Fletcher Reede is a lawyer and divorced father living in Los Angeles. He loves spending time with his young son Max; they often play a game where Fletcher makes his hand into "the Claw", with which he tickles Max and pretends to chase him. However, Fletcher has a habit of giving precedence to his career, breaking promises to Max and his former wife Audrey, and then lying about the reasons. Fletcher's compulsive lying has also built him a reputation as a successful defense lawyer at his firm. On Max's birthday, Fletcher misses Max's party when senior partner Miranda lures him to get promoted by having sex in the office. Max makes a birthday wish that Fletcher would be unable to tell a lie for an entire day—a wish that immediately becomes true.

Fletcher soon discovers, through a series of embarrassing incidents, that he is unable to lie, mislead, or even withhold a true answer. These incidents are inconvenient, ranging from sleeping with the senior partner in vain when she dumps him right after the sex due to his honest review about it, and as he is fighting a divorce case which could boost his career. His client is Samantha Cole, a gold digger. His main witness, Kenneth Falk, with whom Samantha has been cheating on her husband Richard Cole, is eager to commit perjury to win, but Fletcher discovers that he cannot even ask a question if he knows the answer will be a lie; he even objects to himself when he tries to lie to get the desired information. Meanwhile, Audrey is planning to move to Boston with her new fiancé Jerry, and decides that Max will go with them to protect him from the disappointment Fletcher causes him when he breaks his promises.

Fletcher tries desperately to delay the case, even beating himself up, but is unable to lie his way into a continuance. On the verge of losing the case, he discovers that Samantha had lied about her age and therefore had signed the prenuptial agreement as a minor without parental consent, rendering the contract void. This entitles Samantha to 50% of Richard's marital assets, equal to $11.395 million, allowing Fletcher to win the case truthfully. However, Samantha also insists on contesting custody of their children for an extra $10,000 in monthly child support payments from Richard. A disheartened Fletcher, realizing that he had corrupted Samantha with his own lies, watches as she pulls her crying children out of Richard's arms. Horrified by his mistake, Fletcher demands that the judge reverse the decision, but his attitude angers the judge and he is arrested for contempt of court. Fletcher calls Audrey to bail him out, but she informs him that their plane leaves for Boston that night; his bail is eventually paid by his secretary, Greta.

Recognizing Max as his highest priority, Fletcher rushes to the airport, but Audrey and Max's flight has already left the terminal. In desperation, he hijacks a mobile stairway to pursue the plane onto the runway. After throwing one of his shoes at the plane's windshield, it finally stops, but Fletcher is injured after he crashes the mobile stairway. On a stretcher, Fletcher vows to Max that he will spend more time with him. He points out that it has been over 24 hours since Max's birthday wish, but Max believes him. Ultimately, Audrey and Max decide not to move to Boston with Jerry, who goes on his own to run a hospital.

One year later, Fletcher and Audrey are celebrating Max's birthday. Max makes a birthday wish, only to find that Fletcher and Audrey are kissing. Fletcher asks Max if he wished for them to get back together, but Max says he only wished for roller blades. The family returns to normal as Fletcher chases Audrey and Max around the house with "the Claw".

Amy Gray (Amy Brenneman), an attorney and Harvard graduate, moves back to her hometown of Hartford, Connecticut after separating from her husband Michael in New York City. She and her six-year-old daughter Lauren (Karle Warren) move in with her widowed mother, Maxine Gray (Tyne Daly) who is a caseworker for the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. The move back to Hartford also reunites Amy with her two brothers. Her older brother Peter (Marcus Giamatti) juggles the operations of their late father's insurance company along with the struggles he and his wife Gillian (Jessica Tuck) are facing towards starting a family due to fertility issues. At the same time, Amy's younger brother Vincent (Dan Futterman) an aspiring writer, struggles to jumpstart his career while working odd-end jobs. Later on, Amy's cousin Kyle McCarthy (Kevin Rahm), a former med student, returns to help cope with the rehabilitation of his drug addiction. In her line of work Amy takes on a wide variety of challenging cases, with the assistance of her Court Services Officer Bruce van Exel (Richard T. Jones) and Court Clerk Donna Kozlowski (Jillian Armenante) both of whom she ultimately becomes good friends with. In the ''de facto'' series finale (the series was canceled after the conclusion of the season) Amy quits the judiciary to run for the U.S. Senate.

Bob and Cindy Russell and their three children, 15-year-old Tia, 8-year-old Miles, and 6-year-old Maizy, have recently moved from Indianapolis to the Chicago suburbs due to Bob's promotion.

Bob has a brother named Buck. In contrast to the Russells' upper middle class lifestyle, Buck lives in a small apartment in Wrigleyville, drinks, smokes cigars, earns his living by betting on rigged horse races, and drives a dilapidated 1977 Mercury. Buck also finds himself at odds with his girlfriend of eight years Chanice. She wants to get married and start a family, but Buck is reluctant to do so as he loves his lifestyle. To quell her dissatisfaction, Buck has grudgingly accepted a new job at her tire shop.

At 12:02 AM, the family receives a phone call from Cindy's aunt in Indianapolis informing them that her father has had a heart attack. They make plans to leave immediately to be with him. After hearing the news, Tia, bitter about being forced to move, accuses Cindy of abandoning her father. Bob suggests asking Buck to come and watch the children, to which Cindy objects as she considers Buck a bad influence and a failure.

Cindy suggests asking their neighbors the Nevilles for help instead while also shooting down the idea of their neighbor Marcie watching them, but Bob finds they are holidaying in Florida. Buck cheerfully accepts the job when Bob calls him. When he informs Chanice that he cannot start his job yet due to the family emergency, Chanice assumes Buck is trying as usual to lie his way out of working.

Upon arriving, Buck deals with Cindy's cold demeanor towards him and finds himself cropped out of Bob and Cindy's wedding picture. Nevertheless, he quickly befriends Miles and Maizy, but Tia is brash and hostile as they engage in a battle of wills. When Buck meets Tia's cocky obnoxious boyfriend Bug, he warns her that Bug is only interested in her for sex and repeatedly thwarts her plans to sneak away on dates with him.

Over the next several days, he deals with several situations in comedic fashion, including taking the kids to his favourite bowling alley, making enormous pancakes for Miles' birthday, removing the drunk Pooter the Clown from the property, berating assistant principal Anita Hoargarth about Maizy's behavior in class, and handling the laundry when the washing machine does not work.

Eventually, Tia exacts revenge on Buck for meddling in her relationship by tricking Chanice into thinking that Buck is cheating on her with Marcie. The next day, Chanice comes over to confront Buck about what she heard, but is furious to find Buck dancing with Marcie in the living room. Chanice leaves him.

The following weekend, concerned after Tia sneaks out to a party, Buck decides to go looking for her rather than attend a horse race which would have provided him with enough money for the entire following year. He calls and begs Chanice to watch Miles and Maizy as he searches for Tia. At the party, thinking that Bug is taking advantage of her in a bedroom, he forces the door open by drilling out the lock, but walks in on Bug forcing himself on another girl. After he finds Tia wandering the streets, she tearfully apologizes to him and acknowledges he was right about Bug. Buck then reveals Bug, bound and gagged with duct tape, in the trunk of his car. After intimidating him, Buck lets Bug out of the trunk to apologize to her. When Bug is finally released, he threatens to sue Buck and retracts his apology, but flees in fear after Buck strikes him with a golf ball.

At home, Tia helps Buck reconcile with Chanice by admitting her lie and tells Chanice that Buck would be a good husband and father. Buck also agrees to start his job at the garage, and he and Chanice reunite.

Cindy's father recovers and she and Bob return home from Indianapolis. Upon entering the house, Tia surprises her mother with a hug. The entire Russell family says farewell to Buck and Chanice as they leave for Chicago, with Buck and Tia exchanging a loving wave goodbye.

One year after the brutal murders of her friends, Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe), by the vengeful fisherman Ben Willis (Muse Watson), Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is attending summer classes in Boston, but suffers from nightmares of the murders. Julie's roommate, Karla Wilson (Brandy), receives a phone call from a local radio station and wins a vacation for four to The Bahamas. Julie invites her boyfriend, Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), who declines, but later changes his mind. That evening, Ray and his co-worker, Dave (John Hawkes), drive to Boston to surprise Julie, but stop due to a body in the middle of the road. When Ray discovers the body is a mannequin, Ben appears and kills Dave with his hook, then chases Ray in a truck, but Ray escapes and falls down a hill.

The next morning, Julie, Karla, Karla's boyfriend, Tyrell Martin (Mekhi Phifer), and their friend, Will Benson (Matthew Settle), depart for the trip. The group arrives at the hotel in Tower Bay and checks in. That evening at the hotel's bar, Julie is singing karaoke when the words "I still know what you did last summer" roll onto the screen. Terrified, she runs back to her room. At the dock, Darick, the dockhand (Benjamin Brown), is tying up the boat. He is attacked by Ben. Olga (Ellerine Harding), the housekeeper, finds bloody sheets while working and is then attacked by Ben. While the others get into the hot tub, Julie is in her room and notices that her toothbrush is missing. She searches her room before finding Darick dead in the closet. She finds her friends and they return to find no sign of Darick's body; Mr. Brooks (Jeffrey Combs), the hotel manager, refuses to believe her story. By the pool, Titus Telesco (Jack Black) is murdered. Ray, who has survived his injuries, heads out to rescue Julie.

The next day, the group finds Olga, Titus, and Mr. Brooks murdered and the two-way radio, their only way of contact, destroyed. Isolated, the group goes to the room of Estes (Bill Cobbs), the boat hand porter, and finds that he has been using voodoo against them. Estes appears, explaining he was trying to protect them after realizing that their answer to the radio station's question was incorrect. He tells them that Ben and his wife, Sarah, had two children: a son and a daughter. Ben murdered Sarah when he found out about an affair. Estes goes missing and Will volunteers to find him, while Ray takes a boat to the island. Julie, Karla, and Tyrell return to the hotel and find Nancy (Jennifer Esposito), the bartender, hiding in the kitchen.

Ben appears in the kitchen and kills Tyrell. The girls retreat to the attic, where Karla is attacked by Ben. Julie and Nancy rescue Karla and run to the storm cellar, where they find Ben's victims. Will bursts in and takes the girls back to the hotel, stating that he saw Ben on the beach. At the hotel, Will tells them that Estes attacked him and he is bleeding from the stomach. Nancy and Karla leave to find a first aid kit, but find Estes impaled with a harpoon. Ben appears, kills Nancy and attacks Karla. While Julie tends to Will, he reveals that it is not his blood and asks Julie what her favorite radio station is, revealing that he was the radio host and had killed Estes. (It turns out the radio question was "What is the capital of Brazil?", to which Karla answers "Rio de Janeiro", which was the case up to 1960, but by 1998, the correct answer was and still is Brasilia, but since the phone call was a hoax, any answer she gave was going to win).

Will drags Julie to a graveyard, where he reveals that he is Ben's son. Ben appears and attacks Julie before Ray arrives and engages in a fight with Will. When Ben tries to stab Ray, he accidentally kills Will instead. While Ben is distraught from killing his son, Julie shoots him dead. Back at the hotel, Karla is found alive and they are rescued by the coast guard.

Sometime later, Ray and Julie get married and buy a home. Ray is brushing his teeth and the bathroom door is locked while he is occupied. Julie sits down on the bed and looks in the mirror, seeing Ben underneath. She screams as Ben pulls her under the bed, which ends the movie, thus leaving the audience questioning if the attack was real or just another of Julie's nightmares.

Mr. Miyagi travels to Arlington National Cemetery for a commendation for Japanese-Americans who fought in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II. He meets Louisa Pierce, the widow of his commanding officer, Jack. At Pierce's home in Boston, they catch up.

Miyagi is also introduced to Pierce's granddaughter, Julie, a teen struggling with anger issues due to her parents' death in a car accident. Her behaviour has led to friction between Julie and her grandmother, along with her fellow students and teachers. She sneaks into the school at night to care for an injured Harris's hawk, she named "Angel", which she keeps in a pigeon coop on the roof.

Miyagi invites Louisa to stay at his house in Los Angeles to enjoy peace and quiet tending his garden while he remains in Boston as Julie's caretaker. At school, Julie meets and befriends Eric McGowen, a teenage security guard-in-training and a pledge for a shady school security fraternity, the Alpha Elite. The members are taught to enforce the school rules, mostly using physical force, by a self-styled colonel, Paul Dugan. His toughest and most aggressive student is the short-fused Ned Randall, who makes unwelcome sexual advances upon Julie.

When Julie survives almost being hit by a car by jumping into a tiger position, she finally learns to confide in Miyagi when he recognizes her skill. She reveals she was taught karate by her father, who learned from her grandfather, Miyagi's student.

While trying to feed Angel one night, Julie is detected by the Alpha Elite who chase her through the school. Although she escapes them, she is arrested by the police and gets suspended for two weeks by Dugan. Miyagi uses this time to take Julie to a Buddhist monastery to teach her the true ways of karate and how to handle her anger issues. Julie learns through direct lessons about balance, coordination, awareness and respect for all life. She befriends the monks, who eventually have a birthday party for her, giving her a cake and an arrow that Miyagi had caught in mid-flight in a demonstration of Zen archery. They also concede to her wish that they visit her in Boston, where they go bowling with Miyagi. A local player challenges them, loses the match, and accepts their tutelage in how to bowl a strike blind.

Upon returning to school, Julie discovers that Angel was found by Ned who called animal control. Miyagi assists Julie in releasing the bird back to the wild, using the pain suppression technique from the first film to heal her broken wing. In preparation for the prom, Miyagi teaches Julie how to dance, and gets her a dress. Julie goes to the prom with Eric, but under Dugan's orders, the Alpha Elite bungee jump in. When one of the members breaks his arm, Eric shows concern, but Ned tells him to stay out of it.

Eric drives Julie home and kisses her. Ned follows them, and smashes the windows of his car with a baseball bat. Ned challenges him to a fight at the docks, and is joined there by Dugan and the Alpha Elite. They set fire to Eric's car and severely beat him, but he is saved by Julie and Miyagi.

Ned tries to grab Julie, but she challenges him to a fight. She holds her own, using the karate she has learned, even when Ned throws sand in her face. Julie defeats Ned and turns her back on him. Dugan bullies the rest of the group to continue the fight, but they refuse. Miyagi challenges Dugan to fight and wins, leading the Alpha Elite to abandon him. The film concludes with Angel flying freely above the water.

The main character in ''Barcelona'' is a Chicago salesman named Ted Boynton, who lives and works in the eponymous Spanish city in 1987. Ted's cousin, Fred, a naval officer, unexpectedly comes to stay with Ted at the beginning of the film. Fred has been sent to Barcelona to handle public relations on behalf of a U.S. fleet scheduled to arrive later.

The cousins have a history of conflict since childhood, to which the film refers several times. Ted and Fred develop relationships with various single women in Barcelona and experience the negative reactions of some of the community's residents to the context of Fred's presence. Ted also faces possible problems with his American employer and with the concept of attraction to physical beauty.

At the beginning of the poem, the sleepless poet, who has suffered from an unexplained sickness for eight years (line 37), lies in his bed, reading a book. A collection of old stories, the book tells the story of Ceyx and Alcyone. The story tells of how Ceyx lost his life at sea, and how Alcyone, his wife, mourned his absence. Unsure of his fate, she prays to the goddess Juno to send her a dream vision. Juno sends a messenger to Morpheus to bring the body of Ceyx with a message to Alcyone.

The messenger finds Morpheus and relays Juno's orders. Morpheus finds the drowned Ceyx and bears him to Alcyone three hours before dawn. The deceased Ceyx instructs Alcyone to bury him and to cease her sorrow, and when Alcyone opens her eyes Ceyx has gone.

The poet stops relaying the story of Ceyx and Alcyone and reflects that he wished that he had a god such as Juno or Morpheus so that he could sleep like Alcyone. He then describes the lavish bed he would gift to Morpheus should the god discover his location. Lost in the book and his thoughts, the poet suddenly falls asleep with the book in his hands. He states that his dream is so full of wonder that no man may interpret it correctly. He begins to relay his dream.

The poet dreams that he wakes in a chamber with windows of stained glass depictions of the tale of Troy and walls painted with the story of ''The Romance of the Rose''. He hears a hunt, leaves the chamber, and inquires who is hunting. The hunt is revealed to be that of Octavian. The dogs are released and the hunt begins, leaving behind the poet and a small dog that the poet follows into the forest. The poet stumbles upon a clearing and finds a knight dressed in black composing a song for the death of his lady. The poet asks the knight the nature of his grief. The knight replies that he had played a game of chess with Fortuna and lost his queen and was checkmated. The poet takes the message literally and begs the black knight not to become upset over a game of chess.

The knight begins the story of his life, reporting that for his entire life he had served Love, but that he had waited to set his heart on a woman for many years until he met one lady who surpassed all others. The knight speaks of her surpassing beauty and temperament and reveals that her name was "good, fair White". The poet, still not understanding the metaphorical chess game, asks the black knight to finish the story and explain what was lost. The knight tells the story of his fumbling declaration of love and the long time it took for the love to be reciprocated and that they were in perfect harmony for many years. Still the narrator does not understand, and asks the whereabouts of White. The knight finally blurts out that White is dead. The poet realises what has occurred as the hunt ends and the poet awakes with his book still in hand. He reflects on the dream and decides that his dream is so wonderful that it should be set into rhyme.

The Surprises wait at Malta while their ship is slowly repaired after their successful mission on the Ionian coast. Aubrey and Maturin meet Mrs Laura Fielding at music parties she holds. She is waiting for news of her husband, a naval lieutenant who is a prisoner-of-war in France. One of the three groups of French intelligence agents in Malta uses Fielding's plight to manipulate her into spying for them. Aubrey saves her huge dog Ponto from a fall in the well. This endears Aubrey to Ponto, leading the gossips of Malta to assume he is carrying on an affair with Mrs Fielding. She asks Maturin to help her satisfy the French agents. They let it appear to the French spies as if they are conducting an affair, and Maturin prepares false materials for her to pass on. The new Commander of the Mediterranean fleet, Admiral Sir Francis Ives and acting second secretary Andrew Wray, arrive in Malta with their own advisor on Turkish affairs. Once Aubrey learns that an earlier prize was accepted by the board, he has money to speed up repairs on ''Surprise''. Before he leaves Malta, Graham describes Lesueur, a French agent known to him. Unbeknownst to Maturin, Wray meets with Lesueur, receives payments from him and learns what Maturin has done to French spies. Maturin is delighted to receive his diving bell, built on Edmond Halley's design. He and Heneage Dundas test it out from Dundas’s ship. It travels with Maturin on the next mission.

Aubrey is dispatched on a secret mission by Admiral Ives to capture a Turkish galley laden with French silver in the Red Sea. They sail on the ''Dromedary'' to Tina, and then walk across the Sinai Peninsula to meet the HEI ship ''Niobe'' at Suez. Aubrey takes command of ''Niobe'' in the Red Sea, with Turkish troops to aid on land. They spot the galley and give chase. Aubrey notices that the galley is using a drag sail to artificially slow its speed. Realizing the trickery, Aubrey sinks the galley to deny the French its silver. Maturin and Aubrey use the diving bell to retrieve the cargo, but find it is lead not silver, a complete trap. The galley had been in the sea for a month awaiting them, to lure them under French cannons on land. They reverse the challenging journey, offloading the disappointed Turkish troops at Suez, then cross the desert with no escort. Bedouin horsemen steal their camel train, so they reach Tina exhausted. Only Aubrey’s chest, with his chelengk award and the dead dragoman’s papers, is saved by Killick’s diligent effort. They return to Malta on ''Dromedary''.

Admiral Ives tells Aubrey the sad news that ''Surprise'' is to return to England to be sold out of the service. Maturin is in a mood to gamble at cards. Wray loses a large sum of money to Maturin playing piquet, and is unable to pay his debt. Maturin asks for naval favors in return, like a ship for recently-promoted Pullings. Before dispatching ''Surprise'' to England, Ives asks Aubrey to take the Adriatic convoy up to Trieste, where he meets Captain Cotton of HMS ''Nymphe''. ''Nymphe'' has just rescued the escaped prisoner-of-war, Lieutenant Charles Fielding. Maturin removes a bullet from the brave and jealous man. He hears the rumour of Aubrey's liaison with his wife and refuses to return to Malta on ''Surprise,'' challenging Aubrey to a duel when they next meet on land. On the return journey Captain Dundas, on HMS ''Edinburgh'', tells Aubrey of a French privateer, which Aubrey then captures with ''Dryad'' in convoy. The chase delays ''Surprise'' into Malta, so the news of Lieutenant Fielding's rescue has begun to circulate. Maturin speeds to Mrs Fielding's house, but she is not home. Lesueur and Boulay, a double agent on the Governor's staff, arrive to kill her, as she is of no more use to them, and have already killed Ponto. Maturin quietly listens to their conversation until they leave. When she arrives, he takes her aboard the ''Surprise'', saving her life.

Admiral Ives orders Aubrey to sail to Zambra on the Barbary Coast to persuade the Dey of Mascara not to molest British ships, in convoy with HMS ''Pollux'', which is returning Admiral Harte to England. While ''Pollux'' waits at the entrance of the Bay of Zambra, the French ''Mars'' with two frigates fire on her, with a fierce ensuing battle. ''Pollux'' blows up, killing all 500 aboard, but not before she severely damages ''Mars''. The two frigates chase ''Surprise'' deep into the bay until the heavier frigate runs aground on a reef. Her smaller consort deserts the fight. On the political advice of Maturin, Aubrey sets sail for Gibraltar. This ambush on a voyage known to so few makes it clear that someone highly placed in the British command betrayed them to the French. Maturin hopes Wray will find the traitor out and destroy the French spy networks.

Jack Aubrey and his crew make their way in a much knocked-about ''Surprise'' from the small island near the equator in the Pacific Ocean to the West Indies Squadron at Bridgetown with their American prisoners in a recaptured whaler. Aubrey learns that Sally Mputa was pregnant when they parted over twenty years earlier, at the moment of meeting his grown son, Samuel Panda, who appears to meet him and seek his blessing. Samuel is on his way to the with Catholic missionaries. Aubrey and Maturin like the young man, and Maturin promises to aid him in his wish to become a priest, as his being illegitimate is a barrier to taking orders. After the court martial for the British mutineers among Aubrey's prisoners, Aubrey leaves quickly for home. The voyage home is enlivened by a chase of the privateer ''Spartan'', which slips away in fog through the blockade to Brest.

Finally ashore in England, Aubrey hears a rumour from a stranger he meets in Dover that peace is coming soon, creating an opportunity to make money in the stock exchange. Mr Palmer claims familiarity with Maturin. Aubrey makes the transactions, and shares the advice with his father, General Aubrey. The General makes large stock transactions and spreads the rumour of peace farther. The transactions prove profitable in the short term, but values fall when the rumour is shown to be false. Aubrey does not sell quickly enough and loses money, though others prosper. Aubrey is arrested for manipulating the market. He is taken to the Marshalsea prison to await trial. General Aubrey flees, leaving his son to fend for himself.

Maturin finds that his wife Diana has gone to Sweden with Jagiello, and that The Grapes, an Inn in the liberties of the Savoy where he has kept rooms for years, has burnt down. Maturin shows Sir Joseph Blaine the brass box full of valuable paper from ''Danaë'' and he makes a list of the contents; Blaine will watch to see who tries to cash any of it. Maturin then gives the box to Wray at the Admiralty. Maturin learns that his godfather Ramon d'Ullastret has died, and left him sole heir to an enormous fortune. Pained by the absence of his wife, Maturin returns to the use of laudanum.

Maturin and Blaine find an attorney and an investigator to defend Aubrey from the charges against him at his trial. Maturin advertises a large reward (the gambling debts paid back to him by Wray) for word of Mr Palmer, which proves an error. Palmer is found murdered and mutilated, thus useless for Aubrey's defense. Aubrey, who is unfamiliar with politically motivated trials, expresses confidence in British justice. His career is at stake, but he remains calm, even stoic, accepting the help Maturin gives him, and his wife's support. The trial is completed in two days, one day going on without rest for eighteen hours. The judge, Lord Quinborough, and jury convict him. The punishment is a fine of £2,500 and one hour on the pillory. His name is stricken from the Navy List, not by law but by practice, the worst blow. The pillory is delayed a few days, so word spreads to all his mates. The public square is filled with seamen, who in a display of their support for a beloved and respected captain, push away anyone come to throw stones.

On the day before the trial begins, the ''Surprise'' is put up for auction. Maturin, with the aid of Tom Pullings, makes the successful bid. With Blaine's aid, Maturin obtains letters of marque so she can operate as a private man-of-war. Aubrey takes ''Surprise'' out immediately. Blaine tells Maturin that there is interest in a mission to Chile, and that Maturin is the preferred agent. Maturin receives a message to meet someone who mentions the Blue Peter, the diamond that Diana gave up to gain Maturin's release in France. He again meets M. Duhamel, who returns the diamond as long ago agreed, and supplies Maturin with information on the double agents in London. Duhamel knew the late Palmer only by that alias, and the pair in government is Ledward and Andrew Wray, who also mounted the stock exchange fraud. Maturin is chagrined when he realizes what he did not understand in Malta, when dealing with Wray. In return, Duhamel wants to leave Europe for Canada, as he is tired of the war. Maturin arranges for him to sail on HMS ''Eurydice'' under Captain Dundas, leaving in a few days. As proof, Maturin watches as Duhamel gives money in exchange for an information packet from Ledward and Wray. Maturin seeks Blaine to share with him this vital information.

Jack Aubrey, now a civilian, prepares the ''Surprise'' to sail as a letter of marque. The loss of his place on the Navy list is the hardest blow. He is stoic, but appears harsh to his new crew. His reputation brings him a full crew, and he takes the men on liking. He runs the ''Surprise'' on Royal Navy lines, including regular pay to the men, in addition to any prizes they might take. He is supported by his crew of old Surprises, privateers and smugglers, the latter groups recruited in Shelmerston, on the western coast of England. It is let out that a group of his friends purchased the ship at the auction, as Stephen Maturin, who is the sole owner, wants to play his same role of surgeon and natural philosopher on the ship. Aubrey takes the new crew on a short cruise in the Atlantic, which proves unexpectedly profitable.

The downfall of the traitors Wray and Ledward restores order in British intelligence circles, returning Sir Joseph Blaine to his position in the Admiralty. The traitors fled England, so they still have a friend in the government. Duhamel, the French agent who gave them away, never did reach Canada, as he died in a fall boarding ''Eurydice''. Blaine says it will be difficult to restore Aubrey to the Navy, even with solid evidence left behind by Wray showing how he profited in the stock market scheme and set Aubrey up. Maturin's servant Padeen becomes a secret laudanum addict after a painful burn, where he learned its benefit, followed by an infected painful tooth that Maturin could not treat. Padeen dilutes the ship's supply with brandy. Maturin is thus unknowingly weaned off his own addiction.

During the short cruise, the ''Surprise'' captures the ''Merlin'', the consort of the ''Spartan''. They learn that American/French privateer ''Spartan'' seeks its next quarry, the Spanish barque ''Azul'' with quicksilver aboard. ''Surprise'' sails to intercept them. ''Azul'' is struck on rocks, with ''Spartan'' adjacent following a fierce battle between the two; ''Surprise'' meets them and boards first ''Azul'' and then ''Spartan''. Aubrey then tricks the ''Spartan's'' five prizes out of Horta harbour, making him and his crew wealthy, improving his reputation, and earning him a gift of silver plate from the merchants who had been so harried by ''Spartan''. Blaine tells Maturin of the frigate ''Diane'', a French navy ship ready to voyage to South America. Aubrey plans the attack at night in ship's boats, cooperating with the Navy, specifically William Babbington of HMS ''Tartarus'', who has made post Captain, thus removing pressure on him to take credit for success. ''Surprise'' takes the ''Diane'' and all other vessels in the French port of Saint Martin the night before ''Diane'' plans to sail. Maturin imprisons the intelligence agent aboard, taking his papers, but the agent slips away dressed as a woman. In the short clash on the ''Diane'', Maturin kills her captain while Aubrey is wounded by a bullet near his spine. The second success makes Aubrey a popular hero.

When offered the opportunity to request a free pardon, he angrily declines on the grounds that he is innocent. Aubrey's father, a fugitive since his part in the stock-jobbing affair, is found dead in a ditch. Aubrey organizes the funeral for him, which takes him to his boyhood home of Woolcombe, now his by inheritance. After the funeral, Edward Norton (a friend of Aubrey's grandfather) offers Aubrey a seat in Parliament, from the borough of Milport. This gain in position leads Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, to assure Aubrey of his restoration. Aubrey is a changed man.

Maturin travels to Sweden to speak to his wife Diana Villiers. Aubrey agrees to meet him there for the return voyage. In Stockholm, Maturin purchases a bottle of full-strength laudanum and some coca leaves from a well-stocked apothecary. He meets Diana near her home in Stockholm. He learns Wray lied about not finding Diana in London to deliver the letter; she saw Wray, and no letter was given her. Maturin explains why he was seen with Laura Fielding. Villiers assures him she has not been unfaithful with Jagiello, who is soon to be married. He gives her the Blue Peter, the diamond she gave up to save him, which pleases her greatly. He tells her of his sudden increase in wealth. Maturin takes two doses of laudanum and becomes disoriented. He is seriously injured in a fall, breaking his leg. Diana nurses him and they are reconciled. ''Surprise'' returns from a stop in Riga to buy poldavy. Martin tells Maturin that he caught Padeen diluting the laudanum supply with brandy, and that Padeen is addicted and in irons. They carry Maturin out to the ship in style, accompanied by Colonel Jagiello's escort, and Diana embarks with him for home.

The ''Surprise'' sails out of Gibraltar but collides in the dark with a Nordic timber ship and returns for repairs. Back ashore, Aubrey hears a reliable description of the battle at Waterloo; he thanks Lord Keith for moving the prize court along briskly to share out their huge prize from capturing the gold meant to aid Napoleon before his fall, more than 382 pounds a share. Aubrey has clandestine visits with his cousin Isobel, Lord Barmouth's wife. Admiral Lord Barmouth hastens the repair work, realizing he helps himself that way. Many Surprises desert. The frigate sails to Madeira for more serious repairs but arrives just in time to see Coelho's famous shipyard at Funchal in flames. Maturin receives a coded report from Dr Amos Jacob regarding the Chilean situation and takes the ''Ringle'' to England, where Sir Joseph Blaine updates him. The Chileans have split into two factions: northern still interested in British help, and southern retaining the services of Sir David Lindsay to command the Chilean navy. Whilst Maturin stays with Sophie Aubrey at Woolcombe, Aubrey returns the ''Surprise'' to Seppings' yard in England for a thorough re-fit and recruits a strong, competent crew out of Shelmerston for the long voyage ahead. In London, the Duke of Clarence asks Aubrey to accept Horatio Hanson as a midshipman. Initially reluctant, Aubrey finds that the boy has the mathematical skills essential for a navigator and he becomes a competent sailor. Fully fitted, the ''Surprise'' stops at Funchal, picking up Jacob, and then heads for Freetown, where Maturin proposes marriage to a young attractive widow named Christine Wood. She shares his tastes for natural philosophy, but her view of marriage suffered from her first marriage, as her husband was impotent and she turns him down. She agrees on her upcoming trip to England to visit the Aubreys at their home in Dorset and to meet Maturin's daughter Brigid there. ''Surprise'' then sails to the coast of Brazil, where Dr Amos Jacob parts to cross the mountains overland.

After a difficult rounding of Cape Horn, the expedition reaches San Patricio in Chile. ''Ringle'' goes for repairs following a grounding in the Pillón passage. After a meeting between Aubrey, Maturin and Sir David Lindsay, in which the two sides agree to mutually support each other, Maturin writes to Blaine describing the different juntas and the training of three republican sloops by the crew of the ''Surprise'', who assist in capturing a moderate privateer. After meeting Dr Jacob with the intelligence he gathered, Aubrey heads to Valparaiso, while Maturin and Jacob ride there by mule. Here they meet General Bernardo O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and Colonel Eduardo Valdes. Learning that the viceroy of Peru, under the Spanish king, plans to invade Chile, the group determine to confront the Royalist forces at Valdivia, where the viceroy will need to seek stores. The ''Surprise'' and ''Ringle'' make sail and Aubrey elaborates a plan to drop Chilean troops at Concepción while the ships destroy the gun-emplacements at Cala Alta and then bombard the fort at Valdivia.

The plan succeeds and the revolutionaries capture four chests of silver and one of gold, conveyed by the ''Surprise'' to Valparaiso and then overland to Santiago. Sir David fights a duel with one of his officers and dies. Popular local sentiment gradually turns against the British, and Aubrey receives news that the junta plans to impound his frigate. He decides to pre-empt action against ''Surprise'' by cutting out the Peruvian fifty-gun frigate ''Esmeralda'' at Callao in Peru to strengthen the Chilean navy. ''Surprise'' conducts a hard-fought broadside action and eventually the British-Chilean force takes the ship. Aubrey suffers wounds in the thigh and shoulder. Maturin and Jacob send a coded message of the successful cutting-out to Sir Joseph Blaine which the schooner takes to the ''Isaac Newton'', as Dobson's friends agree to carry the message across Panama to meet a returning merchantman. ''Ringle'' carries the news to Valparaiso.

The President of the Valparaiso junta, Don Miguel Carrera, gives Aubrey and his officers a lavish dinner, after which Aubrey insists on his sailors receiving their share of the prize-money and ''Esmeralda'''s value by the end of the month. The next day Don Miguel authorizes five thousand pieces of eight and use of any naval stores the ''Surprise'' requires. With a fully repaired ship, Aubrey sets about training the young Chilean naval officers as the ''Surprise'' continues her survey of the Chilean coast for several weeks. Jacob arrives from Valparaiso on a private brig, with coded messages from Sir Joseph Blaine. First, the Duke of Clarence requests Horatio Hanson's return to sit his lieutenant's examination. Second, the Admiralty promotes Aubrey to Rear Admiral of the Blue, requiring him to take command of the South African squadron aboard at the River Plate, hoisting his flag, blue at the mizzen. Carrera arrives with a message saying it will take a further three months to complete the payments, releasing Aubrey from his responsibility to the Chileans. Aubrey sets course for the Strait of Magellan.

This series is about "''Gadget Boy''", a bionic kid-detective with a personality similar to that of Inspector Gadget. Just as maladroit as the original Inspector Gadget, Gadget Boy was usually bailed out of situations by the more practical Heather, though he was also helped greatly by his myriad high-tech gadgets and extendable arms and legs. Gadget Boy's bionic implants were installed by Switzerland-based inventor Myron Dabble (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) who has an unrequited crush on Heather. Gadget Boy and Heather receive their assignments from Italy-based Chief Stromboli (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), who, much like Chief Quimby, is a frequent, long-suffering victim of Gadget Boy's bungling. Gadget Boy is assisted by the beautiful and resourceful agent Heather (voiced by Tara Charendoff), a very tall equivalent of sorts to Penny (the difference being that Heather is in her early 20s). He is also assisted by a robotic dog named G-9 (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), who serves as the "Brain" of this series, which shows through his morphing capabilities to get the gang out of the stickiest situations.

The main villain of this series, instead of Dr. Claw, is the mask-wearing six-armed villainess Spydra (voiced by Louise Vallance) who is accompanied by Boris, a frequently abused, wisecracking, sarcastic vulture with a Russian accent, along with her henchmen Mulch and his twin brother Houmous, all played by Maurice LaMarche.

The main title theme song was written and performed by Mike Piccirillo. Musical underscore composers were Mike Piccirillo and Jean-Michel Guirao.

Maturin rejoins the squadron at Funchal after burying his wife, killed when her carriage overturned. Fitted out, Commodore Aubrey's squadron meets at Gibraltar with Admiral Lord Keith, who updates him on Napoleon's success at Paris and the armies gathered on land. He orders Aubrey first to defend a convoy of merchant ships from Moorish xebecs and galleys, and then to proceed to the Adriatic Sea to destroy any new ships being built to support Napoleon. The grieving Maturin, in a separate meeting, learns of a plot to send sufficient gold through Algiers to fund Muslim mercenaries who would block the Russian forces from joining those of the other allies, so Napoleon's army can attack one army at a time. Aubrey's squadron is successful in defending the convoy. The captain of the ''Pomone'' is haunted by the faces of the galley slaves who died when his ship attacked theirs; Aubrey reports he died cleaning his guns, and a new captain is assigned to ''Pomone''. The convoy proceeds toward the Adriatic, stopping in Mahón. Asea, they encounter Captain Christy-Palliere, of the Royalist ''Caroline'' and an old acquaintance, who informs Aubrey about the French situation in the Adriatic before parting. Amos Jacob is sent out on ''Ringle'' to Kutali and Spalato to gain more information. ''Surprise'' sinks a French frigate under the command of an Imperialist at Ragusa Vecchia. Jacob rejoins near Porte di Spalato where they meet another French frigate, whose captain, like so many, does not want to declare for Napoleon but fears he will win. Maturin and Jacob negotiate an agreement for the French frigate to fight a mock battle against both ''Surprise'' and ''Pomone''; the Frenchman then accompanies ''Pomone'' to Malta. Following up the pressure put on banks not to loan to the small shipyards, they lay out gold to push disgruntled dockworkers to burn new French ships along the coast, which is effective.

Reaching Algiers, Maturin and Jacob meet the Consul, Sir Peter Clifford, and his wife. They meet with the Dey's Vizier at Kasbah, the Dey's palace. They travel to meet the Dey, Omar Pasha, at his hunting-lodge at Shatt el Khadna in the Atlas Mountains. The Dey invites Maturin to hunt lions with him. The Dey kills a large lion while Maturin kills its lioness as it leaps to them, saving the Dey's life. For this deed, Omar Pasha swears that no gold will sail from Algiers, and gives Maturin one of his rifles as a parting gift. Jacob befriends Ahmed Ben Habdal, who reveals that Pasha sent a contrary message to the Sheikh of Azgar, to have the gold carried by a fast-sailing xebec from Arzila, near Tangiers, captained by an Algerian corsair via the Strait of Gibraltar straight to Durazzo. Maturin and Jacob return to Algiers, and wait for ''Ringle'' to appear. Maturin buys two Irish children in the slave market. Once he sees the ''Ringle'' windbound off shore, they engage a local vessel to put them aboard ''Ringle''. Before leaving, they learn Pasha is killed, and replaced by Ali Bey.

Reade relates the damage sustained by ''Surprise'' during the fierce storm. They join Aubrey in Port Mahon, and speak with Admiral Fanshawe. Aubrey agrees to pursue the xebec. They encounter ''Hamadryad'' under old friend Heneage Dundas, who tells them that Lord Barmouth is in place of Lord Keith. In Gibraltar, Maturin tells Aubrey not to worry about Barmouth, because Peter Arden, Barmouth's political man, respects Lord Keith. Barmouth tells Aubrey to take his broad pennant down, as his squadron is dispersed. Later, Barmouth is joined by his new wife, who he learns is a cousin to Aubrey. On his return, Aubrey finds Barmouth friendly to him, as Barmouth wanted his wife with him. Before leaving for this battle, Maturin leaves the twin children with Lady Keith.

Dr Jacob learns the corsair has two galleys to act as decoys whilst he lies under Tarifa before running through the Strait. The ''Surprise'', ''Ringle'' and the blue cutter lie in wait in the Strait. The galley sees three armed ships, and Murad Reis, her captain, fires on the frigate, destroying one gun, and killing Bonden, the coxswain, as well as Hallam, a midshipman. After a long pursuit, the galley hides at Cranc (Crab) island, where ''Surprise'' and ''Ringle'', unable to follow the galley into the shallow lagoon, block the exit. A gun from the ''Surprise'' is hoisted up a cliff, where it can fire unopposed on the galley. The galley's crew, seeing the situation is hopeless, behead Murad and surrender. Returning victorious to Gibraltar, the ''Surprise'' sees the town exploding fireworks, and learns that Napoleon has lost in the Low Countries, fully beaten. Ali Bey sends word he wants the gold; he is killed and the new Dey, Hassan, admits the xebec fired first, and asks for a loan to consolidate his position in Algiers. The xebec is cleaned up and sent to Algiers, while the gold is shared out in Gibraltar. Barmouth worries that his new wife is too friendly with Aubrey, so he sends him off to the venture in Chile.

Aubrey, captain of HMS ''Bellona'' in the Brest blockade after his squadron was dispersed, is home at Woolcombe, the Aubrey family estate, on parliamentary leave. Three lawsuits from owners of slave ships captured on his mission along the West African coast tie up his funds. His wife Sophia rents out Ashgrove Cottage, their marital home. Maturin returns from Spain with his wife Diana and their household, moving into an empty wing of Woolcombe. Maturin's vast wealth is tied up in Spain, where authorities, informed by Jean Dutourd, are displeased at his activities in Peru, a Spanish colony. On land, Aubrey opposes the enclosing of the common, Simmons Lea, which has been proposed in the House by his neighbour, Captain Griffiths. Aubrey has power as lord of the manor, which he uses when the bill is called. Admiral Stranraer on the Brest blockade encouraged this enclosure, and he is uncle to Griffiths. The Admiral calls Aubrey back aboard, hoping to prevent his appearance in Parliament. Quick action on the part of Diana and Clarissa Oakes foils this scheme. Aubrey is watching a boxing match between Barret Bonden and Evans, Griffith's gamekeeper, when the orders arrive at Woolcombe. Mrs Oakes appears at the match to tell Aubrey to proceed directly to Parliament. Stranraer is displeased when Aubrey reveals the committee's decision; he sends HMS ''Bellona'' to the inshore blockading-squadron. Aboard the flagship, Maturin receives letters for his covert mission in France. The Admiral tries unsuccessfully to use Maturin to change Aubrey's mind.

At the dark of the moon in heavy fog, Aubrey puts Maturin ashore in France with the Catalan agent, Inigo Bernard. Apparently at the same time, two French ships slip through the blockading squadron in the sector that HMS ''Bellona'' patrols. The Admiral rebukes Aubrey, who accepts no blame, and returns ''Bellona'' to the offshore squadron. Aubrey receives a letter from Sophie, in which she accuses him of adultery and announces her intention of leaving him, having read letters sent him from Canada by Miss Amanda Smith. Aubrey is spoiling for a fight. During manoeuvres in foggy weather the ''Bellona'' spots a French privateer chasing a merchantman. She signals to the fleet, and proceeds to take ''Les Deux Frères'', which proves a rich prize, having captured two Guinea coast merchant ships. A storm batters the ''Bellona'', so Aubrey takes the ship for repair in Cawsand Bay. At Woolcombe, Aubrey asks Sophie for forgiveness, but she rebuffs him. Aubrey sends his tender ''Ringle'' to report ''Bellona's'' condition to the Admiral. The Admiral then sends ''Ringle'' to retrieve Maturin from France. Once ''Bellona'' is repaired, Aubrey rejoins the blockading squadron, learning that ''Ringle'' has taken Maturin to England. In London, Maturin tells Sir Joseph Blaine about a plot by a Spanish intelligence officer to burgle Blaine's house. With the assistance of Mr Pratt, they capture the Spanish agent red-handed. Maturin updates Sir Joseph on the readiness of Chile for independence. They devise a scheme for an expedition led by Aubrey on the ''Surprise''. The negative reports from Lord Stranrear with the war winding down put Aubrey in the position of being promoted to rear admiral without a squadron, known informally as being admiral of the yellow; as there is no yellow squadron, it is the worst career fate. Maturin learns his fortune is again available to him. In a gesture to his shipmates, Maturin buys new clothes.

Maturin goes to Woolcombe, where Diana tells him of the issue between Sophie and Jack. She and Clarissa have enlightened Sophie as to the possibility of enjoying sex, even suggesting that she have her own affair. Sophie writes a letter of reconciliation to her husband, which Maturin carries aboard. The letter leaves Aubrey joyous. Admiral Stranraer requests Maturin's medical advice; Maturin suggests use of medicines unfamiliar to the flagship's surgeon, to good effect. ''Bellona'' finds the inner squadron fighting two French ships of the line. Upon seeing the ''Bellona'' and ''Grampus'', the French ships retreat. For months, the ''Bellona'' sweeps the bay, blockading Brest. Maturin tells Aubrey of his plan for Chile, to which Aubrey agrees. ''Queen Charlotte'' comes to visit the inner squadron, with a stores ship to replenish food. The Admiral thanks Maturin for his treatment. The Admiral informs his captains of the progress in the war on land, where Napoleon is making errors and peace talks are underway but not yet successful.

The peace is announced; Napoleon is exiled to Elba. The crew of the ''Bellona'' are paid off and the ship goes into ordinary storage. Aubrey and Maturin read newspapers to learn world events while they were blockading Brest, and adjust to peace. They agree to a plan with three men from the Chilean independence movement. Aubrey requests suspension from the Navy List, and is put on loan to the hydrographic office. Maturin finances the fitting-out of the ''Surprise'', which takes until February 1815. They sail to Madeira with their families aboard. After a brief time on the island, their families will take the packet home. Unexpectecly, Lord Keith, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, sends orders to Aubrey reinstating him because Napoleon has escaped from Elba. Aubrey takes command of the Royal Navy ships in the harbour of Madeira to blockade the Straits of Gibraltar.

Jack Aubrey wins the ''Ringle'', a Baltimore Clipper, from his friend Captain Dundas, as the ''Surprise'' accompanies HMS ''Berenice'' back to England, after a stop on Ascension Island for repairs to the ''Surprise''. Maturin meets with Sir Joseph Blaine, while Aubrey heads home to his family. When Maturin does reach home with Sarah and Emily, he finds his young daughter Brigid in the care of Clarissa Oakes, now widowed. He searches for his wife, finds only some of her horses. Their daughter is developing slowly as to language and social skills. When Maturin meets Sir Joseph at their club, he learns that the Duke of Habachtsthal, the third conspirator in the Ledward-Wray conspiracy, is aiming at both of them. The Duke's influence has delayed the pardons of both Clarissa and Padeen, and all are at risk. To secure his fortune and his family, Maturin asks Aubrey for the ''Ringle'' to move his cash to Corunna and to carry Clarissa, Padeen and Brigid to live at the Benedictine house in Ávila, Spain, for safety. Brigid takes to Padeen, and is speaking in Irish and English aboard the ''Ringle''. Blaine and Maturin separately hire Mr Pratt, to gather information on the Duke and to find Diana.

Aubrey gets orders to command a squadron of ships, a position which earns him promotion to commodore. The mission to disrupt the African slave trade, which is illegal under British law since 1807, is bruited in the English newspapers to be sure the French know of it. The second, secret mission of the squadron is to intercept a French squadron aimed at Ireland, hoping for better success than in 1796-97. Two of the ships in the squadron have captains not up to Aubrey's standards: Duff in HMS ''Stately'' disrupts discipline, while Thomas of HMS ''Thames'' is not ready for battle. Tom Pullings is the full captain of the flagship HMS ''Bellona'', where Aubrey stays and Maturin is surgeon. The ''Ringle'' meets the squadron at the Berlings off Peniche peninsula. The squadron sails to Freetown to begin the first mission, practising gunnery and other naval skills en route. Aubrey is in a bad mood, felt throughout the ships, until Maturin tells him that Pastor Hinksey is to be married and set up in India; jealousy had gnawed at him. Aubrey devises a scheme using the smaller vessels in the squadron to surprise each slave port up to the Bight of Benin. This successfully disrupts the slave trade, and saves over 6,000 slaves. Aubrey ends short of Whydah, as news of the squadron's success empties that harbour. They take eighteen slaving ships as prizes, first taking the ''Nancy'', and using the empty ship for target practice to good effect in Freetown. The success is not without loss of men to disease and attack. Maturin survives a bout of yellow fever contracted while botanizing on Philip's Island with Mr Square. As he recuperates, they stop at St Thomas island for medical supplies; two officers (one from ''Stately'', one from ''Thames'') step ashore for a duel by guns, each fatally wounded, resolving nothing. They reach Freetown again, now in the Harmattan, which is the dry season. The British colonial governor's wife invites Maturin to dinner; he is friends with her brother and both are esteemed naturalists. Maturin leaves the potto he had aboard in her care.

Aubrey hastens to meet the French squadron, commanded by the wily Commodore Esprit-Tranquille Maistral, waiting south and east of the point the French are expected to meet the ''Caesar'' arriving from America. ''Caesar'' fails to arrive, so they proceed northeast to Ireland. The ''Bellona'' attacks the French pennant-ship, while the ''Thames'' and ''Stately'' attack the other French two-decker ship. The first strikes on a rocky shelf and surrenders; the second badly mauls the ''Stately'' and flees eastwards. ''Thames'' is stuck in a reef. HMS ''Royal Oak'' and ''Warwick'' handle the four French troop carriers and one frigate, which are penned in a cove. They join the scene of battle, having heard the gunfire. ''Bellona'' is taking water and Aubrey is glad for the help. The other French frigate slips away. Ashore, Maturin speaks to the Irishmen who want the guns aboard the foundered ship. He and Father Boyle persuade them this is not the moment, as anyone found with the French guns by the British will be hanged. After tending the wounded, Maturin learns from his friend Roche that the flags are at half-staff on account of the death of a minor royal, the Duke of Habachtsthal, who has committed suicide. Maturin, pleased at the news, proceeds to the home of Colonel Villiers, a relative of Diana's late husband with whom she is now staying, where he and Diana are happily reunited.

The ''Surprise'', with bow guns blazing, is in close pursuit of the American privateer ''Franklin'' in the wine-dark waters of the South Pacific. The chase is interrupted by a submarine volcanic eruption that completely disables the ''Franklin'', with lesser damages to the ''Surprise''. At sunrise, Aubrey sends Reade to take the ''Franklin''; Maturin and Martin separate the dead from wounded aboard the prize. Jean Dutourd, the owner, is taken aboard ''Surprise''. A wealthy philanthropist, his plan to colonise a South Pacific island, Moahu, was stopped by the appearance of the ''Surprise'', and her support for the successful queen of Moahu in a battle for supremacy on the island. The ''Franklin'' took prizes of British ships en route to Moahu, proved by ransomers aboard, seamen taken as security, along with cargoes taken. The American sailing master is dead, killed by shots from the ''Surprise''. Aubrey finds that Dutourd does not have a letter of marque permitting him to operate the ''Franklin'' as a privateer; the sailing master did, but Dutourd is not listed on his muster. Aubrey views Dutourd as a pirate, while Maturin considers him a risk ashore to his mission. Aboard ship, his utopian talk appeals to some of the seamen. They take an American whaler as prize. A British sailor on the whaler tells Aubrey of the ''Alastor'', a privateer turned true pirate, flying the black flag and demanding immediate surrender or death of its victims. In their ultimately successful encounter with the ''Alastor'', Aubrey receives severe wounds to his eye and his leg.

The ships reach Callao, the port for Lima. Maturin's mission begins now, done under cover of ''Surprise'' not being a Royal Navy ship, but perceived as a privateer, and she is again in this port with Pullings as her captain, with many prizes in tow. Maturin's goal is to assist the movement for independence of Peru from Spain, with aid from English gold as needed. Father Sam Panda is assigned here, and he proves a useful contact in Maturin's work. Another of Maturin's tasks ashore is to find suitable care for his longtime assistant, Nathaniel Martin, who is too ill for his work at sea. Maturin sees his old friend Dr Geary, surgeon of ''The Three Graces'' merchantman, who offers to take Martin home. Martin mistook salt sores (from a period of low fresh water aboard) to be the pox, treating himself with harsh medicines, which in turn made him truly ill. As the hospital in Callao is inadequate, Maturin yields up his patient to Geary.

Maturin meets with Gayongos, revolutionary sympathiser, and departs on a mule into the mountains, to meet with Father Don Jaime O'Higgins. The plan is agreed and will be set in motion in a couple of days. Gayongos reports at the Benedictine monastery that Dutourd is in Lima; Maturin says, let the Inquisition have him. Maturin sends a message to Pullings that he is gone botanizing in the mountains. He meets Eduardo, knowledgeable Inca guide, and the two trek in the higher altitudes. Eduardo receives a message from Gayongos that the revolution has failed before it began. Maturin must flee by land to Chile. Dutourd is arrested as a heretic, but the damage is done. When Aubrey discovers that Dutourd escaped, he sails in a cutter with a few crewmen to Callao to retake Dutourd or to warn Maturin. After many days of hard sailing against the wind, they reach the harbour and are taken aboard the ''Surprise'' by Captain Pullings barely alive. Aubrey welcomes Sam Panda who updates him on the political situation and the plan to meet with Maturin. Trekking over the Andes Mountains with llamas, Maturin and Eduardo are caught in a ''viento blanco'' (blizzard), their lives saved by the shelter Eduardo found, though Maturin loses some toes to frostbite.

Maturin makes his way to Arica with help from Eduardo, and then takes ship to Valparaíso, where Aubrey picks up Maturin and his collections. Maturin informs him of three American China ships sailing from Boston. The ''Surprise'' sails to intercept them off Cape Horn but, as she prepares to engage them, is herself fired upon by a thirty-eight gun US frigate and her brig. After a very close encounter with an ice island, the ''Surprise'' is again chased until her pursuer sails into a dead end in the ice field. The ''Surprise'' sails out, losing her main mast and rudder to a lightning strike. The crew of the jury-rigged ''Surprise'' spot a ship hull-down on the horizon. The ship, recognized by Maturin as having two rows of cannon, is HMS ''Berenice'' under Captain Heneage Dundas, accompanied by her tender, and carries Aubrey's much younger half-brother Philip. Dundas has provisions to repair the ship and pepper for Maturin to preserve his specimens from moths. Dundas has precious news from home, as he visited Ashgrove Cottage before he sailed, seeing Sophia and their children, but not Diana, only her horses. He met Clarissa Oakes there, who is now a widow. Aubrey and Maturin are happily homeward bound.

''Surprise'' sails eastbound from Port Jackson in New South Wales. Jack Aubrey is in an ill-humour as a result of the frigate's visit to the abysmal penal settlement – firstly, because Stephen Maturin's duel with an army officer antagonized the local administration until the governor returned, and secondly because Padeen Colman, Maturin's servant and an absconder, was rescued against Aubrey's wishes. Aubrey observes ribaldry amongst his crew and remains puzzled until he and Pullings find a young female convict, Clarissa Harvill, during the ship's inspection. She was smuggled aboard in Sydney Cove by Midshipman Oakes. Aubrey is at first determined to leave them both on Norfolk Island, but lets them stay aboard until they reach a safer port.

''Surprise'' spots a cutter, . Aubrey suspects the cutter seeks the runaways. He agrees that Harvill and Oakes may marry on board. Aubrey gives some fine red silk he bought for Sophie to be used for a wedding dress for Clarissa, who wears midshipman's clothes. Martin conducts the ceremony, while Bonden hides Padeen. The cutter bears dispatches for Aubrey and mail for the ship, and a captain whose father was surgeon on ''Surprise'', eager to see her. The mail brings many letters from Sophia and from Diana. Aubrey sees Maturin's happiness that his daughter was born, while Sophia writes him that the infant has development troubles, a secret to keep from Maturin. The governor orders Aubrey to settle a local dispute on Moahu, a nominally British island to the south of the Sandwich Islands. The gun room feasts the newlyweds. Despite the delicious swordfish speared by Davies (after it pierced the ship), good conversation is impaired by the level of animosity existing amongst the gun room members, most visibly West and Davidge. The cause is jealousy over Clarissa, who has had sexual liaisons with several of the ship's officers. This ill-will spreads to the crew, who divide in pro-and anti-Clarissa factions. In the blue water sailing, Maturin befriends Clarissa Oakes.

The ship spots a British whaler at the island of Annamooka in Tonga. Wainright, captain of ''Daisy'', tells Aubrey about the situation on Moahu. There is a war between Kalahua in the north and Puolani in the south, with the northern chief being supported by the armed privateer ''Franklin'', sailing under the American flag, owned by Jean Dutourd of Louisiana, and Britain is at war with America. The privateer has captured ''Truelove'', a British whaler. While the crew provisions ''Surprise'', Clarissa, who has received a black eye from Oakes, confesses to Maturin on their botanizing walk together about her being sexually abused as a young girl and later working as a bookkeeper and occasional prostitute at a brothel in Piccadilly. These experiences formed her sexual outlook, indifference to something that gives no pleasure. Maturin explains the jealousy of men to her. When she mentions that she saw an aristocratic acquaintance of the late turncoats Ledward and Wray at the brothel, Maturin realises that he is the highly placed traitor long sought by Sir Joseph Blaine and Maturin. He sends a coded letter to Blaine via Wainwright.

Aubrey drives his frigate's crew hard on the trip to Moahu due to their poor showing at Annamooka. On reaching Moahu, they meet ''Truelove'', now their prize, and a column is sent to intercept the fleeing French. The skirmish is won but Davidge and others are killed, with no survivors among the French. ''Surprise'' then sails to the south of the island to defend Queen Puolani against the main body of French and Kalahua's tribesmen, as she agrees to accept the protection of King George III. Aubrey sets up carronades in a cleft and there is a terrific slaughter of the enemy the following day. That night, after a great feast, Aubrey welcomes the queen to his bed. ''Truelove'' departs, commanded by Oakes, with Clarissa on board bearing a copy of the letter to Blaine with her. Aubrey gives funds to Oakes, while Maturin gives funds to Clarissa, separately, for their passage to England. ''Franklin'' appears but sails away immediately, with ''Surprise'' giving chase.

Hsu Ying Fung quickly makes it known (with some help) that he possesses the "Eight Steps of the Snake and Crane", a martial arts manual illustrating the ultimate fighting style. The book was written by eight Shaolin masters shortly before their disappearance, and Hsu is suspected of killing them, or at least knowing what happened. In reality, Hsu is looking for the man responsible for the masters' disappearance, whom he will know by a certain mark.

After several fights, and encounters with the leaders of many fighting clans (all of whom want the book and are willing to offer a variety of things for it), Hsu is betrayed, hurt, and eventually captured. He escapes with an unlikely ally in tow, while the rest of the clan leaders, having put aside their differences, search high and low for him. Eventually Hsu finds the man with the mark, the other clan leaders learn the fate of the Shaolin masters, and in an epic fight involving the Snake and Crane style, Hsu defeats the villain.

The book's plot details three narratives which take place between November 1907 and late May 1908 in John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek, Michigan sanitarium. The first thread concerns Will and Eleanor Lightbody. Eleanor, a fan of Dr. Kellogg, drags Will to Kellogg's sanitarium. Will has recently suffered stomach pains and is still recovering from bouts of alcohol and drug addiction—the latter at the hands of his wife. Eleanor suffered a brutal miscarriage, which has left her physically weak. Hoping to improve his marriage, Will goes along but is constantly filled with doubts about Kellogg's health methods. While he takes part in the therapy, he gags at health food, does not enjoy the laughing therapy, and watches as his friend Homer Praetz is electrocuted during a sinusoidal bath. Meanwhile, his wife Eleanor finds too much enjoyment at the sanitarium, especially at the hands of Dr. Spitzvogel, a doctor who practices ''Die Handhabung Therapeutik''—or in common parlance, erotic massage.

Charlie Ossining, a peripatetic merchant attempts to market a new type of cereal, ''Per-Fo'', with a partner Bender, whose slick and untrustworthy behavior disarms him. They join forces with George Kellogg, adopted son of John Harvey Kellogg, who has had a falling out with his father and seeks revenge. George agrees to use his name on ''Per-Fo'' in the hopes the cereal will be bought out by the Kellogg's Company.

John Harvey Kellogg, a doctor fond of health food and what would now be called alternative medicine, inserts himself into the life of each character, whether as health guru to Eleanor, competitor to Charlie and Bender, or torturer of Will. His attempts at untested health cures, such as radium treatments, are comically tragic. As the sanitarium unravels, and son George becomes increasingly angry, father and "master of all" John must assert his control and keep his institution afloat.

British MI6 agent James Bond works alongside French Intelligence operative Dominique Paradis to prevent the use of a stolen nuclear weapon within the city of Paris by a terrorist group during New Year's Eve. The pair manage to thwart the terrorists and prevent the device from being detonated before Bond and Dominique spend the evening celebrating the new year. Shortly after returning, Bond's boss M reveals news that a missile guidance chip, intended for the Space Defense Platform (SDP) - a new militarised space station built by the United States - has been stolen. MI6 suspects the theft is linked to Phoenix International, a company owned by industrialist Raphael Drake - and that the head of Drake's Asian division, Alexander Mayhew, is due to bring the chip to him during a party at his castle in Austria.

M sends Bond to recover the chip during the exchange and investigate Drake's motive for its acquisition. Infiltrating the party, Bond meets with CIA agent Zoe Nightshade, his contact sent to assist in the chip's recovery, but is surprised to find Dominique within the castle, learning that she is working undercover as Drake's mistress. After reaching the meeting room where Drake and Mayhew intend to meet, Bond overhears the men discussing a project codenamed "Nightfire" before discovering that Zoe had been captured. Bond recovers the chip before going after and rescuing Zoe, whereupon the pair make their way down the mountain for a rendezvous with Q, dealing with Drake's men and his Head of Security, Armitage Rook. Following the incident, Mayhew contacts MI6 to offer information on Drake's operations in exchange for protection.

Bond is sent to Japan to extract Mayhew at his Japanese estate, but shortly after being introduced to his bodyguard Kiko, Drake's men attack the building. While Mayhew is killed, Bond finds important information that leads him to Phoenix's Tokyo offices and a nuclear power plant being decommissioned. After gathering evidence, Kiko turns on Bond and brings him to Drake, who exposes Dominique as a spy for helping Bond escape his security teams and has her executed. Before he is killed himself, Bond breaks free and escapes to the ground floor, where he is rescued by Australian Intelligence agent Alura McCall. Upon leaving Tokyo, Bond finds himself sent to an island in the South Pacific alongside Alura, learning that Drake owns it and is using a jamming signal to conceal what he has stationed there.

Sent ahead of a joint taskforce of UN, EU and NATO forces, Bond and Alura deal with the island's defences, while eliminating Rook and Kiko. Discovering that Drake built a launch facility on the island, Bond determines that he plans to capture the SDP and use its weapons to dominate the world. While Alura remains behind, Bond pursues after Drake in one of his space shuttles. Reaching the station, he proceeds to sabotage it so that it destroys itself, before killing Drake as it begins to break apart. Bond swiftly escapes in an escape pod moments before the station is destroyed and returns to the planet. Upon his return, Bond reunites with Alura and spends a romantic evening to celebrate another successful mission.

A charming bittersweet narrative unfolds from director Andrzej Jakimowski. This is the story of siblings Stefek, 6, and Elka, 18, along with Elka's car mechanic boyfriend Jerzy during one sun-drenched summer. The siblings live with their shopkeeper mother. Their father has left their mother for another woman, unaware of Stefek's existence. After a chance encounter at the local railway station, and despite a denial by his sister that this was his father, Stefek decides to challenge fate to engineer another meeting. He believes that the chain of events he sets in motion will help him get closer to his father who abandoned his mother. His sister Elka teaches him how to bribe fate with small sacrifices. Tricks played, coupled with a number of coincidences eventually bring the father to the mother's shop but the long-awaited re-union does not immediately materialise as expected. As a last chance Stefak tries his good luck with the most risky of his tricks.

The series begins about 6 years after the death of the family patriarch, Thomas Barkley. Although he is never shown in the series (other than a painting and a statue), the character of Thomas Barkley is referred to as a major plot point many times. The character of Heath Barkley is introduced in episode one as the illegitimate son of Tom Barkley. His presence and claim to the Barkley name is the focus of many of the dramatic plots in season one. While the successful and rich are often portrayed in present day as the unscrupulous villains, the Barkley family is portrayed as upstanding citizens of Stockton, models of justice and fairness, often going against popular sentiment to uphold the rights of the underdog.

The character of Jaime Sommers first appears in a 1975 two-part episode of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' titled "The Bionic Woman." In the first episode, Steve travels to his hometown of Ojai, California, to buy a ranch that is for sale and to visit his mother and stepfather, Helen and Jim Elgin. During his visit, he rekindles his relationship with high school sweetheart Jaime Sommers, now one of America's top 5 tennis players.

While she is on a skydiving date, Jaime's parachute malfunctions and she plummets to the ground, falling through tree branches, hitting the ground and suffering traumatic injuries to her head, legs, and right arm. Steve then makes an emotional plea to his boss, Oscar Goldman, to save Jaime's life by making her bionic, when Oscar balks, Steve commits Jaime to becoming an operative of the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI). Goldman ultimately gives in and assigns Dr. Rudy Wells (played at this point in the series by Alan Oppenheimer) and the bionics team to rebuild her.

Jaime's body is reconstructed with parts similar to Steve's, but later Oscar jokes that hers cost less than Austin's six million because her parts were "smaller" (in Germany the show was called ''Die Sieben Millionen Dollar Frau'', which translates as ''The Seven Million Dollar Woman''). Like Austin, her right arm and both her legs are bionic, but instead of a bionic eye she has a bionic ear. Jaime's legs are capable of propelling her at speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour (having been clocked at more than 62 mph in "Doomsday Is Tomorrow" and outpacing a race car going 100 mph in "Winning is Everything") and jumping to and from great heights. Her right arm is capable of bending steel or throwing objects great distances. Her right ear gives her amplified hearing such that she can detect most sounds regardless of volume or frequency. These bionic implants cannot be distinguished from natural body parts, except on occasions where they sustain damage and the mechanisms beneath the skin become exposed, as seen in Part 2 of the episode "Doomsday Is Tomorrow", when Jaime sustained damage to her right leg. Jaime discovers on vacation in the Bahamas her artificial bionic skin cannot suntan with exposure to sunlight.

After Jaime recovers from her operation, Steve tries to break his agreement with Oscar that she will serve as an agent for OSI. Jaime agrees to undertake a mission for Oscar despite Steve's concerns. During the mission her bionics malfunction, and she experiences severe and crippling headaches. Dr. Wells determines that Jaime's body is rejecting her bionic implants and a massive cerebral clot is causing her headaches and malfunctions. Soon after, Jaime goes berserk and forces her way out of the hospital. Steve pursues and catches her, and she collapses in his arms. Soon after, Jaime dies on the operating table when her body shuts down.

The character was so popular that ABC asked the writers to find a way to bring her back. In the first episode of the next season, it is revealed that Jaime had not died after all, but Steve was not told. He soon discovers the truth when he is hospitalized after suffering severe damage to his bionic legs; he sees Jaime before slipping into a coma.

As Steve later learns, Wells' assistant, Dr. Michael Marchetti, urged Rudy (now played by Martin E. Brooks) to try his newly developed cryogenic techniques to keep Jaime in suspended animation until the cerebral clot could be safely removed, after which she was successfully revived. A side effect of the procedure causes Jaime to develop retrograde amnesia, preventing her from recalling previous events including her relationship with Steve. Any attempt to remember causes her headaches and pain. Realizing that he is the primary trigger for her painful memories, Steve reluctantly asks Oscar to transfer Jaime to another medical facility away from him. There, she undergoes a successful surgery to restore her memory — she remembers everything except her love for Steve and the skydiving accident that led to her bionics. When they meet again, she tells Steve that they can start again with friendship and that it can be a whole new beginning for them. Steve agrees.

Jaime retires as a tennis player and takes a job as a schoolteacher at an Air Force base in Ojai, California. She lives in an apartment over a barn located on the ranch owned by Steve's mother and stepfather, both of whom are aware of Steve and Jaime's bionic implants and their lives as secret agents. Season three opened with the two-part episode "The Bionic Dog", in which Jaime discovers Max (short for Maximillion), a German Shepherd dog that has been given a bionic jaw and legs and can run at speeds up to 90 mph. His bionics pre-date Steve's and Jamie's, as he was a lab animal used to test early bionic prosthetics. He was named "Maximillion" because his bionics cost "a million" dollars. When he was introduced, he experienced symptoms suggesting bionic rejection and was due to be put to sleep. Jaime discovered the condition was psychological, stemming from a traumatic lab fire that injured him when he was a puppy. With Jaime's help, Max was cured and went to live with her, proving himself to be of considerable help in some of her adventures. The original intent was to create a spin-off series featuring The Bionic Dog, and at the end of the two-part episode that introduced him, it was implied Max would stay with Jaime's forest ranger friend Roger Grette in the Sierra Mountains and Jaime would visit occasionally. However, the network rejected the proposed spin-off series and Max stayed with Jaime instead, making several appearances throughout the third season of ''The Bionic Woman''.

''Boston Legal'' follows the exploits of former ''Practice'' character Alan Shore, and his passionate co-workers, at the fictional offices of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. The high-end litigation firm, based in Boston, handles both civil and criminal law cases.

The series plays on the chemistry between smarmy Shore and loose cannon Denny Crane. Middle-aged Shore is wry and wily, while mid-70s Crane (suffering from early dementia) is flamboyant and eccentric. Shore often uses questionable methods to win cases. Crane is obsessed with the reputation of his name, which he frequently repeats. Political opposites, Shore and Crane are best friends. Episodes more often than not end with the two relaxing and musing together on the firm's balcony (while they smoke cigars and sip scotch whisky).

Batfink is a bat superhero with metal wings. With the help of his aide, Karate, he fights crime in his city, usually against his recurring villain, Hugo A-Go-Go.

Cliffhangers

Many episodes end with Batfink in a dangerous situation; typically, this is effected by trapping him in some sort of bondage, placing him in a position that renders his wings useless. At the moment the potentially fatal shot is fired, the action freezes, and the narrator asks dramatically if Batfink will survive. The action then continues, with Batfink escaping, via a convenient, but previously unseen deus ex machina, or through the use of his superpowers.

Ichigo Kurosaki is a teenager from Karakura Town who can see ghosts, a talent which lets him meet supernatural trespasser Rukia Kuchiki, who enters the town in search of a Hollow, a kind of monstrous lost soul who can harm both ghosts and humans. Rukia is one of the , soldiers trusted with ushering the souls of the dead from the World of the Living to the —the afterlife realm from which she originates—and with fighting Hollows. When she is severely wounded defending Ichigo from a Hollow she is pursuing, Rukia transfers her powers to Ichigo so that he may fight in her stead while she recovers her strength. Rukia is thereby trapped in an ordinary human body, and must advise Ichigo as he balances the demands of his substitute Soul Reaper duties and attending high school. For aid in hunting the Hollows, the pair ally with a trio of other spiritually empowered allies: Ichigo's high school classmate Orihime Inoue, best friend Yasutora "Chad" Sado and the Quincy—humans who have the ability to control spirit particles—Uryū Ishida.

Eventually, Rukia is arrested by her Soul Reaper superiors and sentenced to death for the illegal act of transferring her powers into a human. Ichigo and his friends enlist the help of ex-Soul Reaper scientist Kisuke Urahara, who allows Ichigo to access his own Soul Reaper powers, to enter Soul Society and rescue Rukia. Shortly after the party's arrival in the Soul Society, conflict arises among the captains of the 13 Court Squads when the captain of the fifth company, Sōsuke Aizen, is apparently murdered; the captains believed that the intruders might have been responsible, which causes the Soul Reapers to begin fighting amongst themselves. Thereafter the Captain Commander Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto issues a wide spread search for Ichigo and his friends as being responsible for killing Aizen. However, as Ichigo rescues Rukia, and the Soul Society is on the verge of civil war, Aizen reappears and reveals his intention to obtain the . an orb of immense power Kisuke planted in Rukia's human vessel by faking his death and arranging the execution. Aizen is accompanied by his fellow conspirators, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen, who are the third and ninth company's captains, as they use Hollows to cover their escape into the Hollows' realm, . Afterwards, Ichigo and Rukia reconcile with the Soul Reapers, who view the former as a powerful ally and designate him as an official substitute Soul Reaper.

Ichigo soon finds himself and his friends in escalating skirmishes with Aizen's army of humanoid Hollows, the Arrancar, as they are joined by the Vizards. Soul Reapers who were victims of Aizen's experiments in creating Soul Reaper/Hollow hybrids. When Ulquiora, one of the Espada (Aizen's 10 most powerful Arrancars) kidnaps Orihime, Ichigo and his allies enter Hueco Mundo to invade Los Noches, Aizen's palace. However, as Ichigo rescues Orihime, Aizen reveals her abduction was a distraction as he launches an attack on Karakura Town, in order to sacrifice the souls of the living and create a key to the Soul King's Palace, so he can kill the Soul King who reigns over the Soul Society. Already anticipating Aizen's attack, the 13 Court Squads had already been waiting for him by moving the entire Karakura Town to the Soul Society prior to his attack. When the Vizards join the remaining Soul Reapers to face their mutual enemy, Gin reveals his agenda of killing Aizen. However, the latter then uses the Hōgyoku to become a Hollow-like being and overpower everyone. Ichigo ultimately succeeds in subduing Aizen at the cost of his powers and reverts to a normal human.

Months later, preparing for life after high school, Ichigo is called back into action when Xcution, a gang of Fullbringers—supernaturally aware humans like Chad—manipulate him and his loved ones in a scheme to siphon his Fullbring abilities. After his Soul Society allies restore his Soul Reaper powers, Ichigo learns that Xcution's leader, Kugo Ginjo, was his predecessor. It is revealed that the Soul Society did not trust the substitute Soul Reapers, so they used the Substitute Soul Reaper Badge given to the Substitute Soul Reaper to monitor and restrict his power output. Ginjo felt betrayed and swore vengeance to all Soul Reapers. Despite knowing the truth, Ichigo decides to trust his Soul Reaper friends and defeats Ginjo. With his power return, Ichigo once again is reinstated as a Substitute Soul Reaper.

After Ichigo regained his powers, an army of Quincies known as the appear and declare war against the Soul Society, having already enslaved many Arrancars in Hueco Mundo. The group is led by Yhwach, the ancient progenitor of the Quincies, who seeks to kill the Soul King and rid the world of death and fear. In their first invasion, the Wandenreich kill many Soul Reapers including Yamamoto. Uryū joins the Wandenreich as a means to get close to Yhwach, who is responsible for the death of his mother among other Quincies. Later on, Ichigo and his friends aid the Soul Society in fighting the Wandenreich's second invasion, but Yhwach proceeds to slay the Soul King and fully absorb it. In the final battle, Yhwach returns to the Soul Society to conquer it, but Ichigo defeats him and saves Uryū.

Ten years later, Rukia becomes the new captain of the thirteenth company and has a daughter, an apprentice Soul Reaper named Ichika, with her childhood friend Renji Abarai. Meanwhile, Ichigo and Orihime have a son named Kazui, who is also a Soul Reaper. Two years later, Ichigo is invited to a Soul Funeral Ceremony for the late Ukitake. While the Captains are waiting in the Soul Society to perform the ritual, Ichigo joins the Lieutenants at Karakura Town to capture Hollows that will be used as sacrifice. They are suddenly ambushed by the Beasts of Hell, led by the late Octava Espada. Even though the Lieutenants managed to easily suppress them, it is revealed that the Soul Funeral Ceremony is a process of sending dead Captain-level Soul Reapers to Hell.

The series is set in Edoropolis (a portmanteau of "Edo" and "metropolis"), a mechanical city that fuses feudal Japanese culture with contemporary culture populated by cybernetic anthropomorphic "animaloids" (or animal androids). The city is notionally led by ''shōgun'' Iei-Iei Tokugawa, but as he is a doddering eccentric, the actual leadership is in the hands of his neurotic daughter Tokugawa Usako and a council. The council is headed by the ambitious prime minister Kitsunezuka Koon-no-Kami, a fox who constantly plots to overthrow the Shogun with the help of his trusted advisor Karasu Gennari-sai, and Karamaru, the leader of an army of ninja crows.

Unknown to the prime minister, council member Inuyama Wanko-no-Kami, the commander of the Palace Guard, learns of his designs on leadership, but is unable to prosecute him for treason because of his plausible deniability. Instead, Inuyama enlists the services of Yattarou, Pururun and Sukashii, cat ninjas who work in the city's pizzeria, with their operator Otama. Known collectively as the Nyankī (a play on the Japanese word for a cat's meow and the term "Yankee"), they are assigned to stop Koon-no-Kami and his evil henchmen's plans to take over Edoropolis.

The player controls a clan of Orlanthi (worshipers of the Storm God Orlanth) across several generations. Orlanthi clans bear some similarities to the Iron Age Nordic peoples, such as lawspeakers, fyrds, the worship of a thunder god and a reliance on raiding, as well as Bronze Age Celtic and Italic peoples aesthetically, with the appearance of many of the tribesmen reflecting these origins.

At the beginning of the game the clan has fled its home of Heortland after a foreign magician known as Belintar or 'the Pharaoh' usurps the throne. Along with dozens of other Orlanthi clans, the clan seeks to build a new home in Dragon Pass, a previously populated area left deserted after the Dragonkill War hundreds of years ago. With the Orlanthi clans variously feuding, allying, trading with and raiding each other, and a host of inhuman presences such as elves, dwarves and trolls, Dragon Pass is a free but dangerous frontier society compared to the tyrannical rule of the Pharaoh in Heortland. To the west, a persistent danger is the 'Horse-Spawn,' a society of nomadic mounted warriors.

As time passes by the clans form into 'tribes,' loose confederations of half a dozen clans. A prophet visits the player's clan to inform them of a great destiny. The player must guide the clan through seven heroquests (ritual re-enactments of feats of the gods) and successfully manage a number of events, including co-operating with other clans to build a town and making peace with the Horse-Spawn by marrying their queen (or, if the player's chieftain is female, their king). If the player is successful, the clan's chieftain unites the Orlanthi tribes and the Horse-Spawn into a kingdom, becoming King of Dragon Pass.

Gene Forrester returns to his old prep school, Devon (a potential reflection of Knowles's real life alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy), 15 years after he graduated, to visit two places he regards as "fearful sites:" a flight of marble stairs, and a big tree by the river. He first examines the stairs, noticing they are made of marble. When he examines the tree, he begins to reflect upon memories of his time as a student at Devon. This exposition opens the reader into the rest of the novel, which follows Gene's life from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943. In 1942, he is 16 and living at Devon with his best friend and roommate, Phineas (nicknamed Finny). World War II is raging and has a prominent effect on the story's plot and characters.

Despite being opposites in personality, Gene and Finny are surprisingly close friends. Gene's quiet, introverted, intellectual personality is a character foil for Finny's extroverted, carefree athleticism. One of Finny's ideas during their "gypsy summer" of 1942 is to create a "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session," with Gene and himself as charter members. Finny creates a rite of initiation by having members jump into the Devon River from a large tall tree.

Gene and Finny's friendship goes through a period of one-sided rivalry during which Gene strives to outdo Finny scholastically as he believes that Finny is trying to outdo him athletically. The rivalry begins with Gene's envy toward Finny. It climaxes and ends when as Finny and Gene are about to jump off the tree, Gene impulsively jostles the branch that they're on, causing Finny to fall and shatter his leg, which permanently cripples him. Because of his accident, Finny learns that he will never again be able to compete in sports, which are most dear to him.

Finny's "accident" inspires Gene to think more like his friend to become a better person, free of envy. The remainder of the story revolves around Gene's attempts to come to grips with who he is, why he shook the branch, and how he will proceed. Gene feels so guilty that he eventually tells Finny that he caused the fall. At first, Finny does not believe him, but then comes to feel extremely hurt.

World War II soon occupies the boys' time, with fellow student Brinker Hadley rallying the boys to help the war effort and Gene's quiet friend Leper Lepellier joining the Ski Troops and becoming severely traumatized by what he sees.

During a meeting of the Golden Fleece Debating Society, Brinker sets up a show trial of sorts and, based upon his shaking of the branch, accuses Gene of trying to kill Finny. Faced with the evidence, Finny leaves shamefully before Gene's deed is confirmed. On his way out, Finny falls down a flight of stairs, the same ones that Gene visited at the beginning of the novel, and again breaks the leg that he had shattered before. Finny at first dismisses Gene's attempts to apologize, but he soon realizes that the "accident" was impulsive and not premeditated or based on anger. The two forgive each other.

The next day, Finny dies during the operation to set the bone when bone marrow enters his bloodstream during the surgery.

After they graduate, Gene and Brinker enlist in the Navy and the Coast Guard. Gene observes that many people lash out at others to protect themselves from their own insecurities. The only person he knew who did not do that was Finny, the only person Gene knew to be truly honest, and the only person he knew never to have an internal war to fight. Back in the present, an older Gene muses on peace, war, and enemies.

Dr. John Carpenter is a physician in a ghetto clinic who falls for a co-worker, Michelle Gallagher, unaware that she is a nun.

Elvis stars as a professional man for the first and only time in his career. Dr. Carpenter heads a clinic serving an underprivileged community in a major metropolis with an ethnic Puerto Rican population. He is surprised to be offered assistance by three women. Unknown to him, the three are nuns in street clothing who want to aid the community but are afraid the local residents might be reluctant to seek help if their true identities were known. The nuns are also facing opposition from the rude and arrogant priest from the local parish. Dr. Carpenter and the nuns are shown dealing with a mute but angry autistic girl, a boy with a severe speech impediment, and a man beaten by loan shark enforcers. The nuns at times are sexually harassed by loiterers as well as an attempted rape scene .

Carpenter falls for Sister Michelle Gallagher, played by wholesome Mary Tyler Moore, but Sister Michelle's true vocation remains unknown to Dr. Carpenter. She also has feelings for the doctor but is reluctant to leave the order. The film concludes with Sister Michelle and Sister Irene entering a church where Dr. Carpenter is singing to pray for guidance to make her choice.

''Enterprise'' is en route to the Xindi Council. Under escort by Degra's ship, Captain Archer is briefed on the five member species of the Council. Other friendly Xindi ships soon join the escort. As they approach the planet, the flagship of Reptilian Commander Dolim intervenes. After a tense standoff, Dolim backs down. On the planet, Archer and Ensign Sato enter the Council chamber and present their evidence to the gathered representatives; Dolim, angered at the move, walks out in protest. A Guardian appears to him later, promising Reptilian dominance if he continues their original plan.

Meanwhile, a shuttlepod containing Sub-Commander T'Pol, Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Mayweather and MACO Corporal Hawkins, investigate a nearby sphere in order to try to collect more data on the Sphere Builders (who are now becoming increasingly concerned with the human threat). The shuttle enters a concealed exhaust vent, and reaching the core, the team retrieve a memory module. The intrusion activates an automated defense system, and Hawkins is killed helping the others escape.

Doctor Phlox and Commander Tucker create a holographic version of the Sphere Builder (from "Harbinger") which Archer presents to the Council. Many admit its resemblance to the Guardian race, a people who the Xindi both revere and worship. The Council votes to delay the weapon's launch, with even Dolim agreeing. That night, Dolim confronts and murders Degra as revenge for the destruction of a Reptilian ship. At the next meeting, Dolim openly admits the death (and Reptilian primacy) and the Reptilian and Insectoid members leave. They soon launch the superweapon, escorted by Dolim with his flagship. With both ''Enterprise'' and friendly Xindi vessels in pursuit, Dolim kidnaps Sato and disappears into a subspace vortex.

A village in Gaul is politically and physically divided by a deep ditch because of a leadership dispute between rival chiefs Cleverdix and Majestix. Efforts to overcome their differences, first through dialogue and then through battle, only widen the rift. Majestix's fishy advisor Codfix, suggests intervention by the local Roman garrison will enable Majestix to become the sole chief, in return for which, Codfix wants to marry his daughter, Melodrama. Majestix agrees to the plan, unaware that Codfix intends to overthrow him.

Melodrama reveals the plan to her lover, Histrionix, who is Cleverdix's son. He is sent to the village of Vitalstatistix, who assigns Asterix and Obelix, accompanied by Getafix, to prevent Roman intervention.

Codfix promises the local Roman centurion he can take Cleverdix's followers as slaves for the legionaries, but Majestix refuses to allow his opponents to be enslaved. Enraged, the centurion imprisons Majestix and his followers. Asterix, Obelix and Getafix infiltrate the Romans' camp with the intention of releasing the prisoners. At the camp entrance, Getafix inadvertently leaves behind a flask of elixir, which restores a subject to full health while erasing his memory of the injury necessitating it. Codfix secretly observes a demonstration of the elixir and then takes the flask.

Inside the camp, Getafix makes his usual magic potion in the guise of soup. When the suspicious centurion orders them to test it for poison, they give it to the prisoners, enabling them to defeat the Romans. Back at the village, Getafix makes more potion, and places it at a house spanning the ditch, with Asterix on watch. Codfix uses Getafix's elixir to cure the Romans and exploits their amnesia to claim the Gauls attacked the Romans unprovoked. That night, he returns to his village and seizes the potion, which (after having drunk it himself) he conveys to the Romans.

At the next day's battle, the mixture of the two potions causes the Romans to inflate like balloons and then shrink to minuscule size. Terrified by this transformation, they promise to leave the local Gauls in peace. Meanwhile, Codfix has kidnapped Melodrama for a ransom of 100 pounds of gold. Histrionix goes after him, accompanied by Asterix and Obelix.

Codfix, escaping via river with Melodrama, is captured by the series' recurrent pirates and offers them a share of the ransom. They are then attacked by the Gauls. Having consumed some magic potion, Histrionix duels Codfix, rendering the Pirates' ship once again a sunken wreck. Histrionix takes the upper hand and strikes Codfix for a literal mile into the Roman camp. At the village, the chieftains agree to a single combat fight but it eventually ends in a draw, whereupon Asterix, as referee, declares Histrionix chief instead. The villagers then divert the nearby river, filling the ditch, while Codfix is shown as the Romans' sole drudge. Histrionix and Melodrama are married, and Asterix, Obelix and Getafix return home.

In the 30th century, the Earth Empire is contracting and plans are being made to decolonise the colony world of Solos. The militaristic Marshal and other human soldiers, known as Overlords, rule it from Skybase One, an orbiting space station. The Marshal opposes the decolonisation plans outlined to him by an Administrator sent from Earth, and is also obsessed with eradicating the Mutants or "Mutts" that have sprung up on the planet below. The Solonians themselves are a tribal people, split between those who actively oppose the occupation, such as Ky, and those like Varan who collaborate with the imperialists. The Marshal and Varan ensure the Administrator is murdered before he can confirm to Ky and other tribal chiefs that the Earth Empire is indeed withdrawing from Solos.

The Third Doctor and Jo arrive on Skybase One, their TARDIS having been transported there by the Time Lords. They have with them a message box which will only open for an intended recipient – and that is not the Marshal or his entourage – but seems to be for Ky, who has been framed for the murder of the Administrator. Jo and Ky flee to the surface of Solos, which is poisonous to humans during daylight hours. This quickly affects Jo, but she survives with Ky's help. The Doctor learns from the Marshal and his chief scientist Jaeger that they are involved in an experiment using rocket barrages to terraform Solos, making the air breathable for humans, regardless of the cost to indigenous life.

Varan by now has discovered the Marshal's treachery but events make him an outlaw on Skybase. The Doctor makes contact and together they persuade Stubbs and Cotton, the most senior soldiers to the Marshal that much is wrong on Skybase. He then flees to Solos with Varan, and at the thaesium mine where Ky and Jo are hiding he encounters many Mutts, who are not as hostile as they first appeared. The Doctor passes the message box to Ky, and it opens to reveal ancient tablets and etchings which are written in the language of the Old Ones of the planet. Help in avoiding poisonous gas released by the Marshal is provided by a fugitive human scientist, Sondergaard, who lives in the caves and knows much about Solonian anthropology. Sondergaard explains he tried to inform Earth Control about the Marshal's evil, but he was prevented and forced to flee to the caves, where the radiation seems to have affected him. He interprets the contents of the box as a "lost Solos Book of Genesis", and the Doctor then calculates a Solonian year to be equivalent to two thousand human years, with natural changes in the population every five hundred years within the cycle. Investigating a more radioactive part of the caves, the Doctor thus deduces the Mutant phase is a natural part of the Solonian life-cycle.

Varan is by now becoming a Mutt himself. He hides this fact and leads a Solonian attack on the Skybase which results in his death and those of many of his warriors. On Skybase Jo, Ky, Stubbs and Cotton are captured by the Marshal, and Stubbs is killed in a failed escape attempt. The Doctor returns to the Skybase – without Sondergaard, who seems too weak following the radiation contamination. He returns to the caves to communicate with the Mutants and explain to them their change is natural and not to be feared.

The Doctor surmises the Marshal to be mad. It becomes clear that the Earth Government has now dispatched an Investigator to look into the strange events on Solos. The Marshal's rocket attacks have not terraformed the planet, but they have left a hideous environmental impact and he knows he must clean this up or face problems when the Investigator arrives. Under duress (the Marshal has taken Jo prisoner) the Doctor uses Jaeger's technology to conduct a rapid decontamination of the planet's surface. The Investigator arrives and demands answers, but is given more lies by the Marshal, supported by the Doctor. Luckily Jo, Ky and Cotton have escaped detention and arrive in time to help the Investigator see the truth of the situation on Solos and the crimes of the Marshal and Jaeger. The Doctor accuses them of "the most brutal and callous series of crimes against a defenceless people it's ever been my misfortune to encounter." Sondergaard now reaches the Skybase with some Mutants, one of whom scares the Investigator enough that he accepts the Marshal's recommendation that the creatures be killed.

Ky now begins a process of mutation, but it is accelerated beyond the Mutant phase so that he emerges as a radiant angel-like super-being. He communicates with thought transference, can float and can move through whole walls. Dispensing justice, Ky eradicates the Marshal. Jaeger has been killed too and the Investigator now makes sense of the situation. Sondergaard and Cotton elect to stay on Solos to see the other Solonians go through the mutation process, while Jo and the Doctor slip away, their mission from the Time Lords complete.

A disturbed young man, soured by two failed romantic relationships, has kidnapped a young woman (a complete stranger) and taken her to his home in the country. As the play opens, the woman is seated in a chair, bound and gagged, the man sitting opposite, observing her. The man explains to the woman his reasons for kidnapping her, saying he had long fantasized about doing such a thing to a young woman. He methodically strips his captive naked, presumably rapes her, then proceeds to subject her to an ongoing series of rants, ruminations and reflections on life and love as he seeks to force the woman to understand him – and, ultimately, to submit to him.

The Third Doctor has been wounded after being shot by the Master. Jo helps the Doctor into the TARDIS, where he sends a message to the Time Lords before he collapses then falls into a coma. Jo dictates into the TARDIS log that she has seen this healing state before (''The Dæmons''), and that the TARDIS is moving, being controlled remotely by the Time Lords. When the TARDIS comes to a stop, Jo activates the external scanners to see some plants outside block the viewer by spraying a thick sap-like liquid at it. With the Doctor still catatonic, Jo leaves the ship to explore the surrounding jungle. The plants spray sap on her as she walks by, and a bit of it gets on her hand.

As Jo explores, the TARDIS is rapidly covered by plant sap, which is hardening into a shell around it. When the Doctor awakens, he finds himself sealed in and the oxygen in the TARDIS rapidly being used up. Activating the emergency oxygen supply, he discovers the tanks almost empty, and starts to suffocate from lack of air. Jo discovers a spacecraft in the jungle with a dead pilot. Shortly after, three blonde haired humanoids enter the spacecraft, identifying themselves as Taron, Vaber and Codal. They offer help but are cautious as there is an apparent danger outside.

Taron and his men find the TARDIS and chip the hardened sap from its doors, then drag a nearly asphyxiated Doctor out. The Doctor thanks them and notes that he finds them familiar. When the men explain that they are from the planet Skaro, the Doctor recognises that they are Thals and tells them he was on Skaro many years ago with his three companions, Susan, Ian and Barbara (''The Daleks'').

Meanwhile, Jo has fallen unconscious as a result of the plant sap and is removed from the spacecraft by a Spiridon, an invisible apparently humanoid lifeform. Whilst en route to the Thal spacecraft the Doctor and the Thals encounter an apparently disabled Dalek that has the power of invisibility. After examining it they return to the Thal spacecraft to discover the Daleks have already found it. The Doctor, still believing that Jo is on board, reveals himself to the Daleks, only to be disabled and the spacecraft destroyed anyway.

The Doctor is taken to the Dalek base for interrogation and is put in the same cell as the recently captured Codal. The Doctor tries to use his sonic screwdriver to open the cell door, but to no avail. He and Codal then conceive of modifying the components of the TARDIS log to emit a radio frequency that will jam Dalek control impulses. Meanwhile, Jo is being cared for by the Spiridon who found her, Wester, who is one of a group of his people trying to fight back against the Daleks. He cures Jo of her fungal infection with a salve, and tells Jo that the Doctor and Codal have been captured and taken to the Dalek base. Jo is determined to try to free them, even though Wester says that if the Daleks use them for their experiments, they are better off dead.

Meanwhile, a Thal spacecraft crashes on the planet's surface, containing a small relief force sent to warn the first group that, rather than the small scientific expedition earlier intelligence had indicated, there are, in fact, close to 10,000 Daleks in the base. Among the survivors of the crash are Rebec and Latep; Taron is romantically involved with Rebec, and had gone to some lengths to keep her off the first expedition list.

Having escaped their cell by using the device on one of the Daleks, the Doctor and Codal encounter Rebec and Taron, who had been mounting a rescue operation, and they flee down the corridors with the Daleks pursuing them. They make their way to a refrigeration chamber and discover the hibernating Dalek army. With the Daleks cutting their way through the door into the chamber, the Doctor improvises a hot-air balloon and the group escape up a shaft to the surface. Codal and Rebec heave a boulder down the shaft, destroying a pursuing Dalek, and they narrowly avoid a second patrol sent from the surface. They reunite with Latep and Vaber, who is keen to attack the Daleks as soon as possible, while Taron urges caution.

Meanwhile, the Daleks have found a map dropped by one of the Thals showing the location of their explosive stash, and they send a patrol to detonate them. Jo, having tracked them there from the base, resets the denotation timers on two of the units, but is knocked out by falling rocks while resetting the third. She comes to as a second patrol arrives, and hides with the reset units as the third destroys the patrol. Jo eventually encounters the Thals—and the Doctor, who is overjoyed to learn she wasn't killed earlier—and has an instant connection with Latep. They go to the Plain of Stones, a local landmark, to plan their next move. Codal reasons that the refrigeration chamber must be necessary to whatever plans the Daleks have on Spiridon. The impulsive Vaber urges an assault on the Dalek base to destroy the refrigeration device and confronts Taron over his cautious approach. He backs down, but then leaves the group in the middle of the night, taking the explosives with him. When Taron tells him what Vaber plans to do, the Doctor realizes this will wake the Dalek army from its hibernation.

Back at the base, the Dalek Section Leader has developed a colony of bacteria which, when released, will wipe out all organic life on Spiridon. All that remains is to immunise the Daleks and the Spiridon slave workers from its effects. Wester arrives at the Thal camp and tells them about the bacteria. The group devises a plan to infiltrate the base by disguising themselves as Spiridons—easy enough to do, as the otherwise-invisible Spiridons wear purple furs that cover them from head to toe. However, they'll also need a Dalek shell for the necessary escort. Having obtained a couple of furs, Taron and Codal join a Dalek patrol. Vaber, meanwhile, has been captured by the Spiridons and delivered to the patrol for interrogation. Rather than reveal the location of the remaining Thals, Vaber makes a break for it and is gunned down by the Daleks. Taron and Codal then retrieve the captured explosives and return to camp. Jo and Latep then lure two Daleks into an ambush at a lake of molten ice; the shock of the lake temperature is enough to kill the Daleks, giving the group the last piece of the plan.

The Doctor has devised a two-pronged assault—he, Taron, and Codal will go in the front door in the Spiridon disguises, accompanied by Rebec in the Dalek shell, and try to find their way to the cooling chamber. Meanwhile, Joe and Latep will go in through the ice tunnels and attempt to rendezvous with them. Meanwhile, Wester enters the base on the pretext of sharing information on the whereabouts of the Thals, and is shown to the control room. There, he realizes the Daleks' preparations are incomplete, and opens the bacteria chamber, which kills him instantly. The control room goes into automatic lockdown, sealing two Daleks inside forever, and foiling their plans for the bacteria.

The Doctor's ruse is exposed when a Dalek spots Taron's feet under the Spiridon furs, and they pursue the group into the base. Finally, the Doctor and the Thals get away, making their way back to the cooling chamber. Once there, the Doctor asks Rebec and Taron to barricade the entrance while he finds a way to keep the Dalek army from reviving. He and Codal decide to set an explosive in the wall of the chamber containing the Dalek army, which is slowly coming to life. In the meantime, the Dalek Supreme, a member of the Dalek Supreme Council, has arrived in a spaceship, to oversee the final stages of the operation, and exterminates the Section Leader for its incompetence.

Jo and Latep arrive at the cooling chamber and use their bomb to destroy a squad of Daleks before joining the others. As another patrol comes through, the bomb set in the chamber wall explodes. Molten ice rushes out to flood the chamber, freezing the Dalek army. The group escapes over a ramp that leads to the surface while the rest of the Daleks abandon the base, which is filling with molten ice.

The group makes its way to the Dalek Supreme's spacecraft. The Doctor asks Taron not to glorify what has happened, nor make war sound like an adventure. The Thals were a peaceful people and he would not want that to change. Taron and Rebec promise and the Thals enter the spacecraft and leave for Skaro. The Doctor and Jo run back to the TARDIS, pursued by the Dalek Supreme and the other Daleks. They dematerialise just as the Daleks open fire. The Dalek Supreme orders operations to recover the invasion force and contact the Dalek High Council for a rescue ship.

In the initial episode, Hopkirk is murdered during an investigation but returns as a ghost. Randall is the only main character able to see or hear him, though certain minor characters are also able to do so in various circumstances throughout the series, such as mediums, drunks, or those under hypnosis.

Atrus calls the player to his home in Tomahna to request his friend's assistance. Atrus is the writer of special books, which serve as links to worlds known as Ages. Twenty years earlier, his two sons, Sirrus and Achenar, destroyed his library on Myst and trapped their parents in order to plunder the wealth of Atrus' Ages. The player's intervention saved Atrus, who had imprisoned his sons via traps intended for thieves. Atrus' wife Catherine hopes that, after twenty years, they have finally repented for their crimes. Atrus is not as sure his sons have reformed, and so wishes the player to act as an impartial judge. After being knocked unconscious by an explosion, the player realizes that Yeesha, Atrus' daughter, has disappeared.

The player sets out to find Yeesha, traveling to the prison Ages of Spire and Haven. On Spire, Sirrus has used his scientific knowledge to craft explosives, allowing him to breach the chamber that contained the linking book back to Tomahna, and has escaped; journeying to Haven reveals that Sirrus has also freed Achenar. The player journeys to the Age of Serenia and encounters Achenar, holding a "Life Stone"; Achenar tells the player that Sirrus is mad and has captured Yeesha, reveals that he kept a journal from twenty years earlier hidden on the island, and warns the player not to let Atrus come after them. Achenar's journal reveals that he and Sirrus planned to trap their mother Catherine on Riven and use a "Memory Chamber", a gigantic flower-like structure used to preserve the memories of the dead, to take control of Atrus' body and steal his knowledge of the Art of Writing. The Life Stone that Achenar stole is used to power the Memory Chambers, leaving the current one in danger of collapse. Shortly afterwards, the player finds Sirrus in an underwater harvester used for collecting memory globes for storing those memories; he blows up the harvester and flees to an older Memory Chamber, decrepit and abandoned. After encountering the player there, Sirrus tells the player that Achenar is the guilty one, and asks the player to find Atrus and bring him to Serenia to set things right.

Finding that the old Memory Chamber door has been locked by Sirrus with a special color-code combination, the player goes to the active Memory Chamber to seek aid from the Serenian Protectors, who believe that the answers can be found in their "mirror realm", known simply as Dream. Obtaining a "spirit guide", the player enters Dream and interacts with their guide, who tells them to interact with the Ancestors, the spirits of all Serenians who have died and had their memories preserved, to bring them into harmony. After bringing the Ancestors into harmony, the player discovers the combination to Sirrus' color-code lock. Returning to the "waking world" and entering the old Memory Chamber, the player finds Yeesha strapped into a chair, and she begs to be released from it with a silver lever. At that moment, Achenar arrives with a crossbow and the Life Stone, and warns that Sirrus used the Memory Chamber to remove Yeesha's memories and transfer his own into her body; Achenar points to an amber lever, which will reverse the mind-transfer.

At this point, as in the other games, the ending varies. Delaying too long will result in Yeesha (who is in fact Sirrus) taking Achenar's crossbow and shooting first him, then the player. The silver lever will release Yeesha (again, possessed by Sirrus), who kills Achenar and the player. In the good ending, the player pulls the amber lever, reversing the mind-transfer process. But because of the age of the Memory Chamber, it becomes unstable; Achenar tells the player to return to Dream and set Yeesha's memories right, while he uses the Life Stone to stabilize the chamber by inserting it into the chamber's shrine, poisoning him. In Dream, the player finds a monstrous creature, representing Sirrus' Dream-form, anchored to Yeesha's essence and preventing her from returning to her body; with no spirit guide, Sirrus is forced to cling to Yeesha to avoid being lost forever. He maintains his anchors by jumbling up Yeesha's memories. The player restores Yeesha's memories and frees her from Sirrus' grasp; Sirrus' Dream-form is destroyed by the shifting waves of Dream, killing him. The player awakens to find Achenar, fatally poisoned, confirming that the transfer was successful; he dies shortly afterward. The player returns to Tomahna to meet with Atrus, who says that Catherine has taken Yeesha to Tay (the "rebel Age" used to evacuate Catherine's people in ''Riven''), and remarks that while his sons are gone, his daughter is safe.

In the year 5002, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda have a son named Kal-AOL (a pun on Kal-El), whom they send back in time to the year 2002 to save him when they believe a meteor strike will destroy the Earth. Al attempts to become a superhero, despite his lack of superpowers, and becomes friends with a cab driver named Mickey and a police officer named Lucy. Although Al becomes rich and famous for capturing criminals, he is upset that crime is still rampant. In the year 5002, the world was not actually destroyed, and Ted Turner sends the time machine back to Al so he can come home. Instead, Al uses the time machine to travel to the dawn of creation and meet God, so he can determine the meaning of life and the nature of morality so he can be a proper hero.

At the dawn of time they meet a man named Jack, who is ambiguous as to if he is actually God or not. Jack takes them through the creation of life on Earth and then to the Jurassic period, and then to the evolution of the first human beings as nomadic hunter-gatherers led by Wolverine, the first human being. Along the way, Jack discusses with them the means behind which life evolved in this manner and why, among other philosophical concepts, and the characters come to the conclusion that God is responsible for engineering life and guiding its evolution. Jack explains he is showing them these events because World War III is going to happen, and he wants them to understand the nature of war so they can work to prevent it.

In the year 2002, Al pitches his story to the head of an unspecified comics company, framed as a recap of the events of the comic (though several things Al mentions did not occur in previous issues in the manner he claims). The unseen editor likes the story, but refuses to turn it into a comic because he believes it will not sell to mainstream audiences. Issue #6 ends with an open letter from Jemas discussing his experiences with publishing the comic and announcing the creation of a new Marvel imprint, Epic Comics; issue #7 does not actually contain any story content related to the events of ''Marville'' and is a submissions guideline book for creators on how to submit their work to Epic Comics.

The plot describes how political tension between the government of a politically united Earth (which maintains sovereignty over the Moon) and independent settlers and traders elsewhere in the Solar System who have formed a federation, erupts into warfare over the terms for the availability to the Federation of scarce heavy metals.

The trigger for hostilities is the publication of a research paper suggesting that the Moon may have previously unsuspected heavy metal resources which Earth proposes to monopolise. The Earth government's intelligence agency suspects that confidential information concerning the exploitation of these mineral riches may be being leaked to the Federation and presses an accountant, Bertram Sadler, into service. Sadler is sent to the Moon's main astronomical observatory located near the crater of Plato as a tip off has suggested that information is being routed through that location. Sadler's cover story is that he is carrying out an investigation of waste in government spending.

The rising political tension is accompanied by the observatory staff enjoying the good fortune of observing a nearby supernova explosion in the constellation of Draco.

Despite a relatively long preceding era of peace, Earth and the Federation each prepare technologically for war. The Federation develops a new method of spacedrive propulsion while Earth develops new shielding technology and a weapon which uses an electromagnet-propelled bayonet of liquid metal. (The weapon mistaken for a beam of light).

A climactic battle between three Federation cruisers and the fortified mining installation ("Project Thor") is played out near Mount Pico close to the lunar observatory. Two astronomers who have delivered a top Earth scientist to Pico with only a couple of hours to spare, witness the battle. Sadler, whose investigations have had no pay off except for the unmasking of an embezzling store manager, relinquishes his cover by going to debrief the two astronomers.

Of the three Federal cruisers, two are destroyed along with the mine in the battle. The third cruiser, named ''The Acheron'', is terminally damaged and retreats towards Mars, but has little chance of reaching it before her nuclear reactor explodes. However, her new drive gives her the capability of a rendezvous with a passenger liner, ''The Pegasus'', which is able to rescue all but one of the crew who have to make the 40 second crossing without space suits.

This inconclusive duel between mother planet and formerly dependent colonists, with each side suffering stiffer resistance than anticipated, discredits the governments on both sides. Sadler is able to return to civilian life but suffers nagging frustration that he never found out whether the spy that he was searching for existed or not. Many years later the commander of the ''Acheron'' writes his memoirs and reveals that information had reached the Federation from "One of Earth's most distinguished astronomers, now living in honoured retirement on the Moon". With this hint, Sadler is able to confirm the spy's identity as Robert Molton, the first one of the observatory staff to greet him on his way to the observatory. The novel concludes with Molton enlightening Sadler and the reader as to the ''brilliant technical subterfuge'' with which he transmitted information, namely that he used the observatory's main telescope as a transmitter by placing a modulated ultra-violet source at its prime focus. The signal was received by a Federation spaceship a few million kilometers away.

By the 21st century, the Moon has been colonized, and although still very much a research establishment, it is visited by tourists who can afford the trip. One of its attractions is a cruise across one of the lunar seas, named the ''Sea of Thirst'', (located within the Sinus Roris) filled with an extremely fine dust, a fine powder far drier than the contents of a terrestrial desert and which almost flows like water, instead of the common regolith which covers most of the lunar surface. A specially designed "boat" named the ''Selene'' skims over the surface of the dust in the same manner as a jetski.

But on one cruise, a moonquake causes a cavern to collapse, upsetting the equilibrium. As the dust-cruiser Selene passes over, it sinks about 15 metres below the surface of the dust, hiding the vessel from view, and trapping it beneath the dust. Immediately there are potentially fatal problems for the crew and passengers inside. The sunken ''Selene'' has a limited air supply, there is no way for heat generated to escape, communications are impossible, and no one else is sure where ''Selene'' has been lost. As the ''Selene'' heats up and the air becomes unbreathable, young Captain Pat Harris and his chief stewardess Sue Wilkins try to keep the passengers occupied and psychologically stable while waiting to be rescued. They are helped by a retired space ship captain and explorer, Commodore Hansteen, who is initially traveling incognito.

Chief Engineer (Earthside) Robert Lawrence is sceptical that a rescue can be mounted, even if the ''Selene'' can be located. He is ready to abandon an initially unsuccessful search, when he is contacted by Thomas Lawson, a brilliant but eccentric astronomer who, from his vantage point on a satellite high above the Moon, ''Lagrange II'', believes he has detected the remains of a heat trail on the surface. An expedition is organised and Lawrence indeed makes contact with the ''Selene''. However the completely alien environment results in numerous unforeseen complications. The rescue mission decides to sink a tube supplying oxygen to the ''Selene'' first, in an effort to buy time to think of a way to get the passengers out. However, this becomes a race against the clock, as the heat in the ''Selene'' knocks out the chemical air purification system and the passengers are suffering from CO₂ poisoning. To preserve air, most passengers enter a chemically induced sleep, with only Pat Harris and physicist Duncan McKenzie staying awake. Just in time, the rescuers manage to drill a hole in the roof and deliver an air supply.

A plan is hatched to save the passengers of the ''Selene'' by sinking several concrete caissons to the roof of the ship and cutting a hole. When the first caisson is sunk, disaster strikes again: the liquid waste of the passengers had been expelled out of the ship, turning the dust around it into mud, which causes another, smaller, cave-in. The ''Selene'' sinks once more, this time only a small distance, but crucially, at a slope. The caissons cannot be connected to the roof which is now sloping at 30 degrees. The air supply and communications have also been damaged. After restoring these latter too, a new plan is made to sink the caissons, but now the bottom one has a flexible fitting attached to it which can be mounted to the sloping roof of the ''Selene''. The rescue mission works according to plan: the caissons are sunk, the dust is scooped out and the connection is made, but now time is running out again. When the air supply holes were drilled, ''Selene'''s double hull was breached and the space in between slowly filled with dust. The metal-rich dust reached the battery packs and short-circuited them. This causes the battery compartment in the stern to burn slowly. The resulting breach is barricaded by the passengers, but dust is still pouring in and there is a fear that the burning material will cause the liquid oxygen supply to explode. Meanwhile, Robert Lawrence is working in the rescue shaft: he sets a small ring charge to make a hole in the roof. Just in time, the hole is made and the passengers escape through the shaft. Captain Harris is the last to leave, up to his waist in dust. Just when he is clear of the shaft, the liquid oxygen explodes, destroying the ''Selene''.

A short epilogue sees Lawrence writing his memoirs, Pat Harris and Sue Wilkins are married. Pat Harris is the captain of the ''Selene II'' on its maiden cruise which will also be the last cruise for Harris as he is hoping to transfer to the space service.

Duncan McKenzie, one of the Dust-cruiser passengers, is described as of Australian Aboriginal descent. A different character, Duncan Makenzie, with "dark brown" skin, appears in Arthur C. Clarke's later novel ''Imperial Earth''.

Wesley Gibson is a loser cubicle rat who is abused by almost everyone in his life, including his boss, a local gang, his unfaithful girlfriend, and his best friend with whom his girlfriend is having an affair. Wesley was raised by his pacifist mother after they were abandoned by his father, causing him to grow up into a wimp. All this changes when he is visited by the Fox, an assassin who shoots everyone in a sandwich shop before revealing herself to be a member of the Fraternity, a powerful organization of supervillains that rules the world. So long as they maintain secrecy, they are able to commit any crime without any consequences. The Fraternity wishes to recruit Wesley to replace his father, a supervillain known as the Killer, who was killed by an unknown assassin.

The Fox introduces Wesley to Professor Solomon Selzer, a brilliant mad scientist and leader of the North and South American chapter of the Fraternity. The Professor helps Wesley realize his powers by provoking him into shooting the wings off flies. The Professor explains that a long time ago, the world was overrun by both superheroes and supervillains. Tired of being repeatedly defeated and jailed, the supervillains joined together and staged a revolution that Wesley's father was a part of. After a long, bloody war, the superheroes were defeated. Using magic and advanced technology, the newly formed Fraternity was able to erase the world's memories of superheroes and supervillains. All that remained were faint, inaccurate memories, which were the cause of superhero comic books and other media. Many of the surviving heroes now believed themselves to be actors who had played superheroes.

The Professor also explains to Wesley that Fox and his father had once worked for Mr. Rictus, who controlled the Australian chapter of the Fraternity. When Rictus visits the Professor's headquarters, Fox implies that she and the Killer left Rictus' chapter because he had been harming children.

The Fraternity begins training Wesley to use his newfound powers. The training focuses on not just his physical skills but on his personality. He is desensitized to violence and eventually learns to enjoy it. He is told to commit random acts of violence before undertaking acts of revenge on anyone who even slightly wronged him. He soon becomes a full-fledged Fraternity member, accompanying them on raids of alternate universes and other missions.

Wesley is assigned to be the Professor's personal bodyguard during a Fraternity convention in which the leaders of the Fraternity's five chapters will meet. The five leaders are the Professor, Mr. Rictus, Adam-One, the Future, and the Emperor. Here, he learns that Rictus and the Future had long wanted to end the Fraternity's policy of secrecy and rule the world openly. The Professor, Adam-One, and the Emperor favored secrecy for supervillains in order to get "the loot without the leg-breaking" and avoid gaining the attention of the larger multiverse, and have always managed to outvote Rictus and the Future. Though it seems that the Emperor is about to switch sides, the Professor subtly manipulates him to vote in favor of secrecy yet again.

After the meeting, the Professor leaves in a limo hoping to pick up a child prostitute. However, his driver is actually being impersonated by Shithead, Rictus's right-hand man, and the Professor is murdered by him. Rictus and Future's factions of the Fraternity begin a revolt against the other three. With most of the Professor's supervillains killed, Wesley and Fox must fight off the rival factions on their own. They manage to kill off many of the rebel supervillains, including the Future. This culminates in an attack on their own headquarters, occupied by Rictus and his gang. Defeating Rictus and deflecting a bullet through his throat, Wesley demands to know who killed his father but Rictus refuses to answer (or is simply unable to) before he dies. A figure steps out of the shadows revealing himself to be Wesley's father, the original Killer. The Killer reveals that he and Fox left Rictus's chapter not because they objected to harming children but because they knew of his planned revolt. The Killer also says that his skills have been deteriorating with age and he does not want to be killed by anyone inferior to him. After Wesley's training, the Killer believes that he is the only one worthy of ending his life and orders Wesley to put a bullet through his head. Afterwards, Wesley indicates that he wants to return to his former life and stop being a super villain. However, he reveals to Fox shortly after that he was just joking, and they go off to plan another heist. The comic ends with Wesley calling out the audience about their "pathetic" lives, and stating: "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass."

Holden Carver, also known as The Conductor (although he prefers going by his real name), is placed undercover in Tao's criminal organization by John Lynch, the director of International Operations after being fused with an alien artifact that makes him impervious to pain, gives him a powerful healing factor, and allows him to store pain he receives and pass it on to others through skin contact. Holden hates these abilities and constantly wishes to be rid of them. Lynch falls into a coma after being shot by Grifter, leaving Holden with no link to the outside world.

He quickly rises through the ranks of Tao's syndicate and becomes one of his lieutenants, called "Prodigals". He falls in love with another Prodigal named Miss Misery and befriends Genocide Jones, a super-strong, bullet-proof member of Tao's organization. The series also focuses on Holden's internal struggle over whether or not there is a difference between his actions while serving Tao and his actions while serving Lynch.

Tao learns of Holden's true allegiance, and Holden is forced to live on the run. With the help of Peter Grimm, his most trusted Prodigal, Tao captures Holden and tells him that he is a survivor, past petty concepts like "good" and "evil". Beginning to believe Tao and seeing no other options, Holden rejoins Tao's organization, this time as a true criminal. As Season One ends, John Lynch miraculously awakes from his coma.

Coup D'Etat comes to pass and the members of Tao's organization are forced into hiding so The Authority cannot discover them. Holden is now a full-fledged villain and a trusted Prodigal. While on a mission with his own band of Torpedoes (lower-level members of Tao's organization) called the Hounds, consisting of the eager-to-please Pit Bull (introduced in Season One) and the werewolf Blackwolf, Holden is contacted by an agent of John Lynch. Lynch wants Holden to leave Tao and defect back to I.O. He later presents Holden with a member of the alien race who built the artifact that gave Holden his abilities and promises that if he agrees to come back he'll rid him of his powers.

Holden then begins to play both sides against the middle, hoping he will be able to free himself of his obligations to Tao and Lynch and run away with Miss Misery. As this goes on, he tries to reform, despite knowing that he will never again be the man he thought he was before falling in with Tao.

At the end of Season Two, Holden Carver is left in a vegetative state. Lynch uses his gen factor powers to make the vegetative Holden believe that he is finally retired and living with Miss Misery and his ex-fiancee, Veronica St. James, on a tropical island. Holden ripped out Tao's tongue as a last effort to 'disarm' the main villain of the series before being handed over to Lynch. It is here that the story ends.

The series is centered on Tara Chace, an operative of the Special Operations Section of SIS, colloquially known as the Minders. It attempts to portray the bureaucracy and politics which the agents deal with realistically, as well as including the dangerous missions typical of the spy genre.

Other recurring characters in the series alongside Tara Chace include Director of Operations Paul Crocker, Deputy Chief of Service Donald Weldon, Chief of Service Frances Barclay (known colloquially as "C"), Mission Control Officer and Main Communications Officer Alexis and former Head of Special Section Tom Wallace.

''Sword of Mana'' has a similar story to ''Final Fantasy Adventure'' with additional details and dialogue added. The player has the choice to follow the story of either the hero or the heroine, who are named by the player, instead of only the hero as in the original game. The two stories parallel each other, and the two protagonists are often together.

The hero's story begins with a flashback dream of the death of his parents at the hands of the Dark Lord, the ruler of the nation of Granz. Upon waking, the hero, a gladiator-slave in Granz, attempts to escape before being confronted by the Dark Lord and thrown off of a bridge. After being fished out of a lake, the hero is advised to head to the city of Topple. The heroine's story also begins with a flashback dream of the Dark Lord and his assistant, Julius, killing her stepmother and destroying her village. Upon awaking, she is advised by the knight Bogard to head to Topple, while he journeys to the city of Wendell. The hero and heroine meet in Topple, and agree to journey together. They head toward Wendell, and along the way discover that women of the Mana tribe, which the heroine belongs to, are being kidnapped by vampires. The heroine is kidnapped, and is rescued by the hero and an unnamed man; they discover that the kidnappings are to keep the woman safe from the Dark Lord and Julius, who are killing them all in part because the tribe was unable to save the Dark Lord's mother from a terrible fate.

In Wendell, the two protagonists learn that Bogard and several other knights were instrumental in overthrowing the Vandole Empire twenty years prior, which had been abusing Mana, the source of magic. The hero states his intention to find the legendary Mana Sword in order to avenge his parents and the heroine reveals she has a pendant from her stepmother that is the key to the Mana Tree, the source of Mana. The unnamed man then reveals himself to be Julius and kidnaps the heroine for the pendant; during a failed rescue attempt the hero falls from an airship along with the pendant. After a side story resulting in the hero and heroine killing the Dark Lord's mother, who had been turned into a monster, the pendant is stolen and given to the Dark Lord. The protagonists chase after him. After the two defeat the Dark Lord, Julius reveals himself to be the last survivor of the Vandole Empire. Once gaining the pendant he mind controlled the heroine to use the pendant to give him control of the Mana Tree, which Vandole had attempted to do prior to being overthrown. Julius defeats the hero and heroine, and heads off to the Mana Tree.

The hero and heroine split up to find the Mana Sword. After the hero passes trials to prove himself worthy of the sword, which first appears as a rusty blade, the two join forces to storm the Mana Tree and defeat Julius. They do so, but the tree is killed in the process; prior to death, the tree reveals that she was the heroine's mother, and asks the heroine to replace her as the next Mana Tree. The heroine agrees, and the two protagonists part ways.

Zed, a professional safe-cracker, comes to Paris to help a childhood friend, Eric, with a bank heist. While in the taxi on his way to the hotel, the cab driver offers to procure a prostitute for him in the evening. As Zed emerges from the shower, the prostitute, Zoe, arrives. After having sex, they talk amicably and express their mutual affection. Zoe confides that she is studying art and has a "very boring" day job. They are interrupted when Eric barges in and brusquely sends Zoe out of the room. Eric takes Zed back to his residence, where Zed meets Eric's friends. Eric explains his plans: the following day is Bastille Day and virtually everything is closed except for a holding bank they plan to rob. Zed forgoes his rest time to spend the night partying with Eric and his friends at a seedy jazz club, which Eric refers to as 'the real Paris'. As they binge, Eric confides to Zed that he has AIDS, which he contracted through intravenous drug use.

The next day, Zed is awakened by Eric as they prepare to enter the bank. Donning carnival masks, Eric's team quickly kill anybody who fails to cooperate as Zed is escorted to the bank's safe. Their plans begin to fall apart as the police show up, with the team realizing they will either have to shoot their way out of the bank or go to jail for life. Eric blows open a vault with an explosive, finding a large supply of gold bars, but the thieves can't leave the bank alive with their fortune. Tensions rise even higher when Zed recognizes Zoe who coincidentally works at the bank and attempts to protect her, much to Eric's fury. A gunfight erupts between Eric's team and the police, with Zed caught in the middle. Most of the thieves are killed, leaving Zed and Eric to fight each other. The police kill Eric. Injured, Zed is led away quickly by Zoe, who falsely states that he is a bank customer. They drive away in her car, where Zoe promises Zed that when he gets well she'll show him the 'real' Paris.

While some have speculated the title of the film derives from the assumption that Zed contracted HIV from having Eric's blood spill on him and he will thus pass it on to Zoe, Roger Avary has stated, "Zoe means 'life' in Greek, so the title of the movie can be interpreted as 'Killing Life.' "

Jennifer Haines (Rebecca De Mornay) is an up-and-coming Chicago attorney. She wins a big case, celebrates with the man in her life, Phil Garson (Stephen Lang), and returns to work to a hero's reception.

Into her life walks David Greenhill (Don Johnson), who was seated in the gallery during her previous trial. Greenhill is a debonair and arrogant ladies' man who stands accused of murdering his wealthy wife, Rita (Brigitte Wilson). He wants Haines to represent him, but she declines.

Something about him intrigues her, though, so the equally arrogant Haines has second thoughts. She tells her law firm's superiors that this promises to be a high-profile trial and she wants it because: "I am that good."

Greenhill maintains his innocence but shows signs of irrational behavior that make Haines wary of him. She assigns her longtime investigator Moe (Jack Warden) to do some digging and he begins to unearth the defendant's shady past. Greenhill in the meantime starts showing up unexpectedly in Haines's social life, stalking her and dropping hints that something is going on between them.

Phil dislikes the guy intensely and demands Haines drop him as a client. She doesn't care for Greenhill either but resents being told what to do. She refuses to quit his case until her law partners notify her that the fee Greenhill promised remains unpaid. An unsympathetic judge (Dana Ivey) tells Haines it's her own fault and refuses to let her abandon her client.

Learning from Moe that Greenhill has a history of dating older women who usually end up dead, a horrified Haines wants to turn him in, but is bound to attorney-client privilege. She instead tries to sabotage her own case by having evidence planted at Greenhill's apartment, hoping that it will lead to his conviction. He knows she must be behind it and takes his revenge by viciously assaulting Phil, who ends up hospitalized.

Greenhill's case ends in a mistrial, after the jury fails to reach a unanimous verdict. Greenhill, seemingly pleased, displays regret that he never had a chance to take the stand. He does so privately for Haines in the empty coatroom, revealing that he had been scouting her far in advance of the murder case. He confesses that he did indeed kill his wife and provides vivid details.

Greenhill further tells Haines that he knows she planted the evidence. He could use this to blackmail her, but says he has come to tire of her. Haines fears the psychopathic Greenhill will now come after her. She prepares to disclose everything, even at the cost of her career.

Greenhill anticipates this. He murders Moe, knocking him out and then setting fire to his office. He then intercepts Haines at her apartment building. He casually states that between Phil's beating and Moe's death, she is grieving enough to commit suicide. A fierce struggle ensues. Greenhill manages to throw Haines over a railing, but to his horror, she pulls him down with her. They fall several stories together. Greenhill is killed in the fall. Haines, cushioned by his body, is severely injured but survives.

As she is carried off to hospital, she triumphantly states: "I beat him, Phil. I beat him. Tough way to win a case."

Having made his fortune from London's rubbish, a rich misanthropic miser dies, estranged from all except his faithful employees Mr and Mrs Boffin. By his will, his fortune goes to his estranged son John Harmon, who is to return from his home abroad (possibly in South Africa) to claim it, on condition that he marries a woman he has never met, Miss Bella Wilfer. The implementation of the will is in the charge of the solicitor, Mortimer Lightwood, who has no other practice.

The son and heir does not appear, though some knew him aboard the ship to London. A body is found in the Thames by Gaffer Hexam, rowed by his daughter Lizzie. He is a waterman who makes his living by retrieving corpses and taking the cash in their pockets, before handing them over to the authorities. Papers in the pockets of the drowned man identify him as Harmon. Present at the identification of the water-soaked corpse is a mysterious young man, who gives his name as Julius Handford and then disappears.

The elder Harmon's estate devolves upon Mr and Mrs Boffin, naïve and good-hearted people who wish to enjoy it for themselves and to share it with others. The childless couple take pity on Miss Bella Wilfer, whose fortunes are thought to have been lost with the death of John Harmon, and take her into their household, and treat her as their pampered child and heiress. Bella is disgusted by her lower middle class upbringing, and obsessed with marrying a wealthy man. They also accept an offer from Julius Handford, now going under the name of John Rokesmith, to serve as their confidential secretary and man of business, at no salary for a trial period of two years. Rokesmith uses this position to watch and learn everything about the Boffins, Miss Wilfer, and the aftershock of the drowning of Harmon. Mr Boffin engages a one-legged ballad-seller, Silas Wegg, to read aloud to him in the evenings, and Wegg tries to take advantage of his position and of Mr Boffin's good heart to obtain other advantages from the wealthy dustman. When the Boffins purchase a large home, Wegg is invited to live in the old Harmon home. Wegg hopes to find hidden treasure in the house or in the mounds of trash on the property.

Gaffer Hexam, who found the body, is accused of murdering Harmon by a fellow waterman, Roger "Rogue" Riderhood, who is bitter at having been cast off as Hexam's partner, and who covets the large reward offered in relation to the murder. As a result of the accusation, Hexam is shunned by his fellows on the river, and excluded from The Six Jolly Fellowship-Porters, the public house they frequent. Hexam's young son, the clever but priggish Charley Hexam, leaves his father's house to better himself at school, and to train to be a schoolmaster, encouraged by his sister, the beautiful Lizzie Hexam. Lizzie stays with her father, to whom she is devoted.

Before Riderhood can claim the reward for his false allegation, Hexam is found drowned himself. Lizzie Hexam becomes the lodger of a doll's dressmaker, a disabled teenager nicknamed "Jenny Wren". Jenny's alcoholic father lives with them, and is treated by Jenny as a child. A sub-plot involves the activities of the devious Mr and Mrs Lammle, a couple who have married each other for money, only to discover that neither has any. They attempt to obtain financial advantage by pairing off Fledgeby to the naive heiress Georgiana Podsnap. Fledgeby is an extortioner and money-lender, who uses the kindly old Jew Riah as his cover, temporarily causing Riah to fall out with his friend and protégée Jenny Wren.

The work-shy barrister Eugene Wrayburn notices Lizzie when accompanying his friend and business partner Mortimer Lightwood to Gaffer Hexam's home and falls in love with her. However, he soon gains a violent rival in Bradley Headstone, Charley Hexam's schoolmaster. Charley wants his sister to be under obligation to no one but him, and tries to arrange lessons for her with Headstone, only to find that Wrayburn has already engaged a teacher for both Lizzie and Jenny. Headstone quickly develops an unreasonable passion for Lizzie, and makes an unsuccessful proposal, which Lizzie firmly but kindly refuses. Angered by being refused, and by Wrayburn's dismissive attitude towards him, Headstone comes to see Wrayburn as the source of all his misfortunes, and takes to following him around the streets of London at night. Lizzie fears Headstone's threats to Wrayburn, and is unsure of Wrayburn's intentions toward her (Wrayburn admits to Lightwood that he does not know his own intentions yet, either). She flees both men, getting work up-river from London, with the help of Mr Riah.

Mr and Mrs Boffin attempt to adopt a young orphan, in the care of his great-grandmother, Betty Higden, but the boy dies. Mrs Higden minds children for a living, assisted by a foundling known as Sloppy. When Lizzie Hexam finds Mrs Higden dying and stops to care for her, she meets the Boffins and Bella Wilfer.

Rokesmith is in love with Bella Wilfer, but she cannot bear to accept him, having insisted that she will marry only for money. Mr Boffin appears to be corrupted by his wealth, and obsessed with biographies of misers. He begins to treat Rokesmith with contempt, stinginess, and cruelty. This arouses Bella Wilfer's sympathy, and when the Lammles (hoping to take Bella and Rokesmith's place as Mr Boffin's favorites) reveal to Mr Boffin that Rokesmith has proposed to Bella, and he dismisses Rokesmith, Bella stands up for him. Rokesmith and Bella marry and live happily, though in relatively poor circumstances. Bella soon conceives.

In the meantime, Wrayburn has obtained information about Lizzie's whereabouts from Jenny's father, and finds the object of his affections. Headstone engages with Riderhood, now working as a lock-keeper, as Headstone is consumed with executing his threats against Wrayburn. After following Wrayburn up river and seeing him with Lizzie, Headstone attacks Wrayburn and leaves him for dead. Headstone tries to place blame for the assault on Rogue Riderhood by dressing in similar clothes when doing the deed and throwing his own clothes in the river. Riderhood fetches the bundle of clothing. Lizzie finds Wrayburn in the river and rescues him, with Jenny's help, who has discovered Fledgby's trick, and reconciled with Mr Riah. Wrayburn, on his deathbed, marries Lizzie, and suppresses any hint that Headstone was his attacker to save her reputation. When he survives, he is glad that his near-death experience brought him into a loving marriage; although her social inferiority had not bothered him, he believes Lizzie would not otherwise have married him due to the social gulf between them.

Headstone learns Wrayburn is alive, recovering from the brutal beating, and married to Lizzie; he is overcome with the hopelessness of his situation. Riderhood attempts to blackmail Headstone. Confronted by Riderhood in his classroom, Headstone is seized with a self-destructive urge and flings himself into the lock, pulling Riderhood with him; both drown.

Meanwhile, Silas Wegg has, with help from Mr Venus (an "articulator of bones"), searched the dust mounds and discovered a later will of the Elder Harmon, which bequeaths his estate to the Crown rather than the Boffins. Wegg decides to blackmail Boffin, but Venus has second thoughts and reveals the plot to Boffin.

It gradually becomes clear to the reader that John Rokesmith is in fact John Harmon. Harmon had switched clothes with his shipmate en route to London, because Harmon wanted an opportunity to learn about his betrothed before claiming his inheritance; the shipmate agreed, with the intention of stealing Harmon's money. However, Riderhood had drugged, robbed, and dumped both Harmon and his shipmate in the river. Harmon survived the attempted murder, and maintained his alias to try to win Bella Wilfer for himself, rather than his inheritance. Now that she has married him, believing him to be poor, he throws off his disguise. It is revealed that Mr Boffin's apparent miserliness and ill-treatment of his secretary were part of a scheme to test Bella's motives.

When Wegg attempts to clinch his blackmail on the basis of the later will, Boffin turns the tables by revealing a still later will by which the fortune is granted to Boffin even at young John Harmon's expense. The Boffins are determined to make the Harmons their heirs anyway, so all ends well, except for Wegg, who is carted away by Sloppy. Sloppy himself becomes friendly with Jenny Wren, whose father has died.

Many critics found fault with the plot, and in 1865, ''The New York Times'' described it as an "involved plot combined with an entire absence of the skill to manage and unfold it". In the ''London Review'', in the same year, an anonymous critic felt that "the whole plot in which the deceased Harmon, Boffin, Wegg, and John Rokesmith, are concerned, is wild and fantastic, wanting in reality, and leading to a degree of confusion which is not compensated by any additional interest in the story"Unsigned Review, ''London Review'', 28 October 1865 quoted in and he also found that "the final explanation is a disappointment." However, the ''London Review'' also thought, that "the mental state of a man about to commit the greatest of crimes has seldom been depicted with such elaboration and apparent truthfulness."

The three Baudelaire orphans have been placed under the care of their distant relative, herpetologist Dr. Montgomery Montgomery. "Uncle Monty", as he prefers to be called, is a short, chubby man with a round, red face. The children immediately like him. He lets them each choose their own bedroom and informs them that they are going to accompany him on a trip to Peru to study snakes.

The children are fascinated by the many snakes in the "Reptile Room", a giant hall in which their Uncle Monty's reptile collection is stored. They meet the Incredibly Deadly Viper, which Uncle Monty recently discovered, whose name is actually a misnomer (the snake is harmless and friendly). The three children are each given jobs in the Reptile Room: Violet is given the job of inventing traps for new snakes found in Peru, Klaus is told to read books on snakes to help advise Uncle Monty, and Sunny's job is to bite ropes into usable pieces.

When Stephano, the successor of the original assistant Gustav arrives, the children realize immediately that he is Count Olaf in disguise. Count Olaf is a villain who the children used to live with, until he was caught trying to steal the fortune left behind by their parents. They try to warn Uncle Monty. They manage to talk to Monty alone the day before their trip to Peru, but Monty is convinced that Stephano is a spy trying to steal information from his research and fails to understand their claims that Stephano is Olaf. He tears up Stephano's ticket to Peru. The following morning, the Baudelaires discover Monty's dead body. Stephano still tries to take the children to Peru. However, as they are leaving the estate, Stephano's car crashes into Mr. Poe's car. They return to the house, where Poe and Stephano discuss what to do with the children. Mr. Poe refuses to believe the children when they say Stephano is Count Olaf in disguise, as Stephano lacks a tattoo of an eye on his ankle. Dr. Lucafont arrives and performs an autopsy, claiming Monty was killed by the Mamba du Mal.

Violet tells her siblings to cause a distraction; the Incredibly Deadly Viper pretends to attack Sunny, while Violet creates a lockpick from the charger of Klaus' reading lamp. She then uses it to open Count Olaf's suitcase to reveal needles with the venom from a snake as well as some powder that he used to cover up the eye tattoo. Klaus reveals to Mr. Poe, Dr. Lucafont and Count Olaf that, from his studies of the Mamba du Mal, if the Mamba du Mal attacked Uncle Monty he would be black, while Monty was pale. Violet shows her evidence, and Mr. Poe rubs away the powder on Stephano's ankle to reveal the eye tattoo, proving Stephano was Olaf. However, Olaf manages to escape when Dr. Lucafont (the hook handed man in disguise) helps him get away, leaving Mr. Poe to take the orphans to a new home.

Mr. Poe puts the Baudelaire orphans, Klaus Baudelaire, Sunny Baudelaire and Violet Baudelaire under the care of Aunt Josephine, who lives in a house atop a hill overlooking Lake Lachrymose, a lake so large that hurricanes have occurred in that area. Aunt Josephine is afraid of almost everything from cooking food because she is scared that her stove would explode, to her welcome mat. Her library is filled with books about the grammar of the English language because she loves grammar.

While helping Aunt Josephine in the grocery store, Violet runs into a sailor named "Captain Sham", who she concludes is Count Olaf in disguise. Aunt Josephine declines to believe this due to Captain Sham's charming personality. That night, the children hear a crash and find out that their new guardian had jumped out of the Wide Window that overlooks Lake Lachrymose, and that before doing so left a note for them informing them that Captain Sham will be their new guardian.

Mr. Poe refuses to believe the children's claim the note was a lie by Count Olaf and takes them to dinner with him at a cheap and grimy restaurant with an over-enthusiastic waiter, the Anxious Clown. Needing a distraction to come up with a strategy, Violet puts peppermints in her own food and that of Klaus and Sunny. Allergic, they break into hives, forcing Count Olaf to allow them to go back to their aunt's house. Klaus shows them the note is in Aunt Josephine's handwriting but coded a hidden message using grammar errors, which all together form the two words 'Curdled Cave'. Once they finish the note, Hurricane Herman hits and the house begins to fall apart into the lake.

With this information, the Baudelaire orphans go to steal a boat from Captain Sham's boat store near Lake Lachrymose to get to Curdled Cave while the hurricane continues on. There, they encounter one of Count Olaf's henchpeople, a large person of undetermined gender. They endure the storm and reach the Curdled Cave, where Aunt Josephine reveals that Count Olaf forced her to write the note, and broke the Wide Window to cause them to believe that she had committed suicide.

While travelling back, Lachrymose leeches attempt to suck their blood due to smelling food in Aunt Josephine's stomach since she ate a banana under the one hour limit. They are able to signal for help, but only Count Olaf arrives on a ship. After leaving Aunt Josephine to be eaten by the leeches, he brings the children back to the house, where Sunny is able to prove that he was Count Olaf to Mr. Poe by biting Count Olaf's fake wooden peg in half to reveal his eye tattoo underneath. He and his henchperson lock the Baudelaire Orphans and Mr. Poe in the gate of Captain Sham's boat rental and escape, leaving Mr. Poe to once again find a home for the orphans.

Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are traveling on a train heading for Paltryville, the location of the children's new home, the Lucky Smells Lumbermill.

Upon arrival, the children learn that they will have to work at the mill, but as part of the deal, their new guardian, Sir (they call him Sir because his name is so long that nobody pronounces it right), will try to keep Count Olaf, their nemesis, away. They meet Sir's more sympathetic partner, Charles, who shows them the library, which contains three books, one about the history of the lumbermill, one about the town constitution, and one donated by Dr. Georgina Orwell, the local optometrist, who lives in an eye-shaped building, which also resembles, suspiciously, the tattoo on their nemesis, Count Olaf's, ankle.

Klaus breaks his own glasses when he is purposely tripped by the new foreman, Flacutono, and is sent to see Dr. Orwell. When Klaus returns from the optometrist, hours later, he acts strangely, as if in a trance. The next day in the lumbermill, Flacutono instructs Klaus to operate a stamping machine. Klaus causes an accident by dropping the machine on Phil, an optimistic coworker. Flacutono exclaims that the machine "cost an inordinate amount of money". The other workers ask what the unfamiliar word means and Klaus defines the word. Klaus explains that he doesn't remember what happened between when he broke his glasses and waking up in the mill. Foreman Flacutono trips him again, once again causing his glasses to break. This time though, Violet and Sunny accompany Klaus to Dr. Orwell's office.

Together, they arrive at the eye-shaped building they saw on their arrival to Lucky Smells. Dr. Orwell, seemingly friendly, lets them in, and tells Violet and Sunny to sit in the waiting room. Violet and Sunny realize that Count Olaf is disguised as Shirley, a receptionist and that Klaus has been (and is being) hypnotized by Orwell, who is in cahoots with Olaf. They leave with Klaus, who is once again in a trance, and calls Violet "Veronica." When they return to the lumbermill, they find a memo from Sir informing them that if there is another accident, he'll place them under Shirley's care.

Violet and Sunny put Klaus to bed, and go to the mill's library. Violet reads the book donated by Orwell, a difficult task given her lack of vocabulary compared to the book's usage of difficult words, and learns that Orwell's technique uses a command word to control the subject and an "unhypnotize" word. They then hear the lumbermill starting early, and rush to see what is happening. They find Charles strapped to a log which Klaus is pushing through a buzz saw, and Foreman Flacutono giving orders. The girls notice Klaus' bare feet, a clue that he has been hypnotized out of bed yet again. Shirley and Orwell arrive and the latter orders Klaus to ignore his sisters. Violet realizes the release word ("inordinate") just in time. Violet is caught by Shirley and Flacutono, but Klaus manages to set Charles free by trying to invent a fishing rod. Sunny and Orwell duel, with Orwell's sword and Sunny's teeth; as Mr. Poe and Sir unexpectedly enter the room, Orwell steps back in surprise, into the path of the buzz saw, and dies.

Count Olaf is locked in the library but escapes out the window with Foreman Flacutono, who is revealed to be the bald man with the long nose in disguise. Sir relinquishes the Baudelaires, making the Baudelaires once more under nobody's care.

Mr. Poe drops the Baudelaire children—Violet, Klaus and Sunny—off at Prufrock Preparatory School, a boarding school they are to attend. They are greeted by a rude girl, Carmelita Spats, who calls the children "cakesniffers". Vice Principal Nero tells them about the school's odd rules: they are to sleep in a crab-infested, fungus-dripping shack because they have no living guardian to sign a permission slip for them. Sunny will work as Nero's administrative assistant. They must attend nightly concerts at which Nero performs terribly on the violin. Punishments for rule-breaking include having silverware removed or hands tied while eating in the cafeteria, or having to purchase candy for Nero. Sunny will have her silverware removed permanently for working in the administrative building, which children are not allowed in.

At lunch, Carmelita mocks the Baudelaires, but Duncan and Isadora Quagmire stand up for them. The Quagmires are triplets, and they say that their parents died in a fire that also killed their sibling Quigley. When they become adults, they will inherit a fortune of sapphires. Isadora writes rhyming couplets, while Duncan is passionate about journalism and researching. Over the following days, Violet is a student of Mr. Remora, and must take detailed notes of his boring anecdotes, while Klaus is taught by Mrs. Bass, who makes her students endlessly measure the dimensions of objects. Isadora is in Klaus' class and Duncan is in Violet's. Sunny struggles to carry out her administrative work, which is designed for an adult. The school has no weekend breaks.

Count Olaf soon arrives, disguised as the new gym teacher Coach Genghis. Nero fails to recognize him, or to take the children seriously when they raise concerns—particularly as he arrives during their meeting. Carmelita delivers a message to the Baudelaires that they are to meet Genghis after dinner, where he makes them run laps all night while painting a large, luminous circle on the lawn. He calls this "Special Orphan Running Exercises", abbreviated "S.O.R.E." The children pretend not to recognize Olaf. After nine consecutive nights of S.O.R.E., Violet and Klaus begin failing tests in class, Sunny fails to complete administrative work and they begin arguing with Duncan and Isadora.

The Baudelaires meet with Nero and tell him directly that Genghis is Olaf, but he is disbelieving. He demands that Violet and Klaus take comprehensive tests set by their teachers the following morning, while Sunny must prepare homemade staples to use on Nero's paperwork, or they will be expelled and fired. Genghis has offered to act as the children's guardian in this case. They must also give Carmelita earrings for each delivered message, and present Nero with candy for missing his concerts while doing S.O.R.E.

Duncan and Isadora disguise themselves as Violet and Klaus and steal a bag of flour from the cafeteria to pose as Sunny for the S.O.R.E. exercises that night. They hope Olaf will not notice the difference in the dark. The Quagmires leave their comprehensive notebooks for Violet and Klaus to learn from, while Violet invents a staple-making technique with a crab, a potato, metal rods, creamed spinach and a fork. Violet makes staples while Klaus reads from each notebook aloud.

After the children perform perfectly on their tests, Genghis arrives. He discovered that the Quagmires were impersonating the children after they left the bag of flour behind. Nero expels the Baudelaires as Mr. Poe arrives, to give Nero and Carmelita their candy and earrings. The Baudelaires insist that Genghis remove his shoes and turban, to expose Olaf's distinctive eye tattoo and monobrow, and he chooses instead to run away. The Baudelaires pursue, succeeding in removing his shoes and turban. They discover that two members of his troupe, the white-faced women, were cafeteria workers, and that Olaf has taken the Quagmires hostage. As Klaus and Olaf reaches the car, Duncan yells at Klaus, trying to communicate information he and his sister found in the library while researching Count Olaf. Duncan throws the pair's personal commonplace books at him and shouts out "V.F.D.", but Olaf kicks Klaus and snatches the notebooks up. Olaf reaches the car before the children and drives away with the white-faced women and the Quagmire children.

Mr. Poe takes the Baudelaire orphans to their new home on 667 Dark Avenue. The street is dark, as light is "out", or unpopular. The elevators in the apartment building are not working, as elevators are "out", leaving the Baudelaires to walk up several dozen flights of stairs to the penthouse where the Squalors live. Jerome Squalor welcomes the children to their new home. He offers them "aqueous martinis", (water garnished with an olive served in a fancy glass), and introduces them to his wife, Esmé Squalor, the city's sixth most important financial adviser, who is concerned about what's "in" and what's "out". Jerome avoids disputes with Esmé, as he hates arguing with her, and follows her instructions. While Jerome, a good friend of the Baudelaires' mother, truly cares for the children, it becomes apparent that Esmé's reason for adopting them is because orphans are "in." Esmé sends the children and Jerome to Café Salmonella for dinner, because she will be busy privately discussing arrangements for an auction with trendy auctioneer Gunther.

After Esmé gives the children over-sized pinstripe suits to wear, the Baudelaires recognize Gunther as Count Olaf, despite his attempt to disguise his unibrow with a monocle and horse riding boots to cover up the tattoo of an eye on his ankle. Despite their protestations, Jerome takes the children to the restaurant. Jerome believes the children are being xenophobic, and dismisses their suspicions of Gunther.

Klaus notices that there is one elevator door on each floor except for the top floor, which has two. The children discover that the extra elevator is "ersatz", fake, and consists of nothing but an empty shaft. They climb down the shaft, to find the two Quagmire triplets trapped in a cage at the bottom of the shaft. The Quagmires say that Count Olaf is planning to smuggle them out of the city by hiding them as an object at the "In" auction, which one of his associates will bid on. The Baudelaires return to the penthouse to find tools with which they can free the Quagmires, but they return to find that Gunther has cast the Quagmires away already. They return, dispirited, to the penthouse.

Klaus finds a Lot #50, V.F.D., in the auction catalog. The Baudelaires believe this is the item the Quagmires will be hidden in, because the Quagmires had told them (at the end of ''The Austere Academy'') that Count Olaf was involved in a secret called V.F.D. The Baudelaires tell Esmé about this, but it is revealed that Esmé knew who Gunther was, and was actually in on the plan to kidnap the Quagmires. When the Baudelaires show her the ersatz elevator, she pushes them down the empty shaft. They land halfway down in a net.

Sunny climbs up the shaft with her razor sharp teeth, gets the ersatz rope and jumps back down into the net. Sunny bites a hole in the net, and using the rope, they climb down from the net. Using Violet's ersatz welding torches, they travel along the hallway at the bottom of the shaft, only to find that it leads to a dead end. Pounding on the "ceiling" reveals that it is in fact a trap door; the children escape through it, and find themselves in the ashes of their old home.

They rush to Veblen Hall, the location of the auction, and join the crowd already there. The auction has begun, and Gunther and Esmé are on the stage auctioning off Lot #46. The children ask Jerome to buy them Lot #50. Mr. Poe and Jerome both bid and then back down, but Sunny bids on it and wins. The Baudelaires open the box (without paying), only to reveal Very Fancy Doilies instead of the Quagmires. Gunther slips on the doilies and is revealed as Count Olaf when his boots and monocle fly off, revealing his unibrow and tattoo. Count Olaf and Esmé flee, pursued by the audience. The doorman is revealed as the Hook-Handed Man, and the Quagmires are hidden in the statue of a red herring. Although Jerome wants to keep the Baudelaires, he insists on taking them far away so Count Olaf will not bother them. They refuse this, however, because they want to rescue the Quagmires.

The story ends when Jerome is forced to give them up, because he is not brave enough to help them, Mr. Poe is calling a Vietnamese restaurant instead of the police, and the three children are sitting on the steps in front of Veblen Hall.

Mr. Poe receives a brochure about a program where villages have signed up to communally raise children—the Baudelaires choose the village V.F.D., an abbreviation which the Quagmire children communicated to them while being kidnapped at the end of ''The Austere Academy''. The village has a large number of unusual rules, created by the Council of Elders: their newest rule, outlawing villains, is meant to keep out Count Olaf. The children will live with the village's handyman, Hector. He tells them that the initials stand for the Village of Fowl Devotees—in reference to the large number of crows which follow very specific roosting patterns. At sunset they fly to Nevermore Tree, outside Hector's house.

Hector shows the children a couplet he found underneath Nevermore Tree, which resembles Isadora Quagmire's style of poetry. The children stay awake to see if any more messages arrive, and discover a second couplet the next morning. Along with Hector, they do chores for individual townspeople. After cleaning the crow-shaped Fowl Fountain, a council member tells them that Count Olaf has been captured by the new Chief of Police, Officer Luciana. Though the imprisoned man has a unibrow and a tattoo of an eye on his left ankle, he is not Count Olaf. He says that his name is Jacques. Nonetheless, the villagers plan to burn him at the stake—the punishment for breaking one of the town's rules.

Violet helps Hector with last-minute fixes to an invention he has been working on, against the rules of the town: a self-sustaining hot air mobile home so that he can fly away from the town and live up in the air. The next morning, after the children find another couplet, Count Olaf has arrived, disguised as Detective Dupin, and Jacques is dead. Olaf frames the children, who are jailed and will be burned at the stake the next day. He plans to smuggle one of them away to steal their fortune.

The children are given bread and a pitcher of water, as Klaus realizes that it is his thirteenth birthday. At Violet's instruction, the children spend the night repeatedly pouring the water down a wooden bench onto the jail cell wall, before reabsorbing it with the spongy bread. This slowly dissolves the mortar between the bricks in the wall, until a hole can be made by using the bench as a battering ram. They escape, after Hector passes them a fourth couplet through their cell window. Meanwhile, Klaus discovers that the first letter of each line in the couplets, read in order, spells "fountain".

The children work out that the Quagmires must be hidden in the beak of Fowl Fountain. Sunny stands on Klaus's shoulders as he stands on Violet's shoulders. Violet and Klaus fall and as Sunny is slipping off the fountain, she sinks her teeth into a crow eye that opens the fountain's beak. With the Quagmire children, the Baudelaires flee the villagers, who have formed an angry mob. As they run, the Quagmires explained that from inside the fountain, they could attach a message to a crow by morning who would take it to Nevermore Tree, where it would fall off.

When Hector is directly overhead, on the functioning self-sustained hot air mobile home, he sends down the ladder. As the home continually rises, the Quagmire children climb, followed by the Baudelaires. With a harpoon gun, Luciana aims for the balloons to make the home fall to the ground. Once the Quagmires are in the home, she hits the ladder instead, and the Baudelaires have to climb down to the ground to avoid falling to their deaths. The Quagmires throw down their commonplace notebooks, but Luciana succeeds in skewering both of them with a harpoon.

However, Luciana also injures a crow with the harpoon, causing the villagers to turn on her. She reveals herself as Esmé Squalor, now Olaf's girlfriend, and escapes with him by motorcycle. The villagers leave to take care of the crow and the Baudelaires collect the damaged fragments of the Quagmire's notebooks. Sunny takes her first steps unaided as the children leave the town on foot.

After escaping the Village of Fowl Devotees, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire arrive at a store to send a telegram to Mr. Poe, explaining their situation and pleading for help. The store's generous owner explains that a van of 'Volunteers Fighting Diseases' arrives once every day for a gas refill. The van arrives, and the Baudelaires, thinking it to be the acronym 'V.F.D.', escape into it after the owner recognizes them as the accused murderers in the ''Daily Punctilio'', an unreliable newspaper series. The Baudelaires discover that Volunteers Fighting Diseases is a group of enthusiasts that visit Heimlich Hospital to increase the morale of patients, who believe that 'No News Is Good News', and therefore have never read The Daily Punctilio (and don't recognize the Baudelaires). One of the members suggests the Baudelaires seek a Library of Records to find their V.F.D. The three then volunteer to aid Hal, a visually disabled elder who works in Heimlich Hospital's Library of Records. As he doesn't let them read any of the files, the Baudelaires regretfully trick him into giving them his keys to enter the library at night. While reading a file on the Baudelaires, in which only the thirteenth page remained since investigators have taken the rest, they discover that one of their parents may have survived or escaped the mansion's fire – however, Esmé Squalor enters the library, intent on destroying them and the files to clear Count Olaf's name in the crimes he has committed. While escaping her clutches, Klaus and Sunny go through a small shaft, but Violet is taken when Count Olaf captures her and hides her from her siblings. The two, using the volunteers' list of patients, find out that Count Olaf has disguised Violet's name with another name with the use of anagrams, and track her down to the surgery room. Dr. Mattathias Madycle-Sküll (who is Count Olaf), the Head of Human Resources, announces via intercom that a craniectomy will be performed on Violet in an operation theatre. Klaus and Sunny disguise themselves as Dr. Tocuna and Nurse Flo to perform the surgery with the Hook-handed man and the Bald Man, both of which are recurring associates of Count Olaf. While the two stall during the performance for Violet to wake up, Hal angrily accuses the Baudelaires of committing arson, and the hospital begins to burn to the ground. Violet eventually awakens, and they try to escape by hiding in a storage room while Olaf's henchperson of indeterminate gender tries to break in. They safely jump out of the window via Violet's makeshift bungee rope while Olaf's henchperson gets stuck and dies in the fire. They then hide in the trunk of Count Olaf's car after overhearing him discuss hunting down the Snicket files, which apparently contains crucial information on V.F.D, Jacques Snicket, and the Baudelaires.

Following the events of ''The Hostile Hospital'', Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire arrive at Caligari Carnival in the trunk of Count Olaf and his theatre troupe's car, unknown to them. Olaf and his associates speak of seeking Madame Lulu, a mysterious fortune-teller and owner of Caligari Carnival, for answers of the whereabouts of the Snicket files, which apparently contains crucial information on V.F.D. As the troupe discuss with Lulu, the Baudelaires escape the trunk and disguise themselves as freak volunteers for the Carnival's freak show, Violet and Klaus as a two-headed humanoid 'Beverly' and 'Elliot', and Sunny as 'Chabo the Wolf Baby', a supposed half-wolf.

After being accepted by Lulu, they meet three other freaks in the 'Freak Caravan' - Hugo, a hunchback - Kevin, who is ambidextrous - and Colette, a contortionist. The Baudelaires are oblivious to the reason of their self-consciousness on their rare abilities. Every day they are forced to perform and be ridiculed in front of a small audience.

The next day, Count Olaf announces that a freak will be chosen to be fed to a pack of abused lions, in order to increase the popularity of the carnival. Olaf tells Esmé Squalor that Madame Lulu has predicted the whereabouts of the remaining Baudelaire parent to be in a V.F.D headquarters located in the Mortmain Mountains. Violet, Klaus and Sunny explore Lulu's tent, where she supposedly predicts answers using a glass ball - however, they discover that she tricked Olaf into thinking so by using a machine to create the effects, and either guesses the answer or finds the answers in her secret archival library. Madame Lulu enters, and after hollering at the Baudelaires for trespassing, is shamed into revealing her true identity as Olivia. Olivia explains that she goes by the motto 'Give People What They Want', thus her feeding Olaf information. She reveals to be part of V.F.D, and admits to only be guessing one of their parents to be in Mortmain Mountains after the Baudelaires reveal themselves to her.

After striking a deal with her to bring her with them when they explore Mortmain Mountains, on the condition that she doesn't tell Olaf their true identities, the three return to the Freak Caravan, where Esme Squalor, who is jealous of Madame Lulu, convinces Hugo, Kevin and Colette to feed Madame Lulu to the lions the following day - in exchange, they will be employed as Olaf's associates. Shortly after Violet works on fixing the carnival's roller coaster to use to travel to the Mortmain Mountains, the Baudelaires are forced to participate in the lion show. Count Olaf announces Violet and Klaus (as Beverly and Elliot) to be fed to the lions, they stall the feeding and cause a commotion among the audience allowing them to escape - however, Olaf's bald associate and Olivia fall into the lion pit to their deaths.

After it becomes apparent they can't continue the roller coaster plan, Olaf, (after burning down the majority of the carnival) invites them to join on a quest to the Mortmain Mountains. Believing this to be the only way to arrive there, they agree and ride on a caravan attached to the troupe's car. However, Olaf reveals that Lulu told him that they were the Baudelaires in disguise, and takes Sunny while the newly recruited freaks cut the rope connecting the car and caravan on a steep cliff, leaving the book on a literal cliffhanger.

Continuing on from ''The Carnivorous Carnival'', Violet and Klaus are in a caravan rolling down the Mortmain Mountains. Sunny is trapped in a car with Count Olaf, Esmé, and the theater troupe, which now includes the carnival's henchpeople. From materials in the caravan, Violet frantically constructs a drag chute and instructs Klaus to mix together sticky foodstuffs, which he pours on the tires. The caravan comes to a halt at the very edge of the cliff, and tumbles off when Violet and Klaus step out, leaving them with only a few clothes. They travel up the mountain and are attacked by Snow Gnats, so they take cover in a cave. Snow Scouts, led by Bruce (the man who collected Uncle Monty's reptiles from ''The Reptile Room''), are occupying the cave, and Carmelita Spats (a student from ''The Austere Academy'') is to be crowned Snow Queen. A masked Snow Scout communicates with the Baudelaires with "V.F.D." phrases such as "very foul day". At night, the scout wakes Violet and Klaus and leads them up a chimney. He calls it a "Vertical Flame Diversion" and at the end they reach a "Vernacularly Fastened Door", which allows the trio through once they solve three literary questions.

Meanwhile, Olaf and his troupe have reached the summit of Mount Fraught, and Sunny is forced to do their chores. She sleeps in a casserole dish in the car trunk. The next morning, she prepares breakfast for the troupe, but Olaf is furious at the cold meal. Two villains arrive, described as "the woman with hair but no beard" and "the man with a beard but no hair". Their aura frightens even Olaf, and they announce that they have burned down the nearby V.F.D. headquarters. They give Olaf the Snicket File, without the last page, and give Esmé a green object called a Verdant Flammable Device. Sunny uses the device to create smoke, which she hopes her siblings will see.

Violet, Klaus, and the masked Snow Scout are now in the ruins of the V.F.D. headquarters. The Snow Scout is Quigley, the Quagmire triplet whose siblings thought he perished in the fire that killed their parents. He explains that during the fire his mother hid him in an underground passage, which led to Uncle Monty's house. He learned about V.F.D. from Jacques Snicket shortly after the Baudelaires departed from Monty's house and traveled to find his siblings. Violet, Klaus, and Quigley then see green smoke from the mountain above them, and Violet constructs a device from a ukulele and forks, which can be used to climb the frozen stream. She travels up with Quigley and they reach Sunny, who wants to spy on Olaf. Violet reluctantly agrees, and climbs back down with Quigley.

In the V.F.D. library, Klaus has found a page from a code book explaining "Verbal Fridge Dialogue", and from the contents of a fridge in the headquarters, he learns that there is a meeting in the "last safe place" on Thursday. When Violet and Quigley arrive, the three plot to trap Esmé in order to exchange her for Sunny. They dig a pit overnight and lure Esmé down with a Verdant Flammable Device of Quigley's, but after becoming uncomfortable with the idea of kidnapping, they tell Esmé to avoid the pit. Wearing masks, they climb back up the stream with the toboggan that Esmé rode down on.

Klaus pretends to be a volunteer who will trade the location of the sugar bowl for Sunny. As Olaf and Esmé argue, the Snow Scout troupe arrive and Carmelita is crowned False Spring Queen. Olaf and Esmé invite her to join the troupe. Though the children warn them, the Snow Scouts are ensnared in a net by eagles that fly away with them. Olaf orders Sunny to be thrown off the mountain, but the White-Faced Women refuse and quit the troupe. Olaf tries to throw Sunny off the mountain, but she is hiding behind the car, not sleeping in the casserole dish. The three Baudelaires and Quigley escape down the stream with the toboggan, but the ice has now cracked enough to shatter the waterfall and separate Quigley from the Baudelaires.

Having been separated from Quigley Quagmire by the waterfall of the Mortmain Mountains, the Baudelaire children arrive at the hull of the ''Queequeg'', a submarine piloted by Captain Widdershins. They correctly guess the password, "the world is quiet here", and enter the porthole to meet Widdershins along with his stepdaughter Fiona and the chef Cookie, who they recognise as the optimist Phil that used to work for the Lucky Smells Lumbermill (in "The Miserable Mill"). Widdershins is a V.F.D. member and knew the Baudelaire parents; he talks with urgency but often gives contradicting instructions. He is traveling to the last safe place, the Hotel Denouement, but must first locate the sugar bowl, though he will not tell them what is inside.

Klaus examines the tidal charts to estimate that the sugar bowl is in the Gorgonian Grotto, but is interrupted by sonar detection of an octopus-shaped submarine that they suspect is captained by Count Olaf. The submarine is chased away by the Great Unknown, which appears on the sonar as a question mark. Fiona, a mycologist, discovers that the Gorgonian Grotto is home to the Medusoid Mycelium, a dangerous fungus which can kill within an hour of inhalation. As the grotto is conical, the ''Queequeg'' reaches a point where it is too wide to pass through, and instead the Baudelaire children and Fiona venture further in diving outfits. Reaching a beach, the children search through detritus in vain and are delayed in their return by the waxing and waning of Medusoid Mycelium. Sunny cooks a meal with ingredients on the beach, saving the wasabi for their return, as the others discover instructions for communicating with Verse Fluctuation Declaration, in which a message is hidden in a poem that has some of its words replaced.

On the children's return to the submarine, Widdershins and Phil are absent and Sunny is discovered to have been poisoned by Medusoid Mycelium. Olaf mounts the ''Queequeg'' and forces the children aboard his ship, the ''Carmelita''. The ship is powered by the labor of kidnapped children such as the Snow Scouts, who are forced to watch Carmelita dance and sing. The Baudelaires and Fiona are taken to the brig, which is being used as a jail. The hook-handed man—Fernald—is responsible for watching them, but the Baudelaires learn that he is Fiona's brother. Fernald is ashamed of his decision to leave Widdershins and join Olaf's troupe many years ago. He will help them return to the ''Queequeg'' if he can join them.

The Baudelaires successfully sneak past Carmelita and Esmé, but Fiona and Fernald are caught and forced to stay, under the premise that Fiona has defected to join Olaf. Violet realizes that it is her fifteenth birthday as Klaus discovers that horseradish is an antidote to the Medusoid Mycelium. Sunny calculates that wasabi should be a culinary equivalent and the wasabi from the beach is used to save her. A telegram from Quigley instructs the Baudelaires to meet him on Briny Beach, after using Verse Fluctuation Declaration on an extract of T.S. Eliot's ''The Waste Land''.

Olaf discovers the Baudelaires' escape and rejoins them on the ''Queequeg''. Fiona has defected to his troupe, genuinely this time. As he prepares to flee from the Great Unknown, which reappears on the radar, Fiona permits the Baudelaires to escape and gives Klaus a kiss goodbye. The children reach Briny Beach to find Mr. Poe—just as they did on the day they learned of their parents' death—but they leave him behind to enter a taxi with Kit Snicket at the wheel.

Bridget Gregory works as a telemarketing manager in New York City. Her husband, Clay, is training to be a doctor and is heavily in debt to a loan shark. He arranges to sell stolen pharmaceutical cocaine to two drug dealers. The transaction becomes tense when the buyers pull a gun, but to Clay's surprise, they eventually pay him $700,000. Clay is left shaken, and on his return home he slaps Bridget after she insults him. She then flees their apartment with the cash while he is in the shower.

On her way to Chicago, she stops in Beston, a small town near Buffalo. There she meets Mike Swale, a local man back from a whirlwind marriage in Buffalo that he refuses to talk about. He tries to pick Bridget up, and she proceeds to use him for mere sexual gratification during her stay in town. Adept at word games and mirror writing, and with an imminent return to her hometown in mind, Bridget changes her name to Wendy Kroy (as a reversal of 'New York') and gets a job at the insurance company where, coincidentally, Mike works. Their relationship is strained by her manipulative behavior and the fact he is falling for her.

When Mike tells her how to find out if a man is cheating on his wife by reading his credit reports, Bridget invents a plan based on selling murders to cheated wives. She suggests they start with Lance Collier, a cheating, wife-beating husband residing in Florida. This proves to be the last straw for Mike, and he leaves her alone in his place after an argument. Meanwhile, Clay's thumb is broken by the loan shark for not repaying his loan. Fearing for his health and in dire financial straits, he hires a private detective, Harlan, to retrieve the money from his wife.

Harlan traces her phone area code, travels to Beston, and accosts Bridget at gunpoint right after her argument with Mike. Bridget purposely crashes her car after tricking Harlan into removing his seat belt, resulting in his death. Because Harlan was black, she uses local racial prejudice to persuade the police to close the case without further investigation. Bridget then resumes her manipulation of Mike and pretends to travel to Florida to kill Lance Collier. Instead, she goes to Buffalo to meet Mike's ex-wife, Trish. Upon returning, Bridget shows Mike the money she stole from Clay, claiming it is her cut of the life insurance payout from the new widow.

Bridget claims to have done it so they can live together, then tries to persuade him that he must also commit a similar murder so they will be even and to prove that he loves her. She tries to talk Mike into killing a tax lawyer in New York City who is cheating old ladies out of their homes. At first he refuses, but later agrees after receiving a letter from Trish saying she is moving to Beston. The letter was forged by Bridget to change his mind.

Mike goes to New York and breaks into the apartment of the supposed attorney, who turns out to be Clay. After Mike hand cuffs Clay, Clay realizes what is happening when Mike mentions Bridget's alias, and convinces Mike of the truth by showing him a photo of himself and Bridget together. They then hatch a plot to double-cross her, unaware that the tables will be turned on them. Bridget arrives and the still-immobilized Clay, who has been clever enough to predict most of Bridget's actions but fails to understand her sociopathy, tries to make amends with her. Instead, she empties a pepper spray bottle down his throat, killing him. She tells a stunned Mike to rape her. When he refuses, she tells him she knows the truth about Trish, who is transgender, and goads him by calling him a homophobic slur. This causes Mike to have rough sex with her while acting out a rape fantasy. Unbeknownst to Mike, Bridget has dialed 9-1-1 and she coaxes him into "confessing" to Clay's murder as part of the role play. Mike is arrested for rape and murder, while she escapes with the cash, later calmly destroying the only evidence that could have been used in Mike's defense.

The book is a nonlinear narrative told by an anonymous narrator and begins on the morning of Santiago Nasar's death. The reader learns that Santiago lives with his mother, Placida Linero; the cook, Victoria Guzman; and the cook's daughter, Divina Flor. Santiago took over the successful family ranch after the death of his father Ibrahim, who was of Arab origin. He returns home in the early morning hours from an all-night celebration of a wedding between a recent newcomer, Bayardo San Roman, and a long-term resident, Angela Vicario. Two hours after the wedding, Angela was dragged back to her mother's home by Bayardo because she was not a virgin. After a beating from her mother, Angela is forced to reveal the name of the man who has defiled her purity and honor. In a somewhat spurious manner, she reveals the man to be Santiago. To avenge their family honor, her twin brothers Pablo and Pedro Vicario decide to kill Santiago using knives that they'd previously used to slaughter pigs.

The brothers proceed to the meat market in the pre-dawn hours to sharpen their knives and announce to the owner and other butchers that they plan to kill Santiago. No one believes the threat because Pablo and Pedro are considered "good people", and most interpret their threats as drunken rambling. Faustino Santos, a butcher friend, becomes suspicious and reports the threat to the policeman, Leandro Pornoy. The brothers proceed to Clotilde Armenta's milk shop where they tell her about the plan to kill Santiago, and she notices the knives wrapped in rags. Meanwhile, Officer Leandro talks with Colonel Aponte who, after leisurely dressing and enjoying his breakfast, proceeds to the milk shop and confiscates the brothers' knives, sending them off to sleep and calling them "a pair of big bluffers". Clotilde is still concerned that the twins will find another way to carry out their plan to murder Santiago and urges Colonel Aponte to intervene further "to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty", but he does nothing more.

Gossip about the twins' publicly announced plans spreads through the town, and though Clotilde asks everyone she sees to warn Santiago, no one does. Some did not believe they should get involved, some assume that he has already been warned, some believe the twins wouldn't really follow through, some are distracted by the arrival of the Bishop, some believe that the murder would be justified, and some secretly want Santiago dead. As the priest later confessed, "I didn't know what to do... it wasn't any business of mine but something for the civil authorities."

The brothers return to the milk shop wielding new knives, and this time Pedro expresses hesitation about their plan because he feels they had fulfilled their duty "when the mayor disarmed them". Nevertheless, they repeat their intention to kill Santiago. Santiago wakes up after an hour's sleep to get dressed and greet the bishop along with many of the townsfolk, who expect him to stop in their town while traveling elsewhere. As Santiago leaves, he does not notice the note that someone had left to warn him about Vicario brothers' threats on his life. The bishop's boat passes by the town without stopping even though people have been waiting for him with various gifts. Santiago then proceeds to his fiancée, who yells, "...I hope they kill you!" because she is upset about his involvement with Angela Vicario and decides not to warn him.

The murder of Santiago Nasar is described. His friend Cristo Bedoya had frantically looked for Santiago on the morning of the murder to warn him of the plan, but Cristo Bedoya failed to find Santiago, who was actually at his fiancée Flora Miguel's house. When Flora Miguel's father finds out, he warns Santiago minutes before the twins reach Santiago. Santiago becomes disoriented from the news and starts to run home. His mother, who is finally told, believes he is inside the house and, therefore, bars the front door to which Santiago is running while being chased by the Vicario brothers. He is repeatedly stabbed as he attempts to enter his home, over twenty times total with seven fatal wounds, as they discovered in an ill-performed autopsy performed by the priest. The murder is brutal as Santiago carries his own entrails and enters the back door of his home. He collapses in his kitchen and dies.

After the murder, the Vicario family leaves town due to the scandal and disgrace surrounding the events of Angela's wedding and Santiago's murder. Bayardo San Roman leaves town as well; his family comes by boat and picks him up. The Vicario twins spend three years in prison awaiting trial but are acquitted in court, after which Pablo marries his lover and Pedro leaves for the armed forces.

Only after Bayardo rejects Angela does she fall in love with him. After she moves away from the town with her family, Angela writes him a letter each week for seventeen years. At the end of seventeen years, Bayardo returns to her, carrying all of her letters in bundles, all unopened.

The plot primarily follows the adventures of a character known only as Our Heroine as she attempts to solve the mystery of her friend's murder while repeated flashbacks detail her family's past adventures in the underground Icelandic kingdom of Vanaheim.

The book follows two related but separate narrative threads: episodes from Oswald's life from his childhood until the assassination and his death, and the actions of other participants in the conspiracy. A secondary parallel story follows Nicholas Branch, a CIA archivist of more recent times assigned the monumental task of piecing together the disparate fragments of Kennedy's death.

Oswald is portrayed as a misfit antihero, whose overtly communist political views cause him difficulties fitting into American society. Raised by a single mother in The Bronx, Oswald enlists in the military in the 1950s and is stationed at the Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan, where he amuses his fellow airmen with his earnest left-wing ideology. Oswald defects to the Soviet Union after the end of his service and is interviewed by the KGB about the U-2 reconnaissance planes he observed at Atsugi, although he is unable to furnish much useful information. Following a suicide attempt, Oswald is moved to Minsk, where he works in a factory and meets a young woman, Marina, whom he marries. In the early 1960s, Oswald and Marina relocate to Texas.

Concurrently in the novel, a cadre of CIA agents disillusioned by Kennedy's perceived failure to adequately support the Bay of Pigs invasion hatch a plot to stage an assassination attempt and blame it on the Cuban government. The chief conspirators in the CIA are Win Everett, Lawrence Parmenter and TJ Mackey. The conspiracy grows to encompass several largely independent factions, including organized crime figures in New Orleans and a contingent of Cuban exiles in Miami. Although at first they planned to intentionally miss the President, at some point it is decided that the gunman should aim to kill.

After Oswald's return from the Soviet Union, he comes to the attention of the conspirators, who realize that his history of public support for communism makes him a perfect scapegoat. They make contact with him and guide him along the path to the assassination. Oswald also meets a fellow serviceman in Dallas who has become a black nationalist, and the two men attempt an assassination of the far-right General Edwin Walker in his living room.

On November 22, 1963, as President Kennedy's motorcade is passing through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Oswald shoots at him from the Texas School Book Depository, while a small group of Cuban exiles fires from behind the grassy knoll. Oswald is able to escape the scene of the crime because, as an employee of the Depository, the police do not identify him as a suspect. Later that afternoon, he shoots a Dallas patrolman who stops him for suspicious behavior. Oswald goes to a movie theater where the CIA conspiracy had planned to have him killed, but before they can do so he is apprehended by the Dallas police. A few days later, Oswald is murdered in police custody by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with underworld connections who was manipulated into killing Oswald by the conspirators.

At the end of the novel, Oswald is buried under an alias in a grave in Fort Worth in a small ceremony attended by his immediate family members.

The Sixth Doctor boldly claims the Valeyard's evidence has been falsified, and the Matrix has been tampered with. The Keeper of the Matrix insists this is impossible. Glitz and Mel arrive unexpectedly in the courtroom. The Master appears on the Matrix screen to claim responsibility and to demonstrate it's possible to breach the Matrix. At the Master's insistence, Glitz reveals the data he tried to obtain on Ravolox included technological secrets from the Matrix, which was stolen by the Sleepers. The Time Lords traced the Sleepers to their base on Earth and dragged the planet across space to the location in which the Doctor found it, nearly annihilating all life on the planet in the process. The Doctor denounces the Time Lords as decadent and corrupt. The Master explains that the Valeyard is a manifestation of the Doctor's darker side "somewhere between [the Doctor's] twelfth and final incarnation"; the High Council offered the Valeyard the Doctor's remaining regenerations in exchange for falsifying evidence.

When the Doctor demands to halt the trial as he cannot be both the defendant and prosecutor, the Valeyard flees into the Matrix, a virtual reality where normal logic does not apply. The Doctor pursues with Glitz, emerging next to a building labelled "The Fantasy Factory (proprietor: J. J. Chambers)". A clerk named Mr. Popplewick sends them to a deserted wasteland. To the Doctor's horror, hands emerge from the ground and grab him, dragging him underground. Glitz is unable to rescue him, but the Doctor rises from the ground unharmed, insisting correctly that nothing that happens in the Matrix is real. The Valeyard appears and taunts the Doctor before unleashing nerve gas, forcing the Doctor and Glitz to take refuge in a run-down cottage. As they stumble inside, it dematerialises – it is the Master's TARDIS.

The Master reveals that he wishes the Doctor to prevail over the Valeyard, since he fears the Valeyard's ability to defeat him. He puts the Doctor into a catatonic state and sends him out of his TARDIS to lure the Valeyard out of hiding. The Valeyard emerges onto a balcony, but fires upon the Master, forcing him to flee. Mel emerges from a tunnel and the Doctor, recognising her voice, emerges from his trance. She leads him out of the Matrix and into the trial room. They agree that she should tell the truth, and she confirms to the court that the scenes of the Vervoids' destruction, the basis of the Valeyard's charge of genocide, are as she witnessed them. The Inquisitor finds the Doctor guilty and declares that his life is forfeit. He accepts the verdict as the fulfilment of justice and is led off to execution.

However, this is another illusion. Mel is frantic that the Doctor needs help, grabbing the Keeper's key and entering the Matrix. She finds the Doctor and warns him – but he had already realised the courtroom was a fake and merely wished to reach a final confrontation with the Valeyard. Bribed by the Master, Glitz returns to the Fantasy Factory; he finds the master tape of the data he thought was destroyed on Ravolox. Glitz escapes with the data to the Master's TARDIS, while the Doctor asks Popplewick for Chambers; Popplewick doesn't comply. The Doctor and Mel lay hold of him, and the Doctor peels away his face to reveal Popplewick as a disguised Valeyard. They realise that a concealed machine in the room is a particle disseminator, with which the Valeyard plans to murder the members of the court.

The Inquisitor learns the High Council has been deposed. The Master appears on the Matrix screen to offer to impose order in return for power. He loads Glitz's master tape into his TARDIS systems, but a booby-trap is triggered, paralysing him and Glitz. Mel emerges from the Matrix to warn the Time Lords. They cannot turn off the Matrix screen, but the Doctor sabotages the Valeyard's weapon and the Fantasy Factory explodes; he flees the Matrix, back to the courtroom. The Inquisitor drops the charges against him and reveals that Peri survived the events on Thoros Beta and became Yrcanos's queen. She urges the Doctor to stand for Lord President of the new Council, but he suggests she should stand. He urges the Time Lords to be lenient towards Glitz, while he returns Mel back to her proper time.

As the Inquisitor leaves the trial room, she gives instructions to the Keeper of the Matrix. As he looks up at the camera, he is revealed to be the Valeyard.

Set in the year 2038, ''Earth'' is a cautionary tale of the harm humans can cause their planet via disregard for the environment and reckless scientific experiments. The book has a large cast of characters and Brin uses them to address a number of environmental issues, including endangered species, global warming, refugees from ecological disasters, ecoterrorism, and the social effects of overpopulation. The plot of the book involves an artificially created black hole which has been lost in the Earth's interior and the attempts to recover it before it destroys the planet. The events and revelations which follow reshape humanity and its future in the universe. It also includes a war pitting most of the Earth against Switzerland, fueled by outrage over the Swiss allowing generations of kleptocrats to hide their stolen wealth in the country's banks.

The scope of the story expands vastly as the plot gradually reveals itself, bringing into question the future course—and even the survival—of humanity.

The Royal Hong Kong Police Force is planning a major undercover sting to arrest crime lord Chu Tao. Inspector Chan Ka-Kui (or Kevin Chan in some versions) is part of the operation, along with undercover officers stationed in a shantytown. However, the criminals spot the officers and the shootout ensues between the two groups in which civilians either flee the town or caught in the crossfire as a result of the gunfight. Chu Tao and his men successfully flee in their car by driving through the town but crashes it immediately after going downhill and escapes on foot. Ka-Kui persists in his chase on foot as Chu Tao and his men attempt to escape in a double-decker bus. Ka-Kui manages to get in front of the bus and bring it to a halt by threatening to shoot the driver with his service revolver.

Later, Ka-Kui is reprimanded by Superintendent Li for letting the operation get out of hand but subsequently presented to the media as a model police officer. His next assignment is to protect Chu Tao's secretary, Salina Fong, who plans to testify in court about Chu Tao's illegal activities. At first, Salina insists that she does not require protection, but Ka-Kui has a fellow policeman break into her apartment and pose as a knife-wielding assassin. Ka-Kui and Salina fight him off and she agrees to be more cooperative. The two drive away in her car, but are ambushed by Chu Tao's actual hitmen, who are scared away when Salina threatens them with Ka-Kui's revolver.

When Ka-Kui arrives at his apartment with Salina, he is surprised to find his girlfriend, May and her friends throwing a birthday party for him, but May becomes angry with Ka-Kui after seeing Salina only wearing lingerie and Ka-Kui's jacket. Ka-Kui eventually explains to May that Salina is a witness, but only after much bumbling and embarrassment. While he tries to apologize to May, Salina discovers that the attack at her apartment was a sham, and decides to record over her taped confession about working for Chu Tao that took place in the car ride there. She sneaks away while Ka-Kui is sleeping and is not present at the trial the next day, which ends with failure for the prosecution because of Salina's absence and tampering with the recording.

Though Chu Tao is released on bail, he wants revenge against Ka-Kui. He captures Salina and threatens to kill her to ensure her silence. Ka-Kui finds and frees her, but is attacked by several of Chu Tao's men. When fellow Police Inspector Man arrives (Kam Hing Ying), he reveals that he had been working with Chu Tao and thus Salina's capture was merely a ruse to trap Ka-Kui. To Man's grim surprise, the plan is also to include Tao's men killing him with Kui's gun to frame him for murder. Now a fugitive cop killer, Ka-Kui must try to catch Chu Tao and clear his name, taking his superintendent as a hostage in order to escape custody, though he soon lets his co-operative superior go free.

Salina goes to Chu Tao's office at a shopping mall to download incriminating data from Chu Tao's computer system. Chu Tao notices this and he and his men rush to the shopping mall to intervene. Ka-Kui and May, who are monitoring Chu Tao's activities, follow. In the ensuing carnage, Ka-Kui defeats all of Chu Tao's henchmen (and destroys a good portion of the mall). The briefcase containing the computer data falls to the bottom floor of the mall, but Chu Tao retrieves it after attacking May. Ka-Kui, at the top floor, slides down a pole wrapped in lightbulbs to the bottom floor and catches Chu, but the rest of the police force quickly arrives and prevent him from further taking matters into his own hands. Salina attests to them that Danny Chu killed Inspector Man and evidence of his crimes is in the briefcase. Chu's defence attorney shows up and accuses the police of misconduct, prompting a beating from an at-wit's-end Ka-Kui, who goes on to extend the beating to Chu Tao before being stopped by his friends.

In 1965, a Hong Kong couple (Sylvia Chang and James Wong) are doting on their newborn identical twin boys. Meanwhile, a dangerous gang leader named Crazy Kung (Kirk Wong) is being transported as a captive in the same hospital. Crazy Kung escapes and attempts to take one of the twins hostage, and in the ensuing chaos the twins are permanently separated. One of the twins, named Ma Yau, is taken to America by his parents and grows up to be a concert pianist and conductor. The other twin, Ma Wan, is found and raised by an alcoholic woman named Tsui (Mabel Cheung), and becomes a street racer and martial artist named Bok Min. For years, neither of them is aware that he has an identical twin brother.

26 years later, the twins' (Jackie Chan) lives intersect again: Bok Min and his best friend Tarzan (Teddy Robin) get mixed up with a dangerous gang, while Ma Yau prepares to conduct a major concert in Hong Kong. In addition, the twins gain romantic interests: Bok Min meets Barbara (Maggie Cheung), a club singer Tarzan is interested in, and Yau becomes acquainted with Tong Sum (Nina Li Chi), a young woman from a respectable family who has a secret passion for fighter types. Eventually, the twins meet and discover that they share a strange connection with each other. As a result, a string of hilarious mix-ups ensues when Ma Yau is accidentally enlisted by the gangsters to participate as an escape driver in the liberation of none other than Crazy Kung; Bok Min in turn is forced to conduct Yau's concert (which becomes a smash hit despite him having absolutely no musical talent); and the two of them end up with the other's girl as their respective love interest.

Eventually, things come to a head when the gangsters kidnap Tarzan to make Ma Yau surrender a briefcase meant for Crazy Kung, which Ma Yau had accidentally nabbed. The twins join up to defeat the gang that has turned their lives upside down, and in a showdown in a vehicle testing center Crazy Kung dies in a runaway crash test car. The film ends with the impending double wedding of the twins to their girls and Bok Min's introduction to his real parents; but when Bok Min gets cold feet and Ma Yau goes looking for him, a final gag falls into place when the wedding guests catch the two twins together and are unable to tell them apart.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Jerry Kwan (Jackie Chan) leads a very easy-going life with his girlfriend, Nancy (Kristine DeBell), and his family. His father owns a restaurant, and one day, he is threatened by the mob to pay a part of his profits. As the mob exits, Jerry enters the scene and rushes out the door to catch up with them. He answers back by taking them on and eventually catches the eye of the mob for his unique and talented fighting abilities. In effect, he is forced to join the Battle Creek Brawl fight in Texas. The mob promises to return his brother's fiancèe and give him the prize money as long as Jerry wins the tournament. He gets help from his uncle, a kung-fu teacher, to train him for the Battle Creek Brawl. They focus on Jerry's speed and agility as he must fight very tough opponents, one of them including Billy Kiss (H.B. Haggerty), the big, bulky, unbeatable winner from previous battles who kisses his opponents after they are defeated.

In 1943, United States Navy sailors David Herdeg and Jim Parker serve aboard destroyer escort USS ''Eldridge'', docked in Philadelphia. Doctor James Longstreet and his team conduct an experiment to render the ship invisible to radar, but a malfunction causes the ship to disappear. David and Jim's attempts to stop the experiment fail and they jump overboard to escape.

They land during the night in a small town, which also disappears, leaving them marooned in a desert. Startled by the appearance of an unfamiliar aircraft (a helicopter), they flee and Jim is nearly electrocuted by an electric fence. Eventually, they find their way to a roadside diner. An energy discharge from Jim destroys two arcade games, forcing an altercation with the owner. Fleeing to the parking lot, they take a woman named Allison hostage and force her to drive them away. Confused by their surroundings, they are shocked when Allison tells them that the year is 1984. They are tracked and apprehended by the police. Jim, who is suffering increasingly severe seizures, is hospitalized before disappearing from his hospital bed in a flash of light. David and Allison then evade military police, who have arrived to take David into custody.

Learning that they are near Jim's birthplace, Santa Paula California, David decides to try to find his family. Jim's wife Pamela, who is now a senior citizen, immediately recognizes David from 1943. She says that the ''Eldridge'' had reappeared minutes after disappearing. Jim had also returned and had been chastised and hospitalized after telling the truth about temporarily visiting 1984. David finds that he himself never returned. David sees an elderly Jim outside a window but Jim refuses to speak with him. As David and Allison leave, they see military police approaching and a high speed chase through Jim's ranch ensues. The two manage to elude them when the pursuing vehicle crashes and burns. From the burning wreck, David salvages documents mentioning Longstreet. Recognizing that Longstreet had been involved with the Philadelphia experiment in 1943, David decides to find him. As they spend time together, David and Allison fall in love.

In 1984, Longstreet has attempted to use the same technologies that were used in the ''Eldridge'' experiment to create a shield as protection from an ICBM attack. When the equipment was tested, the shielded town disappeared into "hyperspace". The scientists are unable to shut down the experiment, which has created a vortex that is drawing matter into it and causes extremely unstable and severe weather. Longstreet predicts that the vortex will continue to expand until the entire world is consumed. The scientists send a probe into the vortex and discover the ''Eldridge'' inside. They theorize that the two experiments have linked together with the generators on the ''Eldridge'' powering the vortex.

David captures an assistant at Longstreet's home and forces the man to take them onto the base. Longstreet explains the situation to David and tells him that, according to surviving sailors from the ''Eldridge'', the ship returned to Philadelphia in 1943 after David shut down the generator. Longstreet says that David must go through the vortex to the ''Eldridge'' and terminate the experiment or the vortex will destroy the Earth.

David is outfitted with an electrically insulated suit and catapulted into the vortex. He lands on the deck of the ''Eldridge'', where he finds crew members badly injured. He hurries to the generator room and smashes arrays of vacuum tubes using a firefighting axe. The generator shuts down and David looks for Jim. Assured that Jim is fine, David jumps over the side of the ship and disappears. Back in 1943, Longstreet and others watch the ''Eldridge'' reappear in Philadelphia, revealing crew members with severe burns, while others have been fused alive into the ship's hull.

In 1984, the missing town reappears as Allison and David are reunited.

Donald receives a postcard from his sister, Dumbella, which says that her three boys, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, are coming to visit him. At first, Donald is excited to see his nephews, but soon the boys start causing trouble.

Consulting a book called ''Modern Child Training'', Donald tries to use the suggestions to gain control over his nephews, but things only get worse. In the end, after the boys leave and with his house left almost destroyed, Donald finds out that the sentence "After all, little children are only angels without wings" is "Phooey!", and tears off the book in an explosive rage.

Donald visits the house of his new love interest, Daisy, for their first known date. Donald tried to woo her and hug her, but at first Daisy acts shy and has her back turned to her visitor. But Donald soon notices her tail feathers taking the form of a hand and signaling for him to come closer. But their time alone is soon interrupted by Huey, Dewey, and Louie who have just followed their uncle and clearly compete with him for the attention of Daisy.

Donald and the nephews take turns dancing the jitterbug with her while trying to get rid of each other. In their final effort the three younger ducks feed their uncle maize in the process of becoming popcorn. The process is completed within Donald himself who continues to move wildly around the house while maintaining the appearance of dancing. The short ends with an impressed Daisy showering her new lover with red kisses.

The story begins with Aunt Mae, a former actress and singer, moving in with David's white working-class family in the middle of a small southern town. Aunt Mae becomes sexually involved with a 70-year-old man, ending when he is arrested on morality charges. From subsequent events David learns he does not get along with the other boys his own age. At this point, suggestive of the Great Depression, David's father, Frank, loses his factory job. The family moves to an older house on a hill overlooking the town.

The family's circumstances worsen and Frank becomes frustrated. One week he spends his entire paycheck on seeds and other farming supplies. His wife insists that crops cannot grow in the clay of the hill soil. An argument ensues and he strikes her with his knee, knocking out one of her teeth. She bleeds badly, but it eventually subsides. Subsequently Frank is shipped to Italy to fight in World War II.

While Frank is in Italy, a traveling 'revival' ministry visits town. The traveling preacher teaches that popular dance is a prelude to 'immorality'. The town's local preacher opposes this incursion and begins a rival Bible study class. These options divide the town. Through editorials in the newspaper and spots on the town radio station, each side attacks the other. Meanwhile, Aunt Mae takes a job in the local propeller factory as a supervisor. At a company dance which she organizes, Aunt Mae entertains by singing. This leads to her being invited to join the hired band, singing for pay.

David's mother goes insane after learning that Frank had been killed in Italy. She becomes uncommunicative, spending most of her time among the wild pines that have grown over Frank's failed crops, otherwise fixating her attention on a photograph of a graveyard that she received via telegram notifying her of Frank's death. David and Aunt Mae take care of her, as Aunt Mae pursues singing. At age 15, David gets a job at the pharmacy in town. There he encounters Jo Lynne, a girl visiting the valley while her grandfather is ill. After seeing a melodramatic movie, David and Jo Lynne kiss.

Clyde, a member of Aunt Mae's band, is in love with her, and is certain they would get a record deal in Nashville. She leaves for Nashville promising that she will immediately send for David and his mother. On strength of this promise, David quits his job. After seeing Aunt Mae off, he reflects on his situation. He does not know his mother's whereabouts, but assumes she is in the house since she is afraid to go out at night. He fixes himself dinner rather than searching the house for his mother. After eating, as he climbs the stairs he steps in blood. He finds his mother collapsed, bleeding profusely from her mouth. He picks her up and puts her into bed. The bleeding quells with the help of an old blanket, but it is too late. After some time she dies, exhaling one last word — "Frank."

Immediately the imperious local preacher arrives announcing he is taking David's mother to an asylum. David tells the preacher to leave, but the man is undaunted, and begins to charge up the stairs to get David's mother. David grabs his father's rifle and shoots the preacher through the back of the head, killing him. David then buries his mother in the yard and walks into town, using money given to him by the pharmacy owner, Mr. Williams, to board a train, hoping to start anew wherever he might be destined for.

On a dark and stormy evening, Minnie comes home to find Mickey playing a ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' video game and becomes angry over Mickey having forgotten that tonight is the anniversary of their first date. Mickey comes up with the last-minute idea to take her to a miniature golf course and shows her a newspaper ad for it, but she instead notices another ad for a trip to Hawaii, which costs $999.99, and mistakes it for Mickey's gift. Mickey frets over how he can make enough money for the trip when Pluto shows him an ad to work with a mad scientist named Dr. Frankenollie for a day of "mindless work" that would pay the amount of money Mickey needs.

Upon reaching the home of the primate-like Dr. Frankenollie, Mickey is dropped down a trapdoor into Frankenollie's laboratory, the doctor reveals a plan to switch Mickey's brain with that of his enormous monster, Julius. The experiment causes an explosion that kills Frankenollie, but the brain transfer is a success, with Mickey's mind ending up in Julius' giant body and Julius in control of Mickey's body.

The dimwitted and insane Julius finds Mickey's wallet and notices a photo of Minnie, whom he instantly becomes smitten with. He escapes from the laboratory and finds Minnie while she is shopping for swimsuits, Minnie immediately mistakes Julius for Mickey. Mickey arrives in Julius' body to save Minnie, but Minnie becomes terrified of his appearance and screams for help, until Mickey convinces her of who he is and places her on the top of a skyscraper.

Julius continues to pursue Minnie, leading to a battle between Mickey and Julius during which they land on a telephone line and get zapped, switching their minds back to their original bodies. Mickey continues to fight Julius, the two of them reaching the top of the tower, where Mickey manages to rescue Minnie as well as tie Julius down with rope. Mickey uses a huge billboard for a Hawaiian vacation getaway to suspend Julius over the city streets, with the giant reeling up and down like a yo-yo.

Finally, Mickey and Minnie travel to Hawaii together on an inflatable boat pulled by Julius as he swims after the photo of Minnie in Mickey's wallet, which is attached to a fishing line held by Mickey.

Four years after the events on Isla Nublar, a wealthy family docks their yacht ashore the nearby Isla Sorna. Their daughter wanders off and is attacked by a group of ''Compsognathus'', but is saved. An ailing Dr. John Hammond invites mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm to discuss the incident. InGen is now headed by Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow, who used the incident to take control of the company from Hammond. Ian learns that InGen had created the Jurassic Park dinosaurs on Isla Sorna, and Ludlow wants to exploit the island's creatures to save InGen from bankruptcy. Hammond asks Ian to join a team who will document the dinosaurs in their natural habitat, to encourage a policy of non-interference. Ian's girlfriend, paleontologist Dr. Sarah Harding, was hired and is already on the island. Ian reluctantly agrees to go, but only to retrieve her.

Ian travels to Isla Sorna with Eddie Carr, an equipment specialist and engineer, and Nick Van Owen, a video documentarian and activist. They find Sarah amidst a herd of ''Stegosaurus'', but she insists on staying to continue her research. Ian is shocked when he discovers his daughter Kelly has stowed away in a trailer, which serves as their mobile base. Ludlow and a mercenary team arrive on the island and capture dinosaurs, with help from big-game hunters Roland Tembo and Ajay Sidhu, Roland's second-in-command Dieter Stark, and paleontologist Dr. Robert Burke.

Malcolm's group realizes Ludlow and the InGen team plan to ship the captured specimens to a proposed Jurassic Park attraction in San Diego. Nick and Sarah free the captured dinosaurs, and the animals wreak havoc on the InGen team's camp. On the way back to the trailer, Nick rescues an injured ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' infant that Roland used as bait to hunt its male parent. Nick and Sarah treat the infant's broken leg, but the ''Tyrannosaurus'' adults arrive. They reclaim their infant, destroy the trailer, and devour Eddie during his attempt to rescue the group.

Ian, Sarah, Nick, and Kelly are rescued by Ludlow's team, and are forced to work together after losing all their communications equipment. They elect to walk ''en masse'' inland to an abandoned InGen base to call for help. During a break, Stark goes into the wilderness alone to relieve himself and is killed by a group of ''Compsognathus''. After the team sets up a camp for the night, they are ambushed by the ''Tyrannosaurus'' adults: Burke is devoured, and everyone else flees into a field of long grass containing a pack of ''Velociraptors'', which kill Ajay and most of the InGen team.

Ian, Sarah, Kelly, and Nick reach the InGen base, fight off three ''Velociraptors'', and successfully radio for helicopter extraction. After being rescued, Nick reveals that he stole Roland's ammunition to prevent him from killing his trophy, but they learn Roland sedated the male ''Tyrannosaurus'' with tranquilizers instead. As InGen personnel arrive on the island to secure the male and infant, Roland declines Ludlow's job offer at the San Diego park, reflecting on Ajay's death and the morality of Ludlow's scheme.

In San Diego, Ian and Sarah attempt to convince Ludlow to abandon his plans, but the ship carrying the male ''Tyrannosaurus'' suddenly crashes into the docks. The crew is found dead, and the ''Tyrannosaurus'' breaks free and goes on a rampage in the city. Ian and Sarah locate the infant at the planned park and use it to lure the male back to the docks. Ludlow pursues the animals onto the ship, and tries to catch them within the cargo hold, but he is injured by the adult before being mauled to death by the infant. Sarah uses a tranquilizer gun to sedate the male, while Ian seals the cargo hold doors.

In the aftermath, the dinosaurs are shipped back to Isla Sorna accompanied by a naval escort, while Ian, Sarah and Kelly watch Hammond in a televised interview announce that the American and Costa Rican governments have declared the island a nature preserve.

Child psychologist Catherine Deane is hired to conduct an experimental virtual reality treatment for coma patients: a "Neurological Cartography and Synaptic Transfer System" device managed by doctors Henry West and Miriam Kent that allows her to enter a comatose mind and attempt to coax them into consciousness. The technology is funded by the parents of her patient, Edward Baines, a young boy left comatose by a viral infection that causes an unusual form of schizophrenia. Despite Deane's lack of progress, West and Kent reject Deane's suggestion to reverse the feed to bring Baines into her mind, fearing the consequences of him experiencing an unfamiliar world.

Serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher traps his victims in a cell in the form of a glass enclosure that slowly fills with water by means of an automatic timer, then uses a hoist in his basement to suspend himself above their bodies while watching the recorded video of their deaths. He succumbs to the same schizophrenic illness and falls into a coma just as the FBI identifies him, leaving them without any leads as to the location of his latest victim, Julia Hickson. After learning of this experimental technology, Agent Peter Novak persuades Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover Hickson's location.

Deane enters the dark dreamscape of Stargher's twisted psyche, filled with doll-like versions of his victims. Stargher's innocent side manifests as Young Stargher and leads Deane through his memories of abuse he suffered at the hands of his sadistic father. Deane nurtures Young Stargher in hopes of getting Hickson's location but she is thwarted by another manifestation: King Stargher, a demonic idealization of his murderous side that dominates the dreamscape. King Stargher torments Deane until she forgets the world is not real. Dr. West discovers this while monitoring Deane's vitals. He warns that what happens to Deane while she is integrated into Stargher's mindscape will inflict neurological damage on her real body. Novak volunteers to enter Stargher's mind to make Deane remember herself.

Inside Stargher's mind, Novak is captured and subjected to King Stargher's torture while Deane looks on as Stargher's servant. Novak reminds Deane of a painful memory of her younger brother who died after a 6-month coma due to a car accident during her college years to reawaken her awareness that she is in Stargher's mind. Deane breaks free of Stargher's hold and stabs King Stargher to free Novak. During their escape, Novak sees a version of the glass enclosure with the same insignia as the hoist in Stargher's basement. Novak's team discovers that after the hoist's previous owner went bankrupt, the government hired Stargher to seal up his property. Novak races to the property and finds Hickson treading water in the enclosure and breathing through a pipe. Novak breaks the glass wall and rescues Hickson.

Deane, now sympathetic to Young Stargher, locks her colleagues out and reverses the feed of the device to pull Stargher's mind into her own. She presents a comforting paradise to Young Stargher but he knows it is only a temporary reprieve from King Stargher. He shifts to Adult Stargher to relate a childhood story of when he drowned an injured bird as a mercy killing to prevent its torture at his father's hands. King Stargher intrudes as a scaly snake-man but this time, Deane is in control and she beats him to a bloody pulp before impaling him with a sword. However, Young Stargher exhibits the same injuries as King Stargher, and killing either manifestation kills Stargher. Adult Stargher reminds her of the story of the bird and implores her to "save" him. Deane carries Young Stargher into a pool, putting him out of his misery as Stargher dies in the real world.

In the aftermath, Deane and Novak meet outside of Stargher's house. The FBI has officially excluded the mind technology from their inquiry and Deane has gotten approval to use the reverse feed on Edward Baines. The final scene is of Baines walking to embrace Deane inside the paradise of Deane's mindscape.

The Fourth Doctor and his companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are intercepted by the Time Lords. The Doctor is instructed to interfere with the creation of the Daleks so as to avert a future in which the Daleks rule the universe; he is given a Time Ring to return them to his TARDIS when the mission is complete. The three find themselves on the Dalek planet of Skaro. A generations-long war between the Thals and the Kaleds has left the planet inhospitable, and the two sides have congregated in their own domes for protection and continue the war.

A chemical weapon attack forces them to take shelter. Sarah is separated but meets the Mutos, mutated exiles of both sides, who try to help protect her before they are all captured by the Thals and forced to load radioactive material on a missile. The Doctor and Harry are captured by the Kaleds, their possessions confiscated, and are taken to a bunker to meet the scientific and military elite, including the lead scientist Davros, who unveils the "Mark III travel machine", or "Dalek", which the Doctor recognises as his nemesis. Ronson, one of Davros' scientists, secretly tells the Doctor that he knows Davros' experiments are unethical, and the Doctor is able to convince the Kaled leadership to put a halt to Davros' experiments. Davros learns of Ronson's actions, and covertly provides the Thal leaders a chemical formula that can weaken the Kaled dome and make it vulnerable to their missile attack, while preparing twenty more Daleks.

The Doctor and Harry make their way to the Thal dome and rescue Sarah. However, the Doctor is captured by the Thals as the missile strikes the Kaled dome, wiping out all but those in the bunker. Davros accuses Ronson of giving the Thals the chemical formula and then orders the Daleks to kill him, and convinces the remaining leaders to let him have his Daleks attack the Thal dome. The Dalek attack kills many of the Thals, and the Doctor, his companions, and the surviving Thals and Mutos make their way to the Kaled bunker. The Doctor instructs the Thals and Mutos to find a way to destroy the bunker while he and his companions go inside to recover the Time Ring. While there, the Doctor is captured by Davros, who discovers the Doctor knows of the future of the Daleks, and forces the Doctor to record all he knows, so that Davros can program the Daleks to avoid failure in the future.

Other scientists working for Davros, now aware of his plans, free the Doctor and give him enough time to rig the Dalek incubation room with explosives which would end the threat of the Daleks. As he is about to touch the two exposed wire ends to set them off, he hesitates, questioning whether he has the right to make that decision. He is relieved to learn that Davros has agreed to stop and allow the Kaled leaders to vote on the continuation of the project. As the leaders gather for this vote, the Doctor is able to recover the Time Ring and destroy the recordings he made, while learning that the Thals and Mutos have prepared the means to destroy the bunker. As the vote is called, Davros reveals this was all a decoy, giving the Daleks he sent to destroy the Thals time to return to the bunker and exterminate the remaining Kaleds. Harry and Sarah escape the chaos, while the Doctor returns to set off the incubator room's explosives, but a Dalek inadvertently completes the circuit and sets it off itself. The Doctor escapes before the Thal and Mutos' bomb caves in the bunker, trapping Davros and the Daleks. Inside, Davros realises the Daleks have gained a will of their own when they refuse to take orders from a non-Dalek. He attempts to stop the production line but is seemingly exterminated by his own creations.

The Doctor suspects that he has managed to set back Dalek evolution by several centuries, and considers his mission complete. He and his companions say goodbye to the surviving Thals and Mutos before using the Time Ring to return to the TARDIS.

Gary Oldman plays Ben Chase, a brash young defense attorney whose success is built on his willingness to manipulate the judicial system for the benefit of his clients. In spite of his career success as an attorney Ben is starting to show signs of serious alcoholism. When he successfully defends Martin Thiel, the scion of a wealthy, prominent family, against a murder charge, the game turns on him.

Martin lures Ben to the scene of another murder and retains Ben to defend him, even before he is charged. Knowing his client is guilty, Ben struggles at last with the reality of his ethics, until he resolves to oppose Martin secretly, hoping he will incriminate himself.

As Martin’s ultimate plan unfolds, both he and Ben will be forced to reexamine everything they hold to be true.

Julian Kay is a male escort in Los Angeles whose clientele is upper-class women. His job supports and requires an expensive taste in cars and clothes and affords him a luxury Westwood apartment. He is blatantly materialistic, narcissistic and superficial. He takes pleasure in his work from being able to sexually satisfy women, offering and selling his body to women.

Julian's procurer, Anne, sends him on an assignment with a wealthy old widow, Mrs. Dobrun, who is visiting town. Afterwards, he goes to the hotel bar and meets Michelle Stratton, a California state senator's wife, who becomes obsessed with him. Julian's pimp Leon sends him to Palm Springs on a "substitute" assignment to the house of Mr. Rheiman, a wealthy financier. Rheiman asks Julian to have sado-masochistic sex with his wife Judy while he is watching them. The next day, Julian berates Leon for sending him to a "rough trick" and makes it clear he declines kinky or gay assignments. Leon warns Julian that the wealthy, older women he serves will turn on him and discard him without a second thought.

As Julian begins to have a relationship with Michelle, he learns that Judy Rheiman has been murdered. Los Angeles Police Department Detective Sunday identifies Julian as the prime suspect. Though Julian was with Lisa Williams, another client, on the night of the murder, she protects her marriage by not providing an alibi for Julian.

Julian discovers evidence about the murder. He realizes that he is being framed and grows increasingly desperate. His clothes become rumpled, he goes unshaven and drives a cheap rental car (after painstakingly searching his Mercedes and finding Judy's jewelry that was planted in it to frame him). He neglects to pick up an important client for Anne that he had been scheduled to escort, angering Anne and causing her to shun him. Julian warns Michelle that he is in trouble and, hoping to protect her, he tells her to leave him alone.

Julian concludes that Leon and Rheiman are the ones trying to frame him and that one of Leon's other gigolos was the murderer. Julian goes to confront Leon, telling him the truth and trying to clear his name. Leon refuses to help him and remains implacable. In a fit of rage, Julian pushes Leon from the apartment balcony; although Julian immediately regrets his action and tries to save him, Leon nevertheless falls to his death. With no one to help him, Julian ends up in jail, helplessly awaiting trial for Judy's murder. Michelle reconciles with Julian by telling the police that she was with Julian the night of Judy's murder, sacrificing her reputation and marriage to save him.

''In Dubious Battle'' deals with a fruit-workers' strike in a California valley and the attempts of labor unions to organize, lead, and provide for the striking pickers.

Jim Nolan meets Harry Nilson who initiates Jim's application process to become the newest member of the Party. Mac "Doc" McLeod, the Party organizer, tells Jim they will go to the Torgas Valley (a composite location) in an attempt to rouse the two thousand fruit pickers against the Growers' Association, and to encourage the strike to spill over into the cotton fields in Tandale.

Momentum for strike action builds after old Dan breaks two rungs out of a ladder and falls. London becomes chairman of a committee of seven men, while Mac convinces Alfred Anderson's father, Al, to loan five acres as a base for the fruit pickers in exchange for them picking his crop for free. Doc Burton is hired by Mac to maintain the sanitation of the strikers' camp, so as to prevent it from being disbanded by the Red Cross.

The course of the strike is recounted in some detail, including the politics of the local growers, the support by Al through his little luncheonette, the "sweet-talking" of some locals in order to garner food and other help for the pickers, and personal crises and tragedies in individual cases. Mac emerges as a heroic but quite single-minded figure; Jim's occasional doubts are presented as well.

Jim joins Sam in a picket as they go after some 'scabs' in the apple orchard. Sam's pickets violently injure them. While out on the road Dakin, the leader of the pickers, is ambushed by a vigilante group at gunpoint. This is disrupted by the arrival of traffic cops whose presence calms Dakin. In the aftermath, Jim is killed by a high powered shotgun. As the book ends, Mac is continuing to rouse and motivate the picketers, in spite of seemingly hopeless odds.

In the Soviet Union in 1927, a former Marshal of Nobility, Ippolit Matveyevich "Kisa" Vorobyaninov, works as the registrar of marriages and deaths in a sleepy provincial town. His mother-in-law reveals on her deathbed that her family jewellery was hidden from the Bolsheviks in one of the twelve chairs from the family’s dining room set. Those chairs, along with all other personal property, were taken away by the Communists after the Russian Revolution. Vorobyaninov wants to find the treasure. The “smooth operator” and con-man Ostap Bender forces Kisa to become his partner, as they set out to find the chairs. Bender's street smarts and charm are invaluable to the reticent Kisa, and Bender comes to dominate the enterprise.

The "conсessioners" find the chairs, which are to be sold at auction in Moscow. They fail to buy them and learn that the chairs have been split up for resale individually. Roaming all over the Soviet Union in their quest to recover the chairs, they have a series of comic adventures, including living in a students' dormitory with plywood walls, posing as bill painters on a riverboat to earn passage, bamboozling a village chess club with promises of an international tournament, and traveling on foot through the mountains of Georgia. Father Fyodor (who had known of the treasure from the confession of Vorobyaninov's mother-in-law), their obsessed rival in the hunt for the treasure, follows a bad lead, runs out of money, ends up trapped on a mountain-top, and loses his sanity. Ostap remains unflappable, and his mastery of human nature eliminates all obstacles, but Vorobyaninov steadily deteriorates.

They slowly acquire each of the chairs, but no treasure is found. Kisa and Ostap finally discover the location of the last chair. Vorobyaninov murders Ostap to keep all the loot for himself, but discovers that the jewels have already been found and used to build the new public recreation center in which the chair was found, a symbol of the new society. Angered, Vorobyaninov loses his sanity.

Ostap Bender is still alive (but sports a scar across his neck), after barely surviving the assassination attempt in the previous book, which he once briefly mentions as "stupid business". This time he hears a story about a "clandestine millionaire" named Alexandr Koreiko. Koreiko has made millions through various illegal enterprises by taking advantage of the widespread corruption in the New Economic Policy (NEP) period while pretending to live on an office clerk's salary of 46 rubles a month. Koreiko lives in ''Chernomorsk'' (literally: Black Sea city, referring to the city of Odessa) and keeps his large stash of ill-gotten money in a suitcase, waiting for the fall of the Soviet government, so that he can make use of it.

Together with two petty criminals Balaganov and Panikovsky, and an extremely naive and innocent car driver Kozlevich, Bender finds out about Koreiko and starts to collect all the information he can get on his business activities. Koreiko tries to flee, but Bender eventually tracks him down in Turkestan, on the newly built Turkestan–Siberia Railway. He then blackmails him into giving him a million rubles.

Suddenly rich, Bender faces the problem of how to spend his money in a Communist country where there are no legal millionaires. Nothing of the life of the rich that Bender dreamt of seems possible in the Soviet Union. Frustrated, Bender even decides to anonymously donate the money to the Ministry of Finance, but changes his mind. He turns the money into jewels and gold, and tries to cross the Romanian border, only to be robbed by the Romanian border guards, leaving him only with a medal, the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Taken by surprise, a small coastal town is overrun by an invading army with little resistance. The town is important because it is a port that serves a large coal mine. Colonel Lanser, the head of the invading battalion, along with his staff establishes their headquarters in the house of Orden, the democratically elected and popular mayor.

As the reality of occupation sinks in and the weather turns bleak, with the snows beginning earlier than usual, the "simple, peaceful people" of the town are angry and confused. Colonel Lanser, a veteran of many wars, tries to operate under a veil of civility and law, but in his heart he knows that "there are no peaceful people" amongst those whose freedom has been taken away by force. The calm is soon torn apart when Alexander Morden, an erstwhile alderman and "a free man", is ordered to work in the mine. He strikes out at Captain Loft with a pickaxe, but Captain Bentick steps into its path and dies of it. After a trial, Morden is executed by a firing squad. This incident catalyzes the people of the town and they settle into "a slow, silent, waiting revenge." Sections of the railroad linking the port with the mine get damaged regularly, the machinery breaks down often, and the dynamo of the electricity generators gets short circuited. Whenever a soldier relaxes his guard, drinks or goes out with a woman, he is killed. Mayor Orden stands by his people, and tries to explain to Col. Lanser that his goal – "to break man's spirit permanently" – is impossible.

The cold weather and the constant fear weighs heavy on the occupying force, many of whom wish the war to end so that they can return home. They realize the futility of the war and that "the flies have conquered the flypaper." Some members of the resistance escape to England and ask the English for explosives so that the townspeople can intensify their efforts. English planes parachute-drop small packages containing dynamite sticks and chocolates all around the town. In a state of panic, Colonel Lanser's army takes the mayor and his friend Dr. Winter, the town doctor and historian, hostage and lets it be known that any guerilla action will lead to their execution. Mayor Orden refuses to ask his people to stop active resistance, and feels that nothing can stop his people and that his death is imminent. He tells his wife that while he can be killed, the idea of mayor (and freedom and democracy) is beyond the reach of any army. Before his execution, Mayor Orden reminds Dr. Winter of the dialogues of Socrates in the Apology and Phaedo, a part he played in a high school play, and tells him to make sure that the debt is repaid to the army, i.e., that resistance continues.

On a dying planet in a distant galaxy, the last of the creatures known as the "guardians" stored all of their libraries, records, and knowledge on a single starship together with cryogenically preserved members of their race. A single robot, Alien 8, is tasked with keeping the occupants of the vessel alive for the duration of its journey.

The ship is launched towards a new solar system and Alien 8 performs his task for thousands of years during the journey. However, as the ship nears its destination, it is attacked and boarded by hostile aliens. The cryogenic life support systems were damaged during the attack and Alien 8 must restore them to an operational status before the ship's automatic thrusting systems manoeuvre it into planetary orbit.

In the autumn of 1990, 74-year-old Lotte Goudriaan spends several weeks in the spa town of Spa in the Belgian Ardennes. She suffers from osteoarthritis and the treatment she is taking is intended to relieve her pain. On the third day, she meets a German woman of her age in the restroom of the Thermal Institute. She is also on a cure because of worn joints. The woman turns out to be from Cologne, which is also the city where Lotte was born. It soon becomes clear that the German, Anna Grosalie, is Lotte's twin sister. When they were six years old, their parents died shortly after each other. The family then decided that Anna would be raised with an uncle and an aunt in the German countryside, while Lotte would be placed with the family of a cousin of the father in the Netherlands. Due to bad relations within the family, but especially because of the war, the two sisters lost touch with each other. After their forced separation, they only met twice, the last time right after the war.

Category:1993 novels Category:20th-century Dutch novels Category:Dutch-language novels Category:Dutch historical novels Category:Dutch novels adapted into films Category:Novels set during World War II Category:Novels set in the Netherlands Category:Twins in fiction Category:Fictional twins Category:Female characters in literature

Late one night, Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, professors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, deliver an orphaned infant named Harry Potter to his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, his only living relatives.

Ten years later, just before Harry's eleventh birthday, owls begin delivering letters addressed to him. When the abusive Dursleys refuse to allow Harry to open any and flee to an island hut, Hagrid arrives to personally deliver Harry's letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. Hagrid also reveals that Harry's parents, James and Lily, were killed by a dark wizard named Lord Voldemort. The killing curse that Voldemort had cast rebounded, destroying Voldemort's body and giving Harry his lightning-bolt scar. Hagrid then takes Harry to Diagon Alley for school supplies and gives him a pet snowy owl whom he names Hedwig. Harry buys a wand that is connected to Voldemort's own wand.

At King's Cross station, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express train. He meets Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, a Muggle-born witch. Arriving at Hogwarts, Harry also meets Draco Malfoy, who is from a wealthy, pure-blood wizard family. The two immediately form a rivalry. The students assemble in the Great Hall where the Sorting Hat sorts the first-years in four respective houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Harry is placed into Gryffindor alongside Ron and Hermione, while Draco is sorted into Slytherin, a house noted for dark wizards.

As Harry studies magic, he learns more about his parents and Voldemort. Harry's natural talent for broomstick flying gets him recruited as the youngest-ever Seeker for Gryffindor's Quidditch team. While returning to the Gryffindor common room, the staircases change paths, leading Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the third floor, which is restricted. There they discover a giant three-headed dog named Fluffy. On Halloween, Ron insults Hermione after she shows off in Charms class. Upset, Hermione spends the afternoon crying in the girls' bathroom. That night, a giant marauding troll enters it, but Harry and Ron save Hermione, and the three make up and become close friends after Hermione takes the blame by claiming she went looking for the troll.

The trio discover that Fluffy is guarding the philosopher's stone, a magical object that can turn metal into gold and produce an immortality elixir. Harry suspects that Potions teacher and head of Slytherin House, Severus Snape, wants the stone to return Voldemort to physical form. When Hagrid accidentally reveals that music puts Fluffy asleep, Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to find the stone before Snape. Fluffy is already asleep, but the trio face other barriers, including a deadly plant called Devil's Snare, a room filled with aggressive flying keys, and a giant chess game that knocks out Ron.

After overcoming the barriers, Harry discovers that Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Quirinus Quirrell wants the stone; Snape had figured it out and had been protecting Harry. Quirrell removes his turban and reveals a weakened Voldemort living on the back of his head. Dumbledore's protective enchantment places the stone in Harry's possession. Voldemort attempts to bargain the stone from Harry in exchange for resurrecting his parents, but Harry sees through his trick and refuses. Quirrell attempts to kill Harry. When Harry touches Quirrell's skin, it burns Quirrell, reducing him to ashes. Voldemort's soul rises from the pile and escapes, knocking out Harry as it passes through him.

Harry recovers in the school infirmary. Dumbledore says the stone has been destroyed to prevent misuse, and that Ron and Hermione are safe. Dumbledore reveals how Harry defeated Quirrell: When Lily died to save Harry, a love-based protection against Voldemort was placed on him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are rewarded with house points for their heroism, tying them for first place with Slytherin. Dumbledore then awards ten points to their housemate Neville Longbottom for having had the courage to stand up to the trio, granting Gryffindor the House Cup. Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer, happy to finally have a real home at Hogwarts.

Spending the summer with the Dursleys, Harry Potter meets Dobby, a house-elf who warns him that it is dangerous to return to Hogwarts. Dobby sabotages an important dinner for the Dursleys, who lock up Harry to prevent his return to Hogwarts. Harry's friend Ron Weasley and his brothers Fred and George rescue him in their father's flying Ford Anglia.

In Diagon Alley, Harry and the Weasley family are joined by Hermione Granger at a book-signing by Gilderoy Lockhart, Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Confronted by Draco Malfoy, Harry notices Malfoy's father, Lucius, slip a book into Ginny Weasley's cauldron. When Harry and Ron are blocked from entering Platform Nine and Three-Quarters at London King's Cross railway station, they take the flying car to Hogwarts; after crashing into the Whomping Willow breaking Ron's wand, they receive detention.

In detention, Harry hears a strange voice and later finds caretaker Argus Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, petrified beside a message written in blood: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir... beware." Professor McGonagall explains that one of Hogwarts' founders, Salazar Slytherin, supposedly constructed a secret Chamber containing a monster that only his heir can control, capable of purging the school of Muggle-born students. Suspecting that Malfoy is the heir, Harry, Ron, and Hermione plan to question him while disguised, using forbidden polyjuice potion, which they brew in a disused bathroom haunted by a ghost called Moaning Myrtle.

During a Quidditch game, Harry's arm is broken by a rogue Bludger. Dobby visits him in the infirmary and reveals that he closed the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and made the Bludger chase Harry to force him to leave the school. He also reveals that the Chamber had been opened in the past. When Harry communicates with a snake, the school believes he is the heir. Disguised as two of Malfoy’s friends, Harry and Ron learn he is not the heir, but come to know that his father had told him that a Muggle-born girl died when the Chamber was last opened. Harry finds an enchanted diary owned by former student Tom Riddle, who opened the Chamber and blamed Rubeus Hagrid, leading to his expulsion. When the diary is stolen and Hermione is petrified, Harry and Ron question Hagrid. Professor Dumbledore, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius arrive to take Hagrid to Azkaban, but he discreetly tells the boys to "follow the spiders". In the Forbidden Forest, Harry and Ron meet Hagrid's giant pet spider, Aragog, who reveals Hagrid's innocence and provides a clue about the Chamber's monster.

A book page in Hermione's hand identifies the monster as a basilisk, a giant serpent that kills people who make direct eye contact with it; the petrified victims only saw it indirectly. The school staff learns Ginny has been taken into the Chamber, and nominate Lockhart to save her. Harry and Ron find Lockhart preparing to flee, exposing him as a fraud. Deducing that Myrtle was the Muggle-born girl that the basilisk killed, they find the Chamber's entrance in the bathroom she haunts. Once inside, Lockhart tries to stop Harry and Ron by using a memory charm, but because he seized Ron's broken wand, the spell backfires, erasing Lockhart's memory and causing a cave-in which separates Harry from Ron and Lockhart.

Harry enters the Chamber alone and finds Ginny unconscious, guarded by Riddle. Riddle reveals that he used the diary to manipulate Ginny into reopening the Chamber, and that he is Slytherin's heir and Voldemort's younger self. After Harry expresses his loyalty to Dumbledore, the latter's pet phoenix Fawkes arrives with the Sorting Hat, causing Riddle to summon the basilisk. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, and the Sorting Hat produces the Sword of Gryffindor, with which Harry battles the basilisk. After a struggle, he kills it but is poisoned by one of its fangs.

Despite his injury, Harry stabs the diary with the basilisk fang, destroying Riddle and reviving Ginny. Fawkes' tears heal Harry, and he returns to Hogwarts with his friends and a baffled Lockhart, earning Dumbledore's praise and Hagrid's release. Harry accuses Lucius, Dobby's master, of planting the diary in Ginny's cauldron, and tricks him into freeing Dobby. The basilisk's victims are healed, Hermione reunites with Harry and Ron, and Hagrid is released from Azkaban.

After his second year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter spends another dissatisfying summer with the Dursleys. On his thirteenth birthday, Vernon's visiting sister Marge viciously insults Harry and his parents, and an angry Harry causes her to inflate and float away. Expecting to be expelled for using magic outside school, Harry flees with his belongings.

The Knight Bus takes Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, where Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge assures Harry that he will not be punished. Reuniting with his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry learns that Sirius Black, a convicted supporter of Lord Voldemort, has escaped Azkaban Prison and intends to kill him. During the journey to Hogwarts, the Hogwarts Express is boarded by Dementors, ghostly prison guards searching for Black. One enters Harry's compartment, causing him to faint, but new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin repels it with a Patronus Charm. At Hogwarts, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore announces that Dementors will patrol the school until Black is captured.

Rubeus Hagrid is appointed Care of Magical Creatures teacher, but his first class goes awry when Draco Malfoy provokes a Hippogriff named Buckbeak into attacking him, and his father Lucius has Buckbeak sentenced to death. Returning to Gryffindor Tower, the students find the Fat Lady's portrait has been attacked, and the terrified Fat Lady warns Dumbledore that Black entered the castle. During a stormy Quidditch match, Dementors cause Harry to fall off his broomstick, which is destroyed by the Whomping Willow. He is caught trying to visit Hogsmeade by Fred and George, who give him The Marauder's Map.

Using the map, Harry sneaks into Hogsmeade and learns that Black is his godfather, but divulged the Potters' whereabouts to Voldemort and murdered their mutual friend Peter Pettigrew. Determined to ward off the Dementors, Harry convinces Lupin to teach him the Patronus Charm. After Divination class, he witnesses Professor Trelawney enter a trance and prophesise that the Dark Lord will return. Watching Buckbeak's execution, Ron's pet rat Scabbers bites him and escapes, but a large black dog drags them both into a hole at the base of the Whomping Willow. This leads the trio through an underground passage into the Shrieking Shack, where the dog is revealed to be Black, an Animagus who can transform into an animal.

Lupin appears, embracing Black as an old friend before revealing himself to be a werewolf. Snape arrives to apprehend Black, but is knocked out by Harry’s Disarming spell. Lupin and Black reveal that Scabbers is actually the Animagus form of Pettigrew, who faked his death and framed Black for his own crimes. Turning Pettigrew back into human form, the group heads back to the castle, but the full moon causes Lupin to transform and Pettigrew escapes. As Black fights off Lupin in their animal forms, Dementors attack Black and Harry, but an unseen figure casts a powerful Patronus. Harry falls unconscious, awakening in the infirmary with Dumbledore and Hermione.

Learning that Black has been captured and sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss, Harry and Hermione act on Dumbledore's advice and use Hermione’s Time-Turner, which she was given to attend several classes at once, to go three hours back in time. They see themselves reliving the night's events, and set Buckbeak free from execution. Spotting the past Harry and Black being attacked by Dementors, Harry rescues them using a Patronus charm and realizes he was the unseen figure who saved them earlier. He and Hermione free Black, who flies away on Buckbeak, still a fugitive without proof of his innocence. Harry and Hermione return to the infirmary, rejoining their own timeline.

Exposed as a werewolf, Lupin resigns from teaching and returns the Marauder's Map to Harry. Black sends Harry a Firebolt broomstick, which he happily takes on a ride.

Harry Potter has a nightmare in which a Muggle caretaker is murdered after overhearing a plot by Lord Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew and another man whom Harry does not recognise. Harry, along with the Weasleys, Hermione, and Cedric and Amos Diggory attend the Quidditch World Cup. After the match, Death Eaters attack the tournament and the man from Harry's nightmare casts the Dark Mark.

At Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore announces that the school will host the Triwizard Tournament along with the Durmstrang Institute from Northern Europe and the Beauxbatons Academy from France. A single student from each school is to be selected by the Goblet of Fire to participate, though students below the age of seventeen are not eligible to enter the tournament. Fleur Delacour is selected as the Champion from Beauxbatons, Viktor Krum is selected from Durmstrang, and Cedric Diggory is selected from Hogwarts. The Goblet of Fire then selects Harry as the fourth Champion, causing much confusion. Many students believe Harry cheated and Ron shuns him, hurt that Harry did not inform him when he apparently entered himself.

For the first task, the Champions have to collect an egg by getting past a dragon. Professor Moody, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, advises Harry on how to do this, hinting that Harry can use his wand to summon his broomstick. All four Champions collect their eggs. Ron reconciles with Harry after seeing how dangerous the first task was. At Christmas, the school hosts the Yule Ball – Harry and Ron are unable to go with their desired dates, and hence go with Parvati and Padma Patil respectively; while Hermione goes with Viktor. Cedric advises Harry to use the Prefects' bathroom to get a clue for the second task using the egg.

For the second task, the Champions have to save somebody of value to them from the Black Lake: Harry has to save Ron, Cedric has to save Cho, Viktor has to rescue Hermione, and Fleur has to save her sister. Neville Longbottom gives Harry gillyweed to help him breathe underwater. Cedric comes in first and Harry is awarded second place after he saves not only Ron but Fleur's sister after Fleur withdraws from the task. Later, Harry finds the lifeless body of Barty Crouch Sr, a Ministry of Magic official, in the Forbidden Forest. He later enters Dumbledore's office where he enters a Pensieve in which he witnesses a previous trial of Igor Karkaroff, current headmaster of Durmstrang, during Voldemort's first downfall. Karkaroff is asked to name those who served Voldemort – he gives Severus Snape who is vouched for by Dumbledore. Karkaroff then exposes Barty Crouch Jr, the son of Crouch Sr who is hosting the trial. Harry recognises Crouch Jr from his nightmare.

For the third task, the Champions must navigate a vast maze to reach the Triwizard Cup at its centre. Harry and Cedric reach the Cup only to realise it is a Portkey which transports them to a graveyard. Pettigrew kills Cedric on Voldemort's orders. He then resurrects Voldemort, who summons his Death Eaters. Voldemort attempts to use the Killing Curse on Harry but the latter deflects it – the ghosts of Voldemort's previous victims appear and distract Voldemort long enough for Harry to use the Cup to return to Hogwarts with Cedric's body.

Harry informs Dumbledore that Cedric was murdered by Voldemort. Harry is dragged by Moody to his office – he is shocked to learn that Moody was the one who entered him into the Tournament and was guiding him to ensure the return of Voldemort. Before Moody attempts to kill Harry, Dumbledore, Snape and Minerva McGonagall subdue Moody. Using Veritaserum, they learn that they have actually caught Barty Crouch Jr who was impersonating Moody using Polyjuice Potion, while the real Moody is imprisoned in a magical trunk. Crouch Jr is sent back to Azkaban.

At the end of term feast, Dumbledore announces that Cedric was murdered by Voldemort, although the Ministry denies these claims. Harry informs Dumbledore of his encounter with Voldemort and Dumbledore describes it as Priori Incantatem. In the end, the three schools bid farewell to one another with Harry, Ron and Hermione agreeing that everything is going to change.

Little Mute (Jackie Chan) is a new Shaolin student who is mute. He struggles to keep up with the other students and to complete the grueling tasks assigned to him by his instructor. He is haunted by the memory of his father's murder at the hands of a masked bandit who was skilled in martial arts.

One night, a drunken monk leads Little Mute to a secret cave behind a waterfall. A man is imprisoned there. Over time, Little Mute befriends the violent prisoner by bringing him food and wine that he steals from the monastery. He learns that the prisoner is a deadly martial artist who is developing a technique called the Lion’s Roar, which he will use to escape his captivity. Little Mute convinces the prisoner to train him. The prisoner's style aims to kill the opponent as fast as possible. A Shaolin nun sees Little Mute practicing these killing techniques. She tells him that martial arts are not for killing; rather, they are for self-development, with self-defense employed only when necessary and with minimal violence. She trains him in the Gliding Snake style, the ideals of which clash with those of the prisoner's killing style. Nevertheless, Little Mute continues to study both styles. Finally the prisoner judges that Little Mute is ready to attempt to pass the test of the Shaolin Wooden Men Alley, a narrow hallway containing thirty-six Shaolin Wooden Men, which are mechanical wooden dummies that attack anyone who enters the hallway. Little Mute successfully fights his way through the Wooden Men Alley.

Shortly after Little Mute's triumph, the prisoner perfects his Lion's Roar technique and uses it to escape. He resumes his former role as the leader of the infamous Green Dragon Gang, murdering the men who were responsible for his imprisonment. It is revealed that he was a Shaolin student who went renegade, and was then captured and imprisoned. The head abbot of Shaolin felt responsible for the student's misdeeds, so the abbot blinded himself and left the Shaolin Monastery to live as a hermit, appointing a new abbot in his place. However, he promised to help Shaolin in the future if it was needed.

Little Mute and the current head abbot of Shaolin seek out the hermit monk. The escaped prisoner has killed all those responsible for his imprisonment except the monks of Shaolin, and he is now on his way to destroy the monastery. The hermitic monk hands over a book containing the "ultimate" martial arts style, and Little Mute masters this style under the guidance of the current head abbot. When the escaped prisoner comes to destroy Shaolin, Little Mute stands ready to defend it against his former instructor. It is also revealed that the escaped prisoner was the murderer of Little Mute's father. Little Mute reveals that he is not mute, but he swore never to speak until he had found his father's killer.

Little Mute counters his opponent's killing techniques, since he knows all of them. He creates multiple openings, but fails to exploit them due to the Shaolin nun's teachings, which said never to kill his opponent. Despite this, he manages to win. He offers to spare his former instructor on the condition that he returns to Shaolin for the remainder of his life. The escaped prisoner says that he is beyond salvation, but that it makes him proud that his student has learned so well. However, he then makes a final attempt to kill Little Mute. He grabs Little Mute from behind and attempts to crush his throat, but Little Mute moves out of the way, and the villain's strike hits his own throat, causing him to kill himself. Deprived of its leader, the Green Dragon Gang flees.

Little Mute returns to the Shaolin monastery and is ordained as a monk.

Mysterious happenings are occurring in Springfield; a horde of robot wasps descend upon the city at the beginning of the game, a new brand of Buzz Cola has been introduced to store shelves, and black vans have begun appearing around town. Homer suspects that a black van that is outside his house is spying on his family, and he takes it upon himself to investigate who it belongs to, with the van eventually stopping in front of Mr. Burns' mansion. After helping Marge destroy numerous copies of ''Bonestorm 2'', Homer accuses Mr. Burns of spying on Springfield, to which Mr. Burns reveals to Homer that the black vans were simply pizza vans.

The next day, Bart tries to get a copy of ''Bonestorm 2'', only to find that the game is sold out. After doing odd chores in the hopes of finding a copy, Bart eventually finds out that Professor Frink is using many copies of ''Bonestorm 2'' to help power the Truckasaurus, and Bart agrees to help him build it, as well as set up a safe environment for it to operate in. After escaping Truckasaurus' wrath, a tractor beam abducts Bart outside the stadium. Lisa attempts to find her brother by exploring the town for clues. She learns that black sedans which have been appearing around town are connected to Bart's disappearance. Lisa eventually finds Bart on a ship in Springfield harbor. He appears to have memory loss and is mumbling unintelligibly while occasionally mentioning the sedans and Buzz Cola, the "new and improved" cola drink recently launched by television personality Krusty the Clown.

Marge sets out to learn what has affected Bart with the hopes of curing him. As she investigates a crop circle that recently appeared in Cletus Spuckler's crop field, while Abraham Simpson is describing the look of a crop circle, Marge comes to the realization that his description is reminiscent of the Buzz Cola logo. Marge shows a can of the cola to Bart, which snaps him out of his stupor. Bart reveals that the Buzz Cola is a mind-control cola produced by aliens, and that drinking large amounts of it is what caused his stupor. Marge decides to purge Springfield of the cola, but in spite of her valiant efforts, the drink still maintains its presence and popularity.

Wracked with guilt upon the realization that he was selling a tainted product, Apu sets out to redeem himself and find out who owns the cola trucks that are supplying Buzz Cola around town. After helping Snake Jailbird with his community service, Apu learns that the cola trucks are registered to the Springfield Museum of Natural History. After acquiring the key from the museum curator, Apu and Bart decide to go inside the museum, where they find a meteor as the source of the cola. After destroying the meteor, they eavesdrop on a conversation between aliens Kang and Kodos, who are masterminding a scheme. Apu and Bart learn that the wasp cameras that were unleashed upon the start of the game are filming the antics of Springfield for Kang and Kodos' struggling intergalactic reality show, ''Foolish Earthlings''. The aliens are using the cola to make people insane, which the aliens intend to exploit by spreading the cola into the town's water supply, by which time Kang and Kodos will distribute laser guns among the populace to drive the town to a violent massacre sure to draw many viewers.

Apu is frightened of the aliens and refuses to help any further, so Bart takes it upon himself to foil Kang and Kodos' plan. Bart asks Krusty for help to stop his role in the aliens' plot, but Krusty doesn't believe Bart. Once getting proof of a functional laser gun, Bart once again asks Krusty for help, at which point Krusty informs Bart that he has already helped the Duff Brewery set up free laser gun stands around Springfield, which Bart promptly sets out and destroys. Bart then informs his father of the alien plot, and the duo quickly pursue Kang and Kodos to the brewery in Homer's old sports car. However, the aliens escape, and before departing, they reveal that they have already released Buzz Cola throughout Springfield's water supply. As the cola seeps into the ground, it releases the un-dead from the Springfield Cemetery, who invade Springfield on the night of Halloween.

After Homer collects supplies to protect his family and home from the marauding zombies, he decides to pursue an alien probe vehicle to the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Upon reaching the power plant, he encounters Professor Frink, who has figured out the weakness of the aliens: nuclear waste. He plans to use the space ship's tractor beam to suck up cars that are loaded with drums of nuclear waste, which has situated itself over the Springfield Elementary School playground. After successfully loading Frink's car into the space ship, Homer gets permission from Mr. Burns to take nuclear waste drums from the power plant to use against the aliens. After loading three more vehicles with nuclear payloads into the space ship, including sacrificing Abraham Simpson, the ship crashes down, with Kang and Kodos later dying from their injuries. The following day, Springfield is returned to normal, while the ''Foolish Earthlings'' show reaches peak popularity even on Earth. Homer is hailed as a hero and gained a large following of alien fans that have come to see him. In heaven, Kang and Kodos are happy that they do not have to watch the game's credits, but they do anyway. The game ends with Kang screaming in horror and frustration.

A projector begins screening a series of images, including a crucifixion, a spider and the killing of a lamb, and a boy wakes up in a hospital or morgue. He sees a large screen with a blurry image of two women. One of the women may be Alma, a young nurse assigned by a doctor to care for Elisabet Vogler. Elisabet is a stage actress who has suddenly stopped speaking and moving, which the doctors have determined is the result of willpower rather than physical or mental illness. In the hospital, Elisabet is distressed by television images of a man's self-immolation during the Vietnam War. Alma reads her a letter from Elisabet's husband that contains a photo of their son, and the actress tears the photograph up. The doctor speculates that Elisabet may recover better in a cottage by the sea, and sends her there with Alma.

At the cottage, Alma tells Elisabet that no one has ever really listened to her before. She talks about her fiancé, Karl-Henrik, and her first affair. Alma tells a story of how, while she was already in a relationship with Karl-Henrik, she sunbathed in the nude with Katarina, a woman she had just met. Two young boys appeared, and Katarina initiated an orgy. Alma became pregnant, had an abortion and continues to feel guilty.

Alma drives to town to mail their letters, and notices that Elisabet's is not sealed. She reads it. The letter says that Elisabet is "studying" Alma and mentions the nurse's orgy and abortion. Furious, Alma accuses Elisabet of using her for some purpose. In the resulting fight, she threatens to scald Elisabet with boiling water and stops when Elisabet begs her not to. This is the first time Alma is certain the actress has spoken since they met, though she thought Elisabet previously whispered to her when Alma was half-asleep. Alma tells her that she knows Elisabet is a terrible person; when Elisabet runs off, Alma chases her and begs for forgiveness. Later, Elisabet looks at the famous photograph of Jews arrested in the Warsaw Ghetto from the Stroop Report.

One night, Alma hears a man outside calling for Elisabet; it is Elisabet's husband. He calls Alma "Elisabet" and, though the nurse tells him he is mistaken, they have sex. Alma meets with Elisabet to talk about why Elisabet tore up the photo of her son. Alma tells much of Elisabet's story: that she wanted the only thing she did not have, motherhood, and became pregnant. Regretting her decision, Elisabet attempted a failed self-induced abortion and gave birth to a boy whom she despises, but her son craves her love. Alma ends the story in distress, asserting her identity and denying that she is Elisabet. She later coaxes Elisabet to say the word "nothing", and leaves the cottage as a crew films her.

The school, modeled on Yates' own experiences as an adolescent at Avon Old Farms School, is called Dorset Academy, a small private institution dependent on its now senile founder, a wealthy older woman named Abigail Church Hooper, a thinly-veiled reference to Avon Old Farms founder Theodate Pope Riddle. Dorset Academy is at best a second-rate institution, having the reputation of an unusual sort of prep school, where many of the students are on scholarship, and Dr. Stone, the English master, is the only "Harvard man". However, throughout the book, parents, teachers, even students insist that it is "a good school".

In the "Foreword", the first person narrator, 15-year-old William Grove, a stand-in for Yates, relates what makes his divorcée mother, decide on Dorset Academy for her son. The main body of the novel is told in the third person, with Grove retreating into a group of schoolmates only to re-emerge at the end of the book, in the "Afterword", which is told from a distance of more than 30 years. There, William Grove, now a writer, looks back nostalgically on Dorset Academy where, as the editor of the school paper, he learned "the rudiments of [his] trade".

As one of the masters puts it, the school harbors "a tremendous amount of sheer sexual energy". This is certainly true of the boys, who make a game of selecting one of the weaker boys, pinning him down on his bed and masturbating him to the point of ejaculation. On the other hand, they try hard to hide their erections from adults and girls, whether it is Dr. Stone's beautiful daughter Edith or the girls arriving for the annual Spring Dance. The teachers also suffer under too much sexual energy, especially Jack Draper, the chemistry master, crippled from polio, who becomes the witness of his wife's crude attempts to hide a year-and-a-half-long affair with the French master, Jean-Paul La Prade. When, toward the end of the novel, it is announced that Dorset Academy will have to close due to mounting debt, Draper decides to hang himself in his chemistry lab in humiliation. He is too weak, however, to push the chair away from under his feet and proceeds home where he reconciles with his estranged wife.

The "Foreword" and the "Afterword" create the impression of Yates, the author, directly addressing his audience and could be seen as ''false documents''.

The story of ''X-COM'', set in the near-future at the time of the game's release, begins in the year 1998. The initial plot centers on increased reports of UFO sightings as tales of abductions and rumors of attacks by mysterious aliens become widespread. The nations of the world come to perceive this as a threat and attempt to form their own forces – such as Japan's Kiryu-Kai force – to deal with the crisis, but these efforts are unsuccessful. On December 11, 1998, representatives from some of the most powerful nations in the world secretly meet in Geneva to discuss the issue. From this meeting is born the clandestine defense and research organization Extraterrestrial Combat (X-COM), over which the player assumes control at the start of the game.

In the beginning, the player will only have access to conventional weapons, but as the game progresses, the player learns more about the enemy, their species, mutated creations, and technology. It is ultimately revealed that the "leaders" behind the alien invasion are a race known as Ethereals which possess powerful mind control abilities and enslave other races of aliens to perform their bidding and that their main base in the Solar System is located in Cydonia region of Mars. The player must then prepare the final assault team, attack Cydonia and destroy the mastermind behind the alien invasion, the biocomputer Alien Brain.

The game may end in several ways. If the player's performance is poor or worse for two consecutive months, the player runs a deep deficit for two consecutive months, all the player's bases are captured, or the player mounts an assault on the aliens' Mars base and loses, the game ends in defeat, where in the PlayStation version, the council of funding nations makes a futile attempt to negotiate with the aliens, who violently murder the negotiator. While in the MS-DOS version, the funding nations sign pacts with the aliens promising peace, but they instead destroy every city and poison the water and air to destroy any resistance, the remaining survivors are put in slave camps to help terraform Earth for future alien colonization. But If, however, the player is victorious in the final attack, the game ends in mankind's victory.

In 1939, in a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist, Danny, an optimistic 18-year-old cat from Kokomo, Indiana, travels to Hollywood in hopes of starting an acting career there. After meeting a young penguin named Pudge, Danny is selected by agent Farley Wink to feature in a film that is in production at Mammoth Pictures called ''Li'l Ark Angel'', alongside Wink's secretary, a beautiful yet cynical female white cat named Sawyer. Upon joining fellow animals; Tillie the hippo, Cranston the goat, Frances the fish, and T.W the tortoise, Danny is dismayed on learning how minor his role is and tries to weasel his way into more time in the spotlight. Danny unwittingly ends up angering Darla Dimple, a popular yet spoiled child actress and star of the film; she promptly assigns her 36-foot tall Frankenstein-like gorilla butler Max to intimidate Danny into no longer trying to enlarge his part.

Danny learns from the studio's mascot Woolie that human actors are normally given more important roles than animals, whereas animals themselves end up getting minor and often thankless roles to the point of having little to no leverage in show business. Longing for the spotlight, Danny tries to make a plan that will encourage humans to provide animal actors with better scenarios; Danny's ideas include assembling a massive cluster of animals and putting on a musical performance for the humans.

Later, Danny is given advice by Darla on how to interest and satisfy audiences. He takes this information to heart and groups the animals for an audition on the Ark, hoping to attract the humans' attention. However, Darla, fearing that the animals will jeopardize her spotlight, has Max help her flood the stage with 100,000 gallons of water while L.B. Mammoth, the head of Mammoth Pictures, and Flanigan, the film's director, are giving an interview, getting the animals blamed and dismissed for the collateral damage. The animals are depressed at being barred from acting in Mammoth Pictures, especially Danny, who was convinced by Darla that she was trying to help the animals. Woolie advises Danny to return to Kokomo. Later that night, everyone is at a diner, upset with Danny for ruining everything for them, while Sawyer sings a song about Danny trying to keep their dreams alive. Overhearing Sawyer singing, Tilly suggests Sawyer to follow Danny. Sawyer arrives to the bus stop, just seconds after Danny left, finding his hat and to-do list behind.

However, after a comment from the bus driver and seeing Pudge wander the streets, Danny stops the bus and comes up with another plan. He secretly invites Sawyer and the others to the premiere of ''Lil' Ark Angel''. After the screening and a battle with Max that sends Max flying away on a Darla Dimple balloon, Danny calls the audience's attention, only to be mocked by Darla. However, upon bringing Sawyer, Woolie, Tillie, Cranston, Pudge, Frances and T.W. backstage to help Danny, the eight animals put on a musical performance that entertains and impresses the viewers. Meanwhile, Darla tries to sabotage the show by tampering with the set and special effects equipment, but her attempts instead cause her to enhance the performance.

Darla furiously yells at the animals for foiling her plan when her voice is amplified over the theater's sound system due to a boom mic she had been tangled up with, unintentionally revealing the truth about the incident to the audience, including L.B. and Flanigan. Darla tries to hide her true colors by kissing and hugging Danny, but Pudge sends her down a trapdoor. The animals achieve their dreams for larger roles, Danny and Sawyer admit their feelings for each other, and Darla is demoted to a janitor.

The first level of Cotton Island. As king, Plok dwells on Akrillic, a large island in the fictional archipelago of Polyesta. Plok wakes up one morning and notices his big square flag on the pole on his house's rooftop has been stolen, and goes out searching for it. He spots the flag on Cotton Island from far away and sails to it to find the flag. Plok mistakes some imposter flags for his own, becoming irritated in the process. Plok encounters the two giant creatures who are responsible for placing the fake flags, the Bobbins Brothers, whom Plok's grandpappy had warned him about, and fights them.

Although successfully defeating the Bobbins Brothers and getting his big square flag back, Plok sails back to Akrillic to find the island has been infested and overtaken by "fleas", two-legged blue insects that hatch from eggs and hop around; Plok learns that the theft of his large flag was simply a decoy to lure him away from Akrillic. Plok travels through Akrillic, defeating every single flea on the surface to reclaim his island.

Partway through the game, Plok places the big square flag back where it belongs outside his home, and then takes a break as he sits on a foot of the statue of his grandfather, Grandpappy Plok, wishing he had found an amulet to help him deal with the fleas. He takes a nap and has an odd dream of his grandfather's search for an amulet 50 years ago. In the dream, the player plays as Grandpappy Plok as he sails from Akrillic to Legacy Island, and shares the same experience as what his grandson is doing now, traveling through bizarre obstacles, discovering artifacts (including Rockyfella), and dealing with the same Bobbin Brothers as well as their third brother Irving. Having defeated them, Grandpappy finally dug up an amulet and sailed back to Akrillic victoriously. Back to the present day, Plok wakes up and discovers that the amulet is located at the bottom of the statue. Plok's mission on getting his island back continues, now with an ability where he can turn himself into a saw.

Plok then heads into various locations around the island while facing other creatures trying to overthrow Akrillic: Penkinos, a group of inflatable, floating magicians of mysterious origin living in the North of the island; Womack, a spider living in the island's center with its long legs being weak points; and Rockyfella, the spirit of the island's soil residing under in the mountains of the island's southeast who is vengeful against Plok for the flagpoles he dug in the ground. After clearing out all the enemies on the island, Plok journeys into the source of the fleas, the Fleapit, where he uses various weapon vehicles. He faces off with the leader of the fleas who hatched them, the Flea Queen, using a high-tech "secret Super-Vehicle" armed with bug spray to defeat her. After the showdown, he returns home to sleep on his green chair.

Set in a Far East-themed world, ''Pocky & Rocky'' is about a young miko girl named Pocky (known in Japan as ) who is tending to a Shinto shrine when she is visited by Rocky the Tanuki, or raccoon dog (known in Japan as ). Rocky is a member of a group of creatures known as the Nopino Goblins. Some time ago, the Nopino Goblins (Yōkai in Japan) went insane, but were stopped and cured by Pocky. Rocky tells Pocky that the Nopino Goblins have gone insane yet again and that she must help them. Suddenly, Pocky and Rocky are ambushed by the Nopino Goblins, which appear to be under a spell. Together, Pocky and Rocky must unravel the mystery of who is controlling the Nopino Goblins. Throughout the game, they battle a number of creatures from Japanese mythology, including kappas.

After spending the latter part of World War II in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp, 1947 sees Bernhard Gunther now married to a wife who is trading sex with U.S. Army officers for scarce goods. Berlin and Vienna were captured by the Red Army, so Germans, former Nazis, Allied occupiers, and Gunther have the Russians to contend with. An old colleague from Gunther's days in Berlin, a dirty cop, war criminal, and smuggler named Emil Becker, has been accused and jailed in Vienna for the killing of an American officer called Linden. A high-ranking MVD officer named Poroshin, who claims to be a friend of Becker, tries to recruit Gunther to investigate the case and get Becker exonerated in exchange for a large fee. According to Poroshin, after acting as a secret Vienna-Berlin courier for a certain König, Becker was framed for the murder of Linden, who Becker had met through König.

Gunther takes a train to Vienna and visits Becker in jail, where he learns that Becker's henchmen had been killed trying to find König and his girlfriend Lotte Hartmann at Becker's request. Gunther starts his investigation in Vienna, by attending Linden's funeral, where he is accosted by Roy Shields, an American MP. At approximately the same time, Gunther rescues a recent acquaintance, Veronika, a local prostitute he met as part of the investigation, from rape by two Russian soldiers. As part of the intervention, Gunther gets knocked down and is himself rescued in extremis by John Belinsky, a man bearing identification associating him with the American Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) that had been covertly tailing him. They fraternize, Belinsky admits to also being investigating the murder of Linden, and they agree to collaborate.

When Gunther discovers the whereabouts of Lotte Hartman, he teams up with Belinsky to organize a scheme in which Gunther and Lotte would be somehow about be arrested and jailed by the Russians, so that Gunther could ingratiate himself with her by obtaining her freedom. The scheme works and Gunther is eventually approached by König, who wants to repay him from springing Lotte. After they meet, König is impressed by Gunther's past credentials and eventually, recruits him in a secret organization of former Nazis called the "Org", which Gunther accepts to infiltrate with the knowledge of Belinsky. Gunther soon finds out that Becker was also in the Org, for which he was acting as a double agent for his friend Poroshin.

One night, Veronika finds Gunther to ask for his help getting rid of the body of a "client", Heim, who died of a heart attack in her bed. Gunther, with the help of Belinsky, oblige and as part of the operation discover that Heim was a dentist specializing in teeth extractions, visibly for the purpose of making Nazis escape identification through dental records. At that point Belinsky reveals that he is actually looking for Heinrich Müller, the former head of the Gestapo, who faked his death and is suspected of having killed Linden. Belinsky asks Gunther to find Müller, which would allow him to free Becker. As Gunther's infiltration of the Org progresses, he eventually gets to meet Arthur Nebe, who was also presumed dead. It now becomes clear that the members of the Org had all received new identities to hide their Nazi past, which involved the removal of their teeth. To catch Müller, Gunther and Belinsky organize a sting operation at the vineyard estate of Nebe in Grinzing on the occasion of a formal meeting of the Org.

Gunther shows up to the meeting early to look for Veronika, who had disappeared in the meantime, but gets intercepted by a murderous Latvian guard before being rescued by Nebe. He nevertheless gets to meet with Müller, who ends up believing his cover. As he moves around the house to signal from a window for Belinsky to storm the property, Gunther discovers that Veronika is being tortured in the cellar by König. He frees her but is taken down by the Latvian again. His cover blown, Gunther gets interrogated by Müller under threat that they will crush Veronika in a wine press. Gunther admits everything he knows but Veronika gets crushed anyway. Later, Nebe visits Gunther in his cell and tells him the complete story of Linden so he can feed it back to Müller to avoid further torture. During their conversation Nebe eats a cake poisoned by Gunther and dies, allowing Gunther to escape the property in a car which he later crashes during the ensuing pursuit. The novel ends as Gunther recovers and learns from Shield that Becker had been hanged and Belinsky was not actually a CIC officer, but an agent of Poroshin.

The young Chor Lau-heung learns martial arts from Tuk-ku Kau-pai and has attained a high level of skill. His teacher sends him to Shaolin Monastery to attend a contest that is held once every ten years. On the journey, Chor meets Wu Tit-fa and Chung-yuen Yat-dim-hung. When Chor arrives at Shaolin, he fights with a Shaolin student called Mo-fa but neither of them is able to defeat each other. They decide to have a match again on another day. One night, Chor meets Mo-fa and strike up a conversation with her. Both of them decide to enter the palace in search of adventure. They disturb the prince on his wedding night but are accidentally caught in a trap and only manage to escape with the help of Chor's friends.

Meanwhile, Bat Prince breaks into Shaolin and kills Mo-fa's teacher, Tuk-ku Kau-pai and the Demonic Cult's leader. Bat Prince is actually the son of a Japanese ninja called Tin-fung Sap-say-long, and he wants to avenge his father. 17 years ago, his father came to challenge the three best fighters in China, but was defeated and committed suicide in shame. Bat Prince is not satisfied even after his victory and wants to dominate the Chinese martial arts world. Chor is injured by Bat Prince in a fight and loses his powers. Mo-fa brings him to the Holy Water Palace for treatment. Sui-mo Yam-kei heals Chor's wounds and teaches him new skills. Chor faces the Bat Prince in an epic battle.

On an alien planet, the Doctor uncovers a diabolical plot to conquer the galaxy with brainwashed soldiers abducted from Earth and forced to fight in simulated environments, reflecting the periods in history whence they were taken. The aliens' aim is to produce a super army from the survivors; to this end, they have been aided by a renegade from the Doctor's own race of the Time Lords, calling himself the War Chief.

Joining forces with rebel soldiers, who have broken their conditioning, the Doctor and his companions foil the plan and stop the fighting. The War Chief is apparently killed when the leader of the aliens, the War Lord, realises he has been plotting against him. But the Doctor admits he needs the help of the Time Lords to return the soldiers to their own times, but in asking, risks capture for his own past crimes, including the theft of the TARDIS. After sending the message he and his companions attempt to evade capture, but are caught.

Having returned the soldiers to Earth, the Time Lords place the War Lord on trial and dematerialise him. They erase Zoe and Jamie's memories of travelling with the Doctor, and return them to the respective point in time when each of them first entered the TARDIS. They then place the Doctor on trial for stealing the TARDIS and breaking the rule of non-interference. The Doctor presents a spirited defence, citing his many battles against the evils of the universe. Accepting this defence, the Time Lords announce that his punishment is exile to Earth in the 20th century. He points out he is too well known on Earth, so the Time Lords tell him he will change his appearance, as he has before, and present him with images of four faces. He does not like any of them; he is told a decision has been made. He cries out indignantly as the change is forced upon him.

''The Company'' is composed of stories gathered from the dancers, choreographers, and staff of the Joffrey Ballet. Most of the roles are played by company members. While a small subplot relates a love story between Campbell's character and a character played by James Franco, most of the movie focuses on the company as a whole, without any real star or linear plot. The many company stories woven together express the dedication and hard work that dancers must put into their art, although they are seldom rewarded with fame or fortune.

The action of the film takes place almost entirely on board a passenger ship in 1933, between Veracruz Mexico and Bremerhaven, Germany. Most of the scenes unfold on the First Class deck or among the upper middle-class passengers, but the ship is carrying 600 displaced workers, far more than the ship is certified to carry and they're assigned to squalid conditions in steerage. They are all being deported back to Spain by the order of the Cuban dictator, Machado. Many passengers bound for Nazi Germany are happy, some are apprehensive, while others downplay the significance of fascist politics.

The ship's medic, Dr. Schumann, takes a special interest in , a countess from Cuba who has an opiate addiction which he reluctantly accommodates with prescriptions. She is being transported to a Spanish prison on the Canary Island of Tenerife. Her sense of doom is contrasted with the doctor's initial determination to fight the forces of oppression, embodied by his insistence that the people in steerage be treated like human beings rather than cargo. The doctor conceals having a heart condition. His sympathy for the countess soon evolves into love, though both realize it is a hopeless passion.

Selected passengers are invited to dine each night at the captain's table. Some are amused and others offended by the anti-Semitic rants of a German businessman named Rieber who – though married – begins an affair with Lizzi. The Jewish Lowenthal is not invited and is seated at a side table with a dwarf named Glocken and the two bond over their sense of social exclusion. Later a passenger named Freytag is shocked to find himself blackballed from the Captain's Table when Rieber learns Freytag's wife is Jewish and after an angry public outburst, he too is re-seated at the side table. Here Lowenthal counsels Glocken regarding tactical accommodation to the Nazis from people like Rieber, stating that Germany has been good for the Jews and the Jews have been good for Germany, "We are Germans first and Jews second...There are nearly a million Jews in Germany. What are they going to do, kill all of us?"

Others aboard include an American couple, David and Jenny. Jenny is infatuated with David, who is disconsolate at his lack of success as a socially committed artist and feels stifled by Jenny's needy dependence. Mary Treadwall, a divorcée, drinks and flirts. She is on a quest to recapture her lost youth while in Paris, but the men who take an interest in her she rejects as unworthy. Bill Tenny is a former baseball player with a drinking problem, angry the way his career never took off. Passengers are entertained nightly by a troupe of flamenco musicians and dancers, whose leader pimps the women in the troupe, while other passengers regularly drink themselves to oblivion. One young heir to a fortune loses his virginity to one of the flamenco dancers, who treats him with gentleness.

The ship arrives in Spain where the displaced workers from steerage disembark. Here, after an emotionally painful farewell with the doctor, is forced to exit the ship under Civil Guard escort. Upon arrival in Germany, the remaining passengers depart the ship. The doctor dies before the ship reaches Bremerhaven and his body is unloaded in a coffin. At the disembarkation, which seems like a parade, most characters show they will behave as though it is 'business as usual.'

The last passenger to leave the 'Ship of Fools' is Glocken, who speaks directly to camera, as he did in the opening minutes of the film. Glocken asks the film's audience if they are thinking "What has all this to do with us?" (meaning the passengers). "Nothing" he adds and exits into the crowd.

Setting

''Advent Children'' takes place two years following the events of the 1997 role-playing video game ''Final Fantasy VII'', during which the antagonist Sephiroth attempted to absorb the Lifestream (the lifeblood and soul of the Planet) and be reborn as a god. He was defeated by Cloud Strife and his companions. Still, Sephiroth's final spell, Meteor, destroyed the city of Midgar.

Since the end of the game, the survivors of Midgar founded the new city of Edge, where Cloud and his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart now run a courier service and are the caretakers of an orphan Denzel and the adopted daughter of Barret Wallace, Marlene. Due to feeling guilty for failing to save Aerith Gainsborough, Cloud has recently moved out and isolated himself from his friends. The story also portrays that many people, including Cloud and Denzel, are infected with a mysterious disease known as "Geostigma," which has no known cure.

Story

Cloud is contacted through Tifa and summoned to a meeting with the Shinra Company's former president Rufus Shinra, who was presumed killed in ''Final Fantasy VII''. Rufus asks for Cloud's help to stop Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. The trio is the physical manifestation of Sephiroth's surviving spirit. They are seeking to resurrect him using the remains of the extraterrestrial villain Jenova. Cloud refuses to help and leaves.

Meanwhile, Kadaj and his colleagues are recruiting children infected with Geostigma. Denzel falls in with the group, attracted by their promises of a cure for the disease. Loz follows Tifa and Marlene to Aerith's church, where they had gone looking for Cloud, and attacks them. Tifa is knocked unconscious in the fight, and Loz kidnaps Marlene. All the abducted children are taken to the ruins of the Forgotten City, where Kadaj embraces them as brethren. He announces his intention for them all to be reunited with Jenova. When Cloud arrives to rescue them, Kadaj's gang overpower him but is saved by his old comrade Vincent Valentine. Cloud then returns to the city, where Kadaj has summoned Bahamut SIN and other monsters to terrorize the population. With the help of his companions from ''Final Fantasy VII'', Cloud engages and defeats the monsters.

Kadaj confronts Rufus Shinra, who reveals he possesses Jenova's remains. He attempts to destroy it, but Kadaj saves it and flees the city with his companions. Yazoo and Loz are caught in a blast along the way by an explosive planted by Reno and Rude. Cloud chases Kadaj down and engages him in battle, ultimately subduing him. Outmatched, Kadaj opens Jenova's box and fuses with its contents, transforming into Sephiroth. He then tells Cloud he will use the souls of Geostigma's deceased victims to dominate the Planet. He and Cloud then fight. Throughout the encounter, Sephiroth appears to have the upper hand, flinging Cloud repeatedly into walls and finally impaling him through the shoulder. He asks Cloud to tell him what he most cherishes so that he can have the pleasure of taking it away. Cloud replies that he cherishes everything and then uses his Limit Break, Omnislash Ver. 5, to defeat Sephiroth. Sephiroth's spirit departs, leaving behind the mortally wounded Kadaj. As he lies dying in Cloud's arms, a healing rain starts falling across the land, curing the people of their Geostigma. Yazoo and Loz appear and confront Cloud; he charges at them, and they set off a massive explosion engulfing the three.

Cloud has a vision of his deceased friends Aerith and Zack Fair, who says that his time to join them has not yet come. He then awakens in the church, healed of his injuries, and surrounded by his friends. Behind them, he sees Aerith and Zack leaving the church and hears Aerith's voice say, "You see, everything's all right." He agrees: "I know. I'm not alone... not anymore."

Fugitive Riddick has been in hiding, evading bounty hunters and mercenaries sent to capture him. After killing a crew led by mercenary Toombs and stealing his ship on planet U.V., he heads to New Mecca on the planet Helion Prime, after Toombs reveals his bounty originated there. Riddick is reunited with Imam, a holy man he rescued five years earlier. Imam believes Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a race of warriors long thought extinct, and wants to know about his homeworld and if anyone other than himself is left. Imam believes Helion Prime is the next planet to be conquered by a mysterious force crusading across the stars. Aereon, an Air Elemental, identifies the army as the Necromongers, religious fanatics who seek to convert all human life and kill those who refuse. The Necromongers attack and take control of the capital in a single night. In the battle, Imam is killed and Riddick escapes.

The next day, the Necromonger high priest called "The Purifier" coerces the populace into converting, except for Riddick, who kills the man who killed Imam. Intrigued, the Necromongers' leader, the Lord Marshal, orders Riddick be scanned by the Quasi-Dead, half-dead telepaths, who determine that he is indeed a Furyan survivor. Lord Marshal orders Riddick's death, but Riddick escapes only to be recaptured by Toombs. Riddick is taken to Crematoria, a harsh subterranean prison moon, where Jack, the girl Riddick also rescued, is being held.

The Lord Marshal sends Commander Vaako to hunt Riddick down. Vaako's wife speaks to Aereon, who reveals that Furya was devastated by the Lord Marshal after he was told a child from that planet would kill him. Dame Vaako and her husband determine Lord Marshal wants Riddick dead, as he may be the child of said prophecy. On Crematoria, a disagreement breaks out between Toombs and the prison warden over what Toombs is owed for Riddick's bounty. Once word of the Necromongers existence reached the prison warden, he deduces that Toombs has stolen Riddick from them. Meanwhile, in prison, Riddick finds Jack, now named Kyra, and they reconcile with each other.

The guards kill the bounty hunters except for Toombs, who takes the reward money and prepares to leave before the Necromongers arrive. After leaving Toombs in a cell, Riddick escapes the prison and leads several prisoners across Crematoria's volcanic surface to steal the ship. The guards reach the hangar, just as the prisoners arrive to find the Necromongers have cornered them there. All of the guards and prisoners are killed, and Riddick is incapacitated by Vaako. With the approach of the deadly sunrise, Vaako leaves Riddick to die and the Necromongers capture Kyra.

Riddick is saved by the Purifier, who tells him that if he stays away from the Necromongers, the Lord Marshal promises not to hunt him. The Purifier then reveals that he too is a Furyan and encourages Riddick to kill the Lord Marshal before committing suicide by walking out into the scorching heat. Riddick then flies back to Helion Prime using Toombs' spacecraft. Meanwhile, Vaako reports Riddick dead and is promoted to a higher rank by the Lord Marshal.

Riddick infiltrates the main hall on the Necromongers' flagship, where Dame Vaako sees him but encourages her husband not to warn the Lord Marshal and to let Riddick strike first and pave the way for Vaako to kill the Lord Marshal and take his place as leader. When Riddick attacks, the Lord Marshal presents Kyra, who appears to have been converted. Riddick fights the Lord Marshal in front of his army, who keeps the upper hand with his supernatural powers. When it appears that Riddick is about to be killed, Kyra stabs the Lord Marshal in the back with a spear and he punches her into a column of spikes, mortally wounding her. Vaako attempts to strike the wounded Lord Marshal, who uses his powers to evade the blow but is stopped by Riddick, who takes the opportunity and swiftly kills him. Kyra dies in Riddick's arms just before the Necromongers, including Vaako, kneel before Riddick as their new leader.

Sheila, a hitchhiking teenage runaway, is picked up on Interstate 605 in the Greater Los Angeles Area by a woman with a toddler. When the car gets a flat tire, they find a telephone booth on the edge of an abandoned tract housing district. While the mother is on the phone, the toddler is attacked and killed by a stray dog.

Another teenage runaway, Evan Johnson, leaves his suburban home and abusive, alcoholic mother, ending up at a punk rock concert by D.I., where Keef slips drugs into his drink. The concert ends abruptly when a female attendee has her clothes torn off by the punks in the audience. Jack Diddley offers Evan a place to stay at "T.R. House", a punk house in the abandoned tract housing district off Interstate 605. Along the way, they pick up Joe Schmo, who also intends to move into the house. Joe changes his mind when he learns each resident must be branded with the letters T.R. ("The Rejected"), but winds up coming back and accepting the brand. He begins to form a romantic relationship with Sheila, who has also moved into the house.

The next morning, several men from "Citizens Against Crime", including Jim Tripplett and Bob Skokes, drive through the neighborhood shooting at the packs of wild dogs that roam the area. T.R. kids Razzle and Skinner confront them, but the situation is defused by Jack's stepfather, police officer Bill Rennard. Jack, Evan, and Skinner steal food for the house by raiding the garages of a nearby suburban neighborhood, and they make further enemies of Jim and Bob by disrupting their garage sale. When Evan sees on the news that his mother has been arrested for drunk driving, he collects his younger brother, Ethan, and brings him to live at T.R. House, where Sheila gives him a mohawk. Sheila admits to Joe that she was physically and sexually abused by her father.

During a T.S.O.L. concert, the T.R. gang get into a fight defending Skinner. The men they were fighting with enter the concert and stab a security guard, framing the T.R. kids for the crime by using the knife to hang a flier with "T.R." written in blood. Jim and Bob next witness the T.R. crew vandalizing a convenience store. At a Citizens Against Crime meeting, they accuse Bill and the rest of the police of not doing enough to curb the teenagers' criminal behavior, declaring their willingness to take the law into their own hands. Bill goes to T.R. House and implores the teens to stay out of trouble. That night, Jim and Bob invade the house and threaten the teens, assaulting Sheila in the process. The next morning, the kids find that Sheila has killed herself by overdosing on Keef's drugs. Not knowing what to do, they bring her body back to her parents. When the T.R. kids come to the funeral, Sheila's father insists that they leave. Joe reveals his knowledge of Sheila's abuse, and a fight breaks out, hospitalizing Sheila's father.

At a Vandals concert that night, Bill shows up and warns the T.R. kids to clear out of T.R. house immediately, before their actions bring the Citizens Against Crime down on their heads, but they decide to stay. Learning of the violence at the funeral, Jim and Bob show up at the house and are attacked by the teens, who drive them off. They bring their car back around for another pass, accidentally running over and killing Ethan. Bill arrives, but is too late to prevent the tragedy.

The series focused on the extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle. The family were Catholic and working class, and led by the acid-tongued matriarch Nellie Boswell (Jean Boht) who ruled over her family with an iron fist. Early series focused on her children attempting to make enough money (in English slang, "bread") to support the family through various illicit means. Later series saw less emphasis on making money schemes, and more storylines focusing on the characters' love lives and marriages.

Minor League baseball single-A team the Durham Bulls are dealing with another sparsely attended losing season, with one thing working for them; Ebby Calvin LaLoosh, a hotshot rookie pitcher known for having a "million dollar arm, but a five cent head," who has potential to become a major league talent. "Crash" Davis, twelve-year veteran in minor league baseball, is sent down as the team's catcher to educate LaLoosh and control his haphazard pitching. Crash immediately begins calling Ebby by the degrading nickname of "Meat", and they get off to a rocky start.

Thrown into the mix is Annie, a "baseball groupie" and lifelong spiritual seeker who has latched onto the "Church of Baseball" and has, every year, chosen one player on the Bulls to be her lover and student. Annie flirts with both Crash and Ebby and invites them to her house, but Crash walks out, saying he's too much of a veteran to "try out" for anything. Before he leaves, Crash further sparks Annie's interest with a memorable speech listing the things he "believes in", ending with, "I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days... Good night". Despite some animosity between them, Annie and Crash work, in their own ways, to shape Ebby into a big-league pitcher. Annie plays mild bondage games, reads poetry to him, and gets him to think in different ways (and gives him the nickname "Nuke").

Crash forces Nuke to learn "not to think" by letting the catcher make the pitching calls (memorably at two points telling the batters what pitch is coming after Nuke shakes off his signs), and lectures him about the pressure of facing major league hitters who can hit his "heat" (fastballs). Crash also talks about the pleasure of life in major league, which he briefly lived for "the 21 greatest days of my life" and to which he has tried for years to return. Meanwhile, as Nuke matures, the relationship between Annie and Crash grows, until it becomes obvious that the two of them are a more appropriate match, except for the fact that Annie and Nuke are currently a couple.

After a rough start, Nuke becomes a dominant pitcher by mid-season, adding to the Bulls good fortunes and, in the end, he is called up to the major leagues. This incites jealous anger in Crash, who is frustrated by Nuke's failure to recognize all the talent he was blessed with. Nuke leaves, Annie ends their relationship, and Crash overcomes his jealousy to leave Nuke with some final words of advice. The Bulls, now having no use for Nuke's mentor, release Crash. Crash then presents himself at Annie's house and the two consummate their attraction with a weekend-long lovemaking session. Crash then leaves Annie's house to seek a further minor-league position.

Crash joins another team, the Asheville Tourists, and breaks the minor-league record for career home runs. We see Nuke one last time, being interviewed by the press as a major leaguer, reciting the clichéd answers that Crash had taught him earlier. Crash then retires as a player and returns to Durham, where Annie tells him she's ready to give up her annual affairs with "boys". Crash tells her that he is thinking about becoming a manager for a minor-league team in Visalia. The film ends with Annie and Crash dancing in Annie's candle-lit living room.

While staying at the Dursleys, Harry Potter and Dudley are attacked by Dementors. Harry repels them using a Patronus spell. The Ministry of Magic detects the underaged Harry using magic and expel him from Hogwarts, though he is later exonerated.

The Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization founded by Albus Dumbledore, informs Harry that the Ministry of Magic is oblivious to Lord Voldemort's return. At the Order's headquarters, Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, mentions that Voldemort seeks an object he previously lacked; Harry believes it to be a weapon.

Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge has appointed Dolores Umbridge as Hogwarts new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Umbridge's refusal to teach defensive spells causes her and Harry to clash. Harry is forced to write lines for "lying" about Voldemort. A magic quill etches the words into his hand as he writes. Ron and Hermione are outraged, but Harry refuses to tell Dumbledore, who has distanced himself from Harry. As Umbridge gains more control over the school, Ron and Hermione help Harry form "Dumbledore's Army", a secret group to teach students defensive spells. Umbridge recruits Slytherins for an Inquisitorial Squad to spy on the other students. Meanwhile, Harry and Cho Chang develop romantic feelings for each other.

One night, Harry envisions Arthur Weasley being attacked at the Ministry, seeing it from the attacker's perspective. Concerned that Voldemort will exploit this connection to Harry, Dumbledore has Severus Snape teach Harry Occlumency to defend his mind from Voldemort's influence. During a lesson, Harry sees Snape's memories of how his father, James, bullied and tormented Snape in school. The connection between Harry and Voldemort further isolates Harry from his friends. Meanwhile, Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius' deranged Death Eater cousin, escapes Azkaban prison along with nine other Death Eaters. At Hogwarts, Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad expose Dumbledore's Army. Dumbledore, falsely accused of forming it, escapes as Fudge orders his arrest. Harry believes Cho betrayed Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge, ending their budding relationship. Umbridge becomes the new Headmistress.

Harry experiences a vision that Voldemort is torturing Sirius. Harry, Ron, and Hermione rush to Umbridge's office to alert the Order via the Floo Network. Umbridge catches them and, as she is about to severely punish Harry, Hermione claims Dumbledore has hidden a "secret weapon" in the Forbidden Forest. She and Harry lead Umbridge to where Hagrid's giant half-brother, Grawp is kept. The centaurs confront them and kidnap Umbridge after she insults and attacks them. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville and Ginny fly to the Ministry of Magic on Thestrals to save Sirius.

The six enter the Department of Mysteries and recover the object that Voldemort is after, a bottled prophecy labeled with Harry's name. Death Eaters, including Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, ambush them. Lucius reveals that Harry's vision of Sirius being tortured was a ruse to lure him there. Harry refuses to give Lucius the prophecy, and a fight between Dumbledore's Army and the Death Eaters ensues. The Death Eaters overpower the students and force Harry to surrender the prophecy. When Harry hands it to Lucius, Sirius and Remus Lupin arrive with Order members Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody. As they attack the Death Eaters, Lucius drops the prophecy, destroying it. Just as Sirius overpowers Lucius, Bellatrix kills Sirius.

Voldemort appears, but moments before he can kill Harry, Dumbledore arrives. A violent duel erupts, destroying much of the Atrium, while Bellatrix escapes. The two wizards are evenly matched, so Voldemort possesses Harry's body, wanting Dumbledore to sacrifice him. The love Harry feels for his friends and family quickly drives out Voldemort. Ministry officials arrive before Voldemort disapparates; Fudge admits that Voldemort has returned and resigns in disgrace. Umbridge is dismissed and Dumbledore returns as Hogwarts headmaster. Dumbledore explains he had distanced himself from Harry to prevent Voldemort exploiting their connection. He also reveals the prophecy. As he grieves Sirius' death, Harry tries coming to terms with the prophecy: "Neither can live while the other survives."

Presley plays Clint Reno, the youngest of the four Reno brothers, who stays home to take care of his mother and the family farm as older brothers Vance, Brett and Ray fight in the American Civil War for the Confederate Army. The family is mistakenly informed that eldest brother Vance has been killed on the battlefield. After four years of war, the brothers return home and find that Vance's former girlfriend Cathy has married Clint. Although Vance accepts this wholeheartedly ("We always wanted Cathy in the family"), the family has to struggle to reach stability with this issue. The subplot of unresolved passion carries the film; it is made clear from the outset upon the Reno brothers' return home that Cathy still loves Vance, although she is true to the younger Clint. Honor prevails for Vance, but jealousy leads Clint into irrational rivalry for the Cathy's love.

In the film's opening scenes, the three Reno brothers, serving as Confederate cavalrymen, attack a Union train carrying a federal payroll of $12,000, not knowing that the war had ended only a day before. The Confederates come to a decision to keep the money as spoils of war, an issue that will come back into the plot after the Reno brothers return home. A conflict of interest ensues when Vance tries to return the money against the wishes of some of his fellow Confederates, all of whom are being sought by the U.S. Government for robbery. The film reaches its tragic climax with Clint's death during a final shootout. In the end, the money is returned, the Reno brothers are released, the other three ex-Confederates are arrested, and Clint is laid to rest at the family farm.

One dark stormy night, Injun Joe goes to meet Doctor Jonas Robinson for some shady business. Tom Sawyer is then seen running away from home. He and his friends ride down the Mississippi River on a raft, but hit a sharp rock, which throws Tom into the water. His friends find him washed up on the shore, and Tom finds it was Huck Finn who carried him to safety. Huck learns of an unusual way to remove warts - by taking a dead cat to the graveyard at night. There they witness Injun Joe and Muff Potter, the town drunk, digging up the grave of Vic "One-Eyed" Murrell for Doctor Robinson. A treasure map is discovered and Doc assaults Muff and Injun Joe in an attempt to take it for himself. Doc manages to knock out Muff, but Injun Joe fights back by fatally stabbing Doc with Muff's knife.

The next morning, Muff is charged for the murder. Tom and Huck had signed an oath saying that if either of them came forward about it, they would drop dead and rot. The boys embark on a search for Injun Joe's treasure map, so they can declare Muff innocent and still keep their oath. The only problem is, the map is in Injun Joe's pocket. After Injun Joe finds the last treasure, he burns the map, leaving no evidence to claim Muff innocent. Joe then discovers that Tom was a witness to the crime. He finds Tom and threatens he will kill him if he ever tells anyone about the murder. However, at the time, the entire community believed that he was dead, and the friendship between Tom and Huck starts to decline because their only evidence (the map) to prove Muff innocent, while preserving their oath, is destroyed.

At Muff Potter's trial, Tom decides that his friendship with Muff is more important than his oath with Huck and tells the truth. The court finds Muff innocent of all charges and goes after Injun Joe. As a result, Injun Joe attempts to kill Tom, but Tom shields himself with the Bible to avoid Joe’s dagger. When Injun Joe returns to the tavern, he sees accomplice Emmett gathering shovels and accuses him of cheating him by claiming the treasure for himself and Joe kills Emmett with a toss of his dagger. Huck becomes angry with Tom for breaking their oath and leaves town.

During a festival the next day, a group of children, including Tom and his love interest Becky Thatcher, enter the caves, where Tom and Becky become lost. They eventually stumble upon Injun Joe (who was looking for Tom) in McDougal's Cave. He traps them, but Tom and Becky manage to escape. When they find the treasure, Tom tells Becky to go get her father and bring him back.

Injun Joe ultimately finds Tom by himself and again tries to kill him, but Huck shows up to rescue Tom and battles Injun Joe. But Injun Joe easily overpowers Huck; just as he is about to kill him, Tom holds the treasure chest over a chasm. Injun Joe then tries to get the chest from Tom, only to fall into the chasm to his death (with the chest which was empty). The boys reconcile, and are declared heroes by the people. Tom is praised on the front page of the newspaper, and Widow Douglas adopts Huck Finn.

Richard Roma is a cutthroat and successful real estate salesman who derives his success from eloquent and convincing pitches, preying on insecure clients with illusions of power and machismo. During the events of ''Glengarry Glen Ross'', Roma is in contention for a prize to be awarded to the top "closer" at his firm, having just closed a large sale to a man called Lingk. Overnight, the firm's office is burgled, and promising real estate leads are stolen. Lingk arrives at the office during the investigation, forced by his wife to cancel his land purchase during his cooling-off period. Roma attempts to distract Lingk from doing so in the hope that this period will pass, trapping Lingk in the sale, but well-intentioned comments by the firm's manager, John Williamson, trying to play along, catch Roma in a lie, and Lingk demands a refund on his purchase. Furious, Roma berates Williamson in front of the entire office, and storms out, threatening to quit.

The story describes a mythical Babylon in which all activities are dictated by an all-encompassing lottery, a metaphor for the role of chance in one's life. Initially, the lottery was run as a lottery would be, with tickets purchased and the winner receiving a monetary reward. Later, punishments and larger monetary rewards were introduced. Further, participation became mandatory for all but the elite. Finally, it simultaneously became so all-encompassing and so secret some whispered "the Company has never existed, and never will," and some even posited that the question of the existence of the Company was irrelevant, as Babylon "is nothing but an infinite game of chance."

The plot begins with Souichiro Nagi and his childhood best friend Bob Makihara going to their first day of high school at Toudou Academy. They had intended to rule the school by beating up anybody that got in their way, as they had done at their previous schools. They soon learn that Toudou is no ordinary high school, but rather a school that was founded to teach and integrate different fighting styles. Its students are skilled in the various arts of combat with some students possessing supernatural abilities, such as pyrokinesis, precognition, and superhuman strength based on the abilities to use their "spirit" or "ki" in Japanese. After an altercation with the Executive Council, Souichiro and Bob join the only surviving club that opposes them, the Juken club. As the storyline develops, both groups find they are becoming increasingly involved in a long enduring conflict that was left unresolved from the Japanese feudal era by some of the characters' ancestors.

''Infernal Affairs III'' uses parallel storytelling, flashing between the past and the present.

Six months before Chan's death

Undercover Hong Kong Police Force officer Chan Wing-Yan seeks to uncover the link between Hong Kong Triad boss Hon Sam and the mysterious Mainland Chinese gang leader Shen Cheng. Since Hon's ascension to the seat of triad boss was due to the death of his predecessor, Ngai Wing-Hau, Hon is suspicious of all his men for fear they might usurp his position. He tests Chan's loyalty by ordering him to smash an ashtray on Shen's brother during a negotiation, resulting in Chan's arrest by Inspector Yeung Kam-Wing. Yeung tells Chan that though Chan does not recognise him, he recognises Chan and he warns the latter to "be careful". Chan is released after both Hon and Shen fetch him at police headquarters.

Concurrently, Chan is prosecuted for violent behaviour. His superior, Superintendent Wong Chi-shing, persuades the court to allow Chan to seek therapy, leading him to meet therapist Lee Sum-Yee. Hon asks Chan to deliver arms to Shen, but he and other triad members do not show up. When Chan delivers the cargo, Shen's men discover that the boxes are empty and open fire on Chan; Shen and Chan shoot each other in the limbs during the crossfire. Shen finds out that Chan is an undercover cop when Yeung unexpectedly arrives on the scene. Yeung tells Chan that Shen is also an undercover cop working for the Mainland authorities. Yeung also tells Chan that he gained top honours when he was in the police academy due to Chan's "expulsion". The three shake hands, wait for the chaos to subside, then leave.

Ten months after Chan's death

Senior Inspector Lau Kin-Ming, Hon's ex-spy in the Hong Kong Police Force, has been demoted to administrative duty pending an investigation into the deaths of Chan and Inspector B. He falsely claims that B shot Chan in the head while holding him hostage, and that he killed B in retaliation. After months of investigation, Lau is reinstated back to Internal Affairs, where he struggles to conceal his criminal past and protect his true identity. Lau later learns that Hon had previously planted five other spies in the police force, one of whom might be a fellow Security Division Inspector, Yeung. A battle of wits develops between Lau and Yeung, as each of them tries to discover the other's secret.

Meanwhile, Lau suffers from an identity collapse as he loses track of reality, wrestling with guilt over Chan's death and grappling with his impending divorce from his wife, Mary. His psychological trauma deteriorates to the point where he begins to see himself as Chan. As "Chan", Lau makes it a personal mission to apprehend Yeung, whom he sees as his former self. After witnessing an incident where Lau suffers a hallucination, Lee conducts a hypnosis on him and finds out that he was Hon's spy. Lau realises his folly and knocks Lee unconscious before escaping.

Lau steals tapes from Yeung's office safe, using spy cameras to determine the code. He thinks he hears recordings of Yeung relating information to Hon, and leads his Internal Affairs team to the Security Division to arrest Yeung just as Shen arrives. Lau plays a tape recording, which is actually a conversation between him and Hon. When Lau's second-in-command tries to arrest him instead, Lau panics and draws his gun, killing Yeung. He is immediately shot by Shen and attempts suicide by shooting himself in the neck. During a search of Lau's office, a tape is found in his safe and played. It is a recording of the song sung by Tsai Chin, given to him by Hon's wife.

Eleven months after Chan's death

A series of flashbacks play: immediately after Chan's death, Shen and Yeung meet. Shen suspects Lau. Yeung breaks into Lau's office to find tape recordings of his conversations with Hon, proving that Shen is right.

Yeung is buried next to Chan in the police cemetery. Shen and Lee visit the graves and Shen says to Lee: "Events change men, but men do not change events. But these two men are extraordinary because they changed events."

Lau ends up crippled and catatonic, lost inside his own mind, haunted by the spirit of Mary (Hon Sam's wife, whom he had a crush on in ''Infernal Affairs II'') and locked in his own "continuous hell". His divorced wife Mary visits and tells him, "Our baby can say "papa" now." Before the picture fades into the next scene, the camera pans down onto Lau's fingers tapping out in Morse code, "H-E-L..." (and then the start of another 'L' as the picture dims).

Before the film ends, there is one final flashback to the hi-fi shop scene in ''Infernal Affairs'', where Lau is buying an audio system from Chan.

Corneil is an intelligent dog: not only can he read and write perfect English, but he is much smarter than most people. Since he is so smart, he knows that life does not get any better than being a pampered pet, and so he does anything he can to keep his owners John and Beth from realizing his phenomenal skills. This plan begins to go awry when they hire the pinheaded Bernie Barges to "dog-sit", and Bernie learns about Corneil's secret. Though the two frequently bicker, they form an uneasy friendship, and Corneil finds himself using his brainy powers to bail Bernie out of various scrapes.

Most episodes are driven by Corneil's reluctance to let anyone know that he is intelligent and capable of human speech. The only person who does know is dogsitter Bernie, whose Uncle Rico minds John and Beth's apartment. Bernie discovered Corneil's speaking abilities by accident, and unfortunately he is somewhat lacking in intelligence and mostly devoid of morals. All this puts Corneil in an uncomfortable position, as Bernie often takes it upon himself to be 'the voice' of Corneil, capitalising on Corneil's reluctance to communicate and ignoring Corneil's requests.

In the 2014 retool of the series, Corneil and Bernie start to get into more bizarre adventures such as hunting for a legendary monster, battling a computer virus, or trying to face the apocalypse. Most of the supporting characters are reduced to background roles and a few minor ones get more focus. This adaptation also features more humans who find out about Corneil’s secret, and he begins to worry less about being exposed.

The book makes use of the false document technique, and opens with Higgins describing his discovery of the concealed grave of thirteen German paratroopers in an English graveyard. The characters discuss the historic rescue of Hitler's ally Benito Mussolini in September 1943. After Mussolini was deposed and imprisoned by the Italian government, Otto Skorzeny led a German team and achieved his release and escape from Italy.

Hitler, with the strong support of Himmler, considered a similar plan to kidnap British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence), is ordered to make a feasibility study of capturing Churchill and taking him to the Reich. Canaris realises that although Hitler will soon forget the matter, Himmler will not. Fearing Himmler may try to discredit him, Canaris orders one of his officers, Oberst Radl, to undertake the study, despite feeling that it is all a waste of effort.

An Unteroffizier on Radl's staff finds that one of their spies, codenamed ''Starling'', has provided a tantalising piece of intelligence. "At any other time, in any other place, this information would be useless," Radl said. "And then synchronicity rears its disturbing head." Churchill is scheduled to spend a relaxing weekend at a country house near the village of Studley Constable, Norfolk, where Joanna Grey, an Afrikaner woman and longtime Abwehr agent, lives. She detests England because she was abused and raped by British soldiers, and her husband, daughter, and parents were killed during the Anglo-Boer War. As a result of her reports, Radl devises a detailed plan to intercept Churchill and transport him to Germany. Although Radl is certain the plan has real possibilities, Admiral Canaris orders him to abandon it.

Himmler, however, has already learned of the scheme and summons Radl. He orders him to proceed, but without informing Canaris. In response, Radl arranges for Liam Devlin, a member of the Irish Republican Army who served as an officer in the Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, to be smuggled to Norfolk by way of Northern Ireland. Posing as a wounded veteran of the British Army, he contacts Mrs. Grey, who arranges a position for him as gamekeeper to the estate of Studley Grange. While awaiting further developments, Devlin becomes romantically involved with Molly Prior, a girl from the village.

Meanwhile, Radl selects the members of the "commando style" unit, to be led by disgraced Fallschirmjäger commander Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Steiner, which is supposed to carry out the operation. While returning from the Eastern Front, Steiner had intervened when SS soldiers were rounding up Jews at a railway station in Poland. To the outrage of the SS and Polizei, he took one of their men hostage and helped a teenage Jewish girl to escape on a passing freight train. For this he was court-martialled, along with his men, who backed his actions. Too highly decorated to face a firing squad, Steiner and his men were allowed to transfer to a penal unit in the Channel Islands. There they are forced to make high-risk attacks with human torpedoes against Allied ships in the English Channel.

Radl travels to Alderney and recruits Steiner and his surviving men. Steiner's father, General Steiner, is being tortured by the Gestapo for his alleged ties to the German Resistance. This serves as an additional incentive for the Colonel to accept the mission. Radl relocates Steiner and his men to an airfield on the north western coast of Holland, where they familiarise themselves with the British weapons and equipment they will be using. The team will be air-dropped into Norfolk from a captured C-47 Dakota with Allied markings. The commandos outfit themselves as Free Polish troops, as few of them speak English; the plan is to infiltrate Studley Constable, capture Churchill, rendezvous with an E-boat at the nearby coast, and make their escape. As part of the ruse, they arm themselves with Sten guns, M1 Garands, Bren guns and revolvers, as well as Browning Hi-Powers, instead of German weaponry.

At first, the plan seems to go off without a hitch. But one of Steiner's NCOs rescues a young girl who fell into a mill race. He is killed by the water wheel and his German uniform (worn, by Himmler's order, under the Polish uniforms, as protection against being executed as spies) is seen by several of the villagers. Determined to continue the mission, Steiner arranges for the locals to be rounded up, but the sister of Father Vereker, the local priest, escapes and alerts a nearby unit of US Army Rangers. Colonel Robert Shafto, an inexperienced but glory-seeking officer, rallies his forces to retake the hostages. Without notifying headquarters, he orders a foolhardy assault in which many Americans are killed. After the Colonel is shot in the head by Mrs. Grey, Major Harry Kane, Shafto's Executive officer in the Rangers, organises a second, successful attack.

Steiner, his second-in-command Ritter von Neumann, and Devlin escape with Molly's aid. Determined to finish the mission, Steiner allows Devlin and Neumann to escape without him and decides to make one last attempt at Churchill. He succeeds in reaching Churchill, but hesitates, is shot and supposedly killed. (However, Steiner reappears alive in ''The Eagle Has Flown'', a quasi-sequel.) In Germany, Radl has had a heart attack, implied to be fatal. At about the same time, Himmler, upon discovering that the mission has failed, orders Radl's arrest for high treason.

This account is surrounded by a frame story with a prologue and epilogue, a technique that Higgins uses in other of his novels. The author, whilst doing historical research in Norfolk, supposedly meets various surviving characters. Some paperback editions have more historical backstory than others, including a meeting with an older Liam Devlin in a Belfast hotel. The final revelation comes from an aged and terminally ill Father Vereker: at the time of his supposed visit to Norfolk, Churchill was en route to the Tehran Conference. The "Churchill" whom Steiner nearly killed was an impersonator, meaning that even if Steiner had fatally shot the man, the government would not have been affected.

Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway to study Norwegian men, in an effort to help optimize their use of their kitchens. Folke Nilsson (Tomas Norström) is assigned to study the habits of Isak Bjørvik (Joachim Calmeyer). By the rules of the research institute, Folke has to sit on an umpire's chair in Isak's kitchen and observe him from there, but never talk to him. Isak volunteered for the program with the promise of a horse, but he only receives a dala horse, a little painted wooden statue.

Isak stops using his kitchen and observes Folke through a hole in the ceiling instead. The two lonely men, observer and observed, slowly overcome the initial Norwegian-Swede and subject-observer distrust and become friends. Isak's friend Grant visits him often. Grant is a concentration camp survivor and feels Folke is stealing his friend.

The friendship between Folke and Isak costs Folke his job during an inspection. He is forced to leave and drive up to the Swedish border, but then he returns, only to find Isak has died of a broken heart. Folke, now alone, occupies Isak's home and takes up Isak's friendship with Grant.

Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries and runs experiments using psychoactive drugs and virtual reality to enhance cognitive performance, using chimpanzees as test subjects, in an experiment labeled "Project 5". Angelo has benevolent aims, but VSI is funded by "The Shop", a clandestine group hoping to find military applications for Angelo's research. One of the chimpanzees, gifted with new intelligence, warfare training, and increased aggression, escapes. Angelo consequently decides to recruit intellectually disabled gardener Jobe Smith as a test subject, telling the man he will become smarter. Angelo redesigns the intelligence-boosting treatments to remove the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments. Jobe's intelligence is enhanced and he develops psychokinesis and telepathy. He continues training at the lab until an accident forces Angelo to abort the experiment.

The project director, Sebastian Timms, keeps tabs on the progress of the experiment and secretly swaps Angelo's new medications with the old Project 5 supply. When Jobe invites his new lover Marnie to the lab to engage in cybersex, he accidentally destroys her mind. Jobe continues the treatments on his own and begins killing the people who mistreated him in the past, as well as the abusive father of his teenage friend Peter. Angelo learns the drugs have been swapped and confronts Jobe, who captures him and declares his plan to reach an ultimate stage of evolution by becoming a being of "pure energy" existing in the VSI computer mainframe, connecting to all computer systems of the world afterward. He promises his "birth" will be signaled by every telephone on the planet ringing simultaneously.

The Shop sends a team to capture Jobe, but with his new abilities he scatters them to pieces. Jobe uses the lab equipment to enter the VSI mainframe and become a digital being, abandoning his physical body. Angelo remotely accesses the VSI computer, encrypting connections to the outside world and trapping Jobe in the mainframe. As Jobe searches for an unencrypted network connection, Angelo sets bombs to destroy the building. Feeling responsible for what happened to Jobe, Angelo enters virtual reality to attempt reasoning with him one last time or die with him. Jobe overpowers Angelo and crucifies his digital body. Peter runs into the building and Jobe realizes he is in danger from the bombs. Still caring for the boy, he allows Angelo to leave the mainframe in order to rescue Peter. Jobe escapes through a maintenance line just before the building is destroyed.

Angelo is later at home with Peter and his Mother Carla. The telephone rings, followed by the noise of a second telephone ringing elsewhere, followed by all telephones ringing all around the world.

Wilbur "Wilby" Daniels is a boy who is misunderstood by his father, Wilson. Wilson thinks Wilby is crazy half the time because of his elder son's often dangerous inventions. As a retired mailman who often ran afoul of canines, he is allergic to dogs, and he simply cannot understand why his younger son, Montgomery ("Moochie"), would want a dog.

Wilby and his rival Buzz Miller go with a French girl named Francesca Andrassé to the local museum. Wilby gets separated from the other two, who leave without him. Wilby encounters former acquaintance Professor Plumcutt (whose newspaper Wilby used to deliver), who tells him all about mystical ancient beliefs, including the legend of the Borgia family, who used shape-shifting as a weapon against their enemies.

On the way out, Wilby collides with a table that holds a display case of jewelry. He accidentally ends up with one of the rings in the cuff of his pants. It is the cursed Borgia ring, and no sooner does he read the inscription on it ("''In canis corpore transmuto'' , which, unknown to Wilby, means, "Into a dog's body I change") then he transforms into the Shaggy Dog, named Chiffonn, who is Francesca's shaggy "Bratislavian sheepdog" a.k.a Old English Sheepdog. Confused, Wilby, as a dog, goes to Professor Plumcutt, who says Wilby has invoked the Borgia curse upon himself, which can only be broken through a heroic act of selflessness. After getting chased out of his own house by his enraged father (who fails to recognize him as a dog), Wilby has a series of misadventures while switching back and forth between human form and dog form. Only Moochie and Professor Plumcutt know his true identity, as Wilby has spoken to them both in dog form. While at a local dance in his human form, he accidentally transforms himself into a dog.

Francesca sees that Chiffon has been acting strangely, and she asks her adoptive father, Dr. Valasky, to watch over Chiffon for the night. As she exits, a secretive associate of Dr. Valasky named Thurm enters. Wilby, as a dog, overhears Thurm and Dr. Valasky discuss plans to steal a government secret.

The next day, Wilby, as a dog, tells Moochie about the spies. Wilby reveals the secret to his dumbfounded father. As Wilby and Moochie discuss what to do next, Francesca's butler Stefano comes out and drags Wilby into the house. Moochie runs to his father to get help, who goes to the authorities, until Wilson suddenly finds himself accused of being either crazy or a spy himself.

Stefano and Francesca's adoptive father, Dr. Valasky, are discussing plans to steal a government secret, and Wilby, as a dog, overhears. Unfortunately for him, he transforms into human Wilby right in front of the spies and has been discovered, but not before he hears Dr. Valasky expressing his wish to get rid of his own daughter.

The spies angrily capture Wilby and force Francesca to leave with them, leaving the human Wilby bound and gagged in the closet at once. Fortunately, Moochie sneaks into the house just after Dr. Valasky, Stefano and Francesca leave, and discovers Wilby, who is transformed into a dog, still bound and gagged in the closet.

When Buzz appears at the Valasky residence to take Francesca on a date, Wilby, still in his dog form, steals Buzz's hot rod automobile. Buzz reports this to Officers Hansen and Kelly, who are in disbelief until they see the shaggy dog driving Buzz's hot rod. Wilson and Moochie follow Buzz and the police, who end up chasing everyone. The spies attempt to leave aboard a boat, but the police call in the harbor patrol to apprehend Dr. Valasky and stop his boat. Wilby, in his dog form, swims up and wrestles with the men, as Francesca gets knocked out of the boat. He then saves her life and drags her ashore, which finally breaks the curse of dog form. When Francesca regains her consciousness, Buzz tries to take credit for saving her. This angers Wilby, who is still a dog, so much that he attacks Buzz. Seconds later, Buzz is surprised to find himself wrestling with the ''real'' human Wilby, and the ''real'' Chiffon reappears. Since he is soaking wet, Francesca concludes that he has ''really'' saved her from the ocean and she hugs and praises Chiffon.

Now that Wilson and Chiffon are declared heroes, Francesca is able to leave for Paris without her evil adoptive father and former butler, both of whom have been arrested for illegal espionage; and she gives Chiffon to the Daniels family for them to keep as her way of thanking them. Since Wilson has gotten such commendation for foiling a spy ring because of "his love of dogs", he has a change of heart over his allergy to dogs, a promise to change his ways, and a sense of humor (while he also realizes that his dog-hating attitude isn't really good anymore), so he allows Moochie to care for Chiffon as he wanted a dog all along. Wilby and Buzz decide to forget their rivalry over Francesca and resume their friendship instead.

Kevin Lomax is a Gainesville, Florida defense attorney who has never lost a case. As he defends schoolteacher Lloyd Gettys against a charge of child molestation, he belatedly realizes his client is guilty. However, through a harsh cross-examination, Kevin destroys the victim's credibility, securing a "not guilty" verdict.

A representative of a New York City law firm asks Kevin to assist a jury selection. After the jury delivers a not guilty verdict, the head of the firm, John Milton, offers Kevin a high-paying job. Kevin accepts, and he and his wife Mary Ann move to Manhattan. He is soon spending most of his time at work, leaving Mary Ann feeling isolated. Kevin's fundamentalist mother, Alice, visits New York City and suggests they both return home after an unsettling conversation with Milton, but Kevin refuses.

When billionaire Alex Cullen is accused of murdering his wife, his stepson, and a maid, Milton assigns the case to Kevin. This demands more of Kevin's time, further separating him from Mary Ann, and he begins to fantasize about his co-worker, Christabella. Mary Ann begins seeing visions of the partners' wives becoming demonic, and has a nightmare about a baby playing with her removed ovaries. Mary Ann reveals to Kevin that a doctor has declared her infertile, and begs Kevin to return them to Gainesville, but he refuses. Milton suggests Kevin step down from the trial to tend to his wife, but Kevin says that he fears he will resent her for costing him the case.

Eddie Barzoon, the firm's managing partner, is convinced that Kevin is competing for his job when he discovers Kevin's name on the firm's charter. Surprised, Kevin denies any knowledge of this and Eddie threatens to inform the United States Attorney's office of the firm's activities. Kevin tells Milton about Eddie's threats, but Milton seems to dismiss them; during the conversation, Eddie is beaten to death in Central Park by vagrants with demonic appearances. An U.S. Justice Department agent investigating Milton warns Kevin that his boss is corrupt, and also reveals that Gettys has been arrested for killing a little girl. Moments later, the agent is struck by a car and killed.

While preparing Melissa Black, Cullen's secretary, to testify about Cullen's alibi, Kevin realizes she is lying and tells Milton he believes Cullen is guilty. Milton offers to back him regardless and Kevin proceeds, winning an acquittal with Black's perjured testimony. Afterwards, Kevin finds Mary Ann covered with a blanket in a nearby church. She claims Milton raped and brutalized her that day, but Kevin says it is impossible, as he was with Milton in court. Mary Ann drops her blanket, revealing her naked body covered with cuts and scratches. Assuming she injured herself, Kevin commits her to a mental institution.

Alice, Kevin, and Pam Garrety, his case manager, visit Mary Ann at the institution. After seeing Pam as a demon, Mary Ann hits her with a hand mirror and barricades the room. As Kevin breaks down the door, Mary Ann commits suicide by cutting her throat with a shard of glass. Alice reveals that Milton is Kevin's father, whom she met in New York decades earlier, and her experience with him was traumatic. Kevin leaves the hospital to confront Milton, who admits to raping Mary Ann. Kevin shoots Milton, but the bullets pass through him. Milton reveals himself as Satan, and Kevin blames him for everything that happened. Milton counters that he merely "set the stage", and that Kevin could have left at any time. Kevin realizes he always wanted to win, no matter the cost. Christabella emerges from the shadows, and Milton tells Kevin that he wants Kevin and Christabella - whom he reveals to be Kevin's half-sister - to conceive the Antichrist. Kevin initially appears to acquiesce, but then abruptly shoots himself in the head. Milton's Satanic rage turns the room into a furnace, burning Christabella alive, initially revealing his demonic form before turning into a white angel who resembles Kevin.

Suddenly, Kevin finds himself back at the recess of the Gettys trial. He announces that he cannot represent his client despite the threat of disbarment. Kevin's reporter friend Larry offers him a high-profile interview, promising to make him famous. Encouraged by Mary Ann, Kevin agrees. After they leave, Larry transforms into Milton, who says, "Vanity-definitely my favorite sin."

The basic plot involves the police investigating a supposedly haunted house. The house is discovered to serve as headquarters for a confidence trickster who pretends to be able to contact the dead, and charges naive customers large amounts of money to allow them to speak to their deceased loved ones.

The film features a prologue and a brief acting role by Criswell, who also narrated Wood's ''Plan 9 from Outer Space''. The prologue has Criswell rising from a coffin, leaving unclear if the "metaphysical" narrator is awaking from normal sleep or whether he is actually a corpse returning to life. The latter implication can be seen as foreshadowing the final scenes of the film.

One of the opening scenes features a montage of seemingly unrelated events, which seem to feature Wood's view of the post-war era and its social problems: juvenile delinquency, street fighting, and driving under the influence. A memorable sequence has a car driving off a cliff and crashing. The sequence ends with the bloody corpse of the drunk driver staring blankly at the camera. According to Criswell's narration, this is a rather typical end to "a drunken holiday weekend". The narrative properly begins with a teenaged couple kissing in a convertible, parked at night in what is probably a lovers' lane. When the boy gets too aggressive, the girl ends the embrace with a slap and exits the car. At this point the narrative introduces the Black Ghost which lurks in the woods near them. In short order, first the girl and then the boy are attacked by the undead creature and die. According to Criswell's narration, the two murders received press attention but were thought to be the work of a maniac.

In a police station of East Los Angeles, California, Inspector Robbins is waiting for Detective Bradford at his office. Bradford soon arrives, dressed in a top hat and formal evening wear. He was called to work while on his way to the opera, and he protests the idea of working an unexpected assignment. But Robbins informs him that the case involves the "old house on Willows lake", which played a part in an earlier case investigated by Bradford (a reference to the events of ''Bride of the Monster''). The house was destroyed by lightning, but someone rebuilt it. A flashback scene establishes that the elderly Edwards couple had a terrifying encounter with the White Ghost by this house. Having heard the story, Bradford accepts the assignment to investigate the old house. Robbins assigns Kelton to escort the Detective, despite the protests of the man that "''Monsters! Space people! Mad doctors! They didn't teach me about such things in the police academy! And yet that's all I've been assigned to since I became on active duty"''. The line is used to recall Kelton's experiences in ''Bride of the Monster'' and ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'' and to explicitly connect this film to its predecessors.

Bradford drives a Pontiac Bonneville to the house and enters through an open door, to be confronted by Dr. Acula (played by Kenne Duncan). Dressed in a turban and cryptically mentioning that there are many already in the house, both living and dead, Acula is a rather strange figure. But Bradford convinces Acula that he is just another prospective client, so his entrance is accepted. The narrator soon establishes that one of "the many" in the house is a remnant of its past, Lobo. A character from ''Bride'', Lobo is depicted as disfigured from the flames which once destroyed this house. Outside the house, Kelton arrives late and has brief encounters with both the Black and the White Ghost. The scene shifts to a strange séance, where Acula and his clients share the table with human skeletons. A subsequent scene both confirms that Dr. Acula is a fake psychic by the name of "Karl", as Bradford suspected earlier, and reveals that the White Ghost is an actress by the name of "Sheila". Her role is to scare away intruders.Hogan (1997), p. 233Ruffles (2004), p. 211 She is concerned by the presence of the Black Ghost which is not part of their hoax, though the cynical Acula dismisses her fears. He doesn't believe in the supernatural.

Both Bradford and Kelton have strange and sometimes violent confrontations within the house, and are eventually joined by reinforcements. As their accomplices fall to the police, Karl and Sheila attempt to escape through a mortuary room. There they are confronted by a group of undead men, including one played by Criswell. The latter is the only one of them who speaks, explaining to Karl that the supposedly "fake" psychic does have genuine powers and his necromantic efforts actually worked. These dead men were restored to life, if only for a few hours, but they intend to take Karl with them in their return to the grave. As Karl dies, Sheila escapes the house to meet her own fate. The Black Ghost, genuinely undead, takes control of the impostor and tells her that it is time to join "the others" at the grave. As the police try to understand what happened to the deceased Karl, the narrative ends with a shot of an undead Sheila, now truly a White Ghost.

In a brief epilogue which also closes the frame story, the narrator returns to his coffin. Claiming that it is time for both the old dead and the new to return to their graves, he reminds the viewer that they too can soon join them in death.

''Prisoner of Ice'' begins during the run-up to World War II, primarily around Antarctica. The main character is a young U.S. intelligence officer, Lt. Ryan, who has been assigned to a British submarine, HMS ''Victoria'', for a special mission. As the game begins, the submarine is fleeing the Antarctic after rescuing a Norwegian who has recently escaped from a secret German base in the Antarctic (it is later revealed that the base is built atop the Ancient Ruins mentioned in ''At the Mountains of Madness''). Along with the Norwegian, the sub has picked up two mysterious cargo crates stolen from the Nazis.

Late in the game, in Argentina, Ryan meets John Parker, the central character from ''Shadow of the Comet'', and reveals the links between the two games. Narackamous, the main antagonist of ''Shadow of the Comet'', also returns.

The game has a choice of two endings, though there is little difference between them.

The game takes place in 1910, and concerns the visit of a young British photographer, John Parker, to the isolated New England town of Illsmouth (an alteration on Lovecraft's Innsmouth) to witness and photograph the passage of Halley's Comet. In 1834, on the last passing, Lord Boleskine visited the town after learning that certain conditions near the town would allow astronomical objects to be seen clearer and closer than on any other spot on earth. He decided to test this theory by observing the comet from Illsmouth, but something unexpected happened and he went insane, spending the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum. Parker, learning of the 1834 incident and reading over Boleskine's papers, wishes to succeed where his predecessor failed. When he arrives, Parker stumbles upon a sinister conspiracy and must survive the three days between his arrival and the comet's passage while finding out what happened in 1834.

According to a prophecy, King Fudd the Bewildered is expected to die next week, and the unmarried princess at his side shall inherit the Kingdom. His legitimate daughter, Princess Lorealle the Worthy comes to the castle to be on his side but disappears mysteriously the next day. Early in the game, the player learns of the scheme by Fudd's wife and Lorealle's stepmother, the wicked Queen Morgana the Black, who plots with her lover Sir Pectoral to have her daughter by a previous marriage to be on the dying King's side and therefore become the sole heir. Lorealle has been abducted and held in the castle of Morgana's witch sister with the intent to marry the evil Beast in order to be excluded from the prophecy. In order to make certain that Lorealle will be not rescued in time by any knight, Morgana conspires so that the Union Hall picks the most incompetent and unworthy of them, Eric the Unready - the player character.

Bud the Wizard (a pun on Budweiser) informs the player that in order to access the castle, he must find several magical items: the Pitchfork of Damocles, in the leaves of the tallest tree in the Enchanted Forest; the Crescent Wrench of Armageddon, within the walls of Blicester Castle; the Raw Steak of Eternity, guarded by the Stygian Dragon; the Crowbar of the Apocalypse in the mists around the Mountain of the Gods; and the Bolt Cutters of Doom owned by an enchanter in the Swamp of Perdition. Each mission is somehow timed: the evil Sir Pectoral is after him; if the player takes too long to reach the object, the game will end. With each acquirement, Eric creates some disaster, usually an explosion, which hurls him to the next area the following day. The player can collect a newspaper from each area/day which describes Eric's latest mishaps and other fictional 'news' of the game world, usually puns on pop culture elements. Eric's final destination is the witch's castle, where he uses the magical objects to open its gate. He then prevents the Princess' wedding and destroys the Beast along with a castle full of monsters. After that, the King orders Morgana and her daughter to be exiled along with Sir Pectoral, and Sir Eric and Princess Lorealle are about to marry.

Vada Sultenfuss is an 11-year-old girl living in Madison, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1972. Her father, Harry Sultenfuss, operates the town's funeral parlor, which also serves as their home. Vada's upbringing leads her to suffer from hypochondria and develop an obsession with death, and her father fails to understand it. Also living with them is "Gramoo", Vada's paternal grandmother, whose recent mind wandering accentuates Vada's worries. Her uncle Phil lives nearby and frequently helps the family.

Vada hangs out with Thomas J. Sennett, an unpopular boy her age who is allergic to "everything". Other girls tease the two, thinking they are more than just friends. Thomas J. often accompanies Vada when she visits the doctor, who assures her that she is not sick. He is quite nice to her, although she is often unkind in return.

Vada's summer begins well. She befriends Shelly DeVoto, the new makeup artist at the funeral parlor, who provides her with some much needed guidance. She also develops a crush on Mr. Bixler, her fifth-grade school teacher, and hears about an adult poetry writing class he is teaching. Wondering how to pay for the class, Vada schemes after seeing enough money in a cookie jar in Shelly's camper. During her first class, when advised to write about what is in her soul, Vada fears that she killed her mother, who died two days after giving birth to her.

When Harry and Shelly start dating, Vada's attitude towards Shelly changes. One night, Vada follows Harry and Shelly to a bingo game and brings Thomas J. along to disrupt it. On the Fourth of July, when Shelly's ex-husband Danny shows up, Vada hopes that he will take Shelly back, but to no avail.

Following the holiday, and another doctor visit, Vada and Thomas J. spot a beehive in the woods, which Thomas J. knocks down. Vada loses her mood ring in the process, and while the two look for it, the bees swarm and force them to run away. Shortly afterward, Harry invites Vada to a carnival, but she is unenthusiastic to go when he announces Shelly is also coming. Vada becomes distressed when the two announce their engagement there, leading her to contemplate running away.

Later, Vada screams when she discovers she is hemorrhaging. With Harry not around, Shelly explains to Vada that she is experiencing her first period. As Vada accepts this happens only to girls, she is unwilling to see Thomas J., who happens to come by shortly afterward. A couple of days later, Vada and Thomas J. sit under a willow tree, wondering what a first kiss feels like, and they share one. After Vada heads home, Thomas J. returns to the woods to search for Vada's mood ring. Unaware that the beehive he knocked down is still active, he is killed by the bees due to his allergy.

Harry is left to deliver the tragic news to Vada. Following another doctor visit, a devastated Vada stays in her bedroom for a full day. Prior to Thomas J.'s funeral, Shelly suggests that Harry console Vada, but he brushes her off. To this, Shelly emotionally urges him to realize the significance of his daughter's pain. When Vada finally leaves her bedroom and sees Thomas J.'s body in his casket, her grief becomes so strong that she runs away. In tears, she rushes to Mr. Bixler's house, wanting to stay with him but discovering he is engaged.

Vada continues her grieving by the willow tree where she and Thomas J. hung out. When Vada returns home, everyone is relieved, including Shelly, whom Vada begins to accept as her future stepmother. Her grief also manages to mend the rift between her and her father, who assures Vada that her mother's death was not her fault.

Toward the end of summer, Vada and her father see and comfort Mrs. Sennett, who still struggles with her son's death. She returns Vada's mood ring, which Thomas J. had found. On the last day of her writing class, Vada reads a poem in memory of her best friend.

Nelson Wright, a medical student, walks onto a beach one day and proclaims “today is a good day to die”. He later convinces four of his medical school classmates—Joe Hurley, David Labraccio, Rachel Manus, and Randy Steckle—to help him discover what lies beyond death. Nelson flatlines for one minute before his classmates resuscitate him. While "dead", he experiences a sort of afterlife. He sees a vision of a boy he bullied as a child, Billy Mahoney. He merely tells his friends that he cannot describe what he saw, but something is there. The others follow Nelson's daring feat.

Joe flatlines next, and he experiences an erotic afterlife sequence linked to his sexually promiscuous lifestyle. He agrees with Nelson's claim that something indeed exists. After arguing with Rachel and out-bidding her on the length of time that they are willing to remain “dead” David is third to flatline on Halloween, and he sees a vision of a girl, Winnie Hicks, whom he bullied in grade school. The three men start to experience hallucinations related to their afterlife visions. Nelson gets physically assaulted by Billy Mahoney twice. Joe, engaged to be married, is haunted by the women that he surreptitiously videotaped during his sexual dalliances, the women taunting Joe with the same come-ons, lines and false promises he used on them. David is confronted by the 8 year old Winnie Hicks on a train, and she verbally taunts him the way he taunted her.

Rachel decides to flatline next. David rushes in, intending to stop the others from giving Rachel their same fate, but she is already "dead" when he arrives. Rachel nearly dies permanently when the power goes out and the men are unable to shock her with the defibrillator paddles. She survives, but she too is haunted by the memory of her father committing suicide when she was young.

The three men finally reveal their harrowing experiences to one another, and David decides to put his visions to a stop. Meanwhile, Joe's fiancée, Anne, comes to his apartment and, having discovered his collection of videos, ends their relationship. Joe's visions cease after Anne leaves him.

David goes to visit a now adult Winnie Hicks and apologizes to her. Winnie accepts his apology and thanks him. David immediately feels a weight lifted off his shoulders. David then finds Nelson, who accompanied David to visit Winnie, beating himself with a climbing axe. In Nelson's mind, however, Billy Mahoney is again attempting to beat him to death. David stops him, and they return to town. David later instructs Joe and Steckle to help Nelson find Billy Mahoney and that under no uncertain terms is Nelson to be left alone.

Having an idea of what Rachel has experienced, David offers to stay with Rachel and they make love. While Rachel and David are together, Nelson takes Steckle and Joe to a graveyard. He reveals that he killed Billy Mahoney as a kid by throwing rocks at him until he fell out of a tree. The two try to tell Nelson that what he did was not intentional, but Nelson makes a cryptic choice about making amends. Confused and worried they ask but Nelson in his furor storms off, leaving Joe and Steckle stranded.

David leaves Rachel alone in order to rescue Joe and Steckle at the cemetery. While alone, Rachel goes to the bathroom and finds her father. He apologizes to his daughter and her guilt over his death is lifted when she discovers that he was addicted to morphine and that his suicide was related to post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his service in the Vietnam War. Nelson calls Rachel, and he tells her that he needs to flatline again in order to make amends. He apologizes for involving her and their friends in his reckless plan. Rachel tries to tell Nelson that it doesn't matter, but Nelson counters with the belief that everything that they say and do matters.

The three men realize to their shock what he intends and race to stop Nelson, who has been dead for an estimated nine minutes already. Rachel soon finds them, and the four friends work feverishly to save Nelson. In the afterlife, Nelson is experiencing himself as a young boy being stoned by Billy Mahoney from the tree. Nelson dies in the afterlife from the fall, and his friends cannot revive him. When they are about to give up, Mahoney forgives Nelson, and David gives Nelson one last shock. This brings him back, and Nelson tells them, "It wasn't such a good day to die."

Michael Emerson and his younger brother, Sam move with their recently divorced mother Lucy to the fictional small beach town of Santa Carla, California, to live with her eccentric father, Michael and Sam's grandfather.

Michael and Sam hang out at the boardwalk, which is plastered with flyers of missing people. Lucy gets a job at a video store owned by bachelor Max Lawrence. Michael becomes fascinated by Star, a beautiful young girl he spots on the boardwalk, though she seems to be with the mysterious David, the leader of a youth biker gang.

In the local comic book store, Sam meets brothers Edgar and Alan Frog, a pair of self-proclaimed vampire hunters. They give Sam horror comics to teach him about the threat they claim has infiltrated the town.

Michael finally talks to Star. David approaches and goads him into following them by motorcycle along the beach. They reach a dangerous cliff that Michael nearly drives over. At the gang's hangout, an abandoned luxury hotel sunken beneath the cliff by the 1906 earthquake, David initiates Michael into the group. Star warns Michael not to drink from an offered bottle, warning it is blood, but he ignores her advice. Later on, David and the others, including Michael, head to a railroad bridge where they hang off the bottom from the trestles over a foggy gorge; one by one they fall, Michael falling after them.

Michael wakes up at home the next day, unaware of how he got there. His eyes are sensitive to sunlight and he develops a sudden thirst for blood, which leads him to impulsively attack Sam. Sam's dog, Nanook, retaliates. Sam realizes that Michael is turning into a vampire, verified by his brother's semi-transparent reflection. Sam is initially terrified, but Michael convinces him that he is not yet a vampire and desperately needs his help.

Michael begins developing supernatural powers and asks Star for help; they have sex shortly after. Sam deduces that, as Michael has not killed anyone, he is a half-vampire and his condition is reversible upon the head vampire's death. Sam and the Frog brothers test whether Max is the head vampire during a date with Lucy, but he passes every test, and they instead focus on David.

To provoke him into killing, David takes Michael to stalk a group of beach goers and instigates a feeding frenzy. Horrified, he escapes and returns home to Sam. Star then arrives and reveals herself as a half-vampire who wants to be cured. It emerges that David had intended for Michael to be Star's first kill, sealing her fate as a vampire.

The next day, a weakening Michael leads Sam and the Frog brothers to the gang's lair. They impale one vampire, Marko, with a stake, awakening David and the two others, but the boys escape, rescuing Star and Laddie, a half-vampire child and Star's companion.

That evening, while Lucy is out with Max and Grandpa is on a date with a widow, the teens arm themselves with holy-water-filled water guns, a longbow and wood stakes; barricading themselves in the house. When night falls, David's gang attack the house. The Frog brothers and Nanook kill Paul by pushing him into a bathtub filled with garlic and holy water, dissolving him. Sam is attacked by Dwayne, another vampire, before he shoots an arrow through his heart and into the stereo behind him, electrocuting him.

Michael is then attacked by David, forcing him to use his vampire powers. He manages to overpower David and impales him on a set of antlers. However, Michael, Star and Laddie do not transform back to normal as they had hoped. Lucy then returns home with Max, who is revealed to be the head vampire. He explains that inviting a vampire into one's house renders one powerless over said vampire, leaving them unable to exploit any weaknesses the vampire has while there, explaining why their earlier assumption appeared to be incorrect. Max reveals he had instructed David to turn Sam and Michael into vampires so that Lucy could not refuse to be transformed herself, as his objective had been to make Lucy mother for his lost boys.

As Max pulls Lucy to him, preparing to transform her, he is killed when Grandpa crashes his truck through the wall of the house, impaling Max on a wooden fence post, causing him to explode. Michael, Star and Laddie then return to normal. Amongst the carnage and debris, Grandpa casually retrieves a drink from the refrigerator and declares: "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach: all the damn vampires."

In July 2002, Agent J has become a top agent but has developed a habit of neuralyzing partners he feels aren't emotionally able to cope with the work. When he is called to investigate the murder of an alien, Ben, at his pizzeria, waitress Laura Vasquez tells him that the murderers are Serleena, a shapeshifting, worm-like Kylothian who has taken the form of a Victoria's Secret lingerie model, and her two-headed servant Scrad and Charlie. Laura says they were looking for something called the Light of Zartha. J is strongly attracted to Laura, and in violation of MiB rules, does not neuralyze her to erase her memories.

J finds that little is known about the Light of Zartha, except that it is immensely powerful. As he investigates the crime, every lead points to his former partner and mentor, Agent K, who was neuralyzed upon retirement five years previously and remembers nothing of his MIB service. In Truro, Massachusetts, where K is now the town's postmaster, J convinces him of his past by proving that all of his fellow postal workers are aliens.

Back in New York City, Serleena, along with Scrad and Charlie, launches an attack on MIB headquarters before K's neuralyzation can be reversed, but Jack Jeebs has an illegal deneuralyzer in his basement. K eventually regains his memories, but remembers that years before, he neuralyzed himself specifically to erase what he knew of the Light of Zartha and those memories have not returned. As a precaution, he left himself a series of clues.

At the pizzeria, they find a locker key. J and K fear for Laura's safety and hide her with the worms. The key opens a locker in Grand Central Station where a society of tiny aliens, who worship K as their deity, guard their most sacred relics: K's wristwatch and video store membership card.

At the store, as J and K watch a fictionalized story of the Light of Zartha, K remembers the Zarthan Queen Lauranna long ago entrusted Men in Black with safeguarding the Light from her nemesis, Serleena, who followed Lauranna to Earth and killed her. After hiding the Light, a grief-stricken K neuralyzed himself, both to bury his sadness and to ensure that he would never reveal its hiding place. K still cannot remember where he hid it nor what the Light actually looks like. Thinking it might be Laura's bracelet, he only remembers that it must return to Zartha soon or both Earth and Zartha will be destroyed.

At the worms' apartment, they find that Laura has been captured by Serleena. With the worms, they counterattack MIB headquarters, freeing Laura and the other agents. Serleena attempts to retaliate by chasing them with a spaceship through New York but is eaten by Jeff, a gigantic worm alien living in the New York City Subway.

Laura's bracelet leads J and K to the roof of a skyscraper where a ship stands ready to transport the Light back to Zartha. K reveals that Laura is the daughter of Lauranna (and, it is implied, his daughter) and that she's also the Light. K convinces J and Laura that she must go to Zartha to save both her planet and Earth from destruction. Serleena, who has absorbed Jeff and taken his form, attempts to snatch the ship carrying Laura as it lifts off, but J and K blast her out of the sky. Since all of New York City has just witnessed this battle in the skies over the metropolis, K activates a giant neuralyzer in the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

Back at MIB headquarters, J finds that K and Chief Zed have relocated the tiny locker-dwelling aliens to his Men in Black locker hoping to give him some perspective. When J suggests showing the miniature creatures that their universe is bigger than a locker, K shows him that the human universe is itself a locker within an immense alien train station.

Lifelong friends Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey are Miami police detectives investigating $100 million of seized Mafia heroin, which was stolen from a secure police vault. Internal Affairs suspects that it was an inside job and threatens to shut down the entire department unless they recover the drugs within 72 hours.

Mike asks one of his informants and ex-girlfriend Maxine "Max" Logan to look for people who are newly rich and therefore suspects. She gets herself and her best friend Julie Mott hired as escorts by Eddie Dominguez, a crooked former cop. The party is soon interrupted by Dominguez's French drug kingpin boss Fouchet and his henchmen Casper, Ferguson, and Noah. Dominguez and Max are killed, while Julie manages to escape. The madam who hired Julie and Max is disposed of by Noah, who then knocks out Mike as he investigates Max's death.

Frantically calling the police station, Julie insists on talking only to Mike, who is away. Knowing she never met Mike, captain Conrad Howard forces Marcus to impersonate Mike to talk to her. At her apartment, Marcus and Julie are attacked by some of Fouchet's henchmen, one of whom Marcus kills. When they rendezvous with Mike, Marcus and Mike have to impersonate each other, with Mike living at the Burnett residence while Marcus resides with Julie at Mike's apartment. The two struggle to keep it up in Julie's presence, and she quickly begins to suspect the truth.

Looking through mugshots, Julie identifies Noah as one of the henchmen. The trio go to Club Hell, one of Noah's known hangouts. After being spotted, Marcus knocks Casper unconscious during a bathroom fight. Julie tries to kill Fouchet but Marcus stops her. In the ensuing car chase, Mike kills Noah. The three manage to get away, but are caught on camera by a news helicopter and the report is later seen by Marcus's family, who were told that Marcus was temporarily reassigned to Cleveland.

Mike and Marcus meet their old informant Jojo and learn about the location of the chemist who is cutting the stolen drugs. The three return to Mike's apartment, where Marcus' wife Theresa confronts them and confirms Julie's suspicion they have been impersonating each other. Fouchet's gang shows up and kidnaps Julie.

Mike and Marcus' department is shut down by Internal Affairs. Despite being reassigned, Howard delays the order, giving Mike and Marcus more time to solve the case. They access Dominguez's private police database profile and learn that the police secretary Francine is Dominguez's former girlfriend, who was being blackmailed by Fouchet and Dominguez after they took nude photos of her, threatening to post them at her kids' school.

Marcus, Mike and two other detectives, Sanchez and Ruiz, head to the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. After a fierce shootout, they kill the remainder of Fouchet's henchmen, including Casper and Ferguson, and rescue Julie. They chase a fleeing Fouchet and force his car into a concrete barrier. As Fouchet tries to flee, Mike shoots Fouchet in the leg and arrests him at gunpoint. After a tense conversation with Marcus, Fouchet surreptitiously draws a gun but is shot to death by Mike before he can kill Marcus, avenging Max's death. An exhausted Marcus leaves Julie with Mike and heads home, eager to be reunited with his wife.

In 1955, Harry Angel, a New York City private investigator, is contacted by a man named Louis Cyphre to track down John Liebling, a crooner known professionally as Johnny Favorite who suffered severe neurological trauma resulting from injuries he received in World War II. Favorite's incapacity disrupted a contract with Cyphre regarding unspecified collateral, and Cyphre believes that a private upstate hospital where Favorite was receiving radical psychiatric treatment for shell shock has falsified records. Harry goes to the hospital and discovers that the records showing Favorite's transfer were indeed falsified by a physician named Albert Fowler. After Harry breaks into his home, Fowler admits that years ago he was bribed by a man and woman so that the two could abscond with the disfigured Favorite. Believing that Fowler is still withholding information, Harry locks him in his bedroom, forcing him to suffer withdrawal from a morphine addiction. The next morning, he finds that the doctor has apparently committed suicide.

Harry tries to break his contract with Cyphre but agrees to continue the search when Cyphre offers him a large sum of money. He soon discovers that Favorite had a wealthy fiancée named Margaret Krusemark but had also begun a secret love affair with a woman named Evangeline Proudfoot. Harry travels to New Orleans and meets with Margaret, who divulges little information, telling him that Favorite is dead, or at least dead to her. Harry then discovers that Evangeline died several years previously, but is survived by her 17-year-old daughter, Epiphany Proudfoot, who was conceived during her mother's love affair with Favorite. When Epiphany is reluctant to speak, Harry tracks down Toots Sweet, a blues guitarist and former Favorite bandmate. After Harry uses force to try to extract details of Favorite's last known whereabouts, Toots refers him back to Margaret. The following morning, police detectives inform Harry that Toots has been murdered. Harry returns to Margaret's home, where he finds her murdered, her heart removed with a ceremonial knife. He is later attacked by enforcers of Ethan Krusemark—a powerful Louisiana patriarch and Margaret's father—who tell him to leave town.

Harry returns to his hotel and finds Epiphany on his doorstep. He invites her into his room, where they have aggressive sex during which Harry has visions of blood dripping from the ceiling and splashing around the room. He later confronts Krusemark in a gumbo hut, where the latter reveals that he and Margaret were the ones who took Favorite from the hospital. He also explains that Favorite was actually a powerful occultist who sold his soul to Satan in exchange for stardom. He got his stardom but then sought to renege on the bargain. To do so, Favorite kidnapped a young soldier from Times Square and performed a Satanic ritual on the boy, murdering him and eating his still-beating heart in order to steal his soul. Favorite planned to assume the identity of the murdered soldier but was drafted and then injured overseas. Suffering severe facial trauma and amnesia, Favorite was sent to the hospital for treatment. After Krusemark and his daughter took him from the hospital, they left him at Times Square on New Year's Eve 1943 (the date on the falsified hospital records). While hearing Krusemark's story, Harry runs into the bathroom, vomits and continually asks the identity of the soldier. He returns to find Krusemark drowned in a cauldron of boiling gumbo.

Harry goes to Margaret's home, where he finds a vase containing the soldier's dog tag—stamped with the name Angel, Harold. Harry cries out as he realizes that he and Johnny Favorite are, in fact, the same person. Cyphre appears, and Harry figures out that "Louis Cyphre" is a homophone for Lucifer. His true nature revealed, Cyphre proclaims that he can at long last claim what is his: Favorite's immortal soul. Harry insists that he knows who he is and has never killed anyone, but as he looks at his reflection in a mirror, his repressed memories showing him killing Fowler, Toots, the Krusemarks, and Epiphany come flooding back.

A frantic Harry returns to his hotel room, where the police have found Epiphany brutally murdered. Harry's dog tags are on her body. A police officer enters the room carrying Epiphany's young son, who Harry realizes is his grandchild. The police detective tells Harry that he will "burn" for what he has done to Epiphany, to which Harry replies, "I know. In Hell." Harry sees the child's eyes glow, just as Cyphre's had at their last meeting, implying that Satan is the mysterious entity that impregnated Epiphany. During the end credits, Harry is seen standing inside an iron elevator that is interminably descending, presumably to Hell. As the screen fades to black, Cyphre can be heard whispering, "Harry" and "Johnny", asserting dominion over both their souls.

John Tunstall (Stamp), an educated Englishman and cattle rancher in Lincoln County, New Mexico, hires wayward young gunmen to live and work on his ranch. Tunstall is in heavy competition with a well-connected Irishman named Lawrence Murphy (Palance), who owns a large ranch; their men clash on a regular basis. Tunstall recruits Billy (Estevez) and advises him to renounce violence, saying, "He who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind." Tensions escalate between the two camps, resulting in the murder of Tunstall. Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips), Richard M. "Dick" Brewer (Sheen), "Dirty" Steve Stephens (Mulroney), and Charlie Bowdre (Siemaszko), consult their lawyer friend Alexander McSween (O'Quinn), who manages to get them deputized and given warrants for the arrest of Murphy's murderous henchmen.

Billy quickly challenges Dick's authority as leader, vowing revenge against Murphy and the men responsible for killing Tunstall. The men dub themselves The Regulators and arrest some of the murderers, but hot-headed Billy is unable to wait for justice. He guns down unarmed men and goes on to kill one of his fellow Regulators (later arrival J. McCloskey) in the paranoid (but correct) belief that he was still in league with Murphy. The men learn from a newspaper that they have been stripped of their badges. That same paper also confuses Dick for Billy, showing a picture of Dick labeled Billy the Kid, a nickname to which Billy takes an immediate liking.

While the local authorities begin their hunt for Billy and the boys, the Regulators argue about continuing with their warrants or to go on the run. One of the men on their list of warrants, Buckshot Roberts (Keith), tracks them down and barricades himself in an outhouse, and Dick dies in an intense shootout. Billy appoints himself as the new leader, the gang becomes famous, and the U.S. Army is charged with bringing them to justice under Murphy's corrupt political influence.

The gang eludes attention for some time, and Charlie gets married in Mexico. While attending the wedding, Billy meets Pat Garrett (Patrick Wayne), who is not yet a sheriff, but warns Billy of an attempt on Alex's life by Murphy's men that will happen the next day. Thus, the gang packs up and heads off to save Alex.

Back in Lincoln, Murphy's men, led by George W. Peppin, surround Alex's house, trapping the Regulators, and a shootout begins. A ceasefire is called for the night. In the morning, accompanied by Murphy, the army comes in and torches the house, but Chavez escapes out the back. While the house is burning, the men come up with an escape plan. They begin throwing Alex's possessions out the windows of the second floor. Billy places himself inside of a large trunk, and when it lands in front of the house, he leaps out and begins to open fire.

Meanwhile, Doc bursts out of the side stairway, followed by Charlie and Steve. Everyone makes it to the lawn, but Billy is shot twice in his arms. Charlie challenges the bounty hunter John Kinney (Allen Keller); Kinney shoots Charlie and Charlie fires back, killing each other.

Chavez comes from behind the army on horseback, and jumps the barricade to get extra horses to the Regulators. Billy jumps on one horse, but Doc is shot trying to get on another. Doc still manages to pick up his girlfriend Yen Sun (Alice Carter), Murphy's Chinese sex-slave, and they ride off. Chavez tries to get Steve on a horse, but is wounded and falls to the ground. Steve helps Chavez onto a horse, but is left alone and unarmed. The Army and Murphy's men shoot and kill Steve.

Alex cheers on the boys as they ride away. The army opens fire on him with a Gatling gun and he is killed. As the remaining men ride away, Murphy hurls threats and curses after them, but is stunned when Billy turns back and shoots Murphy right between the eyes, killing him.

The final scene is a voice-over of Doc explaining what happened afterwards: Alex's widow caused a congressional investigation into the Lincoln County War. Chavez took work at a farm in California. Doc moved east to New York and married Yen Sun, whom he had saved from Murphy. Billy continued to ride until he was found and shot dead by Pat Garrett. Billy was buried next to Charlie Bowdre at Fort Sumner. A stranger went to the grave of Billy the Kid late one night and made a carving in the headstone. The epitaph read only one word: "PALS".

A disease known as ''morbus chengi'' or the "White Disease" is spreading throughout the world. The disease has symptoms similar to leprosy and strangely only affects those older than forty-five, typically killing its victims within 3-5 months. The pandemic has sent a panic across the country, especially among the older generations; however, the government, led by a dictator known simply as the ''Marshal'', is more focused on using the pandemic as an opportunity for war than finding a cure.

Doctor Galén (a reference to the Roman doctor Galen) has discovered a cure for the disease. However, he refuses to reveal his cure until world peace is declared. Until then, he vows only to cure the poor, as he believes that only the rich have the power to realize his wishes. The government, meanwhile, eager to maintain public order and tranquility, is sponsoring a ruse, allegedly a former student of Galén, who sells fake cures to the rich. These consist largely of removing cosmetic symptoms.

The war begins with the army invading a neighboring ''small nation'', a thinly veiled reference to Czechoslovakia. Other European nations, including England, declare war in response to aggression. Suddenly, the Marshal falls ill himself and will soon die. He realizes that without his personal military genius the country will inevitably lose the war because he was always reticent about promoting capable commanders. His family asks for Galén's help, and the Marshal reluctantly accepts his terms for peace. Galén attempts to reach the Marshal, but is killed at a pro-war youth rally after refusing to join in with their pro-war chant. The aftermath is left ambiguous, and it is uncertain if Europe will be plagued by both the war and the disease, as Galen's formula is destroyed in the struggle.

In the story, the protagonist loses £1,000, or a "grand" in slang terms, and strives to recoup the money.

In his book ''The Story of the Streets'', Skinner explained his decision to create a story that ran through the album:

In the first track on the album, "It Was Supposed to Be So Easy", Skinner attempts several tasks during a day but they do not go according to plan. When he comes home he cannot find the £1,000 he has saved and his television is broken. In the process of trying to recover the money he:

Starts seeing a girl called Simone who works in JD Sports with his friend Dan. ("Could Well Be In") Tries to recover the £1,000 by gambling on football. After a series of wins, he frustratingly cannot get to the bookmakers in time to make a big gamble. Fortuitously, the prediction is wrong — it is his lucky day. ("Not Addicted") Is stood up at a nightclub by Simone, but passes the time drinking alcohol and taking ecstasy. He thinks he sees Simone kissing Dan but the drug-induced high distracts him before he can think about it properly. ("Blinded By the Lights") Moves into Simone's house and finds himself comfortable smoking marijuana there, rather than drinking with his friends at the pub. ("Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way") Argues with Simone and gets kicked out of her house. ("Get Out of My House") Poses to impress a girl in a take away restaurant during a heavy night drinking on holiday. ("Fit But You Know It") * Flies back from the holiday and remorsefully reviews the events of the previous night during a phone call to a friend, realising he still wants to be with Simone. ("Such a Twat") Suspects his mate Scott of stealing his coat, money, and girlfriend but discovers that Simone is actually having an affair with Dan. ("What is He Thinking?") Tries to cope with his girlfriend breaking up with him. ("Dry Your Eyes") Deals with the events of his life in one of two ways; the final track, "Empty Cans", features two endings to the plot, a bitter ending and a happy ending (the former where he and a TV repairman get into a fight over the repairman's fee, and the latter in which he reconciles with his mates and finds the £1,000 had fallen down the back of the TV, making it malfunction). The B-side of the UK single release of "Fit But You Know It" is the song "Soaked by the Ale". The story of this song takes place between the events of "Fit But You Know It" and "Such a Twat". It documents one of Skinner's mates being annoyed at Mike for stealing a tub of ice cream whilst on holiday in Spain as a result of his excessive drinking. The chronological order is identified in "Such a Twat" where Skinner raps "And that incident with the ice cream I forgot, it all ended in our vodka".

Like the Streets' debut album ''Original Pirate Material'' the album was recorded in a flat in south London, but this time in Skinner's own flat in Stockwell which he had bought using the money he had received upon signing his publishing deal.

The story centers on the invention of a reactor that can annihilate matter to produce cheap and abundant energy. Unfortunately, it produces something else as a by-product, the ''absolute''. The ''absolute'' is a spiritual essence that according to some religious philosophies permeates all matter. It is associated with human religious experience, as an unsuspecting humanity is to find out all too soon in the story. The widespread adoption of the reactors cause an enormous outpouring of pure ''absolute'' into the world. This leads to an outburst of religious and nationalist fervor, causing the greatest, most global war in history.

Čapek describes this war in a self-consciously absurd manner. Characteristic of the war are distant military marches, hence for example "battles of the Chinese with the Senegalese riflemen on the shores of the Finnish lakes." Some of the more prominent political changes the war causes include expulsion of the Russian army to Africa (via Europe) by the Chinese invasion, the conquest of East Asia by Japan that cuts the Chinese conquests in Russia and Europe down to the limits of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Japanese conquest of North America. (The latter was able to occur because the United States were exhausted by a bloody civil war between the supporters and opponents of the Prohibition.)

''Absolute'' does more than affect minds. It also does physical work. During the war, it causes catastrophes against the enemy (various parts of ''absolute'' support any given side in the conflict). At some point, it also becomes interested in production of material goods and produces them, in a supernatural manner, in enormous quantities. This leads to economic collapse and, absurdly enough, deficit of all manufactured items because, allegedly, once the price of goods has dropped to zero because of ''absolute'', nobody cares to produce or distribute them any more. Starvation is averted because although ''absolute'' does not produce food, the peasants who ''do'' naturally do not let the price drop to zero. In fact they force every last penny from the urban population in return for food, hence saving humanity.

During the year 1972, eight-year-old Frankie McGuire witnesses a masked man shoot his father dead for Irish republican sympathies. Twenty years later in Belfast, Frankie and three other IRA members engage in a shootout with the British Army and undercover agents from the Special Reconnaissance Unit. One gunman is killed and another, Desmond, is mortally wounded; Frankie and his close friend Sean Phelan flee. Frankie's commander Martin MacDuff, seeing a British Army helicopter circling above, decides that the IRA needs Stinger missiles to fight back.

Frankie soon travels to New York City with an alias of "Rory Devaney" to buy these missiles. American Judge Peter Fitzsimmons, a longtime supporter of the IRA, provides him with a temporary job as a construction worker and arranges for him to stay with NYPD Sergeant Tom O'Meara, his wife Sheila, and their three daughters on Staten Island. Thinking that "Rory" is an Irish immigrant who needs a place to live while he finds work, the O'Meara family warmly welcome Frankie into their household and he soon becomes a trusted member of the family.

Meanwhile, Sean also arrives in New York City and meets up with Frankie. Before long, Sean acquires an old fishing boat for him and Frankie to smuggle the missiles. Frankie meets with black market arms dealer and Irish mobster Billy Burke, and they cut a deal to exchange the missiles for payment in six to eight weeks. Judge Fitzsimmons obtains the money from his usual connections and has Megan Doherty, another IRA operative posing as his family's nanny, deliver it to Frankie. Megan later calls Frankie to warn him that MacDuff was killed by British authorities and that they must postpone the deal.

Meanwhile, Tom's partner, Eddie Diaz, fatally shoots an unarmed thief in the back as he runs away. Torn between his duty to protect his partner and his moral obligation to tell the truth, Tom decides to retire from the force. After a meal where Tom tells Sheila about his decision, the two of them drive home only to be confronted by masked intruders. As Tom fights the intruders, Sheila rushes to call 911. Just then, Frankie arrives and tries to help Tom, but the intruders have guns and force Frankie and Tom to stop resisting. As police sirens approach, the intruders decide to leave the men and make their escape.

Frankie leaves and proceeds to a bar that Burke owns. He confronts Burke for ordering the attack and shoots one of his men in the knee. Burke is uncowed and demands that Frankie pay him for the missiles, revealing that he has Sean as a hostage. Realizing he has no choice, Frankie returns to the O'Meara house, where he hid the money that he got from Megan.

While Frankie is away meeting with Burke, Tom has gone down to the basement where Frankie had been staying. Seeing that the couch pillows had been sliced, Tom realizes that the masked intruders must have been looking for something related to Frankie. As he walks around the basement, he accidentally discovers an empty space under the bathroom floorboards. When he checks it, he discovers a duffel bag containing wads of cash.

When Frankie returns, he is confronted by Tom with the money. Frankie decides to reveal his true identity and ask Tom to give him the money and let him leave. Tom refuses and, when Eddie arrives, the two of them arrest Frankie. En route to the police station, they get stuck in a traffic jam. While Eddie goes to talk to a driver of a stalled vehicle, Frankie slips his cuffed arms over his legs, grabs Tom's gun, and jumps out of the car. Eddie tries to shoot him and Frankie is forced to shoot Eddie in self-defense. This altercation gives Tom enough time to clamber out of the car and break off the key in the trunk lock, preventing Frankie from getting the duffel bag of money. Frankie runs off.

After Eddie's death, Tom meets with the FBI and their British counterparts, who ask him questions about Frankie. Tom realizes that the government agents intend to not just find and arrest Frankie, but to kill him.

Frankie arrives at the warehouse where Burke said they would do the exchange. Burke and his henchmen are waiting for Frankie, who walks nonchalantly, his duffel bag swung over his shoulder. One of the henchmen pats Frankie down and confirms that he is unarmed. Frankie asks Burke if he has the weapons and Burke shows him a bunch of boxes containing missiles. Then Burke has another henchmen pull something out of the trunk and toss it at Frankie's feet. With horror, Frankie realizes that it is Sean's severed head. With guns pointed at him, Frankie releases the duffel bag, which Burke assumes contains the money. Instead, it contains a bomb rigged to the zipper. When the bomb goes off, Frankie uses the confusion to grab one of the henchmen's guns and use his military skills to kill Burke and his henchmen. He then jumps in the van containing the missiles and drives off.

At the Fitzsimmons' residence, Frankie has Megan alert his comrades in Ireland that he will be leaving right away to deliver the missiles. While Frankie is upstairs with Megan, Tom crashes the Fitzsimmons' cocktail party and confronts the judge. He then recognizes Megan from a photo in Frankie's bag. Tom runs after Megan upstairs just in time to see Frankie escaping onto the roof. Tom persuades Megan to reveal where Frankie is going by convincing her that the authorities are trying to kill Frankie and he is the only one who can save Frankie's life.

Pulling up to the boat dock out of Frankie's line of sight, Tom sneaks up as Frankie gets the boat ready to sail. Jumping onto the boat as it leaves the dock, Tom has a final standoff with Frankie. The two men shoot at each other through the glass of the bridge. Tom falls down, wounded, and looks up as Frankie steps out onto the deck. Frankie points his gun at Tom but then his hand begins to shake. Realizing that he too has been shot, Frankie drops the gun and collapses onto the deck. Tom pulls himself close to Frankie and they embrace each other, recognizing that both were fighting for causes they believe in. Frankie dies, and Tom, though badly wounded, steers the boat back to shore.

Only the last four of the book's 27 chapters deal with the eponymous war. The rest of the book is concerned with the discovery of the Newts, their exploitation and evolution, and growing tensions between humans and the Newts in the lead-up to the war.

The book does not have any single protagonist, but instead looks at the development of the Newts from a broad societal perspective. At various points the narrator's register seems to slip into that of a journalist, historian or anthropologist. The three most central characters are Captain J. van Toch, the seaman who discovers the Newts; Mr Gussie H. Bondy, the industrialist who leads the development of the Newt industry; and Mr Povondra, Mr Bondy's doorman. They all reoccur throughout the book, but none can be said to drive the narrative in any significant way. All three are Czech.

The novel is divided into three sections or 'books'.

Book One – Andrias Scheuchzeri

The first section recounts Captain van Toch's discovery of the Newts on a small island near Sumatra, their initial exploitation in the service of pearl farming, the beginning of their spread around the oceans of the world, and the development of their speech and absorption of human culture. The section closes with the founding of The Salamander Syndicate, an ambitious plan developed by Mr Bondy to redirect Newt resources away from the declining pearl industry and into larger hydroengineering projects. Though this is the close of the narrative development of this section, after it there is a further appendix entitled 'The Sex Life of the Newts'. This examines the Newts' sexuality and reproductive processes in a pastiche of academese.

'', the basis for Čapek's newts The tone of the first section is generally light-hearted satire, in contrast to the darker tone of later parts of the story. Čapek targets a range of human foibles, from the superficiality of Hollywood starlets, to the arrogance of prevalent European attitudes towards non-white races. He also skewers the self-assuredness of science; scientists are repeatedly seen underestimating the capabilities of the Newts and falsely assessing other related issues, always in full confidence of the validity of their claims.

Book Two – Up the Ladder of Civilization

The second section concerns the development of the Newts from the founding of The Salamander Syndicate to the outbreak of the first hostilities between Newts and humans. It contains only three chapters: one long one by far the longest in the novel bookended by two short ones. In the first chapter Mr. Povondra begins collecting newspaper clippings concerning the Newts. The long middle chapter then takes the form of a historical essay written at some unspecified time in the future. The essay cites Mr. Povondra's clippings as its main source of historical evidence, and includes a number of footnotes and quotations from his collection. The third chapter returns to the Povondra household a number of years after the events of the first chapter and introduces an early Newt–human conflict.

Book Three – War with the Newts

The final section reverts to the same form as the first section, but with a darker tone. It relates a series of skirmishes between Newts and humans, eventually resulting in the outbreak of war when the Newts declare their need to destroy portions of the world's continents in order to create new coastlines and so expand their living space. Čapek's satirical targets here are mainly nationalism (the British, French and Germans are all portrayed as irredeemably stubborn and nationalistic), German racial theories (see below), and the perceived inefficacy of international diplomacy. In the penultimate chapter, the tone becomes didactic: "We are all responsible for it", declares Čapek's mouthpiece, Mr. Povondra's adult son.

The last chapter, entitled "The Author Talks to Himself", takes a metafictional turn. With Earth's landmass one-fifth destroyed and humanity offering little resistance, the chapter cuts away from the action to a conversation between two personas of the author, called the Author and the Writer. Between them they map out the long-term history of the Newts: the Newts will all but destroy the Earth's landmass, leaving only a tiny clump of humanity to work for them in their factories. Eventually they will form separate countries and destroy themselves by committing the same follies as humanity; humans will then inherit what remains of the earth; new continents will arise, and "America" will be dimly remembered as an Atlantis-like mythical land.

Based primarily throughout the Japanese Sengoku period, ''Onimusha: Warlords'' starts with the feudal lord Nobunaga Oda being killed during a battle. One of the prominent fighters, Hidemitsu Samanosuke Akechi, receives a letter from his cousin Princess Yuki who is concerned about servants from her castle disappearing. Samanosuke joins with the kunoichi Kaede to rescue Yuki and discover demonic creatures known as Genma are the culprits. In order to defeat the Genma, the Oni clan grant Samanosuke powers from their kind. Across his fights Samanosuke discovers the Genma have resurrected Nobunaga into serving their needs while intending to sacrifice Yuki and an orphan named Yumemaru to grant him more powers. Samanosuke manages to save Yuki and Yumemaru and kills the Genma Lord, the God of Light Fortinbras. Samanosuke's group then takes different paths.

The sequel, ''Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny'', has Nobunaga using the Genma in his forces to unify Japan, wiping out Yagyu village whose clan are Genma exterminators. The clan's only survivor, Jubei Yagyu, goes on a quest to avenge his clan while learning he inherited Oni powers from his mother as he uses them alongside the Oni's five orbs to battle Nobunaga's soldiers. Across his journey, Jubei meets several allies who also seek Nobunaga's life. Jubei manages to infiltrate Gifu castle and confronts Nobunaga alone. Although Jubei kills Nobunaga, the warlord's soul escapes and later reconstitutes himself. The spin-off ''Onimusha: Blade Warriors'' has the cast from ''Warlords'' and ''Samurai's Destiny'' in a new battle against Nobunaga's forces.

The third game, ''Onimusha 3: Demon Siege'', has Samanosuke's clan attacking the Oda forces again. Before confronting Nobunaga, Samanosuke is transported to Modern Paris as a result of an experiment made by the Genma scientist Guildernstern to enable his kin to conquer more lands. In the meantime, service agent Jacques Blanc is a victim of Guildernstern while transported to Japan's Sengoku period. There, Jacques is granted oni powers by an oni who tells him to join forces with this timeline's Samanosuke and defeat Nobunaga if he wishes to return home. While Jacques aids Samanosuke in the past, in the future Samanosuke is helped by Jacques' family to investigate the Genma. In the end the two oni warriors are successful in stopping the invasion and return to their respective times. Samanosuke manages to slay Nobunaga and seal his soul within the Oni Gauntlet to avoid another resurrection.

The fourth game, ''Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams'', had Nobunaga's servant Hideyoshi Toyotomi unified Japan with the Genma whom he supported in their actions. His illegitimate son, Hideyasu "Soki" Yuki, goes on a quest to defeat Hideyoshi and stop the Genma. He is aided by several other warriors including an elder Samanosuke who recognizes him as the Black Oni, the God of Darkness. After mastering his oni powers, Soki joins with his friends to defeat Hideyoshi's army. In the aftermath it is revealed that Hideyoshi was a puppet of the Genma Triumvirate who wish to resurrect Fortinbras at his full power as the Genmas' God of Light. Although the Genma Triumvirate and Hideyoshi are defeated, Fortinbras resurrects with Soki using the Oni Gauntlet to destroy the Genma and restore the country's peace at the cost of his life. Soon after, Samanosuke embarks on a quest to seal away the Oni Gauntlet to prevent Nobunaga from being released.

In 1950, attorney Charles Phalen is contacted by an elderly man named "Brushy Bill" Roberts. Brushy Bill tells Phalen that he is dying and wants to receive a pardon that he was promised 70 years before by the governor of New Mexico, claiming that he is really William H. Bonney aka "Billy The Kid", whom "everyone" knows to have been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. Phalen then asks if Bill has any proof that he is the famous outlaw.

Brushy Bill's story begins with the remaining Regulators having gone their separate ways. Billy has become part of a new gang with "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh (Slater) and Pat Garrett (Petersen). The New Mexico governor has issued warrants for the arrests of those involved in the Lincoln County Wars, including Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips), who are dragged into town and imprisoned to await hanging.

Meanwhile, Billy meets with the new governor Lew Wallace who agrees to pardon Billy if he testifies against the Dolan-Murphy faction. Billy soon finds out that he was tricked into being arrested with no chance of testifying against his old enemies. After escaping, Billy along with the help of Rudabaugh and Garrett, pose as a lynch mob to spring Doc and Chavez from jail. When the gang successfully escape Lincoln, Billy mentions the Mexican Blackbird (a broken trail only a few others and he know that leads to Mexico). Garrett decides not to go with the gang, and instead, opens a boarding house. Rudabaugh, clearly in competition with Billy, wants to lead the gang. As they make a run for the border along with farmer Hendry William French (Alan Ruck) and 14-year-old Tom O'Folliard (Balthazar Getty), cattle baron John Simpson Chisum (James Coburn) and Governor Wallace approach Garrett to offer him the job as Lincoln County sheriff and $1000 to use whatever resources he needs to hunt Bonney down and kill him. Garrett agrees, and forming a posse, begins his pursuit of the gang. Chisum was approached by Billy earlier in the film, and Chisum refused to help. So, Billy steals some of his cattle to get money they can use to get to Mexico.

Billy and the gang soon come to the town of White Oaks, where they meet with former companion, Jane Greathouse (Jenny Wright), who runs a local bordello. Later that night, the town lynch mob comes for the gang and is intent on a hanging. Deputy Carlisle tries to negotiate a deal, "the Indian" (Chavez) for a safe ride out. Billy refuses the offer and pushes the deputy out the door, who is then accidentally killed by the lynch mob. Garrett soon tracks Billy to the bordello, but is too late. In response to rebuffs by Jane, Garrett uses his newfound power as Lincoln County sheriff to declare her bordello a "house of sin", and burns it down. Jane decides to strip naked to humiliate the townsfolk and leave town. Meanwhile, Billy and his gang are continuously tracked by Garrett's posse, narrowly evading capture, but Tom (being mistaken for Billy) is soon shot dead by Garrett. As they hide out, Billy admits that the Mexican Blackbird does not exist; it was just a ruse to get the gang back together and to keep riding. Doc is angered and tries to leave for home, but he is shot by one of Garrett's men and sacrifices himself to enable his friends to escape an ambush.

Billy the Kid is soon brought back into Lincoln by Garrett and is sentenced to death by hanging. He is then visited by Jane Greathouse, who arranges to leave a pistol in an outhouse. Billy uses the pistol to kill two guards and escapes to Old Fort Sumner. By the time he arrives, Dave has abandoned the group to make his way to Mexico, and Chavez is dying from a bullet wound he sustained during the ambush that killed Doc. During the night, Garrett finds Billy unarmed. Billy asks Garrett to let him run to Mexico and tell the authorities that he killed him. Garrett declines because he believes Billy would not be able to resist coming back to the United States (which would lead to Garrett's death for lying). Billy turns around, forcing Garrett to have to shoot him in the back, which he does not. In the morning, a fake burial is staged for Billy, and Garrett's horse is seen being taken by an unknown figure (implied to be Billy). Brushy Bill admits he never stole a horse from someone he did not like, and further admits he did not just like Garrett, he loved him. Phalen, convinced that Brushy Bill is Billy the Kid, agrees to help him.

The epilogue reveals that Arkansas Dave was beheaded once he reached Mexico to discourage more outlaws from crossing the border; Garrett's book detailing his pursuit of Billy was a dismal failure and he is eventually shot and killed in 1908; Brushy Bill met with the governor of New Mexico, but despite corroboration from several surviving friends of the Kid, he was discredited and died less than a month later; whether or not Brushy Bill was Billy the Kid remains a mystery. The final shot shows Billy pointing his gun at an off-screen target, saying to the target "I'll make you famous".

'''Act 1''' – Following the short intrada in D major, the work opens with the prologue where Hyacinth confides in Zephyr of the youth's attachment to Apollo and of Zephyr's jealousy. Next, King Oebalus and Melia appear at an altar where they are preparing a sacrifice to Apollo. A storm soon begins to brew and destroys the altar with lightning. Oebalus's son assures him that they have done nothing to conjure the wrath of Apollo. Towards the end of the prologue, Apollo appears, disguised as a shepherd. He announces that Jupiter has banished him and he asks for Oebalus's friendship, which he is quickly given. Soon, a mutual attraction is aroused between Melia and Apollo and he asks of evidence of her love for him.

'''Act 2''' – Oebalus tells Melia that Apollo has requested her hand and Melia is overjoyed. However, Zephyr soon enters with the terrible news that, while sporting in the woods, Apollo threw a discus and fatally struck Hyacinth in the head. Oebalus, in a rage, orders Apollo to be banished from his kingdom. Zephyr, in an aside to the audience, confesses his guilt but eagerly obeys Oebalus's order and then proceeds to make advances on Melia in Apollo's absence. Melia refuses to consider Zephyr's advances. While he is making these inappropriate advances on Melia, Apollo appears, professes his innocence and turns Zephyr into a wind. Melia still believes Apollo to be the murderer of her brother and now begins to deny Apollo's advances.

'''Act 3''' – The final act begins with the final breaths of Hyacinth where he describes the real cause of his murder to his father. Oebalus realizes Zephyr's guilt while he watches his own son die. Melia then enters and tells her father that she has denied Apollo before she learns of Zephyr's guilt as well. Oebalus and Melia wallow in their misfortune and the loss of the favor of their protecting god before Apollo again appears, claiming that love has compelled him to return to Melia. Beautiful flowers then rise from Hyacinth's grave, Apollo and Melia are engaged and Apollo ensures that the kingdom will flourish forever under his protection.

This is the story of the four Mirabal sisters during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. At school, one of the sisters, Minerva, meets a girl, Sinita, who later became one of her best friends. Sinita eventually confided in Minerva the truth about Trujillo - that their "glorious" leader was a killer. The sisters make a political commitment to overthrow the Trujillo regime. They are harassed, persecuted, and imprisoned, all while their family suffers retaliation from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

As vengeance for their political activities, Trujillo orders three of the sisters be killed on Puerto Plata Road, with their driver Rufino, while returning from visiting their husbands in jail. The women and driver are beaten to death and later their vehicle and bodies are dumped off a cliff in order to make their deaths look like an accident.

Eccentric tycoon Donald Sinclair devises a game to entertain the high rollers who visit his Las Vegas casino. He arranges for six competitors to race the to Silver City, New Mexico, where $2 million is in a train station locker. Sinclair's guests place bets on who will win.

The racers consist of con-artist brothers Duane and Blaine Cody, businesswoman Merrill Jennings and her mother Vera, football referee Owen Templeton, Randy Pear and his family, narcoleptic Italian tourist Enrico Pollini, and no-nonsense attorney Nick Schaffer. Having initially agreed not to play, greed takes over and they start to race.

Duane and Blaine destroy the airport radar, grounding everybody else but wrecking their vehicle so they steal another. They split up to better their chances. They have a locksmith create a duplicate locker key but he overhears their plan and makes off with the key in a hot air balloon. The brothers catch him and leave him and a stray cow hanging from the balloon's anchor rope. Their car is crushed by a monster truck which they then steal.

Merrill and Vera are given malicious directions and crash. They steal a rocket car until it runs out of fuel, then stumble onto a busload of mental patients headed for Silver City.

Owen is kicked out of a taxi for his bad call at a football game that caused the driver to lose his bet. He impersonates the driver of a busload of Lucille Ball cosplayers. He hits the cow dangling from the balloon and crashes. He reveals that he is not the real driver and the enraged women chase him. He escapes and steals a horse to ride to Silver City.

Randy and his family, at the insistence of their daughter, visit a museum to Nazi Klaus Barbie, believing it to be about Barbie the doll. They steal Adolf Hitler's staff car after Duane and Blaine sabotage their vehicle. When his family insist they end the trip, Randy drugs them with sleeping pills and bundles them into a semi-truck.

Nick chooses not to participate but changes his mind when he meets Tracy Faucet, who gives him a lift in her helicopter. She uses it to attack her cheating boyfriend, then having damaged the helicopter she and Nick steal the boyfriend's truck and form a romantic relationship while driving to Silver City.

Enrico is more excited by the race than the money but falls asleep at the start, only waking hours later. He gets a ride from Zack, an ambulance driver delivering a transplant heart. Enrico inadvertently drops the heart out of the window, whereupon it is stolen by a dog, which is then electrocuted on an electric fence. Zack decides to kill Enrico to replace the missing heart. Enrico escapes by boarding a passing train where he drops his key in a baby's diaper and, retrieving it, is mistaken for a pedophile. He is thrown out at Silver City station and is the first to reach the locker, only to fall asleep upon unlocking it.

The racers reunite in Silver City and fight to open the locker only to find it empty. Outside, Sinclair's assistant Grisham and call girl Vicki are making off with the money. The locksmith maneuvers the balloon to drop the cow on Grisham and ties the money bag to the balloon. The racers chase the balloon to a Smash Mouth charity concert. The band and crowd mistake the money for a donation. Once the racers see the charitable good spirit engendered they are persuaded to donate. Nick horrifies Sinclair and his patrons by announcing that Sinclair and the gamblers will match the money raised. Sinclair is distraught as the donations total shoots past $19 million while the racers dance to "All Star".

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard inexplicably finds his mind jumping among three points in time: the present (stardate 47988); just prior to the starship USS ''Enterprise''-D's first mission during the episode "Encounter at Farpoint", seven years earlier; and over twenty-five years into the future, where an aged Picard has retired to the family vineyard in La Barre, France. These jumps occur without warning, and the resulting discontinuity in Picard's behavior leaves him and those around him confused and concerned about his mental health.

In the present, Picard is ordered to take the ''Enterprise'' to the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone to investigate a spatial anomaly. In the future, he convinces his ex-wife, Dr. Beverly Picard, to take him on the USS ''Pasteur'' to find the anomaly. In the past, despite having ''Enterprise'' s mission to Farpoint Station cancelled by Starfleet to investigate the anomaly, Picard insists on continuing, believing the impending encounter with the omnipotent being Q to be more important. After reaching the place where he had first encountered Q, Picard finds himself back in Q's courtroom as seen in the first episode. Q reveals that the trial never concluded, and the current situation is humanity's last chance to prove themselves to the Q Continuum, but he secretly reveals that he is the cause of Picard's time jumping. Q challenges Picard to solve the mystery of the anomaly, cryptically stating that Picard will destroy humanity.

As Picard arrives at the anomaly in all three time periods, he discovers that the anomaly is much larger in the past, but does not exist at all in the future. As the past and present ''Enterprise''s scan the anomaly with inverse tachyon pulse beams, the ''Pasteur'' is attacked by Klingon ships, but the crew is saved due to the timely arrival of the ''Enterprise'' under the command of Admiral William Riker. Q once again appears to Picard and takes him to Earth 3.5 billion years ago, where the anomaly, growing larger as it moves backwards in time, has taken over the whole of the Alpha Quadrant and has prevented the formation of life on Earth. When Picard returns to the future, he discovers the anomaly has just appeared, created as a result of his orders, and the tachyon pulses from the three eras are sustaining it. Data and Geordi determine that they can stop the anomaly by having all three ''Enterprise''s fly into the center of it and create static warp shells. Picard relays the orders to each ''Enterprise''. Each ship suffers catastrophic damage, with Q telling the future Picard that "all good things must come to an end" just before the future ''Enterprise'' explodes.

Picard finds himself facing Q in the courtroom as before. Q congratulates Picard for being able to think in multiple timelines simultaneously to solve the puzzle, which is proof that humanity can still evolve, much to his surprise. Q admits to helping Picard solve it with the time jumping, since he was the one that put them in this situation, and then goes on to explain that the anomaly has been stopped and that his past and present have been restored. He then withdraws from the courtroom and bids farewell to Picard by saying "See you ... out there". Picard then returns to the ''Enterprise'' of the present, no longer jumping through time.

As the senior staff members play their regular poker game, they reflect on the details of the future the captain related to prevent them from drifting apart. For the first time, Picard decides to join the game, expressing regret he had not done so before, and being reminded that he was always welcome.

Scott Howard, a 17-year-old high school student, is tired of just being average. Living in a small town in Nebraska, his only claim to popularity is playing on the Beavers, his school's unsuccessful basketball team. Scott fawns after Pamela Wells even though she is dating his rival Mick who plays for the Dragons, an opposing team that bullies him on the court. Completely oblivious to the affections of his best friend Boof, Scott constantly rebuffs her advances due to their history together.

After startling changes such as long hair sprouting, suddenly hairy hands, he decides to quit the team, but his coach, Finstock, changes his mind. Scoring a keg with his friend Stiles for a party, Scott and Boof end up alone in a closet and Scott gets rough when they begin making out, accidentally clawing her back. When he returns home, he undergoes a strange transformation, discovering he is a werewolf. His father Harold reveals he is one too, and that he had hoped Scott would not inherit the curse because 'sometimes it skips a generation'.

Scott reveals his secret to Stiles, who agrees to keep it a secret. But, when Scott becomes stressed on the court, he becomes the wolf and helps win their first game in three years. This has an unexpected result of fame and popularity as the high school is overwhelmed with 'Wolf Fever'. Scott is alienated from Boof and his teammates as he begins to hog the ball during games.

Stiles merchandises "Teen Wolf" paraphernalia and Pamela finally begins paying attention to Scott. After he gets a role as a "werewolf cavalryman" in the school play alongside her, she comes onto him in the dressing room and they have sex. Later, after a date set up to make Mick jealous, Pamela tells Scott that she is not interested in him as a boyfriend, much to his disappointment. Harold tells Scott he is responsible for vice principal Rusty Thorne breathing down his neck due to a scare he had given him when he was in high school; advising him to be himself.

With the upcoming Spring Dance, Boof agrees to go with Scott, but only if he goes as himself. Scott goes alone as the Wolf instead. She takes him into the hallway and they kiss, which turns Scott back into himself. When they return to the dance, everyone pays attention to him, including Pamela. An upset Mick walks up to him, punching him in the face, then proceeds to insult Boof and taunt him until the Wolf angrily attacks. Scott runs out of the hall right into Thorne, who threatens expulsion. Harold defends his son before going on to intimidate Thorne by growling in his face, causing the vice principal to wet himself.

Scott renounces using the Wolf and quits the basketball team. During the championship game, he arrives to rally his teammates to play without the Wolf. Despite the odds, the team begins to work together and they make ground against the Dragons. During the final quarter, behind by one point, Scott is fouled by Mick at the buzzer. He makes both free throws, winning the championship. Brushing past Pamela, he kisses Boof as his father embraces them both. Mick tells Pamela that they should leave, but she tells him to "drop dead" and storms off while everyone else celebrates the victory.

Danny Madigan is a ten-year-old boy living in a crime-ridden area of New York City with his widowed mother, Irene. Following his father's death, Danny takes comfort in watching action movies, especially a series featuring the indestructible Los Angeles cop Jack Slater, at his local movie theater owned by Nick, who also acts as the projectionist. Nick gives Danny a golden ticket once owned by Harry Houdini, to see an early screening of ''Jack Slater IV'' before its official release.

During the film, the ticket stub magically transports Danny into the fictional world, interrupting Slater in the middle of a car chase. After escaping from their pursuers, Slater takes Danny to the LAPD headquarters, where Danny points out evidence of the fictional nature of Slater's world, such as the presence of numerous beautiful women and a cartoon cat detective named Whiskers, and says that Slater's friend John Practice should not be trusted as he "killed Mozart" (since he is played by the same actor as Antonio Salieri in ''Amadeus''). Though Slater accepts all of this as part of Danny's wild imagination, Slater's supervisor, Lieutenant Dekker, assigns Danny as his new partner, and instructs them to investigate criminal activities related to mafia boss Tony Vivaldi.

Danny guides Slater to Vivaldi's mansion, recognizing its location from the start of the movie. There, they meet Vivaldi's henchman, Mr. Benedict. Danny later claims that Vivaldi and Benedict were the ones who killed Slater's second cousin, but Slater has no evidence, and they are forced to leave; however, Benedict is curious as to how Danny knew, and he and several hired guns follow Slater and Danny back to Slater's home. There, Slater, his daughter Whitney, and Danny thwart the attack, though Benedict ends up getting the ticket stub. He discovers its ability to transport him out of the film.

Slater deduces Vivaldi's plan to murder the rival mob by releasing a lethal gas during a funeral atop a skyscraper. He and Danny go to stop it, but are waylaid by Practice, who reveals that Danny was right: he is working for Vivaldi. Whiskers kills Practice, saving Slater and Danny, and the two manage to prevent any deaths from the gas release. Learning that Vivaldi's plan has failed, Benedict kills him, and he uses the stub to escape into the real world, pursued by Slater and Danny.

Slater becomes despondent upon learning the truth, as well as his mortality in the real world, but cheers up after spending some time with Irene. Meanwhile, Benedict devises a plan to kill the actor portraying Slater in the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, after which he can bring other villains from other movies into the real world and take over. To help, Benedict brings the Ripper, the villain of ''Jack Slater III'', to the premiere of ''Jack Slater IV'' to assassinate Schwarzenegger. Danny and Slater learn of this and race there. Slater saves Schwarzenegger and kills the Ripper. Benedict appears and shoots Slater, critically injuring him. Danny subdues and disarms Benedict, allowing Slater to grab his revolver and shoot Benedict in his explosive glass eye, killing him; however, the blast causes the stub to be lost. With Slater losing blood, Danny knows that the only way to save him is to return him to the fictional world, where he is indestructible.

The figure of Death from the film ''The Seventh Seal'', who had been brought to the real world, appears before them. Danny holds Death at gunpoint, but Death clarifies he was simply curious: Jack Slater is missing from his lists of when people will die, while Danny is slated to die as a grandfather. Death then suggests searching for the other half of the ticket. Danny finds it and is able to take Slater back into his movie, where his wounds instantly heal. Danny returns to the real world before the portal closes. A recovered Slater then enthusiastically embraces the true nature of his reality when he talks to Dekker about his new plan, appreciating the differences between the two worlds.

James "The Grim Reaper" Roper (Damon Wayans), the undefeated heavyweight boxing champ of the world, defeats his latest challenger with ease and visits an after-party thrown by Rev. Fred Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson), a conniving and manipulative businessman who also acts as Roper's fight promoter. After telling the attendees that the fight was a financial flop, Sultan concludes that boxing events have become far less profitable because audience members are tired of watching only black boxers fight each other. Sultan predicts that a white contender, even one without a viable chance of winning, would create a huge payday for all involved in the fight and he vows to either find or "create" a white contender for Roper to face in the ring.

After failing to find a white boxer currently in the sport suitable by any means, Sultan discovers that Roper actually lost to a white boxer, Terry Conklin (Peter Berg), back in his amateur days. Sultan and his unethical crew find Conklin in Cleveland, where he fronts a heavy metal band, advocates peace and Buddhism, and constantly preaches progressive social issues. Conklin is uninterested in returning to boxing to face Roper, though he is eventually coaxed to do so through ego-stroking by Sultan and a promise of $10 million to help his quest in eradicating homelessness.

Conklin arrives in Las Vegas and starts to train for his return to the ring. Thanks to shady dealing, Conklin suddenly is named the No. 8 challenger in the world. Boxing pundits and officials easily see the scam unfolding and label the fight a disgrace. However, the prospect of a white vs. black fight continues to hold the prospect of a large payoff. Conklin gets in shape quickly, regaining some of his old form, while Roper dismisses the fight as a joke - to the point where he puts on 25 pounds and is barely able to run after an ice cream truck.

Meanwhile, crusading television journalist Mitchell Kane (Jeff Goldblum) has finally gathered enough evidence to disgrace the unethical Sultan, but at the last moment, Kane is seduced by power and joins Sultan's squad. As Sultan's ego grows, Kane sees an opportunity to usurp his position. Though Conklin was never believed to stand a chance in the fight, Kane recognizes that he may actually win, and has Conklin sign with him rather than Sultan. Throughout all this, the true top contender to the heavyweight title, Marvin Shabazz (Michael Jace), and his manager Hassan El Ruk'n (Jamie Foxx) are repeatedly denied the rightful chance to a fight, and they proceed to cause a headache for everyone involved in the hype scam.

Sultan and his crew use the media to promote the fight and publicize the white vs. black angle, even fabricating an Irish ancestor for Conklin. The racial angle works, and money starts to pour in. On the fight day, Millions tune into Pay-Per-View on the day of the fight, and Kane is confident about a new era beginning with a Conklin upset. The fight begins, and Conklin gets in only one good punch before the out-of-shape Roper easily dispatches his foe - which was the plan all along. Conklin quits boxing again, Kane's plan falls short, Sultan reaps a huge profit, and Roper's critics are silenced. Shabazz, refusing to wait any longer, attacks Roper inside the ring and gets into a fistfight with him, while Sultan screams to not give away something they can sell. Shabazz knocks Roper out, and Sultan steps over Roper's unconscious body and announces that the two boxers will face each other next.

Young genius Matilda Wormwood is neglected and mistreated by her car dealer father Harry, her mother Zinnia, and her brother Michael. She is smart and independent, and finds solace in the fictional worlds of books at the public library. When she expresses a desire to go to school, they dismiss her, telling her to go watch television. She twice retaliates against her father's abuse by replacing his hair tonic with her mother's hair dye and gluing his hat to his head. Harry catches Matilda reading ''Moby-Dick'', rips it up, and forces her to watch a game show. Matilda becomes increasingly enraged until the television set explodes.

Harry sells a car to Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the tyrannical principal of Crunchem Hall (Crunch 'em all) Elementary School, in exchange for admitting Matilda as a student. Matilda's kindhearted teacher, Miss Jennifer Honey, notices the ease with which Matilda answers multiplication questions with large numbers and requests Matilda be moved to a higher class, but Miss Trunchbull refuses. Miss Honey later visits the Wormwoods at home, but they are not interested either. Miss Trunchbull has the whole school watch her force pupil Bruce Bogtrotter to eat an entire enormous chocolate cake. Matilda leads the students in cheering Bruce to success, and Miss Trunchbull gives them all five hours detention. The next day, Miss Trunchbull arrives at the school while the car is acting up and, in a rage, locks Matilda in "The Chokey" for believing her father wanted to make a fool out of her by selling her a faulty car - she is later freed by Miss Honey.

Matilda's classmate, Lavender, puts a newt she captured from a stream in Miss Trunchbull's water jug. Miss Trunchbull accuses Matilda, who, in anger at the injustice, telekinetically tips the glass over, splashing the newt onto Miss Trunchbull. Miss Honey invites Matilda to tea and reveals her secret backstory: Her mother died when she was two and her father Magnus invited his wife's stepsister, Miss Trunchbull, to live with them and look after her, but Miss Trunchbull abused her. Magnus died, apparently by suicide, when Miss Honey was five and left everything to Miss Trunchbull, who Miss Honey suspects killed him. Matilda and Miss Honey sneak into Miss Trunchbull's house to attempt to retrieve some of Miss Honey's belongings, including a doll that her mother gave her. They narrowly escape when Miss Trunchbull unexpectedly returns due to the faulty car dying on her way to the gym.

Matilda discovers her father is under surveillance by the FBI over his illegal car dealings, but her parents refuse to believe her. Matilda practices her telekinetic powers and learns to control them. She thwarts the FBI agents after they break into the garage to buy Harry time to come to his senses. She returns to Miss Trunchbull's house to retrieve Miss Honey's doll and attempts to scare Miss Trunchbull out, nearly succeeding. However, Miss Trunchbull becomes aware of Matilda's presence upon finding her hair ribbon. The next day, Matilda reveals her powers to Miss Honey, but Miss Trunchbull visits the class to make Matilda confess. Matilda telekinetically writes a message on the blackboard, posing as the vengeful ghost of Magnus accusing Miss Trunchbull of murdering him. Miss Trunchbull attacks the students in a rage, but Matilda protects them and they force Miss Trunchbull out of the school, who retreats in her car and disappears from their lives forever. Miss Honey moves back into her father's house, with Matilda regularly visiting her.

The FBI uncovers enough evidence to prosecute Harry for his dealings, prompting him, Zinnia, and Michael to flee to Guam. Matilda refuses to go, saying she would rather be adopted by Miss Honey. After brief reservations about giving up their only daughter, her parents sign the adoption papers, and Matilda and Miss Honey finally get the family they have always wanted. Miss Honey becomes principal of Crunchem Hall, which becomes so popular that it gets expanded for the students. Matilda never has to use her telekinetic powers for defense again, but occasionally uses them for small tasks such as retrieving books from shelves. The film ends with Miss Honey reading Moby Dick to Matilda as a bedtime story.

In 1969, a platoon of soldiers fight in Vietnam, ending with a soldier dying on a helicopter. As they prepare to be sent into action again, a platoon of the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), receives five new recruits as replacements—Beletsky, who constantly complains that he won't be able to remember everything he has been taught; Languilli, who is obsessed with sex and annoyed when people mispronounce his name; Washburn, a quiet, conservative man and the only African-American in the batch of replacements; Bienstock, who is outgoing and has volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam; and finally Galvan, the quietest but most promising of the new soldiers.

Taken under the wing of their war-weary squad leader, Staff Sgt. Adam Frantz, the recruits spend their early days filling sand bags and struggling to sleep before being placed in Frantz's squad. They are then given a crash-course in battlefield skills, including everything from oral hygiene to a demonstration by a Viet Cong deserter on how skilfully enemy troops can penetrate perimeter U.S. defenses. Frantz does his best to prepare the new soldiers for combat, but expresses frustration before the VC deserter silently penetrates a barbed wire barrier and aims a rocket launcher at them.

Aside from the replacements, the platoon has a new commander, Lieutenant Eden, and Sergeant First Class Worcester. The platoon's machine gun team is composed of the burly Private Duffy and his mismatched, bespectacled companion, Private Gaigin. There are also three African-American veterans in the unit: Motown, "Doc" Johnson and Sgt. McDaniel (who has less than a month left on his tour), all of whom have first-hand knowledge of the racial discrimination still practiced in the army.

The new arrivals get their first, sudden taste of war when a quiet spell beside a river is interrupted by an enemy mortar bombardment. Frantz calls for counter battery fire ending the mortar fire. Several civilians are killed in the exchange and one of the replacements, Galvan, is decapitated by a bomb splinter. The death of a soldier further riles up Staff Sgt. Frantz. Soon, the platoon takes part in a major operation and is air-lifted into the A Shau Valley. Shortly after disembarking at the landing zone, they come under automatic weapons fire and a firefight ensues. The North Vietnamese soldiers withdraw after suffering at least one apparent casualty. McDaniel is also killed. This loss provokes considerable bitterness and tension from "Doc" Johnson, who blames Frantz for not getting the short-timer McDaniel a less dangerous assignment.

The battalion is ordered to reconnoiter a nearby mountain but is unexpectedly diverted and commences an assault on Hill 937 which soon grows into the Battle of Hamburger Hill as unexpectedly determined resistance is encountered. The North Vietnamese, rather than using hit-and-run tactics, as they had in previous engagements, defend well-entrenched positions. The platoon is forced to attack the hill repeatedly against stubborn opposition. Between assaults, US air-strikes steadily strip away all vegetation with napalm and white phosphorus, leaving the hill a barren, scorched wasteland. In one assault, a battle-crazed and wounded Duffy, wielding an M60, seems on the verge of carrying the day as enemy resistance begins to crumble. Botched air support by helicopter gunships causes several friendly casualties, to the horror of Lt. Eden and his radio telephone operator, Murphy. The assault fails and Duffy is among the fatalities.

In between attacks, the shrinking platoon tries to rest, chattering about social upheaval and unrest back home. Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain with a soldier. Beletsky gets a letter on tape from his girl back home and Frantz is surprised (and moved) that she mentions his name. Sergeant Worcester describes to his comrades the alienation and hostility he encountered on his return from his previous tour of duty, along with the collapse of his marriage and how a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam during the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965, had been driven to an emotional breakdown by cruel phone calls from anti-war college students, gloating over his son's death. Frantz relates a story on how he volunteered for the airborne. "The only reason I went airborne was Collins", he said. When orders came down for a dangerous operation, "Collins" refused to participate. Later, Frantz also has a confrontation with a TV reporter, telling him that he has more respect for the NVA on the hill than for the reporter.

The exhausted platoon continues the attempt to capture Hill 937, to no avail. The tenth assault takes place in torrential rain. Gaigin is killed, Beletsky and "Doc" Johnson are wounded. Before he is evacuated, Doc tells Frantz and Motown to capture the hill so that they will at least have something to be proud of but appears to succumb to his wounds moments later as a medevac helicopter lands. Beletsky, despite having received a "million dollar wound," decides to return to his unit.

The eleventh and final assault is mounted by the remaining troops, whose bitterness and exhaustion is overcome by desperation and unit pride. The final enemy positions are overrun but the cost is heavy. Lieutenant Eden is seriously wounded, losing his arm. Murphy, Worcester, Motown, Bienstock and Languilli are killed before the few remaining troops make it to the summit. Frantz, stunned by the loss of so many friends, is dazed and wounded by an enemy bayonet. Beletsky, also wounded but enraged, leads the final push to the summit. A bleeding and weak Frantz also makes it to the top and rests by a stump alongside Beletsky and Washburn as the battlefield finally goes silent. The final image is the now battle-aged, tear-streaked and haunted face of Beletsky as he gazes at the carnage below. Constant radio chatter is overheard but there is no reply.

A fleet of helicopters sprays for medflies and reveals all the characters along the path of their flight. Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) and his wife, Marian (Julianne Moore), meet another couple, Stuart (Fred Ward) and Claire Kane (Anne Archer) – an out-of-work salesman and a party clown respectively – at Zoe Trainer's (Lori Singer) cello concert and make a spontaneous Sunday dinner date.

Marian's sister, Sherri (Madeleine Stowe), is married to philandering cop Gene (Tim Robbins), who invents unbelievable stories to hide his affair with Betty Weathers (Frances McDormand). Betty is in the process of divorcing one of the helicopter pilots, Stormy (Peter Gallagher). Waitress Doreen Piggot (Lily Tomlin) is married to an alcoholic limo driver, Earl (Tom Waits).

Television commentator Howard Finnigan (Bruce Davison) lives with his wife, Anne (Andie MacDowell), and their young son, Casey (Zane Cassidy), next door to Zoe and her mother, cabaret singer Tess (Annie Ross). Their pool cleaner is Jerry Kaiser (Chris Penn), whose wife, Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh), works from home as a phone sex operator, tending to the children while she talks off strange men. Jerry and Lois are friends with Doreen's daughter, Honey (Lili Taylor), and her husband, Bill (Robert Downey Jr.), who works as a makeup artist.

The day before Casey's eighth birthday, Doreen hits him with her car as he is running to school. Casey appears fine and refuses Doreen's offer of a ride home, as she is a stranger. His mother Anne comes home from ordering his birthday cake to find him slumped lethargically on the couch. His father Howard convinces her to take Casey to the hospital, where he remains unconscious. The baker, Andy Bitkower (Lyle Lovett), calls the next day to inform Ann that the cake is ready, but Howard, wanting to keep the line free, briskly ends the conversation. The baker immediately calls back, incensed at being hung up on. While the Finnigans maintain their vigil, Bitkower continues to call and harass the couple. Howard's estranged father Paul (Jack Lemmon) turns up at the hospital and recalls that Casey's hospitalization reminds him of the day that Howard was in a car accident as a boy. When Howard's mother went to her sister's house, she found her undressed in the presence of her husband, who she was attempting to seduce. That led to the estrangement between father and son.

Stuart and his two friends, Gordon (Buck Henry) and Vern (Huey Lewis), harass Doreen at the diner before they head out on their three-day fishing trip. On the first day, they find a young woman's body, submerged near some rocks. After some debate, they decide to tie her to the rocks, continue fishing, and report the body when they are done. When he comes home, Stuart eventually admits to Claire what they had done, and she is disgusted that they could fish for days with the woman's body nearby. The body is identified as a 23-year-old woman who was raped and murdered, and Claire visits the funeral home out of a sense of guilt.

Stormy visits Betty's house while she is away with their son Chad (Jarrett Lennon), ostensibly to pick up his mother's clock, but instead spends the day destroying her belongings. Bill and Honey entertain themselves in the apartment that they are watching while its owners are on vacation by taking some pictures of Honey in which Bill has made her up to look as if she has been brutally beaten. Gene abandons the family dog on a strange street because he cannot endure its barking, but after several days of his distraught children's inquiries, he returns to the neighbourhood and retrieves the dog, who has been picked up by Vern's family. The Wymans get into a massive argument just before their dinner party with the Kanes. Marian admits to an affair. Both couples alleviate their stress by drinking heavily, and the party lasts all night long.

One day, Casey's eyes begin to flutter. Anne's excitement grows, but just as he appears to be waking, he suddenly dies. Seeing that and being overwhelmed, Howard's father and the boy's grandfather, Paul, leaves the hospital while the distraught couple returns home and informs Zoe of Casey's death. The next day, they go to the bakery to shame Bitkower over his abuse of them. When he learns why they never picked up the cake, he asks them to stay and gives them baked goods. Zoe, worn to the breaking point by her mother's alcoholism, the little boy's death and her isolation, commits suicide by starting her car engine inside the garage; she plays the cello as she asphyxiates from carbon monoxide. Later that day, her mother discovers Zoe dead and drinks herself into a stupor.

When Honey picks up the pictures from the fotomat, they are mixed up with Gordon's. He is horrified to see the pictures of Honey, who appears to have been beaten badly, and she is horrified by the pictures Gordon took of the submerged body on his fishing trip. They walk away from each other, memorizing each other's license plates. While at a picnic in the park with their wives and kids, Jerry and Bill meet two young women they encountered earlier, and Bill quickly makes an excuse to divvy up into couples. As he and one of the girls walk away from Jerry and the other girl (Susie Cusack), they hear her scream. They turn around to see Jerry hitting her in the head repeatedly with a rock, killing her, just before a major earthquake strikes. In the aftermath, it appears that Jerry's murder of the girl may be attributed to a rock falling during the earthquake.

Frank Horrigan and Al D'Andrea meet with members of a counterfeiting group at a marina. The group's leader, Mendoza, tells Horrigan that he has identified D'Andrea as an undercover agent, and forces him to prove his loyalty by putting a gun to D'Andrea's head and pulling the trigger. When the gun just clicks, Mendoza is glad to see Frank passed the test, escaping suspicion. Using his own gun, Horrigan then shoots and kills Mendoza's men, identifies himself as a United States Secret Service agent, and arrests Mendoza.

Horrigan investigates a complaint from a landlady about an apartment's absent tenant, Joseph McCrawley. He finds a collage of photographs and newspaper articles on famous assassinations, a model-building magazine, and a ''Time'' cover with the President's head circled. When Horrigan and partner D'Andrea return with a search warrant, only one photograph remains, which shows a much younger Horrigan standing behind John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963, on the day Kennedy was assassinated. Horrigan is the only remaining active agent who was guarding the President that day, and is wracked with guilt over his failure to react quickly enough to the first shot and shield Kennedy from the subsequent fatal bullet, which could have saved the President's life. The guilt drove Horrigan to drink excessively, and his family left him.

Horrigan receives a phone call from McCrawley, who calls himself "Booth". He tells Horrigan that, like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, he plans to kill the President of the United States, who is running for reelection and is making many public appearances around the country. Horrigan, despite his age, asks to return to the Presidential Protective Division, where he begins a relationship with fellow agent Lilly Raines.

Booth continues to call Horrigan as part of his "game", even though he knows that his calls are being traced. He mocks Horrigan's failure to protect Kennedy but calls him a "friend". Booth escapes Horrigan and D'Andrea after one such call from Lafayette Park, but inadvertently leaves a palm print on a passing car. The Federal Bureau of Investigation matches the print, but because the person's identity is classified, the agency cannot disclose it to the Secret Service. The FBI does notify the Central Intelligence Agency.

At a campaign event in Chicago, Booth pops a decorative balloon. Horrigan, who is groggy with the flu, mistakes the pop for a gunshot and over-reacts. Because of the error, he is removed from the protective detail by White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent and head of security detail Bill Watts, but retains the Booth case. Horrigan and D'Andrea follow a lead from the model-building magazine to a Phoenix home belonging to Mitch Leary; upon entering, the two agents subdue an unknown individual, revealed to be a CIA agent working with Leary's associate. The CIA reveals that Leary is a former agency assassin who has suffered a mental breakdown and is now a "predator" seeking revenge on his former masters. Leary, who has already killed several people as he prepares for the assassination, uses his model-making skills to mould a zip gun out of composite material to evade metal detectors.

D'Andrea confides to Horrigan that he is going to retire immediately because of nightmares about the Mendoza incident, but Horrigan dissuades him from doing so. After Leary taunts Horrigan about the President facing danger in California, Horrigan and D' Andrea chase him across Washington rooftops, where Leary shoots and kills D'Andrea but saves Horrigan from falling to his death as he clings to the side of the building. Horrigan asks Raines to reassign him to the protective detail when the President visits Los Angeles, but a television crew films him mistaking a bellboy at the hotel for a security threat, pinning him against the wall, and Watts and Sargent again force Horrigan to leave the detail.

Horrigan connects Leary to a bank employee's murder and determines that Leary, who has made several large campaign contributions, is among the guests at a campaign dinner at the hotel. He sees the President approaching Leary and jumps into the path of the assassin's bullet, saving the President's life. As the Secret Service quickly removes the President, Leary uses Horrigan—who is wearing a bulletproof vest—as a hostage to escape to the hotel's external elevator. Horrigan uses his earpiece to tell Raines and sharpshooters where to aim; although they miss Leary, Horrigan defeats him, leaving him hanging from the edge. Though Horrigan attempts to save him, Leary commits suicide by letting go and falling to his death.

Horrigan, now a hero, retires, as his fame makes it impossible for him to do his job. He and Raines find a farewell message from Leary on Horrigan's answering machine. Horrigan and Raines visit the Lincoln Memorial, the site of the first time they had gotten together off-duty.

On the morning of the 30th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution of the Twenty-Fifth of May (and as such the anniversary of the death of John Keel, Vimes' hero and former mentor), Sam Vimes — whose wife is in labour with their first child — is caught in a storm while pursuing Carcer, a notorious criminal who has murdered several watchmen, to the roof of the Unseen University's Library. He awakens to find that he has somehow been sent back in time.

Vimes's first idea is to ask the wizards at the Unseen University to send him home, but before he can act on this, he is arrested for breaking curfew by a younger version of himself. Incarcerated in a cell next to his is Carcer, who after being released joins the Unmentionables, the secret police carrying out the paranoid whims of the Patrician of the time, Homicidal Lord Winder.

When he is taken to be interrogated by the captain, time is frozen by Lu-Tze, who tells Vimes what has happened and that he must assume the identity of Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel, who was to have arrived that day but was murdered by Carcer. It is stated that the event which caused Vimes and Carcer to be sent into the past was a major temporal shattering. Vimes then returns to the office, time restarts and he convinces the captain that he is Keel.

Young Vimes believes Vimes to be Keel, allowing Vimes to teach Young Vimes the lessons for which Vimes idolized Keel. The novel climaxes in the Revolution. Vimes, taking command of the watchmen, successfully avoids the major bloodshed erupting all over the city and manages to keep his part of it relatively peaceful. After dealing with the Unmentionables' headquarters he has his haphazard forces barricade a few streets to keep people safe from the fighting between rebels and soldiers. However, the barricades are gradually pushed forward during the night (by Fred Colon and several other simple-minded watchmen) to encompass the surrounding streets until Vimes finds himself in control of a quarter of the city containing most of its food supplies, dubbed "The Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road", with a still alive Reg Shoe as one of the leading figures.

The ruler, Lord Winder, is effectively assassinated by the young Assassin's Guild student Havelock Vetinari, and the new Patrician Lord Snapcase calls for a complete amnesty. However, he sees Keel as a threat and sends Carcer to lead a death squad of Unmentionables, watchmen and the palace guard to murder Keel. Several policemen (the ones who died when the barricade fell in the original timeline) are killed in the battle, as is Reg Shoe; Vimes manages to fight off the attack until he can grab Carcer, at which point they are returned to the future and Keel's body is placed in the timeline Vimes has just left, to tie things up, as in the "real" history, Keel died in that fight.

Vimes' son is born, with the help of Doctor "Mossy" Lawn, whom Vimes met while in the past, and Vimes finally arrests Carcer, promising him a fair trial before he is hanged. A subsequent conversation with Lord Vetinari reveals that the Patrician alone knows Vimes took Keel's place, also that he fought alongside Keel's men against Carcer's death squad. He proposes that the old Watch House at Treacle Mine Road (where Keel was sergeant, and which was destroyed by the dragon in ''Guards! Guards!'') be rebuilt, as Vimes outright refuses a monument commemorating the Twenty-Fifth of May.

One night, during a raging thunderstorm, Ellen Wheeler frantically tells her husband John that from the living room window she has seen a murder being committed in the large old deserted house next door. John calls the police, but a search of the old house turns up nothing.

The next morning, Ellen notices a freshly planted bed of ''Laburnum'' in the garden next to the old house that was not there before. She calls the investigating detective, Inspector Walker, and suggests that the body of the murder victim she witnessed may be buried there. Inspector Walker then questions the nextdoor neighbor of the old house, Mr. Appleby, who confirms that he planted the trees the night before during the storm, but refuses to let the police search the garden or dig up the trees.

Ellen is revealed to be recovering from a mental breakdown that occurred after her unfaithful first husband, Carl, was killed a few years earlier in an auto accident with his paramour. Ellen was traumatized by having to identify the bodies in the local morgue. Inspector Walker confides to John that Ellen may be mentally ill and suggests rest and a doctor. Ellen continues to maintain that she saw a murder in the deserted house, but there is no proof and John remains skeptical. Ellen's visiting friend Sarah Cooke is equally skeptical and tries humoring Ellen by suggesting that she sees what she thinks she sees because of her recent breakdown.

When both Ellen and Sarah see a man enter the old house the following night, they call the police, who find Mr. Appleby wandering around with a flashlight and arrest him for trespassing. A second search of the house and excavation of the garden reveal nothing, and Inspector Walker closes the case.

John then brings over a psychiatrist friend of his, Tony. After learning about the death of Ellen's first husband and her nervous breakdown, Tony suggests going to a clinic in another country for a few weeks. Ellen agrees to do so. That evening, Ellen claims to John and Sarah that she saw another body in the old house next door, that of a woman. Ellen is then sedated by John and Sarah, who think that Ellen may be losing her mind.

The following evening, as Ellen prepares to leave for the airport, John asks her to sign several financial documents, including one that grants him power of attorney over their financial holdings; she complies. But she notices in the financial documents that John had recently acquired a company that owns the deserted house; she suddenly angrily confronts him with that knowledge and the key to the house, accusing him and Sarah of having an affair and plotting to drive her mad in order to have her committed. John still denies cheating on her or having anything to do with the murders she claimed to have seen, but Ellen refuses to accept their denials. She runs to the old house and lets herself inside using the key, and both John and Sarah chase after her. Ellen lures both of them to the second-floor room where she claimed to have seen the bodies, and violently attacks and stabs both of them to death with a butcher knife, positioning them in exactly the same manner that she claimed to have seen the two bodies.

The film's denouement reveals that Ellen had only pretended to be insane by claiming to have seen two murders in the house next door as part of a complex scheme of hers to murder both John and Sarah for their affair, and to so weary the police with her repeated frantic phone calls to them that they would never again bother to investigate the house and find the bodies of John and Sarah. Mr. Appleby, who had grown up in John and Ellen's house before they purchased it, makes a surprise appearance, startling Ellen and congratulating her on pulling off her complex scheme. After informing her that he won't go to the police because Inspector Walker wouldn't believe him either, Ellen invites Mr. Appleby to look after her house as well as the garden until she returns. Mr. Appleby happily agrees to do so as Ellen bids him goodbye and departs.

Androzani Minor is the only source of the spectrox drug, produced by bats within the desert planet's cave systems. The citizens of neighbouring Androzani Major rely on spectrox for its life-extending capabilities. Spectrox mining is controlled by Morgus's business conglomerate, but is threatened by Sharaz Jek, a masked figure who hides within the cave systems and controls an army of androids that disrupt mining efforts. Morgus has publicly funded the military operation led by General Chellak to defeat Jek, but secretly employs gunrunners Stotz and Krelper to supply Jek with weapons to profit from the war.

The TARDIS lands on Androzani Minor, and the Fifth Doctor and Peri start to explore the caves. They both get caught briefly in a sticky substance but move on. The two are captured by Chellak, who believes them to be aiding the gunrunners. Chellak communicates their image to Morgus who does not recognise them and orders their execution. At their execution, Chellak discovers that Jek had been able to replace them with androids. Unbeknownst to Chellak, his own adjutant, Maj. Salateen, has also been replaced by one of Jek's androids.

In Jek's lair, the Doctor and Peri complain about illness, and the real Salateen tells them that they had stepped in raw spectrox, which is lethal; the anti-toxin is the milk of the queen bat, but due to the recent war, the bats have descended to the deepest levels of the mine that are devoid of oxygen. Jek explains that he is at war with Morgus as his actions led to his disfiguration. Jek leaves the two under guard of his androids while he meets Stotz and Krelper. The Doctor reprograms the androids to allow them to escape. They are caught in the middle of one of the battles, and Peri is captured by Chellak, while the Doctor is forced to leave with Stotz and Krelper.

Stotz decides to take the Doctor to see Morgus directly, and communicates with him holographically en route. Morgus sees the Doctor alive, and believing the military is deceiving him, kills the President of Androzani and makes his own arrangements to travel to Androzani Minor to set things right. The Doctor commandeers Stotz's ship and flies it back to the surface of Androzani Minor, setting off to rescue Peri.

Chellak initiates a major attack against Jek's androids, which ends up costing him his life as well as most of the soldiers and androids. During this, Jek rescues Peri as she starts to succumb to the spectrox poisoning. At his base, Jek activates the cooling system to help soothe Peri's aches. The Doctor, starting to also feel the effects, arrives at the base. Jek takes pity on the two, and directs the Doctor to where he can find the queen bat and provides him with an oxygen tank.

Morgus lands by Stotz's crashed ship, and learns that his shrewd secretary has replaced him as head of the conglomerate. Morgus quickly enlists Stotz to get Jek's supply of spectrox. Stotz kills Krelper and the remaining gunrunner before leaving. They follow the heat signature from Jek's cooling system to find his base. Morgus, Stotz, and Jek get into a fight, and end up killing each other.

The Doctor finds the queen bat and collects two phials of her milk. Returning to the base, he collects Peri and wearily carries her out of the caves, dropping one of the two phials before he can get to the TARDIS. He sets the TARDIS in motion and feeds Peri the remaining phial. Peri quickly recovers but finds the Doctor lying in pain on the floor. The Doctor explains that there was only enough bat's milk left to cure her, but he is dying. His body might regenerate; however, this feels different from his previous regenerations. The Doctor begins to hallucinate images of his past companions urging him to continue to fight for his life. They include the dead Adric, which the Doctor queries before the Master yells that he must die and the regeneration completes, with the Sixth Doctor suddenly alert and active though with a new face. When Peri asks what is happening, the Doctor replies, ''"Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon..."''

Viktor Navorski, a traveler from the fictional country of Krakozhia, arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and learns that a coup d'état has occurred back home. The United States does not recognize Krakozhia's new government, and Viktor is not permitted to either enter the U.S. or return home as his passport is no longer considered valid. Because of this, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizes his passport and return ticket pending resolution of the issue. He becomes a refugee and is forced to live at the airport.

Frank Dixon, the Acting Field Commissioner of the airport, instructs Viktor to stay in the transit lounge until the issue is resolved. Viktor settles in at the terminal with only his luggage and a peanut can. Viktor finds a gate currently under renovation, and makes it his home. All the while, Dixon is determined to get Viktor out of the airport and make him someone else's problem. He tries to get Viktor to leave by luring him out of the airport by ordering guards away from the exit for 5 minutes, but it fails. Dixon then tries to get Viktor to claim asylum if he is fearful of returning home, so he can leave the airport, but it also fails due to Viktor claiming that he is not scared of his own country. Meanwhile, Viktor befriends and assists several airport employees and travelers. Among them is a flight attendant named Amelia Warren, whom he sees periodically and tries to woo, after she mistakes him for a building contractor who is frequently traveling. Dixon, who is being considered for a promotion, becomes more and more obsessed with getting rid of Viktor. In the meantime, Viktor begins reading books and magazines to learn English. After he impulsively remodels a wall in the renovation zone, he is hired by an airport contractor and paid under the table.

One day, Dixon pulls Amelia aside and questions her regarding Viktor and his mysterious peanut can. Amelia, who realizes Viktor has not been entirely truthful, confronts him at his makeshift home, where he shows her that the Planters peanut can contains a copy of the "A Great Day in Harlem" photograph. His late father was a jazz enthusiast who had discovered the famous portrait in a Hungarian newspaper in 1958, and vowed to collect the autographs of all 57 of the musicians featured on it. He died before he could get the last one, from tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. Viktor has come to New York to do so. After hearing the story, Amelia kisses Viktor.

After nine months, his friends wake Viktor with the news that the war in Krakozhia has ended, and he can get a green stamp, allowing him to leave the airport. Meanwhile, Amelia had asked her "friend", actually a married government official with whom she had been having an affair, to get Viktor a one-day emergency visa to fulfill his dream, but Viktor is disappointed to learn that she has rekindled her relationship with the man during this process. When he presents the emergency visa at customs, Viktor is told that Dixon must sign the visa. But with Viktor's passport now valid again, Dixon is determined to immediately send him back to Krakozhia. He threatens Viktor that if he does not go home at once, he will cause trouble for his friends, most seriously by deporting janitor Gupta Rajan back to India to face a charge of assaulting a police officer. Unwilling to let this happen, Viktor finally agrees to return home. When Gupta learns of this, however, he runs in front of the plane which would take Viktor back home, ensuring his deportation and taking the burden off Viktor.

The delay gives Viktor enough time to get into the city. Dixon orders his officers to arrest Viktor, but disillusioned with Dixon, they let him leave the airport. As Viktor is getting in a taxi, Amelia arrives in another taxi, and they briefly smile and make eye-contact. Dixon himself arrives at the taxi-stand only moments after Viktor's taxi did leave. When his officers arrive and one suggests immediately cordoning off the area and searching all vehicles to find him, Dixon pauses for a moment before telling them that they have incoming travelers to handle. This would indicate that Dixon gave up his promise of arresting Viktor and not letting him enter the USA. Viktor arrives in New York at the hotel where Benny Golson is performing and finally collects the last autograph. He gets in a taxi, telling the driver, "I am going home".

Dr. Sullivan 'Sully' Travis (aka "Dr. T.") (Richard Gere) is a wealthy Dallas gynecologist for some of the wealthiest women in Texas who finds his life beginning to fall apart starting when his wife, Kate (Farrah Fawcett), suffers from 'Hestia Complex', a rare type of infantilizing syndrome of wealthy women, receding into a childlike state and, after she disrobes in a shopping mall fountain while shopping for their daughter's wedding registry at Tiffany's, is committed to the state mental hospital. When Dr. T visits Kate, she rebuffs his kisses as improper and he sees her pre-teen psychic age cannot be brought back to adulthood by his affection. Dr. T's eldest daughter, Dee Dee (Kate Hudson), a student at Southern Methodist University and alternate for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is planning to go through with her approaching wedding despite the secret that she is romantically involved with Marilyn (Liv Tyler), her former college friend in Houston and the maid of honor. Dr. T's youngest daughter, Connie (Tara Reid), is a conspiracy theorist and eventually reveals to her father that Dee Dee and Marilyn are lovers.

While Marilyn is on his examining table for the first time, she surmises her condition is caused by the stress of being the maid of honor for her friend Dee Dee. Dr. T realizes she is Dee Dee's lover and becomes embarrassed mid-examination, asking the nurse to finish.

Dr. T's loyal secretary Carolyn (Shelley Long) has romantic feelings for him, which are not mutual: in a farcical scene at the workday end, she locks the office door and gives him a shoulder-massage from behind his chair, secretly disrobing while emphasizing his need for a loving wife. Refreshed but unaware of her intentions, he goes to the coat closet, turns and finds she has vanished. From under the desk, she says he never empties his trash baskets. Approaching the desk he glimpses her state of undress and quickly leaves.

Meanwhile, Dr. T's alcoholic sister-in-law, Peggy (Laura Dern), unintentionally meddles in every situation she stumbles into. She is currently divorced and has moved into his house with her three young daughters.

At his golf club, Bree (Helen Hunt), a golf pro, gets accidentally soaked by the automatic sprinklers and he offers a towel and his dry golf cart and they decide to play the round together. Accepting his offer for dinner, she says she knows a better place than his suggested restaurant, next they're taking grocery bags into her condo. She moves quickly and gracefully turning on the stereo music by Lyle Lovett, the grill on the balcony, putting steak on, going upstairs, into one room, then walking nude across the balcony to the shower. After dinner, she takes a bottle of wine upstairs, briefly hesitating he follows her and they become lovers. She provides friendship and comfort in his difficult office and personal life.

As Dee Dee's wedding begins the skies are darkening and thunder increasing. As the procession is blown by increasing wind, Dee Dee bypasses her groom, embraces and kisses Marilyn and the skies open up sending all the guests for shelter. Inspired, Dr. T drives his open top convertible to Bree's house where he asks her to marry and run away with him. He offers to fulfill her every need and she asks why she would want that (this is what caused Kate's syndrome according to her psychologist). She says she has made other plans. Dr. T. asks if she is with Harlan, one of his golfing/hunting buddies, She replies: “I’m not with anybody.” Distraught, Dr. T. drives off into the storm and into a tornado as it crosses his path and is lifted into the air, tumbles in debris; the scene fades to the morning after. The camera view pans to reveal distant mountains surrounding a vast desert flat land. His nearby car is found by three young Spanish speaking children. A little girl in a white dress with a veil sees the doctor badge on the front grill of the car Exclaiming “Dr!”. They find & lead him, still dazed, to a circle of seven tiny houses where a woman is in labor. Galvanized by the sight, he immediately washes his hands, drops his wedding ring into the basin, takes charge and delivers the baby, holding it and rejoices “it’s a boy!”

In 1980s Germany at the height of the Cold War, 19-year-old Karl Koch (August Diehl) finds the world around him threatening and chaotic. Inspired by the fictitious character Hagbard Celine (from Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's 1975 book ''Illuminatus! Trilogy''), he starts investigating the backgrounds of political and economic power and discovers signs that make him believe in a worldwide conspiracy.

At a meeting of the Chaos Computer Club, Karl gets to know the student David (Fabian Busch). David and Karl are able to hack into the global data network—which is still, at this point, in its early stages—and their belief in social justice propels them into espionage for the KGB. Driven by contacts with a drug dealer—and by increasing KGB pressure to hack successfully into foreign systems—Karl spirals into a cocaine dependency and grows increasingly alienated from David.

In a drug-addled state, Karl begins to sit in front of his computer for days at a time. Perpetually sleepless, he also grows increasingly delusional. When David publicly reveals the espionage activity in which the two men have been engaged, Karl is left alone to face the consequences. Collapse soon follows. Karl is taken to a hospital to deal with his drug addiction and mysteriously dies after his supposed hacking of Chernobyl .

''Samurai Champloo'' opens in a town where Fuu, working as a tea waitress, is molested by the son of the town's corrupt prefect. The outlaw Mugen arrives in town, and Fuu begs him for protection, which he gives in exchange for food. Meanwhile, the ronin Jin, also a new arrival, kills the prefect's bodyguards when they abuse a peasant, ending up in conflict with Mugen when the latter mistakes him for one of the prefect's men. The two's fight ends up destroying the teahouse. The pair are captured and sentenced to death, but Fuu saves them. The pair attempt to restart their battle, but Fuu tosses a coin, saying if it lands on heads then the pair can continue their battle, but if it lands on tails they postpone their battle to help her find a samurai who smells of sunflowers, whom she has sought for years. She wins the toss, and they embark on a series of adventures alongside Fuu's quest.

During the closing stories, the three finally arrive at the town of Ikitsuki, with each ending up in conflict with a group of assassins sent by the government to kill the "sunflower samurai", Fuu's father Seizo Kasumi. Fuu finds Kasumi, having wanted revenge for him abandoning her and her mother, but she relents as he is already dying from an illness. One of the assassins kills Kasumi before he is defeated by Jin. Mugen and Jin then have their duel, their swords shattering, but choose not to kill each other as they now consider each other friends. Fuu learns her father played a part in the Shimabara Rebellion and went away to protect her. Fuu also reveals she lied about the coin toss result, which briefly annoys Mugen and Jin. Recovered from their final fight, the three part ways grateful for their shared adventure.

Jack Carver has left his mysterious and bitter past behind him and dropped out of society to run a boat-charter business in the South Pacific. He is hired by a female journalist named Valerie Constantine to take her secretly to an uncharted island in Micronesia. After Val takes off on her own with a jet ski, Jack's boat is blown apart by a rocket, but he survives by diving into the water. With the help of a man named Doyle, Jack travels across the various islands, battling mysterious mercenaries in search for Val. Through encounters with Trigens (genetically altered beasts) and information from Doyle, Jack soon discovers that the island is part of an experiment involving genetic modification, funded by the genetic company Krieger Corp. and led by its CEO, Dr. Krieger.

As the game progresses, it becomes clear that the Trigens, who are running loose, are becoming too large a problem for the mercenaries to handle, and that the experiments are not limited to just primate mutations, but have moved on to mutating humans (possibly mercenaries). When Jack finally catches up with Val, she is being taken to another area by a helicopter which is stopped by Jack. After a brief struggle on board the helicopter, Val tells Jack to jump for it, kicking him in the face and they both fall from the helicopter as it explodes. After they both swim to shore, Val reveals that she is an undercover CIA agent investigating Krieger's operations. After further exploration, Jack must again search for and rescue Val while the human Trigens have escaped (freed by Jack) and have begun a revolt against the mercenaries on the island. After rescuing Val, they split up again and reunite when Jack has killed the mercenary commander, Crowe. Information Crowe had with him indicates Krieger has a tactical nuke on the island, which he intends to use as a last resort in covering his tracks should his projects be investigated.

After the Department of Defense has supposedly analyzed the situation, Jack and Val steal the nuclear weapon, despite Jack's protests. Before entering the factory, Doyle warns that the mutagen might infect them when the blast goes off, and advises them to take a mutagen-resistant serum before arming the nuke. Inside the factory, they do so and arm the nuke, which detonates directly behind Jack and Val as they exit the factory, leaving them unconscious. While the pair are unconscious, Krieger captures them before leaving to his main base in a helicopter. Jack, kicked off the helicopter, has to fight through the Trigen-infested area to rescue Val and escape the islands with his life. Upon reaching a mercenary weapons cache, Jack notices his arm is turning green. Doyle responds that the mutagen concentration on the air might be too strong for the antidote, but Krieger is working on a cure in a laboratory nearby. Jack is thus directed to find Krieger, who has injected himself with the mutagen but is ultimately defeated.

With his dying breath, Krieger reveals that there is no cure for the mutagen. Doyle reveals the "antidote" they took earlier was the very mutagen they were trying to protect themselves from and reveals that he plans to sell the mutagen formula on the black market before fleeing. After battling through a horde of Trigens, Jack catches up with Doyle and kills him. Jack then escapes just before the volcano, in which Krieger's main offices are located, erupts. Both he and Val are cured from the mutagen and manage to sail off on a boat.

The planet Lagash ("Kalgash" in the novel) is constantly illuminated by at least one of the six suns of its multiple star system. Lagash has areas of darkness (in caves, tunnels, etc.), but "night" does not exist.

A skeptical journalist visits a university observatory to interview a group of scientists who warn that civilization will soon end. The researchers explain that they have discovered evidence of numerous ancient civilizations on Lagash, all destroyed by fire, with each collapse occurring about 2,000 years apart. The religious writings of a doomsday cult claim that Lagash periodically passes through an enormous cave where mysterious "stars" appear. The stars are said to rain down fire from the heavens and rob people of their souls, reducing them to beast-like savages.

The scientists use this apparent myth, along with recent discoveries in gravitational research, to develop a theory about the repeated collapse of society. A mathematical analysis of Lagash's orbit around its primary sun reveals irregularities caused by an undiscovered moon that cannot be seen in the light of the six suns. Calculations indicate that this moon will soon obscure one of Lagash's suns when it is alone in the sky, resulting in a total eclipse that occurs once every 2,000 years. Having evolved on a planet with no diurnal cycle, Lagashians possess an intense, instinctive fear of the dark and have never experienced a prolonged period of widespread darkness. Psychological experiments have revealed that Lagashians may experience permanent mental illness or even death after as little as 15 minutes in the dark, and the eclipse is projected to last for several hours—indeed, more than half a day. This, coupled with the fact that the diameter of the umbra is at least as great as that of the planet, ensures that the entire population shall experience prolonged darkness.

The scientists theorize that earlier civilizations were destroyed by people who went insane during previous eclipses and—desperate for any light source—started large fires that destroyed cities. Oral accounts of the chaos from crazed survivors and small children were passed down through the ages and became the basis for the cult's sacred texts. Present-day civilization is doomed for the same reasons, but the researchers hope that detailed observations of the upcoming eclipse will help to break the cycle of societal collapse.

The scientists are unprepared, however, for the stars. Because of the perpetual daylight on Lagash, its inhabitants are unaware of the existence of stars apart from their own; astronomers believe that the entire universe is no more than a few light years in diameter and may hypothetically contain a small number of other suns. But Lagash is located in the center of a "giant cluster", and during the eclipse, the night sky—the first that people have ever seen—is filled with the dazzling light of more than 30,000 newly visible stars.

Learning that the universe is far more vast—and Lagash far more insignificant—than they believed, coupled with worldwide darkness produced by the eclipse, causes everyone, including the scientists, to go insane. Outside the observatory, in the direction of the city, the horizon begins glowing with the light of spreading fires as "the long night" returns to Lagash.

The novel follows the life of Clay, a rich, young college student who has returned to his hometown of Los Angeles, California for winter break circa 1984. Through first-person narration, Clay describes his progressive alienation from the culture around him, loss of faith in his friends, and his meditations on events in his recent past.

After reuniting with his ex-girlfriend Blair, and friends like Trent, now a successful model, Clay embarks on a series of drug-fueled nights of partying, during which he has one-night stands with both sexes. While partying, he tries to track down his best friend from high school, Julian, with whom he hasn't spoken in months. In between descriptions of his days and nights, Clay recounts a vacation spent with his parents and grandparents, during which he seemed to be the only person concerned that his grandmother was dying of cancer.

Over time, Clay becomes progressively disillusioned with the party scene as he witnesses the apathy of his friends towards the suffering of one another and those around them: at one party, he watches as the revellers joke and take Polaroids of his friend, Muriel, while she injects heroin; at another, he and Blair are the only two who exhibit revulsion when Trent shows a snuff film, which sexually excites several partygoers.

Clay ultimately tracks down Julian, who borrows a large sum of money from Clay. At first, Julian says that the money is for an abortion, but Clay doesn't believe him. Later, when Clay asks Julian to pay him back, Julian brings him to meet his abusive pimp, Finn. It is revealed that Julian has become a heroin addict and turned to prostitution in order to pay off a debt to unnamed drug dealers. Believing what he has been told, yet still feeling an empty desire to witness this awful scene for himself, Clay accompanies Julian to a rendezvous in a hotel room with a married closeted businessman from Indiana, where he is compelled by the john to watch the man and Julian have sex for several hours.

After attending a concert with his friends, Clay accompanies them to an alleyway, where they stare, fascinated, at the corpse of a young man, presumably dead by overdose. Afterward, Clay follows the group back to the home of his drug dealer, Rip, who wants to show off his latest acquisition: a sex slave whom Rip has been keeping drugged in his bedroom. When Clay tells Rip, "I don't think it's right," Rip says, "What's right?" Clay leaves, but Trent decides to stay so that he can participate.

Now feeling completely isolated and with winter break coming to an end, Clay reflects on the brutal nature of his surroundings as he returns to college in New Hampshire.

The film follows various plot arcs all occurring on New Year's Eve of 1981. Monica (Martha Plimpton) is throwing a big New Year's bash and is desperately afraid no one will attend. Early on the only person to have arrived is her friend Hillary (Catherine Kellner). As she tries to convince Hillary to stay, various other groupings of individuals are shown making their way to the celebration.

The film follows several characters as they spend New Year's Eve in New York City before eventually showing up at Monica's party. The party guests are:

-Monica's cousin Val (Christina Ricci) and her friend Stephie (Gaby Hoffmann), teens from Ronkonkoma who get lost in the seedy Alphabet City section of the borough and wander into a punk club where they meet Dave (Guillermo Díaz) and Tom (Casey Affleck), who have a "package" they need to deliver.

-Ditsy and awkward Cindy (Kate Hudson), who is on a dinner date with the paranoid Jack (Jay Mohr).

-Lucy (Courtney Love) and her best friend Kevin (Paul Rudd), who are struggling with the sexual tension between them. The film gets its title from the carton of cigarettes Lucy buys Kevin that night, as a present on a holiday he loathes, which is also his birthday.

-Kevin's feminist ex-girlfriend Ellie (Janeane Garofalo), who walks in on Kevin and Lucy making out in a restroom stall; a dim-witted and flirtatious bartender (Ben Affleck).

-Competitive friends Bridget (Nicole Ari Parker) and Caitlyn (Angela Featherstone) who attempt to ditch Bridget's boyfriend Eric (Brian McCardie), (who is also Monica's ex-boyfriend).

And, the eccentric cab driver (Dave Chappelle) who takes them all around town throughout the evening in his disco-themed taxi.

Eventually, all the characters find their way to the party, although in the meantime Monica has passed out after drowning her sorrows in alcohol. She wakes up the next morning to find many unrecognizable people on her floor, including Stephie who tells her what a big hit her party was. Monica is thrilled, even though she missed it all, especially when she finds out that Elvis Costello showed up.

The final montage shows Polaroids of the party, narrated by the disco cabbie, mostly featuring the unlikely romances from the party and the unconscious Monica being propped up by her party guests.

Four lifelong stoners and friends (Thurgood, Scarface, Brian, and Kenny) live together in New York City. Thurgood, a janitor at a medical lab, orders some weed from Samson, the famous local dealer, and the four smoke it. When Kenny, a gentle kindergarten teacher, is out on a munchie run, he is arrested for accidentally killing a diabetic police horse by feeding it junk food. His friends are forced to raise $1 million to bail him out before the other prisoners take advantage of his gentle nature.

Thurgood gets asked one day by a scientist at the lab to get a pound of cannabis from storage and Thurgood freaks out when he realizes what the scientist had him get for him. The grateful scientist thanks Thurgood for the good deed by giving him some free weed. Thurgood brings it home and the three friends get high. Scarface gets the idea to have Thurgood steal medical marijuana from his work so that the three of them can sell it to raise money to free Kenny. While visiting Kenny in prison, Thurgood meets Mary Jane and pursues a romantic relationship, which is strained by his having to conceal his marijuana smoking and dealing from her, as she is adamantly anti drug.

When the success of the friends' marijuana business grows enough to raise the ire of local drug lord Samson Simpson, Samson extorts them for $20,000 a week. Mary Jane dumps Thurgood when she finds out he is dealing drugs. The friends plan a robbery of the medical laboratory to increase their earnings enough to both fend off Samson and free Kenny, but are arrested when they try to execute the plan.

Thurgood strikes a deal with the police to wear a wire to a meeting with Samson in exchange for freeing Kenny and dropping the charges against him and his friends. They meet with Samson, but their plan is exposed when the police detectives fail to arrive as backup since they are high. However, Thurgood and his friends are able to take out Samson's henchwomen, and Samson is taken out by the ghost of Jerry Garcia. The police detectives arrive soon after to arrest Samson and his henchwomen, while Thurgood and friends are released from police custody. Thurgood meets with Mary Jane to tell her he is giving up marijuana and wants to get back together. The film ends with their reuniting.

A young woman comes home to her Miami Beach apartment and hears of a recent murder in Rogers Park. She takes a bath, but is brutally murdered by a gray-haired, wild-eyed man. Afterwards, he hacks her leg off above the knee with a machete, and bags the leg before he leaves. A copy of a book titled ''Ancient Weird Religious Rites'' is seen near the body.

At the police station the next morning, detective Pete Thornton consults with the chief of the homicide bureau about the killings. The chief says that the killer follows a pattern of mutilating the bodies by removing limbs and organs but otherwise leaves no clues.

Elsewhere in town, wealthy socialite Dorothy Fremont hires an exotic caterer named Fuad Ramses to arrange a dinner party for her daughter, Suzette. Ramses – revealed to the viewer as being the killer from the opening scene – agrees to cater the affair and tells Mrs. Fremont that he will prepare an ancient Egyptian feast, the likes of which have not been served for five thousand years. Mrs. Fremont is delighted by this, as Suzette has a keen interest in Egyptology. She orders the catering to be done in two weeks, before leaving.

After Mrs. Fremont leaves Ramses' store, he goes to the back room, where he has enshrined a large, golden statue of the Mesopotamian goddes Ishtar. Ramses is preparing a "blood feast" – a stew made from his victims' blood and body parts intended for Ishtar's reincarnation.

Later that day, Thornton again meets with the homicide bureau chief after the newspapers sensationalize the death of the latest victim. Exasperated, the chief asks Thornton if he was able to turn up any clues this time. Thornton says he interviewed the victim's acquaintances, but the only important clue he could get was that she was a book club member.

That evening, two teenagers named Tony and Marcy make out on a nearby beach. Ramses interrupts the couple. He knocks Tony unconscious, hacks off the top of Marcy's skull, and removes her brain. Thornton arrives on the scene shortly thereafter with the chief, but they are unable to get any useful information from Tony, who by this time is in hysterics. Back at the station, Thornton and the chief question Marcy's mother, who tells them that Marcy also belonged to a book club.

Sometime later, Ramses stakes out a local motel and sees a drunken man drop a woman off at her room. Ramses knocks on the woman's door and attacks her when she answers, ripping her tongue out of her mouth and leaving her to bleed to death.

Meanwhile, at the Fremont house, Suzette tells her mother how distraught she is by the reports of the killings. Mrs. Fremont tries to cheer her up by reminding her of their upcoming dinner party. Later, Suzette attends her weekly Egyptian studies lecture at a local university with her boyfriend, who happens to be Detective Thornton.

The lecturer, Dr. Flanders, tells them about the pharaohs Ramses I and Ramses II and the cult of Ishtar that thrived during their rule five thousand years ago. Dr. Flanders goes on to describe the blood festival of Ishtar, in which virgin women were sacrificed to the goddess on an altar, their remains prepared as dishes to be served in the feast, and Ishtar was said to be reborn at the climax of the festival. (A flashback to ancient Egypt is shown at this point in the film, depicting a young woman on a stone altar being stabbed in the chest by a high priest and having her heart removed from her body.)

After the lecture, Thornton takes Suzette out for an evening drive, and Suzette tells him that she is worried about the recent murders when he suggests that they park for a while. Their date is cut short when a radio news bulletin announces that an as yet unidentified victim has been found near death and taken to a nearby hospital.

Thornton drives Suzette home and hurries to the police station, where the chief informs him that this victim was found on the outskirts of town with the side of her face hacked off. They rush to the hospital and question the woman, who identifies herself as Janet Blake. She tells them that the man who attacked her was old, had wild eyes and that he said it was for "Etar" as she collapses and dies. The detectives ponder the significance of "Etar" and Thornton cannot shake the feeling that the word sounds familiar.

On the day before the dinner party, Ramses receives a letter from a young woman named Trudy Sanders, requesting a copy of ''Ancient Weird Religious Rites'' that he had advertised in the newspaper. Ramses looks up Trudy's phone number in the white pages, calls her house, and finds out that she's visiting Suzette Fremont. At the Fremont residence, Suzette is having a pool party with some friends, where she tells Trudy that she thinks her mother is planning an Egyptian feast for her party. Unbeknownst to Suzette and the others, Ramses goes to the Fremont's, waits outside, and kidnaps Trudy as she leaves that evening.

The next day, Thornton and the chief investigate Trudy's disappearance. Thornton phones Suzette to tell her that he will be late for the party, as the police still have no word on Trudy's whereabouts. Suzette tells Thornton she learned from her mother that a Fuad Ramses will be catering the party and serving an authentic Egyptian feast in honor of Ishtar. Thornton quips that he hopes this feast won't be exactly like the one described by Dr. Flanders.

Meanwhile, in Ramses' storage room, Trudy wakes up to find herself chained to the wall next to the Ishtar shrine. Ramses pauses from his cooking for a moment and takes a leather scourge from the wall. Demanding that she give herself up to the goddess, he lashes her to death, collecting her blood in a silver chalice.

After hanging up with Suzette, Thornton mulls over the name Ishtar and its similarity to the word "Etar" that Janet Blake said in the hospital, and also recalls the recent lecture on the Ramses pharaohs. Thornton calls Dr. Flanders, gets more information on the blood feast of Ishtar, and learns that Fuad Ramses is the author of ''Ancient Weird Religious Rites''. Finally piecing it all together, Thornton calls the chief and tells him to meet at Ramses Exotic Catering.

Back at Ramses' storage room, Ramses cooks one more ingredient for his feast: the leg of the first victim seen in the film, which he chars in a pizza oven.

The police race to Ramses' store and find Ramses gone but discover the shrine of Ishtar and Trudy's body on a table in the back room, with various other human remains strewn about. The chief orders a squad car to the Fremont house to arrest Ramses and stop the guests from partaking in his grisly meal. However, they are unable to call the Fremonts and warn them as their phone line is down.

Ramses arrives at the dinner party and asks Suzette to come into the kitchen and help him commence the feast by blessing it to make the experience "more authentic." He has Suzette lie on a counter as a makeshift altar, then tells her to close her eyes and offer a prayer to Ishtar. As he raises his machete to decapitate her as a final offering to his goddess, Mrs. Fremont suddenly enters the kitchen and causes him to flee. The police arrive, and Thornton tells Suzette that Ramses was the serial killer they'd been looking for and that Trudy was his latest victim. Thornton joins the chief and the other officers as they chase Ramses through a nearby dump, where he attempts to escape by climbing into the back of a garbage truck. Unaware of this, the truck driver turns on the trash compactor, slowly crushing Ramses.

The police arrive too late to prevent his death, and the chief remarks to Thornton that Ramses "died a fitting death, like the garbage he was." Thornton then explains to the chief how he deduced the killer's identity, from the last words of Janet Blake to the book found at the scenes of some of the murders, and Thornton says that Ramses must have kept a list of people who requested the book as potential victims. As they wonder whether others still worship Ishtar, the detectives morosely light their cigarettes and return to their headquarters to file a report. Elsewhere, the statue of Ishtar sheds tears of blood.

The game is set in Krynn, world of the ''Dragonlance'' saga, during the War of the Lance. The main character is a young knight of Solamnia who progressively climbs the ranks of knighthood and is assigned to different dragon mounts. The story starts halfway through the action of the previous title, ''War of the Lance'', after the metallic dragons joined the fight alongside the Knights of Solamnia, and it ends roughly at the same time, with a major victory of the forces of the god Paladine.

On the other hand, the main character of the NES remake is a dragon without any rider. The action starts at the same time as the original, but it ends later, featuring an ending that is different from the one in the novels and in the tabletop modules.

Louden Swain is a wrestler at Thompson High School who has just turned 18 years old. He has decided that he needs to do something truly meaningful in his life. He embarks on a mission or, in a Native American term, a ''vision quest'', to drop two weight classes to challenge the area's toughest opponent, Brian Shute, a menacing three-time state champion from nearby rival Hoover High School, who has never been defeated in his high school career. In his zeal to drop from to , against the wishes of his coach and teammates, he disrupts the team around him and creates health problems of his own.

Meanwhile, his father has taken on a boarder named Carla from Trenton, New Jersey, passing through on her way to San Francisco. Louden falls in love with her and begins to lose sight of his goals as a wrestler. Worse, his drastic weight loss culminates in an unhealthy situation where he gets frequent nosebleeds which, Louden assumes, is due to a lack of iron in his diet (which results in a referee forfeiting him during a match he was leading). The two finally admit their love for each other, but Carla realizes she is distracting him from his goals.

Carla decides to move out and continue on to San Francisco, but not before seeing Louden's big match in which he pins Shute in the final seconds with a hip throw after suffering a nose bleed. As Louden celebrates his victory, he monologues to the audience, "...I guess that's why we got to love those people who deserve it like there's no tomorrow. 'Cause when you get right down to it—there isn't."

Joe Slovak is a brilliant first-year medical school student whose nonconformist approach to life is tested when he enrolls in gross anatomy, the toughest course in med school. His schoolfriends and lab partners include Kim, a pregnant woman; Miles, a buttoned-down blue-blood; Laurie, an overly ambitious student determined to make it; and David, an over analyzer who is also his roommate. Joe's freewheeling, independent style creates funny moments in the classroom, but puts him at odds with the demanding department head, Dr. Woodruff, who questions whether her easygoing "class rebel" has what it takes to be a doctor. Meanwhile, Joe falls in love with his lab partner Laurie, who won't let anything, especially romance, interfere with her plans. And while Joe's never done anything by the book, he proves he does have what it takes to succeed — without changing his ways. However, Joe's ways and the ways of medicine come to a head when he is ordered to do an extra credit assignment by Dr. Woodruff involving a complex diagnosis. Joe correctly diagnoses it as a serious, difficult-to-treat chronic illness and learns the patient is Dr. Woodruff herself.

Nashawn Wade claims that he has loved planes since he was a child, but he has a horrible experience with a typical airline: his dog Dre is classified as a checked baggage instead of a carry-on, he eats a horrible airline meal, his buttocks gets stuck in the toilet while he has diarrhea, caused by his meal, during turbulence, and Dre is fatally sucked through a jet engine after a stewardess accidentally opens the cargo door.

In response to the terrible experience he endured, Nashawn sues the airline and is awarded $100,000,000 by the jury. He decides to use the money to start his own airline, called N.W.A. (Nashawn Wade Airlines), whose acronym and logo are a pop culture reference to rap group N.W.A. The airline specifically caters to African Americans and hip hop culture. The terminal at the airport is called the Malcolm X terminal, where two non-working TSA Agents, Jamiqua and Shaniece, are goofing off instead of checking belongings. The plane is a heavily modified Boeing 747SP, customized with low-rider hydraulics, spinners, blended winglets to compensate for the drag from the decorations, and a dance club. The safety video is also a parody of the Destiny's Child song "Survivor".

After taking off from Los Angeles International Airport, Nashawn must deal with a multitude of problems, starting with his acrophobic captain, Captain Mack. At a cruising altitude of Flight Level 330, it is revealed that he has never left the ground because he learned to fly on computer simulators in prison. Meanwhile, his cousin Muggsey sets up a miniature casino and strip joint in one of the areas of the plane (as seen in the workprint and unrated versions of the film), and Nashawn's ex-girlfriend, Giselle is on board and less than happy to see him. Meanwhile, the Hunkee family, the only caucasian passengers on board, must also deal with their own problems; Elvis' daughter Heather is turning 18 and plans to use her newfound freedom by drinking and having sex, his son has transformed from an exact duplicate of him to a stereotypical wigger, and his wife has found a new interest in black men after viewing pictures in a pornographic magazine.

Captain Mack seemingly dies after eating mushrooms that the co-pilot, First Officer Gaemon, uses to soothe his genital crabs. Nashawn attempts to contact Gaemon, who is incapacitated after slipping near a hot tub, forcing Nashawn to attempt to land the plane himself. Nashawn lands the plane safely, using the airplane stewardess Blanca's flight knowledge which she learned while having sex in the cockpit with the pilot on another plane. The plane lands in the middle of Central Park instead of John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the spinners are stolen from the plane. Nashawn reconciles with Giselle after earlier revealing to her that he only broke up with her so she would not give up her college opportunities for him.

The movie ends with Nashawn telling the audience the fate of his crew. He claims that he and his ex-girlfriend are back together taking their relationship slow this time around, his cousin Muggsey has started a strip club and gambling casino located in another airplane similar to the club in Nashawn's plane, Elvis has begun a sexual relationship with Jamiqua, and his son Billy has become a major music video director but has disappeared shortly after filming a Michael Jackson video. Captain Mack later wakes up with both his chain and clothing stolen.

Workmen discover a pre-human skull while building in the fictional Hobbs Lane (formerly Hob's Lane, Hob being an antiquated name for the Devil) in Knightsbridge, London. Dr Matthew Roney, a paleontologist, examines the remains and reconstructs a dwarf-like humanoid with a large brain volume, which he believes to be a primitive man. As further excavation is undertaken, something that looks like a missile is unearthed; further work by Roney's group is halted because the military believe it to be an unexploded Second World War bomb.

Roney calls in his friend Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Rocket Group to prevent the military from disturbing what he believes to be an archaeological find. Quatermass and Colonel Breen, recently appointed to lead the Rocket Group over Quatermass's objections, become intrigued by the site. As more of the artefact is uncovered additional fossils are found, which Roney dates to five million years, suggesting that the object is at least that old. The interior is empty, and a symbol of six intersecting circles, which Roney incorrectly identified as a pentacle, is etched on a wall that appears to conceal an inner chamber.

The inner chamber wall of the object is so hard that even a borazon boron nitride drill makes no impression, and when the attempt is made, vibrations cause severe distress in people around the object. Quatermass interviews local residents and discovers ghosts and poltergeists have been common in the area for decades. A hysterical soldier is carried out of the object, claiming to have seen a dwarf-like apparition walk through the wall of the artifact, a description that matches a 1927 newspaper account of a ghost.

Following the drilling, a hole opens up in the object's interior wall. Inside, Quatermass and the others find the remains of insect-like aliens resembling giant three-legged locusts, with stubby antennae on their heads giving the impression of horns. As Quatermass and Roney examine the remains, they theorize the aliens may have come from a planet habitable five million years ago — Mars.

While clearing his equipment from the craft, the drill operator triggers more poltergeist activity, and runs through the streets in a panic until he finds sanctuary in a church. Quatermass and Roney find him there, and he describes visions of the insect aliens killing each other. As Quatermass investigates the history of the area, he finds accounts dating back to medieval times about devils and ghosts, all centred on incidents where the ground was disturbed. He suspects a psychic projection of these beings has remained on the alien ship and is being seen by those who come into contact with it.

Quatermass decides to use Roney's optic-encephalogram, a device that records impressions from the optical centers of the brain, and see the visions for himself. Roney's assistant, Barbara Judd, is most sensitive; placing the device on her, they record a violent purge of the Martian hive to root out unwanted mutations.

Quatermass concludes that in its most primitive phase mankind was visited by this race of Martians. Some apes and primitive pre-humans were taken away and genetically altered to give them abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and other psychic powers. They were then returned to Earth, and the buried artifact is one of the ships that had crashed at the end of its journey. With their home world dying, the aliens had tried to change humanity's ancestors to have minds and abilities similar to their own, but with a bodily form adapted to life on Earth. However, the aliens became extinct before completing their work. As the human race bred and evolved, a percentage retained their psychic abilities that surfaced only sporadically. For centuries the buried ship had occasionally triggered those dormant abilities, which explained the reports of poltergeists; people were unknowingly using their own telekinesis to move objects around, and the ghost sightings were traces of a racial memory.

The authorities, and Breen in particular, find this explanation preposterous despite being shown the recording of Barbara's vision. They instead suggest that the craft is a buried remnant from the London Blitz: a Nazi propaganda weapon, with the alien bodies fakes designed to create a panic. They decide to hold a media event to stem the rumors that are already spreading.

Quatermass warns that if implanted psychic powers survive in the human race, there could also still be an ingrained compulsion to enact the "Wild Hunt" of a race purge, but the media event goes ahead regardless. The power cables that string into the craft fully activate it for the first time, and glowing and humming like a living thing it starts to draw upon this energy source and awaken the ancient racial programming. Those Londoners in whom the alien admixture remains strong fall under the ship's influence; they merge into a group mind and begin a telekinetic mass murder of those without the alien genes, an ethnic cleansing of those the alien race mind considers to be impure and weak.

Breen stands transfixed and is eventually consumed by the energies from the craft as it slowly melts away and an image of a Martian "devil" floats in the sky above London. Fires and riots erupt. Quatermass himself succumbs to Martian influence and attempts to kill Roney, who lacks the alien gene and is immune to alien influence. Roney manages to shake Quatermass out of his trance, and remembering the legends of demons and their aversion to iron and water, proposes that a sufficient mass of iron connected to wet earth may be sufficient to short-circuit the apparition. Quatermass acquires a length of iron chain and tries to reach the "devil" but succumbs to its psychic pressure. Roney manages to walk up to the apparition and hurls the chain at it, resulting in him and the spacecraft being reduced to ashes.

At the conclusion of the final episode Quatermass gives a television broadcast, at the end of which he delivers a warning directly to camera: "Every war crisis, witch hunt, race riot, and purge... is a reminder and a warning. We are the Martians. If we cannot control the [Martian] inheritance within us, this will be their second dead planet."

Thousands of former employees are outraged with military businessman R. J. Hacker, who had closed down his weapons manufacturing plant, Hacker Dynamics. At a conference held at the former plant, he pins the blame for the shutdown of his business on the President of the United States, who has just arrived. The president defends his own belief that the future of the children is more important than war, which has caused major decline in his approval rating. After the conference, he expresses to confidantes General Dick Panzer and National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley, revealed to have ties with Hacker, his discontent about not having an enemy to engage in war. An attempted negotiation with Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin to start a new cold war with Russia fails, and the president's suggestion of a war on international terrorism is deemed too absurd.

Serendipitously, American sheriff Bud Boomer offensively criticizes Canadian beer while attending a hockey game between the neighboring nations in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The ensuing brawl ends up on the news and catches Stuart's attention; Stuart, in turn, collects more information about Canada from a CIA agent named Gus, and suggests Canada as their new enemy during a cabinet meeting. Before long, television channels are littered with anti-Canada propaganda, which Boomer believes wholeheartedly. He prepares for war by distributing guns to his fellow sheriffs, including his girlfriend Honey and their friends Roy Boy and Kabral Jabar. He also helps form a local militia. After they apprehend a group of Americans "dressed as Canadians" attempting to destroy a hydroelectric plant, despite Gus's protests that they are just Americans, they sneak across the border to litter on Canadian lands, which leads to Honey being arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In a rescue attempt, Boomer, Roy Boy and Kabral sneak into a Canadian power plant and cause a countrywide blackout. When the president learns of this, Stuart orders the Omega Force to remove Boomer from Canada before it is too late.

Hacker, seeking revenge on the President for shutting down his business, uses a software program ("Hacker Hellstorm") to activate missile silos across the country. The President learns that the signal causing the activation of the silos originated from Canada, and summons Hacker. Hacker offers to sell a program to the President that can cancel out the Hellstorm—for $1 trillion. Stuart, fed up with the President being too busy to give Hacker the money, realizes that Hacker, getting up to leave, is the one controlling the silos, not Canada, and, after storming up, takes the operating codes from him required to stop the Hellstorm (accidentally killing Hacker in the process). The President orders Stuart's arrest, despite his protests that he is now able to give the codes to the President so they could deactivate the missiles which are aimed at Moscow. As the launch time approaches the President pleads with Canadian Prime Minister Clark MacDonald over the phone to stop the launch.

Meanwhile, Honey was taken to a hospital upon her capture and escaped all the way to the CN Tower. She discovers the central computer for the Hellstorm and destroys it with a machine gun, aborting the launch sequence. She then reunites with Boomer, and they return to the United States on a speedboat.

An epilogue reveals the characters' fates: Boomer realizes his dream of appearing on ''Cops''; Honey is named "Humanitarian of the Year" by the National Rifle Association; the president was defeated in the next election by a large landslide and now hosts ''Get Up, Cleveland''; Stuart served eight months in prison, but was pardoned by the new president Oliver North; Panzer committed suicide after learning that ''Hogan's Heroes'' was fictional; Gus was last spotted heading to Mexico in a tank; Hacker's body has been viewed daily at Republican National Headquarters; Kabral has become a hockey star, winning the Hart Memorial Trophy three years in a row; Roy Boy's whereabouts become unknown; and MacDonald is "still ruling with an iron fist".

Broadcast of a murder mystery film starring Loni Anderson, titled ''Without Warning'', is interrupted with a news bulletin of a series of three earthquakes, one of them located in the Thunder Basin National Grassland area of Wyoming. The film resumes but a few moments later is interrupted for good as coverage, led by Sander Vanocur and Dr. Caroline Jaffe, begins of a Halloween night meteor impact on the United States. Additional impacts are reported in southern France and a remote area of China. Lone survivors are found at the Wyoming and France impact sites, a girl and a young man, respectively. The girl had been reported missing from a city hundreds of miles away from the impact. Both survivors are badly burned and their speech is unintelligible.

The three impact sites begin broadcasting an ear-piercing radio signal that cripples aircraft flying within latitudes immediately surrounding the impacts. Another larger object is detected moving towards the North Pole. The United States, despite protests from world leaders and scientists, orders several aircraft to intercept the object before it impacts with the earth and destroy it using nuclear weapons. The destruction of the larger object is successful, though the attacking aircraft are brought down by another radio signal broadcast by the object shortly before its destruction.

A scientist, named Dr. Avram Mandel, who has been studying the impacts, is flown by an F-16 to a U.S. military base where reporters are being briefed on the latest incident. He reveals that his determination is that the impacts were in fact an attempt at first contact by an alien species and that, by destroying the follow-up vehicle, Earth has declared war. Other mysteries occur. At one point, the population of the town of Faith, Wyoming, home to a devoutly religious community, vanishes without a trace.

Dr. Mandel's fears are confirmed when he later reveals that three more objects, each two miles wide, will soon impact Washington, D.C., Moscow, and Beijing - the capital cities of the only three nations capable of first-strike nuclear warfare. The survivors of the initial impacts are identified as Jean-Paul Chounard and Kimberly Hastings. They succumb to their wounds and die. Nuclear weapons are launched to intercept the three incoming objects, which are successfully destroyed. Scientists finally decipher Chounard and Hastings' speech. They are each speaking a fragment of a message. When combined, the message appears to be a recital of the message from the U.N. Secretary General that had been included on a special recording housed aboard ''Voyager 2''.

Moments later, astronomers detect hundreds more asteroids, all heading towards Earth. As a stunned Vanocur and Jaffe react to reports of cities and entire countries being destroyed worldwide, Vanocur solemnly quotes from William Shakespeare; "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves" as a rumble is heard and the picture cuts to static.

A handsome young man wakes up to a female voice telling him to open his eyes. He drives to an empty city. He wakes again, this time to a woman in his bed. He tells her not to leave him messages on his alarm clock.

From a prison cell in Madrid, the 25-year-old man, César (Eduardo Noriega), tells his story to psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera) while wearing a prosthetic mask. Flashbacks reveal the following events: Good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (Penélope Cruz), his best friend Pelayo's (Fele Martinez) date. Later, he takes her home and stays the night, but they do not sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) pulls up outside Sofía's flat, offering him a ride and sex. On the way to her house, however, she crashes the car with the intent to kill them both. César survives the crash but is horribly disfigured, beyond the help of cosmetic surgery, so he decides to wear a mask to conceal his face. Sofía cannot bear to see him and tries to keep her distance.

After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. Drunk, César falls asleep in the street. On awakening, everything has changed: Sofía now claims to love him and the surgeons restore his lost looks. But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she suddenly changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her to death with a pillow. Yet everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía, and he is imprisoned for her murder.

While he is confined to the prison, fragments of his past return to him as if in a dream. It is revealed that, shortly after falling asleep drunk on the street, César signed a contract with Life Extension, a company specializing in cryonics, to be cryogenically preserved and to experience extremely lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams. Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialize in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He committed suicide at home shortly after signing the contract and was placed in cryonic suspension. Duvernois, the L.E. representative who explains César's experiences to him while dreaming, reveals that the era is 150 years in the future and César's time from his awakening in the street onward has been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film, César decides to wake and be resurrected by committing suicide. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street has been a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, he leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, and the film ends, apparently ambiguously, on a black screen with a woman telling him to open his eyes.

Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris) is the son of David (James B. Sikking) and Katherine Howser (Belinda Montgomery). As a child, he twice survived early-stage pediatric leukemia after his father—a family physician—discovered suspicious bruising. The experience contributed to the younger Howser's desire to enter medicine.

Possessing a genius intellect and a photographic memory, Howser participates in a longitudinal study of child prodigies until his 18th birthday. He earned a perfect score on the SAT at the age of six, completed high school in nine weeks, graduated from Princeton University in 1983Courie, Katie. at age 10, and finished medical school four years later. At age 14, Howser was the youngest licensed doctor in the country. As a newspaper article (one of several noting some of Doogie's aforementioned accomplishments that are shown in the series' opening title sequence) stated, he "can't buy beer... [but] can prescribe drugs".

The series begins on Howser's 16th birthday; the cold open of the pilot episode shows him stopping his field test for his driver's license to help an injured person at the scene of a traffic accident. Howser is a second-year resident surgeon at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles, and still lives at home with his parents. His best friend and neighbor, Vinnie Delpino (Max Casella), is a more typical teenager—climbing through Howser's bedroom window to visit—and connects him to life outside of medicine. Howser has kept a diary on his computer since 1979; episodes typically end with him making an entry in it, making observations about the situations he had experienced or learned in the episode.

Howser seeks acceptance both from children his age and from his professional colleagues. Many episodes also deal with wider social problems: AIDS awareness, racism, homophobia, sexism, gang violence, access to quality medical care, and losing one's virginity are topics, along with aging, body issues, and friendship.

Howser initially has a girlfriend, Wanda Plenn (Lisa Dean Ryan), but they break up after she leaves for college; he also begins a trauma surgery fellowship and moves into his own apartment. Bochco intended to end the show with a "season-long story arc for Doogie where he becomes disaffected with the practice of medicine and quits medicine to become a writer". ABC abruptly canceled the show due to low ratings, preventing Bochco and the show's writers from implementing that storyline, other than Howser's resignation from Eastman and departure for Europe in the final episode.

Mowgli, a young orphan boy, is found in a basket in the deep jungles of India by Bagheera, a black panther who promptly takes him to Raksha, a mother wolf who has just had cubs. She and her mate, Rama, raise him along with their own cubs and after ten years, Mowgli becomes well acquainted with jungle life and plays with his wolf siblings. Bagheera is pleased with how happy Mowgli is now, but also worries that Mowgli must eventually return to his own kind.

One night, the wolf pack parents meet at Council Rock, having learned that Shere Khan, a man-eating Bengal tiger, has returned to the pack's part of the jungle. Pack leader Akela decides that Mowgli must leave the jungle for his own safety. Bagheera volunteers to escort him to a "Man-Village". They leave that very night, but Mowgli is determined to stay in the jungle. He and Bagheera rest in a tree for the night, where Kaa, a hungry Indian python, tries to devour Mowgli, but Bagheera intervenes. The next morning, Mowgli tries to join the elephant patrol, led by Colonel Hathi and his wife Winifred. Bagheera finds Mowgli, but after a fight, decides to leave Mowgli on his own. Mowgli soon meets up with the laid-back, fun-loving sloth bear Baloo, who promises to raise Mowgli himself and never take him to the Man-Village.

Shortly afterward, a group of monkeys kidnap Mowgli and take him to their leader, King Louie the orangutan. King Louie offers to help Mowgli stay in the jungle if he will tell Louie how to make fire, like other humans. However, since he was not raised by humans, Mowgli does not know how to make fire. Bagheera and Baloo arrive to rescue Mowgli and in the ensuing chaos, King Louie's palace is demolished to rubble. Bagheera speaks to Baloo that night and convinces him that the jungle will never be safe for Mowgli with Shere Khan around. In the morning, Baloo reluctantly explains to Mowgli that the Man-Village is best for him, but Mowgli accuses him of breaking his promise and runs away. As Baloo sets off in search of Mowgli, Bagheera rallies the help of Hathi and his patrol. However, Shere Khan himself, who was eavesdropping on Bagheera and Hathi's conversation, is now determined to hunt and kill Mowgli himself.

Meanwhile, Mowgli has a second encounter with Kaa, who once again, attempts to eat him after putting him to sleep with hypnosis, but eventually wakes up and escapes thanks to the unwitting intervention of the suspicious Shere Khan. As a storm gathers, a depressed Mowgli encounters a group of friendly vultures who accept Mowgli as a fellow outcast. Shere Khan appears shortly after, scaring off the vultures and confronting Mowgli. When lightning strikes a nearby tree and sets it ablaze, the vultures swoop in to distract Shere Khan, while Mowgli grabs a large flaming branch and ties it to the tiger's tail. Shere Khan, who is terrified of fire, panics and runs away.

After that, Bagheera and Baloo take Mowgli to the edge of the Man-Village, but Mowgli is still hesitant to go there. However, his mind abruptly changes when he is smitten by a beautiful young girl from the village who is coming down by the riverside to fetch water. After noticing Mowgli, she "accidentally" drops her water pot. Mowgli retrieves it for her and follows her into the Man-Village. After Mowgli shrugs to Baloo and Bagheera, to show that he has made up his mind and chosen to go to the Man-Village, Baloo and Bagheera decide to head home, content that Mowgli is safe and happy with his own kind.

Bryon and Mark are best friends. They have lived together with Bryon’s mother ever since Mark’s parents shot each other in a drunken brawl. The boys hang out at Charlie’s Bar and earn money by hustling pool. Charlie tells the pair that M&M, a younger Hippie boy, is looking for them. Bryon and Mark find M&M in time to stop Curly Shepard and his Greaser gang from beating M&M up. The “Hippies” are a new group and the lines between the two former groups, the “Greasers” and “Socs,” are becoming blurred.

The following day, Bryon and Mark visit Bryon’s mother in the hospital. While there, Bryon meets Cathy Carlson, M&M’s older sister, who works in the snack bar. Bryon is taken with Cathy and hopes to see her again. Bryon and Mark also visit Mike Chambers, a boy Bryon’s mother befriends. Mike is recovering from a beating after being falsely accused of harming a young African American girl. Mike tells Bryon and Mark what happened, how he actually saved the girl from being harassed by a group of whites. Mike drove the girl home and his car was surrounded by a group of African American kids. They pulled him from the car and nearly beat him to death when the girl lied, claiming Mike hurt her. Despite this, Mike does not hate African Americans. When he thinks about it from the girl’s viewpoint, he can almost understand why she lied. After the visit ends, Bryon and Mark discuss led’s misfortune. Mark does not share Mike’s understanding of the factors that caused the girl to lie. Mark states that if anyone ever hurt him like that, he would hate them forever.

Mrs. Douglas’s hospital stay causes financial stress. The boys are forced to look for jobs, but they do not have much luck. Bryon asks Charlie for a job. Charlie refuses because Bryon is underage. Charlie also doubts Bryon’s honesty in certain areas, though he does trust Bryon enough to loan him his car so Bryon can take Cathy to a school dance.

At the dance, Bryon’s former girlfriend, Angela Shepard, starts off a fight intending to punish Ponyboy Curtis for failing to respond to her advances. Unfortunately, Mark is the unintended recipient of a bottle to the head. Bryon leaves Cathy at the dance and goes with Mark to the hospital. Mark gets stitched up. Ponyboy hotwires Charlie’s car and brings Cathy to the hospital. Bryon takes over driving duty, dropping off Ponyboy and Cathy and finally taking Mark home. The boys stay up talking. Mark tells Bryon that even though they are not blood relations, he feels like they are “real” brothers.

After Mark recovers, the boys go to Charlie’s Bar to make some money hustling pool. Bryon manages to hustle a couple of Texans, who are not happy to lose their money. The Texans wait for the boys outside, intent on teaching them a lesson. Charlie realizes the boys are in trouble and attempts to save them. The boys witness Charlie’s death when the Texans shoot him.

In the weeks that follow, the boys struggle to make sense of Charlie’s death. Meanwhile, the financial strife at home grows worse. Mrs. Douglas is hospitalized again. Mark gives Mrs. Douglas money but will not reveal where it is coming from. Mark grows distant. Bryon finds himself frequently turning to Cathy for support instead.

One night, Bryon and Mark pick up a drunk Angela Shepard, now married, who reminisces with them. When she passes out, Mark cuts off all of her long hair. Mark reveals to a drunk Bryon that he knows where M&M is.

Mark takes Bryon to a hippie house where M&M supposedly is, but do not find him that day. That night, while waiting outside a friend’s house, Bryon is found by the Shepards, and is beaten up very badly by them. Mark stays with the injured Bryon, and desires revenge—however, Bryon realizes that, just like Mike, he does not hate his attackers. As he gets better, Bryon visits Charlie’s grave, and feels slightly better about everything.

Bryon, Mark, Cathy, and M&M drive to The Ribbon, a two-mile long strip of entertainment businesses, and M&M says he is not going home, after getting out of the car. He goes missing for several days; Bryon and Cathy attempt to search for him, but to no avail. They finally find M&M in a hippie house, where he has overdosed on LSD. He is out-of-his-mind terrified and sick. Bryon and Cathy take M&M to hospital, where he recovers and Mr. Carlson meets up with them.

Bryon finds out Mark has been selling drugs to earn money. Bryon calls the police and tells them about Mark. Mark is arrested and given 5 years in prison. When Bryon visits Mark in prison, he finds out Mark is no longer the same person he was, and Mark now hates him. In the end, Mark cuts Bryon off mid-sentence, saying "That was then. This is now."

Byron realizes that he has become a mixture of all his experiences and the experiences of people around him, and is much more confused now, as an adult, than when he was a child.

The novel is a series of recollections by the members of Troop D, a Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Western Pennsylvania. After Curtis Wilcox, a well-liked member of Troop D, is killed by a drunk driver, his son Ned begins to visit the barracks. The cops, the dispatcher and the custodian quickly take a liking to him. The troopers begin telling Ned about the "Buick 8".

The Buick 8, which resembles a vintage blue 1953 Buick Roadmaster, has been in storage in a shed near the barracks since 1979, when it was left at a gas station by a mysterious driver who then disappeared. The car, they discover, is not a car at all. It ''appears'' to be a Buick Roadmaster, but the steering wheel is immobile, the dashboard instruments are useless props, the engine has no moving parts, the ignition wires go nowhere, there are four portholes on the passenger side and only three on the driver side, the car heals itself when damaged and it repels all dirt or debris.

Sandy Dearborn, now Sergeant Commanding of Troop D, is the main narrator of the book, and tells the story to Ned, discussing various things that have happened with the car and his father's fascination with it. The car will frequently give off what they dub "lightquakes", or large flashes of purple light over an extended period of time. These lights will occasionally "give birth" to strange plants and creatures that are not like anything in our world. Two people have disappeared in the vicinity of the car—Curtis Wilcox's former partner Ennis Rafferty, as well as an escaped lowlife named Brian Lippy. It is later suggested that perhaps the Buick was actually a portal between our world and another.

After hearing the story of the Buick and how it has been kept secret by Troop D for so long, Ned becomes convinced that the car was somehow related to the death of his father in a seemingly random road accident. After all, the gas station attendant who first reported the Buick sitting in front of the station was the same man who, years later, would kill his own father. Sandy cautions him to keep from obsessing over the Buick ("There are Buicks everywhere", he later warns), but after leaving Ned at the Troop D facility to eat at a diner, he realizes that Ned never asked whether anyone considered destroying it. He deduces that Ned is determined to destroy the Buick, and that the Buick wants to use that impulse to take Ned into the other world.

Sandy returns to the shed to find Ned sitting in it, Ned having poured gasoline under the car while holding a pistol and a match. Just as Sandy pulls Ned out, the Buick transforms into a portal, trying to draw both Ned and Sandy inside of it. The rest of the staff arrive on the feeling that something bad may happen, all of them helping recall the story of the Buick's origin at their station, and manage to pull Ned and Sandy free, but not before Sandy glimpses into the world on the other side of the Buick. He sees Lippy's swastika necklace and cowboy boots, along with Ennis's Stetson hat and Ruger revolver.

One last story is told, revealing that destroying the Buick actually was discussed. However, they come to theorize that the Buick functions as a sort of regulator valve between the worlds, and that destroying it would do more harm than good. They decide that it is safest to watch over the Buick, in the hope that whatever supernatural force it possesses will eventually dissipate and expire.

Eddie J ends up killing himself and Ned becomes a State Trooper. One day, Ned shows Sandy the Buick; there is a crack in the windshield that has not healed.

Beverly Hills fashion tycoon Sam Stone despises his wife, Barbara, having married her for her family wealth, and plans to murder her so he can inherit her $15 million fortune and retire with his mistress Carol. He returns home armed with chloroform but finds Barbara is missing and receives a call from her abductor, demanding $500,000 for her return and threatening to kill her if the police or media are involved. Hoping to get Barbara killed, Sam deliberately ignores the demands.

The abductors, Ken and Sandy Kessler, are a lower-class couple targeting Sam because he built his business using the Kesslers' life savings and fashion designs he stole from Sandy. They detain Barbara in their basement but she proves difficult to control, and Sandy feels guilty about their actions. Intending to financially blackmail Sam, Carol sends her lover Earl to film Sam at the cliff from which he intended to dispose of Barbara, but, unaware of Sam's appearance, Earl unwittingly films a man having sex with a prostitute, mistaking her screams for Barbara dying. Without watching the tape, Carol forwards a copy to Sam who assumes it is a seductive birthday present, and she interprets his lewd response as a threat, causing her and Earl to go into hiding.

Bored and overweight, Barbara begins following television exercise programs. She is eventually overjoyed to realize she has lost and bonds with Sandy after being impressed by her fashion ideas and dress designs, in which she now can fit. Meanwhile, Ken repeatedly drops the ransom price, eventually reaching $10,000, but Sam refuses to pay and encourages Ken to kill Barbara. Although Ken is confronted as a suspect because of tire tracks at the Stone residence, the investigation is redirected when Carol, hoping to incriminate Sam, sends another copy of the tape to police chief Henry Benton, unaware he is the man on the tape. Assuming he is being blackmailed, Benton has Sam investigated and arrested following the discovery of the chloroform and photos of him with Carol.

Realizing he is incapable of being a ruthless criminal, Ken returns home to collect Sandy and flee to Mexico. He learns that Sandy has released Barbara and they want to work together to develop and sell Sandy's fashion designs. The Bedroom Killer, a notorious local serial killer, invades their home and confronts them and Barbara as she returns, leading to an altercation in which he dies after falling down the basement stairs. Realizing that Sam wanted her dead and having learned of his affair, Barbara collaborates with Ken and Sandy to take revenge by blackmailing him for his entire personal fortune worth over $2.2 million. After being bailed out of jail, Sam reluctantly collects the ransom in a briefcase, desperate to prove his innocence in Barbara's disappearance. Carol finally views the tape and, realizing Earl's mistake, reconnects with Sam to learn when the ransom handover will take place and that the police, now distrustful of Sam, will not accompany him.

Earl ambushes Sam and a masked Ken at the exchange, but they are surrounded by scores of police, and Earl is arrested. Ken warns the police that Barbara will be killed if they try to stop him, and drives off followed by a police convoy. Cornered, he drives off the end of the Santa Monica Pier and seemingly drowns. The police recover the body of the Bedroom Killer, disguised as Ken, from the car but are unable to locate the ransom money. Despite his loss, Sam is elated that Barbara must be dead until she arrives on the pier, identifies the Killer as her abductor, and throws Sam into the water. Elsewhere, Ken emerges from the ocean in scuba gear, carrying the ransom money, and celebrates with the waiting Sandy and Barbara.

In the summer of 1963, Frances "Baby" Houseman is vacationing with her parents Dr. Jake and Marjorie Houseman, and her older sister Lisa at Kellerman's, an upscale Catskills resort in the Borscht Belt owned by Jake's sarcastic best friend Max. Exploring one night, Baby secretly observes Max instructing the waiters, all Ivy League students, to romance the guests' daughters, no matter how unattractive. Max also demeans the working class entertainment staff, including Johnny Castle, one of the dance instructors. Baby is attracted to Johnny, and dances briefly with him after his kind hearted cousin, Billy, introduces them at a secret "dirty dancing" party for resort staff. Max's smart aleck grandson Neil flirts with Baby in the meantime.

Baby learns Johnny's dance partner Penny is pregnant by Robbie, a waiter and womanizer who attends Yale School of Medicine and now has his eye on Lisa. When Robbie refuses to help Penny, Baby, without explaining why, borrows money from her father to pay for Penny's abortion. At first, Penny declines as it would cause her and Johnny to miss a performance at a nearby resort, costing them the season's salary, but Baby volunteers to stand in for Penny. During her dance sessions with Johnny, they develop a mutual attraction, and except for their failure to execute a climactic lift, Johnny and Baby's performance is successful.

Back at Kellerman's, Penny is gravely injured by the botched abortion, and Baby enlists her father's help to stabilize Penny. Angered by Baby's deception, and assuming Johnny got Penny pregnant, Dr. Houseman orders Baby to stay away from them. Baby sneaks off to apologize to Johnny for her dad's treatment, but Johnny feels he deserves it due to his lower status; Baby reassures him of his worth, declaring her love. They begin secretly seeing each other, and her father now refuses to talk to her.

Johnny rejects an indecent proposal by Vivian Pressman, an adulterous wife, who instead sleeps with Robbie, inadvertently foiling Lisa's own plan to lose her virginity to him. When Vivian spots Baby leaving Johnny's cabin, she feels spurned and attempts revenge on Johnny by claiming he stole her husband's wallet. Max is ready to fire Johnny, but Baby backs up his alibi, revealing she was with Johnny the night of the theft. The real thieves, Sydney and Sylvia Schumacher are caught, but Johnny is still fired for mixing with Baby. Before leaving, Johnny tries to talk to Dr. Houseman, but is only accused of trying to get at Baby. Baby later apologizes to her father for lying, but not for her romance with Johnny, and then accuses him of classism.

At the end-of-season talent show, Dr. Houseman gives Robbie a recommendation letter for medical school, but when Robbie admits that he got Penny pregnant, and then insults her and Baby, Dr. Houseman angrily grabs the letter back. Johnny arrives and disrupts the final song by bringing Baby up on stage and declaring that she has made him a better person, and then they do the dance they practiced all summer, ending with a successful performance of the climactic lift. Dr. Houseman admits he was wrong about Johnny and reconciles with Baby, and all the staff and guests join Baby and Johnny dancing to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life".

Young and reckless Detroit Police Department detective Axel Foley's latest unauthorized sting operation goes sour when two uniformed officers intervene, resulting in a high-speed chase through the city that causes widespread damage. His superior, Inspector Douglas Todd reprimands Axel for his behavior and threatens to fire him unless he changes his ways on the force. Axel arrives at his apartment to find it has been broken into by his childhood friend, Michael (Mikey) Tandino. When they were kids, Mikey and Axel committed grand theft auto together, and Mikey took the rap for it and served time in prison. He ended up working as a security guard in Beverly Hills thanks to a mutual childhood friend, Jenny Summers. Mikey shows Axel some German bearer bonds and Axel wonders how he got them, but chooses not to question him about it. After hanging out at a bar, they return to Axel's apartment where two men, Zack and Casey knock Axel unconscious, confront Mikey about the bearer bonds and then kill him.

Axel asks to investigate Mikey's murder, but Inspector Todd refuses to allow it because of his close ties to Mikey. Axel uses the guise of taking vacation time to head to Beverly Hills to solve the crime alone. He finds Jenny working in an art gallery and learns about Mikey's ties to Victor Maitland, the gallery's owner. Posing as a flower deliveryman, Axel goes to Maitland's office and tries to question him about Mikey, but is thrown out a window by Maitland's bodyguards and arrested. At the police station, Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil assigns Sergeant John Taggart and Detective Billy Rosewood to follow Axel. Taggart and Billy have a humiliating encounter with Axel when he sabotages their car. As a result, Billy and Taggart do not get along with Axel at first, but the three do begin to develop a mutual respect after they foil a robbery at a striptease bar.

On the trail of Mikey's killers, Axel sneaks into one of Maitland's warehouses, where he finds crates full of coffee grounds, which he suspects were used to pack drugs while covering their scent from police dogs. He also discovers that many of Maitland's crates have not gone through customs. After being arrested again, this time after a battle with Zack at Maitland's country club, Axel admits to Bogomil that Maitland must be a smuggler. Police Chief Hubbard, who has learned of Axel's ill-advised investigative actions, orders that Axel be escorted out of town. However, Axel convinces Billy to pick up Jenny instead and take her with them to the warehouse, where a shipment is due to arrive that day.

Axel and Jenny break into the warehouse and discover several bags of cocaine inside a crate. Before Axel can get this newfound evidence to Billy, Maitland and his associates arrive. Maitland takes Jenny and leaves Axel to be killed, but not before Zack admits to Axel he was the one who killed Mikey. After some hesitation, Billy enters the warehouse and rescues Axel during a brief gunfight in which he kills Casey. Taggart tracks Axel and Billy to Maitland's estate, where he joins the two in their efforts to rescue Jenny and bring Maitland to justice. Together, the trio wipe out a number of Maitland's men, including Zack. With Bogomil's help, Axel then fatally shoots Maitland and rescues Jenny. Bogomil fabricates a story to Hubbard that covers for all the participants without discrediting the Beverly Hills PD. Realizing that his exploits while "on vacation" are likely to get him thrown off the Detroit police force, Axel requests that Bogomil straighten matters over with Inspector Todd; when Axel mentions the possibility of setting up shop as a PI in Beverly Hills, Bogomil nervously agrees to wipe the slate clean for him. Later, Taggart and Billy meet Axel as he checks out of his hotel, and pay his bill. Axel invites them to join him for a farewell drink, and they accept the offer.

American astronaut Earl Jensen is stranded in space intentionally by the head of the Department of Space. Years later, he returns to Earth. To gain the people's trust, he tells a touching story of the time he has spent on a planet of mutant aliens. Most of the aliens in this story are oversized human body parts. It is later revealed that Jensen has really spent his time in space crossbreeding animals to create an army of mutants, in order to exact his revenge on the corrupt Department of Space head.

The game takes place in three locations with the player working for a small smuggling company named Exotic Imports (EI or EXO for short). The story focuses on the activities and objectives given by The Colonel to EI. It starts in Russia, where the player finds out who they are working for and the basics of the game. Then, after being told to leave immediately from the area by Shodi (The main client) to Vietnam, Exotic Imports then learns of the CIA being involved after the Russians track 2 kg of Weapons Grade Plutonium. This takes you back to Russia, where Frank (Your Boss) asks the Colonel what is happening with the "nukes" and involvement from the CIA. Frank, only caring for money, agrees to continue smuggling nuclear devices. However, the rest of EI decide not to, and try to stop a missile which would cause WWIII. This reveals the Colonel's intentions, and Frank escapes with all the passwords, showing his plans. EI stop Frank, and then it shows the player flying off in a helicopter with a cheque for $100,501,000.

Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled Los Angeles private detective Phillip Marlowe submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the publisher's offices to discuss his work, but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. A few days before Christmas, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett hires him to locate Chrystal Kingsby, the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby. One month earlier, Kingsby’s wife had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery. But, according to Fromsett, Lavery says he has not seen Chrystal for two months, and the telegram appears to be fake. It becomes obvious to Marlowe that Fromsett wants her boss for herself – for his money, as she later admits.

Marlowe goes to see Lavery, who claims to know nothing about any trip to Mexico. Lavery, however, says that Mrs. Kingsby ''was'' a beautiful woman before revising it to "is." He sucker-punches the detective, and Marlowe wakes up in jail. He is questioned by Captain Kane (Tom Tully) and a belligerent Lieutenant DeGarmot. Marlowe refuses to divulge anything, and Kane releases him.

Marlowe learns that a woman's body has been recovered from a lake on which Kingsby owns property, and that Kingsby's caretaker, Mr. Chess, was charged with the murder of his wife Muriel. Fromsett suspects that Chrystal is the real killer, as she and Muriel hated each other. Little Fawn Lake was also where Chrystal was last seen. Marlowe learns that Muriel was an alias for a woman named Mildred Havelend and that she was hiding from a tough cop, whose description fits DeGarmot.

Marlowe goes to see Lavery again. Inside the unlocked house, he encounters Lavery's landlady, Mrs. Fallbrook, holding a gun she claims to have just found. Upstairs, he finds Lavery dead, shot several times. He also finds a handkerchief with the monogram "A F".

Before calling the police, Marlowe goes to the publishing house to confront Fromsett, interrupting a Christmas party. In private, she denies killing Lavery. Kingsby, learning that Fromsett had hired Marlowe to find Chrystal, tells her theirs will be strictly a business relationship from now on. A furious Fromsett fires the private eye, but Kingsby immediately hires him to find his wife.

Marlowe informs the police of Lavery's death. At the scene, he suggests that Muriel was hiding from DeGarmot. DeGarmot slaps Marlowe, and the two men scuffle. Kane takes Marlowe into custody, releasing him only out of Christmas spirit.

Marlowe obtains more information on Muriel from a newspaper contact. She had been a suspect in the suspicious death of her previous employer's wife. The investigating detective, DeGarmot, ruled that death a suicide; the victim's parents strongly disagreed. Marlowe finds the parents have been intimidated into silence. His car is then run off the road by DeGarmot. Regaining consciousness after the crash, Marlowe gets to a pay phone and calls Fromsett for help. She takes him to her apartment, where she claims that she has fallen in love with him. They spend Christmas Day together while he recovers from his injuries.

Kingsby receives a phone call from his wife, asking for money and, unable to find Marlowe, goes to Fromsett's apartment to ask her if she has seen the detective. Marlowe agrees to give Kingsby's money to Chrystal, as Kingsby is being followed by police detectives. Placing his trust in Fromsett, Marlowe instructs her to have the police trail him, following a trail of rice he will leave.

The woman Marlowe meets turns out to be Mildred Havelend, alias the "landlord" Mrs. Fallbrook, alias Muriel. She killed Chrystal – the "lady in the lake" of the title – in addition to her former employer's wife and Lavery. DeGarmot was in love with Havelend and helped her cover up the first murder. Then she fled from him and married Chess.

Havelend pulls a gun on Marlowe in her apartment. DeGarmot tracks them down, having overheard Fromsett speaking to Captain Kane and following Marlowe's trail of rice. He plans to kill them both with Havelend's gun and stage it to look like she and Marlowe shot each other. DeGarmot then shoots a pleading Mildred several times. Kane arrives just in time to gun down his own crooked cop.

In an epilogue, Marlowe and Fromsett decide to leave for New York City to start a new life together.

Francesca "Frankie" Sutton (Fox) is a Los Angeles bank teller who is fired after a robbery, because she recognized one of the robbers, although she did not personally know him. Frankie goes to work at Luther's Janitorial Services with her three best friends, Lida "Stony" Newsom (Pinkett), Cleopatra "Cleo" Sims (Latifah), and Tisean "T.T." Williams (Elise). The owner, Luther, treats them with disrespect and pays them paltry wages.

Tired of working a low-paying job, Cleo explains that they should rob a bank themselves. Frankie agrees, but Stony and T.T. are reluctant. However, when Stony's younger brother is gunned down by the police in a case of mistaken identity and T.T.'s son is taken away from her by Child Protective Services, they too now have the motivation to join the robbery.

While casing a bank with T.T., Stony meets bank manager Keith Weston, whom she starts dating. The four women embark on a series of successful bank robberies, due to Frankie's inside knowledge of bank protocol with money and security. An investigation by LAPD Detective Strode ensues. Strode suspects that Cleo (because of her prior convictions), Frankie (because of her inadvertent connection to the earlier robbery and subsequent firing) and Stony (because of her brother's death) are involved. But his superior refuses to allow him to bring them in for questioning because he doesn't feel the evidence is sufficient.

Concerned with the safety of their money, the four women stash the money in an air vent at one of their work sites. When Cleo, Frankie, and T.T. show up for work one day and find a new boss in charge, they quickly realize that Luther has discovered the money and fled with it. While Stony attends a banking event with Keith, the three women track Luther to a motel, where he is sleeping with a prostitute.

They demand the return of their money. Luther informs them that the money is gone and pulls a gun on Cleo. T.T. shoots and kills Luther in self-defense. Stony is disappointed with Frankie and T.T. about the missing money and Luther's death. Frankie and Cleo persuade T.T. and Stony that they need to rob another bank and leave town the next day.

The women decide to rob the Downtown Federal bank, where Keith works. Concerned for Keith's safety and not wanting him to know she's a bank robber, Stony calls Keith and tells him to meet her at a cafe, far from the bank's location. The four women quickly execute the robbery but Cleo demands that T.T. grab more money, which gives Strode enough time to arrive.

Strode and his partner try to talk them into surrendering. As T.T. and Stony begin to put down their weapons, a bank security guard shoots T.T. A shootout ensues as Stony shoots the guard, and an enraged Cleo opens fire on the detectives. The women eventually drive away, though T.T. succumbs to her wound and dies in Stony's arms. The three remaining women attempt to outrun the police in vain. Cleo tells Stony and Frankie that they have to split up and to take her share of the money with them.

The police find Cleo who proceeds to lead them on a high speed chase until she is cornered. She drives through a police barricade, which causes the police to shoot at her car and blow out her tires. Refusing to surrender, she leaps from her car firing her gun, and is killed by the police. Frankie is found a short time later, and Strode attempts to get Frankie to surrender. Frankie attempts to run but the officers shoot her 3 times in the back and Frankie later dies. Stony, who managed to blend in with a tourist group heading to Mexico, tearfully watches this from a passing charter bus. Strode sees her from a distance but lets her go.

In Mexico, Stony mourns the losses of her friends and brother, and cuts off her hair. Stony calls Keith to assure him that she is alright and thanks him. She hangs up the phone and smiles. Stony is seen driving through the mountains with the stolen money from the robberies beside her.

A voiceover by the child Jeremiah (Justin Pierre Edmund) guides the viewer through the film.

Rev. Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance) is the pastor of a small struggling African American Baptist church in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of New York City. Membership is declining, Henry is pulled in a hundred directions by his parishioners' needs, and the church's finances are in trouble. Henry is under intense pressure from real estate developer Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines) to sell the church's property so that Hamilton can build luxury condominiums on the site. Henry has also become neglectful of his wife, Julia (Whitney Houston), and his son, Jeremiah, Julia worries that her marriage is failing. Unsure that he can make a difference in his parishioners' lives and beginning to lose his faith, Henry prays to God for help, which comes in the form of Dudley (Denzel Washington), a witty and debonair angel. Dudley tells Henry that he is an angel sent by God to help him, but Henry is deeply suspicious of Dudley. Julia, however, is instantly charmed by the handsome and unflappable angel.

With Christmas approaching, Henry's schedule becomes increasingly burdensome, and Dudley begins to spend most of his time with Julia and Jeremiah. Rev. Biggs' secretary, Beverly (Loretta Devine), becomes comically defensive and aggressive, believing Dudley is there to take her job. Julia's wasp-tongued mother, Margueritte (Jenifer Lewis), is also suspicious of Dudley, because she believes the newcomer will break up her daughter's marriage. Dudley and Julia go ice skating, and then later spend an evening in the jazz club where Julia once performed. After Henry confronts Dudley, Dudley realizes that he is falling in love with Julia. So, Dudley turns his attention to Hamilton and manages to disrupt his schemes to get Henry to sell the church. Henry now realizes that his family is the most important thing in his life, and he resolves to be a better husband and father. At the church's Christmas pageant, Henry finds his faith in God renewed and ties to his family restored.

With his work done, Dudley gives the Biggs family a fully decorated Christmas tree as a gift. Dudley then erases all memories of himself from everyone he has met, and although he attends morning service on Christmas Eve, no one recognizes him. However, Jeremiah, who has the faith of a child, still remembers Dudley, and wishes him a merry Christmas.

A subplot present throughout the film focuses on Julia's singing talents. Once a popular nightclub singer, she is now a star in the church choir. This subplot provides for several set pieces in which the choir performs, and Gospel music plays a significant role. It also provides comic relief in the form of a domineering choir member, played by Houston's real life mother, Cissy.

Composer Richard Parker and his wife Priscilla live an ordinary suburban life until they meet their new neighbors Eddy and Kay Otis. The two couples became friends. Kay's talent for blues singing gets Richard's attention, while Eddy is attracted to Priscilla. It becomes clear that Eddy is a scam artist when he fakes a neck injury after an auto accident for the insurance proceeds (the majority of which he offers to the Parkers as a gift). Eddy chastises Richard for not living dangerously, and suggests they swap mates for an evening.

The plot takes a nasty turn when Richard does sleep with Kay (supposedly without her realizing that he is not her husband) and Kay turns up dead the next morning, bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat. Later, it is revealed that Eddy spent the night elsewhere in order to establish an airtight alibi. Richard's semen is found in her body, and his fingerprints are on the bat (from when the two couples played a friendly game of softball earlier the previous day), so he's charged with the crime. Priscilla disowns and divorces Richard due to his infidelity. Eddy soon becomes Priscilla's lover and a substitute father to Richard's daughter, Lori.

A distraught Richard finally finds a ray of hope when he hears Kay singing in a radio talent show and realizes she's alive. With the help of private investigator David Duttonville, who was hired by the insurance company from which Eddy is attempting to collect a $1.5 million indemnity claim, Richard tracks her down and learns the truth of how he was betrayed. Kay is guilt-ridden over her part in it, but terrified by Eddy's threat to implicate her if she testifies. Eddy, anticipating what Richard intends to do next, murders Kay and slips away. Implicated in a second murder, Richard flees the scene as police sirens approach.

Priscilla discovers a plane ticket Eddy used on the night of the second murder. Realizing Eddy's guilt, she worries over what to do about it. Richard performs a commando-style raid on Eddy's house, but Eddy, anticipating this move as well, reveals to Priscilla his plan to murder her and shoot Richard as a homicidal intruder. Working together, Richard and Priscilla eventually kill Eddy using the original murder weapon, the baseball bat. Richard and Priscilla are later seen moving into a very secluded house with no neighbors visible for miles.

Kaydee "Caine" Lawson and his best friend Kevin "O-Dog" Anderson enter a liquor store to buy some malt liquor, where a Korean cashier and his wife rush them to pay for their drinks and leave, suspecting that they might be trying to steal something. After their purchase, the cashier insults and provokes O-Dog by saying, "I feel sorry for your mother." Consequently, O-Dog argues with him, fatally shoots both the cashier and his wife, takes the surveillance tape, robs the clerk's wallet and the cash register, and flees with Caine.

In a voice-over, Caine reveals that his father Tat, a drug dealer, was killed in a drug deal gone wrong when Caine was 10, and his mother Karen, a heroin addict, died of a drug overdose. This led to his grandparents raising him in the crime-ridden Jordan Downs housing projects.

O-Dog flaunts the surveillance tape to his admiring friends, greatly annoying Caine. Later, Caine and his cousin Harold are carjacked en route from a party, with Caine being wounded and Harold being murdered. After learning the carjackers' whereabouts, Caine, O-Dog, and their friend A-Wax, an OG, hunt them down and kill them, avenging Harold's death.

Caine and O-Dog are arrested after a failed car theft attempt. Caine's fingerprints match those taken from a beer bottle he dropped in the liquor store on the night of the murders, and though he is interrogated by a detective who tricks him by changing the times to confuse him, he soon walks free nonetheless as the police fail to link him. Caine's friends, Stacy and Sharif, try to convince him to accompany them to Kansas, and both his grandfather and Sharif's father warn him that he will either end up dead or imprisoned unless he changes his ways. Caine, nevertheless, ignores all advice.

After buying a Ford Mustang from a chop shop, Caine carjacks another young black man for his gold Dayton wire wheels, his jewelry and propably order some double cheeseburger at the fast food restaurant, then purchases a large quantity of cocaine, planning to sell it as crack. Caine also meets a local girl named Illena and eventually has sex with her. While driving one night, he and Sharif are pulled over and beaten by cops. The two are dumped in a Hispanic neighborhood, but the Hispanic gang members surprisingly take them to a hospital rather than beat them further as feared. During his hospitalization, Caine's friend Ronnie invites him to accompany her to Atlanta, where she has found a job. Initially hesitant, he ultimately agrees.

At a party, Chauncey, a confederate of Caine in an insurance scam, drunkenly moves sexually towards Ronnie. Caine rescues her and starts pistol-whipping Chauncey, prompting Stacy and Sharif to restrain him. Illena calls to inform Caine of her pregnancy, but he denies paternity and drops her. Chauncey retaliates by sending a copy of the surveillance tape to the police, who begin hunting Caine and O-Dog, now wanted for the liquor store crimes. Doc, Caine & O-Dog's friend, alerts O-Dog and others of Chauncey's actions, forcing O-Dog and Caine to hide out at Ronnie's and other friends' houses. O-Dog vows to murder Chauncey if the police don't catch him first.

Meanwhile, Caine beats up Illena's cousin when he confronts Caine outside his grandparents' house about the pregnancy. After witnessing the beating, Caine's grandparents decide that it's best for him to not live with them anymore, despite his pleas to stay until he moves to Atlanta. Meanwhile, Illena's cousin gathers his friends to get revenge on Caine.

As Caine and Ronnie are preparing to leave for Atlanta, Illena's cousin and his friends drive by Ronnie's house and engage in a drive-by shootout. Sharif is killed instantly, while Caine is fatally wounded trying to protect Ronnie's son. Stacy and Ronnie come running out of the house screaming for help. O-Dog shoots back at the attackers and is unharmed. As Caine slowly dies, he recalls his grandfather asking him if he cares whether he lives or dies, and he realizes in his dying moment that he does, but now it's too late.

''Galápagos'' is the story of a small band of mismatched humans who are shipwrecked on the fictional island of Santa Rosalia in the Galápagos Islands after a global financial crisis cripples the world's economy. Shortly thereafter, a disease renders all humans on Earth infertile, with the exception of the people on Santa Rosalia, making them the last specimens of humankind. Over the next million years, their descendants, the only fertile humans left on the planet, eventually evolve into a furry species resembling sea lions: though possibly still able to walk upright (it is not explicitly mentioned, but it is stated that they occasionally catch land animals), they have a snout with teeth adapted for catching fish, a streamlined skull and flipper-like hands with rudimentary fingers (described as "nubbins").

The story's narrator is a spirit who has been watching over humans for the last million years. This particular ghost is the immortal spirit of Leon Trotsky Trout, son of Vonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout. Leon is a Vietnam War veteran who is affected by the massacres in Vietnam. He goes AWOL and settles in Sweden, where he works as a shipbuilder and dies during the construction of the ship, the ''Bahía de Darwin''. This ship is used for the "Nature Cruise of the Century". Planned as a celebrity cruise, it was in limbo due to the economic downturn, and due to a chain of unconnected events the ship ended up allowing humans to reach and survive in the Galápagos. A group of girls from a cannibal tribe living in the Amazon rainforest, called the Kanka-bono girls also end up on the ship, eventually having numerous children with the ship's captain.

The deceased Kilgore Trout makes four appearances in the novel, urging his son to enter the "blue tunnel" that leads to the afterlife. When Leon refuses for the fourth time, Kilgore pledges that he, and the blue tunnel, will not return for one million years, which leaves Leon to observe the slow process of evolution that transforms the humans into aquatic mammals. The process begins when a Japanese woman on the island, the granddaughter of a Hiroshima survivor, gives birth to a fur-covered daughter.

Trout maintains that all the sorrows of humankind were caused by "the only true villain in my story: the oversized human brain". Natural selection eliminates this problem, since the humans best fitted to Santa Rosalia were those who could swim best, which required a streamlined head, which in turn required a smaller brain.

Sub-Commander T'Pol orders ''Enterprise'' to 'Sphere 41', in an attempt to destroy the entire sphere network. They arrive to find that the Sphere Builders have created a distortion field around it. Doctor Phlox determines that 12–15 minutes exposure will kill the crew. Undeterred, T'Pol and Commander Tucker deduce a modification to the deflector dish that can be used to destroy the sphere. As they approach, two Guardians arrive and begin damaging the ship's systems, but they cannot prevent the sphere's destruction. It implodes, setting off a chain reaction that destroys the rest of the spheres, ending all spatial anomalies in the Delphic Expanse.

Meanwhile, Captain Archer, accompanied by Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Sato, and a team of MACOs, enters the vortex created by the Xindi weapon. During the pursuit, a recovering Sato is pushed by Archer to decipher Degra's schematics. Archer is suddenly pulled into the future by Temporal Agent Daniels, this time to the founding of the United Federation of Planets, but Archer is again uninterested. Arriving near Earth, Archer receives an unexpected transmission from Commander Shran, who engages and then destroys the Reptilian ship. In the chaos, Archer and his team are able to beam aboard the weapon. A fierce fire-fight ensues, and as Archer and Sato try to disable the weapon, Commander Dolim attempts to stop them. Archer kills him and the weapon is destroyed.

Sato and Reed return to ''Enterprise'' and report to T'pol that Archer did not make it off the weapon. Ferried on an Aquatic ship, ''Enterprise'' arrives back at Earth, but they are unable to contact Starfleet. T'Pol orders Tucker and Ensign Mayweather to fly a shuttlepod down to San Francisco, where they are attacked by what seem to be P-51s. In a World War II German field-hospital, a doctor summons some SS officers to examine the unfamiliar uniform of a burn patient who was recently brought in. The patient is revealed as Archer. One of the SS personnel steps out of the shadows, revealing himself to be a gray-skinned alien.

The elderly British employees of the Permanent Assurance Company, a staid London firm which has recently been taken over by the Very Big Corporation of America, rebel against their much younger corporate masters when one of them is sacked. Having locked the surviving supervisors in the safe, and forced their boss to walk a makeshift plank out a window, they commandeer their Edwardian office building, which suddenly weighs anchor, uses its scaffolding and tarpaulins as sails, and is turned into a pirate ship. The stone office building starts to move as if it were a ship. Sailing through the City of London, they then proceed to attack The Very Big Corporation of America's (VBCA) skyscraper, using, among other things, wooden filing cabinets which have been transformed into carronades and swords fashioned from the blades of a ceiling fan. On ropes, they swing into the board room and engage the executives of VBCA in hand-to-hand combat, vanquishing them.

After their hard-earned victory, the clerks continue to "sail the wide accountan-sea" (as they sing in their heroic sea shanty). Sailing into history as they continue on to further conquests.

However, they unceremoniously end up falling off the edge of the world, due to their belief about the shape of the world being "disastrously wrong".

Typical of how the Pythons would weave previously 'terminated' plot lines into later scenes of the same episode (like Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition in the TV show, or the recurring theme of the swallows carrying coconuts in the movie ''Holy Grail''), ''The Crimson Permanent Assurance'' suddenly re-emerges in the middle of the main feature of ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' (this time with both Eric Idle and Michael Palin added as members of the VBCA). After the donor scene, the movie shifts to follow a modern board room debate about the meaning of life (and that people are not wearing enough hats). This debate is happening at the Very Big Corporation of America headquarters building in the same room that witnessed the battle in the short film. The debate is halted when one executive asks, "Has anyone noticed that building there before?" which turns out to be the marauding old London building/pirate ship of the Crimson Permanent Assurance. The audience gets to briefly see the attack of the pirates from the angle of the victims in the board room. The raid is halted by a modern skyscraper falling onto the moving Permanent Assurance Company building; with a voice-over apologizing for the temporary interruption due to the "unwarranted attack by the supporting feature".

A doe gives birth to a fawn named Bambi, who will one day take over the position of Great Prince of the Forest, a title currently held by Bambi's father, who guards the woodland creatures against the dangers of hunters. The fawn is quickly befriended by an eager, energetic rabbit named Thumper, who helps to teach him to walk and speak. Bambi grows up very attached to his mother, with whom he spends most of his time. He soon makes other friends, including a young skunk he mistakenly calls "Flower" (who is so flattered, he keeps the name) and a female fawn named Faline. Curious and inquisitive, Bambi frequently asks about the world around him and is cautioned about the dangers of life as a forest creature by his loving mother. One day out in a meadow, Bambi briefly sees The Great Prince but does not realize that he is his father. As the Great Prince wanders uphill, he discovers the human hunter, named "Man" by all the animals, is coming and rushes down to the meadow to get everyone to safety. Bambi is briefly separated from his mother during that time but is escorted to her by the Great Prince as the three of them make it back in the forest just as Man fires his gun.

During Bambi's first winter, he and Thumper play in the snow while Flower hibernates. One day his mother takes him along to find food when Man shows up again. As they escape, his mother is shot and killed by the hunter, leaving the little fawn mournful and alone. Taking pity on his abandoned son, the Great Prince leads Bambi home as he reveals to him that he is his father. Next year, Bambi has matured into a young stag, and his childhood friends have also entered young adulthood. They are warned of "twitterpation" by Friend Owl and that they will eventually fall in love, although the trio views the concept of romance with scorn. However, Thumper and Flower soon encounter their beautiful romantic counterparts and abandon their former thoughts on love. Bambi himself encounters Faline as a beautiful doe. However, their courtship is quickly interrupted and challenged by a belligerent older stag named Ronno, who attempts to force Faline away from Bambi. Bambi successfully manages to defeat Ronno in battle and earn the rights to the doe's affections.

Bambi is awakened afterward by the smell of smoke; he follows it and discovers it leads to a hunter camp. His father warns Bambi that Man has returned with more hunters. Although Bambi is separated from Faline in the turmoil and searches for her along the way, the two flee to safety. He soon finds her cornered by Man's vicious hunting dogs, which he manages to ward off. Bambi escapes them and is shot by Man, but survives. Meanwhile, at the "Man's" camp, their campfire suddenly spreads into the forest, resulting in a wildfire from which the forest residents flee in fear. Bambi, his father, Faline, and the forest animals manage to reach shelter on a riverbank. The following spring, Faline gives birth to twins under Bambi's watchful eye as the new Great Prince of the Forest.

A wrecking ball destroys an abandoned building, the impact knocking over a magic lamp inside and causing it to land on a boombox. The genie inside decides to make residence inside the boombox from there on.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old boy named Maxwell “Max” Conner (Francis Capra) goes to school. He greets his friend, Jake (portrayed by Jake Glaser, director Paul Michael Glaser's son), with a goofy face and is chastised by his teacher. Max is confronted by a gang of bullies, who hold him on the bathroom floor and spray paint his outline, in retaliation for a key he gave them for a robbery being no good. The bullies later chase Max through Brooklyn after school. Max is chased into the abandoned building, where he discovers the boombox and accidentally unleashes the genie inside. The genie, who introduces himself as Kazaam (Shaquille O'Neal), a 5,000-year-old genie, tells Max that he is now Max's genie and proves it to him by demonstrating his powers, which results in Kazaam disappearing off the face of the earth.

Max spots his father in passing during his return home from school, and finds that his mother is marrying a fireman named Travis O’Neil (John Costelloe). Max instantly rejects Travis, and when his mother confronts him on his behavior, he counters by confronting her that she lied to him about his real father's whereabouts, and that he is actually located in the city. Max then sets out to search for his father in the hopes of rekindling their relationship. He suddenly encounters Kazaam during his travels, who pesters Max into making a wish. Max eventually finds his father, only to learn that he is a musical talent agent who specializes in unauthorized music. But he initially doesn’t care because his father, Nick Matteo by name, is overjoyed to see him again, introduces Max (Matteo) to the other employees of the agency, and gives him free VIP passes to an upcoming concert at the nightclub he works at.

Max goes to his personal secret hideout and tells Kazaam about his father. They decide to have a bike race through Max's hideout, during which Kazaam shows off his powers. Kazaam finally convinces Max to make his first wish, which consists of junk food raining from the sky. While eating all of this, Max suddenly realizes that he owns Kazaam until he makes his last two wishes. Max and Kazaam go out to see Max's father again.

After getting past an intimidating bodyguard, Max and Kazaam attend the show, where the performing act (with a little needling from Max) persuade Kazaam to join in. The owner of the nightclub, Malik (Marshall Manesh), shows interest in Kazaam upon the realization that he is a genie, and he hopes to control Kazaam through Max's father. The next day, Kazaam stays in Max's home and passes himself off as Max's tutor.

Max confesses to Kazaam that he and his father aren't really connecting, though Kazaam attempts to shirk the issue with some rapping, revealing how he and his “best friend, Ha’ber, in 1000 BC” first became genies. Max attempts to wish for his father and mother to fall back in love, but Kazaam cannot grant this wish because he is not a djinn, and therefore not free to grant ethereal wishes.

Later that day, Max witnesses his father being assaulted by Malik and his minions due to a master tape being stolen during a robbery done by Max’s bullies with reluctance from Max and goes to Kazaam for help. Kazaam just received a record deal as a professional rapper and is reluctant to help Max. So Max uses his second wish to conjure a replacement tape, though this causes an argument and a rift to form between him and Kazaam. After school, when Max's father demand his son to hand over the Record Tape that he stole last night, he does. Then he leaves realizing that he won't get a second chance with him. Later that night, Max is kidnapped by Malik and takes possession of Kazaam's boombox, with his father being held hostage as well. Malik, having taken control of Kazaam's boombox, is now in control of Kazaam himself. Max is pushed down an elevator shaft by Malik. He summons Kazaam in the hopes that he will do his bidding. While Kazaam is initially powerless against his master, he soon breaks free from his oppression and defeats Malik and his minions.

Kazaam transforms Malik into a basketball and then slam dunks him into a garbage disposal. However, he then finds Max's lifeless body, and wishes that he could have granted Max's wish to give his father a second chance at life. Then, in his sorrow, Kazaam finally becomes a djinn, and is therefore able to do this for Max. With him officially a djinn, he pulls Max out of harm's way and carried out of the burning building by Travis. Max's father then shows up and tells him that he hopes to rekindle the bonding with his son, before he takes off with authorities. Kazaam is then last seen walking off being grilled by his new girlfriend because he doesn't have a job, (having literally no idea what a job is), while at the same time, ecstatic over his newfound freedom.

In 1970, 121-year-old Jack Crabb, the oldest man in the world, is residing in a hospice and recounts his life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to have been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Childhood

Jack begins his story in a flashback to 1859, when he was 10 years old. He and his older sister Caroline survived the massacre of their pioneer parents by the Pawnee and are discovered by Shadow, a Cheyenne brave, who takes the siblings to his village. Caroline escapes, but Jack remains and is reared by the good-hearted tribal leader, Old Lodge Skins.

As Jack gets older, he unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear; however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack when he saves Younger Bear's life from a Pawnee brave. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is short but very brave.

In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. Cavalry troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Cheyenne upbringing in order to save himself from being killed. After spending time in U.S. Army custody and going through interrogations and debriefing, Jack, being a minor, is put in the foster care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake household and renounces his foster parents and religion.

Gunslinger

In 1866, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman Meriweather. The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize that Meriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers is Jack's now-grown sister, Caroline, with whom he reunites. She attempts to mold her brother into a gunslinger named "the Soda Pop Kid". Jack meets Wild Bill Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and Caroline deserts him.

Some months later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a Swedish woman named Olga. Jack's business partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel. The famous cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer pays a visit and suggests the couple restart their lives further west and assures them they have nothing to fear from Indians.

Jack and Olga set out, but their stagecoach is ambushed by Cheyenne warriors. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search of her. He is reunited with Old Lodge Skins and Younger Bear. Younger Bear has become a Contrary – a warrior who does everything in reverse. Jack makes friends with the Heemaneh Little Horse, but continues on his search for Olga.

First round with Custer

A few months later, Jack eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry, only because Custer incorrectly determines that was Jack's past job. He takes part in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the troopers begin killing women and children, Jack turns on them.

On the outskirts of the massacre, Jack is attacked by Shadow, the Cheyenne warrior who saved him as a child but now does not recognize him. Shadow is killed by a cavalryman, and Jack discovers Shadow's daughter, Sunshine, giving birth while hiding from the onslaught. He returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe. Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters Younger Bear, who is no longer a Contrary but is now the henpecked husband of the long-lost Olga. The traumatized Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to make her remember him. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed sisters as wives, and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but finally agrees.

A little later in November 1868, Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp at the Washita River. Jack saves the now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins, but Sunshine, their child, and her sisters are killed. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's camp to exact revenge, but loses his nerve to kill Custer.

Mad hermit

Disheartened, Jack withdraws from life and becomes the town drunk living in Deadwood, South Dakota for the next several years. While in a drunken stupor, he is recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to get cleaned up. Hickok is shot and killed while playing cards and, with his last breath, asks Jack to bring some money to a widow he was having an affair with. Jack visits the widow, now a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life, but again rebuffs her sexual advances.

Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. He prepares to commit suicide, but sees Custer and his troops marching nearby, and decides to return to his quest for revenge.

Second round with Custer

Custer hires Jack as a scout, reasoning that anything he says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack tricks Custer into leading his troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn (1876) by truthfully telling Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the valley.

As Custer's troops are slaughtered by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne group, Custer begins to rave insanely. Jack is wounded. The maddened Custer attempts to shoot Jack when he tells Custer to shut up, but is killed by Younger Bear, who then carries Jack away from the battlefield. Having thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.

Old Lodge Skins awaits death, as does Jack

Back at the Cheyenne camp, Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the Indian burial ground, where the old man, dressed in full chief's regalia, has declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death.

Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Well, sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't." They return to his lodge to have dinner.

Epilogue

Back in the present day, Jack abruptly ends his narrative story and he dismisses the historian. The final shot shows the aged Jack sitting in his wheelchair and somberly thinking back about his life in a world which no longer exists.

In 1930s Germany, the Essenbecks are a wealthy and powerful industrialist family who have begun doing business with the newly elected Nazi Party. On the night of the Reichstag fire in early 1933, the family's conservative patriarch, Baron Joachim von Essenbeck, who represents the old aristocratic Germany and detests Adolf Hitler, is celebrating his birthday. The celebration features the family's children performing for the Baron, his family and guests on a makeshift stage. While grandnephew Günther performs a piece of music on his cello, grandson Martin performs a drag performance that is interrupted by news that the Reichstag has been burned.

Martin's possessive mother (and Joachim's widowed daughter-in-law), Sophie, has been secretly carrying on a longstanding affair with Friedrich Bruckmann, an executive of the family's steelworks. Her father-in-law tacitly demands that Sophie never remarry and both fear that if their relationship were to be exposed, Sophie would be disowned and Friedrich fired. Friedrich is friendly with a cousin of Sophie's dead husband; a SS leader named Aschenbach, Aschenbach is aware that Friedrich seeks the title of Baron; he is also aware that the Baron has split control over the company in his will: his unscrupulous nephew, the boorish SA officer Konstantin, will inherit the company but Martin will inherit enough shares of stock to give him ''de facto'' control over the direction the company takes.

Acting on Aschenbach's previous statements that things would be better if the anti-Nazi Joachim was to die, Friederich kills Joachim and frames the outspoken Herbert Thalmann for the crime by using his personal handgun secured by Sophie. Herbert narrowly escapes abroad, but in his haste is forced to leave behind his wife and children. When his wife, Elizabeth, visits Sophie for help clearing her husband's name, Sophie denounces her by telling her that the Germany of old is dead. Sophie seemingly makes arrangements for Elizabeth and her daughters to join Herbert in exile and they are depicted reaching a train station, but it is later revealed that they are actually arrested and sent to Dachau, characterized in the film as an internment camp.

Aschenbach convinces Friedrich and Martin to embargo their company from selling weapons to the SA, as the SS is seeking to marginalize the rival group in order to pacify the Reichswehr's generals to Hitler's side. Konstantin discovers that Martin has been sexually abusing his nieces, as well as Lisa Keller, a poor Jewish girl, who eventually commits suicide after Martin assaults her one night before visiting his girlfriend. Armed with this information, Konstantin blackmails Martin to resume providing the SA guns and ammunition and sends a letter detailing his crimes to Sophie so that she will get Friedrich to help provide cover for Martin in defying the SS. Hiding in the family's attic, Martin is confronted by Sophie, who agrees to help free Martin from Konstantin's blackmail. Sophie meets up with Aschenbach, who reveals that Hitler is planning on purging the SA and offers to destroy the Konstantin's blackmail dossier for a future favor. In 1934, the SA—Konstantin among them—have a meeting at a hotel in Bad Wiessee to discuss their dissatisfaction with Hitler. The evening is depicted as a drunken celebration, ending with the male SA officers engaging in gay sex with one another. At dawn, the hotel is stormed by SS troops who slaughter various SA members. Konstantin is personally executed by Friedrich, who Aschenbach brought along with him during the slaughter to ensure Konstantin's death.

Friedrich is now in charge of the family business, but Aschenbach is confronted by Sophie who demands that her father's last name and royal title of Baron be assigned to Friedrich so they can marry as equals. Aschenbach refuses and reminds Sophie that the Nazis want control over the steel and munitions business and will take it by force if the couple won't become willing servants to the Nazi Party. Meanwhile, Martin becomes furious as he realizes that the last remaining barriers keeping his mother from remarrying are gone and that Friedrich intends to take control over the family business for himself. Aschenbach offers Martin the destruction of his mother and her lover, after Martin confesses his hatred for them to Aschenbach.

During a family dinner, Friedrich and Aschenbach start arguing after Friedrich announces that Aschenbach, Günther, and Martin must submit themselves to the will and whims of the new head of the family. Aschenbach denounces Friedrich as a weak social climber and disloyal Nazi, as he brings a returning Herbert to the chamber. Herbert reveals that after Sophie arranged their arrest, Elizabeth and their children were sent to Dachau concentration camp, where Elizabeth died. Aschenbach has offered to free Herbert's children in exchange for Herbert's false confession to Joachim's death; though it's left ambiguous whether or not Aschenbach carries out his side of the bargain. He also reveals that Friedrich killed Konstantin (implying that Konstanin's role in the SA purge was covered up and his death reported as a random murder), turning Günther against Friedrich and radicalizes him to the Nazi cause.

Martin afterwards sexually assaults his mother, who subsequently falls into a catatonic state much to Friedrich's horror. Now a part of the SS, Martin allows Friedrich, who by decree has inherited the name and title of von Essenbeck, to wed his mother before ordering the two to take cyanide capsules, which they willingly consume, killing them both. Aschenbach, who now has complete control over Martin, becomes the effective heir to the von Essenbeck steelworks, leaving the empire under Nazi control.

In the year of 2181 (22nd century), less than a year after the events of ''Guilty Gear'', reports of a newly discovered commander Gear surfaced. Amid concern about a second war, another Holy Knights Tournament begins; whoever captures and kills Dizzy will receive 500,000 World Dollars. She is defeated, but her life is spared by Sol Badguy, as she proves to be inoffensive. Shortly after, she is found by Ky Kiske, the police chief of the United Nations and ex-chief of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. He entrusts her care to Johnny and May, members of the Jellyfish Air Pirates, who welcome her as one of their own. Jam Kuradoberi, a bounty hunter and struggling chef, claims the credit for Dizzy's disappearance so she can collect the reward and finance her restaurant.

The adolescent Kelly Hankins (Sean O'Donnell) has a good life. He's admired by his peers, the star of the baseball team, and he's in a happy relationship with the beautiful Lisa Weld (Allie DeBerry), albeit one that they have to hide from her strict father Reverend Weld (Stephen Tobolowsky). However when Lisa tells him that she's pregnant, Kelly now has to figure out a way to keep her from getting into trouble. He thinks he's found the answer when he discovers that his Uncle Theus (J.D. Rudometkin) has managed to transfer an embryo into a male monkey. Certain that this will solve all of their problems, Kelly persuades his uncle to do the same to him.

The process is successful and Kelly becomes pregnant. Over the course of several months, he goes through typical symptoms; hiding it from everyone with only his friend Ditto (Michael Eric Reid) aware of it. Everyone begins to notice Kelly's odd behavior and he loses his popularity, though the flirtatious Candy (Cassidy Ann Shaffer) continues to hit on him. Lisa breaks up with Kelly as she cannot endure seeing Kelly becoming ridiculed. The nerdy Milton (Dylan Riley Snyder) begins to suspect that something is up with Kelly and reviews his findings with Principal Miller (Eric Wheeler), though he has trouble believing the concept of a pregnant boy.

Lisa calls Kelly in an effort to get back together with him, on the condition that the baby be transferred back to her. They get into an argument and become even more distant. Realizing that he cannot go on without Lisa, Kelly attempts to get back together with her at the prom. She seems willing to accept him back, but Milton outs the pregnancy to everyone, humiliating Kelly. Soon, the whole town learns of it with Reverend Weld attempting to demonize Kelly, but Theus manages to explain the situation to everyone. As graduation approaches, Kelly is unsure of what to do with himself, but his father backs him up.

The day of graduation arrives and Kelly reluctantly gives a speech to his classmates that is uplifting and empowering. He suddenly faints as he goes into labor and his friends and family rush the stage to help him. Kelly awakens in the hospital with Lisa watching over him. Kelly learns that he has given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Lisa apologizes for her behavior and wants to raise their children together. She shows that the whole town has been rooting for Kelly's recovery as well as her father who now approves of him.

''The Dogfather'' was a parody of ''The Godfather'', but with canines as part of the Italian organized crime syndicate. It consists of the Dogfather (voiced by Bob Holt impersonating Marlon Brando) and his henchmen Pug (also Bob Holt) and Louie (voiced by Daws Butler).

The opening credits featured the Dogfather, speaking to the lyrics of a song entitled "I'll make him an offer he can't Refuse".

''The Dogfather'' was later broadcast as part of the NBC Saturday morning cartoon series ''The Pink Panther and Friends''.

NSA official Thomas Brian Reynolds meets with Congressman Phil Hammersley to discuss a new piece of counterterrorism legislation that dramatically expands the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies over individuals and groups. Hammersley remains committed to blocking its passage, wanting to protect U.S. citizens' privacy. Reynolds, wanting the bill passed to obtain a long-delayed promotion, has Hammersley murdered, making it appear he suffered a heart attack. Meanwhile, labor lawyer Robert Clayton "Bobby" Dean is involved in a case implicating mobster Paulie Pintero. Bobby meets with his ex-girlfriend, Rachel Banks; Rachel works for "Brill," who Bobby sometimes uses for undercover surveillance but has never met in person. She delivers a tape incriminating Pintero for labor racketeering, which Bobby threatens him with.

As police investigate Hammersley's murder scene, Reynolds and his team notice a biologist swapping out a tape from a remote wildlife camera stationed across the lake. They identify the biologist as Daniel Zavitz. When Zavitz views footage of the murder, he immediately contacts a journalist to publicize the tape. Reynolds' team intercepts the call and rush to Zavitz's apartment. Zavitz transfers the video to a disc and hides it in an NEC TurboExpress game console before fleeing. He bumps into Bobby, his old college friend. Panicked, Zavitz slips the disc into Bobby's shopping bag without his knowledge. He runs into the path of an oncoming fire truck and is killed instantly, while Reynolds has Zavitz's journalist contact murdered.

Reynolds' team identify Bobby and visit him disguised as cops. When Bobby refuses to let them search his belongings, they later plant surveillance devices in his house and on his clothes. They also dissiminate false evidence that Bobby is secretly on Pintero's payroll, laundering money and having an affair with Rachel. The subterfuge destroys Bobby's life: he is fired from his law firm, his bank accounts are frozen, and his wife, Carla, throws him out. Bobby asks Rachel to contact Brill for help. Reynolds intercepts the call and sends one of his men to impersonate Brill. The real Brill rescues Bobby and warns him that the NSA is responsible for ruining his life. After Bobby manages to evade his team, he is horrified to find Rachel shot dead in her home.

Bobby finds the disc and shows it to Brill, who identifies Reynolds. The NSA agents raid Brill's hideout; Brill and Bobby escape but the disc is destroyed. Brill reveals that his real name is Edward Lyle, a former NSA communications expert stationed in Iran during the Iranian Revolution. His partner (Rachel's father) was killed, but Lyle escaped and has been working covertly ever since, employing Rachel as a courier to watch over her. Lyle urges Bobby to start a new life, but he insists on clearing his name. Bobby and Lyle trail Congressman Sam Albert, a key supporter of the bill, and record a videotape of him with his mistress. Bobby and Lyle hide an NSA listening device in Albert's hotel room, knowing that he will find it and then demand an internal investigation. Lyle then hacks into Reynolds' personal bank account and deposits large sums of money to make it look like he's being paid to blackmail Albert.

A meeting is arranged with Reynolds to exchange the video and to get Reynolds to incriminate himself. Reynolds' men instead ambush the meeting and hold Lyle and Bobby at gunpoint, demanding the tape. Bobby, anticipating this, lies and says that the evidence is hidden at Pintero's restaurant, which is currently under FBI surveillance. He then tricks Pintero and Reynolds into believing that the other man has the "tape". The encounter quickly escalates into a deadly close-quarters firefight when a gangster shoots an NSA agent in the back; Pintero, his men, Reynolds, and the agents are killed. During this ordeal, Lyle sends the FBI a live feed of the incident to trigger a raid on the restaurant before slipping out in disguise. Bobby is rescued, and the conspiracy is exposed.

Congress abandons the bill to avoid a national scandal, covering up the NSA's involvement to preserve the agency's reputation. Bobby is cleared of all charges and reconciles with Carla. Lyle sends Bobby a "farewell" message via his TV, partially showing himself relaxing on a tropical island with his cat, Babe.

Alvíss comes to Thor to claim Thor's daughter as his bride, saying that she had been promised to him earlier. Thor refuses as he had not been at home at the time, then tells Alvíss that he may take the young woman if he can correctly answer all of Thor's questions. The dwarf's replies act as an exhaustive list of the sentient mythological entities among men, Æsir, Vanir, jötnar, dwarfs, and elves. For example, the heavens have the following names, according to Alvíss:

Ultimately, Thor confesses he was asking the questions to gain some time for the sun to rise and turn the dwarf into stone.

The series was about two toads, El Toro and Pancho, who live in the Mexican city of Tijuana. Throughout the cartoon they try to eat their prey, but always get outsmarted. They would sometimes themselves be targeted by a bird, Crazylegs Crane, and would in turn always outsmart him.

The series introduced two characters who later got their own series. ''The Blue Racer'' first appeared in "Snake in the Gracias" before getting his own series in 1972. ''Crazylegs Crane'' also spun off to his own series for television in 1978 on ABC. Both characters were voiced by Larry D. Mann, except in "Flight to the Finish" where Bob Holt voiced Crazylegs Crane.

El Toro was voiced by actor Don Diamond and Pancho voiced by Tom Holland. Crazylegs Crane was voiced by Larry D. Mann. Directorial duties were split between Hawley Pratt, Art Davis, Grant Simmons, and Gerry Chiniquy.

When the series began airing in 1976 as part of ''The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show'', it was re-dubbed and renamed ''Texas Toads'' to make the series less offensive. A laugh track was added to the new soundtrack, and the toads were given the new names of Fatso and Banjo. Producer David H. DePatie later commented on the process:

The cartoon is about a 14- or 15-year-old named Randolf, or Randy to his friends, whose town's pigeons transform him into a mysterious, comical, and lovable hero named Pigeon Boy. The pigeons spy on the town residents without being noticed very much. When they see something fishy is going on in the city, they summon Pigeon Boy. Only Randy's two best friends, Arthur and Chloe know about this hero side of him, but they don't tell him that they know; if Randy is aware that any one knows, he has vowed to give up the hero within him and never save his town again.

Season 1

Lily is in the process of divorcing her restaurateur husband, Jake. She is reluctant to begin dating again due to the sensitivities of her daughters, who are still emotional about the divorce. She meets and is instantly attracted to divorced architect Rick Sammler. However, their new relationship is complicated by Lily's many remaining emotional and financial issues with Jake. Grace and Eli become close when she becomes his tutor. Judy has a relationship with Rick's friend, Sam Blue (Steven Weber) before discovering Sam is married.

Season 2

Lily and Jake's divorce is finalized and she hopes to spend more time with Rick. However, Rick becomes sidetracked by difficulties at work and has to begin working with unscrupulous developer Miles Drentell (David Clennon, reprising his role from the series ''thirtysomething''). Things become difficult for Lily when Rick's project runs into legal difficulties and his ex-wife Karen is hired to represent the opposition. Jessie flirts with an eating disorder and begins to address her problems with the help of a therapist (played by show producer Edward Zwick). Jake's girlfriend Tiffany announces she is pregnant. At the end of season two, Rick has to dissolve his architectural firm, and Lily and Rick get married.

Season 3

Rick resumes his partnership with Sam Blue, now divorced, to design a hotel for a new client. Sam and Judy try to be friends but eventually resume their romantic relationship. Jake and Tiffany have a baby girl and eventually decide to get married. Grace develops a crush on her English teacher, Mr. Dimitri (Eric Stoltz); although their relationship never became sexual, an investigation eventually forces Mr. Dimitri to leave the school. Meanwhile, Jessie discovers she is attracted to another girl: upperclassman Katie Singer (Mischa Barton), and after Katie acknowledges her own romantic feelings towards Jessie with a love letter, the two girls quietly begin dating while hiding their romance from everyone, in what became the first teen lesbian romance on American network television. Karen deals with her depression; just as she is starting to make progress, she is hit by a car, leading to months of painful rehabilitation where she meets physical therapist Henry Higgins (DB Woodside). Lily faces more painful domestic struggles when her mother begins to show signs of Alzheimer's disease and her brother Aaron (Patrick Dempsey), who is schizophrenic, wants to move in with his girlfriend. By the end of the season, Rick and Lily face big decisions when he is offered a job in Australia and she is offered a nationally syndicated radio show. Their decisions are never shown, but in the last moments of the series finale, Lily reveals she is pregnant and everyone comes together to attend Jake and Tiffany's wedding.

Stanley Moon works as a cook in a Wimpy restaurant and is infatuated with the waitress, Margaret Spencer, but lacks confidence and is too socially inhibited to approach her. In despair at his life, he attempts suicide by hanging but is interrupted by a man claiming to be the Devil, incarnated as George Spiggott. When Stanley accuses George of being delusional, he offers Stanley a "trial wish". Stanley wishes for a raspberry ice lolly, and George takes him to buy one from a nearby shop.

Spiggott is in a game with God, trying to be the first to gather 100 billion souls. If he achieves this first, he will be readmitted to Heaven. He is also busy with minor acts of vandalism and spite, helped by his staff of the seven deadly sins, especially Lust and Envy.

In return for his soul, Spiggott offers Stanley seven wishes. Stanley uses these trying to satisfy his love for Margaret, but Spiggott twists his words to frustrate him. All of Stanley's wish scenes feature characters played by Peter Cook, George explaining that "There's a little of me in everyone." Stanley is told that blowing a raspberry will free him from the effects of a wish, if he changes his mind.

• Stanley first wishes to be more articulate. George Spiggott turns him into a talkative and pretentious intellectual with a strong Welsh accent. Margaret becomes an equally pretentious character, who enthusiastically agrees with all of Stanley's beliefs. Stanley stresses the importance of breaking free from one's social and moral constraints. When Stanley makes his move, however, she is horrified and starts screaming "rape."
• In his second wish, Stanley wishes to be a multi-millionaire with Margaret as his "very physical" wife. She ignores him and his lavish gifts, instead having affairs with his friends.
• In the third wish, Stanley is a rock star. However, his fame is very short lived and he is usurped by a new band ("This year's most exciting discovery, Drimble Wedge and The Vegetation") whose lead singer sings in a hypnotic, monotone voice about his disdain for anyone except himself ("You fill me with inertia"). Margaret, one of many entranced groupies, screams with excitement as she and other fans mob Drimble.
• Stanley comments in passing that he wishes he was "a fly on the wall" and George seizes on the opportunity to use this as Stanley's fourth wish. They both become flies on the wall in a morgue, where the police inspector is showing Margaret various dead bodies, hoping that she will identify one as Stanley. When the inspector invites Margaret to a vice squad party, Stanley launches an attack on him.
• Stanley wishes for a quiet life in the countryside, with children, and Margaret making the anniversary dinner. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Margaret is another man's wife. While deeply in love, even the attempt to consummate their affection drives both Stanley and Margaret into emotional agony.
• Stanley attempts to frame a sixth wish that George cannot ruin for him. He wishes that he and Margaret loved one another, lived away from the big city, and would always be together. However, George turns him into a nun of the Order of Saint Beryl, or the Leaping Beryllians, who glorify their founder by jumping on trampolines (expanding on a sketch that previously appeared in Cook and Moore's TV show ''Not Only... But Also''). Margaret is also a nun in the order, but refuses to consider consummating their love as they are both women. Stanley attempts to escape the wish by blowing a raspberry, to no effect, and he returns to London to confront George.
• When Stanley tries to use his seventh wish, George reveals he has ''already used it'': his trial wish for an ice lolly.

Ultimately, Spiggott spares Stanley eternal damnation because he has exceeded his quota of 100 billion souls and can afford to be generous. Stanley is duly returned to his old job and life, wiser and more clear-sighted. Spiggott ascends to Heaven to meet God, but is rejected again; St Peter explains that when he gave Stanley back his soul, Spiggott did the right thing, but with the wrong motive.

In the closing scene, Stanley and Margaret are back in the restaurant. Stanley finally asks her out but she says she's already doing something, though she does suggest perhaps another night. Stanley smiles, happy that he has found the courage to talk to her. Spiggott tries to entice Stanley again, but Stanley turns him down. Frustrated, Spiggott leaves and threatens revenge on God by unleashing all the tawdry and shallow technological curses of the modern age.

The series opens by showing how various Golden Age heroes have adjusted to life after World War II. The members of the Justice Society of America and All-Star Squadron have mostly retired. Tex Thompson, formerly known as the Americommando and Mr. America, has returned from Europe a war hero and has used his fame to start a political career, resulting in him being elected a senator. He then recruits several former heroes to create a new group of heroes for the 1950s. The group includes Robotman (who is slowly losing touch with his humanity), the Atom and Johnny Thunder (who are both looking for somewhere to belong), and Dan the Dyna-Mite (Daniel Dunbar), who is lost after the death of his mentor TNT. Thompson oversees various experiments on Dunbar which change him into the incredibly powerful Dynaman.

Other retired heroes are suffering from their own problems. The McCarthy hearings have resulted in Green Lantern being blacklisted due to his job as the head of a media corporation. Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle were married and eventually divorced. Quick is now a television reporter while Belle is dating journalist John Law (formerly the Tarantula). Starman has suffered a nervous breakdown after realizing that his research into cosmic energy helped in the development of the atom bomb. Captain Triumph (Lance Gallant) has retired and is trying to lead a normal life, despite his twin brother Michael's ghost urging him to become a hero again. Hourman is fighting his addiction to the Miraclo pill that gives him his powers.

The hero Manhunter (Paul Kirk), who has also returned from Europe, is suffering from memory loss and being hunted by strange men. He meets up with Thompson's former sidekick from his Mr. America days, Bob Daley AKA Fatman, and hides out while coming to terms with his demons. Eventually, the two of them seek the help of Hawkman, who helps Manhunter regain his memories. Those memories reveal a dark secret about Thompson: During the final days of the war, the super-villain known as the Ultra-Humanite, who worked as one of Hitler's scientists at Dachau, transferred his brain into Thompson's body.

While Manhunter is recovering his memories, Thompson's aide and lover Joan Dale, the former Miss America discovers his personal diary. Concerned with Thompson and Dunbar's increasingly strange behavior, she enlists former thief Paula Brooks, also known as the Tigress, to pick the lock and open the diary. The two of them, along with Gallant (whom Brooks was dating), discover not only that Thompson is actually the Ultra-Humanite, but also that he had performed another brain swap, that of Adolf Hitler's brain into Dunbar's body. They call Johnny Quick to inform him about the contents of the diary at about the same time Carter Hall calls him about Manhunter's revelations. This sets the stage for an explosive and tragic final showdown in Washington, D.C.

As Miss America attempts to reveal the truth about Tex Thompson and Dynaman before the assembled heroes, she is murdered by Robotman, who knew but didn't care about Tex and Dynaman's secrets. The Atom is finally convinced by Hourman that Tex and Dynaman are evil. Johnny Thunder, still brainwashed by Thompson's "dream" and blinded by his desire to belong somewhere, orders Yz, his thunderbolt, to kill Hourman. Yz attempts to obey the command but is so torn between his duties to his master and his own moral standards that he suffers a breakdown and flies, screaming, into the heavens (presumably forever) leaving Thunder guilt-ridden. Dynaman admits the truth about himself and proceeds to kill several heroes, including Tarantula, Human Bomb, Sportsmaster (a reformed villain), Doll Man and Red Bee, as well as disabling Doctor Mid-Nite by destroying his goggles and Hawkman by tearing off his wings. Thompson battles Manhunter, who snaps Thompson's neck after both of them fall out of a window. Lance Gallant and Robotman fight and kill each other. Dynaman is killed when Liberty Belle rams what is left of Starman's cosmic rod through his chest. She is able to do this after Dynaman is distracted by Adam Blake AKA Captain Comet, a young hero who joins the others in the fighting.

Despite numerous injuries and deaths, the heroes are triumphant. The last pages show Manhunter recovering and returning to Africa (he disappeared in 1951); Paula returns to a life of crime after being driven over the edge at witnessing Lance's death; Ted Knight recovers and marries; Al Pratt grows more mature after the incident, in contrast to Johnny Thunder who "never changed", and Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle reconcile. Meanwhile, a new generation of superheroes, led by Captain Comet, is born and Quick looks forward to "a new age, as pure as sterling silver". The last page is a splash page showing Captain Comet and various other Silver Age heroes including Martian Manhunter (hovering behind his human identity John Jones), the Challengers of the Unknown, the Doom Patrol, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, Aquaman, Adam Strange, Animal Man, The Creeper, and Metamorpho, as well as successors such as Hal Jordan (Alan Scott's successor as Green Lantern), Ray Palmer (Al Pratt's successor as The Atom), Cliff Steele (Robert Crane's successor as Robotman and a member of the Doom Patrol), and Barry Allen (Jay Garrick's successor as The Flash).

Monroe Stahr is the young production chief and the most creative executive of one of the biggest studios of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is a tireless worker in a time of turmoil in the industry due to the creation of the Writers Guild of America; Monroe being accustomed to make his underlings, including screenwriters, do whatever he says.

Monroe's life flows between film shootings, industry bosses' machinations, discussions with writers and actors and a battle with a union organizer named Brimmer, whose intrusion he resents. In the meantime, Monroe becomes obsessed with a young woman with a troubled past, Kathleen Moore, who is engaged to be married to another man, while Cecilia Brady, the young daughter of a studio board member, tries in vain to make Monroe see how she truly feels about him.

Pat Brady and other studio executives resent Monroe's neglect and disrespect for their wishes. Seeing his treatment of the union organizer as the last straw, they insist that Monroe go away for a long rest. As his difficulties grow bigger and his health declines, Monroe's life runs to an uncertain but inevitable twilight that echoes a long gone era.