man with narcissistic behaviour; the victim's brother, Leopold Reynolds, has become flush with money of late. Leopold is later found dead, having been drowned in a small brook. Rowena, unusually upset about the death, informs Poirot she had seen him in the library the night of the party, and believes he witnessed his sister's killer. Poirot soon has a theory, and advises the police to search the woods near the quarry. The search turns up Olga's body in an abandoned well, having been stabbed in the same manner as Ferrier. Fearing another murder, Poirot sends a telegram to Mrs Oliver, instructing her to take Judith and her daughter to London as quickly as possible. However, Miranda disappears when the group stop for lunch, and meets up with Garfield, who takes her to a pagan sacrificial altar with the intention of poisoning her. However, he commits suicide when two men, recruited by Poirot to trail Miranda, thwart him and save her life. Once in safety, Miranda reveals that she had witnessed the murder Joyce claimed she had seen; more precisely, she saw Garfield and Rowena drag Olga's body through the quarry garden and only later realized she had witnessed a murder. Poirot tells Mrs Oliver what he has learned. While her husband was alive, Rowena began an affair with Garfield. Her aunt discovered this, and as a punishment, she wrote a codicil that left her fortune to Olga. When the pair learnt of this, they plotted to discredit Olga's claim, hiring Ferrier to replace the real codicil with a clumsy forgery that could be easily spotted, ensuring Rowena inherited everything as stipulated in earlier wills; the real codicil was not destroyed and later found. Both Olga and Ferrier were murdered to conceal the deceit, though Rowena suspected someone had witnessed the disposal of Olga's body. She killed Joyce when she claimed she had witnessed a murder, unaware that she had appropriated Miranda's story as her own. The dropping of the vase of water, which Mrs Whittaker witnessed, was to disguise the fact Rowena was already wet from drowning Joyce. Leopold was murdered because he had witnessed Rowena murdering his sister and subsequently blackmailed her. With his theory, Poirot muses that Rowena would likely have shared a similar fate to Olga, as Garfield's motivation for the murder was his narcissistic desire to construct another perfect garden with Rowena's money; he would have had no further need of her, as she had already provided him with a Greek island she had secretly purchased. Poirot reveals further that Garfield was Miranda's father; Judith is not a widow, but a single mother. She had met Garfield years before, and encountered him by accident when settling in the area with Miranda. While Garfield knew Miranda was his daughter, he was willing to kill his own child to ensure he could create another garden. Satisfied with his help, Judith thanks Poirot and leaves, though the story ends with a few questions unanswered, including whether Mr Drake's death was an accident, and if the police took Mrs Drake to trial. 

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The novel recounts the story of a young British boy, Jamie (“Jim”) Graham (named after Ballard's two first names, "James Graham"), who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan occupies the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents. He spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food. Having exhausted the food supplies, he decides to try to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army. After many attempts, he finally succeeds and is interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center. Although the Japanese are "officially" the enemies, Jim identifies partly with them, both because he adores the pilots with their splendid machines and because he feels that Lunghua is still a comparatively safer place for him. Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing, the food supply runs short. Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death. The camp prisoners are forced upon a march to Nantao, with many dying along the route. Jim then leaves the march and is saved from starvation by air drops from American bombers. Jim returns to Lunghua camp, soon returning to his pre-war residence with his parents. 

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In London in June 1897, a young mouse named Olivia Flaversham is celebrating her birthday with her toymaker father, Hiram. Suddenly, a bat with a crippled wing and a peg leg bursts into Flaversham's workshop, kidnapping Mr. Flaversham. Olivia searches to find the famed Great Mouse Detective named Basil of Baker Street, but gets lost. A surgeon named Dr. David Q. Dawson, who has just returned from a lengthy service of the Mouse Queen's 66th Regiment in Afghanistan, meets Olivia, and escorts her to Basil's residence. Upon their arrival, Basil is initially indifferent, but when Olivia mentions the bat that abducted her father, Basil realizes that Olivia saw Fidget, the assistant of Professor Ratigan, a villain that Basil has attempted to arrest for years. It is then revealed that Ratigan kidnapped Hiram to create a clockwork robot, which mimics the Queen of the Mice so that Ratigan can rule England. Flaversham initially refuses to participate in the scheme, but capitulates when Ratigan threatens to harm Olivia. Ratigan plans to usurp the Queen and become "supreme ruler of all mousedom". Meanwhile, Fidget appears through the window, and they attempt to chase him. Basil, along with Dawson and Olivia, take Toby, Sherlock Holmes's pet Basset Hound, to track down Fidget's scent, where they locate him in a toyshop stealing clockwork mechanisms and toy soldiers' uniforms. Fidget ambushes Olivia and captures her. Basil and Dawson pursue Fidget, but are easily outsmarted. While searching the shop, Dawson discovers Fidget's checklist, to which Basil does some chemical tests to discover the list came from a riverfront near the Thames. Basil and Dawson disguise themselves as sailors and head to a tavern called the "Rat Trap". They find Fidget and follow him to Ratigan's headquarters, but are caught in an ambush by Ratigan. Ratigan has them tied to a spring-loaded mousetrap connected with a Rube Goldberg machine laid out to kill them both. Ratigan sets out for Buckingham Palace, where his henchman hijack the roles of the royal guards and kidnap the Queen. Basil deduces the trap's weakness and escapes along with Dawson and Olivia just in time. At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan forces Flaversham to operate the toy Queen, while the real one is taken to be fed to Felicia, Ratigan's pet cat. The toy Queen declares Ratigan the ruler of all Mousedom, and he announces his dictatorial plans for his new "subjects". After Basil, Dawson, and Olivia save Flaversham and the real Queen, they restrain Fidget and Ratigan's other henchmen while Toby chases out Felicia. Basil seizes control of the mechanical queen, making it denounce Ratigan as a fraud while breaking it into pieces. The crowd, enraged by Ratigan's treason, turns on him, and he escapes on his dirigible with Fidget, holding Olivia hostage. Basil, Dawson and Flaversham create their own craft with a matchbox and some small helium-filled balloons, held together by the Union Jack. Ratigan tosses Fidget overboard to lighten the load, and he attempts to drive the dirigible himself. Basil jumps onto the dirigible to confront Ratigan, causing it to crash straight into the Big Ben clocktower. Inside the clocktower, where Ratigan still holds Olivia hostage, Basil manages to get Ratigan's cape stuck on some gears. He rescues Olivia and safely delivers her to Flaversham. Ratigan breaks free and attacks Basil, eventually knocking him to the dirigible. When the clock strikes 10:00, the bell hits for the loudest sound, and Ratigan falls to his death, taking Basil with him. However, Basil grabs a part of Ratigan's dirigible and saves himself. Back at Baker Street, Basil and Dawson recount their adventures. After the Flavershams leave the house, a distraught new client arrives and solicits Basil and Dawson's help, with Basil noting that Dawson is his trusted associate, prompting Dawson to remain and assist Basil. 

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Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) and her 14-year-old sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), along with good friends Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake), live in a small house on the North Shore. They all have been helping raise Anne Marie's young sister, ever since the mother took off to Las Vegas with a boyfriend. While Penny is at school, Anne Marie, Eden, and Lena work as maids in a super-luxury resort hotel, but more important than that, they are surfers. Anne Marie rises every morning before dawn to train for a possible surfing comeback. As a kid she was a rising star in women's surfing, but then she had an extremely bad wipeout; she hit her head on a rock and nearly drowned. This has temporarily halted her progress; now when she is in really big powerful surf, she has deep-seated fears of dying. Her friends, especially Eden, are encouraging her to try once again to become a professional surfer. Anne Marie has been invited to join an upcoming surf competition at the famed North Shore surf spot, the very challenging Banzai Pipeline. If she can do well enough to gain the attention of a sponsor, it would lift her and her friends out of the near-poverty in which they live. As the Pipeline competition gets closer, Anne Marie struggles to keep her young sister Penny from running wild, and also tries to deal with her own personal issues. At work at the hotel, Anne Marie catches the eye of Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis), a National Football League quarterback who is in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl (it is hinted that he plays for the Minnesota Vikings). Matt is instantly attracted to the surfer. After a few encounters, Matt says he wants to learn to surf, and Anne Marie agrees to teach him, and several of his rowdy teammates, to surf for $150 per hour, with Lena, Eden, and Penny also acting as coaches. When Anne Marie goes to Matt's hotel room to pick up the money, they kiss, but a call comes in. Anne Marie asks if it is Matt's wife, but he explains it is his niece. Later they sleep together. Anne Marie's acceptance of a non-Hawaiian as her boyfriend causes friction between her and some of the young male surfers on the North Shore. Eden points out to Anne Marie that her current interest in Matt has weakened her commitment to training for the Pipeline contest. Anne Marie overhears very demeaning comments about herself from some of the other football players' wives and girlfriends who are also staying at the hotel. Anne Marie confronts Matt about their situation. She soon resolves to step up her game, as she finally commits herself to the Pipeline Masters. On the day of Pipeline, Anne Marie wipes out during her first heat, but she advances to the next heat after narrowly beating pro surfer Kate Skarratt. She is shaken, but Matt tells her how he failed in his first game as an NFL quarterback, and this helps her get control of her wavering confidence. Determined, although still apprehensive, Anne Marie returns to the water. Competing in the same heat is Keala Kennelly, one of the first professional female surfers. While Keala surfs the first few sets of waves well, Anne Marie is still reluctant to try one, visions of her near- drowning incident holding her back. Keala finishes her turn, then paddles back out to take Anne Marie under her wing. Keala encourages her to ride the best wave of the day, and Anne Marie rides it perfectly, managing to score a perfect ten. Although Anne Marie cannot advance to the next heat, she has regained her lost confidence and attracted the attention of sponsors, one of whom immediately offers to have her join the Billabong women's surf team. 

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Richard Steven Valenzuela (Phillips) is a normal teenage boy who becomes a rock 'n' roll superstar under the stage name Ritchie Valens. He meets and falls in love with fellow high school student Donna Ludwig (von Zerneck), for whom he wrote a song that became a number two hit ("Donna"). However, Donna's father is shown as having issues with his daughter dating a Mexican-American, which causes friction between Ritchie and Donna. The movie also has several subplots, such as his relationship with his mother Connie Valenzuela (DeSoto) and half-brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales), and the jealousy Bob felt toward Ritchie because of Ritchie's success. In one scene, Bob won an important art contest that helps promising cartoonists, only to throw away his prize because, in his mind, his mother doesn't seem to care enough. Bob resorts to drinking heavily and, at one point, leads him to yelling in a drunken rage in front of his mother's door, "I want to see my daughter!" in reference to the child he sired with Ritchie's first girlfriend Rosie (Peña). However, when they get an opportunity, Ritchie and Bob sneak out for a good time. On one occasion, they take a road trip to Tijuana, visiting one of the local nightclubs where Ritchie discovers the song that would eventually become his signature song, "La Bamba". The film also focuses on Ritchie's aviophobia (fear of flying), triggered by a recurring dream he has as a result of a midair collision between two planes that actually occurred directly over Ritchie's school, in which Ritchie's best friend was crushed to death by one of the fallen aircraft (Ritchie was absent from school that day to attend his grandfather's funeral). At first, Ritchie manages to avoid flying to his concerts and appearances; but he must eventually conquer his fear when invited to perform his song "Donna" on American Bandstand. Ritchie's record producer and manager, Bob Keane (Pantoliano), helps him by giving him a little vodka to calm his nerves during the flight to Philadelphia for the Bandstand appearance. As Ritchie becomes more famous, his responsibilities change, and eventually he must join the ill-fated Winter Dance Party tour with Buddy Holly (Marshall Crenshaw) and "The Big Bopper" (Stephen Lee) after his hits, "La Bamba" and "Donna", reach the top of the Billboard charts. Valens, Holly, and Bopper take off in an airplane during a snowstorm for their fateful flight on February 3, 1959, (the night that came to be known as "The Day the Music Died"). Before the ill-fated flight, Ritchie makes a call to his brother, wherein they patch up their differences. He even invites Bob to fly out to Chicago to join the tour for family support. The next day, as Bob is fixing his mother's car, he hears the news bulletin on the radio that his brother's plane crashed without any survivors. Bob darts out of his driveway in an attempt to get to his mother before she hears the bad news through the radio. Unfortunately, by the time he gets there, she stands immobile. The news hits the Valenzuela family, Bob Keane, and Donna very hard. In the final scene, the cars to Ritchie's funeral are shown driving slowly into San Fernando Mission Cemetery and Bob is then seen walking across a bridge and screaming out Ritchie's name, remembering all the good times they had together (in flashback), accompanied by the Santo & Johnny instrumental "Sleep Walk". Lou Diamond Phillips (as Valens), is then shown backed by the Mexican American rock band Los Lobos, performing Valens' version of "La Bamba" accompanied by the closing credits. 

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During the prohibition era, a mobster named Roxy Robinson is "splurged" by members of a gang, using rapid- fire cream-shooting "splurge guns". Once splurged, a kid is "all washed up... finished". Speakeasy boss Fat Sam introduces himself and Bugsy Malone, a boxing promoter with no money ("Bugsy Malone"). At Fat Sam's speakeasy, there is much dancing and singing ("Fat Sam's Grand Slam"). Fat Sam is worried that his rival Dandy Dan will try to take control of the speakeasy. Blousey Brown, an aspiring singer, has come for an audition, but Sam is too distracted to see her. Bugsy meets Blousey when he trips over her luggage. He is smitten and flirts with her. Fat Sam's is raided by Dandy Dan's men, who shoot up the place. Dandy Dan's men continue to attack Fat Sam's empire, eventually taking away rackets and splurging members of Fat Sam's gang. Fat Sam sends all his available men, except Knuckles, to see if they can track down the guns. They are ambushed at a laundry and splurged by Dandy Dan's gang. Bugsy returns to Fat Sam's to arrange a new audition for Blousey. Fat Sam's girlfriend, the chanteuse Tallulah, makes a pass at him. Although Bugsy rejects her flirtation, Tallulah plants a big kiss on Bugsy's forehead when Blousey enters; Blousey is jealous. Fat Sam hires Blousey after her audition, but she refuses to speak to Bugsy ("I'm Feelin' Fine"). Fat Sam hires Bugsy to accompany him to a meeting with Dandy Dan. The meeting is a trap, but Bugsy helps Fat Sam escape. Gratefully, Fat Sam pays him $200. Bugsy and Blousey reconcile and have a romantic outing on a lake; Bugsy promises to take her to Hollywood. When he returns Sam's car to the garage, he is attacked and his money is stolen. Bugsy is saved by Leroy Smith, who assaults the attackers and drives them away. Bugsy realizes that Leroy has the potential to be a great boxer. Bugsy introduces Leroy to Cagey Joe and helps him train ("So You Wanna Be a Boxer?"). Fat Sam again seeks Bugsy's aid after his Knuckles is accidentally splurged by a malfunctioning splurge gun prototype. Bugsy resists, but Fat Sam offers $400, enough money to keep his promise to Blousey. Blousey is disappointed when she learns that Bugsy hasn't bought the tickets to California yet ("Ordinary Fool"). Bugsy and Leroy follow Dandy Dan's men to a warehouse, where the guns are being stashed. The two of them can't take the place alone, so Bugsy recruits a large group of down-and-out workers at a soup kitchen ("Down and Out"). They steal the crates of guns and take them to Fat Sam's, arriving just as Dandy Dan's gang arrives. Chaos ensues as a massive splurge gun fight erupts, covering everyone (except Bugsy and Blousey) with cream. Unarmed patrons throw cream pies. The piano player is hit from behind and falls onto the keys, striking a single bass note. The tone silences the room, and the cream-covered crowd performs in a final number ("You Give a Little Love"). They realize they can all be friends, and Bugsy and Blousey leave for Hollywood. 

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In a region called Spiral Mountain, a foul-tempered witch named Gruntilda learns from her cauldron, Dingpot, that Tooty, a brown honey bear living nearby, is more beautiful than her. Jealous, Gruntilda creates a machine to transfer an entity's beauty to another, which she intends to use with Tooty. Gruntilda kidnaps Tooty while her older brother, Banjo, is sleeping. Banjo's friend Kazooie, a female red-crested "Breegull," wakes him up and the two resolve to rescue Tooty. While Banjo and Kazooie collect musical notes and Jiggies to traverse through Gruntilda's Lair, they are aided by Bottles, a mole and Tooty's friend, and Mumbo Jumbo, a shaman who used to be Gruntilda's teacher; they also rescue Jinjos, small creatures that Gruntilda imprisoned in each world. Having gathered most of the musical notes and Jiggies, Banjo and Kazooie participate in a trivia game show hosted by Gruntilda, where they answer questions and complete challenges related to certain aspects of the game. Once they win the game, Banjo and Kazooie retrieve Tooty and celebrate with their friends and a barbecue. Shortly after the barbecue begins, however, Tooty, unsatisfied with her kidnapper's passive defeat, command the heroes to pursue the escaped Gruntilda. Banjo and Kazooie enter the top of the lair, where they confront the witch. A fierce battle ensues, but with the help of the Jinjos they rescued, the duo send Gruntilda falling towards Spiral Mountain, where she is trapped beneath a falling boulder. Banjo and Kazooie go on vacation at a beach with their friends and celebrate their victory. Gruntilda swears revenge against Banjo and Kazooie, calling for her henchman, Klungo, to move the boulder. 

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Two years after Gruntilda's defeat at the hands of Banjo and Kazooie, two of her sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, use a large digging machine called the HAG 1 to enter Spiral Mountain and set Gruntilda free, upon which they discover that she, while still alive, has rotted into a skeleton while underground. Seeking revenge, Gruntilda destroys Banjo's house with a destructive spell before fleeing with her sisters. Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles are playing a game of poker in his house until this happens. Only the former three escape in time for the spell, as Bottles refuses to believe in Gruntilda's return as insisted by his friends; he dies the next morning. The three remaining friends resolve to defeat Gruntilda. Following the witches' trail, Banjo and Kazooie arrive at Jinjo Village, part of the Isle O' Hags, the game's overworld and the entire main cast's greater homeland. There, King Jingaling, king of the Jinjos, explains that his subjects were frightened away by the HAG 1 and scattered throughout the Island. He gives the two their first Jiggy as a reward for finding his subjects in advance. Meanwhile, Gruntilda's sisters introduce her to a device called the "Big-O-Blaster" (B.O.B.), capable of sucking the life force from any given target. They test B.O.B. on King Jingaling, transforming him into a zombie. Gruntilda plans to charge B.O.B. long enough to blast the entire island and use the stolen life force to restore her body. The witch's most loyal henchman, Klungo, is sent out to hinder Banjo and Kazooie in their progress by fighting them, but after losing to them several times, resulting in beatings from Gruntilda, Klungo abandons her and sides with Banjo and Kazooie. Within Gruntilda's fortress, Cauldron Keep, Banjo and Kazooie participate in a trivia game show hosted by Gruntilda, similar to that of the first game, competing with Mingella and Blobbelda, in which losing competitors will be flattened under one-ton weights. Mingella and Blobbelda get crushed after losing to Banjo and Kazooie, but Gruntilda escapes. Banjo and Kazooie then reverse the effects of B.O.B., resurrecting both King Jingaling and Bottles, who celebrate at Bottles' house along with Klungo. Banjo and Kazooie fight Gruntilda atop her fortress, using her own spells to destroy the HAG 1 and most of her body. The two return to Bottles' house with their friends Jamjars, Mumbo, and Wumba, to find that, much to their disappointment, everyone else has ended the celebration without them. They then head to the top of Cauldron Keep and play a game of hacky sack with Gruntilda's head, who swears revenge against Banjo and Kazooie once again. 

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Maurice Hall, age fourteen, discusses sex and women with his prep-school teacher Ben Ducie just before Maurice progresses to his public school. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the novel, as Maurice feels removed from the depiction of marriage with a woman as the goal of life. After becoming friends with fellow university student Clive Durham, who introduces him to the ancient Greek writings about same-sex love, Maurice enjoys a discreet, committed partnership with him, hoping for more from their attachment, but Clive marries a woman and claims to be heterosexual. Maurice is devastated, but he becomes a stockbroker, in his spare time helping to operate a Christian mission's boxing gym for working- class boys in the East End, although under Clive's influence he has long since abandoned his Christian beliefs. He makes an appointment with a hypnotist, Mr. Lasker Jones, in an attempt to "cure" himself. Lasker Jones refers to his condition as "congenital homosexuality" and claims a 50 per cent success rate in curing this "condition". After the first appointment, it is clear that the hypnotism has failed. Maurice is invited to stay with the Durhams. There, at first unnoticed by him, is the young under-gamekeeper Alec Scudder (called Scudder for large passages of the book), who has noticed Maurice. One night, a heartbroken Maurice calls for Clive to join him. Believing that Maurice is calling for him, Alec climbs to his window with a ladder and the two spend the night together. After their first night together, Maurice panics and refuses to answer Alec's letters. Wounded by this rejection, Alec threatens to blackmail Maurice. Maurice goes to Lasker Jones one more time. Knowing that the therapy is failing, he tells Maurice to consider relocating to a country where same-sex relationships are legal, such as France or Italy. Maurice wonders if same-sex relationships will ever be acceptable in England, to which Lasker Jones replies "I doubt it. England has always been disinclined to accept human nature." Maurice and Alec meet at the British Museum in London to discuss the supposed blackmail. It becomes clear that they are in love with each other, and Maurice calls him Alec for the first time. After another night together, Alec tells Maurice that he is emigrating to Argentina and will not return. Maurice asks Alec to stay with him, and indicates that he is willing to give up his social and financial position, as well as his upper-class status. Alec does not accept the offer. After initial resentment, Maurice decides to bid Alec farewell. He is taken aback when Alec is not at the harbour. In a hurry, he makes for the Durhams' estate, where the two lovers were supposed to have met before at a boathouse. He finds Alec, who assumes Maurice had received the telegram Alec had sent to his residence. Alec had changed his mind, and intends to stay with Maurice, telling him that they "shan't be parted no more". Maurice visits Clive and outlines what has happened with Alec. Clive is left speechless and unable to comprehend. Maurice leaves to be with Alec, and Clive never sees him again. 

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Bill Rago (Danny DeVito) is a divorced advertising executive down on his luck. When he loses his job in Detroit, the unemployment agency finds him a temporary job: teaching basic literacy classes at a nearby U.S. Army training base, Fort McClane. Initially unenthusiastic, Rago finds that he has only six weeks to teach a group of undereducated soldiers the basics of comprehension and use of English language. Most of the soldiers are only semi-literate and equally unenthusiastic. Unable to connect with his pupils and desperate to spark their interest, Rago quotes from his favorite play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. They are unfamiliar with it (or even the concept of a "play") and a small initial spark of interest is generated. He casts each student as a character in a classroom reading, then takes everyone on a field trip across the Blue Water Bridge to Stratford, Ontario Canada, to a live performance by Shakespearean actors. He introduces them to Shakespeare's Henry V as well. In the meantime he takes steps to mend bridges with his daughter by buying her an airline ticket to Mexico – as well as buying her a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope – so that she can start on the path to becoming a professional astronomer. Despite the disapproval of their hard-as-nails Drill Sergeant Cass (Gregory Hines), and the loss of one of the trainees, Pvt. Hobbs (Khalil Kain), who is revealed as a drug dealer hiding under an assumed identity, Rago sets an end-of-term oral examination. Even the friendly Capt. Murdoch (James Remar), who is in charge of the project doesn't expect the soldiers to pass Rago's class, adding that if they fail they will be discharged from the Army. Hobbs writes a letter to Rago and Murdoch, whose letters to the prison warden may result in him getting an early parole. Hobbs says he read Othello in the prison library (the librarian said he was the first inmate in 16 years to request Shakespeare) and was thinking about taking college classes once he's released. While on duty, on a dare from Cass in front of other men, Pvt. Benitez recites the St. Crispin's Day Speech by King Henry V while in full combat gear in the middle of a rainstorm during a night exercise; the speech moves even the hardened Sgt. Cass. The students then all pass Rago's class with flying colors. Rago meets and dates Marie (Isabella Hofmann), a soldier in the records department who helps him do some investigation before the base's graduation ceremony. It results in Pvt. Davis being presented with the Silver Star medal his father was to have been awarded posthumously, after he was killed in Vietnam. As the proud soldiers march at their graduation parade, Rago is saluted by his "graduates". He signs on to continue teaching soldiers- in-training. 

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William Lee is an exterminator who finds that his wife Joan is stealing his supply of insecticide to use as a recreational drug. Lee is arrested by the police, and he begins hallucinating as a result of exposure to the insecticide. Lee comes to believe that he is a secret agent, and his boss, a giant talking beetle, assigns him the mission of killing Joan, who is allegedly an agent of an organization called Interzone Incorporated. Lee dismisses the beetle's instructions and kills it. Lee returns home to find Joan having sex with Hank, one of his writer friends. Shortly afterwards, he accidentally kills her while attempting to shoot a drinking glass off her head in imitation of William Tell. Having inadvertently accomplished his mission, Lee flees to Interzone, located in a city somewhere in North Africa. He spends his time writing reports concerning his mission; these documents, at the insistence of his visiting literary colleagues, are eventually compiled into the titular book. Whilst Lee is under the influence of assorted mind-altering substances, his replacement typewriter, a Clark Nova, becomes a talking insect which tells him to find Dr. Benway by seducing Joan Frost, a doppelgänger of his dead wife. There is a row at gunpoint with Joan's husband Tom, after Lee steals his typewriter, which is then destroyed by the Clark Nova insect. Lee also encounters a gay Swiss gentleman, Yves Cloquet, who appears to be a monstrous centipede in disguise. After coming to the conclusion that Dr. Benway is, in fact, the secret mastermind of a narcotics operation for a drug called "black meat" which is supposedly derived from the guts of giant Brazilian centipedes, Lee encounters Tom's housekeeper Fadela, previously observed to be an agent of the narcotics operation. Fadela reveals herself to be Dr. Benway in disguise. After being recruited as a double agent for the black meat operation, Lee completes his report and flees Interzone to Annexia with Joan Frost. Stopped by the Annexian border patrol and instructed to prove that he is a writer as he claims, Lee produces a pen. When this proves insufficient for passage, Lee, now having realized that his accidental murder of Joan Lee is what has driven him to become a writer, demonstrates his William Tell routine using a glass atop Joan Frost's head. He again misses, and thus re-enacts the earlier killing of his wife. The border guards cheerfully bid him welcome to Annexia, and his new life as a writer. Lee is shown shedding a tear at this bittersweet accomplishment. 

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On October 30, 1977, amateur criminals Killer Karl and Richard Wick attempt an armed robbery at a gas station, but are killed by the owner, Captain Spaulding, and his assistant, Ravelli. Later on, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Hudley, Mary Knowles, and Denise Willis are on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Spaulding, who is also the owner of "The Museum of Monsters & Madmen", they learn of the local legend of Dr. Satan. As they take off in search of the tree from which Dr. Satan was hanged, they pick up a young free-spirited hitchhiker named Baby, who claims to live only a few miles away. Shortly after, a mysterious figure appears hidden in some overgrowth and shoots out their vehicle's tire with a shotgun. The group thinks it's just a blown out tire and so Baby takes Bill to her family's house to get a tow truck. Moments later, Baby's half-brother, Rufus, picks up the stranded passengers and takes them to the family home. There they meet Baby's family: her adopted brother Otis Driftwood, her deformed giant half-brother Tiny, Mother Firefly, and Grandpa Hugo. While being treated to dinner, Mother Firefly explains that her ex-husband, Earl, had previously tried to burn Tiny alive, along with the Firefly house, after he suffered a psychotic breakdown. After dinner, the family puts on a Halloween show for their guests and Baby offends Mary by flirting with Bill. After Mary threatens Baby, Rufus tells them their car is repaired. As the couples leave, Otis and Tiny, disguised as scarecrows, attack them in the driveway and take them prisoner. The next day, Otis kills Bill and mutilates his body for art. Mary is tied up in a barn, Denise is tied to a bed while dressed up for Halloween, and Jerry is partially scalped for failing to guess Baby's favorite movie star. When Denise doesn't come home, her father Don calls the police to report her missing. Two deputies, George Wydell and Steve Naish, find the couples' abandoned car in a field with a dead, mutilated cheerleader in the trunk. Don, a former policeman, is called to the scene to help the deputies search. They arrive at the Firefly house and Wydell questions Mother Firefly about the missing teens. Mother Firefly shoots Wydell in the head and kills him; Don and Steve are then killed by Otis when they find more bodies of missing cheerleaders in the barn. Later that night, the three remaining teenagers are dressed as rabbits and taken out to an abandoned well. Mary attempts to run away, but is tracked down and stabbed to death by Baby moments later. Meanwhile, Jerry and Denise are lowered into the well, where a group of Dr. Satan's failed experiments pull Jerry away, leaving Denise to find her way through an underground lair. As she wanders through the tunnels, she encounters Dr. Satan and a number of mental patients; Jerry is on Dr. Satan's operating table being vivisected and dies as Denise screams. Dr. Satan tells his mutated assistant, who turns out to be Mother Firefly's ex-husband Earl, to capture Denise, but Denise outwits him and escapes the chambers by crawling to the surface as he is crushed by falling debris. She makes her way to the main road, where she encounters Captain Spaulding, who gives her a ride in his car. She passes out from exhaustion in the front seat, and Otis suddenly appears in the back seat with a knife. Denise later wakes up to find herself strapped to Dr. Satan's operating table, and she screams in horror. 

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One evening at Herrington High School in Ohio, several teachers and Principal Drake leave after discussing the school's budget. When Drake returns to retrieve her keys, Coach Willis becomes increasingly erratic and stabs a pencil through Drake's hand when she attempts to leave. Drama teacher Mrs. Olson emotionlessly stabs Drake with scissors as she flees the school. The following morning, the students arrive, including Casey Connor, the dedicated but perpetually harassed photographer for the school newspaper. Casey is the unappreciated assistant to spiteful Delilah Profitt, the paper's editor-in-chief and head cheerleader. Delilah's mistreated boyfriend Stan Rosado is contemplating quitting the football team to pursue academics. Zeke Tyler is an intelligent yet rebellious student repeating his senior year. Zeke sells, among other illegal items, a powdery ecstasy-like drug he manufactures and distributes; he is confronted by Miss Elizabeth Burke, who expresses concern for him over his illegal activities. Naive transfer student Marybeth Louise Hutchinson befriends self-styled outcast Stokely Mitchell, who has deliberately spread rumors that she is a lesbian though she has a crush on Stan. Marybeth develops a crush on Zeke. Casey notices a strange creature on the football field and takes it to science teacher Mr. Furlong, who believes it is a new species of cephalopod-specific parasite called a mesozoan. Delilah and Casey hide in the teachers' lounge to find a story. They witness Coach Willis and Ms. Olson forcing one of the creatures into the ear of school nurse Ms. Harper. They also find the body of another teacher, Mrs. Brummel. Casey and Delilah flee, and Casey calls the police. Principal Drake claims nothing is wrong and Casey is seeking attention. The next day, Casey tells Delilah, Stan and Stokely he believes the teachers are being controlled by aliens. After Zeke and Marybeth tease them about their theory, Mr. Furlong confronts them. Furlong suddenly becomes defensive and attempts to infect them. Zeke cuts off Furlong's fingers, which keep moving on their own (they are unkillable), and injects his homemade drugs into Furlong's eye, apparently killing him. Zeke takes the five to his house, where he experiments on a specimen retrieved by Casey. He discovers it needs water to survive and can be killed by his drugs. Zeke makes everyone take his drug to prove they are uninfected humans. Delilah is revealed as infected and she destroys Zeke's lab and most of his drug supply before escaping. Acting on Stokely's speculation that killing the alien queen will revert everyone to normal, the group returns to the school, where their football team is playing and infecting opposing players. Believing Principal Drake to be the queen, they isolate her in the gym and fatally shoot her. Stan confronts the coach and team to see if the plan worked, but becomes infected himself. Zeke and Casey retrieve more of Zeke's drugs from his car. Casey leads infected students away from Zeke, who encounters Miss Burke in the parking lot and seemingly kills her while escaping. At the gym, Stokely becomes suspicious of Marybeth during a conversation about pretending to be what one is not. Marybeth subsequently reveals herself to be the alien queen; earlier on, she faked taking the drug. Casey and Stokely flee to the swimming pool, where Stokely is injured and becomes infected. Zeke and Casey hide in the locker room, where Marybeth reverts to her human disguise. She explains she is taking over Earth because her own planet is dying. Marybeth transforms back into her true form and hurls Zeke across the room into the lockers, knocking him out. Casey seizes the drug and tricks the queen into following him into the retracting bleachers, trapping her. He stabs the drug into the queen's eye. The queen infects Casey with her dying breath, but he almost immediately returns to normal upon her death. Casey returns to the locker room and finds Stokely and Zeke alive. One month later, everyone has returned to normal. Stan and Stokely, who has shed her Goth girl image, are now dating, and Zeke has taken Stan's place on the football team (while Miss Burke affectionately watches him practice). Delilah, no longer vindictive, is now dating Casey, who is considered a local hero as various newspapers reveal the attempted alien invasion is now public knowledge, even as the FBI decries it. 

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The novel takes place over Thanksgiving weekend 1973, during a dangerous ice storm, and centers on two neighboring families, the Hoods and the Williamses, and their difficulties in dealing with the tumultuous political and social climate of the day. The setting is an affluent Connecticut suburb during the height of the sexual revolution. The novel is narrated by four members of the two families, each promoting his or her view of complications that arise throughout the novel. The Hood family members are Ben, Elena, Paul and Wendy, and the Williamses are Jim, Janey, Mikey, and Sandy. The Hood family is overridden with lies. Ben is currently having an affair with his married neighbor Janey. His wife Elena is alienated. Her daughter ventures into sexual liaisons with both females and males, including her neighbors Mikey and Sandy. The story focuses on the 24 hours in which a major ice storm strikes the town of New Canaan, Connecticut, just as both families are melting down from the parents' alcoholism, escapism and adultery, and their children's drug use and sexual experimentation. 

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Athena was the young, headstrong princess of the heavenly Kingdom of Victory. She was bored of the monotonous daily life in the palace and desired exciting adventures. One day, she opened the "Door Which Shouldn't Be Opened" in the basement of Castle Victory, said to lead to a savage and deadly place. As she dared cross the doorway, it caused her to fall from the skies and to another realm called Fantasy World, which was dominated by the evil Emperor Dante. After her flowing dress was lost while catching the wind for her fall, the perilous adventures of Princess Athena began as she landed in a wilderness overrun by beast-like warriors and more dangers than she could ever wish for. She readied to fight for her life and arm herself, with no other choice than to face the ruthless Dante and every obstacle on her way, to free this kingdom and make it back alive to her own. After Athena defeats Dante, it all begins anew in the sequel, Athena: Full Throttle, in which the princess, again bored, opens the "Door Which Shouldn't Be Opened B", disregarding her loyal maid Helene's advice, and they both fall to Elysium World, where they face off against other villains. Many of the game's elements are inspired by Greek mythology or ancient Roman culture, such as weapons, equipment, items and enemy designs. Princess Athena herself is named after the Greek goddess Athena, while Dante is based on Cerberus. 

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The city, which never is referred to by name (however, it is likely Berlin), is crowded by a growing number of jobless and marked by increasing violence between left and right. The novel starts in the seedy milieu of bars where prostitutes mingle with the hopeless flotsam that the war left behind. While Robert and his friends manage to make a living dealing cars and driving an old taxi, economic survival in the city is getting harder by the day. It is in this setting that Robert meets Patrice Hollmann, a mysterious, beautiful, young woman with an upper-middle-class background. Their love affair intensifies as he introduces her to his life of bars and races and Robert's nihilistic attitude slowly begins to change as he realizes how much he needs Pat. The story takes an abrupt turn as Pat suffers a near-fatal lung hemorrhage during a summer holiday at the sea. Upon their return, Robert and Pat move in with each other, but she is scheduled to leave for a Swiss mountain sanatorium come winter. It is this temporal limitation of their happiness which makes their remaining time together so precious. After Pat has left for Switzerland, the political situation in the city becomes heated, and Lenz, one of the comrades, is killed by a militant, not mentioned in the book by the actual name but supposed to be a Nazi. On top of this, Otto and Robert face bankruptcy and have to sell their workshop. In the midst of this misfortune, a telegram arrives informing them of Pat's worsening state of health. The two remaining comrades don't hesitate and drive the thousand kilometers to the sanatorium in the Alps to see her. Reunited, Robert and an increasingly moribund Pat celebrate their remaining weeks before her inevitable death amid the snow-covered summits of Switzerland. It is in the last part of the book that this love story finds closure and leaves the main character, a nihilist who has found love, forever changed. 

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Three damned souls, Joseph Garcin, Inèz Serrano, and Estelle Rigault, are brought to the same room in Hell and locked inside by a mysterious valet. They had all expected torture devices to punish them for eternity, but instead, find a plain room furnished in the style of the French 'Second Empire'. At first, none of them will admit the reason for their damnation: Garcin says that he was executed for being an outspoken pacifist, while Estelle insists that a mistake has been made; Inèz, however, is the only one to demand that they all stop lying to themselves and confess to their moral crimes. She refuses to believe that they have all ended up in the room by accident and soon realizes that they have been placed together to make each other miserable. She deduces that they are to be one another's torturers. Garcin suggests that they try to leave each other alone and to be silent, but Inèz starts to sing about execution and Estelle vainly wants to find a mirror to check on her appearance. Inèz tries to seduce Estelle by offering to be her "mirror" by telling her everything she sees but ends up frightening her instead. It is soon clear that Inèz is attracted to Estelle, Estelle is attracted to Garcin, and Garcin is not attracted to either of the two women. After arguing, they decide to confess to their crimes so they know what to expect from each other. Garcin cheated on and mistreated his wife, and was executed by firing squad for desertion; Inèz is a manipulative sadist who seduced her cousin's wife, Florence, while living with them—which drove the cousin to kill himself, and resulted in Florence asphyxiating herself and Inèz by flooding the room with gas while they slept, out of guilt—and Estelle had an affair and then killed the resulting child, prompting the child's father to commit suicide. Despite their revelations, they continue to get on each other's nerves. Garcin finally begins giving in to the lascivious Estelle's escalating attempts to seduce him, which drives Inèz crazy. Garcin is constantly interrupted by his own guilt, however, and begs Estelle to tell him he is not a coward for attempting to flee his country during wartime. While she complies, Inèz mockingly tells him that Estelle is just feigning attraction to him so that she can be with a man—any man. This causes Garcin to abruptly attempt an escape. After his trying to open the door repeatedly, it inexplicably and suddenly opens, but he is unable to bring himself to leave, and the others remain as well. He says that he will not be saved until he can convince Inèz that he is not cowardly. She refuses, saying that he is obviously a coward, and promising to make him miserable forever. Garcin concludes that rather than torture devices or physical punishment, "hell is other people." Estelle tries to persevere in her seduction of Garcin, but he says that he cannot make love while Inèz is watching. Estelle, infuriated, picks up a paper knife and repeatedly stabs Inèz. Inèz chides Estelle, saying that they are all already dead, and even furiously stabs herself to prove that point. As Estelle begins to laugh hysterically at the idea of them being dead and trapped together forever, the others join in a prolonged fit of laughter before Garcin finally concludes, "Eh bien, continuons..." ("Well then, let's get on with it..."). 

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In 1919, a public auction is held to clear an abandoned opera theatre's vaults in Paris. Viscount Raoul de Chagny bids against the elderly Madame Giry for a papier-mâché music box shaped like a barrel organ with the figure of a cymbal-playing monkey attached to it. The auctioneer presents a shattered chandelier, relating it to "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera". As it is hoisted up to the roof, the story moves back to 1870. The theatre prepares for the performance of the grand opera, Hannibal, headed by soprano Carlotta Giudicelli. Theatre manager Monsieur Lefèvre plans to retire, leaving the theatre to Richard Firmin and Gilles André. Carlotta refuses to perform after three years' worth of torment by the theatre's resident "Opera Ghost", a mysterious figure said to live in the catacombs below. Facing the performance's cancellation, Madame Giry, the ballet instructor, suggests that dancer Christine Daaé stand in as the lead actress. Christine displays her singing talent and is a huge success on opening night. Christine tells Giry's daughter, Meg, that she is being coached by a tutor she calls the "Angel of Music". Christine reunites with Raoul, a new patron of the theatre, and her childhood sweetheart, but he dismisses her secrets. That night, the masked Phantom of the Opera appears before Christine, spiriting her away to his underground lair. He confesses his love to Christine, but when she removes his mask out of curiosity, he reacts violently. She returns his mask to him, and the Phantom returns her to the theatre unharmed, but orders the managers to make her the lead in Il Muto. However, the managers choose Carlotta instead. During the performance, the Phantom tampers with Carlotta's throat spray, causing her to sing out of tune, and Christine steps in. The Phantom encounters stagehand Joseph Buquet and hangs him above the stage. Christine and Raoul flee to the roof, where they declare their love for each other. The Phantom, eavesdropping, vows revenge. Three months later, in 1871, at a New Year masquerade ball, Christine and Raoul announce their engagement. The Phantom crashes the ball and orders his own opera, Don Juan Triumphant, to be performed. Upon seeing Christine's engagement ring, the Phantom steals it and flees, pursued by Raoul, but Giry stops him. Giry explains that when she was a teenager, she met the Phantom, a deformed young boy, billed as the 'Devil's Child' in a freak show and abused by the owner. When the Phantom rebelled and strangled the man to death, Giry helped him to evade the resulting mob and hid him within the opera house. The next day, Christine visits her father's tomb with the Phantom posing as his spirit to win her back, but Raoul intervenes. Raoul and the managers plot to capture the Phantom during his opera. The Phantom murders Carlotta's lover, Ubaldo Piangi, and takes his place as the male lead to sing opposite Christine. During their passionate duet, Christine unmasks the Phantom, revealing his deformity to the horrified audience. He drags her to the catacombs, bringing down the chandelier, as a mob forms to hunt the Phantom down. Giry leads Raoul down to the catacombs to rescue Christine. Meg leads the police down to the Phantom's lair as they hunt him down. The Phantom has Christine wear a wedding dress he made for her and proposes marriage. Christine admits that she does not fear the Phantom for his appearance but for his rage and willingness to kill. Raoul arrives, the Phantom threatening to kill him unless Christine weds him. Christine, pitying the Phantom, kisses him. Moved by her kindness, the Phantom allows the lovers to flee. Finding comfort in the music box, the Phantom weeps alone, and Christine gives her ring to him in remembrance. He vanishes as the mob appears with Meg finding his discarded mask. Back in the present, the elderly Raoul visits his late wife Christine's gravestone, placing the music box before it. Before leaving, he notices a freshly laid rose with Christine's ring attached to it, implying that the Phantom is still alive and that he will always love her. 

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London-based gangster George Thomason and his right- hand man, Ken Pile, an animal lover with a stutter, plan a jewel heist. They bring in two Americans: con artist Wanda Gershwitz and weapons expert Otto West, an ignorant and mean-spirited anglophobe. Wanda and Otto are lovers, but they hide this from George and Ken, pretending to be siblings, so Wanda can work her charms on them. The heist is successful and the gang escapes with a large sum in diamonds. They hide the diamonds in a safe in an old warehouse; soon afterward, Wanda and Otto betray George to the police and he is arrested. They return to collect the diamonds, with Wanda planning to double-cross Otto as well, but find that George has moved them. In Ken's fish tank, Wanda discovers the key to the safe deposit box containing the diamonds and hides it in her pendant. Wanda decides to seduce George's barrister, Archie Leach, so he can persuade George to plead guilty and give up the location of the diamonds. Archie is in a loveless marriage and quickly falls for Wanda. Otto is jealous, and his interference causes Wanda and Archie's liaisons to go disastrously wrong. Wanda accidentally leaves her pendant at Archie's house, and Archie's wife, Wendy, mistakes it for a gift for her, assuming that the ‘W’ on it is for Wendy. Wanda demands that Archie retrieve the pendant (since she needs the key inside), and after failing to convince Wendy to give it up, he ends up faking a robbery at his own home in order to explain its disappearance. Otto arrives at the house to apologise to Archie for earlier insults and interrupts the robbery, knocking the burglar unconscious before he realises it is, in fact, Archie robbing his own home. Archie returns the pendant to Wanda at their next romantic meeting, but it is interrupted and he subsequently telephones her to call off their affair. Otto arrives at the house again to apologise. Wendy overhears their subsequent garden conversation from an upstairs window, and begins to strongly suspect that Archie is cheating on her. George asks Ken to kill the Crown's only eyewitness to the robbery, an unpleasant old woman who owns three small dogs. Ken tries three times, but each time accidentally kills one of the dogs instead. This causes him great distress, but the last dog's death gives the woman a fatal heart attack, so he is successful. With no witness, George seems poised to be released. He gives instructions to Ken, revealing the location of the diamonds. When Otto learns that Ken knows the location, he tries to force Ken to reveal it by eating Ken's pet fish, leaving Ken's favourite, named Wanda, until last. Ken reveals that the diamonds are at a hotel near Heathrow Airport. With Otto's knowledge and Wanda's key, the pair wants George to remain in jail. At his trial, Wanda, as a defence witness, unexpectedly gives evidence against him. When Archie, stunned, flubs his questioning and inadvertently calls her "darling", it confirms to Wendy (watching from the public gallery) that Archie has had an affair, and she declares their marriage over. With no career and no marriage, Archie resolves to cut his losses, steal the loot himself and flee to South America. Promised less jail time, George tells him that Ken knows where the diamonds are. Archie sees Wanda fleeing the courthouse, pulls her into his car and races to Ken's flat. They initially bicker, with Archie criticising her deceit and Wanda bemoaning him breaking off their affair, but soon reconcile. They arrive at George’s flat, and as Archie runs into the building, Otto steals Archie's car, taking Wanda with him. Archie painstakingly coaxes Ken, who is stuttering uncontrollably, to tell him where the safety deposit box is, and they set out for Heathrow on Ken’s moped. Otto and Wanda recover the diamonds, but Wanda double-crosses Otto and leaves him unconscious in a broom cupboard at Heathrow. Before boarding her flight to Rio de Janeiro, Wanda telephones Archie, demonstrating that she does genuinely care for him, but when she gets no response, she reluctantly boards. Otto recovers, shoots his way out of the cupboard, secures a boarding pass from a gullible passenger (listed in the credits as Hutchison) and makes his way to the tarmac, where he is confronted by Archie. Otto is about to kill Archie, but Archie stalls him by taunting Otto about America's defeat in Vietnam. Ken arrives, driving a steamroller, seeking vengeance for his fish. Otto, who has stepped in wet concrete and cannot move, is run over but survives. Archie and Wanda board the plane and Otto, clinging to the window outside, curses them until he is blown off during takeoff. 

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:Based on the general release version of 1925, which has additional scenes and sequences in different order than the existing reissue print. The film opens with the debut of the new season at the Paris Opera House, with a production of Gounod's Faust. Comte Philippe de Chagny and his brother, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny are in attendance. Raoul is there only in the hope of hearing his sweetheart Christine Daaé sing. Christine has made a sudden rise from the chorus to understudy of Mme. Carlotta, the prima donna. Raoul visits her in her dressing room during an interval in the performance, and makes his intentions known that he wishes for Christine to resign and marry him. Christine refuses to let their relationship get in the way of her career. At the height of the most prosperous season in the Opera's history, the management suddenly resign. As they leave, they tell the new managers of the Opera Ghost, a phantom who is "the occupant of box No. 5," among other things. The new managers laugh it off as a joke, but the old management leaves, troubled. After the performance, the ballerinas are disturbed by the sight of a mysterious man in a fez prowling down in the cellars, and they wonder if he is the Phantom. Meanwhile, Mme. Carlotta, the prima donna, has received a letter from "The Phantom," demanding that Christine sing the role of Marguerite the following night, threatening dire consequences if his demands are not met. In Christine's dressing room, an unseen voice warns Christine that she must take Carlotta's place on Wednesday and that she is to think only of her career and her master. The following day, in a garden near the Opera House, Raoul meets Christine and asks her to reconsider his offer. Christine admits that she has been tutored by a divine voice, the "Spirit of Music," and that it is now impossible to stop her career. Raoul tells her that he thinks someone is playing a joke on her, and she storms off in anger. Wednesday evening, Christine takes Carlotta's place in the opera. During the performance, the managers enter Box 5 and are startled to see a shadowy figure seated there, who soon disappears when they are not looking. Later, Simon Buquet finds the body of his brother, stagehand Joseph Buquet, hanging by a noose and vows vengeance. Carlotta receives another peremptory note from the Phantom. Once again, he demands that she say she is ill and let Christine take on her role. The managers get a similar note, reiterating that if Christine does not sing, they will present Faust in a house with a curse on it. Lon Chaney), and Christine Daaé (Mary Philbin) The following evening, despite the Phantom's warnings, a defiant Carlotta appears as Marguerite. During the performance, the large crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling is dropped onto the audience. Christine, enters a secret door behind the mirror in her dressing room, descending into the lower depths of the Opera. She meets the Phantom, who introduces himself as Erik and declares his love; Christine faints, and Erik carries her to a suite fabricated for her comfort. The next day, she finds a note from Erik telling her that she is free to come and go as she pleases, but that she must never look behind his mask. Christine sneaks up behind the Phantom and tears off his mask, revealing his deformed face. Enraged, the Phantom declares that she is now his prisoner. She pleads with him to sing again, and he relents, allowing her to visit the surface one last time. Released from underground, Christine makes a rendezvous with Raoul at the annual masked-ball, at which the Phantom appears in the guise of the "Red- Death". Raoul and Christine and flee to the roof of the Opera House, where she tells him about her experiences under the Opera House. Unbeknownst to them, the Phantom is listening nearby. Raoul plans to whisk Christine safely away to London following the next performance. As they leave the roof, the mysterious man with the fez approaches them. Aware that the Phantom is waiting downstairs, he leads Christine and Raoul to another exit. The following evening, during her performance, Christine is kidnapped by the Phantom. Raoul rushes to her dressing room, and meets the man in the fez, who reveals himself to be Inspector Ledoux, a secret policeman who has been tracking Erik since he escaped as a prisoner from Devil's Island. Ledoux reveals the secret door in Christine's room and the two men enter the catacombs of the Opera House in an attempt to rescue Christine. They fall into the Phantom's dungeon, a torture room of his design. Philippe has also found his way into the catacombs looking for his brother. Phillipe is drowned by Erik, who returns to find the two men in the torture chamber. The Phantom subjects the two prisoners to intense heat; the two manage to escape the chamber by opening a door in the floor. In the chamber below, the Phantom shuts a gate, locking them in with barrels full of gunpowder. Christine begs the Phantom to save Raoul, promising him anything in return, even becoming his wife. At the last second, the Phantom opens a trapdoor in his floor through which Raoul and Ledoux are saved. A mob led by Simon infiltrates the Phantom's lair. As the mob approaches, the Phantom attempts to flee with Christine in a carriage meant for Raoul and Christine. While Raoul saves Christine, the Phantom is thrown by the mob into the River Seine, where he drowns. In a brief epilogue, Raoul and Christine are shown on their honeymoon in Viroflay. 

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William Mandella is a physics student conscripted for an elite task force in the United Nations Exploratory Force being assembled for a war against the Taurans, an alien species discovered when they apparently attacked human colonists' ships. The UNEF ground troops are sent out for reconnaissance and revenge. The elite recruits have IQs of 150 and above, are highly educated, healthy, and fit. Training is gruelingfirst on Earth and later on a planet called "Charon" beyond Pluto (written before the discovery of the actual planetoid). Several of the recruits die during training due to the extreme environments and the use of live weapons. The new soldiers complete training and immediately depart for action via interconnected "collapsars" that allow ships to cover thousands of light-years in a split second. Traveling to collapsars at near-lightspeed has enormous relativistic time effects. Their first encounter with Taurans, on a planet orbiting Epsilon Aurigae, triggers their post-hypnotic training, which causes them to massacre the Taurans despite their lack of resistance. This first expedition, beginning in 1997, lasts only two years from the soldiers' point of view, but due to time dilation, they return to Earth in 2024. During the expedition's second battle, the soldiers experience future shock first- hand, as the Taurans have much more advanced weaponry. Mandella, with fellow soldier and lover Marygay Potter, returns to civilian life, only to find humanity drastically changed. He and the other discharged soldiers have difficulty fitting into a society that has altered almost beyond their comprehension. The veterans learn that, to curb overpopulation, which led to class wars around the world caused by inequitable rationing, homosexuality has become officially encouraged by many of the world's nations. The world has become a very dangerous place due to mass unemployment and the easy availability of weapons. Alienated, Mandella and many other veterans re- enlist, despite the extremely high casualty rate and their recognition that the military is a soulless construct. Mandella and Potter receive promised postings as instructors on Luna, but upon arrival are immediately reassigned to a combat command. Almost entirely through luck, Mandella survives four years of military service, while several centuries elapse in real time. He soon becomes the objectively oldest surviving soldier in the war, attaining high rank through seniority rather than ambition. He and Potter (who has remained his last link with the Earth of his youth) are eventually given different assignments, meaning that even if they both survive the war they will likely never meet again due to time dilation. After briefly contemplating suicide, Mandella assumes the post of commanding officer of a "strike force", commanding soldiers who speak a language largely unrecognizable to him, whose ethnicity is now nearly uniform ('vaguely Polynesian' in appearance) and who are exclusively homosexual. He is disliked by his soldiers because they have to learn 21st century English to communicate with him and other senior staff and because he is heterosexual. Engaging in combat thousands of light years away from Earth, Mandella and his soldiers need to resort to medieval weapons to fight inside a stasis field which neutralizes all electromagnetic radiation in anything not covered with a protective coating. Upon return, the strike force learns this is the last battle of the war. Humanity has begun to clone itself, resulting in a new, collective species calling itself simply Man. Man is able to communicate with the Taurans, who are also clones. It is discovered that the war started due to a misunderstanding; the colony ships were lost to accidents and those on Earth with a vested interest in a new war used these disappearances as an excuse to begin the conflict. The futile, meaningless war, which had lasted for more than a thousand years, ends. Man has established several colonies of old-style, heterosexual humans, just in case the evolutionary change proves to be a mistake. Mandella travels to one of these colonies (named "Middle Finger" in the definitive version of the novel) where he is reunited with Marygay, who had been discharged much earlier and had taken trips in space to use time dilation to age at a much slower rate, hoping for Mandella's return. The epilogue is a news item from the year 3143 announcing the birth of a "fine baby boy" to Marygay Potter-Mandella. 

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