The film is about a poor married couple living in New York City. The husband works as a musician and must often travel for work. When returning, his wallet is taken by a gangster. His wife goes to a ball where a man tries to drug her, but his attempt is stopped by the same man who robbed the husband. The two criminals become rivals, and a shootout ensues. The husband gets caught in the shootout and recognizes one of the men as the gangster who took his money. The husband sneaks his wallet back and the gangster goes to safety in the couple's apartment. Policemen track the gangster down but the wife gives him a false alibi.

After being connected to the death of a woman in London, Bond is called in by M to aid the investigation. Returning from Hereford, Special Air Service Sergeant Pearlman tags along by driving Bond back, during which they are attacked and involved in a high-speed chase on an English motorway. Upon safely returning to headquarters, Bond is briefed on the investigation by M and Chief Superintendent Bailey. The woman, whom Bond does not know, was found dead with Bond's telephone number. She is a member of a cult society known as "The Meek Ones", operated by a Father Valentine. With additional information from the CIA, the British Secret Service learn that Valentine is an alias for Vladimir Scorpius, an arms dealer for several terrorist organisations.

As the country's general election approaches, by the use of brainwashed cult members, Scorpius has begun a "holy war" against every man, woman, and child. The cult members, thinking themselves to be pure, moral, and unsullied, sacrifice their lives for "the greater good of humanity" believing that by performing this "death task" that they will achieve paradise. Throughout the novel, The Meek Ones commit several acts of terrorism, including bombings and assassinations of British politicians.

Throughout the horror, Bond meets Harriett Horner, an IRS agent working undercover in England and investigating a credit card company run by Scorpius. The two work together along with Pearlman to attempt to track down Scorpius. After an interrogation of a captured cult member, Horner is taken captive by Scorpius' men. Additionally, Pearlman confesses to Bond that he was secretly giving Scorpius information for the benefit of his daughter who had been brainwashed. Together the two set out for Scorpius' base of operations in South Carolina, having Scorpius believe Pearlman was taking Bond captive.

At Scorpius' island, Bond meets up with Horner once again and the two actually marry at the behest of Scorpius. Knowing that the marriage is invalid, Bond agrees to go ahead with it thinking it would buy him time until he can escape. On the night the two decide to escape, Harriett is killed by a water moccasin. At the same time the FBI is conducting a raid of Scorpius' island, which further angers Bond since her death was in vain. Bond returns to the island, finding Scorpius attempting to flee. After giving chase, Bond successfully gets the upper hand and forces Scorpius to die in a similar manner to that of Horner.

On a rainy day in London, Mr. Bean wins a holiday trip to Cannes, a video camera, Upon arriving in France, Bean causes chaos while trying French seafood cuisine at Le Train Bleu and asks Russian film director, Emil Duchevsky, to film him boarding his train using his video camera at the Gare de Lyon. However, the two keep doing retakes at Bean's request until the train leaves with Bean and Duchevsky's son, Stepan, onboard and Duchevsky left behind.

Bean and Stepan bond and get off together at the next station, where Duchevsky's train passes through the station without stopping; he holds up a sign with a mobile phone number written on it for Stepan to call, but due to inadvertently obscuring the last two digits, Bean unsuccessfully calls the number numerous times. Bean and Stepan board the next train stopping, but are ejected as Bean had accidentally left his wallet, passport and ticket on the telephone booth.

To earn money, Bean busks as a mime/singer and buys himself and Stepan food and bus tickets to Cannes. However, Bean's ticket gets caught in the wind and into the foot of a chicken, which is then packed into a truck that Bean chases via bicycle to a farm, where he is unable to retrieve his ticket due to the large number of chickens there. Deciding to continue his journey alone on foot, Bean wakes up on a quaint French village under attack from Nazi soldiers, which is revealed to be the set of a yogurt commercial directed by American filmmaker Carson Clay. Bean briefly stars in the commercial as one of the soldiers before being dismissed for showing his video camera in the advert, and accidentally causes the set to explode while recharging his camera.

Continuing to hitchhike, Bean is picked up by a Mini identical to his own driven by aspiring actress Sabine, who is on her way to the Cannes Film Festival, where her debut film directed by Carson, ''Playback Time'', is to be presented. The pair stop at a café, where Bean reunites with Stepan and Sabine decides to take him with them, believing Stepan to be Bean's son. The next morning, the trio arrive in Cannes thanks to Bean driving through the night after Sabine falls asleep.

At a petrol station, Sabine sees on the news that she and Bean are suspected of kidnapping Stepan. In a rush to ''Playback Time'''s premiere which is starting in merely an hour, she decides not to head to the police to clear the misunderstandings and instead has Bean and Stepan disguised as her mother and daughter to avoid detection at the festival. During the premiere, Sabine discovers that her role has been cut from the film, prompting Bean to plug his video camera into the projector and replace the film's visuals with his video diary. The camera's footage of Bean's shenanigans surprisingly align well with the film's narration and Carson, Sabine and Bean all receive a standing ovation while Stepan is reunited with his parents.

Bean exits through the theatre's back door and finally arrives at the Cannes beach as desired, where he, Sabine, Stepan and a group of other people mime a large musical finale to the song "La Mer".

The plot concerns the marriage of Michael Anton and Pauline Barclay, who meet when he tends to her bloodied brow in his family's grocery store, located in a primarily Eastern European enclave in Baltimore, in December 1941. They marry after Michael is discharged from the Army with a permanent injury caused by a deliberate shot from someone he assaulted.

Michael and Pauline settle in a small apartment above the store, but their widely different temperaments and expectations quickly create dissension in the relationship. He is repressed, controlling, and quiet; she is loud, emotional, and romantic. At Pauline's insistence, they move to the suburbs, where they raise three children: Lindy, George and Karen.

"Lindy, who has always been a stubborn, willful child, becomes increasingly defiant as a teenager, and one day, she just leaves home -- and doesn't return. Her disappearance -- like the abrupt, sometimes violent events that occur in many Tyler novels, propelling heretofore passive characters into a re-evaluation of their lives -- does not bring her parents closer together, but instead results in another round of accusations and recriminations."Kakutani, Michiko (January 9, 2004) [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/books/books-of-the-times-he-s-stodgy-she-s-zany-till-death-do-them-part.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A9%22%7D] "Books of the Times: He's Stodgy, She's Zany, Till Death Do Them Part,” ''New York Times''. Lindy runs away to San Francisco in 1960 and becomes involved in the growing drug culture. Eight years later, her parents retrieve Pagan, Lindy's three-year-old son, while Lindy detoxes in a rehab community.

"The lives of the Antons, of course, are not just about fighting; Pauline and Michael are also tied to each other by their children, by shared adventures and, as the years pass, by bonds of memory and inertia. Caring for aging parents, witnessing the illnesses and travails of friends, adapting to a move to the suburbs -- these are all experiences that bind Pauline and Michael to each other, even as their very different temperaments and interests increasingly pull them apart." The slowly crumbling marriage finally dissolves when Michael leaves Pauline on their 30th anniversary. For Michael, convinced that he and Pauline didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing when they married or how to conduct a marriage (that they were "amateurs"), divorce is a salvation. For Pauline, it's a tragedy that leaves her in despair.

The last third of the novel pursues how Michael, Pauline, and their children deal with moving on with the rest of their lives after the divorce. Michael remarries and Pauline forms new friendships but struggles with loneliness and dealing with day-to-day demands of an older single woman living in a big old house.

Two months following Zero's victory over Elpizo, the Dark Elf remains at large. During this time, Ciel has finished her research on a new energy supply to end the crisis, dubbed the "Ciel System". While en route to Neo Arcadia to propose the Ciel System in hopes of ending the conflict and the genocide of Reploids, a spaceship with the Dark Elf's energy reading crashes to Earth.

Zero sets out to investigate, but instead finds the remaining Guardians (Harpuia, Fefnir, and Leviathan) fighting against a gigantic Reploid named Omega and a scientist named Dr. Weil — both who were banished to space due to their crimes in instigating the Elf Wars and turning the Mother Elf into the Dark Elf a century prior. Dr. Weil reveals he has resurrected Copy X, who resumes his rule over Neo Arcadia, much to Harpuia's chagrin. The Guardians, suspecting that Copy X is being heavily influenced by Dr. Weil, defect from Neo Arcadia. Zero and Dr. Weil go their separate ways in search of the Dark Elf.

The Dark Elf appears in a human residential district in Neo Arcadia, leading Dr. Weil and Copy X to launch a missile in order to incapacitate it. Although successful in capturing the Dark Elf, the incident kills thousands of humans. Following this event, Ciel rescinds her offer of the Ciel System, leading Dr. Weil and Copy X to brand the Resistance as Mavericks and subsequently launch an invasion against them. The Resistance is able to delay the invasion until Zero locates Copy X. During the ensuing battle, Copy X is betrayed and killed by Dr. Weil, who declares himself the new ruler of Neo Arcadia and announces his true intention for capturing the Dark Elf: to fuse it with Omega and link them with a frequency transmitter that would enable Omega to control the minds of every Reploid on Earth.

Zero confronts and defeats Omega, who reveals his true form: a body that looks exactly like Zero. Dr. Weil reveals that while Zero was powered down during his 100-year hibernation, he had transferred Zero's conscience and memories to a copy body and stole Zero's original body to be used by Omega due to its unmatched fighting abilities. Despite this revelation, Zero and the Guardians destroy his original body, killing Omega for good. Omega's death results in a massive explosion, which frees the Dark Elf from Dr. Weil's corruption, but kills Harpuia, Fefnir and Leviathan.

While Zero is unconscious, X appears and tells Zero that it's up to him to protect the Earth and defeat Dr. Weil. Finally out of power, X vanishes forever. The Dark Elf, known as the Mother Elf once more, delivers Zero to the Resistance Base before flying away.

The narrator of the novella is the journalist Paul Pokriefke, who was born on 30 January 1945 on the day that the Strength Through Joy ship, the ''Wilhelm Gustloff'', was sunk. His young mother-to-be, Tulla Pokriefke (born in Danzig, and already known to readers from two parts of the ''Danzig Trilogy'', ''Cat and Mouse'' and ''Dog Years''), found herself among the more than 10,000 passengers on the ship and was among those saved when it went down. According to Tulla, Paul was born at the moment the ship sank, on board the torpedo boat which had rescued them. His life is heavily influenced by these circumstances, above all because his mother Tulla continually urges him to fulfill his 'duty' and to commemorate the event in writing.

In the course of his research, the narrator discovers by chance that his estranged son Konrad (Konny) has also developed an interest in the sinking of the ''Wilhem Gustloff'' as a result of Tulla's influence. On his website ('blutzeuge.de') he explores the murder of Wilhelm Gustloff and the sinking of the ship, in part through a dialogue in which he adopts the role of Gustloff, and that of David Frankfurter is taken by another young man, Wolfgang Stremplin.

The two eventually meet in Schwerin, Konny's and Gustloff's hometown. The meeting takes place on 20 April 1997, a date full of symbolism as Hitler was born on 20 April 1889.. Wolfgang, though not Jewish, projects a Jewish persona. He spits three times on the former memorial to Gustloff, thus desecrating it in Konny's eyes. Konny shoots him dead, mirroring the shooting of Gustloff by Frankfurter; after the deed he hands himself in to the police and states that, "I shot because I am a German"; Frankfurter had said, "I shot because I am a Jew".

The narrator is eventually forced to realise that his imprisoned son has himself become a new martyr, and is celebrated as such by neo-Nazis on the Internet.

US cover of ''Mossflower'' The story begins in the Mossflower Wood, where a community of animals suffers under the tyranny of a ruling wildcat named Verdauga Greeneyes. When a mouse from the north by the name of Martin the Warrior travels to Mossflower Woods, he is captured and brought to the castle Kotir. While there, his sword is broken by Verdauga's daughter, Tsarmina, and he is imprisoned within the Kotir dungeons. Meanwhile, Tsarmina poisons Verdauga with the help of the vixen Fortunata and blames it on her brother Gingivere. She places her brother in prison and takes the throne for herself.

While in the dungeons, Martin eventually meets Gonff the Mousethief, who was imprisoned for stealing food from the Kotir storages. Meanwhile, Abbess Germaine and the surviving members of Loamhedge, an abbey stricken with a plague, arrive and join the woodlanders. Martin and Gonff escape with help from the Corim ('''C'''ouncil '''O'''f '''R'''esistance '''I'''n '''M'''ossflower) and join with Young Dinny the mole on a quest to find Boar the Fighter, Badger Lord of Salamandastron. Bella, a Corim leader and Boar's daughter, believed only her father could defeat Tsarmina and put an end to her cruel reign.

The crew sets out on the quest to find Boar. They are pursued by Splitnose the stoat, Blacktooth the ferret, and their leader, Scratch the weasel. The trio eventually dies- Scratch by a swan, and Splitnose and Blacktooth in a duel. The crew eventually comes to a river with a ferry, where they meet a snake and a newt who threaten to kill the travellers. A shrew emerges and scares away the duo into the river, and introduces himself as Log-a-log Big Club, a former village leader, escaped oar slave, and currently a ferryman. He joins the group on its quest. They sail on his boat, ''Waterwing'' to the mountains. The ship is broken in a waterfall. When Martin comes to, he is in a huge mountain ruled by bats, called Bat Mountpit. After Martin, Dinny and Log-a-log help scare away the tawny owl that nests on the rooftop, they leave. They get ambushed by toads, and get thrown into the "Screamhole", where they reunite with Gonff. They meet the Snakefish, the massive eel who is trapped in the hole, and formulate a plan to escape. They eventually escape with the help of the Snakefish, who wreaks havoc among the toads. The group reaches the beach. They trek through the sand, attacked by birds. Deprived from food and water, they witness gulls kill a rat. They stay at the rat's hut, and continue the next day, with Salamandastron very near. The companions reach Salamandastron with the help of a few hares, and meet with Boar the Fighter. Boar introduces them to the hares that live in the mountain, and then reforges Martin's broken sword with metal from a meteorite, but is killed while fighting his mortal enemy Ripfang the searat who had attacked Salamandastron several times before. Ripfang's former oarslaves and several members of Log a Log's former tribe take over the sea rat ship, ''Bloodwake'', with help from Martin and his allies. They return to Mossflower Woods, where Martin kills Tsarmina and destroys Kotir by both flooding it and knocking over its walls with a ballista. In the final battle with Tsarmina, Martin is left near death. With the help of the woodlanders, he eventually recovers, but his memory is never the same thereafter, as evidenced in ''The Legend of Luke.''

The book ends with Bella's son, Sunflash, finding Salamandastron and becoming its ruler.

During a planetary survey, three members of a landing party from the Federation starship USS ''Enterprise'' are attacked, their blood drained of hemoglobin. Fearing the killer to be a gaseous entity he had encountered eleven years before while serving aboard the USS ''Farragut'', Kirk neglects a rendezvous with the USS ''Yorktown'' to hunt for the creature. While the ''Enterprise'' crew fails to find the creature using shipboard sensors, the creature attacks a second landing party, draining hemoglobin out of two more crew members. Back on the ship, when Kirk learns that security officer Garrovick hesitated to fire his phaser upon the creature, he relieves the ensign of his duties.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, having reviewed the records of Kirk's previous encounter, confronts the captain over his obsession with the creature; as a young lieutenant, Kirk had hesitated in firing phasers at the creature, which subsequently killed half the ''Farragut'' crew. Though given a commendation for bravery, Kirk continues to blame himself for the deaths. Kirk maintains that the creature poses an urgent threat. Ensign Chekov interrupts to report that the cloud creature is moving away from the planet.

The ''Enterprise'' chases the creature until it turns around and advances on the ship. Kirk orders weapons to fire, which has no effect. The creature then passes through the shields and into the ventilation system. Spock points out to Kirk that, since the creature cannot be harmed with conventional weapons, the captain has nothing to regret about his earlier encounter. Determined to combat this illogical human guilt reaction, Spock is trying to convince Garrovick he did nothing wrong, when the creature emerges through a vent in Garrovick's room. Spock, after forcing Garrovick to leave, tries to shut it out, and is enveloped, but his copper-based green blood repels it. Realizing that neither he nor Garrovick could have harmed the creature, Kirk orders the ensign to return to duty.

The creature finally leaves the ship. Believing it to be heading to the Tycho system to spawn, Kirk and Garrovick beam down with an antimatter bomb. With the creature about to envelop them, Kirk and Garrovick beam away and the bomb explodes, annihilating the entity.

The narrator, who speaks throughout the entire cartoon, opens the story by talking about a planet far off in space. On this planet, there is a race of Martians who are advanced and have happiness all throughout their lives, except for one Martian who is fed up with his homeworld's perfect society. Levitating in the air, passing through solid objects, and projecting images from his blue antenna do nothing but bore him. When an attractive female Martian offers to pitch some love to the Martian, he just turns her away, causing her to melt.

The Martian then goes to see a psychiatrist, who recommends that he must travel to another world to cure his boredom. The Martian leaves the planet in a flying saucer that is launched by slingshot and sent deep into space. After some time (including punching a leaking hole in the Big Dipper), he enters the Earth's solar system and stops at Earth. Observing typical urban scenery and activities of the people on Earth (television antennas, people with huge and little cars, children watching Cowboys and Indians on TV, and teenagers dancing to jukebox tunes), the Martian decides he likes this planet and to land there, so he can bestow the people of Earth with his planet's superior culture.

As the Martian's flying saucer lands in Atlanta, Georgia, a crowd of people gather round the ship, and seeing the Martian, they run away screaming "Monster!" The Martian is confused about the monster everybody is talking about and gets arrested by the police for landing in a "no parking" zone. After he gets questioned by the authorities he is put in a jail cell, but the Martian leaves the cell by passing through the walls, causing the prison guard to cry out for his mother while he sounds the escape whistle.

The next morning, a tall man and a short man are reading the newspapers about the Martian's escape. The tall man makes a comment about the Martian based on the newspaper's description ("Terrible thing, this raving alien monster, roaming the countryside, devouring innocent people, striking terror into the hearts of millions, and leaving behind a trail of chaos and destruction") to which the short man scolds "If you can't say anything nice about someone, you shouldn't say anything at all." As the tall man walks away, the Martian goes up to the short man and hugs him, causing the short man to turn white with fright and call the Martian exactly the same description the tall man gave before fleeing in terror.

Still confused about the "monster", the Martian vows to seek out and destroy it. As the Martian passes a construction site, he spots a steam shovel at work. Assuming that this is the monster everybody is talking about, he whips out a ray gun labeled as an ACME Atom Rearranger, and shoots the steam shovel, turning it into a dragon that licks the now white with fright construction worker that was operating it, and waddles off with him on its back. Satisfied that the "monster" has been destroyed, the Martian walks off confidently, eager to do more good deeds for Earth.

As the Martian passes a red-haired boy reading a comic book, the boy says "Hello, monster" directly at the Martian. Confused as to what the boy just said, the Martian asks the boy if he really called him "monster", to which the boy nods, showing him something that he had found in his comic book: a page with a picture of the Martian that informs the reader that a space monster has no nose, which the Martian indeed does not have. The Martian gets the idea to remove his antenna and put it on his face to pass it off as a nose, but the boy leaves and says "Goodbye, monster."

Now realizing ''he'' is the monster, the Martian sinks back into depression and runs through a nightmarish landscape, a dark voice all around him calling him "monster" and berating him to go home. Just as the Martian ducks into an alley, the narrator recommends that the Martian could just commit suicide, since nobody loves him. The Martian takes out his ray gun and prepares to blow his brains out, when the narrator helps him remember that somebody does love him. Taking this advice to heart, the Martian puts his antenna back in place on his head and remembers the female Martian he had turned down earlier. As the narrator says someday, a new constellation will appear, the Martian, now wanting to seek happiness back on his home planet, blasts off back home, which is seen as a star in a constellation of stars that form a heart. The narrator concludes the story by saying that when this new constellation does appear, no one will ever be bored on the Martian's planet.

Bounty hunter Jack Walsh is enlisted by bail bondsman Eddie Moscone to bring accountant Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas back to Los Angeles. The accountant had embezzled $15 million from Chicago mob boss Jimmy Serrano before skipping on the $450,000 bail Moscone had posted for him. Walsh must bring Mardukas back within five days, or Moscone defaults. Moscone says the job is easy, a "midnight run," but Walsh demands $100,000. Walsh is then approached by FBI Agent Alonzo Mosely, who wants Mardukas to be a witness against Serrano and orders Walsh to keep away from Mardukas. Walsh takes no notice of this and instead steals Mosely's ID, which he uses to pass himself off as an FBI agent along his journey. Serrano’s henchmen Tony and Joey offer Walsh $1 million to turn Mardukas over to them, but he turns them down.

Walsh captures Mardukas in New York City and calls Moscone from the airport, not knowing that Moscone's line is tapped by the FBI and that his assistant Jerry is secretly tipping off Serrano's men. However, Mardukas fakes a panic attack on the plane, forcing the two men to travel via train. When Walsh and Mardukas fail to show up in Los Angeles on time, Moscone brings in rival bounty hunter Marvin Dorfler to find them. Dorfler tracks them to the train and attempts to take The Duke from Walsh, but Walsh gets the drop on him and leaves the train. However, he discovers when he attempts to purchase bus tickets with a credit card that Dorfler canceled the card.

Without funds, he is forced to rely on other means to get across the country, including stealing cars, borrowing his ex-wife’s car in Chicago, and hitchhiking. Meanwhile, word of the skirmish on the train reaches Mosely's ears and he leads a task force to find Walsh and Mardukas.

Walsh eventually reveals that, 10 years before, he was an undercover officer in Chicago trying to get close to a drug dealer who had almost the entire police force on his payroll. Eventually, just as Walsh was going to bust the dealer, he had heroin planted in his house by corrupt cops. In order to avoid either going to prison or working for the dealer, Walsh resigned from the force, left Chicago and became a bounty hunter, while his wife divorced him and married a corrupt lieutenant. Since then, however, Walsh has clung to the vain hope that he will one day be reunited with his ex-wife. Later, Mardukas learns that the drug dealer was Serrano.

In Arizona, Dorfler takes Mardukas away from Walsh, who is found by Mosely. While arguing with Moscone over the phone, Walsh realizes that Dorfler intends to turn Mardukas over to Serrano for $2 million. However, Dorfler accidentally reveals to Serrano's men where he is keeping Mardukas and is knocked unconscious by Serrano's men, who go after Mardukas themselves.

Walsh calls Serrano's men and bluffs that he has computer disks created by Mardukas with enough information to put Serrano away, but promises to hand the disks over if Serrano returns Mardukas to him unharmed. He then makes a deal to deliver Serrano to the FBI in exchange for being allowed to take Mardukas back. Walsh meets up with Serrano while wearing a wire and being watched by the FBI. Dorfler spots Mardukas and interrupts the exchange, unknowingly disabling the wire. After Serrano takes the disks, the FBI closes in, arresting Serrano and his henchmen.

Mosely turns Mardukas over to Walsh with enough time to return him to Los Angeles by the deadline. However, Walsh realizes that he cannot bring himself to send Mardukas to prison, and lets him go. Before parting, Walsh gives Mardukas a watch that his wife gave him before their marriage, symbolizing he has finally let go of her. In return, Mardukas gives Walsh $300,000 in a money belt he had been hiding, clarifying that it is a gift (and not a bribe), as Walsh already let him go. Walsh flags down a taxi and asks the driver if he has change for a $1,000 bill, but the taxi drives away, so he heads home on foot.

Johnny Tremain is a promising but prideful 14-year-old apprentice at the Boston silversmith shop of elderly Ephraim Lapham. The date is on July 23, 1773. It is understood that someday Johnny will marry Mr. Lapham's granddaughter Cilla to keep the shop within the Lapham family. The shop receives a challenging and urgent order from wealthy merchant John Hancock to make a silver dish to replace one that Mr. Lapham fashioned decades before. While preparing Hancock's order, Johnny's hand is badly burned when Dove, another apprentice resentful of Johnny, deliberately gives him a cracked crucible that leaks molten silver. Johnny's hand is burned and crippled beyond use, and he can no longer be a silversmith. Johnny's youthful pride is crushed by the injury. He is relegated to work as an unskilled errand boy. He goes to find a new job that will accept his crippled hand.

After a series of rejections, Johnny reaches the low point of his young life. While searching for jobs, he encounters in a printshop Rab Silsbee, a young typesetter who is friendly to him. He then decides to turn to Mr. Lyte, a wealthy Boston merchant. Johnny explains that his mother told him that he and Mr. Lyte are related and as a last resort, to turn to him for help. Lyte requests the proof, and Johnny shows him a silver cup with the Lyte family's crest. Lyte says it was stolen from him in a burglary, and Johnny is accused of the theft and arrested. Eventually, Johnny is freed by the court after Rab brings Cilla to court and she testifies that Johnny showed her his cup before the burglary ever took place.

Johnny settles into a job delivering a weekly newspaper, the Boston ''Observer''. The ''Observer'' is a Whig publication, and Johnny is introduced to the larger world of pre-revolutionary Boston politics by Rab. Johnny learns to ride and care for Goblin, a beautiful but skittish horse used to make deliveries. He moves in with Rab in the attic of the newspaper's shop.

As months pass and tension between Whigs and Tories rises, Johnny becomes a dedicated Whig. He matures and re-evaluates many personal relationships, including that with Cilla, who becomes a trusted friend and fellow Whig. Johnny and Rab participate in the Boston Tea Party, in which patriot colonists throw a shipload of tea into the harbor rather than allow the ship's owner to unload the tea and pay a tax imposed by Parliament without the consent of the people of Britain's American colonies. In retaliation, Britain sends an army of Redcoats to occupy Boston and closes the port, inflicting hardship upon the inhabitants of this commercial and trading town. Rab decides to leave the ''Observer'' and become a soldier, taking with him a musket that Johnny acquired for him. At the end of the book, Johnny meets and talks briefly with his friend one last time: Facing the British, Rab is mortally wounded in battle. No longer needing the musket, Rab returns it to Johnny with a stoic smile. A Patriot doctor offers to perform surgery to fix Johnny's hand so he can fire the gun against the Redcoats, and the story ends with Johnny's acceptance of the offer.

In July 1849, in the middle of the dilapidated town Goldville, Little Kitty observes near a gathering, a poster announcing a young prospector Beans about to hunt for gold in Red Gulch. Little Kitty takes the poster and shows it to Porky. Meanwhile, Beans strikes gold from a mountain slot machine, rides off to Goldville and puts the word out, making all the locals leave in pursuit of the gold source. Beans and Porky followed by Ham and Ex head off to the gold source and get digging. Suddenly Beans uncovers a trunk containing a book on how to find gold. Then a greedy bandit spies Beans' bag of gold and snitches it with a lasso fired from his rifle. Beans pursues the bandit on Porky's request hoping to get Little Kitty's hand in marriage. After a wild gunfight, Beans supercharges his car dragging the bandit, the bag of gold and Porky along and back to Goldville. Porky reveals that what the bandit stole was in fact his lunch bag.

Becker, a hotshot American marketing executive (played by Roberts) from The Coca-Cola Company, visits their Australian operations in Sydney and tries to figure out why a tiny corner of Australia (the fictional town of Anderson Valley) has so far resisted all of Coke's products. He literally bumps into the secretary (played by Scacchi) who is assigned to help him.

Eventually Becker discovers that a local producer of soft drinks run by an old eccentric has been successfully fending off the American brand name products. The executive vows an all out marketing war with the eccentric but eventually comes to reconsider his role as a cog in Coca-Cola's giant corporate machinery. Along the way there are humorous subplots involving the office manager's violent ex-husband, Becker's attempt to find the 'Australian sound', and an odd waiter who is under the mistaken belief that Becker is a secret agent.

The pilgrim's inner journey begins when he is struck upon hearing the words of Paul (in I Thessalonians 5:17) to "pray without ceasing." He visits churches and monasteries to try and understand how to pray without ceasing. His travels lead him to a ''starets'' (a spiritual father) who teaches him the Jesus Prayer—"Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me"—and gives him practical advice on how to recite the prayer uninterruptedly.

The book details the gradual spiritual development and struggles of the narrator, and the effect the narrator's spirituality has on those around him. The sequel is entitled ''The Pilgrim Continues his Way''. Translations of both documents were published together in some English editions.

The narrator is sent by a friend to interview an old man, Simon Wheeler, who might know the location of an old acquaintance named Leonidas W. Smiley. Finding Simon at an old mining camp, the narrator asks him if he knows anything about Leonidas; Simon appears not to, and instead tells a story about ''Jim'' Smiley, a man who had visited the camp years earlier.

Jim loves to gamble and will offer to bet on anything and everything, from horse races to dogfights, to the health of the local parson's wife. He catches a frog, whom he names Dan'l Webster, and spends three months training it to jump. When a stranger visits the camp, Jim shows off Dan'l and offers to bet $40 that it can out-jump any other frog in Calaveras County. The stranger, unimpressed, says that he would take the bet if he had a frog, so Jim goes out to catch one, leaving him alone with Dan'l. While Jim is away, the stranger pours lead shot down Dan'l's throat. Once Jim returns, he and the stranger set the frogs down and let them loose. The stranger's frog jumps away while Dan'l does not budge, and the surprised and disgusted Jim pays the $40 wager. After the stranger has departed, Jim notices Dan'l's sluggishness and picks the frog up, finding it to be much heavier than he remembers. When Dan'l belches out a double handful of lead shot, Jim realizes that he has been cheated and chases after the stranger, but never catches him.

At this point in the story, Simon excuses himself to go outside for a moment. The narrator realizes that Jim has no connection to Leonidas and gets up to leave, only to have Simon stop him at the door, offering to tell him about a yellow, one-eyed, stubby-tailed cow that Jim had owned. Rather than stay to hear another pointless story, the narrator excuses himself and leaves. He muses that his friend may have fabricated Leonidas as a pretext to trick him into listening to Simon's anecdotes.

Seventeen-year-old Charley Brewster is a fan of a horror television program called ''Fright Night'', hosted by former movie vampire hunter Peter Vincent. One evening, Charley discovers that his new next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire responsible for the disappearances of several victims. After telling his mother, Charley asks his girlfriend, Amy Peterson, and his friend, "Evil Ed" Thompson, for help before contacting the authorities. Detective Lennox goes with Charley to Jerry's house to question him, but his "roommate" Billy Cole tells them that Jerry is "away on business". Charley reveals his suspicions about Jerry's vampirism, and Lennox leaves, furious. That night, Charley is shocked to see Jerry inside his house, having been invited in by Charley's mother. Later, Jerry visits Charley and offers him a choice: ignore his vampiric activities, or else. Charley refuses, brandishing a crucifix at Jerry. When Jerry tries to push him out the window to his death, Charley stabs Jerry's hand with a pencil. Jerry destroys Charley's car in retaliation and threatens Charley over the telephone.

Charley turns to Peter Vincent for help, but Peter dismisses Charley as an obsessed fan. Amy, fearing for Charley's sanity and safety, hires the destitute Peter to "prove" that Jerry is not a vampire by having him drink what they claim is "holy water", but it is only tap water; Jerry has claimed to Peter that drinking actual holy water would be against his religious convictions. Peter discovers Charley is right about Jerry's true nature after glancing at his pocket mirror and noticing Jerry's lack of a reflection, causing him to accidentally drop the mirror; Peter then flees, but Jerry learns of his discovery after finding a shard of mirrored glass on the floor.

Jerry hunts down Ed and turns him into a vampire, then Ed proceeds to visit Peter and tries to attack him, only to be warded off when burned by a crucifix to the forehead. Meanwhile, Jerry chases Charley and Amy into a nightclub. While Charley tries to call the police, Jerry hypnotizes and abducts Amy, who resembles Jerry's lost love, and bites her. With nowhere left to turn, Charley attempts to gain Peter's help once more. A frightened Peter initially refuses, but then reluctantly resumes his "vampire killer" role. Entering Jerry's house, the two are able to repel Jerry using a crucifix, though only Charley's works since he has faith in its spiritual power. Billy appears and knocks Charley over the banister, while Peter flees to Charley's house. There, he is surprised by Ed, who attacks him in the form of a wolf, only to be pierced through the heart with a broken table leg held by Peter. Removing the stake from Ed's body, Peter goes to rescue Charley and battle Jerry.

Charley is locked in with Amy, who is slowly transforming into a vampire. Peter frees him before she awakens, and says the process can be reversed if they destroy Jerry before dawn. Billy confronts Charley and Peter, and is revealed to be undead. They destroy Billy, who melts into goo and sand. Peter is able to lure the overconfident Jerry in front of a window using a crucifix, which now works due to his renewed faith in its abilities. As the sun rises, Jerry transforms into a bat and attacks Peter and Charley before fleeing to his coffin in the basement. Charley and Peter pursue Jerry; the latter breaks open Jerry's coffin and tries to stake him through the heart while Charley fights off Amy, who has almost completed her transformation. By breaking the blacked-out windows in the basement, Peter and Charley expose Jerry to the sunlight, destroying him and returning Amy to her human form.

A few nights later, Peter returns to his ''Fright Night'' TV series and announces a hiatus from vampires, presenting a film about alien invaders instead. Charley and Amy watch the program as they embrace in bed. Charley gets up to turn off the TV and glimpses red eyes in Jerry's now-vacant house, but dismisses them. Unbeknownst to both Charley and Amy, a new neighbor has just moved in.

In May 2154, a pair of genetically enhanced humans, referred to as "Augments", leave their home planet and take control of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey warship after killing the crew. Amid threats and protests by the Klingons, Starfleet tasks the newly refurbished ''Enterprise'' to stop the culprits. Captain Archer visits disgraced scientist Doctor Arik Soong, imprisoned for stealing augmented embryos, and transfers him from a holding facility. On board, Soong soon recognises his augments are responsible for the actions on board the Klingon vessel, but does not know why. He convinces Archer that he will be able to order his "children" to stand down without a fight.

''Enterprise'' enters an area of space known as the "Borderland" between the territories of the Klingons and Orions. They are attacked by two Orion vessels and several crew members are captured, including T'Pol (newly granted the Starfleet rank of Commander). They are taken to a slave market and Archer is forced to ask for Soong's assistance to rescue his crew. After entering the market, the ship is able to beam most of the crew back, but when they try to release T'Pol's restraints, all of the prisoners in the slave market are released and chaos breaks out. Soong also attempts to escape, but Archer quickly returns him to ''Enterprise'', where he demands that Soong take him immediately to the Augments. Soong refuses.

On board the Klingon vessel, it is clear that the Augments consider Soong to be their "father". In a power-play, the Augment leader, Raakin, is tricked by Persis (who had been pretending to be devoted to him) and killed by his "brother" Malik. The Bird-of-Prey approaches ''Enterprise'', saving them from a second Orion attack. The ships dock, and Malik requests the release of Soong from the brig—Archer refuses, but Malik forces him to comply. With ''Enterprise'' disabled, Soong announces that they now need to go and retrieve the remaining thousands of Augment embryos.

US cover of ''Lord Brocktree'' This book revolves around the badger Lord Brocktree, father of Boar the Fighter, grandfather of Bella of Brockhall, and great-grandfather of Sunflash the Mace. He sets out to find the ancient badger mountain stronghold of Salamandastron, aided by the quick talking haremaid Dorothea Duckfontein Dillworthy and otter Ruffgar Brookback.

Meanwhile, in Salamandastron, trouble comes for Brocktree's father, Lord Stonepaw. Years of peace have left the mountain stronghold with few fighters, and those that remain are long past their prime, including Stonepaw himself. The wildcat Ungatt Trunn, son of Mortspear, Highland King of the North, lays siege to the fortress with his Blue Hordes. Eventually the mountain is overrun, leading to the deaths of many hares and even of Stonepaw himself, who dies valiantly defending his hares, taking many vermin with him as he does. The wildcat takes at least sixty hares as prisoners, but through the efforts of warrior Stiffener Medick and his otter friend Brogalaw, they escape.

Lord Brocktree gets an army from the hare Bucko Bigbones, after Dotti defeats him in a contest.

Thanks to the Bark Crew, the group of guerrillas formed by Stiffener and Brogalaw to harass Trunn, the Blue Hordes are slowly starved, their supplies cut off. Ungatt Trunn tricks the Bark Crew into putting up a last stand in battle, but Lord Brocktree joins forces with the hares and saves the day.

The book culminates in a massive final battle, with many memorable characters killed, including Jukka and Fleetscut. Eventually, when the battle ends up a near-stalemate, Trunn and Brocktree face off in a duel. After a failed assassination attempt on Brocktree by the searats Ripfang and Doomeye and the corsair fleet captain Karangool (Trunn's second in command) the badger eventually wins, snapping Trunn's spine and leaving him on the sand to die. Trunn is thrown into the water but survives, only to be drowned by Groddil, one of his former advisors. The book ends with thousands of hares rallying to form the Long Patrol under Brocktree and Dotti (whom the badger names first Long Patrol General).

Set in an alternate near-future Japan, a young woman codenamed "Kabuki", acts as an agent and television law-enforcement personality for a clandestine government body known as "The Noh". In the first volume of the series, The Noh's nature and background is explained.

The Noh is controlled by a renowned World War II Japanese military man known as the General, who has achieved much power and status for being a brilliant military tactician during his many years of service. The agency itself exists as part of Japan's strict police state, which hunts down and brutally executes criminals for their misdeeds under the veil of keeping the peace. Secretly the Noh also acts to maintain the balance of crime and order that ultimately benefits the national economy on both sides of the law and thus targets politicians, businessmen and certain underworld kingpins whose actions threaten this balance. Kabuki herself is one of eight masked assassins who perform these secret executions under the General's orders.

Ryuchi Kai is the General's son and another war veteran, who is a Yakuza boss and every bit as deadly and brilliant as his father but has earned a reputation for swift brutality. Astonishingly, despite the high level of discretion surrounding Noh, Kai manages to infiltrate the agency, personally, by using its policy of masked operatives to his advantage. He poses as Oni – one of the General's two overseers of the assassins (the other being a mysterious old man named "Dove"). He manipulates Kabuki and her partners into eliminating the entire underworld hierarchy in Tokyo. Publicly Kai is a talented businessman with much stock and influence in the Japanese market, thus this move makes him indispensable and essential to the balance.

Kabuki's origins are revealed as the story progresses, her mother was an Ainu comfort woman named "Tsukiko" taken by Japanese soldiers during WWII. Rather than be used as sex slaves, the General instead had the women act out Kabuki plays to entertain the soldiers, something that was met with scorn by his son, who fast made "Kabuki" a derogatory term among the ranks. Tsukiko in particular captivated the General, a widower, who took her to be his wife. This decision infuriated Kai, who saw it as an affront to his deceased mother. On the eve of their wedding, he assaulted, raped, blinded and savagely scarred Tsukiko with the words "Kabuki" into her back. Tsukiko survived the encounter, and she was pregnant with Kai's child, something the General kept hidden. Tsukiko dies while her daughter Ukiko is being born. The General in turn raises her as his own daughter. Nine years later, Kai, still demented and vicious, learns of the child's existence and savagely attacks Ukiko at her mother's grave, once again carving "Kabuki" into her skin, this time along the girl's face. Ukiko dies for nine minutes but is successfully resuscitated. From then on, the General grooms her into a perfect soldier, having her trained in martial arts, combat and weaponry so that she may never fall victim to another assault. When the Noh is created, she is given a mask reminiscent of her mother's face and the codename "Kabuki" – claiming the term as her own.

In the present, Kai is a political figurehead and inaccessible from The Noh's wrath, going as far to reconnect with his father to cement his status. Most Noh agents are all dismissed by Dove except Kabuki. Dove reveals that he is in fact her biological grandfather on her mother's side, that The Noh has become defunct, and that Kai's reign has gone on long enough. He dispatches Kabuki/Ukiko to eliminate him, his followers, and The Noh's board of directors. The battle is bloody, and Kai very nearly defeats her, though she succeeds at the last moment. Her final confrontation at the General's headquarters results in her sustaining fatal wounds. Victorious and dying, Ukiko finally limps to her mother's grave to die.

With the following volumes, it is revealed that Ukiko was in fact abducted shortly after this, by a rival agency called "Control Corps", who treat her injuries and keep her trapped and medicated within a hidden asylum for broken-down government agents. For nine months, they study her and probe her for information regarding The Noh. She does not relent and instead, devotes this period to introspection and personal reflection. During this time she is contacted periodically by another inmate – a mysterious individual known as Akemi who has grand plans for escape. Meanwhile, outside of the asylum, all of Japan is in confusion as its top political lynchpins have been killed, and The Noh is unable to comment. Dove has vanished and, with him, all knowledge of Ukiko's motives. Thus, the seven remaining assassins have been dispatched to hunt down Ukiko and kill her. Ironically during the months of searching, two of the agents, codenamed "Scarab" and "Tigerlilly", become friends and start socializing as civilians – something which later compromises their mission.

Through Akemi's elaborate machinations, Ukiko manages to escape Control Corps just as her former partners arrive to eliminate her, resulting in the death of one of them. Akemi takes advantage of this and just as Kai did, he poses as the fallen agent to continue infiltrating The Noh, this time on Ukiko's behalf.

Ukiko then embarks on a convoluted trail, given to her by Akemi, so she can forge a new identity and life for herself. Escaping Japan to America, with the help of other brilliant escapees under Akemi's employ, she successfully achieves a blissful, private existence wherein she can be happy. The final pages of the series see her subtly overthrowing The Noh altogether, through a tell-all comic book created by herself and a comic artist whom she encounters. She also falls pregnant, much to her delight.

It tells the story of a Bedouin princess (Maureen O'Hara) who returns to Baghdad after being educated in England. She finds that her father has been murdered by a group of renegades. She is hosted by the Pasha (Vincent Price), the corrupt representative of the national government. She is also courted by Prince Hassan (Paul Hubschmid), who is falsely accused of the murder. The plot revolves around her attempts to bring the killer to justice while being courted by the Pasha.

The film was directed by Charles Lamont and included choreography by Lester Horton and Bella Lewitzky.

The Federation starship ''USS Enterprise'' receives a garbled message from Starfleet mentioning the USS ''Intrepid'', a Federation starship crewed entirely by Vulcans. First Officer Spock suddenly looks shocked and announces that he has felt the ''Intrepid'' "die". Starfleet then succeeds in making contact, and orders Captain Kirk to investigate the Gamma 7A system, the last known position of the ''Intrepid''. Ensign Chekov reports that the sensors show no life readings in the system of a billion inhabitants.

Meanwhile, Spock is examined by Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy in sickbay, where he explains he felt the combined shock and terror in the minds of 400 of his fellow Vulcans aboard the ''Intrepid'' as they died. McCoy is amazed that Spock felt anything over the distance involved, but admits there is a lot about Vulcans he still doesn't understand.

Spock returns to the bridge just as Lt. Uhura announces she has lost contact with Starfleet. Kirk has Spock scan a dark zone that appears on the main view screen. Suddenly, half the crew are sickened or faint. Spock is unable to determine the nature of the zone, but suggests it is some kind of energy turbulence, and possibly responsible for the death of the system inhabitants and the ''Intrepid'' crew. Kirk has Chekov launch a sensor probe into the void. The probe transmits a piercing, high-pitched noise before contact with it is lost.

Kirk orders the ship into the zone, and as it enters, the piercing sound returns and all the stars disappear from the main view screen. Dr. McCoy then reports that the crew are getting worse, and Chief Engineer Scott reports a loss of power. Spock surmises that the ship has entered a sort of negative energy field that interferes with biological and mechanical processes.

The ''Enterprise'' appears to be accelerating of its own accord, and the ship's engines seem to be operating in reverse: forward thrust slows the ship down. Kirk suggests that all available power be channeled into a massive forward thrust, in the hope of breaking free of the zone, but the effort succeeds only in bringing the ship to a halt.

Their quarry is finally revealed to be a gigantic, multicolored object resembling an amoeba. Kirk launches a sensor probe into it, which reveals that the object is indeed made of protoplasm, and is alive. McCoy believes that a crewed probe must be sent into the creature to gather the data needed to destroy it, and volunteers himself for the job. Spock insists that he is better qualified. Kirk is reluctant to send either of them arguing that it would be a suicide mission and that if anyone should go it should be him as the captain. But Spock points out that Kirk is not a science specialist and is much better served commanding the ''Enterprise''. Kirk is then forced to choose which of his two friends to send out in the shuttle, with a realistic probability they won't return. Kirk ultimately chooses Spock, agreeing that he is better equipped to handle the mission. Spock pilots a shuttle through the creature's outer membrane and makes his way toward the nucleus. Eventually, he reports that the creature is ready to reproduce, and suggests a method of destroying it, but the key part of the message is garbled. Kirk and McCoy meet to discuss the situation, and Kirk speculates that if the organism is like an invading virus, then an equivalent of "antibodies" is needed to destroy it.

Kirk takes the ''Enterprise'' into the creature's body, and orders Chief Engineer Scott to prepare an antimatter bomb with a timer set for a seven-minute delay. The bomb is fired into the cell's nucleus and the ''Enterprise'' backs out using what little power remains. With seconds remaining, Spock's shuttle is finally located and Kirk orders Scott to tow it with a tractor beam. With power levels nearly exhausted, the ship approaches the outer membrane just as the bomb explodes. Both the ''Enterprise'' and the shuttle are thrown clear of the organism as it is destroyed. The ''Enterprise'' is restored to full power and sustains only minor damage.

US cover of ''Martin the Warrior'' ''Martin the Warrior'' tells the story of a young mouse named Martin, a slave in Marshank under the cruel stoat Badrang the Tyrant. When Badrang leaves Martin to be tortured by the weather and the birds, a young mousemaid named Laterose, or Rose (with whom Martin falls in love) and a mole named Grumm hear his cry of defiance. They become instrumental in helping Martin, along with a squirrel named Felldoh, and Rose's brother Brome, escape Marshank. When that is accomplished, they decide to travel to Noonvale to rouse an army to attack Marshank. However, in the ocean, Felldoh and Brome are separated from Rose, Martin, and Grumm. Felldoh and Brome meet up with the Rambling Rosehip Players, a travelling band of creatures, and join forces with them, eventually freeing the slaves as Brome bluffs his way into and out of Marshank, disguised as a rat from Captain Tramun Clogg's corsair crew. Meanwhile, Martin, Rose and Grumm meet a hedgehog named Pallum after being imprisoned by pigmy shrews. They are eventually freed by saving the life of the Pygmy Queen's son, Dinjer, along with Pallum, who in turn joins up with them.

After a long series of adventures, the four adventurers reach Noonvale, Rose and Grumm's home. They gather an army there, but it is not large enough. But all is not lost. Boldred, a scholarly owl whom they met on the way to Noonvale, helps gather a huge army, including the pigmy shrews and the Gawtrybe (a group of savage squirrels). The entire army then sails to Marshank and reach it in good timing, since the Rambling Rosehip Players are in a predicament. Badrang and all of the vermin under his command, with the exception of mad Cap'n Tramun Clogg, are slain.

Rose is killed in the final battle by the very tyrant she had gone with Martin to defeat. After the battle, Martin, along with Ballaw, Rowanoak, Brome, and Keyla all stay in Polleekin's treehouse for the short rest of the season. Martin is devastated, his one love gone, and has nowhere to go. He declines going back to Noonvale with the rest, the memory of Laterose lingering too strong, not to mention he'll have to tell Urran Voh what had happened to his daughter. He makes a vow not to tell anyone about his friends or Noonvale, to protect them from enemies. He decides simply to relate a tale of living by the sword in the caves until the time came to move on southward.

The story of Martin and Rose is later brought to Redwall during the time of Abbot Saxtus by Aubretia, a descendant of Brome, and Bultip, a descendant of Pallum, who brought a sprig of climbing-rose culled from that which grew on Rose of Noonvale's grave. This becomes the Laterose of Redwall. In the passing of Spring to Summer, it blooms year round a bit later than the rest, and that is why it is called the Laterose.

A young woman named Janet Stewart is anticipating the arrival of her husband and attempts to check into a hotel. They are meeting after years apart and have planned to meet at the hotel. During his military service he was presumed dead, but was a prisoner of war. Unfortunately, her cable requesting the reservation never arrived. The staff, after hearing her story, agree to provide a room for the night. Restless, she isn't sleeping. She hears a loud argument and goes to the balcony window where she witnesses a man striking his wife with a candlestick. The woman is killed.

The next morning, her husband arrives and attempts to surprise Janet. Instead, he discovers her sitting on the couch, staring into space. She has gone into a state of shock as a result of seeing the murder. The hotel doctor is called, but he suggests she see a specialist.

The specialist that she sees turns out to be Dr. Cross, the man who murdered his wife.

A Japanese minister of defence is traveling to Paris to sign a weapons contract between Japan and France, but first, he is visiting Marseille to view and rate the city police's anti gang tactics (using fake attacks on him).

During the visit, however, he is kidnapped by a group working for the Japanese yakuza. Emilien (Frédéric Diefenthal) is determined to rescue the minister and detective Petra (Emma Sjöberg), his girlfriend who was also kidnapped, and restore the honour of his department. Once again, speed demon taxi driver Daniel (Samy Naceri) is called upon to save the day with his high speed driving skills.

Also with the Peugeot, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI is also featured as a star car driven by the Yakuzas.

State Department agent John Graves is investigating far-left businessman John Wright who has been acting suspiciously – he has masterminded the theft of several canisters of VZ nerve gas, a binary agent, and has enough of both canister types to kill nearly a million people, but the Agency is unsure of his motives.

During his investigation Graves establishes that Wright has acquired many other purchases; plastic explosives, large containers made of an exotic flammable material, seemingly of plumbing and pressure related nature – and also rented a small 19th floor apartment in San Diego where the President of the United States is due to meet for the imminent Republican Party convention, and deduces that Wright intends to assassinate the President.

Graves' task is made harder by inter-departmental interference, a lack of support from his manager Phelps, and that Wright has stolen a copy of Graves' State Department psychological profile, and seems to be depending on Graves behaving according to his profile.

Wright correctly predicts Graves' actions, and ultimately allows himself to be captured in order to distract Graves from continuing his investigation – only to successfully escape moments later, again predicting Graves' behaviour during the interrogation. However prior to the interrogation Graves had decided against roadblocks surrounding the apartment, but realised that this was playing true to his profile, and changed his mind – Wright is subsequently killed trying to break through the unexpected blockade.

Observing the apartment through binoculars the two large canisters of the VZ nerve agent are seen, with plumbing attachments in order to correctly mix and disperse the two components. Also observed is a remote timing detonator, and several booby traps. Seeing that the remote detonator is attached to mains electricity, the police cut off the supply, only for a battery backup to take over, and a small gas release is seen resulting in the death of two police officers stationed outside the apartment. The apartment is engulfed in VZ gas and inaccessible.

Although there is no cure for VZ, Nordmann – a forensic scientist attached to the case – reasons that there are other chemicals that can stave off the effects of VZ, possibly long enough for Graves to enter the apartment, nullify the remote detonator and leave again. Graves takes the chemicals, noting with irony that they may also kill him, and enters the apartment. Once inside he finds that the booby traps are a sham, and the only danger is from the VZ gas itself which he vents through a window – being on the 19th floor the gas dissipates harmlessly into the unoccupied street below. Moments after he disconnects the pipes from the tanks the timer activates and click open – but being disconnected no gas is created, and Graves leaves the apartment pensive, thinking that the victory has been too easily achieved. To support this theory he discusses his psychological profile with Nordmann & Phelps, stressing that his key psyche flaw is that he considers tasks complete when in reality they are often only partially finished.

Phelps is dismissive, but Nordmann supports Graves' theory, and he is partially vindicated when a booby trap disables the lifts, trapping everybody on the 19th floor – but the booby trap was timed to go off ''after'' the venting was complete. Graves takes this to mean that Wright knew he might disarm the tanks, and so had a backup plan. He recalls the flammable nature of the tanks, and the missing plastic explosive, reasoning that Wright had intended the tanks to explode after being emptied – thus destroying any lingering evidence. Panicking, he realises that if the still-full tanks explode in the same room, enough of the two agents would still combine to kill thousands, and that this is Wright's backup plan. One tank is frantically manhandled out of the open venting window and it explodes as it falls to the street. The other tank explodes in the hallway of the apartment block. The two binary chemicals are harmless by themselves, and nobody is injured by either the liquid chemicals or the explosions.

In an aftermath Graves observes that in order to prevent public panic the incident is hushed up, being only referred to as a chemical theft and that although official departmental changes are recommended to prevent any further thefts, nothing is actually mandated, and no policy changes are made.

A group of thieves calling themselves the Santa Claus gang are wreaking havoc, using Santa Claus costumes to commit heists, and the Marseille police are, as usual, unable to keep up. Superintendent Gibert (played by Bernard Farcy) is distracted by a Chinese journalist (Bai Ling) writing a story on his squad, and is unable to stop the robbers.

Detective Emilien's wife, Petra, has just announced that she's pregnant and taxi driver Daniel (Samy Naceri) is in the midst of a relationship crisis. His long suffering girlfriend Lilly has walked out on him after finding him customising his taxi at four o'clock in the morning, and complaining that their house has become a mere garage and how Daniel stopped paying attention to her.

After a string of mistakes in which the thieves outsmart the police time and time again, the journalist is kidnapped. It is revealed that the journalist is the leader of the Santa Claus gang. The police go in search, but Emilien is captured after another botched attempt to arrest them. The journalist sets a trap; she leaves Emilien tied to a chair in an old warehouse, directly in the path of a giant ball which will crush him five minutes later.

At the last moment, Daniel rushes in with his taxi and rescues him. They track the gang to their hideout in the Swiss mountains, where the journalist and her accomplices are arrested by a crack team of Alpine troops. Gibert lands in an ice-bound lake after leaping from an aircraft with them. Petra gives birth, Daniel proposes to Lilly and a Gibert is seen being pushed around in a wheelchair covered in ice.

Chicago-area resident Clark Griswold plans to have a great Christmas with his entire family. He drives his wife Ellen, daughter Audrey, and son Rusty out to the country to find a tree. After walking through the snow for hours, Clark picks out the largest tree he can find. Realizing too late that they did not bring any tools to cut the tree down, they are forced to uproot it instead, before driving home with the tree strapped to the roof of their car.

Soon after, both Clark's and Ellen's parents arrive for Christmas, but their bickering quickly begins to annoy the family. Clark, however, maintains a positive attitude, determined to have a "fun old-fashioned family Christmas". He covers the house's entire exterior with 25,000 twinkle lights, which fail to work at first, as he has accidentally wired them through his garage's light switch. When they finally come on, they temporarily cause a citywide power shortage and create chaos for Clark's yuppie neighbors, Todd and Margo Chester. While standing on the front lawn admiring the lights, Clark is shocked to see Ellen's country-based cousin Cathrine and her husband Eddie, as they arrive unannounced with their children, Rocky and Ruby Sue, and their pet Rottweiler Snots. Eddie later admits that they are living in the RV they arrived in as he is broke and has been forced to sell his home and acreage. In addition, the older half of his children are too busy to join Eddie in the visit. Clark offers to buy gifts for Eddie's kids so they can still enjoy Christmas. Soon afterward, Clark's senile Aunt Bethany and grumpy Uncle Lewis arrive as well.

Clark begins to wonder why his boss, Frank Shirley, has not given him his yearly bonus, which he desperately needs to replace an advance payment he has made to install a swimming pool for the coming summer. After a disastrous Christmas Eve dinner, along with Bethany's cat getting electrocuted and Uncle Lewis accidentally burning down the Christmas tree while lighting his cigar, he finally receives an envelope from a company messenger, who had failed to deliver it the day before. Instead of the presumed bonus, the envelope contains a free year's membership for the "Jelly of the Month Club". This prompts Clark to snap and go into a tirade about Frank and, out of anger, request that he be delivered to the house, wrapped in a bow, so Clark can insult him to his face.

Taking Clark's request literally, Eddie drives to Frank's mansion, and kidnaps him. Frank admits to having canceled the Christmas bonuses, and Clark chastises him for doing so. Meanwhile, Frank's wife, Helen, calls the police, and a SWAT team storms the Griswold house and holds everyone at gunpoint. Frank decides not to press charges and explains the situation to his wife and the SWAT leader, both of whom scold him for his decision to scrap the bonuses. Frank ultimately decides to reinstate the bonuses (with Clark getting a bonus equal to last year's amount, plus 20% as compensation).

The family heads outside when Rocky and Ruby Sue believe they see Santa Claus in the distance. Clark tells them it is actually the Christmas Star and that he finally realizes what the holiday means to him. Uncle Lewis says the light is coming from the sewage treatment plant, reminding Clark that Eddie had been dumping his RV sewage into the nearby storm drain. Before Clark can stop him, Uncle Lewis tosses a match used to light his cigar into the drain, triggering an explosion. The explosion sends a Santa's sleigh decoration flying into the sky. Aunt Bethany starts singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and everyone joins in as the flaming decoration flies into the distance.

The entire family, Frank and Helen, and the SWAT team members then celebrate inside the house, while Clark and Ellen happily share a Christmas kiss, and Clark stands outside satisfied that he provided a great Christmas for his family. As the credits roll, he manages to give Snots the petting he wanted.

The games follow twins named Tarra and Torr. Their parents were slain by King Tyrannus's guards, prompted by a prophecy by the king's wizard Konjuro that the twins would slay Tyrannus. The twins were then raised as commoners by thieves to avoid being slain by the king. When they go to plunder Konjuro's sea keep, they accidentally reveal their identities to him. The twins then start running from a demon summoned to kill them, but it appears that a jewel they stole attracts it. After smashing the stone to avoid the demon, two of Tyrannus's old advisers appear and tell the two about the "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" and the "Talisman of Penultimate Truth." They are then transported to Earthworld.

After defeating many beasts of the Zodiac and another thief (Herminus) in Earthworld, the twins are transported to the "central chamber" where the "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" and the "Talisman of Penultimate Truth" are kept. Upon reaching them, the sword burns a hole through its altar all the way to Fireworld. In Fireworld, the twins split up to look for water, and Torr, with the aid of the talisman, summons Mentorr who shows Torr the "Chalice of Light," which will quench his thirst. The twins reunite eventually and find the chalice. However, Torr drops it after he is startled, and it is revealed that the one they found was not the ''true'' chalice. Herminus then gives them the chalice, and it grows until it becomes large enough to swallow the twins and transports them to Waterworld.

Upon reaching Waterworld, the twins become separated. Tarra travels to a ship made of ice, somehow forgets her name, and meets Cap'n Frost, who desires to find the "Crown of Life" and rule Waterworld. Meanwhile, Torr travels to an undersea kingdom, forgets his name as well and meets the city's ex-queen Aquana, who desires to find the "Crown of Life" in order to regain her throne. After a brief war between the ex-queen and captain, Herminus sets the twins to duel each other. They then pray to their deities for guidance, which summons Mentorr who allows them to regain their memories. The twins throw down their swords, causing the crown to be revealed and split in half. The halves are given to the ex-queen and the captain, who then rule as equals. The "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" then transports the twins to Airworld where they would have to do battle with King Tyrannus and Konjuro.

While the comic for ''Airworld'' was started, the cancellation of the series left the comic unfinished.

On November 27, 2006, a U.S. Navy SEAL fireteam consisting of Kahuna, Boomer, Spectre, and Jester is sent in to neutralize an emerging terrorist threat. A new group calling itself the Iron Brotherhood, made up of former Spetsnaz operatives, is using a barge as a base for buying and transporting weapons. They are making their trades with a known black market organization, the Zemy, and the two are rendezvousing in international waters off the coast of Alaska. The team are to eliminate the terrorists, gather intel, and scuttle the freighter. With the intel that the SEALs gathered, SOCOM is able to locate the Brotherhood's headquarters, a ghost town in Alaska. The team is tasked with securing the compound, destroying any weapon caches that are present, and detaining a terrorist named Kola Petrenko, codename Pincushion. Information from Pincushion revealed that the Brotherhood has taken control of an oil platform in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Most of the oil workers had been killed, but some are being held captive by the terrorists. The Brotherhood is also threatening to destroy the platform, which would result in a disastrous oil spill. The SEALs are sent in to infiltrate the platform and neutralize all threats, including the Brotherhood's leader, Stanislav, codename Spectrum. They are successful in taking down all of the terrorists and defusing all bombs on board.

In Thailand, a group calling themselves the Riddah Rouge, led by a man named Sudarak Thongkon, has acquired sensitive and highly valuable biological data from a smuggler out of Sri Lanka. The terrorists murder him and his crew, then offload the data and move it deep into the jungles of Thailand. With a potential biological threat on their soil, the Thai government requests for international assistance, and the United States responds by sending in the SEALs. Kahuna's team are inserted into the area and proceed to travel upriver to intercept and retrieve the data. After moving from one island to another and neutralizing numerous patrols, the team finds some documents. Unfortunately, only half of the bio data is among them as the other half had been moved elsewhere. With the bio data in their possession, the Riddah Rouge has taken the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand and his wife hostage. The terrorists demand ransom money and threaten to execute the two if their demands are not met. Intelligence tracks their movements and are able to locate the hostages at an abandoned temple in the jungles of Hohn Kaen. The team move in under cover of night and safely extract the Ambassador and his wife. While no ransom is paid for the pair, the Riddah Rouge manage to manufacture a small amount of biological agent. Their plan is to use the agents to destabilize the Thai government. The SEALs are assigned to assault another abandoned temple. While there, the team either captures or kills Thongkon, codename Bad Dog, and secures the biological agents. With their leader in custody, the Riddah Rouge disbanded.

In the Congo, a new mercenary organization known as Preemptive Strike has established a base of operations deep in the jungle. They are recruiting European mercenaries and are actively stockpiling weapons and ammunition. Concerned about this new threat, the Congolese government has requested aid from the United States. The SEALs are sent in to recon and collect intel about the group. After disabling communications and destroying the enemy munitions in their staging area, the team finds out that the remaining mercenaries have ambushed and captured a patrol of U.S. Marines. The marines are being held at the mercenary base camp where they are being tortured for information. The SEALs are able to rescue the POWs and eliminate the mercenary leader Magnus, but not before finding out that one of the captive Marines is missing, having been moved to an abandoned German bunker built during World War I which contains a network of tunnels and pillboxes. This complex is no match for the SEALs however, and they successfully liberate the final Marine with the help of U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter jets firing missiles at designated pillboxes.

In Turkmenistan, members of a terrorist group, the Allah Sadikahu, have attained several portable nuclear devices from various black market organizations. An informant named Basim Maccek, codename Mr. Pickle, has knowledge about the nuclear devices moving through the region, but has gotten himself captured in the process. He is imprisoned in a Turkmen Detention Center in the mountains and the SEALs are sent in to release, escort, and extract the informant. The recovered informant confirms the presence of two suitcase nukes in Turkmenistan and their location. The Sadikahu have concealed the devices in a desert cave network close to the Afghan border. With no time to lose, the team travels to the nukes' location. After an intensive firefight, the team manages to destroy the nukes and the cave system. The Sadikahu's ruthless leader Mullah Bahir Al-Qadi, however, is not present at the caves. He and his brother Imad have retreated to a deserted bombed city in central Turkmenistan. Kahuna's team is once again sent in to find and neutralize the Al-Qadi brothers. The SEALs fight against countless terrorist defenders and race against the clock as Mullah and Imad Al-Qadi, codename Fat Cat and Kitten, call for helicopters to come and extract them.

In the end, both brothers are killed and the mission is completed.

CIA agent Zoe Nightshade, a mole in the Hong Kong-based botanical research firm Identicon Corporation, is discovered and captured while investigating Identicon as a possible front for a weapons-smuggling ring. MI6 agent James Bond infiltrates the Identicon facility in an attempt to rescue her, as well as retrieve a suspicious courier case in the same building. After rescuing Nightshade from a submarine set to launch, the pair flee the facility with the courier case. Nigel Bloch, the head of Identicon, has his henchmen chase the agents through the streets of Hong Kong. The two steal a second case of vials from a nearby Identicon factory, then rendezvous with R, who provides Bond with a gadget-laden BMW Z8. A limousine pulls up, and a figure inside fires a rocket at the agents, killing Nightshade, and steals the case. Bond pursues in his new car, stopping an armoured van containing the stolen vials.

The vials contain nine blood samples, eight of which contained blood of world leaders. The ninth one contains the blood of Reginald Griffin, a British diplomat serving at the British embassy in Bucharest, Romania, who is obsessed with protecting a room, outside his jurisdiction, in the embassy. Bond investigates the embassy, and also encounters a strange woman after bursting into her room. He pretends to be a lost security guard and obtains a security card to Griffin's office. In the office, he finds Griffin dead, before a man, identical to Griffin, confronts him. After overcoming him, Bond finds a message from Bloch on Griffin's computer that mentions Malprave Industries, based in Switzerland. Bond takes the information from the computer and escapes.

At the Malprave Industries' branch in Switzerland, Bond poses as a journalist and notices that the woman he encountered at the embassy is actually the company's CEO: Adrian Malprave. Knowing that she will recognise him, he plans an escape. After collecting evidence, he makes his escape from the facility. Analysis of the computer message from Romania mentions "Defective Merchandise", believed to be a code name for Dr. Natalya Damescu, formerly an employee of Malprave, now under protection at the British Embassy in Bucharest, the same one in which Griffin was serving as a diplomat. She also has inside information to offer. Carla the Jackal, an infamous terrorist who also killed Zoe in Hong Kong, leads a raid on the embassy. Bond fights the terrorists before running into Damescu. After a confrontation with the Jackal, Bond kills her and picks up a data chip on something known as "Poseidon".

The data chip leads Bond to an oil rig located in the South China Sea. After running into Bloch, Bond follows him into Poseidon, an underwater base devoted to cloning. After seemingly killing Bloch and destroying his lab, Bond escapes the complex by climbing onto a submarine bound for a Royal Navy aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. On board the submarine, Bond finds Zoe, still alive, where she reveals that the woman he "saved" from the Identicon facility was actually a clone meant to gain information from Bond on what MI6 knew about Poseidon and then to infiltrate the CIA, and that the Jackal had intended to kill Bond.

Depending on whether or not the player picked up the verification code, Bond and Zoe are either captured and taken to the brig, or have a sexual encounter as the submarine is automatically piloted to the aircraft carrier. In either case, the pair investigate the ship. It is discovered that eight world leaders have been cloned, and are to be replaced by Malprave-loyal duplicates. Bond destroys the craft carrying the clones, and the pair make their escape. They head back to the Malprave Industries building in the Swiss Alps, where Bond successfully rescues the eight world leaders. Before he can escape from the base however, Bond encounters Malprave, who has set the base to self-destruct. She also reveals that Bloch is still alive, and that Bond had merely killed his clone. After a firefight with him, Bond follows Bloch into Malprave's main office and shoots him with a rocket launcher, sending him crashing through a stained-glass window to his death. Just as Bond manages to leap free of the base before it explodes, Malprave appears and tries to jump clear too, but is consumed by the blast and ultimately killed. Bond lands on a military aircraft being commandeered by Zoe, and together they escape the smouldering base.

The Federation starship ''USS Enterprise'' has been ordered to Sigma Iotia II, where the space vessel ''Horizon'' was reported missing 100 years earlier. The ship receives a message from Bela Okmyx, an Iotian, who promises information about the ''Horizon'' and invites the crew down to the planet. First Officer Spock notes that their interference in the planet's development could violate the Prime Directive, but Captain Kirk points out that the ''Horizon'' s arrival a century ago would have already contaminated the culture. Kirk, Spock, and Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy transport to the planet.

They find themselves in a city fashioned after an American city of the 1920s, and some of the residents appear to be gangsters carrying Tommy guns. Okmyx's men escort the landing party to his offices; en route, they observe a drive-by shooting that kills one of their escorts, but the other continues on as if nothing had happened. They arrive at Okmyx's office, where Okmyx orders his men to make a retaliatory attack against a rival gang led by Jojo Krako. Spock discovers an Earth book, ''Chicago Mobs of the Twenties'', published in 1992, and determines it was left by the crew of the ''Horizon''. The Iotians have modelled their entire society on "The Book", which they regard with near-religious reverence. Okmyx demands the ''Enterprise'' crew supply his gang with "heaters" (phasers), and when Kirk refuses, threatens to kill them. The landing party is held while Okmyx uses a communicator to repeat the demand to Chief Engineer Scott.

Kirk distracts their guards by intruding on their poker game and teaching them the fictitious game of "fizzbin", allowing Spock and McCoy to overpower them. McCoy and Spock flee to a radio station to contact the ''Enterprise'' and transport back to the ship, while Krako's men capture Kirk.

Krako demands phasers of Kirk as well, offering to cut him in for a third of "the action" in exchange. Kirk offers a peaceful solution, but Krako refuses and confines him, threatening to kill him by slow torture if he doesn't cooperate. Okmyx contacts the ship, informs them of Kirk's capture, and offers to help rescue Kirk if they will help him. Spock and McCoy return to the planet, but are quickly captured by Okmyx. However, Kirk has managed to engineer his own escape, and arrives in Okmyx's office in time to rescue Spock and McCoy.

The three set a plan in motion. Taking suits and hats from Okmyx's men, Kirk and Spock return to Krako's office and gain entrance with the help of a local teenager. Quickly subduing Krako's men, Kirk informs Krako that the Federation is taking over the entire planet, but if Krako helps to maintain order and be a willing agent of the Federation, they will give ''him'' a "piece of the action". Krako agrees, but for safekeeping, Kirk transports him to the ''Enterprise''. They then make the same offer to Okmyx, which he quickly accepts. As they prepare for the meeting of all of the planet's bosses, Krako's men attack Okmyx's headquarters, but the ''Enterprise'' uses the ship's phasers to stun the men as they approach. Both Okmyx and Krako realize that they are at Kirk's mercy, and agree to work for the Federation. Kirk installs Okmyx as the top boss with Krako as his lieutenant, and states that a Federation ship will come by once a year for their 40% cut of the planet's "action".

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy transport back to the ''Enterprise'' where Kirk proposes that the Federation's "cut" be used in a planetary fund to guide the Iotians into a more ethical society. McCoy reveals that he left his communicator on the planet. Kirk and Spock note that the Iotians will analyse the technology. Kirk amusingly states that the Iotians may one day be in a position to demand "a piece of ''our'' action!"

Vince Majestyk (Charles Bronson) is a farmer, an ex-con, a former U.S. Army Ranger instructor and Vietnam War veteran, who owns and operates a watermelon farm in rural Colorado. He needs to harvest his crop soon in order to keep the farm financially solvent.

A small-time hood, Bobby Kopas (Paul Koslo), attempts to coerce Majestyk into a protection racket of using unskilled drunks to harvest his watermelon crop. Majestyk runs him off with Kopas' own shotgun and hires experienced Mexican migrant workers, including Nancy Chavez (Linda Cristal), a crop picker who is also a union leader. They are romantically attracted to each other. Kopas brings assault charges against Majestyk, resulting in the farmer being placed under arrest before he can finish the harvest.

In jail, Majestyk meets and annoys Frank Renda (Al Lettieri), a notorious mob hit man being transferred to a higher-security prison. Renda's men try to break him out of police custody during a prisoner transport by bus. In the escape attempt, Majestyk drives off in the bus with Renda still in handcuffs, eventually taking him to his hunting cabin in the nearby foothills. Majestyk hopes to trade Renda to the police in return for being released to finish harvesting his melons. Renda offers his captor $25,000 for his freedom, but Majestyk declines. Renda then threatens to kill Majestyk if he doesn't release him, and Majestyk pretends to be persuaded to take the money, but contacts both the police and Renda's mafia contacts to come pick them up.

Wiley (Lee Purcell), Renda's girlfriend, arrives and they manage to turn the tables on Majestyk, although he is able to escape. Renda learns the charges for which he had been imprisoned have been dropped. He meets up with his right-hand man, Lundy (Taylor Lacher), who advises him to fly to Mexico and enjoy himself; Renda will have none of it as he wants revenge on Majestyk. He arranges for Kopas to drop the assault charges against Majestyk, and orders his men to find the "melon picker" so he can have the satisfaction of killing him personally.

They arrive at the farm to kill Majestyk, but not finding him they instead machine-gun the melons and rough up the hired hands, forcing them to depart. That same night, as Majestyk and Nancy have a drink at a bar in town Renda approaches and tells him he plans to kill him. Instead of being intimidated, Majestyk knocks Renda down, telling him to "call the cops", further infuriating Renda. The next day, Kopas badly injures Majestyk's foreman Larry Mendoza (Alejandro Rey), as he tries to deliver a load of melons, putting him in hospital.

Renda and his men surround Majestyk's home, but Majestyk gets away in the back of a pickup truck driven by Nancy, and a prolonged car chase ensues. The police set up roadblocks and launch a helicopter hoping to find them. Luring Renda and his men into the foothills, Majestyk turns the tables on them and becomes the attacker, killing most of Renda's men during the pursuit. Realizing they are now the hunted, Renda retreats to their lodge hideout where he, Wiley, Lundy and Kopas hole up. Renda sends Wiley outside to negotiate with Majestyk, hoping to force him to show himself, but Majestyk sends her away with Nancy. After removing the keys from their vehicle, Majestyk then assaults the cabin, killing Lundy after Renda sacrifices him to save himself. Disgusted, Kopas decides to leave when he realizes Renda will also sacrifice him to get to Majestyk. With Kopas' help, Majestyk gets the drop on Renda and kills him. The police soon arrive and arrest Kopas and Wiley, while Majestyk drives off with Nancy.

Edward and Connie Sumner live in Westchester County, New York with their eight-year-old son, Charlie. Their marriage is loving but a little monotonous and lacking in passion. While shopping in the city, the wind knocks Connie into stranger Paul Martel and they both fall over. Seeing that she's scraped her knees, Paul invites her upstairs to his apartment to treat her injuries. Uncomfortable with his advances, she leaves.

Finding Paul's phone number inside the book he gave her, Connie goes into the city and calls him. He invites her over and when she arrives, he again flirts with her. She leaves despite their mutual attraction, but visits again, and they share a dance. Again uncomfortable, Connie rushes out. When she returns to retrieve her coat, Paul literally sweeps her off her feet, carries her off to his bedroom, and they have sex. Connie is simultaneously turned on and terrified at what she's doing. However, they both relish the thrill of their affair, and Connie uses her work as an excuse to continue visiting Paul. Edward accidentally catches her in a lie, when a friend she said she was meeting for a fundraiser says he was out of town. This information makes Edward suspicious, and he notices Connie buying herself new lingerie, and daydreaming. Edward asks her to meet him for lunch one day, but she says can't because she has a salon appointment. Edward calls the salon and confirms Connie was lying.

Edward hires a private investigator, Frank Wilson, and is devastated when he provides pictures of Connie and Paul together. The affair is taking its toll on Connie. Even though she feels guilty, Paul is distracting her from her family, and she is late to pick up Charlie from school.

She realizes she can no longer carry on the affair. The following day, she goes to the grocery store to buy some groceries and then after she drives to Paul's home and prepares to end things in person. While she drives to his apartment, she discovers him running off to the library with another woman. She jumps out of her car and runs to the library to confront Paul and the other woman. As she is in the elevator alone with Paul, they have an argument. She questions him on how many women is he seeing but Paul avoids answering the question and tells Connie that the other woman is just a friend and nothing more. She then tells Paul that she doesn't want to see him anymore and angrily tells him their affair is over. She also calls Paul a liar and tells him that she hates him. However, as she angrily storms out of Paul's apartment, he manages to chase after Connie, pushes her against the wall, and begins to seduce her. Connie then tries to push Paul away but she eventually gives in to him and they have sex in the hallway of his apartment. She leaves, narrowly missing Edward, who has arrived to confront Paul. Paul lets him into his apartment and they discuss Connie. Edward is stunned to find a snow globe he had given her in the past, which Paul explains she had gifted to him. Edward is clearly becoming overwhelmed and snaps and fractures Paul's skull with the snow globe, killing him instantly.

While cleaning up the evidence, Edward overhears a crying Connie leave a message for Paul, saying that she's ending the affair; she's tired of lying and hurting her family. Edward erases the message and puts Paul's body in the trunk of his car, and drives to Charlie's school play. In the parking lot, someone bumps into the back of his car, denting the trunk. Edward is scared he'll be found out but he tells the person not to worry about the damage. He later dumps Paul's body in a landfill.

NYPD detectives arrive at the Sumner home, explaining that Paul's estranged wife has reported him missing. Connie is surprised to hear he had a wife, and claims she barely knows him. The detectives return a week later to reveal that Paul's body has been discovered. Edward and the detectives notice Connie growing visibly distraught upon hearing the news. Connie lies that she met Paul at a fundraiser which, to her surprise, Edward corroborates. Later, when taking Edward's clothes to the dry cleaner, she finds the photos of her and Paul, realizing Edward has known about the affair. At a party later she notices that the snow globe she gifted Paul has been returned to their collection. Sharing a meaningful look with Edward, she realizes he murdered Paul.

They argue, and Edward says that he wanted to kill her instead of Paul. In the days that follow, Connie discovers a hidden compartment in the snow globe containing a photograph of her, Edward, and an infant Charlie, with a loving anniversary message. She and Edward share sad looks.

As she burns the photographs of her and Paul, Edward says he will turn himself in, but Connie objects, saying they will find a way to move on, and they appear to return to a normal life together.

On their way home from an event one evening, Edward stops at a red light with Charlie asleep in the backseat. Connie whispers that they could leave the country and assume new identities, and Edward agrees, consoling her as she cries. It is revealed that Edward has stopped the car near a police station.

Vance "Van" Wilder is a confident and sardonic seventh-year senior at Coolidge College who spends his days driving around campus in his customized golf cart, posing nude for figure drawing classes, and organizing soirees and fundraisers for his peers. Upon learning that his son is still in school, his father severs financial support. Van seeks a payment extension from the registrar, Deloris Haver. After having sex with her, Deloris hands him the paperwork for an extension, which Van realizes he only needed to ask for in the first place.

After a couple of attempts to get money fast, Van is approached by the Lambda Omega Omega fraternity, offering to pay him a thousand dollars to throw them a blowout party to boost their popularity. Gwen Pearson, a reporter for the school paper, writes a story crediting Van as the host of the party. Van, who normally refuses to do interviews for the paper, realizes the article can be the "cash cow" he needs to stay in school and agrees to sit down with Gwen for a follow-up piece.

Gwen's boyfriend, Richard "Dick" Bagg, is a pre-medical student and the president of his fraternity Delta Iota Kappa, as well as of the student government. As he learns of Gwen's work with Van, suspecting a growing bond between them, he moves to sabotage their prospective romance. Van and Richard exchange escalating pranks.

Gwen learns that Van stopped attending classes years ago, 18 units short of graduation. Angry that she dug into such personal details, Van disassociates himself from Gwen, taking a contemplative look at his life.

Richard arranges to sabotage Van's latest party with Jeannie, a member of a sister sorority, by smuggling underaged children in and getting them drunk, then calling campus police to the scene. Van is arrested for providing alcohol to minors and faces expulsion from Coolidge. He prepares to leave the college until his friend Taj inspires him to fight the charges.

Van throws himself at the mercy of the court, asking that rather than expelling him, they force him to graduate; he offers to complete his remaining units before the semester ends, earning a degree in leisure studies. The academic board votes 3–2 in favor of Van's reinstatement, Professor McDougal's was the decisive vote for reinstatement, surprisingly. Van begins studying for the finals, which will be held in six days.

Outside the court, Jeannie reveals Richard's plot to Gwen, as well as his infidelity. Angered by this, Gwen pretends to forgive Richard then spikes his protein shake with a powerful laxative just before his entrance exam to Northwestern Medical School. While taking the exam, Richard begins to have uncontrollable flatulence and hurries down the line with his exam. Richard then is intercepted by his future alumni intended to interview him for his entrance. Unable to hold it in any longer, Richard strips off his pants and proceeds to defecate violently in a wastebasket in front of the medical doctors, much to their horror.

Van uses the entire exam period for his last final with his least favorite professor, Prof. McDougal, who later delivers the news to Van that he passed. McDougal explains he had been so hard on him all those years because he believed Van was not living up to his potential, not because Van had also hooked up with McDougal's daughter freshmen year. Gwen finishes her article on Van for the graduation issue revealing his many contributions to the students and staff of Coolidge in the last seven years, his superhuman accomplishment of doing a semester's worth of studying in just six days, and Richard's plot to have Van expelled; Richard is seen reading Gwen's article, his medical school dreams are ruined and his reputation is destroyed.

The university celebrates Van's graduation with a wild party held in his honor. His father, having read Gwen's article, admits he was wrong and expresses his pride in Van's success. Gwen arrives, lovingly reunites with Van.

The story opens early in the 21st century, as an automated space probe is being prepared for a mission to explore habitable exoplanets in the Alpha Centauri system. However, Earth appears destined for a global war which the probe designers fear that humanity may not survive. It appears that the only chance for the human species is to reestablish itself far away from the conflict but there is no time left for a crewed expedition to escape Earth. The team, led by Henry B. Congreve, change their mission priority and quickly modify the design to carry several hundred sets of electronically coded human genetic data. Also included in this mission of embryo space colonization is a databank of human knowledge, robots to convert the data into genetic material and care for the children and construct habitats when the destination is reached, and a number of artificial wombs. The probe's designers name it the ''Kuan-Yin'' after the bodhisattva of childbirth and compassion.

Shortly after the launch, global war indeed breaks out and several decades later, Earthbound humanity is united under an authoritarian government. It is this government that receives a radio message from the fledgling "Chironian" civilization revealing that the probe found a habitable planet (Chiron) and that the first generation of children have been raised successfully.

As the surviving power blocs of Earth before the conflict are still evident, North America, Europe and Asia each send a generation ship to Alpha Centauri to take control of the colony. By the time that the first generation ship (the American ''Mayflower II'') arrives after 20 years, Chironian society is in its fifth generation.

The ''Mayflower II'' has brought with it thousands of settlers, all the trappings of the authoritarian regime along with bureaucracy, religion, fascism and a military presence to keep the population in line. However, the planners behind the generation ship did not anticipate the direction that Chironian society took: in the absence of conditioning and with limitless robotic labor and fusion power, Chiron has become a post-scarcity economy. Money and material possessions are meaningless to the Chironians and social standing is determined by individual talent, which has resulted in a wealth of art and technology without any hierarchies, central authority or armed conflict.

In an attempt to crush this anarchist adhocracy, the ''Mayflower II'' government employs every available method of control; however, in the absence of conditioning the Chironians are not even capable of comprehending the methods, let alone bowing to them. The Chironians simply use methods similar to Gandhi's ''satyagraha'' and other forms of nonviolent resistance to win over most of the ''Mayflower II'' crew members, who had never previously experienced true freedom, and isolate the die-hard authoritarians.

Frustrated with their lack of success, the authoritarian faction stages a military coup on board the ''Mayflower II'' and launches the ship's heavily armed "battle module", threatening to attack unless they submit to a military dictatorship. Having isolated the authoritarians, the Chironians destroy the module with an antimatter particle beam weapon. The remainder of the crew dissolve their government and join Chironian society. The week after, the laser communications beam to the ''Mayflower II'' cuts off, having been destroyed in another global war that had taken place 4.5 years ago.

The epilogue is set five years after these events and shows that the Chironians also assimilated the crews of the Asian and European starships. Now united, the Chironians refit and recommission the ''Mayflower II'' with an advanced antimatter drive and rename it the ''Henry B. Congreve''. The ''Henry B. Congreve'' is sent back to Earth to rebuild human civilization (with the new drive, this journey will only take eight years), fulfilling the ''Kuan-Yin'''s mission of preserving humanity.

The Federation starship ''USS Enterprise'' responds to a distress call from an uncharted planet. A landing party beams down to locate the source, and promptly finds a humanoid male and female, Rojan and Kelinda of the Kelvan Empire, who immediately paralyze Kirk and the landing party and order Kirk to surrender the ''Enterprise''. Rojan tells Kirk that the Kelvans originate from the Andromeda Galaxy, and have come to find planets suitable for conquest in the Milky Way galaxy. As their own ship had been destroyed by the negative-energy barrier at the galactic rim, they need the ''Enterprise'' to make the 300-year return journey. Three other Kelvans transport aboard the ''Enterprise'', and quickly gain control of the ship.

Rojan orders the landing party to a cave guarded by Kelinda. Mr. Spock uses his Vulcan telepathic ability to lure her into the cave, where Kirk knocks her unconscious and seizes her control belt. Their freedom is short-lived, however, and as punishment Rojan orders the Kelvan Hanar to activate his belt, transforming two of the landing team members to small cuboctahedral blocks of a chalk-like substance. Rojan picks up the blocks and crushes one to dust, killing Yeoman Thompson. He then transforms the other block (Lt. Shea) back into human form.

Back in their cell, Spock relates the experience of his mental contact with Kelinda. The Kelvans, it seems, are not humanoid after all, but have taken human form for convenience; they are actually huge creatures with hundreds of tentacles. (So alien were they, and so powerful their minds, that he had been thrown back out of the mind meld.)

Kirk and Spock decide to try to adapt McCoy's neural scanning equipment into a countermeasure to the Kelvans' paralysis field. As a pretext for beaming back to the ship, Spock feigns illness by placing himself into a deep trance. The Kelvans transport the rest of the landing party and themselves to the ship shortly afterwards.

Spock determines that there is no hope of penetrating the paralysis field projector's casing. Instead, he has Scott rig the matter/antimatter system to explode on contact with the barrier if Kirk so orders. Kirk opts not to.

Once the ship has crossed the galactic barrier, the Kelvans reduce all personnel except Kirk, Scott, Spock, and McCoy into chalk-like blocks. Spock remembers more from his mental contact with Kelinda and reveals that the Kelvans in their natural form have very weak senses and emotions, but in their present form they are having human reactions. Kirk decides to use their inexperience with physical and emotional stimuli against them.

Scott introduces the Kelvan engineer Tomar to alcoholic beverages, McCoy injects Hanar with a "supplement" that is actually a stimulant, and Kirk begins a flirtation with Kelinda, provoking feelings of jealousy in Rojan. Kirk is eventually able to goad Rojan into attacking him, and, in the course of the fight, points out that Rojan is behaving like a human and that his descendants who reach the Andromeda Galaxy will be alien inferiors in the eyes of the Kelvans. Realizing Kirk is correct, Rojan relinquishes control of the ship to Kirk, who then gives the order to return "home" to our galaxy. The world on which Rojan and his people were marooned is suggested as their new home.

Having crash-landed on the planet Targ (''en route'' to the Gamma System of ''Damocles''), the player's main objective is to find a means of escape. There are several ways to achieve this end. A civil war between two factions, the Palyars (indigenous "good guys") and the Mechanoids (invading "bad guys"), affords the player an opportunity to earn money to buy their escape from Targ.

The player is accompanied and advised by Benson, a "9th generation PC". This interaction is handled via a scrolling news ticker at the bottom of the display. As well as providing assistance to the player, much of the humour within the games comes from the occasional sarcastic remarks made by Benson.

The book starts with the traction city of London chasing and catching a small mining town called Salthook. Tom Natsworthy, a teenage Apprentice Historian, is sent, as punishment for skipping a chore, to the "Gut" of London, where captured Traction cities or towns are stripped of resources. Tom incidentally meets the Head of the Guild of Historians, Thaddeus Valentine, along with his daughter, Katherine. One of Salthook's residents, teenager Hester Shaw, attempts to assassinate Valentine, but Tom interferes and chases her. She reveals a disfiguring scar on her face and claims Valentine caused it, before escaping the London police through a chute. When Tom informs Valentine of her name, Valentine pushes him down into the chute. Tom and Hester recover outside of London within the Hunting Ground and, after an argument, they start following the city's tracks to reboard it.

The pair eventually boards a small town called Speedwell, where the owner Orme Wreyland drugs them and plans to sell the pair as slaves for profit at a trading cluster. Tom and Hester escape from Wreyland, meeting a friendly airship pilot called Anna Fang, who takes them in her airship the ''Jenny Haniver'' to the neutral flying city of Airhaven where they can find passage to London. At Airhaven, they are then attacked by a cyborg "Stalker" called Shrike, who was sent after them by the London Mayor Magnus Crome to kill them and bring their bodies to him.

Tom and Hester escape by stealing a hot-air balloon and drift over the Hunting Ground. Hester reveals that when she was a child, her parents were killed by Valentine as they would not give up an Ancient machine. Valentine then injured her and believed that she was dead. Hester escaped, and Shrike took care of her for most of her childhood. Despite the fact that Shrike was not supposed to have feelings, he developed a fatherlike bond with her. Wanting to avenge her parents, Hester left Shrike despite his pleas for her to stay and travelled to London. Shrike followed her, reaching London first, but was captured by Crome and used to create more Stalkers for London.

Hester sees that a London-built scoutship is following them and lowers the balloon onto the Hunting Ground. The scoutship, with Shrike on board, finds the pair and the Stalker confronts them. Before he can explain why he wants Hester to die, two chasing towns run over him, and Tom and Hester manage to board the second of these, a pirate town called Tunbridge Wheels. The mayor, Chrysler Peavy, who knows Hester from her days with Shrike, frees Tom as he is a resident of London and Peavy wishes to learn etiquette worthy of a Londoner gentleman. Tom convinces him to free Hester, and Peavy informs them that he plans to consume the downed Airhaven. While charging at it over shallow water, Tunbridge Wheels beaches on a coral reef, sinking it whilst the survivors escape inland with Tom and Hester. Whilst attempting to feebly retake Airhaven, Peavy gets stuck in a bog and his pirate subordinates shoot him, then attempt to execute Tom and Hester, but Shrike intervenes and kills the remaining pirates. Shrike explains to Hester that Crome had agreed to resurrect her as a Stalker similar to him after he brings back her body. She agrees to this, but Tom intervenes by stabbing Shrike in the eye, shutting him down, and saving her life.

Valentine is sent away by Crome on a "secret mission", much to Katherine's dismay. Suspicious of her father, Katherine begins investigating events in London with the help of Apprentice Engineer Bevis Pod, whom she befriends after discovering he witnessed Tom chasing Hester. They discover that Valentine salvaged a monstrous ancient weapon called MEDUSA for London and that the Guild of Engineers had reassembled it inside St Paul's Cathedral. The Cathedral's dome splits open to reveal MEDUSA, which is then used to destroy a much larger city pursuing London.

Tom and Hester are rescued by Fang, who is revealed to be an Anti-Traction League agent and takes them to the Shield Wall of Batmunkh Gompa which protects the nation-state of the League. Fang suspects that the weapon that London has reassembled will be used to destroy the Shield Wall, and warns League Governor Khan of MEDUSA. Khan is skeptical that London will attack, but Fang insists that they should bomb London to destroy the weapon. Convinced that the League will kill innocent people and angry at the idea of destroying his home, Tom storms out and discovers Valentine has infiltrated Batmunkh Gompa as a monk. Tom raises the alarm, but Valentine successfully cripples the League's northern fleet of airships. Valentine duels and kills Fang by stabbing her in the neck, before escaping in his own airship the ''13th Floor Elevator''. Tom and Hester take the ''Jenny Haniver'' and fly it back to London in the hope of stopping Valentine and MEDUSA themselves.

With MEDUSA finally launched, Crome begins guiding London east towards the Anti-Traction League's base behind the Shield Wall of Batmunkh Gompa to destroy their defenses and devour all of their settlements. After Valentine returns, Katherine learns that MEDUSA was originally found by Hester's mother, Pandora and that he had killed her to steal it for London. He also admits that Katherine was likely Hester's half-sister. Disillusioned, and horrified by the destructive power of the weapon, Katherine and Bevis conspire to plant a bomb to destroy MEDUSA but are caught in their attempt.

The Guild of Historians, led by Tom's boss Chudleigh Pomeroy, come to their aid, and battle with the Engineers. Katherine travels up to the Top Tier to Saint Paul's Cathedral, with Bevis disguised as her captor. Tom and Hester arrive, and Hester attempts to fight her way to Valentine to avenge her parents. Tom is attacked by the ''13th Floor Elevator'' above London and shoots it down. Bevis is killed when the airship crushes him, but Katherine is able to reach Saint Paul's Cathedral. Inside, she sees Hester brought before Valentine. When he attempts to kill her, Katherine jumps in her father's way and is fatally wounded. She falls onto a keyboard, interrupting the firing sequence of MEDUSA, and causing it to malfunction. Valentine and Hester, briefly putting aside their differences, try to take Katherine to Tom to get help, but she dies before they can reach him.

Hester leaves with Tom in the airship, while Valentine chooses to stay behind in London. MEDUSA finally misfires, obliterating most of the city and killing Valentine. Hester tries to comfort a grief-stricken Tom as they fly away in the ''Jenny Haniver'', apparently the only survivors of the incident, and make their way to the Bird Roads.

Daphne Reynolds is a 17-year-old American girl, living with her wedding singer mother, Libby, above a restaurant in Chinatown, New York City. Libby had met Briton Henry Dashwood in Morocco, and they married in a Bedouin wedding ceremony of uncertain legality. They returned to his family estate in England. His father soon died, making Henry the Lord Dashwood. Alistair Payne, the family's aristocratic advisor, tricks Libby into leaving, telling her it is best for Henry's duties not to know she is pregnant, then he lies to Henry, hiding the pregnancy from him and saying that Libby claimed to be leaving because she was in love with someone else.

Libby has always been honest with Daphne about who her father is, though Daphne feels a sense of emptiness without him. When Daphne graduates from high school, she runs off to London to try and meet her father. Henry has disclaimed his seat in the House of Lords to run for election to the House of Commons, hoping to eventually become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Henry is being pushed by Alistair, acting as his political advisor. Henry is engaged to Alistair's daughter, the snobby Glynnis, who has an equally snobby teenage daughter, Clarissa.

Checking into a London hostel, Daphne meets Ian Wallace, a local boy who works there to support his dream of making it as a musician. After forming a friendship when Ian shows Daphne around London, they start dating. When Henry catches Daphne at his estate, he is stunned to learn he has a child, but his mother, Jocelyne, immediately welcomes her in, giving her a room at the estate. After confirming things in a phone call with Libby, Henry embraces the opportunity to connect with Daphne. Daphne tries to win the acceptance of her father's social circle, but is repeatedly thwarted by Glynnis and Clarissa. In addition, Daphne has to ward off the advances of Armistead Stewart, a sleazy and arrogant upper-class boy whom Clarissa fancies and with whom Ian has long-standing rivalry. Daphne eventually pushes him into the Thames.

Daphne inadvertently wins over the aristocracy, including the elderly Princess Charlotte, whenever she interacts with them. However, Henry's political campaign suffers due to Daphne's flamboyant behavior, and his subsequent misbehavior with her. He asks her to assume the more dignified manner of the Dashwood lineage, after which Henry's polling numbers quickly improve. Ian is disappointed in her new behavior, made worse when she stands him up in favor of attending an upper-class social function.

During her coming-out party, hosted by her father (who flies Libby over to attend), Daphne overhears Alistair telling Glynnis how he "got rid of" Libby 17 years earlier. When Daphne confronts him, Glynnis locks her in another room. Glynnis then asks Ian, the band's lead singer, to announce the father–daughter dance, knowing Henry will have to dance with Clarissa. Libby frees Daphne, but when they see Henry dancing with Clarissa, Daphne rejects her new self, telling Henry she is returning to the United States. Sometime later, Henry surprises everyone by announcing that he is withdrawing from the election. As he leaves the press conference, Henry discovers that Alistair knew about Libby's pregnancy and manipulated their separation. Henry punches Alistair in the face, then breaks off his engagement to Glynnis.

Daphne is serving as a caterer at a wedding, where Libby is the singer. When the father–daughter dance begins, Henry shows up, telling Daphne that he loves her for who she is. Daphne embraces him, calling him "Dad" for the first time. Daphne finally gets the father–daughter dance she has been longing for her whole life. Henry informs Daphne that he has brought a large apology present for her—at which point Ian appears and asks her to dance. As Ian and Daphne dance, Henry apologizes to Libby, and the two also start dancing.

In the epilogue, Glynnis marries a wealthy nobleman (who bores her to death), Clarissa marries Armistead (who still womanizes), and Alistair works on a London tour bus. Henry and Libby are legally married in a Bedouin ceremony. Daphne is accepted into Oxford and is dating Ian.

In Calgary, Aaron Boone dreams of Midian, a city where monsters are accepted. At the request of girlfriend Lori Winston, Boone is seeing psychotherapist Dr. Phillip Decker, a serial killer who convinces Boone that he committed Decker's murders. Decker drugs Boone with LSD disguised as lithium and orders Boone to turn himself in. Before he can do so, Boone is struck by a truck and taken to a hospital. There, Boone overhears the rants of Narcisse, a seemingly insane man who seeks to enter Midian. Convinced that Boone is there to test him, Narcisse gives Boone directions to the hidden city before tearing the skin off his face in order to show his "true" face. He is quickly subdued by hospital staff, and Boone leaves.

Boone makes his way to Midian, a city beneath a massive graveyard in the middle of nowhere. Upon encountering supernatural creatures Kinski and Peloquin, Kinski says they should bring him below, but Peloquin refuses to allow in a normal human. Boone claims to be a murderer, but Peloquin smells his innocence and attacks him. Boone escapes, only to encounter a squad of police officers led by Decker. Boone is gunned down after Decker tricks the police into believing Boone is armed. Due to Peloquin's bite, Boone returns to life in the morgue. When he returns to Midian, he finds Narcisse there and is inducted into their society by the Nightbreed's leader, Dirk Lylesburg. In an initiation ceremony, Boone is touched by the blood of their deity, Baphomet.

Seeking to understand why Boone left her, Lori investigates Midian. She befriends a woman named Sheryl Anne and drives to the cemetery with her. Leaving Sheryl Anne at the car, Lori explores the cemetery, where she finds a dying wolf-like creature. A woman named Rachel (a nightbreed with the power to transform into smoke) pleads from the shadows for Lori to take it out of the sunlight. Once in the shadows, it transforms into a little girl, Rachel's daughter Babette. Lori asks about Boone but is rebuffed by Lylesburg and scared off by Peloquin. While leaving the cemetery, Lori discovers Sheryl Anne's corpse and her killer, Decker. Decker attempts to use Lori to draw Boone out of hiding. Boone rescues Lori, and Decker learns Boone cannot be killed due to his transformation. Decker escapes, and Boone takes Lori into Midian. Rachel explains to Lori that the monsters of folklore were peaceful beings who were hunted to near-extinction by humans. Lylesburg banishes Boone and Lori from Midian. Decker learns how to kill the Nightbreed and murders the residents of the hotel where Boone and Lori are staying. When Boone discovers the crime scene, he uncontrollably drinks the blood. The police find Boone and take him into custody. At Decker's urging, the police form a militia led by Police Captain Eigerman. A drunken priest named Ashberry joins them as God's servant in their upcoming battle against Midian. Lori, Rachel and Narcisse rescue Boone, and the four return to Midian, where Boone convinces the Nightbreed to fight.

During the battle, Ashberry learns there are women and children amongst the Nightbreed. When he tries halting the attack, he is beaten by Eigerman. Ashberry finds the idol of Baphomet and swears allegiance to it. When he is splashed by its blood, he is burned and transformed. Boone learns from Lylesburg that Baphomet plans to destroy Midian. Boone argues to release the Berserkers, a monstrous feral breed that were imprisoned due to their insanity. When Lylesburg is killed before he can open the cages, Boone releases them and the Berserkers turn the tide of battle. Decker confronts Boone and is killed. When Boone faces Baphomet, Baphomet says that Boone has caused the end of Midian, which had been foretold. Baphomet charges Boone with finding a new home for the Nightbreed and renames him Cabal.

Boone leaves Midian with Lori and meets with the remaining Nightbreed in a barn, where he says his goodbyes to Narcisse and promises to find a place where they will be safe. In the ruins of Midian, Ashberry stands in front of Decker's corpse and states that he wants vengeance on Baphomet and the Breed. When he presses Baphomet's blood to Decker's wound, Decker springs back to life with a scream as Ashberry repeatedly hollers "Hallelujah!".

Alternative ending

In the alternative ending used in ''The Cabal Cut'' and ''Director's Cut'' of the film, Narcisse is killed earlier in the battle by Decker, so he is not present during the subsequent events. The Nightbreed await Boone in a barn whilst Boone says his goodbyes to Lori, as he must find a new home for the Nightbreed. Boone promises to return to her, but knowing that Boone will retain his youth and immortality as she grows old, Lori suddenly stabs herself, forcing Boone to resurrect her as a Nightbreed. They profess their love for one another and begin their journey.

Meanwhile, Captain Eigerman wanders the underground remains of the cemetery, where he stumbles upon the transformed Ashberry, who longs for revenge after his burning by Baphomet. Eigerman shares this desire, but Ashberry rejects Eigerman's offer, kills him, and starts his hunt for the Nightbreed.

The surviving Nightbreed watch Boone and Lori in the distance. Rachel tells Babette that Boone will return soon, perhaps the next day, to lead them to a new haven. Boone and Lori now appear together as part of a prophecy in a Nightbreed painting.

In ''The Cabal Cut'', the resurrection of Decker plays as a post-credits scene.

Due to a cold, retired schoolteacher Mr. Chipping misses a first-day assembly at Brookfield public school for the first time in 58 years. That afternoon, he falls asleep in his chair and his teaching career is related via flashback.

When 25-year-old Charles Edward Chipping first arrives as a Latin teacher in 1870, he becomes a target of practical jokes on his first day. He reacts by imposing strict discipline in his classroom, making him disliked but respected. Twenty years pass and he becomes the senior master. He is disappointed in not receiving an appointment as a housemaster within the school for the following year. However, the new German teacher, Max Staefel, saves him from despair by inviting him to share a walking holiday to his native Austria.

While mountain-climbing, Chipping encounters Kathy Ellis, a feisty English suffragette who is on a cycling holiday with a friend. They meet again in Vienna, where she persuades him to dance to the Blue Danube Waltz. (This piece of music is used as a ''leitmotif'', symbolizing Chipping's love for her.) Staefel remarks that the Danube does not appear blue, but Chipping remarks it only appears so to those who are in love. On another part of the same boat, as Kathy looks at the river, she tells her friend that it is blue. Even though Kathy is considerably younger and livelier than Chipping, she loves and marries him. They return to England, where Kathy takes up residence at the school, charming everyone with her warmth.

During their tragically short marriage (she dies in childbirth, along with their baby), she brings "Chips" out of his shell and shows him how to be a better teacher. He acquires a flair for Latin puns. As the years pass, Chips becomes a much-loved school institution, developing a rapport with generations of pupils; he teaches the sons and grandsons of many of his earlier pupils.

In 1909, when he is pressured to retire by a more "modern" headmaster, the boys and the board of governors of the school take his side of the argument and tell him he can stay until he is 100, and that he is free to pronounce Cicero as SIS-er-ro, and not as KEE-kir-ro.

Chips finally retires in 1914 at the age of 69, saying, "Haec olim meminisse iuvabit (One day, we'll look back on this and smile)", but is summoned back to serve as interim headmaster because of the shortage of teachers resulting from the First World War. He remembers Kathy had predicted he would become headmaster one day. During a bombing attack by a German Zeppelin, Chips insists that the boys keep on translating their Latin, choosing the story of Julius Caesar's battles against Germanic tribes, which describes the latter's belligerent nature, much to the amusement of his pupils. As the Great War drags on, Chips reads aloud into the school's Roll of Honour every Sunday the names of the many former boys and teachers who have died in the war. Upon discovering that Max Staefel has died fighting on the German side, Chips reads out his name in chapel, too.

He retires permanently in 1918, but continues living nearby. He is on his deathbed in 1933 when he overhears his colleagues talking about him. He responds, "I thought I heard you say it was a pity—pity I never had any children. But you're wrong. I have! Thousands of them, thousands of them...and all...boys."

Sandy Edwards (played by Toni Collette) is a director in a company that designs geological software in Perth, Western Australia. Her business partner manipulates her into agreeing to act as a guide for a Japanese businessman visiting mines in the Pilbara desert, in hopes that he will purchase the software. When Hiromitsu Tachibana ( ) arrives, he treats Sandy like a chauffeur, and he seems more intent on self-discovery in the wilderness than on buying computer software. At first, Sandy is angered by his reserved, demanding demeanor. On their first journey into the desert, Hiromitsu, feeling insecure, talks more on his phone with friends in Japan than he does to Sandy. He also insists that she drive farther than planned. The terrain proves too much for the pair's vehicle, which becomes bogged down in the sand. After a series of desperate attempts to release the vehicle, including digging a dead man anchor, their winch burns out. Sandy wants to use Hiromitsu's phone to call people who can rescue them, but Hiromitsu refuses. This forces them to spend the night stranded together. The next day, Hiromitsu, conscious that his refusal had placed them in danger, wakes up much earlier than Sandy and builds a track of sticks over which they can drive out of the sand. The manoeuvre is successful. Now that they are on the road again, the ice breaks and a friendship starts between them that, in isolated surroundings uninterrupted by their work, grows quickly and honestly. Later, at a motel, they have sex. Only after does Sandy learn that Hiromitsu has a wife and children in Japan.

On another journey to scenic spots, Hiromitsu and Sandy share a quiet moment and kiss each other, eventually having sex again. Afterwards, Sandy runs into a swimming hole nearby. Hiromitsu follows her, diving into the shallow water before she can warn him, and disappears. Sandy frantically calls for him and, after a moment, his lifeless body resurfaces. In shock at his sudden death, Sandy struggles to deal with the situation, dragging his body into their vehicle and carefully washing it before driving for hours to the nearest town. Back in Perth, Sandy cannot comprehend the violent end to her journey. Reality intrudes in the form of Hiromitsu's grieving widow, Yukiko, and Sandy tries to understand how Hiromitsu's life had ended before she had understood his place in hers.

The action of the film takes place in 1978, in a fictional town called Acqua Traverse in Southern Italy, during the hottest summer of the century and the infamous Years of Lead. A nine-year-old boy named Michele Amitrano and a group of his friends set out on a race across scorched wheat fields to a deserted farmhouse. Michele's sister tags along but falls over, breaking her glasses, and she calls out to Michele, who runs back to her. Michele quickly calms her worries about the glasses, and they continue running. They are the last of the group to arrive at the farmhouse, which means that she and Michele must pay a forfeit. However, the leader of the group, Skull, chooses the only girl in the group apart from Michele's sister to pay up instead. He instructs her to expose herself to the boys, and she looks to the others for help, but they refuse to meet her gaze. She reluctantly and hesitantly begins to take off her clothes, when Michele pipes up that he was the one to arrive last and he should be the one to pay.

As his punishment Michele walks the length of a beam, high up in a rickety old barn-like building at the deserted farmhouse, and after that the group is seen going home. As Michele and his sister set off, she asks him where her glasses are, and he goes back to fetch them. While searching for the glasses at the farmhouse, Michele discovers a hole in the ground covered with a sheet of metal. He opens it and sees part of a bare human leg; horrified, due to the limited time he had to investigate the situation, he decides to keep this a secret from the others. He feels threatened by Skull and doesn't want such a big discovery to be taken away from him. The next day, he returns to the place, throwing rocks at the leg. As he moves to pick up another rock, the camera pans to him, on the ground, searching around him in the dirt, where Michele finds another rock to throw. As the camera pans back into the hole, the leg is out of sight. Startled, Michele is suddenly staring down at a zombie-like young boy stumbling out of the darkness and into view. Terrified, Michele hurries home once more, but then his bicycle chain breaks and he is thrown off his bike. As he returns home he is scolded for being late. The next day while playing with friends Michele thinks about the boy and later he decides to visit the zombie-like boy again. Michele finds that the boy is actually alive, although he is very weak. He brings him water and later food. One day, Michele goes to buy bread, to feed the boy. On the way he sees the familiar face of Skull's older brother driving away from the house and thinks this may be the person who has imprisoned the boy. He returns home, making sure that his own presence is not discovered by whoever put the boy there.

Michele climbs down to collect the bread back from the boy. During this time Michele's undaunted curiosity leads him to begin questioning the confused, possibly delusional, and traumatized boy. To Michele's annoyance, the boy thinks he is dead and asks Michele if he is his guardian angel. The boy walks over to him and Michele sees him at his full size, as going crazy the boy cries out "I'm Dead"! He screams louder and louder, making Michele climb back up the rope quickly and return home.

One night, Michele sees his parents watching on the television news that a child named Filippo belonging to the Carducci family has been kidnapped from Milan, and the boy in the pictures shown looks just like the boy in the hole. He overhears his parents and their friends talking about keeping the boy hidden. The next morning, he discovers his parents are hosting late-night meetings with the parents of his playmates and one domineering visitor "from the North" who now sleeps in his room. Michele, to his shock, gradually comes to realize that his own father is involved in the kidnapping, as well as some other men in the town. He visits the boy and tells him he knows his name and informs the boy of his mother and the message she left on the TV about him. This message was not received well by the boy, who still believes he is dead. Until Michele told him that he is a guardian angel and comes visits him, he promise to visit again. He continues visiting Filippo (Mattia di Pierro) and one day he lets him out for some hours of play in the wheat fields together, and then he returns him back to the hole. To win a toy as a present for Filippo, he barters with his best friend Salvatore for a toy blue van by offering to share a secret, and reveals to him Filippo's existence, but Salvatore is uncomfortable about the news, even though he surrenders the van and promises Michele that he will not share his secret with anyone else.

On Michele's next visit to Filippo, he is caught by one of the kidnappers (the older brother of Skull), who finds him in the hole with Filippo and punches him, then hauls him out and drives him home. It turns out that Michele's friend Salvatore has revealed his secret to Skull's brother. His parents have contrasting reactions to his being apprehended. His mother defies Michele's attacker, in defense of her son, but his father, on learning that he has been visiting Filippo, threatens to beat him if he ever goes back to visit the boy again. Michele promises to obey his father. But then one day Skull cajoles his peers into again visiting the farmhouse, where Michele discovers the hole empty and Filippo gone. His friend-turned-traitor Salvatore readily tells him he knows where Filippo has been moved, having overheard his father tell Michele's father, and will tell him if Michele will forgive his betrayal. The next night, Michele overhears the adults discussing who will kill Filippo, and Michele sets out immediately to find Filippo — who is now in a "cave" — and save him. He hoists him out over a gate and tells him to run for his life, while Michele tries to find a way out for himself with no one to hoist him over the gate. Meanwhile, Michele's father has drawn the short straw and shows up at the cave to kill Filippo. Michele sees it is his father and runs toward him across the cave just as his father fires his gun, shooting his own son in the leg. In the film's last scene, Michele's father runs with Michele in his arms in search of medical aid, as the ringleader from the North (Milan) finds him and insists he has to resume his assigned task of killing Filippo. However, Filippo appears and risks his own life to show gratitude to Michele, just as helicopters arrive and track down the ringleader trying to escape. The film ends with a repentant Pino clutching his son and Michele reaching out to Filippo.

The novel focuses on four periods in the life of a socialite named Anthony Beavis between the 1890s (when he is a young boy) and 1936 – but not in chronological order. It describes Beavis's experiences as he goes through school, college and various romantic affairs; the meaninglessness of upper-class life during these times; and Beavis's gradual disillusionment with high society, brought to a head by a friend's suicide. He then begins to seek a source of meaning, and seems to find it when he discovers pacifism and then mysticism.

Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and her husband Filippo (Filippo Nigro) have settled into life. They both have jobs that make them unhappy. She works in an poultry factory. He works the graveyard shift because he lacks seniority. They argue about money, sex, time and work... There is a subtle sense that this is a marriage whose love is dwindling fast, and that perhaps they are only going through the motions for the sake of their children.

One morning, the two of them are walking home and cross paths with an elderly man (Massimo Girotti). He is suffering from transient global amnesia, remembering nothing about himself and his current situation, although recalling random episodes from his remote past. And despite Giovanna's protests, Filippo brings him back to their home for the night so that he can take him to the police the next morning in the hopes of unraveling the mystery. As complications ensue, that one night stretches to a few days. The old man experiences strange episodes, flashbacks of sorts, that reveal clues to his mysterious past. His actions lead to a meeting between Giovanna and Lorenzo (Raoul Bova). Lorenzo lives across the street from Giovanna and their apartment windows face each other. The sexual tension between the two is quite palpable as they have both been secretly watching and lusting after each other from their dimly lit windows.

Giovanna and Lorenzo's instant friendship swiftly moves to flirtation and then to a passionate kiss. However, Lorenzo's job is transferring him to another city very soon and Giovanna is put in an awkward spot having to make a very quick decision. Her heart tells her she should act on her feelings. Her mind tells her to be responsible. Nevertheless, the two of them puzzle over the mystery of the old man as they try to come to terms with their feelings for one another.

The only thing the old man seems to remember is the name Simone, so Giovanna and her family take to calling him this. Giovanna takes Simone's suit to be cleaned and discovers a love letter in the jacket pocket addressed to him from a certain Davide Veroli. The next morning, Simone disappears, so Giovanna sets out to trace Davide Veroli as a means of identifying Simone and at this point also of tracing him. A meeting is arranged between them.

When Giovanna comes face to face with the old Davide Veroli, it turns out he is the old man they called Simone. Simone, in fact, had been the man Davide had loved when he was young. Davide heard the Nazis were going to kill all Jews in Rome and killed his boss in order to escape and to alert as many people as possible. However, Davide was in a crossroad: he had to choose between telling the others – his neighbors, those who had laughed at him for being homosexual – or looking for Simone first instead. He chose to save the others in the first place to prove that he deserved their respect and saved many people and children. He was given many honors after this, but he lost his only love.

After remembering who he was, he had gone back home, although without mentioning anything to the family that had given him a roof the previous days. Nonetheless, they became very good friends. Davide helped her make some big decisions in her life, like pursuing her dream to work in a bakery and having the strength to fight for her marriage and her children.

The storylines of the three player characters are independent of one another. As an Alien the player must defend the Alien hive from human marines, then stow away on an evacuating spacecraft and reach the marines' ship, the ''Ferarco''. When the ''Ferarco'''s self-destruct system is activated, the player must reach the escape shuttle, which takes them to Gateway Station from ''Aliens'' (1986). Here the player explores the station and battles more marines, reaching a ship departing for Earth. Before boarding the ship the player battles two Predators, after which the Alien enters the Earth-bound shuttle.

When playing as the Colonial Marine, the player begins at a research station on LV-426 built to study the derelict spacecraft where the ''Nostromo'' crew first encountered the Alien eggs in the film ''Alien'' (1979). Aliens attack and the player must fight their way through the research facility, the derelict ship, and an adjoining colony. Next the player explores the atmosphere processing station and shuts down its cooling valves in order to cause an explosion which will wipe out the Aliens. The player character escapes in a drop ship and travels to Odobenus Station in orbit above the planetoid, where they battle more Aliens, Predators, facehuggers, and cybernetically-enhanced Aliens until reaching the spaceship ''Tyrargo''. Aboard the ship the player battles more enemies including an Alien/Predator hybrid and "praetorian" Aliens. The player then battles an Alien queen, defeating it by expelling it through the airlock.

The Predator character's storyline visits three different planets, beginning with the player hunting marines in order to recover a captured Predator ship and its occupant from a human military base. Aliens are accidentally released in the base and the player discovers that the humans have created an Alien/Predator hybrid by implanting the captured Predator with an Alien embryo. The player defeats the hybrid, triggers the facility's self-destruct mechanism, and escapes in the Predator ship. The player next visits Fiorina "Fury" 161, the prison planet that is the setting of ''Alien 3'' (1992), where more Aliens and marines are battled. Finally the player visits a marine-controlled Alien habitat, battling cybernetically-enhanced Aliens, "praetorian" Aliens, and finally the Alien Queen.

Small and quiet Sam admits to his older brother Rocky that the school bully George has hurt him because he moved George's video camera while George was filming himself playing basketball. Rocky tells his friends, reserved Clyde and troubled Marty, and they devise a plan for revenge. Part of the prank entails taking George on a boating trip to celebrate Sam's fictional birthday. Then, they will get him to strip in a game of truth or dare, throw him in the river, and make him run home naked.

Sam invites his new girlfriend Millie along and all five of them are driven to the river by Marty. During the ride, George reveals a different side by being genuinely pleased to be invited; the group also learns he is dyslexic. However, Sam does not tell Millie the real plan until they arrive near the river. Millie refuses to continue until Sam promises to call the plan off. Sam tells Rocky, who then tells Clyde and Marty. Although Clyde has no problem, Marty is very reluctant. Throughout the trip, George clumsily attempts to fit in with the group. Despite this, he also gets confrontational when questioned about his motives (or lack thereof). The group soon realizes that although George is annoying and insecure, he is very lonely and just wants to be socially accepted.

On the boat, Marty deviates from the others' plan and initiates a game of truth or dare, though the rest decide to go along. After George shoots Marty with a water gun in good fun, he makes a funny quip about Marty's father, not remembering that it is a sore subject as Marty's father committed suicide years before. This sets off Marty, who exposes the whole plan and starts to ridicule George. Angered and humiliated, George launches into a vulgar tirade against everyone else, ending by crudely mocking Marty's deceased father and Clyde's two gay fathers. As Rocky tries to stop the fight, he accidentally pushes George off the boat.

Unable to swim, George struggles to remain afloat in the water. As the others regard the scene in terror, George accidentally hits his head with his video camera and does not come to the surface. Rocky dives into the water and finds George, who is face down in the shallow water close to the shore. Millie attempts to give George CPR, but is too late as George is already dead. The group is traumatized and in fear of being incarcerated. They dig a hole and bury George's body.

Clyde's plan is to explain that it was an accident but Marty threatens him, reminding Clyde that George's camera (now lost in the water) contains Marty's taped confession of the original plan and the authorities will find out if the camera is discovered. As they had already tricked George into not telling his mother where he was going, she would not know of their involvement. They later gather at Sam and Rocky's house. Sam, Rocky, Clyde, and Millie are willing to accept the consequences for their actions as opposed to having George's death hanging over their heads. Marty refuses to turn himself in and feels betrayed.

Marty storms out and convinces his brother to give him his gun and car. He robs a gas station and drives off, becoming a fugitive. Meanwhile, the others go to George's house and confess to his mother. Sam is later seen in an interrogation room, telling the story to the police, who later find and view the tape from George's video camera. In a final scene, audio of George explaining his dream of becoming a filmmaker and documenting his life in hopes those who see it will finally understand him plays in the background. The police force, Sam, his father, and George's mother find the location of the corpse. As the sheriff exhumes George's body, Sam watches on in regret and George's mother cries with sorrow.

Ms. Accord, a teacher at the Primp Magic School, has lost her Flying Cane, the equivalent of a magic wand, and claims to have a reward for the student who can find it. The player plays the role of either Amitie or Raffine, students at the school, as they venture across the ''Puyo Pop Fever'' world to find the cane, while meeting many wacky characters along the way and battling them. Raffine's course contains more difficult gameplay and alters the characters the player meets, as well as which character actually finds the wand. When playing as Raffine near to the end of the game, it is revealed that Accord never actually lost her flying cane. Raffine then plans on revealing her and Popoi's secret, but fails in her ending, as she is knocked unconscious by Ms. Accord, losing all memories of the flying cane incident. She regains consciousness near her school where Amitie and her friends congratulate her.

The episode begins with Cartman betting Kyle five dollars that when people die they "crap their pants", which Kyle rebuffs. Meanwhile, a Wall-Mart opens in South Park (where Stark's Pond used to be) with much fanfare and everyone in town starts shopping there. Cartman is especially delighted that one can buy three copies of ''Timecop'' for $18 instead of just one for $9.98, though Kyle wonders why one would need three copies of the same movie. The popularity of Wall-Mart forces the local businesses to shut down, including Jim's Drugs, within minutes of Kyle declaring that he will now take all his personal shopping there. Local residents, including Stan's father Randy, soon start to work at Wall-Mart for minimum wage and an extra 10% employee discount on store purchases which evens out the wage, as Randy explains.

South Park turns into a ghost town, and the townspeople decide they no longer want the Wall-Mart in South Park. They fail to resist, starting to miss the bargains (Randy's frenzied case of impulse buying notably re-opens at dinner the first day after the self-imposed ban when Stan accidentally breaks his milk glass), so they (as a vigilante mob) ask the Wall-Mart manager to have the location shuttered. Terrified, he asks them to meet him outside in five minutes. As the people stop outside his office, the manager is thrown through the window in an apparent suicide by hanging, and then voids his bowels (to the viewer, the force of defecation is so strong that it blows off his pants). Cartman joyfully tells Kyle he owes him $5.

The townspeople burn the building down, only to see it rebuilt. A man rebuilding the Wall-Mart tells Kenny, Kyle and Stan that Wall-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas ordered the rebuilding. Stan and his friends arrange a bus trip to Bentonville, Arkansas to stop the Wall-Mart, but are joined by Cartman, whom the Wall-Mart subliminally told to stop them. Though none of the boys trust him (Kyle knows firsthand that Cartman is secretly against them), they are in a hurry to leave. They then reach Bentonville, despite Cartman's sabotage (slashing the tires of the bus they travel on), and talk to Harvey Brown, the current president of Wall-Mart, who is ashamed of all the damage it's done, since he is one of the founders. The boys ask him how they can stop it, and he tells them they need to find and destroy its "heart". As the boys leave, Brown tells them to tell the world "I'm sorry" and, despite Stan's warnings not to, commits suicide by shooting himself in the head; he, like the manager, then voids his bowels so forcefully that it blows a hole in his pants, toppling a nearby barstool. Cartman laughs, and declares that Kyle now owes him $10.

The kids return home to the still-dilapidated South Park. Dressed in camouflage, they try to re-enter South Park Wall-Mart but Cartman confronts them. He denies that they knew he was against them, but Kyle angrily begins yelling at him that he knew Cartman was against them all along, while Cartman continues to talk about why he was against them. Kenny is then assigned to hold Cartman off while Stan and Kyle enter the Wall-Mart. In the television department, the boys are confronted by a man who says he is Wall-Mart, referencing the film ''The Matrix Reloaded''. He says that he can take "many forms" although he only puts on different costumes. After confusing philosophical dialogue clichés, he finally tells the boys that the heart "lies beyond that plasma screen television". The boys walk over to find it is just a small rectangular mirror, but ignore the metaphor of the true heart of Wall-Mart being human desire and simply smash it to "destroy the heart", in which Kyle does with a black mallet. The building begins to shake, and the Wall-Mart then begins to fall apart, while the man says they will see him in his "true form". However, he does no more than rip off his mustache and jump around. The boys and everyone else inside the Wall-Mart evacuate and gather with other townsfolk in the parking lot, and see the Wall-Mart fold in on itself in a blinding flash of light (in the same way as the Freeling house in ''Poltergeist''), then, inexplicably, crap its pants (shown as the imploding building suddenly releasing a large amount of fecal matter), upon which Cartman laughs loud and hard once again and departs.

Everyone cheers because Kyle tells everyone that all Wall-Marts have a self-destruct sequence if they break a mirror in the back. Chef tells a soldier to spread the word to all the towns on how to destroy these places, referencing a scene from the film ''Independence Day''. Randy then announces that the Wall-Mart's "heart" was their desires the whole time. Oblivious to the fact that the boys consider this obvious, Randy explains pedantically how the residents of South Park had allowed their consumerism to work against them and nearly destroy their cherished small-town charm. Realizing their mistake — albeit only on the surface — the townspeople loyally return to shopping at Jim's Drugs, which is shown to gradually grow larger until it reaches a Wall-Mart wholesale fashion and is later being burned down itself. Watching it burn, the townspeople vow against shopping there again, immediately heading to the local True Value (no doubt to repeat the same mistake).

The story begins with the sexton standing in front of the meeting-house, ringing the bell. He is to stop ringing the bell when the Reverend Mr. Hooper comes into sight. However, the congregation is met with an unusual sight: Mr. Hooper is wearing a black semi-transparent veil that obscures all of his face but his mouth and chin from view. This creates a stir among the townspeople, who begin to speculate about his veil and its significance. As he takes the pulpit, Mr. Hooper's sermon is on secret sin and is "tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's temperament". This topic concerns the congregation who fear for their own secret sins as well as their minister's new appearance. After the sermon, a funeral is held for a young lady of the town who has died. Mr. Hooper stays for the funeral and continues to wear his now more appropriate veil. It is said that if the veil were to blow away, he might be "fearful of her glance". Mr. Hooper says a few prayers and the body is carried away. Two of the mourners say that they have had a fancy that "the minister and the maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand". That night another occasion arises, this time a joyous one—a wedding. However, Mr. Hooper arrives in his veil again, bringing the atmosphere of the wedding down to gloom.

By the next day, even the local children are talking of the strange change that seems to have come over their minister. Yet, no one is able to ask Mr. Hooper directly about the veil, except for his fiancée Elizabeth. Elizabeth tries to be cheerful and have him take it off. He will not do so, even when they are alone together, nor will he tell her why he wears the veil. Eventually, she gives up and tells him goodbye, breaking off the engagement.

The one positive benefit of the veil is that Mr. Hooper becomes a more efficient clergyman, gaining many converts who feel that they too are behind the black veil with him. Dying sinners call out for him alone. Mr. Hooper lives his life thus, though he is promoted to ''Father'', until his death. According to the text, "All through life the black veil had hung between him and the world: it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman's love, and kept him in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart; and still it lay upon his face, as if to deepen the gloom of his dark-some chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity".

Even though Elizabeth broke off their engagement, she never marries and still keeps track of the happenings of Hooper's life from afar. When she finds out that he is deathly ill she comes to his death bed to be by his side. Elizabeth and the Reverend ask him once again to remove the veil, but he refuses. As he dies, those around him tremble. He tells them in anger not to tremble, not merely for him but for themselves, for they all wear black veils. Father Hooper is buried with the black veil on his face.

Álex de la Iglesia signs only two pages of this novel. In this introduction he states he has found a laptop computer lost by the poet Juan Carlos Satrústegui. On it, he has read a file called ''Payasos en la lavadora''. Since Satrústegui has entered a mental sanatorium, de la Iglesia talks with the writer's mother and decides to publish the text after correcting it. It is a parody of the old literary technique of the false document found by chance, probably influenced by the fact that, in real life, de la Iglesia writes his film scripts on a laptop computer, which he has lost at least twice.

According to this introduction, the rest of the fifteen chapters are Juan Carlos Satrústegui's autobiographical tale. Satrústegui considers himself a genius, superior to all those he comes across. But the reader soon realises his psychic problems (obsessions, deliria, paranoia, lack of empathy) become worse due to the drugs he uses in fiestas, the want of slept and the beatings he earns when dealing with the lumpen.

A former POW leads a special task force to hunt down the culprits responsible for carrying out the orders to murder 50 of the 76 escapees from Stalag Luft III.

On an unnamed island, queen Maeve of Temra seeks to conquer the peaceful kingdom of Kells and enlists the evil fairy Mider, who gives her the mystical Rune Stone allowing Maeve to use sorcery. Queen Maeve mostly uses the Rune Stone often to create or summon monsters whom she sends to wreak havoc. When king Conchobar of Kells seeks a way to protect his kingdom, protagonist Rohan, a druid's apprentice, goes in search of the prophesied hero "Draganta", with his friend the reformed thief Angus.

Later joined by the foreign Prince Ivar, and Conchobar's daughter, princess Deirdre, they are drawn into Tír Na nÓg, whose king Fin Varra puts the group through various tests to determine their worthiness. The heroes having passed these tests, King Fin Varra gives them certain weapons granting control of the Classical elements Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Thereafter the four overcome Mider's "Evil Sentinels" (recurring villains in the series) to capture corresponding suits of armor, and oppose the various monsters created by Maeve, assisted by the winged fairy "Aideen". Subsequently, Rohan gains a new partner in Pyre the dragon, who later identifies Rohan as Draganta. Later in the series, another Mystic Knight emerges, in the form of prince Garrett of Rheged, who joins the others after they free him from Maeve's telepathic control.

With her powers nearly exhausted, queen Maeve summons the monster "Lugad", who is more powerful than any previous creation and was trained and mutated by Maeve's teacher Nemain. It was discovered that Lugad and Rohan are both Maeve's abandoned sons. In the series finale, they co-operate with the other Mystic Knights to defeat Maeve, whom king Conchobar banishes to another island. As for Nemain, she has claimed the Silver Chalice that Ivar sought to reclaim as Mider enters an alliance with her.

Johnny Warder gets out of prison and returns to North Carolina to marry sweetheart Carol, with whom he has a five-year-old son. Johnny and Carol decide to rob a local bootlegger's safe during a town picnic. Their accomplice is Roger, a former Army buddy of Johnny's with knowledge of explosives.

They blow the safe to get at the $250,000 inside, but the job goes awry. During their escape, Johnny and Roger kill a law-enforcement official.

At a diner, a sheriff, Carol's brother Charlie, spots the fugitives. In deference to his sister, Charlie agrees to give them a 10-minute head start before he contacts his fellow lawmen. But when emerging from a restroom, Roger doesn't realize who Charlie is and shoots him dead.

The police eventually surround the gang at a sawmill. During a shootout, Roger is killed. Johnny and Carol drive off in a hail of bullets, and Carol is also killed. Johnny drives her body back to her mother and son.

Set in an exclusive beach community on Long Island, where children's book author and artist Ted Cole lives with his wife Marion and their young daughter Ruth, usually supervised by her nanny Alice. Their walls are covered with photographs of the couple's teenage sons, who were killed in an automobile accident, which left Marion deeply depressed and the marriage in a shambles. The one shared experience that holds them together is Ruth's ritualistic daily viewing of a home gallery of the deceased sons.

Ted and Marion temporarily separate, each alternately living in the house and in a rented apartment in town. Ted hires Eddie O'Hare to work as his summer assistant and driver, since his own license was suspended for drunk driving.

An aspiring writer, Eddie admires Ted, but he soon finds the older man to be a self-absorbed womanizer with an erratic work schedule, leaving the young assistant to fill his time as best he can. Eddie and Marion soon get involved, which seems not to bother Ted, who enjoys trysts of his own with local resident Evelyn Vaughn (Mimi Rogers) while sketching her. When Ruth catches Eddie and her mother having sex, Ted becomes upset and advises Eddie he may have to testify about the incident if Ted needs to fight for custody.

Marion eventually leaves Ted and their daughter, taking with her all the photographs and negatives of their dead sons, except for the one being reframed after it was broken, injuring Ruth. Eddie takes the initiative to retrieve the picture so that Ruth can have at least one partial image of her brothers.

Ted tells Eddie the story of the car accident that killed his sons. He suggests his and Marion's drunkenness and Ted's failure to remove snow from the tail and turn signal lights likely contributed to their sons' deaths. He gives vivid detail, to help Eddie understand Marion's intense despair. Ted does not fully comprehend why Marion left, repeating, "What kind of mother leaves her daughter?"

At the end of the story, while playing squash alone on his court, Ted stops, looks into the camera with resignation, then lifts the door in the floor and descends.

In the year 2055, the Chicago-based Time Safari company offers the opportunity for rich people to hunt dinosaurs in the past via time travel technology. As a precaution against the potential change of the past, the company preys only on the dinosaurs who would otherwise die of natural causes and keeps the clients from stepping off the designated path. Because of the dangers of interfering with the timeline, the company's activities are vocally criticized by Sonia Rand, the developer of the time machine software "TAMI", who feels disappointed for not receiving credit during her work and is worried that some clients may alter the past through their activities.

A trip with clients Eckels and Middleton goes afoul when the gun brought by team leader Travis Ryer fails to go off. The dinosaur, an ''Allosaurus'', rushes the group, scattering the clients. Ryer is able to kill the dinosaur and afterwards, regroups the clients and returns to 2055 without further harm. The next day, however, Members of Time Safari including CEO Charles Hatton hear reports of global increases in temperature and humidity, and Ryer observes a sudden increase in plant life. On their next trip, Ryer and a new group of clients find that the Allosaurus he and the team intend to hunt is already dead and the volcano erupts much sooner. The team quickly returns and reports the changes, causing the government to shut down Time Safari for an investigation. Ryer learns from Rand that Chicago is being struck by "time waves" that cause drastic alterations to the city as they pass due to something that happened on a previous expedition. Ryer and Rand narrowly escape a building after a time wave causes the appearance of thousands of beetles and a tree bursting through its structure. Rand warns that more time waves can be expected, and each will affect more advanced life forms, people being the last.

Ryer and Rand return to Time Safari to try to fix what has gone wrong along with the government. Unfortunately, another time wave strikes that leaves the city without power and now covered by dense vegetation. Evaluating the machine's logs, they find that the Eckels/Middleton expedition had come back a few grams heavier and that the bio-filter was turned off and recognize that they can use the time machine to go back to intercept their past selves so as to prevent whatever happened, but will only have a few seconds to act, and so must work to figure out who they need to stop. The Time Safari finds their equipment and gear free of anything, so Ryer and Rand lead a group through the city - now filled with evolved and deadly hybrids and other new hazards that kill some of their party members in order to find Eckels and Middleton. Eckels is safe but asserts he remained on the path, while Middleton, poisoned by the new wildlife, commits suicide before they can stop him. Afterwards,they are able to find a dead butterfly on the sole of the shoe he used for the safari. The party makes it back to Time Safari after more time waves hit, now finding the time machine partially underwater and unusable. Rand obtains the hard drive containing the TAMI software with plans to use it with the nearby university's particle accelerator as a substitute time machine.

With Ryer and Rand as the only two survivors, they finally make it to the university, Rand noted that the appearance of simian-like Babboonlizards from the latest time wave means the next one will wipe away humanity. Rand prepares the accelerator and stays behind while Ryer goes through the time portal, just as the last time wave hits turning Rand into a humanoid catfish-like creature. Ryer catches up to the previous expedition, catches Middleton to prevent him stepping on the butterfly, tells team member Jenny that the bio-filter is off at the same time asking her to give his earlier self a recording of the events he has witnessed before vanishing. The expedition returns without incident to the future they had left and Ryer shares the footage with Rand, presumably to use it to bring down Time Safari, and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Tom and Hester meet adventurer and author Nimrod Pennyroyal aboard the Airhaven, a former Traction City that converted to a floating city. Pennyroyal persuades them to take him as a passenger. They are soon pursued by airships of the Green Storm, a fanatical splinter group of the Anti-Traction League, who want the ''Jenny Haniver'' as they believe it was stolen from their deceased leader and friend to Tom and Hester, Anna Fang. Despite evading the airships, the ''Jenny Haniver'' is damaged and drifts helplessly over the Ice Wastes. They are rescued by Anchorage, which was once a thriving Traction City that relied primarily upon trade, but had recently been devastated by an excavated biological weapon that killed most of the inhabitants. The survivors have set a course for North America, which is believed to be a radioactive wasteland since the Sixty Minute War. The city is ruled by the young margravine Freya Rasmussen, who treats all three of them as honoured guests and appoints Pennyroyal as the city's chief navigator because of his past experiences (detailed in his book ''America the Beautiful'') traveling in America. As Anchorage's harbormaster works to repair the ''Jenny Haniver'', Hester becomes jealous of Tom's growing closeness to Freya, and is also disturbed by the sightings of "ghosts" in the city. Eventually she sees Tom kissing Freya, and flies away from the city in the ''Jenny Haniver''. Thereafter, Hester sells Anchorage's course to Piotr Masgard, the leader of the "Huntsmen" of the Traction City of Arkangel, who intends to capture the city through an airship invasion; rather than accepting money as payment for this information, she insists that when Arkangel eats Anchorage, Tom be returned to her. As she returns to the ''Jenny Haniver'', however, she is drugged and kidnapped by a Green Storm informant.

Hester is taken to Rogue's Roost, an island south of Greenland, where the Green Storm have converted Anna Fang's body into a Stalker. The commander, Sathya, hopes to restore Fang's memories by showing her Hester, but the resurrected Fang doesn't recognise her nor herself. Sathya reveals that, according to her intelligence, Hester's father was Thaddeus Valentine.

Tom realizes that Pennyroyal never went to America, and based his entire book on an old explorer's map in the Reykjavík library. On his way to reveal Pennyroyal's deception to the chief engineer, Tom finds out that the "ghosts" sighted around Anchorage are thieves, operating out of a parasitic submarine-like limpet attached to the bottom of the city, who call themselves the Lost Boys and work out of a larger group in the sunken city of Grimsby. With their secret discovered, they kidnap Tom and leave the city. Tom develops a sort of friendship with a reluctant Lost Boy, Caul, on their trip to Grimsby. Caul tells him that the city is ruled by "Uncle", a man who founded it as a base of thieves and keeps the Lost Boys under constant surveillance.

When they arrive in Grimsby, Tom is taken to see Uncle, who tells him there is something valuable in Rogues' Roost which he wants Tom to steal for him. In return, Tom will have the chance to rescue Hester. Tom climbs a ladder up the rocky cliffs to infiltrate the base, but he is soon discovered and reunited with Hester in her cell. Realising that Uncle sent Tom to die as a diversion, Caul prematurely detonates the charges the Lost Boys were positioning inside the Roost, sabotaging the operation, but saving Tom and Hester. In the confusion, most of the Lost Boys make their way to the chamber where the Stalker Fang is kept, but the Stalker easily kills them all. She then pursues Tom and Hester into the island hangar where the ''Jenny Haniver'' is kept, but lets them escape when she seemingly recognises Tom, and then takes command of the Green Storm forces from Sathya.

In Grimsby, after Uncle severely beats Caul for his betrayal, then leaves him to die by hanging, and informs the younger man that he knew Anna Fang when he was younger. Fang was a slave in Arkangel, but Uncle began to love her and released her. She betrayed him by building an airship and escaping from slavery. After Uncle was disowned by his family, he built Grimsby to make sure that nobody kept a secret from him ever again. Uncle wanted to retrieve Fang from Rogue's Roost to reprogram her to become his slave. Caul is saved by fellow Lost Boy Gargle, who wanted to repay Caul's kindness to him. Gargle gives Caul the Reykjavik map that Uncle had all along, and sends him back to Anchorage on a limpet.

Freya catches Pennyroyal secretly broadcasting a radio message asking for someone to come and get him off of Anchorage, and he subsequently admits to her that his claims of traveling to America were all lies. Arkangel chases Anchorage, leading to the Huntsmen led by Masgard capturing Anchorage and leaving it helpless on the ice to be eaten. Tom and Hester return to the city, where Pennyroyal has evaded capture. Hester sends Tom to hide, and later liberates the inhabitants, killing Masgard and the Hunstmen in the process. Tom confronts Pennyroyal, who knows that Hester sold Anchorage to Masgard, but doesn't tell Tom. Attempting to scare Tom off, Pennyroyal accidentally shoots Tom in the chest. He then steals the ''Jenny Haniver'' and escapes. Arkangel still pursues Anchorage, but becomes trapped over thin ice, leading Anchorage to drift on the ocean on an ice floe.

With the revelation that Pennyroyal is a fraud, the inhabitants lose hope in the salvation of their city, until Caul arrives with the Reykjavik map, and convinces them to continue. Meanwhile, Pennyroyal escapes to the Hunting Ground, and soon publishes a book reimagining the events of Anchorage's flight west, with himself as the hero and exposing the Lost Boys. Arkangel is evacuated and eventually sinks to the bottom of the ocean. In Asia, the Green Storm, under the leadership of the Stalker Fang, topples the old Anti-Traction League. Anchorage eventually makes it to North America, and finds it verdant and lush. Tom recovers from his wound, but is still very weak. Hester takes comfort in the knowledge that the city will be secret and safe in this new land, and is pleased to discover that she is pregnant.

Exactly one year after the explosion of Flight 180, college student Kimberly Corman is heading to Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring break with her friends, Shaina McKlank, Dano Estevez, and Frankie Whitman. While waiting on the entrance ramp to U.S. Route 23, she has a premonition of a deadly pile-up caused by a logging truck. She stalls her car on the entrance ramp, preventing several people from entering the highway, including lottery winner Evan Lewis, mother Nora Carpenter and her fifteen-year-old son Tim, businesswoman Kat Jennings, stoner Rory Peters, pregnant Isabella Hudson, high school teacher Eugene Dix, and Deputy Marshal Thomas Burke. While Burke questions Kimberly, the pile-up occurs, but Shaina, Dano, and Frankie are killed by a car carrier after Burke saves Kimberly at the last second.

After the survivors are questioned at the police station, Evan is fatally impaled by a fire escape ladder while attempting to escape from a fire in his apartment. Aware of Death's presence, Kimberly seeks help from Clear Rivers, the last survivor of Flight 180 who committed herself to a psychiatric ward for protection after Alex Browning was killed by a falling brick. When Kimberly informs Clear that Evan was the first of the highway survivors to die, unlike in her premonition, Clear realizes that the survivors are dying in reverse order. Meanwhile, Tim is crushed by a windowpane while leaving the dentist with his mother. Clear decides to help and introduces Kimberly and Burke to William Bludworth, who tells them that only new life can defeat Death. Believing that the birth of Isabella's baby would disrupt Death's plan, Burke sends fellow marshal Steve Adams to take her into custody while he gathers the other survivors in his apartment. When Nora decides to leave, a chain of accidents results in her head becoming trapped in an elevator, decapitating her.

The survivors take Kat's SUV to track down Isabella, who has gone into labor, prompting Adams to rush her to the hospital. Along the way, the survivors realize that the demises of the Flight 180 survivors affected all of their lives even before the highway pile-up by saving them from prior deaths, which inverted the sequence of the concurring accident. The SUV then suffers a blowout, causing them to swerve into a stack of PVC pipes in a farm that penetrate the car and injure Eugene. Rescue workers arrive and assist the farm owners, the Gibbons family, with rescuing the others while Eugene is hospitalized. Using the Jaws of Life, Kat's rescuer accidentally activates her airbag, causing her head to be impaled on a pipe protruding from her headrest. Her cigarette falls onto a gasoline leak from a news van that explodes, launching a barbed wire fence into the air that dismembers Rory.

Guided by a vision of a doctor named Kalarjian who Kimberly believes will euthanize Isabella; she, Clear, and Burke rush to a hospital to save her but while Isabella and her baby are safe, Kimberly sees through her premonition that Isabella was never meant to die in the pile-up at all. At the same time, an explosion from an oxygen leak in Eugene's ward kills both Clear and Eugene. Kimberly realizes that the vision from the hospital was hers, deducing from an article of a survivor creating "new life" to defeat Death. To ensure Burke's safety, she drives into a lake to drown herself, but Burke saves her and she is revived by Dr. Kalarjian.

Later, Kimberly and Burke have a picnic with the Gibbons and Kimberly's father. The Gibbons explain that their son Brian was nearly hit by a news van on the day of the accident, but Rory saved him. As Kimberly and Burke realize the implications, Brian is suddenly killed in an explosion caused by a malfunctioning barbecue grill.

May (played by Anne Reid) is a woman from Northern England. Her life has been constrained by the expectations of society and her husband. When her husband dies during a visit to their adult children in London, she has a chance to start again and pursue her love of drawing.

May is quiet but when her son Bobby tries to make her sit down and have a cup of tea she refuses, saying she might never get up and that she won't become invisible like all the neighbouring grandmothers and widows. May returns to London with Bobby to the horror of Helen, Bobby's wife.

May initiates a sexual affair with Darren (Daniel Craig), a warm and attractive younger man who is renovating Bobby and Helen's house and who is also her daughter Paula's boyfriend. Paula says he is a sweet man but weak. He has a wife and autistic son but lives in his van outside their house. Darren appears to share May's interest in art and the unlikely pair form an understanding.

May moves from Bobby's house to Paula's and discovers Paula is having therapy because her mother didn't cuddle her enough. At a writing group organised by Paula, May writes a short account of being a depressed mother of two young children. It is a very public explanation, perhaps, for her lack of affection. Paula introduces her mother to Bruce, a man near May's age. Paula wants her mother to find out if Darren will leave his wife and what he thinks of her. May agrees, but can only avoid Paula's later questions.

Paula stumbles upon a sketchbook filled with May's drawings of a naked man and a woman performing fellatio on him. She surmises the man is Darren, and shows the sketches to Bobby. He says it must be a fantasy but Paula suspects her mother is having an affair with Darren, and is angry.

After sex with May, Darren helps himself to medication in Helen's bathroom cabinet without caring what they are. May offers to pay for him to travel, with her, but then seeing his reluctant response says, 'what a silly idea'.

Paula invites her mother and Bruce on a double date with herself and Darren. May leaves when Paula makes a show of kissing Darren, and Bruce pursues her. He takes her home and coerces her into having sex that she doesn't want or enjoy. May goes to Paula's but finds no comfort as Paula is pleased to think her mother and Bruce were probably intimate. Paula tells May that she has given Darren an ultimatum to leave his wife by the following day, and, expecting that he will, tells May that she must leave.

Bobby tells Darren he must finish the conservatory or leave as he has a deadline and wants to sell the house. Darren is disillusioned and frustrated by his life and his lack of autonomy and fights with May, seeking to assert himself by making May perform fellatio on him. May wants to please Darren but is reluctant because he is being rough and aggressive. Things only become worse when May reveals that the financial "help" she had earlier promised him would be a plane ticket, to allow them to travel together, rather than cash as he had been anticipating. Darren loses his temper and insults her, before proceeding to smash up the conservatory he had been working on for Bobby.

Later, Paula tells her mother that what might make her feel better would be to hit her. May agrees and Paula punches May in the face. They visit Bobby's house where Helen is showing an estate agent round, and Darren is busy repairing the conservatory with Bobby. May has a black eye that she explains as an argument and says she 'got the message', before saying goodbye to everyone, refusing a lift to the station and preferring to leave alone.

May returns home, but only long enough to collect her passport, before walking away with her suitcase, sketchbooks and passport in hand.

Rising Hollywood movie star Bo Laramie finally achieves major success with his latest film ''Adrenaline Force''. After the film's premiere, a persistent group of unscrupulous photographers—Kevin Rosner, Leonard Clark, Wendell Stokes and their leader Rex Harper—harass Bo and his wife Abby, along with their 8-year-old son Zach. When Bo takes Zach to soccer practice, he eyes Rex taking photos of Zach and confronts him, leading Rex to provoke Bo into punching him, caught on camera by his fellow photographers. Bo is sued as a result and is placed into anger management. Meanwhile, Rex vows to destroy Bo and those close to him.

As Bo, Abby and Zach return from an event, Rex and his crew drive up beside them, in four different vehicles, and blind them by taking pictures. Bo's car is hit by a pickup truck while Rex and his crew snap photos of the wreck they caused. While Bo is not seriously injured, Abby's spleen is removed and Zach is placed in a coma.

Bo is told by LAPD detective Burton that the paparazzi each gave him the same story of finding the wreck after it happened, with no witnesses to dispute their claims. Some time later, Bo accidentally causes Kevin to wipe out on his motorcycle, careening onto a precipice. Bo tries to save him, but when Kevin gloats that they'll put his family through hell, Bo lets him fall to his death.

Bo makes Leonard his next target, secretly placing a prop gun in the jacket left in Leonard's car, whilst Leonard invades Bo's movie set and is ejected by security. Following him, Bo calls 911, and describes Leonard's car, saying that the driver is waving a gun. Leonard is pulled over and, reaching into his jacket for his ID, instead pulls out the prop gun, causing the cops to shoot him dead.

Convinced Bo will target them next, Rex and Wendell break into Bo's house to plant cameras inside. Abby runs into Wendell, who assaults her and threatens to kill Zach if she tells the police. Burton assigns Deputy Walker and Deputy Wilson to provide extra security, but Bo sneaks out past the two deputies and into Wendell's house, discovering the feed from the cameras.

Wendell arrives at his home where Bo confronts him with a baseball bat. In the morning, Bo puts the car back where it was at, and races to beat Burton, on his way to the house. Burton shows Bo a video taken by a camera in a button of Leonard's shirt on the movie set, and thinks someone planted the gun in Leonard's coat. Rex soon finds Wendell beaten to death, and Bo planted the bat in Rex's houseboat to frame him.

Burton realizes traffic camera footage will prove what really happened at Bo's crash, along with the testimony of Emily, who was with Rex at the event, prompted by her guilt to come forward. At Wendell's house, Burton notices the video feed from the cameras in Bo's house and Rex entering with a gun. Rex goes to Bo and Abby's bedroom and opens fire, only for Bo to hit Rex and throw him to the floor.

Bo viciously beats Rex, gloating about how he got his revenge. Rex is finally arrested, adding to a charge that he had previously harassed and raped Emily, and relentlessly photographed by paparazzi as he is led away. Later, as Bo is finishing filming, he's called to the hospital, where Zach has awakened from his coma. Bo, Abby and Zach later attend at the premiere of Bo's newest film, a sequel to ''Adrenaline Force'', and Abby is now pregnant with a girl. After the film, Bo meets the press out front, taking a paparazzi's jibe at him in his stride.

The starship ''Enterprise'' receives a distress call from a lifeless planet. Upon arrival, a telepathic being named Sargon (voiced by James Doohan) addresses Kirk and Spock as his "children", and invites them to beam down to the planet. Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Lt. Cmdr. Ann Mulhall beam to a subterranean vault where the voice of Sargon greets them from a luminous sphere on a pedestal.

Sargon explains that he and two others are the last survivors of their race; their minds, stored in these spheres, have existed here since their planet was devastated by war. Sargon then transfers his mind into Kirk's body and Kirk's mind into the sphere. Sargon explains that he and his companions will need human bodies temporarily, in order to construct android hosts for themselves, and then returns to his orb. Kirk, returned to his own body, declares his confidence in Sargon.

Back onboard the ''Enterprise'', the four meet with Chief Engineer Scott to consider Sargon's request, and Kirk convinces the others with a rousing speech about risk. The spheres of Sargon, his wife Thalassa, and his former enemy Henoch, are brought up from the planet. McCoy supervises as Sargon takes Kirk's body again, and Thalassa and Henoch take Mulhall's and Spock's bodies, respectively. When Sargon and Thalassa become exhausted by the strain of the transference, Henoch instructs Nurse Chapel in preparing a serum that will strengthen the host bodies. Chapel notices that the serum in the hypospray designated for Kirk does not contain the correct formula. Henoch confesses that he intends to kill Kirk, and Sargon with him, in order to keep Spock's body. Henoch then erases Chapel's memory of the conversation.

Manufacture of the android hosts begins. Kirk's body weakens more quickly than the others, requiring additional doses of the serum. Henoch tries to tempt Thalassa into keeping their hosts' bodies, because the android forms will be incapable of sensuality. She in turn tries to convince Sargon, but he collapses. McCoy declares that Kirk's body has died and Sargon is gone. Back in sickbay, McCoy is able to revive Kirk's bodily functions, but has no way to restore Kirk's mind. Thalassa offers to restore Kirk in exchange for McCoy's help in keeping Mulhall's body. When McCoy refuses, she assaults him telepathically, but then has a change in heart and relents. The voice of Sargon commends her, and she realizes that Sargon is using the ship itself as a temporary body. She then informs McCoy that Sargon has a plan, and locks him out of the examination room, after which Chapel marches out of sickbay. McCoy reenters the examination room and finds that Kirk and Mulhall have been returned to their bodies. However, the spheres have been destroyed, including the one that held Spock's mind. Kirk says that this was "necessary", and asks McCoy to prepare a lethal hypospray for Henoch.

Henoch, who has taken control of the bridge and is terrorizing the crew, reads McCoy's mind and prevents the injection. Henoch then commands Chapel to use the lethal compound on McCoy. She moves as if to comply, but then injects Henoch instead. Henoch boasts that he can transfer to another body, but finds he cannot due to interference from Sargon. Henoch pleads for mercy, but Spock's body collapses, seemingly in death.

Sargon tells Kirk that he could not allow this. Spock's and Chapel's bodies glow, and Spock revives. Sargon reveals that the injection was not lethal; it was important for McCoy and Chapel to believe it was lethal so that Henoch would believe it also. Spock's mind had been temporarily placed in Chapel's body.

Sargon and Thalassa announce that they will not attempt to build host bodies, but will "depart into oblivion" instead. They make a final request: to be allowed to use Kirk and Mulhall's bodies one last time to share a kiss.

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover) is a social misfit taking care of his ill and fragile, but verbally abusive, mother Henrietta (Jackie Burroughs) in a musty old mansion that is also home to a colony of rats. Willard finds himself constantly humiliated in front of his co-workers by his cruel boss, Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey), a vicious man who assumed control of the Stiles family company after the suicide of Willard's father. Martin mercilessly taunts Willard, though a contract written by Willard's father stipulates that he cannot be fired. Willard's co-worker Cathryn (Laura Elena Harring) sympathizes for the way he is ill-treated. After failing to exterminate the growing rat colony, Willard befriends a white rat he names Socrates, which he considers his only friend.

Willard quickly becomes obsessed with his new friend. At work, Willard is verbally abused again by Martin and locked in the elevator, eventually let out by Cathryn. That evening, he watches as Socrates begins to tear up a newspaper, prompting him to train the now expansive horde of rats. Among them is Ben, a large Gambian pouched rat that is jealous of Willard's favoritism towards Socrates. After he trains the rats sufficiently, Willard takes them to Martin's home, where he orders them to chew up the tires on Martin's new Mercedes-Benz. The next day at work, Willard takes great pleasure seeing Martin show up late and tired. While Willard explains to the hundreds of rats that they must move out, with Ben as their nominal leader, Willard's mother overhears him and assumes he is planning to get rid of her. Startled by noises from the basement, Willard finds her dead the next morning, having fallen down the basement stairs. Socrates comforts a devastated Willard. At the wake, Willard learns that his mother refinanced the family home to pay off his father's debts and that the bank will likely foreclose upon the property.

In his mother's bedroom, Willard finds an envelope from the coroner's office containing the effects found on his father's body, including the still-bloody pocket knife he evidently used to commit suicide. Distraught, Willard attempts to take his own life with the knife until Socrates stops him. In an effort to cheer up Willard, Cathryn speaks to him about the loss of her own mother and gives him a pet cat, whose own mother helped Cathryn to grieve. Willard reluctantly takes the cat, with Socrates safely stowed in his pocket. In a scene set to Michael Jackson's title song from the movie ''Ben'', the cat is pursued and fatally overpowered by the rats, which have taken over the entire house.

Desperately lonely, Willard begins to bring Socrates to work with him. In spite of the contract stipulating that Willard remain employed by the family company, he finds a note at his desk from Martin declaring that he is being fired. Willard argues with Martin before throwing himself against the door and begging to keep his job. During their confrontation, Socrates is discovered in the supply room by Martin's secretary. Her screams alert Martin, who bludgeons Socrates to death as a helpless Willard looks on. Finally pushed to breaking point, Willard hatches a plan to avenge Socrates with Ben. Loading hundreds of the rats into a company van, Willard confronts Martin. At Willard's command, the rats swarm upon Martin and kill him. As the elevator descends, Willard says goodbye to Ben and the other rats.

At home, Willard kills the remaining colony before rat-proofing his entire house. Exhausted after the night's events, he is finally awoken by the doorbell. Terrified by the shadows of two policemen, he remains standing in the hallway until the evening, seemingly experiencing some kind of fever. Cathryn appears at the house, informing Willard that Martin's body was found and that rumors had arisen that he was either murdered or eaten by animals. Coming face-to-face with Ben, Willard tries to leave the house before realizing that the rats have chewed out his car tires. Accosted by the two policemen, Willard runs back into the house and frantically attempts to prevent the rats from entering. Trapping himself in the kitchen, Willard is confronted by Ben, who he tries to kill with a mouse trap.

Believing Willard is talking to himself, and aghast at the rat infestation, the police leave to call the Bellevue Hospital Center and health department. When Cathryn tries to enter the house, they warn her against entering, asking whether she wants to be eaten alive. A horrified Cathryn connects the rats to Martin's death and realizes that Willard was responsible. Ben viciously attacks Willard as he tries to escape the house. The police officers and Cathryn look on as Willard, outlined in the upstairs window, kills Ben with his father's pocket knife.

The final scene reveals that Willard is in a psychiatric hospital, semicatatonic and refusing to eat. A white rat appears in his cell, crawling into Willard's sleeve as Socrates used to. An overjoyed Willard, believing that his friend has been reincarnated, reveals that his semicatatonic state is just an act and begins to tell the rat his plans for an escape.

Several of the species in ''Ascendancy'' describe motivations for reaching to the stars. Some species are peaceful diplomats; some are curious explorers; and others want to kill or conquer other forms of life. However, plot in ''Ascendancy'' is thin. Players are free to imagine a detailed storyline but most plot is restricted to a single introductory screen for each species and a synopsis given at the end of each game.

As usual, Donald doesn't have enough money to celebrate Christmas with his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. But, they are unexpectedly invited by his uncle Scrooge to his chalet on the Bear Mountain. The misanthropic rich duck wants to stifle his boredom this Christmas by testing his nephew's courage, and plans to dress up as a bear. But a bear cub sneaks in the cabin as the ducks get a Christmas tree. Eventually the mother comes looking for the cub, and scare the Ducks out of the cabin. The bears eat the food in the house and the mother bear falls asleep in front of the fireplace.

The Ducks make a plan to get the bears out of the cabin, and Donald has to tie the legs of the mother bear together while Huey, Dewey and Louie catch the cub. Donald fails to tie the feet of the bear together and faints on an arm of the bear, giving an impression that he fell asleep on the bear.

Meanwhile, Scrooge comes in and finds the boys chasing the cub, thinking that they are fearless. Then he finds Donald asleep with the bear, and Scrooge thinks he's purposely sleeping with the bear and thinks that Donald doesn't know the meaning of fear. Scrooge retreats unnoticed and returns the next day to spend Christmas Dinner in his mansion with his nephews.

As children growing up in a small Georgia town, Lucy, Kit, and Mimi bury a "wish box" and vow to dig it up on the night of their high school graduation. However, as the trio grows up, their friendship fades: Lucy becomes the introverted valedictorian, Kit becomes the most popular girl in school, and Mimi becomes an outcast from the trailer park facing teenage pregnancy.

On the night of graduation, they reunite to dig up the "wish box", remembering their old wishes: Kit wanted to get married, Lucy wanted to find her mother who abandoned her, and Mimi wanted to travel to California. Lucy and Kit try to convince Mimi, who is five months pregnant, not to go to Los Angeles to audition for a record company. However, they decide to go with her to Los Angeles the next morning. Kit is going to see her fiancé who is a student at UCLA, and Lucy is going to find her mother in Tucson, Arizona.

Unbeknownst to her overbearing father Pete, Lucy, Kit, and Mimi depart in a yellow 1973 Buick Skylark convertible with Ben. During the trip, the car breaks down in Louisiana and, with little money, Mimi suggests that they sing karaoke at a New Orleans bar for tips. At the bar, Mimi develops stage fright and is unable to sing. Lucy takes her place and is a hit, and the girls earn enough money to fix the car and continue on their way.

While staying at a motel in Alabama, Kit tells Lucy and Mimi that she heard a rumor about Ben going to jail for killing a guy. Uneasy for most of the trip, the girls finally confront Ben about the rumor, who reveals that he actually went to jail for driving his stepsister across state lines without parental consent because his stepfather was abusing her. Lucy and Ben fall in love with each other, and the girls have their first honest conversation since they were children: Lucy reveals that her mother left her and her father when she was three years old, but believes that her mother wants to see her again; Kit, who was overweight as a child, reveals that her mother sent her to "fat camp" every summer until she reached her goal weight, but now hates that Kit is prettier than her; Mimi reveals that her baby's father is not her ex-boyfriend Kurt, but a man who raped her at a party, and that she is planning to put her baby up for adoption.

In Tucson, Lucy finds her mother Caroline, who has remarried with two young sons and is unhappy to see her. Caroline reveals that Lucy was an unintended pregnancy and that she wants nothing to do with her, leaving Lucy heartbroken. At the motel, Ben consoles Lucy and impresses her by writing music to a poem she has written during the trip. Lucy then rejoins Kit, Mimi, and Ben, and they reach Los Angeles.

One night, Kit takes Mimi with her to surprise her fiancé Dylan. Alone together in the motel, Lucy loses her virginity to Ben. Kit and Mimi arrive at Dylan's apartment to find him cheating on Kit with another woman. She then realizes that it was Dylan who raped Mimi, and punches him in the face. While running away, Mimi falls down the stairs and loses her baby. In the hospital, Lucy and Kit console her as she comes to terms with her loss, having decided to keep her baby once they reached Los Angeles.

Lucy calls her father to come take her, Kit, and Mimi back home, and Kit and Mimi tell her that she should go to the audition in Mimi's place. Lucy declines and prepares to leave with them and her father, but realizes that everything she has done has been to please her father instead of herself. Lucy tells her father to let her go, runs to Ben, and they kiss. She, Kit, and Mimi head to the audition with Ben and receive a standing ovation for their performance of her song, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman".

The girls re-bury the "wish box" at a Los Angeles beach, deciding not to make any wishes for the future, but to focus on the present and their friendship.

Turmoil erupts in Nigeria following a military ''coup d'etat'' led by exiled General Mustafa Yakubu in which President Samuel Azuka and his entire family are reportedly assassinated. The ethnic enmity is between the Fulani Moslems in the north and Christian Ibo in the south. Foreigners evacuate the country and Lieutenant A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and his U.S. Navy SEAL team consisting of Zee (Eamonn Walker), Slo (Nick Chinlund), Red (Cole Hauser), Lake (Johnny Messner), Silk (Charles Ingram), Doc (Paul Francis), and Flea (Chad Smith), board the aircraft carrier , to be dispatched by Captain Bill Rhodes (Tom Skerritt) to extract Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a U.S. citizen by marriage to the late Dr. John Kendricks who was killed by rebels in Sierra Leone. Their secondary mission is to extract the mission's priest (Pierrino Mascarino) and two nuns (Fionnula Flanagan and Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy), should they choose to come.

Waters gets to Kendricks, telling her that rebels are closing in on her hospital and the mission, and that his orders are to extract U.S. citizens; however, Kendricks refuses to leave without her patients that she loves so much. Waters calls Rhodes for options; after a brief conversation, he concedes to Kendricks' wishes and agrees to take those refugees able to walk. Kendricks begins assembling the able-bodied for the hike; the priest and the nuns stay behind to take care of the injured.

Irritated and behind schedule, the team and the refugees leave the hospital mission after daybreak. At nightfall they take a short break. The rebels rapidly approach their position, and Waters stealthily kills one. Kendricks warns Waters that the rebels are going to the mission, but he is determined to carry out his orders, and they continue to the extraction point.

Back at the mission, the staff and refugees are detained by the rebels. Despite the priest's pleas for mercy, the rebels murder him and the remaining occupants.

When the team arrives at the extraction point, Waters' initial plan becomes clear: the SEALs suddenly turn away the refugees from the waiting SH-60B Seahawk helicopter. Waters forces Kendricks into the helicopter against her will, leaving the refugees stranded in the jungle, defenseless against the rebels. En route back to ''Harry Truman'', they fly over the original mission compound, seeing it destroyed and all its occupants murdered, as Kendricks had feared.

Remorseful, Waters orders the pilot to return to the refugees. He then loads as many refugees as he can into the helicopter and decides to escort the remaining refugees to the Cameroonian border on foot.

During the hike to Cameroon, the SEALs discover the rebels are somehow tracking them. As they escape and evade the rebels, the team enters a village whose inhabitants are being raped, tortured, and massacred by the rebels. Cognizant of his ability to stop it, Waters orders the team to kill the rebels. The team is visibly shaken by the atrocities they see the rebels have committed against the villagers.

Again en route, Slo determines that a refugee is transmitting a signal allowing the rebels to locate them. A newer refugee (Jimmy Jean-Louis) picked up during the trek attempts to run but is shot. A transmitter is discovered on his body. As he bleeds out, he confesses that he is coerced to be the rat because his family had been captured by the rebels. The following search for his co-conspirators reveals the presence of Arthur Azuka (Sammi Rotibi), the surviving son of late President Samuel Azuka, which they realize is the reason the rebels are hunting them: Samuel Azuka was not only the president of the country, but also the tribal king of the Ibo. As the only surviving member of this royal bloodline, Arthur is the only person left with a legitimate claim to the Ibo Nation. Waters is angered that Kendricks knew this but did not inform him.

The SEALs decide to continue escorting the refugees to Cameroon, regardless of the cost. A firefight ensues when the rebels finally catch up with them, and the SEALs decide to stay behind as rearguard to buy the refugees enough time to reach the border safely.

Zee radios the Navy for air support; two F/A-18s take off and head towards them. The rebels kill Slo, Lake, Flea, and Silk. Waters, Red, Doc, and Zee are wounded, but direct the jets on where to attack. Arthur and Kendricks rush towards the now-closed Cameroonian border crossing when they hear the jets approach and bomb the pursuing rebels.

Waters, Zee, Doc, and Red rise from the grass as Navy helicopters land in Cameroon, opposite the Nigerian border crossing. Rhodes arrives and orders the gate open, letting in the SEALs and the refugees. They are then escorted onto the helicopters.

Rhodes promises Waters that he will recover the bodies of Waters' men. Kendricks bids tearful farewells to her Nigerian friends and flies away in a helicopter while comforting Waters, watching as Arthur is surrounded by his people proclaiming their freedom.

The movie ends with, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" quote attributed to Edmund Burke.

At the University of Zurich Institute of Medicine in Switzerland, Herbert West brings his dead professor, Dr. Hans Gruber, back to life. There are horrific side-effects, however; as West explains, the dosage was too large. When accused of killing Gruber, West counters: "I gave him life!"

West arrives at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts in order to further his studies as a medical student. He rents a room from fellow medical student Dan Cain and converts the house's basement into his own personal laboratory. West demonstrates his reanimating reagent to Dan by reanimating Dan's dead cat Rufus. Dan's fiancée Megan Halsey, daughter of the medical school's dean, walks in on this experiment and is horrified.

Dan tries to tell the dean about West's success in reanimating the dead cat, but the dean does not believe him. When Dan insists, the dean implies that Dan and West have gone mad. Barred from the school, West and Dan sneak into the morgue to test the reagent on a human subject in an attempt to prove that the reagent works, and thereby salvage their medical careers. The corpse they inject comes back to life, but in a frenetic and violent zombie-like state. Dr. Halsey stumbles upon the scene and is killed by the reanimated corpse, which West then kills with a bone-saw. Excited at the prospect of working with a freshly dead specimen, West injects Dr. Halsey's body with his reanimating reagent. Dr. Halsey returns to life, also in a zombie-like state. Megan chances upon the scene, and is hysterical. Dan collapses in shock.

Dr. Halsey's colleague Dr. Carl Hill, a professor and researcher at the hospital, takes charge of Dr. Halsey, whom he puts in a padded observation cell adjacent to his office. He carries out a surgical operation on him, lobotomizing him. During the course of this operation, he discovers that Dr. Halsey is not sick, but dead and reanimated.

Dr. Hill goes to West's basement lab and attempts to blackmail him into surrendering his reagent and notes, hoping to take credit for West's discovery. West offers to demonstrate the reagent and puts a few drops of it onto a microscope slide with dead cat tissue. As Dr. Hill peers through the microscope at this slide, West clobbers him from behind with a shovel, and then decapitates him with it. West then reanimates Dr. Hill's head and body separately. While West is questioning Dr. Hill's head and taking notes, Dr. Hill's body sneaks up behind him and knocks him unconscious. The body carries the head back to Dr. Hill's office, with West's reagent and notes.

In his re-animated state, Dr. Hill acquires the ability to control other re-animated corpses telepathically, after conducting brain surgery on them. He then directs Dr. Halsey to snatch Megan away from Dan. While being carried to the morgue by her reanimated father, Megan faints. When she arrives, Dr. Hill strips her naked and straps her unconscious body to a table. She regains consciousness as Hill's body and bloody, severed head begin to sexually assault her.

Hill's body starts to place his head between Megan's legs, but is interrupted by the arrival of West and Dan. West distracts Dr. Hill while Dan frees Megan. Dr. Hill reveals that he has reanimated and lobotomized several corpses from the morgue, rendering them susceptible to mind control as Halsey is. However, Megan's voice reawakens a protectiveness in her father, who fights off the other corpses as Dan and Megan escape. In the ensuing chaos, West injects Dr. Hill's body with a lethal overdose of the reagent. Dr. Hill's body mutates rapidly and attacks West, who screams out to Dan to save his work before being pulled away by Dr. Hill's monstrous entrails.

Dan retrieves the satchel containing West's reagent and notes. As Dan and Megan flee the morgue, one of the reanimated corpses attacks and strangles Megan. Dan takes her to the hospital emergency room and tries to revive her, but she is dead. In despair, he injects her with West's reagent. After the scene fades to black, Megan, apparently revived, can be heard screaming.

John Probe is a British Secret Service agent at first engaging in missions against Communists, terrorists and organised crime. He has been given extreme physical enhancement by a method known as "compu-puncture" to give him "hyperpower" equivalent to the strength of fifty men, and computer circuitry imprinted onto his skull to control and advise on use of the hyperpower. The computer also grants him occasional mental skills, such as how to pilot aeroplanes, drive an armoured car, or specific scientific and military knowledge he would not normally possess. Probe eventually discovers that his superior, Denis Sharpe, had engineered the compu-puncture treatment which had given him his abilities so as to erase Probe's pre-augmented memory and to cause his death if he did not receive frequent treatments. As a result, Probe was forced to work for Sharpe.

Probe attempted to leave Sharpe and the service several times, but was forced to return for controlling hyperpower injections to prevent his energy flow from falling below survival level - although one story suggests that he has left Sharpe for an unspecified but considerable length of time. Probe's computer would often attempt to overrule or counter his human emotions, but as the story wore on Probe became more and more resentful to both the computer and Sharpe's orders, often disobeying the computer's advice completely. Eventually, M.A.C.H. 1 killed Sharpe and then sacrificed himself to enable aliens, provoked into attacking Earth by Sharpe, to return home. Probe's life before his compu-puncture treatment was never clarified or explained, and it was stated several times that the only person who knew anything about his prior life was Sharpe himself.

In October 1962, U-2 aerial surveillance photos reveal that the Soviet Union is in the process of placing intermediate-range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear weapons in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy and his advisers must come up with a plan of action to prevent their activation. Kennedy is determined to show that the United States will not allow a missile threat. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advise immediate U.S. military strikes against the missile sites followed by an invasion of Cuba. Kennedy is reluctant to attack and invade because it would very likely cause the Soviets to invade Berlin, which could lead to an all-out war. Citing ''The Guns of August'', Kennedy sees an analogy to the events that started World War I, where the tactics of both sides' commanders had not evolved since the previous war and were obsolete, only this time nuclear weapons are involved. War appears to be almost inevitable.

The Kennedy administration tries to find a solution that will remove the missiles but avoid an act of war. They reject a blockade, as this is formally regarded as an act of war, and settle on what they publicly describe as a quarantine. They announce that the U.S. naval forces will stop all ships entering Cuban waters and inspect them to verify they are not carrying weapons destined for Cuba. The Soviet Union sends mixed messages in response. Off the shores of Cuba, the Soviet ships turn back from the quarantine lines. Secretary of State Dean Rusk says, "We're eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked." The administration continues to order spy plane pictures, but one of Kennedy's top advisers, Kenneth O'Donnell, calls the pilots to ensure the pilots do not report that they were shot at or fired upon, because if they were, the country would be forced to retaliate under the rules of engagement.

John A. Scali, a reporter with ABC News, is contacted by Soviet "emissary" Aleksandr Fomin, and through this back-channel communication method the Soviets offer to remove the missiles in exchange for public assurances from the U.S. that it will never invade Cuba. A long message in the same tone as the informal communication from Fomin, apparently written personally by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, is received. This is followed by a second, more hard line cable in which the Soviets offer a deal involving U.S removal of its Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The Kennedy administration interprets the second as a response from the Politburo, and in a risky act, decides to ignore it and respond to the first message, assumed to be from Khrushchev. There are several mis-steps during the crisis: the defense readiness level of Strategic Air Command (SAC) is raised to DEFCON 2 (one step shy of maximum readiness for imminent war), without informing the President; a nuclear weapon test proceeds (Bluegill Triple Prime) and a routine test launch of a U.S. offensive missile is also carried out without the President's knowledge.

In a bid for time while under intense pressure from the military for an immediate strike, President Kennedy authorizes attacks on the missile sites and an invasion of Cuba, to commence the following Monday. An Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane is sent over Cuba to gather intelligence for the attack, but is shot down, killing the pilot. After much deliberation with the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, Kennedy makes a final attempt to avoid a war by sending his brother, Robert F. Kennedy to meet with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on Friday night. Bobby reiterates the demand that the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba, and in return promises not to invade or assist in the invasion of Cuba. Dobrynin insists that the U.S. must also remove all Jupiter missiles from Turkey, on the border of the Soviet Union. Bobby says that a quid pro quo is not possible, but in exchange for Khrushchev removing all the missiles from Cuba, there will be a secret understanding that the U.S. will remove all of its "obsolete" missiles from Turkey within six months as part of a pre-scheduled plan. The Soviets announce on Sunday that they will remove their missiles from Cuba, averting a war that could have escalated to the use of nuclear weapons. The film ends with President Kennedy dictating a letter of condolence to the family of the reconnaissance pilot, Rudolf Anderson, who was shot down over Cuba as part of the preparations for the invasion, and the Kennedy brothers and O'Donnell outside of the Oval Office as actual audio of President Kennedy's commencement speech at American University played in the background.

Act 1

'''Scene 1''': Boy Willie and Lymon arrive in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Mississippi and enter the Charles' household at five in the morning. They have brought a truck of watermelons to sell. Against Doaker's advice, Boy Willie wakes his sister Berniece, and tells her of Sutter's death. Berniece accuses Boy Willie of shoving Sutter down a well, and she asks him to leave. Instead, Boy Willie wakes Berniece's daughter, Maretha, causing Berniece to run back up the stairs where she sees Sutter's ghost. Lymon notices the piano which Willie intends to sell to buy Sutter's land. Doaker insists that Berniece will not sell the piano, because she refused to sell when Avery brought a buyer to the house. Willie insists that he will convince her. Maretha comes downstairs, and Willie asks her to play the piano. She plays the beginning of a few simple tunes, and he answers her song with a boogie-woogie. Berniece enters with Avery, and Willie asks whether she still has the prospective buyer's name, explaining he came to Pittsburgh to sell the piano. Berniece refuses to listen and walks out..

'''Scene 2''': Wining Boy and Doaker talk in the kitchen when Boy Willie and Lymon enter and claim to have located the piano buyer. Willie's uncles warn him that Sutter will cheat him but Boy Willie refuses to listen. The story behind Lymon and Boy Willie's term in Parchman Prison Farm is revealed. Lymon and Willie both gather different perspectives from their experiences. Lymon wants to flee to the North where he will be better treated, while Willie feels that whites only treat blacks badly if the blacks do not try and stop them. They ask Wining Boy to play the piano, but instead he explains that being seen as nothing more than a piano player became a burden. Doaker then tells the story of the piano's history. Generations earlier, Sutter, their family's slave-owner, broke up a family by selling a mother and child to pay for the piano which he bought for his wife as an anniversary present. The wife was happy with the piano but missed having the slaves, so Sutter had that family's husband/father (who was a carpenter and too valuable to sell), carve their likenesses on the piano. He carved likenesses of his entire history on the piano. In 1911, Boy Willie's father stole the piano from the Sutters; in retaliation he was killed. Willie declares that these are stories of the past and that the piano should now be put to good use. Willie and Lymon attempt to move the piano to test its weight. As soon as they try to move it, Sutter's ghost is heard. Berniece tells Willie to stop and informs him that he is selling his soul for money. Willie refutes her, Berniece blames Crawley's death on Willie, and the two engage in a fight. Upstairs, Maretha is confronted by the ghosts, and she screams in terror.

Act 2

'''Scene 1''': Doaker and Wining Boy are again together in the house alone. Doaker confesses that he saw Sutter's ghost playing the piano and feels that Berniece should discard the piano so as to prevent spirits from traumatizing the Charles family. Wining Boy disagrees. Lymon and Willie walk into the room after a watermelon sale. Wining Boy sells his suit and shoes to Lymon, promising its swooning effects on women. Both Lymon and Willie leave the house in hot pursuit of women.

'''Scene 2''': Later that day as Berniece is preparing for her bath, Avery enters and proposes that Berniece should open up and let go. He tells her that she cannot continue to live her life with Crawley's memory shut inside her. Berniece changes the topic and asks Avery to bless the house, hoping to destroy the spirit of the Sutter ghost. Avery then brings up the piano and tells Berniece she should learn to not be afraid of her family's spirits and play it again. Berniece breaks down her story of her mother's tears and blood mingled with her father's soul on the piano and refuses to open her wounds for everyone to see.

'''Scenes 3–5''': Boy Willie enters the Charles house with Grace and begins to fool around on the couch. Berniece orders them out and opens the door to see Lymon. Lymon is upset over his inability to woo women and begins to talk about women's virtues to Berniece. The two kiss, breaking Berniece's discomfort over Crawley's death, and Berniece heads back upstairs. The next morning, Lymon and Willie try to move the piano out and are stopped by Uncle Doaker. Willie, frustrated, demands that he will sell the piano no matter what. The day to move the piano draws closer. Excited to sell the piano, Willie quickly partakes on his actions without a care of his sister's words. Berniece appears with Crawley's gun, leading Doaker and Avery to urge them to talk it through first. Sutter's presence as a ghost is suddenly revived. Avery attempts to drive the ghost away with his blessings but is not successful. Suddenly, Berniece knows that she must play the piano again as a plea to her ancestors. Finally, the house is led to a calm aura, and Willie leaves.

The book deals with the intersecting lives of a group of English Catholics from their years as students at University College London in the early 1950s up to the late 1970s. The characters are confronted with a wide range of issues and experiences including marriage, contraception, adultery, illness, grief and, most important of all, the changes in the Catholic Church brought about by the Second Vatican Council and the papal encyclical against contraception, ''Humanae vitae'' (1968).

The title's meaning is twofold: it is on the one hand a reference to how far you ought to go with a member of the other sex before marriage, but also to the question of disorientation in the face of abrupt changes in the Church within only a few years.

Walter Craig arrives at a country cottage in Kent, where he is greeted by his host Elliot Foley. Craig is an architect whom Foley has invited to his home to consult on some renovations. Upon entering the sitting room of the cottage, Craig tells Foley and his assembled guests that, despite never having met any of them, he has seen them all in a recurring dream.

Craig appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them, but is able to predict events in the house before they unfold. Craig partially recalls that something awful will later occur. Dr. van Straaten, a psychologist, tries to persuade Craig that his fears are unfounded. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight and entertain each other with tales of strange events they experienced or were told about.

Racing car driver Hugh Grainger recalls lying in hospital after an accident. One night, he notices both a clock and a recorded song stop. He opens the curtains to see a horse-drawn hearse outside. The hearse driver calls up, "just room for one inside, sir". After being discharged from the hospital, Grainger waits for a bus. The bus conductor, who exactly resembles the hearse driver, tells him, "just room for one inside, sir". Grainger does not board the bus. As it drives away, the bus swerves and plunges down an embankment.

Sally O'Hara remembers attending a Christmas party at a mansion. During a game of hide-and-seek, Sally hides behind a curtain and is found by Jimmy, who tells her of a murder that once happened in the mansion. She finds a door which leads to a nursery, where she hears a young boy, Francis Kent, weeping. She consoles him and tucks him into bed. When she returns to the main room, she is told Francis Kent was murdered by his sister Constance.

Joan Cortland tells of an incident in which she gave her husband Peter a mirror for his birthday one year. Upon looking into it, he sees himself in a room other than his own. Joan learns that the mirror's previous owner, Francis Etherington, killed his wife on a suspicion of adultery, before slitting his own throat in front of the mirror. Peter, too, accuses Joan of being unfaithful and attempts to strangle her, but she breaks the mirror, returning Peter to his normal mental state.

Foley recounts two golfers, George Parratt and Larry Potter, who both fell in love with a woman named Mary Lee. They decide to play a round of golf for Mary's hand in marriage. Parratt wins by cheating, and Potter drowns himself in a nearby lake. When he next plays golf, Parratt is interrupted by Potter's ghost. Potter demands he give up Mary or else he will continue to haunt him, but finds he has forgotten how to vanish. On the night of Parratt and Mary's wedding, Parratt unwittingly causes to vanish, leaving Potter the opportunity to charm Mary.

Dr. van Straaten recollects interviewing ventriloquist Maxwell Frere, who performed with a dummy named Hugo. Upon meeting American ventriloquist Sylvester Kee, Hugo continually speaks about abandoning Frere and working with Kee instead. Frere attempts to silence Hugo, but Hugo bites his hand, drawing blood. Some time later at a hotel bar, Hugo insults a woman, and Frere is blamed. Kee brings Frere and Hugo to Frere's hotel room, placing Hugo on Frere's bed. The next morning, Frere accuses Kee of stealing Hugo, and finds Hugo in Kee's room. He shoots Kee and is arrested. Van Straaten arranges for Hugo to be brought to Frere's cell, where they have an argument that ends in Frere suffocating and smashing Hugo. Later, in an asylum, Frere speaks with Hugo's voice.

In the country home, Craig strangles Dr. van Straaten. Craig then hallucinates about the stories told by the other guests, before awakening in his bedroom as a phone rings. He receives a call from Elliot Foley, inviting him to his country home to consult on some renovations. Craig's wife suggests that spending a weekend in the country might help him get rid of his nightmares. Craig then drives up to Foley's cottage in Kent as in the start of the film.

A small group of vampires investigate an ancient tomb in the Syrian Desert, which they believe belongs to Dracula, the first vampire. To keep Blade from interfering, they frame him for the murder of a human familiar. FBI agents subsequently locate Blade's hideout and kill his mentor and friend, Abraham Whistler. Demoralized, Blade surrenders and is arrested.

The vampires' familiars have arranged for the authorities to turn Blade over to them. He is rescued by Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler, Abraham's daughter, who invite Blade to join their band of vampire hunters, the Nightstalkers. From them, Blade learns that Danica Talos, an old enemy of King, has revived Dracula, or "Drake", with the goal of using his powers to cure vampires of their weaknesses. As the first of the vampires, Drake is able to survive in sunlight. Along with newly-innovative ultraviolet "Sun dog" ammunition, the Nightstalkers have created an experimental bioweapon known as Daystar, capable of killing vampires at the genetic level. However, they need a purer blood source to make it effective. As Drake is too powerful to kill via normal means, they hope that the virus will kill him and, with his blood in the mix, ensure the rest of the species is wiped out; but also fear that this will include Blade.

Eager to test Blade, Drake isolates him from the Nightstalkers. He explains his view that all humans and vampires are inferior in his eyes and that he intends to wipe them from the Earth. Abigail finds evidence of the vampires' plans for human subjugation, a network of "blood farms" where brain dead humans are drained of their blood for vampire consumption. Blade deactivates the farm's life support systems and executes the familiar who had been rounding up homeless humans for the vampires.

Returning to the Nightstalkers' hideout, Abigail and Blade find all of them dead except for King and Sommerfield's daughter Zoe, both of whom have been taken captive. A recording left by Sommerfield, Daystar's creator, reveals that Drake's blood is all that is needed to make it complete and effective. King is tortured by the vampires for information, but refuses to talk, even when they threaten to turn him and force him to feed from Zoe's blood.

Blade and Abigail arrive and free the captives. Drake eventually bests Blade in combat and prepares to kill him with his own sword. Abigail fires the Daystar arrow, but Drake catches it before it strikes him. He drops it to the floor by Blade, not realizing the danger it poses to him. Abigail shoots Drake with another arrow, this time wounding him. Blade uses the distraction to stab Drake with the Daystar arrow, triggering a chemical reaction that completes the "Daystar" virus, releasing it into the air. The virus becomes airborne, killing Danica and the rest of the vampires. As Drake slowly succumbs to his wounds and the virus, he praises Blade for fighting honorably, but warns him that he will eventually succumb to his need for blood, thus proving that Blade is the future of the vampire race.

Using the last of his power, Drake shapeshifts into Blade. The FBI recover the body, but as they begin the autopsy, it transforms back into the deceased Drake. King narrates that Drake's final transformation was a gift so that Blade could escape, leaving Blade free to continue fighting his never-ending war against the forces of evil.

Alternate endings

In the unrated extended edition, the body in the morgue does not transform back into Drake. "Blade" awakens as the autopsy begins and attacks the doctors and FBI agents present. The scene ends as he menacingly approaches a cowering orderly. King narrates that the virus did not kill Blade as the human half of his heart did not stop beating, it only slowed down, causing him to enter into a comatose state until his body was ready to fight again.

In another alternate ending, the Nightstalkers reappear six months later, having tracked a werewolf to a casino in Asia.

As a child, young Matt Murdock is accidentally blinded by toxic chemicals shortly after witnessing his father—washed-up prizefighter Jack "The Devil" Murdock—extorting money for local mobster Fallon. Despite losing his sight, Matt's remaining senses are dramatically enhanced, giving him superhuman agility and sonar-like hearing. Feeling responsible for his son's accident, Jack is inspired to give up his life of crime and recommit to his boxing career, leading to a dramatic comeback. Later, after Fallon reveals that he enabled Jack's comeback by bribing his previous opponents to let him win, he attempts to bribe Jack to throw his next match, and has him murdered when he refuses.

Years later, an adult Matt works as an attorney in Hell's Kitchen with his friend Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, but fights crime by night as the costumed vigilante "Daredevil". Ben Urich, a ''New York Post'' reporter who chronicles Daredevil's exploits, attracts attention for a series of articles on "The Kingpin", a shadowy underworld figure who allegedly controls all of New York's organized crime. Unbeknownst to Urich, the Kingpin is actually Wilson Fisk, a brutal mobster who poses as a legitimate businessman.

Matt falls in love with Elektra Natchios, a Greek-American woman skilled in martial arts, unaware that she's the daughter of Fisk's lieutenant Nikolas Natchios. Later, when Natchios attempts to end his relationship with Fisk, Fisk hires Bullseye—a hitman with preternatural aim—to kill him. When Daredevil unsuccessfully attempts to save Natchios from assassination, Bullseye manages to frame Daredevil for his murder by stealing Daredevil's distinctive baton and impaling Natchios with it. Afterward, Urich deduces that Matt is Daredevil after realizing that he disguises his baton as a white cane.

Believing Daredevil to be responsible for her father's murder, Elektra attempts to avenge her father by killing him. Meanwhile, Fisk assigns Bullseye to kill Elektra. Elektra tracks Daredevil down and challenges him to a fight, and incapacitates him by stabbing him through the shoulder. Daredevil protests that he didn't kill her father, but Elektra doesn't believe him until she forcibly unmasks him and realizes that he's Matt. Moments later, when Bullseye tracks Elektra down, Matt is forced to watch helplessly as Bullseye kills her.

Wounded, Matt takes refuge in a church, but is ambushed by Bullseye, who exploits his weakness to loud sound. When police swarm the church, Matt gains the upper hand and throws Bullseye from the bell tower after an NYPD sniper shoots him through both hands, depriving him of his powerful aim. During the fight, Bullseye reveals that he was hired by the Kingpin, and that the Kingpin is Fisk.

Determined to avenge Elektra, Matt ambushes Fisk in his office. In the ensuing fight, he is nearly overcome by Fisk's brute strength, but wins by taking advantage of his sonar hearing, which allows him to see Fisk after he's drenched by rain from a broken window. In the course of their confrontation, Fisk reveals that he was the hitman who killed Matt's father on Fallon's orders, making him responsible for the deaths of the two people whom Matt loved most. As the police arrive to arrest Fisk, he threatens to reveal Daredevil's identity to the world, but Matt points out that no one will ever believe that Daredevil is a blind man.

Some time after Elektra's death, Matt visits the spot where the two of them first kissed, and unexpectedly finds Elektra's necklace—which has her name engraved upon it in braille, hinting that Elektra may still be alive.

Urich prepares to publish an article revealing Daredevil's identity, but chooses not to publish it at the last minute, coming to believe that Daredevil's efforts have made the city better. Elsewhere, Bullseye wakes up at a hospital, and kills a fly with a syringe needle, implying he hasn't lost his perfect aim yet.

The book centers on a genial elephant named Horton, who is convinced by Mayzie, an irresponsible and lazy bird, to sit on her egg while she takes a short "break", which turns into her permanent relocation to Palm Beach.

As Horton sits in the nest on top of a tree, he is exposed to the elements, laughed at by his jungle friends, captured by hunters, forced to endure a terrible sea voyage, and finally placed in a traveling circus. However, despite his hardships and Mayzie's clear intent not to return, Horton refuses to leave the nest because he insists on keeping his word, often repeating, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!"

The traveling circus ends up visiting near Mayzie's new Palm Beach residence. She visits the circus just as the egg is due to hatch (after 51 weeks in Palm Beach) and demands that Horton should return it, without offering him a reward. However, when the egg hatches, the creature that emerges is an "elephant-bird", a cross between Horton and Mayzie, and Horton and the baby are returned happily to the jungle, while Mayzie is punished for her laziness by ending up with absolutely nothing.

''Moonseed'' is an exploration of what could possibly happen when rock is returned from the Apollo 18 mission (which was actually cancelled in 1970). In the book, the rock contain a form of grey goo called "moonseed" that starts to change all inorganic matter on Earth into more moonseed. It also gets transferred by a NASA probe to Venus, and the explosion of Venus is the first clue as to what has been happening.

Stephen Baxter combines a host of disciplines (space travel, geology and disaster theory) to tell a tale where the rocks are literally swept from under the feet of humanity. During the course of the novel, in which Edinburgh is the focus for much of the action, Venus is destroyed by an unknown cosmic event that showers the Earth with radiation that somehow stirs the moonseed on Earth. When Moon-dust containing the moonseed is dropped onto the streets of Edinburgh by a lab assistant of the main character, Earth's fate is sealed. The moonseed begins to disintegrate the planet from the inside-out as the core heats up exponentially, while on the surface, nuclear power stations catastrophically fail, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are abundant, and billions of people die as cities and continents vanish.

Over the course of the cataclysmic erosion of Earth, a collective of scientists and engineers in space agencies from around the world desperately try to terraform the Moon for colonisation, to provide a safe haven for some surviving humans before Earth eventually disintegrates into nothingness along with human civilisation.

This novel also presents numerous theories and ideas about the space-faring future of humanity, albeit in an alternate dimension where we are forced into space by an eroding Earth. It is also, in many stages, critical of NASA's performance over the last thirty years, as well as the United Kingdom's disaster programs.

The starship ''Enterprise'' arrives at the planet Ekos to investigate the disappearance of a Federation cultural observer named John Gill, who was one of Captain Kirk's history professors at Starfleet Academy. The ''Enterprise'' enters orbit around Ekos and is attacked by a rocket armed with a thermonuclear warhead, technology that is too advanced to be from either Ekos or their neighboring planet, Zeon; two very different planets: Ekos is a warlike/anarchist society-while Zeon is a peaceful advanced society.

Kirk suspects Gill may be responsible for the introduction of advanced technology, which would mean that he has contaminated Ekosian culture and violated the Prime Directive. Kirk and First Officer Spock decide to beam down to the planet to investigate. Before they transport to the surface, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy inserts subcutaneous emergency transponders, a type of homing device, into the forearms of each in the event they cannot use their communicators.

Upon their arrival, Kirk and Spock watch in horror as a Zeon is arrested by Ekosian soldiers dressed as brown-shirted Nazi Stormtroopers. An outdoor video newsreel shows an Ekosian rally featuring huge crowds shouting Nazi-style slogans and waving swastika-emblazoned flags. A female Nazi officer, Daras, is shown receiving a medal of honor; the Iron Cross, Second Class. The "Final Solution" is mentioned, meaning apparently the extinction of all Zeons on Ekos, as a prelude to the entire destruction of Zeon. The broadcast ends with the reporter making a Nazi salute to a picture of the Führer—whom the shocked Kirk recognizes as John Gill.

Startled and determined to contact Gill, Kirk and Spock steal uniforms and attempt to infiltrate the main headquarters, but are caught when Spock's ears are exposed. He and Kirk are tortured until Party Chairman Eneg orders them thrown in a cell for further interrogation. There they meet Isak, the Zeon prisoner they had seen arrested earlier.

The trio quickly engineer an escape using the rubindium crystals from Kirk and Spock's transponders as cutting-torch lasers and retrieve their communicators. Isak takes them to meet the underground resistance led by his brother Abrom. Suddenly, their hideout is raided, led by Daras, in what is quickly revealed as a ruse to test the strangers' loyalty. Daras is actually a resistance member who has infiltrated the government. Abrom explains that Deputy Führer Melakon is actually the ''de facto'' leader of Ekos; in turn, Kirk and Spock explain the situation from their perspective, and ask for help in locating Gill. They learn that the "Führer" is to make a speech that evening that will officially launch the "Final Solution".

To gain entrance to the broadcast center, the whole group pretends to be a film crew. They find Gill in a broadcasting booth surrounded by guards, seemingly dazed but beginning his speech. Kirk has Dr. McCoy beam down; he arrives in a cloakroom, where the party is discovered by a security team led by Chairman Eneg—who surprisingly does not seem to recognize them. After he leaves, Isak explains that Eneg is also a resistance member.

Sneaking into the broadcast booth, McCoy confirms Gill is heavily drugged. He administers a counteractive stimulant while Spock uses a Vulcan mind meld on Gill, which confirms that Melakon was responsible for Gill's condition. Barely coherent, Gill explains that he initially imposed a form of Nazism/Fascism upon the lawless Ekosians because he believed it to be the most efficient system of government ever devised. The system worked on Ekos until Melakon gained control and twisted it into a tool to wipe out Zeon.

Kirk makes Gill aware of the extent to which Ekos has progressed toward resembling Nazi Germany. Gill, now lucid enough to speak his own mind, renounces the "Final Solution", cancels the invasion of Zeon, and declares Melakon a traitor. Melakon grabs a submachine gun and opens fire on the broadcast booth, fatally wounding Gill. In retaliation, Isak shoots Melakon twice, killing him. Eneg and Daras, still officially respected party leaders, agree to "stop the bloodshed", and plan to announce the end of the Nazi regime. Eneg thanks Kirk for Starfleet's help, but asks them to leave, saying it is up to the two planets to rebuild themselves.

As a child, Joan has a violent and supernatural vision. She returns home to find her village burning. Her sister Catherine tries to protect her by hiding her from the attacking English forces, part of a longstanding rivalry with France. Joan, while hiding, witnesses the brutal murder and rape of her sister. Afterward, Joan is taken in by distant relatives.

Several years later at Chinon, the Dauphin and soon to be King of France, Charles VII (John Malkovich), receives a message from the now-teenager Joan (Milla Jovovich), asking him to provide an army to lead into battle against the occupying English. After meeting him and his mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon (Faye Dunaway) she describes her visions. Desperate, he believes her prophecy.

Clad in armor, Joan leads the French army to the besieged city of Orléans. She gives the English a chance to surrender, which they refuse. The armies' commanders, skeptical of Joan's leadership, initiate the next morning's battle to take over the stockade at St. Loup without her. By the time she arrives on the battlefield, the French soldiers are retreating. Joan ends the retreat and leads another charge, successfully capturing the fort. They proceed to the enemy stronghold called the "Tourelles." Joan gives the English another chance to surrender, but they refuse. Joan leads the French soldiers to attack the Tourelles, though the English defenders inflict heavy casualties, also severely wounding Joan. Nevertheless, Joan leads a second attack the following day. As the English army regroups, the French army moves to face them across an open field. Joan rides alone toward the English and offers them a final chance to surrender and return to England. The English accept her offer and retreat.

Joan returns to Rheims to witness the coronation of Charles VII of France. Her military campaigns then continue to the walls of Paris, though she does not receive her requested reinforcements, and the siege is a failure. Joan tells King Charles VII to give her another army, but he refuses, saying he now prefers diplomacy over warfare. Believing she threatens his position and will require the expenditure of treasure, Charles conspires to get rid of Joan by allowing her to be captured by enemy forces. She is taken prisoner by the pro-English Burgundians at Compiègne, who sell her to the English. Led in chains, her trial begins.

Charged with the crime of heresy, based on her claim of visions and signs from God, she is tried in an ecclesiastical court proceeding, which is forced by the English occupation government. The English wish to quickly condemn and execute Joan since English soldiers are afraid to fight while she remains alive, based on their belief that she could supernaturally affect battles even while in prison. Bishop Cauchon expresses his fear of wrongfully executing someone who might have received visions from God. About to be burned for heresy, Joan is distraught that she will be executed without making a final confession. The Bishop tells her she must recant her visions before he can hear her confession. Joan signs the recantation. The relieved Bishop shows the paper to the English, saying that Joan can no longer be burned as a heretic. Whilst in her cell, Joan is confronted by an unnamed cloaked man (Dustin Hoffman), who is implied to be Joan's conscience. The man makes Joan question whether she was actually receiving messages from God.

The frustrated English devise another way to have Joan executed by the church. English soldiers go into Joan's cell room, rip her clothes, and give her men's clothing to wear. They then state she conjured a spell to make the new clothing appear, suggesting that she is a witch who must be burned. Although suspecting the English are lying, the Bishop abandons Joan to her fate, and she is burned alive in the marketplace of Rouen, though a postscript adds that she was canonized as a saint in the 20th century.

In the year 300X, the entire world is under the tyrannical rule of the Maruhage Empire and their ruler Tsuru Tsurulina IV (Chrome Dome Empire and Baldy Bald the 4th in the English dub). His Hair Hunt troop captures innocent bystanders' hair, leaving the people victims of the Hair Hunt troop's head shaving and their villages in ruins. Standing against this evil regime is the heroic, but bizarre, rebel Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo who fights the Hair Hunt Troop with his powerful Hanage Shinken (Fist of the Nose Hair). His team consists of the normal teen girl Beauty, the smelly teen warrior Heppokomaru (Gasser) and the Hajike leader Don Patch (Poppa Rocks). Bo-bobo is on an exciting, gag-filled quest in which he uses his hair as a weapon in many locales to fight the forces of the Maruhage Empire as he gains other allies along the way.

After being killed in ''Daredevil'', Elektra Natchios is revived by blind martial arts master Stick. He teaches her the ancient art of Kimagure, which provides its practitioners with precognition as well as the ability to resurrect the dead. Elektra is expelled from the training compound because of her inability to let go of her rage and fear of seeing her mother's killer as a child. She leaves and uses her training to become a contract killer.

Years later, McCabe, Elektra's agent, receives an unusually large offer from an anonymous client wishing to hire Elektra. The only stipulation: she must spend a few days in a rented home on the island where the assassination is to be performed before the names of the targets are revealed. During the wait, Elektra catches a girl named Abby trying to steal her mother's necklace. She sends her away, and later meets and befriends her father, Mark Miller. Abby invites Elektra to dinner on Mark's behalf. Elektra develops a romantic interest in Mark but soon learns that he and Abby are the targets she has been hired to kill. Elektra spares them and leaves, but returns in time to protect them from assassins sent by The Hand, a crime syndicate of ninja mercenaries.

Roshi, master of The Hand, learns of the failed attempt and permits his son Kirigi to lead a new team of assassins to kill Elektra and return with Abby, referred to as "The Treasure". Elektra tries to leave Abby and Mark with Stick, but he scolds her and tells her to protect them herself. She takes Mark and Abby to McCabe's country house, but is followed by Kirigi, Typhoid, Stone, Kinkou, and Tattoo. Elektra flees with Mark and Abby through a secret underground exit to an orchard, while McCabe sacrifices himself to buy them time.

Kirigi and the assassins hunt down the trio in the orchard. Elektra kills Stone, while Abby and Mark kill Kinkou with one of his own daggers. As Elektra is distracted by the revelation that Abby has martial arts skills, Typhoid gives Elektra the "Kiss of Death". Abby is captured by Kirigi. Stick and his Chaste ninjas arrive, forcing Kirigi, Typhoid, and Tattoo to retreat. Stick saves Elektra from death and takes them under his protection.

Stick confirms that Abby is the "Treasure", a martial arts prodigy, whom the Hand seeks to use. Elektra learns that she was a Treasure herself, resulting in her mother becoming a casualty of the fight between The Chaste and The Hand. She also guesses that Stick set up the hit on Mark and Abby in order to test Elektra's propensity for compassion.

Elektra astrally projects herself to a meeting with Kirigi and challenges him to a fight, the winner claiming Abby for their own purpose. Elektra returns to her childhood home to face Kirigi and realizes that the horned demon who killed her mother was actually Kirigi.

Elektra is defeated by Kirigi. Abby arrives and engages him long enough for Elektra to recuperate. Elektra and Abby then escape and hide in a hedge maze, but Abby is captured by snakes dispatched by Tattoo. Elektra finds Tattoo and snaps his neck, releasing Abby. Elektra engages Kirigi a second time and kills him. Typhoid poisons and kills Abby, before Elektra throws her sai at Typhoid, killing her. Elektra desperately tries to wake Abby, then calms herself, lets go all of her rage, and successfully resurrects her using Kimagure.

Elektra gets ready to leave. She and Mark share one final kiss. Elektra tells Abby to live a normal life and that they each gave each other's life back. Elektra leaves, hoping that Abby won't grow up to be like her. Stick appears and points out that Elektra didn't turn out so bad. Elektra bows to Stick to thank him. He bows to Elektra, then disappears.

Told in a segmented fashion, the film opens as Caravaggio dies from lead poisoning while in exile, with only his long-time, deaf companion Jerusaleme, who was given by his family to the artist as a boy, by his side. Caravaggio thinks back to his life as a teenage street ruffian who hustles and paints. While taken ill and in the care of priests, young Caravaggio catches the eye of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte. The Cardinal nurtures Caravaggio's artistic and intellectual development but seems to molest him.

As an adult, Caravaggio still lives under the roof and paints with the funding of Del Monte. Caravaggio is shown employing street people, drunks and prostitutes as models for his intense, usually religious paintings. He is depicted as frequently brawling, gambling, getting drunk and is implied to sleep with both male and female models. In the art world, Caravaggio is regarded as vulgar and entitled for his Vatican connections.

One day, Ranuccio, a street fighter for pay, catches Caravaggio's eye as a subject and potential lover. Ranuccio also introduces Caravaggio to his girlfriend Lena, who also becomes an object of attraction and a model to the artist. When both Ranuccio and Lena are separately caught kissing Caravaggio, each displays jealousy over the artist's attentions. One day, Lena announces she is pregnant without stating who the father is and will become a mistress to the wealthy Scipione Borghese. Soon, she is found murdered by drowning. Ranuccio weeps as Caravaggio and Jerusaleme clean Lena's body. Caravaggio is shown painting Lena after she dies and mournfully writhing with her body. Ranuccio is arrested for Lena's murder, but he claims to be innocent. Caravaggio pulls strings and goes to the pope to free Ranuccio. When Ranuccio is freed, he tells Caravaggio he killed Lena so they could be together. In response, Caravaggio cuts Ranuccio's throat, killing him. Back on his deathbed, Caravaggio is shown having visions of himself as a boy and trying to refuse the last rites offered him by the priests.

Jiro, a young boy of Japanese and Ainu descent, is a foundling raised by a kindly innkeeper and her daughter in the village of Sai on the Shimokita Peninsula.

One evening, a shinobi kills Jiro's adoptive mother and sister while he is away. When he returns home, he finds their bodies and a strange dagger. The angry villagers accuse him of the murders, and rather than face a brutal crucifixion for the grave crime of parricide, Jiro escapes with the dagger. He encounters a Buddhist monk called Tenkai, who works for the Shogunate as an Oniwaban (Secret Police). Tenkai takes the boy to confront the man who supposedly killed his family and provokes him into delivering the killing blow. To cover his tracks, Tenkai has the village set ablaze, and the villagers are slaughtered. Tenkai takes Jiro to his temple on the island of Ezo, and has his subordinates Shingo and Sanpei train him in the ways of the Ninja. Years later, Jiro leaves to find answers to the mystery of his family and his father, Tarouza. Meanwhile, Tenkai has him followed.

Jiro comes across a group of Japanese men beating up an old Ainu man, and he quickly dispatches them. The old man dies of his injuries, but his son Uraka takes Jiro to his home village of Shinopirika-Kotan, unaware the old man's assailants are agents of Tenkai. At Kotan, the village elder recognizes Jiro's dagger as the Dagger of Kamui, which was originally owned by a former village chieftain. It was given to a Japanese ninja who married the chieftain's daughter, Oyaruru. Years later, Oyaruru returned to Kotan alone, but eventually left the village to live upriver by herself.

Jiro finds Oyaruru and learns she is his biological mother. She reveals that Tenkai dispatched Tarouza to the mountain Kamui Nupuri to find a rumored treasure large enough to keep the Shogunate in power. However, Tarouza broke all contact with Tenkai and married Oyaruru. When Tenkai caught up with them, he slashed the face of the infant Jiro and sent him floating downriver in their canoe. Tarouza fought Tenkai's men on the cliff above, but lost an eye to a primitive grenade and his sword arm to Hanzou, then appeared to fall to his death. Jiro comes to the horrifying realization that Tenkai had tricked him, and that the man he stabbed was his father. During their evening meal, Jiro and Oyaruru collapse from a paralysis potion, and Oyaruru is killed with the Dagger of Kamui. Implicated in her murder, Jiro is imprisoned, but Uraka returns to help free him. Jiro finally realizes that Tenkai has been manipulating him for years into following his father's footsteps, searching for the treasure, and plans his revenge against Tenkai.

Traveling north, Jiro is befriended by the elderly Andou Shouzan and a young Ainu girl. She helps find secret instructions to find a great treasure which is hidden with the hilt of the sword of Kamui. However, Jiro is tracked down by three of Tenkai's formidable assassins, whom he defeats, but not before they kill Shouzan. The Ainu girl helps Jiro escape, but she kills herself when confronted by the following Tenkai. With the aid of the sailor Sam, Jiro books passage on Captain Drasnic's ship to the United States. Onboard, he is attacked by Oyuki, one of Tenkai's shinobi, but he defeats her. He then saves her from drowning, and they develop a strong bond. After arriving in America, Jiro, Sam, and Oyuki become separated, and Jiro travels on alone. Jiro befriends Chico, a French-born Indian woman, and shelters with her tribe. He then encounters Mark Twain on the way the Los Angeles, heading for the island of Santa Catalina, which is apparently the location of Captain Kidd's treasure.

Jiro eventually finds a small treasure on the island, but Tenkai and his shinobi have followed him there with Oyuki. Tenkai suddenly reveals that Sanpei is a Satsuma and an associate of Tarouza, who was also Oyuki's father, making her Jiro's half sister. Oyuki angrily stabs Tenkai through the heart with the dagger, although he manages to fatally wound her before he dies. Jiro then finds the real treasure below in a hidden cavern. Later, Chico reappears and shows Jiro a similar copy of the treasure's location. She reveals her real name is Julie Rochelle, the daughter of French spies also seeking the treasure, and that her father and Tenkai killed each other. Jiro now realizes that Tenkai has been using body doubles. He returns to Japan, where he uses Captain Kidd's treasure to help fund the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate by the combined Satsuma-Choushuu forces.

In 1869, at the Citadel of Hakodate, the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army closed in on the last remaining Shogunate rebels. After a massive naval bombardment, Jiro wanders through the rubble and bodies, eventually encountering Tenkai. They engage in battle, during which Jiro kills Tenkai by impaling him through his cranium with the dagger. Jiro leaves Hakodate as the Imperial forces capture the city, but not before paying a silent farewell to Sanpei and his master, the samurai Saigō Takamori.

Financed by Red China, a Brazilian industrialist (Vallone) plans to sterilize the United States through massive doses of radiation courtesy of his satellite. He double crosses the Chinese by scheming to sterilize the entire Earth, then personally repopulate the planet with beautiful women he has kidnapped and is holding in suspended animation. A down-to-earth CIA agent (Michael Connors), an aristocratic female MI-6 agent (Provine), and her chauffeur (Terry-Thomas), driving a Rolls-Royce car filled with spy gadgets, team up to stop the madman.

On Christmas Eve, in nineteenth century London, Charles Dickens (played by The Great Gonzo) and his friend Rizzo addresses the audience as narrators. Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine), a cold-hearted, stingy, grumpy and selfish moneylender, does not share the merriment of Christmas. He rejects his nephew Fred's invitation to Christmas dinner, dismisses two gentlemen (played by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker) collecting money for charity, and tosses a wreath at a carol-singing Bean Bunny. His loyal employee Bob Cratchit (played by Kermit the Frog) and the other bookkeepers request to take Christmas Day off, since there will be no business for Scrooge on the day, to which he reluctantly agrees. Scrooge leaves for home while the bookkeepers celebrate Christmas.

In his house, Scrooge encounters the shackled ghosts of his late business partners, Jacob and Robert Marley (played by Statler and Waldorf), who warn him to repent his wicked ways or be condemned to suffer in the afterlife as they do. They inform him that three spirits will visit him during the night.

At one o'clock, Scrooge is visited by the childlike Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him back in time to his childhood and early adult life, with Dickens and Rizzo hitching a ride too. They visit his lonely school days and then his time as an employee under Fozziwig (Mr. Fezziwig in the original story, played by Fozzie Bear), who owned a rubber chicken factory. Fozziwig and his mother throw a Christmas party, where Scrooge meets a young woman named Belle, with whom he falls in love. However, the Ghost shows Scrooge how Belle left him after he chose money over her. A tearful Scrooge dismisses the Ghost as he returns to his bedroom.

At two o'clock, Scrooge meets the gigantic, merry Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows him the joys and wonder of Christmas Day. Scrooge and the Ghost visit Fred's house, where Scrooge is made fun of for his stinginess and general ill will toward all. Scrooge and the spirit then visit Bob Cratchit's house, learning his family (Mrs. Cratchit is played by Miss Piggy) is content with their small dinner. Scrooge also takes pity on Bob's ill son Tiny Tim (played by Robin the Frog). The Ghost of Christmas Present abruptly ages, commenting that Tiny Tim will likely die before next Christmas. Scrooge and the Ghost go to a cemetery, where the latter fades away.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears to Scrooge, as a tall, silent, cloaked figure, and takes Scrooge into the future. Scrooge and the Ghost witness a group of businessmen discussing the death of an unnamed colleague, saying they would only attend the funeral if lunch was provided. In a den, Scrooge sees a charwoman, a laundress, and the local undertaker trading several stolen possessions of the deceased to a fence named Old Joe. The Ghost then transports Scrooge to Bob's house, revealing Tiny Tim has died and the Crachits are mourning him. Scrooge is escorted back to the cemetery, where the Ghost points out the wretched man’s neglected grave, revealing Scrooge as the man who died. Overcome with emotion, Scrooge tearfully vows to change his ways and embraces the ghost’s robes before finding himself back in his bedroom.

Discovering it is Christmas Day, Scrooge decides to surprise Bob's family with a turkey dinner and ventures out with Bean, Dickens, Rizzo, and the charity workers to spread happiness and joy around London, reconciling with Fred and Fozziwig. Scrooge goes to the Cratchit house, at first putting on a cold demeanor before revealing he intends to raise Bob's salary and pay off his mortgage. Scrooge, the Cratchits, Fred and the neighborhood celebrate Christmas, as Dickens narrates how Scrooge became a second father to Tiny Tim, who escaped death.

Driving on Christmas Eve with his family, Frank Harrington (Ray Wise) decides to take a short cut through a remote location. In the car with him: his wife Laura (Lin Shaye), his son, Richard, his daughter, Marion, and her boyfriend, Brad. It is night, and as Frank drives, he begins to fall asleep at the wheel, only to be woken by the screams of his family, warning him of an oncoming vehicle. He narrowly avoids the vehicle, and after an inspection of his car, continues to drive. Confused, Laura questions her husband as to why he didn't take the usual route to her mother-in-law's house; he claims he was "bored" and fancied a change.

As the siblings bicker, Frank abruptly stops the car, claiming he saw a young woman dressed in white in the forest. The woman appears at Frank's window, holding a baby. Marion, seeing how distressed the woman appears to be, and realizing that she needs help, offers to walk so that they can take the woman in the car to a house for help. The woman gets into the car, and as the family ask her questions, she remains silent. They arrive at a wooden cabin, and Laura and Frank go in to investigate. Meanwhile, Richard goes to masturbate in the woods, leaving Brad in the car with the woman and her child. Brad begins questioning the woman and telling the woman his plans to propose to Marion, meanwhile Marion walks along the road to catch up with the family and rehearses how she plans to break up with Brad. The woman tells Brad the name of her child; Amy, and passes her to him. A confused Brad asks how the child can breathe with the blankets covering her face, the woman replies that the baby is dead. Confused, Brad lifts the blankets to discover what appears to be the corpse of the child, and screams. The camera changes back to Richard, who hears the scream and immediately runs back to the car. Brad and the woman are nowhere to be seen. However, Marion sees a hearse driving down the road, and as she turns to look, she sees Brad screaming for help in the back of it. She runs back to the family and makes them drive after the hearse.

Frank once again stops the car after they hit something in the road. He finds Brad's mutilated body, and as Marion goes into a state of shock, Laura attempts to call the police using Brad's cellphone. However, the other end of the line is a woman begging for help. Disturbed by this, Laura doesn't tell the rest of the family. As they begin driving again, Marion sits silently. As tension rises, Laura questions Frank's ability to direct them. They argue, and he tells Laura that he hates visiting her family. Frank abruptly stops the car once again when he sees a baby carriage in the road. Richard gets out to look and pretends to be pulled into the carriage, scaring his parents. They get back into the car, only to stop again. This time Richard gets picked up by the same hearse as before. While the three run to save Richard, Frank sees the "woman in white" again. They find Richard's body and Laura begins to show signs of insanity.

Driving with his daughter in the front of the car, Marion appears to have returned to normal, and the family pass a sign that says "Marcott". Frank realizes that this must be a military road, and that's why it's not on the map. During another stop, Laura shoots Frank in the leg with a shotgun that they unwrapped, which was a present for a family member. After dressing the wound, they begin the drive again. Shortly after, Laura talks about seeing the face of a friend who had died 20 years earlier in the woods. She demands to visit with her departed friend, and upon Frank refusing, jumps out of the moving vehicle. Frank stops and they search for Laura until the hearse appears once again. Frank tries to shoot the driver but the car begins backing up as Laura appears. She is disheveled and begins babbling with her brain exposed from the back of her head, revealing Frank had accidentally shot her instead. Laura collapses and dies. Putting her in the back of the car, Frank and Marion continue driving. They come across the same ranger station they had stopped at earlier, and Frank is attacked in the dark by the lady in white. Afterward, Frank has a noticeable change in demeanor, much like his wife and daughter, and punches Marion unconscious. He sees the woman in white go into the woods once again, and chases her with the shotgun. He begins screaming and shooting the gun, only to be quickly dispatched in the dark. Marion awakens and starts the car. She begins to drive when the car suddenly runs out of gas. She begins to walk and sees body bags containing her dead family members in the middle of the road. As she cries the hearse pulls up, but the woman in white appears behind her. She tells a frightened Marion that the hearse isn't there for her before getting into the hearse and driving off, leaving Marion alone with her dead family.

Marion suddenly awakens in the hospital, heavily bandaged. The doctor tells her of her coma and assures Marion that she and the baby will be fine. On the way out of the hospital, the doctor talks to a man claiming to be the one that found the family after the car crash. The car is then seen being pulled from a wreck, and the doctor discusses the accident. The man confirms that the whole family, except Marion, have died, and that the crash has also claimed the life of a young woman and her baby in the other car. He asks the doctor for her name, and she reveals to him that it is Dr. Marcott. The viewer gets the impression that Marion dreamed of how her family had died while in a coma, and that the hearse not picking her up was her dream telling her that she would live. As the doctor tries to leave, her car fails to start, and the man who found the family offers her a lift in the same hearse from Marion's dream.

As the credits roll, two workers are seen sweeping up debris from the crash. They find a note Frank had previously written in the car with Marion before their final stop, insinuating that the experiences of the family were real.

During the holiday season, the Muppet Theater is going through financial hardship, and the Muppets are seeking Kermit the Frog for guidance. Kermit eventually feels he is not useful to anyone and an angel named Daniel (David Arquette) brings this up with his Boss (Whoopi Goldberg) as they review what has gone on with Kermit in the past hours.

Hours earlier, Kermit prepares a Christmas show with his fellow Muppets with Bobo the Bear playing Santa Claus. Kermit is approached by Rachel Bitterman (Joan Cusack), a banker/real estate agent who says she will foreclose the Muppet Theater if Kermit does not pay her. Pepe the King Prawn leaves the Muppets because he has fallen in love with Bitterman. While trying to raise money to pay Bitterman, Kermit tries to find a celebrity to participate in his Christmas play to no avail.

Meanwhile, after learning from Pepe that the deadline is midnight, Bitterman changes it to 6:00 p.m. Pepe overhears this and warns Kermit about the deadline change. Upon learning this, Kermit sends Fozzie to deliver the money to Bitterman. Fozzie confronts a crazed nature-show host (spoofing Steve Irwin), and a gang of Whos after being dyed green at a Christmas tree lot and mistaken for the Grinch by some angry Whos. Fozzie goes through the steam baths and ends up back to normal where he throws off the Whos. When Fozzie eventually makes it to the bank and Bitterman's office, he goes through a gigantic web of burning lasers leading to Bitterman's office several times before finally discovering that he is too late and that he has grabbed the wrong bag containing clothes for the Salvation Army following his incident at the Christmas tree lot.

After witnessing these events, the Boss allows Daniel to help Kermit. When Daniel arrives, and after Kermit wishes he has never been born, he ends up showing Kermit what would have happened if he had not existed. In the world without Kermit, Bitterman has turned the park near the Muppet Theater into a shopping mall called Bitterman Plaza, the Muppet Theater itself has become a nightclub called Club Dot owned by Bitterman, Doc Hopper's French-Fried Frog Legs (first seen in ''The Muppet Movie'') has become a famous fast-food restaurant, and all of Kermit's friends have fallen into various detrimental situations.

Kermit has Daniel restore him back to his reality and returns to the Muppet Theater. However, Bitterman arrives to shut the theater down and fights with Miss Piggy. Pepe arrives where he breaks up the fight and announces he has made the Muppet Theater into a historical landmark, foiling Bitterman's plan. Embittered and defeated, Bitterman storms out of the Muppet Theater.

Outside, the Muppets sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

Fozzie Bear is driving many of the Muppets to his mother Emily's farm for Christmas while they all sing Christmas Carols. Unbeknownst to Fozzie, Emily Bear is preparing to go to Malibu for the holiday and rent her farmhouse to Doc and Sprocket, who want to spend a nice quiet Christmas in the country. Doc and Sprocket have arrived when Fozzie and the other Muppets enter, disrupting Emily and Doc's plans for the holidays. Just then, Miss Piggy calls the telephone to tell Kermit the Frog that she is at a photo session and will be late, making Kermit very worried.

Rowlf the Dog and the Swedish Chef arrive, and they begin to prepare for Christmas. Meanwhile, Fozzie builds a snowman outside and the snowman comes to life singing along with Fozzie and putting on a comedy act with him. After the performance, Fozzie goes into the house where he tells Kermit about his new act. This is interrupted by Miss Piggy calling on the phone again, where she tells Kermit that she is doing a little Christmas shopping before she goes to the farmhouse.

Sometime later, the gang watches home movies of themselves as babies during their first Christmas together.

A group of carolers then arrive consisting of Big Bird and the rest of the ''Sesame Street'' Muppets. All of the Muppets continue to prepare for Christmas as the news comes on TV. The Muppet Newsman reports that the worst blizzard in 50 years is approaching the area. Kermit realizes that Miss Piggy is out in the storm and gets more worried about her.

Fozzie and Emily go over where everyone is going to sleep. Big Bird and Cookie Monster will sleep in the attic, Herry Monster will sleep in the bathtub, and Ernie and Bert will bunk with Kermit. The ''Sesame Street'' Muppets perform a pageant of '''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' where the Two-Headed Monster portrays Santa Claus. Kermit then gets a third call from Piggy stating that her limo got stuck in the snow and that she is calling for a taxi. Fozzie approaches Kermit stating that now is a good time to show him his new comedy act with the Snowman, but their act is cut short no thanks to Statler and Waldorf who are friends with Emily.

Feeling some sympathy for Kermit, Doc offers to go out looking for Piggy. Kermit is called to the basement, where he and his nephew Robin find a Fraggle Hole and the Fraggles.

Finally, after Piggy gets to the house, all the Muppets sing a medley of carols and swap presents (except Oscar the Grouch, who just sits in his trash can, sighing very miserably due to his hatred for Christmas. Doc then comes in dressed as Santa giving presents to the Muppets.

The last part shows Jim Henson himself making a cameo appearance preparing to wash and dry the dishes with Sprocket. Meanwhile, Kermit and Miss Piggy kiss under the mistletoe and wishing the home audience a Merry Christmas. The end credits then roll.

Series One

Beatrice (30, known as Bea) and Evangeline (18, known as Evie) Eliott are left orphans by the sudden death of their tyrannical father, Henry Eliott. Left almost destitute and without any education, the sisters are forced to sell the family home to cover their father's debts. To earn money, they make use of their passion for dressmaking and Bea gets a job as secretary at a local photography studio run by Jack Maddox. Jack and his sister Penelope become firm friends of the sisters and Jack provides them with the funds to open their own London based dressmaking business "The House of Eliott". Through their relationship with Penelope Maddox, the sisters meet the loyal and hardworking seamstress Tilly Watkins whom they employ. A consistent theme throughout the series is the struggle of women in the 1920s to live fulfilling and independent lives—for some the struggle is simply to survive. Not only does Henry Eliott leave his daughters penniless and uneducated, but their cousin Arthur, who is executor of their father's estate, and Evie's legal guardian, keeps a rightful inheritance from the girls "for their own good". After Arthur's arrest and imprisonment for involvement in drug smuggling, he emigrates to Boston, USA, releasing a large amount of cash owed to the sisters from their father's estate. This allows Beatrice and Evie to expand the business and, by the end of series one, with the help of Evie's godfather, successful businessman Sir Desmond Gillespie, the future looks good. Evie celebrates her twenty-first birthday and is made a partner in the firm. The House of Eliott releases its first independent fashion collection and is creating exclusive designs for the aristocracy.

Series Two

Spring 1924: the Eliott sisters have employed Florence Ranby, a dour Victorian, as head of the workroom. Beatrice and Evie are invited to Paris by fashion designer Gilles Caragnac, who offers them a 5-year contract as designers for his label. While there, Bea marries her former employer and friend, Jack Maddox, and they move back to London, leaving Evie alone in Paris to work at the fashion house "Maison Gilles". After a year and an affair with Gilles Caragnac, a newly-glamorous and grown-up Evie returns as a designer for House of Eliott. Jack's movie director career is on the rise. At a showing of one of Jack's films, Evie meets Lord Alexander Montford, a married member of Parliament, with whom she begins an affair, causing complications throughout the series. Jack and Beatrice separate, unable to agree about having children and the pressure of work. The House of Eliott faces ruin after the suspicious death of Sir Desmond Gillespie causes the firm's financial affairs to be taken over by Ralph Saroyan. The sisters suspect Saroyan of dishonesty and through their contact with Sir Alexander Montford, cause the bank to be officially investigated. It is discovered that Saroyan is defrauding most of the customers of the bank and the Eliott sisters are left with very little of their original savings and investments.

Jack's movie ''The Strikers'' is successful and a Hollywood producer offers him work in the U.S. by a Hollywood producer. Jack turns it down to instead work in Berlin. Meanwhile, as the market for couture gowns wanes the late 1920s Great Depression, Beatrice and Evangeline are offered a tour of America showing their new ready-to-wear designs for Sears and Roebuck. Bea still has feelings for Jack. Back at the fashion house, after a crisis of confidence, Tilly marries Norman Foss, a young chef in a local hotel, and is reinstated as head of the workroom. She announces her pregnancy in the last episode of the series.

Friction exists between Florence Ranby and Tilly. An annoyed Florence walks out of the Eliott workroom. She narrowly misses being hit by a car. Tilly has many quarrels with Florence due to her short, sharp manner. Eventually, after Evie allows them to fix a fur collar in Madge's way rather than Florence's, Florence resign and walks out, this time she is fatally struck by a car. At the funeral, Mr Ranby, Florence's husband, confronts Madge and Tilly after their apology to him. He then confronts Bea and Evie over Florence's death and how she was treated. He particularly blames Bea and Evie for failing to noticing the ongoing conflict and says Florence was loyal and would not hear a word said against them. Later, however, he returns, apologising for his outburst and gives flowers to Madge and Tilly. He mentions he is a tailor. Needing an expert cutter, Bea and Evie consider offering him a job but decide against it, concerned the House's connection to Florence's death would be too difficult for him. They instead hire Charles Quance.

Series Three

The Eliott sisters and employee Madge are wrapping up their evidently successful visit to the United States under the sponsorship of Sears and Roebuck, which wants to carry a line of ready-to-wear designed by the House of Eliott. Still estranged from Jack, Bea has a new beau, debonair Sears executive Donald Bradley, who follows the ladies to England. Bea decides that she still loves Jack and settles down with him just as he is shifting from film direction to investigative journalism. Through Grace Keeble, a talented but unreliable new designer, Evie meets artists Miles Bannister and Daniel Page. Miles is hired to do illustrations for the House of Eliott and later becomes a much needed designer while Daniel is a talented artist who Evie believes only needs a break to be successful. Both men fall for Evie but Daniel wins out. Meanwhile, Madge discovers a new love and it is not her rather gruff husband Jerry. Tilly and her husband Norman struggle to keep their marriage together following the loss of their baby son, William (played by Emily Ryan). By the season end, the House of Eliott has nearly fallen apart, Bea and Jack have a daughter, Lucy (also played by Emily Ryan), Jack wins a seat in the House of Commons, and Evie has married Daniel. Miles' father becomes a partner in the House of Eliott after realising his son is a talented fashion designer. He wants the House of Eliott to move away from ''haute couture'' and into more profitable ready-to-wear fashions. The final episode ends with a heated confrontation that raises serious questions regarding the House of Eliott's future and the sisters' relationship.

The writers did not anticipate the programme being cancelled at the end of the third series. For this reason, the series ends without a firm conclusion to the storyline.

As the Federation Starship ''Enterprise'' approaches the planet Omega IV, the USS ''Exeter'' is found orbiting it. Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Galloway beam over to the Exeter to investigate. They find the ship deserted, save for a few uniforms that are covered with a crystalline substance found to be human remains. The ship's logs reveal that the ''Exeter'' s crew died from an infectious disease that had been brought from the planet, and that ''Enterprise'' s landing party is now infected and must beam down to the planet if they are to survive.

Kirk's party beams down to the last coordinates stored in the ''Exeter'' s computer. There, they discover ''Exeter'' Captain Ron Tracey (Morgan Woodward) in what resembles a traditional Chinese village. Tracey explains that he had been on the planet when the disease had ravaged his ship, stranding him. He says he has discovered that remaining on the planet confers immunity to the disease. He then reveals that the villagers he is living with on the planet, known as "Kohms", are at war with "savages" called "Yangs".

After a Yang attack, Spock investigates the field of battle and finds evidence that Tracey has been helping the Kohms, in violation of the Prime Directive. Kirk tries to contact the ''Enterprise'', but is prevented by Tracey, who tries to justify his violation by revealing that the planet’s natives are not only immune to the mysterious disease, but have also developed lifespans of over 1000 years.

Tracey orders McCoy to investigate the secret of their longevity and has Kirk and Spock locked up in a crude jail with two Yang prisoners, one male and one female. Kirk has the male Yang loosen the bars of the cell window, but the Yang knocks Kirk out and escapes with the woman. When Kirk recovers, he and Spock make their own escape.

Spock is reunited with McCoy, and modifies some medical equipment, turning it into a makeshift communicator, but Tracey discovers this and destroys it. McCoy and Kirk try to explain to Tracey that they have discovered that the natives' longevity has nothing to do with their immunity to the disease, but Tracey's mind snaps, and he attempts to force Kirk to order more weapons to be sent down from ''Enterprise''.

During a struggle between the two, Yang warriors arrive and carry everyone back to their village. It turns out that their leader is Kirk's former cellmate, known as Cloud William. During a ceremony to celebrate the Yang victory, Kirk and Spock, discussing the Yang culture, connect the names ''Yang'' and ''Kohm'' with "Yankee" and "Communist". Spock then conjectures that the history of Omega IV had closely paralleled that of Earth until the former was devastated by a biological war that Earth had avoided. This hypothesis is confirmed when William produces a very old American flag, along with ancient documents from which he recites the beginning of the Pledge of Allegiance in a garbled accent. The Yangs are shocked when Kirk chimes in to recite the end of the Pledge.

Tracey, in an attempt to save his own life, denounces Kirk and Spock, claiming that they have been cast out of heaven, and points to Spock's similar appearance to the devil as proof. William asks Kirk to prove himself by completing the "sacred words" from another document. Because of the accent, Kirk doesn't understand the words and instead suggests a trial by combat between himself and Tracey. As they fight, Spock sends a telepathic suggestion to William's female companion to activate the communicator, lying near her, which she does. Sulu thereby learns what’s going on, beams down with a security team to investigate, and takes Tracey into custody.

Cloud William now kneels before Kirk as if he were a deity, but Kirk orders him to stand. The second document proves to be a version of the American Constitution. Kirk rebukes the Yangs for forgetting its meaning, and declares that the words were meant not just for the Yangs, but "must apply to everyone or they mean nothing." William does not fully understand, but swears to Kirk that the words will be obeyed.

Twenty-five years prior to the beginning of the game, Empress Endora conquered the continent of Zetegenia. During her reign, a resistance organization called the Liberation Army forms to free the continent from her rule.

At the beginning of the game, the protagonist, whose name, gender, and other characteristics are chosen by the player, takes command of the Liberation Army. Throughout the course of the game, the protagonist is joined by various other characters, such as Lans Hamilton, a knight who served the king of Zenobia until the king's death; Warren Omon, a wizard with the ability to divine the future; Tristan, the rightful prince of Zenobia; and many others.

After the Empress is slain, it is discovered that she was manipulated by Rashidi, a dark wizard in the Empress’ employ. The protagonist defeats him, but before Rashidi dies, he uses his blood to release Demundza, the king of the Underworld who was sealed away after the first great Ogre Battle. The protagonist and their army manage to seal Demundza away again before he can become too powerful. There are multiple outcomes to the story depending on various factors such as the protagonist's alignment, their reputation, and which characters they choose to recruit.

The story begins with a peaceful fantasy world by the name of "Morning Land", where the Chicken inhabitants live in peace and harmony. But all that is shattered as Dark Raven and his army of Crows assault Morning Land, catching the inhabitants by surprise and shrouding Morning Land in a blanket of unnatural, eternal night.

Meanwhile, being late to meet with his friends due to oversleeping, the slightly mischievous Billy Hatcher races out of his house to go meet them. Upon arrival, Bantam tells Billy he is late, showing him a pocket watch in the shape of an egg. And, being some sort of tradition among the four friends, Bantam Scrambled, Chick Poacher, and Rolly Roll prepare to dish out a consequence on Billy, but they are stopped by the weak chirping of a chick. Two Crows that are looming nearby dive at the chick, as if they are finishing it off, but Billy intervenes, saving the baby chicken by fending the Crows off with a stick. The chick suddenly begins to glow, transporting Billy and his friends to Morning Land, with Billy ending up in Forest Village.

Billy is informed by Menie-Funie that the Crows are trying to take over Morning Land and will soon take over the human world. He is informed that if he does not save Morning Land, Dark Raven will bring eternal night, darkness will overcome the hearts of everyone, and the two worlds will be ruled by evil. Billy then goes and receives the Legendary Chicken Suit to begin on a journey to free the six Chicken Elders, which have been imprisoned in golden eggs by the Crows. Uri-Uri, the Chicken Elder of Pirates Island, reveals that Dark Raven is reborn every 100 years to try and bring eternal night. Once he has freed the Elders, defeated the six Crow Bosses, and opened the Rainbow Gate, Billy travels to the Giant Palace, where Dark Raven is trying to hatch the Giant Egg to receive ultimate power.

Billy battles Dark Raven, and once he defeats him, the Giant Egg hatches and grants Raven's wishes, shaping him into a crow-shaped shadow demon dubbed Ultimate Raven. A second battle then ensues. Ultimate Raven attacks Billy, destroying the Chicken Suit. Afterwards, Billy must avoid his attacks until Menie-Funie speaks to him, telling him that he must not give up. Then the Courage Emblems he has collected form into the new and enhanced Sun Suit, imbued with the power of courage. Billy must then use this power to turn Ultimate Raven's attacks against him.

Billy finally defeats Ultimate Raven as his heart explodes, completely ending his existence and return. The power from the Giant Egg restores true morning to the land below. Once he and his friends return to where they entered Morning Land, they return the Chicken Suits and return to their world. It seems that when they are leaving, Billy is saddened that he has to leave Morning Land. The four friends wave goodbye and they are transported back. Upon their return to the human world, Billy is a short distance away from his friends. They get his attention by laughing at him and he runs over to them joining the laughter, thus ending the game with a chicken feather slowly falling from the sky.

Nineteen-year-old Irene "Rally" Vincent operates the titular "Gunsmith Cats" gun shop but also works as a bounty hunter, which is the impetus behind many of the stories. She is assisted in both activities by her housemate, and former sex worker "Minnie" May Hopkins. Rally is an expert combat shooter and marksman with an array of weapons, as well as a brilliant driver. May is an explosives expert, knowing the inner workings of and many uses of all manner of explosive devices. Teenage ex-burglar and lock-picker Misty Brown later joins the team and there is also Becky Farrah, a top, if expensive, source of information on underworld activity.

Bounty hunting has of course led Rally to make many enemies, most notably Gray, the leader of gangsters whose use of armaments, including bombs, have likened them to terrorists; and Goldie Musou, a leading figure in the Mafia who uses drugs to manipulate people to the point that they can be brainwashed into killing their nearest and dearest. Bean Bandit, a man who specializes in delivering illegal goods, often features as an alternate ally or enemy—depending on the behavior of his clients, most of whom are being hunted by Rally.

The game is set in the year of 930. An ancient civilization had met its demise one thousand years before. Special individuals are able to use Cyframes, ancient tools, which were excavated from the ruins of the ancient civilization. These individuals are known as Cyframe users or adventurers, and are assigned jobs from the Society, a research institute. The adventurers use their Cyframes to explore ruins. Some of the ruins have hieroglyphics that tell of a Cyframe called Evolutia that has tremendous power. Many search for the fabled Evolutia like the Launcher family and even the army.

Roy Thinnes stars as architect David Vincent, who accidentally learns of a secret alien invasion already underway and thereafter travels from place to place attempting to foil the aliens' plots and warn a skeptical populace of the danger. A plot format of a man-on-the-run and of a lone man attempting to warn the human public about alien infiltration, are shared from The Fugitive (1963 TV series) and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers respectively. Other plot elements include Vincent's grim and lonely determination to find "tangible proof of the invaders’ existence" despite having become a "quasi-famous object of public ridicule"; the aliens success in hiding their plots, undermining Vincent's credibility and killing off those who also discover them in ways disguised as a natural death; the constant tension over whether the individuals Vincent comes across are humans or aliens. As the series progresses, Vincent is able to convince a small number of people to help him fight the aliens.

In many episodes, at least one individual, often a key figure such as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer (in the episode "The Innocent"), a police officer (in "Genesis" and "The Spores"), a U.S. Army major ("Doomsday Minus One"), or a NASA official ("Moonshot") would become aware of the alien threat and survive the episode in which he or she was introduced. In "The Leeches", a millionaire (Arthur Hill) survives an alien abduction after being rescued by Vincent, while in "Quantity: Unknown" a scientist (Susan Strasberg) is convinced of alien technology. In "The Saucer", guest stars Anne Francis and Charles Drake witness an alien saucer's landing. In the second season, larger groups of surviving witnesses were featured, as in episodes "Dark Outpost" and "The Pursued", and three scientists in "Labyrinth". Most significant of these is millionaire industrialist Edgar Scoville (Kent Smith), who became a semiregular character as of December 1967, heading a small but influential group from the episode "The Believers". Later episodes had the military involved ("The Peacemaker"), as Vincent's claims were now clearly being taken more seriously. In "The Miracle" (guest star Barbara Hershey), after an alien encounter, Vincent manages to retain a piece of alien technology both as evidence and for examination by both his group and the authorities.

The series depicted an undercurrent of at least partial credulity among authority figures regarding Vincent's claims, even in the first season, as in early episodes such as "The Mutation", where a security agent (Lin McCarthy) is keeping an eye on Vincent and ends up inclined to believe him. In "The Innocent", the USAF officer (Dabney Coleman) guns down an alien who incinerates in front of him, tying in with Vincent's claims, while at the end of the episode after apparently disbelieving Vincent, he then phones USAF security to run a full background check on an officer whom Vincent claimed was an alien. In "Moonshot", the NASA official (Peter Graves) is fully expecting Vincent to arrive, and in "Condition: Red", a NORAD officer and staff witness an alien UFO formation onscreen, and are left convinced. Each of these incidents is kept to just the individual episode, with hinted official backing of Vincent (or at least 'semibacking' suggested in the episode "The Condemned"). Elsewhere, Vincent is shown as being publicly 'dismissed as a crank' by the authorities, while behind the scenes they apparently take him seriously—for example in "Doomsday Minus One", where Vincent has been invited by an Army intelligence official and then is given classified information; in the two-part "Summit Meeting" where he is present at a top security meeting without any question; and in "Condition: Red" where he is allowed into NORAD without question. Thus, viewers were left to draw their own conclusions as to the situation regarding Vincent's actual standing.

Some controversy arose regarding the sudden ending of the television series after season two, as it was deemed no proper ending had been written (unlike ''The Fugitive'', another Quinn Martin show). Yet the final season-two episode "Inquisition" does stand as some kind of series conclusion where Vincent finally convinces a key figure, an initially skeptical special assistant to the Attorney General (Mark Richman), that the Invaders have arrived, after first defeating an alien plan to use a special weapon. The aliens had withdrawn all their key personnel from Earth prior to its use, and the closing narration is that Vincent, Edgar Scoville, and the now convinced Special Assistant will join forces as the vanguard to watch for any return of the Invaders. Thus, this episode can be seen as showing Vincent achieve his goal of 'convincing disbelieving authorities' at least, and the Invaders' plans temporarily thwarted, leaving the door open for any possible later sequel or spinoff series.

Characteristics of the invaders

The emphasis of the series is on Vincent and his efforts, and unlike most science fiction the back story of the aliens—their "dying" planet in "another galaxy" (or even their names)—is "a deliberate blank". They appear human except for a few telltale characteristics (they lack a pulse, the ability to bleed, or show emotion, and many have a deformed fourth finger). While the disguised aliens can be killed by humans, they glow red and disintegrate when this happens, eliminating evidence of their existence. The aliens are shown in their true form in only two episodes. In "Genesis" (season one, episode five), an ill alien researcher loses his human form and is briefly seen immersed in a tank of water. "The Enemy" has a dying, mutated Invader (Richard Anderson) revert to his true appearance. Unless they receive periodic treatments in what Vincent calls "regeneration chambers", which consume a great deal of electrical power, they revert to their alien form. One scene in the series showed an alien beginning to revert, filmed in soft focus and with pulsating red light.

Most of the aliens, in particular the lowest-ranking members or workers in green jumpsuits, are emotionless and have deformed little fingers that can not move and are bent at an unnatural angle, although "deluxe models" could manipulate this finger. Black aliens' palms were not pale, like humans of African descent, but were the same shade as the rest of their skins. Some mutants experience emotions similar to those of humans and even oppose the alien takeover.

When aliens die, their bodies glow red and burn up along with their clothes and anything else they were touching, preventing the documenting of their existence. On several occasions, a dying alien would deliberately touch a piece of their technology to prevent it from falling into the hands of humans. In episode three ("The Mutation"), a female alien who falls for Vincent and is killed while running to warn him he is in danger, tells him, "That's what happens to us when we die here on Earth."

Technology of the invaders

The type of spaceship by which the Invaders reach the Earth is a flying saucer of a design resembling early 1950s photographs of alleged UFOs produced by self-proclaimed UFO "contactee" George Adamski. They differ slightly from Adamski's images in not having three spheres on the underside, but instead five shallower protrusions. Numerous pieces of alien technology featured "penta" or five-sided designs. It was a principle of the production crew to show The Invaders' technology with set, prop designs, and control panels that were utterly alien from the conventional human ones (such as H. R. Giger would later present in ''Alien'').

To kill humans they apply a small, handheld, disc-shaped weapon with five glowing white lights to the back of the victim's head or neck to induce a seemingly natural death, which is usually diagnosed as a cerebral hemorrhage. They also employ weapons that disintegrate witnesses, vehicles, and when necessary, members of their own race with some sort of ray. Also in their arsenal is a small device consisting of two spinning, transparent crystals joined at their corners, which acts like a truth serum, forces human beings to do the aliens' bidding, or (in most cases) to impose the complete loss of memory of previous events.

Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow presents an onscreen prologue, featuring footage from ''A Trip to the Moon'' (1902) by Georges Méliès, explaining that it is based loosely on the book ''From the Earth to the Moon'' by Jules Verne. Also included is the launching of an unmanned rocket and footage of the earth receding.

In 1872, an English gentleman Phileas Fogg claims he can circumnavigate the world in eighty days. Met with scepticism, he makes a £20,000 wager (worth about £ today ) with four fellow members of the Reform Club (each contributing £5,000 to the bet) that he can make the journey and arrive back at the club eighty days from exactly 8:45 pm that evening.

Together with his resourceful French valet, Passepartout, Fogg goes hopscotching around the globe generously spending money to encourage others to help him get to his destinations faster so he can accommodate tight steamship schedules. Having reached Paris they hear that a tunnel under the Alps is blocked. The Thomas Cook agent who assists them offers to hire or sell them his hot air balloon. Fogg buys it and they fly over the Alps drinking champagne.

Blown off-course, the two accidentally end up in Spain, where we see a table-top flamenco sequence performed in a bar. Later, Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight. Next, they go to Brindisi in Italy. Meanwhile, back in London, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen £55,000 (around £ today ) from the Bank of England so Police Inspector Fix is sent out by Scotland Yard to trail him (starting in Suez) but must keep waiting for a warrant to arrive so he can arrest Fogg in the British controlled ports they visit.

In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue beautiful young widow Aouda from being forced into a funeral pyre with her late husband. The three then travel to Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, and the Wild West (including the Sioux Nation). Reaching New York, they arrange their passage on a cargo steamship travelling to Venezuela - Fogg bribes the captain to go to England. Alas, they run out of coal mid-ocean and the ship stops. Fogg buys the ship and then instructs the crew to take everything that burns, including lifeboats, to provide fuel!

They arrive in Liverpool, where, still with just enough time left to travel to London and win his wager, Fogg is promptly arrested by the diligent yet misguided Inspector Fix.

Detaining Fogg at the police station, the humiliated Fix discovers that the real culprit has already been apprehended by police in Brighton. Although Fogg is exculpated and free to go, he now has insufficient time to reach London before his deadline, and so has lost everything but the enduring love of the winsome Aouda. Upon returning to London, Fogg asks Passepartout to arrange a church wedding for the next day, Monday. Salvation comes when Passepartout is shocked to be informed that the next day is actually Sunday. Fogg then realizes that by traveling east towards the rising sun and crossing the International Date Line, he has gained a day. Thus, there is still just enough time to reach the Reform Club and win the bet. Fogg rushes to the club, arriving just before the 8:45 pm chime. Passepartout and Aouda then arrive behind him, shocking everyone, as no woman has ever entered the Reform Club before.

Tatsuo Oosugi, a troubled working class teenager who frequently assaults his mother for divorcing his father and negligence, decides to join the yakuza to raise money for his future marriage with Kayoko Matsuyama after suffering burnout from the several low-paying jobs he undertook. Despite initially wanting to leave, he is given the opportunity to start a small gang called the Ryujin gang. He then recruits many of his friends to commit crimes like robbery and eventually, rape to please his seniors.

One night, they see a high school student named Misaki going home on her bike. She is knocked over by one of the boys and Tatsuo pretends to take her home. When Misaki tries to go home by herself, Tatsuo reveals his true nature and threatens to burn her house down if she speaks up. Misaki is silenced as she is raped in a hotel and brought to the house of Takao Matsuyama, their friend and Kayoko's brother. There, the boys insert various foreign objects into her vagina, beat her and force her to lie to her parents over the phone that she is staying at her friend's house. Despite the horrific abuses, Misaki finds the courage to escape the house twice, with the help of Takao's mother in the second instance, but is nonetheless caught and punished by having her leg doused in lighter fluid and burned. Tatsuo punishes Takao's mother by beating her and threatens the other boys with murder if they express sympathy with Misaki or help her escape. After several more abuses, which leaves her incontinent and dehydrated, Misaki begs the boys for water. Tatsuo, however, taunts her and fatally injures her by beating her further and dropping a barbell on her stomach. The gang then leaves the house to relax at a sauna whilst the dying Misaki expresses her last wish to "stay strong".

After returning from the sauna, the gang is horrified to discover that Misaki has succumbed to her injuries after she is unresponsive to Tatsuo putting a lit cigarette near her nose. He then decides to cover up the murder by getting a concrete drum from his old job and burying her body in it. The drum is placed in the open fields. Eventually, all of the boys are arrested and one of the detectives that previously met Tatsuo for his previous arrests angrily calls him a "demon seed" for trying to minimize his role in Misaki's murder, by claiming that he did not intend to kill her and only killed one person. The site where Misaki's body is found has now become a gravesite for Misaki as the audience hears her, via a voiceover, asking whether people realize "how precious life is". The film ends with a crying Tatsuo in a dark room as he fails to make a mangled bird fly from his hand.

Jimson's father, based on a real person known to Cary, was an Academy artist who is heart-broken when Impressionism drives his style from popular taste. Jimson has put aside any consideration of acceptance by either academy or public and paints in fits of creative ecstasy. Although his work is known to collectors and has become valuable, Jimson himself is forced to live from one scam or petty theft to the next. Cadging enough money to buy paints and supplies, he spends much of the novel seeking surfaces, such as walls, to serve as ground for his paintings.

When the novel opens, Jimson has just been released from jail. He seeks money from Hickson, his sometime patron. Later in the book, he tracks down Sara Monday, his ex-wife, and tries to obtain an early painting from her that is worth a great deal. Sara is reluctant to give up the picture, which serves as a reminder of her youth. In the struggle that follows, Sara falls and suffers a fatal injury. Jimson is unsentimental about his life and work and sees himself as someone who has given over to a destructive passion. Yet he regrets nothing.

At the novel's end, Jimson reflects on his life and the home and family that he has missed. But he recognizes that he himself made the decision to sacrifice those possibilities in order to pursue his art. It is only clear at the end that Jimson has suffered a paralysing stroke, and can no longer paint. As he is being taken to hospital, a nun who is nursing him remarks that he should be praying instead of laughing, "Same thing, Mother," replies Jimson, his last words.

Leading Chief Petty Officer "Windy" Riker is a veteran aerial gunner of a Navy Helldiver dive bomber and the leading chief of Fighting Squadron One, about to go to Panama aboard the aircraft carrier. He loses his five-year title of "champion machine gunner" after young C.P.O. Steve Nelson joins the squadron. Windy, notorious for using his fists to enforce discipline, is charged by local police with wrecking a Turkish bath. Windy is saved from arrest, however, when Lieutenant Commander Jack Griffin, skipper of the squadron, intervenes on his behalf. Griffin and his second-in-command, Lieutenant "Duke" Johnson, agree that Nelson is the best candidate to replace Windy as he ponders retirement.

The chiefs engage in friendly rivalry until the squadron practices a new dive-bombing technique and Steve becomes a hero, saving the base from being accidentally bombed by climbing out on the wing of his dive bomber to hold in place a bomb that failed to release. Feelings turn bitter when Steve contradicts Windy's explanation of the accident and Windy punches him in resentment. Windy is dressed down by Duke when the officer sees the punch. When Steve's sweetheart, Ann Mitchell, visits him, he proposes marriage to her, but Windy uses a practical joke to get even with Steve. Unaware that Ann is Steve's fiancée and not simply a girl he is trying to impress, Windy bribes an old acquaintance, Lulu, to pretend to be Steve's outraged lover. Ann leaves upset and will not listen to Steve's denials.

Griffin loses an arm following a mid-air collision at night. The accident occurs when the aircraft are returning from delivering the admiral to his flagship the ''Saratoga'' before the squadron embarks. Griffin is retired and replaced in command of Fighting One by Duke Johnson. Windy becomes Johnson's gunner when the squadron flies to the ship. During a bombing exercise off Panama, Windy misplaces his code book and delays the takeoff of the squadron. As punishment, he is assigned to supervise a work party when the ship docks, missing liberty and keeping him from seeing Mame Kelsey (Rambeau), the woman in Panama he wants to settle down with after retirement.

Steve, who knows Mame, encounters her on the dock and shares her carriage, but Windy hears about it and sneaks into town. Mame tries to convince Steve to patch up his differences with Windy, then promotes peace between them when Windy shows up at her hotel. Having a drink together in the bar, however, Windy starts a brawl. Steve tries to help him avoid the local police but Windy is thrown in jail. As the ''Saratoga'' passes through the Panama Canal, Mame bails Windy out of jail and he catches up to it by stealing a boat. For his transgressions, the captain of the ''Saratoga'' reduces Windy one rate from chief. Windy is disciplined at "Captain's Mast" and reduced to Aviation Machinist's Mate 1st Class for leaving his post without authorization, absent without leave, and missing ship. Steve reluctantly becomes leading chief.

During a mock battle, Steve's aircraft crashes near a rocky island, killing the pilot and leaving Steve with a broken leg. Duke and Windy land to rescue Steve, but Duke suffers a head injury and Windy has to save both. They have only a radio receiver and cannot be found in the fog. Steve and Windy become friends while waiting for rescue. Windy writes Ann a note confessing what he did with Lulu. After four days, Duke's condition worsens, Steve develops blood poisoning, and they hear on the radio that the ''Saratoga'' is leaving. Windy tries to save them by flying them out in Duke's dive bomber, with Duke in the rear cockpit and Steve riding on the wing. Despite the fog, they find the aircraft carrier, but crash on landing and Windy is fatally injured. By his last request, Windy is buried at sea as a missing man formation flies overhead.

In 1936 Tokyo, Sada Abe is a former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel. The hotel's owner Kichizo Ishida molests her, and the two begin an intense affair that consists of sexual experiments and various self-indulgences. Ishida leaves his wife to pursue his affair with Sada. Sada becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of Ishida, and Ishida more eager to please her. Their mutual obsession escalates until Ishida finds that she is most excited by strangling him during lovemaking, and he is killed in this fashion. Sada then severs his penis. While she is shown next to him naked, it is mentioned that she will walk around with his penis inside her for several days. Words written with blood can be read on his chest: "Sada Kichi the two of us forever."

In Reno, Nevada, 30-year-old Roslyn Tabor files for a quickie six-week residency divorce from her inattentive husband, Raymond. Afterward, Roslyn's landlady Isabelle takes her to a cocktail lounge at Harrah's for drinks. There they meet an aging cowboy named Gaylord Langland, and his tow truck driver best friend, Guido. The friendly Guido tells Roslyn and Isabelle about his unfinished house in the country. Later that day, the group goes to the unfinished house Guido has built for his late wife. After drinking and dancing, Roslyn has had too much to drink, so Gaylord drives her home to Reno.

Eventually, Roslyn and Gaylord move into Guido's half-finished house and work on it. One day, Gaylord tells Roslyn how he wishes he were more of a father to his children, whom he has not seen for years. Later, he discovers rabbits have been eating the lettuce in the garden they have planted. Gay wants to kill the rabbits with his shotgun, an idea that Roslyn opposes.

When Guido and Isabelle show up, Guido suggests that they round up wild mustangs to sell. They go to a local rodeo in Dayton to hire a third man. They run into Perce Howland, a cowboy friend of Gaylord's, who wants to compete in the rodeo. Gaylord offers to pay the broke Perce's $10 entry fee if he will help round up mustangs the next day. Guido, Perce, Roslyn and Gaylord go to a bar and nearly get into a fistfight when a drunk spanks Roslyn's bottom.

At the rodeo, Roslyn becomes somewhat upset when Guido tells her how the horses are made to buck with an irritating flank strap. Perce is thrown by a bucking horse, and Roslyn begs him to go to a hospital, but he insists on riding a bull he had already signed up and paid to ride. He gets thrown again, sustaining a head injury.

Later, he passes out in a Dayton back alley. When he regains consciousness, he sees Roslyn crying over him. He says that he never had anyone cry for him before and that he wished he had a friend to talk to. He tells her how his mother changed after his father died, giving his stepfather the ranch Perce's father wanted to leave to Perce. A drunken Gaylord then fetches Roslyn, telling her that he wants her to meet his kids, claiming he unexpectedly ran into them. When Gaylord discovers his children have already left Dayton, he causes a public scene.

Later on, during the drive home, a drunken Guido asks if Roslyn has left Gaylord and offers to take his place. Back at Guido's house, Guido attempts to finish the patio he started. Later, Gaylord asks Roslyn if a woman like her would ever want to have a child with him. She avoids the issue.

The next day, Gaylord, Guido and Perce go after the mustangs, with Roslyn reluctantly tagging along. Roslyn becomes upset when she learns that they will be slaughtered for dog food. Gaylord tells Roslyn that he did things for her that he never did for any other woman, such as making the house a home and planting the garden. After they catch a stallion and four mares, Roslyn begs Gaylord to release the horses. He considers it, but when she offers to pay him $200, it angers him. Guido tells Roslyn that he would release them if she would leave Gaylord for him. She rebuffs him. Perce asks her if she wants him to set the horses free, but she declines because she thinks it would only start a fight. Perce frees the stallion anyway. After Gaylord chases down and subdues it by himself, he lets it go and says he just did not want anybody making up his mind for him. As they are driving away in Gaylord's truck, Roslyn tells Gaylord that she will leave the next day. He stops the truck to pick up his dog and watches her joyfully untethering it. They realize that they still love each other and drive off into the night.

After Greystone, a member of Havok's X-Factor team, develops temporal insanity, he attempts to build a time machine to return to his timeline and be reunited with his mother who, in all probability, does not exist anymore. Havok attempts to stop him, but the machine explodes, supposedly killing both men. However, at the instant of Havok's death, a Havok from an alternate reality also dies after being shot in the chest by a Sentinel. Havok's spirit finds its way into his counterpart's body and he wakes up in the Mutant X Universe. Here, he is the leader of a mutant team of heroes dubbed ''The Six'' (who are altered versions of his friends from Earth-616), the husband of Madelyne Pryor, and the father of Scotty Summers.

At first he tries to convince the others of the Six to help him return to his universe, but they all still believe him to be the Havok of their universe and insist that he is lying about coming from another dimension as a way of getting back at Madelyne for some unspecified injury. Havok ultimately gives up and decides to take on his counterpart's place in this universe. Only Scotty, who has precognitive powers, realizes that Havok is telling the truth, and addresses him as "Alex" instead of "Dad". The two quickly form a bond.

A demon-possessed Madelyne sets plans to take over the world into play. She takes control of all the members of the Six except Havok. Scotty is warned of her doings by his precognitive power, and Havok takes him and his nanny, Elektra, into hiding. For months Madelyne wages war against the rest of the world while trying to open a gateway to allow a full demonic invasion. Scotty finally stops her by exorcising the Goblin Entity from her mind.

The destruction caused by Madelyne serves as a spark to ignite the seething anti-mutant sentiment in the United States, and new president Graydon Creed tasks terrorist leader Nick Fury with rounding up mutants into prison camps; though the public explanation is that this is for their protection, mutants taken into the camps are immediately killed. Havok has Elektra take Scotty into hiding, while the remaining members of the Six, supplemented by new members Gambit and Captain America, set about rescuing mutants from Nick Fury's troops.

At the end of the series, the Goblin Entity, Dracula and the Beyonder all converge their efforts to destroy Earth. Almost all of the heroes die in the epic battle. Havok, discovering that he is the home for the Nexus of Realities, a force of nature that binds all realities (Omniverse), uses it to wield an omniversal level of power to stop the Goblin Entity, which had merged with the Beyonder. He then fights with the possessed Maydelyne and harnesses the power of the Nexus of All realities and with a thought eliminates the Goblin Entity throughout the Omniverse. He then teleports Maydelyne to her alternate universe with her son, Scotty. Fearing that somebody would attempt to use the power of the Nexus of All Realities to reshape, destroy, or alter the very Omniverse; he then becomes one with the Nexus of All Realities to prevent anyone from getting this power, except himself.

Two engineers, Aaron and Abe, supplement their day jobs with entrepreneurial tech projects, working out of Aaron's garage. During one such research effort, involving electromagnetic reduction of objects' weight, the two men accidentally discover an 'A-to-B' causal loop side-effect: objects left in the weight-reducing field exhibit temporal anomalies, proceeding normally (from time 'A,' when the field was activated, to time 'B,' when the field is powered off), then backwards (from 'B' back to 'A') in a continuously repeating sequence, such that objects can leave the field in the present, or at some previous point.

Abe refines this proof-of-concept and builds a stable time-apparatus ("the box"), sized to accommodate a human subject. Abe uses this box to travel six hours into his own past—as part of this process, Abe sits incommunicado in a hotel room, so as not to interact or interfere with the outside world, after which he enters the box then waits inside the box for six hours (thus going back in time six hours). Once he exits the box, Abe travels across town, explains the proceedings to Aaron, and brings Aaron back to the self-storage facility housing the box. At the facility, they watch the earlier version of Abe enter the box.

Abe and Aaron repeat Abe's six-hour experiment multiple times over multiple days, making profitable same-day stock trades armed with foreknowledge of the market's performance. The duo's divergent personalities Abe cautious and controlling, Aaron impulsive and meddlesome put subtle strain on their collaboration and friendship. Additionally, the time travel is taxing on Abe and Aaron's bodies; effectively their days become 36 hours long when including the extra time afforded by the box. As the film progresses, the two men begin to notice alarming side effects of time travel which take the form of earbleeds. Later, they notice their handwriting progressively worsening.

The tension between Abe and Aaron comes to a head after a late-night encounter with Thomas Granger (father to Abe's girlfriend, Rachel), who appears inexplicably unshaven and exists in overlap with his original suburban self. Granger falls into a comatose state after being pursued by Aaron; Aaron theorizes that, at some unknown point in the future, Granger entered the "box", with timeline-altering consequences. Abe concludes that time travel is simply too dangerous, and enters a secret second box (the "failsafe box," built before the experiment began and kept continuously running), traveling back four days to prevent the experiment's launch.

Cumulative competing interference wreaks havoc upon the timeline. Future-Abe sedates Original-Abe (so he will never conduct the initial time travel experiment), and meets Original-Aaron at a park bench (so as to dissuade him), but finds that Future-Aaron has gotten there first (armed with pre-recordings of the past conversations, and an unobtrusive earpiece), having brought a disassembled "third failsafe box" four days back with his own body. Future-Abe faints at this revelation, overcome by shock and fatigue.

The two men briefly and tentatively reconcile. They jointly travel back in time, experiencing and reshaping an event where Abe's girlfriend Rachel was nearly killed by a gun-wielding party crasher. After many repetitions, Aaron, forearmed with knowledge of the party's events, stops the gunman, becoming a local hero. Abe and Aaron ultimately part ways; Aaron considers a new life in foreign countries where he can tamper more broadly for personal gain, while Abe states his intent to remain in town and dissuade/sabotage the original "box" experiment. Abe warns Aaron to leave and never return.

Multiple "box-aware" versions of Aaron circulate at least one Future-Aaron has shared his knowledge with Original-Aaron, via discussions, voice-recordings, and an unsuccessful physical altercation. Future-Abe watches over Original-Abe, going to painstaking extremes to keep him unaware of the future. An Aaron directs French-speaking workers in the construction of a warehouse-sized box.

In the late Victorian period, two young cousins, nine-year-old Richard (Glenn Kohan as Young Richard) and seven-year-old Emmeline Lestrange (Elva Josephson as Young Emmeline), and a galley cook, Paddy Button (Leo McKern), survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific and reach a lush tropical island. Paddy cares for the children and forbids them by "law" from going to the other side of the island, as he had found remains from bloody human sacrifices on an altar there. He also warns them against eating the deadly scarlet berries. Paddy later dies after a drunken binge. Now alone, the children go to another part of the island and rebuild their home.

When Richard and Emmeline reach puberty, their experience is stressful given their lack of education on human sexuality. Emmeline is the first to experience sexual attraction (to Richard), about which she is uncomfortable and declines to share her "funny" thoughts with him. She is frightened by her first menstrual period and refuses to allow Richard to inspect her for what he imagines is a wound.

Eventually, Richard recognizes his own attraction to Emmeline. She ventures to the forbidden side of the island and sees the altar. She associates the blood on the altar with the blood of Christ's crucifixion, concludes that the altar is God, and tries to persuade Richard to go to the other side of the island to pray with her. Richard is shocked at the idea of breaking the law, and the two argue. Later, when Richard tries to initiate sexual contact with Emmeline, she rebuffs him; he hides from her and masturbates.

A ship appears for the first time in years, but Emmeline does not light the signal fire and the ship passes by without noticing them. When Richard angrily confronts Emmeline about her failure, she asserts—to Richard's disbelief—that the island is their home now and that they should remain there. Emmeline reveals that she knows about Richard's masturbation and threatens to tell her Uncle Arthur about it. They fight, and Emmeline throws a coconut at Richard, inadvertently hitting him in the head. Angry and hurt, Richard slaps her and kicks Emmeline out of their shelter.

Emmeline accidentally steps on a venomous stonefish. Weak from the poison, she pleads with Richard to "take [her] to God". Richard carries her to the other side of the island and places her on the altar, offering a prayer. Emmeline recovers and Richard admits his fear of losing her. After Emmeline regains her ability to walk, the two swim naked in the lagoon and then swim to shore. Noticing their bodies' reactions as they play together, Richard and Emmeline discover sexual intercourse and become lovers. As a result, Emmeline becomes pregnant, though neither of them recognize her pregnancy. Instead, they are stunned when they feel the baby move inside her abdomen and assume that it is her stomach causing the movements.

Months later, Richard is alone in the shelter and hears a sound from afar and goes directly to the other side of the island. There, he discovers a group of indigenous people performing a ritual in front of the statue as a ceremony, during which they sacrifice someone. Richard becomes frightened and runs away to find Emmeline, whom he finds in labor. Emmeline gives birth to a baby boy, whom they name Paddy.

A ship led by Richard's father, Arthur (William Daniels), approaches the island and sees the family playing on the shore. When they notice the ship, Richard and Emmeline walk away instead of signaling for help, content with their lives. As they are covered in mud, their appearance is difficult to determine, and Arthur assumes they are not Richard and Emmeline.

One day, the family takes the lifeboat to visit their original homesite. Richard searches for bananas, leaving Emmeline and Paddy with the boat. Emmeline does not notice when Paddy brings a branch of the scarlet berries into the boat. Emmeline and Paddy slowly drift away, and Paddy tosses one of the oars out of the boat. Unable to reach the oar, Emmeline shouts to Richard and he swims to her, followed closely by a shark. Emmeline throws the other oar at the shark, striking it and giving Richard time to get into the boat. The boat is caught in the current and drifts out to sea.

After drifting for days, Richard and Emmeline awake to find Paddy eating the berries he had picked. Hopeless, Richard and Emmeline eat the berries as well, lying down to await death. A few hours later, Arthur's ship finds them. Arthur asks, "Are they dead?" The officer (Gus Mercurio) assures him, "No, sir. They're asleep".

While studying the diary of his grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, Dr. Eggman learns of an artifact Gerald had unearthed: a 4000-year-old sentient weapon called the Gizoid created by an ancient civilization. Eggman attempts to get the dormant Gizoid to work properly, but is unsuccessful and abandons it at Emerald Beach. Sonic the Hedgehog finds the Gizoid, which activates and develops a link with him after Sonic demonstrates his abilities.

The Gizoid, which Sonic names Emerl due to its ability to use the Chaos Emeralds, demonstrates an ability to perfectly replicate any moves it sees and quickly gets wrapped up in the affairs of Sonic's friends, allies and rivals. Through his encounters with Tails, Rouge, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and Shadow, Emerl learns of the world and of concepts like friendship. As they train together, the group discovers that Emerl becomes stronger and develops more sentience with each Chaos Emerald that he obtains, and begin searching for the remaining Emeralds to help the robot develop. While searching, they are repeatedly attacked by the forces of Eggman, who now wants to retrieve the weapon, including a rebuilt E-102 Gamma and a series of imperfect Emerl duplicates under the name "E-121 Phi".

Eventually, all the Chaos Emeralds are obtained and Emerl achieves full sapience. In a last attempt, Eggman decides to lure Emerl onto his new Death Egg to capture him. The two battle, and Emerl emerges victorious, but Eggman uses his new Final Egg Blaster to force Emerl to override his link with Sonic with Eggman's own. However, this overloads Emerl, deleting his personality and causing him to go haywire. The rogue Gizoid then turns the blaster towards the planet, and Sonic is sent to stop him before the world is destroyed. Sonic defeats Emerl, who briefly reverts to his previous personality and bids his friends farewell before overloading with energy and exploding, leaving the shards of the Chaos Emeralds he acquired behind. Sonic returns home to his friends, who are saddened by the loss of Emerl. When asked if he believes Emerl is truly gone, Sonic reassures everyone that they will see him again someday.

Ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos and his psychic assistant Dennis Rafkin lead a team on a mission to capture a spirit called the Juggernaut. Several men, including Cyrus, are killed while the team is able to catch the ghost. Cyrus's nephew Arthur, a widower, is informed by Cyrus's estate lawyer, Ben Moss, that he has inherited Cyrus' mansion. Financially insecure, Arthur decides to move there with his two children, Kathy and Bobby, and their nanny, Maggie.

Dennis meets the family as they tour the mansion. The residence is made entirely of glass sheets inscribed with Latin phrases, which Dennis recognizes as barrier spells. He discovers that the twelve angry ghosts he and Cyrus captured are imprisoned in the house, held captive by the spells. As he warns Arthur, Moss unwittingly triggers a mechanism that seals the house and releases the ghosts. He dies when a set of sliding doors cut him in half. Bobby sees several of the ghosts, including the Withered Lover - his mother Jean, who had died of injuries sustained in a house fire. He is knocked unconscious and dragged away.

Dennis uses a pair of spectral glasses that allow the wearer to see the supernatural realm to avoid the ghosts. The Jackal, one of the most dangerous ghosts, attacks Kathy and Arthur but they are saved by Kalina Oretzia, a spirit liberator who is attempting to free the ghosts. Kathy disappears, and the four adults gather in the library, where Arthur learns that Jean's ghost is also in the house. Kalina explains that the house is a machine, powered by the captive ghosts, that allows its user to see the past, present, and future. The only way to shut it down is through the creation of a thirteenth ghost from a sacrifice of love. Arthur realizes that he must become that ghost to save his children.

Armed with the spectral glasses, Arthur and Dennis enter the basement to find the children. Dennis barricades Arthur behind a glass sheet for his protection, but is beaten to death by the Hammer and the Juggernaut, two other dangerous ghosts. It is revealed that Cyrus faked his death to lure Arthur to the house; Kalina is his partner, revealed when she knocks Maggie unconscious with a large book and promptly kisses Cyrus upon his arrival. Cyrus has orchestrated the abduction of Kathy and Bobby so that Arthur will become the thirteenth ghost, which will not stop the machine as Kalina had claimed, but trigger its activation. Cyrus kills Kalina, who objected to Cyrus putting the children in danger, and summons the ghosts to activate the machine.

In the main hall, Arthur witnesses all twelve ghosts orbiting a clockwork device of rotating metal rings, with his children at the center. He fights Cyrus while Maggie disrupts the machine's controls, releasing the ghosts from its power and causing the machine to go haywire. The ghosts hurl Cyrus into the moving rings, slicing him to pieces. With the encouragement of Dennis' ghost, Arthur jumps through the machine safely to protect his children. The walls of the house shatter as the malfunctioning machine rips itself apart, freeing the ghosts. Jean's ghost tells them she loves them before she disappears. As the family departs from the house, Maggie angrily declares that she is quitting as their nanny.

The occultist Dr. Plato Zorba bequeaths a large house to his impoverished nephew Cyrus. Along with his wife Hilda, teen daughter Medea and younger son Buck, Cyrus is informed that the house comes with ghosts that Dr. Zorba has collected from around the world. The will stipulates that the family must stay in the house and cannot sell it, or it will be turned over to the state. The family is shocked to find that the house is really haunted by 12 ghosts. The furnished mansion also comes with creepy housekeeper Elaine and a hidden fortune concealed somewhere on the property. The spirits include a wailing lady, clutching hands, a fiery skeleton, an Italian chef continuously murdering his wife and her lover in the kitchen, a hanging lady, an executioner holding a severed head, a fully grown lion with its headless tamer, a floating head and a ghost of Zorba himself, all held captive in the eerie house and looking for an unlucky 13th ghost to free them. Dr. Zorba also leaves a set of special goggles, the only way of seeing the ghosts. An Ouija board warns the family that a death will occur in the house.

Benjamin Rush, the estate executor, discovers that Zorba's fortune is hidden somewhere in the house and wants it for himself. He tricks Buck into secretly searching for the money. After Buck finds the cash, Rush attempts to murder him in the same way that he killed Zorba: using a four-poster bed equipped with a descending canopy that fatally suffocates people. Zorba's ghost appears, killing Rush by driving the terrified man under the canopy as Buck awakens and escapes. The next morning, Cyrus and his family count the recovered money and decide to stay in the house. Elaine says that the ghosts have left for now, but predicts that they will return, much to Buck's delight. An unseen force blows the special glasses into smithereens.

On an August night on Anson Beach, New Hampshire, a group of former college students have survived a plague caused by a virus called A6, or "Captain Trips". They believe the virus spread out of Southeast Asia and wiped out most of humanity.

The characters' outlook is grim. They encounter a delirious man dying of the plague and burn him on a pyre as a half-serious black-magic human sacrifice. The protagonist, Bernie, reflects upon this new world and reminisces about "the time before" when he went to Anson Beach in his youth, years before the plague. All the members of Bernie's group had survived a virus called A2, which supposedly made them immune to A6. But Needles reveals to Bernie that he has contracted A6. Bernie admits to himself that deep down they know that A2 is not a guarantee against A6 and that they will probably all be dead by Christmas. Bernie's girlfriend keeps up the pretense, accepting Bernie's explanation that Needles must have lied about having A2 so the others would not leave him behind.

John Hunton, a police detective investigating a sudden rash of grisly deaths caused by an industrial laundry press called a mangle, discovers that a series of unfortunate coincidences involving the machine have inadvertently replicated a demon-summoning ritual. Due to various ingredients (including medicine containing extract of nightshade, a live bat, and the fresh blood of a virgin getting into the machine) being combined, the machine itself has become possessed by a demon. The story ends after the detective and his friend underestimate the demon's power, and in seeking to exorcise the machine, instead goad it into ripping free of its moorings and prowling the streets in search of fresh prey.

Part I

Following the events of "Zero Hour", Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) and Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) survive the attacks by P-51 Mustangs on their shuttlepod and arrive back on ''Enterprise''. Temporal Agent Daniels (Matt Winston), near death, suddenly appears to Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley) in sickbay. He warns that an alien named Vosk (Jack Gwaltney), the leader of a faction of the Temporal Cold War, has altered the timeline with catastrophic consequences. ''Enterprise'' was brought to the mid-20th century to end the Temporal Cold War between several factions including the Federation. On Earth, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) escapes from the Germans when American resistance fighters ambush his convoy.

Wounded, he is taken to a Resistance safehouse in Brooklyn. With the Germans controlling the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, it is revealed that the aliens, known as the Na'kuhl, have sworn allegiance to Nazi Germany. Further, they are providing them with advanced weapons and technology in exchange for material and supplies to build a temporal conduit that will take them back to their own time period. Meanwhile, Silik (John Fleck), the leader of the Suliban Cabal, has boarded ''Enterprise'' and manages to steal a shuttlepod to fly to Earth. Tucker and Mayweather are then sent to find Silik along with the shuttlepod. Archer contacts Sub-commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) using a stolen communicator and is transported back to ''Enterprise''. Before dying, Daniels asks Archer to stop the Na'Kuhl from using the conduit and becoming even more dangerous. On Earth, the landing party find and destroy the shuttlepod, but are captured and taken in for interrogation.

Part II

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) finds the point of divergence in the timeline: the 1916 murder of Lenin, where witnesses claimed Lenin's killer "vanished into thin air." The removal of Lenin prevents the October Revolution from successfully taking place, causing Hitler to disregard Russia as a threat, and the full weight of the Nazi war machine is then directed at Western Europe and the United States. Vosk seeks an alliance with ''Enterprise'', releasing Mayweather and Tucker in hopes of forging a new understanding with Archer. Medical scans soon reveal that Tucker is actually Silik in disguise and he and Archer realize they need each other's help. They enlist the help of the Resistance to destroy the shields of the Na'kuhl complex and to help rescue Tucker.

Before they can complete the mission, Silik is killed by a guard near the conduit, and Archer is almost shot by a confused Tucker. With the alien shields down, ''Enterprise'' then completes an atmospheric entry, flying over New York City and destroying the alien facility with photon torpedoes. The episode ends with Daniels showing Archer the threads of the timeline resetting themselves back to normal, as the Temporal Cold War finally ends with the death of Vosk. Archer demands that Daniels should never visit or bother ''Enterprise'' again. With their mission completed, ''Enterprise'' finally arrives back in its proper time period, where the ship is escorted home by a mixed fleet of Starfleet and alien vessels.

Elvis Presley, bored with his confined existence in Graceland, leaves his home on his own for the first time since he was 21. He winds up in California and is convinced by an Anti-war activist that he is responsible for the counterculture through his influence on The Beatles. This prompts Elvis to write a letter to President Nixon asking to be made a "Federal Agent at Large" for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. No such position actually exists, but Nixon, wanting desperately to win over the youth of America, which he views as hating him, decides to meet with Elvis in an attempt to improve his image with the "kids".

In 1901, recently orphaned 10-year-old Mary Lennox is sent from her home in British India to her uncle Lord Archibald Craven's mansion, Misselthwaite Manor, in Yorkshire, England. She was unloved and neglected by her late parents who were killed in an earthquake in India. Due to their ill treatment, Mary is cold, self-centered and so repressed that she is unable to cry.

Mary is unhappy in her new surroundings. Head housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, informs her she will not be spoiled as she was in India and her uncle, who spends extended periods of time away, will likely not see her. Although ordered by Mrs. Medlock not to leave her room, strange noises lead Mary to explore the mansion on her own. She discovers a hidden door in her room that leads to uninhabited and unkempt parts of the house, including what appears to be her aunt's old room. There, she discovers a large key in a jewelry box, but unsure of what it is for, she leaves it alone.

Soon after her arrival, Mrs. Medlock commands her to play outside to keep her occupied and out of the way. On the expansive grounds, Mary discovers her late Aunt Lilias' walled garden, which has been locked and neglected since her death 10 years prior. She realizes that the key she found earlier unlocks the garden, but keeps it a secret.

Dickon Sowerby (younger brother of Martha, Mrs. Medlock's cheerful housemaid who befriends Mary), an outdoors boy who claims he can talk with animals, befriends Mary. Fascinated by the secret garden, Mary enlists Dickon to help her bring it back to life, gradually becoming friendlier and happier in the process. When she is finally introduced to her uncle, Mary is apprehensive, knowing that he had ordered no one to enter the garden following his wife's untimely death. She evasively asks to plant seeds on an "unwanted" part of the manor grounds. Lord Craven grants her permission, then claims he is leaving for an extended period. Confident that the garden will remain a secret, Mary and Dickon continue their work, growing close.

Hidden away in the gloomy mansion is Lord Craven's son and Mary's cousin, Colin Craven, who has been treated like a fragile, sickly invalid his entire life. A spoiled, demanding, short-tempered boy (similar to Mary in India), he has never left his room nor learned to walk and has to be confined to his bed or a wheelchair for mobility. Mary eventually finds him, discovering that he was the source of the crying she has been hearing. Although taken aback by his difficult nature, she reaches out anyway, showing him he is not really sick, and the outside world is not as dangerous as Mrs. Medlock has claimed. Encouraged by Mary, Colin goes outside for the first time. Mary and Dickon take him to the secret garden, and Colin begins both his physical and mental healing process.

Mary, Colin, and Dickon spend all of their free time in the garden, where Colin learns to stand and walk. Anxious to show his father, they perform a magic ceremony, hoping to bring him back home. Appearing to work, Lord Craven awakens suddenly from a dream of Lilias calling him home to the garden and immediately returns. He finds the secret garden and sees Colin walking and playing Blind man's buff with the other children, leaving him dumbfounded with joy.

Upon seeing her uncle, Mary runs off and bursts into tears for the first time in her life, certain that she is unwanted and fearing the garden will be locked up again. Lord Craven seeks her out and reassures her that she is now part of the family. Promising never to lock it up again, he thanks Mary for bringing his family back to life and reuniting them. Mary, Colin, Lord Craven embrace, then celebrate. Dickon rides away to inform his sister and the rest of the manor staff of the good news, as Lord Craven and the children follow close behind him.

The film ends as Dickon is shown riding on his horse in a meadow while a voiceover of Mary reflects that "If you look the right way, the whole world is a garden."

The Federation starship ''Enterprise'' arrives at the planet Elas to pick up Elaan, the Dohlman of Elas. Accompanying them is Ambassador Petri of Troyius, a planet with which Elas has been at war. As Petri explains, the Elasian Council of Nobles and the Troyius Tribunal have agreed to marry Elaan to the Troyian king to secure peace, lest the two planets destroy each other. Elaan is a most reluctant bride, cursing an arrangement that she considers a humiliation. Ambassador Petri's mission is to instruct Elaan in the manners and customs of the Troyians.

Not long after the ''Enterprise'' begins the return journey to Troyius at low impulse speed, a Klingon warship is detected, which paces the ''Enterprise'' and ignores all hails. To complicate matters further, Elaan stabs Petri, who refuses to have any further dealings with the Dohlman and vows that his ruler will never marry her. The job of teaching her falls to Captain Kirk.

In Sickbay, Nurse Chapel asks the ambassador why Elasian women are so prized in spite of their savagery. Petri explains that when the tears of an Elasian female touch a man's skin, his heart is "enslaved forever".

Elaan does not take kindly to Kirk's efforts to educate her and attempts to stab him. He overpowers her, disarms her, and insists that she will learn what she has been ordered to learn. Elaan locks herself in a bathroom and begins to cry, saying she is tired of being hated by everyone. Kirk tries to comfort her, and after wiping a tear from her cheek finds himself besotted with Elaan.

Meanwhile, one of the ship's engineers is killed by Kryton, Elaan's chief bodyguard, who then tampers with the ''Enterprise'' s warp engines and tries to contact the Klingon battle cruiser. He is captured, but commits suicide before he can be interrogated. Kirk orders Chief Engineer Scott to check the ship's propulsion systems. Elaan reveals that Kryton was in love with her and had been infuriated by the news of the arranged marriage.

The Klingon battlecruiser then begins what appears to be an attack. As Kirk orders the ''Enterprise'' to go to warp, Scott reports that, as a result of Kryton's sabotage, any attempt to do so will destroy the ship. As the Klingon passes by without firing, it becomes clear that they were hoping to destroy the ''Enterprise'' without an overt act of war. This plan having failed, the Klingons attack in earnest. Mr. Scott reports that Kryton damaged the dilithium crystals in the antimatter reactor control system, making it impossible to go to warp or fire their weapons.

In Sickbay, Ambassador Petri again approaches Elaan and begs her to accept the necklace of Troyian royal jewels that was to be worn at her wedding, as a symbol of the hope for peace between their two worlds. Elaan accepts the necklace and subsequently appears on the bridge wearing it with her wedding dress. Spock detects strange energy readings from some of the jewels, which Elaan describes as common stones, valued only as good-luck charms. The stones are in fact dilithium crystals, which explains the Klingons' keen interest in this star system.

The crystals are taken to Scott in Engineering, where he and Spock work to replace the damaged dilithium crystals as the battlecruiser moves in for the kill. Power is restored to the ''Enterprise'' just before the Klingons’ final attack. After suffering serious damage from the ''Enterprise's'' photon torpedoes, the Klingon ship is successfully driven off.

A much changed Elaan is delivered safely to Troyius. Before she departs, Elaan gives Kirk her dagger as a memento, explaining she has learned that "on Troyius, they do not wear such things." She and Kirk say their farewells in the transporter room, with a heartbroken Elaan crying as she is beamed down. Later, McCoy appears on the bridge to report he has found an antidote to the Elasian tears, but it seems not to be needed after all. As Mr. Spock points out, "The ''Enterprise'' infected the Captain long before the Dohlman did."

When Chiaki meets a wounded young man on the street and offers to take him in, she has no idea that she's just invited the King of Hell to move in with her. Out of gratitude for helping him, Ororon offers to grant Chiaki one wish. Chiaki, who lives a very lonely life, asks Ororon to stay with her forever. Remarking that "forever" is not the same for each of them, Ororon agrees, and the two of them quickly become attached to each other. Unfortunately, Chiaki soon realizes that falling in love with a demon has consequences. Ororon has abandoned his throne, causing renegade demons, bounty hunters, and his own brothers to come after him to take his crown. As Ororon fights to stay alive and protect the girl he loves, Chiaki is appalled by the violence surrounding her, and condemns Ororon as a murderer. Their relationship remains strained throughout the series as Ororon attempts to refrain from killing for Chiaki's sake, leaving himself open for attack in the process. However, when her friends are threatened Chiaki herself displays a horrifying power. The powers her angelic father sealed within her level an entire city during a battle with several bounty hunters, and Chiaki spends the rest of the series in agony over her hatred of what she and Ororon must do to survive.

The game is set in the Edo Shogunate era of Japanese history (1865-1868). Rami Nana-Hikari, a seemingly typical teenager, has been the keeper of the Key to the Secret Treasure, and is really a descendant of aliens who came to Earth in ancient times. She doesn't know the importance of the Treasure, and her overbearing grandmother doesn't remember what secret the Key unlocks. The Key has been stolen (while Rami was at the local mini-mart, a common hangout for teens then), and now she must get the Key back.

Wearing her bunny girl costume, Rami rides into battle on her trusty dragon, Spot, as she encounters various enemies such as a sea monster, the U.S. Navy, the Russian Army, and the Seven Gods of the Good Fortune, until she arrives at the ship of Dr. Pon Eho, a raccoon billed as the most intelligent creature on Earth with an IQ of 1400, his appearance being appropriate for the thief that he is.

This game features animated cutscenes provided by Studio Pierrot.

After the escape of Doctor Soong and the Augments, Captain Archer and his crew proceed to the coordinates Soong had provided earlier in the mission. On Trialis IV, the away team find an abandoned building where the young Augments were raised and schooled by "father" Soong. They also capture a banished member of the Augments named Udar. Nicknamed "Smike" by his Augment siblings after a handicapped character from the comic novel Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, he is taken to ''Enterprise''. Analysis reveals that although Udar's DNA is similar to the other Augments, he has none of their enhanced abilities (except for superior hearing).

Meanwhile, Soong and the Augments capture ''Barzai'', a Denobulan medical ship, and use it to enter the medical facility called Cold Station 12 (C-12). They soon overpower security and capture the scientists there, including its chief medical officer, Doctor Jeremy Lucas (Doctor Phlox's Interspecies Medical Exchange counterpart). Due to security protocols, tensions begin to surface between Soong and Malik, as to how to coerce Lucas into divulging the entry codes. Malik convinces Soong to torture Lucas, and failing that, to expose a scientist to a deadly pathogen using a containment chamber.

''Enterprise'' approaches within transporter range, and beams a landing party (including Phlox) to the facility. They are soon detected, however, and imprisoned with the facility's staff. Meanwhile, Commander T'Pol, having lost contact with the team, attempts to destroy the station, but the Klingon ship intervenes. Malik uses Phlox's friendship to finally coerce the security codes from Lucas (by threatening to expose him to a pathogen as well). Soong, who had previously stolen 19 genetically enhanced and frozen embryos from C-12, is now able to access the remaining 1,800, a carry-over from the Eugenics Wars. Soong and the Augments then escape, but not before Malik kills Smike, helps himself to a number of pathogen samples, and sets the viral containment fields to fail.

Yoo Min-woo's (Song Seung-heon) first love was Seo Eun-hye (Shin Ae). However, Eun-hye gets into a car accident and dies. Without Min-woo's knowledge, her parents decide to donate her organs. Shim Hye-won (Son Ye-jin) has suffered from a possibly fatal heart disease ever since childhood. Miraculously, she finds that she will be obtaining a heart from a donor, the deceased Eun-hye.

Suffering from the pain of losing his girlfriend, Min-woo goes to Italy to study, with the memories of Eun-hye still lingering in his heart. When he returns to Korea, fate takes a turn and brings Hye-won and Min-woo together. When the two first meet at the airport, Hye-won's heart (Eun-hye's heart) oddly beats faster when she is around Min-woo.

Park Jung-jae (Ryu Jin) is Hye-won's fiancé. Jung-jae's younger sister, Park Jung-ah (Han Ji-hye) meets Min-woo in Italy and falls for him. Meanwhile, Min-woo feels guilt towards Eun-hye, because his feelings of love are stirred once again as he keeps being around Hye-won.

Coincidentally, Min-woo ends up being hired as the art director for Jung-jae's project "Summer Scent," with Hye-won as their florist. Hiding their prior encounter in the forest, they awkwardly greet each other as if they'd never met. During the project, their fondness deepens, and Min-woo begins to "recognize" similarities between Eun-hye and Hye-won. Hye-won, on the other hand, believes it to be fate that her heart beats faster whenever Min-woo is near. Their fondness for each other soon triggers Jung-ah's and shortly thereafter, Jung-jae's suspicions. Jung-jae, however, chooses to turn a blind eye as he deeply loves Hye-won. It is then Hye-won's turn to be confused as to whether her feelings for Min-woo are true, or a physiological result of Eun-hye's past feelings for him. As a result, she decides to leave Min-woo, trying to cover up her feelings of guilt towards Jung-jae and Jung-ah. She returns to Jung-jae's side and agrees to marry him.

To forget Hye-won, Min-woo decides to leave for Italy indefinitely, but only after seeing her one last time. At Hye-won's wedding, Min-woo casts one last glance at her and then leaves. With Min-woo near, Hye-won's heart once more signals his presence, and thus alerted, she sees Min-woo leaving. Desperately trying to catch Min-woo, Hye-won collapses. Min-woo rushes Hye-won to the hospital with Jung-jae arriving a little later. Jung-jae, angry at Min-woo for having caused Hye-won's collapse, tells him to leave for Italy but Min-woo agrees to leave only after Hye-won has regained consciousness. Soon, Hye-won wakes up and a deeply angered Jung-jae forbids Min-woo to see her, ordering him to leave on the spot. However, Min-woo agrees to leave only after Hye-won promises him to undergo heart surgery, for not having the operation would mean her certain demise.

Soon after his arrival in Italy, Min-woo receives a letter notifying him that Hye-won died during the operation.

Three years later, with memories of Hye-won in his heart, Min-woo returns to Korea as the manager of an Art Centre. During his absence, Hye-won has undergone a heart transplant after the initial surgery, and then traveled to the United States for another transplant. On his way up the steps to the Art Centre and on her way down after her delivery, they meet again. The abnormal beating of Hye-won's new heart signals Min-woo's presence to her, and thus once and for all, confirms their love for each other to be authentic.

During World War I, soldiers of the British 5th Battalion's White Company under Cpt. Jennings charge a German trench as part of a larger assault. The young Pvt. Charlie Shakespeare initially refuses, but is coaxed along by Sgt. Tate. Many soldiers fall to machine-gun fire or artillery and the unit becomes lost in the fog.

After walking for hours, carrying Pvt. Colin Chevasse, now paraplegic, the unit comes across a maze-like network of trenches. There they find three terrified Germans, who ignore Private Willie McNess's cries for surrender in apparent fear of something further down the trenches. Pvt. Thomas Quinn shoots and kills one, another flees, while the third, Friedrich, surrenders. Convinced they have broken through the enemy lines, the soldiers decide to secure the trenches. They explore and find ominous signs: rotting bodies with protruding barbed wire and German bayonets litter the ground. Compasses and watches also have stopped working. While detonating charges to close off some passages, they hear a demon-like growl and blood pours from the mud.

Later, Pvt. Jack Hawkstone is ambushed by the second German hiding in the mud. Jack and Pvt. Barry Starinski wound and subdue him, but Thomas executes him with a pistol and scalps him despite Tate's interference. Attempts to contact command via radio reveal White Company was thought to have been obliterated during the assault before communications are lost.

Their first night in the trench starts uneventfully and Cpl. "Doc" Fairweather treats the wounded. Barry secludes himself but is distracted by strange sounds and finds three German corpses wrapped in barbed wire in a standing position. As he alerts the unit, one corpse suddenly comes to life and ambushes him. Charlie and Tate arrive to find Barry's corpse lashed to the wall with barbed wire. Suspecting that hidden German troops are responsible, the men violently interrogate Friedrich (who can also speak French, which Charlie understands). He explains that the other Germans turned on each other and that there is "evil" in the trenches.

The next morning, White Company piles up the German dead and clear the dugouts with grenades. Phantom sounds of incoming artillery and charging infantry cause Jennings to crack under the pressure, mistakenly shooting and killing Jack. Morale and discipline deteriorate, with Willie thinking of deserting. That night he is chased by an eerie red mist, hears voices, and is drenched in blood. Snapping, he flees into no man's land only to be shot by Pvt. Anthony Bradford. Doc attempts a rescue, but Willie, only able to crawl, is pursued by something tunneling in the mud that drags him under to his death. Meanwhile, Anthony, convinced that both he and the trenches are possessed by death, asks Charlie to shoot him so he will not kill anyone else. When the latter refuses, Anthony runs off.

In the morning, Thomas crucifies Friedrich alive on a wooden beam in no man's land and savagely beats him with a club. Jennings, now insane, orders an inspection, but Thomas instead subdues and stabs the officer to death. Tate attacks Thomas, but during the fight gets tangled in barbed wire. Thomas then kills Tate and taunts Charlie when he refuses to shoot, but is then restrained and impaled by living strands of barbed wire that rise from the mud, forcing Charlie to kill him.

Freeing the crippled Friedrich, Charlie arms him with a rifle to defend himself before running off to find Doc. He finds Colin who, though pale and covered in flies, appears to be able to move his legs under the blankets. However, it is only the rats that have chewed off his legs, and Charlie tearfully euthanizes the boy. He then finds Anthony, who has tied Doc up with barbed wire and both men plead Charlie to kill Anthony. Again, Charlie refuses, and Anthony shoots Doc in the head. Shakespeare finally gives in and kills the chaplain.

The soil under the German corpse pile starts to cave in, while barbed wire blocks every passage, and Charlie is sucked down into the pit. He wakes up in a cave full of corpses, where living versions of his unit sit eating together like they were on the first night, including himself. He flees, reaching the trenches. Friedrich, now in perfect health, appears and points his rifle at him. Charlie, exasperated by the apparent betrayal, shouts in both English and French that he tried to help him. Friedrich calmly acknowledges this in English, saying he is free to go, pointing to a ladder leading up into no man's land before seemingly vanishing. Charlie climbs out of the trench and leaves to an unknown fate, disappearing into the fog.

Some time later, another team of British soldiers arrives at the trench. Seeing Friedrich sitting idly alone, they shout at him to surrender, to which he complies by lifting his hands. He then gives an ominous stare before the screen fades, implying that this will all happen again.

Lalita Bakshi is a young woman living in Amritsar, India with her family. The family is invited to a friend's wedding ceremony, where Lalita meets Will Darcy, a handsome and wealthy American who is a long-time friend of the Indian-British barrister Balraj, and Balraj's sister Kiran. Balraj is instantly attracted to Jaya and likewise, Darcy is attracted to Lalita. During the wedding reception, Lalita takes a disliking to Darcy but when Balraj invites Jaya to Goa, Mr. Bakshi asks Lalita to go with them and she eventually agrees to do so. In Goa, Lalita and Darcy clash over their ideas on men and women and India's economic future. Later that night on the beach, Lalita meets Johnny Wickham, Darcy's former friend from London, and he validates her low opinion of Darcy.

The Bakshi family is visited by Kohli Saab, a family friend living in Los Angeles, who has come to India to find a "traditional woman" to marry. When Kohli Saab is attracted to Jaya, Mrs. Bakshi steers him towards Lalita, making Lalita uncomfortable. Wickham is invited to join the family and Kohli Saab at the Garba, despite Mrs. Bakshi's disapproval. Lalita happily accepts a dance from Wickham, even as Darcy and Kiran warn her against becoming involved with him. Lalita angers her mother by turning down a proposal from Kohli.

Balraj comes to the house to bid farewell to Jaya and promises to write to her from London. Lakhi later announces that Chandra is marrying Kohli Saab, much to the surprise of Jaya and especially Lalita. The same night, Wickham also announces that he is leaving and promises to write to Lalita. Neither Balraj nor Wickham writes to the two older sisters, but Wickham is shown secretly writing to Lakhi. Kohli Saab and Chandra phone to invite the Bakshi family the wedding ceremony in Los Angeles. The family accepts and Jaya is excited to stopover in London hoping to see Balraj again.

In London, Kiran informs the Bakshi family that Balraj is in New York to meet potential brides, devastating Jaya, Lalita and Mrs Bakshi. At Heathrow Airport, Lakhi, Jaya, Lalita and Mrs Bakshi coincidentally run into Darcy, who is also a guest at Kohli Saab and Chandra's wedding. On board Darcy offers his First class seat to Mrs. Bakshi so he can sit next to Lalita in Economy class for the remainder of the flight. During their stay in California, Lalita's opinion of Darcy slowly improves, and the two fall in love.

At the wedding, Darcy's condescending mother, Catherine, introduces Lalita to Darcy's former girlfriend, Anne who mispronounces Lalita's name as "Lolita". Jaya and Lalita also meet Darcy's younger sister, Georgie, who tells Lalita that Balraj and Darcy are not in contact because Darcy persuaded Balraj not to marry an Indian girl with a "gold-digger" Mother. Lalita furiously realizes that Darcy is the reason why Jaya never heard from Balraj. Darcy proposes to Lalita, who angrily refuses, blaming him for Jaya's unhappiness.

Back in London, Lakhi uses the family's layover as an opportunity to sneak away and meet Wickham. Darcy apologizes to Lalita, telling her that he has gotten Balraj to reconcile with Jaya. Lalita realizes that Darcy was right about Wickham and calls for his help to find Lakhi. Darcy explains that Wickham got Georgie pregnant at age 16, tried to marry her for their family's money, and ran away when his plan did not work. They both rescue Lakhi and Lalita accepts Darcy's proposal. The film ends with a double wedding of Jaya to Balraj and Lalita to Darcy.

In the beginning of the book, Odd Thomas is silently approached by the ghost of a young girl brutally raped and murdered, and through his unique ability to understand the dead, is psychically led to her killer, a former schoolmate named Harlo Landerson. Koontz discloses how Odd was named and begins, layer by layer, to show how Odd's dysfunctional upbringing has shaped his life, and as those details are uncovered, his supernatural abilities begin to make more sense.

While working as a short order cook in a California desert town, Odd meets a suspicious-looking man in the diner followed by bodachs, shadowy spirit creatures who appear only during times of death and disaster. This man, who Odd nicknames "Fungus Man" (due to his waxy complexion and blond hair that resembles mold), has an unusually large swarm of bodachs following him, and Odd is convinced that this man is connected to some terrible catastrophe that is about to occur. To gather more information about him, Odd uses his gift of supernatural intuition, which his soulmate Bronwen (a.k.a. Stormy) Llewellyn calls "psychic magnetism," to track him down.

Odd's sixth sense leads him to Fungus Man's home, and Odd begins to uncover more details about the man and a mysterious other-worldly link to the dark forces about to be unleashed on the town of Pico Mundo. Accompanied sometimes by the ghost of Elvis Presley and encountering other memorable spirits, including a murdered prostitute, Odd is soon deeply involved in an attempt to prevent the disastrous bloodshed he knows will happen the next day.

The novel begins 35 years before the events of the original ''Dune''. Three interconnected narratives revolve around heir-apparent to House Atreides Leto, acting governor of Arrakis Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Imperial Crown Prince Shaddam. Side plots involve a young Duncan Idaho escaping enslavement at the hands of House Harkonnen, a young planetologist Pardot Kynes befriending the Fremen native to Arrakis, and the Bene Gesserit's troubles producing a child from the union between the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam and Vladimir Harkonnen.

While Leto is studying politics in the court of Earl Dominic Vernius on Ix, a joint Tleilaxu/Sardaukar army suddenly attacks the planet. Leto manages to escape to his homeworld of Caladan with the Earl's children, Rhombur and Kailea. The Tleilaxu conquerors begin using the Ix's technological and industrial resources for "Project Amal" with the goal of creating synthetic melange in order to eliminate dependence upon Arrakis.

Duke Paulus welcomes Leto and the Vernius heirs on Caladan. Lady Helena, however, bitterly opposes protecting the Ixian children. Lady Helena drugs a Salusan bull which then kills the Old Duke at a bullfight one evening. Leto becomes the new Duke and sends his mother away to a monastery. Shortly after, Shaddam secretly kills his father and becomes the Padishah Emperor. He invites nobles from across the Imperium to attend his coronation ceremony on Kaitain. The Baron Harkonnen, having invented an invisible ship with the aid of a Richese scientist, has his nephew Glossu Rabban attack a Tleilaxu delegation, making it look like an attack from the Atreides. Leto opts for a trial before the Landsraad and the Bene Gesserit save him with evidence of Corrino involvement in the Tleilaxu takeover of Ix. Shaddam, wishing to keep Project Amal secret, uses his influence to affect the trial and find Leto innocent.

In the game's opening cutscene, Wario finds a two-screened console and decides to develop games for it to make money. The rest of the game features self-contained stories for every character in their stages. Wario gets a toothache after eating chocolate. Jimmy T. gets a bug in his hair while dancing. Mona plays in a concert. Ashley sends a demon named Red to capture Orbulon. Kat and Ana try to locate their stolen bananas. Dr. Crygor upgrades himself with a new invention. Mike does karaoke for a planet of alien bunnies. 9-Volt and 18-Volt play a video game. In the game's final level, Wario eats some "nasty garlic" and turns into a superhero, Wario-Man.

The premise of the book is that everyone who has ever died (up to the time in which the book is set, which seems to be about the time of its publication) has gone to Styx, the river that circles the underworld.

The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx being startled—and annoyed—by the arrival of a houseboat on the Styx. At first afraid that the boat will put him out of business, he later finds out that he is actually to be appointed the boat's janitor.

What follows are eleven more stories (for a total of twelve) which are set on the house boat. There is no central theme, and the purpose of the book appears to be as a literary thought experiment to see what would happen if various famous dead people were put in the same room with each other. Each chapter is a short story featuring various souls from history and mythology. In the twelfth chapter the house boat disappears, leading into the sequel, ''The Pursuit of the House-Boat''.

The game begins as silent protagonist Torque is being escorted by CO Ernesto Alvarez (voiced by Mark Dias) onto death row in Abbott State Penitentiary on Carnate Island, off the coast of Maryland, an island with a long and troubled history. Torque has been sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife and their two children, although he claims to have blacked out during the incident, and can remember nothing. Shortly after entering his cell, an earthquake rocks the prison, and moments later, all of the inmates on death row except Torque are killed by Malefactors, a grotesque race of supernatural creatures manifested from various forms of deaths that took place on Carnate Island and are bent on purging any life they run into. One of the creatures opens Torque's cell, and he sets out to escape. After seeing several guards killed by the creatures, Torque uses security monitors to find the entire prison is under attack. He then gets a phone call from his dead wife, Carmen (Rafeedah Keys), telling him the island is more than a prison, that it brings out evil in everyone, and advising him to escape as soon as he can.

Descending to the basement, he soon encounters the spirits of three of Abbot's most famous occupants. Dr. Killjoy (voiced by John Armstrong) was a psychiatrist/surgeon who ran an insane asylum on the island in the 1920s. Obsessed with discovering what is wrong with Torque, Killjoy appears as an image projected from 16 mm film projectors. Hermes T. Haight (John Patrick Lowrie) was the executioner in Abbot for twenty-seven years, before he committed suicide in the gas chamber. He appears as a green vapor formed into the shape of a human. Hermes is determined to drive Torque into unleashing the evil inside him. Horace P. Gauge (John Armstrong) was an inmate who was executed in the electric chair for murdering his wife during a conjugal visit. Full of guilt for his actions, he claims Carnate drove him to it, and wants to help Torque realize his decency. He appears in the form of electricity. They teach Torque how to unleash the anger inside himself and transform into a powerful monster, although the transformation is only in Torque's mind.

Torque then encounters a fellow inmate, Dallas (Mark Berry), who he knows from his previous prison, Eastern Correctional Institution. They head through the eastern cellblock, where Torque has a vision of Carmen, who explains why she left him; when he was incarcerated for the second time, she knew she needed to make a change to her life. Torque and Dallas make it to the loading bay, and Torque heads to the control room, opening the doors, and allowing Dallas to escape. However, a fire starts, preventing Torque from following. He then hears a call from Consuela Alvarez (Meg Savlov), Ernesto's wife, asking Ernesto to call her. She tells him that she and the girls are fine, but there is a fire in the nearby forest getting closer to their house.

Torque heads to the western cellblock, where he has another vision of Carmen, telling him she is pregnant but is filing for divorce. Torque heads to the radio room, finding the radio is working, but something from the asylum is preventing communication with the mainland. Torque heads to the asylum, and encounters Killjoy, who is determined to "cure" him using his "Rebirth Machine". Torque fights through a series of tests set by Killjoy before destroying all his projectors. Killjoy then tells Torque to return to the prison, where he will give him his diagnosis.

Torque heads back to Abbot by way of the beach, where he encounters Clem (Ross Douglas), an elderly inmate who was in the middle of an escape when the earthquake struck. Clem has a small one-person boat ready to sail, but needs Torque's help fighting creatures emerging from a wrecked slave ship before he can leave. Torque sets fire to the wreck, enabling Clem to escape. He enters Abbot's sewer system where he encounters Horace, who tells him Abbot wants his soul. He then heads to the electric chair, destroying it and releasing Horace's spirit. Returning to death row, he finds Killjoy's diagnosis, and then returns to the radio room. Successfully sending a signal, he learns a Coast Guard vessel is on the way. However, Carnate's lighthouse is not working, and must be reactivated before the vessel can approach the island. Torque heads to the lighthouse, passing through the old military barracks, Fort Maleson. In the fort, he encounters Hermes, who forces him to fight. Torque defeats him by using pressurized gas to push Hermes into a furnace. He continues to the lighthouse, outside of which he meets Ernesto, who is trying to find his family. They restore power, and reactivate the lighthouse, arranging to meet the ship at the dock.

They then head to the nearby village to look for Ernesto's family. The gate to town is locked, but in return for freeing his soul, Horace opens it. They then encounter a broken bridge, but, impressed with Torque's efforts to kill him, Hermes helps them cross. As they near the village, however, they are separated by a fire, and Ernesto goes on alone, telling Torque to get to the docks. As he arrives, he encounters Killjoy, who tells him to cure himself he must face what awaits him, and only by using the Rebirth Machine can he defeat it. Torque heads to the docks where he encounters a massive creature with a miniature version of himself protruding from its stomach. Torque fights and defeats the creature while remembering the truth about his wife and children's deaths, leading to one of three endings, depending on the player's actions through the game:

*Good ending: Torque remembers that his wife and children were killed while he was spared by two criminals under orders of a third individual called "The Colonel", who also incriminated Torque in order to make him suffer. Torque heads to the docks and is picked up by the coast guard. On the boat, the captain recognizes him, and reveals that his case has been reopened after the prosecutor was indicted, and Torque will likely have a retrial. The game ends with the boat sailing away from Carnate.

*Bad ending: Torque remembers that he was the one who killed his family. When the coast guard arrives, Torque transforms into his monster state and kills him, before running back into the woods of Carnate.

*Neutral ending: Torque remembers that he accidentally killed his wife during a discussion and out of revenge, his eldest son drowned his younger brother before killing himself. When the coast guard arrives, Torque knocks him out and commandeers the boat, sailing away from Carnate.

Plot, according to Aristotle's ''Poetics'', refers to the sequence events connected by cause and effect in a story. A story is a series of events conveyed in chronological order. A plot is the same series of events deliberately arranged to maximize the story's dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance. E.M.Forster famously gives the example "The king died and then the queen died" is a story." But "The king died and then the queen died of grief" is a plot. For Trey Parker and Matt Stone this is best summarized as a series of events connected by "therefore" and "but".

The author of this play takes us through Mr. Zero’s trial, execution, excursion and arrest going into the afterlife. During the whole series of this episodic journey Mr. Zero is surprisingly oblivious to his deepest needs, wants and desires. The story focuses on Mr. Zero, an accountant at a large, faceless company. After 25 years at his job, he discovers that he will be replaced by an adding machine. In anger and pain, he snaps and kills his boss. Mr. Zero is then tried for murder, is found guilty and hanged. He wakes up in a heaven-like setting known as the "Elysian Fields." Mr. Zero meets a man named Shrdlu, then begins to operate an adding machine until Lieutenant Charles, the boss of the Elysian Fields, comes to tell Zero that he is a waste of space and his soul is going to be sent back to the Earth to be reused. The play ends with Zero following a very attractive girl named Hope off stage.

One night in Detroit, Axel Foley plans to arrest a gang of car thieves who run a local chop shop. Unbeknownst to his superior, Inspector G. Douglas Todd, Axel has canceled the SWAT, intending to raid the shop using only his team. Meanwhile, a group of four men arrive at the chop shop to pick up a cube van that the car thieves had hijacked. The leader of the group confirms that the vehicle still contains its cargo, which consists of crates labeled as property of the U.S. government, then has his men execute the car thieves.

As the murderers are about to leave, Axel, unaware of what has happened inside, proceeds with his plan to enter the shop and quickly finds his team outgunned. Todd, arriving moments later, is killed by the group's leader. When the perpetrators escape in the cube van, an angry Axel gives chase in one of the partially disassembled cars from the shop, but is intercepted by Secret Service Agent Steve Fulbright. Fulbright informs Axel that the killer must remain on the loose because the federal government is pursuing a larger scheme in which he is involved.

After Todd's funeral, Axel learns that several clues left behind by the killers point to Wonder World, a theme park in Beverly Hills, California, owned by "Uncle Dave" Thornton. Axel arrives in Beverly Hills and reunites with his friend Billy Rosewood, who has been promoted to "Deputy Director of Operations for Joint Systems Interdepartmental Operational Command" (DDO-JSIOC), and meets Jon Flint, Billy's new partner after John Taggart's retirement. Flint calls his friend Ellis DeWald, the head of Wonder World's park security, to let him know that Axel's coming to the park for his investigation.

Axel meets and befriends Janice Perkins, a park employee, whilst touring the park's underground behind-the-scenes facilities. Later, he is observed by security, shot at and attacked hand-to-hand. Axel retreats to the surface, where he cuts in line to enter the ''Spider'' Ferris wheel ride. The guards accidentally jam the ride, placing two little children's lives in danger. Axel rescues them and is subsequently taken to park manager Orrin Sanderson. When DeWald is called in to contest the claim that Axel was attacked by the security guards without prior challenge, Axel immediately recognizes DeWald as Todd's killer, but Rosewood and Flint refuse to believe that claim because DeWald is keeping an impeccable public reputation. However, Axel is later visited in his motel room by Uncle Dave and Janice, who inform him that the Wonder World park's designer and Dave's close friend, Roger Frye, has mysteriously disappeared while inspecting the grounds two weeks earlier, leaving only a letter with a cryptic message.

Axel tries to heckle DeWald into revealing his criminal involvements, despite continued admonishments by Fulbright, but DeWald proves too smooth to be caught in a mistake. When Axel later digs deeper into a closed-off section of the park, he finds out that DeWald and Sanderson run a counterfeiting ring that uses Wonder World as a front, and DeWald was at the chop shop in Detroit to get his hands on blank printing paper used for American currency. Axel later meets with Uncle Dave to ask him about further details to find a piece of viable evidence, and thereby discovers that Frye's warning letter is actually written on a sheet of the stolen mint paper. Before he can make use of that evidence, however, Uncle Dave is shot by DeWald, and Axel is framed for his shooting.

After getting away from DeWald and bringing Uncle Dave to a hospital, Axel sets out to prove his innocence by storming the park, calling Rosewood and Flint to assist him. The resulting shootout kills DeWald's henchmen, and after a hand-to-hand fight Axel shoots and kills DeWald, thus avenging Todd. During the fight, Sanderson is shot dead in the print shop by Agent Fulbright, who then appears before Axel to explain that he was right. Axel realizes Fulbright's actual involvement with the counterfeiters and fatally shoots him during a brief struggle. Uncle Dave makes a full recovery, and he thanks Axel for his assistance by creating a new character for Wonder World with his name, Axel Fox; and Janice takes Axel, now in a wheelchair, away from the festivities to show him the 'Tunnel of Love'.

The conspiracy emerged in AD 65, enlisting the support of several prominent senators, equestrians, and soldiers. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the ringleaders included a Praetorian tribune named Subrius Flavus, and a centurion named Sulpicius Asper, who helped Piso devise the plot, among others.

The conspiracy was put in jeopardy by a woman named Epicharis, who divulged parts of the plan to Volusius Proculus, commanding a fleet in Misenum. Epicharis was involved with the conspiracy and was attempting to move it along faster. When Proculus complained to Epicharis that Nero did not favor him, she informed him of the conspiracy. Proculus informed Nero of the conspiracy and Epicharis was arrested. Though she denied the accusations, the conspiracy collapsed and Epicharis was tortured brutally. While on transport to be tortured a second time, she committed suicide by strangling herself with her own girdle. The conspirators, acting more quickly, rejected a plan to kill Nero at Baiae but settled on murdering him in Rome at games. They had a loosely conceived plan in which Faenius Rufus – joint prefect of the Praetorian Guard with Ofonius Tigellinus – would conduct Piso to the Praetorian Camp, where the Guard would acclaim him as emperor.

On the morning that the conspirators' plot was to be carried out – 19 April – a freedman named Milichus informed on his former master Flavius Scaevinus after receiving orders to sharpen a knife and prepare bandages. Tacitus attributes his decision to give his former master up to greed and avarice at the urging of his wife, reporting it to Nero's secretary, Epaphroditus. Scaevinus initially was able to avoid suspicion, discrediting the evidence as circumstantial before giving in under the threat of torture and further evidence from Milichus' wife reporting on a long secret meeting between Scaevinus and Antonius Natalis, another conspirator. When Scaevinus was given over to fellow conspirator praetorian prefect Faenius Rufus for punishment, he inculpated him as well; another conspirator, Subrius Flavus, openly expressed his hatred of Nero in court, justifying with reference to Nero's matricide, crimes, and "parad[ing] as a charioteer [and] actor".

Nero ordered Piso, the philosopher Seneca, Seneca's nephew Lucan, and the satirist Petronius to commit suicide. Many others were also killed. In Plutarch's version, one of the conspirators remarked to a condemned prisoner that all would change soon (because Nero would be dead). The prisoner reported the conversation to Nero, who had the conspirator tortured until he confessed the plot. The ancient Roman historian, Tacitus, writes in his ''Annals'' that "it was rumoured that Subrius Flavus and the centurions had decided in private conference... that, once Nero had been struck down by the agency of Piso, Piso should be disposed of... and the empire made over to Seneca; who would thus appear to have been chosen for the supreme power by innocent men".

A young married couple, Gilles and Marion, are in a lawyer's office. The lawyer reads out the formal terms of their separation. Then, they book a hotel room together. We then go back in time, with the second chapter showing a tense dinner party, at which Gilles appears to admit to infidelity. The third chapter shows their son's birth, which Gilles missed by several hours, leaving Marion in the hospital with only her parents. The fourth chapter shows their wedding day. The final chapter takes place at an Italian beach resort, where their relationship began.

The individual chapters are all punctuated by romantic Italian love songs, which Ozon has said he chose for their "over-the-top sentimentality" and in order to offset the darkness of some of the scenes in the film. Ozon has also said that the backward structure of the story was in part inspired by Jane Campion's 1986 film ''Two Friends'', and that it allowed for "a true, lucid reading of a couple's story".

The player races in Olympic City in a modified Acura Integra Type R sporting wide body kits and easily winning over his opponents; only to be woken up by Samantha from his sleep.

Samantha is the player's friend in Olympic City and she tours him across the import culture scene and illegal street racing therein. She helps the player buy his first car, although she mocks the player's choice of the car by calling it "weak". The player also encounters several street racing crews, some of them being Samantha's acquaintances who befriend the player after he proves his racing skills to them. She introduces him to T.J, one of her acquaintances, who promises him with numerous upgrades and parts, provided he wins races. The player races other racers and wins them over, eventually drawing the attention of Eddie, the leader of the Eastsiders gang and Melissa, his beautiful girlfriend. Eddie is the current best underground racer in Olympic City and berates the player for his racing skills, going as far as mocking him to "take a taxi home so that he can get home faster", but the player proves otherwise. Enraged, Eddie challenges the player to race Samantha, who gets infuriated upon the player's acceptance. She loses after she wrecks her Honda Civic Si during the race, and her car is taken by T.J for himself thereafter and vandalizes it. Deeply saddened by the loss of her car to T.J, Samantha distances herself from the player.

The player eventually keeps winning races offered by Samantha's acquaintances in her absence and later on faces T.J in Samantha's vandalized Civic. T.J loses the race and returns the car to the player, who returns it back to Samantha. They rekindle their friendship and Samantha motivates the player to race Eddie and defeat him once and for all. Eddie challenges the player to a sprint race and loses; while the player's crew are about to celebrate, a mysterious grey Nissan 350Z challenges the player to a final race. The player races the 350Z and wins; while the others celebrate his victory, the driver of the 350Z is revealed to be Melissa.

That event solidifies the player's status as the best underground racer in Olympic City.

The story begins around 285 BC, with Ptolemy I Soter, who narrates throughout the film. Alexander grows up with his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle, where he finds interest in love, honor, music, exploration, poetry and military combat. His relationship with his father is destroyed when Philip marries Attalus's niece, Eurydice. Alexander insults Philip after disowning Attalus as his kinsman, which results in Alexander's banishment from Philip's palace.

After Philip is assassinated, Alexander becomes King of Macedonia. Ptolemy mentions Alexander's punitive campaign in which he razes Thebes, also referring to the later burning of Persepolis, then gives an overview of Alexander's west-Persian campaign, including his declaration as the son of Zeus by the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis, his great battle against the Persian Emperor Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela, and his eight-year campaign across Asia.

Also seen are Alexander's private relationships with his childhood friend Hephaestion, Bagoas, and later his wife, Roxana. Hephaestion compares Alexander to Achilles, to which Alexander replies that Hephaestion must be his Patroclus (Achilles' lover) when Hephaestion mentions that Patroclus died first, Alexander pledges that, if Hephaestion should die first, he will follow him into the afterlife (as Achilles had done for Patroclus) Hephaestion shows extensive jealousy when he sees Alexander with Roxana, and deep sadness when he marries her, going so far as to attempt to keep her away from him after Alexander murders Cleitus the Black in India.

After initial objection from his soldiers, Alexander convinces them to join him in his final and bloodiest battle, the Battle of Hydaspes. He is severely injured with an arrow but survives and is celebrated. Later on, Hephaestion succumbs to an unknown illness either by chance or perhaps poison, speculated in the film to be typhus carried with him from India. Alexander, full of grief and anger, distances himself from his wife, despite her pregnancy, believing that she has killed Hephaestion. He dies less than three months after Hephaestion, in the same manner, keeping his promise that he would follow him. On his deathbed, Bagoas grieves as Alexander's generals begin to split up his kingdom and fight over the ownership of his body.

The story then returns to 285 BC, where Ptolemy admits to his scribe that he, along with all the other officers, had indeed poisoned Alexander just to spare themselves from any future conquests or consequences. However, he has it recorded that Alexander died due to illness compounding his overall weakened condition. He then goes on to end his memoirs with praise to Alexander.

The movie then ends with the note that Ptolemy's memoirs of Alexander were eventually burned, lost forever with the Library of Alexandria.

The film is presented as a series of vignettes centered around Byrne as an unnamed, cowboy-hat-wearing stranger who visits the fictional Texas town of Virgil, where he observes the citizens as they prepare for the "Celebration of Specialness" to mark the 150th anniversary of Texas' independence. The event is being sponsored by the Varicorp Corporation, a local computer manufacturing plant.

Among the many characters the visitor meets and interacts with, the most prominent are: * Louis Fyne (John Goodman), a country-western-singing clean room technician at Varicorp who is unlucky in love * Civic leader Earl Culver (Spalding Gray), who never speaks directly to his wife, Kay (Annie McEnroe) * Miss Rollings (Swoosie Kurtz), who never leaves her bed * Mr. Tucker (Pops Staples), Miss Rollings' personal assistant, a kindly voodoo practitioner whom Louis hires to help him find love * A conspiracy theorist preacher (John Ingle), whose shtick owes a great deal to the Church of the SubGenius * Ramon (Tito Larriva), a Tejano singer who claims to hear tones from people * "The Lying Woman" (Jo Harvey Allen), who recounts fantastic episodes from her life to anyone who will listen

Ruthless lumberjack foreman Barney Glasgow (Edward Arnold) will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, to someday become the head of the logging industry in 19th century Wisconsin. His determination to succeed leads him to end his relationship with saloon singer Lotta Morgan (Frances Farmer) and marry Emma Louise Hewitt (Mary Nash), the daughter of his boss Jed Hewett (Charles Halton), in order to secure a partnership in his business.

Over two decades later, a wealthy and successful Barney and Emma Louise's son Richard (Joel McCrea) strongly objects to his father's practice of destroying forests without planting new trees. Barney visits his old friend Swan Bostrom (Walter Brennan), who married Lotta when Barney rejected her. Swan is now a widower raising a daughter, also named Lotta (also played by Frances Farmer), who bears a striking resemblance to her mother. Barney finds himself attracted to the girl and, foolishly hoping to recapture the love he abandoned as a young man, offers to finance her education. Complications arise when Richard meets Lotta and takes a strong interest in her, which is reciprocated, much to Barney's displeasure and jealousy.

Opening in Lithuania during 1941, Hannibal Lecter is eight years old and living in a castle with his parents and sister, Mischa. With the castle located near the eastern front of World War II, the Lecter family escapes to their lodge to elude the advancing German troops. With the castle abandoned, it is soon raided by Germans and civilians aiding them, their hidden art collection being among the stolen loot. Three years later, an advancing Soviet tank stops at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water, only to be bombed by a German Stuka, the explosion killing all but the children. Surviving in the lodge, Hannibal and Mischa are captured when six deserters appear: Vladis Grutas, Zigmas Milko, Bronys Grentz, Enrikas Dortlich, Petras Kolnas and Kazys Porvik. Storming and looting the lodge, they lock the Lecters in the barn. Running low on supplies, the soldiers soon take Mischa; realizing they intend to cannibalize her, Hannibal tries to stop them, only to have his arm broken before he blacks out.

Hannibal is later spotted by a Soviet tank crew, wearing shackles and rendered mute. Returned to Lecter Castle, now a Soviet orphanage, Hannibal is found to be irreparably traumatized by the ordeal. Removed from the orphanage by his uncle Robert Lecter, Hannibal goes to live with him in France with his aunt, Lady Murasaki. Visiting a marketplace with his aunt, Lecter assaults butcher Paul Momund when he insults Murasaki. Count Lecter, learning of the slight against his wife, violently confronts the butcher and collapses and subsequently dies from a heart attack. Losing most of the Count's estate to death duties, Lecter and Murasaki move across France, and Lecter flourishes as a medical student, assisting by preparing cadavers for lessons.

Locating Momund the butcher, Lecter murders him for his actions, eviscerating and beheading him before eating his cheeks. Suspected by Inspector Popil, Lecter escapes suspicion when Murasaki falsifies evidence, suggesting Momund's death was political. Using sodium thiopental to recall the lodge, Lecter remembers Mischa's murder and her killer's faces, and that the lodge was shelled; the building burning and soldiers fleeing, Lecter was freed by Porvik, who was then crushed by falling debris. Working with Popil to recover his family's stolen art, Lecter attends a recovered art exhibition with Murasaki, and speaks with one of Grutas' men selling the art. Afraid he will uncover their identities, Grutas sends Dortlich to murder him.

Returning to the dilapidated lodge, Lecter searches the ruins and finds a bag of buried loot, which also contains the hidden dogtags of his captors. Attacked by Dortlich, Lecter strikes him with his shovel, and ties him to a tree stump. Noosed to a horse, Dortlich confirms Grentz relocated to Canada, and that Kolnas owns a restaurant in Fontainebleau; despite his pleas, Lecter uses the horse to tear off Dortlich's head. Returning to France, Lecter is kissed by Murasaki, who insists that he promise to stop killing and to co-operate with Popil; Lecter responds that he already promised revenge for Mischa, and leaves. Lecter continues his studies only to be stalked during his night-shift by Milko. Outwitting Milko and drugging him, Lecter interrogates him for information on Grutas, before drowning him in an embalming tank and incinerating his remains.

Eating at Kolnas' restaurant, Lecter notices his daughter is wearing Mischa's stolen bracelet. Entering Grutas' property, Hannibal sets an improvised bomb and confronts him as he bathes, only to be interrupted by Grutas' guards. As Lecter is about to be killed, his bomb detonates and cuts the power, allowing him to wound the guards and escape in the chaos. Returning to Murasaki's home, Lecter receives a call from Grutas, who threatens to kill her unless he surrenders; overhearing ortolans singing in the background of the phone call, Lecter breaks into Kolnas' home, and then heads to his restaurant. Lecter shows he took Mischa's bracelet from his daughter and, in exchange for information, offers to spare Kolnas and free his family. Giving up the location of Grutas' houseboat, Kolnas then realizes Lecter was lying about holding his family. Attacked by Kolnas, Lecter fatally stabs him through the head with a tantō.

Finding and reaching the boat, Lecter sneaks aboard but is wounded by the captain. Killing the guards and captain, Lecter rushes to save Murasaki, only to be shot in the back by Grutas, who boasts while molesting a bound Murasaki. Lecter removes his tantō, dimpled by Grutas' bullet, and uses it to cut both Grutas' Achilles tendons. With Grutas disarmed, Murasaki begs Lecter spare him for Popil, only for Grutas to mock him. Taunting that Lecter drank broth made from Mischa, he suggests Lecter kills only to continue lying to himself; enraged, Lecter carves several "M"s into Grutas, fatally wounding him. Horrified by Lecter, Murasaki declares there's nothing human left inside him to love, and dives overboard. Detonating the houseboat with an improvised explosive, Lecter flees the scene.

Arrested by Popil, Lecter is soon freed when popular support for his dispatch of war criminals combines with a lack of hard evidence. Lecter meets with Murasaki, and they say their goodbyes and part. Offered a residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Lecter heads overseas to North America, stopping briefly to visit bar-owner Grentz in Quebec, Canada.

In Rome, a Mossad station chief is assassinated. The murder piques the interest of the Campus, an off-the-books intelligence agency created by former United States president Jack Ryan before the end of his presidential term. Situated in a high-rise office building that has direct line-of-sight between the main headquarters for the CIA and the NSA, the organization was created to "identify, locate, and deal with terrorist threats" in anticipation of the current administration's neglect of the CIA and the NSA. A private trading and arbitrage company, Hendley Associates, serves as a legitimate front for the Campus by funding its operations via stock market trades influenced by the captured intelligence data, thus removing federal oversight and allowing free rein in its operations.

Jack Ryan Jr., son of the former president, soon discovers the Campus' operations. Wanting to serve his country in the post-9/11 world, he is hired by the agency as an analyst. Elsewhere, his cousin Brian Caruso is a U.S. Marine returning from Afghanistan to be decorated for his achievements in battle. His twin brother Dominic is an FBI agent who, while investigating a kidnapping of a little girl, finds her raped and killed. Caruso kills the suspect ostensibly in self defense after purposely getting noticed, and the suspect reacts by grabbing a knife at gun-point (thereby providing a "threat").

The Caruso brothers are soon recruited into a Campus strike team, chosen for their ability to kill enemies in cold blood. However, Brian is unsure of the morality of carrying out preemptive assassinations, even against terrorists. This changes when cells of Islamic fundamentalists cross the U.S.-Mexico border and attack several suburban malls. Brian and Dominic happen to be at one of the malls when the attack occurs. Although they efficiently find and dispatch all four shooters, dozens of people are killed; similar massacres occur at most of the other targeted sites. When a child dies in his arms after the attack, Brian abandons his earlier moral qualms. The Campus decides the brothers are ready and implements a "reconnaissance by fire" strategy to flush out the terrorist leaders.

To carry out the assassinations, the brothers are issued a weapon utilizing succinylcholine, developed by a Columbia University professor whose brother died in the 9/11 attacks. The succinylcholine is delivered through a hypodermic needle disguised as a pen. Twisting the nib switches the tip from a normal tip to a sharp needle that delivers 7 milligrams of the substance. Only 5 milligrams are necessary for death. The substance causes complete paralysis at 30 to 50 seconds and death at 3 minutes, shutting down all the muscles within the victim (including the diaphragm), with the exception of the heart. However, it makes the murder look like a heart attack, thus raising no suspicion.

Disguised as tourists, the team travels across Europe, finding and murdering several major players in the terrorist organization. The first three murders go off fairly routinely, and for the third assassination, the brothers are joined by their cousin Jack. Although originally present as an observer, Jack is forced to kill the target himself when a random accident spills wine on the brothers' suits, spoiling their anonymous appearance. After murdering the terrorist (coincidentally in the same men's room where the terrorist had killed the Mossad station chief), Jack uses his hotel key to gain access to his computer and downloads the entire contents for later analysis.

Miriam Blaylock is a vampire, seen in flashbacks drinking from victims in Ancient Egypt, promising specially chosen humans eternal life as her vampire lovers. Her current companion is John, a talented cellist whom she met in 18th-century France. In a nightclub in New York City, they connect with a young couple whom they bring home and feed upon by slashing their throats with bladed ankh pendants. The victims' bodies are disposed of in an incinerator in the basement of Miriam and John's elegant New York townhouse, where they pose as a wealthy couple who teach classical music.

Now, 200 years after he was turned, John begins suffering insomnia and ages years in only a few days. John realizes Miriam's promise, that periodically killing and feeding upon human victims would give him immortality, was only partially true; he will have eternal life, but not eternal youth. He seeks Dr. Sarah Roberts, a research gerontologist who, with her colleagues Charlie and Tom (also Sarah's boyfriend), are studying the effects of rapid aging in primates, hoping she can reverse his accelerating decrepitude. Sarah assumes that John is a hypochondriac or mentally unbalanced and ignores his pleas for help. As the angered John leaves the clinic, Sarah is horrified to see how rapidly he is aging and offers her help, but John rebuffs her.

One of the Blaylocks' students, Alice Cavender, drops by their townhouse to say that she cannot attend the next day's lesson. In a last attempt to regain his youth, John murders and feeds upon Alice, whom Miriam was grooming to be her next consort when she came of age. However, her blood does nothing to restore him, so John begs Miriam to kill him and release him from the agony of his decrepit body. Weeping, Miriam tells him there is no release. After John collapses in the basement, Miriam carries him into the attic, which is filled with coffins and places him in one. Like John, Miriam's former vampire lovers suffer an eternal living death, helplessly moaning and trapped in their coffins. Later, a police official comes to the residence, looking for the missing Alice. Miriam feigns ignorance and claims that her husband is in Switzerland.

Sarah comes looking for John at his home, but finds Miriam, who now feels alone after losing both John and Alice. The two have a sexual encounter, during which Miriam bites her arm and some of Miriam's blood enters Sarah's body. Miriam attempts to initiate Sarah in the necessities of life as a vampire, but Sarah is repulsed by the thought of subsisting on human blood.

Sarah returns home and goes out to dinner with Tom, who becomes argumentative when she rejects food and is not forthcoming about her three-hour disappearance to the Blaylock residence. The next day at the lab, the team investigates Sarah's blood and reveal she has some kind of infection, in the form of a foreign and inhuman type of blood, that is taking over her own. Confused, Sarah returns to confront Miriam. Still reeling from the effects of her vampiric transformation, Sarah allows Miriam to put her to bed in a guest room.

Tom arrives at Miriam's home, looking for Sarah. Miriam shows him to the upstairs bedroom, where Sarah, starving and desperate, kills him. Miriam assures her that she will soon forget what she was. As the two kiss, Sarah drives Miriam's ankh knife into her own throat and holds her mouth over Miriam's, forcing Miriam to ingest her blood. Miriam carries Sarah upstairs, intending to place her with her other boxed lovers. A rumbling occurs and the mummies of Miriam's previous lovers, including John, emerge from their coffins, driving her over the edge of the balcony. As she rapidly ages, the mummies become dust.

The police investigator returns to find a real estate agent showing the townhouse to prospective buyers. Sarah is now in London with two new companions, standing on the balcony of a flat in the Barbican Estate's Cromwell Tower, admiring the view as dusk falls. From a draped coffin in a storage room, Miriam continually cries Sarah's name.

An angel named Raziel (previously in Moore's novel ''Lamb'') is sent to Earth to grant the wish of a child; he decides to help a boy who had witnessed the death of a man dressed as Santa Claus. Meanwhile, the town is preparing for a community dinner-gathering at the local church, near the cemetery. In his inept attempt to bring "Santa" back to life, the angel causes the townspeople to fall under siege by brain-hungry zombies who arise from their burial plots.

During a high school basketball game, Odin James (Mekhi Phifer) scores the basket that wins the game for his team. Later at an awards ceremony, the coach, Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen) presents the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award to Odin for his efforts, an award he shares with his teammate Michael Cassio (Andrew Keegan). In giving Odin the award, Duke passes over his son Hugo (Josh Hartnett), Odin's teammate and friend. At a party celebrating the victory, Hugo plans with school outcast Roger Calhoun (Elden Henson) to go to the school's dean, Bob Brable (John Heard) and tell him that Odin raped his daughter, Desi (Julia Stiles), whom Odin has been dating. Hugo promises Roger that Desi will be his after Odin is out of the way, but Roger is only a pawn in Hugo's ultimate plan to destroy Odin.

Later, in another game, Odin's team wins once again. At the celebration party, Hugo engineers a fight between Roger and a very drunk Michael, who is temporarily suspended from the team. Hugo tells Michael to ingratiate himself with Desi so that she will talk to Odin on his behalf. Soon afterward, Hugo tells Odin that Michael and Desi have been spending a lot of time together, and that she may be cheating on him. Odin doesn't believe this at first, but gradually comes to suspect them. Odin questions Desi, but she calms him down and he believes her. Nevertheless, the stress of the situation drives Odin to begin using drugs.

Hugo manipulates his girlfriend Emily (Rain Phoenix) into stealing a scarf for him that Odin gave to Desi. Hugo, in turn, gives it to Michael in hopes that Odin will believe Desi gave Michael the scarf in an effort to prove Desi is cheating on Odin.

Meanwhile, Odin and Desi are having sex at a motel, during which Odin sees an image of Michael on top of Desi in the mirror; angered, he becomes very rough with Desi, to the point that she cries out for him to stop, a plea he ignores as he continues to rape her. Afterward, they lie together staring in opposite directions.

After Odin assaults another student during a game in a drug-fueled rage, Hugo tells him about the scarf, convincing him that Desi is cheating on him. Enraged, Odin vows to kill her; Hugo then promises to kill Michael. Hugo, with Odin and Roger, plans to kill Michael and Desi. Hugo and Roger attempt to kill Michael in a carjacking, but it does not go as planned: Roger and Michael struggle, Hugo hits Michael with a crowbar, knocking him unconscious. Roger shoots Michael in the leg, and then Hugo turns the gun on Roger and kills him after telling him that Desi is dead.

Odin and Desi are in Desi's room talking and Odin is pretending to make up with her. They are making out on the bed when suddenly Odin attacks her; Desi fights back, but he finally strangles her to death. Emily rushes into the room and sees Desi's corpse; she soon finds out what Hugo has done. She begins telling Odin that Hugo told her to steal the scarf and exposes his plot, and Hugo fatally shoots her when she refuses to be quiet. Odin finally realizes that Hugo has been manipulating him the entire time, and demands to know why; Hugo refuses to answer. When the police arrive, Odin tells them what happened and shoots himself, dying by suicide. As Hugo is taken into police custody, he says in voice over that he will have his day in the spotlight.

The story takes place in the mid to late 21st century: the Cold War has ended, yet the Soviet regime remains strong and proud. Americans and Soviets enjoy peace, but without fully accepting each other's ways, and with each always struggling for technological superiority and the prestige that accompanies it.

Under conditions of absolute secrecy, the Soviets have developed a miniaturization technology that can reduce a human to the dimensions of a molecule, or smaller. However, the process requires an enormous input of energy to miniaturize even a small object for a short time. So, although miniaturization has been shown to be scientifically possible, it also appears to be economically impracticable - a hollow triumph.

One Soviet scientist, Pyotor Leonovich Shapirov, a pioneer of the miniaturization process, had spoken vaguely of a way to make it affordable. Unfortunately, he now lies in a coma, with his secrets apparently locked away forever.

But Shapirov had been acquainted with an American scientist, Albert Jonas Morrison, who has his own peculiar theories regarding the brain's processing and storage of creative thought. Shapirov had been greatly intrigued by Morrison's ideas, and it's this interest that led the Soviets to turn to Morrison for help.

After a great deal of coercion, Morrison agrees to be miniaturized along with four Soviet scientists, enter Shapirov's dying brain, and attempt to use his computer program to retrieve the thoughts contained therein.

Later, having returned safely to normal size, but without any usable information from Shapirov, Morrison has made a new, startling discovery, which may help the Americans beat the Soviets at their own game: During the mission inside Shapirov's body, Morrison discovers that his programmed computer, instead of reading Shapirov's thoughts, has actually been reading the thoughts of Morrison's shipmates. This causes Morrison to theorize that if a number of people were united telepathically using his machine, those people might form a super-human think tank that could rediscover Shapirov's theories in short order.

Scientific details

In the novel, miniaturization is achieved by reducing the value of Planck's constant within a finite field, which it claims is the only conceivable way to do it. However, in reducing Planck's constant, the Soviet miniaturization process leaves the speed of light unchanged, and this is supposedly the reason for the extreme energy requirements.

The novel suggests two ways to solve the problem. One is to capture the energy that's released during deminiaturization and convert it into an electromagnetic field. That harnessed energy, then, could presumably be used to partially power the next miniaturization. But this is only an off-the-cuff idea, and although helpful, it would not be enough to make miniaturization truly affordable.

The other idea, which is the idea that's locked away in Shapirov's brain, is to couple Planck's constant with the speed of light, so that when one is decreased, the other is increased. Shapirov claimed that that would lead to very low-cost miniaturization, but nobody else has any idea of how to accomplish it.

As for practical applications for miniaturization, in addition to all of the obvious possibilities, the novel suggests that if a ship were reduced to the proper size, it could travel at many times the ordinary speed of light. Controlling the direction of that flight would be a significant problem because, at a small enough size, the ship would simply radiate in a random direction.

The main character is Henry, fiction editor for the struggling ''Logan's'' magazine. Henry receives an unsolicited short story from up-and-coming novelist Reg Thorpe, and considers the story to be very dark, but also a masterpiece. Through his correspondence with Thorpe, Henry learns of—and, due to Henry's own alcoholism, comes to believe in—Thorpe's various paranoid fantasies. Most notably, Henry and Thorpe believe that their typewriters serve as homes for Fornits, tiny elves who bring creativity and good luck. The story, told from Henry's perspective as he relays it in anecdotal form at a barbecue, concerns Henry's descent into Thorpe's madness. Meanwhile, Henry also struggles to get Thorpe's story published, despite the fact that ''Logan's'' is in the process of closing its fiction department.

Art teacher Bathsheba "Sheba" Hart falls in love with a 15-year-old pupil, Steven Connolly, who is from a deprived background and has literacy problems. Although they frequently have sex in risky places, including at school and in the open on Hampstead Heath, the couple successfully conceal their affair from colleagues and family. Sheba tells her coworker Barbara what has happened between her and Connolly, though she claims that he only tried to kiss her and she discouraged his advances.

Barbara eventually finds out about the affair on Guy Fawkes Night, when she sees Sheba talking to Connolly on Primrose Hill. Barbara feels betrayed that Sheba did not confide in her properly and is angered by Sheba's neglect of their friendship. (Barbara is herself a lonely woman whose neediness has driven away more than one potential friend.)

Over time, Connolly's interest in the affair wanes as Sheba's grows. Sheba still does not break off the affair, having become quite enslaved to the now barely invested Connolly. Her obsession continues even after he abandons her for a girl his own age.

Brian Bangs, a mathematics teacher, asks Barbara to have Saturday lunch with him one day. He confesses his infatuation with Sheba, leading Barbara to realise that he only asked her out to use her as a means to discover information about Sheba's private life. Overcome by jealousy, Barbara alludes to Sheba's secret.

The school's headmaster is somehow informed about the illicit affair. Sheba is suspended from her job and charged with indecent assault on a pupil. Her husband demands that she leave the family home and prevents her from seeing their children, especially their son Ben, who has Down syndrome. While Sheba's life is quickly disintegrating, Barbara thrives on the new situation, which she considers her chance to prove her qualities as a friend. When the headmaster forces her into early retirement, Barbara gives up the lease on her own small flat and moves in with Sheba and her brother.

Sheba discovers Barbara she has been writing an account of Sheba's relationship with Connolly. She is distraught and furious, not least because Barbara has written about events she did not personally witness, and made judgements about people close to Sheba. She is eventually reconciled with Barbara due to their shared desperation and loneliness. Even now, Barbara uses their desperate circumstances as yet another opportunity to further their relationship, and the mentally weakened Sheba can do little to resist. The novel ends with Sheba, trapped and demoralised, resigning to Barbara's dominance of her.

Frank Murphy is a Metropolitan Police Department air support division pilot and troubled Vietnam War veteran with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His newly assigned observer is novice Richard Lymangood. The two patrol Los Angeles at night and give assistance to police forces on the ground.

Murphy is instructed to attend a sunrise demonstration in the Mojave Desert at "Pinkville" and is selected to pilot an advanced helicopter, informally called ''"The Special" '' and nicknamed ''"Blue Thunder"'', during an evaluation exercise. It is a military-style combat aircraft intended for police use in surveillance and against possible large-scale civic disobedience during the 1984 Summer Olympics. With powerful armament, and other accoutrements such as thermal infrared scanners, unidirectional microphones and cameras, built-in mobile telephone, computer and modem, and a U-Matic Video Cassette Recorder, ''Blue Thunder'' appears to be a formidable tool in the war on crime. Murphy notes wryly that with enough of these helicopters "you could run the whole damn country."

When the death of city councilwoman Diana McNeely turns out to be more than just a random murder, Murphy begins his own covert investigation. He discovers that a subversive action group is intending instead to use ''Blue Thunder'' in a military role to quell disorder under the project codename T.H.O.R. ("Tactical Helicopter Offensive Response"), and is secretly eliminating political opponents to advance its agenda.

Murphy suspects the involvement of his old wartime nemesis, former United States Army Colonel F.E. Cochrane, the primary test pilot for ''Blue Thunder'' and someone who felt Murphy was "unsuitable" for the program. Murphy and Lymangood use ''Blue Thunder'' to record a meeting between Cochrane and the other government officials which would implicate them in the conspiracy, but Cochrane looks outside and sees ''Blue Thunder'' and realizes what has happened. After landing, Lymangood secures the tape and hides it, but is captured upon returning to his home, interrogated, and then killed while trying to escape. Murphy hijacks ''Blue Thunder'' and arranges to have his girlfriend Kate retrieve the tape and deliver it to the local news station, using the helicopter to thwart her pursuers. Kate arrives at the news station, but is almost captured by one of the conspirators; the reporter Kate was sent to find intercepts Kate and gets the tape back, while the conspirator is knocked unconscious by a security guard.

With the force of the city on their side, due to Murphy having hijacked Blue Thunder and being deemed a "security risk", Cochrane and the other conspirators employ every asset they can manage to bring Blue Thunder down, beginning with two LAPD Bell 206s. After Murphy incapacitates the first one, forcing it to land via autorotation, he engages in a cat & mouse with the second by slaloming down the Los Angeles River viaduct until his pursuer crashes. Following this, two Air National Guard F-16 fighters are deployed to deal with Murphy, but he manages to shoot one of them down and evade the other. In the process, one missile destroys a barbecue stand in Little Tokyo and a second hits ARCO Plaza. The operation is suspended by the mayor. Cochrane, bent on revenge and finally putting down his former subordinate from Vietnam, disobeys orders to stand down and ambushes ''Blue Thunder'' in a heavily armed Hughes 500 helicopter. After a tense battle, Murphy is able to shoot Cochrane down after executing a 360° loop through use of ''Blue Thunder'' turbine boost function. Murphy then destroys ''Blue Thunder'' by landing it in front of an approaching freight train.

In the meantime, the tape is made public and, as a result, the conspirators are arrested.

Charles Brady and his mother Mary are sleepwalkers, nomadic shapeshifting energy vampires who feed off the lifeforce of virgin women. Though they normally maintain a human form, they can transform into human-sized bipedal werecats, their natural form, at will. They have powers of both telekinesis and illusion. Domestic cats are their only weakness, and the two species are mutually hostile. Cats see through their illusions and violently attack them, inflicting severe to fatal wounds on them with their claws and teeth.

Charles and Mary live in Travis, a small Indiana town, having recently fled Bodega Bay, California after draining and killing a young girl there. Charles attends the local high school, and meets Tanya Robertson in his creative writing class. Charles feigns romantic interest in Tanya in order to take her lifeforce for himself and his starving mother. Their teacher, Mr. Fallows, is suspicious about Charles and tells him that his older high school certificates were fakes; he also physically assaults Charles, but Charles kills him.

On their first date, at a picnic at a nearby cemetery, Charles attempts to drain Tanya's lifeforce while kissing her. Tanya tries frantically to ward off Charles by bashing his head with her camera, scratching his face, and plunging a corkscrew into his left eye, though nothing she does seems to cause Charles more than temporary discomfort.

Deputy Sheriff Andy Simpson is driving by the cemetery. When Tanya flees to him for help, Charles kills Simpson. When Charles resumes feeding off Tanya, the deputy's cat, Clovis, violently scratches him in the face and chest. Mortally wounded, Charles staggers back home to his mother, who is able to make both of them invisible, and thus keep Charles from being arrested when the police storm their house. Clovis and a small number of other cats begin to gather outside, only kept at bay by the leghold traps the Sleepwalkers have set.

Knowing that the only way for her dying son to survive is to feed, Mary attacks the Robertson household, killing several deputies and state troopers and severely wounding Tanya's parents. She kidnaps Tanya and takes her back to her house. Charles is near death, but Mary revives him, and Charles makes a final attempt to drain Tanya's life force. However, Tanya plunges her fingers into his eyes, killing him. Tanya escapes with the help of the sheriff, whom Mary later impales on the picket fence surrounding the house. The cats that have been gathering around their house, led by Clovis, jump on Mary and claw and bite her until she bursts into flames and dies. Tanya hugs Clovis, her savior, as the other cats depart, leaving Mary's body lying ablaze on her former driveway.

Solange and Claire are two housemaids who construct elaborate sadomasochistic rituals when their mistress (Madame) is away. The focus of their role-playing is the murder of Madame and they take turns portraying both sides of the power divide. Their deliberate pace and devotion to detail guarantees that they always fail to actualize their fantasies by ceremoniously "killing" Madame at the ritual's dénouement.

Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford), and his wife Eileen (Helen Mirren) are living the American dream in a wealthy Pittsburgh suburb, having raised two children (Alessandro Nivola, Melissa Sagemiller) and built up a successful business from scratch. He is looking forward to a peaceful retirement with Eileen. Everything changes when Wayne is kidnapped in broad daylight by a former employee, Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe). While Wayne tries negotiating with the kidnapper, Eileen works with the FBI to try to secure her husband's release. During the investigation, Eileen learns that Wayne has continued an extramarital affair that he promised to end months previously.

Eileen is eventually instructed to deliver the ransom to the kidnapper, but Arnold takes the money without returning her husband; Arnold murdered Wayne the day of the kidnapping. Although Eileen's ordeal takes place over the course of a week, the film is edited to show Wayne's kidnapping as if it was happening at the same time.

Arnold is eventually caught when he begins to spend the ransom money in the neighborhood where he lives. At a local grocery store, he uses a $100 bill to make a purchase. The store manager calls authorities and verifies the serial number on the $100 bill is on a watch list the FBI distributed to local businesses. During questioning Arnold is asked if he wanted to be caught, and he admits that the kidnapping was to get money for his depressed wife, but it took him all day to bring himself to kill Wayne and he could not live with the guilt of his crime. In the end, Eileen receives a loving note written by Wayne before his death.

Lillian "Lil" Andrews (Jean Harlow) is a young woman, living in Ohio, who will do anything to improve herself. She seduces her wealthy boss William "Bill" Legendre Jr. (Chester Morris) and cleverly breaks up his marriage with his loving wife Irene (Leila Hyams). Irene reconsiders and tries to reconcile with Bill, only to find he has married Lil the previous day.

However, Lil finds herself shunned by high society, including Bill's father, Will Legendre, Sr. (Lewis Stone), because of her lower-class origins and homewrecking. When Charles B. Gaerste (Henry Stephenson), a nationally known coal tycoon and the main customer of the Legendres' company, visits the city, Lil thinks she has found a way to force her way into the highest social circles. She seduces Charles, then blackmails him into throwing a party at her mansion, knowing that no one would dare offend him by not showing up. It seems a social coup for Lil, until her hairdresser friend and confidante Sally (Una Merkel) points out that all the guests have left early to attend a surprise party for Irene (who lives across the street).

Humiliated, she decides to move to New York City, even if it means a temporary separation from her husband. Will Sr. finds Lil's handkerchief at Gaerste's place and correctly guesses what Lil has done. He shows his evidence to his son, who hires detectives to watch Lil. They find that she is conducting not one, but two affairs, with Charles and his handsome French chauffeur Albert (Charles Boyer). Bill shows Charles damning photographs.

When Lil learns that Charles has found out about her, she returns to Bill, only to find him with Irene. Furious, she shoots him, but he survives and refuses to have her charged with attempted murder. However, he does divorce her, and remarries Irene. Two years later, he sees her again, at a racetrack in Paris, in the company of an aged Frenchman. He discreetly hides Irene's binoculars. In the final scene, Lil and her elderly companion get into a limousine driven by Albert.

In 1913, Houston, eight-year-old Howard Hughes' mother gives him a bath and teaches him how to spell "quarantine", warning him about the recent cholera outbreak. Fourteen years later, in 1927, he begins to direct his film ''Hell's Angels'', and hires Noah Dietrich to manage the day-to-day operations of his business empire. After the release of ''The Jazz Singer'', the first partially talking film, Hughes becomes obsessed with shooting his film realistically, and decides to convert the movie to a sound film. Despite the film being a hit, Hughes remains unsatisfied with the end result and orders the film to be recut after its Hollywood premiere. He becomes romantically involved with actress Katharine Hepburn, who helps to ease the symptoms of his worsening obsessive–compulsive disorder.

In 1935, Hughes test flies the H-1 Racer, pushing it to a new speed record, despite having to crash-land into a beet field when the aircraft runs out of fuel. Three years later, he breaks the world record by flying around the world in four days. He subsequently purchases majority interest in Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA). Juan Trippe, company rival and chairman of Pan Am, gets his crony, Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, to introduce the Community Airline Bill, which would give Pan Am exclusivity on international air travel. Hepburn grows tired of Hughes' eccentricity and workaholism, and leaves him for fellow actor Spencer Tracy. Hughes quickly finds a new love interest with 15-year-old Faith Domergue, and later actress Ava Gardner. However, he still has feelings for Hepburn, and bribes a reporter to keep reports about her and the married Tracy out of the press.

In the mid-1940s, Hughes contracts two projects with the Army Air Forces, one for a spy aircraft, and another for a troop transport unit for use in World War II. In 1947, with the H-4 Hercules flying boat still in construction, Hughes finishes the XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft and takes it for a test flight. However, one of the engines fails midflight, and he crashes in Beverly Hills, miraculously surviving the crash. The army cancels its order for the H-4 Hercules, although Hughes still continues the development with his own money. Dietrich informs Hughes that he must choose between funding the airlines or his flying boat. Hughes orders Dietrich to mortgage the TWA assets so he can continue the development.

As his OCD worsens, Hughes becomes increasingly paranoid, planting microphones and tapping Gardner's phone lines to keep track of her, until she kicks him out of her house. The FBI searches his home for incriminating evidence of war profiteering, searching through his possessions. Brewster privately offers to drop the charges if Hughes sells TWA to Trippe, but Hughes refuses. Hughes' OCD symptoms become extreme, and he retreats into an isolated "germ-free zone" for three months. Trippe has Brewster summon him for a Senate investigation, certain that Hughes will not show up. Gardner visits him and personally grooms and dresses him in preparation for the hearing.

An invigorated Hughes defends himself against Brewster's charges and accuses the Senator of taking bribes from Trippe. Hughes concludes by announcing that he has committed to completing the H-4 aircraft, and that he will leave the country if he cannot get it to fly. Brewster's bill is promptly defeated. After successfully flying the aircraft, Hughes speaks with Dietrich and his engineer, Glenn Odekirk, about a new jetliner for TWA. However, he begins hallucinating men in germ-resistant suits, and has a panic attack. As Odekirk hides him in a restroom while Dietrich fetches a doctor, Hughes begins to have flashbacks of his childhood, his love for aviation and his ambition for success, compulsively repeating the phrase "the way of the future".

Cécile is a wealthy, free-spirited, idiosyncratic young woman. While she loves her playboy father Raymond dearly (and he loves her dearly), she is bored by suitors and the activities that interest them. While dancing to a singing of Bonjour Tristesse, she wonders if she will ever find happiness again after what happened a year ago when she was 17 that summer on the French Riviera. The rest of the film chronicles the events of that summer in flashback.

Cécile and Raymond are enjoying their vacation on the Riviera, the latter's latest mistress being Elsa, a flighty, superficial, vain woman. Cécile meets another vacationer, Philippe, a mysterious but attractive young law student, and the two quickly take a liking to one another. One evening, Raymond receives a letter from Anne, an older woman, a dress designer, and a friend of Raymond's late wife, who will be staying at the villa. Anne and Raymond become close, but Cécile finds that Anne threatens to reform the undisciplined way of life that she has shared with her father.

Despite his promises of fidelity to Anne, Raymond cannot give up his playboy life. Helped by Elsa, Raymond's young and flighty mistress, Cécile does her best to break up the relationship with Anne. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drives Anne to a tragic end.

Henry is a psychopathic drifter who murders scores of people – men, women, and children – as he travels throughout America. He migrates to Chicago, where he stops at a diner, eats dinner and later murders the elderly proprietors of a liquor store.

Otis, Henry's prison friend, picks up his sister Becky at O'Hare International Airport and brings her back to the apartment that he shares with Henry. Later that night, Becky asks Henry about the murder of his mother, the crime that landed him in prison. Henry tells her that he stabbed his mother because she abused and humiliated him as a child, often having sex in front of him (which contradicts his other statements, in which he claims to have shot her or have killed her with a bat). Becky reveals that her father raped her as a teenager. Henry discloses that he is disturbed by sexual violence against women and forms a seemingly protective bond with Becky. Later when Otis makes an incestuous pass at Becky, Henry violently threatens Otis, who promises not to do it again. Becky indicates a romantic interest in Henry.

The next day, Becky gets a job. That evening, Henry and Otis pick up two prostitutes whom Henry murders by breaking their necks. Otis is shocked and disturbed and confronts Henry about his murderous lifestyle. Henry invites him to adopt his philosophy of murder, trying to convince him of a relativistic nature of murder. Otis worries that the police might catch them, but Henry assures him that everything will work out. Back at their apartment, Henry explains his code of immorality: the world is "them or us." Otis seemingly accepts and drops the argument.

After Otis destroys his old TV out of frustration, Henry takes him to a fence to buy a new one. The rude man sarcastically ridicules them for having little money, and berates them for refusing to buy his black-market goods. Having found an excuse to indulge his murderous impulses, Henry stabs the fence repeatedly with a soldering iron nearby. When the man fights back, Otis grabs an electrical cord and chokes him. Henry then smashes a TV onto his head. At Henry's urging, Otis smiles as he plugs in the damaged TV, electrocuting the man. They then steal a high-end TV and a camcorder and return home undetected.

When Otis is punched by a teenage boy whom he had tried to sexually assault while selling him marijuana, he complains to Henry that he wants to murder the boy. Henry convinces Otis to abandon the grudge for fear of being caught if he were to harm the boy. Bolstered by the thrill of their previous homicide, the two embark on a killing spree. They set a trap for drivers on Lower Wacker Drive, faking a broken-down car then fatally shooting a man who pulls over to help. Henry advises Otis to employ a different ''modus operandi'' for each murder so that the police will not connect them to one perpetrator. He also explains the importance of being on the move; by the time that police realize that they are looking for a serial killer, he can be long gone. Henry says that he will have to leave Chicago soon. Later on, the pair watch a recording of a home invasion in which they had murdered a family of three. Otis begins to molest the mother's corpse until Henry objects.

Becky quits her job to return home to her daughter. Otis and Henry argue after their camera gets destroyed while Otis is filming female pedestrians from the window of Henry's car. Otis goes for a drink while Henry returns to the apartment. Becky tells Henry her plans, and they decide to go out for a steak dinner. Afterward, she tries to seduce him, but they are interrupted by Otis. Henry leaves to buy cigarettes and get some air. On his way back he encounters a woman walking her dog and is tempted to murder her, but abandons the idea. When he returns to the apartment, he finds Otis raping and strangling Becky. Henry fights Otis, but Otis gets the upper hand. As Otis prepares to kill Henry, Becky stabs him in the eye with her comb. While Becky is in shock, Henry grabs the comb and brutally murders Otis, then dismembers the body in the bathtub.

Henry and Becky dump Otis's body parts, contained within a large suitcase, into a river and leave town. Henry suggests that they go to his sister's ranch in San Bernardino, California, promising Becky that they will send for her daughter when they arrive. In the car, Becky confesses that she loves Henry. "I guess I love you too," Henry replies, seemingly annoyed. They book a motel room for the night. The next morning, Henry leaves the motel alone, gets into the car and drives away without Becky. He stops at the side of the road to dump Becky's blood-stained suitcase (implied to contain Becky’s dismembered body) in a ditch, then drives away.

Two young bears, Nikomi and Chinook, know nothing of Christmas until the local park ranger tells them about the legend, and they become curious to meet Santa Claus. Their mother, Nana, is preparing for Winter hibernation and cynically tells her children there is no Santa, but they are determined to believe. Mother finds it impossible to begin their sleep, since the young cubs wish to stay awake until Santa arrives.

Jack Breslin (Joseph Cortese) is a police officer investigating brutal murders in which organs have been removed from the victims. He learns that the crimes are being committed by a monstrous alien insectoid prisoner known as a xenomorph, possessing shape-shifting and physical possession abilities, who has escaped from an alien prison starship passing by the solar system, and he teams up with a beautiful medical officer from that ship, Ta'Ra (Maryam d'Abo), to track down the villain. Ta'Ra has assorted superhuman abilities, including telepathy and superhuman agility, which come in handy during the mission.

Reporter George Beckworth attends a Special Forces briefing about the reasons for American military involvement in the Vietnam War. When Beckworth doubts the value of U.S. intervention, Green Beret Colonel Mike Kirby asks him if he has ever been to Vietnam, which influences him to report on events there.

Meanwhile, Kirby is assigned to assist the South Vietnamese forces. As he prepares to depart, he catches Spc. Petersen appropriating supplies, but decides to utilise his skills on his team. Arriving in South Vietnam, they meet Beckworth, whom Kirby allows to accompany them to their camp. Despite signs of humanitarian work, he remains unconvinced of the need to be in Vietnam.

At the camp, they meet a young war-orphan, Ham Chuck, who Petersen befriends, and South Vietnamese officer Captain Nghiem, who claims there is an enemy spy network within the camp and his men.

Following an enemy attack, Sergeant Muldoon notices a South Vietnamese soldier acting suspiciously and knocks him out, allowing Nghiem to interrogate him. After Beckworth sees Nghiem torture a confession from the soldier, he confronts Kirby, who justifies the act by telling Beckworth that their enemies are ruthless killers who deserve no legal protections of any sort in this new kind of war.

A few days later, while accompanying Kirby and his team on a patrol in the nearby mountains, Beckworth finds that the family of a village chief he had befriended earlier have been tortured and executed by the Viet Cong for cooperating with the Americans.

The next night, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops launch a massive attack on the camp, and Beckworth is forced to fight alongside the Green Berets; he also helps move villagers into the camp to protect them from the crossfire.

Eventually, enemy sappers breach the perimeter by blowing openings in the barbed wire fences around the camp, and the Green Berets and South Vietnamese are forced to fall back to the inner perimeter. Nghiem sets off hidden explosives which kill the spies, but soon dies afterwards after being hit by a mortar.

Due to the intense attack, Kirby orders a retreat from the camp, and U.S. helicopters arrive to evacuate the refugees. Petersen puts Ham Chuck on one and promises to return for him in Da Nang. With the base in enemy hands, Kirby orders an airstrike which kills the occupying troops. With the enemy having taken major casualties, Kirby and his team re-occupy the destroyed camp.

Beckworth tells Kirby he will file a story supporting U.S. involvement in the war and returns to Da Nang. Back at headquarters, Kirby meets with his superior, Colonel Morgan, and his South Vietnamese counterpart, Colonel Cai. They tell him about a top secret mission to capture North Vietnamese General Pha Son Ti, allowing them to end the war on South Vietnamese terms, as well as disrupting enemy leadership. Colonel Cai uses his sister-in-law Lin, a fashion model, as a honey trap to lure General Ti to a former French colonial mansion in a well-guarded valley in North Vietnam.

Among those Cai selects (and accompanies) are Kirby, Muldoon, and Peterson. Muldoon, Doc McGee, and two of Cai's men stay behind at a bridge over a river to set explosives to blow it up to stop pursuit by the enemy forces, while Kirby and the rest of the team head towards the plantation. After eliminating the plantation's guards, the group subdue Ti with Lin's help, and put him in the trunk of his car. Kirby, Cai, Petersen, Watson, and Lin drive away, but the rest of the team is killed by the guards while attempting to escape.

At dawn, the survivors cross the bridge; it is destroyed, but McGee is seriously wounded as he and Muldoon escape, while the others airlift Ti out of the area by a Skyhook device. While Kirby and the team advance through the jungle to their extraction point, Petersen is killed by a booby-trap, and the others are forced to leave his body behind.

At Da Nang, Beckworth watches as Ham Chuck runs from helicopter to helicopter, desperately searching for Petersen. Eventually, Kirby tells him of Peterson's death and comforts him, before the two walk along the beach into the sunset.

The novel, a direct sequel to its predecessor, ''The Last Hero'' sees Templar and his organization taking revenge on an arms dealer named Rayt Marius, following the death of one of Templar's friends.

The book starts approximately three months after the events of ''The Last Hero''. Simon Templar and his associate, Roger Conway, have been spending much of that time chasing Marius and his superior, Prince Rudolf (Crown Prince of an unidentified country) across Europe. Templar suspects that Marius and Rudolf are planning to follow through with their scheme to spark a new World War (continuing from ''The Last Hero''), and in any event, Templar has sworn to kill whichever of the two men murdered his friend Norman Kent at the close of the previous adventure.

Although Templar had been forced to flee England at the end of the previous novel, he has since found himself back in Britain and again on the trail of Marius. While executing a scheme to root Marius out from hiding by infiltrating a bogus nursing home, Templar and Conway rescue who they initially think is an elderly man held prisoner by one of Marius's compatriots; Templar soon discovers that they've actually rescued the beautiful daughter of a millionaire upon whose safety relies world peace. The woman, Sonia Delmar, subsequently joins Templar's fight against Marius (who Templar learns is the man who killed Norman) and Prince Rudolf, even going so far as to allowing herself to be kidnapped by the villains.

Templar is said to be 29 years old in this tale.

In this book, Sonia Delmar becomes the romantic female lead, replacing Templar's girlfriend of the previous books, Patricia Holm, who is referenced only briefly in the story as being on a cruise in the Mediterranean (this same excuse was used by Charteris to remove the character from much of the action in ''Enter the Saint'' as well). This was the first book to indicate the "open" nature of Templar and Holm's relationship, although in this case Templar makes clear that his heart remains with Holm.

The final chapter of the book contains a somewhat metafictional reference in that Templar indicates his intent to give his notes regarding the Marius affair to "a writer friend" with the idea of his turning them into a novel—a reference to Leslie Charteris himself. (This same literary device has also been employed by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes books and Ian Fleming in his James Bond novel ''You Only Live Twice''.) And finally, perhaps in a nod to the developing continuity of the "series", Charteris brings Detective-Inspector Carn (MEET THE TIGER) back for a brief reunion with Templar at the climax.

A later Saint novel, ''Getaway'', completed the trilogy begun by ''The Last Hero'' and ''Knight Templar''. The ultimate fate of Rayt Marius would be revealed in the novella "The Simon Templar Foundation" in ''The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal''.

In his dreams, Randolph Carter sees a majestic city, but is unable to approach it. After the third time the city appears in his dreams, he prays to the gods of dream to reveal the city's whereabouts, but then the city vanishes from his dreams altogether. Undaunted, Carter resolves to beseech the gods in person at Kadath, the mountain above which the gods of dream live. In dream, Carter consults priests in a temple that borders the Dreamlands. They tell Carter that nobody knows the location of Kadath, and warn him of great danger should he continue with his quest to reach the city and suggest that the gods purposefully stopped his visions.

Carter's knowledge of Dreamlands customs and languages makes his quest comparatively less risky than if done by an amateur, but he must consult entities with a dangerous reputation. The Zoogs, a race of predatory rodents, direct him to Ulthar to find the priest Atal. In the cat-laden city of Ulthar, Atal mentions a huge mountainside carving of the gods' features. Carter realizes the gods' mortal descendants will share those features and presumably be near Kadath. While seeking passage there, Carter is kidnapped by turbaned slavers, who take him to the moon and deliver him to horrible moon-beasts, the servants of malevolent god Nyarlathotep. The cats of Ulthar, Carter's allies, rescue him and return him to a port city.

After a long journey, Carter finds the carving, recognizing the visage of the gods in traders who dock at Celephaïs. Before he can act on his knowledge, faceless, winged creatures called nightgaunts capture him and leave him to die in the underworld. Friendly ghouls, including Carter's friend Richard Pickman, assist him in returning to the surface by sneaking through the terrible city of the man-eating Gugs. After assisting the cats in repelling a Zoog sneak attack, Carter buys passage to Celephaïs and learns from the sailors that the traders come from Inganok, a cold and dark land devoid of cats.

Carter meets Celephaïs' king, his friend Kuranes, who became a permanent resident of the Dreamlands upon his death in the waking world. Longing for home, he has dreamed parts of his kingdom to resemble his native Cornwall. Kuranes knows the pitfalls of the Dreamlands well but fails to dissuade Carter from his quest. Under the pretense of wishing to work in its quarries, Carter boards a ship bound for Inganok. As they draw near, Carter spots a nameless island from which he hears strange howls. At a breathtaking summit near a quarry, Carter is captured by a merchant he had previously encountered. Monstrous birds fly them over the Plateau of Leng, a vast tableland populated by Pan-like horned humanoid beings.

Carter is brought to a monastery inhabited by the dreaded High Priest Not to Be Described. There, Carter learns that the Men of Leng are the slavers who captured him, and had worn turbans to conceal their horns. He also learns that the nightgaunts do not serve Nyarlathotep, as is commonly supposed but Nodens, and that even Earth's gods fear them. Carter recoils in horror as he realizes the masked high-priest's true identity. Carter flees through maze-like corridors, wandering through the monastery in pitch-black darkness until he chances on the exit.

After rescuing several ghouls from Men of Leng, Carter and ghoul reinforcements attack a moon-beast outpost on the nameless rock. In a nearby city, Carter obtains the services of a flock of nightgaunts to transport himself and the ghouls to the gods' castle on Kadath. After a long flight, Carter arrives at Kadath but finds it empty. A great procession led by a pharaoh-like man arrives. The pharaoh reveals himself as Nyarlathotep and tells Carter that the city of his dreams is the childhood memories of his home city of Boston. The gods of earth have seen the city of Carter's dreams and made it their home, abandoning Kadath and their responsibilities.

Impressed with Carter's resolve, Nyarlathotep grants Carter passage to the city to recall the gods of earth, but Carter realizes too late that the mocking Nyarlathotep has tricked him, and he is being taken to the court of Azathoth at the center of the universe. At first believing he is doomed, Carter suddenly remembers that he is in a dream and wakes. Nyarlathotep broods over his defeat within the halls of Kadath, mocking in anger the "mild gods of earth" whom he has snatched back from the sunset city.

The story begins in the year 1913, when a young man who is the narrator was travelling alone on a hiking trip through Provence, France, and into the Alps, enjoying the relatively unspoiled wilderness. He runs out of water in a treeless, desolate valley where only wild lavender grows and there is no trace of civilization except old, empty crumbling buildings. He finds only a dried-up well, but is saved by a middle-aged shepherd who takes him to a spring he knows of.

Curious about this man and why he has chosen such a lonely life, the narrator stays with him for a time. The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, after being widowed, decided to restore the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely abandoned valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest, by planting acorns. He makes holes in the ground with his straight iron staff and drops into them acorns that collected from miles away. He is also growing beech and birch saplings for planting.

The narrator leaves the shepherd, returns home, and later fights in the First World War. In 1920, shell-shocked and depressed after the war, the man returns. He is surprised to see young saplings of all forms taking root in the valley, and new streams running through it, where the shepherd has made dams higher up in the mountains. The narrator makes a full recovery in the peace and beauty of the regrowing valley, and continues to visit the region and M. Bouffier every year. He finds on one visit that Bouffier is no longer a shepherd, because of the sheep eating his young trees, and has become a bee keeper instead.

The valley receives official protection after the First World War, with the French authorities mistakenly believing that the rapid growth of the new forest is a bizarre natural phenomenon, as they are unaware of Bouffier's selfless deeds. Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant trees, and the valley is turned into a kind of Garden of Eden. By the end of the story, the valley is vibrant with life and is peacefully settled, with more than 10,000 people living there, not knowing they owe their happiness to Bouffier. The narrator tells one of his friends, a government forester, the truth about the new forest, and the friend also helps to protect it.

In 1945, the narrator visits the now very old Bouffier one last time. In 1947, in a hospice in Banon, the man who planted trees peacefully passes away.

The game begins in 2401 when the space marine, Sergeant Cortez, is leaving the space station that he destroyed at the end of ''TimeSplitters 2''. His ship crash-lands on the future Earth, and two fellow marines greet him. Sergeant Cortez follows his squad of marines through the valley and battles unknown masked figures and TimeSplitters. After arriving at HQ, Cortez is tasked with following signatures in the past that were created by time travel and thought to be caused by the TimeSplitters. He goes on a mission to go back in time to find a way to stop the TimeSplitters race from being created, with the help of Anya, The General's personal assistant.

Using his Temporal Uplink, a device connected to the Time Machine, both of which Anya has invented, Cortez travels to the small Scottish island of Urnsay in the year 1924. There, he meets a man named Captain Ash, who seeks Cortez's help. After raiding a castle with Captain Ash, Cortez confronts an unknown man with a high concentration of Time Crystals, who then escapes with his own time machine. Cortez then travels to 1969 to stop Khallos (whom Cortez thinks is the time traveler) with the help of hippie secret agent Harry Tipper, to rescue his girlfriend, Kitten Celeste. After defeating Khallos, Anya reveals to Cortez through the walkie-talkie on his Temporal Uplink that a mansion in Connecticut had burned down in the 1990s, leaving behind residue of Time Crystal energy.

In 1994, he is greeted by a teenager named Jo-Beth Casey, who was tasked with photographing the mansion's zombies by her friends. She tells Cortez that the house is haunted, and the two battle zombies and ghosts inside the abandoned mansion. After discovering that the creator of the TimeSplitters is a mad scientist named Dr. Jacob Crow, Cortez embarks on a new mission to foil the scientist's plans by destroying his labs throughout all of the time periods that Crow had visited. After an abrupt farewell to Casey, Cortez travels to 2052, where Crow has advanced his gene-splitting experiments. Cortez meets Amy Chen, a highly trained spy sent to defeat Crow as well. They both fight through his lab facility to find Crow, who escapes again.

Cortez travels to the year 2243, where machines now rule the planet, and have waged war on humans and each other. Cortez hacks into one of the machines, identified as R-110, and allies with him. He also teams up with a small group of cyborg rebels fighting against the machines to make his way to Crow's now-extremely large and powerful lab, filled with thousands of TimeSplitter embryos. Cortez manages to destroy what he can of the lab, but is not strong enough to defeat Crow, who himself has combined with the TimeSplitter race and a war machine. Anya sends Cortez and R-110 back to 1924 to stop Crow before he can further his lab experiments in the first place.

Now in 1924 again, he and R-110 make their way to Crow. Cortez finds Dr. Crow fused with a large bipedal robot. Crow destroys Cortez's ally R-110, leaving him and Cortez face to face. Knowing he can't defeat the scientist alone, Anya sends Cortez back in time a few minutes to when he first arrived in hopes of being able to double-team Crow with two Cortezes (and R-110, who was never destroyed as a result of the time loop).

After Crow is defeated, Cortez puts a raw crystal into a device that causes a chain reaction that destroys the entire compound. Anya warps Cortez and R-110 back to HQ, leaving Crow and the Time Crystals to be destroyed. Cortez, Anya, and The General approach the window and observe the barren desert land restored to its former form; a lush, green forest filled with life. However, the Temporal Uplink on Cortez's wrist, the large time machine in the room, and R-110 all disappear due to the time paradox.

The story introduces three Billy goats (male goats), sometimes identified as a youngster, father and grandfather, but more often described as brothers. In other adaptations, there is a baby or child goat, mama goat and papa goat. "Gruff" was used as their family name in the earliest English translation, by Dasent; the original Norwegian version used the name "Bruse".

In the story, there is almost no grass left for them to eat near where they live, so they must cross a river to get to "sæter" (a meadow) or hillside on the other side of a stream to eat and fatten themselves up. They must first cross a wooden bridge, under which lives a fearsome and hideous troll, who is so territorial that he eats anyone who tries to cross the bridge.

The smallest billy goat is the first to cross and is stopped abruptly by the troll who threatens to "gobble him up!" The little goat convinces the troll to wait for his big brother to come across, because he is larger and would make for a more gratifying feast. The greedy troll agrees and lets the smallest goat cross.

The medium-sized goat passes next. He is more cautious than his brother but is also stopped by the troll and given the same threat. The second billy goat is allowed to cross as well after he tells the troll to wait for his father because he is the largest of the three.

The largest billy goat gets on the bridge but is also stopped by the hungry troll who threatens to devour him. The largest billy goat challenges the troll and dares him to do so. Then the troll jumps up. The big billy goat gruff knocks him off the bridge with his horns. The troll falls into the stream and is carried away by the current and drowned. From then on the bridge is safe and all three goats are able to go to the rich fields around the summer farm in the hills. The three billy goats Gruff eat lots of grass and live happily ever after.

Miles Raymond is an unpublished writer, a wine aficionado, and a depressed, middle-aged English teacher living in San Diego. He takes Jack Cole, his soon-to-be-married actor friend and former college roommate, on a road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley wine country. Jack now does commercial voice-overs and plans to enter his future father-in-law's successful real estate business. Soon after the trip begins, Miles insists on stopping to see his mother in Oxnard, as it is the day before her birthday. He steals a thousand dollars from her room that night. The men sneak out the next morning to avoid the birthday gathering.

Miles wants to spend the week relaxing, playing golf, and enjoying good food and wine. However, much to Miles' consternation, Jack is on the prowl and wants one last sexual fling before settling into domestic life. In the wine country, the pair dine at The Hitching Post II. Jack says Maya, a waitress with whom Miles is casually acquainted, is interested in Miles; Miles thinks she is only being professionally friendly. Jack lies to Maya that Miles's manuscript has been accepted for publication, although it is only being considered. At a wine tasting the next day, Jack arranges a double date with a wine pourer named Stephanie, who is also acquainted with Maya.

During the date, Miles gets drunk and telephones Victoria, his ex-wife, after learning from Jack that she has remarried and will be bringing her new husband to Jack's wedding. The two couples go to Stephanie's home, where she and Jack adjourn to her bedroom for sex. Miles and Maya connect through their mutual interest in wine, and Miles kisses her awkwardly. As they are leaving separately, Miles gives her a copy of his manuscript, which Maya had earlier expressed interest in reading.

Jack claims to have fallen in love with Stephanie and tells Miles he wants to move to Santa Ynez Valley to be closer to her. After spending time with Jack and Stephanie at wineries and a picnic, Miles and Maya return to her apartment and have sex. The next day, Miles lets it slip that Jack is to be married. Disgusted with the men's dishonesty, Maya dumps Miles.

Jack and Miles go to a winery that Miles finds subpar. After hearing from his literary agent that his manuscript has been rejected, an upset Miles pesters the pourer for a "full pour" of wine. When the server refuses, Miles drinks from the spit bucket, creating a scene. Jack intervenes and drives Miles back to the motel. Upon arrival, they meet Stephanie, who breaks Jack's nose with her motorcycle helmet, screaming about being lied to. Miles takes Jack to the ER and leaves Maya an apologetic voice message, admitting that his book is not going to be published. That night, Jack hooks up with a waitress named Cammi, despite Miles's protests. Later, Jack returns to the motel naked, having been caught having sex with Cammi by her husband. Jack begs Miles to help him retrieve his wallet, which contains custom wedding rings. Miles sneaks into the house, where he discovers Cammi and her husband having sex. Miles grabs the wallet and runs, barely escaping the nude and irate husband.

Jack intentionally drives Miles's car into a tree so it looks as if he broke his nose in an accident. The pair return to the fiancée's home, where Jack is warmly received by the family.

Following the wedding ceremony, Miles runs into his ex-wife Victoria and meets her new husband. Victoria tells Miles that she is pregnant. Miles absconds before the reception, driving back to his San Diego apartment. Alone, he drinks his prized wine, a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc, from a disposable styrofoam soda cup at a fast-food restaurant. Miles returns to the routine of teaching school. One day he receives a voicemail from Maya, who says she enjoyed his manuscript and invites him to visit. Miles drives back to wine country and knocks on Maya's door.

Opening sequence

Kang and Kodos star in a fictional sitcom, entitled ''Keepin' it Kodos''. In it, Kodos is preparing their boss' visit by cooking dinner: Homer on a baking tray (continually eating himself), Bart on a skillet, Marge and Maggie in pies and Lisa in a soup. The boss gives the meal a delicious rating, but his stomach bursts ends up liberating Bart. Kang and Kodos are given a hyper-galactic promotion, much to the aliens' delight. Bart is sad about the loss of his parents and sisters, but Kang and Kodos decide to adopt him, which comforts Bart. The theme song from ''Perfect Strangers'' plays as the Treehouse of Horror logo appears on the screen; an alien tentacle stamps the "XV" underneath which makes it say the title of the episode in the fashion of the Mark VII Limited company logo.

The Ned Zone

In a parody of ''The Dead Zone'', Homer tries to get his frisbee from the roof by throwing a bowling ball after it. The ball strikes a passing Ned Flanders on the head. When Ned recovers in Dr. Hibbert's hospital, he has a vision of Hibbert falling out of a window to his death. Homer then asks Hibbert to retrieve his frisbee from a ledge on the hospital. As Hibbert reaches for the ledge, he slips out of the window, causing Ned's vision to come true. Ned realizes that he can see the deaths of people whom he touches. After he gets out of the hospital, he attempts to save Hans Moleman from falling down but has a vision of him being eaten by alligators. In shock, he drops Moleman into an open manhole with dozens of alligators swimming in it. He also predicts the closing of the Rosie O'Donnell musical, which he already suspected.

A later vision depicts him shooting Homer, which horrifies Ned and he tries to conceal this from Homer. When Homer finds out, he taunts Ned and even gives him Chief Wiggum's gun to shoot him with, and says he could not even shoot him by accident. Ned refrains from shooting Homer, seemingly changing the future, but then has another vision of Homer blowing up Springfield by pressing the "Core Destruct" button at the nuclear power plant. Ned tries to dissuade Homer from going to work, but Homer goes anyway because of ice cream cake for Lenny's birthday. Ned rushes to the power plant to stop Homer, and Marge follows him to force her husband to clean the garage. Unfortunately, Ned's warning is scrambled by static over the intercom, sounding as if he is encouraging Homer to press the button. In desperation, Ned grabs a nearby security guard's gun to shoot Homer, fulfilling the original prediction, but in his death throes, Homer presses the destruct button with his tongue, much to Ned's fury before the power plant explodes and Springfield is destroyed. Ned, the Simpsons, and their still uncleaned garage go to Heaven as angels and meet God (again), who proceeds to give Homer "what he deserves" – his frisbee.

Four Beheadings and a Funeral

In a parody of ''From Hell'', taking place in 1890, London's prostitutes are being killed with swords in a series of unsolved murders by "''The Muttonchop Murderer''". Scotland Yard's Inspector Wiggum challenges master detective Eliza Simpson and her easily amazed, goofy assistant Dr. Bartley to solve the crime. Their first piece of evidence is a bloody sword found by a "''proper-Cockney flower girl''", Marge. Simpson takes the sword to an oddities merchant (Comic Book Guy), who recognizes the sword as part of a set he had sold, called The Seven Swords of Osiris. He goes to check his dusty record books to see who he sold the swords to, but murdered by the killer. Looking at the ledger, Simpson and Bartley discover the swords were sold to C. Ebenezer Burns, an industrialist who "''makes coal out of babies''". Bartley knows where to find Burns and tracks him down at Mao's Den of Inequity, an opium den. Burns instantly recognizes the sword, and tells Simpson that he sold them for opium to a "''fat man with sideburns''", and notices a man nearby who resembles the description, Homer. Simpson and Bartley chase him down and Homer gets caught by Wiggum, who happens to be at the opium den as well, to help his son Ralph go to sleep.

Simpson and Bartley congratulate themselves for solving the crime, until they find another body, Selma, stabbed by another Sword of Osiris. Bartley first dismisses the body as having been killed days prior, pointing out the body as bloated and the face rotten, though Selma is alive long enough to say it was just "''5 minutes ago''". Simpson takes the sword and recognizes a certain scent on the sword handle. The next day, just before Homer is hanged for the murders, Simpson arrives, declaring Homer innocent due to the smell of eel pie on the handle, which Wiggum loves to eat. Officer Lou then reveals that Wiggum has muttonchops as well, exposing him as the killer. He starts to explain that he just wanted to come up with a case that Simpson herself could not solve, but then flees in a hot-air balloon stolen from Professor Frink, but it gets pierced by a steampunk-style flying saucer flown by Kang and Kodos, who consider Earth's air fleet as destroyed. It is then shown that the whole story was an opium-caused dream by Ralph, which Wiggum reveals is part of an even crazier and fantastical dream that both of them are in.

In the Belly of the Boss

In a parody of ''Fantastic Voyage'', at the "Invention Expo", Professor Frink creates a machine that shrinks objects. Maggie crawls inside a giant pill, thinking that it is a ball pit, which is miniaturized and swallowed by Mr. Burns. When the rest of the family realizes what has happened, they agree to be shrunk within a craft and injected into Burns' body. Homer is the craft's captain, Lisa is in charge of science and research, Bart is in charge of security, and Marge is in charge of helping the deeps of the science. When Homer refuses to follow Frink's instructions, the ship gets stuck in Burns' heart. The crew manage to get the ship free from the outside and are able to reach the stomach by catching a ride on a nerve impulse, which Lisa calls "the body's information superhighway". They manage to save Maggie, but Homer is forced to leave the ship and save the rest on his own when their craft does not have enough power to save them all due to the addition of Maggie's extra weight. Homer becomes initially despondent at his family is forced to leave him behind, but finds consolation in finding a marshmallow in Burns' stomach. The submarine successfully escapes, but there is not enough time to save Homer, who instantly returns to his original size inside Burns' skin, putting them both in extra pain. Even though Homer complains that Burns needs several extra holes, Burns is confident that things will work out. The episode ends with Burns and Homer leading a dance to the tune of "I've Got You Under My Skin" (along with the characters from all three segments and the opening sequence). The ''Perfect Strangers'' theme is then played again over the end credits featuring still images from the episode.

After having left their own world due to a loss of natural resources, the winged humanoid Nohrin settle on Jhamora with the permission of the ground-dwelling Lokni. Would-be conqueror Sedessa leads those Nohrin that believe in its own racial superiority and try to take land away from the Lokni. The parents of Delgo, a Lokni, are killed in the resulting conflict. Nohrin King Zahn is horrified by the war and admonishes Sedessa, who then poisons the Queen and almost kills Zahn (who catches her) as well. She is subsequently banished, and her wings are clipped off. Delgo, meanwhile, is raised by Elder Marley, who tries to teach him how to use the power of magical stones. Delgo grows up and he gives in to his desire for revenge against all Nohrin. He meets Nohrin Princess Kyla and develops a tentative friendship with her. When she is kidnapped by Nohrin General Raius, who is actually working for Sedessa, Delgo and his friend Filo are blamed and arrested. In the Nohrin prison, Delgo meets Nohrin General Bogardus, who was forced to illegally gamble with his weapons by Raius, because Bogardus opposed an all out war with the Lokni. Delgo, Filo, and Bogardus escape into some caverns and eventually reach Sedessa's stronghold and rescue Kyla. They return too late to avert a war taking place. Bogardus fights and defeats Raius, but he is mortally injured.

Just as Bogardus dies from heavy wounds, Delgo realizes that he was the Nohrin soldier who spared his life many years ago during the first war between the Nohrin and the Lokni. Meanwhile, Sedessa's army of monsters join in the battle. Kyla convinces the Nohrin generals to direct their troops to stop fighting the Lokni and instead pick them up and fly them away from the battlefield. Filo then directs an entire stampede of large animals onto the battlefield, sending Sedessa's minions fleeing for their lives. Delgo goes off to face Sedessa and find King Zahn, whom she has taken prisoner. He finally manages to master the stone magic, and defeats Sedessa. He also puts the past behind him by saving her rather than letting her fall to her death. However, Sedessa then attacks Kyla, who has come to Delgo's aid. The two struggle and Sedessa finally falls, injuring herself by the fall and her artificial wings being of no use. Later, during the celebrations, it turns out Raius was not dead, and he makes one last attempt to kill Delgo. He is subdued by a Nohrin, but not before he throws his spear at Delgo. Then, out of nowhere, the spear breaks in mid-air. Everyone turns to look at Filo, who has finally mastered his slingshot. Later, Delgo and Kyla's friendship blossoms into romance when they finally kiss.

A popular version of the story was translated by William Elliot Griffis. The story starts with Jiraiya's father who was a castle lord being killed during one of many civil wars. After he is killed young Jiraiya is hidden by a retainer and is able to escape, but they are attacked by a band of robbers, and the retainer is killed after resisting. Jiraiya goes to a place called Echigo where he spent the rest of his childhood. Jiraiya now led a wandering life in several provinces but wished to restore his family name. Since he was talented at swordsmanship and was exceptionally brave Jiraiya soon become a chief of his own band of robbers, where he would sneak in disguise to the places he robbed to learn where the treasure was stored. He would then come back and rob them later.

One day Jiraiya heard of an old man who lived in Shinano and he started off to rob him. The land was a place full of mountains and was full of snow in the winter. During the journey, he was beset by a great snowstorm and he took refuge in a small house that he happened upon, inside was a beautiful woman who treated him with great kindness. This did not change Jiraiya's nature as a robber though and after midnight he went to kill her with his sword while she was reading. However, in a flash, her body changed to a very old man who grabbed the heavy steel blade and easily broke it into pieces. He then announces his name as Senso Dojin, and that he is a giant frog that has lived on the mountain for hundreds of years. He pardons Jiraiya after telling him he could kill him easily and then teaches him magic arts. Jiraiya stayed with Senso Dojin for several weeks learning the magic arts of the mountain sprites in order to control the weather as well as to control frogs and change their shape and size at will. After Senso teaches him he forbids him from robbing or injuring the poor and helpless and to instead take from those who use and acquire money dishonestly and to help the needy and suffering. He then turns into a giant frog and hops away.

After this Jiraiya sets out on his journey to help the poor and needy by helping a poor farmer whose crops failed and he could not pay his rent or loan on time. As well whenever a miser was robbed they would say that the young thunder had struck, as Jiraiya was very popular with the poor people of the time.

During this time when Jiraiya was helping the poor and needy, a young maiden named Tsunade also lived in the same province of Kiushiu. She was a model daughter and was always obedient and kind. One day during her trip into the mountains for firewood she met a very old man who approached her and told her he had lived in the mountains for hundreds of years and that his body was really that of a snail. He then offers to teach Tsundae the powers of magic he possesses. She gladly accepted and began training daily with the old man. Once she had mastered the magic, she was advised to use her powers to defend the poor and destroy wicked robbers, and to join her powers with Jiraiya in the form of marriage. The old man then turns into a snail and crawls away. Tsunade then remarks that she and Jiraiya with the combination of slug magic and frog magic would be able to destroy a robber named Orochimaru, who was the son of a serpent. Tsunade and Jiraiya eventually met and were married soon after.

Soon after Jiraiya and Tsunade were married war broke out in Japan between the Tsukikage and the Inukage. In the war, the Tsukikage sought out the help of Jiraiya and Tsunade who agreed to help them with the war, while the other clan the Inukage sought the help of Orochimaru otherwise known as Dragon-coil. Orochimaru was known as a very wicked robber whose father was a man and mother was a serpent that lived at the bottom of lake Takura, he was skilled in the magic of the serpent and would spew venom on the strongest of warriors to destroy them.

During a respite between the conflicts, Jiraiya and Tsunade were resting in a monastery. In the monastery, there was also a princess named Tagoto that had fled from Orochimaru as he wanted her to be his bride. She hated Orochimaru and did not want to marry him, however, when Orochimaru upon hearing that Tagoto and Jiraiya were in the same monastery, immediately made his way to the monastery. He then kidnapped the princess Tagoto and poured poisonous venom onto the sleeping Jiraiya and Tsunade. After they are poisoned one of Jiraiya's pages, Rikimatsu, volunteers to go to India to retrieve the only antidote to cure Jiraiya and Tsunade. Rikimatsu then uses the magic he learned from the Tengus of the mountains he flies to India and back in one day and one night to deliver the antidote. After Jiraiya and his wife recovered the war broke out again, and in a great battle Orochimaru was killed and Tagoto was rescued. Jiraiya was rewarded by being made a daimyo of Idzu.

At this point, Jiraiya had grown tired of war and the hardships that an active life brought, and he was glad to settle down to a peaceful life in Idzu. He spent the remainder of his day in peace and tranquility among his children and his grandchildren.

A series of murders has begun to plague the town of French Landing, Wisconsin. The murderer is dubbed "The Fisherman", due to a conscious effort by the killer to emulate the methods of serial killer Albert Fish. Like Fish, French Landing's killer targets children and indulges in cannibalism of the bodies. Two victims have already been discovered as the story opens, with a third awaiting discovery. The nature of the crimes, and the local police's inability to capture the killer, have led people all over the region to become more anxious with each passing day, and certain elements of the local media exacerbate the situation with inflammatory and provocative coverage.

After the events of ''The Talisman'', Jack Sawyer has repressed the memories of his adventures in The Territories and his hunt for the Talisman as a twelve-year-old boy, though the residue of these events has served to subtly affect his life even after he has forgotten them. Jack grew up to become a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department, where his professionalism and uncanny talent have helped him establish a nearly legendary reputation. When a series of murders in Los Angeles are traced to a farm insurance salesman from French Landing, Wisconsin, Jack cooperates with the French Landing police to capture the killer. While in Wisconsin, Jack is irresistibly enraptured by the natural beauty of the Coulee Country, echoing his reaction to The Territories as a child. When he later intrudes upon a homicide investigation in Santa Monica, certain aspects of the crime scene threaten to revive his repressed memories. He subsequently resigns from the LAPD, and he moves to French Landing to enjoy his early retirement.

When the Fisherman begins to terrorize French Landing, the police all but beg "Hollywood" Jack Sawyer for his assistance and are surprised when he flatly refuses. Memories of the Santa Monica event threaten to overwhelm Jack, and he fears that involving himself in the investigation may break his sanity. When a fourth child is taken by the Fisherman, events no longer allow Jack to remain aloof. It quickly becomes apparent to him that the Fisherman is much more than a serial killer. In fact, he is an agent of the Crimson King, and his task is to find children with the potential to serve as Breakers. The fourth victim, Tyler Marshall, is one of the most powerful Breakers there has ever been, and he may be all the Crimson King needs to break the remaining beams of the Dark Tower and bring an end to all worlds. As the Fisherman also proves capable of "flipping" into The Territories, Jack Sawyer is the only hope of not just French Landing, but all existence.

Act one

As the play opens, The Mother speaks with her son, The Groom. Act I reveals that The Groom's father was killed a few years ago by men from the Felix family. When The Groom asks for a knife to cut olives in the vineyard, The Mother reacts cautiously. Before giving The Groom the knife, she discusses the cycles of violence and her trepidation. The Groom leaves after hugging his mother goodbye.

The Neighbor arrives to chat with The Mother, and reveals to her that The Bride was previously involved with a man named Leonardo Felix, a relative of the men who killed The Mother's husband. The Mother, who still hates the Felix family, is furious, but decides to visit the girl before bringing the matter up with The Groom.

Leonardo, who is now married, returns to his home after work. When he enters, The Mother-In-Law and Wife are singing a lullaby to Leonardo's son. The lullaby's lyrics foreshadow the tragedies that will occur later in the play. It is clear that Leonardo's marriage is not a happy one. A Little Girl enters the house and tells the family that The Groom is preparing to marry The Bride. Leonardo flies into a rage, scaring his Wife, Mother-In-Law, and A Little Girl as he storms out of the house.

The Mother goes to The Bride's house, along with The Groom, where she meets the Bride's Servant and the Father of The Bride. The Father tells The Mother about his dead wife and his desire to see his daughter marry and bear children. The Bride enters and speaks with The Mother and The Groom. The Father then shows them out, leaving The Servant with The Bride. The Servant teases The Bride about the gifts that The Groom brought, then reveals to her that Leonardo has been coming to the house at night to watch The Bride's window.

Act two

The morning of the wedding, Leonardo comes to see The Bride again. He speaks of his burning desire for her and the pride that kept him from marrying her before. The Bride, disturbed by his presence, attempts to silence him, but cannot deny that she still has feelings for him. The Servant sends Leonardo away, and the guests begin arriving for the wedding. The Father, The Mother, and The Groom arrive, and the wedding party moves to the church. The Bride begs The Groom to keep her safe. Leonardo and his Wife go as well, after a short and furious argument.

After the wedding, the guests, the families, and the newlywed couple return to the Bride's house. The party progresses, with music and dancing, but the Bride retires to her room, claiming that she feels tired. Leonardo's Wife tells the Groom that her husband left on horseback, but the Groom brushes her off, saying that Leonardo simply went for a quick ride. The Groom returns to the main room and speaks with his Mother. The guests then begin searching for the Bride and Groom, hoping to begin a traditional wedding dance. But the Bride is nowhere to be found. The Father orders the house searched, but Leonardo's Wife bursts into the room and announces that her husband and the Bride have run off together. The Father refuses to believe it, but the Groom flies into a rage and rides off with a friend to kill Leonardo. The Mother, frenzied and furious, orders the entire wedding party out into the night to search for the runaways, as the Father collapses in grief.

Act three

Out in the forest (to which Leonardo and The Bride have fled), three woodcutters emerge to discuss the events (in a manner somewhat similar to that of a Greek chorus, except that they speak to each other, not to the audience). They reveal that the searchers have infiltrated the entire forest, and that Leonardo, who is, after all, carrying a woman, will be caught soon if the moon comes out. As they flee the stage, The Moon appears in the form of a young woodcutter with a white face. He states that by the end of the night, blood will be spilt. Death, disguised as an old beggar woman, enters and speaks of the finiteness of life and how the night will end in death. She orders The Moon to provide much light before exiting.

Up in fury, the Groom enters along with a Youth from the wedding party. The Youth is disturbed by the dark forest and urges the Groom to turn back, but the Groom refuses, vowing to kill Leonardo and reclaim his Bride. Death, disguised, re-enters, telling the Groom that she has seen Leonardo and can lead the Groom to him. The Groom exits with her.

Elsewhere, in the forest specifically, The Woodcutters are fervently chopping wood, praying that the lovers will be spared before exiting. Leonardo and The Bride run on and discuss their future together. Both are filled with romantic angst and consumed by their burning, unsustainable love for each other, as passion like no other is shared between the two of them. The Bride begs Leonardo to flee, but he refuses. The couple hear footsteps; the Groom and Death are coming near. Leonardo exits, and two screams ring out in the darkness. The Moon and Beggar woman reappear at the end of the scene. Leonardo and the Groom have killed each other.

In the town, the women (including Leonardo's wife and mother-in-Law) have gathered near the church to whisper of the events. Death arrives in the disguise of the beggar woman and, before departing, announces that doom has visited the forest. The Mother enters the church, full of anger and black bitterness, only to see The Bride returning—her dress covered in the blood of her lovers who killed each other in the forest. Presumably, (although this is never explicitly stated, and it happens after the play's end) The Bride is afterwards killed as a sacrifice to restore the family's honour. Still, in some incarnations of the play, it is suggested that The Mother allows The Bride to live based on the idea that living with the pain of her lovers' deaths is a more severe punishment than death.

• '''''Act 1, scene 1:''''' Yerma has been married two years. She wants to strengthen her husband, Juan, so he can give her children. Telling Yerma to stay at home, Juan goes back to his work in the olive groves, and Yerma talks and sings to the child she wishes she were carrying. María, married five months and already pregnant, asks Yerma to sew for the baby. Yerma fears that if she, too, doesn't conceive soon, her blood will turn to poison. The couple's friend, Víctor, sees Yerma sewing and assumes she is pregnant. His advice when he learns the truth: Try harder. '''''Act 1, scene 2:''''' Yerma has just taken Juan his dinner in the fields. On the road home, she encounters an old woman who insists that passion is the key to conception. Yerma admits a secret longing for Víctor but none for Juan. She then meets two girls whose attitudes astonish her. One has left her baby untended. The other is childless and glad of it, although her mother, Dolores, is giving her herbs for pregnancy. Next Víctor comes along, and the conversation between Víctor and Yerma becomes tense with unspoken thoughts and desires. Juan enters, worrying about what people will say if Yerma stays out chatting. He tells her he intends to work all night. Yerma will sleep alone. '''''Act 2, scene 1:''''' It is three years later. Five laundresses gossip about a woman who still has no children, who has been looking at another man, and whose husband has brought in his sisters to keep an eye on her. We know they mean Yerma. The laundresses sing about husbands, lovemaking, and babies. *'''''Act 2, scene 2:''''' Juan's two sisters watch over Yerma. She refuses to stay at home, and people are talking. Without children in it, her house seems like a prison to her. Her marriage has turned bitter. María visits, but reluctantly since the sight of her baby always makes Yerma weep. The childless girl says her mother, Dolores, is expecting Yerma. Víctor comes in to say goodbye. Yerma is surprised and a little saddened by Víctor's announcement to go. When she asks him why he must go he answers along the lines of “things change.” Juan enters and it is later found out that Juan has bought Víctor's sheep. It would seem that Juan is one of the reasons why Víctor is leaving. Yerma is angered, and when Juan goes out with Víctor, Yerma makes her escape to see Dolores.

*'''''Act 3, scene 1:''''' Yerma is found at Dolores's house. Dolores and the old woman have been praying over Yerma all night in the cemetery. Juan accuses Yerma of deceit, and she curses her blood, her body, and her father "who gave me his blood, enough for a hundred children."

*'''''Act 3, scene 2:''''' The scene begins near a hermitage high in the mountains, a place to which many barren women, including Yerma, have made a pilgrimage. Young men are there, hoping to father a child or to win a woman away from her husband. The old woman tells Yerma to leave Juan and take up with her son, who is "made of blood," but Yerma holds to her sense of honor and dismisses that thought. Juan overhears and tells Yerma to give up wanting a child, to be content with what she has. Realizing that Juan never did and never will want a child, Yerma strangles him, thus killing her only hope of ever bearing a child. The play ends with Yerma saying, "Don’t come near me, because I’ve killed my child. I’ve killed my child with my own hands!"

In the winter of 1943–44, U.S. Army Brigadier General George Carnaby, a chief planner for the Western Front, is captured by the Germans. He is taken for interrogation to ''Schloß Adler'', a mountaintop fortress accessible only by cable car. A team of seven Allied Special Operations Executive commandos, led by British Major John Smith of the Grenadier Guards and U.S. Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer, is briefed by Colonel Turner and Vice Admiral Rolland of MI6. Disguised as ''Wehrmacht'' mountain troops, they are to parachute into the German Alps, enter the castle, and rescue Carnaby before the Germans can interrogate him. After their transport plane drops them off, Smith secretly meets with agent Mary Ellison, with whom he is in a relationship, and his contact Heidi Schmidt. Heidi has arranged for Mary, posing as her cousin Maria, to work temporarily at the castle so the commandos can gain access.

Although two of the team are mysteriously killed, Smith continues the operation, keeping Schaffer as a close ally and secretly updating Rolland and Turner by radio. He reveals that Carnaby is actually an American corporal named Cartwright Jones, an ex-actor and lookalike of Carnaby trained to impersonate him. The Germans, tipped off to the operation, eventually surround the commandos in a ''gasthaus'' and force them to surrender. The officers, Smith and Schaffer, are separated from the rest of the team, Thomas, Berkeley, and Christiansen. Smith and Schaffer kill their captors, blow up a supply depot, and prepare an escape route. They reach the castle by riding on the roof of a cable car and climb inside using a rope lowered by Mary.

German General der Gebirgstruppe Rosemeyer and SS-Standartenführer Kramer are interrogating Carnaby when the three operative/prisoners, who claim to be double agents working for the Germans, arrive. Shortly thereafter, Smith and Schaffer intrude, weapons drawn, but Smith forces Schaffer to drop his weapon. He identifies himself as SS-Sturmbannführer Johann Schmidt of the SD, the SS intelligence branch and shows Kramer the name of Germany's top agent in Britain. Kramer silently affirms it and calls a high-ranking officer on Kesselring's staff who confirms that Smith is indeed Schmidt. To ensure the three agents are who they say they are, Schmidt proposes that they write down the names of their fellow agents in Britain, to be compared to the list he has in his pocket. After the three finish their lists, Schmidt reveals that he was bluffing; he is in fact a double agent for the Allies and that obtaining the list of agents was the mission's true objective.

Mary is visited by SS-Sturmbannführer von Happen, a highly decorated Waffen-SS officer who is convalescing whilst on secondment to the SD and the Gestapo in Southern Bavaria. He is attracted to her but becomes suspicious of flaws in her cover story, and stumbles upon Carnaby's interrogation just as Smith finishes his explanation. Smith keeps him occupied long enough for Mary to arrive and distract him. Schaffer seizes the opportunity to kill von Hapen and the other German officers with his silenced pistol. The group then makes their escape with Jones and the German agents. Schaffer sets a series of explosives to create diversions around the castle while Smith leads the group to the radio room, where he informs Rolland of their success and asks for a transport plane home. During the escape, Thomas is sacrificed as a decoy, and Berkeley and Christiansen both attempt to escape before Smith kills them. The team reunites with Heidi on the ground, boarding an army bus they had prepared earlier. They battle their way onto a nearby airfield and take off in their transport plane, where Turner welcomes them.

As Turner debriefs Smith about the mission, Smith reveals that Kramer named Turner as Germany's top agent in Britain. Rolland lured Turner and the others into participating in the fake mission so that MI6 could expose them; Smith's trusted partner Mary and the American Schaffer, who had no connection to MI6, had been assigned to the mission to ensure its success. Turner aims a Sten gun at Smith, who reveals that Rolland had the gun's firing pin removed earlier. He permits Turner to jump out of the plane to his death to avoid being tried for treason and executed. An exhausted Schaffer asks Smith to keep his next mission "an all-British operation".

Veteran Rhode Island state trooper Charlie Baileygates has been taken advantage of by those around him, including his wife Layla. Almost immediately after their wedding, she begins to cheat on Charlie with their wedding limo chauffeur, a dwarf black man named Shonté with a genius-level IQ.

Despite his friends warning him of Layla's infidelity, Charlie denies it, even after she gives birth to biracial triplets, who also appear to be geniuses. A few years later, Layla leaves with Shonté, abandoning her children. Charlie raises the triplets: Jamal, Lee Harvey, and Shonté Jr. as his own children. While the boys love and respect Charlie, the rest of the town continually abuses him. After years of such treatment, he develops a split personality named Hank Evans to deal with confrontations Charlie avoids.

Emerging whenever Charlie is under extreme stress, Hank is an over-the-top, rude, and violent persona reminiscent of characters played by Clint Eastwood. A psychiatrist prescribes medication to keep Hank suppressed.

Believing Charlie needs a vacation, his commanding officer orders him to escort beautiful Irene Waters from Rhode Island to Massena, New York where she reportedly committed a hit-and-run. Irene insists her mob-connected ex-boyfriend Dickie fabricated the accusation to keep her from revealing his illegal activities to the authorities.

In Massena, Charlie turns over Irene to two EPA agents. A hitman with a contract on Irene kills one of the agents. She and Charlie flee, hastily leaving his medication behind, causing Hank to emerge frequently. Charlie is unjustly blamed for the murder. FBI agents begin pursuing him and Irene, as do two crooked police officers on Dickie's payroll, Boshane and Gerke. The chase becomes a media spectacle, alerting Charlie's sons to his predicament.

Charlie and Irene return to Rhode Island, bonding along the way. Though Irene is taken by Charlie's personality, Hank worries her, as his aggressive personality and overestimation of his own toughness often gets them into trouble. Along the way they pick up "Whitey", an albino waiter who claims to have killed his entire family. While stopping at a motel, Hank convinces Irene to have sex with him by impersonating Charlie. When Charlie realizes what happened the next morning, he is incensed and begins fighting with Hank. They are almost ambushed by Boshane and Gerke, but Charlie's sons, having found them, steal a police helicopter and call in a false report, stating Charlie and Irene have been apprehended in the woods nearby.

Charlie and Irene leave Whitey at the motel and board a train to Rhode Island. Dickie boards the same train, having been ordered by his police allies to "get his hands dirty". He kidnaps Irene, and Charlie chases him, working together with Hank to save her. Hank balks when Dickie heads onto a bridge, but Charlie finally faces his fears, thus permanently nullifying Hank. As Charlie tries to disarm Dickie, Dickie shoots off his thumb. Whitey then throws a lawn dart at Dickie, hitting him from behind and killing him.

Charlie and Irene fall from the bridge into the river below, where his sons arrive to rescue them. Regrouping with Whitey, Charlie apologizes for making him kill again, but Whitey reveals he made up his backstory, fearing Hank. The police arrive, quickly learning of Irene's plight. Gerke and Boshane are arrested, Charlie is praised for bringing them to justice, and Irene is cleared of the charges against her.

Irene prepares to leave Rhode Island when the police pull her over, but this is only a diversion so Charlie can propose, which she happily accepts. In a post-credits scene, everyone looks for Charlie's thumb in the river. Whitey finds it, but a fish eats it.

In 1899 Owen Brown, who has spent roughly the past 30 years living in isolation, receives a visit from Miss Mayo, a young woman assisting in the research on a book on his father, John Brown. While Owen initially chases her off he changes his mind and decides to write her a series of letters about his experiences fighting for the abolition of slavery with his father.

Brown recounts his early life growing up under his father's guidance, a time which is marked by hardship and loss. Owen loses his mother at an early age. Despite the fact that his father is extremely devout he chooses atheism, much to his father's displeasure. At a young age, while defying his father's demand that the children reflect on Sunday, Brown falls from the roof of the family home and breaks his arm, wounding himself and developing a permanent disability as a result. When he is a teenager his father loses everything he owns, condemning the family to a life of instability and poverty. A few years later when the youngest child among them, Kitty, is about a year old, she dies from severe burns caused by water spilled by Ruth, Owen's teenage sister. When he is 24, shortly before the family moves to North Elba, Owen solicits a prostitute the same evening as his baby sister, Ellen, dies. His father is beside himself and Owen believes that both the death and his father's grief are caused by his sin. He repents and becomes fully devoted to his father and his causes.

The family moves to North Elba where John Brown has been given the opportunity to purchase prime farming land for a low price in exchange for helping to acclimate the families of Timbuctoo, mostly free black city folk, to a life of farming. To his shame Owen once again craves a life independent of his father and struggles to feel at home around black people feeling through his acquaintanceship with them a deep guilt over the legacy of slavery. Pressured to stay he begins to help his father with surveying work and additionally developing their homestead as a way station on the underground railroad accompanied by two black residents of Timbuctoo: Lyman Epps and Eldon Fleete. While most of the Brown's white neighbours are passively anti-slavery their minds change after Brown helps to free Samuel and Susan Cannon, a young couple who allegedly murdered their white owner. Epps and Fleete are eventually arrested on suspicion of having aided the Cannons and John Brown along with Owen and his two elder brothers forcibly rescue them from prison. In the ensuing battle Fleete is shot and killed while two white men, a bounty hunter and a jailer, are injured by the Browns. John Brown later learns the Cannons never made it to Canada. Dejected by this news and Fleete's death he decides to take Owen on a business trip to England.

The English trip is disastrous as John Brown is forced to sell his wool at a low price thanks to an unfortunate error. Now that he is further financially ruined Owen urges his father to forget about business to focus on his true life's work: ending slavery. Returning home Owen and his father learn that a new law, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 has been passed. The act has the effect of radicalizing John Brown even further. In Springfield, Massachusetts, his former home and the base of his failed business, he preaches at a black church urging parishioners to chooses to form a militia to defend themselves and vowing to join them. A small group of around 30 or so take a pledge with the Browns to use violence to protect themselves and the community from slave catchers. However, before the plan can be put to action, John Brown orders Owen to return to North Elba.

Returning to the farm Owen finds himself deeply uncomfortable around both Lyman and Susan Epps. After Susan has a stillbirth, Lyman and she stop working for the Browns and return to Timbuctoo. Owen finds himself obsessing over Susan and stalks the Epps cabin. He first believes he is in love with Susan though later he begins to believe he is actually in love with Lyman. After John Brown returns to the farm Owen and Lyman resume their friendship. After Owen fails to confess his love to Lyman, Lyman dies in a hunting accident that Owen believes he could have prevented, blaming himself for Lyman's death.

Shortly after Owen is tasked with his father with retrieving his brother Fred from Springfield and returning to North Elba. While he is there Fred reveals he has violent sexual thoughts regarding women. When Owen dismisses Fred's concerns Fred castrates himself. Owen then decides to defy his father and takes Fred to Kansas where his two older brothers, John Jr. and Jason, have settled for cheap land and to defend the abolitionist cause.

In Kansas Owen is dispirited to realize that while the pro-slavery forces are little more than a ragtag mob the abolitionist forces constantly seek to defer to them to avoid violence. Owen is eventually joined by his father and several of his brothers. Together they seek to violently defend their abolitionist neighbours and are surprised when they are repeatedly undercut by the politicians who only seek to appease. Owen finally urges his father towards violence and he, along with his brothers, murder 5 pro-slavery settlers in what is to be known as the Pottawatomie massacre. While Owen's older brothers are disturbed by the murders and decide to leave their father, John Brown forms a small militia of men who conduct small raids and is joined by a revolving group of white men who hold anti-slavery sentiments but who for the most part are disturbed by the killing. A few years later in Osawatomie while outnumbered by pro-slavery forces Brown nevertheless manages to capture the entire militia.

John Brown eventually becomes convinced he needs to raid Harpers Ferry where a large store of munitions is held believing that once word of his capture of the place becomes known he will be joined by white men who wish to abolish slavery and large contingents of slaves will be inspired to rebel and join him. Before the raid he has a private meeting with his friend and ally Frederick Douglass who does not endorse his plan and fears it will fail as he does not believe white men will risk their lives to free black people. John Brown goes forward with his plan anyway believing that Douglass will join him. He urges Owen to destroy his papers and then wait to meet up with any fleeing slaves. Owen does not burn his papers and instead watches as the raid fails as no one comes to join Brown and his militia and they are instead overwhelmed by a pro-slavery mob.

Brown reveals that he felt free after his father's capture but further reveals to Miss Mayo that he intends to commit suicide after finally finishing his account of his life with his father.

Mick Winger has an unusual gift and with it has accidentally killed several people. When Mick gets angry at people, his power manifests itself by launching an attack upon them by giving them cancer, leukemia or related terminal illnesses. If made angry enough, his anger can outright kill the victim.

Mick was raised in an orphanage and along his journey to manhood unintentionally killed several people who mistreated him, as well as nearly everyone he loved, though nearly every occurrence was accidental. The only intentional murder he describes while growing up is being nearly molested in a Denny's bathroom. This is when he discovers the intensity of the attacks are greatly heightened when he's touching a target. When fifteen, he fled child custody and set out on his own.

When Mick becomes angry, he gets, as he describes it, "sparky." He can see sparks surrounding and enveloping him and then those sparks lashing out on the object of his anger. Unavoidably, those attacked by his "sparks" end up with terminal illnesses and soon die. The effect of his attack is much more pronounced if he is touching the victim.

Until he was a young man, Mick had no idea he was different from other children. He discovered he was different when describing "sparkiness" with other children, who had no idea what he was talking about.

Soon after setting out on his own, he encounters a young woman who not only knows about his gift, but who even seems to possess the same gift, although to a lesser extent. She however possesses the ability to "call," to influence Mick so that he unintentionally heads straight for her, as well as intense sexual attraction, which she describes as simple pheromones that all people have, except that people like Mick, due to a different biochemical makeup (though Mick doesn't understand this when it is first explained to him), is far more susceptible to these pheromones than a normal human being.

Eventually he is led back to his birth parents, who are members of a mysterious, secluded colony. Talking to his parents, who also possess his ability, he learns he is far more powerful than they or probably anyone else at the colony. Mick learns that what he sees as "sparks" his family only sees as dust; he even begins to realize that he can see when people are lying. After being brought to the villages Patriarch, Papa Lem, Mick learns the intent of the colony and how they operate. Mick then refuses to "spread his seed" with the daughter of Papa Lem and returns to his parents' house for the night. During the night, Mick is attacked by an agent of Papa Lem and others from the village. Mick ends up killing his father and setting fire to the village while at the same time learning new extents to his abilities.

After fleeing the village on foot, Mick runs into the girl he met when he first set out on his own. The assailants from the village quickly catch up with the duo and start firing at them. The woman, unbeknown to Mick, is shot in the back of the head just as they reach their allies. Mick pulls the girl from her wrecked car and puts all his "sparkiness" into her just before passing out.

Mick awakes in the lair of his new allies. Upon questioning, Mick learns that the girl is alive and that he had somehow healed her from the bullet wound. Mick is on his way to officially meet the young lady when the story abruptly ends.

School teacher and amateur entomologist Niki Junpei leaves Tokyo on a beach expedition to collect tiger beetles and other insects that live in sandy soil. After a long day of searching, Junpei misses the last bus ride back to town. A village elder and some of his fellow local villagers suggest that he stay the night at their village. Junpei agrees and is guided down a rope ladder to a hut at the bottom of a sand dune, the home of a young woman. Junpei learns that she lost her husband and daughter in a sandstorm a year ago and now lives alone; their bodies are said to be buried under the sand somewhere near the hut. After dinner, the woman goes outside to shovel the sand into buckets, which the villagers reel in from the top of the dune. Junpei offers to help but she refuses, telling him that he is a guest and there is no need for him to help on the first day.

The next morning, Junpei gets ready to leave as he must return to his job in Tokyo, but finds that the rope ladder has been pulled up. Unable to escape as the sand surrounding the hut is too steep and does not give him enough grip to climb up, he quickly realises that he is trapped and expected to live with the woman and assist her in digging sand, which is sold to cement manufacturers, in exchange for food and water. Junpei begrudgingly accepts his role, which the woman has long accepted without question.

Junpei becomes the widow's lover but hopes to escape from the dune. One evening, using an improvised grappling hook, he escapes from the sand dune and runs away, the villagers in pursuit. Junpei is unfamiliar with the geography of the area and becomes trapped in quicksand. The villagers free him and return him to the hut.

Eventually, Junpei resigns himself to his situation but requests time to see the nearby sea; in exchange, he needs to have sex with the woman while the villagers watch. Junpei agrees but she refuses and fends him off. Through his persistent effort to trap a crow as a messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night by capillary action and becomes absorbed in perfecting the technique. When it is discovered that the woman is ill from an ectopic pregnancy, the villagers take her to a doctor, leaving the rope ladder down when they go. Junpei instead chooses to stay, telling himself that he can still attempt to escape after showing the villagers his method of water production. The film's final shot is of a police report that shows that Junpei has been missing for seven years and declared as having disappeared.

When David Lynch studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (PAFA), he made a series of complex mosaics in geometric shapes which he called ''Industrial Symphonies''.

The play was originally presented (twice) on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City as part of the ''New Music America Festival'' on November 10, 1989. Footage from these performances was used for the home video release. It is also known to have been performed in Canada once, in Montreal.

Father Quixote, a parish priest in the little town of El Toboso in Spain's La Mancha region, regards himself as a descendant of Cervantes' character of the same name, even if people point out to him that Don Quixote was a fictitious character. One day, he helps and gives food to a mysterious Italian bishop whose car has broken down. Shortly afterwards, he is given the title of ''Monsignor'' by the Pope, much to the surprise of his bishop who looks upon Father Quixote's activities rather with suspicion. He urges the priest to take a holiday, and so Quixote embarks upon a voyage through Spain with his old Seat 600 called "Rocinante" and in the company of the Communist ex-mayor of El Toboso (who, of course, is nicknamed "Sancho"). In the subsequent course of events, Quixote and his companion have all sorts of funny and moving adventures along the lines of his ancestor's on their way through post-Franco Spain. They encounter the contemporary equivalents of the windmills, are confronted with holy and not-so-holy places and with sinners of all sorts. In their dialogues about Catholicism and Communism, the two men are brought closer, start to appreciate each other better but also to question their own beliefs.

Quixote is briefly taken back to El Toboso, confronted by the bishop about his doings and suspended from service as a priest, but he escapes and sets out again with Sancho. In his last adventure, Father Quixote is struck down and wounded while attempting to save a statue of the Virgin Mary from hypocrites who are desecrating her by offering her up for money. This is the scene from the original Cervantes' novel refurbished with reversed accents: Quixote ''does'' know Who the Lady is, while the people in the procession actually ''don't''. Quixote and Sancho are brought to a Trappist monastery where, sleepwalking and in delirium, Father Quixote rises from his bed at night, goes to the church, celebrates the old Tridentine Mass—all the time imagining he holds bread and wine in his hands—and then, in a last effort, administers communion to the Communist ex-mayor before sinking dead into his friend's arms.

A magazine editor named Dorine, due to budget cuts, is forced to work from home. One night she is called to help fix the computer of a co-worker, Gary Michaels, who is electrocuted while trying to fix the wires. Dorine dials 911, but hangs up when the call is answered. She places the corpse on a cart, rolls it down to her car, loads it in her trunk, and takes it home, placing it in her basement. Then, seemingly without reason, she goes into a murder spree. She begins her spree by murdering another office worker, but later murders two young Girl Scouts who arrive at her door to sell cookies. The young girls join the other corpses in the basement, and Dorine is seen eating the cookies while working on her new laptop. Dorine sends messages from Gary to the remaining office workers, implying he is alive. There are three more murders before the movie ends, all artistically executed. The last murder is the office manager (played by a young Jeanne Tripplehorn), who awakens in the basement, surrounded by dismembered bodies, after being knocked out by Dorine on a lunch date. After dispatching the office manager's boyfriend, who had come searching for her (a young Michael Imperioli) with a kitchen knife, Dorine murders the office manager after taunting her for making her and other employees work from home. The last scene shows Dorine, after her mother's death, setting fire to her basement, then, sporting a blond wig and makeup and with the office manager's head in a bag on the seat beside her, driving away in her car, and circling a newspaper ad with her pencil for an office job.

Nana, an attractive young "non-talker" in her mid-twenties—"tall, thin, pale, blonde, breasty"—who is working on her M.A. thesis, lives with her "Papa", the "benevolent angel" of the story, in Edgware, a suburb of London. She gets to know Moshe, a young Jewish actor from Finsbury, and they start a relationship. As time goes by, Anjali, a friend of Moshe's, joins them more and more in their sparetime activities until Nana, for whom sex is not necessarily a top priority, suggests a "threesome" because she wants Moshe to be happy.

Accordingly, due to Nana's altruism, for some months Nana and Moshe are joined in their lovemaking by Anjali, who is bisexual. The narrator, who defines a threesome as "the socialist utopia of sex", describes not only the sociology, psychology and ethics of their ménage à trois (for example by comparing it to the love triangle depicted in the film ''Cabaret'') but also, in some detail, the technicalities and what he calls "sexual etiquette". However, he also frequently ponders philosophical questions and occasionally redefines old concepts such as that of infidelity ("the selfish desire to be helpful to more than one person").

In the summer Nana goes on holiday with her Papa, leaving behind two thirds of the ménage à trois. In Venice, Italy, Papa complains of a splitting headache, and shortly after their return to England he suffers a stroke—a good excuse for Nana to break up with both Moshe and Anjali, although her father is saddened by the thought of his daughter giving up her boyfriend on his account.

One year has passed since the events of ''Rival Schools: United By Fate'' and that things have gone back to normal in Aoharu City. Batsu Ichimonji, Hinata Wakaba, Kyosuke Kagami, and the rest of the fighters had resumed their normal school lives and that all of them had enjoyed the calm peace that came after their last adventure, but the peace itself doesn't last for long and that the fighters would soon find themselves getting involved in a new struggle.

Kurow Kirishima: a cold-hearted and ruthless ninja assassin from a mysterious group known only as the "Reverse Society" has his sight set on the Imawano family and plans to eliminate them and their allies so that he can prepare for the advancement of his own ambition to rule Japan. To this end, he attacks Raizo Imawano: the principal of Justice High and father to Batsu, so that he can easily put him out of commission and not have any interference come from him. Secondly, he sends both his older sister Yurika Kirishima and his loyal subordinate Momo Karuizawa into the ranks of the fighters so that the two of them can cause tension and distrust to occur between the friends. His third plot involves brainwashing Gedo gang leader Daigo Kazama so that he can order him into forcing his gang to attack various schools in order to cause even more tension to occur. Lastly, Kurow himself plans to destroy Batsu's reputation by disguising himself as Batsu's doppelganger (named Vatsu) so that he can attack the fighters and make them believe that Batsu is behind it.

Batsu and his friends must fight back against the evil plot of Kurow and attempt to not let their friendship get destroyed by the conspiracy of a deadly ninja assassin.

A man referred to simply as the "Postal Dude" has been evicted from his home. He believes the United States Air Force is releasing an airborne agent upon his town of Paradise and that he is the only individual unaffected by the ensuing "hate plague". He fights his way from his house to an Air Force Base through various locations, including a ghetto, train station, trailer park, truck stop, and an ostrich farm. During the course of the gameplay, a voice in the protagonist's head (voiced by Rick Hunter) can be heard taunting his victims through cryptic absurdity, often through consecutive kills or when switching through the player's arsenal.

After raiding the Air Force Base, he is shown attempting to massacre an elementary school. Despite his best efforts, his weapons have no effect on the children. Suffering a mental breakdown amidst innocent laughter, he finds himself restrained in a mental asylum as hellish images cover the screen: A body bound to chains in a corridor, the protagonist in a straight-jacket curled in the fetal position; a close-up of his face (albeit covered by bindings) and the door to his cell numbered 593. A disembodied voice, possibly a psychologist, gives a report on the protagonist's mental state: He suggests that the stress of urban life may have been the root cause of his rampage, promting him to "go postal". The lack of any mentions to military interference with the civilian population strongly implies that the Postal Dude's murders were the result of his own paranoid delusions. Amid distorted audio, the psychologist gives a final remark: "We may never know exactly what set him off, but rest assured we will have plenty of time to study him". Upon completion of the credits, manic cackling can be heard as the screen fades to black. It is suggested that the protagonist may have escaped the confines of the asylum to pursue further acts of violence.

Due to the controversy surrounding the game's release, along with numerous, unrelated American school shootings in the years following, the 2016 redux of the game's ending has been changed. Replacing the elementary school vision is the player witnessing the burial of an unknown person in a decaying field, though it can be implied that it is his own. Completion of the game on the hardest difficulty features the inclusion of an unknown male and female mourning over the grave as it descends. Both outcomes prompt a similar mental breakdown and an identical asylum cutscene, though consisting of animated shots over the original release's still image artwork.

Dakota Territory, the 1870s. Tough-talking, hard-riding, straight-shooting Calamity Jane (Doris Day) has a crush on Second Lieutenant Gilmartin (Philip Carey). She even risks life and limb to single-handedly save him from an Indian war party. Meanwhile, Deadwood's saloon owner, who sends for beautiful women entertainers to appear on stage, mistakenly hires a male. Fearing a riot, the owner persuades the reluctant actor to perform in drag. Initially convincing, his wig falls off, and the angry audience threatens to tear the saloon down. But Calamity calms the situation, vowing to go to Chicago and bring the renowned singer Adelaid Adams (Gale Robbins) back to Deadwood. However, her friend Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) expresses doubt, even scoffing at the idea. Calamity arrives in Chicago, where Adams is giving her farewell performance before launching a European tour. After the show ends, Adelaid gives her old costumes to her maid, Katie Brown (Allyn McLerie), who dreams of becoming a singer. Later, when Calamity walks in, she mistakes Katie for Adelaid. Katie, posing as Adelaid Adams, agrees to return west with Calamity, seeing it as a chance to perform on stage. But back in Deadwood, during Katie's premiere performance, stage fright gets the best of her after Calamity laughs heartily at Bill Hickok dressed up as an Indian woman. She bursts into tears, admitting she is not Adelaid Adams. As the stunned crowd are on the verge of rioting, Calamity fires a shot in the air and defends Katie. She is allowed to carry on, and her confidence wins them over.

Katie moves into Calamity's ramshackle cabin which they fix up together. To attract Lt. Gilmartin, Calamity, with Katie's help, dresses and behaves "ladylike". But Gilmartin and Hickok both admire Katie. At one point, they draw straws to see who will take her to the upcoming ball. Lt. Gilmartin wins, and Wild Bill agrees to complement the double date by escorting Calamity. At the ball, everyone is awed by Calamity's transformation. She's beautiful. But she becomes increasingly jealous watching Katie and Gilmartin together. The ball ends when Calamity angrily confronts Katie, shooting a punch glass from her hand. A day later, though, Katie returns the favor at the saloon. Calamity, feeling humiliated, exits with Wild Bill and they drive off in his wagon. A heartbroken Calamity reveals her crush on Gilmartin, while Bill admits his love for Katie. Yet the scene is resolved when she and Bill passionately embrace and kiss. Calamity then realizes she loved Wild Bill all along. The next day, Katie takes the stagecoach to Chicago, feeling guilty over betraying her best friend. After the stage leaves, a furious Lt. Gilmartin encounters Calamity, blaming her for Katie's sudden departure. She responds by mounting her horse and riding out to overtake the stagecoach. There, she tells Katie she loves Wild Bill, and the two women are reunited. The story ends with a double wedding.

The main character in ''Alpha'' is a priest employed by the Vatican as a sort of troubleshooter.

An all-knowing computer appears to have an independent life of its own - an abomination for those who believe in a supreme creator. Father Marquez is sent to interrogate ‘Alpha’ to decide whether or not it can be allowed to exist. During their conversations, Marquez finds out far more than he expects about both Alpha and - much more disturbingly - himself.

The central character of ''Omega'' is a civil engineer whose daughter has miraculously survived a car crash, and who comes to question his very existence.

It tells the story of John Stone, who is building the world’s tallest tower rising above London. He discovers God after his daughter makes a miraculous recovery from a car crash. But did a miracle really take place? Perhaps John's whole life is a fiction and he's merely the plaything of a group of controlling scientists.

An advertisement for the game prior to release showing The Bard following the path "Coin & Cleavage" as opposed to "Save the World"

Although touted in early promotional materials as a remake of the classic ''Bard's Tale'' series, InXile Entertainment never had any rights to the series' trademarks of the original ''Bard's Tale'' — those rights are still owned by Electronic Arts. This meant that InXile was not legally allowed to use any of the plot, characters or locations featured in the original trilogy. However, allusions to the original ''Bard's Tale'' do exist in the game. The city in which Fionnaoch's tower stands, Dounby, is only a few kilometers away from the ruins of real-world Skara Brae, where the original trilogy takes place. The PC, Android, and iOS ports of ''The Bard's Tale'' comes packaged with the original ''Bard's Tale'' trilogy.

The plot involves "a sardonic and opportunistic musician and adventurer, driven by carnal rather than noble pursuits. The Bard, who is never identified by a specific name nor addressed by anything other than 'The Bard,' is not interested in saving the world; his humble motivations are strictly 'coin and cleavage.'" His quest is narrated by a mocking, biased man (played by Tony Jay) who cannot stand him. Many of the names and characters are influenced by Celtic mythology and the stories of the Orkney Islands. (Most of the names for places are actual locations in the Orkney Islands, including Kirkwall, Dounby, Finstown, Houton, and Stromness. Some optional areas are places in Ireland, including Dún Ailinne, Ardagh, Carrowmore, Emain Macha, and Tara.)

The Bard (voiced by Cary Elwes) ends up being recruited by a cult to help free a princess named Caleigh. As a result of this, The Bard finds himself being attacked by an assortment of fanatics from a Druid-like cult, sent to dispatch him by a being called Fionnaoch. On the way to complete his quest, the not so valiant anti-hero will have to overcome the truly terrifying challenges of three monstrous guardians, break-dancing corpses, spontaneously melodious goblins, a giant, and a fire-breathing rat.

Eventually, it is revealed that The Bard is just another in a long line of "Chosen Ones," many of whom he finds dead along his path. Caleigh is revealed to actually be a demon tempting people to come free her for years on the assumption that eventually someone would succeed. If The Bard frees Caleigh, she gives him all his heart's desires while destroying the world. If he slays Caleigh, The Bard returns to the road in search of the next bar maid. Alternatively, he can refuse to fight either the Druid Leader or Caleigh, allowing the undead to overrun the world, a situation he is content with as they make good bar buddies.

The game takes place in the fictional land of Yuria, a ''Conan the Barbarian''-style high fantasy medieval world. An evil entity known as Death Adder has captured the King and his daughter, and holds them captive in their castle. He also finds the Golden Axe, the magical emblem of Yuria, and threatens to destroy both the axe and the royal family unless the people of Yuria accept him as their ruler. Three warriors set out on a quest to rescue Yuria and avenge their losses at the hands of Death Adder. The first is a battle axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead, from the mines of Wolud, whose twin brother was killed by the soldiers of Death Adder. Another is a male barbarian, Ax Battler, wielding a two-handed broadsword, looking for revenge for the murder of his mother. The last is a longsword-wielding Amazon, Tyris Flare, whose parents were both killed by Death Adder.

The warriors rescue the inhabitants of the ransacked Turtle Village, which turns out to be situated on the shell of a giant turtle. The turtle takes the characters across the sea, and they then fly to the castle itself on the back of a giant eagle. Once at the castle they defeat Death Adder, who is wielding the Golden Axe, and save the land. In the Mega Drive/Genesis and PC versions, and also in other ports, the characters also battle Death Adder's mentor, Death Bringer, as the true final boss. After the final battle, the warriors receive a magical golden axe that imbues the player with immortality.

The arcade release of the game concludes with a fourth wall breaking end sequence with some children playing ''Golden Axe'' at an arcade. The arcade game breaks, and the characters from within the game flood into the "real world," with the children being chased by the enemies, who are being chased by the three warriors as well.

Europe, 1945. Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) is Kommandant of a Nazi prison camp. She conducts sadistic scientific experiments designed to demonstrate that women are more capable of enduring pain than men are and should therefore be allowed to fight in the German armed forces. A sadistic authoritarian, Ilsa has a voracious sexual appetite for men, choosing a new male prisoner each night to copulate with. However, owing to her hypersexuality, she is disappointed when her victims inevitably ejaculate and promptly has them castrated and put to death.

After dispatching her latest conquest, Ilsa oversees the arrival of a new batch of male and female prisoners. Though dismissive and dehumanizing of the majority of her wards, she becomes enamoured by the presence of Wolfe (Gregory Knoph), a blond-haired and blue-eyed prisoner who, unlike his compatriots, resembles the Nazi Aryan ideal. Wolfe, a German-American student who had been studying in Berlin before the war broke out, tells his cellmate Mario (Tony Mumolo), one of Ilsa's former victims, that he has the ability to ejaculate at will, allowing him to have sex with incredible endurance and skill. Wolfe demonstrates this when, called to Ilsa's bedroom at night, he manages to bring her to orgasm, becoming her first repeat partner whom she willingly spares.

Having gained Ilsa's confidence, Wolfe begins plotting revolt with Mario and a group of female prisoners who have borne the brunt of Ilsa's tortures. Meanwhile, Ilsa is made gradually more anxious by news of Allied forces breaking through German defenses. Believing that the enlistment of women into the German military will help stem the tide, Ilsa tries to convince a visiting General of her theories of female supremacy by showing him the various inhumane experiments she has subjected her female prisoners to. The impressed General awards Ilsa the Iron Cross for her efforts, while forcing her to fulfill his nascent urolagnia by giving him a golden shower.

With the Germans in retreat, the prisoners revolt, killing most of the guards and rounding up the surviving staff. Ilsa is tied to her bed with her stockings by Wolfe during a sex game, before he steals her gun and helps his comrades. Wolfe pleads with the other prisoners to leave the Nazis to be captured and tried by the Allies, but they insist that they'll escape punishment and summarily execute them. With retreating Nazi forces fast approaching, Wolfe and a lone female prisoner escape into the nearby hills as the remaining prisoners, including Mario, resolve to fight to the death. They are quickly outgunned by a Waffen-SS tank troupe, who promptly wipes out the small resistance.

The Commander disembarks and begins investigating the camp. Upon finding Ilsa tied up, he shoots her in the head before ordering the razing of the camp to destroy evidence of their atrocities. As he brags that the Allies will never know what happened, Wolfe and his fellow escapee watch from atop a nearby hill, the sole survivors of Ilsa's death camp.

This is the middle volume of a trilogy that begins with ''Five Children and It'' and concludes with ''The Story of the Amulet.'' It deviates from the other two novels insofar as it includes only a brief mention of the Psammead, a magical creature introduced in the first volume, and depicts the five children as living with both of their parents in the family home in London. In the other two volumes, circumstances have forced the children to spend protracted periods away from their home and their father. A continuing theme throughout ''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' is the element of fire.

The story begins shortly before 5 November, celebrated in Britain as Guy Fawkes Night, when people build bonfires and set off fireworks. The four children have accumulated a small hoard of fireworks for the night, but they are too impatient to wait until 5 November to light them, so they set off a few samples in the nursery. This results in the fire that destroys the original carpet. To replace it their parents purchase a second-hand carpet, which is found to contain an egg that emits a phosphorescent glow. The children accidentally knock the egg into the fire, whereupon it hatches, revealing a golden talking Phoenix.

It develops that this is a magic carpet that can transport the children anywhere they wish in the present time, although it is capable of satisfying only three wishes a day. Accompanied by the Phoenix, the children have exotic adventures. There is one moment of terror when the youngest, the baby known as the Lamb, crawls onto the carpet, babbles incoherently and vanishes, but it turns out that the Lamb only desires to be with his mother.

At a few points in the novel, the children find themselves in predicaments from which the Phoenix is unable to rescue them by himself, so he goes to find the Psammead and has a wish granted for the children's sake. In addition, at the end the carpet is sent to ask the Psammead to grant the Phoenix's wish. These offstage incidents are the only contributions made by the Psammead to this story.

A special edition published by the "Phoenix Assurance Company" of London in 1956 ''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' features depictions of London during the reign of Edward VII. At one point, the children and their supernatural bird visit the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company: the egotistical Phoenix assumes that this is a temple dedicated to him and that the insurance executives must be his acolytes. The children also have an encounter with two older ruffians, Herb and Ike, who attempt to steal the Phoenix.

Four of the children (without the Lamb) attend a Christmas pantomime at a theatre in the West End of London, smuggling the Phoenix along inside Robert's coat. The Phoenix is so excited by this spectacle that he unintentionally sets fire to the theatre. All ends well when the Phoenix magically reverses the damage: no one is harmed, and the theatre remains intact.

One aspect of ''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' that is unusual for children's fantasy fiction is the fact that the magical companion does not treat all the children equally. The Phoenix favours Robert, the child who put his egg in the fire, albeit by accident, over his brother Cyril and their sisters. This is a mixed privilege, as Robert is lumbered with the duty of smuggling the Phoenix past their parents at inconvenient moments. The "Phoenix Assurance Company"'s bookmark given with the special edition

In the novel's final chapter, the Phoenix announces that he has reached the end of his current lifespan and must begin the cycle again, apparently on the grounds that life with the children has left him far more exhausted than he would have been in the wilderness. He lays a new egg from which he will eventually be reborn. Under the Phoenix's direction, the children prepare an altar with sweet incense, upon which the Phoenix immolates himself. The magic carpet has also reached the end of its lifespan, as it was never intended to be walked upon regularly, and, at the request of the Phoenix, it takes the egg to a place where it won't hatch again for 2,000 years. There is a happy ending, with the children receiving a parcel of gifts from an "unknown benefactor" (the Phoenix, who arranges this gift by means of a wish granted by the Psammead) and Robert receiving a single golden feather. But the feather has vanished by the evening.

The last volume in the trilogy, ''The Story of the Amulet'', contains a minor episode in which the children travel thousands of years into the past and encounter the Phoenix, who does not recognise them because the events of the previous book have not happened yet.

The novel takes the form of a long review by a somewhat cantankerous unnamed Editor for the English publication ''Fraser's Magazine'' (in which the novel was first serialised without any distinction of the content as fictional) who is, upon request, reviewing the fictional German book ''Clothes, Their Origin and Influence'' by the fictional philosopher Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo "Know not where" University). The Editor is clearly flummoxed by the book, first struggling to explain the book in the context of contemporary social issues in England, some of which he knows Germany to be sharing as well, then conceding that he knows Teufelsdröckh personally, but that even this relationship does not explain the curiosities of the book's philosophy. The Editor remarks that he has sent requests back to Teufelsdröckh's office in Germany for more biographical information hoping for further explanation, and the remainder of Book One contains summaries of Teufelsdröckh's book, including translated quotations, accompanied by the Editor's many objections, many of them buttressed by quotations from Goethe and Shakespeare. The review becomes longer and longer due to the Editor's frustration at the philosophy, and his desire to expose its outrageous nature. At the final chapter of Book One, the Editor has received a reply from Teufelsdröckh's office in the form of several bags of paper scraps (rather esoterically organised according to the signs of the Latin Zodiac) on which are written autobiographical fragments.

At the writing of Book Two, the Editor has somewhat organised the fragments into a coherent narrative. As a boy, Teufelsdröckh was left in a basket on the doorstep of a childless couple in the German country town of Entepfuhl ("Duck-Pond"); his father a retired sergeant of Frederick the Great and his mother a very pious woman, who to Teufelsdröckh's gratitude, raises him in utmost spiritual discipline. In very flowery language, Teufelsdröckh recalls at length the values instilled in his idyllic childhood, the Editor noting most of his descriptions originating in intense spiritual pride. Teufelsdröckh eventually is recognized as being clever, and sent to Hinterschlag (slap-behind) Gymnasium. While there, Teufelsdröckh is intellectually stimulated, and befriended by a few of his teachers, but frequently bullied by other students. His reflections on this time of his life are ambivalent: glad for his education, but critical of that education's disregard for actual human activity and character, as regarding both his own treatment and his education's application to politics. While at University, Teufelsdröckh encounters the same problems, but eventually gains a small teaching post and some favour and recognition from the German nobility. While interacting with these social circles, Teufelsdröckh meets a woman he calls Blumine (Goddess of Flowers; the Editor assumes this to be a pseudonym), and abandons his teaching post to pursue her. She spurns his advances for a British aristocrat named Towgood. Teufelsdröckh is thrust into a spiritual crisis, and leaves the city to wander the European countryside, but even there encounters Blumine and Towgood on their honeymoon. He sinks into a deep depression, culminating in the celebrated Everlasting No, disdaining all human activity. Still trying to piece together the fragments, the Editor surmises that Teufelsdröckh either fights in a war during this period, or at least intensely uses its imagery, which leads him to a "Centre of Indifference", and on reflection of all the ancient villages and forces of history around him, ultimately comes upon the affirmation of all life in "The Everlasting Yea". The Editor, in relief, promises to return to Teufelsdröckh's book, hoping with the insights of his assembled biography to glean some new insight into the philosophy.

Characters

'''Herr Diogenes Teufelsdröckh:''' (Greek/German: "God-Born Devil-Dung") The Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo University, and writer of a long book of German idealist philosophy called ''Clothes, Their Origin and Influence'', the review of which forms the contents of the novel. Both professor and book are fictional.

'''The Editor:''' The narrator of the novel, who in reviewing Teufelsdröckh's book, reveals much about his own tastes, as well as deep sympathy towards Teufelsdröckh, and much worry as to social issues of his day. His tone varies between conversational, condemning and even semi-Biblical prophecy. The Reviewer should not be confused with Carlyle himself, seeing as much of Teufelsdröckh's life implements Carlyle's own biography.

'''Hofrath:''' Hofrath Heuschrecke (i. e. State-Councillor Grasshopper) is a loose, zigzag figure, a blind admirer of Teufelsdröckh's, an incarnation of distraction distracted, and the only one who advises the editor and encourages him in his work; a victim to timidity and preyed on by an uncomfortable sense of mere physical cold, such as the majority of the state-counsellors of the day were.

'''Blumine:''' A woman associated to the German nobility with whom Teufelsdröckh falls in love early in his career. Her spurning of him to marry Towgood leads Teufelsdröckh to the spiritual crisis that culminates in the Everlasting No. Their relationship is somewhat parodic of Werther's spurned love for Lotte in ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (including her name "Goddess of Flowers", which may simply be a pseudonym), though, as the Editor notes, Teufelsdröckh does not take as much incentive as does Werther. Critics have associated her with Kitty Kirkpatrick, with whom Carlyle himself fell in love before marrying Jane Carlyle.Heffer, Simon (1995). ''Moral Desperado – A Life of Thomas Carlyle.'' London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p. 48. "East Did Meet West – 3," by Dr. Rizwana Rahim.

'''Towgood:''' The English aristocrat who ultimately marries Blumine, throwing Teufelsdröckh into a spiritual crisis. If Blumine is indeed a fictionalization of Kitty Kirkpatrick, Towgood would find his original in Captain James Winslowe Phillipps, who married Kirkpatrick in 1829.

Locales

'''Dumdrudge:''' Dumdrudge is an imaginary village where the natives drudge away and say nothing about it, as villagers all over the world contentedly do.

"'''Weissnichtwo":''' In the book, Weissnichtwo (''weiß-nicht-wo'', German for "don't-know-where") is an imaginary European city, viewed as the focus, and as exhibiting the operation, of all the influences for good and evil of the time, described in terms which characterised city life in the first quarter of the 19th century; so universal appeared the spiritual forces at work in society at that time that it was impossible to say where they were and where they were not, and hence the name of the city, "'''Don't-know-where'''" (cf. Sir Walter Scott's ''Kennaquhair'').

The backstory has the events of the game set in December 2006, as the castle of the title appears in the sky above Tokyo. In the beginning of the story, a giant castle appeared from above the city of Tokyo sometime during 2006. At 40 km, the ship-shaped castle was known as Nejireta castle. The battle between mankind and the gods is about to begin.

Characters

The game includes eight playable characters, including all five from the original; however, the secret character from the original has been removed: * Kohtarou Kuga (玖珂 光太郎) * Sayo Yuhki (結城 小夜) * Gennojo Hyuga (日向 玄乃丈) * Fumiko O.V. (Odette Vanstein) (ふみこ・オゼット・ヴァンシュタイン) * Kim Dae-jeong (金 大正)

The two new characters are: * Niigi G.B. (Gorgeous Blue) (ニーギ・ゴージャスブルー) * Roger Sasuke (ロジャー・サスケ)

The super deformed Fumiko also exists as a secret character.

Mojo Jojo wanted everybody in Townsville to vote for him. Mojo Jojo invented the Radio Jojo so everybody will vote for him. The Gangreen Gang helps Mojo spread the waves so people can vote for Mojo and act like primates. The Mayor informed the girls that Mojo took delivery vans which contained the Mayor's votes and pickles. The Powerpuff Girls ended up delivering the backup ballots and pickles to the voting ballots. Across multiple levels, they defeat the Gangreen Gang and Princess Morbucks, and help the Professor turn the townspeople back to normal.

After finding and defeating Mojo Jojo, Blossom tells Mojo that he just can't beat a free pickle which is the reason why he lost the election. Mojo Jojo thus attempts to get free pickles with his radio, attracting the attention of the alien Pickloids, who invade Townsville. Mitch Mitchelson becomes their leader after eating one. The Powerpuff Girls protect the other students, save Mitch and fight off the Pickloid invasion, as well as Mojo Jojo and Sedusa, who try to take advantage of the invasion for their own ends. After convincing Mojo Jojo that he will fall victim to the Pickloid invasion if he doesn't do something, he helps the Powerpuff Girls make a ray gun that destroys most Pickloids. The remaining Pickloids kidnap the Mayor, the Professor and other townsfolk, so the Powerpuff Girls take the fight to their mothership and free everyone. The Pickloids give up their invasion and try to invade another planet, but are casually devoured by an alien frog.

The game starts with the player trying to finish a term paper at G.U.E. Tech, a large MIT-like American university. The player has braved a snowstorm to travel to the school's computer lab to work on the report. The document is now mangled beyond repair, however; with the help of a hacker, the player finds that the file has been partially overwritten by the Department of Alchemy's files. Although the game begins as a quest to try to salvage the term paper, alarming events soon unfold, revealing a powerful evil within the school's depths.

What began as a mere snowstorm has strengthened into a full-force blizzard. The player must traverse the University grounds in an attempt to recover the term paper's data. Much of the campus is deserted and covered in snowdrifts, rendering walkways impassable. The only accessible avenues are steam tunnels and a small complex of buildings. In the course of unraveling the mystery, the player encounters demons, zombies, and sinister references to a recent campus suicide. Failing to set things right in the hidden passages beneath the school will result in a literal fate worse than death.

The narrator, speaking before a scientific conference, describes his former life as an ape. His story begins in a West African jungle, in which a hunting expedition shoots and captures him. Caged on a ship for his voyage to Europe, he finds himself for the first time without the freedom to move as he will. Needing to escape from this situation, he studies the habits of the crew, and imitates them with surprising ease; he reports encountering particular difficulty only in learning to drink alcohol. Throughout the story, the narrator reiterates that he learned his human behavior not out of any desire to be human, but only to provide himself with a means of escape from his cage.

Upon arriving in Europe, the ape realizes that he is faced with a choice between "the Zoological Garden or the Music Hall," and devotes himself to becoming human enough to become an able performer. He accomplishes this, with the help of many teachers, and reports to the academy that his transformation is so complete that he can no longer properly describe his emotions and experiences as an ape. In concluding, the ape expresses a degree of satisfaction with his lot.

In 1959 Baltimore, friends Modell, Eddie, Shrevie, Boogie, and Fenwick attend a Christmas dance before driving to their usual late-night haunt, Fell’s Point Diner. On the way, Fenwick stages a fake car accident, to his friends' annoyance. Boogie, a hairdresser and law student, has laid a $2,000 bet on a basketball game, and declines his family friend Bagel’s offer to call off the bet. Modell accepts a ride home from Eddie while the others pick up another friend, Billy, in town to serve as Eddie’s best man for his New Year’s Eve wedding.

The next morning, Billy reunites with Eddie at his mother’s house, and they visit their old pool hall. Shrevie, married to Beth and working as an appliance store salesman, learns from Fenwick that Boogie is taking a date to the movies. At a screening of ''A Summer Place'', with his friends watching, Boogie tricks his date, Carol, into groping him through the popcorn box on his lap. She runs from the theater, but the smooth-talking Boogie convinces her it was an accident and their date continues; afterward, Billy punches an old high school enemy.

Billy visits Barbara, a friend working at the local TV station. At the diner, Shrevie discusses married life with Eddie, who is preparing a test of football knowledge for his fiancée Elyse, to determine if they will marry. Having lost his basketball bet, Boogie wagers with his friends that he can have sex with Carol. The group parts ways in the morning, and Boogie and Fenwick encounter an equestrienne named Jane. Meeting Barbara at church, Billy learns she is pregnant, the result of an unexpected night they spent together; she tries to dissuade him from feeling obligated to marry her.

Watching ''College Bowl'', Fenwick is surprisingly knowledgeable and offers to help pay Boogie’s debt. Shrevie loses his temper at Beth for disturbing his record collection, and storms out. Boogie consoles her, and Fenwick goes to ask his brother for money, but he refuses. Shrevie pulls Eddie and Billy from a screening of ''The Seventh Seal'' to corral Fenwick, who has drunkenly occupied the church’s Nativity scene in his underwear, leading to their arrest.

In the holding cells, Eddie reveals that Elyse is taking his test the following night, and Billy faces down a belligerent drunk. Eddie, Shrevie, and Billy are bailed out by their fathers, but Fenwick’s leaves him overnight. They meet Boogie at the diner, and he deduces Eddie is still a virgin, while Billy and Barbara discuss their predicament at the TV station. A lonely Beth visits Boogie at the hair salon, and he is threatened by his bookie, Tank. Learning Carol has the flu, which jeopardizes his bet, Boogie reminisces with Beth about their own past relationship, and they make plans for a tryst while everyone is busy with Elyse’s test.

Shrevie, Fenwick, Billy, and Modell, along with Eddie’s and Elyse’s parents, await the results of the football test: Elyse fails by two points, and Eddie calls off the wedding. Boogie brings Beth a wig, secretly planning to disguise her as Carol to win the bet, and drives her to Fenwick’s apartment. There, Fenwick and Shrevie hide in the closet to verify the encounter, but Boogie tells Beth the truth, urging her to work things out with Shrevie. Eddie and Billy visit a strip club, and Boogie arrives at the diner, where Shrevie and Fenwick warn him Tank is waiting. Boogie is ready to accept the consequences, but Tank reveals that Bagel has paid off the debt.

Billy commandeers a piano to lead the entire strip club in a rousing number, to Eddie’s delight. There, Eddie decides to marry Elyse after all, and Billy assures Barbara he genuinely loves her. The wedding proceeds, themed around Eddie’s beloved Baltimore Colts: Shrevie and Beth reconcile; Boogie, Billy, and Fenwick bring Jane, Barbara, and Diane; and Modell delivers a heartfelt speech. The movie ends as Elyse—whose face is never seen throughout the movie—tosses the bouquet, which lands on the friends' table.

The story takes place in a Californian community known as Poker Flat, near the town of La Porte. Poker Flat is, in the opinions of many, on a downward slope. The town has lost thousands of dollars and has experienced a moral decline. In an effort to save what is left of the town and reestablish it as a "virtuous" place, a secret society is created to decide whom to exile and whom to kill. On November 23, 1850, four "immoral" individuals are exiled from Poker Flat and warned not to return on pain of death. The first of them is a professional poker player, John Oakhurst. He is among those sent away because of his great success in winning from those on the secret committee. On his way out of town, he is joined by two women, the Duchess and Mother Shipton, and Uncle Billy, the town drunk and a suspected robber. These four set out for the Sandy Bar mining camp, a day's journey away over a mountain range. At noon, over Oakhurst's protests, the group stops for a rest.

While on their rest, the group is met by a pair of runaway lovers on their way to Poker Flat to get married. Piney Woods is a fifteen-year-old girl. Her lover, Tom Simson, known also as "the Innocent", met Oakhurst before and has great admiration for him, as Oakhurst won a great deal of money from Simson. Oakhurst had returned the money and urged Simson to quit gambling, as he was a terrible player. Nonetheless, Simson is thrilled to have come upon Oakhurst on this day and decides that he and Piney will stay with the group for a while. They were not aware of the group being one of exiles, and Simson assumes that the Duchess is Oakhurst's wife, to the amusement of Uncle Billy.

A decision is made for everyone to stay the night together. The group took shelter in a half-built cabin Simson has discovered. In the middle of the night, Oakhurst wakes up and sees a heavy snowstorm raging. Looking about, he realizes that Uncle Billy has fled with the group's horses and mules. They are all now forced to wait out the storm with provisions that will likely only last for another 10 days. After a week in the cabin, Mother Shipton dies, having secretly and altruistically starved herself in order to give her rations to Piney. Oakhurst fashions some snowshoes for Simson to use in traveling to Poker Flat for help, telling the others he will accompany the young man part of the way. The "law of Poker Flat" finally arrives at the cabin, only to find the Duchess and Piney frozen to death and embracing in a peaceful repose. They look so peaceful and innocent that the onlookers cannot tell which of them had been exiled for her immoral behavior.

Oakhurst commits suicide under a tree by shooting himself through the heart with his derringer. A playing card, the two of clubs, is found pinned to the trunk with a note written on it:

BENEATH THIS TREE LIES THE BODY OF JOHN OAKHURST, WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK ON THE 23rd OF NOVEMBER, 1850, AND HANDED IN HIS CHECKS ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850.

At 200x, the Rockman series will replace the natural world, Dr. Light a non-robot page-heavy study. Like the previous council, it has two main functions, one of which is to provide funding only, in contrast to the previous structure. Mitsumitsu is a software and technology based robot. Supports Wiley's research. According to research, doctor. Hikari and PET have a small computer called NetNavi that uses mobile PDAs to support intelligence and mobility.

NetNavi helps users browse, use, and query the Internet while avoiding PET and viruses. Within a few years, the Internet will develop internationally with artificial intelligence and various networks. However, there are some issues. A virus is like a smart ship or car. As the web continues to grow, email tools will become available. Compatible software spreads and disappears quickly in the event of a browser or application controller failure. All antivirus browsers have a layer of protection that can be applied to PET weapons that use combat weapons.

The target series of the NetNaviMegaMan.EXE program is the grandson of Koetsuto. The two fought in the World Wide Web War led by Dr. Wily.

In another tribute to the original series, most of the Navis in the series are named after characters from the original series. As the games progressed, however, certain characters from the X series, such as Zero, Iris, and Colonel have also appeared as NetNavis. Completely original NetNavis have also been made for the series, with some exclusive to the anime series. In every game since the second (with the exception of Battle Network 3), NetNavis used by Mr. Famous were created by fans of the series, being winners of design contests from Capcom of Japan.

Flannery "Flan" Culp is a senior at Roewer High School in San Francisco. Over the course of the year, Flan records the events of her life in a diary - which, with some heavy editing by Flannery herself years after the fact, becomes the narrative. She and her seven close friends refer to themselves as "The Basic Eight". They are an exclusive clique, hosting the Grand Opera Breakfast Club, and regular dinner and garden parties. The story chronicles Flannery and her friends as they cope with the stresses of their final year of high school and Flannery's complicated love life. The story reaches a dark conclusion in which lives of the members of the Basic Eight are turned upside down by revealed secrets, horrifying self-discoveries, and murder.

Philadelphia Police Detective John Hobbes visits serial killer Edgar Reese, whom he helped capture, on death row. Reese is in high spirits and, during conversation, grabs Hobbes' hand and delivers a spiteful monologue in an unknown language, assumed to be gibberish but later identified as Aramaic. As he is executed, Reese mocks the spectators and sings "Time Is on My Side" by the Rolling Stones.

Hobbes and his partner Jonesy investigate a string of new murders reminiscent of Reese's style, which they assume is by a copycat killer. Following hints given by Reese and the copycat killer, Hobbes tracks down a woman named Gretta Milano. Gretta explains that her father, a former detective, killed himself in an isolated cabin after being accused of a series of occult murders similar to the ones Hobbes and Jonesy are investigating. Hobbes visits the Milano family's abandoned lake-house. In the basement he finds several unsettling books about demonic possession. He also discovers the name "Azazel" written on a wall, obscured under layers of paint and grime.

Hobbes asks Gretta about the name, but she strongly urges him to drop the case to protect the lives of himself and his loved ones. She reconsiders after a terrifying encounter with Azazel, who confronts her in the guise of several strangers on the street and attempts to possess her. Seeking sanctuary in a church, Gretta explains to Hobbes that Azazel is a fallen angel who can possess human beings by touch. Hobbes realizes that Azazel, while possessing Edgar Reese, shook his hand before the execution but was not able to possess him. Gretta explains that the demon will try to ruin his life and warns him of Azazel's inevitable victory. Azazel visits Hobbes at his precinct, possesses his friend Lou, and taunts him. Azazel moves from person to person, singing "Time Is on My Side" after each transfer. Hobbes asks Lou and several others why they were singing the song, but they have no recollection. Hobbes runs outside and calls out to Azazel in Aramaic. The demon, now moving among people in the street, praises Hobbes for his cleverness. Hobbes says that he knows of Azazel's true identity; the demon threatens him and disappears.

To provoke Hobbes, Azazel possesses his nephew Sam and attacks John's intellectually disabled brother Art in their home. He again flees into other people on the street, ending up in a schoolteacher. As the teacher, Azazel draws a gun and forces Hobbes to shoot his host in front of a group of bystanders. Azazel boasts that if his current host is killed, he can transfer to another host in the surrounding area without needing to touch them.

Lieutenant Stanton informs Hobbes that his fingerprints were found at one of the murder scenes, and in light of the bizarre circumstances of the shooting of the teacher, he has become a suspect for all the murders. Azazel inhabits several of the witnesses and gives false accounts that the shooting was unprovoked, throwing further suspicion on Hobbes. Azazel comes into Hobbes' home and murders his brother, while marking Sam. Hobbes takes his nephew to Gretta's house. Gretta explains that, if forced out of a host body, Azazel can only travel for as long as one breath can sustain him, after which he will die.

Hobbes goes to the Milano cabin and calls Jonesy, knowing he will trace the call. Stanton and Jonesy arrive to arrest Hobbes; however, Jonesy kills Stanton, revealing himself to be possessed. Azazel prepares to shoot himself, which will allow him to possess Hobbes, the only other person for miles around. Hobbes wrestles Jonesy for his gun, and Jonesy is fatally wounded. Hobbes smokes cigarettes which he explains have been laced with the same poison Azazel used to kill his brother, which will leave Azazel stranded in the wilderness without a host. Hobbes taunts him and kills Jonesy. Azazel possesses Hobbes, frantically attempts to flee, and succumbs to the poison. Azazel, in voice over, mocks the audience for believing that he has lost, and a possessed cat emerges from beneath the cabin and heads back to civilization.

In the first incarnation, which appears to be a caveman, a man's family is taken from him by raiders due to his cowardice and hesitation. Before his wife is taken away, she says, "Don't lose the children!"

The next incarnation is in Ancient Rome in which he, Hector, is a slave to a "foolish master" who loses his fortune and is compelled to kill himself by his creditors and orders Hector to join him. Hector longs to be free to find the children and wife he had before he became a slave, but he has fallen in love with another slave and forgets his waiting family.

Third incarnation: He is a Scottish crusader on his way home to his children. The master from his life in Rome as a slave is now a crusader trying to decide whether to become a priest. They travel together until Hector finds his soul mate from the life in Rome. She is a widow and wishes Hector to join her family, but his duties to the children in Scotland pull at him.

Fourth incarnation: Hector is finally forced to confront his capacity for cowardly indecision. He is a Portuguese man in The Renaissance shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. He is the master in this life, his wife from the first incarnation shipwrecked with him as his spurned lover, and the raider who spirited her away is her steadfast friend.

Fifth incarnation: He is a modern man in New York, paying the consequences of cowardly indecision and gaining the strength to address the children he lost lifetimes ago. He is joined in this life by his master/slave/friend/soul mate, and former wife Janet and her husband/raider from lifetimes past. They support him but are people who are trying to find their own way, just as in the past lives.

Giulietta Boldrini, an upper-class housewife, attempts to deal with her mundane life and philandering, oppressive husband, Giorgio, by exploring the odd lifestyle of a glamorous neighbour, Suzy, and through dreams, visions and fantasies. As she taps into her desires (and her demons) she slowly gains greater self-awareness, leading to independence, although, according to Masina (Fellini's wife), the ending's meaning is debatable.

The farming world Akir is threatened by the tyrannical warlord Sador (John Saxon), who rules the sinister Malmori Empire and, his body parts deteriorating, is capturing and appropriating them from others. Sador's huge dreadnought, the Hammerhead, mounts a "Stellar Converter", a weapon that turns planets into small stars. He demands that the peaceful Akira submit to him when he returns in "seven risings of your red giant", or he will turn his Stellar Converter on their planet. Zed (Jeff Corey), last of the famous Akira Corsairs, is old and nearly blind. He suggests they hire mercenaries to protect their world. Since Akir lacks valuable resources, its people can offer just food and shelter in payment. Unable to go in person, Zed offers his ship for the job if they can find a pilot. The ship is fast and well-armed, but, despite its AI navigation/tactical computer Nell, cannot defeat Sador alone. Shad (Richard Thomas), a young man who has piloted the ship and is well known to Nell, volunteers for the recruiting mission.

Seeking weapons, Shad goes to the space station of Doctor Hephaestus (Sam Jaffe), an old friend of Zed. The station is populated mostly by androids, except for two humans: Hephaestus, whose numerous life support-systems have turned him into a cyborg, and his beautiful daughter Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel), who looks after him and the androids. The doctor wants Shad to mate with his daughter, by force if necessary. Shad cannot bring himself to abandon his people; he persuades Nanelia to help him escape. She follows in her own ship; although she has no weapons, her highly advanced computer systems might be useful. The two split up to look for more mercenaries.

Shad encounters Cowboy (George Peppard), a freighter-pilot from Earth who is ambushed by Space Jackers while delivering a shipment of laser-handguns to the planet Umateal. Shad fights off the Jackers, thus saving Cowboy's life twice over; they arrive at Umateal just in time to watch Sador destroy the planet with his Stellar Converter. Lacking the fuel to carry his weapons back home, Cowboy offers them to Akir instead. Shad talks Cowboy into sharing his gunslinging experience with the Akira.

Later, Shad meets a set of five alien clones who share a group consciousness named Nestor. They admit their life is incredibly dull, since their whole race shares one mind. In order to be entertained, they have sent five members to join Shad's cause. Nestor does not require payment, saying they are completely self-sufficient. Next, Shad recruits Gelt (Robert Vaughn), a wealthy assassin who cannot show himself on any civilized planet for fear of retribution. Gelt offers his services in return for being allowed to live peacefully among the Akira. Gelt's ship is highly maneuverable and well-armed. On his way back to Akir, Shad is approached by Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning) of the Valkyrie warriors. She is a headstrong woman looking to prove herself in battle. She pilots a small, but extremely fast ship with enhanced firepower. Shad finds her annoying and wishes she would go away, but she tags along.

While waiting for Shad's return, Nanelia is captured by a reptilian slaver named Cayman of the Lazuli (Morgan Woodward). Cayman possesses a powerful ship with an eclectic crew of aliens. She explains to Cayman that they are seeking mercenaries for a war against Sador. Cayman takes up their cause in return for the head of Sador, who destroyed Cayman's homeworld years ago. Back on Akir, Shad's sister Mol is captured by two Malmori warriors with the intent to rape her. As Shad and Company return, their approach frightens the Malmori into attempting to escape. Mol, in retaliation, interferes with their controls, allowing Gelt the opportunity to destroy their ship, killing all three. Upon reaching the planet's surface, the heroes are greeted with caution by the natives, who are wary of violent species. When Sador returns, his Malmori forces are intercepted by Shad's hired warriors. Gelt dogfights his way to Hammerhead, which shoots him down. Cowboy and the laser-toting Akira ward off an invasion backed by a Malmori Sonic Tank. Many of Sador's troops are killed, and their Sonic Tank is destroyed; however, many Akira die as well, including Zed.

After surviving an assassination attempt by Nestor, Sador launches the remainder of his fleet in a retaliatory strike against Akir. Saint-Exmin blows herself up to knock out Sador's Stellar Converter. Although Sador's aerospace forces are wiped out, Hammerhead picks off all the remaining mercenaries with laser battery-fire and nuclear missiles. Only Nell, piloted by Shad and Nanelia, survives the Malmori onslaught. Crippled and unable to fight, Nell is captured by Hammerhead's tractor beam. Nanelia and Shad activate Nell's self-destruct program, then flee their ship in an escape pod. Sador commands Nell to surrender. Instead she detonates, causing his Stellar Converter to backfire and disintegrate Hammerhead. As Shad and Nanelia return to Akir, Nanelia despairs over their friends' deaths. Shad shares with her the teachings of Akir's "Varda": nobody is truly dead when they have been loved and are celebrated by the living. The Akira will always remember the sacrifices made by the mercenaries, who will forever be honored in the legends of Akir.

Working with his three friends at their new software development company Skullbocks, Stanford graduate Milo Hoffman is recruited by Gary Winston, the CEO of the software corporation NURV. Milo is offered an attractive programming position with a large paycheck, an almost-unrestrained working environment, and extensive creative control over his work. After accepting, Hoffman and his girlfriend, Alice Poulson (Forlani), move to NURV headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

Despite development of the flagship product (Synapse, a worldwide media distribution network) being well on schedule, Hoffman soon becomes suspicious of the excellent source code that Winston personally provides to him, seemingly when needed most, while refusing to divulge the code's origin.

After his best friend and fellow computer programmer, Teddy Chin, is murdered, Hoffman discovers that NURV is stealing the code they need from programmers around the world—including Chin—and then killing them. NURV not only employs an extensive surveillance system to observe and steal code, the company has infiltrated the Justice Department and most mainstream media. Even Hoffman's girlfriend is a plant, an ex-con hired by the company to spy on and manipulate him.

In a secret NURV database of employee surveillance dossiers, Hoffman discovers highly-sensitive personal information about Lisa Calighan (Cook), a friendly co-worker. When he says he knows the company has this information about her, she agrees to help him expose NURV's crimes. Coordinating with Brian Bissel, Hoffman's old start-up friend, they plan to use a local public-access television station to hijack Synapse and globally broadcast their charges against NURV. However, Calighan is actually Winston's accomplice and foils Hoffman.

When the plan fails, and as Winston prepares to kill Hoffman, a backup plan is put into motion. Off-screen, Hoffman had previously confronted and convinced Poulson to turn against NURV; she, the fourth member of Skullbocks, and NURV's incorruptible security contractors usurp one of NURV's own work centers—"Building 21"—and transmit incriminating evidence with the Synapse code. Calighan, Winston, and his entourage are arrested for their crimes. After amicably parting ways with the redeemed Poulson, Hoffman rejoins Skullbocks.

Helen Ayers and her young son Sammy board a intercity bus to move to a better life. Sammy’s curious questions annoy Helen but she won’t reveal the surprise and admonishes him to be silent, putting him to sleep. At a rest stop, Helen goes into a bar to get a drink but is dragged into a vacant lot and murdered as the bus leaves. Sammy sleeps through the night until the bus arrives at the end of the route, Barrington, Georgia.

When a despondent Sammy ignores him, the cynical bus driver believes he is deaf and abandoned by his mother. Norm Jenkins, the kindhearted terminal manager, takes an immediate liking to Sammy and is very protective, as is Lucille, the owner and cook at the terminal’s cafe. Norm sees Sammy and Lucille as his surrogate son and wife as he had lost his own family to the Influenza pandemic of 1918. Young Tolliver Tynan stops with his adopted sister, Tallasse, and mother, Maddie, to watch Sammy being questioned by the police chief and tries to spook Sammy by lighting a cherry bomb. Sammy sees Tolliver’s activity in a reflection and steels himself to not react to the blast, which convinces the entire town that he is in fact deaf. Norm sets up Sammy to sleep in the storage room. Looking through Helen’s suitcase left on the bus, Norm finds important documents.

Sammy spends the next decades living in the terminal and working as the town’s handyman, hearing various secrets from people who believe him to be deaf. Norm backtracks along the route of the bus and eventually tracks down Helen’s cold case. Tallasse has returned after years away with dreams of becoming a professional photographer. Tolliver is still arrogant and patronizing as the treasurer of the town church. As his inheritance is tied up in a trust until his mother dies, he has various unsuccessful moneymaking schemes, all financed by funds he has embezzled from the church. Sammy hears all of Tolliver's secrets.

Black junk dealer Archibald Thacker and his sons masquerade as poor but are actually Harvard-educated businessmen as well as moonshine runners. They scheme to temporarily store a shipment of the liquor in the church’s large, new baptismal font.

The Tynan house hosts the church’s newly ordained and unsure preacher, Reverend Pruitt. Seeing a newspaper article where a rock & roll group, the Weevils, claimed to be bigger than God (inspired by Beatle John Lennon’s “More popular than Jesus" remark), Pruitt is inspired to hold a record-burning event. The event grows out of control and gains a festive atmosphere. Embers from the bonfire ignite nearby fireworks, sending a skyrocket into the church and directly into the font full of alcohol, burning the church down.

Tolliver is put on trial for his embezzlement as the church is revealed to be uninsured. Sammy is called as the first witness and everyone is surprised when he speaks. Tolliver’s mother collapses and dies from shock. Tolliver believes he is finally entitled to his inheritance. Norm reveals the notarized affidavit he found decades earlier in which Tolliver’s father identifies Sammy as his illegitimate son by Helen, born just before Tolliver. As firstborn, Sammy is the legal heir to the Tynan fortune according to the terms of the will. Tolliver is sentenced to jail.

Sammy gives away much of his newfound wealth to charity as well as to Norm and Lucille. He boards a bus to begin exploring the country. Tallasse chases down the bus in her car and joins Sammy on his trip.

Father Wolf (Rama) and Mother Wolf (Raksha), a pair of wolves raising a family of cubs, are furious to learn from Tabaqui the jackal that Shere Khan the lame tiger is hunting in their territory because he might kill men and bring human retribution upon the jungle. But when Father Wolf (Rama) hears something approaching their den, it turns out to be not the tiger, but a naked human baby. Mother Wolf (Raksha) decides to adopt the hairless "man-cub". Her determination is only strengthened by the arrival of Shere Khan, who demands the cub for his meal. The wolves drive off the tiger, and Raksha names him Mowgli the Frog because of his hairlessness.

At the wolf pack's meeting at Council Rock, Baloo the bear speaks for the man-cub, and Bagheera the black panther buys his life with a freshly killed bull. Baloo and Bagheera undertake the task of educating Mowgli as he grows. Meanwhile, Shere Khan plans to take revenge on the wolf pack by persuading the younger wolves to depose their leader Akela.

When Mowgli is about 11 years old, Bagheera tells him of Shere Khan's plan. Mowgli, being human, is the only creature in the jungle that does not fear fire, so he steals a pot of burning coals from a nearby village in order to use it against Shere Khan.

The young wolves prevent Akela from catching his prey, and at that night's meeting, Shere Khan demands that Akela be killed and the man-cub given to him. Mowgli, despite being naked and unprotected, relentlessly attacks Shere Khan with a burning branch and drives him and his allies away, but realises to his sorrow that he must now leave the pack and return to humanity. As he leaves, he vows to return one day and lay Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock.

By 1965, the United States and Canada have been at war with the Soviet Union and Chinese People's Republic for three years. Both sides' atomic weapons are ineffective as surface-to-air missiles shoot down any bombers or guided missiles, so ground forces have done most of the fighting. The Communist nations—whose armies greatly outnumber the North Americans—conquered Western Europe, invaded South America, and are moving toward Texas. All American males are required to either perform agricultural work to feed the armed forces or be drafted into military, construction, or factory service. Food, electricity, and gasoline are rationed, only two CONELRAD stations broadcast on radio, and New York City is reportedly under martial law.

Billy Justin, a 37-year-old commercial artist and Korean War veteran, is working as a dairy farmer in Chiunga Center, New York when the radio announces that Soviet and Chinese forces have overrun the Canadian-American line at El Paso, Texas. The last American naval forces were destroyed three months earlier but the news had been kept secret. The Communist armies destroy in Los Alamos, New Mexico the incomplete ''Yankee Doodle'', a satellite capable of dropping hydrogen bombs from orbit that are impossible to shoot down.

The President of the United States surrenders to the Communists, who over the next several months divide the country at the Mississippi River, and together form the North American People's Democratic Republic. Other than a military garrison, a formal disarmament, searches for fissionable material, and the establishment of production quotas for food, the surrender of the United States leaves Chiunga Center largely untouched. The Soviets execute the Communist fifth column members who had secretly aided the invasion to prevent them from organizing against the new government, but are otherwise relatively peaceful and amenable to the black market.

A paraplegic comes to Justin's farm asking for work; he is General Hollerith, a veteran of the previous war. He and Justin join a conspiracy to finish the real satellite, a crewed space station buried in Chiunga County that the United States had been building for 15 years. It requires parts and engineering knowledge to launch. MVD troops arrive, shoot the corrupt Soviet soldiers, and are much more cruel. They capture, to Justin's knowledge, all of the conspirators but himself and the general.

Justin deduces that the contacts he needs to make are in Washington, Pennsylvania. With a traveling preacher, Sparhawk, Justin walks the hundreds of miles from Chiunga Center to Washington, benefiting from the Democratic Republic's policy of respecting the Americans' freedom of religion. At Washington Justin receives instructions from the nationwide resistance movement for an attack planned for Christmas Eve on Chiunga Center to liberate the satellite.

Despite the Soviets' arrest and torture of a local farmer, they are ignorant of what "Christmas Eve", a mild oath they have heard sworn by various citizens, means until the battle begins. Coordinated by Hollerith, bridges around the area are blown up and nearby arsenals are sabotaged. The townspeople, many of whom are veterans, battle the Soviets as the space station launches.

Hollerith's forces triumph, and the Americans transmit an ultimatum to the Soviets and Chinese: The satellite is armed and will destroy Moscow and Peking in 24 hours if occupation soldiers do not leave American soil and free all prisoners of war. Hollerith offers Justin important positions in the new government and society, but he refuses them and kneels in prayer with Sparhawk, fearing the fulfillment of mutual assured destruction.

The series opens with the following narration, written and spoken by co-creator David Lynch: "For a millennium, the space for the hotel room existed, undefined. Mankind captured it, and gave it shape and passed through. And sometimes when passing through, they found themselves brushing up against the secret names of truth."

Each story stars a new cast, and takes place in a different year, but is confined in the room 603 of the Railroad Hotel, located in New York City. The same bellboy and maid are featured in each story, as if they do not age.

''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' is a fantasy adventure scenario involving a quest for "an untold wealth of treasure" of a warlock in a dungeon.

The player takes the role of an adventurer travelling to find the treasure of a powerful Warlock, hidden deep within Firetop Mountain. People from a nearby village advise that the treasure is stored in a chest with two locks, and that the keys are guarded by various creatures within the dungeons. The player must then navigate the dungeons beneath Firetop Mountain, battle monsters and attempt to locate the keys.