At the end of the seventh season finale, "Requiem", Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) was abducted by aliens. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) meets Special Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), the leader of an FBI taskforce organized to conduct a search for Mulder. Although the search ultimately proves unsuccessful, Doggett is assigned to the X-Files and works with Scully to look for explanations to several cases. When Scully learns that several women have reportedly been abducted and impregnated with alien babies, she begins to question her own pregnancy and fears for her unborn child.

Doggett introduces Scully to Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), an FBI specialist in ritualistic crime, shortly before Mulder's deceased body suddenly appears in a forest at night. Following Mulder's funeral, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is threatened by Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) that he must kill Scully's baby before it is born. Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley), a multiple abductee who disappeared on the same night as Mulder, is returned deceased but his dead body is resurrected and restored to full health. Mulder also returns from death, with Scully supervising his recovery. Fully rejuvenated, Mulder investigates several X-Files, against orders to do so, but soon gets fired, leaving Doggett in charge of the cases. Mulder continues to provide input in an unofficial capacity.

Reluctantly accepting Krycek's assistance, Mulder, Doggett and Skinner learn that an alien virus recently created in secret by members of the United States government has replaced several humans, including Miles and several high-ranking FBI personnel, with so-called alien "Super Soldiers". Krycek claims that the soldiers are virtually unstoppable aliens who want to make sure that humans will not survive the colonisation of Earth. They have learned that Scully's baby is a miraculously special child and are afraid that it may be greater than them. They have only recently learned of the baby's importance, which is why Krycek told Skinner to kill the unborn child earlier. When Miles arrives at the FBI Headquarters, Mulder, Doggett, Skinner and Krycek help Scully to escape along with Reyes, who drives her to a remote farm. Shortly after Skinner kills Krycek, Scully delivers an apparently normal baby, while the alien super soldiers surround her. Without explanation, the aliens leave the area as Mulder arrives. While Doggett and Reyes report to the FBI Headquarters, Mulder takes Scully and their newborn son, William, back to her apartment.

Themes

The eighth season of ''The X-Files'' takes place in a science fiction environment and employs the common science fiction concepts of strongly differentiated characters fighting an unequivocally evil enemy, in this case, the alien Colonists. The first episode of the season, "Within" explores "loss", "loneliness" and "pain" after the disappearance of Mulder.Kessenich (2002), pp. 149. "Per Manum" included basic themes common in the series, such as "dark, foreboding terror", an "overriding sense of paranoia", and "the fear of the unknown", among others.Kessenich (2002), pp. 156. Later on, death and resurrection emerged as a major sub-theme during the season, starting with "The Gift", wherein John Doggett is killed and resurrected, and later in "Deadalive" when Mulder is brought back to life after apparently being dead for three months. This sub-theme would continue well into the ninth season.Kellner (2003), p. 155. The main story arc of the season dealt with the idea that, at times, humanity is a greater danger to itself. This theme is made manifest by the Syndicate and the human conspiracy with the aliens.

After the eighth season finale "Existence", Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) goes into hiding. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is again reassigned to the FBI Academy, and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) becomes John Doggett's (Robert Patrick) new FBI partner in the X-Files office. Doggett asks Scully for help on a case involving an EPA official, Carl Wormus (Nicholas Walker), who died after his car was forced off a bridge by a woman he picked up. Doggett and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) travel to a reclamation plant, looking for links between Wormus' work and death. After doing an illegal autopsy on Wormus, Alvin Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.) sends Brad Follmer (Cary Elwes) to locate Doggett. The investigation at the reclamation plant leads to an unknown woman, whose identity is later revealed to be Shannon McMahon (Lucy Lawless), one of Doggett's former Marine associates. She reveals to Doggett that she is a "Super Soldier". This leads them to a clandestine laboratory where a secret experiment is taking place on board on a naval ship. They later find connections between the experiments on the ship and Scully's child, William.

After Scully begins to miss Mulder, a complete stranger—the "Shadow Man" (Terry O'Quinn)—offers his service to drive Mulder out of hiding. Scully takes the offer, but unknowingly gets herself and Mulder in even more danger. The "Shadow Man", who is revealed to be a "Super Soldier" bent on killing Scully and Mulder. After a chase through a quarry, the "Shadow Man" is destroyed after being exposed to magnetite. Later, Scully, Doggett and Reyes find evidence of a dangerous UFO cult which has uncovered a second spacecraft similar to one Scully studied in Africa three years ago. Misled by the FBI, the agents enlist the help of The Lone Gunmen to protect Scully's son after they learn that the cult intends to kill the child. The cult, however, is successful in kidnapping the child. Concurrent with these events, Doggett is run over by a car, which sends him to the hospital. As Follmer and the "Toothpick Man" (Alan Dale) try to uncover the plans of the three agents, Scully and Reyes leave Washington, D.C. to find Scully's son.

Doggett finds a strange disfigured man in the X-Files office; believing he is Mulder, Scully has his DNA tested, and the results reveal him to have the same pattern as Mulder. The disfigured man sticks a needle into William, which the other agents believe to be a virus of some kind, but it is later revealed to be a cure for William's powers. The unnamed man is later revealed to be Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), Mulder's half-brother. In the season finale, Mulder returns from hiding in the attempts of finding classified information at an army base. He is caught, however, after allegedly killing an apparently indestructible "Super Soldier", which causes him to be tried before a military tribunal. With the help of Kersh, Scully, Reyes, Doggett, Spender, Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden) and Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka), Mulder breaks out, and Mulder and Scully travel to New Mexico to find an old "wise man", later revealed to be the "Cigarette Smoking Man" (William B. Davis). He tells the two that aliens will begin colonizing the planet on December 22, 2012. Cigarette Smoking Man appears to be killed by a missile, launched under the command of Knowle Rohrer (Adam Baldwin), who is revealed to be alive and well. Mulder and Scully escape, but become fugitives on the run from the FBI. The final scene of the season features the two in a motel room facing an uncertain—but possibly hopeful—future.

Chuck (Tate Donovan), an uptight college student in Los Angeles, is hired by a successful businessman to deliver a Porsche to his daughter in Lake Tahoe, with the promise of a job if the delivery is successful. His fun-loving, girl-obsessed friend and roommate, Wally (Grant Heslov) convinces Chuck to drive him to San Diego first. The Porsche is stolen, and Chuck decides to try to get it back with Wally's help but without involving the police so that the businessman does not find out. Meanwhile, Shawn (Karen Lynn Scott), a fun-loving Texan, has convinced her naive friend Michelle (Danielle von Zerneck) to participate in a beauty pageant. The car thief is a successful local businessman, Greg Krevske (Leslie Nielsen), who pledges the stolen Porsche as part of the grand prize in the contest; Chuck and Wally meet Shawn and Michelle, who are initially skeptical of the boys' story. Rival pageant contestant Blake (Valerie Breiman) has a controlling stage mother who tricks Shawn and Michelle into going to a party on Krevske's boat to try to get them out of the way for the next round of the pageant so that they will be disqualified. Chuck and Wally sneak onto the boat in order to get evidence of the theft. Chuck finds a briefcase full of incriminating evidence, including the Porsche's original license plate. The four flee on WetBikes, steal Krevske's Ferrari, and agree to work together to steal back the Porsche. Chuck and Michelle spend the night together on a catamaran on the beach. The next day, with Michelle's help, Chuck and Wally steal back the Porsche. They present Krevske's Ferrari to the pageant as a replacement grand prize, and give the police the incriminating evidence from Krevske's boat. Wally suggests leaving in order to make it to Lake Tahoe on time, but Chuck refuses to leave without talking to Michelle again. Blake wins the beauty pageant, Shawn invites Wally to stay in San Diego with her to have fun, and Chuck and Michelle get ready to drive to Lake Tahoe.

Years ago on an uncharted archipelago, a group known as the Seven Evil Pigs appeared and used their magical powers to tarnish the land. Their underlings, the Koma Pigs, began terrorizing the populace with their mischievous pranks. Years later, a curious and energetic boy named Tomba diligently protects his grandfather's grave and wears a gold bracelet as an heirloom. One day, Tomba's bracelet is stolen following a confrontation with a group of Koma Pigs. He pursues them to a nearby village, where he is directed to the 100-Year-Old Wise Man. The Wise Man tells the story of the Seven Evil Pigs' rise to power, and reveals that the Koma Pigs are stockpiling gold. He advises Tomba to find his bracelet by hunting the seven Evil Pigs hiding throughout the land. He also describes the Evil Pig Bags that could reveal the Pigs' hiding places, and suggests learning more from the Dwarf Elder in the next village. The Dwarf Elder gives Tomba a blue Pig Bag and tells him that the Bags can reveal the entrance to an Evil Pig's hideout if Tomba approaches it. However, he warns that the individual Evil Pigs do not hide in the same area where they have cast their spell. Tomba explores the continent and gathers the rest of the Pig Bags. In the midst of his travels, an older Wise Man informs Tomba that the gold being hoarded by the Seven Evil Pigs is the source of their power. After Tomba captures the Seven Evil Pigs and lifts their spells over the land, an eighth Evil Pig Bag manifests within his possession and reveals the lair of the Evil Pigs' creator and leader, the Real Evil Pig. After defeating the Real Evil Pig in his trove of gold, Tomba recovers his bracelet and leaves it resting upon his grandfather's grave.

The film's central story deals with the organisation of an enormous, chaotic, and expensive wedding that is due to take place in a modern Indian family. Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) and his wife Pimmi (Lillete Dubey) have arranged a marriage for their daughter Aditi (Vasundhara Das) to Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas). Hemant is the son of a family friend who lives in Texas, and Aditi has only known him for a few weeks. As so often happens in Indian culture, such a wedding means that, for one of the few times in each generation, the extended family comes together from all corners of the globe, bringing its emotional baggage along.

Lalit and Pimmi are helped with the main planning by Pimmi's sister Shashi and her husband C.L (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who have arrived earlier from Oman. A few days before the engagement, Tej Puri (Rajat Kapoor), Lalit's extremely wealthy brother-in-law, arrives from the U.S.. Tej is married to Lalit's sister and has helped the Verma family regain their financial footing after the Partition of India left them penniless many years ago. Tej offers to pay for Aditi's cousin, Ria Verma (Shefali Shah) to attend university in the U.S., after the family consults him for advice. Ria and her mother live with the Verma family, who took them in after the death of Ria's father. Despite his generous offer, Ria stays away from Tej and is not comfortable in his presence.

Lalit begins experiencing difficulty in paying for the final, smaller aspects of the wedding and is embarrassed when he has to borrow money from friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, P.K. Dubey (Vijay Raaz), the eccentric wedding planner, falls in love with Alice (Tillotama Shome), the Vermas' maid. Ria grows concerned after she witnesses what appears to be Tej grooming a younger relative, ten-year-old Aliya. Aditi's younger brother Varun (Ishan Nair) plans an elaborate dance for the pre-wedding party with another cousin, Ayesha (Neha Dubey), but Lalit worries that his son is becoming too effeminate and plans to send him to boarding school. Dubey's workers see Alice trying on Aditi's wedding jewellery, and the men accuse her of stealing. The incident causes her to become withdrawn from Dubey and he grows depressed.

A few days before the wedding, Aditi sleeps with an old lover, her married boss Vikram; and confesses this to Hemant. The incident only serves as a reminder to Aditi as to why she stopped seeing Vikram. Though he is initially angry, Hemant is glad for her honesty and is confident that they can put it behind them and be happy together. The workers apologize to Alice and she reconciles with Dubey. The night before the ceremony, Varun refuses to dance due to the comments made by his father, and Ayesha performs with the help of Rahul (Randeep Hooda), Pimmi's nephew from Australia. Aditi and Hemant grow closer and they share a few intimate moments, which re-affirms their faith in the marriage. After a night of jokes, drama and dances, Ria catches Tej trying to take Aliya for a drive alone. Ria stops them from driving off and takes Aliya away from him, revealing to Lalit and others that Tej had molested her as a child. Lalit's sister does not believe her, attributing her accusations to her character and unmarried status. Emotionally distraught, Ria leaves.

The next day, Lalit pleads with Ria to return to the wedding, admitting that he can't possibly imagine what she has gone through but also saying that he can't disown Tej, since they are family. Ria is not happy but agrees to return for the sake of Aditi. Hours before the wedding, however, Lalit changes his mind and tells his sister and Tej to leave the wedding and the family home. Tej's wife insists that Ria's accusation was a small matter but Lalit stands his ground.

The Monsoon rains begin as Aditi and Hemant are married in an elaborate wedding, while Dubey and Alice simultaneously wed in a simple ceremony, and later celebrate with the Vermas. Ria moves on from her past life, and is finally able to freely enjoy the festivities.

Jill, a young dancer, arrives in London with a letter of introduction to Mr. Hamilton, proprietor of the Pleasure Garden Theatre. The letter and all her money are stolen from her handbag as she waits to see him. Patsy, a chorus girl at the Pleasure Garden, sees her difficulty and offers to take her to her own lodgings and to try to get her a job. Next morning Jill is successful in getting a part in the show. Her fiancé, Hugh, arrives with a colleague called Levet. Hugh and Patsy become very close while Jill is being pursued by a number of rich men, eventually breaking up with Hugh in order to begin a relationship with the wealthy Prince Ivan. Not long after this, Hugh is sent to Africa by his company.

Jill moves out of the lodgings she shares with Patsy and becomes more involved with the Prince. As she becomes more successful and used to the rich and famous lifestyle she also becomes more dismissive of Patsy, shunning her and eventually seeing her as a commoner. As Patsy laments the loss of her friend, she is comforted by Levet who convinces her to enter into marriage with him. The couple honeymoon in Italy before he leaves to join Hugh in Africa. After some time Patsy finally receives a letter from her husband in which he says he has been sick for weeks. Patsy is determined to go to take care of him and asks Jill to lend her the fare. Jill refuses as she is preparing for her marriage to the Prince and has no money to spare. Patsy is able to borrow the fare from her landlords Mr and Mrs Sidey. When she arrives at her husband's bungalow, she finds that he is having an affair with a local woman and leaves. Levet tries to drive the woman away but when she refuses to leave him, follows her into the sea and drowns her.

Meanwhile, Patsy has found that Hugh really is very ill with a fever and stays to take care of him. Hugh has since discovered from a newspaper that Jill is to marry the Prince and he and Patsy soon realize that they love each other. Levet finds them together and accuses Hugh of making advances to his wife. Patsy agrees to follow Levet back to his bungalow in order to save Hugh. During the night, Levet is stricken with guilt and paranoia over the murder of his mistress and begins seeing ghostly visions of her. Levet becomes convinced that the ghost of his mistress will not stop haunting him until he murders Patsy too. Levet corners Patsy with a sword but he is shot dead before he can kill her. Hugh and Patsy find consolation with each other and return to London.

Chapter 1

Timofey Pavlovich Pnin, the title character, is a professor of Russian at Waindell College; "ideally bald" with a "strong man torso," "spindly legs," and "feminine feet". Pnin is on a train from Waindell to Cremona, where he is to give a guest lecture. He is persistently bothered by the fear that he may lose his lecture papers, or mix them up with the student essay he is correcting. He discovers he has boarded the wrong train and gets off. When he tries to board a bus to Cremona, he suddenly realizes he has lost his luggage (with his papers) and has a seizure. He finally arrives at Cremona by truck, having recovered his papers, and is about to give his lecture when he experiences a vision, seeing his dead parents and friends from before the Russian Revolution in the audience. The chapter ends without revealing whether Pnin has the correct papers.

Chapter 2

Laurence Clements, a fellow Waindell faculty member, and his wife Joan, are looking for a new lodger after their daughter Isabel has married and moved out. Pnin is the new tenant, informed of the vacancy by Waindell's librarian, Mrs. Thayer. The Clementses grow to enjoy Pnin's eccentricities and his idiosyncratic phrasings. There follows the history of Pnin's relationship with his ex-wife Dr. Liza Wind, who manipulated him into bringing her to America so that she could leave him for fellow psychologist Eric Wind. Liza visits Pnin, but only wants to extract money from him for her son, Victor. Although Pnin is aware of her nature, he obliges out of love for her. After she leaves, Pnin weeps at her cruelty, shouting "I haf nofing left, nofing, nofing!"

Chapter 3

Pnin is alone at the Clementses' as they have gone to visit Isabel. Nabokov describes Pnin's past lodgings and his idiosyncratic English. Pnin lectures his Elementary Russian class, then goes to the library, where he ignores Mrs. Thayer's attempts at small talk as he tries to return a book requested by another patron, but the record shows the requester to be Pnin himself. Pnin does research for his book on Russian culture, then attends the showing of a Soviet propaganda film, which causes him to weep. The chapter ends with the return of Isabel, who has left her husband. Pnin will have to find new lodgings.

Chapter 4

Fourteen-year-old Victor Wind dreams of a foreign king who refuses to abdicate and is exiled (foreshadowing ''Pale Fire''). In his fantasy, this king, rather than Erik Wind, is his father. Victor is depicted as an intelligent, nonconformist boy with a great talent for drawing. His parents have him psychoanalyzed, and are incapable of understanding his artistic talent, much to the boy's chagrin. Victor has little respect for his teachers at St. Bart's except for Lake the art teacher, "a tremendously obese man with shaggy eyebrows and hairy hands". Victor is to meet with Pnin at Waindell bus station, and Pnin hurriedly buys him a soccer ball and the Jack London novel ''The Son of the Wolf''. Victor is not interested in soccer, and Pnin takes the entire encounter as a failure, unaware that Victor holds him in great admiration.

Chapter 5

Pnin drives to The Pines, the summer home of a friend, where the host and guests are Russian émigrés and their Americanized children. Among his friends, Pnin, normally out of place in English-speaking society, is at ease and displays his knowledge of Russian culture and ability at croquet. A mutual friend mentions Pnin's former sweetheart, the Jewish Mira Belochkin, who was murdered at Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration camp. Another refers to Vladimir Vladimirovich, an expert on butterflies, who is later revealed to be the narrator of ''Pnin.''

Chapter 6

Pnin invites the Clementses, Mrs. Thayer, several Waindell faculty members, and his former student Betty Bliss to a "house-heating party". Pnin is considering buying the house from his landlord, but is informed by Dr. Hagen, the chair of his department, that a new department of Russian is to be formed, headed by a man under whom Pnin categorically refuses to work. Pnin almost breaks a magnificent glass punch bowl, a gift from Victor and a symbol of his regard.

Chapter 7

The identity of the narrator is revealed —a Russian-American academic and lepidopterist called Vladimir Vladimirovich. V.V. recounts his version of his meetings with Pnin, claiming that they first met when V.V. had an appointment with Pnin's father, Pavel, an ophthalmologist. V.V. had an affair with Pnin's ex-wife Liza just before Pnin's marriage, disparaged her mediocre "Akhmatovesque" poetry, and drove her to attempt suicide. V.V. patronises Pnin, and many of his claims conflict with events V.V. himself narrated earlier in the book. V.V., the new head of the Waindell Russian department, wrote to Pnin to urge him to stay, but Pnin leaves Waindell, taking a stray dog with him. The novel closes with Jack Cockerell, head of English at Waindell, beginning to tell V.V. the story of Pnin bringing the wrong lecture papers to Cremona, bringing the narrative full circle.

The game begins with the player character, an unnamed human, being killed and resurrected as a fledgling vampire. For this unauthorized act, the fledgling and their sire are brought before the Camarilla. The sire is executed by order of LaCroix; the fledgling is spared the same fate by the intervention of the anarch Nines Rodriguez, and employed by the prince.

LaCroix sends the fledgling to Santa Monica to help his ghoul, Mercurio, destroy a Sabbat warehouse. Following their success the fledgling travels to downtown Los Angeles, meeting separately with Nines, LaCroix, and Jack. LaCroix tasks the fledgling with investigating a docked ship, the ''Elizabeth Dane'', for information about an Ankaran sarcophagus rumored to contain the body of an Antediluvian, one of the oldest and most powerful vampires, whose arrival would herald Gehenna, the vampire apocalypse. The fledgling discovers that the sarcophagus seems to have been opened from within.

Increased Sabbat activity coincides with the disappearance of the Malkavian chief, Alistair Grout. At Grout's mansion, the fledgling sees Nines leaving and discovers Grout's remains in the mansion with vampire hunter Grünfeld Bach, who denies involvement in Grout's death. Learning about Nines' presence at the mansion, LaCroix tells the other chiefs to approve Nines' execution. The fledgling is sent to the Museum of Natural History to recover the sarcophagus, but finds that it has been stolen. Jack later suggests to the fledgling that LaCroix wants the sarcophagus to drink the blood of the ancient within, gaining its power.

Believing that Gary, the Nosferatu chief, has stolen the sarcophagus, the fledgling is sent to Hollywood to find him; after locating a captured Nosferatu for Gary, he reveals that the sarcophagus was stolen by the Giovanni vampire clan. The fledgling infiltrates the Giovanni mansion and finds the sarcophagus guarded by the Kuei-Jin, who claim their leader, Ming-Xiao, has formed an alliance with LaCroix. The locked sarcophagus is returned to LaCroix's tower, and Beckett, a vampire scholar, tells the fledgling that the only person who can open it has been abducted by Bach to lure LaCroix. The fledgling kills Bach and learns that the sarcophagus' key has been stolen.

The fledgling returns to LaCroix, learning that the Sabbat tried to steal the sarcophagus to destroy it and prevent Gehenna, and kills the Sabbat leader to disperse his followers. The fledgling is met by Ming-Xiao, who offers to form an alliance. Ming-Xiao reveals that she has the key, and LaCroix killed Grout to prevent his powerful insight from unveiling LaCroix's plans; Ming-Xiao disguised herself as Nines at the mansion to frame him. Denying Ming-Xiao's claims, LaCroix rescinds the blood hunt on Nines and entrusts the fledgling with recruiting the anarchs to punish the Kuei-Jin for murdering Grout. The fledgling finds Nines hiding in Griffith Park, and they are then attacked by a werewolf and Nines is badly injured. The fledgling escapes with Jack, who reveals that LaCroix has issued an execution order on the fledgling for framing Nines on orders from Ming-Xiao.

The ending varies, depending on whom, if anyone, the fledgling allies with. If the fledgling supports LaCroix or Ming-Xiao, each sends the fledgling to kill the other. LaCroix opens the sarcophagus, to be killed with the fledgling by hidden explosives; Ming-Xiao betrays the fledgling, chaining them to the sarcophagus and sinking it in the ocean. Supporting the anarchs, or no one, makes the fledgling kill Ming-Xiao and maim LaCroix, who is killed after he opens the sarcophagus. If the fledgling opens the sarcophagus, they die in the explosion. If the fledgling is a Tremere, they kill Ming-Xiao; LaCroix is replaced by Tremere leader Maximillian Strauss, and the sarcophagus is stored. Each ending has Jack watching from afar with the mummy taken from the coffin and the enigmatic taxi driver who transports the fledgling between locations, who says, "The blood of Caine controls our fate ... Farewell, vampire."

The Faded Sun trilogy can be considered a Bildungsroman, since one of the major themes is the coming of age of Niun, the mri protagonist. At the same time, it is a story of acculturation, as the human protagonist, Sten Duncan, lives among the mri to the point of becoming one of them.

The Faded Sun trilogy is the principal account of the Mri Wars era of Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe. At the beginning of the first volume, the regul have just concluded a forty-year war with humanity. As part of the peace, they are ceding the desert world of Kesrith to humanity. However, they have neglected to inform its inhabitants, the mri, who have served them as mercenaries for over two thousand years.

The Mri have been nearly exterminated in these wars, and young Niun is one of the few remaining warriors. When the regul seek to double-cross his people, he and his sister Melein, the last of the priestly Sen caste, form an uneasy alliance with the human Sten Duncan to rescue a holy relic that may hold the key to the Mri's survival.

The second volume opens with Niun and Melein captives of the human occupation force, kept alive by the human medicine they would refuse if they were not sedated. But the human command has a plan that may thwart the regul's attempted genocide of the Mri. They produce a navigation tape from the data in the holy relic that legend holds leads the way to the Mri homeworld and set Niun and Melein aboard the ship. Duncan comes with them to keep the ship running.

Soon after they have left Kesrith, Melein lays down a mandate that nothing that is not mri can make the return to the ancient mri homeworld. As a result, Duncan must become Mri or die. With Niun as his teacher, Duncan learns the stern rules of the Mri warrior caste, the Kel. Retracing the voyages of the Mri takes years, jump after jump, giving Duncan time to become Mri. With each jump, they find evidence of previous Mri civilizations, each one destroyed, further and further back in time. Eventually, they realize that this is not the first time that the Mri have been almost exterminated; in fact, the entire Mri history has been made up of the Mri fighting as mercenaries for other races, then being turned upon once their usefulness has ended, as the race(s) employing the Mri did not wish the possibility that the Mri might go and work for their enemies and be used against their former employers.

When the ship lands on Kutath, the ancient homeworld of the mri, the three find other mri, the tribes who remained. They also discover that humans and Regul have followed their ship, and the Regul have not forgotten their determination to commit genocide. After an unprovoked attack, Duncan goes back to the human ship and slays the Regul Elder.

When the third volume begins, the regul are in a state of disarray as a result of the assassination. Duncan returns to the mri and joins them in seeking assistance from the Elee, the other surviving race of ancient Kutath. After a new Elder has risen among the regul, they renew their attack on the Mri. This time humanity acts to halt the genocide, breaking the cycle, and forming a new partnership with the Mri.

The story continues that of ''Alex Kidd in Miracle World'' (1986). Alex lives on Planet Aries which is ruled by his brother, King Igul. After hearing a rumor that his long-lost father, King Thor, is still alive on Planet Paperock, Alex travels to the planet to search for him. <!--

Roger is reluctantly persuaded by his mother to travel to Leviathan, a focal planet producing "grumbly oil" (used in commercial products such as colognes), to represent the royal family at a local celebration. Due to sabotage during the voyage, Roger; one company of the Bronze Battalion of the Empress' Own, bodyguards to the Heir Tertius of the Empire; his valet; his tutor and chief of staff (a staff of one); and four shuttle craft pilots are forced to land on Marduk, a largely unexplored and quite obscure planet officially, and loosely, a planet in the Empire of Man. Marduk, an extremely humid and rainy planet over much of its surface, is home to a species of four-armed sentient amphibians referred to as Mardukans (or unofficially, scummies), as well as a large number of generally hostile lifeforms of a very active biota.

Roger and Bravo Company of the Bronze Barbarians (his Imperial Marine bodyguards) must travel across Marduk from their crash site, a salt flat, to the only spaceport on the planet, where they plan to obtain a starship and return to civilization. Because there are hostile forces in the system who seem to have the spaceport under control, they can't merely send a distress signal. Along the way Roger and his group are forced to make alliances with a succession of local polities (of varied social types) ranging from hunter-gatherers to early gunpowder civilizations. The journey requires the Prince to shed his foppish tendencies and immature behaviors, earning the respect of the Marines who come to see their Prince in a new light. Sergeant Nimashet Despereaux becomes attracted to the Prince, particularly after his more capable and effective potential is revealed, and Roger in turn with her, leading to a romantic tensions in the midst of the long march.

Roger and the diminishing Company, supported by a growing group of Mardukan allies, eventually find their way to the spaceport and off the planet, but not before Roger learns that his siblings (and their families) have been killed and that the Empire (and some beyond) believes that Roger himself was responsible. In fact, Roger's biological father, the Duke of New Madrid, and his ally, Prince Jackson Adoula, set up the sabotage of his ship, and have framed Roger for the crime, he being conveniently lost and certainly dead. They have also taken the Empress captive, using a combination of cybernetic tampering, torture, sexual slavery, and drugs to control the normally ironwilled Empress. The conspirators plan to put a second son of New Madrid (being matured in an incubator) and the Empress on the Throne.

Roger and the remaining 14 members of Bravo Company return to Earth, set themselves up as restaurateurs, make contact with former members of the Empress's Own, and with considerable difficulty, successfully launch a counter-coup. With the Empress rescued, the fetus destroyed by one of the conspirators' followers, and New Madrid in custody, Roger must cope with his mother's severely damaged condition, a half-destroyed navy, rebuilding the palace, restoring the line of succession, and with the very nearly inevitable threat of civil war thanks to the escape of Jackson Adoula. The fourth novel ends with the Empress abdicating the throne due to her condition, leaving Roger to reign as Emperor of the Throne of Man over an uncertain future.

The ''Enterprise'' is en route to the planet "Parliament" with delegates from two warring planets in the Beta Renner system, the reptilian Selay and the canine Antican, when the ship encounters a strange energy cloud. Unseen by the crew, Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) is hit with a strange energy discharge as the ship passes the cloud, causing him to become violent. Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) sedates Worf and brings him to the sickbay, but is also infused with the energy as she examines his body. Crusher begins to act oddly to those around her and goes to the bridge, asking questions about the ship's navigational functions. When she questions Lt. Cdr. Data (Brent Spiner) at one of the science stations, the energy sparks between her and the console, leaving her confused as to why she is on the bridge.

The ship suddenly begins to malfunction and Captain Picard sends Assistant Engineer Singh (Kavi Raz) to investigate the cause. Singh is later found dead near a computer link, and Picard orders a murder investigation, considering the alien delegates to be prime suspects. Data investigates the murder in the manner of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and determines that the delegates were not responsible. Meanwhile, Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) uses hypnosis on both Worf and Crusher, finding that both recall being invaded by some entity during their blackouts. The ship suddenly drops again out of warp, and as Picard investigates the readouts at a bridge console, the strange energy transfers into him. The bridge crew becomes suspicious of Picard's actions after noting that all ''Enterprise'' systems are back to normal and that Picard has ordered them to return to the cloud.

The senior officers attempt to plead with Picard to undergo a medical examination and to step down from command, but he refuses. When they return to the cloud, Picard announces that they had picked up an entity previously when they passed the cloud, and now Picard and the entity are one. Under its influence, Picard plans to transport his energy back into the cloud, and he shoots energy at the bridge crew when they try to stop him. The crew are unable to prevent Picard from beaming off the ship. The crew spend hours trying to locate Picard to no avail, so they are forced to accept he is beyond recovery and prepare to leave. However, Troi senses the Captain's essence nearby, and Picard manages to signal the crew through the ship's computers. Data is able to reverse the transport, reconstituting Picard without the entity. After determining that Picard is himself again, lacking the memories since he was taken over by the entity, the ''Enterprise'' continues on to Parliament.

The story is set in the year of 1996. When the United States National Security Agency's code-breaking supercomputer TRANSLTR encounters a revolutionary new code, ''Digital Fortress,'' that it cannot break, Commander Trevor Strathmore calls in head cryptographer Susan Fletcher to crack it. She is informed by Strathmore that it was written by Ensei Tankado, a former NSA employee who became displeased with the NSA's intrusion into people's private lives. If the NSA doesn't reveal TRANSLTR to the public, Tankado intends to auction the code's algorithm on his website and have his partner, "North Dakota", release it for free if he dies, essentially holding the NSA hostage. Strathmore tells Fletcher that Tankado has in fact died in Seville at the age of 32, of what appears to be a heart attack. Strathmore intends to keep Tankado's death a secret because if Tankado's partner finds out, he will upload the code. The agency is determined to stop Digital Fortress from becoming a threat to national security.

Strathmore asks Fletcher's fiancé David Becker to travel to Seville and recover a ring that Tankado was wearing when he died. The ring is suspected to have the passcode that unlocks Digital Fortress. However, Becker soon discovers that Tankado gave the ring away just before his death. Unbeknown to Becker, a mysterious figure, named Hulohot, follows him, and murders each person he questions in the search for the ring. Unsurprisingly, Hulohot's final attempt would be on Becker himself.

Meanwhile, telephone calls between North Dakota and Tokugen Numataka reveals that North Dakota hired Hulohot to kill Tankado in order to gain access to the passcode on his ring and speed up the release of the algorithm.

At the NSA, Fletcher's investigation leads her to believe that Greg Hale, a fellow NSA employee, is North Dakota. Phil Chartrukian, an NSA technician who is unaware of the Digital Fortress code breaking failure and believes Digital Fortress to be a virus, conducts his own investigation into whether Strathmore allowed Digital Fortress to bypass Gauntlet, the NSA's virus/worm filter. To save the TRANSLTR Phil decides to shut it down but is murdered after being pushed off sub-levels of TRANSLTR by an unknown assailant. Since Hale and Strathmore were both in the sub-levels, Fletcher assumes that Hale is the killer; however, Hale claims that he witnessed Strathmore killing Chartrukian. Chartrukian's fall also damages TRANSLTR's cooling system.

Hale holds Fletcher and Strathmore hostage to prevent himself from being arrested for Phil's murder. It is then that Hale explains to Fletcher, the e-mail he supposedly received from Tankado was also in Strathmore's inbox, as Strathmore was snooping on Tankado. Fletcher discovers through a tracer that North Dakota and Ensei Tankado are the same person, as "NDAKOTA" is an anagram of "Tankado."

Strathmore kills Hale and arranges it to appear as a suicide. Fletcher later discovers through Strathmore's pager that he is the one who hired Hulohot. Becker manages to track down the ring, but ends up pursued by Hulohot in a long cat-and-mouse chase across Seville. The two eventually face off in a cathedral, where Becker finally kills Hulohot by tripping him down a spiral staircase, causing him to break his neck. He is then intercepted by NSA field agents sent by Leland Fontaine, the director of the NSA.

Chapters told from Strathmore's perspective reveal his master plan. By hiring Hulohot to kill Tankado, having Becker recover his ring and at the same time arranging for Hulohot to kill Becker, he would facilitate a romantic relationship with Fletcher, regaining his lost honor. He has also been working incessantly for many months to unlock Digital Fortress, installing a backdoor inside the program. By making phone calls to Numataka posing as North Dakota, he thought he could partner with Numatech to make a Digital Fortress chip equipped with his own backdoor Trojan. Finally, he would reveal to the world the existence of TRANSLTR, boasting it would be able to crack all the codes except Digital Fortress, making everyone rushing to use the computer chip equipped with Digital Fortress so that the NSA could spy on every computer equipped with these chips.

However, Strathmore was unaware that Digital Fortress is actually a computer worm that, once unlocked would "eat away" all the NSA databank's security and allow "any third-grader with a modem" to look at government secrets. When TRANSLTR overheats, Strathmore dies by standing next to the machine as it explodes. The worm eventually gets into the database, but Becker eventually figures out the passcode just seconds before the last defense fall (3, the difference between the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, Isotope 235, and the Nagasaki nuclear bomb, isotope 238, a reference to the nuclear bombs that killed Tankado's mother and left him crippled), and Fletcher is able to terminate the worm before hackers can get any significant data. The NSA allows Becker to return to the United States, reuniting him with Fletcher.

In the epilogue, it is revealed that Numataka was Ensei Tankado's father who left Tankado the day he was born due to Tankado's deformity. As Tankado's last living relative, Numataka inherits the rest of Tankado's possessions.

Romilly MacAran has the ''laran'' gift of her family – the ability to merge with the minds of animals. She uses this gift to train hawks and horses. When she reaches the age of fifteen (womanhood, in Darkover's terms), her father refuses to allow her to continue working with animals on the grounds that it isn't ladylike. He gives her prized hawk, Preciosa, to her brother, who has no gift. He also refuses her requests for an education.

When Romilly learns that her father intends to marry her off to a three-times widower, Garris of Scathfell, she realizes that leaving home is her only option. Dressed as a boy, she escapes with a horse from the stables.

Calling herself Rumal, she heads towards Nevarsin. Her hawk, Preciosa, appears in the sky, and provides her with a freshly killed bird, the first meal she has had in several days. Her fire attracts a company of men, headed by Dom Carlo and Dom Orain, who have three sick sentry birds that need care. They, too, are headed to Nevarsin, and Romilly takes over the care of their birds. Romilly reveals that she is a ''cristoforo''. Dom Carlo claims to be a kinsman of the deposed king, Carolin, and is fleeing his cousin, Rakhal, who has taken the throne by force.

At Nevarsin, the company enters the ''cristoforo'' monastery of St. Valentine of the Snows. Romilly discovers that Caryl, the son of Lyondri Hastur, one of Dom Carlo's bitterest enemies, is a student at the monastery. Romilly warns Orain.

Orain and Carlo believe themselves betrayed, and leave the monastery, taking Caryl Hastur as a hostage. Caryl is put in Romilly's care.

At an inn in Caer Donn, Orain makes a pass at Romilly, believing her to be a boy, and is shocked to discover that she is a girl. He takes her to the hostel of the Sisterhood of the Sword where his cousin, Jandria, lives. He also asks Jandria to take charge of Caryl Hastur. Romilly becomes a member of the Sisterhood. A contingent of the Sisterhood join Carolin's forces. Romilly's hawk, Preciosa, reappears.

At Jandria's request, Romilly accompanies Caryl back to his father in Hali city. Romilly returns to Jandria with medical supplies. At Serrais, Romilly is assigned to train horses, among them a black stallion whom she names Sunstar. She and Jandria deliver the horses to Carolin's camp, where her brother, Ruyven, is also engaged caring for the sentry birds. At that time, Romilly discovers that "Dom Carlo" is actually King Carolin Hastur.

Several days later, the two armies engage in battle. Carolin learns that Lyondri is holding Orain and threatening to kill him. Romilly sneaks into the city, and is able to find Orain's location. She meets Caryl, who out of disgust with his father's torture of Orain, agrees to help free him. They return to Carolin's camp.

Romilly decides that she must enter Tramontana tower for ''laran'' training.

The lower middle-class Grove family live in the London suburb of Hendon. Patriarch Bob Grove is a builder, allowing the show to demonstrate basic home security. He lives with his mother, his wife, and their four children. The first episode shows the family making their last mortgage payment, and over the course of the series Bob tries to grow his business and attain prosperity in postwar Britain. The fourth episode shows Gran buying the family a television set, a sign of the new consumerism.

In 1899, 17-year-old Jack "Cowboy" Kelly is one of many struggling newspaper hawkers in New York City, selling copies of the ''New York World'' on the streets of Manhattan ("Carrying the Banner"). When David Jacobs and his younger brother Les join the "newsies," Jack notices David's intelligence and Les's marketable cuteness and self-servingly takes them under his wing. Unlike most of the newsies, David and Les are not orphans or runaways; they have a home and family, and go to work in order to help their family get back on their feet financially, as their father was fired from his factory job due to an injury. Jack is invited to the Jacobs' home for dinner, where he becomes enamored with their sister Sarah. Later, Jack laments his isolation due to lacking a family of his own; he fantasizes about traveling to New Mexico, about which he has heard many romantic stories ("Santa Fe").

Attempting to outdo his business rival William Randolph Hearst, ''New York World'' publisher Joseph Pulitzer raises the prices that the newsies must pay to buy newspapers from his distribution centers. Angered, Jack and David galvanize the other Manhattan newsies to go on strike ("The World Will Know"). While the others spread the word to newsies in New York's other boroughs, Jack and Les confront Pulitzer and are thrown out of his office. Bryan Denton, a reporter for ''The Sun'', takes an interest in the boys' story. Jack and David take their cause to the Brooklyn newsies, but their leader, "Spot" Conlon, is reluctant to join the strike. This dejects the Manhattan newsies, but David riles them up ("Seize the Day"). As a result, they ambush the distribution center and destroy all of the newspapers. Disabled newsie "Crutchie" is captured by Pulitzer's enforcers, the Delancey brothers, and placed in an orphanage and juvenile detention center called the Refuge, run by the sketchy Warden Snyder, who neglects the orphans so that he can embezzle money given to him by the city for their care.

The newsies try to ward off strikebreakers, but the struggle turns violent and turns out to be a trap set by the Delancey brothers. Just as the newsies are about to be arrested, Spot Conlon arrives with the Brooklyn newsies and the two groups unite to repel the police. Denton puts the story on the front page of ''The Sun''. Thrilled, the newsies all rejoice at making the headline and imagine what it would be like to be famous ("King of New York"). They then plan to hold a rally. Snyder informs Pulitzer that Jack is an escapee from the Refuge, giving Pulitzer legal cause to have him arrested. Jack has breakfast with Sarah on the roof of the Jacobs' apartment building; he tells her of his desire to flee to Santa Fe, and wonders if she would miss him.

Newsies from around New York gather at Medda Larkin's Bowery. Jack, David, and Spot give speeches, encouraging the newsies to stick together and not give up on their cause. Before they all go back to their own boroughs, Medda cheers them up with a song ("High Times, Hard Times"). The police then break up the rally and arrest the newsies, but Denton steps in to pay their legal fines. Snyder testifies against Jack and reveals to the others that Jack's real name is Francis Sullivan; his mother is deceased and his father incarcerated. Jack is sentenced to four years of rehabilitation in the Refuge. Denton is reassigned as a war correspondent and can no longer report on the strike. Jack is taken to see Pulitzer, who offers to waive his sentence and pay him a salary if he will work as a strikebreaker. When Pulitzer threatens to have the other newsies thrown into the Refuge, Jack complies. The boys attempt to rescue Jack, but he tells them to leave.

The newsies are shocked and dismayed to see Jack report for work the next day. When the Delanceys attack the Jacobs children, Jack steps in to save them, despite knowing this will break his deal with Pulitzer. The newsies learn from Denton that their strike has had little effect on public opinion, since the city thrives on child labor and Pulitzer has ordered newspapers not to report on the strike. Using an old printing press of Pulitzer's, they publish a "Newsie Banner" which they distribute to child workers citywide ("Once and For All"). Denton shares the paper with Governor Theodore Roosevelt, exposing the mistreatment of children at the Refuge. Numerous child laborers join the strike, bringing the city's workforce to a standstill. Jack and David confront Pulitzer, who finally gives in to their demands.

Roosevelt has Snyder arrested, releases the children from the Refuge, and thanks Jack for alerting him to the situation. He offers Jack a ride, and Jack asks to be taken to the train yards so he can head to Santa Fe. The newsies are disheartened by this, but Jack returns shortly, having been convinced by Roosevelt that he still has things to accomplish in New York. As the newsies celebrate his return, Sarah and Jack kiss, and Spot gets a ride back to Brooklyn from Roosevelt.

Paul is a young womanizer living in a small Southern town, where he earns a living fixing cars for his uncle. Paul still lives with his mother, Elvira, who works as a clown cheering up children at the local hospital. He spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and self-proclaimed partner-in-crime, Tip, and their friends Bo and Bust-Ass. Among his friends, Paul has a reputation as a ladies' man, but he is not at all known for being involved with long-term relationships; most of Paul's romances last only a few weeks, and he's slept with nearly every girl in town. Paul is beginning to reach a point where he would like to lead a different life, and that feeling becomes all the more clear when he meets Noel, Tip's teenage sister who returns home after attending a boarding school. Noel is more thoughtful and mature than the girls Paul is used to. Paul and Noel soon fall in love, but for Paul this is a different sort of relationship than he's accustomed to — Noel is still a virgin, and her contemplative nature gives him a desire to be a better, stronger person, but Tip does not approve of Paul dating his younger sister, which leads to a rift between these longtime friends.

Mob boss Paul Vitti and his ''consigliere'' Manetta are discussing an upcoming meeting and the Mafia's present-day problems over lunch. Just as Manetta warns Paul to look out for Primo Sindone (an up-and-coming mafioso who wants to be ''capo di tutti capi''), gunmen drive past and kill Manetta. Paul narrowly escapes.

Psychiatrist Ben Sobel is stressed: his son from his first marriage spies on his sessions, his patients are not challenging enough, and his wedding to Laura MacNamara is upcoming. Ben rear-ends a car belonging to Paul and the trunk opens, revealing a man bound and gagged inside, which Ben and his son do not notice. Jelly, one of Paul's men, takes the blame, but Ben gives Jelly his business card in case he changes his mind regarding compensation.

During a meeting, Paul has a panic attack and tells Jelly that he needs to see a psychiatrist, but it has to be kept a secret, and Jelly recommends Ben. Paul visits Ben, claiming his friend needs therapy, but Ben sees through the lie and realizes Paul is talking about himself, impressing Paul enough to want to see him constantly, to Ben's frustration. Ben goes to Miami for his wedding and Paul, Jelly, and the crew follow. Paul explains he has been suffering from erectile dysfunction and Ben suggests the source of the problem might be stress.

The next day, Paul has another panic attack and requests to see Ben. Paul explains his history with his father to Ben, who thinks this might have something to do with Paul's anxiety. The wedding is interrupted when an assassin is killed by Jelly. Ben confronts Paul and causes him to lose his temper. Ben suggests he resolve his anger by calling Primo and telling him how he feels. Paul phones Primo and starts by telling him how he feels, but ends up threatening to kill him.

Ben and his family return to New York, where they find a fountain in their garden, a gift from Paul. The FBI arrive and request Ben inform on Paul, but he refuses despite the FBI's threats. He changes his mind when the FBI play a tape in which Paul reveals his intention to kill Ben after the meeting (which the FBI had altered: Paul was actually saying he would kill anyone who threatened Ben). At his next meet-up with Paul, Ben wears a wire, but discards it when he learns that, as a child, Paul witnessed his father being murdered. Paul, informed that Ben was working with the FBI, takes him to a secluded place to kill him. Ben and Paul get into a heated argument, and Paul breaks down as he admits that he blames himself for his father's death. Just then, two hitmen arrive to kill Paul, but Jelly kills them both. Paul apologizes for planning to kill Ben, and the two part ways.

The day of the meeting arrives, but Paul has a severe panic attack. Jelly interrupts Ben's wedding, requesting Ben attend the meeting as Paul's ''consigliere''. Ben is reluctant, but his ego causes him to patronize Primo until Primo finally pulls a gun. Paul arrives, orders Primo to stand down, and announces he knows a traitor in his own family killed Dominic, but will not seek revenge and instead retire from the Mafia. Outside, a standoff ensues between Paul's and Primo's men, during which Ben sacrifices himself for Paul. The FBI intervenes, the mobsters are arrested, and Ben is taken to the hospital.

Ben visits Paul in prison, and Paul thanks Ben for his help before informing him that Primo is dead. At home, Ben dances with his new wife as Tony Bennett serenades them.

Tired of being rejected by the beautiful women he lusts after, Chuck Barris moves to Manhattan to become an NBC page with dreams of becoming famous in television but is eventually fired. He moves back to Philadelphia and becomes Dick Clark's personal assistant on ''American Bandstand'' in 1961. He writes the successful song "Palisades Park" and becomes romantically involved with a woman named Penny Pacino. Chuck is given permission to pitch the concept for ''The Dating Game'' at ABC. He is given $7,500 to create a television pilot, but ABC abandons the idea in favor of ''Hootenanny''.

One night after Barris is kicked out of a bar for fighting, he is approached by CIA agent Jim Byrd, who recruits him as an assassin. Returning from a mission in Mexico, Barris finds that Penny has become a hippie. Meanwhile, ABC green-lights ''The Dating Game'', and by 1967 the show is a phenomenon.

On a CIA mission in Helsinki, Finland, he meets female operative Patricia Watson. He finds more success back home when ''The Newlywed Game'' goes on air. He and Penny decide to move to Los Angeles, but Barris is cautious of marriage, much to Penny's dismay. In 1970, Byrd convinces Barris to go on a mission to West Berlin to assassinate Hans Colbert. Barris is introduced to German-American agent Keeler, whom he helps to kill Colbert. However, he is captured by the KGB and, after some weeks, freed during a west–east spy exchange.

In 1976, Barris creates ''The Gong Show,'' becoming famous as its host. Keeler is murdered and Byrd warns Barris of a mole in the agency. His TV shows are canceled due to poor ratings, and Penny threatens to leave after catching him cheating. One night, Barris finds Byrd sitting atop the diving board of his backyard pool. Byrd reveals why he was chosen by the CIA to become an assassin: he is the son of a serial killer and had been raised as a girl by his mother, so he "fit the profile". Barris threatens Byrd, and after Byrd is shown dead moments later, we can see him holding a gun at him.

Faced with the unpleasant truth about himself, Barris begins to spiral out of control. After almost having a nervous breakdown on ''The Gong Show'', Barris shuts himself away in a New York City hotel. Penny finds him and tries in vain to convince him to return to California to get married.

Barris finally leaves his room to meet Patricia in Boston. After a cup of coffee, Barris collapses, seemingly poisoned. Patricia reveals that she is the mole. Barris has tricked Patricia into drinking from the poisoned cup, and she falls dead. After her death, he returns home and begins writing his autobiography, ''Confessions of a Dangerous Mind''. He finally decides to marry Penny. At the end of the ceremony, he sees some of the people he killed in the crowd. Distraught, he confesses to her his double life as a CIA assassin, but she merely laughs, assuming he is joking, and he decides not to correct her.

Akronos has discovered the Geometric Nucleus during the course of his research. The Nucleus is a device of incredible power that could be a terrible weapon. Akronos feels that the Nucleus must be kept from evil men at all costs. When he learns that the evil Zor and his army are approaching his castle, he asks his daughter Mila to bring his former student Ator back to help defeat Zor. Mila runs away to find Ator. Zor's soldiers enter and begin beating Akronos, but Zor angrily sends them away to maintain the image of a man who would only use violence if needed.

Mila is pursued by Zor's soldiers and is wounded by them but continues to stagger towards Ator's home. At last, she arrives, and Ator uses his medical knowledge to heal her wound. She then is able to convince him she is the daughter of Akronos, and that her father is in terrible danger.

Mila, Ator, and Ator's Asian assistant Thong begin the journey back to Akronos' castle, facing various dangers along the way, including a group of cannibals, another group determined to sacrifice them to their god — which is a huge snake — and other soldiers.

Finally, they make it back to the castle. While Mila and Thong sneak in the back way, Ator uses his knowledge of flight to quickly create a hang glider, which he flies over the castle, dropping bombs on Zor's soldiers. Having defeated most of Zor's forces, Ator takes on Zor himself and defeats him. Akronos convinces Ator to let Zor live to face trial, but when Ator steps away, Zor grabs a sword to threaten Ator, and Zor is killed by Thong.

Afterward, Akronos gives the Geometric Nucleus to Ator. Ator tells Mila he has to leave, that his life is too dangerous to share with her. Mila says that she knows Ator must fight evil where ever it occurs. Ator leaves Thong behind to help take care of Mila and Akronos, and leaves. He takes the Nucleus to a distant land, where he destroys it in a massive nuclear detonation.

At a Louisiana assisted-living home in 1999, elderly retiree Paul Edgecomb becomes emotional while viewing the film ''Top Hat''. His companion Elaine becomes concerned, and Paul explains to her that the film reminded him of events that he witnessed when he was an officer at Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death row, nicknamed "The Green Mile."

In 1935, Paul supervises Corrections Officers Brutus "Brutal" Howell, Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and Percy Wetmore, reporting to chief warden Hal Moores. Paul is introduced to John Coffey, a physically imposing but mild-mannered African American man sentenced to death after being convicted of raping and murdering two young white girls. He joins two other condemned convicts on the block: Eduard "Del" Delacroix and Arlen Bitterbuck, the latter of whom is the first to be executed. Percy, the nephew of the state governor's wife, demonstrates a sadistic streak but flaunts his family connections to avoid being held accountable; he is particularly abusive towards Del, breaking his fingers and killing his pet mouse Mr. Jingles.

After John heals Paul's severe bladder infection by touching him and later resurrects Mr. Jingles, Paul gradually realizes that John possesses a supernatural ability to heal others. Suspecting that John is endowed with the power to perform divine miracles, Paul doubts whether he is truly guilty of his crimes. Meanwhile, the officers are forced to deal with psychotic new inmate William "Wild Bill" Wharton, who frequently causes trouble by assaulting the officers and racially abusing John, forcing them to restrain him in the block's padded cell on more than one occasion.

In exchange for resigning from the penitentiary and accepting a job at an insane asylum, Percy is allowed to oversee Del's execution. At the execution, Percy deliberately avoids soaking the sponge used to conduct electricity to Del's head, leading to Del suffering a gruesome and agonizing death, with John forced to feel Del's pain as well. Paul and the other officers bind and gag Percy as punishment for his actions and force him to spend a night in the padded cell. While Percy is locked away, they secretly smuggle John out of the prison so that he can use his powers to heal Warden Moores's wife Melinda of a brain tumor, saving her life. After Percy is released from the padded room, the others threaten to report him for his various acts of misconduct if his behavior continues.

John uses his powers to "release" Melinda's affliction into Percy's brain, causing Percy to shoot Wild Bill to death. Soon after, John reveals in a vision to Paul that Wild Bill was the true culprit of the crimes for which he was wrongfully condemned, releasing his supernatural energy into Paul in the process. Having suffered a mental breakdown, Percy is committed to the same insane asylum where he had planned to work after resigning from the prison.

Finally realizing that John is innocent, Paul is distraught at the thought of executing him, and offers to let him go free. John tells Paul that the execution would be an act of mercy, as he views the world as a cruel place, and is in constant pain from the suffering that people inflict upon each other. Mentioning that he has never seen a movie before, John watches ''Top Hat'' with the other officers as a last request. When executed later that night, he asks not to have a hood placed over his head, as he is afraid of the dark. The officers all watch in sadness, visibly holding back tears as Coffey is executed. Back in the present, Paul tells Elaine that John's was the last execution that he and Brutal witnessed, as they both subsequently resigned from the prison and took jobs in the juvenile system.

Concluding his story, Paul reveals that Del's mouse Mr. Jingles is still alive; having been blessed with a supernaturally long life thanks to John's healing touch. He also reveals that he himself is now 108 years old, having been 44 at the time of John's execution. While Elaine sees Paul's long life as another of John's miracles, Paul speculates that it may be a divine punishment and that he has been condemned to linger on Earth and outlive all of his loved ones for killing John. Paul is later shown attending Elaine's funeral, and muses on how much longer he has left to live.

Bob Wiley has great work ethic and treats people well, but he suffers from multiple phobias which makes it difficult for him to leave his apartment and is divorced because his ex-wife likes Neil Diamond and he does not. Despite regular therapy, he makes little progress and his fears compel him to seek constant reassurance from his therapists.

Exhausted by Bob's high-maintenance conditions and invasions of personal boundaries, his current therapist refers him to the egotistical Dr. Leo Marvin, who believes his recently published book ''Baby Steps'' will make him a household name. Bob feels good about their initial session, but Dr. Marvin dismisses Bob in a rush to his long-standing, month-long family vacation. Unable to cope, Bob contacts Leo via his telephone exchange and tries to find out where he is, but Leo dismisses him. Then Bob pays a prostitute to impersonate Leo's sister Lily so Bob can call him, but Leo tells Bob he cannot trust him if he pulls anymore stunts like that. He then disguises as a homicide detective telling the switchboard operator that Bob committed suicide, then tracks Leo to Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Leo is annoyed, but sees Bob's desperation and tells him to "take a vacation" from his problems. Bob seems to have made a breakthrough, but the next morning, he tells Leo that he will also be vacationing at Lake Winnipesaukee as a guest of the Guttmans, who hold a grudge against Leo for purchasing the lakeside home they had been scrimping and saving for years to buy.

Leo dismisses Bob's attempts at friendship as he believes patients are beneath him, but Bob ingratiates himself with Leo's family and relates to the problems of Leo's kids, Anna and Sigmund "Siggy", in contrast with their father's clinical approach. Bob begins to enjoy life, going sailing with Anna and helping Sigmund dive, which Leo had been unsuccessfully trying for years. After Leo angrily pushes Bob into the lake, Leo's wife Fay forces him to apologize, which he begrudgingly does. She then invites Bob to dinner and he accepts, believing Leo's slights against him are either accidental or part of his therapy. After dinner, a thunderstorm forces Bob to spend the night. Before sleeping, Bob, being germaphobic up to this point, throws away the tissues that he carried with him everywhere when making contact with various objects, showing that he is slowly making therapeutic progress. Leo wants Bob out of the house early the next morning before ''Good Morning America'' arrives to interview him about ''Baby Steps''. The TV crew, oblivious to Leo's discomfort, suggest having Bob on the show as well. Leo humiliates himself during the interview, while Bob is relaxed and speaks glowingly of Leo and the book, inadvertently stealing the spotlight.

Leo attempts to have Bob institutionalized, but Bob is soon released after befriending the hospital staff and telling them therapy jokes, demonstrating his sanity and showing that he has made real therapeutic progress due to his time with Dr. Marvin's family. Forced to retrieve Bob, Leo abandons him in the middle of nowhere, but Bob quickly gets a ride back to Leo's house while various mishaps delay Leo. Returning after nightfall, Leo is surprised by the birthday party Fay has secretly planned for him and is delighted to see his beloved sister Lily. When Bob appears and puts his arm around Lily, Leo becomes completely psychotic and attacks him. Bob still remains oblivious to Leo's hostility until Fay explains Leo's grudge against Bob, to which Bob finally understands and agrees to leave.

Leo breaks into a general store, stealing a shotgun and 20 pounds of explosives and kidnaps Bob at gunpoint. Leo leads him deep into the woods and ties him up with the explosives, calling it "death therapy", and returns to the house, gleefully preparing his cover story. Believing the explosives are props as a metaphor for his problems, Bob applies Leo's "''Baby Steps''" approach and manages to free himself of his restraints and remaining fears; he reunites with the Marvins and praises Leo for curing him. Leo asks Bob where the explosives are and Bob says they are in the family's vacation house, which promptly explodes into flames, much to the Guttmans' delight. Horrified, Leo is rendered catatonic and institutionalized while having his medical license revoked for attempted murder.

Some time later, Bob marries Leo's sister, and upon their pronouncement as husband and wife, the still-catatonic Leo finally regains his senses and screams, "No!", but the sentiment is lost in the family's excitement at his recovery, and Leo is forced to accept Bob as his new brother-in-law. Text at the end reveals that Bob went back to school and became a psychologist, then wrote a best-selling book titled ''Death Therapy'', for which Leo is suing him for the rights.

After a nuclear power plant in Mississippi explodes, it was soon realized that a previously unknown form of radiation was released. The radiation caused all men on Earth to become sterile, even boys who were still inside the mother's womb. However, ten months after the explosion in Mississippi, a doctor delivers a perfectly healthy baby girl. It's soon discovered that the child's father, who has the surname ''Adam'', was more than a mile under the surface of Earth inside an old silver and lead mine during the explosion. It would appear that Mr. Adam is humanity's only hope to stave off extinction.Crowther, Florence (15 September 1946). [https://www.nytimes.com/1946/09/15/archives/mr-adam-vs-the-atom-adam-vs-atom.html Mr. Adam v. the Atom], ''The New York Times Book Review'', pp. 5, 43.(11 September 1946). [https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/pat-frank/mr-adam/ Kirkus Review], ''Kirkus Reviews''

The book begins with the pixie Opal Koboi faking a coma inside a hospital to avoid incarceration by the Lower Elements Police (LEP) after her failed rebellion and attempt of world domination (which took place in ''Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident'').

Opal Koboi, who had been under 24-hour surveillance, had DNA tests done every 4 hours, a seeker-sleeper planted in her arm (a device that can make the criminal faint, it also giving their position away) and had her in a net trapped with monitoring pads by the LEP to ensure that Opal was actually in the asylum cell, with help from the Brill Brothers Opal manages to replace herself with a clone, which is identical to herself (the only difference being that the clone is brain dead which is also the current state the sensors detect Opal's coma-like mind to be in).

Opal lures Commander Julius Root and Captain Holly Short of the LEP into a lava chute alone by putting General Scalene under the mesmer there. Koboi then kills Commander Root by using a 30-centimeter metal box packed with explosive gel and covered in stealth ore (framing Captain Holly Short as the murderer, she told Holly that if she shot a certain part of the exploding box, it would turn off (it only went faster), since stealth ore couldn't be picked up by any electronics the LEP cameras only saw Holly shooting the commander, clear as day), and launches a bio-bomb at Artemis Fowl, which fails to kill him and his bodyguard Domovoi Butler because Butler grabbed Artemis and jumps from the three-story hotel, using a mattress to cushion the fall.

Artemis Fowl was mindwiped in the third book of the series, ''Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code'' and has no memory of meeting the fairies. This has also caused him to revert to his former self - the one cruel enough to kidnap a fairy. But he has a conscience that he chooses not to listen to.

Artemis is rescued from the scene of the bio-bomb attack by Holly. She tells him who she is, in hopes to ignite his memory. He does not regain his memories of the past adventures but agrees to help her for a fee. They are then recaptured by Koboi and thrown into a troll-infested abandoned fairy theme park known as the "Eleven Wonders of the Human World" (containing scale-models not only of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World but also the additions of Abu Simbel, Borobodur, Rapa Nui and the Throne Hall at Persepolis). After a desperate battle against the troll hordes on a model of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, they are rescued by former criminal Mulch Diggums and Butler. Holly and Artemis become friends "bonded by trauma" and Artemis says he feels that he doesn't need money to help a friend.

Opal then proceeds with her plan to help renowned Italian billionaire environmentalist Giovanni Zito send a probe downward by mesmerising him that she is his pampered adopted daughter Belinda Zito, which, according to Koboi's plan, will cause the humans to find the fairies and start an inter-species war, leading to fairy genocide. The plan is to blow his fields with several megatons of TNT and then wait for the 118 million tons of iron, with a probe in it, to sink to the core at a rate of per second.

After being rescued, Mulch gives Artemis the disk that had been passed off as a gold medallion, which Butler was given earlier in the book. Artemis views the disk and regains his memories. He is overcome with the guilt of what he had done to the fairies but to Holly the most and for the first time, he apologizes for kidnapping her. He realizes that Holly, Butler, and Mulch were the only friends he had. Together, the four friends take on Opal Koboi, knowing that they are the only ones that know she's escaped. It becomes a more difficult task with the LEP on their tail, who still thinks Holly is the one who killed the Commander. The new Commander refuses to believe anything, despite the fact that everyone knows Root was like a father to Holly.

Afterwards, the story follows the struggle over the probe, which is closing in on the E7 chute. The probe eventually misses the chute, and Koboi crashes into a woman's vine field. She uses her last bits of magic to mesmerize the woman that she is Belinda, her child. However, a week later, Koboi is detained by the LEP, and Holly is cleared of all charges over Commander Root's murder. However, she is frustrated by Commander Root's replacement, Ark Sool, so she resigns and starts a private investigation firm with Mulch Diggums.

It is also apparent that Artemis has had a change of heart, as he anonymously donates the famed painting ''The Fairy Thief'', which he had stolen directly before Koboi's bio-bomb attack, to the Louvre museum.

The film opens with mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester, working from an underground laboratory, explaining the premise of the film (and associated series). Mike Nelson and the robots Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, along with Gypsy, are aboard the Satellite of Love high in Earth's orbit, when Forrester forces them to watch the film ''This Island Earth'' to break their wills; as in the television series, Mike, Crow and Tom riff the film as it plays.

The film-riffing scenes are book-ended and interspersed with short, unrelated sketches: * In the introduction, Crow attempts to dig through the ship's hull to return to Earth. * Crow and Tom dare Mike to drive the Satellite himself, but he ends up crashing into the Hubble Space Telescope. * Tom reveals that he has an "interocitor" like that used in ''This Island Earth''. The gang tries to use Tom's device to return to Earth, but they instead contact a Metalunan (the alien race from the film) who is unable to help them to figure out how to use it correctly but does accidentally repeatedly zap Tom's head with a laser beam. * After ''This Island Earth'' finishes, Mike, Crow and Tom are nowhere near broken and are having a party on the satellite. Furious at his failure, Forrester attempts to use his own interocitor to harm them, but only succeeds in transporting himself into the shower of the Metalunan previously seen. * During the credits, the film breaks the fourth wall as the crew returns to the theater and riffs on ''MST3k: The Movie'''s ending credits.

''Donkey Kong'' is considered to be the earliest video game with a storyline that visually unfolds on screen. The eponymous Donkey Kong character is the game's ''de facto'' villain. The hero is a carpenter originally unnamed in the Japanese arcade release, later named Jumpman, and then Mario. Donkey Kong kidnaps Mario's girlfriend, originally known as Lady and later renamed Pauline. The player must take the role of Mario and rescue her. This is the first occurrence of the damsel in distress scenario that provided the template for countless video games to come.

The game uses graphics and animation for characterization. Donkey Kong smirks upon Mario's demise. Pauline has a pink dress and long hair, and a speech balloon crying "HELP!". Mario, depicted in red overalls and a red cap, is an everyman character, a type common in Japan. Graphical limitations and the low pixel resolution of the small sprites prompted his design. A mustache implies a mouth, a cap obviates the animation of hair, and colored overalls distinguish his arm movements. The artwork of the cabinets and promotional materials make these cartoon-like character designs even more explicit. Pauline, for example, is depicted as disheveled like ''King Kong'' s Fay Wray in a torn dress and stiletto heels.

Like ''Pac-Man'' (1980), ''Donkey Kong'' has cutscenes, but innovates by advancing a complete plot. The game opens with the gorilla climbing a pair of ladders to the top of a construction site, accompanied by a variation on the musical theme from ''Dragnet''. He drops Pauline and stomps his feet, warping the steel beams. He moves to his final perch and sneers. A melody plays, and the level starts. This brief animation sets the scene and adds background to the gameplay, a first for video games. At the stage, a heart appears between Mario and Pauline, but Donkey Kong grabs her and climbs higher, causing the heart to break. The narrative concludes when Mario reaches the end of the rivet stage. He and Pauline are reunited, and a short intermission plays.

The story centers on Hart, a young law student from Minnesota who attends Harvard Law School and becomes obsessed with one of his teachers, Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. Hart becomes an expert on Kingsfield's subject, contracts; he reads everything about the subject, including all of Kingsfield's papers, most of which are not on the reading list. He goes so far as to break into the law library to read Kingsfield's original law school notes. Hart becomes such an expert that Kingsfield asks him to contribute to a paper.

At the same time, he begins a relationship with Susan Field, who turns out to be Kingsfield's daughter. Susan stands aloof from the law school rat race and dismisses all the things Hart cares about most.

After much effort preparing for final exams, Hart's grades are delivered to him, but he simply makes a paper airplane out of the envelope, and sends it sailing into the Atlantic Ocean without looking at it.

The film begins in 1935 in Florence, where a group of cultured expatriate English women – the "Scorpioni" – meet for tea every afternoon. Young Luca is the illegitimate son of an Italian businessman who's little interested in his son's upbringing; the boy's seamstress mother has recently died.

Mary Wallace, the man's secretary, steps in to care for Luca, seeking support from her Scorpioni friends, including eccentric would-be artist Arabella. They teach Luca about life and the arts. Elsa Morganthal, a rich young American widow who Scorpioni matron Lady Hester Random barely tolerates, sets up a financial trust for Luca when she hears his mother has died, as she was fond of her and still owes her money for her dressmaking services.

One day when the ladies are having afternoon tea, Italian Fascists disrupt them, reflecting the increasingly uncertain position of the expatriate community. Lady Hester, widow of Britain's former ambassador to Italy, retains an admiring faith in Benito Mussolini. She visits him, receiving his assurances of their safety, and proudly recounts her "tea with Mussolini".

As the political situation continues to deteriorate, the Scorpioni find their status and liberties diminishing. Luca's father decides Italy's future is with Germany rather than Britain, so sends Luca to an Austrian boarding school.

Five years later, Luca plans to study art in Florence with Elsa's trust fund. He finds that most British nationals are fleeing the country, anticipating Mussolini's declaration of war on Great Britain, and that Mary has moved in with Lady Hester and the other English hold-outs. Arriving at the house just as they – and Hester's grandson Wilfred, disguised as a woman – are being transported to the Tuscan town of San Gimignano, he follows.

As the U.S. is not at war, Elsa and her American compatriot Georgie Rockwell, an openly lesbian archaeologist, remain free. Elsa uses Luca to deliver forged orders and funds to have the ladies moved from their barren quarters to an upper class hotel. Believing that Mussolini helped, Lady Hester is delighted, proudly brandishing the newspaper photo of her tea with ''Il Duce''.

As the war progresses, Jewish oppression increases and the Jewish Elsa – protected somewhat by her citizenship and wealth – gets a group of Italian Jews fake passports, enlisting Luca – who is enamored of her – to deliver them. However he becomes jealous when seeing she's involved with Italian lawyer Vittorio.

When the U.S. enters the war in 1941, Elsa and Georgie are interned with the British women. Tricked by Vittorio, who embezzles her art collection and money, he plans to deliver her to the German Gestapo in a phony escape to Switzerland. Luca knows but tells no one out of jealous spite. Mary learns of it from Elsa's art dealer and scolds him.

Luca's attitude changes and he gives his trust fund money to the Italian resistance movement, which Wilfred has joined. Elsa refuses to believe Vittorio's betrayal until Lady Hester, discovering what Elsa has done for all of them, repents and offers gratitude and help. Elsa's escape plan is hatched by Mary, Luca and Wilfred. Before leaving, she tells Luca she supported his young mother to go through with her pregnancy, so he could be there for her.

In July 1944, as the British Army advances toward San Gimignano, Arabella defends her frescoes from demolition by German troops, heroically joined in the line of fire by Georgie and the English women, including Lady Hester. They are saved when the Germans retreat, leaving the women and the towers untouched.

The city rejoices as the Scots Guards arrive, with Luca now serving as their Italian interpreter. The major has orders to evacuate the Scorpioni but Lady Hester refuses, resolved that they will resume their former lives in Italy. Mary is delighted to see that Luca – now in British uniform – has become the "English gentleman" his father wished him to be.

Closing texts explain the mostly happy fates of the characters, concluding with the remark that Luca has become an artist and is the writer and director of the film.

In 1931, the patients at the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane revolt against the staff headed by the sadistic Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt. The patients start a fire which engulfs the building, killing all of the inmates and all but five of Vannacutt’s staff.

In 1999, Evelyn Stockard-Price is in a disintegrating marriage with Steven Price, an amusement park mogul. At Evelyn's insistence, Price stages her birthday party at the long-abandoned hospital. The building's owner, Watson Pritchett, is convinced it is evil, having lived there as a child when it was converted to a private residence. Five guests arrive for the party: film producer Jennifer Jenzen; baseball player Eddie Baker; former television personality Melissa Marr; Donald Blackburn, a physician; and Pritchett himself. The guests are not the ones Price invited and neither of the Prices know who they are. Despite this, Price continues the party's advertised theme, offering $1 million to each guest who remains in the house until morning; those who flee forfeit their $1 million to the others.

The building's security system is mysteriously tripped, locking everyone inside – a stunt which Price blames on Evelyn. Jennifer, Eddie and Pritchett search the basement for the control panel. While exploring the labyrinthine basement, Jennifer confesses to Eddie that her real name is Sara Wolfe, the recently fired assistant to the real Jennifer. She impersonated Jennifer hoping to win the prize money. Shortly after, Sara is nearly drowned in a tank of blood by a ghost impersonating Eddie, but the real Eddie arrives in time to save her. Melissa subsequently disappears, leaving behind a massive trail of blood. Price visits his assistant Schechter, who is supposed to be managing the party stunts, but finds him horribly mutilated. On the surveillance monitor he sees the ghost of Dr. Vannacutt walking around with a bloody saw.

Evelyn seemingly dies in front of the others, strapped to an electroshock therapy table. Price pulls a gun on the guests, demanding to know who killed his wife. Eddie knocks him out and they lock Price in the "Saturation Chamber", an archaic zoetrope device that Vannacutt used to treat schizophrenics. Blackburn volunteers to guard Price. When the others leave, he turns the chamber on, leaving Price to be tortured by the moving images and ghostly hallucinations. In Vannacutt's office, Sara and Eddie find a portrait of the hospital's head staff and realize that the party guests are descendants of the five survivors of the 1931 fire. Pritchett deduces that the spirits themselves hacked the guest list on Price's computer. The only exception is Blackburn, whose name does not appear among the staff.

Blackburn is revealed as Evelyn's lover. They have faked Evelyn's death, plotting to frame Price for the murders, hoping one of the guests will kill him in self-defense. Evelyn heartlessly kills Blackburn, adding another victim, then releases a delirious Price from the chamber. Sara finds Price, covered in blood and with Blackburn's severed head nearby, and shoots him. Eddie and Pritchett arrive and bring Sara upstairs, after which Evelyn approaches Price to gloat. Price, protected by a bulletproof vest and posing as dead, attacks Evelyn. As they scuffle, Evelyn is thrown through a decaying door, revealing the evil entity of the house – The Darkness.

The shape-shifting creature, composed of the spirits in the house, consumes Evelyn, adding her spirit to its mass. Price then discovers Melissa's body. Shortly after, Pritchett is also killed by The Darkness, allowing Price to flee. Price tells Sara and Eddie that the only escape is through the attic. The Darkness seeps through the house, following them. Price opens a window in the attic, then sacrifices himself to give the others time to escape. Sara gets out, but The Darkness closes an iron gate, trapping Eddie.

As The Darkness entity prepares to assimilate Eddie, he reveals that he is adopted, and not a true descendant of the original staff. Pritchett's ghost appears and opens the iron gate. The Darkness is distracted by Pritchett long enough for Eddie to escape. Pritchett's ghost and The Darkness fades away as Sara and Eddie watch the sun rise. They find an envelope on the ledge, containing all five checks, made out to cash.

In a post-credits scene, a black and white film is shown, depicting the spirits of the 1931 patients torturing the Prices for eternity.

The story is set in post-revolutionary France in early 19th-century. Although the specific date is never given, Napoleon Bonaparte is still in power. One character remarks that it is several years before the 20th anniversary of the French Revolution, placing the game's events in the years before 1809.

The protagonist is Guys, a young boy from a poor family, who gets caught stealing candy from a Paris store. However, after being railroaded by a city detective named Guildias, Guys finds himself accused, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a man he never met.

From that point on, most of ''Enzai'' takes place inside a dark, claustrophobic, dirty prison. In there, Guys experiences humiliation and torture of various kinds, much of it involving nonconsensual sexual acts.

The primary goal of the game is for the player (as Guys) to locate evidence and witnesses that can exonerate him of the murder, unveil the true killer, and get him released from prison. Secondary goals include learning the killer's true motives, finding out the backstory of the murder, keeping Guys both physically and psychologically healthy, and forming a romantic bond with other male NPCs in the prison.

The story begins on "the strangest day" of Larry Burrows (James Belushi)'s life (his 35th birthday) consisting of a series of comic and dramatic misadventures. Larry blames all of his life's problems on having struck out during a key moment of his state high school baseball championship game on his 15th birthday. When he wishes he had done things differently, his wish is granted by a guardian angel-like figure named Mike (Michael Caine), who intermittently appears as a bartender, a cab driver, and so on. Larry soon discovers that Mike has transferred him into an alternative reality in which he had won the pivotal high school game. He now finds himself rich and (within his company) powerful, and married to the boss's (Bill McCutcheon) sexy daughter Cindy Jo Bumpers (Rene Russo). At first, his new life seems perfect, but he soon begins to miss his best friend Clip Metzler (Jon Lovitz) and wife Ellen (Linda Hamilton) from his previous life; he also discovers that his alternative self has created many enemies, like Jewel Jagger (Courteney Cox) who was a forklift operator and now she is his secretary and lover, and as Larry's problems multiply, he finds himself wishing to be put back into his old life.

The story begins with Larry's car, an old Ford LTD station wagon, stalled out in a dark alley. Suddenly the pink lights of "The Universal Joint," a bar, come on. Larry goes inside to call a tow truck, and tells bartender Mike his troubles. He reviews the day he just had, which ended with his getting fired after discovering his department head Niles Pender's (Hart Bochner) scheme to sell the company under the nose of its owners to a group of naive Japanese investors. He tells Mike that he wishes he'd hit that last pitch out of the park, after which Mike fixes him a drink called "The Spilt Milk." The Spilt Milk was a drink that gave him his wish that he hit that home run in that championship game.

Larry leaves the bar, walks home (his car apparently towed) and discovers someone else living in his house, which is now fixed up (previously his yard and driveway were muddy and unfinished). Mike appears as a cabdriver and drives him to his "new" home, a mansion in Forest Hills, explaining that he did in fact hit the last pitch and won the game. He soon discovers that Cindy Jo is his wife and he's the president of his company, Liberty Republic Sporting Goods. Being a classic car buff, he's shocked to find that he owns a collection of priceless antique automobiles.

Larry soon discovers that Clip has a low-level job in the accounting department and is quite insecure, as opposed to the joker he previously was. Ellen is a shop steward (in both realities) and is married to another man. Jewel, a forklift operator in the previous reality, is now Larry's mistress and his secretary. Ellen hates Larry, and he discovers that the union is threatening a walkout due to massive layoffs and increased production, since Niles is selling Liberty Republic in both realities. Seeing Ellen, he realizes how much he misses her and agrees to all the union's demands, provided Ellen agrees to dinner at his favorite restaurant. She reluctantly agrees, and Larry eventually convinces her that they were married in a previous life.

After discovering that Larry has agreed to union demands, Niles takes revenge by telling both Cindy Jo and Jewel of Larry's dinner date with Ellen. He then plots to kill Larry at the office that night. However, company owner Leo Hansen arrives to deliver a note to Larry, announcing his termination at Cindy Jo's request, and Niles kills him by mistake. Discovering the note, Niles calls the police, who attempt to arrest Larry for Leo's murder. Larry escapes while jealous Jewel creates pandemonium outside in her attempts to shoot him (and shoots out a number of police cars in the process), leading to a police chase. Larry is eventually cornered in a dark alley, but the pink glow of "The Universal Joint" comes on and he runs into the bar. Unable to find Mike, Larry attempts to make the "Spilt Milk" himself, the ingredients clearly aged.

What appears to be flashing police car lights appear and Larry surrenders. However, it is a tow truck driven by Duncan. Confused at first, Larry sees Mike back behind the bar and realizes he has been returned to his old life. Larry thanks Mike for everything and, upon exiting the bar, suddenly realizes that the deal with the Japanese investors is happening shortly. Driven by Duncan to company headquarters, Larry barges into the boardroom, decks Niles, and exposes his scheme just as Leo is about to sign the deal.

Thinking everyone forgot his birthday, Larry returns home (which still has the muddy driveway and lawn) to a surprise party with his family and friends. Soon after, Cindy Jo and her husband Jackie Earle (Jay O. Sanders), the company president, arrive. Jackie offers Niles' job to Larry, plus a company car, a new Mercedes, and Larry accepts.

In the past, young Larry is about to leave the stadium, still upset about the loss, when he is greeted by a mysterious stranger in the stands (Mike) who reassures him that everything will be all right. Larry thanks him for the reassurance, but walks off wondering who Mike thinks he is kidding.

Major Bennett Marco commanded a famous U.S. Army unit during a Gulf War raid in 1991. For his role in that mission, Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw was awarded the Medal of Honor for single-handedly defeating the enemy and rescuing all but two of his men. By 2008, the U.S. has become dominated by xenophobia, ''de facto'' martial law, environmental degradation, and increasing corporate control; Shaw is a famous U.S. congressman. His ruthless mother, Virginian Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, uses her influence to secure his nomination as a vice-presidential candidate over the favorite, Senator Tom Jordan. Raymond is shy and withdrawn, but opens up to his mother and his childhood sweetheart Jocelyn, Senator Jordan's daughter.

Al Melvin, one of Marco's former soldiers, tells Marco of his confusing memories and dreams about their lost army unit. Though clearly mentally ill, he shows Marco his drawings of images from his dreams. Soon, Marco also dreams of the raid, where Raymond and he are captured and brainwashed to kill members of their platoon. Their captors included scientists led by a mysterious South African man.

Marco starts investigating what really happened. He travels to New York City, where he meets an outgoing supermarket clerk named Eugenie, who offers him a place to stay. While showering at Eugenie's apartment, Marco feels a small lump on his upper back. He uses a knife to dig at the spot, and pulls out a tiny metallic object, but accidentally drops it down the bathroom sink drain after Eugenie, having listened to Marco's subtle sounds of distress, forces her way inside.

Marco confronts Raymond at campaign headquarters, wrestles him down, and bites into his back, subsequently removing an implant. He has the implant analyzed and finds it is a nanotechnological experiment connected with Manchurian Global, a powerful private-equity firm with major political connections. Researching the firm, Marco recognizes the South African man from his nightmares is former Manchurian geneticist-turned-mercenary Dr. Atticus Noyle. He brings his findings to Senator Jordan, who confronts the Shaws and suggests that Raymond withdraw from the campaign. Instead, Eleanor "activates" Raymond and orders him to kill Jordan. Jocelyn is also killed when she tries to stop Raymond.

Eugenie reveals she works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which has been monitoring the conspiracy for years. Having found an implant in Melvin, who—like all of Raymond and Marco's squadmates—died mysteriously, the FBI arranges a meeting between Marco and Raymond to convince them they were brainwashed under an assassination plot, which takes place just as Governor Arthur and Raymond win the White House. Raymond receives a phone call intended for Marco from Eleanor, who is deeply linked with Manchurian. Using trigger words, she commands Marco to assassinate the President-elect so that Raymond can become President and admits that she voluntarily gave him to the brainwashers for the country's benefit, but Raymond resists the mind-control techniques, empowered by Jocelyn's death.

At the climactic moment, Raymond deliberately places himself between the entranced Marco and the President-elect. As Eugenie rushes through the crowd to find Marco, Raymond looks at the vent where Marco is hiding and nods as a signal to kill the President-elect. Raymond dances with his mother and steers them into the marked position, where Marco kills them both with a single rifle shot. Marco prepares to kill himself, but after seeing Raymond's nod, Eugenie arrives and prevents his suicide by wounding him.

The FBI frames a deceased Manchurian Global contractor as the shooter. Manchurian executives watch their entire conspiracy revealed on television, but do not attempt to flee. Eugenie takes Marco to the remote island compound where he was conditioned. After reflecting on his time there, Marco drops a photo of his Army unit and Raymond's Medal of Honor into the sea.

Part 1

The story starts in Dijon in 1913. Eve (Lucy Gutteridge) is the daughter of a prominent doctor, and is destined to be married off to Roger Grillont (James Langton), but instead she falls in love with a low-class theater performer, Alain Marais (Maxwell Caulfield). Alain believes that she is an orphan from the same social class as him, and loses his interest after finding out that she is a rich, privileged girl. Nevertheless, she follows him to live in Paris, where her neighbor Vivianne de Biron (Juliet Mills) helps her land a job as a showgirl. Alain disapproves of her profession, comparing it with prostitution, following which she leaves him.

By 1915 World War I is in full motion. Eve meets Paul de Lancel (Michael York) while performing for the army and falls in love with him. Paul's aristocratic family disapproves of Paul serving in the army, because it requires him to abandon his work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as his duties as a husband to Laure (Susannah Harker) and their newborn son Bruno. Laure is devastated by Paul's absence and kills herself, after which her family swears revenge by keeping Bruno and raising him to hate his father. By 1917, Paul and Eve meet again in Paris and soon marry. She quits her career to support her husband's political career.

In 1930, Paul is stationed as a Consul General at the Consulate in Los Angeles. Here, their daughter Freddy (Elisabeth Harnois) starts getting flying lessons from stunt flyer Terrence 'Mac' McGuire (Barry Bostwick). By 1936, a now-teenaged Freddy (Courteney Cox) is an avid flyer and a tomboy. Her sister Delphine (Mia Sara), meanwhile, leads a reckless life with parties and alcohol. For the first time in their lives, they move to their home country of France to live with their grandparents at Chateau Valmont. They meet their half brother Bruno (Hugh Grant), who is now a political science student and a nazi sympathizer with a deep hatred for Paul. He reveals Eve's scandalous showgirl past to Freddy and Delphine.

In 1937, Freddy and Delphine return to Los Angeles. A stubborn Freddy accepts a stunt job from movie stunt coordinator Swede Castelli (Denis Arndt) and is kicked out of the house by her father. She moves in with Mac and starts a relationship with him despite a 23-year age gap. Delphine, meanwhile, is jailed for her reckless party behavior and is sent back to France to live with her grandparents. There, she finds work as a movie actress and falls in love with Jewish movie director Armand Sadowski (Charles Shaughnessy). Bruno warns her that Armand will have the same fate as Jewish Germans as soon as the war breaks out, but Delphine continues to see him.

One day Freddy prepares for a stunt scene that Mac considers too dangerous. He replaces her last-minute, crashes the plane and dies.

Part 2

The year is 1940, and World War II is in full motion. Freddy is stationed as an army pilot in England and becomes good friends with co-pilot Jane Longbridge (Serena Gordon). She meets Jane's older brother Tony (John Vickery) and soon marries him and becomes pregnant. Unbeknownst to her, Tony's best man Jock Hampton (Bruce Boxleitner) is in love with her. Meanwhile, in France, Bruno takes over control of the chateau after the country surrenders to Germany and the family's vineyard becomes occupied by the German army. Bruno happily collaborates with German Captain Ruttemann. Delphine desperately tries to find Armand, who was taken prisoner in Dunkirk. Bruno helps her set up a meeting with a German official to gather information but the official makes sexual advances which she rejects. Bruno is enraged at her for disrespecting the German army and violently rapes her.

Soon after, Bruno sets up a champagne trading business with the German army and is spotted by Charles Martin, a loyal worker who has been with De Lancels for decades. Bruno shoots and kills Charles in cold blood in front of Charles' son Edward (Nick Wright). Armand, meanwhile, is assigned to do labor work at the vineyard in Chateau Valmont where Eve recognizes him. When it turns out he has no vineyard skills he is to be sent off to a concentration camp. He and other prisoners revolt and manage to escape with help from Eve. He flees to Paris where he is reunited with Delphine. Paul, who was previously stationed in England, now serves the army in France and sees his wife for the first time in years. He tells her that Freddy has given birth to a daughter in England. At the chateau Paul learns of Bruno's champagne trading business and orders him to leave the country. Bruno attempts to murder Paul but fails and leaves France.

After the war ends, Freddy moves back to Los Angeles, where she starts a business venture in aviation. She becomes a workaholic which comes at the cost of her marriage. Tony is unhappy and seeks comfort with alcohol and other women. Soon after he asks for a divorce and moves back to England. Jock, who is now working for Freddy, tells her that he has always loved her and was aware of Tony's adultery. Freddy feels betrayed that Jock never told her anything about the mistresses and runs off to fly a plane. The plane crashes and she is seriously injured. Following her recovery she sells the shares of her company.

In 1952 Paul dies of a heart attack. Bruno interrupts his funeral to spit on his grave. There Edward recognizes him as his father's killer. It also turns out that Bruno prepared a scheme that he would own the chateau after Paul's death, following which he kicks Eve, Freddy and Delphine out. Edward takes revenge on Bruno by shooting and killing him; Bruno's death is ruled as an accident. In the final scene Freddy, who was afraid to fly following her serious flying accident, conquers her fear of flying and kisses Jock.

King Acrisius of Argos imprisons his daughter Danaë, in an attempt to prevent a prophecy that her child will bring about his demise. When the god Zeus impregnates her, Acrisius banishes his daughter and Zeus' newborn son Perseus to sea in a wooden chest. In retribution, Zeus kills Acrisius and orders Poseidon to release the last of the Titans, a gigantic sea monster called the Kraken, to destroy Argos. Danaë and Perseus safely float to the island of Seriphos, where Perseus grows to adulthood.

Calibos, the spoiled and rebellious son of the sea goddess Thetis, is betrothed to Princess Andromeda, daughter of Queen Cassiopeia of Joppa; but for committing several atrocities against Zeus, including destroying Zeus's sacred flying horses (except for Pegasus), Zeus transforms Calibos into a deformed, monstrous, satyr-like creature.

In revenge, Thetis transports an adult Perseus from Seriphos to an abandoned amphitheater in Joppa, where he befriends a soldier, Thallo, and an elderly poet named Ammon and learns that Andromeda is under a curse and cannot marry unless her suitor, under threat of execution if he fails, successfully answers a riddle concocted by Calibos. Zeus sends Perseus a god-crafted helmet from Athena which makes its wearer invisible, a magical sword from Aphrodite, and a shield from Hera. Perseus, wearing the helmet, captures Pegasus and follows Calibos's giant vulture carrying off Andromeda's spirit during her sleep to learn the next riddle. Perseus is discovered and nearly killed by Calibos, but manages to sever Calibos's left hand, losing his helmet in the process.

The next morning, Perseus presents himself as the next husband to be and correctly answers the riddle — that answer being the ring given to Calibos by his mother which is still attached to the amputated hand of Calibos — winning Andromeda's hand in marriage. Finding that Thetis cannot act against Perseus, Calibos instead demands that she take vengeance on Joppa. At the wedding in Thetis' temple, Queen Cassiopeia declares Andromeda's beauty greater than that of Thetis herself, whereupon an earthquake shakes the temple, causing the head of the statue of Thetis to break off and crash to the floor.

Thetis, using the statue's head to speak through, demands Andromeda be sacrificed to the Kraken on pain of Joppa's destruction. Perseus seeks a way to defeat the Kraken, but Pegasus is captured by Calibos and his men. Zeus commands Athena to give Perseus her owl Bubo, but Athena refuses to part with Bubo, so instead orders Hephaestus to build a golden, mechanical replica of him, who leads Perseus, Andromeda, Ammon, Thallo and some soldiers to the Stygian Witches. By taking their magic eye, Perseus forces them to reveal that the only way to defeat the Kraken is by using the head of the gorgon Medusa, whose gaze can turn any living thing into stone, and who lives on an island in the River Styx at the edge of the Underworld. The next day, the group continues on their journey without Andromeda and Ammon, who return to Joppa.

On the Gorgon's island, most of Perseus' men are killed. Perseus fights and kills Medusa's guardian, a two-headed dog named Dioskilos. Perseus then enters the Gorgon's lair, where he uses the reflective underside of his shield to deceive Medusa, decapitate her, and collect her head; but the shield is dissolved by her caustic blood. As Perseus and his party set to return, Calibos enters their camp and punctures the cloak carrying Medusa's head, causing her blood to spill and produce three giant scorpions. Calibos and the scorpions attack and kill Perseus's remaining escorts, including Thallo, whose death Perseus mourns. Perseus overcomes the scorpions and thereafter kills Calibos.

Weakened by his struggle, Perseus sends Bubo to rescue Pegasus from Calibos's henchmen and reaches the amphitheater in Joppa, where he collapses from exhaustion. Andromeda is shackled to the sacrificial rock outside Joppa, and the Kraken is summoned. Bubo distracts the beast until Perseus, whose strength was secretly restored by Zeus, appears on Pegasus. In the subsequent battle, Perseus petrifies the Kraken with Medusa's head, causing it to crumble to pieces. He then tosses the head into the sea, frees Andromeda, and marries her.

The gods predict that Perseus and Andromeda will live happily, rule wisely, and produce children, and Zeus forbids the other gods to pursue vengeance against them. The constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Pegasus and Cassiopeia are created in their honor.

In the summer of 1957, Danielle "Dani" Trant is a 14-year-old girl in Louisiana who, according to her father Matthew, is "too small to be running off by herself." Dani and her older sister Maureen, who is going off to college in the fall, are very close. Maureen helps take care of their younger sister, Missy, while their mother Abigail is pregnant.

Dani however prefers to listen to her Elvis Presley records and run off to the neighbor's creek to go skinny dipping. It is here that she meets her new neighbor, 17-year-old Court Foster. Court kicks Dani out of his creek. When Dani goes home, her mother tells her to wash up because an old childhood friend is coming for dinner with her children.

The Trants' old friend turns out to be a widow, Mrs. Foster, with her three sons Court, Dennis, and Rob. When Dani realizes who Court is, the two dislike each other. Court calls Dani "a little girl". When Dani's father Matthew tells Dani to accompany Court into town for groceries, Dani and Court drive into town and start to get along. Dani develops a crush on Court.

Maureen goes on a date to a dance with her boyfriend Billy Sanders. When they leave the dance, Billy wants to park his car and have sex. Maureen gets angry and breaks up with Billy because she believes "love should be beautiful". The next day, Dani asks Maureen for advice on how to kiss a boy. Maureen demonstrates by practicing on her hand.

Dani and Court continue to go swimming during the hot sunny days and become very close friends. The two agree to meet to go swimming at night, since Court has too much work to do during the day. Dani sneaks off and swims with Court until they reach the point where they are about to kiss. Court pushes Dani away and says she is a little girl that doesn't know what she's doing, and runs off home.

Dani leaves too just as a thunderstorm is breaking out. Abigail wakes up and runs outside looking for Dani. Just as Dani gets home and runs to her mother, her mother also runs and trips on a root, falls and hits her head. Dani's father races her to the hospital, where she is kept in order to treat a concussion and toxemia caused by her fall. When her father returns home from the hospital, he spanks Dani with his belt.

The next day, Court brings food to the Trant house and apologizes to Dani for the other night. Dani, still hurt, just ignores him at first, until Court says he would still like to be friends. The next time they go swimming the two share Dani's first kiss. Dani is still hurt and angry at her father for hitting her. When he tries to talk to her the next day feeling remorseful for using his belt on her, she only replies with "Yes Sir" or "No Sir" to his questions.

Once Dani has made up with her father, he tells Dani to invite Court over once in a while so he can get to know him better. When Court comes over for dinner, he finally meets Maureen. Dani can tell it is love at first sight for the two of them and now feels like the odd one out. While Dani visits her mother in the hospital, Court shows up at the Trant house where Maureen is home babysitting Missy. Though initially reluctant to return Court’s affections because she knows about Dani’s feelings for Court, Maureen gives in and she and Court kiss.

Over the next few days, Dani is getting pushed away by Court. While the rest of the family goes to pick up Abigail and the new baby from the hospital, Court and Maureen proclaim their love for each other, consummating their love in a field. When Maureen sneaks back home, she is caught by Dani. Dani realizes Maureen was with Court, and angry at her sister’s betrayal, she runs towards Court’s farm alone. Meanwhile, Court has been plowing the fields and, distracted by daydreams of Maureen, falls off his tractor and gets into an accident. Dani arrives at Court’s, greeted with the sight of Court badly injured in the field cradled by his inconsolable mother. Dani races home to tell her father.

When Matthew returns home, he has some of Court's blood on his clothes and the family realizes that Court has died. Maureen hides her pain at first, while Dani bursts into tears. After Court's funeral, Dani continues to be angry at Maureen for stealing Court away from her. Matthew tells Dani that although she has a right to be hurt, being mad won't bring Court back, and Maureen will be her sister for life. Dani comforts Maureen as she weeps on Court's fresh grave, and the film ends with Maureen and Dani talking on the porch at night as the summer draws to a close, looking up at the moon, becoming close again.

A mafia hitman is engaged to be married and his fiancée doesn't know his true profession while his future father-in-law has a contract out on him.

The film opens with newspaper photojournalist Audrey Aimes accidentally stumbling upon a small town (Ludlow, Illinois) which has been inexplicably destroyed. All 150 residents are missing, and the evidence indicates they are dead. Incredibly, the local fields are also barren, as if a swarm of locusts had eaten all the crops. Aimes suspects that the military is covering something up, and travels to a nearby United States Department of Agriculture experimental farm to learn what creature might have caused the agricultural destruction. She meets Dr. Ed Wainwright, who is experimenting with radiation as a means of growing gigantic fruits and vegetables to end world hunger. Wainwright reports that there have been a number of mysterious incidents nearby, and that locusts have eaten all the radioactive wheat stored in a nearby grain silo.

Gigantic mutant locusts rampage over the countryside. Wainwright and Aimes begin to track down the source of the mysterious occurrences, and quickly discover that the locusts which ate the grain have grown to the size of a city bus. The monsters have eaten all the crops in the area, and now have turned to human beings as a source of sustenance. It is also clear that they are headed for Chicago. Wainwright and Aimes meet with General Hanson, Colonel Sturgeon, and Captain Barton to try to come up with a solution. Machine gun and artillery fire seem ineffective against the creatures, and there are far too many to effectively deal with all at once. The United States Army and Illinois National Guard are called upon to help protect the city. But the monsters quickly invade Chicago, and begin to feast on human flesh, as well as several buildings.

General Hanson concludes that the only way to destroy the beasts ''en masse'' is to use a nuclear weapon and destroy Chicago. However, Wainwright realizes that the locusts are warm-weather creatures. He concludes that he might be able to lure the locusts into Lake Michigan using a decoy locust mating call, generated electronically with test-tone oscillators. There, the cold water will incapacitate them, and they will drown. The plan works at the last possible moment. The monstrous locusts drown, but Wainwright and Aimes wonder if other insects or animals might have eaten other radioactive crops.

''Prague'' opens on the afternoon of May 25, 1990 with five North American expatriates living in the city of Budapest. The expatriates are, for the most part, optimistic about their prospects in the Central European city. John Price seeks a reconciliation with his older brother, Scott, who has come to Budapest to separate himself from his earlier life in the United States. Emily Oliver, an idealistic worker at the American Embassy, hopes to begin a distinguished diplomatic career. Mark Payton, a Canadian researching a history of nostalgia, relishes the chance to be immersed in a place with interesting history. Only Charles Gábor, a Hungarian-American venture capitalist who resents his co-workers and has contempt for his fellow Magyars, displays any pessimism at the story's outset. The five young expatriates enjoy the nightlife and new opportunities in the historic city.

John is instantly attracted to Emily, and plots to win her love, but she ignores him. He finds a job as a columnist for an English-language newspaper, ''BudapesToday''. Still a virgin at the age of 24, he is initiated by his co-worker Karen, but finds the experience to be quite anticlimactic. He later commits "fradultery" with his brother's future wife, Mária.

Part II presents the complex history of the Horváth Kiadó (Horvath Press), a family-run publishing company – which also serves as a history of Budapest from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Presently, the head of the publishing house is Imre Horváth, who until recently had been exiled in Vienna. In the mid-nineteenth century, during the Revolution, the Horváth business is affected by the April Laws, a collection of laws legislated by Lajos Kossuth with the aim of modernizing Kingdom of Hungary into a nation state. During the Communist regime, the Horváth Kiadó was a state-owned enterprise; after the fall of communism, it is due to be privatized. Imre seeks an investment from Charles' venture capital firm in order to buy the press's assets and restart it in Budapest.

John frequently fraternizes with an elderly jazz bar pianist named Nádja. He is entranced by the romantic stories she tells of her past, but his friends are less than convinced of their veracity. In particular, John is dismayed by Emily's dismissal of Nádja as an "amazing liar". He is also dismayed that Emily pulls away when he tries to kiss her. John becomes involved with Nicky, a photographer and artist who wants a physical, but not an emotional, relationship.

Charles' firm rejects his proposal to fund the Horváth Kiadó. With the help of John, who writes supportive newspaper columns and serves as Charles' aide, Charles secures independent funding for this venture. He resigns from his firm and becomes a partner in the new Horváth Kiadó.

Mark Payton's research into nostalgia becomes a personal obsession. He takes an inordinate interest in gramophone music and riding in a funicular carriage. He later becomes preoccupied with the contemporary Gulf War and its continuous coverage on CNN. In September 1990, Mark leaves Budapest suddenly, due to his declining mental health.

In autumn 1990, Scott marries Mária and moves to Romania with her, telling John that he never wants to see him again. John continues to desire Emily and be jealous of other men she talks to. Charles and John learn that other parties may want to bid for the Horváth Kiadó assets.

In January 1991, Imre Horváth suffers a stroke and goes into a coma. Charles Gábor effectively becomes sole head of the publishing company. He accepts a takeover bid by a multinational media corporation, headed by the Australian billionaire Hubert Melchior (a parody of Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation). Horváth recovers, but not in time to prevent his historic publishing firm from being absorbed into the multinational publishing empire.

In March, John says that he loves Emily, even though he knows she is a "spy." The next day, John is fired from his job for having accused an embassy employee of being a spy. Emily, who was having a lesbian relationship with Nicky, leaves the city to escape the accusation. Charles plans to return to America but is shot dead in the airport by Krisztina Toldy, Imre Horváth's loyal assistant. Finally, John leaves Budapest as well, traveling by train to the more promising city of Prague.

Born without an immune system, Jimmy Livingston lives in a sterilized dome in his bedroom in his home in California, earning him the nickname "Bubble Boy" by his neighbors. His overbearing and devout Christian mother only exposes him to ''Highlights'' magazine and ''Land of the Lost'' for entertainment. When he is a teenager, Jimmy is immediately taken with Chloe who moves in next door and the two become friends, despite his mother's discouragement. When Chloe leaves for Niagara Falls to marry her boyfriend Mark in three days' time, Jimmy realizes that Chloe cares for him and builds a mobile bubble suit, determined to stop the wedding.

Along the way, Jimmy is picked up by a cult called Bright and Shiny but is abandoned in the desert when he offends them. He finds a new ride with Slim, a biker who speaks fondly of his old flame "Wildfire" upon hearing Jimmy's story. The Livingstons pursue Jimmy, along with the cult members whose leader Gil believes "The Round One" to be the group's messiah. Jimmy leaves a distracted Slim behind in Las Vegas and continues on using a scooter he wins at a casino. Encountering his parents on the road, Jimmy is struck by their vehicle and bounced aboard a train belonging to Dr. Phreak, who shows "freaks" to the public for money. When Phreak tries to recruit Jimmy, Jimmy knocks him unconscious which allows the freaks to go their own way. They choose to trail Jimmy along with the other parties in pursuit.

Jimmy is picked up by Pushpop, an Indian ice cream truck driver, but has to continue on foot when they hit a cow on the road. Winning $500 in a mud wrestling competition, Jimmy pays taxi driver Pappy for a ride but is cornered by the cult members. He slips away during the group's skirmish with the freaks and Slim's gang. After Pappy appears to have died at the wheel, Jimmy tries to call Chloe from a gas station in New York only to reach her fiancé Mark, who rudely convinces him that Chloe doesn't love him. Discouraged, Jimmy intends to return home with his parents but encouragement and an opening provided by his father Morton allows him to escape on a plane piloted by Pappy's twin brother Pippy.

When Pippy becomes lifeless over Niagara Falls Jimmy survives the fall and arrives at the church in time to stop the wedding. Abandoning his bubble suit, he embraces and kisses Chloe before collapsing. At Morton's insistence, Mrs. Livingston confesses that he had already developed an immune system when he was four and has been perfectly fine all along. She had kept him isolated only due to her overprotective nature.

Jimmy and Chloe are married with all the people encountered during his adventure in attendance. Recognized as the former "Wildfire", Mrs. Livingston re-embraces her rebellious side and prepares to depart with Slim on his bike along with Morton. Jimmy and Chloe discover Pippy and Pappy both of whom merely fell asleep instead of dying as they ride off to begin their honeymoon.

This is the first modern-age TV drama in Hong Kong history, where the story is told in reverse chronological order ''In medias res''. The story starts at present time (in reality, the future: 7 June 1994), where The Day of Big Miracle happened, where the stock market rebounded after the market became volatile and crashed for the weekend. After the stock market stopped trading for the weekend, the Tings make the wrong bet and their entire fortune is wiped out, compounded by ending up in billions of dollars in debt. Ting Hai forces his sons to commit suicide by jumping off from the top of the stock exchange building before following suit himself, at the beginning, Ting Hai's fate was unknown.

1960-1970s

Ting Hai and Fong Chun-sun were childhood friends. Ting is a stubborn, uneducated and pathologically self-righteous brute who imagines himself to be a living ''kong-woo'' hero, while Fong is an honest, cultured and refined leader of the Asian Stock Exchange. Fong is pressured by some of the most powerful and corrupt bureaucrats in Hong Kong to control the stock market. Immigration officers, police chiefs and government officials all attempt to cash in. Fong manipulates the market such that no one could touch him. The stock guru Yip Tin describes the event as a battle to seize control of the "Mandate of Heaven".

Fong develops strong feelings for Ting's girlfriend Lo Wei-ling, and becomes Ting's rival for her affection. In a fit of fury over Lo's disaffection, Ting cripples Fong, and later, during an ill-advised attempt at reconciliation, kills him. Without Fong's moderating influence, the 1973 stock market crash forces many people into extreme poverty, including Fong and his family. Stock manipulation is one justification for the creation of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in February 1974.

1980s

Ting Hai flees to Taiwan, where his unabatedly violent behaviour lands him a 14-year prison sentence. Back in Hong Kong, Ting's four sons manage to build a powerful triad in their father's absence. The four brothers blame the Fong family for separating them from their father, and they harass them unrelentingly. The eldest son, Ting How-hai, replays his father's relationship with Lo Wei-ling on one of the Fong sisters, and is driven to violence when she rejects him. Ting Hai returns to Hong Kong and is convicted of murder, but is pardoned using a forged certification of terminal illness. All of Fong Chun-sun's three daughters are brutally killed, while Fong's only son, Fong Chin-bok, manages to survive and escape to Taiwan. With help from his two girlfriends, Fong strikes a fortune by gambling on the stock market (not by investing, but via an indirect gambling method) and returns to Hong Kong to avenge his family. At the same time, the Ting family's wealth and power have increased to incredible proportions via the stock market due to sheer luck in the 1987 bear market.

1990s

The final showdown between the Tings and Fongs is inspired by the backdrop of a war in the Middle East in 1994. Fong Chin-bok's investment company faces the Ting family in a winner-takes-all, last-man-standing stock market epic battle. To raise the stakes, the Tings are financed by international criminal syndicates. Fong wins the support of three of Hong Kong's wealthiest tycoons, who want to return the favour as they built their financial empires with help from Fong's father back in the 1960s. The stock market rises and falls correspondingly with news of American forces entering or withdrawing from the war. Eventually, the Tings make the wrong bet and their entire fortune is wiped out, compounded by ending up in billions of dollars in debt. Ting Hai forces his sons to commit suicide by jumping off from the top of the stock exchange building before following suit himself, but he survives and spends the rest of his life in prison.

Deloris Van Cartier has become a famous performer in Las Vegas since her time posing as a nun to hide from the mob, presenting an entire dinner show based on her experience. During her latest performance, she is reunited with her friends, Sisters Mary Patrick, Mary Robert, and Mary Lazarus, who are in the audience. They have come to Las Vegas to beg her assistance.

Deloris meets with another old friend, the Reverend Mother, who explains that the convent nuns now teach at the St. Francis Academy in San Francisco. Coincidentally, Deloris attended this school in her childhood. The school faces closure unless its reputation can be improved. The nuns ask her to reprise her persona as Sister Mary Clarence and become the new music teacher. She reluctantly agrees.

At the school, Mary Clarence meets the school's staff of friars, led by the humble but inept Father Maurice, and the diocese administrator, Mr. Crisp, who wants the school to close, so he may receive early retirement. She attends her first music class, meeting the rowdy teenagers, who attend the class with the expectation of receiving an easy "A". Mary Clarence butts heads with ringleader, Rita Louise Watson. Rita walks out when Mary Clarence informs the students that they will have to earn their grades. The other students stay to avoid failure. When they break into spontaneous, synchronized singing, Mary Clarence is inspired to turn them into a choir. Initially, the students are dismayed and object to her proposal.

Mary Robert overhears Rita's talented singing. She recommends that Mary Clarence convince Rita to return to class. Students, nuns and friars work to restore the school's decrepit music room, and the class begins to practice extensively. They perform "Oh, Happy Day" before the whole school, led by Ahmal, a talented vocalist. The nuns discover numerous trophies, revealing the school won the All-State Choir Championship multiple times in the past, and decide to enter them once again. Father Maurice allows it, as long as they raise the money themselves and each student has a signed parental permission slip.

Rita's strict but well-meaning mother Florence refuses to let her attend, believing a musical career is a dead end as her husband died trying to chase fame. However, Rita forges her mother's signature to attend, leaving an apology note for her disobedience, prompting Florence to drive to Hollywood to see the competition. Mr. Crisp discovers a magazine in the school library with Deloris Van Cartier on the cover. Recognizing her as Mary Clarence, he warns Father Maurice of the sham. The choir has already left for the competition, so the friars pile into their old van and race to confront Mary Clarence.

Backstage at the competition, the choir are intimidated by the other entrants and consider quitting, but Mary Clarence inspires them to persevere. The friars arrive, and Father Maurice decides to support the choir upon seeing their enthusiasm. The other friars trap Mr. Crisp in a closet to prevent him from interfering. The choir takes to the stage, Rita performing a solo before the choir perform an urban contemporary gospel rendition of "Joyful, Joyful", with hip hop choreography.

The choir wins the competition. Impressed with the performance, the school's local diocese agrees to keep the school open. To thwart Mr. Crisp, the Reverend Mother states that the competition entry was his idea, and that the diocese must have another "hot spot" position for him..."we cannot let such a prize bull be put out to pasture".

Rita and Florence make amends, while the choir learns Mary Clarence is actually a professional singer. They ask her if she is a Las Vegas showgirl, to which she claims she has never been such, but is a "headliner".

The end credits feature the film's cast performing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

The play is a one-act "dialogue" derived, with small variations, from the novella ''La Morte Adosso'' (1923). The dialogue takes place in a bar, late at night, between a man who is dying of an epithelioma (''il fiore in bocca'') and a peaceful businessman who has missed his train. In other words, between someone who intensely lives the little time left to him and someone who is rich with time to spend idly and irresponsibly, waiting for the morning train and entirely absorbed by the banal contretemps.

The exceptional nature of the moment, for the man who feels death upon him—to use Pirandello's phrase—and the normality of it, for the one who is absorbed in the usual affairs of life with its small daily commitments, mark the two ends of the dialectic which is animated in the grand soliloquy of the protagonist.

He lucidly analyses his last sensations on earth, evoking scenes of common life, particulars of a quotidianity which are receding from him irremediably and which, for this reason, make precious the memories of even the most trivial events. In the solemnity of his solitude, he seems to have gained unexpected awarenesses of the life that is leaving him and of death. With no sense of regret or repentance, he almost seems to bitterly enjoy his unrepeatable experience marked by the echo of the end, which allows him to dedicate himself with interest to observing the anonymous life of others, in order to grasp its sense.

In the NES version, Bullwinkle learns that his ancestor left sums of money for him to collect. Rocky and Bullwinkle need to go through perilous levels that feature their enemies Boris and Natasha, before they could reach the home of the moose's ancestor.

In the Genesis, SNES, and Game Boy versions, three artifacts are stolen from a museum. It is up to Rocky and Bullwinkle to get them back.

A spoiled, rich kid named Edgar Ektor was a regular attendant at The World of Amusement Circus and Funpark, but was banned after a failed prank almost killed a lion. 20 years later, Edgar became a powerful and evil industrialist. Aided by Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel and his Psycho Circus gang, Edgar sabotages the funpark and kidnaps all the circus performers. Aero the Acro-Bat is the circus' greatest star and the only hope for rescuing the performers (including his girlfriend Aeriel) and putting a stop to Edgar's evil schemes.

The story starts directly after the events of the original game, where Aero had knocked Edgar Ektor off of the highest tower of his Museum of Horrors. After knocking him off, Aero leaves to explore Ektor's museum, finding a magician's box which brings him to an ancient castle. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Aero, Ektor's henchman Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel manages to save him before he hits the ground, and Ektor tells Zero to prepare a 'Plan B'.

In 1943, precipitated by separate personal tragedies, two poor families, the Lambs and the Pickles, flee their rural homes to share a large house called Cloudstreet in Perth, Western Australia. The Pickles include the father, Sam, the mother, Dolly, and their three children, Ted, Rose, and Chub. The Lambs are led by father, Lester, and mother, Oriel, and they have six children, Hattie, Elaine, Mason (nicknamed "Quick"), Samson (nicknamed “Fish”), Red and Lon. The Pickles own Cloudstreet, but rent half of the house to the Lambs, who open a grocery store on the ground floor of the house. The two families contrast each other; the devoutly religious Lambs find meaning in hard work and God's grace, while the Pickles hope for good luck and do not share the Lambs' appetite for hard work. The novel focuses on the experiences and relationships of these two families over a period of 20 years.

Introduction

On the morning that he and his downtrodden wife, Gerda, are due to travel down to the country to weekend with friends, Dr John Christow, a successful physician, leading researcher, and very tired and irritated by his current life, allows his little daughter to tell his fortune with cards. When the death card is drawn, he pays no attention, but the appearance of an old flame at The Hollow seems to be the final link in a chain of fatal circumstances.

Summary

The eccentric Lucy Angkatell has invited the Christows, along with other members of her extended family, to her estate for the weekend. John Christow is carrying on an affair with Henrietta Savernake, a talented sculptor. The beautiful Veronica Cray, an old flame of Christow's, suddenly appears in the house on Saturday night to borrow a box of matches. She lives at a nearby cottage. Another cottage is occupied by Hercule Poirot, who has been invited for Sunday lunch. John walks Veronica back to her cottage, and returns home at 3 am. The next day, Poirot is witness to a scene that seems strangely staged. Gerda Christow stands with a gun in her hand next to John's body, as it bleeds into the swimming pool. Lucy, Henrietta, and Edward (a cousin of Lucy's and a second cousin of Henrietta) are also present at the scene. John utters a final urgent appeal, "Henrietta", and dies.

It seems obvious that Gerda is the murderer. Henrietta steps forward to take the revolver from her hand, but apparently fumbles and drops it into the swimming pool, destroying the evidence. However, the pistol that Gerda was holding was not the gun used to kill John. None of the witnesses has seen Gerda shoot John. It seems difficult to build a case against any of the other potential suspects. Lucy was the next suspect, as she kept a pistol concealed in her basket of eggs. However, the pistol was the wrong calibre. Henrietta is the next suspect, having left an unusual doodle in the pavilion around the time John was killed. When the murder weapon turns up in Poirot's hedge, it has fingerprints that match none of the suspects.

The family had deliberately misdirected Poirot, as they each know Gerda is the murderer, and are attempting to save her from imprisonment. Gerda had taken two pistols – shooting John with one, and then planning to be discovered with the other pistol in her hand, later proven not to be the murder weapon. Immediately, Henrietta understood that John's final appeal was for her to help Gerda. Instinctively, Henrietta assumed the responsibility by dropping the gun into the pool, and later goes back to retrieve the second weapon. She hides it in a clay sculpture of a horse in her workshop to avoid the police searches. Later, she gets it handled by a blind match-seller and then places it in Poirot's hedge.

Midge Hardcastle, a less affluent relative of the Angkatells, is also staying at the house. She is in love with Edward, but Edward has always been in love with Henrietta, who had refused several of his marriage proposals. Edward comes to the realisation that Henrietta is no longer the Henrietta he once loved. He looks at Midge and realises that she is no longer "little Midge". Edward asks her to marry him. He goes for a walk with Midge, but coming to a spot where Edward has previously walked with Henrietta, Midge believes that he is still too deeply in love with Henrietta. So, she calls off the wedding.

Edward does not understand that Midge loves him too much to hold him back from Henrietta. Misunderstanding her decision, he attempts suicide by putting his head in a gas oven but he is saved by Midge. With this dramatic proof of his despair at losing her, she relents and the wedding is on again.

With the evidence apparently destroyed or suitably confused, the family believe they have saved Gerda. There is a final clue: the holster in which the murder weapon was kept. Gerda had cut this up and placed it in her workbag. Henrietta rushes to Gerda in an attempt to retrieve it and destroy the final proof of Gerda's guilt.

Poirot arrives, and rearranges the tea cups before Gerda returns from the kitchen. He suspects the cornered and suspicious Gerda would murder Henrietta. Gerda returns and drinks from the cup intended for Henrietta, and dies. Henrietta seeks closure and visits one of John's patients. John's death ended the hope of a cure but she is still showing a resilient spirit. Leaving the hospital, she reflects that there is no happy ending for her. She resolves to embark on a sculpture of herself as "Grief".

During the height of the Cold War, Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine, is unexpectedly set free after 20 years in a Siberian labour camp by his former gaoler Piotr Ilyich Kamenev, now the Premier of the Soviet Union.

He is sent to Rome, where the elderly Pope Pius XIII makes him a cardinal, assigned titulus of the Church of St. Athanasius. Lakota is reluctant, begging to be given "a simple mission with simple men", but the pope insists that he kneel and receive the scarlet ''zucchetto'' that designates the rank of cardinal.

When the pontiff suddenly collapses and dies, the process of a papal conclave begins, and Cardinal Lakota participates as one of the electors. During the ''sede vacante'', two cardinals in particular, Cardinal Leone and Cardinal Rinaldi, are shown to be the leading ''papabili'' (candidates). After seven deadlocked ballots, Lakota is unexpectedly elected Pope as a compromise candidate (suggested by Cardinal Rinaldi) by spontaneous acclamation in the Sistine Chapel by the College of Cardinals, many of whom have spoken with him and been impressed by his ideas and his humility. Lakota takes the name of Pope Kiril. Meanwhile, the world is on the brink of nuclear war due to a Chinese–Soviet feud made worse by a famine caused by trade restrictions brought against China by the United States.

The evening after his election, Pope Kiril, with the help of his valet Gelasio, sneaks out of the Vatican and explores the city of Rome dressed as a simple priest. By chance, he encounters Dr. Ruth Faber, who is in a troubled marriage with Rome-based television journalist George Faber.

A major secondary plot in the film is the Pope's relationship with controversial theologian and scientist Father Telemond. The Pope becomes Telemond's close personal friend, but to his deep regret, in his official capacity, he must allow the Holy Office to censure Telemond for his heterodox views. Nevertheless, the two remain friends and Telemond becomes the Pope's most trusted advisor. To the Pope's deep grief, Father Telemond dies from a neurological malady, shortly after giving the former some much needed support.

Later, the Pope returns to the Soviet Union, dressed in civilian clothing, to meet privately with Kamenev and Chinese Chairman Peng to discuss the ongoing crisis. Pope Kiril realises that if the troubles in China continue, the cost could be a war that could rip the world apart. At his papal coronation, Kiril removes his papal tiara and pledges to sell the church's property to help the Chinese, much to the delight of the crowds in St. Peter's Square below. This revolutionary action brings the world a new chance at peace.

Joan Webster is a 25-year-old middle-class Englishwoman with an ambitious, independent spirit. She knows where she's going, or at least she thinks she does. She travels from her home in Manchester to the Hebrides to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a wealthy, much older industrialist, on the (fictitious) Isle of Kiloran.

When bad weather postpones the final leg of her journey (the boat trip to Kiloran), she is forced to wait it out on the Isle of Mull, among a community of people whose values are quite different from hers. There she meets Torquil MacNeil, a naval officer trying to go home to Kiloran while on shore leave. They are sheltered for the night in the nearby home of Torquil's friend, Catriona Potts.

The next day, on their way to catch a bus to Tobermory to find a telephone, they come upon the ruins of Moy Castle. Joan wants to take a look inside, but Torquil refuses to go in. When she reminds him that the terrible curse associated with it only applies to the laird of Kiloran, Torquil introduces himself: he ''is'' the laird, and Bellinger has only leased his island. On the bus, the locals recount several disparaging stories about Bellinger. At the coastguard station in Tobermory, Joan is able to contact Bellinger on Kiloran. She and Torquil stay at the Western Isles Hotel in Tobermory. She asks him to eat at separate tables to avert gossip. As the bad weather worsens into a full-scale gale, Torquil spends more time with Joan, who becomes increasingly torn between her ambition and her growing attraction to him.

From there, they go to Achnacroish, where Joan is surprised to re-encounter Torquil, who feigns not to know her in the presence of others. They attend a ceilidh celebrating a diamond wedding anniversary. The pipers at the ceilidh are there by default as they are also trapped en route to Kiloran and were to play at Joan's wedding.

Joan suggests to Catriona that she could sell her property to get money. Catriona says, "money isn't everything".

Desperate to salvage her carefully laid plans, Joan tries to persuade Ruairidh Mhór to take her to Kiloran immediately, but he knows conditions are far too dangerous. Joan manages to bribe young Kenny into attempting it by offering him £20: enough money to buy a half-share in Ruairidh's boat and marry Ruairidh's daughter Bridie. Torquil learns of the scheme and tries to talk Joan out of it, but she is adamant. When Catriona tells Torquil that Joan is actually running away from him, he races to the quayside and invites himself aboard. En route, the boat's engine is flooded and they are nearly caught in the Corryvreckan whirlpool, but Torquil is able to restart the motor just in time, and they return safely to Mull.

At last the weather clears. Joan asks Torquil for a parting kiss before they go their separate ways. Torquil enters Moy Castle, and the curse takes effect almost immediately. Centuries earlier, Torquil's ancestor had stormed the castle to capture his unfaithful wife and her lover. He had them bound together and cast into a water-filled dungeon with only a small stone to stand on. When their strength gave out, they dragged each other into the water, but not before she placed a curse on the lairds of Kiloran. From the battlements, Torquil sees Joan, accompanied by three bagpipers, marching resolutely toward him. They meet in the castle, and embrace. An inscription describes the curse: if a MacNeil of Kiloran dares step over the threshold of Moy, he shall be chained to a woman to the end of his days, "and will die in his chains".

Torquil and Joan walk away together along the lane arm in arm. "I Know Where I'm Going" is sung as the end credits roll.

This volume of ''The Wheel of Time'' depicts several distinct plots. Unusual Trolloc attacks, the dead walking, ripples in the fabric of the world and other events seem to indicate that the Last Battle is drawing near; several characters using different evidence confidently state that ''Tarmon Gai'don'' is close at hand.

Prologue

A confrontation between Galad Damodred, half-brother of Elayne Trakand and Gawyn Trakand on his father's side and of Rand Al'Thor on his mother's side, and Eamon Valda, Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks, which ends with Galad obtaining a Heron-mark sword and rank of the slain Lord Captain Commander. General Rodel Ituralde's campaign in Tarabon and Arad Doman against the Seanchan. the High Lady Suroth of the Seanchan is informed of the death of the Seanchan Empress, implicitly by the hand of the Forsaken Semirhage. Aes Sedai plots in the White Tower Perrin Aybara's meeting with Black Ajah Aes Sedai Galina Casban and his plan of attack on the Shaido Aiel the immediate aftermath of Egwene al'Vere's capture by Aes Sedai loyal to Elaida

Mat Cauthon

Mat travels into Altara, and Moiraine Damodred is located in the custody of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. Attempting to escape Altara, Mat meets Talmanes, who has brought a large number of Mat's personal army (the Band of the Red Hand), which contends against a Seanchan force sent to kill Tuon, using fireworks as artillery. After a series of debates, Tuon marries Mat, giving him the Seanchan title 'Prince of the Ravens' ostensibly to assure a marriage of convenience. Thereafter Tuon returns to Ebou Dar to destroy the treacherous High Lady Suroth and assume command proper of the Seanchan.

Rand al'Thor

Rand arranges a meeting with the Daughter of the Nine Moons to negotiate a truce; but a large-scale battle against a horde of 100,000 Trollocs and Myrdraal ends almost disastrously, when Lews Therin (Rand's alter-ego) seizes control of ''saidin''. Thereafter Rand forges a truce with Lews Therin. The meeting with Tuon comes to a grisly end upon Rand and crew discovering Semirhage, disguised, in her place. In the ensuing battle, Semirhage is captured at the cost of Rand's own left hand, and reveals that the mental disorder that allows him to communicate with his past self, is almost universally fatal.

Perrin Aybara

Perrin disperses the Shaido threat and rescues his wife Faile using an alliance with Seanchan Banner-General Tylee Khirgan. To overcome the large number of Shaido Wise Ones, they lace the Shaido water supply with Forkroot herbs, which impedes channeling the One Power. Rand's adoptive father Tam arrives with reinforcements from the Two Rivers. In the course of the battle, Perrin's protege Aram dies while attempting to kill him. In the rescue of Faile, the Aiel Rolan is killed by Perrin, although he and other Aiel had helped Faile and her friends during captivity, unknown to Perrin. Sevanna is captured and the Shaido, defeated and disgraced, are led by Therava back to the Aiel Waste, with the Black Sister Galina Casban in tow.

White Tower Siege

Egwene is captive in the White Tower, but holds contact with the rebel Aes Sedai through Tel'aran'rhiod. Despite harsh disciplining she spreads rumors and doubt in the White Tower about Elaida's suitability as Amyrlin. Both the rebels and the White Tower send Aes Sedai to the Black Tower to bond Asha'man (the rebels as an offer from Rand to counter the number of Aes Sedai bonded to Asha'man).

Others

Loial is married and speaks to the Ogier of his stedding (which is the name given to areas that Ogier call home, like a village) that they must assist the human armies. Thereafter Loial and his mentor Elder Haman wield axes during the Trolloc attack. Lan Mandragoran rides to Shienar to fight; but Nynaeve al'Meara takes him to the coast of the Aryth Ocean at World's End in Saldaea; thence goes herself to recruit Lan's scattered countrymen.

Galad Damodred kills Eamon Valda for allegedly killing Queen Morgase of Andor, and becomes the leader of the Whitecloaks, as which he determines to fight alongside Rand's followers. Elayne Trakand becomes Queen of Andor. Mazrim Taim meets with a group of Red Ajah from the White Tower, and agrees to their proposition: since Sisters were taken and bonded against their will by certain Asha'man, an equivalent number of Black Tower initiates should be bonded by sisters.

Angus Bethune is an overweight teenage boy living in Minnesota who, despite his talents in football and science, holds deep insecurities. Since kindergarten, he has been harassed by handsome, cruel Rick Sanford and his cohorts for not being "normal". His only friend is Troy Wedberg, another social outcast. Angus has feelings for Melissa Lefevre, a cheerleader who is dating Rick. Tired of Rick's abuse, Angus applies to a magnet school where he hopes to be free of the bullying. Rick, well aware of Angus' feelings for Melissa, rigs a school election so that Angus and Melissa will dance together in the upcoming freshman Winter Ball as King and Queen, respectively. After the stunt, the principal forbids Angus to lay a hand on Rick, or he would be expelled and lose his chance to go to the magnet school.

To prepare for the dance, Angus gets help from Troy, his mother Meg, and his narcoleptic grandfather Ivan. Angus takes dancing lessons with Madame Rulenska, but the lessons go badly. Despite Angus' request for a black tuxedo, Ivan purchases him a plum suit and tells him he can be normal and an individual at the same time. Ivan reasons that running away to another school will not solve anything and that he needs to stand up to Rick.

One day after school, Rick and his friends kidnap Troy and ask him for anything that would embarrass Angus at the Winter Ball. Troy refuses to help them, but ends up breaking his arm as he tries to get away. Meanwhile, Angus helps Ivan prepare for his wedding to his fiancée April. As Angus waits outside Ivan's room on the day of the wedding, he confides to him about how he wishes he could stand up to Rick and tell Melissa how he feels. When Angus tries to wake Ivan, he quickly discovers that Ivan has died and tells the wedding guests. Distraught, Angus opts to stay home for a few days trying to cope with Ivan's death.

Out of fear, Troy ends up submitting to Rick's demands and gives him a videotape containing footage of Angus practicing his dancing with an inflatable doll while confessing his feelings for Melissa. While visiting Angus to offer his condolences, an argument ensues between the two friends. Angus asserts he won't go to the Winter Ball because he doesn't want to be humiliated by Rick again and needs to cope with his grandfather's death.

Later that week, Angus receives a box from April containing the plum suit that he had earlier rejected. In that moment, Angus realizes Ivan was right all along: he needs to stand up for himself and face Rick, or nothing will change. He rejects an interview from the magnet school and marches to the dance in the school gymnasium wearing the plum suit. Inside, Angus converses with Melissa for the first time. Before they can dance as King and Queen, Rick plays Troy's videotape on the monitors, prompting laughter from students. A humiliated Melissa punches Rick in the face and runs out in tears. Angus follows her, infuriated at Troy for his betrayal.

Angus apologizes to Melissa, but she does not blame him. Instead, she reveals her disgust with Rick and confesses to Angus that she is bulimic. Angus learns that Melissa likes him more than Rick because he is kind and respectful of others. Finding common ground, they go back inside and dance, with Melissa helping him out with some of the steps. When Rick scolds Melissa, Angus comes to her defense. Rick punches Angus, breaking his nose and sending him crashing through a table. Angus defiantly rises to his feet and repeatedly pushes Rick until he falls to the ground, saying no matter how many times Rick knocks him down, he will always get back up. When Angus gives Rick a choice to accept others who are different from him, Rick selfishly replies, "Whatever I am, it's something you're never gonna be," to which Angus retorts, "Thank God!" The students applaud Angus and even Rick's friends abandon him. Melissa dances with Angus again and Troy enacts revenge on Rick by breaking his nose with his cast.

Melissa asks Angus to walk her home, and they kiss. Angus rejects an offer to transfer to the magnet school, realizing that his grandfather was right and that he doesn't have to run away anymore. Angus mentions Rick was suspended for his video prank and for breaking Troy's arm. He also mentions that Rick's popularity with the other students suffered since Angus stood up to him and thus they have no reason to fear him anymore.

Alternate cut

The script was originally more faithful to its source material, with the storyline of Angus having a gay father included among the filmed scenes. However, during a test screening in Orange County, an audience member reacted with a homophobic insult to the gay-related plot line. Based on this incident, the studio decided on editing out the character and any gay-related story lines out of the final film, to the dismay of the cast and crew.

Deleted and extended scenes are integrated into the cut-for-television version of the film to make up running time.

Arriving home from a basketball game, Arnold Shortman and his best friend Gerald Johanssen learn that FutureTech Industries (FTI) CEO Alphonse Perrier du von Scheck has announced plans to redevelop the entire neighborhood as a luxurious high-rise shopping mall. That night, Helga Pataki finds that her father, Big Bob, is working with FTI to build a new super-sized branch of his beeper store in the proposed mall. She ultimately sides with her father, though is hesitant to do so because of her love for Arnold.

Arnold hosts a demonstration against FTI, but it fails when their permit is stolen by Scheck's employees and Arnold's grandmother Gertie Shortman is arrested, causing the neighbors to lose hope and sell their homes to FTI. Just as the fate of the neighborhood appears to be sealed, Grandpa Phil tells Arnold the story of the "Tomato Incident", a major Revolutionary War battle fought in the city. Arnold realizes that the neighborhood had to have been declared a historic district after the war, effectively ensuring its preservation. Arnold and Gerald search throughout the city for the legal document certifying its landmark status, and ultimately discover that the document was sold to Scheck, who denies obtaining the document.

As the deadline draws near, Arnold gets a mysterious phone call from "Deep Voice" (a "Deep Throat"-esque character), who informs Arnold that Scheck actually has the document inside his office safe, and is lying that he does not know its whereabouts. Arnold and Gerald steal the key to the safe from Scheck's assistant, Nick Vermicelli. Nick later notices the missing key, and informs Scheck. Meanwhile, Phil and the boarders try to devise a backup plan to stop the bulldozers from destroying the neighborhood in case Arnold's plan fails. The plan is to wire the storm drain tunnels beneath their street with dynamite to intercept FTI's construction equipment. Big Bob later teams up with them after discovering Nick's contract states Scheck will control 51% of his company and swindle him as a result.

With help from agent Bridget, Arnold and Gerald infiltrate the FTI headquarters, only for them to discover that Scheck has the document in his hand. Scheck then tells his own family's story regarding the Tomato Incident. His ancestor, the governor of the local British forces, was defeated and humiliated by the American colonists including Arnold's ancestors during the "Tomato Incident". To avenge his family's honor, Scheck intends to demolish the neighborhood and replace it with a building carrying his name on it. He destroys the document to ensure that his plans will proceed, before summoning his guards to get rid of Arnold and Gerald. They escape, but believe they have failed, until "Deep Voice" advises Arnold to obtain the FTI's security-camera footage of Scheck burning the document.

Arnold discovers that "Deep Voice" is Helga, who reluctantly admits she loves him and that this was her reason for getting involved. He and Helga escape the building, and meet Gerald on a city bus, convincing the driver Murray to race home when realizing that his girlfriend Mona lives in the same neighborhood. Despite several near-collisions, the kids eventually make it back unharmed. Mayor Dixie arrives at the scene, along with the police and a news crew. Accessing the large ScheckVision jumbotron poised atop a nearby building, Arnold and Bridget show everyone the footage of Scheck burning the document. Dixie officially restores the neighborhood's status as a historic site, never to be destroyed by anyone for any purpose.

Scheck arrives, demanding to know why demolition has not begun. He sees the footage of himself burning the document on the monitor, and realizes he is caught and facing prison time. Having escaped prison, Gertie sabotages his car, and Scheck is promptly arrested. Harold inadvertently sits down on the detonator that ignites Phil's explosives, causing the jumbotron monitor to be destroyed. Helga denies loving Arnold, claiming her confession was made in "the heat of the moment". While Arnold is unconvinced, he pretends to accept it as she returns home.

Sarah Morton, a middle-aged English mystery author, who has written a successful series of detective novels, is having writer's block that is impeding her next book. Her publisher, John Bosload, offers her his country house near Lacoste, France, for some rest and relaxation. Sarah takes him up on the offer, hinting that she hopes John may visit. After becoming comfortable with the run of the spacious, sun-filled house and meeting the groundskeeper, Marcel, Sarah's quietude is disrupted by a young woman claiming to be the publisher's daughter, Julie. She shows up late one night explaining that she is taking time off from work herself. She eventually tells Sarah that her mother used to be Bosload's mistress, but that he would not leave his family.

Julie's sex life consists of one-night stands with various men, and a competition of personalities develops between the two women. At first, Sarah regards Julie as a distraction from her writing. She uses earplugs to sleep during Julie's noisy nighttime adventures, but develops a voyeuristic fascination with them, abandoning the earplugs during one of Julie's trysts. Sarah sneaks into Julie's room and steals her diary, using it in the novel she is working on. The competition comes to the fore when a local waiter, Franck, is involved. Julie wants him but he appears to prefer the more mature Sarah, having struck up a relationship with her during her frequent lunches at the bistro.

An unexpected tragedy occurs after a night of flirting among the three. After swimming together in the pool, Franck refuses to allow Julie to continue performing oral sex on him once Sarah, who watches them from the balcony, throws a rock into the water. Franck tells Julie he is leaving. The next day, Franck is missing. While investigating Franck's disappearance, Sarah is told that Julie's mother died years earlier, though Julie had spoken of her mother as if she were alive. She returns to the villa, where a confused Julie thinks Sarah is her mother and has a breakdown. Julie eventually recovers and confesses that Franck is dead because she repeatedly hit him over the head with a rock as he tried to leave her at the pool. His body is in one of the sheds.

When Marcel becomes suspicious of the mound of fresh soil where Sarah and Julie have buried Franck's body, Sarah seduces him to distract him. Julie leaves, thanking Sarah for her help and leaving her the manuscript of an unpublished novel she claims her mother wrote, which she had previously said John made her mother burn. Sarah uses the mother's manuscript in her novel.

Sarah returns to England and visits John at his publishing office with her new novel, which she anticipated he would reject, so she had it printed by another publisher. His daughter, Julia, shows up just as Sarah is leaving, but is revealed to be a different person than the girl who came to John's French house.

The episode begins in medias res: Homer and Bart are chased through the streets of Springfield by an angry mob while carrying the head of the statue of their town founder, Jebediah Springfield. Surrounded by the mob, Bart begins to explain a 23-minute story (a reference to this episode's running time) of the events of the previous day.

After going to church with his family, Bart is forbidden by Marge to see the violent movie ''Space Mutants 4''. Later on, he runs into three of Springfield's bullies: Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, and Dolph Starbeam. The three invite Bart to sneak into the movie theater to watch ''Space Mutants 4''.

After being thrown out of the theater by the manager, the gang shoplifts from the Kwik-E-Mart, owned by store clerk Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, and throw rocks at the Jebediah Springfield statue, and watch clouds. Bart remarks that one cloud resembles the statue of Jebediah Springfield, but without a head. His new friends remark that they wish someone would decapitate the statue, saying it would be funny to see the town upset over it. When Bart disagrees, the bullies make fun of him. Bart is conflicted and asks Homer whether it is okay to compromise one's beliefs to be popular. Homer tells Bart that popularity is the most important thing in the world, as long as Bart is not talking about killing someone. That night, Bart sneaks out of the house and decapitates the statue.

The town is shaken by the crime, which causes Bart to feel guilty about their actions. The act also does not make him popular with Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney, who tell Bart they did not actually mean what they said about cutting off the head, and that they would attack the culprit if he were with them. Bart begins to fear the consequences were his actions revealed, and his conscience manifests itself as the statue's severed head, which begins speaking to him. Unable to go on, Bart finally confesses to his family, explaining that he thought being popular was the most important thing in the world. Homer realizes it was his advice that had caused Bart to commit the crime in the first place, and takes responsibility by accompanying Bart as he takes the head back to the statue. They are found by the mob, returning the story to the beginning.

Bart realizes his act has actually brought the town closer together, and the mob agrees. The head is then returned to the statue and everyone forgives Homer and Bart.

Dr. John Markway narrates the history of the 90-year-old Hill House, which was constructed in Massachusetts by Hugh Crain as a home for his wife. She died when her carriage crashed against a tree as she approached the house for the first time. Crain remarried, but his second wife died in the house from a fall down the stairs. Crain's daughter Abigail lived in the house for the rest of her life, never moving out of the nursery room. She died calling for her nurse-companion. The companion inherited the house, but later hanged herself from a spiral staircase in the library. Hill House was eventually inherited by a Mrs. Sanderson, although it has stood empty for some time.

Markway wishes to study the reported paranormal activity at Hill House and sends invitations for people to join his investigation; however, Mrs. Sanderson forces Markway to allow Luke Sanderson [her heir] to join. Only two individuals accept—a psychic, Theodora, and Eleanor Lance, who experienced poltergeist activity as a child. Eleanor spent her adult life caring for her invalid mother, whose recent death has left Eleanor with severe guilt.

The group find the mansion's walls were constructed with angles askew, resulting in off-centre perspectives and doors that open and close by themselves. The library contains the ramshackle spiral staircase from which the previous owner hanged herself. During their first night in the house, Eleanor and Theo are terrified by banging sounds made against the door to Theo's bedroom, and hear the voice of a young girl echoing with laughter. Despite this, Eleanor feels a tentative affinity to Hill House. The following day, the team explores the house, discovering a cold spot outside the nursery room. Following another night of loud disturbances the team discovers scrawled on a wall in chalk the words "Help Eleanor Come Home", which causes Eleanor distress.

That night, Theo moves into Eleanor's room and they fall asleep in the same bed. Eleanor is awakened by the sounds of a man speaking indistinctly and a woman laughing. Fearful, Eleanor asks Theo to hold her hand and soon she feels a crushing grip. As Eleanor hears the sound of a young girl crying, she shouts at whoever is causing the child pain. Theo awakens to find that Eleanor has moved from the bed to the couch, and Eleanor realizes it was not Theo's hand she held.

The following day Dr. Markway's defiantly skeptical wife Grace arrives at Hill House to warn Dr. Markway that a reporter has learned of his investigation there. Grace announces that she plans to join the group for the duration of the investigation and demands a room in the nursery despite her husband's warning that it is likely the centre of the disturbances. That night, in the living room, the group experiences loud banging and an unseen intruder attempting to force its way into the room. The banging moves towards the nursery, where sounds of destruction are heard. Eleanor runs towards the source and discovers Grace is missing. The next morning, Eleanor's mental instability worsens as she enters the library and climbs the dilapidated spiral staircase, followed by Dr. Markway, who tries to coax her down. At the top, Eleanor glimpses Grace's face through a trap door. Startled, she nearly falls to her death before being rescued by Dr. Markway.

Markway becomes alarmed at Eleanor's obsession with Hill House in spite of its dangers. Eleanor pleads to stay, but Markway insists that she leave. Eleanor drives off and speeds toward the front gates. The steering wheel begins to turn by itself, and Eleanor struggles to regain control before surrendering to the unseen force. Grace suddenly appears and runs past the front of the car, causing Eleanor to crash into a tree and die. Luke observes that Eleanor deliberately aimed the car at the tree, but Markway asserts that something was in the car with her. He notes that the tree was the same one that killed Mrs. Crain. Theo remarks that Eleanor got what she wanted—to remain with the house. Convinced at last of the supernatural forces he once scoffed at, Luke says solemnly, " It ought to be burned down...and the ground sowed with salt."

The Blieder drive, a faster-than-light drive system, has permitted the population of Earth to colonize the galaxy. Each planet has become the home for a particular social group. Four hundred years after the diaspora (the "Great Explosion" of the title), a spaceship from Earth visits three of the planets, the first steps to unifying the galaxy under a new Empire. The ship contains two thousand Terrans including many pompous officials, an army of bureaucrats, a military force and the ship's crew, including some misfits. Things do not go entirely as hoped, as the incompetent military authoritarians of the ship encounter three very different societies.

The first planet was a penal colony; it is now many independent kleptocratic despotisms preying on each other. The second planet, Hygeia, is populated by health and fitness fanatic nudists. The third planet, Kassim, was colonized by a religious group, but when the ship arrives, the Terrans cannot find any human life, only empty villages overgrown by jungle. They decide not to land on the planet, because the captain fears that the colonists could have been killed by a disease and he doesn't want to endanger the crew. The final planet, K22g, has developed an unusual social system. The population call themselves Gands (after Gandhi) and practise a form of classless, philosophically anarchic libertarianism, based on passive resistance ("Freedom - I won't!" and "Myob!"); and a moneyless gift economy based on barter and favor-exchange, using "obs" (obligations). To perform a service for somebody "lays an ob" on them; they can then "kill the ob" by returning the favor. As the planet's population are demonstrably non-hostile, the officials have to approve shore leave, which brings the crew into contact with the anarchist natives. Many find reasons to stay on the planet, refusing to return to the ship. The officials have to get the ship back into space before they lose so many that the ship will never fly again.

In Istanbul, a dark-haired girl is pursued through an arched hallway by two people in hooded cloaks. After trying various escape routes, she is trapped in a dead-end. She sees a drain pipe and uses it to scale the building, barely escaping the duo and easily climbing up to the roof. There, another hooded figure is waiting and pushes her off the building. She screams, but she lands on the ground alive, on her back. Two hooded figures hold her down, yet she fights back. A third figure raises an arched, shiny, silver dagger and stabs her.

Buffy is in Sunnydale training her sister how to fight vampires. She instructs Dawn that fighting and slaying are about power. They discuss the fact that Sunnydale High has just reopened; Dawn will be attending for the first time.

Meanwhile, Willow is studying with Giles in Westbury, England. She studies magic and meditation with a coven of Wiccans that Giles knows. She is learning control, but feels frightened and distraught because she "killed people" and nearly destroyed the world with her dark magic.

Xander, who is working construction at Sunnydale High, notes that the principal's office is right over the Hellmouth. Buffy follows Dawn into the school where she meets Principal Robin Wood. She goes into a bathroom, where she finds a mysterious talisman. Upon seeing the talisman, she sees a dead girl who threatens her. She says Buffy was unable to protect her, and that she will not be able to protect Dawn either. Buffy tries to warn Dawn, but ends up only embarrassing her in front of her whole class. Dawn then sees a similar dead student. She hurries to the bathroom where she meets Kit Holburn, who has also been seeing things. They are about to leave the bathroom when the floor caves in and they wind up in the high school basement.

Back in England, Willow has a terrible vision of "the Earth's teeth" — the Hellmouth. She tells Giles, who has taught her that everything is connected, but not every connection is good.

Dawn and Kit run into another student in the basement, Carlos Trejo, who says he saw a dead janitor. They are soon confronted by the three dead people. The dead people tell them that everyone dies in Sunnydale, and they will be no different. Dawn calls Buffy on her cell phone. Buffy descends into the basement to help Dawn, only to run into the three dead people herself. After a brief conversation (the dead girl, for example, says that she "was ripped to death by a werewolf"), Buffy realizes that the three dead people are trying to prevent her from going through a certain door. Buffy makes it to the door on her second try. She opens the door, but instead of finding Dawn and the other two students, Buffy finds a deranged Spike.

Once Buffy and Spike are alone in this part of the basement, Buffy having locked the dead people out on the other side of the door, she realizes Spike is frail and unwell. She asks him about a series of cuts on his chest, and he replies that he tried to "cut it out". Before their conversation can continue, Dawn calls Buffy again. In spite of Spike's mad rambling, he is able to tell Buffy that the dead students are not zombies or ghosts, but actually manifest spirits controlled by a talisman, raised to seek vengeance. Buffy tells Dawn to find a weapon because the spirits are corporeal, and then leaves Spike alone, seeing that he is in no shape to help her.

Buffy then calls Xander and tells him to seek and destroy the talisman. Buffy follows Dawn's screams to another room in the basement, where she finds Dawn has made a weapon from a purse filled with bricks. Dawn throws the weapon to Buffy, who then fights the spirits off as Xander wrestles with one in the bathroom after locating the talisman. Xander breaks it and the spirits disappear.

Back in the school proper, Buffy sends Dawn, Kit, and Carlos off to class with some words of advice. Wood is impressed that Buffy is able to convince Kit and Carlos, the only two students with school records as long as Buffy's, to socialize and to go to class. He offers her a job working as an outreach counselor at the school, and she gladly accepts.

Spike huddles in the school basement and tells an apparition of Warren Mears that he has prepared a speech to give Buffy, but she will not understand what he has to say. As Warren paces around Spike, he morphs successively into Glory, Adam, Mayor Wilkins, Drusilla and the Master - the previous villains of the series in reverse order. They all speak to Spike about a plan "to go back to the beginning," and finally, the Master morphs into Buffy, telling Spike that it is not about right or wrong: it is about power.

Setting

''Illusion of Gaia'' is set in a version of Earth that is partially historical but mostly fantasy-based. The game contains several real-world sites, such as Incan ruins, the Nazca Lines, Angkor Wat, the Great Wall of China and the Egyptian pyramids. Each of these ruins hold a piece to the final puzzle, unveiled in the legendary Tower of Babel.

The story is set in the age of exploration, a period roughly corresponding to the 16th century. Christopher Columbus is mentioned. Explorers search for ancient ruins and their treasures and secrets. Many return with nothing, and some are never seen again. Will, the protagonist of the game, is the lone survivor of such an expedition. He accompanied his father, a famed explorer, on a sea journey to discover the secrets of the Tower of Babel. The explorers met with a mysterious disaster. Somehow Will made it back to his hometown, but he does not remember how.

Story

When the game begins, Will stumbles into a "Dark Space" where he meets a being called Gaia with a human face and a tentacled body. Gaia tells Will that he must leave his home and save the world from a coming evil. A comet is approaching, and it will bring ill fortune to the world. As he travels, Will gains the ability to change into two other forms, each with special powers: Freedan, a dark knight, and Shadow, a solid form of energy.

Later the comet is revealed to be an ancient weapon from the last Blazer War, and has the power to change the shape of the world. In the ruin of Angkor Wat, Will learns that the comet's previous approaches interfered with the evolution of the world.

Will and his friends travel the world and collect artifacts known as Mystic Statues. At the climax, Will and Kara reach the Tower of Babel, where Will is revealed as the Dark Knight and Kara as the Light Knight. The two knights join to form Shadow and use the ancient statues to release the ultimate power, the firebird.

The comet arrives and appears as Dark Gaia. Will and Kara destroy its power, returning the world to normal. The spirits of Will's parents tell Will and Kara that the world will return to normal and that neither of them will preserve any memories of the adventure. Saddened by that fact, Will and Kara join one last time to form Shadow to return to Earth.

The final scene is ambiguous. Will's friends are depicted in what appears to be a modern-day school, implying that even if they forgot about their time together, they remained friends in the "real" world.

The play comprises three acts:

In ''Act I'' a poor but aristocratic young doctor named Harry Trench and his friend William Cokane are holidaying at Remagen on the Rhine. They encounter fellow travellers Mr Sartorius, a self-made businessman, and his daughter Blanche. Harry and Blanche fall in love and become engaged.

''Act II'' opens with everyone back at home in London. Sartorius, in talking to Mr Lickcheese, whom he employs as a rent-collector, reveals himself to be a slum landlord. He dismisses Lickcheese for dealing too leniently with tenants. Trench and Cokane arrive to visit, but when Trench discovers that Sartorius makes his money by renting slum housing to the poor, he is disgusted and refuses to allow Blanche to accept money from her father after they are married, insisting that they must live instead on Harry's small income. Following a bitter argument, they break up. Sartorius reveals that Trench's income depends on interest from mortgaged tenements, and is therefore as "dirty" as his own; but the lovers do not reconcile. Blanche utterly rejects Harry because of her wounded feelings.

In ''Act III'', Trench, Cokane and Lickcheese return to Sartorius' house to plan a shady business venture. Trench, disillusioned and coarsened by knowing his income is tainted by its source, no longer takes the moral high ground. In the final scene, notable for its erotic tension, Harry and Blanche reunite.

Will Stanton and his mentor Merriman, two of the last Old Ones, gather allies and magical objects to help defeat the rising Dark. They ally with Bran, a Welsh descendant of King Arthur, and the three Drew children, to form the Six who are prophesized to triumph over the powers of the Dark.

''Over Sea, Under Stone'' features the Drew children, Simon, Jane and Barney, on holiday with their parents and Merriman Lyon, an old family friend, usually referred to by the children as their great-uncle. The Drew family meet him in the fictional fishing village of Trewissick on the southern coast of Cornwall. In the attic of the big Grey House they are renting from Merriman's friend Captain Toms the children find an old manuscript. They recognise a drawing of the local coastline that may be a kind of map, with almost illegible text, but Barney realises that the map refers to King Arthur and his knights. The children decide to keep the discovery to themselves.

The family are visited at the Grey House by a very evil Mr. Withers and his sister Polly, who invite them to go fishing on their yacht. The boys are thrilled, but Jane feels suspicious and declines to join them. While Jane is alone in the Grey House she finds a guidebook to Trewissick, written by the local vicar, in an old trunk. She realises that the map in the guidebook is similar to the secret map, but also different somehow, so she decides to visit the vicar. The man at the vicarage is not the writer of the guidebook, but he offers to help Jane. He asks some probing questions that arouse Jane's suspicions and she decides to return home.

Soon the house is burgled, with attention paid only to the bookshelves and the wall hangings, and the children guess that someone else knows of and seeks the manuscript. The children decide that it is time to confide in Great-Uncle Merry. Up on the headland they show him the map, and he tells them that it is a copy of an even older map that shows the way to a hidden treasure and that the children are now in great danger. He explains that some British artefact may have been hidden here long ago, and confirms that they will have dangerous grown-up rivals in its pursuit. So begins their quest for the Grail on behalf of the Light, which they have to achieve while being harried by Mr. Withers and his sister, who are agents of the Dark, desperate to stop them at any cost.

Mother usually paints outdoors, and father goes boating, or both travel out of town. Meanwhile, the children investigate the meaning of the map, encouraged, yet warned and sometimes "guarded," by Great Uncle Merry. They learn to read the diagram and work out the clues on the map, but they must work out of doors, where each child has a nasty encounter with the Dark and their progress is easy to observe. While looking for the first clue Simon is chased by Mr. Hastings and Bill Hoover, Jr. After the second clue leads them to the headland at night Simon, Jane and Great-Uncle Merry are ambushed and almost caught by followers of the Dark. Merriman is misdirected out of town, but the children anxiously follow their ancient guide "over sea and under stone" without him. Barney is kidnapped by Mr. Withers and his sister Polly, and must be rescued. The children eventually follow the clues to a cave beneath the headland and discover the Grail. Unfortunately they lose an important metal case that was lodged inside the Grail, which contained a coded manuscript that is the key to deciphering the markings on the outside of the Grail.

The children present the Grail to the British Museum and are given a cheque for it. The Grail is an object of debate among the scholars there because of the unknown markings. Barney begins to suspect something, reciting in his mind the name of the great-uncle Merry and eventually finding a link to Merlin.

During the Prohibition era of the 1920s, a gangster named John Vanderhoff, alias "The Dutchman", was killing off the competition and setting up his own speakeasys. To fight the crime, the Prohibition Bureau needed to get some extra men. Izzy Einstein (Jackie Gleason) volunteers; he is desperate to have a steady paycheck to support his wife, mother-in-law and four daughters. Einstein wants to disprove his mother-in-law's claim that he is just a "bum".

When the agent in charge of the local Prohibition Unit office tells him there is no job, Einstein makes a speech: "This is America. And I'm ''proud'' to be an American..." When the chief tells Einstein that he is "too old" for this kind of job, Izzy quickly suggests taking a partner. Moe Smith (Art Carney) recently had his underground bar discovered by the police and is spending too much time alone and drinking. Einstein meets with Smith and asks for his help. The idea of a steady paycheck convinces him.

When they first try to raid one of Dutch's bars, they find the gangster has converted it into a "reading hall". Izzy and Moe decide to use different tactics. After spotting a local baseball team, they ask their boss for 9 more men. They all dress as baseball players, and tell the gatekeeper at the bar they want to celebrate a win. They gain entry and enjoy it - then whip out their badges and arrest everyone in the bar.

Soon, Izzy and Moe have their own division within the unit; they work alone as a pair, get various costumes, and offer no explanations of their tactics. Izzy and Moe soon successfully raid underground bars all over the city, and arrest such high-profile people as the district attorney. After their boss threatens to fire them, Izzy and Moe meet the press, and Izzy gives his "This is America" speech. They are reinstated.

Moe, a widower, is attracted to Dallas Carter, an entertainer at one of the bars. He falls in love. Upset at losing so much money and booze to the cops, Dutch lures the pair to where a large shipment of bourbon is being kept. Izzy and Moe evade the trap, but Moe gets shot in the arm, and one of the agents is killed. The agents' death affects Moe, who again considers quitting, but he decides to stay, giving his own version of the "This is America" speech to reporters. Izzy and Moe then proceeded to rob the Dutch's big shipment of Bourbon that he is expecting, with help from Dallas, and also take the truck and its treasure to a police impound site.

The Dutchman finds out about Dallas tipping off the shipment, takes her hostage and tells Izzy and Moe to bring the bourbon for an exchange. They go to his estate, dodging the bullets and capturing the corrupt police chief. When Moe confronts Dutch, the gangster is pointing a gun at Dallas' head. Moe offers himself; with Dutch about to shoot him, a gun blast knocks the gun away. Izzy emerges from hiding with a rifle. Moe says, "How could you chance taking a shot like that?" Izzy says, "I just pretended he had an apple on your head."

Shuji meets eight girls over the course of the year, any of whom can end up as his girlfriend – if the player makes the right decisions. The setting and scenes are romantic: the game skips over the drudgery of school life and focuses on holidays and time spent with his friends, as he gradually falls in love with one of the girls.

After being humiliated by members of the Theatre Critics Guild at an awards ceremony, Shakespearean actor Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart (Vincent Price) is seen committing suicide by diving into the Thames from a great height. He survives and is rescued by a group of vagrants. Two years later, beginning on the Ides of March, Lionheart sets out to exact vengeance against the critics who failed to acclaim his genius, killing them one by one in ways very similar to murder scenes in the season of William Shakespeare's plays that he last performed. Before each murder, Lionheart recites the critic's damning review of his performance in the role.

The first critic, George Maxwell, is repeatedly stabbed by a mob of murderous homeless people, suggested by the murder of Caesar in ''Julius Caesar''. The second, Hector Snipe, is impaled with a spear, and his body is dragged away to appear at Maxwell's funeral tied to a horse's tail, replicating the murder of Hector in ''Troilus and Cressida''. The third, Horace Sprout, is decapitated while sleeping, as was Cloton in ''Cymbeline''. The fourth critic, Trevor Dickman, has his heart cut out by Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice'', the play being rewritten so that Antonio is forced to repay his debt with a pound of flesh. The fifth, Oliver Larding, is drowned in a barrel of wine, as is the Duke of Clarence in ''Richard III''.

For the next play, ''Romeo and Juliet'', Lionheart lures the critic Peregrine Devlin to a fencing gymnasium, where he reenacts the sword fight from the play. He badly wounds Devlin but chooses not to kill him at this juncture. The sixth critic, Solomon Psaltery, an obsessively jealous man, murders his wife, believing her to be unfaithful, as portrayed in ''Othello''. Although Psaltery survives, his actions lead to his imprisonment, and he will likely die in prison. The seventh critic, Miss Chloe Moon, the only female victim, is electrocuted to replicate the burning of Joan of Arc in ''Henry VI, Part 1''. The eighth critic, flamboyant gourmand Meredith Merridew, is force-fed pies made from the flesh of his two toy poodles until he chokes to death, replicating the demise of Queen Tamora in ''Titus Andronicus''.

It is revealed early in the film that Lionheart is being aided by his adoring daughter Edwina. Eventually, she is arrested as the prime suspect in the murders, forcing Lionheart to reveal himself to Devlin. Lionheart tells Devlin to give him the award or be killed. Devlin refuses, and Lionheart plans to put out his eyes with red-hot daggers, like Gloucester in ''King Lear''. However, his contraption gets stuck just as the police arrive to save Devlin. Lionheart sets fire to the theatre. In the confusion, one of the vagrants kills Edwina by striking her on the head with the award statuette, unwittingly casting her in the role of Cordelia, Lear's youngest daughter. Lionheart retreats, carrying her body to the roof and delivering Lear's final monologue before the roof caves in, sending him to his death. Devlin, a critic even in the face of death, then gives Lionheart's performance a positive if mixed review.

The novel introduces a generation of characters whose families will later become the most significant in the universe: the Atreides, the Corrinos and the Harkonnens. Serena Butler, daughter of the viceroy of the League of Nobles, is a strong voice for the human rebellion. Her paramour Xavier Harkonnen leads the military force on the current League capital world of Salusa Secundus. As the story begins, Xavier is repelling an attack on the planet by Omnius' army of cymeks. The cymeks are former humans whose brains have been implanted in preservation canisters, which in turn can be installed into a variety of fearsome mechanical bodies, to extend their lives indefinitely and make them nearly unstoppable. The original twenty cymeks (calling themselves the Titans) had conquered the complacent universe by exploiting humanity's reliance and dependency on machines, yet the Titans were later overthrown themselves by Omnius, an artificial intelligence of their design. Seeking to replace human chaos with machine order, Omnius thus ignited the war between machine and humanity. Vorian Atreides is the son and subordinate of the leading cymek Titan Agamemnon (whose last name, Atreides, originates with House Atreus, from the ancient Greek epic the Iliad).

Meanwhile, the Sorceresses of Rossak, a matriarchal order, are perfecting their destructive psychic powers for use against the machines, and maintaining a breeding program to create more powerful telepaths. Pharmaceutical magnate Aurelius Venport is about to discover an interesting new substance, the spice melange, and the famous inventor Tio Holtzman accepts the diminutive genius Norma Cenva into his employ.

Serena is captured by the Titan Barbarossa and put under the watch of Erasmus, an independent robot who seeks to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines may be truly superior. His methods of study often entail human vivisection and torture in his slave pens. Erasmus takes a liking to Serena, as does the young Vorian Atreides. Serena realizes she is pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gives birth to a baby boy whom she names Manion (after her father). Erasmus finds this distraction inconvenient, and not only removes Serena's uterus but kills her young son in front of her.

This single event incites the entire Jihad, and young Manion is soon labelled the first martyr, Manion the Innocent. Vorian, learning about the murder and realizing the lie he lives as a machine trustee, betrays his machine masters and flees with Serena. They are joined by another trustee, Iblis Ginjo, a slave leader who masterminds the rebellion on Synchronized Earth.

The first human victory of the so-called Butlerian Jihad is the destruction of Earth and the Earth Omnius using atomics. Iblis (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) are the religious leaders of the human rebellion, and Xavier and Vorian its two generals. The brutal Titans are desperate to break free of their machine masters and wage their own techno-misanthropic war, and Omnius and Erasmus are determined to conquer and destroy all of humanity once and for all.

A subplot of the novel focuses on the Zensunni slave Ishmael who is captured by slavers and taken to Poitrin. He and a Zenshiite slave named Aliid attempt to sabotage one of Holtzmann’s experiments. The two are influenced by the charismatic slave leader Bel Moulay, who inspires a slave uprising. Lord Nikto Bludd’s Dragoon’s suppress the revolt. While the slaves receive an amnesty due to the pressing war with Omnius, Moulay is mutilated and executed.

And on a lonely desert planet known as Arrakis, the seeds of legend are sown with Selim Wormrider, an outcast from his tribe, who sees the future of Shai-Hulud and makes it his mission to save his god from those who would wish to take the spice.

Bart and Lisa are excited by their upcoming visit to Kamp Krusty, a summer camp run by Krusty the Clown. Homer conditions Bart's visit on getting a C− average on his report card. After getting a D− in each subject from Ms. Krabappel, Bart changes his grades to straight A+s. Homer chides Bart for not faking plausible grades but lets him attend camp anyway, deeming Bart's failure to uphold their deal a miscalculation on his part, and that he did not want Bart hanging around all summer anyway.

The camp's director, Mr. Black, has licensed Krusty's name from the comedian. The campers soon discover Kamp Krusty is a dystopia: the local bullies, Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney, are the camp counselors who take the kids on death marches, feed them nothing but gruel and force them into making knockoff wallets for export, while enjoying deluxe accommodations themselves.

Meanwhile, Homer and Marge enjoy their summer alone. Homer even loses weight and regains some of his lost hair. Lisa describes the camp's brutal conditions in a letter to her parents, but they think she is exaggerating and actually having fun. Bart hopes Krusty will save them, but Krusty is visiting England for the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament and is unaware of the camp's brutal conditions.

To placate the restless campers, Mr. Black informs them Krusty has arrived. He presents a drunken Barney dressed as Krusty, but the ruse fails to fool the children. Bart leads the campers in revolt, driving out Mr. Black and the bullies and changing the camp's name to Camp Bart. During a televised report by Kent Brockman, Bart explains the camp's deplorable conditions sparked the uprising. The stress of seeing Bart as the rebellion's leader causes Homer to instantly lose his regrown hair and regain his lost weight.

Krusty is called away from his vacation to deal with Kamp Krusty's conditions. The campers do not believe he is the real Krusty until a search reveals his distinctive birthmark, pacemaker scar and superfluous third nipple. Krusty apologizes to the kids for their ordeal, explaining Mr. Black and his minions bribed him with a dump truck full of money. As compensation, Krusty takes the campers to "the happiest place on Earth": Tijuana, Mexico.

The five Mundy sisters (Kate, Maggie, Agnes, Rosie, and Christina), all unmarried, live in a cottage outside of Ballybeg. The oldest, Kate, is a school teacher, the only one with a well-paid job. Agnes and Rose knit gloves to be sold in town, thereby earning a little extra money for the household. They also help Maggie to keep house. Maggie and Christina (Michael's mother) have no income at all. Michael is seven years old and plays in and around the cottage.

All the drama takes place in the sisters' cottage or in the yard just outside, with events from town and beyond being reported either as they happen or as reminiscence.

Recently returned home after 25 years is their brother Jack, a priest who has lived as a missionary in a leper colony in a remote village called Ryanga in Uganda. He is suffering from malaria and has trouble remembering many things, including the sisters' names and his English vocabulary. It becomes clear that he has "gone native" and abandoned much of his Catholicism during his time there. This may be the real reason he has been sent home.

Gerry, Michael's father, is Welsh. He is a charming yet unreliable man, always clowning. He is a travelling salesman who sells gramophones. He visits rarely and always unannounced. A radio nicknamed "Marconi", which works only intermittently, brings 1930s dance and traditional Irish folk music into the home at rather random moments and then, equally randomly, ceases to play. This leads the women into sudden outbursts of wild dancing.

The poverty and financial insecurity of the sisters is a constant theme. So are their unfulfilled lives: none of the sisters has married, although it is clear that they have had suitors whom they fondly remember.

There is a tension between the strict and proper behaviour demanded by the Catholic Church, voiced most stridently by the upright Kate, and the unbridled emotional paganism of the local people in the "back hills" of Donegal and in the tribal people of Uganda.

There is a possibility that Gerry is serious this time about his marriage proposal to Christina. On this visit, he says he is going to join the International brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War, not from any ideological commitment but because he wants adventure. There is a similar tension here between the "godless" forces he wants to join and the forces of Franco against which he will be fighting, which are supported by the Catholic Church.

The opening of a knitwear factory in the village has killed off the hand-knitted glove cottage industry that has been the livelihood of Agnes and Rose. The village priest has told Kate that there are insufficient pupils at the school for her to continue in her post in the coming school year in September. She suspects that the real reason is her brother Jack, whose heretical views have become known to the Church and have tainted her by association.

There is a sense that the close home life the women/girls have known since childhood is about to be torn apart. The narrator, the adult Michael, tells us this is indeed what happens.

It is the summer of 1977, and New York City lives in fear of the ".44 Caliber Killer", who shoots young women and their male companions. The killer, David Berkowitz, later identifies himself as "Son of Sam" in a note left at a murder scene. Berkowitz lives in a messy apartment, where he is driven crazy by the barking of a neighbor's large black labrador, Harvey, the dog of Sam Carr, and has a vision of the dog directing him to kill.

In an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx (likely Morris Park, Throggs Neck, or Pelham Bay), hairdresser Vinny and his pretty wife Dionna go disco dancing at a local nightclub, where they meet Dionna's attractive cousin Chiara. Vinny offers to drive Chiara home while Dionna remains at the club. Vinny and Chiara then park on a residential street and have sex in the car. Son of Sam watches them but is scared off when the couple accidentally set off the car horn during sex and quickly drive away, embarrassed. After they leave, Son of Sam kills another couple who had parked behind Vinny. When Vinny picks up Dionna back at the club, she notices the smell of vaginal lubrication on his face and realizes he had sex with Chiara but does not let on that she knows.

On the drive home, Vinny notices police near the location where he had parked with Chiara and sees the bodies of the slain couple. The religious and guilty Vinny, realizing he could have been a victim, decides that God spared him in order to give him a chance to reform his ways and stop cheating on his wife. Although Vinny loves Dionna, their sex life is suffering because Vinny enjoys anal sex, "69" and other sex acts that he considers kinky but he cannot bring himself to discuss or perform with his wife. He is also having an affair with Gloria, the owner of the hair salon where he works.

The next day, while Vinny is hanging out with neighborhood drug dealer Joey T and his friends, Vinny's old friend Ritchie, who has been away for some time, reappears, sporting a punk spiked hairdo and clothing and affecting a British accent. Vinny, Joey T, and the others dislike the change in Ritchie and he soon finds himself unwelcome in the neighborhood. Ruby, a promiscuous local girl, is attracted to Ritchie and the two begin a relationship. Unlike other men, Ritchie takes an interest in Ruby as a person, not just as a sexual outlet. She learns that he makes money by erotic dancing and prostituting himself at a gay theater but remains loyal to him and begins to dress in punk fashion herself.

As the Son of Sam killings continue, tension rises in the neighborhood. A local police detective asks the local mob boss to help him find the killer; Joey T and his friends also make a list of possible suspects, including Ritchie whom they regard as "a freak". Ritchie and Ruby invite Vinny and Dionna to come see their punk band perform at CBGB, but once there, Dionna feels intimidated by the punk crowd and refuses to go in. Vinny and Dionna instead go to Studio 54, where they are denied entry and finally end up at Plato's Retreat where they take drugs and participate in an orgy. Vinny becomes upset when he sees Dionna appearing to enjoy the experience of having sex with another man, even though he himself is having sex with other women. He berates Dionna in the car on the way home, causing her to get mad and reveal that she knows he cheated on her with Chiara. She storms off to stay at her father's house. Vinny begins to drink, uses drugs and makes a scene at Gloria's hair salon, causing her to angrily throw him out and then inform Dionna about their affair. Upon hearing from Gloria, Dionna leaves Vinny for good.

Joey T and his gang decide that the latest witness sketch of Son of Sam released by the police resembles Ritchie and attempt to track him down at CBGB. Joey persuades the unstable Vinny, who is high on drugs he has taken to dull the pain of his impending divorce, to help them lure Ritchie out of his house, since Vinny is the only local friend Ritchie still trusts. Unbeknownst to Vinny and his friends, the police have already arrested David Berkowitz, the real Son of Sam. Vinny goes to Ritchie's family home, where Ritchie and Ruby are packing up to leave town, and lures Ritchie out on the pretext of talking about his failing marriage. Once Ritchie is outside, Vinny warns Ritchie under his breath to run, but Ritchie does not heed the warning and is attacked and severely beaten by Joey T and his gang. Ritchie's stepfather, Eddie, emerges from the house brandishing his gun and rescues the badly injured Ritchie, telling the attackers that Ritchie is not the Son of Sam and that the TV news is reporting that the police have just arrested the real killer. Unable to face Ritchie, Vinny walks away.

Krusty agrees to have dinner with the Simpsons to repay Bart for helping exonerate him for armed robbery ("Krusty Gets Busted"). When he keeps cancelling, an upset Bart writes him a letter saying he is no longer his fan. Krusty's secretary is so moved by the letter that she threatens to quit if Krusty does not keep his promise to Bart, so Krusty reluctantly attends. When asked to say grace, Krusty recites a Hebrew blessing. Realizing that Krusty is Jewish, Lisa speaks of his heritage, making him break down in tears.

Krusty reveals his real name is Herschel Krustofsky ( ) and describes his upbringing on the Lower East Side of Springfield. His father, Hyman Krustofsky, was a rabbi who strongly opposed his son's wish to become a comedian; he wanted the boy to go to ''yeshiva'' instead. At school, Krusty made the other students laugh and became a slapstick comedian behind his father's back. One night, Krusty performed at a rabbis' convention unknowingly attended by Hyman. A rabbi squirted seltzer on him, washing off his clown makeup. Recognizing Krusty, an enraged Hyman immediately exiled his son. They have not seen or spoken to each other in 25 years.

Seeing Itchy & Scratchy playing with their fathers causes Krusty to breakdown and cry on live TV. Bart and Lisa decide to help reunite father and son, but Hyman refuses to accept Krusty's career choice because he believes that Krusty abandoned his faith and family. To outsmart him, Lisa finds Judaic teachings that urge forgiveness, but Hyman refutes Lisa's arguments and refuses to reconcile with Krusty. In a last-ditch effort, Bart convinces him to abandon his stubborn ways by quoting Sammy Davis, Jr. — a Jewish entertainer like Krusty — and making a passionate plea about the struggles that the Jewish people have overcome. Bart's speech finally convinces Hyman that entertainers have a place in Jewish culture.

Krusty is feeling glumly when he starts the live telecast of his show, and then calls for the Itchy & Scratchy show to roll. Bart and Lisa arrive backstage with Rabbi Krustofsky, and he and Krusty joyously reconcile before the audience. Hyman accepts a cream pie from Bart and throws it in his son's face.

Jolie Fitch is a junior at Steinmetz High School who enjoys Dr. Jerry Plecki's English class and is involved heavily in all discussions, especially on his favorite book ''Paradise Lost''. Dr. Plecki is offered the position of Academic Decathlon coach, a job all the other teachers consider to be a waste of time for everyone involved. Dr. Plecki holds an open call for the students after class, but no one arrives to participate. He is about to leave for the day when Jolie comes in and convinces him that he needs to look for the smarter students and recruit them. He succeeds in recruiting seven students (Darius, Matt, Paul, Dominik, Irwin, Agnieszka, and Jolie). They spend the next few months studying hard for the regional competition.

At regionals, the team faces their biggest competitor in Whitney Young Magnet High School, who have consistently won the regional and state competitions for almost a decade. As expected, Whitney Young is victorious and Steinmetz places 5th overall, but still qualify for the state competition. The students are overwhelmed to be facing Whitney Young in the next round, but an opportunity arises when Matt receives a copy of the test for the state finals. Irwin then brings it to Dr. Plecki, who feels that using the test is the team's best chance to defeat Whitney Young at state.

After some persuasion, all seven members agree to dismiss their conflicting feelings about cheating and begin copying the answers on various items (calculators, shoes, a piece of gum, etc.). Dr. Plecki then tells Irwin privately that because he had the lowest scores in the group, he will be out of the state competition; however, he will be guaranteed a spot in nationals. Though Irwin is upset, he agrees to go along with it.

At the state finals, a much more confident Steinmetz meets Whitney Young again. The team successfully gets through the exams with the answers they secretly wrote down and with Jolie coaching them in the Super Quiz. At the end of the day, Steinmetz wins the state finals with an overall score of 49,000, raising the ire and suspicions of Whitney Young who resolve to investigate.

As Steinmetz celebrates their victory, a spiteful Irwin writes an essay, detailing how he feels betrayed by Dr. Plecki and how they received an advance copy of the test. Suspicions heighten when the essay is turned in to the principal, who questions Irwin about the truth of his writing. The Illinois Academic Decathlon board arrives at the school with news that the team will need to take a re-test to validate their scores. If they refuse, they will lose their championship. Feeling betrayed by Irwin and angered by the board's ultimatum, they refuse to cooperate and plan to seek an injunction to halt the state from re-testing them.

As the media siege escalates, Angela Lam, a student on the Academic Decathlon team from the year prior, talks to the press about how she was given the answers to the Super Quiz in the state competition by Dr. Plecki. She encourages the current team members to come clean if they cheated. Dr. Plecki is immediately suspended from his teaching duties and the team members are taken to the Board of Education headquarters where they are interrogated individually. Despite being pressured, they refuse to come clean and insist they did not cheat. However, Dominik ultimately breaks and confesses after a heart-to-heart talk with one of the investigators.

As a result, the state title is stripped from Steinmetz and awarded to Whitney Young. Dr. Plecki is fired from Steinmetz High School, and the team members are harassed by the other students for ruining their reputation. Dr. Plecki decides to leave Chicago in hopes the media will disperse and leave the team members alone. He meets with his team one last time by Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago, where the students present him with a gift: John Milton's book ''Paradise Lost'' signed by the team and the gold medal in Language and Literature that they didn't return to the board. With the team disbanded and Dr. Plecki gone, Jolie feels that she's lost a mentor that actually cared about her academic possibilities and her team that supported each other. In the end, Jolie gets accepted into college and recognizes the merit of her achievements without cheating.

In the epilogue, it is stated that Dominik, Agneiska, and Paul went off to college, Matt worked in a hardware store and was voted employee of the month, Darius' whereabouts are unknown, Irwin went to college to become a journalist, and Dr. Plecki started a business.

As a result of the 1995 cheating scandal, Steinmetz High School was banned from fielding an Academic Decathlon team for ten years. They returned to the competition in 2006.

The game centers on a boy named Chezni who, on a dare, activates an ancient machine called Dal Gren and in doing so releases a being of immense power and evil. As a result, the magic school is destroyed and the headmaster of the school orders Chezni to destroy Dal Gren at whatever cost before it destroys the world. During his travels he meets a girl named Midia, very much like himself, who wishes to help him on his quest, and numerous other mercenaries that come to aid Chezni. The main antagonist is a young dictator named Zaygos, who wants to use the Dal Gren for his own nefarious purposes.

"Part I: World Without End"

While working on his graduate thesis in geography in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Ish is bitten by a rattlesnake. As he heals from the bite in a cabin, he gets sick with a disease similar to measles, and he lapses in and out of consciousness. He eventually recovers and makes his way back to civilization, only to discover that it has utterly collapsed after most people have died from the same disease. He decides to go to his home in Berkeley, California. In the city near his home Ish meets few human survivors and also encounters a friendly and eager dog, which he names Princess, who swiftly adopts Ish as her new master. He sets out on a cross-country tour, traveling all the way to New York City and back, scavenging for food and fuel as he goes. As he travels, he finds small groups of survivors, but has doubts about humanity's ability to survive the loss of civilization.

Ish returns to his home in California. After reading Ecclesiastes, he realizes that he had been throwing his life away and then finds a woman, Emma, living nearby. They agree to consider themselves married and have children. They are gradually joined by other survivors. Over time the electricity fails and the comforts of civilization recede. As the children grow, Ish tries to instill basic academics by teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, but he is largely unsuccessful due to a lack of interest by the others.

Many children are born in these years, including Joey, Ish's youngest and favorite son. Joey is very similar in nature to Ish, as he demonstrates innate intelligence and a curiosity about the world before the epidemic. This leads Ish to believe that Joey is the key to the future.

"Part II: The Year 22"

Twenty-two years later, the community flourishes, with the younger generation adapting easily to the more traditional world. They come to have a better grasp of the natural world than the adults, and when running water fails, the younger generation comes to the rescue, knowing where flowing streams may be found. Ish turns his attention from ecology to his newly forming society, and he notices that the children are becoming very superstitious. One day Ish asks for his hammer which he habitually carries around, and finds the children are afraid to touch it as it is a symbol to them of the old times; the long-dead "Americans" of the old world are now viewed like gods, including Ish.

The older boys return from a cross country trip with a stranger named Charlie, who exposes the tribe to typhoid fever which kills many, including Joey. Through his despair, Ish is forced to face the future with a different set of expectations and hopes. His ambition to restore civilization to its original state is replaced by a more modest, practical one to simply convey a few basic survival skills; such as making bows and arrows, which the children think are great playthings.

As the years go by, the community begins to grow corn. Ish presides at meetings, his hammer being a symbol of his status. Though he is respected, many of his ideas are ignored by the younger men.

"Part III: The Last American"

Ish spends most of his elderly life in a fog, unaware of the world. Occasionally the fog in his mind lifts. During one such time, he finds himself aware of his great-grandson Jack, who stands before him. Jack tells him that the bow and arrow have become more reliable than the gun, whose cartridges do not always work. Jack also mentions that different colored arrowheads are suitable for hunting different game. Ish finds this belief superstitious, but decides it would be futile to challenge it. Ish realizes that the former civilization is now completely gone and will not be rebuilt anytime soon. He becomes reconciled to the way things have changed.

When wealthy amateur astronomer Tim Hamner co-discovers a new comet, named Hamner-Brown for its discoverers, documentary producer Harvey Randall persuades Hamner to have his soap company sponsor a television documentary series on the comet. Political lobbying by California Senator Arthur Jellison eventually gets a joint Apollo-Soyuz (docking with Skylab B) mission approved to study the comet, dubbed "The Hammer" by the media, which is expected to pass close to the Earth.

The scientific community assures the public that a collision with Earth is extremely unlikely, but the comet's nucleus breaks apart and the pieces strike parts of Europe, Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. These result in volcano eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis, destroying major coastal cities around the world, killing billions and initiating a new ice age because of the massive quantities of water and debris flung into the atmosphere.

Immediately after the strike, China, anticipating that the Soviet Union will become too cold for its people and must therefore invade its neighbor, launches a preemptive nuclear attack on its neighbor. The Soviets retaliate with their own nuclear missiles, reassuring the US that it is not the target.

Jellison has taken discreet precautions and moved his people and supplies to his ranch. He takes charge and organizes the easily protected valley in the Sierra foothills where his ranch is located, dubbed the "Stronghold". Randall and Hamner separately reach the valley and are allowed in (unlike almost all other refugees). Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist and resident genius Dan Forrester receives a warm welcome when he reveals that he has hidden a cache of invaluable "how-to" books.

Other groups organize as well. The remnants of a United States Army unit, commanded by Sergeant Hooker, resorts to cannibalism to survive. They are joined by a criminal gang led by Alim Nassor. Together they search in vain for a place that is not too heavily defended, but capable of supporting them all. Reverend Henry Armitage, driven mad by the catastrophe, shows up and absolves the "New Brotherhood Army" of their crimes and cannibalism, stating that they have a mission from God to return humanity to a simpler, non-technological way of life. Their expansion is blocked by the Stronghold, which is also their only serious rival in numbers and strength. They attack, but Jellison's outnumbered forces defeat them with the help of mustard gas and other weapons produced by Forrester.

An operational nuclear power plant nearby is also a target of the New Brotherhood. The defenders barely survive the first assault and plead for help. Jellison's people are reluctant to send it, as the greatly weakened New Brotherhood no longer poses a threat to the Stronghold, but astronaut Rick Delanty gives them a stark choice: remain safe, though their descendants will be peasants, or attack and wipe out the New Brotherhood, and use the electric power to rebuild civilization. Just then, Jellison dies, but not before the ailing old man casts the deciding vote for the latter. They succeed, and later, it is shown that they are well on the way back to restoring civilization.

The film traces the destinies of three American soldiers stationed in Italy during World War II. Fairchild (Corey) is an idealist who doesn't believe in killing. Preacher (Taylor) is a religious zealot, who can't see anything in terms other than Good and Evil. Dooley (Rooney), an inveterate gambler who runs a floating crap game up and down the Italian front. A gambler and a World War II veteran himself, Rooney claimed to have adlibbed and directed his crap game sequence.

Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III ("Pepper" for short) is a toy soldier. He is in love with the Clockwork Fairy Princess, Chelsea, whose voice wakes up the toys of the house every night at midnight. But he is clumsy and something of a laughing stock, especially when compared to his friendly rival Ginger who is also after Chelsea's heart.

One night Chelsea is stolen away by an unknown force, which also hypnotizes some of the lesser toys to become fierce minions and stand in the way of anyone who would try to rescue her. If there is no voice to wake them up anymore then the toys will never live again, so Pepper and Ginger head off to find Chelsea before it is too late.

Throughout the criminal underworld, announcements of a famed underworld tournament reemerging after a long hiatus has made word throughout the globe. Known as the Battle Arena Toshinden, this underworld tournament is a weapons fighting tournament broadcast as bloodsport entertainment for an elite and interested audience. Hosted by a mysterious organization known only as the Secret Society, believed to be related to a world leading multinational megaconglomorate, the Gerard Foundation, the Secret Society has picked eight worthy challengers from around the world to pit against each other for the chance at a prize for fortune, fame, and glory.

A young Japanese swordsman/adventurer named Eiji Shinjo, who has spent the past few years searching for his long-lost older brother, Sho, enters the legendary Battle Arena Toshinden tournament along with seven other traveling fighters, the fighters themselves being Eiji's best friend/rival, Kayin Amoh, a Scottish bounty hunter who seeks revenge against the previous tournament champion for the death of his foster father; Sofia, an amnesiac Russian private detective who is seeking her long-lost memories; Rungo Iron, an American miner who is determined to rescue his kidnapped family from the Secret Society; Fo Fai, a Chinese magician/serial killer who enters the tournament in order to satisfy his personal bloodlust; Mondo, a Japanese ninja who is undertaking an infiltration mission for a rival group of the Secret Society; Duke B. Rambert, a French knight seeking revenge against Eiji for a past defeat; and Ellis, a cheerful and kind-hearted orphaned dancer who is seeking personal answers regarding her long-lost missing father.

Eiji progresses through the tournament and ultimately comes face-to-face with the tournament's sponsor, the mysterious Gaia and even though Eiji manages to hold his own against Gaia from within their final battle against each other, the match is unexpectedly halted when it is soon discovered that Gaia is holding the competition without the Secret Society's permission, with the intention of acquiring fighters in order to help him overthrow the organization as a part of his vendetta against them. Gaia is forced to flee into hiding while leaving Eiji no closer to finding his long-lost older brother.

At the film's opening, Dan and Sara Anderson are experiencing marital fallout. According to their preteen children, Clark and Annette, they both underestimate each other's role in the family. When a new position with the Saints takes them to New Orleans, they purchase a dilapidated mansion. Upon arrival, they start fighting worse than ever. The children go up into the attic and discover a book of spells, finding out from their babysitter, the resident voodoo sorceress, that this house once belonged to the most powerful sorceress in the area. Desperate to save their parents marriage, they cast a spell which inadvertently switches their parents' bodies.

The next morning, Dan wakes up in Sara's body, and she vice versa. They try to act like nothing has changed, which means they must do each other's jobs. After managing for about a day or two, still trying to keep the children (who already know what's going on) from finding out, Dan (in Sara's body) goes to the doctor because he (she) is feeling sick and discovers that he (she) is pregnant. The rest of the movie continues in similar fashion: as they live life in the other's body they grow to understand one another.

Thanks to the secret coaching she is receiving from Dan, Sara starts to get better at football. Her nurturing nature leads to her/him implementing the sort of "reward" list and tactics usually expected in a classroom. Surprisingly, this encourages the team so much that they start winning match after match. On the other hand, Dan is learning how to keep house and, though still rather uncomfortable, is rather enjoying his/her pregnancy and getting closer to the children in the process. As time passes, both parents really begin to understand what the other was complaining about, commenting on this to one another and wondering if they'll ever switch back or if they'll be stuck in each other's bodies for the rest of their lives.

When the pregnancy is about nine months along, the Saints come to the final game against the Redskins. If they win, Dan and the team go to the Super Bowl, and Dan would never have to worry about money or moving around again. Exhilarated, he and Sara embrace each other at the table and shout jubilantly at each other. This is heard by the children, who use this opportunity to finally confess all to their parents. They try to undo the spell, but fail. They call the babysitter, who translates that the spell will reverse once its purpose is complete: when their parents truly understand each other, they will be restored to their rightful bodies. However, there is a warning clause that implies that unless they manage to undo the spell before the birth of the baby, it will be permanent.

After the babysitter leaves and the Andersons go to bed, Dan and Sara apologize to each other, then kiss, which turns out to be the necessary act of understanding. The next day is the big match, and Dan's teammates instantly notice the difference in his behavior. While Sara goes into labor, his attempts to motivate his teammates with insults causes them to start fumbling. Clark reminds him to forget his old methods of motivation and revert to the "touchy-feely stuff" Sara used. In the hospital, Sara is puffing, panting, swearing, and ordering the nurses to bring her a TV. Around the time Dan wins the championship game, she finally gives in to nature and gives birth to a son. Later on, Dan is offered another job, but turns it down for his family.

Isabelle Grossman works for a New York bookstore which supports authors through public readings. When author Anton Maes comes to the bookstore to give a reading, he shows an interest in Isabelle, who is enamored with the intellectual world that is very different from her traditional Jewish upbringing.

Isabelle pays frequent visits to her ''Bubbe'' (grandmother), Ida, who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Anxious for her granddaughter to settle down, Ida turns to the local marriage broker. Although shocked and annoyed, Isabelle allows the matchmaker to introduce her in Bubbe’s kitchen to Sam Posner, who owns the nearby pickle shop.

At first Isabelle is not interested in Sam, believing that he is too working-class for her. Instead, she sets her sights on Anton and the New York intelligentsia. But she also feels guilty for how rude she was to Sam, so she tries to make it up to him by setting him up with her girlfriend Marilyn. In the process, she learns that he did not hire a matchmaker out of desperation and in fact has admired Isabelle from afar for several years. She is deeply touched and begins to like him, but it seems Sam has given up on her and starts dating Marilyn.

One day at a store book reading, Sam shows up, as does Anton. Isabelle leaves with Sam, and later agrees to meet him the next day at her Bubbe’s apartment.

After work the next day, however, she is sidelined by Anton and, believing that he is romantically interested in her, goes to his apartment. She discovers instead that Anton wants the convenience of an assistant, not a true partner. Finally seeing through him, the disgusted Isabelle races to her grandmother's apartment late, finding it empty with Ida sleeping on the couch. Heartbroken, she believes she has ruined her chances with the honest and caring Sam. As she cries, Sam enters from the balcony. The two finally are united and Ida feigns confusion, but is gleeful that her plan has succeeded.

In this story, Asimov describes U.S. Robots' attempt to introduce robots on the planet Earth. Robots have already been in use on space stations and planetary colonies, where the inhabitants are mostly highly trained scientists and engineers. U.S. Robots faces the problem that on Earth, their robots will encounter a wide variety of people, not all of whom are trustworthy or responsible, yet the Three Laws require robots to obey ''all'' human orders and devote equal effort to protecting ''all'' human lives. Plainly, robots must be programmed to differentiate between responsible authorities and those giving random, whimsical orders.

The Director of Research designs a new series of robots, the JG series, nicknamed "George", to investigate the problem. The intent is that the George machines will begin by obeying all orders and gradually learn to discriminate rationally, thus becoming able to function in Earth's society. As their creator explains to George Ten, the Three Laws refer to "human beings" without further elaboration, but—quoting Psalm 8:4—"What is Man that thou art mindful of Him?" George Ten considers the issue and informs his creator that he cannot progress further without conversing with George Nine, the robot constructed immediately before him.

Together, the two Georges decide that human society must be acclimated to a robotic presence. They advise U.S. Robots to build low-function, non-humanoid machines, such as electronic birds and insects, which can monitor and correct ecological problems. In this way, humans can become comfortable with robots, thereby greatly easing the transition. These robotic animals, note the Georges, will not even require the Three Laws, because their functions will be so limited.

The story concludes with a conversation between George Nine and George Ten. Deactivated and placed in storage, they can only speak in the brief intervals when their power levels rise above the standby-mode threshold. Over what a human would experience as a long time, the Georges discuss the criteria for what constitutes 'responsible authority'- that (A) an educated, principled and rational person should be obeyed in preference to an ignorant, immoral and irrational person, and (B) that superficial characteristics such as skin tone, sexuality, or physical disabilities are not relevant when considering fitness for command. Given that (A) the Georges are among the most rational, principled and educated persons on the planet, and (B) their differences from normal humans are purely physical, they conclude that in any situation where the Three laws would come into play, their own orders should take priority over that of a regular human. That in other words, that they are essentially a superior form of human being, and destined to usurp the authority of their makers.

During the Prohibition era in the Southern United States, the devout 13-year-old Lila Lee is summoned by letter to visit her injured father, a gangster, before he dies. She runs away from the Reverend who has raised her and in whose church she has become well known as a singer, though her extraordinary beauty is beginning to attract attention as well. Lila boards a bus to her father's purported location, the strange town of Astaroth. At the bus station, the ticket salesman informs Lila that the people there are strange, and that visitors rarely return from the town. That night, the bus Lila is riding, in which she is the only passenger, is attacked by a band of mindless vampires as it approaches the woods surrounding Astaroth. The vampires kill the bus driver, and Lila crashes the bus while attempting to flee. She is attacked by the creatures, but rescued by a mysterious woman named Lemora.

When she regains consciousness, Lila finds herself locked in a cottage outside a farmhouse, where she is tended to by Solange, an elderly hag-like woman who feeds her. Lila attacks Solange and escapes the cottage, fleeing to the farmhouse where she hides in a crawlspace. She hears her father's voice from inside the home, but before she can find him, Lila is confronted by Lemora, who informs her she cannot see her father until she is immune to his "disease." Lila finds that Lemora boards numerous other children in her home, all of whom, like her, are pallid and sickly in appearance.

It becomes evident that Lemora highly covets Lila, bathing her and attempting to soothe her. While alone, Lila is violently attacked by her father, who appears severely mutated. He attacks Solange, killing her, before Lemora chases him away with a torch. Lemora explains that some of the townspeople of Astaroth have become sick, and refers to an impending ceremony in which Lila will participate. After reading a diary of a child in Lemora's home, she soon realizes the truth: Lemora is a vampire who feeds upon children and is holding her father captive. She is also the unofficial queen of the Astaroth vampires, and plans to turn Lila into one of her own.

While trying to escape, Lila embarks on a nighttime journey through the town of Astaroth, witnessing the two types of vampires: one faction is like Lemora herself, relatively human in behavior and appearance, while the others are mutated or perhaps regressed, far more feral in behavior and monstrous in form; and the two groups are at war. Meanwhile, the Reverend, who is seeking Lila, manages to retrace her steps.

After a climactic battle which leaves most of the vampires dead, Lila is forced to kill her own father, who has become one of the degenerates. As she weeps over his corpse, Lemora approaches her and offers her comfort by her vampire's kiss. When the Reverend shows up not long after, he finds Lila willing, even eager to kiss him. He resists at first, then he gives in. That is when she drives her fangs into his throat and drains his blood, watched over by a smiling Lemora.

In the last scene, Lila is seen singing before her church congregation.

''Dune: The Machine Crusade'' moves forward into the center of the Butlerian Jihad, described in the first book of the trilogy, ''Dune: The Butlerian Jihad''. Leading the movement is the ex-slave and ex-machine trustee Grand Patriarch Iblis Ginjo. However, Iblis appears more interested in politics and his own personal legacy than in the Jihad.

Vorian Atreides, despite the long life given to him by his father, the Titan Agamemnon, begins to show the vestiges of wanting to settle down after visiting the planet Caladan, and meeting Leronica Tergiet, who is to become his long-term concubine.

Xavier Harkonnen manages to free Ix from the thinking machines and must eventually make the ultimate sacrifice that will tarnish his name.

The robot Erasmus continues with his enlightening human experimentation, and makes a curious bet with the Omnius entity on Corrin, where he claims he can raise a human being to be orderly and civilized like a machine. This child is Gilbertus Albans, the first true Mentat.

Omnius himself suffers badly from a computer virus created by Vorian and spread unwittingly by his old companion Seurat.

On Ginaz, the aging Zon Noret is killed in a training accident by a mek called Chirox, a captured and reprogrammed fighting machine. Though Noret did not live to pass on his skills to the other Ginaz mercenaries, Chirox remained to train them into the greatest of all mercenaries, the Swordmasters, who will be the ultimate fighting force against the thinking machines.

On the planet of Poritrin, Norma Cenva becomes a successful inventor whose research and inventions on shields and spacefolding technology aids the League's war efforts against the machines. However, her benefactor Tio Holtzman takes credit for her research. Meanwhile, the Zensunni slave Ishmael petitions Duke Niko Bludd for better conditions for the slaves and recognition for their role in constructing a decoy fleet during the successful defense of Poritin. As punishment, he is separated from his wife and daughters and reassigned to Cenva's laboratories. Ishmael's devout religious pacifism clashes with Aliid's militancy, destroying their friendship.

Norma leaves the world just in time to avoid a slave uprising during which Aliid, unaware of the consequences, fires a lasgun into a Holtzman personal shield. The resulting explosion wipes out Tio Holtzman's labs; the slave revolt is eventually brutally crushed. Ishmael manages to escape offworld with a hundred slaves including his older daughter Chamal and her husband Rafael by forcing the Tlulaxa Tuk Keedair to fly the on Norma's prototype spacefolding ship to the lonely desert world of Arrakis.

Meanwhile, Norma, due to her heritage as daughter of the main Sorceress of Rossak Zufa Cenva, finally taps into her latent powers under great pressure (precipitated by her capture and subsequent torture by the Titan Xerxes) to become the spearhead of humanity. She envisions a future in which massive ships transport goods and humans instantaneously across the universe, using the Holtzman effect to fold space. Norma's ships are the first of what will later be known as heighliners, and her family uses their monopoly on such travel to found the Spacing Guild.

On Arrakis, Ishmael and his followers struggle to survive on the desert world. They are saved after Keedair alerts the followers of Selim, who are also Zensunni, to their presence. Selim's followers welcome the former Poritrin slaves into their number and the two communities merge to become the Free Men of Arrakis.

Finally, the remaining Titans take their chance becoming independent from their machine master Omnius on the planet of Bela Tegeuse.

In New York City, four men wearing similar disguises and carrying concealed weapons board the same downtown 6 train, Pelham 1-2-3, at different stations. Using the codenames Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Brown, they take 18 people, including the conductor and an undercover police officer, hostage in the first car.

Communicating over the radio with New York City Transit Police lieutenant Zachary Garber, Blue demands a $1 million ransom to be delivered exactly within one hour or he will kill one hostage for every minute it is late. Green sneezes periodically, to which Garber always responds, "Gesundheit". Garber and others cooperate while speculating about the hijackers' escape plan. Garber surmises that one hijacker must be a former motorman since they were able to uncouple the head car and park it down the tunnel below 28th Street.

Conversations between the hijackers reveal that Blue is a former British Army Colonel and was a mercenary in Africa; Green was a motorman caught in a drug bust; and Blue does not trust Grey, who was ousted from the mafia for being erratic. Just then, Grey shoots and kills a supervisor sent from Grand Central as he approaches the stalled train.

The ransom is transported uptown in a speeding police car that crashes well before it reaches 28th Street. As the deadline is reached, Garber bluffs Blue by claiming that the money has reached the station entrance and just has to be walked down the tunnel to the train. Meanwhile a police motorcycle arrives with the ransom. As two patrolmen carry the money down the tunnel, one of many police snipers in the tunnel shoots at Brown, and the hijackers exchange gunfire with the police. In retaliation, Blue kills the conductor.

The money is delivered and divided among the hijackers. Blue orders Garber to restore power to the subway line, set the signals to green all the way to South Ferry, and clear the police from stations along the route. Before the process is complete, however, Green moves the train farther south. When Garber becomes alarmed, Blue explains that he wanted more distance from the police inside the tunnel.

The hijackers override the dead-man's switch so that the train will run without anyone at the controls. Garber joins Inspector Daniels above ground where the train stopped. The hijackers set the train in motion and get off. As the hijackers walk to the tunnel's emergency exit, the undercover officer jumps off the train and hides between the rails. Unaware that the hijackers have left the train, Garber and Daniels drive south above the train's route. With no one at the controls, the train gains speed.

The hijackers collect their disguises and weapons for disposal, but Grey refuses to surrender his gun, resulting in a stand-off with Blue, who shoots him dead. The undercover officer shoots and kills Brown and exchanges fire with Blue, while Green escapes through the emergency exit onto the street.

Garber, contemplating the train's last suspicious movement, concludes that the hijackers bypassed the dead-man feature and are no longer on board. He returns to where the train had stopped, enters the same emergency exit from street level, and confronts Blue as he is about to kill the undercover officer. With no escape, Blue deliberately places his foot against the third rail and electrocutes himself.

Meanwhile, Pelham 1-2-3 hurtles through the southbound tunnel. When it enters the South Ferry loop, its speed triggers the automatic safeties. It screeches to a halt, leaving the hostages bruised but safe.

Since none of the three dead hijackers was a motorman, Garber surmises that the lone survivor must be. Working their way through a list of recently discharged motormen, Garber and Patrone knock on the door of Harold Longman (Green). After hastily hiding the loot, Longman lets them in, bluffs his way through their interrogation, and complains indignantly about being suspected. Garber vows to return with a search warrant. As Garber closes the apartment door behind him, Longman sneezes, and Garber reflexively says "Gesundheit", as he had over the radio. Garber re-opens the door and gives Longman a knowing, caustic stare.

''Space Hulk'' s campaign is mostly exposited through pre-mission briefings. The prologue in the game manual states the Dark Angels, a force of Space Marines, had repelled a Genestealer incursion in the Tolevi system many centuries before current events in the game. A Dark Angel hero was leading his men aboard the invading space hulk, ''Sin of Damnation'', when it vanished into the warp. The first mission in the campaign sends the player's squad to investigate the Tolevi system for a distress call of Dark Angels' origin. A nest of Genestealers is uncovered on the planet Ma'Caellia, and the player's forces are ordered to destroy the aliens' Hive Mind. However, there are too many Genestealers, and the Marines are forced to withdraw. Without any other options, the Marines destroy the infestation and all other life forms on the planet through exterminatus with virus bombs—biological weapons of mass destruction. As they are doing so, the ''Sin of Damnation'' re-enters the system, and the player receives orders to invade the hulk. Aboard the vessel, the player's squads destroy the Genestealers' gene banks and their Patriarch. The end of the campaign tasks the player to control a lone Marine as he goes deep into the hulk to find the source of the distress call.

On a highway outside of the quiet mining town of Prosperity, Arizona, a truck driver carrying a load of chemicals swerves to avoid a rabbit, causing a barrel of toxic waste to land in a reservoir. One week later, an exotic spider farmer named Joshua Taft shows Michael "Mike" Parker, a local boy, his collection, including an enormous female Orb Weaver from Brazil named Consuela. After Mike leaves, Joshua is bitten by an escaped tarantula and accidentally knocks down the spider cages. He, along with his pet parrot, is killed by the spiders and, after devouring him, the spiders grow to even larger proportions by the toxins of the crickets Joshua feeds them.

Another week later, Christopher "Chris" McCormick, whose father owned the mines before he died ten years ago, shows up and stands against Wade, the mayor of Prosperity, about his proposition to sell the mine as he believes that his father had discovered a gold vein in the mine. Chris also sparks a romance with Sam. Meanwhile, Wade is holding a town meeting in the mall about whether they should sell the mines and relocate. Wade later on insults Chris's father for being delusional for thinking that there are golds in the mine only to be punched by Chris. Mike sneaks out on foot and finds Joshua and the spiders missing, the farm covered in webbing, and the dead body of Joshua. Although he sees an enormous spider shadow in the mines and tells Chris that the spiders have grown to enormous sizes, based on a giant spider leg he found at the mine entrance, Chris doesn't believe him.

Seeing as the entire town is connected in some way to the mines, spiders show up in many different places. Harlan Griffiths, an eccentric extraterrestrial enthusiast, is broadcasting his theory that various missing pets around town have been abducted by extraterrestrials. Ashley, Sam's daughter, breaks up with her boyfriend Bret, before he and his motorcyclist friends are chased by jumping spiders, with him being the only survivor, accidentally cutting off the telephone line and being stuck in the mine. Chris finds out that his Aunt Gladys and her dog are abducted by a male orb weaver in their basement. Sam is convinced Chris and Mike are delusional. However, they were right all along when Sam witnesses a giant male orb-weaver attempting to abduct Ashley and Chris. Sam kills the spider with a shotgun and saves them both before contacting Pete to tell him to bring all guns in the police station's possession, later on escaped to Harlan's trailer, knowing he has a radio station that he operates from within his trailer.

As Sam broadcasts the threat over the radio, a giant tarantula, the "tank" of the horde, assaults his trailer but they manage to escape. As the town is besieged by vicious spider hordes, many people are eaten, Sam tells everybody to evacuate to the mall and barricade themselves, while Wade flees into the mines and locks the gate before the attack, then defend themselves from the spiders. Harlan and Chris climb onto the roof and ascend the radio mast and try to get a signal to call the army as they are being attacked by the spiders, but are believed to be pranksters. Harlan jumps from the roof, after the tarantula breaks open the gates and lets the spiders enter the mall, and lands in some bushes, where he meets up with Pete.

While the townsfolk are in the basement, Bret arrives on a forklift that brings down the locked gate, and they all head to through the mines straight to the front entrance, discovering the methane-filled tunnels. After freeing Wade, Chris goes to look for his Aunt Gladys in the mines and finds her and the gold vein his father had claimed to have discovered. Joyous to realize that his father is not delusional like Wade or many people claim, this moment of joy is cut short and they are confronted by the gigantic Consuela. Using perfume to distract the spider and escaping on Bret's motorcycle, Chris then blows up the spiders and the mines utilizing Gladys's smoking addiction and the high concentrations of methane gas, blowing up the mall benathen the ground before the police arrived. Wade is distraught at the destruction of the mall and hopes that the insurance will cover the damages.

As the story ends, Harlan concludes his radio report that the town has decided to cover up the whole incident, but have let Harlan continue broadcasting the incident, and Chris reopened the mine, informing that to be another story by giving a toothy smile, revealing several golden teeth.

In Lancashire, England in 1880 the men of the town gather in the local pub, with much drinking. The widower Henry Hobson, owner of a boot shop, has three daughters, and he wishes them to marry. The local leader of the temperance league, George Beenstock, has two sons. The two younger Hobson daughters flirt with the Beenstock sons, while Hobson tells his eldest daughter Maggie that her time has passed. Maggie decides to make a match with Will, a skilled shoemaker, even though Will is engaged to another. Will and Maggie establish their own boot shop. Meanwhile, Hobson's drinking continues, his young daughters try to take Maggie's place at his shop, and Will and Maggie marry. Hobson and Beenstock settle on a dowry for the young ladies. Hobson realizes that he needs Maggie and Will, and they become partners.

Eleanor "Nell" Vance, an insomniac, has cared for her invalid mother for 11 years, sharing a Boston apartment with her. After her mother dies, Nell's sister Jane and her husband Lou inherit the residence. They eject Nell to prepare for a sale. As she faces homelessness, Nell accepts an invitation to participate in an insomnia study by Dr. David Marrow at Hill House, a secluded manor house in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. At the house, she meets Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, an eccentric pair of caretakers. Two other participants arrive: Luke Sanderson and the glamorous Theodora ("Theo"), along with Dr. Marrow and his two research assistants. Unknown to the participants, Dr. Marrow's true purpose is to study the psychological response to fear, intending to expose his subjects to terror.

During their first night, Dr. Marrow relates the story of Hill House: Its original owner, Hugh Crain, a 19th-century textile tycoon, constructed the rambling home for his wife Renee, hoping to populate it with a large family. Unfortunately, all of Crain's children were stillborns, and Renee, devastated by the multiple losses, killed herself. Crain became a recluse. Marrow's assistant is severely wounded in a freak accident and both research assistants leave for the hospital. Supernatural events begin happening, and Nell sees the ghosts of children. A large portrait of Hugh Crain is vandalized with the words "Welcome Home Eleanor" written in blood. Theo and Luke accuse Nell, claiming she is seeking attention.

Nell becomes determined to prove that the house is haunted. She finds Crain's hidden office and learns that he extensively used child labor in his cotton mills. He tortured and killed several orphans in his home, then burned their bodies in the fireplace. She surmises that these children's spirits are trapped in the house, providing Crain with an "eternal family". Crain had a second wife named Carolyn, from whom Nell is descended. Dr. Marrow is skeptical of Nell's claims but after a statue tries to drown him, he realizes Hill House is haunted. Nell reveals that she is related to Carolyn Crain and must help the children "move on" to the afterlife.

Dr. Marrow demands that everyone leave Hill House, but Hugh Crain's ghost traps them inside. Luke defaces a portrait of Crain, enraging his spirit to decapitate Luke. When Crain himself manifests, Dr. Marrow and Theo hide in the house while Nell distracts him. Realizing that he thrived on the fear he created in children, Nell declares she is not afraid of him. Her declaration weakens the ghost and he is cast into a decorative bronze door depicting distressed children in a purgatory-like scene. He drags Nell with him, but the spirits release her and she dies. Nell’s soul, along with those of the freed children, rise to heaven.

The following morning, Dr. Marrow and Theo meet the Dudleys at the front gate, where Mr. Dudley asks the doctor if he found out what he wanted to know. Dr. Marrow and Theo leave without saying a word, and leave Hill House behind.

Harry and Beth Rowe run a small skydiving facility in an unnamed desert town. One day, a woman named Suzy Belmont comes around claiming to be looking for the Rowes' plane mechanic Frankie Bonner. Beth claims that Frankie was fired for being drunk on the job, but feels that Suzy didn't come down just to see Frankie. As she walks away, Beth can't help but feel that her husband is having an affair with this floozy. It turns out that Harry is, but is still keeping it a secret from his wife. One evening, they receive a letter from Harry's friend, Joe Moss. Joe wants to visit and is looking for a job. Beth comments that Joe could easily fill Frankie's position and Harry consents.

Soon after, Frankie returns to the skydiving school, but Harry catches him trying to sabotage a plane and accosts him. Frankie demands that Harry stay away from Suzy. Harry agrees but warns that he'll break both of Frankie's legs if he ever returns to the facility. Joe Moss eventually arrives and Harry and Beth greet him warmly. Joe is just in time to witness an eager young man, Pete, propose to do a dangerous skydiving stunt. Harry warns that the FAA could come down on them for that, but Pete is determined to prove he can do it. He starts out fine, but before he can pull his chute he panics and plummets to the ground. The FAA does get involved; it shuts down the Rowes' skydiving facility. Harry drives into town and has a beer at a local bar. He finds Suzy outside and fights off her advances before leaving her in the parking lot fuming.

Incensed at Harry, Suzy plots revenge by convincing love-struck Frankie to help her put acid in Harry's parachute. An unsure Frankie gingerly agrees. Eventually, the facility reopens, and numerous people come out to see the skydivers. Trouble brews when Harry thinks Beth and Joe are having an affair; Harry even confronts Joe. Harry and Beth soon make up and Joe backs off. They plan a night jump and a pre-jump party. During the party Suzy and Frankie sneak into the hangar and pour acid on Harry's parachute. The party is lively, but the evening ends in tragedy when Harry's chute rips and he plummets to the ground to his death.

A witness reports seeing Suzy and Frankie running away from the preparations room. Joe gets into his car and soon catches up to them. However, some men from the FAA give chase in a plane and in a car. In spite of the lack of any direct evidence that they were responsible, and no legal proceedings, the two are immediately gunned down without warning by the authorities as they drive away from the facility.

In the aftermath, Joe takes his leave of Beth, who is giving up running the skydiving facility. As Joe drives away, Beth takes her own leave of the facility.

In 2003, 6 years after ''Time Crisis II'', Astigos, the largest island in the Mediterranean nation of Lukano, is invaded by special forces from the neighboring Zagorian Federation. Led by dictator General Giorgio Zott, the invaders conquer 80% of Astigos in a matter of weeks despite international protests. Meanwhile, the surviving Lukano defenders organize themselves into the Lukano Liberation Force under Daniel Winston. Learning that the Zagorian forces have set up a base in the abandoned Astigos State Observatory, Daniel and his lieutenant Jake Hernandez lead a small force to infiltrate and destroy it. Once inside, however, they are captured by waiting Zagorian troops.

A week later, Daniel's sister Alicia undertakes a solo mission to infiltrate a Zagorian bunker. Inside, she downloads intelligence that leads her to discover the Zagorians have acquired tactical ballistic missiles, which they intend to use to eliminate the rest of the LLF and potentially threaten neighboring nations. Alicia transmits the info to her contact at the V.S.S.E., who in turn gets the agency to dispatch agents Alan Dunaway and Wesley Lambert to destroy the missiles. Posing as fishermen, Alan and Wesley launch an attack on Marano Beach but are quickly cornered into a shipwreck by the Zagorian defenders. Their leader, Air Force Colonel Victor Zahn, attacks them in his heavily armed gunship. Alicia manages to steal a jeep and rescue the agents, then helps them to shoot down Zahn. The three make their way to Astigos Town Center, where they are separated in a surprise attack. Wesley and Alan fight their way through town and the forest to reach a supply train heading up to Zott's compound. Meanwhile, Alicia is confronted by Jake, who is revealed to be the greedy traitor who sold out Daniel for the love of money. After running Jake out of town, Alicia links up with the agents at the trainyard.

Randy Garrett, the head of Zott's "Assassin Squad", leads them into an ambush, during which he destroys the bridge, causing the train to fall into the river. After finishing off Garrett and his men, Alicia, Wesley, and Alan approach the base, where they once again split up to defeat the exterior defenders. Alan and Wesley are confronted by hired gunman Wild Dog — who was seemingly killed during the events involving the NeoDyne incident — with his new partner, Wild Fang, who has greatly enhanced leg strength. In the ensuing battle, Fang is apparently killed, but Dog once again commits suicide via explosives to evade capture. Zott prepares to execute Daniel in revenge, but Alicia shoots the pistol out of his hand with a sniper rifle. Alan and Wesley chase Zott into the compound while Alicia liberates Daniel's men from captivity. Arming themselves, the fighters arrive just in time to save the agents from Zott's soldiers. At the same time, Alicia catches Jake trying to escape with a stolen nuclear warhead. She disables his ship, forcing him to detonate his cargo prematurely. Using her sniper skills, Alicia simultaneously destroys the detonator and kills Jake before sending the burning wreckage crashing into the sea.

Alan and Wesley confront Zott inside the main dome and shoot him dead, but not before he initiates the launch. Using rocket launchers, the two destroy the dome's roof, causing it to cave in and destroy the missiles. Around the same time after Alicia rejoins her brother, the V.S.S.E. agents manage to escape the dome safely.

Their mission a success, Alan and Wesley return home, while the LLF ultimately defeats the Zagorians and forces them out of Lukano, regaining 90% of Astigos Island in the process.

The primary characters are earnest aspiring novelist Adam Fenwick-Symes and his fiancée, Nina Blount. When Adam's novel ''Bright Young Things'', commissioned by tabloid newspaper magnate Lord Monomark, is confiscated by HM customs officers at the port of Dover for being too racy, he finds himself in a precarious financial situation that may force him to postpone his marriage. In the lounge of the hotel where he lives, he wins £1,000 by successfully performing a trick involving sleight of hand, and the Major offers to place the money on the decidedly ill-favoured Indian Runner in a forthcoming horserace. Anxious to wed Nina, Adam agrees, and the horse wins at odds of 33–1, but it takes him more than a decade to collect his winnings.

Meanwhile, Adam and Nina are part of a young and decadent crowd, whose lives are dedicated to wild parties, alcohol, cocaine, and the latest gossip reported by columnist Simon Balcairn, known to his readers as Mr Chatterbox. Among them are eccentric Agatha Runcible, whose wild ways eventually lead her to being committed in a mental institution; Miles Maitland, who is forced to flee the country to avoid prosecution for his homosexuality; Sneath, a paparazzo who chronicles the wicked ways of the young and reckless; and Ginger Littlejohn, Nina's former beau, who ingratiates himself back into her life, much to Adam's dismay. The pastimes of the young, idle rich are disrupted with the onset of a new world war, which eventually overtakes their lives in often devastating ways.

Life in Velada Borthan is ruled by the Covenant, of which the most conspicuous trait is the denial of the self. Referring to oneself in the first person is forbidden. A selfbarer is someone who exposes his soul to others and as a result is ostracized.

The protagonist of the story is Kinnall Darival, a prince of the province of Salla, tormented by existential doubts and by his forbidden passion for his bondsister, Halum. (Bond siblings are an important institution of this society; though not biologically related, the incest taboo among them is as strong as among actual siblings). After his brother Stirron becomes Prime Septarch of Salla, Kinnall exiles himself to the neighboring province of Glin to avoid a direct clash with him. Following a more than cold reception in Glin, his monetary savings are sequestered by the Grand Treasurer of Salla, and he is declared an illegal alien, leaving him as a penniless fugitive. He finds a nice man who employs him for a year in a logging camp, but he is eventually recognized as the fugitive prince by a woman from Salla. On the road again, Kinnall takes shelter in Klaek, a miserable village in Glin, with a family of peasants. Longing for news from the "real world", Kinnall goes to Biumar and is engaged as a seaman on a merchant boat headed to the province of Manneran. Once there, he turns to his bondfather, Segvord, for a job which allows him an honest living in Manneran.

While becoming a powerful bureaucrat in Manneran, Kinnall marries Halum's look-alike and cousin Loimel - however, it turns out to be a loveless and unhappy relationship, as Loimel looks like Halum but has a different personality, and she could sense she is being used as a surrogate for somebody else.

Kinnall then meets the Earthman Schweiz with whom he begins to freely discuss his alienation from his own culture. Schweiz tells him about the wonderful drug available in the wild southern country of Sumara Borthan. Finally, both go to a country lodge and share the secret drug, causing their minds to become open to one another and creating a strong connection between them. Kinnall and Schweiz organize a small expedition to Sumara Borthan where they share the drug with the natives in a kind of social magic ritual.

Smuggling a large amount of the drug into Manneran, Kinnall starts to be the apostle of a new selfbaring cult, convincing many people to share the telepathic drug with him. Among them is his bondbrother Noim. Finally, betrayed and revealed, he seeks escape to Noim's estate in Salla. There he is visited by his beloved Halum, and they share the drug. She is so disturbed by the experience that she enters the pen of the voracious stormshields, who shred her to pieces. This is taken as evidence of drug being dangerous, and of Kinnall being a criminal for spreading it. Kinnall takes his last flight to the Burnt Lowlands where he ultimately is captured by the royal guards.

The book ends ambiguously. One possibility is that though Kinnal himself was executed or imprisoned for life, what he started developed into a widespread movement or cult, of which the book itself is in effect the Scriptures or basic document, and which eventually succeeded in overthrowing the established order. The other possibility is that all this was nothing more than a hallucination which Kinnal experienced under the influence of his drug, and that what he started ended with him. Both possibilities are left open—which evidently was Silverberg's deliberate intention.

Edmund Gunderson was the Terran administrator of the colony world of Belzagor, and he returns to it after it has gained independence, feeling a sense of guilt for the way he has treated its dominant species, the elephant-like Nildoror, whose animalistic appearance had kept Gunderson from taking them seriously as sentient beings. On his return, he feels a new sense of kinship with the natives, perhaps more than for the Terran tourists. The Nildoror undergo a process of rebirth, and Gunderson's greatest guilt comes from having denied rebirth to seven Nildoror to make them help him repair flood damage. He encounters his old colleague Jeff Kurtz (an addict of Naggiar venom), who had undergone the rebirth ceremony only to be turned into something monstrous. Nevertheless, Gunderson dares to subject himself to the rebirth ceremony, which brings him a new understanding of the native creatures and new powers by which he can heal Kurtz and impart his new-found knowledge to others.

Before the time of the pyramids, a horde of warriors from the East, led by Memnon, invades and conquers the local tribes, only a few of which survive. Mathayus, his half-brother Jesup, and their friend Rama, the only three true remaining Akkadians, are hired by King Pheron of the free tribes to kill Memnon's sorcerer for twenty blood rubies. The Akkadians sneak into Memnon's camp only to grapple with the guards due to having been warned by King Pheron's son, Takmet having pledged his allegiance to Memnon and killed his father as proof of his betrayal, leaving Rama killed by an arrow shot and Jesup executed. Mathayus, in the middle of this, finds Memnon's sorcerer, Cassandra, who predicts battle outcomes for Memnon and has been his prisoner since she was a child. At the end of the conflict, Memnon buries Mathayus in the desert to be devoured by fire ants at dawn. Mathayus escapes with help from a horse thief, Arpid, and desires to finish his mission and avenge his brother.

Mathayus sneaks into Memnon's stronghold, Gomorrah, and enters Memnon's palace with help from a street urchin. Memnon's sympathetic court magician, Philos, directs Mathayus to the courtyard where Memnon is training. Mathayus tries to shoot Memnon from the watchtower, but instead saves the street urchin from having his hand cut off by Takmet under suspicion of theft and barely escapes Gomorrah, abducting Cassandra along the way. Memnon sends his right-hand man, Thorak, and a group of guards to kill Mathayus and retrieve Cassandra. Mathayus slays them all under the cover of a sandstorm and in a cave, helped by Cassandra saving Mathayus from a poisonous arrow shot via her magic.

Mathayus, Arpid, and Cassandra run into Philos, who escaped Gomorrah and has perfected an explosive powder. However, they are ambushed by the rebels, now under the rule of the Nubian King Balthazar. Though Mathayus defeats Balthazar in a fight and earns his grudging respect and sanctuary, Cassandra informs Mathayus that she has a vision of Memnon and his army slaughtering the entire rebel camp. Furthermore, she explains that if Mathayus faces Memnon, he will likely die.

The next morning, Cassandra returns to Memnon in order to stall and possibly kill him. Mathayus, with help from Balthazar, Arpid, Philos, and the army of rebels, launches an all-out assault on Memnon's stronghold, facing Memnon personally before he can kill Cassandra. Balthazar takes on the full force of Memnon's forces alone and kills Takmet during the battle, thus, avenging King Pheron. The battle continues until Mathayus is shot by a guard, as predicted by Cassandra. As Memnon is about to claim victory, Cassandra kills the guard while Mathayus retrieves his bow and shoots an arrow at the exhausted Memnon, sending him off the edge of the roof and into a set of flames where he dies. Philos and Arpid use the explosive powder to destroy the palace's foundation stone, bringing down Memnon's forces. With the battle over, the remnants of Memnon's army bow before Mathayus, who by their law is proclaimed the Scorpion King.

In the aftermath, Mathayus and Balthazar share a good-natured farewell as the latter returns to his own kingdom. Cassandra tells Mathayus that she sees a period of peace and prosperity coming, but warns him that it will not last forever. Undeterred, Mathayus decides that they will make their own destiny.

In ancient China, a warlord unites the country's kingdoms into an empire and becomes the Dragon Emperor. He led a civil war to become the Qin dynasty, later ordered the construction of the Great Wall of China, and buried his enemies' corpses beneath it. He also learns to control fire, water, earth, metal, and wood—the traditional Chinese Wuxing elements. However, the Emperor grows fearful that his death will end all he has accomplished and summons Zi Yuan, a sorceress. He sends her to an ancient monastery with his second-in-command, General Ming, to find the long-lost Oracle Bones, which hold the key to eternal life. Zi Yuan and Ming fall in love, despite the Emperor wanting Zi Yuan to himself. When one of his servants witnesses them consummating their relationship, the Emperor has Ming executed in retaliation. Yuan curses the Emperor and his soldiers, turning them into the Terracotta Army.

Centuries later, in 1946, Alex O'Connell—Rick and Evelyn O'Connell's son—and his archaeology professor Roger Wilson find the Emperor's tomb. Though attacked by a mysterious woman, they bring the sarcophagus to Shanghai. At the same time, the British government entrusts Rick and Evelyn to take a gemstone called the ''Eye of Shangri-La'' back to China.

In Shanghai, the O'Connells learn that Wilson works for a rogue military faction led by General Yang and his assistant, Colonel Choi, who provided the financial backing of Alex's expedition. Yang believes the Emperor can lead China out of the chaos following World War II and resurrects him using the ''Eye of Shangri-La'', which contains mystical water from Shangri-La. Revived, the Emperor accepts Yang's services but kills Wilson. The O'Connells attempt to stop the Emperor with the help of Lin, the woman who had earlier attacked Alex, but the Emperor manages to escape. Lin reveals that she possesses the only weapon that can kill the Emperor—a cursed dagger.

Along with Evelyn's brother, Jonathan Carnahan, the O'Connells and Lin travel to a stupa in the Himalayas that will reveal the path to Shangri-La. With help from yetis summoned by Lin, the group holds off Yang's forces, but the Emperor discovers Shangri-La's location. The Emperor gravely wounds Rick while Alex triggers an avalanche, slowing the Emperor's pursuit. Lin takes the group to Shangri-La, where Zi Yuan still lives and can heal Rick's wound. The group discovers Lin is Yuan's daughter, both rendered immortal by the mystical waters. As Rick heals, Alex and Lin grow close, but Lin cannot bear falling in love with Alex only to watch him grow old and die.

The Emperor and Yang arrive, and the Emperor bathes in the waters, restoring his human form and granting him massive supernatural power. Morphing into a three-headed dragon, he steals the cursed dagger, kidnaps Lin, and flies back to his tomb. He revives the Terracotta Army, declares his intention for world domination, and directs them to breach the Great Wall, after which they will be invincible. The O'Connells and Zi Yuan pursue the Emperor to the Great Wall, where Yuan, using the Oracle Bones, sacrifices her and Lin's immortality to raise an undead army of the Emperor's enemies, led by a revived General Ming. As the two undead armies clash, Alex rescues Lin. Yuan fights the Emperor and steals the dagger from him before he mortally wounds her. As she dies, she gives the blade to Rick and Alex. The Emperor retreats into the Great Wall, but Alex and Rick confront him while Evelyn and Lin kill Yang and Choi. After a ferocious fight, Rick and Alex manage to overpower the Emperor and stab him with the dagger, defeating him and destroying the Terracotta Army. Ming and his army briefly celebrate before entering the afterlife.

The O'Connells and Lin return to Shanghai, where Alex and Lin start a relationship. Jonathan moves to Peru with the ''Eye of Shangri-La'', intending to live somewhere with no mummies, not knowing that mummies will soon be discovered there.

In 3067 BC, the Scorpion King leads an army to conquer the world. However, his army is defeated and exiled to the desert of Ahm Shere. After the Scorpion King vows to give Anubis his soul in return for the power to defeat his enemies, an oasis and pyramid magically form, and the Scorpion King is given an army of jackal-like warriors. The Army of Anubis sweeps across Egypt, but once their task is finished, Anubis claims the Scorpion King's soul and the army returns to the Underworld.

In 1933, Rick O'Connell and his wife Evelyn explore ancient ruins with their son, Alex, where they find the Bracelet of Anubis. In London, the bracelet locks onto Alex, showing him a vision directing him to Ahm Shere. Evelyn is captured by an Egyptian cult who resurrect Imhotep with the ''Book of the Dead''; they wish to use his power to defeat the Scorpion King, giving him command of Anubis' army to conquer the world. The cult, led by Baltus Hafez, includes enforcer Lock-Nah and Meela Nais, the physical reincarnation of Imhotep's love Anck-su-namun. The O'Connells set out to rescue Evelyn, accompanied by her brother Jonathan and the Medjai Ardeth Bay. Jonathan gets his hands on a mysterious golden scepter.

Rick frees Evelyn and flees, but Alex is subsequently kidnapped by Lock-Nah and forced to travel to Egypt along with the cult. The O'Connells pursue them, with help from Rick's associate Izzy. The bracelet gives Alex directions to Ahm Shere that the cult follows; Imhotep forces Alex's cooperation by warning him that, should he not enter the pyramid's boundaries within a week, the bracelet will kill him. At each location, Alex leaves clues for his parents, who follow in Izzy's dirigible. Imhotep uses the ''Book of the Dead'' to give Meela the soul of Anck-su-namun, but by doing so, he allows Evelyn to unlock the memories of her previous life as Princess Nefertiri, the bracelet's keeper and Pharaoh Seti I's daughter.

At the edge of the Oasis, Imhotep catches on to the pursuit and uses his magic to crash the dirigible; Izzy stays behind in hope of repairing it. By nightfall, the O'Connells infiltrate the cult, but both groups are attacked by pygmy mummies. Rick retrieves Alex while Ardeth kills Lock-Nah. They escape the pygmies, who kill all the cult members except for Hafez, Imhotep, and Anck-su-namun. The O'Connells arrive at the pyramid just as the sun rises, and the bracelet detaches from Alex. Anck-su-namun, Imhotep, and Hafez then arrive and kill Evelyn before entering the pyramid.

Inside the pyramid, Hafez puts on the bracelet and revives the army, but in doing so loses the flesh from his forearm. Anubis takes Imhotep's powers, wanting him to fight as a mortal. Rick finds Imhotep summoning the Scorpion King inside the pyramid and fights him. The Scorpion King, now an enormous monster, interrupts the fight and attacks Rick. At the same time, Ardeth and the Medjai battle Anubis's resurrected army outside. While Rick and the Scorpion King fight, Hafez is caught in the melee and killed by the Scorpion King. Jonathan and Alex steal the ''Book of the Dead'' from Anck-su-namun and use it to resurrect Evelyn, who confronts Anck-su-namun. Rick discovers Jonathan's scepter is actually a mystical spear, which he uses to stab the Scorpion King, sending him and the army back into the Underworld.

As the oasis then begins to destroy itself and the pyramid crumbles, Rick and Imhotep both cling to the ledge of a pit that leads to the underworld. Rick implores Evelyn to escape before it is too late, but she risks her life to pull Rick to safety. Seeing this, Imhotep pleads for Anck-su-namun to save him, but she abandons him. Heartbroken, Imhotep lets go and falls into the underworld. Meanwhile, the collapse of the pyramid causes Anck-su-namun to fall into a pit of scorpions, killing her. Izzy arrives with a modified dirigible and rescues the O'Connells just before the oasis and the pyramid are totally destroyed, though not before Jonathan swipes the pyramid's crystal jewel. They depart into the sunset, with Ardeth Bay saluting them before riding off.

The novel is set in a distant future. Following the accidental discovery of interstellar travel via 'warp points', humanity has expanded throughout space, evolving into a Terran Federation consisting of Core Worlds like Earth and Alpha Centauri, Corporate Worlds like Galloway's Star, and Fringe Worlds colonized by small groups of like-minded people seeking to preserve ethnic or cultural identities from getting lost in a cosmopolitan sameness. (Tensions exist between the three groups of worlds, and are further explored in ''Insurrection'', another novel also written by Weber and White).

Following a series of three interstellar wars (ISWs 1–3) with different species (warlike felinoid Orions and their centauroid Gorm associates, birdlike Ophiuchi, the genocidal Rigelians, and the Thebans (explored in a prequel novel ''Crusade''), humanity has experienced a seventy-year "vacation from history", i.e. seven decades of peace.

A survey squadron travels through a previously uncharted warp point and encounters a hive-like species referred to derisively as the 'Bugs' (inspired by the Arachnids in Robert A. Heinlein's ''Starship Troopers''). All attempts at communication fail, and the Bugs ambush the survey squadron, with a great loss of material and human life. Pursuing the survivors, the Bugs mount a massive invasion of Terran and Orion space.

Satellites left behind monitor the conquered planets and reveal that Bugs regard other sentient life forms as food sources; indeed the Bugs prefer to consume their prey alive. It is later revealed that the Bugs raise ranches of conquered species.

The alternative being "equal opportunity genocide", Terrans, Orions, Gorm, and Ophiuchi form a Grand Alliance, with Terrans and Orions as the senior members. The novel features long and very detailed space and ground battle sequences, detailed discussions of tactical doctrine, the ongoing arms race between the Alliance and the Bugs, and the development of interpersonal relations between military people of different background and species.

The universe and novels are based on the ''Starfire'' wargame series, which David Weber helped to develop, and which has existed in various editions since 1976.

The Grand Alliance of Terrans, Orions, Gorm and Ophiuchi has suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Bugs during the Pesthouse Campaign. Many senior military commanders have been lost, along with the bulk of the Terran Federation pre-war fleet. The Bugs appear unstoppable and fight their way toward Federation space, reaching the key system of Alpha Centauri before they are narrowly repulsed. Now, with the war once more at a stalemate, the Grand Alliance must try to recover their losses and break the deadlock.

Unable to communicate or negotiate with the Bugs, the Alliance realises that the war has become a fight for the survival of their respective species and invoke Directive 18, last used against the Rigelians, and embark upon a war of species extermination. Hope arrives when the Alliance infers that, due to differences in construction methods, they can be faced by no more than five Bug Home systems. They also postulate that the massive Bug fleets are, in fact, the end result of years of military build-up. The reason for this seemingly unnecessary military reserve remains unknown.

After finding a hidden route into one of the Bug home systems, the new military commanders of the Grand Alliance invoke Directive 18 and carry out a series of devastating attacks on the planet, launching massive waves of antimatter missiles against the surface in order to sterilize it. The simultaneous death of billions of their fellows leaves the surviving Bug fleet temporarily incapacitated, seeming to confirm the Alliance analysts speculation that the Bugs are telepathic. This “psychic shock” effect becomes known as the “Shiva Option” (named after the Hindu God of Destruction). Soon it becomes Alliance doctrine to exercise the Shiva Option wherever possible, in order to incapacitate Bug mobile forces and reduce resistance. Gradually, the Grand Alliance takes the initiative, forcing the Bugs onto the defensive.

Meanwhile, Terran Federation Survey Flotilla 19, last seen headed into unknown space and cut off from Alliance territory by the Bug counter-offensive, runs a desperate gauntlet to try to find a way back to friendly territory, whilst fending off almost continuous Bug attacks. Eventually, they stumble across the Star Union of Crucis, a multi-species polity that fought the bugs more than a century ago and have been in hiding ever since, rebuilding their forces. It transpires that the Bug military build-up was prompted by their first war with the Crucians. The commander of the survey team establishes communications with the Crucians and they unite against the pursuing Bug forces, destroying them. Seeing an opportunity to destroy their ancient enemies for good, the Crucians willingly offer themselves as new members of the Grand Alliance against the Bugs. In return, the commander of the flotilla releases the latest military technology to the Crucians and their allies, the Telikans and the Zarkolyans. Fighting their way back to Alliance space, the Crucians finally establish contact and formalize their membership of the Grand Alliance.

Now trapped between their old and new enemies, the Bugs fight an increasingly desperate defensive war. When the three remaining Bug home systems are cut off from each other, the Grand Alliance are able to quickly overwhelm the remaining Bug forces and successfully carry out Directive 18.

With one exception – a small Bug colony, isolated from its home world by a hidden warp point, remains undiscovered by the Alliance...

The game opens with Laura Parton falling asleep on an airplane trip to an undisclosed location. After being jolted awake by a tone over the airplane's PA system and a friendly conversation with a fellow passenger named David, a group of terrorists, who seem to be guided by some kind of mysterious cultist chanting to himself, suddenly and violently takes control of the plane. David, who turns out to be a special agent within the FBI, attempts to stop the terrorists, but he is thwarted when a meteorite strikes the plane, sending it crashing into the Canadian wilderness. After a series of bad dreams, Laura awakens in a small cabin being cared for by Kimberly Fox, a poet, and songwriter who also survived the crash. She explains that ten days have passed since the accident, although Kimberly had only found her some distance from the crash site two days prior, leaving a strange eight-day gap where she was mysteriously taken care of. The moment of peace is broken when another survivor, one of the hijackers, staggers into the cabin before suddenly transforming into a hideous plant-like monster. Here, Laura and Kimberly meet Parker Jackson, a CETI researcher and fellow crash survivor who drives out the monster, only to be driven out himself by a distrusting Kimberly.

Laura then sets out into the wilderness in order to investigate the possibility of contacting the outside world and seeking out other survivors only to discover that more strange, hideous creatures are lurking in the area, as something is causing the crash survivors to mutate into the very same monsters she must avoid and battle while traveling through the region. She is driven deeper into the mystery when she must venture into an abandoned mining facility in order to locate Jannie, a lost little girl Kimberly had found along with Laura and one of the plane's former passengers.

The Brody family's pet Bloodhound Buddy chases a cat and is captured by other cats in an ambush. Cats and dogs are revealed to be highly intelligent, tech-savvy enemies capable of speech, waging war with covert operatives while concealing their true nature from humans. After an Anatolian Shepherd dog named Butch reports Buddy's capture to his superiors, the best canine agents are dispatched to complete Buddy's mission: to prevent the cats from making all humans allergic to dogs.

At a local barn, a litter of Beagle puppies mock their youngest brother for trying to escape captivity. A Doberman Pinscher agent replaces the litter with a pack of Miniature Pinscher agents, failing to notice the youngest Beagle. Carolyn, the Brodys’ matriarch, arrives to adopt a new dog and selects the Beagle, naming him Lou after her son Scotty sarcastically suggests the name "Loser".

After detonating an explosive trap laid by cats for Lou, Butch – mistaking him for a trained operative – brings him to the dogs’ underground network, and introduces agents Peek, a Chinese Crested Dog, and Sam, an Old English Sheepdog. Realizing Lou is a civilian, Butch raises his concerns to his superiors but is rebuffed. Lou is briefed on the origins of the conflict between cats and dogs, dating back to Ancient Egypt when cats ruled the world. Butch reveals that Buddy has escaped the cats and the spy trade, retiring to a condo in Boca Raton.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tinkles, a white Persian cat, plans to exploit the Brodys’ patriarch Professor Charles’ research on dog allergies to conquer the world. His scheming is interrupted by Sophie, his comatose owner's maid, who enjoys dressing Tinkles in embarrassing costumes. Tinkles orders his sidekick Calico, an Exotic Shorthair, to send Devon Rex ninjas to steal the research. Lou foils the theft and meets a former agent and Butch's ex-girlfriend Ivy, a Saluki who encourages him to bond with Scotty.

Mr. Tinkles contracts a Russian Blue mercenary named Dimitri Kennelkoff, who tricks Lou and places a bomb on Brody's lab door. Kennelkoff battles Lou and Butch, damaging the Brodys’ house until Butch disables the bomb and captures Kennelkoff. During the interrogation, the dogs recover a note by Mr. Tinkles from Kennelkoff's stomach.

After a breakthrough involving Lou playing with Scotty, Charles' machine finally finds the formula to a cure for human allergies to dogs. Having bugged the house, Mr. Tinkles and Calico spring a trap for the Brodys. First, Mr. Tinkles travels to a Christmas tree flocking plant under the guise of the plant's comatose owner, Mr. Mason, and sends the employees home, then lures the Brodys with fake tickets to a soccer exhibition game, capturing the family.

The dogs receive a video from Mr. Tinkles demanding Charles’ research as a ransom for the Brodys, and dogs around the world assemble at a meeting, led by a Mastiff. When the assembly decides not to surrender the formula, Lou confronts Butch. Revealing that he was abandoned by his owner, the unsympathetic Butch leaves Lou behind. Desperate, Lou brings Mr. Tinkles the research and is double-crossed. Butch, realizing what has happened, stages a raid of Mr. Tinkles' factory where mice are being prepared to spread the mass-produced allergy.

While Butch, Ivy, Peek, and Sam fight Tinkles' cat forces, Lou frees the Brodys and Calico, who was betrayed by Tinkles, revealing to the family that he can speak. Lou defeats Tinkles but is struck by an excavator as an explosion destroys the whole factory. Butch rescues the seemingly dead Lou, tearfully admitting that Lou was right to love his adoptive family, and Lou awakens. He decides to return to a normal pet's life with the Brodys until he can serve as a full-grown agent.

Meanwhile, Tinkles is sent to live with Sophie and her three sisters, with even more humiliating outfits as punishment for his actions against the dogs.

The film starts with three poachers going into the woods to hunt. One of them sees what he thinks is a meteor land and goes to investigate. He finds a red glowing cave with a stash of large eggs. He decides to smash them, but is killed by an unseen entity before he can finish, which leaves one egg left intact. The mysterious being takes revenge for the destruction, first killing the other hunters and then going after members of a rock band led by Rick (Ian Sera), who are on a weekend camping trip. This band is accompanied by Laura, a girl who Rick met and told about the weekend's plans, not expecting her to want to come along. Sharon, a member of the band, is jealous of Laura, as she (Sharon) is Rick's girlfriend. Cathy and Tracy are also band members.

Tommy (Óscar Martín) is a young boy living in a secluded house with his mother Molly (Concha Cuetos) and his short-tempered uncle Bill (Manuel Pereiro). He also finds the cave, and brings the remaining egg home where it hatches. The creature from the egg grows rapidly overnight until it is as large as Tommy. Tommy nicknames it "Trumpy" because he has a short, trumpet-like trunk. Tommy and Trumpy quickly become playmates. At one point, Tommy asks Trumpy where he is from. Trumpy indicates a star map, which for some reason features the Big Dipper prominently. It also becomes clear that Trumpy has developed telekinetic powers around this time, as it flings various objects around Tommy's room. While the mother alien continues to look for her missing offspring, the rock band stops at Tommy's house for medical care after Laura encounters the alien mother and falls off of a cliff, later dying in the house. A strange dot formation (similar to the Big Dipper) is later seen on her forehead.

Rick's friend Brian (Emilio Linder) and uncle Bill go to a nearby ranger station to use the radio. There they stumble on the alien mother, as well as the body of a second poacher, which also bears the dot pattern. The alien kills Brian while Bill flees to the cabin. The alien beats him home, however, and kills band-member Tracy in the band's camper. Tommy witnesses the attack through his telescope. The survivors decide to hole up in the cabin until the next day.

Trumpy's mother sneaks into the house and kills Cathy while she is taking a shower. The survivors attempt too late to come to her rescue when they hear Cathy screaming, and Bill manages to wound the alien with a wild shot. Bill and Rick want to catch Trumpy's mother before she can escape, so Rick takes a rifle and they go in pursuit.

Immediately after they leave, Trumpy appears, scaring Molly and Sharon. Molly grabs a rifle and aims to shoot Trumpy, but Tommy protects his alien friend and hustles Trumpy into the woods. Molly and Sharon give chase, searching for Tommy, Rick, and Bill in the gloom.

Eventually Trumpy and his mother reunite briefly before Rick and Bill find them. The alien mother attacks Bill, who shoots her once before being killed, then she is gunned down by Rick. Trumpy and Tommy disappear in the woods and say their goodbyes before Tommy reunites with his mother, Sharon, and Rick. The movie ends with Trumpy moving deeper into the woods and Tommy, Rick, Molly, and Sharon heading back to the cabin.

The story begins with a shipment of explosives on board a train. A captain is contacted about explosives on board a submarine. On Christmas Eve, the submarine USS ''Copperfin'', under the command of Captain Cassidy, departs Mare Island Naval Shipyard on a secret mission. The soldiers wish one another a merry Christmas. Some conduct themselves singing Christmas carols. The head cook becomes a designated Santa Claus and hands out Christmas presents.

At sea, Cassidy opens his sealed orders, which direct him to proceed first to the Aleutian Islands to pick up meteorologist Lt. Raymond, then to Tokyo Bay to obtain vital weather intelligence for the upcoming Doolittle Raid.

On the way, two Japanese aircraft attack; both are shot down, but one pilot manages to parachute into the water. When Mike, a ''Copperfin'' crewman, goes to pick him up, he is stabbed to death. New recruit Tommy Adams shoots the Japanese pilot, but because he was slow to react, Tommy blames himself for Mike's death and volunteers to defuse an unexploded bomb stuck under the deck.

When Mike is buried at sea, Greek-American "Tin Can" does not attend the service, which angers the other men until he explains that every Allied death causes him great pain. Meanwhile, Raymond, who lived in Japan, discusses how the Japanese people were led into the war by the military faction.

As the submarine nears Tokyo Bay, the ''Copperfin'' has to negotiate its way through defensive minefields and anti-torpedo nets. When a Japanese ship enters the bay, Cassidy follows in its wake. That night, a small party, including the ship's womanizer, "Wolf", goes ashore to make weather observations.

Meanwhile, Tommy is diagnosed with appendicitis. "Pills", the pharmacist's mate, has to operate following instructions from a book, using improvised instruments, and without sufficient ether to last throughout the procedure. The operation is a success, and "Cookie" Wainwright begins to prepare the pumpkin pie he had promised to bake for Tommy.

Raymond broadcasts the information the shore party has collected in Japanese in an attempt to avoid detection, but the Japanese are alerted and search the bay. The ''Copperfin'' remains undetected, allowing the men to watch part of the Doolittle Raid through the periscope. After recovering Raymond and his team, the submarine then slips out of the bay following an exiting ship.

Later, the ''Copperfin'' sinks a Japanese aircraft carrier and is badly damaged by its escorts. In desperation, after long hours and barrages of depth charges, Cassidy attacks, sending a destroyer to the bottom and enabling the crew to return safely home to Mare Island.

The narrative is presented as the transcript of a Navy tape recording made by Commander Edward J. Richardson, recounting the events resulting in his receipt of the Medal of Honor. The prefatory note that purports to identify the text in this way says it was meant to be used in a war bond drive, but is unsuitable for that because Richardson "failed to confine himself to pertinent elements of the broad strategy of the war, and devoted entirely too much time to personal trivia."

In the spring of 1941, Richardson takes command of a World War I ''S-16'', a submarine retired in 1924, and soon is assigned Jim Bledsoe as his executive officer. They and their crew work at the Philadelphia Navy Yard to fit out their boat and commission her, and in August take her to New London, Connecticut, for training. There Richardson meets Bledsoe's girlfriend, Laura Elwood. The three of them are together when they learn of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Though it took Richardson three years of submarine duty to qualify for command, the war and the prospect of many more submarines coming into service lead Richardson, against his better judgment, to recommend Bledsoe for command in late December, just after learning that Bledsoe and Laura plan to wed.

Richardson is forced to withdraw his recommendation of Bledsoe when Jim shows immaturity and performs recklessly on his qualification for command, nearly sinking their boat. Bledsoe is resentful, and Laura despises Richardson for ruining Bledsoe's chance for a command. Richardson and his crew, including Bledsoe, are soon assigned to a newly launched submarine, the USS ''Walrus'', and take her to Pearl Harbor to destroy Japanese shipping in the Pacific Ocean. Laura and Jim marry just before the ''Walrus'' departs New London.

During their first war patrol in the ''Walrus'', they encounter the Japanese destroyer ''Akikaze'', skippered by Captain Tateo Nakame (nicknamed "Bungo Pete"), who is responsible for sinking a series of American submarines in the Bungo Suido, including the USS ''Nerka'', commanded by Richardson's longtime friend Stocker Kane. After several more war patrols, the ''Walrus'' is ordered to return to patrol Bungo Suido where Richardson is wounded in a night-time surface encounter with Bungo Pete. Bledsoe assumes command for the return to Pearl Harbor and Richardson is hospitalized upon arrival. Bledsoe fleets up to command ''Walrus'', thanks in large part to Richardson's personal endorsement to the commodore, who balks at Jim's still comparative youth, and the earlier failed qualification for command exercise back at New London. Bledsoe takes ''Walrus'' to Australia for her next three war patrols.

Bledsoe establishes a reputation as an aggressive skipper with an outstanding record for sinkings. Between patrols, Bledsoe has an extramarital affair at Pearl Harbor, causing Richardson anguish for Laura's sake. After heavy drinking during a shore party, Bledsoe reveals to Richardson that he had only pretended to be a loyal friend and subordinate, grudgingly remaining as executive officer during their patrols together "for the crew's sake." However, Richardson's conduct under enemy fire as skipper—and having now personally experienced the weight of command for himself—have finally persuaded him that he had been wrong in doubting Richardson all along. During its next patrol under Bledsoe, however, Bungo Pete makes the ''Walrus'' his seventh victim.

During his stint ashore, Richardson works on reliability problems with American torpedoes and receives another command, the new boat USS ''Eel''. When the news of the loss of Bledsoe and the ''Walrus'' arrives, Richardson convinces his superiors to let him hunt Bungo Pete in the ''Eel''. A great battle ensues in a raging storm between the ''Eel'', fighting on the surface, and Bungo Pete's special anti-submarine warfare group, which consists of a Q-ship, a Japanese submarine, and the ''Akikaze''. After Richardson sinks all three vessels, he discovers three lifeboats in the vicinity: Realizing that Bungo Pete and his skilled specialists will be rescued to resume hunting U.S. vessels, he intentionally rams the lifeboats.

Soon after, the ''Eel'' is detailed to lifeguard duty off Guam, where Richardson saves three aviators, earning him the Medal of Honor. After the war he returns home, hoping to begin a relationship with Laura Bledsoe.

On October 29, 1998, Michael Myers burglarizes Dr. Sam Loomis' retirement house in Langdon, Illinois. Loomis' former colleague, Marion Chambers, who took care of Dr. Loomis until he died, arrives and discovers that the file on Laurie Strode, who is presumed dead in an automobile accident, is missing. Michael murders her, her teenage neighbor Jimmy and his friend Tony, before leaving the house in Jimmy’s car with Laurie's file.

In Summer Glen, California, Laurie, having faked her death to avoid Michael, lives under an assumed name "Keri Tate", having a career as the headmistress of Hillcrest Academy, a private boarding school. Laurie is also in a relationship with Hillcrest guidance counselor Will Brennan. However, Laurie is far from happy, as the tragic events from 1978 still haunt her; she lives in fear that Michael may return for her. While a woman and her daughter are at a rest stop, Michael steals their car. At the academy campus, the students leave to attend a school trip to Yosemite, leaving only Laurie, Will, security guard Ronny Jones, Laurie's son John; his girlfriend Molly Cartwell, and their classmate Charlie Deveraux plus his girlfriend Sarah Wainthrope, who are having a Halloween party in the school basement.

Later that night, Laurie reveals her true identity to Will while Michael arrives at the school. He quickly murders Charlie and Sarah, before attacking John and Molly, who are rescued by Laurie and Will, and Michael and Laurie come face to face for the first time in twenty years. Will accidentally shoots Ronny, who had been patrolling the hallway, when he mistakes Ronny's shadow for Michael, and Michael kills Will while Will and Laurie are examining Ronny's body.

Laurie manages to get John and Molly to safety, and realizing that she'll never be safe from Michael as long as he's alive, decides to confront Michael head-on. Laurie stabs Michael numerous times and pushes him over a balcony. She prepares to stab him again, but Ronny, who survived the shooting, stops her. The authorities arrive at the scene and load Michael into a coroner's van, but Laurie, knowing that Michael is still alive, steals the van to kill him for good. Michael awakens and attacks Laurie, who slams on her brakes, sending Michael crashing through the windshield. As Michael rises again, Laurie hits him with the van, before sending them both tumbling down a steep embankment. Laurie, having fallen out of the van, discovers Michael pinned between the van and a tree. Michael reaches for Laurie, who feels a moment of pity for her brother, before she finally decapitates him with an axe.

Dale "Mac" McKussic (Mel Gibson) is a former drug dealer trying to go straight. His close friend Nick Frescia (Kurt Russell) is a Detective Lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department who, in spite of their long-term relationship going back to high school, is duty-bound to bring Mac to justice if he is selling drugs again, as DEA Agent Hal Maguire (J. T. Walsh) believes to be the case.

Mac is attracted to stylish restaurant owner Jo Ann Vallenari (Michelle Pfeiffer). Nick becomes acquainted with Jo Ann while attempting to learn more about Mac's activities, in particular his relationship with the Mexican drug kingpin Carlos, whom the DEA agents and Mexican federal police commandante' Escalante (Raul Julia) believe is coming to town. Mac has a legitimate business and is raising a son, trying to distance himself from his former drug smuggling ways. But he tries to help his lawyer (Arye Gross) sell some cocaine, and feels indebted to his old friend Carlos, who is pressuring Mac to do one last job.

Jo Ann succumbs to Nick's charms and a love affair begins. Nick genuinely cares for Jo Ann, but she becomes angry when Mac accuses her of spying on him on Nick's behalf. During a meeting at Jo Ann's restaurant with Maguire and Escalante to discuss Mac and Carlos, Escalante gives Nick a ceremonial pistol as a gesture of good faith. Jo Ann then accuses Nick of using her to gather information on Mac because he often eats at her restaurant, and hired her to cater his son's birthday party. Nick admits he is investigating Mac and that he originally approached her because of that. But he truthfully admits that he really has fallen in love with her. Jo Ann ends her relationship with Nick for his initial deception after catching him trying to listen in on a private telephone conversation. Meanwhile, Maguire and his associates set a trap for Mac and the mysterious Carlos, whose face none of them, except Mac, has ever seen.

In time, Jo Ann realizes that Mac is in love with her and that she has fallen for him. Nick figures out that Mac's cousin Gregg (Arliss Howard) is an informer for the DEA. Nick also realizes that Maguire has become dangerously obsessed with catching Mac, willing to use any means necessary. Mac and Jo Ann make love at his house. Jo Ann is called to her restaurant on business. Nick meets her there, gives her a pistol (the same ceremonial pistol he was given by Escalante) for protection, and tells her to stay in her restaurant until a deputy sheriff arrives to guard her, because Carlos is expected to arrive at Mac's home later that night. She does not heed Nick's warning and returns to Mac's house, where she discovers that Escalante is, in fact, Carlos.

Carlos relieves her of Nick's pistol, recognizing it, and then takes her to his yacht at the marina. He knows that Gregg is the informer and has him killed, leaving his body next to a shipment of gasoline contaminated cocaine. Maguire and Nick find Gregg's body and the cocaine at the beach. Nick meets with Mac to warn him that Jo Ann is in danger. Mac pulls a gun on Nick and rushes to the marina. Carlos pressures him to kill Jo Ann because she now knows too much. Mac refuses, threatens Carlos at gunpoint and gets Jo Ann to safety on a speedboat. Mac nevertheless promises Carlos that he will be at the rendezvous site as arranged to conclude their business. Nick explains to Maguire that Escalante is actually Carlos and heads for the marina. Mac arrives first and is double-crossed by Carlos, whereupon a fight ensues between them. As they struggle over the pistol, it fatally discharges into Carlos's abdomen, wounding Mac in the process. Carlos dies in Mac's arms.

Maguire shows up and begins shooting, hitting an already dead Carlos in the face, and then at Mac as he is raising his hands to surrender. The gunfire causes the boat's fuel tank to catch fire, just as Mac jumps in the water. Nick arrives at the marina. He hears the gunfire, draws his weapon and orders Maguire to cease fire, but Maguire continues shooting, forcing Nick to shoot him in the back, killing him. The fire causes the boat to explode, and with it the millions of dollars on board.

The story ends with Nick asking Jo Ann to meet him at the beach. She arrives to instead find Mac, running to embrace him in the waves. A pleased Nick watches from a distance.

In September 1943, the diverse group of fifty-three soldiers comprising a lead Platoon of the Texas Division anxiously await their upcoming Allied invasion of Italy on a beach near Salerno, Italy. A landing barge carries them to their objective during the pre-dawn hours, and the increasing danger of their situation is demonstrated when their young platoon leader, Lieutenant Rand, is wounded by a shell fragment that destroys half of his face. Platoon Sergeant Pete Halverson takes over command and orders Sgt. Eddie Porter to lead the men to the beach while he tries to find the company commander and confirm their orders.

First aid man McWilliams remains with Rand, and the rest of the men hit the beach and dig in while trying to elude the shelling and machine-gun fire. Sgt. Bill Tyne wonders what they will do if Halverson does not return, and after the sun rises, the sergeants send the men into the woods to protect them from enemy aircraft. Tyne remains on the beach to wait for Halverson, but learns from McWilliams that both Rand and Halverson are dead. Soon after, McWilliams is shot by an enemy airplane when he goes to a bluff to view the aerial attack on the beachhead.

Tyne walks to the woods and there discovers that three other men have been hit, including Sgt. Hoskins who was the senior surviving NCO. Hoskins' wound means he cannot continue and Porter as the next senior NCO is forced to take command. Hoskins warns Tyne as he is leaving to keep an eye on Porter because he suspects Porter is going to crack under the pressure of command.

Porter, Tyne and Sgt. Ward then lead the men in three squads along a road toward their objective, a bridge that they are to blow up that is near a farmhouse. Porter knows that the six-mile journey will be a dangerous one, and grows agitated. He warns the men to watch out for enemy tanks and aircraft. As they walk, the men shoot the breeze and discuss their likes and dislikes, the nature of war and the food they wish they were eating. Enemy aircraft appear and one of them strafes the platoon as they run for cover in a ditch. Some of the men are killed while one is wounded, Pvt. Smith. Porter grows increasingly agitated.

Afterwards Porter is distracted when two retreating Italian soldiers surrender to the platoon and confirm that they are on the right road. The Italians warn them that the area is controlled by German troops, and soon after, the platoon meets a small reconnaissance patrol of American soldiers. After the patrol's motorcycle driver offers to ride to the farmhouse and report back, Porter becomes even more edgy as minutes pass without the driver's return. Finally Tyne tells the men to take a break while he sits with Porter. As machine gunner Rivera and his pal, Jake Friedman, razz each other, Porter begins to break down and tells Ward (also called Farmer) that he is putting Tyne in charge. Porter has a complete breakdown when a German armored car approaches, but Tyne's quick thinking prevails and the men blast the car with grenades and machine-gun fire. The bazooka men, who Tyne had sent ahead to search for tanks, blow up two tanks and another armored car, but expend all of their bazooka ammunition.

Tyne leaves a private named Johnson to guard the still-crying Porter, Tyne pushes on, and as the men march, Friedman tells Rivera that he is a travelling salesman who is "selling democracy to the natives." The men finally reach the farmhouse, but when a small patrol attempts to crawl through the field in front of the house, they are shot at by the Germans, and two men are killed. Tyne and Ward are baffled about what to do next when Windy, a calm, introspective soldier suggests circling around the farm via the river and blowing up the bridge without first taking the house. Tyne sends two patrols, headed by Ward and Windy, to accomplish the mission, then orders Rivera to strafe the house while he leads a column of men in an attack on the house, which he hopes will distract the Germans. The remaining men nervously wait for their comrades to reach the bridge, until finally Rivera opens fire and Tyne and his men go over the stone wall and into the field. Tyne's sight blurs as he crawls toward the house, and when he comes across the body of Rankin, one of the fallen men, still cradling his beloved Tommy-gun, the platoon's constant refrain, "Nobody dies," resounds through his head.

The bridge is blown up, and despite heavy losses, the platoon captures the house. Then, at exactly noon, Windy, Ward and the remaining men wander through the house as Farmer fulfils his dream of eating an apple and Tyne adds another notch to the butt of Rankin's pet Tommy-gun.

Young Audie Murphy (Gordon Gebert) grows up in a large, poor sharecropper family in Texas. His father deserts them around 1939–40, leaving his mother (Mary Field) barely able to feed her nine children. As the eldest son, Murphy works from an early age for his neighbor, Mr. Houston, a local farmer, to help support his siblings. Murphy and Mr. Houston are interrupted while working and listen to the radio announcement about the attack on Pearl Harbor. When his mother dies in 1941, Audie becomes head of the family. His brothers and sisters are sent to an elder sister, Corrine. Murphy is then convinced by Mr. Houston to enlist in the military to support himself.

Murphy is rejected by the Marines, the Navy and the Army paratroopers due to his small size and youthful appearance. Finally, the Army accepts him as an ordinary infantryman. After basic training and infantry training, Murphy is shipped to the 3rd Infantry Division in North Africa, as a replacement. Because of his youthful appearance, he endures jokes about "infants" being sent into combat. His squad mates include: Johnson, a man who claims to be a womanizer; Brandon, a man who ran out on his wife and daughter; Kerrigan a man who jokes at unusual times; Kovak, a Polish immigrant who wants to become an American citizen; Swope (called "Chief" by his squad mates) a Native American who smokes cigars a lot, and Valentino who has relatives in Naples.

After the 3rd Infantry Division lands in Sicily, Murphy and his men come under attack by a German machine gun position. Murphy and his men assault the position and kill the Germans. After fighting in Sicily, Murphy is then promoted to corporal. After Sicily, Murphy and his squad receive a new platoon leader, Lt. Manning. During a diversionary attack on German forces, Lt. Manning is wounded and Sgt. Klasky, his platoon sergeant, dies. This results in Murphy taking command of the platoon. After proving himself in leading his platoon while fighting in Italy, he is then promoted to sergeant. Murphy and his men are then sent to Naples on R&R.

Murphy and his men later take part in Operation Shingle. After landing on the beach, Murphy and his men fight around an abandoned farmhouse. This battle results in Lt. Manning, Kovak and Johnson being killed. After the Allied breakout of Operation Shingle, Murphy eventually receives a battlefield commission to the rank of second lieutenant.

The action for which Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor is depicted near the end of the film. In January 1945, near Holtzwihr, France, Murphy's company is forced to retreat in the face of a fierce German attack. However, Murphy remains behind, at the edge of a forest, to direct artillery fire on the advancing enemy infantry and armor. As the Germans close on his position, Murphy jumps onto an abandoned M4 Sherman tank (he actually performed this action atop an M10 tank destroyer) and uses its .50-caliber machine gun to hold the enemy at bay, even though the vehicle is on fire and may explode at any moment. Although wounded and dangerously exposed to enemy fire, Murphy single-handedly turns back the German attack, thereby saving his company. After a period of hospitalization, he is returned to duty. The film concludes with Murphy's Medal of Honor ceremony shortly after the war ends, as Murphy remembers Kovak, Johnson and Brandon, who were killed in action.

Mafiosi Joseph Palermo (Venantino Venantini) and his brother Tony are fleeing across the border after assassinating a building contractor. They get into a car accident and, after killing the driver of the other car, they decide to hijack a car from a local police station. In the ensuing firefight, Palermo shoots and kills the sheriff (Greydon Clark). The gangsters are pursued across the border by the sheriff's deputy, a no-nonsense Apache-descendant (or so he claims) named Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III (Baker). He shoots Tony dead and captures Joseph, who swears he will take revenge for his brother's death.

As a publicity stunt, a US State Department official named Wilson (Bill McKinney) orders Geronimo to escort Palermo to Italy. However, the plane is sabotaged and forced to land in Malta. Soon after arriving in Valletta, Geronimo is ambushed by gangsters and Palermo escapes his custody.

The Maltese police, under the command of Superintendent Mifsud (Lino Grech), assure Geronimo that they will recapture Palermo themselves. Chief Wilson telephones and orders Geronimo to return to Texas. But Geronimo is determined to capture Palermo himself. With the help of a local policewoman, Maria Cassar (Helena Dalli), he eventually tracks Palermo to the estate of Don Lamanna, a local bigwig. Geronimo is repeatedly arrested by the Maltese authorities, but always manages to escape and continue his pursuit of the gangster.

Eventually, it turns out that Palermo was in cahoots with Wilson, who had never intended for Geronimo to deliver Palermo to Italy. In the end, Cassar kills Wilson and Geronimo kills Palermo.

Physics teacher and amateur pilot Nick Miller (Matthew Bruch) has finally completed his quest of enabling time travel, via a Commodore 64 and his small airplane. After being inspired by a television commercial for GenCorp, he uses a ruse to bring out both a GenCorp executive and a reporter from a local paper. To Nick's surprise, the reporter is Lisa Hansen (Bonnie Pritchard), an old high school flame. One trip to 2041 later and Gencorp's executive, Matthew Paul (Peter Harrington), quickly arranges Nick a meeting with CEO J.K. Robertson (George Woodard). Impressed by the potential of time travel, Robertson offers Nick a licensing agreement on the technology.

The following week, Nick and Lisa meet at the supermarket and go on a date to the 1950s. However, another trip to 2041 reveals that GenCorp abused Nick's time travel technology, creating a dystopian future. In an attempt to tell J.K. about how GenCorp inadvertently ruined the future. J.K. dismisses the eventuality, and states that there's enough time to worry about how to fix it before it happens. J.K. sees Nick as a threat to GenCorp, and due to the association with the U.S. Government, considers Nick's actions as treason. Nick and Lisa escape GenCorp and spend the remainder of the film trying to reverse the damage to the future. When J.K. finds out about this, he and Matt try to shoot down Nick's plane, killing Lisa in the process while Nick jumps out before the plane crashes. This ultimately culminates in a fight in 1777 during the American Revolution, the deaths of the present Nick and Robertson, and the destruction of the time machine before the original demo, thus ensuring that the majority of the film's events never happen in the first place. The film ends with the now current Nick (now aware of the danger of his time machine) sabotaging his demonstration, and doing a pitch of how an elderly skydiver would be a better ad campaign for J.K.'s company. Furious about being misled, J.K. fires Matt. Nick deletes the data that makes time travel possible. At the end of the film, Nick talks to Lisa in the supermarket as he did in the previous timeline.

On the flight of Maiden 1, the first American supersonic transport, Captain Jim Walsh (Robert Reed) is the assigned pilot on an attempt to set a world speed record from New York to Paris. The flight crew includes the flight engineer (Robert Ito), stewardess Mae (Tina Louise) and steward (Billy Crystal). The select group on the ceremonial first flight include passengers and executives. On board is Willy Basset (Burgess Meredith), the designer of the SST, Tim Vernon (Bert Convy), the Cutlass Airlines head of publicity who is having an affair with "Miss SST" Angela Garland (Misty Rowe), the model who is the public face of the new aircraft. Hank Fairbanks (Doug McClure), an ex-pilot who now works for an airline group in South America as an aircraft buyer, accompanies the other VIPs, and wants to renew an earlier romance with Mae. Other passengers include Paul Whitley (Peter Graves), Bob Connors (John de Lancie), former sportscaster Lyle Kingman (Martin Milner) and his wife Nancy (Susan Strasberg). Harry Carter (Regis Philbin), a television broadcaster and a reporter (Ric Carrott) are at the airport terminal to cover the festivities.

Unfortunately, a disgruntled employee (George Maharis), wanting to get back at Willy Basset, the designer of the airliner, sabotages the hydraulic system, causing an inflight massive leak of hydraulic fluid. Subsequent repair attempts by the crew cause an explosive decompression that breaks open a medical shipment of Senegal Flu, brought aboard by Dr. Ralph Therman (Brock Peters). Consequently, the aircraft is refused landing rights in Europe. The SST eventually tries to divert to Senegal (the only country with experience in dealing with the virus). However, there is not enough fuel and the pilots are forced to make an emergency landing in a mountain pass. Some of the passengers are killed, but most survive.

In 1905, Daniel Hackett, a young farmer from the western town of Paradise Valley, is unhappy with his life as a farmer and dreams of life in New York City. His father Jonas likes to tell Daniel tall tales about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry, which Daniel has heard many times, leading him to doubt their existence. Meanwhile, Paradise Valley is being coveted by a greedy developer, J.P. Stiles. Stiles attempts to convince area farmers to sell their land to him, most notably Jonas as his farm lies in the center of where he wants to develop. However, when Jonas refuses to hand up his deed, Stiles hunts him down and shoots him, but not before Jonas hands the deed off to Daniel for safe keeping.

With Jonas in critical condition and unable to farm, his land is put at risk. Upset, Daniel runs out to hide in his father's boat and falls asleep. When Daniel awakes, he discovers that the boat had come untied and drifted downstream to the deserts of Texas. After a brief encounter with some thieves, Daniel is rescued by legendary cowboy Pecos Bill. The duo later team up with lumberjack Paul Bunyan, and strong African-American ex-slave John Henry. Each of these heroes hooks up with Daniel and becomes involved in an increasingly bitter and boisterous fight against Stiles, whose plans to buy up land threaten the very strength of the folk heroes and the well-being of the common people.

When Stiles takes the deed, Daniel wakes up, realizing it was just a dream. He ventures towards Stiles' train who was about to head out into the lands. Daniel confronts him, and they attempt to run him over, until John arrives and holds the train. Stiles orders his men to kill them, but Pecos arrives and shoots off their trigger fingers, and the townsfolk join in to help, while Paul, who went inside while nobody noticed, cuts down the mine poles. Daniel then finishes off the last pole, killing Stiles and his men, and the crowd cheers for him.

Daniel then returns to the farm and admits that the stories were true and their land is important. Paul, with his blue ox Babe, and John, with his mule Cold Molasses, say goodbye to Daniel and disappear afterwards. Pecos leaves his horse, Widow-Maker, to Daniel and twirls his lasso at a twister for his departure.

Steam City is a place where the only fuel source is coal, and the only means to produce energy is the steam engine. As the only source of energy, the steam engine has been the focus of technological advancement to the point where it can be substituted for any other form of power in modern technology. These same advancements also have given rise to Megamatons, large steam-powered robots. With the air of Steam City thick with fog and white smoke, thieves and criminals flourish with Megamatons as a common tool in their nefarious plans. It is here that the reader and/or viewer finds Narutaki, a young detective fighting for the peace of the city.

Series 1

In a post-apocalyptic city, all of the adults have been killed as a result of an unknown virus, leaving the children and teenagers to survive in a state of anarchy. Several social groups, or tribes, have formed, including the "Locos", an unruly tribe controlling the city under the leadership of Zoot, who is later accidentally killed. On the streets, Amber and Dal lead a group of children to safety and take refuge in an abandoned shopping mall, forming a new tribe called the "Mall Rats". They are joined by Bray and Trudy, who is pregnant; Bray's brother, Zoot, is the father. The tribe learns to solve issues including food and water shortage. A second wave of the virus strikes the city, and the tribe tries searching to find an Antidote. They travel to a base called Eagle Mountain, where a pre-recorded message confirms the Antidote's existence.

Series 2

At Eagle Mountain, Amber and Zandra, who is pregnant, are killed in an explosion. The tribe continues searching for an antidote to the virus and are successful, with Tai-San becoming the only one aware of the formula to produce it. Under Bray's leadership, the Mall Rats use their position of power to unite the other tribes and bring peace to the city. A bill of rights is developed by Danni, along with a trading market in the mall, and a newsletter by Ellie detailing the city's progress. The virus is later diminished, and a new tribe called the "Chosen" surfaces, they are remnants of the Locos who now worship Zoot as their god.

Series 3

The Chosen take control of the city, led by the Guardian and the "Supreme Mother", who is a brainwashed Trudy. The Mall Rats are captured and, along with other prisoners of the city, are given the choice to join the Chosen or work as slaves, with many civilians being sent away due to rebellion. After escaping, Bray, Ebony, Lex and Dal encounter the Eco tribe and discover that its leader is Amber, whose death had been faked by Ebony. The Eco tribe join the revolt and the remaining Mall Rats recruit other tribes to their side. The Chosen are overthrown, and Ebony is elected as city leader though manipulation; she banishes Bray and Amber for speaking against her as a mysterious plane invades the city.

Series 4

The city is invaded and conquered by a group of paratroopers, who are called the "Technos" and possess advanced technology. Ebony maintains control of the city through a deal with the Technos general, Jay. After Bray is captured, Trudy helps Amber give birth on the outskirts of town. They flee to the Ecos, then later rejoin the Mall Rats. In an attempt to create a utopia, the leader of the Technos, Ram, releases a virtual game to which the people of the city become addicted to in exchange for workload. Ebony and Jay betray Ram and escape the city. The Mall Rats defeat Ram with the assistance of Ram's lieutenant, Mega.

Series 5

Mega becomes the new leader of the Technos, and plans to take over the city. He orders everyone to be branded with a barcode and set to manual labour. Ebony is manipulated by virtual reality to believe that Zoot is alive. The Mall Rats try to learn the location of their members who were removed by the Technos. Ram is rescued by a vagabond, Slade, who takes him to the country town Liberty. Amber and Jay lead an attack against the city, capturing Mega. Ram infiltrates Mega's technology and creates an artificial intelligence program, which goes rogue and releases a new virus. The Mall Rats and their allies evacuate the city by boat.

Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongfully convicted of theft and sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile corrections facility. The novel presents Stanley's story together with two other linked stories.

Elya Yelnats

Elya Yelnats is fifteen years old and lives in Latvia. He is in love with Myra Menke, the most beautiful girl in the village. Myra's father has decided that she should marry when she turns fifteen in two months. Fifty-seven year-old Igor Barkov offers his fattest pig to Myra's father in exchange for her hand. Elya asks his friend Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian fortune teller with a missing foot, for help. Madame Zeroni advises Elya to go to America like her son, but when she sees his sorrow, she pities Elya and gives him a runt piglet. She tells him to carry it to the top of the mountain every day and sing a special song while it drinks from a stream that runs uphill. If he does this, his pig will be fatter than any of Igor's. Madame Zeroni says that in return, Elya must then carry her up the mountain and sing to her while she drinks from the stream. She warns him that if he does not, his family will be cursed.

Elya follows Madame Zeroni's directions until the last day, when he takes a bath instead of carrying the pig up the hill. His pig and Igor's weigh exactly the same, so Myra's father lets her decide who to marry. When Myra is unable to choose, Elya realizes Madame Zeroni was right about Myra. He tells her to keep his pig and, forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni, leaves for America. He marries the kind and intelligent Sarah Miller but is continually beset by bad luck. The song that he sang to the pig becomes a lullaby passed down by his family.

Kissin' Kate Barlow

In the year 1888, Green Lake is a flourishing Texas lakeside village. Katherine Barlow, a white local schoolteacher famous for her spiced peaches, falls in love with Sam, an African-American onion farmer. She rejects the advances of the wealthy Charles Walker, who is nicknamed Trout because his feet smell like dead fish. After Katherine and Sam are seen kissing, Walker raises a mob to burn down the schoolhouse. The sheriff refuses to help Katherine and instead demands a kiss. Katherine and Sam attempt to escape across the lake in Sam's rowboat, but Walker intercepts them with his motorboat. Sam is shot dead and his boat wrecked, while Katherine is "rescued" against her wishes. From that day, no rain falls upon Green Lake.

Three days later, Katherine shoots the sheriff. She becomes the outlaw "Kissin' Kate Barlow", so named because she leaves a red lipstick kiss on the cheeks of the men she kills. She robs Stanley Yelnats, son of Elya Yelnats, and leaves him stranded in the desert. Seventeen days later, he is rescued by hunters, but he is delirious and can only explain his survival by saying he "found refuge on God's thumb." After twenty years, Katherine retires to the ruins of Green Lake, now a hot and lifeless wasteland. She is found by Trout Walker and his wife Linda Miller, one of Katherine's former fourth-grade students. They are destitute, since Walker's fortune dried up with the lake. They demand that Katherine dig up her hidden loot. She refuses, telling them that they and their children and grandchildren could dig holes for the next hundred years without finding it. They try to force Katherine to lead them to the loot, but she is bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, and its venom kills her.

Camp Green Lake

Stanley Yelnats IV's family is cursed. The family jokingly blames Stanley's "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather", Elya Yelnats, for their constant misfortunes. Stanley, who is in middle school, is convicted of stealing a pair of athletic shoes that baseball player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston had donated to a charity auction for the homeless. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile corrections facility.

Prisoners at Camp Green Lake are required to "build character" by digging one cylindrical hole five feet wide and five feet deep every day. The Warden allows campers a day off if they find anything "interesting." The leader of Stanley's group, a boy nicknamed X-Ray, tells Stanley to give him anything interesting he finds. Late one day, Stanley finds an empty lipstick tube with "KB" engraved. He gives it to X-Ray, who pretends to find it the next morning. For the next week and a half, the Warden has the boys excavate the area of X-Ray's supposed discovery. Stanley concludes that she is searching for something.

Stanley learns that another prisoner, Zero, is illiterate. Zero volunteers to dig part of Stanley's hole each day if Stanley teaches him to read. When one of the counselors, Mr. Pendanski, says that Zero is too stupid to learn to read, Zero smashes Mr. Pendanski's face with his shovel and flees into the desert. When Zero does not return, the Warden assumes he has died. To avoid an investigation, she orders Mr. Pendanski to destroy Zero's records.

Stanley goes into the desert to save Zero. He finds Zero hiding under the wreck of a rowboat. Zero has survived on what he calls "sploosh," a peachy nectar stored in old jars he found under the rowboat. Stanley and Zero drink the last of the sploosh. Zero refuses to return to camp, so they head for a nearby mountain, Big Thumb, that looks like a thumbs up sign. As they ascend the mountain, Zero collapses. Stanley carries Zero up the hill. He finds water, gives it to Zero, and sings his family lullaby.

Stanley and Zero live on Big Thumb for a week, eating wild onions from Sam's old onion fields. Zero, whose real name is Hector Zeroni, reveals that he stole Clyde Livingston's shoes. He was homeless and needed new shoes. When he realized Livingston's shoes had an unbearable stench, he discarded them, and they accidentally landed on Stanley.

The boys secretly return to Camp Green Lake, and overnight, they dig where Stanley found the lipstick tube. They find a suitcase but are caught by the Warden. The Warden and the counselors stand watch over the boys all night, but they do not approach because the boys are in a nest of highly venomous yellow-spotted lizards. Stanley and Zero, however, are safe from the lizards because they smell like onions. When the sun rises, Stanley's lawyer Ms. Morengo and the state Attorney General arrive; Stanley's conviction has been overturned. The Warden claims that the suitcase was stolen from her, but the suitcase has "Stanley Yelnats" written on it. Stanley refuses to leave without Hector, so Ms. Morengo asks to see Hector's file. When Hector's records can't be found, Ms. Morengo demands that he be released, too. As they drive away, rain falls on Camp Green Lake.

The Attorney General closes Camp Green Lake. The Warden, whose real name is Ms. Walker, is forced to sell the land.

Hector is revealed to be Madame Zeroni's great-great-great grandson. The day after Stanley carried Hector up the mountain, Stanley's father invented a product that eliminated foot odor. It smells like peaches, and the boys name it "Sploosh." The suitcase, which had belonged to Stanley's great-grandfather, contains financial instruments worth nearly two million dollars. Stanley and Hector split the money, and Hector hires private investigators to find his mother. A year and a half later, the Yelnats house hosts a Super Bowl party celebrating Clyde Livingston's endorsement of Sploosh. Hector's mother softly sings to him a second verse to the Yelnats' family lullaby.

;Act I Hattie Maloney owns a night club in the Panama Canal Zone where she also performs. Three sailors from the S.S. ''Idaho'', Skat Briggs, Windy Deegan and Woozy Hoga, ask her to sing at a party they are organizing ("Join It Right Away"). Nick Bullet, Hattie’s fiance, is a wealthy Navy officer. They are about to meet his eight-year-old daughter Geraldine (Jerry), off the boat from Philadelphia. He tells Hattie, "My Mother Would Love You". Hattie, eager to make a good impression on her prospective stepdaughter, spends three weeks' wages on her elaborately frilly outfit. But when she arrives, Jerry makes fun of Hattie's clothing and way of speaking. Feeling that her marriage is off, Hattie gets drunk on rum ("I’ve still Got my Health"). Kitty-Belle, the daughter of Admiral Whitney Randolph, wants to marry Nick, and she schemes to end his romance with Hattie.

Florrie, a singer in the night club, develops a crush on Nick's very proper butler Vivian Budd ("Fresh as a Daisy"). Nick’s efforts to persuade Jerry and Hattie to get along with each other finally succeed, with Jerry making the still hungover Hattie cut the bows off her dress and shoes ("Let’s Be Buddies"). Jerry gives Hattie advice on how to behave like a lady at a party where she is to be presented to Nick’s boss, the Admiral ("I’m Throwing a Ball Tonight"). Admiral Randolph is to be presented with a cup, and his daughter Leila suggests that Hattie might present it filled with goldenrod. This gives Whitney hay fever; Hattie is blamed, and Nick is ordered not to marry Hattie.

;Act II The sailors from the S. S. Idaho uncover a spy plot involving saboteurs. Hattie swears off rum ("Make It Another Old Fashioned Please"). Hattie has it out with Leila, whose boyfriend keeps being called in whenever Hattie is on the verge of hitting her. Meanwhile, Florrie continues to try to attract the romantic attention of Budd ("All I’ve Got to Get Now is My Man"). Hattie, two of the sailors and Budd meet regarding these various threads ("You Said It"). Mildred Hunter, Leila's best friend, turns out to be a terrorist. She gives Jerry a secret package to put in Nick’s desk. Hattie overhears the plot to blow up the Panama Canal control room, finds the bomb and throws it out, saving the day. The grateful Admiral Whitney retracts his order and the sailors praise Hattie ("God Bless the Woman").

The planet Peladon, led by its young king Peladon, is on the verge of joining the Galactic Federation, their delegates ready to deliberate and take a final vote. High Priest Hepesh is opposed, warning that the curse of Aggedor the Royal Beast of Peladon will visit doom upon them.

The TARDIS materialises on the edge of a cliff below the castle. The Third Doctor and Jo barely leave the ship before it tumbles over the edge of the cliff; they climb to the castle to get help.

Peladon asks for Hepesh's support to join the Federation, but Hepesh does not trust the aliens. The Doctor and Jo are discovered by palace guards, who take them to the throne room where the delegates are gathered: Alpha Centauri, Arcturus, and Lord Izlyr and Ssorg of the Ice Warriors. The Doctor is mistaken for the delegate from Earth. He introduces Jo as "Princess Josephine of TARDIS", a neutral royal observer from Earth. Several unusual accidents affecting the delegates lead Jo to suspect the Ice Warriors.

Exploring the tunnels under the palace, the Doctor runs into, and flees from, the creature known as Aggedor. Entering the beast's shrine room, he is discovered by Hepesh. Hepesh accuses the Doctor of sacrilege, who must endure trial by combat, a duel to the death with the royal champion. Later, in the Doctor's cell, Hepesh helps him escape, only to encounter Aggedor again, only this time he calms the beast with a hypnotic device.

The Doctor tries to tell Peladon about the beast, but Hepesh again orders that he be taken away to face the royal champion, who is defeated, the Doctor also sparing his life. Arcturus tries to kill the Doctor but is shot by Ssorg. It is revealed that Hepesh, his accomplice, tried to frame the Ice Warriors, and trained Aggedor to maintain superstition, having made an agreement with Arcturus over Peladon's mineral deposits. The vote for intervention carries unanimously, but the delegates cannot communicate with their ships. Hepesh's forces take the throne room and hold Peladon hostage. Hepesh orders him to go back to the old ways or die. The Doctor arrives with Aggedor, who kills Hepesh.

On their way to attend Peladon's coronation, the Doctor and Jo see the real delegate from Earth, who has just arrived. They rush back to the TARDIS to avoid explaining themselves.

Major-General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey) is a senior commander in the Home Guard during the Second World War. Before a training exercise, he is "captured" in a Turkish bath by soldiers led by Lieutenant "Spud" Wilson, who has struck pre-emptively. He ignores Candy's outraged protests that "War starts at midnight!" They scuffle and fall into a bathing pool.

An extended flashback ensues.

'''Boer War'''
In 1902, Lieutenant Candy is on leave from the Boer War. He receives a letter from Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr), who is working in Berlin. She complains that a German named Kaunitz is spreading anti-British propaganda, and she wants the British embassy to intervene. When Candy brings this to his superiors' attention, they refuse him permission to go to Berlin, but he goes anyway.

In Berlin, Candy and Edith go to a café, where he confronts Kaunitz. Provoked, Candy inadvertently insults the Imperial German Army officer corps. The Germans insist he fight a duel with an officer chosen by lot: Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). Candy and Theo become friends while recuperating from their wounds in the same nursing home. Edith visits them regularly and, although it is implied that she has feelings for Clive, she becomes engaged to Theo. Candy is delighted, but soon realises that he loves her himself.

'''First World War'''
In November 1918 Candy, now a brigadier general, believes that the Allies won the First World War because "right is might". While in France, he meets nurse Barbara Wynne (Kerr again). She bears a striking resemblance to Edith. Back in England, he courts and marries her despite their twenty-year age difference.

In July 1919 Candy tracks Theo down at a prisoner of war camp in Derbyshire. Candy greets him as if nothing has changed, but Theo snubs him.

On 26 August about to be repatriated to Germany, Theo apologises and accepts an invitation to Clive's house. He remains sceptical that his country will be treated fairly.

Barbara dies in August 1926, and Candy retires in 1935.

'''Second World War'''
In November 1939, Theo relates to a British Immigration official how he was estranged from his children when they became Nazis. Before the war, he refused to move to England when Edith wanted to; by the time he was ready, she had died. Candy vouches for Theo.

Candy reveals to Theo that he loved Edith and only realised it after it was too late. He admits that he never got over it. Theo meets Candy's MTC driver, Angela "Johnny" Cannon (Kerr again), personally chosen by the Englishman; Theo is struck by her resemblance to Barbara and Edith.

Candy, restored to the active list as a major-general, is to give a BBC radio talk regarding the retreat from Dunkirk. Candy plans to say he would rather lose the war than win it using the methods employed by the Nazis: his talk is cancelled. Theo urges his friend to accept the need to fight and win by whatever means are necessary, because the consequences of losing are so dire.

Candy is again retired, but, at Theo's and Angela's urging, turns his energy to the Home Guard. Candy, now a general, is instrumental in building up the Home Guard. His house is bombed in the Blitz and replaced by an emergency water supply cistern. He moves to his club, where he relaxes in a Turkish bath before a training exercise he has arranged.

The brash young lieutenant who captures Candy is Angela's boyfriend, who used her to learn about Candy's plans and location. She tries to warn Candy, but is too late.

Theo and Angela find Candy sitting across the street from where his house stood. He recalls that after being given a severe dressing down by his superior for causing the diplomatic incident, he declined the man's invitation to dinner, and often regretted doing so. He tells Angela to invite her boyfriend to dine with him.

Years before, Clive promised Barbara that he would "never change" until his house was flooded and "this is a lake". Seeing the cistern, he realises that "here is the lake and I still haven't changed". Candy salutes the new guard as it passes by.

While searching for rare blue diamonds that could lead to a new revolutionary communications laser, TraviCom employees Charles Travis and Jeffrey Weems discover the ruins of a lost city near a volcanic site in a remote part of the Congo jungle. Karen Ross, Charles' ex-fiancée and a former CIA operative, and R. B. Travis, Charles' father and the CEO of TraviCom, lose contact with the team while tracking their progress at the company headquarters. Activating a remote camera, they find the camp destroyed and strewn with corpses, as well as a savage ape-like creature that destroys the camera. Travis asks Karen to lead another expedition to the site.

Meanwhile, Peter Elliott, a primatologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his assistant Richard teach human communication to primates using a mountain gorilla named Amy. With a specialized backpack and glove, her sign language is translated to a digitized voice. Despite the success, Peter is concerned by Amy's drawings of jungles and the Eye of Providence, and seeks funding to return her to Africa, but the university is reluctant. Romanian philanthropist Herkermer Homolka offers to fund the expedition, and Karen asks permission to join it since her visas will be invalid unless connected to such a venture. Peter is hesitant at first, seeing Amy's jealousy of Karen, but allows her to join and pay part of the expenses after Homolka is unable to provide funding.

The group flies to Africa and lands in Uganda, where they meet wilderness guide Monroe Kelly. They are detained and questioned by Captain Wanta, a local military leader, who warns them not to trust Homolka and lets them proceed only after Karen pays him a large bribe. As the group crosses to Tanzania to board another plane that will take them to Zaire, Monroe reveals that Homolka has led previous safaris in search of the "Lost City of Zinj", with disastrous results. The group parachutes into the jungle just before their plane is shot down by Zairean soldiers.

On the ground, they encounter a native tribe that leads them to Bob Driscoll, a wounded member of Charles' expedition. On seeing Amy approaching, Bob begins screaming in fear and soon dies. The group continues by boat, and learn that Homolka, in search of Zinj and its fabled diamond mine, believes that Amy's drawings suggest she has seen the mine and can lead them to it. After an attack by massive hippos, they find the ruined camp and the nearby City of Zinj. Richard and a couple of porters are killed by a vicious grey gorilla. The group take shelter at the ruined camp, keeping other gorillas at bay with automated sentry guns and detectors.

When day breaks, they find Homolka, several porters and Amy missing. They return to the city, where they find Homolka exploring, and surmise from hieroglyphs that the city's inhabitants specially bred the grey gorillas, encouraging their violent tendencies to guard the mine and kill anyone looking to steal the diamonds. The group suspects the gorillas turned on their masters yet still continue to protect the mine. They find the mine and are faced with a troop of grey gorillas. Homolka begins to collect diamonds, but is soon cornered and killed by some of the apes. Monroe, Karen and Peter flee deeper into the mine, where they discover Jeffrey and Charles' bodies with the latter still holding a giant blue diamond in hand. As Amy protects Peter, Monroe fends off the other gorillas until Karen can fit the diamond into a portable laser, allowing her to power it up and kill several gorillas. The volcano begins to erupt, and the four escape as the city is flooded with lava, killing the gorillas.

Once safe, Karen reports to Travis on finding the diamond and confirming Charles' death. Realizing Travis was only interested in the diamond, she uses her laser to destroy the TraviCom satellite. In the nearby wreckage of another one of Travis' expedition cargo planes they had found earlier, they find a hot-air balloon, and prepare to leave. Peter sees Amy with a troop of gorillas and bids her goodbye. The three take off in the balloon, and Peter throws the diamond back into the jungle below. Amy watches the departing balloon with a smile, then joins her new gorilla family.

The movie opens with a young woman fending off an attempted rape. In the process, the would-be rapist accidentally falls off a cliff to his death. Circumstantial evidence places 16-year-old delinquent Silver (played by a 27-year-old Van Doren) at the scene, and she is sent to Girls Town, a rehabilitation village run by a group of nuns. There, she lives with Serafina (Gigi Perreau) and some experienced juvenile delinquents. Trouble and misunderstandings ensue. Troublemaker Fred (Tormé) saw the cliff incident from a distance and realizes it was actually Silver's sister, Mary Lee (Elinor Donahue), who was there. Fred blackmails Mary Lee into being his partner in deadly "hands-off drag racing", then prepares to take her to Tijuana to sell her into the slave trade. Silver finally wins the respect of her Girls Town friends, and finally they rescue Mary Lee.

A subplot involves Serafina swooning over famous singer Jimmy (Anka). During the film, he sings "Lonely Boy", "It's Time to Cry", "Girls Town Blues", and "Ave Maria". A scene set in a nightclub features The Platters singing "Wish It Were Me".

Free-spirited Jerry (Steckler as "Flagg"), his girlfriend Angela (Sharon Walsh), and his buddy Harold (Atlas King) head out for a day at a seaside carnival. In one venue, a dance number is performed by Marge (Carolyn Brandt), a superstitious alcoholic who drinks before and between shows, and her partner, Bill Ward, for a small audience. Backstage, Marge sees a black cat and, disturbed by its appearance, visits powerful carnival fortune-teller Estrella (Brett O'Hara) to find out what it means. In her fortune-telling booth, Estrella predicts death for Marge, who runs out, terrified, past Jerry, Angela, and Harold. The three decide to have their fortunes told. Estrella predicts "a death near water" for someone close to Angela.

After leaving Estrella's booth, Jerry sees Estrella's sister Carmelita (Erina Enyo), a stripper who hypnotizes him with her icy stare, and he is compelled to see her act. Angela leaves the carnival, disgusted, with Harold in tow. After the show, Jerry is tricked backstage into Estrella's room with a note and she turns Jerry into a zombie by hypnotizing him with a spiraling wheel. Jerry then goes on a violent overnight rampage of which he will have no memory, killing Marge and fatally wounding Bill. The next day, Jerry attempts to strangle his girlfriend Angela as well. It develops that Estrella, with her henchman Ortega (Jack Brady), has been turning carnival patrons into zombies by throwing acid into their faces, disfiguring them, and then imprisoning them in her fortune-telling booth.

Interspersed through the film are several song-and-dance production numbers in the carnival's nightclub, with songs like "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" and "Shook Out of Shape."

Jerry, suspicious of his fragmented memory, confronts Estrella at the carnival. He is hypnotized a second time, and that night stabs a carnival showgirl and barker in the showgirl's home. Returning to Estrella, she throws acid in Jerry's face and attempts to imprison him, only to have her other zombies escape. The zombies immediately kill Estrella, Carmelita, Ortega, and several performers before being shot by police. Jerry, himself partially disfigured but not completely a zombie escapes the carnival and is pursued to the shoreline, where the police shoot him dead in front of Angela and Harold. Estrella's prediction of "a death near water" for someone close to Angela is fulfilled.

In December 1944, Military Intelligence officer Lt. Col. Daniel Kiley and his pilot, Joe, are flying a reconnaissance mission over the Ardennes forest that spans easternmost Belgium, northern Luxembourg, and parts of bordering France and Germany. They locate a German staff car and photograph its occupants, buzzing low enough for a close-up to cause its shell-shocked driver to flee the car without stopping its engine. His commanding officer scolds him for wasting petrol, extremely precious to the German war effort.

The officer, Col. Hessler, continues on to his new underground base, where General Kohler briefs him on the top secret plan to pierce American lines and recapture Antwerp. At the same time, English-speaking German paratroopers, led by Lt. Schumacher, are dropped behind American lines disguised as American MPs to confuse and disrupt the Allies. Hessler's orderly and driver, Conrad, remarks upon the staggering losses Germany has sustained during the war, pointing out to his superior that his new young tank commanders are not the men he had trained and led through the campaigns in Poland, France, and the Crimea. Upon a review of the Panzer commanders, all of whom are, as Conrad said, young and inexperienced, both men are skeptical until the commanders break into a chorus of ''Panzerlied'', showing him their fighting spirit. Hessler is tentatively won over.

Meanwhile, Kiley returns to U.S. headquarters and warns once again that the Germans are planning a new offensive. His superiors, Maj. Gen. Grey and his executive officer, Col. Pritchard, do not listen, believing Germany lacks the resources and manpower to mount an attack, especially in winter, let alone with the Christmas holidays looming immediately ahead. Seeking proof, Kiley is sent to an outpost on the Siegfried Line to capture prisoners for interrogation. At the loose disciplined American base, Maj. Wolenski sends callow Lt. Weaver and gung-ho Sgt. Duquesne on patrol. They capture young, green German soldiers. Rather than proof of German desperation, Kiley believes they are keeping their more experienced men back for an offensive, but is again dismissed by his superiors as a "crackpot".

Hessler launches his attack the next day, leading columns of German King Tigers, the largest and most powerful tanks of World War II. The main Allied tank, the Sherman, was less than half its weight and could not penetrate its armor in a head-to-head fight. Wolenski leads his men into the wooded area of the Schnee Eifel to fight back, but they are overrun. A group of Allied tanks, led by Sgt. Guffy, also attempts to slow the Panzers, but their tanks' weak guns and thin armor make them ineffective. On the trip back to Amblève, Guffy's crew moves black market goods from a nearby farmhouse. Lt. Schumacher and his disguised troops capture the only bridge over the Our River that can carry heavy tanks, and Hessler continues toward Amblève, secretly observed by Kiley. Guffy meets up with his Belgian girlfriend, Louise, and they split the proceeds of their racket. They also discuss their feelings for each other, implying they will marry when the war is over.

Schumacher later takes control of a vital intersection of three roads that connect Amblève, Malmedy, and the Siegfried Line. He sabotages the road signs, and the rear echelon of Wolenski's troops takes the wrong road to Malmedy. They are captured and massacred by SS troops, though a wounded Weaver escapes. Other US soldiers become suspicious when they observe Schumacher's "MPs" pretending to be demolishing the Our bridge, but laying the explosives incorrectly.

As the Americans have improvised a strong defense at Amblève, Kohler orders Hessler to bypass it, but Hessler wishes to break the Americans' will to fight, and Kohler relents. Grey assigns Wolenski to cover an Allied evacuation. Hessler's tanks and infantry lay siege to Amblève, then occupy its ruins. Although many Americans, including Wolenski, are captured, senior staff safely escapes to the Meuse River to regroup for a counterattack. Guffy learns that Louise died in the shelling.

Despite the dangers of flying in fog and at night, Col. Kiley conducts an aerial reconnaissance. He and Joe find Hessler's tanks through a gap in the fog and radio in the coordinates. German fire causes the plane to crash near an American fuel depot, killing Joe and wounding Kiley.

In Hessler's command caravan, an exasperated Conrad confronts the Colonel, calls him a warmonger, and demands a transfer. Hessler transfers him to the fuel battalion.

Meanwhile, Grey's division, the Meuse at their backs, prepare to fight off Hessler's determined effort to capture the fuel depot. In a headlong tank confrontation the Americans employ a gambit to lure the Germans into using up the last of their fuel. The American tanks are savaged, but the strategy works. Weaver, Guffy and a few soldiers kill off Schumacher and his disguised MPs before the arrival of Hessler's tanks. A wounded Kiley then staggers out of hiding and urges the men to burn the depot. Desperate, Hessler makes a last ditch effort to capture the depot. In defense, the Americans flood the road leading to it with gasoline and set it alight with grenades, immolating the German tanks and their crews. Hessler's tank takes a fuel drum rolled directly at it, incinerating him. General Grey arrives in time to see the panzers afire.

With no alternative, the surviving German soldiers abandon their vehicles and begin a long walk back to Germany. Conrad, bringing up the rear, throws aside his weapons, done with the war.

In a future dystopia, Aram Fingal, a programmer working for conglomerate Novicorp, is caught watching ''Casablanca'' at his workstation. To rehabilitate him, the company assigns him mandatory prophylactic rehab, where subjects are "doppeled" into wild animals to experience relaxation. Aram is sent into a baboon and is monitored by controller Apollonia James. Aram begins to enjoy his existence until he is threatened by an elephant shaking the tree he is perched on. He activates an escape clause that is supposed to return his mind to his original body. However, during his doppel preparation, a tour of young students had visited the transfer center and one student switched the routing tag on Aram's body. Due to the tag swap, no one can locate his body. Aram's mind must be kept active by storing it in Novicorp's central computer – the HX368 which controls everything from finances to the weather. His mind can only be maintained in such a way for a limited time before it is destroyed.

Aram's disappearance is reported to a rival corporation. The news is broadcast worldwide, causing Novicorp's share price to crash. Majority shareholders force Novicorp's Chairman to divert resources to keep Aram alive and find his body. Apollonia is assigned to locate and keep him from hacking into Novicorp's mainframe. With Apollonia's help, Aram creates a virtual world where he encounters characters from ''Casablanca'', including a version of Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick. Aram quickly grows bored, eventually plotting to bring down Novicorp's finances without being removed and killed. Apollonia tries to keep him out of trouble, placing herself in opposition to Novicorp's leaders, eventually finding herself falling in love with Aram and develops a conflict of interest.

With Apollonia's help, Aram eventually "interfaces" with the mainframe and defeats his antagonists. He also returns to his body, which has been discovered before undergoing a sex change operation. Finally corporeal and reunited with his accomplice, Aram has taken complete control of the HX368. After ordering bonuses and stocks for every employee, committing Novicorp's Chairman to a month of "compulsory rehab" via doppeling and changing both his and Apollonia's identity to those of Rick and Ilsa from ''Casablanca'', Aram vows to fight against the dystopian government. The film ends with the new couple walking out the door and, now free from Novicorp's oppression, talking about opening a club on the other side of town: Rick's Place.

In 1963 Oklahoma, Charlotte Flax is a neurotic 15-year-old whose carefree single mother, Rachel, relocates Charlotte and her 9-year-old half-sister, Kate, each time she ends a relationship. Rachel's parenting approach - which more resembles friendship than mothering - troubles the anxiety-ridden Charlotte, who is embarrassed by her mother's flamboyant nature.

After ending an affair with her married employer, Rachel and her daughters move to the small town of Eastport, Massachusetts where she also gets a job as a receptionist for a lawyer. Charlotte is ecstatic about their new home's location, as it borders a convent, and she is obsessed with Catholicism, to the annoyance of her irreligious Jewish mother.

Charlotte soon becomes enamored with Joe Poretti, a 26-year-old caretaker of the convent and local school bus driver. Meanwhile, Rachel meets a local shoe store owner, Lou Landsky, and slowly begins a relationship with him. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Charlotte finds Joe ringing the convent bell and consoles him. However, as they begin to kiss she feels filled with sin and flees. After the encounter, she begins fasting to purge her sinful thoughts, eventually passing out from hunger.

Uneducated about sex, Charlotte fears that God will punish her with pregnancy via immaculate conception, and decides to steal her mother's car and run away. She drives all night before stopping at the home of a young family in New Haven, Connecticut, claiming to have suffered car troubles.

The family invites her to have breakfast, but Lou arrives to retrieve Charlotte during the meal, having tracked her after reporting the car stolen. Rachel chastises Charlotte when she returns home, but doesn't reveal why she ran away. The next day, Charlotte makes an appointment with a local obstetrician under the name Joan Arc. The doctor tells Charlotte it isn't possible for her to be pregnant.

At a New Year's Eve costume party, Lou asks Rachel to marry and move in with him, but she declines, reminding him he is still legally married to his wife (who had left him). After the party, discovering her car refuses to start, Rachel is given a ride home by Joe. Upon arriving home, Rachel gives Joe a kiss, wishing him a happy New Year.

Charlotte observes the kiss, becoming enraged, believing her mother is trying to thwart her budding relationship. On New Year's Day, with Rachel out for the day with Lou, Charlotte babysits Kate and she gets drunk. She soon wanders to the convent seeking rocks from the lake. She finds Joe in the bell tower, and leaves Kate unattended by a river. While Charlotte and Joe have sex in the tower, Kate nearly drowns in the river, but the nuns save her.

While Kate recovers, an infuriated Rachel gets into an argument with Charlotte about being irresponsible, and threatens to again move them to another town. The argument ends after Rachel slaps Charlotte in the face, and they subsequently have a calm, heartfelt conversation. Discussing her father, Charlotte realizes he is never coming back. Rachel ultimately agrees to Charlotte's plea to stay in Eastport at least one more year.

Over the following year, Rachel and Lou continue their relationship, while Joe relocates to California to open a plant nursery; he and Charlotte keep in contact via postcards. At school, she has gained a new reputation due to her sexual encounter with Joe, and replaces her Catholicism obsession with Greek mythology. Kate recovered and is swimming again, although the accident left her hearing sometimes "sounding fuzzy".

The film ends with Rachel, Charlotte, and Kate playfully dancing as they set the dinner table for a family meal, something they didn't used to do.

Professor Henry Jarrod is a talented sculptor who runs a wax museum in early 1900s New York City. He creates historical wax figures such as John Wilkes Booth, Joan of Arc, and Marie Antoinette. His business partner, Matthew Burke, wants to end their partnership, frustrated with Jarrod's refusal to add more sensational exhibits to increase profits. Renowned art critic Sidney Wallace is interested in buying Burke out in about three months after financing some excavations in Egypt. Impatient, Burke sets the museum on fire to obtain the insurance money. Jarrod attempts to stop Burke and save his life's work, only to be doused in kerosene and left to die in the fire. Sometime after acquiring the insurance money, Burke is garroted by a disfigured man in a cloak, who stages the murder as an act of suicide, throwing Burke’s body and noose from a nearby fire-escape. Burke’s body later mysteriously disappears from the morgue.

Burke's fiancée, Cathy Gray, is strangled to death by the cloaked figure weeks after Burke's body vanishes from the morgue. Cathy's friend and roommate, Sue Allen, stumbles upon the murderer before he can finish arranging the scene and escapes, running to her friend Scott Andrews' home. That night, the disfigured man steals Cathy's body from the morgue by lowering it out of the window on a length of rope to two accomplices. Wallace meets with Jarrod, who miraculously survived the fire but now uses a wheelchair, and his hands are too damaged to sculpt. Jarrod intends to build a new wax museum with his assistants, the deaf and mute Igor and Leon Averill, conceding to popular taste by including a chamber of horrors. It showcases historical acts of violence such as Anne Boleyn's decapitation, Anne Askew's torture and recent events including William Kemmler's electrocution and Burke's apparent suicide.

Sue attends the museum's opening and is troubled by the strong resemblance that the Joan of Arc figure has to Cathy. Jarrod claims that he used newspaper photos of Cathy to make the sculpture. Jarrod hires Scott as an assistant and says Sue would be a good model for a new Marie Antoinette sculpture. Sue believes Cathy’s body was used for the Joan of Arc sculpture and tells police that the sculpture has exactly one ear pierced, an oddity shared by Cathy, and one which she does not believe would be discernible from a newspaper photo. The police agree to investigate the museum, and recognize Averill from his criminal background. Sue arrives after hours to meet with Scott, whom Jarrod sent on an errand, and pulls off the Joan of Arc figure's brunette wig, exposing Cathy's blonde hair underneath. Sue’s fear is realized that the figure is indeed Cathy's wax-coated body. Jarrod observes her discovery and gets up from his wheelchair, revealing he can walk with a slight limp. Sue strikes him, shattering his wax mask concealing his disfigured face that identifies him as the murderer, and faints in shock. Jarrod heats wax to make her into a Marie Antoinette sculpture. The police, having learned from Averill that most of the wax-sculptures are really the bodies missing from the morgue, arrive at the museum and arrest Igor, who attempts to murder Scott using a guillotine featured in a display before they storm into Jarrod's workshop. Jarrod fights them off single-handedly but is knocked into the vat of hot wax. The police pull away the table Sue is bound to before the wax can spill over her.

16-year-old Scott Andrews runs away from home with his girlfriend, Nikki. His mother Collette visits her ex-boyfriend, lawyer Jack Lawrence, telling him that Scott is really his son and wants him to find the boy: Jack refuses at first, but changes his mind when work keeps him in San Francisco overnight.

Meanwhile, writer Dale Putley is planning suicide when he gets a phone call from Collette, of whom he is another ex, and she tells him the same story.

Both men start their search with Russ, Nikki's father. Dale and Jack get little help from him, but it does lead to them meeting each other. Mistakenly assuming that they each have a different missing son, they think "both boys" are mixed up with Nikki. They decide to team up.

Jack and Dale visit Nikki's mother, Shirley, learning Nikki went on the road to follow rock band Sugar Ray. When she asks to see pictures of their sons, they finally discover Collette has told them both the same story about being Scott's father. They call her, who confesses she doesn't know which is the father, but begs them to find Scott.

The two agree and they head for Sacramento, finding Scott, drunk, lovestruck and dumped by Nikki. They bring him back to their hotel room, and when he wakes the next day, he is not pleased by the news that one of them might be his father and that Nikki is following Sugar Ray. Jack leaves Dale to watch over Scott, but he escapes by pouring coffee on Dale's lap. Dale finds Jack and they head to Reno, to Sugar Ray's next gig.

In Reno, Scott meets up with Nikki and the other groupies. Bumping into two drug dealers that he scammed out of $5,000 to buy a necklace for Nikki, he escapes, only to be accidentally run down by Jack and Dale. Now with a broken arm, Scott demands they leave him alone.

That night, the three finally bond when Scott opens up to Jack and Dale—Nikki is his first love, but his parents disapprove of her, so he ran away. When Scott tells him about the drug dealers, they try to help him. They drive to Nikki's hotel, but when Jack and Dale go inside, the drug dealers spot Scott in the car and plan to kidnap and kill him. Scott escapes in Jack's rental car.

When the two fathers emerge from the hotel, Jack assumes Scott had been lying to them the whole time and quits, deciding to go home. Just then, his wife Carrie appears, following him (and Dale) because she's been confused and concerned over Jack's odd behavior. He tells her the truth about Scott, that he could be the father.

Dale departs while Jack and Carrie argue about Jack's negative feelings for Scott, making her fear how he'll react with his own child. Seeing her point, he heads to the Sugar Ray concert, finding Dale there also looking for Scott. They find him as he confronts Nikki, who breaks up with him. Heartbroken, Scott is suddenly grabbed by the drug dealers, whom Dale and Jack attack, resulting in a huge fight erupting in the concert crowd.

Freed from jail the next day, Jack, Dale, and Scott head home where Collette and his father Bob embrace their son. She tells Scott that neither Jack nor Dale is his dad, but he is touched that his parents wanted him home so badly. Before Jack and Dale go, Scott lies to both, separately and privately, that they're the father. Jack realises Scott lied, but is happy as he now has a new view of having children.

Dale, having borrowed Jack's car to get to the airport, spots a woman having car trouble also on her way there. Discovering Virginia is single and also heading to San Francisco, Dale offers her a lift by car, to Jack's annoyance.

Two years after the events of the first film, Gaylord "Greg" Focker and his fiancée Pam Byrnes decide to introduce their parents to each other. They first fly to Oyster Bay, New York, to pick up Pam's father, retired CIA operative Jack Byrnes, her mother Dina, and Pam's infant nephew, Jack “Little Jack” Banks. Rather than going to the airport as planned, Jack decides to drive the family to Miami to meet Greg's parents in his new RV.

Once Greg, Pam, and Pam’s parents arrive in Miami, they are greeted by Greg's eccentric but fun-loving and amiable father, Bernie Focker, a lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-dad, and Greg's mother, Roz, who is a sex therapist for elderly couples. While Dina bonds with the Fockers, small cracks begin to form between Jack and the Fockers, due to their contrasting personalities. The gathering gets off to a bad start when a chase between the Fockers' dog, Moses, and the Byrneses' cat, Jinx, culminates with Jinx flushing Moses down the RV's toilet, forcing Bernie to destroy it to save Moses. Later, Bernie accidentally injures Jack's back during a game of touch football.

Pam informs Greg that she is pregnant, and the two decide to keep it a secret until they are married. Jack again becomes suspicious of Greg's character when they are introduced to the Fockers' former housekeeper, Isabel Villalobos. Bernie reveals that Greg lost his virginity to Isabel 15 years earlier. Isabel's 15-year-old son Jorge, who has never met his father and bears a striking resemblance to Greg, catches the attention of Jack. Meanwhile, Roz, Bernie and Dina realize Pam is pregnant, but promise not to tell Jack.

Greg is left alone to babysit Little Jack, whom Jack has been raising via the Ferber method. Despite Jack's strict instructions to leave Little Jack to self-soothe, Greg is unable to stand listening to Little Jack's cries and attempts to cheer him up by hugging him and acting humorously, but inadvertently teaches him the word "asshole". Greg answers a brief phone call from Roz, and Little Jack is let out of the playpen by Jinx and he glues his hands to a bottle of rum. Jack resumes his spying on Greg and sends Greg and Jorge's hair samples for a DNA test, while inviting Jorge to Greg and Pam's engagement party in hopes of getting Greg to admit he is Jorge's father. At the engagement party, Jack, who assumes that Greg knows about Jorge and has deliberately been keeping him a secret from Pam, introduces him to Jorge. Later, when Greg denies knowing anything about Jorge, Jack still refuses to believe him and drugs him with a shot of truth serum. While giving a toast, Greg uncontrollably blurts out that Pam is pregnant and that Jorge is his son before immediately losing consciousness.

The next morning, Pam questions Greg about Jorge, and Greg promises that he knew nothing about him before the previous evening. Pam believes him, and is willing to work things out with him. Jack has reached his breaking point and demands that Pam and Dina leave with him. Dina refuses and reveals to everyone that Jack had drugged Greg. Everyone turns against Jack and inform him that they were all aware of Pam's pregnancy. A shocked and hurt Jack leaves with his grandson.

Bernie and Greg pursue Jack, but are tasered and arrested by Officer Vern LeFlore for speeding and refusing to remain in Bernie’s car when pulled over. Meanwhile, Jack receives the results of the DNA test that determines Jorge's father is really a baseball player who also resembles Greg. When Jack sees Bernie and Greg being pulled over, he attempts to defend them, but LeFlore tasers and arrests him as well. In their cell, Greg, Jack, and Bernie are released by Judge Ira, a client of Roz. Before they leave, Greg asks that Jack and Bernie stop their feud. Jack admits that he made a mistake regarding Jorge and reveals his past career in the CIA to Bernie before apologizing for his actions. Greg and Pam are married that weekend by Pam's former fiancé, Kevin, who is now an ordained interfaith minister.

The plot revolves around three central human characters, George Griffin, Roger Coulton, and Alice Lang. Set from 1987 to 2004, the book details the efforts of physicists George and Roger as they work to bring the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) online in Waxahachie, Texas. Alice is a novelist, working on her latest horror work, who becomes involved as she researches material for her book at the SSC. She and George fall in love just as preliminary trial runs of the SSC produce an unexplained phenomenon: a ''Snark,'' to borrow an expression from Lewis Carroll, or an impossible event, in the form of a heavy particle which emerged from the planned head-on collision between two 20 TeV protons inside the SSC.

In addition to violating physical laws such as the conservation of mass, this particle emits pulses of radioactivity, spelling out the numerical prime number sequence of 2-3-5-7-11-13-17-19-23-29-31-37. Therein begins the unraveling of an even greater mystery than the particle itself: a powerful intelligence is behind this event, seeking to communicate with Humankind, which has unwittingly announced itself to the universe through the powerful bursts of energy unleashed with the collisions of particles within the SSC. For a time, this first contact is made by a benevolent species. Another species is also working to make contact—a ''less'' benevolent species, whose intent may ultimately destroy the Earth and perhaps even the fabric of the universe.

The plot does not take place in our timeline but in an alternative history—one in which the Superconducting Super Collider was built in Texas. In reality, the project was cancelled in 1993 and never implemented. In this alternate history, American forces invaded Baghdad and overthrew Saddam Hussein after liberating Kuwait during the Gulf War (1990-1991), leading to George H. W. Bush's re-election in 1992 over Bill Clinton. The sinister significance of all this, and the relation of this alternative history to ours, become clear in the last part of the book.

In the year 2007, a brilliant but twisted military scientist named Dr. James Bent uses a neon military space shuttle to drop his deadly Zone Generators across half of the Earth, thus creating a region called the Spiral Zone due to its shape.

Millions of people are trapped in the dark mists of the Spiral Zone and transformed into "Zoners" with lifeless yellow eyes and strange red patches on their skin. Because they have no will to resist, Dr. James Bent - now known as Overlord - makes them his slave army and controls them from the Chrysler Building in New York City.

His followers are known as the Black Widows: Bandit, Duchess Dire, Razorback, Reaper, Crook, and Raw Meat. They are immune to the mind-altering effects of the Zone because of a special device called the Widow Maker. However, due to prolonged exposure to the Zone, they display the same physical effects to their bodies as normal people caught inside the Zone, which has dark skies and Zone spores growing in many places. Overlord seeks to conquer the world by bringing everyone under control with the Zone Generators. The Zones feed off human energy, which is why Overlord does not kill anyone inside.

With major cities Zoned, the nations of the world put aside their own differences to fight the Black Widows. However, only five soldiers using special suits to protect themselves from the Zone could do it. While easy to destroy, Zone Generators are impossible to capture because of booby traps. Overlord would also drop more generators on remaining military and civilian centers and force the Zone Riders into a standoff.

On April 18, 1942 during World War II, a squadron of B-25 bombers from the launches a lightning raid on Tokyo. The strike stuns the Imperial Japanese Navy and its commander Admiral Yamamoto. With hard evidence of the threat posed by the carriers of the American Pacific Fleet to the Japanese home islands, Yamamoto devises a plan to lure out the American fleet and destroy it once and for all by forcing it to sortie against the invasion of Midway Island.

At Pearl Harbor, Captain Matt Garth is tasked with gauging the progress of decryption efforts at Station HYPO, headed by Commander Joseph Rochefort, which has partially cracked the Japanese Navy's JN-25 code, revealing that a major operation will soon take place at a location the Japanese refer to as "AF". Garth is also asked by his son, naval aviator Ensign Tom Garth, to help free his girlfriend Haruko Sakura, an American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants, who has been interned with her parents, by calling in favors to have the charges against the family dropped. Yamamoto and his staff present their plans for Midway to the commanders who have been chosen to lead the attack, Admirals Nagumo and Yamaguchi of the Japanese carrier force and Admiral Kondo of the invasion force.

After the inconclusive Battle of the Coral Sea, Rochefort uses a simple ruse to confirm that "AF" is Midway. Now knowing the location and the approximate date of the attack, Admiral Nimitz and his staff send the carriers and , augmented by , hastily-repaired after being damaged at Coral Sea, to a point north of Midway and lie in wait for the Japanese fleet. Meanwhile, Matt has been unsuccessful in freeing the Sakuras, infuriating Tom.

The battle begins on June 4 as Nagumo's carrier force launches its air attack on Midway Island. The American base is damaged but the airstrip remains usable, meaning Midway can still launch aircraft. The Japanese fleet is then spotted by scouts; the American carriers launch their planes in response. Meanwhile, Nagumo is shocked to learn of a sighting by a scout plane of the ''Yorktown'', disrupting his plans for a second strike on Midway; he orders that his planes be rapidly re-armed with torpedoes for an attack on the American carrier.

Torpedo bombers from ''Hornet'' are the first American planes to locate the Japanese fleet. They attack without fighter protection and are destroyed by the Japanese Combat Air Patrol. Tom is severely burned when gunfire starts a fire in his cockpit. The Japanese fighters are drawn down to wave-top altitude by the low-flying torpedo planes, leaving them out of position when dive-bombers from ''Enterprise'' and ''Yorktown'' arrive. As the Japanese are preparing to launch their second wave, the American bombers attack and reduce three of the Japanese carriers – , and – to burning wrecks within minutes.

The remaining Japanese carrier immediately launches aircraft. Following the returning American bombers, they soon discover ''Yorktown'' and inflict severe damage. The crew manages to bring the fires under control as a scout plane reports that ''Hiryū'' has been spotted. Below decks, Matt meets Tom and reconciles with him. Due to a shortage of pilots, Matt joins the counterattack against ''Hiryū'' just before its second wave of aircraft strikes. ''Yorktown'' is soon burning and the order is given to abandon ship.

''Hiryū'' is sunk, dealing a fatal blow to the invasion. The American planes return to ''Enterprise'' and ''Hornet'' but Matt, his plane badly damaged, is killed during landing. Yamamoto receives news of the loss of his carrier force. The admiral orders a general withdrawal as he contemplates how he will apologise for his failure to the Emperor.

The film is set during the Battle of Peking (1900) (modern day Beijing).

Starvation, widespread in China, is affecting more than 100 million peasants by the summer of 1900. Approximately a thousand foreigners from various western industrialized countries have exploited their positions inside Peking's legations, seeking control of the weakened nation. The Boxers oppose the westerners and the Christian religion and are planning to drive them out.

The turmoil in China worsens as the Boxer secret societies gain tacit approval from the Dowager Empress Cixi. With 13 of China's 18 provinces forced into territorial concessions by those colonial powers, frustration over foreign encroachment boils over when the Empress encourages the Boxers to attack all foreigners in Peking and the rest of China. When the Empress condones the assassination of the German ambassador and "suggests" that the foreigners leave, a violent siege of Peking's foreign legations district erupts. Peking's foreign embassies are gripped by terror, as the Boxers, supported by Imperial troops, set about killing Christians in an anti-western nationalistic fever.

The head of the US military garrison is US Marine Major Matt Lewis, loosely based on the real Major John Twiggs Myers, an experienced China hand who knows local conditions well. A love interest blossoms between him and Baroness Natasha Ivanova, a Russian aristocrat who, it is revealed, had an affair with a Chinese General, causing her Russian husband to commit suicide. The Russian Imperial Minister, who is Natasha's brother-in-law, has revoked her visa in an attempt to recover a valuable necklace. Although the Baroness tries leaving Peking as the siege begins, she is forced by events to return to Major Lewis and volunteers in the hospital, which is battered by the siege and is running out of supplies. To help the defenders, the Baroness exchanges her very valuable jeweled necklace for medical supplies and food, but she is wounded in the process and later dies.

Lewis leads the small contingent of 400 multinational soldiers and American Marines defending the compound. As the siege worsens, Maj. Lewis forms an alliance with the senior officer at the British Embassy, Sir Arthur Robertson, pending the arrival of a British-led relief force. After hearing that the force has been repulsed by Chinese forces, Maj. Lewis and Sir Arthur succeed in their mission to blow up a sizable Chinese ammunition dump.

As the foreign defenders conserve food and water, while trying to save hungry children, the Empress continues plotting with the Boxers by supplying aid from her Chinese troops. Eventually, a foreign relief force from the Eight-Nation Alliance arrives and puts down the Boxer's rebellion. The troops reach Peking on the 55th day and, following the Battle of Peking, lift the siege of the foreign legations. Foreshadowing the demise of the Qing Dynasty, rulers of China for the previous two and a half centuries, the Dowager Empress Cixi, alone in her throne room, having gambled her empire and lost, declares repeatedly to herself, "The dynasty is finished".

When the soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance have taken control of the city, after routing the Boxers and the remnants of the Imperial Army, Maj. Lewis gathers up his men, having received new orders from his superiors to leave Peking. He stops and circles back to retrieve Teresa, the young, half-Chinese daughter of one of his Marine comrades who was killed during the 55 day siege. Aboard his horse, she and Maj. Lewis leave the city behind, followed by his column of marching Marines.

Danny, now an awkward, underdeveloped 17-year-old, has been sent away by his parents to the all-male St. Albans boarding school in rural New South Wales, Australia, in the hopes he won’t become a delinquent. The year is 1965 and it has been some time since Danny has had any romantic relationship with a girl (his former love, Freya, from ''The Year My Voice Broke'', left him at the end of the first film). Danny is the butt of jokes because of his stutter and long nose (for which he is nicknamed "Bird"). His only friend is Gilbert.

At a school rugby game, he meets and slowly becomes interested in Thandiwe, a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl (Ugandan father and Kenyan-British mother) attending the all-girls Cirencester Ladies’ College across the lake, while her father, a political activist, is lecturing at university in Canberra. They later meet at a debate between the two schools, and covertly during a school dance. She is punished for leaving the dance without permission and is given chores by the prefect, Nicola. Thandiwe is later befriended by Melissa and Janet.

Throughout the course of the school year, they foster a budding romance, despite the overbearing regulations inflicted upon them — specifically racial politics and social conventions (Thandiwe is often regarded by the school authorities as rebellious and overtly sexual). After the performance of the musical, Danny introduces his parents to Thandiwe and her parents. They later decide to return to Uganda in response to the political turmoil there. Soon Thandiwe decides to return too, and lies about her true departure date, in order to spend the night in a motel with Danny. They are discovered, leading to his expulsion. Thandiwe writes to him regularly from Uganda, but then the letters stop coming. One day a letter arrives from Nairobi saying she is finally safe there.

A boy eating lunch in a 1950s-style kitchen plays war with his surrounding toys. A bomb blast outside the window frightens him under the table from where he is rescued and taken to an Amphitheatre, where an invisible audience cheers. An army resembling the Terracotta Army enters; Romans under the command of Titus Andronicus, the general at the center of the play, return victorious from war. They bring back as spoils Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her sons, and Aaron the Moor. Titus sacrifices Tamora's eldest son, Alarbus, so the spirits of his 21 dead sons might be appeased. Tamora eloquently begs for the life of Alarbus, but Titus refuses her plea.

Caesar, the Emperor of Rome, dies. His sons Saturninus and Bassianus squabble over who will succeed him. The Tribune of the People, Marcus Andronicus, announces the people's choice for new emperor is his brother, Titus. He refuses the throne and hands it to the late emperor's eldest son Saturninus, much to the latter's delight. The new emperor states he will take Lavinia, Titus' daughter, as his bride, to honor and elevate the family. She is already betrothed to Saturninus' brother, Bassianus, who steals her away. Titus' surviving sons aid in the couple's run for the Pantheon, where they are to marry. Titus, angry with his sons because in his eyes they're being disloyal to Rome, kills his son Mutius as he defends the escape. The new emperor, Saturninus, dishonors Titus and marries Tamora instead. Tamora persuades the Emperor to feign forgiveness to Bassianus, Titus and his family and postpone punishment to a later day, thereby revealing her intention to avenge herself on all the Andronici.

During a hunting party the next day, Tamora's lover, Aaron the Moor, meets Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius. The two argue over which should take sexual advantage of the newly-wed Lavinia. Aaron easily persuades them to ambush Bassianus and kill him in the presence of Tamora and Lavinia, in order to have their way with her. Lavinia begs Tamora to stop her sons, but Tamora refuses. Chiron and Demetrius throw Bassianus' body in a pit, as Aaron directed them, then take Lavinia away and rape her. To keep her from revealing what she saw and endured, they cut out her tongue as well as her hands, replacing them with tree branches. When Marcus discovers her, he begs her to reveal the identity of her assailants; Lavinia leans towards the camera and opens her bloodied mouth in a silent scream.

Aaron brings Titus' sons Martius and Quintus and frames them for the murder of Bassianus with a forged letter outlining their plan to kill him. Angry, the Emperor arrests them. Later on, Marcus takes Lavinia to her father, who's overcome with grief. He and his remaining son Lucius begged for the lives of Martius and Quintus, but the two are found guilty and are marched off to execution. Aaron enters, and tells Titus, Lucius, and Marcus the emperor will spare the prisoners if one of the three sacrifices a hand. Each demands the right to do so. Titus has Aaron cut off his (Titus's) left hand and take it to the emperor. Aaron's story is revealed to have been false, as a messenger brings Titus the heads of his sons and his own severed hand. In Renaissance semiotics, the hand is a representation of political and personal agency. With his hand chopped off, Titus has truly lost power. Desperate for revenge, Titus orders Lucius to flee Rome and raise an army among their former enemy, the Goths.

Titus' grandson (Lucius' son and the boy from the opening), who helped Titus read to Lavinia, complains she will not leave his books alone. In the book, she indicates to Titus and Marcus the story of Philomela, in which a similarly mute victim "wrote" the name of her wrongdoer. Marcus gives her a stick to hold with her mouth and stumps. She writes the names of her attackers on the ground. Titus vows revenge. Feigning madness, he ties written prayers for justice to arrows and commands his kinsmen to aim them at the sky so they may reach the gods. Understanding the method in Titus' "madness", Marcus directs the arrows to land inside the palace of Saturninus, who is enraged by this added to the fact Lucius is at the gates of Rome with an army of Goths.

Tamora delivers a mixed-race child, fathered by Aaron. To hide his affair from the Emperor, Aaron kills the nurse and flees with the baby. Lucius, marching on Rome with an army of Goths, captures Aaron and threatens to hang the infant. To save the baby, Aaron reveals the entire plot to Lucius, relishing every murder, rape and dismemberment.

Tamora, convinced of Titus' madness, approaches him along with her two sons, dressed as the spirits of Revenge, Murder, and Rape. She tells Titus she (as a supernatural spirit) will grant him revenge if he will convince Lucius to stop attacking Rome. Titus agrees, sending Marcus to invite Lucius to a feast. "Revenge" offers to invite the Emperor and Tamora and is about to leave, but Titus insists "Rape" and "Murder" stay with him. She agrees. When she leaves, Titus' servants bind Chiron and Demetrius. Titus cuts their throats, while Lavinia holds a basin with her stumps to catch their blood. He plans to cook them into a pie for their mother.

The next day, during the feast at his house, Lavinia enters the dining room. Titus asks Saturninus whether a father should kill his daughter if she is raped. When the Emperor agrees, Titus snaps Lavinia's neck, to the horror of the dinner guests, and tells Saturninus what Tamora's sons did. When Saturninus demands Chiron and Demetrius be brought before him, Titus reveals they were in the pie Tamora enjoyed, and kills Tamora. Saturninus kills Titus after which Lucius kills Saturninus to avenge his father's death.

Back in the Roman Arena, Lucius tells his family's story to the people and is proclaimed Emperor. He orders his father Titus and sister Lavinia to be buried in the family monuments, Saturninus be given a proper burial, Tamora's body to be thrown to the wild beasts, and Aaron be buried chest-deep and left to die of thirst and starvation. Aaron is unrepentant to the end. Young Lucius picks up Aaron's child and carries him away into the sunrise.

The Isle of Klaymodo is the resting place of "Bessie", the purple meteor that came crashing out of the sky onto Klaymodo Island. Bessie has the essential ingredient, Bawk Choy, necessary for Dr. Kiln's world-dominating Mutagen. Klaymodo's chief baddies are the devious Dr. Kiln and local voodist Happy Harry Houngan.

With a combination of laboratory experiments and voodoo spells, they've created an "interesting" assortment of hooligans to help them take over the world. These hideous henchmen include Bonker, a clown gone bad, and Ickybod Clay, the wonder from down under. Dr. Kiln is putting on the finishing touches on his top secret mutagen code named "Clayotic Claymorphisis" as Houngan walks through the lab door. When Houngan finds out about Dr. Kiln's secret formula the clay hits the fan. As the fight breaks loose the vial containing the mutagen breaks in Dr. Kiln's hand and begins to take on a life of its own.

The condition begins to spread rapidly and Dr. Kiln has no choice but to amputate his own hand. As the hand hits the floor it scurries out of the lab and into the dense jungle of Klaymodo. Houngan quickly exits the lab in pursuit of the Hand as Dr. Kiln writhes in pain. Meanwhile, as Dr. Kiln deals with his newfound stump, a ship on a 3-hour tour capsizes just off of Rubbage Reef. The ship contains a lively crew of characters, each with their own agendas. There's Bad Mister Frosty®, a one time bad guy who's turned his life around and Kung Pow, a Wok cookery Chef Boy R' Clay. Taffyman and Blob round out the castaways of the SS Manure.

After a terrorist assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Richard Chance and Jimmy Hart are United States Secret Service agents assigned as counterfeiting investigators in its Los Angeles field office. Chance has a reputation for reckless behavior, while Hart is three days away from retirement. Alone, Hart stakes out a warehouse in the desert thought to be a print house of counterfeiter and artist Eric "Rick" Masters. After Masters and Jack, his bodyguard, kill Hart, Chance explains to his new partner, John Vukovich, that he will take Masters down no matter what.

The two agents attempt to get information on Masters by putting one of his criminal associates, attorney Max Waxman, under surveillance. Vukovich falls asleep on watch, and consequently they fail to catch Masters in the act of murdering Waxman who had crossed him. While Vukovich wants to go by the book, Chance becomes increasingly reckless and unethical in his efforts to catch Masters. Chance relies on his sexual-extortion relationship with parolee/informant Ruth for information, while Vukovich meets privately with Masters' associates, including attorney Bob Grimes whom he attempts to turn. Grimes, acknowledging a potential conflict of interest that could ruin his legal practice, agrees to set up a meeting between his client and the two agents posing as doctors from Palm Springs interested in Masters' counterfeiting services. Masters is reluctant to work with them, but ultimately agrees to print them $1 million worth of fake bills.

In turn, Masters demands $30,000 in front money, which is three times the authorized agency limit for buy money. To get the cash, Chance persuades Vukovich to aid him in robbing Thomas Ling, a man whom Ruth previously told Chance is bringing in $50,000 cash to purchase stolen diamonds. Chance and Vukovich intercept Ling at Union Station and seize the cash in an industrial area under Vincent Thomas Bridge. Ling's cover people follow them and while observing the robbery, open fire and accidentally kill Ling. Chance and Vukovich try to evade them through the streets, freeways and even one of the flood control channels, before a final escape by going the wrong way on the freeway. The next day, the end of their daily briefing includes an FBI bulletin that Ling was its undercover agent, kidnapped, robbed and murdered while on a sting operation. Only a generic description of the assailants and their vehicle is given. While Chance and Vukovich did not kill Ling, Vukovich is nonetheless consumed by guilt, while Chance is apathetic and focused solely on getting Masters. Unable to persuade Chance to come clean about their role in Ling's death, Vukovich meets with Grimes, who advises him to turn himself in and testify against Chance in exchange for a lighter sentence. Vukovich refuses to implicate his partner. Chance sets up the buy with Masters, who seems to hint he is aware of the heist.

Chance and Vukovich meet with Masters for the exchange. After inspecting the counterfeit million, the agents attempt to arrest Masters and Jack, but Jack pulls a shotgun. Jack and Chance fatally shoot each other, and Masters escapes. Vukovich gives chase, going to a warehouse a previous informant had told him about. By the time he arrives, Masters has set fire to everything inside, destroying all evidence. Vukovich confronts Masters and during a brief struggle, Masters asks Vukovich why he did not take Grimes' advice to turn his partner in, revealing that Grimes was working on Masters' behalf all along. While Vukovich is stunned at the revelation, Masters grabs a board and knocks him unconscious. Masters then covers Vukovich with shredded paper and is about to set him on fire when Vukovich comes round and shoots Masters. Masters drops his lighter and accidentally sets himself ablaze. Vukovich shoots the burning man, continuing to pull the trigger of his empty gun as Masters burns alive.

Dressed more casually, Vukovich visits Ruth as she packs up to leave L.A. He mentions Chance's death, suggesting she had known all along that Ling was FBI and she had played Chance. He knows Chance left her with the remaining cash, the agency now wants back, but Ruth says she needed it to pay debts. Vukovich declares that Ruth is now working for him, turning into the same "whatever it takes" agent that his partner was, and stopping her efforts to escape her shady life.

The Borges story, credited fictionally as a quotation from "Suárez Miranda, ''Viajes de varones prudentes'', Libro IV, Cap. XLV, Lérida, 1658", imagines an empire where the science of cartography becomes so exact that only a map on the same scale as the empire itself will suffice. "[S]ucceeding Generations... came to judge a map of such Magnitude cumbersome... In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar..."

''Tenchi in Tokyo'' begins when Tenchi Masaki relocates to Tokyo to apprentice at a Shinto shrine. He meets a new love interest, Sakuya Kumashiro, who is a classmate of his at his new school. Much of the series revolves around the development of Tenchi's and Sakuya's relationship and its effect on the girls back in Okayama. Unlike the preceding series in the franchise (Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Universe), neither Tenchi nor his family has any connection to Jurai whatsoever in this series.

In this continuity, the girls meet Tenchi on Earth because of one incident that takes place two years prior to the series. At that time, Ryoko and Washu stole a crystal from Jurai and fled towards Earth, pursued by Ayeka, Sasami, Ryo-Ohki, and the Guardians in Ayeka's ship, and Mihoshi and Kiyone in a Galaxy Police ship. They are all injured when Ryoko consumes Ayeka's crystal and becomes a monster. Tenchi defeats the monster when a necklace he is wearing (a memento of his mother) turns into a sword. During the anniversary party for this event at Tenchi's home, it is revealed that each of the girls has a crystal from the necklace as a token of their bond with Tenchi, which they each took after Ryoko broke Tenchi's necklace apart.

The main antagonist is Yugi, a mutant Juraian who was sealed away on Earth 3500 years ago when she almost destroyed Jurai by its ruler, Empress Hinase. She intends to take over the Earth by turning it into her own kingdom, much as she tried with Jurai. In order for her plans to succeed, she must break the bonds that hold the Masaki family together. Because, in this continuity, the Masakis are defenders of Earth. They perform this function with the power in the crystals, but the crystals need to be in proximity to one another for them to be able to function. Yugi executes her plan partly through her henchmen, such as Hotsuma, who convinces Ryoko to leave Earth with him, but also by forming a genuine friendship with Sasami through one of her projections, also named Yugi. When Yugi's plan comes to fruition, it is revealed that Sakuya, too, is nothing more than another projection of Yugi, designed to scatter the Masaki Family.

Yugi tries to get Tenchi to abandon reality and stay in a pocket universe with Sakuya, but Sakuya herself tells Tenchi to leave. When he does, the crystals summon the girls to him, and Tenchi is able to defeat Yugi. Yugi is then sealed away (at her own request) until she becomes a good person.

In the year 2404, the Federation and the re-assembled crew of ''Voyager'' are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the ship's return to Earth, 23 years after it was stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Kathryn Janeway – now an admiral – reminisces with her crew, but reflects on the high personal costs of the long journey. She launches a plot to undo some of them by intervening at a key point in their history, changing a decision she now regrets. She steals an illegal time travel device and – with the reluctant help of now-Captain Harry Kim – takes a shuttlecraft back to 2378, where she meets up with ''Voyager'', still in the Delta Quadrant. She pulls rank on younger Captain Janeway and orders the ship to return to a nebula filled with Borg that they had passed a few days before. She provides advanced technologies that allow ''Voyager'' to survive the massive Borg defenses, destroy two Borg vessels, and enter a transwarp corridor, which the Borg use for interstellar travel. ''Voyager'' comes upon a Borg transwarp hub, which connects distant parts of the galaxy, and could save the ship from sixteen more years stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

However, ''Captain'' Janeway wants to use Admiral Janeway's future technology to instead destroy the transwarp network; this can only be done from its terminus in the Delta Quadrant. Admiral Janeway explains that 23 additional crew members will die on the remainder of their trip home, including Seven of Nine (whose death will emotionally devastate Chakotay), and that Tuvok will become mentally unstable from a neurological condition that could have been treated in the Alpha Quadrant. Troubled by the choice, Captain Janeway discusses the issue with the crew, who agree that destroying the hub – severely diminishing the Borg threat to the Alpha Quadrant – is more important. The admiral is inspired by their spirit, and works with the captain on a scheme to do both.

The admiral takes her shuttlecraft and enters the transwarp hub, arriving at the Unicomplex – the center of all Borg activity and the home of the Borg Queen.Alice Krige returns to the role of the Borg Queen for the first time since ''Star Trek: First Contact''. The character was portrayed by Susanna Thompson in four previous ''Voyager'' episodes. She pretends to offer a deal in defiance of the captain's plans: her future technologies, in exchange for sending ''Voyager'' safely home. However, the Queen captures the admiral and begins to assimilate her into the Borg collective. Admiral Janeway then turns the tables by unleashing a pathogen she was carrying in her bloodstream into the collective, devastating it and killing the Queen. The Unicomplex suffers a cascade failure and explodes, killing the admiral as well.

Meanwhile, Captain Janeway and ''Voyager'' have entered a transwarp corridor, pursued by a surviving Borg sphere that is trying to destroy ''Voyager'' and crew in a last-chance attempt to create a time-travel paradox that will undo the devastating damage that Admiral Janeway has just done. Unable to fight back against the sphere's defenses, Captain Janeway takes ''Voyager'' inside it, destroying it from the inside just as they emerge from the collapsing transwarp corridor near Earth. They are met by a fleet of Starfleet vessels that had been sent to confront the Borg, which instead escort ''Voyager'' home to Earth.

Joe Dirt, a janitor at a Los Angeles radio station, tells his life story via shock jock Zander Kelly's broadcast.

Joe reveals that as a baby he had a mullet wig installed because the top of his skull had never formed. At age 8, he was left behind by his parents and sister at the Grand Canyon and thus does not know his real surname. After growing up in a series of foster homes, Joe ran away until he arrived in Silvertown, a small town in the Pacific Northwest. There, he met Brandy and her dog, Charlie, and became a target for jealousy from Robby, the town bully.

After Brandy's alcoholic father shoots Charlie dead, Joe decides to try to find his parents. He details his adventures across the country including his friendship with Kickin' Wing, an unsuccessful Native American fireworks salesman. In Indiana, Joe has an encounter with a serial killer named Buffalo Bob, who is parodying the lotion scene from The Silence of the Lambs. This brings him unwanted attention from the media, but helps his search. In Louisiana, he works on Charlene's alligator farm and as a high school janitor with Clem Doore, a former mobster in the Witness Protection Program. Clem rescues students after a mustard gas explosion and informs the media Joe was the hero. This helps Joe discover the address of his old family home and he travels to Baton Rouge only to find that they moved away many years prior.

Listening to Joe's story, both Zander and the radio audience initially find him an object of scorn, but Joe's kindness and optimistic outlook on life win them over.

Eventually, Joe lands the janitorial job at the radio station, where he recounts how he gave up the search and returned to Silvertown to be with Brandy. However, Robby informed him that he and Brandy are getting married and that she found Joe's parents, but instructed him not to tell Joe. Zander calls Brandy to find out why, and she tells Joe his parents were killed the day they were at the Grand Canyon; she pleads with Joe to return to Silvertown. Upset by the news, Joe stays in Los Angeles.

Joe is unaware that he has become a media sensation, but he quickly discovers his newfound fame. An appearance on ''TRL'' results in a phone call from a woman claiming to be Joe's mother. Joe meets his parents and he discovers that they intentionally abandoned him, and that they only reconnected with him in order to boost their sales of clown figurines. Joe storms out, cutting ties with his parents. He intends to commit suicide, but Brandy arrives and finally admits that she lied to him about his parents being dead because she had to protect him from them and their greed after she found out what horrible people they were. Brandy expresses her love and convinces Joe to come home with her but he suffers a head injury after a police officer lassos and accidentally causes him to fall off a bridge.

Joe wakes up in Brandy's house, surrounded by his friends: Kickin' Wing, who reveals that thanks to Joe he now owns 30 successful firework stands, Clem (who is now under the name of Gert B. Frobe) and Charlene (who sold the alligator farm after one of the gators bit off her thumb and middle finger on her left hand), who are now engaged. Brandy reveals that she got Joe a dreadlock wig following his head operation, has retrieved his Hemi, and she has a new dog that Charlie fathered.

As they prepare to take a ride in Joe's Hemi, Robby arrives and tells Joe that no one wants him in Silvertown. Clem threatens Robby and exclaims that they are Joe's family. Robby challenges Joe to a race and Joe leaves him in the dust as Robby's car malfunctions and breaks down. As they drive away, Zander dedicates a song to Joe on the radio.

Set in post-World War II New York City (the first episode is set on New Year's Eve of 1946) the show revolved around author and amateur detective Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton), a bachelor who lives with his widowed father, Inspector Richard Queen (David Wayne). Ellery solves cases while writing his latest book, usually with assistance from his father, and Inspector Queen's right-hand-man, Sergeant Velie (Tom Reese).

Similar to the early Queen books and radio episodes, the audience is challenged to solve the mystery. For the television series, this led to Hutton breaking the fourth wall before the confrontation scene. This gave the viewers a short exposition about the case, and leaving the viewer to put together the clues.

The final act always used the detective cliché of calling together all the suspects, with Ellery Queen presenting the solution (except in one episode when the elder Queen took over). The great detective's detailed exposition allowed audience members to assess how they had guessed right and wrong. In some episodes, Queen's explanation disproved the theory of a rival sleuth.

The series departed from the original stories in two respects. An element of mild humour was added by making the Ellery Queen character slightly physically clumsy, and the character of rival radio detective Simon Brimmer (John Hillerman) was created for the series."Interview with screen writer William Link” from disk 6, Ellery Queen Mysteries, DVD release September 2010.

Stanley Jobson is a cyber-hacker who became notorious for infecting the FBI's Carnivore program with a computer virus. Stanley's parole forbids him from accessing the internet and computers while his ex-wife Melissa, an alcoholic and part-time porn star, has issued a restraining order against him. This also prevents him from seeing his only daughter Holly.

Ginger Knowles persuades Stanley to work for Gabriel Shear, who threatens him into cracking a secure Defense Department server. After the hack, Gabriel offers Stanley $10 million to program a multi-headed worm, a "hydra", to siphon $9.5 billion from government slush funds. Stanley begins work on the worm, learning that Gabriel leads Black Cell, a secret organization created by J. Edgar Hoover to launch retaliatory attacks against terrorists that threaten the United States. He also privately discovers Ginger is a DEA agent working undercover and is further surprised to discover a corpse that resembles Gabriel.

After he goes to see Holly home from school, Stanley discovers that he is being followed by FBI agent J.T. Roberts, who had previously arrested him. Roberts, though monitoring Stanley closely, is more interested in Gabriel as he does not appear on any government database, and after learning that another hacker, Axl Torvalds had been killed by Gabriel's men, warns Stanley to be cautious. Stanley opts to secretly code a backdoor in his hydra that reverses the money transfer after a short period. Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Jim Reisman, who oversees Black Cell, learns the FBI has started tracking Gabriel and orders him to stand down. Gabriel refuses and narrowly defeats a hit team dispatched against him by Reisman. In retaliation, Gabriel personally kills Reisman in revenge and continues his plan.

Stanley delivers the hydra to Gabriel and leaves to see Holly, only to find that Gabriel has kidnapped her and framed him for Melissa's murder alongside her husband and porn producer. Stanley has no choice but to participate in a bank heist to get Holly back. At the site of the heist, Gabriel and his men storm a branch and secure its employees and customers as hostages, fitting each of them with ball-bearing-based explosives similar to Claymore mines. When police and FBI surround the branch, Gabriel takes Stanley to a nearby coffee shop across the street to meet with Roberts, but Gabriel spends the time discussing the film ''Dog Day Afternoon'' and the nature of misdirection. Once back in the bank, Gabriel has one of his men escort a hostage to demonstrate the situation where a sharpshooter kills the man. As other agents pull the hostage away from the bank, the bomb detonates and devastates much of the street, a scene shown ''in medias res''.

Gabriel instructs Stanley to launch the hydra and turns Holly over to him once completed. However, the back door triggers before they can leave the bank, leading to Stanley being recaptured while Holly is rescued. Gabriel threatens to kill Ginger, who he knows is a DEA agent, unless Stanley re-siphons the money back to a Monte Carlo bank. Although Stanley complies, Gabriel shoots Ginger. Gabriel and his men load the hostages onto a bus and demand a plane wait for them at the local airport, but while en route, the bus is lifted off by a S-64 Aircrane and deposited on the roof of a local skyscraper. Gabriel deactivates the bombs and departs with his surviving men on a waiting helicopter, which Stanley shoots down using a rocket-propelled grenade from the bus.

Roberts takes Stanley to verify a corpse they found, believing Gabriel was a Mossad agent. There is no record of a DEA agent named Ginger Knowles, and her body hasn't been found. Stanley recognizes the corpse as the one he discovered earlier and personally realizes that the whole scenario was a deception; Ginger was wearing a bulletproof vest and was working with Gabriel all along, who escaped via a different route. Despite Stanley not telling the police that Gabriel and Ginger are still alive, Roberts arranges for Stanley to have full custody of Holly, where they depart to places elsewhere. In Monte Carlo, Gabriel and Ginger withdraw the stolen money and later watch as a yacht at sea explodes. Over the film's credits, a news report reveals the destruction of the yacht, carrying a known terrorist, as the third such incident in as many weeks.

Jennsen Rahl, Richard Rahl's half sister, has spent the first twenty years of her life running from her father, Darken Rahl. Born without any aspect of the gift of magic, Jennsen has been marked for death since birth. When her mother is apparently murdered by D'Haran assassins, she sets out with her new friend, Sebastian, to start her life over. Sebastian eventually reveals that he is a spy for the Imperial Order. He speaks convincingly of the Order's goals concerning the fair treatment of all humanity and the elimination of magic. Above all else, he esteems Emperor Jagang. In equal measure, he despises Richard Rahl, who he claims has brought on war with an invasion of the Old World after bringing down the Barriers separating the sections of the known world.

Meanwhile, another sibling of Richard's, Oba Rahl, suffers under an abusive mother on the family farm. Oba imagines himself as energetic and the possessor of a healthy curiosity. His inquisitive nature manifests itself especially through pleasure in watching things die under his hand. Oba does not know that he, along with Jennsen, is pristinely ungifted and immune to magic. His mother sends him to a nearby sorceress to buy medicine, and, during the purchase, he begins to menace the magic user. Her attempts to defend herself with magic fail and Oba kills her brutally. During the fight, Oba surrenders to a voice in his mind that promises invincibility in return for obedience. After returning home, Oba kills his mother and resolves to see the world. He can travel comfortably with the funds he looted from the sorceress.

Jennsen wants to find another sorceress, the sister of the one Oba killed, and who had previously helped Jennsen and her mother. Along with Sebastian, she travels to the People's Palace, capital of the D'Haran empire. There she learns that the sorceress she seeks lives in a deadly enchanted swamp. After Sebastian is detained by D'Haran guards, a friendly stranger named Tom helps a desperate Jennsen to the swamp. She safely reaches the sorceress' home, her natural immunity to magic protecting her through the swamp, but only learns that nothing can be done to save her from Lord Rahl. She leaves, disappointed. However, upon returning to the People's Palace, she cleverly rescues Sebastian. He convinces her that she should visit Emperor Jagang, leader of the Imperial Order.

Oba is also aware of the second sorceress and the fact that she knows something concerning his fate or nature. He hires a guide to the swamp, which he safely negotiates as well. The sorceress reveals that Oba is now a thrall to the Keeper of the Underworld and kills herself before Oba can do the deed. This, along with the fact that his guide has stolen all his money, enrages Oba. He is mollified somewhat by the treasure he finds in the sorceresses' cottage, but his rage returns when, after returning to the People's Palace, he spots his guide. After killing the guide, he is briefly jailed but escapes, using the voice in his mind to make the D'Haran guards do his bidding, and resolves to locate Richard Rahl.

Jennsen and Sebastian reach Emperor Jagang at the van of the army of the Imperial Order. Though initially shocked by the crude Order soldiers, she is advised not to be so picky and that the D'Harans are even worse. The day after her arrival, the Emperor Jagang assaults the Confessor's Palace but is bloodily repulsed. Emperor Jagang is severely injured in the action. Even worse for the Order, their enemy unleashes an ancient magic on the main army, wreaking immense destruction. Jennsen reacts by making a pact with a dark force, the Keeper, to kill Richard in return for her surrender and obedience.

Oba captures Kahlan and is ordered by the Keeper to take her, along with the Sword of Truth, to the Pillars of Creation. Using his link to the sword, Richard pursues Oba to the Pillars, where he encounters Jennsen, who has also been drawn to the same spot by the Keeper in order to kill Richard. The Keeper's supreme plan, however, was for Richard to kill Jennsen at the Pillars of Creation and thereby open a gate between the Keeper's realm and the world of the living. Richard discerns the plan and refuses to be goaded into cooperating. Jennsen recognizes his integrity and the Keeper's plan is foiled. She learns that the men who were sent to kill her mother were actually soldiers of the Imperial Order, and after coming to believe that Richard is truly a loving and caring brother, she joins him and Kahlan in their quest against Jagang.

The series took place at Sealab, an underwater research base on the Challenger seamount. Commanded by Captain Michael Murphy, Sealab was home to 250 people, and was dedicated to the exploration of the seas and the protection of marine life. Dr. Paul Williams, a Chinook oceanographer, led the scientific research team.

Among other things, the crew of Sealab faced such challenges as attacks from sharks and giant squids, potential environmental disasters, and threats to Sealab and marine life from shipping.

''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub'' starts with the finding of a diary in the distant future. The introduction dwells on the difficulties of historical research on the fictional 'Neogene Era', "the period of the heyday of the pre-Chaotic culture, which preceded the Great Decomposition". "Great Decomposition" refers to the apocalyptic event of "papyrolysis", decomposition of all paper on the planet in the pre-information-technology era, causing all records and money to turn into dust––the end of the "epoch of papycracy".

The diary, known as the 'Notes of a Man from the Neogene', was found in the lava-filled ruins of Third Pentagon within the territory of the disappeared state of Ammer-Ka. Previously, little was known about the hypothetical 'Last Pentagon'. One researcher suggested that Pentagon was a kind of military brain, the center in charge of maintaining the faith of Cap-i-Taal, dominant in Ammer-Ka in the period of U-S. This was confirmed by the finding of the diary, supposedly of an agent trapped deep within the subterranean bowels of the vast Third Pentagon, although the authenticity and authorship of the document were questioned by some researchers.

The rest of the book is the diary itself. In a Kafkaesque maelstrom of terrifying bureaucratic confusion and utter insanity, the agent attempts to follow his mission directives, conducting on-the-spot investigations: "Verify. Search. Destroy. Incite. Inform. Over and out. On the ''n''th day ''n''th hour sector ''n'' subsector ''n'' rendezvous with N." The narrator inhabits a paranoid dystopia where nothing is as it seems, chaos seems to rule all events, and everyone is deeply suspicious of everyone else.

In the Mediterranean Sea, Italian fishermen rescue an American man adrift with two gunshot wounds in his back. They tend to his wounds and find he has no memory of his identity, but demonstrates advanced combat skills and fluency in several languages. They find a laser projector under the man's hip that gives the number of a safe deposit box in Zürich, and the man decides to go investigate. He goes to the bank to investigate the deposit box where he finds various currencies, passports and IDs, and a handgun. The man takes everything but the gun, and starts using the name on the American passport, Jason Bourne. After Bourne's departure, a bank employee contacts Operation Treadstone, a CIA black ops program. Treadstone's head, Conklin, issues alerts to police to capture Bourne and assigns three agents to kill him: Castel, Manheim, and the Professor. CIA Deputy Director Abbott contacts Conklin about a failed assassination attempt against exiled African dictator Wombosi, and Conklin promises that he will deal with the agent who failed.

Bourne tries evading the Swiss police by using his U.S. passport to enter the American consulate, but is pursued by Marine guards. He escapes before offering $20,000 to Marie Kreutz, a 26-year-old German woman whom he saw at the consulate, to drive him to an address in Paris. Upon reaching the address, they enter an apartment where Bourne contacts a hotel through the phone. He inquires about the names on his passports there, learning that a "John Michael Kane" was registered but died two weeks prior in a car crash. Castel ambushes Bourne and Marie in the apartment, but Bourne gets the upper hand. Instead of allowing himself to be interrogated, Castel throws himself from a window to his death. While searching through Castel's belongings, Marie finds wanted posters of Bourne and herself, and agrees to help him. After the two evade police in Marie's car, they spend the night in a Paris hotel. Meanwhile, Wombosi obsesses over the attempt on his life. Conklin, having anticipated this, planted a body to pose as John Michael Kane in a morgue to appear as the assailant, but Wombosi remains unconvinced and threatens to report the CIA’s actions to the media; the Professor then assassinates Wombosi on Conklin's orders. Bourne, posing as Kane, learns about the failed assassination attempt on Wombosi's yacht, and that the assassin was shot twice in the back during the escape, ultimately realizing that he was responsible for the attempt. He and Marie take refuge at the French countryside home of Marie's friend Eamon and his children. Under pressure from Abbott to handle the matter, Conklin tracks Bourne's location and sends the Professor to kill him. The Professor is mortally wounded by Bourne, and reveals their shared connection to Treadstone before dying. Bourne sends Marie, Eamon, and the children away for their protection, then contacts Conklin via the Professor's phone, and they agree to meet alone in Paris. When Bourne sees Conklin is not alone, he abandons their meeting, but manages to place a tracking device on Conklin's car, leading Bourne to Treadstone's safe house in Paris.

Bourne breaks in and holds Conklin and logistics technician Nicky Parsons at gunpoint. Conklin reveals to Bourne his association with Treadstone and presses him to remember his past. Bourne recalls his attempt to assassinate Wombosi through successive flashbacks: under orders from Treadstone, Bourne infiltrated Wombosi's yacht as Kane and managed to get close enough to assassinate him. However, Bourne was unable to find the nerve to kill Wombosi while his children were present, and instead fled, being shot during his escape. Bourne announces he is resigning from Treadstone and warns Conklin not to follow him. As agents descend on the safe house, Bourne fights his way through. When Conklin leaves the safe house, he encounters Manheim, who kills him under Abbott's orders. Abbott then shuts down Treadstone. Abbott reports to an oversight committee that Treadstone is "decommissioned" before discussion turns to a new project codenamed "Blackbriar". Some time later, Bourne finds Marie renting out scooters to tourists on Mykonos, and the two reunite.

After the House-Boat was hijacked by Captain Kidd at the end of ''A House-Boat on the Styx'', the various members of its club decided that in order to track it down, a detective would have to be called in. So they hired Sherlock Holmes, who, at the time of the book's publication, had indeed been declared dead by his creator.

From her time as a young princess in her early twenties to her death in 1603, ''The Virgin Queen'' explores both the public and private life of Queen Elizabeth I (Anne-Marie Duff). The series focuses on the internal motivation behind 25-year-old Elizabeth's vow of chastity upon her ascension to the throne. As a child, she confides in her friend Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (Tom Hardy), that she wishes to never marry. Her relationship with Dudley, who would later become master of the Queen's horses, spans the four-part series and calls into question the ambiguous nature of their relations. The series features a scene where a dreaming Elizabeth fantasizes about making love to Dudley. When his wife Amy (Emilia Fox) dies under suspicious circumstances, Dudley proposes to the Queen and is rejected. Upon his death, Elizabeth's affections turn to Dudley's step-son Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. However, when he is caught making plans for a coup, she has him executed.

As queen, Elizabeth is meticulous in constructing her public image. Scrutinizing every detail, she micro-manages everything from her appearance to her attitude. Alternately chaste and flirtatious, she nevertheless eschews love in favour of England. History and politics are intertwined throughout the series, from England's defeat of the Spanish Armada to the change from a Catholic to a Protestant nation, Elizabeth uses her power and her court to maintain her will.

During World War II, US Marine corporal Joseph F. "Joe" Enders returns to active duty with the aid of his pharmacist, Rita, having previously survived a gruesome battle on the Solomon Islands against the Imperial Japanese Army that killed his entire squad and left him almost deaf in his left ear. Enders' new assignment is to protect Navajo code talker Pvt. Ben Yahzee, and carries a promotion for Enders to Sergeant in a JASCO. Sgt. Pete "Ox" Henderson also receives a parallel assignment protecting Navajo code talker Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse.

Yazzie and Whitehorse, childhood friends from the Navajo tribe, are trained to send and receive coded messages that direct artillery fire. Enders and Henderson are instructed to kill their code talkers if capture is imminent so that the code cannot fall into enemy hands. As Enders and Henderson meet Yazzie and Whitehorse, it becomes apparent that the two experienced Marines are less than happy to be babysitting their Navajo codetalkers, and the Navajos must also endure racial harassment by some of the white Marines, notably Private Chick. During their missions, however, Henderson and Whitehorse discover a mutual love of music. Enders and Yahzee also discover that they have much in common, notably their Catholic upbringings.

The invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands becomes Yahzee's and Whitehorse's first combat experience. After the beachhead is secured, the Marines come under friendly fire from U.S. artillery. Yazzie's radio is destroyed and the convoy is unable to call off the bombardment. Yahzee suggests that he disguise himself as a Japanese soldier and slip behind enemy lines to commandeer a radio, with Enders as his prisoner. Yahzee is forced to kill for the first time before he can redirect U.S. artillery fire onto the Japanese position. For their bravery, Enders is awarded a Silver Star by the commanding officer, with Yahzee's role almost ignored until Enders points him out.

That night, the Marines camp in the nearby village of Tanapag. While Yahzee is temporarily assigned back to the command post to translate a code, Enders becomes increasingly torn because he cannot imagine killing Yahzee, despite his orders. He demands to be relieved from his unit but his request is denied. The next morning, Japanese soldiers ambush the village. Henderson is killed and Whitehorse is about to be captured. Enders sees Whitehorse being beaten and dragged away by the Japanese. Realizing the Japanese will torture him for the code, Enders throws a grenade at Whitehorse, killing him and his captors.

Yahzee returns to Tanapag and, seeing Whitehorse's body, screams at Enders to explain what happened as the village was thought to be secured. Enders mutters that he killed Whitehorse, but does not reveal that Whitehorse was willing to die to protect the code. Outraged, Yahzee aims his weapon at Enders but cannot bring himself to kill him. Enders confesses that he hated having to kill Whitehorse and that, like Henderson, his mission was to protect the code above all else.

The Marines are mobilized on another mission and are once again ambushed, this time near a deadly minefield on Mount Tapochau, during which many Marines are killed. Enders, Yahzee, Chick, and Cpl. Pappas (the last of the Marines) take cover on a ridge and see Japanese artillery fire from the top of the ridge attacking a Marine convoy below their position. Still enraged over the death of Whitehorse, Yahzee charges the Japanese line, and in doing so, fumbles the radio needed to call in the coordinates for a bombardment. Yahzee and Enders are both shot as they retrieve the radio and call in an airstrike on the Japanese artillery. However, surrounded and knowing the Japanese will capture and torture him for the code as they almost did with Whitehorse, Yahzee entreats Enders to kill him. Enders, determined that no one else will die that day, manages to carry Yahzee to safety. Friendly planes arrive and the Japanese position is successfully destroyed. Yahzee rejoices in their success though Enders, mortally wounded, dies.

Returning to the U.S., Yahzee, his wife, and his son George Washington Yahzee, sit atop Point Mesa in Monument Valley, Arizona, and, wearing the sacred necklaces and other Navajo ceremonial dress, performs the Navajo ritual of paying respects to Enders.

An epilogue states that the Navajo code was crucial to America's success against Japan across the Pacific theater and that, during the war, like all other Native American codes, the Navajo code was never broken.

Teenage Lindsay Weir and her younger brother Sam attend William McKinley High School during the 1980–1981 school year. The show is set in the town of Chippewa, Michigan, a fictional suburb of Detroit (named after Chippewa Valley High School, which series creator Paul Feig attended).

Lindsay joins a group of friends that are referred to as the "freaks" — Daniel Desario, Ken Miller, Nick Andopolis, and Kim Kelly; Sam's friends constitute the "geeks" — Neal Schweiber and Bill Haverchuck. The Weir parents, Harold and Jean, are featured in every episode. Millie Kentner, Lindsay's nerdy and highly religious former best friend, is a recurring character, as is Cindy Sanders, the popular cheerleader on whom Sam has a crush.

Lindsay finds herself attempting to transform her life as an academically proficient student, star "mathlete", and young girl into a rebellious teenager who hangs out with troubled slackers. Her relationships with her new friends, and the friction they cause with her parents and with her own self-image, form one central strand of the show. The other follows Sam and his group of geeky friends as they navigate a different part of the social universe and try to fit in.

The film opens with the United States Army failing to capture the still-intact Oberkassel railway bridge. Lieutenant Hartman (George Segal) is an experienced combat team leader who is becoming weary of the war in Europe. After he is promoted to company commander following the reckless death of the previous officer, Hartman is ordered to advance to the Rhine River at Remagen, where he is promised a rest for his men. At the same time, Major Paul Kreuger (Robert Vaughn) of the German Army is assigned to destroy the Remagen bridge by his friend and superior, Colonel General von Brock (Peter van Eyck), who has been given a written order to do it immediately. The general appeals to Kreuger's sense of honor, giving him a verbal command to defend the bridge for as long as possible, to allow the German 15th Army, trapped on the west bank of the river, to escape.

After capturing the undefended town of Meckenheim, 12 miles (20 km) from Remagen, Hartman is ordered by his battalion commander, Major Barnes (Bradford Dillman), to continue the advance until encountering resistance. Kreuger tours the defenses above the town of Remagen and assures the local contingent of defending German troops, many of whom are older men and boys, that the tank reserves personally guaranteed by the general are on the way. When Hartman's troops attack the town, Kreuger discovers that von Brock made an empty promise to him; he calls the general's headquarters for the promised tanks and is told they have been sent "elsewhere". On finding the bridge intact, General Shinner (E. G. Marshall) orders Major Barnes to secure its capture, saying: "It's a crap shoot, Major. We're risking 100 men, but you may save 10,000." Barnes agrees to commit Hartman's company and orders them to assault the German defenses on the bridge to gain a foothold across the Rhine. By doing so, the U.S. Army would avoid a more costly river crossing elsewhere. Sergeant Angelo (Ben Gazzara), one of Hartman's squad leaders, strikes Barnes after the major threatens Hartman.

As the U.S. soldiers rush the bridge, Kreuger, along with explosives engineer Captain Baumann (Joachim Hansen) and Captain Schmidt (Hans Christian Blech) from the Remagen Bridge Security Command, try to blow up the bridge, but the explosives they use prove to be not the high-yield military grade charges needed for the job, but weaker, industrial explosives, which fail to destroy the structure. Hartman's troops dig in to consolidate their position on the bridge.

Kreuger shoots two soldiers as they try to desert. Realizing the futility of the situation, Kreuger returns to headquarters to make a personal appeal to the general for more reinforcements, but on arrival finds the HQ building seized by the SS. Von Brock has been arrested by the S.S. for "defeatism." Kreuger is questioned by them about the delay in destroying the bridge and is also arrested.

At Remagen, Hartman leads a raid against a machine-gun nest installed by Kreuger on board a barge moored to the bridge, but while killing its crew, Angelo is hit and falls into the river. Hartman marches on foot towards the bridge defenders' post at the same time as a squadron of M24 Chaffee light tanks crosses the bridge. The remaining German soldiers surrender to the U.S. troops. In the aftermath of the battle, Hartman discovers Angelo alive. The next day, Kreuger is led out for execution by an SS firing squad. With the sound of airplanes overhead, Kreuger asks: "Ours or theirs?". The attending SS officer replies, "Enemy planes, sir!" "But who is the enemy?" muses Kreuger before he is shot.

A screen message (or chyron) informs the viewer that the actual bridge collapsed into the Rhine 10 days after its capture.

The title character is '''Pollyanna Whittier''', an eleven-year-old orphan who goes to live in the fictional town of Beldingsville, Vermont, with her wealthy but stern and cold spinster Aunt Polly Harrington, who does not want to take in Pollyanna but feels it is her duty to her late sister Jennifer. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic and positive attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how bleak it may be. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because she did not need to use them.

With this philosophy, and her own sunny personality and sincere, sympathetic soul, Pollyanna brings so much gladness to her aunt's dispirited New England town that she transforms it into a pleasant place to live. The Glad Game shields her from her aunt's stern attitude: when Aunt Polly puts her in a stuffy attic room without carpets or pictures, she exults at the beautiful view from the high window; when she tries to "punish" her niece for being late to dinner by sentencing her to a meal of bread and milk in the kitchen with the servant Nancy, Pollyanna thanks her rapturously because she likes bread and milk, and she likes Nancy.

Soon Pollyanna teaches some of Beldingsville's most troubled inhabitants to "play the game" as well, from Mrs. Snow, a querulous invalid, to Mr. Pendleton, a miserly bachelor who lives all alone in a cluttered mansion. Aunt Polly, too—finding herself helpless before Pollyanna's buoyant refusal to be downcast—gradually begins to thaw, although she resists the Glad Game longer than anyone else.

Eventually, however, even Pollyanna's robust optimism is put to the test when she is struck by a car and loses the use of her legs. At first, she does not realize the seriousness of her situation, but her spirits plummet when she is told what happened to her. After that, she lies in bed, unable to find anything to be glad about. Then the townspeople begin calling at Aunt Polly's house, eager to let Pollyanna know how much her encouragement has improved their lives; and Pollyanna decides she can still be glad that she at least has had her legs. The novel ends with Aunt Polly marrying her former lover Dr. Chilton and Pollyanna being sent to a hospital where she learns to walk again and is able to appreciate the use of her legs far more as a result of being temporarily disabled and unable to walk well.

Self-made multimillionaire F. Ross Johnson, CEO of RJR Nabisco, decides to take the tobacco and food conglomerate company private in 1988 after receiving advance news of the likely market failure of the company's smokeless cigarette called Premier, the development of which had been intended to finally boost the company's stock price.

The free-spending Johnson's bid for the company is opposed by two of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout, Henry Kravis and his cousin. Kravis feels betrayed when, after Johnson initially discusses doing the LBO with Kravis, he takes the potentially enormous deal to another firm, the Shearson Lehman Hutton division of American Express.

Other bidders emerge, including Ted Forstmann and his company, Forstmann Little, after Kravis and Johnson are unable to reconcile their differences. The bidding goes to unprecedented heights, and when executive Charles Hugel becomes aware of how much Johnson stands to profit in a transaction that will put thousands of Nabisco employees out of work, he quips, "Now I know what the 'F' in F. Ross Johnson stands for." The greed is so evident, Kravis's final bid is declared the winner, even though Johnson's was higher.

The title of the book and movie comes from a statement by Forstmann in which he calls Kravis' money "phoney junk bond crap" and how he and his brother are "real people with real money," and that to stop raiders like Kravis: "We need to push the barbarians back from the city gates."

Pee-wee Herman dreams of being a famous singer. He awakens and goes to work on his farm with Vance the pig. Later, he has lunch with his fiancée, school teacher Winnie Johnson. Next, he races Vance to a general store owned by Mr. Ryan to order a sandwich. There, the local Sheriff warns everyone of a large storm approaching town.

After the storm ends, Pee-wee emerges from his storm shelter to discover that an entire traveling circus has been blown into his backyard. Befriended by Cabrini Circus ringmaster Mace Montana, Pee-wee hopes to impress Gina Piccolapupula, a trapeze artist and the circus' star attraction, thereby incurring the jealousy of his relationship with Winnie until she meets Gina's older brothers, the Piccolapupula Brothers. Gina leaves Pee-wee when she finds out about Winnie, but later returns to him when she realizes that Pee-wee actually loves her after calling off his engagement with Winnie.

Pee-wee wants to join the circus, but his attempts fail. Gina then tells Pee-wee about her deceased father Papa Piccolapupula who was a famous aerialist who suffered a fall performing the Spiral of Death. Gina states that Pee-wee should try walking the tightrope in his honor. Mace comes up with a brilliant idea: to stage a three-ring spectacular saluting the American Farm. However, most of the town's residents are elderly people who have been demanding the circus leave town.

The Sheriff and Mr. Ryan lead the elderly townspeople as the Sheriff attempts to arrest Pee-wee. The Sheriff promises to dismiss the charges if the circus leaves town. While the circus is packing, Mace tells Pee-wee they will do the circus elsewhere to prevent Pee-wee from being charged. Pee-wee saves the day when he sneaks modified cocktail weenies from his hot dog tree to the townspeople, causing them to become children once again.

Without any memories of what happened, the children attend Mace's circus and watch Pee-wee perform.

The show was presented by Bosco (born 25 August), a small red-haired puppet, supposedly a five-year-old child with bright red cheeks and a really squeaky voice. Bosco and the other presenters usually spoke English, but to help young children learn Irish Bosco often peppered English speech with Irish phrases, much like the way Dora the Explorer often speaks Spanish. Bosco lived in a brightly painted wooden box (hence the name, ''bosca'' being Irish for "box"), only ever wandering far from it to go on excursions to such places as Dublin Zoo or the HB Ice Cream factory. The show also had a number of other segments.

There are various short animations, usually stop-motion, as part of the show. The ''Plonsters'' were plasticine critters, which are continually engaged in fights or schemes against each other. Faherty's Garden, created by David Byrne, starred the eponymous ''Faherty'' a dog, plagued by an amateur crow magician (Cornelius, who would often turn purple, much to his distress) in a series of shorts featuring stop-motion models. ''Freddy the Fox'' features a host of characters each with distinctive traits, such as ''Fiachra the Frog'', ''Gregory Grainog'' and ''Sile Seilide''. There was also a cartoon featuring a rather strange potato family, ''The McSpuds'', that live in a supermarket (Savers) owned by Mr McGinty. At night, the potato children, Sheila and Seamus, run amok. The ''Tongue Twister Twins'' were also regularly featured. These animations were created by Jim Quin from Thurles, County Tipperary.

The show featured arts and crafts segments which were called ''make and do'', in the style of the BBC's children's programme ''Blue Peter''. Another prominent part of the show was story-time and each show featured a song.

The short novel begins with a prologue about a violent pimp named Scarlet Creeper. The main part of the book is structured as two novellas. The first is centered on Mary Love, a young librarian, who is fascinated by the diverse cultures of Harlem in which she lives, as well as its different hierarchies, and wants to belong but is unsure of her place in it. She briefly has a relationship with a writer named Byron Kasson and they have extended conversations on literature and art. The second novella is Byron's story. He greatly resents the segregated nature of New York. After his relationship with Mary, he takes up with a debauched socialite as they explore the wild-side of Harlem. The socialite dumps him adding to his earlier negative views on the society in which they live. The novel ends with a violent confrontation involving Scarlet and Byron; while Scarlet is at fault, Byron faces punishment for it.

Porterhouse is a college which had an incident involving a bedder and the college's only research graduate student which caused the Bull Tower to be severely damaged. Since the college's funds were exhausted by a previous bursar with a tendency to gamble, one of the story's central themes is guided by the Senior Members' attempts to acquire funds for the college.

The new Master, Skullion, the previous Head Porter of the college, is frail after a stroke (or a '' 'Porterhouse Blue' '', hence the previous book's title) and the issues surrounding the death of the previous Master, Sir Godber Evans, prompt his widow to instigate a plan to investigate the death through a planted Fellow, backed by a large, anonymous donation to the college.

Meanwhile, the Dean of the college takes it upon himself to visit prosperous Old Porterthusians (previous members of Porterhouse) in the hope that one is willing and able to become Master if and when Skullion cannot continue. At the same time, the current Bursar is contacted by an American media mogul who seems to be interested in supporting the college without clarifying what it is he wants in return. At the end of the novel the alcoholic Lord Jeremy Pimpole is appointed as Master of the college.

Incidents from ''Ancestral Vices'', another Tom Sharpe novel, are mentioned in crossover.

Billy Jack is a "mixed-race" Navajo, a Green Beret Vietnam War veteran, and a hapkido master.

Jack defends the hippie-themed Freedom School (inspired by Prescott College) and students from townspeople who do not understand or like the counterculture students. The school is organized by its director, Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor). One of the troubled youths is a girl named Barbara, who became pregnant and was abused by her father.

A group of children of various races from the school go to town for ice cream and are refused service and then abused and humiliated by Bernard Posner (David Roya), the son of the county's corrupt political boss (Bert Freed), and his gang. This prompts a violent outburst by Billy. Billy goes through a Navajo initiation where he gets bitten purposely by a deadly rattlesnake, so that he would become the blood brother to the snake, which he does survive. Meanwhile, Barbara loses her unborn child, when the horse she was riding stumbles on a rock, causing her to fall off the horse. Following an incident involving Jean, Billy gives Bernard a choice of either receiving a dislocated elbow, or driving his Corvette into the lake; Bernard does the latter. Later, Jean is raped by Bernard, who also murders a Native American student. Billy confronts Bernard, whom he catches in bed with a 13-year-old girl, and sustains a gunshot wound before killing him with a hand strike to the throat. After a climactic shootout with the police and pleading from Jean, Billy Jack surrenders to the authorities in exchange for a decade-long guarantee that the school will be allowed to continue to run with Jean as its head. As Billy is driven away in handcuffs, a large crowd of supporters raise their fists as a show of defiance and support.

High school student Sam Collins, the head of a band known as Team Samurai, is zapped during a recording session by a power surge and disappears, only to return seconds later with a strange device attached to his wrist which, at the time, is unremovable. Later after his friends, Amp, Sydney, and Tanker, leave, one of his video game programs, dubbed ''Servo,'' is subject to a power surge and zaps Sam again just after he has remarked "Cool battle armor!" - this time he is pulled into the digital world and transformed into his creation. As Servo, he roams the digital world and fights monsters dubbed ''Mega-Viruses'' which are capable of attacking any device on the electrical grid (including the grid itself), Internet or telephone network, usually having real-life consequences far beyond what any standard computer virus would be capable of achieving.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Frink, another student from Sam's school, is designing monsters on his home computer when Kilokahn, an escaped military artificial-intelligence program that was presumed destroyed in the power surge, visits him via his computer screen and strikes a Faustian deal with him, transforming his digital monster into a Mega-Virus.

Sam, now as Servo, must enter the digital world and stop Malcolm's and Kilokahn's Mega-Viruses. Sometimes, when Servo is unable to handle a virus by himself, he would enlist the help of his friends using his Arsenal Programs which could fight the viruses solo, transform, with the help of other Programs, and attach to Servo as armor. Since Team Samurai consists of only three people at any one time following Sam's disappearance, only three vehicles are available for use at any one time. When Servo combines with these Programs as armor, he changes his name to either ''Phormo'' once combined with Drago or ''Synchro'' once combined with Zenon.

Set in a fictional German town named Lebensbaum (The Tree of Life), ''Shadow of Memories'' revolves around a 22-year-old man named Eike Kusch, who dies in the beginning of the game from being stabbed after leaving a small diner. However, he is resurrected by Homunculus (voiced by Charles Martinet in the first English dub), a djinn or genie, who offers to send him back in time to prevent his death and gives him the time-traveling digipad. Eike explores four eras—2001, 1979/1980, 1902 and 1580 to 1584 — as he attempts to unmask his killer and figure out a way of stopping his own murder at various points in the present. Along the way he encounters several characters: Dana, a modern-day waitress whom he accidentally brings back to the year 1580 and loses; the present-day fortune teller, who tells Eike the hour of his death; Eckart Brum, the curator of a private art museum who lost his wife and infant daughter in a shooting; Dr. Wolfgang Wagner, an alchemist living in 1580 with his wife, Helena, and their two children, Hugo and Margarete; and Alfred Brum, the great-grandfather of Eckart.

Given a red stone by Dana, Eike follows the Homunculus' instructions to give the stone to Wagner. Time-traveling ten days later, Eike discovers that the result of Wagner's experiment destroyed the lab and caused Hugo, already upset by his mother's death due to a lingering illness, to build a time machine and track Eike down with the intent of killing him. Depending on the player's actions, Hugo holds either Margarete or Dana hostage in the present and plans to use the red stone, revealed to be the Philosopher's Stone, to resurrect his mother.

Endings

''Shadow of Memories'' contains eight endings to the plot, with six available at first, the last two being unlocked by achieving the first six. In the first six endings, Eike discovers that Homunculus was using him to ensure that he would be "created" (actually unsealed) by Wagner and returns the digipad to him, with the fifth timeline/ending revealing that Wagner is actually a rejuvenated Eike who was cursed with both immortality and amnesia by the very Homunculus in retaliation for being resealed back into the stone. The last two endings (EX Endings) have Eike retaining all of his memories from the previous timelines, obtained the Philosopher's Stone from the diner much earlier and either gives Dr. Wagner the stone to successfully cure Helena or throwing it at the Homunculus, erasing him from existence upon contact. Both resulted in Eike disappearing, with the final scene showing a possible descendant or reincarnation of Eike in present-day walking through the streets like in the beginning of the game, with the difference that rather than being stabbed, he was hit by a soccer ball unharmed, and returns the ball to a boy who may either be Hugo's descendant or reincarnation.

Euripides's play follows the fates of the women of Troy after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, and their remaining families taken away as slaves. However, it begins first with the gods Athena and Poseidon discussing ways to punish the Greek armies because they condoned that Ajax the Lesser raped Cassandra, the eldest daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, after dragging her from a statue of Athena. What follows shows how much the Trojan women have suffered as their grief is compounded when the Greeks dole out additional deaths and divide their shares of women.

The Greek herald Talthybius arrives to tell the dethroned queen Hecuba what will befall her and her children. Hecuba will be taken away to the Greek general Odysseus, and Cassandra is destined to become the conquering general Agamemnon's concubine.

Cassandra, who can see the future, is morbidly delighted by this news: she sees that when they arrive in Argos, her new master's embittered wife Clytemnestra will kill both her and her new master. She sings a wedding song for herself and Agamemnon that describes their bloody deaths. However, Cassandra is also cursed so that her visions of the future are never believed, and she is carried off.

The widowed princess Andromache arrives and Hecuba learns from her that her youngest daughter, Polyxena, has been killed as a sacrifice at the tomb of the Greek warrior Achilles.

Andromache's lot is to be the concubine of Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and more horrible news for the royal family is yet to come: Talthybius reluctantly informs her that her baby son, Astyanax, has been condemned to die. The Greek leaders are afraid that the boy will grow up to avenge his father Hector, and rather than take this chance, they plan to throw him off from the battlements of Troy to his death.

Helen is supposed to suffer greatly as well: Menelaus arrives to take her back to Greece with him where a death sentence awaits her. Helen begs and tries to seduce her husband into sparing her life. Menelaus remains resolved to kill her, but the audience watching the play knows that he will let her live and take her back. At the end of the play it is revealed that she is still alive; moreover, the audience knows from Telemachus' visit to Sparta in Homer's ''Odyssey'' that Menelaus continued to live with Helen as his wife after the Trojan War.

In the end, Talthybius returns, carrying with him the body of little Astyanax on Hector's shield. Andromache's wish had been to bury her child herself, performing the proper rituals according to Trojan ways, but her ship had already departed. Talthybius gives the corpse to Hecuba, who prepares the body of her grandson for burial before they are finally taken off with Odysseus.

Throughout the play, many of the Trojan women lament the loss of the land that reared them. Hecuba in particular lets it be known that Troy had been her home for her entire life, only to see herself as an old grandmother watching the burning of Troy, the death of her husband, her children, and her grandchildren before she will be taken as a slave to Odysseus.

Molly and Allan Sheridan leave their two children in the care of a new nanny, Diana Julian. Diana, who is in fact an ancient Hamadryad, kidnaps their infant daughter, taking her to a forest where she approaches a giant, gnarled tree, serving the child as a human sacrifice to sustain the tree's life. Diana's reflection as she stares into a pool of water transforms to that of a growling wolf.

Three months later, Phil and Kate Sterling have recently relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles, where Phil has taken a lucrative advertising job. Kate becomes pregnant, and gives birth to a son, Jake. The couple decide to hire a nanny to allow each of them to maintain their jobs, and interview two clients through a nanny agency: a young woman named Arlene, and a caring English woman, Camilla. When Arlene dies in a bicycling accident, Camilla is swiftly hired and becomes an invaluable member of the Sterlings' household.

One afternoon while Camilla rests in a meadow with Jake, she is approached by three aggressive bikers who attempt to sexually assault her. She flees to the base of the gnarled tree, which subsequently comes to life, its branches strangling and eviscerating the men. Wolves consume one of their entrails, and another is impaled by the tree's root and then bursts into flame. During a dinner party some days later, Ned, the Sterlings' neighbor who designed their home, invites Camilla on a date, which she declines. That night, Phil has a nightmare in which he has sex with Camilla. The next day, moments after Camilla leaves to go shopping, Ned stops by the house with a bouquet of flowers for her. Kate explains she just left on foot, and Ned drives after her, catching sight of her fleeing into the forest. Ned pursues her, eventually coming across her bathing in the creek. He watches as Camilla approaches the large tree, and begins to fuse with the tree bark. A pack of wolves pursue Ned, who flees back to his house. He leaves a rambling phone message for Phil and Kate. Moments later, Camilla appears, naked and ashen, on the hearth, before the wolves break into the home, eating him alive. Camilla drags his remains away.

When checking the answering machine the following morning, Phil finds two messages: One from a stranger, Molly Sheridan, who says it is urgent she speak with him. The next is Ned's, which is incoherent, but Camilla interrupts him from finishing listening to it. Phil meets with Molly the next day. She describes the disappearance of her infant daughter, as well as the nanny Diana, whom she came to discover was a false identity. She requests that Phil arrange for her to see Camilla, suspecting they are the same person. When Phil returns home, he listens to Ned's message in full, which warns him against letting Camilla back in the house. Discovering Ned is missing, Phil confronts Camilla in front of Kate, but Jake grows violently ill during the confrontation and has to be rushed to the hospital, exhibiting coma-like symptoms.

Jake regains consciousness in the hospital, and Camilla attempts to kidnap him, but Phil intercepts, throwing Camilla to the ground. Phil and Kate depart with Jake, and upon arriving home are confronted by a pack of wolves. Kate flees to the couple's Jeep, while Phil runs toward the woods with Jake, as Camilla pursues them both, levitating through the forest, until they reach the large tree. Kate chases after them in the Jeep, eventually hitting and killing Camilla. As Phil examines Camilla's body, he notices faces of babies embossed in the tree bark.

Later, a detective tells the couple no evidence of Camilla's existence can be found. Phil decides to cut down the tree with a chainsaw, but in his absence, Kate is attacked by Camilla—now part-tree, part-human—who has again infiltrated the house. As Phil attempts to cut the tree, the branches entangle him and begin to bleed as he inflicts damage on them. The damage concurrently impacts Camilla, who is fighting Kate. When Phil saws off a large branch, Camilla's leg severs from her body, allowing Kate to push her out a window. Simultaneously, Phil manages to fell the tree, but it combusts before landing, as Camilla's body similarly disintegrates before hitting the ground. A bloodied Phil drops the chainsaw and returns home as Kate picks up Jake. Seeing the mess in the house, Phil realizes what happened as he is reunited with his wife and son now knowing with Camilla finally died, his family is now safe.

Simon, a fourteen-year-old kitchen boy and servant in the great castle Hayholt, muddles his way through the daily routines of castle drudgery in the last days of the long reign of King John Presbyter. Simon is thrilled when luck turns his way and he finds himself apprenticed to the good Doctor Morgenes, the castle's healer and wizard, after which Simon alternates his time between his menial chores and learning to read and write, under instruction by the doctor. Shortly after the death of the great King John, his son Elias, whom many say is a pawn of the evil cleric Pryrates, takes the throne. Shortly afterwards, King Elias's brother Josua mysteriously disappears, and the new reign begins to curdle in suspicion and discontent. Elias, blinded by his desire for power, creates a pact with the undead Sithi ruler, the Storm King, who himself seeks to regain his lost realm through a pact with one of human royal blood.

When Simon accidentally stumbles into the castle dungeons, he discovers that Prince Josua is being held captive, so he and Morgenes conspire to rescue the prince. Simon and Morgenes are successful, and Josua is able to flee the castle. Soon after, Elias's soldiers, led by Pryrates, storm Morgenes's office. Morgenes is slain by a dark magic, and Simon is able to flee the castle through a secret passage at the back of the doctor's office. Armed only with his mentor's biography of the good King John, Simon is lost and despondent.

After endless hours in the tunnels beneath Hayholt, which is actually the remains of the Sithi castle, Asu'a, Simon stumbles back into the open beyond the castle and town. There, he accidentally witnesses a scene of evil magic involving the king, Pryrates and a few white-faced and white-haired demons. Horrified, he stumbles through the woods on the road north towards Naglimund, the seat of Prince Josua. About halfway to Naglimund, he stumbles upon a strange creature, caught in a cotsman's trap. Simon realizes it must be one of the Sithi, an elven-like folk who was thought to have disappeared from the lands. He rescues him from the trap and in answer is shot at with a white arrow. At that moment, he encounters a troll by the name of Binabik. Binabik tells Simon that the white arrow is a symbol of an obligation towards Simon, and together they travel further towards Naglimund.

While traveling through the Aldheorte forest, they save a young servant girl and her sister from vicious hounds. They travel to Geloë, a witch who helps them escape the soldiers pursuing them. While in her house, Simon, Binabik and Geloë also walk the Dreamroad to try to find answers but only find enemies waiting. They finally reach Naglimund, where they meet with Prince Josua. Simon begins training to be a soldier, as it is common knowledge that Elias is leading an army towards Naglimund. Whilst having a raed [council], an old man appears: Jarnauga. There, the travelers learn of the existence of three legendary swords by the names of Minneyar (or "Year of Memory"), Sorrow, and Thorn. The magic of these swords is the only hope against the combined power of the two High Kings, the ancient Sithi and the new-crowned human, who already have possession of at least one of the swords. They also learn the history of the Sithi and the Storm King, and of the existence of Utuk'u, Queen of the Norns, who are the northern cousins of the Sithi. It is then that Simon realizes that his vision of the dark magic just after his escape from Hayhold was no vision at all but an actual event, and that the white-faced demons were actually Norns. In Naglimund, Simon also learns of a small group of scholars known as the League of the Scroll, of which Morgenes was a member and of which Jarnauga and Binabik are also members. Binabik is only a recent member, after the death of his master Ookequk. Recognizing the true danger facing the land of Osten Ard, only the League holds the knowledge of times past, which may be the only hope of salvation for young Simon and his friends. To Simon's dismay he also finds out that Marya the serving girl whom they saved is actually Miriamele, only child and daughter of King Elias, who had fled her father's madness to join her uncle's cause.

They learn then that the black sword Thorn, once belonging to Camaris the greatest knight of history, is not lost in the depths of the sea, as once thought. It may still exist in the frozen heights to the north, near Binabik's ancestral home.

Simon and Binabik join a group of soldiers to go to the far north to recover the magical blade. Along the way they run into Sithi and the one that Simon saved turns out to be the son of the ruling House named Jiriki. Together with An'nai, one of his kinsmen, the Sitha prince joins their quest to the north and helps them survive several dangers. Eventually, Simon and his small company reach the icy mountains which are home to the powerful sword. Simon discovers the blade but shortly afterwards the troupe is attacked by a fierce iceworm, Igjarjuk. Simon, despite his fears, bravely tries to fight it off, suffering a wound in the process.

As the novel progresses, the narrative widens, giving the reader secondary viewpoints besides those of Simon. Some of the side stories, which have great importance nonetheless, include those of Isgrimnur, Duke of Rimmersgard; Maegwin, the daughter of the Hernystiri client king; and Tiamak, a scribe in the marshes of the distant South.

Miriamele, the king's daughter, fled to her uncle in Naglimund. His protectiveness of her frustrates her however, so she flees Naglimund before its fall towards her kin in Nabban, intending to win their allegiance. A drunken monk named Cadrach travels with her; he has many secrets and a mysterious past. Isgrimmnur is sent after Miriamele to ensure her safety and return her to Josua.

In Hernystir, the king and his son are slain and their people driven into hiding in the mountains. There, Count Eolair attempts to assist Maegwin the king's daughter but she is sinking into madness while trying to find a way to save her people.

The book ends with the fall of Naglimund: after King Elias accepted the Storm King's terms and bargain, a host of Norns, giants, and undead servants of the Storm King arrive and utterly destroy the castle. Josua escapes with only 11 other people, amongst them Deornoth, his sworn sword, and Gutrun and Isorn, wife and son of Isgrimmnur. Simon opens his eyes after the dragon to find his face bearing a long burn scar and a swath of hair turned white.

''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' takes place on the fictional continent of Osten Ard, home to several united races, including humans, elf-like immortals known as Sithi, and dwarf-like mountain-dwellers named Qanuc. Most of these races have been living in relative unity for decades, thanks to King John the Presbyter (also known as Prester John), who is known to have slain a dragon. The first novel opens when Prester John's health in his advanced age is failing and his sons, Elias and Josua, quarrel over who will ascend to the throne. Meanwhile, a dark secret held by Prester John, and the ambitions of a priest named Pryrates, threaten the stability of the continent. Williams used several characters, both villain and protagonist, as point of view characters throughout the scope of the novels.

The series primarily follows Simon, a lowly kitchen scullion in Hayholt Castle, as he undergoes tutelage from Doctor Morgenes and is cared for by Rachel "the Dragon", the matriarch of the castle's kitchen and chambermaids. As King John passes, Elias takes the throne, with the mysterious priest Pryrates as his advisor; Josua mysteriously disappears, and the seasons begin changing, bringing bitter winters and drought-laden summers. Simon, ever the mischievous adventurer, accidentally uncovers some of Pryrates' true nature and becomes wrapped into a conspiracy that not only threatens his country of Erkynland, but Osten Ard itself.

On the last day of school before summer vacation, physical education teacher Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) is preparing for a vacation to Hawaii with his girlfriend, Kim. Vice principal Phil Gills (Robin Thomas) hands out paper slips informing several underachievers, that they must attend summer school for remedial English. This includes: easily distracted Pam House (Courtney Thorne-Smith); "nocturnal" Larry Kazamias, a male stripper (Ken Olandt); football jock Kevin Winchester (Patrick Labyorteaux); pregnant Rhonda Altobello (Shawnee Smith); geeky Alan Eakian (Richard Steven Horvitz); dyslexic Denise Green (Kelly Jo Minter); intimidating Jerome Watkins (Duane Davis), and two horror-film-obsessed underachievers, Dave Frazier (Gary Riley) and Francis Gremp, a.k.a. "Chainsaw" (Dean Cameron).

The teacher scheduled to teach the class, Mr. Dearadorian (Carl Reiner), wins the lottery and immediately quits, so Gills seeks an emergency replacement among the teachers still on school grounds, but each manages to evade him, guessing what he wants them to do. He finally corners Shoop, blackmailing him into taking the job or lose tenure.

On his first day, Shoop meets Robin Bishop (Kirstie Alley), who is teaching American History next door. He falls for her, but she is already dating Gills. His first day is a disaster. Most of the students slack around, and Jerome goes to the bathroom and doesn't return. A beautiful Italian transfer student, Anna-Maria Mazarelli (Fabiana Udenio), is transferred to the class in order for her to work on her English, much to the delight of Dave and Chainsaw. After some students inexplicably leave and the remaining ones attempt to leave class as well, Shoop admits he has no idea how to teach them. Rather than studying, he and the students spend their first few days having fun going on "Field Trips" to the beach, a theme park, and a petting zoo until Alan's grandmother finds out and tells Gills.

Gills threatens to fire Shoop unless his students pass the end-of-term test. Shoop negotiates with each teen to grant them a favor if they study. The kids agree, so he gives Denise driving lessons, accompanies Rhonda to Lamaze classes, gives Kevin football lessons, allows Dave and Chainsaw to throw a party in his house and gives them rides to school, gives Larry a bed in the classroom, lets Chainsaw arrange a screening of ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' in class and allows Pam to move in with him. Seeing he is still floundering as a teacher, Robin tells Shoop to make learning fun. He begins to grow closer to the kids. They study to pass their English basic skills exam, worried that Gills will fire him unless all his students pass.

Shoop is arrested, covering for Chainsaw and Dave after they are found in possession of alcohol. He calls Robin and she and Gills to bail him out of jail. Gills then inadvertently exposes his true self to Robin when he states he cares nothing for Shoop or his students and she overhears, causing her to storm off. Larry loses his stripper job when he is found out by his aunt and his mother, who go to the club where he works. The students make more demands on Shoop. He throws an English book against the chalkboard and, after listing his sacrifices to grant their favors, quits his job in anger. His students start feeling guilty, and scare off Shoop's dull replacement with a series of gory stunts reminiscent of ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre''. Finding Shoop moping on the beach whilst eating ice cream, they ask him to return, and he accepts.

Shoop and his students then begin preparing for the test in earnest, and even Jerome, who had "gone to the bathroom" weeks before, returns. The exam goes smoothly, despite Rhonda going into labor during the test; she later puts the child up for adoption. Gills tells Shoop the average of grades was below passing, so he is ready to fire him. However, the students' parents come to defend him. Due to the students' marked improvement, Principal Kelban (Francis X. McCarthy) grants Shoop tenure for his positive efforts.

Shoop returns to the beach with his dog and Robin. He asks her to a dinner date for the last time, and she accepts at last, kissing him in the sunset.

In the twelfth year of the reign of Rodric the Fourth, an orphaned kitchen boy named Pug is made an apprentice magician to the magician Kulgan in Crydee. A struggling student of magic, he rises to high station by saving Princess Carline, Duke Borric’s daughter, from mountain trolls and becomes a squire of the Duke's court.

Following the discovery of a foreign ship wrecked after a storm and reports of bizarrely dressed warriors appearing in the forests, Pug’s liege, Lord Borric sets out for Krondor, the capital of the western realm of the kingdom, to convey the news and ask for aid. Their party is attacked, however, by dark elves and they are rescued by dwarves and their leader Dolgan who leads them through a series of mines to the coast.

Shortly after arriving in Krondor, Lord Borric’s band are instructed to carry on to Rillanon, the capital of the kingdom. Once there, however they are refused any help from the King Rodric, who suffers from madness and delusions, and they are turned away.

War erupts between the Midkemians and the otherworldly Tsurani. The Duke's troops engage in a fierce battle in an effort to locate and destroy the rift in spacetime which gives access to the Tsurani, but Pug is captured and taken back through the rift to Kelewan, the Tsurani homeworld, as a slave. After years of stalemate fighting on Midkemia by the two opposing forces, Pug returns as a magician, a Great One, the Tsurani name for master practitioners of magic. Meanwhile, a fellow slave, Laurie, along with a Tsurani warrior, Kasumi, embark on a secret errand of peace from the Tsurani Emperor to King Rodric in Rillanon, but also fail to persuade the mad king.

Discovering that Pug is alive and prospering as a magician, the dying Duke Borric reveals that he has adopted Pug into his family, also giving him an island – Stardock, where Pug is to begin an academy of magic. Duke Borric also reveals that Martin is his son and the older brother to Lyam and Arutha. Upon Borric’s death, Lyam becomes Duke of Crydee and commander of the Armies of the West. Shortly after, King Rodric appears at the camp after hearing the news of Borric's death. King Rodric himself then leads a charge against the Tsurani, breaking their ranks and driving them back, but suffering a mortal wound. While dying, the King's sanity seems to return and he apologizes to Lyam and names him heir to the throne.

With Rodric's death, Lyam assumes command and sues for a peace treaty with the Emperor Ichindar. During the peace conference, the two rulers, with Pug as the interpreter, begin on good terms by exchanging gifts. Due to the interference of powerful and mysterious sorcerer Macros the Black, the elves and dwarves mistakenly perceive treachery, and the truce dissolves into an all-out conflict. Macros enlists Pug's help to close the rift once and for all, and the connection between the two worlds is severed, leaving numerous stranded Tsurani soldiers in Midkemia, including Kasumi. The Tsurani, who expect to be put to death as is custom on their world, are instead granted freedom in return for their pledge of service to the Kingdom, and are stationed in LaMut with Kasumi made Earl and given command.

Lyam chooses to reveal Martin's birthright on the eve of his selection and coronation, threatening to throw the Kingdom into turmoil and potential civil war, but Martin relinquishes his claim, making Lyam the rightful king and ending any possibility of dispute.

One night after shopping, Roxy Miller (Marilyn Manning) is driving to a party through the California desert when she nearly runs her car into Eegah (Richard Kiel), a giant caveman. She tells her boyfriend Tom Nelson (Arch Hall Jr.) and her father Robert Miller (Arch Hall Sr.) about the giant. Her father, a writer of adventure books, decides to go into the desert to look for the creature and possibly take a photograph of it. When his helicopter ride fails to show up at his designated pickup time, Tom and Roxy go looking for him.

Roxy is soon kidnapped by Eegah and taken back to his cave while Tom searches for her. In Eegah's cave, Roxy is reunited with her father, who tells her that he has begun to communicate with the caveman and has developed a theory as to the creature's astounding longevity. When a frisky Eegah expresses what seems to be a romantic interest in Roxy, her father, fearful that the creature may kill them both if he is rebuffed, suggests she put up with as much of it as she can bear. Eegah never tries anything too explicit, though, and Roxy even ends up giving him a shave before Tom arrives and helps the Millers escape. Crushed, Eegah follows them back to civilization, a final confrontation ensues, and Eegah is killed.

The action commences in 1939. Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson, a Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve officer, is recalled to the Royal Navy and given command of the fictitious HMS ''Compass Rose'', newly built to escort convoys. His officers are mostly new to the Navy, especially the two new sub-lieutenants, Lockhart and Ferraby. Only Ericson and the petty officers are in any way experienced.

Despite these initial disadvantages, the ship and crew work up a routine and gain experience. Bennett, the first lieutenant, a mean and shirking disciplinarian with a penchant for bullying and canned sausages ("snorkers"), leaves the ship ostensibly for health reasons, and the junior officers are able to mature, with Lockhart gaining promotion to first lieutenant.

The crew cross the Atlantic many times on escort duty in all kinds of weather, often encountering fierce storms in one of the smallest ships built to protect Allied convoys. The men endure the ship's constant rolling and pitching in the huge waves, freezing cold, the strain of maintaining station on the convoy on pitch-black nights and the fear that at any second a torpedo from a German U-boat could blow them to oblivion. Somehow the tradition of the Royal Navy and the knowledge of the importance of their work carries them through.

They continue the monotonous and dangerous but vital duty of convoy escort, and after one particularly difficult convoy they use all their hard-won knowledge to sink a German submarine. They are nearly sunk several times until in 1943 they are finally torpedoed and forced to abandon ship. Most of the crew die in the freezing waters, but Ericson, Lockhart, Ferraby, and a few others are rescued the next day; however Ferraby suffers a breakdown forcing him to go to hospital.

Ericson, now promoted to commander, and Lockhart, now a lieutenant-commander, take command of a new ship, the fictitious HMS ''Saltash''. (In the film adaptation, the ship is called ''Saltash Castle'' and is portrayed by the , as no River-class vessels were available.)

The Royal Navy is now finally gaining the upper hand over the U-boats and ''Saltash'' adds to the growing number of kills due to Ericson's determination and patience.

In chapter seven the ship receives a message ordering it to "remain on patrol in vicinity of Rockall" as the end of the Second World War approaches in 1945, and as finally hostilities were declared ended, a well-known quote:

With the war ended, ''Saltash'' returns to port as a guard to several German submarines that have surrendered.

A secondary plotline concerns Lockhart's poignant romance with a beautiful Women's Royal Naval Service officer.

:''Today the women at the festival'' :''Are going to kill me for insulting them!'' This bold statement by Euripides is the absurd premise upon which the whole play depends. The women are incensed by his plays' portrayal of the female sex as mad, murderous, and sexually depraved, and they are using the festival of the Thesmophoria (an annual fertility celebration dedicated to Demeter) as an opportunity to debate a suitable choice of revenge.

Fearful of their powers, Euripides seeks out a fellow tragedian, Agathon, in the hope of persuading him to spy for him and to be his advocate at the festival – a role that would require him to go disguised as a woman. Agathon is already dressed as a woman, in preparation for a play, but he believes that the women of Athens are jealous of him and he refuses to attend the festival for fear of being discovered. Euripides' aged in-law (never named within the play but recorded in the 'dramatis personae' as Mnesilochus) then offers to go in Agathon's place. Euripides shaves him, dresses him in women's clothes borrowed from Agathon and finally sends him off to the Thesmophorion, the venue of the women's secret rites.

There, the women are discovered behaving like citizens of a democracy, conducting an assembly much as men do, with appointed officials and carefully maintained records and procedures. Top of the agenda for that day is Euripides. Two women – Micca and a myrtle vendor – summarize their grievances against him. According to Micca, Euripides has taught men not to trust women, this has made them more vigilant and that in turn makes it impossible for women to help themselves to the household stores. According to the myrtle vendor, his plays promote atheism and this makes it difficult for her to sell her myrtle wreaths. Mnesilochus then speaks up, declaring that the behaviour of women is in fact far worse than Euripides has represented it. He recites in excruciating detail his own (imaginary) sins as a married woman, including a sexual escapade with a boyfriend in a tryst involving a laurel tree and a statue of Apollo.

The assembly is outraged but order is restored when a female messenger is seen approaching. It turns out to be Cleisthenes, a notoriously effeminate homosexual, represented in this play as the Athenian 'ambassador' for women. He has come with the alarming news that a man disguised as a woman is spying upon them on behalf of Euripides! Suspicion immediately falls upon Mnesilochus, being the only member of the group whom nobody can identify. After they remove his clothes, they discover that he is indeed a man. In a parody of a famous scene from Euripides' 'Telephus', Mnesilochus grabs Micca's baby and threatens to kill it unless the women release him. After closer inspection, however, Mnesilochus discovers that the 'baby' is in fact a wine skin fitted with booties. Undeterred, he still threatens it with a knife. Micca (a devout tippler) pleads for its release but the assembly will not negotiate with Mnesilochus and he stabs the baby anyway. Micca catches its precious blood in a pan.

At this point, the action pauses briefly for a parabasis. Meanwhile, the male authorities are notified of the illegal presence of a man at a women-only festival. Mnesilochus is subsequently arrested and strapped to a plank by a Scythian archer (Athenian equivalent of a policeman) on the orders of a prytanis. There then follows a series of farcical scenes in which Euripides, in a desperate attempt to rescue Mnesilochus, comes and goes in various disguises, first as Menelaus, a character from his own play ''Helen'' – to which Mnesilochus responds by playing out the role of Helen – and then as Perseus, a character from another Euripidean play, ''Andromeda'', in which role he swoops heroically across the stage on a theatrical crane (frequently used by Greek playwrights to allow for a ''deus ex machina'') – to which Mnesilochus responds by acting out the role of Andromeda. Improbably, Euripides impersonates Echo in the same scene as he impersonates Perseus. All these mad schemes fail.

The tragic poet then decides to appear as himself and in this capacity he quickly negotiates a peace with the Chorus of women, securing their co-operation with a promise not to insult them in his future plays. The women decline to help him release Mnesilochus (now a prisoner of the Athenian state) but they do agree not to interfere with plans for his escape. Disguised finally as an old lady and attended by a dancing girl and flute player, Euripides distracts the Scythian archer long enough to set Mnesilochus free. The Scythian attempts to apprehend them before they can get clean away but he is steered in the wrong direction by the Chorus and the comedy ends happily.

At the start of the play, Agamemnon has second thoughts about going through with the sacrifice and sends a second message to his wife, telling her to ignore the first. Clytemnestra never receives it, however, because it is intercepted by Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother, who is enraged over his change of heart.

To Menelaus, this is not only a personal blow (for it is his wife, Helen, with whom the Trojan prince Paris ran off, and whose retrieval is the main pretext for the war), it may also lead to mutiny and the downfall of the Greek leaders should the rank and file discover the prophecy and realise that their general has put his family above their pride as soldiers.

The brothers debate the matter and, eventually, each seemingly changes the other's mind. Menelaus is apparently convinced that it would be better to disband the Greek army than to have his niece killed, but Agamemnon is now ready to carry out the sacrifice, claiming that the army will storm his palace at Argos and kill his entire family if he does not. By this time, Clytemnestra is already on her way to Aulis with Iphigenia and her baby brother Orestes, making the decision of how to proceed all the more difficult.

Iphigenia is thrilled at the prospect of marrying one of the great heroes of the Greek army, but she, her mother, and the ostensible groom-to-be soon discover the truth. Furious at having been used as a prop in Agamemnon's plan, Achilles vows to defend Iphigenia, initially more for the purposes of his own honour than to save the innocent girl. However, when he tries to rally the Greeks against the sacrifice, he finds out that "the entirety of Greece"—including the Myrmidons under his personal command—demand that Agamemnon's wishes be carried out, and he barely escapes being stoned.

Clytemnestra and Iphigenia try in vain to persuade Agamemnon to change his mind, but the general believes that he has no choice. As Achilles prepares to defend Iphigenia by force, Iphigenia, realizing that she has no hope of escape, begs Achilles not to throw his life away in a lost cause. Over her mother's protests and to Achilles's admiration, she consents to her sacrifice, declaring that she would rather die heroically, winning renown as the savior of Greece, than be dragged unwilling to the altar. Leading the chorus in a hymn to Artemis, she goes to her death, with her mother Clytemnestra so distraught as to presage her murder of her husband and Orestes's matricide years later.

The play as it exists in the manuscripts ends with a messenger reporting that Iphigenia has been replaced on the altar by a deer. It is, however, generally considered that this is not an authentic part of Euripides' original text. "Paley agrees with Porson in regarding the rest of the play after Iphigenia's exit [lines 1510 to the end of the play] as the work of an interpolator". A fragment of the play may indicate that Artemis appeared to console Clytemnestra and assure her that her daughter had not been sacrificed after all, but this Euripidean end, if it existed, is not extant.

''Futari wa Pretty Cure'' revolves around two girls, Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro, who encounter the Garden of Light's Mipple and Mepple, who give them the power to transform into the emissaries of light; Cure Black and Cure White, to fight against the forces of the Dark Zone: a dimension of evil that has encroached on the Garden of Light and is now about to do the same to the Garden of Rainbows, Earth. The Cures search for the Prism Stones, placing them in a heart-shaped device known as the Prism Hopish, protected by the Guardian, Wisdom. Once they have discovered all the Prism Stones, its power takes them to the Garden of Light and repairs most of the damage done by the Dark Zone. Later in the series, Porun, the Prince of the Garden of Light, grants the Pretty Cure duo use of their Rainbow Bracelets as they defeat the Dark King.

In ''Max Heart'', Nagisa and Honoka meet the mysterious Hikari Kujou, who is soon revealed to be the "Life" of the Queen, whose powers were scattered into the form of twelve "Heartiels" following her battle with the Dark King. Meanwhile, remnants of the Dark Zone are protecting a mysterious boy, who is suspected of being the "Life" of the Dark King. Joined by Hikari, who gains the power to become Shiny Luminous, the Pretty Cures once again fight against the Dark Zone in order to retrieve the Heartiels and restore the Queen.

Franz Woyzeck, a lonely soldier stationed in a provincial German town, is living with Marie, the mother of his child who is not blessed by the church as the child was born out of wedlock. Woyzeck earns extra money for his family by performing menial jobs for the Captain and agreeing to take part in medical experiments conducted by the Doctor. At one of these experiments, the Doctor tells Woyzeck that he must eat nothing but peas. Woyzeck's mental health is breaking down and he begins to experience a series of apocalyptic visions. Meanwhile, Marie grows tired of Woyzeck and turns her attentions to a handsome drum major who, in an ambiguous scene taking place in Marie's bedroom, sleeps with her.

With his jealous suspicions growing, Woyzeck confronts the drum major, who beats Woyzeck up and humiliates him. Finally, Woyzeck stabs Marie to death by a pond. While a third act trial is claimed by some, notably A. H. J. Knight and Fritz Bergemann, to have been part of the original conception (what may be the beginning of a courtroom scene survives), the fragment, as left by Büchner, ends with Woyzeck disposing of the knife in the pond while trying to clean himself of the blood.

Here Franzos inserted the stage direction "ertrinkt" (he drowns), and although this emendation according to Knight "almost amounts to a forgery", most versions employ drowning as an appropriate resolution to the story.

The scene represents the front of the temple of Artemis in the land of the Taurians (modern Crimea in Ukraine). The altar is in the center.

The play begins with Iphigenia reflecting on her brother's death. She recounts her "sacrifice" at the hands of Agamemnon, and how she was saved by Artemis and made priestess in this temple. She has had a dream in which the structure of her family's house crashed down in ruins, leaving only a single column which she then washed clean as if preparing it for ritual sacrifice. She interprets this dream to mean that Orestes is dead.

Orestes and Pylades enter, having just arrived in this land. Orestes was sent by Apollo to retrieve the image of Artemis from the temple, and Pylades has accompanied him. Orestes explains that he has avenged Agamemnon's death by killing Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus. The two decide to hide and make a plan to retrieve the idol without being captured. They know that the Taurians sacrifice Hellene blood in their temple of Artemis. Orestes and Pylades exit. Iphigenia enters and discusses her sad life with the chorus, composed of captive Greek maidens, attendants of Iphigenia. She believes that her father's bloodline has ended with the death of Orestes.

A herdsman enters and explains to Iphigenia that he has captured two Hellenes and that Iphigenia should make ready the lustral water and the rites of consecration. The herdsman heard one called Pylades by the other, but did not hear the name of the other. Iphigenia tells the herdsmen to bring the strangers to the temple, and says that she will prepare to sacrifice them. The herdsman leaves to fetch the strangers. Iphigenia explains that she was tricked into going to Aulis, through the treachery of Odysseus. She was told that she was being married to Achilles, but upon arriving in Aulis, she discovered that she was going to be sacrificed by Agamemnon. Now, she presides over the sacrifices of any Hellene trespassers in the land of the Taurians, to avenge the crimes against her.

Orestes and Pylades enter in bonds. Iphigenia demands that the prisoners' bonds be loosened, because they are hallowed. The attendants to Iphigenia leave to prepare for the sacrifice. Iphigenia asks Orestes his origins, but Orestes refuses to tell Iphigenia his name. Iphigenia finds out which of the two is Pylades and that they are from Argos. Iphigenia asks Orestes many questions, especially of Greeks who fought in Troy. She asks if Helen has returned home to the house of Menelaus, and of the fates of Calchas, Odysseus, Achilles, and Agamemnon. Orestes informs Iphigenia that Agamemnon is dead, but that his son lives. Upon hearing this, Iphigenia decides that she wants one of the strangers to return a letter to Argos, and that she will only sacrifice one of them. Orestes demands that he be sacrificed, and that Pylades be sent home with the letter, because Orestes brought Pylades on this trip, and it would not be right for Pylades to die while Orestes lives.

Pylades promises to deliver the letter unless his boat is shipwrecked and the letter is lost. Iphigenia then recites the letter to Pylades so that, if it is lost, he can still relay the message. She recites:

''She that was sacrificed in Aulis send this message, Iphigenia, still alive, though dead to those at Argos. Fetch me back to Argos, my brother, before I die. Rescue me from this barbarian land, free me from this slaughterous priesthood, in which it is my office to kill strangers. Else I shall become a curse upon your house, Orestes. Goddess Artemis saved me and substituted a deer, which my father sacrificed believing he was thrusting the sharp blade into me. Then she brought me to stay in this land.''

During this recitation, Orestes asks Pylades what he should do, having realized that he was standing in front of his sister.

Orestes reveals his identity to Iphigenia, who demands proof. First, Orestes recounts how Iphigenia embroidered the scene of the quarrel between Atreus and Thyestes on a fine web. Orestes also spoke of Pelops’ ancient spear, which he brandished in his hands when he killed Oenomaus and won Hippodamia, the maid of Pisa, which was hidden away in Iphigenia's maiden chamber. This is evidence enough for Iphigenia, who embraces Orestes. Orestes explains that he has come to this land by the bidding of Phoebus's oracle, and that if he is successful, he might finally be free of the haunting Erinyes.

Orestes, Pylades, and Iphigenia plan an escape whereby Iphigenia will claim that the strangers need to be cleansed in order to be sacrificed and will take them to the bay where their ship is anchored. Additionally, Iphigenia will bring the statue that Orestes was sent to retrieve. Orestes and Pylades exit into the temple. Thoas, king of the Taurians, enters and asks whether or not the first rites have been performed over the strangers. Iphigenia has just retrieved the statue from the temple and explains that when the strangers were brought in front of the statue, the statue turned and closed its eyes. Iphigenia interprets it thus to Thoas: The strangers arrived with the blood of kin on their hands and they must be cleansed. Also, the statue must be cleansed. Iphigenia explains that she would like to clean the strangers and the statue in the sea, to make for a purer sacrifice. Thoas agrees that this must be done, and suspects nothing. Iphigenia tells Thoas that he must remain at the temple and cleanse the hall with torches, and that she may take a long time. All three exit the stage.

A messenger enters, shouting that the strangers have escaped. Thoas enters from the temple, asking what all the noise is about. The messenger explains Iphigenia's lies and that the strangers fought some of the natives, then escaped on their Hellene ship with the priestess and the statue. Thoas calls upon the citizens of his land to run along the shore and catch the ship. Athena enters and explains to Thoas that he shouldn't be angry. She addresses Iphigenia, telling her to be priestess at the sacred terraces of Brauron, and she tells Orestes that she is saving him again. Thoas heeds Athena's words, because whoever hears the words of the gods and heeds them not is out of his mind.

The game is set in the medieval city of Kyoto around the year 1000, during the Heian period of Japanese history. The game lacks an overall plot, but it instead presents fragmented narratives in a non-linear manner, as the player character encounters various non-player characters while wandering the city. These narratives are cross-referenced to an encyclopedia, providing background information as the narratives progress and as the player comes across various characters and locations, with various stories and related information appearing at distinct locations.

Many of the characters in the game are based on real-life characters from the city and their appearances in the game are often loosely based on tales from the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū''. The game deals with religion and philosophy, particularly Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy, as well as myth and legend.

In the 1942 Pacific War theater of World War II, Lieutenant Sam Lawson, USN, is a Japanese-language interpreter who — so far — has avoided combat. His commanding officer, Captain John G. Nolan, unexpectedly cancels his leave and informs Lawson that he is to be assigned to a British infantry commando unit in the New Hebrides Islands for a combat mission.

The British base is in the middle of a large open field, several hundred yards from the edge of the jungle; on the other side of the jungle is a Japanese observation and communications post. Shortly after Lawson's arrival at the base, a patrol of British soldiers sprint out of the jungle and across the open field, pursued by the Japanese. The base commander, Col. Thompson, instructs his men to keep well back, out of enemy range; they watch as the patrol are cut down by Japanese rifle fire.

Lawson's commando group is instructed to destroy the Japanese radio transmitter to prevent them from sounding the alarm about an American naval convoy which is scheduled to appear on the horizon in three days. The post's radio operator transmits an "all's well" signal every night at midnight; it will be Lawson's job to transmit a fake signal (in Japanese) to buy the Allies another 24 hours.

The commando group is led by Captain Hornsby, an upper class officer with a history of foolhardiness. The other members of the squad are draftees from Singapore whose enthusiasm for fighting leaves something to be desired: Pvt. Tosh Hearne, a cynical Cockney who is also the squad's medic; Pvt. Jock Thornton, a lean Scot whom Lawson at first considers slightly cracked for skipping on patrol and singing the "Teddy Bears' Picnic", Pvt. Campbell, a fat Glaswegian; grey-haired Sergeant Johnstone; Signalman Scott the radio operator; Pvt. Griffiths, Pvt. Rogers, Pvt. Currie, Pvt. Connolly, Cpl. McLean, and Pvt. Riddle.

By the time the squad reaches the Japanese post, Riddle, Connolly, and Currie are dead from a botched ambush — which, Hearne mutters to Lawson, was entirely due to Hornsby's incompetence: they were positioned on both sides of the trail, and the dead men seem to have been the victims of friendly fire. When Johnstone is wounded in another encounter, Hornsby leaves him behind; shortly thereafter, Johnstone is discovered by the Japanese and his throat slit.

After Scott drops and breaks the radio Lawson was to use, Hornsby decides to use the Japanese radio. Lawson flatly refuses to take part in any such scheme, giving the excuse that Hornsby is disobeying their orders with this extemporization. Nevertheless, Hornsby walks boldly into the Japanese camp and enters the radio hut without being spotted; he knocks out the radio operator and motions to Lawson and Scott. Scott goes to the hut, but despite Hearne's urgings, Lawson refuses to go. The Japanese radio operator comes to, and in the ensuing fracas, both Scott and Hornsby are killed.

Lawson is now the ranking officer, with only Hearne, Campbell, Jock, Griffiths, and McLean left alive — and Jock has been wounded in the debacle. Japanese Major Yamaguchi is determined to stop them from reporting the existence of the secret Japanese airfield and planes they have discovered. Through loudspeakers in the trees, Yamaguchi exhorts the men to give themselves up. Lawson and Hearne agree that Yamaguchi is not to be trusted, but Campbell is in favour of surrender, and he works at Griffiths as Jock weakens. Finally, while Lawson and Hearne are asleep, Campbell tries to sneak off into the jungle; but Jock spots him and asks where he is going. Campbell strangles Jock, wakes Griffiths and McLean, and the three of them run off.

Yamaguchi attempts to use the lives of Griffiths and McLean as bargaining chips. (Campbell, on the other hand, is killed in gruesome fashion after the Japanese discover he has a ring taken from the finger of one of the officers the patrol ambushed.) As Lawson and Hearne reach the edge of the open field adjacent to the British base, Yamaguchi announces that they have three minutes to surrender; Japanese soldiers have the field covered with rifles and machine guns. Hearne suggests that they give Yamaguchi a taste of his own medicine. They double back and shoot him. They then sprint out across the field. Despite cover fire from the base, first one, then the other is hit.

One of them rises and staggers to safety. It is Hearne. When Colonel Thompson asks who the other man was, Hearne replies, "A hero. He killed fifteen Japs single-handed — thirty, if you like."

Helen receives word from the exiled Greek Teucer that Menelaus never returned to Greece from Troy, and is presumed dead, putting her in the perilous position of being available for Theoclymenus to marry, and she consults the prophetess Theonoe, sister to Theoclymenus, to find out Menelaus' fate.

Her fears are allayed when a stranger arrives in Egypt and turns out to be Menelaus himself, and the long-separated couple recognize each other. At first, Menelaus does not believe that she is the real Helen, since he has hidden the Helen he won in Troy in a cave. However, the woman he was shipwrecked with was in reality, only a mere phantom of the real Helen. Before the Trojan war even began, a judgement took place, one that Paris was involved in. He gave the Goddess Aphrodite the award of the fairest since she bribed him with Helen as a bride. To take their revenge on Paris, the remaining goddesses, Athena and Hera, replaced the real Helen with a phantom. However, Menelaus did not know better. But luckily one of his sailors steps in to inform him that the false Helen has disappeared into thin air.

The couple still must figure out how to escape from Egypt, but the rumor that Menelaus has died is still in circulation. Thus, Helen tells Theoclymenus that the stranger who came ashore was a messenger there to tell her that her husband was truly dead. She informs the king that she may marry him as soon as she has performed a ritual burial at sea, thus freeing her symbolically from her first wedding vows. The king agrees to this, and Helen and Menelaus use this opportunity to escape on the boat given to them for the ceremony.

Theoclymenus is furious when he learns of the trick and nearly murders his sister Theonoe for not telling him that Menelaus is still alive. However, he is prevented by the miraculous intervention of the demi-gods Castor and Polydeuces, brothers of Helen and the sons of Zeus and Leda.

The game takes place in S.D 346 (A.D 2432), and starts off in a small town of Kratus on the under-developed planet of Roak. There, a few of the local Fellpool (cat-like people) youth, Roddick, Millie, and Dorne, are part of the village's local "Defense Force", who defend the village from minor threats such as thieves and robbers. However, one day, a neighboring town, Coule, starts contracting a terrible disease that turns people into stone. The town healer, Millie's father, contracts the disease while trying to get rid of it, leading the group to search Mt. Metorx for a herb that is rumored to cure any sickness. Dorne unintentionally contracts the disease as well after touching an infected pigeon.

When they reach the summit, they are confronted by Ronyx J. Kenny and Ilia Silvestri, two crew members of the Earth Federation (Terran Alliance in the PSP remake) starship ''Calnus''. They inform them that the disease was sent to the planet by a foreign race called the Lezonians, whom the Earth Federation has been at war with. Roddick and Millie go with them on their spacecraft to help them find a cure. They learn that Fellpool blood could be used to process a special, invisible material which could give them a massive advantage in the war. Upon coming in contact with Lezonians, they reveal that they were being forced into war by a shadowy, powerful third party with a disgust for the Federation.

Before Dorne fully succumbs to the disease, they do tests on him to figure out a cure. They determined that the only possible way to fight it would be to make a vaccine that uses the original source of the disease. While the origin of the virus is tracked back to being on Roak itself, it is from Asmodeus, the King of the Demon World, who had been killed 300 years prior to the spread of the disease. Ronyx talks the group into using a Time Gate on the Planet Styx to go back 300 years into the past to track down Asmodeus back when he was still alive. While this works, Ilia trips while approaching the gate. As such, Ilia and Roddick have a delay from when they enter the time gate, and after the trip through time, they find themselves separated from Ronyx and Millie. The two groups work towards locating each other, and Asmodeus, in efforts to heal their family members and stop the war.

''Star Ocean: The Second Story'' takes place in S.D 366 (A.D 2452), twenty years after the original game, ''Star Ocean''. The game tells the stories of Claude C. Kenni, son of Ronyx J. Kenni, and Rena Lanford, a young girl living on the planet Expel. Claude, having recently been commissioned as an Ensign in the Earth Federation, is given his first mission under the supervision of his father. This first mission is to survey the planet Milocinia (renamed Milokeenia in the PSP port), where a mysterious energy field appears. Finding a mysterious device on Milocinia, Claude begins to examine it close-up, despite orders to keep away from it. As he approaches, the machine activates, teleporting him to Expel. Once on Expel, Claude meets Rena who mistakes him for the "Hero of Light," spoken of in legends on Expel because he wields a "Sword of Light" (actually the standard-issue Phase Gun all Federation officers carry) and is dressed in "alien raiments." She takes him back to her village, Arlia, for corroboration.

In Arlia, it is explained to Claude that a meteorite crashed into Expel. Almost immediately afterwards, monsters began appearing, and natural disasters occurred with increasing frequency and intensity. Believing that these events were related, the people of Expel called the meteorite the "Sorcery Globe". Though he explains that he is not the Hero of Light, Claude offers to investigate the Sorcery Globe, in the hopes that it might help lead him home. Rena assists him as his native guide and hopes to find knowledge about her origin, being an orphan.

Though their journey takes them the long way around, Claude and Rena (and whichever characters the player decides to recruit) manage to travel across Expel and finally reach the Sorcery Globe and encounter the Ten Wise Men. The Sorcery Globe, which the Ten Wise Men call the "Quadratic Sphere", is a device they planted on Expel in order to steer it into a massive energy formation called Energy Nede, from which the Ten Wise Men were exiled thousands of years ago. It is their hope to return to Energy Nede using Expel as a vessel. They succeed and the entire planet of Expel is destroyed by its collision with Energy Nede.

After engaging the Ten Wise Men in battle, they are defeated. Claude and Rena survive due to being within the teleportation zone cast by the Ten Wise Men as the travel to Energy Nede. They are met by Mayor Narl who explains who the Ten Wise Men are, why they were exiled, and that, now that they are back, they hope to destroy the entire universe using advanced Heraldry (magic). Narl furthermore announces that Energy Nede has the ability to restore Expel by using powerful Heraldry to turn back time, but this is only possible if the Ten Wise Men are defeated. Claude and Rena agree to help in the resistance, and embark on various voyages to strengthen themselves, obtain information and learn about the enemy.

Eventually Claude and Rena along with their friends assault the Ten Wise Men's stronghold at Fienal, where they put an end to the enemy once and for all. The ending is composed of scenes describing the fates of the party's characters, and changes slightly depending on if you discovered the Ten Wise Men's true identity and " raison d'être " through the means of Private Actions.

''Star Ocean: Till the End of Time'' begins on the planet Hyda IV where a young man, Fayt Leingod, and his childhood friend, Sophia Esteed, are on vacation with Fayt's family. Fayt is the son of Robert Leingod, a famous scientist in the field of symbological genetics. For an unknown reason, the Vendeeni — an alien civilization with highly advanced technology that spans only a single planet — attacks Hyda IV unprovoked, thus initiating a war with the Pangalactic Federation. Fayt and Sophia escape on the starship ''Helre'', but are separated from Fayt's parents, Robert and Ryoko Leingod. The ''Helre'' is also attacked by the Vendeeni, and the two are separated.

Fayt's escape pod lands on the "underdeveloped planet" Vanguard III, a planet with technology equivalent to 16th Century Earth, and discovers an off-world criminal, the exiled Rezerbian Norton, plotting to take it over. Cliff Fittir, a member of the anti-Federation organization Quark, then lands and helps Fayt defeat this criminal. Fayt learns that Quark's leader wishes to speak to him and plans on rescuing his father, though Cliff does not reveal the reason behind this interest. After getting off the planet with Cliff and meeting his assistant Mirage, the Vendeeni again attack them — but they escape and crash-land on another underdeveloped world, Elicoor II. Elicoor seems to be around 17th Century Earth in terms of technological advancement. Fayt, Cliff, and Mirage crash-land into the capital of the Kingdom of Airyglyph, who believe that their ship is a weapon developed by the country they are at war with, Aquaria. Fayt and Cliff are imprisoned as a result Mirage escapes, though they are soon rescued by an assassin-like agent, Nel Zelpher, who believes they are engineers from the technologically advanced continent of Greeton. She rescues them under the condition that they aid her country, Aquaria, with their technological knowledge or that she will kill them to prevent them leaking secrets to Airyglyph. This leads the two directly into the war between the two kingdoms and eventually into a great final battle between them. Then a new — at least to the Elicoorians — foe appears in the skies above, a Vendeeni battleship that has found their quarry. However, Fayt destroys the battleship with a previously unknown power of his, though another battleship remains in orbit. During the distraction, the leader of Quark, Maria Traydor, manages to arrive on Elicoor. It seems that both Quark and the Vendeeni knew of Fayt's unusual abilities, and he had been their target the whole time. The party vies with the Vendeeni over control of an unusual "out of place artifact" and Fayt's father, who is killed before Maria can finish interrogating him over his "crimes."

Fayt finds himself space-borne once more, and the galaxy has not stood still. Shortly after the apparently unprovoked attack on Hyda IV, a threat of destruct-full magnitude emerges in the form of ultra-powerful space-borne beings calling themselves "Executioners." The best ships of the Federation and the Vendeeni are nearly powerless against these new beings, and are quickly being forced into full retreat. The party, acting on a hint from Fayt's father, venture to the Moonbase research station, and Fayt is reunited with Sophia. While on the station, they are confronted by an angelic-looking Executioner that calls itself Proclaimer. It launches itself to attack, telling them that they must be destroyed.

Investigation of the Moonbase records reveals the truth behind the Executioners and their appearance. During the charting of a planet called Styx, explorers encountered an extremely advanced and extremely old Time Gate. When activated, it informed them that their forays into the field of symbological genetics had angered the Creator, and that they were to be destroyed. Even if they were to abandon symbological genetics, the reins would be taken up by another soon enough, and that they were not being warned — they were being sentenced.

The explorers beat a hasty retreat and informed the Federation of what they had found. Studies soon suggested that the statement came from another plane of existence; an entirely new universe. Further study revealed that symbology might be used to access this universe. The scientists agreed to use their own offspring; the subjects were Fayt Leingod, Sophia Esteed, and Maria Traydor. Fayt was the son of Robert and Ryoko Leingod, while Sophia was the daughter of Clive Esteed. Maria was an orphan who was later adopted by the fourth member of the team, Jessie Traydor. The three were symbologically altered in such a way that if they worked together, they could gain entry through the Time Gate. Maria was given the power of Alteration, which would allow her and those with her to remain in physical forms in the new world. Fayt was given the power of Destruction, as it was assumed they would need to physically defend themselves. Two years later, the younger Sophia was given the power of Connection - the key ability needed to make contact with 4D space. The Vendeeni had been attacking in hopes of handing over Fayt to the Executioners and staying their wrath.

The party goes to Styx and finds the area flooded with Executioners. Escaping their ship in a small shuttle, they witness the mysterious beings and their awesome might first-hand as the Federation battleship ''Aquaelie'' which had escorted them is destroyed. Reaching the Time Gate, the party enters "4D space," a dimension higher than their own. According to the 4D beings, their universe is actually not real in relation to 4D space; rather, it is a computer simulation developed by Luther Lansfeld, the owner of the Sphere Company. Dubbed the "Eternal Sphere", it is similar to a real-world massively multiplayer online game for the inhabitants of 4D space.

Fayt and his allies learn that the Executioners are anti-viruses sent to delete anomalies in the Milky Way section of the Eternal Sphere. With the help of Blair Lansfeld, programmer and sister to Luther, the party manages to find Luther. Blair and the group believe that the residents of the Eternal Sphere have managed to achieve a level of intelligence equal to that of 4D citizens; Luther, however, considers them "mere data", and in a rage decides to delete the entire Eternal Sphere. The party fights and defeats him, causing him to be deleted himself, but fails to stop the deletion. Ultimately the universe is not destroyed, hinted to be due to the combined sentience of its inhabitants willing its continued existence, and now exists independent of 4D space. The party goes their separate ways, with Fayt's "affection" level dictating whether he goes with one of them or goes off on his own,

In the Norwegian fishing village of Trollness, occupied by the Nazis, the Norwegian flag is observed flying high over the town by a passing patrol aircraft. The German troops sent to investigate discover that everyone in the village is dead, both German and Norwegian, including the German commander, Captain Koenig, in his office.

Previously, the local doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston) and his wife (Ruth Gordon) wanted to hold on to the pretense of gracious living and ignore the occupiers. The doctor would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. Kaspar Torgersen (Charles Dingle), his brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and is in a romantic relationship with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). Johann (John Beal), the doctor's son, has just returned to town having been sent down from the university but is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Karen makes it known to the townsfolk that her brother is a "quisling".

The key group of resistance members, headed by Gunnar and Karen, anxiously await the secret arrival of arms from a British submarine. They hide the delivery of weapons in a cellar and call upon the townsfolk to delay violence until the opportune moment. Karen, on her way to a resistance meeting, is grabbed by a German soldier and disappears, while Gunnar frantically searches the town for her. She eventually appears at the meeting, clothes torn and face bruised, indicative that she has been raped. Gunnar loses his perspective after seeing what the Germans have done to the woman he loves and begins to go crazy, ordering that the fighting begin. Karen tells him that it is still not yet the time and as he calms down, the radio (which has only been broadcasting static for a week) finally picks up Churchill's broadcast from Britain, giving them all hope.

Karen's father leaves the meeting and, in anger, bludgeons a German soldier to death. Captain Koenig orders the suspected resistance leaders to be shot. On the morning of their execution they are forced to dig their own graves in the town square. They hear singing and discover the townsfolk have armed themselves with the smuggled guns, grenades and other weaponry. The local pastor, who previously had called violent resistance "murder," opens fire from the church tower and the townsfolk follow suit. They successfully capture the port, and load the women and children onto fishing boats bound for Britain. At the local hotel, which has been used since the occupation as German headquarters, the remaining soldiers prepare for the oncoming attack. Gunnar, Karen, her father, and the other resistance leaders and members make their way through the forest toward the hotel. Karen's brother cries to them from the hotel that they are walking into a machine gun crossfire trap set by the commander. He is shot dead for his efforts by the Germans. After a bloody battle, the rebels eventually capture the hotel and Captain Koenig commits suicide after writing a letter to his brother.

The story then reverts to the newly arrived German troops finding the dead bodies of both Germans and Norwegians littered about the town, forest and hotel. They declare that there is no one left alive. Karen and Gunnar, up in the hills, see a German soldier taking down the Norwegian flag and replacing it with a Nazi one. Karen shoots him dead and the Nazi flag falls on his dead body. Gunnar, Karen, her father and the surviving resistance members and townsfolk take shelter in the hills as the voice of President Franklin D. Roosevelt tells his listeners to look to Norway for understanding of the war and the hope and strength of the people.

In 1999, "Subject 47", a bald man with a barcode tattooed on the back of his head, awakens in the basement of a sanatorium to an unidentified man talking over a loudspeaker. Under the man's guidance, he completes a training course that tests his athletic, firearms, and assassination skills, before killing the guards and escaping from the sanatorium, much to his observer's joy. A year later, 47 has joined the International Contract Agency (ICA) - a global organization that specializes in performing assassinations for various clients - and has been assigned the identity of "Agent 47" and a handler, Diana Burnwood.

Over the course of the year, 47 completes contracts that see him killing Triad crime boss Lee Hong in Hong Kong, after weakening his position by provoking a gang war; cocaine trafficker Pablo Belisario Ochoa in Colombia, through a staged drug raid; Austrian mercenary Frantz Fuchs in Budapest, who was planning to detonate a bomb during an international conference; and gunrunner Arkadij Jegorov in Rotterdam, who was paranoid about the imminent arrival of 47 and had activated a nuclear warhead on his ship. After each successful assassination, 47 finds letters on each target discussing about himself, a project about an "experimental human", and a man named Professor Ort-Meyer.

Diana soon contacts 47 with news that all four targets served in the same French Foreign Legion unit in Vietnam during the First Indochina War, and that the assassinations were requested by the same client, which is against ICA's rules. 47 is then sent on a final mission - to assassinate a doctor in a sanatorium in Romania, which he recognizes as the same facility he escaped from a year prior. As Romanian special forces raid the building, 47 eliminates the target, whom he recognizes as Ort-Meyer's assistant, and discovers the truth of his existence: he is the product of a cloning experiment that combined Ort-Meyer, Hong, Ochoa, Fuchs, and Jegorov's DNA to create the perfect assassin.

With the help of a fairly inept CIA agent named Carlton Smith, whom he had first encountered and rescued in Hong Kong, 47 locates Ort-Meyer in a hidden lab under the sanatorium, and learns that the professor orchestrated his escape a year prior to test his performance in the real world, and arranged his former partners' deaths because they each wanted 47 for themselves. Ort-Meyer then reveals that he has since created more skilled and easier to control clones, dubbed "Subjects 48", and dispatches them to kill 47. After killing all the clones with his superior training, 47 poses as one of them to reach Ort-Meyer, whom he shoots when he realizes the deception. Before dying, Ort-Meyer regrets that he was unable to recognize "his own son" and accepts his death at 47's hands, who proceeds to snap his neck.

In Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob prepares for the opening ceremony of the Krusty Krab 2 (located next to the original Krusty Krab), believing that his boss Mr. Krabs will promote him as manager. At the ceremony, the title is instead given to his co-worker Squidward Tentacles. Krabs says that Squidward is more mature and that SpongeBob is "just a kid" who is unable to handle the task, upsetting SpongeBob.

Meanwhile, Plankton laments over his futile attempts to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and take over the world, until his computer wife Karen reminds him of "Plan Z". At night, Plankton carries out the plan by stealing King Neptune's crown and sending it to Shell City, leaving false evidence behind to frame Krabs for the crime. That same night, SpongeBob heads to his favorite restaurant, Goofy Goober's, where he drowns his sorrows in ice cream with his best friend Patrick Star, and wakes up the next morning with a hangover. King Neptune goes to the Krusty Krab 2 to confront Krabs about his stolen crown. The still-hungover SpongeBob also arrives and bad-mouths Krabs, but afterwards promises Neptune that he will retrieve the crown from Shell City. Neptune freezes Krabs and orders SpongeBob to return with the crown within six days in order to spare Krabs's life. Neptune's daughter Mindy warns SpongeBob and Patrick of the dangers of Shell City, including "the Cyclops", a monster who kidnaps innocent sea creatures. SpongeBob and Patrick head off for Shell City in the Patty Wagon, a Krabby Patty-shaped car stored underneath the restaurant.

Back in Bikini Bottom, Plankton steals the Krabby Patty formula and uses it to sell Krabby Patties. When Karen informs him that SpongeBob and Patrick are attempting to reclaim Neptune's crown, Plankton reveals he has hired a hitman named Dennis to eliminate the duo. Squidward discovers the truth about Plankton stealing Neptune's crown, and confronts him. Before Squidward can leave and alert Neptune, Plankton activates his mind-controlling bucket helmets to enslave the residents of Bikini Bottom, enslaving Squidward as well. Meanwhile, SpongeBob and Patrick come across a hazardous trench and lose the Patty Wagon. On the verge of giving up, Mindy appears and gives them encouragement by using her "mermaid magic" to bestow seaweed mustaches on them, fooling them that they have matured from boys into men. The two then successfully pass the trench.

SpongeBob and Patrick meet Dennis, who reveals that the mustaches are fake. He tries to crush them with his giant boot, but is abruptly stomped on by a larger boot - which belongs to the Cyclops (a diver). The Cyclops captures SpongeBob and Patrick and takes them to his store by the beach where dried sea creatures are sold as souvenirs, which is in fact "Shell City" itself. SpongeBob and Patrick find the crown, only to dry out and die from the intensity of the Cyclops' heat lamp. However, the tears they shed short-circuit the lamp, activating the emergency sprinkler system and reviving all the dried sea creatures. While the vengeful sea creatures attack the Cyclops, SpongeBob and Patrick take the crown and head to the beach. After accidentally losing their way home, David Hasselhoff appears and offers them a ride. On the way, Dennis catches up to them, but gets knocked off Hasselhoff's back into the sea when he passes underneath a catamaran.

Back at the Krusty Krab 2, Neptune arrives to execute Krabs, but SpongeBob and Patrick return with the crown just in time. Plankton drops a mind-control bucket on Neptune and surrounds SpongeBob, Patrick and Mindy with his army of slaves. SpongeBob, embracing the fact that he's accomplished so much despite being a kid, uses the power of rock and roll to play "Goofy Goober Rock", freeing Neptune and the citizens of Bikini Bottom from the helmets with his magic guitar. Plankton is arrested by the police, and King Neptune rewards SpongeBob for his bravery by unfreezing Krabs. A jubilant Krabs gives SpongeBob the job as manager of the Krusty Krab 2.

The player is a mutant scientist trapped in another dimension trying to save the last human family. His mutant powers allow him to defeat the evil robots that are trying to kill all of humanity.

''Daughter of the Blood''

Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions. Now the Dark Realm readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence - and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men—sworn enemies—know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love—and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining.

Jaenelle is destined to rule the Blood, if she can reach adulthood. Saetan, High Lord of Hell and most powerful of the Blood males, becomes Jaenelle's surrogate father and teacher. He cannot protect her outside Hell, where he rules. She refuses to leave Terreille, risking herself to protect or heal other victims of violence. Can Daemon, Saetan's estranged son, keep her safe from the machinations of the evil High Priestess?

''Heir to the Shadows''

Jaenelle's adoptive father, Saetan, and her foster-family of demons shelter her. To restore her memory and emotional balance, they move to Kaeleer, where Jaenelle gathers a circle of young Queens. She also heals Lucivar, Daemon's half-brother, who offers a brother's love and a warrior's fealty. As she recovers strength and memory, Jaenelle resolves to restore Daemon and cleanse Terreille. She claims her place as Queen of Ebon Askavi and secures Kaeleer from the growing threat of Tereille and the corruption that exists there.

''Queen of the Darkness''

Jaenelle Angelline now reigns as Queen-protector of the Shadow Realm. No longer will the corrupt Blood slaughter her people and defile her lands. But where one chapter ends, a final, unseen battle remains to be written, and Jaenelle must unleash the terrible power that is Witch to destroy her enemies once and for all.

Even so, she cannot stand alone. Somewhere, long lost in madness, is Daemon, her promised Consort. Only his unyielding love can complete her Court and secure her reign. Yet, even together, their strength may not be enough to hold back the most malevolent of forces.

''The Invisible Ring''

A powerful warlord named Jared, who has been a pleasure slave for nine years, goes up for sale at a slave auction. He expects to end up working in the salt mines, but instead is purchased by a mysterious, powerful and feared witch, the Gray Lady.

Dorothea SaDiablo, High Priestess of Hayll, is a member of a long-lived race who is working to rule or control the entirety of the world of Terreille. The Gray Lady has been fighting her and so Dorothea decides to have her assassinated as she travels to her home territory from the slave auction.

The Gray Lady receives a mysterious warning about the attempt to kill her so she buys a wagon and horses and sets off cross-country with her new slaves, hoping to elude her killers. During the trip, Jared discovers that they are traveling not with the Grey Lady but rather her granddaughter, Lady Arabella Ardelia. He also discovers that he is in love with her.

The chase leads them to Jared's boyhood home where he discovers that Dorothea's forces have already killed all of the witches in the area and most of his family, including his parents. With the help of the few who remain, they defeat Dorothea's army and escape into the Gray Lady's territory. Jared is encouraged by Daemon Sadi to follow his heart and to help Lady Ardelia in her fight against Dorothea to preserve as much as possible that is good for the eventual coming of The prophesied Witch who will have the power to defeat Dorothea and cleanse the blood of the taint she has spread.

''Dreams Made Flesh''

Dreams Made Flesh consists of four stories.

The first tells the story of how the Arachnids became the first race to possess Craft after the Dragons.

The second story tells of how Lucivar Yaslana meets, courts, and marries his wife. It takes place after the events in Heir to the Shadows and before Queen of the Darkness.

The third story tells some of the backstory of Saetan Daemon SaDiablo, and how his then-wife Hekatah tried to manipulate him, including sacrificing his newborn son. It concludes with the terrible retribution he exacted.

The fourth story tells of Daemon Sadi and Jaenelle and how they began to rebuild their lives after the conclusion of Queen of the Darkness.

War, starvation, crime and birth control have been eliminated. Life is now totally fulfilled and sustained within Urban Monads (Urbmons), mammoth thousand-floor skyscrapers arranged in "constellations", where the shadow of one building does not fall upon another. An Urbmon is divided into 25 self-contained "cities" of 40 floors each, in ascending order of status, with administrators occupying the highest level. Each building can hold approximately 800,000 people, with excess population totalling three billion a year transferred to new Urbmons, which are continually under construction.

The Urbmon population is supported by the conversion of all of the Earth's habitable land area not taken up by Urbmons to agriculture. The theoretical limit of the population supported by this arrangement is estimated to be 200 billion. The farmers live a very different lifestyle, with strict birth control. Farmers trade their produce for technology and the two societies rarely have direct contact; even their languages are mutually unintelligible.

The Urbmons are a world of total sexual license where men are expected to engage in "night walking"; it is considered very rude to refuse an invitation for sex. In this world it is a blessing to have children: most people are married at 12 and parents at 14. Just thinking of controlling families is considered a faux pas. Privacy has been dispensed with due to the limited area. Because the need to be outdoors and to travel has been eliminated, thoughts of wanderlust are considered perverse.

The dwellers of the Urban Monad share scant resources and believe that sharing of everything is required in order for people to peacefully co-exist in close quarters. The sharing extends to wives and husbands, a sentiment likely springing from the free love movement of the mid-to-late Twentieth century.

Although great effort is spent to maintain a stable society, the Urban Monad lifestyle causes mental illness in a small percentage of people, and this fate befalls two of the book's main characters. "Moral engineers" reprogram those who are approaching an unacceptable level of behavior.

Given the extremes of life in the Urban Monads, law enforcement and the concept of justice employ a zero tolerance policy. There are usually no trials, and punishment is swift; anyone who threatens the stability of the Urbmon society (a "flippo") is "erased" by being thrown into a shaft that terminates in the building's power generator. This gives one of the book's characters the idea that humanity has been selectively bred for life within the Urbmons.

The story follows the fate of four Formula One drivers through a fictionalized version of the 1966 Formula One season: * Jean-Pierre Sarti (Ferrari) – A Frenchman who has been World Champion twice, is nearing the end of his career and is feeling increasingly cynical about racing itself. * Pete Aron (first Jordan BRM, then Yamura) – An American attempting to repeat past successes and overcome his reputation as a reckless, second-tier driver; he signs with the newcomer Yamura Motors. * Scott Stoddard (Jordan BRM) – A British driver recuperating from a bad crash that left him hospitalized; he becomes dogged by recurrent pains while dealing with the emotional turmoil of his rocky marriage. * Nino Barlini (Ferrari) – A charismatic yet arrogant Italian racer, he's Ferrari's No. 2 driver, being a promising rookie and former world motorcycle champion.

The film's subplots revolve around the women who try to live with or love the racers with dangerous lifestyles. The married Sarti begins an affair with American magazine writer Louise Frederickson, who initially has little interest in motorsports. Aron has a brief romance with Stoddard's unhappy wife Pat while Stoddard deals with living in the shadow of his family's history, being unsure if he can live up to the prestigious racing legacy of his late brother.

The story concludes at the Italian Grand Prix, its winner likely to become World Champion. Sarti's wife Monique shows up just before it begins; she comes face-to-face with Louise and tells Sarti that she'll never grant him a divorce, even as Sarti wishes to end their unhappy union. Sarti's car has technical difficulties at the race's start, with the other drivers facing a close contest for first. Sarti is killed in a spectacular crash. His Ferrari teammate, Barlini, is flagged off the course by team leader Manetta, resulting in a tight race between Aron and Stoddard to the finish line, Aron getting the checkered flag. While a jubilant Aron magnanimously invites Stoddard to the winner's platform to join him, the shock of Sarti's death takes its toll on the celebration. The film ends with Aron alone, walking along the circuit of the final racetrack.

On Mars in the year 2080, five years after the events of ''Red Faction'', the nanotechnology developed by Axel Capek, the head scientist of the Ultor Corporation prior to its fall, has been claimed by the Earth Defense Force (EDF). With this technology, the EDF commences a reorganization of the Ultor Corporation with a particular focus on enhanced supersoldiers and suitable weaponry. However, the research that was done by Capek in his laboratories has been consequently stolen by other militant groups and assorted terrorist organizations. This has gone on for years; the research has changed hands in the criminal underworld many times. The player is introduced to their role as an explosives expert (codenamed "Alias") as he embarks on a special operations mission to claim the research data for the Republic of the Commonwealth.

Eventually, the research is successfully claimed by the elite forces of Victor Sopot, Chancellor of the dystopic military state known as The Commonwealth. Sopot uses the nanotechnology to enhance his already formidable military forces, and successfully creates the first supersoldiers with the research data. However, fearing the potential of his new supersoldiers, he orders them all to be hunted down, executed, and replaced with far less intelligent, mutated horrors known as "The Processed". Collectively betrayed by their leader, the player's squad flees underground and ally themselves with the Red Faction as mercenaries. The Red Faction at this point in the story is an organized resistance movement that is strongly opposed to the rule of Sopot and the skewed political tenets of The Commonwealth. The squad eventually pursues Sopot and neutralizes all opposition in their way as the Red Faction takes the conflict to the streets in a joint uprising against the rule of The Commonwealth. During the initial stages of the game, the Red Faction and the squad mutually support each other as they overcome shared objectives such as sabotaging propaganda installations. The uprising culminates in successfully trapping Sopot in his missile silo and executing him.

Alias returns to the makeshift base of operations only to discover that all of the Red Faction resistance members present have been brutally slaughtered. The squad's leader, Molov, remarks that with Sopot dead and with the nanotech research in his possession, the Commonwealth's military forces have voluntarily pledged allegiance to him. He declares Alias and Tangier, a fellow squadmember, to be enemies of the state for supporting the Red Faction. Tangier helps Alias escape, and shortly after fleeing to safety, Alias lends aid to surviving Red Faction members who are defending themselves from the enemy. Alias and Echo, the lead of the Red Faction, meet up in a secret location to discuss an alternate strategy to stop Molov, and Echo is killed in action during a firefight with Quill, a former squadmember. Tangier radios Alias soon afterward, and the two agree to shut down Molov's commandeered nanotech laboratory located within the colossal statue of Sopot. Inside the laboratory, Alias triumphs over Repta, a former squadmember, and destroys the nanotech laboratory's power generators. Alias's explosives weaken the foundation of the statue and render it unstable. Alias encounters Repta again and once again triumphs over him, causing the energy field within Repta to reach critical mass.

Alias and Tangier meet up and pursue Molov, who is scaling Sopot's statue with the nanotech cell – the culmination of Capek's research – and awaiting extraction from Shrike, Molov's subordinate. Shrike betrays his commanding officer, and Tangier manages to reclaim the nanotech cell from Molov's possession. Molov, desperate to eliminate his enemies, climbs aboard a nearby battle armor and launches a frenzied assault against Alias. Using the destructible environment to his advantage, Alias manages to evade Molov's fire and launches a counterattack that not only kills Molov, but also destroys the statue. As the statue crumbles, Shrike swoops in with his close air support craft to extract Alias. From this point, the story ends in one of four possible ways, depending on the player's Heroics score.

Having solved a high-profile case involving serial killer Edmund Cutler that ended with her being taken hostage by Cutler but managing to overpower and arrest him, officer Jessica Shepard of the San Francisco Police Department is transferred to the homicide division and promoted to the rank of inspector. SFPD Commissioner John Mills, her foster father and her deceased father's former partner, also serves as her proud mentor. Shepard is an alcoholic and nymphomaniac, carrying the emotional burden of her father murdering some of her mother's extra-marital lovers, then Shepard's mother and himself.

When one of Shepard's former one-night stands is brutally murdered, Shepard and her new partner, Mike Delmarco, are assigned to the case. Shepard admits that she had slept with the victim, yet remains assigned to the case. A few days later, another of Shepard's numerous one-night stands is murdered and soon the police come to the conclusion that the killer is stalking Shepard. At Mills' insistence, Shepard remains on the case to bait out the killer.

As investigations progress, Shepard keeps having alcoholic blackouts at night, having already had them on the nights of the two murders. She confides this to Mills, who encourages her to carry on.

Shepard discovers a third murder, Cutler's defense attorney Ray Porter, whom she also had previously had sex with, who had summoned her via note to meet him that morning. Inspector Dale Becker focuses the investigation on Shepard herself, due to Shepard's fleeting sexual relationship with the victims and her occasional flashes of violent behaviour in the line of police duty. Shepard begins to fear that she is becoming like her father and committing similar murders, especially after a fourth of her former lovers is murdered, SFPD Officer Jimmy Schmidt Shepard wakes up with Schmidt's corpse in her bed. In each case, the murder seems to have been committed using a yawara. Shepard is skilled in delivering blows with a yawara, so she is arrested and questioned for the murders but is bailed by Mills after blood work evidence undertaken by pathologist Lisa reveals that Shepard's blood had strong amounts of rohypnol, which means she was incapacitated during the Schmidt murder and thus cannot have committed the crime.

Mills tells Shepard that he suspects Delmarco of being the killer, Delmarco having grown increasingly close to Shepard during the course of the investigation. The two turn up at Delmarco's quayside home to question him. Mills serves Delmarco wine laced with rohypnol to incapacitate him, upon which Shepard realises that Mills is the true killer based on how he says they're now "in this together", while he sets up the scene to look as if Delmarco will commit suicide, akin to how her father had looked when he supposedly committed suicide. Mills admits he killed all of Shepard's lovers, as well as her parents and her mother's lovers, because he considered it his mission to prevent her growing up to be a dissolute woman like her mother. As her father's partner, Mills had felt the responsibility to inform him that his wife was a nymphomaniac, which drove him insane. Furthermore, as he himself had an illicit affair with Shepard's mother, Mills felt the need to kill her lovers, ashamed that he helped destroy his partner's marriage and drove him insane. Mills then decided to put him out of his misery by killing him.

Shepard secretly transmits Mills's confession to other police officers on a mobile phone, allowing her old partner Wilson to track them down. When Mills tries to shoot her and Delmarco, Shepard shoots him in the chest, killing him and causing him to fall off a dock into the water.

Television Series (prior to the ending)

''Space Runaway Ideon'' begins in 2300, far enough in the future that mankind has begun colonizing other planets. On the planet Solo in the Andromeda Galaxy, a group of archaeologists have come across the mysterious remains of the Ideon—three large armored tanks with the ability to combine into a godlike mecha. They also come across a large spaceship known as the Solo Ship. For six months, they have diligently restored the machines, but have failed to get the giant tanks to move. Suddenly, a humanoid alien civilization known as the Buff Clan comes across Solo.

Karala, the youngest daughter of the Buff Clan's military commander, Doba Ajiba, flies down to the planet against orders with her assistant Mayaya to investigate (her commanding officer, Gije, is reluctant to go with her due to her standing and the fact that he once was a soldier under her father). She is pursued closely by soldiers sent by Gije, but they lose sight of her. Assuming the "aliens" (Earthling colonists) have attacked Karala, the Buff Clan begins to attack. Cosmo Yuki, the afro-wearing protagonist of the series, and his friends Kasha Imhof and Deck Afta climb aboard the three tanks, which activate on their own, and, when they initially combine to form the Ideon, fend off the first assault, repelling Gije's men.

This is a short respite, though, as another force is sent down soon after. Bes Jordan, leader of the sparse military force stationed on Solo, orders that the Ideon tanks be armed with missiles, but while this is happening, the cities on Solo are obliterated by Buff Clan soldiers. Gije and his partner Damido, meeting up with the leader of their expedition, Abadidi Gurimade, soon launch more attacks on the planet Solo in an attempt to capture the Ideon (which they refer to as the 'Giant God'). The survivors flee inside the Solo Ship and Karala and Mayaya, who are mistaken by Bes as a colonist, are let onboard as well. Other civilians who quickly get onboard the Solo Ship include Sheryl Formosa, a linguist studying the civilization on Solo; Sheryl's sister, Lin; Banda Lotta; three children: Piper Lou, Ashura Nobaku, and Fard Maraka; mechanic Joliver Ira, pilot Hatari Naburu; and Moera Fatima.

The pilots Tekuno and Bento soon join Cosmo and Kasha as pilots of the Ideon's 3 parts and Moera soon replaces Bes as another pilot. Karala and Mayaya are soon discovered to be aliens, and while Mayaya is killed, Bes has taken a liking to Karala and she is allowed to live, although Sheryl and others distrust her. Karala tells everyone of the Legend of Ide, a story of the Buff Clan's savior, who saved them with the power of the Ide. The Buff Clan have searched the universe for this legendary existence, which is what powers both the Ideon and the Solo Ship.

The Solo Ship soon flees Solo using its powerful DS Drive engines and, after a fight in sub space with the Buff Clan, arrives at the planet Saurus Star. Bes, Cosmo, and the others confront Gije in a powerful Dogg Mack Mobile Suit and later in man to man fighting. Abadidi receives orders from above - Karala's elder sister Harulu - that they no longer have to worry about harming Karala and can kill her they need to, since she has shamed the Ajiba family by associating with the humans. The Buff Clan force chases the Solo Ship to the planet Crystal Star, where Abadidi heads out himself in a Dogg Mack. His attempts to destroy the Solo Ship with giant winged creatures known as Bajins backfires and it is he who is killed by them. With Abadidi dead and Damido injured, Harulu herself heads to the front. Arriving on the planet Ruins Star, Karala tries to make peace with her sister, but is humiliated by Harulu's underlings. Things get even worse for her when Banda Lotta, upset by all the harm the Buff Clan has caused, tries to kill her, but folds under pressure. Karala, who is willing to die, impresses everyone on the Solo Ship with her strength.

The Solo Ship arrives at an Earth base where Cosmo meets Camyula, a female officer who reminds him of his mother. She soon dies right in front of him, which renews his desire to fight. Damido, now recovered, makes one final attempt to destroy the Ideon, but is killed as well. The Solo Ship heads to the planet Ajian, and when Gije attacks the planet, the Ideon uses its powerful Black Hole Cannon, which prevents the Buff Clan's missiles from hitting the planet, but ends up destroying a lot of the planet as a result. Gije heads back to the Buff Clan homeworld as the Solo Ship travels to the planet Flag Star. The Solo Ship and Harulu's Dorowa Zan meet in space and the Dorowa is destroyed. Harulu flees in an escape capsule and meets up with Daram Zuba, a former lover and member of the Ome Foundation, which is plotting with Doba to overthrow the Buff Clan Emperor. With Gije with him, Daram now becomes the main adversary of the Solo Ship as it goes to the planet Kyaral. There, Cosmo meets Kitty Kitten, who desires for the Solo Ship to flee, since it will bring nothing but more heartbreak to their wartorn planet. Kitty is shot to death soon after by Daram and Cosmo is injured, saved only by a blood transfusion from Karala.

The Solo Ship, still pursued by Daram, approaches Earth, but the crew and the survivors learn that their fellow Earthlings will not welcome them. Sheryl and Joliver head to the moon to use the Earth military's powerful Gloria computer and discover that the power of Ide is infinite. The Solo Ship is attacked yet again and the Ideon uses its newest weapon, the Ideon Gun, to defend itself. The 3 children sneak aboard the Ideon in their latest battle with the Buff Clan's Barume Baram Mobile Weapon, which becomes an unforeseen benefit as the reaction of the children in danger makes the Ideon even more powerful and yet another weapon, the Ideon Sword, is revealed. Gije, abandoned by Daram, meets Sheryl and sneaks aboard the Solo Ship. Few trust him, even after he kills Daram in a battle on Earth. With the Earth's military completely rejecting them, the Solo Ship flees without a home to go back to.

The Buff Clan continues to send high ranking Buff Clan officers after the Solo Ship, but they all fail. Moera is killed in battle to the distress of everyone, especially medic Rapot. Gije takes his place as one of the Ideon's pilots. The Solo Ship returns to Ajian, whose inhabitants now despise them for what happened earlier and their military leader takes hostages, killing Lin before he is stopped. The Solo Ship flees to the planet Steckin Star and Gije is killed when the Ideon is heavily damaged. The Ideon continues to get more and more powerful as the battles and deaths escalate, and the Ideon chops the entire planet in half as it makes its escape.

TV Ending

With repeated failure by his military leaders, Doba himself heads out on the Buff Clan flagship, the Bairal Jin. Along with him is the Ome Foundation leader, Gindoro. Karala and Joliver suddenly find themselves transported to the Bairal Jin and are caught by Doba and his men. Karala reveals that she is pregnant with the child of an Earthling (Bes), to the shock of everyone, and they make their escape. The Solo Ship heads there to save them. Doba then declares that he will do whatever it takes to kill his own daughter, causing the Ideon's power to invoke. Karala and Joliver continue to head through the halls of the Bairal Jin and hide from the soldiers. They find the Heavy Mobile Mecha hangar and defeat the soldiers there chasing them. Doba orders his soldiers to find the source of the recent tremors occurring around the Bairal Jin. Suddenly, the Solo Ship departs from DS space right in front of the Bairal Jin and rams right into it. The Buff Clan's forces approach the Solo Ship and the Ideon heads out to fight them. Karala and Joliver, putting on spacesuits, realize that the Solo Ship has come to rescue them.

They leave the dock, but are still pursued by soldiers. Cosmo tells the Solo Ship to keep the Ideon Gun since they won't be able to use it there. Bes and Hatari are able to find Karala and Joliver. A strange light glows from Karala's abdomen. Bes heads to one of the Solo Ship's cannons to help Karala. He fires upon the soldiers pursuing her and Joliver. They make their way to a small Buff Clan shuttle. The Ideon uses its 'All Missiles' attack on the enemy. Joliver tells Karala she's gotten stronger as they head out in the shuttle. Bes tells Hatari to pull back the Solo Ship and have the Ideon protect Karala and Joliver. Cosmo brings the Ideon towards their shuttle, but it is blown up by a stray blast seconds before the Ideon reaches it. Cosmo curses the Buff Clan over Karala and Joliver's apparent deaths. Hatari says the Ideon gauge has returned to normal and Bes orders him to reverse the thrusters and escape. Doba is upset at his force's lack of success against the enemy. Suddenly, a glowing light appears in front of the Ideon. It is Karala and Joliver, unharmed. The Ideon grabs them and heads back towards the Solo Ship. Cosmo tells Bes and Hatari the good news. Joliver tells Karala she's a great woman and that he'd be with her if she wasn't with Bes already. The Solo Ship escapes into Null Space.

Doba orders his forces to track down the Solo Ship, even if they have to go to the end of the universe. At that moment, the Ideon is invoked. Yet another strange light envelops the Solo Ship. Doba and Karala's encounter was the last chance humanity had, and both sides rejected it. The Ideon releases its infinite power, using Karala's baby as the trigger, and the Ideon wipes out both races. It scatters humanity and the Buff Clan, sending them to the end of the universe to be reborn as wise and kindhearted, many new races of Peoples to use technology more wisely, and never to repeat the same mistakes they did by using technology. spirit of Solo Ship, massive number of comets and The souls of Piper Lou and Karala's baby then travel through space.

Be Invoked

Where the TV series ends, the second movie changes events drastically. The Buff Clan is quickly finishing its work on the Ganda Rowa, a powerful warship that might be even more powerful than the Ideon. After Doba declares that he will hunt his daughter to the ends of the universe, the Solo Ship flees under pursuit of many Buff Clan troops. Harulu sends out her top fighters, Tororof and Kilarul, in the Zanza Lubu. Sheryl, drunken and mad over Lin and Gije's deaths and armed with the knowledge that the Ide desires to protect children, brings out Piper Lou onto the deck of the ship in order to strengthen the Ideon. The force of the Ideon Gun blows her right off the ship to her death, reuniting her with her beloved Gije. Karala saves Piper Lou and the Solo Ship escapes.

On the bridge of the Solo Ship, Karala reveals to everyone else that she's pregnant with Bes' child, who Cosmo and the others call a Messiah. Kilarul and Tororof head back to Harulu, telling her that Karala and her unborn child are what manifest the Ide. Harulu decides to both prevent the child's birth and stop the Ide's power from invoking by killing Karala. The Zanza Lubu that she, Kilarul, and Tororof are on is destroyed in battle, but the three make their way onto the Solo Ship. Tororof is killed by Banda Lotta, who is killed shortly after by Kilarul. Karala reveals herself and tries to kill Harulu, only to be shot in the face and killed by Harulu, who flees immediately after along with Kilarul. It isn't long before the two of them are annihilated by the Ideon Gun.

Meanwhile, meteors strike Earth, its colony planets, and the Buff Clan's homeworld, killing everyone and reducing them to uninhabitable wastelands. Gindoro, afraid of the Ideon and wishing to flee, refuses to listen to Doba and is subsequently killed. Doba, angry with the deaths of his daughters, has the Buff Clan military force continue to attack the Solo Ship as it approaches the Ganda Rowa. In the ensuing battle, Kasha is killed by shrapnel and Buff Clan soldiers make their way to the Solo Ship bridge. Hatari, Rapot, and Ashura are killed, while Fard is mortally wounded. Bes is shot in the neck, hanging on long enough to fire back at the remaining assailants. Doba doesn't care about sacrificing everyone's lives as long as the Ideon is destroyed, causing his own soldiers to kill him, only for them to killed when the Ideon attacks the bridge. The Ideon tries to destroy the Ganda Rowa, which fires and kills everyone and destroys the Solo Ship. The Ide is invoked as the Ideon and the Gando Rowa are destroyed by a resulting blast wiping out the entire universe.

The naked souls of everyone, Buff Clan and Earthlings peaceful at last, ascend through space. Bes and Karala's baby, the 'Messiah', leads everyone to a new planet in the universe that closely resembles Earth.

50,000 years before the events of the novel, the planet Garth was leased to the Bururalli who, imperfectly uplifted, reverted to a pre-sophont state and nearly destroyed its ecosystem by overhunting all large indigenous species. The ecologically sensitive galactic civilization declared a war of extermination and the Bururalli were made extinct. As the youngest clan in galactic civilization, Earthclan is mostly relegated to near-hopeless "recovery worlds" for colonization, and they are granted a lease to inhabit Garth.

The novel begins in the year 2489 C.E. with the avian Gubru planning to invade Garth. The Gubru, a conservative and somewhat humorless alien race, decide to hold Garth hostage in an attempt to learn more about the discovery that the dolphin spaceship ''Streaker'' made in ''Startide Rising'' about the Progenitors.

The Gubru overpower Garth's token space forces, in the battle a neo-chimp soldier of Earthclan, Fiben Bolger, pilots a small craft that is damaged and crash lands in the mountains. The Gubru engage a small portion of their ground force in ritualistic combat against Earthling forces, and Earthclan successfully defends its legal right to the planet under the standards of Galactic law. However, the Gubru immediately take hostage most of the human population using a pre-planned subterfuge consisting of repeated, wide aerial distribution of a poisonous gas specially formulated to target humans. In order to receive the antidote, the humans must report to island prison camps and agree to be imprisoned during the occupation. The Gubru, used to galactic norms, mistakenly believe that the neo-chimp population on Garth will be easily controlled without their human patrons to guide them.

Taking advantage of resentments that fester among the lower social strata of the neo-chimp population (those with limited rights to breed), the Gubru subvert some of the neo-chimps in and around Port Helenia, the capital city. At the same time, a large group in the mountains, led by Robert Oneagle and Athaclena, engage in guerrilla warfare. Their combination of "wolfling" ingenuity and galactic diplomacy allow them to inflict significant damage, both psychological and physical, on the Gubru. Fiben Bolger, in town on a fact-finding expedition for the Resistance, runs afoul of one of the conspirator neo-chimpanzees known as Irongrip.

Elsewhere on the planet, Athaclena's father Uthacalthing, the Tymbrimi ambassador, and the Thennanin ambassador, Kault, are shot down while fleeing the Gubru invasion. The two ambassadors land safely, but must trek several hundred kilometers back to civilization. The Tymbrimi are allies of Earth and well known for a low sense of humor that, along with a yen for surprise, motivates much of their behavior. By contrast, the Thennanin are portrayed as dour, supercilious, protectors of the rights of animals and species. Hoping to fool Kault with an elaborate and ultimately costly practical joke, Uthacalthing secretly instructs a furtive neo-chimp to create false evidence pointing to the existence of Garthlings – a fabled race of pre-sentient creatures that were rumored to have survived the Bururalli holocaust. Uthacalthing also plants evidence about the Garthlings in his "diplomatic cache" – which is, after being disturbed by Fiben Bolger, stolen by the Gubru. Unknown to him, some renegade humans have already been illegally beginning the uplift process of gorillas, meaning that there actually is a 'Garthling' race up for adoption.

The three Gubru co-commanders (suzerains) overreact to most situations. When the Suzerain of Cost and Caution is killed in an accident set up by the neo-chim resistance movement, the other two suzerains exploit the situation and further their own goals. The Suzerain of Propriety seizes on the Garthling myth and builds an enormously expensive ''hypershunt'' on Garth. If Garthlings can be found, the Gubru will be able to use the hypershunt to adopt and indenture the race for 100,000 years in exchange for uplifting them to sentience. At the same time, the Gubru and others find evidence of secret uplift in the mountains, and come to believe that Earthclan was hiding a secret effort to uplift Garthlings.

The suzerains are unable to resolve their internal power struggles and begin scheming against one another. Fiben Bolger begins to fear that Earthclan's well-known naivete at Galactic punctilio could imperil the entire neo-chimpanzee population, both on Garth and on Earth. Some of the key neo-chimpanzee characters are eventually forced to choose between following the legal representatives of the surviving Planetary Government, or to follow their original leaders, Robert Oneagle and the young Tymbrimi Athaclena. Many of the major characters must weigh their personal feelings against patriotic duties and greater responsibilities. There is a trial by combat during the Uplift ceremony between Fiben Bolger and Irongrip for the right to choose patrons for their next stage of Uplift, as the Gubru attempt to co-opt the uplift of the neochimpanzees in order salvage the massive expense of building the hypershunt. In the end, Uthacalthing's joke succeeds beyond his wildest imaginings, as the partially uplifted gorillas suddenly come forward as Garthlings and indicate their willingness to be uplifted by the Thennanin, with Humans and Neo-Chimpanzees as their consorts (races tasked to ensure that uplift is not mishandled or abused). Athaclena and the remaining resistance fighters come down from the mountains and deliberately assemble in an exposed position, showing their willingness to die rather than allow further acts of war to damage Garth's already damaged ecosystems. The Suzerain of Beam and Talon orders his soldiers to destroy them, but they disobey and kill him, and the Gubru leave Garth in shame. As the book comes to an end, Uthacalthing's maneuverings have brought desperately needed assistance to Earthclan and its allies out on the starlanes, as the Thennanin and their allies join the conflict on Earthclan's side.

A rape victim, comic book artist Lisa Roberts is given the runaround by the New York City Police Department. Tired with city life, she heads for the wide open spaces of Arizona. Not long afterward, she is propositioned by lowlife Randall Atkins. She reports this to sympathetic local policeman Steve Smith, who replies matter-of-factly that this is not the first time that Atkins has been accused of a sexual offense.

To her amazement, Roberts is later visited by Atkins, who agitatedly warns her not to trust the sweet-natured policeman. Someone is lying about something, and Roberts plainly does not know what to believe. When she finds out, it is nearly too late.

In the year 2142, intelligence agent Conrad B. Hart discovers that shapeshifting aliens known as Morphs have infiltrated human society. He records a message to himself, but before he can warn anyone else, he is captured and his memory erased. He later escapes, but crash-lands his vehicle in a jungle, where the gameplay begins as he drops his recorded message. If the player retrieves it, it instructs Conrad to meet his friend Ian in New Washington.

Once there, he finds Ian being attacked by police. After Conrad kills them, Ian uses a regenerator to restore his memories, a copy of which he had sent to Ian. Afterward, Conrad is determined to return to Earth. Ian tells him that the only way he can afford a ticket to Earth is to win one in ''Death Tower,'' a game show in which contestants fight to the death, and false papers are required for a pass. To pay for the forged papers, Conrad takes a series of dangerous jobs in the city. He finds himself continually targeted by police, who have presumably been misled by Morph infiltrators.

Conrad wins ''Death Tower'' and travels to Earth. His false papers get him past the checkpoint, but the Morphs soon realize who he is and Conrad is pursued by more cops. He takes a taxi to the Paradise Club, which conceals the Morphs' hideout. He spies on three Morphs through a ceiling vent. They discuss their plan to conquer Earth within hours. Conrad falls through the vent and is taken to a prison cell. Soon, Morphs enter his cell to kill him. Conrad runs past them and picks up a discarded alien gun. Exploring the facility, he discovers a teleporter, and uses it to transport himself to the Morphs' home planet.

He finds a human prisoner named Phillip Howard Clark. As he opens his prison, a Morph appears and executes Phillip. Dying, Phillip gives Conrad an atomic charge. Phillip's diary reveals he had planned to destroy the "Master Brain" that controls the aliens, located at the planet's core, but the "Auxiliary Brain" must be destroyed to open up the communication pathways to the Master Brain. Conrad destroys the Auxiliary Brain and finds the Master Brain's pathway. As he arrives at a certain spot, he hears Phillip's voice, telling him that the atomic charge should be placed on a loose platform. After he does so, he throws a switch, awakening the brain to cause a tremor, which drops the charge towards the core. Conrad escapes to the hangar and takes a Morph's spacecraft out of the planet's atmosphere before it detonates. As he cannot navigate home due to the Morphs' galaxy not being on any human star charts, he instead puts himself in suspended animation while his ship drifts into space, leading up to the events of ''Fade to Black''.

ARC agents Gideon Eshanti and Rachel Braque are spending the night together when they are attacked by a government execution squad. After killing the scrub agents, they flee to the apartment of Dante Scrivner. Dante offers them the use of his apartment, and says he'll use his connections to help investigate why the "Hand of God" wants them dead. He also provides them a contact with the CFF, a rebel organization trying to overthrow the Hand of God, but they remain hopeful that they'll be able to clear their names instead.

Rachel and Gideon visit their commanding officer, Captain Frank Jersey, to ask him what they've been charged with. They're officially accused of dealing in pornography for the demon Pazuzu, a.k.a. Mr. Beautiful. Mr. Beautiful is repeatedly brought in by Transgressions to finger undesirables such as Rachel and Gideon as his accomplices, while Beautiful himself is let off on a technicality. Intuiting that they were probably two of a group of people due to be "scrubbed" that night, Rachel and Gideon also obtain the "scrub list" from Jersey in hopes of finding a commonality between themselves and the other targets.

Gideon and Rachel head to Foggy Bottoms, where they acquire new allies (including a holographic simulacrum of Gideon's deceased ex-girlfriend Cynna Stone, an explosives expert) before summoning Mr. Beautiful. Not only does Beautiful refuse them any information, he persistently behaves as though the two of them truly are his longstanding accomplices, and gives them a mission to Hell to stop his rival, Sanguinarius. Hoping to get something out of this, they accept. Once in Hell, they take a variety of high-tech weapons from Sanguinarius's arsenal, and use them to kill the demon. Beautiful returns them to the mortal plane but again refuses them any help.

Gideon and Rachel visit another tech violator, Dr. Clean and she sells them an illegal lockpick implant. They use it to break into the office of Transgressions agent Jean Saint Mouchoir, an obsessive diarist. While they are able to get through most of the passwords on his computer, they cannot access his records on an operation called "Night of the Re-entombment", and an entry on the two of them indicates that even Mouchoir is ignorant of the reason they are on the scrub list. However, they are able to obtain locations of several "fringe" groups which include people on the scrub list.

By now convinced that the Hand of God is corrupt, they use Dante's contact with the CFF, who tells them to aid in an assassination attempt on the USA's ruler, Imperator Solene Solux, to prove their sincerity. They agree, but the attempt fails. They continue to investigate the rest of the scrub list, and meet up with demon hunter Dean Sterling, who enlists them in taking out a demon porn film director, Asmodeus. After a presumed encounter in hell, they awaken back on Earth, where Sterling tells them that Asmodeus had them hooked up to virtual reality decks. Sterling shot Asmodeus, who turns out to be an android. Hell is a virtual reality program created by the Hand of God to instill fear in the people. Gideon and Rachel head to Dante's apartment to find out who made the program crash. Dante tells them a Deep Throat contacted him online with an address for their virtual reality decks. They use it to meet up with Deep Throat in a cloaked virtual reality locale.

Meanwhile, they find that all the others on the scrub list were involved in illegal activities. Moreover, all of them, including Gideon and Rachel, habitually mouthed a Latin phrase. In exchange for recovering a stolen text, the leader of a fringe group translates the phrases into English, and deduces they are a code for a word. They use this word to access Mouchoir's records on The Night of the Re-entombment, which say that the people on the scrub list were all captured CFF agents who were mindwiped, given new memories, physically rebuilt, and implanted with subconscious impulses to take down the CFF. It adds that some of these agents failed to follow these impulses, so all of them were put on the scrub list to be safe. Rachel points out that even if what the records say is possible, it makes no sense for the government to have gone to such immense trouble and expense. But they shrug the matter off and cease their investigation into the reason behind their being on the scrub list.

They return to CFF headquarters and inform their leader, Senator Erin Burr, that Hell is virtual. Though virtual reality tech is outlawed, the Hand of God has developed it in secret, resulting in a Hell program far more realistic than anything tech criminals are capable of. Burr asks them to rescue 12 key CFF supporters from Hell. While rescuing them from various hellpits, Rachel and Gideon are contacted by Deep Throat, who tells them his true identity is Thomas Meaculp, a low-tier programmer for Hell, and that he has been found out. They track Meaculp to the Pentagon Jail and break him out, bringing him to the CFF to work out a means of destroying Hell. They reenter Hell to rescue the remaining CFF supporters, and though Solux herself confronts them in the guise of Satan, they succeed in freeing them all.

(The rest of this summary assumes the player chose Gideon as the lead character. If Rachel is chosen, Gideon and Rachel's parts are swapped, but the plot is otherwise unchanged.)

After Gideon and Rachel return, the CFF techs tell them Rachel must enter the core of the Hell program behind the illusion and locate the spawner application, which is used to create the various Hell pits. As Rachel enters the core, Solene Solux appears and destroys her mind. The CFF techs receive the location of the spawner program just before her death.

After two days of mourning for Rachel, Gideon convinces Senator Burr to let him go ahead with the plan to destroy Hell. He breaks into the central computer room for the Hell program, sending a gas bomb through the tube system to take out the guards. On the way he is confronted by Solux, but he beats her senseless and inserts the disc with the Hell bug. Senator Burr proceeds to take over the Hand of God's entire communication network, broadcasting that Hell is virtual and the Hand have been overthrown. Burr is elected President, and Rachel and Gideon are honored as heroes.

The novel begins when Janet Evason suddenly arrives and disappears in Jeannine's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a futuristic world where a plague killed all of the men over 800 years ago, and Jeannine lives in a world that never experienced the end of the Great Depression. Janet takes Jeannine to Joanna's world, where both women meet in a cocktail lounge and watch Janet's televised interview. She explains to the male interviewer the culture and customs of Whileawayans which differ greatly from Joanna's world. When Janet begins to explain to the interviewer how women in Whileaway "copulate" she is abruptly cut off by a commercial break.

Acting as a guide, Joanna takes Janet to a party in her world to show her how women and men interact with each other. Janet quickly finds herself to be the object of a man's attention as he continually harasses her. After she has had enough, Janet knocks the man down and mocks him. Her behavior shocks everyone at the party, since in Joanna's world, it is believed that women are inferior to men. Janet then expresses her desire to experience living with a typical family to Joanna, who takes Janet to the Wildings’ household in Anytown, U.S.A. Janet meets their teenage daughter Laura Rose who instantly admires Janet's confidence and independence as a woman. Laura realizes that she is attracted to Janet and begins to pursue a sexual relationship with her. This is transgressive for both of them, as Whileaway's taboo against cross-generational relationships (having a relationship with someone old enough to be your parent or young enough to be your child) is as strong as the taboo against same-sex relationships on Laura's world. After the two have sex for the first time, Janet recounts to Laura how she met and fell in love with her wife, Vittoria, back in Whileaway.

Jeannine and Joanna accompany Janet back to Whileaway where they meet Vittoria and stay at their home. A small Whileawayan child follows Joanna and tells her a story about a bear trapped between two worlds as a metaphor for her life. Jeannine returns to her world with Joanna, and they both go to vacation at her brother's house. Jeannine's mother pesters her about her love life and asks whether she is going to get married soon. Jeannine goes on a few dates with some men but still finds herself dissatisfied. Jeannine begins to doubt her sense of reality, but soon decides that she wants to assimilate into her role as a woman. She calls Cal to pick her up and agrees to marry him.

Joanna, Jeannine, and Janet arrive in Jael's world which has had a 40 year old war between men and women. Jael explains that she works for the Bureau of Comparative Ethnology, an organization that concentrates on people's various counterparts in different parallel worlds. She reveals that she is the one who brought all of them together because they are four versions of the same woman. Jael takes all of them with her into enemy territory where she appears to be negotiating a deal with one of the male leaders. At first, the male leader appears to be promoting equality, but Jael quickly realizes that he still believes in the inferiority of women. He relentlessly harasses Jael and tries to convince her that it is necessary for both societies to reconcile. Jael reveals herself as a ruthless assassin, kills the man, and shuttles all of the women back to her house. At her house, the women witness Jael and Davy, her biological automaton, having sex. Jael finally tells the other women why she has assembled all of them. She wants to create secret military bases in the women's worlds without the men's knowledge. Her hope is that eventually, the women in each world will be empowered and overthrow their respective patriarchal societies.

Jeannine and Joanna agree to help Jael assimilate the women soldiers into their worlds, but Janet refuses, given the overall pacifism of Whileaway. Jeannine and Joanna appear to have become stronger individuals and are excited to rise up against their gender roles. Janet is not moved by Jael's intentions so Jael suggests Janet that the reason for the absence of men on Whileaway is not because of a plague but because the women won the war and killed all of the men in its timeline's past. Janet refuses to believe Jael, and the other women are annoyed at Janet's resistance. The novel ends with the women separating and returning to their worlds, each with a new perspective on her life, her world, and her identity as a woman.

The play begins with the introduction of Electra, the daughter of Clytemnestra and the late Agamemnon. Several years after Agamemnon's death suitors began requesting Electra's hand in marriage. Out of fear that Electra's child might seek revenge, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus married her off to a peasant of Mycenae. The peasant is kind to her and has respected her family name and her virginity. In return for his kindness, Electra helps her husband with the household chores. Despite her appreciation for her husband's kindness, Electra resents being cast out of her house and laments to the Chorus about her struggles with her drastic change in social status.

Upon Agamemnon's murder Clytemnestra and Aegisthus put Orestes, the other child of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, under the care of the king of Phocis, where he became friends with the king's son, Pylades. Now grown, Orestes and Pylades travel to Electra and her husband's house. Orestes keeps his identity hidden from Electra, claiming to be messengers of Orestes. He uses his anonymity to determine Electra's loyalty to him and Agamemnon before he reveals his plans for revenge. After some time it is clear that Electra is passionate about avenging the death of their father. At this point the aged servant who brought Orestes to Phocis years before enters the play. He recognizes Orestes because of the scar on his brow and the siblings are reunited.

They begin to plot how they will murder both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. The aged servant explains that Aegisthus is currently in his stables, preparing to sacrifice oxen for a feast. Orestes goes to confront Aegisthus while Electra sends the aged servant to tell Clytemnestra that she had a son ten days ago, knowing this will bring Clytemnestra to her house. A messenger arrives and describes Orestes’ successful murder of Aegisthus. Orestes and Pylades return bearing Aegisthus’ body. As Clytemnestra approaches, Orestes begins to waver on his decision to murder their mother. Electra convinces Orestes that he must fulfill his duty to Agamemnon and murder their mother. When Clytemnestra arrives, Orestes and Electra lure her into the house, where they thrust a sword into her throat.

The two leave the house, filled with grief and guilt. As they lament, Clytemnestra's deified brothers, Castor and Pollux, appear. They tell Electra and Orestes that their mother received just punishment but their matricide was still a shameful act, and they instruct the siblings on what they must do to atone and purge their souls.

Iris (Collette) is a timid young woman who begins a new office job at a credit company where she temps. She soon meets Margaret (Posey) who is as assertive as Iris is meek; the two women become friends as Margaret teaches Iris the many ways to deal with the sorrowful world of being a temp. She introduces Iris to two other temps: aspiring actress Paula (Kudrow) eagerly awaits post-work happy hours and the chance to flirt with attractive men, and naive Jane (Ubach) is engaged to marry a jerk who makes up for his rude behavior by buying her gifts. Margaret is upset when a strange woman named Cleo arrives at the company and is hired as a permanent employee after her first day. Margaret hopes to become an executive assistant to stressed out manager Mr. Lasky (Bob Balaban), but her dreams are thwarted when he dies of a heart attack. The four temps forge a sort of camaraderie based on being outsiders at the company.

A series of thefts occur in the office and suspicion falls on the temps, particularly Margaret. Margaret believes that Cleo is at fault but the other temps suspect Margaret may be stealing things herself. Iris's plastic toy monkey goes missing and when she sees it inside of Margaret's desk, Iris loses faith in Margaret. While walking one day, Margaret and Iris see Jane's fiance with another girl, but do not do anything about it. At Jane's bridal shower, the girls confide in Paula, who lashes out at Margaret by saying that she doesn't understand how much marriage means to people.

As the office stealing continues, the girls are put under more and more stress which strains their friendship, as all their shoddy desks are put into a fishbowl-type area and they are spied on and searched by the office security guards. Paula reveals to Iris that she is pregnant, but soon after tells her it was a false alarm. Margaret explains to Iris that Paula typically lies about booking acting roles in order to make herself seem better.

Eventually, Margaret suggests a one-day strike from work due to mistreatment and being under appreciated as temps, and her friends halfheartedly agree to join her, but on the appointed day, Margaret is the only one who does not come to work. As a result, Barbara, the company's unlikable and unkind head of human resources (Debra Jo Rupp) fires Margaret. Margaret calls out for support, but none of her friends or coworkers say anything as she is removed from the building. Iris finds out that Margaret had simply had a similar plastic monkey in her desk and she was not the thief after all. She expresses her regret at not speaking up when Margaret was fired. The friendships between the temps dissolves, as Iris relates that she didn't attend Jane's wedding, and also that Paula was transferred to accounting. In a sad moment when she moves to another desolate temp desk, Iris throws a picture she took during a night out with Margaret, Paula, and Jane into the trash.

When Iris spots Cleo stealing a few items from a senior executive's desk, she follows her home and is surprised to see Cleo lives in a mansion. She angrily leaves Cleo a note at work demanding her stolen notebook back, and when Cleo fishes it out of her purse and hands it to her, Iris is not forgiving: she later burns the notebook (which Cleo had drawn inside) in front of Cleo at lunch. Cleo later leaves a fancy new notebook on Iris' desk with two words written inside its first page: "I'm Sorry."

When Iris is not hired for a permanent job she'd applied for at another company- a position she really wanted - she quits. A pleasant but distant senior executive agrees to sign a pre-written letter of recommendation for her (but under Margaret's name). Fulfilling Margaret's previously stated resolution to get a recommendation out of her bleak time as a temp, Iris then mails the letter of recommendation to Margaret with a note, and resolves that she will no longer be the passive person she was when the story began.

Part I

In 2267, the USS ''Enterprise'' arrives at Starbase 11 in response to a subspace call First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) reported receiving from the former captain of the ''Enterprise'', Christopher Pike (Sean Kenney), under whom Spock had served. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock meet the starbase commander, Commodore Mendez (Malachi Throne). Mendez informs them that the permanently disabled Pike could not have sent any message, as he is unable to move or communicate other than answering yes/no questions with the aid of a device operated by his brainwaves. Pike refuses to communicate with anyone except Spock. After Kirk and Mendez leave to discuss the situation, Spock reveals, over Pike's repeated "no" signals, that he intends to carry out a plan that he has made.

Meanwhile, Mendez confirms that there is no record of any message sent to the Enterprise. Mendez provides Kirk with classified information on the planet Talos IV, which was visited by the ''Enterprise'' previously under Pike's command in 2254, and is now under a strict quarantine. Spock, meanwhile, commandeers the ''Enterprise'' by means of falsified recordings of Kirk's voice, places Pike under McCoy's care, and orders the ship to depart under the computer's control. Kirk and Mendez give chase in a Starbase shuttlecraft. After several hours, upon learning from the computer that the shuttlecraft does not have enough fuel to return to the starbase, Spock has them brought aboard and then gives himself up, confessing to mutiny. The crew find they are unable to change the current course of the ''Enterprise'', which Spock affirms is heading towards Talos IV. Mendez convenes a hearing, at which Spock requests immediate court-martial, which requires three command officers. Kirk objects that only he and Mendez are available, but Spock notes that Pike is still listed for active duty. The tribunal begins, and Spock offers as his testimony what seems to be video footage of the ''Enterprise'' s earlier visit to Talos IV in 2254.The video footage used is actually from ''Star Trek'' s first pilot, "The Cage".

On the screen, the ''Enterprise'' arrives at Talos IV in 2254 in response to a distress call from the survey ship ''Columbia'', lost in 2236. Pike (played in these flashback scenes by Jeffrey Hunter) beams down to the planet along with Spock and a landing party, where they encounter a group of survivors, including a young woman named Vina (Susan Oliver), who was born shortly after the crash of ''Columbia''. Dr. Boyce (John Hoyt), Pike's chief medical officer, establishes that the survivors are all in perfect health, despite the circumstances. Vina promises to show Pike the secret of their health, and leads him to a rocky outcropping. Two aliens emerge from a hidden door, stun Pike, and carry him through the door. Vina, the other survivors, and their camp suddenly disappear. Pike has been abducted by the Talosians, humanoid aliens with the power to create illusions indistinguishable from reality (reality distortion fields).

Back in 2267, the scene is interrupted by a message from Starfleet Command, which reveals that the images they have been viewing are being transmitted from Talos IV. Mendez is placed in command of the ''Enterprise'', but Spock begs Kirk to see the rest of the transmission.

Part II

Spock's trial continues, and the transmitted scene resumes with Pike in 2254 in a cell with a transparent wall. The Talosians begin their "experiment", which consists of a number of illusory situations involving Pike and Vina. The Talosians' hope is that Pike and Vina will mate and found a race of slaves who will reclaim the war-damaged surface of the planet. Meanwhile, the ''Enterprise'' crew fails to break into the underground complex with weapons enhanced by the ship's power. A landing party attempts to beam into the complex, but only the female members arrive, in order, as the Talosian "Keeper" explains, to give Pike more choices for a mate. An attempt to blast through the cell wall with the new captives' phasers fails as the weapons are apparently non-functional.

That night, Pike is able to capture the Keeper as he attempts to confiscate the weapons. Pike intuits that the phasers still function, and that their escape attempt was thwarted by an illusion. He forces the Talosian to reveal a hole in the cell wall. The humans proceed to the surface, but learn that this was the Talosians' plan. Number One (Majel Barrett, billed as M. Leigh Hudec) sets her phaser on overload, preferring to die rather than be enslaved, but deactivates the weapon when more Talosians arrive. The aliens have found that humans' "unique hatred of captivity" makes them unsuitable for the Talosians' plans, which must therefore be abandoned. Pike desires an apology, but the Talosians point out that this failure spells the death of their species. Pike offers help from the interstellar community, but the Talosians fear that their mental powers would spread and bring other races to ruin. As the rest of the party are beamed back to the ship, Pike is shown that Vina's appearance up to now has been an illusion. In reality she was severely injured in the ''Columbia's'' crash and further left deformed by the Talosians' failure to adequately repair her injuries. She elects to stay on the planet, and Pike returns to the ship.

Back in 2267, the transmission ends as the ''Enterprise'' arrives at Talos IV. Commodore Mendez suddenly fades away, and the Keeper appears on the viewing screen, informing Kirk that Mendez's presence was an illusion. The court-martial was a ploy to buy time to bring Pike back to Talos IV, where, if willing, he would be able to enjoy the illusion of a normal life. A message from Commodore Mendez then advises that Starfleet has waived the prohibition against contact with the planet for this one occasion, and that Kirk is free to proceed as he thinks best. Pike is transported to the planet, and the rejuvenated Pike and Vina are seen on the viewing screen returning with the Talosians to the underground complex. The Keeper appears one last time to wish Kirk well.

In 1989, while on its landing approach, a U.S. commercial jet is about to be struck by another plane from above. The pilot struggles to control the plane while the first officer checks the passenger cabin. He returns to the cockpit yelling that everyone is dead and the corpses are burned.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Smith investigates the accident. He and his team are confused by the first officer's words on the cockpit voice recorder, as there is no evidence of a fire before the crash. Meanwhile, theoretical physicist Dr. Arnold Mayer is professionally curious about the crash, which borders on science fiction. In a lecture, he discusses the possibility of visits from time travelers.

In the future, pollution has rendered humans unable to reproduce. Teams are sent into the past to abduct people who are about to die; the plane crashes were part of this plan. The abductees are kept in stasis until they can be sent into the far future to repopulate the Earth. Most of the current population is in poor health but the time travelers—mostly women—are relatively healthy and are given the best food and care to pass for 20th-century humans. Present-day air is too clean for the time travelers to process; they smoke cigarettes to mimic their own timeline's atmosphere.

Every incursion into the past causes an accompanying "timequake", with a magnitude proportional to the incursion's effects. Time travelers try to minimize their effects by replacing the humans they abduct with organically grown copies. This explains the co-pilot's comment about the charred passengers; the replicas had been pre-burned in preparation for the crash.

In 1963, a time traveler on a plane is shot before it crashes, losing a stun weapon as a result. This weapon winds up in Dr. Mayer's possession, setting his path to investigate what is happening. Twenty-five years later, Smith finds a similar artifact among the wreckage of the crash portrayed at the beginning of the film.

Worried that the discoveries made by Smith and Mayer might change history, time-traveler Louise Baltimore is sent back to 1989 to deter Bill Smith from pursuing his investigation. She gains Bill's trust and seduces him into a one-night stand, attempting to distract him. Bill gradually becomes suspicious and visits Dr. Mayer. Louise materializes from the future and reveals her mission to them, hoping they will voluntarily keep the secret. During the conversation, Mayer accidentally kills himself while reassembling the stun weapon.

Mayer was instrumental in the development of the Gate technology that made time travel possible; his death results in an unsolvable paradox—a ''force infinity'' timequake—which will destroy the entire civilization of the future timeline. The only course of action is to send all the people who were collected into the distant future before the Gate is permanently destroyed.

Bill, and Louise, who is pregnant, step through the Gate together and disappear. As an explosion destroys the Gate and as the blast wave engulfs Louise's android advisor, Sherman, he quotes Winston Churchill: "This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning."

Frank Martin is a former special operations soldier and now highly skilled driver/mercenary residing in southern France whose callsign is ''The Transporter''. He strictly follows three rigid rules when transporting:

Never change the deal.

No names.

Never open the package.

In Nice, Frank is hired to transport three bank robbers with his black BMW 735i, but they hoist a fourth man in his car after the robbery. Explaining the extra weight will affect his precisely planned getaway, he refuses to drive until, in desperation, the leader kills one of his men who is pushed out of the car. Later they offer more money for Frank to drive them to Avignon. He refuses the deal. The robbers escape in another car, but are foiled by their amateur driving. At Frank's villa on the French Riviera, local Police Inspector Tarconi questions Frank about the black BMW that fled the scene of the robbery Frank was the getaway driver for. Lacking any real proof, Tarconi leaves. Frank is then hired to deliver a package of to an American, Darren "Wall Street" Bettencourt. The package is loaded into Frank's trunk. While changing a flat tire, Frank notices the package moving. Realizing a person is inside, he violates his third rule in order to give the person something to drink. He discovers a woman, tied up and gagged. She attempts to escape but Frank recaptures her and returns her to the trunk along with two policemen who spot them.

Frank delivers the package to Bettencourt as promised and agrees to another job, transporting a briefcase. As he stops to buy drinks for the cops in his trunk, a bomb hidden in the briefcase explodes. Out for vengeance, Frank returns to Bettencourt's villa where he kills and wounds several henchmen. Frank then steals a car (a Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse) to get away, only to find "the package" bound and gagged in the back seat. He brings the young woman, whose name is Lai, back to his house. Bettencourt visits one of his surviving men in hospital in order to determine who attacked his residence, before killing the man after discovering that Frank is alive. The next day, Tarconi arrives and asks about Frank's car, which Frank claims was stolen. Lai supports Frank's alibi by introducing herself as his new cook and girlfriend. Tarconi again leaves with no concrete evidence. Shortly after, Bettencourt's hitmen fire missiles and automatic weapons down on the house. Frank and Lai barely escape through an underwater passage to a nearby safe house.

Later, while being questioned at the police station, Lai accesses Tarconi's computer to find information on Bettencourt. Frank, presumed dead by Bettencourt, wants to rebuild his villa and start a new life and advises Lai to do so too before she tells him that Bettencourt is a human trafficker with 400 Chinese trapped in shipping containers, including her family. Lai and Frank go to Bettencourt's office, where Bettencourt reveals that Lai's father, Kwai, is also a human trafficker and Bettencourt's partner in crime. Kwai arrives and his henchmen subdue Frank. When Tarconi arrives, Kwai and Bettencourt accuse Frank of kidnapping Lai. Tarconi has Frank arrested and locked up in the station. Realizing that Frank would not be constrained by search warrants and that he would be able to solve the case faster than the police, Tarconi agrees to aid Frank's escape as his faux hostage and releases him at the harbour of Cassis.

Frank then tracks the criminals to the docks in Marseille, where they load the containers onto trucks. However, Frank is spotted and forced to fight his way through the guards, and fails to stop the trucks. He then steals an old car and makes chase at dawn before it breaks down on a small country road. He then commandeers a small airplane from a farmer and follows the highway to the trucks where he parachutes onto one of them. After a lengthy fight, Frank manages to kill Bettencourt by throwing him out of the moving truck and also some of his henchmen, only to be ambushed by Kwai once he gets out of the truck where he is marched to a cliff edge. Frank is prepared to fight back until Lai reluctantly shoots her father. Afterwards, Tarconi arrives with the police, and they rescue the people trapped inside the two containers as he congratulates Frank on his work.

Four friends (Savannah, Robin, Bernadine, and Gloria) get together frequently to support one another and listen to each other vent about life and love. They each want to be in a romantic relationship, but they each have difficulties finding a good man.

Successful television producer Savannah "Vannah" Jackson believes that one day her married lover will leave his wife for her. She later realizes that he won't, and that she must find her own man who will love her for who she really is.

Bernadine "Bernie" Harris, who abandoned her career dream of having a catering business, instead raised a family and supported her husband John in building his business. He announces he is leaving her for a white woman with whom he works, sending her into an emotional tailspin that culminates in the two fighting over their assets after she burns his car, clothes and some of his other belongings, and then sells the rest of his things for a dollar each, and he retaliates by draining their bank accounts.

Robin Stokes is a high-powered executive and the long-time mistress of married Russell. After dumping him, she has problems finding someone suitable.

Beauty salon owner Gloria "Glo" Matthews is a single mother. Her ex-husband and the father of her son tells her that he was always bisexual and now realizes he is gay. Gloria eventually falls in love with a new neighbor, Marvin King.

The situations all resolve themselves for the better. Savannah ends up permanently dumping her married lover. Bernadine gets a large divorce settlement from her ex-husband and finds love with a widowed civil rights attorney who encourages her to pursue her catering dream. Robin ends up pregnant by her married lover, but dumps him, and chooses to raise the baby on her own. Gloria apologizes to her neighbor for snapping at him when he suggested that she should let her son grow up and experience the world. She learns not to be so protective of her son and lets him go on an "Up with People" trip to Spain. She finds love while learning to take care of herself rather than being self-sacrificing in her devotion to her son and her business.

In Shostka, Russia, in the winter of 1885, the Mousekewitzes, a Russian-Jewish family of mice who live with a human family named Moskowitz, are having a celebration of Hanukkah where Papa gives his hat to his 7-year-old son, Fievel, and tells him about the United States, a country in which he believes there are no cats. The celebration is interrupted when a battery of Cossacks ride through the village square in an anti-Jewish arson attack and their cats attack the village mice. Because of this, the Moskowitz home, along with that of the Mousekewitzes, is destroyed, while Fievel has a narrow escape from the cats. They flee the village in search of a better life.

In Hamburg, Germany, the Mousekewitzes board a tramp steamer setting sail for New York City. All the mice aboard are ecstatic at the process of going to America believing that there are "no cats" there. During a thunderstorm on their journey, Fievel suddenly finds himself separated from his family and washed overboard. Thinking that he has died, they proceed to the city as planned, though they become depressed at his loss.

However, Fievel floats to New York City in a bottle and, after a pep talk from a French pigeon named Henri, embarks on a quest to find his family. He is waylaid by conman Warren T. Rat, who gains his trust and then sells him to a sweatshop. He escapes with Tony Toponi, a street-smart Italian mouse, and they join up with Bridget, an Irish mouse trying to rouse her fellow mice to fight the cats. When a gang of them called the Mott Street Maulers attacks a mouse marketplace, the immigrant mice learn that the tales of a cat-free country are not true.

Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, an alcoholic politician who knows the city's voting mice. However, he can't help Fievel search for his family, as they have not yet registered to vote. Meanwhile, his older sister, Tanya, tells her gloomy parents that she has a feeling he is still alive, but they tell her to let go of these feelings as it doesn't seem possible that Fievel could still be alive.

Led by the rich and powerful Gussie Mausheimer, the mice hold a rally to decide what to do about the cats. Warren is extorting them all for protection that he never provides. No one knows what to do about it, until Fievel whispers a plan to Gussie. Although his family also attends, they stand well in the back of the audience and they are unable to recognize Fievel onstage with her.

The mice take over an abandoned museum on the Chelsea Piers and begin constructing their plan. On the day of launch, Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren's lair. He discovers that he is actually a cat in disguise, and the leader of the Maulers. They capture and imprison Fievel, but his guard is a reluctant member of the gang, a goofy, soft-hearted long-haired orange vegetarian tabby cat called Tiger, who befriends and frees him.

Fievel races back to the pier with the cats chasing after him and exposes Warren as a cat when Gussie orders the mice to release the secret weapon. A huge mechanical mouse, inspired by the bedtime tales Papa told Fievel of the "Giant Mouse of Minsk", chases Warren and his gang down the pier and into the water. A tramp steamer bound for Hong Kong picks them up on its anchor and carries them away. However, a pile of leaking kerosene cans has caused a torch lying on the ground to ignite the pier, and the mice are forced to flee when the human FDNY arrives to extinguish it.

During the fire, Fievel is once again separated from his family and ends up at an orphanage. Papa and Tanya overhear Bridget and Tony calling out to Fievel, but Papa is sure that there is another "Fievel" somewhere, until Mama finds his hat.

Joined by Gussie, Tiger allows them to ride him in a final effort to find Fievel and they are successful. Papa returns Fievel's hat, commenting that it now fits him and he has grown up into a mouse. Henri ends the journey by taking everyone to see his newly completed project—the Statue of Liberty, which appears to smile and wink at Fievel and Tanya, and the Mouskewitzes' new life in the United States begins.

Called in to investigate the grievous assault of Trey Howard outside a restaurant, NYPD Detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr., the son of a wealthy real estate tycoon, after noticing blood on him. Wade claims self-defense. Shaft notices an injured waitress, Diane Palmieri, eyeing Wade, and unsuccessfully tries to coax a statement from her. Trey's friend tells Shaft that when she and Trey entered the restaurant, Wade racially harassed him. Trey humiliated Wade back and left the restaurant, pursued by Wade. Shaft looks for Diane but she has left. Trey goes into a seizure and dies; when Wade mocks Trey, Shaft punches Wade on the nose, and does it again after being threatened with reassignment to another precinct. At the trial, the judge grants Wade bail of $200k. He later calls Shaft to thank him for breaking his nose, and says he has fled to Switzerland.

Two years later, Wade returns to the U.S., and Shaft greets and arrests him. Shaft's friends throw him a celebratory party where the elder "Uncle" Shaft appears and warns him that Wade's wealth raises his chances of acquittal. While Wade is temporarily detained at police headquarters, Dominican drug lord Peoples Hernandez, whom Shaft previously arrested, befriends him. At the hearing, the judge has Wade surrender his passport and sets bail at $1 million. Shaft resigns from the police force, vowing to bring Wade to justice on his own terms.

Shaft searches for Diane but only locates her mother Ann, while Wade offers his deceased mother's jewelry to hire Peoples to go after her. Peoples wants Wade to join him in his drug business, but agrees to the job provided that Wade sells the jewelry. Peoples hires Shaft's former colleague officers Jack Roselli and Jimmy Groves to tail Shaft; the pair reveal a snitch among Peoples' gang who had told Shaft what was happening. Disguised, Shaft and his former partner, Detective Luger, mug Wade of the money he gathered from selling the jewelry. He then plants the money on Roselli and Groves, and makes Peoples think they are double-crossing him. However, after getting word that Shaft has left the scene, they follow him.

Having traced a phone call, Shaft eventually locates Diane, but Peoples' gang attacks them. In the shootout, Shaft kills Peoples' little brother. Diane's brothers Mikey and Frankie arrive to retrieve her, but Mikey is stabbed by Peoples. Shaft, Diane, Rasaan, and Frankie regroup at Rasaan's apartment, secretly followed by Roselli and Groves. Diane tells Shaft her eyewitness account of Wade murdering Trey. Wade threatens her to keep silent, and then she agrees to accept a payoff provided that she disappear. Meanwhile, Peoples angrily attacks Wade over his brother's death.

Roselli and Groves stake out Rassan's apartment but when Carmen arrives and starts asking questions, they shoot her in the chest. Peoples' gang attack, but Shaft shoots back, while Diane and the others flee. Roselli and Groves catch Shaft, who commands Carmen, who was wearing a vest, to kill them. Peoples and his gang pursue and take down Rassan's car. When Peoples holds Diane hostage, Shaft persuades him to fight without weapons, but after a momentary faceoff, they draw backup handguns, with Shaft killing Peoples first.

Shaft assures Trey's mother Carla about the new trial conditions, however, when Wade arrives, she shoots him several times and is subsequently arrested. Back at the police station, Shaft reiterates to Carmen his preference to be a private detective. A woman asks them for help filing assault charges against her abusive boyfriend. Initially hesitatant, he decides to help her via his methods upon seeing her injury. He and his uncle go together to confront the boyfriend, along with Rasaan, whom Shaft presents with a new ride.

''My Ishmael'' is presented as the final copy of a book published by Julie Gerchak, who has herself read ''Ishmael''. At the time she begins writing, Julie is sixteen, though during the main plot of her story she is merely twelve years old: "a plucky, resourceful, near-genius with a wobbly home life." Like the narrator of ''Ishmael'', Julie discovers a message in her city's newspaper, which advertises a teacher seeking someone who wishes to save the world. Julie arrives at Room 105 of the Fairfield Building to discover a gorilla, Ishmael, whom she is able to communicate with telepathically. When she asks Ishmael if he will teach her, he is initially ambivalent due to her very young age, though this frustrates Julie and her arguments convince Ishmael that she may indeed be open to his maieutic teaching style.

First, Ishmael asks Julie to reflect on why she came to him. She answers that it may be related to her fears about her society's destructive impact on itself and the environment. When urged to tell a story about what she expects to learn with Ishmael, Julie describes a daydream in which she is recruited to go on a space mission to visit other planets and thereby learn solutions around the galaxy for Earth's problems. Next, Ishmael launches into a discussion of "Mother Culture" (the personified notion of the influence of our cultural mythology), our civilization's delusion that our intelligence is a curse inherently propelling us toward making terrible decisions, and our culture's fallacy that all human societies (or, at least, all the "civilized" ones) developed out of a state of foraging to a superior state of farming, neglecting the tribes all over the world who continue the foraging lifestyle. Ishmael refers to humanity in terms of Takers (members of the single, world-dominating culture that destroys other peoples or forces them to assimilate) and Leavers (members of the countless cultures who lived or continue to live in tribal societies). He also examines evolutionary processes and how they tend to maintain behaviors that best sustain some particular gene pool and enforce a sort of equilibrium in which no single organism or group of organisms overwhelms the competition for natural resources. He claims that Takers depart from this self-sustaining balance in that they keep their resources, primarily food, under "lock and key." This, he claims, creates hierarchical social structures in which the cooperative ethos is lost, resulting in distress and conflict ''within'' the society, such as crime, suicide, poverty, famine, and senseless violence. He argues that although Taker societies flourish in terms of material wealth—such as technological advancement and greater scientific progress—they fail utterly with regard to what he believes to be actual wealth: the sense of belonging and security that hold together the fabric of human tribal societies. Julie ultimately learns that she does not need to travel around the galaxy to see ways that human societies can thrive successfully; she needs only to learn from the successes of tribal life.

Julie visits Ishmael as often as she can and notices a young man sometimes leaving Ishmael's office. Ishmael explains that this is Alan Lomax, who is later revealed to be the previously unnamed narrator of ''Ishmael''. Julie feels an odd distaste for Alan though she never meets him face-to-face. Ishmael maintains both pupils, though his teachings are not necessarily the same for each. With Julie, Ishmael describes how tribes live alongside other tribes, in a state of what he terms "erratic retaliation," meaning that they revenge their neighbors' acts of aggression but also do not behave too predictably. This allows people to compete effectively for resources while not engaging "in mortal combat for every little thing." Furthermore, Ishmael distinguishes erratic retaliation from war, a feature of Taker societies, which he describes so: "Retaliation is giving as good as you get; going to war is conquering people to make them do what you want." Ishmael also outlines his preference for the Leaver (or tribal) notion of law, which is generally unwritten knowledge of how to deal with undesirable behaviors within the tribe. He explains that this is different from the Taker concept of law because since "tribal peoples didn't waste time with laws they knew would be disobeyed, disobedience was not a problem for them. Tribal law didn't outlaw mischief, it spelled out ways to ''undo'' mischief, so people were glad to obey it."

Eventually, Ishmael's teachings turn toward the subject of formal education, which he argues is merely a way to keep children out of the work force and is otherwise unnecessary because humans learn on their own, naturally following their own interests and picking up information necessary to operate in their culture. In tribal cultures, this information inherently includes that which is relevant to surviving in the wild by learning to hunt and gather food, as well as easily adopting their culture's values, customs, and so on. In Taker culture, the otherwise automatic process of learning is hindered and convoluted by the institution of formal education, which largely forces students to study topics that they do not apply outside of the classroom and that they therefore largely forget once the information is no longer needed to pass tests or similar evaluations.

When Ishmael asserts that humans must strive to belong to effective and secure communities, Julie asks for concrete examples of how this can be achieved. Ishmael praises the utter strength of human innovation, citing positive examples from the Industrial Revolution, and claims that this will lead and has already led to a diversity of models, including the Sudbury school, the Gesundheit! Institute, and intentional communities. He claims that humans must together create these answers little by little and that innovators in fact build upon prior ideas gradually toward eventual progress. He concludes his teachings with an iteration of his philosophy summed up in a single sentence: "There is no one right way for people to live."

At this point in the story, Julie is introduced to Art "Artie" Owens, born in the Belgian Congo (later Zaire) of the name Makiadi "Adi" Owona. Owens is a friend of Ishmael who has connections to his African homeland and intends to help Ishmael return to the West African jungle. Owens, since a child, was always a naturalist, during which time he was friends with the revolution-minded Mokonzi Nkemi. Owens educated himself as much as he could, studying in Belgium, becoming a dual citizen of Zaire and Belgium, traveling to the United States, and attending Cornell University, where he met the daughter of Ishmael's benefactor and first human companion. Returning to Zaire, Owens participated in Nkemi's revolutionary founding of the Republic of Mabili, now independent from Zaire. Owens's role as minister of the interior lasted only a few months before he realized Nkemi's corrupt dealings with Zaire's President Mobutu in order to keep his fledgling nation alive. Under penalty of death, Owens fled back to the United States and purchased an animal menagerie, which he now plans to use to house Ishmael after Ishmael's eviction from the Fairfield Building, before his trip back to Africa. Ishmael and Owens, however, must use Julie to request Ishmael's entrance into Mabili from its president, Nkemi.

Julie is astounded at first and initially wonders why Ishmael does not ask Alan Lomax to help him instead. However, she eventually agrees to the potentially dangerous five-day trip and begins being drilled on how to act and be wary in African cities and how to converse with Mabili's leaders. In Mabili, Julie speaks to the prime minister who is Owens's estranged brother, Lukombo "Luk" Owona, and then to President Nkemi himself. Posing as an American student who has won an essay-writing contest promising her a trip to Mabili to meet its president, Julie claims that Ishmael is a gorilla famed in the United States who has gained a following of people that she represents and who wish to see him successfully released back into the wild. When Nkemi asks what he will get in return for helping Julie with this favor, she charms Nkemi with a parable asserting that they are bringing back to the land a beloved creature that was once lost.

Julie returns to the U.S. and ultimately hears from Owens that Ishmael's migration to Africa is successful. She hears also about Alan Lomax, who was becoming too attached to Ishmael as a pupil and not seeming to understand his own need to become a teacher. With this in mind, Alan is told that Ishmael has died; such a ploy is regarded as successful, since it motivates Alan to write the book ''Ishmael'' in 1992 (in which Ishmael's death is noted near the end). Although Julie wishes to publish her own book—this very story—Owens forbids her from doing so until Mobutu's regime (and with it, Nkemi's) is on the verge of collapse. This is because, according to Alan's ''Ishmael'', Ishmael is dead and so his magnificence will not be taken seriously; Ishmael will not be hunted down by Nkemi, who has heard of Ishmael being in his country, if Ishmael is presumed dead. Finally, however, in 1997 (when Julie is eighteen years old) Owens contacts Julie, telling her that Mobutu's days are numbered and she may finally publish ''My Ishmael''.

In this parody, the British court and war government consist mainly of idiots and traitors. Adolf Hitler moves into Buckingham Palace and plans to marry into the Windsors. A U.S. Army officer claims the iconic cigar-smoking PM was an actor named Roy Bubbles; however, he was actually USMC lieutenant Winston Churchill who had stolen an Enigma code machine and then almost single-handedly won a very alternative battle for Britain.