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In the fictional town of It Had To Be, Indiana, fullback Blue Grange scores the winning touchdown for It Had To Be University in the 1963 National Championship game. Afterwards, a shunned cheerleader named Bambi is seen fawning over Grange's locker before the on- field celebration pours into the locker room. As a group of cheerleaders are cleaning up the field after the game, all five are skewered with a javelin thrown by an unknown assailant. The bizarre murder makes headlines, as does a subsequent murder involving exploding pompons. As a result, the college's summer cheerleading camp is closed down. In 1982, the camp reopens with Bambi as the instructor. After arriving on campus, she meets Pepe the maintenance man and his mother Salt. Both warn her against reopening the camp as they believe it to be cursed with death, but Bambi is undeterred. At a bus station, a young woman named Candy (labeled Victim #1) prepares to board a bus to the cheerleading camp but her religious fanatic mother tries to dissuade her. As they quarrel, red beams of light suddenly streak from Candy's eyes and levitate her mother into the air. As she hangs suspended, Candy tells her that she just wants to be normal and marches away to catch the bus. In another part of town, a male cheerleader named Glenn Dandy (Victim #2) says goodbye to his unconventional family before leaving for camp. Next, Mandy (Victim #3) is introduced by her father in a beauty pageant-style interview, revealing her obsession with dental hygiene. Sandy (Victim #4) asks for directions to the camp at a food truck and decides to hitchhike, but insists on getting references from every driver she passes (eventually accepting a ride with then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan). Andy and Randy (Victims #5 and #6 respectively), two lecherous cheerleaders, are shown smoking marijuana while driving to the camp. The cheerleaders assemble at the camp and are greeted by Bambi. Meanwhile, a Mountie named Sgt. Reginald Cooper makes a phone call to Warden June to express his concerns about the new cheerleading camp. He also learns of an escaped convict named Jarrett who murdered his entire family with a hand drill and turned them into bookshelves. Cooper then leaves the station in the care of his ill-tempered assistant Johnson to visit the Indiana State Asylum, where he inquires about another recent escapee named Fletcher, with whom Jarrett ends up hitching a ride to the college. The cheerleaders begin training, unaware that they are being stalked by a mysterious figure on campus. Cooper then arrives to meet the cheerleaders and quickly falls in love with Candy, singing a duet with her. Inspired, Glenn dresses in a tuxedo and attempts to woo Mandy, but fails to catch her during a routine practice drill and she injures her ankle. Bambi calls off practice for the day, but while the others go out to eat, a guilty Glenn stays in the gym to continue practicing and is killed when the mysterious figure rigs the trampoline with dynamite. While recovering in her dorm room, Mandy is brushing her teeth with copious amounts of toothpaste when the mystery man bursts through her medicine cabinet and kills her with a hand drill. Back at the police station, Cooper receives a call from Warden June who tells him that Jarrett has been spotted at a cemetery and museum called Lover's Lane. He and Johnson leave to investigate and find the wrecked car Fletcher was driving, and meet Dr. Fuller from the asylum who is looking for Fletcher. Alerted by a scream inside the museum, Cooper and Johnson interrupt Jarrett before he can murder Fletcher. They are shocked to discover that Jarrett and Dr. Fuller are working together in a scheme to create and sell furniture made from their victims' bodies, but both deny harming any cheerleaders. Suddenly, Fletcher rises up and drives a butcher knife into Jarrett's mechanical arm, electrocuting all three men. Nevertheless, the slayings continue on campus. Bambi is enjoying a bath of milk and cookies when the killer reappears and drowns her. After a game of strip poker, Randy, Andy, and Sandy are killed in succession, and a panicked Candy discovers all the bodies before being stalked by the killer herself. She flees into the locker room where the killer reveals himself as Blue Grange, who secretly wanted to be a cheerleader instead of a football star and began murdering cheerleaders out of angst. Candy escapes onto the football field and uses her eye beams to run down Grange with a giant statue of himself, killing him. Cooper arrives to sweep Candy onto his horse named Bob and they happily ride off the field together. 

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After their freshman year at college, the four friends regroup for a party held by Stifler, their overtly sex-crazed class clown and good friend. His party is shut down in part to the neighbors calling the police. Kevin is inspired by his brother to make his summer with his friends count by renting a beach home. He, Jim, Oz, and Finch plan to take off to a beach house together, where they intend to spend the summer. Kevin realizes a problem and worked out that they can only afford the house if they have a fifth member to work along with them. Stifler takes charge of much of the organizing, often ending up leading the group in their misadventures. Oz is miserable, being away from his girlfriend Heather, who is in Spain. During the stay at the beach house, they proceed to start having phone sex to vent some of their loneliness, which ends up being interrupted by Stifler. Heather later shows up early to the party, ending the short storyline that Oz is involved in. After arriving in Grand Harbor they settle in, they manage to find work painting a house (based on the Tuition Painters franchise) in the area together, mistaking the owners for lesbians. Jim, Stifler and Finch end up performing "like for like" sexual acts on each other in return for being able to watch the girls doing the same thing. Oz and Kevin take turns watching up a ladder and listening on the walkie-talkie also in the room. The conversation is accidentally picked up and heard by many other people in the neighborhood. Finally at the end of the last party, Stifler manages to have a wild threesome with the owners of the house. After this, many concurrent stories run at the same time, some interacting with each other, others staying mainly separate. Nadia is coming to visit Jim in August. When she arrives early, Jim asks for help from band geek Michelle, humiliating himself in front of the audience when he pretends to be Petey, a mentally challenged boy who plays the trombone. They pretend to be in a relationship so that Nadia will not expect Jim to have sex (Jim is involved in an incident involving a tube of super glue he mistook for lube; he accidentally glued his hand to his penis while watching a porno film and injured himself, leaving him wounded and unable to perform). Jim and Michelle break the mock relationship off once he is ready to have sex with Nadia, but by then Michelle has really fallen in love with Jim, and soon Jim realizes that he has found his soul-mate in Michelle. Nadia also realizes this and tells him, "Go, get your band geek, and I will find mine". Jim goes and plays the trombone once more whilst Michelle is playing the flute at a major recital in order to show her that she is the one he wants to be with. Finch has become involved in the sexual art of Tantra, and claims that through Tantra he can "make an orgasm last for days". He is waiting for Stifler's Mom, who he had sex with in the first film, hoping she will show up and be willing to do it again. He thinks she arrives when a vehicle turns up after Stifler is talking on the phone, but it turns out to be his younger brother. He spends the night talking with a few girls, but he doesn't sleep with any of them. The geeky Sherman gives up on getting anyone after he is turned down by the experienced and sharp-tongued Jessica, but the rejected Nadia, who wanted Jim because he was a geek, is turned on by his "Sherminator" gimmick, and they end up in bed together. Kevin doesn't end up "getting off" with anyone, but he does seem to succeed in getting over Vicky after making advances on her throughout the film. The next morning, after the party, a Mercedes-Benz coupe with darkened windows turns up, Finch approaches and it turns out Stifler's Mom has come after all. He jumps at the chance and they drive off together, Stifler not realizing until after the car has driven off that it was Finch and his mother. After being asked, she reveals her name is Jeanine, but also instructs Finch to resume calling her "Stifler's mom" as per usual. 

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While on a date in a fancy restaurant with Michelle Flaherty, Jim Levenstein is ready to propose to her. Jim's dad calls to inform him that he has the ring. Michelle misinterprets when Jim stalls the question. Jim's dad arrives as Jim is receiving fellatio, and a mishap grasps the restaurant's attention. Jim proposes and Michelle accepts. Jim wants to exclude Steve Stifler from the wedding, having concerns that Stifler's behavior is not socially acceptable. When Jim is worried about learning to dance, Stifler agrees to teach him. Jim also asks Stifler to tone down his obnoxious personality, in exchange that he be allowed to attend the wedding and host a bachelor party. The boys go on a road trip when they discover there is only one designer who makes the dress that Michelle wants. They go to Chicago looking for "Leslie Summers"; Stifler unwittingly walks into a gay bar, and his raucous behavior gets him into a dispute with several patrons. Stifler challenges one of these patrons, Bear, to a dance-off. Stifler wins, and Bear offers to provide strippers for the bachelor party. Leslie reveals himself and agrees to make the dress for Michelle and hits on Kevin Myers, who is uncomfortable with the unrequited attention. Michelle's parents, who were initially skeptical of Jim, agree to have a preliminary dinner with him. Michelle's younger sister, Cadence, flies in for the wedding. Both Paul Finch and Stifler are attracted to her, and in an effort to win her over, they each adopt the other's personality and mannerisms. Stifler arranges the bachelor party, including strippers, for everyone at Jim's house except Jim, who unknowingly has arranged dinner with Michelle's parents there. The party is abruptly halted by the unexpected return of the three. With assistance from Bear, who poses as a butler named "Mr. Belvedere", Jim nearly succeeds in keeping the activities a secret, until Michelle's mother opens a closet door and is shocked to find Kevin inside, stripped to his boxers and tied to a chair. The boys explain that it was an attempt to make Jim seem like a hero that went wrong, and Michelle's parents accept this and tell him that if he puts that much effort into the upcoming marriage, they can give their blessing. Michelle is concerned that Jim's paternal grandmother may dislike her for not being Jewish. She is also concerned about Stifler having been invited to the wedding. On the night before the wedding, Stifler inadvertently disrupts the walk-in refrigerator's power supply while retrieving a bottle of champagne in an attempt to seduce Cadence. Previously, Stifler—unaware of Cadence's presence—had revealed his true rude and obnoxious personality. When Stifler later returns, the flowers are dead. Jim asks him to leave, and all the others, including Cadence, support Jim's decision. Feeling guilty for his thoughtless behavior, Stifler convinces the florist to put together a new batch of flowers, and he enlists the help of his football players and Bear. As a gesture of remorse, he also gives a rose to Cadence, much to the amazement of Jim and Michelle. Moved by his actions, Cadence agrees to have sex with him in a supply closet before the ceremony, but Stifler's presence is delayed by a brief thank-you meeting Jim calls among his groomsmen, citing how he is grateful to have friends like them to back him up. Quickly returning to the hotel, Stifler hears someone in the supply closet and steps inside, unaware that Cadence was interrupted by wedding preparations and that the ushers, the MILF guys from high school, placed Jim's grandmother in that closet to sustain her hostility about the wedding; Stifler only realizes this upon walk-in by Finch and Kevin. She becomes pleasant, particularly towards Stifler, making Michelle and Jim's dad unknowingly happy. Despite the chaotic events leading up to it, Michelle and Jim get married. At the reception, the couple dances while Stifler dances with Cadence. Finch is sitting by himself when Stifler's mom arrives. Although agreeing they are over each other, Stifler's mom mentions having a double suite and invites Finch to join her. The film ends with the MILF guys spying on Stifler's mom and Finch in her suite's couple-size bathtub, having oral sex. 

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Nicholas "Nick" Allen is a class clown who has been formulating creative schemes throughout grade school. At the start of fifth grade in 1987, he is unhappy because his English teacher is the no- nonsense Mrs. Granger. One day, in an attempt to forestall homework, Nick decides to question Granger on where each word in the dictionary comes from. This backfires, as Mrs. Granger assigns him an essay about it. From this experience, Nick learns that individuals get to determine what words mean, and when he comes across a gold pen in the street, he decides to give a "pen" a new name: frindle. Nick's classmates really like the idea and soon, every child in the fifth grade starts using the word frindle. Mrs. Granger opposes herself to the new word, stating that the word frindle is not respectful to the word pen, which has a long history. She makes any students who are caught saying frindle stay after school and write lines, but this proves to be a problem, as this causes almost every student to stay after school. The school principal decides to visit Nick's house to end the use of frindle, but the situation is beyond Nick's personal control, and the word's usage cannot be curtailed. Frindle starts to gain national attention, and a family friend purchases the merchandising rights to the word. The word frindle spreads across the nation, and Nick thinks through the trouble that this one scheme has caused. In the epilogue, Nick is a young adult. Mrs. Granger sends him a new copy of the dictionary, recently updated to include new words, including the word frindle. She includes a letter, in which she explains that she intentionally stood against the word in order to make it more popular. Nick sends back a present – the pen that started it all, engraved with the words, "This object belongs to Mrs. Lorelei Granger, and she may call it any name she chooses." 

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Cristina Bazán tells the story of Cristina, who studies in an intern school in San Juan, Puerto Rico with her frivolous and evil stepsister, Ambar Alsina. Cristina thinks that her mother Laura is a widow and keeps traveling taking care of her business. But Laura is not a widow business woman. The truth is that Laura is allegedly a prostitute who is in jail for false charges. When she goes to prison, she asks Cristina's father to support her. When Cristina and Ambar graduate from the internate school they go live at Cristina's father's house, Cristina's father is married to Rosaura who is the mother of Ambar. Rosaura and Ambar hate Cristina and they make her into some sort of servant. Ambar is going to marry the "handsome" Rodolfo Alcantara who does not have a clue that she is sleeping with Miguel Ángel who is a doctor in medicine. Rodolfo is beginning to interest in Cristina who loves him in silence. Rodolfo refuses to have sex with Ambar on the wedding night, because she is not a virgin. Ambar is pregnant by Miguel Ángel who has fallen into alcoholism and she does not want anyone to know that she is expecting a child from him. Now is when Rosaura invents a plan: make everyone believe that Cristina is awaiting a child from the chauffeur, she has to accept and fake that she is pregnant. Cristina and Ambar go both to the country so Cristina could have "her child". The introduction was reshot and used for a television commercial for Triple-S, 38 years after the success of the original. The advertisement was created by J. Walter Thompson for Triple-S, a health insurance company, to encourage Puerto Ricans to enroll in health plans. A sole two-hour long episode was shot as well. 

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The series follows the adventures of a Guardian named Bob and his companions Enzo and Dot Matrix as they work to keep the computer system of Mainframe safe from the viruses known as Megabyte and Hexadecimal. The setting is in the inner world of a computer system known by its inhabitants as Mainframe. It was deliberately chosen due to technological constraints at the time, as the fictional computer world allowed for blocky looking models and mechanical animation.Hetherington, Janet L. "As Mainframe's technology reaches adolescence, there's a 'ReBoot' Renaissance". Animation Magazine #59. Vol. 11, Issue 8, September 1997. 

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At the start of the cartoon, Mickey is seen whistling to the tune of the song "The Simple Things” while walking along a rocky seashore, fishing gear in hand. Pluto, sniffing behind him, spots a mussel as he tries to cover up miniature geysers along the way. The mussel then squirts water at him. Pluto barks at the mussel and the mussel barks back. The mussel gets trapped on Pluto's tail after they fight. He pulls the mussel up and attempts to shove it off his tail but instead he pulls the mussel up and down like a yo-yo. The mussel accidentally gets stuck in his mouth. Pluto then rushes to Mickey for assistance. At first Mickey thinks that Pluto is asking for food and feeds him a hot dog. The mussel then steals Mickey's sandwich and a full pepper shaker which causes the mussel to sneeze thus freeing itself from Pluto's mouth. The mussel bounces around sneezing and wakes up a seagull that decides to eat the mussel. The sneezing mussel escapes the seagull by entering the sea. The hungry seagull steals the hot dog that Mickey is feeding Pluto instead. The seagull then sets his sights on the fish bait Mickey is using and unsuccessfully attempts to steal the fish while the line is being cast. Dejected but determined, the seagull then sits on top of Mickey's hat and easily steals the fish as he is baiting the hook until Mickey shoos the seagull away. He then floats under the hat to the other bait bucket and again eats the fish until Pluto notices and shoos him away and the seagull by tying up Pluto using his own tail and ears. Mickey again catches the seagull in his bait and after the bird tries to fly away carrying the bait, Mickey throws a rock in it which weighs it down. To overcome this, the seagull spells out "FREE FRESH FISH" using flag semaphore to get the other seagulls to chase Mickey and Pluto away. The short ends with the seagull floating away with his portable radio and fish in his mouth singing the song "The Simple Things". 

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"Mac" MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) is a typical 1980s hot- shot executive working for Knox Oil and Gas in Houston, Texas. The eccentric chief of the company, Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), sends him (largely because his surname sounds Scottish) to acquire the village of Ferness in the Scottish Highlands to make way for a refinery. Mac (who is actually of Hungarian extraction) is a little apprehensive about his assignment, complaining to a co-worker that he would much rather take care of business over the phone and via telex machines. Happer, an avid astronomy buff, tells Mac to watch the sky, especially around the constellation Virgo, and to notify him immediately if he sees anything unusual. Upon arriving in Scotland, Mac teams up with local Knox representative Danny Oldsen (Peter Capaldi). During a visit to a Knox research facility in Aberdeen, Dr Geddes (Rikki Fulton) and his assistant Watt (Alex Norton) inform them about the scope of the company's plans, which entail replacing Ferness with the refinery. They also meet (and admire) marine researcher Marina (Jenny Seagrove). Mac ultimately spends several weeks in Ferness, gradually adapting to the slower-paced life and getting to know the eccentric residents, most notably the hotel owner and accountant, Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson) and his wife, Stella (Jennifer Black). As time passes, Mac becomes more and more conflicted as he presses to close the deal that will spell the end of the quaint little village he has come to love. Unbeknownst to him, however, the villagers are tired of their hard life and are more than eager to sell, though they feign indifference to induce a larger offer. Mac receives encouragement from an unlikely source: Victor (Christopher Rozycki), a capitalistic Soviet fishing boat captain who periodically visits his friends in Ferness (and checks on his investment portfolio, managed by Gordon). Meanwhile, Danny befriends Marina, who is under the false impression that the American company is planning to build a research centre at Ferness. During a date, he discovers that Marina, who seems more at home in the water than on land, has webbed toes. While watching some grey seals, Danny mentions that sailors used to believe they were mermaids. Marina tells him the sailors were wrong. As the deal nears completion, Gordon discovers that Ben Knox (Fulton Mackay), an old beachcomber who lives in a driftwood shack on the shore, owns the beach through a grant from the Lord of the Isles to his ancestor. MacIntyre tries everything to entice Ben to sell, even offering enough money to buy any other beach in the world, but the owner is content with what he has. Ben picks up some sand and offers to sell for the same number of "pound notes" as he has grains of sand in his hand. A suspicious MacIntyre declines, only to be told there could not have been more than ten thousand grains. Happer finally arrives on site, just in time to unknowingly forestall a potential confrontation between some of the villagers and Ben. When Mac informs him of the snag in the proceedings, he decides to negotiate personally with Ben and, in the process, discovers a kindred spirit. Happer opts to locate the refinery offshore and set up an astronomical observatory instead. He instructs MacIntyre to go home to implement the changes. Danny brings up Marina's dream of an oceanographic research facility and suggests combining the two into the "Happer Institute", an idea that Happer likes. A sombre MacIntyre returns to his apartment in Houston, he pulls from his pocket pebbles and shells and spreads them out on the work surface. The local phone box in Ferness starts ringing as Mark Knopfler's "Going Home" begins playing and the credits roll. 

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Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are magically whisked away from a British railway station to a beach near an old and ruined castle. They determine the ruin is Cair Paravel, where they once ruled as the Kings and Queens of Narnia. They discover the treasure vault where Peter's sword and shield, Susan's bow and arrows, and Lucy's dagger and bottle of magical cordial are stored. Susan's horn for summoning help is missing, as she left it in the woods the day they returned to England after their prior visit to Narnia. Although only a year has passed in England, 1300 years have passed in Narnia. The children rescue Trumpkin the dwarf from soldiers who are about to drown him. Trumpkin tells the children Narnia's history since their disappearance: Telmarines conquered Narnia, which is now ruled by King Miraz and his wife Queen Prunaprismia. Miraz usurped the throne by killing his brother, Caspian's father King Caspian IX. Miraz tolerated the rightful heir, Prince Caspian, son of the previous king, until his own son was born. Prince Caspian escaped from Miraz's Castle with the aid of his tutor Doctor Cornelius, who schooled him in the lore of Old Narnia, and gave him Queen Susan's horn. Caspian fled into the forest but was knocked unconscious when his horse bolted. He awoke in the den of a Talking Badger, Trufflehunter, and two dwarfs, Nikabrik and Trumpkin, who accepted Caspian as their king. The badger and dwarves took Caspian to meet many creatures of Old Narnia. During a midnight council on Dancing Lawn, Doctor Cornelius arrived to warn them of the approach of King Miraz and his army; he urged them to flee to Aslan's How in the great woods near Cair Paravel. The Telmarines followed the Narnians to the How, and after several skirmishes the Narnians appeared close to defeat. At a second war council, they decided to wind Queen Susan's horn in the hopes that it would bring help. Trumpkin and the Pevensies make their way to Caspian. The trek proves difficult, but Aslan appears to Lucy and instructs her to guide the others behind him. Aslan sends Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin ahead to Aslan's How to deal with treachery brewing there, and follows with Susan and Lucy. Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin arrive and drive out or kill the creatures threatening Caspian. Peter challenges Miraz to single combat: the army of the victor in this duel will be considered the victor in the war. Miraz accepts the challenge, goaded by Lords Glozelle and Sopespian. Miraz loses the combat, but Glozelle and Sopespian declare that the Narnians have cheated and stabbed the King in the back while he was down. They command the Telmarine army to attack, and in the commotion that follows, Glozelle stabs Miraz in the back. Aslan, accompanied by Lucy and Susan, summons the gods Bacchus and Silenus, and with their help brings the woods to life. The gods and awakened trees turn the tide of battle and send the Telmarines fleeing. Discovering themselves trapped at the Great River, where their bridge has been destroyed by Bacchus, the Telmarines surrender. Aslan gives the Telmarines a choice of staying in Narnia under Caspian or returning to Earth, their original home. After one volunteer disappears through the magic door created by Aslan, the Pevensies go through to reassure the other Telmarines, though Peter and Susan reveal to Edmund and Lucy that they are too old to return to Narnia. The Pevensies find themselves back at the railway station. 

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Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are evacuated from London in 1940 to escape the Blitz, and sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke at a large house in the English countryside. While exploring the house, Lucy enters a wardrobe and discovers the magical world of Narnia. Here, she meets the faun Mr. Tumnus, who invites her to his cave for tea and admits that he intended to report Lucy to the White Witch, the false ruler of Narnia who has kept the land in perpetual winter, but he repents and guides her back home. Although Lucy's siblings initially disbelieve her story of Narnia, Edmund follows her into the wardrobe and winds up in a separate area of Narnia and meets the White Witch. The Witch plies Edmund with Turkish Delight and persuades him to bring his siblings to her with the promise of being made a prince. Edmund reunites with Lucy and they both return home. However, Edmund denies Narnia's existence to Peter and Susan after learning of the White Witch's identity from Lucy. Soon afterwards, all four children enter Narnia together, but find that Mr. Tumnus has been arrested for treason. The children are befriended by Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell them of a prophecy that claims the White Witch's rule will end when "two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve" sit on the four thrones of Cair Paravel, and that Narnia's true ruler – a great lion named Aslan – is returning at the Stone Table after several years of absence. Edmund slips away to the White Witch's castle, where he finds a courtyard filled with the Witch's enemies turned into stone statues. Edmund reports Aslan's return to the White Witch, who begins her movement toward the Stone Table with Edmund in tow, and orders the execution of Edmund's siblings and the Beavers. Meanwhile, the Beavers realise where Edmund has gone, and lead the children to meet Aslan at the Stone Table. During the trek, the group notices that the snow is melting, and take it as a sign that the White Witch's magic is fading. This is confirmed by a visit from Father Christmas, who had been kept out of Narnia by the Witch's magic, and he leaves the group with gifts and weapons. The children and the Beavers reach the Stone Table and meet Aslan and his army. The White Witch's wolf captain Maugrim approaches the camp and attacks Susan, but is killed by Peter. The White Witch arrives and parleys with Aslan, invoking the "Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time" which gives her the right to kill Edmund for his treason. Aslan then speaks to the Witch alone, and on his return he announces that the Witch has renounced her claim on Edmund's life. Aslan and his followers then move the encampment on into the nearby forest. That evening, Susan and Lucy secretly follow Aslan to the Stone Table. They watch from a distance as the Witch puts Aslan to death – as they had agreed in their pact to spare Edmund. The next morning, Aslan is resurrected by the "Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time", which has the power to reverse death if a willing victim takes the place of a traitor. Aslan takes the girls to the Witch's castle and revives the Narnians that the Witch had turned to stone. They join the Narnian forces battling the Witch's army. The Narnian army prevails, and Aslan kills the Witch. The Pevensie children are then crowned kings and queens of Narnia at Cair Paravel. After a long and happy reign, the Pevensies, now adults, go on a hunt for the White Stag who is said to grant the wishes of those who catch it. The four arrive at the lamp- post marking Narnia's entrance and, having forgotten about it, unintentionally pass through the wardrobe and return to England; they are children again, with no time having passed since their departure. They tell the story to Kirke, who believes them and reassures the children that they will return to Narnia one day when they least expect it. 

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Crystal is an advertising executive who tracks down the mobsters who killed her boyfriend. One by one, she seduces each man, drugs them, then smothers them with her huge breasts. At the end, she finds out that her own father was implicated in her lover's death. 

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Born in Seattle, Washington, Frances Elena Farmer is a rebel from a young age, winning $100 in 1931 from The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for a high school essay called God Dies. In 1935, she becomes controversial again when she wins (and accepts) an all- expenses-paid trip to the USSR to visit its Moscow Art Theatre. Determined to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen without makeup. She marries her first husband, Dwayne Steele, despite being advised not to, but cheats on him with alleged Communist Harry York on the night of her hometown's premiere of Come and Get It. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre. After leaving Hollywood for New York City and appearing in the Group Theatre play Golden Boy, Frances learns, much to her chagrin, that the Group Theatre exploited her fame only to draw in more customers, replacing her with a wealthy actress for her family's needed financial backing for the play's London tour, and Odets ends their affair upon his wife's upcoming return from Europe. Her desperate attempts to restart her film career upon returning to Hollywood results in being cast in unchallenging roles in forgettable B-films. Her increased dependence on alcohol and amphetamines in the 1940s and the pressures brought on her by her wannabe mother, who becomes her legal guardian after her multiple legal problems, result in a complete nervous breakdown. After her first hospitalization at Kimball Sanitarium in La Crescenta where she was forced to undergo insulin shock therapy and hydrotherapy, she tells her mother that she doesn't want to return to Hollywood but instead wants to live alone in the countryside, assaulting and threatening Lillian in the resulting argument. While institutionalized at Western State Hospital, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be: she is subjected to electroconvulsive shock therapy, is cruelly beaten, periodically raped by the male orderlies and visiting soldiers from a nearby military base and involuntarily lobotomized before her release in 1950. In 1958, Frances is paid honor on Ralph Edwards' This Is Your Life television program, which Harry York watches from his home. When asked about alcoholism, illegal drugs and mental illness, Farmer denies them all and says, "If you're treated like a patient, you're apt to act like one". The film ends just after a party honoring her at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with Farmer walking down a street with Harry York, talking about her parents' deaths, how she sold their house and that she's a "faceless sinner" with a slower paced lifestyle ahead of her in the future. The end credits state that she moved to Indianapolis shortly afterwards, hosting a local daytime TV program (Frances Farmer Presents) from 1958 to 1964 before dying-as she lived-alone on August 1, 1970 at age 56. 

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The Wetherly family—husband Tom (William Devane), wife Carol (Jane Alexander), and children Brad (Ross Harris), Mary Liz (Roxana Zal), and Scottie (Lukas Haas)—live in the fictional suburb of Hamelin, California, within a 90-minute drive of San Francisco, where Tom works. On a routine afternoon, Carol (a stay-at-home mom and volunteer for school functions such as directing the school play) listens to an answering-machine message from Tom saying he's on his way home for dinner. Scottie watches Sesame Street on TV as Brad adjusts the TV antenna on the roof, when the show is suddenly replaced by white noise; suddenly, a San Francisco news anchor appears onscreen, saying they have lost their New York signal and there were explosions of "nuclear devices there in New York, and up and down the East Coast." The anchorman is cut off by the Emergency Broadcast System tone with the Civil Defense Insignia being shown on the screen, then an announcer's voice states that the White House is interrupting the program: "Please stand by for the President and do not use the telephone." At the introduction of the President of the United States (who is never seen; only the Presidential Seal is shown on the TV), the phone rings but it goes dead along with the TV and electricity just as Carol answers it. Suddenly, the blinding flash of a nuclear detonation is then seen through the window. The family huddles on the floor in panic as the town's air-raid sirens go off; minutes later, several of their neighbors are running around on the street outside, dazed in fear and confusion. The family hopes Tom will return, but the circumstances are hard to ignore. The suburb of Hamelin survives relatively unscathed, because apparently the town is far enough from San Francisco to avoid blast damage. Frightened residents meet at the home of Henry Abhart (Leon Ames), an elderly ham radio operator. He has made contact with survivors in rural areas and internationally, and tells Carol that he was unable to reach anyone east of Keokuk, Iowa; a radio report told of a conjectured errant bomb hitting Yosemite National Park, causing trees and rocks to fall from the sky like rain. He reveals that the entire Bay Area and all major U.S. cities are radio- silent. The morning after the attack, they are joined by a child named Larry (Mico Olmos) who tells Carol his parents never returned home from San Francisco (he was alone all night); he is soon part of the family, but later succumbs to radiation poisoning. Despite Abhart's efforts, no one knows or finds out the reason for the attack nor the responsible parties. Rumors from other radio operators range from a Soviet preemptive strike to terrorism. The school play about the Pied Piper of Hamelin was in rehearsal before the bombings; desperate to recapture some normality, the town decides to go on with the show anyway. The parents smile and clap, many of them in tears. Hamelin escaped bomb damage, but not the significant radiation from nuclear fallout. The day after the attack, the children notice "sand" on their breakfast plates: contaminated fallout dirt settling back onto the ground from the blast. Residents have to cope with losing municipal services, food and gas shortages and, ultimately, the loss of loved ones to radiation sickness. Scottie, the first to succumb, is buried in the back yard. Carol screams at a Catholic priest (Philip Anglim) that she will not bury Scottie without his favorite (and missing) teddy bear. Wooden caskets are used as fuel for funeral pyres instead as the dead accumulate faster than they can be buried. Carol sews together a burial shroud out of bed sheets for her daughter, Mary Liz, who also dies from radiation exposure. While many of the children die, older residents fall to rapid dementia, and order in the town starts to break down as police and firefighter ranks dwindle from the radiation. A young couple (Kevin Costner and Rebecca De Mornay) leave town after losing their infant, hoping to find safety and solace elsewhere. Carol's search for a battery causes her to listen once more to her husband's final message on the answering machine. To her sorrow, she finds a later (and previously unheard) message on the machine from Tom: he decided to stay at work late in San Francisco on the day of the attack, and she now gives up her last hope that he will someday return home. Son Brad, forced into early adulthood, helps his mother and takes over the radio for Henry Abhart, who eventually dies. A bully who tormented Brad is caught breaking into their home; Brad tries to fight him off, but Carol scares him away. He manages to steal Brad's bicycle, and Brad starts using his father's bike, symbolically becoming the man of the house. The family adopts a mentally disabled boy named Hiroshi (Gerry Murillo), who Tom used to take fishing along with the other Wetherly kids, after Hiroshi's father Mike (Mako Iwamatsu) dies. Soon after Carol starts showing signs of radiation poisoning. One night, Carol is outside when she sees a pile of bodies being burned. Stopping and staring at the fire for a moment, she then breaks down and cries. Carol decides she, Brad and Hiroshi should avoid a slow and painful death by radiation poisoning and instead take their own lives via carbon monoxide poisoning. They are all sitting in the family's station wagon with the engine running and the garage door closed, but Carol cannot bring herself to go through with the deed. The three end up sitting by candlelight to celebrate Brad's birthday, using a graham cracker in place of a cake. When asked what they should wish for, Carol answers: "That we remember it all...the good and the awful." She blows out the candle. In closing, an old family film of a surprise birthday party for Tom plays, showing him as he blows out the candles on his cake. 

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Karen Silkwood, a worker at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site (near Crescent, Oklahoma), shares a ramshackle house with two co-workers, her boyfriend Drew Stephens and her lesbian friend Dolly Pelliker. She makes MOX fuel rods for nuclear reactors, where she deals with the threat of exposure to radiation. She has become a union activist, concerned that corporate practices may adversely affect the health of workers. She is also engaged in a conflict with her former common-law husband in an effort to have more time with their three children. Because the plant has ostensibly fallen behind on a major contract – fabricating MOX fuel rods for a breeder reactor at the Hanford Site – employees are required to work long hours and weekends of overtime. She believes that managers are falsifying safety reports and cutting corners wherever possible, risking the welfare of the personnel. Karen approaches the union with her concerns and becomes active in lobbying for safeguards. She travels to Washington, D.C. to testify before the Atomic Energy Commission. She interacts with union officials who appear to be more interested in the publicity she is generating than her welfare and that of her co-workers. When Silkwood and other workers become contaminated by radiation, plant officials try to blame her for the incident. When she sees weld sample radiographies of fuel rods being retouched to hide shoddy work, and that records of inadequate safety measures had been altered, she decides to investigate further herself. Complications arise in her personal life when Angela, a funeral parlor beautician, joins the household as Dolly's lover. Unable to deal with Silkwood's obsession with gathering evidence, and suspecting her of infidelities, Drew moves out. Once she feels she has gathered sufficient documentation, Silkwood contacts a reporter from The New York Times and arranges a nighttime meeting. In the film's final moments Silkwood leaves a union meeting, carrying documentation of her findings on her way to meet with the journalist. She sees approaching headlights in her rear-view mirror. The scene fades out as the lights draw up so close that they distract and blind her, preventing her from seeing the road ahead. The scene fades in again on the aftermath of her fatal one-car crash. There are no documents to be found in the car wreck. 

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The film, set in the post-World War II 1940s, tells the story of an elderly woman, Carrie Watts (Page), who wants to return to her home, the small, rural, agriculture-based town of Bountiful near the Texas Gulf coast between Houston and Corpus Christi, where she grew up, but she's frequently stopped from leaving Houston by her daughter-in-law and her overprotective son, who will not let her travel alone. Her son and daughter-in-law both know that the town has long since disappeared, due to the Depression. Long-term out-migration was caused by the draw-down of all the town's able-bodied men to the wartime draft calls and by the demand for industrial workers in the war production plants of the big cities. Old Mrs. Watts is determined to outwit her son and bossy daughter-in-law, and sets out to catch a train, only to find that trains do not go to Bountiful anymore. She eventually boards a bus to a town near her childhood home. On the journey, she befriends a girl traveling alone (DeMornay) and reminisces about her younger years and grieves for her lost relatives. Her son and daughter-in-law eventually track her down, with the help of the local police force. However, Mrs. Watts is determined. The local sheriff, moved by her yearning to visit her girlhood home, offers to drive her out to what remains of Bountiful. The town is deserted, and the few remaining structures are derelict. Mrs. Watts learns that the last occupant of the town, and the woman with whom she had hoped to live, has recently died. She is moved to tears as she surveys her father's land and the remains of the family home. Having accepted the reality of the current condition of Bountiful and knowing that she has reached her goal of returning there before dying, she is ready to return to Houston when her son and daughter-in-law arrive to drive her home. Having confronted their common history in Bountiful, the three commit to live more peacefully together. They begin their drive back to Houston. 

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The book begins as an idealistic former congressional worker, Henry Burton, joins the presidential campaign of southern governor Jack Stanton, a thinly disguised stand-in for Bill Clinton. The plot then follows the primary election calendar beginning in New Hampshire where Stanton's affair with Cashmere, his wife's hairdresser, and his participation in a Vietnam War era protest come to light and threaten to derail his presidential prospects. In Florida, Stanton revives his campaign by disingenuously portraying his Democratic opponent as insufficiently pro-Israel and as a weak supporter of Social Security. Burton becomes increasingly disillusioned with Stanton, who is a policy wonk who talks too long, eats too much and is overly flirtatious toward women. Stanton is also revealed to be insincere in his beliefs, saying whatever will help him to win. Matters finally come to a head, and Burton is forced to choose between idealism and realism. 

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In 1945, as a truckload of war survivors stops in front of an Amsterdam factory at the end of World War II, Otto Frank (Joseph Schildkraut) gets out and walks inside. After climbing the stairs to a deserted garret, Otto finds a girl's discarded glove and sobs, then is joined and comforted by Miep Gies (Dodie Heath) and Mr. Kraler (Douglas Spencer), office workers who shielded him from the Nazis. After stating that he is now all alone, Otto begins to search for the diary written by his youngest daughter, Anne. Miep promptly retrieves it for him and he receives solace reading the words written by Anne three years earlier. Millie Perkins as Anne Frank and Joseph Schildkraut as Otto Frank. The action moves back to July 1942, and Anne (Millie Perkins) begins by chronicling the restrictions placed upon Jews that drove the Franks into hiding over the spice factory. Sharing the Franks' hiding place are the Van Daans (Lou Jacobi and Shelley Winters) and their teenage son, Peter (Richard Beymer). Kraler, who works in the office below, and Miep, his assistant, have arranged the hideaway and warn the families that they must maintain strict silence during daylight hours while the workers are there. On the first day, the minutes drag by in silence. After work, Kraler delivers food and a box for Anne compiled by Otto, which contains her beloved photos of movie stars and a blank diary. In the first pages of the diary, she describes the strangeness of never being able to go outside or breathe fresh air. She states that everybody is good at heart. As the months pass, Anne's irrepressible energy reasserts itself and she constantly teases Peter, whose only attachment is to his cat, Moushie. Isolated from the world outside, Otto schools Anne and her sister, Margot (Diane Baker), as the sounds of sirens and bombers frequently fill the air. Mrs. Van Daan passes the time by recounting fond memories of her youth and stroking her one remaining possession, the fur coat given to her by her father. The strain of confinement causes the Van Daans to argue and pits the strong-willed Anne against her mother, Edith Frank (Gusti Huber). One day, Kraler brings a radio to the attic, providing the families with ears onto the world. Soon after, he asks them to take in another person, a Jewish dentist named Albert Dussell (Ed Wynn). When Van Daan complains that the addition will diminish their food supply, Dussell recounts the dire conditions outside, in which Jews suddenly disappear and are shipped to concentration camps. When Dussell confirms the disappearance of many of their friends, the families' hopes are dimmed. One night, Anne dreams of seeing one of her friends in a concentration camp and wakes up screaming. In October 1942, news comes of the Allied landing in Africa but the bombing of Amsterdam intensifies, fraying the refugees' already ragged nerves. During Hanukkah, Margot longingly recalls past celebrations and Anne produces little presents for everyone. When Van Daan abruptly announces that Peter must get rid of Moucshi because he consumes too much food, Anne protests. Their argument is cut short when they hear a prowler break in the front door and the room falls silent. Peter then sends an object crashing to the floor while trying to catch Moushie, and the startled thief grabs a typewriter and flees. A watchman notices the break-in and summons two police officers, who search the premises, shining their flashlights onto the bookcase that conceals the attic entrance. The families wait in terror until Moushie knocks a plate from the table and mews, reassuring the officers that the noise was caused by a common cat. After they leave, Otto, hoping to foster faith and courage, leads everyone in a Hanukkah song. In January 1944, Anne, on the threshold of womanhood, begins to attract Peter's attention. When Miep brings the group a cake, Dussell and Van Daan bicker over the size of their portions and Van Daan asks Miep to sell Petronella's fur coat so that he can buy cigarettes. After Kraler warns that one of his employees asked for a raise and implied that something strange is going on in the attic, Dussell dourly comments that it is just a matter of time before they are discovered. Anne, distraught, blames the adults for the war which has destroyed all sense of hope and ideals. When she storms out of the room, Peter follows and comforts her. Later, Anne confides her dreams of becoming a writer and Peter voices frustration about his inability to join the war effort. In April 1944, amid talk of liberation, the Franks watch helplessly as more Jews are marched through the streets. Tensions mount, and when Van Daan tries to steal some bread from the others, Edith denounces him and orders him to leave. As Dussell and Van Daan quarrel over food, word comes over the radio of the Normandy invasion and Van Daan breaks into tears of shame. Heartened by the news, everyone apologizes for their harsh words, and Anne dreams of being back in school by the fall. By July 1944, the invasion has bogged down and Kraler is hospitalized with ulcers. Upon hearing that the police have found the stolen typewriter, Anne writes that her diary provides her with a way to go on living after her death. After the Van Daans begin to quarrel once more, Peter declares that he cannot tolerate the situation and Anne soothes him by reminding him of the goodness of those who have come to their aid. Their conversation is interrupted by the sirens of an approaching police truck. As Anne and Peter bravely stand arm in arm, certain of their impending arrest, they passionately kiss. As the German uniformed police break down the bookcase entrance to the hideout, Otto declares they no longer have to live in fear, but can go forward in hope. The film returns to 1945 as Otto tells Miep and Kraler that on his long journey home after his release from the concentration camp he learned how Edith, Margot, the Van Daans, and Dussell perished, but always held out hope that perhaps Anne had somehow survived. He sadly reveals that only the previous day in Rotterdam he met a woman who had been in Bergen-Belsen with Anne and confirmed her death. He then glances at Anne's diary and reads, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart," and reflects upon her unshakeable optimism. 

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In King's Abbot, wealthy widow Mrs Ferrars unexpectedly commits suicide, which distresses her fiancé, widower Roger Ackroyd. At dinner that evening in Ackroyd's home of Fernly Park, his guests include his sister-in-law Mrs Cecil Ackroyd and her daughter Flora, big-game hunter Major Blunt, Ackroyd's personal secretary Geoffrey Raymond, and Dr James Sheppard, whom Ackroyd invited earlier that day. During dinner, Flora announces her engagement to Ackroyd's stepson, Ralph Paton. After dinner, Ackroyd reveals to Sheppard in his study that Mrs Ferrars had confided in him she was being blackmailed over her murder of her husband. He then asks Sheppard to leave, wishing to read a letter from Mrs Ferrars that arrives in the post, containing her suicide note. Once home, Sheppard receives a call from Parker, Ackroyd's butler, claiming that Ackroyd is dead. Upon returning to Fernly Park, Parker denies making such a call, yet he, Sheppard, Raymond and Blunt find Ackroyd dead in his study, stabbed to death with a weapon from his collection. Hercule Poirot, living in the village, comes out of retirement at Flora's request. She does not believe Paton killed Ackroyd, despite him disappearing and police finding his footprints on the study's window. Poirot learns a few important facts on the case: all in the household, except parlourmaid Ursula Bourne, have alibis for the murder; while Raymond and Blunt heard Ackroyd talking to someone after Sheppard left, Flora was the last to see him that evening; Sheppard met a stranger on his way home, at Fernly Park's gates; Ackroyd met a representative of a dictaphone company a few days earlier; Parker recalls seeing a chair that had been in an odd position in the study when the body was found, that has since returned to its original position; the letter from Mrs Ferrars has disappeared since the murder. Poirot asks Sheppard for the exact time he met his stranger. He later finds a goose quill and a scrap of starched cambric in the summer house, and a ring with the inscription "From R" in the backyard. Raymond and Mrs Ackroyd later reveal they are in debt, but Ackroyd's death will resolve this as they stood to gain from his will. Flora admits she never saw her uncle after dinner; she was taking money from his bedroom. Her revelation throws doubts on everyone's alibis, and leaves Raymond and Blunt as the last people to hear Ackroyd alive. Blunt reveals he is secretly in love with Flora. Poirot calls a second meeting, adding Parker, the butler; Miss Russell, the housekeeper; and Ralph Paton, whom he had found. He reveals that the goose quill is a heroin holder belonging to Miss Russell's illegitimate son, the stranger whom Sheppard met on the night of the murder. He also informs all that Ursula secretly married Paton, as the ring he found was hers; it was discarded after Paton chastised her for informing his uncle of this fact, which had led to her employment's termination. Poirot then proceeds to inform all that he knows the killer's identity, confirmed by a telegram received during the meeting. He does not reveal the name; instead he issues a warning to the killer. When Poirot is alone with Sheppard, he reveals that he knows him to be Ackroyd's killer. Sheppard was Mrs Ferrars' blackmailer and murdered Ackroyd to stop him knowing this; he suspected her suicide note would mention this fact, and so he took it after the murder. He then used a dictaphone Ackroyd had, to make it appear he was still alive when he departed, before looping back to the study's window to plant Paton's footprints; Poirot had noted an inconsistency in the time he mentioned for the meeting at the gates. As he wanted to be on the scene when Ackroyd's body was found, he asked a patient earlier in the day to call him some time after the murder, so as to have an excuse for returning to Fernly Park; Poirot's telegram confirmed this. When no-one was around in the study, Sheppard removed the dictaphone, and returned the chair that concealed it from view to its original place. Poirot tells Sheppard that all this information will be reported to the police in the morning. Dr Sheppard continues writing his report on Poirot's investigation (the novel itself), admitting his guilt and wishing his account was that of Poirot's failure to solve Ackroyd's murder. The novel's epilogue serves as his suicide note. 

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Returning from South America, Arthur Hastings meets with his old friend, Hercule Poirot, at his new flat in London. Poirot shows him a mysterious letter he has received, signed "A.B.C.", that details a crime that is to be committed very soon, which he suspects will be a murder. Two more letters of the same nature soon arrive to his flat, each prior to a murder being carried out by A.B.C., and committed in alphabetical order: Alice Ascher, killed in her tobacco shop in Andover; Elizabeth "Betty" Barnard, a flirty waitress killed on the beach at Bexhill; and Sir Carmichael Clarke, a wealthy man killed at his home in Churston. In each murder, an ABC Rail Guide is left beside the victim. The police team for the investigation, led by Chief Inspector Japp, includes Inspector Crome, who doubts Poirot's detective abilities, and Dr Thompson, who tries to profile the killer. Poirot forms a "Legion" of relatives of the deceased to uncover new information: Franklin Clarke, Carmichael's brother; Mary Drower, Ascher's niece; Donald Fraser, Betty's fiancé; Megan Barnard, Betty's elder sister, and Thora Grey, Carmichael's young assistant. Following a meeting with the third victim's widow, Lady Clarke, one key similarity between the murders is established – on the day of each murder, a man selling silk stockings has appeared at or near each crime scene. Despite this information, Poirot has doubts about why the letters were sent to him, rather than the police or the newspapers, and why the third letter misspelled Poirot's address, causing a delay in his receipt of it. Soon, A.B.C. sends his next letter, directing everybody to Doncaster, where it is suspected that the next murder will occur at the St. Leger Stakes race meeting that day. However, the murderer strikes at a cinema instead, and the victim's name does not match the alphabetical pattern of the other killings. The police soon get a tip-off about the man linked to the murders – Alexander Bonaparte Cust, an epileptic traveling salesman, who suffers from memory blackouts and constant agonizing headaches as the result of a head injury during the First World War. Cust flees his apartment, but collapses upon arriving at the Andover police station, where he is taken into custody. Apart from claiming that a stocking firm hired him, he lacks any memory of committing the murders, but believes he must be guilty of them--he had been at the cinema when the last murder occurred, and found blood on his sleeve and a knife in his pocket after he had left. The police learn that the firm in question never hired Cust. Their search of his room turns up an unopened box of ABC railway guides, and the typewriter and fine paper used in A.B.C.'s letters, while the knife is discovered in the hallway outside his room where he dropped it. Poirot doubts Cust's guilt because of his memory blackouts, and especially because he had a solid alibi for the Bexhill murder. Calling a Legion meeting, Poirot exposes one of its members, Franklin Clarke, as the A.B.C. murderer. His motive was simple – Lady Clarke is slowly dying from cancer, and upon her death, Carmichael would probably marry his assistant. Franklin feared a possible second marriage, as he wants all of his brother's wealth, so he chose to murder his brother while Lady Clarke was still alive. A chance encounter with Cust at a pub gave Franklin the idea for the murder plot – he would disguise his crime as being part of a serial killing. Having created the letters Poirot would receive, Franklin set up Cust with his job, giving him the typewriter and other items Franklin would use to frame him for the murders. A suggestion by Hastings makes clear that the third letter was misaddressed intentionally, because Franklin wanted no chance of the police interrupting that murder. Franklin then followed Cust to the cinema, committed the last murder, and planted the knife on him as he left. Franklin laughs off Poirot's theory, but panics when he is told that his fingerprint has been found on Cust's typewriter key, and that Milly Higley, a co-worker of Betty Barnard, had seen him in her company. Franklin attempts to commit suicide with his own gun, only to find that Poirot has emptied it with the help of a pickpocket. With the case solved, Poirot pairs off Donald with Megan. Later, Cust tells Poirot that the press have made him an offer for his story; Poirot suggests that he demand a higher price for it, and that his headaches may have arisen from his spectacles. Once alone, Poirot tells Hastings that the claim of the fingerprint on the typewriter was a bluff, but is pleased that the pair "went hunting once more". 

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Caligula is the young heir to the throne of his great uncle, the Emperor Tiberius. One morning, a blackbird flies into his room; Caligula considers this a bad omen. Shortly afterward, the head of the Praetorian Guard, Macro, tells Caligula that Tiberius demands his immediate presence at Capri, where the Emperor lives with his close friend Nerva, a dim-witted relative Claudius, and Caligula's adopted son (Tiberius’s grandson) Gemellus. Fearing assassination, Caligula is afraid to leave but his sister and lover Drusilla persuades him to go. At Capri, Caligula finds that Tiberius has become depraved, showing signs of advanced venereal diseases, and embittered with Rome and politics. Tiberius enjoys swimming with naked youths and watching degrading sex shows that include deformed people and animals. Caligula observes with fascination and horror. Tensions rise when Tiberius tries to poison Caligula in front of Gemellus. Nerva commits suicide and Caligula tries to kill Tiberius but loses his nerve. Proving his loyalty to Caligula, Macro kills Tiberius instead with Gemellus as a witness. After Tiberius' death and burial, Caligula is proclaimed the new Emperor, then proclaims Drusilla as his equal, to the apparent disgust of the Roman Senate. Drusilla, fearful of Macro's influence, persuades Caligula to get rid of him. Caligula sets up a mock trial in which Gemellus is intimidated into testifying that Macro murdered Tiberius, then has Macro's wife Ennia banished from Rome. After Macro is executed in a gruesome public game, Caligula appoints Tiberius' former adviser Longinus as his personal assistant while pronouncing the docile Senator Chaerea as the new head of the Praetorian Guard. Drusilla tries to find Caligula a wife among the priestesses of the goddess Isis, the cult they secretly practice. Caligula wants to marry Drusilla, but she insists they cannot marry because she is his sister. Instead, Caligula marries Caesonia, a priestess and notorious courtesan, after she bears him an heir. Drusilla reluctantly supports their marriage. Meanwhile, despite Caligula's popularity with the masses, the Senate expresses disapproval for what initially seem to be light eccentricities. Darker aspects of Caligula's personality emerge when he rapes a bride and groom on their wedding day in a minor fit of jealousy and orders Gemellus's execution to provoke a reaction from Drusilla. After discovering that Caesonia is pregnant, Caligula suffers severe fever. Drusilla nurses him back to health. Just as he fully recovers, Caesonia bears him a daughter, Julia Drusilla. During the celebration, Drusilla collapses with the same fever he suffered. Soon afterward, Caligula receives another ill omen in the form of a blackbird. Despite his praying to Isis out of desperation, Drusilla dies from her fever. Initially unable to accept her death, Caligula suffers a nervous breakdown and rampages through the palace, destroying a statue of Isis while clutching Drusilla's body. Now in a deep depression, Caligula walks the Roman streets disguised as a beggar; he causes a disturbance after watching an amateur performance mocking his relationship with Drusilla. After a brief stay in a city jail, Caligula proclaims himself a god and becomes determined to destroy the senatorial class, which he has come to loathe. The new reign he leads becomes a series of humiliations against the foundations of Romesenators' wives are forced to work in the service of the state as prostitutes, estates are confiscated, the old religion is desecrated and the army is made to embark on a mock invasion of Britain. Unable to further tolerate his actions, Longinus conspires with Chaerea to assassinate Caligula. Caligula enters his bedroom where a nervous Caesonia awaits him. Another blackbird appears but only Caesonia is frightened of it. The next morning, after rehearsing an Egyptian play, Caligula and his family are attacked in a coup headed by Chaerea. Caesonia and Julia are murdered, and Chaerea stabs Caligula in the stomach. With his final breath, the Emperor defiantly whimpers "I live!" as Caligula and his family's bodies are thrown down the stadium's steps and their blood is washed off the marble floor. Claudius witnesses the entire ordeal and is proclaimed Emperor by the Praetorian Guard. 

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Ijon Tichy is sent to the Eighth World Futurological Congress in Costa Rica by professor Tarantoga. The conference is set to focus on the world's overpopulation crisis and ways of dealing with it. It is held at the Costa Rica Hilton in Nounas, which is 164 stories tall. Lem is fiercely satirical from the start, and absurdities abound at the Hilton with its guaranteed "BOMB-FREE" rooms and the extravagances of Tichy's suite, which include a palm grove and an "all-girl orchestra [that] played Bach while performing a cleverly choreographed striptease". The conference itself is no less absurd. Papers and presenters are too numerous to allow for full presentations. Instead, papers are distributed in hard copy and speakers call out paragraph numbers to call attention to their most salient points. In the middle of his first night at the conference, Tichy drinks some tap water in his hotel room, and his wild hallucinogenic trip begins, though it never becomes any more or less absurd than the brief glimpse of reality Lem presents in the beginning of the book (if indeed the congress is meant to be reality). He realizes the next day that the government has drugged the public water supply with "benignimizers", a drug that makes the victim helplessly benevolent. Events spiral out of control at the Hilton, which was already so chaotic that charred corpses from bombing attacks would be covered with tarps where they lay while guests went about their business. The government ends up bombing the hotel, and Tichy escapes into the sewer, where rats walk around on their hind legs. Tichy is evacuated from the scene by the military: first he escapes by jetpack, only to realise he is hallucinating (falling in the sewer water to find he never left). After returning to reality, he is rescued again and this time evacuated by helicopter, but during his rescue the helicopter crashes, and he awakes in the hospital, where he finds that his brain has been transplanted into the body of an attractive young black woman. Protesters attack the hospital, and Tichy is nearly killed again. This time when he wakes up, he finds that he has been transplanted into the body of an overweight, red-haired man, however this too is an illusion (again, broken when Tichy falls into the sewer water). When the military once again arrive to rescue everyone in the sewer Tichy refuses to move, believing that it is another illusion. He is then found by counter-revolutionaries, who shoot him. Awaking in another hospital, Tichy's mental state grows increasingly fragile as he cannot distinguish reality from hallucination (giving the staff inane nicknames, such as "Hallucinathan" and "Hallucinda"), and the medical staff make the decision to freeze him until a time when medicine can help his condition. He awakes in the year 2039, and at this point, the novel adopts the format of a journal that Tichy keeps to chronicle his experience in this new world. His future shock is so great that he finds he is being introduced to the world in small stages by the medical staff. In most regards, this future society is Utopian. Money is no object. One can simply go to the bank and request any sum and borrow it interest-free. There is no effort made to collect the debt, either, as most people take a drug that instills a sense of pride and work-ethic, which would disallow defaulting on the debt. Tichy learns that there is an inherent bias against defrostees, and that there are a great deal of words that he does not understand. Like cityspeak, and many other sci-fi futuristic languages, it is a mishmash of words with clear enough English roots, though Tichy is mystified by it. Also, mood is highly regulated by drugs. Tichy gets involved with a woman, and during an argument, she deliberately takes a drug called recriminol to make her more combative, which prolongs the tiff. Following their break-up, Tichy becomes deeply disillusioned with the "psychem" mentality, wherein drugs regulate every waking moment of the day. He resolves to stop taking any drugs and confides to his friend, professor Trottelreiner, that he can't stand this new world. Trottelreiner explains that the everyday drugs that Tichy is tired of are only the tip of the iceberg. Narcotics and hallucinogens are trifles compared to "mascons", which are so powerful that they mask whole swaths of reality. Trottelreiner explains, "mascon" derives from mask, masquerade, mascara: "By introducing properly prepared mascons to the brain, one can mask any object in the outside world behind a fictitious image—superimposed—and with such dexterity, that the psychemasconated subject cannot tell which of his perceptions have been altered, and which have not. If but for a single instant you could see this world of ours the way it really is—undoctored, unadulterated, uncensored—you would drop in your tracks!" The professor then gives Tichy a flask of "up'n'at'm, one of the vigilanimides, a powerful countersomniac and antipsychem agent. A derivative of dimethylethylhexabutylpeptopeyotine". With his first sniff of up'n'at'm, Tichy watches as the gilded surroundings of the five-star restaurant they are in evaporates into a dingy concrete bunker, and his stuffed pheasant turns into "the most unappetizing gray-brown gruel, which stuck in globs to my tin — no longer silver — fork". But this first dose is just the beginning of Tichy's journey. He sees that people do not drive cars or ride in elevators, but they run in the streets and climb the walls of empty elevator shafts, which explains why everyone in this new world is so out of breath. Robots whip people in the street and protect order. Through successive doses of more and more powerful types of up'n'at'm, Tichy sees increasingly horrible visions of the world, climaxing in a frozen horrorscape where people sleep blissfully in the snow, and the police robots are revealed to be people who are convinced that they are robots. The frozen state of the world explains why he has always found the new world to be so cold. In a state of panic, Tichy realizes that he is "no longer safely inside the illusion, but shipwrecked in reality", and he desperately seeks the seat of power. He ascends in a skyscraper to encounter his acquaintance George P. Symington Esquire, who sits in a modest office and explains to Tichy that he and a few others employ mascons as a way of maintaining order: :"The year is 2098 ... with 69 billion inhabitants legally registered and approximately another 26 billion in hiding. The average annual temperature has fallen four degrees. In fifteen or twenty years there will be glaciers here. We have no way of averting or halting their advance — we can only keep them secret." :"I always thought there would be ice in hell," I said. Tichy realizes his only course of action and tackles Symington, pushing them both out of the window. They plummet to the earth, but instead of colliding with the frozen ground, Tichy splashes into the black, stinking waters of the sewer beneath the Costa Rica Hilton, revealing that his suspicions were right all along: the whole future world he experienced was an illusion. He realizes that it is now the second day of the Eighth World Futurological Congress. 

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It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, the Devonian son of a Plymouth Brethren minister who becomes an Anglican priest, and Lucinda Leplastrier, a young Australian heiress who buys a glass factory. They meet on the ship over to Australia, and discover that they are both gamblers, one obsessive, the other compulsive. Lucinda bets Oscar that he cannot transport a glass church from Sydney to a remote settlement at Bellingen, some 400 km up the New South Wales coast. This bet changes both their lives forever. 

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The player's six cities are being attacked by an endless hail of ballistic missiles, some of which split like multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. New weapons are introduced in later levels: smart bombs that can evade a less-than-perfectly targeted missile, and bomber planes and satellites that fly across the screen launching missiles of their own. As a regional commander of three anti-missile batteries, the player must defend six cities in their zone from being destroyed. 

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In 1869, four years after the end of the American Civil War, U.S. Army Captain James T. "Jim" West and U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon hunt for ex-Confederate General "Bloodbath" McGrath, who was responsible for killing West's parents. U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant informs the two about the disappearance of America's key scientists and a treasonous plot by McGrath, and tasks them with finding the scientists. Aboard their train The Wanderer, West and Gordon examine the severed head of a decapitated scientist Thaddeus Morton, finding a clue which leads them to Arliss Loveless, a legless ex-Confederate officer who also happens to be an engineering genius. Infiltrating Loveless's plantation during a party, the duo rescue a woman named Rita Escobar. She asks for their help in rescuing her professor-father Guillermo Escobar, one of the kidnapped scientists. Loveless holds a demonstration of his newest weapon, a steam- powered tank, and angers McGrath by using his soldiers as target practice. Accusing McGrath of "betrayal" for surrendering at Appomattox, Loveless shoots him and leaves him for dead. Gordon, West, and Rita find the dying McGrath, who reveals he was framed by Loveless for the massacre of New Liberty. The three caught up with Loveless on The Wanderer. After a brief fight, Rita accidentally releases sleeping gas which knocks out West, Gordon and herself. West and Gordon wake up as Loveless pulls away in The Wanderer, with Rita as a hostage. Announcing his intention to capture President Grant at the golden spike ceremony, he leaves the duo in a deadly trap which they evade. West and Gordon stumble across Loveless's private railroad, leading to his secret industrial complex at Spider Canyon. They witness Loveless's ultimate weapon: a gigantic mechanical spider armed with nitroglycerin cannons. Loveless uses his spider to capture Grant and Gordon at the ceremony. As West attempts to infiltrate the spider, he is shot in the chest by Munitia, one of Loveless's bodyguards. At his complex, Loveless threatens to destroy the United States with his mechanized forces unless Grant divides the states among Great Britain, France, Spain, Mexico, the Native American people and Loveless himself. After Grant refuses, West - having survived both the shot and the fall - disguises himself as a belly dancer. He distracts Loveless, allowing Gordon to free the captives. Loveless escapes on his mechanical spider, taking Grant with him. He attacks a small town, and again demands that Grant accept his terms of surrender. Grant continues to reject Loveless's ultimatum. Using an "Air Gordon" flying machine, Gordon and West catch up to the spider. West battles the henchmen before confronting Loveless, who is now on mechanical legs. After freeing Grant, Gordon shoots one of Loveless's legs, allowing West to gain the upper hand. As the mechanical spider approaches a cliff, Loveless shoots at West with the concealed gun he used to kill McGrath. He misses and instead hits the spider's machinery, halting it abruptly at the canyon's edge. Both West and Loveless fall from the spider, but West survives by catching a chain which dangles from the machinery. Grant promotes Gordon and West as the first agents of his new United States Secret Service. After Grant departs on The Wanderer to Washington, D.C., West and Gordon reunite with Rita, whom they both attempt to court. She announces that Professor Escobar is actually her husband. Gordon and West ride into the sunset on the spider. 

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Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties, recounts her life starting with her sexual awakening, which she compares to a blossoming pear tree kissed by bees in spring. Around this time, Janie allows a local boy, Johnny Taylor, to kiss her, which Janie's grandmother, Nanny, witnesses. As a young slave woman, Nanny was raped by her white owner, then gave birth to a mixed-race daughter she named Leafy. Though Nanny wanted a better life for her daughter and even escaped her jealous mistress after the American Civil War, Leafy was later raped by her school teacher and became pregnant with Janie. Shortly after Janie's birth, Leafy began to drink and stay out at night, eventually running away and leaving Janie with Nanny. Nanny, having transferred her hopes for stability and opportunity from Leafy to Janie, arranges for Janie to marry Logan Killicks, an older farmer looking for a wife. However, Killicks doesn't love Janie and wants only a domestic helper rather than a lover or partner; he thinks she doesn't do enough around the farm and considers her ungrateful. When Janie speaks to Nanny about her desire for love, Nanny, too, accuses Janie of being spoiled and, soon afterwards, dies. Unhappy, disillusioned, and lonely, Janie leaves Killicks and runs off with Jody (Joe) Starks, a glib man who takes her to the all-black community of Eatonville, Florida. Starks arranges to buy more land, establishes a general store, and is soon elected mayor of the town. However, Janie soon realizes that Starks wants her as a trophy wife to reinforce his powerful position in town and to run the store, even forbidding her from taking part in the town's social life. During their twenty-year marriage, he treats her as his property, criticizing her, controlling her, and physically abusing her. Finally, when Starks's kidney begins to fail, Janie says that he never knew her because he would not let her be free. After Starks dies, Janie becomes financially independent through his estate. Though she is beset with suitors, including men of means, she turns them all down until she meets a young drifter and gambler named Vergible Woods, known as "Tea Cake". He plays the guitar for her and initially treats her with kindness and respect. Janie is hesitant because she is older and wealthy, but she eventually falls in love with him and decides to run away with him to Jacksonville to marry. They move to Belle Glade, in the northern part of the Everglades region ("the muck"), where they find work planting and harvesting beans. While their relationship is volatile and sometimes violent, Janie finally has the marriage with love that she wanted. Her image of the pear tree blossom is revived. Suddenly, the area is hit by the great 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while saving Janie from drowning and becomes increasingly jealous and unpredictable. When he tries to shoot Janie with his pistol, she fatally shoots him with a rifle in self-defense and is charged with murder. At the trial, Tea Cake's black male friends show up to oppose her, but a group of local white women arrive to support Janie. After the all-white jury acquits Janie, she gives Tea Cake a lavish funeral. Tea Cake's friends forgive her, asking her to remain in the Everglades. However, she decides to return to Eatonville. As she expected, the residents gossip about her when she returns to town. The story ends where it started, as Janie finishes recounting her life to Pheoby. 

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An unnamed young man lives an ethereal existence that lacks transitions between everyday events and eventually progresses toward an existential crisis. He observes quietly but later participates actively in philosophical discussions involving other characters—ranging from quirky scholars and artists to everyday restaurant- goers and friends—about such issues as metaphysics, free will, social philosophy, and the meaning of life. Other scenes do not even include the protagonist's presence, but rather, focus on a random isolated person, a group of people, or a couple engaging in such topics from a disembodied perspective. Along the way, the film also touches upon existentialism, situationist politics, posthumanity, the film theory of André Bazin, and lucid dreaming, and makes references to various celebrated intellectual and literary figures by name. Gradually, the protagonist begins to realize that he is living out a perpetual dream, broken up only by occasional false awakenings. So far he is mostly a passive onlooker, though this changes during a chat with a passing woman who suddenly approaches him. After she greets him and shares her creative ideas with him, he reminds himself that she is a figment of his own dreaming imagination. Afterwards, he starts to converse more openly with other dream characters, but he begins to despair about being trapped in a dream. The protagonist's final talk is with a character (played by Richard Linklater) whom he briefly encountered previously, earlier in the film. This last conversation reveals this other character's view that reality may be only a single instant that the individual interprets falsely as time (and, thus, life); that living is simply the individual's constant negation of God's invitation to become one with the universe; that dreams offer a glimpse into the infinite nature of reality; and that in order to be free from the illusion called life, the individual need only accept God's invitation. The protagonist is last seen walking into a driveway when he suddenly begins to levitate, paralleling a scene at the start of the film of a floating child in the same driveway. The protagonist uncertainly reaches toward a car's handle, but is too swiftly lifted above the vehicle and over the trees. He rises into the endless blue expanse of the sky until he disappears from view. 

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1998: Eric Bottler reunites with his old high school buddies Linus, Hutch, Windows and Zoe at a Halloween party. There is tension between Bottler and his old friends, due to Bottler being the only one that matured since high school; now a car salesman at his father's dealership, Bottler finds that his friends have not changed a bit since high school. The number one thing they still have in common is their love of Star Wars. The gang expresses their anticipation for the latest installment to the franchise, The Phantom Menace. Linus proposes an idea that Bottler and he had been plotting since they were children: to infiltrate Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough cut of the film, but Bottler dismisses this. The next day, Hutch and Windows meet Bottler at work and inform him that Linus is dying from cancer. The doctors estimate that he only has roughly four months to live; Episode I comes out in six. To make peace with his former best friend, Bottler decides to go through with their plan and infiltrate Skywalker Ranch. The four begin their trip to Texas, where they have to meet Rogue Leader, a girl Windows is having an online relationship with, for information on getting into the Ranch. While on the road, Hutch decides to take a detour to Riverside, Iowa (the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk) in an attempt to start a fight with some Trekkies. Hutch gets his wish after attacking a Trekkie by the name of Admiral Seasholtz (Seth Rogen) in retaliation to Seasholtz insulting Han Solo, to which Hutch responds by running down their statue of Captain Kirk and Khan. The boys' van breaks down and they stumble upon a biker bar. Once inside they ask for help and a glass of water that costs $100. Refusing to pay, Hutch tries to pass himself off as a tough guy who just got out of prison, only to discover that they are in a gay bar. In order to pay for the drink, they are forced to become the "midnight entertainment" and strip to the music of Menudo, which goes terribly wrong when Hutch displays his one testicle. They are saved by a man named "The Chief", who fixes their van after they pass out from eating guacamole laced with peyote. He gives a bag of this to Linus as a parting gift. After arriving in Texas, Windows meets Rogue Leader, who to his horror is a 10-year-old girl. The group is then assaulted by her uncle, Harry Knowles, who beats up Windows and tells him to never talk to his niece again. After explaining their situation, Harry quizzes them to prove they are true fanboys, then gives them information on one of his contacts that knows how to successfully enter Skywalker Ranch. They are told to meet Harry's contact in Las Vegas, but on their way there they are arrested for fleeing a police vehicle and possession of peyote. Zoe arrives to bail them out of jail, and — having traveled halfway across the country to get them — insists on accompanying them on their journey. Eric is reluctant to continue when the judge (Billy Dee Williams) gives him a message from his father to come home or lose his job, but the others convince him to carry on by calling the journey their "Death Star", the one great thing that will live with them forever. Once in Las Vegas, Hutch and Windows attempt to have sex with some girls while Bottler and Linus go to meet Harry's contact. They are shocked to find that his contact is none other than William Shatner, who gives them the information they need and leaves. As they leave, they are attacked by Seasholtz and his Trekkie friends, who were attending a Star Trek convention in the same hotel. Meanwhile, Hutch and Windows discover that the girls they were with are escort girls and flee when their angry pimp, Roach (also played by Seth Rogen), wants them to pay up. Windows also learns that Zoe is in love with him. The group escapes their adversaries but Linus is injured in the process. When taken to the hospital, Linus is informed by a doctor (Carrie Fisher) that he must return home for the sake of his health. When the group feels the situation has become hopeless, Eric refuses to give up on their plan and manages to inspire the gang to continue, reminding them that Star Wars means very much not just to Linus, but to all of them. The group leaves the hospital and eventually makes it to Skywalker Ranch. Shortly after breaking into the ranch and marveling at the collection of original props and costumes used in the films, they are discovered by security guards and are caught after a brief chase. The Head of Security tells them of their impending doom when he receives a phone call from George Lucas himself. Lucas tells him that he will drop all charges if they can prove to him that they are "fanboys". The five are individually quizzed, including questions designed to show that they do not know much about the opposite sex (of which only Zoe is able to answer), after which the Head of Security confirms that they are fanboys and Lucas drops all charges. Being aware of Linus's illness, Lucas allows him to watch the film alone while his friends wait outside. After the film ends, Bottler joins his friends around a campfire and mends his friendship with Linus. Weeks later, Linus dies of his illness. On May 19, 1999, Bottler, Windows and Zoe emerge from their tent they used to camp out in while waiting in line for the first showing of Episode I. Bottler has followed his and Linus's dream by becoming a comic book artist, Hutch has finally started his own detailing business, and Windows and Zoe are now in a relationship. Hutch arrives at the theater with beers he smuggled in, which they use to toast Linus's memory. Just before the film starts, Bottler comments "What if the movie sucks?" 

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The projectile, as pictured in an engraving from the 1872 Illustrated Edition. The firing of the Columbiad. The story opens some time after the end of the American Civil War. The Baltimore Gun Club, a society dedicated to the design of weapons of all kinds (especially cannons), comes together when Impey Barbicane, its president, calls them to support his latest idea. He's done some calculations, and believes that they could construct a cannon capable of shooting a projectile to the Moon. After receiving the support of his companions, another meeting is held to decide the place from which the projectile will be fired, the dimensions and materials of both the cannon and the projectile, and which kind of powder they are to use. An old enemy of Barbicane, a Captain Nicholl of Philadelphia, designer of plate armor, declares that the entire enterprise is absurd and makes a series of bets with Barbicane, each of them of increasing amount, over the impossibility of such feat. The first obstacle, the money to construct the giant cannon (and against which Nicholl has bet 1,000 dollars), is raised from a number of countries in America and Europe. Notably, the U.S. gives four million dollars, while England does not give a farthing, but in the end, nearly five and a half million dollars are raised, which ensures the financial feasibility of the project. Stone's Hill in "Tampa Town", Florida is chosen as the site for the cannon's construction. The Gun Club travels there and starts the construction of the Columbiad cannon, which requires the excavation of a and circular hole, which is made in the nick of time, but a surprise awaits Barbicane: Michel Ardan, a French adventurer, plans to travel aboard the projectile. During a meeting between Ardan, the Gun Club, and the inhabitants of Florida, Nicholl appears and challenges Barbicane to a duel. The duel is stopped when Ardan—having been warned by J. T. Maston, secretary of the Gun Club—meets the rivals in the forest where they have agreed to duel. Meanwhile, Barbicane finds the solution to the problem of surviving the incredible acceleration that the explosion would cause. Ardan suggests that Barbicane and Nicholl travel with him in the projectile, and the proposition is accepted. In the end, the projectile is successfully launched, but the destinies of the three astronauts are left inconclusive. The sequel, Around the Moon, deals with what happens to the three men in their travel from the Earth to the Moon. 

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The prologue is a fictionalized account of The Shot Heard 'Round the World, a home run by Bobby Thomson on October 3, 1951, that won the National League pennant for the New York Giants against their cross-town rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. In DeLillo's account, the game-winning ball is caught by a young black fan named Cotter Martin, while J. Edgar Hoover, watching in the stands, is informed in the middle of the game of the first Soviet test of the hydrogen bomb. The remainder of the novel, comprising six parts and an epilogue, is a reverse chronological account of the life of Nick Shay, the man who ultimately ends up with the baseball, from his undirected existence as an executive of a waste management company in Arizona in the 1990s back to his childhood in the Bronx in the 1950s, though the non-linear narrative includes a large number of digressions and ancillary subplots. Part 1 takes place in 1992. Nick Shay lives in Arizona with his wife, Marian, who is having an affair with his colleague, Brian Glassic. Nick visits an art installation of painted B-52 aircraft in the desert by Klara Sax, with whom Nick is later revealed to have had an affair forty years earlier. It is revealed that Nick killed a man when he was a teenager, and that Nick's father disappeared when Nick was a child after going out to get a pack of Lucky Strikes. Nick prefers to imagine that he was killed by the Mafia. In a flashback to 1951, Cotter Martin's father takes the baseball from his son with the intention of selling it. In Part 2, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Marian begins her affair with Brian, while Nick acquires the baseball from an avid baseball memorabilia collector named Marvin Lundy after Brian meets Lundy on a trip to New York City to see the Fresh Kills Landfill. Elsewhere, in the Bronx, a pessimistic, germophobic nun named Sister Edgar, who was Nick Shay's Catholic school teacher in the 1950s, works among the unbelieving poor and sick. A videotape of a serial killer nicknamed the Texas Highway Killer is described. In Part 3, in the spring of 1978, Nick attends a waste management conference in the Mojave Desert and meets a swinger named Donna, while Marvin Lundy traces the baseball to San Francisco. Part 4, in the summer of 1974, mainly concerns Klara Sax, who is working as an artist in New York City, and Matt Shay, Nick's brother, a former chess prodigy, who is a scientist in the nuclear weapons program in New Mexico. Part 5 encompasses the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with Nick Shay in juvenile detention, following Nick's relationship with a woman named Amy and later with his future wife Marian, and Matt's courtship of his wife Janet. Lenny Bruce's comedy routines on the Cuban Missile Crisis are mentioned several times. In another flashback, Cotter Martin's father sells his baseball to Charles Wainright, a white fan standing in line with his son outside of Yankee Stadium. Part 6, from the fall of 1951 to the summer of 1952, relates how Nick Shay, running loose after his father left his family, accidentally kills his friend George Manza. In the epilogue, Nick and Brian travel to Kazakhstan to watch a demo of a new waste disposal system that incinerates the waste with a nuclear explosion. Nick confronts Brian about his affair with Marian, but decides to stay with Marian. Esmeralda, a feral girl in the Bronx whom the Catholic nuns were trying to save, is raped and murdered. Her image then miraculously appears on a billboard. Sister Edgar dies shortly after witnessing the miracle. 

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The action of the story follows Sybil Gerard, a political courtesan and daughter of an executed Luddite leader; Edward "Leviathan" Mallory, a paleontologist and explorer; and Laurence Oliphant, a historical figure who, as is portrayed in the book, was a travel writer whose work was a cover for espionage activities "undertaken in the service of Her Majesty".'"Secret Agent", Chap. 5, 'Laurence Oliphant, Anne Taylor, Oxford University Press, 1982 Linking all their stories is the trail of a mysterious set of reportedly very powerful computer punch cards and the individuals fighting to obtain them. Many characters come to believe that the punch cards are a gambling "modus", a programme that would allow the user to place consistently winning bets. The last chapter reveals that the punched cards represent a program that proves two theorems, which, in reality, would not be discovered until 1931 by Kurt Gödel. Ada Lovelace delivers a lecture on the subject in France. Defending the cards, Mallory gathers his brothers and Ebenezer Fraser, a secret police officer, to fight the revolutionary Captain Swing, who leads a London riot during "the Stink", a major episode of pollution in which London swelters under an inversion layer (comparable to the London Smog of December 1952). After the abortive uprising, Oliphant and Sybil Gerard meet at a cafe in Paris. Oliphant informs her that he is aware of her true identity but will not pursue it. However, he wants information that would compromise her seducer, Charles Egremont MP, now regarded as an obstacle to the strategies and political ambitions of Lords Brunel and Babbage. Sybil has longed for an opportunity for vengeance against Egremont, and the resultant political scandal destroys his parliamentary career and aspirations for a merit lordship. Oliphant also encounters a Manhattan-based group of feminist pantomime artists. After several vignettes that elaborate on the alternate historical origins of the world of The Difference Engine, Lovelace delivers her lecture on Gödel's Theorem, as its counterpart is known in our world. She is chaperoned by Fraser and castigated by Sybil Gerard, who is still unable to forgive Ada's father, the late Lord Byron, for his role in her own father's death. At the very end of the novel is a depiction of an alternate 1991 from the vantage point of a computer, which is revealed to be the narrator as it achieves self-awareness. 

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ALF is an alien from the planet Melmac who follows an amateur radio signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners, a suburban middle-class family who live in the San Fernando Valley area of California. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory) and their pet cat Lucky (whom ALF wishes to consume). Unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home and hide him from the Alien Task Force (a part of the U.S. military that specializes in aliens) and their nosy neighbors Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John La Motta and Liz Sheridan), until ALF can repair his spacecraft. He generally hides in the kitchen. It is eventually revealed that ALF's home planet Melmac exploded, due to everyone plugging in their hair dryers at the same time. In the season one episode "Pennsylvania 6-5000", ALF tries to convince the President of the United States to stop the nuclear program, as ALF fears that Earth might suffer a fate similar to Melmac's, though miscalculating his words causes the President and national security to call the FBI to arrest Willie. ALF was off the planet when it was destroyed because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. ALF (a.k.a. Gordon Shumway) is homeless, but he is not the last survivor of his species. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock, survivor guilt, general boredom, despair and loneliness frequently cause difficulty for the Tanners. Despite the problems and inconveniences his presence brings into their lives, they grow to love him, though some episodes make it clear they are also afraid of how their lives would be turned upside down if word got out that he has been living with them. While most of the science fiction of ALF was played for comedic value, there were a few references to actual topics in space exploration; for example, ALF uses a radio signal as a beacon in the pilot episode. In the episode "Weird Science", ALF tells Brian, who is building a model of the solar system for his science project, that there are two planets beyond Pluto called "Dave" and "Alvin" (as in David Seville and Alvin from the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise), which gets Brian in trouble at school. However, after ALF makes a call to an astronomical organization and states that "Dave" is known by the organization, Willie comes to believe that "Dave" could be the planetoid Chiron or "Object Kowal". ALF then shows Willie exactly where "Dave" is on an intergalactic map of the universe. Episodes dealt with ALF learning about Earth and making new friends both within and outside of the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Kate's widowed mother Dorothy (Anne Meara) with whom ALF has a love- hate relationship, her boyfriend (and later husband) Whizzer (Paul Dooley), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake (Josh Blake), a psychologist named Larry (Bill Daily) and a blind woman named Jody (Andrea Covell) who never figures out that ALF is not human (although she is aware through touch that he is short and hairy). Changes occur within the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric (the reason for adding a baby in the series being that Anne Schedeen was pregnant at the time); ALF's move from his initial quarters in the laundry room to the attic, which he and Willie converted into an "apartment" and the death of Mr. Meow in season four's "Live and Let Die"; in this instance, ALF finds that despite his occasional attempts to catch Lucky with the intention of making the cat a meal, as cats are the equivalent of cattle on Melmac, he has come to love and respect the family pet too much to do anything untoward with Lucky's remains. When ALF acquires a new cat with the intent of eating it, he actually grows fond of it and allows it to be adopted by the family, although he admits to the Tanners he has become the worst kind of Melmackian, a "cat lover". 

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Judith Marsh has been engaged since birth to her neighbor, John Mainwaring, heir to the Earl of Rosswood. In 1644, she has her engagement broken off when her family and the Mainwarings find themselves on opposing sides of the English Civil War. During a break in the fighting, John visits Judith and the two consummate their relationship. Pregnant, Judith abandons her family and goes to Parliamentarian territory on John's instructions, introducing herself as Judith St. Clare. There, she ends up staying with farmer Matthew Goodegroome and his wife Sarah. Judith dies in childbirth after naming her daughter Amber (after the color of John's eyes). In 1660, Amber, now a flirtatious teenager, is being raised by the Goodegroomes in ignorance of her origins. She meets a band of Royalists who inform her that Charles II of England is returning. Amber is particularly attracted to Lord Bruce Carlton. During a fair, she lures him into the woods and loses her virginity to him. After persuading him, Carlton reluctantly takes her to London, but tells Amber he will not marry her and she will come to regret her choice. In London, Carlton makes Amber his mistress. She quickly grows accustomed to their luxurious lifestyle. She longs to marry Carlton and believes becoming pregnant will make him marry her. However, when she does become pregnant, Carlton announces plans to become a privateer. He leaves Amber a significant amount of money and tells her if she is clever she can legitimize herself and her child by marrying well. Left alone, Amber is befriended by a woman named Sally Goodman and passes herself off as a rich country heiress. Sally introduces Amber to her nephew Luke Channell, who Amber quickly marries out of fear that her pregnancy will soon be visible. She soon discovers Sally and Luke are not who they appear. When they realize she is not as wealthy as she claimed they abandon her, leaving her penniless. Amber is pursued by creditors and taken to a debtors' prison. Salvation comes when she catches the eye of Black Jack Mallard, a highwayman who takes Amber with him when he escapes. BlackJack takes Amber to Whitefriars, where she is introduced to the ways of criminals and gives birth to a son who she gives to a countrywoman to raise properly. BlackJack hires a student of noble birth, Michael Godfrey, to educate Amber, and begins to use her as bait in schemes where she lures handsome, rich men to quiet corners before Black Jack robs them. Amber attracts the attention of Bess, Black Jack's former lover, whose jealous behavior towards Amber results in Bess being kicked out. Bess avenges herself by turning in Black Jack and his conspirators. Amber manages to escape and happens upon Michael, who offers her his protection. She becomes his mistress. Terrified that her debts will one day catch up with her, Amber learns that actors are protected from arrest (through being servants of the King) and uses her connections to find a position with the King's Company. Though she is not a great actress, Amber uses her beauty to earn larger parts, hoping to attract the attention of a man who can afford to keep her as his mistress. She catches the eye of Captain Rex Morgan, the paramour of fellow actress Beck Marshall, and succeeds in persuading him to pay to keep her. Morgan falls in love with Amber and offers to marry her, but she resists, wanting a wealthier husband. Amber eventually attracts the attention of the King and sleeps with him twice before his mistress, Barbara Palmer, intervenes. Depressed, Amber decides to marry Rex, but Bruce returns from his travels, and Amber realizes she is still in love with him. This leads to a duel between Bruce and Rex, resulting in Rex dying and Bruce leaving once more. Now bereft Amber falls deeper into prostitution. Shunned and unwell following an abortion, she flees to Tunbridge Wells where she meets a rich elderly widower, Samuel Dangerfield, and seduces him into marriage by pretending to be a modest young widow. Dangerfield's puritanical family is horrified, though she becomes friends with his daughter Jemima, who is only a few years younger than herself. Amber discovers her new husband is financing Bruce, and re-starts her affair with him, hoping to conceive a child she can pass off as her husband's. Amber becomes pregnant then discovers her stepdaughter is also pregnant by Bruce, who abandons both of them. Amber finds a suitable husband for Jemima and is left extremely wealthy after Samuel dies. Shortly after their child is born Bruce returns, and both he and Amber contract plague. They both survive but Bruce abandons her again, and Amber decides to marry for a third time, to the avaricious but influential Earl of Radclyffe. Now a countess, Amber intends to go to court and become the King's favored mistress, replacing Barbara Palmer. Her husband interferes in these plans and forces her to move to the country. As revenge, Amber seduces her new husband's son and is discovered. Her husband attempts to poison the pair, succeeding in killing his son. The Earl then flees to London, where Amber has him killed (using the Great Fire of London to cover up the crime). Finally free, she becomes the King's mistress and becomes pregnant by him. The King arranges a marriage - Amber's fourth - to Gerald Stanhope. Bruce returns, and Amber continues cheating on her husband with both the King and Bruce. Bruce reveals that he is married and intends to make their son his lawful heir, to which Amber reluctantly consents, knowing it will secure his future. Amber becomes the King's primary and official mistress, and he makes her Duchess of Ravenspur. As Amber is at the height of her power and influence, Bruce returns once again and resumes his affair with Amber. Bruce's wife Corinna discovers the affair and Bruce finally leaves Amber for good. Amber confronts Corinna, revealing that she is the mother of Bruce's son, and the two women violently fight. Unbeknownst to Amber, the Duke of Buckingham (one of the influential men to which Amber prostituted herself) decides Amber is a threat and makes a plan with a former enemy Lord Arlington, to get rid of her. The two men write Amber a note claiming Corinna has died. A hopeful Amber leaves England in pursuit of Bruce, hoping he will finally marry her, unaware that Corinna is alive and well. 

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A washed-up, alcoholic actress, Alex Sternbergen (played by Fonda), wakes up on Thanksgiving 1986 next to a murdered man, a sleazy photographer. She feels sick and remembers nothing from the night before. She calls her friend Jackie about what happened the night before. (We find out later that he is her husband, they are separated.) He informs her that she missed out on getting what could have been her best gig in a while the night before because she was drunk and rude. She tells him about the body. He tells her to call the cops and she says that she is scared but he insists, telling her it will be all right. She retorts saying "ya wanna bet?" She leaves the apartment, and it is implied that she has not called the police. While trying to flee at the airport, Alex encounters an ex-policeman, Turner (Jeff Bridges), who believes in her innocence. Raúl Juliá plays Jackie, a hairdresser who wants to divorce her, as he has fallen in love with socialite Isabel Harding (Diane Salinger). 

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In 1985, wearing a dress she wore in high school in 1960, Peggy Sue Bodell sets off for her 25-year high school reunion. Although she has some reservations, she attends anyway, accompanied by her daughter Beth instead of her high-school sweetheart husband Charlie, since the two are separated because of his infidelity. She and Charlie were married right after graduation, when Peggy Sue got pregnant, and because of this she is afraid of being questioned about his absence. When she arrives at the reunion, she is happy at having the chance to reconnect with Maddy and Carol, her old best friends. However, an awkward scene begins to play out as Charlie arrives unexpectedly and Peggy Sue proceeds to ignore him. This awkwardness continues until the event's MC announces the reunion's “king & queen” — Richard Norvik, the former class geek turned billionaire inventor, and Peggy Sue. Peggy Sue’s demeanor is quite normal until they wheel out the reunion cake, at which time she promptly faints. Peggy Sue awakens to find herself still in the same location (the high school gym where the reunion was taking place) but 25 years in the past. It is now 1960, during her senior year of high school, where she’s just passed out after having donated blood. She wakes up stunned to find that all her middle-aged friends, whom she was just with at the reunion, are now their younger, teenaged selves. Still in shock, she allows herself to be taken home, all the while noticing that things aren’t how she knows them to be in 1985, but how she knew them to be 25 years prior. After a rough first night, she decides to accept her circumstances, behave as if everything is normal and have some fun while she’s at it. The only difference is that since she knows how she and Charlie will end, when given the chance to break up with him she thinks it might be best. Hoping that Richard Norvik might be able to shed light on her situation, she befriends him. At lunch she ignores Charlie, causing him to become jealous, and instead uses the time to arrange a meeting with Richard after school to discuss time travel. She chooses to tell Richard her secret, which he at first doesn’t believe, until he realizes that only someone from the future could know what she knows about him and the world at large. It is around this time that Peggy Sue makes the decision to break up with Charlie, surely knowing that between them she’s the only one who wants that outcome. Even with that decision made, she decides to sleep with Charlie one night after a party, but he panics, and reminds her of how she rebuffed him the weekend before. Thinking that she’s playing mind games with him, he abruptly takes her home but instead of going inside, she walks to an all-night café. As she walks past the café, she looks in and sees Michael Fitzsimmons, the artsy loner at school she always wished she’d slept with, and goes inside to talk to him. During the conversation she learns that they have more in common than she thought so she decides to leave with him. They ride off on his motorcycle, eventually stopping in a field, where they smoke marijuana and discover more about each other. At one point, Michael asks if she’s going to marry Charlie, to which she replies that she’s already done that and will not be doing it again. After talking and smoking, he recites some of his poetry for her and the two end up having sex. Some time later, Michael reveals that he wants Peggy Sue to go to Utah with him and another woman to join them in a polygamous marriage, where the two women can support him raising chickens while he writes. She tells him that he should go to Utah and that he should use their night together as the topic he writes about. During their conversation she hears someone singing and, recognizing the voice, she looks towards the stage to find that it’s Charlie. It’s at that moment that she realizes there is more to Charlie than she thought there was. Michael notices where her attention is drawn, becomes upset and, thinking that this means she is declining his offer so she can be with Charlie, is ready to leave. After Peggy Sue and Michael leave, Charlie auditions for a music agent and is rejected outright. The next day, when Peggy Sue tries to talk to him he lashes out at her, but ignoring his anger, she gives him a song she "wrote" for him, which is actually the song "She Loves You" by the Beatles. She leaves to say goodbye to Richard, stating that she wants to stop ruining her life and everyone's around her, especially Charlie's, since the reason he stopped singing is because she got pregnant with their daughter. Richard then proposes, but she refuses his proposal, thinking about how she doesn't want to marry anyone at this point and knowing he must become valedictorian. Confused, she visits her grandparents for her 18th birthday and, upon learning that her grandmother can see the future, she tells them her story. Her grandfather takes her to meet with his lodge buddies, where they perform a strange séance ritual to send her back to the year 1985. Peggy Sue then disappears from the lodge, having been picked up and carried away by Charlie, leaving everyone at the lodge thinking that the séance has worked. He tells her that he informed his dad that he gave up singing and was given 10% of the business so he can support her. He then proposes and gives her the locket she is seen wearing at the beginning of the film. When she looks inside the locket, she sees baby pictures of her and Charlie, which resemble their children. At this moment, Peggy Sue realizes just how much he truly loves her, and she him, and they kiss. They start to have sex, which will ultimately lead to Peggy becoming pregnant and marrying Charlie. In the next instant, Peggy Sue awakens in a hospital back in 1985, with Charlie at her side. He is deeply regretful for his adultery, and tells her he wants her back. When she questions him about his girlfriend Janet, he swears to her that it is over. It seems there is hope for a happy reconciliation when Peggy Sue looks at Charlie with new eyes and, citing a reference from her grandfather, who claimed it was her grandmother's strudel that kept the family together, tells him, "I’d like to invite you over to your house for dinner on Sunday with your kids. I’ll make a strudel." 

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The film is set in British East Africa in the early 20th century. Thousands of workers are building the Uganda Railway, Africa's first railroad, and intense heat and sickness make it a formidable task. Two men in charge of the mission are Bob Hayward and Dr. Angus McLean. A pair of man-eating lions are on the loose and completely disrupt the undertaking. Hayward desperately attempts to overcome the situation, but the slaughter continues. Britain sends three big-game hunters to kill the lions. With them comes Bob's wife. After the game hunters are killed by the lions, Bob sets out once and for all to kill them. A grim battle between Bob and the lions endangers both Bob and his wife. Bob kills the lions and proves he is not a weakling. 

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In April 2004, the president of Georgia is assassinated, allowing Georgian billionaire Kombayn Nikoladze to seize power with a bloodless coup d'état. In August 2004, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer and Gulf War veteran Sam Fisher is recruited by the National Security Agency to work within its newly formed division, "Third Echelon". Working with his old friend Irving Lambert, Fisher is introduced to technical expert Anna "Grim" Grimsdóttír, and field runner Vernon Wilkes Jr. In October 2004, Fisher is dispatched to Tbilisi, Georgia to investigate the disappearance of two CIA officers. Fisher attempts to meet an informant, Thomas Gurgenidze, only to find him dying in a burning building. Gurgenidze warns that one agent's transmission mentioned proof that could cause a war. Finding the agents' corpses in a police morgue, Fisher learns that a former Spetsnaz member, Vyacheslav Grinko, removed their subdermal tracking implants. Further investigation of Grinko's license plate number using CCTV leads Third Echelon to tracks him to the Georgian defense ministry headquarters. Fisher arrives at the Ministry, and records a meeting between Grinko and Canadian hacker Phillip Masse, through which he learns that Nikoladze is committing atrocities in Azerbaijan. Fisher hacks Nikoladze's computer, and learns Nikoladze has been waging an ethnic cleansing campaign across Azerbaijan, by deploying Georgian commandos. In retaliation, NATO forces enter Azerbaijan, prompting Nikoladze to go underground. Third Echelon learns that Georgian soldiers stationed on a Caspian oil rig have been exchanging data with the Georgian presidential palace. Fisher infiltrates the rig during the middle of a NATO airstrike to apprehend a local technician, Piotr Lejava, and retrieve his laptop containing the rig's computer data. After interrogating the technician, Fisher learns that the data contains a file on "The Ark"; he recovers the laptop and encryption key and exfiltrates before an airstrike hits the rig. Examining Lejava's laptop, Grim reveals that the leak was so substantial that only a CIA mole could have perpetrated it. Lambert then reveals that North America has just been hit by a massive cyber warfare attack, directed primarily against military targets. In a broadcast, Nikoladze claims responsibility for the attack and officially declares war on the United States and its allies. Fisher infiltrates the CIA headquarters and accesses the CIA computer mainframe, allowing Grim to trace the data leak to the computer of Mitchell Dougherty. Captured for interrogation, Dougherty claims ignorance of the leak, but the NSA learns that his obsessive–compulsive disorder caused him to back up data on an unsecured laptop, which was exploited by a Virginian-based network owned by Kalinatek, Inc. Georgian-hired mafiosos attempt to liquidate all the incriminating evidence of Nikoladze from the Kalinatek offices by destroying the building and murdering the staff. Intercepting a 911 call from a technician named Ivan, Fisher is deployed to the building and retrieves Ivan's encryption key while the FBI rescues Ivan. Fisher extracts with the help of Wilkes, who is mortally wounded in the process and later dies. Using the encryption key, the NSA discovers Nikoladze has been using a network of unconventional relays to communicate with Georgian military cells. The NSA traces the full relay network to the Chinese embassy in Yangon, Myanmar. Worried Chinese support could cause war with the U.S., Fisher sneaks into the embassy where he eavesdrops on a conversation between Nikoladze and Chinese general Kong Feirong. It then transpires that they are effectively in cahoots. Fisher learns that captured U.S. Army soldiers and high-ranking Chinese diplomats are being held hostage in a local slaughterhouse, so he delays interrogating Feirong to rescue them before they can be executed on a live web broadcast. Fisher meets with a Chinese diplomat among the hostages, and learns that Feirong is part of a rogue collective not backed by the Chinese government. Fisher is detected by Grinko, who attempts to slaughter the Americans and Chinese, but is killed in a firefight. Returning to the embassy, Fisher catches a drunken Feirong before he can commit suicide, and forces him to share the information stored on his computer; the information reveals Nikoladze has fled back to Georgia, where he is trying to activate a device known as "The Ark". Infiltrating the Georgian presidential palace where Nikoladze and new Georgian president Varlam Cristavi are, Fisher attempts to recover the key to the Ark, which he learns is in fact a nuclear suitcase bomb that has been placed somewhere in the United States. Fisher corners Nikoladze, who bargains to give the Ark key in exchange for safe passage out of Georgia; Fisher then recovers the key, at which point Cristavi's forces arrive and escort Nikoladze to safety. Before he is executed, Fisher escapes when Lambert's team creates a diversion via power blackout. Discovering Nikoladze is offering the Ark's location for protection, Fisher assassinates Nikoladze. When they locate the Ark, the National Guard evacuates an apartment complex in Maryland citing a gas leak as cover, and secretly recovers the weapon. Despite a war being averted, Nikoladze's corpse sparks international backlash due to the suspicious circumstances around his death. Watching the U.S. president give a speech on the end of the crisis, Fisher then receives a secure phone call from Lambert for another assignment. 

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The first game explains that "Splinter Cell" refers to an elite recon-type unit of single covert operatives (such as Sam Fisher) who are supported in the field by a high-tech remote team. In the first three games (Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory), terrorists are planning attacks, usually by use of information warfare, which Sam Fisher, an operative for Third Echelon, a secret branch of the NSA, must prevent. The missions range from gathering intelligence to capturing and/or eliminating terrorists. In the fourth game, Double Agent, Fisher assumes the identity of a wanted criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist ring. The fifth game, Conviction, starts after events in the conclusion of Double Agent: Sam has abandoned Third Echelon. When he discovers that the death of his daughter Sarah had not been an accident (as had been purported at the beginning of Double Agent), he strikes out on his own in search of those responsible until Sam's investigation uncovers a conspiracy within his old agency. In the sixth and most recent game, Blacklist, Third Echelon has been disbanded by the President of the United States. A new outfit, Fourth Echelon, is formed by the President and placed under the command of Sam Fisher with the mission of stopping the Blacklist attacks and the Engineers - the organization behind them. Blacklist deals with the morality of war and how far Sam and his team go in order to prevent these plots against America. 

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Lovers Lula and Sailor are separated after he is jailed for killing a man who attacked him with a knife; the assailant, Bobby Ray Lemon, was hired by Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune. Upon Sailor's release, Lula picks him up outside prison, where she hands him his snakeskin jacket. They go to a hotel where she reserved a room, make love and go to see the speed metal band Powermad. At the club, Sailor gets into a fight with a man who flirts with Lula, and then leads the band in a rendition of the Elvis Presley song "Love Me". Later, back in their hotel room, after making love again, Sailor and Lula finally decide to run away to California, breaking Sailor's parole. Marietta arranges for private detective Johnnie Farragut — her on-off boyfriend — to find them and bring them back. But unbeknownst to Farragut, Marietta also hires gangster Marcello Santos to track them and kill Sailor. Santos's minions capture and kill Farragut, sending Marietta into a guilt-fueled psychosis. Unaware of all of the events happening back in North Carolina, Lula and Sailor continue on their way until — according to Lula — they witness a bad omen: the aftermath of a two-car accident, and the only survivor, a young woman, dying in front of them. With little money left, Sailor heads for Big Tuna, Texas, where he contacts 'old friend' Perdita Durango, who might be able to help them, although she secretly knows he is under contract to be killed by Lula's mother. While Sailor agrees to join up with gangster Bobby Peru in a feed store robbery, Lula waits for him in the hotel room, trying to conceal that she is pregnant with Sailor's child. While Sailor is out, Peru enters the room and threatens to sexually assault Lula, forcing her to ask him to have sex with her, before leaving, stating he has no time. This traumatizes Lula, who was raped as a child. The robbery goes spectacularly wrong when Peru unnecessarily shoots the two clerks. Peru then admits to Sailor that he has been hired to kill him, and Sailor realizes he has been given a pistol with dummy ammunition. Chasing Sailor out of the store, Peru is about to kill him when the sheriff's deputy opens fire on him and Peru accidentally blows his own head off with his own shotgun. Sailor is arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. While Sailor is in jail, Lula has their child. Upon his release, Lula decides to reunite with him. Rejecting her mother's objections over the phone, she throws water over her mother's photograph and goes to pick up Sailor with their son. When they meet Sailor, he reveals he will be leaving them both, having decided whilst in prison that he is not good enough for them. While he is walking a short distance away, Sailor encounters a gang who surround him. He insults them, and they quickly knock him out. While unconscious, he sees a vision in the form of Glinda the Good Witch, who tells him, 'Don't turn away from love, Sailor.' When he awakens, Sailor apologizes to the men, tells them he realizes the error of his ways, and then runs after Lula. The photograph of Marietta, in Lula's house, sizzles and vanishes. As there is a traffic jam on the road, Sailor begins to run over the roofs and hoods of the cars to get back to Lula and their child in the car. Sailor sings "Love Me Tender" to Lula, having earlier said that he would only sing that song to his wife. 

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In London, sand is put into the bearings of an electrical generator, causing a power blackout. At a cinema owned by Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), people demand their money back. Verloc enters through a back entrance to the living quarters above, but when his wife (Sylvia Sidney) comes for him, he pretends to have been asleep. He instructs her to refund the money, saying he has "some money coming in" anyway. As the money is about to be disbursed to the customers downstairs, the lights go back on. The next day, Verloc meets his contact. They are part of a gang of terrorists from an unnamed European country who are planning a series of attacks in London, though no exact motive is made clear. Verloc's contact is disappointed that the newspapers mocked the short loss of electricity, and instructs Verloc to place a parcel of "fireworks" at the Piccadilly Circus tube station on Saturday, during the Lord Mayor's Show. Verloc is not comfortable with killing, but his contact says to get someone else to do it. Verloc is given the address of a bird shop, whose owner also makes bombs. Scotland Yard suspects Verloc's involvement in the plot and has placed Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer (John Loder) undercover as a greengrocer's helper next to the cinema. He befriends Mrs. Verloc and her little brother, Stevie (Desmond Tester), who lives with them, by treating them to a meal at Simpson's. At this point, Spencer and Scotland Yard are unsure whether Mrs. Verloc is complicit in the terrorist plots or innocently unaware; but by the end of the meal, he is convinced she is innocent and is falling for her. Verloc goes to the bird shop. The bomb-maker says he will prepare a time bomb and set it to explode at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday. Later that night, members of the terrorist group meet in Verloc's living room above the cinema. Detective Spencer attempts to eavesdrop on the conversation, but is seen and recognized. The meeting ends abruptly and the members scatter, worried that they are all being followed. Verloc tells his wife the police are investigating him, but maintains his innocence. The next day, Verloc receives a package containing two caged canaries – a present for Stevie – and the bomb. Spencer shows up with Stevie and tells Mrs. Verloc of Scotland Yard's suspicions. Verloc sees them talking, and becomes nervous. Before he can be questioned, Verloc asks Stevie to deliver a film canister to another cinema, and since it is on his way, to deposit another package in the cloakroom at Piccadilly Circus station by 1:30 p.m. He says it contains projector parts to be repaired and the repairman will collect it there. Unknowingly carrying the time bomb for Verloc, Stevie is delayed by several events, including the Lord Mayor's Show procession. Now late, Stevie manages to talk himself aboard a bus to Piccadilly Circus, even though flammable nitrate film is not allowed on public vehicles. The bomb explodes on the bus, killing Stevie and others. Verloc confesses to his wife, but blames Scotland Yard and Spencer for Stevie's death, since they were the ones who prevented Verloc from delivering the bomb himself. Soon afterwards, as they are preparing to eat dinner, she becomes afraid of him and stabs him to death with a knife. When Spencer arrives to arrest Verloc he realises what has happened, but he insists that she should not admit stabbing her husband. Even if it was self-defense, she might not be believed in court. Spencer plans to abandon his career and leave the country with her. The bomb-maker goes to Verloc's flat to retrieve the birdcage in case it might incriminate him, but the police, who already suspect him, follow him. When they arrive, Mrs. Verloc tries to confess, but moments after she says her husband is dead, the bomb-maker sets off a bomb he was carrying, killing himself and destroying Verloc's body. Afterwards, the police superintendent is unsure whether she spoke before or after the explosion. 

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Dr. Ethan Urquhart, Chief of Biology at the Sevarin District Reproduction Centre on Athos, is upset to find that his long-awaited shipment of ovarian tissue cultures from off-planet consists of an unusable mixture of dead and animal tissues. An exclusively male-populated planetary colony, continuing reproduction on Athos relies on uterine replicator technology, but the centuries-old cultures introduced by the original colonists have recently begun deteriorating into senescence. With their entire shipment purchased from the planet Jackson's Whole inexplicably consisting of genetic trash, the Population Council of Athos sends a reluctant Ethan offworld in search of a fresh batch of tissue cultures and (if possible) a refund from the original supplier, House Bharaputra. This is a very daring assignment as it means contact with women, who Athosians are taught are demonic and terrifying. Ethan arrives at the interstellar hub of Kline Station and immediately encounters his first woman, Commander Elli Quinn, a rather unorthodox intelligence officer with the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet (and a subordinate of Admiral Naismith's). Though she is pleasant and even helpful, Ethan is wary of her. He is soon abducted and interrogated by military agents from Cetaganda who are seeking a fugitive named Terrence Cee as well as their own lost tissue cultures. They refuse to believe that Ethan is not an opposing intelligence operative. Elli rescues Ethan from certain execution. They become reluctant allies as Elli explains that she has actually been hired by House Bharaputra to track the Cetagandans, and for her own reasons determine what their interest is in the tissue cultures and how it relates to a secret Cetagandan research project. Terrence approaches Ethan with a request for asylum, revealing himself to be the last survivor of a Cetagandan genetic project to create telepaths. Although his telepathy is reliable, it has a small range and can only be triggered for a short amount of time by ingesting large doses of the amino acid tyramine. Terrance’s female counterpart, Janine, had been killed in their escape, but he managed to preserve her body and transport it to Jackson's Whole, where he paid House Bharaputra to splice her genes into the ovarian cultures that were intended for Athos. Terrence had planned to also emigrate to Athos with the cultures, but had been delayed on his way to Kline Station, and is now horrified to learn that the cultures were stolen and replaced by the useless material that ultimately arrived on Athos. The Cetagandans had tracked Terrence to Jackson's Whole; arriving after his departure, they had killed the Bharaputra researchers who had worked with him and destroyed their records. They then traced the tissue shipment to Kline Station, knowing Terrence would eventually come for it, though they have no knowledge of what happened to the original cultures and are desperate to reclaim them. Elli and Ethan manage to have the Cetagandans seized by Kline Station security, just as they discover that a minor official at the station had, for petty personal reasons, "thrown out" the Bharaputran tissue cultures that contained Janine's genes and replaced them with the useless biological material. Elli attempts to recruit Terrence for the Dendarii; he refuses, but gives Elli a small genetic sample. Meanwhile, Ethan asks Elli for (and receives) one of her ovaries to create a new tissue culture. After her departure, the original Bharaputran shipment unexpectedly turns up intact and usable, not destroyed. Ethan buys a new set of ovarian cultures from Beta Colony anyway as a cover, uses their packaging to relabel the cultures with Janine's genes, and returns with them and Terrence to Athos. 

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The novel's protagonist, Iris Chase, and her sister Laura, grow up well-off but motherless in a small town in southern Ontario. As an old woman, Iris recalls the events and relationships of her childhood, youth and middle age, including her unhappy marriage to Toronto businessman Richard Griffen. The book includes a novel within a novel, a roman à clef attributed to Laura but published by Iris. It is about Alex Thomas, a politically radical author of pulp science fiction who has an ambiguous relationship with the sisters. That embedded story itself contains a third tale, the eponymous Blind Assassin, a science fiction story told by Alex's fictional counterpart to the second novel's protagonist, believed to be Laura's fictional counterpart. The novel takes the form of a gradual revelation illuminating both Iris's youth and her old age before coming to the pivotal events of her and Laura's lives around the time of the Second World War. Laura and Iris live in a house called Avilion. Their mother dies at a young age leaving Reenie, the caretaker, to take on full responsibility for the girls. As the novel unfolds, and the novel-within-a-novel becomes ever more obviously inspired by real events, Iris, not Laura, is revealed to be the novel-within-a-novel's true author and protagonist. Though the novel-within-a-novel had long been believed to be inspired by Laura's romance with Alex, it is revealed that The Blind Assassin was written by Iris based on her extramarital affair with Alex. Iris later published the work in Laura's name after Laura committed suicide upon learning of Alex's death in the war. Following the suicide, Iris realizes through her sister's journals that Richard had been raping Laura for much of their marriage, blackmailing her to comply with him by threatening to turn Alex in to the authorities. Iris takes her young daughter Aimee and flees her home, threatening to reveal that Richard had impregnated Laura and forced an abortion on her. This move estranges Iris from the last people who were supporting her, and creates bitterness between her and the grown Aimee. Iris deceives Richard into believing that Laura was the one having an affair with Alex Thomas, which drives him to commit suicide. The novel ends as Iris dies, leaving the truth to be discovered in her unpublished autobiography that she leaves to her sole surviving granddaughter. The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in the Toronto of the 1930s and 1940s. It is a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop. Greater verisimilitude is given by a series of newspaper articles commenting on events and on the novel's characters from a distance. 

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The Beatles evade a horde of fans while boarding a train for London. En route, they meet Paul's trouble-making grandfather for the first time; he becomes so much of a nuisance that Paul has him locked up in the guards van, but he and the others soon join him inside. They play cards and entertain some schoolgirls before arriving at the London station, where they're quickly driven to a hotel and begin to feel cooped up. Their manager Norm tasks them with answering all their fan mail, but they sneak out to party, only to be caught by Norm and taken back. They then find out that the grandfather went to a gambling club using an invitation sent to Ringo, and, after a brief dust-up, they bring him back to the hotel. The next day, they arrive at a TV studio for a performance. After the initial rehearsal, the producer thinks they're out to sabotage his career (thanks to something the grandfather said). There is a press conference, where the Beatles are bored by the mundane questioning. They leave through a fire escape and cavort in a field until forced off by the owner. Back in the studios, they are separated when a woman named Millie recognizes John but cannot recall who he is. George is lured into a trendmonger's office to audition for an ad with a popular female model. The boys all return to rehearse a second song, and after a quick trip to makeup, smoothly go through a third and earn a break. With an hour before the final run-through, Ringo is forced to chaperone Paul's grandfather and takes him to the canteen for tea while he reads a book. The grandfather manipulates Ringo into going outside to experience life rather than reading books, passing a surprised John and Paul on the way out. He tries to have a quiet drink in a pub, takes pictures, walks alongside a canal and rides a bicycle along a railway station platform.This scene was filmed at Crowcombe Heathfield Station on the West Somerset Railway While the other three search in vain for Ringo, he is arrested on suspicion and taken to a police station, where Paul's grandfather joins him shortly after attempting to sell Beatles photos with forged signatures. The grandfather makes a break for it, runs back to the studio and tells the others about Ringo. Norm sends John, Paul and George to retrieve him. While doing so, the boys wind up in a Keystone Cops-style foot chase before arriving back at the studio with Ringo, with only minutes to spare before airtime. The televised concert goes on as planned, after which the Beatles are whisked away to another performance via helicopter. 

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The opening credits, consisting entirely of roles filled by Newland himself, scroll over an animated image of the character Bambi serenely grazing while the Call to the Dairy Cows from Rossini's opera William Tell (1829) plays in the background. After the credits, Bambi looks up to see Godzilla's foot coming down, squashing him flat (set to the final chord of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life" slowed down to half speed). After a moment, the closing credits appear alongside the image of Godzilla's foot atop Bambi. The closing credits give grateful acknowledgement to the city of Tokyo "for their help in obtaining Godzilla for this film". Godzilla's toe claws wiggle once and the cartoon ends. 

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Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds in Holiday Inn Jim Hardy, Ted Hanover, and Lila Dixon have a popular New York City musical act. On Christmas Eve, Jim prepares for his final performance before retiring with Lila to a farm in Connecticut. Lila tells Jim she has fallen in love with Ted instead; heartbroken, Jim bids them goodbye. The following Christmas Eve, Jim is back in New York City, with plans to turn his farm into “Holiday Inn,” an entertainment venue open only on holidays, to the amusement of Ted and his agent Danny Reed. Danny is accosted by aspiring performer Linda Mason; he refers her to Holiday Inn and Ted's club. There, Linda encounters Jim, who pretends to own a rival club, while Linda pretends to be a celebrity friend of Ted's, but escapes when Ted and Lila approach. On Christmas Day, Linda arrives at Holiday Inn and meets Jim, realizing their deception. Jim sings Linda his new song, "White Christmas". On New Year's Eve, Holiday Inn opens to a packed house. Ted learns that Lila is leaving him for a Texas millionaire. Drinking heavily, he arrives at Holiday Inn at midnight and finds Linda. They dance, and the inebriated Ted brings down the house. Danny arrives and is ecstatic that Ted has found a new partner, but in the morning, Ted does not remember Linda. Jim hides Linda, afraid Ted will steal her away. On Lincoln's Birthday, Ted and Danny search for Linda, but Jim runs the minstrel show number "Abraham" to foil them. While applying Linda's blackface makeup, Jim asks her to stay with him between holidays, which she interprets as a proposal. Empty- handed, Ted and Danny plan to return. Rehearsing for Valentine's Day, Jim presents Linda with a new song, "Be Careful, It's My Heart". Ted arrives, and launches into an impromptu dance with Linda. Recognizing her from New Year's Eve, Ted demands that Jim prepare them a number to perform. On Washington's Birthday, Ted and Linda perform in elaborate 18th century period costumes, while Jim sabotages their tempo from a minuet to jazz every time they attempt to kiss. Linda refuses Ted’s offer to become his dance partner, saying that she and Jim are to be married. When Ted asks him about the marriage, Jim plays it off, but Ted is unconvinced. At Easter, romance blossoms between Jim and Linda. They are met by Ted, who asks to remain in Jim’s shows to experience "the true happiness" they have found. Linda is charmed, but Jim is suspicious. Jim's apprehensions are confirmed on Independence Day when he overhears Ted and Danny discussing an offer from Hollywood representatives, who will use that night's show to audition Ted and Linda for motion pictures. Jim bribes hired hand Gus to stall Linda. Gus drives Linda into a creek, but she is picked up by Lila. Having left the millionaire, Lila tells Linda that Lila will be Ted's partner for the studio tryout. Assuming that Jim arranged for Lila to take her place, Linda directs Lila into the creek. At the inn, Ted is forced to improvise solo. Linda arrives to discover Ted has impressed the studio honchos. Irritated that Jim did not trust her to make her own decision, Linda leaves for Hollywood. Jim reluctantly agrees to let the producers make a film about Holiday Inn. Thanksgiving finds the inn closed and Jim depressed. He prepares to mail Hollywood his new song, which he plays to his own negative commentary. His housekeeper Mamie implores him to win Linda back. Jim arrives in California on Christmas Eve, just as Ted is preparing to marry Linda. Jim confronts Ted in his dressing room, then locks him inside. On the set of Linda’s movie, a recreation of Holiday Inn, Jim leaves his pipe on the piano and hides as Linda enters and performs "White Christmas". Noticing the pipe, she falters, then continues as Jim's voice joins her. Jim appears and Linda runs to him as the director yells, "Cut!" At Holiday Inn on New Year's Eve, Ted is reunited with Lila, and Jim and Linda prepare for life together at the inn. 

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Corky, a lesbian ex-con, is hired as a painter and plumber at an apartment building. She encounters Violet and Caesar, the couple who live next-door to the apartment she is renovating. While Caesar is gone, Violet deliberately drops an earring down the sink; the building owner sends Corky to retrieve it. Violet admits she dropped the earring on purpose and starts to seduce Corky. They are interrupted by Caesar's arrival and Corky returns to work. When she leaves for the day, Violet follows her to her truck. They go to Corky's apartment and have sex. The next morning, Violet tells Corky that Caesar is a money launderer for the Mafia and they have been together for five years. Later, Violet overhears Caesar and his mob associates beating and torturing Shelly, a man who has been skimming money from the business. Upset by the violence, Violet seeks solace from Corky. She tells Corky that she wants to make a new life for herself, but that she needs her help. Knowing that Caesar will bring the nearly $2 million that Shelly embezzled back to the apartment, the two women hatch a scheme to steal the money. After Shelly is shot and killed by Johnnie, the son of Mafia boss Gino Marzzone, Caesar returns to the apartment with a bag of bloody money. Angry at Johnnie for killing Shelly in a fit of rage and splattering blood everywhere, Caesar proceeds to wash, iron and hang the money to dry. Violet explains to Corky that Caesar and Johnnie hate each other, and that Gino and Johnnie will be coming to pick up the money from Caesar. Corky devises a plan: when Caesar has finished counting the money, he will shower to unwind. While he does, Violet will purposely drop a bottle of Glenlivet scotch that Gino prefers and tell Caesar that she is going to buy more. As she leaves the apartment, Corky will enter, steal the money from a briefcase, and leave. Violet will then return with the scotch and tell Caesar that she just saw Johnnie leave. Suspicious, Caesar will check the briefcase, find the money gone, and assume Johnnie has taken it. Corky and Violet think Caesar will be forced to flee because Gino will assume he has been robbed by Caesar, not his son Johnnie. When Caesar finds the money gone, he realizes Gino will think he stole it if he runs and decides to get the money back from Johnnie. Panicking, Violet threatens to leave, but Caesar forces her to stay, suspecting she and Johnnie may have stolen the money and framed him. Corky waits next-door with the money while Gino and Johnnie arrive. After Johnnie flirts with Violet and taunts him, Caesar pulls out a gun and tells Gino that his son stole the money. He kills Gino, Johnnie and Roy, Gino's bodyguard. Caesar tells Violet that they must find the money, dispose of the bodies, and pretend Gino and Johnnie never arrived lest their mob pals discover the men are missing. Unable to find the money at Johnnie's apartment, Caesar telephones Mickey, a mob buddy, telling him that Gino has yet to arrive. After discovering Corky and Violet stole the money, Caesar ties them up, threatens to torture them, and demands to know where it is. When Mickey arrives at the apartment, Caesar makes a deal with Violet to help him stall. Violet calls their landline from Johnnie's cell phone and convinces Caesar to feign a conversation with Gino explaining that he and Johnnie are in the hospital after a car accident. The ruse fools Mickey, who leaves for the hospital. Corky tells Caesar she has hidden the money in the next-door apartment and he goes to retrieve it. Violet escapes and calls Mickey, telling him that Caesar stole the money and forced her to keep quiet. Corky tries to stop Caesar from taking the money, but he beats her violently. Violet arrives and holds Caesar at gunpoint; she informs him Mickey is on his way and that he should run while he can. When Caesar refuses, Violet kills him. Later, Mickey, who believes Violet's story, tells her that he will find Caesar. Mickey wants Violet to be his girlfriend, but she tells him that she needs a clean break—which she makes by driving off hand-in-hand with Corky. 

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Jesminder "Jess" Bhamra is the 18-year-old daughter of British Indian Sikhs living in Hounslow, London. Juliette "Jules" Paxton is the same age and the daughter of a white English family. Jess is infatuated with football, but because she is a woman, her conservative family won't let her play. However, she sometimes plays in the park with boys, including her best friend, Tony, a closeted gay man. Jules' father meanwhile is supportive of her passion for football while her mother unsuccessfully tries to steer her more towards non-sporting girly activities. Whilst on a jog through the park, Jules discovers Jess's skills, befriends her, and invites her to try out for the local women's football team, the Hounslow Harriers coached by Joe. Jess is extremely happy and excited about the tryouts, even though Joe is sceptical about a new player joining the team. After seeing Jess's skills, Joe accepts her on the team and Jess lies to Joe about her parents being cool with the idea. Jess's parents eventually discover that Jess has been playing football behind their backs. They become more strict and forbid Jess to play in any more matches. The elder Bhamras are also distracted by their elaborate wedding plans for Jess's older sister, Pinky. Thanks to the skills of Jess and Jules, the Harriers reach the finals of the league tournament. Unfortunately, the finals and Pinky's wedding fall on the same day. Joe pleads with Mr. Bhamra to allow Jess to play, but Mr. Bhamra refuses, which reveals that he does not want Jess to suffer the way he did when he was excluded from a cricket club because of being Indian. Jess develops an attraction toward Joe, and when the team plays in Hamburg and goes out clubbing, they're caught by Jules when about to kiss. Jules also has a crush on Joe, and this sours the two girls' friendship, as Jules is adamant that she had told Jess about her crush. Jess's lie is uncovered again when Mr. Bhamra sees a picture from Hamburg in the newspaper. Jess goes to Jules's house to try to patch up their friendship, but Jules's mother is misled and thinks they're hiding a lesbian relationship. Jess tries to accept life without football and throwing herself into Pinky's wedding preparations, while Joe tells Jules that an American scout is touted to attend the final. Jules tries to convince Jess to play the final despite their now-tense relationship and Joe on the eve of Pinky's wedding tries to convince Mr. Bhamra one last time. Joe accepts that Jess is not allowed to play and the final begins without her. But at Pinky's wedding Jess is miserable, so Tony convinces Mr. Bhamra to let Jess go. Having previously seen Jess play and somehow convinced by it, he reluctantly agrees, and Tony drives Jess to the game, where the Harriers are losing 1–0 with half an hour left. Jess and Jules equalize, and when Jess is awarded a free kick, she must bend the ball around the wall of players to score. She succeeds and the Harriers win the tournament. Jess and Jules are offered sports scholarships at Santa Clara University in California, which Jules tells her parents immediately, whereas Jess has trouble telling hers. Jules and her mother arrive at Pinky's wedding so that Jules can celebrate with Jess. But when Mrs. Paxton accuses Jess of being a hypocrite and a lesbian (which shows that she is homophobic), Jules grabs her arm and runs off in shame. Jess has still not told her parents about the scholarship – she is afraid they might not allow her to go to the United States on her own. Tony, out of friendship for Jess, decides to lie to the family and tell them he is engaged to Jess as long as she gets to go to any college she wants. Jess reveals the lie and her mother blames Jess's father for allowing her to play. Jess's father convinces her mother to accept Jess's wishes after telling her he doesn't want Jess to suffer as he did. Jess flees to the football field to tell Joe of her parents' decision. The two almost kiss, but Jess pulls away, saying her parents would object, and that although they had come far enough to let her go to America to play, she doesn't think they would be able to handle another cultural rebellion from her. On the day of Jess and Jules's flight to America, Jules's mother gives her daughter a football jersey and wishes her good luck, this being her way of telling her daughter that she has accepted Jules's decision. The two are about to board the plane when Joe arrives and confesses his love for Jess. The two kiss and Jess agrees to sort out their relationship (and her parents) when she returns for Christmas. While at the airport, they see David Beckham with his wife Victoria, which Jules takes as a sign. At a short undisclosed time later, Jess and Jules send their parents a team photograph, and it is revealed that Pinky is pregnant. Finally, Mr. Bhamra is seen practicing cricket with Joe's help. 

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In 1931, two sisters14-year-old Molly and 8-year-old Daisyand their 10-year-old cousin Gracie live in the Western Australian town of Jigalong. The town lies along the northern part of one of the fences making up Australia's rabbit-proof fence (called Number One Fence), which runs for over one thousand miles. Over a thousand miles away in Perth, the official Protector of Western Australian Aborigines, A. O. Neville (called Mr. Devil by them), signs an order to relocate the three girls to the Moore River Native Settlement. The children are referred to by Neville as "half-castes", because they have one white and one Aboriginal parent. Neville's reasoning is portrayed as: the Aboriginal people of Australia are a danger to themselves, and the "half- castes" must be bred out of existence. He plans to place the girls in a camp where they, along with all half-castes of that age range, both boys and girls, will grow up. They will then presumably become labourers and servants to white families, regarded as a "good" situation for them in life. Eventually if they marry, it will be to white people and thus the Aboriginal "blood" will diminish. As such, the three girls are forcibly taken from their families at Jigalong by a local constable, Riggs, and sent to the camp at the Moore River Native Settlement, in the south west, about 90 km (55 miles) north of Perth. Map of the rabbit-proof fence showing the trip from Moore River to Jigalong During their time at the camp, Molly notices a rain cloud in the sky and infers that if she, Gracie and Daisy were to escape and go back to Jigalong on foot, the rain will cover their tracks, making them difficult to follow. Gracie and Daisy decide to go along with Molly and the three girls sneak off without being noticed. On the same day, however, their absence is noted, and Aboriginal tracker, Moodoo, is called in to find them. However, the girls are well trained in disguising their tracks. They evade Moodoo several times, receiving aid from strangers in the harsh Australian country they travel. They eventually find the rabbit-proof fence, knowing they can follow it north to Jigalong. Neville soon figures out their strategy and sends Moodoo and Riggs after them. Although he is an experienced tracker, Moodoo is unable to find them. Neville spreads word that Gracie's mother is waiting for her in the town of Wiluna. The information finds its way to an Aboriginal traveller who "helps" the girls. He tells Gracie about her mother and says they can get to Wiluna by train, causing her to leave the other two girls in an attempt to catch a train to Wiluna. Molly and Daisy soon walk after her and find her at a train station. They are not reunited, however, as Riggs appears and Gracie is recaptured. The betrayal is revealed by Riggs, who tells the man he will receive a shilling for his help. Knowing they are powerless to aid her, Molly and Daisy continue their journey. In the end, after a nine-week journey through the harsh Australian outback, having walked the 2,400 km (1,500 miles) route along the fence, the two sisters return home and go into hiding in the desert with their mother and grandmother. Meanwhile, Neville realizes he can no longer afford the search for Molly and Daisy and decides to end it. 

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Outside the snowy mountain town of Lahood, California, thugs working for big-time miner Coy LaHood destroy the camp of a group of prospectors and their families. They shoot a dog belonging to 14-year-old Megan Wheeler, who prays for a miracle as she buries its body in the woods. Thunder rolls and a stranger rides down the slopes. Megan's mother, Sarah, is being courted by Hull Barret. When Hull heads to town to pick up supplies, four of the thugs begin to beat him with axe staves, but he is rescued by the stranger. Hull then invites his rescuer to dinner and, while the stranger is washing, notices what look like six bullet wounds in his back. When the stranger appears at the dinner table, he is wearing a clerical collar and is thereafter called "Preacher". Coy LaHood's son Josh attempts to scare off the Preacher with a show of strength from his giant work hand, Club, who breaks a large rock in half with a single hammer blow. Club attempts to attack the Preacher, who hits Club in the face with his hammer and delivers a blow to the groin, then gently helps him onto his horse. Afterwards the miners work together to smash the rest of the boulder. Meanwhile, Coy LaHood returns from Sacramento and is furious to learn about the Preacher’s arrival, saying that this would strengthen the resolve of the prospectors. Failing to bribe the Preacher into settling in the town, LaHood is persuaded to offer the miners $1000 per claim provided they evacuate within 24 hours. LaHood threatens to hire a corrupt marshal named Stockburn to clear them out if they refuse. The miners initially consider the offer but, when Hull reminds them of their purpose and sacrifices, they decide to stay and fight. Next morning, the Preacher leaves without notice and retrieves his revolver from a bank box. Meanwhile, the miners find that LaHood's men have dammed the creek running through their camp. They agree to stay and continue panning the drying creek bed. Megan rides into the LaHood strip mining camp where Josh attempts to rape her while his cohorts encourage him. The Preacher arrives on horseback and rescues Megan, shooting Josh in the hand in the process. Now Stockburn and his six deputies arrive at the town. LaHood describes the Preacher to Stockburn, who appears startled and says that it sounds like someone he once knew but who is now dead. Spider Conway, a miner at the camp, recovers a large gold nugget and rides into town, where he yells drunken abuse at LaHood from the street. After gunning him down, Stockburn tells Spider's sons to tell the Preacher to meet him in town the next morning. Sarah goes to the barn where the Preacher is sleeping and it is implied they have sex. The following day, the Preacher and Hull blow up LaHood's site with dynamite. To stop Hull from following him, the Preacher scares off Hull's horse and rides into town alone. In the gunfight that follows, he kills all but the two of LaHood's men who run away, and then, one by one, all six of Stockburn's deputies as they spread through the town searching for him. When he goes face-to-face with Stockburn, the latter recognizes him in disbelief and goes for his gun. The Preacher draws first, sending six bullets through his torso before shooting him in the head. LaHood, watching from his office, aims a rifle at the Preacher but is shot by Hull and crashes through the window. The Preacher nods at Hull and remarks, "Long walk", before leading his horse from the stable and galloping toward the snow-capped mountains. Megan drives into town too late and shouts her love and thanks to the Preacher. Her words echo through the canyon as he rides off. 

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Attending a performance by impressionist Carlotta Adams, Hercule Poirot is approached by actress Jane Wilkinson. She requests his help in asking her husband Lord Edgware to divorce her. Poirot agrees, but is surprised to find that Edgware has already agreed to a divorce and sent a letter to his wife confirming this; Wilkinson denies receiving it. The following morning, Inspector Japp informs Poirot and his friend Arthur Hastings that Edgware was murdered at his home in Regent Gates the previous evening, stabbed in the neck. While Wilkinson was witnessed by Edgware's butler and his secretary visiting her husband that night, a morning newspaper reveals she attended a dinner party that evening, whose guests confirm this. Poirot soon becomes concerned for Adams' safety, recalling she could impersonate Wilkinson. She is found dead that same morning, from an overdose of Veronal. Seeking answers, Poirot makes note of a few facts: Bryan Martin, a former lover of Wilkinson before she met the wealthy Duke of Merton, bitterly describes her as an amoral person; Donald Ross, a guest at the party, witnessed her take a telephone call from someone that night; Adams possessed a pair of pince-nez, along with a gold case that contained the drug, which has a puzzling inscription in it; Edgware's nephew, Ronald Marsh, had been cut off from his allowance by his uncle three months earlier; a sum of francs in Edgware's possession has disappeared, along with the butler. Learning Adams had sent a letter to her sister in America before her death, Poirot makes a request for it. A copy is sent via telegram, from which it reveals that Adams was offered $10,000 to help with a small bet; Poirot suspects she was hired to impersonate Wilkinson. Japp soon arrests Marsh, based on this letter. Marsh denies hiring Adams or killing his uncle, but states that he and his cousin Geraldine went to Regent Gates on the night of the murder, where he spotted Martin entering the house while she was getting something for him. Poirot later receives the original letter in the post, and notes some oddities with it. Hastings attends a luncheon party along with Wilkinson and Ross, in which the guests talk about Paris of Troy. Wilkinson presumes they are talking of the French capital. Ross, puzzled by this, confides his concerns to Hastings. He later telephones Poirot, but is fatally stabbed before he can explain in detail. Seeking a theory, Poirot overhears a chance remark from a crowd leaving a theatre, which leads him to talk with Wilkinson's maid Ellis. Gathering the suspects together, Poirot reveals to all that the killer in all three murders is Jane Wilkinson. Her motive in killing Lord Edgware is that the Duke of Merton was an Anglo- Catholic and would not marry a divorced woman. She recruited Adams to impersonate her at the dinner party, while she killed her husband, and then killed Adams afterwards with a fatal dose of Veronal. The women met at a hotel to exchange clothing before and after the party. While waiting for Adams to return from the party, Wilkinson discovers a letter among Adams's belongings that had yet to be posted and tampered with it, to implicate the last man it mentions for the murders. Ross was killed because he realised that Wilkinson did not attend the dinner party; her ignorance on Greek mythology gave her away, as Adams had been knowledgeable on the subject and thus talked about it while impersonating her. Poirot reveals what led him to his theory: Wilkinson lied about receiving her husband's letter and used Poirot to prove she had no motive for his murder; the telephone call to Adams was to confirm if their deception had yet to be exposed; the pince-nez belong to Ellis, used in a disguise that she and Wilkinson wore to keep their hotel meetings secret; the gold case was created a week prior to the murder, not nine months as its inscription implied - Wilkinson had it made under a false name and then sent Ellis to collect it; a corner of a page in Adams' letter was torn by Wilkinson, changing the word "she" to "he", to falsely imply that Adams was hired by a man. He reveals that the butler stole the missing money, whom Marsh had witnessed entering Regent Gates to hide it elsewhere; his disappearance was because he panicked when the police sought another suspect. Wilkinson is arrested, and while in prison, writes to Poirot about wishing an audience for her hanging, having no anger or remorse at being foiled by him. 

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While recovering from an illness, Jane Marple goes out for a walk in St. Mary Mead and takes a fall. She encounters Heather Badcock, who brings her to her home and relates a story of meeting American actress Marina Gregg, who has moved to England to star in a film about Elisabeth of Austria and purchased Gossington Hall from Marple's friend Dolly Bantry. Gregg and her latest husband, producer Jason Rudd, host a fête at Gossington Hall in honor of St John Ambulance. Among the guests in attendance are Mrs Bantry, actress Lola Brewster, Gregg's personal friend Ardwyck Fenn, and Heather Badcock and her husband Arthur. All five are invited to a private room to meet Marina and have their picture taken. Upon meeting Gregg, Heather shares the story of meeting her in Bermuda and receiving her autograph, during which Mrs Bantry notices a strange look cross Gregg's face. Mrs Bantry then takes several other women to see the renovations made to the house only to be interrupted upon discovering Heather has collapsed without explanation. Despite all attempts to revive her, Heather is pronounced dead. Mrs. Bantry informs Marple about the events surrounding the fête and the frozen look on Marina's face, comparing it to a phrase from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott. Detective-Inspector Dermot Craddock spearheads the investigation, learning that Heather died as a result of ingesting six times the recommended dose of the tranquilizer Calmo. The drug had been slipped into a daiquiri that originally belonged to Gregg but was offered to Heather after someone jogged her arm and caused her to spill her drink. Operating on the assumption that Gregg was the intended target, Craddock proceeds to delve into her complicated past. Desperate to have a child of her own, she married several times but was unable to conceive. She then adopted three children but became pregnant and gave birth to a mentally disabled son before suffering a nervous breakdown. One of the children, Margot Bence, is revealed to have been present at Gossington Hall on the day of the fête but she denies killing Heather despite her hatred towards her adoptive mother. As the investigation continues, two more people are killed over the course of twenty-four hours. Rudd's social secretary, Ella Zielinsky, dies first from cyanide poisoning after the atomizer she uses for her hay fever is tainted with prussic acid. Later that night, Gregg's butler, Giuseppe, is shot twice in the back in his bedroom after spending the day in London and depositing £500 into his bank account. Ardwyck Fenn informs Craddock he received a phone call several days before, accusing him of killing Heather, and he recognized the anonymous caller as Ella when she sneezed. Marple's house cleaner, Cherry Baker, reveals her friend Gladys, who was a server at Gossington Hall on the day of the fête, told her she believes Heather deliberately spilled the cocktail and that she was going to meet Giuseppe before he died. After sending Gladys on a vacation to Bournemouth and phoning the vicar, she travels to Gossington Hall only to discover Gregg died in her sleep from an overdose. With Craddock and Rudd present, Marple reconstructs the moment when Heather recounted the story of her meeting Gregg in Bermuda, ultimately revealing that Gregg was the murderer all along. Heather, who was suffering from German measles at the time, was indirectly responsible for Gregg's son being born disabled and for Gregg herself suffering a nervous breakdown. Overcome with rage, Gregg doctored her own daiquiri before making it so that Heather drank it. She then tried to convince everyone the poisoned drink was meant for her and killed Ella and Giuseppe after they deduced she was the killer. Marple sent Gladys away to protect her from becoming Gregg's next victim. Marple then implies Rudd administered the overdose to protect her and to prevent her from taking another life. Rudd neither confirms nor denies her suspicions, instead commenting on his wife's beauty and the suffering she endured. 

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David Mann is a middle-aged salesman driving on a business trip. He encounters a dilapidated tanker truck in the Mojave Desert. Mann passes the truck but the truck speeds up and roars past him. When Mann overtakes and passes it again, the truck blasts its horn. Mann leaves it in the distance. Mann pulls into a gas station and shortly afterward the truck arrives and parks next to him. Mann phones his wife, who is upset with him after an argument the previous night. The station attendant tells Mann he needs a new radiator hose but Mann doesn’t believe the attendant's sincerity and declines the repair. The Peterbilt 281 tanker truck David Mann (Dennis Weaver) being chased by the truck Back on the road, the truck catches up, passes then blocks Mann's path each time he attempts to pass. After antagonizing Mann for awhile, the driver waves him past but Mann nearly hits an oncoming vehicle. Mann finally passes the truck using an unpaved turnout next to the highway then glances at his rear window and waves as the speed of the truck decreases. The truck then tailgates Mann's car at increasingly high speed. Mann swerves his car off the road, loses control, and crashes sideways into a fence across from a diner as the truck continues down the road. Mann then enters the restaurant to compose himself. Upon returning from the restroom, he sees the truck parked outside. He studies the patrons and confronts one he believes to be the truck driver. The offended patron beats Mann and leaves in a different truck. The pursuing truck leaves the diner seconds later, indicating that its driver had never entered the premises. Mann leaves the diner and soon stops to help a stranded school bus but his front bumper gets caught underneath the bus's rear bumper. The truck appears at the end of a tunnel, causing Mann to panic. He and the bus driver then free his car and Mann drives from the scene as the truck helps push the school bus onto the road. Shortly after, down the road, Mann stops at a railroad crossing waiting for a freight train to pass through. The truck appears from behind and pushes Mann's car towards the oncoming Southern Pacific freight train. The train passes, and Mann crosses the tracks and pulls over. The truck continues down the road and Mann slowly follows. In an attempt to create more distance between him and the truck, Mann drives at a very leisurely pace, as other motorists pass him. Once again, he encounters the truck, which has pulled off to the side of the road ahead, intentionally waiting for Mann. He pulls out in front of him and starts antagonizing him again. Mann stops at a gas station/roadside animal attraction to call the police and replace his radiator hose but when he steps into the phone booth, the truck drives into it, but Mann jumps clear just in time. The station owner cries out as the truck destroys her animals' cages. Mann jumps into his car and speeds away. Around a corner, he pulls off the road, hiding behind an embankment as the truck drives past. After a long wait, Mann heads off again but the truck is waiting for him again down the road. Mann attempts to speed past but it moves across the road, blocking him. Mann seeks help from an elderly couple in a car but they flee when the truck backs up towards them at high speed. The truck stops before hitting Mann's car and Mann speeds past the truck, which begins pursuing. Mann swerves towards what he believes is a police car, only to see it is a pest-control vehicle. The truck chases him up a mountain range. The faulty radiator hose of Mann's car breaks, causing the strained engine to overheat and begin failing. Losing speed, he barely reaches the summit but then coasts downhill in neutral as the truck follows. Mann spins out and crashes into a cliff wall, barely escaping being crushed by the truck. He manages to restart his car, then drive up a dirt road with the truck following him. He turns to face the truck in front of a canyon, locks the accelerator using his briefcase, then steers the car into the oncoming truck, jumping free at the last moment. The truck hits the car which bursts into flames, obscuring the driver's view. The truck plunges over the cliff, along with the car, as the driver sounds the truck's horn. Above the wreckage, Mann celebrates. He then sits at the cliff's edge and throws stones into the canyon as the sun begins to set. 

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The sorcerer Merlin retrieves Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake for Uther Pendragon, who secures a brief alliance with the Duke of Cornwall. Merlin agrees to help Uther seduce Cornwall's wife, Igrayne, on the condition that he give Merlin whatever results from his lust. Merlin transforms Uther into Cornwall's likeness with the Charm of Making. Cornwall's daughter Morgana senses her father's mortal injury during his assault on Uther's camp. While Igrayne is fooled and Uther impregnates her, Morgana sees through it, watching Uther as Cornwall dies in battle. Nine months later, Merlin takes Uther's son Arthur. Uther pursues but is killed by Cornwall's knights. Uther thrusts Excalibur into a stone, crying that "Nobody shall wield Excalibur, but me!", and Merlin proclaims, "He who draws the sword from the stone, he shall be king." Years later, Sir Ector and his sons, Kay and Arthur attend a jousting tournament. Sir Leondegrance wins the chance to try pulling Excalibur from the stone but fails. Kay's sword is later stolen, and Arthur pulls Excalibur from the stone while replacing it. Word spreads, and Merlin announces to the crowd that Arthur is Uther's son, the rightful ruler. Leondegrance immediately proclaims his support for the new king. While the others argue, the overwhelmed Arthur falls into a long sleep. When he wakes, Arthur helps Leondegrance, whose castle is under siege by Arthur's enemies, led by Sir Uryens. During the battle, Arthur defeats Uryens and demands Uryens knight him, handing him Excalibur. Uryens is tempted to kill him but is deeply moved by Arthur's faith and knights him. Uryens falls to his knees to declare his loyalty, which leads the others to follow suit. Arthur meets Leondegrance's daughter Guinevere and is smitten, but Merlin foresees trouble. Years later, the undefeated knight Lancelot blocks a bridge and will not move until he is defeated in single combat, seeking a king worthy of his sword. Lancelot defeats Arthur and his knights, so Arthur summons Excalibur's magic and defeats Lancelot, but breaks Excalibur in the process. Arthur is ashamed of abusing the sword's power to serve his own vanity and throws the sword's remains into the lake. The Lady of the Lake restores Excalibur to the king, Lancelot is revived, and Arthur and his knights unify the land. Arthur creates the Round Table, builds Camelot, and marries Guinevere; Lancelot confesses that he has fallen in love with her too. Arthur's half-sister Morgana, a budding sorceress and still bitter towards Arthur, becomes apprenticed to Merlin. Lancelot stays away to avoid Guinevere. He meets Perceval, a peasant boy, and takes him to Camelot to become a squire. Sir Gawain, under Morgana's influence, accuses Guinevere of driving Lancelot away, forcing a duel with Gawain to defend his and Guinevere's honor. The preceding night, Lancelot is attacked by himself in a nightmare and awakens to find himself wounded by his own sword. Arthur hastily knights Perceval when Lancelot is late to the duel, but Lancelot appears just in time and defeats Gawain. Merlin heals him, and he rides out to the forest to rest. Guinevere gives in to her feelings for Lancelot, and they have sex. Meanwhile, Merlin lures Morgana to his lair to trap her, suspecting that she is plotting against Arthur. Arthur finds Guinevere and Lancelot asleep together. Heartbroken, he thrusts Excalibur into the ground between them. Merlin's magical link to the land impales him on the sword, and Morgana seizes the opportunity to trap him in a crystal with the Charm of Making. Morgana takes the form of Guinevere and seduces Arthur. Before leaving, she reveals herself to Arthur, telling him that their illegitimate son will be the next king, much to his horror. On awakening to the sight of Excalibur, Lancelot flees in shame, and Guinevere lies weeping. Morgana bears a son, Mordred, whose incestuous origin strikes the land with famine and sickness. Arthur sends his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail in hopes of restoring the land. Many of his knights die or are bewitched by Morgana. Once Mordred grows to adulthood, Morgana has a suit of golden armor made for him and casts an enchantment so that no weapon made by man can penetrate it. Mordred goes to demand that Arthur give him the crown. Arthur offers his love instead. Mordred rebuffs him, warning Arthur that he will return and take Camelot by force. Perceval narrowly escapes Morgana and encounters an old man who preaches that the kingdom has fallen because of "the sin of pride." Perceval recognizes the man as Lancelot. Perceval fails to convince Lancelot to aid Arthur, Lancelot, and his followers throw Perceval into a river. Perceval has a vision of the Grail, during which he realizes that Arthur and the land are one. Upon answering the riddle, he gains the Grail and takes it to Arthur, who drinks from it and is revitalized, as is the land. Arthur finds Guinevere at a convent, and they reconcile. She gives him Excalibur, which she has kept. Frustrated in preparation for battle against Morgana's allies, Arthur calls to Merlin, unknowingly awakening the wizard from his enchanted slumber. Merlin and Arthur have a last conversation before Merlin vanishes. The wizard then appears to Morgana as a shadow and tricks her into uttering the Charm of Making, producing a fog from the dragon's breath and exhausting her own magical powers that had kept her young. She rapidly ages, and Mordred kills her, repulsed by the sight of his once beautiful mother now reduced to a decrepit old hag. Arthur and Mordred's forces meet in battle. Lancelot arrives unexpectedly and turns the tide of battle, later collapsing from his unhealed self-inflicted wound. Arthur and Lancelot reconcile, and Lancelot dies. Mordred stabs Arthur with a spear, but Arthur kills Mordred with Excalibur. Arthur tells Perceval to throw Excalibur into a pool of water, reassuring him that a new king will come, and the sword will return. Perceval throws Excalibur, and the Lady of the Lake catches it. Perceval returns to see Arthur lying on a ship attended by three ladies clad in white, sailing towards Avalon. 

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