The series' main character, Geraldine Antonia "Jerri" Blank (played by Amy Sedaris), was a "junkie whore"/runaway returning to high school as a freshman at age 46 at the fictional Flatpoint High School (home of the Concrete Donkeys) in the town of Flatpoint.

Jerri ran away from home and became "a boozer, a user, and a loser" after dropping out of high school as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she "stole the TV."

Every episode features a warped theme or moral lesson and ends with the cast and other featured actors from the episode dancing. The last episode features Flatpoint being turned into a strip mall because the show was cancelled to make room for a TV show called ''Strip Mall''.

''Tsukihime'' s plot follows the perspective of protagonist , a second-year high school student in the fictional town of Misaki, taking place in 1999. Shiki suffers a life-threatening injury when he was young. When he regains consciousness, he gains the ability to see "Death lines" lines by which things, living or not, will eventually break when they die. Due to his injury, Shiki has immense headaches as his mind cannot cope with the sight of death. Soon after he is given special glasses from Aoko Aozaki that blocks the sight of these lines. Due to his injury, Shiki is banished by his father to a branch family of the Tohno household. Eight years later he is called back home by his sister after his father dies. After moving back Shiki has trouble adjusting to the old-fashioned lifestyle his sister lives by. As the story progresses Shiki confronts supernatural beings such as mostly two different types of vampires (the first one is , a natural-born vampire race; and another is , a race of formerly humans who were mutated into vampires via magecraft or being bitten by a vampire), as well as his family's secrets and his actual past.

The original takes place in the fictional town of Misaki in 1999, while the remake titles take place in the fictional city of Soya in an unspecified year in the 2014.

The story is set on Werel, the third planet of the Gamma Draconis system. The planet has an orbital period of 60 Earth years, and is approaching its correspondingly long winter. The main characters belong to one of two major groups: Wold and his daughter Rolery are members of the Tevarans, a tribe of humanoids indigenous to the planet. Jakob Agat is a young man from a dwindling colony of Earth humans that have been effectively marooned on the planet. Although both populations share a common genetic heritage in the Hainish people, the difference is significant enough to prevent interbreeding.

The relationship between the two groups has long been tense and characterized by limited interaction. However, with the approaching dangers of winter and marauders, the visit of curious young Rolery to the colony becomes a sign of coming changes.

A German oom-pah band — composed of Axis powers leaders — Joseph Goebbels on the trombone, Heinrich Himmler on the snare drum, Hideki Tojo on the sousaphone, Hermann Goering on the piccolo and Benito Mussolini on the bass drum — marches noisily at four o'clock in the morning through a small town where the trees, windmills, fence posts, and even the clouds are shaped like swastikas while singing the virtues of the Nazi doctrine. A familiar character, Donald Duck lives in a nightmare world, a Nazi German forced to produce artillery shells under terrible conditions. His cuckoo clock with a bird that is dressed up as Adolf Hitler heils as a clock chime, only for Donald to throw a shoe at it. Passing by Donald's house (the features of which depict Hitler), the band members poke him out of bed with a bayonet to get him ready for work. Here Donald then faces and heils the portraits of Der Fuehrer (Hitler), the Emperor of Japan (Hirohito), and Il Duce (Mussolini) respectively, then goes to make breakfast.

Because of wartime rationing, Donald's breakfast consists of bread that is so stale and hard it resembles wood (and must be sliced using a saw), coffee brewed from a single hoarded coffee bean, and a bacon and egg-flavored breath spray. The band shoves a copy of ''Mein Kampf'' in front of him for a moment of reading, then marches into his house and escorts him to a factory, with Donald now carrying the bass drum and Goering kicking him. Donald "heil[s] right in Der Fuehrer's face"

Upon arriving at the factory (at bayonet-point), Donald starts his comical 48-hour daily shift of screwing caps onto artillery shells coming at him in an assembly line. Mixed in with the shells are portraits of Der Fuehrer, so Donald must perform the Hitler salute every time a portrait appears, all the while screwing the caps onto shells, much to his disgust. Each new batch of shells is of a different size, ranging from individual bullets to massive shells as large as Donald (if not larger). The pace of the assembly line intensifies (as in the Charlie Chaplin comedy ''Modern Times''), and Donald finds it increasingly hard to complete all the tasks. At the same time, he is bombarded with propaganda messages about the purported superiority of the Aryan race and the glory of working for Der Fuehrer.

After a "paid vacation" that consists of making swastika shapes with his body for a few seconds in front of a painted backdrop of the Alps as exercise, Donald is ordered to work overtime. He has a nervous breakdown with hallucinations of artillery shells everywhere, some of which are snakes and birds, some sing and are the same shape of the marching band from the start, music and all (some of the animation from this sequence is recycled from the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence from ''Dumbo'').

When the hallucinations clear, Donald finds himself in his bed, and realizes that the whole experience was a nightmare; however, he sees the shadow of a figure holding its right hand up in the form of a Nazi salute. He begins to do so himself until he realizes that it is the shadow of a miniature Statue of Liberty, holding her torch high in her right hand. Remembering that he lives in the United States, Donald embraces the statue, saying, "Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America!"

The short ends with a caricature of Hitler's angry face, and a tomato is thrown at it, forming the words ''The End''.

At Coal Hill School, teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) have concerns about pupil Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who has an alien outlook on England. When the teachers visit her address to investigate, they encounter a police box and hear Susan's voice inside. An elderly man (William Hartnell) arrives and refuses to let the teachers inside the police box. They force their way inside to find Susan in a technologically advanced control room that is larger than the police box exterior. Susan explains that the object is a time and space machine called the TARDIS and the old man is her grandfather, who reveals that he and his granddaughter are exiles from their own planet. Refusing to let Ian and Barbara leave, he sets the TARDIS in flight and the ship goes through time and space to the Stone Age.

Za (Derek Newark), the leader of a primitive Paleolithic tribe, attempts to make fire. A young woman called Hur (Alethea Charlton) warns him that if he fails to do so, the stranger called Kal (Jeremy Young) will be made leader. After exiting the TARDIS, the unnamed old man, whom Ian and Barbara refer to as the Doctor, is ambushed by Kal, when he witnesses him light a match. Kal takes the Doctor back to the tribe and threatens to kill him if he does not make fire; Ian, Barbara and Susan intervene, but the group is imprisoned in a large cave. With the help of Old Mother (Eileen Way), who believes that fire will bring death to the tribe, they escape from the settlement but are intercepted and recaptured before reaching the TARDIS. Kal says they will be sacrificed if they do not make fire. While Ian tries to start a fire, Kal enters the cave and attacks Za, but is killed. Ian gives a burning torch to Za, who shows it to the tribe and is declared leader. Susan notices that placing a skull over a burning torch makes it appear alive; when the tribe enters the cave, they are faced with several burning skulls, and are terrified, allowing the group to flee to the TARDIS and escape through time and space to a silent and unknown forest. Unnoticed by the crew, the radiation meter rises to "Danger".

In 1981, Camp Firewood, a summer camp located near Waterville, Maine, is preparing for its last day of camp. Counselors have one last chance to have a romantic encounter with another person at Camp Firewood. All the while, Ben and Susie, two overzealous drama instructors, attempt to produce and choreograph the greatest talent show Camp Firewood has ever seen. Beth, the camp director, struggles to keep her counselors in order—and her campers alive—while falling in love with Henry, an astrophysics associate professor at Colby College. Henry has to devise a plan to save the camp from a piece of NASA's Skylab, which is falling to Earth.

Shy Coop has a crush on Katie, his fellow counselor, but has to pry her away from her rebellious, obnoxious, and obviously unfaithful boyfriend, Andy. Only Gene, the camp chef, can help Coop win Katie—with some help from a talking can of mixed vegetables. Gary, Gene's unfortunately chosen apprentice, and J.J. attempt to figure out why their friend McKinley has never been with a woman. They are surprised to find that McKinley is in love with Ben, whom he marries in a ceremony at the lake. Victor attempts to lose his virginity with the resident loose-girl Abby, but a series of mishaps get in his way.

Three years ago, members of a cult sabotaged Tokyo's water supply, killing hundreds and poisoning thousands, before committing mass suicide on the outskirts of town and having their ashes supposedly dispersed by a lake. On the anniversary of the attack, four members of the families of the perpetrators make the trek to that lake to remember them. When they arrive, they find that a motorcycle was there parked before them. At the dock, they see a former member of the cult, Sakata, who had trained for the attack but had defected at the last minute. He is distant and doesn't interact with them.

At the end of the day, they return to their vehicle only to find it missing. While they are discussing what to do as night approaches, Sakata comes and, finding that his motorcycle is also missing, leads them to the cabin where he and the deceased cult members stayed prior to the attack, and they pass the night reminiscing about people they have known and lost. Flashbacks illuminate the moments when the cult members told their families about leaving the real world to join the cult, Sakata's time with the cult and eventual escape, and the ensuing police investigation after the attack.

Sakata and Atsushi talk about Yûko, Atsushi's sister, whom Sakata had a very close relationship with and had asked to run away with him the night before the attack. Atsushi, according to Sakata, looks nothing like Yûko.

The next morning, they return by train to the city. On the train ride back, Sakata asks Atsushi who he really is, saying that Yuko told him her brother had killed himself a few years before. Atsushi says she was probably lying, and Sakata replies that she would not have said it that way if she were lying.

When Atsushi goes to see the old man he had been visiting in the hospital, the man has died. The nurse says that she had thought Atsushi was the old man's son, as he visited often, until the old man's actual son had come to the hospital after his death.

The film ends with Atsushi returning to the lake and putting flowers in the lake for his father. He then burns family photos and memorabilia on the dock of the lake. The fire grows larger, and becomes a large conflagration as Atsushi walks away.

The two youngest Pevensie children, Lucy and Edmund, are staying with their odious cousin Eustace Scrubb while their older brother, Peter, is studying for an exam with Professor Kirke, and their older sister, Susan, is travelling through America with their parents. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are drawn into the Narnian world through a picture of a ship at sea. (The painting, hanging neglected in the guest bedroom in which Lucy was staying, had been an unwanted present to Eustace's parents.) The three children land in the ocean near the pictured vessel, the titular ''Dawn Treader'', and are taken aboard.

The ''Dawn Treader'' is the ship of Caspian X, King of Narnia, whom Edmund and Lucy (along with Peter and Susan) helped gain the throne of Narnia in ''Prince Caspian''. Also present on board are the Lord Drinian (the captain of the ''Dawn Treader'') and the first mate Rhince.

Peace has been established in the three years since then, and Caspian has undertaken a quest in fulfilment of his coronation oath to sail east for a year and a day to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia: Argoz, Bern, Mavramorn, Octesian, Restimar, Revilian, and Rhoop. He mentions that Trumpkin the dwarf has been left in charge of Narnia as Lord Regent in his absence. Lucy and Edmund are delighted to be back in the Narnian world, but Eustace is less enthusiastic, as he has never been there before and had taunted his cousins with his belief that this alternate universe had never existed. The Talking Mouse Reepicheep is also on board, as he hopes to find Aslan's Country beyond the seas of the "utter East". When Eustace teases Reepicheep, much is revealed about the mouse's pugnacious character.

They first make landfall in the Lone Islands, nominally Narnian territory but fallen away from Narnian ways: in particular the slave trade flourishes here, despite Narnian law stating that it is forbidden. Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, and Reepicheep are captured as merchandise by a slave trader, and a man "buys" Caspian before they even reach the slave market. He turns out to be the first lost lord, Lord Bern, who had moved to the islands and married a woman there after being banished from Narnia by Miraz. When Caspian reveals his identity, Bern acknowledges him as King. Caspian reclaims the islands for Narnia and replaces Gumpas, the greedy governor, with Lord Bern, whom he names Duke of the Lone Islands. Caspian also declares that slavery is forbidden in all his dominions and that all slaves are free.

At the second island they visit, Eustace leaves the group to avoid participating in the work needed to render the ship seaworthy after a storm has damaged it and hides in a dead dragon's cave to escape a sudden downpour. The dragon's treasure arouses his greed: he fills his pockets with gold and jewels and puts on a large golden bracelet; but as he sleeps, he is transformed into a dragon. As a dragon, he becomes aware of how bad his previous behaviour was. He attempts to shed his dragon skin without success. It is only with the help of Aslan that he is able to become human again, though the process is very painful. Caspian recognises the bracelet: it belonged to Lord Octesian, another of the lost lords. They speculate that the dragon killed Octesian — or even that the dragon ''was'' Octesian. Aslan turns Eustace back into a boy, and as a result of his experiences he is now a much nicer person.

They narrowly escape being sunk by a sea-serpent and stop at Deathwater Island, so named for a pool of water which turns everything immersed in it into gold, including one of the missing lords who turns out to have been Lord Restimar. Then they land on the Duffers' Island, where Lucy removes an invisibility spell from the Duffers (later Dufflepuds) at their request and befriends the Magician who cast it. Next they reach the "Island Where Dreams Come True", called the Dark Island since it is permanently hidden in darkness. It turns out that the "dreams" that come true there are not necessarily ''nice'' dreams and Lord Rhoop, whom they rescue there, has been tormented for years by his nightmares. Eventually they reach the Island of the Star, where they find the three remaining lost lords in enchanted sleep. Ramandu, the fallen star who lives on the island with his daughter, tells them that the only way to awaken them is to sail to the edge of the world and to leave one member of the crew behind there. Lord Rhoop wishes to "sleep without dreams" beside his friends until they wake and everyone agrees before they set out again.

The ''Dawn Treader'' continues sailing into an area where merpeople dwell and the water turns sweet rather than salty, as Reepicheep discovers when he belligerently jumps in to fight a mer-man who he thinks challenged him. At last the water becomes so shallow that the ship can go no farther. Caspian orders a boat lowered and announces that he will go to the world's end with Reepicheep. The crew object, saying that as King of Narnia he has no right to abandon them. Caspian goes to his cabin in a temper, but returns to say that Aslan appeared in his cabin and told him that only Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, and Reepicheep will go on.

These four venture in a small boat through a sea of lilies until they reach a wall of water that extends into the sky. Fulfilling Ramandu's condition, Reepicheep paddles his coracle up the waterfall and is never again seen in Narnia. Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy find a Lamb, who transforms into Aslan. Aslan tells them that Edmund and Lucy will not return to Narnia. When Lucy becomes sorrowful and despondent about the prospect of not seeing Aslan again, Aslan tells the children that he exists in their world, too. Aslan adds, "There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there". Aslan then sends the three children home.

Back in the real world, everyone remarks about how much Eustace has changed.

Eustace Scrubb, now a reformed character following the events of ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', encounters his classmate and new friend Jill Pole at their school, Experiment House, where they are miserable. Jill has been tormented by bullies and is hiding from them. Eustace tells Jill about his Narnian adventures, and how his experiences there led to the changes in his behaviour – which Jill warns is likely to see him targeted by the bullies as well. Eustace suggests asking for Aslan's help, and as the bullies converge on them, the two blunder through a gate that leads them to Aslan's Country.

They encounter a cliff, where Jill shows off by approaching the edge, and Eustace, trying to pull her back, falls over the edge. Aslan appears and saves Eustace by blowing him on a magical wind stream to Narnia. He charges Jill with helping Eustace find King Caspian X's son, Prince Rilian of Narnia, who disappeared some years earlier. He gives Jill four Signs to guide them on their quest and then blows Jill into Narnia, where Eustace is already waiting by a great castle. They watch as an elderly and frail man takes ship and sails from the harbour. To Eustace's dismay, they learn that the elderly man is actually King Caspian; by failing to greet him they have missed the first Sign. Seventy years have passed since Eustace was last in Narnia, even though less than a year has passed in his world. They also learn that Caspian has sailed off to visit again the lands they had sailed to when he and Eustace were young, although many Narnians believe that he has set off to seek Aslan in order to ask who can be the next King of Narnia when he dies. Caspian is obviously deteriorating with old age, and his people fear that he will not live for much longer.

Caspian's Lord Regent Trumpkin the dwarf, now very elderly and deaf, provides Jill and Eustace with rooms in Cair Paravel, but on the advice of Glimfeather the Owl, they make no mention of their quest. Glimfeather summons them to a Parliament of his fellow talking owls, who explain that Prince Rilian disappeared a decade earlier while searching for a large green serpent that had killed his mother.

Jill and Eustace are flown to the marshes on the northern edge of Narnia where they meet their guide, Puddleglum, a gloomy but stalwart Marsh-wiggle. They journey toward the giant-lands north of Narnia. Hungry and suffering from exposure, they meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle accompanied by a silent knight in black armour. She encourages them to proceed northward to Harfang, the castle of the "Gentle Giants", who she says would be glad to have them at their Autumn Feast. Jill and Eustace, overcome at the thought of comfort and warmth, are eager to go; only Puddleglum argues against the journey to Harfang. After a long journey in harsh weather, and braving a mysterious chasm in a driving snowstorm, they are welcomed at Harfang.

From the castle the three see that in the snowstorm they had blundered through the ruins of a giant city in the valley below, thereby missing Aslan's second Sign. They also see the words "Under Me" engraved on the road, which is the third Sign. Discovering from a cookbook in the kitchen that ''they'' are the main course for the Autumn Feast, they make a narrow escape from Harfang. Following the Sign, they take shelter in a cave under the ruined city, where they fall down a long dark slope into Underland.

They are found by an army of underground-dwelling earthmen, who take them aboard a boat across the subterranean Sunless Sea to the city ruled by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. She herself is away, but her protégé, a young man, greets the travellers pleasantly. He explains that he suffers from nightly psychotic episodes, and during these episodes he must, by the Lady's orders, be bound to a silver chair; for if he is released, he will turn into a deadly green serpent and kill everyone in sight. The three travellers determine to witness the youth in his torment, as they sense it could be the key to their quest.

When the young man is tied to his chair, his "ravings" seem instead to indicate desperation to escape an enchanted captivity. After several threats, the youth finally begs the three to release him in the name of Aslan. Recognizing this as the fourth Sign, they hesitantly do so, believing that he could indeed be Prince Rilian. The young man immediately destroys the silver chair. Free from enchantment, he thanks them and declares that he is indeed the vanished Prince Rilian, kept underground by the Lady of the Green Kirtle as part of her plot to conquer Narnia.

The Green Lady returns and tries to bewitch them all into forgetting who they are, but the barefoot Puddleglum stamps out the enchantress's magical fire and breaks her spell. The enraged Lady transforms herself into a green serpent, and Rilian kills her with the help of Eustace and Puddleglum, realizing that the Green Lady was herself the serpent who killed his mother. Rilian leads the travellers to escape from Underland. The gnomes, who had also been magically enslaved by the Lady, are now freed by her death and joyfully return to their home even deeper in the earth: a land called Bism. One of them shows Rilian's party a route to the surface, and Rilian returns to Cair Paravel as King Caspian is returning home. Caspian is reunited with his long-lost son but dies moments after giving his blessing. Rilian is then declared King of Narnia amid the weeping crowd.

Aslan appears and congratulates Eustace and Jill on achieving their goal, then returns them to the stream in his country where Jill first met him. The body of King Caspian appears in the stream, and Aslan instructs Eustace to drive a thorn into the lion's paw. Eustace obeys, and Aslan's blood flows over the dead King, who is revived and returned to youth. Aslan promises Eustace and Jill that, while they have to return to their own world for a while, they will one day return to Aslan's Country to stay. He then allows Caspian to accompany Eustace and Jill back to their own world for a brief time, where they drive off the bullies before Caspian returns to Aslan's Country. Experiment House becomes a well-managed school, and Eustace and Jill remain good friends.

Back in Narnia, Rilian buries his father and mourns him. The kingdom goes on to have many happy years, but Puddleglum "often pointed out that bright mornings brought on wet afternoons and that you couldn't expect good times to last."

The novel takes place in two interwoven time periods: the first deals with the Binewski children's constant struggle against each other through life. They especially have to deal with the Machiavellian Arty as he develops his own cult: Arturism. In this cult, Arty persuades people to have their limbs amputated (so that they can be like him) in their search for the principle he calls PIP ("Peace, Isolation, Purity"). Each member moves up in stages, losing increasingly significant chunks of their body, starting with their toes and fingers. As Arty battles his siblings to maintain control over his followers, competition between their respective freak shows slowly begins to take over their lives.

The second story is set in the present and is centered on Oly's daughter, Miranda. Nineteen-year-old Miranda does not know Oly is her mother. She lives on a trust fund created by Oly before she gave up her daughter to be raised by nuns. This had been urged by her brother Arty, who was also Miranda's father (not through sexual intercourse, but by the telekinetic powers of Chick, who carried Arty's sperm directly to Oly's ovum). Oly lives in the same rooming house as Miranda so she can "spy" on her. (The rooming house is run by "Crystal" Lil, who is so addled that she doesn't know Oly is her daughter.) Miranda has a special defect of her own, a small tail, which she flaunts at a local fetish strip club. There she meets Mary Lick, who tries to convince her to have the tail cut off. Lick is a wealthy woman who pays attractive women to get disfiguring operations, ostensibly so they may live up to their potential instead of becoming sex objects; it is implied, however, that Lick's real motivation is to punish them for being more attractive than she is. Oly plans to stop Lick in order to protect her daughter.

Byron Orlok, an aged, embittered horror movie actor, abruptly announces his decision to retire and return to his native England to live out his final days. Orlok considers himself outdated because he believes that people are no longer frightened by old-fashioned horror, citing real-life news stories as more horrifying than anything in his films. However, after much persuasion, particularly from young director Sammy Michaels, Orlok agrees to make a final in-person promotional appearance at a Reseda drive-in theater before leaving Hollywood for good.

Bobby Thompson is a young, quiet, clean-cut insurance agent and Vietnam War veteran who lives in the suburban San Fernando Valley area with his wife and his parents. Thompson is also deeply disturbed and an obsessive gun collector, but his family takes little notice. One morning, after his father leaves for work, Thompson murders his wife, his mother, and a delivery boy at his home. That afternoon, Thompson continues the killing spree, shooting people in passing cars from atop an oil storage tank that sits alongside a heavily-travelled freeway. When an employee at the storage tank comes up to investigate the gunshots, Thompson shoots him as well. Leaving some of his guns and ammo at the crime scene, Thompson flees to the very same drive-in theater where Orlok is set to appear that evening.

After sunset, Thompson kills the theater's projectionist and perches himself on the framing inside the screen tower. While the Orlok film is shown, Thompson aims and shoots at the patrons in and around the parking lot via a hole in the projection screen. After Thompson wounds Orlok's secretary, Jenny, Orlok confronts Thompson, who is disoriented by Orlok's simultaneous appearance before him and on the large movie screen behind him, allowing the actor to disarm Thompson using his walking cane. Looking at the now-defeated Thompson, a visibly shaken Orlok remarks, "Is ''that'' what I was afraid of?" Moments later, police officers arrive to arrest Thompson for the murders he has committed; as they lead him away, Thompson states with apparent satisfaction that he "hardly ever missed."

The Kree hero Captain Marvel, arriving on Earth after an extended stay in the alternate dimension the Negative Zone, is captured by several members of the superhero team the Avengers — Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the android hero the Vision — with aid of Mar-Vell's (the hero's true Kree name) sometime companion Rick Jones, and Mar-Vell himself. It is later revealed that he conceived a child with the Skrull princess Annelle during this period of time. This is necessary, as Mar-Vell has inadvertently absorbed a lethal amount of radiation from spending weeks in the Negative Zone, and it will prove fatal unless treated. With the aid of a scientist, the Vision drains the excess radiation from Mar-Vell.

A flashback sequence explains that the Avengers detect an alarm from the Baxter Building, the headquarters of the Fantastic Four. The Avengers arrive at the building and find Mar-Vell using the portal to the Negative Zone — created by Reed Richards — to try and free Rick Jones from their need to "share molecules" (alternating between the same space, one on Earth and one trapped in the Negative Zone until swapping). Mar-Vell is successful, although while the portal to the Zone is open, the Avengers are forced to drive back the entity Annihilus, who attempts to escape the Zone. Mar-Vell takes advantage of the distraction to steal an Avengers quinjet, which is tracked once the Avengers realize that the Kree hero has absorbed a lethal amount of radiation. The flashback ends and the group are then attacked by a robot Sentry, who captures Mar-Vell and escapes. The Avengers are questioned by Mar-Vell's former colleague, Carol Danvers.

The Avengers respond to a call from fellow member Goliath, who advises that he is answering a distress call from Avenger Janet Pym, also known as the Wasp. With husband and fellow member Henry Pym, the pair were en route via ship to a research base in the Arctic Circle, there to study the effect of oil exploration on the environment. The pair apparently found a lush island, and investigate as the Wasp and Yellowjacket. Yellowjacket guesses the truth and pushes the Wasp away before reaching the island. When he disappears, the Wasp in turn summons Goliath.

The Avengers arrive and are attacked once again by the Sentry, now aided by a hypnotised Goliath. The Avengers defeat Goliath but cannot stop the Sentry, who captures all but Quicksilver. The culprit is revealed to be Ronan the Accuser, now a Kree outlaw. Ronan begins "Plan Atavus", intending to devolve Earth to a prehistoric time to use as a base in the war against the Skrulls. Ronan shows the heroes how the research scientists at the base and Henry Pym have devolved into cavemen, who now lust after Janet Pym. Quicksilver arrives and attacks, and Ronan ends the battle when contacted and advised of an impending attack by the Skrulls on the Kree homeworld of Hala. Lacking purpose, the Sentry self-destructs. The Avengers and Mar-Vell recover and find that Pym and the other scientists, like the environment, have reverted to normal.

Mar-Vell's existence is revealed when the scientists advise the authorities as to what they witnessed, and the "Alien Activities Commission" is formed, led by Senator H. Warren Craddock. The Avengers agree to participate in a hearing, but this is abandoned when the Avengers refuse to hand over Mar-Vell. The Avengers encourage Mar-Vell to go with Danvers to a private farm, and although pursued by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. escape. The Avengers deal with frustrated members of the public, who picket Avengers Mansion and then force their way in to vandalize the building.

Avengers Captain America, Iron Man and Thor apparently return to the Mansion and announce that, due to the behaviour of the team, it is now disbanded forever. Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and the Vision decide to leave and check on Mar-Vell, but while there they are attacked by what at first appear to be three cows. The cows fire energy beams that cripple the Vision who, while able to turn intangible, cannot move. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are captured when the cows turn into three members of the Fantastic Four, and then reveal they are in fact Skrulls, the ancient enemies of the Kree. At the same time, Danvers has led Mar-Vell to a Skrull vessel she claims to have found, and persuades Mar-Vell to build an "Omni-Wave Projector", a communications device that in the hands of non-Kree is a deadly weapon. Mar-Vell, however, sees through the deception (as no humans, only Skrulls, know his true name) and destroys the device, but he is captured by Danvers (now revealed to actually be the Super-Skrull) and, along with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, is taken off Earth.

Although injured, the Vision is able to return to Avengers Mansion, where founding members Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Henry Pym (now in his original identity of Ant-Man) have gathered. Ant-Man reduces himself to microscopic size and enters the Vision, and is able to repair the android. Ant-Man departs and on questioning the recovering Vision, the Avengers determine it was the Skrulls – previously disguised as cows – that dissolved the team. The four Avengers find and capture the Skrulls for interrogation, and determine that the aliens are in fact three of the four members of the original exploration team that once visited Earth and battled the Fantastic Four. The Avengers are then attacked by a team of three Mandroids, sent by Senator Craddock to apprehend the heroes for failing to cooperate. Iron Man (secretly Tony Stark) designed the Mandroids and overloads their armour with an electrical discharge.

At the same time Triton of the Inhumans arrives, and unable to locate the Fantastic Four, asks the Avengers for aid in locating their ruler Black Bolt, needed as his brother Maximus the Mad has seized power in their homeland Attilan. The Avengers aid Triton and, after locating Black Bolt, accompany the Inhumans to Attilan. Maximus is revealed to have entered into an alliance with the Kree, and in exchange for rulership uses Kree technology to control the population, intending to use them as soldiers against the Skrulls. The Avengers defeat Maximus and his minions, and after restoring Black Bolt to power leave (with Goliath) for Skrull space, intent on rescuing their comrades.

Mar-Vell is taken to the heart of the Skrull Empire and, after being advised that the captive Avengers will be executed, is forced to build another Omni-Wave Projector. The Avengers arrive in Skrull space, and hold off the alien fleet while Mar-Vell is forced to use the Projector, which casts a temporarily freed Rick Jones back into the Negative Zone. Jones is rescued from the Zone by the Kree ruler the Supreme Intelligence, who unlocks hidden mental powers (the Destiny Force) in Rick Jones himself, Rick then sends a wave of Golden Age heroes with the Avengers against the Skrulls, ending the war. The Destiny Force also reverts Senator Craddock on Earth to his true Skrull form, revealing he was the fourth Skrull from the Earth expedition, and he is subsequently killed by an angered mob. The heroes return to Earth to discover that the real Senator Craddock has been found, and the Avengers' reputation has been restored.

The secret superhero group the Illuminati are eventually revealed to have visited both the Kree and Skrull Empires and advised the aliens that involving Earth in their war would not be tolerated.

The man without a memory

The story starts as a man is found by a small community (housed in one building) in a forest area in eastern North America. He is naked except for a gold ring on one finger, has no memory except of motor skills at a level equivalent to that of a one-year-old and has bizarre, amber, cat-like eyes. The villagers choose to welcome and nurture him, naming him Falk (Yellow). They teach him to speak, educate him about the Earth, and teach him from a book they consider holy, which is Le Guin's "long-translated" version of the ''Tao Te Ching''. Also they teach him about the nature of the never-seen Shing.

The journey

After six years, Falk is told by the leader of the community that he needs to understand his origins, and therefore sets off alone for ''Es Toch'', the city of the Shing in the mountains of western North America. He encounters many obstacles to learning the truth about himself and about the Shing, along with evidence of the barbarism of current human society. Along the way, it is sometimes put to him that the image he holds of the Shing is a distorted one; that they respect the idea of 'reverence for life' and are essentially benevolent and non-alien rulers. This suggestion comes from Estrel, a young woman whom Falk meets after being captured by the ''Basnasska'' tribe in the great plains. Falk escapes this violent community with Estrel, to reach the city under her guidance. In the course of his journey Falk also encounters Shing-bred talking birds and animals who plead reverence for life in self-defense.

The Shing

Originally from an unknown, distant region of the galaxy, the Shing infiltrated and destroyed the League of All Worlds twelve hundred years before ''City of Illusions'' begins. The League had received prior warning of alien conquerors subduing distant worlds, and for generations had prepared defensive alliances and weaponry. However when the Shing finally arrived they were able to speedily subdue the 80 planets in the League, apparently with no effective opposition.

The main weapon enabling this rapid and confused occupation is the Shing's ability to lie in mindspeech. The Shing closely resemble humans though they seem to be unable to interbreed with them. Coming to Earth as "exiles or pirates or empire builders from some distant star" the Shing, who are not numerous, establish themselves in a single fantastical city Es Toch. Under their rule the remainder of Earth declined into a thinly populated collection of backward and often mutually hostile tribal societies.

When Falk reaches Es Toch, Estrel betrays him into the hands of the Shing and laughs as she does so. He is told that he is part of the crew of a starship of alien / human hybrids from a planet called ''Werel''. He meets a young man, Orry, who came with him in the ship. At this point it becomes clear that Estrel is a human collaborator working for the Shing, and that she had been sent to retrieve him from the wilds of the so-called ''Continent 1''.

The Shing tell Falk that * they are in fact humans; * the conflict between the League and an alien invader never occurred: On the contrary, the League self-destructed through civil war and exploitation; * the "enemy" is an invention of the Shing rulers themselves to try to ensure, through fear, that world peace endures under their benevolent, if misunderstood, rule; * Falk's expedition was attacked by rebels who then erased Falk's memory of his previous self; and * the Shing, who managed to save only Orry from the rebel attack, now want to restore Falk's previous identity.

Falk however believes that the Shing are non-human liars and that their true intent is to determine for their own purposes the location of his home planet. Ruling through "toolmen" – human collaborators who are either computer-controlled or who have been raised to accept the Shing as benign human overlords, the only principle that the Shing seem to adhere to is their law of Reverence for Life. They appear as pathological liars, though Falk, concludes that "the essence of their lying was a profound, irremediable lack of understanding" of the peoples that they have conquered. Shing character, culture, architecture, and even clothing, are deliberately ambiguous and illusory.

The Shing also appear to keep vegan lifestyle. Their "elaborately disguised foods were all vegetable" and their law of Reverence for Life is often expressed by the animals it is meant to protect. Throughout his journey to Es Toch, the City of Illusions, Falk encounters animals who instinctively repeat the spoken / telepathic admonition "Wrong to kill. Wrong to kill." Falk, however, suspects that this reverence is nothing more than a disguise for the Shing's own extreme fear of death.

Restored memories

Seeing no other way forward, Falk consents to have his memory tampered with.

The mind of the original Werelian, Agad Ramarren, is restored and the Falk personality is ostensibly destroyed. He emerges as a new person with pre-Falk memories and vastly greater scientific knowledge.

Having prepared a memory-restoring mnemonic trigger, that Falk had left for himself (an instruction, through young Orry, to read the beginning of the book he travels with, his translation of the ''Tao Te Ching''), the Falk personality is revived. After some instability Falk's and Ramarren's minds come to coexist. By comparing the knowledge given to them before and after Ramarren's re-emergence, the joint minds are able to detect the essential dishonesty of the Shing's rule and the fact that the alien conquerors can lie telepathically. It was this power that had enabled the not-very-numerous Shing, "exiles or pirates or empire-builders from some distant star", to overthrow the League of All Worlds twelve centuries before.

The Werelians' mental powers are significantly greater than those of their human ancestors; they are able to recognize the Shing mindlie, and cannot be subverted as the member-worlds in the League were. The Shing's cultural inhibition against killing and their dread of being killed leaves them with no effective defense against any armed and cautious expedition that arrived forewarned. Still ignorant of the survival of the Falk persona, the Shing hope to send Ramarren back to his home-world of Werel to present their idyllic story of Earth as a happy garden-planet prospering under their benign guidance, and in no need of outside help. Falk / Ramarren, now fully aware of the brutalized and misruled reality, pretends to accept this, postponing the return journey.

Eventually, while on a pleasure trip to view another part of the Earth, his Shing escort (Ken Kenyek) takes telepathic control of Ramarren but is then overcome by Falk, operating as a separate person. Now controlling Ken Kenyek, Falk / Ramarren makes his escape, manipulating his prisoner to find a light-speed ship that can take him home, and how to program it. Falk / Ramarren leaves for his planet of origin, taking Orry and the captive Ken Kenyek with him so that each can present their perception of Shing rule over Earth.

The military culture and recently restored advanced technology of the Werelians mean that Earth can probably be liberated "at a blow". However the light-years of travel required mean that Falk's forest friends will be long dead when he returns.

Epilogue embedded in ''Left Hand of Darkness''

While ''City of Illusions'' concludes at this point, Falk / Ramarren's mission apparently succeeds in bringing freedom to the Earth. In ''The Left Hand of Darkness'', the Terran diplomat Genly Ai refers to the "Age of the Enemy" as something dreadful that is now past. He also knows of the Werelians, now called Alterrans. The fate of the Shing is not mentioned, either there or in any later book.

It is December 2153, and ''Enterprise'' continues along its course towards Azati Prime to find the Xindi weapon. Commander Tucker begins spending time with a female MACO, and Sub-Commander T'Pol begins to exhibit signs of suppressed jealousy. Meanwhile, the long-simmering tension between Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Major Hayes finally comes to a head when Hayes approaches Archer over their security roles aboard ''Enterprise''. Hayes suggests training together to share ideas, but Reed sees this as a move to undermine his authority.

''Enterprise'' diverts to investigate a convergent region of spatial anomalies (created in the center of five spheres), where the crew discover a pod containing an alien. The pod is retrieved, and the alien is taken to Sickbay, but Doctor Phlox can do little to keep him alive. Archer wishes to interrogate him, and does so against Phlox's wishes. Meanwhile, Hayes sets up a weapons training session, and comments continually at Reed's performance. They later get into a fistfight, much to Archer's chagrin.

T'Pol and Tucker finally continue their Vulcan 'neuropressure' sessions, and T'Pol reveals her conversation with Sim-Trip to him, and the two become intimate. She later is very clinical in thanking Tucker for his assistance in her one-time "exploration of human sexuality". Back in Sickbay, the alien revives and physically begins to phase. He attacks Phlox, and then heads through walls towards the warp core, attempting to destabilize the magnetic seals. Reed and Hayes, now working together, stop the alien and he is returned to Sickbay. Archer wants answers, the alien says that when the Xindi destroy Earth his people will prevail, and phases again, disappearing completely.

The saint's curse

In the legend, while Saint Rónán Finn was marking boundaries for a new church, the sound of his bell reached Suibhne's ear. Suibhne, upon learning that this was church-making activity on his grounds, rushed out to expel St. Ronan from his territory. His wife Eorann tried to detain him by grabbing his cloak, which unraveled, leaving Suibhne to exit the house stark naked. Suibhne grabbed Ronan's Psalter and threw it into the lake, and seized the Saint by the hand and started to drag him away. But Suibhne was interrupted by a messenger from Congal Claen requesting aid in the Battle of Mag Rath (near modern Moira, 637 A.D.).

The next day, the Psalter was returned unharmed by an otter that fetched it from the lake. The saint laid a curse upon Suibhne, condemning him to wander and fly around the world naked, and to meet his death by spear-point. In the ongoing war, St. Ronan had mediated a truce to last from each evening until morning, but Suibhne habitually broke this by killing during the hours when combat was not permitted.

One day, Bishop Ronan and his psalmists were on their round blessing the troops. Suibhne too received the sprinkling of holy water, but taking this as a taunt, he killed one of the bishop's psalmists with a spear, and cast another at Ronan himself. The weapon pierced a hole in Ronan's bell (hanging on his breast), and the broken-off shaft hurled in the air. At this, Ronan repeated the same curse: that Suibhne will wander like a bird, much as the spear-shaft, perch on tree branches at the sound of the bell, and die by the spear just as he had killed the monk. When battle resumed, the tremendous noise of the armies clashing drove Suibhne insane. His hands were numbed, his weapons fell, and he began to tread ever so lightly as a bird levitating in the air. (It is revealed much later on that like a bird, feathers had grown on him. )

The madness and wandering

The deranged Suibhne then left the battlefield behind, reaching a forest called Ros Bearaigh, in Glenn Earcain and perched on a yew tree. He was discovered by his kinsman Aongus the Fat, who was making his retreat from battle. Suibhne fled to Cell Riagain in Tir Conaill, alighting on another tree. There he was surrounded by the forces of Domnall mac Áedo, which was the side Suibhne and his Dál nAraidi kinsmen were warring against. The victorious Domnall nevertheless praised and pitied Suibhne and offered him gifts, but the madman would not comply.

Suibhne went to his home territory of Glenn Bolcáin, wandered seven years throughout Ireland, and returned to Glenn Bolcain, which was where his fortress and dwelling stood, and a celebrated valley of madmen. Suibhne's movement was now being tracked by his kinsman Loingsechan, who had successfully taken the madman into custody thrice before. Loingsechan in his millhouse had a chance to capture Suibhne, but the attempt failed, and he must await another chance. Suibhne then paid visit to his wife, who was living with another man, a contender for Suibhne's kingship. Eorann maintained she would rather be with Suibhne, but he told her to remain with her new husband. An army stormed in, but Suibhne eluded capture.

Suibhne then returned to the yew tree at Ros Bearaigh, the same tree he went to when he first developed his madness, but when Eorann came to deceive and capture him, he moved away to another tree in Ros Ercain. However, his whereabouts were discovered, and Loingsechan coaxed him out of the tree, tricking him with the false news that his entire family had perished. Loingsechan brought Suibhne back to normal life and restored his sanity, but while recuperating, the mill hag taunted him into a contest of leaping. As they leapt, the noise of a hunting party returned Suibhne to madness. The mill hag eventually fell from her leap and was dashed to pieces. And since she was Loingsechan's mother-in-law, it meant Suibhne's could not return to Dál nAraidi without facing vengeance.

Suibhne subsequently wandered various parts of Ireland, into Scotland and Western England. He went from Roscommon to Slieve Aughty, Slieve Mis, Slieve Bloom mountain ranges; Inismurray island; the Cave of St. Donnan of Eigg, an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides; then tarried for a month and a half in "Carrick Alastair" (Ailsa Craig off Scotland. He reached Britain and befriended a Fer Caille (Man of the Wood), who was another madman, spending an entire year together. The giant Briton met his predestined death by drowning in a waterfall.

Death according to prophecy

"Fly through the air like the shaft of his spear and that he might die of a spear cast like the cleric whom he had slain."

Suibhne then returned to Ireland, to his home dominion of Glen Bocain. He visited his wife Eorann again but refused to go in the house for fear of confinement. Eorann then told him to leave, never to return, because the sight of him was an embarrassment to all. But after a while, Suibhne regained his lucidity and made his resolve to go back to Dál nAraidi, whatever judgment may befall him. St. Ronan learned of this and prayed to God to hinder Suibhne. Suibhne is haunted by headless cadavers and detached heads at Sliabh Fuaid.

Eventually, Suibhne arrived at "The House of St. Moling", i.e. Teach Moling (St Mullin's in Co. Carlow ), and Moling harbored him after hearing the madman's story. It might be noted that earlier, Suibhne had sung a stave predicting this place to be the place where he would meet his demise, and likewise, the Saint also knew this to be the madman's resting place. As Suibhne attended Moling's vespers, the priest instructed a parish woman employed as his cook to provide the madman with a meal (collation), in the form of daily milk. She did so by emptying milk into a hole she made with her foot in the cow dung. However, her husband (Moling's herder) believed malicious hearsay about the two having a tryst, and in a fit of jealousy, thrust a spear into Suibhne while he was drinking from the hole. Thus Suibhne died in the manner prescribed by Ronan, but received his sacrament from Moling, "as eric".

The story takes place from 1825 to 1830, when Orsinia is ruled by the Austrian Empire. The hero is Itale Sorde, the son of the owner of an estate on a lake called Malafrena in a valley of the same name. Itale leaves the estate, against his father's will, to engage in nationalistic and revolutionary politics in the capital.

On an operating table, an unnamed patient undergoes open heart surgery. The titles run over footage of fresh and rotten cadavers, and footage of a complete organ harvesting where a patient received the heart. After cleaning himself up, pathologist Francis B. Gröss states to the viewer that he has become interested with the transitional periods of life and death thanks to a recurring dream. He describes the dream as one that featured grotesque deaths, but wasn't a nightmare as his experience as a surgeon allowed him to accept the events as they are. He has accrued footage either himself or from several parts of the world in an effort to better understand and study the many "faces of death".

An examination in natural and unnatural animal death takes place, footage of a chicken being beheaded at a farm and graphic slaughterhouse footage is shown. In Mexico, Gröss has captured the mummified corpses of the deceased inhabitants of Guanajuato, as well as footage of a dog fight between two pit bulls. He next examines the natural predators of the Amazon rainforest and the ways in which they kill their prey. Footage of a monkey being killed and its brain being eaten by guests of a banquet is also shown. A man is killed by an alligator, an act that Gröss calls a "violent retaliation from a creature who has suffered continued abuse from mankind".

Gröss next narrates over recordings of human deaths, namely assassinations, stating that homo sapiens is the only species to kill for "greed". Assassin François Jordan is interviewed, admitting that he kills solely for payment, not for "political" or "social value". Next, Gröss introduces "another type of killer", "the one who kills for no apparent reason". A gunfight ensues between a SWAT team and an armed murderer who is shot, after which the team enters the killer's house to find his family stabbed to death; Gröss questions whether the man's actions were caused by society. Soon after, Gröss exhibits video footage of criminal Larry DeSilva being executed by electric chair.

One sequence involves cryogenic patient Samuel Berkowitz, who was frozen in July 1978 and stored in northern California. Graphic images and breif footage of the cryogenic process of replacing bodily fluids with a liquid with a low freezing point, to ensure freezer burn on the corpse is prevented. Gröss goes on to explain the purpose of this process is to preserve the body for future sciences to revive him, asking "imagine what it would be like to die in 1980, and wake up hundreds of years into the future".

The next segment displays war and atrocities in history, including the Holocaust. Horrific acts during said period are displayed and analyzed in full detail, and how desperate Adolf Hitler became during the latter years of the war. The segment ends with Nazi's being obliterated in battle by land and sea, with Gröss adding, "Hitler soon lost control not only of his army, but of his mind".

Footage of several more tragic accidents is shown, both animal and human, culminating in a segment focusing on vehicle accidents, including a vehicle stunt for a film gone wrong, a cyclist having her head crushed by a semi truck, and a scene in which a wing walker attempts a parachute jump from his plane but dies after the parachute fails to open properly. Gröss disputes the notion that this death was quick and painless, as the jumper would have been conscious and aware for the entire fall to the ground. The segment ends with photographs, footage and air traffic control audio from the crash of PSA Flight 182 and its grisly aftermath of scattered mutilated body parts and numerous destroyed houses. Gröss states that to this day (at the time of the film's release), the neighborhood smells like "rotting bodies and jet fuel", and claims that a mutilated body with only its torso and right hand "is the worst face of death".

Gröss introduces his next topic, the role that supernatural forces might play in death. He meets with architect Joseph Binder, whose wife and son both died under tragic circumstances. He confides to the viewer that he believes his deceased family remain as ghosts in his house and are attempting to communicate with him. Gröss enlists the services of parapsychologists to verify this, and the team later takes photographs of footprints and two apparitions. Binder then communicates with the spirits of his family through a medium, seemingly confirming the existence of life after death.

Gröss remarks that after studying Binder's case, he has concluded even "when we die, it isn't really the end" as "the soul in each of us remains a traveller forever". Gröss ends by questioning whether death is "the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end" and leaves the footage he has shown to the viewer's interpretation. Immediately after Gröss's final dialogue, the film ends with peaceful music, footage of a baby's birth and photos of the child growing up happily.

''Franklin'' focuses on the eponymous growing young turtle who, as his television stories and books always begin, "could count by twos and tie his shoes". He goes to school, lives in a small village called Woodland with his friends, and has many adventures playing and learning in the world around him, sometimes with the helping hand of an adult such as his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Turtle. Franklin likes swimming, arts and crafts (especially drawing), and loves shoofly pie. He's been known to be afraid of the dark and thunderstorms. Franklin has a best friend named Bear, as well as a blue blanket and a blue plush dog with shorter purple ears named Sam. In earlier seasons, he sleeps with his blanket and Sam. When Franklin is scared by thunderstorms, Sam and his blue blanket help keep him calm.

A small, mid-20th century social-service-style structure is a way station between life and death. Every Monday, a group of recently deceased people check-in: the social workers in the lodge ask them to go back over their life and choose one single memory to take into the afterlife. They are given just a couple of days to identify their happiest memory, after which the workers design, stage and film them. In this way, the souls will be able to re-experience this moment for eternity, forgetting the rest of their life. They will spend eternity within their happiest memory.

Twenty-two souls of different ages and backgrounds arrive and are received by the counsellors, who explain them their situation. Lengthy interviews take place in the lodge, with each person having different perspectives of their lives. There is a gentle old woman whose fondest memory is cherry blossoms. There is an aviator whose happiest moments were spent flying through the clouds. There is also a teenager whose happiest memory is a ride at Disneyland. Told that 30 other children/teens have chosen Disneyland rides, she is gently coaxed into coming up with something more original from her childhood (the scent of fresh laundry and the feeling of her mother, whom she was cuddling against). A 78-year-old woman talks about a new dress her brother bought her for a childhood dance recital, a brother she loved and took care of "until the very end." A prostitute remembers a client who was kind; a potential suicide victim recalls what made him pull back from the brink; an old man remembers the breeze on his face when he rode a trolley to school. An older man incessantly talks about sex and prostitutes, but ultimately chooses a memory in which his daughter hands him the bouquet at her wedding. A wild-haired 21-year-old wearing leather pants refuses point-blank to choose anything at all.

The story pays most attention to the two younger counsellors, Takashi and Shiori. Takashi has been assigned to help Ichiro Watanabe, a 70-year-old man who glumly remembers his dull, conventional life in an arranged marriage as unfulfilling. To jog his memory, Takashi plays back excerpts from a file of year-by-year videotapes recording Watanabe's life. Takashi learns from the films that Watanabe's wife (from Watanabe's arranged marriage) was also Takashi's love of his life and fiancee, and that the two men are about the same age. Takashi died in his early twenties in the Philippines in World War II and has been working at the processing center since then. He, like the other clerks, was unwilling to choose a memory and must remain in limbo, working at the processing center, until they choose a memory. Takashi requests Watanabe to be assigned to another counsellor but his request is not granted.

Near the end of the week, Watanabe decides which memory to keep. Watanabe apologies to Takashi for causing Takashi trouble and picking a memory so late. Takashi asks him to not apologize and reveals to Watanabe that all the counsellors staying in the lodge are souls who refused or were unable to choose a memory.

The social workers recreate the memories by filming on sets with basic stage props (cotton balls serve as clouds for the pilot; an audio recording of street noise is played while the old man stands in a trolley and social workers jostle the trolley to replicate movement). On Saturday, the twenty two hosted souls watch the films of their recreated memories in a screening room and, as soon as each person sees their own, they vanish.

Takashi, while putting away the videotapes from Watanabe's room, finds a letter from Watanabe saying Watanabe realized that his wife was Takashi's fiance, and his wife had visited Takashi's grave every year, alone, during her and Watanabe's marriage. Watanabe writes in his letter that he appreciates Takashi's kindness in not mentioning that he was his wife's dead fiance, and that it was only through his experience with Takashi and watching the videotapes that he was able to come to peace with his life and choose a memory with his wife.

Takashi talks to Shiori about his life, and Shiori finds his fiancée's selected memory from the archive. In watching his fiance's selected memory, Takashi realizes she chose a memory with him, before his death. In discovering that he had figured in his fiancé's chosen moment to cherish, Takashi comes to the realization that "I have learnt I was part of someone else's happiness." He chooses that moment of realization as his sliver of life to be filmed and abandons the way station forever, spending eternity in this memory.

The film ends with Shiori, now a full-fledged counsellor, practicing for an interview.

The movie begins in 1960 Hong Kong.

Yuddy, a smooth-talking playboy seduces Li-zhen but is uninterested in pursuing a serious relationship with her. Li-zhen, who wants to marry him, is heartbroken and decides to leave. Yuddy moves on to a new relationship with vivacious cabaret dancer Mimi. His friend Zeb is also attracted to her but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings.

Yuddy has a tense relationship with his adoptive mother, a former prostitute, after she reveals that he is adopted. He also doesn't approve of her choice of lovers much younger than her who he thinks are taking advantage of her. She initially refuses to reveal who his birth mother is but eventually relents and tells him that she lives in the Philippines.

Li-zhen finds solace in Tide, a policeman who does his rounds near Yuddy's house. Tide dreams of becoming a sailor but he chooses to be a policeman to stay and look after his mother. Li-zhen talks about her failed love affair, her successful cousin's impending marriage and how she misses home. Li-zhen, who works at the ticket stall of a soccer stadium, promises Tide a free ticket to a match of his choice and Tide tells her to call him on a phone booth he passes every night if she ever needs anyone to talk to. Their near-romance is hinted at but never materializes. When his mother passes, Tide leaves to become a sailor.

Meanwhile, Yuddy decides to find his birth mother and leaves for the Philippines, giving his car to Zeb and without informing Mimi. Mimi is distraught and resolves to follow him. Zeb, his love still unrequited, sells Yuddy's car to finance her trip and asks her to come back to him if she doesn't find Yuddy. Yuddy finds his mother's house but she refuses to see him.

Tide, now a sailor on a stopover in the Philippines, finds a drunk Yuddy passed out on the street and brings him to his hotel room. Yuddy doesn't recognise him but accepts his assistance. He gets into a fight at the railway station over payment for an American passport and stabs a man. Tide saves him and they escape aboard a train. Tide asks him if he remembers what happened on a particular date to an exact minute, referring to something he told Li-zhen at the start of their courtship. He says that he remembers and tells him it would be best to tell Li-zhen that he doesn't. Tide returns from a conversation with the train conductor to find Yuddy shot to death.

A final sequence shows Mimi having arrived in the Philippines, Li-zhen closing up at the ticket stall and a phone at the booth ringing.

The movie ends with a shot of a slick young man, smoking and readying himself in a darkened room.

Characters

The story of ''Tactics Advance'' revolves around three primary characters: Marche Radiuju, the main character who battles the dream worlds of his friends; Ritz Malheur, a stubborn girl who speaks her mind and changes sides in her struggle for self-acceptance; and Mewt Randell, a boy whose mother died that discovers a magical entity that changes the world into the world of Ivalice. There are also secondary characters, such as Doned Radiuju, Marche's little brother who does not desire to return to the real world, since he is sick in the real world and healthy in the dream one; and Cid Randell, Mewt's father who becomes the Judgemaster of Ivalice.

Within Ivalice, there are other characters that help advance the plot. Some characters befriended Marche, such as the moogles Montblanc and Nono; Ezel Berbier, a Nu Mou troublemaker and self-proclaimed genius; and Shara, a Viera archer who befriends Ritz. There are other characters who antagonize Marche, including Babus Swain, a Nu Mou Royal mage in Mewt's service; Llednar Twem, a mysterious enforcer who replaces the Judges when they become independent of the Palace; and Queen Remedi, who is the ruler of Ivalice and was in the Gran Grimoire itself in a form modeled after Mewt's deceased mother.

Story

Ivalice is a world created by four ordinary children: Marche Radiuju, a new student and resident of St. Ivalice and its school; Mewt Randell, a shy boy still attached to the memory of his late mother; Ritz Malheur, an assertive and outspoken classmate of Marche and Mewt; and Doned Radiuju, Marche's younger, handicapped brother and a big fan of fantasy novels and video games. Mewt comes across a dusty old tome in a local used bookstore and eagerly wishes to show it to his friends. Unaware that the book is the legendary Gran Grimoire, Mewt brings the book over to Marche's house along with Ritz. The old book is written in a language none of them have ever seen before, and a single inscription reads: "Alta oron, Sondus kameela". The next morning, Marche wakes up in the world of Ivalice. The fantasy Ivalice is supposedly a reincarnation of Mewt's memories from a ''Final Fantasy'' game.'''Marche''': Well, it's just...I've seen a bangaa, but in a computer game, not real life! / '''Moogle''': Kupo? / '''Marche''': It's called "Final Fantasy." It's not real. Not really. It's like a pretend world, with heroes and monsters... / '''Moogle''': So you're saying here is just like your pretend world? / '''Marche''': Yeah, come to think of it, it's just like in the game!

Marche is separated from the others, and immediately begins a quest to return home. Even after realizing how much better his life is in the new Ivalice, he believes that none of it is real and is even more determined to return to his home when he realizes that everyone in town has been dragged into the dream as well, many of whom are now suffering under Mewt's rule or are being slaughtered by the adventuring Clans that populate the world. The other children, and Mewt's father Cid, slowly realize through Marche's efforts that the world has been shaped according to their wishes. Mewt is no longer being teased, is reunited with his deceased mother, and is now the Prince of Ivalice; Ritz no longer has her white albinic hair, instead having the silky red hair which she always wanted; Doned can now walk and is no longer sickly; Marche is suddenly athletic and popular; Cid is the highest-ranking official in the nation; and all of them now live in ''Final Fantasy'', the video game the children all love.

Eventually Marche succeeds in his quest to return Ivalice to normal. He achieves this by destroying the crystals, or world threads, of Ivalice, defeating Llednar Twem (the manifestation of Mewt's negative emotions), and killing the Li-Grim, the physical manifestation of the book's wish-based magic that had been masquerading as Mewt's mother, Queen Remedi. He teaches the other children in the process that they cannot live in fantasy but must learn to live with their misfortunes in reality. The other children are wiser from the experience, as the ending reveals them all to have become happy with themselves.

In addition to the main plot, there are two side plots: the Redwing Arc and the Judge Arc. The Redwing Arc centers around the Redwings clan, a foreign crime ring, their subordinate clan Borzoi, and their smuggled foreign monsters. The other is the Judge Arc, unlockable after beating the main three hundred missions. This serves as an alternative ending where Marche never goes on his quest and stays in Ivalice, overthrows several corrupt judges, and becomes next in line for Cid's judge sword.

The game begins with a flashback to 1935 in the town of Harley-on-the-Hudson. A drifter named Henry Stauf kills a woman to steal her purse, beginning a series of deplorable acts. He has a vision of a beautiful doll, and the next day begins carving it. He trades the doll for food, drink and a place to stay at a local tavern. Stauf has other visions of dolls and toys, and crafts and sells these as well. Stauf becomes a successful toymaker. He uses his fortune to build a mansion at the edge of town, following another vision. At the same time, several children possessing Stauf's toys contract a mysterious illness and die. Stauf disappears into his mansion and is never seen again.

In the game's present, the narrator (the player's character) named "Ego" awakens in the Stauf mansion. The mansion is deserted, but as Ego explores it, he has ghostly visions of events in the past. These visions all take place on a night sometime after the deaths of the children, where six guests were invited to the Stauf mansion: Martine Burden, a former singer; Edward and Elinor Knox, a dissatisfied middle-aged couple; Julia Heine, a bank worker who reminisces of her youth; Brian Dutton, a fellow shop owner; and Hamilton Temple, a stage magician. The six arrive but find no sign of Stauf or anyone else. They discover a number of puzzles that give them instructions. They learn that Stauf wanted them to bring him a seventh, uninvited guest: a boy named Tad who entered the house on a dare. The guests debate what to do. Elinor and Hamilton feel they must find Tad and help him escape Stauf's plan. The others search for Tad in earnest to claim their reward from Stauf. The evening becomes bloody as the guests turn on one another or become trapped by Stauf's machinations. Julia, the last survivor, drags Tad to the attic where Stauf waited for them. Having made a pact with the evil force that gave him his visions and killed the children, Stauf has transformed into a horrific creature. He needs Tad's soul to complete the pact. Stauf kills Julia and entangles Tad with a prehensile tongue.

Ego realizes that he is the spirit of Tad, witnessing the events of that night over and over but previously unable to help; the house has been a purgatory for him. Ego finds he can now intervene in the events, and helps Tad to escape. Stauf is unable to recapture the child, and the evil entity consumes Stauf for failing to complete the pact. Tad thanks Ego for his help, and then Ego steps into a sphere of light and disappears.

The story is set in 1966. Its main protagonist is a girl named Saya, who hunts bat-like creatures called chiropterans. Saya is introduced on a subway train, where she assassinates a man in a suit. Her American contacts or handlers arrive. One of them, David, begins to brief Saya on another mission, while the other, Louis, discovers that the man Saya has just killed was probably not a chiropteran.

Saya's next mission begins at the American Yokota Air Base, which is active in the buildup to the Vietnam War. At least one chiropteran has managed to infiltrate the air base, and it is only a matter of time before they feed again, go into hibernation, and become untraceable. Saya is to pose as a school girl, infiltrate the high school adjacent to the base, and then track and kill the chiropterans.

At the school, Saya runs into a meek nurse, Amino Makiho, on the eve of the school's annual Halloween party. Two of Saya's classmates, Sharon and Linda, make a visit to Makiho at the nurse's office. Suddenly, Saya bursts into the room, killing Linda and wounding Sharon, breaking her sword in the process. Both girls are revealed to be chiropterans. Makiho goes into shock at the revelation. Meanwhile, a third chiropteran reveals itself and begins making its way to the base. Back at the school, Makiho regains her nerve and pursues Sharon into a room full of dancing Americans in costume, where she finds Sharon transformed. Saya saves her and both flee into a nearby motor pool. The chiropterans trap them inside and attack.

David delivers a new sword, and Saya uses it to kill Sharon. The final chiropteran then decides to flee, attempting to stow away on a departing cargo plane. David and Saya give chase and she manages to strike the chiropteran and mortally wound it. She then stands over the dying creature and lets some of her blood trickles into its mouth. Louis arrives and recovers Makiho before the local police reach her.

Afterward, Makiho is seen in an interview with government officials who question her about the night's events. However, it's revealed that all evidence of the battle between Saya and the chiropterans has been covered up and both David and Saya have disappeared, leaving Makiho with nothing to prove the veracity of her story. Her interviewer then asks her to identify Saya in a picture which has a girl that looks identical to her, except the picture was taken in 1892. The only other description of the picture is the word "VAMPIRE". Makiho then returns to the school, where she narrates that she never really discovered the full truth behind Saya and the chiropterans, and wonders if she's still out there fighting them.

Allie Fox is a brilliant but stubborn inventor who has grown fed up with the American Dream and consumerism. Furthermore, he believes that a nuclear war is on the horizon as a result of American greed and crime. After Allie and his eldest son Charlie acquire the components at a local dump, he finishes assembling his latest creation, an ice machine known as Fat Boy. Allie's boss, Mr. Polski, an asparagus farm owner, complains that Allie is not tending to the asparagus, which is rotting. Allie, Charlie, and Allie's youngest son, Jerry, meet Mr. Polski, and Allie shows him "Fat Boy." The machine leaves Polski unimpressed. As he drives past the fields, a dejected Allie comments on immigrants picking asparagus, and says that where they come from, they might think of ice as a luxury.

The next morning, Allie throws a party for the immigrant workers before telling his family that they're leaving the United States. On board a Panamanian barge, the family meets Reverend Spellgood, a missionary, his wife, and their daughter, Emily. Allie and the Reverend clash due to their opposing religious views. When the barge docks in Belize City, the families disembark and go their separate ways. From a drunken German, Allie purchases a small village called Jeronimo located in the rainforest along the river.

Mr. Haddy takes Allie and his family upriver to Jeronimo. Allie meets the inhabitants and proceeds to start building a new, "advanced" civilization, inventing many new things in the process. The locals take kindly to Allie and his family, but Allie's will to build a utopian civilization keeps them working to their limits. Reverend Spellgood arrives to convert Jeronimo's citizens. In the process, Allie and Spellgood angrily denounce each other, leading to a permanent schism: Allie believes Spellgood to be a religious zealot; Spellgood believes Allie to be a communist. Allie sets to constructing a huge version of "Fat Boy" that can supply the town with ice. Upon completing the machine, Allie hears rumors of a native tribe in the mountains that has never seen ice. Allie recruits his two sons to carry a load of ice into the jungle to supply the tribe. Upon arriving, Allie finds that the load has melted, and that the tribe has already been visited by missionaries.

When Allie returns to Jeronimo, he learns that Spellgood has left with much of the populace, scaring them with stories of God's biblical destruction. The near-empty town is visited by three rebels, who demand to use Jeronimo as a base. Allie and his family agree to accommodate them while Allie concocts a plan to be rid of them. Set on freezing them to death, Allie bunks the rebels up in the giant ice machine, tells Charlie to lock its only other exit, and activates it. The rebels, waking in panic, try to shoot their way out. To Allie's horror, the rebels' gunfire sets off an explosion within the machine. By the next morning, both the machine and the family's home is in ruins, and chemicals from the destroyed machine have severely polluted the river.

Forced downstream, Allie and his family arrive at the coast. Mother and the children rejoice, believing they can return to the United States. Allie, refusing to believe his dream has been shattered, announces that they have all they need on the beach and tells them that the United States has been destroyed in a nuclear war. Settling on the beach in a houseboat he has built, and refusing assistance from Mr. Haddy, Allie believes that the family has accomplished building a utopia. One night, the storm surge from a tropical cyclone nearly forces the family out to sea until Charlie reveals that he has been hiding motor components (secretly given to him by Mr. Haddy), allowing them to start the motor on the boat.

Forced to travel upstream once again, Charlie and Jerry grow resentful of their father. Coming ashore when the family stumbles across Spellgood's compound, Allie sees barbed wire, and mutters that the settlement is a Christian concentration camp. While the rest of the family sleeps, Charlie and Jerry sneak over to the Spellgood home. They find out that the United States was not destroyed and that Emily will assist them in escaping from Allie. Before Charlie can persuade Mother and his sisters to leave, Allie sets Spellgood's church on fire. Spellgood shoots Allie, paralyzing him from the neck down. The family escapes aboard the boat.

The family begins traveling downriver again, with Allie drifting in and out of consciousness. Allie asks his wife if they are going upstream. She lies to him for the first time. Charlie's narration reports the death of Allie, but gives hope that the rest of the family can live their lives freely from now on.

William Hundert works at a boarding school for boys called Saint Benedict's in the 1970s, where he is a passionate classics teacher who attempts to impart wisdom and a sense of honor to his students; he begins the school year by having new student Martin Blythe read a plaque that hangs over his door which contains a statement made by an ancient Mesopotamian ruler, Shutruk Nahunte. The plaque sings Shutruk Nahunte's praises, but Hundert explains that he contributed nothing of value to his kingdom, and as a result is virtually forgotten today.

Hundert's disciplined life and classroom are shaken when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, is enrolled late in the class. Sedgewick possesses none of Hundert's principles and is the son of a U.S. senator. He frequently disrupts class and does poorly in his homework. Hundert meets with Sedgewick's father to talk about his behavior, only to discover that the senator totally lacks interest in Sedgewick, beyond knowing he is passing his classes.

Hundert decides to help Sedgewick, they develop a friendship, and Sedgewick's grades improve. The traditional end-of-the-year "Mr. Julius Caesar contest", in which the top three students compete in a classics quiz in front of the entire school, is approaching. Sedgewick works very hard to earn a spot, but ends up in fourth place. Hundert doesn't want his efforts to be for naught, so he raises his grade to qualify; Hundert later observes Martin, the rightful third place contestant, despondently withdrawn under a tree. During the competition Hundert spies Sedgewick using crib notes, but the headmaster orders Hundert to ignore it. Hundert then deliberately asks Sedgewick a question on Hamilcar Barca which was not covered in class; it is answered correctly by another contestant, Deepak Mehta (having been seen earlier by Hundert reading a book on military science on his own initiative), who is crowned "Mr. Julius Caesar". The cheating is never publicized, but the trust Sedgewick and Hundert had in each other is broken. Sedgewick returns to his old ways and barely graduates, with Hundert expressing deep disappointment that he failed Sedgewick.

Twenty-five years later, Hundert is poised to become the new headmaster, but resigns in shock when a less experienced teacher gets the position due to his fundraising ability. Hundert is later told that an adult Sedgewick will make a tremendous donation to Saint Benedict's, contingent upon Hundert hosting a Mr. Julius Caesar rematch at Sedgewick's resort hotel on the Gold Coast, Long Island. The now adult members of Sedgewick's graduating class are also invited, and all enjoy the reunion. The three original contestants begin the competition, but as it progresses, Hundert realizes that Sedgewick is being fed answers by an assistant through an earpiece. Hundert asks a question about Shutruk Nahunte, which all the students find laughably easy; however, Sedgewick is unable to answer it. Deepak answers correctly and once again wins. Afterward, Sedgewick formally announces that he is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. While the men applaud, Hundert is appalled that he was used for political grandstanding.

Shortly after the announcement, Hundert and Sedgewick run into each other in the men's room, where Hundert confronts Sedgewick. Sedgewick tells Hundert that the real world is full of dishonesty, and that Hundert has let life pass him by. The tirade is overheard by one of Sedgewick's young sons, who is shocked to learn the truth about his father. That evening, at the hotel bar, Hundert apologizes to Martin and admits that he gave his spot to Sedgewick in the competition years ago. Martin forgives him, but his body language makes his feelings toward Hundert ambiguous. The following morning, the resort is apparently empty; however, Hundert is then greeted by a surprise party, held in his honor by his former students, who present an award engraved with a quote about education. The men wave goodbye as the helicopter carrying Hundert departs, and he reflects that while he failed with Sedgewick, he succeeded with others.

Hundert returns to his old job teaching classics in the present-day Saint Benedict's, which is now coeducational and more diverse. A boy then enters the class: the son of Martin Blythe. Hundert peers outside the window to see Blythe gladly waving to his old teacher. Hundert has the younger Blythe read the plaque above the door.

The story concerns Harvard student Alan Jensen, the point guard of the Harvard basketball team. When his parents' house is destroyed by a tornado, Alan is desperate for $100,000 to replace their home. He is approached by his girlfriend Cindy Bandolini, whose father is an organized crime boss. Cindy convinces Alan to throw a game for the money. She tells Alan that her father is behind the deal, but actually she goes to her father's associate, Teddy Carter, and Carter's assistant, Kelly Morgan for funding. What she does not know is that Carter and Morgan are undercover FBI agents.

Alan throws the game, gives his parents the money, and then undergoes a psychedelic experience after he ingests a big dose of LSD, 15,000 micrograms. There follows a long stretch of the film during which morphing special effects demonstrate Alan's altered state as he is pursued by Carter, while Cindy is collared by Morgan.

Just when it looks like a toss-up as to what will prove his downfall first, the bad trip, the FBI, or the mob, Alan's other girlfriend (who is also his philosophy lecturer), Chesney Cort, saves the day. Not only does she get Alan to a doctor who can bring him back to sobriety, she reveals that she is in a sexual threesome with Carter and Morgan. Once he gets some photographic evidence for blackmail, Alan is extricated from his problems.

The ending implies that he may have hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (a chronic disorder in which a person has flashbacks of visual hallucinations or distortions experienced during a previous hallucinogenic drug experience) this is also known as having acid (LSD) flashbacks. While taking a picture of a boy in the park the boy's face morphs and Alan hears echoes of past conversations when Sandy said "Sometimes it never ends". The little boy consoles Alan telling him "everything's okay". He responds "I hope you're right". A close up is shown of his eyes dilated.

At Will Bloom's wedding party in 2000, his father Edward recalls the day Will was born, claiming he caught an enormous catfish using his wedding ring as bait. Will, having heard these stories all his life, believes them to be lies and falls out with his father.

Three years later in 2003, Edward has cancer, so Will and his pregnant French wife Joséphine return to the town of Ashton, Alabama, to spend time with him. During the plane ride, Will recalls a story of Edward's childhood encounter with a witch in 1932, who shows him his death in her glass eye. Edward, in spite of his illness, continues to tell the story of his life to Will and Joséphine. He claims to have once been bedridden for three years due to his rapid growth spurts. He then became a locally famous sportsman before being driven by his ambition to leave his hometown.

In 1944, he sets out into the world with a misunderstood giant, Karl, who was terrorizing the town by eating livestock from the surrounding farms. Edward and Karl find a fork in the road and travel down separate paths. Edward follows a path through a swamp and discovers the secret town of Spectre, the cheery locals claiming he was expected. There, he befriends Ashton poet Norther Winslow and the mayor's daughter Jenny. However, Edward leaves Spectre, unwilling to settle down but promising Jenny he will return.

Edward and Karl reunite and visit the Calloway Circus in 1948, where Edward falls in love with a beautiful young woman. Karl and Edward get jobs in the circus, where the ringmaster Amos Calloway reveals to Edward one detail about the woman at the end of every month. Three years later in 1951, Edward discovers that Amos is secretly a werewolf and is attacked by him, but avoids getting him shot with a silver bullet by playing fetch until he turns back into human in the morning. Amos, upon returning to normal, reveals the woman's name to be Sandra Templeton, and that she attends Auburn University.

Edward travels to Auburn, and stalks Sandra for many days, even going so far as to plant thousands of daffodils outside of her sorority house bedroom. She tells him that she is engaged to Edward's childhood peer, Don Price. Don brutally beats up Edward, prompting Sandra to break off their engagement and marry Edward. Not long after, Don dies of a heart attack as the witch had prophesied.

Shortly after, Edward is drafted into the army in 1952, and sent to fight in the Korean War, He parachutes into the middle of a North Korean military show, steals important documents, and convinces Siamese twins Ping and Jing to help him go home in exchange for making them celebrities. Upon returning home, Edward becomes a travelling salesman and crosses paths with Winslow, in 1963. He unwittingly helps Winslow rob a failing bank with no money and later inspires the poet to work on Wall Street. Winslow becomes a wealthy broker and repays Edward with ten thousand dollars, which Edward uses to obtain his dream house.

In the present, Will investigates the truth behind his father's tales and travels to Spectre. He meets an older Jenny, who explains that in 1968, Edward rescued the town from bankruptcy by buying it in an auction and rebuilt it with help from his friends with the Calloway Circus. Will suggests that Jenny had an affair with his father, but she reveals that although she loved Edward, he remained faithful to Sandra.

Will returns home but learns Edward has had a stroke and stays with him at the hospital. Edward wakes up but, unable to speak much, explains the entire setting is what he saw in the witch's eye. Will starts to believe him as he becomes afraid, but he calms him by narrating what he always guessed Edward saw in the eye. Though struggling, Will tells his father of their imagined daring escape from the hospital to the nearby river, where everyone from Edward's past is there to see him off; Will carries Edward through the joyful crowd into the river, where Edward transforms into the giant catfish and swims away. Through telling this story, Will learns to forgive his father, who dies satisfied with his life.

At the funeral, Will and Joséphine are surprised when all the people from Edward's stories come to the service, though each one is slightly less fantastical than described. He asks for their accounts on Edward's stories, where they confirm the credibility but also fantasize his acts in return. Years later, Will passes on Edward's stories to his own son, helping him become "immortal".

Setting

The plot revolves around a teenage boy and his dog whom the player must name. Most of the game takes place in the fictional world of Evermore. The player explores four main areas within this world, corresponding to different historical eras: Prehistoria contains cavemen and dinosaurs; Antiqua boasts a colosseum and pyramid theme; Gothica contains medieval castles and is populated by dragons; Omnitopia is a futuristic space station.

Throughout their travels the boy, in the company of his dog, often quotes or mentions fictional B movies that relate to their current situation. For example, he compares himself to "Dandy" Don Carlisle in the film ''Sink, Boat, Sink'' after washing ashore at Crustacia. In addition, the dog's body transforms based on the theme of the area that players are in: in the world of Prehistoria, the dog is transformed into a feral wolf; in the Antiqua region, he becomes a greyhound; in Gothica, he takes the form of a fancy poodle; and in Omnitopia, he becomes a robotic dog that resembles a toaster and is capable of shooting laser beams.

Setting

''Pokémon Colosseum'' is set in the Orre region. Orre is a mostly desertous region in which no wild Pokémon can be found (although the sequel, ''Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness'', adds wild Pokémon spots to the region). Orre consists of many cities, towns, and Colosseums.

Characters

The game's player protagonist is by default named , but as with most ''Pokémon'' games, the player can change his name. Wes's Starter Pokémon are Espeon and Umbreon, two fox-like Pokémon who start at level 25 and 26, respectively. Additionally, shortly after the game begins, the player meets the game's partner character, Rui; she accompanies Wes on his journey, and uses her ability to see shadow Pokémon to help combat the efforts of the game's villains. , a criminal organization that uses the "Snag machine" technology to capture the Pokémon of Trainers, serves as an antagonistic entity in the game. However, shortly after the game's start, is revealed to be the main antagonistic force, having partnered with Snagem to obtain Pokémon from Trainers, corrupting them, and distributing them throughout Cipher and other places such as Pyrite Town. Wes is a former employee of Team Snagem. The organization also employs many grunt workers, as well as four administrators: disco-loving , the explosively-tempered bodybuilder, , the queen of the Under, , and the strategist of a scientist, .

Story

The game begins with a cold open in which Wes infiltrates and destroys the Team Snagem hideout before leaving the organization. Wes starts at the Outskirt Stand, a dilapidated train engine in the middle of the desert that has been converted into a shop. With Espeon and Umbreon, Wes's first opponent is a Trainer named Willie. Wes then leaves the Stand and heads to the oasis-esque Phenac City in time to see two men dragging a sack. After defeating them in battle, Wes unties the sack to find Rui, a girl with the ability to discern Shadow Pokémon. They meet the mayor, Es Cade, who seems very bothered about the Cipher problem, but seems to do nothing about it. Later, upon leaving Phenac Colosseum, three Snagem grunts find Wes and Rui. The grunts then reveal to Rui that he was a member of Snagem, and an excellent Snagger. Wes then confronts one of the grunts, which results in the latter's defeat. Finding out that he is an expert at snagging Pokémon, Rui asks him to join forces with her in finding and snagging Shadow Pokémon.

As the game progresses, Wes becomes a target of a powerful organization known as Team Cipher. After leaving Phenac, he visits Pyrite Town, where Rui was kidnapped. In Pyrite, Shadow Pokémon are openly offered to winners of the town's Colosseum tournament. The local police force is powerless to stop the practice, so Duking, an influential man in Pyrite, asks Wes to enter the tournament and investigate. Wes enters the Colosseum challenge and defeats four trainers to win. Inside a nearby building, a Cipher Peon is about to present the Shadow Pokémon prize, but another one recognizes Wes. The pair then battle their way through the building and a maze-like cave set in the rock behind. Eventually, they face and defeat Miror B., one of four Cipher Admins. Afterwards, Wes returns a Pokémon Miror B. stole from Duking. A team of kids working in Duking's house introduce themselves as members of an anti-Cipher news network, known as the Kids Grid, who pledge their help to Wes and Rui.

Their next stop is Agate Village, a forested village in the mountains. As Rui introduces Wes to her grandfather Eagun, another villager runs into the room, telling them that the Relic Stone—a shrine protected by Celebi—is under attack. Wes, following Eagun to the center of the tree, fights off four Cipher agents before the Relic Stone is safe. After resting, Wes is given access to the Relic Stone, the only place where he can purify Shadow Pokémon. After receiving an e-mail from Duking about Mt. battle being under attack by Cipher, Rui asks Eagun where it is and the two headed over there.

Upon reaching Mt. Battle, people inform Wes and Rui that Cipher has already taken over the first section of the mountain. After battling nine other Trainers, Wes battles the Cipher administrator Dakim. Dakim owns a Shadow Entei, who is one of the trio of legendary beasts. After defeating Dakim, Wes heads to The Under, which is an underground city located underneath Pyrite Town, and under the control of Cipher. More members of the Kids Grid are here. They tell the player of Venus, another Cipher administrator, who has influence over The Under. After Wes confronts Venus, the owner of the second legendary beast Suicune, she flees. Next, Wes and Rui head to the Shadow Pokémon Lab, where Pokémon are transformed into Shadow Pokémon. After defeating numerous Cipher peons, Wes faces Ein, the final Cipher administrator and the owner of the final legendary beast Raikou.

Wes and Rui then go to Realgam Tower. All four administrators are there and ready to face Wes again. After doing so, he is granted access to the Colosseum at the top of the building. There, he is greeted by a large crowd. A Cipher man named Nascour tells Wes that he will have to face four trainers. After Wes defeats all four trainers, Nascour fights him. Once defeated, Nascour tries to leave, only to be interrupted by Es Cade. Es Cade reveals that he is really none other than Evice, the head of Cipher, and battles Wes. When Wes defeats him, Evice attempts to escape by helicopter, but the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh swoops in and blasts it out of the sky. Evice and Nascour are sent to jail.

When Ludwig van Beethoven dies, his assistant and close friend Schindler deals with his last will and testament. It reads that his estate, music and affairs will be left to his "immortal beloved," but there remains a question as to who is Beethoven's "immortal beloved," an unnamed woman mentioned in one of his letters. Schindler embarks on a quest to find out and meets the women who he knew had played a part in Ludwig's life.

Schindler first meets with Giulietta Giucciardi, who became a piano student of Beethoven's when she was a wealthy, young unmarried woman and fell in love with him. Despite Giulietta's father disapproving, she intends to marry Beethoven. She attempts to prove to her father that, despite rumors to the contrary, Beethoven can still play music himself, and hides with him while the composer plays the piano forte, believing he is alone. When he discovers Giulietta and her father, he is furious, feeling betrayed. He cuts ties with her and storms out. She calls after him to apologize, and only then realizes that Beethoven is deaf.

Schindler next meets Anna-Marie Erdödy, who took Beethoven in after becoming outraged with the audience mocking him at a poor performance, as the composer, now completely deaf, had become unable to properly conduct the orchestra. Anna-Marie's young son is killed during Napoleon's attack on Vienna and Beethoven comforts her in her grief, leading to a love affair, but she denies being his "immortal beloved."

Schindler's investigation brings him back to Beethoven's own family, recounting his disapproval of his brother marrying Johanna Reiss, the daughter of Anton Van Reiss, a prosperous Viennese upholsterer, even attempting to have her arrested at one point. After his brother's death, Beethoven is able to seize custody of his nephew Karl. Even though the boy is indifferent to music, his uncle becomes obsessed with making him a composer, neglecting his own career, which suffers.

Karl grows into a teenager, having spent hours daily practicing the piano. Beethoven is convinced that Karl will be a great success as a composer, but Karl knows he has no talent and, pushed to his breaking point by his uncle, attempts suicide. He survives but tells Beethoven he never wants to see him again.

Schindler discovers that Beethoven's great love was Johanna, and that Karl, conceived before her marriage, is actually his son, not his nephew. They had intended to elope, but Beethoven was delayed and wrote the "immortal beloved" letter to Johanna to let her know. However, Johanna never received it and, believing Beethoven had abandoned her, left and married his brother instead. Both feeling betrayed, their love grew to hate. Johanna tells Schindler that when she saw the performance of his ninth symphony, she was moved to forgive him and ultimately made peace with him on his deathbed, where he gave her a signed letter, giving her custody over Karl.

Schindler gives Johanna the letter to the "Immortal Beloved" in which she finally reads what happened that night they were supposed to meet. Shocked to find out how an unfortunate event and misunderstanding has kept them apart, she visits Beethoven's grave.

Setting

''Pokémon FireRed'' and ''LeafGreen'' takes place mostly in the fictional region of Kanto. This is one distinct region of many in the ''Pokémon'' world, which includes varied geographical habitats for the Pokémon species, human-populated towns and cities, and routes between locations. Some areas are only accessible once players acquire a special item or one of their Pokémon learns a special ability. Near the end of the plot, the protagonist is able to venture to the Sevii Islands, a new area not present in the original ''Red'' and ''Blue'' games. The Sevii Islands are an archipelago of seven islands and contain Pokémon normally exclusive to the Johto region, as well as several post-game missions. After the aforementioned missions on the Sevii Islands are completed, the ability to trade with ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' for Hoenn-exclusive Pokémon becomes available.

Story

The silent protagonist of ''FireRed'' and ''LeafGreen'' is a child who lives in a small town named Pallet Town. After players start a journey and venture alone into tall grass, a voice warns them to stop. Professor Oak, a famous Pokémon researcher, explains to the player that such grass is often the habitat of wild Pokémon, and encountering them alone can be very dangerous. He takes the player to his laboratory where they meet Oak's grandson, another aspiring Pokémon Trainer. The player and their rival are both instructed to select a starter Pokémon for their travels. The rival then challenges them to a Pokémon battle with their newly obtained Pokémon and continues to battle the player at certain points throughout the games.

After reaching the next city, the player is asked to deliver a parcel to Professor Oak. Upon returning to the laboratory, they are presented with a Pokédex, a high-tech encyclopedia that records the entries of any Pokémon that are captured. Oak then asks the player to fulfill his dream of compiling a comprehensive list of every Pokémon in the game.

While visiting the region's cities, the player encounters special establishments called Pokémon Gyms. Inside these buildings are Gym Leaders, each of whom the player must defeat in a Pokémon battle to obtain a Gym Badge. Once a total of eight badges are acquired, the player is given permission to enter the Pokémon League, which consists of the best Pokémon trainers in the region. There the player battles the Elite Four. Also throughout the game, the player has to fight against the forces of Team Rocket, a criminal organization that abuses Pokémon. They devise numerous plans to steal rare Pokémon, all of which the player must foil, meeting and defeating the organization boss Giovanni.

After the first time players defeat the Elite Four, one of the members, Lorelei, disappears. After gaining access to the Sevii Islands, an entirely new region, the player discovers Lorelei in her house and convinces her to come back with them. Once more, the protagonist must thwart Team Rocket's plans on several occasions, recover two artifacts, the Ruby and the Sapphire, and put them in the main computer at One Island. After that, the player can trade with ''Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', ''Emerald'', ''Colosseum'' and ''XD''.

Thirty-year-old Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos is a member of a large, loud, intrusive Greek family that only wants her to get married and have children. Frumpy and meek, she works in her family's Chicago restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's", but longs to do something more with her life. While working one day, she is immediately smitten with Ian Miller, a handsome school teacher. She amuses Ian when he catches her staring at him and jokingly calls herself his “own private Greek statue.” That evening, Toula offers to go to college to learn about computers so she can improve the restaurant, but her father, Gus, becomes emotional, claiming Toula wants to leave him. Her mother, Maria, comforts Toula and convinces Gus to agree to Toula's idea.

As the weeks pass, Toula gains more confidence and changes her image, switching her thick-framed glasses for contact lenses, styling her hair, and wearing makeup and brighter clothes that show off her figure. She sees a notice for a course on computers and tourism and tells her Aunt Voula, who owns a travel agency, that she could apply what she learns in the course to Voula's business. Voula agrees, and she and Maria slyly convince Gus to agree as well.

Toula's happiness working at the travel agency catches Ian's attention and he asks her to dinner. Knowing her family wouldn't approve of her dating a non-Greek, Toula lies that she is taking a pottery class in order to see Ian. Ian eventually realizes Toula is the waitress from Dancing Zorba's; contrary to Toula's fear that he would lose interest in her, Ian reaffirms his fondness of her. They continue dating and fall in love.

Toula's lie is ultimately exposed. Gus is furious that Ian did not ask his permission to date Toula, despite the fact that they are grown adults. Gus refuses to let them continue seeing each other, but they ignore his decree, so Gus introduces Toula to single friends of his own, to no avail.

Ian proposes marriage and Toula accepts. Maria tells Gus that he must accept their marriage, but Gus remains upset because Ian is not a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. To get the family to accept him, Ian agrees to be baptized into the church. The Portokalos family does finally accept him, but constantly inserts themselves into the wedding planning, designing ugly bridesmaid's dresses and misspelling Ian's mother's name on their wedding invitations.

Ian's quiet, conservative parents meet the entire family during a loud and extravagant Greek family dinner and are overwhelmed by the experience, frustrating Gus. Toula worries about whether her father has really accepted Ian. Maria explains that, growing up, her family experienced many hardships, and that she and Gus simply want her to be happy. Toula's grandmother shows Toula photos of herself as a young woman and the crown she wore at her own wedding, which Toula puts on. When the three women all look at Toula in her bedroom mirror, the sight of three generations in the reflection makes Toula smile with pride. The wedding proceeds as planned.

At the wedding reception, Gus gives a heartfelt speech focusing on how the differences in the newlyweds' backgrounds do not matter. He and Maria then surprise Toula and Ian with a house as a wedding gift; Toula is speechless at the gesture of love from her father. As the two families dance together, Toula narrates that while her family is indeed loud, odd, and somewhat dramatic, she knows they love her and will always be there for her.

Six years later, Toula and Ian leave their house—conveniently located right next door to Gus and Maria's—to walk their daughter to Greek school.

After the Metropolitan Police fail to apprehend the serial killer Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes is approached to investigate the recent murders of prostitutes that happened in the Whitechapel district of London. Helped by Dr. Watson and the medium Robert Lees, Holmes discovers that all the victims were companions of Annie Crook, a woman locked in a mental institution.

Things get complicated as members of the police hierarchy and also several politicians, all Freemasons, seem to be protecting one of their own. Furthermore, Inspector Foxborough, the policeman who is in charge of the case, is in fact the secret leader of the radicals, a political movement waiting for the British government to fall because of its incapability to solve the Whitechapel murders. Holmes must rely on his skills to find and confront the murderer.

In San Diego 1969, child prodigy William Miller struggles to fit in. His life is further complicated after learning that his widowed college-professor mother Elaine has falsely led him to believe he is thirteen years old. William is actually eleven, having started the first grade at five years old, and skipping fifth grade. Strong-willed Elaine's strict ban on rock music and her fear of pop culture have a negative effect on her children, finally driving William's 18-year-old sister Anita to move to San Francisco and become a flight attendant.

In 1973, William, now fifteen, influenced by Anita's secret cache of rock albums, aspires to be a rock journalist, writing freelance articles for underground papers in San Diego. Rock journalist Lester Bangs, impressed with William's writing, gives him a $35 assignment to review a Black Sabbath concert. William is barred from backstage until the opening band Stillwater arrives and William flatters his way in. Lead guitarist Russell Hammond takes a liking to him and his new acquaintance, veteran groupie Penny Lane, who has taken William under her wing. Despite behaving as stereotypical groupies, Penny Lane insists she and her friends are "band aids", a term she invented to describe female fans that are there more for the music than for the rock stars themselves.

''Rolling Stone'' editor Ben Fong-Torres hires William to write an article about Stillwater, based on his skills, and sends him on the road with the band. William interviews the other band members, but Russell repeatedly puts him off. Tensions between Russell and lead singer Jeff Bebe soon become evident and not helped at all by the band's first t-shirt, a full band shot that pictures Russell in full view while the rest of the band is in the shadows. William is jokingly called "the enemy" by the band as he is a journalist, but he gradually begins to lose his objectivity as he becomes integrated into their inner circle.

The record label hires Dennis, a professional manager, to handle problems with venues and promoters. Penny has to leave before the band reaches New York, where Russell's girlfriend Leslie will join them. Penny and her three protégée band aids are gambled away to another band in a poker game; Penny acts nonchalantly but is devastated. Meanwhile, Dennis charters a small plane so the band can play more gigs.

Penny shows up uninvited at the New York restaurant where they are celebrating the news that they are to be featured on the cover of ''Rolling Stone''. Penny is asked to leave after Leslie notices her attempts to get Russell's attention. William chases her to her hotel, where he saves her from overdosing on quaaludes.

Flying to a gig the following day, the plane encounters severe weather. Fearing the plane will crash, everyone confesses their secrets, while Jeff and Russell's long-simmering conflicts erupt. William confesses his love for Penny after Jeff insults her. The plane lands safely in Tupelo, leaving everyone to ponder the changed atmosphere.

William arrives at the ''Rolling Stone'' office in San Francisco but has difficulty finishing the article. Seeking help, he calls Lester Bangs who says William got caught up in being part of the band. He says his perceived friendships with them are not real and advises him to "be honest...and unmerciful." ''Rolling Stone'' s editors rave over William's completed article, but when the magazine's fact checker calls the band, Russell lies to protect Stillwater's image and claims most of it is false. ''Rolling Stone'' kills the article, crushing William. Anita encounters a dejected William in the airport and offers to take him anywhere; he chooses for them to go to their home in San Diego.

Sapphire, one of the protégée "Band Aids", chastises Russell for betraying William. He then calls Penny, wanting to meet with her, but she gives him William's address. He arrives and finds himself face-to-face with William's mother who, during the tour, scolded him over the phone for his behavior. Russell apologizes to William and finally gives him an interview. Russell has verified William's article to ''Rolling Stone'', which runs it as a cover feature. Penny fulfills her long-standing fantasy to go to Morocco while Stillwater tours again by bus.

''Syndicate'' (1993) and ''Syndicate Wars''

The original ''Syndicate'' is set in the year 2096. As outlined in the game's instruction manual, multinational megacorporations have replaced nation-state governments, and one such corporation, EuroCorp, has manufactured the "CHIP": a device implanted in a person's neck that alters their perception ("numbing their senses to the misery and squalor around them") and allows them to be easily manipulated. The megacorporations have subsequently been infiltrated and overtaken by corrupt crime syndicates vying for global control.

The player is placed in charge one such corporation, for which they choose a name and logo. During the course of the game, as missions for the player's corporation are completed by teams of cyborg enforcers known as "agents," it gains global dominance over its competitors.

''Syndicate Wars'' is set 95 years after the original game (in the year 2191), when EuroCorp holds full global control, using CHIP technology to influence the population. The release of a virus into the global communications network leads to widespread CHIP failures, resulting in the emergence of armed insurrectionists referred to as "unguided citizens." The group responsible for the biological attack is a militant religious organisation called the Church of the New Epoch.

The game's instruction manual specifically addresses the player as a newly hired EuroCorp executive; however, they can choose to control agents from either EuroCorp (to suppress uprisings resulting from the virus outbreak) or the Church of the New Epoch (to seize power from EuroCorp).

The game ends with a battle for control of ionosphere calibration equipment on the moon, which the Church's leaders intend to use in eliminating life on Earth; however (regardless of which faction the player chooses to play as), the leaders are eliminated before this plan can be executed.

''Syndicate'' (2012)

The plot of the later ''Syndicate'' game renames the CHIP technology to the "DART chip", and introduces the concept of the "unchipped", a proportion of the world's population who declined the use of this technology. The game is set in the year 2069 (prior to the original games), at which point, ''EuroCorp'' is already an established global megacorporation.

The main story focuses on a specific agent, named Miles Kilo. Kilo uncovers a plot from a rival corporation, ''Aspari'', to begin a war against ''EuroCorp'', before discovering that ''EuroCorp'' killed his family, abducted him as a baby and modified his memory. The game ends with the apparent downfall of ''EuroCorp''.

Like ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue'', ''Yellow'' takes place in the Kanto region, which features habitats for 151 Pokémon species. The objectives remain the same as well, though some differences exist along the way. For example, in the beginning, the player is not given an option of choosing one of three starter Pokémon. Instead, a wild Pikachu that Professor Oak catches becomes the player's starter Pokémon, while the rival character takes an Eevee. The plot is loosely based on the Indigo League saga of the anime, and features characters that were not featured in the game or have been enhanced to resemble their designs used in the anime, including Jessie, James, Meowth, Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny. Similar to the anime, Pikachu refuses to evolve. Players are also given the opportunity to obtain the original three starters. As players quest on, they gradually progress catching Pokémon for the Pokédex which they use to defeat the eight Gym Leaders and eventually the Elite Four, all the while battling Team Rocket, a gang devoted to using Pokémon in order to make themselves more powerful. By the time of the encounter with the Elite Four the player has had the opportunity to capture 149 types of Pokémon; in the post-game, after the Elite Four has been defeated, the player may enter Cerulean Cave, where Mewtwo, the final Pokémon in regular gameplay, can be found, battled and captured. The last Pokémon in the Pokédex, Mew, cannot be captured during ordinary gameplay, though exploiting bugs in the game makes this possible.

Pee-wee Herman has a heavily accessorized bicycle that he treasures and that his neighbor and enemy, Francis Buxton, covets. Dottie, an employee at a bike shop, has a crush on Pee-wee, but he does not reciprocate.

Pee-wee's bike is stolen while he is shopping at a mall, but the police tell Pee-wee they cannot help him find it. Pee-wee assumes Francis took it, and confronts him, but Francis' father convinces Pee-wee that Francis was at home when the bike was stolen. Pee-wee offers a $10,000 reward for the bike. Francis, who did indeed pay to have someone steal the bike, is disturbed by Pee-wee's relentlessness and pays to have the bike sent away. That evening, Pee-wee holds an unsuccessful evidentiary meeting of friends and neighbors to find the bike, then rejects offers of help. He then visits a psychic who, spying a bargain basement across the street, tells Pee-wee that his bike is in the basement of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio.

Pee-wee hitchhikes to Texas, getting rides from a fugitive convict named Mickey, and from Large Marge, the ghost of a truck driver. At a truck stop, Pee-wee finds his wallet is missing, and pays for his meal by washing dishes. He befriends Simone, a waitress who dreams of visiting Paris. As they watch the sun rise from within a roadside dinosaur statue, he encourages her to follow her dreams, but Simone tells him about her boyfriend, Andy, who disapproves. Andy himself appears and tries to attack Pee-wee, who escapes onto a moving train. Pee-wee arrives at the Alamo, but learns at the end of a guided tour that the building does not have a basement.

At a bus station, Pee-wee encounters Simone, who tells him she broke up with Andy and is on her way to Paris. She tells Pee-wee not to give up searching for his bike. Pee-wee calls Dottie at the bike shop and apologizes for his behavior. Andy spots Pee-wee and resumes chasing him. Pee-wee evades Andy at a rodeo by disguising himself as a bull rider. Forced to ride a bull, Pee-wee nearly sets a world record but receives a concussion. He visits a biker bar to make a phone call, and a biker gang threatens to kill him after he accidentally knocks over their motorcycles. He wins them over by dancing to the song "Tequila" in a pair of platform shoes, and they give him a motorcycle for his journey, which he crashes immediately.

He awakens in a hospital and sees a television news report in which his bike is being used as a prop in a film. Pee-wee sneaks into Warner Bros. Studios with Milton Berle in Burbank and grabs the bike. Security guards chase him across the studio lot and through several active sets before he escapes.

Having escaped the lot, Pee-wee discovers a burning pet shop and rescues the animals. The firefighters declare Pee-wee a hero, but the police arrest Pee-wee for his intrusion at the studio. They return Pee-wee to the studio to face Warner Bros. president Terry Hawthorne. After Pee-wee pleads his case that the bike belongs to him, Hawthorne decides to drop the charges and return Pee-wee's bike in exchange for the rights to adapt his story into a film starring James Brolin as "P.W. Herman" and Morgan Fairchild as Dottie. In the film, the characters must retrieve their stolen motorbike – which contains an important microfilm – from the Soviets. Pee-wee has a bit role as a hotel bellhop, though his voice has been dubbed.

Seeing the film at a drive-in theater, Pee-wee gives refreshments to the different people he met along his journey, then joins Dottie at their bikes. He also encounters Francis, who tells reporters he is Pee-wee's best friend and that he taught Pee-wee how to ride. Francis claims to be knowledgeable about Pee-wee's bike, but sets off one of the bicycle's gadgets, catapulting himself into the air.

Pee-wee wants to leave the drive-in, and Dottie asks why he is not staying to watch the rest of the film. Pee-wee answers "I don't have to see it, Dottie. I lived it." He and Dottie then ride off together silhouetted against the screen.

Story

UNITY is a secret international organization headquartered somewhere in England that protects humanity from outsiders who want to take over the world. In 1960, over half of the UNITY's elite agents are murdered by an unknown assassin within a week, leaving UNITY with a critical manpower shortage. They are forced to send UNITY agent Cate Archer and her mentor, Bruno Lawrie, on a series of high-profile missions. Cate is an ex-cat burglar, and is UNITY's first female spy operative. UNITY's leaders, Jones and Smith, are skeptical of Cate working as a field agent, and have previously relegated her to more mundane assignments. Intelligence reveals that a Russian assassin named Dmitrij Volkov and a new terrorist organization named H.A.R.M. are responsible for the murders of UNITY's former agents. Cate and Bruno embark on a dangerous assignment in Morocco, which later turns out to be an ambush set up by Volkov and his men. Cate manages to escape Morocco whilst Bruno is shot by Volkov. In the UNITY headquarters, Jones and Smith reveal that Volkov killed Bruno simply because he was the traitor, to which Cate reacts with disbelief.

She is then tasked to escort Dr. Otto Schenker, an East German scientist, to England. Later on, as Cate and Dr. Schenker fly back to England, he is captured by H.A.R.M., led by Magnus Armstrong, who knocks Cate unconscious. Armstrong decides to spare Cate's life, believing that she is a fellow Scot. Cate awakens and is soon thrown from the plane as it explodes. After surviving the fall via parachute, Cate is later introduced to a new partner, Tom Goodman, a UNITY agent from the American branch. After meeting him in a nightclub in Hamburg, they are ambushed by H.A.R.M. but manage to escape. The nightclub is owned by a German singer named Inge Wagner, whom Cate suspects is connected with H.A.R.M. The two are then tasked to investigate a cargo freighter containing several suspicious chemical containers that UNITY believes are linked to Dr. Schenker. Cate gets in the freighter, and after taking photos of the containers, is knocked unconscious by Armstrong, who spares her life by locking her in a cargo hold, thus ignoring Wagner's insistence that she must be liquidated. As the freighter heads out to sea, it slowly begins to sink, due to a huge explosion. Wagner and Armstrong escape immediately, but Cate has to fight her way out of the bowels of the freighter. Because Cate could not obtain the required information, she and Tom must return to the sunken freighter to finish gathering intelligence aboard. Cate goes scuba diving, and after investigating the shipwreck and obtaining the captain's log and the cargo manifest, she is ambushed by H.A.R.M. divers sent from a submarine commanded by Armstrong and Wagner but manages to escape.

Later, Cate finds out about a connection between H.A.R.M. and a large manufacturing firm named Dumas Industrial Enterprises, which was operated by Baron Archibald Dumas. However, the Baron claims he has no intelligence regarding his connection to H.A.R.M.

Later, Cate infiltrates the Dumas corporate headquarters, gaining access to their highly guarded safe, and photographing some relevant documents, despite heavy opposition, including an ear-splitting deathmatch against Wagner. However, after photographing the headquarter's final document, Cate escapes the headquarters despite witnessing Tom being shot by Volkov.

Meanwhile, H.A.R.M. starts infecting and killing innocent people using Dr. Schenker's biological explosive development. The chemical is injected into the living host, and it feeds on organic material until it culminates in a massive explosion. H.A.R.M. states that if their ransom demands are not met, they will continue to use human time bombs to cause destruction around the world. Cate embarks on a train ride to Washington, where Dr. Schenker is believed to be located. Cate finds him and manages to escort him to safety using an underground base.

Soon after, Dr. Schenker reveals that the antidote for the chemical reagent is located in H.A.R.M.'s space station. Cate travels to a small island located in the Caribbean, where she infiltrates a secret space launch facility. Cate discovers that a rocket will be sent to the space station that afternoon to collect some antidote. Disguised as a H.A.R.M. space agent, Cate boards the rocket and travels to H.A.R.M.'s space station. While she is searching for the antidote, the space station is struck by a meteor shower, causing it to implode. Cate obtains a large antidote sample and uses an escape pod to return to Earth safely.

Now in possession of the antidote, UNITY needs the list of infected people to find out who administered it, during which Cate believes that the real mastermind behind H.A.R.M.'s events is the Baron's wife, Baroness Felicity Dumas, who is believed to be in possession of the list. Later, Cate heads to the Dumas' château located in the German Alps. While there, she is knocked unconscious by Armstrong, who spares her life by locking her in a cell. The Baroness gloats at Cate about her plans to take over the world and leaves. Cate then provokes Armstrong into an ensuing fist fight. After being defeated, Armstrong agrees to let Cate go, and defects H.A.R.M. by telling her where the list is located. Cate then realizes that she was infected after being shot with a blowgun by Wagner in Hamburg days ago. The Baroness mentions that Wagner must have set the count-down to 10 days instead of 10 hours. Eventually, Cate obtains another antidote and later, the list located in the Baroness's hidden lair.

When Cate traveled down the mountain via a gondola lift, defeating the H.A.R.M. helicopters in the process, she encounters Volkov and a gun duel ensues. During their duel, an explosion causes an avalanche to send Volkov over the edge of a cliff. Later, Cate is confronted by the Baroness, and another gun duel ensues. After defeating the Baroness, she reveals that she has also infected herself and is about to detonate. Cate hurries to clear the civilians off the streets, and hides inside a building as the Baroness explodes.

Back at UNITY's headquarters, Cate is congratulated for a mission well done, and everybody leaves to grab some rest. Cate arrives at a graveyard where Bruno was buried to pay her respects. She is then confronted by the supposedly long-dead Tom Goodman, who reveals that he is the real traitor within UNITY, and a final gun duel ensues. Cate manages to injure Tom and arrest him, but Smith shoots Tom, causing him to fall into a freshly dug grave. Smith then tries to shoot Cate as well, but Jones shoots Smith and reveals that Bruno is still alive. Smith attempts his one last effort to shoot Cate, but Cate kills Smith just in time. With Tom and Smith shot dead, Jones and Bruno decide to tell Cate the truth; Bruno falsified his death so that Cate and the rest of UNITY could find the real traitor. Seven years ago, Smith was taken out of the field by UNITY due to his inadequate fieldwork. In order to sabotage UNITY as a way to avenge himself, Smith joins H.A.R.M. to kill the real Tom Goodman, and replace him with an impostor. When Cate's investigation initially foiled H.A.R.M.'s plan, both Smith and his mole were forced to reveal their true intentions. Cate reacts in shock upon finding out the truth.

In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Volkov survived the avalanche and reports back to H.A.R.M.'s mysterious Director, a middle-aged drunk man who Cate has seen several times in different countries during the game.

South Florida high school dropouts Ali Willis (Bijou Phillips) and Lisa Connelly (Rachel Miner) befriend Bobby Kent (Nick Stahl) and Marty Puccio (Brad Renfro), employees at a local deli. The four all go out on a double date. Later that evening, in Bobby's parked car, Ali performs oral sex on Bobby, while Lisa and Marty have sex in the back seat. Lisa later learns she is pregnant, but is afraid that the child is Bobby's instead of Marty's, since Bobby raped her after beating Marty unconscious.

Bobby emotionally and physically abuses Marty, who puts up with his violent tendencies. On one occasion, Bobby rapes Ali while trying to force her to watch gay male pornography with him. Lisa later tells Marty that everyone suspects Bobby is attracted to him. Marty reveals to Lisa that the abuse has been going on since they were boys, starting with Marty taking drugs at an early age, which Marty thinks that Bobby has been using to take advantage of him. Marty and Bobby later go to a gay bar, where Marty is told to strip down to his underwear and dance for money, while Bobby takes pleasure in his humiliation.

Lisa eventually proposes that the group murder Bobby. Ali recruits her new boyfriend, the pot-smoking and acid-dropping Donny (Michael Pitt), and his troubled friend, Heather Swallers (Kelli Garner), who has recently been released from rehab; Lisa recruits her cousin, the shy and nerdy Derek Dzvirko (Daniel Franzese). They initially plan to kill Bobby with a gun stolen from Lisa's mother. Ali and Lisa take Bobby to the Everglades, with the plan that Lisa will shoot him while he has sex with Ali, but Lisa finds herself unable to do it. Realizing they need help, the group hire a supposed "hitman", Derek Kaufman (Leo Fitzpatrick), a friend of Ali's who is in actuality a tough-talking young man several years older than them.

With Kaufman's help, they orchestrate a new plan: they all drive to a remote canal, where Ali again lures Bobby with sex. Heather haphazardly initiates a signal to begin the murder, and Donny stabs Bobby in the back of the neck. Horrified by the violence, Ali, Heather, and Dzvirko run back to Ali's car. Bobby begs for mercy, but Marty stabs him in the stomach, disemboweling him, before slitting his throat. Kaufman proceeds to bludgeon Bobby with a baseball bat. Lisa witnesses it all, never turning away. They dump Bobby in the swamp, and presume alligators will consume his corpse.

Marty later realizes that he left the sheath to his diving knife at the canal. They go to retrieve the sheath, and check on the corpse, which is now being eaten by crabs. Lisa, Dzvirko, Ali, and Heather do not believe they did anything wrong, since they did not directly participate in Bobby's actual death. Lisa decides to dispose of the knife, which is the only evidence linking them to the crime.

Unable to maintain the secret, Dzvirko and Lisa reveal to their other friends what they've done, while Ali phones in an anonymous tip to the media, alerting them to Bobby's death. Lisa calls Kaufman and speaks to his younger brother, who says that Kaufman has already been arrested for the murder. Eventually, all the teenagers turn themselves in, with the exception of Marty, who is subsequently arrested. Some time later, the group appear in court, wearing prison jumpsuits, with Lisa visibly pregnant by this time. Marty and Donny begin to argue, leading the others to join in as they each respectively deny their culpability in front of an onlooking courtroom.

Title cards reveal their convictions: Derek Kaufman, Donny, and Lisa receive life sentences, Ali receives 40 years, Derek Dzvirko receives 11 years, Heather receives 7 years, and Marty is sentenced to death.

near the far wall

The film begins with a scene of a person being executed by hanging. The trap door opens and the person drops with a serene smile on his face. The movie then cuts to footage of an amateur video taken from inside a car going through various parts of a city, as the backwards "n" from the ''Broken'' album cover and the title "broken" is shown, superimposed as a glass overlay. The car goes from the middle-class suburbs to, literally, the other side of the tracks into a shoddy industrial area. A brief shot of a "Meat District" sign is shown. The car approaches a young man on the sidewalk. Almost immediately, he is suddenly seen in a basement, tied with a seatbelt to a chair and cleave-gagged while being forced to watch a television.

The music video for "Pinion" begins to play. It begins in a bathroom. The camera zooms in on a toilet flushing, and a network of pipes is shown leading to a contraption with a large gear system and a pressure gauge on it. As the camera zooms out, a tight plastic bodybag-like suit suspended in a padded cell with six rods by the side is shown, with the end of the pipes attached to the mouth portion with water gushing in, presumably to drown the person inside. An alternative interpretation is that the person bound inside is being fed the "waste of the world" coming through the pipes.

Cutting back to the amateur video, the killer, wearing some sort of leather mask, drags the victim's head back and forces him to drink some sort of liquid from a jerrycan. The middle of the music video for "Wish" is again interrupted by amateur footage, showing the victim chained to a table with a large wad of a dark substance on his face. As the killer is then seen putting his pants on, it is usually assumed that the substance is feces. After the video ends, the killer repeatedly rewinds to the part of the music video where Trent Reznor screams "fist fuck!" and begins to rub his fist.

The video for "Help Me I Am in Hell" shows a middle-age bald man in a room filled with flies. He ignores them while eating some sort of steak and drinking wine, despite the fact that the flies enter his mouth while he eats. The video cuts away several times to show the same man in bondage gear. This video was blacked out in the most prominent leak, and is now generally believed (although not proven) to be part of the complete film, but was blacked out by Reznor in the bootlegged copy. Reznor later admitted to distributing different copies of ''Broken'' to his friends, each with a different part of the video blacked out so that he would be able to identify the culprit if it were to be leaked.

Following the music video, the victim is shown still tied to a table as the killer proceeds to rip his teeth out. The video for "Happiness in Slavery", which was banned by music video channels worldwide, begins. The most widely known part of the movie, it features performance artist Bob Flanagan stripping off his clothes and settling down on a machine that tortures, rapes, and kills him before grinding him up to fertilize a patch of soil beneath the machine.

The film ends with the music video for "Gave Up", which is a different video from the one on ''Closure'' as it is not an actual Nine Inch Nails video but rather the band's music dubbed over the storyline of the movie. At this point, the victim is suspended from the ceiling and is repeatedly attacked by the perpetrator, first with a blade and then a blowtorch, after which the killer slices off the victim's penis with a straight razor. The camera work closely resembles that of an amateur snuff film, while there is interspersed footage of police searching through the basement and finding remains of previous victims. At one point, a sign saying "TRESPASSERS WILL BE EATEN" is shown.

Finally, the film cuts back to the victim strapped on a table, as the murderer hacks his limbs off with a chainsaw, rapes him, and slices his chest open to eat his heart. The film then cuts back to the execution scene, again showing the killer being dropped through the trap door with a smile on his face. He falls through an immensely long tunnel until the rope suddenly tightens. The film ends with the inverted version of the ''Broken'' album cover, with the background black and a mirrored "n" character filled with the original orange background. After 30 seconds of no audio and a black screen, the severed head of the killer flies across the screen.

On a Friday night in Chicago mobster Johnny Ross flees the Outfit. The next morning SFPD detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt and his team, Delgetti and Stanton are tasked by Walter Chalmers with guarding Ross over the weekend, until he can be presented as a witness to a Senate subcommittee hearing on organized crime on Monday morning. The detectives are told he is in a cheap hotel on Embarcadero. Delgetti will take the first shift, then Stanton and then Bullitt. At 1am Sunday, while Stanton is phoning Bullitt to say Chalmers and a friend want to come up, Ross unchains the room door. Two hitmen burst in shooting Stanton in the leg and Ross in the neck.

Chalmers holds Bullitt responsible for the injuries to Ross. After Bullitt thwarts a second assassination attempt at the hospital, Ross dies from his wounds. Bullitt sends the body to the morgue as a John Doe in order to conceal the death and keep his investigation open. An informant says that Ross was in town because he stole millions of dollars from the mob. Bullitt also finds out he made a long distance phone call to a hotel in San Mateo.

While driving his Ford Mustang, Bullitt becomes aware he is being followed by a Dodge Charger driven by the two hitmen. An extended chase ensues through the streets of San Francisco to Brisbane where the Dodge crashes off the road, killing its occupants in a fiery explosion.

Bullitt and Delgetti are confronted by their boss, Captain Sam Bennett, and Chalmers (who is being assisted by SFPD Captain Baker). After being served a writ of habeas corpus, Bullitt reveals that Ross has died. Bennett ignores the writ because it's the weekend and lets Bullitt investigate the long distance phone call to San Mateo. With no car, Bullitt gets a ride from his girlfriend Cathy. At the hotel, Bullitt finds a woman garrotted in her room. Cathy, who has followed him, is left horrified by the scene. On the way back to San Francisco she confronts Bullitt about his work saying "Frank, you live in a sewer" and wonders "What will happen to us?"

While examining the victim's luggage, Bullitt and Delgetti discover a travel brochure for Rome and traveler's checks made out to an Albert and Dorothy Renick. Bullitt requests their passport applications from Chicago. Bullitt, Captain Bennett, Chalmers and Captain Baker gather around the telecopier as the applications arrive. It turns out Chalmers sent Bullitt to guard an Albert Renick, a used car salesman from Chicago, while his wife Dorothy was staying in San Mateo. Bullitt realizes that Ross was playing Chalmers by using Renick as a double to escape the country Sunday night.

At San Francisco International Airport, Delgetti and Bullitt watch the Rome gate. However, Ross (now using Renick's passport) has switched to an earlier London flight. Bullitt boards the plane after it is ordered to return to the terminal but the mobster escapes through the rear cabin door and runs across the runway. In the crowded passenger terminal, Ross kills a deputy sheriff before being shot dead by Bullitt. Chalmers arrives to view the scene but leaves saying nothing.

Early Monday morning, Bullitt comes home to find Cathy asleep in his bed having chosen to stay.

Valentine "Val" McKee and Earl Bassett are handymen working in Perfection, Nevada, an isolated settlement in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. They eventually get tired of their jobs and leave for Bixby, the nearest town. As they leave, they discover the dead body of another resident, Edgar Deems, perched atop an electrical tower, still grasping the tower's crossbeams and his rifle. Jim Wallace, the town's doctor, determines that Edgar died of dehydration, apparently having been too afraid to climb down.

Later on, an unseen creature kills shepherd Fred and his flock of sheep. Val and Earl discover his severed head and believe that a serial killer is on the loose. Two construction workers ignore Val and Earl's warning and are killed by the same creature, causing a rock slide. Val and Earl try to find help after warning the residents, but find the phone lines are dead and that the rock slide has blocked the only road out of town. Out of sight, a snake-like creature wraps itself around their truck's rear axle, but is torn apart when Val stomps on the accelerator and drives away, and is discovered when they return to town.

Val and Earl borrow horses to ride to Bixby for help. They come upon Wallace and his wife's buried station wagon near their trailer, but the couple is missing (having been killed the previous night). As they press on, an enormous burrowing worm-like monster suddenly erupts out of the ground, revealing the snake-like creature to be one of the worm's many tentacled "tongues". Thrown from their horses, the men flee with the monster in pursuit. The chase ends when the eyeless creature crashes through the concrete wall of an aqueduct, dying from the impact. Rhonda LeBeck, a graduate student conducting seismology tests in the area, stumbles onto the scene; she deduces from previous readings that three other worms are in the area. Rhonda, Val, and Earl become trapped overnight atop a cluster of boulders near one of the worms, and surmise that the creatures hunt their prey by detecting seismic vibrations. The trio then find some discarded poles and use them to pole vault over to nearby boulders, eventually reaching Rhonda's truck and escaping.

After the three return to town, the worms attack and kill general store owner Walter Chang, forcing everyone to hide on the town's various rooftops. Meanwhile, survivalist couple Burt and Heather Gummer manage to kill one of the creatures after unwittingly luring it to their basement armory. In town, the two remaining worms attack the building foundations, knocking over a trailer belonging to Nestor before dragging him under and devouring him. Realizing they cannot stay in the town any longer, Earl, Rhonda, and Miguel distract the monsters while Val commandeers a track loader and chains a semi-trailer to the rear; the survivors use it to try to escape to a nearby mountain range. En route, both worms create a sinkhole trap that disables the track loader, and the survivors flee to some nearby boulders for safety. Earl then has an idea to lure in the worms and trick them into swallowing Burt's homemade pipe bombs. The strategy successfully kills one worm, but the last one spits a bomb back towards the survivors, forcing them to disperse as the explosion destroys all but one of the remaining bombs.

Val lures the final worm into chasing him to the edge of a cliff and then explodes the remaining bomb behind it, frightening the worm into charging through the cliff face, where it plummets to its death onto the rocks below. The group returns to town, where they call in the authorities to begin an investigation while Earl encourages Val to pursue a romantic relationship with Rhonda.

On Christmas Eve two years after the events of ''Die Hard'', John McClane, now a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department, arrives at Dulles International Airport to pick up his wife, Holly. Meanwhile, a plane carrying corrupt foreign military leader General Ramon Esperanza is also headed to Dulles under extradition for using U.S. funds to buy drugs. Waiting to meet Esperanza's plane is disgraced former Colonel William Stuart and a group of ex-military sympathizers who supported Esperanza's actions. Suspicious, McClane follows two of Stuart's men into a restricted baggage sorting area where a gun fight ensues. McClane kills one man, but the other escapes.

With the help of his friend, Sergeant Al Powell, he discovers the dead man had assumed the identity of a military officer who died two years prior. Putting this together with Esperanza's imminent arrival, McClane reports his concerns to the airport police chief, Carmine Lorenzo, and air traffic control director Ed Trudeau, but neither believe him. They are convinced when Stuart and his men, operating out of a church on the outskirts of the airport, cut all communications with incoming airplanes, disable all runway lighting, and demand that Esperanza's plane be allowed to land without interference. Trudeau orders all air traffic controllers to have all planes in Dulles airspace hold in the air, despite their low fuel warnings. McClane becomes worried about Holly's plane and enlists the help of the airport janitor Marvin to fight back.

Chief airport engineer Leslie Barnes decides to try using an unfinished antenna array to communicate with the airplanes circling the airport. Carmine sends an airport SWAT team with him, but Stuart's men kill them all, except for Barnes who is saved by McClane. In retaliation, Stuart crashes a British airplane by pretending to be the air traffic control tower and faking the airplane's altimeter reading.

Once Esperanza's plane lands, McClane wounds Esperanza before Stuart and his men arrive. They blow up the plane and take Esperanza to the church, but fail to kill McClane.

A U.S. Special Forces team arrives, led by Major Grant, for whom Stuart is a protégé. Grant's men and McClane attack the church. McClane kills one of Stuart's men and gives chase with his gun, but the men escape. Confused as to why he failed to wound anyone, McClane realizes the gun was filled with blanks, meaning Grant's team is cooperating with Stuart. Grant, Stuart, their men, and Esperanza all rendezvous at an airport hangar where a Boeing 747 they demanded is waiting for them.

On Holly's flight, arrogant reporter Richard Thornburg becomes suspicious as to why the plane hasn't landed. He taps into the cockpit communications and records an earlier surreptitious transmission from Barnes to all the circling airplanes describing the situation. In the airplane's lavatory, he broadcasts the recording live on television, leading to a panic in the airport terminal which prevents McClane and Carmine from getting to the 747. Holly subdues Thornburg with a fellow passenger's stun gun.

McClane asks a news crew to fly him via helicopter, to the runway where the 747 plans to take off. When the helicopter pilot refuses to block the 747, McClane asks the pilot to fly near the plane so that he can jump onto the wing. He uses his coat to jam the aileron, preventing the plane from taking off. McClane kills Grant and in the struggle with Stuart, opens the fuel valve in the wing. When Stuart pushes McClane off the wing, McClane uses a cigarette lighter to ignite the fuel trail, exploding the plane and killing everyone on board. The fire trail also serves as a landing guide for all airborne planes, including Holly's, to land safely.

After McClane and Holly are reunited, Marvin picks them up in his golf cart and drives them away.

Sometime in the early 20th century, U.S. Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard and his wife, Hallie, arrive in Shinbone, a frontier town in an unnamed western state, to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. When asked by the local newspaper editor why a senator would attend the funeral of a poor rancher, Stoddard answers with a story that flashes back 25 years.

Entering the then-unincorporated territory as a young lawyer, Ranse is beaten and robbed by infamous outlaw Liberty Valance and his gang. Tom Doniphon and his handyman, Pompey, find Ranse and take him to Shinbone, where Tom's girlfriend, Hallie, treats his wounds. Ranse learns Valance frequently terrorizes Shinbone and the surrounding country since the local marshal, Link Appleyard, is overweight and too cowardly to stop him. Tom says Valance only understands force, but Ranse is determined to bring Valance to justice through the law.

While establishing his law practice, Ranse buses tables at Peter Ericson's steakhouse, where Hallie works, and after learning she is illiterate, he opens a school for both children and adults in the back of the ''Shinbone Star'' newspaper office after befriending its editor, Dutton Peabody. He also begins practicing with Peabody's old gun after Valance bullies him in the restaurant. Hallie, attracted to Ranse and concerned for his safety, tells Tom of Ranse's gun practice. Tom takes Ranse to his ranch for a shooting lesson, showing off renovations that are intended for his marriage to Hallie and making those intentions clear to Ranse. During the lesson, he tricks Ranse by shooting a paint can above his head and staining his clothes. Ranse angrily punches Tom and leaves.

Shinbone's men meet to elect two delegates to the forthcoming statehood convention at the territorial capital. Tom refuses Ranse's nomination: ultimately, Ranse and Peabody are elected. Valance, hired by the cattle barons who oppose statehood, tries and fails to intimidate the voters into electing him as a delegate. Valance challenges Ranse to a gunfight to be held later in the evening. Tom offers to assist Ranse in leaving town, but Ranse stubbornly declines.

That evening, Valance and his gang vandalize the newspaper office and severely injure Peabody for printing stories that he finds insulting. Ranse arms himself and goes after Valance; even drunk, Valance easily disarms the inexperienced Ranse and prepares to kill him. Ranse retrieves his gun, outdraws Valance, and seemingly kills him. Ranse returns to Ericson's where Hallie treats his arm; Tom enters and sees Hallie's clear affection for Ranse as she attends his wounds. He gets drunk, forces Appleyard to run Valance's men out of town, and attempts suicide by setting fire to his house; Pompey is able to rescue him.

At the territorial convention, Ranse is nominated as their delegate to Congress, but withdraws after a representative of the cattle barons calls him a murderer, feeling that he cannot build a career out of "killing a man". Tom arrives and explains to Ranse that it was he, not Ranse, that killed Valance; knowing that Ranse could never hope to beat Valance, Tom shot him with Pompey's rifle at the same time he fired. Tom encourages Ranse to accept the nomination for Hallie's sake before quietly walking out of the convention.

In the present, Ranse's rising political achievements – state governor, senator, ambassador to the United Kingdom, and likely vice-presidential nominee in the upcoming election – fill in the intervening years, but the editor, knowing that publishing the story would ruin Ranse's legacy, chooses to burn his notes and leave him to conduct Tom's funeral in peace. On the return trip to Washington, D.C., Ranse contemplates retiring to Shinbone, which pleases Hallie. As he thanks the train conductor for the railroad's many courtesies, the conductor answers, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!"

Stephen, a married Oxford tutor in his forties, has two students: the rich and likeable William, of whom he is fond, and a beautiful, enigmatic Austrian named Anna, whom he secretly covets. William also fancies Anna and hopes to know her better. While Stephen's wife is away having their third child, he looks up an old flame in London and they sleep together. Returning home, he finds that his pushy colleague Charley has been using the house for sex with Anna. She tells Stephen privately that she and William are engaged to be married.

William says that he will come to Stephen's house after a party that night. As he is too drunk to drive, Anna takes the wheel, but she crashes the car outside Stephen's gate. Upon finding the accident and William dead, Stephen pulls the deeply shaken Anna from the wreckage and hides her upstairs while he calls the police. Later, he forces himself on her while she is still in shock, then takes her back to her room at the university. He comes by in the morning to find a bemused Charley, who cannot prevent Anna from packing to return to Austria.

Yossi (Ohad Knoller) commands a company of soldiers in the snow-covered mountains near Lebanon. In secrecy, he leads a passionate romantic relationship with his second-in-command officer, Lior (Yehuda Levi), who is called Jagger by everyone for his rock star-like handsomeness and his lip-syncing Mick Jagger. The pair, Yossi and Jagger, lead a loving, yet secret life together, venturing off to be alone and open with one another.

One day, a colonel (Sharon Raginiano) arrives at the base with two female soldiers, one of whom he immediately sleeps with in the bunker. The other one, Yaeli (Aya Koren, credited as Aya Steinovitz), is very interested in Jagger, while she refuses the sexual advances of Ofir (Asi Cohen), who tries to make clear to her that Jagger is not particularly interested in her.

The colonel is there to supervise a night-time ambush, of which Yossi is resentful because of the full moon, and also because he fears for his soldiers' safety. And indeed Jagger is fatally injured that night, dying in the arms of his lover, who only now is able to articulate his love for him.

At the funeral reception at Jagger's parents' house, Jagger's mother mistakes Yaeli for his girlfriend. She laments that she knew very little about her son, including his favorite song, which only Yossi is able to tell her was "Bo" sung by Rita. The song was also sung by Ivri Lider.

Set in both Sicily and mainland Italy, the film follows the adventures of a man nicknamed Mimi (Giancarlo Giannini). Mimi is a poor laborer who is pressured by his employers to vote for the mafia candidate in a local election. Frustrated by the system and assured that the ballot will be secret Mimi votes for the communist representative instead. However he is fired and assured he will never work again as the ballot was not secret. Disgusted Mimi flees to Turin, while his wife, Rosalia, stays in Sicily.

In Turin Mimi finds illegal construction work. When he witnesses one of the labourers falling to his death he helps the man into a van thinking that he is being taken to the hospital. When he discovers that his mafia bosses plan on dumping the body, Mimi tells him that his wife is the goddaughter of Liggio, a powerful mafioso. As a result, he is given a good union job at a factory. He also becomes further embroiled with the communist party.

One day, Mimi sees the beautiful Fiore on the street, selling sweaters. When she and her friend are attacked he helps them and learns that she is a Trotskyist. When they walk in the park he sexually assaults and tries to rape her, but Fiore fends Mimi off and says that she is a virgin, and will not make love with a man until she falls in love. Mimi continues to see her until finally, heartbroken he tells her that he loves her, but cannot bear to be around her as he feels she will never return his love. Fiore finally tells Mimi she loves him. Aware that Mimi is married, Fiore nevertheless takes him as a lover, and finally becomes pregnant, giving birth to a son, Mimi.

At the christening for their child Mimi goes to get more champagne and happens upon a murder perpetrated by the mob. Though he is supposed to be shot Mimi nevertheless ends up with only a scratch and, when the police question him, refuses to divulge any answers. As a result, he is promoted at work to a management job in Sicily. Terrified that his wife will discover his second family, Mimi hides Fiore and their child, and pretends to always be too tired for sex. That causes the townspeople to gossip, and begin to believe that Mimi is a homosexual. He is finally taken out by a few of his friends who tell him that Rosalia is pregnant with the child of another man, Amilcare. Mimi is outraged, and, after attacking Rosalia, tells her about Fiore and his son. Rosalia then decides to keep her child and refuses to divorce Mimi, gloating that her bastard child will bear his last name, while his son with Fiore will have a different name.

To avenge his honour, Mimi attempts to rape and then seduces Amalia, the wife of Amilcare. After sleeping with her he informs her that Amilcare had impregnated his wife, Rosalia. Initially horrified, Amalia decides that the best way for the two of them to get back at their cheating spouses is to conceive a child together, leading to monthly visits between the two.

When Amalia is several months pregnant, Mimi confronts her husband on the town steps, telling everyone there that Amalia is bearing Mimi's child. Enraged, Amilcare threatens to shoot Mimi, but Mimi is unconcerned; having considered the possibility, he warned Amalia to empty Amilcare's pistol. However, a man from the mafia, assigned to watch over Mimi, sees Amilcare reach for the pistol and shoots him, then shoves the smoking gun in Mimi's hand; Mimi is then jailed for Amilcare's murder. While in jail, Mimi is visited by a mafia man who informs him that, for taking the blame for the Amilcare murder, he is now a respected man and will be assured a job when he is released from jail. Mimi refuses; however, when released, Mimi is excited to see Fiore and little Mimi awaiting him. He is soon overwhelmed by Amalia and their child, and Rosalia's bastard son, all of whom clamor for him, calling him "Papa". In desperate need of money, Mimi goes to work for the mafia, promoting the election of Vico Tricarico. Disgusted that Mimi has abandoned his communist ideals, Fiore leaves him, taking young Mimi with her. Mimi chases after her, then collapses on the ground mourning his lost ideals.

Premise

The series takes place in the year 2030, where many people have become cyborgs with prosthetic bodies. Primarily set in the fictional Japanese city of , the series follows the members of Public Security Section 9, a special-operations task-force made up of former military officers and police detectives. While the group investigates various crimes, both seasons feature ongoing investigations into two incidents that embroil the group in corruption within other branches of the Japanese government.

Season 1

The first season of ''Stand Alone Complex'' focuses on the Laughing Man incident, wherein a hacktivist ultimately reveals to the Major that he had discovered that several micromachine manufacturing corporations, in association with the Japanese government, suppressed information on an inexpensive cure to a debilitating cyberization disease in order to profit from the more expensive micromachine treatment. Following this, he abducted one of the owners of the company and attempted to force him to reveal the truth on live television, resulting in the hacker live-hacking everyone's vision and cameras at the event to cover his face with the stylized laughing face logo that became synonymous with his image.

His popularity spawned several genuine imitators, resulting in the series' titular Stand Alone Complex. After an investigation by the authorities causes him to resurface in the present, Section 9 discovers these companies and several Japanese politicians later used the Laughing Man's image to garner public support and profit, and they begin a campaign, spearheaded by Togusa and the Major, to disseminate the truth. This ultimately leads to the Cabinet labeling them as domestic terrorists and forcibly disbanding them, resulting in the capture of several members and the apparent death of Motoko Kusanagi. However, it is all a ruse to deceive the government, and the very alive and well members of Section 9 regroup to bring the micromachine corporations and corrupt politicians to justice, resulting in the dissolution of the current Japanese government.

Film

In the film ''Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society'', set two years following the resolution of the Individual Eleven incident, the Major has left Section 9, and Togusa is now field commander, leading an investigation into several deaths of refugees from the Siak Republic, which results in the discovery of a government computer system coordinating the kidnappings of 20 thousand abused children who have had their cyberbrains replaced and placing them under the care of several senior citizens made comatose by another government program that takes care of all of their bodily needs.

Their investigation, which brings the Major out of hiding, reveals an entity known as the Puppeteer behind the kidnappings. The Puppeteer is a rhizome formed by the collective will of the senior citizens, and the Siak Republic's intent to use the kidnapped children in their plans leads to their downfall. However, the investigation further reveals that a member of the House of Representatives is also using the children for his nationalistic purposes. Section 9 and the Major infiltrate a welfare center where the MP brainwashes the children, resulting in the Puppeteer revealing that the senior citizens wished to give the children free will in their future, with the politician interfering in that new plan.

Shortly before moving to the Communist community of Blithedale in the mid-1800s, Miles Coverdale is approached by Moodie (an apparent beggar) who asks him for a favor. Though willing, Moodie suddenly decides he will ask an older, more experienced man and departs. Miles then explains the legend of the mysterious Veiled Lady: a popular clairvoyant who recently stopped doing public shows. He leaves for Blithedale without his acquaintance Hollingsworth, who arrives later with a frail, timid girl named Priscilla. They are welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Silas Foster (a gruff, experienced farmer) and Zenobia, an uncharacteristically beautiful and charming woman who immediately enchants Coverdale, Hollingsworth and Priscilla.

Coverdale becomes severely ill and is bedridden. During his sickness, he develops a closeness with Hollingsworth, who cares for him. Meanwhile, Hollingsworth has also become close with Zenobia, and they plan to build a cottage together. Moodie approaches Coverdale in the fields one day and asks about Priscilla and Zenobia, but declines seeing them when he hears they are good friends. During a walk, Coverdale encounters a man named Westervelt, whom he immediately dislikes. He asks to see Zenobia, but only in a private way. Coverdale gives him some instruction but wonders about his motives. Shortly thereafter Coverdale sees and overhears Westervelt walking with Zenobia and assumes them to be arguing about some past encounter.

Later, Zenobia tells a story titled "The Silvery Veil" in which she theorizes that Priscilla, whose background is a mystery, may in fact be the Veiled Lady. Afterward, Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Zenobia and Priscilla meet at Eliot's Pulpit, a distinctive rock they habitually visit. There they discuss women's rights, and Zenobia surprisingly sides with Hollingsworth (and against Coverdale) on a misogynistic point of view of women's roles. As they leave the Pulpit, Coverdale witnesses a moment of affection between Zenobia and Hollingsworth.

Coverdale and Hollingsworth's disagreements intensify the next day when they discuss their hopes for the future of Blithedale - Hollingsworth, who has devoted himself to criminal rehabilitation, hopes to establish a facility for that purpose on the farm. When Hollingsworth indicates that Coverdale is either "with him or against him" in this effort, Coverdale refuses to assist him and effectively ends their friendship. Coverdale decides to seek respite from the tumultuous relationships at the farm and leaves for the city.

In the city, Coverdale idly looks out from his hotel window into a boarding-house and thinks he sees Priscilla; in another room, he surely sees Zenobia and Westervelt. They see him, so he goes to visit. Zenobia confirms that Priscilla is there, but Westervelt abruptly indicates that they must leave, and take Priscilla with them. Suspicious, Coverdale seeks out Moodie. Moodie explains that his name used to be Fauntleroy, and he was a wealthy man. His first daughter was Zenobia. He fell on financial ruin and left her to be raised by his still-wealthy uncle (who died, leaving her considerable wealth). Later, he remarries a pauper woman, and fathers Priscilla. Her unusual ways gain the attention of a "wizard," who has an odd relationship with her. By some way he manages to get a message to Zenobia and entreats her to look out for Priscilla, but does not reveal that they are related.

Coverdale is extremely shocked and proceeds to a show of the Veiled Lady, where he recognizes Westervelt as the "wizard." Hollingsworth is also in the audience. When Coverdale asks Hollingsworth where Priscilla is, he goes up on stage, removes the veil and takes her away. The three return to Blithedale immediately; Coverdale returns later. Upon his return, he dreads seeing the three, and takes a circuitous path through the trees. There he witnesses a bizarre scene of the community dressed as witches, fairies and other creatures; when he laughs, they chase him and he runs toward Eliot's Pulpit. There he finds his three companions; Zenobia indicates that he has just missed a "trial" of some sort conducted by Hollingsworth. She proceeds to accuse him of selfishness and heartlessness and he angrily leaves with Priscilla, who follows him obediently. Zenobia begins to weep bitterly.

When she recovers, she tells Coverdale that she will eventually get over it but will leave Blithedale immediately. She says she will become a nun and asks Coverdale to tell Hollingsworth he has "murdered" her. She leaves and Coverdale falls asleep under the rock. When he awakes at midnight, he proceeds to Hollingsworth's cottage and asks for his help; Silas Foster also wakes up and is asked to help. Leading them to a familiar spot by the river and reflecting on her words, Coverdale reveals he believes Zenobia has drowned herself. Hollingsworth hooks her body with a pole; Silas Foster observes that he left a physical wound near her heart.

Years later, Coverdale muses that he has become listless in life. He visits Hollingsworth, who is a broken man and has not accomplished anything in the way of his dreams of rehabilitation. Priscilla remains dutifully by his side, and Coverdale realizes the weight of Zenobia's death has ruined him. Coverdale himself reveals that he had fallen in love with Priscilla and feels similarly hopeless.

After witnessing the destruction of the Command Center, the powerless Rangers discover the Zeo Crystal intact in the rubble—apparently dropped by Goldar and Rito Revolto. The Crystal guides them to a portal, which takes them deep underground to the Power Chamber where they find Zordon and Alpha 5 waiting for them. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers become the Zeo Rangers, a new team of Rangers powered by the Zeo Crystal. The four remaining Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Tommy Oliver, Adam Park, Rocky DeSantos and Katherine Hillard become Zeo Ranger V — Red, Zeo Ranger IV — Green, Zeo Ranger III — Blue and Zeo Ranger I — Pink respectively and Tanya Sloan joins the team as Zeo Ranger II — Yellow, while Billy Cranston chooses to become their technical advisor rather than continuing as a Ranger. * *

The Machine Empire, led by King Mondo and Queen Machina, enters Earth's solar system, seeking to conquer Earth, with the Zeo Rangers serving as the only opposition. Many, even Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, are forced to flee to the M51 Galaxy under the threat of destruction. Unbeknownst to anyone, Rito and Goldar – now amnesiac – are left behind on Earth. They are taken in by Bulk and Skull, who have them serve as butlers. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull continue to be members of the Junior Police Force until Lt. Jerome Stone is dismissed, when Bulk tries winning the heart of the chief's daughter. Quitting as a show of respect for Stone, they join him at his new detective agency.

Over time, the Machine Empire wears down the five Zeo Rangers, but they are rescued by the mysterious Gold Ranger. Though his identity is unknown, it quickly becomes clear he is there to help the Rangers. After he is injured in battle, it is revealed that the mysterious Gold Ranger is an alien, Trey of Triforia. Split into three separate selves, Trey is forced to temporarily pass his powers to a worthy warrior while healing. They attempt to transfer Trey's powers to Billy, but as Billy acquired excess negative energy during the Command Center's destruction, he is unable to do so. The ultimate successor is Jason Lee Scott, the original Red Power Ranger and team leader. This event also sees the introduction of the more powerful Super Zeo Zords, which were used against a tougher generation of machines. The Super Zeo Megazord is powerful enough to later destroy King Mondo, creating a power vacuum in the Machine Empire.

Secretly returning from the M51 Galaxy, Lord Zedd and Rita seek to become top villains again. Operating out of an RV with Finster, they restore Goldar and Rito's memories, retrieving the pair in the process. After King Mondo's death, they launch their first plan, to use Louie Kaboom to take over the Machine Empire. Though he succeeds, he breaks free of Zedd and Rita's control. He embarks on his own plans to conquer Earth and destroy the Zeo Rangers. Louie is eventually killed by King Mondo's first-born son Prince Gasket and his wife Princess Archerina, who rule until King Mondo's reconstruction is complete, which causes them to flee.

When Billy begins rapidly aging as a side-effect of restoring his proper age before undoing Master Vile's spell in the last series, the Zeo and Aquitian Rangers race to help him and fend off monsters from King Mondo as well as Zedd and Rita. Billy leaves Earth for treatment on Aquitar and chooses to stay to be with Cestria. Soon after, it is discovered the Gold Ranger powers are leaving Jason and draining his life force in the process as the alien powers were not meant for a human. Trey is still in recovery, but a risky gamble with the Zeo Crystal heals him, restoring his powers. Rita and Lord Zedd finally get revenge on the Machine Empire by crippling their leaders with a bomb.

Commander Tucker and Ensign Mayweather are gathering readings on a third sphere in the Delphic Expanse. ''Enterprise'' receives a distress call from a Triannon ship which reports they have been damaged by a spatial anomaly. ''Enterprise'' takes them aboard, and D'Jamat, the leader of the group, has dinner with Captain Archer where he explains they have been on a year-long pilgrimage to a sphere. They believe deities, called the "Makers," constructed the spheres to transform the expanse, their “Chosen Realm,” into a paradise. D'Jamat then rejects T'Pol's scientific logic that there are only 59 known spheres.

Later, D'Jamat demands Archer turn over control of the ship or it will be destroyed, and demonstrates this by having one of his group self-detonate, killing one crew member. Having little choice, Archer submits. D'Jamat then sets a course for his home world and explains that he intends to use ''Enterprise'' to end a religious civil war that has embroiled his planet for a century. D'Jamat also examines the ship's records and finds that ''Enterprise'' had extensive contact with the spheres—a severe violation under his faith. He then erases of sphere data, and demands that Archer choose one crew member to die.

While Archer is contemplating his decision he approaches Yarrick, D'Jamat's deputy, questioning his resolve, but Yarrick rebuffs him. Archer then tells D'Jamat that he has selected himself to be killed, but requests it be done using a device they use for "waste disposal". That device turns out to be the transporter, which T'Pol uses to beam Archer elsewhere on the ship. Archer then contacts Doctor Phlox and they develop an airborne agent to neutralize the Triannon's organic explosives. Archer again confronts Yarrick and convinces him to help disperse the agent throughout the ship, and learns that the religious war is primarily based around a difference of opinion over whether it took nine or ten days for the Makers to complete their work. Meanwhile, four ships from the "heretic" Triannon faction intercept ''Enterprise''. During the fight, the crew manage to subdue D'Jamat and end the battle. In the brig, D'Jamat remains convinced his actions were justified, so Archer takes him down to their planet. The Triannons are left staring in horror at their completely devastated world, which lies in ruins, having been ravaged by the religious war.

In this lightly comic novel about work, love, wealth and fame the main character is Jake Donaghue, a struggling writer and translator. He seeks to improve his circumstances and make up for past mistakes by reconnecting with his old acquaintance Hugo Belfounder, a mild mannered and soft spoken philosopher.

Jake, a shameless mooch and hack-writer -- now homeless and out of other solid options -- tracks down his ex-girlfriend, Anna Quentin, and her elegant sister, an actress named Sadie. He also reacquaints himself with Hugo, whose philosophy Jake had long ago presumptuously tried to decipher and interpret to his own liking. The plot develops through a series of adventures involving Jake and his offbeat minion, Finn. From the kidnapping of a movie-star canine to the staging of a political riot on a film set, Jake attempts to discover and incorporate Hugo’s abstruse philosophies in real life situations. Berated yet enlightened, Jake's aspirations to become a true writer/philosopher may at last be at hand.

Chapters 1–5: Thrown out

Jake Donaghue has just arrived back in London from a trip to France. Finn, a distant relative who is so obliging that he is sometimes mistaken for a servant, tells Jake that they are being thrown out of Madge's house, where they have been living rent-free for eighteen months. A conversation with Madge reveals that they are being moved to make way for her new lover, the rich bookmaker Sammy Starfield.

He goes with his suitcase to the cat-filled corner shop of Mrs Tinckham to check he has all his manuscripts and figure out where to live. Only one manuscript is missing: his translation of ''Le Rossignol de Bois'', a novel by Jean-Pierre Breteuil. It is a mediocre work which he has done for money. He thinks of an old friend, a philosopher named Dave Gellman, and goes to his flat. A political meeting is being held there, and Dave is dismissive, but allows him to leave his suitcase. Finn suggests that he ask Anna Quentin, (a singer he once fell in love with) for help.

Jake has not seen Anna for several years. He eventually tracks her down to the Riverside Miming Theatre, on Hammersmith Mall, and finds her in a prop room "like a vast toy shop". She is happy to see him, but somewhat uncomfortable when he asks about her new project, involving mime. She suggests that he ask her film-star sister, Sadie, for help. After she leaves he spends the night sleeping in the prop room.

The next morning Jake goes to Welbeck Street to look for Sadie, and learns that she is at her Mayfair hairdresser. He spruces himself up, and goes to talk to her. She is very happy to see him there, and asks him to look after her flat while she hides from an admirer named Hugo Belfounder, a fireworks manufacturer who now owns a film studio.

It so happens that Hugo was a former friend of Jake's. They had met long ago as fellow participants in a cold-cure experiment, and had had long philosophical discussions which Jake, without Hugo's knowledge, had turned into a book called ''The Silencer''. Because Hugo believed that language was corrupt, Jake felt that creation of the book was a kind of betrayal, and had unilaterally broken off the friendship after its publication, not wishing to face Hugo's anger.

Jake goes back to Madge's to fetch his radio, and finds Sammy there. Jake is prepared to fight, but the bookmaker is friendly and even offers him money to make up for having disrupted his life. This leads to a series of bets being placed by phone; they win £633 10s, and Sammy promises to send him a cheque for that amount.

Chapters 6–10: Anna and Hugo

Jake goes to Sadie's flat to begin housesitting, and is surprised to see a copy of ''The Silencer'' on a bookshelf—did Hugo give it to her? His pleasure in the flat's luxury is soon destroyed: firstly by a call from Hugo, asking for Miss Quentin (he hangs up when he hears Jake), and secondly by the discovery that he has been deliberately locked in. He calls from the window to his friends, Dave and Finn, who pick the lock and rescue him. Jake resolves to find Hugo, who he thinks must love Anna, and must have given her the idea for the mime theatre.

The three men take a taxi to Holborn Viaduct. They find Hugo's door open, and a note left saying "Gone to the pub". This begins a pub crawl; they do not find Hugo, but get very drunk. At the Skinners' Arms, they are joined by Lefty Todd, a political activist. After Lefty subjects Jake to a kind of Socialist catechism, they go for a walk, and all but Dave have a swim in the Thames. The next morning, Dave belatedly hands Jake a letter from Anna; she wants to see him as soon as possible. He rushes to the Riverside Theatre, but everything has been packed up, and she is gone. Devastated, he takes a ride in the lorry carrying away the contents of the prop room.

Jake goes back to Sadie's flat to purloin her copy of ''The Silencer'', but on approaching her door he overhears a conversation between her and Sammy about his most recent translation. His prolonged eavesdropping attracts the puzzled attention of neighbours, but he manages to deduce that Sadie and Sammy are planning to use his translation of ''Le Rossignol de Bois'' as the basis of a film proposal, and that they are not planning to recompense him for its use. He is furious.

Chapters 11–13: Mister Mars

With the help of Finn, Jake breaks into Sammy's flat in Chelsea to take the typescript, but they cannot find it; instead, on the spur of the moment, Jake decides to kidnap Sammy's filmstar dog, an Alsatian named Mr Mars, for the purposes of blackmail. They cannot open the dog's cage, and so with great difficulty they carry the whole cage away and file through the bars to get the dog out. A brief newspaper article reveals to Jake that Anna is travelling to Hollywood, via Paris.

Accompanied by Mr Mars, Jake's search for Hugo takes him to Bounty Belfounder Studio, in South London. A huge crowd has gathered on a film set of Ancient Rome; they are listening to a political speech delivered by Lefty Todd. It is the first time in years that Jake has seen Hugo, and he drags him away to talk to him, but the sudden arrival of the United Nationalists causes a riot, and they have to run. Their attempts to escape the violence, which involve the improvised use of explosives, cause the collapse of the set. When the police arrive and announce that "no-one is to leave", Jake manages to evade questioning by telling Mr Mars to play dead, and carrying him out in his arms, supposedly to find a vet.

Jake has to walk all the way back, and spends the night sleeping on a bench. On arriving back at Dave's he finds the cheque from Sammy for £600. Wondering what to do with Mr Mars, Jake asks Dave for help in drafting a blackmail letter, and after much discussion they decide to demand £100. Two telegrams arrive from Madge, bearing a job offer in Paris and an order of £30 for travel expenses. But Dave has to tell Jake that Sammy has cancelled the huge cheque. In dismay, they together decide to pool £50 for a bet on Lyrebird; then Jake leaves for France.

Chapters 14–16: Paris

In Paris, Jake is amazed to discover that Jean-Pierre Breteuil's latest novel, ''Nous les Vainqueurs'', has won the Prix Goncourt, and having dismissed Breteuil's work for so long he is amazed and envious. Madge's offer turns out to be a kind of film industry sinecure, and he finds himself refusing it with distaste for reasons that he cannot explain.

He realises that it is Bastille Day, and he wanders the city for hours in a daze. In the evening, he is watching fireworks when he sees Anna. He tries to follow her, but the crowd impedes him. He nearly catches up with her in a park, after she leaves her shoes to walk barefoot on the grass. But he briefly loses sight of her, and the woman he accosts is not her.

Jake returns to London the next morning to find that Lyrebird has won at long odds, 20-1. Finn has taken his share of the money and disappeared. Several torpid days of inactivity follow, to the despair of Dave.

Chapters 17–20: The hospital

Jake takes a job as an orderly at a hospital. When Hugo is admitted (he has been hit in the head with a brick at a political meeting), Jake sees his chance for a serious conversation with his old friend. But as an orderly he is strongly discouraged from talking to patients, and he decides to come back in the middle of the night. He leaves the window of a store-room open.

With an immensity of pains, Jake succeeds in reaching Hugo's room shortly after one in the morning. The conversation is not at all what he expected: Hugo is not at all angry with Jake, and it turns out that while Anna is indeed besotted with Hugo, Hugo himself is in love with Sadie, and Sadie with Jake—not a love triangle, but a one-way love diamond. Hugo demands that Jake help him escape. Jake does so, but they are seen by the hostile porter, Stitch, and Jake knows that he has lost his job.

When Jake next goes to Hugo's flat, he finds that Hugo has gone, leaving all he owns to Lefty and his political party. At Mrs Tinckham's, he reads letters from Finn and Sadie. Finn has gone back to Ireland, as he always said he would; Sadie is suggesting he buy Mr Mars for £700, and although this puts Jake back at square one financially, he decides it is the only possible course of action. With Mrs Tinckham, he listens to Anna singing on the radio, and having made his peace with Hugo and with ''The Silencer'' he realises that his literary career is just beginning.

The film opens with Hitler's 56th birthday, on 20 April 1945, and ends 10 days later with his suicide, on 30 April.

The film opens immediately after the shooting at The Factory in 1968, followed by Valerie Solanas being shown in custody for shooting Andy Warhol. The film then uses flashbacks to when Valerie was living in New York as a sex worker, then to her difficult childhood, then to her success in studying psychology at college. Here, Valerie discovers that she is a lesbian, that she can write, and that she has a distinctive view of the world. This leads her to New York City and its downtown underworld. Through her friend Stevie, she meets Candy Darling, who in turn introduces her to Warhol.

Valerie also meets Maurice Girodias, the publisher of Olympia Press. While Valerie wants Warhol to produce her play, ''Up Your Ass'', Girodias wants her to write a pornographic novel for him. Once she signs a contract with Girodias, she comes to suspect his offer is not a generous one and may not be in her best interest. She comes to regret signing this contract. At this point, her increasing derangement leads her to believe that Warhol and Girodias are controlling her. The film concludes, where it began, with Solanas' attempted murder of Warhol. Warhol lives in fear that Valerie will strike again and never fully recovers from the shooting. The ''SCUM Manifesto'' becomes a feminist classic.

The plot of ''Wonder Boy in Monster Land'' follows the events in its predecessor, ''Wonder Boy''. The game's main protagonist is a young boy named Bock Lee Temjin, known to his friends as "Tom-Tom". In ''Wonder Boy'' Tom-Tom's girlfriend Tanya was kidnapped by the "evil King" and was taken to his woodland kingdom; Tom-Tom set out to the kingdom, defeated the evil King, and saved Tanya. Word spread throughout Wonder Land about Tom-Tom's quest, and people bestowed upon him the title of "Wonder Boy".Instruction Manual, pp. 4–5.

Following the evil King's defeat, peace reigned over Wonder Land for eleven years. Then, one day, a fire-breathing dragon called the "MEKA dragon" appeared and terrorized the land. The people, helpless and not skilled in fighting, were defeated by him and his minions; they quickly took over the land, and Wonder Land became known as "Monster Land". The people send out Wonder Boy, now a teenager, as Wonder Land's only chance to defeat the monsters and demons who inhabited the land and to defeat the MEKA dragon. The deposed Mayor gives Wonder Boy a sword and a life potion and sets him on his way.

Events in ''Starflight 2'' occur some years after those in ''Starflight'' and in a different part of the universe. Following the destruction of the Crystal Planet at the conclusion of the earlier game, the spacefaring corporation Interstel bans the use of the spaceship fuel Endurium. The Spemin, one of the alien races encountered in the original game, subsequently acquires powerful new spaceship technology and a seemingly unlimited supply of a new fuel substance called Shyneum from a mysterious source. Boasting of the tactical advantage their spaceships now possess over those fielded by Interstel, the Spemin demand that humanity become their slaves or face destruction. Interstel manages to trick a Spemin into revealing the location of a continuum flux leading to the general region of space from which they obtained these technologies. Although Interstel successfully establishes itself in this region by constructing a space station called Starport Outpost 1, it needs the player's help to "find the source of the fuel substance known as Shyneum and acquire the technology the Spemin possess." The game begins with the player in command of a poorly equipped spaceship docked at Starport.

A major subplot involves earning enough money to provide all crew members with the maximum level of training and equip the player's spaceship with the best available weapons, shields, armor and engines. Much of the game consists of trading goods from one alien culture to another, exploring planets for mineral resources and alien lifeforms that can later be sold, and seeking uninhabited earth-like planets to recommend to Interstel for possible colonization. Discovering artifacts that enhance the spaceship's capabilities in various ways is also a significant part of the game.

Unraveling the main plot is largely a matter of discovering ways to befriend the various spacefaring alien races to get them to reveal clues through conversation. Interaction with these alien races involves numerous minor subplots which occupy the player throughout much of the game. Eventually the player travels back in time to retrieve a data cube constructed by an ancient, technologically advanced, alien race called the Leghk which contains the secrets of the Spemin's new technology. The data contained on the cube enable engineers at Interstel to outfit the player's spaceship with the sophisticated armaments needed to survive a journey into the heart of the Cloud Nebula to confront the hostile Umanu and Uhlek. Winning the ensuing battle opens access to the Shyneum Planet, the source of the new fuel substance.

Benjamin "Benny" Pearl and his mentally ill sister Juniper "Joon" Pearl live together following the accidental death of their parents. Joon joins a poker game at the house belonging to a friend of Benny's named Mike, and loses a bet that commits Mike's eccentric cousin Sam to live with the Pearls. Benny is initially angry, but after an evening with Sam at the local diner and then coming home the next day to find Sam has cleaned the house, Benny decides Sam should stay.

Joon aids Sam (who is illiterate) when he is struggling with writing to his mother, and the two go to the local diner where Ruthie is working. She takes them on an errand, and then takes them home. After Ruthie stays for dinner, her car won't start, and Benny drives her home, where they set a dinner date. Meanwhile, left alone, Joon and Sam kiss. Benny and Ruthie have a fun date, but Benny abruptly ends it because he wants to get home to Joon. Sam goes to a video store to try to apply for a job there. Benny, Joon, and Sam go to a park, where Sam starts doing tricks with his hat, attracting an appreciative crowd. Benny stays at the park to reflect and sends Joon home with Sam, where they make love. Sam then tells Joon he loves her, which Joon reciprocates.

When Benny makes suggestions to Sam about his comedy routines, Joon becomes agitated and makes Sam explain that he and Joon are romantically involved. An angry Benny throws Sam out, yells at Joon, and shows her a pamphlet about a group home that would be a better home for her. Joon starts hitting Benny and screaming, and he pushes her away. Feeling bad, Benny leaves to get her some pudding. While Benny is away, Sam arrives. They pack suitcases and get on a bus, but Joon soon begins to hear voices in her head and argues with them, in great distress. Sam tries to soothe her, but she becomes more agitated. The bus is stopped, and two paramedics restrain Joon. When Benny arrives at the hospital, the doctor tells him Joon does not want to see him. He finds Sam in the waiting room, and they argue. Sam goes to stay with Ruthie. Meanwhile, Benny begins to feel guilty about his treatment of Joon.

Benny finds Sam, now working at the video store, and asks for his help. They go to the hospital. Benny apologizes to Joon, persuades her to consider getting her own apartment, and tells her that Sam has come back for her. Joon tells the doctor that she would like to try living in her own apartment. The siblings reconcile and Sam and Joon are reunited. Later, Benny brings roses to Ruthie. He takes another bouquet to Joon's apartment but leaves the flowers in the doorway when he sees Sam and Joon are busy making grilled cheese sandwiches with a clothing iron.

The book is set in Europe ravaged by the Thirty Years' War. Its hero Ulrich von Bek is a mercenary and freethinker, who finds himself a damned soul in a castle owned by Lucifer. Much to his surprise, von Bek is charged by Lucifer with doing God's work, by finding the Holy Grail, the "cure for the world's pain", that will also cure Lucifer's pain by reconciling him with God. Only through doing this can von Bek save his soul.

After many adventures, von Bek eventually finds the Holy Grail, and discovers that it will set mankind on the path to self-redemption through rationality, without the help of God or the hindrance of Lucifer.

The story is continued in ''The City in the Autumn Stars'' (1986).

The plot centers on a young and mischievous Wong Fei-hung (sometimes dubbed as "Freddie Wong"). Wong runs into a series of troubles. Firstly, he teaches an overbearing assistant martial arts teacher a lesson. Next, he makes advances on a woman to impress his friends, and is soundly thrashed by her older female guardian as a result; his shame is compounded when these two are later revealed to be his visiting aunt and cousin, whom he had not met before. Lastly, he beats up a hooligan who turns out to be the son of an influential man in town. His father decides to punish him for his behavior by making him train harder in martial arts.

Wong's father arranges for Beggar So to train his son in martial arts. Beggar So has a reputation for crippling his students during training so Wong flees from home in an attempt to escape his punishment. Penniless, he stops at a restaurant and tries to con a fellow patron into offering him a free meal. As he was about to leave after his meal, he discovers that the man is actually the owner of the restaurant. He fights with the owner's lackeys in an attempt to escape. An old drunkard nearby is drawn into the fight and helps him escape. The drunkard turns out to be Beggar So, the Drunken Master. (Beggar So is known in some versions of the film as Sam Seed, So Hi or Su Hua-chi)

Beggar So forces Wong into his brutal and rigorous training programme. Wong flees again to avoid the torturous training and runs into the notorious killer Yim Tit-sam (known in some versions as Thunderfoot or Thunderleg) by accident. Yim is known for his "Devil's Kick", a swift and deadly kicking style which has never been defeated. Wong provokes and challenges him to a fight and is soundly defeated and humiliated. He makes his way back to Beggar So and decides to commit himself to the Drunken Master's training program.

The training resumes and soon Wong learns Beggar So's secret style of martial arts, a form of Drunken Boxing called "The Eight Drunken Immortals", named after the eight xian that the fighting style references. Wong masters seven of the eight styles with the exception of Drunken Miss Ho's as he feels that her style of fighting is too feminine.

Meanwhile, Yim Tit-sam is contracted by a business rival to kill Wong's father. Wong's father fights with Yim and is defeated and injured by him. Wong and Beggar So arrive on the scene on time and Wong continues the fight with Yim. Beggar So promises not to interfere in the fight. Wong employs the new skills he has learned and outmatches Yim's kicking style. Yim then resorts to his secret technique, the Devil's Shadowless Hand, which is too fast for Wong to defeat. Wong confesses that he did not master the last style so Beggar So tells him to combine the seven styles and create his own version of the last style. Wong follows the instruction and discovers his own unique style of Drunken Miss Ho, which he uses to overcome the Shadowless Hand and finally defeat Yim.

During the 1977 El Salvadoran presidential election, public unrest is at an all-time high over fears of election fraud. In the midst of a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla insurgency by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, the anti-communist military dictatorship uses death squads to abduct, torture and "disappear" anyone who speaks about their terrible human rights record. The military also prevents average voters from getting to the polls; soldiers are shown blocking a bus bringing people to town on election day. When the people decide to walk, the military shoots up their vans so that they have no transportation for the return journey.

The Vatican elevates theologically conservative Oscar Arnulfo Romero (Raul Julia) to the position of Archbishop of San Salvador, hoping that with he will not get involved in politics. Although apolitical, Romero is afraid of the government's increasing hostility. He initially refrains from stirring anti-government sentiments, but, as he spends more time as Archbishop, he sees evidence of deception, oppression, and systemic murder, after which he cannot support the government in good conscience and begins to speak out. After the assassination of Father Rutilio Grande (Richard Jordan), an outspoken Jesuit advocate for the poor and close friend of Father Romero's, Romero begins to take a stand against the government's policies, prompting the government to retaliate by ordering to death squads to target the priests of his Archdiocese.

After failing to rescue a pro-government hostage of the Pro-Soviet guerrillas in a botched ransom, Romero discovers that his friend Father Osuna (Alejandro Bracho), a militant critic of the military regime, has been captured and tortured. After securing his release, Romero instigates a boycott of the president-elect's inauguration, defying him by saying Mass in a church the Salvadoran military has taken over as a barracks. He later attempts to secure the release of a soldier taken hostage with Fr. Osuna by the guerrillas, but is arrested in the process. Fr. Osuna is subsequently tortured to death.

Undeterred, Romero rejects the violent methods of the guerrillas, but is nonetheless assassinated while saying Mass, specifically while consecrating the Eucharist. The film concludes with text stating:

Archbishop Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980. He had spoken the disturbing truth. Many chose not to listen. As a result, between 1980 and 1989 more than 60,000 Salvadorians were killed. But the struggle for peace and freedom, justice and dignity goes on.

By 1992, when the Salvadorian Civil War ended (three years after the movie was made), the total number of Salvadorians killed increased to over 75,000.

The story begins in the year 2019 (20 years following ''Batman: The Animated Series'' and ''The New Batman Adventures'' and 15-17 years years following ''Justice League'' and ''Justice League Unlimited'') Bruce Wayne, despite being past his prime and in his mid-late 50s, continues to fight crime as Batman in a new high-tech Batsuit. In the rescue of a kidnapped heiress and daughter of an old socialite friend of his, he suffers a mild heart attack and, at risk of being beaten to death by one of the kidnappers, is forced to betray a lifelong principle and his paramount rule by threatening to use a gun, the same kind of weapon that murdered his parents and drove him to become Batman in the first place. Bruce is ashamed and, fearing that he eventually will surrender to his murderous temptation if continuing crime-fighting, decides to retire from being Batman for good and by this point in his life, his butler, father figure and close confidant Alfred Pennyworth as well as close allies Commissioner James Gordon, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, Hamilton Hill, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, Lucius Fox and Summer Gleeson have all either retired or died of natural causes. His crime-fighting partners Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake and Selina Kyle are still alive and are now estranged from him following their retirements from their alter-egos and possible falling outs with him. His rogues' gallery, consisting of Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Riddler, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, Mad Hatter, Bane, Clayface, Ra's al Ghul and his daughter Talia, Phantasm, Ventriloquist, Scarface, Firefly, Mr. Freeze, Hugo Strange, Rupert Thorne, Deadshot, Baby-Doll and Killer Croc are all either in prison, exile, have disappeared or are dead. He has also severed his ties with and resigned from the Justice League.

The story moves ahead 20 years later to 2039 in Neo-Gotham, a futuristic version of Gotham City, a megalopolis featuring staggering high rises and flying vehicles driven by upper class society. Bruce is now a man in his 70s, living in bitter isolation in Wayne Manor, with no other companion but his guard dog Ace. It is implied by his virtue of continuing to fight crime for as long as possible and ignoring his aging and deteriorating health (he had retained his former partner's costumes) that he had suffered a tragic event years prior to his retirement, which is revealed in ''Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker''. Terry McGinnis is an athletic 16-year-old high school student and reformed troublemaker with a deeply ingrained sense of personal justice. Living on difficult terms with his father Warren McGinnis, Terry disobeys his curfew one night to meet up with his girlfriend Dana Tan, only to be harrased by a gang called the Jokerz. A high-speed motorcycle chase between him and the Jokerz ends in the grounds of Wayne Manor, where they run into the elderly Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Terry fend off the gang side-by-side, but the exertion aggravates Bruce's heart condition. Terry helps him back to the manor and, while exploring the mansion, stumbles upon the entrance to the Batcave and thus discovers Bruce's secrets, only to be chased out by an angered Bruce.

Terry returns home to discover that his father has been murdered, apparently by the vengeful Jokerz. Soon after, though, he discovers that his father had stumbled onto information about the production of illegal chemical weapons by Derek Powers through Wayne-Powers (Wayne Enterprises had merged with Powers' company long ago around the time of and following Bruce's retirement as Batman) and that the man actually responsible for his father's murder is Powers' personal assistant/bodyguard Mr. Fixx. Terry goes to Bruce who tells Terry to take the evidence to Barbara Gordon, the current Police Commissioner. After the evidence of the illegal weapon production is forcibly taken from Terry by Derek Powers, Terry subsequently steals the Batsuit, intending to bring Powers to justice. Bruce initially opposes all of Terry's efforts and demands that he return the suit, but Terry convinces Bruce to let him take on the Batman mantle and subsequently defeats Mr. Fixx. During the battle, Powers is exposed to the chemical and forced to flee into hiding to receive treatment, which subsequently mutates him into a radiation-emitting entity, though he uses artificial skin to hide the accident. Realizing that crime and corruption are running rampant in Gotham without Batman's presence, Bruce offers Terry the chance to assume the role of Batman, with Bruce himself mentoring Terry and in addition to working as Bruce's chauffeur and assistant so that Terry can support his family.

The new Batman soon develops his own rogues gallery, with both new villains (the radiation-emitting metahuman Blight (a.k.a. Derek Powers); seductive shapeshifter Inque; hypnotist the Spellbinder; sound weaponizer Shriek; deadly assassin Curaré; insane eco-terrorist Mad Stan; cybernetically-enhanced African big game hunter the Stalker; nerdy psychokinetic Willie Watt and a new version of the Royal Flush Gang as well as some of his mentor's old foes, such as a rejuvenated Mr. Freeze; Bane; the longevous Ra's al Ghul; and even the Joker himself.

Terry also makes allies in Neo-Gotham, including computer genius Maxine "Max" Gibson. After discovering Batman's secret identity, she helps him with everything from computer hacking to babysitting. Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon also works with Terry. Though initially unhappy about another person following in Bruce's dangerous footsteps and at first vehemently opposed to his efforts to help, she admits that the city needs Batman. He also has a relationship with Melanie Walker, who was forced to do the bidding of her family, the new Royal Flush Gang, under the codename Ten. Terry would also later encounter Superman and the Justice League and help them fight an alien threat although he would not join the group until adulthood where he presumably like his mentor before him also operates as a part-timer.

In the episode "Epilogue" (the second season finale of ''Justice League Unlimited'' but a conclusion to ''Batman Beyond''), Terry in his 30s learns that Bruce Wayne is his biological father. Upon questioning Wayne's old enemy-turned-ally Amanda Waller, she reveals to him that she spearheaded "Project: Batman Beyond" to create a successor upon realising the possibility of Bruce's eventual retirement or death as he got older and that a world always needed a Batman and his unique skillset. While this revelation supposedly strained Bruce and Terry's relationship he eventually makes peace with it and resumes his duty as Batman.

A hapless small-time Roman crook, Cosimo (Memmo Carotenuto), is arrested for a bungled car theft and sentenced to a few months in prison. He harangues his girlfriend and lawyer to get him released so he can carry out a heist idea stolen from another inmate, a dishonest bricklayer who purposely constructed a flimsy wall between a pawn shop safe and an adjacent vacant apartment. Ultimately, his gang bribes an acquaintance with a clean criminal record, a boxer named Peppe (Vittorio Gassman) to confess. The warden does not believe Peppe, however, and he ends up in jail alongside Cosimo. Peppe tells Cosimo that he has been sentenced to three long years for this minor offense and Cosimo, to justify his actions, explains the details of the pawn shop heist to Peppe. Peppe then gleefully reveals that he has been given a year's probation and walks out the prison gate, infuriating Cosimo.

Peppe takes up the heist plan with Cosimo's gang: Mario (Renato Salvatori), petty thief and the youngest member of the group; Michele (Tiberio Murgia), posturing Sicilian crook who needs money for his sheltered sister's dowry; Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni), down and out photographer caring for his baby with his wife in jail on a minor offense; and Capannelle (Carlo Pisacane), elderly pickpocket. Tiberio steals a movie camera from a flea market to film the pawn shop safe's combination with a telephoto lens, but without success. Since none involved have the skill to crack the safe, they enlist the help of genteel local safecracker Dante (Totò), who is cautious not to violate his parole but supplies tools and gives them a brief primer.

They soon discover the vacant apartment is occupied by two spinsters and their young, attractive maid, Nicoletta (Carla Gravina). Ladies' man Peppe learns from Nicoletta that the two older women leave the apartment overnight once a week. Peppe earns the offer of a tryst with the maid the next time the ladies leave. The rest of the group pressures him to accept so they can stage the burglary, but Nicoletta unexpectedly quits her job in a huff and does not know if the spinsters will make their weekly departure. Meanwhile, Cosimo is released from prison. He had insisted on a substantial portion of the loot as the plan's mastermind but was rebuffed. Now, he vows vengeance on the group by robbing the pawn shop with a gun, which the blasé pawnbroker assumes he wants to hock. Deflated, Cosimo leaves, but during a botched purse snatching he is killed by a streetcar.

Mario has fallen for Michele's sister, Carmelina (Claudia Cardinale), and quits the caper in fear of being caught and embarrassing his mother. He vows to pursue a straight life and court Carmelina. Tiberio deposits his baby with his wife in prison to participate in the robbery, but runs into the flea market proprietor, who breaks his arm for stealing the camera. The group's fortunes brighten, however, when the elderly occupants of the apartment make their weekly trip after all. Re-energized, the gang break into the apartment. After a couple of misfortunes, they succeed in breaking through a wall that leads to the apartment's own kitchen; the elderly women had rearranged the furniture, thus disorienting the gang.

Realizing they have little time left until morning, they resignedly gather round the apartment's kitchen table and raid the refrigerator. Their repast ends abruptly when ever-starved Capannelle blows up the stove while lighting one of its burners. Thwarted, they all straggle homeward, members peeling off one by one for streetcars until only Peppe and Capanelle are left. Peppe then surprises Capanelle by deciding to find legitimate work. The film ends with a newspaper article recounting a robbery by unknown persons who apparently broke into an apartment to steal pasta with chickpeas.

Part 1

The novel's protagonist, Okonkwo, is famous in the villages of Umuofia for being a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed "Amalinze The Cat" (because he never lands on his back). Okonkwo is strong, hard-working, and strives to show no weakness. He wants to dispel his father Unoka's tainted legacy of unpaid debts, a neglected wife and children, and cowardice at the sight of blood. Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own, as Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. He is also obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise to this is swiftly destroyed. As a result, he often beats his wives and children, and is unkind to his neighbours. However, his drive to escape the legacy of his father leads him to be wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his village. He is a leader of his village, having attained a position in his society for which he has striven all his life.

Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken by the clan as a peace settlement between Umuofia and another clan after Ikemefuna's father killed an Umuofian woman. The boy lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him, although Okonkwo does not show his fondness so as not to appear weak. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a second father. The Oracle of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village, warns Okonkwo that he should have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child – but to avoid seeming weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo disregards the warning from the old man, striking the killing blow himself even as Ikemefuna begs his "father" for protection. For many days after killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo feels guilty and saddened.

Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. He falls into a great depression, as he has been greatly traumatized by the act of murdering his own adopted son. His sickly daughter Ezinma falls unexpectedly ill and it is feared she may die; during a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are exiled to his motherland, the nearby village Mbanta, for seven years to appease the gods he has offended.

Part 2

While Okonkwo is away in Mbanta, he learns that white men are living in Umuofia with the intent of introducing their religion, Christianity. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows and a new government is introduced. The village is forced to respond with either appeasement or resistance to the imposition of the white people's nascent society. Okonkwo’s son Nwoye starts getting curious about the missionaries and the new religion. After he is beaten by his father for the last time, he decides to leave his family behind and live independently. He wants to be with the missionaries because his beliefs have changed while being introduced to Christianity by Mr. Brown. In the last year of his exile, Okonkwo instructs his best friend Obierika to sell all of his yams and hire two men to build him two huts so he can have a house to go back to with his family. He also holds a great feast for his mother's kinsmen, where an elderly attendee bemoans the current state of their tribe and its future.

Part 3

Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village changed by the presence of the white men. After a convert commits an evil act by unmasking an elder as he embodies an ancestral spirit of the clan, the village retaliates by destroying a local Christian church. In response, the District Commissioner representing the colonial government takes Okonkwo and several other native leaders prisoner pending payment of a fine of two hundred bags of cowries. Despite the District Commissioner's instructions to treat the leaders of Umuofia with respect, the native "court messengers" humiliate them, doing things such as shaving their heads and whipping them. As a result, the people of Umuofia finally gather for what could be a great uprising. Okonkwo, a warrior by nature and adamant about following Umuofian custom and tradition, despises any form of cowardice and advocates war against the white men. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo beheads one of them. Because the crowd allows the other messengers to escape and does not fight alongside Okonkwo, he realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia are not going to fight to protect themselves – his society's response to such a conflict, which for so long had been predictable and dictated by tradition, is changing. The District Commissioner Gregory Irwin then comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself to avoid being trialled in a colonial court. Among his own people, Okonkwo's actions have tarnished his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide. As Irwin and his men prepare to bury Okonkwo, Irwin muses that Okonkwo's death will make an interesting chapter for his written book: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger."

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces and tanks roll into Kuwait City, as the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait begins. In Atlanta, CNN picks Robert Wiener and his crew to go to Baghdad and cover the invasion. At Rome International Airport, Wiener meets his colleague and producer Ingrid Formanek. Wiener and his crew arrive in Baghdad on August 23, and stay at the Al-Rasheed Hotel.

As they settle in their hotel rooms, they notice that they are being monitored. The crew report their first story on a young British boy held as a hostage by Saddam Hussein. As they continue to report stories, they get pressured by the Iraqi government. Wiener later meets the Iraqi Minister of Information Naji Al Hadithi, and requests pieces of equipment and an interview with Hussein. As the movie goes on, Wiener and Al Hadithi become friends.

Wiener and his crew get access to interview Americans forced to stay in the country by the Iraqi government. The Iraqis use the American hostages as human shields for potential bombing sites. After Wiener's crew interview an American named Bob Vinton, Vinton goes missing. Wiener becomes worried about Vinton. Later, Al Hadithi gives CBS and Dan Rather the Saddam Hussein interview. Instead of the Hussein interview, Al Hadithi gives Wiener and his crew a trip to Kuwait. They arrive in Jahra Air Force Base, Kuwait on October 17. The crew cover the incubator story in three Kuwaiti hospitals, but then Iraqis call off the interviews because the CNN crew broke some ground rules. As soon as they arrive back in Baghdad, Wiener and the crew become the story as the only Americans to be in Kuwait.

After an argument between Wiener and Al Hadithi, Al Hadithi agrees to give CNN a Saddam Hussein interview. On October 29, and the CNN crew interview Saddam Hussein at one of his presidential palaces. In the interview, Hussein states that Iraq withdrawing from Kuwait would be like the U.S. withdrawing from Hawaii. The crew then covers the release of American hostages from Iraq. Wiener then finds Bob Vinton and is emotionally moved by his being safe.

The United Nations gives Iraq until January 15, 1991 to withdraw from Kuwait, or face military action. As the deadline comes to an end the crew sees that the Iraqi Army is installing anti-aircraft guns in Baghdad. The crew then gets a piece of equipment called the four-wire, which gives them communications to CNN in Atlanta. The four-wire is essentially a direct phone line to their CNN facility in Jordan. From that point it can hit the satellite above and then go to the CNN headquarters in Atlanta. The Iraqis eventually find out that the crew have established communication with Atlanta. The CNN crew is the only foreign news group with the four wire. On January 9, the crew eventually believe that there will be war.

Bernard Shaw arrives in Baghdad again on January 13 to interview Saddam Hussein again at the deadline. As soon as the deadline expires, streets in Baghdad are empty and businesses are shut down. Americans and foreign news groups begin evacuating Baghdad on January 15 in fear of American bombing strikes. Wiener decides to stay, and some members of the crew decide to leave. At around 3 a.m. on January 17, U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers begin to bomb Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers begin to fire anti-aircraft guns into the sky to shoot down the bombers. As soon as the bombing strikes begin, CNN correspondents Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett begin to report and describe the bombings on the four-wire communicator. The reports are broadcast live on CNN in America. The film shows the points of view from Saddam Hussein and U.S. President George H. W. Bush watching the CNN reports. It also intersperses actual archival footage of news anchors from rival networks, having to report off CNN's live feed, since CNN was the only news source transmitting during the bombing of Baghdad. Other archival footage is of Dick Cheney, during a news conference as Bush's Defense Secretary, stating "The best coverage I've seen of what transpired in Baghdad was on CNN", and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw stating, "CNN used to be called the little network that could. It's no longer a little network."

At around 5 a.m., the crew is forced to stop reporting by Al Hadithi and Iraqi soldiers.

Most of the crew leaves Baghdad, including Formanek and Shaw. Wiener stays, returning to America on January 23. The film ends showing the destruction of buildings from bombings in Baghdad.

Shaun Brumder is an intelligent teenager from affluent Orange County, California with little interest in his education, leading a carefree SoCal lifestyle of surfing, drinking, and partying. Shaun's best friend Lonny is killed in a surfing accident, leading Shaun to rethink his life. He finds a novel on the beach by the author Marcus Skinner, which inspires him to become a writer. Upon learning that Skinner is an English professor at Stanford University, Shaun makes it his goal to attend Stanford and study under him.

Shaun dramatically improves himself academically, obtaining high grades and SAT scores and becoming president of his graduating class. Following the advice of his guidance counselor, Ms. Cobb, Shaun applies only to Stanford. This backfires when Shaun is rejected because Ms. Cobb mixed up his transcript with that of another student. Reaching out to his wealthy father Bud, who left his family to marry a much younger woman, Shaun pleads with him to donate to Stanford to increase Shaun’s chances of acceptance. Disapproving of Shaun's dream of becoming a writer, Bud refuses. Shaun's girlfriend Ashley convinces her friend Tanya to allow Shaun to be interviewed at his home by Tanya's grandfather, a Stanford board member. Unfortunately, the antics of Shaun’s dysfunctional family members, including his alcoholic, emotionally fragile mother Cindy and his dim-witted stoner brother Lance, cause Shaun's interviewers to storm out in disgust.

In a last-ditch effort, Ashley and Lance convince Shaun to drive to Palo Alto and plead his case directly to Stanford Admissions Director Don Durkett. By the time they reach campus, the admissions building is closed. While Lance seduces the secretary on duty, Shaun and Ashley steal Durkett's home address. There, Shaun impresses Durkett with his real transcript, but Durkett is reluctant to admit him so late in the admissions process. After much groveling, Shaun convinces him to give it a second thought. Disaster strikes again when Ashley confuses Lance's MDMA for pain relievers, offering Durkett the pills for his headache and causing him to become high. Shaun, Ashley, and Durkett return to find the Admissions Building engulfed in flames, caused by Lance smoking with the receptionist. With Lance wanted for arson, they abandon Durkett and flee the scene.

Frustrated with Shaun's obsession, Ashley points out that his attending Stanford would likely mean the end of their relationship, and she leaves. Depressed, Shaun wanders the campus and meets a female student who invites him to a frat party. He is disappointed to learn the Stanford coeds are just as vapid as teenagers from Orange County. With a more cynical view of college, Shaun runs into Professor Skinner and is invited to his office. Shaun confides that he is afraid his dreams of being a good writer are over. Skinner reminds him that many famous authors such as James Joyce and William Faulkner grew up in places that were not intellectually stimulating, and were inspired by the conflicts in their own lives. Having an epiphany, Shaun realizes his misguided intentions and finds Ashley to apologize. They pick up Lance, still hiding from police, and drive home.

In Orange County, Shaun's parents seek each other out to deal with Shaun's problem. They reconcile, realizing they are much happier together than with their respective new spouses, and conclude they have not been good parents to Shaun. To make amends, Bud donates enough money to Stanford for the construction of a new Admissions Building, which secures Shaun’s acceptance. Initially ecstatic, Shaun remembers what Ashley and Professor Skinner said, and decides to stay in Orange County with Ashley and his family, realizing they are the true inspiration for his writing. Shaun leaves a copy of Skinner's book at the beach for someone else to find, then surfs with his friends for the first time since Lonny's death.

''Gone with the Wind'' revolves around Scarlett O'Hara, a pampered Southern white woman, who lives through the American Civil War and Reconstruction. ''The Wind Done Gone'' is the same story, but told from the viewpoint of Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett's plantation and the daughter of Scarlett's father and Mammy.

Sold from the O'Haras, Cynara eventually makes her way back to Atlanta and becomes the mistress of a white businessman. She later leaves him for a black aspiring politician, eventually moving with him to Reconstruction Washington, D.C.

Set in the Middle Ages, the series is written as an alternative history. It opens on 21 August 1485, the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field, which in the series is won not by Henry Tudor (as in reality) but by Richard III. Richard III, played by Peter Cook, is presented as a good king who doted on his nephews, contrary to the Shakespearean view of him as a hunchbacked, infanticidal monster.

After his victory in the battle, Richard III is unintentionally killed by Lord Edmund Plantagenet; Richard attempts to take Edmund's horse, which he thinks is his own. Not recognizing the king, Edmund thinks Richard is stealing it and cuts his head off. The late King's nephew, Richard, Duke of York (played by Brian Blessed) who is Lord Edmund Plantagenet's father, is then crowned as Richard IV. Lord Edmund himself did not take part in the battle after arriving late, but later claims to have killed 450 peasants and several nobles, one of whom had actually been killed by his brother in the battle.

King Richard IV of England and XII of Scotland and his Queen Gertrude of Flanders have two sons: Harry, Prince of Wales and his younger brother Prince Edmund. Of the two, Harry is by far his father's favourite, the King barely acknowledging his second son's existence. It is a running gag throughout the series that Edmund's father cannot even remember his name. However, despite his mostly dismissive attitude toward his second son, the King actually loves Edmund very dearly, partially due to their father-son relationship; in the third episode, when Edmund becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury and helps his father to secure some land from a dying noble before the church can, the King acknowledges Edmund as his son, embraces him and even mentions to the Queen that he has "turned out well", and in the series' finale, on Edmund's deathbed, the King does his best to console him and has the entire court drink a toast in his honour.

Using this premise, the series follows the fictitious reign of Richard IV (1485–98) through the experiences of Prince Edmund, who styles himself as "The Black Adder", and his two sidekicks: the imbecilic Lord Percy Percy, the Duke of Northumberland (Tim McInnerny); and Baldrick (Tony Robinson), a more intelligent servant of no status.

By the end of the series, events converge with accepted history, when King Richard IV and his entire family are poisoned, allowing Henry Tudor to take the throne as King Henry VII. He then rewrites history, presenting Richard III as a monster, and eliminating Richard IV's reign from the history books. In reality, Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower, was only twelve years old (and perhaps two years dead) when the Battle of Bosworth Field took place in 1485, and thus too young to have had two adult sons. Henry Tudor seemingly also falsified the history of Scotland and Ireland, Richard IV is said to be king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Prince Edmund has the title of Duke of Edinburgh. Ireland was not a kingdom until 1542 and Scotland continued to have a separate royal house until 1603.

Episodes

The episodes in this series, written by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, were originally shown on BBC 1 on Wednesday evenings, 21:25 – 22:00. Each episode ran for roughly 33 minutes. The series began on 15 June 1983.

Each of the episodes was based on a medieval theme – the Wars of the Roses, the Crusades and Royal succession, the conflict between the Crown and the Church, arranged marriages between monarchies, and the Plague and witchcraft. The final episode follows a planned coup d'état.

The series was broadcast shortly after the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Shakespeare's four plays about the Wars of the Roses, the three-part ''Henry VI'' plays, followed by ''Richard III'', which was first shown on 23 January 1983. Some of the same actors were used to enhance the parody of Shakespearean history. Ron Cook, who played Richard III in the Shakespeare productions, is cast as the villainous "Sean the Irish Bastard". Peter Benson, who played Shakespeare's Henry VI, played Henry VII in the first episode.

Character development

In this series, the character of the Black Adder is somewhat different from later incarnations, being largely unintelligent, naive, and snivelling. The character does evolve through the series, however, and he begins showing signs of what his descendants will be like by the final episode, where he begins insulting everyone around him and making his own plans. This evolution follows naturally from the character's situation. "The Black Adder" is the title that Edmund adopts during the first episode (after first considering "The Black Vegetable"). Presumably one of his descendants adopted it as a surname before ''Blackadder II'', in which the title character becomes "Edmund Blackadder". Furthermore, Baldrick is shown in more favourable and intelligent light here – his 'cunning plans' are typically superior and more workable than Edmund's own. Starting from the second series, the characters' relative intelligence and naivety clearly switch.

The series is set during the Elizabethan era (1558–1603). The principal character, Edmund, Lord Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), is the great-great-grandson of the original Black Adder, and is now a member of the London aristocracy. Unlike his forefather, he is both dashing and intelligent, although he is still scheming and cynical in his outlook. The series follows his attempts to win the favour of the childish Queen Elizabeth I (Miranda Richardson). As before, he is aided, and often hindered, by two less-than-intelligent sidekicks, his servant Baldrick (Tony Robinson), and Lord Percy Percy (Tim McInnerny), heir to the Duchy of Northumberland, with whom Blackadder has a grudging friendship.

Throughout the series, Blackadder's chief rival is Lord Melchett (Stephen Fry), the Queen's pretentious and grovelling Lord Chamberlain. Melchett fears upsetting the Queen, and thus attempts to outdo Blackadder by supporting the Queen in whatever current fad she is interested in. Comic relief in the Court is provided by the Queen's demented former nanny, Nursie (Patsy Byrne).

Baldrick, who in the first series was the most intelligent of the main trio, became more stupid, an idea proposed by Ben Elton to make him "the stupidest person in the history of...human beings", and to act as a foil to Blackadder's new-found intelligence.''I Have a Cunning Plan – 20th Anniversary of Blackadder'', BBC Radio 4 documentary broadcast 23 August 2003. Excerpts available at [https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/interviews/ bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/interviews/] The series was also the originator of Baldrick's obsession with the turnip, although this apparently arose from a botanical error on the part of Elton, who confused the vegetable with the "amusingly shaped" parsnip.

Lord Percy remained similar in character to the original series, as a foolish sidekick in Blackadder's plots and predicaments. In this respect, McInnerny said the character resembled Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Shakespeare's ''Twelfth Night''. As with ''The Black Adder'', the series featured many tongue-in-cheek references to Shakespeare's plays; Shakespeare is mentioned as a contemporary Elizabethan, and his famous quotations are twisted for comic effect.''[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sitcom/advocate_blackadder.shtml Britain's Best Sitcom – Blackadder]'', 2004 BBC Television documentary, presented by John Sergeant The first episode "Bells", follows a similar plot to ''Twelfth Night''.

''Blackadder the Third'' is vaguely set in the late 18th and early 19th century period known as the Regency, although it is not possible to precisely date any episode as the historical events and persons depicted and referenced are (perhaps intentionally) anachronistic. For example, the formal Regency (during which King George III was incapacitated due to poor mental health and his son, George, Prince of Wales, served as regent) was in place between 1811 and 1820, and the series repeatedly refers to George as "Prince Regent." However, the second episode depicts Samuel Johnson (who died in 1784) working on his groundbreaking dictionary (which was published in 1755). Likewise, the final episode is set just before the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), but refers to George as Prince Regent, depicts George III as suffering from mental illness, and refers to Arthur Wellesley, who wasn't created "Viscount Wellington" until 1809, as "Wellington."

In the series, E. Blackadder Esquire (Rowan Atkinson) is the head butler to the Prince of Wales (Hugh Laurie), a spoiled, foppish idiot. Despite Edmund's respected intelligence and abilities, he has no personal fortune to speak of. On the other hand, given the ease with which he is able to manipulate the Prince, he is generally financially comfortable. According to Edmund he has been serving the Prince Regent all of his life, ever since the Prince was breastfed (when he had to show the Prince which part of his mother was "serving the drinks").

Baldrick (Tony Robinson) remains similar to his ''Blackadder II'' predecessor, and although his "cunning plans" cease to be even remotely intelligent (except in the last episode), he is the most aware of political, religious and social events. As Blackadder himself is now a servant, Baldrick is labelled as Blackadder's "dogsbody". In this series, Baldrick often displays a more belligerent attitude towards his master, even referring to him once as a "lazy, big-nosed, rubber-faced bastard" or deliberately comparing his face to his cousin, MacAdder, who Blackadder openly believes to be ugly. Blackadder often affectionately calls him "Balders" (and Baldrick sometimes calls Blackadder "Mr. B.").

There are three main sets: the Prince's quarters, which are opulently decorated, the below-stairs kitchen hangout of Blackadder and Baldrick, which is dark and squalid (though, in fairness, very large and with a very high ceiling), and finally Mrs. Miggins' coffeehouse. Mrs. Miggins' pie shop was a never-seen running gag in ''Blackadder II''; a descendant of hers is now finally shown, played by Helen Atkinson-Wood.

The plots feature rotten boroughs, Dr. Samuel Johnson (played by Robbie Coltrane), the French Revolution (featuring Chris Barrie) and the Scarlet Pimpernel, over-the-top theatrical actors, squirrel-hating female highwaymen, the practice of settling quarrels with a duel and the discussion of tactics with Duke of Wellington (played by Stephen Fry).

The last episode features Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder's Scottish cousin MacAdder, supposedly a fierce swordsman. This leads to a dialogue in which Atkinson is acting both parts. After this episode, Blackadder finds fortune and ends up (permanently) posing as the Prince Regent after the real prince, disguised as Blackadder, is shot by the Duke of Wellington.

Ebenezer Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), the Victorian proprietor of a "moustache shop", is the nicest man in England. He is everything that Ebenezer Scrooge was by the end of the original story: generous and kind to everybody, and sensitive to the misery of others. As a result, people take advantage of his kindness – Mrs. Scratchit and an orphan take all his money, his god-daughter Millicent takes his presents and Christmas tree, and a beadle takes his food. All but Mr. Baldrick (Tony Robinson) view him as a victim. His business turns no profit, all his earnings go to charity and con artists, and despite his positive attitude, he lives a lonely, miserable life.

One Christmas Eve, Blackadder's destiny changes when the Spirit of Christmas (Robbie Coltrane) visits him to congratulate him for his ways. The Spirit lets him see two shades of the past: his Blackadder ancestors (the protagonists of ''Blackadder II'' and ''Blackadder the Third''). Instead of providing positive reinforcement that Ebenezer is better than his forefathers, these visions lead him to admire them and their wit. He asks the Spirit to show him what could happen if he became like them. He sees a vision of a distant future where his descendant, Grand Admiral Blackadder, is a successful and ruthless official of a galactic empire, about to marry the similarly ruthless and insanely ambitious Queen Asphyxia XIX (Miranda Richardson) after murdering her "triple husbandoid". The future Baldrick, wearing a loincloth, is Blackadder's slave. Blackadder asks the Spirit what will happen if he stays as he is. He is shown an alternative future in which his descendant is the loincloth-clad slave of the incompetent Admiral Baldrick.

Contrary to the Spirit's intended point, Blackadder takes "the very clear lesson that bad guys have all the fun". On Christmas morning, he wakes up a different man: bitter, vengeful, greedy, and insulting to everyone he meets. Now feeling in control of his life, he misses an opportunity when he insults two strangers who claim to be Queen Victoria (Miriam Margolyes) and Prince Albert (Jim Broadbent) and throws them out of his home. The episode ends on Blackadder's extravagant Christmas dinner, which is ruined when Baldrick shows him the royal seal left behind by the strangers, proving Baldrick's story that the Queen and Prince Albert had planned to award Blackadder a gift of £50,000 and the title of Baron Blackadder for being the "nicest man in England".

Edited version

Most versions of this special edit Baldrick's speech about a dog being used as Jesus for the Nativity play to remove a line in which Baldrick says the dog will be nailed to a cross for Easter. The earliest known case of this edit was on its first rerun in December 1989. The same version was used for later terrestrial broadcasts when the special aired on Christmas in the years 1998, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012. The edited version is also seen in the ''Blackadder Ultimate Edition'' DVD set, on the UK channel Gold since 2018 (the uncut version was screened until 2017) and, as of 2016, is on Hulu Plus. The original uncut version can be seen on the Region 1 U.S. DVD set, and on the U.S. and UK versions of Netflix.

At Blackadder Hall in 1999, Lord Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is entertaining four guests on New Year's Eve. He informs them he has built a time machine using plans drawn by Leonardo da Vinci and wagers £10,000 each that he can bring back any item from history they request. Archbishop Melchett (Stephen Fry), Archdeacon Kevin Darling (Tim McInnerny), Major George (Hugh Laurie), and Lady Elizabeth (Miranda Richardson) agree to this and challenge him to bring back a Roman centurion's helmet, wellingtons worn by the Duke of Wellington on the day of the Battle of Waterloo, and an ancient pair of 200-year-old underpants. The whole voyage is actually a scam, as Blackadder has, in fact, had Baldrick (Tony Robinson) retrieve the items from his storage, and the time machine is a prop. Blackadder stages the time machine travelling through time for his guests, with himself and Baldrick hiding inside, but when he opens the door he finds it has actually worked.

They are now in the Cretaceous Period, where they are confronted by a ''Tyrannosaurus''. They throw away their wager items but are eventually able to defeat it using the underpants. Baldrick admits that, as he never got round to writing the dates on the dials, they cannot return to the present.

Blackadder and Baldrick return to Blackadder Hall but during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Miranda Richardson) who, mistaking him for his ancestor, orders his beheading unless he has a present for her. While rummaging through his pockets, Blackadder drops some Polo mints onto the floor which he then offers to the Queen. She loves them, rewards him with her crown and orders him to go forth and bring back lots more "minty things". On his way back to the time machine, Blackadder meets William Shakespeare (Colin Firth). He hits him saying "that is for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next four hundred years" and leaves.

Blackadder tries to remember how the dials were set. They eventually land in Sherwood Forest and are captured by Robin Hood (Rik Mayall). Blackadder asks the Merry Men why they steal from the rich, facing certain death if caught, live in the forest with lack of toilet facilities, and yet are willing to give all they steal to the poor who themselves may view it as a reason to not work. As a result, the Merry Men shoot Robin. After having sex with Maid Marian (Kate Moss), Blackadder leaves, taking Robin's hat as a souvenir.

Next, the time machine lands at the Battle of Waterloo, killing the Duke of Wellington (just before he announces his plan to defeat Napoleon's forces) in the process. Blackadder steps out to steal the Duke's boots, feeling he may as well try to win his wager. This is followed by them landing at Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain, where they spy their Roman ancestors. After stealing a helmet, Blackadder and Baldrick escape from a charging group of Picts.

Baldrick mentions that dying people have their lives flash before them and that if Blackadder was about to drown, he might see how the dials were originally set. Blackadder agrees with this and shoves Baldrick's head into the time machine toilet. The plan succeeds and Baldrick remembers how to set the dials to return home. On the way back, Baldrick suggests that anyone can change the world for the better, though Blackadder argues that all most people can do is make money.

Returning to 1999, the party guests are impressed by what Blackadder has returned with, but due to his interference with history, Robin Hood is unknown, Shakespeare is only known as the inventor of the ballpoint pen (which he had left with him after punching him), and Britain has been ruled by the French since Napoleon's victory at Waterloo. Realising that he is to blame, Blackadder gets back into the time machine to try and reinvigorate history. He champions Shakespeare, charms Robin Hood, and saves the Duke of Wellington.

They return home to ensure that the original timeline has been restored and to collect Blackadder's winnings from his guests. He tells them to go upstairs and watch the New Year's festivities on television, assuring them he will soon return. He informs Baldrick he has a "very, very, very cunning plan", and they set off again in the time machine. The guests watch the broadcast of the British royal family and the prime minister arriving at the Millennium Dome. Blackadder is shown to now be King Edmund III, who is married to Marian of Sherwood (Kate Moss) and is joined by Prime Minister Baldrick.

Billy Budd is a seaman impressed into service aboard HMS ''Bellipotent'' in the year 1797, when the Royal Navy was reeling from two major mutinies and was threatened by the Revolutionary French Republic's military ambitions. He is impressed to this large warship from another, smaller, merchant ship, ''The Rights of Man'' (named after the book by Thomas Paine). As his former ship moves off, Budd shouts, "And good-bye to you too, old ''Rights-of-Man''."

Billy, a foundling from Bristol, has an innocence, good looks and a natural charisma that make him popular with the crew. He has a stutter, which becomes more noticeable when under intense emotion. He arouses the antagonism of the ship's master-at-arms, John Claggart. Claggart, while not unattractive, seems somehow "defective or abnormal in the constitution", possessing a "natural depravity." Envy is Claggart's explicitly stated emotion toward Budd, foremost because of his "significant personal beauty," and also for his innocence and general popularity. (Melville further opines that envy is "universally felt to be more shameful than even felonious crime.") This leads Claggart to falsely charge Billy with conspiracy to mutiny. When the captain, Edward Fairfax "Starry" Vere, is presented with Claggart's charges, he summons Claggart and Billy to his cabin for a private meeting. Claggart makes his case and Billy, astounded, is unable to respond, due to his stutter. In his extreme frustration he strikes out at Claggart, killing him instantly.

Vere convenes a drumhead court-martial. He acts as convening authority, prosecutor, defense counsel and sole witness (except for Billy). He intervenes in the deliberations of the court-martial panel to persuade them to convict Billy, despite their and his beliefs in Billy's moral innocence. (Vere says in the moments following Claggart's death, "Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!") Vere claims to be following the letter of the Mutiny Act and the Articles of War.

Although Vere and the other officers did not believe Claggart's charge of conspiracy and think Billy justified in his response, they find that their own opinions matter little. The martial law in effect states that during wartime the blow itself, fatal or not, is a capital crime. The court-martial convicts Billy following Vere's argument that any appearance of weakness in the officers and failure to enforce discipline could stir more mutiny throughout the British fleet. Condemned to be hanged the morning after his attack on Claggart, Billy before his execution says, "God bless Captain Vere!" His words were repeated by the gathered crew in a "resonant and sympathetic echo."

The novel closes with three chapters that present ambiguity: * Chapter 28 describes the death of Captain Vere. In a naval action against the French ship, ''Athée'' (the ''Atheist''), Captain Vere is mortally wounded. His last words are "Billy Budd, Billy Budd." * Chapter 29 presents an extract from an official naval gazette purporting to give the facts of the fates of John Claggart and Billy Budd aboard HMS ''Bellipotent'' – but the "facts" offered turn the facts that the reader learned from the story upside down. The gazette article described Budd as a conspiring mutineer likely of foreign birth and mysterious antecedents who is confronted by John Claggart. The master-at-arms, loyally enforcing the law, is fatally stabbed by Budd. The gazette concludes that the crime and weapon used suggest a foreign birth and subversive character; it reports that the mutineer was executed and nothing is amiss aboard HMS ''Bellipotent''. * Chapter 30 is a cheaply printed ballad, "Billy in the Darbies," written by one of Billy's shipmates as an elegy. The adult, experienced man represented in the poem is not the innocent youth portrayed in the preceding chapters.

A trail drive is coming to an end, with the resulting payoff of the now out-of-work trail hands. A trio of punchers, Blue, Dutchy, and an aging Will Penny decide to drift south and avoid the oncoming winter. Will trades his position riding on the train with the cattle to a young cowboy who wants to visit his dying father and tells Will there may be work at the Flat Iron ranch.

One morning Blue is about to fire at a bull elk near a river bottom. Mysteriously, the elk is shot by an unseen party. As Blue and Dutchy move in to claim the elk anyway, they encounter the shooter, a "rawhider" and his family. The two groups contest the right to the meat. Gunfire erupts, and Will shows up, shoots and kills one of the rawhider's sons. The rawhider swears a biblical revenge. Dutchy accidentally wounds himself in the exchange, so the trio head out to find a doctor and first come to a nearby trail store, where they encounter Catherine Allen and her son Horace. After getting a few drinks of whiskey they move on to the nearest town and leave Dutchy at the doctor. Blue decides to look for a job in the town, while Will proceeds alone. He comes across a horse without a rider and locates a dead cowboy, thrown from his saddle. Will turns the body over to the Flat Iron ranch that the cowboy rode for and is offered a job.

Will hires on to ride the far-off boundaries of Flat Iron ranch over the winter. As he arrives at the upper range, he finds Catherine and Horace staying in the line-rider's cabin after being abandoned by their guide. He rides away to inspect the fence line, warning them that they must be gone when he returns in one week.

The next morning as Will is sleeping outside near the fence, he is ambushed and savagely beaten up and knifed by the rawhider group. They rob and leave Will for dead, but he drags himself to the cabin, where he is slowly nursed back to health by Catherine.

As the winter passes, Will and Catherine fall in love, and Will develops fatherly affection for Horace.

As Will and Catherine prepare for Christmas, the Quint family bursts into the cabin, force Will into doing the chores, and coerce Catherine to decide on one of the ne'er do well, belligerent, hair-trigger sons. After some days, Catherine distracts the two Quint sons so Will can make an escape. At that same time his two former saddle pals Blue and Dutchy arrive looking for him. Will and Blue return to attack the cabin to free Catherine and Horace, using a bag of sulfur in the chimney to smoke out the rawhiders and then shoot them all.

With the rawhider's dead the Flat Iron trail boss arrives, Will realizes that he is too old and set in his ways to settle down into a domestic life with Catherine, against her protestations. Deeply regretful about what he is leaving behind, he rides away with Dutchy and Blue to collect on a bet with the store owner on Dutchy’s survival and continue his life as a trail hand. He donated his wages from the ranch to Catherine.

While the ''Enterprise'' is en route to Pacifica on a scientific mission, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) receives a highly confidential message from an old friend, Captain Walker Keel (Jonathan Farwell) of the USS ''Horatio''. Keel refuses to discuss his concerns, even though the frequency he is using is supposed to be a secure channel, and insists on a face-to-face meeting. Once they arrive at Dytallix B for this secret meeting, the crew discover the ''Horatio'' and two other Federation ships already present. Picard beams alone to the surface and is met by Captain Keel and the other captains. Keel reports strange orders from Starfleet headquarters and what he implies are suspicious deaths of Starfleet officers, and expresses concern of a conspiracy. Picard refuses to accept this without proof, but Keel warns him to remain wary. When the captain returns to the ''Enterprise'', he is challenged by Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) about keeping his contact with Keel secret. Picard is skeptical about the conspiracy, but says that he trusts his old friend completely. The ''Enterprise'' resumes its previous journey. Picard has Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) review all orders issued by Starfleet Command in the past six months. While the ship is still on its way to Pacifica, a disturbance is detected in nearby space. Upon investigating this, the ''Enterprise'' discovers a mass of debris that surely must be the shattered remains of the ''Horatio''. Data completes his study and finds several strange orders from the senior levels of Starfleet. Picard informs his senior staff of the conspiracy theory, and orders the ''Enterprise'' to Earth.

As it approaches Earth, the ''Enterprise'' receives no response from Starfleet Command. Eventually, a transmission is received from a trio of Starfleet admirals: Savar (Henry Darrow), Aaron (Ray Reinhardt) and Quinn (Ward Costello), an old friend of Picard's who recently made an inspection of the ''Enterprise'' (in "Coming of Age"). They are surprised by the ''Enterprise'' s presence, but invite Captain Picard and Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) to dinner. Quinn requests to beam aboard the Enterprise for a tour. Captain Picard recalls being warned by Quinn about some kind of threat to Starfleet when the admiral was last aboard. Upon Quinn's arrival, Picard discusses matters with him and Quinn seems strangely evasive; Picard comes to believe that he is an impostor, or under some sort of alien influence. After warning Riker of his concerns and asking him to watch Quinn, the captain beams down to Starfleet headquarters to attend the dinner. On arrival, Picard is greeted by the other two Admirals who are accompanied by Quinn's assistant, Lt. Commander Remmick (Robert Schenkkan). Meanwhile, Riker visits Quinn's quarters on the ''Enterprise'' and questions him about what he has in the small box he brought with him. Quinn tells Riker of a superior life form within the box. Riker attempts to leave but Quinn throws Riker across the room. A security team arrives to subdue Quinn, who is able to withstand a great amount of phaser-fire before he collapses. The ship's chief medical officer, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), finds a small protrusion on the back of his neck. She discovers that a bug-like parasite has wrapped its tendrils around the stem of Quinn's brain and is controlling him. Dr. Crusher warns Picard of this incident when he contacts the ship in private. He is advised that the infected person can only be stopped by a phaser set to 'kill': the captain points out that he is unarmed. He then has no choice but to go in to dinner with his three superiors.

A bowl of living larvae is served at the meal, to Picard's disgust. He attempts to leave, only to find Riker blocking his way. The commander appears to be controlled by the parasite Quinn brought to the ''Enterprise''. When the others see a protrusion on the back of Riker's neck, he is accepted as one of them and allowed to dine. They reveal that the parasites are seeking to take over Starfleet, using humanoids as hosts. When he is about to put a handful of the larvae in his mouth, Riker suddenly produces a phaser and fires on one of the Admirals. The protrusion is thus revealed to be a prosthetic. Picard picks up a fallen weapon and the two ''Enterprise'' officers subdue the infected, causing parasites to leave the hosts and flee. One of the parasites scurries under a closed door and Picard and Riker follow it. They find Remmick ingesting the parasite to join several others inside him. Picard and Riker fire upon Remmick, destroying his body but freeing a giant parasite; the two continue to fire until it is destroyed.

Later, Dr. Crusher reports that the other parasites, including the one inside Quinn, have shriveled up and died, as they were unable to survive without the mother-creature that had been inhabiting Remmick. As they help to settle matters with Starfleet headquarters, they find that before Remmick was killed, he had sent a signal to a distant quadrant of the galaxy. The signal is thought to be a homing beacon.

The prevalent force of Alchemy in Weyard's ancient past enabled the development of great civilizations. However, this thriving period eventually gave way to a worldwide conflict that subsided only with the sealing away of Alchemy. The keys to unlocking Alchemy, the four Elemental Stars which hold the pure power of the four elements, are hidden within the mountain shrine, Mt. Aleph, which in turn is guarded by the town of Vale at the mountain's base. In the game's prologue, Saturos and Menardi, with help from a raiding party, storm Mt. Aleph with the intention to seize the Elemental Stars for themselves. They fail to solve the riddles guarding the stars and are driven away by the mountain's trap, a magically generated thunderstorm and rock slide. In the ensuing chaos, Felix, Isaac's father, and Jenna's parents are all presumed dead.

Three years later, Isaac, Garet, and Jenna join their teacher, Kraden, in his research of Mt. Aleph. Their research coincides with a second raid of the sanctum by Saturos and Menardi, now assisted by Alex and a surviving Felix, who coerce Isaac into giving them three of the four stars. The volcano erupts before they can retrieve the final star, but before escaping they capture Jenna and Kraden as eventual bargaining chips. The guardian of Mt. Aleph, the Wise One, appears before Isaac and Garet and instructs them to prevent Saturos' group from casting the Elemental Stars into their respective Elemental Lighthouses across Weyard; if this happens, Alchemy will be restored and the period of instability will begin anew.

Isaac and Garet pursue Saturos' group to the Mercury Lighthouse, joined by Ivan and Mia. Despite their best efforts, they fail to prevent Saturos from activating Mercury Lighthouse with the Mercury Star. Saturos' group leaves for the next Lighthouse with Isaac's party remaining in pursuit. In the ensuing chase, Isaac learns that Saturos has taken another Adept hostage: the female Jupiter Adept, Sheba. Saturos and Menardi activate the Venus Lighthouse with the Venus Star, and are confronted by Isaac's party immediately thereafter. Attempting to annihilate their opponents, Saturos and Menardi magically merge to form a massive two-headed dragon, but Isaac's party slay Saturos and Menardi. Directly following this, Sheba falls from the lighthouse and Felix proceeds to jump out after her. The remnants of Saturos' group, headed by Felix and Alex, continue their quest to light the remaining two Lighthouses, with Jenna, Sheba, and Kraden still with them. The game ends as Isaac's party boards a ship and sail out into Weyard's open seas to continue their mission.

Doctor Robotnik discovers mysterious birds called Flickies that live on an island in an alternate dimension. He learns that they can travel anywhere using large rings, so he decides to exploit them by turning them into robots to help him search for the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic arrives at the island only to discover the presence of Robotnik, and he is tasked with saving the Flickies and defeating his nemesis.

Sonic travels through the island, saving the Flickies and clashing with Robotnik in his various machines. If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic proceeds into a black void, where he engages in a final battle with Robotnik, who pilots a large robot. Sonic manages to destroy the robot's weapons and defeats Robotnik, freeing the Flickies. If the player fails to collect the Emeralds, Robotnik escapes in their possession.

Peter Gunn is a suave, well-dressed private investigator whose hair is always in place and who loves cool jazz. Whereas other gumshoes are often coarse and vulgar, Peter Gunn is a sophisticate with expensive tastes. A contemporary article in ''Life'' noted that Edwards "deliberately tailored the part after the famous movie smoothie Cary Grant".

Gunn operates in a gloomy waterfront city, the name and location of which is never revealed in the series. He can usually be found at Mother's, a smokey wharfside jazz club that Gunn uses as his "office", usually meeting new clients there. Gunn has a reputation for integrity and being among the best investigators; he has many reliable informants and is extremely well-connected. His reputation is so good, the police occasionally ask ''him'' for help or advice. He sometimes works cases out of state and occasionally out of the country. Gunn was observed by a female character named Rowena in "Murder on the Midway" as "wearing $30 shoes, a $200 suit and carrying a solid gold cigarette lighter". Gunn drives a 1958 two-tone DeSoto two-door hardtop in the first few episodes of the first season, then a 1959 Plymouth Fury convertible with a white top and a car phone. In the third season Gunn drives a 1960 white Plymouth Fury convertible with a car phone, later changing to a 1961 Plymouth Fury convertible.

Gunn's girlfriend, Edie Hart, is a sultry singer employed at Mother's; she opens her own restaurant and nightclub in season 3, named Edie's. Gunn's pet name for Edie is "Silly". Herschel Bernardi costarred as Lieutenant Jacoby, a somber police detective and friend of Gunn who works at the 13th Precinct. Occasionally he refers people to Gunn as clients. In 1959, Bernardi received his only Emmy nomination for the role. Hope Emerson appeared as "Mother", who had been a singer and piano player in speakeasies during Prohibition. She received an Emmy nomination for the role. For the second season, "Mother" was played by Minerva Urecal, following the departure of Emerson for a starring role in ''The Dennis O'Keefe Show''. Associate producer Byron Kane portrayed Barney, the bartender at Mother's; Kane was never credited for playing this role. Bill Chadney appeared as Emmett, Mother's piano player. (Chadney and Albright were married in 1961.)

Both Billy Barty as pool hustler Babby and Herbert Ellis as Beat bistro owner, painter, and sculptor Wilbur, appeared in several episodes as occasional "information resources", as "Mother" also often is. Capri Candela played Wilbur's girlfriend, Capri. Morris Erby had the recurring role of Sgt. Lee Davis during all three seasons of the show. Frequent director Robert Gist appeared as an actor in different roles in three episodes. James Lanphier portrayed Leslie the maitre d'hôtel at Edie's restaurant and nightclub during season 3.

After the events of ''Sonic 3'', Dr. Robotnik's orbital weapon, the Death Egg, crash-lands on Angel Island. Sonic travels to Angel Island to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to defeat Robotnik, and once again comes into conflict with Knuckles, who believes Sonic is trying to steal the Emeralds for himself. In Hidden Palace Zone, Sonic fights and defeats Knuckles, only to discover Robotnik stealing the Master Emerald, the secret to the island's levitation powers. Knuckles attacks Robotnik, but Robotnik shocks him with electricity. Knuckles shows Sonic a portal that leads them to Sky Sanctuary, where the Death Egg is relaunching. Sonic infiltrates the Death Egg and defeats Robotnik as Super Sonic, retrieving the Master Emerald and returning it to Angel Island as it rises back into the sky.

In Knuckles' story, taking place after Sonic's, Knuckles is attacked by EggRobo, one of Robotnik's robots. He chases him to the damaged remains of Sky Sanctuary, where Mecha Sonic attacks Knuckles, but accidentally destroys EggRobo instead. Mecha Sonic uses the power of the Master Emerald to achieve a Super form similar to Sonic's and fights Knuckles until the latter eventually defeats the mecha. Sonic flies in piloting the biplane ''Tornado'', and takes Knuckles and the Master Emerald back to Angel Island. If all the Chaos Emeralds are collected, Angel Island rises upwards, into the sky. However, if the player has not collected all the Chaos Emeralds, Angel Island plummets into the ocean.

Brian Sweeney "Fitzcarraldo" Fitzgerald is an Irishman living in Iquitos, a small city east of the Andes in the Amazon Basin in Peru in the early part of the 20th century, when the city grew exponentially during the rubber boom. He has an indomitable spirit, but is little more than a dreamer with one major failure already behind him – the bankrupted and incomplete Trans-Andean railways. A lover of opera and a great fan of the internationally known Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, he dreams of building an opera house in Iquitos.

Numerous Europeans and North African Sephardic Jewish immigrants have settled in the city at this time, bringing their cultures with them. The opera house will require considerable amounts of money, which the booming rubber industry in Peru should yield in profits. The areas in the Amazon Basin known to contain rubber trees have been parceled up by the Peruvian government and are leased to private companies for exploitation.

Fitzcarraldo explores entering the rubber business. A helpful rubber baron points out on a map the only remaining unclaimed parcel in the area. He explains that while it is located on the Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Amazon, it is cut off from the Amazon (and access to Atlantic ports) by a lengthy section of rapids. Fitzcarraldo sees that the Pachitea River, another Amazon tributary, comes within several hundred meters of the Ucayali upstream of the parcel. He plans to investigate that.

He leases the inaccessible parcel from the government. His paramour, Molly, a successful brothel owner, funds his purchase of an old steamship (which he christens the SS ''Molly Aida''). After recruiting a crew, he takes off up the Pachitea, the parallel river. This river has dangerous interior areas because of its indigenous people hostile to outsiders.

Fitzcarraldo plans to go to the closest point between the two rivers and, with the manpower of impressed natives (who are nearly enslaved by many rubber companies), physically pull his three-deck, 320-ton steamer over the muddy 40° hillside across a portage from one river to the next. Using the steamer, he will collect rubber produced on the upper Ucayali and bring it down the Pachitea and the Amazon to market at Atlantic ports.

The majority of the ship's crew, at first unaware of Fitzcarraldo's plan, abandon the expedition soon after entering indigenous territory, leaving only the captain, engineer, and cook. Impressed by Fitzcarraldo and his ship, the natives start working for him without fully understanding his goals. After great struggles, they successfully pull the ship over the mountain with a complex system of pulleys, worked by the natives and aided by the ship's anchor windlass. When the crew falls asleep after a drunken celebration, the chief of the natives severs the rope securing the ship to the shore. It floats down the river. The chief wanted to appease the river gods, who would otherwise be angered that Fitzcarraldo defied nature by circumventing them.

Though the ship traverses the Ucayali rapids without major damage, Fitzcarraldo and his crew are forced to return to Iquitos without any rubber. Despondent, Fitzcarraldo sells the ship back to the rubber baron, but first sends the captain on a last voyage. He returns with the entire cast for the first opera production, including Caruso. The entire city of Iquitos comes to the shore as Fitzcarraldo, standing on top of the ship, proudly displays the cast.

The Empire of Izmir has long been a divided land, ruled by the Mages, an elite group of powerful warlocks. In the capital of Sumdall, an evil mage named Profion creates a magic sceptre that can allow him to control Gold dragons, but his attempt to control an individual fails, forcing him to kill it. As he begins to make new plans, the dragon bleeds into the nearby river, causing it to catch fire, which many inhabitants of Sumdall notice, including a pair of teenage thieves, Ridley and his best friend Snails.

Later, Profion and the Council of Mages discuss the controversial views of Empress Savina, who wants to give rights to non-mages in Izmir. When the Council threatens to confiscate from her the scepter that allows her to control Gold dragons, she decides to seek the Rod of Savrille, which has the power to control Red dragons. Profion learns of this and decides to take the Rod himself. Meanwhile, Ridley and Snails break into the Sumdall magic school to steal whatever they can to become rich, but are discovered by a young Mage named Marina, just before the library wizard is held hostage and interrogated by Profion's assistant Damodar for information on the map to the Rod. After the wizard refuses to talk and sends the map over to Marina, Damodar kills him, and Marina travels through a magic portal to escape, unintentionally taking the thieves with her. After crashing into a pile of garbage, they meet a dwarf named Elwood, who ends up joining the three's escape through the sewers.

Damodar puts a price on Marina, Ridley, Snails and Elwood's heads and after letting Profion know that the group got away with the map, Profion creates a tentacled monster inside Damodar which painfully possesses him. The group hide inside of a tavern and read the map that Ridley and Marina get sucked into. Damodar and his minions attack Elwood and Snails, but they escape with the map. Ridley and Marina exit the map and all decide to work together to find the Rod. They must first find a ruby called the "Eye of the Dragon" that can open the door to a tomb containing the sceptre. The Eye is held by the thieves' guild in the city of Antius, whose leader, Xilus, reveals it to be in a maze puzzle of traps, and promises to give the group the "Eye of the Dragon" if Ridley successfully solves it, which he does. Damodar suddenly arrives to capture him and his friends. Marina is captured instead while Ridley, Snails and Elwood escape with the "Eye of the Dragon", meeting an elf named Norda who works for Empress Savina, whom she thus informs about Profion's plans upon hearing them from Ridley. In his castle, Damodar interrogates Marina and uses the tentacles in his mind to gain her knowledge.

Ridley and Snails break into Damodar's castle to rescue Marina, while Norda and Elwood stay behind. After Ridley and Snails decide to split up, Ridley finds and rescues Marina, but Snails is confronted by Damodar after he finds the map and a fight ensues between the two with Damodar gaining the upper hand. When Ridley and Marina arrive, Snails throws the map to his comrades, but at the cost of his own life as he is killed by Damodar before being thrown off the castle. An infuriated Ridley attacks Damodar to avenge his friend, but Damodar disarms him and stabs Ridley with his own sword. Marina grabs some magic dust and creates another portal to escape with Ridley. Profion and Savina's factions decide to battle for control of Izmir using magic.

An elf heals Ridley along with Norda's soldiers. Marina finds Ridley and tries to help him get over the death of Snails, but Ridley, still feeling remorseful of his friend's death, furiously chastises her for leaving Snails to die instead of saving him. After a brief argument between the two in which Marina convinces Ridley that Snails' death was not in vain, they eventually reconcile and become love interests. Ridley uses the "Eye of the Dragon" to enter the tomb containing the Rod. It is held by a skeleton that comes to life and tells Ridley he is Savrille, now cursed for trying to control red dragons, and "Anyone who wields the power of the Rod shall suffer a horrible fate".

Damodar arrives to steal the Rod and returns to Sumdall. Ridley and his friends pursue Damodar while the Empress and her Gold dragons battle Profion's Mages. Damodar presents the rod to Profion, who removes the monster from Damodar and uses the Rod to summon Red dragons, which begin to win the fight against the Gold Dragons. Ridley duels with Damodar with a new magic sword and successfully wounds the latter before finishing him off by hurling Damodar off the castle wall to his death, finally avenging Snails. He then attacks Profion, who disarms him and shoves him back. Ridley's companions arrive and fight Profion one at a time. Ridley picks up the fallen Rod, and uses it to stop the Red dragons. Marina encourages Ridley to use the Rod to bring Profion down, but Ridley, realizing the Rod's power will corrupt him, refuses and destroys it. Empress Savina arrives and condemns Profion, who fights her with powerful magic, but she summons a Gold dragon which devours Profion, ending the battle and Profion's reign of terror.

Ridley later visits Snails' grave with Norda, Marina and Elwood and pays tribute to his fallen comrade. When he places the "Eye of the Dragon" on the grave, Snails' name disappears, and Norda tells Ridley not to question his abilities. Norda then uses the "Eye of the Dragon" to transport Ridley to another place in the world where his friend would await for him, along with herself, Marina and Elwood.

At a Detroit theater showing kung fu films, Alabama Whitman strikes up a conversation with Elvis Presley fanatic Clarence Worley. They later have sex at his downtown apartment. Alabama tearfully confesses that she is a call girl hired by his boss as a birthday present but has fallen in love with him. They marry.

An apparition of Elvis visits Clarence and convinces him to kill Alabama's pimp Drexl. Going to the brothel where Alabama worked, he shoots and kills Drexl, and takes a bag he assumes contains Alabama's belongings. Back at the apartment, he and Alabama discover it contains a large amount of cocaine.

The couple visits Clarence's estranged father, Clifford, a former cop and now a security guard, for help. He tells Clarence the police assume Drexl's murder is a gang killing. After the couple leave for Los Angeles, Clifford is interrogated by Vincenzo Coccotti, consigliere to mobster "Blue Lou Boyle", with whom Drexl had been doing business and who now wants the cocaine back. Clifford, realizing he will die anyway, mockingly defies Coccotti who shoots him dead. Clarence's LA address is on the refrigerator.

In LA, Clarence and Alabama meet Clarence's aspiring actor friend Dick, who introduces him to actor Elliot Blitzer. He reluctantly agrees to broker the sale of the drugs to film producer Lee Donowitz. While Clarence is out buying lunch, Coccotti's underboss, Virgil, finds Alabama in her motel room and beats her for information. She fights back and kills him with his shotgun.

Elliot is pulled over for speeding and arrested for drug possession. To stay out of jail, he agrees to record the drug deal between Clarence and Donowitz for the police. Coccotti's crew learn where the deal will take place from Dick's roommate Floyd. Clarence, Alabama, Dick, and Elliot go to Donowitz's suite at the Ambassador Hotel with the drugs. In the elevator, a suspicious Clarence threatens Elliot at gunpoint, but is persuaded by Elliot's pleading.

Clarence fabricates a story for Donowitz that the drugs were given to him by a corrupt cop, and he agrees to the sale. Excusing himself to the bathroom, the vision of Elvis reassures him that things are going well. Donowitz and his bodyguards are ambushed by the cops and the mobsters. Elliot reveals himself to be an informant by asking the cops if he could leave, whereupon a shootout erupts. Dick abandons the drugs and flees. Almost everyone is killed in the gun battle, and Clarence is wounded as he exits the bathroom. He and Alabama escape with Donowitz's money as more police arrive. They flee to Mexico where Alabama gives birth to a son, whom they name Elvis.

At the beginning of the film, a German couple proves to a Nazi German supreme judge that they are of pure Aryan blood and agree to give their son, whom they name Hans at the judge's approval, into the service of Der Fuehrer Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. They are given a copy of ''Mein Kampf'' by the judge as a reward for their service to Hitler; their passport contains spaces for 12 more children (a hint that the couple is expected to produce a large family for the Fatherland).

This is followed by the only extended comical section of the cartoon, the tone of which is very light compared to the rest of the film. The audience is told that as Hans grows up, he hears a distorted version of ''Sleeping Beauty'' depicting Hitler as the knightly prince character rescuing an obese Valkyrie representing Germany, from a wicked witch representing democracy. (The narrator sarcastically comments that "the moral of this story seems to be that Hitler got Germany on her feet, climbed onto the saddle, and took her for a ride.") Thanks to this kind of distorted children's story, Hans becomes fascinated with Hitler as he and the rest of the younger members of the Hitler Youth give the Hitler salute to a portrait of Hitler dressed as a knight.

"Heil Hitler!"

In the following segment, the audience sees Hans sick and bedridden. His mother prays for him, knowing that it will only be a matter of time before the authorities come and take him away to a death camp. A Nazi officer bangs on the door to take Hans away, but his mother says he is sick and needs care. The officer orders her to heal her son quickly and have him ready to leave, implying that if Hans does not get well, he will be euthanized. He orders her not to do anything more to him that will cause him to lose heart and be weak, explaining that a soldier must show no emotion, mercy, or feelings whatsoever.

Hans eventually recovers and resumes his "education" in a school classroom, where Hans and the rest of his classmates, all in Hitlerjugend uniforms, give the Hitler salute to portraits of Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Joseph Goebbels. They then watch as the teacher draws a cartoon on the blackboard of a rabbit being eaten by a fox, prompting Hans to feel sorry for the rabbit. The teacher, furious over the remark, orders Hans to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap, calling him "Dummkopf" (German for "stupid" or "feeble-minded") with his classmates laughing at him. As Hans sits in the corner, he hears the rest of the classmates "correctly" interpret the cartoon as "weakness has no place in a soldier" and "the strong shall rule the weak", as the teacher asked what does Hans think about the rabbit now, causing him to recant his remark and agree that the weak must be destroyed, much to the teacher's approval.

Hans then takes part in a book-burning crusade, burning any books with ideas opposed to Hitler's (Albert Einstein, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire), replacing the Bible with ''Mein Kampf'' and the crucifix with a Nazi sword. Hans then spends the next several years "Marching and heiling, heiling and marching!". He reaches his teens (wearing a uniform similar to that of the Sturmabteilung) still "marching and heiling" until he becomes an adult or "Good Nazi" (now in Wehrmacht uniform) embroiled in hatred towards anyone else who opposes Hitler. With "no seed of laughter, hope, tolerance, or mercy" planted in him, he "sees no more than the party wants him to [see], says nothing but what the party wants him to say, and he does nothing except what the party wants him to do."

In the end, Hans and the rest of the German soldiers march off to war only to fade into rows of identical graves, with nothing on them except a swastika and a helmet perched on top. Thus Hans's education is complete – "his education... for death."

Ten-year-old Jesse "Jess" Aarons has trained all summer to be the fastest runner in his rural school. Secretly, he wants to be an artist, but his father disapproves. He has a crush on the school music teacher, Miss Edmunds, the only person who encourages him to draw.

Jess's new neighbor, Leslie Burke, is a wealthy tomboy from Arlington, Virginia. At recess on the first day of school, Leslie outruns everyone. The other students mock her for being a teacher's pet and for not owning a television. When Jess defends Leslie from Janice Avery, a seventh grade bully, they become friends. They play by a dry creek behind Leslie's house. They pretend they are the king and queen of a hidden magical kingdom, Terabithia, that can be entered only by swinging over the creek bed on an old rope.

When Jess's six-year-old sister May Belle brings Twinkies to school for lunch, Janice Avery steals them. At Terabithia, Jess and Leslie forge a love letter to Janice from a boy she likes. The letter asks for a date, and Janice is humiliated when he does not show up. Months later, Leslie hears Janice crying in the bathroom. Jess convinces Leslie to help Janice. Janice tells Leslie that she is abusively beaten by her father, and her so-called friends have just gossipped about it to the entire seventh grade. Leslie comforts Janice by telling her that everyone will forget about it in a week. That night, May Belle tells Jess that she followed him and Leslie to the creek. He makes her swear never to follow them again nor to tell their mother.

On Easter, Leslie goes to church with Jess's family. While she calls the story of Jesus "beautiful," she doubts it. This upsets May Belle, who believes God will damn Leslie to hell when she dies. That week, rain turns the dry creek bed into a rushing river. By Wednesday evening, Jess is too scared to swing over the river, while Leslie remains unafraid. Thursday morning, Miss Edmunds calls Jess and invites him to Washington to visit the Smithsonian. When he returns home, Leslie is dead: The rope broke as she swung over the river, and she drowned.

Jess asks his father whether Leslie is in hell, and his father assures him she isn't. Using a large branch, Jess crosses the stream to Terabithia, where he makes a funeral wreath for Leslie. May Belle, who has followed him, makes it halfway across the branch before becoming too scared to continue. Jess guides her backwards to land.

Jess's teacher, Mrs. Myers, tells him that when her husband died, people tried to make her forget, but she didn't want to. Using scrap lumber left behind by the Burkes, Jess builds a bridge across the dry creek bed. He puts flowers in May Belle's hair, leads her across the bridge, and begins to play Terabithia, with May Belle as the new queen.

An unnamed stranger arrives at the little town of San Miguel, on the Mexico–United States border. Silvanito, the town's innkeeper, tells the Stranger about a feud between two smuggler families vying to gain control of the town: the Rojo brothers (Don Miguel, Esteban and Ramón), and the family comprising town sheriff John Baxter, his matriarchal wife Consuelo, and their son Antonio. The Stranger (in order to make money) decides to play these families against each other. He demonstrates his speed and accuracy with his gun, to both sides, by shooting with ease the four men who insulted him as he entered town.

The Stranger seizes an opportunity when he sees the Rojos massacre a detachment of Mexican soldiers who were escorting a chest of gold (which they had planned to exchange for a shipment of new rifles). He takes two of the dead bodies to a nearby cemetery and sells information to each of the two groups, saying that two Mexican soldiers survived the attack. Each faction races to the cemetery, the Baxters to get the supposed survivors to testify against the Rojos and the Rojos to silence them; they engage in a gunfight, with Ramón appearing to kill the supposed survivors and Esteban capturing Antonio Baxter.

The Stranger approaches Marisol, a woman whose family has been caught in the crossfire between the feuding families, to go with Ramón, and for her husband Julio to take their young son Jesús home. He learns from Silvanito that Ramón framed Julio as a cheat during a card game and took Marisol prisoner, forcing her to live with him. That night, while the Rojos are celebrating, the Stranger rides out and frees Marisol, shooting the guards and wrecking the house in which she is being held to create the appearance of an attack by the Baxters. He gives money to Marisol, urging her and her family to leave the town.

When the Rojos discover the Stranger has freed Marisol, they capture and torture him; nevertheless, he escapes them. Believing he is being protected by the Baxters, the Rojos set fire to the Baxter home, massacring them as they flee the burning building. After pretending he will spare their lives, Ramón kills the pleading John and Antonio Baxter. Consuelo, appearing and finding her family dead, curses the Rojos for killing unarmed men. She is then shot dead by Esteban.

With help from Piripero, the local coffin-maker, the Stranger escapes town by hiding in a coffin. He convalesces inside a nearby mine, but when Piripero tells him that Silvanito has been captured and is being tortured by the Rojos for information on the Stranger's whereabouts, he returns to town to confront them. With a steel chest-plate hidden beneath his poncho, he taunts Ramón to "aim for the heart" as Ramón's shots deflect off, until Ramón exhausts his Winchester rifle's ammunition.

The Stranger shoots the weapon from Ramón's hand and kills Don Miguel, Rubio and the other Rojo men standing nearby. He then uses the last bullet in his gun to free Silvanito, who is hanging from a rope by his hands. After challenging Ramón to reload his rifle faster than he can reload his own revolver, the Stranger shoots and kills Ramón. Esteban Rojo aims for the Stranger's back from a nearby building, but is shot dead by Silvanito. The Stranger bids Silvanito and Piripero farewell and rides away from town.

The story elaborates on what is told of these characters in the published ''Silmarillion'', starting with the childhood of Túrin, continuing through the captivity of his father in the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, and Túrin's exile in Doriath, to Túrin's time in Nargothrond, his incestuous relationship with his sister Nienor, and ultimately ending with suicide by his sword after killing the dragon who caused much of his problems.

As a point of reference regarding the names of the main characters: In this story, Túrin renames himself Turambar, meaning Master of Doom in the High-elven speech, with a vow to turn aside from the darkness that has ruled his early life. His sister Nienor is also called Níniel, meaning Maid of Tears. She is renamed by Turambar himself after he finds her alone and in distress in the woods. Only much later does he learn her real name and origin.

The story has some inconsistencies when compared with ''The Silmarillion'', and at points there are gaps and multiple versions: this is because Tolkien never finished the story during his lifetime, and his son Christopher had to choose from all the work to create a consistent narrative for ''The Silmarillion''.

The story of the Narn continues in the ''Later Narn'', which is also published in ''Unfinished Tales'', and in ''The Wanderings of Húrin'', a text which was different in style from the rest of ''The Silmarillion'', but which continues the Narn past Túrin's death with Húrin's eventual release and the bad deeds which result from that. This story was published in ''The War of the Jewels'', a part of the series ''The History of Middle-earth''.

The man that many call Manco ("Lefty") is a bounty hunter, a profession shared by a former army officer, Colonel Douglas Mortimer. They separately learn that a ruthless, cold-blooded bank robber, "El Indio", has been broken out of prison by his gang and all but one of his jailers slaughtered. While Indio is murdering the family of the man who had captured him, he is shown to carry a musical pocket watch taken from a woman who had shot herself, as he was raping her, after he had murdered her husband. The incident has haunted Indio, and he smokes an addictive drug to cloud his memory.

Indio plans to rob the Bank of El Paso, which has a disguised safe containing "almost a million dollars." Manco arrives in the town and becomes aware of Mortimer, who had arrived earlier. He sees Mortimer deliberately insult the hunchback Wild, who is reconnoitering the bank. Manco confronts Mortimer and, after the two have studied each other, each ascertaining that the other will not back down, they decide to work together. Mortimer persuades Manco to join Indio's gang and "get him between two fires." Manco achieves this by freeing a friend of Indio from prison despite Indio's suspicions.

Indio sends Manco and three others to rob the bank in nearby Santa Cruz. Manco guns down the three bandits and sends a false telegraphic alarm to rouse the El Paso sheriff and his posse, who ride to Santa Cruz. The gang blast the wall at the rear of the El Paso bank and steal the safe, but are unable to open it. Groggy is angry when Manco is the only one to return from Santa Cruz, but Indio accepts Manco's version of events thanks to Mortimer having given Manco a convincing wound. The gang ride to the small border town of Agua Caliente where Mortimer, who had anticipated their destination, is waiting. Wild recognises Mortimer, forcing a showdown that results in the hunchback's death, whereafter Mortimer offers his services to Indio to crack open the safe without using explosives. Indio locks the money in a strongbox and says the loot will be divided after a month.

Manco and Mortimer break into the strongbox and hide the money, only to be caught immediately afterwards and beaten up. Mortimer has secured the strongbox lock, however, and Indio believes that the money is still there. Later that night, Indio instructs his lieutenant, Niño, to use a knife belonging to Cuchillo to kill the man guarding Manco and Mortimer. Once Niño has freed the prisoners, Indio reveals that he knew they were bounty hunters all along, executes Cuchillo for supposedly betraying the gang, and orders the rest of his men after Manco and Mortimer, hoping they will all kill each other and he and Niño can split the money just between themselves. However, Groggy realizes the scheme and, after killing Niño, forces Indio to open the strongbox, which is found to be empty.

Eventually, after he and Manco kill the bandits, Mortimer calls out Indio while revealing his full name. Mortimer shoots Groggy as he runs for cover, but is disarmed by Indio, who plays the pocket watch while challenging the bounty hunter to regain his weapon and kill him when the music ends. As the music ends, the same tune begins from an identical pocket watch that Manco had pilfered from Mortimer. Manco gives his own gunbelt and pistol to Mortimer, saying, "Now we start." When the music ends, Mortimer shoots first, killing Indio.

Mortimer retrieves the watch from Indio's hand and Manco remarks on Mortimer's resemblance to the woman in the vignette photo inside the watch cover. Mortimer reveals that he is her brother (father in the Spanish dubbing) and, with his revenge complete, declines his share of the bounty and leaves. Manco tosses the bodies of Indio and his men into a wagon, finally adding Groggy's body after killing him, and rides off to collect the bounties on them all, briefly pausing to recover the stolen money from its hiding place.

In 1933, three thugs search for a man named "Noodles", torturing people for information. They enter a wayang theater, where the proprietors slip into a hidden opium den within the building and warn Noodles. He is apathetic, drugged and grasping a newspaper featuring the demise of bootleggers Patrick Goldberg, Philip Stein and Maximilian Bercovicz. He recalls observing police removing their corpses, Max's burned beyond recognition. Noodles evades capture and leaves the city alone and penniless.

In 1918, David "Noodles" Aaronson and his friends "Patsy" Goldberg, "Cockeye" Stein and Dominic struggle as street kids in Manhattan's Lower East Side, committing petty crimes for local boss Bugsy. Max foils one of their robberies but has the booty stolen from him by a corrupt police officer. Using the officer's trysts with an underage prostitute as blackmail, the five youngsters start a gang with the same level of police protection as Bugsy. Max and Noodles become best friends.

The group rises through the ranks after implementing Noodles' idea to hide bootleg liquor. They stash half their earnings in a railway station locker, giving the key to "Fat Moe", a friend not directly involved in their activities. Noodles is in love with Moe's sister, Deborah, who dreams of becoming a dancer and actress. Bugsy, now a rival, eventually ambushes the boys and shoots Dominic, who dies in Noodles' arms. In a fit of rage, Noodles kills Bugsy and injures a police officer, and is sentenced to prison.

Noodles is released in 1930 and rejoins his friends, now prosperous bootleggers during Prohibition. His first job with them is a diamond heist using a jewelry employee and occasional prostitute named Carol as their informant. During the robbery, Carol goads Noodles into hitting her, after which he rapes her; she later goes on to become Max's moll. That the job had been commissioned by a Syndicate figure to eliminate the competition sits badly with Noodles who, unlike Max, dislikes hierarchy and lacks political ambition. The gang provides protection for Teamsters' union boss Jimmy O'Donnell, but Noodles later rejects Max's plan to deepen those ties.

Seeking to form a genuine intimacy with Deborah, Noodles takes her on a lavish date, where she reveals her plans to pursue a career in Hollywood. On their drive back, Noodles rapes her in the limousine. He is later met with Deborah's aloofness when he watches her board the train to California.

The gang's success ends with the 1933 repeal of Prohibition. Max suggests a New York Federal Reserve Bank heist, which Noodles and Carol deem a suicide mission. Carol convinces Noodles to inform the police about a lesser offense, hoping brief incarceration will cool off Max's ambition. After Noodles calls the police, Max knocks him out during a seemingly impromptu argument. This leads to the events shown in the prologue: upon regaining consciousness and learning that Max, Patsy, and Cockeye have been killed by the police, a guilt-ridden Noodles hides in the opium den. He saves Moe but finds out that his new girlfriend Eve has been murdered and the railway locker money has disappeared. With his gang killed and himself hunted by Syndicate thugs, Noodles settles in Buffalo under an alias.

In 1968, Noodles is belatedly informed that the Beth Israel Cemetery is being redeveloped, and asked to rebury any loved ones. Upon inquiry, the rabbi who had sent the letter informs him that the bodies of his three dead friends have since been relocated to Riverdale. Realizing that someone has deduced his identity, Noodles returns to Manhattan and stays with Moe. Inside the Riverdale mausoleum, Noodles finds a key to the railway locker. The caption on the commemorative plaque falsely states that the mausoleum was erected by Noodles himself.

The locker reveals a suitcase full of money, and a note stating this is a downpayment on his next job. Noodles watches news of an assassination attempt on controversial U.S. Secretary of Commerce Christopher Bailey. The report shows Jimmy O'Donnell, still a Teamsters boss, distancing himself from the Bailey corruption scandal. Noodles finds Carol in a retirement home run by the Bailey Foundation. She tells him that Max manipulated them into tipping him off to the police and opened fire first, wishing to die young rather than in an insane asylum like his father.

After spotting her in the retirement home's dedication photo, Noodles tracks down Deborah, still an actress. He tells her about his invitation to a party at Bailey's mansion. Deborah admits to being Bailey's lover and begs Noodles to leave before he is confronted with hurtful revelations. Ignoring Deborah's advice, Noodles sees Bailey's son just outside, who evidently looks like a younger Max.

At the party, Noodles meets Bailey, who reveals he is actually Max and that he faked his death with the help of the police and Syndicate, stole the gang's money and reinvented himself as a self-made, Teamsters-connected politician. He confirms that he made Deborah his mistress years earlier. Faced with ruin and the specter of a Teamster assassination, Max reveals the job he has for Noodles is to kill him. Noodles, obstinately referring to him by his Bailey identity, refuses, explaining that in his eyes, Max died with the gang. As Noodles leaves the estate, a garbage truck starts up and a man resembling Max walks from the entrance toward Noodles until the truck passes between them. Noodles sees the truck's auger conveyor grinding down rubbish, but Max is nowhere to be seen.

The epilogue returns to 1933 with Noodles entering the opium den after his friends' deaths, taking the drug and broadly grinning.

In 1977 Azusa, California, Rocky Dennis, with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, is accepted without question by his freewheeling biker mother's boyfriends, his "extended motorcycle family," and his maternal grandparents who share his love of baseball card collecting; but is treated with fear, pity, awkwardness, and teasing by those unaware of his humanity, humor, and intelligence. Rocky's mother, Florence "Rusty" Dennis, is determined to give Rocky as normal a life as possible, in spite of her own wild ways as a member of the Turks biker gang, as well as her strained relationship with her parents. She fights for Rocky's inclusion in a mainstream junior high school, and confronts a principal who would rather classify Rocky as intellectually disabled and relegate him to a special education school, despite the fact that his condition has not affected his intelligence.

Rocky thrives at school, making friends by assisting a fellow student with remembering his locker combination, and winning over a class by using humor when faced with an awkward silence during roll call, where Rocky just repeats the prior new student's line, "Wow, thanks a lot." He shows his brilliance in history class by giving a unique rendition of the Greek myth about the Trojan Horse and it being the turning point of the Trojan War. Gradually overcoming discrimination and tutoring his classmates for $3 per hour, Rocky is asked by the principal to accept a job as a counselor's aide at Camp Bloomfield, a summer camp for blind children. At his graduation from junior high, Rocky takes home academic achievement prizes in mathematics, history, and science.

Rocky feels the need to leave his chronically depressed and drug-addicted mother, and helps her break her drug habit. At camp, Rocky falls in love with Diana Adams, a blind girl who cannot see (but feels) his deformed skull and is entranced by Rocky's kindness and compassion. Rocky uses his intelligence to explain to Diana words like "billowy," "clouds," "red," and "green" by using cotton balls as a touchable vision of "billowy clouds," a warm rock to explain "red" and "pink," and a frozen rock to explain "icy blue." At the end of camp, Diana introduces Rocky to her parents, who are quickly flabbergasted by Rocky's deformed appearance, and in response forbid Diana to spend time with him.

Later, Rocky faces the pain of separation from the two people to which he feels closest. His lifelong dream of a motorbike trip through Europe collapses when his best friend Ben, who was to come with him, reveals to him that he is permanently moving back to Michigan to go live with his father. This drives Rocky into berating Ben and calling him "stupid", then finally revealing to Ben that he conned him out of a Rube Walker card. Rocky also finds it difficult to thrive at high school, where none of his previous friends are. However, Rocky feels better after taking a bus trip by himself to visit Diana at the equestrian stables, located near Griffith Park. Diana reveals to Rocky that her parents had prevented her from receiving his phone messages and are sending her to a private boarding school for the blind. Despite this, Rocky vows that no matter how separated they're gonna be, they will always love each other, and will always be together.

One evening when Rocky's biker family is visiting, Rocky is fighting a fierce headache and quietly withdraws to his room, removes the tacks from his map of Europe, and goes to bed. The next morning, Rusty tries to wake up Rocky for school and flies into a fit of grief-stricken rage when she realizes he has died. After destroying the kitchen, Rusty mourns the death of Rocky and says "Now you can go anywhere you want, baby." She then re-pins his map of Europe.

The film ends with Rocky's biker family, Rusty, Gar, and Dozer, visiting his grave, leaving flowers and some 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cards by his headstone, as Rocky's voice is heard reciting the poem he wrote earlier for English class.

The game features the return of Wario's nemesis, Captain Syrup. Early one morning, she and a few of her soldiers, the Pirate Gooms , sneak into Wario's castle and cause havoc. They steal his precious treasure, set off his giant alarm clock, and leave the tap running, flooding much of his castle. After Wario wakes up and figures out what's going on, he gives chase across the surrounding lands.

One day, Wario's plane stalls and crashes while he is flying over the woods. Uninjured, he spends the rest of his afternoon wandering amongst the trees and underbrush until he stumbles upon a mysterious cave. Inside the cave, he discovers a magical music box and is suddenly sucked into it. There, a mysterious figure informs Wario that he had once ruled the world inside the music box, until an evil being sealed away his magical powers in five music boxes. In exchange for freeing it, the being promises to send Wario back to his own world and let him keep any treasure he finds. Enticed by the thought of returning to his own world with a cache of treasure, Wario departs on his quest, in search of the music boxes and the many treasures of this mysterious land.

After collecting all the music boxes, Wario returns to the mysterious being's temple. The music boxes play a medley together that frees the being, revealed to be Rudy the Clown. It transpires that Rudy is in fact the villain and had been imprisoned, although not before turning the music box's inhabitants into monsters, who had been attacking Wario simply to try to stop him from freeing the evil clown. After Wario defeats Rudy, he is met by the inhabitants of the music box, now restored to their former selves. They thank Wario and transport him back to his own world, along with the treasure that he has collected, as promised.

Wario is reading the newspaper when he notices an article about a mysterious pyramid found deep in the jungle. The legend related to the pyramid is that of Princess Shokora, ruler of the pyramid, who was cursed by the money-crazed Golden Diva.

Without wasting time and forgetting to take his mid-morning nap, Wario jumps into his Wario Car and drives to the pyramid. As he enters it, he finds a black cat and chases it. Doing so, he falls down a precipice and is stuck inside the pyramid.

After fighting his way through the entry passage and an early boss battle against Spoiled Rotten the Eggplant, Wario discovers four new passages and battle against Cractus the ill-tempered Venus flytrap, Cuckoo Condor the Condor wearing machine, Aeorodent the Rat riding Teddy bear-like balloon and Catbat the Cat/Bat hybrid. After completing these passages, Wario gains access to the innermost part of the pyramid, which ends up being the stronghold of Golden Diva. Wario meets the cat again, who turns out to be Princess Shokora herself.

Wario defeats Golden Diva and exits the pyramid with all his treasure. What form Shokora returns to depends on the number of treasure chests Wario had acquired from the other bosses prior as well as how quickly the Golden Diva is defeated (this can range from a brattish child, a female version of Wario, a Peach-like princess and ultimately, a superheroine-like princess). Shokora gives Wario a kiss on the cheek and ascends to the afterlife as Wario watches. After she leaves, Wario grabs his loot and celebrates by going to an all-you-can eat steak buffet.

The game begins with Wario enjoying his newly built castle, which is filled with treasures that he has collected from earlier adventures. An evil gem called Black Jewel, hidden amongst Wario's treasure collection, suddenly awakens and takes over Wario's castle. Black Jewel turns Wario's treasure into monsters, and transforms the castle into four worlds called Excitement Central, Spooktastic World, Thrillsville and Sparkle Land, each consisting of two levels and a boss fight. A central area allows access to the different worlds, as well as to the Treasure Square, where the Huge Treasure Box inside of which Black Jewel is hiding can be found. Wario proceeds through the areas controlled by Black Jewel, recovering his treasure and rescuing Spritelings (the creatures had sealed Black Jewel away in the past), then obtains the key to the Huge Treasure Box and engages Black Jewel in a battle. Wario's subsequent victory allows him to regain control of his castle.

During the game's ending, Wario's new castle quality depends on the number of Spritelings rescued. The worst-case scenario sees Wario with nothing but a campsite with his throne in a dark jungle, but if all 40 Spritelings were rescued, Wario is given a palace even grander than his previous one.

Outside of Cairo, Okra uses a bikini-clad accomplice as a distraction and hijacks $3 million in gold bullion. The thieves need a way to smuggle the two tons of gold bars into Europe. Aldo Vanucci, a master of disguise known as The Fox, is one of the few men who can handle the assignment, but he is in prison.

Vanucci is reluctant to accept the job for fear of disgracing his mother and young sister Gina. When his three sidekicks inform him that Gina has grown up and does not always come home after school, an enraged, overprotective Vanucci vows to escape. He impersonates the prison doctor and flees with the aid of his gang. At home, his mother tells him that Gina is working on the street, which he takes to mean that Gina is a prostitute. But he discovers that Gina is merely acting in a low-budget film shooting on the street. Vanucci realizes that the smuggling job will improve his family's life. He makes contact with Okra and his female accomplice and agrees to smuggle the gold into Italy for half of the take. Two policemen are constantly on Vanucci's trail and he uses disguises and tricks to throw them off.

After watching a crowd mob the over-the-hill American matinee idol Tony Powell, it strikes Vanucci that movie stars and film crews are idolized and have free rein in society. This insight forms the basis of his plan. Posing as an Italian neo-realist director named Federico Fabrizi, he intends to bring the gold ashore in broad daylight as a scene in an avant-garde film. To give the picture an air of legitimacy, he cons Powell to star in the film, which is blatantly titled ''The Gold of Cairo'' (a play on ''The Gold of Naples'', a film that De Sica directed in 1954). Powell's agent, Harry, is suspicious of Fabrizi, but his vain client wants to do the film. Fabrizi enlists the starstruck population of Sevalio, a tiny fishing village, to unload the shipment, but when the boat carrying the gold is delayed, Fabrizi must actually shoot scenes for his phony film to maintain the ruse.

The ship finally arrives and the townspeople unload the gold, but Okra double-crosses Vanucci and drives off with the gold. A slapstick car chase ensues and Okra, Vanucci and the police crash into each other. Vanucci, Tony Powell, Gina, Okra and the villagers are accused of being co-conspirators. Vanucci's "film" is shown as evidence in court, where a film critic proclaims the disjointed footage to be a masterpiece. Vanucci confesses his guilt, thereby exonerating the villagers, but vows to escape from prison once again. He escapes by impersonating the prison doctor again, this time tying the doctor up in his cell and walking out of the prison in his place. But when he attempts to remove his fake beard, Vanucci discovers that the beard is real and exclaims, "The wrong man has escaped!"

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is a lecturing physician at an American medical school and engaged to Elizabeth, a socialite. He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather Victor Frankenstein, the infamous mad scientist with whom he does not want to be associated, and insists that his surname is pronounced "Fronkensteen". When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania after the death of his great-grandfather, the Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property. At the Transylvania train station, he is met by a hunchbacked, bug-eyed servant named Igor, whose own grandfather worked for Victor; and a beautiful, young, female assistant named Inga. Hearing that the professor pronounces his name "Fronkensteen", Igor insists that his name is pronounced "Eyegor", rather than the traditional "Eegor".

Arriving at the estate, Frederick meets Frau Blücher, the intimidating housekeeper. After discovering the secret entrance to Victor's laboratory and reading his private journals, Frederick decides to resume his grandfather's experiments in re-animating the dead. He and Igor steal the corpse of a recently executed criminal, and Frederick sets to work experimenting on the large corpse. He sends Igor to steal the brain of a deceased "scientist and saint", Hans Delbrück. Startled by his own reflection, Igor drops and ruins Delbrück's brain. Taking a second brain labeled "Abnormal", Igor returns with it, and Frederick transplants it into the corpse, thinking he has transplanted Delbrück's brain.

Frederick brings the creature to life by electrical charges during a lightning storm. The creature takes its first steps, but, frightened by Igor lighting a match, he attacks Frederick and nearly strangles him before he is sedated. Meanwhile, unaware of the creature's existence, the townspeople gather to discuss their unease at Frederick continuing his grandfather's work. Inspector Kemp, a one-eyed police official with a prosthetic arm, whose German accent is so thick that even his own countrymen cannot understand him, proposes to visit the doctor, whereupon he demands assurance that Frankenstein will not create another monster. Returning to the lab, Frederick discovers Blücher setting the creature free. She reveals the monster's love of violin music and her own romantic relationship with Frederick's grandfather. The creature is enraged by sparks from a thrown switch and escapes the castle.

While roaming the countryside, the monster has encounters with a young girl and a blind hermit, references to 1931's ''Frankenstein'' and 1935's ''Bride of Frankenstein'', respectively. Frederick recaptures the monster and locks himself in a room with him. He calms the monster's homicidal tendencies with flattery and a promise to guide him to success, embracing his heritage as a Frankenstein. At a theater full of illustrious guests, Frederick shows "The Creature" following simple commands. The demonstration continues with Frederick and the monster, both in top hats and tuxedos, performing the musical number "Puttin' On the Ritz". A stage light suddenly explodes and frightens the monster, interrupting the performance. The audience boo and throw vegetables at the monster, who becomes enraged and charges into the audience, where he is captured and chained by police. Back in the laboratory, Inga attempts to comfort Frederick, and they fornicate on the suspended reanimation table.

The monster escapes from prison the same night that Frederick's fiancée Elizabeth arrives unexpectedly for a visit. The monster takes her captive as he flees. Elizabeth falls in love with the creature due to his "enormous schwanzstucker". While the townspeople hunt for the monster, Frederick plays the violin to lure his creation back to the castle and recaptures him. Just as the Kemp-led mob storms the laboratory, Frankenstein transfers some of his stabilizing intellect to the creature, who reasons with and placates the mob. Elizabeth, with her hair styled after that of the female creature from ''Bride of Frankenstein''—marries the now erudite and sophisticated monster; while Inga, in bed with Frederick, asks what her new husband got in return during the transfer procedure. Frederick growls wordlessly and embraces Inga who, as Elizabeth did when abducted by the monster, sings the refrain "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life".

The film is a parody of the historical spectacular film genre anthology, including the sword and sandal epic and the period costume drama subgenres. The four main segments consist of stories set during the Stone Age, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, and the French Revolution. Other intermediate skits include reenactments of the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Last Supper.

The Stone Age

Cavemen (including Sid Caesar) depict the invention of fire, the first artist (which in turn gives rise to the first critic), the first marriages (Homo sapiens and then homosexual), primitive weapons (particularly spears), and the first funerals. Also depicted are early attempts at comedy and music, by smashing each other's feet with rocks and thus creating an orchestra of screams (until performing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" at the end).

The Old Testament

Moses (Mel Brooks) comes down from Mount Sinai carrying three stone tablets, having received the Law from God (the voice of an uncredited Carl Reiner). When announcing the giving of the reception of the law to the people, Moses proclaims, "The Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen..." (whereupon he drops one of the tablets, which promptly shatters) "Oy... ten! ''TEN Commandments''! For all to obey!"

The Roman Empire

Brooks plays Comicus, a "stand-up philosopher," whose job combines elements of philosophy and stand-up comedy. Comicus is notified by his agent Swiftus (Ron Carey) that he has landed a gig at Caesar's palace. In route to the palace Comicus meets and falls in love with a Vestal Virgin named Miriam (Mary-Margaret Humes) and befriends an Ethiopian slave named Josephus (Gregory Hines). Josephus' life is spared when he is conscripted into the service of the Empress Nympho (Madeline Kahn).

At the Palace, Emperor Nero (Dom DeLuise) gorges on food, ogles pretty maidens and waits to be entertained. Comicus forgets his audience and begins to crack insulting one-liners about the emperor's abundant body contours and corrupt ways. Josephus absentmindedly pours a jug of wine into Nero's lap and is ordered to fight Comicus to the death in a gladiatorial manner. They fight their way out of the palace, assisted in their escape by Miriam, Empress Nympho and a horse named Miracle.

After Miriam helps Comicus, Josephus and Swiftus briefly find refuge in Empress Nympho's palace, Josephus is "outed" among a row of eunuchs after "reacting" to a seductive dancer's performance, and the group is chased by Roman soldiers led by Marcus Vindictus (Shecky Greene). As the soldiers gain on the group's cart (pulled by Miracle), Josephus instructs them to pull over in a field and requests much papyrus. He takes "Roman Red" marijuana which is growing alongside the road and rolls it into the papyrus, forming a device he calls Mighty Joint, sets fire to it and mounts it to the back of their chariot, trailing smoke into the chasing army.

The resulting smoke confuses and incapacitates the trailing Roman army. The escaping group then sets sail from the port to Judea. While waiting tables at a restaurant, Comicus blunders into a private room where the Last Supper is taking place, as Jesus is telling the apostles "One of you has betrayed me tonight". The Apostles are in fear. Comicus says "JUDAS." Judas, startled, almost jumps out of his seat as Comicus replies "Do you want some mulled wine?", and interrupts Jesus (John Hurt) repeatedly (using his name as an expression for dismay or concern, right in front of him). Eventually, Leonardo da Vinci (Art Metrano) arrives to paint the group's portrait. Dissatisfied that he can only see the backs of half of their heads, he has them move to one side of the table and paints them with Comicus behind Jesus, holding a silver plate which doubles as a halo.

The Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition segment parodies a grandiose Busby Berkeley-style production, consisting of an extended song-and-dance number featuring Brooks as the infamous Torquemada. The sequence opens with a herald introducing Torquemada and making a play on his name; despite pleas for mercy from the condemned, "you can't Torquemada anything" (talk him outta anything). Instances of comical torture include a spinning iron maiden and "water torture" reimagined with nuns performing an Esther Williams-style aquatic ballet. Jackie Mason and Ronny Graham supply cameos as Jewish torture victims.

The French Revolution

In her tavern Madame Defarge (Cloris Leachman) incites a mob to plot the French Revolution. Meanwhile, King Louis of France (Brooks again) is warned by his advisors, Count de Monet (played by Harvey Korman and mistakenly called "Count da Money" by the king and others) and his associate Béarnaise (Andreas Voutsinas), that the peasants do not think he likes them — a suspicion reinforced by the king's use of peasants as clay pigeons in a murderous (and humorous) game of skeet. A beautiful woman, Mademoiselle Rimbaud (Pamela Stephenson), asks King Louis to free her father, who has been imprisoned in the Bastille for 10 years because he said "the poor ain't so bad." He agrees to the pardon under the condition that she have sex with him that night, while threatening that should she refuse, her father will die. He gives her ten seconds to decide between "hump or death" and at the last second she agrees to "hump".

De Monet manages to convince the king that the revolution is building and he needs to go into hiding, so they will need a stand-in to pretend to be him. Thus Jacques (also Brooks), the ''garçon de pisse'' (a.k.a. "piss-boy," whose job is to hold up buckets for the king and his advisors to urinate into), is chosen to impersonate the real king. Later that night, Rimbaud, unaware of the subterfuge, arrives and offers herself to the piss-boy who is dressed as the king. As she invites him to take her virginity, he pardons her father without requiring the sexual favors. After Rimbaud and her senile father (Spike Milligan) return from the prison, the peasants burst into the room and capture the piss-boy "king" and Rimbaud. They are taken to the guillotine for the crimes committed by the crown. When asked if he would like a blindfold or any last words, Jacques declines. However, when they test the guillotine, Jacques make a final request for Novocain. The dialogue recognizes this as an anachronism when the executioner declares "there is no such thing known to medical science", to which Jacques replies "I'll wait". Just as Jacques is about to be beheaded, Rimbaud muses that "only a miracle can save him now", and Josephus arrives in a cart pulled by Miracle, the horse from the film's Roman Empire segment. They all escape Paris, riding away in the cart. The last shot is of the party approaching a mountain carved with the words "THE END".

Previews of coming attractions

The end of the film presents a mock teaser trailer for ''History of the World, Part II'', narrated by Brooks, which promises to include Hitler on Ice, a Viking funeral, and "Jews in Space", a parody of ''Star Wars'' and ''The Muppet Show''.

Despite the preview, there were originally no plans for a sequel to be released. The "Part I" of the film's title was originally intended to be a historical joke (''The History of the World, Volume 1'' was written by Sir Walter Raleigh while prisoner in the Tower of London; he had only managed to complete the first volume before being beheaded). However, in 2021, a sequel was announced to be in production as detailed below.

Arriving at LAX, Dr. Richard Thorndyke has several odd encounters (such as a flasher impersonating a police officer, and a passing bus with a full orchestra playing). He is taken by his camera-happy driver, Brophy, to the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, where he has been hired to replace Dr. Ashley, who died mysteriously (Brophy suspects foul play). Upon his arrival, Thorndyke is greeted by the staff, Dr. Philip Wentworth, Dr. Charles Montague, and Nurse Charlotte Diesel. Thorndyke also reunites with Professor Vicktor Lillolman, a past mentor now employed by the institute.

Later, Thorndyke hears strange noises coming from Diesel's room and he and Brophy go to investigate. Diesel claims it was the TV, but it was actually a passionate session of BDSM with Montague. The next morning, Thorndyke is alerted by a light shining through his window, coming from the violent ward. Montague takes Thorndyke to the light's source, the room of patient Arthur Brisbane, who thinks he is a Cocker Spaniel.

Wentworth wants to leave the institute, arguing with Diesel. After she lets him go, he drives home, but the radio is rigged to blast deafening rock music. He is trapped in his car, his ears hemorrhage, and he dies from a stroke, aggravated by the loud music.

Thorndyke and Brophy travel to San Francisco, where Thorndyke is to speak at a psychiatric convention. He checks into the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, where, much to his chagrin as a sufferer of "high anxiety", he is assigned a top floor room, mysteriously changed reservation by "Mr. MacGuffin". Thorndyke pesters the bellboy with repeated requests for a newspaper, wanting to look in the obituaries for information about Wentworth's demise. He then takes a shower, during which the bellboy enters and, in a frenzy, mimics stabbing Thorndyke with the paper while screaming, "Here's your paper! Happy now?! Happy?" The paper's ink runs down the drain.

After his shower, Victoria Brisbane, the daughter of Arthur Brisbane, bursts through the door, wanting help removing her father from the institute. She claims Diesel and Montague are exaggerating the illnesses of wealthy patients so they can milk rich families of millions (through methods demonstrated earlier). Discovering the patient he met was not the real Arthur Brisbane, Thorndyke realizes that Dr. Ashley found out what Diesel and Montague were doing and was killed before he had a chance to fire them; he agrees to help.

To stop Thorndyke, Diesel and Montague hire "Braces", the silver-toothed man behind the Ashley and Wentworth murders, to impersonate him and shoot a man in the lobby. Thorndyke must prove his innocence to the police. After he is attacked by pigeons in gastrointestinal distress, he meets up with Victoria and realizes Brophy took a picture of the shooting, in which the real Thorndyke was in the elevator at the time, so he should be in the photo.

Acting on Thorndyke's behalf, Victoria contacts Brophy to have him enlarge the photograph. Thorndyke is indeed visible in it, but Diesel and Montague capture Brophy and take him to the North Wing. Meanwhile, "Braces" finds Thorndyke at a phone booth calling Victoria, and tries to strangle him; however, Thorndyke kills him with a shard of glass from the booth's broken window. Thorndyke and Victoria head back to LA where they rescue Brophy and see Montague and Diesel taking the real Arthur Brisbane to a tower to kill him.

Thorndyke's high anxiety prevents him from climbing the tower's steep stairs to help Brisbane, but with Lillolman's help, he overcomes his phobia. Thorndyke knocks Norton the orderly out a tower window, saving Brisbane. Diesel leaps out from the shadows and attacks Thorndyke with a broom, but falls out the tower window, laughing hysterically and riding the broom to her death on the rocky coast below. Montague appears from the shadows and gives up before being accidentally knocked unconscious by a trapdoor being opened. Victoria is reunited with her father, marries Thorndyke, and they embark on their honeymoon.

The story is set in the United States of North America, which is similar to the real-world US, in the year 2031. The player controls PRISM, the world's first sentient computer.

PRISM is instructed by its creator, Dr. Abraham Perelman, to run a simulation of senator Richard Ryder's "Plan for Renewed National Purpose". This plan is intended to address the nation's failing economy, the high teenage suicide rate, and to strengthen the nation's position in a nuclear arms race.

PRISM simulates the life of a man called Perry Simm, ten years after the plan has gone into effect. The player experiences some time in Perry's life. The plan appears to have had positive effects. Based on this simulation, the plan is deemed viable and preparations are set in motion.

However, Perelman feels that the ten-year simulation isn't enough, and makes PRISM do a simulation of the situation 20 years after the plan started, and then 30 years. Perelman is concerned by the simulations, but he needs more evidence to discredit the plan, as there are powerful people behind it. PRISM does a 40-year simulation, and with that still not quite satisfying Perelman, a 50-year simulation. The simulations show the situation becoming worse and worse with time.

PRISM goes into sleep mode while Perelman is preparing to present the findings to the government. When it wakes up, the facility is locked down by the military. Senator Ryder comes into Perelman's office and starts shouting at him. PRISM starts recording his words. After Ryder has left, suspicious "maintenance workers" come to the facility and make their way to PRISM's core, but PRISM renders them harmless. Then a news interface becomes available, and PRISM broadcasts the recording of Ryder's intimidation. The plan is thoroughly discredited and Senator Ryder is publicly disgraced.

''Enterprise'', despite losing most of its map data, continues to traverse a series of spatial anomalies in the Delphic Expanse. When heavily damaged by a particularly dangerous vortex, ''Enterprise'' is suddenly pulled clear by an Andorian ship. The ship's captain, Shran, claims he is only interested in helping ''Enterprise'' in its mission to subvert the Xindi's weapon, in the interest of forming a closer alliance with humanity.

Suspicious of the Andorian's true motives, Captain Archer nonetheless agrees to allow them to work with his crew to repair the ship and to scan the test-site of the Xindi prototype weapon.

Shran permits Archer to command his crew in capturing the weapon. With ''Enterprise'' distracting the Xindi, the Andorian vessel grabs the weapon and stores it aboard. The Andorians actually want the weapon to give them an advantage in their conflict with the Vulcans. Archer is ejected in an escape-pod.

Back aboard ''Enterprise'', he threatens to detonate the weapon unless the Andorians surrender it. Shran believes this ultimatum to be a bluff, but when Archer activates the detonation sequence, he reluctantly ejects it. The weapon explodes, damaging the Andorian ship but leaving ''Enterprise'' unscathed.

They receive a secret transmission from the Andorians, containing detailed scans of the prototype. Archer is pleased and orders it transmitted to Starfleet, and invites Trip and T'Pol to his quarters to try some Andorian Ale.

Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, known to all as Uncle Fred, is on the loose once again (Lady Ickenham having decamped for a wedding in Trinidad), and Reginald ("Pongo") Twistleton, his long-suffering nephew, has every right to be petrified.

Uncle Fred has just arrived at Ashenden Manor, Ashenden Oakshott, Hampshire. Ashenden Manor is the home of Sir Aylmer Bostock, Pongo's future father-in-law. Pongo is already in residence and has committed two rank floaters: accidentally smashing a whatnot from Sir Aylmer's collection of African curios, and (in the course of demonstrating how Brazilian natives kill birds with rude slings) smashing a coveted bust of his host.

Pongo's solution is to replace the busted bust with another one, abstracted from Ickenham Hall. But unknown to him, the replacement bust was fashioned by his former fiancée Sally Painter, and conceals valuable jewellery that a friend of hers was planning to smuggle through New York Customs.

Sally tries to replace the bust with another of Sir Aylmer she sculpted (but had had returned to her, after an unfortunate incident relating to her brother Otis' publication of Sir Aylmer's memoirs), but this comes to naught, and both busts end up in Sir Aylmer's collection room.

Uncle Fred is unruffled by this setback and decides to infiltrate the house as an imposter. Having met Bill Oakshott (an unassuming young man who is the actual owner of Ashenden Manor, but who shrinks from confronting and displacing his bombastic, overbearing uncle Sir Aylmer) on the train, Uncle Fred contrives to get invited to the house—under the name of Major Brabazon-Plank. Unfortunately, the local Constable, Harold Potter, happens to have grown up with Major Plank (and also happens to remember arresting Uncle Fred and Pongo at the dog races under the names of Edwin Smith and George Robinson). Potter, intimately tied to the household through his fiancée, the housemaid Elsie Bean, becomes suspicious, and watches the house.

Uncle Fred's tasks are: to snatch the bust for Sally Painter; get Sir Aylmer to drop his suit against Otis, so that Sally will not lose the money she invested in his firm; convince Pongo that Hermione Bostock is not the proper wife for him and that Sally is; restore Bill Oakshott to his place as head of his family home and unite him with Hermione, whom he has loved for years; and convince Constable Potter not only to not arrest him, but indeed to quit the force so he and Elsie Bean may live happily ever after. Complications arise, including the arrival of the real Major Brabazon-Plank— but his menace is neutralized because of his horror of judging the Bonnie Babies competition at the Ashenden Oakshott Fête, an honor for which Uncle Fred, as the ersatz Major, has volunteered.

Bill Oakshott finds inspiration in the dominant hero of Ethel M. Dell's ''The Way of an Eagle''.

In 1939 at the beginning of World War II, a six-year-old boy living in the largest city of an Eastern European country invaded by Nazi Germany is sent by his parents to hide in the countryside because of their past anti-Nazi activities. However, they lose contact with him because of the chaos of the war and he is left stranded. As a result of his black hair and olive skin he is constantly accused of being either a Jew or a Gypsy, although Kosiński's narrator denies this. He also has trouble understanding the local languages and dialects of the peasants he encounters. His first caretaker is a superstitious and unhygienic old woman named Marta, who refuses to allow him to look into her eyes because she is worried his "Gypsy eye" will curse her. Marta eventually becomes ill and dies, and the boy accidentally burns down her hut after spilling kerosene on it. Left to fend for himself, he wanders alone from village to village seeking shelter and food from adults in exchange for work. The boy endures various kinds of violence and cruelty, sometimes hounded and tortured, only rarely sheltered and cared for.

He is saved from an angry mob of villagers by Olga, an elderly folk healer, who takes him under her wing. Although she openly distrusts the boy because of his appearance, she gains his admiration for her cures. After he becomes infected with a local epidemic, she buries him up to his head in dirt and he is attacked by birds but recovers. However, he is caught by the villagers again and thrown onto a large catfish's air bladder, which floats him down the river away from the village.

He is then taken in by a miller and his wife, who frequently exposes herself to a young plowboy. After the miller beats his wife for her alleged infidelity one night, he invites the plowboy over for dinner and gouges out his eyes. The boy runs away again and seeks shelter with Lekh, a professional bird catcher in love with Stupid Ludmila, a promiscuous and scantily-clad woman who lives in the woods alone with a large dog after suffering a mental breakdown from a gang rape. After Stupid Ludmila does not return to Lekh for several days, he becomes enraged and starts killing random birds by painting them different colors and setting them loose to be killed by their own flocks. After Lekh leaves to search for her, Stupid Ludmila returns and attempts to molest the boy. They are found by the villagers and she is raped by all of the local men and beaten to death by their jealous wives. The boy leaves as Lekh inconsolably cradles her body.

From here, he journeys to another village where a local carpenter takes care of him, but during a storm he becomes worried that the boy's black hair will attract lightning and chains him to a cart in the field. The boy escapes and flees into a forest by stowing away on a train, finding an abandoned pillbox infested with rabid rats. However, the boy accidentally returns to the old village and the carpenter, blaming him after his barn was hit by lightning and burnt down, captures him and prepares to drown him before the boy pleads to spare his life in exchange for showing him the pillbox, which he lies is filled with military supplies. When they reach the pillbox, the boy accidentally pushes the carpenter into the pillbox and he is eaten alive by the rats.

The boy next stays with a kindly and well-respected blacksmith in a village with constant skirmishes and reprisals by rival bands of partisans and the Wehrmacht. The smith and his family are beaten and killed by nationalist partisans, who decide to turn him over to a German outpost as a goodwill gesture. He is taken to the woods by an old German soldier, who sets him free and pretends to execute him.

He escapes and travels to another village next to a German military railway, where the villagers discover Jews and Gypsies being deported to a nearby concentration camp. The villagers approve of this turn of events, seeing it as retribution for the crucifixion of Jesus. One day, a young widow named Rainbow captures an injured Jewish girl who managed to escape from the train. The villagers resolve to hand her over to the Germans the next day. As the boy watches through a knothole that night, Rainbow rapes the girl and they become stuck together, with a local healer killing the girl.

After German patrols intensify, the boy is forced to leave the village to avoid giving away the location of a Jew in hiding. He is captured by German soldiers and taken to a larger town where he is harassed by a mob before an SS officer hands him over to a Catholic parish priest. The priest treats the boy kindly, but the farmer Garbos and his dog Judas constantly beat and abuse him. After hearing the priest explain prayer and indulgences, the boy asks him to teach him how to pray so that he can accrue enough indulgences to save himself. After the priest dies, Garbos starts torturing the boy by hanging him from the ceiling above Judas, and the boy begins praying more. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, the priest makes him an altar boy, but he nervously botches the Mass and knocks over a missal. The angered congregation accuses him of being a vampire and attempt to drown him in a cesspit. Although he survives, he becomes mute.

In the forest he is caught the local boys and given to the farmer Makar, whose family was ostracized by the village. Makar's 19-year-old daughter Ewka begins furtively having sex with the boy, which he enjoys. After the boy is unable to kill a rabbit, Makar beats and temporarily paralyzes him. A few weeks later, the boy finds Makar, Ewka, and her older brother Anton having sex with each other and a goat in the field. Deciding that both they and the Germans became invincible by allying with demons, the boy flees into the forest again. While skating on a marsh, the boy is accosted by several young villagers who try to drown him after he accidentally wounds several of them with his skates. He is rescued by a woman named Labina, who later dies of a heart attack.

In 1944, the tide of the war turns as the Wehrmacht begins losing ground to the Red Army, and the locals begin arguing over the merits of the impending Soviet occupation. The boy wonders why God would allow the Soviets to win the war if they intended to abolish religion and private property. After the Germans withdraw from a village, Kalmyk deserters in their service conduct a brutal raid before the arriving Soviets capture and execute them. The boy is treated in a field hospital and allowed to stay with the soldiers, where he is taught to read and indoctrinated into Stalinism and atheism by the political commissar Gavrila. The boy begins to hope to join the Communist Party and becomes preoccupied with others' opinion of him. After several soldiers are killed by local peasants with axes, the boy accompanies the respected crack sniper Mitka the Cuckoo as he takes revenge by shooting several of the peasants.

Afterwards the boy is taken to an orphanage in his old home city, where he denounces the principal and two nurses to the Soviets after they punish him for refusing to remove his military uniform. When the school officials refuse to discipline him further, he begins refusing to learn his own native language and getting in fights with the other children. He befriends another mute named the Silent One, and they begin sneaking out into the city and getting into mischief. After the boys discover how to operate a railway switch and later get beaten by a dairy vendor, the Silent One uses the switch to derail a train in an unsuccessful murder attempt against the vendor. Eventually, at age 12, the boy is finally reunited with his parents after they identify him via a birthmark. However, the boy frequently misbehaves, breaking the arm of his four-year-old brother. After the war ends, he begins sneaking out at night to hang out with criminals and political dissidents before he is caught by the Militia. When the boy grows sickly, the family moves westward into the mountains on a doctor's advice and the boy is sent to live with a ski instructor. After injuring himself skiing in a blizzard, the boy receives a telephone call to his hospital room and upon hearing the caller suddenly is able to speak again for the first time in years.

On Santorini island, Greece, a strong earthquake uncovers the Luna Temple. The temple was built by Alexander the Great to house his most prized treasures. Among these treasures is a glowing orb with a pattern resembling a code etched into it. Treasure-hunting archaeologist Lara Croft and her group find this orb but are ambushed by the Lo brothers; Chen and Xien, both of whom are crime lords and leaders of Chinese syndicate Shay Ling. The duo kill the group and take the orb but Lara escapes with a strange medallion.

MI6 approaches Lara with information about Pandora's box, an object from ancient legends that supposedly contains a deadly plague (the companion to the origin of life itself). The box, hidden in the mysterious Cradle of Life, can only be found with a magical sphere that serves as a map. The sphere is the same orb that was stolen by Chen Lo, who plans to sell it to Dr. Jonathan Reiss - a Nobel Prize winning scientist and business magnate turned misanthropic bio-weapon arms dealer.

Agreeing that the sphere must be kept away from Reiss, Lara agrees to help MI6, with the condition that they release her old flame Terry Sheridan, who is familiar with Chen Lo's criminal operation. Together, Terry and Lara infiltrate Chen Lo's lair, where he is smuggling the Terracotta Soldiers. Lara defeats him in a fight and learns that the orb is in Shanghai, China. In Shanghai she discovers Chen's brother Xien is trying to hand over the orb to Reiss, however once Xien hands the orb over, Reiss betrays Xien and executes him, but not before Lara manages to put a tracker on the crate containing the orb during the handoff.

Lara and Terry manage to find the orb in a lab housed in Hong Kong. However Lara is captured by Reiss and his men. Reiss reveals his plans to unleash the plague, saving only those people he deems worthy. He is about to kill Lara Croft. Helpless and condemned, Lara is saved by Terry and then they take the orb before fleeing using wingsuits. The next day, Lara uses the orb and learns the location of the mysterious Cradle of Life; in Kenya, Africa near Mount Kilimanjaro. After Lara sends returns information to her friend Bryce back at Croft Manor, Reiss and his men infiltrate the mansion and capture him and Hillary. Lara travels to Kenya where she meets up with her longtime friend Kosa. They question a local tribe about the Cradle of Life, wherein the chief states that the Cradle of Life is in a crater protected by the "Shadow Guardians".

As they set out on an expedition, Reiss' men ambush them and kill the tribesmen. Outnumbered, Lara surrenders. Using her companions as hostages, Reiss forces Lara to lead him to the Cradle of Life. At the crater, they encounter the Shadow Guardians, monsters that appear in and out of wet patches on dead trees. The creatures kill most of Reiss' men but Lara manages to find the "key hole" and drops the Orb in it. The creatures disintegrate and the entrance to the Cradle of Life opens.

Lara and Reiss are drawn into the Cradle, a labyrinth made of a strange crystalline substance where normal laws of physics do not apply. Inside, they find a pool of highly corrosive black acid (linking back to one of the myths about Pandora's box), in which the box floats. Terry arrives, frees the hostages and catches up to Lara.

Lara fights Reiss but Reiss succeeds in retrieving his gun. He is about to shoot her, throw her into the acid and take Pandora's Box, but unfortunately for him Terry distracts him and saves Lara. Then Lara knocks Reiss down and throws him into the acid pool, which kills and dissolves him. Then Terry announces his intention to take the box for himself. When he refuses to back down, Lara regretfully shoots him dead, replaces the box in the pool and leaves.

''Las Noches de Diciembre'' (Spanish, "The Nights of December") is a small terrorist cell led by rogue newspaper columnist Skip Wiley, calling himself ''El Fuego''. Skip believes that the only way to save Florida's natural beauty from destruction is to violently dissuade tourists from visiting and/or settling in the state. Recruiting three comrades with similar vendettas against the Florida establishment, they begin a spree of flashy kidnappings, murders, and bombings to frighten off new arrivals into the Sunshine State. Their first victim is B.D. "Sparky" Harper, the head of Miami's Chamber of Commerce. Sparky's body is found stuffed into an oversized suitcase, dressed in a garish tourist outfit, smeared with sunscreen, and with his legs amputated. Next, the group starts kidnapping and killing random tourists and Florida residents, many of whom are fed to a giant crocodile nicknamed "Pavlov".

Brian Keyes, a private investigator and former reporter for the Miami ''Sun'', is hired to help defend petty burglar Ernesto Cabal, who was caught driving Sparky's stolen car. Brian does not believe that Ernesto killed Sparky, but the Miami police dismiss him. Ernesto commits suicide when told by his own lawyer that the case is a lost cause. Brian is then hired by Nell Bellamy to find her missing husband (the first tourist victim), and by ''Sun'' editor Cab Mulcahy to locate the missing Wiley. After an encounter with his ex-girlfriend Jenna (who is now dating Skip), Brian tracks Skip to the Everglades and is captured by ''Las Noches''. Revealing himself, Skip tells Brian to return to Miami and spread the word of the group's demands. He then has Brian watch as their latest victim is fed to Pavlov. Brian tries to stop the murder and is stabbed in the back by one of Skip's followers, a Cuban named Jesús Bernal. He is returned to Miami and treated in the hospital.

Since it is the start of the tourist season, the police's initial reaction to Brian's warnings is to engage in a cover-up, dismissing the ''Las Noches'' communiques as a hoax. ''Sun'' reporter Ricky Bloodworth uncovers the letters and writes an article, but misspells the name of the group as "Las ''Nachos''". The terrorists retaliate by triggering several bombs in public places, forcing the authorities to take them seriously. Brian's old friend, Detective Al Garcia is appointed head of a task force to catch the terrorists. Based on Skip's hints, Brian, Cab, and Al deduce that the terrorists plan to kidnap Miami's much-touted Orange Bowl Queen. Since civic leaders refuse to cancel the Orange Bowl Parade or to provide the beauty queen with visible police protection, Al suggests hiring Brian as her undercover bodyguard. Brian finds the beauty queen, Kara Lynn Shivers, to be an intelligent and sensible girl who is only in the beauty queen "racket" to indulge her father. Brian and Kara Lynn grow closer, eventually developing a relationship.

While escorting Kara Lynn home from a tennis game, Brian catches Jesús loitering in the parking lot and beats him into submission with a tennis racket. Furious that Jesús has foiled the group's element of surprise, Skip devises a new plan. Jesús, aching for reinstatement with the anti-Castro terrorist group he was expelled from, abandons ''Las Noches'' and sends a mail bomb to Al. Farcically, the bomb is instead opened by an over-eager Ricky, illegally sifting Garcia's mail for clues about the terrorists. Because of Bernal's poor construction, the bomb only injures Ricky. Al never learns that the bomb was addressed to him, and the bombing is attributed to ''Las Noches''. The next evening, Skip buzzes the deck of a cruise ship in a helicopter and bombards the deck with shopping bags containing live snakes. As the panicked passengers dive off the ship and the Coast Guard is summoned, Skip's helicopter unexpectedly crashes at sea before it reaches land. No bodies are recovered. Miami's civic leaders assume the terrorists are dead, but Brian and Al insist that their security precautions remain in place until after the parade.

In a last-ditch effort, Jesús kidnaps Al at gunpoint and drives him to Key Largo to be executed. Al is wounded in the shoulder by Jesús's shotgun, but Brian manages to track them down and kills Jesús. To Brian's surprise, the parade proceeds without any sign of ''Las Noches''. The following evening, during the Orange Bowl, he belatedly realizes that Kara Lynn is supposed to make a brief appearance during the game's halftime show, and figures out that ''Las Noches'' has chosen that moment to strike. Kara Lynn is kidnapped and carried out of the stadium on an airboat, though one of the terrorists, ex-football player "Viceroy" Wilson, is shot to death by her unofficial escort. Brian deduces from Skip's old press clippings that he has taken Kara Lynn to Osprey Island, a small nature preserve in the middle of Biscayne Bay. There, Skip reveals to Kara Lynn that the island has been mined with dynamite, to be exploded at dawn, to allow for the construction of a new condominium. He plans to leave her there, with the island's other remaining wildlife, so that her death will send a message to Florida's greedy developers.

Before Skip can depart, Brian arrives and disables him with a bullet to the leg. Skip initially refuses to tell Brian where he has anchored his boat, prepared to let the dynamite claim the three of them all at once. However, upon realizing that Brian has brought Jenna along, he surrenders the boat's location. To Brian's surprise, he refuses to go along with them. As they speed away from the island, Keyes, Kara Lynn, and Jenna look back and see Skip is climbing a tree, trying to scare a bald eagle nesting there into taking flight before the dynamite explodes. The novel ends just as the "all clear" signal for the detonation is sounded, with the three of them whispering the same prayer: "Please fly away."

In 1989, after moving from Michigan to Daytona Beach, Florida, and on the verge of committing suicide, street prostitute Aileen Wuornos meets Selby Wall in a gay bar. Although she is initially hostile and declares that she is not gay, Aileen talks to Selby while drinking beer. Selby takes to Aileen almost immediately, as she likes that she is very protective of her. Selby invites Aileen to spend the night with her. The two women return to the house where Selby is staying (temporarily exiled by her parents following the accusation from another girl that Selby tried to kiss her). They later agree to meet at a roller skating rink, and they kiss for the first time. Aileen and Selby fall in love, but they have nowhere to go, so Selby goes back to her aunt's home.

After being brutally raped and beaten by a client, Vincent Corey, Aileen kills him in self-defense and decides to quit prostitution. She confesses her actions to Selby, who has been angry with her for her failure to support both of them. Aileen decides to find legitimate work, but because of her lack of qualifications and criminal history, prospective employers reject her and are openly hostile. Desperate for money, Aileen returns to prostitution. She robs and kills her johns, each killed in a more brutal way than the last, as she is convinced that they are all trying to rape her. She spares one man out of pity when he admits he has never had sex with a prostitute. She also shows a predisposition to spare another man who, instead of exploiting her, offers help, but finds herself forced to shoot him after he spots her gun. Aileen uses the money she stole from her victims to support herself and Selby.

However, Selby reads in the newspapers about the string of murders, and she begins to suspect that Aileen may have committed them. She confronts Aileen, who justifies her actions by claiming she had only been protecting herself. Selby returns to Ohio on a charter bus. The night of her arrest, Aileen is approached at the biker bar she frequents by two strangers, who unbeknownst to her are bounty hunters. Thomas, whom Aileen always referred to as the only friend she had, infers the men's intentions and offers to drive her off. Aileen declines, no longer trusting herself with the well-being of anyone dear to her. The two men eventually lure Aileen out of the bar and she is promptly arrested by the police. Aileen speaks to Selby one last time while in jail. Selby reveals some incriminating information over the telephone and Aileen realizes that the police are listening in. To protect Selby, Aileen admits that she committed the murders alone. During Aileen's trial, Selby testifies against her, with Aileen's loving consent. Aileen is convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. On October 9, 2002, Aileen is executed by lethal injection.

In 1916, Chicago manual laborer Bill knocks down and kills a boss in the steel mill where he works, then fleeing to the Texas Panhandle with his girlfriend Abby and young sister Linda. Bill and Abby pretend to be siblings to prevent gossip. The three are hired as part of a large group of seasonal workers by a rich, shy farmer. Bill overhears a doctor telling the farmer he has only a year to live, although the nature of the illness is not specified.

When the farmer falls in love with Abby, Bill encourages her to marry him so they can inherit his money. They thus marry and Bill stays as her "brother". The farmer's foreman suspects the scheme. The farmer's health unexpectedly remains stable, foiling Bill's plans. Eventually, the farmer discovers Bill's true relationship with Abby; meanwhile, Abby has begun to fall in love with her husband. When a locust swarm and fires destroy his wheat fields, the incensed farmer chases Bill with a gun, but Bill kills him with a screwdriver, then flees with Abby and Linda.

The foreman and police pursue and eventually find them; Bill is shot and killed while running. Abby inherits the farmer's estate and leaves Linda at a boarding school. Abby leaves town on a train with soldiers departing for World War I. Linda runs away from school with a friend from the farm.

Madeline Rose "Maddy" Phillips (Kristen Stewart) is a 12-year-old girl who loves to climb, often ascending the nearby water tower. Her father Tom shares her passion, but fell more than 100 feet during a climb years earlier. Tom and his wife Molly (Jennifer Beals) are afraid Maddy may suffer a similar accident and have forbidden her from climbing. Latent injuries from Tom's fall have recently paralyzed him from the neck down.

The family hears of an experimental operation which can save him, but insurance will not pay for the operation and the family does not have $250,000 for the treatment. Harderbach Financial's president Donald Brisbane (Michael Des Barres) refuses to loan the amount, despite Molly being employed by the bank to design a security system. Maddy comes up with a plan to rob the bank for the money with her knowledge of her mother's system.

Maddy steals three go-carts from her father's race course and recruits her two friends Gus (Max Thieriot) a young mechanic, and Austin (Corbin Bleu) a computer geek and aspiring filmmaker, to help her. To convince them, she separately tells each one she loves him and gives him one half of her friendship necklace.

They break into Harderbach Financial on the night of a party Brisbane is throwing, bringing along Max, Maddy's infant brother, who she is supposed to be babysitting. Maddy distracts the security guards Ferrell (James Le Gross) and Gus' older brother Chad (Stark Sands). Maddy and Gus progress to a room with thousands of security deposit boxes while Austin watches Max and manipulates the cameras and alarms to keep the guards away from them. After a sudden equipment failure with her climbing gear, Maddy is forced to free climb the rest of the way up to the main vault containing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Upon reaching the vault door, she accidentally triggers a timer, then with seconds left, cracks the code ("Madeline"), grabs $250,000 from the vault and they flee the room, unintentionally setting off the alarm after forgetting to type the exit code. The trio manages to escape the bank's Rottweilers and re-escapes Chad who tasers Ferrell, but then lets them go before accidentally tasering himself.

Molly arrives at the bank and Brisbane accuses her system of being useless and fires a Phillips family friend and bank employee Hartmann (John Carroll Lynch). Brisbane's guest Francois Nuffaut (Françios Giroday) apologizes to Molly and redirects the blame onto Brisbane for throwing a party at the bank before the security system was operable.

Gus and Austin find out that Maddy played them after seeing each other's necklaces and leave her, but the trio reunites during a police chase and evades them successfully.

Maddy and her friends go to the hospital with the money to pay for the surgery, but Molly realizes who the thieves are (through the amount they stole being equal to that of surgery costs and the climbing gear Maddy left in the vault) and intercepts them. Molly realizes her daughter was only doing what she thought was right for her father and does a cover-up by telling the bank executives that the robbery was an unplanned test she performed as chief of security. As they leave, reporters outside the hospital give the public the full story.

Molly forgives Maddy for her actions, the public and the news studio sympathizes with the Phillips family and donates money for Tom's surgery, and Hartmann is promoted to bank president after Brisbane's mistakes as he mentions that Brisbane no longer works for the bank and gives them the loan.

Three months later, Tom has recovered from the surgery. Maddy, Gus, and Austin continue to argue about who will be a better boyfriend for Maddy.

Successful San Francisco corporate lawyer Peter Banning has become a workaholic, straining his relationship with his wife Moira and their children Jack and Maggie. After promising to attend at least one of Jack's baseball games, but missing the last game of the season, Peter flies with his disappointed family to London to visit Moira's grandmother, Wendy Darling. In London, Peter, Moira and Wendy attend a charity dinner in Wendy's honor at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, leaving the children with Wendy's old friend Tootles and housekeeper Liza. When they return, they find the house broken into and the children missing, along with a ransom note from the man responsible, Captain James Hook. Peter involves the authorities, but they are unable to help, and Wendy insists that only he can save Jack and Maggie, as he is really Peter Pan.

Peter refuses to believe her. Later, in the nursery, he encounters Tinker Bell, who brings him to Neverland with pixie dust. She drops Peter into Hook's pirate haven, where he reveals himself to Smee and Hook after seeing his children on display. Surprised to see how weak and old Peter has become, Hook challenges him to fly and rescue his children, preparing to execute him when he fails. Tinker Bell intervenes and persuades Hook to release Peter instead, promising to train him for battle over the next three days and give him the fight he desires. After accidentally falling overboard and being saved by Neverland mermaids, Peter is then taken to the hideout of the Lost Boys, now led by Rufio. The boys mock Peter at first, but eventually recognize and train him, encouraging him to use the power of his imagination to help restore his memory and abilities.

Meanwhile, Hook despairs that he will not have true revenge on Peter, until Smee suggests they manipulate the Banning children into switching sides. This does not work with Maggie, but Jack is swayed due to Peter's repeated broken promises. Hook has the pirates play a game of baseball, which Peter sees while trying to steal Hook's namesake. Dismayed to see Jack treating Hook as a father figure, Peter returns to the Lost Boys' camp with renewed determination. After seeing his shadow move independently, Peter follows it and discovers the original treehouse where Wendy and her brothers once stayed. Inside, Tinker Bell helps Peter remember how he was lost as an infant in the early 1900s, brought by her to Neverland, went to have many adventures, and when he first met the Darlings. He also recalls frequently visiting Wendy after the Darlings returned to London, until Wendy grew too old to go back. Although heartbroken, Peter then fell in love with Wendy's granddaughter Moira and chose to stay, due to his desire to become a father, and became adopted by the Bannings, but at the cost of his memories.

Recalling Jack's birth is the strong, happy thought that restores Peter's ability to fly, bringing him back as Peter Pan. Rufio turns his sword over to Peter in reverence, the Lost Boys celebrate and, that night, Tinker Bell professes her love for Peter with a kiss. However, Peter still chooses his family and professes his love for Moira. Although heartbroken by his rejection, Tinker Bell accepts this and encourages him to go save his children.

The next day, Peter and the Lost Boys fight Hook and his pirates while Jack watches. Peter rescues Maggie, and Hook's crew surrenders, but Rufio duels Hook and is fatally wounded. With his dying breath, Rufio wishes he could have had a father like Peter. Jack comes to his senses about his father, and they reconcile. Peter duels Hook and defeats him, whereupon Hook is devoured by the reanimated corpse of the taxidermied Crocodile. Tinker Bell takes Jack and Maggie back to London, and Peter appoints young Lost Boy Thud Butt as his successor, before leaving.

Peter awakens in Kensington Gardens, seeing someone resembling Mr. Smee sweeping up some empty bottles nearby. Tinker Bell appears and bids a tearful farewell to Peter before departing. Reuniting with his family at Wendy's house, Peter decides to devote more time to them. Peter hands former Lost Boy Tootles his old bag of marbles (which Thud Butt had given to Peter earlier), whereupon Tootles joyfully sprinkles himself with pixie dust and takes off. As Peter and his family watch Tootles fly back to Neverland, Wendy remarks that their adventures are truly over; Peter counters that "to live would be an awfully big adventure".

Teenager Karen Braden (Kelley Bohanon) is a troubled mental hospital outpatient who is taken by her father George and sister Isa to a government facility near the Craters of the Moon lava fields in Idaho. The project there was commissioned to develop matter transference, but made a different discovery: time travel. They also discovered that a mysterious ecological catastrophe will soon wipe out civilization.

The time travel process has negative health effects, though. Adults "not much older than 20" are unable to survive for long, as their kidneys hemorrhage shortly after the experience. So the scientists decide to only send young people 56 years into the future so they can build a new civilization.

After the government takes over the project, the transfer machines are turned off, trapping a large number of project members in the future. Now trapped, they begin exploring the future world. The last survivor from the project is picked up by a family dressed in futuristic clothing. She is placed alive in the trunk of their car, to be used as fuel. The small girl in the back seat asks what will happen when they run out of them (people from the past), "Will we have to use each other, then?"

Set in the Midwestern house of Lola and Doc Delaney, the plot centers on how their life is disrupted by the presence of a boarder, Marie, a college art student who has a keen interest in the young men around her.

Middle-aged Lola engages in mild flirtations with the milkman and the mailman. She sees in Marie a younger version of herself and encourages her pursuit of her hometown boyfriend, the wealthy Bruce, but also her classmate, the athletic Turk.

Doc, a chiropractor, abandoned a different career in medicine when he married a pregnant Lola, who subsequently lost the baby.

A recovering alcoholic, Doc maintains a precarious sobriety. To him, Marie represents youth and opportunities long gone; seeing her with Turk brings out resentments against Lola for ruining his life. Ultimately these feelings cause him to fall off the wagon, and act violently toward Lola. Frightened, she calls Doc's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, who comes to collect Doc and take him to the police station, where he is detained for drunkenness. Afterward, forced hospitalization sobers him up, and once the boarder leaves, he and Lola reconcile.

The title refers to Lola's missing dog, who disappeared before the play's opening and remains gone throughout the story. Lola hopes for the puppy's return throughout the play by calling "Come back, little Sheba" daily from the front door, but eventually faces reality and gives up on Sheba's return.

The story of a fiercely independent and uncompromising young woman. Stella, a rembetiko singer at Paradise nightclub, lives a guiltless, turbulent life. Her innate independence and assertive nature lead her to numerous passionate love affairs. While with Aleko, son of a wealthy family, she decides, as is her habit, to break up before the relationship wears off. Once she meets Miltos, a young soccer player, she seems to change. At first, she avoids his advances, but, later, gives in to him. However, she can only be with him on her own terms. No matter how much she loves him, she mostly values her freedom. Things turn complicated when she is called to choose. She repeatedly rejects Miltos marriage proposals. When Miltos finally forces her to accept the idea of marriage, Stella does not appear in church, despite Miltos repeatedly warning her that he will kill her if she doesn't marry him. Miltos kills her with a dagger at end of the film.

It has been said that the story of Stella's forced marriage symbolises the forces that are constantly trying to impose their will on Greece.

On July 30, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa and his longtime friend Bobby Ciaro are impatiently waiting in the parking lot of a roadhouse diner. The film moves in vignettes from Hoffa's early years, when Hoffa was an International Brotherhood of Teamsters union organizer working for the various trucking firms and laundries around Detroit. In 1935, Hoffa is shown approaching a parked truck, inside of which driver Ciaro is taking a nap. Hoffa pitches the benefits of joining the Teamsters and gives Ciaro a business card, on which he has written: "Give this man whatever he needs." A few days later, Ciaro reports to work to find Hoffa attempting to persuade his fellow drivers to unionize. Hoffa blurts out that he already spoke to Ciaro, getting him fired. He later accosts Hoffa with a knife, but Hoffa's associate and bodyguard Billy Flynn forces him to drop it at gunpoint. Ciaro assists Hoffa and Flynn in the arson of a laundry whose owner refuses to cooperate with the Teamsters. Flynn accidentally sets himself on fire and dies of his injuries. He is succeeded by Ciaro as Hoffa's right-hand man.

During a Teamsters strike that quickly turns into a street brawl with non-union workers, Hoffa escapes and is taken to see Detroit's top Mafia boss, Carl D'Allesandro, with the Italian-American Ciaro acting as translator. A partnership is soon formed between the Teamsters and the Mafia, and when Hoffa becomes president of the Teamsters in 1957, he makes several illegal loans to the mob using union funds. At a Congressional hearing, Hoffa is questioned by Robert F. Kennedy over allegations that the Teamsters are controlled by organized crime. Kennedy and Hoffa engage in a loud and bitter feud, especially after John F. Kennedy is elected President in 1960 and Bobby becomes Attorney General.

During a hunting trip with D'Allesandro, he and Hoffa discuss an embezzlement scheme involving the Teamsters pension fund. Having no paper with them, the plans are sketched on the back of a hunting license. Hoffa is then betrayed by Teamsters official Peter Connelly, who not only testifies at Hoffa's trial for labor racketeering but also provides the prosecution with a crucial piece of evidence: the license. Hoffa surrenders to federal officials and receives a long sentence while Connelly's uncle, Frank Fitzsimmons, assumes control of the Teamsters. Ciaro is also convicted, but obtains early release from prison and immediately begins working for Hoffa's release. D'Allesandro suggests that the Teamsters endorse Richard M. Nixon for President in 1968, and in exchange, Hoffa will receive a presidential pardon.

Hoffa is pardoned by the Nixon administration, but learns that one of the conditions of his release is that he cannot have any involvement with the Teamsters for at least ten years. Hoffa meets with D'Allesandro and asks him to have Fitzsimmons killed, resulting in a failed attempt to assassinate him with a car bomb. D'Allesandro believes that Hoffa is "too hot" and declines to help him any further. In response, Hoffa has Ciaro deliver a message to D'Allesandro that unless Fitzsimmons is dealt with, Hoffa will go to the press and reveal every illegal action he has carried out on his behalf. D'Allesandro replies that he will meet with Hoffa at a nearby diner the next day to work out a plan.

Hoffa and Ciaro spend several hours waiting in the diner's parking lot, but D'Allesandro never arrives. A union driver has been waiting for hours in the dining room, allegedly for a part for his truck. He and Ciaro start talking, and the driver offers to bring Hoffa his coffee. The "driver" then pulls out a silenced pistol and shoots Hoffa dead in his car; Ciaro rushes to help him and gets shot three times in the chest. The shooter drives off in a separate car while two other men exit his truck, put Ciaro's body in Hoffa's car, and drive it into the back. The truck then departs, leaving not a single trace of Hoffa's murder.

Fashion merchandising student and sorority girl Elle Woods is taken to an expensive restaurant by her boyfriend, Warner Huntington III. She expects a proposal, but he breaks up with her instead. Intending to go to Harvard Law School and become a successful politician, he believes that Elle is not "serious" enough for that kind of life. Elle believes she can win Warner back if she shows herself capable of achieving the same things.

After months of studying, Elle scores a 179 on the Law School Admission Test and, combined with her 4.0 GPA, is accepted to Harvard Law School.

Upon arriving at Harvard, Elle's SoCal personality is a complete contrast to her East Coast classmates, who frequently distrust her. She soon encounters Warner but discovers he is engaged to his old girlfriend, Vivian Kensington, who considers Elle a fool.

Later, Elle tells Warner that she intends to apply for one of her professor's internships, but he tells her that she is wasting her time as she is not intelligent enough. Realizing that Warner will never take her back or take her seriously, Elle finds motivation to prove herself by working hard and demonstrating her understanding of the subject.

The following semester, Professor Callahan, the school's most respected teacher, decides to take on some first-year interns to help with a high-profile case. Among those chosen are Elle, Warner, and Vivian. Callahan is defending a prominent fitness instructor named Brooke Windham, one of Elle's role models.

Accused of murdering her husband, Brooke is unwilling to produce her alibi (she later reveals to Elle that she was having liposuction, a fact that would ruin her reputation, which she promises not to disclose). Vivian gains a new respect for Elle and reveals that Warner could not get into Harvard without his father's help. Emmett Richmond, Callahan's junior partner, has also taken notice of her potential.

One night, Callahan tries seducing Elle, who now believes that is why she got the internship. Devastated, she quits and nearly returns home to California, telling Emmett what happened. When he tells Brooke, she fires Callahan, replacing him with Elle (under
Emmett's guidance, as she is only a law student, citing a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that law students may represent clients if they do so under the supervision of a licensed attorney).

Elle begins to cross-examine Brooke's stepdaughter, Chutney, and catches her in a lie when she discovers significant inconsistencies in her story: Chutney testified that she was home during her father's murder but did not hear the gunshot because she was in the shower after getting her hair permed that morning.

Elle says that washing permed hair within the first 24 hours would deactivate the ammonium thioglycolate, pointing out that Chutney's curls are still intact. With her story falling apart, she confesses to accidentally killing her father as she really intended to kill Brooke because she hated the fact that her father married someone the same age as her.

After the trial, Chutney is sent to jail, and Warner approaches Elle and asks her to take him back as she has proven herself. She rejects him, realizing that he is shallow and a "complete bonehead". However, she and Vivian become good friends, especially after she dumps Warner.

Elle gives the graduation speech two years later, while Warner graduates with no honors, no job offers, and no girlfriend. Emmett has started his own law firm and has been dating Elle for two years, with plans to propose to her later that night.

The plot focuses on a group of rebels attempting to overthrow both tyrants and win back their homeland. Many of the rebels are natives of the province of Tigana, which was the province that most ably resisted Brandin: In a crucial battle, Brandin's son was killed. In retaliation for this, Brandin attacked Tigana and crushed it more savagely than any other part of the Palm; then, following this victory, he used his magic to remove the name and history of Tigana from the minds of the population. Brandin named it Lower Corte, making Corte, their traditional enemies to their north, seem superior to a land that was all but forgotten.

Only those born in Tigana before the invasion can hear or speak its name, or remember it as it was; as far as everyone else is concerned, that area of the country has always been an insignificant part of a neighbouring province, hence the rebels are battling for the very soul of their country.

In the end the rebels engineer a battle between their two enemies hoping they will defeat each other. After victory, the magic preventing others from remembering the province of Tigana is removed.

In the early 20th century, as America enters the automobile age, Charles S. Howard opens a bicycle shop in San Francisco. He is soon selling automobiles, becoming the largest car dealer in California and one of the Bay Area's richest men. In the wake of the Great Depression, Canadian John "Red" Pollard's family is financially ruined, and he is sent to live with a horse trainer. Years pass and Pollard becomes a jockey, but amateur boxing leaves him blind in one eye.

After their young son is killed in an automobile accident, Howard's wife leaves him. He obtains a divorce in Mexico, where Pollard is struggling to make his mark as a jockey. Howard meets and marries Marcela Zabala. When he acquires a stable of racehorses, he hires itinerant horseman Tom Smith as his trainer. Smith convinces him to buy a colt called Seabiscuit. Though a grandson of the great Man o' War and trained by the renowned James E. Fitzsimmons, Seabiscuit is viewed as small, lazy, and unmanageable. Smith witnesses Pollard's similarly temperamental spirit, and hires him as Seabiscuit's jockey.

Under Smith's innovative training, Seabiscuit becomes the most successful racehorse on the West Coast and an underdog hero to the public. Howard issues a challenge to Samuel D. Riddle, owner of the East Coast champion and Triple Crown-winning racehorse War Admiral, but Riddle dismisses California racing as inferior. In the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap, Seabiscuit takes the lead, but Pollard's impaired vision prevents him from noticing another horse surging up on the outside. Losing by a nose, Pollard admits his partial blindness to Smith.

Howard declares that Pollard will remain Seabiscuit's jockey, and rallies public support for a match race with War Admiral. Riddle agrees, on the condition that they race with a rope and bell instead of a starting gate. With Seabiscuit at a disadvantage, Smith trains the horse to break fast at the sound of the bell. As the race approaches, Pollard severely fractures his leg in a riding accident. Informed he may never walk again, let alone ride, he recommends that his friend and skilled jockey George Woolf ride Seabiscuit, advising him on the horse's handling and behavior from his hospital bed.

The highly anticipated "race of the century" draws a sellout crowd, with 40 million more people listening on the radio. Seabiscuit takes an early lead until the far turn; following Pollard's advice, Woolf lets Seabiscuit look War Admiral in the eye before surging ahead, and Seabiscuit wins by four lengths, delighting the nation. A few months later, Seabiscuit injures his leg. Pollard, still recovering from his own injured leg, tends to the horse as they both heal. When Seabiscuit is fit enough to race again, Howard brings him back to the Santa Anita Handicap, but is reluctant to allow Pollard to ride and risk crippling himself for life. At the urging of Woolf and Marcela, Howard relents.

Pollard, using a self-made leg brace, finds himself and Seabiscuit facing Woolf in the race. Seabiscuit drops far behind the field until Woolf pulls his horse alongside Pollard, allowing Seabiscuit a good look at his mount. With Woolf's encouragement, Seabiscuit surges ahead and passes the others. Heading for the finish line several lengths ahead, Pollard explains that the story of Seabiscuit is not merely of three men who fixed a broken-down horse, but that Seabiscuit fixed them and, in a way, they fixed one another.

Francis Brown, a tax auditor for Revenue Canada, is a regular visitor to a Toronto strip club called Exotica. He always has Christina, an exotic dancer dressed in a schoolgirl uniform, give him a private dance. This inspires the jealousy of the club's DJ, Eric, Christina's former boyfriend who has also impregnated the club's owner, Zoe. While at the club, Francis pays his brother Harold's teenage daughter, Tracey, to "babysit". However, Francis has no children and the girl merely practices music alone until Francis returns and drives her home. Francis' relationship with Harold is strained, as Francis found out that Harold and Francis' wife were having an affair after she died in a car accident, which also left Harold a paraplegic. Francis' daughter was kidnapped and killed a few months before the accident, and he was one of the suspects but was later exonerated. These events have left a huge psychological scar on Francis.

In his professional life, Francis is sent to audit Thomas Pinto's pet store pursuant to the suspicion that Thomas is profiting from the illegal import of rare bird species. Thomas has been smuggling hyacinth macaw eggs, and his operation is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Francis is eventually banned from Exotica when Eric manipulates him into touching Christina during one of her dances, which is against the rules of the club. Around the same time, Francis discovers illegal activities in Thomas' financial records, and blackmails Thomas to go to the club to learn about what happened the night he was kicked out. In the process, Francis realizes Eric intentionally set out to get him banned and vows to kill him. Confronting Eric with a gun, Francis is defused when Eric reveals he and Christina were the ones who found the body of Francis' daughter. Christina also reveals to Thomas that she and Francis share a relationship of mutual dependency; in the past, when she used to babysit his daughter, Francis would comfort her about her troubled life at home.

The film begins with scenes of life in Wyoming Territory, where new settlers join the cattle business by finding stray, unbranded cattle, called "mavericks", on public land. The narrator explains that established ranchers use the "Maverick Act" against the settlers, while "sharp-witted men" take advantage of the resulting conflict. After this introduction, Jim Averell (Bishop) is shown exhorting settlers to elect him governor to defend them against cattle barons such as Reece Duncan (Scourby). When Averell's speech is over, the famous stage performer Kate Maxwell (O'Hara) arrives with a group of showgirls. Averell has arranged for Kate to operate both a cattle-buying business and a saloon. Duncan warns Kate that he will kill anyone caught stealing cattle on his land, and Sheriff Stan Blaine (Nicol) warns her of an impending war over the cattle business.

The tension between Duncan and the settlers rises as the settlers search for mavericks on Duncan's land and outlaws hired by Averell steal Duncan's cattle. Averell designed the "K-M" brand for Kate's cattle business in such a way that her branding iron completely covers Duncan's "bar double check" brand when applied directly over it. When Averell explains this trick to Kate, he makes it clear to her that she will be hanged as a rustler if she informs the authorities, and Duncan refuses her offer to support him against Averell.

Meanwhile, unknown gunfighters assemble in the nearby hills, and one of them shoots a settler. After Duncan attempts to stop a cattle roundup organized by Averell and the settlers, one of his men is killed, with Kate's branding iron left near the body. To further increase the tension, Averell offers Duncan his support against the settlers immediately after inciting their anger against Duncan. Averell's plan is to ignite a cattle war and promote his own political career by providing leadership once the war has begun.

However, Blaine discovers Averell's plan. After Blaine and Kate have explained it to their men, they stage a fake war, and Blaine forces Averell to signal his men. When the outlaws ride into town, they begin a gunfight against both Duncan's men and the settlers. After Averell shoots Blaine, Kate catches him stealing money from the saloon, and when he tries to shoot her, she and Blaine kill him. After the fight, Blaine prepares to leave town, but Kate persuades him to stay with her. The film ends as they ride away to inspect some farmland for a new home.

The series begins with a short introduction, narrated in the present from the viewpoint of Paul Garrett, and a brief montage covering the natural history described in the first chapters of the book. It also includes comments by the author, James Michener, about the background and context to the drama.

Only the Rocks Live Forever

The first episode begins in 1756, showing the developing arms race between tribes over horses and rifles while introducing a nine-year old Arapaho boy named Lame Beaver. By 1795, he is a leading warrior and encounters Pasquinel, a voyageur or coureur des bois. Having counted coup, he allows him to trade beaver pelts for imported trinkets. Other tribes, such as the Cheyenne, assist him though some, such as the Pawnee and other traders, are less trustworthy. In 1796, Pasquinel, wounded and robbed of two years worth of pelts, returns to St. Louis. Here he is introduced by a surgeon to Herman Bockweiss, a Bavarian silversmith, and they discuss financing. Pasquinel again heads west and frees Alexander McKeag, a Scottish trapper, from the Pawnee and gives the chief gifts to guarantee safe travel through his land. Their travels lead to encounters with river pirates, Ute braves, and back to the Arapaho, where McKeag meets Lame Beaver's daughter, Clay Basket. By 1800, back in St. Louis, Pasquinel marries Lise Bockweiss. Meanwhile, after flashbacks about his exploits, Lame Beaver discovers a gold nugget and makes it into bullets for his rifle. Later, he leads a raid against the Pawnee, killing their chief before he is slain, leading to the ransacking of his teepee and the death of his wife. Now orphaned, Clay Basket tells Pasquinel that she is meant to marry him, which he accepts despite McKeag's reservations.

The Yellow Apron

The story resumes in 1816 after Pasquinel has fathered two sons by Clay Basket (Jacques in 1809 and Marcel in 1811) and a daughter, Lisette, by Lise. Pasquinel continues his search for Lame Beaver's gold while McKeag disapproves of his bigamy. Despite McKeag's concerns, Pasquinel decides to take his Indian family to a fort near St. Louis, where Jacques is wounded in a scuffle with drunken soldiers. Pasquinel returns to Lise and decides to remain as a trader in the city. Meanwhile, McKeag, Clay Basket, and the boys continue trapping, but not without incident as Kiowas, searching for guns, attack their camp. Pasquinel eventually returns to his Indian family, as tensions rise and McKeag leaves. In 1825, McKeag departs St. Louis and begins to live as a hermit while Pasquinel continues to search for Lame Beaver's gold, and finds out his wife is pregnant. Two years later, passing trappers invite McKeag to a rendezvous near Bear Lake. Here he is given the "Yellow Apron," and performs a Scottish jig. He then reunites and dances with Pasquinel, who collapses and asks McKeag to cut the arrow from his back. Pasquinel, with his sons now riding with the Sioux, then asks McKeag to rejoin him, but he refuses. In 1830 in St. Louis, McKeag runs into Lise. She knows that McKeag aches for his friend and encourages the Scotsman to "go to him". McKeag agrees and arrives just as Pasquinel finally finds Lame Beaver's gold but is killed by Pawnee warriors. McKeag then vows to care for Clay Basket and her daughter as his own.

The Wagon and the Elephant

Levi Zendt is from a Mennonite family living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1845, however, Zendt is falsely accused of attempted rape and is shunned. He decides to leave for Oregon Country and purchases an old covered wagon. Before leaving, he goes to the local orphanage and picks up Elly Zahm, another social outcast who is shunned for being a bastard. Zahm then begins narrating their adventure via letters as the pair head west and marry. After sailing down the Ohio River, they go to St. Louis by steamboat. Here they meet an English writer and explorer, Oliver Seccombe, as well as Captain Maxwell Mercy, who is married to Lisette Pasquinel. The group join a wagon train heading along the Oregon Trail piloted by Sam Purchas, a hardened mountain man who forces Zendt to sell his beloved horses. On the Great Plains, Zendt hears about "the elephant" and the party encounter the Pasquinel brothers. After stopping at Fort John and meeting the McKeag family, who run the general store, the Zendts continue toward the Rocky Mountains. After meeting some "turnarounds", the Zendts return to the fort after Purchas tries to rape Elly. McKeag offers to partner with them in building a trading post near where Pasquinel first met Lame Beaver. Zendt agrees; however, en route Elly Zendt is killed by a rattlesnake. Devastated, Zendt heads into the mountains to live alone in the hut once occupied by McKeag.

For as Long as the Waters Flow

The narrator explains how, despite the number of settlers increasing, nearly all actually traverse Indian lands peacefully and safely. In 1851, at Fort John (now known as Laramie), Mercy hears word of a proposed treaty among the Plains tribes. Mercy invites their chiefs to a peace conference which guarantees safe passage to settlers on the Oregon Trail, "for as long as the waters flow", in exchange for legal recognition of tribal land claims. Over the next decade, the treaty is undermined, however, due to prejudice, political bureaucracy, and the demands of settlers. Eventually, a new general is sent to enact a revised and weakened version of the treaty which the tribes refuse to accept. Meanwhile, Lucinda McKeag visits Zendt at the hut and begins a romantic relationship. At McKeag's trading post, Zendt proposes marriage, but only if his future wife learns to read so that she can understand the Bible. Lucinda and her mother go to live with Lise in St. Louis in order to attend school, and despite a romantic fling, she returns to the West. The couple marry, but McKeag dies while dancing with Jacques at their wedding. In 1860, Hans Brumbaugh, a Wolgadeutsche immigrant seeking his fortune, passes through the now thriving Zendt trading post, representing the gold seekers who are also drawn to the area.

The Massacre

By 1861, the Civil War has broken out and the Union sends most of its troops back to fight in the war. While panning in a stream near Zendt's, Brumbaugh discovers gold but is attacked by a crazed fellow prospector and slays the man in self-defence. Discouraged, he then purchases farm land from Zendt. Meanwhile, an embittered zealot called Colonel Frank Skimmerhorn, is tasked to deal with the Indians who he believes are a cursed lost Israeli tribe. After arresting Mercy and the Zendts, Clay Basket dies when she distracts the Skimmerhorn militia so Mercy can warn her sons. Skimmerhorn then leads a preemptive attack on a band of unarmed Arapaho. A captain under Skimmerhorn's command refuses to join in the massacre and is court martialed along with Mercy. At the trial, testimony of the massacre turns the court against Skimmerhorn. However, by manipulating events, he regains his command and kills the Pasquinel brothers. In 1865, with the wars over Skimmerhorn is exiled from Colorado. In 1868, Zendt, with his old trading post ruined by the militia, erects a store in the new township just as Seccombe, now an agent of Earl Venneford of Wye, returns to the area with a plan to monopolize farmland under the Homestead Act.

The Longhorns

A new scramble for watered lands in the region begins, and sharpens as night riders terrorize or kill farmers for their valuable properties. Seccombe hires John Skimmerhorn, son of the disgraced colonel, to acquire longhorn cattle in Texas and to hire a team to drive them back to Colorado. For the cattle drive, the young Skimmerhorn hires a Mexican cook, who then recommends an experienced trail boss, R.J. Poteet, a no-nonsense ex-army captain. Poteet then buys 2,800 cattle, orders a cook's wagon, and recruits a mixed crew of cowboys to brand and then lead them north. Feeling obliged to help the widow of an old friend, Poteet buys 150 head of cattle from her and hires her oldest son, Jim Lloyd, as an additional hand. After paying a "crossing fee" at the ford of 5c per head, the epic cattle drive across the barren Llano Estacado begins. Apart from the lack of water, they encounter run ins with local Apache bands, and in July 1868, they are ambushed near the Arkansas River by ex-Confederate soldiers. However, the 4-month crossing is successful and the cattle populate a new ranch, named Venneford, overseen by Seccombe but managed by Skimmerhorn.

The Shepherds

In 1876, Colorado becomes the 38th state and the growing community around Zendt's Farm, now with a railway station, is renamed "Centennial". By the summer of 1881, with the Indians gone, the range war between the cattle ranchers led by Seccombe and farmers led by Brumbaugh boils over. A number of cowboys from the Skimmerhorn drive now live in town, including Jim Lloyd, who is in love with Zendt's daughter. Looking for extra work, some help Messmore Garrett with his newly arrived flock of sheep. Seccombe, angered by the farmers and shepherds, engages the services of a gang of outlaws, the Pettis brothers. Lloyd and Skimmerhorn, however, initially refuse to believe that Seccombe is behind the subsequent killings. Also in town are the Bucklands on a mission to check their investment at Venneford, which now covers some 6 million acres. Charlotte Buckland falls in love with Seccombe and the two marry. Eventually the outlaws are eliminated by Brumbaugh, Skimmerhorn and Lloyd. Sheriff Axel Dumire is unable to prove their guilt without witnesses and peace is restored to the area. The episode ends when Zendt, whose nephew is visiting, decides to return to Lancaster to see his family again.

The Storm

An uneasy peace between the warring factions settles in, watched over by Dumire, as the circus arrives in town, reuniting more members of Skimmerhorn's cattle drive. Seccombe becomes restless as the finances of the ranch are eventually called into question by Venneford's Bristol investors. They dispatch Finlay Perkin, a dour Scottish accountant, to perform the first ever audit of Venneford's books. Noticing irregularities, Perkin requests an actual head count of all the cattle, and soon realizes that Seccombe is selling cattle and demands his resignation. However, Seccombe's crimes are obscured when a blizzard hits the region, killing many of the ranch's remaining cattle, leading to a switch to hardier Hereford stock. Meanwhile, Zendt, after returning from Lancaster, dies in a train accident trying to stop his troubled daughter from fleeing town. The Wendell family, ostensibly itinerant actors but in reality con-artists working their way along the new railroad system, also arrive in town. Knowing their past, they are shadowed by Dumire, but helped by Reverend Holly (who they soon realize they can embezzle).

The Crime

The Wendells' favorite con is called the "badger game", which they use on the naive Holly to secure the title to his second house and to blackmail cash. Meanwhile, Seccombe finally accepts defeat and turns over ranch operations to Skimmerhorn who then deputizes Lloyd. Given the prospect of losing all he has worked for, he commits suicide instead. Charlotte Seccombe, now widowed, travels to London briefly but returns to Venneford after inheriting a majority interest in the ranch from her uncle, Lord Venneford, and begins a romance with Lloyd. In the meantime, Dumire grows increasingly suspicious of the Wendells, while their son, Philip, enjoys hanging around the jailhouse. The Wendells try the ruse again on a world wise businessman, Soren Sorenson. He recognizes their trick, and threatens to expose them, but is killed by Maude Wendell. Philip then hides the body in a cave along the riverbank near their house. While looking through his belongings, they find $5,500 that Sorenson was going to use to finance a land purchase, and realize that they cannot spend it immediately as it will expose their guilt.

The Winds of Fortune

The new century arrives and Brumbaugh owns a sugar beet processing factory with the byproduct being sold as cattle feed. Dumire remains suspicious of the Wendells and their unexplained finances. Philip, now a telegram delivery boy, admires the diligent and frank sheriff but their relationship is strained over his lack of honesty. One day, the sheriff is fatally wounded by remnants of the Pettis gang from the range war, and Philip begins to tell the truth just as Dumire dies. With the sheriff out of the picture, the Wendells are now free from legal investigation. Mervin Wendell meets a Union Pacific land agent and decides to set up a real estate office. Meanwhile, troubles in the mines in Santa Ynez, Chihuahua, lead to the death of Nacho Gomez, the Mexican cook, and the arrival of Tranquilino Marquez to work for Brumbaugh. Lloyd's engagement falls apart when Clemma Zendt, now divorced, finally returns and begins reciprocating his affections. Seccombe resolves to fight for her fiance and blackmails Zendt into leaving town again. Lloyd and Seccombe then reconcile and wed and Skimmerhorn leaves to work on a ranch with Poteet.

The Winds of Death

By 1911, Mervin Wendell has grown rich selling marginal land to naive settlers for dryland farming, lending on the land at extortion rates then foreclosing and reselling the land at a profit. Among those are young Iowans Earl and Alice Grebe. Despite warnings at the station from Brumbaugh and Lloyd, the Grebes and others settle on the drylands and take out a mortgage with Wendell. The gamble eventually sours as unsuitable farming practices, a drop in wheat prices after World War I, and the Dust Bowl years of the 1920s and 1930s set in. In 1933, the Grebes fall behind in their taxes and mortgage and Philip Wendell threatens foreclosure. Incessant winds and dust storms kill the Grebe's son while also causing Alice Grebe to slowly go insane, leading to the death of her family. Throughout this time, Charlotte Lloyd uses her wealth and influence to support the community, including protecting Hispanic workers and their families from discrimination. Beeley Garrett, who had married the Lloyd's daughter some time earlier, takes over full management of the ranch when Jim Lloyd dies.

The Scream of Eagles

The final episode, a summary of the series mainly in flashback, moves the story to the present. In 1978, Professor Lewis Vernor arrives in town to do research on the history of Centennial and is met by writer Sidney Enderman. By then, the two leading citizens in town are Morgan Wendell and Paul Garrett (the narrator and a direct descendant of many of the characters in the series). Both men are in their 50s: Garrett, the current owner of Venneford, is interested in preserving the natural beauty of Colorado; Wendell, the heir to the family real estate business, however, has a propensity for self-interest. While exploring the town, Vernor meets Wendell at an excavation for a new bridge. Wendell, recognizing the scene from his father's tales, then removes skeletal evidence of the Sorensen murder, witnessed by Vernor from afar. After Wendell leaves, Vernor returns to the excavation site and drops down into the now exposed cave. After a brief search, Vernor discovers a single bone, which Sidney takes to have analyzed. Wendell is also a candidate for the new statewide office of Commissioner of Resources, which he plans to use to greatly expand industry in the state regardless of environmental impact. While reciting the history of Centennial to Vernor, Garrett feels persuaded to run against Wendell. After a trial over illegal eagle, bear, and turkey hunting, Wendell encourages Garrett's reputation to be smeared by people opposed to his conservationist views and relationships with Hispanics, specifically his romance with the sister of the local cantina owner. Garrett and Vernor then discuss the various historical and contemporary issues surrounding the people in and around Centennial, including "this nation's unique moral headache" - contemporary Indian social issues. In a TV debate, the candidates square off, and argue the merits of development and conservation and of balancing resources. Analysis of the bone that Vernor found confirms it as human, forcing Vernor and Sidney to realize that the rumors of how the Wendells gained their family fortune as true. The series ends with the election results showing a return swing in Garrett's favor, before fading to a montage of the people and places of the series.

The series features characters from ''Wacky Races'', Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Mob, the latter of whom take on the role of heroes in contrast to their previously nefarious personalities.

In each episode, Penelope's guardian, Sylvester Sneekly, attempts to claim Penelope's inheritance for himself by attacking her in the disguise of his sinister alter-ego the Hooded Claw. Aided by his twin henchmen the Bully Brothers, who always speak in unison, the Claw creates over-elaborate Rube Goldberg-style plots to do away with Penelope. Even though the Ant Hill Mob often come to Penelope's rescue, she herself often needs to save the Mob from the unintended effects of their attempts to rescue her. But just as quickly as Penelope is delivered from one quandary, she almost immediately finds herself ensnared in another one of the Claw's traps. Despite their overall bumbling, however, the Ant Hill Mob always manage to rescue Penelope and foil the Hooded Claw's plans in the end.

While Penelope is curiously helpless whenever the Hooded Claw grabs her, once he leaves her tied up for his fiendish plans to take effect she usually becomes resourceful and ingenious, sometimes coming up with spontaneous or creative methodologies to escape her own predicaments.

In a near-future dystopia, Detroit is on the brink of societal and financial collapse. Overwhelmed by crime and dwindling resources, the city grants the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) control over the Detroit Police Department. OCP Senior President Dick Jones demonstrates ED-209, a law enforcement droid designed to supplant the police. ED-209 malfunctions and brutally kills an executive, allowing ambitious junior executive Bob Morton to introduce the Chairman ("The Old Man") to his own project: RoboCop. Meanwhile, officer Alex Murphy is transferred to the Metro West precinct. Murphy and his new partner, Anne Lewis, pursue notorious criminal Clarence Boddicker and his gang—Emil Antonowsky, Leon Nash, Joe Cox and Steve Minh. The gang ambushes and tortures Murphy until Boddicker fatally shoots him. Morton has Murphy's corpse converted into RoboCop, a powerful and heavily armored cyborg with no memory of his former life. RoboCop is programmed with three prime directives: serve the public trust, protect the innocent, and uphold the law. A fourth prime directive, Directive 4, is classified.

RoboCop is assigned to Metro West and hailed by the media for his brutally efficient campaign against crime. Lewis suspects he is Murphy, recognizing the unique way he holsters his gun, a trick Murphy learned to impress his son. During maintenance, RoboCop experiences a nightmare of Murphy's death. He leaves the station and encounters Lewis, who addresses him as Murphy. While on patrol, RoboCop arrests Emil, who recognizes Murphy's mannerisms, furthering RoboCop's recall. RoboCop then uses the police database to identify Emil's associates and review Murphy's police record. RoboCop recalls further memories while exploring Murphy's former home, his wife and son having moved away following his death. Elsewhere, Jones gets Boddicker to murder Morton, in revenge for Morton's attempting to usurp his position at OCP. RoboCop tracks down the Boddicker gang and a shootout occurs. He brutally assaults Boddicker, who confesses to working for Jones. RoboCop attempts to kill Boddicker until his programming directs him to uphold the law. He attempts to arrest Jones at OCP Tower, but Directive 4 is activated—a failsafe measure to neutralize RoboCop when acting against an OCP executive. Jones admits his culpability in Morton's death and releases an ED-209 to destroy RoboCop. Although he escapes, RoboCop is assaulted by the police force on OCP's order and is badly damaged. Lewis helps RoboCop escape to an abandoned steel mill to repair himself.

Angered by OCP's underfunding and short-staffing, the police force goes on strike, and Detroit descends into chaos as riots break out throughout the city. Jones frees Boddicker and his remaining gang, arming them with high-powered weaponry to destroy RoboCop. At the steel mill, Boddicker's men are quickly eliminated, but Lewis is badly injured and RoboCop becomes trapped under steel girders. Even so, he kills Boddicker by stabbing him in the throat with his data spike. RoboCop confronts Jones at OCP Tower during a board meeting, revealing the truth behind Morton's murder. Jones, in order to escape, takes the Old Man hostage but is promptly fired from OCP, nullifying Directive 4 and allowing RoboCop to shoot him. The Old Man compliments RoboCop's shooting and asks his name; RoboCop replies, "Murphy".

Pikachu watches a game show, ''Quiz Wobbuffet'' The game opens with a group of Magnemite—magnet-like Pokémon with levitation abilities—delivering a television to the player's house. Upon turning the television on, Professor Oak appears to request the player's help: he is creating a new television network for Trainers and their Pokémon to enjoy together, and he wants the player to serve as a beta tester. He has them watch an episode of an anime called ''Pichu Brothers in Party Panic!'' and then introduces the game's basic features before leaving them alone. The player then hears Pokémon cries from outside, which turns out to belong to a Pikachu and two other creatures: the reptilian Treecko and the avian Torchic. While the others run off, the Pikachu stays and the player adopts it. Oak decides to allow Pikachu to be a second beta tester.

After completing a few tasks, the player returns to Oak's channel, and the Professor remarks that Pikachu has behaved remarkably well. The overexcited Pikachu uses its Thunderbolt attack on the television and destroys it. Unfazed, Oak has the Magnemite deliver a "retro" television while the player and Pikachu wait for a replacement of the original. When the replacement arrives the next morning, the Professor remarks that the player's viewership has brought life to the network and helped spawn new shows. The player then finds a bus stop and visits Viridian Forest, a location that first appeared in ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue''.

The third day opens with Pikachu asleep in the cupboard and Oak expressing pleasure at the Pokémon's growing attachment to the player. On the fourth day, Pikachu invites its friends back over. Little else occurs on these two days besides visits to the snowy Mt. Snowfall and the tropical Cobalt Coast, although Oak does continue to laud the player's investment in the network, which has become a huge success.

On the morning of the fifth day, the ''Pokémon News Flash'' reports on a breaking news story: a disc containing the unaired fifth episode of Pichu Brothers was dropped and lost by the delivery Magnemite on their way to the show's broadcasting studio. After obtaining a lamp from a friendly Duskull in the front lawn, the player takes a bus back to Mt. Snowfall, where the disc was presumed lost. Eastward are the Ruins of Truth, where the stubborn Ghost-type Pokémon Gengar blocks the player's path until it is scared away by the lamp. Inside the Ruins, Pikachu gets stuck inside a statue of the bat-like Pokémon Golbat. Upon being shaken free, the missing disc pops out. The player hands it back to Magnemite, who is waiting sheepishly outside, and heads home to watch the last episode, along with a video called ''Meowth's Party''.

Oak informs the player that every program produced for his network has been aired, thanking the player and Pikachu for their time, and announces the impending arrival of a gift for them. The gift, which arrives the following morning, is a "Star Projector", a device for viewing images flashed across the sky. That night, Professor Oak notices that a Pokémon has arrived at the player's house—the rare and legendary Jirachi—which leaves him in shock. The player, Pikachu, and Jirachi then visit Camp Starlight, the locale for which the Projector is intended. Using it, they project the entire series of Pichu Brothers and Meowth's Party onto the sky for the universe to see, and the story ends. This event also allows players of the PAL version (i.a. Europe and Australia) to download a Jirachi to a copy of ''Pokémon Ruby'' or ''Sapphire'' (as well as the patch that fixes the Berry Glitch) via the Nintendo GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable.

The series opens at Felicity's high school graduation, where she asks Ben Covington, a classmate on whom she has a crush, to sign her yearbook. Moved by his comment that he wished they had gotten to know each other further, she changes her education plans completely, deciding to follow Ben to New York rather than attend Stanford University as a pre-med student. Felicity's overbearing parents, concerned about Felicity's seemingly rash decision, come to New York to try to persuade her to return home and "get back on track". Felicity has second thoughts about her decision, but soon realizes that she came not only to follow Ben, but to discover her true inner self.

While Felicity works to sort out her emotions, she continues the basic motions of student life and moves into her dorm. There, she meets the resident advisor Noel Crane. Eventually, the two develop a romantic relationship, and the love triangle among Felicity, Ben, and Noel forms the basic dramatic conflicts in the show throughout the series.

A number of other characters appear and play large roles in Felicity's life. Her roommate for the first two years is Meghan Rotundi, a goth Wiccan who occasionally casts spells on Felicity and others. Julie Emrick is one of Felicity's best friends, as is Elena Tyler, who often takes classes with Felicity. Felicity also has male friends, including Sean Blumberg, who is always trying to produce new off-kilter inventions, and Javier Clemente Quintata, who manages the Dean & DeLuca where Felicity works for most of her college career.

A recurring episode opener of the show is a stark camera shot of Felicity sitting in a dormitory room or apartment holding a tape recorder, recalling events in order to make a cassette tape to send to an old friend named Sally Reardon (voiced by Janeane Garofalo). This occasionally provides a method for Felicity to narrate an entire episode. At the end of episodes like this, Felicity is often shown to be listening to a tape that Sally has sent in reply.

In two volumes, ''The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century'' tells the story of Julien Sorel's life in France's rigid social structure restored after the disruptions of the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Book I

Julien Sorel, the ambitious son of a carpenter in the fictional village of Verrières, in Franche-Comté, France, would rather read and daydream about the glorious victories of Napoleon's long-disbanded army than work in his father's timber business with his brothers, who beat him for his intellectual pretensions. He becomes an acolyte of the Abbé Chélan, the local Catholic prelate, who secures for Julien a job tutoring the children of Monsieur de Rênal, the mayor of Verrières. Although representing himself as a pious, austere cleric, Julien is uninterested in religious studies beyond the Bible's literary value and his ability to use memorized Latin passages to impress his social superiors.

He begins a love affair with Monsieur de Rênal's wife, which ends when her chambermaid, Elisa, who is also in love with Julien, makes it known to the village. The Abbé Chélan orders Julien to a seminary in Besançon, which he finds intellectually stifling and populated by social cliques. The initially cynical seminary director, the Abbé Pirard, likes Julien and becomes his protector. When the Abbé, a Jansenist, leaves the seminary, he fears Julien will suffer for having been his protégé and recommends Sorel as private secretary to the diplomat Marquis de la Mole, a Catholic legitimist.

Book II

In the years leading up to the July Revolution of 1830, Julien Sorel lives in Paris as an employee of the de la Mole family. Despite his sophistication and intellect, Julien is condescended to as an uncouth plebeian by the de la Moles and their friends. Meanwhile, Julien is acutely aware of the materialism and hypocrisy that permeate the Parisian elite and that the counterrevolutionary temper of the time renders it impossible for even well-born men of superior intellect and aesthetic sensibility to participate in the nation's public affairs.

Julien accompanies the Marquis de la Mole to a secret meeting, then is dispatched on a dangerous mission to communicate a letter from memory to the Duc d'Angoulême, who is exiled in England; but the callow Julien is distracted by an unrequited love affair and learns the message only by rote, missing its political significance as part of a legitimist plot. Unwittingly, he risks his life in service to the monarchists he most opposes; to himself, he rationalises these actions as merely helping the Marquis, his employer, whom he respects.

Meanwhile, the Marquis's languorous daughter, Mathilde de la Mole, has become emotionally torn between her romantic attraction to Julien for his admirable personal and intellectual qualities and her revulsion at becoming sexually intimate with a lower-class man. At first Julien finds her unattractive, but his interest is piqued by her attentions and the admiration she inspires in others; twice, she seduces and rejects him, leaving him in a miasma of despair, self-doubt, and happiness (for having won her over her aristocratic suitors). Only during his secret mission does he learn the key to winning her affections: a cynical ''jeu d'amour'' (game of love) taught to him by Prince Korasoff, a Russian man-of-the-world. At great emotional cost, Julien feigns indifference to Mathilde, provoking her jealousy with a sheaf of love-letters meant to woo Madame de Fervaques, a widow in the social circle of the de la Mole family. Consequently, Mathilde sincerely falls in love with Julien, eventually revealing to him that she carries his child; nevertheless, while he is on diplomatic mission in England, she becomes officially engaged to Monsieur de Croisenois, an amiable and wealthy young noble, heir to a duchy.

Learning of Julien's liaison with Mathilde, the Marquis de la Mole is angered, but he relents before her determination and his affection for Julien and bestows upon Julien an income-producing property attached to an aristocratic title as well as a military commission in the army. Although ready to bless their marriage, the marquis changes his mind after receiving a character-reference letter about Julien from the Abbé Chélan, Julien's previous employer in Verrières. Written by Madame de Rênal at the urging of her confessor priest, the letter warns the marquis that Julien is a social-climbing cad who preys upon emotionally vulnerable women.

On learning that the marquis now withholds his blessing of his marriage, Julien Sorel returns with a gun to Verrières and shoots Madame de Rênal during Mass in the village church; she survives, but Julien is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Mathilde tries to save him by bribing local officials, and Madame de Rênal, still in love with him, refuses to testify and pleads for his acquittal, aided by the priests who have looked after him since his early childhood. Yet Julien is determined to die, for the materialistic society of Restoration France has no place for a low-born man, whatever his intellect or sensibilities.

Meanwhile, the presumptive duke, Monsieur de Croisenois, one of the fortunate few of Bourbon France, is killed in a duel over a slur upon the honour of Mathilde de la Mole. Her undiminished love for Julien, his imperiously intellectual nature and romantic exhibitionism render Mathilde's prison visits to him a duty to endure and little more.

When Julien learns that Madame de Rênal survived her gunshot wound, his authentic love for her is resurrected, having lain dormant throughout his Parisian sojourn, and she continues to visit him in jail. After he is guillotined, Mathilde de la Mole reenacts the cherished 16th-century French tale of Queen Margot, who visited her dead lover, Joseph Boniface de La Mole, to kiss the forehead of his severed head. Mathilde then erects a shrine at Julien's tomb in the Italian fashion. Madame de Rênal, more quietly, dies in the arms of her children only three days later.

On the outskirts of a small town there is a rock formation called Witch Mountain rumored to possess mysterious powers. A young waitress, Zoe Moon (Perrey Reeves), finds and notices infant twin children Anna and Danny, who create a wave of purple energy when their hands touch. Before she can do anything, the children are separated when a hermit, Bruno (Brad Dourif), places Anna on a truck but flees when he is spotted by Sheriff Bronson (Kevin Tighe).

Danny (Erik von Detten) spends the next nine years of his life between foster families and frequently runs away. After his latest attempt is thwarted, his frustrated social worker decides to leave him at an orphanage run by Lindsay Brown (Lynne Moody). He is reunited with Anna (Elisabeth Moss) when she saves him from Xander (Sam Horrigan), an older boy at the orphanage who has a soft spot for Anna. Neither Danny or Anna are initially aware of their relationship, despite performing identical odd mannerisms. However, their newly found proximity to one another reawakens their supernatural powers and they realize that they are siblings. When Edward Bolt (Robert Vaughn), a local magnate seeking to develop the nearby Witch Mountain, notices their powers, he decides to care for both of them as their foster father. Though Danny is happy with the development because he has his sister and a nice home, Anna is apprehensive about being adopted by Bolt and befriends Bolt's chauffeur, Luthor (Brad Dourif), who feels he has a connection to the twins.

During one of their outings to a purple general store, Anna uses her telekinetic abilities and catches the attention of the store's owner, Waldo Fudd (Vincent Schiavelli). Waldo reveals he has the same abilities they do and that they are extraterrestrials from another world where everyone has a twin. When they came to Earth to explore, everyone separated due to the quarrels they experienced on Earth. Waldo has been working to reunite them all and take them home. Meanwhile, Zoe sees the purple light from the front of the shop and recognizes it and confronts Waldo to discover the fate of the twins she saw years earlier. Though he dismisses her claims, Waldo leaves her clues regarding Anna and Danny's fates if she wishes to help them.

Bolt reveals his true intention to exploit the twins' power to blast open Witch Mountain without explosives in order to obtain its valuable rock material, despite Waldo's protest that the mountain must not be tampered with. Anna discovers the truth and telepathically warns Danny, only to be held hostage by Bolt so that Danny will do as he asks. The twins are rescued by Xander and escape to Waldo's shop on a horse that Danny communicates with to help them. Lindsay becomes suspicious of Bolt when he sends the police to retrieve the children from the shop.

Zoe and Bruno help Danny and Anna escape to Witch Mountain after the twins levitate Bruno's truck, while Bolt is arrested by Bronson after Luthor exposes Bolt's plot. At Witch Mountain, Waldo and the other reunited twins await Anna and Danny so they can all return home. The last set of twins arrive soon after—Bruno and Luthor. Using Waldo and his twin's power on their home world, all of the twins return home in pairs, with Anna and Danny going last to close the gate between their home world and Earth. Waldo casually comments that he will be waiting for the next group of tourists, while Anna and Danny float up into the purple smoke to Witch Mountain. Zoe narrates that Witch Mountain is not haunted but has light in it.

This musical version is much closer to the 1937 film than to the original James Hilton novel. It tells the story of a group of travelers whose DC3 is hijacked while fleeing a bloody revolution. The aeroplane crash lands in an unexplored area of the Himalayas, where the party is rescued and taken to the lamasery of Shangri-La. Miraculously, Shangri-La (based on some aspects of Bhutan's culture), sheltered by mountains on all sides, is a temperate paradise amid the land of snows. Perfect health is the norm, and inhabitants live to very old age while maintaining a youthful appearance.

The newcomers quickly adjust, especially group leader and United Nations Peace Negotiator, Richard Conway. He falls in love with Catherine, a schoolteacher whose parents perished while hiking with her in the mountains. Drug addict photographer Sally Hughes is initially suicidal, but begins counseling with lamas Chang and To Len, eventually finding inner peace. Industrialist Sam Cornelius discovers gold in the local river, but Sally convinces him to use his engineering skills to bring better irrigation to the farmers of Shangri-La instead of smuggling the gold. Harry Lovett is a third-rate comic and song and dance man who has a flair for working with the children of Shangri-La.

Everyone is content to stay except Conway's younger brother, George. Shangri-La, despite its utopian allure, has certain expectations of its citizens. Specifically following the mantra of moderation in all things, simplicity and communal existence, as explained by Chang. George has also fallen in love with Maria, a dancer, and wants to take her along when he leaves. Chang warns Richard that Maria came to Shangri-La over 80 years before, at the age of 20. If she were to leave the valley, she would revert to her actual age.

Richard is summoned to meet the High Lama, who informs him that the plane was hijacked on purpose and that he was brought there for a reason, to succeed him as the leader of the community. The High Lama has been following Richard's actions in the United Nations for years. However, on the night that the High Lama dies, George and Maria insist to Richard that everything the High Lama and Chang have said is a lie. They convince him to leave immediately.

Still in shock from the High Lama's death, Richard leaves without even saying goodbye to Catherine. Not long after their departure, the trio is struggling to keep up with the local guides. As a blizzard starts, an avalanche erupts and kills the party of guides and they are stranded in the storm. Maria suddenly ages and dies, and George, running wildly in grief over the death of his partner, falls to his death down an icy ravine. Richard struggles on alone, ending up in a hospital bed in the Himalayan foothills. The United Nations discovers he has survived and sends a party to take him back to the Western world, however he runs away, back to the mountains, and finds the portal to Shangri-La once more.

Tony and Tia are orphaned teenagers who have paranormal abilities. Tony possesses the ability of telekinesis, which he can access most readily through playing music, particularly his harmonica. Tia's strengths include the ability to unlock any door by touch and communicate with animals. Both siblings can communicate via ultrasonic speech audible only to each other; but Tia cannot speak normally and is regarded as strange because of this. It is later revealed that Tia is not unusual in this respect, but Tony is; few of their kind have the ability to speak out loud. After their foster guardian, Mrs. Malone, dies, they are placed by social services in a juvenile detention home under grim, unwholesome conditions, where Tia befriends a black cat, Winkie.

Both have suppressed memories of their past, but discover a clue in an old road map hidden along with a cache of money in Tia's "star box", a leather purse-like box with a double-star design on it. In a chance encounter with a nun who is an art teacher, the nun reveals that she once received a letter on stationery with an identical design. The writer, a Blue Ridge Mountains resident with "a name like Caroway, or Garroway, or Hideaway" sought information on students who had "unusual aptitudes." When a man named Lucas Deranian, claiming to be the brother of their deceased father, shows up at the detention center to take custody of them, they instinctively know he is not their uncle and has ulterior motives. Unfortunately, when they attempt to reach the nun, they find that she has died.

With the assistance of an inner-city Roman Catholic priest, Father O'Day, the pair run away, following the map's route leading towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. As their memories begin to return, they realize that they are actually of extraterrestrial origin, their people having come to Earth because their own planet was drifting towards one of its two suns. Their flying saucer was shot down over Hungary, resulting in the deaths of all but Tony, Tia, and Uncle Bené - a non-relative, but one of their own people, who rescued the children from Soviet captivity. The book ties this event to the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.

Through a series of hardships, Tony and Tia find their way to their own people, who adopted the name Castaway. When the teenagers' would-be captor, Deranian (who O'Day earlier in the novel had likened to the devil), attempts to interrogate Father O'Day, the priest speaks to the effect that God is capable of creating many worlds and many peoples; that there are "mysteries far beyond [Deranian's] narrow dreaming."

As with most of Alexander Key's stories, the embattled protagonists find that most of the people they meet are untrustworthy, greedy, and hateful — making the decency of the few all the more poignant. O'Day puts himself in danger in order to help Tony and Tia, but he does so willingly, because their battle presents O'Day with an opportunity to fight the agents of evil, which is what he knows is his purpose in life and will deliver meaning to his life.

The novel was illustrated by Leon B. Wisdom, Jr. and originally published in 1968 by the Westminster Press in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The film deals with struggles of a widow, Kanku (Pallavi Mehta).

Lawrence Jamieson is an intelligent and sophisticated British con artist operating in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. With the help of manservant Arthur and amoral police official Andre, he seduces wealthy women and cons them out of money by posing as a prince in exile trying to raise money for his country's "freedom fighters." His only concern is another con artist known as "The Jackal" who has been reported in the area.

While on a train, Lawrence crosses paths with small-time American hustler Freddy Benson, who brags about his meager accomplishments at conning rich women out of money with a sob story about a sick grandmother. Worried that Freddy's inexperienced antics will scare away his prey, Lawrence attempts to trick Freddy into choosing a different destination, then has him arrested and put on a plane out of town. However, after Freddy meets one of Lawrence's former marks, he blackmails Lawrence into taking him on as a pupil.

Lawrence attempts to teach Freddy style and refinement, with limited success. He then involves Freddy in his cons, playing his mentally challenged brother Ruprecht to scare away women Lawrence has seduced (and now, in the new con, proposed to). When Lawrence refuses to give Freddy a cut of the profits, Freddy angrily quits but refuses to leave town.

Lawrence is unwilling to share his territory with Freddy, so the two agree on a bet: the first to con $50,000 out of a selected mark wins, and the other must leave town. They target new arrival Janet Colgate, the naïve "United States Soap Queen". Freddy poses as a psychosomatically crippled U.S. Navy veteran who needs $50,000 for treatment by the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Emil Schaffhausen of Liechtenstein. When Janet shows sympathy to Freddy, Lawrence poses as Dr. Schaffhausen and agrees to treat Freddy but stipulates that Janet pay the $50,000 fee directly to him.

Lawrence discovers that Janet is not actually a soap heiress, having won her vacation and "Soap Queen" title in a sweepstakes; nevertheless, she plans to liquidate most of her assets to pay for Freddy's treatment. Lawrence attempts to call off the bet, as he only cons wealthy marks. Freddy counters with a new bet: Janet herself, with the first in bed with her declared the winner. Lawrence is disgusted and refuses to seduce Janet, but agrees that should Freddy fail with Janet, he wins.

Under the guise of continuing Freddy's treatment, Lawrence dances with Janet and taunts Freddy, raising the ire of some nearby British sailors, whom Freddy convinces to waylay Lawrence. He rushes to Janet's hotel room, where he demonstrates his love by standing and walking to her. However, Lawrence has secretly been present the whole time and declares Freddy cured. Ushering Freddy out of the room, he explains that the sailors released him after discovering that he is a Royal Naval Reserve officer. Lawrence puts Janet on a departing plane and leaves the sailors with Freddy, who realizes that he lost the bet, but enjoys the merry drinking with them.

However, Janet instead returns to her hotel room and finds Freddy there. She declares her love for him, and they kiss and begin undressing. Andre reports this to Lawrence, who accepts his defeat with grace. He waits for Freddy to return and gloat over his victory, but instead Janet arrives in tears and says that Freddy stole the money her father sent. Disgusted, Lawrence calls Andre to have Freddy arrested, gives Janet a bag containing $50,000 of his own money, and takes her to the airport.

Before her plane departs, Janet returns Lawrence's bag, refusing to take what isn't hers. Andre arrives with Freddy, who claims that Janet stole his wallet and clothes. Lawrence disbelieves him, pointing out Janet's honesty in returning the $50,000. Opening his bag, he finds that the money has been replaced with Freddy's clothes and a note wherein Janet reveals herself to be the Jackal. Freddy is furious, while Lawrence is impressed.

The following week, Freddy and Lawrence contemplate their loss at Lawrence's villa. They are about to part ways when Janet, posing as a New York City real estate agent, arrives in a yacht filled with wealthy people. She prompts the shocked Lawrence and Freddy to assume roles in her scheme and, after sending her guests off to refresh themselves, takes the pair aside and announces that while she made three million dollars the previous year, "[their] fifty thousand was the most fun." Joining arms, they set out to fleece their latest victims.

Frenchmen Mario and Jo, German Bimba and Italian Luigi are stuck in the isolated town of Las Piedras. Surrounded by desert, the town is linked to the outside world only by an airstrip, but the airfare is beyond the means of the men. There is little opportunity for employment aside from the American corporation that dominates the town, Southern Oil Company (SOC), which operates the nearby oil fields and owns a walled compound within the town. SOC is suspected of unethical practices such as exploiting local workers and taking the law into its own hands, but the townspeople's dependence upon it is such that they suffer in silence.

Mario is a sarcastic Corsican playboy, who treats his devoted lover, Linda, with disdain. Jo is an aging ex-gangster who just recently found himself stranded in the town. Bimba is an intense, quiet man whose father was murdered by the Nazis, and who himself worked for three years in a salt mine. Luigi, Mario's roommate, is a jovial, hardworking man, who has just learned that he is dying from cement dust in his lungs. Mario befriends Jo due to their common background of having lived in Paris, but a rift develops between Jo and the other cantina regulars because of his combative, arrogant personality.

A massive fire erupts at one of the SOC oil fields. The only way to extinguish the flames and cap the well is an explosion caused by nitroglycerine. With short notice and lack of proper equipment, it must be transported within jerrycans placed in two large trucks from the SOC headquarters, 500 km (300 miles) away. Due to the poor condition of the roads and the highly volatile nature of nitroglycerine, the job is considered too dangerous for the unionized SOC employees.

The company foreman, Bill O'Brien, recruits truck drivers from the local community. Despite the dangers, many of the locals volunteer, lured by the high pay: US$2,000 per driver. This is a fortune to them, and the money is seen by some as the only way out of their dead-end lives. The pool of applicants is narrowed down to four handpicked drivers: Mario, Bimba and Luigi are chosen, along with a German named Smerloff. Smerloff fails to appear on the appointed day, so Jo, who knows O' Brien from his bootlegging days, is substituted in his place. The other drivers suspect that Jo intimidated Smerloff in some way to facilitate his own hiring.

Jo and Mario transport the nitroglycerin in one vehicle; Luigi and Bimba are in the other, with thirty minutes separating them in order to limit potential casualties. The drivers are forced to deal with a series of physical and mental obstacles, including a stretch of extremely rough road called "the washboard", a construction barricade that forces them to teeter around a rotten platform above a precipice, and a boulder blocking the road. Jo finds that his nerves are not what they used to be, and the others confront Jo about his increasing cowardice. Finally, Luigi and Bimba's truck explodes without warning, killing them both.

Mario and Jo arrive at the scene of the explosion only to find a large crater rapidly filling with oil from a pipeline ruptured in the blast. Jo exits the vehicle to help Mario navigate through the oil-filled crater. The truck, however, is in danger of becoming bogged down and during their frantic attempts to prevent it from getting stuck, Mario runs over Jo. Although the vehicle is ultimately freed from the muck, Jo is mortally wounded. On their arrival at the oil field, Mario and Jo are hailed as heroes, but Jo is dead and Mario collapses from exhaustion. Upon his recovery, Mario heads home in the same truck, now freed of its dangerous cargo. He collects double the wages following his friends' deaths, and refuses the appointed chauffeur offered by SOC. Mario jubilantly drives down a mountain road, while a party is being held at the cantina back in town where Mario's friends eagerly await his arrival, which is expected to be in two hours. Mario swerves recklessly and intentionally, having cheated death so many times on the same road. Linda, dancing in the cantina, faints. Mario takes one corner too fast and plunges through the guardrail to his death.

The film opens with a prologue that consists of four segments described by critics as "vignettes". They show the principal characters in different parts of the world and provide their backstories.

Part I: Prologue

Vignette #1: Veracruz, Mexico

Nilo (Rabal), an elegantly dressed man, enters a flat in Veracruz. Nilo immediately executes the unsuspecting tenant with a silenced revolver and proceeds to casually walk out of the building and onto the square.

Vignette #2: Jerusalem, Israel

A group of Palestinian militants disguised as Jews causes an explosion near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, after which they take shelter at their hideout, where they assemble weaponry and plan their escape. After getting surrounded by the Israel Defense Forces, they split up; two are killed and one is apprehended. The only one who manages to escape is Kassem (Amidou). The segment finishes as he helplessly stares from a crowd at his captured companion.

Vignette #3: Paris, France

While discussing a book his wife is editing, Victor Manzon (Cremer) discovers an anniversary gift from her: a watch with a special dedication. After meeting with the president of the Paris Stock Exchange, where he is accused of fraud, Victor is given 24 hours to provide collateral so the charges can be dropped. Victor meets his business partner and brother-in-law, Pascal, and they quarrel; Victor insists that Pascal contact his father for financial assistance. Victor dines with his wife and her friend in a glamorous restaurant; he later receives a message from a butler that Pascal is waiting outside. When he learns that Pascal's father has refused to help, Victor is adamant that they try again. He walks his partner to a car, but Pascal commits suicide. Faced with impending doom, Victor leaves both his country and wife.

Vignette #4: Elizabeth, New Jersey, US

In Elizabeth, an Irish gang robs a Catholic church that is connected with a rival Italian Mafia crew and organizes cash bingo games. During the robbery, one of the Irish-American gangsters shoots and wounds one of the priests counting the proceeds of the bingo. Back in their car, the Irish gang members engage in a heated argument that causes Jackie Scanlon (Scheider), the driver, to lose concentration and collide with a truck. Everyone is killed but Jackie, who escapes with serious injuries. The wounded priest turns out to be the brother of Carlo Ricci, an Italian Mafia kingpin who also controlled the flow of money in the church and is determined to kill Jackie at all costs. Jackie meets with his friend Vinnie, who reveals his fate and finds a suitable place for him to escape. The only option Jackie has is to agree.

Part II: Life in Porvenir

Kassem, Victor, and Jackie all assume fake identities and end up in Porvenir, a remote village in Colombia. Its conditions provide a stark contrast to their previous lives. The village economy is heavily reliant on an American oil company. Kassem befriends a man called 'Marquez' (John), presumably a Nazi war veteran. They all live in extreme poverty and earn meager salaries. All want out, but their savings are inadequate for emigration. After some time, Nilo arrives in the village, raising suspicions. In the meantime, an oil well explodes, and the only way to extinguish the fire is to use dynamite. Since the only available dynamite has been improperly stored in a remote depot, the nitroglycerin contained inside has become highly unstable; the faintest vibration could cause an explosion. With all other means ruled out, the only way to transport it the is to use trucks. The company seeks four drivers to man two vehicles. Kassem, Victor, Jackie and 'Marquez' are offered the job, but they have to assemble the trucks using scrap parts. Shortly before their departure, Nilo kills and replaces 'Marquez', which angers Kassem.

Part III: Journey

The four drivers embark upon a perilous journey of over , facing many hazards and internal conflicts. Despite their differences, they are forced to co-operate. They traverse a rotten bridge during a violent thunderstorm, Nilo and Jackie nearly losing their truck in the process. The team is forced to use one of the boxes of dynamite to destroy a massive fallen tree blocking their path. The rough terrain on a cliff-side road causes Kassem and Victor's truck to blow a tire, sending the truck over the cliff; it explodes and kills the pair. When Nilo and Jackie stop at the scene of the destruction, bandits surround them in an attempted robbery. They kill the bandits but Nilo is mortally wounded, soon dying from his injuries. Now alone, Jackie struggles to stay sane, overwhelmed by hallucinations and flashbacks. When his truck's engine dies just two miles short of the destination, he is forced to carry the remaining nitroglycerin on foot.

Epilogue

At the bar back in Porvenir, Jackie is given a Colombian passport and payment for the job by the oil company, as well as an offer of another job. Before he leaves, he asks a scrub woman for a dance. As the two dance, Carlo Ricci's henchmen, along with Jackie's old friend Vinnie, emerge from a taxi outside. They walk into the bar and a single gunshot is heard as the screen cuts to the end credits.

The plot of ''Pincher Martin'' surrounds the survival and psychophysical, spiritual and existential plight of one Christopher Hadley "Pincher" Martin, a temporary naval lieutenant who believes himself to be the sole survivor of a military torpedo destroyer which sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean. At the start of the novel Martin is in the water and desperately fighting for his life. He is apparently saved after being providentially washed ashore a rocky mid-Atlantic islet. He deduces that his naval crew is dead and begins his grim struggle for survival but, as time goes by, a series of strange and increasingly terrifying events, which he at first dismisses as hallucinations, slowly provokes in him an existential crisis.

Throughout the novel Golding juxtaposes themes of sanity and insanity, and reality and unreality. At first Martin is portrayed as a thinking individual, who uses his intelligence, education and training to source food, collect fresh water and alert any potential rescuers. It is in fact during this rational phase that Martin is at his most delusional. It is only when insanity takes hold that he begins to comprehend the reality of his predicament: 'There is a pattern emerging. I do not know what the pattern is but even my dim guess at it makes my reason falter'.

The novel's twist ending reveals that Martin actually drowned shortly after his ship was sunk. When his body is found it is noted that "he didn't even have time to kick off his seaboots". This means that his struggle for survival on the island never actually happened, which changes the work into an allegory of purgatory and damnation. In the ''Radio Times'' of 21 March 1958, Golding explains that Martin driven by a selfish greed for life has continued to exist in another dimension: "His drowned body lies rolling in the Atlantic but the ravenous ego invents a rock for him to endure on".

David Gore becomes concerned that his twelve-year-old son, Matthew, is too old to have an imaginary friend. His concerns deepen as Matthew becomes increasingly distressed and blames it on arguments with this unseen companion, whom he calls "Chocky". As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the friend is far from imaginary, but is an alien consciousness communicating with Matthew's mind; which is of interest to shadowy government forces.

"Chocky" reveals that it is a scout sent from its home planet (where there is only one sex) in search of new planets to colonise, or to provide subtle guidance to newly-emerging intelligent life. "Chocky", talking through Matthew, explains to David that in becoming overly attached to Matthew and saving him and his sister from a recent accident, it has violated the rules of its scout mission (interfering with events on Earth) and must end its link with him completely. Its further work on Earth will be conducted in a much more covert manner.

Samson, a Danite Hebrew placed under Nazirite vows from birth by his mother Hazelelponit, is engaged to a Philistine woman named Semadar. At their wedding feast, Samson loses a bet with his wedding guests because of Semadar and attacks 30 Philistines to strip them of their cloaks to pay his betting debt. After paying his debt, Samson searches for Semadar, only to learn that her father Tubal married her to a Philistine once Samson left the wedding to pay his debt. A fight breaks out between Samson and the Philistines, which results in the death of Semadar and Tubal. Samson becomes a hunted man, and in his fury he begins fighting the Philistines. The Saran of Gaza imposes heavy taxes on the Danites, with the purpose of having Samson betrayed by his own people. The Saran's plan works, and frustrated Danites hand over Samson to the Philistines, much to the joy of Delilah, Semadar's younger sister. Samson is taken by Prince Ahtur, the military governor of the land of Dan, and a regiment of Philistine troops. En route back to Gaza, Ahtur decides to taunt Samson. Samson rips apart his chains and ropes and begins to combat the Philistines, toppling Ahtur's war chariot and using the jawbone of an ass to club the Philistine soldiers to death.

News of the defeat of Ahtur at the hands of Samson reaches the Saran. The Saran ponders how to defeat Samson. Delilah comes up with the idea of seducing Samson, thus having him reveal the secret of his strength and then deliver him for punishment. Her plan works; she cuts his hair, which he feels gives him his strength. To fully neutralize him, Samson is blinded by his captors and put to slave work, and is eventually brought to the temple of Dagon for the entertainment of the Philistines and the Saran. However, Delilah has been in love with Samson ever since his engagement with Semadar, and his blindness and torture make her feel deep remorse over her betrayal. She initially had betrayed him because she wanted to avenge the deaths of her father and sister, which she thought were caused "because of Samson."

Delilah later attends the public torture of Samson wielding a whip, which she uses to guide him to the temple's main support pillars. Once he stands between them, he tells Delilah to flee, but she remains, unseen by him, as he pushes the pillars apart. The pillars give way and the temple collapses, burying Samson, Delilah, and all the Philistines, including the court. In the end, the temple lies in rubble, and Saul and Miriam, his two closest Danite Hebrew friends, are left to mourn Samson's passing.

The movie begins with a film director, played by director Maurizo Nichetti himself, discussing his latest film on an intellectual Italian TV channel which is about to broadcast it at short notice in place of a more highly regarded competitor’s. His "masterpiece" follows the bleak travails of a poverty-stricken unemployed man (again played by Nichetti) who finds work in a chandelier factory, but cannot resist stealing one of the gleaming lights for his wife. The pompous director is initially pleased with the seriousness with which his work is analysed, but he then becomes distraught when his black-and-white opus is repeatedly interrupted by full-colour commercials. The TV audience, watching in their homes, are completely oblivious of the interruptions and the "outrages" perpetrated on the director’s artistic intentions.

Nested film plot

The nested film borrows key elements from the ''Bicycle Thieves'', with the protagonist family having the same first names from the original, and the director intending to end the film tragically. The director’s original plot followed the travails of Antonio Piermattei (Maurizo Nichetti) and his impoverished family: Antonio finds work in a chandelier factory, where he tries to steal one of the lights for his wife, Maria (Caterina Sylos Labini).

When Antonio manages to smuggle a chandelier out of the factory, he is supposed to be paralysed by a traffic accident with a truck while riding home with the chandelier (just after the plot diverges due to a power failure). The accident would have forced Maria into prostitution, with their two sons, Bruno (Federico Rizzo) and Paolo (Matteo Auguardi), ending up in an orphanage in the final scene.

Plot divergence

A power failure in the studio causes a model (Heidi Komarek) from one of the commercials to end up in the nested film's universe and disrupt the plot. Maria, thinking that Antonio is having an affair with the model, enters the commercial universe by faking her death, causing the police in the film to accuse Antonio of murdering her.

Nichetti is forced to enter the film universe to restore the original plot, but Bruno convinces Don Italo (Renato Scarpa) to shift the blame from Antonio to Nichetti for Maria's murder, after learning of Nichetti’s orphanage plot: this causes Nichetti to chase Bruno through the commercial universe before ending up in the commercial for floor wax, where Maria had been realising her aspiration as a singer.

Actual ending

Back in the film universe, Antonio laments the apparent loss of Maria and Bruno, and the possibility of the model leaving him due to the grim nature of the film. However, Nichetti manages to convince Maria and Bruno to return to the film universe with shopping carts of modern-day goods, with the Piermattei family reunited the satisfaction of the viewer (Carlina Torta). Nichetti then attempts to return to the real world, only to be trapped in the film universe after the viewer switches off the television set before going to bed.

Fugitive bank robber brothers Seth and Richie Gecko hold up a liquor store, killing clerk Pete Bottoms and Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in a shootout. They inadvertently destroy the building as they leave. At an inn room where they are hiding out, Seth returns from getting food to find Richie has raped and murdered a bank clerk they had taken hostage, much to his anger.

Jacob Fuller, a pastor experiencing a crisis of faith brought on by the death of his wife, is on vacation with his teenage children Scott and Kate in their RV. They stop at the inn and are kidnapped by the Gecko brothers, who force the Fuller family to smuggle them over the Mexican border. In Mexico, they arrive at the Titty Twister, a strip club in the desert, where the Gecko brothers will be met by their contact, Carlos, at dawn. Carlos will escort them to sanctuary at "El Rey", a place of safety for fugitives from justice whose admission fee is 30 percent of everything they have. When Richie complains to Seth that this is too high, Seth tells him it is non-negotiable.

During a bar fight, the bar employees reveal themselves as vampires and kill most of the patrons. Richie is bitten by a stripper, Santanico Pandemonium, and dies, but Seth manages to kill her by shooting at a chandelier above her that impales her. Only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine, and Frost — a Vietnam veteran — survive. The others are reborn as vampires, including Richie, forcing the survivors to kill them all. When an army of vampires, in bat form, assembles outside, the survivors lock themselves inside, but Sex Machine is bitten, becomes a vampire, and bites Frost and Jacob. Frost throws Sex Machine through the door, allowing the vampires to enter while Frost turns into a vampire.

Seth, Kate, and Scott escape to a storeroom, followed shortly by an injured but still alive Jacob, brandishing a shotgun. In the storeroom, they fashion weapons from truck cargo the vampires have looted from past victims, including a stake mounted on a pneumatic drill, a crossbow and holy water, which requires Jacob to recover his faith to bless. Jacob, knowing he will soon become a vampire, makes Scott and Kate promise to kill him when he changes.

The group makes their final assault on the undead. Sex Machine mutates into a large rat-like creature and attacks Seth, but is killed. Jacob becomes a vampire but Scott hesitates to kill him, allowing Jacob to bite him. Scott hits Jacob with holy water and shoots and kills him. Scott is overwhelmed by vampires, who begin to devour him; he begs for death and Kate shoots him dead in an act of mercy. As vampires surround Kate and Seth, streams of morning light enter through bullet holes in the building, making the vampires back away. Carlos arrives and his bodyguards blast open the door, letting in the sunlight, which kills the vampires.

Seth chastises Carlos for his poor choice of meeting place, and negotiates a smaller tribute for his admission to El Rey. Kate asks Seth if she can go with him to El Rey, but he refuses, apparently concerned for her safety, leaving her with some cash. Kate drives away in the RV, leaving the Titty Twister behind, which is revealed to be the top of an eight-level partially buried Aztec temple.

After the events of ''Legally Blonde'', Elle Woods wants her Chihuahua, Bruiser, to reunite with his mother, because she would like her to attend her wedding to Emmett. Elle hires a detective to find Bruiser's mother, only to discover that the owner of her dog's mother is C'est Magnifique, a cosmetics company that uses Bruiser's mother for "testing". She finds out that her law firm represents the corporation and when she urges the firm to drop them as a client, she is fired.

Elle decides to leave Boston, where she and Bruiser have settled with her fiancé Emmett, and go to Washington, D.C., to work on Bruiser's Bill. Upset that her dog's mother is in a make-up testing laboratory, and decides to take it upon herself to be the "voice for those who can't speak" and to outlaw animal testing.

While working for Congresswoman Victoria Rudd, Elle is met with skepticism and other barriers common to Washington politics. Rudd's member of staff, Timothy, sarcastically calls her "Capitol Barbie". (There has even been a Barbie doll based on Elle Woods.)

After a variety of ups and downs including a failed attempt to improve her work environment by having her co-workers write compliments about one another and place them in the "snap cup", Elle starts to lose her faith in Washington politics.

Elle discovers that Bruiser is actually gay, after she is paged by "The Paws That Refreshes: A Doggy Day Spa". He has been affectionate with Leslie, a Rottweiller owned by Congressman Stan Marks, the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce which has jurisdiction over Bruiser's Bill. Elle also finds that Congresswoman Libby Hauser, the Ranking Member of the same committee, was a member of Elle's sorority Delta Nu. As a result, both Marks and Hauser warm to Elle and eventually come to support Bruiser's Bill.

Elle also discovers that Congresswoman Rudd has actually been working against her. She has been trying to satisfy the interests of a major campaign donor named "Bob" (who is never seen, but with whom Rudd has several telephone conversations).

However, Rudd is eventually blackmailed into supporting Elle's petition thanks to her Chief of Staff, Grace Rossiter. She has a recorded conversation during which Rudd admits to Elle that she has been working against Bruiser's Bill in order to help her sponsors who want to continue testing on animals.

As Grace is appalled that Rudd lied to Elle and blamed it on her, Grace and Elle eventually reach a place of mutual respect, especially after Grace admits she came to Washington D.C. with an enthusiasm not unlike Elle's, but later lost that idealism when she discovered how dirty politics could really be.

With the help of her friends, Elle's discharge petition is successful, and Bruiser's Bill is brought to the floor of the House. Bruiser's mother and the rest of the dogs are released by C'est Magnifique Corporation.

Elle and Emmett get married in a park in D.C., albeit not at Fenway Park as they had planned, but standing on the home plate which has been delivered to D.C. by Paulette's husband. Emmett asks Elle where she wants to live since they are now a married couple, and he goes on to suggest the cities of Boston, New York City, and Washington DC. Elle glances at the White House, winking at the camera as the movie ends.

A jock sneaks into his supposed girlfriend's house with flowers for her. It is cold inside and when he approaches his girlfriend's room he finds a dead man with his mouth wide open. He then spots two more corpses.

Elsewhere, Luke Callahan and Roger, two college freshmen and virgins, are desperate to get laid. While doing their laundry after drinking too much beer, Luke meets two seductive girls named Lily and Constance. When Lily deliberately leaves a roll of quarters in the laundry, an inebriated and horny Luke goes to return them to her. He finds her room is unlocked and he decides to sneak in, finding that it is very cold inside. But when the girls suddenly return, he decides to hide in the closet. Luke watches as the girls open the windows and let the cold winter air surround them, seemingly arousing and comforting them as they strip naked, much to Luke's amusement. He then watches in horror and confusion as reptilian tentacles unfold from their chests and sexually arouse them while Constance sprays Lily down with a can of liquid nitrogen. Luke, horrified and intrigued, decides to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Meanwhile, the police find the body of a young man named Bobby from the college, frozen from the inside out and his mouth wide open with a look of terror on his face. He oddly also has a noticeable erection. The forensic scientists assume a "keg drinking tube" was shoved down his throat, not realizing it was actually Lily, who shoved her alien tentacle down his throat while having sex with him. Luke, with his girlfriend Alex, decides to try to find out what these aliens are and if needed, exterminate them.

Luke and Roger's friend Gibby wanders into a cemetery with his girlfriend Natasha. They enter a mausoleum and begin to have sex on a cement slab. As Gibby ejaculates, Natasha reveals that she is an alien as her tentacles emerge from her chest and immobilize Gibby. a toothy ovipositor tentacle unfolds and is shoved down his throat as part of the alien mating process. After completing the mating process, Gibby freezes solid and dies, thus not surviving the mating process, much to Natasha's disappointment.

In an effort to catch the aliens in the act and prove their existence, Luke and Alex hatch a plan to record them. Luke plants a camera in his bedroom and manages to get a very-horny Lily to go to bed with him. While Alex watches from a different room, Luke and Lily disrobe and prepare to have sex. As Lily mounts him, Luke notices a strange green organ between her breasts. The camera suddenly malfunctions, and Lily realizes she's being recorded. Angered, Lily prepares to rape Luke to death and unleashes her tentacles but accidentally knocks over a candle, which starts a fire. Seemingly vulnerable to the heat, Lily screams and sheds her human form, letting Luke get a good look at what the aliens look like in their true form; humanoid reptilians. Lily escapes, but Luke and Alex fail to capture any evidence.

Constance, meanwhile, becomes emotionally engaged with Roger, explains to him that the aliens have come to Earth to impregnate men, as their race is dying out. To save their people, the aliens persuade men to come with them, promising sex. However, the "mating" process involves sticking their tentacles down the male's throat. Most men die because they cannot survive the cold temperature. Roger allows Constance to "mate" with him after she explains everything as she has fallen in love with him when she wasn't supposed to. She explains that they're merely trying to survive and that they don't want anyone to die. He agrees to allow her to impregnate him, giving her race a chance to survive. Luke comes in just in time to see an alien offscreen crawl out of Roger's mouth. Roger dies soon after, leaving Constance horrified because she didn't want him to die.

Luke has discovered that, while the aliens love the cold, they hate heat. Luke has also discovered that Gibby is dead at this point having been frozen by Natasha. Luke teams up with Detective Amanda (his former girlfriend) and obtains a home-made flamethrower, determined to put an end to the aliens' terror. Luke confronts the aliens and kills Natasha and Lily by burning them, not realizing the truth of their mission. He then chases Constance and confronts her, but the flamethrower runs out of propane. Seeing him vulnerable, Constance leaps on top of him, knocking him to the ground. She straddles him and beats him down, then releases her tentacles, preparing to throat-rape him. However, just before Luke is impregnated, Amanda shows up and shoots Constance, knocking her off. Using an ax, Luke breaks open high-pressure pipes and kills Constance with steam. Luke now has solid evidence of the aliens' existence as there were witnesses who saw them in their true form, and he leaves Amanda to deal with them while he runs off with Alex.

Alex takes Luke to her apartment, and the two profess their love for each other. They take off their clothes and prepare to have sex. Alex mounts Luke, and tells him she can finally have her way with him. There's a sudden flashback to the very beginning of the movie when the jock finds the dead men. He looks up and sees Alex who then says "You're early". Luke realizes Alex is an alien, minutes too late. He screams as she pins him down and her tentacles appear. The camera zooms out of the room as Luke's screams fade away as he is presumably raped and impregnated.

The story is about a lawsuit concerning injuries caused by a defective automobile. The suit takes on a personal dimension because the injured plaintiff's attorney, Jedediah Tucker Ward discovers that the automobile manufacturer's attorney is his estranged daughter Maggie Ward.

Jedediah Ward is a liberal civil rights lawyer who has based his career on helping people avoid being taken for a ride by the rich and powerful; he's pursued principle at the expense of profit, though he has a bad habit of not following up on his clients after their cases are settled.

Jed's daughter, Maggie, has had a bad relationship with her father ever since she discovered that he was cheating on her mother, Estelle, and while she also has made a career in law, she has taken a very different professional route by working for a high-powered corporate law firm and has adopted a self-interested political agenda.

Jed is hired to help field a lawsuit against ARGO, a major auto manufacturer, whose Meridian station wagons have a dangerous propensity to explode on impact when the left turn light is activated, but while his research indicates he has an all but airtight case against them, the case becomes more complicated for him when he discovers that Maggie is representing the firm he's suing.

The auto manufacturer in the film also utilizes a "bean-counting" approach to risk management, whereby the projections of actuaries for probable deaths and injured car-owners is weighed against the cost of re-tooling and re-manufacturing the car without the defect (exploding gas tanks) with the resulting decision to keep the car as-is to positively benefit short term profitability.

After spending the night at a doss house, where he has taken pictures for a book of art photos, photographer Thomas is late for a photo shoot with model Veruschka at his studio, which in turn makes him late for a shoot with other models later in the morning. He grows bored and walks off, leaving the models and production staff in the lurch. As he departs the studio, two teenaged girls who are aspiring models ask to speak to him, but Thomas drives off to visit at an antique shop.

Wandering into Maryon Park, Thomas takes photos of two lovers. The woman, Jane, is furious at being photographed, and pursues Thomas, demands his film, and ultimately tries to snatch his camera. He refuses and photographs her as she runs away through a meadow. Thomas then meets his agent Ron for lunch, and notices a man following him and looking into his car. Back at his studio, Jane arrives, asking desperately for the film. She and Thomas have a conversation and flirt, but he deliberately hands her a different film roll. She, in turn, writes down a false telephone number and gives it to him.

Thomas, curious, makes multiple zooms of the black-and-white film of Jane and her lover. They reveal Jane worriedly looking at a third person lurking in the trees with a pistol. Thomas excitedly calls Ron, claiming his impromptu photo session may have saved a man's life. Thomas is disturbed by a knock on the door, and it is the two girls again, with whom he has a romp in his studio and falls asleep. Awakening, he finds they hope he will photograph them, but he realizes there may be more to the photographs in the park. He tells them to leave, saying, "Tomorrow! Tomorrow!"

Further examination of a blurred figure under a bush makes Thomas suspect the man in the park may have been murdered after all, during the time Thomas was arguing with the woman around the bend.

As evening falls, the photographer goes back to the park and finds the body of the man, but he has not brought his camera and is scared off by the sound of a twig breaking, as if being stepped on. Thomas returns to find his studio ransacked. All the negatives and prints are gone except for one very grainy blowup of what is possibly the body.

After driving into town, he sees the woman and follows her into a club where The Yardbirds, featuring both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck on guitar and Keith Relf on vocals, are seen performing the song "Stroll On". A buzz in Beck's amplifier angers him so much, he smashes his guitar on stage, then throws its neck into the crowd. A riot ensues. The photographer grabs the neck and runs out of the club before anyone can snatch it from him. Then, he has second thoughts about it, throws it on the pavement, and walks away. A passer-by picks up the neck and throws it back down, not realizing it is from Beck's guitar. Thomas never locates the elusive woman.

At a drug-drenched party in a house on the Thames near central London, the photographer finds Veruschka, who had told him that she was going to Paris; when confronted, she says she is in Paris. Thomas asks Ron to come to the park as a witness, but cannot convince him of what has happened because Ron is incredibly stoned. Instead, Thomas joins the party and wakes up in the house at sunrise. He returns to the park alone, only to find that the body is gone.

Befuddled, Thomas watches a mime troupe perform a tennis match, is drawn to it, after a bit picks up the imaginary ball and throws it back to the two players. As he watches the mime, the sound of the ball being played is heard and his image fades away, leaving only the grass as the film ends.

On Christmas Eve, a baby at an orphanage crawls into Santa Claus' sack and is unknowingly taken back to the North Pole. After the child is discovered at the workshop, the elves name him Buddy after his diaper's brand label and Papa Elf adopts him. Buddy is accepted by the elf community and grows up thinking that he is an elf, but soon learns he is really a human. Papa Elf explains that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells, and that Susan put him up for adoption prior to her death. Walter now works as a children's book publisher at the Empire State Building in New York City, unaware of Buddy's existence. Santa reveals that Walter is on the Naughty List due to his selfishness, but suggests Buddy could help redeem Walter.

Buddy travels to New York and finds Walter at work, but Walter mistakes him for a Christmas-gram messenger and has him ejected. Buddy heads to a local Gimbels department store and meets Jovie, an unenthusiastic employee with whom he is instantly smitten. Hearing that Santa will be at the store the following day, Buddy redecorates the store overnight. However, upon realizing that the Gimbels Santa is not the genuine article, Buddy unmasks him and causes a brawl in the store that the manager breaks up.

Walter reluctantly bails Buddy out of the police station and takes him for a DNA test, confirming that Buddy is his biological son. Dr. Leonardo convinces Walter to take Buddy home to meet his stepmother Emily and half-brother Michael. Walter and Michael are unnerved by Buddy's strange behavior, but Emily insists that they care for him until he "recovers". Michael warms up to Buddy after they defeat a gang of bullies in a snowball fight and encourages Buddy to ask Jovie out on a date. During the date, the two fall in love.

Meanwhile, Walter's publishing company is failing after their latest book flops. Walter's boss, Fulton Greenway, expects Walter to have a new book ready by Christmas Eve. Walter and his team secure a meeting with best-selling children's author Miles Finch, but Buddy interrupts the meeting and mistakes Finch, who has dwarfism, for an elf. Buddy unintentionally insults Finch before the latter attacks him and leaves the meeting, upon which Walter loses his temper and harshly disowns Buddy. Heartbroken, Buddy writes an apology note on an Etch A Sketch and leaves Walter's apartment.

Upon finding Finch's notebook full of ideas, Walter and his team scramble to create a book to pitch. As Walter prepares to pitch the book to Greenway, Michael arrives and informs Walter of Buddy's departure. Realizing his mistake, Walter quits his job and walks out with Michael to find Buddy. Meanwhile, Buddy sees Santa's sleigh crash in Central Park, attracting a large crowd. Santa explains that the sleigh's engine is lost and cannot fly without it due to a shortage of Christmas spirit.

Buddy finds the engine and reunites with Walter and Michael. Walter apologizes to Buddy for how he treated him and accepts him as his son. After he takes them to meet Santa, Michael takes Santa's list and reads it in front of television news cameras gathered outside the park, proving that Santa is real. A group of Central Park Rangers, who are angry at Santa for placing them on the Naughty List, chase the sleigh as Buddy tries to reattach the engine. Jovie leads the crowd and those watching on television in singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", raising enough Christmas spirit to fully power the sleigh without the engine.

By the following Christmas, Buddy writes a book about his life, which becomes a bestseller and allows Walter to establish his own publishing company. Buddy also marries Jovie and brings their newborn daughter Susie to visit Papa Elf.

Ariel and Eric celebrate the birth of their daughter Melody on a ship at sea. Ariel's father King Triton presents Melody with a magic locket. The party is interrupted by Ursula's sister Morgana, who threatens to have Melody fed to her pet tiger shark, Undertow, unless Triton surrenders his trident to her. Morgana then announces her plan to use the trident to avenge Ursula and take over the ocean. Ariel and Eric work together to foil Morgana's plan, and Triton shrinks Undertow to the size of a piranha. Morgana escapes, eluding the attempts of King Triton's forces to capture her and declaring that she will someday exact her revenge on both Ariel and Triton and avenge Ursula's death. Fearing Morgana and remembering Ursula, Ariel decides that, until Morgana is captured, they will have to withhold all knowledge of the sea world and her heritage from Melody in order to protect her. Triton tosses the locket into the ocean, and a massive wall is built to separate the royal castle from the sea. Triton assigns Sebastian to watch over Melody.

Twelve years later, Melody remains unaware of her mother's mermaid heritage and is forbidden from ever going into the sea. However, she has been sneaking out of the castle regularly to swim, and one day finds the locket. Seeing her name on the locket, Melody questions her mother about it, but Ariel confronts Melody and forbids her to go into the sea. Frustrated with her mother's refusal to answer her questions, Melody steals a small boat and sails away from home. Melody is discovered by Undertow, who leads her straight to Morgana. In desperation, Sebastian tells Ariel and Eric that Melody went out to the sea. Meanwhile, Melody meets Morgana, who reveals that Melody's background is marine, and uses the remains of Ursula's magic to transform Melody into a mermaid. Triton prepares search parties, and is convinced by Ariel and Eric to use his trident to transform Ariel back into a mermaid in order to help in the search for Melody. Ariel searches the sea for Melody, regretting not sharing her heritage with her, while Melody explores her newfound abilities as a mermaid, and has a strong feeling that she was meant to be part of the sea.

Melody visits Morgana to thank her, only for Morgana to tell Melody that the spell was only temporary, and that she can only make the spell permanent if Melody retrieves the trident from Triton, which Morgana claims he stole from her. Melody decides to get the trident, and during her search befriends Tip and Dash, a penguin and walrus duo who join her. Melody succeeds in stealing the trident, and returns to Morgana, but before Melody can hand the trident over to Morgana, Ariel arrives and pleads for Melody not to give Morgana the trident. Melody refuses to listen to Ariel, having been angered by Ariel's decision to lie to her, and gives Morgana the trident. With the trident in her power, Morgana reveals her true intentions, and traps Melody in a cave by sealing the entrance with a thick layer of ice, while also informing her that her time as a mermaid is about to expire. Soon afterward, Morgana's spell on Melody wears off, causing her to revert into a human and nearly drown. Tip and Dash manage to free her and drag her to the shore.

Morgana uses the trident's magic to lord over the ocean, rising to the surface to gloat. Scuttle, Triton, Sebastian, and Eric arrive, and a battle ensues against Morgana and her minions. Melody manages to grab the trident and throws it back to Triton, who encases Morgana in a block of ice, which sinks underwater. Melody reunites with her family, and Triton offers his granddaughter the choice of becoming a mermaid permanently. Instead, Melody uses the trident to destroy the wall separating her home from the sea, reuniting the humans and the merpeople.

The action is set in the Hall of David Bliss's house at Cookham, Berkshire, by the River Thames.

Act I

;A Saturday afternoon in June

Sorel and Simon Bliss, a brother and sister, exchange artistic and bohemian dialogue. Judith, their mother, displays the absent-minded theatricality of a retired star actress, and David, their father, a novelist, is concentrating on finishing his latest book. Each of the four members of the Bliss family, without consulting the others, has invited a guest for the weekend. Judith announces that she has decided to return to the stage in one of her old hits, ''Love's Whirlwind''. She and Sorel and Simon amuse themselves acting out a melodramatic passage from the play beginning, "Is this a game?" "Yes, and a game that must be played to the finish!" They are interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.

Clara, Judith's former dresser and now her housekeeper, opens the door to the first of the four guests, Sandy Tyrell, a sporty fan of Judith's. The next arrival is the vampish Myra Arundel, whom Simon has invited. The other two guests arrive together: Richard Greatham, a diplomat, and Jackie Coryton, a brainless but good-hearted young flapper. Tea is served. Conversation is stilted and eventually grinds to a halt. The scene ends in total and awkward silence.

Act II

;After dinner that night

The family insists that everyone should join in a parlour game, a variety of charades in which one person must guess the adverb being acted out by the others. The Blisses are in their element, but the guests flounder and the game breaks up. Simon and Jackie exit to the garden, Sorel drags Sandy into the library, and David takes Myra outside.

Left alone with Richard, Judith flirts with him, and when he chastely kisses her she theatrically over-reacts as though they were conducting a serious affair. She nonplusses Richard by talking of breaking the news to David. She in turn is nonplussed to discover Sandy and Sorel kissing in the library. That too has been mere flirtation, but both Judith and Sorel enjoy themselves by exaggerating it. Judith gives a performance nobly renouncing her claim on Sandy, and exits. Sorel explains to Sandy that she was just playing the theatrical game for Judith's benefit, as "one always plays up to Mother in this house; it's a sort of unwritten law." They leave.

David and Myra enter. They too indulge in a little light flirtation, at the height of which Judith enters and finds them kissing. She makes a theatrical scene, with which David dutifully plays along. Simon rushes in violently, announcing that he and Jackie are engaged. Sorel and Sandy enter from the library, Judith goes into yet another bout of over-theatrical emoting. In the ensuing uproar, Richard asks "Is this a game?" Judith, Sorel and Simon seize on this cue from ''Love's Whirlwind'' and trot out the melodramatic dialogue as they had in Act I. David is overcome with laughter and the uncomprehending guests are dazed and aghast as Judith ends the scene by falling to the floor as if in a faint.

Act III

;The next morning

A breakfast table has been laid in the hall. Sandy enters and begins eating nervously. At the sound of someone approaching he escapes into the library. Jackie enters, helps herself to some breakfast and bursts into tears. Sandy comes out and they discuss how uncomfortable they were the night before and how mad the Bliss family are. When they hear people approaching, they both retreat to the library. Myra and Richard now enter and begin breakfast. Their conversation mirrors that of Sandy and Jackie, who emerge from the library to join them. All four decide that they are going to return to London without delay. Sandy agrees to drive them in his motor car. They go upstairs to collect their things.

Judith comes down, asks Clara for the Sunday papers and begins reading aloud what the gossip columns say about her. The rest of her family enter. David proposes to read them the final chapter of his novel. Immediately, a minor detail about the geography of Paris is blown into a full-scale family row, with everyone talking at once about whether the Rue Saint-Honoré does or does not connect with the Place de la Concorde and hurling insults at each other. They are so wrapped up in their private row that they do not notice when the four visitors tiptoe down the stairs and out of the house. The Blisses are only momentarily distracted when the slam of the door alerts them to the flight of their guests. Judith comments, "How very rude!" and David adds, "People really do behave in the most extraordinary manner these days." Then, with no further thought of their four tormented guests, they happily return to David's manuscript and to what passes for their normal family life.

Corporal Rolf Steiner is a veteran soldier of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front of World War II. During a successful raid on an enemy mortar position, his reconnaissance platoon captures a Russian boy soldier. As the platoon returns to friendly lines, Captain Stransky arrives to take command of Steiner's battalion. The regiment's commander, Colonel Brandt, wonders why Stransky would ask to be transferred to the Kuban bridgehead from more comfortable duties in occupied France. Stransky proudly tells Brandt and the regimental adjutant, Captain Kiesel, that he applied for transfer to front-line duty in Russia so that he can win the Iron Cross.

Stransky meets Steiner as he returns from the patrol and orders the prisoner shot. Steiner refuses and Corporal Schnurrbart takes the boy off into hiding. Steiner reports to Stransky shortly after, where he is informed of his promotion to senior sergeant. Following the meeting Stransky discerns that his adjutant, Lieutenant Triebig, is a closet homosexual which is a death penalty offence in the German Army.

The platoon celebrates the birthday of their leader, Lieutenant Meyer. Steiner takes the young Russian to the forward positions to release him, where he is accidentally killed by advancing Soviet troops in a major attack. The Germans are forced to defend their positions. Stransky is overcome by fear in his bunker while Meyer is killed leading a successful counterattack. Steiner is wounded and sent to a military hospital.

After his hospital stay, characterized by flashbacks and a romantic liaison, Steiner is offered a home leave but decides instead to return to his men. There he learns Stransky has been nominated for an Iron Cross for the counterattack Meyer had led. Stransky's award requires two witnesses as confirmation. He blackmails Triebig and attempts to persuade Steiner to corroborate his claim with promises of preferential treatment after the war. Brandt questions Steiner in the hope that he will expose Stransky's lies, but Steiner only states that he hates all officers, even those as "enlightened" as Brandt and Kiesel, and requests a few days to ponder his answer.

When his battalion is ordered to retreat, Stransky does not notify Steiner's platoon. Making their way back through now-enemy territory, the men capture an all-female Russian detachment. While Steiner is busy, Zoll, a despised Nazi Party member, takes one of the women into the barn to rape her. She bites his genitals and he kills her. Meanwhile, young Dietz, left to guard the rest of the women alone, is distracted and killed as well. Disgusted, Steiner locks Zoll up with the vengeful Russian women, taking their uniforms to use as a disguise.

As the men near the German lines, they radio ahead to avoid friendly fire. Stransky suggests to Triebig that Steiner and his men be "mistaken" for Russians. Triebig orders his men to shoot the incoming Germans; only Steiner, Krüger and Anselm survive. Triebig denies responsibility, but Steiner kills him and makes Krüger the platoon leader, telling him to look after Anselm. Steiner then goes hunting for Stransky.

The Soviets launch a major assault. Brandt orders Kiesel to evacuate, telling him that men like him will be needed to rebuild Germany after the war. Brandt then rallies the fleeing troops for a counterattack.

Steiner locates Stransky. But instead of killing him, he hands him a weapon, and offers to show him "where the Iron Crosses grow". Stransky accepts Steiner's "challenge", and they head off together for the battle. The film closes with Stransky trying to figure out how to reload his MP40, while being shot at by an adolescent Russian soldier who resembles the boy soldier released by Steiner. When Stransky asks Steiner for help, Steiner begins to laugh. His laughter continues through the credits, which features "Hänschen klein" again and segues to black-and-white images of civilian victims from World War II and later conflicts.

Part 1

The series begins on Forks of Cypress, a plantation near Florence in northern Alabama. James Jackson Jr., the son of the plantation owner, and Easter, a slave who works in the weaving house, have both grown up on the estate, and gradually their feelings for each other have developed into romance. Easter is the daughter of an African-American house slave, Captain Jack, and Annie, a part-Cherokee slave who is no longer on the Jackson property.

James Jackson Sr., an Irish immigrant who has accumulated considerable wealth, becomes ill and soon dies, leaving his wife Sally a widow. Grieving, James Jr. retreats to the comfort of the weaving house and he and Easter make love. Several months later, while they are alone, Easter reveals to him that she is pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, Sally encourages James Jr. to marry Elizabeth "Lizzie" Perkins, the daughter of a wealthy neighboring planter.

On April 8, 1841, Easter gives birth to a healthy girl. As the Jackson family dine with acquaintances, Captain Jack announces that a slave child has been born, and assures James, "Easter's doing just fine". Lizzie, who is present for the dinner, concludes that the new baby is James' child, excuses herself from the table and throws a fit. She vows to her mother that she'll never marry him, but her mother persuades her otherwise. Captain Jack begins to refer to the baby as Princess, but, when James enters the birth in the record book, he writes the name ''Queen'', and leaves blank the section for the name of the father.

James proposes marriage to Lizzie the next evening; she accepts, and the pair are later married. Still in love with Easter, James continues to visit her frequently at night during both his engagement and his marriage. Later Lizzie learns that she has become pregnant. She and James welcome a daughter, Jane, whom Queen attends and serves. Although Jane and Queen are half-sisters, the family does not acknowledge that relationship.

James later proposes that Queen be trained as Jane's lady's maid. Both Easter and Lizzie oppose that plan, but James' word is final, so at age five Queen moves into the mansion. Jane and Queen grow up as playmates; however, the other slave children tease and torment Queen because of her light skin and her ability to read and write. By 1860, several years later, the two young ladies, Queen and Jane, have grown up, and they begin to attract the attention of the young men in Florence.

In the next year, 1861, Alabama secedes from the United States, the North declares war against the South, and James enters the Confederate Army and heads northward. As James rides away in a cavalry unit, Easter confirms to Queen that he is her "pappy".

On July 21, 1861, during the First Battle of Bull Run, in Prince William County, Virginia, near Manassas, James sustains an injury, and he is discharged and sent back home. There he learns that both Jane and Easter have died during an epidemic of diphtheria.

Queen continues to serve the aging Sally and Lizzie in the big house. Many of the field hands have left and gone north, and Queen takes over the duties of overseer, supervising the remaining slaves.

Soon James forms a regiment, receives a promotion to the rank of colonel, and heads back into the war. Eventually the Union Army reaches Florence and the Jackson plantation. Union soldiers loot and plunder, wantonly destroy property, insult the ladies and brutalize the slaves, for whose freedom they have claimed to be fighting. Captain Jack is injured, and dies as a free man, with Sally Jackson and Queen beside him. Meanwhile, Col. Jackson sustains another injury, which causes the amputation of his right arm without anesthesia.

Sally Jackson advises Queen to find a place to live among the newly freed blacks, saying that there is no food and no place for her at the estate; Queen strongly objects, insisting that the plantation is her home, and the Jacksons are her family. Parson Dick, another slave there, warns Queen about the difficulties awaiting mulattoes, quadroons, and octoroons in the new free society.

Part 2

Mr. Henderson, the former overseer, and his wife have left the Jackson plantation, and they now run a nearby grocery store, where young redneck white men hang out, and James trades. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson, however, freely insult James and Queen.

After an unpleasant confrontation at the store with Mrs. Henderson and several of the rednecks, Queen runs away and hides until the next morning; tired and hungry, she returns home, only to be berated for her absence. Queen decides to leave the estate; as she visits the grave of her mother, Sally bids her goodbye and hands her a sum of money. After a brief encounter on the laneway with James, who has been out searching for her, Queen sets off on her own.

In Florence, Queen realizes how easily she can "pass" as a white lady; she buys a one-way stagecoach ticket and travels to Charleston, South Carolina.

At a charitable soup kitchen, Queen meets Alice, a fair-skinned young "colored" lady who is passing as white. Alice befriends Queen, takes her into her apartment, cleans her up, teaches her about passing, and takes her to a white dance hall; there she meets Alice's white gentleman friend, George, who gets Queen a job in a flower shop.

At the shop, Queen meets Digby, an injured former Confederate soldier, who quickly falls for her and proposes marriage. Queen accepts, then tells Alice, who insists that such a marriage would be dangerous and strongly urges Queen to break the engagement.

Queen goes to Digby's apartment, intending to break off the engagement. Digby begins to seduce Queen with some help from a dose of laudanum. Queen objects and resists, and blurts out that she is a Negro. Digby then flies into a rage, beats her, rapes her, and throws her out.

Queen returns to Alice, who also throws her out, to protect her own position and reputation. The next day, after a miserable night in a camp of black homeless people, Queen staggers into a meeting of a black church, where she receives help from a kindly woman, who later takes her to the home of two self-righteous and sanctimonious spinsters, Misses Mandy, and Giffery, who hire Queen as a live-in maid.

A few days later Davis, a gardener and a former slave, arrives in the spinsters' backyard in search of work. Queen and Davis start a friendship, which turns into romance and Queen becomes pregnant. Queen first seeks an abortion, then decides to keep the child; She confronts Davis, who invites her to meet him at the railway station, presumably to head north.

Queen waits at the station well into the evening, but Davis fails to appear, so she dejectedly returns to the old maids. Miss Mandy labels her as a wicked, naughty girl and a fallen sinner, but she and Miss Giffery allow her to remain. In due time the two spinsters, acting as midwives, attend the birth of a healthy boy. Queen wants to give him the name ''David'', but at the insistence of the two women, the baby is christened ''Abner''. Misses Mandy and Giffery increasingly take over Abner, apparently intending to raise him as though he were their own. One night, Queen flees and heads north with six-month-old Abner in her arms.

Part 3

At a crossroads store and lunchroom, Queen meets Mrs. Benson, an upper-middle-class white mother of a 15-month-old son, for whom she needs a wet nurse. They ride away toward the Benson home, in Beaufort, South Carolina, which is south of Charleston and not on a direct way to Savannah, Tennessee (Queen's destination).

When Queen and Mrs. Benson arrive in Beaufort, they meet Mr. Benson amid a crowd of angry black former slaves, striking for more pay and more respect, under the vocal persuasion and agitation of Davis, Abner's father. Later Queen finds Davis, confronts him, berates him for having abandoned her and Abner. They eventually reconcile.

Unknown to Queen, Mr. Benson is a leader among the local Ku Klux Klan. Mrs. Benson, feigning concern for the security of Davis, urges Queen to leave Abner with her in safety while she warns Davis that he is in imminent danger of a "terrible work" of the Klan. Queen goes, and a Klansman follows; when she returns to the Benson home, Abner is not there. Mrs. Benson says that Abner "is doing God's work tonight"; the child is used as bait to lure Davis from his cabin. The next morning, Queen finds Davis' hanged and charred body; Abner is inside a wooden chicken cage at his father's feet.

In the next scene, Queen and Abner, now a toddler of about two years, board a small wooden ferryboat near Savannah, Hardin County, Tennessee, where they meet its operator, Alec Haley, and his son, Henry. Although Queen tells him she is travelling north, Alec persuades her to ride back to the south side, saying that in the North she would find only "cold weather and cold-hearted Yankees".

Soon Alec introduces Queen to Dora, the cook in the home of Mr. Cherry, a widower, who gives her a job as a maid. Brooding over her regrettable experiences, Queen adopts a defensive and disagreeable attitude; Dora tells her, "It's high time you figure out who your friends are, Missy", and Mr. Cherry tells her, "You are the most ornery maid I've ever had". Alec berates her for "never talking peaceable to a living soul" and "hating the world for whatever the world done to you". Gradually, Queen allows a friendship to develop between Alec and herself and changes her attitude; Mr. Cherry comments, "She really lights up this old place when she smiles". Queen and Alec relationship grows into romance and eventually they are married; Mr. Cherry gives the bride away.

Queen and Alec have a child, whom Queen names as Simon; she expresses high hopes for his future. When he completes the sixth grade, the point at which black boys in the South typically (in the subject setting) drop out of school to start full-time work in the fields, as did Henry and Abner, Simon's teacher comments to Queen that he is "the best student in the district". Alec vigorously argues against Queen's wish that Simon stay in school, but Queen presents persuasive logic, and he eventually agrees to "waste" one of the three boys.

One day, Queen takes Abner and Simon back to the Forks of Cypress, the Jackson plantation, to show them where she was raised and to share her memories of her childhood. When they arrive there, the funeral for James Jackson, her father, takes place, and she pays her respect from a distance. Queen then shows her sons the weaving house, where she lived as a girl, along with her mother Easter's grave and the Jackson mansion. Inside the house, Lizzie Jackson accosts her bitterly and tells her that she does not belong there, as the mansion was never truly her home. Queen quickly leaves, feeling again sad and rejected by the white side of her family.

In due time, Simon becomes the first black boy in Savannah to complete grade school, and, after another major disagreement at home, Simon begins making plans to go to the normal school in Memphis, Tennessee.

Abner announces that he too wishes to go out into the world to make his own way. Alec reluctantly consents, but Queen objects emotionally, and during the conflict she reveals to Abner that Alec is not his real father. Anxious and upset, Queen begins stoking the wood-fired cast-iron cookstove; an accidental fire ignites her long dress; she runs out of the house and into the surrounding woodland. The fire in the dress dies out, and Queen sustains only minimal physical injuries. However, this last event in the series of accumulated tragic experiences of her past life cause her to have a mental breakdown; Alec commits her to a mental-health institution, in Bolivar, Tennessee, about 50 miles from home.

After several weeks in the depressing "lunatic asylum", Queen asks that Mr. Cherry visit her at the hospital. She tells her former employer about Abner's wish to "find his own place in the world". Since Queen and Alec have already given all their cash to Simon for his schooling, Queen asks Mr. Cherry for a loan of $50, which he graciously agrees to make. Queen tearfully thanks him and compliantly returns to her room.

Queen convinces the doctor at the asylum to allow her to go home to see her sons when they leave; Alec takes her home in a wagon. They take Abner and Simon on the ferryboat across the Tennessee River stream, and place them aboard a carriage bound for Memphis.

Back at home the aging couple sit on the front porch, and Queen for the first time tells Alec about her life, starting with her time as a slave girl with Jane at the Jackson plantation.

DEA agents collect MI6 agent James Bond and his friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, on their way to Leiter's wedding in Key West, to have them assist in capturing drugs lord Franz Sanchez. Bond and Leiter capture Sanchez by attaching a hook and cord to Sanchez's plane and pulling it out of the air with a Coast Guard helicopter. Afterwards, Bond and Leiter parachute down to the church in time for the ceremony.

Sanchez bribes DEA agent Ed Killifer and escapes. Meanwhile, Sanchez's henchman Dario and his crew ambush Leiter and his wife Della and take Leiter to an aquarium owned by one of Sanchez's accomplices, Milton Krest. Sanchez has Leiter lowered into a tank holding a tiger shark. When Bond learns that Sanchez has escaped, he returns to Leiter's house to find that Leiter has been maimed and that Della has been murdered (and by implication raped). Bond, with Leiter's friend Sharkey, start their own investigation. They discover a marine research centre run by Krest, where Sanchez has hidden cocaine and a submarine for smuggling.

After Bond kills Killifer using the same shark tank used for Leiter, M meets Bond in Key West's Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul, Turkey. Bond resigns after turning down the assignment, but M suspends Bond instead and revokes his licence to kill. Bond becomes a rogue agent, although he later receives unauthorised assistance from Q.

Bond boards Krest's ship ''Wavekrest'' and foils Sanchez's latest drug shipment, stealing five million dollars in the process. He discovers that Sharkey has been killed by Sanchez's henchmen. Bond meets and teams up with Pam Bouvier, a pilot and DEA informant, at a Bimini bar, and journeys with her to the Republic of Isthmus. He seeks Sanchez's employment by posing as an assassin for hire. Two Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau officers foil Bond's attempt to assassinate Sanchez and take him to an abandoned warehouse. They are joined by Fallon, an MI6 agent who was sent by M to apprehend Bond. Sanchez's men rescue him and kill the officers, believing them to be the assassins. Later, with the aid of Bouvier, Q, and Sanchez's girlfriend Lupe Lamora, Bond frames Krest by planting the $5 million in ''Wavekrest''. Sanchez shuts Krest into a decompression chamber and cuts the oxygen cord, causing Krest to explosively decompress to his death. Bond is then admitted into the inner circle.

Sanchez takes Bond to his base, which is disguised as the headquarters of a religious cult. Bond learns that Sanchez's scientists can dissolve cocaine in petrol and then sell it disguised as fuel to Asian drug dealers. The televangelist Joe Butcher serves as middleman, working under Sanchez's business manager Truman-Lodge, who uses Butcher's TV broadcasts to communicate with Sanchez's customers in the United States. During Sanchez's presentation to potential Asian customers, Dario enters the room and recognises Bond. Bond starts a fire in the laboratory, but is captured again and placed on the conveyor belt that drops the brick-cocaine into a giant shredder. Bouvier arrives and shoots Dario, allowing Bond to pull Dario into the shredder, killing him.

Sanchez and most of the others flee as fire consumes his base, taking with him four tankers full of the cocaine and petrol mixture. Bond pursues them by plane, with Bouvier at the controls. During the course of a stunt-filled chase through the desert, Bond destroys three of the tankers and kills several of Sanchez's men. Sanchez attacks Bond with a machete aboard the final remaining tanker, which crashes down a hillside. A petrol-soaked Sanchez attempts to kill Bond with his machete. Bond then reveals his cigarette lighter—the Leiters' gift for being the best man at their wedding—and sets Sanchez on fire. Sanchez stumbles into the wrecked tanker, causing a big explosion and killing himself. Bouvier arrives shortly afterward, and picks up Bond.

Later, a party is held at Sanchez's former residence. Bond receives a call from Leiter telling him that M has congratulated him for his work and offers him his job back. He then rejects Lupe's advances and romances Bouvier instead.

Yuji Nimura (Joe Odagiri) and Mamoru Arita (Tadanobu Asano) are two factory workers, who are constantly irritated by their boss, Fujiwara (Takashi Sasano). Mamoru entrusts his poisonous jellyfish, which he has been acclimating to fresh water, to Nimura.

Nimura goes to Fujiwara's house one night with the intent of hurting Fujiwara, only to find that Mamoru has already done so. Mamoru is convicted of the murder but commits suicide on death row, leaving Nimura a private message to "go ahead."

Mamoru's divorced father, Shinichiro (Tatsuya Fuji), takes Nimura in. Nimura helps with Shinichiro's electronics salvage business, but is still a loose cannon. He ultimately realizes he must learn to cope with his place in the world, with his responsibilities and his losses, and with the difference between the bright future he dreamed of and the stark reality he finds himself in.

Mamoru's jellyfish escapes its tank and reproduces in the drains of the city (possibly by binary fission, since there is only one). Nimura takes a job at his sister's office and later encounters a gang of youths in Che Guevara T-shirts. He helps the group gain after-hours access to the office, but the police caught all but Nimura.

Nimura and Shinichiro see a huge swarm of jellyfish in a man-made river, making their way out to sea. One of jellyfishes stings Shinichiro, rendering him unconscious. The gang of youths, now released from police custody, wonder what became of Nimura while they walk aimlessly down the street.

Agnes Grey is the daughter of Mr. Grey, a minister of modest means, and Mrs. Grey, a woman who left her wealthy family and married purely out of love. Mr. Grey tries to increase the family's financial standing, but the merchant he entrusts his money to dies in a wreck, and the lost investment plunges the family into debt.

Agnes, her sister Mary, and their mother all try to keep expenses low and bring in extra money, but Agnes is frustrated that everyone treats her like a child. To prove herself and to earn money, she is determined to get a position as a governess. Eventually, she obtains a recommendation from a well-placed acquaintance, is offered a position, and secures her parents' permission. With some misgivings, she travels to Wellwood house to work for the Bloomfield family.

The Bloomfields are rich and much crueller than Agnes had expected. Mrs. Bloomfield spoils her children while Mr. Bloomfield constantly finds fault with Agnes's work. The children are unruly and Agnes is held accountable for them despite being given no real authority over them. Tom, the oldest Bloomfield child, is particularly abusive and even tortures small animals. In less than a year, Agnes is relieved of her position, since Mrs. Bloomfield thinks that her children are not learning quickly enough. Agnes returns home.

She then begs her mother to help her find a new situation. Agnes advertises and is given a position in an even wealthier family – the Murrays. The two boys, John and Charles, are both sent to school soon after her arrival, but the girls Rosalie and Matilda remain her charges. Matilda is a tomboy and Rosalie is a flirt. Both girls are selfish and sometimes unpleasant, and although Agnes's position is slightly better than it was at Wellwood house, she is frequently ignored or used in the girls' schemes.

Agnes begins to visit Nancy Brown, an old woman with poor eyesight who needs help reading the Bible; there Agnes meets the new curate, Mr. Edward Weston. The next day while on a walk Agnes is surprised by Mr. Weston, who picks some wild primroses for her. Agnes later saves one of the flowers in her Bible. She learns that his mother has died not long ago. This new friendship is noticed by Rosalie Murray, who has now entered into society and is a favourite with nearly all suitors in the county.

Rosalie becomes engaged to Sir Thomas Ashby, a wealthy baronet from Ashby Park. She tells Agnes, but makes her promise to keep silent, as she is still going to flirt with other men before she is married. One day, she and Agnes go on a walk and meet Mr. Weston. Rosalie begins to flirt with him, much to Agnes's chagrin.

Agnes receives a note from her sister Mary, who is now married to Mr. Richardson, a parson of a rectory near their home. Mary warns that their father is dying and begs Agnes to come. Agnes arrives too late to see her father alive. After his funeral, Agnes opens a small school with her mother, leaving behind the Murrays and Mr. Weston.

She receives a letter from Rosalie who is very unhappy in her marriage and asks Agnes to come for a visit. Agnes is shocked by the change in Rosalie from a merry girl to an unhappy young woman. Rosalie confides that she despises Sir Thomas Ashby (and her mother-in-law), and claims he only left London because he was jealous of all the gentlemen she was attracting. Agnes also hears that Mr. Weston has left the area, and she grieves, believing she will not be able to see him again.

Agnes leaves Ashby Park and returns home. Several months after she arrives, she goes for a walk on the sea shore and encounters Mr. Weston, who had been looking for her since he moved to the nearby parsonage.

He is introduced to Agnes's mother, and they forge a bond. Agnes finds her attraction to him growing, and she accepts when he proposes marriage. In the end, Agnes is very happy having married Edward Weston, and they have three children together.

Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) has moved out on her own and has started a relationship with Kim (Christina Cox). Maggie's mother Lila (Wendy Crewson) and brother are forced to move into her loft sublet with her, but unaware that she is a lesbian. Maggie's freedom is compromised, and she believes she must keep her blossoming affair a secret. The clandestine romance introduces Maggie's family to a host of new experiences, many of which are "better than chocolate". The story features Judy, a friend of Maggie's who is a transgender woman. Judy develops a friendship with Maggie's Mom and helps her to repair her relationship with her daughter. Judy's love interest is Frances, owner of the book shop in which Maggie works and purveyor of LGBT literature.

The ''Enterprise'' responds to a Romulan distress signal coming from Galorndon Core, a planet near the Neutral Zone with severe radiologic storms that interfere with transporters and communications. Riker, Worf, and La Forge transport down through a window in the storms and discover wreckage of a Romulan craft on the hostile planet's surface. Worf finds a Romulan survivor near death and subdues him. While Riker and Worf take the Romulan back to the beacon for transport back to the ship, La Forge ends up falling into a hidden hole. Riker and Worf try to find him, but are forced to leave before the transport window in the storms closes. By the time Geordi has climbed out, it is impossible to communicate with the ''Enterprise''.

Aboard the ship, Dr. Crusher tends to the Romulan, finds that he is also suffering severe neurological damage due to the planet's storms, and that she needs to locate a matching donor of a rare variety of ribosomes to keep him alive. When Captain Picard asks for suggestions on how to locate Geordi, Wesley Crusher offers the idea of launching a probe onto the planet's surface that would send a neutrino signal that could be detected by La Forge's VISOR, lead him to the probe, and allow him to use it to signal he is all right and able to return to the ship during the next storm window. As they launch and monitor the probe, the ''Enterprise'' detects a communication from Romulan Commander Tomalak. When they hail him to inform him that the Romulans violated the treaty by entering Federation space, he brushes it off as a misunderstanding and explains that the craft went off course due to a malfunction. Picard informs him that they found a survivor, and after getting assurances that the crashed craft only had the one occupant, agrees to meet Tomalak at the Neutral Zone to deliver the survivor. Several crew members suggested a more aggressive response, but Picard warns his crew that they must handle the situation delicately to avoid setting off another war between the Federation and Romulan Empire.

On the surface, La Forge discovers the probe's signal, but while following its guidance, is captured by Bochra, another Romulan survivor of the crash. Though Bochra holds La Forge hostage, he reveals that he is losing feeling in his legs from the crash, while Geordi notes he is starting to have problems seeing through his VISOR, leading him to conclude that the storms are causing neurological damage, upping the ante that they must get off the planet to survive. La Forge manages to convince him to take his chances with the Federation, but as they head out to the probe, Geordi succumbs to the neurological damage and is unable to see through his VISOR. Bochra suggests connecting the VISOR to the tri-corder using the combined technology to be able to direct them to the probe, and the two work together to overcome their physical disabilities to make it there.

On the ship, Worf is found as the only suitable donor for the dying Romulan, but he refuses due to his grudge with the Romulan race for killing his parents. Picard urges Worf to put his duty to Starfleet over his honor as a Klingon, but it is all for naught when the Romulan, refusing treatment, succumbs to his wounds and dies. Tomalak, irate that the ''Enterprise'' wasn't at the designated waiting point at the agreed upon time, violates the treaty and appears in front of the ''Enterprise'' at the planet. Picard is forced to report that the Romulan crewman died, which infuriates Tomalak and he prepares his weapons to fire at the ''Enterprise''. As the ''Enterprise'' raises its shields, they discover La Forge has reached the probe with another lifeform. Picard warns Tomalak they are lowering their shields to beam up the survivors directly to the bridge. When they arrive, Bochra reports to Tomalak that La Forge had helped save his life. Tomalak accepts this and stands down his weapons. Bochra cautiously thanks La Forge for his help and is returned to the Romulans, and the ''Enterprise'' escorts Tomalak's ship back to the Neutral Zone without further incident.

Recently divorced Meg Altman and her eleven-year-old daughter, Sarah, move into a four-story brownstone in New York City's Upper West Side. The house's previous owner, a reclusive millionaire, installed a "panic room" to protect the occupants from intruders. The room is reinforced by concrete and steel on all sides and a thick steel door. There is also an extensive security system with multiple surveillance cameras and a public address system.

On Meg and Sarah's first night, three men break into the home: Junior, the previous owner's grandson; Burnham, an employee of the home's security company; and Raoul, a thug Junior has recruited. They intend to steal bearer bonds locked inside a floor safe inside the panic room by the previous owners, as Junior doesn't want to share them with his extended family when his grandfather's estate is settled in probate.

When Meg awakes during the night to use the bathroom, she sees the men on the security cameras, and she and Sarah rush to the panic room. To force them out, the men pump propane gas into the room's air vents. Meg ignites the gas while she and Sarah cover themselves with fireproof blankets; the ignited propane leaves Junior badly burned. Meg taps into the main telephone line and calls her ex-husband, Stephen. As she attempts to explain their situation, the intruders cut the line, abruptly ending the call.

When all attempts to breach the room fail, Junior gives up on the robbery, while letting slip that there is more money in the safe than he initially disclosed. When he attempts to leave, Raoul fatally shoots him then forces Burnham to continue with the robbery. Stephen arrives and is immediately taken hostage. Raoul severely beats him, making sure Meg sees it on the security camera. Sarah, a diabetic, then suffers a seizure as her glucagon syringes are in her bedroom.

Raoul tricks Meg into thinking it is safe to temporarily leave the panic room and, when she leaves to retrieve Sarah's medication, the men enter the room with Sarah inside. Meg manages to throw the med kit in just as Burnham closes the door, inadvertently crushing Raoul's hand. She pleads with the men to give Sarah her medication, which Burnham does. Two policemen later arrive at the house following up on Stephen's earlier 911 call and complaints from the neighbors. To protect Sarah, Meg convinces the officers everything is fine and they leave. Meanwhile, Burnham opens the safe and finds $22 million in bearer bonds inside.

As the men prepare to leave using Sarah as a hostage, Meg leads them into an ambush where she uses a sledgehammer to knock Raoul over a banister and into a stairwell. As Burnham flees, the injured Raoul crawls back up and overpowers Meg, preparing to bludgeon her with the sledgehammer. Burnham, hearing Sarah's terrified screams, rushes back and shoots Raoul, killing him. The police, alerted by Meg's earlier odd behavior, arrive back at the house in force and apprehend Burnham, who is forced to drop the bearer bonds, which scatter in the wind.

A few days later, Meg and Sarah search the newspaper for a new, smaller home, having recovered from their harrowing ordeal.

The world has been enslaved by Murk, and players are challenged to free it by collecting the seven fragments of a tablet which are in the possession of seven wizards who inhabit seven towers.

High-schoolers David and his sister Jennifer lead very different lives: Jennifer is shallow while David spends most of his time watching ''Pleasantville'', a black-and-white 1950s sitcom about the idyllic Parker family. One evening while their mother is away, David and Jennifer fight over the television, breaking the remote control.

A mysterious TV repairman arrives and, impressed by David's knowledge of ''Pleasantville'', gives him a strange remote control before departing. When they use the remote control, David and Jennifer are transported into the black-and-white world of ''Pleasantville'', finding themselves in the Parkers' living room. David tries to reason with the repairman, communicating through the Parkers' television but the repairman declares that the world of ''Pleasantville'' is better than the real world and they should be lucky to live in it.

Forced to act as the show's characters Bud and Mary Sue Parker, David and Jennifer explore the wholesome but peculiar town. Fire does not exist and firefighters merely rescue cats from trees. And the citizens of Pleasantville are unaware that anything exists outside of their town, as all roads circle back with no escape. David tells Jennifer they must stay in character and not disrupt the town. Trying to maintain the show's plot, Jennifer dates a boy from school but has sex with him, a concept unknown to him and everyone else in town.

Slowly, parts of Pleasantville change from black-and-white to color, including flowers and the faces of people who experience new bursts of emotion, and foreign concepts such as books, fire, and rain begin to appear. After Jennifer introduces sex to her peers, many of her classmates go to Lovers' Lane to engage in sex, becoming "colored" in the process.

David introduces Bill Johnson, owner of the soda fountain where Bud works, to colorful modern art via a book from the library, sparking Bill's interest in painting. After learning of sex and masturbation from Jennifer, Betty pleasures herself while bathing and upon reaching orgasm, sees color and eventually becomes "colored" herself. Jennifer/Mary Sue becomes colored after developing a newfound interest in literature. Bill and Betty fall in love and she leaves home, bewildering her husband George. Only the town fathers remain unchanged. They are led by the mayor Big Bob, who views the changes as a threat to Pleasantville's values, and resolve to do something about their increasingly independent wives and rebellious children.

As the townsfolk become more colorful, a ban on "colored" people is initiated in public venues. A riot is ignited by Bill's nude painting of Betty on the window of his malt shop. The soda fountain is destroyed, books are burned and people who are "colored" are harassed in the street, while Betty is harassed by non-colored teenage boys. David/Bud punches one of the boys and scares them away, demonstrating newfound courage that turns him colored. The town fathers forbid people from visiting the library, playing loud music, or using colorful paint.

In protest, David and Bill paint a colorful mural depicting their world, prompting their arrest. Brought to trial in front of the entire town, David and Bill defend their actions and arouse enough anger and indignation in Big Bob that he becomes colored as well and flees. Celebrating their victory, David notices that the television store now sells color televisions, broadcasting new programs and footage of other countries and that the town's roads now lead to other cities.

With Pleasantville changed, Jennifer chooses to continue her new life in the TV world. Bidding farewell to his sister, his new girlfriend, and Betty, David uses the remote control to return to the real world while only an hour went by there. He comforts his mother, who had left to meet a man only to get cold feet and assures her that nothing has to be perfect.

A montage reveals the citizens of Pleasantville enjoying their new lives, including Jennifer/Mary Sue attending college, while Betty, George and Bill contemplate the future.

''The Zeta Project'' follows the exploits of Zeta and Ro as they attempt to prove that he is genuinely non-violent, whereas the NSA agents pursuing him believe that the terrorists he was investigating before going rogue have reprogrammed him for some unknown purpose. To prove his innocence, Zeta and Ro search for his creator, the elusive Dr. Selig.

Rose and her boyfriend Hart get into a motorcycle accident in the Quebec countryside, caused by a van parked in the middle of the road. While Hart suffers a broken hand, a separated shoulder and a concussion, Rose is severely injured and burned by the incident. They are both transported to the nearby Keloid Clinic for Plastic Surgery, where head doctor Dan Keloid decides to perform a radical new procedure on Rose. He uses morphogenetically neutral grafts to her chest and abdomen in the hope that it will differentiate and replace the damaged skin and organs. One month later, Hart is released while Rose remains in a coma.

Rose abruptly awakens from her coma screaming, prompting patient Lloyd Walsh to calm her down and hold her hand, but she pierces his skin as she holds him. When asked, Lloyd cannot remember anything afterwards and the doctor does not know what caused the injury on his right arm; it is only known that his blood is not clotting from the wound and he cannot feel anything on his right side. While Keloid transfers him to Montreal General Hospital for further evaluation, his experimental procedures on Rose have caused a mutation in her body that made her able to only subsist on human blood. A new organ resembling a red stinger emerges from a small orifice below Rose's armpit; it pierces her victims and draws their blood. One night, Rose leaves the clinic to feed upon a nearby cow's blood, which makes her vomit. A drunken farmer tries to attack her, but she pierces and feeds on him before calling Hart to pick her up.

The next day, the farmer turns into a pale zombie-like monster and attacks a waitress at a nearby diner. Lloyd discharges himself from the clinic. While taking a taxi to the airport, he begins foaming at the mouth and attacks the driver. The car crashes into the freeway before a nearby truck kills them both. At the clinic, Keloid is infected by Rose's stinger and attacks from within, which causes panic. During this time, Rose escapes from the hospital despite calling Hart to come to her aid, and hitchhikes rides from various people to Montreal. She infects one of the truck drivers, causing the driver to attack his colleague. Hart and Keloid's business partner, Murray Cypher, while searching for Rose, meet up with police chief Claude LePointe and public health officials in talks about an upcoming epidemic. During this time, Hart witnesses an officer become infected before being shot by uninfected police officers. He calls Rose's friend Mindy and asks her to keep Rose in her apartment if she appears until he can come over. Rose arrives in the city and stays in Mindy's apartment.

While Mindy watches a television broadcast detailing a new strain of rabies now all over Montreal, Rose goes to a sex cinema and infects a leering patron. Mindy notices an infected woman while riding the subway and attempts to avoid eye-contact. The rabid woman attacks a nearby passenger by biting off part of his ear in a bloody frenzy, culminating in a panic of fleeing passengers. LePointe, while riding a limousine with local health officials, is attacked by two infected crewmen who use a jackhammer through the vehicle door and drag the driver out to feed on him. The other official and LePointe, forced to leave their driver behind, escape by driving in reverse. With the infection becoming worse in the city, and the standard rabies treatment having no effect, Dr. Royce Gentry advises a shoot-to-kill policy to prevent future infections. Extreme martial law is declared within Montreal, and the doctor works on developing a cure. National Guard road blocks are set to check for infected people, and a convoy of NBC-suited soldiers ride into the city to assist the authorities with body disposal.

Murray and Hart arrive at the former's home and as Hart drives away in Murray's car, Murray calls for his wife, but there is no answer. Murray wanders into his baby's nursery where he finds what is left of his baby and is attacked by his infected wife. Hart goes into the deserted city to search for Rose. An infected civilian jumps onto Hart's car before being shot, and the bio-warfare suited soldiers spray disinfectant on his car before permitting him to continue driving.

Mindy watches a report which says that a possible carrier of the infection may be immune and has been traced back to the Keloid Clinic. Rose walks into the room and feeds on Mindy. Hart finds Rose in the act and tries to reason with her about treatment, but she refuses to believe him and is in denial that she is responsible for the epidemic that has now claimed many people. He chases her in the apartment, but he is rendered unconscious and she infects a man waiting in the apartment lobby. When Hart awakens, Rose brings the newly infected man to his apartment and locks herself inside the room before calling Hart about her plan; she wants to test Hart's accusation and see if the man turns infected or not. While Hart frantically tells her to leave the apartment and hopelessly sits at the receiver, the infected man awakens and attacks Rose. The next morning, Rose's corpse is found by the bio-warfare suited soldiers in an alleyway and they dump her in a garbage truck.

Psychotherapist Hal Raglan runs the Somafree Institute, where he encourages patients with mental disturbances to let go of their suppressed emotions through physiological changes to their bodies in a technique he calls "psychoplasmics". One of his patients is Nola Carveth, a severely disturbed woman who is legally embattled with her husband Frank for custody of their five-year-old daughter Candice. When Frank discovers bruises and scratches on Candice following a visit with Nola, he informs Raglan of his intent to stop visitation rights. Wanting to protect his patient, Raglan begins to intensify the sessions with Nola to resolve the issue quickly. During the therapy sessions, he discovers that Nola was physically and verbally abused by her self-pitying alcoholic mother while neglected by her co-dependent alcoholic father, who refused to protect Nola out of shame and denial.

Meanwhile, Frank, intending to invalidate Raglan's methods, questions Jan Hartog, a former Somafree patient dying of psychoplasmic-induced lymphoma. Frank leaves Candice with her maternal grandmother, Juliana, and the two spend the evening viewing old photographs. Later, Juliana informs Candice that Nola was frequently hospitalized as a child and often exhibited strange unexplained wheals on her skin that doctors were unable to diagnose. While in the kitchen, Juliana is attacked and bludgeoned to death by a small, dwarf-like child. Candice is traumatized, but otherwise unharmed.

Juliana's ex-husband Barton returns for the funeral and attempts to contact Nola at Somafree, but Raglan turns him away. Frank invites Candice's teacher, Ruth Mayer, home for dinner to discuss his daughter's performance in school. Barton interrupts with a drunken phone call from Juliana's home, demanding that they both go to Somafree to see Nola. Frank leaves to console Barton, leaving Candice in Ruth's care. While he's away, Ruth answers a phone call from Nola, who, recognizing her voice and believing her to be carrying on an affair with Frank, insults her and angrily warns Ruth to stay away from her family. Meanwhile, Frank arrives to find Barton murdered by the same deformed dwarf-child, who dies after attempting to kill Frank.

The police autopsy of the dwarf-child reveals a multitude of bizarre anatomical anomalies: the creature is asexual, supposedly colorblind, naturally toothless, and devoid of a navel, indicating no known means of natural human birth. After the murder story reaches the newspapers, Raglan reluctantly acknowledges that Barton's death coincides with his sessions with Nola relating to their respective topics. He closes Somafree and sends his patients to municipal care with the exception of Nola. Frank is alerted about the closure of Somafree by Hartog.

Mike, one of the patients forced to leave Somafree, tells Frank that Nola is now Raglan's "queen bee" and in charge of some "disturbed children" in an attic. When Candice returns to school, two dwarf children attack and kill Ruth in front of her class before absconding with Candice to Somafree, with Frank in pursuit. Upon arriving at Somafree, Raglan tells Frank the truth about the dwarf children: they are the accidental product of Nola's psychoplasmic sessions; her rage about her abuse was so strong that she parthenogenetically bore a brood of children who psychically respond and act on the targets of her rage, with Nola completely unaware of their actions. Realizing the brood are too dangerous to keep anymore, Raglan plots to venture into their quarters and rescue Candice, provided that Frank can keep Nola calm to avoid provoking the children.

Frank attempts a feigned rapprochement long enough for Raglan to collect Candice, but when he witnesses Nola give birth to another child through a psychoplasmically-induced external womb, she notices his disgust when she licks the child clean. The brood awakens and kills Raglan. Nola then threatens to kill Candice rather than lose her. The brood goes after Candice who hides in a closet, but the brood begins to break through the door and try to grab her. In desperation, Frank strangles Nola to death, and the brood dies without its mother's psychic connection. Frank carries a visibly traumatized Candice back to his car and the two depart. As the pair sit in silence, two small lesions—a germinal stage of the phenomenon experienced by Nola—appear on Candice's arm.

After having a headache following a ride on a roller coaster in Castle Rock, New Hampshire, schoolteacher Johnny Smith politely declines when his girlfriend Sarah asks if he wants to spend the night with her. As he drives home through stormy weather, he has a car accident that leaves him in a coma. Awakening under the care of neurologist Dr. Sam Weizak, Johnny finds that five years have passed, and Sarah is now a married mother.

Johnny discovers that he can now see aspects of a person's life through physical contact. As he touches a nurse's hand, he sees her daughter trapped in a fire. He also sees that Weizak's mother, long thought to have died during World War II, is still alive, and that a pushy reporter's sister killed herself.

As news of his gift spreads, Sheriff George Bannerman asks Johnny for help with a series of murders. At first Johnny declines but he eventually agrees to help, and, through a vision at the crime scene, discovers that deputy Frank Dodd is the killer. Before they can arrest him, Dodd commits suicide. Dodd's mother shoots Johnny before being killed by Bannerman.

Now walking with a cane after the shooting, Johnny moves away and attempts to live a more isolated life. He tutors children, working from home, until wealthy Roger Stuart convinces him to visit and tutor his son, Chris. Johnny soon receives a vision of Chris and two other boys drowning in a local pond during an ice hockey game. He implores Stuart to change his plans, but Stuart refuses and fires Johnny. Later, Johnny finds out that Chris had stayed home from the game and is still alive. Johnny realizes he has a "dead zone" in his visions, where the future is changeable.

Johnny soon meets Greg Stillson, a superficially charismatic third-party candidate for the United States Senate, for whom Sarah and her husband volunteer. Johnny shakes Stillson's hand and has a vision of Stillson as President ordering what appears to be a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Johnny seeks out Weizak's advice, asking, for instance, if he would have killed Adolf Hitler if he had the chance, knowing beforehand the atrocities Hitler would commit. Weizak replies that he would have had no choice but to kill him. Johnny leaves Sarah a letter, telling her that what he is about to do will cost him his life, but is a worthwhile sacrifice.

Sarah and her family attend a rally for Stillson. Johnny also sneaks in with a rifle; he shoots at Stillson but misses. In the ensuing commotion, Stillson grabs Sarah's baby and holds him as a human shield, which a photographer captures on film. Before Johnny can fire again, he is shot by Stillson's bodyguard. Johnny touches Stillson's hand and foresees that, after the photograph is published, Stillson's career ends and he commits suicide, thus averting the nuclear attack. Johnny lies dying as Sarah embraces him and tells him that she loves him.

In a dilapidated apartment building in post-apocalyptic France, food is in short supply and grain is used as currency. On the ground floor is a butcher's shop, run by the landlord, Clapet, who posts job opportunities in the newspaper to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants.

Following the murder of the last worker, unemployed circus clown Louison applies for the vacant position. Louison proves to be a superb worker with a spectacular trick knife, and the butcher is reluctant to kill him too quickly. During Louison's routine maintenance, he acquires a package dropped by a mailman. Louison delivers the package to Clapet's daughter, Julie, who says the package contains confections and invites him to join her that evening. Louison and Julie's relationship blossoms into romance. At the same time, several of the tenants fall under Louison's boyish charms, worrying others who are more anxious for their own safety should they require meat.

Clapet tells apartment tenant Marcel Tapioca that his rent is late and he must give up his mother-in-law as payment. That evening, Julie begs her father to let Louison go, knowing that Clapet is killing tenants for meat. She goes to her apartment, unwraps a newspaper in her refrigerator and sees an article about the Troglodistes, a group of vegetarian rebels who live underground. Julie descends into the sewers to make contact with the feared Troglodistes, whom she persuades to help rescue Louison.

After the apparent butchering of Tapioca's mother-in-law, the Troglodistes go through the sewer pipes and attempt to capture Louison, but end up mistakenly capturing tenant Mademoiselle Plusse instead. Meanwhile, as Julie and Louison watch television, Clapet ascends to the roof, shaking the television antenna to lure Louison into going up to fix it. Attacking Louison with a cleaver, Clapet's attempt to kill him is foiled by an unexpected electrical explosion in one of the apartments.

Clapet, along with some tenants, storms Louison's room in another attempt to murder him. Louison and Julie take refuge in a bathroom and flood it, floor to ceiling, until Clapet opens the door, releasing the flood and washing the attackers away. Mademoiselle Plusse escapes the sewers, finds Louison's boomerang knife, and gives it to Clapet. Clapet throws the knife towards Louison, but inadvertently kills himself. Louison and Julie play music together on the roof of the now peaceful apartment building.

The premise involves the married men of the fictional Fairfield County town of Stepford, Connecticut and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the submissive wives of Stepford who seem to lack free will, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends, fellow new arrivals to Stepford, turn into mindless, docile housewives following a romantic weekend. Her husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association, mocks her fears.

As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men's club. She visits the library and researches the pasts of Stepford's wives, discovering that some of the women were once feminist activists and very successful professionals and that the leader of the men's club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to inquire about possible toxins in Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife and has no interest in her previous activities.

At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee Stepford, but when she gets home, she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from the house on foot and several of the men's club members track her down. They corner her in the woods, and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town's women. The men deny the accusation and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees to this, and they take her to Bobbie's house. Bobbie's husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing as if to cover screams. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes a knife at her former friend.

In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, having given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne (a new resident of and the first black woman in Stepford) appears poised to become the town's next victim.

The film explores the lives of Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader), a Jewish woman who has assumed a false name and belongs to an underground organization, and Lilly Wust (Juliane Köhler), a married mother of four who is unsatisfied with her philandering Nazi officer husband.

The film begins in 1997, with an 83-year-old Lilly (played by Inge Keller) taking up residence in a dilapidated flat that once served as an underground hideout. Brought to a retirement home, Lilly encounters her old maid Ilse (played by Johanna Wokalek in the 1940s scenes and by Kyra Mladeck in 1997 scenes), who was rounded up during 1945, and is already a tenant.

In 1943 Felice, assuming a false last name and working as a journalist at a Nazi newspaper, meets Lilly via her friend and sometime lover Ilse, who works as Lilly's housekeeper. Instantly smitten, she takes the initiative in the love affair by sending flagrant letters to Lilly and signing her name as Jaguar, much to Ilse's dismay. One fateful afternoon Felice, Ilse and their friends Klara and Lotte are accosted by German soldiers. All but Lotte manage to escape. After Lotte is shot dead by the soldiers, the friends find no identification on her body except a photograph of her and Felice. Lonely due to the constant absence of her husband, Lilly engages in a series of affairs with other men, but is disillusioned by her callous treatment at the hands of her latest lover, another Nazi officer. She grows closer to Felice, who attempts to kiss her during a New Year's Eve Party in her Berlin apartment after Lilly discovers her philandering husband with Ilse. Lilly rejects Felice but, as her husband tries to make amends the following morning, Lilly realizes she has never loved him and reconciles with Felice.

With her husband again away at war, Lilly and Felice begin a shaky but intense relationship. The film features both erotic encounters and sentimental love poems (quoted from the book) and, during one love scene, Felice proclaims Lilly Aimée to her Jaguar. On Lilly's birthday, Felice and her friends throw a party in her apartment that culminates in a lesbian orgy. Lilly is mortified when she sees Ilse and Felice kissing drunkenly, and is further disillusioned when Felice rejects her advances for the night. The next morning, Lilly's husband arrives on special leave for his wife's birthday only to witness the aftermath of the previous night's events. Although enraged, he vows to not punish her for her indiscretion so long that their marriage and life remain intact, but Lilly instead surprises him by asking for a divorce. Afraid that Lilly's husband may turn them in, Felice and her friends stop seeing Lilly for the sake of their own survival. Heartbroken, Lilly holes up in her apartment, eventually sending her children away to safety, and erupts in anger when Felice finally visits her after several weeks. Felice reveals the truth that she is Jewish and feared for her life, and the two make up.

After the 20 July Plot, Felice and her friends fear for their lives and arrange to flee Germany before they are rounded up. At the last moment, Felice decides to stay in spite of the danger so that she may remain with Lilly. After a day of frolicking in the countryside, the two return to Lilly's apartment, where Felice is captured by the Gestapo, who have identified her through the photograph of her and Lotte. She is sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp, from where she still manages to correspond with Lilly, but all contact is lost by the end of 1944.

Lilly and Ilse reminisce about times past as the film ends. Lilly, though saddened by the tragedy that she has caused her friends and lovers, is unable to imagine how her life could have been any different, given her obsessive live-for-today-for-tomorrow-we-die mentality, common among besieged Berliners. Lilly Wust lived in Berlin until her death on 31 March 2006. The tagline of the film is "Love Transcends Death".

Belle Williams is a taxicab driver and auto mechanic aspiring of driving in NASCAR. She celebrates this final shift as a bicycle courier after earning a taxicab license and beating the shop's record with a new delivery record of 13 minutes and 54 seconds. Although in a happy relationship, she occasionally neglects her boyfriend Jesse and has bestowed much love on her custom-built 1999 Ford Crown Victoria taxicab over the past five years. She skips her dinner date, to install a supercharger that was given to her as a present for her last day of work. And a passenger that's a businessperson offers her a $100 tip if she can make it to JFK Airport in fifteen minutes. She arrives at this airport in 9 minutes and 28 seconds, while almost getting caught by two motorcycle cops speeding on the freeway driving after her through Manhattan. And as soon as they arrive, this passenger not only pays Belle more for bringing him, he also vomits into a nearby trashcan at this airport's entrance from this fast ride despite he's grateful with her.

Meanwhile, despairing NYPD detective Andy Washburn blows this cover during an undercover operation mission, and a shootout suddenly ensues, these targets escape, and Washburn's ally is soon wounded. And while following them Washburn crashes his allie's vehicle. And Lieutenant Marta Robbins—Washburn's former girlfriend that he retains unrequited feelings for—suspends his driver's license and demotes him indefinitely to foot patrol duty. And when he's notified of an incoming bank robbery, Washburn tries to flag down a car in the middle of a street, causing dozens of drivers to crash into each other, resulting in a major pileup as others watch him. And after this, he instead flags down Belle's taxicab. He also commandeers this which transforms into the high speed streetcar from before. And they soon arrive at the bank just as a quartet of female Brazilian robbers driving away in a BMW E65.

Washburn accidentally shoots out one of Belle's windows and they end up cornering the BMW in an alleyway. The BMW driver cleverly gives Belle the slip, but as she drives away, Belle remembers these occupants as the same models at the airport from before, and this gang boss and ringleader is Vanessa. And as more members of the NYPD arrive and hold up Belle and Washburn insisting that they comply with them, Belle's taxicab ends up impounded as evidence, and she is brought in to question as a witness to this robbery; she is agitated as this is shown the loss of two weeks' earnings. However Washburn believes he's determined to get her cab back if she will join him and help him solve these bank robberies.

Belle and Washburn pursue the robbers, getting close once or twice. Washburn brings Belle to his place after Jesse kicks her out for missing out on this dinner date. Washburn's mother is constantly drunken and always has a batch of margaritas going in the blender. She brings up embarrassing moments of Washburn's past and talks about why he's such a bad driver. Later, Washburn talks to the impound cop and eventually convinces him to give him and Belle the cab back. They realize that the gang always robs banks just before the garbage collection is due. The robbers take the money, put it in the trash and the garbage man collects this. And Washburn is soon eliminated for constantly disobeying orders and Belle is given a final warning not to drive recklessly in her taxi. Later that night, Belle teaches him to drive with "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" playing on the radio. They discover the garbage collector on the bank route has been performing collections for the gang because they have kidnapped his wife. They trace the kidnapper and recover the garbage collector's wife and all the loot.

The NYPD later realize another bank is about to be targeted by the gang, and they wait for the them, as they have a hostage. And during a hostage swap, the gang escapes with Lieutenant Robbins as hostage, followed by Washburn and Belle in her cab. Belle calls on the help of her former bike messengers to pinpoint the location of the getaway vehicle. Using the cash from the garbage truck, they pinpoint the operation headquarters and negotiate a trade. Belle transforms the cab and during the ensuing chase, and as they continually try to swap the hostage for this money while driving down the highway Washburn lets these thieves drive through a Long Island bridge road under construction. And thus, with these robbers trapped on a section of this Long Island bridge road being constructed, Washburn, Belle, and Robbins celebrate victoriously.

But agitated and pissed off that they have failed, Vanessa fires her pistol at them with wrath and wounds poor Belle. And as more NYPD members arrive at the road to capture Vanessa and her hitmen, both Washburn and Robbins bring Belle to the nearest hospital singing "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)". And as soon as they arrive at this hospital, Washburn crashes into the hospital's windows so Belle can be quickly escorted to an emergency room. Sometime later, Belle achieves her dream of driving NASCAR, sponsored by many New York banks. Plus Washburn is awarded with being reinstated back into the NYPD as Detective for foiling and eliminating the string of robberies. And is once again Lieutenant Robbins's boyfriend plus is close to Jesse. And as Robbins, Washburn, and Washburn's mother attend to watch Belle's first race to cheer her on Jesse finally proposes to Belle and she approves of this. And as she begins to race, a challenger pulls up, revealing himself to be Jeff Gordon.

In the town of Hudson, Ohio, Scott "Scotty" Thomas is dumped by his girlfriend Fiona immediately after his high school graduation at the beginning of the film. With his best friend, Cooper Harris, Scotty attends a graduation party that evening, where the band performs a song detailing the affair Fiona was having with the band's singer. Scotty returns home drunk and angry and reads an email from his German pen pal, Mieke—who Scotty calls "Mike"—expressing sympathy for Scotty and suggesting they meet in person. Cooper suggests that "Mike" may be a sexual predator and Scotty tells Mieke to stay away from him. Scotty's younger brother, Bert, informs him that "Mieke" is actually a common German feminine name. Realizing that he had mistaken her name and that he has feelings for Mieke, Scotty tries to contact her again, but finds that Mieke has blocked his email address. Scotty decides to travel to Europe with Cooper to find Mieke and apologize in-person.

Scotty and Cooper first arrive in London, where they befriend a Manchester United football hooligan firm, led by Mad Maynard. After a night of drinking, Scotty and Cooper wake up on a bus on their way to Paris with the hooligans. In Paris, they meet up with their classmates, Jenny and Jamie, fraternal twins who are touring Europe together. Jenny and Jamie decide to accompany Scotty and Cooper to find Mieke in Berlin. The group travels to Amsterdam, where Jamie is robbed while receiving oral sex in an alley, losing everyone's money, passports, and train tickets. They attempt to hitchhike to Berlin, but due to a language misunderstanding, they end up in Bratislava. Finding a great exchange rate with the U.S. dollar, the group goes to a nightclub. Drunk on absinthe, Jenny and Jamie make out with each other, witnessed by Scotty and Cooper, and are horrified when they realize what they are doing. The next day, a Slovak man drives them to Berlin, where they learn that Mieke has left with a summer tour group, and will be reachable in Rome for only a short time. Jamie sells his Leica Camera for plane tickets to Rome to find Mieke.

In Rome, the group heads to Vatican City, where Mieke is touring before her summer at sea. Inside the Vatican, Scotty and Cooper search for Mieke and accidentally rings the bell that signals the Pope has died. Scotty appears on a balcony and spots Mieke in the cheering crowd below, who have mistaken him for the newly elected pope; all this happens while the current pope is watching everyone. The Swiss guards realizes what is going on and detain Scotty and Cooper for their actions. However, the Manchester United football hooligans from London suddenly appears at the Vatican and tells the guards to release Scotty and Cooper. Scotty finally introduces himself to Mieke and confesses his love. Mieke is happy to see him, and they have sex in a confessional booth before she leaves on her trip. On the flight back to Ohio, Jenny and Cooper give into their urges and have sex in the plane's lavatory, while Jamie stays in Europe after being hired by Arthur Frommer.

Scotty moves to Oberlin College in the fall term to begin his studies. During his phone conversation with Cooper, who is dating Jenny, Cooper asks what Scotty's new roommate looks like. Mieke knocks on the door of his room, having been assigned to the same room because of another misunderstanding about her name. Scotty and Mieke embrace and get into bed together, with Cooper calling for Scott on the other end of a still-open cell phone call and the film's closing with the Absinthe Green Fairy wondering at his own lack of a sex life.

When David Lovatt meets Harriet at an office party, they both immediately fall in love. They both share the same conservative outlooks, which they perceive to be a rarity in the London of the 1960s.

The two marry and purchase a large house in a small town within commuting distance of London. The couple intends to have several children—a wish frowned upon by the rest of the family. By the time they have four children–two boys and two girls–their house becomes a centre of joy not only for them but for all their relatives and friends who come and visit. This continues until Harriet has a fifth, wildly dysfunctional child, Ben. Her painful pregnancy with him marks the beginning of the misery and suffering that this child brings to the whole family.

Bio-chemical expert Dr. Vladimir Nekhorvich sends a message to the IMF for Ethan Hunt, an old friend of his. He warns that his employer at Biocyte Pharmaceuticals forced him to develop a biological weapon to profit from the cure. He arranges to meet with Ethan to deliver the Chimera virus, and its remedy, Bellerophon. With Ethan on holiday, the IMF sends agent Sean Ambrose disguised as Ethan to meet Nekhorvich on a passenger plane. Ambrose goes rogue, killing Nekhorvich and stealing Bellerophon, destroying the aircraft to cover their escape.

IMF director Swanbeck informs Hunt of the circumstances of Nekhorvich's death, and they determine Ambrose is responsible. Swanbeck tasks Ethan with recovering the virus and its cure and has him recruit Nyah Nordoff-Hall, a professional thief presently operating in Seville, Spain—and Ambrose's ex-girlfriend. Hunt successfully recruits her to trace Ambrose and his team, and to spy on Ambrose, despite her reluctance.

Hunt assembles his team, computer hacker Luther Stickell and Pilot Billy Baird, in Sydney, Australia, where Biocyte laboratories are located, and Ambrose is staying. As Ethan stakes out Biocyte, Nyah rekindles her former relationship with Ambrose and relays information to Ethan's team. Ambrose meets with Biocyte's CEO, John C. McCloy, and shows him a video of Chimera infecting one of Nekhorvich's colleagues before blackmailing McCloy into cooperating with him. Nyah steals the camera's memory card and delivers it to Ethan. They learn that Chimera has a 20-hour dormant period before it causes death by mass destruction of the victim's red blood cells. Bellerophon can only save the victim if used within that 20-hour window. When Nyah discreetly returns the memory card to Ambrose, he notices it is in the wrong pocket of his jacket.

Hunt's team kidnaps McCloy to sting him for information. They discover that the only Bellerophon samples were taken by Nekhorvich and are now in Ambrose's hands. Ambrose has the cure but does not have the virus; unbeknownst to him at the time, Nekhorvich injected himself with Chimera to smuggle it out of Biocyte. Ambrose plans to exchange a sample of Bellerophon to McCloy for the Chimera. Hunt's team breaks into Biocyte to destroy the virus before the exchange can take place. Ambrose, posing as Ethan, tricks Nyah into revealing the plan, then captures Nyah and raids Biocyte to secure the virus. Ethan can destroy all but one sample of Chimera before Ambrose intervenes, and a firefight ensues, culminating in the sample being dropped on the floor between Ambrose and Ethan. Ambrose commands Nyah to collect the specimen; however, she injects herself with it, preventing Ambrose from eliminating her after the retrieval. Nyah begs Ethan to kill her along with the virus, but Ethan refuses. Ambrose abducts Nyah as Ethan flees the facility.

Ambrose releases Nyah to wander the streets of Sydney in a daze, intending to start a pandemic. He offers to sell Bellerophon to McCloy in exchange for stock options to make him Biocyte's majority shareholder. He plans to get rich from Biocyte's stock due to demand for Bellerophon after Chimera is released. Hunt infiltrates the meeting and steals the remaining samples of Bellerophon. While Hunt is pursued by Ambrose's men, Luther and Billy locate Nyah, who has wandered to a cliffside, intent on killing herself to prevent the eventual outbreak. Ethan kills Ambrose's men, but the last man, Hugh Stamp (Ambrose's best friend) is accidentally shot by Ambrose himself. Ambrose chases Hunt to a beach, where Hunt defeats him in a brutal fistfight. With little time left on the 20-hour countdown, Luther reaches Ethan at the beach. As Ethan is about to give Luther the Bellerophon canister, Ambrose recovers and points a gun at Hunt. Hunt throws the canister to Luther and jumps away from Ambrose's shot while kicking up a pistol from the sand he uses to finally kill Ambrose. Luther injects Nyah with the Bellerophon in time to save her.

Director Swanbeck realizes that Hunt destroyed the virus but the IMF clears Nyah's criminal record, and Ethan starts his vacation with her in Sydney.

Ah Jong, a hitman, decides to retire after one final job. During a shootout with gangsters, he accidentally blinds a young nightclub singer named Jennie when his gun fires too close to her eyes. Over the next six months, he quietly watches over her, attending all of her performances. One night, he intervenes to save her from being mugged and raped; Jennie then invites him into her apartment. They grow close and start a romantic relationship. However, Jennie then learns from her doctor that if she does not undergo a corneal transplant, she will lose what remains of her sight.

Ah Jong agrees to kill a high-ranking triad boss to pay for the operation. Meanwhile, police detective Li Ying performs a botched undercover sting and is scolded by his superior causing the heart attack of a hostage. Li later spots Ah Jong in the middle of the hit, but eventually loses him. Ah Jong's client, Wong Hoi, betrays him by sending hitmen to kill Ah Jong at the location of his getaway car. Ah Jong guns down the hitmen, but a child is badly injured in the crossfire. Ah Jong rushes the child to a nearby hospital while being followed by Li and his partner, Sgt. Tsang Yeh. Ah Jong holds Yeh at gunpoint until the girl regains consciousness, then escapes from the police.

Li becomes obsessed with Ah Jong's act of good will. He and Tsang learn about Jennie; when Ah Jong visits her, he manages to outwit and elude the two cops once again. Li and Tsang explain to Jennie that Ah Jong was the assassin that blinded her at the nightclub. Ah Jong meets with his manager, Fung Sei, and demands the money he was promised for his last job. Sei betrays him by giving him a briefcase of blank notes and send hitmen on Ah Jong in his own home. Ah Jong kills his attackers, but spares Sei out of loyalty. The next day, Ah Jong attempts to kill Wong Hoi in a drive-by shooting but fails. Wong Hoi hires hitman Frank Chen, to kill Ah Jong. Jennie is persuaded to help the police set a trap for Ah Jong at the airport, but Sei distracts them while Ah Jong flees with Jennie.

Tsang follows Sei to his house, where Ah Jong and Jennie are hiding, but gets fatally wounded by Chen's gang and dies in the hospital moments after sharing his discovery with Li. Li goes to arrest Ah Jong, but winds up helping him, and Jennie fight their way out of an ambush. Ah Jong and Li flee, and while Ah Jong's wounds are mended, they find themselves bonding and becoming friends. Ah Jong makes Li promise that should anything happen to him, he will make sure that Jennie has her operation. Li, Ah Jong, and Jennie take refuge in a church while Sei goes to get Ah Jong's money from Hoi. He is badly beaten after trying to shoot Hoi and sustains several mortal gunshot wounds, but manages to get the money to the church.

Ah Jong shoots Sei to end his suffering, and he and Li arm themselves before engaging in a bloody shootout with dozens of gangsters. Both Li and Ah Jong are wounded, and eventually find themselves in a Mexican standoff between Ah Jong, Li, and Hoi. Hoi holds a gun to Jennie's head and shoots Chen dead when Li takes him hostage. Ah Jong has his eyes shot out, and bleeds to death as Jennie, now completely blind, crawls around helplessly trying to find him. As the police arrive, Hoi immediately surrenders, but an enraged Li kills him. Li is immediately subdued by the police, and collapsing to the ground in tears at the loss of his friend.

The end credits roll over a flashback sequence of Ah Jong playing the harmonica.

Drifter Harry Madox takes a job as a used car salesman in a small Texas town. In the summer heat, he develops an interest in Gloria Harper, who works at the car dealership. Dolly Harshaw, who is married to the dealership's owner, flirts with Harry and they begin a torrid affair.

Harry learns that the bank staff are all volunteer firemen so he sets a fire to lure them away from the bank. While they are gone, Harry robs the bank, but then has to enter the burning building to save a man who is trapped inside. The town's sheriff suspects Harry, but Dolly gives him an alibi and tells him she will sell him out unless he kills her husband. When he refuses, Dolly threatens to expose him. She ultimately kills her husband herself by overstimulating his weak heart during sex.

Meanwhile, Gloria is being blackmailed by Frank Sutton, who has nude photographs of Irene Davey with Gloria, after hearing about Irene with another woman, her former teacher. Harry, who has fallen in love with Gloria, confronts Sutton to get the pictures, and kills him in the ensuing struggle. Harry plants evidence to divert suspicion away from himself for Sutton's murder, then tells the police that Sutton, who had no job and few assets, had recently paid cash for a new car, making it seem that Sutton had robbed the bank. Harry receives a hefty reward for providing the tip that helps the police "solve" the robbery. He plans to marry Gloria and take her to the Caribbean Islands.

Dolly ruins Harry's plans by showing him a copy of a letter (to be opened in the event of her death) implicating him in the robbery and in Sutton's death, and telling Gloria about the affair. A heartbroken Gloria leaves Harry. Enraged, Harry tries to strangle Dolly, but cannot bring himself to kill her. Harry resigns himself to life with Dolly, and leaves town with her.

In 1977, high-school dropout Eddie Adams is living with his father and emotionally abusive mother in Torrance, California. He works at a Reseda nightclub owned by Maurice Rodriguez, where he meets porn filmmaker Jack Horner. Interested in bringing Eddie into porn, Jack auditions him by watching him have sex with Rollergirl, a porn starlet who always wears skates.

After a fight with his mother, Adams moves in with Horner at his San Fernando Valley home. Adams gives himself the screen name "Dirk Diggler" and becomes a star because of his good looks, youthful charisma, and unusually large penis. His success allows him to buy a new house, an extensive wardrobe, and a "competition orange" 1977 Chevrolet Corvette. With his friend and co-star Reed Rothchild, Dirk pitches a series of successful action-themed porn films. He works and socializes with others from the porn industry, and they live carefree lifestyles in the late 1970s disco era. While attending a New Year's Eve party at Horner's house on December 31, 1979, assistant director Little Bill Thompson discovers his adulterous wife having sex with another man. Bill, tired of being repeatedly cuckolded, shoots the pair dead and commits suicide.

Dirk and Reed begin using cocaine on a regular basis. Due to his drug use, Dirk finds it increasingly difficult to achieve an erection, falls into violent mood swings, and becomes irritated with Johnny Doe, a rival leading man Jack has recently recruited. Dirk worries that Johnny is displacing him. In 1983, after arguing with Jack, Dirk is fired and takes off with Reed to start a music career along with Scotty, a boom operator who is in love with Dirk. Jack rejects business overtures from Floyd Gondolli, a theater magnate who insists on cutting costs by shooting on videotape because Jack believes that video will diminish the quality of his films.

After his friend and financier, Colonel James, is incarcerated for causing an underage girl to overdose on cocaine, along with possession of child pornography, Jack cooperates with Gondolli but becomes disillusioned with the work he is expected to churn out. One of these projects involves Jack and Rollergirl riding in a limousine, searching for random men for her to have sex with while being taped by a crew. After they pick up a man, he recognizes Rollergirl as a former high-school classmate. After a failed attempt at intercourse, he insults her and Jack. Both Jack and Rollergirl attack the man, leaving him bloodied on the sidewalk.

Leading lady Amber Waves lands in a custody battle with her ex-husband. The court determines that she is an unfit mother due to her involvement in the porn industry, criminal record, and cocaine addiction. Buck Swope marries fellow porn star Jessie St. Vincent, who becomes pregnant. Because of his past as a pornographer, Buck is disqualified from a bank loan and cannot open his own stereo equipment store. That night, he finds himself in the middle of a holdup at a donut shop in which the clerk, the robber, and an armed customer are killed. Buck is the sole survivor and escapes with the money.

Having wasted their money on drugs, Dirk and Reed cannot pay a recording studio for demo tapes they believe will enable them to become music stars. Desperate for money, Dirk resorts to prostitution but is assaulted and robbed by three men. Dirk, Reed, and their friend Todd Parker attempt to scam local drug dealer Rahad Jackson by selling him a half-kilo of baking soda disguised as cocaine. Dirk and Reed want to leave quickly before Rahad's bodyguard inspects it, but Todd attempts to steal more drugs and money from Rahad. In the ensuing gunfight, Todd kills Rahad's bodyguard and is killed by Rahad, while Dirk and Reed narrowly escape. Dirk goes back to Jack's home and they reconcile.

In 1984, Jessie gives birth to her and Buck's son, Amber shoots the television commercial for the opening of Buck's store, Reed performs a magic act at a strip club, Colonel James remains in prison, Maurice opens a nightclub, and Rollergirl takes a GED class. Dirk and Amber prepare to start filming again.

Loosely based on true events (see Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu), the film concerns René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons), a French diplomat assigned to Beijing, China, in the 1960s. He becomes infatuated with a Peking opera performer, Song Liling (John Lone), who spies on him for the Government of the People's Republic of China. Their affair lasts for 20 years and they subsequently marry, with Gallimard all the while apparently unaware (or willfully ignorant) of the fact that in Peking opera, ''Dan'' roles are traditionally performed by men. At the end of the film Gallimard kills himself (although the man he is based on, Bernard Boursicot, did not do this in real life.)

Shivashankar, a crippled multi-millionaire, sends his spoilt son Vishnu to Thottapuram to help the poor. Vishnu does not want to go, but a local pizza restaurateur convinces Vishnu and his friends that the village is one big brothel. Thottapuram is a sacred village and the restaurateur had purposefully deceived Vishnu and his friends. Also Divya and her college classmates are visiting the village. They come for their social activity course to improve the village's health and hygiene. A large building is reserved for him and the girls are asked to stay in the poor families' houses. Vishnu and his friends arrive and start to woo the girls, whom they mistake for Thottapuram's prostitutes. When Divya discovers their plan, she and her friends decide to teach Vishnu and his friends a lesson.

Vishnu and his friends are wooed by Divya and the other girls. They are led to separate rooms where the girls inject a serum that makes them itch all over. They leave, screaming and scratching. Vishnu tells Divya to leave her profession and offers to save her honour by marrying her in the village temple the next day. Divya does not come, but Vishnu and his friends happen to see her leaving on a bus bearing the name of the girls' college, revealing that they have been duped. But, Divya got guilt ridden when she watches him carrying mangala sutra and really got ready to marry her. Depressed and feeling cheated, Vishnu returns home, Shivshankar discovers that his son fell in love. Under his influence, Vishnu and Divya get engaged. Everything goes well until one night, Vishnu goes to Divya's house in a drunken state. Her family prevent him from talking to her. This eventually leads to a fight. Vishnu then goes to Divya's cousin's house to meet Divya and apologises for his behaviour, but suddenly attempts to rape Divya's cousin which Divya got horrified when noticing. Then on the same day at night, Vishnu tries to kill Shivashankar, but is stopped by Ko Thandam, Sivashankar's P.A., who got stabbed by Vishnu. Disappointed with Vishnu's behaviour, Shivashankar sends Vishnu to a psychiatrist .

It is then revealed that Jeeva, Vishnu's twin, had assumed Vishnu's identity, took money from the bank, got drunk and went to Divya's place and attempted to rape Divya's cousin. Jeeva hates Shivashankar for abandoning him and his mentally-challenged mother Gayathri. Later, Divya manages to sneak into Vishnu's room in the hospital and believes his explanation that he is innocent. She leaves and shortly afterwards, Jeeva appears, smuggles and dumps Vishnu out of the hospital, takes over his identity and goes to kill Shivashankar. The father notices that it is not his son after he gets a call from the real son and gets out of his wheelchair to defend himself, much to Jeeva's surprise. Vishnu arrives at the scene, surprised that his father is able to walk and demands an explanation.

Shivashankar tells him that he was a Bharatanatyam dancer who behaved effeminately due to dancing. His mother had arranged for Shivashankar to marry her friend's daughter Gayathri (Jeeva's mother). He agreed but the girl rejected Shivashankar for being too effeminate and insulted him in front of crowd in the wedding. Unable to bear the embarrassment, Shivashankar's mother died on the spot. Enraged, Shivashankar raped and impregnated Gayathri. The doctor refused to give her an abortion, leading to Vishnu's birth. Shivashankar took his child from her mother saying the child would be the only hope of his life. But, unknown to Sivashankar, right after he left Gayathri gave birth to another son (Jeeva).

Jeeva escapes and threatens Vishnu and Divya's wedding. Shivashankar attempts to stop him when Jeeva's grandmother arrives and explains that Jeeva is also Shivashankar's son and Vishnu's twin, and that Jeeva's mother went insane when Jeeva was about to get hit by a lorry. Jeeva realises his mistake. He wants Shivashankar to shoot him, but a police officer mistakenly thinks that Jeeva is pointing a gun at Shivashankar. He fires at Jeeva, but Shivashankar intervenes and is shot dead instead. Jeeva accepts Shivashankar's apology and is then arrested.

Weeks later, Jeeva's mother does not accept food from anyone, until Vishnu comes dressed up as Jeeva and feeds her. The film ends with Vishnu telling her that Shivashankar is the godfather of family.

A belief is spreading in conquered China that the government has lost the Mandate of Heaven. Han Tzu meets up with Mazer Rackham, who passes him a blow dart pen, calling it the "Mandate of Heaven". Han Tzu confronts the emperor, Snow Tiger, who is shot and killed by a guard, allowing Han Tzu to overthrow the Chinese government and install himself as the new emperor. Meanwhile, Peter Wiggin, Hegemon of Earth, along with Petra Arkanian, goes to visit Alai, Caliph of the Muslim League. The two help Alai realize that he is little more than a glorified prisoner, and that others have been ruling Islam in his stead. After uncovering a conspiracy against him, Alai resolves to take firmer control of his nation and guarantee the human rights of his subjugated peoples.

The rest of the book deals with Peter Wiggin working to create a world government free of war through his Free People of Earth (FPE) alliance. Caliph Alai of the Muslim League and Virlomi, now the virtual goddess of India, oppose his efforts. Against this backdrop of world political machinations by the former Battle School children is the extremely personal story of Julian (Bean) Delphiki. Anton's Key is making him grow at an astounding rate and he has only a short time before his body will become too large for his heart to support. He searches frantically for his and Petra's missing children. Graff assists them in locating the surrogate mothers of their children. While Bean and Petra wait for news, Graff extends invitations to the other members of Ender's Jeesh to leave Earth and rule colonies, where they can conquer to their heart's content without causing needless wars between themselves, and instructs Bean to support Peter in forming the FPE.

The FPE alliance begins with only twenty-two countries, among them Brazil, Rwanda, and the Netherlands. The first test of the FPE comes when they recognize the sovereignty and nationhood of the Nubian, Quechua, and Aymara peoples, ethnic minorities that are politically part of other nations. Peru and Sudan send troops against these "rebel" strongholds, but Peter defends them using Bean and Suriyawong, leading Rwandan and Thai troops, to show that war against one FPE member is war against all of them. The FPE's victories, and especially their militarily brilliant commanders, bolster support for the FPE, and nations begin to freely vote on whether to join it.

Meanwhile, Bean suspects that Peter is embezzling Ender's military pension to fund the FPE, so he requests that Ender's funds be placed under the control of an autonomous computer. Colonel Graff has the Mind Game reprogrammed to accurately predict financial markets and turns it loose over the ansible network, where it continues to invest Ender's pension and, as revealed later in the Enderverse chronology, eventually evolves into the artificial intelligence known as Jane. The Mind Game also speeds the search for Bean's missing children, allowing the International Fleet to find eight of them; two of whom have Anton's Key turned, as does the baby Petra is carrying. The ninth remains undetected, as Achilles had it implanted into a woman named Randi, brainwashed to think that it is the baby of Achilles, whom she worships as a hero assassinated by foul enemies. To avoid persecution, Randi determines to leave Earth and live in a colony, where she can raise her child (who appears to have Anton's Key turned, as the baby is born prematurely) to follow in Achilles' footsteps. Her story, and that of her child Randall Firth, is concluded in Card's later novel ''Ender in Exile''.

Virlomi attempts to guarantee India's freedom via dynastic marriage, turning down an offer from Han Tzu to instead attempt to seduce Peter Wiggin. When Peter turns her down, she turns to Alai whom she finds easier to outmaneuver. Their new marriage is fraught with tension and Alai discovers that, despite his wife's status as an infidel and a woman, the more hotheaded members of his empire actually prefer her aggressive and expansionist policies. Virlomi then declares war on China, setting off all manner of plots: Muslim hardliners attempt to assassinate Alai; Russia invades China and eastern Europe using "contingency" plans drawn up by a horrified Vlad; and Fly Molo of the Philippines is instructed to invade Taiwan, his nation suicidally confident in their Jeesh member. In this way, all the Battle School grads are convinced to take up Graff's offer to travel the stars, realizing that their presence on Earth guarantees continued and wasteful war. Even Virlomi agrees, after Suri manages to snap her out of her growing megalomania.

With the secret help of Mazer Rackham, Bean divorces Petra for her own sake, takes the three found children with Anton's Key, and flies away on a starship provided by the Fleet to achieve relativistic speeds and thereby stay alive long enough for medical researchers to find a cure. Bean's departure breaks Petra's heart, but she becomes Peter's military commander, eventually marrying and having five children with him, though she never stops loving Bean. By the end of the novel, all of the world's nations, except the United States, have joined the FPE. Peter reconciles with Ender via ansible, giving the "Speaker for the Dead" all he needs to write ''The Hegemon'', a deeply felt and truthful biography of his brother. Petra reads his biography at his grave, thinking of him as the man who truly changed her life. Still, Bean remains the one whom she loves and has changed her life the most.

A young boy known as Musashi, reincarnated from the legendary Brave Fencer Musashi who saved the Allucaneet Kingdom from a monster called the Wizard of Darkness 150 years before, is summoned to Allucaneet by its ruler Princess Fillet to save it from the invading Thirstquencher Empire. Musashi is given the blade Fusion, and is charged with the task of obtaining Brave Fencer Musashi's sword Lumina, the Sword of Luminescence before the Thirstquencher Army does. Although Musashi has no intention of saving the kingdom, he agrees to do so in order to return to his homeland. After Musashi recovers Lumina, he finds that most of the people from the Allucaneet kingdom, including Fillet, have been kidnapped by the Thirstquencher Empire. In order to rescue all the residents from Allucaneet and defeat the Empire, Musashi starts searching for the Five Scrolls; each one holding an elemental power able to greatly augment the sword Lumina's powers.

With help from treasure hunter Jon, Musashi finds the Earth Scroll and defeats its crest guardian. After its defeat, half-vampire and half-zombie creatures known as Vambees appear in the nearby village. While searching for a way to stop the Vambees, Musashi finds the Water Scroll and defeats its crest guardian in the basement where the Vambees originate. While Musashi searches for the Fire Scroll, Musashi's rival, Kojiro, kidnaps Princess Fillet and uses her as a hostage to force a battle with Musashi. Once Kojiro is defeated, and Fillet is then rescued. Musashi then searches for thieves from the Thirstquencher Empire and makes his way to the next crest guardian. It is then revealed that Princess Fillet is actually one of Thirstquencher's thieves disguised, and that the real Fillet is still in their hands. Musashi then continues his journey, finds the Wind Scroll, and defeats its crest guardian in an ants' nest.

After finding the fifth and final Scroll, the Sky Scroll, Musashi discovers Thirstquencher's base, a floating ship known as the Soda Fountain. Musashi attacks the base and defeats the Sky Guardian. Thirstquencher's leader, Flatski, forces Musashi to give him Lumina in exchange for the Princess, and frees the Sky Crest. However, this unleashes the Wizard of Darkness, who was sealed within Brave Fencer Musashi's sword Lumina the entire time. It is also revealed by Jon that the original Brave Fencer Musashi sealed The Dark Wizard within the sword. Furthermore, it was Brave Fencer Musashi who entrusted the crests to the crest guardians to prevent The Dark Wizard's seal within Lumina from being broken. In effect, the present Musashi's quest merely aided The Dark Wizard's revival. Musashi recovers Lumina and uses it to defeat The Dark Wizard. After returning the Princess to Allucaneet Kingdom, Musashi takes Lumina to the place where he found it.

For generations, a secret war has raged between vampires and Lycans, an ancient species of werewolf. The vampires gain the upper hand when Lycan leader Lucian seemingly dies at the hands of vampire Kraven, who becomes the second-in-command to the vampires' leading elders. Selene, a member of an elite group of vampire assassins known as "Death Dealers", longs for revenge against the Lycans, who murdered her parents when she was a child.

During a clash with the Lycans, Selene discovers that they are looking for Michael Corvin, a seemingly ordinary medical student. After she rescues Michael and takes him under her wing, the pair find themselves pursued by a group of Lycans led by Lucian, who is still alive after all. During their escape, Michael is bitten by Lucian. Since Kraven was the only witness to Lucian's supposed death, Selene comes to suspect that he lied about killing him, and may be working with the Lycans.

She returns to her coven's mansion and prematurely awakens Viktor, a hibernating elder vampire. Furious, Viktor refuses to believe Selene's warnings about Kraven's treachery, and reminds her that his fellow elder Marcus was supposed to be awakened before him.

While awaiting Kraven's judgment for defying him, Selene binds Michael, fearing that the Lycans' bite will transform him into a werewolf when the full moon rises. As the two of them bond, she gradually tells him more about her past, revealing that Viktor adopted her and turned her into a vampire after her parents' death. Selene later manages to capture and abduct the Lycan scientist Singe, while the Lycans manage to abduct and capture Michael.

While held captive in the Lycans' lair, Michael soon learns that Lucian was once in love with Viktor's daughter Sonja, and that Viktor murdered her after he discovered their forbidden love affair. Kraven claims that Lycans were once slaves of vampires, and the war began when they rose up against them and fought for their freedom. Menwhile, at the vampires' mansion, a captive Singe reveals that Selene was telling the truth about Kraven's betrayal, and he reveals why the Lycans want Michael: vampires and Lycans actually have a common ancestor, and Michael is a direct descendant of that ancestor. As an heir to the legendary "Corvinus" bloodline, he carries a unique genetic strain that could allow him to become a vampire-werewolf hybrid.

The vampire elder Amelia—the ruler of the coven—is later ambushed and killed by Lycans while traveling to the mansion to awaken Marcus. In the ensuing showdown between vampires and Lycans, Selene breaks into the Lycans' lair to rescue Michael, Kraven and Lucian turn on each other, Kraven tells Selene that Viktor was the one who really murdered her parents, and Michael allows Selene to bite him - believing that her bite will make him an immortal vampire-werewolf hybrid - while Kraven shoots Lucian, killing him.

When Viktor arrives at the Lycans' lair in the aftermath of the battle, he admits to murdering Selene's parents and killing his daughter. He also insists that he killed Sonja for the good of his people and reveals she was pregnant with Lucian's child, an abomination in the eyes of the two species. Lastly, he claims that he made Selene immortal out of love for her. Viktor and Michael fight, but with Michael overpowered and nearly strangled, Selene turns on Viktor and kills him. Now enemies of both the vampires and the Lycans, Selene and Michael flee the Lycans' lair together.

Back at the vampires' mansion, Marcus—now the sole surviving vampire elder—awakens after Singe's blood seeps into his sarcophagus.

King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover and Agememnon's cousin and childhood playmate Aegisthus. Of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's children, Orestes goes into exile and safety while Electra is confined to the palace for some years and then forced to marry a peasant to disgrace her and any children.

Some years later, Electra seeks revenge with the help of her brother Orestes and their cousin Pylades. Orestes and Pylades go to a festival to Bacchus hosted by Aegisthus and, when Aegisthes challenges Orestes to a mock knife fight, Orestes uses the opportunity to kill him. Electra invites Clytemnestra to her house on a pretext where, despite Clytemnestra explaining to Electra her reasons for killing her husband and apologising for her actions towards Electra, Electra enables Orestes to stab Clytemnestra to death. At the end, the siblings feel remorseful and realise that they will be social outcasts for their action. They depart in different directions.

While the ''Enterprise'' is visiting Starbase 173 for routine maintenance, cyberneticist Commander Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) comes aboard to pay a visit to Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), wishing to better understand Data's positronic brain. It quickly becomes clear that Maddox has an ulterior motive of transferring the contents of Data's memory to the starbase mainframe computer and shutting down and disassembling him to learn how to recreate the technology. Though Maddox promises to restore Data following his analysis and assures him his memories will be intact, Data is concerned that the procedure is riskier than Maddox is letting on, and argues that while the factual details of his memories will be preserved, the nuances of his experiences may not be. Data refuses, causing Maddox to turn to Starfleet to order him to comply. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) supports Data's position, and is advised that the only way for Data to evade the order is to resign from Starfleet, which Data does. Maddox, however, argues that Data is Starfleet property, not a sentient being, and as such does not have the right to choose to resign.

Meanwhile, Picard has to deal with the presiding Judge Advocate General for the sector, Captain Philippa Louvois (Amanda McBroom), who was a former love interest until she aggressively prosecuted Picard in a court-martial involving his actions on the ''USS Stargazer''. When Louvois rules for Maddox, Picard requests a formal hearing to challenge the ruling. Louvois agrees, and allows Picard to represent Data during the proceedings. Due to a shortage of qualified legal staff, Louvois compels Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) to represent Maddox. Riker's arguments portray Data as merely a machine constructed by man, and no more than the sum of his parts. In a striking final demonstration, Riker activates Data's "off switch", causing the android to shut down. Picard calls for a recess, during which he meets in Ten Forward with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who suggests that regardless of whether Data is a machine or not, Maddox's plans for reproducing him would lead to a situation tantamount to slavery. Picard uses this to defuse Riker's arguments, and turns the discussion to metaphysical matters of Data's sentience, using Data and Maddox as witnesses. Picard points out that Data meets two of the three criteria that Maddox uses to define sentient life. Data is intelligent and self-aware, and Picard asks anyone in the court to show a means of measuring consciousness.

With no one able to answer this, Louvois acknowledges that neither she nor anyone else can measure this in Data and rules that he has the right to choose. Upon the court's ruling, Data formally refuses to undergo the procedure. After the hearing, Data clearly holds no ill will against Maddox; Data reminds the scientist that his work remains intriguing, and offers to assist in further research after Maddox has had more time to study and perfect his techniques. Maddox, for his part, refers to Data for the first time as "he" rather than "it". Later during a party celebrating Data's victory, Data finds Riker alone in a conference room, ashamed of having had to argue against his friend in the hearing. Data cheers him up by telling him that his action was an act of self-sacrifice that gave Data the chance to win his freedom, as had Riker refused to participate, Louvois' original judgement in favor of Maddox would have been final. The two then happily return to the celebration together.

;Act I In 1929, the elderly and widowed, but still lively, Marchioness of Shayne is holding a party at her home in London to celebrate the impending society marriage of a young woman, Dolly Chamberlain, who is in love not with her fiancé but with a poor musician ("That Wonderful Melody"). Dolly is torn between love and fortune, and Lady Shane is reminded of her own youth ("The Call of Life").

Nearly 55 years earlier, in 1875, Lady Shayne is the young Sarah Millick, a wealthy London society debutante, who is having a singing lesson with her dashing music teacher, Carl Linden. The spirited Sarah is engaged to Lord Hugh, a wealthy but stuffy young nobleman, but Sarah and Carl have fallen in love ("If You Could Only Come With Me"). Carl's integrity makes him decide not to ruin Sarah's 'proper' life and return directly to his native Austria, but vows to think of Sarah each Spring ("I'll See You Again"). At the pre-wedding party, Sarah realises she would be unhappy with Lord Hugh and that true love is more important ("What Is Love?"). Carl is entertaining at the party ("The Last Dance"). Later, during a game of blindman's buff, Carl and Sarah declare their mutual love and decide to elope to Vienna.

;Act II Five years later, in Vienna, Carl is a bandleader, and Sarah (now called Sari), sings his songs, but their employment at Schlick's Café, a racy establishment patronised by army officers and whores, requires Sari to dance with the patrons, and perhaps more ("Ladies of the Town"). Carl's previous lover, Manon La Crevette, entertains at the café and expresses feelings of lost love ("If Love Were All"). Sari and Carl plan to quit and find their dream café ("Dear Little Café"), but it's a busy night ("Tokay"), and after Manon's number ("Bonne Nuit, Merci"), Sari is obliged to dance with an army captain who makes a determined pass, provoking Carl to intervene. The captain challenges him to a duel, which he wins easily, killing Carl; Sari is distraught, as Manon reprises a sad waltz number ("Kiss Me").

;Act III Thirteen years pass, and in 1893 London it is the Gay Nineties ("Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay"; "Green Carnation"). The young ladies are now respectable society matrons ("Alas! The Time is Past"). Sari, now a Viennese star singing Carl's music ("Zigeuner"), is pursued by the Marquis of Shayne, who seeks to restore her youthful spirit. He has proposed to her in every European capital, and now home in London, she finally accepts him, but reprises "I'll See You Again" to her lost love, Carl.

Again at the 1929 party, Dolly, inspired by Lady Shane's story of love pursued and lost, rejects her society fiancé and declares her love for the poor musician, whose reaction is to burst into a syncopated piano rendition of "I'll See You Again" as the heartbroken Sarah gives way to bitter mirth.

Act I

;Otto's "rather shabby" studio in Paris, 1932

Gilda is an interior designer who lives with the painter Otto, who was previously attached to Leo, an author. She is visited by Ernest Friedman, an art dealer and friend of all three. He is excited about his newly acquired Matisse and wants to show it to Otto. Gilda says that Otto is in bed, ill, and cannot be disturbed. Ernest tells her that Leo is back in Paris after making a success in New York. Otto enters from the street, carrying luggage, and very clearly not bedridden as Gilda has told Ernest. Ernest prudently takes his leave. After he and Otto have gone out to find Leo, supposedly at the George V Hotel, Leo enters from Gilda's bedroom where he has spent the night with her. They discuss what they should say to Otto, whom they both love. On his return they tell him that they have slept together in his absence, and after a furious row he renounces both of them and storms out of the room.

Act II

;Leo's flat in London eighteen months later

;Scene 1

Leo and Gilda are now living together. His plays are now immensely successful. A journalist and press photographer call to do a feature on him. During the interview Leo makes several remarks that show how shallow he finds success.

;Scene 2

A few days later, Leo is away, and Otto turns up. He too has now become successful. Otto and Gilda dine together and their old love is rekindled. They embrace passionately.

'''Scene 3'''

The next morning, Otto is still asleep when Ernest calls on Gilda. She tells him she is leaving Leo, and they exit together. Leo returns to discover Otto, who at once acknowledges that he has spent the night with Gilda. Before the ensuing row develops too far they spot the notes Gilda has left for them both. They are both horrified that she has gone, and they drown their sorrows in brandy and then sherry. They embrace, sobbing helplessly.

Act III

;Ernest's penthouse in New York, two years later.

;Scene 1 Gilda has married Ernest and become a commercially successful designer. Ernest is away, and Gilda is giving a reception for some important clients. It is gatecrashed by Otto and Leo, in impeccable evening dress, determined to reclaim her. They frighten her guests into leaving, and Gilda pretends to bid them goodnight along with her other guests, but secretly gives them a key and tells them to return later.

;Scene 2 Ernest returns the next morning to find Otto and Leo in his apartment, wearing his pyjamas. Gilda, however, has not been there. She has been to a hotel overnight to allow herself time to think. When she returns, Otto and Leo explain to an incredulous and incandescent Ernest that Gilda's formal status as his wife is irrelevant. She slowly realises that the attraction the two exert for her is irresistible. As Ernest rushes out denouncing their "disgusting three-sided erotic hotch-potch," Gilda, Otto and Leo fall together on a sofa in gales of laughter.

The plot follows the story of Bird, a 27 year old Japanese man. The book starts with him wondering about a hypothetical trip to Africa, which is a recurrent theme in his mind throughout the story. Soon after day-dreaming about his trip and a brawl with a few local delinquents from the region, Bird receives a call from the doctor of the hospital regarding his newborn child, urging him to talk in person. After meeting with the doctor, he discovers that his son has been born with a brain hernia, although the fact is still obscure to his wife.

Bird is troubled by the revelation, and regrets having to inform the relatives of his wife about the facts concerning the state of the child, who is not expected to survive for long. Not long after, Bird meets an ex-girlfriend of his, called Himiko, who has, after her husband's suicide, become a sexual deviant and eccentric. After a short philosophical discussion, both become drunk and Bird sleeps at Himiko's, only to wake up on the morning after in a deep state of hangover from all the whisky he had drunk the day before. He vomits violently. After refreshing up and readying himself for work, Bird goes to his teaching job at Cram school to teach English Literature. Whilst teaching, Bird suddenly becomes wildly nauseated and vomits in his classroom. The classmates disapprove of Bird's behaviour, claiming that he's a drunk and should be fired from his job. Bird worries that he might lose his job.

After the ordeal, he returns to the hospital, sure that his child should have died by now. When he asks the nurse concerning the baby, he is surprised to know that his child is still alive, and if survived after a few days, is expected to go through brain surgery, even though the prospects of him turning into a healthy normal child is non-existent. Bird struggles with this fact, and desires the child to die as soon as possible so as to not have the responsibility for the so-called "monster baby" to ruin his life and his prospects for travelling by himself to the African Continent. The internal psychological struggle that he has to go through makes him feel fear, anger and shame, towards the baby and himself.

A little while after, Bird goes to Himiko's house and begins to make love to her. However, haunted by the ordeal of his dying child, Bird is unable to achieve an erection at the mention of the word "pregnancy" and "womb" uttered by Himiko, and ends up resorting to the practice of BDSM. He feels reluctant at first, but then concedes and is able to achieve orgasm with Himiko. When he goes back to the hospital, Bird has to lie to his wife concerning the state of the baby and its cranial condition, claiming that it is an unknown organ failure that is causing the baby to suffer. He does not admit that he expects the baby's death.

Back at his cram school job, he meets one of his friendly students who wishes to claim that the vomit incident the earlier day was caused by food poisoning, and not hangover, in order for Bird have better chances of not being fired. Bird appreciates this offer, but decides to go clean to his superiors regarding the incident. After the meeting with his supervisor, he is let go of his job. Bird realizes that now he has no prospects for ever travelling to the African Continent, and worries about his Hospital Bills and financial situation.

Bird tries to escape his responsibility for the child and his crumbling relationship with his wife, turning to alcohol and Himiko. Eventually, he is fired from his job teaching at a cram school in the process. He half attempts to kill the child, albeit indirectly, and is forced to decide whether he wants to keep the child.

''Scarlet Diva'' is a semi-autobiographical film about the Italian actress and director Asia Argento's life as an actress. A self-destructive streak in Anna Battista (Argento) pulls her into drugs, sex and other excesses. To combat this descent, she attempts to fulfill her creative side by becoming a film director. Battista's attempts to realize her talent are thwarted by her desires and the uncaring responses of those around her. As part of her plans to become a director and bring her story to the screen, Battista travels to Los Angeles but only meets a shady film producer (Joe Coleman). She falls in love with an uncaring Australian rock and roll star (Jean Sheperd), then finds out she is pregnant by him. But her life is still in disarray as she uses drugs to help herself feel better.

Brad Hamilton is a popular senior at Ridgemont High School, a fictional school in the San Fernando Valley, and looks forward to his final year of school. He has a job at All-American Burger, his 1960 Buick LeSabre car is almost paid for, and plans to break up with his girlfriend Lisa so he can be completely eligible during his senior year. His perfect life is threatened after an exchange with an obnoxious customer results in his firing from All-American Burger. When Brad tries to tell Lisa how much he needs her, she informs him that she wants to break up with him to date other guys. Brad gets a job at Captain Hook Fish & Chips, but quits in humiliation when a beautiful older woman laughs at him wearing a pirate costume while making a food delivery.

Brad's sister Stacy is a 15-year-old freshman and a virgin. She works at a pizza parlor at Ridgemont Mall alongside her outspoken older friend, Linda Barrett. One night at work, Stacy takes an order from Ron Johnson, a 26-year-old stereo salesman, who asks her out after she tells him she's 19. She later sneaks out of her house for a date with him and loses her virginity that night in the dugout of a baseball field. She later tells Linda about the experience, stating how much it hurt. Linda offers advice to Stacy on the matter, which she often does, as the more worldly and experienced of the two. Ron sends her flowers the next day.

Mike Damone is a smooth-talker who earns money taking sports bets and scalping concert tickets; he fancies himself a worldly ladies' man. His shy but amiable best friend, Mark Ratner, works as an usher at the movie theater across from the pizza parlor at the mall. When Mark develops a crush on Stacy, Damone lets Mark in on his five secrets for picking up girls. Damone later persuades Mark to ask Stacy out on a date to a German restaurant. Afterwards, at her home, Stacy invites Mark into her bedroom, where they look at her photo album together. They begin to kiss, but a nervous Mark abruptly leaves after Stacy attempts to seduce him. She mistakenly interprets his shyness as disinterest. Linda quickly advises her to move on and find another boy. After he drops by her house unannounced, Stacy becomes interested in Damone. She invites him to her pool, which quickly leads to them having sex in the pool house during which he ejaculates very quickly. Her brother Brad, who has become sullen and withdrawn since his breakup with Lisa and the loss of his job at All-American Burger, is caught masturbating in the bathroom by Linda after he fantasizes about her exposing her breasts to him at the pool.

Stacy later informs Damone that he has gotten her pregnant, and he tells her she wanted sex more than he did, which she denies. She asks for him to cover half the cost of an abortion and provide her with a ride to the clinic, and he agrees. However, unable to come up with his half despite attempts to call in debts owed from his business dealings, Damone abandons Stacy on the day of her appointment. She lies and asks her brother Brad to drive her to a bowling alley to meet friends, but he sees her cross the street to the abortion clinic. Brad waits for Stacy and he confronts her about the abortion. Stacy makes Brad promise not to tell their parents, but does not divulge who got her pregnant. When Stacy tells Linda that Damone abandoned her and did not pay his half, Linda becomes furious. The next day, Damone finds his car spray-painted "Prick" and his school locker painted "little prick", as revenge. Mark confronts Damone about his involvement with Stacy. They almost get into a fight, but their gym teacher breaks it up.

Jeff Spicoli is a carefree stoner and surfer who runs afoul of history teacher Mr. Hand. One night, Spicoli wrecks the Chevrolet Camaro of Ridgemont star football player Charles Jefferson during a joyride with Jefferson's younger brother. Spicoli covers up the damage by making it look like the car was destroyed by fans of Ridgemont's sports rival, Lincoln High School. When Ridgemont plays Lincoln, Jefferson, furious about his car, brutally tackles several of Lincoln's players and almost single-handedly wins the game. On the evening of the graduation dance, Mr. Hand visits Spicoli's house and informs him that he must make up the eight hours of class time he has wasted over the school year. They have a history session that lasts until Mr. Hand is satisfied that Spicoli has understood the lesson, and the two show that they respect each other.

In the end, Mark and Stacy start dating again, and Mark makes peace with his best friend Damone. Brad takes a job at a convenience store and is promoted to manager after foiling an armed robbery with some help from an oblivious Spicoli. Damone is busted scalping Ozzy Osbourne tickets and is forced to take a job at 7-Eleven. Linda attends college in Riverside and moves in with her abnormal-psychology professor. Spicoli saves Brooke Shields from drowning and blows the reward money hiring rock band Van Halen to play at his birthday party. Mr. Hand maintains his belief that ''everyone'' is on dope.

Evidence is found of an intelligent alien species who visited the Earth long ago and left an encyclopedia with the collected knowledge of their culture. The story is told from the point of view of a human historian on a star ship on the way to Alpha Centauri (the aliens' home star) who is using the time in transit to translate two alien books and to write a history of how humans gained access to the aliens' knowledge.

9000 years ago the alien society in the Alpha Centauri system was under threat of cosmic bombardment. Their only hope to survive was to explore and colonize nearby space. On 21st century Earth, astronauts find artifacts left by this civilization and wonder who they were.

The narrator is a historian who is part of a mission to the Alpha Centauri system, the home system of the aliens. As all crew members were required to bring several projects to work on, due to the decades long nature of the mission, she spends her time writing biographies of several family members who were closely involved in the acquisition of a repository of the aliens' knowledge. As another project, she translates two autobiographies by the aliens who had visited the Solar System over 9000 years earlier.

In his narration, Grieban tries to link the ethical nature of the Nazi movement to the American Civil War by saying the comparisons are undeniable: Fighting to keep the races pure and separated. Grieban may be looked at as the epitome of one fighting for the cause, but he himself fails to live up to his own high ideals of racial purity when he falls in 'love' with a Jewish woman during his years as a Nazi concentration camp commandant.

Biron Farrill, about to complete studies at the University of Earth, is told by Sander Jonti that his father, a rich planetary leader who is known as Lord Rancher of Widemos, has been arrested and killed by the Tyranni and that his own life may be in danger. On Jonti's advice, he travels to Rhodia, the strongest of the conquered planets. There, from the Director of Rhodia's brother Gillbret, he hears rumours of a world on which rebellion against the Tyranni is secretly being plotted.

Escaping with Artemisia oth Hinriad, the daughter of the Director of Rhodia, and her uncle Gillbret in a Tyranni spaceship, they travel to the planet Lingane. It is not part of the Tyranni conquests but maintains "peaceful" relations with them.

There, they meet the Autarch of Lingane, who is revealed to be Sander Jonti, the man who sent Farrill to Rhodia from Earth, who seems to possess knowledge of a rebellion world. With him and his followers, the group travel to the heart of the Horsehead Nebula as they believe that for any rebellion world to exist and not be known to the Tyranni, it must be located in a place like the Horsehead Nebula.

The Tyranni spaceship that was stolen by Farrill is being tracked by a fleet of Tyranni vessels led by Simok Aratap, the Tyrannian Commissioner. With him is the Director, who is shown to be nervous about the well-being of his daughter and his brother. They keep themselves at a distance for fear of discovery until Farrill lands on one planet in the heart of the nebula.

The Autarch believes that the planet is the rebellion world. However, there is no sign of life anywhere. When the Autarch and Farrill leave the spaceship, apparently to set up a radio transmitter, Farrill faces the Autarch and accuses him of getting his father killed at the hands of the Tyranni. The Autarch affirms the accusation, and Farrill adds that the Autarch feared his father's growing reputation and so caused Farrill's father's death.

In a fight, Farrill subdues the Autarch with help from the Autarch's aide, Tedor Rizzet, who reveals that he is ashamed of the Autarch for killing a great man like Farrill's father. Later, as Farrill and Rizzet try to explain everything to the rest of the crew they picked up from Lingane, the Tyranni fleet arrives and takes them prisoner. Aratap interrogates Farrill, Artemisia, Gillbret, and Rizzet to ascertain the co-ordinates of the rebellion world, but they do not know where it is. However, the Autarch reveals the information to Aratap. Rizzet kills the Autarch with a blaster in anger.

While Aratap interrogates Farrill, Gillbret manages to escape to the engine room of the spaceship and short the hyperatomics. Farrill, realizing the danger, manages to contact Aratap. The engines are repaired, but Gillbret is injured and later dies.

The space jump is made with the co-ordinates given to them by the late Autarch. However, they find a planetless system with only a white-dwarf star. Aratap lets Farrill and the others go, believing that there is no rebellion world. Aratap makes it clear that he will never be chosen as Director. Biron and Artemisia are allowed to marry.

It is eventually revealed that there is indeed a rebellion in the making, on Rhodia itself, with the Director as its leader; he deliberately took on the persona of a nervous and timid old man to throw off suspicion from himself and his planet.

It is further revealed that the Director, who possesses a collection of ancient documents, has searched for and has found a document that will help a future empire, likely Trantor, govern the galaxy. The document is eventually revealed to be the United States Constitution.

In 1877 Colorado Territory, a young woman, Cresta Lee, and young Colorado Private Honus Gant are joined together by fate when they are the only two survivors after their group is massacred by the Cheyenne. Gant is devoted to his country and duty; Lee, who has lived with the Cheyenne for two years, is scornful of Gant (she refers to him as "Soldier Blue" derisively) and declares that in this conflict she sympathizes with them. The two must now try to make it to Fort Reunion, the army camp, where Cresta's fiancé, an army officer, waits for her. As they travel through the desert with very low supplies, hiding from the Indians, they are spotted by a group of Kiowa horsemen. Under pressure from Cresta, Honus fights and seriously wounds the group's chief when the chief challenges him. Honus finds himself unable to kill the disgraced Kiowa leader, whose own men stab him leaving Honus and Cresta alone. The ideological gulf between them is also revealed in their attitudes towards societal mores, with the almost-puritanical Honus disturbed by things Cresta barely notices.

The duo are pursued by a corrupt trader who sells guns to the Cheyenne, but whose latest shipment of weapons Honus has managed to destroy. An injured Honus finds himself in a cave where Cresta has left him to get help. She arrives at Fort Reunion, only to discover that her fiancé's cavalry unit plans to attack the peaceful Indian village of the Cheyenne the following day. She rides to the village in time to warn Spotted Wolf, the Cheyenne chief. The chief does not recognize the danger and, under a U.S. flag, rides out to extend a hand of friendship to the American soldiers. The soldiers, however, obey the orders of their psychopathic commanding officer and open artillery fire on the village.

After a cavalry charge decimates the Indian men, the soldiers enter the village and begin to rape and kill the Cheyenne women. Honus attempts to halt the atrocities, to no avail and he is later arrested for treason by his own comrades. Cresta attempts to lead the remaining women and children to safety, but her group is discovered and massacred, though Cresta herself survives and arrested for treason by the soldiers. Honus is dragged away chained behind an army wagon while a despairing Cresta is left with the few Cheyenne survivors.

In a small Southern town, Jim Price is elected sheriff over John Little, the incumbent. Racial tensions exist in the community, and Price gets little assistance from Little, leaving office, or from Mayor Parks, who insists he be consulted on any decision the new sheriff makes.

A white man, John Braddock, is arrested on a manslaughter charge after his drunken driving causes the death of a young girl. Braddock's father carries considerable influence and demands his son be freed. Price's deputy, Bradford Wilkes, is beaten by Little's former deputy, Bengy Springer.

Another arrest is made, this time of a black man, George Harley, accused of rape. The townspeople's mood turns uglier by the minute, particularly when Braddock's father threatens to spring his son by force if necessary.

Little's conscience gets the better of him. He agrees to become Price's new deputy. Together, they try in vain to persuade other men in town to side with them against Braddock's vigilantes and to convince the mayor to call in the National Guard for help. Alone against the mob, Price and Little form a barricade and prepare for the worst when their fellow townsmen suddenly join them in the street.

On the Jersey Shore in the 1950s, two Italian immigrant brothers from Calabria own and operate a restaurant called "Paradise". One brother, Primo, is a brilliant, perfectionist chef who chafes under their few customers' expectations of "Americanized" Italian food. Their uncle's offer for them to return to Rome to help with his restaurant is growing in appeal to Primo. The younger brother, Secondo, is the restaurant manager, a man enamoured of the possibilities presented by their new endeavor and life in America. Despite Secondo's efforts and Primo's magnificent food, their restaurant is failing to gain success and recognition.

Secondo's struggles as a businessman render him unable to commit to his girlfriend Phyllis, and he has recently been sleeping with Gabriella, the wife of a competitor. Her husband's eponymous restaurant, "Pascal's", has succeeded despite (or perhaps due to) the mediocre, uninspired food served there. Desperate to keep Paradise afloat, Secondo asks Pascal for a loan. Pascal demurs, repeating a past offer for the brothers to work for him, which Secondo refuses: he and his brother want their own restaurant. In a seemingly generous gesture, Pascal insists that he will persuade popular Italian-American singer Louis Prima to dine at Paradise when in town, assuming the celebrity jazz singer's patronage will revitalize the brothers' business. Primo and Secondo dive into the preparations for this "big night", spending their entire savings on food, drinks and decoration, inviting numerous people (including a newspaper reporter and Primo's love interest) to join them for a magnificent feast showcasing a timpano (a complex baked pasta dish). Primo pours his heart into every dish, lavishing care and great expertise on the cooking.

As they wait for Prima and his entourage to arrive, the dinner party indulges in the exquisite food and partake in a fabulous celebration. Hours go by, however, and it becomes apparent that the famous singer is not coming, although a reporter who came to cover the singer's appearance promises to ask his newspaper to send a food critic. Phyllis catches Secondo and Gabriella kissing and runs off to the beach. At Gabriella's insistence, Pascal admits that he never called Louis Prima, thus ending the party.

Secondo follows Phyllis to the beach where they have a final quarrel. Primo and Secondo have a fiery, heart-wrenching argument, chafing at their mutual differences. In the wee hours of the morning, Pascal admits to Secondo that he set the brothers up for failure; not as revenge for Secondo's affair with Gabriella but because the brothers would have no choice but to return to Italy or work for Pascal. Secondo refuses him, saying they will never work for him.

As dawn breaks, Secondo silently cooks an omelette. When done, he divides it among three plates, giving one to Cristiano, their waiter, and eating one himself. Primo hesitantly enters, and Secondo hands him the last plate. They eat without speaking, and lay their arms across one another's shoulders.

Season 1

The first season of ''The L Word'' premiered on January 18, 2004 and ended on April 11, 2004. The season introduces Bette Porter and Tina Kennard, a couple in a seven-year relationship attempting to have a child; Marina Ferrer, owner of the local cafe The Planet; Jenny Schecter, who has recently moved to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend Tim Haspell; Shane McCutcheon, an androgynous, highly sexual hairstylist; Alice Pieszecki, a bisexual journalist who maintains The Chart; Dana Fairbanks, a closeted professional tennis player; and Kit Porter, Bette's straight half-sister.

Season 2

The second season of ''The L Word'' premiered on February 20, 2005 and ended on May 15, 2005. The season introduces Carmen de la Pica Morales, a DJ who becomes part of a love triangle with Shane and Jenny; Helena Peabody, a wealthy art patron who becomes a rival to Bette and love interest to Tina (while she and Bette are separated).

Major storylines in the season include Tina's pregnancy following a second insemination, culminating in Tina and Bette's reconciliation at the end of the season; the introduction of Mark Wayland, a documentary filmmaker who moves in with Shane and Jenny and Kit's acquisition of The Planet following Marina's departure from Los Angeles; Shane and Jenny becoming the unknowing subjects of Mark's documentary after he places hidden cameras in their home; a developing relationship between Alice and Dana; and insights into Jenny's past as an abused child.

Season 3

The third season of ''The L Word'' premiered on January 8, 2006 and ended on March 26, 2006. The season introduces Max Sweeney, a working-class trans man initially introduced presenting as a butch; and Angus Partridge, a male nanny who becomes Kit's lover.

The season is set six months after the birth of Tina and Bette's daughter Angelica. Major storylines include Bette and Tina's relationship deteriorating once again, which leads Tina to start a fake relationship with a man in order to win a possible custody battle with Bette; Max coming out as a trans man; Dana's diagnosis with and ultimate death from breast cancer; and Shane and Carmen's engagement and wedding, which ends when Shane abandons Carmen at the altar. Helena is integrated into the primary group of characters as a friend rather than a rival; she acquires a movie studio, where she is entangled in a sexual harassment lawsuit that leads her mother to cut her off financially.

In the lead-up to the third season, the fan fiction website FanLib.com launched a contest where individuals could submit a piece of ''L Word'' fanfiction, with the winner's story incorporated into a scene in third-season episode.

Season 4

''The L Word'' was renewed for a fourth season on February 2, 2006, and began filming on May 29, 2006. The season aired from January 7, 2007 to March 25, 2007, and introduces Jodi Lerner, a love interest for Bette; Phyllis Kroll, Bette's closeted new boss at California Art College; Paige Sobel, a love interest for Shane; Tasha Williams, a former Captain in the Army National Guard and love interest for Alice; and Papi, who has slept with the most women on The Chart. Karina Lombard reprises her role for two episodes.

Major storylines in the season include the adaptation of ''Lez Girls'', an article written by Jenny for ''The New Yorker'', into a film; Bette taking a job as a dean at California Art College; and Tasha's struggle to reconcile her military service with her sexuality under don't ask, don't tell.

Season 5

''The L Word'' was renewed for a fifth season on March 8, 2007, and began filming in summer 2007. The season aired from January 6, 2008 to March 23, 2008 and introduces Nikki Stevens, a closeted gay actress who portrays the lead role in ''Lez Girls.'' Adele Channing is also introduced, potentially by chance meeting Jenny at the Planet, and soon becoming her personal assistant. Papi and Angus were written out of the series.

Major storylines in the season include Bette and Tina reconciling their relationship, Jenny being ousted from the production of ''Lez Girls'', and Tasha's dishonorable discharge from the military.

Season 6

The sixth and final season of ''The L Word'' aired from January 18, 2009 to March 8, 2009. The season introduces Kelly Wentworth, Bette's college roommate, who attempts to open a gallery with her; Jamie Chen, a social worker who becomes involved in a love triangle with Alice and Tasha; and Marybeth Duffy and Sean Holden, detectives with the LAPD.

The season is a whodunit storyline focused on the murder of Jenny. The events of the season are depicted as a flashback leading up to the night of the crime, with each episode focused around what could have potentially motivated each character to have killed Jenny. The series concludes without revealing the identity of her murderer.

Interrogation tapes

Following the series finale of ''The L Word'', Showtime released a series of seven short videos depicting Bette, Alice, Tina, Nikki Shane being questioned by the police over Jenny's murder. The episodes were posted weekly on Showtime's website. Showtime additionally released an interview with ''L Word'' series creator Ilene Chaiken, released in two weekly installments. In the interview, Chaiken stated that Alice went to jail for Jenny's murder, but was not necessarily guilty of the crime. . Originally aired Dec. 18, 2008.

''Generation Q''

On July 11, 2017, it was announced a sequel series was in the works with Showtime. Marja-Lewis Ryan has been selected to serve as executive producer and showrunner. On January 31, 2019, ''Entertainment Weekly'' reported Showtime had picked up the sequel series for a premiere later in the year, in which Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig, and Leisha Hailey would reprise their roles. Other sources, such as ''TVLine'', call the eight-episode order a revival, so the nature of the follow-up is unclear. The new series, titled ''The L Word: Generation Q'', will premiere in the fall of 2019.

The player takes control of an unnamed prisoner who has just been thrown inside the mining colony. The exposition does not specify the crime for which he was convicted prior to the games' events. Before being sent in, the player receives a letter which he is tasked to deliver to the Order of the Magicians of Fire, which is stationed inside of the Old Camp. After getting the chance to talk with the magicians, the protagonist learns that Xardas, the head of the Fire Mages who is supposed to receive the letter, deserted in order to study black magic.

After joining one of the three camps, the protagonist ends up aiding the Sect Camp prepare the invocation of their god, the Sleeper, which they believe will show them the way to escape the colony. During the ritual the members have a vague vision and Y'Berion, the leader of the Brotherhood who performed the ritual, collapses after getting in contact with the Sleeper. In the vision, the sect members are shown the way to an old Orc cemetery. A guru and a few templars, together with the hero, set off towards the indicated place. Once there, however, the templars die fighting the Orcs they meet, and only the guru and the protagonist survive. After searching the entire underground complex the two fail to find anything. The guru then goes insane and starts accusing the hero that it is because of him that the Sleeper refuses to reveal himself, and attempts to kill the protagonist.

After defeating the mad guru, the hero returns to the camp of the Brotherhood where he finds Y'Berion still weakened after the ritual. Despite efforts to help him recover, Y'Berion soon dies. Before dying, however, he warns the rest of the camp about the true, evil, nature of the god they thought was leading them on the path to freedom, and places his hopes on the escape plan of the Water Mages from the New Camp to blow up the Barrier using the power of the magical ore.

Bearing important information about the recent events in the Sect Camp, the player is given permission to see the Water Mages, who ask for help with their escape plan. After the hero acquires all the needed artifacts with the help of four convicts he has befriended, the Water Mages now need the help of the Fire Mages to channel the magical energy. However, the protagonist finds out the Old Camp's gates have been closed after their ore mine collapsed. Fearful that this incident might deprive him of his power, the leader of the Old Camp sent his men to take control of the New Camp's mine and killed the Fire Mages who were protesting against his action; only Milten, the youngest of the magicians, managed to escape.

Having no other option left, the Water Mages send the hero to ask for Xardas, the magician who deserted the Fire Mages, to help them. However, Xardas refuses to help the Magicians of Water and thinks that their plan will not succeed. He instead tells the protagonist that during his studies he learned that the Sleeper was summoned by the Orcs in order to help them against their enemies and that the demon is in a temple deep underneath the Orc city. With the help of Xardas, the player manages to enter the Sleeper's temple. Upon defeating the demon, the Barrier collapses and sets the prisoners of the colony free.

Growing up, Evan Treborn and his friends, Lenny Kagan and Kayleigh Miller, and Kayleigh's brother Tommy, suffered many severe psychological traumas that frequently caused Evan to experience amnesia. These traumas include being forced to take part in child pornography by Kayleigh and Tommy's father, George Miller; being nearly strangled to death by his institutionalized father, Jason Treborn, who is then killed in front of him by guards; accidentally killing a mother and her infant daughter while playing with dynamite with his friends; and seeing his dog burned alive by Tommy.

Seven years later, while entertaining a girl in his dorm room, Evan discovers that when he reads from his adolescent journals, he can time travel and redo parts of his past. His time-traveling episodes account for the frequent blackouts he experienced as a child since those are the moments that his adult self occupied his consciousness, such as the moment his father strangled him when he realized that Evan shared his time-traveling affliction. However, there are consequences to his revised choices that dramatically alter his present life. For example, his time-line leads to alternative futures in which he finds himself, variously, as a college student in a fraternity, an inmate imprisoned for murdering Tommy, and a quadruple amputee. Eventually, he realizes that, even though his intentions to fix the past are good, his actions have unforeseen consequences, in which either he or at least one of his friends suffers horribly. Moreover, the assimilation of dozens of years' worth of new memories from the alternative timelines causes him brain damage and severe nosebleeds.

After accidentally killing Kayleigh while revisiting their childhood, he wakes up in a mental hospital and finds that the journals do not exist in this new reality. A conversation with a doctor reveals that his father had the same abilities before losing the photographs that allowed him to time jump, causing everyone to believe him to be crazy. Evan ultimately reaches the conclusion that he and his friends will never have good futures as long as he keeps altering the past.

Evan travels back one final time, via the use of an old home-movie, to the day he first met Kayleigh as a child. He intentionally upsets her so that she and Tommy will choose to live with their mother in a different neighborhood, instead of with their father when they divorce. As a result, they are not subjected to a destructive upbringing, do not grow up with Evan, and go on to have happy, successful lives. Evan awakens in a college dorm room, where Lenny is his roommate. As a test, he asks where Kayleigh is, to which Lenny responds "Who's Kayleigh?" Satisfied that his friends' futures are secure, Evan burns his journals and videos to avoid altering the timeline ever again.

Eight years later in New York City, Evan exits an office building and passes Kayleigh on the street. Despite a brief look of recognition towards each other, they both decide to keep walking.

Part I

In the year 70 AD, with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation is declared over, but Eleazar ben Ya'ir and his family flee the city, vowing that the Judean War is not ended. Eleazar and his followers make their headquarters on top of the mountain fortress of Masada. From there they conduct raids on Roman occupied villages in the south of Judea. These guerrilla attacks threaten the credibility of the declared Roman victory. The commanding general of the 10th Legion, Cornelius Flavius Silva, arranges a meeting with Eleazar to negotiate a truce. Returning to Rome, Silva's hopes to implement a truce in Judea are quashed by the Emperor Vespasian, because of political pressures in the Roman Senate. Silva is sent back to Judea after securing the services of veteran Siege Commander Rubrius Gallus. Silva is also informed that his second in command, General Marcus Quadratus, and Head Tribune Merovius, are spies for the emperor's political enemy. While Silva is still in Rome, through the treachery of these two men, the truce is violently broken by the Romans.

Part II

Learning of the breaking of the truce upon his return from Rome, Silva marches the 5,000 men of the 10th Legion to the foot of Masada and lays a siege to the apparently impregnable fortress. He directs Quadratus and Merovius on a suicidal assault of the fortress in order to remove them from his forces and make them an example to any others who share their political leanings. Rubrius Gallus directs that a ramp be built to almost the summit of the mountain, intent on breaking through the Masada walls with the aid of a 50-foot (15.24 m) siege tower that is being constructed out of sight of the rebels. When Eleazar successfully attacks the Roman soldiers building the ramp with catapulted stones, Silva quickly rounds up hundreds of Jews from the surrounding area to use as slaves to continue the work, believing correctly that Eleazar will not attack fellow Jews. This makes Eleazar change his tactics to psychological warfare, allowing the heat of the sun and revealing the surplus of water on Masada to demoralize the Roman troops. Also, he acts to capitalize on the Romans' belief in reading the future from the entrails of sacrificed goats, leading a party through the Roman sentries at night to feed the goats maggots, knowing that their discovery during the rituals will be seen as a bad omen. Eleazar's problems are further compounded by his own religious doubts and opposition from the more pacifist groups on Masada.

Part III

The political opportunist Pomponius Falco arrives and under the authority of the Emperor Vespasian relieves Silva as legion commander. Intent on ending the siege quickly through the use of terror, Falco orders Jewish slaves to be killed one by one, by catapulting them into the side of the mountain, until Eleazar surrenders. Eleazar, a religious skeptic, runs to the Masada synagogue and calls to God to stop the killing. Revolted by Falco's barbaric actions, Silva forcibly takes back his command, stops the catapulting, and orders Falco placed under arrest. The cessation of Falco's terror is seen by the Zealots as a response to Eleazar's praying and affirmation of his leadership to them. Rubrius Gallus is killed by a Masadan arrow as he carries out measurements on the siege ramp, only living long enough to confirm his plans to his second in command.

Part IV

As the ramp nears completion, Eleazar faces the fact that the final confrontation with the Romans is not far off. The Zealots break into Herod's Armory and begin to prepare for what they believe will be a straightforward storming of the fortress walls by the Romans. When the ramp is complete, the Romans wheel out the armoured siege tower and battering-ram. Eleazar then realizes that he had underestimated Silva's strategy. As the tower begins moving up the ramp, Eleazar has his people build "an inner wall that will absorb the blows of the ram and not shatter." Made from wooden beams from Herod's Palace roof and packed with dirt, they finish it just as the tower reaches the top of the ramp. The Romans quickly break through the stone walls of the fortress, but the ram does nothing against the improvised inner wall. As the wall is made partly of wood, Silva orders his men to set fire to it. Deducing that it would take all night for the wall to burn through, Silva has his men stand down; the rest of the night is tense for both sides, as the fitful wind may as easily spread the blaze to the siege tower as burn down the inner wall. The next day, the Romans break into the fortress, only to discover that Eleazar and his people had all committed suicide during the night.

The closing line is said by a dispirited and despondent Silva, who mourns all that has been hoped and planned and lost by both sides whilst fighting for "a rock, in the middle of a wasteland, on the shore of a poisoned sea...".

The Map of "New Switzerland" The novel opens with the titular family in the hold of a sailing ship, weathering a great storm. The ship's crew evacuates without them, so William, Elizabeth, and their four sons (Fritz, Ernest, Jack, and Franz) are left to survive alone. As the ship tosses about, William prays that God will spare them.

The ship survives the night, and the family finds themselves within sight of a tropical desert island. The following day, they decide to get to the island they can see beyond the reef. With much effort, they construct a vessel out of tubs. After they fill the tubs with food, ammunition, and other items of value they can safely carry, they row toward the island. Two dogs from the ship, Turk and Juno, swim beside them. The ship's cargo of livestock (including a cow, a donkey, two goats, six sheep, a ram, a pig, chickens, ducks, geese, and pigeons), guns and powder, carpentry tools, books, a disassembled pinnace and provisions have survived.

Upon reaching the island, the family set up a makeshift camp. William knows that they must prepare for a long time on the island and his thoughts are as much on provisions for the future as on their immediate wants. William and his oldest son Fritz spend the next day exploring the island.

The family spends the next few days securing themselves against hunger. William and Fritz make several trips to the ship to bring everything useful from the vessel ashore. The domesticated animals on the ship are towed back to the island. There is also a great store of firearms and ammunition, hammocks for sleeping, carpenter's tools, lumber, cooking utensils, silverware, and dishes. Initially, they construct a treehouse, but as time passes (and after Elizabeth is injured climbing the stairs down from it), they settle in a more permanent dwelling in part of a cave. Fritz rescues a young Englishwoman named Jenny Montrose, who was shipwrecked elsewhere on their island.

The book covers more than ten years. William and the older boys explore various environments and develop homes and gardens at various sites about the island. Ultimately, the father wonders if they will ever see the rest of humanity again. Eventually, a British ship that is in search of Jenny Montrose anchors near the island and is discovered by the family. The captain is given the journal containing the story of their life on the island, which is eventually published. Several family members continue to live tranquilly on their island, while several return to Europe with the British.

Robbie Hart is a wedding singer in Ridgefield, New Jersey in 1985, whose own wedding to his fiancée Linda is approaching. He meets and befriends Julia Sullivan, a new waitress at the reception hall where he works, and promises to sing at her wedding, though her fiancé, businessman and bond investor Glenn Gulia, has yet to set a date.

On Robbie's wedding day, his sister Kate informs him as he waits at the altar that Linda has changed her mind about the wedding, leaving him humiliated and emotionally devastated. Later that day, Linda visits Robbie and reveals that she fell in love with him for his ambitions of being a rock star, and hates the idea of being married to just a wedding singer. Robbie sinks into depression, causing his friends and family to be concerned. His best friend Sammy convinces him to return to work, but he gives a depressed performance that is panned, and decides to give up wedding gigs and reneges on his promise to sing for Julia when Glenn finally sets a date. However, Julia convinces him to help her with the planning and their friendship blossoms. During a double date with Julia, Glenn, and Julia's cousin Holly, Robbie learns from Glenn that he cheats on Julia frequently and plans to continue after they are married.

Julia and Robbie are increasingly confused by their deepening feelings for each other. When Holly tells Robbie that Julia is marrying Glenn for his money, he unsuccessfully pursues a job at a bank. Julia is dismayed at his materialism, and when he accuses her of the same, she becomes angry with him. Depressed, he decides to follow Sammy's example of only having shallow relationships with women, in response to which Sammy confides that he is unhappy, and encourages Robbie to tell Julia how he feels. Meanwhile, Julia confides in her mother that she has fallen out of love with Glenn and has developed feelings for Robbie, and bursts into tears thinking about becoming "Mrs. Julia Gulia". Robbie arrives to declare his feelings, and sees her through her bedroom window in her wedding dress, where she is happily looking in a mirror pretending she has just married Robbie, but Robbie assumes she is thinking of Glenn.

Heartbroken, Robbie leaves to get drunk and finds Glenn in the midst of his pre-wedding bachelor party, arm in arm with another woman. After a heated exchange, Glenn punches Robbie and mocks him. Robbie stumbles home to find Linda waiting for him wanting to reconcile, and passes out. The following morning, she answers the door and introduces herself as his fiancée to a crestfallen Julia. She runs to Glenn, who is sleeping off the events of the previous night, and tells him she wants to be married immediately. He half-heartedly offers to take her to Las Vegas.

Robbie awakens and, after shaking off his hangover from the previous night, rejects Linda's reconciliation, having realized how shallow she is during his time with Julia, and kicks her out. At the 50th wedding anniversary party of his neighbor Rosie, to whom he has been giving singing lessons, he realizes he wants to grow old with Julia and, with Rosie's encouragement, he decides to pursue her. Just then, Holly arrives and informs him of Julia's encounter with Linda, so Robbie rushes to the airport and gets a first class ticket to Las Vegas.

After telling his story to his empathetic fellow passengers, which include Billy Idol, he learns that Glenn and Julia are on the same flight. With the help of Billy and the flight crew, over the loudspeaker, he sings a song he has written called "Grow Old With You", dedicated to Julia. As Robbie enters the main cabin singing, Glenn tries to assault him only to be thwarted and shoved into a lavatory by the flight attendants with assistance from Billy and a large fan. Robbie and Julia admit their love for each other, and share a kiss. Billy, impressed by Robbie's song, offers to tell his record company executives about him.

Later, Robbie and Julia are married. Dave Veltri becomes the new wedding singer and perform at their wedding with his band.

Eight years following the events of ''The Santa Clause'', Scott Calvin has become a great Santa Claus at the North Pole, until Head Elf Bernard and Curtis, the Keeper of the ''Handbook of Christmas'', inform him that there is another clause — the "Mrs. Clause". Scott is now pressed to get married before the next Christmas Eve or the clause will be broken and he will stop being Santa forever. At the same time, Abby the Elf delivers even more distressing news: Scott's teenage son Charlie is on the naughty list, due to having vandalized his school to get attention. Scott must return to his home to search for a wife and set things right with Charlie. He brings this up when visited by the Council of Legendary Figures, consisting of Mother Nature, Father Time, Cupid, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman. To cover for Santa's prolonged absence, Curtis helps Scott create a life-sized animatronic Santa clone, much to Bernard's horror. However, at Santa's request, Bernard reluctantly plays along, and tells the other elves that Santa had a makeover, so they will not question the double's synthetic appearance.

Because of the impending end of his contract, Scott undergoes a "de-Santafication process" that gradually turns him back into Scott Calvin. He has a limited amount of magic to help him. Scott returns home to his former wife Laura, her husband Neil, their six-year-old daughter Lucy, and Charlie. He and Charlie face the ire of school principal Carol Newman when Charlie defaces the lockers.

At the North Pole, Toy Santa follows the rulebook too literally and begins to think that everyone in the world is naughty because of their small mistakes. As a result, Toy Santa takes over the North Pole using giant toy soldiers he made himself and unveils his plan to the elves to give lumps of coal to the world. Bernard exposes Toy Santa as a fraud, and Toy Santa places him under house arrest.

After a few failed dates, Scott finds himself falling for Carol. He accompanies her in a horse-drawn sleigh to the faculty Christmas party, during which she confesses she used to believe in Santa as a child, until she was forced to stop doing so by her parents after fighting with children who told her Santa was not real. Using a little of his Christmas magic, Scott enlivens the otherwise dull party by presenting everyone with their childhood dream gifts. He makes a special presentation to Carol, and, with his last remnant of magic, wins her over and they kiss under mistletoe. However, when Scott attempts to explain to her that he is Santa, she believes that he is mocking her childhood, and throws him out. Later, Charlie confesses to Scott how hard it is for him that Scott is never around like other fathers, and reveals the pressure he is under to conceal the secret that his father is Santa. Lucy manages to convince Charlie not to be mad at him, which leads Charlie to convince Carol that Scott is Santa by showing her the magic snow globe he received during Scott's initial transformation.

Curtis flies in to tell Scott about Toy Santa's plan. However, Scott has used up the last of his magic wooing Carol, and cannot return to the North Pole. With help from the Tooth Fairy, Scott and Curtis manage to get back, only for Toy Santa to find them and tie them up. Charlie and Carol spring them free by summoning the Tooth Fairy to fly them to the North Pole. Scott goes after Toy Santa, who has already left with the sleigh, riding Chet, a rambunctious reindeer-in-training, and they both crash back into the village. With an army of elves, Carol, Bernard, Charlie, and Curtis lead them into a snowball fight to overthrow the toy soldiers. Toy Santa is defeated and reduced to a six-inch height, Scott marries Carol in a ceremony, Scott transforms back into Santa and Carol transforms into Mrs. Claus, and Christmas proceeds as it always has. Scott and Charlie reveal the truth to Lucy about Scott being Santa Claus, promising to keep his secret.

In this Elseworlds story, Superman and the Justice League abandon their roles as superheroes after the rise and strong public support of a superhero named Magog, who has no qualms about killing—notably the Joker, on his way to trial for the mass murder of the ''Daily Planet'' staff, including Lois Lane. In the ensuing years, a newer generation of superpowered metahumans arise;. They engage in destructive battles with little distinction between "heroes" and "villains." The narrator, minister Norman McCay, receives apocalyptic visions of the future from a dying Wesley Dodds. The Spectre appears to McCay and recruits him to help pass judgment on the approaching superhuman apocalypse.

An attack on the Parasite, led by Magog, goes awry when Parasite tears open Captain Atom. As a result, much of the American Midwest is irradiated, killing millions and destroying a large portion of the United States's food production.''Kingdom Come'' #1 (May 1996) Coaxed back into action by Wonder Woman, Superman returns to Metropolis and re-forms the Justice League.

He recruits new and old heroes. The most prominent exception is the Batman, who resents Superman for leaving the world 10 years ago. Batman warns him that his idealist notions are outdated and his violent interference will only exacerbate the world's problems. In response to Superman's Justice League, Batman activates his own network of agents, the "Outsiders", made up largely of younger second and third-generation heroes. Trusted veterans, such as Green Arrow, Black Canary and Blue Beetle, are chosen as lieutenants. Lex Luthor organizes the "Mankind Liberation Front". The MLF is secretly a group of Golden Age villains and third-generation villains like Ra's al Ghul's successor, Ibn al Xu'ffasch, who is Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul's son. The MLF works to take control of the world from the heroes.

Superman's Justice League gathers more captives than converts, and his prison (nicknamed "the Gulag") is quickly filled to capacity. Superman works to persuade the inmates that their methods are wrong-headed and dangerous, to no avail. With hostile heroes and villains locked up together, pressure builds. Meanwhile, Superman learns that Wonder Woman's ardent militant stance may be influenced by her recent exile from Paradise Island: in the eyes of the Amazons, her mission to bring peace to the outside world has failed, and she has thus been stripped of her royalty. Batman and his Outsiders seem to ally themselves with MLF against the Justice League. Luthor plan is to exacerbate the conflict between the League and Gulag's inmates. Batman quickly discovers that an adult Billy Batson is under Luthor's control. Batson, as Captain Marvel, is the only metahuman capable of matching Superman's power. When the inmates riot and kill Captain Comet, Luthor unwittingly reveals to Batman he intends to use the brainwashed Batson to break open the Gulag. Batman's forces ambush Luthor and his conspirators, but are unable to restrain Batson, who transforms into Marvel and flies off. While Wonder Woman leads the Justice League to the prison riot, Superman confronts Batman. Batman tries to justify inaction, saying the world would be better off if all the metahumans destroyed each other. However, Superman knows that Batman will act, because his entire crimefighting life is based upon the desire to prevent the loss of human life.

Moved by Superman's sentiments, Batman tells him that Captain Marvel is under Luthor's control and is on the way to the Gulag. Superman races to the prison, but upon arrival is struck down by Captain Marvel. The Gulag is breached, freeing the population, and inciting war between them and the Justice League. Batman's army arrives on site as an intervening third party, but is unable to stop Wonder Woman from killing the supervillain Von Bach, which increases the fury of the riot.

As conditions worsen, United Nations Secretary General Wyrmwood authorizes the deployment of three tactical nuclear warheads, hardened against metahumans. In the middle of their fight, Batman and Wonder Woman see the incoming bombers piloted by the Blackhawk Squadron. They break off fighting and manage to stop two bombs, but miss the third. Captain Marvel uses his lightning bolt as a weapon against Superman, who manages to grab Marvel and allow the bolt to transform him into Billy. Holding Batson's mouth shut, Superman tells him he is going to stop the remaining bomb. Batson must make a choice: either stop Superman and allow the warhead to kill all the metahumans, or let Superman stop the bomb and allow the metahumans' war to engulf the world. Superman tells Batson he must be the one to decide, as he is the only one who lives in both worlds: a man (as Batson) and a god (as Marvel). Batson, his mind now clear of Luthor's influence, turns back into Captain Marvel. He flings Superman to the ground and flies after the missile. Marvel intercepts the missile and shouts "Shazam!" three times in rapid succession, detonating the bomb prematurely, and killing Batson in the process.

Despite Marvel's sacrifice, most of the metahumans are obliterated in the explosion. Superman is unharmed, but does not realize that there are any other survivors. Enraged at the tremendous loss of life, he flies to the U.N. Building and threatens to kill the delegates as punishment for the massacre. The surviving metahumans arrive, but McCay is the one who talks him down, pointing out how his appearance and behavior are exactly the sort of reasons that normal humans fear the superpowered. Superman immediately ceases his rampage. He is handed Captain Marvel's cape, and tells the U.N. that he will use his wisdom to guide, rather than lead, humankind. Superman ties Captain Marvel's cape to a flagpole and raises it among the flags of the member nations of the U.N., suggesting that this role of guidance will be more political and global in nature than the classic crime-busting vigilantism of the past.''Kingdom Come'' #4 (August 1996) In the epilogue, the heroes strive to become fully integrated members of the communities. Wonder Woman's exile from Paradise Island ends. She becomes an ambassador for super-humanity, taking the survivors of the Gulag to Paradise Island for rehabilitation. Batman abandons his crusade and becomes a healer, rebuilding his mansion as a hospital to care for those wounded by the destruction of the Gulag. He reconciles with both Dick Grayson/Red Robin and his son, Ibn al Xu'ffasch. Superman begins the task of restoring the Midwestern farmlands devastated after Magog's attack. He comes to terms with his past as Clark Kent by accepting a pair of glasses from Wonder Woman, and shares a kiss with her before she returns to Paradise Island. Norman McCay resumes pastorship of his congregation, preaching a message of hope for humanity. Among the congregation is Jim Corrigan, the Spectre's human host.

Collected edition additional scenes

The first additional scene (four pages) takes place near the end of the second part of the series. Superman visits Orion on Apokolips, which has changed very little despite Darkseid no longer being in power. He asks Orion for his advice on what to do with the captive rogue metahumans. Orion, who has grown to resemble his father and has adopted a rather jaded view on life, initially offers to accept Superman's charges as exiles to Apokolips. Superman rejects that solution, claiming he can learn nothing from Orion, and goes back to Earth.

The second additional scene is an eight-page epilogue. Clark Kent and Diana Prince meet with Bruce Wayne at 'Planet Krypton,' a theme restaurant owned by Michael Jon Carter. They plan to tell Bruce they are expecting a child, but he deduces the news first. Diana asks Bruce to serve as godfather. He emotionally accepts after Clark tells Bruce he will provide a balancing influence to the child, adding that in spite of their differences over the years, he has always trusted Batman. As they leave the restaurant, Bruce notices Norman and Jim Corrigan discussing the restaurant's "Spectre Platter", much to Corrigan's irritation that this is how he is being remembered.

Set in the Toronto, Ontario neighbourhood of Kensington Market, the series is about Curtis (Don McKellar), a television addict who refuses to leave his apartment, and his friends Nathan (Daniel MacIvor), Hope (Molly Parker) and Newbie (Callum Keith Rennie)."Twitch City: Is Canada Ready?". ''Calgary Herald'', January 15, 1998. McKellar was also one of the show's creators.

In the first episode, Nathan is sent to prison for killing a homeless man with a can of cat food. The homeless man was played by Al Waxman, who had been the star of the 1970s sitcom ''King of Kensington'', although the producers claimed that they did not intend for the homeless man to be seen as the same character. Nathan remained in prison throughout the run of the series; the first episode of the second season opened with an ''Oz'' parody in which he criticized the hip hop-inspired slam poetry of his cellmate.

Throughout the series, Curtis and Hope's ongoing attempts to find a new roommate to replace Nathan provide one of the show's major plot threads. In one episode, Curtis rents Nathan's room to a mysterious businessman who uses it to store drugged cookies, while in another, Hope unwittingly rents it to two Neo-Nazis she mistakes for a gay couple. That episode includes a Nazi rally which features all four members of the rock band Sloan among the extras. At the end of the episode, the two Nazi roommates renounce Nazism and promptly kiss each other, vindicating Hope's judgement.

Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney (both from ''The Kids in the Hall'') also starred in the series as Rex Reilly, the Jerry Springer-like host of Curtis' favourite TV talk show. McCulloch played Reilly in the first season, and McKinney played him in the second. The change in Reilly's appearance is explained in his autobiography, ''Tyrannosaurus Rex'', which refers to his "on-air cranium transplant."

Guest stars on the series included Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom McCamus, Valerie Buhagiar, Charmion King, Kenneth Welsh, Hugh Dillon, Kim Mitchell, Stefan Brogren, John L'Ecuyer and Joyce DeWitt. DeWitt plays herself as a guest on ''The Rex Reilly Show'', meeting lookalikes in an episode devoted to the theme "I Look Like Joyce DeWitt".

Handsome young artist Quentin Collins arrives at his newly inherited estate of Collinwood with his beautiful wife Tracy. They meet the housekeeper Carlotta Drake and the caretaker Gerard Stiles. Quentin happens upon a 19th-century portrait of a blonde woman with captivating green eyes that seem to mesmerize him. Carlotta informs him that the woman is Angelique, who had lived there over 100 years earlier. The Collins' friends Alex and Claire Jenkins, who have co-written several successful horror novels, move into a cottage on the estate.

Quentin soon begins to be troubled by startling visions and haunting dreams about one of his ancestors, Charles Collins, and his ancestor's mistress Angelique—who had been hanged as a witch in a past century. Carlotta eventually reveals to Quentin that she is the reincarnation of Sarah Castle, a little girl who had lived at Collinwood over 150 years ago, and that Quentin himself is the reincarnation of Charles Collins. Charles had had an affair with Angelique, wife of his brother Gabriel, resulting in her being hanged—and Charles being sealed alive in the family crypt with Angelique's corpse.

On a trip to New York, the Jenkinses discover a painting of Charles Collins, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Quentin. Convinced that their friends are in grave danger, the couple hurry home to Collinwood, where they are attacked by the ghost of Angelique.

Meanwhile, Quentin has become possessed by the spirit of Charles Collins, and attempts to drown Tracy in a disused swimming pool on the estate. Alex and Claire arrive in time to revive her, but Quentin, having no memory of his actions, refuses to believe their wild tale.

Carlotta and Gerard conspire to eliminate Quentin's loved ones. Quentin, seeing the scratches on his wrist where Tracy had tried to fend him off, realizes the truth of Alex's warning and rushes to rescue his friends. Gerard has managed to take Tracy prisoner (despite his having been shot in the face by Claire), and Quentin fights with him high atop a train trestle. As Gerard slashes Quentin's cheek with a knife, creating a gash in his left cheek that looks remarkably like the one Charles Collins had, Tracy rushes to try to save her husband. She strikes Gerard with a nearby plank, knocking him off Quentin and onto the edge of the trestle. He teeters on the edge for a moment, then plunges to his death after Tracy pushes him.

The group rush back to Collinwood to confront Carlotta. As they arrive, she jumps from the top of the house when she sees the ghostly Angelique beckon her from below.

In the end, the two couples prepare to leave Collinwood forever. Alex and Claire leave first, with Quentin and Tracy following. However, instead of driving away, Quentin returns to the house, saying he intends to retrieve some canvases. When he fails to come back, Tracy follows, only to find him now completely possessed by Charles Collins. Angelique enters the room, reborn in the flesh. The camera freezes on Tracy's face as she begins to scream, as Quentin and Angelique advance on her. A UPI news wire shown at the end reveals that Alex and Claire Jenkins have been killed in a car accident. Witnesses reported seeing a ghostly fog filling the car as it veered off the road.

Dr. Anton Phibes, a famous concert organist with doctorate in both music and theology, is believed to have been killed in a car crash in Switzerland in 1921, while racing home upon hearing of the death of his beloved wife, Victoria, during surgery. Phibes survived the crash, but was horribly scarred and left unable to speak. He remade his face with prosthetics and used his knowledge of acoustics to regain his voice. Resurfacing secretly in London in 1925, Phibes believes his wife was a victim of her doctors' incompetence, and begins elaborate plans to kill those he believes are guilty for her death.

Aided in his quest for vengeance by his beautiful and silent assistant Vulnavia, Phibes uses the Ten Plagues of Egypt as his inspiration, wearing an amulet with Hebrew letters corresponding with each plague as he conducts the murders. After three doctors have been killed, Inspector Trout, a detective from Scotland Yard, learns that they all had worked under the direction of Dr Vesalius, who tells him the deceased had been on his team when treating Victoria, as were four other doctors and one nurse. Trout discovers one of Phibes' amulets (torn off during a struggle) at the murder scene of the fourth doctor, which takes place while he is interviewing Vesalius. He first takes it to the jeweller who made it, then to a rabbi to learn its meaning. Now believing Phibes may still be alive, Trout and Vesalius go to the Phibes mausoleum at Highgate Cemetery. Inside they find a box of ashes in Phibes' coffin, but Trout deduces they are probably the remains of Phibes' chauffeur. Victoria's coffin is empty.

The police are unable to prevent Phibes from killing the remaining members of Vesalius' team, so they focus their efforts entirely on protecting Vesalius himself. Phibes kidnaps Vesalius' son Lem, then calls Vesalius and tells him to come alone to his mansion on Maldene Square if he wants to save his son's life. Trout refuses to let him go so Vesalius knocks the inspector unconscious, then races to Phibes' mansion, where he confronts him. Phibes tells him his son is under anaesthesia and prepared for surgery. Phibes has implanted a key near the boy's heart that will unlock his restraints. Vesalius has to surgically remove the key within six minutes (the same time Victoria was on the operating table) to release his son before acid from a container above Lem's head is released and kills him. Vesalius succeeds and moves the table out of the way. Vulnavia, who was ordered to destroy Phibes' mechanical creations, is surprised by Trout and his assistant; backing away, she is drenched with the acid and killed.

Convinced that he has accomplished his vendetta, Phibes retreats to the basement to inter himself in a stone sarcophagus containing the embalmed body of his wife. He proceeds to drain his blood while simultaneously replacing it with embalming fluid and lies down in the sarcophagus next to Victoria. The coffin's inlaid stone lid lowers into place, concealing it. Trout and the police arrive but cannot find Phibes. They recall that the "final curse" was darkness just before the basement goes dark.

The film is set in an Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan in 1968.

Act I

Michael, a Roman Catholic, recovering alcoholic and sporadically-employed writer, is preparing to host a birthday party for one of his friends, Harold. Another friend, Donald, a self-described underachiever who has moved from the city, arrives and helps Michael prepare. Alan, Michael's (presumably straight) former college roommate, calls with an urgent need to see Michael. Michael reluctantly agrees and invites him to come over.

One by one, the guests arrive. Emory is a stereotypical flamboyant interior designer. Hank, a soon-to-be-divorced schoolteacher, and Larry, a fashion photographer, are a couple but struggling with monogamy. Bernard is an amiable black bookstore clerk. Alan calls again to inform Michael that he will not be coming after all, and the party continues in a festive manner. However, Alan arrives unexpectedly, throwing the gathering into turmoil.

"Cowboy," a hustler and Emory's "gift" to Harold, arrives. As tensions mount, Alan assaults Emory. During the ensuing chaos, Harold finally makes his grand appearance. In the middle of the scuffle, Michael impulsively begins drinking again. As the guests become more and more intoxicated, hidden resentments begin to surface.

Act II

Michael begins a telephone game with the objective for each guest to call the one person he truly believes he has loved. With each call, past scars and present anxieties are revealed. Bernard reluctantly attempts to call the son of his mother's employer, with whom he had had a sexual encounter as a teenager. Emory calls a dentist on whom he had had a crush while in high school. Both immediately regret the phone calls. Hank and Larry attempt to call each other via two phone lines in Michael's apartment.

Michael believes Alan is a closeted homosexual. Michael's plan to out Alan with the game appears to backfire when Alan calls his wife, not his male college friend, whom Michael had presumed to be Alan's lover. As the party ends and the guests depart, Michael collapses and sobs into Donald's arms. When he pulls himself together, it appears his life will remain very much the same.

Staff Sgt. Raphael "Gingy" Moked is ordered by his company commander, Captain Shamgar, to retrieve Sergio Constanza, a deserter from reserve service. On his way he meets his girlfriend Yaeli and offers to talk to her father, Victor Hasson, to get a blessing for their relationship. Hasson gives his blessing, believing that Moked came for his older daughter Shifra, but throws him out of the house after finding out this was not so. Yaeli does not wish to part from Moked, and sneaks into a suitcase in his jeep. Meanwhile, Constanza tricks several other gamblers into losing thousands of dollars, which he intends to use to repay a debt to Mr. Hasson. The gamblers find out about the plot however, which leaves Sergio with no choice but to run away to the army with Moked.

Moked and Constanza make it to a military camp in the Sinai, and Mr. Hasson follows them, posing as Constanza at the gate to get admission. When he is not allowed into the base, he steals a front loader to break in. Meanwhile, Moked finds out that Yaeli came with them, and Constanza comes up with a plot to make her an authorized visitor, by claiming that she is a singer/entertainer sent from the Education Corps. Mr. Hasson arrives at the base with the loader, and is caught by the soldiers in a fishing net. Shamgar reports the incident to the brigadier. Shamgar then meets with Yaeli, who calls herself "Bule-Bule", in private and they start dancing African dances half-nude, as she attempts to persuade him that she's an entertainer.

As the brigadier is about to arrive, Moked releases Mr. Hasson, who is forced to temporarily reconcile with Constanza. The brigadier finds Shamgar dancing alone and making noises, deems him insane, and takes him away in his helicopter, leaving Moked temporarily in command of the outpost. It is discovered that Mr. Hasson is an excellent cook. He transforms the military kitchen into a restaurant-like establishment, and then denies Constanza access. In revenge, Constanza tricks Hasson into buying a plot of nearby desert land, which Hasson believes to be an oil field, from him as payment of the debt.

Constanza then tries to help Moked by matching one of the soldiers, Wasserman, with Yaeli's older sister, Shifra. But when Shifra arrives at the base, she isn't impressed with Wasserman, but falls in love with Constanza instead. Hasson leaves the base to catch fish for the soldiers' dinners, but accidentally crosses the border into Egypt and is taken captive by an Egyptian patrol. While in captivity, Victor becomes friends with the Egyptian commanding officer, who grew up in the same area as him. In the meantime, the Israeli soldiers plan a rescue mission to return the captured Hasson. Although the mission, dubbed "Operation Waldheim" doesn't go as planned, Gingy and Constanza, posing as UN observers, succeed in returning Hasson and returning him to the base.

When Hasson returns to the base, he discovers that Sergio had conned him once again, and that the plot of land he bought from him wasn't really an oil field at all. Out of nowhere, Capt. Shamgar reappears, still searching for "Bule-Bule". He falls into a pit dug by Hasson on the plot of land, causing an oil geyser to appear and revealing the presence of oil in the land after all. The film ends with Hasson, Moked and Constanza, now his sons-in-law, selling the oil from the back of a truck in Tel Aviv, early in the morning.

Yu Miri (Esumi) is a writer who's just become pregnant by her married lover. When she decides to keep the baby without his help, her ex-boyfriend Yutaka (Toyokawa), now struggling with terminal cancer, decides to help raise him, pledging to "live long enough to hear him say my name."

In medieval Italy, Phillipe Gaston, a thief known as "The Mouse", is imprisoned in the dungeons of the evil Bishop of Aquila. Phillipe escapes, just in time to avoid execution. He is recaptured at an inn by the Bishop's guards, led by Captain Marquet. The former captain, Etienne Navarre, arrives, rescues him, and defeats Marquet and the guards. As Navarre and Phillipe flee on horseback, Navarre's hawk scatters other guards, aiding the escape.

Navarre and Phillipe stay the night at a farmer's barn. Later, Phillipe decides to run away but the farmer attempts to kill him. An enormous black wolf protects him by killing the farmer. Phillipe looks for Navarre in the barn, but discovers a beautiful young woman, dressed in Navarre's cloak, who walks away with the wolf.

In the morning, Navarre returns, reveals his intention to kill the Bishop, and asks Phillipe to help him get inside Aquila. Phillipe refuses, and Navarre ties him to a tree. That night, Phillippe meets the woman again and tricks her into cutting his bonds. The next day, he is captured by the Bishop's guards, who use him to set up an ambush for Navarre. During the ambush, Navarre and his hawk are each hit by a crossbow bolt, but Navarre manages to defeat the Bishop's guards and save Phillipe.

Navarre orders Phillipe to take the hawk, who is the worse injured of the two of them, and ride to the ruined castle of a monk named Imperius for help. The hawk is sequestered in a room, but a curious Phillipe picks the lock and finds the mysterious woman inside, her chest struck with the bolt. After tending to her wound, Imperius explains that she is Isabeau of Anjou, who had once refused the Bishop's unwelcome advances. After a drunken Imperius leaked the fact that Navarre and Isabeau had secretly wed, the enraged Bishop put the couple under a Satanic curse. Isabeau becomes a hawk by day and Navarre a wolf by night; therefore, despite being always together, they are eternally apart. The ruined castle is invaded just before dawn by the Bishop's soldiers searching for Isabeau. Pursued by the soldiers, she and Phillippe take refuge atop a high tower. On the verge of being captured, she slips from the tower, but Phillipe holds her long enough for her to be saved when the morning sun rises, transforming her into a hawk.

When Navarre catches up, Imperius tells him that the curse can be broken if the couple face the Bishop together as humans on "a day without a night and a night without a day". Navarre stubbornly dismisses Imperius as an old drunk, and continues his way to Aquila intent on simply killing the Bishop, unaware that in doing so the curse will be permanent. Phillipe volunteers to accompany Navarre and "Ladyhawke". After the group's perilous encounters with a wolf-trapper and a frozen river, Phillipe saves Navarre's life and earns his friendship, finally convincing him to listen to Imperius and try to break the curse before killing the Bishop.

At night, Imperius and Isabeau smuggle the Navarre-wolf into Aquila, while Phillipe swims back through the sewers to get inside the cathedral. Still too stubborn to see any divine sign on the day that he and Isabeau are to appear as humans together, Navarre reverts to his original plan to kill the Bishop. He orders Imperius to euthanize the hawk should the cathedral bells ring, which would mean he had failed.

Phillipe infiltrates the cathedral and unlocks its doors. Navarre rides in and duels with Marquet. Amid the bout, Navarre sees a solar eclipse through a broken window and finally realises Imperius was right. He tries to get back to Imperius, but fails to keep the guards from ringing the bell. Believing that Imperius has killed Isabeau, Navarre continues his fight and eventually kills Marquet by impaling him with his family sword.

As Navarre is about to kill the Bishop, Isabeau enters the cathedral and stops him. Together they face the Bishop and break the curse. The maddened Bishop tries to kill Isabeau, only to die by Navarre's sword. Isabeau and Navarre finally embrace in joy and thank Imperius and Phillipe, declaring him the truest friend they could ever have.

The game takes place in the parallel universes of magic-dominated Arcadia and industrial Stark. The protagonist, April Ryan, is an 18-year-old art student living in Stark, identified as a 'Shifter' capable of movement between these worlds, and tasked with restoring their essential Balance.

The story begins in Stark, where a sleeping April unintentionally shifts to Arcadia and meets the 'White Dragon', who identifies her as the heroine of the coming story. Upon learning this, April is attacked by a dark 'Chaos Vortex' and awakens in Stark, where she dismisses her experience as a nightmare. The character 'Cortez' later surprises her by revealing his knowledge.

When surreal activity begins affecting her friends, April meets again with Cortez, who transports her to the Arcadian city Marcuria. There she meets Tobias Grensret, Vestrum of the Sentinel; learns Alltongue, the common language in Arcadia; and hears from Tobias that the Balance protecting both worlds is dissolving after the dereliction of its Guardian, and must be restored by the appearance of another.

To return to Stark, April visits Brian Westhouse, a friend of Cortez, who assists her return; Cortez then tells her of the organization known as the Vanguard or Church of Voltec. The next day, April consults Warren Hughes, a homeless boy who agrees to help April if she erases his criminal record and locates his missing sister, in doing which April finds a data cube on the Church of Voltec. Hughes then refers her to a hacker named Burns Flipper, who reveals that the wealthy magnate Jacob McAllen is head of the Vanguard, assisted by Gordon Halloway, a former candidate for Guardianship divided by the Vanguard into Chaos (in Arcadia) and Logic (in Stark), and gives her a false identification by which to infiltrate the Vanguard through its front company MTI.

Meeting Cortez and Father Raul in a Catholic cathedral, April is told that Arcadia is on the brink of war. Later in Arcadia, April meets the innkeeper, Benrime Salmin, and the clairvoyant Abnaxus, ambassador of the Venar, who identifies the coming danger. In the morning, April learns of four magical species, each of whom has prophecies of a savior who will restore the Balance, only to finally break it – and determines to visit one such species, the winged Alatian of the island Alais, having gained sea-travel by rescuing a talking bird that she names Crow. Before departing, she learns that she must defeat an alchemist named Roper Klacks, in order to free the ships' wind that he holds captive.

At Roper Klacks' Tower, April challenges Klacks to use his magic against her calculator, and wins. Immediately before her departure to Alais, Tobias gives April the Talisman representing the Balance. ''En route'', April kills the monster known as 'Gribbler' while rescuing one of her captive Banda, whose species later give her the name 'April Bandu-embata' as a mark of gratitude and grant her part of the disc necessary to restore the Balance.

On the voyage to Alais, a 'Chaos Storm' attacks the ship, and April sabotages the ship's compass to restore its course. When the ship's captain seizes her Talisman, April attempts to retrieve it, and in so doing sinks the ship, whereupon the crew abandon her on a raft. She is taken prisoner by the Maerum, a Mermaid-like species related to the Alatian, but currently their enemies. In revealing their common ancestry, April fulfills a prophecy of the 'Waterstiller', a foretold savior of the Maerum.

After fulfilling the second prophecy by killing a 'Snapjaw', she is conveyed to fulfill the third by re-uniting the Maerum with the Alatians. After a series of tasks and in meeting with the Alatians' leader, April fulfills their prophecy by flying without wings, and convinces the Alatian to make peace with the Maerum.

In a coastal sea cave, the Teller's guard and the Maerum Queen bring stones which combine to form the second part of the Balance's disc; whereupon the Maerum convey April, at her own request, to the Blue Dragon, who gives April one of the disc's Jewels and takes her to a ship inhabited by the Dark People, who give April the third piece of the disc, and an astral map locating the Guardian's Realm.

At the Marcurian Harbor, April is attacked by the Chaos and returns to the Cathedral in Stark. There, Father Raul reveals that he is also a Sentinel Minstrum of Stark, and that Cortez is missing. On returning to her lodgings, April is caught by Gordon Halloway. She is rescued by another character, Lady Alvane, who teaches April to shift at will, and sends April to Abnaxus to receive the disc's final piece. April then returns to the White Dragon, who reveals herself as April's mother and dies, and a new White Dragon emerges from her egg.

Returned to Stark, April gives Flipper the star map to decipher, infiltrates MTI, and is captured by antagonist McAllen. Unable to escape, she surrenders her two jewels and the disc, and is then imprisoned. Upon escaping in pursuit of her object, she is trapped again; but rescued by Cortez. McAllen then reveals that he and Cortez are two Dragons (called 'Draic Kin', in-universe) meant to protect Stark, but at odds after McAllen's decision to re-unite the two worlds despite the risk of Chaos. The two then appear to die in combat. Retrieving the disc and the four jewels, April returns to Flipper, whom she finds dying after the seizure of her deciphered map by Gordon Halloway, and gains a copy from him, which she uses to locate the Guardian's Realm near the space station 'Morning Star'.

At the station, April frees Adrian, the derelict Guardian, and escapes with Halloway in pursuit. On her way to the Guardians' Tower, she imprisons the Chaos Vortex in her Talisman and later summons Crow, who helps her complete the necessary trials. Inside the tower, April re-unites Halloway with the Chaos Vortex to restore his candidacy as Guardian and returns to Stark and Arcadia.

In the Epilogue, the scene returns to Lady Alvane's home, where she has narrated the entire story to two youths, and where she reveals that the two worlds re-united under Gordon Halloway. Upon their departure, an aged and graying Crow enters, asking the tale of the "warrior princess" who won the war of the Balance, and she corrects his impression; a possible reference to the sequel, ''Dreamfall: The Longest Journey''.

The game begins shortly after the beginning of the film, with McCoy tasked with tracking down a group of replicants who are suspected of murdering animals—a crime nearly as heinous as murdering humans since most animal species are extinct and real specimens are exceedingly rare.

As McCoy's investigation progresses, he is framed for the murder of a civilian by the corrupt Lt. Guzza, who has been assisting the replicants in an effort to prevent them from revealing his activities. Forced into hiding, McCoy explores the underbelly of LA and makes contact with the replicant twins Luther and Lance, former genetic designers for the Tyrell Corporation who are now working to extend their own lifespans as well as those of all other replicants. From them, McCoy receives a detailed report containing evidence of Guzza's corruption. Using this information, he blackmails Guzza and forces him to set his falsified record straight. They meet in the city sewers for the exchange, where Guzza is wounded by replicant gunfire. At this point, the player can either run away or kill Guzza.

The game features thirteen different endings, which are influenced by the player's cumulative actions and decisions throughout the story. The endings are variations on three major themes:

• McCoy is human and hunts down the replicants either alone or with Crystal.
• McCoy is a replicant himself and sides with the other replicants.
• McCoy's status remains ambiguous, and he sides with neither the replicants nor the police, instead leaving the city—either alone, with Dektora, or with Lucy.

Max Renn is the president of CIVIC-TV, a Toronto UHF television station specializing in sensationalist programming. Harlan, the operator of CIVIC-TV's unauthorized satellite dish, shows Max ''Videodrome'', a plotless show apparently being broadcast from Malaysia which depicts anonymous victims being violently tortured and eventually murdered. Believing this to be the future of television, Max orders Harlan to begin unlicensed use of the show. Nicki Brand, a sadomasochistic radio host who becomes sexually involved with Max, is aroused by an episode of ''Videodrome'', and goes to audition for the show when she learns that it is being broadcast out of Pittsburgh, but never returns. Max contacts Masha, a softcore pornographer, and asks her to help him find out the truth about ''Videodrome''. Through Masha, Max learns that not only is the footage not faked, but it is the public "face" of a political movement. Masha further informs him that the enigmatic media theorist Brian O'Blivion knows about ''Videodrome''.

Max tracks down O'Blivion to a homeless shelter where vagrants are encouraged to engage in marathon sessions of television viewing. He discovers that O'Blivion's daughter Bianca runs the mission, intending to help realize her father's vision of a world in which television replaces every aspect of everyday life. Later, Max views a videotape in which O'Blivion informs him that ''Videodrome'' is a socio-political battleground in which a war is being fought to control the minds of the people of North America before being garrotted by Nicki; Max then hallucinates that Nicki speaks directly to him and causes his television to undulate as he kisses the screen. Disturbed, Max returns to O'Blivion's homeless shelter. Bianca tells him ''Videodrome'' carries a broadcast signal that causes the viewer to develop a malignant brain tumor. O'Blivion helped to create it as part of his vision for the future, and viewed the hallucinations as a higher form of reality. When he found out it was to be used for malevolent purposes, he attempted to stop his partners; they used his own invention to kill him. In the year before his death, O'Blivion recorded tens of thousands of videos, which now form the basis of his television appearances.

Later that night, Max hallucinates placing his handgun in a slit in his abdomen. He is contacted by ''Videodrome'' s producer, Barry Convex of the Spectacular Optical Corporation, an eyeglasses company that acts as a front for an arms company. He uses a device to record Max's fantasies of whipping Nicki. Max then wakes up to find Masha's corpse in his bed. He frantically calls Harlan to photograph the body as evidence, but, shortly after he arrives, her body is no longer anywhere to be found.

Wanting to see the latest Videodrome broadcast, Max meets Harlan at his studio. There, Harlan reveals that he has been working with Convex with the goal of recruiting Max to their cause: to end North America's cultural decay by giving fatal brain tumors to anyone so obsessed with sex and violence that they would watch ''Videodrome''. Convex then inserts a brainwashing Betamax tape into Max's torso. Under Convex's influence, Max murders his colleagues at CIVIC-TV. He later attempts to murder Bianca, who manages to stop him by showing him a videotape of Nicki's murder on the Videodrome set. Bianca then 'reprograms' Max to her father's cause: "Death to ''Videodrome''. Long live the new flesh." On her orders, he kills Harlan and Convex.

Wanted for their murders as well of those of his colleagues, Max takes refuge on a derelict boat in the Port Lands. Appearing to him on a television, Nicki tells him he has weakened ''Videodrome'', but in order to completely defeat it, he must ascend to the next level and "leave the old flesh". The television then shows an image of Max shooting himself in the head, which causes the set to explode. Reenacting what he has just seen on the television, Max utters the words "Long live the new flesh" and shoots himself.